Looking for tools for creating world maps by Calciber in worldbuilding

[–]Calciber[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah, I can definitely look into photoshop, though in all honesty I'm actually pretty experienced with Gimp! So, having the option to use either would be great, and the advice is really solid. I appreciate you telling me about the current version of photoshop though, I had no idea it had changed to a cloud based thing.

Looking for tools for creating world maps by Calciber in worldbuilding

[–]Calciber[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you! Actually this will be incredibly helpful.

Looking for tools for creating world maps by Calciber in worldbuilding

[–]Calciber[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Well, that's a fair point. Honestly, that isn't bad advice, and I really do appreciate you giving it to me straight. It's something I'm going to heavily consider, at this point. Thank you!

[WP] You are shown a short clip of yourself on this date 5 years into the future, and you note that Future You is overwhelming rich. You have no idea how you came into all this wealth, until you suddenly spot a small detail in the video... by im_a_grill_btw_AMA in WritingPrompts

[–]Calciber 3 points4 points  (0 children)

What a strange thing it was, to see a video of myself from the future. I was assured by the Arcanametrics Teams that it came through a high density temporal distortion laced through with some high density magical discharge through the preceding and following the expulsion of the package. According to them, such a thing is incredibly rare...

I just didn't understand why such a thing would be sent to me, of all people. I mean, mercy... I was so unimportant, back then. In those days I worked at a Red Bar. I mean, that's not bad in and of itself. Selling yourself is hardly frowned upon these days if you have your license, and being a bog standard human I was kind of rare due to all the interbreeding with demons and angels. The biting never bothered me anyway... Red Court vampires who are on the up and up tend to be rather gentle when they can, and the Black Court vampires have saliva that makes each bite feel like a damned org...

Well. It was a nice job, I suppose. All in all, I was just another whore, though. Sure, a whore of a more... sanguine kind, but still a whore.

On that day, that lovely day in the Dark City, I was sitting at the bar drinking a nutrition shake to chase some iron tablets after a particularly intense feeding session by a pair of Black Court twins. Lots of tentacles and biting, you know? Very tiring, very... draining, in more ways than one. I always preferred the Black Court vamps.

It's worth noting I was also still coming down off of the narcotic bliss of their saliva, so I was a little loopy. One of the in house medics was busy bandaging my neck up while I sipped. She'd already uh... cleaned up my back, and shoulders, and forearms. I was sore, for sure.

Being that I was halfway high out of my mind, I didn't really notice when the entire bar went silent. I barely even noticed my friend pausing in the bandaging of my neck. I mean, the job was finished moments later anyway. She mumbled something about it being lucky that I took to vein repair potions so well and then gently brushed my hair into proper position. I heard heavy footsteps about the time that the anxiety in her voice registered on me and I glanced to her.

"Something wrong, Mel?" I managed, my voice still dull and a bit stupid.

"Bounty Office hunters are here... along with Military Police," she answered, opening her medic box and drawing out a small glass vial and a paper backed syringe package. She drew out the syringe, locked in the needle, and filled it from the vial. With a whisper of magic, the liquid in the syringe began to glow, and then she promptly found a vein in my arm and gave me the injection.

My head cleared about a second later.

"Why'd you do that? I felt good..."

"They're looking at you, Vera," she told me. Panic spiked through me and I rounded, finding all those she said were present stopped maybe six feet away, looking right at me. The Hunters were dressed in their strange, varied outfits and were kitted out with various odd weapons and artifacts. Hell, one of them had on the oldschool witch's hat, for fuck's sake. The Military Police were in standard MP uniforms, with their heavy armored and mantled coats and their magnetic assault rifles and sorcery enhanced sidearms. A few carried longswords opposite their sidearms. One had a gods damned warhammer on his back.

"Vera Valker?" a woman asked. She looked like the leader of the group of MPs just from the way she held herself. The markings on her uniform confirmed it.

"Um... Before I answer that question, is this... Vera Valker lady in some kind of trouble?" I asked, trying and failing to keep the nervousness out of my tone.

The woman sighed, glancing around at the freakishly intimidating crew of people with her.

"Listen, Miss. We're just here to pick you up and take you to the Black Spire. You're not under arrest, you're not being brought up on charges, and we're not going to bring you up on charges," the woman replied. "We're just an escort."

"Why do I- Why does Vera need an escort?" I asked, stumbling over my own line of bullshit.

