The Stand Still, Stay Silent Fan-Forum

Creative Corner => Writing Board => Topic started by: Solovei on November 17, 2014, 02:31:34 PM

Title: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solovei on November 17, 2014, 02:31:34 PM
As a companion to the SSSS fanart thread, I give you... the SSSS fanfiction thread! Because not all of us can be amazing artists.

Some Rules
1. Keep it PG-13! If it's above that rating, please post it somewhere else (Google docs, your blog, whatever) and share a link to it instead.
2. If it's really really long (more than 1000 words), also post a link to it.
3. Prose only, please! If you want to share a poem, it goes into this thread (http://ssssforum.pcriot.com/index.php?topic=4.0) instead.
4. Commenting on other people's stories is fine, but keep it respectful and constructive. Saying that the story could be improved with more dialogue is okay, saying that a certain pairing/idea is stupid is not.

Also, here's where you can find some of the fics in this thread:

Archive of Our Own (http://archiveofourown.org/tags/Stand%20Still%20Stay%20Silent/works)
Fanfiction.net (https://www.fanfiction.net/comic/Stand-Still-Stay-Silent/)

A couple of people wanted some help using AO3; I've compiled a little walkthrough here (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg57965#msg57965)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solovei on November 17, 2014, 02:41:25 PM
To start us off, here is a little thing I posted on the comments earlier, in which Emil tries to teach Lalli some stuff (and fails... maybe?)

A Lesson

Emil had drawn the night watch again; he was beginning to think the Dane had rigged the lots out of some misplaced spite towards him personally. Still, Lalli was usually up during the night anyway, and spending time with the scout wasn’t too bad, once you got over the fact that he didn’t understand anything you said. It was kind of nice, in a way.

“-- So anyway, this guy I was in training with, he thought he was the best at everything, but clearly he was just trying to show off in front of the girls, you know? It was really pathetic!” He finished with a self-satisfied laugh, raising his arms to stretch his back. As always, the Finnish teenager said nothing, the expression on his face that of slightly bored apprehension as he sat with his arms folded over his knees, rifle at his side.
“You know, Lalli, one of these days we should have an actual conversation. That would be nice, right? Maybe I could teach you some words or something while we’re out here...”
This seemed to pique the scout’s interest, as he sat up and glanced at Emil with an almost imperceptible smile. He tapped his chin, looking at their surroundings. There wasn’t much, really.
“Um… lets see…” At this point, he made an exaggerated shivering gesture. “It’s cold, right? Kallt?”
He got a few blinks in reply, but this didn’t deter him. He was a Swede after all, and if Swedes gave up this easily, they would not have reclaimed so much of their lands, or built a city as magnificent as Mora.
 “Okay, maybe that’s too hard... “ after all, cold was a very abstract term. You can’t touch cold, at least not when it’s in the air. Maybe he should look for something more solid, something real. He pointed excitedly to the small fire they’d been allowed to set up to keep warm during the night. “Brasa. Can you say that, Lalli? Braaa-sa.”
This time, the Finn nodded slowly, but didn’t say anything in response. Emil was starting to feel a bit silly, sitting out here and saying random words and waving his hands like an idiot. He pointed up to the full moon. “Månen?” Surely he would understand that, he was the one that summoned the thing, supposedly. But once again there was only a small nod and nothing else to suggest comprehension.
“Ugh, I give up.” He said finally and bit off a chunk of his meat jerky in frustration, staring into the dancing flames. For a while, everything was quiet; only the howling wind broke the night-time silence. They had picked a good spot to make camp for the night, and the chance of an attack here was minimal, but Sigrun had insisted on setting up a rotating watch anyway. He was about to start dozing off, just for a short while… it was fine, really, because Lalli was right there and he was much better at this than...
“Emil…”
The sound of his name snapped him awake. It was his turn to blink now - Lalli had never, ever called him by name before. His features softened somewhat and he smiled before realizing that the scout was pointing at something off in the distance.
The smile vanished. “Go get the others. We need to leave.” 
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SeaAngel on November 17, 2014, 03:17:45 PM
Heeeeeey, writers ARE artists >:C What discrimination is this??

Also, I loved your fanfiction! I have a feeling Lalli wouldn't even nod, but meh :P
More, please!!! :D :D :D ;D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Nimphy on November 17, 2014, 03:29:11 PM
Hehe... I feel really nervous about sharing fanfiction with this community (what if you all think I'm a horrible writer amd person and despise me for the rest of your lives?!), but I think I shall write somthing. Dammit, I'm supposed to be writing for NaNo and now I'll soend so many hours on this thread. Well, toooo baaad  :D

Also, vey nice story, Solovei! The characterization is very good, and Emil trying to teach Lalli Swedish is very cute. I like the ending, too - even if forna brief moment I had thought that it was Lalli giving that command, and I was really confused (how could Emil understand him?)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solovei on November 20, 2014, 04:45:07 PM
In this installment, Emil wakes up from a weird dream!

Dreams

“He’ll be back before you even get out of bed”, Sigrun had said.

There was rather a nice bench here in the cockpit or whatever it was called; he had tried to sleep in one of the bunks but the Dane’s snoring was making it impossible, so Tuuri agreed to switch. It took him some time to find a comfortable position, but finally he stretched his legs out onto the dashboard and drifted off sometime around what he thought was midnight.

Emil was dreaming about food. Or rather, he had been dreaming about the Giant that attacked them on the Dalahästen. He was trying to get away from it, only the train went on forever; also, the giant was composed entirely out of spaghetti and meatballs. This made it only slightly less terrifying, but the smell was really the worst part - like butter and salt and some herb he didn’t know the name of. It was so delicious he kept wanting to stop and try a bit before remembering how dangerous it was and running again.

Caught between fear and hunger, he didn’t hear the metallic clunk of the door opening and closing.

He felt a weight pressing on his chest. In the dream, the spaghetti monster had cornered him with a noodly appendage, and he was trying to decide if he should take a bite out of the thing or just reach for a weapon of some kind. Would it still be infected if it was made out of pasta? It would probably burn pretty well, that was certain.

Emil blinked himself awake, slowly realizing where he was - the cockpit of their vehicle. It was approaching daybreak, and the first rays of a late autumn sun were getting ready to break the horizon. He was about to smile thinking how pretty it looked, even if it was incredibly dangerous, but he quickly realized that the weight from his dream was still there. The cleanser coughed a few times and tried to sit up, only to hear a rather disgruntled whine.

“...Lalli?”
ei…
“Lalli, get off. I can’t brea--”
“ynnh~”

He sighed quietly and resigned himself to his fate, pulling out the blanket he had mostly kicked off during the night and draping it carefully over the scout. Idly, Emil wondered if he was dreaming about something too.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Paul Ferris on November 20, 2014, 10:58:58 PM
SQUEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!

Thank you, I'm a sucker for romance/bromance stories. You're very good at this, have you considered a series?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solovei on November 21, 2014, 01:14:12 AM
SQUEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!

Thank you, I'm a sucker for romance/bromance stories. You're very good at this, have you considered a series?
Aww, thanks! I'm glad you liked it~
I don't know about a series per se, I mostly just write these as they come to me, or rather, as people in the comments mention things and I think "oh that's really cute!" I've tried to write longer-form things before but it never really panned out.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Sunflower on November 21, 2014, 01:30:53 AM
I'm going to be egotistical here and cross-post something I put in "Scenes We'd Like to See" back in mid-Sept., before we got properly introduced to Sigrun and Mikkel (and before we realized our crew was going to be given the bum's rush out of Oresund, without any training, team-building, driving lessons, or good Danish beer).  I'm charmed and impressed by the stories here, and I hope to come up with something later that can reach their level.  Meanwhile....


TEAM-BUILDING EXERCISE:  A SHORT FEATURE

Setting: The SSSS team's last 24 hours at the Malmö base before setting out into the unknown. 
Training Montage of Tuuri trying to parallel-park a 1970s shag-carpeted van, Lalli effortlessly hitting distant targets with his beat-up rifle, Emil going all Van Halen with his flamethrower, everyone practicing hand signals, Cap manically cheering them on.  Medic quietly inventories and rolls up his medical supplies, including a lot of morphine and some really scary-looking bone saws.  Taru and Trond are seen standing with pointers in front of maps (too blurry to see of where).  Torbjorn hands out print-outs.  Tuuri reads hers with earnest interest; Lalli stares blankly.  Emil plays with his hair.

Sound phases in as Taru ushers the Fearless Five out the classroom door.
TARU: "....All right, I see that's about all your brains can hold for now.  I think for once we can let you youngsters have an open evening, especially since it's Band Night at the canteen.  But remember, reveille is at 0600 tomorrow, formation at 0700, and launch at 0800.  Meanwhile, we have a treat:  100 Kr each open tab at the bar!"
TROND (with a chilly smile): "Don't spend it all tonight.  Who knows, you might come back."

Scene of crew (after dinner, spiffed up a bit, minus parkas and weapons [except Lalli], plus hair ribbons [Tuuri] entering a large timbered hall full of people whooping it up.  A band is on a podium at the far back. 
TUURI: [Icelandic] Wow, all these people!  This must be more than everyone who *lives* at Keuruu.  And... and... they're friendly, right?  I mean, I don’t need to request permission to speak, do I?
CAP: Nah, they're cool.  You get all kinds here in Malmö, you know?  Everyone's been out in troll country at some point, so they've all got stories.  Just don't let 'em scare ya!
MEDIC:  You guys want some beer?
LALLI stares at him blankly.
MEDIC: Suomi?  [LALLI nods.]  [bad Finnish] Uh... beer, kid?  This way.
CAP: Go get us some too!  I wanna dance, not stand in line!  I bet you do too, what’s your name -- Tuuri?  [The men head off to the beer line.]
TUURI (shyly): Um, I'm not sure I know the dances you all do in a big place like this.  I’d like to try, though.
CAP:  Not a problem!  I know tons of guys here – I’ll grab a couple, and they’ll be happy to teach you!

[A few minutes later.] MEDIC and Lalli are sitting in silent contentment with several other men at a bench, beer mugs in front of them.  They look kind of like this: 
[Intro to the U.S. TV show “King of the Hill," for those who don’t recognize it.]
MAN #1: Yep.  (Drinks.  Pause.)
MAN #2:  Yep.  (Drinks.  Long pause.)
LALLI: Yep.  (Drinks.)
MEDIC:  Mmm-hmmm.  (Drinks.)

At another table, EMIL (on the right) is trying to make himself agreeable to a very superior-looking dark-eyed lady, who oddly resembles a certain Swedish elkhound we know.  In the background, the band starts playing “Jeg ønsker at blive bedøvet.”
/>CAP [on the left, next to TUURI, leaps up exuberantly]: Ahhh!  That's my favorite song!  I’m going to dance, you guys – I’ll be right back.  (She disappears into the throng of joyously pogo-ing dancers.)

[A few minutes later.  EMIL has not made much headway with the dark-eyed lady; he’s spent all his money on single-malt whiskey for her and water for himself.  Into CAP’s vacant seat next to TUURI slides a tall, crew-cut, good-looking Dane, JENS.]
JENS (to TUURI):  [ICE] Well, hello there.  I don’t think we’ve met – I’d remember a pretty girl like you.
TUURI (blushes, flattered):  Oh!  Um, I’m Tuuri – Tuuri Hotakainen.  I’m part of this new team that’s going out exploring tomorrow.  We’re looking for….well, I’m not really supposed to tell, but we’re looking for things the Danes want. 
JENS:  Oho!  Things the Danes want, eh?  I could probably help you with that, seeing as how I’m a Dane.  The name’s Jens.
TUURI:  Oooh, really?  That would be great! 

[An hour later.  EMIL is sitting alone, eating seaweed crisps and sulking over Astrid’s desertion, unaware of what’s going on with TUURI just behind him.  There are a great many empty beer mugs in front of JENS and TUURI.  She is flushed and pie-eyed; he is draped all over her.]
JENS:  …all the Disney Princess books, and I even have the first-edition hard-cover of “Fantasia.”  I inherited them from my grandmother, and I hardly ever show them to anyone.  Except scholars with a special interest.  But if you’ll follow me back to my quarters, I’m happy to let you see them.
TUURI:  Wow, re- really?  I’ve always w-wanted to see real Disney things – I’ve only heard about them.  I’ll just…just check with my commanding officer, in case we’ve got more briefings or something before bedtime. 
JENS:  Oh, pfff, here at Malmo there are never briefings right before bedtime.  Except the one-on-one kind…  [Rises, pulling TUURI up with him.]  Listen, I’ll leave a note for your C.O.  As long as she knows where you are, there’s no problem.  We’re all adults here.  [Makes to leave with TUURI, who is starting to protest uncertainly, but very wobbly on her feet.]
[Meanwhile, LALLI has noticed this and made his way across the room.  He steps in front of them, glaring.]
LALLI:  [FIN] Quit that!  Let her go.  C’mon, Tuuri.
JENS (initially not understanding): [ICE] What’d you say?  [LALLI reaches for TUURI’s free arm, to get her away from JENS.] 
JENS (Mockingly, as to a pet):  What’s that, boy – you smell a troll?  Go get it, and I’ll give you a kitty treat!
[LALLI looks irritated, spots EMIL, shakes his shoulder.  He looks up, takes in the situation, and rises.]
EMIL (coldly, to JENS): [SWE] I don’t think the lady is interested in your company.  Why don’t you take your leave?  We all have to be up early tomorrow. 
JENS bursts out laughing.  [DAN, but imitating Emil’s accent mincingly]:  Oh my, a rival for little Suomi-neito!  Is the young gentleman going to challenge me to a duel for the fair lady? 
Or… is it me you’re jealous of, or her??  Haw, haw.  Say, pretty boy – do you row bow, or stroke? 
[EMIL goes red with rage and punches JENS in the gut.  JENS bellows and throws himself at EMIL – and then goes sprawling because LALLI has quietly tripped him (and moved to support the reeling TUURI).  As JENS staggers to his feet and EMIL braces himself for impact, the large, impassive form of MADSEN suddenly appears between them.]
MADSEN (benevolently): [DAN] Hey guys, what’s up? 
JENS and EMIL, simultaneously:
[DAN] Mikkel, hey!  I was about to close the deal with the little country cousin here and these two bozos are getting in my way.  Get ‘em out of here, willya?
[SWE] Madsen!  Do you know this… low fellow?  He was being offensive to Miss Tuuri!  So I was just teaching him some manners.  (While shaking his sore punching hand; JENS has abs of steel.)
[Now TARU and a member of the SHORE PATROL (or local equivalent) come into view.]
TARU:  [ICE] What’s going on? 
SHORE PATROL OFFICER: [DAN] What’s all this, then?
MADSEN:  Oh, hey, Marshal.  It’s nothing; the kids here are on my team, and they had a bit too much to drink.  You know what it’s like, the night before your first Long Patrol.  Everyone just needed to blow off a little steam. 
OFFICER:  Huh.  Well, if you say so.  [To the participants]  Does anyone want to press charges?
TUURI (sounding scared):  N… no.
JENS (after meeting MADSEN’s gaze, sullenly):  No.
OFFICER:  All right, off you go.  [Leaves.]
MADSEN wraps an arm around JENS’ neck in a friendly-looking but unbreakable headlock. [ICE]:  I think we both need a breath of fresh air.  What’s say we head outside, buddy?  [To TARU, EMIL, and LALLI]  Can you take care of Miss Hotakainen?  [They part ways.]

[Leaving the canteen for barracks.  TARU and LALLI are supporting TUURI, who is mumbling in Finnish and starting to cry.  EMIL trails behind awkwardly.]
TARU turns.  [ICE, trying to keep it simple for EMIL]:  We… OK now.  You savvy?
[FIN, to LALLI]:  She’ll be fine, once I get her into a cold shower and a nice sauna.  You boys roll along now.
[Offstage, we hear a KUNK like a crew-cut Danish head being thwacked against a doorframe, apparently by accident.]
MADSEN, offstage:  Careful there, buddy, that’s gotta hurt.  [Barfing noises.]  Oops, looks like the beer disagreed with you.  Again.  I better hose you off.  [Loud hose noises, groans.]

[EMIL and LALLI glance that way, then give each other a satisfied look.]
EMIL [SWE]:  You know, I think he’ll be an asset to our team.  [LALLI almost smiles, and pats EMIL’s shoulder.]
LALLI:  Hyvää yota. 
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Jade~senpia on November 21, 2014, 01:39:40 AM
That was delightful wish I had time to write a ssss fanfic but I'm busy writing a KH fanfic for angry readers who haven't seen an update in a while :P
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Rae on November 22, 2014, 05:37:38 PM
I participate in an on writing group every week, and one of my recent efforts was this prologue-inspired piece. Setting is North America, probably one of the national laboratories around Washington DC... 


“Which is it, the meiosis or the mitosis, dear? I know you know they’re not the same thing.” She paused in the doorway as he folded the newspaper irritably, the headline shouting the spread of the rash disease into Australia; the EU nuclear plants being pulled offline.

Holding onto the doorframe for balance, she edged into the room. “It’s both, sir,” her voice faint below the ringing in her ears. “It’s like nothing we’ve ever seen before, over ninety percent of the viral DNA recombines, the mammalian mutations pile up – mitosis looks more like meiosis…“

Dr. Greevey looked up sharply now, his indulgence and pomposity dimmed.

“ – and the cells don’t die, sir. They don’t die.”

Greevey blew out a gust of air, “And Victor? How –“

She shuddered and clung a little harder to the doorframe, “I won’t talk about Victor. He’s not – well.”

“I must see him then,” Dr. Greevey began to rise.

“No! No, you can’t – you know he handled the samples before we went to Biosafety Level 4!”  And, and the worst part, she swallowed desperately, willing herself to breathe, to not cry, to force it out: “My suit’s been compromised.”

Greevey turned gray. “This is most unexpected, Cass. You’ve always been the most careful - ”

“He pulled out my air supply a couple of days ago, I thought I decontam’ed fast enough, but,” she pulled her right hand up to her chest to show him, “it’s contagious as hell.”
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Sigrid Marie on November 24, 2014, 01:14:21 PM
In response to Solovei's "Dreams", with her permission and encouragement, I bring to you the story as told from Lalli's POV. I'm not feeling very confident about this, but here goes:

Of Sunrise and Soft Pillows

Lying on Emil was much more comfortable than expected. He was warm and soft, the slow rise and fall of his chest soothing. Lalli laid there for a while, listening to the heartbeat under his ear. It was muffled by thick layers of clothing and blankets, but still audible in the quiet of the driver’s cabin. Dawn was fast approaching. The sun came quietly, unnoticed, much the same as he had done. He watched it poke it’s first rays above the flat horizon as he curled up tighter on Emil’s chest, yawning tiredly. The last excitement from a night of being on the alert was finally seeping out of him, and he felt his eyelids growing heavy.

He let them fall shut, wondering how it could be that the messy swede, who was so very loud and bothersome when he was awake, could be so tolerable when he was asleep. Lalli had originally planned to bunk with Tuuri, but after finding her in the same room as a big, snoring Dane he had quickly changed his mind. It wasn’t that bad, really. Tuuri moved around a lot in her sleep, and while Lalli could sleep through most anything, a motionless pillow was still much preferable to one that elbowed you in the face and stole your blanket.

The next thing he knew, Lalli was jolted awake by his pillow being… well, not a very good pillow at all. Emil was thrashing about, muttering nonsensical things in his strange language. At this point, Lalli cared even less than usual about what was being said. He just wanted to sleep, and preferably right now, while their evil vehicle was not moving.

Emil’s breath hitched, and Lalli knew at once that he was awake. He had no plans of getting up now that he was all warm and comfortable, though, so he shut his eyes and pretended to sleep.

The moment he awoke, Emil stopped moving. Lalli felt him relax for half a second, before he seemed to realise that someone was lying on top of him and tensed up again. All was blissfully silent for a few seconds, until Emil cleared his throat and tried to sit up. Too tired to fully register what was happening, Lalli let out a pitiful whine and wrapped himself around Emil’s torso.

‘Lalli?’

His name was slurred, Emil’s voice hoarse from sleep. Lalli mumbled something unintelligible and settled more comfortable against Emil’s side. Emil started saying something else, but was promptly interrupted by a palm pushed lazily against his face.

Hot breath blew against his palm as Emil let out a soft sigh, and then a blanket was wrapped around him. Lalli fully expected Emil to get up and leave, but he didn't, and everything was warm and soft. He thought he felt an arm around his shoulder and then he was sinking, and everything turned quiet. He dreamt of snow and dark woods and a big train flying across unfamiliar water.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OrigamiOwl on November 24, 2014, 07:30:09 PM
In response to Solovei's "Dreams", with her permission and encouragement, I bring to you the story as told from Lalli's POV. I'm not feeling very confident about this, but here goes:

Of Sunrise and Soft Pillows

....I think my heart just simultaneously melted and exploded....*calls for an ambulance*
EeeeeeeeeeEEEEeeeeee!!!! 8'D *applause*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Paul Ferris on November 25, 2014, 01:41:23 AM
Of Sunrise and Soft Pillows

SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!

Thankyou, I think I've got cuteness overload  ;D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Sigrid Marie on November 25, 2014, 01:44:19 AM
....I think my heart just simultaneously melted and exploded....*calls for an ambulance*
EeeeeeeeeeEEEEeeeeee!!!! 8'D *applause*

Gee, thanks! C: I was worried I made it too fluffy, but then again, you can never have too much fluff ;3

Edit: Oh, and thank you to Paul Ferris too!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Sunflower on November 25, 2014, 03:06:47 AM
I love it!  Even though your story does contradict my claim that Lalli fails some basic functions of cat-hood, such as purring and keeping your lap warm (http://ssssforum.pcriot.com/index.php?topic=17.msg10767#msg10767)...

Because I have an evil mind, I can't help picturing what happened about 30 minutes after the end of this story:
1. Tuuri pads into the kitchen, hoping to sneak a piece of dried fruit from Mikkel's porridge-making stash before everyone else wakes up. 
2. Peeking through the cockpit door to make sure Emil won't catch her, she lets out an EEEE! of delighted amusement.
3. A confused series of grunts, bangs, and then a loud THUD as Emil wakens with a start, flails about, and falls heavily to the floor.  A softer THUMP as Lalli, ejected from his warm nest, neatly lands on his feet.  He gives Tuuri the outraged stare of a cat rudely deprived of its sleep. 
4. Tuuri giggles as Emil, red-faced, shouts "NO!  No!  It's not what it looks like!"
5. Mikkel, woken by the ruckus, looms up behind Tuuri in the doorway.  Instantly sizing up the situation, he very theatrically turns his eyes away as if to say, "Aw, let's give the happy couple some privacy."  (And stifles a chuckle behind one massive hand.)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Sigrid Marie on November 25, 2014, 03:58:51 AM
Because I have an evil mind, I can't help picturing what happened about 30 minutes after the end of this story:

That's absolutely perfect
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Sunflower on November 25, 2014, 04:04:49 AM
Also, I like Lalli lazily pushing his hand against Emil's face to make him stop moving.  Cats do that exact same thing!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Sigrid Marie on November 25, 2014, 04:25:01 AM
Hahaha, I guess they do (I've never had a cat). I just feel like that's something Lalli would do.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Paul Ferris on November 25, 2014, 05:10:27 AM
1. Tuuri pads into the kitchen, hoping to sneak a piece of dried fruit from Mikkel's porridge-making stash before everyone else wakes up. 
2. Peeking through the cockpit door to make sure Emil won't catch her, she lets out an EEEE! of delighted amusement.
3. A confused series of grunts, bangs, and then a loud THUD as Emil wakens with a start, flails about, and falls heavily to the floor.  A softer THUMP as Lalli, ejected from his warm nest, neatly lands on his feet.  He gives Tuuri the outraged stare of a cat rudely deprived of its sleep. 
4. Tuuri giggles as Emil, red-faced, shouts "NO!  No!  It's not what it looks like!"
5. Mikkel, woken by the ruckus, looms up behind Tuuri in the doorway.  Instantly sizing up the situation, he very theatrically turns his eyes away as if to say, "Aw, let's give the happy couple some privacy."  (And stifles a chuckle behind one massive hand.)



Too cute! It'd be nice to have upvoteable replies.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Rae on November 25, 2014, 08:56:08 AM
Also, I like Lalli lazily pushing his hand against Emil's face to make him stop moving.  Cats do that exact same thing!

I thought that was perfect too.  One of my cats does just about the opposite though -- he crawls up on my chest in the very early morning, then pats my face to get me to scratch his ears. And purrs so loud he drools, of course.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solovei on November 25, 2014, 09:49:32 AM
Also, I like Lalli lazily pushing his hand against Emil's face to make him stop moving.  Cats do that exact same thing!
Thankfully for Emil, at least Lalli doesn't have claws... that we know of
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Sharion on November 25, 2014, 10:39:09 AM
In response to Solovei's "Dreams", with her permission and encouragement, I bring to you the story as told from Lalli's POV.
Besides the great description of cat behaviour (if you don't have one, I have to assume that you are one :P), I like the way you painted that early morning mood, and also the parallel between the stealth of a tired "cat" and sunrise.

Thankfully for Emil, at least Lalli doesn't have claws... that we know of
He has a knife, though. And he seems to know how to use it. :P

I love it!  Even though your story does contradict my claim that Lalli fails some basic functions of cat-hood, such as purring and keeping your lap warm (http://ssssforum.pcriot.com/index.php?topic=17.msg10767#msg10767)...
Technically, if I understood well, he lied on Emil's chest and along his side, not in his lap. (Except, if Swedes also have a heartbeat in their stomach - in which case, I'm going to shout TROLL! so loud that Admiral Olsen will beg for the receipt. Although, after having only four toes...)

Because I have an evil mind, I can't help picturing what happened about 30 minutes after the end of this story
Haha. You left out only the part where someone tries to document it. A troll somewhere in Kastrup would get the surprise of it's life when a camera would land on one of it's heads. :D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solovei on November 25, 2014, 02:13:36 PM
Technically, if I understood well, he lied on Emil's chest and along his side, not in his lap. (Except, if Swedes also have a heartbeat in their stomach - in which case, I'm going to shout TROLL! so loud that Admiral Olsen will beg for the receipt.
That's how I originally envisioned it~
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: JoB on November 26, 2014, 01:40:59 PM
Reposted from the comments/Disqus per Aggelikis request ...

* krcchhhh * * krrRRk * * tchhh *
"Hello, Torbjörn? This is Tuuri, do you hear me?"
"Expedition, this is HQ, Trond speaking. Yes, I copy."
"Uh ... okay. We seem to have a problem here, I'm afraid ..."
"You can't see or move at all?"
"Yes! How do you know?"
"It's the same over here, it's called a chapter break."
"... what's a 'chapter' and how can it just break us all!?"
"... no, 'break' as in 'taking a week off'. Or several, actually. With the scarcity of visions among the mages recently, it seems that the Divine Buffer ran quite empty."
"I'm afraid that I don't understand a word you say ..."
"In summary, when the Gods haven't had the time to plan out our everyday fate, they put us mere mortals on standby. The important ones, that is, so it didn't affect you until you became part of this expedition."
"Hmmmm. But how are we able to communicate by radio, then?"
"I'm afraid I can't do more than guess on that one. It seems that our radios got squirreled away into the Forgotten Props Limbo by the Holiness of the Plot before the break started, and that we can reach and operate them from the limbo we're now in ourselves ..."
"Well, His name be praised for this foresight, then!"
"Her name, you mean? :)"
"... oh no. I angered her now, didn't I?"
"Hardly, it's quite obvious she loves having us mortals confused about genders every now and then. Matter of fact, some of her acolytes keep using the wrong gender in their speech so as to show their devotion."
"Huh. That's not the standard Plotter rite, is it?"
"No. It's more common for them to just up and get utterly drunk whenever they hear someone confuse genders."
"... I think I see why that's the more popular school. But back to the expedition, what are we going to do now?"
"Nothing. That's what the Gods want us to do 'til they figured out some future for us."
"Gee, those 'chapter breaks' sound like a really boring thing to go through."
"Boring enough to finally remember your standing order to radio in daily reports, hmmmm?"
"....... yes. :C"
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: P__ on November 26, 2014, 01:53:40 PM
 :D :D :D :D :D
can't write anything more constructive sorry :D :D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Fimbulvarg on November 26, 2014, 01:58:42 PM
Reposted from the comments/Disqus per Aggelikis request ...

"You can't see or move at all?"
"Yes! How do you know?"
"It's the same over here, it's called a chapter break."
"... what's a 'chapter' and how can it just break us all!?"
"... no, 'break' as in 'taking a week off'. Or several, actually. With the scarcity of visions among the mages recently, it seems that the Divine Buffer ran quite empty."
"I'm afraid that I don't understand a word you say ..."
"In summary, when the Gods haven't had the time to plan out our everyday fate, they put us mere mortals on standby. The important ones, that is, so it didn't affect you until you became part of this expedition."
Well, there's breaking the fourth wall and then there's pulverizing the fourth wall with a wrecking ball.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: JoB on November 26, 2014, 02:56:40 PM
Well, there's breaking the fourth wall and then there's pulverizing the fourth wall with a wrecking ball.
Lemme compare my notes with Emil to see whether we can come up with a third approach re: walls ... ;D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: P__ on November 26, 2014, 03:30:09 PM
Lemme compare my notes with Emil to see whether we can come up with a third approach re: walls ... ;D

Not sure meta-universal walls are flammable but it's probably worth a try è_é
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SeaAngel on November 26, 2014, 03:31:35 PM
Not sure meta-universal walls are flammable but it's probably worth a try è_é

They might not be flammable but they sure are meltable  ;D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: P__ on November 26, 2014, 04:44:33 PM
They might not be flammable but they sure are meltable  ;D
but... but... but melting boring :-[ ... it doesn't make hair shine in the dancing lights as if was coming alive
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SeaAngel on November 26, 2014, 04:49:59 PM
but... but... but melting boring :-[ ... it doesn't make hair shine in the dancing lights as if was coming alive

You find a melting wall boring??  :o
I need to step away from you, now. Very slowly. No sudden movements. *uncomfortable grin*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: P__ on November 26, 2014, 05:02:22 PM
It's not that it's boring in itself, but it usually doesn't glow much and won't make hair shine so it's obviously much less interesting than a controlled fire (wild fires are no fun though)
Plus you can't really melt trolls to death... either burn them, shoot them or have them freeze
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solovei on December 07, 2014, 04:47:44 PM
I love it!  Even though your story does contradict my claim that Lalli fails some basic functions of cat-hood, such as purring and keeping your lap warm (http://ssssforum.pcriot.com/index.php?topic=17.msg10767#msg10767)...

Because I have an evil mind, I can't help picturing what happened about 30 minutes after the end of this story:
1. Tuuri pads into the kitchen, hoping to sneak a piece of dried fruit from Mikkel's porridge-making stash before everyone else wakes up. 
2. Peeking through the cockpit door to make sure Emil won't catch her, she lets out an EEEE! of delighted amusement.
3. A confused series of grunts, bangs, and then a loud THUD as Emil wakens with a start, flails about, and falls heavily to the floor.  A softer THUMP as Lalli, ejected from his warm nest, neatly lands on his feet.  He gives Tuuri the outraged stare of a cat rudely deprived of its sleep. 
4. Tuuri giggles as Emil, red-faced, shouts "NO!  No!  It's not what it looks like!"
5. Mikkel, woken by the ruckus, looms up behind Tuuri in the doorway.  Instantly sizing up the situation, he very theatrically turns his eyes away as if to say, "Aw, let's give the happy couple some privacy."  (And stifles a chuckle behind one massive hand.)
Just picturing Emil flailing about and falling over is amazing. Of course he'd be all huffy and embarrassed about it.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Sunflower on December 07, 2014, 04:50:52 PM
Just picturing Emil flailing about and falling over is amazing. Of course he'd be all huffy and embarrassed about it.

Of course he would.  Just imagine what he'd be like in yoga class.  He'd barely last two seconds in Standing Bow-Pulling Pose.  (Tuuri could last about 10 seconds, at least on her first try.)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solovei on December 07, 2014, 05:03:02 PM
Of course he would.  Just imagine what he'd be like in yoga class.  He'd barely last two seconds in Standing Bow-Pulling Pose.  (Tuuri could last about 10 seconds, at least on her first try.)
Lalli is probably a secret yoga master, if only because his cat powers probably let him be super flexible.

Actually, I can see them finding some long-forgotten yoga book and being very confused by it.
Tuuri: "There's pictures in this one... what are these people doing? They're making weird shapes with their arms and legs..."
Sigurn: "Oh, thiiis. Yes, this is an ancient form of magic. Very difficult to master."

Quick, someone write this!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Sunflower on December 07, 2014, 05:06:26 PM
Lalli is probably a secret yoga master, if only because his cat powers probably let him be super flexible.

Actually, I can see them finding some long-forgotten yoga book and being very confused by it.
Tuuri: "There's pictures in this one... what are these people doing? They're making weird shapes with their arms and legs..."
Sigurn: "Oh, thiiis. Yes, this is an ancient form of magic. Very difficult to master."

Quick, someone write this!

Actually, I kind of did ages ago, though it lacks any kind of plot attachment:
http://ssssforum.pcriot.com/index.php?topic=7.msg877#msg877
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: ruth on December 07, 2014, 05:13:01 PM
i'm working on something, so keep your eyes peeled! just may have to wait until i've finished my finals for this semester.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solovei on December 07, 2014, 05:13:41 PM
Actually, I kind of did ages ago, though it lacks any kind of plot attachment:
http://ssssforum.pcriot.com/index.php?topic=7.msg877#msg877
YES! Those are all exactly how I was picturing them. Good job, Sunflower!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Esko Oksanen on December 10, 2014, 04:02:02 PM
To start us off, here is a little thing I posted on the comments earlier, in which Emil tries to teach Lalli some stuff (and fails... maybe?)

A Lesson

Emil had drawn the night watch again; he was beginning to think the Dane had rigged the lots out of some misplaced spite towards him personally. Still, Lalli was usually up during the night anyway, and spending time with the scout wasn’t too bad, once you got over the fact that he didn’t understand anything you said. It was kind of nice, in a way.

“-- So anyway, this guy I was in training with, he thought he was the best at everything, but clearly he was just trying to show off in front of the girls, you know? It was really pathetic!” He finished with a self-satisfied laugh, raising his arms to stretch his back. As always, the Finnish teenager said nothing, the expression on his face that of slightly bored apprehension as he sat with his arms folded over his knees, rifle at his side.
“You know, Lalli, one of these days we should have an actual conversation. That would be nice, right? Maybe I could teach you some words or something while we’re out here...”
This seemed to pique the scout’s interest, as he sat up and glanced at Emil with an almost imperceptible smile. He tapped his chin, looking at their surroundings. There wasn’t much, really.
“Um… lets see…” At this point, he made an exaggerated shivering gesture. “It’s cold, right? Kallt?”
He got a few blinks in reply, but this didn’t deter him. He was a Swede after all, and if Swedes gave up this easily, they would not have reclaimed so much of their lands, or built a city as magnificent as Mora.
 “Okay, maybe that’s too hard... “ after all, cold was a very abstract term. You can’t touch cold, at least not when it’s in the air. Maybe he should look for something more solid, something real. He pointed excitedly to the small fire they’d been allowed to set up to keep warm during the night. “Brasa. Can you say that, Lalli? Braaa-sa.”
This time, the Finn nodded slowly, but didn’t say anything in response. Emil was starting to feel a bit silly, sitting out here and saying random words and waving his hands like an idiot. He pointed up to the full moon. “Månen?” Surely he would understand that, he was the one that summoned the thing, supposedly. But once again there was only a small nod and nothing else to suggest comprehension.
“Ugh, I give up.” He said finally and bit off a chunk of his meat jerky in frustration, staring into the dancing flames. For a while, everything was quiet; only the howling wind broke the night-time silence. They had picked a good spot to make camp for the night, and the chance of an attack here was minimal, but Sigrun had insisted on setting up a rotating watch anyway. He was about to start dozing off, just for a short while… it was fine, really, because Lalli was right there and he was much better at this than...
“Emil…”
The sound of his name snapped him awake. It was his turn to blink now - Lalli had never, ever called him by name before. His features softened somewhat and he smiled before realizing that the scout was pointing at something off in the distance.
The smile vanished. “Go get the others. We need to leave.”

Esko stares right into Solovei's eyes before getting down on one knee and putting his hand in his pouch.
He slowly pulled it back out, revealing a perfectly shaped unpealed potato.
Esko quickly looked straight into Solovei's eyes, filled with warmth, as he whimpered, "Solovei... Will you be..."
He was interrupted by an instinctive gulp but he quickly continued his sentence as opposed to starting again and risking another nervous gulp.
"My... senpai...?"
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Sunflower on December 10, 2014, 04:09:50 PM
Esko stares right into Solovei's eyes before getting down on one knee and putting his hand in his pouch.
He slowly pulled it back out, revealing a perfectly shaped unpealed potato.
Esko quickly looked straight into Solovei's eyes, filled with warmth, as he whimpered, "Solovei... Will you be..."
He was interrupted by an instinctive gulp but he quickly continued his sentence as opposed to starting again and risking another nervous gulp.
"My... senpai...?"

EEEE!  <delighted giggle>
As Falstaff said in "The Merry Wives of Windsor":

   Let the sky rain potatoes; let it thunder to the tune of Green Sleeves!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solovei on December 10, 2014, 04:11:39 PM
Esko stares right into Solovei's eyes before getting down on one knee and putting his hand in his pouch.
He slowly pulled it back out, revealing a perfectly shaped unpealed potato.
Esko quickly looked straight into Solovei's eyes, filled with warmth, as he whimpered, "Solovei... Will you be..."
He was interrupted by an instinctive gulp but he quickly continued his sentence as opposed to starting again and risking another nervous gulp.
"My... senpai...?"
I'm actually eating a potato as I write this.
Not YOUR potato of course. A completely unrelated potato.
But I thought it was worthwhile to point that out >D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Esko Oksanen on December 10, 2014, 04:12:32 PM
EEEE!  <delighted giggle>
As Falstaff said in "The Merry Wives of Windsor":

   Let the sky rain potatoes; let it thunder to the tune of Green Sleeves!

OH MY GOODNESS I LOVE YOU IN THE MOST PLATONIC WAY.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Sunflower on December 10, 2014, 04:18:18 PM
OH MY GOODNESS I LOVE YOU IN THE MOST PLATONIC WAY.

Likewise, my dear fellow.  ;D  All those Shakespeare classes in college finally paid off!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Paul Ferris on December 10, 2014, 10:51:04 PM
i'm working on something, so keep your eyes peeled! just may have to wait until i've finished my finals for this semester.

How's it going? You can't have MORE exams only two weeks from Christmas :P
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: partofacitygiant on December 11, 2014, 07:16:08 AM
Started writing about a scout in northern Finland, trying to keep this one a bit gloomier than the main story... but I guess it'll get gloomy too at some point.

Prologue:

Location: Kajaani headquarters of military and scouts (total personnel 200)
Time: June, year 90

"So, you then decided really to get out for a while, did you not? Five weeks!"
"yes, Mam..."
"I'll have to say after three weeks we started thinking that you might have moved to Keuruu and forgot to leave a notice!!"
"No, Mam... I went north."
"yes yes, you like 'your wildernesses' but do you have any idea how much inconvience your spring vacation caused to your fellow scouts back here in Kajaani??"
"Didn't really think of them mam, you see, I found this really detailed map of old times stuffed in a plastic rescue equipment container in an abandoned pickup truck, and ...
"We had to completely revise our patrols aroud Vaala and start training few people in day scouting from scratch!, what do you have to say in your d... what did you say?"
"Yes, told no one of that, sorry for that, mam, this map you see..."
"What map, what are you mumbling about?"
"If you'll let me explain, mam..."
"Well then, A report of your activities of the past five weeks, please."
----
"Mam. You see, I'm sort of a map buff and of course when I find anything of old I'll check those out while out, so I can decide if they're worth carrying back..."
"ok, go on..."
"This is the map that intrigued me so I thought I keep it to myself for a while, it's not as if many scouts do 2 weeks out continously and since I'm the only one I know of who moves in this area, I thought to keep it to myself..."
"Well, that's a start for an explanation...let's see the map then."
The long-distance scout draws out the map in question from his backbag and says:"it's a bit damaged since I fell out of the raft I used... I done my best to dry it and smooth it afterwards... first a word about the area what's depicted on the map, if I may, mam?!"
"Well that goes to the skalds to copy as it should have been immediately, and be glad it's here with you... we do not like people wandering off as you should know, maybe you should work in the fields for a while or...   ah well, do go on, that looks like an accurate map, despite the condition."

"Yes, as far as I can tell, this is an accurate map over an area where I have been trying to enter for a while now. As you may well know from my previous reports, the areas north of here are very barren, good food sources are few, and there aren't too many safe places to camp out there, few lakes, almost no islands on them and all that... So you might understand my excitement of a map that has at least once in history been accurate showing this area of near-impenetrable bogs and swamps that's been blocking our reconnaissance missions for several years now...
"ok, this starts to be interesting.
"The area in question is a bit over the edge of our normal 2 week range, so previously I've only reached the southwestern edges of this area on my longer outings.
"Yes, I can see why YOU should see this exciting, more wildernesses to wander about, but how come you used a whole fricking five weeks out there, this still needs some additional explanation, and the map should have been copied immediately, who knows whats been lost from it.
"Yes, sorry for that, I wasn't expecting the journey to take that long, but travelling in an unknown area where you don't have maps of can be real slow, especially when you have to mostly fish for food and nearly none of the silent world farms that have plants to harvest... in fact I decided to get on this in spring mainly for the perch and salmon...
"umm, I'll take it you didn't stay on this map then, or that it's partly inaccurate or you got lost, something scouts should never do!"
"Well... yes, yes and yes, mam. When I was planning this journey... well maybe it's better to tell how I got the idea of the expedition first.
"That could be helpful, yes.

--------

flashback
location:Kajaani scouts' living room/kitchen
time: early morning, breakfast, september 12th, 89

A very tired-looking night scout enters.
"Hello, Arto, good to see you back." "Hi, welcome back." "Nice to see you after a long time!"
There are few additional general greetings from the present day-scouts and long-distance scouts, six in total. 
"Hello."
"Was it a rough trip?"
"Tell me more."
"How's everyone?"
Arto sighs and says:"Those who got back alive went straight to bed, I just can't sleep right now. ------ . Damn, I'm sure those trolls can count!"

--------

By this time the scouts have realised lives have been lost on this expedition approved by the headquarters.
"Tell us, Arto."

--------
Arto shrugs, then straightens and starts,
"Yes, of course you'll hear about it later, so why not now. So we left here in August after harvest had begun, well-stocked like we thought, on ammo and food, so we could make it 'fast out - fast in', like our captain told us. That place is not for men..."
"Take it easy, you're safe now."
Sad grin appears on Arto's face and he continues:"Well all went well to the first rapids that had been scouted before, after that...  The start of the river is ok I guess. Some 70k out there are many little farms that have some trolls but nothing special, so we didn't even have to use much of our stock, and everyone was quite happy to be in the company that could reach the Sea eventually. We only had to go round a couple of areas, and we knew where these were. Then..."
Deep breath.
"then we got to an area, you've not seen such a huge flat land I'm sure. Well some bogs maybe but here there was no water on land and trolls everywhere you look... a terrible sight."
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: partofacitygiant on December 12, 2014, 12:42:27 AM
--------

Arto continues: "I stopped counting after 100...   We then had to move to our camp on the other side of the river, as it was clear there was no way we could pass this 'city of trolls' on the south side... oh, there's a dam of Old in the river still standing before this place so if you get to that one you'll know you've gone a bit too far... there was an attack on the north shore camp here, killed all 12 of them, and then moved the camp out of sight of the river. Then we decided the forests were a better option to approach the Sea.

flashback ends.

"You see, Mrs., we scouts share experiences on everything we see outside. Here I realised that if even an experienced party of scouts and military chooses forests over rivers on worse lands the route to the Sea could go by north." He straightens his posture, and says: "May they rest in peace, maybe Captain Haapa-Alho and 5 of his volunteers got to the Sea but not back, we may never know this. Salutes also to the rest of the group who waited in the correct location for much longer than I would have. May the deceased live well in the Home of the Birds."
"Yes. Good men were lost from the Realm of the Living."
--------
"That discussion in the scouts mess was the reason I started making gradually longer and longer skiing patrols towards north and northwest last winter, and on one of these I found the map. The distances are though huge and in winter you can't really do long travels without proper preparations and camps on the way."
The leader of the scouts, Mrs Marjatta Kosonen, 48, acting rank Sergeant Major, falls into deep thinking for a while and says: "So, you decided to seek a route all the way to the Sea, by yourself, no?"
"Affirmative."
"Even though you had heard the Tale of the Eleven Deceased, straight from the source?"
"Yes. May Ukko give them clear paths."
Moment of silence as both of them reminisce the last autumn.

The scout, corporal Erkki Hyytiälä, continues: "Mrs., connections to other places is a common subject of talk among the people, when even the route to Pielinen is so difficult. Every bit of news of the other places gets wings and then when you hear that there could be a route to Sweden here in the north you start to wonder where it is."
"Well, it isn't Oulu. That's what we call the destination of the lost team."
"Yes, I know that. I don't have access to other detailed maps than those that are necessary for my scouting, so I've searched the Library of Old for general maps and the place is there, marked like some capital city. The river from our lake leads straight to it."
"Yes, we thought river might provide enough protection for them. It's been decided we won't try that route again, at least for some years."
"According to the maps in the library, there are at least three more rivers in the north that lead to the Sea. If you could get to those you maybe could avoid the horrors of Oulu, I reasoned. The trouble was just that with my estimate, it would take at least a month if you knew the safe route beforehand. So according to my estimate, I'm only a week late!"
"So you say you found the headwaters of this river, sailed it to the Sea, and walked back again?"
"It wasn't that easy as you make it sound but, yes, that is essentially correct.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: partofacitygiant on December 12, 2014, 03:10:20 AM
Eww, I may have to change the name of the scout, tried to pick a rare surname with a not too common first name, but alas, there's at least one Erkki Hyytiälä living today, maybe the scout is a descendant of him... The colonel instead will stay as is, Kosonen is a common name in Saimaa area...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SeaAngel on December 12, 2014, 05:54:55 AM
Eww, I may have to change the name of the scout, tried to pick a rare surname with a not too common first name, but alas, there's at least one Erkki Hyytiälä living today, maybe the scout is a descendant of him... The colonel instead will stay as is, Kosonen is a common name in Saimaa area...

You may also want to describe more things than just dialogue. The story itself may be interesting but, (at least speaking for myself) I find a story much more captivating if it is more than plain dialogue, which is like reading the script from a theatre play. You can try describing the people; what they look like, what they wear, how is the room they enter, and even other things, like what time it was when the scout entered: was his superior about to have the day off? Was he/she in the middle of soing something else and had to interrupt for the important scout report?
Don't forget to write about their expressions, their reactions and body language. People communicate in more than spoken sentenses: the tone of the voice, hesitation, body stance, is their gaze focused? Do they avoid looking straight in others' eyes? All this information is important as it gives a distinct feeling of a unique character, and helps us assess his personality a bit more.
What about his fellow scouts? They only greet him and then listen to him. They should have different reactions to his arrival and news, after all they all have different personalities. Some may not like company, some may not care, some may advise rest for Arto, some may want to hear what he has to say, some may bring him food and help him in other ways.
Also, writing "flashback" is never a good way to start a flashback, I think :P It's more of a literature term, not something you should write in the story itself.
About the long-distance scouts: it's a profession that so far does not seem to be included in Minna's universe, although we may see such scouts in the future. Whether it will ever be included in cannon or not is irrelevent, but from the moment that the rest of us fans are unfamiliar with it, you should explain the term sooner or later :-)  What is the purpose of the long-distance scouts? Apparently trolls and giants don't move very much, so they don't travel huge distances, so knowing there is a troll two mountains away is not particularly helpful information. What do those scouts scout for, exactly?
Finally (at least I can't think of anything else now) the term 'mam' is completely foreign to me. Is it supposed to mean "Ma'am"? (I was under the impression that this term was used for the queen only) Is it Finnish for "Madam?" (To me, unfortunately, it reminds me of the word 'mum' and the impression of a superior is somewhat ruined :P)

I'm sorry for the long post, but I figured since you post it online along with your own corrections, you would be open for some (I hope constructive) critisism. Remember all these are only my own opinion :-)
Keep writing!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: partofacitygiant on December 12, 2014, 11:33:05 PM
Thanks for your opinions,<SeaAngel>. When I started this one I wasn't thinking of what sort of text it is, could be a play, could be an unfinished script to a comic or a film... so I left out all the imagery in my mind... I thought 'Mam' was the NATO standard for addressing superior female soldiers! So it stands for female equivalent for 'Sir', granted it sounds much like 'Mum'. In this case, as the officer's responsibilities are mainly to keep the scouts' operations going on, summarizing their reports, organizing food supplies for their mess and camps outside... and occasionally punishing these guys (maybe there are a few female scouts too somewhere, though it's a lonely job) for improper conduct and for not-well-done work, I thought it is quite appropriate. But of course everyone in the post-rash world will have to do things outside their profession occasionally as other minor illnesses haven't gone away, I gather. I'll have to see how this proceeds, everything this far is just the prologue for a longer piece (pretty hazily sketched, thus far) that could have more descriptive language too, at least when I've been writing the dialogue I've had imagery in my mind so it would be just a matter of writing this down... not that I have done much of this sort of writing before. Let's see. Could be I make some insertions to the present text some time. The initial interview/hearing/interrogation of corporal Erkki (I'll let the name stand, and the rank is a standard for more experienced scouts, in my mind, though they do solo work.) should end shortly anyway, so there could be a place to change to more descriptive language. And a place for trying to figure out the personalities and job descriptions for the c. 10 people that would be the characters in the main story. 

As for the trolls and other beasts, I'm not too sure they are always staying in one place, could be they move about quite a lot in warmer nights (plus zero celsius) and cloudy days, that are quite common in the north all through spring to autumn. Safest time to travel would then be cold clear winter days, but these are hard times to move about and short. I also think camping on ground would not be a recommended action for the minor beasts could come and bite you under the snow cover... the motivation for their movements would of course be food and water, the meat of the non-sick could be a delicacy among these, or maybe not.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SeaAngel on December 13, 2014, 03:05:32 AM
I thought 'Mam' was the NATO standard for addressing superior female soldiers! So it stands for female equivalent for 'Sir', granted it sounds much like 'Mum'.
Wow, I learn something new every day!! :D I didn't even know this word existed.
This isn't the NATO, though. Maybe you could ask someone in the comments what would Finnish people call their superior female officer...

I'll have to see how this proceeds, everything this far is just the prologue for a longer piece (pretty hazily sketched, thus far) that could have more descriptive language too, at least when I've been writing the dialogue I've had imagery in my mind so it would be just a matter of writing this down... not that I have done much of this sort of writing before.
Nice!! :D I want to see more of this! I do enjoy fanfiction that is not canon-character (and non-Mary-Sue-character) centered!
Don't worry about it being your first time, you'll get the hang of it soon :-) You could also upload to fanfiction.net, I suppose... (I check there from time to tie in case someone added a SSSS fanfic that hasn't been posted here but alas, so far no resutls  :()

As for the trolls and other beasts, I'm not too sure they are always staying in one place, could be they move about quite a lot in warmer nights (plus zero celsius) and cloudy days, that are quite common in the north all through spring to autumn. Safest time to travel would then be cold clear winter days, but these are hard times to move about and short. I also think camping on ground would not be a recommended action for the minor beasts could come and bite you under the snow cover... the motivation for their movements would of course be food and water, the meat of the non-sick could be a delicacy among these, or maybe not.
Hmmm I see what you mean! I spoke too early. I suppose we'll have to wait to see the beasts and trolls live ine the comic to be sure, but what you've written makes sense.

I've used "Ma'am" since I learned how to talk; it's not just for the queen, it's for any lady.  Superiors in particular, but it's also informally used as well.
Really?? OK then! (A random movie that I once saw and stated otherwise is no longer to be trusted :P) What country are you from, by the way?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: partofacitygiant on December 13, 2014, 10:48:11 PM
So, after some deliberation I thought there might be an alternate start for the story, so here's the start of a prologue to the previous prologue ;-) , with a bit more descriptive language :

-------

A figure appears in the edge of the forest beyond the open area used for small patches of fields, in between them there are way too many ditches criss-crossing the view, almost in a maze-like pattern. On the other side there is a wall made of wood, facing east as the sun is climbing in mid-morning over the Kajaani safe area.

"Hey, there something over there", says the 14-year old boy standing on top the Guards' walk. He's here as a part of his school duties, mainly to keep the elderly guard company, but also to oversee the perimeter fields and learning about guarding.
"Where?", says the elderly guard,"Ah, now I think I see it. Are we due any more scouts today?"
The boy checks the list of the scouts' expected schedule and says,"all three night scouts are in, day scouts are out, two long-distance scouts due the day after tomorrow. No."
"Thanks, OK, let's see what it is. Trolls shouldn't be moving at this time, so maybe a beast or even some animal. Good catch."
The guard takes the scratched binoculars from their equally worn case, sets them on his eyes and says:"Not there, not there, there! It's a man!"
"He has to come a bit closer so I can see who it is", says the guard,"could of course be someone from Pielinen, approaching from the wrong direction by mistake, we may have to call him on that, not good if the guy is so slow or dimwitted he doesn't see the traps on the walkways."

The figure gets to the fields and it looks like he knows this maze of ditches, walkways and traps well, on him is a backbag marked with Kajaani colors.
The guard focuses and states,"That must be Eki. The walk is the same, the backbag's the same. Well have to wait just a little longer."
The boy stares intently at the appoaching figure and says,"Do you mean Erkki 'the rude', who we thought was lost?"
"Yes, that's Erkki for you. This is not the first time he's over his due time, he's made a couple of three week outings before, and last winter he made the full two weeks in -15. Then we thought he was dead of cold."
After a quick look through the binoculars he states:"Yes, that's Eki for sure, we should inform Marjatta about this, she definitely wants to have a word with him."
"Can I stay until he's clear of the gate, I'll walk him to headquarters afterwards?", asks the boy eager to talk to this scout known widely in Kajaani for his habit of breaking appropriate conduct, in civilian matters as well.
"I think that's not any use to you, Eki is the sort of guy who really doesn't like the company of people, and he's not likely to tell anything until evening possibly, maybe not even then. Of course he reports to the headquarters like the rest of them, and brings home select items and info for later scavenging operations, but I think he's got only a couple of what you'd call friends, in the scouts too. All you'd get is a couple of grunts, likely, I think those guys forget how to talk after a while on a long outing", he winks at the boy, "Long-distance scouts are a bit oddball, not as odd as night scouts, but Eki could be a night scout in this respect. Off you go."
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: partofacitygiant on December 17, 2014, 12:12:28 AM
"Remember to be polite, it's Mrs.Kosonen to you!", the guard shouts to the boy, Santeri Mikkonen, running down the stairs to the road leading to the main settlement and headquarters.
The guard turns about, and sees the long-distance scout has already got past the middle of the perimeter fields. He checks again the approaching man with the binoculars and sees some tears in the overcoat the man's wearing, that's been treated to somewhat withstand water. The late spring is the least wet season hereabouts, but interrupting a patrol every time for little rain would get you nowhere far out, rarely two weeks go by without some rain. The coat, when it's in good condition can serve as an additional shelter in the huts that have been built for the longer patrols. The materials for these must be carried out and the huts on islands aren too water-proof nor warm. Some scouts use the cabins of Old on islands for sleeping and resting places in longer travels, the guard knows, but then the beasts and trolls must be dealt with first.

The scout has almost reached the final ditch before the wall, so the guard shouts:"Hey Eki! What's the rush??!"
The returning scout looks up and sees the guard wawing, then jumps over the final ditch as the logbridge is trapped. He stops before the scouts' gate and shouts back at the guard:"Is that you Vilho?!?, spare the snark and open the gate!"
Vilho says:"Well I have to make sure it's you, you see, did you have a nice walkabout?"
Erkki grunts and says:"I said spare the snark and why did you have to remove My rowing boat from where I left it?! Had to walk an additional 40k for that, thank you very much!"
"No use in wasting resources like that, besides it took a bit of finding since you left it 2 miles off the normal landing in the north!"
The sounds of considerable grunting and milder cussing from below don't reach the guards ears, but "Vilho, now open up! I'm hungry, cold for the nightly trek, and sure to remember this later, if you don't!" is heard.
"Well, that's you Eki, I'm sure. Just so you know, Sergeant Major has been informed of this, so I'll expect you to go straight to the headquarters!". The guard pulls the lever that opens the outer gate of the Scouts gate to the decontamination area, built in a salvaged trailer.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: ruth on December 17, 2014, 04:03:34 PM
FIRST CONTACT





(http://i.imgur.com/wSoTRAX.jpg)

(fullsize on imgur (http://i.imgur.com/wSoTRAX.jpg))





The first instalment of a multi-part series that will explore the consequences of having your world grow to four times what it was.

Before I start the actual narrative, I thought I'd offer a few little insights of the world I'm going to be writing in, and give you an impression of the people who live in it. A couple of statistics, the general nature of the different nationalities being introduced, and how they relate to the world around them. We've already seen how the Icelanders, the Norwegians, the Finns, the Swedes, and the Danes have coped with their new world, but how have things progressed on the other side of the Atlantic? And what happens when a bridge that has been closed for so long is opened once again?





Federation of Canada

Population: 117,200 (Census, a. 120)
Largest city and Capital: Corner Brook, Newfoundland (pop. 23,100)
Official languages: English · French · Inuttut
Minority languages: Montagnais (Innu) · Greenlandic (Kalaallisut) · Danish

About the Newfoundlanders
For all that the people of Newfoundland are the most populous in Canada—and, statistically, the most fortunate in terms of their percentage of survivors after the outbreak of the Rash—few in the Federation would dare to term them "lucky." The safety of the mainland of Newfoundland came only at the cost of a brutal quarantine that left hundreds of thousands of people at the mercy of the disease, and many families were divided by the iron curtain that fell upon the island. Today, they are a people who carefully maintain the technology of the Old World, staffing the oil rigs that power the mighty fleet of ancient, sturdy ships that patrols the seas for beasts and Leviathans.

About the Québécois
The hardworking Quebeckers—once driven from their territory to the islands of Anticosti, the Madeleines, and a few coastal holds, have driven deep into the Darkness, first purifying the lands around the Manicouagan and Outardes rivers, and later striking to the south and carving out safe territory in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island to farm. They are known far and wide as the iron-miners of Fermont and the lumberjacks who provide wood for all of Canada. In the intervening years since the outbreak, they have rediscovered their religious zeal, and consider their drive to purify a divine task handed down to them directly from God.

About the French
While sharing a language with Québec, the French have a very different outlook from their western neighbours. With their nation abbreviated perhaps more greatly than any other in contemporary North America, having lost the entirety of metropolitan France, the inhabitants of its last remaining territory, the tiny islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon, strive through their deep, nostalgic longing to maintain the traditions of their patrimony. As a result, the Saint-Pierrais consider their town to be the cultural capital of the world, with broad avenues, theatre, museums, sidewalk cafés, and nightlife unlike anywhere else in Canada. Their historical separation also means that the French remain slightly more distant with their Canadian compatriots, and they maintain their own currency and certain government structures. They do not share the Quebeckers' embrace of religion, and have largely ignored their attempts at conversion.

About the Inuit
Though their culture and society is very much centred on the original nation of Nunatsiavut, the native people of the coasts of Labrador, the nation has become very much pluralistic.  Since the Greenland tragedy brought the few remaining survivors across the sea, all three of Canada's significant minority languages and cultures have shared space with Inuttut and the linguae francae English and French. With a largely hostile, barren inland, the Inuit look instead to the sea. Under Agloolik's protection, they patrol far and wide to protect the Federation from the sea beasts and Leviathans that lurk in the ocean, commanded by the wrathful sea goddess Sedna, and they destroy the beasts' coastal nesting sites whenever they can.

About the Mainers
The people of Maine lived on the edge of existence, surrounded by the Darkness of Boston to the south and Saint John to the north, for almost 80 years before being discovered by the Federation of Canada. Used to a hard and solitary life without much in the way of technology, the island-dwellers have prospered greatly with the help of Newfoundland, and look forward to someday joining the ranks as a formal member of their federation.

The Nordic Council

Population: 331,300 (Census, a. 120)
Largest city and Capital: Reykjavík, Iceland (pop. 48,900)
Official languages: Icelandic · Swedish · Norwegian · Danish · Finnish
Minority languages: English (Scottish) · Faroese · Estonian

About the Faroese
Though decimated by the Rash like everyone else, the Faroese have weathered the loss of their home and waited patiently in the safety of Iceland until their islands could be cleansed once again. Diligent efforts to keep the language alive means that most children growing up in the reinhabited islands can speak their ancestral language, though Icelandic is still commonly heard in the streets of the re-established capital Tórshavn. Like Scotland and Estonia, it is an "incubator nation" which, as it is too small for self-sufficiency, does not hold a permanent seat at the Nordic Council but instead is represented by a rotating seat intended to advocate for the three small statelets.

About the Scottish
English—once the world's common language—is no longer, and nowhere is this more obvious than the Shetland islands, capital of the incubator nation of Scotland. In the capital Lerwick (or Leirvík in Icelandic), English is not commonly heard on the streets, and is mostly spoken by the older generations, while younger Scottish kids are completely fluent, if not native speakers, of the common language of Icelandic. Regardless of the language strife on the islands, the Scots, as a whole, are immensely grateful to the Icelanders for being saved, and even those who have left Iceland to return to settle Scotland maintain a good relationship with their former host country.

About the Estonians
After 100 years stranded on the tiny island of Prangli, the Estonian population—once as small as 300—finally grew large enough, with the aid of careful intermarriage and a lot of Icelandic fertility clinic visits, that it became necessary to begin the cleansing of a larger island for their new home. With the aid of the cleanse-happy Swedes, new ground has been broken on the island of Hiiumaa, and the tiny nation's prospects, after 100 years of uncertainty, are finally looking up.





In the next instalment, I'll introduce you guys to our main characters, the historian Claire Girard and the hunter Anna Okalik, and then First Contact will officially be kicked off. :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Fen Shen on December 17, 2014, 04:47:41 PM
That sounds really interesting! I'm looking forward to reading more, especially about the (Inuit?) hunter.
What about the effects of climate change in your world - does the polar region look like in our days or is there much less ice (or even more)?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: ruth on December 17, 2014, 05:02:47 PM
That sounds really interesting! I'm looking forward to reading more, especially about the (Inuit?) hunter.
What about the effects of climate change in your world - does the polar region look like in our days or is there much less ice (or even more)?

inuit hunter is right, but there's more to that story too. :)

we haven't really gotten anything solid from minna on it, but what i'll be working with is that the climate is somewhat more volatile. the labrador current has been weakened by some receding ice, so the tree line has climbed a bit more and made habitation a little easier even a bit further north. on the other hand, there are more storms, which can bring cold winter air from the north to cover eastern canada in snow. this ends up being something of a blessing in disguise, because it's made it a little easier for places like nova scotia and p.e.i. to get the snowfall necessary to keep them safe from trolls. then again, it's also been responsible for some of the famines because of early cold snaps, to say nothing of the greenland tragedy, so...maybe more of a mixed blessing.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: partofacitygiant on December 17, 2014, 11:08:53 PM
The scout enters the container and starts to unpack his rugsack, he opens the hatch of the
decontamination chamber, sets his stuff there, an axe, knife, few other essentials, few items from the
Silent World, and after undressing, all his clothes. His rifle and maps go to another chamber. Then it's a
matter of turning the wheel on the wall to get the conveyor in the chambers going on. After some 10
turns, there's a bling that signals the scout the door to the next chamber is open. This mechanism
allows scouts to enter the premises of the safe area on times the Main Gate is shut up. Most scouts
travelling in the east use this anyway because it's faster and more convenient than going through
several checks on the main gate.

Kajaani safe area has two gates of this kind, other gates are the Main Gate facing east, Rehja Harbour
Gate to ease the travels southwards, the Dark Gate on the bridge crossing the river and Lake Manama
Harbour Gate used mainly for fishing and travelling to smaller settlements in Kajaani Area.

The shower scout takes includes disinfectants, with this improvement ten years ago, Kajaani was
finally declared a Safe Area by the very distant authorities of Iceland. Currently all the
yougnsters between ages 6 and 12 are taking part on language education program that includes
words from all Nordic languages, though the main subject is of course Icelandic. The other
subjects in school include many of the skills essential for the survival of Kajaani, so much of the
education is practical. The scout leaves the shower chamber to the drying and light-treatment
room to finalize his decontamination. There's another wheel in the wall here, but the scout has
to wait until the light on the wall turns green. After few turns the scout gets his belongings back
from the conveyor. The door to the final check is now open and the shower door locked so the
scout proceeds to the room having a window, with no opening for verbal exchanges, for the
nurse-in-duty to check for possible lacerations, blood and other injuries the scouts may have
acquired during their patrols. The nurse looks happy to see Erkki returning seemingly unharmed
,with only few bruises that are already healing well, and pulls the lever opening the inner gate to
the Safe Area.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Nimphy on December 18, 2014, 12:42:15 PM
The scout enters the container and starts to unpack his rugsack, he opens the hatch of the
decontamination chamber, sets his stuff there, an axe, knife, few other essentials, few items from the
Silent World, and after undressing, all his clothes. His rifle and maps go to another chamber. Then it's a
matter of turning the wheel on the wall to get the conveyor in the chambers going on. After some 10
turns, there's a bling that signals the scout the door to the next chamber is open. This mechanism
allows scouts to enter the premises of the safe area on times the Main Gate is shut up. Most scouts
travelling in the east use this anyway because it's faster and more convenient than going through
several checks on the main gate.

Kajaani safe area has two gates of this kind, other gates are the Main Gate facing east, Rehja Harbour
Gate to ease the travels southwards, the Dark Gate on the bridge crossing the river and Lake Manama
Harbour Gate used mainly for fishing and travelling to smaller settlements in Kajaani Area.

The shower scout takes includes disinfectants, with this improvement ten years ago, Kajaani was
finally declared a Safe Area by the very distant authorities of Iceland. Currently all the
yougnsters between ages 6 and 12 are taking part on language education program that includes
words from all Nordic languages, though the main subject is of course Icelandic. The other
subjects in school include many of the skills essential for the survival of Kajaani, so much of the
education is practical. The scout leaves the shower chamber to the drying and light-treatment
room to finalize his decontamination. There's another wheel in the wall here, but the scout has
to wait until the light on the wall turns green. After few turns the scout gets his belongings back
from the conveyor. The door to the final check is now open and the shower door locked so the
scout proceeds to the room having a window, with no opening for verbal exchanges, for the
nurse-in-duty to check for possible lacerations, blood and other injuries the scouts may have
acquired during their patrols. The nurse looks happy to see Erkki returning seemingly unharmed
,with only few bruises that are already healing well, and pulls the lever opening the inner gate to
the Safe Area.

City, since this story is apparently going to be very long and the flow is interrupted by the several other posts, why don't you publish it on a site where you can actually create chapters and leave a link? I think it's be easier that way :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OrigamiOwl on December 18, 2014, 03:35:16 PM
City, since this story is apparently going to be very long and the flow is interrupted by the several other posts, why don't you publish it on a site where you can actually create chapters and leave a link? I think it's be easier that way :)
I like this idea :3
Maybe if City creates a little SSSS category on another site it might encourage non-forumite-minions to write too? :D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Nimphy on December 18, 2014, 05:10:50 PM
I like this idea :3
Maybe if City creates a little SSSS category on another site it might encourage non-forumite-minions to write too? :D


If City doesn't do it, I know I will, just name the site and be sure I am allowed to sign up if I'm not there.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SeaAngel on December 18, 2014, 07:02:22 PM
If City doesn't do it, I know I will, just name the site and be sure I am allowed to sign up if I'm not there.

fanfiction.net!
ArchiveOfOurOwn!

:D
City, DO upload your story there!!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: UFOO9000 on December 18, 2014, 07:44:33 PM
I absolutely approve and hope for archive of our own for anyone!! I really want to see some fics over there...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: ruth on December 18, 2014, 08:09:30 PM
I absolutely approve and hope for archive of our own for anyone!! I really want to see some fics over there...

i hadn't even thought about it, but i have an account there! perhaps i'll upload my things there so that i won't clog this thread.

edit: and i did just that. if you want to check out the story with all its fancy formatting over there, here's a link! (http://archiveofourown.org/works/2798174/chapters/6281342)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: partofacitygiant on December 19, 2014, 05:03:16 AM
Thanks for the compliments! Signed in to Archive of Our Own, not yet posted anything there, I should write a bit more to the story. Funny, but previously I didn't have an idea of what the story would be called but when reading the ToS of the site, it came to me. So the text would be called the prologue of a (book?) or short story called 'West by Northwest' (don't know yet how far I'll take this one, the story's is there, though, but it could very easily become too complex for me to handle, what with multiple characters and all that ensues.)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Sigrid Marie on December 19, 2014, 06:51:48 AM
i hadn't even thought about it, but i have an account there! perhaps i'll upload my things there so that i won't clog this thread.

edit: and i did just that. if you want to check out the story with all its fancy formatting over there, here's a link! (http://archiveofourown.org/works/2798174/chapters/6281342)

Your story seems very interesting so far! To get the ball rolling I'll upload my little ficlet to ao3 as well
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: ThisCat on December 19, 2014, 04:25:32 PM
i hadn't even thought about it, but i have an account there! perhaps i'll upload my things there so that i won't clog this thread.

edit: and i did just that. if you want to check out the story with all its fancy formatting over there, here's a link! (http://archiveofourown.org/works/2798174/chapters/6281342)

That is aws. I need an Ao3 account. For the moment I am just on ff.net.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Fen Shen on December 19, 2014, 05:34:13 PM
Ruth, if you are going to continue your story on Archive of Our Own, can you post here whenever there's an update?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: ruth on December 20, 2014, 07:58:20 AM
Ruth, if you are going to continue your story on Archive of Our Own, can you post here whenever there's an update?

i can definitely do that! might take a few days since i'm busy with family, but it will come.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: partofacitygiant on December 20, 2014, 10:32:32 PM
Yes, I'll do that too, the next bit is here: http://archiveofourown.org/works/2814740
Gnn, now it's time to think about the characters to include in the main story, since there's not much to write in the prologue anymore, at least with my skills.
Happy to see others are also doing this sort of expansion of the world, this may not be too accurately to canon, but at least I think I've not deviated too much from it, at least yet. Yes, I know the allusion to Hitchcoch title isn't too good, but at least it's got a name now.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solovei on December 27, 2014, 05:15:31 PM
Looks like I just can't help myself around these two anymore! More ridiculously cute Lalli/Emil fluff:

http://archiveofourown.org/works/2888789 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/2888789)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OrigamiOwl on December 27, 2014, 05:26:10 PM
Looks like I just can't help myself around these two anymore! More ridiculously cute Lalli/Emil fluff:

http://archiveofourown.org/works/2888789 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/2888789)
It's so fluffy I'm gonna dieeeeeeee! 8D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: ThisCat on December 27, 2014, 05:30:30 PM
Looks like I just can't help myself around these two anymore! More ridiculously cute Lalli/Emil fluff:

http://archiveofourown.org/works/2888789 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/2888789)

Fluff. Fluff is good, yes.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Sigrid Marie on December 28, 2014, 06:22:13 AM
Looks like I just can't help myself around these two anymore! More ridiculously cute Lalli/Emil fluff:

http://archiveofourown.org/works/2888789 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/2888789)

So adorableeee!! <3
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: ThisCat on December 28, 2014, 02:22:22 PM
What happened?!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Sunflower on December 28, 2014, 04:03:25 PM
What happened?!

Maybe "The Gentlemen" (http://buffy.wikia.com/wiki/Hush) moved on from Sunnydale to strike our Forum silent?!?   :o
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Eich on December 28, 2014, 04:13:08 PM
Uh, Woah.

Any info on the last few posts that disappeared?  Were they long, short, full of smileys, anything?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Sunflower on December 28, 2014, 04:30:59 PM
Uh, Woah.

Any info on the last few posts that disappeared?  Were they long, short, full of smileys, anything?

I just had it happen to me.  Here's the text of the post -- if it'll show here...

I... I strongly disagree with casting Emil as Gaston. No, i guess Emil is as far from a conceited rude... swank as can be.
But the rest fits just fine for me, and re-casted version of The Snow Queen looks very desirable.
:)  Well, that's why I suggested not telling Emil about the (apparent) Face-Heel Turn  (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FaceHeelTurn)awaiting Gaston in the last act.  (As we know, the boy is profoundly incurious (http://sssscomic.com/comic.php?page=136) and wouldn't read ahead on his own...)  Up till that point, Emil's inflated self-regard could probably stretch enough to play a guy who has everyone *thinking* he's the hero.   (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/VillainWithGoodPublicity)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: ThisCat on December 28, 2014, 04:52:34 PM
Uh, Woah.

Any info on the last few posts that disappeared?  Were they long, short, full of smileys, anything?

I quoted Solovei and said five words or something.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: ruth on December 28, 2014, 05:04:42 PM
new chapter up on ao3! (http://ssssforum.pcriot.com/)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OrigamiOwl on December 28, 2014, 06:16:42 PM
I quoted Solovei and said five words or something.
Same here I think...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: partofacitygiant on December 29, 2014, 11:52:38 PM
In case someone missed the note on the SSSS comic page, some more text has appeared on http://archiveofourown.org/works/2814740/chapters/6315026
entering chapter 1: http://archiveofourown.org/works/2814740/chapters/6656429

I guess in archiveofourown one must first upload any images to somewhere else in the net and then use that url to embed on the text? Well, upped it but not bothering to try align it correctly, if that's possible (all rights to make changes to that reserved ;-))

My plan would be to stay in Kajaani area for several next chapters, occasionally bringing news from elsewhere to this far out settlement, which I'm not even sure has a radio for contact... anyway there is very smalltime electricity generation, though the Power Plant of Old had to be destroyed during the initial battles for survival...

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: hushpiper on January 07, 2015, 12:16:49 AM
Dropping a quick note here: because apparently everyone did actually get botnets for Christmas, AO3 has had to temporarily close their automated invite code system as an anti-spam measure, meaning if you don't have an account, you're gonna have trouble getting one. So if anybody wants to sign up in order to swell the ranks of the Stand Still Stay Silent tag, I've got invite codes; PM me. :D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: ruth on January 16, 2015, 02:56:25 PM
next chapter of first contact on ao3! (http://ssssforum.pcriot.com/)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solovei on January 16, 2015, 03:20:23 PM
next chapter of first contact on ao3! (http://archiveofourown.org/works/2798174/chapters/6914294)
I just read it and I have to say, I laughed really hard! :D Looking forward to the rest!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Sunflower on January 16, 2015, 04:01:06 PM
next chapter of first contact on ao3! (http://archiveofourown.org/works/2798174/chapters/6914294)

"Amelia Earhart, that great Canadian aviator."  <Snert.>  Priceless!   :)

Also, when did Captain Admiral Sigrun Eide switch branches of the Norwegian Armed Forces?  Was troll-hunting no longer enough of a challenge for her?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solovei on January 16, 2015, 04:11:54 PM
So, I recently found a website that will generate a drabble (100-word piece of fic) for you using words you've given it, madlib-style. I decided to try it out using some SSSS-related things and the result was... interesting XDD

Read it HERE (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZRQpK4cLazxPyGWBeGCAFj00QylGFblUNpFt3CqSdP8/edit?usp=sharing).

Or make your own (http://prillalar.com/drabbles/).
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: ruth on January 16, 2015, 04:13:49 PM
"Amelia Earhart, that great Canadian aviator."  <Snert.>  Priceless!   :)

Also, when did Captain Sigrun Eide switch branches of the Norwegian Armed Forces?  Was troll-hunting no longer enough of a challenge for her?

you know moby dick? imagine that, but for the biggest sea beast you have ever seen.

(i was going to sneak in a fight over which country herman melville belonged to, but i couldn't get it to fit. needless to say, anna and sigrun would have been arguing for hours over whether the great whale-hunting story was originally inuit or norwegian.)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Sunflower on January 16, 2015, 04:25:49 PM
So, I recently found a website that will generate a drabble (100-word piece of fic) for you using words you've given it, madlib-style. I decided to try it out using some SSSS-related things and the result was... interesting XDD

Read it HERE (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZRQpK4cLazxPyGWBeGCAFj00QylGFblUNpFt3CqSdP8/edit?usp=sharing).

<helpless giggling>

"It was an entirely cuddly sensation... until the cake wore off suddenly.

Everything was rather awkward after that."


Mmmbbhhphhttt!  <splutter>

I'm going to sum up ALL my future exploits that way.   ;D
Oh, where is Edward Gorey when you need him?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Nimphy on January 16, 2015, 04:41:02 PM
So, I recently found a website that will generate a drabble (100-word piece of fic) for you using words you've given it, madlib-style. I decided to try it out using some SSSS-related things and the result was... interesting XDD

Read it HERE (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZRQpK4cLazxPyGWBeGCAFj00QylGFblUNpFt3CqSdP8/edit?usp=sharing).

Or make your own (http://prillalar.com/drabbles/).

What did you do to meeeeeeee:


The Incomprehensible Terror Of The Snow

It snowed a foot overnight. When they woke up, Kitty-cat and Lalli went out to play. First, they made snow angels. Then they had a snowball fight and Kitty-cat hit Lalli in his Foot with a big Annoying iceball. It hurt a lot, but Kitty-cat kissed it Blankly and then it was all better.

Then they decided to make a snow man.

"We'll make a really Cute snow man!" Kitty-cat said.

"Why don't we make a snow woman instead?" Lalli said. "That would be more Scary and politically correct."

"I know," Kitty-cat said. "We can make a snow Cat. That way, we don't have to worry about gender politics."

So they rolled the snow up Swiftly and made a Stupid snow Cat. Kitty-cat put on a Flamethrower for the Nose. The Cat was almost as big as Lalli.

"It looks Beautiful," Kitty-cat said Adverbly. "But it seems like it's missing something."

"Here," Lalli said and held up a Terrible Kantele. "I found this Through a park." He put the Kantele onto the Cat's head.

It was perfect. For about a minute. Then the Cat, even though it was just made of snow, started to move and growl Like a rabbit in front of a very angry and very scary wolf.

Lalli screamed Annoyingly and ran but the snow Cat chased him until he tripped over a tree root. Then the snow Cat Ran him Curiously.

"Nobody does that to my little Boring Rock," Kitty-cat screamed. She grabbed an icicle and stabbed the snow Cat through the Eye. It fell down and Kitty-cat kicked it apart until it was just a bunch of snow again.

"You saved me!" Lalli said and they shared an embrace in the snow before going in for hot chocolate.

The Kantele lay in the yard until a Weird child picked it up and took it home.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SeaAngel on January 16, 2015, 07:12:12 PM
So, I recently found a website that will generate a drabble (100-word piece of fic) for you using words you've given it, madlib-style. I decided to try it out using some SSSS-related things and the result was... interesting XDD

Read it HERE (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZRQpK4cLazxPyGWBeGCAFj00QylGFblUNpFt3CqSdP8/edit?usp=sharing).

Or make your own (http://prillalar.com/drabbles/).

WHAT XD XD XD XD
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Piney on January 16, 2015, 07:46:14 PM
So, I recently found a website that will generate a drabble (100-word piece of fic) for you using words you've given it, madlib-style. I decided to try it out using some SSSS-related things and the result was... interesting XDD

Read it HERE (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZRQpK4cLazxPyGWBeGCAFj00QylGFblUNpFt3CqSdP8/edit?usp=sharing).

Or make your own (http://prillalar.com/drabbles/).

Oh my god. There was someone else in the room with me when I read that and I almost died trying not to laugh at it.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Sigrid Marie on January 17, 2015, 04:50:19 AM
So, I recently found a website that will generate a drabble (100-word piece of fic) for you using words you've given it, madlib-style. I decided to try it out using some SSSS-related things and the result was... interesting XDD

Read it HERE (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZRQpK4cLazxPyGWBeGCAFj00QylGFblUNpFt3CqSdP8/edit?usp=sharing).

Or make your own (http://prillalar.com/drabbles/).

Oh my gosh you used my metaphor :0 (feels very flattered for some reason) I just- I can't. I'm dying cx You ruined me.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solovei on January 17, 2015, 12:26:00 PM
Oh my gosh you used my metaphor :0 (feels very flattered for some reason) I just- I can't. I'm dying cx You ruined me.
I've been using it a fair bit, actually! Probably should have asked you first, sorry~~
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Sigrid Marie on January 17, 2015, 12:51:11 PM
I've been using it a fair bit, actually! Probably should have asked you first, sorry~~

Haha, really?? Pffft, you don't have to ask, it's not like I have a copyright on it or anything ;3
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: kjeks on January 19, 2015, 05:31:48 AM
I felt that as we haven't seen but a glimpse of our dearest enymies during the last pages, they should be given some space:

Prey

Long ago silence had settled like a thick blanket on the surrounding territory. Gusts of wind sometimes made faint noises, yet it was the growth of plants that would give what little sound there would be. Birds avoided the place and insects pretended not to exist, rather creeping slowly then merrily scrambling along. Once breathing, whistling and humming would be heard at light at last but all species in want of making it during dark avoided giving sounds of live. Belonging to the predetors meant boredom since the prey chose to play dead. If friction of any sorts was wanted during light, it was only due to chosing a sleephole allowing the piercing rays of light in. Besides that it was just letting the mind float through the unmoving silence.

Since one darkness it was different. On the light before some sounds from days long gone had been heard. brrrrmmm-tucktucktuck-brrrrrrm it went slowly moving towards the lightshelter. Many felt the difference and some even let themselves get hurt by light just to see what kind of toy was comming to them. Long had it been since some sort of bigger prey had been around and the memorie of their smells and noises nearly fainted. Yet after last darkness their smell was there, filling the nostrils of many, watering mouthes and keeping every muscle tensed. Impatiently waiting for getting to the prey first knowing that the others where in for competition let the tension all over the citiy grow until one sensing it could actually grab it. The prey seemed not to mind, steadily moving to the holes.

Being on the edge of bursting the predetor listend intendly to the prey's sounds. Not used to hearing sounds during light anymore it was unsure if it was to get the prize first. The intense smell stung in his nostrills raising excitement. Clearly now they were on their way to its darkhole! Having chased the others away long time ago it was his alone. The noise had settled down direclty in front of lightshielding surroundings and with the last rays faiding they where his alo... sensations exploded in the predator's head! The smell nearly turned to a sweet stench and all memories from ancient days were back at once. The taste of this prize to be was on the tongue already filling its mouth ... the prey was in its darkhole and entering a safeplace. Slowly it extended its tentacles carefully collecting every impulse given by the prey.

