Challenge #01070-B338: One Slow Afternoon at Unsuitable Food Eat

“Awright… awright…” the entity calling herself Shayde seemed to be having difficulty with the sugar-coated and softened information they had just told her. “I can deal wi’ this. I can… I can deal wi’ this. Wee bitty bits. Aye. Deal wi’ it in wee bitty bits.”

The attending medtechs were watching her vital signs like hawks. As was Rael. Her heart rate was safely within panic realms, as was her adrenaline.

“I’m no’ on Earth, aye…”

Rael bit his tongue to stop himself echoing her ‘aye’. “Correct,” he said.

“I’m no’ in me own time…”

“Correct again.“

“It’s been five hundred years.”

“To our best estimates. Give or take a few decades.”

Redline panic. “How many is a few?” she wailed. And she wailed it in ancient Welsh.

“No more than three.” He elected not to tell her that the error was more likely to be on the ‘give’ side, and that the Galactic Standard Calendar had a really bizarre definition of ‘year’.

The entity known as Shayde got up and paced. “Plus or minus thirty years, what the fook…“ She flipped back to pre-shattering English. “I’m miles from Earth, aye?”

“Aye.” Damn it. “I mean, yes. You are.”

There was a soft sound and a flash of light, and the other entity of trouble incarnate was suddenly sharing the room. “I’m growing impatient.”

“Aw fook off, Loki!” Shayde threw something at him. The entity known as Loki vanished before her missile had a chance to connect. “Great. Jus’ fookain great. I’d ask what else can go wrong, but I reckon I got more’n enough on me plate.”

“Correct again,” said Rael. “And for the record, probability analysts have determined that the Universe really hates the people who ask that kind of question.”

This instantly derailed her panic. “…oooh, can I look at the math?”

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30/05/2015, 10:57 with 6 notes #instant story #just add prompt #Amalgam Universe #Adapting sneak peek #Shayde #submission

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Answering this now because it’s more of an ask than a prompt.

For all the snippets involving Shayde, there hasn’t been much more than a hinted explanation of how she got to be where she is now. So, how did she arrive in the Galactic Alliance, and was it before or after other humans had made proper contact?
(Also, what does Shayde look like? I can’t find a description but I remember something about being like a living shadow so my best guess is similar to the Death in “Girl with the Skeleton Hand” or this http://strawberrydaydreams.tumblr.com/post/71572518590/thatisdebatable-merthuriscanon-my-sim)

Short answer: Close and “sort of”.

Shayde’s been inhabiting my imagination since I found a black pen and doodled her in the 80’s. And until I made my own universe, I never knew what to do to her.

Now. Keep in mind that there’s a huge list of things I can’t draw. These include:

hands
feet
proper anatomy
straight lines
my own characters

That said, have some lineart of Shayde pestering Rael:

You can probably tell exactly where I gave up on this and shit, I forgot the line where the nehru jacket/vest fastens. AUGH! And you know what? Fuck the bottom of Shayde’s swishy hair. Fuck it to hell. Sideways. With a pineapple.

But my hands are cramping and I may not come back to this until next week. Because I hate myself.

This is why I don’t art.

Shayde’s skin is almost literally black. Especially when she’s tired or run down. Being a shadow elemental, her skin tends to match the darkness of local shadows when she isn’t paying attention to it. Her eyes are luminescent, but they also have the horrid attribute of changing with her emotions [OC crime #5, I’m told] so her face can be an open book.

The hair is smoke-white and prone to any spare breeze.

As for the clothing: Gold nehru vest/coat, white undershirt with loose sleeves, grey pants and white gogo boots.

Rael’s skin has been described as ‘Jacaranda mauve’ and his hair is a deep blue. His eyes are also blue. The turtleneck under his rainbow-patchwork JOAT coat is Engineering Blue, and the pants are just jeans.

And yes, those are supposed to be steel-toed safety boots.

I can’t draw.

Fuck.

Sigh.

As for how she got there. It’s a very long story that I’m saving for a later book. Told in a linear fashion, it goes like this:

Katie Walker (slightly magical girl) tries to solve the energy crisis by drilling a pinhole into another dimension
Her professor/mentor Hackmeyer tries to make it more interesting by fucking with the machine on the day of the big demo
It go boom
Katie is plucked from the event by self-proclaimed gods who change her into a shadow elemental so she can meddle in assorted destinies
They promise to put her back when they’re done
Katie wanders universes for ten subjective years and starts calling herself 'Shayde’ because many natives mistake her for a demon [“foul shade from out the blackest pit” etc]
The alleged god make the huge mistake of bringing her into their dimension to tell her that she has to die
The 'gods’ narrowly escape with their lives and dump her on Amalgam Station. They may have been aiming for the Glunk and missed

Naturally, the book’s going to be way more interesting. I want to build up Amalgam as a place for things to happen in before I publish Shayde’s story, though.

08/03/2014, 06:01 #prompt #submission #Shayde #ask #answered

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Challenge #00201: A Kiss of Home

“ How long has it been since I’ve stood in the rain? ”

Lyr could only predict that the individual who called herself Shayde would ‘bring trouble’ if they let her out of her isolated environment. However, since the genetechs had concocted and released a super immunoflu that once again vaccinated known populations against extinct diseases like measles, they had increasingly less reasons to keep her there.