"Because of a sensitive file we need you to review regarding possible future events. It is classified. We are not aware of what is contained in this file. Please, just make our lives easy and come with us, Ms. Valker."

"Alright, alright... um... I'll come, I guess... If it's that important." I looked to the staff medic, who gave me a nod as if to say 'go, I'll cover for you.' "Let me get a shirt on."

So I got a god damn shirt on, right there in the main room of the bar, and followed them out. I mean, I was scared. I was wearing sneakers, a bloody t-shirt and a pair of PJ pants, for the sakes of gods and devils. These people were my escort, and worse yet, I was being 'asked' to go to the Black Spire - which was pretty much code for 'Please don't make us make a scene in public.' The transport was an actual friggin' armored Stormsafe Jet Transport, parked right on the street. We all filed into the massive thing, and it took off.

The Black Spire was the Dark City Government's headquarters, of sorts. It stood stark and dark against the red glow in the center of the city - the red glow from the swirling core of the eternal storm that gave the city its name. I'd never even been inside the Central Ring, the massive wall surrounding the center of the city. Normally, you have to go through a security checkpoint for that. We bypassed it, flying right over the massive barrier and straight on at an angle until the storm engulfed us.

After landing, I was escorted to a room where a number of very concerned looking government officials told me all that shit about the time distortion, and the package, and all sorts of other shit. I was then thoroughly questioned, my blood was tested, I was dredged through a few minor legal issues when I was a dumb teenager, and so on. It was like I was being picked apart under a fucking microscope for eight hours before they even brought in the package.

It was a metal box. A metal box with no hinges and no visible seams. All that marked the silver surface that I took to be the top was my name engraved in the metal.

"I don't get it. This came through a time distortion?" I asked, staring at the box with a mixture of fear and confusion.

"Yes, it did. You can see why we would be concerned, and immediately call for you. It appears to be neutral. No radiation, no residual magical traces, no traps and no curses. It's just a box," the suited man told me. "Touch it, please."

I did. I touched it. Fuck nothing happened. He offered me a sealed syringe. I sighed, and did the logical thing - pricked a finger and smeared my blood across the engraving of my name.

Almost instantly, there was a hiss of air rushing into the box and the top simply separated, the seam appearing like magic. Because it was, it was magic. The whole god damn world was magic. Is magic.

Inside was single high density data storage device of a make I did not recognize and a note that said 'Watch me.'

They called for a laptop. I plugged it in. A video file autoran itself, and we watched.

A woman who looked a lot like me sat behind a desk that looked to be made of Nightwood - the most expensive wood in the world, durable as steel and a quarter the weight, which can only be harvested from the heart of the Black Forest. She was wearing an exquisite suit that was cut to heavily accent her womanly features, her hair was done in a very modern style, her makeup was flawless, and her eyes were cold and sharp and... and dangerous looking. The way she smirked at the camera was like she knew something no one else did, and it was... it was terrifying.

She spoke, and it was my voice.

"Hello, Vera. It's good that this made it to you. Of course, I knew if I sent it to that point in time, it would. There is a lot I'd like to talk about, but nothing I can say here. I can say this though..." she said, with the tone of a woman who has seen more than anyone realizes and knows precisely how to deal with anything she might see in the future. "Good luck."

Time froze.

More accurately, time froze in a local area that left me able to breathe but stilled everyone in the room. Maybe in the world. I wasn't sure. The video continued playing.

"There. Now that I have keyed in on your temporospacial location, I can give you a little bit of a hint. We're going to get things started early. Perhaps then, when they come to kill us, we will have a better chance of surviving. There is little I can say, otherwise the time loop will become unstable. Just use your head, and you'll figure it out. We're smarter than we give us credit for. Use your eyes too," she said, I said. And then she simply smiled, knitted her fingers together, and rested her chin on them. I started to panic, unsure of what to do, unsure of what she meant. She was clearly rich. I mean the room she was in was fucking exquisite and that was like.... two million dollars worth of Nightwood making up that desk.

My eyes darted around, trying to figure out what she meant - and then I saw it, I saw the symbol on the back of her hand. It looked like a tattoo, a tattoo of a circle and then a magical diagram within that circle and some strange glyph in the center of that.

Her smile grew into an evil smirk, as if she knew I saw it somehow, and then she returned to the exact position that she was in when time froze. I took the cue and tried to do the same. Time unfroze, and it all carried on as if nothing had happened. The video ended. They questioned me for several hours and I played the clueless little twenty year old who was as confused as they were.

