Alpha Release Media

5/11/26 It's strange to me how people in town talk about the war. Like it's some far off minor skirmish that has nothing to do with their daily lives. And really, it doesn't. Life carries on in the center of the empire as usual. Only those at the fringes feel the full weight of the war. Having spent three years in the Occupied Zone I can safely say that it is no small thing. Sometimes I worry that my Captain Dash stories only further trivialize the war, but mostly I hope that they bring awareness to what's really happening out there.

5/12/26 Sim wasn't sure why Dan had suddenly decided to visit but he knew it wasn't for birthday month. They hadn't celebrated birthday month since they were twelve. Not properly anyway. Dan hadn't reached out to Sim at all since the siblings had parted ways a couple of years ago. He hadn't even written him one letter in all that time. For him to go to the trouble of actually coming all the way out to meet up with Sim in person, there must be something big that Dan wanted. Sim just had to wait for Dan to finally tell him.

5/13/26 Kella's physical recovery didn't take long. A couple of bullets had grazed her in the firefight and she'd picked up some nasty bruises from getting knocked around by the river, but somehow she'd managed to avoid anything worse than that. Once she'd had some proper rest Kella was back on her feet and fit for more fighting. Physically anyway. After the loss of both Anzo and Sefu, Kella found she had little motivation for fighting. Or anything really. She had nothing but a vague desire to understand what had happened up on the mountain and how everything had gone wrong.

5/14/26 Tiffany had never believed in coincidences. Not suspicious ones anyway. So when it started to look like the universe had it out for senior prom Tiffany was more inclined to think that outright sabotage was what was going on. And Tiffany wasn't about to stand for that. Prom was her one chance to be a normal teenager for once in her life. She was going to wear a pretty dress with high heels and have fun with her friends. Maybe even dance with Sean… If Tiffany was going to figure this out she needed to start thinking like Lana's dad.

Any Size We Please – Robert Frost

5/6/26 Most of Andrew's work so far had been in hunting down and dealing with magical pests. Mrs. Perry had pixies in her garden. Farmer Wiggins had gnomes. The Albertsons were certain that there was a snipe in the woods behind their house, but Andrew wasn't sure he believed it. Speaking of the woods there were the wood elves that apparently only Hazel knew how to deal with, and besides them were the glen fae who were a lot more traditional and you had to be very careful what you said around them. And that wasn't even mentioning the Hill Folk.

5/7/26 He called himself Jack so I suppose I will too. We fairies know how it is with names. And he had a bit of a look of a Fairy's Blessing about him so he had to be careful. Not so fair as you'd expect, but he was tall; one of the few who were actually taller than Ella. I think that might have been why she liked him so much. That and he was as big a troublemaker as her. They were a profoundly bad influence on each other. They enjoyed any evening that ended in running from the police.

5/8/26 Sara could have studied the pillars all day, but she was interrupted when Elaine and Arthur caught up with her finally. They had hung back while Sara made sure the booby traps were all safe, although considering how old the temple was it would be a miracle if any of the traps still worked. Which is what Sara always said even though it wasn't always true. Some ancient civilizations built their traps to last. Sara thought that was fun but Arthur and Elaine did not, so Sara couldn't really blame them for hanging back. But she could still tease them.

5/9/26 Emily liked to think she was open to the idea of ghosts. She was never one to be dismissive of somebody else's experience. But now that she was starting to have her own experiences the existence of ghosts was the last thing on her mind. It just seemed more logical to her that someone was trying to mess with her than that her grandfather's half-finished hotel was haunted. It had never even opened. He'd stopped working on it because he'd run into financial problems. There was no reason for it to be haunted. Sabotage was a much more likely explanation.

5/1/26 Joe stood staring silently at the spot where the portal thing had disappeared for several seconds before he shrugged and turned away to explore his new surroundings. The vegetation really was just like in the swamp back home. They even had giant mosquitoes too. Joe followed the path of least resistance through the dense undergrowth to the edge of the forest. Waiting on the other side of the trees was… a basketball court. Joe was a little disappointed. He had been hoping for something just a little more magical. Like the two giant salamander men that were currently playing basketball.