Humans were considered insane by the larger populations of the galactic scene. And this creature - who, by all accounts, was only biologically human when she couldn’t help it - was beyond the normal levels of human insanity.

Case in point.

It was raining in the Elemeno, and most citizens who went there were staying under shelter and conducting their business in a hurry.

Not Shayde. She was dancing around in one of the upper-level parks and jumping in puddles with every sign of childish glee.

Lyr adjusted her weather-hood and closed in on her on an I’m-harmless vector. Powers, she was singing. An odd little jingle, halfway between happy and sad whilst containing elements of both.

Do dee do do doodee doodee do dee doot do…

Shayde spotted her, and wound to a halt partway up a decorative lamp-post. “Jus’ singin’ and dancin’ in the rain,” she caroled.

“Any particular reason for this… exhibition?”

Shayde climbed down and sighed out her previous buoyant mood. “Do you have any idea how long it’s been since I’ve stood in the rain?”

“Longer than ten subjective years?” Lyr guessed.

“I was holdin’ me babby brother’s hand…”

Lyr gently took hold of an elbow and steered Shayde towards a bath shop. They had towels, there, for as little as ten Minutes. It didn’t take much reasoning to fathom that this creature was homesick, and halfway towards dangerously insane from whatever journey she’d been on.

Proof positive, Shayde just licked some rain off her palm.

“Does'nae taste like home,” she said, “but it almost feels like home, ye ken?”

Odysseus… Lyr thought. He, too, had spent too long trying to get home and found it greatly changed when he finally got there. The conclusion to Shayde’s journey would be no less heartbreaking for being five hundred common-years long. “You’ll be able to take a trip once your identity’s been established beyond reasonable doubt. With an escort for safety.” She decided, in a fit of diplomacy, not to mention whose safety she was concerned about.

Shayde handed over an Hour for six cheap towels and wound up her smoke-white hair in one of them. “I saw the rain fallin’ and I thought… It’s been too long. No matter how ye measure it, it’s been way too long.” Another towel mopped up the puddle she was creating on the floor while a third was used in an attempt to stop the rivulets pouring off her body. “If there’s one lesson to learn,” she added. “It’s that life’s too short to stop bein’ childish.”

Lyr could think of other lessons…

[Muse food remaining: 11 (fic war prompts, 0). Submit a prompt! Ask a question! Buy my stories!]

23/07/2013, 06:05 #instant story #just add prompt #Amalgam Station #Shayde #Lyr Marken #submission

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Challenge #00194: Miss Tiggy

How did a hedgehog even get on a space station?

“Hey, it’s me. Where can I get feeder crickets at this time o’ night?”

Rael should have guessed, then, that something was awry. Even for a well-traveled human of her era, Shayde was not overly adventurous when it came to foodstuffs. Insectivorism was definitely not, as she put it, ‘her bag’.

He checked his chrono. “There’s a night market three levels under the bottom of the Elemeno. There’s all sorts of insectivore food.” It was so late, it was early. “And if you don’t mind, I need rest.” He literally poured himself into his heated tank and relaxed.

Another long day in a long line of long days, over. Until tomorrow.

Wait. Feeder crickets?

Rael startled into consciousness and poured himself into his clothes for the day. Why the flakk would someone like Shayde want feeder crickets? Something was terribly, ominously wrong.

And knowing Shayde as he unfortunately did, it was overdue to explode.

She was waiting outside his front door.

“No damage?” he asked.

“Na, I didnae happen to anyone. Ye had breakfast?”

“I was going to grab something from Eat Deep Fried Anything.” He stopped to take in the scene. “Shayde, why do you have a basket?”

“Sounds like a plan. I’ve never seen a vet about the place. Do they have a hidin’ spot or is everythin’ upside-down again?”

“Shayde, why is the basket moving?”

“Aw that’s reet, Ye never met Miss Tiggy.”

“Miss… Tiggy…” He shook his head and wove his way around her. “I have paying work to do, Shayde, so either start making sense or come back when you have a linear story.”

“Ah found a puir wee tiggy winkle…” she dug a sphere out of the basket, a sphere that, after a few paces, sprouted a face.

“That’s a hedgehog.”

“Aye.”

“How did a hedgehog get onto the station?”

“That’s part of th’ mystery,” Shayde grinned. “I rescued Miss Tiggy from a gang of Skitties and she needed a quiet place and a feed. And some checkin’ out, ye ken. I’ve been all through the directory, and I cannae find a vet.”

“Vet…” Rael echoed. The word had not turned up in her already confusing lexicon before.

“Veterinarian? An animal doctor?”

“There aren’t any. Medicine sort of merged after the third dozen species that had characteristics and physiognomy similar to another planet’s fauna.”

“Awright then. Miss Tiggy and I are off on an adventure to medical.”

“Don’t blow anything up.”

“You say that like you don’t know me…”

“I say that because I know you.”

[Muse food remaining: 11 (fic war prompts, 0). Submit a prompt! Ask a question! Buy my stories!]

16/07/2013, 06:18 #instant story #just add prompt #Amalgam Station #Rael #Shayde #submission

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