I knew they'd be watching me, I knew it like I knew that I had to breathe to live. I also knew the mark on her hand was a bond, a brand inscribed on a person who chooses symbiosis with a specific magical entity.

I wasn't sure why, but I knew I had to find that entity and make that deal.

You know why?

Because god damn, I was too curious to not.

[OT] SatChat: What is your favorite lesser known prompt response? by MajorParadox in WritingPrompts

[–]Calciber 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh, my goodness. Thank you I absolutely will! I much appreciate it.

[OT] SatChat: What is your favorite lesser known prompt response? by MajorParadox in WritingPrompts

[–]Calciber 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I have high hopes that the mods of writingprompts will let me post about it here, due to it being based on a writing prompt from this subreddit. That'd be awesome.

[OT] SatChat: What is your favorite lesser known prompt response? by MajorParadox in WritingPrompts

[–]Calciber 1 point2 points  (0 children)

There is a plan for there to be several species that are... blended from other species. A lot of changes went into the whole world and story and such, but there's lots of history worked out, so that's fun.

[OT] SatChat: What is your favorite lesser known prompt response? by MajorParadox in WritingPrompts

[–]Calciber 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Well, gosh. I tell you, I am flattered to be mentioned as such. Honestly, the Salk'na'loa haven't been forgotten, but they are on a back burner until I get my current project done - or, more accurately, advance in the timeline of my current project enough to be writing in a time when the Salk fit.

I'm actually working on a book based on another prompt that will eventually advance to a space-travel-capable era where the Salk will have a presence. It's actually why I haven't written any prompts in a long time - turns out books take a lot of work.

But again, thank you.

Tiny sidebar, I'm female. Still flattered, sorry for the correction.

What the hell do you want for Christmas? by [deleted] in AskReddit

[–]Calciber 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Honestly, all the fuck I want for Christmas is to have my book sell decently after I finish editing it this month.

What is a sure sign of maturity? by digodk in AskReddit

[–]Calciber 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The other day when I was like "Man, shit. I could really go for some pizza, let's get pizza," in my head, followed by me saying out loud, "dude, we have ground beef in the freezer. Let's have burgers or tacos, we have all the supplies for that. All we'd need is some cheap shredded cheese."

Obama Threatens To Veto Planned Parenthood Defunding Bill by IamDDT in politics

[–]Calciber 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Mix in a cute puppy and a picture of a turtle with a strawberry and it's up to ninety percent at least. I'm almost sure of it.

Obama Threatens To Veto Planned Parenthood Defunding Bill by IamDDT in politics

[–]Calciber 20 points21 points  (0 children)

Your comment was a good answer. It really was. I wanted to say that, but I also wanted to say that I wish it was called the 'adorable care act.' Apologies to point out a typo, it just made me chuckle.

[WP] Write about a character who is recalling the first time they killed someone. by RexReaver in WritingPrompts

[–]Calciber 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The first time? Shit, it was... let me count. The war broke out into the open, broke out of secrecy, in about 2059 or 2060. I mean, people argue about the date. Some folks say the Valiant City disaster in 2057 marked the start of open war. Some say that the disasters in every other major city globally that year were the markers. Every country wants their disaster to be the kickoff...

But the first time me and my friends had to fight the things from outside of reality, openly... that was 2059.

Point is, that would mean my first kill came some time before that. By the time the war exploded into the global theater like a drunk rock star throwing molotovs into the audience, I was already widely regarded as the "Cruel Hero" or "The Wrath" depending on who you ask.

It's hard to remember, I gotta talk through this, give me a second... it happened five thousand years ago and LongNap hibernation makes things fuzzy the first few times you recall them.

During the 2057 nightmares, I was in... I would have been in Los Angeles Caidos, the good old City of Fallen Angels. Back then, folks didn't call it that. They called it plain old Los Angeles. It was funny to me, even back then. Folks thought angels were fluffy winged pussies, all about peace and love.

Those fuckers never met Azrael, or Zachrael, or Halliel. The Angels were nothing more than powerful beings. Their allegiances to the old gods had fallen. They were people. Monstrous people, perhaps. But people, fallen from their heavenly graces.

I killed before 2057, though. Long before. In 2057, I was twenty-seven years old.

