magistrate: The arc of the Earth in dark space. (Default)
One thing I enjoy is fictional spaces – especially those limited, self-contained and set-aside-from-public-life spaces – that have a distinct sense of character and life to them. The Hub in Torchwood, for example, or the SID Headquarters from 镇魂 | Guardian. (Or even, if I think about it, the Taskmaster House and caravan from Taskmaster. Always check the shed.*) In computer games, too, I often gravitate toward places where I can create and maintain a self-contained but complex and multifunctional space: building elaborate solar-powered scavenger havens in Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead or a walled garden rife with advanced automation in the Minecraft: Crash Landing modpack. And some games come with those complex, palpable places premade: the gang hideouts from Red Dead Redemption II come to mind, with their individual quirks and personalities and the implied stories in how they're organized and arranged.

*To be said to the tone of Always Read The Plaque.

My sense is that this is something easier to do richly and immersively in visual media like TV shows and video games, because so much of how we interact with a space is visual and movement-based. (And tactile, but I don't consume that much tactile media. I suppose I could start going to escape rooms?) But I'm sure it can and has been done in prose fiction.

In trying to think of examples in fiction, I didn't, initially, come up with any – but, to be fair, it's not something I'm in the habit of reading for. Thinking a bit longer on the topic, I thought of Redwall Abbey from the Redwall series, and the rabbits' warren from Watership Down, both of which I read a long time ago.

Does anyone have examples in books or short stories that they've found particularly effective? I'd love to see how people approach the task.
magistrate: The arc of the Earth in dark space. (Default)
Scrivener wordcounts. My RDR2 project is at 236,607 words, and my D:BH project is at 236,505.


A while ago, I accidentally* started on a Detroit: Become Human reboot-style AU (which I cleverly titled Detroit: Reboot), which project I think only [personal profile] rionaleonhart actually knows anything about, and [personal profile] storyinmypocket and [personal profile] sholio may have heard me mention off and on. Anyway, it ballooned to ridiculous size in ways I don't fully understand, and then I got distracted by other things.

*I accidentally 2.9 MB of fanfiction... is this dangerous?

Primary among those other things was a Red Dead Redemption 2 fic which I thought I could knock out in 30-40k (HA... HA HA... Ha ha hah haaaaaaaugh... •sob•), which, as you may have guessed if you know me, I was not able to complete in 30-40k.

Anyway, I didn't notice this last night when I was finishing up my writing and heading for bed, but my unfinished RDR2 fic finally exceeded the length of my unfinished D:BH fic! I wasn't actually sure that would ever happen. Also: what the fuck.

(For the record, the "of 300,000" is not an actual aspirational goal. 300,000 words was a placeholder I put in because I like seeing the progress bar go up, and if you meet the goal, it just stays full and green and there's no visible progress. I figured that 300,000 was a nice, safe, high number that I would not actually ever reach. I am now figuring that I'm probably going to have to change it on one or both of these projects if I want to keep watching the bar move.)
magistrate: The arc of the Earth in dark space. (Default)
So at some point last year – probably because of [personal profile] rionaleonhart – I wandered into Red Dead Redemption II fandom periphery, and then I watched a Let's Play of it, and then I fell headfirst into it, and then I started writing a story which I thought was going to be an easy 30-40k and which has, surprising only myself, ballooned into a multi-hundred-thousand-word project which is taking me forever to complete. I think this is the third time something like this has happened because I've followed Riona off the beaten path. I suspect she's actually a literary will-o'-the-wisp.

Anyway, I spent most of this year exerting actual financial discipline so I could save up for a PS4 and get the game, and that finally happened. And now I'm slowly playing through this thing I've written many thousands of words for. Score!

This game gets a lot of flak for being grindy and tedious in some regards, and for making decisions that prioritize realism above playability, but what I've discovered is that about 96% of the grindy tedium is actually stuff I really groove on. (I mean, let's be real, I adore the crap out of The Long Dark's sandbox mode, and that game is literally 100% "Wander around this beautifully-rendered environment, forage, scavenge, hunt, manage your temperature, and try not to get eaten". With added exhaustion, thirst, and hunger mechanics that actually will kill you, plus an injury system. Come to think of it, I'd probably love to see all of that in RDR2.) So far I've played only enough of the main storyline to get to a place where most of the map amenities are unlocked and the character who most annoys me is off somewhere and not in camp to irritate me, and I've been spending the rest of my time running around, exploring, hunting, and doing side missions.

And having shenanigans.

So many shenanigans.

I've taken to reporting them on the Horseshoe Overlook Discord, which I joined before I'd even bought the game. In the interests of posting to this journal at any point ever, I figure I'd share some of my Arthur's exploits here. (I'll use highlight-to-read spoiler blackouts as necessary.)



On starting up. )


On acquisitions. )


On dealing with fellow gang members. )


On hunting. )


On characters doing what they want. )


Naptime. )
magistrate: The arc of the Earth in dark space. (Default)
Current media consumption:

- CohhCarnage's Let's Play of Red Dead Redemption 2

- The Better Angels of our Nature, by Steven Pinker

- This thread on how environment influences human-available nutrition, by [twitter.com profile] SarahTaber_bww

- Aloha Ke Akua by Nahko and Medicine For The People, on loop, forever

Current mood:

- I want to write an epiclong sprawlingbigplotfic set in a post-Fall-Of-Rome (ish) Wild West (ish) world with dangerous residual magic (yes) animal shapeshifters (ish) and coordinated Recivilization Efforts (yes) and themes of sacrifice and betrayal and loyalty and deception and ecological symbiosis vs exploitation (yes, many). And capaill uisce (ish). And femslash (absolutely and unambiguously).

Current mood (addendum):

- I AM GOING TO FINISH AT LEAST ONE PROJECT IN 2019 SO HELP ME GOD

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