I decided it wasn’t worth making a post for the mere three lines I wrote Friday, but I managed to make up for it by getting through Akasame’s Chapter 3 of TTWC3. That leaves me with one day to get through three more chapters if I want to meet my goal. We’ll see what happens. Stay tuned.

It was under quota, but I made more progress on Akasame’s Chapter 3 of TTWC3. After discovering the auto-battle option in S&D, it shouldn’t be claiming as much of my time now. It’ll be a challenge, but I’m still aiming to finish the book this weekend. We’ll see if I can make it happen at long last. Stay tuned.

I actually managed to get above quota to make up for yesterday’s shortfall, finishing Akasame’s Chapter 2 of TTWC3 and writing a little on his Chapter 3 as well. I’ve still got a long ways to go, but this is a step in the right direction. Stay tuned.

It was under quota and coming after a skipped day, but I made more progress on Akasame’s Chapter 2 of TTWC3. Maybe if I can resist the allure of S&D long enough to get in the time I need to drive on through to the end of his section by Sunday. Stay tuned.

With the chaos of my new job during the week, Saturday spent fighting to convert my laptop to a Linux box (great fun when they block USB booting), and Sunday getting distracted by my discovery of Shoujo to Dragon, my plans for wrapping TTWC3 didn’t come to fruition, but I did make further progress on Akasame’s Chapter 2. I’m going to stick with it for another week and try to make things happen. Stay tuned.

I’d love to place the blame for last week’s total lack of writing activity on my recent relocation, but that would be a low-down dirty lie. Yes, GBF took up most of my free time, but whenever TCotSL comes up in the queue, I seem to lock up. I may have to pull it from the schedule for the time being and replace it with something else, or just leave the slot open until I get another story far enough along to take the weeks CeleKing1 will have off. We’ll see.

In the meantime, I’ve picked up TTWC3 again with the intention of wrapping Akasame’s section. Monday I only wrote a couple lines, which is hardly worth mentioning, but I managed to follow it up by meeting quota on Akasame’s Chapter 2. I wanted to make up for lost time, but my current schedule requires me to be up earlier than what I’m used to, so I can’t keep my normal hours. Things will shift once I’m out of training in a couple weeks. Anyway, I’ve got quite the task ahead of me, so we’ll see what I can get done. Stay tuned.

In his original conception, Carpos was named Clement, which was supposed to be a joke because his personality was the exact opposite of his name. However, as I started to develop the backstory further, I decided that Solon would name his firstborn after his late brother, the one who was supposed to inherit the throne in his place. He was actually a fairly flat character until more recent iterations. Assigning him a “pawn” (remember that the characters are loosely based on chess pieces) in the form of Patrocles helped a little. And, yes, I’m consciously invoking the the subtext between the literary Achilles and Patrocles when I chose the name. I’ll leave the extent of their relationship to your imagination.

It’s helpful to compare and contrast Carpos with his sister Daphne. Whereas Daphne tried to find balance and harmony with her human and Elven halves, Carpos always hated his Elven side for setting him apart. He knew he could never be truly accepted by either community and reconciling with the Church to improve his political standing was a non-starter, being an ungodly abomination and all. While his powers were weaker than Daphne’s, he never made an effort to cultivate them either. He could have become a decent magic user and a slightly below average psychic, but as you see in his epilogue, it’s only at the end of his life that he realizes what he’s been missing out on. I would wager if he was at his full potential, he’d be an inferior magic user to Simona but a more powerful psychic. It probably wouldn’t have saved him, but he would’ve been much more formidable.