Yes! It was one of the best prizes to get. Moving, breathing and free of the others. One of them left the smell of fear but the predator was sure, this prey was not carefull enough to get away. Just waiting a little until the piercing rays were fewer and the prize was its!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SeaAngel on January 19, 2015, 09:06:04 AM
I felt that as we haven't seen but a glimpse of our dearest enymies during the last pages, they should be given some space:

Prey

Long ago silence had settled like a thick blanket on the surrounding territory. Gusts of wind sometimes made faint noises, yet it was the growth of plants that would give what little sound there would be. Birds avoided the place and insects pretended not to exist, rather creeping slowly then merrily scrambling along. Once breathing, whistling and humming would be heard at light at last but all species in want of making it during dark avoided giving sounds of live. Belonging to the predetors meant boredom since the prey chose to play dead. If friction of any sorts was wanted during light, it was only due to chosing a sleephole allowing the piercing rays of light in. Besides that it was just letting the mind float through the unmoving silence.

Since one darkness it was different. On the light before some sounds from days long gone had been heard. brrrrmmm-tucktucktuck-brrrrrrm it went slowly moving towards the lightshelter. Many felt the difference and some even let themselves get hurt by light just to see what kind of toy was comming to them. Long had it been since some sort of bigger prey had been around and the memorie of their smells and noises nearly fainted. Yet after last darkness their smell was there, filling the nostrils of many, watering mouthes and keeping every muscle tensed. Impatiently waiting for getting to the prey first knowing that the others where in for competition let the tension all over the citiy grow until one sensing it could actually grab it. The prey seemed not to mind, steadily moving to the holes.

Being on the edge of bursting the predetor listend intendly to the prey's sounds. Not used to hearing sounds during light anymore it was unsure if it was to get the prize first. The intense smell stung in his nostrills raising excitement. Clearly now they were on their way to its darkhole! Having chased the others away long time ago it was his alone. The noise had settled down direclty in front of lightshielding surroundings and with the last rays faiding they where his alo... sensations exploded in the predator's head! The smell nearly turned to a sweet stench and all memories from ancient days were back at once. The taste of this prize to be was on the tongue already filling its mouth ... the prey was in its darkhole and entering a safeplace. Slowly it extended its tentacles carefully collecting every impulse given by the prey.

Yes! It was one of the best prizes to get. Moving, breathing and free of the others. One of them left the smell of fear but the predator was sure, this prey was not carefull enough to get away. Just waiting a little until the piercing rays were fewer and the prize was its!

Wow. Just... wow.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: StellersJayC on January 19, 2015, 01:47:18 PM
Okay, I finally read through this thread and I'm so glad I did! Good job everyone!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Eris on January 19, 2015, 06:46:55 PM
I'm afraid to read this thread. I'm afraid I will die of squee.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Cheesecake on January 19, 2015, 11:10:12 PM
I'm afraid to read this thread. I'm afraid I will die of squee.

It is better to have died of squee than never squee at all.

That said, this thread is brilliant. I want to give you all hugs. \;D/
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solovei on January 20, 2015, 12:32:51 AM
Okay, I finally read through this thread and I'm so glad I did! Good job everyone!

I'm afraid to read this thread. I'm afraid I will die of squee.

*wipes single tear* My life's work is done...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: partofacitygiant on January 20, 2015, 10:03:08 PM
Kex, that was great! I think I can get on with the story of the scout shortly but the pace must get faster since the story in total would have to be at least a year in total and now it's got about 6 hours in about 12 book pages  ;) . 
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: DancingRanger on January 23, 2015, 03:43:22 PM
So I'm playing with a D&D OC of mine, writing a story, and wanted to know if it would feel better for him to either
A)follow Lalli back to the Cattank
B)be chased by unidentifiable creature (a troll/beast) to the cattank
C) save Lalli and with his compainion's help follow Lalli's scent back to the cattank
D) somehow just find the Cattank/ find it's tracks and follow them

I want to start it during the night. More about my character;
Gilbert Byronson,
male,
 age unknown-late teens/early twenties,
Languages common (English?) and Elvin,
occupation Forest/melee/'Dancing' Ranger kinda a scout but more geared towards 'hunting',
personality is mostly quiet, almost introverted, intelligent but also clueless. He'd find Lalli interesting and most likely take him under his wing as a comrade, Emil would most likely get on his nerves, quite like his brother, but he'd see it as a result of inexperience rather than his brother's lack of social restraint, Tuuri would fascinate him, and he'd try his best to learn to speak to her (and Lalli) so he could learn what she knows and share his own knowledge, Sigrun would confuse him, and he'd be unlikely to follow her orders, but he wouldn't do anything that puts anyone in danger, as for Mikkel he'd most likely aviod, he's not very keen on the medical people, mostly due to what he's had done to him. And Braidy-not sure yet
His companion is a white dire wolf, the size of a horse (which would be immune due to it's odd bloodline) the pair would most likely take the role of 'day scout'

The story will be based from Gil's side, and possibly flip to Tuuri or Lalli's side too. It would be a lot of adjusting and learning to work with people that Gil can't understand.

And I really didn't foresee the amount of info dumping I was about to do. . .
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: partofacitygiant on January 23, 2015, 10:36:29 PM
short additional bit, see how to get a handshake with Erkki the scout. http://archiveofourown.org/works/2814740/chapters/6656429
...And a bit for Sunday. Santeri gets some first-hand account on Silent World.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Unwary on January 24, 2015, 12:46:11 PM
Hmm, I haven't written a fanfic before but I might give it a try, will peruse this thread shortly.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: ruth on January 27, 2015, 03:30:46 PM
so, with the first chapter of första kontakten (http://archiveofourown.org/works/3211709), my swedish translation of "first contact"
done with the help of the amazing lars, i thought i would put together a little cast
list of the main characters that appear in the story. all the actors i picked were from
the same country as their characters, so they also aren't culturally too far off from
what i was envisioning when i came up with them. enjoy!

(http://www.notrecinema.com/images/stars/cache/fanny-valette-wallpaper_1647_24269.jpg) (http://www1.pictures.zimbio.com/gi/Evelyne+Brochu+Cafe+De+Flore+Premiere+2011+mIm_koSE3W9l.jpg)
       Fanny Valette – Claire Girard          Evelyne Brochu – Charlotte Bélanger

(http://static.digitalhit.com/fest/tiff/2003/8/t03c-8-23.jpg) (http://www.24spoilers.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Kiefer-Sutherland-24-Redemption-Photo-Exhibit-01.jpg)
   Annabella Piugattuk – Anna Okalik    Kiefer Sutherland – James Noseworthy
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: ruth on January 30, 2015, 07:01:43 AM
aaaand i know it's a double post, but chapter 4 of first contact (http://archiveofourown.org/works/2798174/chapters/7101680) is kicking around now. go check it out if you're interested!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solovei on January 30, 2015, 12:31:45 PM
aaaand i know it's a double post, but chapter 4 of first contact (http://archiveofourown.org/works/2798174/chapters/7101680) is kicking around now. go check it out if you're interested!

Read it over breakfast!

It's amazing~~~ I love all the cameos from our forum/chat members! :D
Title: Things Not Said in the Year 90
Post by: Sunflower on January 30, 2015, 05:25:03 PM
Lars_B spurred some delightful creativity on a recent Disqus page, on expressions that would be no-nos in the Known World due to changing contexts.

Lars_B
"Grow a spine"
"He is so spineless"
"Show some backbone"

Linz 
"Two heads are better than one"
"With time they grew together"
"You need group therapy"
"We are all in this together"
"It is time for a melding of minds"

Euodiachloris 
"Put your back into it."
"Keep your eyes peeled."
"I'm all over this like a rash."
"So tired I could lie down and die."

corncobman 
Other things no-one says:

"Give him a hand"
"I'm all thumbs"
"Two-faced"
"Two left feet"
"Nappy [diaper] rash"

Auleliel 
"lend me your ears" or "I'm all ears"
"I've got your back"

Blackfrost 
"Eat your heart out."

corncobman 
"Get together"
"Let's join up"
"What crawled up your ass?"
"Let's stick together"
"I don't believe in trolls"

Celidah 
"And the two shall become one flesh"
"You're such a troll."
"Stop trolling!"
"He's a giant in his field of experience."


Ceceoh 
"Group hug!"
"Let's hang out."
"I've got you under my skin." (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SURkkJaH5b4)
"Don't be rash!"

Edmund 
And nobody gets away by the skin of their teeth anymore, either.
Title: Re: Things Not Said in the Year 90
Post by: Solovei on January 30, 2015, 05:28:38 PM
Lars_B spurred some delightful creativity on a recent Disqus page, on expressions that would be no-nos in the Known World due to changing contexts.
Oh my gosh, I just laughed waaaayyy too hard at some of those! XDD
Title: Re: Things Not Said in the Year 90
Post by: UFOO9000 on January 30, 2015, 06:06:53 PM
Edmund 
And nobody gets away by the skin of their teeth anymore, either.
These are so great XD
I do wish someone finds a book with all these inside.
Title: Re: Things Not Said in the Year 90
Post by: Sunflower on January 30, 2015, 06:46:42 PM
These are so great XD
I do wish someone finds a book with all these inside.

I thought of a few more:
* Finger food
* Losing face
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Richard Weir on January 30, 2015, 07:06:55 PM
* Jumped out of his skin.
* Crying her heart out.
* Coughing his guts up.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: partofacitygiant on January 30, 2015, 10:27:01 PM
Mrs. Kosonen informs the public about Erkki's return.
Title: Looking for a Beta reader.
Post by: DancingRanger on February 06, 2015, 11:15:35 PM
Not sure if this would be the right place to ask. . .anyway . . .

Okay, I am looking for a beta reader for a story I'm writing. It is a SSSS fan fiction, and I would love someone, or someones, who is apart of the fandom to bounce ideas off, and to check over my writing to make sure it makes sense. I haven't gotten really far into writing it yet because I'm having issues with introducing an outside character into the world and then to the crew.

The fanfic is centered around language barriers, as I am using an OC of mine who only speaks English. How does he get there? Magic, no seriously, with the reemergence of magic in the world it allowed small rifts to be opened between different words and my OC, having bad luck, stumbles through one of these rifts. He has no way home, and will have to learn to live in this world. For simplicity's sake I have remodeled the character's abilities, but he's still an able magic using Ranger. There won't be any romance. Just a focus on character interaction, especially nonverbal and the like.

What I would like in a Beta Reader;
>someone who is friendly and doesn't mind being asked dozens of questions, often in rapid fire,
>that doesn't mind reading sometimes dense or strangely worded passages,
>that is reachable at lest once every few days, once a day would be awesome, but I understand everyone has a life outside the Internet,
>that can keep me encouraged to continue writing, even when I want to give up,
>I would love someone with knowledge of the Nordic languages as I have very little, as I would like to ask about wording/common words the crew would be saying.

If interested pm me or leave a message here. Thanks in advance.
Title: Re: Looking for a Beta reader.
Post by: Solovei on February 06, 2015, 11:21:05 PM
I'd be up for it! :) I've been learning Swedish for a few months now and I've done a few stories with multiple languages. I'm also pretty good at editing if I do say so myself.
Title: Re: Looking for a Beta reader.
Post by: DancingRanger on February 07, 2015, 12:17:31 AM
I'd be up for it! :) I've been learning Swedish for a few months now and I've done a few stories with multiple languages. I'm also pretty good at editing if I do say so myself.

Awesome. I'm going to use Drive, as I have had great success with sharing with it.
Title: Re: Looking for a Beta reader.
Post by: Solovei on February 07, 2015, 12:21:17 AM
Awesome. I'm going to use Drive, as I have had great success with sharing with it.

Excellent! Do you want some kind of IM so we can talk this over, or... ?
Title: Re: Looking for a Beta reader.
Post by: DancingRanger on February 07, 2015, 12:34:01 AM
Excellent! Do you want some kind of IM so we can talk this over, or... ?
I sent a pm. I have a Skype and Kik.
Title: Re: Looking for a Beta reader.
Post by: Nimphy on February 07, 2015, 07:28:37 AM
Hmm, just wondering whether we could use this as a sort of official beta-reading thread for fan-fics?
Title: Re: Looking for a Beta reader.
Post by: Fimbulvarg on February 07, 2015, 07:42:26 AM
Hmm, just wondering whether we could use this as a sort of official beta-reading thread for fan-fics?
Why not just use the scriptorium, wasn't it created for these things anyways?
Title: Re: Looking for a Beta reader.
Post by: Nimphy on February 07, 2015, 07:57:39 AM
Why not just use the scriptorium, wasn't it created for these things anyways?

Sure
Title: Re: Looking for a Beta reader.
Post by: Solovei on February 07, 2015, 11:50:53 AM
I'll PM sunflower asking her to merge the two threads?
Title: Re: Looking for a Beta reader.
Post by: Sunflower on February 07, 2015, 05:47:32 PM
I'll PM sunflower asking her to merge the two threads?

Done.  I left the original message headings so DancingRanger's request would still be spottable.

Once you get used to finding this thread in its new home, how about deleting your messages requesting the change?  (I.e. the 3 before this one, and then I'll delete this one too.)

Thanks for asking -- I'm happy to help!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Sumeri on February 10, 2015, 04:26:23 PM
Uhmm. So I was bored, and then this thing comes tumbling out of my brain and I thought I'd post the result to you guys :D So in this lil ficlet the Lallemil duo is wandering about in a forest at night. Unfortunate things happen. Didn't know what to do with the others, so let's just say the rest of the motley crew are waiting for them in the catmobile.

Now, I ain't a native English speaker, so you'll forgive me the possible errors in grammar. Anyway, here it is;






This forest was troublesome.

This forest was extremely troublesome. No moon in sight, no stars twinkling in the sky, just deep inky black darkness. Even with his night vision being better than most humans’, Lalli still had some trouble extinguishing…well, anything at all.
Except of course, the obvious; the large, huffing, gurgling elk-like beast slowly making its way towards the bushes they were hiding in.

There was no wind blowing through the trees, no sounds suitable to provide a distraction needed for them to slip away unnoticed by the ungodly creature leaving trails of dark reddish, disgusting gooey substance in its wake as it dripped from various parts of the beast’s body. Aside from the occasional vicious gurgle, it moved with a surprisingly quiet gait, slightly rotten feet carrying the large body with ease. Crusted blood and pieces of flesh decorating its antlers, one of its eyes dangling from the nerves still attached to the eye-socket, the elk was truly a gruesome sight. As it was, there’d be no running from this one if they were noticed, for the horrible being had the advantage of having by far a superior speed to any human on his or her feet. Being gored by the sharp antlers or trampled by the strong hooves was not something he wanted to experience anytime soon.

So he stayed still. Very, very still and very, very silent. Wracking his brain for a quick, but quiet spell for their defense, he glanced at the Swede crouching beside him. Despite the lack of wind, the temperature was below freezing, so they were huddled close enough together for him to feel Emil tremble slightly while clutching his gun, probably anxious by the elk-beast’s sudden appearance seemingly out of nowhere. Hmmmh. He should probably try to calm down his messy Swede of a teammate, before he grew too nervous and crushed a twig or something. And Spirits help him if he sneezed. He would murder the Swede, if the beast didn’t get to him first.

With that in mind, Lalli quietly laid a hand on Emil’s back. The minuscule trembling stopped, and the Swede turned his head to look at him. In response, the mage put a finger on his lips in the universal shushing gesture, and nodded his head at the wraithlike beastling.

It was coming closer.






...didn't know how to proceed, so I left it at that. Maybe I'll write more once I come up with what happens next. If anyone's interested to see :D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Sigrid Marie on February 10, 2015, 04:31:46 PM
Uhmm. So I was bored, and then this thing comes tumbling out of my brain and I thought I'd post the result to you guys :D So in this lil ficlet the Lallemil duo is wandering about in a forest at night. Unfortunate things happen. Didn't know what to do with the others, so let's just say the rest of the motley crew are waiting for them in the catmobile.

Now, I ain't a native English speaker, so you'll forgive me the possible errors in grammar. Anyway, here it is;

This is lovely! You should definitely write more! :D
Title: Parliament of Fowls (Part 1)
Post by: Sunflower on February 10, 2015, 05:04:42 PM
Here's a story I whipped up to be seasonally appropriate.  (This is just the first installment -- it kind of got away from me.  The date becomes relevant in the next part.)

For narrative convenience, I pretended the mission launched in early January and they've been at it for about a month.  (So they haven't had time to level up *too* much, just to get to know one another.)

Parliament of Fowls
PART 1


Fiddles and flutes played as strong arms swept Tuuri up into the dance, whirling madly around a palatial hall lit with thousands of electric bulbs.  Her feet, in glittering Old-Time slippers, barely seemed to touch the floor as her long princess skirt flared around her ankles.  Then the whirling stopped, the arms tightened around her, and golden hair brushed her brow as a voice murmured…

“Tuuri?  Tuuri!” 
Fingers snapped in front of her nose. 

“Wake up, little pal!  I said, can you read back the status report?”
The Finnish skald dropped her notebook, blushingly scooped it back up, and read:

“Year 91, Day 119.   Before-Times reckoning: Day 42.  Weather:  Warm and rainy. 
“Status report:  Disabled list, four personnel.  None serious.  Eide:  Black eye, mild concussion.  Hotakainen, L: shin splints.  Madsen: wrenched back.  Vasterstrom: food poisoning, minor burns.”

(Lalli murmured:  “I told him those weren’t the kind of mushrooms you can eat, or at least without saying the right words while they cook.  But he just ignored me and kept jabbering, as usual…”)

“At Capt. Eide’s recommendation, we are taking a three-day rest and recovery period while we wait for the weather to turn in our favor.  Dr. Madsen will conduct a thorough inventory while the Captain leads weapons and self-defense practice.
“Books found at our last stop include…”

“All right, brainiac, you can save those details for our bosses,” Sigrun said affably.  “You’re having too much fun with ‘em, anyway.  I should check out the one that makes you giggle so much – Halvtreds Gråtoner, is that it?  Although gray is such a boring color…”

“Ooh, uh, it is boring.  That’s what makes me giggle,” Tuuri said hastily.  The last thing she wanted at the moment was more of Sigrun’s “war stories,” full of details that seemed not only unnerving but anatomically unlikely. 

“All right, crew, an hour to yourselves, then we meet back here at 0900 hours for judo practice.  Remember to strip and remake your bunks neatly, or the good doctor here’s going to have some words with you about protocol.”

As the crew got up to leave, Sigrun grabbed her wrist.  “Hey, Mikkel, I think this one might have a concussion too – remember how she whacked her head against the bunk this morning?  Give her that eye-test-thingie you gave me.”

The medic lumbered over, gently took Tuuri’s chin in one hand, and looked steadily into her eyes for the space of 10 heartbeats, while he probed her scalp with the other hand.  She could feel her face growing hot, and wished she could drop her gaze.  Instead, she tried to think of the exact shade of dark blue his eyes were.  Lake Saimaa in full summer, maybe?

Mikkel let her go and turned to Sigrun.  “No, her pupils are the same size, and she focuses and tracks just fine.  She’s got a bit of a goose egg back there, but nothing time and maybe a cold compress won’t cure.  You, though, are not allowed to grab and throw anyone until I’m satisfied you can actually see straight.”

“Yeah, yeah, you and what army are going to stop me,” the captain said, rolling her eyes.  Once he was out of earshot, she leaned over Tuuri with a sly expression.

“I didn’t actually think you had a concussion, kiddo.  I think spring’s coming early for someone.  And I wanted to see how you reacted.  Haha, you’re still red!  Back home in Norway, we’d just lock a couple in the broom closet till they’d gotten it out of their systems.  Here – I dunno, I could take the boys hunting for an hour and you and Mikkel would have the tank to yourselves…”

“Oh, no!  No, no, it’s not like that!” Tuuri said, horrified.  “I mean – Mikkel’s so big! – er, old!  Besides, he’s always ordering me around, just like the Supply-Sergeant at home.  I’d never… I couldn’t…”

“OK, kiddo, OK, I believe you,” Sigrun said comfortably.  “So how about the pretty Swede?  I mean, he screams a lot, but you know what they say about screamers…”

“It’s not like that,” said poor Tuuri, near tears.  (Truthfully, early on she had been fascinated by Emil’s golden hair and how it always flowed so gracefully, unlike the rough military haircuts she was used to.  But after you’ve stumbled over someone’s sweaty boots a dozen times, fished clots of his blond hair out of the shower drain, and mopped up his vomit, the enchantment does fade.)

“Well, little pal, I don’t know what to tell you.  You’re probably smart not to get your meat where you get your bread… but it’s not like Prince Charming is going to come riding out of the forest like in the old stories.  Tell you what – the minute we get back to civilization, I’ll pick out a couple of hot prospects for you.  Okay?” 

And with a friendly shoulder-punch, the captain strode off.

“Prince Charming riding out of the forest…” Tuuri murmured.

TO BE CONTINUED
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solovei on February 10, 2015, 05:04:55 PM

...didn't know how to proceed, so I left it at that. Maybe I'll write more once I come up with what happens next. If anyone's interested to see :D

That was great! :D I'd love to read the rest!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Sumeri on February 10, 2015, 06:16:00 PM
That was great! :D I'd love to read the rest!

Thanks :D I think I can squeeze the next scene out of my brain(possibly with fanart) during the weekend, since school is being dumb and giving me things to do again so I'll have to focus on that until Friday. Ugh. Doing things. Doing. Blegh.

Oh and Sunflower, that was simply aaaawesome :D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: kahli on February 10, 2015, 07:02:22 PM
Here's a story I whipped up to be seasonally appropriate.
Parliament of Fowls

    Wonderful Sunflower!  ;D I can't wait to see the rest!
Title: Re: Parliament of Fowls (Part 1)
Post by: Piney on February 10, 2015, 08:53:25 PM
Here's a story I whipped up to be seasonally appropriate.  (This is just the first installment -- it kind of got away from me.  The date becomes relevant in the next part.)

For narrative convenience, I pretended the mission launched in early January and they've been at it for about a month.  (So they haven't had time to level up *too* much, just to get to know one another.)

Parliament of Fowls
PART 1



Ahaha I loved it! ;D I wonder now if anyone's going to come riding out of the forest... ;)
Title: Re: Parliament of Fowls (Part 1)
Post by: Solovei on February 10, 2015, 10:52:16 PM
Here's a story I whipped up to be seasonally appropriate.  (This is just the first installment -- it kind of got away from me.  The date becomes relevant in the next part.)

For narrative convenience, I pretended the mission launched in early January and they've been at it for about a month.  (So they haven't had time to level up *too* much, just to get to know one another.)

Parliament of Fowls
PART 1



Aaaaahhhh that was cute! :DD Adorable, even! Hehe... Will Braidy be Tuuri's secret prince charming?
Title: Re: Parliament of Fowls (Part 1)
Post by: Piney on February 10, 2015, 11:34:25 PM
Will Braidy be Tuuri's secret prince charming?

*CROSSES FINGERS*
Title: Re: Parliament of Fowls (Part 1)
Post by: JoB on February 11, 2015, 12:09:06 PM
I wonder now if anyone's going to come riding out of the forest... ;)
... pray tell, on what!? :o
Title: Re: Parliament of Fowls (Part 1)
Post by: SeaAngel on February 11, 2015, 12:23:26 PM
... pray tell, on what!? :o


That's a good question...

A tiger!!! Yes.
Or a lynx!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solovei on February 11, 2015, 12:26:54 PM
Guys, guys, this is Braidy we're talking about here...

It's obviously going to be a sheep.
Title: Re: Parliament of Fowls (Part 1)
Post by: Fimbulvarg on February 11, 2015, 12:49:39 PM
We meet back here at 0900 hours for judo practice.  Remember to strip
:0
and remake your bunks neatly
:|


I counted four instances of what I choose to interpret as innuendo (which means they probably weren't intended as such).
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: JoB on February 11, 2015, 01:02:49 PM
Guys, guys, this is Braidy we're talking about here...
It's obviously going to be a sheep.
Not just any (http://vaghauk.deviantart.com/art/rage-of-the-sheep-warrior-180555057) plain sheep (http://zeitgeistdragon.deviantart.com/art/Year-of-the-sheep-504264850), I trust?
Title: Re: Parliament of Fowls (Part 1)
Post by: Sunflower on February 11, 2015, 01:51:35 PM

I counted four instances of what I choose to interpret as innuendo (which means they probably weren't intended as such).

Remember, this is Sigrun we're talking about.  Red-Haired Most Best Captain Terror Ma'am doesn't do innuendo, except with a sledgehammer.  I've spared readers some of her more vivid stories so as not to fall under Thor's Ban.  (But you can imagine why Tuuri was so nervous about Sigrun getting her hands on "50 Shades of Grey.")

There, she was just ribbing Doc about his adherence to protocol.  I don't think she cares about laundry or hospital corners on the bunks. 
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Sunflower on February 11, 2015, 01:58:49 PM
Uhmm. So I was bored, and then this thing comes tumbling out of my brain and I thought I'd post the result to you guys :D So in this lil ficlet the Lallemil duo is wandering about in a forest at night. Unfortunate things happen. Didn't know what to do with the others, so let's just say the rest of the motley crew are waiting for them in the catmobile.

...didn't know how to proceed, so I left it at that. Maybe I'll write more once I come up with what happens next. If anyone's interested to see :D

That's wonderful!  Extremely vivid description of the elk-beast.  I'm looking forward to hearing what ingenious spell Lalli comes up with.... and whether the messy Swede sneezes.  (Will Lalli have to rub his back to relax him?   ;) )
Title: Parliament of Fowls (Part 2)
Post by: Sunflower on February 11, 2015, 03:31:37 PM
Here's another chunk of Parliament of Fowls.  It doesn't advance the plot, but it does provide some back-story for Tuuri and her family.  (Which I'm sure will eventually be contradicted by Word of God...)

Goodness, writing proper fiction is hard, even when working from another creator's characters and world!  Or, as Chaucer put it in the original "Parliament of Fowls": (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parlement_of_Foules)

Quote
The life so short, the craft so long to learn,
The assay so hard, so sharp the conquering,
The fearful joy that slips away in turn...

Anyway, further developments as I flesh them out.

PART 2
The little skald went to her desk and pulled out the almanac. Day 42, Old Reckoning, worked out to the date of February 11.  She leafed ahead a few pages.  Sure enough, February 14 was listed as St. Valentine’s Day. 

Tuuri thought back to the stories her mother used to tell about Valentine’s Day – how it was a love-festival for the Old Timers, and how the birds would pick their mates that morning for the year ahead. 

“And chickie, anyone who sees the birds’ assembly can ask for a sight of their future husband or wife,” her mother would say as she braided Tuuri’s hair.  “Remember the song?  Lennä, lennä, leppätiira, Miss' päi miu morsiammei, Onks Sivossa vai Savossa, Vai oma pello pientareella?” ("Fly, fly, tern.  Where is my loved one, Is she/he in Sivo or Savo, or in my field’s ground?")

Tuuri pulled out her stash of birchbark sheets, which she used for personal writings she didn’t want to be accountable for.  (She’d been lectured more than enough at Keuruu about how expensive typewriter ribbons are and how many man-hours of fishing and lumbering they cost.)  She doodled absently with a carbon pencil as memories overwhelmed her.

How her father, coming home from the sawmill in the evening, would call, “Where’s my little princess?” and swing her up off the ground with a kiss.  Then, “Where’s my strong warrior?” and lastly, “Where’s the queen of the castle?”  At which her mother would hurry over, even smudged with garden soil, paint, or flour, and he’d swing her up in his arms as if she weighed no more than Tuuri.

She remembered that the neighbors always said her parents were a real love match, just like in the old stories.  Her father had had a proper bride arranged for him in the village, but he broke the engagement, signed on with a crew of timber brokers, and spent four years trading all around Lake Saimaa.

And when at last the scandal had died down, her father showed up with a bride he’d picked out all on his own – a stranger, an orphan, an Old Believer, with no family ties to share, no land-rights or business-shares to bestow, no livestock, machines, or furniture in her dowry -- just a box of clothes and a paint-kit. 

“She’s not even all that pretty, with that dark foreign hair,” Tuuri had heard one old woman say to another.  “And yet Jussi dotes over her like a rooster with one hen.”

“Well, women have their ways,” the other one had replied.  And then their voices had sunk too low for Tuuri, up on the watch platform, to hear them.

Ways, Tuuri pondered.  Delightful ideas began bubbling up, and she giggled a little as she put the pages back in the drawer.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Paul Ferris on February 13, 2015, 06:32:02 AM
Wonderful writing Sunflower. I love the way you force the character's personalities through their own plotty prism, but they come out as if Minna had written your stories :)
Title: Re: Parliament of Fowls (Part 2)
Post by: Solovei on February 13, 2015, 12:19:45 PM
Here's another chunk of Parliament of Fowls.  It doesn't advance the plot, but it does provide some back-story for Tuuri and her family.  (Which I'm sure will eventually be contradicted by Word of God...)

Omg I love it! I love how old-fashioned it sounds <3
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solovei on February 16, 2015, 02:09:46 PM
Finally put this up on AO3!

http://archiveofourown.org/works/3373166

Pretty short little thing about Lalli and Tuuri that I originally wrote for one of the forum members but decided to post anyway. Hope you guys like it!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Sunflower on February 16, 2015, 02:21:43 PM
Finally put this up on AO3!

http://archiveofourown.org/works/3373166

Pretty short little thing about Lalli and Tuuri that I originally wrote for one of the forum members but decided to post anyway. Hope you guys like it!

The adorableness!  Tuuri explaining things in terms Lalli can understand!  I love it!

(Just one question:  When you say the... new character... is "about the same age as her brother," do you mean Tuuri's brother Onni, i.e. about 23 in story time?  Or did you actually mean "same age as her COUSIN," i.e. as Lalli?)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solovei on February 16, 2015, 02:24:22 PM
The adorableness!  Tuuri explaining things in terms Lalli can understand!  I love it!

(Just one question:  When you say the... new character... is "about the same age as her brother," do you mean Tuuri's brother Onni, i.e. about 23 in story time?  Or did you actually mean "same age as her COUSIN," i.e. as Lalli?)
I meant same age as Onni :)
I realize that an early-20s person asking out a 16-year-old would be a little weird in real life, but something tells me the rash may have changed societal attitudes about dating somewhat.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solovei on February 17, 2015, 12:40:20 PM
Woops looks like I did it again! Have another fic, you guys! (http://archiveofourown.org/works/3379946). Just a word of warning that there's some actual making out in this one! Nothing explicit, but I thought I would let you know.

It's set during Year 1, in Iceland, and features some of the Hotel Survivors (http://ssssforum.pcriot.com/index.php?topic=282.0) and Arni, from the prologue! Hope y'all like it :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Sunflower on February 17, 2015, 12:57:35 PM
Woops looks like I did it again! Have another fic, you guys! (http://archiveofourown.org/works/3379946). Just a word of warning that there's some actual making out in this one! Nothing explicit, but I thought I would let you know.

It's set during Year 1, in Iceland, and features some of the Hotel Survivors (http://ssssforum.pcriot.com/index.php?topic=282.0) and Arni, from the prologue! Hope y'all like it :)

Wow, that's lovely.  I'm old-fashioned enough that I had to, uh, adjust my expectations about the romantic encounter.  But I think it's very touching and well-motivated. 

Question:  When one of the Hotel Survivors refers to Hannah as his "mother," he means his host or adoptive mother, right?


EDIT:  How much work is it to sign up for An AOOO account?  I'm still working on my story, which will be at least twice the length of what I've shared so far, and I'm starting to think I shouldn't just spam this thread with it.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solovei on February 17, 2015, 01:13:24 PM
Wow, that's lovely.  I'm old-fashioned enough that I had to, uh, adjust my expectations about the romantic encounter.  But I think it's very touching and well-motivated. 

Question:  When one of the Hotel Survivors refers to Hannah as his "mother," he means his host or adoptive mother, right?


EDIT:  How much work is it to sign up for An AOOO account?  I'm still working on my story, which will be at least twice the length of what I've shared so far, and I'm starting to think I shouldn't just spam this thread with it.

Ah, sorry if that's confusing... I should add it into the notes. Hannah is another girl who happened to get stuck in Iceland (en route to denmark to study). Mikkel was actually travelling with his parents at the time, so both his mother and father are around. Anyway, Hannah and Mikkel became really good friends and she went to live with them on the farm.

As for AO3 accounts: it's invite-only so far, so you have to request one and usually it's emailed to you within a day or two!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: ruth on February 17, 2015, 01:27:51 PM
...and another new chapter (http://archiveofourown.org/works/2798174/chapters/7394813). i hope you guys like it. :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Sigrid Marie on February 17, 2015, 01:55:42 PM
How much work is it to sign up for An AOOO account?  I'm still working on my story, which will be at least twice the length of what I've shared so far, and I'm starting to think I shouldn't just spam this thread with it.

When I signed up for ao3 I got my invitation in just an hour or something ;3 (but like Solovei said it could take a day, maybe two, at most)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Gwenno on February 19, 2015, 07:41:54 PM
Finally put this up on AO3!

http://archiveofourown.org/works/3373166

Pretty short little thing about Lalli and Tuuri that I originally wrote for one of the forum members but decided to post anyway. Hope you guys like it!

I read this yesterday (rather than working like I should have been doing - congratulations :P ) and just had to comment to say how much I liked it ^_^ I've nothing clever to say about it really, but the little story has really struck a chord, and has been lingering at the back of my head since reading it. So yeah, good job  :D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solovei on February 19, 2015, 10:34:33 PM
I read this yesterday (rather than working like I should have been doing - congratulations :P ) and just had to comment to say how much I liked it ^_^ I've nothing clever to say about it really, but the little story has really struck a chord, and has been lingering at the back of my head since reading it. So yeah, good job  :D

Awww, thank you! ^_^
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: StellersJayC on February 22, 2015, 10:28:18 AM
As I promised some people on the IRC, I have written a thing:
Story!! (http://archiveofourown.org/works/3413777)

I honestly never pictured myself writing fanfiction, but it's the first piece of writing I've finished in four years (that's about a fourth of my life, do at this point I'll take anything). Even better, it was fun! So I may have to do it again. :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solovei on February 22, 2015, 12:22:14 PM
As I promised some people on the IRC, I have written a thing:
Story!! (http://archiveofourown.org/works/3413777)

I honestly never pictured myself writing fanfiction, but it's the first piece of writing I've finished in four years (that's about a fourth of my life, do at this point I'll take anything). Even better, it was fun! So I may have to do it again. :)

So cute! ^_^ I love that "minor injuries" is a tag, haha...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Dai on February 23, 2015, 12:46:02 AM
Just added this little effort from a couple days ago (had to modify it slightly to get around the NetNanny-style security!):


Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump....
Emil was lying on his stomach on a bunk, idly kicking his foot into the wall.
Emil was bored.

Mikkel looked up from his book, an irritated expression on his normally impassive face. "Could you please stop that? It's most distracting..."

Emil stopped thumping and rolled over."Well, excuse me!" he muttered.

It was becoming intolerable.

The expedition had been stalled for more than a week now.

All of their leads had ended up in empty dead-ends or impassible giants' lairs.

Now the normally reliable tank had developed an elusive electrical fault that left them immobile. Emil could hear the banging and uncharacteristic cursing - colourfully, in three languages - from an unusually grumpy Tuuri.

An increasingly tetchy Mikkel had immersed himself in the books they had recovered. This current one seemed to have held his attention for a few days now - though his mood had not improved much.

Sigrun couldn't stand the inaction and had been almost continually hunting for the past week; the only upside of this situation was that they had enough meat to feed  a platoon for a month.

Emil rolled over again and frowned at the still figure under the bunk.

Only Lalli seemed to be dealing with the situation. He had come back from a scouting mission - that had found nothing - and then just...slept.
He'd been sleeping for three days now...

Emil's frown deepened. Or *was* it sleep? There was something uncanny about the stillness...was Lalli even *breathing*?

Emil rolled off the bunk and leaned closer...

Lalli's eyes snapped open.

Emil jerked backwards, stifling a curse as he hit the back of his head on the bunk.  He could have sworn the Finn's eyes were *glowing*...

Lalli, his mouth curved in a rare smile, spoke something in Finnish. There was a lull in the banging and cursing from the mechanic. 

"Well, hello! He's finally back." She launched into an incomprehensible conversation with her cousin.

"'Back'?" thought Emil. "Funny way of putting it..."

Lalli spoke again. Tuuri nodded, her face softening into the cheerful expression to which Emil was accustomed.

She leaned back with a sigh. "He's found it! Lalli's found the reason we're stuck here."

Emil frowned."Reason? I thought it was just a patch of bad luck."

"No, it's more than that", replied Tuuri. "Things breaking down, all paths blocked,  or too dangerous, even for Sigrun... it was just too much, all at once."

"So, Lalli has been trying to invoke the help of the spirits. That's where he's been for the last three days..."

Emil looked sceptical. "Well? What's the answer?"

Tuuri stretched and smiled. "Chapter break."

"What?! Is he sure?"

"Positive. We can't do anything constructive until it's over."

"Great..." Emil flopped face-down on to the bunk again.

Tuuri grinned. "*But* - it's nearly over."

Emil raised his face from the pillow. "HOW nearly?"

"A day, maybe two at most..."

"Excellent!" They turned to the source of the voice.

Mikkel was sitting up, holding the book in which he had been so engrossed.
"In that case, we might as well pass the time with a little game I've found..."

Mikkel held up the book, entitled "A Guide for Competitive Cardplayers - Winners' Tips and Strategies".

He smiled...

"Funny how little expression is behind that smile." thought Emil...

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: DiscoMonster on February 23, 2015, 02:22:45 AM
I’m unlikely to write anymore, so I’ll post it here. Apologies for the lack of characterisation, dialogue, etc. It’s set in an England I barely remember and is told from the perspective of a British equivalent of a mage, albeit, one who’s going slightly mad.

I grew up in and around Alderley Edge. Magic is ancient and strong there. The tunnels mined there attracted the magical and let them hide away from us, all the while keeping a weaveway to the other world. Sometimes fog and mist would weave into wisps and direct The Predisposed – the empathetic and the aware – to tunnels that weaved a path to magical states. The truth – in the form of stories, song and poetry – emanated from these magical stations. But we had forgotten how to listen and entwine with that world. Although, someone must have remembered.

I was one of The Predisposed.

I had been showing the Blue John Mine to distant cousins when I saw The Distorted in the cavern waters. Transfixed by the Magidream I saw translucent wraith beings growing out and irregular from the reflections of those people on the other side of the ripple-free cavern water. The reflections swam free in the water and warped my appreciation of reality. I looked up at the faces of those who had lost their shadows to another realm. I felt their brainweaves recombining to discordant song and broken rhythm. Those faces were rashed, were burning hot and in pain. I saw the stalactites above and behind them drip polluting fluid into their lungs. Then the stalactites and crystal formed into the hideous teeth and many limbs of The Distorted Giants. They reached out to me. I vomited. I passed out. I had become a seer, magic had revealed itself to me, The Rash was in existence somewhere in the world.

When I was sixteen, my family moved from Alderley Edge to Eyam in Hope Valley. Another abode of magic and mystery for me: barrows, ancient circles and magical architecture. The Plague Village’s border stones form the island, another name for Eyam. The village had kept itself isolated for 14 months during the Bubonic plague; we knew what to do when The Rash came. I, The Seer, knew what to keep out of Eyam and beyond the village’s borders.

Magic had hidden away from people. It did so to protect us because we had found alternative means to navigate and shape the world. The potency of evil in Magic had to be hidden from us – if builders could wend magic and technology we would be fearsome. Magic disappeared from view. But the presence of magic takes a long time to fade and magical beings still stepped into our realm. I suspect a line was crossed. Someone became fearsome, wrought death and life in the same being.

Alderley Edge and the caverns, hills, valleys and moors of the Peak District are seats of magic, reservoirs of spells and enchantments. Magic was still known and sung and told from generation to generation before it could die from memory – before the world could be truly rational and lost to Magic. There are many such Magidepths in the world. Somewhere, someone who was predisposed must have sung a terrible song, woven magic into a story and then interlaced it with the viruses of body, technology and dream. Carelessly, evil was transported across all realms.

When the rash came, I felt it again, stronger than I had in the caverns of The Blue John Mine. It was said that the ban on showing images of the Plague Boat victims in Barcelona had been taken out of respect for the families of the victims. But I saw dreams from Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria and Libya, saw people from North Africa and Sub-Sahara caught in a physiology altering nightmare. People had already yielded to The Rash before it washed up in Europe. From the beach to the bar to the bed, but where was it before the beach? International hubs succumbed and hurried The
Rash around the world, and somewhere a few people were saying, “What is this evil that we’ve done?”

Travel restrictions could only slow the spread, buy time. The censorship surrounding its spread and effects prevented panic. In Eyam I had the ears of the village elders from day one. I predicted events correctly, therefore they listened to me. We remade the old plague border, I sensed those who belonged to The Immune and had them work with me. We killed vermin. We stockpiled. We prepared. I was interviewed for the local TV news. Plague village becomes haven for mystic survivalists they said. Our neighbours in Buxton, Sheffield, Derby and Manchester ridiculed us for a few days.

But as the roads shut, as the communications died, as modern life shut down and ground to a halt they wished us well and hoped we could stay clean. Final communiques with medics and the military losing their sanity insisted that we shoot to kill and burn to cleanse. I knew what they meant. I drew images of the monsters inhabiting my dreams. I showed my villagers the horrors that would be approaching us. Then we blocked the roads and started to dig ditches and make earthen defences. We reinforced stone walls and rolled out barbed wire fences. We set up radio communications.

Then The Immune came: people and cats. Eyam’s reputation as the village in Hope Valley; the mystic’s realm that had closed its border meant it became seen as the safe haven it really was. Of course, we kept The Immune at bay at first and made them live in tents beyond the village border. But most had come prepared with vans and lorries of guns and goods for us and stories and pictures. We sent them out gathering more food and weapons and cats. They told us about The Distorted they had seen, fought, killed and run from.  We exchanged goods for medical help. Eyam expanded as the world shrank.

In my otherrealmworld, I met other Predisposed, small bands of survivors in rural communities. People who had known what to do and who had banded together with The Immune. Via the Weaveway, we communicated images of what we had discovered and how we should act.

I Magidreamt. I weaved. I communicated. Some Rash Distorted called for help, but some I had to flee or fight in my dreams. I didn’t know which realm they were in. During my waking hours I sensed beasts coming and directed Eyam’s best fighters to kill them. We shot deer, sheep, cattle, hounds; destroyed flocks and herds. We burnt burrows, dens and warrens.

Alongside us, the cats killed vermin and small creatures like never before. They walked with us like never before, communicating their wariness to us. Then The Distorted started to appear on our borders, so we burnt the surrounding villages and farmhouses during the day, making our first enchantments to clear the fog and mist, the smoke of the burning cities.

When winter was deep and I could sense The Distorted were dying of cold or were nested inactive. I called other Magidreamers to gather in a realm and we decided on action while we could. Eyam’s Immune looted and then razed Buxton to the ground. I sensed the town's Distorted surrendering to flames and cold. We were elated. In winter I Magidreamt further afield. Other survivor communities also burnt down their neighbouring areas. Wales, Scotland, The Pennines had viable communities of survivors.

We Magidreamers were disturbed by our new ability, but necessity meant we soon learnt to use our gift. We also learnt to do magic in the otherrealmworlds or we would fallen to the dreaming Distorted, who could also inhabit these otherrealmworlds. We travelled with our soul saviours: animals that could transport us back to a safe realm from a dangerous realm; they were lucid dreamers within our lucid dreams, guiding us Magidreamers to safety.

Evil skulked out of the massive northern English cities in the spring. The Distorted shuffled, crawled, slithered, scuttled, struggled out of their first hibernation. They could sense The Predisposed. We could feel their rage and their pain. If I had known, I would have insisted that we burn Chesterfield, Stockport, Sheffield, Manchester that first winter. Of course, some parts had burnt in the uncontrolled blazes The Immune and the last of the Hazmat wearing military had set, but we still needed a directed fire and we were too few to manage it.

The Distorted began to roam far from the towns and cities in spring. They moved at night or under grey skies. I lost contact with two Magidreamers in the smaller survivor communities. I dreamt routes around cities for those wishing to join up with us. A Magidreamer showed me that the old A6 from Stockport had become a Distorted-infested route at night. So we took the most aware cats and went along that route burning houses.

When we got to the outskirts of Stockport I became numb with fear, shook with panic. Then it appeared. It was an Amalgi – an amalgamation of several Distorted. We blasted it with our guns. In the end we had to kill each head it possessed, seven in all. We set alight any building in the vicinity that we could and left well before light faded.

We won every battle but it felt like we were losing the war. Trauma and stress were overwhelming us. We were surviving, we were human, we were alive but all we had was hope. We needed a plan. We needed a future. That wasn’t my world. I had to let others take care of that vision.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solovei on February 23, 2015, 10:54:22 AM
Just added this little effort from a couple days ago (had to modify it slightly to get around the NetNanny-style security!):

XDDD "Chapter Break" I love it!  <3
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: P__ on February 23, 2015, 12:45:39 PM
boy am I glad I finally read through this thread (not AO3 (http://archiveofourown.org/tags/Stand%20Still%20Stay%20Silent/works) yet though)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: StellersJayC on February 23, 2015, 07:57:21 PM
I remember reading the chapter break one in the comments. It was so funny. :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Sunflower on February 24, 2015, 08:29:33 PM
I now have an AO3 account as well, so I posted my (still-incomplete) story "Parliament of Fowles" to it:
http://archiveofourown.org/works/3431273

I promise I have the whole story sketched out, just not yet filled in.  As I'm only now discovering, fiction writing takes time, even when one is building on someone else's world- and character-creation!  It'll get finished before too long, though.

(It's about Tuuri's efforts to revive that Old World tradition, Valentine's Day.)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Rainy on February 26, 2015, 03:57:02 PM
I now have an AO3 account as well, so I posted my (still-incomplete) story "Parliament of Fowles" to it:
http://archiveofourown.org/works/3431273

(It's about Tuuri's efforts to revive that Old World tradition, Valentine's Day.)

I just now read this story, thank you for sharing it! I think your Tuuri is a very believable young girl/woman. Now we know the real reason she wanted to see the world outside Keuruu. ;)

(Wondering if Sigrun shares her "war stories" with the whole crew or with just Tuuri. Heh.) 
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: AwsomelyNotAwsome on March 03, 2015, 12:31:48 PM
Yes, only 969 words! *does victory-dance* Anyway, I started this story a while ago and finally found the time to finish it.


Awwww. too cute. ^_^  11/10 - IGN

The ship is real!!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Curry on March 04, 2015, 04:18:01 PM
Oh man, all of these stories are amazing and I have too many new headcanons now.

I actually have a fic of my own I've been working on for a while and I was wondering if you guys would be interested in me posting it? It kind of branches off of the story (around right now, actually) and I do have a couple of OCs featured heavily, but none of them are shipped with the main characters and none of them will be (apart from one character being unrequitedly creepy.) It's not all that ship-driven either but there are a couple (Sigrun X megaphone, Lalli x Emil x Braidy in any combination etc etc). Would this be the right place to post it?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Sunflower on March 04, 2015, 04:42:17 PM
You had me at "Sigrun x megaphone."   8)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Curry on March 04, 2015, 04:45:32 PM
You had me at "Sigrun x megaphone."   8)

Yes, to the displeasure of literally every other character in this fanfiction, it's a solar-powered megaphone, so that ship is never going to sink. Ever. (evil laughing)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Sumeri on March 04, 2015, 05:02:58 PM
Yes, only 969 words! *does victory-dance* Anyway, I started this story a while ago and finally found the time to finish it.


I am fighting (and failing) against the need to squeal like a madwoman. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THIS
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Eich on March 04, 2015, 05:41:46 PM
Oh man, all of these stories are amazing and I have too many new headcanons now.

I actually have a fic of my own I've been working on for a while and I was wondering if you guys would be interested in me posting it? It kind of branches off of the story (around right now, actually) and I do have a couple of OCs featured heavily, but none of them are shipped with the main characters and none of them will be (apart from one character being unrequitedly creepy.) It's not all that ship-driven either but there are a couple (Sigrun X megaphone, Lalli x Emil x Braidy in any combination etc etc). Would this be the right place to post it?
Right place indeed.  If it's rather long, and you're unsure about posting a giant wall of text here, you can post a link in here for everyone to see.  Just keep it PG-ish, please.  :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solovei on March 04, 2015, 05:43:25 PM
Oh man, all of these stories are amazing and I have too many new headcanons now.

I actually have a fic of my own I've been working on for a while and I was wondering if you guys would be interested in me posting it? It kind of branches off of the story (around right now, actually) and I do have a couple of OCs featured heavily, but none of them are shipped with the main characters and none of them will be (apart from one character being unrequitedly creepy.) It's not all that ship-driven either but there are a couple (Sigrun X megaphone, Lalli x Emil x Braidy in any combination etc etc). Would this be the right place to post it?

As Eich has said, you can always put it somewhere like Archive of Our Own and then just post a link here. That's what I've been doing :) also that way it's easily accessible in one place, as it's often easy to lose track of individual posts.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Sigrid Marie on March 05, 2015, 06:38:04 AM
Yes, only 969 words! *does victory-dance* Anyway, I started this story a while ago and finally found the time to finish it.

Awww, that's adorable! (And also reminds me that it's been way too long since I wrote anything myself, heh)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Curry on March 05, 2015, 04:53:18 PM
Okay, I got an Archive of Our Own account and posted it there! Here's the link: Chapter 1 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/3487976/chapters/7662440)

It's written in English with phrases from other languages interspersed throughout, but I don't personally speak any of those languages so if you see something wrong please tell me! The summary on ao3 pretty much says it all about the warnings (there aren't really any).
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Curry on March 05, 2015, 05:27:44 PM
Oh yes, I forgot to mention, the title is entirely sarcastic and not relevant to the story at all  :P
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Sunflower on March 05, 2015, 08:09:35 PM
Okay, I got an Archive of Our Own account and posted it there! Here's the link: Chapter 1 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/3487976/chapters/7662440)

It's written in English with phrases from other languages interspersed throughout, but I don't personally speak any of those languages so if you see something wrong please tell me! The summary on ao3 pretty much says it all about the warnings (there aren't really any).

It's terrific!  Everyone should go read it!  Except then you'll be like me -- on pins and needles anxiously waiting for the next chapter!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: StellersJayC on March 05, 2015, 09:55:45 PM
Okay, I got an Archive of Our Own account and posted it there! Here's the link: Chapter 1 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/3487976/chapters/7662440)

It's written in English with phrases from other languages interspersed throughout, but I don't personally speak any of those languages so if you see something wrong please tell me! The summary on ao3 pretty much says it all about the warnings (there aren't really any).

That is great! I absolutely can't wait to read more!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Dane Murgen on March 06, 2015, 04:11:25 AM
I made myself a new fanfic, so here you go. (http://archiveofourown.org/works/3491585/chapters/7670684)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OrigamiOwl on March 06, 2015, 06:49:40 AM
I made myself a new fanfic, so here you go. (http://archiveofourown.org/works/3491585/chapters/7670684)
YEAH!! I really like it so far! A lot!! :D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Curry on March 06, 2015, 11:12:18 PM
That is great! I absolutely can't wait to read more!
thank you so much!!! i'm working on the next chapter and hope to have it done soonish??
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Sunflower on March 09, 2015, 06:27:27 PM
Hrolfr keeps coming up with great stuff!  (If anyone can think of a better typeface for the title, feel free to suggest one -- it's Zapfino currently)

Herewith I present:


Emil's Good Day

Zero minus 5min:

Sigrun: "Remind me again, Emil, why we're doing this your way?" She’s looking at down the avenue at Mikkel in the further distance who is fiddling with a large cargo bicycle.

It's a surprisingly warm & overcast winter's day, perfect weather for Trolls to leave their nests.

Emil, distracted as he fiddles with some wires and fussing:
"You lost at cards to me, dear Captain. Now we do it, Swedish Cleanser Style."

Sigrun, using her precious pre-apocalypse binoculars to glass the area around Mikkel. Grunts: "I didn't lose as badly as Mikkel. We'd better get started." She sees Emil stretching. "And I swear by all the Gods, if you do that stupid dance now Emil, I will tie you up and leave you for the trolls."

Emil looks innocent. Moi? Dance now? Heaven forfend.

Earlier, by two days:

Sigrun: "Ok, Lalli, these beasts are my lovely Uncle Harald's latest invention, on loan. Behold, 'The Troll Slayer Mk IX'."

She sweeps off the shroud and two large bolt-action rifles with huge suppressors hanging off the front are visible, braced on bipods. In front of each are a small case of stripper-clipped rounds of significant size. The guns are brutal-looking, but prettily incised and carved with animals and nature scenes.

Emil whistles "Pretty," Lalli steps forward & picks up a big, fat, long brass cartridge and bounces it in his hand. He whistles too.

Sigrun: “Yes, big, heavy, barely-subsonic rounds, they'll drop a troll like nobody’s business. One shot. You'll want to fire them from the bipods, unless you are bigger than Mikkel here. The recoil is … substantial."

Tuuri translates. Lalli responds. Tuuri: "Lalli's good, Sigrun, he wants to go take some ranging shots & check the zero." Sigrun and Lalli wander off with guns in tow and a couple of clips. A couple minutes later, some loudish "WBHOOMP!" noises are heard. It startles some birds. Lalli is laughing.

Even earlier, a week ago:

Emil is pointing at a small model/plan of the avenue: "So, that's my plan, any questions?"

Mikkel: "Respectfully, Emil, I don't like the part where I'm the Pied Piper of Copenhagen. Me, Bait! I've seen what happens to the worm when the fish gets too close, and Sigrun's and Lalli's reconnaissance news is, frankly, terrifying. That’s a BIG nest."

Tuuri: "All that fire stuff, how we going to set that up? I'm sure we do not have enough on-board. Even if we raid Mikkel's mythical stash." Mikkel shows no emotion.

Emil: “I have a clever plan.”

Sigrun: "I see what you are doing, but it seems like a LOT of work to get the damn trolls out and away from the books and stuff in that library. But you are right, if we get them out, that library is possible. Otherwise, it’s a death trap.”

Lalli: Looks thoughtful. Says nothing. Yawns. Thinks * Troll Ambush. That Idiot Emil in charge. This'll be fun. Remember to tell Tuuri to have a plan B *

Emil: “You heard the weather report on 'Radio Norden', it'll be perfect winter Troll weather here in a week, not so cold as now, and we'll have to go into hiding anyway and this week is cold and nasty. Great week to work, and you all promised when you lost, last night. This plan is perfect. What can go wrong?"

Mikkel and Sigrun exchange glances. Sigrun: "OK, we'll set it up your way and defer final judgment." Mikkel looks a little consternated: "Fine."

This Morning, in the cool half-light:

Tuuri comes to Emil:  "We're all set, you?"

Emil smiling broadly and with glint in his eyes: "YES! This is going to be epic." He makes the final connections, aside from one big battery. And then sets his small demolition and pyro board with the knife switches by a folding chair set up on the front of a small pile of rubble.

"How’s everyone else doing?"

Tuuri:  "Mikkel is obsessing about that old cargo bike you two found, he is Not Happy. Sigrun has set up her firing position and is muttering about Swedish lunatics. Other than some complaints earlier about all the lifting and fetching making him sore, Lalli is all set up and having a nap. Everything else is set up too, just like you've been bugging us about, ALL WEEK. Sheesh.”

“I've got the Cattank all set to run like hell when this crazy plan of yours fails. All the trolls that are local, lured? Emil, seriously, this is nuts. This place is infested with them."

Emil looks at her with confidence: "Hey now, oh ye of little faith. This is going to work."

Tuuri, dubiously: "Ok Emil. Sigrun is going to kill you, slowly, if this fails or poor Mikkel gets hurt. I'm not kidding. She's not happy with using him as bait."

Emil: "It's going to work, the Trolls will be brought out, we'll kill them and we can then clean out that Library safely. Nests, Giant, or not."

Tuuri, alarmed: "GIANT?"

Emil: "Didn't Lalli and Sigrun tell you? They saw a big one in the basement last night. It had moved out from deeper in."

Tuuri: "No... Oh dear. We're fighting a giant now. With one cleanser, one scout, one soldier, a medic and a Skald. I do hope Mikkel left his little flask in the cattank."

Zero Hour:

Emil sitting on a folding chair, demolition board on his lap. Carbine at his feet. Looking at clock. "OK, wave the flag for Mikkel, Tuuri. Here we go."

Sigrun, 5 meters to the to the right, and Lalli 5 meters to the left, are nestled down behind their rifles, extra clips carefully arrayed near them, checking the whitewashed stones arrayed down the avenue every 10 metres as range markers all the way to Mikkel, who waves in return and unties some ropes, and takes the big cargo bicycle off the kickstand as he climbs on.

Turri goes forward to her rope section and eyes the quick release knots. She looks at Emil, who is concentrating. The smell of heavy fraction liquid hydrocarbons wafts by.

The noises and vibrations cause by the falling weights that Mikkel released when he saw the flag starts to fade, all the loud scrap metal settles down, leaving only a bell clanging. Emil closes the first switch and small strings of "pops" are heard from near where Mikkel is, in the buildings. Mikkel is looking around nervously. The little fireworks are to irritate the trolls. They whistle and pop, rattle and sigh.

Mikkel starts to pedal slowly in a circle and the cargo bicycle starts to make an infernal clanking and banging as the gear in the cargo bed engages. A louder noise is heard from inside the buildings and a smallish Troll hops out, quickly followed by a couple more, and some smaller beasts. Then more.

Mikkel starts to pedal away towards Emil and the crew, & the Trolls give chase, but suddenly a wall collapses on one side just behind the fleeing Mikkel. Out wobbles a giant, screaming, followed by a second Giant smaller, but still rather large. And yet more trolls large and small.

Mikkel starts to pedal faster. The bicycle noise makers get louder.

Emil yells to Sigrun a little high-pitched: "Sigrun, TWO giants, AND more trolls are still coming out! Is this your idea of messing with me?"

Sigrun, calmly: "No. Looks like there were TWO nests, we missed that. The Beasts too. You good, or do we need to retreat now?"

Emil, more calmly now: "We're still good. We can't leave Mikkel anyway. Oh bugger."

Lalli opens fire with his big new rifle, and the thing closest to Mikkel loses its head violently, but keeps running for a few steps before collapsing.

Mikkel is screaming something in Danish. No one can hear what. He's pedaling very quickly now, drawing the growing pack of Trolls and giants over the small bridge into Emil's “solution”. The faster trolls are starting to gain on the old bicycle. Sigrun and Lalli start to fire at a slow measured rate and nothing gets too close to Mikkel. But Mikkel's obviously working very hard and his face is red. The heavy bike is taking its toll. The Trolls are faster than expected.

Lalli is muttering: "Perkele", the rifle goes CHOOMPH! "perkele", rifle: CHOOMPH!, "perkele" ... there’s a lot more trolls that they expected. He's please with the rifle though, those massive bullets are deadly at this range.

As the final giant crosses the bridge, picking up speed, Emil yells to Tuuri, "One, Five and Three!" Tuuri loosens her knots. The ropes slither away, pulled by falling weights. Emil closes some more switches and across the back near the bridges, there are some bright flashes and the tanks that Tuuri had tipped with her ropes reveal themselves to be liquid hydrocarbon that bursts into flame, closing off the bridge escape.

That second slower, smaller giant stumbles as under its body multiple small flashes, bangs, and black smoke erupt. It screams and falls, but continues to advance for some seconds.

Mikkel enters a clearly marked white-washed lane now, as the Troll pack and remaining giant come on fast, but firmly boxed in by the warehouses on either side, and the new lake of fire and activated minefield behind. The only path of escape is towards Emil, led on by Mikkel's fleeing & very noisy bicycle.

As he emerges from the lane, Emil flips several more switches, and the front runners of the Trolls stumble and several small bangs sound out. They are covered in ichor and several fall grievously damaged. The rest of Troll pack rolls over their bodies like a wave. More small improvised mines detonate. The wave furls like on the sea.

Sigrun and Lalli are now firing regularly, but Mikkel is slowing for some unaccountable reason, though he's standing on the pedals hard, no longer yelling.

Lalli yells loudly in Finnish: "Move your fat sluggish geriatric Danish posterior faster, you cretin!" (Ed.: Paraphrase, what he really said was much, much, ruder.) He kneels and leans forward to shoots another, dangerously close to Mikkel, troll creature. Its mid-section explodes under the hammering of the big rifle.

The remaining giant at the rear starts to THRUMM and scream as it sees the Cattank and understands the shooters are causing it pain and how close Mikkel is.

Mikkel makes it across the drainage ditch that fronts our heroes position on the improvised plank bridge on foot, bicycle abandoned, and grabs the rope that collapses it, just in time to drop a troll into the oily ditch. He’s gasping for air. Emil turns and yells to Tuuri: "NOW! ALL OF THEM", waits a second, and flips a last remaining switch.

The ditch bursts into flame. Through the heat shimmer, the Troll pack and Giant seem to shudder to a stop, and there's a rolling set of rather quiet little explosions under them as the second small minefield they are crossing is made live. Those trolls able, start to flee backwards away from the flaming ditch as the screams of the Troll caught in it reach a high-pitched howl.

They run into a third mine field, now live, grievously injuring the large remaining giant, but it continues to slop forward using a badly damaged tentacle to sweep the little mines.

Mikkel, red faced, out of breath, splattered in ichor, turns around and looks on, and throws up.

Lalli and Sigrun both stand up and move nervously towards the Cattank. Will the trolls disregard the flaming ditch?

Tuuri is in the driver’s seat and is looking nervously at Emil who is standing tall and straight. Calmly holding his carbine, smiling from ear to ear.

"JA!" he yells and whole length of the short block is suddenly wet with oily mix from the tipped over barrels that Turri had initiated, and igniters start bloom all down the middle of the road.

The whole block is now a sea of flame and of roasting & screaming Trolls. A vision of hell, Emil feels the heat and noise of the trapped trolls and his smile gets wider. The heat is impressive, the warehouses are blackening and starting to burn, the short length of intra-warehouse road is worthy of The Swedish Solution to Trolls.

Emil looks on with a beatific face at the writhing and screaming Grosslings, large and small.

Mikkel looks up from where he's wiping his mouth, and accepts his flask from Tuuri, who has emerged. Mikkel still out of breath and sick: "What was Lalli yelling?" Tuuri: "You magnificent Danish demigod!" Mikkel: "Really?" Tuuri: "Close enough."

Sigrun and Lalli are just holding their rifles, faces in obvious awe of the destruction and mass slaughter Emil has perpetrated.

As the roaring fire noise lessens, suddenly Mikkel yells: " EMIL! You..." he searches for grievous insult... "SWEDE! I am never playing cards with you again. EVER. That" he coughs and throws up, again " ...was the single most stupid thing, I have ever done in my life." He takes a long drink from the flask and hands it back to Tuuri. He sits down. Gasping. Trying not to throw up.

Sigrun, in full battlefield command voice: "Cleanser Västerström!"

Emil snaps to attention quite creditably, out of surprise: "Yes Ma'am." He looks a little guilty.

Sigrun: "You may commence victory dance. Dismissed."

Emil looks happy & starts a energetic dance, hooting and hollering something in unintelligible Swedish, and after a moment Lalli joins him holding the heavy rifle over his head singing something else in Finnish, but copying the moves creditably. It looks decidedly odd.

Sigrun looks at Lalli and Emil cavorting on the rubble pile, silhouetted against the dying flames, and says to Tuuri at her side: "Your cousin is pretty strong for a little guy; that rifle is heavy. Kicks like a mule too."

Tuuri contemplates the spectacle of her cousin and Emil: "The only way that dance could be more disturbing was if they were doing that naked. What the devil are they doing?"

Sigrun: "Not a clue, he said something about his class of cleansers finding some old piece of gear in the rubble and when they got it powered there was some old dance thing looping, so they adopted that as their class victory dance."

Turri: "Wow. Oh dear" ( face palms in embarrassment.)

Sigrun: "Ja. But Emil deserves it so don’t laugh. Today was awesome. I am so bringing some Swedish cleansers back with me to Norway when this is over, to teach. Using that old useless fuel from the buried gas station tanks like that, the improvised mines & pyro effects, the weight-driven clangers… Nifty."

Emil stops, strikes a silly pose and yells "Gangnam STYLE! WOOOOT!" He hugs Lalli. Lalli looks embarrassed. Emil is too happy to care, Tuuri tosses him the flask underhand.

Suddenly from behind, Mikkel rises like a Leviathan out of the depths, now angry, red faced.

"YOU!" He spins Sigrun around by the shoulder. He sticks his index finger in Sigrun's face. (She looked at it cross-eyed, rather surprised.) "YOU! Should. Know. Better!" he glowers, eyes glowing red in the failing flames. "If you EVER lose to that little... SWEDE ... at cards again, I'm going to take you over my lap and spank you until you can't sit down for a month." He catches his breath, "This was the worst idea, EVER."

Tuuri, Lalli and Emil look shocked. Mikkel is yelling at Sigrun.

Sigrun steps back and LAUGHS. Her eyes shining. "Tuuri! See THERE's the kind of man you want, one who promises, (long pause, she licks her lips) foreplay!" She turns and walks away swinging her hips in an exaggerated manner, looking over her shoulder at Mikkel, waggling her eyebrows in an obviously overacted comic opera-sultry manner.

Tuuri and Emil, blush, beet red. Lalli looks confused, but nabs the flask from Emil and discreetly pockets it.

Mikkel – aghast, turns white at his fear and rage driven over-reaction -: " I didn't, I do.. I never... That's not.. you infuriating... WOMAN!" He’s obviously incoherent.

He stops, looks at the 3 left gawking.

"What are you three looking at? We need to pack up and go the fallback location. We need to clean up, decontaminate, and tomorrow we can come pick up the pieces here and check out that library. Assuming we've not attracted every other Troll in Copenhagen to this party. MOVE NOW."

Everyone starts to scurry about as Mikkel glowers, arms crossed. Still furious. Looking over the field of twitching blackened trolls.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Sunflower on March 09, 2015, 06:32:14 PM
"Emil's Good Day" was so mega-awesome that I'm adding a page just of reactions from Disqus.  Plus a Very Special Afterword from the author.

ReturnOfDaveBro 
Hrolfr, THAT ROCKED!! :D AWESOME!!!!

Thank you for a most diverting fanfic. :)

Noodly Appendage 
:D BEST. This definitely just made my day.

Do you read SATW, by any chance? ;)

Ruby 
SATW IS THE BEST!!!!
I also find it hilarious how some of the characters line up with SSSS! (like the silent Finn and the pompous swede :D)

Aprillen 
Those are the traditional stereotypes. :)
 
Hrolfr 
And we all know those stereotypes are based on nothing whatsoever... ;-) Made up from the whole cloth as wicked slurs. Cough.
 
Sadoka Ytrap 
Wow... just wow... So much...

Well done Hrolfr!!! Well done!!

Kathy Megar-Kestner
You made my night! Sigrun finally getting under that placid calm of Mikkel!

Sunflower 
Haha! This is GREAT! I don't know what I like better: Mikkel on a booby-trapped cargo bike; Emil doing it Cleanser Style; Lalli firing Really Big Guns (although where did Sigrun get them -- Hammerspace?); Tuuri finally having something to do besides driving the Cattank; or Sigrun getting a rise out of Mikkel.

I do have to ask: Lalli *laughs*? That just doesn't compute, for me. Likewise Mikkel's post-stunt reaction -- I'm sure he's been in danger plenty of times before. But hey, those are minor quibbles over an absolutely hilarious piece of writing!

Blackjazz 
My sentiments exactly! It was truly a delightful read. :D


Hrolfr 
Lalli Laughing: Think of it like having a perfectly fine little used car all your life, and then someone hands you the keys to a new Bugatti, and says, I need this delivered. But today we're taking it to the Nürburgring, so you can play with it. Lalli was quite excited.

Mikkel has been in danger before, just never with dozens of trolls in hot pursuit, his life depending on two shooters scrubbing the faster ones off him, and a 90 year old bicycle that got harder to pedal in an invigorating race against death. He got talked into this by Sigrun. The reconnaissance was incomplete. He's upset, completely high on adrenaline, the plan almost went to to hell, and he was the bait. He's quite literally out of his mind. He'll be rather embarrassed by dinner.

Rifles: I made those up, figuring Uncle Harald, Sigrun's friend, drop shipped them to the Bridge Base at Sigrun's request. They are too big & heavy to be patrol rifles. Hence they only get taken out when you can be assured you probably will not be hauling them around willy-nilly. They are low on ammo now.

That's my excuse, anyway.

Noodly Appendage 
I agree with that except that I can kinda see Lalli laughing, given sufficient motivation and the combination of winning things and hysteria/adrenaline.

crystal_stanhope 
You had me at Emil's Good Day and it just gets better all the way through. Throwing in "Gangnam Syle" with Lalli and Emil dancing....hilarious! I wonder if they did the "Sexy Lady" part, Safety Dad in a rage at Sigrun. I would like to see him paddle her butt.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Sumeri on March 15, 2015, 11:07:40 AM
Just wrote a new story, inspired by the winner of Melodifestivalen (https://youtu.be/2g4wmYYfchQ). I'm so going to turn that song into a fanvid at some later time, I just need more pictures! Anyway, here you go!

That was most awesome! Gahh and so cute.

Also, if I may help you with the Finnish, the sentence you're trying to say would go roughly like this:

"Auta tätä kadonnutta sielua löytämään rauha. Johdata se Tuonelaan lepäämään ikuisuudeksi."

Btw I just realized that instead of "Johdata se Tuonelaan lepäämään ikuisuudeksi" you could also say "Saata se Tuonelaan ikuiseen lepoon."
Whatever you feel like using, I guess.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: AquaAurion on March 15, 2015, 11:27:25 AM
Just wrote a new story, inspired by the winner of Melodifestivalen (https://youtu.be/2g4wmYYfchQ). I'm so going to turn that song into a fanvid at some later time, I just need more pictures! Anyway, here you go!


My apologise for the probably mangled finnish, I only had google translate to help me out ^^' Lalli's supposed to say something like: "Help this lost soul find peace. Lead it to Tuonela to rest forever."
Also the song Emil is singing, if you want to listen to it, is Vyssan Lull (https://youtu.be/oGDohCcjwSg) a Swedish Lullaby that's been around since like forever! I wanted to have a video with lyrics so you could sing along, but Gösta Ekman d.ä had the most best voice, so no lyrics for you this time :P

This was a wonderful read~ I like the dynamic between Lalli and Emil, and this was captured really well in this story =) One correction though, it's Byssan lull and not Vyssan (my childhood is a lie D= ).
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solovei on March 15, 2015, 11:46:24 AM
I agree with Aqua and Sumeri, very cute! :D I was sort of planning a similar fic where Lalli was singing to Emil after a bad dream, so this is even more encouragement to write that >_>
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Windfighter on March 15, 2015, 12:08:46 PM
Thanks everyone for your kind words <3

One correction though, it's Byssan lull and not Vyssan (my childhood is a lie D= ).
Actually, that seems to depend. I've heard both versions, and I actually even searched to find which lullaby to use, so I searched "vaggvisor" and it was "Vyssan lull" everywhere and not one "Byssan lull" ^^' That and I asked a friend which songs might still be around in year 90 and he was all like "Vyssan lull" and then I was all like "Fine, I'll call it that then!" But never mind, I can change it :P
Darn it, I should have just used Videvisan instead xD

Also, if I may help you with the Finnish, the sentence you're trying to say would go roughly like this:
"Auta tätä kadonnutta sielua löytämään rauha. Johdata se Tuonelaan lepäämään ikuisuudeksi."

Btw I just realized that instead of "Johdata se Tuonelaan lepäämään ikuisuudeksi" you could also say "Saata se Tuonelaan ikuiseen lepoon."
Whatever you feel like using, I guess.
Thank you! I shall correct that at once! You shall move over here so I can use you for all my SSSS-fanfic needs! :P

I was sort of planning a similar fic where Lalli was singing to Emil after a bad dream, so this is even more encouragement to write that >_>
Yes, gogogo! We need more awesome fanfics!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: AquaAurion on March 15, 2015, 12:24:31 PM
Thanks everyone for your kind words <3
Actually, that seems to depend. I've heard both versions, and I actually even searched to find which lullaby to use, so I searched "vaggvisor" and it was "Vyssan lull" everywhere and not one "Byssan lull" ^^' That and I asked a friend which songs might still be around in year 90 and he was all like "Vyssan lull" and then I was all like "Fine, I'll call it that then!" But never mind, I can change it :P
Darn it, I should have just used Videvisan instead xD

It seems it's a really common mishearing. I wad convinced that it was Vyssan, but the original seems to be Byssan. Videvisan is cute =3 I used to sing that one and Trollmors vaggvisa as a child.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Windfighter on March 15, 2015, 12:29:32 PM
It seems it's a really common mishearing. I wad convinced that it was Vyssan, but the original seems to be Byssan. Videvisan is cute =3 I used to sing that one and Trollmors vaggvisa as a child.

Maybe people changed it because who wants to sing about the kitchen on a boat? xD Vyssan seems to come from the word vyssja which means "put to sleep" so it's not so farfetched at least.
I also used to sing Videvisan and Trollmors vaggvisa, and probably several others lullabies I never really thought about as lullabies xD
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Sumeri on March 15, 2015, 01:21:42 PM
I agree with Aqua and Sumeri, very cute! :D I was sort of planning a similar fic where Lalli was singing to Emil after a bad dream, so this is even more encouragement to write that >_>

Do it. PLEASE DO IT. I will die if you don't.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: mamioja on March 16, 2015, 01:29:09 PM
Enter Braidy by Mamioja

A young man sits on a rock in a small clearing. He is braiding his outstandingly long red hair. Dark woods loom all around him, but he seems unaware of dangers it might hide. He is anxiously talking to a small feline who in paying more attention to a passing butterfly than him.
Lucky, this is absolutely ridiculous! I know every rock and bush two days walk from home and I have never seen these before. And these trees. There should not be trees this tall anywhere in Iceland!
The agriculture department must have made a great breakthrough to make them grow this fast or something. And the air smells weird. Stale and undergroundish somehow.
I remember minding dad´s sheep at the valley and trying to find a proper rhyme for faces. And at last I got it, just before I fell asleep. Faces-Places. I even made a little song of it and wrote it down not to forget it. “Faraway places have no familiar faces”.
That song was quite catchy. I kept singing it all through that weird dream of endless deep water and monsters just under the surface. Actually I wouln´t dare stop singing. I did once and started to sink immediately. I was almost knee-deep when I noticed that singing made me able to walk on water.
You, of course, had no intention of getting your paws wet and rode on my shoulders. So I kept singing and walking and singing and walking until I was so tired that I almost didn´t mind sinking any more. Then I finally found a rock I could stand on without having to sing continuously. Oh, I was sooo tired and fell asleep curled on that spot.
And woke up in these strange woods. I don´t know where I am and have lost all dad´s sheep, too. Good that at least you are with me Lucky.
The man pats the kitty, whose attention is now focused on a fly buzzing by.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Curry on March 16, 2015, 02:15:42 PM
I was sort of planning a similar fic where Lalli was singing to Emil after a bad dream
Pleeeeeease do this! I have found a mighty need okay
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Curry on March 16, 2015, 02:25:18 PM
Also, I posted chapter one of the fic I'm working on here a while ago and here's the second! I really need to actually start writing this again... Chapter 2 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/3487976/chapters/7832669)

For anybody who missed the first chapter: Chapter 1 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/3487976/chapters/7662440)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solovei on March 16, 2015, 04:06:50 PM
Do it. PLEASE DO IT. I will die if you don't.

Pleeeeeease do this! I have found a mighty need okay

You asked for it, so here it is! :D

http://archiveofourown.org/works/3557222 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/3557222)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Curry on March 16, 2015, 04:26:49 PM
You asked for it, so here it is! :D

http://archiveofourown.org/works/3557222 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/3557222)

ahhhHHHH THIS IS ADORABLE AND ALSO VERY WELL-WRITTEN!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Sunflower on March 16, 2015, 04:39:51 PM
You asked for it, so here it is! :D

http://archiveofourown.org/works/3557222 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/3557222)

Soooo cute!  What does the "Drabble" tag mean?

Also, if there's a link to someone singing that song, would you share it with us, please?
Title: Onni and Lalli meet at dreamtime
Post by: mamioja on March 16, 2015, 04:48:46 PM
I posted this story at comments some time ago. Sunflower offered to post it to forum, but since I`m unable to locate it here i decided to add it here (just learned how to) since I still like the story and feel it is a pity to bury it under all those comments.

ONNI AND LALLI MEET AT DREAMTIME by Mamioja

Lalli:    Onni, finally you show up. We are doing ok. Tuuri has some books now, too. You can´t believe what I saw here. There was this absolutely -

Onni: Yes, yes. Good to see you, too. Sorry I couldn´t make it before. We all have been running around the dreamtime like madmen. I´ve been eating mushrooms, for days now, and you know how my head hurts afterwards. Not to mention what they do to my kidneys. Ugh. You are so lucky to be able to fall asleep anytime and anywhere. And still we haven´t been able to catch that redhead. Only glimpses here and there. Waking cursed trolls from their slumber everywhere he threads. There has been more attacks against mages inside dreamtime than I can count.

Lalli: Onni, I saw this stranger last time I was in dreamtime. She had such a long red braid... And there was a cat I think -

Onni: Here? Are you sure? And with a cat! Damn. If I hadn´t been searching the Lappland region... Hmm... It is a far cry, but Braidy, as that guy has been nicknamed, might actually be physically somewhere near Denmark.

Lalli: Do you really think so? Braidy... sounds nice -

Onni: Nice, my ass. It´s the most popular swearword lately. He´s a real pain in the... But we desperately need him. Or at least his genes. Mages are still so rare that we need every talent there is. He´s probably a wild one, you know. This could solve our problem nicely, if his genes are good enough to let you off the hook. I know neither you or Tuuri liked the elder´s decision to marry you two.

Lalli: I never said -

Onni: Yes, yes. You never objected it aloud like Tuuri did. Poor kid, ending with all the wrong genes. No immunity, no magic and all that eagerness for adventure boiling inside her.

Lalli: But it is her life -

Onni: No, too risky! Things like marriage should be decided with rationality not with feeling. This Braidy guy, then. We don´t know anything about him. I can´t entrust my sweet, innocent sister to him until I´ve investigated him myself.

Lalli: Whaaat? But Braidy is a girl.

Onni: No, he´s a boy all right. I know for sure. That long braid swishing here and there led us astray at first, too. But his aura is all male, when you get near enough to sense it.

Lalli: ---A redheaded boy---

Onni: Ok. I have to go now. Take care of Tuuri and try to find that Braidy guy if possible. I try to meet you here soon again.

Lalli: --- A redheaded boy ---


* Onni and Lalli speak finnish. There is only one word for the third person. So he/she = hän and his/ hers = hänen. No gender implied.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solovei on March 16, 2015, 04:49:04 PM
Soooo cute!  What does the "Drabble" tag mean?

Also, if there's a link to someone singing that song, would you share it with us, please?

A drabble is a short fanfic, usually between 100-500 words :)

Here's a link to the song! (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1TQbWCLql0I)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Sumeri on March 16, 2015, 05:12:30 PM
You asked for it, so here it is! :D

http://archiveofourown.org/works/3557222 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/3557222)

Ohhh that was so sweet, thank you so much!

Also, I had to look up that song :D such a pretty one, has a very folkish feel to it. I hope my parents didn't hear me singing along XD
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on March 18, 2015, 12:39:44 PM
Back when we didn't know what was in those crates I wrote myself a little three-chapter story of Emil getting his hands on some heavy-duty ordnance. That's now been officially jossed (unless there's a lot more to those candles than meets the eye) but I thought I'd put it up anyway:

http://archiveofourown.org/works/3568508/chapters/7861919

Hope you guys like it!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Sunflower on March 18, 2015, 01:03:48 PM
Back when we didn't know what was in those crates I wrote myself a little three-chapter story of Emil getting his hands on some heavy-duty ordnance. That's now been officially jossed (unless there's a lot more to those candles than meets the eye) but I thought I'd put it up anyway:

http://archiveofourown.org/works/3568508/chapters/7861919

Hope you guys like it!

Wow, that's amazingly good!  I felt like I was right there in the building with them.  When did you have Cleanser training, that you're so familiar with how flamethrowers work?   :o
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Fen Shen on March 18, 2015, 01:35:42 PM
I've only had time yet to read the first chapter, but I'll surely read the next ones later. Very well written up to this point  :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Sumeri on March 18, 2015, 05:02:48 PM
Back when we didn't know what was in those crates I wrote myself a little three-chapter story of Emil getting his hands on some heavy-duty ordnance. That's now been officially jossed (unless there's a lot more to those candles than meets the eye) but I thought I'd put it up anyway:

http://archiveofourown.org/works/3568508/chapters/7861919

Hope you guys like it!


Ohhhh my god that was so good! If you ever have the urge to write more awesome things, please share them with us!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Noodles on March 18, 2015, 06:37:29 PM
Back when we didn't know what was in those crates I wrote myself a little three-chapter story of Emil getting his hands on some heavy-duty ordnance. That's now been officially jossed (unless there's a lot more to those candles than meets the eye) but I thought I'd put it up anyway:

http://archiveofourown.org/works/3568508/chapters/7861919

Hope you guys like it!
D'awwwww! That ending! <3
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: AquaAurion on March 18, 2015, 08:10:57 PM
You asked for it, so here it is! :D

http://archiveofourown.org/works/3557222 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/3557222)

I agree with the others; this is so cute!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: kahli on March 18, 2015, 09:32:03 PM
Back when we didn't know what was in those crates I wrote myself a little three-chapter story of Emil getting his hands on some heavy-duty ordnance.
http://archiveofourown.org/works/3568508/chapters/7861919

Hope you guys like it!

! I LOVE IT!  ;D  Pleaseohpleaseohplease make more sometime!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: AquaAurion on March 18, 2015, 09:53:35 PM
Back when we didn't know what was in those crates I wrote myself a little three-chapter story of Emil getting his hands on some heavy-duty ordnance. That's now been officially jossed (unless there's a lot more to those candles than meets the eye) but I thought I'd put it up anyway:

http://archiveofourown.org/works/3568508/chapters/7861919

Hope you guys like it!