5/2/26 Pippers was enjoying her moonlit stroll through the forest, but something about it wasn't sitting right with her. Squeakers was calm unless Pippers tried to turn back, then he grew agitated again and insisted that she needed to stay in the woods. There was something off about them too. It took Pippers a while to realize what the problem was. The forest was completely silent. Not a single creature besides Pippers was making a noise. Even the wind was still. Pippers didn't like it. Against Squeakers' protests Pippers turned around and raced back towards home. She would never make it.

5/3/26 With the rise of the Crownland Empire there were many who believe that the Artifacts of Power were the only hope of stopping Emperor Eligus from conquering all of Cradle and saving the lands he had already subjugated. As someone who worked for Eligus it was supposedly Evander's job to find the Artifacts so that Eligus could use them to well, conquer all of Cradle like everyone feared. Evander honestly didn't care one way or the other what Eligus did or if his enemies succeeded in overthrowing him or whatever. Evander only worked for the Empire because it was convenient.

5/4/26 The shop was quiet for the time of day which Val was happy about. There were too many people coming in these days and bothering her. She had enough work to keep her busy, she didn't need more. When the store was empty Val liked to blast her favorite music and work through her backlog of repair jobs. She was currently working on a faulty holographic projector. There was only so much she could do though. That particular brand hadn't been designed to last more than a couple years. Val was going to have to replace nearly all its parts.

Why Wait for Science – Robert Frost

To My Unborn Son – Captain Cyril Morton Thorne

"My son!" What simple, beautiful words! "My boy!" What a wonderful phrase! We're counting the months till you come to us– The months, and the weeks, and the days!

"The new little stranger," some babes are called, But that's not what you're going to be; With double my virtues and half of my faults, You can't be a stranger to me!

Your mother is straight as a sapling plant, The cleanest and best of her clan– You're bone of her bone, and flesh of her flesh, And, by heaven, we'll make you a man!

Soon I shall take you in two strong arms– You that shall howl for joy– With a simple, passionate, wonderful pride Because you are just–my boy!

And you shall lie in your mother's arms, And croon at your mother's breast, And I shall thank God I am there to shield The two that I love the best.

A wonderful thing is a breaking wave, And sweet is the scent of spring, But the silent voice of an unborn babe Is God's most beautiful thing.

We're listening now to that silent voice And waiting, your mother and I– Waiting to welcome the fruit of our love When you come to us by and by.

Etherealizing – Robert Frost

4/26/26 Lucky had just returned from a supply run when he discovered his mountain was abandoned. There had been no new catastrophe to drive everyone away. Lucky knew this because there weren't any signs of trouble, and also they had left him a note announcing their intentions of joining up with a group from Foxtrot and heading to Echo to see how they were faring. It was ridiculous. Lucky couldn't believe how quick they all were to just up and leave the safety and security of the mountain for such a long shot. And after all the hard work he'd done.

4/27/26 The prison was a factory actually. Aubra and the other inmates had been taken for their labor. They were helping to manufacture the instruments of war. The country imprisoning Aubra was lead by two sisters of great magical power. So much power it was believed that they had the support of the gods, or at least one of them anyway. Aubra believed it. She couldn't see how else the war could have lasted as long as it had or done as much damage without some godly backing. She just wished that one of the gods would support the other side.

4/28/26 Sonia had to admit Riley's boss turning up dead had not been on her bingo card. What was even weirder was he had been killed and his body disposed of in exactly the way Sonia had suspected him of doing to someone else. So either this was some insanely quick karmic justice and or revenge or else a very elaborate form of assisted suicide. And it would have to have been assisted because people who killed themselves didn't often then chop themselves up into little pieces. Sonia had never seen it before, but now she wanted to watch that movie.

