[SUM] - Somnium Primum

So this is kind of a late update ... at least if you're living in Europe.

Somnium Primum, the title says it all - roughly translated we end up with "The First Dream"
(taking into account 'somnium' can mean a couple of things so you might also call it fever-dream - not too accurate though or well.. obviously 'nightmare')

What this means is that I'm actually doing what I wanted to do - re-editing Sleeptalking - again.
And as this part of the story can be found over on my page for Sleeptalking, I will get on updating that right away after I finished this post here. You want a new kitteh as well, you say? Well... maybe. Let me think about it.

As for today... you all will have to make due with this excerpt right here. Hope you'll enjoy it nevertheless.


*~*

Looking around she noticed that the trees were forming a kind of barrier around this place; they stood densely packed building this impenetrable wall. Was she not meant to be here, she asked herself under her voice? Was she an intruder on a sacred glade?

The wind picked up and grew stronger with every little step she took on her way closer to the pond.
The water appeared as clear as crystal, beautiful and enticing. Without doubt unusual, but why question? She clearly saw her image with the dark brown eyes and her skin as white as porcelain, there was nothing sinister about a natural mirror.  
The more time she spent in this place, even if it had been only mere minutes the more she could not help to think how beautiful all of this was and that some-when, as the opportunity might arise she should have to return here, best together with all her family. And still the feeling would not go away: something kept on telling her that she was not supposed to be here, something inside of her warned her that this was a dangerous place to linger about.
Just in this very second a strong gust of wind shot through the forest, bearing far more force than any before and Seraphine could not prevent herself from looking up to the wavering treetops above as her hair was thrown about wildly.
It took her breath away as she saw the hundreds of yellow glowing pairs of eyes looking down upon her. She could not make out what these creatures were but they seemed to reflect no light at all with their bodies. The only things visible were their bright yellow eyes.
In shock she made a few steps backwards away from the water without ever taking her eyes of the treetops and their pitch-black inhabitants. They were larger than bats, though probably not too much, little Seraphine had never seen a bat before.
Few seconds later she tripped on the slippery and wet grass losing her balance, gravity pulled her to a rest on the ground yet again, this time though amongst the wet blades.
Little did the girl care though, she was panicking again, looking around wildly for an opening between the smaller trees around her. She knew she would have to flee as there was no telling what those things above her might do to her, but nothing.
Not a single thing.


*~*


And there you go.
The editing has been going rather nicely over the course of the last few days, which actually doesn't mean anything to be fair so yeah... I'll be sticking to that for the next couple of days, weeks, hoping that it doesn't go all overboard like it did with MotT... damn that took me ages.

As always thanks for reading, hope you're having a great week.
Marc, not even a month left till the 15th of May - hurray!


P.S.:... Yeah you got me, I'll put up another kitty.

[SUM] - One year down

And a lot more to go, hopefully that is.

On this day, one year ago I first created this blog here. At the time it looked a good bit different compared to now, mostly a lot less kittehs though. But yeah... one year, already looking back into the past? Nah... that's no good! I'll have to be looking forward to get things done, not backwards. And that's exactly what we'll do!

It's short-update-madness-time, as I have oh-so randomly decided just now!

Thirst things first - I spent a lot of today's time with creating a second blog. No worries though - I won't bore you to death with my ramblings on that one too. That blog is meant to be somewhat special: As you all should know I finished my re-editing, re-visioning of 'Bloodstained Shadows' not too awfully long ago and since that moment I tried to find another way to host it on my blog and not solely rely on fanfiction.net and well... fan fiction sites in general. So... here it is!


http://bloodstainedshadows.blogspot.de/


I tried to keep it as clean and clearly arranged as possible. Personally I like this design more than the one of e.g. fanfiction.net
The site is set up with bloggers "new" dynamic templates and is probably best viewed with the Sidebar version. Feel free to give them all a try if you so desire, but you will find some of them to be fairly pointless given the content.
It should - SHOULD - run on any browser by now, but you never know, do you? IE, chrome and FireFox seem stable though - which is a good start.