I somehow missed this before and I'm happy I saw ut now, because it was amazing!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on March 19, 2015, 05:42:32 PM
Wow! Thanks to everyone for your support. I've had a couple of other ideas for fanfics ratting around in my head for ages now, might have a go at writing them after all.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Fimbulvarg on March 19, 2015, 05:55:02 PM
Wow! Thanks to everyone for your support. I've had a couple of other ideas for fanfics ratting around in my head for ages now, might have a go at writing them after all.
The idea behind this one is great and it's really well written to boot, you should definitely give the other ideas a go.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on March 23, 2015, 04:31:43 PM
Someone in the Scenes We’d Like to See thread said they’d like to see our crew find one of those ‘sci-fi instruction manual’ books, and it got me thinking. Without further ado:

http://archiveofourown.org/works/3601659/chapters/7945863
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solovei on March 23, 2015, 06:04:49 PM
Someone in the Scenes We’d Like to See thread said they’d like to see our crew find one of those ‘sci-fi instruction manual’ books, and it got me thinking. Without further ado:

http://archiveofourown.org/works/3601659/chapters/7945863

YESSSS That makes 20 fics on AO3!! :D
You guys are awesome~
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on March 25, 2015, 01:56:47 PM
Aaaaaand this makes it 21 stories on AO3. :) There must be something about Stand Still Stay Silent, I never normally write anything like this much. This time it’s Mikkel remembering the fall of Kastrup – a bit gloomier than most of the stories we’ve all put up there so far, I must admit.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/3613659

As I said earlier, hope you guys like it!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Haiz on March 25, 2015, 02:42:48 PM
SectoBoss: I don't usually read fanfics because if weird brain cage issues, but I've read yours because they are really good, so wow hat off to you
.......... but how dare you mess around with my emotions like that
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Laufey on March 25, 2015, 02:51:53 PM
SectoBoss: that was a haunting experience... it was so dark I felt almost physically ill reading it and at the same time A+++++ would read again and again and again. I felt so awful for Mikkel, the desperation of the battle and his helplessness in it was very real. I'll be keeping an eye on you at AO3.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solovei on March 25, 2015, 03:00:57 PM
Aaaaaand this makes it 21 stories on AO3. :) There must be something about Stand Still Stay Silent, I never normally write anything like this much. This time it’s Mikkel remembering the fall of Kastrup – a bit gloomier than most of the stories we’ve all put up there so far, I must admit.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/3613659

As I said earlier, hope you guys like it!

Oh my gosh, that was really good! But also super sad D:

Gah. I don't know what feelings to have...
Title: Okay, I've talked about it enough...
Post by: Rosepieces on March 26, 2015, 08:26:01 PM
I'm not really a story writer, but I tried!

With hearts full of hope and bellies full of carrots, our adventurers continue in their trek throughout the Silent World. Sigrun expresses some concern over having to leave Emil behind to watch over their prisoner.

Tuuri: No, no! It's okay, I can watch him!
Sigrun: Are you sure? I don't know how long we'll be gone, and he looks pretty dangerous. *glaring at Reynir*
Tuuri: I CAN DO IT! *puffs up her chest and gives her best menacing stare*
Sigrun: All right, soldier! Glad to see you stepping up! You're on prisoner duty while we're away!

Scene: The Scholastic Four head towards their newest target, hunting down a spine of wild books. Departing Cattank, Mikkel continues to attempt to convince Sigrun that carrots are great because they give you X-ray vision. Cut back to the driver's seat of Cattank with Tuuri watching them leave, with a smile splitting her face and a gleam in her eye that could make The Sparkle jealous. Reynir stands beside her clutching his braid, still afraid and confused by his current situation.

Tuuri: All right, stowaway, it's just you and me now! So, what do I call you... Brad... Brandy... Braidy... ummm... WHO CARES!

*Tuuri pounces on The Braid, not realizing that there is a finite length of hair and pulling Reynir down to the ground as she rolls around, smiling like Lalli with cookies*

Reynir: Ummm... P-please stop. That hurts when you pull it.
Tuuri: Oh! I'm so sorry! I've been wanting to do that since I first saw your hair! *blushing, she stands and offers to help Reynir off the ground*
Reynir: It's okay, that happens surprisingly often, actually. Well, I'm Reynir. It's nice to finally meet someone that doesn't want me dead. What's your name?
Tuuri: I'm Tuuri! I'm the mechanic and translator of the group. I like cute things, your braid, I'm still trying to see a troll but they always disappear before I can see one.
I think they might not like me or something. I'm not immune to the disease which is why I have to stay here while everyone else goes to find more books, but I'm okay with that because Cattank is awesome and we always have a lot of fun and...

*Braidy is shocked at actually having met someone nice in a crew that seems intent on causing him harm. Or maybe he's in shock that someone can talk so cheerily and SO MUCH!*

Reynir: Wow that's... a lo- err that still sounds really fun!
Tuuri: Oh, it is! And then sometimes me and Cattank will--
Reynir: Hey! I ummm... I was wondering... I had an idea and... well there's something I want to try and you seem like you'd be kinda fun and umm... *Clutching his braid, Reynir is still a bit flustered at finding a good person in his most dire of situations*
Tuuri: Hmmm? Oh, what's your idea? *Tuuri isn't really paying attention, eyes fixated and hand slowly reaching for The Braid*
Reynir: Well, you see I thought we could...


Scene: The Scholastic Four return from their search, books in tow.

Emil: Thanks for saving me again, Sigrun! These things are all so attracted to me! I mean, I don't blame them, but-
Sigrun: Ah, that was nothing! I saw them ALL the moment we walked in! I think Mikkel was right and now I have x-ray vision! This is gonna be SO MOST BEST!

They arrive at Cattank and enter to drop off their latest haul. As they enter they see every bed disheveled and all their crates in disarray. The books are all gone, and even the candles have been taken! Tuuri and Reynir are nowhere to be seen.

Sigrun: I KNEW IT! I knew he was dangerous! We never should have left them alone and now-
*Lalli grabs her coat and points toward the communications room*

They quietly stalk towards the communications room, Sigrun taking the lead and expecting the worst. As they reach the room and peer around the corner, no one can believe what has happened to our poor, non-immune pair. All the books are still accounted for, stacked up neatly, along with some boards and random things all set up like pillars. Draped over them and hung around the room is every bed sheet they have, and pillows set up front like a wall. Sigrun storms forward to see Tuuri and Reynir asleep under the sheets.

Sigrun: WAKE UP, SOLDIER!
Tuuri: GAH WHAT WHO WHA--
Sigrun: What happened here?! I told you to watch the prisoner!!
Tuuri: I did! And I even built a prison for him!
Sigrun: Why are you in it?!
Tuuri: *quietly, and blushing from embarrassment* I like blanket forts. And then we talked and laughed a lot and then I fell asleep...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Kata Kissa on March 26, 2015, 09:22:53 PM
HAHA omg this is precious!  BLANKET FOOOOORT

~Kata/KM
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: DancingRanger on March 26, 2015, 09:33:17 PM
awesome story Rose! now I want to build a blanket fort.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Adrai Thell on March 26, 2015, 10:03:37 PM
I love it, Rosepieces! Ha, I want to join them... and write my own fanfics...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: DancingRanger on March 29, 2015, 11:19:56 PM
I'm going to Tease ya'll now.  Beginning of my OC into comic world story. I'm feeling a little museless right now. . .

The crimson eyed ranger sat crouched in the center of an unfamiliar forest. The trees echoed with the sounds of animals he had never heard before. Bird's song, the occasional grunt or groan of some nearby and unknown creature, and dozens of other subtle noises danced over the pale man's ears. His fingers ghosted over the smooth, worn ivory wood of his trusted bow. He frowned as the forest's noise dropped slightly, his eyes narrowed and he drew his weapon, notching an arrow. Watching the area around him his body tensed, coiling ready to move. This wasn't his first night in this strange new world, he'd seen the monsters, the great misshapen creatures of flesh and bone, and the evidence of long forgotten lives. He felt like he was kidding himself as he trecked kilometer after kilometer, searching for someone who could help him home. A soft rustling to his left had him jump to attention, bow fully drawn, arrow ready to be loosed, that was until he saw the flash of pale fabric, and the form of another being. Bright crimson eyes widened in shock as he fully glimpsed the other among the sea of grass. A slim graceful figure, jogging with incredible speed, seemingly oblivious to the eyes that now watched them. Gilbert blinked, releasing the tension from his bow. Returning his arrow to the quiver before quickly slinging the Ivory bow over his shoulder. He scrambled ducking between the trees to pursue the fleeting figure. A smirk formed across pale lips, as the ranger spurred into motion. He moved as silent as the night would let him, while still keeping his eyes on the figure before him. Just as he got within a dozen meters a twig snapped under his foot. The figure immediately froze, head whipping to stare at the offending sound. For a split second Crimson red met Icy blue, and then the male in white bolted into a dead sprint far outpacing the rate he was moving at before. Gilbert cursed under his breath, and took off after the stranger.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: KicknRun on March 30, 2015, 07:00:01 AM
I'm going to Tease ya'll now.  Beginning of my OC into comic world story. I'm feeling a little museless right now. . .

The crimson eyed ranger ....Gilbert cursed under his breath, and took off after the stranger.

Pale,crimson eyed,and his name is Gilbert? I don't think you know what fandom you're untentionally crossing over to, but this still looks cool.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: DancingRanger on March 30, 2015, 10:22:57 AM
Pale,crimson eyed,and his name is Gilbert? I don't think you know what fandom you're untentionally crossing over to, but this still looks cool.

I do. I cosplayed the character my OC is kinda based on. ^_^ I couldn't come up with a better name, as I really liked it's meaning for the OC.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: snotra on March 30, 2015, 11:53:01 AM
A bit of a speculative thought wandered into my mind recently. Would the world of Harry Potter and SSSS be compatible and if yes, how would wiardkind, both inside and outside Britain fare in this scenario? The reason for thinking this might be compatible is that both 'verses have magic as an active and driving force in their society, both play out on a very small scale, both geographically, but also number-wise and both societies have large amounts of creatures to contend with that do not fit in our current frame of reference.
Considering that in the world of Harry Potter magic is practiced much more, but that they have numerous other problems on the leven of society and a very strong technological disparity compared to the muggle world, would a crossover be viable?
I, for one, am not the best writer, more prone to having a mind filled with thoughts with wanderlust, rather than actual stories forming inside my head.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Fimbulvarg on March 31, 2015, 05:58:08 AM
Aaaaaand this makes it 21 stories on AO3. :) There must be something about Stand Still Stay Silent, I never normally write anything like this much. This time it’s Mikkel remembering the fall of Kastrup – a bit gloomier than most of the stories we’ve all put up there so far, I must admit.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/3613659

As I said earlier, hope you guys like it!

Wow, this was all kinds of heavy, but still amazingly written. Never stop writing!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Laufey on April 06, 2015, 07:48:39 PM
Sigrun's comment on nobody dying on the first mission kind of stuck in my mind, so in the end I decided to try my hand at writing a little fic about what kind of a past might be behind that. One warning for a short, possibly gory scene (I'm a gore/horror fan so my idea of what's acceptable is entirely borked, sorry.  :-\ I promise there's nothing too graphic, this time at least).

A Pretty Good Sign of Potential (http://archiveofourown.org/works/3697685).
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: KicknRun on April 06, 2015, 08:00:22 PM
Sigrun's comment on nobody dying on the first mission kind of stuck in my mind, so in the end I decided to try my hand at writing a little fic about what kind of a past might be behind that. One warning for a short, possibly gory scene (I'm a gore/horror fan so my idea of what's acceptable is entirely borked, sorry.  :-\ I promise there's nothing too graphic, this time at least).

A Pretty Good Sign of Potential (http://archiveofourown.org/works/3697685).

LOUD SCREAMING.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Noodles on April 06, 2015, 08:02:12 PM
Sigrun's comment on nobody dying on the first mission kind of stuck in my mind, so in the end I decided to try my hand at writing a little fic about what kind of a past might be behind that. One warning for a short, possibly gory scene (I'm a gore/horror fan so my idea of what's acceptable is entirely borked, sorry.  :-\ I promise there's nothing too graphic, this time at least).

A Pretty Good Sign of Potential (http://archiveofourown.org/works/3697685).
eek.
I never thought I'd say this, but Sigrun's dealing pretty well, if that's what her past looks like.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: DancingRanger on April 06, 2015, 08:26:12 PM
Sigrun's comment on nobody dying on the first mission kind of stuck in my mind, so in the end I decided to try my hand at writing a little fic about what kind of a past might be behind that. One warning for a short, possibly gory scene (I'm a gore/horror fan so my idea of what's acceptable is entirely borked, sorry.  :-\ I promise there's nothing too graphic, this time at least).

A Pretty Good Sign of Potential (http://archiveofourown.org/works/3697685).

Very nice, I liked it a lot. It has a certain chilly feel to it. Gave me goosebumps.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: RandomTexanReader on April 07, 2015, 02:36:33 AM
Lalli crept up behind Mikkel to peer over his shoulder, curious. The big man had been sitting quietly outside the truck, across from Emil and Sigrun, for some time, doing something with a pencil and notepad.
Mikkel turned his head, said something, and angled the notepad so Lalli could look at it: it was a rough sketch of Emil and Sigrun as Sigrun told her stories.
Mikkel returned to his drawing and Lalli watched, fascinated, as the picture came to life beneath the pencil. He leaned forward a little more and Mikkel stopped drawing, said something else, and then pulled out a piece of paper and produced another pencil, handing them both to Lalli. Accepting the gifts, Lalli withdrew and began laboriously scrawling on his piece of paper at a short distance from Mikkel, his brow furrowed in intense concentration.
Sigrun's voice rose in raucous laughter, signalling the finish of one of her hunting stories, and she launched into another as Emil listened, eyes bright with excitement. The faint, muffled sound of Tuuri's singing wafted from beneath the truck as she performed some mysterious mechanical ritual that would solve an equally mysterious mechanical problem. Mikkel and Lalli drew.
There was a light touch on Mikkel's shoulder, and he turned to see a piece of paper with a crude, but carefully drawn, representation of a seated man in profile. Lalli watched Mikkel's face with intent blue eyes as the healer took the sheet of paper and examined it closely.
The drawing was childish, amateur, uneducated, displaying all the mistakes of a young beginner. The single too-large eye was too close to the triangle nose, pupil and iris showing in a way never seen on any human, the head was a narrow, lopsided oval, the mouth an upturned line to the side, the ear a flap with a spiral on it, the hair isolated and scraggly, the neck an odd rectangle, the body at an impossible angle, the arms and legs disproportionate and wooden, the hands unnatural circles, the clothing existing on its own plane. But it was unmistakably Mikkel, drawing on a crooked square that represented his notepad. The subject of the portrait eyed it critically as the artist stood by, hands behind his back, waiting judgement.
Mikkel smiled---a warm, genuine smile very different from his general smirk of amusement---and said something encouraging that he knew Lalli couldn't understand. He carefully placed the picture between two sheets of blank paper, and Lalli, pleased that his gift had been accepted, headed back into the truck.
That night as Lalli prepared to head outside, he noticed something on the wall and stopped to look. It was the picture he had drawn, carefully taped up where it was clearly visible to anyone who passed by. Lalli stared at it for a moment, and then a small smile crept over his face. He was still smiling as he slipped outside.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Haiz on April 07, 2015, 03:40:31 AM
Sigrun's comment on nobody dying on the first mission kind of stuck in my mind, so in the end I decided to try my hand at writing a little fic about what kind of a past might be behind that. One warning for a short, possibly gory scene (I'm a gore/horror fan so my idea of what's acceptable is entirely borked, sorry.  :-\ I promise there's nothing too graphic, this time at least).

A Pretty Good Sign of Potential (http://archiveofourown.org/works/3697685).

Holy heck, Laufey, that sent some shivers down my spine.... If anyone is looking for me, I'm in my room listening to comforting new age music

RandomTexanReader: !!!
I didn't know I needed a drawing lalli before now, that was adorable


well then. I am a fanfic reader now
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on April 07, 2015, 05:16:06 AM
Sigrun's comment on nobody dying on the first mission kind of stuck in my mind, so in the end I decided to try my hand at writing a little fic about what kind of a past might be behind that. One warning for a short, possibly gory scene (I'm a gore/horror fan so my idea of what's acceptable is entirely borked, sorry.  :-\ I promise there's nothing too graphic, this time at least).

A Pretty Good Sign of Potential (http://archiveofourown.org/works/3697685).

That was a really good story! It's a warm day where I am but I swear I feel a little bit colder after reading that...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Laufey on April 07, 2015, 05:51:03 AM
Thank you for the nice comments everyone, you've no idea how afraid I was to post that fic! I just kind of sort of threw it here and ran away and almost couldn't get sleep afterwards because I'm a sad loser like that.  :D
I'll be having a most likely unpleasant day starting now (I have to make phone calls, I hate phone calls, why do I have to make phone calls?) but I'll be on a really good mood, which is no small thing.

eek.
I never thought I'd say this, but Sigrun's dealing pretty well, if that's what her past looks like.

Humans are amazingly resilient sometimes. Sigrun in particular strikes me as a person who's capable of going through some serious things with very low amounts of self pity or "why-me"s, which is one of the reasons I'd follow her to battle any time. :3

LOUD SCREAMING.

Are... are you ok? :D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Sunflower on April 07, 2015, 06:37:16 AM
Lalli crept up behind Mikkel to peer over his shoulder, curious. The big man had been sitting quietly outside the truck, across from Emil and Sigrun, for some time, doing something with a pencil and notepad.

[...]That night as Lalli prepared to head outside, he noticed something on the wall and stopped to look. It was the picture he had drawn, carefully taped up where it was clearly visible to anyone who passed by.


Wow, this is great!  Just a brief vignette, but it's a vivid portrait (so to speak) of everyone's characters.  It felt like I really was hearing Lalli's thoughts, which we so seldom get to do.  And it was touching to see the loner night scout building a rapport with "the big man."

It also reminded me that drawing would be an important skill in the Known World, where photography is rare and time-consuming.  (e.g. the Cat-Tank probably doesn't have a darkroom for Tuuri to develop her film.)  Your descriptions of Mikkel's and Lalli's sketches are really convincing, speaking as someone who can't even draw at the Lalli level.  Do you yourself draw, or have friends who are learning to, that you know what mistakes a beginner would make?


Now I'm hoping for someone to re-create the sketches Mikkel and Lalli made...

Keep up the good work!   :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: RandomTexanReader on April 07, 2015, 11:24:13 AM
Wow, this is great!  Just a brief vignette, but it's a vivid portrait (so to speak) of everyone's characters.  It felt like I really was hearing Lalli's thoughts, which we so seldom get to do.  And it was touching to see the loner night scout building a rapport with "the big man."

It also reminded me that drawing would be an important skill in the Known World, where photography is rare and time-consuming.  (e.g. the Cat-Tank probably doesn't have a darkroom for Tuuri to develop her film.)  Your descriptions of Mikkel's and Lalli's sketches are really convincing, speaking as someone who can't even draw at the Lalli level.  Do you yourself draw, or have friends who are learning to, that you know what mistakes a beginner would make?


Now I'm hoping for someone to re-create the sketches Mikkel and Lalli made...

Keep up the good work!   :)

I do draw, and I've also taught art and have younger siblings, so I've noticed some typical go-tos. Every person's different

When I came up with this, I actually did make the sketches: it was an interesting experiment to imagine how the different characters would draw. Mikkel would have a very good grasp of anatomy and his pictures would probably have a very solid feel to them, which I don't think I really managed to capture. And I described Lalli's picture a little worse than it actually turned out.
Mikkel's sketch:(http://orig01.deviantart.net/0b01/f/2015/097/0/1/scan__21__by_whyblessyourheart-d8osfwc.jpg)
(Sigrun doesn't stay still long enough for him to get a good picture, hehe)
Lalli's sketch:(http://orig15.deviantart.net/07d5/f/2015/097/b/0/scan__22__by_whyblessyourheart-d8osgkw.jpg)
Lalli actually has a very good instinctive grasp of composition, and if he were to work on it consistently could turn out a very respectable artist. He's got other priorities at the moment, though.

Looking at these again though, it seems to me pretty obvious that they were drawn by a girl: the relative size of the eyes and face as well as the inclination towards thinner, longer forms gives it away. *sigh* live and learn.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Haiz on April 07, 2015, 11:49:04 AM
I do draw, and I've also taught art and have younger siblings, so I've noticed some typical go-tos. Every person's different

When I came up with this, I actually did make the sketches: it was an interesting experiment to imagine how the different characters would draw. Mikkel would have a very good grasp of anatomy and his pictures would probably have a very solid feel to them, which I don't think I really managed to capture. And I described Lalli's picture a little worse than it actually turned out.
Mikkel's sketch:(http://orig01.deviantart.net/0b01/f/2015/097/0/1/scan__21__by_whyblessyourheart-d8osfwc.jpg)
(Sigrun doesn't stay still long enough for him to get a good picture, hehe)
Lalli's sketch:(http://orig15.deviantart.net/07d5/f/2015/097/b/0/scan__22__by_whyblessyourheart-d8osgkw.jpg)
Lalli actually has a very good instinctive grasp of composition, and if he were to work on it consistently could turn out a very respectable artist. He's got other priorities at the moment, though.
aaaaaaaaa this makes me so happy
ESPECIALLY sigrun's inability to stand still (eheheehhe) long enough to be drawn
and thinking about lalli drawing mikkel like that just makes me. SO HAPPY
i'm just happy
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Sunflower on April 07, 2015, 01:33:37 PM

(Sigrun doesn't stay still long enough for him to get a good picture, hehe)

Looking at these again though, it seems to me pretty obvious that they were drawn by a girl: the relative size of the eyes and face as well as the inclination towards thinner, longer forms gives it away. *sigh* live and learn.

Huh.  Really?  Those are signs of being drawn by a girl?  Interesting. 

I might have guessed some other, more gender-stereotyped things (like drawing people as pretty and anime-like, or choice of "feminine" subjects).... but I never knew there were ways of representing the human form that are give-aways.  (Sure, there are Rorschach blots and "draw a person" tests, but I thought those were to look for overall personality traits or abnormalities.)

EDIT:  Let the record show that I love the way you/"Mikkel" drew Sigrun.  Very cubist, with all those time-lapse legs, arms, and heads!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Vafhudr on April 07, 2015, 03:13:14 PM
Well I have seen that comparison made mostly between Shoujo and Shonen mangas, or mangas aimed at female or male readership.

Let use some extremes for comparison.
Here's the art of the group CLAMP, a circle of influential women mangaka.
(http://static.zerochan.net/Cross-Over.full.493563.jpg)

Notice the chins that can puncture your eyes and the long slender limbs and the big, lovingly detailed eyes.

And here's One Piece by Eichiro Oda. Which is about as Shonen as it gets.
(http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s---ujoTUbO--/ffhxlgjixt7tckss6d3l.jpg)

One Piece might not be such a good example since the artists as really elastic sense proportions, but you can notice that the features tend to be more restrained and more rounded. Harder, less flowing lines.

Of course, it's not necessarily a masculine art-style. After all, perhaps one of the best example of this is Fullmetal Alchemist, by Hiromu Arakawa.

(http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/fma/images/e/e8/639254.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20131124134414)

And then you have the extreme of masculine drawing, which parallels the horror that is human anatomy in western comics.
(http://www.gamesajare.com/2.0/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Hokuto-no-ken.png)

Sometimes the two opposites happen in one author. Like JoJo's bizarre adventure by Hirohiko Araki.
Jojo Part 2
(http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t252/jerrysnemesis/CF1DD734-C355-4F26-B5A7-AF01E792F36B-680-0000004D00FD87C0.jpg)

Jojo Part 5
(http://i.imgur.com/rvIl6MU.png)

Jojo, though, is kind of a category of its own.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: RandomTexanReader on April 07, 2015, 05:38:19 PM
Huh.  Really?  Those are signs of being drawn by a girl?  Interesting. 

I might have guessed some other, more gender-stereotyped things (like drawing people as pretty and anime-like, or choice of "feminine" subjects).... but I never knew there were ways of representing the human form that are give-aways.  (Sure, there are Rorschach blots and "draw a person" tests, but I thought those were to look for overall personality traits or abnormalities.)

EDIT:  Let the record show that I love the way you/"Mikkel" drew Sigrun.  Very cubist, with all those time-lapse legs, arms, and heads!

You can tell a lot about a person by their drawing. As far as identifying the person's gender, it's a very inexact science but I'd say it's possible to distinguish about 75% of the time. Sort of like identifying someone's gender by the way they talk online.
I do think it's interesting though that in the cases where I've been mistaken about the gender of the artist I've found the pictures to look very odd, despite the skill level. For example, I first thought that the paintress Morisot was a guy (I'm not sure why) and although I liked the paintings, I thought they were weird. Something seemed off to me about them. Once I learned that they were done by a woman, however, then they didn't seem weird anymore. It's just one of those things.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on April 09, 2015, 02:40:48 PM
It seems pretty likely by now that Reynir’s our second mage (famous last words), so here’s a little story of how Lalli finds that out. My apologies in advance for the few words of Danish, which I had to get from google translate. Hopefully the general meaning behind them is still there, even if tenses and whatnot have gotten mangled.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/3711373/chapters/8215588

As always, I hope you all like it!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Haiz on April 10, 2015, 05:31:30 AM
It seems pretty likely by now that Reynir’s our second mage (famous last words), so here’s a little story of how Lalli finds that out. My apologies in advance for the few words of Danish, which I had to get from google translate. Hopefully the general meaning behind them is still there, even if tenses and whatnot have gotten mangled.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/3711373/chapters/8215588

As always, I hope you all like it!
holy wow, sectoboss
I know I've probably said fifteen times I don't usually read fanfics, but I'm a regular reader of yours now. They are so in character, the mood is spot on, and I can see what is happening so clearly inside my head........
I loved the way you painted the landscape of the silent world with your words, it was so poetic, like, from new world soil to old world wreckage, hhhhhh yes that's my jam

and maybe I read it pretty late at night but I burst out laughing for reals when Tuuri asked what the troll looked like.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on April 10, 2015, 06:15:59 PM
Okayyy… this is actually the first fanfic for SSSS that I ever did, yonks ago now. I never uploaded it because quite frankly I was never sure whether anyone else would be able to take the idea seriously or not. Ages ago in one of the rash/trolls/monsters threads people mentioned the ideas of infected buildings and city-sized giants and infected that could still think, and this was what I made of that. No doubt it’s going to get shot down as the comic progresses but hey… nothing ventured? I guess?

http://archiveofourown.org/works/3718744

holy wow, sectoboss

Thanks for your kind words! Means a lot to me, that other people like the stuff I put up here  :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Oh Deer on April 10, 2015, 07:14:35 PM
Okayyy… this is actually the first fanfic for SSSS that I ever did, yonks ago now. I never uploaded it because quite frankly I was never sure whether anyone else would be able to take the idea seriously or not. Ages ago in one of the rash/trolls/monsters threads people mentioned the ideas of infected buildings and city-sized giants and infected that could still think, and this was what I made of that. No doubt it’s going to get shot down as the comic progresses but hey… nothing ventured? I guess?

http://archiveofourown.org/works/3718744

Thanks for your kind words! Means a lot to me, that other people like the stuff I put up here  :)
Oh my god, I love this! The descriptions were amazing. Though it's terrifying to think giants could reach city-size
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Haiz on April 11, 2015, 04:44:18 AM
Okayyy… this is actually the first fanfic for SSSS that I ever did, yonks ago now. I never uploaded it because quite frankly I was never sure whether anyone else would be able to take the idea seriously or not. Ages ago in one of the rash/trolls/monsters threads people mentioned the ideas of infected buildings and city-sized giants and infected that could still think, and this was what I made of that. No doubt it’s going to get shot down as the comic progresses but hey… nothing ventured? I guess?

http://archiveofourown.org/works/3718744
KVITEKRIST why did i read that
*huddles up in blankets*
*reads again*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Ren on April 11, 2015, 12:02:33 PM
It seems pretty likely by now that Reynir’s our second mage (famous last words), so here’s a little story of how Lalli finds that out. My apologies in advance for the few words of Danish, which I had to get from google translate. Hopefully the general meaning behind them is still there, even if tenses and whatnot have gotten mangled.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/3711373/chapters/8215588

As always, I hope you all like it!

This story is awesome especially the part at the end where Lalli laughs and Onni thinks he sneezed. You should really write more fanfics like this.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: KicknRun on April 11, 2015, 05:53:22 PM
Okayyy… this is actually the first fanfic for SSSS that I ever did, yonks ago now. I never uploaded it because quite frankly I was never sure whether anyone else would be able to take the idea seriously or not. Ages ago in one of the rash/trolls/monsters threads people mentioned the ideas of infected buildings and city-sized giants and infected that could still think, and this was what I made of that. No doubt it’s going to get shot down as the comic progresses but hey… nothing ventured? I guess?

http://archiveofourown.org/works/3718744

Thanks for your kind words! Means a lot to me, that other people like the stuff I put up here  :)

(http://cdn.fashionablygeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/boss-e1359597517843.png?f187b0)

Honestly,though, I loved it.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: DancingRanger on April 11, 2015, 06:04:16 PM
So, I'm working on a story, I posted part of it here, but I'm kinda losing the muse for it. And I've barely done any thing. . . so if you guys wanna read it and give me some feed back here's the Doc link Oh, https://docs.google.com/document/d/10EHQAmpiW7Ak-LzeclByuQG7zJPYbSpx-3tUDIPKxsA/edit?usp=docslist_api
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on April 11, 2015, 06:35:51 PM
(http://cdn.fashionablygeek.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/boss-e1359597517843.png?f187b0)


I hadn't thought of it like that, but now I can't unsee it. I've gone and written The Final Boss for SSSS. Oh well, GET PSYCHED then  :D
Title: "Fishing with Mikkel"
Post by: Hrolfr on April 12, 2015, 06:19:02 PM
"Fishing with Mikkel"

Scene: Beautiful day, low wind, sun, not terribly warm, but everyone is dressed for it.

Small Pier of a former pleasure craft mooring, at Louisiana north of Copenhagen. Open beech forest growing over some small ruins and what-not inland, Cattank parked.

Mikkel and Emil facing one another and facing outwards with fishing rods, metal lined box between them, comfortably seated & braced, looking relaxed.

Lalli on the rise in the concrete ( former harbour light) behind them , apparently sleeping, with his rifle near him.

Reynir a little further down the pier, also apparently asleep, using his braid as pillow.
#===========================================

Emil, restless: "Man, we've been here for-ever, what's taking them, we should drop a grenade in the water, scoop the fish and move on..."

Mikkel, impassive, pulls out his pocket watch, looks: "Emil, we've been here all of 35min. Grenades would make noise, noise attracts Trolls. By the way, you've caught a fish."

Emil, surprised: "Really?"

Mikkel: "Really."

Some time passes while Emil awkwardly pulls in a nice big herring, almost drops it back into the Oresund, manages to get the hook stuck in this coat, and eventually manages to re-bait his hook and get it back in the water.

Mikkel: "New to the fishing thing, I take it?" He says, pulling in another, much bigger fish and efficiently dealing with it in under a minute, to Emil's obvious amazement. Lalli opens his eyes briefly, watches and mutters.

Emil: "Yeah, my parents aren't much for the 'great outdoors'."

Silence reigns for a few minutes. Emil getting antsy.

Emil: "Mikkel?"

Mikkel, eyes closed: "Yes, Emil?"

Emil: "What are they doing?"

Mikkel: "Tuuri and Sigrun?"

Emil: "Yes! We've been out here such a long time."

Mikkel: "45min. Sigrun said she wanted some alone time with Tuuri, Tuuri was making noises about a field-expedient sauna, and getting clean-clean. Frankly they could be there all day. A Word to the Wise, Emil: Disturb not women at their ablutions."

Emil, stricken: "ALL DAY!? We'll starve."

Mikkel: "I brought food. Also enough wood to make a fire and grill some fish and water to make tea. Besides, we could use some down time. I think poor Reynir is about to have a nervous breakdown after yesterday. First time he a saw a troll close up."

Emil: "Huh?, it was DEAD! That's not scary."

Mikkel: "So? He didn't see you underneath it, moving it. He's not immune. Poor boy almost needed a change of underwear."

Emil giggles: "That was kinda funny."

Mikkel smiling: "Not for him. Let's be nice, he's far from home."

silence reigns

Emil: "I have a question."

Mikkel, eyes still closed: "Only one?"

Emil, looks suspiciously at Mikkel, decides to Mikkel is not setting him up for joke: "What's with the "Royal" thing everywhere in Bornholm, Royal Coast Guard, Kingdom of Denmark In Exile, Royal Army, Royal Post Service... I mean, no one has seen a member of Danish Royal family in 90 years, all the executive power is with the elected "Regent -Protector of the Realm", and the danish parliament at Ronne, isn't it? For all intends, it's a Republic."

Mikkel, looking over at Emil & says nothing for a space:

"Good Question, Emil."

Pause.

"Partially it's a way of honoring our ancestors, the Royal Danish Navy, for example, basically died, to a man, protecting Bornholm in Year0 and the subsequent months, bringing back weapons and tools and foods that allowed us to survive.

Partially it's tradition, we Danes are big on that.

And partially it's a legal fiction that helped preserve the appearance of legitimacy early on, when the rash was raging."

More Quietly. "Emil, how much do you know about what happened around Y0?"

Emil, now rapt: " I learned quite a bit in school..."

Mikkel: "Did you know, that the Y0 Swedish Navy out of Karlskrona Base cooperated closely with Danish Navy in Y0+ to protect Bornholm, one of their last known acts was helping sink a refugee flotilla that was heading towards Bornholm."

Emil: "Really? That sounds awful, why would they do that? What happened afterwards?"

Mikkel: "Well, according to the Secret Danish State Archives..."

Emil: "Wait, how did _you_ get in those..."

Mikkel: "Widow Jensen hired me..."

Emil, suggestively: "Widow Jensen, eh?"

Mikkel sighs: "No, Emil, not like that. Her official title was Chief Archivist, she was 85 when I knew her, and she needed a young man for the summer to haul boxes, and help re-file around the archive, I just helped. She napped a lot, so it gave me plenty of time to nose around the archive. Such a nice old lady."

Emil, looks abashed.

Mikkel: "Anyway, Lieutenant Wittenberg, the acting commander of Karlskrona..."

Emil : "What?! How could a Lieutenant be in charge of a big base..."

Mikkel: "Emil. Rash. Between death & desertions, there were not many Officers left. Sweden was in complete chaos."

Silence. Emil contemplating his fishing line.

Mikkel: "He took a Corvette and patrol boat out with skeleton crews, and with the remainders of Danish Navy, they sunk the refugees.."

Emil: "That's horrible."

Mikkel: "It was early winter, Bornholm was already on starvation rations; 5-7000 refugees in two big ferries, some probably already infected. It was a very terrible thing Emil, but probably not the worst thing that happened back then."

Emil, visibly appalled:" Why did they not teach us this?"

Mikkel: " In grade school? Children do _not_ need to know this. Besides, Mora might not know. They had their own problems, the Swedish squadron sailed back home to investigate the base's sudden radio silence and we never heard from them again."

Silence reigns for a few minutes.

Emil: "So what was that about the "Royal" legal fiction..."

Mikkel: "Nya, Ja, well I found out why in the archives too. As with Mora, Bornholm had to make a lot of tough decisions very quickly in Year0 and some very hard decisions subsequently, so some concerned citizens formed a "committee of public safety" and, not to put too fine a point on it, staged a friendly coup d'etat that took over tyrannical emergency powers "for the duration." They doled out rations, medicines, forced the sharing of resources, resettling of people, directed raiding, quarantine and defense needs. People went along when they realized the alternative was death, so it's not like they often had shoot people or anything, but the Committee's word was law."

Emil: "That doesn't sound very Danish..."

Mikkel: "It wasn't, the people on the committee's were highly uncomfortable with their assumed powers. But, by claiming it was "By order of the Queen" as a sort of civil regency and that is was "for the emergency only", it allowed them a fig leaf of legitimacy that allowed everyone important to go along without asking too many awkard questions. Also, saying and ordering horrible things "By order of the Queen" , who was absent, sounded better than some "because we are the Committee of the Damned" to the people of the time, it provided a sense of continuity.

Emil: " So basically, they took over and made it all up? And everyone kind of went along."

Mikkel: "Yes. Fish!"

Emil:"Huh?"

Mikkel: "You have a fish, pull it out. Wait, what's that..."

Emil: "Wuh?"

Mikkel a little louder at Lalli: "Lalli! Mit Kl. Fem, i vandet, 20m" (My 5 o'clock, in the water, 20 meters)

Lalli, who was apparently sleeping, rotates up, rifle shouldered and looks at the water swirling near where Emil's' lines is bobbing, closely. A seal bobs up with Emil's fish, looks and swims off with it.

Lalli, dismissively: "Ei hätää" He lies back down.

Emil, amazed: "He understands you?"

Mikkel, a little smugly: "He's not stupid at all, you know. He learns quick when cookies are involved. The seal broke your line, you'll need a new hook."

Emil busies himself with the line.

Time passes, as a few more fish are caught and nice lunch is had. Reynir cleans up and walks out to the end of the Pier talking animatedly at Lalli who politely follows him, looking serious.

Emil to Mikkel: " Does Lalli have a the slightest clue what crate boy is talking about?"

Mikkel: "Given the speed he's talking and that it's in Icelandic, it's safe to assume that Reynir's dark secrets are safe from Lalli."

Emil: "Snork! He does talk an awful lot."

Mikkel has caught a nice big fish, and appears quietly pleased with himself, as he drops it, flopping, the crate. "Dinner!"

some time passes

Emil: "I have a question."

Mikkel, looks at Emil sideways: "They'll be ready when they are ready. Have a nap, or read this book. If we're lucky, maybe we can use that sauna of Tuuri's after dinner."

Emil: "No, not that, but thanks for the book. Oooh, pictures! Wow, so many people... No, I have another question."

Mikkel dryly: "Entirely possible, go ahead."

Emil: "What's with you and widows, Sigrun and Tuuri both giggle about about it, they joke and make it sound like you've fathered 1/2 the illegitimate children of your generation."

Mikkel, chokes and wheezes and laughs, and eventually regains a little composure. "Do they? You should not believe everything you hear, Emil."

Emil, a little haughtily: : "Oh I know, but you make comments and..."

Mikkel sighs: "Emil, you are a man of the world, yes? You've been to a tavern, once or twice, what do drunk young men talk about when there are no women about?"

Emil looks at him sidewise, sure that he's being made fun of, but no: "Uhm, sure, I guess. Er. They talk about about women?"

Mikkel: "Correct. Specifically, every tavern drunk from Saimma to Reykjavik talks about lusty and affection starved "Kastrup widows" they met on their travels..., right?"

Emil, blushing: "Erhm, well... I HAD heard a story where..."

Mikkel: "Say no more. Please. There were and are a fair number of widows and spinsters in my generation as a result of that disaster. As you might imagine, some remarried to older or younger men, some emigrated, some imported a husband ... but not all, for various reasons, it's not like there was an abundance of men of the right age or class."

Emil: "..but..."

Mikkel: "Emil, I've seen you bet at cards, you are pretty sharp. You are a betting man. What are the odds that a nice lady in Bornholm would throw caution to the winds, somehow meet some disreputable, drunk, itinerant & indiscreet Swede, Finn, Norwegian or Icelandic boat man and engage in a brief torrid affair, when pecuniary considerations are not foremost."

Emil: "Pecuniary?...ooooohh. Uhm. Not very high, I guess." Looks hopeful that he has guessed right.

Mikkel: "Correct. Let's extend that line of thought." (somewhat pompously) "Would a respectable widow suddenly take up with dashing, yet ruggedly handsome & educated, itinerant Danish man who has a bit of a reputation?" Stares at Emil...

Emil looking a little embarrassed: " Well... I suppose the odds are a little better."

Mikkel, looking at Emil, a little pleased: "Good answer. Now, for the gold star, Master Västerström. What are the odds that were she to have a moment of loneliness, or lust, or otherwise fall madly in love, she might do so with someone in her circle of friends, or extended circle of acquaintances whom she meets regularly, for instance a neighboring married farmer, a brother in law, or some handsome farmhand helping her out, or the next door farmer's older son sent to help her with harvest..."

Emil, frowning: "I guess those would be the best odds..."

Mikkel: "Smart man. The word of the day is: propinquity."

Emil: "But I didn't think that birth outside of marriage were considered a really terrible thing? I mean, I do not think anyone thinks it is a great thing, but it's not like the lady would be shunned. Especially after Kastrup..."

Mikkel: "Ah ha! Excellent, my Emil. The children are wanted, and at worst can be put out for adoption, but whose child IS it? Bornholm is small, and the pool of likely candidates for father rapidly gets to be so very, very, small. And that might have significant social consequences for the father, and/or mother, if for example he is a married man, or he's much younger, or older, or wholly in-appropriate, people talk... do you follow?"

Emil, comprehension dawning: "Oooooh, so it's not the child, it's the neighbor's gossip that's hurtful... and it destroys marriages and so on..."

Mikkel: "Correct Emil. And that's where I come in."

Emil: "Huh? I thought you said it..."

Mikkel: " ...wasn't likely. But, I am fairly well known in certain circles as being both discreet & kind."

Emil: "So you..."

Mikkel: "Plausible deniability. Muddied waters."

Emil: "Uhhh, what?"

Mikkel: " Emil, how long is a typical pregnancy? If I am obviously seen with a widow 9-ish months previously, then when the gossips start to talk, they may suspect a local man, but the fact that I was obviously there around that time, "wooing" said widow makes things a lot harder to pin down. Especially, as I am a disreputable rover. Especially if the midwife or Doctor also muddies the water a little. They can be very helpful. Premature babies and all. "

Emil: "Oh. Don't you have any problems with the real fathers?"

Mikkel: "Not really, they are usually relieved, but the ladies Father's and Mother's... Yikes. Why do you think I took this contract into Copenhagen? The timing was impeccable. I needed to leave Bornholm for a few months."

Emil: "So you've never..."

Mikkel, watching the waves: "I never said "never" Emil."
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on April 13, 2015, 12:02:15 AM
Spoiler: The Loki Saxet Snippet • show
Full-page ad from the Mora Times-Post:

Here’s a sneak peek at the latest Loki Saxet novel, TWO FOR TROLLHÄTTEN, introducing the Syringe, a new hero of the Silent World, available everywhere THIS MONTH:

A soft, oddly metallic rustle disturbed the quiet that hung over the cul-de-sac, a rustle that slowly grew into the steady clink-clink-clink of the tall, rangy man’s boots as he entered the cul-de-sac. Most people tried to make as little noise as possible when they had to venture into the Silent World, but this man was Loki Saxet, the Troll Killer, and he wanted his prey to know that he was coming for them.

Hiding out somewhere in this city, he knew, was the troll that had slain his mother all those years ago. Trolls didn’t die unless they were killed, so Loki knew he’d find it--and finish it off--someday. It knew well enough that he was after it, of course, and unlike most other trolls, it was smart enough to run from him. But it would never run far enough to stop Loki Saxet.

He was close now; he could feel it in his bones. He’d been close before, even coming to grips with it more than once, but it had always managed to slip away from him before he could manage to land the killing blow. He’d left his mark on it, though; it was missing several arms, thanks to him, and its hunting had to be suffering from that loss. The next time he caught it, it would be weak and vulnerable.

Loki stopped abruptly. “Come on out,” he ordered, his voice harsh from disuse.

After a moment, a stranger--obviously a human, though--emerged from the nearest building. He was dressed in surgeon’s whites, somewhat stained with troll gunk now, and wore a work apron whose capacious front held a large selection of what were obviously needles. A surgical mask covered his nose and mouth.

Loki had heard tell of this man; people called him “the Syringe”, and it was rumored that he walked the Silent World even as Loki did, only his mission, or quest, or whatever you wanted to call it, was to save as many people as he could from troll attacks.

The two men considered each other in silence for a long moment; then, Loki spoke.

“Never thought I’d be facing competition to bag my troll.”

This startled the Syringe. “I don’t see as how we’d need to compete over any troll, stranger. I’d see it as more of an opportunity to cooperate than anything else.”

Loki grunted noncommittally. “If you need a hand cleaning out a nest, that’s one thing. But there’s one particular troll out there--” he briefly described his quarry “--that’s mine, and mine alone. You get in my way when I’m after it, and I’ll plow right through you and anything else to get it. Savvy?”

“You must do as you feel is best,” the Syringe replied.

Loki snorted at the non-answer. This would be an interesting encounter, whatever the outcome...

Will Loki finally bring his mother’s killer down?

Will the Syringe help or hinder him?

Don’t miss TWO FOR TROLLHÄTTEN, Book 37 in
the Saga of Loki Saxet, available everywhere THIS MONTH!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: mamioja on April 13, 2015, 01:36:02 PM
To the Dagrenning program public relations office,
I have seen your advertisement poster for the Dagrenning program. The young girl in example three is an outrage. How could an irresponsible person like her bring up an innocent baby by herself. By the name of Freija, even I would be better suited to bringing up a baby. As a taxpayer I demand you tighten the screening of potential parents immediately!
Yours sincerely,
Marella Orvarsdottir


PR woman n:o 1: There is only one letter complaining about the poster today.
PR woman n:o 2: Any potential in it?
PR woman n:o 1:  I`m checking her info right now. Marella Orvarsdottir, age 32. Nonimmune. Single, no children. A career woman with a stable income. She has never applied for the program.
PR woman n:o 2: Sounds like a good candidate. I think she could take the bite.
PR woman n:o 1: Yes, but she might be the last one from this campaign. What do we have next in the list? Farmers or gay couples?
PR woman n:o 2: Gay couples and farmers. Maybe even gay farmer couples.
PR woman n:o 1: That one will be my last project for a while. I have decided to apply for the program myself. I`ll probably be a better mom than some of those people we try to convince to participate.
PR woman n:o 2: Hmm. I saw Ragnheidur yesterday. She was looking for a job. I think she would suit our department nicely. She did fantastic work with that poster. Those lines of hers brought us at least 50 new applications.
PR woman n:o 1: I enjoyed working with her, too. She has a lot of potential. She is also familiar with the project, which helps at the beginning. How many kids does she have now?
PR woman n:o 2: Fifteen last time I checked. At that age she is already our star donor.

Dear Marella Orvarsdottir,
Thank you for contacting us about the Dagrenning program adverticing campaign. We appreciate your concern for our parental screening. The suitability of the parents is indeed important for the future of our next generation.
Yours sincerely,
Camilla Einarsdottir
ps. Have you yourself given thought for participating in our program? We have a continuous need for good and sensible parents.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: ruth on April 13, 2015, 02:14:02 PM
To the Dagrenning program public relations office,

mamioja, i love this! totally captures how the department works in my mind.

also, i have a new chapter (http://archiveofourown.org/works/2798174/chapters/8286577) of first contact up! check it out if you're interested. here's a teaser:

Quote
“Hey!” calls the prime minister. “Glad you could like, join us.”

“Hello, Ragnheiður,” says Claire. “Are you looking forward to meeting my bosses, finally?”

“Yeah, for sure. But they aren’t going to be sick, are they? Like we’ve ruled that out, right? Nothing grosser than that, honestly.”


Quote
Ragnheiður Bjarnadóttir
Age: 51
Nationality: Icelander
Immunity: No
Languages: :iceland:
About: The Icelanders don’t really know how this happened either, exactly, but Ragnheiður’s promises to expand the Dagrenning genetic program were received well and she received an overwhelming majority in the Alþingi. What she does with her newfound power has yet to be seen.

“I think that was the point of the quarantine.”

“Right, okay. But I’m totally blaming you if they bring down civilization as we know it because of your weird foreign diseases.”

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Haiz on April 14, 2015, 06:10:45 PM
OKAY SO
today i had this sudden craving for an AU
so i started thinking about a super silly norwegian high school au
and get this. I wrote a thing.
I haven't written in *checks clock* ten thousand years, and I've never ever written any fancfic before, sooooooo this is. um. not super good and pretty weird and OOC but maybe it will cause some enjoyment anyway
(please don't take any of it seriously, it's random as heck)
((the ending is super abrupt I know))

NORWEGIAN VERSION HERE (http://unicorngender.tumblr.com/post/116804703409/stillsta-vgs-del-1-skogturen)
(english version a few posts below. sorry for the mess)

edit: changed it to a link
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: RandomTexanReader on April 14, 2015, 06:43:57 PM
OKAY SO
today i had this sudden craving for an AU
so i started thinking about a super silly norwegian high school au
and get this. I wrote a thing.
I haven't written in *checks clock* ten thousand years, and I've never ever written any fancfic before, sooooooo this is. um. not super good and pretty weird and OOC but maybe it will cause some enjoyment anyway
(please don't take any of it seriously, it's random as heck)
((the ending is super abrupt I know))

OH AND IT'S IN NORWEGIAN
[/font]

*GASP*
...
*opens Google Translate*
...
IT'S SO GOOD! AAAA! "He stopped expecting to see his ham sandwich again if he turned away for more than two seconds," heehee. I love all of the teachers too, especially Sigrun and Taru, and the ending is PERFECT.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: ruth on April 14, 2015, 06:51:54 PM
i have to say i cracked up and had to stop for a moment when i saw this:

Quote
Hvor vanskelig kan det være

all in all a lot of fun to read. good stuff haiz :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Haiz on April 14, 2015, 07:37:03 PM
~*OFFICIAL ACTUAL ENGLISH TRANSLATION*~ (http://unicorngender.tumblr.com/post/116420856219/okay-this-is-utterly-ridiculous-but-i-wrote-a) over here so I don't clutter the thread with two ridiculously long posts

ruth and RandomTexanReader, I'm surprised and delighted you enjoyed it!!! thank youuu

I will regret this tomorrow I feel it in my bones
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Curry on April 14, 2015, 07:46:05 PM
~*OFFICIAL ACTUAL ENGLISH TRANSLATION*~ (http://unicorngender.tumblr.com/post/116420856219/okay-this-is-utterly-ridiculous-but-i-wrote-a) over here so I don't clutter the thread with two ridiculously long posts

ruth and RandomTexanReader, I'm surprised and delighted you enjoyed it!!! thank youuu

I will regret this tomorrow I feel it in my bones

THIS IS THE CUTEST THING I LOVE IT AND NOW I FEEL THE NEED TO DRAW FANART HHHHHHHH THANKS FOR DISTRACTING ME WITH THIS LOVELY THING NOW I'LL NEVER BE ABLE TO GO BACK TO WORK
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: RandomTexanReader on April 14, 2015, 07:47:42 PM
~*OFFICIAL ACTUAL ENGLISH TRANSLATION*~ (http://unicorngender.tumblr.com/post/116420856219/okay-this-is-utterly-ridiculous-but-i-wrote-a) over here so I don't clutter the thread with two ridiculously long posts

ruth and RandomTexanReader, I'm surprised and delighted you enjoyed it!!! thank youuu

I will regret this tomorrow I feel it in my bones

Your English is much better than Google Translate's. :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Haiz on April 14, 2015, 07:49:41 PM
THIS IS THE CUTEST THING I LOVE IT AND NOW I FEEL THE NEED TO DRAW FANART HHHHHHHH THANKS FOR DISTRACTING ME WITH THIS LOVELY THING NOW I'LL NEVER BE ABLE TO GO BACK TO WORK
WELL I FOR ONE HAVE NEVER PROCRASTINATED WRITING AN ESSAY SO HARD I WROTE ANOTHER THING INSTEAD BEFORE

i'm sorry? you're welcome?? also omg thank u all
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Noodles on April 14, 2015, 08:18:03 PM
Haiz, that is SO BEAUTIFUL
I can totally imagine that (PE Teacher Sigrun, FTW!)
aaaaaaaaargh I have stuff that I should be doing right now but I am, instead, glued to this dang forum. :P
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Adrai Thell on April 14, 2015, 08:26:16 PM
Bwaaah, Haiz, it's wonderful! I'm not sure why I found the abuse of Braidy funny, but I did... and of course, I read treebeard as Treebeard, as in the character, so I was laughing too hard, so I had to read it again :P
Dangit, this is material for all sorts of fanart on its own, nooo, I need to finish my own... ;_;
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Haiz on April 15, 2015, 02:34:38 AM
Haiz, that is SO BEAUTIFUL
I can totally imagine that (PE Teacher Sigrun, FTW!)
aaaaaaaaargh I have stuff that I should be doing right now but I am, instead, glued to this dang forum. :P
Bwaaah, Haiz, it's wonderful! I'm not sure why I found the abuse of Braidy funny, but I did... and of course, I read treebeard as Treebeard, as in the character, so I was laughing too hard, so I had to read it again :P
Dangit, this is material for all sorts of fanart on its own, nooo, I need to finish my own... ;_;
hhh thank you?? i still cant believe people actually read it
- I cannot take the honor of coming up with PE teacher sigrun..... I might have, but my friend got to it first so kudos to her. PE teacher sigrun is great
- I knew the treebeard thing was inevitable but it was so laateee i didn't feel like doing actual effort to come up with a better alternative
- I AM SO SORRY REYNIR NEXT TIME I'LL GIVE YOU SPEAKING LINES except im kinda really bad at dialogue so i don't know how much of a consolation that is

also omg fanart? people want to draw stuff from this silly wordspew?? I, wow
...........I might write more because I forgot how much I enjoy writing dumb school scenarios. what does it say about me that my first norwegian school scenario idea was a trip into the forest though
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Fen Shen on April 15, 2015, 03:41:33 AM
Hehe, a good idea and a funny fanfic, Haiz! I certainly enjoyed reading it. :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Mélusine on April 15, 2015, 03:52:26 AM
Usually I'm not a fan-fiction girl, but I'm happy I've try with yours, Haiz :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wildfire on April 15, 2015, 04:04:39 AM
~*OFFICIAL ACTUAL ENGLISH TRANSLATION*~ (http://unicorngender.tumblr.com/post/116420856219/okay-this-is-utterly-ridiculous-but-i-wrote-a) over here so I don't clutter the thread with two ridiculously long posts

ruth and RandomTexanReader, I'm surprised and delighted you enjoyed it!!! thank youuu

I will regret this tomorrow I feel it in my bones


MEEEEEEP so fun.

Also, quoting a sentence from the actual fanfic:


Quote
Everything changed after the Forest Trip.

My first thought:

BUT THEN EVERYTHING CHANGED WHEN THE FIRE NATION ATTACKED!!!


Lol I am so sorry I just had to share it, it would've driven me mad if not. Other than that OH GOSH I love it! : D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on April 15, 2015, 05:31:52 AM
~*OFFICIAL ACTUAL ENGLISH TRANSLATION*~ (http://unicorngender.tumblr.com/post/116420856219/okay-this-is-utterly-ridiculous-but-i-wrote-a) over here so I don't clutter the thread with two ridiculously long posts

That was great! I think you got the teachers just about spot-on. I'm still chuckling at the image of Mikkel bringing a bigger and bigger first aid kit every year.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Haiz on April 15, 2015, 07:07:28 AM
jksdfjbsdfbds dfihdfj thank you all
I did not expect this kinda feedback because I know it's pretty flawed, there's no plot, the pacing is flawed, the sentences are incredibly overly..... over-constructed, and what even are dialogues,,, but since you enjoyed it I feel encouraged to write more in the future?? wow what is this fandom doing to me

Mélusine: I'm not a fanfiction kinda kid either, which it's why it's so incredibly strange I wrote one at all

wildfire: CONGRATS U SPOTTED THE REFERENCE
(also did you read the norwegian version too)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wildfire on April 15, 2015, 08:36:59 AM
(...)

wildfire: CONGRATS U SPOTTED THE REFERENCE
(also did you read the norwegian version too)

!!

I get golden medal? : D

(no I didn't because I read the english one and then I realized I HAS SCHOOL but I'M BACK NAOW AND NORWEGIAN SHALL HAPPEN!)


Also I realize this has been said before, but PE teacher Sigrun - spot onnn!
And I love that Mikkels first aid kit just grow bigger for each year : 3





Edit:
(...)
(also did you read the norwegian version too)

I have now.


This cracked me up:

Quote
Selv Lalli var imponert med hans lynraske fletteskills.


HOORAY FOR "lynraske fletteskills"!!! O, great Reynir, teach me your ways, for I am but a mere short haired girl who never get to braid hair!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Zithpith on April 15, 2015, 06:57:30 PM
So I guess I should give an introduction. I was reading through the comic and when I came onto the story about what happened to the Mora trains I got the idea for this one shot. Warning ahead of time this is the writen equivilent of a doodle.

****

The Hjorten Rail

   The low rumble of the train’s engine shakes Desi awake. He sits up from his bench, pulling aside the sheet to stretch. He sits up and glances to the machine that had awoken him. The train sits patiently in the station, a small crowd gathering beneath its wide windows. It almost looks like something from a story book, a thing that would have been out of place even before.

   Then again everything seems like it was taken from a storybook like here, he thinks to himself as he sits up.

   “Awake yet?” a warm voice asks behind him.

   Desi turns still sitting to see Ida standing behind him, a cup of water in each hand. He grunts an answer as she hands one of the cups over.

   “Impressive isn’t it? They say you won’t even notice the days pass while you ride,” Ida says  while sitting down and Desi leans against her.

   “Yes you’re proud I get it,”

   “You have to be proud of family once in a while. You feeling better about getting on it now?”

   “Wish it looked more sturdy,” Desi admits in a low voice.

   “You worry too much,” Ida says ruffling Desi’s black hair, a trait that made him stand out or so he was told.

         A hold over from his ancestors who were lucky enough to be on a train northward from some forgotten part of the Silent World when the old world ended.  And the irony of his paranoia didn’t escape him. But when he looks at the train a knot winds itself in his stomach.

        “Desi, you’re getting that look,” Ida says without having to look.

        “I don’t have looks,” Desi says. “Just wish your folk could come here.”

        The two sit quietly for a minute before Desi shifts to look at Ida.

       “Could you make me a promise?”

       “Desi it really is safe,”

       “Just let me finish. If something were to happen, and you have to chose between risking your life for me, you have to help yourself,”

       “Well that’s selfish of you,” Ida says after a moment.

        “Of course, if something happened to you your brother would kill me,” he says with a smile.

       “The thing is I’d rather face a troll than your cousins,” Ida says, playfully elbowing Desi.

        A bell rings across the station and the train doors open.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SolarPoweredGirl on April 15, 2015, 11:04:39 PM
*joins the party a year late*
this is my first fan fiction scene. ever.
so uh here goes

LALLI LEARNS MANNERS

(Setting is a fancy restaurant.It's Sigrun's birthday and Tuuri forced everyone to go out somewhere nice.)
[Tuuri is sitting at a table with Lalli, Reynir and Emil. Sigrun and Mikkel are nowhere to be seen.)
Lalli: (sighs) Why do I have to sit next to the messy swede? Again?
[Emil is currently trying to rub sauce off his sleeve]
Emil: (accusingly) What did he say?
Tuuri: Oh, nothing important. (puts on a fake smile.)
Emil: (eyes Lalli suspiciously)
Reynir: (sleepily) Wheereee'sss the fooooddddd.
Tuuri: (scolding) Reynir! You've dipped your hair in our appetizer!
Reynir: Huh? Oh yeah. No worries, I get food in my hair all the time.
Tuuri: (facepalms) It's fine, it's fine. I don't really like, uh, (eyes appetizer, which is of course her favorite food.) whatever that is.
Lalli: Now there's a messy Icelander too?
Tuuri: (whispering) Lalli! Will you start being polite already?
Lalli: Polite? What is that again?
Tuuri: It's when you don't talk about other people behind there backs!
Lalli:...Oh. Okay. Where is the loud one? And the hairy one who smells like onions?
Tuuri: That is the exact opposite of polite! Just watch and learn from the rest of us, okay?
Reynir: (no longer half asleep) Wait, where did Sigrun and Mikkel go?
Tuuri: To see why the food is taking so long. I hope they're being fair. We only got here twenty min-
(Resounding CRASH comes from the kitchen. A food cart rolls out, carrying an angry Sigrun. Whole restaurant turns and looks.)
Sigrun: (stands on top of cart, obviously out of breath and mixed up.) HOW COME I ARE DENIED MY FOOD ON BIRTHDAY? I DEMAND GOOD COOKED FOOD TIME NOW!
(before anyone can do anything, Mikkel rushes out of the kitchen straight into Sigrun's cart as it flies out from beneath her.)
Lalli: (matter of factly) Ah. I know manners know.
Tuuri: (shocked) Huh? No, no, no that is NOT manners! Just, wait here okay?
(Tuuri rushes to help Sigrun and Mikkel.)
Emil: So, uh...maybe we should...
Reynir: Leave? No! We have to help! It's our fault anyway.
Emil: You mean YOUR fault.
Reynir: What!?! We were BOTH complaining about the wait.
Emil: ...well mostly you...
Reynir: WHY YOU LITTLE-
(fight breaks out between Emil and Reynir. The whole restaurant is in chaos except for Lalli, quietly sitting in his chair.)
Lalli: (proud)I watched and I learned from all my friends. Now I know manners. 


Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Noodles on April 15, 2015, 11:11:14 PM
*joins the party a year late*
this is my first fan fiction scene. ever.
so uh here goes
LALLI LEARNS MANNERS
MOST BEST. I love proud Lalli!
Make more of these soon, please. *puppy-dog eyes*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SolarPoweredGirl on April 15, 2015, 11:24:01 PM
MOST BEST. I love proud Lalli!
Make more of these soon, please. *puppy-dog eyes*
Thanks!I will do my best to make more  :D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: AquaAurion on April 16, 2015, 05:25:24 AM
Hrolfr: I really like what you did with Mikkel's character in this piece! The story feels like it could actually happen and nothing felt out of place =)

Haiz: Such a funny AU =D I felt sorry for poor Reynir, though I can't help but giggle when I try to picturing him covered in snot xD
I read it in both Norwegian and English. I think I prefer the Norwegian version since it sounds a lot funnier :P
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wildfire on April 16, 2015, 05:34:56 AM
(...)

Haiz: Such a funny AU =D I felt sorry for poor Reynir, though I can't help but giggle when I try to picturing him covered in snot xD
I read it in both Norwegian and English. I think I prefer the Norwegian version since it sounds a lot funnier :P

I agree; it was fun reading the English version, but when I read the Norwegian version, so many sentences cracked me up. As I mentioned, "lynraske fletteskills" is one of my favourite things! : 3
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solovei on April 16, 2015, 11:36:09 AM
Wow, so much writing, and I've only been gone a short while!

Just a quick post to say that I added the links to the SSSS tag on AO3 and FF.net to the first post; I've mentioned it several times in the disqus comments for people that didn't know we even had fanfic for this fandom, so it seemed like a good idea.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Daéa Reina on April 16, 2015, 01:14:05 PM
Haiz: Your fanfic is AWESOME. Normally I dislike AU's, but you made it sound believable, no OOC stuff, and I loved it!!

Lalli: (proud)I watched and I learned from all my friends. Now I know manners. 

This is your first fanfiction ever? Congrats, then! It's really good! :)
Also, someone should draw this scene. :P
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SolarPoweredGirl on April 16, 2015, 02:41:11 PM

This is your first fanfiction ever? Congrats, then! It's really good! :)
Also, someone should draw this scene. :P
Thanks! I was thinking of drawing it but I haven't started yet, so yeah there's like a 50/50 chance it'll happen ;)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Oh Deer on April 16, 2015, 10:30:17 PM
Word spew

"Nya"
[The crew returns from a successful book haul, and after, Turri finds a picture that fell from one of the books]
Turri: *holds it up to Lalli* Do you know what this person is doing?
Lalli examines the picture, then does the "Nya" pose
Lalli: Nya!
Turri walks away, shaking her head at her odd cousin. She finds Reynir and questions him about the picture
Turri: Reynir, do you know what this person is doing?
Reynir: That? That's the "Nya" pose! *he demonstrates*   
Turri questions her friend's logic, then looks harder at the picture. The person was wearing cat ears and doing the "Nya" pose. She wondered what old world thing could of made people want to do the "Nya" pose. But then again, it was cute....
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Sharion on April 17, 2015, 03:52:41 AM
Word spew

"Nya"
[The crew returns from a successful book haul, and after, Turri finds a picture that fell from one of the books]
Turri: *holds it up to Lalli* Do you know what this person is doing?
Lalli examines the picture, then does the "Nya" pose
Lalli: Nya!

Hehehe.
Now, imagine that said with a deep, somewhat scratchy baritone. (After this picture (http://ssssforum.pcriot.com/index.php?topic=35.msg26297#msg26297), I can't help giving Lalli a deeper voice. And, after your post, I don't dare to watch the Watchmen again, because I'm afraid I would keep imagining cat ears on Rorschach. Cannot. Unthink. Your. Fault! :D )
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Oh Deer on April 17, 2015, 07:55:37 AM
Hehehe.
Now, imagine that said with a deep, somewhat scratchy baritone. (After this picture (http://ssssforum.pcriot.com/index.php?topic=35.msg26297#msg26297), I can't help giving Lalli a deeper voice. And, after your post, I don't dare to watch the Watchmen again, because I'm afraid I would keep imagining cat ears on Rorschach. Cannot. Unthink. Your. Fault! :D )
Hahahaha
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Rabbit on April 17, 2015, 08:09:16 AM
Hehehe.
Now, imagine that said with a deep, somewhat scratchy baritone. (After this picture (http://ssssforum.pcriot.com/index.php?topic=35.msg26297#msg26297), I can't help giving Lalli a deeper voice. And, after your post, I don't dare to watch the Watchmen again, because I'm afraid I would keep imagining cat ears on Rorschach. Cannot. Unthink. Your. Fault! :D )

Your fault, Sharion.

(http://i.imgur.com/kRcrJXb.jpg)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Laufey on April 17, 2015, 08:12:11 AM
(http://i.imgur.com/kRcrJXb.jpg)

I almost laughed myself out of my chair at "nya, liksom", well played.  :D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Haiz on April 17, 2015, 08:24:20 AM
Your fault, Sharion.

(http://i.imgur.com/kRcrJXb.jpg)

GIGGLESNORTS
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Noodles on April 17, 2015, 12:41:50 PM
(http://i.imgur.com/kRcrJXb.jpg)
*tries very hard to look like she is doing homework*
*snerk*
*fails*
HAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHA
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Haiz on April 17, 2015, 05:14:38 PM
HELLO SCRIPTORIUM
i have spent all day writing the next installment of my Norwegian High School AU
it's silly, it's ooc, but i had fun with it so maybe you will too.

I'm posting the Norwegian version here again, because that is the Intended Language, aaand I'll come up with a Quality Translation as quick as I'm able to!! It won't take all day, I promise, so I highly advice to NOT go the google translate route. It's not worth it.
(let this be a testament of how my sense of humour is turning into "just translate it to norwegian")

~*NORWEGIAN VERSION*~ (http://unicorngender.tumblr.com/post/116805034684/stillsta-vgs-del-2-skoleskuespillet)

Edit: changed it into a link because it was almost 3k words and I, a dweeb, had not read the first post of this thread
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wildfire on April 17, 2015, 05:52:20 PM
HELLO SCRIPTORIUM
i have spent all day writing the next installment of my Norwegian High School AU
it's silly, it's ooc, but i had fun with it so maybe you will too.

I'm posting the Norwegian version here again, because that is the Intended Language, aaand I'll come up with a Quality Translation as quick as I'm able to!! It won't take all day, I promise, so I highly advice to NOT go the google translate route. It's not worth it.

(apologies for the massive post. translation will be a link again)

******** SKOLESKUESPILLET ********

MOST BEST FAN FICTION EVER


Oh god. So many funnies. So many cracked-me-ups. So much NYA!

Der det var skog, var det Lalli <3 Those are the words my heart whisper every night before I go to sleep. I swear. Or at least it will be..


I really enjoy your writing style, and I LOVE HOW YOU PORTRAY YOUR AU-CHARACTERS BY DESCRIBING THEIR TUMBLRS OMG Emil, I'd totally follow you. (And Lalli because I'm sorry but he's my favourite)

Aaaaaaaa~
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Haiz on April 17, 2015, 08:07:58 PM
ahahaa I'm glad you liked it, friend!!!


without further ado:
~*TRANSLATED VERSION*~ (http://unicorngender.tumblr.com/post/116682298844/hello-here-is-another-installment-of-my-norwegian)

good night folks
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on April 17, 2015, 08:22:39 PM
I’m supposed to be revising for my exams, but NOPE instead I wrote this. It’s a story of Reynir’s journey on the ship from Iceland, and in particular of his crewmates scaring him with tales of what lurks in the North Sea.
N.B. While this doesn’t technically contain OCs, as the crew of the Túnfiskurinn are all characters from the comic, it does feel a bit like I should put a warning up since I’ve effectively characterised them from scratch.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/3766687

Haiz: it's quarter past one in the morning and I just woke up my housemate from laughing and it's all your fault  :D

Oh, and Rorschach-Lalli? Best thing.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Oh Deer on April 17, 2015, 10:50:44 PM
I’m supposed to be revising for my exams, but NOPE instead I wrote this. It’s a story of Reynir’s journey on the ship from Iceland, and in particular of his crewmates scaring him with tales of what lurks in the North Sea.
N.B. While this doesn’t technically contain OCs, as the crew of the Túnfiskurinn are all characters from the comic, it does feel a bit like I should put a warning up since I’ve effectively characterised them from scratch.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/3766687

Oh man, oh, man,that's good. Sorta scary, I loved it
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: AquaAurion on April 17, 2015, 11:30:27 PM
Haiz: Reading this the first thing in the morning brightened my day ^^ I can definitely see all of the characters acting like this, especially Emil's and Reynir's bonding-crying session  :P

SectoBoss: That was really really good! And really spooky D= If I would have heard that story and been in Reynir's position I would not have dared to sleep until I had reached shore.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Mélusine on April 18, 2015, 03:32:48 AM
ahahaa I'm glad you liked it, friend!!!


without further ado:
~*TRANSLATED VERSION*~ (http://unicorngender.tumblr.com/post/116682298844/hello-here-is-another-installment-of-my-norwegian)

good night folks
I'm supposed to do the housework, not laughing alone reading you ! (Sorry, housemates... ^^°)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Haiz on April 18, 2015, 06:00:44 AM
BLANKET APOLOGY TO ALL YOUR HOUSEMATES
but omg if i made you laugh then you have made so happy you have no idea
it was probably worth staying up to 2AM to translate
thank you everyone!!!

I’m supposed to be revising for my exams, but NOPE instead I wrote this. It’s a story of Reynir’s journey on the ship from Iceland, and in particular of his crewmates scaring him with tales of what lurks in the North Sea.
N.B. While this doesn’t technically contain OCs, as the crew of the Túnfiskurinn are all characters from the comic, it does feel a bit like I should put a warning up since I’ve effectively characterised them from scratch.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/3766687
HOW DO YOU DO THAT
like, one of the dumb hangups I have with (non-AU) fanfiction is the way they might ""disturb"" canon, but yours always seem to merge seamlessly with the story in a way that doesn't bother me at all. And wow that storytelling voice is spot on, and the mood is spot on, i applaud your dialogue writing skills, and eVERYONE LOVES REYNIRPUPPY and just. This story made me both really happy, but also spooked, so if that was your intention CONGRATS U DID IT
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Laufey on April 18, 2015, 06:29:57 AM
SectoBoss: that was amazing! Awesome, in character, fit seamlessly in to the storyline, scary and disturbing and all around most best, you're seriously one of my favourite fanfic writers ever.

Btw extra love for using the word draug - draugur = ghost in Icelandic, only the Icelandic ghosts are not spirits but more like zombies.
(Draugar are sometimes relatively harmless but the bad kind are the ones that have died with such grudge against someone that they'll follow them afterwards until they kill that person or drive them insane. The worst of these follow entire family lines until they've destroyed them to the last member, or simply haunt some place and attack whoever happens by.)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Noodles on April 18, 2015, 01:20:17 PM
Haiz: EEEEEEEEEEEEE that is beautiful! I love the descriptions of the tumblrs, because that is the way it would be and I am cracking up over Emil's hipster-blog-thing and and and ALL THE OTHER STUFF. ;D

Sectoboss, that is TERRIFYING. I ... hadn't thought about what radiation poisoning would do to a troll. o_O Very well done!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Sharion on April 18, 2015, 05:53:13 PM
Your fault, Sharion.
*working hard to find a way to blame it on fen, too, who were the origin of the first picture to begin with* >:D

without further ado:
~*TRANSLATED VERSION*~ (http://unicorngender.tumblr.com/post/116682298844/hello-here-is-another-installment-of-my-norwegian)
I was reading this on the sub train, on my way to work.
Early morning, every sensible person looking like pickled cucumbers sucking on lemon pieces doused in vinegar - then, there was me, grinning like an idiot, sometimes snickering loudly, even. (Tried to hold back. Promise!)
I think the cucumb lady sitting next to me turned so wall-eyed by trying to get a glimpse of the text I was reading, that I heard the ghosts of generations of connoisseur chameleons sighing in utter joy all around us. (I guess she doesn't know the trick of eyeing something through the back of her head. Professor Mad-Eye is unsatisfied.)

Thanks for making my day, both of you! :D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Blackjazz on April 18, 2015, 05:56:15 PM
Right, this is something I wrote after page 299 went up and it's been sitting on my computer ever since. I wasn't sure what to do with it but after much deliberation I figured I'd post it here. My apologies for the length. Here goes nothing!

====================================
Edit: Silly me didn't read the first page of the thread and posted the behemoth here. You can now read it  here.  (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WV-Q8GHgzWxEQvdgQVWI_8j2hKRXyX5q8IvAXIPhBR0/edit?usp=sharing)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Noodles on April 18, 2015, 06:03:24 PM
Right, this is something I wrote after page 299 went up and it's been sitting on my computer ever since. I wasn't sure what to do with it but after much deliberation I figured I'd post it here. My apologies for the length. Here goes nothing!
XD
THAT WAS HILARIOUS. I love how Tuuri's self-shipping... and also Jealous Emil and Confused Reynir and alll the people and excuse me, I have to go laugh some more.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: KauniitaUnia on April 18, 2015, 06:19:53 PM
Right, this is something I wrote after page 299 went up and it's been sitting on my computer ever since. I wasn't sure what to do with it but after much deliberation I figured I'd post it here. My apologies for the length. Here goes nothing!

In which Emil is bitter, Reynir is confused, and Tuuri is me. ;)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SolarPoweredGirl on April 18, 2015, 07:07:03 PM

Emil shifted his glare from Reynir’s face to his wild mane. “That braid… If only they knew. With one word I could tarnish your reputation, and with one picture, I could destroy it forever. If they ever find out-”
Reynir panicked and leaped to his feet. “HEY! That’s a secret!”

WHAT SECRET
HOW COULD ANYTHING BE WRONG WITH THOSE LUXURIOUS BILLOWING SILKY GLORIOUS LOCKS IN A PERFECT SYMMETRICAL BRAID?!?!!?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solovei on April 18, 2015, 07:28:31 PM
Right, this is something I wrote after page 299 went up and it's been sitting on my computer ever since. I wasn't sure what to do with it but after much deliberation I figured I'd post it here. My apologies for the length. Here goes nothing!

If you take a look over at the first post of this thread (http://ssssforum.pcriot.com/index.php?topic=193.msg10034#msg10034), you'll see that we prefer works over 1000 words to be hosted externally and linked.

Some good places to do that are Archive of Our Own (http://www.archiveofourown.org) or Fanfiction.net (http://www.fanfiction.net). Also that way other people can read your fanfic too, people who maybe don't browse the forums!

If you'd rather not post it publicly and you have a google account, you can use Google Drive and make the document viewable to anyone with the link, then share that link here!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Blackjazz on April 18, 2015, 10:28:15 PM
If you take a look over at the first post of this thread (http://ssssforum.pcriot.com/index.php?topic=193.msg10034#msg10034)...
Oops. So sorry about that. That must get annoying to see. >_<
I don't have an account to any of the other places, so it's on googledocs.

WHAT SECRET
HOW COULD ANYTHING BE WRONG WITH THOSE LUXURIOUS BILLOWING SILKY GLORIOUS LOCKS IN A PERFECT SYMMETRICAL BRAID?!?!!?
Are you sure you want to know...?

In which Emil is bitter, Reynir is confused, and Tuuri is me. ;)
And what sort of things have you been writing? ;P

XD
THAT WAS HILARIOUS. I love how Tuuri's self-shipping... and also Jealous Emil and Confused Reynir and alll the people and excuse me, I have to go laugh some more.
I'm glad you liked it! ;D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: AquaAurion on April 19, 2015, 03:11:08 AM
Right, this is something I wrote after page 299 went up and it's been sitting on my computer ever since. I wasn't sure what to do with it but after much deliberation I figured I'd post it here. My apologies for the length. Here goes nothing!

====================================
Edit: Silly me didn't read the first page of the thread and posted the behemoth here. You can now read it  here.  (https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WV-Q8GHgzWxEQvdgQVWI_8j2hKRXyX5q8IvAXIPhBR0/edit?usp=sharing)
That was funny ^w^ I really liked the interaction between Mikkel and Sigrun!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Sunflower on April 19, 2015, 03:18:35 AM
That was funny ^w^ I really liked the interaction between Mikkel and Sigrun!
That was one of the things I liked too!  (Aside from Reynir's fan-phobia and Tuuri's braid fixation...)  :D

[Sigrun's] voice came out in rasps. ... She could hardly get the words out as she asked, “Mikkel, honey, can you get me some water?”
[Mikkel] from off-set: “I am not your ‘honey.’”
“Oh, just get me some water, you big brute...."
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Haiz on April 19, 2015, 05:54:28 AM
If you take a look over at the first post of this thread (http://ssssforum.pcriot.com/index.php?topic=193.msg10034#msg10034), you'll see that we prefer works over 1000 words to be hosted externally and linked.
OH NO I APOLOGIZE TOO
how did i not read the first post
I shall fix my norwegian versions of the high school au stories into tumblr posts immediately!!

Sharion and Noodly Appendage: I'm so happy!!! thank you!!!

Blackjazz: ..........that was beautiful.
*whispers* sheepswool extensions
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on April 19, 2015, 08:10:10 AM
Thanks to everyone who said nice things about that piece of sleep-deprived nonsense I posted a couple of days ago!

Laufey: as I understood it, draug were the spirits of drowned sailors, at least according to my book on Scandinavian mythology (my ownership of which is solely due to this comic and aRTD). Looking at the book a bit harder, I think that take on them is more Norwegian than Icelandic, so you’re right and I guess it doesn’t quite make sense for Icelandic sailors to be using the word in that context.

Blackjazz: that was a great little fic, but you cannot leave us in suspense over the braid like that!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Laufey on April 19, 2015, 08:23:39 AM
Drowned sailors can definitely become draugar though, one common myth on how you can create a zombie is to find a sailor's corpse before anyone else gets to it and wake it up by magic. Some more unfortunate myths hint that the person has to have died knowing they were dying, which is why the magicians who murder their to-become-draugar f.ex. strangle or drown them. But it would make all the sense in the world to use that word in this context!  :)

EDITing to add: according to Google translate the Norwegian draug and Icelandic draugur are also pronounced quite differently.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Haiz on April 20, 2015, 07:46:18 PM
hello scriptorium, I bring thee
HIGH SCHOOL AU PART 3: the sleepover saga

There are discussions of Gender and Orientations in this one, so if that bothers you in any way, you might not want to read this I guess...........

I hadn't really intended to go this direction with my AU, but I really had to write this. So. I'm going this direction with my AU. What's high school without confused teenagers!! and it's also maybe uh. going in a shippy direction which makes me a hypocrite, but it's not like you guys seem to mind that kinda thing so much, sooooooooo

yeah

~*NORWEGIAN VERSION*~ (http://unicorngender.tumblr.com/post/116937190064/stillsta-vgs-del-3-overnattingsparty)


~*ENGLISH VERSION*~ (http://unicorngender.tumblr.com/post/116951587089/standstill-high-part-3-the-sleepover-saga)

jeez this dual language thing is a chore

good night folks!!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Noodles on April 20, 2015, 08:02:48 PM
That was good. I like the text-conversation at the beginning, and also Tuuri being like "oh that's normal" at the end and ... oh god I am becoming a fanfic reader.
Also, I can totally relate to Emil towards the end there. I have a (male) friend who I am fairly close to but not dating and everybody keeps shipping us. :/
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: KicknRun on April 20, 2015, 10:12:12 PM
Its taking a really long time to transcribe this thing, but here is a sneak peak.
-=0=-
(You are alone.)

-=1=-
    Emil marched unhappily,with Sigrun in front of him, and Lalli at his heels. A chunk of brick from the greyish-red wall to the side of him caught his foot, but he managed to keep himself upright. He wasn't terribly excited about the raid. It had been a few days after the last one and he still felt exhausted. And scared of Sigrun. Mostly scared of Sigrun.

-=2=-
    Lalli stiffened. There was a spirit here. No, wait, there wasn't. Whatever presence was gone. Back again. Strange.
(In hindsight, this was his first mistake)

( all the comicwise plot holes with may sense once I finish typing.) This is pretty much just snatches of lines and stuff.

EDIT: FIXED FORMATTING.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: kahli on April 20, 2015, 10:16:24 PM
hello scriptorium, I bring thee
HIGH SCHOOL AU PART 3: the sleepover saga
Wonderful!  :D

Found this picture by pure coincidence after reading Hiaz's story,
Sleeping Lalli according to Hiaz:
(http://indieanna.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/kitty-burrito.jpg)

Its taking a really long time to transcribe this thing, but here is a sneak peak.
Ooo! I can't wait to see the finished story!  :D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Noodles on April 20, 2015, 10:20:37 PM
(http://indieanna.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/kitty-burrito.jpg)
eeeeeeeeeeeeeee *dies of the cute*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Blackjazz on April 21, 2015, 12:07:12 AM
Yay! I'm glad you guys liked my silly little story. I'll probably continue it to combat the creepies that are likely to come (who knew I'd ever do that??) and then, maybe, you'll know the secret. Maybe.
 ;D
Annnnd, I FINALLY got around to reading Haiz's and Sectoboss' fanfics and all I can say is, Wow.
SectobossP: That was a masterpiece. It was such an eerie tale and you tied it in so well. From now on I'm going to pretend that that all really happened. The phrase "She was too big to sink, you know?" reminded me so much of what they said about the Titanic. It gave me chills.
Haiz: I love them all! I admire you posting them in two languages, too. I'm sure there are some jokes that are better in Norwegian, but I laughed so hard all the same. XD I love the way you play with Reynir's personality and I could totally see him acting like that. And Tuuri handing out advice. I dunno, it all just fits in a way I would never have thought possible.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Mélusine on April 21, 2015, 03:40:49 AM
hello scriptorium, I bring thee
HIGH SCHOOL AU PART 3: the sleepover saga
Little sister : So we go now ?
Me : Wait just a minute, I'm reading something...
*Still wondering what happened to her for beginning to read fan-fictions* ^^°
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wildfire on April 21, 2015, 05:42:19 AM
hello scriptorium, I bring thee
HIGH SCHOOL AU PART 3: the sleepover saga
(...)