Before I started serializing his section, I half-jokingly compared him to Viserys Targaryen. His character was pretty well set long before I first saw Game of Thrones or read the book, but the similarities are rather interesting. Two petulant pretenders to the throne who abuse their sisters as a matter of course. Related to the Targaryens is the whole incest angle. In Carpos’ case, it’s less a matter of any actual attraction to Daphne as it is a realization that his prospects for a mate are rather limited. He would much rather secure a political marriage to strengthen his standing, but pretty much no noble house would be willing to give one of their daughters over to him. Besides personal prejudice against him as a Half Elf, there’s also the matter of the Church’s disapproval. Squicky though it is, his decision to focus on Daphne makes some measure of sense. Also, until she started to assert herself as Princess Regent, Carpos was fairly confident in his ability to control her, which was another big plus in his book.

From a certain point of view, Carpos’ treason almost appears justified. If you discount the legitimate threat posed by the Darklands (which he and many others did), then Solon’s call to war was a ridiculous expenditure of blood and treasure. Even taking into account the validity of the Darklands campaign, it crippled the kingdom economically and militarily. If Daphne hadn’t raided the Dwarven cities in the mountains, Zephyr would never have been able to afford the grain it needed to feed the people in light of the famine that struck while the expeditionary forces were away. Even if the Monarch Lich launched his assault westward, it’s likely that his body would’ve failed him early in the campaign. (Trueborn Liches in my canon ultimately destroy their physical bodies with their ever-growing power, even after a considerable share of that power gets passed on to the new generation.) The Spider Lich (the Monarch Lich and Arachne’s offspring) had been transported halfway around the world for safekeeping and wouldn’t be mature enough to lead the Chaos Dominion for years. Ultimately, it would’ve amounted to little more than postponing the fight for a generation (and a human generation is a little thing for someone with even a half measure of Elven blood), but it would’ve made Carpos look good in the short term. However, more than likely, even without the Darklands campaign to raise its name and martial standing, the Church probably would’ve still tried to overthrow Carpos as it did with Daphne, so it all becomes a moot point.

The original plan was to give Carpos a suitably pathetic end for such a big scumbag, but as I was writing the epilogue, his little turnabout took shape. I already had him scheduled to die about a week after his capture, but I knew Simona wouldn’t want him to die so quickly. (Think along the lines of what the King of Midland had in mind for Griffith in Berserk, then stretch that over the centuries.) As I had him realizing just how long the torture could last, the only answer was to provoke Simona into killing him. It lets him go out on something of a victorious note, which he really doesn’t deserve, but one of the running themes of the series is that, good or bad, you don’t always get what you deserve.

And I think that’ll do it for know. We’ll be back in several weeks to cover the far less scummy Dwarven warlord Garm. Until then. Stay tuned.

For various reasons, I fell off the wagon again. I figured I could make up the lost time last night, but instead I spent the evening setting up some new shelving for my closet and going through some of my many boxes of stuff. I did spend a little time afterward writing a bit on Akasame’s Chapter 2 of TTWC3, but it’s far less progress than I would’ve liked. I have been writing reviews, though, so it’s not like I’ve been devoting all my time to GBF (though I’ll admit I should probably tone that one down a skosh). Anyway, I guess I’ll be switching over to CeleKing1. Stay tuned.

I finished Mab’s epilogue of TTWC3 and that does it for her section. I then did some writing in Akasame’s Chapters 2 through 5. Most of it was focused on Chapter 2, but I did some work on the introductory paragraphs of the other chapters sans his epilogue. Finishing his section this week seems like a bit of a stretch, but I should at least be able finish two or three chapters. Stay tuned.

Well, ugh. Not only did I fail the 10K challenge spectacularly but then I follow it up with an entire week of no progress whatsoever. I can’t even use my business trip as an excuse because I had plenty of time in the evenings I could’ve written and it was only for three days. So it goes. At least I was able to start making some headway on the reviews by the end of the week and now that I’ve switched over to TTWC3, I’m actually making progress again. I finished Mab’s Chapter 5 (though it may still end up being somewhat controversial in the end) and almost have her epilogue finished as well. I’ll have her section done soon and start working on Akasame. I won’t be so optimistic to suggest I’ll finish the book this cycle, but it’s a nice goal to shoot for. It’d help offset my current lack of progress. Stay tuned.