As usual, feel free to give the story a go, leave a comment (or review on any other sites containing BS-CoaLS)


Only thing unfortunately being I had to switch to blogger's new layout to get this new blog running, it's only a minor thing, still I don't really like it... at least it's current color-scheme isn't as pain-inducing as the earlier versions were.

Ah well... in other news, Sleeptalking is getting somewhere too... but it's still too early to go into any detail concerning that.

As always, thanks for reading, I hope you're having a great week. I, for my part will be travelling back to Bremen, most likely tomorrow, so expect a new post somewhat around Sunday.
Marc, bloggish

P.S.: New Kitteh uploaded, not necessarily an anniversary kitty, but it fits the general mood... yeah... something along those lines

Happy Easterz!

Happy Easter to all of you who celebrate this lovely holiday with the strange bunny hiding all the sweet sweet chocolate.
And of course to everybody who celebrates something else today, or even nothing at all - have a great day and a good start into the next week! (Spring seems to be finally here - yays)

[SUM] - 'Recap'

It's just a title for a post, don't worry too much about it. Honestly: Don't.

And so you all feel better, I haven't forgotten about the lot of you, but it just so happens that I had to change locations yet again ("had to" = visiting the rest of the family over the Easter Holidays. Weeeee bunnehs!)
And so I'm now sitting on this sofa already relocated to Saxony, the train ride long behind me and slowly getting less productive by the minute. But I did manage to finally find a use for my largest (up to this day unused) notebook on my way here as I had to somehow fill those 5 hours of mind numbing sitting around.
Hence the title for this post.

Therefor: the update for today is: I'm away, or rather "I'm here" which means just about as much as "I'm away."

Anyways... thanks for reading, yep this is only a short one and more to come, probably as the week progresses. Even though we might "see" each other till then: Happy Easter holidays nevertheless.

Marc, under the spell of the bunnehs!

[SUM] - Fighting Habits and/or finding alternatives

Fighting Hobbits might turn out to be more interesting in a strange kind of way, but yes - I'm actually going on about habits as in "bad" and/or "good".

First off - what you all came here for: the updates.
Well... I'm planning a lot of things... really... when I say a lot I mean a LOT. But as most of the stuff is spread out rather wildly over the course of this year, I shall begin with the few more recent ones.

Most important of those probably being me looking into somehow getting Bloodstained Shadows onto this very site. Unfortunately the biggest problem remains - the how.

Second in line is the editing of Sleeptalking (oh god how often did I announce that up to this point? I'm loosing count...)

Aaand the third... hum, what was the third thing on the list? I'm not really sure anymore. Surely it wasn't about training a Beedrill, that would be lunacy...

But to onto the topic of 'habits and finding one's true self' for a short while:
I'd just like you to know that I found something out about myself I did not fully notice until now. Something I do feel foolish for in all honesty spoken.
Over the last few years, it seems, a schedule spanning over the course of a year had evolved concerning my abilities and more so the intensity and amount of work I put into writing. I usually began forming the first ideas for a project over springtime, refine those and create an outlining in the summer (yay's for working outside on stuffs) and getting the actual writing done in autumn/fall and winter. Well... what is the reason behind that?
I never really posed this question on myself, but now as the skies begin clearing up and sun caresses the still leafless trees the answer I sought for struck me like a bolt of lightning...
You can't really write all the dark stuff when it's sunny outside.
Now... I'm sure there are a lot of people who can and therefore a lot of people who would disagree with me on that point, but quite frankly: I'm not those people. And as it seems - I'm not capable of, well... spacing out that much. (You could btw start arguing with me on that part as BS-CoaLS was finished over the course of a summer - more trivia for you non-interested lot.)
Anyhow what does this tell me?
In the end I'm left with two options: overcome or succumb (as D. Mograine once said to a certain deathknight) - or in other words - dominate or adapt.
I could surely just jack up my diurnal rhythm and become nocturnal, but I'm not too sure if that's too healthy for me and my health is something I'm quite fond of in all honesty. Or on the other hand I could take this 'discovery' as something far more valuable: the opportunity it presents.
That being said I'm still left with the decision whether to break the existing schedule by going all "to-hell-with-it" and force myself to write all the dark stuff I've still got up my sleeves OR if I might just try and find a change of pace and style. It would be the perfect opportunity to get going on a few more 'happy' projects, stuff that most people tried to recommend to me - that I'd just start writing a comedy, something that brings out my over-the-top sense of humor and puts it to use.