Quote
Reynir skriver: jeg er så utrolig smart dette blir det beste overnattingspartyet everrr
Reynir skriver: VENT
Reynir skriver: kan lalli lese

THIS ^

I am about to share something I was supposed to post somewhere else in this forum but I didn't because I figured I might sound stupid.

HERE GOES

Reynir is love, Reynir is life.


Also your high shcool au - if I ever get kids, I'd probably read this to them every night and they'd go "Muuuuuuum we know this story, can't you read something new please?" and I'd go "NO YOU NEED TO LOVE THIS! *SHOVES HIGH SCHOOL AU IN KIDS FACE*"


.. I'd be a great mum..(not rly)


Also, this:


Quote
Hvem hadde autorisert dette? Hvem hadde gitt ham lov å se sånn ut? Hvordan kunne en slik pur kanelsnurr eksistere i denne grusomme verden?

made me laugh SO HARD AND SO LOUD I think all my neighbours heard me.


I love this. I really do. Burrito-Lalli <3
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: AquaAurion on April 21, 2015, 06:16:10 AM
hello scriptorium, I bring thee
HIGH SCHOOL AU PART 3: the sleepover saga

There are discussions of Gender and Orientations in this one, so if that bothers you in any way, you might not want to read this I guess...........

I hadn't really intended to go this direction with my AU, but I really had to write this. So. I'm going this direction with my AU. What's high school without confused teenagers!! and it's also maybe uh. going in a shippy direction which makes me a hypocrite, but it's not like you guys seem to mind that kinda thing so much, sooooooooo

yeah

~*NORWEGIAN VERSION*~ (http://unicorngender.tumblr.com/post/116937190064/stillsta-vgs-del-3-overnattingsparty)


~*ENGLISH VERSION*~ (http://unicorngender.tumblr.com/post/116951587089/standstill-high-part-3-the-sleepover-saga)

jeez this dual language thing is a chore

good night folks!!
Lalli-burrito sounds like the cutest thing ever!!
I was not expecting the Tuuri and Reynir part, but it was a nice contrast to usual fanfics! :D Now I need to know what happens with Reynir's dress!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Haiz on April 21, 2015, 06:18:00 AM
Found this picture by pure coincidence after reading Hiaz's story,
Sleeping Lalli according to Hiaz:
(http://indieanna.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/kitty-burrito.jpg)
Ooo! I can't wait to see the finished story!  :D
(http://38.media.tumblr.com/1609bed100e99f7676a69d21df03318f/tumblr_inline_nl6al3TZ0p1r2g2kx.jpg)(http://41.media.tumblr.com/7aa32988de332587bbaa405c7a334a82/tumblr_inline_nmhx6i5O441r2g2kx_250.png)

I SEE NO DIFFERENCE
(discreetly links to lalli burrito compilation i drew a while back (http://ssssforum.pcriot.com/index.php?topic=35.msg26847#msg26847))

oh man "finished story" are kind of big words. So far I'm only writing on this when I get ideas, but now I set up a sequel hook, didn't I........... I still have to decide what direction to take all this ehehehe^^"


wildfire: omg I'm glad you laughed at that part, because SO DID I WHEN I WROTE IT,,, i'm a horrible dweeb with no shame.......
(the only reason we know lalli can read in canon is because he reads Tuuri's letter at the very beginning hahahaha)
also I totally encourage you to become a mom. do it

(ALSO STILL A BLANKET APOLOGY TO NEIGHBOURS AND HOUSEMATES PEOPLE WAKE UP??)

Mélusine: oh noo please don't neglect your family for the sake of my silly fic!!!
(Well. I don't usually write fanfic, you don't usually read fanfic, I guess we're all in the same boat here)

Blackjazz: thanks!!!

I ADMIT the english version is maybe better story/structure-wise because I write it last so I see all the mistakes I did in the norwegian verson (despite reading it through several times before posting) and make some Tweaks. The norwegian version is mostly because it's the Canon Language, and because things that sound cool in english sound INCREDIBLY UNDIGNIFIED in norwegian and that's the turn my sense of humour has taken. So you're not missing out TOO MUCH?
(besides, my brain has kinda switched over to english as default language, so when I get ideas for this they're part in norwegian and part in english. wow)

also wow I'm glad people like my Reynir?? I think I write them all pretty OOC compared to canon,, but Reynir's been barely introduced to I'm going for a ....... sometimes sassy puppy i guess. sassy weeaboo puppy

(http://media.giphy.com/media/PjPfutBzIwPW8/giphy.gif) maybe like this

Noodly Appendage: Thank you!! and WOW do i relate to being shipped with my male friends, too..... it's one of the reasons shipping sometimes makes me uncomfortable I guess. Also makes me very confused about what I want to do next. Buuuut I'll figure something out eventually

AquaAurion: aaaahh thanks!!! I'm really excited about genderfluid Reynir so I'm glad people don't hate me for that yet hahahahahahaha
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wildfire on April 21, 2015, 06:46:58 AM
(...)

wildfire: omg I'm glad you laughed at that part, because SO DID I WHEN I WROTE IT,,, i'm a horrible dweeb with no shame.......
(the only reason we know lalli can read in canon is because he reads Tuuri's letter at the very beginning hahahaha)
also I totally encourage you to become a mom. do it

(ALSO STILL A BLANKET APOLOGY TO NEIGHBOURS AND HOUSEMATES PEOPLE WAKE UP??)

(...)

I mean if my neighbours isn't up by now THAT'S NOT MY PROBLEM IT'S 12:41 PM AND wait I live in a student housing unit and people were partying last night they probably aren't up by now but still THAT'S NOT MY PROBLEM THEY KEPT ME AWAKE LAST NIGHT AND I HAD TO GET UP EARLY FOR MY APPOINTMENT WITH MY DOCTOR so TOO BAD FOR THEM

ok am cool, am cool..

also I consider becoming a mum once just for the sake of TEACHING THEM HIGH SCHOOL STUFF WITH STILLSTÅ VGS. This is stuff kids need to know about. I wish my mum read stories like this to me (Even though I loved it when she read Roald Dahl and J.K.Rowling to me)

I might need better reasons to have kids though so I'm putting it on hold for now BUT SOMEDAY IT MIGHT BE CANON!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SolarPoweredGirl on April 21, 2015, 12:26:11 PM
Have any of you ever watched the show Psych?
If you have, you know the dad of the main character? He's basically how Sigrun would be as a parent sooo that's pretty much what "inspired' me to write this:

SIGRUN AS A PARENT AU  (P.S. her kids are Tuuri, Reynir, Emil and Lalli, but they are all 7 and under.)

Sigrun is sitting on the porch, reading a magazine. It's four fifteen. About time her kids got home from school, but they aren't home yet. She wonders what's taking them so long.
"Mommy! Momooommoommmyyy!" she hears someone yell. It sounds like her son Reynir.
"What is it Rey?" She lazily shouts back. Reynir comes bursting through their front gate.
"Emilgotinafightandnowhe'shurtandIcan'tfindTuuriorLalli" he says.
"Woah woah woah kid." Sigrun says. "All I heard was 'emijihutfightghpffh". You've gotta slow down there buddy kay?"
Reynir takes a deep breath and repeats what he said earlier, this time slower.
"Wait, Emil got in a fight? Let me guess-He lost didn't he." Sigrun says, still not completely sure the story's true, as six year old boys tend to relay stories somewhat...mixed up.
Reynir hesitates, then doesn't reply as he suddenly grabs his mom's shirt and starts to direct her to the fight scene.
When they arrive at the supposed fight scene, all that's there is a sobbing Emil curled up on the ground.
"What happened Emil?" asks Sigrun, trying very hard to be sympathetic.
Emil doesn't answer.
"TELL ME RIGHT NOW WHAT HAPPENED YOUNG MAN."
Emil sits up. "S-somebody f-from school punched m-me...and it h-hurt."
"Well who punched you?"
"Hanna...."
Sigrun proceeds to facepalm.
"Whatever. Let's go find your siblings."

After having searched the whole town, weary Sigrun and two of her kids return home.
"I can't believe we haven't found them! We've been looking all day!" a frustrated Sigrun states.
"Moomomomommmmmyyy I'm huuunngggrrrryyyy!" whines Reynir.
"Meeee tooooooo!" Emil adds.
Sigrun orders the boys to go to bed after a quick snack. They reluctantly obey.
"AAAAGHHHHHHHHHHH!" Sigrun suddenly yells, as she feels a something drop down on her. It turns out to be Emil's (fraternal) twin, Lalli.
"WHAT WERE YOU DOING UP IN A TREE! WE'VE BEEN SEARCHING ALL NIGHT FOR YOU AND YOU'RE JUST RIGHT AT HOME? IN A TREE?"
Lalli doesn't reply and his eyes grow wide.
"GO TO BED THIS INSTANT!"
Lalli scurries off on all fours to his room.
"I swear something's wrong with that kid." Sigrun mumbles.
About to go to bed herself, Sigrun feels as if she's forgotten something.
"Tuuri!" she suddenly remembers. About to run out the door again, she feels a tug on her shirt.
"Mommy I'm thirsty. Can I have some water please?" Tuuri says.
"WHEN DID YOU GET HERE? WHY ARE YOU IN THE HOUSE?"
Tuuri's face grows red and she looks about to cry.
"I-I told you I had book club t-today a-and that I would be h-home late but when I g-got here you weren't h-home so I did made myself a sandwich and d-did my homework and went to bed." She begins to sob.
Sigrun feels suddenly guilty "No no no shhshsh don't cry honey! Here now have some water and go back to bed kid."
Tuuri willingly obliges.
Overly tired and confused, Sigrun throws herself on the couch.
"I am NOT cut out to be a parent."

end for now
I drew a pic to go along with it but my dad is working in the room with the scanner and I have no camera  :(
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on April 21, 2015, 02:14:53 PM
Haiz: Your little saga gets better every time! And I agree with AquaAurion, Tuuri and Reynir's little conversation was refreshingly different from most of the fanfictions knocking around.

SolarPoweredGirl: Yeah, that sounds like Sigrun all right! Nice work :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Mélusine on April 21, 2015, 03:15:33 PM
Mélusine: oh noo please don't neglect your family for the sake of my silly fic!!!
(Well. I don't usually write fanfic, you don't usually read fanfic, I guess we're all in the same boat here)
She's absolutely not neglected, she had an additional birthday surprise yesterday (some photo by a friend photograph) and we're going to see the Eiffel tower by night in a few minutes. Can I read ? :P
(Well, I suppose you will continue to write and I will continue to read. Same boat ^^)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: KicknRun on April 22, 2015, 07:11:42 PM
kahli: Ah yeah I'm glad you think its interesting

Solarpoweredgirl: I like this AU! I'm glad to see that Siggy is trying her very best.

Ok I'm not really sure where else I vent ssss-ficwriting frustrations, so lets go.

I'm having a really hard time getting Emil and Lalli's points of view. haha. I won't be writing Emil's point of view for a while.
Sigrun is really fun to write but she is always doing a new thing? ALWAYS?? I had to rewrite her point of view 3 times.
Mikkel is not that hard too write at all, which is kinda worrying yeah.
Also I had a point I wanted to get to in chapter 2 (which is now done) but I didn't get to it and it frustrates me.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on April 22, 2015, 08:18:24 PM
A while ago in the crossovers thread, Haiz suggested a crossover with Pacific Rim. The idea got my muse going and, with Haiz’s blessing, this is the result. I’ve tried to make it so that you don’t need anything more than a passing knowledge of the world of Pacific Rim to work out what’s going on, and this is at its heart still very much a SSSS fanfic – just with giant robots and the odd zeppelin instead of a beaten-up cat-tank. Yes, zeppelin. Don’t look at me like that.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/3803176

If I get the time, I might write a second part to this. In the meantime though, I hope you guys like it!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Noodles on April 22, 2015, 08:26:15 PM
ALL THE YES
I haven't even read/seen/? Pacific Rim and this is awesome. Airship!Sigrun is my new headcanon/AU thing. 8D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on April 22, 2015, 10:13:49 PM
As an adjunct to Pg 271...

Spoiler: Bad Dreams • show
The sand seeped between the cracks of the debris covering Emil, slowly burying him even deeper in the wreckage. He wasn’t sure how close the fires were, but they would get him soon enough, if the bad air didn’t.

“Emil!” He looked toward the voice. It came from a trollified version of his Uncle Torbjörn. But Torbjörn was immune, wasn’t he?

“I’ve been this way for years, Emil,” the horror hissed at him. “I’m the scout for a whole new wave of Infection that will claim even the supposedly Immune!” His maniacal laughter was interrupted by a pitching wedge to the forehead, which seemed to persuade him that it was time to leave.

The golf pro from the cover of one of the books they’d saved chased the fleeing monster, clubs ready in either hand, yelling, “For Kastrup! For Denmark! For vengeance!” From out of his wake stepped Tuuri, unmasked, looking gravely at the buried Emil.

“Quick, Emil!” Tuuri told him solemnly. “We must use the antigravity propulsion unit to rescue Lalli!”

Emil followed her gesture with his eyes and saw Lalli hanging upside down by one foot, held by a giant even larger than the one they’d faced on the train. Instead of his uniform, Lalli was wearing some weird blue robe covered in stars, though, and a high, conical pointed hat, and he held a cardboard wand tipped with a yellow paper star. Lalli said something in Finnish that Emil somehow knew to mean, “Monster, begone!”, and a spray of flowers shot out from his wand. This odd display seemed to scare the giant, though, which released Lalli and skittered away. Emil saw Lalli falling and falling and falling...

“Lalli!” Emil came awake with a start. He was lying on his stomach in his bunk. The sheets had wrapped themselves around him until he could barely move. From a nearby bunk, Lalli looked at him curiously. Emil decided not to enlighten him on why he’d awakened. Even though the Finn couldn’t speak Swedish, there was a knowingness about his eyes in the dim glow illuminating the sleeping quarters.

Suddenly, Sigrun and Mikkel burst in, carrying a struggling Tuuri between them. “Quick, Emil!” Mikkel shouted. “Get me your old bandages! Tuuri has face cancer! Worst case I've ever seen!”

Tuuri’s head lolled back, and Emil could see a hideously colored bruise on her forehead. As he watched, it expanded down one cheek, puffing the whole side of her face out.

“Hapless, ham-fisted Swede!” Sigrun growled at him as he brought the bandages. “If you hadn’t blown the building up, we could have found the Lost Volume of How to Cure These Things! Now she’s going to die, and it’s all your fault!” Even Lalli was glaring at him now.

“I’m s-sorry,” Emil stammered, “but how else was I to stop the Demon?”

“Stand Still and Stay Silent!” Sigrun and Mikkel chorused.

Emil came awake with a start, again. Lalli looked at him curiously, just as he had earlier. Emil gingerly put his left pinky into his mouth and gently bit down, just hard enough to hurt. Ah, good. This was reality. Lalli nodded at him, as though he understood everything now, and laid back down, closing his eyes. Emil sighed and snuggled down to try to sleep again. Hopefully, this would not be a regular occurrence.

“God natt, Lalli.”

“Hyvää yötä, Emil.” Just for a moment before sleep claimed him again, Emil thought Lalli's eyes glowed pale blue...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on April 23, 2015, 12:08:02 PM
Noodly Appendage: Thanks! It seemed like the kind of mental stunt everyone's favourite captain would pull, and I'm glad people agree.

LooNEY_DAC: The Lost Volume of How to Cure These Things is actually something I can imagine Sigrun would say. Although I'm kind of lucky I made it past Lalli's flower magic without spraying my drink everywhere.

Windfighter: That... that was adorable.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: KicknRun on April 23, 2015, 08:44:23 PM
A while ago in the crossovers thread, Haiz suggested a crossover with Pacific Rim. The idea got my muse going and, with Haiz’s blessing, this is the result. I’ve tried to make it so that you don’t need anything more than a passing knowledge of the world of Pacific Rim to work out what’s going on, and this is at its heart still very much a SSSS fanfic – just with giant robots and the odd zeppelin instead of a beaten-up cat-tank. Yes, zeppelin. Don’t look at me like that.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/3803176

If I get the time, I might write a second part to this. In the meantime though, I hope you guys like it!

i haven't watched Pacific Rim yet but now I want to? Also everybody is pretty much in character and stuff.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: KicknRun on April 23, 2015, 09:48:27 PM
Hop, Skip, Jump, Fall

Chapter 1: Abandon all hope, ye who enter here
 

-=0=-
The world is blue and white and dead and alive and poisoned and healthy and you are lost.

(You are alone.)

-=1=-

Emil marched unhappily, with Sigrun in front of him and Lalli at his heels. A chunk of  brick from the greyish-red wall to the side of him caught his foot, but he managed to keep himself upright. He wasn't terribly excited about the raid. It was a few days after the first one and he still felt exhausted. And scared of Sigrun. Mostly scared of Sigrun. 
Even though he had blown up a building, killed a troll and was going to have quite the story to tell,( And had also nearly killed Lalli, but he didn’t want to think about that) he didn't feel prepared at all. In fact, he felt pretty nervous.

-=2=-

Lalli stiffened. There was a spirit here. No, wait, there wasn't. Whatever presence that was there was gone. Back again. Strange.
His spell should have removed most of the spirits from the area. Whatever. It didn't matter if there was one here. This place was filled with them. Some would have returned, even after his spell three(four?) days ago.
A long streak of red sped past by him and stopped. So it was a spirit. Okay then. Lalli fixed his eyes on it as it stopped and turned towards them. It was showing itself as a long, red braid, which was strange, but unimportant. He dismissed it.

(In hindsight, this was his first mistake)

-=1=-

Emil stopped in surprise as something wrapped itself around his wrist. Was it Lalli? No, it was too rough to be as smooth as his gloves had looked. A rope, maybe. No. Troll's can't throw ropes, can th-.
This train of thought abruptly ended when whatever it was started wrapping itself around him. Emil tried to look down, but found he couldn't. But he could feel it, forcefully pressing his arms to his sides and locking his sides together. Emil felt like one of the toy soldiers he would play with when he was little. Only the battle was real, and he wasn't quite sure he would win.     
Then something like hair, no it was hair  started prying his lips open, almost gently,like whatever was doing this cared. Then it uncurled itself and surged through his mouth,suffusing Emil Vasterstöm with something that simply was not. He had enough time to think "I wonder if this is what eating a hairball feels like?",before his sight faded to blue.
-=2=-
Then suddenly, the spirit twisted around and sped towards them, zooming over the dead and dusty ground, wrapping itself over Emil’s wrist, and too quickly for Lalli to react, his whole body. Then the spirit when up and into Emil, and he jerked once,twice, thrice and feel to the ground.

-=3=-

Sigrun had turned around by now, years of fighting and training and not dying having honed her senses to near-perfect clarity in reference to the things around her. Like the ground under her. And the crumbling Old World wall next to her. The spasming trainee in front in her.

Lalli had stopped, standing absolutely still with some emotion so far gone she couldn't recognize it.  He eyes were still moving, staring not at Emil’s body but above it like he was seeing something different, something nobody could or would want to see. Something pricked in her mind  about finnish mages and sight, but she didn’t have time to remember it enough for it to matter. Besides, it wasn't like it would prove to be important or anything.

Enough thinking, anyway. She had to get him out of here. Sigrun hoped he wasn't too heavy. He groaned and rolled over, revealing a cut on his cheek. It didn’t look like much of a problem, so that was good.  But as she got closer, a sickening sense of deja vu caught her. She looked at Emil again. Or more specifically,his hair. Which was long now, long and thick and braided.


A/N: It's my new story!!!!!! What such a wonderfully happy chapter title. So full of hope. So full of joy. Sorry about the double-post by the way, I din't think I would finish typing thing today. FYI,the story is 693 words long, which is pretty dang long by my standards. If the format is too is too hard to read just tell me and I put it in justified or something? And the bolded numbers mean something. Whomever guess it first get a drawing!.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Oh Deer on April 23, 2015, 10:23:03 PM
Hop, Skip, Jump, Fall

Chapter 1: Abandon all hope, ye who enter here
 <awesome story>


A/N: It's my new story!!!!!! What such a wonderfully happy chapter title. So full of hope. So full of joy. Sorry about the double-post by the way, I din't think I would finish typing thing today. FYI,the story is 693 words long, which is pretty dang long by my standards. If the format is too is too hard to read just tell me and I put it in justified or something? And the bolded numbers mean something. Whomever guess it first get a drawing!.
do the bolded numbers indicate changing character point of views? Awesome story by the way!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: AquaAurion on April 23, 2015, 10:40:40 PM
Hop, Skip, Jump, Fall
Oh, this is intriguing! :D I need to know what happens to poor Emil >.<
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: KicknRun on April 24, 2015, 07:34:16 AM
do the bolded numbers indicate changing character point of views? Awesome story by the way!

Yup! One is Emil, Two is Lalli, Three is Sigrun, Four is Mikkel, and Five is Tuuri. Zero is *evil laughter*. That will be revealed later.
By the way, pm with with what you may want a drawing of.

AquaAqurion: Emil is *puppyfox voice* justttttt fineeeeeee.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: AquaAurion on April 24, 2015, 11:23:20 PM
AquaAqurion: Emil is *puppyfox voice* justttttt fineeeeeee.
Just like Hannu was just fine?? D=
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solovei on April 25, 2015, 01:31:31 AM
I present to you my latest and greatest, a short little modern-day AU (http://archiveofourown.org/works/3816457) where Tuuri is maybe getting a little too involved in Lalli's life!

(okay it's not that good but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, and I had it sitting on my google drive for several months before unearthing and finally finishing it)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: AquaAurion on April 25, 2015, 03:02:08 AM
I present to you my latest and greatest, a short little modern-day AU (http://archiveofourown.org/works/3816457) where Tuuri is maybe getting a little too involved in Lalli's life!

(okay it's not that good but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, and I had it sitting on my google drive for several months before unearthing and finally finishing it)
Oh gosh this is way too cute! >w< Any pretenses I had about not shipping them are now out the window xD
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Blackjazz on April 25, 2015, 03:35:04 AM
I just caught up on everything and oh, do I love them all!

Solo and Windy:
Those are the cutest stories! XD So much adorableness. I have to say though, Windy, I didn't know what "Jag älskar dig" meant, so I was very surprised to see the translation! Pleasantly surprised, of course. But poor Tuuri, always having to translate and never getting any fulfilling ships of her own...

LooNEY_DAC: I loved all the references you threw in there. The second dream was my favorite though, because Emil burning the "Lost Volume of How to Cure These Things" is just genius, and something I think Sigrun would say.

Sectoboss: Wow, that was amazing. I haven't seen Pacific Rim, but now I think I'll have to. I hope you get the chance to continue your story!

KicknRun: I really, really, really like the tone you have going so far. It makes it seem eerie and mysterious, and I can't wait to read more. :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solovei on April 25, 2015, 11:34:44 AM
I just caught up on everything and oh, do I love them all!

Solo and Windy:
Those are the cutest stories! XD So much adorableness. I have to say though, Windy, I didn't know what "Jag älskar dig" meant, so I was very surprised to see the translation! Pleasantly surprised, of course. But poor Tuuri, always having to translate and never getting any fulfilling ships of her own...

Oh, just you wait...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Sharion on April 25, 2015, 01:03:52 PM
a short little modern-day AU where Tuuri is maybe getting a little too involved in Lalli's life!

I can't help but think that it all started with a communication attempt using Google (mis)Translator.

"You said WHAT?!"
"Huh?"
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: KicknRun on April 25, 2015, 03:37:03 PM
Hop, Skip, Jump, Fall

Chapter 2: Blind Leading the Blind

-=1=-

Emil is here. Emil groans and rolls over. Emil is gone.

-=0=-
   
After you submerge yourself in him, take his form and make it yours, there is a feeling of peace, of senses, of reality. (there is a feeling of nothing. you do not notice the change). But for only a moment, long enough to raise yourself up only to fall down again. You have not raised yourself up. You have not fallen.

    You feel. A long time of nothing becomes an increasing time of everything,  your cheek burns hot with his blood(he was bleeding? when?) and burns cold with the frost-tongued air of winter (is it still?). You feel the pain of his back, and the feeling of the clothes against his skin. Part of you welcomes it, this feeling of overfeeling. Most of you, however, does not.

(It is the first time you consider vacating this body. It will not be the last.)
-=2=-

    Lalli stood there, shocked. The shock turned to fear. Then to incredulity. Then to some tangled up mess he didn’t have time to untangle. Spirits did not do that. Spirits do not go into people. A spirit had done just that.

    Sigrun gets closer to Emil, who groans and rolls over, right before his world flips. Lalli shudders with revulsion, as a feeling of perversion of all that has been done and all that will ever be done courses through him. His free will vanishes, just for a second. It is a long second.
   
    The feeling of unceasing wrongness stops. Emil has a braid.

(His world gets back up. It does not right itself.)

-=3=-

    Sigrun grabbed Emil’s arm and started dragging him up. She wasn’t sure at all what had just happened, but she didn’t need her teammate getting her killed just because he had gotten infected by some weird Silent World magic or something. Emil’s knees buckled under her, flopping uselessly, and Sigrun is forced to grab his other arm. His eyelids flared, and he coughed a bit, before babbling something in Icelandic. Emil could speak Icelandic? When had that happened? 
    Lalli had started trailing after them, but Sigrun was pretty sure he was trying to stay as far away as possible. He then ducks far around them, speeding out of her vision so quickly Sigrun feels a hint of mild surprise.  Sigrun really shouldn’t have been surprised. She knew scouts were fast, especially after what happened when she tried to chase after one.  Anyway, back to business.

-=4=-
   
    Mikkel sighed at the Scout in front of him. Sigrun had messed up already? Sigrun was right around the corner of this dilapidated building, so it had to be fairly serious, enough that Lalli had to get him. He hadn't heard any explosions, nor sounds of fighting, so yes, worrying. Lalli gestured at where Sigrun and Emil were,impatient. Sighing once more, he set out to figure out just what had gone wrong.

    Mikkel stopped for a second, just to process what he was seeing. Sigrun, with his back to him, her hands grabbing Emil’s arms and dragging him forward as his knees buckled. They were alive, at the very least, so it hadn’t been completely ruined.
 
-=3=-


   
By the time Lalli had returned with Mikkel, Sigrun had managed to pull Emil a little further, and was a lot more annoyed. She shot Mikkel a look, amused by his utterly dumbfounded expression. of course, Sigrun felt the same way, but she wasn’t showing it so hilariously.
“Close your mouth, you big lump. I understand that Emil got some nice new hair, but I’m not dying out here because he decided his new hairstyle was so nice he was going to faint over it. So grab his legs and heave!”
   Mikkel’s expression showed just how much that explained, but he obediently closed his mouth and grabbed Emil’s legs. He shouldn't complain. Its was the best explanation she could give.



And here's the second chapter. Ya know how I had a point I wanted to get to in this chapter. Yeah. I didn't get to it. I kinda like it, anyway. Word count is 656. Also, I've hit a road block in chapter 3, so If I could get a beta reader, that would be great. Also, you need to be on pretty often. That's it. That's the only requirement.
Sigrun's line may not be entirely IC, but it was too precious to let go. Also, Point Zero is proving to be a fountain of purple prose. And a violation of the natural order.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: KicknRun on April 26, 2015, 04:16:52 PM
Threads, Strings, and Ropes


Once, when Sigrun was small, she sees Mama  returning after a hunting trip, with a rusty red cord connecting from her chest to one of her hunters, (she wanted to be just like them when she grew up!) who is hacking softly,red bubbling from his mouth, limp on the stretcher. Curious(she’s never seen this color before),she reaches out and grabs it, and a well of worry swells up inside her.

It’s not hers. It’s distant, strong emotions from somebody who cares. Sigrun worries for none. Sigrun lets go of the thread, and her emotions are hers again. But its a big change, from pretty glowing things, to emotions. She’s doesn’t know when the change happened, when colored strands become shows of emotion. The man on the stretcher hacks one more time as his colors fade, and the cords of the people around him grow and change constantly as they yell, but soon enough all the cords connected to him fade to a weak, dull grey.

Excitement grows in her. Nobody else is able to see them! Sigrun is good at watching people, and even better at fighting them, and she would have seen people reaching for them, eyes flicking back and forth over them. Nobody else has it. Sigrun has no idea what it is, but it’s wicked cool!

So the first thing she did, of course, was experiment.

 The cords came in different sizes. That was the first thing she noticed. At first she would poke them, jerking forward and away as the emotions came over her. Then she thought about how much of a coward it made her,and started charging at them instead.

Size makes strength. When Sigrun passed through big cords, the emotions always overwhelmed her, making her crash to the ground, as the other emotion dissipated.

It doesn’t take very long for her to start writing down what she knows. Sigrun doesn’t enjoy writing. Or reading. But her parent’s big milatary maps have words on them, so it can’t be too hard.

(It is hard, and Sigrun just barely manages to force the letters into her head, but she does. Success!)

(https://40.media.tumblr.com/5d2839e0b5bf9f8f37fc73850deea9b6/tumblr_nnfhpaMiJp1us1hs8o1_400.png)

She starts noticing that she doesn’t need to touch the threads to feel the emotions, that they explain themselves to her almost instantly. She doesn’t mind, really. No more having to keep track of emotions with words!

The other children tease her and call her names, especially after one of Sigrun’s charges land her in the mud, soaked with dirt and shivering with cold. She finds the biggest and baddest of them all, and punched her in the stomach, right in the middle of town sqaure. It does not go well. The girl’s friends charge at her, pulsing red threads of anger intertwined with the yellow-green of glee that reach from their chests to her, all over her, her legs, her arms, her head. Sigrun looks back for a second, at the groaning girl in the dirt, and back to her friends and promptly grabs the threads, ripping them out and throwing them down. The threads fade, hissing like snakes. The girl’s friends fade too, stopping and blanching. Sigrun stands for an instant, horrified and then runs.( like a coward)

The teasing stops after that, nobody giggles or smirks when Sigrun stares at nothing, or charges and falls.
(Some of the threads and strings connected to her start pulsing a steady stream of blue. Blue means fear)

 

A/N:So I'm double posting. Again. This is a sloppy first draft thingy, but I like it. Even though its part of the reason I'm not working on Hop Fall, but i think publishing this will help a little. (*Looks at suicide squad au beseechingly*Leave me aloneeeeeee)  Also, I'm giving up the ghost and making AO3 account and uploading them there. Ahola! (Also I still really need a beta reader)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: AquaAurion on April 26, 2015, 10:29:43 PM
KicknRun: Both of your stories are really intriguing! I really like what you did with the Sigrun one!
When you mention beta reading, do you just want someone who will look for spelling errors and so on?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: KicknRun on April 27, 2015, 06:29:54 AM
KicknRun: Both of your stories are really intriguing! I really like what you did with the Sigrun one!
When you mention beta reading, do you just want someone who will look for spelling errors and so on?

While somebody to catch spelling errors would be great, what I need is somebody to bouce ideas off, keep charaecters IC and  stuff along that line. And check spelling errors, I guesss.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: AquaAurion on April 28, 2015, 08:16:23 AM
Sooo, I just wrote my first fanfiction in like four years because of you guys  :P It could probably use some more work, but here it is: http://aquaaurion.deviantart.com/art/Trapped-529703527 (http://aquaaurion.deviantart.com/art/Trapped-529703527)

While somebody to catch spelling errors would be great, what I need is somebody to bouce ideas off, keep charaecters IC and  stuff along that line. And check spelling errors, I guesss.
I can try to help you. Please be aware that I've never done something like it before, though.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on April 28, 2015, 07:07:10 PM
Okay, so I know that aRTD and SSSS are canonically not taking place in the same universe. But I can dream… This is a little short story of everyone’s favourite grump and his (human) dog getting a little cameo in the world of SSSS, and saving Lalli and Reynir’s bacon into the bargain.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/3840577

As always, I hope you all like it!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Ren on April 28, 2015, 07:14:53 PM
Sooo, I just wrote my first fanfiction in like four years because of you guys  :P It could probably use some more work, but here it is: http://aquaaurion.deviantart.com/art/Trapped-529703527 (http://aquaaurion.deviantart.com/art/Trapped-529703527)

This story is so amazing please write more fan fiction!! Please!!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: DancingRanger on April 28, 2015, 07:20:31 PM
Sooo, I just wrote my first fanfiction in like four years because of you guys  :P It could probably use some more work, but here it is: http://aquaaurion.deviantart.com/art/Trapped-529703527 (http://aquaaurion.deviantart.com/art/Trapped-529703527)
I can try to help you. Please be aware that I've never done something like it before, though.

More please, more please. I really liked it.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: KicknRun on April 28, 2015, 08:58:50 PM
Sooo, I just wrote my first fanfiction in like four years because of you guys  :P It could probably use some more work, but here it is: http://aquaaurion.deviantart.com/art/Trapped-529703527 (http://aquaaurion.deviantart.com/art/Trapped-529703527)

I like this! I've always found dreamworlds and such really interesting, and the way it played out was pretty cool.

Okay, so I know that aRTD and SSSS are canonically not taking place in the same universe. But I can dream… This is a little short story of everyone’s favourite grump and his (human) dog getting a little cameo in the world of SSSS, and saving Lalli and Reynir’s bacon into the bargain.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/3840577

As always, I hope you all like it!

I do indeed, like it. And the last line. That last line was awesome.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: AquaAurion on April 28, 2015, 09:54:20 PM
Thank you guys for the kind comments! :D I definitely want to write more, I'll just have to decide whether to continue from this one (it might become more shippy if I do) or do something else.


Okay, so I know that aRTD and SSSS are canonically not taking place in the same universe. But I can dream… This is a little short story of everyone’s favourite grump and his (human) dog getting a little cameo in the world of SSSS, and saving Lalli and Reynir’s bacon into the bargain.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/3840577

As always, I hope you all like it!
I really like how you tied the two universes together through the dream world!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Mélusine on April 29, 2015, 02:14:23 AM
Sooo, I just wrote my first fanfiction in like four years because of you guys  :P It could probably use some more work, but here it is: http://aquaaurion.deviantart.com/art/Trapped-529703527 (http://aquaaurion.deviantart.com/art/Trapped-529703527)
I can try to help you. Please be aware that I've never done something like it before, though.
It seems I'm not the only one fascinated by the dreamworld :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: AquaAurion on April 29, 2015, 02:59:48 AM
It seems I'm not the only one fascinated by the dreamworld :)
Oh, I think we all are  ;) I really hope we get to see more of it this chapter! It looks promising this far =D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on April 29, 2015, 10:08:21 AM
KicknRun: Your stories so far are really good! I do hope Emil makes it out all right...

AquaAurion: Those are some intruiging ideas about the dreamworld you've got there. As you say, I hope we see more of it in this chapter!

And thanks to you both for your kind words on my ramblings above!  :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: KicknRun on April 29, 2015, 06:11:10 PM
KicknRun: Your stories so far are really good! I do hope Emil makes it out all right...

AquaAurion: Those are some intruiging ideas about the dreamworld you've got there. As you say, I hope we see more of it in this chapter!

And thanks to you both for your kind words on my ramblings above!  :)

I have some really awkward ideas about how I think superpowers work, so yeah. This is how I think empathy works. Fear me.
(Sigrun with the power to control the emotions of other people? Fear her!)

And Emil is alive, that is all I'm willing to say. (Also I'm really surprised that people are feeling suspense. Where is the suspense. I don't know what I'm doing.)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Haiz on April 30, 2015, 03:45:46 AM
Okay, so I know that aRTD and SSSS are canonically not taking place in the same universe. But I can dream… This is a little short story of everyone’s favourite grump and his (human) dog getting a little cameo in the world of SSSS, and saving Lalli and Reynir’s bacon into the bargain.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/3840577
well if the point of fanfic isn't to make all your dreams come true then I don't know what is. I loved this. I also love the pacfim au fic, but you already know that. I made several very undignified sounds while reading it, accompanied by very excited tapping on my desk, eheheh


not sure how many are eagerly awaiting the next part of the high school au, I am kinda working on it........ it will hopefully be a thing that happens soon!!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SolarPoweredGirl on April 30, 2015, 12:17:13 PM
I call this...
SIGRUN ON THE PLAYGROUND

I sit bored at my desk, twirling my red hair in my fingers.
"When's recceessss!" I politely ask my teacher, who gives me a quick shush and replies,
"No whining!"
I was NOT whining I was POLITELY ASKING. I notice my friend Mikkel is wearing a hoodie today. I bet I can throw something into his hood without him noticing. I pick a pencil of my table, aim, annnddddd....
FIRE!
Oops. I think that he moved or something and threw off my aim.
"OW!" He cries.
"Is everything alright Mr.Madsen?" The teacher asks. Dude, we're in third grade. You don't call third graders "Mister".
"I'm f-fine." Mikkel grumbles, holding the back of my head. I think he has a crush on me and doesn't want to get me in trouble. Or he's planning deeper revenge. Either way I  know the proper defenses.
"Alright class. It's time for recess. I'm sorry you all had to wait an extra few minutes, but a, um, certain student  put an old banana on my chair."
Geez. That was one time! Like, a whole half hour ago even. We start to line up so I run to the front.
"Hey you skipped!" someone whispers.
"Deal with it!" I say.
Silence.
These guys are such pushovers.
" I CALL THE HIGHEST SWING!" I scream, jetting over to the playground. Lots of people want the highest swing, but they'll have to go through me.
Suddenly, I notice my teacher walking towards me.
"Sigrun! I see you have LOTS of, um, energy today-Would you like to organize a game?"
My jaw drops.
"LET'S PLAY FREEZE TAAAAAGGGG!" I announce. Everyone looks my way.
"I'M IT!"
My classmates scatter like slugs running from salt. Wait, slugs don't run, they're slow. Well so are these kids but I mean not that slow. Whatever.
"CHARRRRGGGEEEEE!" I shout, speeding towards my first victim.
"TAG" He freezes. I keep running.
"TAG"
"TAG"
"TAG"
"TAG TAG TAG TAG TAG." I maliciously attack one of my classmates.
"You've tagged me five times already!" she says.
"Whatever." I take off again.
"TAG" I accidentally push over Mikkel.
"HEY THAT'S CHEATING!" he says.
"Lalalala I can't hear you!" I say. Then I hear a thump. Oh, that was me. I made the thump.
"You've tagged everyone Sigrun." my teacher says, rubbing her chest where I ran into her.
Oh. So I have.
"Now I can have the highest swing to myself!" I exclaim.
"Wait Sigrun that's not what I-"
Too late. I'm gone.
Aaahhhh. The feeling of wind against my face as I swing back and forth. The look of defeat on my enemies frozen faces.
What a nice day.

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: KicknRun on April 30, 2015, 05:56:53 PM
I call this...
SIGRUN ON THE PLAYGROUND

I mean my version of kid siggy is different then your version of kid siggy but this is priceless and I love it.( Also how do I master cool ending lines so help me god.)

Also everybody who is reading Hop Fall I have an Ao3 invitation code even though I haven't made an account yet but chapter three's first draft is finally done. (Also I will either merge chapter 1&2 or find a way to slow down the pacing in chapter 2)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: AquaAurion on May 01, 2015, 05:12:43 AM
KicknRun: Your stories so far are really good! I do hope Emil makes it out all right...

AquaAurion: Those are some intruiging ideas about the dreamworld you've got there. As you say, I hope we see more of it in this chapter!

And thanks to you both for your kind words on my ramblings above!  :)
Thank you! I was playing around with ideas in my head and thought it could be nice to include them in the story :D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on May 01, 2015, 05:11:10 PM
I felt a bit gloomy today so I wrote a little fic about the fall of civilisation. It’s set in the Year 0 as the Rash takes hold in Denmark – specifically, the area of Kastrup that Emil, Lalli and Sigrun now have such fond memories of after chapter 5. I should probably warn you guys, it does contain one or two occasions of quite strong language, so if that’s not your cup of tea…

http://archiveofourown.org/works/3857455

Aside from that, I hope you all like it!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Haiz on May 01, 2015, 05:32:03 PM
I felt a bit gloomy today so I wrote a little fic about the fall of civilisation. It’s set in the Year 0 as the Rash takes hold in Denmark – specifically, the area of Kastrup that Emil, Lalli and Sigrun now have such fond memories of after chapter 5. I should probably warn you guys, it does contain one or two occasions of quite strong language, so if that’s not your cup of tea…

http://archiveofourown.org/works/3857455

Aside from that, I hope you all like it!
hhhhhh that was so dark
but really really good

"armageddon never looked so stylish"
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: KauniitaUnia on May 01, 2015, 06:15:05 PM
I felt a bit gloomy today so I wrote a little fic about the fall of civilisation. It’s set in the Year 0 as the Rash takes hold in Denmark – specifically, the area of Kastrup that Emil, Lalli and Sigrun now have such fond memories of after chapter 5. I should probably warn you guys, it does contain one or two occasions of quite strong language, so if that’s not your cup of tea…

http://archiveofourown.org/works/3857455

Aside from that, I hope you all like it!

Wow, that was really well written - but not for the faint of heart! Like Haiz said; so dark.
You were feeling a bit gloomy? I don't know whether to be scared or intrigued my what you might write if you're feeling really gloomy
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Mélusine on May 01, 2015, 06:23:24 PM
I felt a bit gloomy today so I wrote a little fic about the fall of civilisation. It’s set in the Year 0 as the Rash takes hold in Denmark – specifically, the area of Kastrup that Emil, Lalli and Sigrun now have such fond memories of after chapter 5. I should probably warn you guys, it does contain one or two occasions of quite strong language, so if that’s not your cup of tea…

http://archiveofourown.org/works/3857455

Aside from that, I hope you all like it!
I agree, it's really well writen, and dark but sadly realistic to my mind. Oh, and the very last lines are very good too.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Laufey on May 01, 2015, 06:30:33 PM
I felt a bit gloomy today so I wrote a little fic about the fall of civilisation. It’s set in the Year 0 as the Rash takes hold in Denmark – specifically, the area of Kastrup that Emil, Lalli and Sigrun now have such fond memories of after chapter 5. I should probably warn you guys, it does contain one or two occasions of quite strong language, so if that’s not your cup of tea…

http://archiveofourown.org/works/3857455

Aside from that, I hope you all like it!

I loved it. So sad, a perfect touch of hopelessness, well-written and - well - I guess the end almost kind of counts as a happy one... well, not really but maybe something like a good conclusion. *applause*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: KicknRun on May 02, 2015, 04:09:51 PM
I felt a bit gloomy today so I wrote a little fic about the fall of civilisation. It’s set in the Year 0 as the Rash takes hold in Denmark – specifically, the area of Kastrup that Emil, Lalli and Sigrun now have such fond memories of after chapter 5. I should probably warn you guys, it does contain one or two occasions of quite strong language, so if that’s not your cup of tea…

http://archiveofourown.org/works/3857455

Aside from that, I hope you all like it!

I'm know a lot of words but I don't know how I can put this together to say how much I like this.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Ren on May 04, 2015, 10:53:53 PM
I call this...
SIGRUN ON THE PLAYGROUND

Wow this is an amazing story. I love reading fan tics about the characters childhoods. PLEASE WRITE MORE!!!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Haiz on May 09, 2015, 07:25:01 PM
Standstill High part 4: dress day

I HAVE WRITTEN THE CONTINUATION AT LAST
it took a little long and some responsibility neglection but here it is

possible warning for:
- gender things + other identity things maybe
- it's getting into shippy territory which was not my intention but here we are. it's an au so it's a loophole to my non-shipping rule
- incredible awkwardness (all of it emil's)
- not as exciting as I implied it was going to be at the end of part 3

~*English version*~ (http://unicorngender.tumblr.com/post/118560751924)

~*Norwegian version*~ (http://unicorngender.tumblr.com/post/118544747224/stillsta-vgs-del-4-kjoledagen)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on May 09, 2015, 07:52:43 PM
This… this story nearly killed me. I’ve had the idea for ages now, but every time I tried to write it down it just didn’t work, if that makes any sense. I actually had to sit down and force myself to keep at it, otherwise it’d be hanging over me for ever. Still, I think it’s turned out ok.

Anyway, this is a story of Tuuri and Reynir getting cornered by a troll. I just wanted to see Tuuri get in on the troll-slaying action, if I’m honest. I get the feeling that she could be pretty good at it if someone gave her a chance.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/3908590

And, as always, I hope you all like it!

Haiz: That was perfect. Completely without intending to, you just made my birthday.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Baku on May 09, 2015, 09:33:37 PM
This… this story nearly killed me. I’ve had the idea for ages now, but every time I tried to write it down it just didn’t work, if that makes any sense. I actually had to sit down and force myself to keep at it, otherwise it’d be hanging over me for ever. Still, I think it’s turned out ok.

Anyway, this is a story of Tuuri and Reynir getting cornered by a troll. I just wanted to see Tuuri get in on the troll-slaying action, if I’m honest. I get the feeling that she could be pretty good at it if someone gave her a chance.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/3908590

And, as always, I hope you all like it!
Oh. My. Gosh. Loved it, we totally need more action Tuuri around here!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solovei on May 09, 2015, 11:53:34 PM
Anyway, this is a story of Tuuri and Reynir getting cornered by a troll. I just wanted to see Tuuri get in on the troll-slaying action, if I’m honest. I get the feeling that she could be pretty good at it if someone gave her a chance.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/3908590


That was super good! :D You can really see her military training here, even if she was mostly stuck behind a desk.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Haiz on May 10, 2015, 02:05:09 AM
http://archiveofourown.org/works/3908590

And, as always, I hope you all like it!

Haiz: That was perfect. Completely without intending to, you just made my birthday.

THAT WAS SO GOOD. the interaction between reynir and tuuri was perfect, and the ending makes me so happy

also omg thank you!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Mélusine on May 10, 2015, 03:23:28 AM
This… this story nearly killed me. I’ve had the idea for ages now, but every time I tried to write it down it just didn’t work, if that makes any sense. I actually had to sit down and force myself to keep at it, otherwise it’d be hanging over me for ever. Still, I think it’s turned out ok.

Anyway, this is a story of Tuuri and Reynir getting cornered by a troll. I just wanted to see Tuuri get in on the troll-slaying action, if I’m honest. I get the feeling that she could be pretty good at it if someone gave her a chance.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/3908590
You write very well :)
And I agree, Tuuri need more chances to show what she's able to do.

Standstill High part 4: dress day

I HAVE WRITTEN THE CONTINUATION AT LAST
it took a little long and some responsibility neglection but here it is
The most difficult, when you read at 2am, is not to laugh because the others are sleeping.
Title: Re: sectoBoss new story. The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on May 10, 2015, 11:43:01 AM
Really liked the new story. As always, wonderful detail; little touches like the inadvisability of throwing up in a breath mask! Good to see Tuuri doing something - I presume she would have done basic training in the army, even if she did work in admin. I like the idea that trolls might figure out how to do bone as a protective carapace, eventually. Makes them even more scary.
Also, happy birthday for the 9th!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: KauniitaUnia on May 10, 2015, 04:48:15 PM
Haiz - that was hilarious, and perfect in every way. please please pleaseee never ever stop writing this series ;)

Sectoboss - it's great to see a story centered solely on Turri in the first place, and you write her character so well! I love the idea that she would be able to handle a troll - it's a shame she hasn't yet had a chance to show what she can do in the comic.
and happy belated birthday to you!

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Haiz on May 10, 2015, 06:05:29 PM
You write very well :)
The most difficult, when you read at 2am, is not to laugh because the others are sleeping.
skjndshjdsbnbdsfsd why does this keep happening
this is the best kind of comment it makes me so happy

Haiz - that was hilarious, and perfect in every way. please please pleaseee never ever stop writing this series ;)
as long as there are readers and as long as I get ideas, I won't!!! thank you so much
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Curry on May 10, 2015, 06:23:50 PM
Haiz that's a super adorable story and I have told you how much I love it but. *frantically tries to upvote*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Adrai Thell on May 10, 2015, 06:36:19 PM
Haiz, I don't know how I didn't read all of these before, but...
*hands*
*words*
*excited hands and words*
*possibly screaming of happiness*
Also, is it odd that your stories have cleared up a lot of things for me? I've never actually met anybody confused about their sexuality (WEIRD I KNOW) and I've wondered about a lot of this stuff for a while. So thanks for entertaining and informing!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Haiz on May 10, 2015, 06:59:30 PM
Haiz that's a super adorable story and I have told you how much I love it but. *frantically tries to upvote*
akjsfdkjbdsnbsd sdasadjsan

Haiz, I don't know how I didn't read all of these before, but...
*hands*
*words*
*excited hands and words*
*possibly screaming of happiness*
Also, is it odd that your stories have cleared up a lot of things for me? I've never actually met anybody confused about their sexuality (WEIRD I KNOW) and I've wondered about a lot of this stuff for a while. So thanks for entertaining and informing!
oh wow that is
actually one of the nicest things I've ever been told??
Spoiler: show

not only have I spent an obscene amount of time on tumblr (which is kinda hyperfocused in these kinda things), but I've had sO MANY CONVERSATIONS about this stuff with sO MANY PEOPLE...... throughout my (at times VERY CONFUSING) years-long journey to find my current self as an ~*Aromantic Asexual Agender Person~*, I've literally interviewed people about the oddest of things (WHAT DOES A GENDER FEEL LIKE), and.......  basically, I have gathered vast amounts of Advice, Feelings, Thoughts and so much on these topics, and I guess this fic is one of the ways I'm gonna write some of it out.

So the fact that someone actually finds my silly headcanon-spew au informative is kind of. really great.


also this is gonna sound like the most awkward of offers, but I'm always open to discuss confusing things?? like, there's no way to guarantee my advice or anything being Good, but i kinda live and breathe these discussions and. idk. the anonymous function on my tumblr askbox is enabled partially for this very reason.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Baku on May 10, 2015, 07:10:54 PM
@Haiz: (I meant to mention this before, but my mind has been a little bit slippery this week) Like pretty much everyone else on this thread, I've been enjoying your AU very much! Not only is it humorous, but it made me so happy to see Tuuri's orientation as pansexual (considering i'm pansexual myself). Keep up the awesome work! ;)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Curry on May 10, 2015, 07:20:28 PM
@Haiz: (I meant to mention this before, but my mind has been a little bit slippery this week) Like pretty much everyone else on this thread, I've been enjoying your AU very much! Not only is it humorous, but it made me so happy to see Tuuri's orientation as pansexual (considering i'm pansexual myself). Keep up the awesome work! ;)

RANDOMLY POPS IN TO SECOND HOW GREAT IT FEELS ALSO PANSEXUALS REPRESENT
As a pansexual genderfluid trashlord person I'm always really happy to see like. Characters being written in a way I can relate to them on yet another level? So this AU is kind of a really fun way to have even more fun with these characters and hhhh THANK YOU HAIZ FOR WRITING THESE
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Adrai Thell on May 10, 2015, 07:28:24 PM
By the by, SectoBoss! I. LOVED. IT. Action Tuuri is the best Tuuri, and that troll was super cool, and you use words so well, and the pacing, and, and...!
Wow.
You've cemented me in wanting to write SSSS fanfics for my Creative Writing class (the screenplay with a male and female character? definitely going with Sigrun and Emil, mwehehehe...)

And yay, I said a nice thing to Haiz! Keep up the awesome, and I will keep up disturbing my family with actual laughter enjoying them. Also, Lalli. His Tumblr is most best. Trees.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Haiz on May 11, 2015, 07:04:43 PM
ksjbnsdn dsosdfjnsd SINCE YOU ARE BEING SO KIND TO ME
I HAVE
written a little bonus scene

.......... I realize the mall trip was very rushed/glossed over, which is really sad considering its vast potential. Thus I present to you:

How Lalli Came To Own a Hoodie That Was Actually His Size

Spoiler: show

Emil thought it was a good idea to start with something easy, like a hoodie that was actually Lalli’s size. The moment he got down from the fake palm tree, Lalli got forcibly dragged into the closest store. Which happened to be.. hipstery (not that Emil minded), but blessedly filled with row upon row of hoodies in various colours.
“RIGHTO”, said Emil. “Let’s get down to business.”
He picked up a light blue sweater, XS size, and was about to shove it into Lalli’s hands. Except they were already clutching a similar garment. It was a size L.
“Lalli, noooo... Don’t do this…”

Emil couldn’t believe he had thought, even for a second, that it would be fun to shop with this ridiculous kid.

He held out a size S green hoodie.
“Please try this one on. Please.”
Lalli rummaged through the stack, pulled out a huge black hoodie, and held it in front of himself. Emil didn’t even check the size tag.
“You already have like, TEN black hoodies!” he protested.
Lalli kept holding it before him for several seconds before lowering it, looking confused. Emil put the green hoodie over his friend’s head in exasperation.
“Mr?” came Lalli’s muffled voice.
“What do I do with you…” Emil mumbled as he turned to look for more hoodies that might fit.
He didn’t get very far before his vision was obscured by a dark blue fabric.
“?!?”
He felt Lalli drape another hoodie over his shoulders.
“Oh. It is ON.”


There were more than 20 sweaters on the floor when they finally got thrown out of the shop.


Emil sighed. He wasn’t ready to give up just yet. It wasn’t an official bet he had going on with Tuuri, but it was the next best thing. A challenge. And he was going to prove his worth as Lalli’s keeperbest friend even if he resorted to… H&M. Because that’s where they found themselves next. They were surrounded by garish colours, embarrassing prints, cheap jewellery, even tiaras.
“Why are you holding that tiara.”
Lalli didn’t answer. Instead he went to the nearest mirror and gingerly placed the tiara upon his brow, looking for all the world like a lost princess.
“I’m not buying you a tiara.”
Lalli turned towards him, glass jewels gleaming in the glare of the lamps. He looked… utterly regal. Dammit.
“…Fine. FINE. I’ll get you that tiara, if you 1) don’t breathe a WORD of this to Tuuri, and 2) promise to try –“ he grabbed the nearest hoodie “- this thing on.”
He realized his mistake too late. The hoodie seemed to be the right size, but it was not a plain blue one as he had thought. It was a galaxy print. Well. No turning back now. Who knew, maybe Lalli would look good with a galaxy print. (IT CERTAINLY WASN’T WORSE THAN A TIARA.)

Lalli did, in fact, look good with a galaxy print sweater. Except Emil wasn’t really looking. He was busy covering his face in embarrassment. The plan had been to push Lalli into a changing room, when suddenly – he saw one of his classmates. She was about to turn her head in their direction. Emil did not only push Lalli into the changing room, but scrambled into it as well. He’d been red as a tomato ever since. He couldn’t even pinpoint the reason for that, either – was it about someone from school seeing him in H&M? Was it about being seen shopping with Lalli, who, by the way, was wearing a tiara? Or was it because Lalli by some miracle had understood he had to try the galaxy print hoodie on? It was probably all of them combined.

In the end, Emil bought him both the awful hoodie and the awful tiara – but on different checks, so Tuuri could pay for the one and never learn about the other. But at least Emil had succeeded step one of his mission! Now, to try something more elaborate, like a nice shirt or something…
“Lalli! Stay away from those t-shirts!”



Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Mélusine on May 11, 2015, 07:12:17 PM
Thank for the bonus before going to sleep ! ("vast potential", indeed... ^^)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Curry on May 11, 2015, 07:24:02 PM
ksjbnsdn dsosdfjnsd SINCE YOU ARE BEING SO KIND TO ME
I HAVE
written a little bonus scene

.......... I realize the mall trip was very rushed/glossed over, which is really sad considering its vast potential. Thus I present to you:

How Lalli Came To Own a Hoodie That Was Actually His Size

Spoiler: show

Emil thought it was a good idea to start with something easy, like a hoodie that was actually Lalli’s size. The moment he got down from the fake palm tree, Lalli got forcibly dragged into the closest store. Which happened to be.. hipstery (not that Emil minded), but blessedly filled with row upon row of hoodies in various colours.
“RIGHTO”, said Emil. “Let’s get down to business.”
He picked up a light blue sweater, XS size, and was about to shove it into Lalli’s hands. Except they were already clutching a similar garment. It was a size L.
“Lalli, noooo... Don’t do this…”

Emil couldn’t believe he had thought, even for a second, that it would be fun to shop with this ridiculous kid.

He held out a size S green hoodie.
“Please try this one on. Please.”
Lalli rummaged through the stack, pulled out a huge black hoodie, and held it in front of himself. Emil didn’t even check the size tag.
“You already have like, TEN black hoodies!” he protested.
Lalli kept holding it before him for several seconds before lowering it, looking confused. Emil put the green hoodie over his friend’s head in exasperation.
“Mr?” came Lalli’s muffled voice.
“What do I do with you…” Emil mumbled as he turned to look for more hoodies that might fit.
He didn’t get very far before his vision was obscured by a dark blue fabric.
“?!?”
He felt Lalli drape another hoodie over his shoulders.
“Oh. It is ON.”


There were more than 20 sweaters on the floor when they finally got thrown out of the shop.


Emil sighed. He wasn’t ready to give up just yet. It wasn’t an official bet he had going on with Tuuri, but it was the next best thing. A challenge. And he was going to prove his worth as Lalli’s keeperbest friend even if he resorted to… H&M. Because that’s where they found themselves next. They were surrounded by garish colours, embarrassing prints, cheap jewellery, even tiaras.
“Why are you holding that tiara.”
Lalli didn’t answer. Instead he went to the nearest mirror and gingerly placed the tiara upon his brow, looking for all the world like a lost princess.
“I’m not buying you a tiara.”
Lalli turned towards him, glass jewels gleaming in the glare of the lamps. He looked… utterly regal. Dammit.
“…Fine. FINE. I’ll get you that tiara, if you 1) don’t breathe a WORD of this to Tuuri, and 2) promise to try –“ he grabbed the nearest hoodie “- this thing on.”
He realized his mistake too late. The hoodie seemed to be the right size, but it was not a plain blue one as he had thought. It was a galaxy print. Well. No turning back now. Who knew, maybe Lalli would look good with a galaxy print. (IT CERTAINLY WASN’T WORSE THAN A TIARA.)

Lalli did, in fact, look good with a galaxy print sweater. Except Emil wasn’t really looking. He was busy covering his face in embarrassment. The plan had been to push Lalli into a changing room, when suddenly – he saw one of his classmates. She was about to turn her head in their direction. Emil did not only push Lalli into the changing room, but scrambled into it as well. He’d been red as a tomato ever since. He couldn’t even pinpoint the reason for that, either – was it about someone from school seeing him in H&M? Was it about being seen shopping with Lalli, who, by the way, was wearing a tiara? Or was it because Lalli by some miracle had understood he had to try the galaxy print hoodie on? It was probably all of them combined.

In the end, Emil bought him both the awful hoodie and the awful tiara – but on different checks, so Tuuri could pay for the one and never learn about the other. But at least Emil had succeeded step one of his mission! Now, to try something more elaborate, like a nice shirt or something…
“Lalli! Stay away from those t-shirts!”



This is lovely and I am laughing harder than I should be especially at that ending oh my gosh
Haiz please never stop writing I am so pleased and this made my day I am so happy with these dumb tiara-wearing galaxy kids
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Adrai Thell on May 11, 2015, 07:48:54 PM
ksjbnsdn dsosdfjnsd SINCE YOU ARE BEING SO KIND TO ME
I HAVE
written a little bonus scene

.......... I realize the mall trip was very rushed/glossed over, which is really sad considering its vast potential. Thus I present to you:

How Lalli Came To Own a Hoodie That Was Actually His Size

Spoiler: show

Emil thought it was a good idea to start with something easy, like a hoodie that was actually Lalli’s size. The moment he got down from the fake palm tree, Lalli got forcibly dragged into the closest store. Which happened to be.. hipstery (not that Emil minded), but blessedly filled with row upon row of hoodies in various colours.
“RIGHTO”, said Emil. “Let’s get down to business.”
He picked up a light blue sweater, XS size, and was about to shove it into Lalli’s hands. Except they were already clutching a similar garment. It was a size L.
“Lalli, noooo... Don’t do this…”

Emil couldn’t believe he had thought, even for a second, that it would be fun to shop with this ridiculous kid.

He held out a size S green hoodie.
“Please try this one on. Please.”
Lalli rummaged through the stack, pulled out a huge black hoodie, and held it in front of himself. Emil didn’t even check the size tag.
“You already have like, TEN black hoodies!” he protested.
Lalli kept holding it before him for several seconds before lowering it, looking confused. Emil put the green hoodie over his friend’s head in exasperation.
“Mr?” came Lalli’s muffled voice.
“What do I do with you…” Emil mumbled as he turned to look for more hoodies that might fit.
He didn’t get very far before his vision was obscured by a dark blue fabric.
“?!?”
He felt Lalli drape another hoodie over his shoulders.
“Oh. It is ON.”


There were more than 20 sweaters on the floor when they finally got thrown out of the shop.


Emil sighed. He wasn’t ready to give up just yet. It wasn’t an official bet he had going on with Tuuri, but it was the next best thing. A challenge. And he was going to prove his worth as Lalli’s keeperbest friend even if he resorted to… H&M. Because that’s where they found themselves next. They were surrounded by garish colours, embarrassing prints, cheap jewellery, even tiaras.
“Why are you holding that tiara.”
Lalli didn’t answer. Instead he went to the nearest mirror and gingerly placed the tiara upon his brow, looking for all the world like a lost princess.
“I’m not buying you a tiara.”
Lalli turned towards him, glass jewels gleaming in the glare of the lamps. He looked… utterly regal. Dammit.
“…Fine. FINE. I’ll get you that tiara, if you 1) don’t breathe a WORD of this to Tuuri, and 2) promise to try –“ he grabbed the nearest hoodie “- this thing on.”
He realized his mistake too late. The hoodie seemed to be the right size, but it was not a plain blue one as he had thought. It was a galaxy print. Well. No turning back now. Who knew, maybe Lalli would look good with a galaxy print. (IT CERTAINLY WASN’T WORSE THAN A TIARA.)

Lalli did, in fact, look good with a galaxy print sweater. Except Emil wasn’t really looking. He was busy covering his face in embarrassment. The plan had been to push Lalli into a changing room, when suddenly – he saw one of his classmates. She was about to turn her head in their direction. Emil did not only push Lalli into the changing room, but scrambled into it as well. He’d been red as a tomato ever since. He couldn’t even pinpoint the reason for that, either – was it about someone from school seeing him in H&M? Was it about being seen shopping with Lalli, who, by the way, was wearing a tiara? Or was it because Lalli by some miracle had understood he had to try the galaxy print hoodie on? It was probably all of them combined.

In the end, Emil bought him both the awful hoodie and the awful tiara – but on different checks, so Tuuri could pay for the one and never learn about the other. But at least Emil had succeeded step one of his mission! Now, to try something more elaborate, like a nice shirt or something…
“Lalli! Stay away from those t-shirts!”



*Is attempting to applaud but squeaking too hard to successfully do so*
ERMAGERSH LALLI.
This. This is awesome. And I love this AU far too much. You've made my day... again...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: kahli on May 11, 2015, 08:36:53 PM
Quote
He tried to sort his thoughts a little.
thought 1) ?
thought 2) ?? ? ??
thought 3) ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?? ?
It didn’t help much.

And that is the moment when I fell over laughing.
(I had to space out the ?s in the quote because otherwise they make this: ???)

Quote
oh NO
LALLI WAS ADORABLE
This pretty much describes my life now.

These are all brilliant Hiaz! Keep this AU going please! I love it.  ;D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Haiz on May 12, 2015, 06:30:19 AM
sdkjbsjssdfjsdfjknb thank you for your comments everyone

And that is the moment when I fell over laughing.
(I had to space out the ?s in the quote because otherwise they make this: ???)
I knoooow, I've already complained about that particular smiley shortcut because SOMETIMES YOU JUST GOTTA
(http://41.media.tumblr.com/85f7afb40e8ba82ef1602dbb2316b1c4/tumblr_nn7y4ikHAU1r6soqlo5_400.jpg)

I have to admit I take some inspiration from doodleordie, too:
Spoiler: show

(https://doodleordie.s3.amazonaws.com/d/1R9pE-_0G/1Ho4StIrG.png)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on May 12, 2015, 07:36:44 AM
Just wanted to say thank you to everyone who said nice things about my latest offering a few days ago (and double thanks for the birthday wishes!). You keep an old fanfic writer going :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wildfire on May 15, 2015, 05:53:18 AM
I realise it's been far too long since I last visited here - Haiz, once more you make me laugh so hard I think I'm dying. I love your videregående AU. Please, never stop doing it!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: KicknRun on May 16, 2015, 08:19:26 AM
Hop,Skip,Jump,Fall
Chapter Two:
Possession is Nine-tenths of the Law

-=4=-


When they finally got back to the tank, lootless and burdened with one unresponsive cleanser, nobody was in a good mood. Then they had to decontaminate. Sigrun and Lalli decontaminated first, while Mikkel was trying to get a unresponsive Emil to get ready to do the same. Lalli quickly disappeared into the depths of the tank, leaving Sigrun with Mikkel.

“This is a problem”, she said from behind him.

“Which exactly, the braid or the catatonia”, Mikkel said dryly.

“Aw, take this seriously, big man.” She gave a considering look to the boy on the ground, then to the hose.  She walked over to one of the empty buckets,filled it with the cold water from the hose, and then unceremoniously dumped it on Emil’s head.

Sigrun shrugged. “Always had to that to some of the new recruits. The boy’s obviously made of tougher stuff than that”, and with this she glanced at the braid “but it should work.”

Emil’s eyes flare open in sync with the stop of her sentence.

A frown appeared on Sigrun’s face. “Shoulda worked faster


-=1=-


Emil is here. Emil is cold and wet an-. Emil is gone.


-=0=-


You open his eyes. There is cold water on his skin and you are cold. The sky above you is grey and you would have preferred a color that wasn’t so close to white.(you never want to see only white and blue again) The ground next to you is grey and wet also, but there are people there and the presence alone is enough to make it  feel like a minor miracle. (you do not feel blessed) You are lying on his back.

Trying to get up feels wrong. The legs are too short, and the arms are even shorter. Your former body is not something you remember with any certainly(you remember green and red. this does not seem of importance) but it was bigger than this. You move the legs and the arms but they move themselves, muscles and tendons and joints using the afterimage of movements you cannot do by yourself,(you do not remember) but you can do it with them.  Soon enough, you pull yourself up to a cross-legged position.

Then you see the people fully, a tall redheaded woman (that pings slightly, but it's not quite right), and a broad man with sideburns. The tall lady turns to the big man and says something. You don’t understand it. You know that you aren’t supposed to understand it, because who you were never knew.

It doesn’t matter. Being able to talk to someone is a luxury, so you open your mouth and speak.

“I don’t understand you.”, and feels wrong, with a voice too loud and too deep. Being able to talk is a luxury, but you don’t like this in the least.


-=3=-


Emil springs up to a crosslegged sitting position, but his movements are stiff and jerky, not precise but picky, and Sigrun could use many words to describe how wrong it feels, but she neither has the time nor the vocabulary. Then he says something in Icelandic, and Sigrun knows there is something wrong.

She’s read the personnel files. Emil spoke one language, and that was Swedish. Not Icelandic. Sure,concerns had been expressed about communication problems, but the finnish girl could solve that. It didn’t explain why he was suddenly speaking it.

Sigrun turns to Mikkel. “What did he say?” Mikkel was just as confused as she was, but he replies with “Emil said he doesn’t understand you”.

  Then Emil says something else, and the realization is not as surprising as it is obvious. It’s not Emil speaking. Not anymore.


-=4=-


Sigrun turns to him, fury in her stance. “That”, she says,jerking a finger at Emil “is not Emil. The evidence does not crash over him, it slides neatly into place. Mikkel would love for her to be wrong. His family doesn’t believe in those things, spirits and magic. Mikkel is trying very hard not to believe in myths. What Mikkel believes in is evidence, and the evidence is making it very clear and very hard. People don’t suddenly grow braids, or speak fluent Icelandic.

Sigrun throws her hands in the air.” I’m getting the forest mage. He better have an explanation!”

His mind might have been occupied by other things, but it finally gets around to translating what not-Emil said.
“I’m terribly sorry”


-=5=-


Tuuri is busy transcribing the book Mikkel gave her, even with the disgusting pictures and the medical terms she can’t translate. Lalli unexpectedly appears in the room-when had he come back? It was a bit too early, wasn’t it? Tuuri looks down at the amount she’s managed to copy. Definitely too early.  Something has gone wrong.

She takes a closer look at her cousin and she can clearly see the panic there, along with disgust. (Tuuri knows that people say Lalli isn’t emotional, but he is. He just doesn’t have much to be emotional about anymore.)

Tuuri cocks her head. "What's wrong?"

“Tuuri,” and yes that is panic “ a spirit has overtaken Emil."
She waves her hands, telling Lalli to please calm down because she doesn’t know what he is talking about. “Emil has been overtaken by a spirit? What do you mean?”

Lalli puts his hands together and starts fiddling his fingers. “ A spirit has overtaken him. Emil has been suppressed. His body is no longer his own.” His face scrunches up into something unpleasant and Lalli hisses. “Its a violation.”, he finishes, sounding -concerned and angry?
Tuuri considered it. While it seemed completely impossible, her cousin didn’t lie. She opened her mouth , ready to respond when Sigrun runs into the room, rage filling the suddenly very tiny space.


A/N: Freaking finally, guys. I procrastinated typing up this chapter, which is for the best, cause it turned out way better. *Points up at chapter title* Did you see that? Also the reason this is chapter 2 is because I am going to smash chapters 1&2 together when I get an Ao3 account.
Also yes do the constructive criticism thing.
Word count is 954. Holy crap
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on May 16, 2015, 02:15:11 PM
Of course I have to put this right below KicknRun's next (Finally!) chapter. Nothing compares well against brilliance. But so be it. Well, here's another one--or the first part of another one. I almost put this in the Crossovers thread, but Puppy-Fox should be in the SSSS world as Kuutar and Vellamo are. So, in the inevitable 12 millionth ripoff homage to Capra, I present:

“It’s a Wonderful Team”
Part 1
Spoiler: show
Hair still frazzled from his recent bath, Lalli stalked off in the highest of high dudgeons, purposefully avoiding the Swedish Fool’s outstretched fist by a wide margin. He slinked angrily past Tuuri and the Lying One to the safety of his bunk.
“You ingrate.” Trolls seize it! Lalli looked over to see Puppy-Fox looking back at him. This was not the first time they’d met; an introduction to the Gods was part of a mage’s training, so the mage knew upon whom they should call, and the Gods knew who was entreating them. But what could the Gods’ most irritating and irresponsible troublemaker want with him now, Rash take him?
“Well, and I am all that, indeed,” Puppy-Fox acknowledged Lalli’s unspoken question without qualm, “but sometimes even I help you pitiful crawling wretches, and what gratitude do we get? None! Even, you wish we’d never intervened! Well, this time I’m annoyed enough to want to teach you a little lesson, human!”
The world blurred around Lalli, and when it cleared, he and Puppy-Fox were standing in an unfamiliar outdoor cafe of some sort. At the table directly before them sat the Fool Swede’s Oily Uncle and Cowardly Aunt, talking to a tall, dazzlingly blond man in their babble.
“Oh, right,” Puppy-Fox said after a moment, “you don’t speak Icelandic, or even Swedish. Not that I blame you; why you humans can’t all speak Finnish like sensible creatures is beyond me. Here!”
The scene seemed to reverse itself just long enough to start back where Puppy-Fox wanted it to begin, and when time resumed its normal flow, Lalli found that he could understand what the three were discussing.
“So, ah, Eric,” the Oily Uncle smiled ingratiatingly at the stranger, “you’ve said you’re willing to go on this adventurous undertaking free of charge?”
‘Eric’ grinned back, a grin with something behind it that felt like a cold hand on Lalli’s neck. “Aside from my keep, and some inconsequential travel charges, I require nothing, Herr Västerström. It sounds like great fun, and I find I could use a vacation of the sort that this expedition would provide.”
The Cowardly Aunt looked at ‘Eric’ askance. “Um... That’s most... interesting, Eric. Might I just have a few words with my husband about a ‘family problem’?”
“By all means, Fru Västerström.” ‘Eric' leaned back in his chair nonchalantly as the two moved a short distance away.
“There’s something off about him. He’s too congenial and too willing to donate his time to us, and he’s hiding something.”
“But he’s free, and we’re desperate,” the Oily Uncle retorted. “Even Emil won’t do this gratis, and he’s family! His references check, and he seems personable enough, while the money we save hiring him can go towards more equipment for the team--isn’t that what you wanted, Siv?”
Now-Lalli felt the pit of his stomach clench nervously. This would not end well, he sensed...

Now read all the better stuff in this thread.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: KicknRun on May 16, 2015, 02:32:23 PM
Of course I have to put this right below KicknRun's next (Finally!) chapter. Nothing compares well against brilliance. But so be it. Well, here's another one--or the first part of another one. I almost put this in the Crossovers thread, but Puppy-Fox should be in the SSSS world as Kuutar and Vellamo are. So, in the inevitable 12 millionth ripoff homage to Capra, I present:

“It’s a Wonderful Team”
Part 1
Spoiler: show
Hair still frazzled from his recent bath, Lalli stalked off in the highest of high dudgeons, purposefully avoiding the Swedish Fool’s outstretched fist by a wide margin. He slinked angrily past Tuuri and the Lying One to the safety of his bunk.
“You ingrate.” Trolls seize it! Lalli looked over to see Puppy-Fox looking back at him. This was not the first time they’d met; an introduction to the Gods was part of a mage’s training, so the mage knew upon whom they should call, and the Gods knew who was entreating them. But what could the Gods’ most irritating and irresponsible troublemaker want with him now, Rash take him?
“Well, and I am all that, indeed,” Puppy-Fox acknowledged Lalli’s unspoken question without qualm, “but sometimes even I help you pitiful crawling wretches, and what gratitude do we get? None! Even, you wish we’d never intervened! Well, this time I’m annoyed enough to want to teach you a little lesson, human!”
The world blurred around Lalli, and when it cleared, he and Puppy-Fox were standing in an unfamiliar outdoor cafe of some sort. At the table directly before them sat the Fool Swede’s Oily Uncle and Cowardly Aunt, talking to a tall, dazzlingly blond man in their babble.
“Oh, right,” Puppy-Fox said after a moment, “you don’t speak Icelandic, or even Swedish. Not that I blame you; why you humans can’t all speak Finnish like sensible creatures is beyond me. Here!”
The scene seemed to reverse itself just long enough to start back where Puppy-Fox wanted it to begin, and when time resumed its normal flow, Lalli found that he could understand what the three were discussing.
“So, ah, Eric,” the Oily Uncle smiled ingratiatingly at the stranger, “you’ve said you’re willing to go on this adventurous undertaking free of charge?”
‘Eric’ grinned back, a grin with something behind it that felt like a cold hand on Lalli’s neck. “Aside from my keep, and some inconsequential travel charges, I require nothing, Herr Västerström. It sounds like great fun, and I find I could use a vacation of the sort that this expedition would provide.”
The Cowardly Aunt looked at ‘Eric’ askance. “Um... That’s most... interesting, Eric. Might I just have a few words with my husband about a ‘family problem’?”
“By all means, Fru Västerström.” ‘Eric' leaned back in his chair nonchalantly as the two moved a short distance away.
“There’s something off about him. He’s too congenial and too willing to donate his time to us, and he’s hiding something.”
“But he’s free, and we’re desperate,” the Oily Uncle retorted. “Even Emil won’t do this gratis, and he’s family! His references check, and he seems personable enough, while the money we save hiring him can go towards more equipment for the team--isn’t that what you wanted, Siv?”
Now-Lalli felt the pit of his stomach clench nervously. This would not end well, he sensed...

Now read all the better stuff in this thread.

Wadda ya talking about? This is one of the better stuff in this thread! And it looks really interesting.

EDIT:IMPORTANT DETAILS RELATED TO THE STORY

ALL THE SNARKY COMMENTS I MADE IN GOOGLE DOCS



Emil is gone.
(Dude was lucky he got any screentime at all)


You open his eyes.
(Second person ayyyyyy)


muscles and tendons and joints using the afterimage of movements
( how to say muscle memory in a really fancy way)

Being able to talk is a luxury, but you don’t like this in the least.
(how do you think emil feels? aw wait, he has no idea what the hell is going on)

I’m getting the forest mage. He better have an explanation!
(He might)

I’m terribly sorry
(Son you better be)

Mikkel gave her, even with the disgusting pictures and the medical terms she can’t translate.
(Just to be clear she's copying down word for word in its original language but she's also translating it in her head.)

Tuuri looks down at the amount she’s managed to copy. Definitely too early. 
(Unit of measurement: procrastination)

Tuuri,” and yes that is panic “ a spirit has overtaken Emil."

(Lalli starts speaking like a lawyer whenever magic is involved)

i]hisses[/i
(This doesn't require emphasis but it was a really nasty hiss)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: kahli on May 16, 2015, 10:43:38 PM
Hop,Skip,Jump,Fall
Chapter Two:
Possession is Nine-tenths of the Law

This is really good! It's cool how you switch perspectives among the crew members to get everyone's point of view. I can't wait to see where it goes next!

EDIT:IMPORTANT DETAILS RELATED TO THE STORY

ALL THE SNARKY COMMENTS I MADE IN GOOGLE DOCS

 ;D *Pffttt!* These are hilarious! Please please please show us any more of these that you make in later chapters! They make me laugh so hard!

“It’s a Wonderful Team”
Part 1

I like it LooNEY! Very suspenseful, I can't wait to see what happens next here too!  ;D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solovei on May 17, 2015, 12:16:51 AM
Hey all! My long-promised fic detailing how the Hotakainen kids came to Keuruu and got settled is finally HERE.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/3954073/chapters/8865853

Or rather, the first chatper of it! But fear not, chapter 2 will be coming shortly!  :) It will feature even more adorableness from Tiny Tuuri and Tiny Lalli and maybe some more questionable parenting decisions from Onni.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: KMK on May 17, 2015, 01:57:52 AM
Had to try the Drabble-matic here is a Shakespearean take on Sigrun and Mikkel.

Mikkel and Sigrun
by William Shakespeare

Enter Mikkel

Sigrun appears above at a window

Mikkel:
But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks?
It is the hose, and Sigrun is the rash beast.
Arise, brilliant rash beast, and run the most best knife.
See, how she leans her eyebrows upon her legs!
O, that I were a glove upon that legs,
That I might touch that eyebrows!

Sigrun:
O Mikkel, Mikkel! wherefore art thou Mikkel?
What's in a name? That which we call an arms
By any other name would smell as stoic
Dost thou love me? I know thou wilt say "Like a farmer washing pigs"
And I will take thy word; yet if thou swear'st,
Thou mayst prove excitable.

Mikkel:
Lady, by yonder most best knife I swear
That tips in the Cat Tank the red soap--

Sigrun:
O, swear not by the knife, the shiny knife,
That swiftly changes in its terrifying orb,
Lest that thy love prove likewise terrifying.
Sweet, magnifecent night! A thousand times magnifecent night!
Parting is such strong sorrow,
That I shall say magnifecent night till it be morrow.

Exit above

Mikkel:
Sleep dwell upon thine eyebrows, peace in thy legs!
Would I were sleep and peace, so energetically to rest!
calmly will I to my brilliant arms's cell,
Its help to run, and my stoic arms to tell.


But this version is Most Best
The Adventure Of The Rash Beast

Mikkel and Sigrun were out for an excitable Valentine's walk in the Cat Tank. As they went, Sigrun rested her hand on Mikkel's legs. It was the most romantic walk ever. But even though the day was so shiny, Mikkel was filled with red dread.

"Do you suppose it's brilliant here?" he asked solidly.

"You most best silly," Sigrun said, tickling Mikkel with her hose. "It's completely terrifying."

Just then, a stoic rash beast leapt out from behind a knife and ran Sigrun in the eyebrows. "Aaargh!" Sigrun screamed.

Things looked strong. But Mikkel, although he was magnifecent, knew he had to save his love. He grabbed a soap and, Like a farmer washing pigs, beat the rash beast calmly until it ran off. "That will teach you to run innocent people."

Then he clasped Sigrun close. Sigrun was bleeding swiftly. "My darling," Mikkel said, and pressed his lips to Sigrun's arms.

"I love you," Sigrun said energetically, and expired in Mikkel's arms.

Mikkel never loved again.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on May 17, 2015, 06:32:38 AM
Wow, I potter off for a day and when I get back all this cool stuff has turned up!

KicknRun: I’m starting to get genuinely concerned for Emil here. Also, your notes are hilarious.

LooNEY_DAC: Oh, this is interesting… seventh crew member??

Solovei: That was fantastic! I’ve often wondered if there was a backstory to Tuuri’s comments on Saimaa, and you’ve captured the mood really well.

KMK: What is this madness and why can’t I stop laughing at it?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Mélusine on May 17, 2015, 06:47:55 AM
Hey all! My long-promised fic detailing how the Hotakainen kids came to Keuruu and got settled is finally HERE.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/3954073/chapters/8865853

Or rather, the first chatper of it! But fear not, chapter 2 will be coming shortly!  :) It will feature even more adorableness from Tiny Tuuri and Tiny Lalli and maybe some more questionable parenting decisions from Onni.
It's an excellent idea to write on that moment :) I'll wait for your chapter 2.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solovei on May 17, 2015, 02:08:10 PM
Had to try the Drabble-matic here is a Shakespearean take on Sigrun and Mikkel.
Oh my god... I think I laughed for a solid two minutes there. I need to play around with that site more XD

It's an excellent idea to write on that moment :) I'll wait for your chapter 2.
It's coming! I gave a good idea of what I want it to be about, but nothing written down just yet... I think it'll focus a but more on Tuuri and Lalli though.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on May 17, 2015, 06:07:32 PM
So, here's the next bit.

