Hendo Writes

Thanks for tagging me @oh-no-another-idea!

I'll leave it open tag!

'Adverse weather!' the Mechmaster spat, throwing the paper down on the table. 'He fits like a child to see these machines returned, and the moment they're within his grasp, he drags his heels. Are the Irish now afraid of a drop of rain?'

Thanks for tagging me @space-writes!

I'll tag @aalinaaaaaa, @cee-grice, @aohendo, and open tag as always!

Have I mentioned I love these characters. because. well. let's just say I'm fond of them

'Indeed,' Edwin said grimly. 'The development of such a machine under such secrecy is surely grounds for mistrust.' 'And if Ireland feels Britain is antagonising them, together with the withholding of their invention, the president will surely declare war,' Jonathan finished. 'He's not known for his diplomacy.' 'And the first hammer will fall on Fin,' Edwin added. His hand on Finlay's back was warm and somewhat possessive: Finlay struggled to suppress a shiver. Xavier peered at them as if they were a puzzle he couldn't quite make out. 'Edwin,' Xavier began at last, 'you've been making some implications that I'm unsure how to interpret.' Jonathan burst into loud, heartfelt laughter. 'Xavier, my dear,' they gasped, 'how very astute of you!'

HELLO you are asking questions that literature and poetry THROUGHOUT the middle ages has asked, and it is from this questioning that we derive things like the Codes of Chivalry (which is not "how to treat a noble lady really nice" but is actually "how to be an ethical person when you're rich and you own a horse" and includes such things as "don't run people over with your horse")

In fact I daresay you already know instinctively just from cultural osmosis what a good boss -- a good liege lord -- is and does based on the tropes that have survived to the current day and the kinds of things that get Hugely Praised in things like legends of King Arthur.

A good boss (liege lord) is:

Merciful. He is not having his peasants killed for things like poaching rabbits during a famine. In fact, he is working to mitigate famine. During times of individual hardship, he might negotiate with a peasant for a payment plan on their annual rent.

Patient. He is not impulsive, he does not lose his temper.

Prudent. He makes choices that are thoughtful, considered, conservative (in the sense of not needlessly risky--he's not investing his entire fortune in having everyone plant an unproven crop). He is making sure local infrastructure like roads and public buildings are maintained and kept in good nick.

Gentle. He doesn't haul off and slap a servant or a tenant for breaking a dish or making a mistake. He doesn't abuse animals, his wife or children, or his employees. He doesn't rape the servants.

Generous (both in money and in spirit). He is not extorting the peasants for an amount of rent that is beyond their means, he is not raising taxes every year to cover his own lavish lifestyle. He is paying his servants a living wage (or, if wages are low, he's giving them room/board/clothing to make up the difference). If someone in a tenant's family dies, the lord is sending a gift of condolence, or helping to pay for the funeral, or possibly even ATTENDING the funeral and speaking a few kind words about the deceased, ESPECIALLY if they were a really upstanding and important member of the community. If one of his tenants is gravely sick, the lord is sending a basket of food or paying for a doctor. He is giving charitably (generally this will be, like, a bequest to the church so that they can run a hospital or an orphanage or a school for the local village children).

Pious. This classically means "goes to church, submits with humility to God" but to me this quality is subtextually standing in for "maintaining an ongoing sense of Perspective that HE'S not god, that there are higher powers he is Accountable to, that he too can be Judged, etc, so that he doesn't end up going on a weird fucked up power trip"

Humble. One of the most admiring things you hear about a lord doing in literature and epic poetry is, "He ate off of wooden plates while his followers ate off of gold and silver." Humility isn't about being meek, it's just about not thinking so much of yourself that you turn your nose up and sneer at what "lesser" people do. In other words: Don't be a fucking diva. If your carriage gets stuck in the mud, climb out and help everybody else push, you're not gonna die from getting mud on your shoes.

Condescending. This word has changed wildly in meaning/tone over the last couple centuries -- it's now a rude thing to do (because we've done away with legal social hierarchies, so someone acting like they're lowering themselves to your level IS insulting), but in older times, a high-ranking person "condescending" to a servant was worthy of praise and admiration: it means they were setting aside rank and privilege to speak to them with the easygoing, friendly respect and compassion they'd give a peer. This is things like... Treats those beneath him with courtesy and respect (ie: listens soberly and attentively when one of his servants or tenants comes to complain about a problem). Having a sense of humor and kindness about it when the lord and a servant both come around a corner at the same time and run into each other and the servant gets knocked to the ground and starts babbling apologies--the condescending (positive) lord helps them to their feet with his own hands and cracks a joke to show them that it's ok (as opposed to just walking off without a word or insulting/scolding them). This is also things like trusting a farmer, woodcutter, or artisan to speak with expertise about their own livelihood and taking their advice into consideration if they tell the lord that one of his ideas won't work.