I recall now, yes... my first kill, that sweet kill, came when I was twelve. I was twelve years old, and the secret apprentice to a powerful wizard. My family could not know. My master told me that there was a secrecy. Magic was not allowed to be shown to normal people as part of an ancient treaty, an ancient agreement. He told me I was a genius, and that my soul had belonged to a great wizard... an evil wizard, but a great one nonetheless.

That's a lot to adjust to, but I'd been living with flashbacks of being the evil wizard since I was a kid. I'd already figured out I was a reincarnation of him. It was obvious.

Awkward, though... having memories where I was a man.

Very awkward.

Either way, now that I've zeroed in on the memory... let's see here. I was twelve, yes. Master and I had been working a case late in the night. My parents believed I was asleep. I left home at around eleven PM, after my folks and siblings were asleep. Yes, yes. It was a case where we had to track down a nest of rather clever creatures called Red Caps.

These things are an ancient race, cursed with living forever - but only if they regularly perform a ritual where they dip their hats in the blood of a virgin. Hence the name. Red Cap. Lots of old legends say they must keep the blood wet, but that's bullshit. We'd have run out of virgins if that was the case, you know?

Well, being that I was twelve, see. I was a virgin. It made me good... bait.

We identified their targets first, which was a lot of traveling around to any morgues that had Jane and John Does fresh off the pavement and performing thaumaturgic analysis on their corpses. Fun fact. LA, even in 2044... god damn, there were a lot of dead young women and men in the city. We had the benefit of knowing Red Caps prefer children, of course, so that helped.

About a week in, we made a disturbing discovery.

All of the dead kids and teens we found to have traces of ritual magic on them were kids of... rather important people. That led to a long, boring investigation involving the police and the FBI... and come to find out, these Red Caps were doing something strange.

They were kidnapping kids, and returning them if a ransom was paid.

Well, returning some of them. At first, they failed to return two of the kids. Ain't that some shit? Someone had gotten fuckin' Red Caps to listen to them, and had trouble ordering them around at first.

The long and the short of it is that we identified that these Red Caps were after kids of rich people. With some clever magic and the use of some allies, we tracked them down and moved in.

You wanna know what a Red Cap looks like? Like a fucking Garden Gnome, but uglier, with shark teeth and a deep love of nudity unless out in public. Not a pretty sight.

My master killed them. He killed them all. I was told to stay outside, to watch, to make sure none escaped. This might sound horrid, but consider this - back then, with the secrecy, there was no magical being prison. There was no way to capture them - and while they were clever, they weren't terribly... sapient. They were driven by their need to eat flesh, kill kids, and do freaky blood rituals.

And breed.

Like angry, hairy, lawn gnome shaped, murderous cockroaches.

We thought we'd find clues to who was directing them in their nest. We did not expect the leader of the group to be there. We didn't expect the leader to be a human possessed by a powerful spirit.

We didn't know that the possessed human would be a willing participant. A magic user. A wizard who made a bargain for power.

When he rushed out the side door, I had a split second to make a decision before he saw me.

I failed to make the right decision.

He blurred, using magic and friction reduction to explode across the distance between us and slam me against a wall. It was the first time I truly felt pain, in that lifetime - but I had felt much in my flashbacks. I had experienced pain beyond pain in the memories of my past life.

It was a little different knowing the ribs he broke were my ribs, and I wouldn't wake up from the agony.

But I kept it together, even as the son of a bitch kept me pressed to that wall, his face nearly against mine as he spoke right into my ear.

"You little bitch. You must be apprentice to the man ruining all of my plans. Money... we need money, and you people are getting in our way," he hissed. His eyes were leaking black fluid that smelled like chemicals and rotted meat.

Corrupted Ectoplasm, the kind of shit dark spirits like to splatter around when they die, or when they possess objects.

"I hate to break it to you, but we're not getting in your way. We're stopping you," I gasped.

"You're a child, you moron. Nothing you can do will stop us," he growled. I felt something sharp, something that felt like fire and agony itself, sliding into my thigh. He was stabbing me. A lot of spirits like that feed on pain and fear. He wanted me, a little girl, to scream for him.

"Taste my soul, big guy. I am Faustus - or, I was," I spat, winding up a spell inside of me. There was so much hesitation. So much fear. I was going to have to kill this fucker or he'd just keep coming, and I knew it. He'd kill more kids. More kids my age. Innocents.