“It’s a Wonderful Team”
Part 2
Spoiler: show
 Lalli is visited by Puppy-Fox, who feels Lalli is not properly grateful for the companions the Gods have provided him, so Puppy-Fox is showing Lalli what might have been if Emil had declined his uncle’s invitation...
The scene blurred again, and they were in the unpronounceable Swedish harbor where he’d first met the Swedes, but ‘Eric’ was there instead of the Fool Swede, looking quite dapper in an unblemished outfit. When then-Lalli would have ignored ‘Eric’s’ outstretched hand, a hard look came into the back of ‘Eric’s’ eyes, and he took then-Lalli’s hand in a punishing grip. Then-Tuuri tried to smooth the whole thing over with a flood of words, at which ‘Eric’ laughed with faux kindness and said, “Your cousin needs to learn some better manners, Fröken Hotakainen.” Something in ‘Eric’s’ tone further raised both Lallis’ hackles, but Tuuri was still swooning over how tall and blond ‘Eric’ was.
Another blur, and they were sitting in the little train to Mora. Tuuri was too busy gawping out the window to fawn over, or even notice, ‘Eric’. ‘Eric’ was looking down at a sandwich from which all the meat had been stolen. ‘Eric’ growled, crushing the bread in his hands, murder flashing in his eyes for a moment when they rested on then-Lalli, but all ‘Eric’ did was to rise and go off to the dining car, from which he returned after a very long time empty-handed. He also had not offered to get them anything initially. As if whispered by a ghost, now-Lalli heard Messy Emil’s words from that time, now understanding them: “Would you like anything? ... I’ll go get us some more of those.”
“Are you beginning to see, ingrate?” Puppy-Fox asked. The question startled now-Lalli, who had almost forgotten his presence. “No? Then we shall continue.”
With that, they were at the Grabby Kids’ house, and the Grabby Kids were all over then-Lalli. Neither Tuuri nor ‘Eric’ noticed, being far too preoccupied with ‘Eric’ and charming Tuuri, respectively. Great.
Another blur, and they were on the Death Train. Then-Lalli stood alone as the giant attacked, ‘Eric’ looking on from behind the door, a hopeful look in his eyes. ‘Eric’ smiled when the Coriferous Soul grabbed then-Lalli to ask for help, but frowned when then-Lalli acceded to her request. Then-Lalli saw neither expression, but now-Lalli did.
“Oh, good. I won’t have to walk you through everything.” Puppy-Fox smiled briefly.
Then they were at the base, meeting Adrenaline Girl and the Bear. Now-Lalli couldn’t help but notice the decided difference between how ‘Eric’ reacted and how the Bear--ah, Mikkel, was it?--did. There was no anger there, just a firm insistence.
Then Sigrun was wondering how they’d communicate, and ‘Eric’, of all people, spoke up. “He gets his meaning across, when he wants to.”
So ‘Eric’ was observant, as well as clever. Things kept getting worse…


There you go.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: KicknRun on May 17, 2015, 06:21:54 PM
So, here's the next bit.

“It’s a Wonderful Team”
Part 2
Spoiler: show
 Lalli is visited by Puppy-Fox, who feels Lalli is not properly grateful for the companions the Gods have provided him, so Puppy-Fox is showing Lalli what might have been if Emil had declined his uncle’s invitation...
The scene blurred again, and they were in the unpronounceable Swedish harbor where he’d first met the Swedes, but ‘Eric’ was there instead of the Fool Swede, looking quite dapper in an unblemished outfit. When then-Lalli would have ignored ‘Eric’s’ outstretched hand, a hard look came into the back of ‘Eric’s’ eyes, and he took then-Lalli’s hand in a punishing grip. Then-Tuuri tried to smooth the whole thing over with a flood of words, at which ‘Eric’ laughed with faux kindness and said, “Your cousin needs to learn some better manners, Fröken Hotakainen.” Something in ‘Eric’s’ tone further raised both Lallis’ hackles, but Tuuri was still swooning over how tall and blond ‘Eric’ was.
Another blur, and they were sitting in the little train to Mora. Tuuri was too busy gawping out the window to fawn over, or even notice, ‘Eric’. ‘Eric’ was looking down at a sandwich from which all the meat had been stolen. ‘Eric’ growled, crushing the bread in his hands, murder flashing in his eyes for a moment when they rested on then-Lalli, but all ‘Eric’ did was to rise and go off to the dining car, from which he returned after a very long time empty-handed. He also had not offered to get them anything initially. As if whispered by a ghost, now-Lalli heard Messy Emil’s words from that time, now understanding them: “Would you like anything? ... I’ll go get us some more of those.”
“Are you beginning to see, ingrate?” Puppy-Fox asked. The question startled now-Lalli, who had almost forgotten his presence. “No? Then we shall continue.”
With that, they were at the Grabby Kids’ house, and the Grabby Kids were all over then-Lalli. Neither Tuuri nor ‘Eric’ noticed, being far too preoccupied with ‘Eric’ and charming Tuuri, respectively. Great.
Another blur, and they were on the Death Train. Then-Lalli stood alone as the giant attacked, ‘Eric’ looking on from behind the door, a hopeful look in his eyes. ‘Eric’ smiled when the Coriferous Soul grabbed then-Lalli to ask for help, but frowned when then-Lalli acceded to her request. Then-Lalli saw neither expression, but now-Lalli did.
“Oh, good. I won’t have to walk you through everything.” Puppy-Fox smiled briefly.
Then they were at the base, meeting Adrenaline Girl and the Bear. Now-Lalli couldn’t help but notice the decided difference between how ‘Eric’ reacted and how the Bear--ah, Mikkel, was it?--did. There was no anger there, just a firm insistence.
Then Sigrun was wondering how they’d communicate, and ‘Eric’, of all people, spoke up. “He gets his meaning across, when he wants to.”
So ‘Eric’ was observant, as well as clever. Things kept getting worse…


There you go.

Well, I don't trust this guy. Be grateful for what the gods gave you, Lalli! It could be way worse.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: DB (f.k.a. DaveBro) on May 17, 2015, 06:39:22 PM
It's a Wonderful Team

Nicely done!  :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SolarPoweredGirl on May 17, 2015, 08:43:31 PM
(It is actually pretty sad compared to what I normally write, so be warned.)
p.s.This was inspired by Trinka who wanted a hugging Sigrun in Scenes We'd Like To See
p.p.s not meant to be shippy
Anyway, here is
Always Remember
Spoiler: show
The hallway is dimly light, but the images on the wall are amazing. Emil stares in awe at the beautifully depicted scenes. The years on the paintings range from the 1500s to the 1800s. It feels almost magical how old they are. He comes to a halt. The hallway splits to the right and to the left. Sigrun had told him to always turn a different way each time in big buildings like this.
"Dunno why though. It can't possibly matter that much." he thinks.
Sprinting to left, he slows down as he nears another split path.
"I guess I'll just go left again.."
As the process continues with each turn, Emil notices he has gone in a circle. He also realizes how dumb he was.
"No, wait, I haven't gone in a circle. Ah, yes I have, I remember that painting was there, and that chair is the sa-"
Whump.
Emil's stops in his tracks.
Last time there was definitely NOT a giant troll there.
"AAAH-" Emil covers his mouth quickly, although knowing he can't undo his mistake. If you come across a troll, Stand Still, and Stay Silent.
The troll slowly turns and shows Emil it's hideous face.
"RUN." it whispers. Or maybe that was just Emil's imagination.The atrocious smell's effect is almost as if it's burning his skin. The burning sensation fades away as he gets farther and farther from the creature.
"Don't look back. Don't stop." he repeats to himself over and over. Careening down random paths, he knows he'll be lost if not dead unless he finds Sigrun.
The crashing footsteps of the troll echo down the halls. Suddenly, Emil spots a flash of bright red at the end of the hallway he's currently running down.
"Emil? Was that you stomping down the hall? Please try to keep it down." Sigrun says.
"SIGRUNHELPNOWTROLL." Emil yells.
Sigrun looks up from the book she was "reading".
"Wha-"
The monstrous troll is almost as tall as the ceiling. Sigrun puts on a maniacal grin.
"GRAB YOUR GUN SONNY IT'S A WHOPPER." She screams, starting to run head on towards the monster. Emil salutes and pulls his gun off his back.
"I'M GOING TO DISTRACT HIM WHILE YOU AIM FOR THE HEART OR HEAD GOT IT?" Sigrun yells, dashing left and right, and running between the trolls legs. The lumbering beast slowly turns itself around in the cramped hallway, although the ceiling is surprisingly about eighteen feet high.
"HEY OVER HERE YOU BIG DUMB HUNK OF SNOT!" She yells. The troll turns itself to the perfect position for Emil to shoot.
Emil's hands are shaking as he lifts the gun.
"NOW!" Sigrun yells.
Emil shoots and the force of the shot knocks him back onto the floor. Jumping up, feeling ceremonious, his moment is short lived.
He missed.
The troll is now advancing toward Sigrun, and for the first time since Emil met her-she looks genuinely scared.
"LEAVE HER ALONE!" Emil yells, fumbling to reload his gun.
Sigrun facepalms.
"YOU'RE NOT BEING CHIVALROUS YOUR JUST BEING STUPID!" she yells.
The troll looks confused. It decides on Emil, who is at the moment the biggest threat.
Emil aims and fires but hits a hard, scaly body part. The bullet is deflected off the troll.
"THE HEAD! SHOOT IT IN THE HEAD!" Sigrun screams, as she tries to find her way around the troll's gigantic body.
The troll is almost at Emil who has his gun aimed between the troll's eyes. This is it. The big moment.
"Steady...steady..." whispers Emil, waiting to make the perfect shot. The troll is almost at him.
"One more second and..."
The troll unexpectedly speeds up and knocks Emil up into the air, catching him by the shirt with his teeth.
"SIGRUN HELP!" Emil shouts, but the troll's growls drown out his voice. He struggles to get out of between the troll's teeth.
He plants his feet against the running troll's chin and pushes as hard as he can.
"Almost...Almost got it..."
The troll releases him.Unfortunately, Emil forgot about gravity.
WHAM.
He hits the ground. Hard.
Sigrun shoots the the troll on it's hard plated back.
"COME GET ME YOU BIG LUG!" She shouts, nervously glancing at the unconscious Emil.
The troll turns his attention to Sigrun and sprints towards.
"You can do this Sig." Sigrun tells herself.
"1...2..."
Quicker than the blink of an eye, Sigrun has miraculously shot the troll in the heart as she dashed between the it's legs.
Sigrun sighs a sigh of relief as the troll's whimpers and slumps onto the ground. She stands proud for a moment, but then remembers...
"EMIL!" She cries, sprinting over to the still body.
"Wake up kid, wake up!" She frantically says, shaking Emil by the shoulders. His head simply falls limp to the side.
"No no no no you gotta wake up! Come on, don't leave me now...what will I tell the crew?"
Nothing.
Sigrun lays Emil down onto the ground, tears coming out of her eyes.
"Be strong Sigrun, be strong." She tells herself. Taking a deep breath, she then tries to fill Emil's lungs with air.
"Breath." she pleads, pushing on his chest.
Nothing.
Sigrun the warrior, Sigrun the fighter, Sigrun the winner, gives up.
She lets the tears fall out at she holds the limp body of Emil her arms. She rests her chin on his shoulder as her arms wrap around him. Her hands seem hot compared to the slight warmth of his, as she holds them softly in her hands.
"...Sigrun...?"
Her eyes open wide as she watches Emil's flicker open.
"Y-You're a-alive!" she barely makes out, at she feels his hands grow just as warm hers.
"What happ-" Emil starts to say,
"Shut up."
Pulling him into a tighter embrace, Emil let's her have her moment.
Sigrun is crying tears of joy, wetting strands of Emil's hair. He doesn't mind. They sit in silence for a little longer. Emil then squeezes Sigrun's hands.
"Alright. Let's head back." he says.
"Okay." Sigrun whispers.
They slowly stand up and make their way towards the exit.
"You know, I take you all for granted." Sigrun says.
"What?" Emil says, limping towards the door, supported by Sigrun.
"I never really notice...how much I need all of you...until I think your gone." She says.
Emil stares at her as she helps him along. He doesn't reply.
"Now look at you-you're injured." Sigrun says, "And it's all my fault."
"No it's not." Emil sternly says.
"How?" Sigrun argues.
"Because I didn't-" He stops to help open the door.
"Didn't what?"

"Stand still, Stay Silent."
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Sunflower on May 17, 2015, 09:59:34 PM
Had to try the Drabble-matic

This version is Most Best
The Adventure Of The Rash Beast


"You most best silly," Sigrun said, tickling Mikkel with her hose. "It's completely terrifying."

This is Sigrun on every date.

Quote
But Mikkel, although he was magnificent, knew he had to save his love. He grabbed a soap and, Like a farmer washing pigs, beat the rash beast calmly until it ran off. "That will teach you to run innocent people."

And this is Mikkel on every date.

Quote
Mikkel never loved again.

No wonder.  Nothing could top Sigrun tickling you with a hose.   8)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on May 18, 2015, 02:26:33 AM
This part's "What We Already Know but Lalli Doesn't"
(But it's necessary story-wise)

“It’s a Wonderful Team”
Part 3
Spoiler: show
Puppy-Fox is showing Lalli what might have been if Emil had declined his uncle’s invitation and a different Cleanser, Eric, had taken his place. Eric has been deceptively pleasant to Tuuri while disdaining Lalli. Now, Puppy-Fox must show Lalli things about Emil of which Lalli was unaware...
“Erm, for this next bit, we need to go back to what was, rather than what would have been,” Puppy-Fox declared. “Got that?”
They were in the Felinopede, crawling slowly down the tunnel. Then-Lalli was fidgeting and moaning in his sleep atop the desk. Emil perched beside him, his face still bandaged.
The noises stopped. Now-Lalli saw that Emil had gently placed his hand to shield then-Lalli’s eyes from the weird green lights, until then-Lalli relaxed into true sleep. When the vehicle stopped with a soft kronk, Emil stealthily leapt away, ensuring then-Lalli wasn’t disturbed.
After yet another blur, they were in a hall in Ka-THUM Central, lit only by Emil’s lantern. After checking his chrono, Emil moved purposefully back the way he’d come, until--
SCRITCH SCRITCH SCRATCH
“Lal--” Emil began in a low voice, only for it to fade to a whispered, “--li?”
SCRITCH SCRITCH SCRATCH
A look of ‘I’m going to be sick, but I’m going to do this’ came over Emil’s face as he drew his knife. After only a few steps forward, though, a burst of gunk gouted down on him with a revolting SPLURK. Emil slowly looked up, as did now-Lalli, to see an almost-Giant clinging to the ceiling and ready to pounce. Troll ahead; troll below; this was probably where Adrenaline Girl came in.
Moving more swiftly than (now- or then-) Lalli would have expected, Emil dodged the plunging troll, swinging his lantern at where he obviously guessed the brains were. As the fallen troll let out a horrid screech, Emil flashed past the other troll, which still jumped out at him. Emil ducked and slashed out with his knife, cleanly slicing two of the troll’s four hands away, which let Emil gain some distance.
The troll slammed into Emil from behind. Emil managed to get his knife into its throat, but that didn’t slow its horribly snapping jaws, now just millimeters from Emil’s face. Emil screamed for Sigrun’s help, and got it. She sliced the troll’s jaws off and helped Emil up, urgency in her every move as she ordered him out.
Before leaving, though, Emil popped a flask open, emptying it in the hall. Then, as the almost-giant he’d wounded earlier bounded after them, Emil faced it down, pulling four small flare-things from his bandoleer and throwing them in a near-perfect pattern.
KA-THUM happened.
Sigrun and Emil hobbled into the street, coughing. Mikkel said something to them, and Emil--
Emil tried to bolt back into the building. Only then-Lalli’s defenstrous exit stopped him.
“Such surprise,” Puppy-Fox mocked, the world blurring...

So much for that.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: KMK on May 18, 2015, 02:38:20 AM
This part's "What We Already Know but Lalli Doesn't"
(But it's necessary story-wise)

“It’s a Wonderful Team”
Part 3
Spoiler: show
Puppy-Fox is showing Lalli what might have been if Emil had declined his uncle’s invitation and a different Cleanser, Eric, had taken his place. Eric has been deceptively pleasant to Tuuri while disdaining Lalli. Now, Puppy-Fox must show Lalli things about Emil of which Lalli was unaware...
“Erm, for this next bit, we need to go back to what was, rather than what would have been,” Puppy-Fox declared. “Got that?”
They were in the Felinopede, crawling slowly down the tunnel. Then-Lalli was fidgeting and moaning in his sleep atop the desk. Emil perched beside him, his face still bandaged.
The noises stopped. Now-Lalli saw that Emil had gently placed his hand to shield then-Lalli’s eyes from the weird green lights, until then-Lalli relaxed into true sleep. When the vehicle stopped with a soft kronk, Emil stealthily leapt away, ensuring then-Lalli wasn’t disturbed.
After yet another blur, they were in a hall in Ka-THUM Central, lit only by Emil’s lantern. After checking his chrono, Emil moved purposefully back the way he’d come, until--
SCRITCH SCRITCH SCRATCH
“Lal--” Emil began in a low voice, only for it to fade to a whispered, “--li?”
SCRITCH SCRITCH SCRATCH
A look of ‘I’m going to be sick, but I’m going to do this’ came over Emil’s face as he drew his knife. After only a few steps forward, though, a burst of gunk gouted down on him with a revolting SPLURK. Emil slowly looked up, as did now-Lalli, to see an almost-Giant clinging to the ceiling and ready to pounce. Troll ahead; troll below; this was probably where Adrenaline Girl came in.
Moving more swiftly than (now- or then-) Lalli would have expected, Emil dodged the plunging troll, swinging his lantern at where he obviously guessed the brains were. As the fallen troll let out a horrid screech, Emil flashed past the other troll, which still jumped out at him. Emil ducked and slashed out with his knife, cleanly slicing two of the troll’s four hands away, which let Emil gain some distance.
The troll slammed into Emil from behind. Emil managed to get his knife into its throat, but that didn’t slow its horribly snapping jaws, now just millimeters from Emil’s face. Emil screamed for Sigrun’s help, and got it. She sliced the troll’s jaws off and helped Emil up, urgency in her every move as she ordered him out.
Before leaving, though, Emil popped a flask open, emptying it in the hall. Then, as the almost-giant he’d wounded earlier bounded after them, Emil faced it down, pulling four small flare-things from his bandoleer and throwing them in a near-perfect pattern.
KA-THUM happened.
Sigrun and Emil hobbled into the street, coughing. Mikkel said something to them, and Emil--
Emil tried to bolt back into the building. Only then-Lalli’s defenstrous exit stopped him.
“Such surprise,” Puppy-Fox mocked, the world blurring...

So much for that.

Go Looney! Go Looney!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SeaAngel on May 18, 2015, 03:07:17 AM
This part's "What We Already Know but Lalli Doesn't"
(But it's necessary story-wise)

I love this story!! Please do moooooorrrre!!
I want to see more of horrible Eric!! He really is the most horrible. I want to see more interactions! :B

...Why do I get the feeling PuppyFox is shipping LalliEmil...? XD
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on May 18, 2015, 06:43:52 AM
Horrible Eric gets worse.
(Wouldja believe it was the plan all along? It was.)

“It’s a Wonderful Team”
Part 4
Spoiler: show
Puppy-Fox resumes showing Lalli how Eric handles things differently than Emil...
“Now, we return to what would have been.” They were back in the tunnel, ‘Eric’ leaning through the doorway to chatter with the three in the cab. As they exited, ‘Eric’ accidentally-on-purpose knocked against then-Lalli’s legs, half-rousing him in time to catch ‘Eric’s’ nasty smirk before they piled out.
‘Eric’ tried to attach himself to either Sigrun or Tuuri, but when he saw the wrecked Danish behemoths half-buried in the bog, his eyes lit up. “Shouldn’t we try scrounging through those first?” he asked Sigrun. “Some of the stuff that’s left might be useful, and those metal coffins should be nest-free, since they tend to form icebergs in winter.”
As with Tuuri’s earlier plea, Sigrun considered it while Mikkel almost panicked at the thought. “Not just yet,” she decided. “In a few days, maybe; they’ll still be there, and we’ll have time to burn after we’ve loaded up with books.”
‘Eric’ was not happy, but he acquiesced.
“Blah blah blah,” Puppy-Fox mocked. “Onwards!”
They were in the hall where Emil had faced the trolls. ‘Eric’ was examining a lamp sconce to see if he could remove it without too much trouble as the Big Maw-Maw moved into place above him. A few seconds later, two limbless trolls lay before ‘Eric’, whose face got a hungry look on it.
“No, don’t cry out,” ‘Eric’ crooned softly, running his knife almost sensually down the larger troll’s blubbery flank.
“I can’t look,” Puppy-Fox announced, and time jumped ahead just a bit.
The bobbing light from Sigrun’s lamp could be seen as she tried to find ‘Eric’, so he did as Emil had, in almost the same way, but without a troll chasing him and without Sigrun next to him. “I hope you burn, bone-boy,” he growled before throwing the flare-things, and cried, “OUT, SIGRUN!”
‘Eric’ emerged from the building, asking in faux concern, “Sigrun? Lalli? Have either of them come out?” Then Sigrun emerged, coughing and limping. “You heard me yell to get out, didn’t you?”
Mikkel asked, “Where’s Lalli?”
‘Eric’ shrugged faux-helplessly, just before then-Lalli autodefenestrated.
Another blur brought them to the morning’s bath.
‘Eric’ wielded bucket and brush in such a way as to cause then-Lalli as much pain as possible. “Raggedy twig-pile,” ‘Eric’ growled as he plied the soap, “I wish this were lye!”
Eventually, the torture ceased. As soon as then-Lalli was in his sweater, ‘Eric’ shoved him at the Felinopede with a harshly growled, “Out of my sight, bone-heap!” Sigrun approached enthusiastically, but ‘Eric’ had his charming-but-fake smile back in place before she could see, so that it looked like ‘Eric’ had just sent then-Lalli off a little too heartily.
Even Puppy-Fox winced. “Ouch. But that leaves us about where we began, doesn’t it?” Lalli watched Puppy-Fox warily...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: KicknRun on May 18, 2015, 06:46:45 AM
Horrible Eric gets worse.
(Wouldja believe it was the plan all along? It was.)

“It’s a Wonderful Team”
Part 4
Spoiler: show
Puppy-Fox resumes showing Lalli how Eric handles things differently than Emil...
“Now, we return to what would have been.” They were back in the tunnel, ‘Eric’ leaning through the doorway to chatter with the three in the cab. As they exited, ‘Eric’ accidentally-on-purpose knocked against then-Lalli’s legs, half-rousing him in time to catch ‘Eric’s’ nasty smirk before they piled out.
‘Eric’ tried to attach himself to either Sigrun or Tuuri, but when he saw the wrecked Danish behemoths half-buried in the bog, his eyes lit up. “Shouldn’t we try scrounging through those first?” he asked Sigrun. “Some of the stuff that’s left might be useful, and those metal coffins should be nest-free, since they tend to form icebergs in winter.”
As with Tuuri’s earlier plea, Sigrun considered it while Mikkel almost panicked at the thought. “Not just yet,” she decided. “In a few days, maybe; they’ll still be there, and we’ll have time to burn after we’ve loaded up with books.”
‘Eric’ was not happy, but he acquiesced.
“Blah blah blah,” Puppy-Fox mocked. “Onwards!”
They were in the hall where Emil had faced the trolls. ‘Eric’ was examining a lamp sconce to see if he could remove it without too much trouble as the Big Maw-Maw moved into place above him. A few seconds later, two limbless trolls lay before ‘Eric’, whose face got a hungry look on it.
“No, don’t cry out,” ‘Eric’ crooned softly, running his knife almost sensually down the larger troll’s blubbery flank.
“I can’t look,” Puppy-Fox announced, and time jumped ahead just a bit.
The bobbing light from Sigrun’s lamp could be seen as she tried to find ‘Eric’, so he did as Emil had, in almost the same way, but without a troll chasing him and without Sigrun next to him. “I hope you burn, bone-boy,” he growled before throwing the flare-things, and cried, “OUT, SIGRUN!”
‘Eric’ emerged from the building, asking in faux concern, “Sigrun? Lalli? Have either of them come out?” Then Sigrun emerged, coughing and limping. “You heard me yell to get out, didn’t you?”
Mikkel asked, “Where’s Lalli?”
‘Eric’ shrugged faux-helplessly, just before then-Lalli autodefenestrated.
Another blur brought them to the morning’s bath.
‘Eric’ wielded bucket and brush in such a way as to cause then-Lalli as much pain as possible. “Raggedy twig-pile,” ‘Eric’ growled as he plied the soap, “I wish this were lye!”
Eventually, the torture ceased. As soon as then-Lalli was in his sweater, ‘Eric’ shoved him at the Felinopede with a harshly growled, “Out of my sight, bone-heap!” Sigrun approached enthusiastically, but ‘Eric’ had his charming-but-fake smile back in place before she could see, so that it looked like ‘Eric’ had just sent then-Lalli off a little too heartily.
Even Puppy-Fox winced. “Ouch. But that leaves us about where we began, doesn’t it?” Lalli watched Puppy-Fox warily...


I want to punch Eric in the face. Very much.  Also, how are you updating so fast it takes me like a week to write 300 words.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SolarPoweredGirl on May 18, 2015, 12:01:04 PM
Here, have a short story I wrote:

When in hell... (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11253387/1/When-in-hell)
No experience in his life had prepared Emil for his first visit to hell. Not that he believed in hell.
AGH this is so well written  :o ;D
I love your title too
Is it supposed to be like the start of a sentence almost? Like When in Hell, Stand Still, Stay Silent (My most recent fan-fic is supposed to be hinting at a sentence- "Always Remember, Stand Still, Stay Silent.") ?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on May 18, 2015, 12:05:12 PM
The last part, and an epilogue. I hope nobody's too disappointed.

“It’s a Wonderful Team”
Part 5
Spoiler: show
Puppy-Fox has shown Lalli what might have been if Emil had declined his uncle’s invitation and another Cleanser, Eric, had taken his place. Now caught up to when Puppy-Fox appeared, Puppy-Fox still has a few final words for Lalli...
“Of course, none of what I’ve shown you with Eric actually happened, and here’s why:” The scene blurred yet again. They stood in a rough camp cleared from a vast forest. Emil, hair suitably sparkly, was among a large crowd of similarly clad spectators surrounding a raised wooden platform upon which stood ‘Eric’, bound, and an impressive older man, scars crisscrossing his stern but kind face.
“CLEANSERS!” the man began at a volume just shy of the Shouty One’s. “You have been accepted into our family, regardless of anything in your past! This second chance--to show your true quality, without the weight of your past dragging you down--is not something to be taken lightly!” He turned to ‘Eric’. “Behold the consequences when that second chance, the trust we place in all of you to be as family to us and each other, is BETRAYED!”
A truly massive man cloaked in black stepped up behind ‘Eric’, unfurling a nasty-looking bullwhip.
“This one was accepted into our family as ‘Eric Smed’, and, had he honored that bond, he would have lived and died under that name, an honored member of our company. Instead, he tried to force himself on one of our fellows, violating the trust in which we all live, and, failing that, he killed her, against all that we hold dear!”
An angry murmur passed through the crowd.
“Now, as justice for this crime against every standard of Cleanser-hood, ‘Eric Smed’, or, as he will once again be known, Ivor Vit, will be flogged and used as TROLL-BAIT!” The cheers prevented him from continuing for some time. “Having broken the Cleanser-bond in the worst possible way, and having diminished us as a company, a nation, and as a whole, he will now serve to diminish our enemies!”
The noise of the crowd’s cheers cut off, leaving Lalli alone with Puppy-Fox.
“Not that you will believe this, but I was the one who heeded the murdered girl’s calls for justice by drawing the searchers to her body.” Puppy-Fox stared at now-Lalli intently. “So, are you finally properly grateful, human?”
Lalli nodded, unable to speak.
“OK. That’s all I wanted.” Puppy-Fox looked at him for a moment. “You know I’ll have to make you forget all this, right?”
Lalli nodded again.
“Well, I will leave the notion in your mind that it might have been all kinds of worse without Emil along, so you’ll keep some of that gratitude that we’re due.” They were back in the bunk area, Lalli lying on the nice wooden flats as he watched Puppy-Fox. “Farewell, Lalli Hotakainen. We may meet again, but not soon.”
Lalli slept...


“It’s a Wonderful Team”
Epilogue
Spoiler: show
Puppy-Fox has given Lalli his final words of remonstrance, wiped the young mage’s memory, and gone. His celestial fellows await his return...
Puppy-Fox wasn’t too surprised to see all the others assembled to greet his return from the mortal realm. They regarded him in silence for an almost unnervingly long time, but he kept his composure. Moose spoke then.
“You did well, Puppy-Fox.”
Puppy-Fox grinned at the surprise in Moose’s voice. “Well, it had to happen sometime,” he replied. “Don’t worry; I won’t make a habit of it.”
“Would that you did,” his mother said bleakly.
Bear spoke before Puppy-Fox could do more than flash her a hurt look from his impressive repertoire. “Moose and your mother are right, Puppy-Fox. Look at what you’ve accomplished with so little effort on your part, and imagine what good you might work if you actually tried.”
“That isn’t my style,” Puppy-Fox protested half-heartedly.
“Styles may change, as we grow older and more skilled,” Moose said.
“So what happens to the Hotakainens next?” Puppy-Fox asked in a transparent effort to end ‘the Intervention’.
“Soon, Lalli will meet with Onni and Reynir in the Otherworld, and what follows will be interesting indeed...”

And that's it.
Spoiler: The Complete Links • show
Part 1 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg34667#msg34667)
Part 2 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg35029#msg35029)
Part 3 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg35073#msg35073)
Part 4 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg35083#msg35083)
Part 5 & Epilogue (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg35151#msg35151)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Windfighter on May 18, 2015, 12:07:41 PM
AGH this is so well written :o ;D
I love your title too
Is it supposed to be like the start of a sentence almost? Like When in Hell, Stand Still, Stay Silent (My most recent fan-fic is supposed to be hinting at a sentence "Always Remember, Stand Still, Stay Silent.") ?

Thank you! And your explanation for the title sounds awesome so I'll just say that that was precisely what I intended.
In reality I just couldn't come up with anything
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solovei on May 18, 2015, 12:57:18 PM
Here, have a short story I wrote:

When in hell... (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11253387/1/When-in-hell)
No experience in his life had prepared Emil for his first visit to hell. Not that he believed in hell.
come to AO3 dammit XD
That was cute! also, is it by any chance from this prompt? (http://kinky-ssss.tumblr.com/post/117644268104/lalli-being-protective-of-sick-injured-emil-tuuri) If it is, you should send it in! :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Windfighter on May 18, 2015, 03:12:13 PM
come to AO3 dammit XD
That was cute! also, is it by any chance from this prompt? (http://kinky-ssss.tumblr.com/post/117644268104/lalli-being-protective-of-sick-injured-emil-tuuri) If it is, you should send it in! :)
Nope, hadn't seen that before, I don't do tumblr. The first sentence just started echoing in my head so I needed to write it down to get it out. Lalli wasn't even supposed to be there and then he just started throwing blankets at Emil and I couldn't just ignore him :P
Anyway, thanks <3

I'll come to AO3 when you come to ff.net!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solovei on May 18, 2015, 05:42:11 PM
I'll come to AO3 when you come to ff.net!
Never, AO3 is just too good.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: zetkaj on May 18, 2015, 08:18:51 PM
....I want to thank all the people who had written anything for SSSS. Because every single thing is amazing. How is that even possible. (Reading the whole thread was absolutely worthwhile)

The last part, and an epilogue. I hope nobody's too disappointed.

“It’s a Wonderful Team”
Part 5
Spoiler: show
Puppy-Fox has shown Lalli what might have been if Emil had declined his uncle’s invitation and another Cleanser, Eric, had taken his place. Now caught up to when Puppy-Fox appeared, Puppy-Fox still has a few final words for Lalli...
“Of course, none of what I’ve shown you with Eric actually happened, and here’s why:” The scene blurred yet again. They stood in a rough camp cleared from a vast forest. Emil, hair suitably sparkly, was among a large crowd of similarly clad spectators surrounding a raised wooden platform upon which stood ‘Eric’, bound, and an impressive older man, scars crisscrossing his stern but kind face.
“CLEANSERS!” the man began at a volume just shy of the Shouty One’s. “You have been accepted into our family, regardless of anything in your past! This second chance--to show your true quality, without the weight of your past dragging you down--is not something to be taken lightly!” He turned to ‘Eric’. “Behold the consequences when that second chance, the trust we place in all of you to be as family to us and each other, is BETRAYED!”
A truly massive man cloaked in black stepped up behind ‘Eric’, unfurling a nasty-looking bullwhip.
“This one was accepted into our family as ‘Eric Smed’, and, had he honored that bond, he would have lived and died under that name, an honored member of our company. Instead, he tried to force himself on one of our fellows, violating the trust in which we all live, and, failing that, he killed her, against all that we hold dear!”
An angry murmur passed through the crowd.
“Now, as justice for this crime against every standard of Cleanser-hood, ‘Eric Smed’, or, as he will once again be known, Ivor Vit, will be flogged and used as TROLL-BAIT!” The cheers prevented him from continuing for some time. “Having broken the Cleanser-bond in the worst possible way, and having diminished us as a company, a nation, and as a whole, he will now serve to diminish our enemies!”
The noise of the crowd’s cheers cut off, leaving Lalli alone with Puppy-Fox.
“Not that you will believe this, but I was the one who heeded the murdered girl’s calls for justice by drawing the searchers to her body.” Puppy-Fox stared at now-Lalli intently. “So, are you finally properly grateful, human?”
Lalli nodded, unable to speak.
“OK. That’s all I wanted.” Puppy-Fox looked at him for a moment. “You know I’ll have to make you forget all this, right?”
Lalli nodded again.
“Well, I will leave the notion in your mind that it might have been all kinds of worse without Emil along, so you’ll keep some of that gratitude that we’re due.” They were back in the bunk area, Lalli lying on the nice wooden flats as he watched Puppy-Fox. “Farewell, Lalli Hotakainen. We may meet again, but not soon.”
Lalli slept...


“It’s a Wonderful Team”
Epilogue
Spoiler: show
Puppy-Fox has given Lalli his final words of remonstrance, wiped the young mage’s memory, and gone. His celestial fellows await his return...
Puppy-Fox wasn’t too surprised to see all the others assembled to greet his return from the mortal realm. They regarded him in silence for an almost unnervingly long time, but he kept his composure. Moose spoke then.
“You did well, Puppy-Fox.”
Puppy-Fox grinned at the surprise in Moose’s voice. “Well, it had to happen sometime,” he replied. “Don’t worry; I won’t make a habit of it.”
“Would that you did,” his mother said bleakly.
Bear spoke before Puppy-Fox could do more than flash her a hurt look from his impressive repertoire. “Moose and your mother are right, Puppy-Fox. Look at what you’ve accomplished with so little effort on your part, and imagine what good you might work if you actually tried.”
“That isn’t my style,” Puppy-Fox protested half-heartedly.
“Styles may change, as we grow older and more skilled,” Moose said.
“So what happens to the Hotakainens next?” Puppy-Fox asked in a transparent effort to end ‘the Intervention’.
“Soon, Lalli will meet with Onni and Reynir in the Otherworld, and what follows will be interesting indeed...”

And that's it.
Why would anybody be disappointed, it was great! And I wanted to punch Eric too.
Here, have a short story I wrote:

When in hell... (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11253387/1/When-in-hell)
No experience in his life had prepared Emil for his first visit to hell. Not that he believed in hell.
Too adorable
also, I agree with the 'come to ao3' thing, ffnet gave me trojans once
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on May 19, 2015, 10:31:35 PM
By request, I put "It's a Wonderful Team" on my deviantArt. Here's the link to Part 1: http://looney-dac.deviantart.com/art/Stand-Still-Stay-Silent-It-s-a-Wonderful-Team-1-534148474 (http://looney-dac.deviantart.com/art/Stand-Still-Stay-Silent-It-s-a-Wonderful-Team-1-534148474)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: KicknRun on May 22, 2015, 12:43:07 AM
Count on a Hand

The city is no longer a city. It holds monsters, by all the names you can call abominations, and the city is no longer a city, it is a home. A home to monsters, so not quite the best home. The monsters were once (or many) human. But the Old World is destroyed in defilement, and the New World is not quite as clean as one would hope.

The old world is silent. Then the humans come back. It is armies that do not know they are simply there to die. The sound of death is loud. The old world is silent.

Then the humans come back. Its not many, five who become six, and it is (hopefully) enough.

The girl who is not and will never be safe, the one who will tell the tale (if) when they come back. The boy who sees spirits and sees ruin. The boy who is too young to hold fire in his hands. The child who shouldn't be here at all. There is a woman who slices trolls and smiles after and a man who knows how to heal and what was here before. (Its a terrible sort of knowledge)

The boy with the fire and the woman with the smile go, to loot and discover,and something awakens.



A/N: Unfinished multi chapter fanfictions? I have no idea what you are talking about. This was going to be a little bit longer, but the part i wanted didn't really fit in with anything else but so help me god i'll put in some other fanfic. I was trying out a more old-timey style or writing, and this came out.(it took like 40 min to put in down on paper jeez)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on May 24, 2015, 02:42:25 AM
SectoBoss: if you see this, I've tried to reply to you a couple of times re the story, but something very weird is happening to my email, and I can't see either PM or Disqus messages I tried to send you. Still here, still alive, have written it, and am hoping that tonight (Sunday) the computer literate member of my household will be passing by to help me sort it, and to post the story on A3O. Hope you like it! I've been trying to post it all week! Aaarrrgh machineries!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SugaAndSpice on May 25, 2015, 11:10:22 AM
Soooo, I have a theory on how there are trolls in the Dream-space.


It is a rather short theory, but here goes:

Someone (a mage) was infected with the Rash, and didnt know it. They went into their dream-place and travelled around, doing stuff, and then, the Rash started to develop. It killed them, and they went around, stuck as a troll in the dream and out of it. They infected a ton of people and turned them into trolls, and stuff.


*yay*
So, anyone agree?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: AuthorOfLight on May 25, 2015, 01:03:14 PM
Soooo, I have a theory on how there are trolls in the Dream-space.


It is a rather short theory, but here goes:

Someone (a mage) was infected with the Rash, and didnt know it. They went into their dream-place and travelled around, doing stuff, and then, the Rash started to develop. It killed them, and they went around, stuck as a troll in the dream and out of it. They infected a ton of people and turned them into trolls, and stuff.


*yay*
So, anyone agree?

That's a really interesting (and rather scary) thought!

Another idea would be that Trolls can just travel freely between realms, because they seem to be more spiritually oriented than humans are.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Sunflower on May 25, 2015, 01:29:08 PM
Hi, Willowham.  You bring up a great theory, but the Scriptorium isn't the place for it.  This is the thread for actual fictional works (and stylistic experiments such as KicknRun's prose-poem "Count on a Hand"), as well as commentary about them.

There are plenty of threads where your idea would find companions, e.g. Biological Weapons, Aliens, and Spirits (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=18.0) or Speculation on dreamworld communication (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=422.0). 

Do you mind moving the discussion over there?   Thanks!

Soooo, I have a theory on how there are trolls in the Dream-space.

It is a rather short theory, but here goes:

Someone (a mage) was infected with the Rash, and didnt know it. They went into their dream-place and travelled around, doing stuff, and then, the Rash started to develop. It killed them, and they went around, stuck as a troll in the dream and out of it. They infected a ton of people and turned them into trolls, and stuff.


*yay*
So, anyone agree?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on May 25, 2015, 03:13:14 PM
Who likes Pacific Rim? Haiz and I, that’s who. So for those of you (the five of you) who were waiting for the next instalment of the Pacific Rim crossover that ze postulated and I started writing about a month ago, well here it is! Now, it probably won’t be what you were expecting – I got writer’s block on the fight, so I made a ‘meet the team’ website page while I waited for it to clear. What happens when General Trond Andersen blackmails Torbjorn Västerström to be the head of PR? Something like this:

http://archiveofourown.org/works/3803176/chapters/9003415

I hope you all like it! Remember: SectoBoss written, Haiz approved.

P.S. Spot the little reference to Haiz’s high school AU I chucked in there

And Róisín, it’s fine – upload it when you can, no worries!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: KicknRun on May 25, 2015, 03:43:00 PM
Who likes Pacific Rim? Haiz and I, that’s who. So for those of you (the five of you) who were waiting for the next instalment of the Pacific Rim crossover that ze postulated and I started writing about a month ago, well here it is! Now, it probably won’t be what you were expecting – I got writer’s block on the fight, so I made a ‘meet the team’ website page while I waited for it to clear. What happens when General Trond Andersen blackmails Torbjorn Västerström to be the head of PR? Something like this:

http://archiveofourown.org/works/3803176/chapters/9003415

*snicker
*snacker
First of all, Sigrun,how.
I have a feeling the asset is being kept under wraps for a reason.
Wiat
Giant magic monster punching robots.
I am so here for this.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Crazybean on May 25, 2015, 04:57:04 PM
Who likes Pacific Rim? Haiz and I, that’s who. So for those of you (the five of you) who were waiting for the next instalment of the Pacific Rim crossover that ze postulated and I started writing about a month ago, well here it is!

http://archiveofourown.org/works/3803176/chapters/9003415

You updated! On the day I comment. It's like a miracle ;D
If they're as funny as this, I'd gladly read a hundred intermissons. The comments and counter comments from Trond are hilarious. I suspect Torbjörn left them in at least partially on purpose as in some comments he directly asks for Trond's opinion.

Quote
After his courageous actions in the Siege of Nyborg, where he co-ordinated three war zeppelins against the attacking giants by shouting over the black noise jamming the radio communications, he was promoted to Admiral in 2038 and has commanded the Air Fleet ever since.

 :D :D :D I actually did laugh out loud at that. Old Foghorn doesn't even need a radio, does he? He could just shout across the  battlefield and would still be heard. It's his superpower.
Aftermath: 'What do you mean there was a radio interference?  I didn't notice anything'
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on May 26, 2015, 11:29:04 AM
At long last! I've managed finally to POST the second half of 'A Few Of Mikkel's Secrets' to Archive Of Our Own. I put the first bit up over a month ago, and have had the second part ready for a couple of weeks, but haven't been able to get the Cursed Machineries to cooperate in putting it up. However a technically skilled person/Noble Rescuer was here this evening and managed to beat the Machineries into submission. So it's up! I'm 'Tanist' over there, since their system won't recognise my usual name. There might eventually be more of the story; the last few paragraphs will tell you why. But not at present - real life is wildly busy just now!

Here is the link to Chapter two
http://archiveofourown.org/works/3856330/chapters/9019474

Here is Chapter one, for those who haven't read it
http://archiveofourown.org/works/3856330/chapters/8611471

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on May 26, 2015, 11:42:38 AM
Róisín, I’m seriously impressed at what you’ve done here. You’ve taken a character I created late one night after too much coffee and fleshed her out so she feels almost like a fully paid up member of the actual cast. And thrown in some very interesting theory about Mikkel’s background as well! My hat’s off to you!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: zetkaj on May 26, 2015, 12:17:52 PM
At long last! I've managed finally to POST the second half of 'A Few Of Mikkel's Secrets' to Archive Of Our Own. I put the first bit up over a month ago, and have had the second part ready for a couple of weeks, but haven't been able to get the Cursed Machineries to cooperate in putting it up. However a technically skilled person/Noble Rescuer was here this evening and managed to beat the Machineries into submission. So it's up! I'm 'Tanist' over there, since their system won't recognise my usual name. There might eventually be more of the story; the last few paragraphs will tell you why. But not at present - real life is wildly busy just now!

Here is the link to Chapter two
http://archiveofourown.org/works/3856330/chapters/9019474

Here is Chapter one, for those who haven't read it
http://archiveofourown.org/works/3856330/chapters/8611471
I waited for that chapter, but wasn't prepared for such greatness. Thank you. I loved everything about it!
That 'to be continued' sure is promising, too~
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on May 26, 2015, 12:26:18 PM
Glad you like it. I was beginning to despair of ever getting the second half actually posted. At some point I'd like to carry the story further, but that may be awhile! Mundane life is busy: I'm taking foraging classes out to the forest four days this week, did a radio interview this afternoon, and at some point in the next few weeks have more nasty medical stuff coming up. But eventually I intend to make more, and hopefully will continue to increase my command of the Cursed Machineries (prods devices into corner with a whip and chair).
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: ParanormalAndroid on May 26, 2015, 01:30:56 PM
Ooh! Fanfiction! I'm still working on my writing skills though, but there's so much scope in the SSSS universe that it's a good place to start.
Thinking I might stick with what I know and write a 'What If..' piece about British survivors, if I write anything.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: KMK on May 26, 2015, 01:54:33 PM
I am working on a Christmas story. Up to this point everyone has been focused on the books but with Christmas coming everyone starts thinking about how they will celebrate Christmas. Emil wants to check out some places that might have suitable gifts that could have weathered 90 years. Collaborating with Lalli he is searching for Christmas gifts for everyone. Meanwhile each of the other members are secretly making plans too each in their own capacity.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on May 26, 2015, 02:53:23 PM
Ah, the exciting prospect of new fanfiction to read!

Róisín, I wish you luck against the Machineries! (I'm starting to imagine you being a bit like Sarah Connor out of the Terminator films what with your constant battle against them)

Thinking I might stick with what I know and write a 'What If..' piece about British survivors, if I write anything.

As a fellow Briton I'd be very interested to see what you come up with. I've been kicking around a similar idea for a while now, although I can promise you that your ideas (whatever they may be) will almost certainly be a bit more realistic than mine...

I am working on a Christmas story.

We do NOT have enough of those :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: ParanormalAndroid on May 26, 2015, 03:29:03 PM
I can promise you that your ideas (whatever they may be) will almost certainly be a bit more realistic than mine...
Realism? Pfff, what's that?
I don't know if you've ever seen Gurren Lagann, but obviously I was going to end it with the participants literally throwing entire universes at each other.
(Please note that this genuinely happens in Gurren Lagann.)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: KicknRun on May 26, 2015, 04:01:08 PM
Here is the link to Chapter two
http://archiveofourown.org/works/3856330/chapters/9019474

Here is Chapter one, for those who haven't read it
http://archiveofourown.org/works/3856330/chapters/8611471

This so good! I like how indignant Emil was. It was funny. And Alma. Alma was very cool.
*pokes your Sigrun characterization
yes good
*pokes my Sigrun characterization
yes not good
(Okay I'm working on it but stilllllll)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on May 26, 2015, 04:16:14 PM
Realism? Pfff, what's that?
I don't know if you've ever seen Gurren Lagann, but obviously I was going to end it with the participants literally throwing entire universes at each other.
(Please note that this genuinely happens in Gurren Lagann.)

I've heard tales of how mad that show got but I never thought it got that mad.

As for realism, my idea for Yr 90 Britain includes London becoming a single fused super-giant that regains human intelligence and re-mutates trolls and giants to suit its needs (think a cross between Olaf Stapledon's Fourth Men and Scott Westerfeld's Leviathan Trilogy), technophobic zealots on the Isle of Wight who were only saved by pretending the island had already fallen to the Rash so no refugees turned up there, the Isle of Man being kept safe by a freak storm they attribute to the sea god Manannán mac Lir, and the Welsh holed up in their castles along the coast a la the Finns in Saimaa.

All a bit demented, and hardly in keeping with the established facts about the Rash and what kind of survivor communities it leaves behind, but hey - it's kind of fun (I think). One day I hope to set a 'people of the know world'-type fanfic there...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on May 26, 2015, 07:39:49 PM
Ooh, Isle of Man! Yes please. It's been many years since last I was there, but there's enough weirdness there already to make it a very good setting for such a tale. The otherworld runs very close to the surface, and there's already a lot of folklore about how the local spirits have protected it from various wars and disasters. Specifically Manannaan, of course -it's his island, hence the name. Have you ever read 'The Wanderings of Oisín'? There aren't many good translations, most are far too scholarly and obscure and obsessed with word forms - four pages discussion of a line of poetry for each line of the adventure, and some of the 19th century translations from the Scottish and Isles variants of the tale are downright painful.
William Butler Yeats did a retelling in verse which is a little turgid in language but catches the sweep of the story. The parts of the tale where Oisín and Niamh rescue the kid from the weird interdimensional building full of monsters are set in the Otherworld Isle of Man. I do like it when things like that turn up in a bronze age story!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: KMK on May 27, 2015, 02:07:24 AM
I was wondering if any of you natives could tell me what companies exist as jewelry shops and sporting/camping/hunting stores in Copenhagen. I am working on a Christmas fic where the characters are going to search for things other than books to give each other as Christmas gifts. Many things will have fallen to dust in 90 years but gold and gems will not. And aluminum camping pots will be intact too. Possibly even high grade cast ironware if they were still in boxes and not directly under a waterleak. Guns and ammo locked in a gunsafe could still be fine. If you can think of any other durable product that survived that they might scrounge as presents let me know.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: ParanormalAndroid on May 27, 2015, 05:39:37 AM
I was wondering if any of you natives could tell me what companies exist as jewelry shops and sporting/camping/hunting stores in Copenhagen. I am working on a Christmas fic where the characters are going to search for things other than books to give each other as Christmas gifts. Many things will have fallen to dust in 90 years but gold and gems will not. And aluminum camping pots will be intact too. Possibly even high grade cast ironware if they were still in boxes and not directly under a waterleak. Guns and ammo locked in a gunsafe could still be fine. If you can think of any other durable product that survived that they might scrounge as presents let me know.
Long-life canned food, if stored properly.
You could be nice to your characters and give them hot chocolate, or be cruel and make it pickles or Spam or something.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on May 27, 2015, 05:52:00 AM
Year-gifts, hmm....camping shop - firestrikers, maybe high-quality blades if they've stored well enough. Trangias (those sets of nested aluminium cooking pots with a little firepot to go under the frame). Axes, cleavers, hammers, mallets, tomahawks. Rucksacks. Socks (again, depends how well stored). Tarpaulins ditto. Boots ditto. Climbing picks or geopicks. Those little sets of nested aluminium drinking cups. Fancy water canteens. Synthetic rope (don't know if you know how labour-intensive making natural rope is, even if you can get the hemp or flax. An intact coil of nylon rope would be a treasure). Clips, springs, carabiniers. Waterproof containers. Waxed thread (again, if well enough stored).
Nothing very ornamental in that lot, I'm afraid, but this is an old bushie thinking about what she'd like to be given in such a case!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: ParanormalAndroid on May 27, 2015, 06:19:42 AM
Synthetic rope (don't know if you know how labour-intensive making natural rope is, even if you can get the hemp or flax. An intact coil of nylon rope would be a treasure).
Speaking from experience, making properly strong and reliable natural rope is massively irritating, even if you've got properly prepared flax fibres.
Title: Glassware
Post by: Sunflower on May 27, 2015, 02:08:34 PM
I was wondering if any of you natives could tell me what companies exist as jewelry shops and sporting/camping/hunting stores in Copenhagen. I am working on a Christmas fic where the characters are going to search for things other than books to give each other as Christmas gifts. Many things will have fallen to dust in 90 years but gold and gems will not. And aluminum camping pots will be intact too. Possibly even high grade cast ironware if they were still in boxes and not directly under a waterleak. Guns and ammo locked in a gunsafe could still be fine. If you can think of any other durable product that survived that they might scrounge as presents let me know.

Glass will last for centuries, undisturbed.  Aside from glassware (drinking glasses, pitchers, vases, dishes, etc.), jewelry, suncatchers and similar window doodads, and figurines /artworks (http://www.orrefors.us/shop/list?pt=art-glass), they might also find functional and optical glass:  prisms, surveyor's scopes, binoculars, magnifying glasses, telescopes, and so forth.  Canning jars, cookware, and lab equipment, too. 

Imagine finding a teapot like this (http://www.momastore.org/museum/moma/ProductDisplay_Wagenfeld-Teapot-_10451_10001_187712_-1_26669_26671).  Or stumbling across a Baccarat storefront. (http://us.baccarat.com/)  (Long ago, I had a job at Gumps, a very fancy gift store in San Francisco.  On my breaks, I would wander into the art glass department and ogle all the pretty things.  Can you tell?  ;))

I know that glass from pre-industrial eras flows and deforms very slowly over time, which is why stained-glass windowpanes in cathedrals and such are now slightly thicker at the bottom than the top.  But I don't know if A) that happens to industrially made high-quality glass, e.g. lead crystal or lab-type borosilicate glass; and B) if 90+ years would be enough to make a piece of industrial glass sag enough to lose its precision.  (In other words, would binoculars from Year Zero still work, assuming their other mechanism wasn't rusted/damaged?)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Sunflower on May 27, 2015, 02:20:24 PM
Long-life canned food, if stored properly.
You could be nice to your characters and give them hot chocolate, or be cruel and make it pickles or Spam or something.

Don't they occasionally find supplies from late-19th and early-20th century polar explorers that are still edible?  A quick peek at Wikipedia re: Scott's doomed Antarctic expedition (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott%27s_Hut) turned up this:

While the preservation of food in the freezing temperatures and dry climate has been noted, bacterial decay still occurs. Visitors describe the seal meat preserved at the Discovery Hut as smelling 'quite rancid', and some[who?] have expressed concerns that the fabric of these huts are being affected by fungal decay.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: ParanormalAndroid on May 27, 2015, 02:28:38 PM
Don't they occasionally find supplies from late-19th and early-20th century polar explorers that are still edible?  A quick peek at Wikipedia re: Scott's doomed Antarctic expedition (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott%27s_Hut) turned up this:

While the preservation of food in the freezing temperatures and dry climate has been noted, bacterial decay still occurs. Visitors describe the seal meat preserved at the Discovery Hut as smelling 'quite rancid', and some[who?] have expressed concerns that the fabric of these huts are being affected by fungal decay.
Well, with modern food and the amount of preservatives and sealing going into them, if they happened to be in a cool basement or something similar I can't see why they wouldn't still be edible after 90 years. Especially desiccated things like chocolate powder.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Sunflower on May 27, 2015, 02:42:57 PM
I was wondering if any of you natives could tell me what companies exist as jewelry shops and sporting/camping/hunting stores in Copenhagen. I am working on a Christmas fic where the characters are going to search for things other than books to give each other as Christmas gifts.

What about wines and liquors?  A much earlier entry in the Scriptorium had Our Heroes triumphantly returning to the Oresund base; the *first* box to "fall off the truck" and somehow find its way into Admiral Olsen's hands was a crate of top-shelf French brandy.  (I have a feeling the kiddies might over-indulge in this stuff because it doesn't have the same burns-so-you-know-it's-working-real-good feeling as akvavit or Finnish vodka... but that might be kind of entertaining...) 
Title: Re: Glassware
Post by: JoB on May 27, 2015, 03:21:51 PM
I know that glass from pre-industrial eras flows and deforms very slowly over time, which is why stained-glass windowpanes in cathedrals and such are now slightly thicker at the bottom than the top.
Actually that is being disputed (http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/General/Glass/glass.html).

Anyway, to quote an even more relevant part of that article:
"Sometimes people say that good evidence that glass does not flow is provided by telescope lenses which after 150 years still maintain excellent optical qualities.  They would be spoiled by the slightest deformation."
Title: Re: Glassware
Post by: Sunflower on May 27, 2015, 03:50:21 PM
Actually that is being disputed (http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/General/Glass/glass.html).

Anyway, to quote an even more relevant part of that article:
"Sometimes people say that good evidence that glass does not flow is provided by telescope lenses which after 150 years still maintain excellent optical qualities.  They would be spoiled by the slightest deformation."

Thanks, JoB.  I knew somebody in our well-informed community would know! 
I find glass so intriguing -- don't know why.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on May 27, 2015, 07:26:38 PM
As someone slogging through a science degree, I’m slightly sad we never saw much of Siv’s work in the comic. So I wrote this, a short story of Siv pulling a late shift in the lab on the night Torbjörn quit his job. Remember those trolls in the background of page 138? Siv certainly will after this…

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4023631

I hope you all like it!

(I really need to stop writing and do some revision now)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Sunflower on May 27, 2015, 08:06:47 PM
As someone slogging through a science degree, I’m slightly sad we never saw much of Siv’s work in the comic. So I wrote this, a short story of Siv pulling a late shift in the lab on the night Torbjörn quit his job. Remember those trolls in the background of page 138? Siv certainly will after this…

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4023631

I hope you all like it!

(I really need to stop writing and do some revision now)

Brilliant!  (Troll names FTW...)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: KMK on May 27, 2015, 09:36:35 PM
As someone slogging through a science degree, I’m slightly sad we never saw much of Siv’s work in the comic. So I wrote this, a short story of Siv pulling a late shift in the lab on the night Torbjörn quit his job. Remember those trolls in the background of page 138? Siv certainly will after this…

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4023631

I hope you all like it!

(I really need to stop writing and do some revision now)

That makes so much sense for Siv. Head cannon!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: KicknRun on May 27, 2015, 09:43:19 PM
As someone slogging through a science degree, I’m slightly sad we never saw much of Siv’s work in the comic. So I wrote this, a short story of Siv pulling a late shift in the lab on the night Torbjörn quit his job. Remember those trolls in the background of page 138? Siv certainly will after this…

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4023631

I hope you all like it!

(I really need to stop writing and do some revision now)

Dang! This is actually pretty cool, since her personality in comic hasn't been expanded upon much more than 'pessimist'.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on May 27, 2015, 11:10:46 PM
SectoBoss, that was excellent! I'm curious about the backgrounds of those trolls.....
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on May 28, 2015, 05:49:20 AM
Thanks guys!

Brilliant!  (Troll names FTW...)

They were originally going to be John, Paul, George and Ringo before I changed them to something a little more Nordic :D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on May 28, 2015, 06:17:08 PM
Oof, double-posting here. Bad SectoBoss!

This is what happens when I write fanfiction on 48 hours with no sleep: I go a bit crazy and write a story about a giant telling a gang of trolls the legend of the six warriors and their iron beast that invaded Copenhagen in the winter of Year 90. I think in my addled state I’ve developed a sort of ‘I am Legend’-style headcanon for the trolls and giants.

(Looking back, I also think I’ve been inspired by KicknRun’s Count on a Hand here. Go read that, it's better.)
Count on a Hand

Anyway, here goes nothing:

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4029457

And good grief, this is my twelfth fanfic for SSSS! I really need to figure out how to stop…
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: zetkaj on May 28, 2015, 06:48:50 PM

Anyway, here goes nothing:

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4029457

Whoa, that has a great mood. Because of it I imagine the trolls sitting by the campfire, greeting a stranger, even though it's nonsense, but that's just me.
Also, I love how you show trolls (all of them? some of them?) as having memories and not just being mindless beasts.
And good grief, this is my twelfth fanfic for SSSS! I really need to figure out how to stop…
..Please don't figure it out. c:
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: KicknRun on May 28, 2015, 07:57:52 PM
Oof, double-posting here. Bad SectoBoss!

This is what happens when I write fanfiction on 48 hours with no sleep: I go a bit crazy and write a story about a giant telling a gang of trolls the legend of the six warriors and their iron beast that invaded Copenhagen in the winter of Year 90. I think in my addled state I’ve developed a sort of ‘I am Legend’-style headcanon for the trolls and giants.

(Looking back, I also think I’ve been inspired by KicknRun’s Count on a Hand here. Go read that, it's better.)
Anyway, here goes nothing:

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4029457

And good grief, this is my twelfth fanfic for SSSS! I really need to figure out how to stop…

You think Count on a Hand is better?
(http://33.media.tumblr.com/419caf3190f36bd2c27b3beb850cee0d/tumblr_nj4na7ku0p1tjhqvzo1_500.gif)
No, but I'm pretty sure this one is better, because I remembered it exists.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: KicknRun on May 30, 2015, 10:44:13 AM
DOUBLE POSTS
LIKE A BAWS

this isn't much of an update, actually. I finally got around to making an Ao3 account, and I thought that maybe what I said in the tags might clear up some things.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4039363 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/4039363)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on May 31, 2015, 02:21:58 AM
Kick'n'Run: This is getting intriguing! I'll be very interested to see what the connection is to Reynir (or is it braidy?) and the New Wave writing style is a worthwhile experiment. I like how you catch the feel of both Lalli and Sigrun, also that conflict in Mikkel's mind between 'evidence-based' thinking and a world that actually has obvious (and evident) magic. I'm curious as to how Lalli knows about possession (if that is indeed what is going on) and whether he can do anything about it.
By the way, thanks for your compliments on my story! Glad you liked my take on Sigrun. I imagine her as having enough berserker in her nature to appeal to the crazy/reckless among her folk, but with enough sense and trustworthiness not to get everybody killed. And of course she's lucky! She seems to be the better type of warrior-aristocrat, a bit the same sort of character as Egil Skallagrimsson from the Sagas (just without poetry and magic).
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on May 31, 2015, 05:40:38 AM
Woohoo! We've made it to 40 stories on AO3 alone! I remember when it was something like 15...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solovei on May 31, 2015, 07:11:41 PM
Woohoo! We've made it to 40 stories on AO3 alone! I remember when it was something like 15...
I remember when we had 10 and half of them were mine and I felt like a horrible person for dragging the fandom into ship territory.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Tjoll on June 01, 2015, 10:29:39 AM
As someone slogging through a science degree, I’m slightly sad we never saw much of Siv’s work in the comic. So I wrote this, a short story of Siv pulling a late shift in the lab on the night Torbjörn quit his job. Remember those trolls in the background of page 138? Siv certainly will after this…

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4023631

Oh my gosh, this is amazing! Headcanon accepted! Also, thanks for writing this! :]
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: KicknRun on June 04, 2015, 06:09:53 PM
Today on: Kick writes wish fulfillment!




They were lucky, the first few raids.The first raid wasn’t too bad, and practice makes perfect, right? The second and third raids went just fine.

This raid was on a crash course to failing spectacularly.

Everything goes wrong, very very loudly. Its in a library, once proud stone now decaying, what is means defiled and gone, ready to be opened like one of the Old World’s innumerable rotten presents.

(Number 42: library, many books above ground, preserved books below ground. high value collection)

There is a loud rumbling sound, and as Tuuri looks out from the window, more of the roof starts to cave in. Mikkel is at the door of the library, and Sigrun, Lalli, and Emil already seem to be getting out of there. Sigrun, of all people, has a gash running down her arm, and favors her arm as she runs. Tuuri starts the engine.

It doesn’t start, and the ground begins to rumble. There is a thudding sound at the cockpit, and Tuuri turns her head to look back at the door, even though she already knows who it  is.

“Is something happening! What’s going on? ”, Reynir yelps in panicked Icelandic, and Tuuri winces, because she needs to think, and having a panicking Icelandic boy at the door is not. Helping.

Tuuri tries to start the engine again, and it fails again.

“I’m starting the engine! We’re leaving, and everything will be fine.”, Tuuri lies. She tries not to think of what ‘everything will be fine’ means, because she isn’t fooling herself, and she doesn’t think she’s fooling Reynir either. Because, if she can’t start this engine, they’ll all be nothing but dead, and she can’t have that.

The ground rumbles again, stronger, and Tuuri feels it though the metal treads of the tank. The old library collapses in on itself,entirely, and something like a displeased rumble sounds.

Its a giant
a giant
giant


The word giant loops itself on an endless circle around her mind, stopping everything else. Then Tuuri forces down her panic like the weak little thing it is, and tries the engine one last time.

And the proximity monitor beeps. They’ve finally reached the tank. Tuuri yanks down the lever that will let them in and leaves them to close the door for themselves.

The engine still hasn’t started. She had a ton of luck right now, a full load but a broken boat.

Something weak and fleshy starts breaking out from the once-library, and a chittering starts, and Tuuri knows she will not die this way. 

Onni had never taught her much about this, but he had taught her a little, and that was hopefully enough. Beside, any Finn worth their salt knew how to compose a runo. What she needed was a goddess, and a goal. She (un)fortunately had both.

They must be getting restless now, but they couldn't leave until they had been decontaminated , so she could do this. Actually, she had to do this.

Tuuri stands up, spreads her arms straight and wide, takes a deep breath, and sings.

I call to Tuuri, my namesake

Listen to my fear
as I call to your grace
From a dark and silent land
Full of danger, this place

Grant of me you grace
I beg
I plea
I beseech

for luck

So we can live,
a goal we hope to reach

For Tuonela is another day
Our lives a keepsake


Her arms drop, and Tuuri takes in a swallow from her throat to her now much dryer mouth. Tuuri counts to ten before trying the engine once again, because the goddess could always choose not to listen, or punish her for her impatience, and they would all die.

The engine starts. 



A/N: ahhh, i really just wanted to see Tuuri do something magic, since Minna said that even people who don't have magical talent can do runos, and I'm pretty proud of this catastrophe. and to anyone who's reading Hop Skip Fall, the next chapter's going smooth! I'm just putting 75% of my creative output into the Tomorrow Villains AU, which is going to be lengthy.
Word count is 624 words. Its like 200 in my notebook.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Sumeri on June 04, 2015, 08:37:51 PM
Today on: Kick writes wish fulfillment!

Oooohh that was most awesome!


And...uhh. I'm hoping this won't be too off topic. And I also hope you won't mind terribly (I'm so sorry if you do mind), but when I saw that truly lovely runo, THE INSPIRATION JUST HIT ME and I...kinda made a Finnish rendition of it. It's not a straight translation of course, and I'm not really that good at Kalevala meter (or poems in general) so I'm afraid this isn't nearly as good as what someone like Mikko could come up with, but I HAD TO do it:

Nytpä Tuuria tavoittelen,
kainoa kaimaani komennan

Kauhuani kuulisitko,
pelkoani pysäyttävää

Armoasi havittelen, laupeuttas haikailisin
Pimeästä pahaisesta, maasta hiljaisen hämärän
Vaaroista jo vaanivista, paikan piinaavan pajoilta

Suosiosi mulle myönnä, armahdustasi ojenna
Näin mä pyydän, näin rukoilen,
sulta sääliä anelen

Että onneas antaisit,
että viel voitais elellä
viel ihanteet ehätettäs,

niin jäis Tuonela tulevaan
olo omiin kätösihin
ve'et vainajien vältettäis


(ihanteet is not really the best word for "goals" but, meh)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: KicknRun on June 04, 2015, 08:51:38 PM
Oooohh that was most awesome!


And...uhh. I'm hoping this won't be too off topic. And I also hope you won't mind terribly (I'm so sorry if you do mind), but when I saw that truly lovely runo, THE INSPIRATION JUST HIT ME and I...kinda made a Finnish rendition of it. It's not a straight translation of course, and I'm not really that good at Kalevala meter (or poems in general) so I'm afraid this isn't nearly as good as what someone like Mikko could come up with, but I HAD TO do it:



Thank god. I was actually going to write it in Kalevala meter, but then I nope'd outta that faster than your average politician, so that didn't happen. I am just so happy that somebody did a thing for my thing oKAy. Thank you a lot!

(also I kinda ended up making my own kinda of meter in the process. kinda)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Sumeri on June 04, 2015, 09:06:55 PM
Thank god. I was actually going to write it in Kalevala meter, but then I nope'd outta that faster than your average politician, so that didn't happen. I am just so happy that somebody did a thing for my thing oKAy. Thank you a lot!

(also I kinda ended up making my own kinda of meter in the process. kinda)

Ohh yea, I think that attempting Kalevala meter in English would make just about anyone nope the hell out of dodge, so no judging from here :D And WAAAHHH you liked it, yay! And hey, the meter you came up with is plenty beautiful too, just so you know :D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on June 04, 2015, 10:03:09 PM
KicknRun: that is beautiful. And very well conceived. It's true that all Finns have some magic, so I can just see Tuuri doing that, and an appeal to her namesake goddess would have the best chance. Well made!

Sumeri: also great. My Finnish is minimal, but I can follow enough to see that the poem is graceful, and fits well with KicknRun's story.

Well done, both!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: KMK on June 05, 2015, 12:06:15 AM
Today on: Kick writes wish fulfillment!




They were lucky, the first few raids.The first raid wasn’t too bad, and practice makes perfect, right? The second and third raids went just fine.

This raid was on a crash course to failing spectacularly.

Everything goes wrong, very very loudly. Its in a library, once proud stone now decaying, what is means defiled and gone, ready to be opened like one of the Old World’s innumerable rotten presents.

(Number 42: library, many books above ground, preserved books below ground. high value collection)

There is a loud rumbling sound, and as Tuuri looks out from the window, more of the roof starts to cave in. Mikkel is at the door of the library, and Sigrun, Lalli, and Emil already seem to be getting out of there. Sigrun, of all people, has a gash running down her arm, and favors her arm as she runs. Tuuri starts the engine.

It doesn’t start, and the ground begins to rumble. There is a thudding sound at the cockpit, and Tuuri turns her head to look back at the door, even though she already knows who it  is.

“Is something happening! What’s going on? ”, Reynir yelps in panicked Icelandic, and Tuuri winces, because she needs to think, and having a panicking Icelandic boy at the door is not. Helping.

Tuuri tries to start the engine again, and it fails again.

“I’m starting the engine! We’re leaving, and everything will be fine.”, Tuuri lies. She tries not to think of what ‘everything will be fine’ means, because she isn’t fooling herself, and she doesn’t think she’s fooling Reynir either. Because, if she can’t start this engine, they’ll all be nothing but dead, and she can’t have that.

The ground rumbles again, stronger, and Tuuri feels it though the metal treads of the tank. The old library collapses in on itself,entirely, and something like a displeased rumble sounds.

Its a giant
a giant
giant


The word giant loops itself on an endless circle around her mind, stopping everything else. Then Tuuri forces down her panic like the weak little thing it is, and tries the engine one last time.

And the proximity monitor beeps. They’ve finally reached the tank. Tuuri yanks down the lever that will let them in and leaves them to close the door for themselves.

The engine still hasn’t started. She had a ton of luck right now, a full load but a broken boat.

Something weak and fleshy starts breaking out from the once-library, and a chittering starts, and Tuuri knows she will not die this way. 

Onni had never taught her much about this, but he had taught her a little, and that was hopefully enough. Beside, any Finn worth their salt knew how to compose a runo. What she needed was a goddess, and a goal. She (un)fortunately had both.

They must be getting restless now, but they couldn't leave until they had been decontaminated , so she could do this. Actually, she had to do this.

Tuuri stands up, spreads her arms straight and wide, takes a deep breath, and sings.

I call to Tuuri, my namesake

Listen to my fear
as I call to your grace
From a dark and silent land
Full of danger, this place

Grant of me you grace
I beg
I plea
I beseech

for luck

So we can live,
a goal we hope to reach

For Tuonela is another day
Our lives a keepsake


Her arms drop, and Tuuri takes in a swallow from her throat to her now much dryer mouth. Tuuri counts to ten before trying the engine once again, because the goddess could always choose not to listen, or punish her for her impatience, and they would all die.

The engine starts. 



A/N: ahhh, i really just wanted to see Tuuri do something magic, since Minna said that even people who don't have magical talent can do runos, and I'm pretty proud of this catastrophe. and to anyone who's reading Hop Skip Fall, the next chapter's going smooth! I'm just putting 75% of my creative output into the Tomorrow Villains AU, which is going to be lengthy.
Word count is 624 words. Its like 200 in my notebook.
Love, love, love this!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on June 05, 2015, 04:14:39 PM
This idea was born out of two separate ones: I wanted to see the crew several years down the line getting put back together, and for some mad reason I wanted to see how Reynir would react to seeing a helicopter. Somewhere along the way, it became the story of the known world coming to an end and Sigrun putting the crew back together for one last desperate mission out into the silent lands to save it. The actual mission itself I have no intention of actually writing – what I’ve got is already probably going to get canoned super hard within a year or two, plus long stories are way too hard for me to write.

Anyway, enough spiel:

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4081177/chapters/9191830

I hope you like it! (And yes, the title is a Pacific Rim reference. You watch that film enough times for a crossover fic and bits start to rub off on you.)

And KicknRun: I love your story! We really need more badass Tuuri around here.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: KicknRun on June 05, 2015, 04:22:24 PM


Aw yisssssssssssss. I am so ready. And I like how Sigrun is recognizable after 6 years, and how Renyir still gets his hopes and dreams dashed.

Also, about the badass Tuuri thing I might have just written another story and started revealing depths to her character just maybe oops.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on June 06, 2015, 06:38:58 AM
Aw yisssssssssssss. I am so ready. And I like how Sigrun is recognizable after 6 years, and how Renyir still gets his hopes and dreams dashed.

Also, about the badass Tuuri thing I might have just written another story and started revealing depths to her character just maybe oops.

Thank you! And I look forward to reading this new story you're writing :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Haiz on June 07, 2015, 06:01:13 AM
There seems to be a lot of great things happening in the Scriptorium, and I'm hoping to catch up with all of it at some point! For the time being I've read the first chapter of Solovei's Hotakainen backstory and everything by SectoBoss, and it's all great! I don't think you need to hear any additional squee'ing about the pacific rim au, just know that there is a lot of it.

ANYWAY, I kind of promised in the art thread to write some more of that high school au, involving cookies. So I did. It's short, ridiculous and as OOC as ever, I hope you enjoy it!

~*Standstill High part 5: The Cookiepocalypse*~ (http://unicorngender.tumblr.com/post/120924537644/standstill-high-part-5-cookiepocalypse)
(only english version for the time being, might translate if I get the opportunity later on)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Dane Murgen on June 07, 2015, 06:12:59 AM
There seems to be a lot of great things happening in the Scriptorium, and I'm hoping to catch up with all of it at some point! For the time being I've read the first chapter of Solovei's Hotakainen backstory and everything by SectoBoss, and it's all great! I don't think you need to hear any additional squee'ing about the pacific rim au, just know that there is a lot of it.

ANYWAY, I kind of promised in the art thread to write some more of that high school au, involving cookies. So I did. It's short, ridiculous and as OOC as ever, I hope you enjoy it!

~*Standstill High part 5: The Cookiepocalypse*~ (http://unicorngender.tumblr.com/post/120924537644/standstill-high-part-5-cookiepocalypse)
(only english version for the time being, might translate if I get the opportunity later on)

This is brilliant and perfectly timed, too! I literally just made chocolate chip cookies a few hours ago, so that was hilarious.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OrigamiOwl on June 07, 2015, 06:15:11 AM
There seems to be a lot of great things happening in the Scriptorium, and I'm hoping to catch up with all of it at some point! For the time being I've read the first chapter of Solovei's Hotakainen backstory and everything by SectoBoss, and it's all great! I don't think you need to hear any additional squee'ing about the pacific rim au, just know that there is a lot of it.

ANYWAY, I kind of promised in the art thread to write some more of that high school au, involving cookies. So I did. It's short, ridiculous and as OOC as ever, I hope you enjoy it!

~*Standstill High part 5: The Cookiepocalypse*~ (http://unicorngender.tumblr.com/post/120924537644/standstill-high-part-5-cookiepocalypse)
(only english version for the time being, might translate if I get the opportunity later on)

Awwww! There were so many lines that had me crying with stifled laughter, but the last sentence broke me. IT BROKE ME.
Spoiler: show

"Swift as a shadow, Lalli left him and climbed out the kitchen window, away from everyone."
Until this point I had, somehow, not envisioned a window... so in my mind, it just appeared out of nowhere and lalli spider-scuttles through it in a slightly sped up way...

Also, I ended up thinking about What if Lalli goes to escape out a window and finds it locked or one of those unopenable ones, and he's just there....patting the window...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: KicknRun on June 07, 2015, 06:47:04 AM

~*Standstill High part 5: The Cookiepocalypse*~ (http://unicorngender.tumblr.com/post/120924537644/standstill-high-part-5-cookiepocalypse)
(only english version for the time being, might translate if I get the opportunity later on)

Spoiler: show
Hah! Renyir wondering who exactly Tuuri is related to. Emil defending the bowl with a mop. Blackmail, and you got how crushes work a little wrong, but yeah mostly right. (but you don't get crushes so)


Wait a second
*confusion
Aren't you supposed to have the Norwegian thingy first.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Haiz on June 07, 2015, 07:08:12 AM
ahahh thank you for your comments, it brings me Much Joy to see you enjoy it! I'm also always surprised to find out who (and how many) my readers are, there are different people commenting every time O:

Wait a second
*confusion
Aren't you supposed to have the Norwegian thingy first.
yeaaahh that's what I usually do, but for a Variety of Reasons I can't do the translation thingy for the moment, and since most of you don't speak or read Norwegian anyway........ it can wait.

also, I haven't established any crushes yet 8) you're free to interpret it any way you want though, i'm just doing my weird thing and haha what are feelings. But if you want to go indepth on what you feel was a little off, you can PM me about it!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on June 07, 2015, 07:17:24 AM
Haiz: that is so sweet and funny! And in character. Love it.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Cat Is in the Moon on June 07, 2015, 07:24:44 AM
"That’s when they heard the squeal."
That squeal was probably mine. XD
You did the cookie scene! *dances around the room*
Happiness! :D Cookies! Thank you!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Mélusine on June 07, 2015, 07:49:54 AM
ANYWAY, I kind of promised in the art thread to write some more of that high school au, involving cookies. So I did. It's short, ridiculous and as OOC as ever, I hope you enjoy it!

~*Standstill High part 5: The Cookiepocalypse*~ (http://unicorngender.tumblr.com/post/120924537644/standstill-high-part-5-cookiepocalypse)
(only english version for the time being, might translate if I get the opportunity later on)
"Awwwwww..." ? *Less and less constructive*
I assume everyone see perfectly the scene :) (Poor Emil ^^)

Edit : will we see an Ikea excursion ? :D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Sumeri on June 07, 2015, 08:21:20 AM
There seems to be a lot of great things happening in the Scriptorium, and I'm hoping to catch up with all of it at some point! For the time being I've read the first chapter of Solovei's Hotakainen backstory and everything by SectoBoss, and it's all great! I don't think you need to hear any additional squee'ing about the pacific rim au, just know that there is a lot of it.

ANYWAY, I kind of promised in the art thread to write some more of that high school au, involving cookies. So I did. It's short, ridiculous and as OOC as ever, I hope you enjoy it!

~*Standstill High part 5: The Cookiepocalypse*~ (http://unicorngender.tumblr.com/post/120924537644/standstill-high-part-5-cookiepocalypse)
(only english version for the time being, might translate if I get the opportunity later on)

....I...I....I cannot deal with- are you trying to- hnnnnngh oH MY GOD I DO WORSHIP YOU NOW, YOU ETHEREAL BEING OF GREATNESS
the mop fight, it broke me
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Noodles on June 07, 2015, 01:36:59 PM
Haiz
Haiz, that was beautiful. Lallininja, FTW! And also cookies and Tuuri-squees and everything else and aaaaa
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LurkBeast on June 07, 2015, 03:40:31 PM
There seems to be a lot of great things happening in the Scriptorium, and I'm hoping to catch up with all of it at some point! For the time being I've read the first chapter of Solovei's Hotakainen backstory and everything by SectoBoss, and it's all great! I don't think you need to hear any additional squee'ing about the pacific rim au, just know that there is a lot of it.

ANYWAY, I kind of promised in the art thread to write some more of that high school au, involving cookies. So I did. It's short, ridiculous and as OOC as ever, I hope you enjoy it!

~*Standstill High part 5: The Cookiepocalypse*~ (http://unicorngender.tumblr.com/post/120924537644/standstill-high-part-5-cookiepocalypse)
(only english version for the time being, might translate if I get the opportunity later on)

Broke a mirror off the cattank in full view of two of my team mates?
BETTER LOB IT AS FAR AS I CAN.
Attacked by a troll and I have a gun, a shortsword, and a bandolier of grenades?
BETTER THROW MY LAMP AT IT.
Lalli's trying to steal dough from an easily carriable bowl?
BETTER FEND HIM OFF WITH A MOP.

Yeah, I think you have Emil's thought process down Haiz.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Haiz on June 07, 2015, 04:07:18 PM
oh gosh oh gosh so many incredibly nice comments
I'm gonna lie on the floor and melt into a puddle for a bit
yeah

Edit : will we see an Ikea excursion ? :D
hMMmM it's on the list of possible scenarios, if I ever come up with a plot for that (or if I visit IKEA anytime soon... fun fact: i applied for a summer job on IKEA. i didn't get it of course but still), it may happen >:]

Broke a mirror off the cattank in full view of two of my team mates?
BETTER LOB IT AS FAR AS I CAN.
Attacked by a troll and I have a gun, a shortsword, and a bandolier of grenades?
BETTER THROW MY LAMP AT IT.
Lalli's trying to steal dough from an easily carriable bowl?
BETTER FEND HIM OFF WITH A MOP.

Yeah, I think you have Emil's thought process down Haiz.
hahaha YEAH PRETTY MUCH
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Tjoll on June 07, 2015, 08:50:17 PM
ANYWAY, I kind of promised in the art thread to write some more of that high school au, involving cookies. So I did. It's short, ridiculous and as OOC as ever, I hope you enjoy it!
~*Standstill High part 5: The Cookiepocalypse*~ (http://unicorngender.tumblr.com/post/120924537644/standstill-high-part-5-cookiepocalypse)

HAIZ YOU ARE A NATIONAL TREASURE I cannot thank you enough for writing this IT'S PERFECT YOU ARE PERFECT
I grinned like an idiot reading it :D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: daiseerose on June 07, 2015, 09:23:23 PM
ok um, so here is my fanfic, and um, criticism is welcome, so yea.

lost
chapter one
rated T
for: turkeyrunes
I own nothing, all characters belong to the creator of stand still stay silent
 
No one saw the troll coming. It came out of no where, but it came all the same. lalli ducked out of the way before the heads came, but Emil wasn’t so lucky. with a horrible clank, his
head hit the ground hard, already bleeding heavily. lalli had no idea where the crazy lady was, and didn’t know if she was alive or not. lalli backed away, from the troll, trying to see if he was even alive. he bent down, blood already on his clothes, and tried to look at the wound, but lalli kept looking back at the troll, to see if it would attack again.Then, suddenly, lalli heard shots ring out, echoing all around, he figured it was the crazy lady, and he was right. She was right there, shooting at the troll and yelling something, while also making some crazy hand gestures that lalli assumed meant run, so he carefully, with difficulty, and carried Emil away, while secretly hoping that the lady doesn’t die. Emil was pretty heavy,and his bloodied hair kept on getting in his way, sticking to his face and clothes. Lalli struggled to carry Emil, who seemed to be getting heavier by the minute. Lalli wasn’t sure how long he was walking, but when the forest became gloomy and dim, he finally set the swede down carefully on the ground, while making a makeshift bed in the more shaded part, by piling leaves up, and setting the swede on top. lalli had no idea what to do. he has never been in a situation like this, and he has no idea how to stop the bleeding.
‘ what if he dies?’
lalli shook the thought away, and flopped on the ground, exhausted.How could anyone stop that much blood from coming out? it wasn’t like lalli had much here to help him, the best bet would be leaves.
the leaves were the best that lalli could come up with, so he pressed the leaves to the wound on his head, and checked if anything else was broken or bleeding. after checking him, lalli found only one other wound, and that was on his leg. Lalli didn’t think it was broken, just bleeding.
when the leg wound was taken care of, he sat down again, listening to the forest, and making sure no trolls came again. he made that mistake once, he wasn’t doing it again. suddenly he heard a groan, lalli looked up to see emil was waking up slowly. " what happened?" emil asked, his voice rough. he tried to get up, but lalli pushed him back down " you got hurt, and there was a troll" lalli said., even if he knew that the swede couldn't understand him.When Emil tried to get up again, lalli decided to just sit on him, to keep him from getting up "hey!" the swede was saying something, but lalli just ignored him, not interested enough to see what he was saying, and just laid down. "....." - Emil had a pretty rough day. first, getting hit by that troll, two, waking up in searing pain, three, bieng lost in the woods, with no food water, medical supplies, and bieng with someone who didn't even understand him.who, was also sitting on top of him. Emil sighed. 'well things could be worse, it could be storming right now' emil thought,as lalli fell asleep. emil stared at the sky, his headache preventing him from sleep. he had no idea how lalli was sleeping, 'but he didn't exactly get hit,' Emil thought back to himself 'yea but-' suddenly he heard it, a rumble. a troll.
 "lalli!' emil hissed, before a searing pain went through his head, and everything went black


Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: KicknRun on June 07, 2015, 09:43:58 PM
ok um, so here is my fanfic, and um, criticism is welcome, so yea.

lost
chapter one
rated T
for: turkeyrunes
I own nothing, all characters belong to the creator of stand still stay silent
 

well, um, The formatting is making it kinda hard to read, so you should fix that, names are proper nouns and get capitalized each and every time. Nowhere is a compound word, bloodied would probably read better as bloody. I'm not quite sure what P.O.V this is being read in since

Quote
what happened?" emil asked, his voice rough.