4/29/26 Arid made it all the way down to the corner of the street before Sanity came running up to her at a dead sprint. As usual, Sanity had lost track of the time and completely forgot about meeting up with Arid. Arid had to laugh at Sanity's contriteness. They'd done this so many times before that Sanity had to know that Arid didn't mind her friend's chronic tardiness. Arid was just glad that they'd still be able to spend a little time together before she had to head back home. Arid had to get up early to feed the pigs.

4/21/26 Scarlet and Lily had quieted down enough for Blake to pay full attention to his book again. Ever since Uncle Rico's last visit Blake had started to pick up an interest in politics. Uncle Rico did some kind of work for the government of his country and he always had interesting anecdotes about what was going on in the political world. He never went into too much detail though, Blake had the feeling that Mom didn't like it when Uncle Rico talked about politics. Mom didn't like to talk much about anything that when on outside of their little hometown.

4/22/26 It didn't take long for the other racers to catch up with the wreck. Many were able to swerve around it, but others were not so lucky. There were further collisions from karts hitting each other while trying to avoid wreckage scattered up and down the track. Chance was still trapped inside his kart when it was clipped by another and sent spinning off into the ditch. At least he was out of the way and his kart wasn't on fire, but Trix was still horrified as the disaster continued to unfold. The upside down kart was still on fire.

4/23/26 Cara supposed she should have expected it, but she had hoped that military school would have leaned a little more towards military than school. Cara had agreed to come because she wanted to learn how to fight. Not spend all her time in classrooms and doing homework. She could have stayed at the orphanage for that kind of stuff. It didn't help that the one combat class Cara did have was taught by her least favorite teacher. He seemed to hold a grudge against all children. Cara had to wonder how a guy like that even ended up teaching kids.

4/24/26 Maxine and Dan managed to escape Dice's men, barely. It was clear that the new Lord Dice had no intentions of letting her quietly slip away back home to her father. There would be no renegotiating the union between the Cardinals and the Dices. Dice was intent on marrying Maxine whether she wanted to or not. Well, Maxine did not want to marry the new Lord Dice. She hadn't been particularly excited to marry the last one either to be honest. If Maxine and Dan could just make it back across the Undwine river they'd be out of Dice's reach.

Haec Fabula Docet – Robert Frost

A Blindman by the name of La Fontaine, Relying on himself and on his cane, Came tap-tap-tapping down the village street, The apogee of human blind conceit. Now just ahead of him was seen to yawn A trench where water pipes were laying on. The Blindman might have found it with his ferrule, But someone overanxious at his peril Not only warned him with a loud command But ran against him with a staying hand. Enraged at what he could but think officious, The Blindman missed him with a blow so vicious He gave his own poor iliac a wrench And plunged himself head foremost in the trench: Where with a glee no less for being grim The workmen all turned and buried him.

Moral

A Woman's Question – Lena Lathrop

Do you know you have asked for the costliest thing Ever made by the Hand above? A woman's heart, and a woman's life– And a woman's wonderful love.

Do you know you have asked for this priceless thing As a child might ask for a toy? Demanding what others have died to win, With the reckless dash of a boy.

You have written my lesson of duty out; Manlike, you have questioned me. Now stand at the bar of my woman's soul Until I shall question thee.

You require your mutton shall be always hot, Your socks and your shirt be whole; I require your heart to be true as God's stars And as pure as His heaven your soul.

You require a cook for your mutton and beef, I require a far greater thing; A seamstress you're wanting for socks and shirts– I look for a man and a king.

A king for the beautiful realm called Home, And a man that his Maker, God, Shall look upon as He did on the first And say: "It is very good."

I am fair and young, but the rose may fade From my soft young cheek one day; Will you love me then 'mid the falling leaves, As you did 'mong the blossoms of May?

Is your heart an ocean so strong and deep, I may launch my all on its tide? A loving woman finds heaven or hell On the day she is made a bride.

I require all things that are grand and true, All things that a man should be; If you give this all, I would stake my life To be all you demand of me.