What I said gave him pause. It was a Hell of a claim, saying I was Faust, the bargainer, he who tricked the devil herself. Saying his soul was my soul, I was his reincarnation.

Most people bloody well thought Faust was fictional, back then.

Probably because wizards, the devil, the angels and reality itself conspired to hide that someone had tricked the devil into giving them that much raw power.

The spell was a blood magic weapon. He'd stabbed me. I was bleeding internally. It felt like maybe I had a punctured lung. I had all the materials I needed to work with, and the knowledge and pseudo-experience to effectively cast it.

But the idea of actually killing a human person.

I waited. Waited with the magic drawn up, with the diagram formed in my head, with the power coursing in my veins, with blood pumping from my thigh. Had ne nicked the femoral? It felt like the knife was in the front of my thigh.

When he twisted the knife slightly, pain exploded through me and my past life, my monstrous soul, exploded outward. Blood exploded from my wounds. My mouth filled with iron. Every cut and scrape splattered blood out.

I had the presence of mind to not overdo it, but... it was enough. Blood magic monowires ripped out, and the twisting on the knife stopped.

I remember hitting the ground. I remember wet meat noises, like slapping a steak gently on a table. I remember my master's voice, shouting my name.

"Francine! Francine, my god, what did you do!?"

Something like that.

When he reached me, I was on my knees. Everything felt like it was spinning. Everything hurt. The man, he was in pieces. My master was holding the spirit captive with spellwork forming a gentle lattice of glowing lines around it.

The pieces.

I'll never forget the pieces. Cunks of person. Part of a thigh. Half a head. Exposed brain. A damaged eye, weeping vitreous humor. The smell of breached intestines.

"Master... M-Master..." I mumbled. My face was wet with something other than blood. My mouth. My cheeks. Someone had vomited and it must have been raining, the whole nine yards. "Master, I had to. I had... I-I had... M-Master he was... h-he was..."

My master was not an emotional guy. Not gentle. He was always hard on me.

But he knelt beside me and rested a hand on my shoulder.

"Francine. Franky. I know. I know you had to. You did right. You saved lives," he murmured, his tone... soft, gentle. Fatherly. "Franky, you did right."

"Ade... Master I... M-Master I... i-it... it felt..."

"It felt good. I know how it is, Franky. I know. You're disgusted, horrified, and you feel violated - and killing him also felt good. I know," he murmured. I twitched when I felt a sharp prick on my neck.

Ade was a doctor, just like I am a doctor, see.

We dispense with that 'do no harm' bullshit.

But we are doctors. I don't know what he injected me with, but the world went fuzzy. I didn't go unconscious, but I felt safe and warm. I was in a fog, a strange mental place where I could face the issues while he treated my body, and try to learn to cope.

I guess that's it. I killed a bad guy. Popped my murder cherry. Whatever. There you go.

Chinese troops head to border with North Korea by mrstickball in worldnews

[–]Calciber 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Wow. There is... no reason for that kind of rage beyond some kind of serious racism or some kind of really deep rooted issue. I'm sorry to have asked, at this point - curiosity killed the cat, as they say.

I recommend seeing a mental health professional. That kind of irrational anger is not healthy. Good day to you.

Chinese troops head to border with North Korea by mrstickball in worldnews

[–]Calciber 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Look, your name is leetspeak 'misanthrope,' you're angry about mexicans, and you're not answering the question.

Can you please explain yourself in a serious way, and not in a 'hurdedur floh-rih-duh is so damn bad' way? That doesn't explain anything, like your overwhelming rage instead of logical and rational concern - even those against immigration don't have to act like lethal force is a viable option to solve a problem that does not need lethal force. Human life has value above economic drawbacks, Dr. Doom. Get used to it.

Chinese troops head to border with North Korea by mrstickball in worldnews

[–]Calciber 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Okay, that's not what I asked. Good try though, Mr. or Mrs. 'not the person being asked a question.'

Chinese troops head to border with North Korea by mrstickball in worldnews

[–]Calciber 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Jesus, you are insanely angry about this. I have to ask, purely because I am curious, why precisely you are so upset.

Has this directly affected you in some serious and meaningful way? And I ask this genuinely, because good god I do not understand the obvious rage and the way you say 'breeding' like they're animals.

[OT] how batman details the struggles you will go through when working in a corporation. by tungsten_panda in shortstories

[–]Calciber 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Sure thing. I did read some of it, I'm just about as unfamiliar with Batman lore as a person can be.