Even though/Unless the POV is full on omniscient, lalli would have to guess at what emil was saying., which doesn't quite  have been said.

Also, if a vein or artery was hit, Emil's dead, buddy.

I like the idea, though. (i'm being really really harsh here oh my god i only really started writing seriously 3 months ago)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Noodles on June 07, 2015, 11:04:34 PM
ok um, so here is my fanfic, and um, criticism is welcome, so yea.
This is wonderful!
It's also made of feels but that's OK.
Please make more!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: KicknRun on June 08, 2015, 12:09:40 AM
I wrote a 1000+ words today! Crap.

Spoiler: WARNINGS FOR THE STORY • show

death



SPOILER TAGS ARE NOT WORKING-WILL TRY AGAIN LATER-TOO LATE AT NIGHT FOR ME TO DO ANYTHING

Something That Will Follow Us


Sigrun checked her watch. It had been about fifteen minutes since Emil had gone off to check for danger. He was either killing something idiotically, lost, or idiotically dead. Hopefully, Emil was lost.  If he had spectacularly bad luck, he was dead. Sigrun put the watch back, and set out for Emil.(or his body)

¤

Emil’s hand is on the trigger of his gun. Beginner's mistake.

¤

Emil had pretty good ears, Sigrun considered. He could have made a pretty good Hunter, back in Norway. Too bad he was dripping ‘round the ears and, ya know, not from Norway.

Sigrun’s ears perk up. Pitter pat. Pitter patter. Its not from the rain either-which has stopped-it’s feet. Which is good, because she did not want to deal with a deal body. Sigrun curves around to duck her head into one corridor. The sound is louder here, and now more of a shuffle than a patter. One of the doors are open. All the other doors are closed.

Sigrun goes through the open door. Shuffle. Emil is there, back turned away from her. A smile comes to her face. At least he isn’t dead.

“Gre-”

BANG.

¤

There is a dead body on the floor, and she is smiling. Sigrun is smiling. Sigrun is dead.  Sigrun is smiling and dead. Emil killed Sigrun.

The gun drops. Emil runs. Emil falls, on crazy lady, on the woman who saved his life ,on Sigrun Eide from Dalsnes, with a family that is still alive, skilled enough to survive too many brutal hunting seasons but not one stupid trainee and Emil hears a crack and he isn’t quite sure who it belongs to but he flails around some more and (deadeadMURDERER) and gets up and runs.  Calling it flying would be far too elegant, and calling it fleeing would be far too cruel, but it is accurate. Emil flees.

¤

Somehow, Emil gets back, away from the school (the place where her body lies, probably with some troll or beast is already consuming it. emil knows he’d consider it a fate worse than death) and over the truck (didn’t she help you up that?), and to the tank, where he almost but doesn’t quite crash into the door. He slides down it instead, crumpling.The door opens. Mikkel comes out. “Where is Sigrun?, he asks.

Emil doesn’t honestly know the answer.

(Emil does not cry himself to sleep. He simply cries.)




A/N; huwooo, everything i wrote today was sad. I'm never writing death again by the way. also, to the people who follow me on tumblr, yup, this was the worrying sentence.  EDIT: This was written before the monday page happened, and it was typed afterwards.

BONUS:where is the title from-hint the comic
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on June 08, 2015, 12:12:34 AM
Daiseerose: the way to learn to write is to keep on writing. So please keep writing! This looks like a scene out of the middle of a story? I'm curious to know what comes before and after this vignette.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on June 08, 2015, 12:22:28 AM
KicknRun: oooh! Dark! Sigrun is likely annoyed enough to haunt Emil for the rest of his probably brief days! Your Sigrun is getting more canon-Sigrun-like. Well-made despite the death. I'm glad you don't plan to do that again though; I much prefer to see Sigrun alive and snarling/smiling.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on June 08, 2015, 12:23:14 AM
Daiseerose:
Aside from what Roisin said, your problems seem mostly technical, as mentioned by KicknRun: paragraphing, punctuation, and capitalization errors detract from a very solid story opening. My advice: slow down; go over what you've written; and perhaps have someone else proofread. Again, as an opening chapter, it seems sound story-wise.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solovei on June 08, 2015, 12:49:06 AM
Daiseerose:
Aside from what Roisin said, your problems seem mostly technical, as mentioned by KicknRun: paragraphing, punctuation, and capitalization errors detract from a very solid story opening. My advice: slow down; go over what you've written; and perhaps have someone else proofread. Again, as an opening chapter, it seems sound story-wise.

I cannot stress enough the importance of having proofreaders or beta-readers. A second set of eyes is essential.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on June 08, 2015, 01:11:34 AM
LooneyDac Solovei and Daiseerose: That's good advice. I would add something I have found to be a very useful writing technique. Admittedly most of what I write in real life is technical articles, with the occasional poem or song, but I believe the same principle applies to writing fiction. Which I'm just getting back into. I had a few stories published back in the 1960s, mostly SF, have helped out with a few TV scripts and plays, but haven't written much fiction since, because life.

So. Write something, whether the whole story, a single scene, or a few paragraphs. Then put it away. Look at it again in a few days. Make corrections as needed. There will always be errors of spelling, grammar, word order or fact. Fix them. Add any brilliant inspirations that have come to you. Delete anything that on re-reading you realise is nonsense or just superfluous to what you are saying. Repeat the process in a few more days.

ALWAYS SAVE BOTH THE ORIGINAL AND ALL THE REVISIONS. Yes, it does sometimes happen that your first version was the best after all. When you are as happy with the story as you think you are going to get, then post it. Be prepared for the moment when you proudly read it on the page and go aarrgh! How did I miss that mistake?

See if you can buy or find online a little book by Ursula K LeGuin called 'From Elfland to Poughkeepsie'. It is a precious book about how to write good fantasy/SF. And how to write well in general. The other good advice, from poet/playwright Douglas Stewart, is: write something every day. Set aside time for writing and stick to it, even if it's only half an hour. Even if all you do is stare at the line you wrote yesterday and delete it. Stewart wrote masterpieces while working at a soul-destroying boring public service job. He would come home from work every day and set aside an hour to work on his writing. Eventually he became famous enough to be a full-time writer. And very, very good. If you want to read 'tragic, scary and really bleak' done relentlessly well, I recommend his verse-play 'The Fire on the Snow', a retelling of Scott's Antarctic expedition from the viewpoint of the men dying as they try to make it back to their base, and die just a few miles short of it.

So yeah. Write regularly, revise thoroughly, save frequently. Reread before posting. And do watch the spelling, punctuation and grammar. Readers tend to be put off by their absence. We can't all be Jack Kerouac; the stream-of-consciousness don't-look-back-over-what-you've-written thing almost never works, even in the white heat of inspiration!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solovei on June 08, 2015, 01:34:48 AM
While we're recommending books about writing, I picked up one called "How not to write a novel" a few months back and it was great. Lots of (obviously fake) examples of bad writing but it's also really funny, especially in its commentary on WHY you shouldn't do those things. Even if novels aren't your thing, the same principles can be applied to any story length, really.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Sunflower on June 08, 2015, 01:53:07 AM
See if you can buy or find online a little book by Ursula K LeGuin called 'From Elfland to Poughkeepsie'. It is a precious book about how to write good fantasy/SF. And how to write well in general.

I was going to jump in and say that "From Elfland to Poughkeepsie" is an essay in UKL's wonderful collection "The Language of the Night," (http://www.amazon.com/Language-Night-Ursula-K-LeGuin/dp/0399123253) which is easily findable in paperback.  (Assuming you don't already have it on the shelf literally 3 feet away, as I do.)

And then it turns out "The Language of the Night" is out of print, and my mass-market Berkley Books paperback edition with the Contemptible Cover  (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ContemptibleCover)and the cheap pulp paper already starting to go brown is worth -- used -- about 10 times what I paid for it 25 years ago.   :o

So although I feel kind of bad about exploiting Google Books, here is "From Elfland to Poughkeepsie" online. (https://books.google.com/books?id=-AR9FEgly9wC&pg=PA144&lpg=PA144&dq=Leguin+Elfland+Poughkeepsie&source=bl&ots=AdGzDkf0MV&sig=gwd6XFj96T3ECMW59MiuWQNzI7I&hl=en&sa=X&ei=OCl1Vf65N8b3oASdiYGgDg&ved=0CB8Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Leguin%20Elfland%20Poughkeepsie&f=false)

LeGuin has wonderful advice on writing, not just in this essay but many of her works. 

1. http://www.amazon.com/Steering-Craft-Exercises-Discussions-Navigator/dp/0933377460/ref=pd_sim_14_3?ie=UTF8&refRID=0JJ2ABBAGDY6FA6HJ2TG

2. Dancing at the Edge of the World (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0802135293/)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on June 08, 2015, 02:25:12 AM
Solovei: yes, that's a great how-not-to book.

Sunflower: I got my pamphlet-sized paperback edition of 'From Elfland To Poughkeepsie' back in the early 1970s from Space Age Books in Melbourne, Victoria. They had an amazing list of imported books of SF and fantasy, as well as obscure things like the poetry of Roger Zelazny, Robert E. Howard and H.P. Lovecraft. I actually put music to some of Lovecraft's poems, and still sing them.

Le Guin gives really good writing advice. I went to a writers workshop she ran at a science-fiction convention in Melbourne, decades ago, and have never forgotten it.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: AquaAurion on June 08, 2015, 04:27:42 AM
I have been neglecting this thread lately ;n;
I just came to say: Haiz, that was WONDERFUL. I love your AU so much x3
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: JoB on June 08, 2015, 03:05:37 PM
Sigrun is likely annoyed enough to haunt Emil for the rest of his probably brief days!
Sigrun: "Hey, this is great! I was afraid I'ld have to work around the language barrier with interpretative dance or something to tell you about your part in my revenge plan, my little Finnish mage."
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: KicknRun on June 08, 2015, 03:11:20 PM
Sigrun: "Hey, this is great! I was afraid I'ld have to work around the language barrier with interpretative dance or something to tell you about your part in my revenge plan, my little Finnish mage."

That's actually exactly what I have planned.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: RandomTexanReader on June 08, 2015, 04:59:02 PM

Somehow, Emil gets back, away from the school (the place where her body lies, probably with some troll or beast is already consuming it. emil knows he’d consider it a fate worse than death) and over the truck (didn’t she help you up that?), and to the tank, where he almost but doesn’t quite crash into the door. He slides down it instead, crumpling.The door opens. Mikkel comes out. “Where is Sigrun?, he asks.

Emil doesn’t honestly know the answer.

(Emil does not cry himself to sleep. He simply cries.)



THIS IS TERRIBLE AND HORRIBLE AND HEARTBREAKING AND IN NO WAY OKAY AND I HAD TO ADD TO IT.

Spoiler: show

Mikkel pushed Emil's head down between his knees. "Deep breaths, kid. Deep breaths."
Emil's sobs were frantic, and his breathing fast and shallow. Mikkel pressed a big hand over Emil's mouth. "Breathe slower. Slow, Emil. Slow. Breathe slow and deep." Emil struggled to obey, tears still running down his face. He was shaking all over. Mikkel kept on talking to him. "I'm going to get you a blanket now, okay? I need you to keep your head between your knees and keep breathing slow and deep. I'll be right back."
Tuuri looked up from the book she was studying, her voice slightly muffled by the mask. "Are Emil and Sigrun okay?"
Mikkel shook his head. "Something happened." He took the blanket from the bed and headed back towards Emil, adding over his shoulder, "Keep your mask on."
"Wha-" Reynir began,
"Keep your mask on," Mikkel told him in Icelandic, "Something happened."

It was a while before Mikkel felt Emil was stable enough that he could be left on his own. He was washed, warm, and breathing easily now, asleep on the bottom bunk, near the heater. Lalli was perched in the corner, watching Emil with wide eyes.

Tuuri was trying to hold back her tears. "What happened?" she asked, "Is Sigrun-"
"She might not be," Mikkel said, strapping his medical supply belt on, "I'm going to go and see. Don't open the door until you see it's me, and keep your mask on." He paused, then said slowly, "If I'm not back by noon tomorrow, take the tank back to the tunnel. Leave the camp here."
"But-"
"That was an order." Mikkel took a deep breath. "Don't ask Emil any questions. Don't let Reynir go outside, and you don't either. Listen to your cousin, and if he says you need to leave, you leave. Do you understand?" Tuuri nodded. "Good." Mikkel checked that he had everything, then picked up his gun. "I'll try to get back before sundown."

The rain had stopped. Mikkel moved as quickly and as silently as he could, on the alert for trolls or beasts. Before long he was at the building and went in carefully, looking for Sigrun. Maybe she was okay. Maybe she had just been cornered somewhere and needed someone to get her out. Maybe she was unconscious, but not hurt too badly. Maybe he could still save her. Maybe---he saw her then.

Mikkel knelt down next to the body. Sigrun's eyes were still open, her features frozen in a relieved smile. The bleeding was minimal---the shot must have gone straight through her heart. At least it had been an instantaneous death.
Mikkel covered his mouth. It was sixteen years since he had seen his first casualty, and it never got any better. Just easier to forget.
Taking a deep breath, he carefully closed the sightless eyes, then began removing the items from the corpse, unbuckling the belts and going through the pockets. Finding a folded pohtograph he carefully smoothed it out and looked at it: it was a bearded man and a lady with braids, holding a small girl between them. A family portrait. Mikkel swore softly, refolding the picture and tucked it safely away in an inside pocket.
When he had removed everything of value, he stood up and looked around. Emil's gun was lying nearby, and he gathered that up as well, clicking the safety on and slinging it over his shoulder. Then pulling out a canister of lighter fluid, he poured it over Sigrun---Sigrun's body---and lit a match.
It was protocol to stay in order to insure that the body finished burning completely, but Mikkel didn't give a blank about protocol right now.
As he started to head out of the building, Mikkel saw the bags. They were full and strapped up, ready to go.
Mikkel stared at them, then slowly, deliberately, began to swear. He swore for a long time then stopped, took a deep, shuddering breath, and gathered up the bags as well.
He estimated they weighed about 20 kg, combined.
20 kg of books for one Norwegian captain.

"Tuuri, it's Mikkel. Let me in." The door slid open and Mikkel got in, dumping everything in an untidy heap on the ground. "Don't touch anything. Get back into the sleeping area while I decontaminate." Tuuri obeyed silently as Mikkel began peeling off his gloves and boots and bundling the things he had brought into the decontamination unit.

Tuuri looked up as Mikkel came in, looking twenty years older. She had been crying. Lalli was sitting next to her, his hand comfortingly on her back. Reynir was cross-legged on the cot, watching with wide frightened eyes.
 "What-what happened?" Tuuri asked.
Mikkel checked on Emil. The boy was still asleep. Then he shook his head.
"Accident," was all he said. "She was dead when I got there."
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: KicknRun on June 08, 2015, 05:07:55 PM

THIS IS TERRIBLE AND HORRIBLE AND HEARTBREAKING AND IN NO WAY OKAY AND I HAD TO ADD TO IT.

Spoiler: show

Mikkel pushed Emil's head down between his knees. "Deep breaths, kid. Deep breaths."
Emil's sobs were frantic, and his breathing fast and shallow. Mikkel pressed a big hand over Emil's mouth. "Breathe slower. Slow, Emil. Slow. Breathe slow and deep." Emil struggled to obey, tears still running down his face. He was shaking all over. Mikkel kept on talking to him. "I'm going to get you a blanket now, okay? I need you to keep your head between your knees and keep breathing slow and deep. I'll be right back."
Tuuri looked up from the book she was studying, her voice slightly muffled by the mask. "Are Emil and Sigrun okay?"
Mikkel shook his head. "Something happened." He took the blanket from the bed and headed back towards Emil, adding over his shoulder, "Keep your mask on."
"Wha-" Reynir began,
"Keep your mask on," Mikkel told him in Icelandic, "Something happened."

It was a while before Mikkel felt Emil was stable enough that he could be left on his own. He was washed, warm, and breathing easily now, asleep on the bottom bunk, near the heater. Lalli was perched in the corner, watching Emil with wide eyes.

Tuuri was trying to hold back her tears. "What happened?" she asked, "Is Sigrun-"
"She might not be," Mikkel said, strapping his medical supply belt on, "I'm going to go and see. Don't open the door until you see it's me, and keep your mask on." He paused, then said slowly, "If I'm not back by noon tomorrow, take the tank back to the tunnel. Leave the camp here."
"But-"
"That was an order." Mikkel took a deep breath. "Don't ask Emil any questions. Don't let Reynir go outside, and you don't either. Listen to your cousin, and if he says you need to leave, you leave. Do you understand?" Tuuri nodded. "Good." Mikkel checked that he had everything, then picked up his gun. "I'll try to get back before sundown."

The rain had stopped. Mikkel moved as quickly and as silently as he could, on the alert for trolls or beasts. Before long he was at the building and went in carefully, looking for Sigrun. Maybe she was okay. Maybe she had just been cornered somewhere and needed someone to get her out. Maybe she was unconscious, but not hurt too badly. Maybe he could still save her. Maybe---he saw her then.

Mikkel knelt down next to the body. Sigrun's eyes were still open, her features frozen in a relieved smile. The bleeding was minimal---the shot must have gone straight through her heart. At least it had been an instantaneous death.
Mikkel covered his mouth. It was sixteen years since he had seen his first casualty, and it never got any better. Just easier to forget.
Taking a deep breath, he carefully closed the sightless eyes, then began removing the items from the corpse, unbuckling the belts and going through the pockets. Finding a folded pohtograph he carefully smoothed it out and looked at it: it was a bearded man and a lady with braids, holding a small girl between them. A family portrait. Mikkel swore softly, refolding the picture and tucked it safely away in an inside pocket.
When he had removed everything of value, he stood up and looked around. Emil's gun was lying nearby, and he gathered that up as well, clicking the safety on and slinging it over his shoulder. Then pulling out a canister of lighter fluid, he poured it over Sigrun---Sigrun's body---and lit a match.
It was protocol to stay in order to insure that the body finished burning completely, but Mikkel didn't give a blank about protocol right now.
As he started to head out of the building, Mikkel saw the bags. They were full and strapped up, ready to go.
Mikkel stared at them, then slowly, deliberately, began to swear. He swore for a long time then stopped, took a deep, shuddering breath, and gathered up the bags as well.
He estimated they weighed about 20 kg, combined.
20 kg of books for one Norwegian captain.

"Tuuri, it's Mikkel. Let me in." The door slid open and Mikkel got in, dumping everything in an untidy heap on the ground. "Don't touch anything. Get back into the sleeping area while I decontaminate." Tuuri obeyed silently as Mikkel began peeling off his gloves and boots and bundling the things he had brought into the decontamination unit.

Tuuri looked up as Mikkel came in, looking twenty years older. She had been crying. Lalli was sitting next to her, his hand comfortingly on her back. Reynir was cross-legged on the cot, watching with wide frightened eyes.
 "What-what happened?" Tuuri asked.
Mikkel checked on Emil. The boy was still asleep. Then he shook his head.
"Accident," was all he said. "She was dead when I got there."


YOU TOOK MY SAD THING AND YOU MADE IT
SADDER
OH MY GOD
(i was smiling the entire way through, though, b/c i was so happy that somebody wrote for me a thing )

And yeah! I didn't say it in the story, but emil didn't murder sigrun, he was startled, in case anyone misinterpreted it.

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Mélusine on June 08, 2015, 05:33:19 PM
Wha... what's happening here ? O_o T_T
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: KicknRun on June 08, 2015, 05:51:27 PM
Wha... what's happening here ? O_o T_T

Uhh, nobody's really written anything sad for this fandom yet, but i just did?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Mélusine on June 08, 2015, 06:16:50 PM
Uhh, nobody's really written anything sad for this fandom yet, but i just did?
We're reaching my own limits in fanfiction. I'll just pretend I have not read that.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solovei on June 08, 2015, 09:06:52 PM
Uhh, nobody's really written anything sad for this fandom yet, but i just did?
Oh yes they have. There have been a few (too many, for my liking) fics with character deaths and the like. I'm a little concerned, actually. Do people think there's something wrong with the somewhat lighthearted tone of the comic?

I mean, I'd rather we focus our collective energies on writing more shippy stuff, but I won't say anything XD
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on June 08, 2015, 11:49:55 PM
Some of the fan-fic does seem a bit gloomy. Mine included, I guess, though I didn't actually kill anybody from the main cast. I like the lighter intervals Minna puts into the comic, because it gives a real-life feel to the story. People in real life-or-death situations, in my experience, are not unrelievedly solemn, boding or gloomy, but tend to find what humour they can in the situation, even if their humour may be a little dark.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Mélusine on June 09, 2015, 04:44:44 AM
I don't want misunderstanding : writing fan-fiction is taking over both universe and characters for writing what you want. But this example had made me remember why I'm not able/I don't want to use a story's main characters. It was well written, it's not the question, and I'm not the last to see how dark this universe can or could be :) Keep writing ! I'm just too... too... well, it doesn't matter.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: AquaAurion on June 09, 2015, 06:26:45 AM
I wrote a 1000+ words today! Crap.

Spoiler: WARNINGS FOR THE STORY • show

death



SPOILER TAGS ARE NOT WORKING-WILL TRY AGAIN LATER-TOO LATE AT NIGHT FOR ME TO DO ANYTHING

Something That Will Follow Us


Sigrun checked her watch. It had been about fifteen minutes since Emil had gone off to check for danger. He was either killing something idiotically, lost, or idiotically dead. Hopefully, Emil was lost.  If he had spectacularly bad luck, he was dead. Sigrun put the watch back, and set out for Emil.(or his body)

¤

Emil’s hand is on the trigger of his gun. Beginner's mistake.

¤

Emil had pretty good ears, Sigrun considered. He could have made a pretty good Hunter, back in Norway. Too bad he was dripping ‘round the ears and, ya know, not from Norway.

Sigrun’s ears perk up. Pitter pat. Pitter patter. Its not from the rain either-which has stopped-it’s feet. Which is good, because she did not want to deal with a deal body. Sigrun curves around to duck her head into one corridor. The sound is louder here, and now more of a shuffle than a patter. One of the doors are open. All the other doors are closed.

Sigrun goes through the open door. Shuffle. Emil is there, back turned away from her. A smile comes to her face. At least he isn’t dead.

“Gre-”

BANG.

¤

There is a dead body on the floor, and she is smiling. Sigrun is smiling. Sigrun is dead.  Sigrun is smiling and dead. Emil killed Sigrun.

The gun drops. Emil runs. Emil falls, on crazy lady, on the woman who saved his life ,on Sigrun Eide from Dalsnes, with a family that is still alive, skilled enough to survive too many brutal hunting seasons but not one stupid trainee and Emil hears a crack and he isn’t quite sure who it belongs to but he flails around some more and (deadeadMURDERER) and gets up and runs.  Calling it flying would be far too elegant, and calling it fleeing would be far too cruel, but it is accurate. Emil flees.

¤

Somehow, Emil gets back, away from the school (the place where her body lies, probably with some troll or beast is already consuming it. emil knows he’d consider it a fate worse than death) and over the truck (didn’t she help you up that?), and to the tank, where he almost but doesn’t quite crash into the door. He slides down it instead, crumpling.The door opens. Mikkel comes out. “Where is Sigrun?, he asks.

Emil doesn’t honestly know the answer.

(Emil does not cry himself to sleep. He simply cries.)




A/N; huwooo, everything i wrote today was sad. I'm never writing death again by the way. also, to the people who follow me on tumblr, yup, this was the worrying sentence.  EDIT: This was written before the monday page happened, and it was typed afterwards.

BONUS:where is the title from-hint the comic
Oh my god, poor Emil and poor Sigrun T_T



THIS IS TERRIBLE AND HORRIBLE AND HEARTBREAKING AND IN NO WAY OKAY AND I HAD TO ADD TO IT.

Spoiler: show

Mikkel pushed Emil's head down between his knees. "Deep breaths, kid. Deep breaths."
Emil's sobs were frantic, and his breathing fast and shallow. Mikkel pressed a big hand over Emil's mouth. "Breathe slower. Slow, Emil. Slow. Breathe slow and deep." Emil struggled to obey, tears still running down his face. He was shaking all over. Mikkel kept on talking to him. "I'm going to get you a blanket now, okay? I need you to keep your head between your knees and keep breathing slow and deep. I'll be right back."
Tuuri looked up from the book she was studying, her voice slightly muffled by the mask. "Are Emil and Sigrun okay?"
Mikkel shook his head. "Something happened." He took the blanket from the bed and headed back towards Emil, adding over his shoulder, "Keep your mask on."
"Wha-" Reynir began,
"Keep your mask on," Mikkel told him in Icelandic, "Something happened."

It was a while before Mikkel felt Emil was stable enough that he could be left on his own. He was washed, warm, and breathing easily now, asleep on the bottom bunk, near the heater. Lalli was perched in the corner, watching Emil with wide eyes.

Tuuri was trying to hold back her tears. "What happened?" she asked, "Is Sigrun-"
"She might not be," Mikkel said, strapping his medical supply belt on, "I'm going to go and see. Don't open the door until you see it's me, and keep your mask on." He paused, then said slowly, "If I'm not back by noon tomorrow, take the tank back to the tunnel. Leave the camp here."
"But-"
"That was an order." Mikkel took a deep breath. "Don't ask Emil any questions. Don't let Reynir go outside, and you don't either. Listen to your cousin, and if he says you need to leave, you leave. Do you understand?" Tuuri nodded. "Good." Mikkel checked that he had everything, then picked up his gun. "I'll try to get back before sundown."

The rain had stopped. Mikkel moved as quickly and as silently as he could, on the alert for trolls or beasts. Before long he was at the building and went in carefully, looking for Sigrun. Maybe she was okay. Maybe she had just been cornered somewhere and needed someone to get her out. Maybe she was unconscious, but not hurt too badly. Maybe he could still save her. Maybe---he saw her then.

Mikkel knelt down next to the body. Sigrun's eyes were still open, her features frozen in a relieved smile. The bleeding was minimal---the shot must have gone straight through her heart. At least it had been an instantaneous death.
Mikkel covered his mouth. It was sixteen years since he had seen his first casualty, and it never got any better. Just easier to forget.
Taking a deep breath, he carefully closed the sightless eyes, then began removing the items from the corpse, unbuckling the belts and going through the pockets. Finding a folded pohtograph he carefully smoothed it out and looked at it: it was a bearded man and a lady with braids, holding a small girl between them. A family portrait. Mikkel swore softly, refolding the picture and tucked it safely away in an inside pocket.
When he had removed everything of value, he stood up and looked around. Emil's gun was lying nearby, and he gathered that up as well, clicking the safety on and slinging it over his shoulder. Then pulling out a canister of lighter fluid, he poured it over Sigrun---Sigrun's body---and lit a match.
It was protocol to stay in order to insure that the body finished burning completely, but Mikkel didn't give a blank about protocol right now.
As he started to head out of the building, Mikkel saw the bags. They were full and strapped up, ready to go.
Mikkel stared at them, then slowly, deliberately, began to swear. He swore for a long time then stopped, took a deep, shuddering breath, and gathered up the bags as well.
He estimated they weighed about 20 kg, combined.
20 kg of books for one Norwegian captain.

"Tuuri, it's Mikkel. Let me in." The door slid open and Mikkel got in, dumping everything in an untidy heap on the ground. "Don't touch anything. Get back into the sleeping area while I decontaminate." Tuuri obeyed silently as Mikkel began peeling off his gloves and boots and bundling the things he had brought into the decontamination unit.

Tuuri looked up as Mikkel came in, looking twenty years older. She had been crying. Lalli was sitting next to her, his hand comfortingly on her back. Reynir was cross-legged on the cot, watching with wide frightened eyes.
 "What-what happened?" Tuuri asked.
Mikkel checked on Emil. The boy was still asleep. Then he shook his head.
"Accident," was all he said. "She was dead when I got there."

Like my feels weren't broken already ;n;
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Ren on June 10, 2015, 02:25:08 AM
~*Standstill High part 5: The Cookiepocalypse*~ (http://unicorngender.tumblr.com/post/120924537644/standstill-high-part-5-cookiepocalypse)
(only english version for the time being, might translate if I get the opportunity later on)

I know I'm a little late with this but this is an awesome story!! I started laughing around the second paragraph and didn't stop laughing until 5 minutes after finishing. Thanks for continuing the story Haiz.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Silent Fox on June 10, 2015, 06:39:59 AM
So is this where little vignettes  of our self-inserts with the rest of the comic characters go?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: KicknRun on June 10, 2015, 06:42:46 AM
So is this where little vignettes  of our self-inserts with the rest of the comic characters go?


 I don't think so. I posted a little thing directly into the Self-insert thread, and nobody said anything.

You might want to try the Collaboration Self-insert thread.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Anton on June 10, 2015, 03:46:16 PM
Hello dear survivalists of the known world, I come bearing gifts.
I'm not too big on actually writing in the forum, but I wrote two fics by now, and I don't want to keep them from you.
Is both Emil/Lalli, but can be seen as platonic if necessary.

 hands (http://archiveofourown.org/works/4048234)
Outside of a cat, a book is a man's best friend (http://archiveofourown.org/works/4113277)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: KicknRun on June 10, 2015, 06:30:21 PM
You are going to have as much hype for this AU as I do or I'll die trying.

BASIC OVERVIEW OF THE TOMORROW VILLAINS AU

In basics, its set in a Y0 AU where superpowers have always been there, just getting more common and slightly diluted over time. (Not very diluted, but Emil is one of the strongest fire-controllers, and Mikkel is one of the best healers)

Speaking in terms on powers, the main crew’s powers are

Sigrun - Superspeed (she can go really really fast, but she doesn’t b/c of reasons)

Emil - controlling fire (I actually got a little sciency here, its a bit more than that)

Mikkel - healing powers of a sort (it doesn’t hurt him or anything, don’t worry)

Tuuri - technopathy (controlling technology, she’s digitally inclined, which will be expanded upon)

Lalli - dreamwalking and precognition (having mental powers is a bit of a thing in the Hotakainen’s, Tuuri is a bit of an outlier)

Reynir - I know, but its a secret!


The support crew is actually mostly unpowered

Taru - telepathy (but no controlling minds)

Onni - dreamwalking ( I did say it was a thing) and telekinesis

About powers and how they work-

A person usually gets their powers in puberty, but there are some late bloomers (cough cough tuuriandemil). There are a lot of names for powers, gifts, abilities, enhanced (this is not one to be used in polite company), curses if your power is particularly crappy.

When your power finally shows up, (usually called an  awakening or emergence,other names available), it mostly takes the crap out on you. Sometimes it doesn’t. That’s what happened to Emil. (i don’t hate emil, I swear)

If you have your power registered, you have been proven to be committing a crime using it.

THE TEAM

is a hodgepodge of motley people assembled by trond.

Tuuri - not b/c she wants to be here

Lalli - not on the team

Emil - same as Tuuri

Sigrun - here because Trond asked

Mikkel - BLACKMAIL (he’s kinda prominent, so its kinda a part-time thingy)

Reynir - very dangerous powers


I have this thing loosely plotted out, but the falling action is just ?? ?? ? ? in my notebook.

But plotting things out loosely gives me a ton of leeway, which I need.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on June 11, 2015, 05:24:50 AM
Anton: Sweet story! I tried to put the comment on A3O but it doesn't seem to be taking comments at the moment, at least not from me! Nice interaction between Lalli and Emil. Anyway, I loved the bit with Emil doodling tiny cats chasing trolls in the margins of his manuscript. Have you ever read 'Pangur Ban'? If not, it might amuse you.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Silent Fox on June 11, 2015, 06:35:52 AM

 I don't think so. I posted a little thing directly into the Self-insert thread, and nobody said anything.

You might want to try the Collaboration Self-insert thread.
I see, will ask there. Thank you! :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: AquaAurion on June 11, 2015, 06:49:37 AM
Hello dear survivalists of the known world, I come bearing gifts.
I'm not too big on actually writing in the forum, but I wrote two fics by now, and I don't want to keep them from you.
Is both Emil/Lalli, but can be seen as platonic if necessary.

 hands (http://archiveofourown.org/works/4048234)
Outside of a cat, a book is a man's best friend (http://archiveofourown.org/works/4113277)
Both of these were so sweet~ ^w^
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on June 11, 2015, 09:48:17 PM
Run Fast, Run Far
A Stand Still. Stay Silent fanfic
Part I
Spoiler: show
Eide and Seek

“Oof! Pardon me, please--Aksel?”

Sigrun’s eyes opened as a bulky man dressed against a Norwegian storm bumped into her. “Huh?” was all she could manage for a moment as her head wasn’t quite finished shimmying and swaying in giddy disorientation.

The man grabbed her by the shoulders to steady them both. “Oh, I’m sorry, Miss. I thought you were a friend of mine, Aksel Eide. It’s the hair, you know.”

Sigrun didn’t reply. She was too busy trying to get her bearings. They were standing just inside the entryway of an Old Time building, but one that had been kept in good repair, and which was still filled with people; it was a type of feast hall, or some such eatery. But how had she come to be here, and where was here? There was something awfully familiar about this place, though...

“Gunnar!” The cheerful greeting came from a booth across the room. Said booth was occupied by a foursome who lounged in it as though claiming it as their personal booth.

Sigrun’s jaw dropped as she took a better look at each of their faces in turn. She knew those faces: their watchful gazes had looked down at her from the Dalsnes feast hall since she’d first been allowed to dine there. There was Aksel Eide, the ancestor the man who’d run into her had named a moment ago; Sigrun Larsen, for whom she was named, sat by him; across from them was Goran Andersen; and Ingrid Petersen was beside him.

How was this possible? Her mind rebelled against the reality it faced. They’d been in Denmark, in the Silent World, probing for books, days away from Dalsnes by sea! And looking quizzically back at her were her own noble forebears, gone back to dust these many decades!

Wait. She was by herself in this place--all the others were figures of the Old Times. Where were her crew-mates?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Noodles on June 11, 2015, 09:59:37 PM
Ooh, Looney, this sounds like a lot of fun! I like!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: KicknRun on June 11, 2015, 10:01:46 PM
Run Fast, Run Far
A Stand Still. Stay Silent fanfic
Part I
Spoiler: show
Eide and Seek

“Oof! Pardon me, please--Aksel?”

Sigrun’s eyes opened as a bulky man dressed against a Norwegian storm bumped into her. “Huh?” was all she could manage for a moment as her head wasn’t quite finished shimmying and swaying in giddy disorientation.

The man grabbed her by the shoulders to steady them both. “Oh, I’m sorry, Miss. I thought you were a friend of mine, Aksel Eide. It’s the hair, you know.”

Sigrun didn’t reply. She was too busy trying to get her bearings. They were standing just inside the entryway of an Old Time building, but one that had been kept in good repair, and which was still filled with people; it was a type of feast hall, or some such eatery. But how had she come to be here, and where was here? There was something awfully familiar about this place, though...

“Gunnar!” The cheerful greeting came from a booth across the room. Said booth was occupied by a foursome who lounged in it as though claiming it as their personal booth.

Sigrun’s jaw dropped as she took a better look at each of their faces in turn. She knew those faces: their watchful gazes had looked down at her from the Dalsnes feast hall since she’d first been allowed to dine there. There was Aksel Eide, the ancestor the man who’d run into her had named a moment ago; Sigrun Larsen, for whom she was named, sat by him; across from them was Goran Andersen; and Ingrid Petersen was beside him.

How was this possible? Her mind rebelled against the reality it faced. They’d been in Denmark, in the Silent World, probing for books, days away from Dalsnes by sea! And looking quizzically back at her were her own noble forebears, gone back to dust these many decades!

Wait. She was by herself in this place--all the others were figures of the Old Times. Where were her crew-mates?


Yer a time traveler, Sigrun.

(but this is gonna be so cool and I am ready. how is her Y90 upbringing gonna reflect on Y0? is she gonna kill a troll??)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on June 11, 2015, 10:16:54 PM
Go Looney! I look forward to you taking this story further. Time-travelling Sigrun yeah! At least she knows who they are. Wonder what is happening to her in her own time?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on June 12, 2015, 11:19:51 AM
Haiz did a doodle-or-die of the crew tasting coffee for the first time, with some pretty spectacular results. This is my attempt to write the story of that misadventure, in the very vague style of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (with a few cameos from some familiar trolls):

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4122441

Hope you guys like it!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Laufey on June 12, 2015, 11:28:46 AM
Haiz did a doodle-or-die of the crew tasting coffee for the first time, with some pretty spectacular results. This is my attempt to write the story of that misadventure, in the very vague style of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (with a few cameos from some familiar trolls):

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4122441

Hope you guys like it!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That was beautiful. Amazing. Wonderful. I had no idea fanfics could be this perfect. I'm especially happy at Lauftroll actually showing some sense of self-preservation, Sigrun on caffeine is probably one of the most dangerous things in Copenhagen and that's possible giants included... XD

Brb getting some more coffee now.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: RandomTexanReader on June 12, 2015, 11:31:45 AM
Haiz did a doodle-or-die of the crew tasting coffee for the first time, with some pretty spectacular results. This is my attempt to write the story of that misadventure, in the very vague style of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (with a few cameos from some familiar trolls):

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4122441

Hope you guys like it!
I think I bruised a rib.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Haiz on June 12, 2015, 11:41:21 AM
Haiz did a doodle-or-die of the crew tasting coffee for the first time, with some pretty spectacular results. This is my attempt to write the story of that misadventure, in the very vague style of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (with a few cameos from some familiar trolls):

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4122441
ahahHAHAHA YEESSsSsssSSSS
i made some very undignified squeaky laughter-cough noises while reading and that dumb seal-like clappy hands thing.

tHE TROLLS
blep

"Murder! Death! Kill! Knife!" SIGRUN

this is the actual best fic
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: AquaAurion on June 12, 2015, 11:42:59 AM
Haiz did a doodle-or-die of the crew tasting coffee for the first time, with some pretty spectacular results. This is my attempt to write the story of that misadventure, in the very vague style of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (with a few cameos from some familiar trolls):

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4122441

Hope you guys like it!
Hahahahah, my face is hurting now xD
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Daéa Reina on June 12, 2015, 12:32:59 PM
Haiz did a doodle-or-die of the crew tasting coffee for the first time, with some pretty spectacular results. This is my attempt to write the story of that misadventure, in the very vague style of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (with a few cameos from some familiar trolls):

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4122441

Hope you guys like it!

HAHAHAHAHA
This is so good!!!
And the trolls!!

"It accordioned away over the ruined car and into a crumbling building like a living spring, pausing to absentmindedly swat at the screaming troll as it did so."

Can we please have some fics centered only on our most best trolls? Blep, BlorpTroll, LaufeyTroll and GramophoneTroll deserve their own adventures on the Silent World.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Petronella on June 12, 2015, 01:16:31 PM
HAHAHAHAHA
This is so good!!!
And the trolls!!

"It accordioned away over the ruined car and into a crumbling building like a living spring, pausing to absentmindedly swat at the screaming troll as it did so."

Can we please have some fics centered only on our most best trolls? Blep, BlorpTroll, LaufeyTroll and GramophoneTroll deserve their own adventures on the Silent World.

I would totally read that fic! (Is GramophoneTroll the same as :V-troll or did I miss one?)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Daéa Reina on June 12, 2015, 01:51:40 PM
I would totally read that fic! (Is GramophoneTroll the same as :V-troll or did I miss one?)

GramophoneTroll = :V-Troll, yes! :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Rabbit on June 12, 2015, 02:02:31 PM
Haiz did a doodle-or-die of the crew tasting coffee for the first time, with some pretty spectacular results. This is my attempt to write the story of that misadventure, in the very vague style of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (with a few cameos from some familiar trolls):

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4122441

Hope you guys like it!

*salutes with coffee mug, trying in vain to contain giggles*
You, friend, deserve an internet
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: KicknRun on June 12, 2015, 02:18:12 PM
Haiz did a doodle-or-die of the crew tasting coffee for the first time, with some pretty spectacular results. This is my attempt to write the story of that misadventure, in the very vague style of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (with a few cameos from some familiar trolls):

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4122441

Hope you guys like it!

*dies laughing*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Mélusine on June 12, 2015, 03:56:08 PM
Haiz did a doodle-or-die of the crew tasting coffee for the first time, with some pretty spectacular results. This is my attempt to write the story of that misadventure, in the very vague style of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (with a few cameos from some familiar trolls):

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4122441

Hope you guys like it!
The trolls ! The trolls ! How couldn't we like it ? ;D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: kahli on June 12, 2015, 04:32:16 PM
Haiz did a doodle-or-die of the crew tasting coffee for the first time, with some pretty spectacular results. This is my attempt to write the story of that misadventure, in the very vague style of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (with a few cameos from some familiar trolls):

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4122441

Hope you guys like it!

YESSSSS! THIS IS BRILLIANT! Most Best!

Can we please have some fics centered only on our most best trolls? Blep, BlorpTroll, LaufeyTroll and GramophoneTroll deserve their own adventures on the Silent World.

Ohmygoodnessyesplease! Someone needs to do this now.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Noodles on June 12, 2015, 06:39:17 PM
Most best, SectoBoss. Most best. X'D
The trolls! Sigrun! Emil!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solovei on June 13, 2015, 12:31:58 AM
Hey all! Remember how I said I'd finish the second chapter of "Beginnings" fairly soon?

Well, that was only half true. I did finish it, but it took me almost a month T_T

Anyway, here it is for those that are interested! http://archiveofourown.org/works/3954073/chapters/9300582 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/3954073/chapters/9300582)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on June 13, 2015, 03:00:10 AM
ThePastelMarshmallow: if you are still looking for a beta reader, possibly I could help? PM me if you'd like to talk about it.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on June 13, 2015, 03:29:02 AM
SectoBoss: I laughed so hard! I once foolishly gave a cup of strong boiled Turkish coffee to a young composer of my acquaintance. He was a lad of extremely pure lifestyle, vegetarian, didn't smoke, drink or use stimulants etc. His music had always been very sweet and lyrical. About half an hour after drinking the coffee he went into one of his composing frenzies, but this time the music he made was incredibly jagged. This lasted about a day and a half, then he crashed, after that he went back to normal. And looked at what he had written and was totally appalled!
So you see why I fell about laughing when I read this.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Haiz on June 13, 2015, 03:35:04 AM
Anyway, here it is for those that are interested! http://archiveofourown.org/works/3954073/chapters/9300582 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/3954073/chapters/9300582)
I like this fic!!
~*Mechanic Tuuri: the Origin*~
also the thought if teeny tiny lalli falling asleep and probably exploring the dreamworld is both very cute and intriguing and I'm excited for the next part!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Mélusine on June 13, 2015, 05:19:22 AM
Hey all! Remember how I said I'd finish the second chapter of "Beginnings" fairly soon?

Well, that was only half true. I did finish it, but it took me almost a month T_T

Anyway, here it is for those that are interested! http://archiveofourown.org/works/3954073/chapters/9300582 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/3954073/chapters/9300582)
I really like what you're doing with them :) It's both sweet and very serious, sad but with some hope.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on June 13, 2015, 07:11:33 AM
Solovei: I do like the way you have written child Tuuri. And what is young Lalli following, I wonder? I look forward to reading more of this tale.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solovei on June 13, 2015, 11:08:55 AM
also the thought if teeny tiny lalli falling asleep and probably exploring the dreamworld is both very cute and intriguing and I'm excited for the next part!

And what is young Lalli following, I wonder? I look forward to reading more of this tale.

Next chapter will probably focus more on Lalli and Onni and mage training :) Maaaaybe. But that will show up, I promise!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: KicknRun on June 13, 2015, 02:10:35 PM
And the Tomorrow Villains AU begins!

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4127880 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/4127880)

nothing worrying going on, just the prologue
 
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on June 13, 2015, 06:43:52 PM
Chapter three of the Pacific Rim crossover is now up! (It’s been ready for about a week but for some reason I forgot to post it.)

Zeppelins frighten trolls! Lalli speaks! Tuuri steals a spy satellite! And the Jaeger and the giant still haven’t met yet. Where am I going with all this? Heck if I know, but I’m going to keep writing anyway!

http://archiveofourown.org/works/3803176/chapters/9309067

I hope you like it! And thanks to Haiz for your support during the writing of this chapter.

Solovei, KicknRun, I look forward to the continuation of both of your stories!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: KicknRun on June 13, 2015, 07:05:43 PM
Chapter three of the Pacific Rim crossover is now up! (It’s been ready for about a week but for some reason I forgot to post it.)

Zeppelins frighten trolls! Lalli speaks! Tuuri steals a spy satellite! And the Jaeger and the giant still haven’t met yet. Where am I going with all this? Heck if I know, but I’m going to keep writing anyway!

http://archiveofourown.org/works/3803176/chapters/9309067

I hope you like it! And thanks to Haiz for your support during the writing of this chapter.

Solovei, KicknRun, I look forward to the continuation of both of your stories!

Emil, its
(http://cdn.meme.am/instances/59803453.jpg)

(also, how dare you make out America to paranoid. i am offend.)
 (tuuri has techopathy in my AU. this is content I am looking for)

[jk about the america thing,nobody hates america more than america]
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solovei on June 13, 2015, 07:32:48 PM
Chapter three of the Pacific Rim crossover is now up! (It’s been ready for about a week but for some reason I forgot to post it.)

Zeppelins frighten trolls! Lalli speaks! Tuuri steals a spy satellite! And the Jaeger and the giant still haven’t met yet. Where am I going with all this? Heck if I know, but I’m going to keep writing anyway!

http://archiveofourown.org/works/3803176/chapters/9309067

I hope you like it! And thanks to Haiz for your support during the writing of this chapter.

Solovei, KicknRun, I look forward to the continuation of both of your stories!
Wait, chapter THREE? Why did nobody tell me there was even a chapter TWO? XD I feel so betrayed!
(or rather, I forgot to subscribe and have only myself to blame)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Haiz on June 13, 2015, 07:33:17 PM
SectoBoss: SCREECHES GLEEFULLY

KicknRun: ooh nice introduction! It seems like you've got a good worldbuilding down for this AU, and setting the intro up as an essay was a nice touch. I noticed a few typos here and there, especially with punctuation/lack of space after commas, but considering it's supposed to be written by a younger Tuuri, it might be deliberate? Then again, grade 11 isn't actually that young, and Tuuri seems to be the kind of person who would get top grades in language subjects. It also seems a tad unplausible that they would have to write essays about this kind of thing in grade 11, since the empowerment is a big part of your setting and most people would probably know a lot of this already, but I have no idea how the school systems in your AU work. Maybe grade 11 age isn't the same as the 11th grade I know in my world.

So yeah okay that was an attempt at sounding constructive at 1:30AM, but I liked it! as long as there won't be any major character death (which i will not touch with a ten foot pole sorry) I will definitely read this series. superpower aus are wonderful
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: KicknRun on June 13, 2015, 08:15:28 PM
SectoBoss: SCREECHES GLEEFULLY

KicknRun: ooh nice introduction! It seems like you've got a good worldbuilding down for this AU, and setting the intro up as an essay was a nice touch. I noticed a few typos here and there, especially with punctuation/lack of space after commas, but considering it's supposed to be written by a younger Tuuri, it might be deliberate? Then again, grade 11 isn't actually that young, and Tuuri seems to be the kind of person who would get top grades in language subjects. It also seems a tad unplausible that they would have to write essays about this kind of thing in grade 11, since the empowerment is a big part of your setting and most people would probably know a lot of this already, but I have no idea how the school systems in your AU work. Maybe grade 11 age isn't the same as the 11th grade I know in my world.

So yeah okay that was an attempt at sounding constructive at 1:30AM, but I liked it! as long as there won't be any major character death (which i will not touch with a ten foot pole sorry) I will definitely read this series. superpower aus are wonderful


AHAHshsh why do grading systems all over the world gotta be so different. Nobody actually says grade 11 here, they say Junior, and beFORE that, the only numbered years are 1-8 grades, even though most people start school two years before that in Pre-Kindergarten, and then everybody goes to Kindergarten. Then when you finish up with the number grades, you have high school(secondary) for four years. Year one is Freshman ,Y2 is Sophomore , Y3 is Junior, Y4 is Senior. Tuuri is a Junior. And then there's college but thats unimportant.

So in summary- the America school system is needlessly complicated.

Its supposed to be a short essay about the history of powers(but am i not completely sure about length, cause i asked my high-school brother the longest essay he's ever written was 3000 words, but he's busy getting ready to graduate and therefore can't answer my questions? maybe 1000 is an average but 500 still seems pretty small in my opinion so), and at first I tried to give it a first draft and everything like a responsible student, but that didn't work, so this (ftp://kicknrun.tumblr.com/post/121423448800/click-images-to-view-okay-so-im-finally) happened. That's why first drafts are amazing, people.

And um *shuffles awkwardly*, I don't have any major character death in the cards at the moment, and its going to stay that way, I think. But on the other hand, I know there is going to be disappointment like you cannot believe when I type up the next chapter. So yeah, sorry in advance. But I'm glad you like it! And any errors in punctuation are all mine, because I don't actually know how grammar works.


And about writing an essay at age 16 thing, I chose that age b/c in this universe, she should have gotten her powers already. Also writing long things? That's posSibLE? I just am going to give the excuse that Tuuri is defineielty the kind of student everyone would call an overachiever, but the way she beats herself up trying to stay in that position is Not Good. And she would beat herself up. ANdddd now I'm shutting up. Goodbye.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on June 13, 2015, 11:13:52 PM
I'd prefer this was a bit more polished, but it's too close to the 1k limit now, for my tastes.

With apologies for any deflated expectations:

Run Fast, Run Far
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Part II
Spoiler: show
Four More in Play

“Sir?” Someone was tugging ineffectually at his right arm, which sprawled leadenly across the countertop upon which he lay. “Sir, I must ask that--Oh, that’s it. Michael!”

Mikkel cracked open his eyes blearily. He hadn’t felt this bad since he’d accidentally stuck himself with a horse tranquilizer a few years back. He tried to remember what had occasioned this, to remind himself to avoid it in future, but it hurt less to just lie there like he was, so he did.

“What’s up, Signe?” Here was a male voice, laced with an odd blend of impatience, solicitude and weariness.

“Michael, you know I hate to ask customers for help, but,” the woman gestured demonstratively at Mikkel’s inert bulk. “Everyone else on staff would get a hernia just thinking about moving him, spineless little worms.” The man barely smothered a guffaw.

‘I’m perfectly all right and can move myself, thank you,’ was what Mikkel tried to say. What came out was more like, “Mllrllmeh. Ohmyhead,” slurred so badly Tuuri would never have understood it, let alone Emil.

Tuuri! Emil! The thought sparked thoughts of his other comrades. Where were they? Were they safe? A rush of adrenaline pushed his eyes open, but whatever he’d been dosed with, it was still too strong for him to move.

“Had a few too many, huh, friend?” Michael tried some patently false empathy.

“Drugged. Wher’mI?” Mikkel managed.

“You’re on the ferry from Bornholm to Copenhagen,” Signe said.

RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING!

The Most Annoying Ringtone Ever (TM) belted out from one of Mikkel’s clenched hands. He looked at it in still-bleary confusion.

*

The room was quietly bustling with waitstaff and buspeople attending their duties, customers chatting at their tables, and others waiting to be seated. Tuuri blinked at how suddenly the change had happened. Wait--change from what? Tuuri couldn’t quite remember, yet.

“Miss? Miss! Can I help you?” Tuuri blinked again at the soft pseudo-cheerful question. She was sitting in one of the main room’s many booths, and a woman who looked oddly familiar was standing by it with pen and pad raised in the traditional waitstaff pose. “I’m Aino, and I’ll be your waitress today.”

Tuuri tried desperately to remember something, anything, about the moments before whatever had happened to her, but nothing would come. Aino looked at her increasingly dubiously. “Did you want a drink, miss?”

The small device making that incredibly annoying noise at her bore very peculiar markings.

“Ah, is that a new phone?” Aino finally took matters--the phone, that is--into her own hands. Glancing down at the screen, she accepted the call and held the phone to the strange girl’s ear.

The voice in Tuuri’s ear was vaguely familiar, as with all her surroundings, and it . “You’re wasting time, Tuuri Hotakainen. In your bag should be all you need to reach the Site before the Incident occurs. Meet the others at the airport in Oran.”

*

Emil stood at the door to his family home in Mora, wondering if he should knock. Ordinarily, he wouldn’t, but this was a dream (a noisy dream with all the odd, Old World machine and foot traffic around him), so knocking would probably be the right thing to do.

barkBarkBARK! A large, fluffy dog sprang through the door as it opened, almost knocking Emil over in an ecstasy of welcome. “Bosse! Get down, you rascal!” Stig Västerström stepped out from behind the door. Emil had stared at him in the family portrait often enough that he knew every crease and cranny of his face, so there was no mistaking him.

“I’m sorry about Bosse. He’s not usually that way.” There was a somewhat awkward silence occasioned by Emil continuing to stare at Stig, his eyes wide and his mouth agape. “Are you a relative of my wife, Ulrika, perhaps? You certainly have the look of her.”

Something in Emil’s hand began making noise and vibrating. One thing about Stig that Emil hadn’t known was how fast his reflexes were. Stig managed to block Emil’s Cleanser-training-driven arm before Emil could pitch the noisemaker away from the house, which turned out to be a very good thing.

*

Reynir stood at the front door to his family’s farmhouse, wondering if this was what dreaming was. The door opened, revealing an older, grayer version of Reynir. Neither spoke for a moment.

“I’m Reynir Arnasson,” they both said in unison. “I’m sorry; you go ahead.”

What was shaping up to be a fine impromptu recreation of an old Vaudeville act was brutally cut off by the elder Reynir’s wife. “How may we help you, young man? Aren’t you one of our relatives?”

The younger Reynir was about to tangle his tongue around a convoluted attempt at an answer when his hand rang.

“Tell your friend his timing is off,” the elder Reynir and his wife laughed.

As Reynir put the phone to his ear, the world faded from his view, replaced with odd, shadowy figures. The two closest looked very familiar...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: KMK on June 14, 2015, 12:21:53 AM
I'd prefer this was a bit more polished, but it's too close to the 1k limit now, for my tastes.

With apologies for any deflated expectations:

Run Fast, Run Far
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Part II
Spoiler: show
Four More in Play

“Sir?” Someone was tugging ineffectually at his right arm, which sprawled leadenly across the countertop upon which he lay. “Sir, I must ask that--Oh, that’s it. Michael!”

Mikkel cracked open his eyes blearily. He hadn’t felt this bad since he’d accidentally stuck himself with a horse tranquilizer a few years back. He tried to remember what had occasioned this, to remind himself to avoid it in future, but it hurt less to just lie there like he was, so he did.

“What’s up, Signe?” Here was a male voice, laced with an odd blend of impatience, solicitude and weariness.

“Michael, you know I hate to ask customers for help, but,” the woman gestured demonstratively at Mikkel’s inert bulk. “Everyone else on staff would get a hernia just thinking about moving him, spineless little worms.” The man barely smothered a guffaw.

‘I’m perfectly all right and can move myself, thank you,’ was what Mikkel tried to say. What came out was more like, “Mllrllmeh. Ohmyhead,” slurred so badly Tuuri would never have understood it, let alone Emil.

Tuuri! Emil! The thought sparked thoughts of his other comrades. Where were they? Were they safe? A rush of adrenaline pushed his eyes open, but whatever he’d been dosed with, it was still too strong for him to move.

“Had a few too many, huh, friend?” Michael tried some patently false empathy.

“Drugged. Wher’mI?” Mikkel managed.

“You’re on the ferry from Bornholm to Copenhagen,” Signe said.

RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING!

The Most Annoying Ringtone Ever (TM) belted out from one of Mikkel’s clenched hands. He looked at it in still-bleary confusion.

*

The room was quietly bustling with waitstaff and buspeople attending their duties, customers chatting at their tables, and others waiting to be seated. Tuuri blinked at how suddenly the change had happened. Wait--change from what? Tuuri couldn’t quite remember, yet.

“Miss? Miss! Can I help you?” Tuuri blinked again at the soft pseudo-cheerful question. She was sitting in one of the main room’s many booths, and a woman who looked oddly familiar was standing by it with pen and pad raised in the traditional waitstaff pose. “I’m Aino, and I’ll be your waitress today.”

Tuuri tried desperately to remember something, anything, about the moments before whatever had happened to her, but nothing would come. Aino looked at her increasingly dubiously. “Did you want a drink, miss?”

The small device making that incredibly annoying noise at her bore very peculiar markings.

“Ah, is that a new phone?” Aino finally took matters--the phone, that is--into her own hands. Glancing down at the screen, she accepted the call and held the phone to the strange girl’s ear.

The voice in Tuuri’s ear was vaguely familiar, as with all her surroundings, and it . “You’re wasting time, Tuuri Hotakainen. In your bag should be all you need to reach the Site before the Incident occurs. Meet the others at the airport in Oran.”

*

Emil stood at the door to his family home in Mora, wondering if he should knock. Ordinarily, he wouldn’t, but this was a dream (a noisy dream with all the odd, Old World machine and foot traffic around him), so knocking would probably be the right thing to do.

barkBarkBARK! A large, fluffy dog sprang through the door as it opened, almost knocking Emil over in an ecstasy of welcome. “Bosse! Get down, you rascal!” Stig Västerström stepped out from behind the door. Emil had stared at him in the family portrait often enough that he knew every crease and cranny of his face, so there was no mistaking him.

“I’m sorry about Bosse. He’s not usually that way.” There was a somewhat awkward silence occasioned by Emil continuing to stare at Stig, his eyes wide and his mouth agape. “Are you a relative of my wife, Ulrika, perhaps? You certainly have the look of her.”

Something in Emil’s hand began making noise and vibrating. One thing about Stig that Emil hadn’t known was how fast his reflexes were. Stig managed to block Emil’s Cleanser-training-driven arm before Emil could pitch the noisemaker away from the house, which turned out to be a very good thing.

*

Reynir stood at the front door to his family’s farmhouse, wondering if this was what dreaming was. The door opened, revealing an older, grayer version of Reynir. Neither spoke for a moment.

“I’m Reynir Arnasson,” they both said in unison. “I’m sorry; you go ahead.”

What was shaping up to be a fine impromptu recreation of an old Vaudeville act was brutally cut off by the elder Reynir’s wife. “How may we help you, young man? Aren’t you one of our relatives?”

The younger Reynir was about to tangle his tongue around a convoluted attempt at an answer when his hand rang.

“Tell your friend his timing is off,” the elder Reynir and his wife laughed.

As Reynir put the phone to his ear, the world faded from his view, replaced with odd, shadowy figures. The two closest looked very familiar...


I like! I like!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Haiz on June 14, 2015, 04:23:03 AM

ahah, okay then. As for grammar, you do clearly have a grasp on it and it's not a big deal anyway, but maybe reading through before posting or having a beta-reader would be good?
and dissapointment, huh... I'll consider myself warned, but hopefully it won't be too bad............ I found out recently that reading fics with either heavy angst or explicit shipping make me feel almost physically ill (why), which is not the fault of the writers at all! but since 90% of all fics ever are either angst or shipping or both....... I need to be careful about what I read õ_õ
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: KMK on June 14, 2015, 04:42:56 AM
This idea was born out of two separate ones: I wanted to see the crew several years down the line getting put back together, and for some mad reason I wanted to see how Reynir would react to seeing a helicopter. Somewhere along the way, it became the story of the known world coming to an end and Sigrun putting the crew back together for one last desperate mission out into the silent lands to save it. The actual mission itself I have no intention of actually writing – what I’ve got is already probably going to get canoned super hard within a year or two, plus long stories are way too hard for me to write.

Anyway, enough spiel:

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4081177/chapters/9191830

I hope you like it! (And yes, the title is a Pacific Rim reference. You watch that film enough times for a crossover fic and bits start to rub off on you.)

And KicknRun: I love your story! We really need more badass Tuuri around here.
Good, good, good, good, good!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on June 14, 2015, 06:21:55 AM
Good, good, good, good, good!

Thank you! I will admit I wasn't too sure people would like that one, it being rather out of the scope of where fanfics normally go with relation to the comic itself. It's nice to see people don't think it's too much nonsense  :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: AquaAurion on June 14, 2015, 10:31:59 AM
Chapter three of the Pacific Rim crossover is now up! (It’s been ready for about a week but for some reason I forgot to post it.)

Zeppelins frighten trolls! Lalli speaks! Tuuri steals a spy satellite! And the Jaeger and the giant still haven’t met yet. Where am I going with all this? Heck if I know, but I’m going to keep writing anyway!

http://archiveofourown.org/works/3803176/chapters/9309067

I hope you like it! And thanks to Haiz for your support during the writing of this chapter.
Whoa, this story is really good!! Such an awesome crossover :D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on June 14, 2015, 01:36:15 PM
*Maniacal laughter intensifies*

So, here's the next part.

Let the epicness begin.

Run Fast, Run Far
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Part III
Spoiler: show
 He Who Remains

Lalli Hotakainen stood still and stayed silent as he leaned over the Well of Watching, well, watching. This, of course, was simply his way, as it had been since he was a child. The dim spectral image of his cousin Onni Hotakainen stood equally sphinx-like beside Lalli to his left; a confused but equally spectral Reynir to his right; and across from the three of them, propped on the edge of the Well by his forepaws... Puppy-Fox. Somehow, Lalli knew that they would all understand anything that was spoken while in this room, as far as languages went.

“I keep telling you that I’m not the villain here!” Puppy-Fox, that infamous trickster, exclaimed. “Come on! Who do you think placed the Aarnivalkea here for you to find, and who gave you the means to find it? I practically led you here by the hand! You make one stupid mistake when you’re younger and it brands you for life...”

“Be still, O Messenger,” a deep and resonant voice boomed from behind Puppy-Fox, who immediately looked abashed. A very, very, very old man slowly hobbled out of the swirling mists up to the Well. Oh, my. This was the Old Man Himself! “Be still. You have done your part, and done it well. Now, depart.”

“Without seeing the rest of the story?” Puppy-Fox whined. His ears had perked at the Old Man’s praise, but now his crest was well and truly fallen.

“I shall show it to you later,” the Old Man promised. As Puppy-Fox reluctantly slinked off, his departure unmourned by any of the mortals present, the Old Man looked at the boy and the two spirits flanking him. “So, Kin of Hotakainen from the Lake of Many Islands and Man of the Land of Burning Glaciers, you have finally come. The Bear was certain you would, but the Swan had his doubts. Now, it is time for you, and your distant friends, to take up the challenge We have set before you, for your own sake, and for the sake of two worlds: this one, and the one into which your friends have been dispatched. Fail, and this world will fall, and you shall never see your friends again. Succeed, and the Cleansing of the Silent Lands can begin in earnest.”

Lalli and Onni continued to regard the Old Man impassively, while Reynir gaped soundlessly. The Old Man gestured, and the Bear, the Great Spirit to whom this place had been dedicated and with whose motifs both room and Well were bedecked, stepped forward from the mists to continue the geas-giving. All the manifold carvings and images seemed to shimmer at the Bear’s approach, reflecting the presence of that of which they were mere shadows.

Power gathered round and thickened the air as the Bear spoke, his voice solemn as the grave, and with every word he spoke, the three could feel the binding grow upon them, for the Bear spoke thus:

“Hotakainen Mage called Lalli
Unto you I make this promise

“Conquer now this Godly Challenge
Save your sister world from grosslings
And your own world will start healing
Sloughing off the plague of Rash-kind

“Failure though must bring disaster
Rash will spread through ev’ry plenum
Darken all the worlds forever
Bringing all to final ruin

“So I charge and I command thee
Seven sent to slay the Silence.”

The Bear stepped back into the shadows, vanishing into the mists that had borne him there, but his runo-geas hovered in the silence of the room, lingering like the echoes of a deep and sonorous bell tolling out doom.

Finally, Lalli spoke. “What must we do, and how are we to do it?”

The Old Man replied, “How is up to you. I shall only tell the what, and that will take long enough. Your cohorts have been sent to another world, a close sister to this one, but a bit younger, and without the taint of Rash. They must stop the Rash from claiming that world as it has this one, and you must guide them as they do, Lalli. All else that you must know can be seen in the Well. Reynir, Walker through Dreams, your steps span two worlds now: it is you who must bring Lalli’s instructions to the others through the talk-box your body holds in the other world. Onni, strong and stalwart Defender of Keuruu, your charge is now to defend this place, for the Rash will soon know that your allies are working to its destruction, and its counter-stroke will fall like a great avalanche upon this place. Watch and ward, that your cousin may succeed.”

With that, the Old Man stepped back, slowly vanishing, and the three mortals knew there would be no more such speech until their victory or their failure. It seemed their talk had lasted ages; but then it seemed that they had not heard nearly enough. Lalli swallowed hard and looked deep into the Well, which obligingly cleared to show him...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: ButterflyWings on June 14, 2015, 04:11:15 PM
First post to the forums.

This story runs in parallel with the current comic until the following panel:
http://sssscomic.com//comic.php?page=340

There may be more at a later point.

Quote

The photo book was worn and cracking now. The combination of obsessive flipping and the years of the elements had not been kind to it. She had found it, where she remembered it to be - a fever ridden place in a long abandoned and run down apartment in Frederiksberg.

How long had she wandered was unknown, but sometimes the headaches would just take over and the madness would come. Already the madness was pawing - incessant and feral.

Vision swam and refocused. Sarah Hansen at the age of thirteen had won silver in the junior 10k run on the 6th of April. The newspaper clipping had been carefully cut at the time, now the image of the winners had blurred to indistinction. The date was only two years from when the outbreak happened and when the madness started.

The place she had made for herself was once a basement. Various lockers with chicken wire and dusty numbers indicated the possessions of people. Most of the storage places had been cleared out. Clothes strewn on the concrete floor. Toys and various electronic devices lay in the corners mouldering.

Light came from light bulbs powered by a combination of car batteries and an emergency generator she had found. The emergency generator had once been part of a military dump. The creatures had over run it and the personnel dead or gone. A rifle, the generator and some food is what she had taken with her.

The food had tasted awful and the rifle took her a long time to understand how to use it. Complicated forethought demanding actions when the madness took hold were nearly impossible. Still she persisted and when she was reading, the madness would be distracted for a while.

Books were her great obsession. The more complicated the topic, the quieter the madness would become. Books. She needed more books. A wall of the basement was piled from floor to ceiling. She was already starting a second row of books.

Sunlight hurt when she walked among the streets. She had to be careful there were creatures hiding among the buildings. Constantly hungry, constantly searching.

Sometimes she would take a car battery to the beat up Saab. It's tires partially deflated. The engine worked well and sometimes she would take gas from other cars and drive it along the roads. It could only be driven during the day. At night the roads were far too treacherous and the creatures far too curious to survive.

There was the university library and main library, but since a nest of creatures had become awakened in the main library she could no longer go back. Still finding non-damaged books was becoming near impossible now and the hunger's gnawing.

She picked up a book on anatomy. It was a recent addition from a stash she had found. It was a familiar topic, the memory of using a book like this numerous times. She remembered being at the hospital, checking the latest CBC of a patient. There were mutations along the patient's body, what was keeping the body fixed was becoming fluid. The frustration and anger for so many patients that couldn't be helped. They weren't even rationing medication anymore, everything was being diverted now into research. The madness was becoming greater again.

Darkness.

Familiarity.

The power must have run out. It took a while to find the backup generator and start up the lights. She was back. Books had been strewn all across the floor. She picked them up and placed them back in their rightful place.

She picked up the photo book and read and re-read the articles inside, remembering and seeing the photos of herself and her parents. The madness for now was sleeping. She took her photo book and a car battery, heading to the parking lot.

She was driving the old Saab. The gears would grind in a bad way when shifted. She was already making good time, where exactly she couldn't remember but the road was familiar. A school perhaps?

She drove on to the motorway, avoiding overgrown vehicles and pot holes. The hospital complex was ever increasingly larger in front of her.

She was sitting in the car in a school parking lot. Water was cascading down. A deer had lept past a few hours ago, now she was watching a dog as it sniffed among the debris. They looked at each other and the dog continued on looking for its quarry.

There was a crash from the main entrance, a sound that raised her curiosity. The madness was there urging her on. She picked up her rifle and took her empty rucksack, placing the photo book carefully inside.

An empty window yawned with welcome darkness as she carefully clambered over the broken sheet glass making crunching sounds under her feet. She moved through the classroom with its upended pulpits in the shape of a dragon and peered through the opening.

There were two men, no boys speaking! She wanted to rush in, confront them. But there were no rescuers for her. Instead she listened to them complain about the usual boyish things like weather. Weather!

She listened in to them, finally sliding down to sit among the pulpits. Her foot slipped and one of the pulpits moved with a jarring sound. She froze and listened. The voices stopped. One said they should ignore it, the other said that he would investigate.

She gripped her rifle as he walked forward. A sound from outside distracted him and he continued onwards. She waited to what would happen next when she heard the staccato of an automatic rifle.

Smells of acrid smoke and wet fur came to her as an inhuman keening followed. The rifle was silent. She clutched her knapsack and her rifle. Madness was stalking her now and it knew where she was.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Silent Fox on June 14, 2015, 06:03:44 PM
First post to the forums.

This story runs in parallel with the current comic until the following panel:
http://sssscomic.com//comic.php?page=340

There may be more at a later point.

Very good imagery and sentence structure. Keep 'em coming! :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on June 17, 2015, 02:44:38 AM
Yes, yes, it took me long enough.

Run Fast, Run Far
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Part IV
Spoiler: show
The Road to Perdition

Sigrun’s journey from Bergen had not gone terribly well. While she’d made the trip from Dalsnes on Gunnar’s boat (no, they still hadn’t fixed the road) just fine, the long-suffering flight staff had been forced to give Sigrun sedatives (the single strongest drink they could pour, with a little extra stuff thrown in for good measure) once the plane took off and she realized they were off-the-ground-what-devilry-is-this flying, but by the time she reached Oran, they’d worn off. She really had no idea how she’d been transferred at this “deGaulle Airport” place, but she assumed that it was better that way.

The lines, crowds, more lines and more crowds were beginning to get to her. At first, she’d been (more) able to tamp the instinctive agoraphobia of even an immune Y90 denizen down, but as she wove her way through the massive lines and crowds that characterized this era’s air travel, it kept gnawing at her more and more. There were just too many people all piled into this place, and every one seemed intent on jostling her. A few times, she’d had to give someone a Look (as opposed to a blow), which had generally scared the offender off, to her relief. These Old Timers weren’t the most courageous bunch, either.

The others were waiting for her by the “Baggage Claim” carousel-thing. Sigrun suppressed a shudder as she glanced at it again. These Old Time machines could be worse than any trolls, for with trolls at least you knew where they would and wouldn’t fit. The machines could be anywhere, though, and do just about anything, even (Sigrun suppressed another shudder) talk. It was just so... unnatural.

Tuuri, Mikkel, and Emil looked almost as overwhelmed by the noise, the press of the crowds, and the smells as she was beginning to feel. The four of them formed a visible knot of silent (and tall; even Tuuri was as tall as or taller than most of the local men) Norse-ness around which the more normal airport traffic, mostly Arabic, flowed.

The very first thing Sigrun did when she reached her comrades-in-arms surprised even her, however. As soon as she was in range, her arms seemed to reach out of their own accord to pull the other three into a relieved group hug, an embrace the others all fell into with the same mix of emotions as were running through her. They stayed that way for a blissful moment, but then broke apart.

“We have a ground car and a map of sorts,” Tuuri said. “The way it’s marked is kinda confusing, though, but Reynir said Lalli says not to show it to you until we’re in the car.”

“That is most wise,” Mikkel rumbled contemplatively. “In fact, we shouldn’t say anything more at all until then.” Sigrun flicked him a surprised glance and almost spoke, but for once thought better of it.

*

Reynir whistled tunelessly as he waited for the call. His great-great-grandparents were turning out to be really nice people, who seemed to totally buy his story about being from this place called “Canada” and “trying to find his Icelandic roots”. The calls he’d passed off as to and from various sources: work, family, friends. Of course, the fact that Reynir was willing to help out in exchange for his room and board, as well as the “probable family connection”, probably eased his path with them.

Finally, the phone rang.

“OK, um, it says here that you’re each supposed to have a... ‘cover story’? Weird. Anyway, Tuuri, you’re supposed to be a lawyer, Emil’s a corporate negotiator, Mikkel’s a doctor, and Sigrun is... it says here ‘muscle-slash-heavy’, which I don’t get either. Um. You’re meeting with this guy ‘Achhhhhhhhhmed’--” Reynir briefly broke into a coughing fit “--Sorry, something in my throat. Anyway, you meet with this ‘Achmed’ guy, he takes you to this place where they have a sample of the Rash--no, Tuuri, there’s nothing in here about how they got it in the first place. No, Lalli didn’t mention anything about that, but when--When I call them back, I’ll ask, but I don’t think they know either. Anyway, once you know it’s the Rash sample, you smile politely, fob ‘Achmed’ off, and blow the whole place to Jotunheim as soon as possible. Emil’s boom-boom kit got there OK, right? Oh, good. OK. Yes. Yes. Fine. Right, I’ll just call now and let you know once I know. Of course. ‘Bye.”
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on June 17, 2015, 06:10:10 AM
Neat! I can totally see Y90 people having a bit of a 'thing' about the crowds and stench of a modern city - don't care for them myself! Are they going to have to blow themselves up to kill the Rash sample? I look forward with interest to your next chapter.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Ren on June 17, 2015, 03:29:54 PM
*Maniacal laughter intensifies*

So, here's the next part.

Let the epicness begin.

Run Fast, Run Far
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Part III
Spoiler: show
 He Who Remains

Lalli Hotakainen stood still and stayed silent as he leaned over the Well of Watching, well, watching. This, of course, was simply his way, as it had been since he was a child. The dim spectral image of his cousin Onni Hotakainen stood equally sphinx-like beside Lalli to his left; a confused but equally spectral Reynir to his right; and across from the three of them, propped on the edge of the Well by his forepaws... Puppy-Fox. Somehow, Lalli knew that they would all understand anything that was spoken while in this room, as far as languages went.

“I keep telling you that I’m not the villain here!” Puppy-Fox, that infamous trickster, exclaimed. “Come on! Who do you think placed the Aarnivalkea here for you to find, and who gave you the means to find it? I practically led you here by the hand! You make one stupid mistake when you’re younger and it brands you for life...”

“Be still, O Messenger,” a deep and resonant voice boomed from behind Puppy-Fox, who immediately looked abashed. A very, very, very old man slowly hobbled out of the swirling mists up to the Well. Oh, my. This was the Old Man Himself! “Be still. You have done your part, and done it well. Now, depart.”

“Without seeing the rest of the story?” Puppy-Fox whined. His ears had perked at the Old Man’s praise, but now his crest was well and truly fallen.

“I shall show it to you later,” the Old Man promised. As Puppy-Fox reluctantly slinked off, his departure unmourned by any of the mortals present, the Old Man looked at the boy and the two spirits flanking him. “So, Kin of Hotakainen from the Lake of Many Islands and Man of the Land of Burning Glaciers, you have finally come. The Bear was certain you would, but the Swan had his doubts. Now, it is time for you, and your distant friends, to take up the challenge We have set before you, for your own sake, and for the sake of two worlds: this one, and the one into which your friends have been dispatched. Fail, and this world will fall, and you shall never see your friends again. Succeed, and the Cleansing of the Silent Lands can begin in earnest.”

Lalli and Onni continued to regard the Old Man impassively, while Reynir gaped soundlessly. The Old Man gestured, and the Bear, the Great Spirit to whom this place had been dedicated and with whose motifs both room and Well were bedecked, stepped forward from the mists to continue the geas-giving. All the manifold carvings and images seemed to shimmer at the Bear’s approach, reflecting the presence of that of which they were mere shadows.

Power gathered round and thickened the air as the Bear spoke, his voice solemn as the grave, and with every word he spoke, the three could feel the binding grow upon them, for the Bear spoke thus:

“Hotakainen Mage called Lalli
Unto you I make this promise

“Conquer now this Godly Challenge
Save your sister world from grosslings
And your own world will start healing
Sloughing off the plague of Rash-kind

“Failure though must bring disaster
Rash will spread through ev’ry plenum
Darken all the worlds forever
Bringing all to final ruin

“So I charge and I command thee
Seven sent to slay the Silence.”

The Bear stepped back into the shadows, vanishing into the mists that had borne him there, but his runo-geas hovered in the silence of the room, lingering like the echoes of a deep and sonorous bell tolling out doom.

Finally, Lalli spoke. “What must we do, and how are we to do it?”

The Old Man replied, “How is up to you. I shall only tell the what, and that will take long enough. Your cohorts have been sent to another world, a close sister to this one, but a bit younger, and without the taint of Rash. They must stop the Rash from claiming that world as it has this one, and you must guide them as they do, Lalli. All else that you must know can be seen in the Well. Reynir, Walker through Dreams, your steps span two worlds now: it is you who must bring Lalli’s instructions to the others through the talk-box your body holds in the other world. Onni, strong and stalwart Defender of Keuruu, your charge is now to defend this place, for the Rash will soon know that your allies are working to its destruction, and its counter-stroke will fall like a great avalanche upon this place. Watch and ward, that your cousin may succeed.”

With that, the Old Man stepped back, slowly vanishing, and the three mortals knew there would be no more such speech until their victory or their failure. It seemed their talk had lasted ages; but then it seemed that they had not heard nearly enough. Lalli swallowed hard and looked deep into the Well, which obligingly cleared to show him...


This story is sooooo amazing so far!! I can't wait to see where you take it!!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: RandomTexanReader on June 17, 2015, 09:43:38 PM
I'd put it in the "Scenes we'd like to see" thread, but I don't want to see this scene.
Spoiler: show
Emil tripped and fell flat on his face. Twisting around, he saw the rash-beast--retreating? It fell over, spasming, writhing, its bony legs thrashings like a spider's, then shuddered and lay still.
"Emil?"
"Sigrun!" Emil sat up. "The- the beast, it's-"
Sigrun looked down at the monstrosity by her feet. "Yeah, I see it." She knelt down carefully. The beast whined piteously and tried to lick her hand. "There, there, boy," Sigrun murmured soothingly, stroking the little bit of matted fur that still remained, "it's going to be okay. It's going to be just fine." The beast whined again and lay back, its exposed flesh quivering. "You're a good boy," continued Sigrun, aiming her gun, "a good boy."
Emil flinched at the sound of the shot.
"You okay?" Sigrun asked, standing and wiping the blood splatter off of her face.
"Yeah," Emil said shakily, getting to his feet. "It... it didn't attack me..."
"Probably used to be a pet. Maybe you reminded it of its owner."
Emil looked up at the captain in horror. "It remembered?"
Sigrun raised her eyebrows in surprise. "You didn't know that?" When Emil shook his head she told him, "the rash doesn't make its own life, you know, it just takes over other's. The victim's still in there."
"That's horrible!" Emil burst out.
"That's life," Sigrun shrugged. "Have you ever heard a troll talk?"
"T-talk?" Emil's mind shot back to the train, the clawing hands and a decaying face, and the rusty sound---
"They're begging." Sigrun slung her gun back over her shoulder. "There are some things worse than death."
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: KicknRun on June 17, 2015, 09:47:44 PM
I'd put it in the "Scenes we'd like to see" thread, but I don't want to see this scene.
Spoiler: show
Emil tripped and fell flat on his face. Twisting around, he saw the rash-beast--retreating? It fell over, spasming, writhing, its bony legs thrashings like a spider's, then shuddered and lay still.
"Emil?"
"Sigrun!" Emil sat up. "The- the beast, it's-"
Sigrun looked down at the monstrosity by her feet. "Yeah, I see it." She knelt down carefully. The beast whined piteously and tried to lick her hand. "There, there, boy," Sigrun murmured soothingly, stroking the little bit of matted fur that still remained, "it's going to be okay. It's going to be just fine." The beast whined again and lay back, its exposed flesh quivering. "You're a good boy," continued Sigrun, aiming her gun, "a good boy."
Emil flinched at the sound of the shot.
"You okay?" Sigrun asked, standing and wiping the blood splatter off of her face.
"Yeah," Emil said shakily, getting to his feet. "It... it didn't attack me..."
"Probably used to be a pet. Maybe you reminded it of its owner."
Emil looked up at the captain in horror. "It remembered?"
Sigrun raised her eyebrows in surprise. "You didn't know that?" When Emil shook his head she told him, "the rash doesn't make its own life, you know, it just takes over other's. The victim's still in there."
"That's horrible!" Emil burst out.
"That's life," Sigrun shrugged. "Have you ever heard a troll talk?"
"T-talk?" Emil's mind shot back to the train, the clawing hands and a decaying face, and the rusty sound---
"They're begging." Sigrun slung her gun back over her shoulder. "There are some things worse than death."


this is awful
I NEED SOME MORE YESTERDAY
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Silent Fox on June 17, 2015, 09:53:52 PM
I'd put it in the "Scenes we'd like to see" thread, but I don't want to see this scene.
Spoiler: show
Emil tripped and fell flat on his face. Twisting around, he saw the rash-beast--retreating? It fell over, spasming, writhing, its bony legs thrashings like a spider's, then shuddered and lay still.
"Emil?"
"Sigrun!" Emil sat up. "The- the beast, it's-"
Sigrun looked down at the monstrosity by her feet. "Yeah, I see it." She knelt down carefully. The beast whined piteously and tried to lick her hand. "There, there, boy," Sigrun murmured soothingly, stroking the little bit of matted fur that still remained, "it's going to be okay. It's going to be just fine." The beast whined again and lay back, its exposed flesh quivering. "You're a good boy," continued Sigrun, aiming her gun, "a good boy."
Emil flinched at the sound of the shot.
"You okay?" Sigrun asked, standing and wiping the blood splatter off of her face.
"Yeah," Emil said shakily, getting to his feet. "It... it didn't attack me..."
"Probably used to be a pet. Maybe you reminded it of its owner."
Emil looked up at the captain in horror. "It remembered?"
Sigrun raised her eyebrows in surprise. "You didn't know that?" When Emil shook his head she told him, "the rash doesn't make its own life, you know, it just takes over other's. The victim's still in there."
"That's horrible!" Emil burst out.
"That's life," Sigrun shrugged. "Have you ever heard a troll talk?"
"T-talk?" Emil's mind shot back to the train, the clawing hands and a decaying face, and the rusty sound---
"They're begging." Sigrun slung her gun back over her shoulder. "There are some things worse than death."