All that tl;dr later I come to the conclusion that I found a chance to break through an old-ish habit of mine, to tread on a new path and maybe even 'evolve' concerning my writing. How it pans out is still pretty much wide open, but you'll never know.
That being said I found the glitch in my personal Matrix and I promise I'll try to work on that. Let's take this one as number three on the list and forget about the Beedrill for now, alright? (Not asking Beni...)

As always thanks for reading and your patience with me as I try to figure out which way to go.
Marc, a bit confused because of sudden clarity; also: Knight of Pentacles!

  

[ST] - Venturing out into a different world

This Friday's story will lead us out into the world, a very special one I may add - though sadly no creation of my own thoughts. The realm I'm talking about goes by the name of 'Sanctuary' and might ring a bell for many many people out there. It' is fairly known for being the favorite world to invade by the Prime Evil Diablo and his two brothers from the similar named series of Diablo created by Blizzard Entertainment.

Yes another Blizzard game and yes another fanfict. I know I know, but I did not however in this special case write it just for the fun of it, but with a  goal in mind. You see, there was this little private kind of giveaway for a Beta-key for Diablo III on a German forum and I just had to try my luck.

The text I ended up writing isn't too long all in all, picturing a barbarian and his followers venturing down into the catacombs below the cathedral of (New) Tristram.
Overall I put roughly an hour's worth of work into it and for that I'm rather pleased with the outcome. It's a one-shot so you need not worry that I'll come up with more of these, though you never know until it happens ... or doesn't happen... which is kinda, yeah you get the idea.

Enjoy!


*~*


My fingers tremble under the weight of the jagged crown I’m holding onto far too tightly. It’s such a frail little thing and still it wouldn’t even let my hands that are accustomed to carrying only the heaviest of axes come to a rest. But soon enough they shall take back up the things they are more proficient with.

Standing in front of his throne, the old husk of bones binding the Black King to the mortal world rests only a few steps away from me and I hesitate. A feature the hot-headed barbarians of the North are not commonly known for, it is often forgotten that there are the few amongst even us that can guide their fury to their own ends.

How long has it taken to find this room amidst all the darkness inhabiting this shattered place? How long has it taken to carve a way through all the hallways filled by his servants? I don’t know... Speaking truthfully: I don’t quite remember the time I spend killing. Countless skeletons had been shattered over the course of the night. Countless more mindless zombies followed being ripped apart by cold steal and the flurry of blows I unleash once the rage was set free.

But it isn’t solely about slaying the mindless ones just for the fun of it, for the thrill of battle. No. There is but a cause to this madness that drives me deeper and deeper into the catacombs of this here monastery. Otherwise I would not be standing here right now.

The Skeleton King has emerged from his dreamless slumber yet again, raising his minions by the hundreds as he lingers within these halls. Dead and immortal his spirit governs over the graves of many, resurrecting them as he pleases. Threatening to swallow this part of our world as a whole in the name of the Prime Evil, he continues to build his army of loyal servants. Spreading the decease of undeath along the way that has taken so many before, he scorches the land like a plague, leaving nothing behind in his wake.

The people of New Tristram, residing so close to the source, begged me for my aid. They offered whatever they could muster as a reward, but of what use is gold for me? And still I quickly decided to face this immortal foe and put the rumors to the test. There are so many other things that drive me, though none of it is greed.

Yet even I, a simple brute searching for the perfect fight and the life-long opponent, knows as much that my axe would not be able to damage a ghost.

But there is a way as I was to find out. There is a way to bind him again to a mortal coil. To bind his spirit to his body and then end his presence in our realm once and for all. It was the crown I needed. With this token of his former life the apparition should be forced back into his mangled corpse, a vessel I will be able to destroy.