Good boundaries. The ethical liege lord knows that it's normal for the staff to probably be softly bitching about him in private (even with a really good boss, we all grumble from time to time). He's not eavesdropping on them, he's not going into the staff areas where they should reasonably expect to have a degree of privacy, etc.

Righteous and protective of "the weak". The "weak" here doesn't necessarily mean physically weak, this is often used in the sense of someone politically or socially weak, aka The Marginalized -- the poor, the disabled, women, children, the elderly, etc. If a lord sees someone like this being mistreated or abused, he's supposed to step in and put a stop to that.

Committed to reciprocity. In a highly hierarchical system like feudalism, every person (from the lowest peasant all the way up to the crown prince) legally OWES their liege lord certain things (taxes, labor, service, loyalty, etc). A good liege remembers and takes very seriously the idea that this should be a balanced and reciprocal relationship -- in other words, he owes something BACK. Feudalism is modeled very strongly on the family system: If children owe their parents obedience and service, then parents owe their children care and protection. This still applies when the "child" is a farmer and the "parent" is a local baron. Or when the "child" is a duke and the "parent" is the king.

Basically, we get so caught up in the aesthetics of nobility that we forget that it literally is a managerial position that comes with responsibilities that were... very similar back in the day to the same ones we have now. Humans have not changed all that much. At the end of the day, a really good boss in the 1400s versus in one from the 2020s displays most of the same qualities of personality, even if the details of execution are different.

The next question is, of course, "well, but this theoretical liege lord is HIGHLY idealized -- how often did that actually HAPPEN? Wasn't it more likely that everyone was exploited all the time?" and to that I say: Well, maybe. But again, I don't think humans have changed all that much. Just like the bosses of today, there's a SPECTRUM: A really really good boss is rare and precious and one that you tell stories about for years after you've left that job, but a truly, genuinely, homicidally nightmarish boss is also pretty rare. Most bosses are sort of meh -- they have their good moments, they have their shitty moments, but they're tolerable and you can get along with them well enough to do your job, and then you roll your eyes at them behind their back. Generally, humans don't take outright exploitation lying down. Being a bad boss in the historical period is how you get peasant uprisings and revolts, and you know that to be true because your parents raised you with that knowledge, so unless you are very stupid or inbred or an egomaniac, there is literal personal incentive to at minimum be a Tolerable liege lord. And that means hitting at least SOME of the above bullet points.

TL;DR: In the words of Honore de Balzac, "Everything I have just told you can be summarized by an old word: noblesse oblige!"

Alrighty, y'all. Please send help. I have many WIPs and no strong urge to work on any of them.

So-

If y'all could send an ask or smthn telling me which WIP to work on, I'll get at least 500 words in it and post the last line as "proof."

Alternatively, choose a WIP or character, choose an AU or trope, and I'll just drop it here as a little short story. The goal is to get the writing juices moving again!

Misbehaving WIPS in question:

Tyrant for Sale (medieval, secondary world, heavy on the magic)

Characters of note: Kiris (disaster, most powerful sorcerer, will eat food off the floor); Iiriok (paladin-type, tries to be fair and normally just ends up being kind, infinite patience for Kiris' bullshit); Batar (will stab anyone, blackmail is her love language, will drag the other characters into a plot kicking and screaming).

Sea Slip (baroque clockpunk, shapeshifters and mermaid-dragons, plot is attending balls)

Characters of note: Lete (mermaid-dragon in question, fascinated by human fashion, just wants to go home); Samaya (a noble-born lady and a very improper one, excellent alchemist, uses her husband's research expeditions to find new medicinal plants); Til (commoner who married up, deeply in love with Samaya, a clock mechanic curious about which myths are actually just non-human communities).

On the Habitats of Gods (same world as Tyrant, only purposefully planned romance I have, light academia)

Alternatively, I'm really bad at prompts but I am curious what mermaid-dragon fashion might be, given Lete's interest in the human version. Is there a story behind how they discovered their interest in fashion?

YEEE

Alrighty so: I've been stuck on a boat for a hot minute now. There's a lot of flying fish around here, and they're pretty fun to watch do their thing. So while procrastinating Tyrant for Sale, I was kinda like, but what if there were flying fish mermaids? As one does. And also as one does I very promptly concept-art-ed it out to appease the itch, figuring it would go no further because I have so many other projects I should be working on.

Yeah so obviously arting it out did not in fact appease the itch.

(idk if that'll show up blurry. sorry if it does! continuing under the cut b/c this got long)

(if anyone else would like to force me to sit down and tap out a good 500 words, here's the og post pls send help thx)

The fishermen having nets too tough for a dragon to chew through sounds like it would be a very deliberate thing. Like at the least they were already trying to catch sharks, if not angling for a dragon from the offset 👀

Fascinated by the fact that Lete doesn't know she can shift into (mostly) a human. Is that something that's suppressed in her culture? Something seen as distasteful or beneath them?