Very well written, and absolutely soul-shredding. We need moar (tissues)!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on June 17, 2015, 10:02:38 PM
Owww! Dark, but all too probable.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OrigamiOwl on June 18, 2015, 12:14:04 AM
I'd put it in the "Scenes we'd like to see" thread, but I don't want to see this scene.
Spoiler: show
Emil tripped and fell flat on his face. Twisting around, he saw the rash-beast--retreating? It fell over, spasming, writhing, its bony legs thrashings like a spider's, then shuddered and lay still.
"Emil?"
"Sigrun!" Emil sat up. "The- the beast, it's-"
Sigrun looked down at the monstrosity by her feet. "Yeah, I see it." She knelt down carefully. The beast whined piteously and tried to lick her hand. "There, there, boy," Sigrun murmured soothingly, stroking the little bit of matted fur that still remained, "it's going to be okay. It's going to be just fine." The beast whined again and lay back, its exposed flesh quivering. "You're a good boy," continued Sigrun, aiming her gun, "a good boy."
Emil flinched at the sound of the shot.
"You okay?" Sigrun asked, standing and wiping the blood splatter off of her face.
"Yeah," Emil said shakily, getting to his feet. "It... it didn't attack me..."
"Probably used to be a pet. Maybe you reminded it of its owner."
Emil looked up at the captain in horror. "It remembered?"
Sigrun raised her eyebrows in surprise. "You didn't know that?" When Emil shook his head she told him, "the rash doesn't make its own life, you know, it just takes over other's. The victim's still in there."
"That's horrible!" Emil burst out.
"That's life," Sigrun shrugged. "Have you ever heard a troll talk?"
"T-talk?" Emil's mind shot back to the train, the clawing hands and a decaying face, and the rusty sound---
"They're begging." Sigrun slung her gun back over her shoulder. "There are some things worse than death."

O_O
RTR, did you hack into/share my thoughts last night?? Because I was thinking about this exact scenario and now I'm really weirded out o___________o
The only difference would be that I thought about the dog's tail wagging little bit before Sigrun put it down. But other than that. EXacTly THE SAme.
Spoiler: show
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Laufey on June 18, 2015, 04:18:28 AM
I'd put it in the "Scenes we'd like to see" thread, but I don't want to see this scene.
Spoiler: show
Emil tripped and fell flat on his face. Twisting around, he saw the rash-beast--retreating? It fell over, spasming, writhing, its bony legs thrashings like a spider's, then shuddered and lay still.
"Emil?"
"Sigrun!" Emil sat up. "The- the beast, it's-"
Sigrun looked down at the monstrosity by her feet. "Yeah, I see it." She knelt down carefully. The beast whined piteously and tried to lick her hand. "There, there, boy," Sigrun murmured soothingly, stroking the little bit of matted fur that still remained, "it's going to be okay. It's going to be just fine." The beast whined again and lay back, its exposed flesh quivering. "You're a good boy," continued Sigrun, aiming her gun, "a good boy."
Emil flinched at the sound of the shot.
"You okay?" Sigrun asked, standing and wiping the blood splatter off of her face.
"Yeah," Emil said shakily, getting to his feet. "It... it didn't attack me..."
"Probably used to be a pet. Maybe you reminded it of its owner."
Emil looked up at the captain in horror. "It remembered?"
Sigrun raised her eyebrows in surprise. "You didn't know that?" When Emil shook his head she told him, "the rash doesn't make its own life, you know, it just takes over other's. The victim's still in there."
"That's horrible!" Emil burst out.
"That's life," Sigrun shrugged. "Have you ever heard a troll talk?"
"T-talk?" Emil's mind shot back to the train, the clawing hands and a decaying face, and the rusty sound---
"They're begging." Sigrun slung her gun back over her shoulder. "There are some things worse than death."


Yeah I'd say this ranks high on the list of "scenes we're really afraid we'll see" -list instead. That was just... so sad. Poor doggie. ;^; *joins the "MORE" chorus*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Mélusine on June 18, 2015, 05:30:47 AM
I'd put it in the "Scenes we'd like to see" thread, but I don't want to see this scene.
Spoiler: show
Emil tripped and fell flat on his face. Twisting around, he saw the rash-beast--retreating? It fell over, spasming, writhing, its bony legs thrashings like a spider's, then shuddered and lay still.
"Emil?"
"Sigrun!" Emil sat up. "The- the beast, it's-"
Sigrun looked down at the monstrosity by her feet. "Yeah, I see it." She knelt down carefully. The beast whined piteously and tried to lick her hand. "There, there, boy," Sigrun murmured soothingly, stroking the little bit of matted fur that still remained, "it's going to be okay. It's going to be just fine." The beast whined again and lay back, its exposed flesh quivering. "You're a good boy," continued Sigrun, aiming her gun, "a good boy."
Emil flinched at the sound of the shot.
"You okay?" Sigrun asked, standing and wiping the blood splatter off of her face.
"Yeah," Emil said shakily, getting to his feet. "It... it didn't attack me..."
"Probably used to be a pet. Maybe you reminded it of its owner."
Emil looked up at the captain in horror. "It remembered?"
Sigrun raised her eyebrows in surprise. "You didn't know that?" When Emil shook his head she told him, "the rash doesn't make its own life, you know, it just takes over other's. The victim's still in there."
"That's horrible!" Emil burst out.
"That's life," Sigrun shrugged. "Have you ever heard a troll talk?"
"T-talk?" Emil's mind shot back to the train, the clawing hands and a decaying face, and the rusty sound---
"They're begging." Sigrun slung her gun back over her shoulder. "There are some things worse than death."
I had a similar conclusion with a friend yesterday evening. I admire how Minna is building her universe, it's dark but beautiful but dark, and this is both a sad and very good idea.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: ButterflyWings on June 18, 2015, 05:34:57 AM
This is eerily similar to my story, of how there are these two sides. I called it the madness.

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Guardian G.I. on June 18, 2015, 02:12:39 PM
Danish National Archives: File ARC-F32 "Excerpts of pre-Rash news articles, found near Hägnars, Åland Islands, former Finland (Y40)"
Spoiler: show

The following file is a compilation of data extracted from a HDD drive found during the Y40 Swedish scouting expedition to the Åland Islands. Although the primary goal of the expedition - the Finnish Defence Force's supply depots near Önningby were found to be overrun by the infected, several pieces of salvage were recovered by the scouts at the nearby military compound to the east of Mariehamn, including 2 relatively undamaged military computers. The Swedish couldn't get them running and disassembled them for spare parts - one HDD drive was purchased by representatives of the Danish Historical Preservation Institute at a scrapyard in Mora. The contents of the HDD drive were mostly corrupted. Luckily, our technicians managed to recover several valuable bits and pieces of information - excerpts of pre-Rash news from the cache files of the so-called "Firefox" program, which was reportedly used to access international information networks before the outbreak of the Rash.

All data was originally in English. It is believed to be originally written by journalists of YLE's English news service.

No.1

"...[inv]estigation into the activities of the so-called Finnish peace movement by the SuPo have confirmed its connections with Russia. Several prominent agents, including... *corrupted*...en will be charged w...*corrupted* …[incl]uding members of the banned totalitarian political party SKP have attempted to block the movements of a NATO convoy in Knutsboda last year, allegedly in protest of the “illegal” re-militarization of Åland in face of the ever-growing Russian threat to the Finnish democracy. The minist[ry] *corrupted* …ly endangering the national security and independence of Fin[land]… *corrupted* …then start sending our children into Gulags, what else are we going to do? These people are clearly traitors” – a concerned citizen told our journalists in Mariehamn... *corrupted* …are set to be… *corrupted*”

No.2

“…[acco]rding to NATO’s spokep[ers]on, Jeffrey McIntire. Several mem… *corrupted* …[Fi]nnish soldiers are r[epo]rted to be alive and well. This is the eighth attack of Kim Jong-un’s loyalists at NATO pe[aceke]epers since May 201… *corrupted* …[we] cl[ea]rly have a case of irrati[ona]l aggression – even now many North Ko[rean]s conti[nue]… *corrupted* …and even calling us murderers and occupiers, even though our presence is nothing but ben[eficial] *corrupted* gangs[ters] [ca]lling the[mse]lves the ‘Korean Resistance’ fighting North Korea’s libera[tors] *corrupted*”

No.3

“…the new adv[anc]ements in biotec[hnolo]gy promise to revolut[ionize]… *corrupted* [e]ven the m[embe]rs of the sex industry, which claim the genetic mo[dific]ation technology would b[oo]st their prof[its] to new… *corrupted* …all this and m[uc]h more will be available in no furt[her] than 10 years, according to scie[ntists] *corrupted*”

No.4

“…[h]ave come to g[re]et them, lining up in the str[eet]s of Ta[ll]inn to wave at Am[eri]can tanks. These 5000 t[roo]ps and 40 M1A2 Abrams t[an]ks will join the 90000-strong NATO rea[ct]ion force def[ending] *corrupted* Russia’s well kno[wn] plan to ex[termi]nate the free p[eop]le of the Balt[ics] *corrupted*”

No.5

“…satellite foot[age] recording ren[ewe]d activ[ity] at the Biopreparat f[acili]ty *corrupted* …we’re not r[ea]dy to coun[te]r the Ru[ssia]n biolo[gi]cal threat with… *corrupted* the co[lla]pse of the talks in Brussels over the c[rea]tion of the unified Eu[rope]an army… *corrupted*”

No.6

(some skalds assume this lines date to the early days of the outbreak)
“…not[hi]ng but pa[ran]oia of the ty[ran]nical Belarusian reg[ime] *corrupted* …in[cl]uding… *corrupted* …c[losi]ng all bor[ders] *corrupted* …more b[ase]less acc[us]ations… *corrupted*”

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solovei on June 18, 2015, 03:45:44 PM
Danish National Archives: File ARC-F32 "Excerpts of pre-Rash news articles, found near Hägnars, Åland Islands, former Finland (Y40)"
Spoiler: show

The following file is a compilation of data extracted from a HDD drive found during the Y40 Swedish scouting expedition to the Åland Islands. Although the primary goal of the expedition - the Finnish Defence Force's supply depots near Önningby were found to be overrun by the infected, several pieces of salvage were recovered by the scouts at the nearby military compound to the east of Mariehamn, including 2 relatively undamaged military computers. The Swedish couldn't get them running and disassembled them for spare parts - one HDD drive was purchased by representatives of the Danish Historical Preservation Institute at a scrapyard in Mora. The contents of the HDD drive were mostly corrupted. Luckily, our technicians managed to recover several valuable bits and pieces of information - excerpts of pre-Rash news from the cache files of the so-called "Firefox" program, which was reportedly used to access international information networks before the outbreak of the Rash.

All data was originally in English. It is believed to be originally written by journalists of YLE's English news service.

No.1

"...[inv]estigation into the activities of the so-called Finnish peace movement by the SuPo have confirmed its connections with Russia. Several prominent agents, including... *corrupted*...en will be charged w...*corrupted* …[incl]uding members of the banned totalitarian political party SKP have attempted to block the movements of a NATO convoy in Knutsboda last year, allegedly in protest of the “illegal” re-militarization of Åland in face of the ever-growing Russian threat to the Finnish democracy. The minist[ry] *corrupted* …ly endangering the national security and independence of Fin[land]… *corrupted* …then start sending our children into Gulags, what else are we going to do? These people are clearly traitors” – a concerned citizen told our journalists in Mariehamn... *corrupted* …are set to be… *corrupted*”

No.2

“…[acco]rding to NATO’s spokep[ers]on, Jeffrey McIntire. Several mem… *corrupted* …[Fi]nnish soldiers are r[epo]rted to be alive and well. This is the eighth attack of Kim Jong-un’s loyalists at NATO pe[aceke]epers since May 201… *corrupted* …[we] cl[ea]rly have a case of irrati[ona]l aggression – even now many North Ko[rean]s conti[nue]… *corrupted* …and even calling us murderers and occupiers, even though our presence is nothing but ben[eficial] *corrupted* gangs[ters] [ca]lling the[mse]lves the ‘Korean Resistance’ fighting North Korea’s libera[tors] *corrupted*”

No.3

“…the new adv[anc]ements in biotec[hnolo]gy promise to revolut[ionize]… *corrupted* [e]ven the m[embe]rs of the sex industry, which claim the genetic mo[dific]ation technology would b[oo]st their prof[its] to new… *corrupted* …all this and m[uc]h more will be available in no furt[her] than 10 years, according to scie[ntists] *corrupted*”

No.4

“…[h]ave come to g[re]et them, lining up in the str[eet]s of Ta[ll]inn to wave at Am[eri]can tanks. These 5000 t[roo]ps and 40 M1A2 Abrams t[an]ks will join the 90000-strong NATO rea[ct]ion force def[ending] *corrupted* Russia’s well kno[wn] plan to ex[termi]nate the free p[eop]le of the Balt[ics] *corrupted*”

No.5

“…satellite foot[age] recording ren[ewe]d activ[ity] at the Biopreparat f[acili]ty *corrupted* …we’re not r[ea]dy to coun[te]r the Ru[ssia]n biolo[gi]cal threat with… *corrupted* the co[lla]pse of the talks in Brussels over the c[rea]tion of the unified Eu[rope]an army… *corrupted*”

No.6

(some skalds assume this lines date to the early days of the outbreak)
“…not[hi]ng but pa[ran]oia of the ty[ran]nical Belarusian reg[ime] *corrupted* …in[cl]uding… *corrupted* …c[losi]ng all bor[ders] *corrupted* …more b[ase]less acc[us]ations… *corrupted*”


Oooh, this is neat :D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on June 18, 2015, 08:48:07 PM
Ready or not, here it comes!

Run Fast, Run Far
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Part V
Spoiler: show
Dis-covered, Dat-covered, All de Odder Covered

Out in the very middle of nowhere, a small guard shack stood, looking for all the world like some abandoned WWII or colonial relic, gatehouse to an otherwise vanished military base, dismantled and long since forgotten. Yet, if you tried to approach it from any direction other than the shabby track the locals called a highway, you’d soon find your way blocked by a rusty tangle of barbed wire, if you didn’t accidentally blow yourself up from a land mine. If you approached along the road, you’d be blissfully unaware of the muzzles tracking you unless they decided to open fire. This was the Installation, a place where Death in its various illicit forms was bought and sold by various illicit parties.

Leaning heavily against the blast door that blocked their way down into the Installation, Emil trembled, as well he might. He’d just made the horrible but inevitable discovery that normal humans were both much easier and yet infinitely more difficult to kill than any troll they’d yet faced.

“Emil!” Sigrun’s snap of command above the clanging alarms brought Emil back to the present. “Help me with Mikkel.” Obediently, Emil went over to where Mikkel lay by the outer door, an ugly-looking dart sticking out of the big man’s shoulder.

Meanwhile, Tuuri had seated herself at the control station of the guardroom and was pecking at the various controls.
The alarms fell silent, and she muttered, “Huh. That’s odd.”

“At least whoever-he-was didn’t take the car,” Emil huffed as he and Sigrun slowly and painfully manhandled their incapacitated comrade into the vehicle.

“Guys? Guys!” Tuuri called. “I think you should see this!”

The other two crowded around the banks of monitors and controls, their eyes wide with amazement at this display of Old Time technology. “I think this board controls the whole security system,” Tuuri said in a hushed voice. “But why would they put it up here, instead of lower down?”

“So they could bring down the whole place if disaster struck.” Surprisingly, Emil was the one who made this observation, instead of Sigrun, who glanced at him in silent approval. “The Rash may be the worst horror here, but it’ll be far from the only one, unless I miss my guess--Oh, no. Get to the car.”

The girls looked at Emil blankly for a moment. When he shouted, “GET TO THE CAR!”, though, they both moved.

“How much time?” Sigrun grunted as they hurled themselves into the small sedan.

“Probably not enough--One, maybe two minutes at most.”

Sigrun smiled a smile utterly lacking in mirth. “So, our covers weren’t really blown, then. We just got here right when some flunky unleashed his Big Plan to steal the Rash and blow the Installation to cover his tracks, and he used our arrival to get by the topside guards.”

Mikkel murmured in assent, his eyes fluctuating between wide open and totally shut.

“Don’t worry,” Tuuri said confidently. “Reynir says Lalli’s tracking our target, so we’ll find him, no matter where he goes.”

*

As they drove off after their prey, the desert behind them lit brighter than the sun overhead for a few terrible seconds, and then the blast wave hit the little car with a sound none of them could ever describe after. Since they were rear-on to the blast, though, the car managed to stay on course and in one piece (as such), so when the tremors finally died, they were still steadily rolling down the road, driving into the next stage of their fate...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on June 19, 2015, 08:31:02 PM
Fanfiction 15. Someone stop this madness...

I wrote a cheerful little story about Emil and Lalli getting their hands on a frisbee!
Nothing bad happens. Promise.
Would I lie to you?

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4167570

Hope you like it!
I’m so sorry I lied.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Haiz on June 19, 2015, 08:52:58 PM
Nothing bad happens. Promise.
Would I lie to you?

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4167570
you filthy liar

reactions in order of reading:

- yes. yeessssss.
- *slams hands on desk repeatedly* THIS IS THE CONTENT I LIKE TO SEE
- o_o
- O____________________O
- ;_____________________________;



...........what a good fic though. what a good
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Silent Fox on June 19, 2015, 08:53:37 PM
Fanfiction 15. Someone stop this madness...

I wrote a cheerful little story about Emil and Lalli getting their hands on a frisbee!
Nothing bad happens. Promise.
Would I lie to you?

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4167570

Hope you like it!
I’m so sorry I lied.

That was very well written, the shift from cheerful Frisbee playing to the "twist" especially. Interesting descriptions and good dialogue. I also thought the little add-on at the end with the engraved tag made it just that much more heart-rending. T.T Also best lie ever told, lol?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Noodles on June 19, 2015, 09:03:27 PM
*sniffle* *sniffle*
dammit, I was already having beast-dog feels. ;_;
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: misea on June 19, 2015, 09:06:56 PM
you filthy liar

reactions in order of reading:

- yes. yeessssss.
- *slams hands on desk repeatedly* THIS IS THE CONTENT I LIKE TO SEE
- o_o
- O____________________O
- ;_____________________________;



...........what a good fic though. what a good

AGREED
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on June 20, 2015, 02:59:56 AM
SectoBoss: that was darkly fun. I didn't get the 'Amazon' joke until the second read through. Right up there with Reynir expecting palm trees in Bornholm!
And I truly love the friendship dynamic you are developing between Lalli and Emil. Nice to see Lalli play - this journey may be good for him in unexpected ways. Even if the moment of levity is followed by one of horror: I see their world as being very much like that. There probably hasn't been a lot of play in his life the last eleven years.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Laufey on June 20, 2015, 03:53:25 AM
http://archiveofourown.org/works/4167570

Hope you like it!
I’m so sorry I lied.

You lied indeed and I don't even believe you're actually sorry! That poor dog - that was beautifully written and as always I love the dark twists of your stories, they make the silent world feel so real it's scary. This ranks now really high on my list of favourite SSSS fanfics ever.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Daéa Reina on June 20, 2015, 03:38:53 PM
Fanfiction 15. Someone stop this madness...

I wrote a cheerful little story about Emil and Lalli getting their hands on a frisbee!
Nothing bad happens. Promise.
Would I lie to you?

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4167570

Hope you like it!
I’m so sorry I lied.

This is the first time I remember getting teary-eyed with a fanfiction. I HOPE YOU'RE GLAD.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Mélusine on June 20, 2015, 03:45:26 PM
Fanfiction 15. Someone stop this madness...

I wrote a cheerful little story about Emil and Lalli getting their hands on a frisbee!
Nothing bad happens. Promise.
Would I lie to you?

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4167570

Hope you like it!
I’m so sorry I lied.
You definitively should write more.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on June 20, 2015, 06:31:29 PM
Why are my things always right before or right after masterpieces?

But here it is anyway.

Run Fast, Run Far
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Part VI
Spoiler: show
Apocalypse Then

Lalli looked deep into the Well of Watching, peering through the rippling, murky depths for a glimpse of their quarry. Suddenly, the veil lifted, and he saw...

The girl woke up and tried to scream, but she was gagged, even as she was also bound where she lay. Above her loomed a blurred, sinister figure right out of some bad horror movie--but this wasn’t a movie, or a dream. Horror and despair washed over her.

Eventually, after a few eternities where she screamed and cried and strained against the bonds that held her fruitlessly, the man by her bedside spoke. “Are you quite finished?” Wide-eyed, she stared at him, her tear-soaked eyes unable to make out anything but the dark blur of his form.

“You’re wondering who I am, what I want, and why you’re here.” The peculiarly dead tones he spoke this in made her flesh crawl. “Be of good cheer; you are one of the Chosen. You have been given the gift of the Mark, and when you bear it unto the Unclean, it will wash your soul clean from the accreted corruption of your unholy lifestyle.”

He gestured, and she turned her head to follow it. “Behold, the other Chosen.” Her bed was at the head of a line of other beds. “You are the Twelfth and final Chosen, and once the Mark has hold of you fully, you shall go forth.” Animation began to color the voice.

“The Godless elevated all of the most perverted wretches in order to drag this world into the sewer of their making, and for too long, we have allowed it,” he stated. “When you, the Blessed Chosen, unleash the Mark, it will scour all that filth away, leaving the Remnant to resume our rightful place as Lords of the Earth.”

An uproar from the other end of the room interrupted him then. He left her side, and for a moment, she was even more afraid than when he’d stood there.

Lalli’s heart screamed within him at the sight of the innocent, but Infected girl. Whatever happened after this, she was doomed. The view in the Well shifted to follow the head cultist as he moved to the side of the only bed in the room that was shrouded.

A troll, or at least one in embryo, lay in the bed, and the cultist smiled as he saw it. “Ah, my friend. Have you been contemplating the delicious irony that you, the infiltrator who aimed at the Remnant’s destruction, would instead become one of the Chosen, and the first Apotheosis, at that?”

Another cultist appeared. “O My Master and O the Bringer of Light, your humble servant is honored to bring you the report of the  Great Undertaking.”

“The servant may continue.”

“The route has been selected: there is a boat that makes runs to Spain that will accommodate the Chosen. We shall take it and land at the most visible and plausible place for such, with our operatives abandoning ship just before landfall. As for the Apotheosis,” the messenger shuddered, “a plane has been procured that we may drop it in Jerusalem, in the heart of the Sewer.”

“Excellent. The Apotheosis will wreak such havoc in the Sewer as has not been known for ages.”

Lalli’s face grew grimmer. So they planned to free a troll--that thing they called the Apotheosis--in some unsuspecting city that it might infect and slaughter the populace, as well as sending the first Infected out to Spain. This demanded only one thing: more speed.

*

“Lalli says we have to hurry,” Tuuri said, her foot pushing the accelerator to the floor.

Sigrun frowned. “No time for subtlety, then. We’ll have to go in shooting. Emil, you’re our heavy hitter here. Be ready to blow a mountain away, if it comes to it.”

“Yes, ma’am,” Emil replied. It was a measure of the dire situation that the prospect of burn-burn-BURN-fire did not appear to please him in the least.

“And Tuuri,” Sigrun paused significantly, “put your mask on.”

The little car sped for all it was worth toward the cultists’ lair...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Mélusine on June 21, 2015, 03:48:33 PM
I wrote a cheerful little story about Emil and Lalli getting their hands on a frisbee!
Nothing bad happens. Promise.
Would I lie to you?
*Coughs*
Spoiler: show
Today, two persons came to an outdoor lesson with their dog. And this dog came with a frisbee and A LOT of enthusiasm. I won't speak about this sudden sadness feeling...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on June 21, 2015, 03:51:35 PM
*Sigh*
This thing never ends, does it?

Run Fast, Run Far
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Part VII
Spoiler: show
From All Sides Beset

“What, Tuuri? You need what? I’m not getting you; it’s too noisy!”

Of course, Lalli had to chime in right then from the other world with, “Have Tuuri drive around the back; some of them are trying to get out that way!”

Reynir relayed the message, but the noise and confusion pouring out of the magic-talk-thing left him unsure whether Tuuri had actually understood him. His forebears had been kind enough to let him wander across the pastures until he was isolated enough to speak and act freely, and they had, despite their obvious inquisitiveness, put off interrogating him for now. It was very good, because speaking with Lalli and Onni tended to make this world vanish, overlaid as it were by the other.

*

They weren’t doing that bad, all things considering, Sigrun thought as she made her way into the compound, the bodies of her enemies marking her passage. She’d been able to one-shot most of these amateurs, thanks in part to Emil’s nice distractions around front, and in a few more minutes, she would storm the ward where these nut-jobs were making their Infected and--

A burst of gunfire raked her path, making her duck back. So, they were going to make a stand here, huh? Probably to buy time to get their Rash victims out the back. Well, Tuuri and Emil would have to handle that, unless--

*

Tuuri was yelling something in Reynir’s ear about something else he couldn’t quite get, but that was probably because of the gun pointed at him. “Fool of a Godless One,” its wielder said. “We are everywhere. Our Faithful had your phones traced before your friends left the Installation. Now, you will tell me everything you know, and I will kill you with a minimum of pain. Of course, each lie you try to tell me will add to your pre-mortem suffering. So, who--”

A shovel to the face will tend to silence even the most loquacious speaker, especially when wielded by a man used to the hard life of farming and ranching, as the elder Reynir was. His descendent looked at him in awe as he efficiently bound the cultist.

“Your friends need you,” was all the elder Reynir said before grabbing the bound cultist and dragging him off towards the farmhouse.

And they did.

*

Sigrun looked at the little thing Emil had given her. He’d warned her of its power, but it was the only shot left for her to clear the way to where she needed to be. Gritting her teeth, she twisted and tossed, just as Emil had told her to.

A Ka-THUM even bigger than the one that had brought down their first target took out her assailant, and probably anyone else in her way, as well. Once she was back on her feet, Sigrun rushed toward her goal, her ears still ringing.

*

“I can’t hold it any longer!” Onni screamed, real panic in his voice. The giant, sensing its victory was near after almost an hour of assaults, drew its probing limb back for one final blow against Onni’s feebly flickering wall-field.

Lalli threw Reynir a pole that had been leaning against the well. “Throw it!” he hissed at the confused red-headed specter, then began to chant.

“Warder’s weapon,
Strong defender,

Once more serve to hold back evil,
Fly now true and smite the wicked,
Guided by the hand of Reynir,

As the runes you bear do foretell,
Long laid down as fated for you.”

Closing his eyes, the spectral Reynir threw the spear, its runes glowing a bright blue in the chamber’s dimness, just as the giant lunged forward. The spear-tip plunged through what had been the bridge of a man’s nose once, and as it hit, another burst of blue leapt from the wound it made, flashing across the limb’s surface and out of sight, leaving an oddly-shaped statue of soot where pseudo-living flesh had been.

*

“Release the Apotheosis.”

“Is the Master certain? The sedatives managing the Apotheosis need time to wear off, and--”

“Release the Apotheosis from the rear door. If they take it on, we are free to move the rest of the Chosen. If they try to take us down, the Apotheosis will still bring the Mark into the world.”

The lead cultist squared his shoulders. “Whether any of us in this shard of the Remnant lives or dies is immaterial, as long as the Mark is released. Loose the Apotheosis, and ready the other Chosen for transport. I shall join the battle outside.” He punctuated this statement by cocking the weapon he’d been loading.

“As the Master commands.”

“Tend the Flames.”

“The Flames burn bright.”

The lead cultist went to the door...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on June 22, 2015, 01:03:34 AM
*Sigh*
This thing never ends, does it?


If the rest of us are lucky - no, it won't end! ;)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on June 22, 2015, 01:36:41 AM
By request (sort of)

The Forest, the Flames, and the Old, Old Man
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic

Spoiler: show

Year 160

The old, old man sat by the fireplace, as he had every night for more years than he cared to count.

No one else in the house spoke to him while he was in his reverie: not the servants, for fear of their jobs; not his many, many progeny, now of the third and even fourth degree, for to them, he had long since become more legend than paterfamilias; in fact, few would even dare to go near him, whether staring into the fire or not. So there was no one to talk to him for any but the most banal reasons, and, by and large, that was the way he liked it.

But if someone had asked him why he sat by the fire every evening, he wouldn’t have brushed them off, but instead would have told them, “I’m waiting.”

The flames danced before his ancient face as entrancingly as they had since the days of his youth, and he smiled to see them. Or rather, his eyes smiled; his face hadn’t made that expression since his lady had left him to deal with an all too adulatory world by himself. The irony of having attained the dream of his youth only to find it as callow as youth itself was not lost on him; in fact, had there been anyone around who didn’t grovel in his presence, he would have laughed over it with them. But there was no one like that around anymore.

The knowledge that he was not alone came over the old man slowly, but the discovery was in no way unwelcome. Without turning his head, he spoke. “Hello, Lalli.”

“It has been a long time, Emil.” This speech should have surprised the old man, being both in Swedish and longer by half than anything Lalli usually said. Somehow, though, it didn’t. Neither did the discovery that the two of them were now seated together in a beautiful forest glade, the fire now a bonfire in a stone-lined pit.

“It has been a very long time, Lalli; too long, perhaps?” None of the old man’s kin would have recognized the diffident, almost apologetic tones of this statement.

“It is never so long as to be too long; not between the two of us. Not when you’ve been so patiently waiting.”

The old man finally smiled then, and they began to talk. They talked of everything and nothing, the years falling farther away with each word. Time itself seemed to pause out of respect for their conversation, and the duo grew lighter and lighter of heart.

Eventually, though, they fell silent, a silence only possible between such friends as they. The old man was watching the flames dance again when Lalli’s face changed.

The old man looked up. Out from the depths of the forest, figures were coming toward them. There was no need to worry, though, for these were most familiar figures. Madcap Sigrun, hair flaming to match the joy in her eyes; grave but mischievous Mikkel; Tuuri, trying to outshine the sun with her smile; silly Reynir, looking as bashful as ever; and many others. Finally, one last couple emerged.

The old man had been keeping one eye on Lalli’s face, and at these last arrivals, the old man saw his face explode into the only true smile he’d ever seen on Lalli. That was enough so that the old man knew who they were.

Lalli stood. The old man knew Lalli meant to join them, and a keening sadness warred with joy for his friend in his heart. Then Lalli turned, still smiling, and held out his hand. As the old man took it, he felt the last of the years and cares fall away, and, Emil once more, he walked with his friend into the woods.

The fire had died before the old man’s death was noticed. The whole area went into a show of mourning for the passing of a living legend, and it was not until many years later that anyone noticed the remarkable coincidence that his Finn counterpart had likewise died on that same eve.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Bouncey on June 22, 2015, 01:52:25 AM
"by request, sort of"

...

You're so mean  :'(
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on June 22, 2015, 02:24:12 AM
Oh wow! Now that's a proper ending to the story. Excellent!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Sunflower on June 22, 2015, 02:46:49 AM
By request (sort of)

The Forest, the Flames, and the Old, Old Man
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic

Spoiler: show

Year 160

The fire had died before the old man’s death was noticed. The whole area went into a show of mourning for the passing of a living legend, and it was not until many years later that anyone noticed the remarkable coincidence that his Finn counterpart had likewise died on that same eve.


Dammit, LooNEY, how do you keep on doing it?!?   :o  OK, torture me, but keep it up!

Spoiler: show
1. It reminded me of this: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/thomas-jefferson-and-john-adams-die

2. I'm probably slow on the pickup, but who are the last couple to show up, presumably in the Dreamworld?  Lalli's parents?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on June 22, 2015, 02:53:50 AM
Spoiler: show
1. It reminded me of this: http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/thomas-jefferson-and-john-adams-die

2. I'm probably slow on the pickup, but who are the last couple to show up, presumably in the Dreamworld?  Lalli's parents?


Spoiler: show
1. It was meant to, of course. Ever since seeing/hearing it dramatized in "The American Revolution", I've loved that story.

2. Yes, they were. The request I alluded to was this: https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=448.msg36439#msg36439 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=448.msg36439#msg36439)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: ButterflyWings on June 22, 2015, 03:15:52 AM
I really liked it. Simple yet elegant.

It does need a juxtaposition for it to function in a wider context, but it was a nice autumnal piece of writing.

By request (sort of)

The Forest, the Flames, and the Old, Old Man
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic

Spoiler: show

Year 160

The old, old man sat by the fireplace, as he had every night for more years than he cared to count.

No one else in the house spoke to him while he was in his reverie: not the servants, for fear of their jobs; not his many, many progeny, now of the third and even fourth degree, for to them, he had long since become more legend than paterfamilias; in fact, few would even dare to go near him, whether staring into the fire or not. So there was no one to talk to him for any but the most banal reasons, and, by and large, that was the way he liked it.

But if someone had asked him why he sat by the fire every evening, he wouldn’t have brushed them off, but instead would have told them, “I’m waiting.”

The flames danced before his ancient face as entrancingly as they had since the days of his youth, and he smiled to see them. Or rather, his eyes smiled; his face hadn’t made that expression since his lady had left him to deal with an all too adulatory world by himself. The irony of having attained the dream of his youth only to find it as callow as youth itself was not lost on him; in fact, had there been anyone around who didn’t grovel in his presence, he would have laughed over it with them. But there was no one like that around anymore.

The knowledge that he was not alone came over the old man slowly, but the discovery was in no way unwelcome. Without turning his head, he spoke. “Hello, Lalli.”

“It has been a long time, Emil.” This speech should have surprised the old man, being both in Swedish and longer by half than anything Lalli usually said. Somehow, though, it didn’t. Neither did the discovery that the two of them were now seated together in a beautiful forest glade, the fire now a bonfire in a stone-lined pit.

“It has been a very long time, Lalli; too long, perhaps?” None of the old man’s kin would have recognized the diffident, almost apologetic tones of this statement.

“It is never so long as to be too long; not between the two of us. Not when you’ve been so patiently waiting.”

The old man finally smiled then, and they began to talk. They talked of everything and nothing, the years falling farther away with each word. Time itself seemed to pause out of respect for their conversation, and the duo grew lighter and lighter of heart.

Eventually, though, they fell silent, a silence only possible between such friends as they. The old man was watching the flames dance again when Lalli’s face changed.

The old man looked up. Out from the depths of the forest, figures were coming toward them. There was no need to worry, though, for these were most familiar figures. Madcap Sigrun, hair flaming to match the joy in her eyes; grave but mischievous Mikkel; Tuuri, trying to outshine the sun with her smile; silly Reynir, looking as bashful as ever; and many others. Finally, one last couple emerged.

The old man had been keeping one eye on Lalli’s face, and at these last arrivals, the old man saw his face explode into the only true smile he’d ever seen on Lalli. That was enough so that the old man knew who they were.

Lalli stood. The old man knew Lalli meant to join them, and a keening sadness warred with joy for his friend in his heart. Then Lalli turned, still smiling, and held out his hand. As the old man took it, he felt the last of the years and cares fall away, and, Emil once more, he walked with his friend into the woods.

The fire had died before the old man’s death was noticed. The whole area went into a show of mourning for the passing of a living legend, and it was not until many years later that anyone noticed the remarkable coincidence that his Finn counterpart had likewise died on that same eve.

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on June 22, 2015, 03:52:36 AM
By request (sort of)

The Forest, the Flames, and the Old, Old Man
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic

A very fine line between sad and heartwarming there! I love it!

(And thanks to everyone who said nice things about that horrible lie concerning frisbees I posted a couple of days ago)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: AquaAurion on June 22, 2015, 05:08:06 AM
By request (sort of)

The Forest, the Flames, and the Old, Old Man
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic

Spoiler: show

Year 160

The old, old man sat by the fireplace, as he had every night for more years than he cared to count.

No one else in the house spoke to him while he was in his reverie: not the servants, for fear of their jobs; not his many, many progeny, now of the third and even fourth degree, for to them, he had long since become more legend than paterfamilias; in fact, few would even dare to go near him, whether staring into the fire or not. So there was no one to talk to him for any but the most banal reasons, and, by and large, that was the way he liked it.

But if someone had asked him why he sat by the fire every evening, he wouldn’t have brushed them off, but instead would have told them, “I’m waiting.”

The flames danced before his ancient face as entrancingly as they had since the days of his youth, and he smiled to see them. Or rather, his eyes smiled; his face hadn’t made that expression since his lady had left him to deal with an all too adulatory world by himself. The irony of having attained the dream of his youth only to find it as callow as youth itself was not lost on him; in fact, had there been anyone around who didn’t grovel in his presence, he would have laughed over it with them. But there was no one like that around anymore.

The knowledge that he was not alone came over the old man slowly, but the discovery was in no way unwelcome. Without turning his head, he spoke. “Hello, Lalli.”

“It has been a long time, Emil.” This speech should have surprised the old man, being both in Swedish and longer by half than anything Lalli usually said. Somehow, though, it didn’t. Neither did the discovery that the two of them were now seated together in a beautiful forest glade, the fire now a bonfire in a stone-lined pit.

“It has been a very long time, Lalli; too long, perhaps?” None of the old man’s kin would have recognized the diffident, almost apologetic tones of this statement.

“It is never so long as to be too long; not between the two of us. Not when you’ve been so patiently waiting.”

The old man finally smiled then, and they began to talk. They talked of everything and nothing, the years falling farther away with each word. Time itself seemed to pause out of respect for their conversation, and the duo grew lighter and lighter of heart.

Eventually, though, they fell silent, a silence only possible between such friends as they. The old man was watching the flames dance again when Lalli’s face changed.

The old man looked up. Out from the depths of the forest, figures were coming toward them. There was no need to worry, though, for these were most familiar figures. Madcap Sigrun, hair flaming to match the joy in her eyes; grave but mischievous Mikkel; Tuuri, trying to outshine the sun with her smile; silly Reynir, looking as bashful as ever; and many others. Finally, one last couple emerged.

The old man had been keeping one eye on Lalli’s face, and at these last arrivals, the old man saw his face explode into the only true smile he’d ever seen on Lalli. That was enough so that the old man knew who they were.

Lalli stood. The old man knew Lalli meant to join them, and a keening sadness warred with joy for his friend in his heart. Then Lalli turned, still smiling, and held out his hand. As the old man took it, he felt the last of the years and cares fall away, and, Emil once more, he walked with his friend into the woods.

The fire had died before the old man’s death was noticed. The whole area went into a show of mourning for the passing of a living legend, and it was not until many years later that anyone noticed the remarkable coincidence that his Finn counterpart had likewise died on that same eve.

What did you do to me?? I can't stop crying. This was beautiful. I don't know what to say.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Laufey on June 22, 2015, 05:52:22 AM
By request (sort of)

The Forest, the Flames, and the Old, Old Man
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic

Spoiler: show

Year 160

The old, old man sat by the fireplace, as he had every night for more years than he cared to count.

No one else in the house spoke to him while he was in his reverie: not the servants, for fear of their jobs; not his many, many progeny, now of the third and even fourth degree, for to them, he had long since become more legend than paterfamilias; in fact, few would even dare to go near him, whether staring into the fire or not. So there was no one to talk to him for any but the most banal reasons, and, by and large, that was the way he liked it.

But if someone had asked him why he sat by the fire every evening, he wouldn’t have brushed them off, but instead would have told them, “I’m waiting.”

The flames danced before his ancient face as entrancingly as they had since the days of his youth, and he smiled to see them. Or rather, his eyes smiled; his face hadn’t made that expression since his lady had left him to deal with an all too adulatory world by himself. The irony of having attained the dream of his youth only to find it as callow as youth itself was not lost on him; in fact, had there been anyone around who didn’t grovel in his presence, he would have laughed over it with them. But there was no one like that around anymore.

The knowledge that he was not alone came over the old man slowly, but the discovery was in no way unwelcome. Without turning his head, he spoke. “Hello, Lalli.”

“It has been a long time, Emil.” This speech should have surprised the old man, being both in Swedish and longer by half than anything Lalli usually said. Somehow, though, it didn’t. Neither did the discovery that the two of them were now seated together in a beautiful forest glade, the fire now a bonfire in a stone-lined pit.

“It has been a very long time, Lalli; too long, perhaps?” None of the old man’s kin would have recognized the diffident, almost apologetic tones of this statement.

“It is never so long as to be too long; not between the two of us. Not when you’ve been so patiently waiting.”

The old man finally smiled then, and they began to talk. They talked of everything and nothing, the years falling farther away with each word. Time itself seemed to pause out of respect for their conversation, and the duo grew lighter and lighter of heart.

Eventually, though, they fell silent, a silence only possible between such friends as they. The old man was watching the flames dance again when Lalli’s face changed.

The old man looked up. Out from the depths of the forest, figures were coming toward them. There was no need to worry, though, for these were most familiar figures. Madcap Sigrun, hair flaming to match the joy in her eyes; grave but mischievous Mikkel; Tuuri, trying to outshine the sun with her smile; silly Reynir, looking as bashful as ever; and many others. Finally, one last couple emerged.

The old man had been keeping one eye on Lalli’s face, and at these last arrivals, the old man saw his face explode into the only true smile he’d ever seen on Lalli. That was enough so that the old man knew who they were.

Lalli stood. The old man knew Lalli meant to join them, and a keening sadness warred with joy for his friend in his heart. Then Lalli turned, still smiling, and held out his hand. As the old man took it, he felt the last of the years and cares fall away, and, Emil once more, he walked with his friend into the woods.

The fire had died before the old man’s death was noticed. The whole area went into a show of mourning for the passing of a living legend, and it was not until many years later that anyone noticed the remarkable coincidence that his Finn counterpart had likewise died on that same eve.


That was a really strange experience. I know I should probably feel sad and maybe I do but it also made me somehow happy? So sweet, melancholy and yes, heartwarming, I loved to read it.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: ParanormalAndroid on June 22, 2015, 07:24:09 AM
By request (sort of)

The Forest, the Flames, and the Old, Old Man
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic

Spoiler: show

Year 160

The old, old man sat by the fireplace, as he had every night for more years than he cared to count.

No one else in the house spoke to him while he was in his reverie: not the servants, for fear of their jobs; not his many, many progeny, now of the third and even fourth degree, for to them, he had long since become more legend than paterfamilias; in fact, few would even dare to go near him, whether staring into the fire or not. So there was no one to talk to him for any but the most banal reasons, and, by and large, that was the way he liked it.

But if someone had asked him why he sat by the fire every evening, he wouldn’t have brushed them off, but instead would have told them, “I’m waiting.”

The flames danced before his ancient face as entrancingly as they had since the days of his youth, and he smiled to see them. Or rather, his eyes smiled; his face hadn’t made that expression since his lady had left him to deal with an all too adulatory world by himself. The irony of having attained the dream of his youth only to find it as callow as youth itself was not lost on him; in fact, had there been anyone around who didn’t grovel in his presence, he would have laughed over it with them. But there was no one like that around anymore.

The knowledge that he was not alone came over the old man slowly, but the discovery was in no way unwelcome. Without turning his head, he spoke. “Hello, Lalli.”

“It has been a long time, Emil.” This speech should have surprised the old man, being both in Swedish and longer by half than anything Lalli usually said. Somehow, though, it didn’t. Neither did the discovery that the two of them were now seated together in a beautiful forest glade, the fire now a bonfire in a stone-lined pit.

“It has been a very long time, Lalli; too long, perhaps?” None of the old man’s kin would have recognized the diffident, almost apologetic tones of this statement.

“It is never so long as to be too long; not between the two of us. Not when you’ve been so patiently waiting.”

The old man finally smiled then, and they began to talk. They talked of everything and nothing, the years falling farther away with each word. Time itself seemed to pause out of respect for their conversation, and the duo grew lighter and lighter of heart.

Eventually, though, they fell silent, a silence only possible between such friends as they. The old man was watching the flames dance again when Lalli’s face changed.

The old man looked up. Out from the depths of the forest, figures were coming toward them. There was no need to worry, though, for these were most familiar figures. Madcap Sigrun, hair flaming to match the joy in her eyes; grave but mischievous Mikkel; Tuuri, trying to outshine the sun with her smile; silly Reynir, looking as bashful as ever; and many others. Finally, one last couple emerged.

The old man had been keeping one eye on Lalli’s face, and at these last arrivals, the old man saw his face explode into the only true smile he’d ever seen on Lalli. That was enough so that the old man knew who they were.

Lalli stood. The old man knew Lalli meant to join them, and a keening sadness warred with joy for his friend in his heart. Then Lalli turned, still smiling, and held out his hand. As the old man took it, he felt the last of the years and cares fall away, and, Emil once more, he walked with his friend into the woods.

The fire had died before the old man’s death was noticed. The whole area went into a show of mourning for the passing of a living legend, and it was not until many years later that anyone noticed the remarkable coincidence that his Finn counterpart had likewise died on that same eve.

A lot of talent evident in your works here. Use of language was very good, and it moved very fluidly.
It was also very sad, but almost bittersweet in how you portrayed the final part.
Really impressive work though.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Daéa Reina on June 22, 2015, 10:27:35 AM
By request (sort of)

The Forest, the Flames, and the Old, Old Man
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic

Spoiler: show

Year 160

The old, old man sat by the fireplace, as he had every night for more years than he cared to count.

No one else in the house spoke to him while he was in his reverie: not the servants, for fear of their jobs; not his many, many progeny, now of the third and even fourth degree, for to them, he had long since become more legend than paterfamilias; in fact, few would even dare to go near him, whether staring into the fire or not. So there was no one to talk to him for any but the most banal reasons, and, by and large, that was the way he liked it.

But if someone had asked him why he sat by the fire every evening, he wouldn’t have brushed them off, but instead would have told them, “I’m waiting.”

The flames danced before his ancient face as entrancingly as they had since the days of his youth, and he smiled to see them. Or rather, his eyes smiled; his face hadn’t made that expression since his lady had left him to deal with an all too adulatory world by himself. The irony of having attained the dream of his youth only to find it as callow as youth itself was not lost on him; in fact, had there been anyone around who didn’t grovel in his presence, he would have laughed over it with them. But there was no one like that around anymore.

The knowledge that he was not alone came over the old man slowly, but the discovery was in no way unwelcome. Without turning his head, he spoke. “Hello, Lalli.”

“It has been a long time, Emil.” This speech should have surprised the old man, being both in Swedish and longer by half than anything Lalli usually said. Somehow, though, it didn’t. Neither did the discovery that the two of them were now seated together in a beautiful forest glade, the fire now a bonfire in a stone-lined pit.

“It has been a very long time, Lalli; too long, perhaps?” None of the old man’s kin would have recognized the diffident, almost apologetic tones of this statement.

“It is never so long as to be too long; not between the two of us. Not when you’ve been so patiently waiting.”

The old man finally smiled then, and they began to talk. They talked of everything and nothing, the years falling farther away with each word. Time itself seemed to pause out of respect for their conversation, and the duo grew lighter and lighter of heart.

Eventually, though, they fell silent, a silence only possible between such friends as they. The old man was watching the flames dance again when Lalli’s face changed.

The old man looked up. Out from the depths of the forest, figures were coming toward them. There was no need to worry, though, for these were most familiar figures. Madcap Sigrun, hair flaming to match the joy in her eyes; grave but mischievous Mikkel; Tuuri, trying to outshine the sun with her smile; silly Reynir, looking as bashful as ever; and many others. Finally, one last couple emerged.

The old man had been keeping one eye on Lalli’s face, and at these last arrivals, the old man saw his face explode into the only true smile he’d ever seen on Lalli. That was enough so that the old man knew who they were.

Lalli stood. The old man knew Lalli meant to join them, and a keening sadness warred with joy for his friend in his heart. Then Lalli turned, still smiling, and held out his hand. As the old man took it, he felt the last of the years and cares fall away, and, Emil once more, he walked with his friend into the woods.

The fire had died before the old man’s death was noticed. The whole area went into a show of mourning for the passing of a living legend, and it was not until many years later that anyone noticed the remarkable coincidence that his Finn counterpart had likewise died on that same eve.


That was so beautiful and sad! I really love it! Thank you for writing it. I don't know whether to laugh or cry.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solovei on June 23, 2015, 12:53:55 PM
Since not all of you on Tumblr, I've put up my latest prompt thing on AO3 as well!
http://archiveofourown.org/works/4192722
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on June 23, 2015, 02:17:52 PM
Since not all of you on Tumblr, I've put up my latest prompt thing on AO3 as well!
http://archiveofourown.org/works/4192722

Cool idea, great little story, and *dumroll* the 50th fanfic on AO3!

(http://desktopbackgroundshq.com/backgrounds/firework-night-1080p-backgrounds-firework-night-25212.jpg)

Yay!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Laufey on June 23, 2015, 02:27:16 PM
Since not all of you on Tumblr, I've put up my latest prompt thing on AO3 as well!
http://archiveofourown.org/works/4192722

This was just... so awesome to read. :D I loved every moment (especially the elephant).
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: misea on June 23, 2015, 03:07:33 PM
By request (sort of)

The Forest, the Flames, and the Old, Old Man
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic

Spoiler: show

Year 160

The old, old man sat by the fireplace, as he had every night for more years than he cared to count.

No one else in the house spoke to him while he was in his reverie: not the servants, for fear of their jobs; not his many, many progeny, now of the third and even fourth degree, for to them, he had long since become more legend than paterfamilias; in fact, few would even dare to go near him, whether staring into the fire or not. So there was no one to talk to him for any but the most banal reasons, and, by and large, that was the way he liked it.

But if someone had asked him why he sat by the fire every evening, he wouldn’t have brushed them off, but instead would have told them, “I’m waiting.”

The flames danced before his ancient face as entrancingly as they had since the days of his youth, and he smiled to see them. Or rather, his eyes smiled; his face hadn’t made that expression since his lady had left him to deal with an all too adulatory world by himself. The irony of having attained the dream of his youth only to find it as callow as youth itself was not lost on him; in fact, had there been anyone around who didn’t grovel in his presence, he would have laughed over it with them. But there was no one like that around anymore.

The knowledge that he was not alone came over the old man slowly, but the discovery was in no way unwelcome. Without turning his head, he spoke. “Hello, Lalli.”

“It has been a long time, Emil.” This speech should have surprised the old man, being both in Swedish and longer by half than anything Lalli usually said. Somehow, though, it didn’t. Neither did the discovery that the two of them were now seated together in a beautiful forest glade, the fire now a bonfire in a stone-lined pit.

“It has been a very long time, Lalli; too long, perhaps?” None of the old man’s kin would have recognized the diffident, almost apologetic tones of this statement.

“It is never so long as to be too long; not between the two of us. Not when you’ve been so patiently waiting.”

The old man finally smiled then, and they began to talk. They talked of everything and nothing, the years falling farther away with each word. Time itself seemed to pause out of respect for their conversation, and the duo grew lighter and lighter of heart.

Eventually, though, they fell silent, a silence only possible between such friends as they. The old man was watching the flames dance again when Lalli’s face changed.

The old man looked up. Out from the depths of the forest, figures were coming toward them. There was no need to worry, though, for these were most familiar figures. Madcap Sigrun, hair flaming to match the joy in her eyes; grave but mischievous Mikkel; Tuuri, trying to outshine the sun with her smile; silly Reynir, looking as bashful as ever; and many others. Finally, one last couple emerged.

The old man had been keeping one eye on Lalli’s face, and at these last arrivals, the old man saw his face explode into the only true smile he’d ever seen on Lalli. That was enough so that the old man knew who they were.

Lalli stood. The old man knew Lalli meant to join them, and a keening sadness warred with joy for his friend in his heart. Then Lalli turned, still smiling, and held out his hand. As the old man took it, he felt the last of the years and cares fall away, and, Emil once more, he walked with his friend into the woods.

The fire had died before the old man’s death was noticed. The whole area went into a show of mourning for the passing of a living legend, and it was not until many years later that anyone noticed the remarkable coincidence that his Finn counterpart had likewise died on that same eve.


LAKFHDKHJSDFGAKJHSFAKSJLFHSDGKJHl. AEFHIOJLSGDKUJHLIUEGFLIU GT(QY@*#RLLGI U#ELYGUIF. *cries*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solovei on June 23, 2015, 06:03:57 PM
Cool idea, great little story, and *dumroll* the 50th fanfic on AO3!

(http://desktopbackgroundshq.com/backgrounds/firework-night-1080p-backgrounds-firework-night-25212.jpg)

Yay!
I know!! Aren't we great?  8)
(incidentally, I'm very surprised at how in character Sigrun came out, having never written her before. This is good news, for me, I think! I might do more with her now.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on June 25, 2015, 09:43:35 PM
I know, I know, it's late… but here it is anyway.

Run Fast, Run Far
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Part VIII
Spoiler: show
Running After
The heat rose around it (What is this what’s happening I don’t understand) like an oven, revivifying it (I was so sick I can’t feel my legs am I dead) even as the light strove to kill it (So much pain I just want to sleep why is this happening). They had given it (No no no no no this is just a fever dream please let it be a fever dream) an umbrella as protection from the fiendish sun, but the reflections from everything else were still painful enough that it (What am I how did this happen make it stop) needed to find a hole to shelter in. Thus it was that it (I just want to go home why can’t I go home) scuttled across the fiery land in unconscious comedy, the umbrella whipping this way and that as a breeze caught it or its holder (Someone please help me HELP ME) paused to test the ground.
*
This whole “vectoring-everyone-else-in” thing was getting frustrating for Lalli, especially as he had to go through Reynir, who, while enthusiastic and not actually that bad of a communicator, wasn’t Tuuri. He was starting to miss the others’ voices, even though their speech was gibberish. How weird. He glanced at the spectral form Onni, wondering if he should try talking this over with his older, more experienced cousin, who had been more like a parent to him and to Tuuri after What Had Happened. Onni was looking back at him, and the two exchanged a wordless conversation that told Lalli all he needed to know.
The view in the Well shifted abruptly as the last of the cultists fell, moving from the ruins of their compound to a stretch of open ground where a single troll was trying to flee. Lalli was about to pass this along through Reynir to Turri and beyond when he saw Emil running up after it.
*
As Emil fired at the troll, he saw the car swinging around behind it to cut it off. That was good, but Tuuri--
The car was gone.
Wait, what? Where could the car have gone? What happened to Tuuri and Mikkel? Emil was almost distracted enough to let the troll hit him, but not quite. The troll got his gun, though, but since Sigrun had snuck up on its blind side, it didn’t matter. What mattered, Emil thought as he jogged towards where the car had been, Sigrun swiftly following after setting the final carcass aflame, was--what had happened to their friends?
“Can you see them, Sigrun?” Emil stopped and looked back. He was alone.
The phone! But he didn’t speak Icelandic. Oh, my. Perhaps Reynir would know what he meant anyway?
*
Lalli had watched his friends vanish even as they vanquished the final troll. “Reynir?” he yelped. “What is happening?” But no one answered. Even Onni’s presence had vanished. A vortex formed in the Well of Watching...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: ButterflyWings on June 26, 2015, 05:03:41 AM
Here's a bit I wrote today. Should I continue?

Old Man Gray, excerpt Y90.

Spoiler: show
She was ushered into the high walled, glass book-cased interior, by a mouse of a receptionist.

The window was open, light rain spatter was puddling around the cast iron radiator.

A man wearing a white coat, smart leather shoes was standing in front of the window looking down into the court yard. A large desk with a high leather chair divided her from him.

Softened noises from people could be heard between the patter of the rain. The door closed behind her.

The man turned partially around, his features were craggy, his white hair windswept across his bulbous head. He smiled his lopsided grin as he gripped the back of the office chair.

The wind shifted blowing in a spray of cascading water. The head continued to turn, revealing blasted features of flexing muscle terminating in bone shards. Things writhed under his white jacket as he tapped the back of the chair.

One perfectly normal eye and another a bloodish black mess, constantly twitching, looked on her, as he ran his hand self consciously over his head, wiping away the rain. A thin smile ran across his ragged lips.

"Hello. Come closer so that we can begin."

The wind blew a little harder. The scalpels and sharpened bones hanging point down from the ceiling on near invisible threads, clinked against each other.







Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on June 26, 2015, 05:50:48 AM
Do continue. Interested to see where you go.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on June 26, 2015, 11:02:39 PM
Almost to the end now…

Run Fast, Run Far
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Part IX
Spoiler: show
The Last Great Obstacle

Tuuri, Onni and Reynir huddled behind Sigrun and Emil, the solid bulk of Mikkel at their backs. The blank, featureless plain before them was filled with giants, mostly agglomerated beasts of all shapes and sizes, and every one of them was making for their little knot.

Lalli flashed into being right in front of them, and a voice erupted into speech, both voice and speech harsh and hideous.

“So, the Seven are assembled
Ready now to meet the Monster
So behold the Rash Incarnate

Think you now to overthrow me?
Better foes than you have all failed!

Come and strike! Your doom awaits you!”

As the speech went on, giant after giant stepped into a central pile and merged, blending together into an immense obscenity of gross, gross, gross-grossling beyond description. Once it had finished, it and its comparatively minuscule followers moved towards the seven once more.

Lalli stepped forward, his reed-thin frame ludicrously small against the obscenities approaching them. “Emil, Sigrun,” he said quietly, “I need for you to keep the little ones away from us. Don’t bother with the big one.” His eyes were shining with blue light. Sigrun nodded briskly and turned back to the oncoming horrors; Emil looked troubled briefly, but shrugged and also turned away.

“Reynir,” Onni said quietly, “shut your eyes and recite with us.”

His eyes wide, Reynir stammered, “B-b-but how will I know what to say?”

Onni looked deep into Reynir’s eyes. “You will know. Trust me.”

Lalli began to chant, Onni joining on the second line, Reynir on the third, and even Tuuri on the fourth:

“Captive souls by Rash corrupted
Quicken once again to action
Rise now at this call to vengeance

Turn upon your Rash tormentor
Break its bonds and take your freedom
Seek out your eternal respite
Striking back at your oppressor

Now in concert we implore thee
Overcome the foe’s enthralling
And avenge yourselves upon it!”

Blue energy like a great wave flowed out from the little knot, swerving this way and that until it found the Rash Embodied, and began to suffuse it, illuminating the various individuals the Rash had forced into merging to form its being. As each was illuminated, they began to struggle, some more successfully than others, until the whole huge form was dissolving into a mass of individual people trying to escape that which had kept them enslaved to it for so long. A few, a very few even broke away completely, and began trying to help the others or attacking the still enslaved.

The other Rash bits were joining the main one now, trying to reestablish its/their dominance over the rebelling slaves by throwing ever more numbers at them, but this only allowed their own components to join the uprising. Soon, nothing was left standing but the seven, the freed souls leaping from their plague-riddled bodies as the power of the Rash simply ceased to be.

For a moment, no one moved, until Emil decided that the motionless heaps before them would look better if they were aflame. And he was quite right...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on June 27, 2015, 11:59:23 AM
And there's an end, sort of.

Run Fast, Run Far
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Part X
Spoiler: show
Do Stories Ever Truly End?

They were all back in the Place of the Bear, Onni spectrally, the others in the flesh--and Reynir and Tuuri were wearing their masks now. “Hey!” Emil exclaimed suddenly. “Isn’t this the place we found just before--”

“Of course it is, Emil,” Lalli said, drawing stares from all but Reynir & Onni. “This is where our quest began, and this is where it ends.”

“Aptly put.”

The Old Man was looking at the confused mortals with a smile in his eyes as he stepped out of the fog. “Of course, your story will go on; it’s barely begun, in fact. But this quest is ended, and ended in victory, as was foretold. Your sister-world and many others like it have been made safe from the Rash; it must suffice itself of those worlds it already holds, and that number will begin to shrink shortly, I believe.”

“What is the Rash, really?”

Now the Old man was truly smiling. “That would be telling, wouldn’t it?” He turned away. “If you leave now, you will be clear before this place collapses, and no harm will come to you. Farewell.”

Onni vanished abruptly, startling the others into motion. A low rumbling began in the depths beneath them as they filed back through the labyrinth of corridors that would lead them out, and the rumbling rose in intensity with every step they took.

Once they were out in the open, Sigrun shook her head. “Well, that was a bust. Even with all of us searching that museum place, we didn’t find anything.”

“Actually,” Tuuri piped up, “Lalli and I found a few really old scrolls. I put them in my sack, here.” She gingerly held it open to show the others.

“I still think bringing Tuuri and Reynir was a bad idea,” Mikkel said. “I know we had to this time, but we shouldn’t make a habit of it, for their sake.”

“I agree,” Sigrun surprised them by saying. She looked at Tuuri and continued, “If there had been the least little grossling in there, the two of you might have been infected, and then what would I have told Miss Taru?”

After a moment of silent thought, Lalli spoke. Emil couldn’t catch a word of it, but Tuuri was listening attentively. Emil gave himself a small shake. Why on earth would he half-expect to understand what Lalli was saying?

Tuuri spoke. “Lalli says he found another place that might be worth looking at, though he didn’t see it on our map.”

Sigrun shrugged. “Well, when we get back to the vehicle, he can show us where it is.” She stretched. “Is anyone else up for an early lunch?”

Firmly in agreement on this last, the band set off for their roving home...

Spoiler: The Complete Links to Run Fast, Run Far • show
Part I (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg42228#msg42228)
Part II (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg42778#msg42778)
Part III (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg42920#msg42920)
Part IV (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg43819#msg43819)
Part V (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg44337#msg44337)
Part VI (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg45056#msg45056)
Part VII (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg45269#msg45269)
Part VIII (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg46555#msg46555)
Part IX (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg46879#msg46879)
Part X (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg46982#msg46982)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on June 27, 2015, 10:06:50 PM
And the end of my monster fic is met with deafening silence.
So, should I bother to ask for feedback?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Bouncey on June 27, 2015, 10:21:35 PM
Go ahead, ask for feedback ;)

I think it's wonderful; I'd have to reread it a few times to really evaluate anything about it.

........

I wonder who you could get to illustrate it ;)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: KMK on June 27, 2015, 10:30:00 PM
And the end of my monster fic is met with deafening silence.
So, should I bother to ask for feedback?

I like what I have read. I think I missed an installment or two though.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on June 27, 2015, 10:50:45 PM
I like what I have read. I think I missed an installment or two though.

I used the part breaks to make major scene changes, which might have caused or intensified that feeling.

Links to each part:
I: https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg42228#msg42228 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg42228#msg42228)
II: https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg42778#msg42778 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg42778#msg42778)
III: https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg42920#msg42920 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg42920#msg42920)
IV: https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg43819#msg43819 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg43819#msg43819)
V: https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg44337#msg44337 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg44337#msg44337)
VI: https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg45056#msg45056 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg45056#msg45056)
VII: https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg45269#msg45269 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg45269#msg45269)
VIII: https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg46555#msg46555 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg46555#msg46555)
IX: https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg46879#msg46879 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg46879#msg46879)
X: https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg46982#msg46982 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg46982#msg46982)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on June 27, 2015, 10:51:25 PM
LooNEY: interesting story. Any chance you could put all of it in one place so I (and I'm sure others) could read it all at once? Filling in the missing bits would be good!

EDIT: your list came in while this was posting. Thanks!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on June 27, 2015, 11:52:31 PM
Finally read it all in sequence. Thank you! Fascinating premise. I do so like to to see a bit of folklore and magic among the tech. By the way, can any of the Icelandic/Finnish speakers tell us what is the proper word(s) in those tongues for what in Gaelic would be geas/geasa? I noticed that you used the Gaelic term, and while I know several of the Nordic languages have an equivalent term, it's long enough ago I heard it that I don't have it in memory, and didn't write it down. I remember it as occurring in a couple of the really early poems?

But yeah, loved the story!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Sunflower on June 28, 2015, 12:28:18 AM
And the end of my monster fic is met with deafening silence.
So, should I bother to ask for feedback?

I liked it a lot, especially Our Crew's encounters with their forebears and the subtle humor of the chapter titles.  And I liked the fragmented, elliptical story structure -- very elegant. 

But to tell the truth, I had trouble figuring out exactly what was going on.  I realize "that would be telling (https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Prisoner#Introduction)" to reveal exactly what the Rash is; and maybe the specific identity and creed of the cultists is irrelevant.  Still, on first reading I wasn't entirely clear on (for example) the connection between the site of our team's raid and the cultists' Evil Headquarters, or how the Abomination is different from people who had the Rash (or why the cultists had different plans for it). 

Maybe just a little more connective tissue?  Or would that be like asking Henry James what "really" happened in The Turn of the Screw
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Russet on June 28, 2015, 08:30:27 AM
the evening's dying light (http://archiveofourown.org/works/4226220)
^ My first fic on ao3? Haha, I don't know. /covers face with hands. I really don't know.
It's a lot of angsty Sigrun and death, um. Also, a little embarrassed about my habit of lowercase notes and titles which I picked up from the haikyuu fandom.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: KicknRun on June 28, 2015, 08:39:18 AM
the evening's dying light (http://archiveofourown.org/works/4226220)
^ My first fic on ao3? Haha, I don't know. /covers face with hands. I really don't know.
It's a lot of angsty Sigrun and death, um. Also, a little embarrassed about my habit of lowercase notes and titles which I picked up from the haikyuu fandom.

DO
NOT
NO
NOT
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Mélusine on June 28, 2015, 08:39:54 AM
the evening's dying light (http://archiveofourown.org/works/4226220)
^ My first fic on ao3? Haha, I don't know. /covers face with hands. I really don't know.
It's a lot of angsty Sigrun and death, um. Also, a little embarrassed about my habit of lowercase notes and titles which I picked up from the haikyuu fandom.
Okay, no, I'm still not ready to read that kind of fanfics *Curls up herself in a corner, crying*

DO
NOT
NO
NOT
Hey, you tried something like that first ! ;)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: KicknRun on June 28, 2015, 08:42:29 AM

Hey, you tried something like that first ! ;)

IT AMUSES ME
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Russet on June 28, 2015, 08:43:05 AM
DO
NOT
NO
NOT
I AM SORRY MY FRIEND FORGIVE ME HERE HAVE SOME CAKE /shoves cake in your face
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Mélusine on June 28, 2015, 08:44:52 AM
Okay, everybody seems to write things which makes me cry today. Let's see what will come next ^^°
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on June 28, 2015, 10:27:10 AM
New Chapter of 'A Few of Mikkel's Secrets'. Sorry it took so long, life has been busy. One more chapter to go, which I will post likely within the week. (I have it written, just need to check spelling etc. This chapter is short, next will be long. Didn't want to post the rest of the story all at once, and splitting it evenly would have included spoilers for the end). And I haven't killed Lalli, however it may look! Promise!
I'm 'Tanist' over there, since I can't get their system to recognise 'Róisín'.

Here is the link to Chapter three.
http://archiveofourown.org/works/3856330/chapters/9557904

Here is the link to Chapter two
http://archiveofourown.org/works/3856330/chapters/9019474

Here is Chapter one, for those who haven't read it
http://archiveofourown.org/works/3856330/chapters/8611471
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: ButterflyWings on June 28, 2015, 10:40:19 AM
Story: The Doctor and Sarah

Spoiler: show

The water was still washing down, the dog creature had long since departed and the two boys who had found the cat had left with their vehicle.

Sarah, struggled back onto her feet from among the foliage. Some of the bullets had torn ragged holes in the desks around her, and yet she had stayed untouched.

She steadied herself against the desk, it sagged a bit under her weight as she picked up her rucksack and rifle. She walked out through the entrance that the boys had been at. Four small furry objects lay on a small sand bar next to an opening in the wall. She leaned down and petted the little balls of fur. Some were still warm.

---

The rain was still falling when she stopped her car outside of the entrance to the Danish Museum of Art and Design. A small box rested in the passenger seat next to her rucksack.

She ignored the scene outside, of the sagging sand bags around the perimeter, the two rusting armoured personnel carriers, the faded signs indicating that there would be an exhibition nigh hundred years ago. The wind moved around to the smell of chemical smoke that wafted from the blackened windows.

She re-read the story. Sarah Hansen had won silver in the junior 10k run on the 6th of April. Two years later, her parents took a picture of her at the age of fifteen in a white washed room. The re-purposed exhibition space could be difficultly seen in the painting behind. Hospital space had run out and this was one of the major research hospitals still in existence. Sarah's parents had insisted on taking her home, even when the drug trials were still on going.

She closed the book. Tears came and the madness was again at her gates gnawing on her mind. She closed the photo book. She placed the photo book back into her rucksack, picked up the small box and exited the car.

She walked past the rusting vehicles, the open hatches black holes of  danger. She walked through the open gates into the courtyard. Se could feel eyes watching her from all sides. Somewhere a pig squealed.

She reached the main entrance, the closed door. A murder hole was opened and an eye stared back before the bolts were withdrawn, the door shuddered open.

A boy and a girl perhaps of fifteen years old stared back at her. They wore ragged uniforms, many times patched. One of them was dressed as a stable boy, the other as a maid. The lights flickered as she walked in and the bolts on the door were closed.

The boy coughed and the girl squeaked "Your weapons, please."

Sarah looked at the maid as the maid hastily gestured towards the garderobe with a bored woman in her mid twenties standing by the desk. The woman's body was slouched in easy laziness, but her eyes were hard, constantly looking at Sarah. Her mouth a dangerous white line as she held out her hand.

Sarah gave her the rifle and a pistol in her rucksack. She walked closer offering to open the box. Ever closer until they were near touching. The madness lurked ever mocking inside of her. Repulsed Sarah took a step back, the lazy woman quickly pointed to the maid.

"Prepare her to the doctor. Quick now." The maid jumped a bit and ushered Sarah up the stairs.

---

She was ushered into the high walled, glass book-cased interior, by a mouse of a receptionist. Sarah was dressed in a paper gown stamped with the new Swedish government symbol. She held on to her rucksack fro dear life. Even during the examination as the play acted a doctor's check-up, waving devices they barely understood in a robotic manner, she held on to her old rucksack.

She blinked in the light. The window was open, light rain spatter was puddling around the cast iron radiator.

A man wearing a white coat, smart leather shoes was standing in front of the window looking down into the court yard. A large desk with a high leather chair divided her from him.

Softened noises from people could be heard between the patter of the rain. The door closed behind her.

The man turned partially around, his features were craggy, his white hair windswept across his sloped head. He smiled his lopsided grin as he gripped the back of the leather office chair.

The wind shifted blowing in a spray of cascading water. The head continued to turn, revealing blasted features of flexing muscle terminating in bone shards. Things writhed under his white jacket as he tapped the back of the chair.

One perfectly normal eye and another a bloodish black mess, constantly twitching, looked on her, as he ran his hand self consciously over his head, wiping away the rain. A thin smile ran across his ragged lips.

"Hello. Come closer so that we can begin."

The wind blew a little harder. The scalpels and sharpened bones hanging point down from the ceiling on near invisible threads, clinked against each other.       

The maid delivered a tray with notes, vials and the small box on the desk and departed. Closing the door with an ominous click behind her.

He walked from behind the desk and caressing the hard wood under his hands. "This generation is much more obedient than the last. It sees that it takes three generations before the will can be truly subsumed into obedience. Still, their resistance to the contagion is frustrating."

He walked ever closer to Sarah. His height becoming ever more apparent as he towered over her. "You do not need to be afraid little one. I will not hurt you. We have after all known each other for a long, long time. I miss our little conversations. How long has
it been again?"

Sarah looked up at the Doctor. Doctor Lasse Hessel, consulting virologist, the faded tag was still pinned to the lapel of his coat. "Over ten years, but we haven't really talked since the invasion."

"Ah yes, that. An unfortunate series of events, but still that allowed me to replenish my depleted genetic stock and gain some valuable creature comforts. You were always one of the better infiltrators. I considered you more valuable than some of the other brutes we had to call in to assist with the repelling."

The rain beat down as they both stared at each other. Finally the doctor coughed and continued, "What do you think of my patients?"

The doctor walked over to one of the glassed bookshelves, opening a bottle and pouring two amber coloured shots into whisky tumblers

Sara continued to stand where she had stood before, "You mean the people you have working here as slaves?"

he handed Sarah a glass. "Yes! What delightful and simple people. They do die out quickly, but they are our livestock and our purpose after all is to stand above them as their masters, while we still carry out our valuable work."

Sarah took a drink from the tumbler, the cut glass and warm liquid feeling strangely civilising in this world of shambles. The liquid hurt as it ran down her throat and then warmed her insides. The hand shook, it had been that long hadn't it?

"They serve a valuable purpose, stocking this research facility with living subject matter for us to better understand the contagion, while allowing me to continue undistracted in my work. For this reason I maintain strong quality control of all our patients, not allowing undesired elements to grow inside of our island of civilisation in this desolated landscape. A place free of disease and dissent."

The doctor opened the box. "A present for me? Please I have cat catchers of my own, but still appreciated." He held out one of the dead limp kittens in his hand smiling like a doting maniacal father.

"I thought I would show you, what I saw. I also saw two boys with a vehicle near one of the old schools." Sarah said carefully, she drank the rest of the whisky, the burn was hard and the madness restraining her in this joyously torturous situation.

He rifles through paperwork on the tray as he gnawed. "I see, Sarah Hansen is still what you like to be called?" he tut-tutted. "We really need to talk about your delusion, and perhaps your concept of a semblance of humanity." he waved vaguely at the box and the other items. 

He continued to read through the paperwork, "I see your blood work still shows the usual traces."

He looked up hungrily, "Sarah of course wouldn't know anything about these, but perhaps your father, Doctor Larsen would."

"I need to go. It was a mistake to come here." Sarah says as she places the glass on the floor. She takes a few steps back. Turning her back on the doctor was never safe, always dangerous.

"Sarah, Sarah, it was just a joke. Please stay, I miss your fascinating conversation. Please sit in my waiting room, while I make sure that these kittens are well taken care of. I will also explain the blood-work."

The doctor opened the side door and lead Sarah to a musty ill-kept room with bookshelves a leather divan and a patched leather armchair.

"Wait for me, please." The doctor said as he closed the door on her.

The doctor went to his desk and pulled out a heavy phone. he cranked the handle until the power indicators started up. He punched in a key sequence and held th receiver up to his undamaged ear. "Yes, put me through to that councilwoman on the Nordic Council in Reykjavik."

He took another bite from the small box on the desk. 
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on June 28, 2015, 11:12:59 AM
New Chapter of 'A Few of Mikkel's Secrets'. Sorry it took so long, life has been busy. One more chapter to go, which I will post likely within the week.

This fanfic is going to some very interesting places! And I must say it's so cool to read a story written by someone who clearly has a good knowledge of folklore and old magics - it adds an extra dash of realism and depth that works really well. I'm looking forward to chapter 4!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on June 28, 2015, 11:27:51 AM
Thanks! Glad you like it. And hope you'll like the ending.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Mélusine on June 28, 2015, 12:25:58 PM
New Chapter of 'A Few of Mikkel's Secrets'. Sorry it took so long, life has been busy. One more chapter to go, which I will post likely within the week. (I have it written, just need to check spelling etc. This chapter is short, next will be long. Didn't want to post the rest of the story all at once, and splitting it evenly would have included spoilers for the end). And I haven't killed Lalli, however it may look! Promise!
I'm 'Tanist' over there, since I can't get their system to recognise 'Róisín'.

Here is the link to Chapter three.
http://archiveofourown.org/works/3856330/chapters/9557904

Here is the link to Chapter two
http://archiveofourown.org/works/3856330/chapters/9019474

Here is Chapter one, for those who haven't read it
http://archiveofourown.org/works/3856330/chapters/8611471
All is veeeeeeery interesting :) And don't kill Lalli even later, thank.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on June 28, 2015, 07:02:22 PM
Glad you like it! And I would never kill Lalli; that would be ....wrong.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: misea on June 28, 2015, 08:40:36 PM
the evening's dying light (http://archiveofourown.org/works/4226220)
^ My first fic on ao3? Haha, I don't know. /covers face with hands. I really don't know.
It's a lot of angsty Sigrun and death, um. Also, a little embarrassed about my habit of lowercase notes and titles which I picked up from the haikyuu fandom.

First of all, HOW DARE YOU.
Second, NO. NO NO NO. NONONONONONONONONONONO NOOOOOOOOOO
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on June 28, 2015, 09:03:24 PM
Trying, trying again.

Correspondence
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Part I
Spoiler: show

Year 105, Spring

Lalli,

It’s hard for me to believe it, but ten years have passed since we last saw each other at the Björköfjärden Station. I am fine, and I hope you are also doing well.

The monsters have been very quiet this year, and my unit has successfully cleansed more land in this cycle than in any other, and, I’m happy to say, with the lowest losses in many cycles. The Press played it up when they found out, and the PR man here made some of us go to all sorts of dinners and such, but I find I’ve had a surfeit of such things since our return.

Our cleansing has brought us to the outskirts of Värmland County, and there are rumors flying everywhere that High Command is planning something huge, should the monsters remain as quiet as they have so far. One wild tale I heard bruited was that we would soon be cleansing Karlstad, of all places!

I should explain, as you are probably unconcerned with places so far away when you have so much to deal with at home. Karlstad was one of the Great Old Cities, sitting where our longest river meets our greatest lake. The Dalahästen runs nearby, but not close enough to justify retaking the city. If anything, the city of Kristinehamn would be a better choice, as it all but abuts the line. But such matters are not for me to say.

If you would be so kind as to send me a few lines in return on how things go with you and yours, I would be most appreciative. My Uncle Torbjörn and Aunt Siv send their regards.

Your friend,
Emil “the Messy Swede” Västerström
*
Year 105, Summer

Lalli,

Pass along my thanks to Tuuri for the long letter on all the comings and goings at Keuruu. We have been preparing so intensely for this next cycle that sometimes it seems to fill our whole world, and so it is good to hear of the “mundane” things still going on outside. During a recent mess-time, I read the part about Onni and the Cursed Machine to my table-mates; upon looking up, I found the whole company was gathered ‘round to hear. I have since read other parts to them; it’s become a silly little tradition among us.

It would seem some of the rumors have been borne out: we are, indeed, to try to retake Kristinehamn in this cycle, as a preliminary to our long-term goal of Karlstad. The man from the High Command had an odd, feverish glint in his eyes when he told our assembly this, and that perhaps was why my stomach lurched. I cannot help but think that High Command may be planning to overreach itself--but, in the end, they know best what the Cleansers as a whole can do.

Your compliments on my improved Finnish writing are, naturally, undeserved: there’s a nice young woman in my unit who translates both Finnish and Icelandic for me, a Fenno-Swede who joined the Cleansers a year or two back. In many ways, she reminds me of you and Tuuri. (The last sentence made her blush.)

Please do not take my praise of Tuuri’s loquacious letter as a criticism of your own; I’m happy to read even the briefest of lines from you.

Your Cleanser friend,
Emil Västerström


Spoiler: show

And no, you'll never see Lalli's or Tuuri's letters.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: videovance on June 29, 2015, 12:36:07 AM
Trying, trying again.

Correspondence
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Part I
Spoiler: show

Year 105, Spring

Lalli,

It’s hard for me to believe it, but ten years have passed since we last saw each other at the Björköfjärden Station. I am fine, and I hope you are also doing well.

The monsters have been very quiet this year, and my unit has successfully cleansed more land in this cycle than in any other, and, I’m happy to say, with the lowest losses in many cycles. The Press played it up when they found out, and the PR man here made some of us go to all sorts of dinners and such, but I find I’ve had a surfeit of such things since our return.

Our cleansing has brought us to the outskirts of Värmland County, and there are rumors flying everywhere that High Command is planning something huge, should the monsters remain as quiet as they have so far. One wild tale I heard bruited was that we would soon be cleansing Karlstad, of all places!

I should explain, as you are probably unconcerned with places so far away when you have so much to deal with at home. Karlstad was one of the Great Old Cities, sitting where our longest river meets our greatest lake. The Dalahästen runs nearby, but not close enough to justify retaking the city. If anything, the city of Kristinehamn would be a better choice, as it all but abuts the line. But such matters are not for me to say.

If you would be so kind as to send me a few lines in return on how things go with you and yours, I would be most appreciative. My Uncle Torbjörn and Aunt Siv send their regards.

Your friend,
Emil “the Messy Swede” Västerström
*
Year 105, Summer

Lalli,

Pass along my thanks to Tuuri for the long letter on all the comings and goings at Keuruu. We have been preparing so intensely for this next cycle that sometimes it seems to fill our whole world, and so it is good to hear of the “mundane” things still going on outside. During a recent mess-time, I read the part about Onni and the Cursed Machine to my table-mates; upon looking up, I found the whole company was gathered ‘round to hear. I have since read other parts to them; it’s become a silly little tradition among us.

It would seem some of the rumors have been borne out: we are, indeed, to try to retake Kristinehamn in this cycle, as a preliminary to our long-term goal of Karlstad. The man from the High Command had an odd, feverish glint in his eyes when he told our assembly this, and that perhaps was why my stomach lurched. I cannot help but think that High Command may be planning to overreach itself--but, in the end, they know best what the Cleansers as a whole can do.

Your compliments on my improved Finnish writing are, naturally, undeserved: there’s a nice young woman in my unit who translates both Finnish and Icelandic for me, a Fenno-Swede who joined the Cleansers a year or two back. In many ways, she reminds me of you and Tuuri. (The last sentence made her blush.)

Please do not take my praise of Tuuri’s loquacious letter as a criticism of your own; I’m happy to read even the briefest of lines from you.

Your Cleanser friend,
Emil Västerström


Spoiler: show

And no, you'll never see Lalli's or Tuuri's letters.

Oh wow, this is shaping up to be quite excellent! Is there an AO3 link or some compounded version that this will be updated on? I'd hate to lose track of any updates! ;A;
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Bouncey on June 29, 2015, 01:32:23 AM

Spoiler: show

And no, you'll never see Lalli's or Tuuri's letters.