So here I stand, inches away of what could be either a pitiful ruse or a chance for me to die. Not that it mattered as the bittersweet anticipation for the fight to come already washed over me.

Would he offer what I seek?

Who knows? Though I highly doubt it due to the current circumstances...

Am I alone? Yes, and no. The darkness residing in this place makes sure for us to see as little as possible of each other, but they are here with me. Sadly for me, but fortunately for the inhabitants of New Tristram I am not the only one who followed their call.

The moment I finally step up to King Leoric’s corpse a swift gust of wind sweeps through our little group, bringing along a relentless chill to mind and body. Our warmth not yet fully taken from us I carefully set the crown onto his head.

Wary of what might be upon us, I step back, my hands already taking up my trusted axes.

His laughter is carried into the room as the wind picks up again, this time though not ceasing anymore. The voice grows louder and louder as the whole room shakes under tremors. A moment later it’s over already, everything still the same. Filled with disbelief I stare at my companions, had this been a trick after all?

The moment my lust for battle almost faded the corpse of Leoric seemed to move, renewing the fire inside me. His fingers clutched the side of his throne, the right hand reaching for his weapon hiding out in the shadows close by not far next to his resting place, the Black King emerges with a vile laughter. The mace smashes onto the ground, the place of impact clearly visible I hear something that immediately lets the hearts of my companions drop.

The bridge far behind us crumbled and fell into the abyss as the moans of his servants buried together with him in this room picked up to a choir of death.

Well met, King Leoric.

I charge at him, my weapons ready to lash out at his frail vessel as his maniacal laughter meets my own.

Well met indeed.


*~*


And there you go. Unfortunately it did not end up to be enough to actually win the key, but well - it was a rather subjective little contest and it doesn't matter too much. In the end I at least had a bit of fun coming up with this short scrap of text.

Either way I hope you enjoyed reading it as well.
As always thanks for reading, have a great weekend and prepare for the 15th of May, as hell is once again unleashed in Sanctuary! (yay)
Marc, barbarian in training

Just to be on the safe side of things: I do not own any rights for anything related to the Diablo series. It's all Blizzard Entertainment's stuff! Sue them, not me..! Which in this case would most likely mean sue err.. yourself?

[Announcement] Bloodstained Shadows 2.0 up and running.

Aaaaand it's up!

It's almost 3:00 am in Germany and I'm sacrificing part of my sleep to bring you this announcement!
The new and fully reworked version of Bloodstained Shadows - Chronicles of a Lost Soul is finally up on the Internet, to be found on FanFiction.net as of now.

Should you want to get directly into the reading part just head over to the Bloodstained Shadows page on my site and take the link posted over there ooooor why not take this one right here?

Now what is 'fully reworked' supposed to mean? A somewhat redundant question if you have by any chance been following my more or less recent posts as most of the answer for it has been explained several times. If for any reason you missed all of it - here's the short version for you:

The actual story and plot has remained completely unchanged. There have been some minor adjustments to the way a character behaves in certain situations, but all in all also not too much happened in that regards. The revision was mainly aimed at getting rid of all ('as many as possible') the rough edges the story still had as well as enhancing and hopefully improving the reading experience as a whole.

And just to give you an idea of how much has happened: As the story was first finished December 2009 it was about 160.000 words long. Over the course of these ongoing edits, usually of the smaller kind up to this large game-changing "final" one; roughly 50.000 words were added up to this point, averaging at close to 950 per single chapter. But that's just mere trivia for you - I'm fully aware that 'more' doesn't automatically mean 'better' but I sincerely hope to have successfully achieved my goal and improved the tale of Marc Fipps, better known as Ceberus or Malevolence.

Anyways, as the time I can use for sleep is somewhat running out I'll be better heading off to bed for now.
As always thanks for reading! And for a final time today: feel free to check out the updated version of Bloodstained Shadows over here, leave me a review (no sign-up necessary) over there or comment right here.
Marc, suddenly working