"And keeps calm so she doesn't accidentally spine someone" oh?? Emotionally-driven shifting?? Irrepressible body language?? I am Intrigued

Clockpunk sounds awesome, thank you for explaining! "Went 'nah' and went on a bender" is the single best way I have ever seen rococo style described

17k into a project you said you weren't going to work on, oh how well I know that feeling. It's magical, enjoy it while it lasts <3

Yeah I thought clothes were a bit of a stretch for sea-dwelling creatures, but who knows, maybe for special occasions a tasteful bit of seaweed for a scarf, or some brightly coloured coral crushed and mixed into a paste for some temporary fin/scale dye--or mermaid form body paint :P

Using fashion to alter society's response to her though. oof that's unfortunately real

A- Yes! Her species are broadcast breeders--they don't care for their young, and few survive to adulthood. The nymphs which do (teeny tiny baby dragon worms) are, more often than not, the ones who figure out early how to shift to mermaid. Fully grown dragons are capable of escaping predators through aerial gliding, but nymphs aren't developed enough to glide to escape predators (krakens, mostly, but occasionally dolphins) until adolescence. So if a little nymph is being chased by a kraken, it's a far higher chance of survival if said nymph shifts to mermaid and real quick hops onto a fisherman's boat and stays a bit (would go up in dragon form, but dragon form requires water for any stretch longer than about two minutes)(also in that region, returning a mermaid to the sea is said to bring good health).

And also, less scientifically: mermaid.

Q- Is it easier for them to communicate and form groups in mermaid shape?

A- Nope! They can communicate just fine across all three forms, with the worst for communication actually being groundling, as it deadens their senses more than is comfortable. It is easier to groom each other when in mermaid form, though--opposable thumbs are very nifty for that, and have far less risk than very sharp, very pointy teeth.

Q- Is it a mating and reproduction a thing?

A- Nope! But since you sorta asked...they only reproduce in dragon form. And only once an individual has reached adulthood (and has the possibility of mating) are they welcome to join a school of other dragons. They're broadcast spawners, though, so the most complicated aspect of any mating ritual they have is finding a place free of other dragons who might take the chance to spawn, too. The males tend to be a bit smaller, and have more interestingly colored spines and manes--coincidentally, fewer males generally survive to adulthood.

Q- Do they have an ongoing agreement with some coastal human populations?

A- Nothing so formal, but sort of! The fishermen of the Taric Gulf and into the Alsu Sea have stories of massive snakes flying above the waves; they believe a sighting of a sea dragon is a sign of fortune, for the dragons' presence usually heralds good fishing in that area. As to the mermaids, returning one to the sea is said to bring good health--but only if one fulfills whatever request a mermaid makes. Usually, the request is sail the boat a few miles away and to share a meal, or a story, or something to kill enough time for a kraken to have reasonably grown impatient and disappeared.

Q- Is human shifting suppressed in Lete's culture?

A- Not so much as suppressed, as generally never done. Unless her species shifts to groundling before becoming an adult, they lose that ability entirely. It's rarely needed, as most never come closer to the coast than a good 50 miles at a minimum. So Lete had a feeling it would be possible--and stories from schools she and her travel mates had encountered while figuring out which group they'd like to eventually join, if they survived that long--but actually doing it wasn't something she considered until she saw a species of freshwater mermaid do so. And also, once she realized that getting her back to her ocean as a mermaid, overland, would be very complicated. Unfortunately for her, because she finally shifted groundling very late, she does not at all feel comfortable in that form. Even more so because she believed she'd be a perfect copy of a human, like that freshwater mermaid, when she is definitely not.

Q- Emotionally driven shifting??

A- Not exactly, but it is your second point: difficult to suppress body language! As mentioned, not even in groundling is she a carbon-copy human, much to her extreme discomfort. She retains her gills (though in this form it is more uncomfortable to use them than to use her lungs), several patches of scales on her hands and thighs, different senses than a bog standard human (tied mostly to her "hair," only some of which is actually hair, and a good portion of which is more akin to barbels/taste and vibration detecting organs), and a set of needle-sharp spines beginning at the base of her neck which she's normally able to keep flat, but which are usually used to emphasize and communicate emotion when she's not a groundling, so keeping them flat can often be extremely difficult.

Now, all that said, because she is very uncomfortable with her groundling form, when she gets overwhelmed by how different it is (knees, man), she'll sometimes begin to panic and shift to mermaid (coastling) so she feels at least somewhat right again. Hence, actually, that proof of 500 line (not dying, I swear)!

-

some screenshots:

i like the gantt and list views the best (in that order) -- the actual calendar view isn't going to be useful to me until i get to the Actual Main storyline and we got several thousand years before that.

i like that i can separate things in the gantt view into different sections since multiple major events are usually happening at the same time, and i like that in general i was able to make my own calendar system for the world (since unsurprisingly terrae doesn't work like earth wahoo)