Evil, you are! But I like it so far!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Talimee on June 29, 2015, 02:49:42 AM
Trying, trying again.

Correspondence
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Part I
Spoiler: show

Year 105, Spring

Lalli,

It’s hard for me to believe it, but ten years have passed since we last saw each other at the Björköfjärden Station. I am fine, and I hope you are also doing well.

The monsters have been very quiet this year, and my unit has successfully cleansed more land in this cycle than in any other, and, I’m happy to say, with the lowest losses in many cycles. The Press played it up when they found out, and the PR man here made some of us go to all sorts of dinners and such, but I find I’ve had a surfeit of such things since our return.

Our cleansing has brought us to the outskirts of Värmland County, and there are rumors flying everywhere that High Command is planning something huge, should the monsters remain as quiet as they have so far. One wild tale I heard bruited was that we would soon be cleansing Karlstad, of all places!

I should explain, as you are probably unconcerned with places so far away when you have so much to deal with at home. Karlstad was one of the Great Old Cities, sitting where our longest river meets our greatest lake. The Dalahästen runs nearby, but not close enough to justify retaking the city. If anything, the city of Kristinehamn would be a better choice, as it all but abuts the line. But such matters are not for me to say.

If you would be so kind as to send me a few lines in return on how things go with you and yours, I would be most appreciative. My Uncle Torbjörn and Aunt Siv send their regards.

Your friend,
Emil “the Messy Swede” Västerström
*
Year 105, Summer

Lalli,

Pass along my thanks to Tuuri for the long letter on all the comings and goings at Keuruu. We have been preparing so intensely for this next cycle that sometimes it seems to fill our whole world, and so it is good to hear of the “mundane” things still going on outside. During a recent mess-time, I read the part about Onni and the Cursed Machine to my table-mates; upon looking up, I found the whole company was gathered ‘round to hear. I have since read other parts to them; it’s become a silly little tradition among us.

It would seem some of the rumors have been borne out: we are, indeed, to try to retake Kristinehamn in this cycle, as a preliminary to our long-term goal of Karlstad. The man from the High Command had an odd, feverish glint in his eyes when he told our assembly this, and that perhaps was why my stomach lurched. I cannot help but think that High Command may be planning to overreach itself--but, in the end, they know best what the Cleansers as a whole can do.

Your compliments on my improved Finnish writing are, naturally, undeserved: there’s a nice young woman in my unit who translates both Finnish and Icelandic for me, a Fenno-Swede who joined the Cleansers a year or two back. In many ways, she reminds me of you and Tuuri. (The last sentence made her blush.)

Please do not take my praise of Tuuri’s loquacious letter as a criticism of your own; I’m happy to read even the briefest of lines from you.

Your Cleanser friend,
Emil Västerström


Spoiler: show

And no, you'll never see Lalli's or Tuuri's letters.


Uuuuh. :) I like your choice of style. (And the rest as well) Will you keep it? And Emil's last sentence made me go all "awwww".
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on June 29, 2015, 03:05:14 AM
LooNEY, I like the start of 'Correspondence'. Hope you plan to write more of the tale, but I confess to having a bad feeling about the planning for their proposed city-cleansing. If even Emil thinks something isn't right..... Maybe he has grown up a bit.
I wait with interest!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: ParanormalAndroid on June 29, 2015, 03:15:54 AM
Trying, trying again.

Correspondence
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Part I
It's a really interesting idea in terms of exposition (*shakes fist because he didn't think of it first*) and it's very well-written, but, um, would Emil be formal to such a degree that he uses "loquacious" and "surfeit"? I don't think it especially detracts from the story, but it just doesn't seem to me like how he'd talk.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on June 29, 2015, 03:58:00 AM
I don't know, I can see Emil growing up into the sort of stuffy Victorian-era young-middle-aged man who has a nice suburban house, wears vests and talks like an etiquette textbook, when he isn't doing his very dangerous job.
I can also see him tossing it all in an instant for a chance at one more adventure (by which he might mean: one more adventure with the old crew).
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Sunflower on June 29, 2015, 04:02:16 AM
It's a really interesting idea in terms of exposition (*shakes fist because he didn't think of it first*) and it's very well-written, but, um, would Emil be formal to such a degree that he uses "loquacious" and "surfeit"? I don't think it especially detracts from the story, but it just doesn't seem to me like how he'd talk.

Well, to me Emil's speech is already a bit more formal than the others', at least when he's speaking to people he hasn't known all his life (i.e. not his relatives and Bosse the cat) -- with almost a Bertie Wooster vibe ("We get along swimmingly!").  So I suppose that with the passage of time he might have starched up his vocabulary further -- especially since his nationality is Pompous Swede. 

I'm really having trouble picturing how Lalli would write.  I know he's not illiterate, but he's uncommunicative (again, unless it's with people he's known all his life; I doubt he'd be chatty with a Finnish speaker he didn't know). 
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: ParanormalAndroid on June 29, 2015, 04:06:54 AM
Well, to me Emil's speech is already a bit more formal than the others', at least when he's speaking to people he hasn't known all his life (i.e. not his relatives and Bosse the cat) -- with almost a Bertie Wooster vibe ("We get along swimmingly!").  So I suppose that with the passage of time he might have starched up his vocabulary further -- especially since his nationality is Pompous Swede. 
Okay, you've convinced me, the vision of Emil barking orders at some long-suffering butler is too funny not to think of.
Reckon he'd be in mountains of debt too? Perhaps on account of the laundry bill for all those blackened, bloodstained uniforms.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Russet on June 29, 2015, 04:39:29 AM
Trying, trying again.
This is a really interesting premise, I'm very excited to see where it'll go!  :)
Also apologetic cookies for misea, but I think I'm actually interested in starting a collection of angst fics for everyone in the crew. hmm. (FORGIVE ME x3000)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on June 29, 2015, 04:48:55 AM
Yeah,'Bertie Wooster' is pretty much the image I had too!

Lalli, now... We've seen him read Tuuri's note without difficulty, and he can read  (and probably memorise?) a map. He may not speak much, but to judge by his on-the-fly composition of runos his inside-the-mind word-hoard is in extremely good shape! My headcanon is that he would write maybe four sentences of minimalist dry fact ("Soandso whom you knew has died of old age, Suchoranother and her husband have produced a healthy son, we all got through the winter well") followed by half a dozen lines of breathtaking poetry about the first spring buds opening. Then wouldn't write again until next season.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Mélusine on June 29, 2015, 05:24:13 AM
First of all, HOW DARE YOU.
Second, NO. NO NO NO. NONONONONONONONONONONO NOOOOOOOOOO
*Sighs* More traumatized persons here. Do you want tea ? I need more tea thinking to what I have half read before closing it.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: misea on June 29, 2015, 05:30:22 AM
Russet: You're forgiven 'v' *claps hand gleefully in anticipation of fics and angst while whisper screaming "NOOOOO"*

I would love tea, Mélusine, only I can't have too much caffeine :I *starts to wonder if there's decaffeinated tea in the house*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Russet on June 29, 2015, 05:38:19 AM
Russet: You're forgiven 'v' *claps hand gleefully in anticipation of fics and angst while whisper screaming "NOOOOO"*
I'm actually really excited about Tuuri's story! And I possibly have an idea for Lalli's. hmmmmmm. /stroaks imaginary goatee
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on June 29, 2015, 05:39:54 AM
Russet: the one you wrote for Sigrun was very dark, but probably how, being Sigrun, she would respond to losing yet another team. Do you plan to do all the team members in such a scenario? It would be interesting though I think rather emotionally wearing. The difficult part would be getting enough variation in the individual scenes.
I myself prefer not to kill main cast characters in my stories, but I can see how it would be very challenging to write. And you would never look at the comic the same way again.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Mélusine on June 29, 2015, 05:41:10 AM
I would love tea, Mélusine, only I can't have too much caffeine :I *starts to wonder if there's decaffeinated tea in the house*
*Offers herb tea instead of tea. And cookies*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: KMK on June 29, 2015, 06:54:54 AM
Story: The Doctor and Sarah

Spoiler: show

The water was still washing down, the dog creature had long since departed and the two boys who had found the cat had left with their vehicle.

Sarah, struggled back onto her feet from among the foliage. Some of the bullets had torn ragged holes in the desks around her, and yet she had stayed untouched.

She steadied herself against the desk, it sagged a bit under her weight as she picked up her rucksack and rifle. She walked out through the entrance that the boys had been at. Four small furry objects lay on a small sand bar next to an opening in the wall. She leaned down and petted the little balls of fur. Some were still warm.

---

The rain was still falling when she stopped her car outside of the entrance to the Danish Museum of Art and Design. A small box rested in the passenger seat next to her rucksack.

She ignored the scene outside, of the sagging sand bags around the perimeter, the two rusting armoured personnel carriers, the faded signs indicating that there would be an exhibition nigh hundred years ago. The wind moved around to the smell of chemical smoke that wafted from the blackened windows.

She re-read the story. Sarah Hansen had won silver in the junior 10k run on the 6th of April. Two years later, her parents took a picture of her at the age of fifteen in a white washed room. The re-purposed exhibition space could be difficultly seen in the painting behind. Hospital space had run out and this was one of the major research hospitals still in existence. Sarah's parents had insisted on taking her home, even when the drug trials were still on going.

She closed the book. Tears came and the madness was again at her gates gnawing on her mind. She closed the photo book. She placed the photo book back into her rucksack, picked up the small box and exited the car.

She walked past the rusting vehicles, the open hatches black holes of  danger. She walked through the open gates into the courtyard. Se could feel eyes watching her from all sides. Somewhere a pig squealed.

She reached the main entrance, the closed door. A murder hole was opened and an eye stared back before the bolts were withdrawn, the door shuddered open.

A boy and a girl perhaps of fifteen years old stared back at her. They wore ragged uniforms, many times patched. One of them was dressed as a stable boy, the other as a maid. The lights flickered as she walked in and the bolts on the door were closed.

The boy coughed and the girl squeaked "Your weapons, please."

Sarah looked at the maid as the maid hastily gestured towards the garderobe with a bored woman in her mid twenties standing by the desk. The woman's body was slouched in easy laziness, but her eyes were hard, constantly looking at Sarah. Her mouth a dangerous white line as she held out her hand.

Sarah gave her the rifle and a pistol in her rucksack. She walked closer offering to open the box. Ever closer until they were near touching. The madness lurked ever mocking inside of her. Repulsed Sarah took a step back, the lazy woman quickly pointed to the maid.

"Prepare her to the doctor. Quick now." The maid jumped a bit and ushered Sarah up the stairs.

---

She was ushered into the high walled, glass book-cased interior, by a mouse of a receptionist. Sarah was dressed in a paper gown stamped with the new Swedish government symbol. She held on to her rucksack fro dear life. Even during the examination as the play acted a doctor's check-up, waving devices they barely understood in a robotic manner, she held on to her old rucksack.

She blinked in the light. The window was open, light rain spatter was puddling around the cast iron radiator.

A man wearing a white coat, smart leather shoes was standing in front of the window looking down into the court yard. A large desk with a high leather chair divided her from him.

Softened noises from people could be heard between the patter of the rain. The door closed behind her.

The man turned partially around, his features were craggy, his white hair windswept across his sloped head. He smiled his lopsided grin as he gripped the back of the leather office chair.

The wind shifted blowing in a spray of cascading water. The head continued to turn, revealing blasted features of flexing muscle terminating in bone shards. Things writhed under his white jacket as he tapped the back of the chair.

One perfectly normal eye and another a bloodish black mess, constantly twitching, looked on her, as he ran his hand self consciously over his head, wiping away the rain. A thin smile ran across his ragged lips.

"Hello. Come closer so that we can begin."

The wind blew a little harder. The scalpels and sharpened bones hanging point down from the ceiling on near invisible threads, clinked against each other.       

The maid delivered a tray with notes, vials and the small box on the desk and departed. Closing the door with an ominous click behind her.

He walked from behind the desk and caressing the hard wood under his hands. "This generation is much more obedient than the last. It sees that it takes three generations before the will can be truly subsumed into obedience. Still, their resistance to the contagion is frustrating."

He walked ever closer to Sarah. His height becoming ever more apparent as he towered over her. "You do not need to be afraid little one. I will not hurt you. We have after all known each other for a long, long time. I miss our little conversations. How long has
it been again?"

Sarah looked up at the Doctor. Doctor Lasse Hessel, consulting virologist, the faded tag was still pinned to the lapel of his coat. "Over ten years, but we haven't really talked since the invasion."

"Ah yes, that. An unfortunate series of events, but still that allowed me to replenish my depleted genetic stock and gain some valuable creature comforts. You were always one of the better infiltrators. I considered you more valuable than some of the other brutes we had to call in to assist with the repelling."

The rain beat down as they both stared at each other. Finally the doctor coughed and continued, "What do you think of my patients?"

The doctor walked over to one of the glassed bookshelves, opening a bottle and pouring two amber coloured shots into whisky tumblers

Sara continued to stand where she had stood before, "You mean the people you have working here as slaves?"

he handed Sarah a glass. "Yes! What delightful and simple people. They do die out quickly, but they are our livestock and our purpose after all is to stand above them as their masters, while we still carry out our valuable work."

Sarah took a drink from the tumbler, the cut glass and warm liquid feeling strangely civilising in this world of shambles. The liquid hurt as it ran down her throat and then warmed her insides. The hand shook, it had been that long hadn't it?

"They serve a valuable purpose, stocking this research facility with living subject matter for us to better understand the contagion, while allowing me to continue undistracted in my work. For this reason I maintain strong quality control of all our patients, not allowing undesired elements to grow inside of our island of civilisation in this desolated landscape. A place free of disease and dissent."

The doctor opened the box. "A present for me? Please I have cat catchers of my own, but still appreciated." He held out one of the dead limp kittens in his hand smiling like a doting maniacal father.

"I thought I would show you, what I saw. I also saw two boys with a vehicle near one of the old schools." Sarah said carefully, she drank the rest of the whisky, the burn was hard and the madness restraining her in this joyously torturous situation.

He rifles through paperwork on the tray as he gnawed. "I see, Sarah Hansen is still what you like to be called?" he tut-tutted. "We really need to talk about your delusion, and perhaps your concept of a semblance of humanity." he waved vaguely at the box and the other items. 

He continued to read through the paperwork, "I see your blood work still shows the usual traces."

He looked up hungrily, "Sarah of course wouldn't know anything about these, but perhaps your father, Doctor Larsen would."

"I need to go. It was a mistake to come here." Sarah says as she places the glass on the floor. She takes a few steps back. Turning her back on the doctor was never safe, always dangerous.

"Sarah, Sarah, it was just a joke. Please stay, I miss your fascinating conversation. Please sit in my waiting room, while I make sure that these kittens are well taken care of. I will also explain the blood-work."

The doctor opened the side door and lead Sarah to a musty ill-kept room with bookshelves a leather divan and a patched leather armchair.

"Wait for me, please." The doctor said as he closed the door on her.

The doctor went to his desk and pulled out a heavy phone. he cranked the handle until the power indicators started up. He punched in a key sequence and held th receiver up to his undamaged ear. "Yes, put me through to that councilwoman on the Nordic Council in Reykjavik."

He took another bite from the small box on the desk. 


You are getting some strange depths in this. I am intrigued.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: ButterflyWings on June 29, 2015, 07:01:07 AM
There was a plan to actually do more exposition through dialogue, but I ran out of time yesterday. Between waking up late and cocktails.

I do have this concept of something going on, which puts things with a darker twist than the comic. I am just wondering should it truly be explored?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on June 29, 2015, 07:50:58 AM
The Pacific Rim crossover is finished! Two chapters this time, as the last one’s barely a page long:

http://archiveofourown.org/works/3803176/chapters/9575058

This started out as a fun little idea from Haiz on the crossover thread and somehow snowballed over several months into the nigh-on-20,000 word monster before you. How, I have no idea. But I would just like to say thanks to Haiz for hir endless support as I bumbled through it, and also to everyone who said Nice Things about it on AO3 and in the scriptorium here.

I hope you like it!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: KicknRun on June 29, 2015, 08:00:20 AM
The Pacific Rim crossover is finished! Two chapters this time, as the last one’s barely a page long:

http://archiveofourown.org/works/3803176/chapters/9575058

This started out as a fun little idea from Haiz on the crossover thread and somehow snowballed over several months into the nigh-on-20,000 word monster before you. How, I have no idea. But I would just like to say thanks to Haiz for hir endless support as I bumbled through it, and also to everyone who said Nice Things about it on AO3 and in the scriptorium here.

I hope you like it!

Spoiler: show
wOW
THE FIGHT SCENES
THE EPILOGUE
EVERYTHING
I WAS GETTING WORRIED ABOUT THEM
LIKE GENUINELY WORRIED
AND LALLI PLEASE GET SOME SLEEP
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Russet on June 29, 2015, 09:35:23 AM
Russet: the one you wrote for Sigrun was very dark, but probably how, being Sigrun, she would respond to losing yet another team. Do you plan to do all the team members in such a scenario? It would be interesting though I think rather emotionally wearing. The difficult part would be getting enough variation in the individual scenes.
I myself prefer not to kill main cast characters in my stories, but I can see how it would be very challenging to write. And you would never look at the comic the same way again.
Similarly tragic and angsty, probably, but different scenarios. I just felt like the mass character death was sort of suitable for Sigrun's character, who seems so fearless and light-hearted but probably has had to lose many friends, considering how brutal things are over in Norway.

Also, settling myself in for a long read of Into the Storm, I'm really excited about the premise with the Pacific Rim crossover!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on June 29, 2015, 09:47:53 AM
Russet: it will be interesting to watch you develop this theme. Sigrun does strike me as someone who would keep the little notebook of the names of dead friends, and would go on being 'fearless and light-hearted' in their honour.
I can also see her, in great age, making some insanely heroic last stand so as not to have a straw-death. Like Beowulf.

SectoBoss and Haiz: that was so pulse-poundingly Boys Own Paper Adventure Story! Great stuff! Do it again!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Russet on June 29, 2015, 10:01:19 AM
Ooh, now I'm really psyched to write, haha.
I just finished the first chapter of Into the Storm, it's shaping up to be reaaally good, I'm gushing with excitement. ;D

Also I can't stop thinking about a SSSS/A:TLA crossover (not sure if you guys know about A:TLA? It was a pretty popular cartoon a few years back), though more in a I-want-to-draw-that way rather than a writing thing. Just.. Sigrun the avatar? And Lalli would be a waterbender or something, with Tuuri as his nonbender cousin from the water tribe, and Mikkel as this stone-faced, grumpy earthbender, and Emil the firebender, and Reynir one of the air nomads? I'm unreasonably excited about this, idk.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Haiz on June 29, 2015, 10:05:43 AM
The Pacific Rim crossover is finished! Two chapters this time, as the last one’s barely a page long:

http://archiveofourown.org/works/3803176/chapters/9575058

This started out as a fun little idea from Haiz on the crossover thread and somehow snowballed over several months into the nigh-on-20,000 word monster before you. How, I have no idea. But I would just like to say thanks to Haiz for hir endless support as I bumbled through it, and also to everyone who said Nice Things about it on AO3 and in the scriptorium here.

I hope you like it!
I don't really know what I can say other than hOLY WOW thank you so much for writing this? I mean, aside from coming up with a quick crossover concept (everyone can come up with a pacific rim crossover. seriously. it's one of the most crossoverifable works out there) and making LOUD SQUEEING NOISES at every other sentence, I didn't do anything. I could've never come up with all this. I could never have written machinery, or fight scenes, or anything like this. I will do my best to return the favour with some fanart in the immediate future.

also, I never thought I'd be happy to have someone set fire to Trondheim. That is some top-notch prequel material right there, hmmMMMM??

SectoBoss and Haiz: that was so pulse-poundingly Boys Own Paper Adventure Story! Great stuff! Do it again!
huhuhu I shall do my best to gently prod SectoBoss into producing more glorious jeager adventures

Also I can't stop thinking about a SSSS/A:TLA crossover (not sure if you guys know about A:TLA? It was a pretty popular cartoon a few years back), though more in a I-want-to-draw-that way rather than a writing thing. Just.. Sigrun the avatar? And Lalli would be a waterbender or something, with Tuuri as his nonbender cousin from the water tribe, and Mikkel as this stone-faced, grumpy earthbender, and Emil the firebender, and Reynir one of the air nomads? I'm unreasonably excited about this, idk.
ooooh YES YES YES
there are some drawings in the crossover thread, aand I doodled a thing for doodleordie a while ago, too!
Spoiler: show

(https://doodleordie.s3.amazonaws.com/d/1R9pE-_0G/eH4N41cUj.png)

There have been a lot of various ideas for who'd be what, I think the thing most people agree on is that Lalli is a waterbender and Emil is a firebender. On one hand I'd love Sigrun as an overenthusiastic non-bender but fire nation general, but AVATAR SIGRUN?? now tha'ts a suggestion we haven't had before, and if you can make a story about that I'm so reading it.


***

I also see that there has been a lot of, um, darker fics around here lately? I'm not gonna read angstfics, sorry, that's a haiz thing haiz can't read angstfics
Which means I'm starting to feel like it's my duty to come up with more High School AU shenanigans to balance it out a little, and... I have several plans in the works - there will be more Sigrun and Mikkel, IKEA will be involved, teenagers being awkward... I have the PLANS, but I gotta WRITE them, and I have a lot of projects going on lately, in addition to work, so.... it goes slow, I'm sorry. I never thought I'd have an actual readership, you see. But I promise there will be more, and hopefully not super late~
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on June 29, 2015, 10:38:05 AM
Haiz: your AU is fun! Please do more, I like it, and so do the young folk around here.

I can understand why an air-and-angels person such as you appear to be wouldn't like angsty stories, so once I am done with 'A Few of Mikkel's Secrets' I shall have a shot at writing something lighter, and see if you like it.

By the way, remember that avatar picture you drew for me? I have been quite astonished at the number of people who have contacted me in my ordinary persona going 'Is that you? I didn't even know you read comics? Huh?'. Including a couple of my overseas cousins (I didn't know they read comics either). So it's a good likeness!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Noodles on June 29, 2015, 12:16:02 PM
Trying, trying again.

Correspondence
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Part I
Spoiler: show

Year 105, Spring

Lalli,

It’s hard for me to believe it, but ten years have passed since we last saw each other at the Björköfjärden Station. I am fine, and I hope you are also doing well.

The monsters have been very quiet this year, and my unit has successfully cleansed more land in this cycle than in any other, and, I’m happy to say, with the lowest losses in many cycles. The Press played it up when they found out, and the PR man here made some of us go to all sorts of dinners and such, but I find I’ve had a surfeit of such things since our return.

Our cleansing has brought us to the outskirts of Värmland County, and there are rumors flying everywhere that High Command is planning something huge, should the monsters remain as quiet as they have so far. One wild tale I heard bruited was that we would soon be cleansing Karlstad, of all places!

I should explain, as you are probably unconcerned with places so far away when you have so much to deal with at home. Karlstad was one of the Great Old Cities, sitting where our longest river meets our greatest lake. The Dalahästen runs nearby, but not close enough to justify retaking the city. If anything, the city of Kristinehamn would be a better choice, as it all but abuts the line. But such matters are not for me to say.

If you would be so kind as to send me a few lines in return on how things go with you and yours, I would be most appreciative. My Uncle Torbjörn and Aunt Siv send their regards.

Your friend,
Emil “the Messy Swede” Västerström
*
Year 105, Summer

Lalli,

Pass along my thanks to Tuuri for the long letter on all the comings and goings at Keuruu. We have been preparing so intensely for this next cycle that sometimes it seems to fill our whole world, and so it is good to hear of the “mundane” things still going on outside. During a recent mess-time, I read the part about Onni and the Cursed Machine to my table-mates; upon looking up, I found the whole company was gathered ‘round to hear. I have since read other parts to them; it’s become a silly little tradition among us.

It would seem some of the rumors have been borne out: we are, indeed, to try to retake Kristinehamn in this cycle, as a preliminary to our long-term goal of Karlstad. The man from the High Command had an odd, feverish glint in his eyes when he told our assembly this, and that perhaps was why my stomach lurched. I cannot help but think that High Command may be planning to overreach itself--but, in the end, they know best what the Cleansers as a whole can do.

Your compliments on my improved Finnish writing are, naturally, undeserved: there’s a nice young woman in my unit who translates both Finnish and Icelandic for me, a Fenno-Swede who joined the Cleansers a year or two back. In many ways, she reminds me of you and Tuuri. (The last sentence made her blush.)

Please do not take my praise of Tuuri’s loquacious letter as a criticism of your own; I’m happy to read even the briefest of lines from you.

Your Cleanser friend,
Emil Västerström


Spoiler: show

And no, you'll never see Lalli's or Tuuri's letters.


Ooh, I like!
(I'm imagining this as Emil writing letters to Lalli and Tuuri and only Tuuri responding. Or else he gets a letter that just says "fine" whenever he asks Lalli how he's doing. :P )
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Mélusine on June 29, 2015, 01:05:00 PM
I also see that there has been a lot of, um, darker fics around here lately? I'm not gonna read angstfics, sorry, that's a haiz thing haiz can't read angstfics
Which means I'm starting to feel like it's my duty to come up with more High School AU shenanigans to balance it out a little, and... I have several plans in the works - there will be more Sigrun and Mikkel, IKEA will be involved, teenagers being awkward... I have the PLANS, but I gotta WRITE them, and I have a lot of projects going on lately, in addition to work, so.... it goes slow, I'm sorry. I never thought I'd have an actual readership, you see. But I promise there will be more, and hopefully not super late~
Oh yes please, something more... more... something different. Even later. But something different. Thank. (Which traumatism ? This fic doesn't exist, neither the other before. Haha.)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: misea on June 29, 2015, 05:02:12 PM
Also I can't stop thinking about a SSSS/A:TLA crossover (not sure if you guys know about A:TLA? It was a pretty popular cartoon a few years back), though more in a I-want-to-draw-that way rather than a writing thing. Just.. Sigrun the avatar? And Lalli would be a waterbender or something, with Tuuri as his nonbender cousin from the water tribe, and Mikkel as this stone-faced, grumpy earthbender, and Emil the firebender, and Reynir one of the air nomads? I'm unreasonably excited about this, idk.

The shenanigans they'd get into XD Oh man

Which means I'm starting to feel like it's my duty to come up with more High School AU shenanigans to balance it out a little, and... I have several plans in the works - there will be more Sigrun and Mikkel, IKEA will be involved, teenagers being awkward... I have the PLANS, but I gotta WRITE them, and I have a lot of projects going on lately, in addition to work, so.... it goes slow, I'm sorry. I never thought I'd have an actual readership, you see. But I promise there will be more, and hopefully not super late~

*squeals a lot* NON-ANGSTY, FLUFFY FICS YES (also your AU is absolutely adorable, I've read through several times now)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solovei on June 29, 2015, 05:09:25 PM
*squeals a lot* NON-ANGSTY, FLUFFY FICS YES (also your AU is absolutely adorable, I've read through several times now)
If you guys want that, you should go look at my AO3
That's basically all I write >_>
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: misea on June 29, 2015, 05:23:18 PM
SECTOBOSS WHY

I'm gonna go read some fluffy fics now T_T
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on June 29, 2015, 05:24:57 PM
SECTOBOSS WHY

I'm gonna go read some fluffy fics now T_T

Huh? What? What did I do now??
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: misea on June 29, 2015, 05:26:37 PM
EMIIIIIIL

I AM 500% NOT OKAY
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on June 29, 2015, 05:36:33 PM
EMIIIIIIL

I AM 500% NOT OKAY

Emil what? What have I done? I am genuinely not sure what you're referring to here!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Haiz on June 29, 2015, 05:49:08 PM
maybe someone didn't notice the last chapter of the pacific rim fic
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Noodles on June 29, 2015, 05:51:59 PM
maybe someone didn't notice the last chapter of the pacific rim fic
Ooh, me! me! I noticed it! It was really good. Even though I've not seen Pacific Rim, heh.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on June 29, 2015, 05:56:26 PM
maybe someone didn't notice the last chapter of the pacific rim fic

Oh for... SPOILERS HE'S FINE GUYS /SPOILERS

I'm not into that kind of fanfic (only the threat of it?)

Ooh, me! me! I noticed it! It was really good. Even though I've not seen Pacific Rim, heh.

Yay! Thanks! (and thanks to Russet and Róisín while I'm at it!) You should totally watch it!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: misea on June 29, 2015, 06:12:45 PM
*facepalms* I can't believe I didn't see the "Next Chapter" button and I can't believe I'm not fully awake still I've been up for three hours

*crawls under blankets in embarrassment*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on June 29, 2015, 06:21:22 PM
*facepalms* I can't believe I didn't see the "Next Chapter" button and I can't believe I'm not fully awake still I've been up for three hours

*crawls under blankets in embarrassment*

Ah, it's fine. To be honest, I was mostly worried I'd written something that someone really didn't like!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on June 29, 2015, 09:56:28 PM
Correspondence
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Part II
Spoiler: show
Year 106, Winter

Lalli,

I don’t know whether this will reach you, but I desired to try, at least, to let you know why your letters have gone unanswered for so long. I hope to still be alive when you read this, but I cannot guarantee it.

They sent us to Karlstad, against all sanity, and of course this has been the mildest, warmest winter since Kastrup--which this all too closely resembles, believe me. My unit has had the fortune to take and garrison one of the islets, where we’ve made a redoubt--our own version of a nest, if you will. Many times, we have had to sortie to the main city in aid of our fellows there, or simply to keep our connections open to the rest.

The monsters have decided to make up for last year’s inactivity, and then some. We are surrounded and under near-constant assault, even here on the islet. Fortunately, almost the whole of the Cleansers are here, so all the best fighters and leaders are with us, which helps. Unfortunately, almost the whole of the Cleansers are here, so there’s no one left to come get us. It has been noticed that none of the High Command have graced us with their presence for quite some time.

Let Tuuri know I’m still reading bits of her letters to the unit; it seems more and more essential as our circumstances worsen. And of course I treasure your notes as well. Hopefully, you’ll receive this and know that.

Your imperiled Cleanser friend,
Emil Västerström

*
Year 106, Spring

Lalli,

Well, we survived, thanks to winter finally arriving. When it finally came, it came with a vengeance. Many people are saying the storm we escaped through was the worst since Before the Rash, though how they’d know is anyone’s guess. It was certainly fierce enough to cover our mad flight back to Kristinehamn and safety. It was rather odd in how it seemed to spring up from nowhere, but nonetheless welcome, for all that. You might call it 'the gods deigning to smile upon the godless Swedes', or some such.

They’re calling me ‘the Hero of Karlstad’, if you can believe it, when all I did was to ensure we all ran away safely: first, after the Command Post was destroyed, to my islet redoubt with as many of the other groups as we could get to; and second, out of the city completely once the weather turned in our favor. No, the heroes of Karlstad were those who we had to leave behind: almost half of the entire Cleanser organization, sent to fight and die like rats in a trap.

I shall not bother you with more of these maudlin sentiments; suffice it to say that I am still whole in body, unlike many of my fellows, such as my Fenno-Swede friend who helps me write to you, Marta Kiianmies. She was badly wounded in her left leg during the great retreat, and it will probably need to be amputated. So much has been lost.

My own Finnish reading is much improved; I’ve been studying a ragged old copy of the Kalevala now and again, as well as a book of old Finn proverbs. It makes re-reading your letters much nicer. As for writing, I’m still dependent upon Marta for most of the correct declensions, as you Finns seem to love them so.

I’m glad you’re still writing back, and I hope we can arrange to see each other someday. You’ve already seen Mora, so by rights I should come to Finland, either to Keuruu or to Saimaa. Well, we’ll see what happens when my life slows down a bit in Summertime.

Your Cleanser friend,
Emil Västerström

Author's Notes:
Spoiler: show

About Emil's writing:
In that first letter, he was proverbially sweating blood hoping that Lalli would write back ("We're still friends, right? Right?"), so he was much more formal than he might otherwise be. He's getting better, though.

This is set in the same "continuity" as "The Forest, the Flames, and the Old, Old Man", so they should fit together, character-wise.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Soikia on June 30, 2015, 02:49:50 AM
My writings a little rusty because I haven't written in like....6 - 7 months.
I've had a headcanon about how the others could communicate with Lalli, I decided to use Emil because I honestly feel like he's the only character I can write right now  :-\
Sorry if it's a bit out of character! I'd love any constructive criticism you may have for me;;

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4239321 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/4239321)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Russet on June 30, 2015, 05:13:57 AM
Correspondence
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Part II
SAD THINGS, OH NO. D:
but also Emil the Hero of Karlstad, hmm. He sure seems to have become a lot more humble, at least!

Oh, SectoBoss, by the way, thank you again for writing that amazing Pacific Rim crossover, the atmosphere and everything was so perfect eeeh.
As well as Haiz for the amazing A:TLA art? They look so cute I want to pinch their cheeks.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: KMK on June 30, 2015, 06:15:48 AM
Ah, it's fine. To be honest, I was mostly worried I'd written something that someone really didn't like!

Are you kidding?! Your crossover now has me wanting to look up Pacific Rim.

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: AquaAurion on June 30, 2015, 07:16:45 AM
The Pacific Rim crossover is finished! Two chapters this time, as the last one’s barely a page long:

http://archiveofourown.org/works/3803176/chapters/9575058

This started out as a fun little idea from Haiz on the crossover thread and somehow snowballed over several months into the nigh-on-20,000 word monster before you. How, I have no idea. But I would just like to say thanks to Haiz for hir endless support as I bumbled through it, and also to everyone who said Nice Things about it on AO3 and in the scriptorium here.

I hope you like it!
This was amazing, thank you!
I think I stopped breathing for a moment as I reached the end of the fourth chapter. I really enjoyed how you wrote everyone, they felt very in character :) The inclusion of Reynir in the airship was really nice (helping Sigrun of all people) xD


Correspondence
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Part II
Spoiler: show
Year 106, Winter

Lalli,

I don’t know whether this will reach you, but I desired to try, at least, to let you know why your letters have gone unanswered for so long. I hope to still be alive when you read this, but I cannot guarantee it.

They sent us to Karlstad, against all sanity, and of course this has been the mildest, warmest winter since Kastrup--which this all too closely resembles, believe me. My unit has had the fortune to take and garrison one of the islets, where we’ve made a redoubt--our own version of a nest, if you will. Many times, we have had to sortie to the main city in aid of our fellows there, or simply to keep our connections open to the rest.

The monsters have decided to make up for last year’s inactivity, and then some. We are surrounded and under near-constant assault, even here on the islet. Fortunately, almost the whole of the Cleansers are here, so all the best fighters and leaders are with us, which helps. Unfortunately, almost the whole of the Cleansers are here, so there’s no one left to come get us. It has been noticed that none of the High Command have graced us with their presence for quite some time.

Let Tuuri know I’m still reading bits of her letters to the unit; it seems more and more essential as our circumstances worsen. And of course I treasure your notes as well. Hopefully, you’ll receive this and know that.

Your imperiled Cleanser friend,
Emil Västerström

*
Year 106, Spring

Lalli,

Well, we survived, thanks to winter finally arriving. When it finally came, it came with a vengeance. Many people are saying the storm we escaped through was the worst since Before the Rash, though how they’d know is anyone’s guess. It was certainly fierce enough to cover our mad flight back to Kristinehamn and safety.

They’re calling me ‘the Hero of Karlstad’, if you can believe it, when all I did was to ensure we all ran away safely: first, after the Command Post was destroyed, to my islet redoubt with as many of the other groups as we could get to; and second, out of the city completely once the weather turned in our favor. No, the heroes of Karlstad were those who we had to leave behind: almost half of the entire Cleanser organization, sent to fight and die like rats in a trap.

I shall not bother you with more of these maudlin sentiments; suffice it to say that I am still whole in body, unlike many of my fellows, such as my Fenno-Swede friend who helps me write to you, Marta Kiianmies. She was badly wounded in her left leg during the great retreat, and it will probably need to be amputated. So much has been lost.

My own Finnish reading is much improved; I’ve been studying a ragged old copy of the Kalevala now and again, as well as a book of old Finn proverbs. It makes re-reading your letters much nicer. As for writing, I’m still dependent upon Marta for most of the correct declensions, as you Finns seem to love them so.

I’m glad you’re still writing back, and I hope we can arrange to see each other someday. You’ve already seen Mora, so by rights I should come to Finland, either to Keuruu or to Saimaa. Well, we’ll see what happens when my life slows down a bit in Summertime.

Your Cleanser friend,
Emil Västerström

Author's Notes:
Spoiler: show

About Emil's writing:
In that first letter, he was proverbially sweating blood hoping that Lalli would write back ("We're still friends, right? Right?"), so he was much more formal than he might otherwise be. He's getting better, though.

This is set in the same "continuity" as "The Forest, the Flames, and the Old, Old Man", so they should fit together, character-wise.

I like this style of writing, where you have to guess what's happening and what both Tuuri and Lalli have been writing :)


My writings a little rusty because I haven't written in like....6 - 7 months.
I've had a headcanon about how the others could communicate with Lalli, I decided to use Emil because I honestly feel like he's the only character I can write right now  :-\
Sorry if it's a bit out of character! I'd love any constructive criticism you may have for me;;

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4239321 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/4239321)
It's very sweet :) I love everyday scenes like this with the crew ^w^
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Russet on June 30, 2015, 07:46:42 AM
My writings a little rusty because I haven't written in like....6 - 7 months.
I've had a headcanon about how the others could communicate with Lalli, I decided to use Emil because I honestly feel like he's the only character I can write right now  :-\
Sorry if it's a bit out of character! I'd love any constructive criticism you may have for me;;

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4239321 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/4239321)
There were a few grammatical errors here and there (I think 'picking up a pen greatly' was mentioned) but it was a really cute fic! which is lovely right around this time when there are so many angsty fics floating around, haha.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solovei on June 30, 2015, 11:29:31 AM
My writings a little rusty because I haven't written in like....6 - 7 months.
I've had a headcanon about how the others could communicate with Lalli, I decided to use Emil because I honestly feel like he's the only character I can write right now  :-\
Sorry if it's a bit out of character! I'd love any constructive criticism you may have for me;;

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4239321 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/4239321)
I agree with Russet, I spotted a few grammatical errors and some awkwardly phrased sentences, but other than that it's good!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Soikia on June 30, 2015, 01:43:32 PM
I agree with Russet, I spotted a few grammatical errors and some awkwardly phrased sentences, but other than that it's good!

There were a few grammatical errors here and there (I think 'picking up a pen greatly' was mentioned) but it was a really cute fic! which is lovely right around this time when there are so many angsty fics floating around, haha.

Ahh thanks you two! Rereading it, I can see a few errors that I didn't catch last night;; thanks for saying that otherwise I wouldn't go back and check for any grammatical errors hah
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on July 01, 2015, 12:06:46 AM
Did somebody say light and fluffy?

It's lighter than last part, OK?

Correspondence
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Part III
Spoiler: show
Year 106, Summer

Lalli,

My worst fears have been realized. I shan’t be able to visit your undoubtedly lovely country for quite some time, as I have just been ‘promoted’ to a supposedly high-level position in the Recruiting Section; but with duties not unlike those I had upon our return, it would appear I’m to be a glorified trained monkey at various ‘events’ across Sweden for the foreseeable future. If I enclosed a copy of my weekly schedule, you simply wouldn’t believe it.

It seems my reward for ‘saving the Karlstad Expedition’ is to be desk-bound hereafter. Your point that no one likes to be made to look a fool, especially when true, has decidedly been borne out. Somehow, most of the bunglers at High Command have survived the disaster, and have had the effrontery to force me to join their ranks. I shall be watchful, as you have advised, though; if they try to make me complicit in another Karlstad, I shall slither out of it as easily as they did.

The one bright spot in my assignment is Marta. She wound up losing the leg, and can no longer serve in the ranks, so I made her my administrative assistant. She is also useful as a visual reminder, both to me and to others, of what so many Cleansers have sacrificed for Sweden.

As you can tell by this I encountered, my Finnish improves, but much slowly. Marta wanted to place upright that last, but I want you seen my unhelped words, silly as they are. Please continue writing, even if I’m slow to answer.

Your Cleanser friend,
Emil Västerström

*
Year 106, Fall

Lalli,

So...

Um.

Marta and I are wed!

I’m still a little stunned by how quickly it all went, honestly. We were just kind of resting between ‘events’ in the office one day, talking over the schedules, and suddenly I somehow asked, and she accepted. After that, I’m not sure either of us had time to take a breath before the ‘honeymoon’, which was entirely PR-driven, of course.

We still plan to go to Finland at the next opportunity, naturally. Marta wants to meet you, and I definitely want you to meet her. The higher-ups will have to give us some time off soon, and we have more than enough funds, so look for another letter with our itinerary soon!

Your Cleanser friend,
Emil Västerström

Author's Notes:
Spoiler: show

Last part:
So, I kind of intended to imply that Lalli got the crisis letter and sent a storm to help. Should I have added a line like, "Funny how the storm came out of nowhere" to assist that?

This part:
So Murphy has been invoked.
The typos in Summer's last paragraph are courtesy experimentation on Google Translate.

Overall:
In this, I'm trying to show how Emil's life experiences are gradually souring him on the idea of 'image' (as opposed to reality), even as his own image grows in the public eye--unassisted by him; he'd bungle it if he actually tried for it.
There are good and bad times yet to come.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Sunflower on July 01, 2015, 12:58:26 AM
Did somebody say light and fluffy?

It's lighter than last part, OK?

Correspondence
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Part III
Spoiler: show
Year 106, Summer

Lalli,

My worst fears have been realized. I shan’t be able to visit your undoubtedly lovely country for quite some time, as I have just been ‘promoted’ to a supposedly high-level position in the Recruiting Section; but with duties not unlike those I had upon our return, it would appear I’m to be a glorified trained monkey at various ‘events’ across Sweden for the foreseeable future. If I enclosed a copy of my weekly schedule, you simply wouldn’t believe it.

It seems my reward for ‘saving the Karlstad Expedition’ is to be desk-bound hereafter. Your point that no one likes to be made to look a fool, especially when true, has decidedly been borne out. Somehow, most of the bunglers at High Command have survived the disaster, and have had the effrontery to force me to join their ranks. I shall be watchful, as you have advised, though; if they try to make me complicit in another Karlstad, I shall slither out of it as easily as they did.

The one bright spot in my assignment is Marta. She wound up losing the leg, and can no longer serve in the ranks, so I made her my administrative assistant. She is also useful as a visual reminder, both to me and to others, of what so many Cleansers have sacrificed for Sweden.

As you can tell by this I encountered, my Finnish improves, but much slowly. Marta wanted to place upright that last, but I want you seen my unhelped words, silly as they are. Please continue writing, even if I’m slow to answer.

Your Cleanser friend,
Emil Västerström

*
Year 106, Fall

Lalli,

So...

Um.

Marta and I are wed!

I’m still a little stunned by how quickly it all went, honestly. We were just kind of resting between ‘events’ in the office one day, talking over the schedules, and suddenly I somehow asked, and she accepted. After that, I’m not sure either of us had time to take a breath before the ‘honeymoon’, which was entirely PR-driven, of course.

We still plan to go to Finland at the next opportunity, naturally. Marta wants to meet you, and I definitely want you to meet her. The higher-ups will have to give us some time off soon, and we have more than enough funds, so look for another letter with our itinerary soon!

Your Cleanser friend,
Emil Västerström

Author's Notes:
Spoiler: show

Last part:
So, I kind of intended to imply that Lalli got the crisis letter and sent a storm to help. Should I have added a line like, "Funny how the storm came out of nowhere" to assist that?

This part:
So Murphy has been invoked.
The typos in Summer's last paragraph are courtesy experimentation on Google Translate.

Overall:
In this, I'm trying to show how Emil's life experiences are gradually souring him on the idea of 'image' (as opposed to reality), even as his own image grows in the public eye--unassisted by him; he'd bungle it if he actually tried for it.
There are good and bad times yet to come.


I'm really enjoying the correspondence!  As you point out, Emil is gradually coming to terms with the difference between image and reality.  I like how you're developing his character.

In response to some of the Author's Notes:

Spoiler: show
* I didn't pick up on Lalli supplying the timely winter storm... though of course it makes sense, now that you point it out.  It didn't occur to me his weather control could reach that far, especially to a land full of unbelieving Pompous Swedes.  Maybe a line or two could clarify that for careless readers like me?

* It speaks well of Emil that he didn't choose some prettily dressed little Mora debutante as his wife.  I do wonder whether the decision to propose was the only thing that happened with baffling speed between him and Marta  ;) ... but if you want to look me in the eye and tell me Emil behaved with the gentlemanly reserve of a Jane Austen hero, I'll believe you.

* I like to think that enclosed in the Fall letter is a lavishly engraved announcement (paid for by the Government of Sweden) of the wedding of the two national heroes, "duly celebrated with every circumstance of publicized vulgarity" (Nancy Mitford in The Pursuit of Love).


Keep up the good work!  I'm looking forward to the next chapter. 
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Couch Princess on July 01, 2015, 01:27:51 AM
Fanfiction 15. Someone stop this madness...

I wrote a cheerful little story about Emil and Lalli getting their hands on a frisbee!
Nothing bad happens. Promise.
Would I lie to you?

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4167570

Hope you like it!
I’m so sorry I lied.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWHAAAAAAAAAAAAA YOU LIED

I can't handle things like this!!!! STAAAHAAAAP *cries in the corner*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on July 01, 2015, 01:45:26 AM
In response to some of the Author's Notes:

Spoiler: show
* I didn't pick up on Lalli supplying the timely winter storm... though of course it makes sense, now that you point it out.  It didn't occur to me his weather control could reach that far, especially to a land full of unbelieving Pompous Swedes.  Maybe a line or two could clarify that for careless readers like me?

Spoiler: show

OK.
It was more of a "Have you abandoned us, Winter?" runo, which got the weather gods a bit exercised. ("Oh, he wants WINTER, huh?")

Quote
Spoiler: show
* It speaks well of Emil that he didn't choose some prettily dressed little Mora debutante as his wife.  I do wonder whether the decision to propose was the only thing that happened with baffling speed between him and Marta  ;) ... but if you want to look me in the eye and tell me Emil behaved with the gentlemanly reserve of a Jane Austen hero, I'll believe you.

Spoiler: show

One of the memes of the past is "gal in love with the boss", but modern sexual harassment regulations say, "Not a chance! Lawsuit! String him up!" if he initiates anything. Unfortunately, the public is largely unaware of this, so the meme lives on. Emil acted as a proper employer/superior should, not taking advantage of his position; in fact, I was trying to suggest that M more or less talked/tricked him into proposing, thus his surprise.
After he proposed, however...

Quote
Spoiler: show
* I like to think that enclosed in the Fall letter is a lavishly engraved announcement (paid for by the Government of Sweden) of the wedding of the two national heroes, "duly celebrated with every circumstance of publicized vulgarity" (Nancy Mitford in The Pursuit of Love).


Keep up the good work!  I'm looking forward to the next chapter. 
Spoiler: show

I was going to put a line in one letter about a "revolting propaganda poster" featuring Emil in a "ridiculous, ludicrous and possibly painful" position, killing trolls etc, but I thought his "I'm not a hero" stuff was enough to get the message across.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Sunflower on July 01, 2015, 02:58:56 AM
Spoiler: show

One of the memes of the past is "gal in love with the boss", but modern sexual harassment regulations say, "Not a chance! Lawsuit! String him up!" if he initiates anything. Unfortunately, the public is largely unaware of this, so the meme lives on. Emil acted as a proper employer/superior should, not taking advantage of his position; in fact, I was trying to suggest that M more or less talked/tricked him into proposing, thus his surprise.
After he proposed, however...

Spoiler: show
Don't worry, I didn't think for a second that Emil would ever take advantage of his position.  Not only was he brought up (as I like to think) with a very noblesse oblige attitude that the strong should never prey on the weak, but as a former fat kid he has a core of insecurity that probably still lingers even after 15 years as a successful Cleanser. 

What I *was* thinking, though, is that inhibitions occasionally get lowered between colleagues in times of stress (especially if a bottle of liquor left over from the office Jul party turns up), leading to make-out sessions in the supply closet.  Either the happy couple might then realize they're compatible in other ways too... or Emil, being the lovably old-fashioned dork that he is, might be the last person alive in the Known World who thinks he has to "save the lady's honor" and propose.  (Which Marta might in fact have anticipated.)


Spoiler: show
I was going to put a line in one letter about a "revolting propaganda poster" featuring Emil in a "ridiculous, ludicrous and possibly painful" position, killing trolls etc, but I thought his "I'm not a hero" stuff was enough to get the message across.


Spoiler: show
I MUST SEE THAT POSTER.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Russet on July 01, 2015, 05:29:08 AM
Did somebody say light and fluffy?

It's lighter than last part, OK?

Correspondence
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Part III
Ooh, this is shaping up pretty well! I didn't really catch the winter part either, but other than that I think the letters get general ideas across pretty well. Also, I like the sound of M's character, she sounds very capable and strong-willed.  :)

ALSO @SectoBoss THE FRISBEE FIC. WHY. YOU CUNNING, SLY DEVIL. (but I loved your fic, please write more so I can suffer in anguish!)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Daéa Reina on July 01, 2015, 01:09:00 PM
Did somebody say light and fluffy?

It's lighter than last part, OK?

Correspondence
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Part III
Spoiler: show
Year 106, Summer

Lalli,

My worst fears have been realized. I shan’t be able to visit your undoubtedly lovely country for quite some time, as I have just been ‘promoted’ to a supposedly high-level position in the Recruiting Section; but with duties not unlike those I had upon our return, it would appear I’m to be a glorified trained monkey at various ‘events’ across Sweden for the foreseeable future. If I enclosed a copy of my weekly schedule, you simply wouldn’t believe it.

It seems my reward for ‘saving the Karlstad Expedition’ is to be desk-bound hereafter. Your point that no one likes to be made to look a fool, especially when true, has decidedly been borne out. Somehow, most of the bunglers at High Command have survived the disaster, and have had the effrontery to force me to join their ranks. I shall be watchful, as you have advised, though; if they try to make me complicit in another Karlstad, I shall slither out of it as easily as they did.

The one bright spot in my assignment is Marta. She wound up losing the leg, and can no longer serve in the ranks, so I made her my administrative assistant. She is also useful as a visual reminder, both to me and to others, of what so many Cleansers have sacrificed for Sweden.

As you can tell by this I encountered, my Finnish improves, but much slowly. Marta wanted to place upright that last, but I want you seen my unhelped words, silly as they are. Please continue writing, even if I’m slow to answer.

Your Cleanser friend,
Emil Västerström

*
Year 106, Fall

Lalli,

So...

Um.

Marta and I are wed!

I’m still a little stunned by how quickly it all went, honestly. We were just kind of resting between ‘events’ in the office one day, talking over the schedules, and suddenly I somehow asked, and she accepted. After that, I’m not sure either of us had time to take a breath before the ‘honeymoon’, which was entirely PR-driven, of course.

We still plan to go to Finland at the next opportunity, naturally. Marta wants to meet you, and I definitely want you to meet her. The higher-ups will have to give us some time off soon, and we have more than enough funds, so look for another letter with our itinerary soon!

Your Cleanser friend,
Emil Västerström

Author's Notes:
Spoiler: show

Last part:
So, I kind of intended to imply that Lalli got the crisis letter and sent a storm to help. Should I have added a line like, "Funny how the storm came out of nowhere" to assist that?

This part:
So Murphy has been invoked.
The typos in Summer's last paragraph are courtesy experimentation on Google Translate.

Overall:
In this, I'm trying to show how Emil's life experiences are gradually souring him on the idea of 'image' (as opposed to reality), even as his own image grows in the public eye--unassisted by him; he'd bungle it if he actually tried for it.
There are good and bad times yet to come.


I really like this fic. I love stories that are told in the format of letters.

Spoiler: show
Aha! I saw it coming since the first time Marta appeared. I like how it went down, though.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on July 02, 2015, 02:39:28 AM
Correspondence
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Part IV
Spoiler: show
Year 107, Summer

Lalli,

Enclosed find photo of 7 lbs, 4 oz reason we haven’t made it to Finland yet. We have named him Torbjörn Aukusti Lalli Emil, or Aku.

The day of his birth, nine months to the day after our wedding, was most trying for me, as Marta had a difficult time of it. I very nearly burst with worry before it was over; then, I very nearly burst with pride at the sight of my son.

My son.

I could fill page after page about him, if he’d let me with his constant infant demands. Of course, Marta’s hand would fall off from translating it all, but she’d do it anyway to crow about little Aku. I shall keep this brief, though, for all our sakes.

He’s quite curious about the unfamiliar world around him, and sometimes it’s a delight to just watch him work something out. He’s also trying to ensure neither of us sleeps until he’s a teen, which almost keeps me from going insane with fear. Will I be a good father to him? He’s so tiny.

As I mentioned, the pregnancy and delivery were difficult for Marta, and we’ve had a succession of idiot teens in to try to aid her with the babe. Oh, how I wish I could find someone with their stamina but the wisdom of Marta’s old, narcoleptic nanny! My uncle Torbjörn, of all people, has been trying to assist (though it may be because the teens, though idiots, are well-favored enough, and poor Siv dead nearly a year now), but he also wears out quickly.

Will try to send more letters as time permits.

Your sleep-deprived friend,
Emil Västerström

*
Year 108, Winter

Lalli,

Well, Aku enjoyed your last letter so much that we had to rescue it from him no less than three times yesterday. Fortunately, I transcribed it after the first incident, so its ragged corners represent less of a loss than otherwise. I’ve adopted the habit of transcribing our complete correspondence in a journal of sorts; it’s really the closest thing to a diary that I’ve ever kept, and I enjoy rereading some of our older exchanges every now and again.

As you will see by the changed return address, my small family has moved to Sollerön, as I feel the need to ensure that my travels are constrained once I must resume my duties, and the mandatory 2 week entry quarantine would assist in that. The people here are rather snobbish, but my status as “the face of the Cleansers” has ensured that Marta and I are not unwelcome. Also, I was surprised by how many discreet inquiries I’ve received on joining the Cleansers. There may be more opportunities close to home for me to fulfill my duties than I’d supposed.

Tell Tuuri her hot mash recipe went over splendidly. Marta and I felt better after eating it than in a long time. Of course, the cook turned her nose up at it; it seems even the servants on Sollerön are snobs. Oddly enough, though, the teens are just a hair less idiotic, which helps.

Obviously going to Finland now is out of the question, but I think that once Aku reaches a certain age, showing him another nation, with its different ways of life and all, might be a very good thing for him. Perhaps when he’s eight or ten?

Your Cleanser friend,
Emil Västerström

Author's notes:
Spoiler: show

This is probably the nicest Murphy's ever been.
Aku was Marta's dad's name.

Spoiler: show
I MUST SEE THAT POSTER.

Spoiler: show
Anybody out there willing to draw it up, PM me for details. Otherwise, it can't happen.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Russet on July 02, 2015, 07:38:48 AM
Correspondence
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Part IV
Spoiler: show
Eeeh! Can just imagine the adorable little baby, plus he has Lalli has one of his middle names! :D
I like how Emil's developed to the point where he's no longer one of the snobbish people that would look down on a Finnish hot mash recipe.
I feel like all the fluff and happy things are maybe building up to yet another apocalypse thing? hmm.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: RandomTexanReader on July 03, 2015, 02:00:24 AM
Post-page 354, because I'm not sad enough.
Spoiler: show

"How could you do that?" Emil shouted, "You were supposed to help her!"
Mikkel shook his head. "There was nothing I could do. It's better this way."
"What are you talking about? You... you could have stitched her, and..."
"Emil, there was nothing to stitch."
Sigrun stood up. "Animals die sometimes, kid. It happens."
"But it didn't have to!" Emil felt tears coming to his eyes, which only made him angrier. "She was alive, and you killed her. She had a chance, and you took it away!"
Mikkel was shaking his head before he finished. "It didn't have a chance."
"Shut up!" Emil yelled, "She did, she did, she did!"
"Emil." There was a warning note in Sigrun's voice.
Emil swore, his voice breaking, and turned back to the kitten, blinking hard in a vain effort to keep the tears from falling.
After a short silence, Mikkel said, "Listen. Let's say that I did try to save it. I spend hours trying to stitch it back together and reconstitute the missing flesh, using our limited medical supplies in the process, supplies that we'll probably need for ourselves. Let's pretend, just for the sake of argument, that the cat survives the surgery, that it survives the amount of blood loss it's sustained, as well as the shock and trauma. Even then, there's no guarantee that it would live through the night. Then what? We've got a feral cat, stitched together, still in horrific pain, with no idea what's going on. As far as it's concerned, we're all a threat to it. It would only be terrified and in pain, and probably end up killing itself trying to escape. The cat would die either way, Emil. I just made sure that it died quickly, with as little pain and fear as possible."
"It didn't have to die," Emil whispered.
He flinched as a heavy hand descended upon his shoulder.
Mikkel's voice was serious. "Everything has to die, Emil. All I can do is postpone it sometimes. And sometimes I can't even do that."
"Why don't you go and get some sleep, kid," Sigrun said softly, "I'll take care of the kitten."
Emil handed the piece of tuna to her and stormed out, wiping his eyes on his sleeve.
Mikkel shook his head as he watched Emil go. "He's such a child."
"Oh, come on," muttered Sigrun, bending over the sleeping kitten, "Like you didn't get torn up over the first cat you lost."
Mikkel fondled the pitiful carcass's fur. "Yeah."
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: DancingRanger on July 03, 2015, 03:00:40 AM
Post-page 354, because I'm not sad enough.
Spoiler: show

"How could you do that?" Emil shouted, "You were supposed to help her!"
Mikkel shook his head. "There was nothing I could do. It's better this way."
"What are you talking about? You... you could have stitched her, and..."
"Emil, there was nothing to stitch."
Sigrun stood up. "Animals die sometimes, kid. It happens."
"But it didn't have to!" Emil felt tears coming to his eyes, which only made him angrier. "She was alive, and you killed her. She had a chance, and you took it away!"
Mikkel was shaking his head before he finished. "It didn't have a chance."
"Shut up!" Emil yelled, "She did, she did, she did!"
"Emil." There was a warning note in Sigrun's voice.
Emil swore, his voice breaking, and turned back to the kitten, blinking hard in a vain effort to keep the tears from falling.
After a short silence, Mikkel said, "Listen. Let's say that I did try to save it. I spend hours trying to stitch it back together and reconstitute the missing flesh, using our limited medical supplies in the process, supplies that we'll probably need for ourselves. Let's pretend, just for the sake of argument, that the cat survives the surgery, that it survives the amount of blood loss it's sustained, as well as the shock and trauma. Even then, there's no guarantee that it would live through the night. Then what? We've got a feral cat, stitched together, still in horrific pain, with no idea what's going on. As far as it's concerned, we're all a threat to it. It would only be terrified and in pain, and probably end up killing itself trying to escape. The cat would die either way, Emil. I just made sure that it died quickly, with as little pain and fear as possible."
"It didn't have to die," Emil whispered.
He flinched as a heavy hand descended upon his shoulder.
Mikkel's voice was serious. "Everything has to die, Emil. All I can do is postpone it sometimes. And sometimes I can't even do that."
"Why don't you go and get some sleep, kid," Sigrun said softly, "I'll take care of the kitten."
Emil handed the piece of incense to her and stormed out, wiping his eyes on his sleeve.
Mikkel shook his head as he watched Emil go. "He's such a child."
"Oh, come on," muttered Sigrun, bending over the sleeping kitten, "Like you didn't get torn up over the first cat you lost."
Mikkel fondled the pitiful carcass's fur. "Yeah."


Nicely written. Now if you'll excuse me I think I'm gonna snuggle my kitten for a bit.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Sunflower on July 03, 2015, 03:15:36 AM
Post-page 354, because I'm not sad enough.
Spoiler: show

"How could you do that?" Emil shouted, "You were supposed to help her!"
Mikkel shook his head. "There was nothing I could do. It's better this way."
"What are you talking about? You... you could have stitched her, and..."
"Emil, there was nothing to stitch."
Sigrun stood up. "Animals die sometimes, kid. It happens."
"But it didn't have to!" Emil felt tears coming to his eyes, which only made him angrier. "She was alive, and you killed her. She had a chance, and you took it away!"
Mikkel was shaking his head before he finished. "It didn't have a chance."
"Shut up!" Emil yelled, "She did, she did, she did!"
"Emil." There was a warning note in Sigrun's voice.
Emil swore, his voice breaking, and turned back to the kitten, blinking hard in a vain effort to keep the tears from falling.
After a short silence, Mikkel said, "Listen. Let's say that I did try to save it. I spend hours trying to stitch it back together and reconstitute the missing flesh, using our limited medical supplies in the process, supplies that we'll probably need for ourselves. Let's pretend, just for the sake of argument, that the cat survives the surgery, that it survives the amount of blood loss it's sustained, as well as the shock and trauma. Even then, there's no guarantee that it would live through the night. Then what? We've got a feral cat, stitched together, still in horrific pain, with no idea what's going on. As far as it's concerned, we're all a threat to it. It would only be terrified and in pain, and probably end up killing itself trying to escape. The cat would die either way, Emil. I just made sure that it died quickly, with as little pain and fear as possible."
"It didn't have to die," Emil whispered.
He flinched as a heavy hand descended upon his shoulder.
Mikkel's voice was serious. "Everything has to die, Emil. All I can do is postpone it sometimes. And sometimes I can't even do that."
"Why don't you go and get some sleep, kid," Sigrun said softly, "I'll take care of the kitten."
Emil handed the piece of incense to her and stormed out, wiping his eyes on his sleeve.
Mikkel shook his head as he watched Emil go. "He's such a child."
"Oh, come on," muttered Sigrun, bending over the sleeping kitten, "Like you didn't get torn up over the first cat you lost."
Mikkel fondled the pitiful carcass's fur. "Yeah."


Awww.  Perfect.  And totally in character.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: KMK on July 03, 2015, 03:58:47 AM
Post-page 354, because I'm not sad enough.
Spoiler: show

"How could you do that?" Emil shouted, "You were supposed to help her!"
Mikkel shook his head. "There was nothing I could do. It's better this way."
"What are you talking about? You... you could have stitched her, and..."
"Emil, there was nothing to stitch."
Sigrun stood up. "Animals die sometimes, kid. It happens."
"But it didn't have to!" Emil felt tears coming to his eyes, which only made him angrier. "She was alive, and you killed her. She had a chance, and you took it away!"
Mikkel was shaking his head before he finished. "It didn't have a chance."
"Shut up!" Emil yelled, "She did, she did, she did!"
"Emil." There was a warning note in Sigrun's voice.
Emil swore, his voice breaking, and turned back to the kitten, blinking hard in a vain effort to keep the tears from falling.
After a short silence, Mikkel said, "Listen. Let's say that I did try to save it. I spend hours trying to stitch it back together and reconstitute the missing flesh, using our limited medical supplies in the process, supplies that we'll probably need for ourselves. Let's pretend, just for the sake of argument, that the cat survives the surgery, that it survives the amount of blood loss it's sustained, as well as the shock and trauma. Even then, there's no guarantee that it would live through the night. Then what? We've got a feral cat, stitched together, still in horrific pain, with no idea what's going on. As far as it's concerned, we're all a threat to it. It would only be terrified and in pain, and probably end up killing itself trying to escape. The cat would die either way, Emil. I just made sure that it died quickly, with as little pain and fear as possible."
"It didn't have to die," Emil whispered.
He flinched as a heavy hand descended upon his shoulder.
Mikkel's voice was serious. "Everything has to die, Emil. All I can do is postpone it sometimes. And sometimes I can't even do that."
"Why don't you go and get some sleep, kid," Sigrun said softly, "I'll take care of the kitten."
Emil handed the piece of tuna to her and stormed out, wiping his eyes on his sleeve.
Mikkel shook his head as he watched Emil go. "He's such a child."
"Oh, come on," muttered Sigrun, bending over the sleeping kitten, "Like you didn't get torn up over the first cat you lost."
Mikkel fondled the pitiful carcass's fur. "Yeah."

I love it.

I will see you that and raise this.
Spoiler: show
"NO! NO! You KILLED her!"

Stricken, Emil stared at Mikkel's back. The big man drew in a slow breath.

"Yes," he replied not turning, "It was the only kind thing to do."

"KIND!" Emil lunged forward only to find himself nose to nose with Sigrun. He looked desperately into her eyes for support and only saw sorrow.

"Emil..." she began. Something huge and terrible rose up inside him and he felt like there was no air in the room.

"NO! No! Get away from me!" He ducked out the door into the pouring rain without a thought for his coat and ran. He ran blind. He ran from the terrible pressure in his chest threatening to burst out and consume him. Instinctively ducking the half seen dark forms he wove through the spectral trees.

He ran until stumbled and fell headlong into icy cold water. He flailed trying to get his head up and his legs under him. He half inhaled a gulp of water and began to hack it out. A strong hand grabbed him by his arm and another on his shoulder and hauled him up right and pointed him to the edge of the moat. He hauled himself out on his hands and knees coughing and spitting the last of the muddy water out. He sat back on his heels and looked up at Sigrun.

"There now, have we got that out of your system?" she asked.

The terrible beast roared within him and electrified his arms. It wanted to hit her. It wanted to tear the smile off her face. But NO! Emil forced the beast to turn target. Instead the helpless mud was battered in her place until at last the beast was tearing huge handfuls of sodden grass and roots up and flinging them into the gloom.

The cold rain pelted merciless as well. At last he leaned on his palms gasping aware that he had a tiny river of chill water trickling down his spine. A sharp metallic tang drew him to lick his lips and realize that he had bitten them. He flexed his hands and they were scratched and bruised and he had torn a nail loose. Where had his gloves gone? He looked up to see a mud-spattered Sigrun leaning in to drape his coat over his shoulders.

"Let's go get decontaminated," she said helping him to his feet. "Then we can get some of that hot tuna soup and things will be better. You'll see." Emil nodded,
"My gloves....?" "I've got them," she assured as she guided them back to camp.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on July 03, 2015, 04:50:41 AM
Both of those scenes were well crafted. They catch the feel of a basically kind boy's desperation at running head-on into some of the harsher realities of life.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Laufey on July 03, 2015, 06:20:41 AM
Post-page 354, because I'm not sad enough.
Spoiler: show

"How could you do that?" Emil shouted, "You were supposed to help her!"
Mikkel shook his head. "There was nothing I could do. It's better this way."
"What are you talking about? You... you could have stitched her, and..."
"Emil, there was nothing to stitch."
Sigrun stood up. "Animals die sometimes, kid. It happens."
"But it didn't have to!" Emil felt tears coming to his eyes, which only made him angrier. "She was alive, and you killed her. She had a chance, and you took it away!"
Mikkel was shaking his head before he finished. "It didn't have a chance."
"Shut up!" Emil yelled, "She did, she did, she did!"
"Emil." There was a warning note in Sigrun's voice.
Emil swore, his voice breaking, and turned back to the kitten, blinking hard in a vain effort to keep the tears from falling.
After a short silence, Mikkel said, "Listen. Let's say that I did try to save it. I spend hours trying to stitch it back together and reconstitute the missing flesh, using our limited medical supplies in the process, supplies that we'll probably need for ourselves. Let's pretend, just for the sake of argument, that the cat survives the surgery, that it survives the amount of blood loss it's sustained, as well as the shock and trauma. Even then, there's no guarantee that it would live through the night. Then what? We've got a feral cat, stitched together, still in horrific pain, with no idea what's going on. As far as it's concerned, we're all a threat to it. It would only be terrified and in pain, and probably end up killing itself trying to escape. The cat would die either way, Emil. I just made sure that it died quickly, with as little pain and fear as possible."
"It didn't have to die," Emil whispered.
He flinched as a heavy hand descended upon his shoulder.
Mikkel's voice was serious. "Everything has to die, Emil. All I can do is postpone it sometimes. And sometimes I can't even do that."
"Why don't you go and get some sleep, kid," Sigrun said softly, "I'll take care of the kitten."
Emil handed the piece of tuna to her and stormed out, wiping his eyes on his sleeve.
Mikkel shook his head as he watched Emil go. "He's such a child."
"Oh, come on," muttered Sigrun, bending over the sleeping kitten, "Like you didn't get torn up over the first cat you lost."
Mikkel fondled the pitiful carcass's fur. "Yeah."


That actually didn't make me sadder, instead I started feeling a bit better about the whole cat thing. Very well written, characterization was spot-on and I loved the way they were interacting with each other. You wouldn't happen to have an AO3 account?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: RandomTexanReader on July 03, 2015, 02:59:28 PM
I love it.

I will see you that and raise this.
*heartbreaking fic*
Awww.  Perfect.  And totally in character.
Nicely written. Now if you'll excuse me I think I'm gonna snuggle my kitten for a bit.
That actually didn't make me sadder, instead I started feeling a bit better about the whole cat thing. Very well written, characterization was spot-on and I loved the way they were interacting with each other. You wouldn't happen to have an AO3 account?
Thank y'all so much! *blushes*
And no, Laufey, I don't have an AO3 account. Mostly because my mom has access to everything, so I can just imagine her going "Hm, I wonder if there's anything interesting here?" and yeah. So I'm gonna restrict myself to the forum. :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: KicknRun on July 03, 2015, 03:12:31 PM
Post-page 354, because I'm not sad enough.
Spoiler: show

"How could you do that?" Emil shouted, "You were supposed to help her!"
Mikkel shook his head. "There was nothing I could do. It's better this way."
"What are you talking about? You... you could have stitched her, and..."
"Emil, there was nothing to stitch."
Sigrun stood up. "Animals die sometimes, kid. It happens."
"But it didn't have to!" Emil felt tears coming to his eyes, which only made him angrier. "She was alive, and you killed her. She had a chance, and you took it away!"
Mikkel was shaking his head before he finished. "It didn't have a chance."
"Shut up!" Emil yelled, "She did, she did, she did!"
"Emil." There was a warning note in Sigrun's voice.
Emil swore, his voice breaking, and turned back to the kitten, blinking hard in a vain effort to keep the tears from falling.
After a short silence, Mikkel said, "Listen. Let's say that I did try to save it. I spend hours trying to stitch it back together and reconstitute the missing flesh, using our limited medical supplies in the process, supplies that we'll probably need for ourselves. Let's pretend, just for the sake of argument, that the cat survives the surgery, that it survives the amount of blood loss it's sustained, as well as the shock and trauma. Even then, there's no guarantee that it would live through the night. Then what? We've got a feral cat, stitched together, still in horrific pain, with no idea what's going on. As far as it's concerned, we're all a threat to it. It would only be terrified and in pain, and probably end up killing itself trying to escape. The cat would die either way, Emil. I just made sure that it died quickly, with as little pain and fear as possible."
"It didn't have to die," Emil whispered.
He flinched as a heavy hand descended upon his shoulder.
Mikkel's voice was serious. "Everything has to die, Emil. All I can do is postpone it sometimes. And sometimes I can't even do that."
"Why don't you go and get some sleep, kid," Sigrun said softly, "I'll take care of the kitten."
Emil handed the piece of tuna to her and stormed out, wiping his eyes on his sleeve.
Mikkel shook his head as he watched Emil go. "He's such a child."
"Oh, come on," muttered Sigrun, bending over the sleeping kitten, "Like you didn't get torn up over the first cat you lost."
Mikkel fondled the pitiful carcass's fur. "Yeah."


ni ce
(its not nice at all you horrible monster)

I love it.

I will see you that and raise this.
Spoiler: show
"NO! NO! You KILLED her!"

Stricken, Emil stared at Mikkel's back. The big man drew in a slow breath.

"Yes," he replied not turning, "It was the only kind thing to do."

"KIND!" Emil lunged forward only to find himself nose to nose with Sigrun. He looked desperately into her eyes for support and only saw sorrow.

"Emil..." she began. Something huge and terrible rose up inside him and he felt like there was no air in the room.

"NO! No! Get away from me!" He ducked out the door into the pouring rain without a thought for his coat and ran. He ran blind. He ran from the terrible pressure in his chest threatening to burst out and consume him. Instinctively ducking the half seen dark forms he wove through the spectral trees.

He ran until stumbled and fell headlong into icy cold water. He flailed trying to get his head up and his legs under him. He half inhaled a gulp of water and began to hack it out. A strong hand grabbed him by his arm and another on his shoulder and hauled him up right and pointed him to the edge of the moat. He hauled himself out on his hands and knees coughing and spitting the last of the muddy water out. He sat back on his heels and looked up at Sigrun.

"There now, have we got that out of your system?" she asked.

The terrible beast roared within him and electrified his arms. It wanted to hit her. It wanted to tear the smile off her face. But NO! Emil forced the beast to turn target. Instead the helpless mud was battered in her place until at last the beast was tearing huge handfuls of sodden grass and roots up and flinging them into the gloom.

The cold rain pelted merciless as well. At last he leaned on his palms gasping aware that he had a tiny river of chill water trickling down his spine. A sharp metallic tang drew him to lick his lips and realize that he had bitten them. He flexed his hands and they were scratched and bruised and he had torn a nail loose. Where had his gloves gone? He looked up to see a mud-spattered Sigrun leaning in to drape his coat over his shoulders.

"Let's go get decontaminated," she said helping him to his feet. "Then we can get some of that hot tuna soup and things will be better. You'll see." Emil nodded,
"My gloves....?" "I've got them," she assured as she guided them back to camp.


*shoves back down*

It might be a good time to mention that this is my first fandom where the characters make me feel - I'm happy because they're happy, I'm sad because they're sad, If they're in danger I get worried, and its just a nEW FEELING OK.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: RandomTexanReader on July 04, 2015, 12:15:29 AM
Internet is all but dead. Took me an hour well over an hour just to get this one post up. But I needed something a little more cheerful.
 
Spoiler: show

“Here you go, Reynir.”
Accepting the bowl of soup, Reynir smiled and nodded at Tuuri. “Perkele.”
Lalli’s eyes darted up from his soup. Tuuri froze. “What?”
The smile fell off of Reynir’s face and he stammered, “Did… did I say it wrong? I… I thought… I meant to say ‘thank you’–”
Tuuri shook her head. “That doesn’t mean 'thank you’, Reynir, where did–Lalli!” She snatched at her cousin, but he was already gone.

Mikkel was carrying a basket of laundry when Lalli streaked out of the cockpit with a fuming Tuuri close behind. Lalli ducked behind Mikkel, using the big man as a shield as Tuuri scolded him furiously in Finnish. Tucking the basket under one arm, Mikkel collared the skinny scout and addressed Tuuri. “What’s going on?”
“What’s–He…” Tuuri spluttered, pink with indignation, “he taught Reynir a bad word and he thinks it’s funny and-” she lapsed back into angry Finnish, shaking her fist at Lalli, who was blatantly unrepentant.
Mikkel waited until she paused, panting for breath. “Tuuri,” he said calmly, “It’s okay. All we have to do is make him apologize to Reynir in Icelandic.”
“Fine,” Tuuri huffed, crossing her arms. She addressed herself to Lalli again, ending in Icelandic, “Reynir, I’m sorry.”
“No,” Mikkel corrected her. “That’s not what he’ll say. He’ll say, 'Reynir, I’m stupid.’”
Tuuri blinked, then smiled slowly. She began again.

Lalli had to repeat the phrase a few times, Tuuri correcting his pronunciation. Then when she was satisfied, Mikkel handed him over to her. Taking her cousin by the ear, Tuuri marched the culprit back to Reynir, and made him repeat what he had learned.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: KMK on July 04, 2015, 12:23:55 AM
Internet is all but dead. Took me an hour well over an hour just to get this one post up. But I needed something a little more cheerful.
 
Spoiler: show

“Here you go, Reynir.”
Accepting the bowl of soup, Reynir smiled and nodded at Tuuri. “Perkele.”
Lalli’s eyes darted up from his soup. Tuuri froze. “What?”
The smile fell off of Reynir’s face and he stammered, “Did… did I say it wrong? I… I thought… I meant to say ‘thank you’–”
Tuuri shook her head. “That doesn’t mean 'thank you’, Reynir, where did–Lalli!” She snatched at her cousin, but he was already gone.

Mikkel was carrying a basket of laundry when Lalli streaked out of the cockpit with a fuming Tuuri close behind. Lalli ducked behind Mikkel, using the big man as a shield as Tuuri scolded him furiously in Finnish. Tucking the basket under one arm, Mikkel collared the skinny scout and addressed Tuuri. “What’s going on?”
“What’s–He…” Tuuri spluttered, pink with indignation, “he taught Reynir a bad word and he thinks it’s funny and-” she lapsed back into angry Finnish, shaking her fist at Lalli, who was blatantly unrepentant.
Mikkel waited until she paused, panting for breath. “Tuuri,” he said calmly, “It’s okay. All we have to do is make him apologize to Reynir in Icelandic.”
“Fine,” Tuuri huffed, crossing her arms. She addressed herself to Lalli again, ending in Icelandic, “Reynir, I’m sorry.”
“No,” Mikkel corrected her. “That’s not what he’ll say. He’ll say, 'Reynir, I’m stupid.’”
Tuuri blinked, then smiled slowly. She began again.

Lalli had to repeat the phrase a few times, Tuuri correcting his pronunciation. Then when she was satisfied, Mikkel handed him over to her. Taking her cousin by the ear, Tuuri marched the culprit back to Reynir, and made him repeat what he had learned.


Hehehehehee!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OrigamiOwl on July 04, 2015, 12:55:25 AM
Internet is all but dead. Took me an hour well over an hour just to get this one post up. But I needed something a little more cheerful.
 
Spoiler: show

“Here you go, Reynir.”
Accepting the bowl of soup, Reynir smiled and nodded at Tuuri. “Perkele.”
Lalli’s eyes darted up from his soup. Tuuri froze. “What?”
The smile fell off of Reynir’s face and he stammered, “Did… did I say it wrong? I… I thought… I meant to say ‘thank you’–”
Tuuri shook her head. “That doesn’t mean 'thank you’, Reynir, where did–Lalli!” She snatched at her cousin, but he was already gone.

Mikkel was carrying a basket of laundry when Lalli streaked out of the cockpit with a fuming Tuuri close behind. Lalli ducked behind Mikkel, using the big man as a shield as Tuuri scolded him furiously in Finnish. Tucking the basket under one arm, Mikkel collared the skinny scout and addressed Tuuri. “What’s going on?”
“What’s–He…” Tuuri spluttered, pink with indignation, “he taught Reynir a bad word and he thinks it’s funny and-” she lapsed back into angry Finnish, shaking her fist at Lalli, who was blatantly unrepentant.
Mikkel waited until she paused, panting for breath. “Tuuri,” he said calmly, “It’s okay. All we have to do is make him apologize to Reynir in Icelandic.”
“Fine,” Tuuri huffed, crossing her arms. She addressed herself to Lalli again, ending in Icelandic, “Reynir, I’m sorry.”
“No,” Mikkel corrected her. “That’s not what he’ll say. He’ll say, 'Reynir, I’m stupid.’”
Tuuri blinked, then smiled slowly. She began again.

Lalli had to repeat the phrase a few times, Tuuri correcting his pronunciation. Then when she was satisfied, Mikkel handed him over to her. Taking her cousin by the ear, Tuuri marched the culprit back to Reynir, and made him repeat what he had learned.

*snnnnnrnnrnrnrnrrkkk* muahahahahaha
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Sharion on July 04, 2015, 03:21:27 PM
Internet is all but dead. Took me an hour well over an hour just to get this one post up. But I needed something a little more cheerful.

THIS. :DD

The minutes I spent reading this were pretty much amongst the most best minutes of the whole day. :D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Daéa Reina on July 04, 2015, 03:28:55 PM
Internet is all but dead. Took me an hour well over an hour just to get this one post up. But I needed something a little more cheerful.
 
Spoiler: show

“Here you go, Reynir.”
Accepting the bowl of soup, Reynir smiled and nodded at Tuuri. “Perkele.”
Lalli’s eyes darted up from his soup. Tuuri froze. “What?”
The smile fell off of Reynir’s face and he stammered, “Did… did I say it wrong? I… I thought… I meant to say ‘thank you’–”
Tuuri shook her head. “That doesn’t mean 'thank you’, Reynir, where did–Lalli!” She snatched at her cousin, but he was already gone.

Mikkel was carrying a basket of laundry when Lalli streaked out of the cockpit with a fuming Tuuri close behind. Lalli ducked behind Mikkel, using the big man as a shield as Tuuri scolded him furiously in Finnish. Tucking the basket under one arm, Mikkel collared the skinny scout and addressed Tuuri. “What’s going on?”
“What’s–He…” Tuuri spluttered, pink with indignation, “he taught Reynir a bad word and he thinks it’s funny and-” she lapsed back into angry Finnish, shaking her fist at Lalli, who was blatantly unrepentant.
Mikkel waited until she paused, panting for breath. “Tuuri,” he said calmly, “It’s okay. All we have to do is make him apologize to Reynir in Icelandic.”
“Fine,” Tuuri huffed, crossing her arms. She addressed herself to Lalli again, ending in Icelandic, “Reynir, I’m sorry.”
“No,” Mikkel corrected her. “That’s not what he’ll say. He’ll say, 'Reynir, I’m stupid.’”
Tuuri blinked, then smiled slowly. She began again.

Lalli had to repeat the phrase a few times, Tuuri correcting his pronunciation. Then when she was satisfied, Mikkel handed him over to her. Taking her cousin by the ear, Tuuri marched the culprit back to Reynir, and made him repeat what he had learned.


THIS IS A MASTERPIECE.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solovei on July 04, 2015, 05:25:07 PM
Internet is all but dead. Took me an hour well over an hour just to get this one post up. But I needed something a little more cheerful.
 
Spoiler: show

“Here you go, Reynir.”
Accepting the bowl of soup, Reynir smiled and nodded at Tuuri. “Perkele.”
Lalli’s eyes darted up from his soup. Tuuri froze. “What?”
The smile fell off of Reynir’s face and he stammered, “Did… did I say it wrong? I… I thought… I meant to say ‘thank you’–”
Tuuri shook her head. “That doesn’t mean 'thank you’, Reynir, where did–Lalli!” She snatched at her cousin, but he was already gone.

Mikkel was carrying a basket of laundry when Lalli streaked out of the cockpit with a fuming Tuuri close behind. Lalli ducked behind Mikkel, using the big man as a shield as Tuuri scolded him furiously in Finnish. Tucking the basket under one arm, Mikkel collared the skinny scout and addressed Tuuri. “What’s going on?”
“What’s–He…” Tuuri spluttered, pink with indignation, “he taught Reynir a bad word and he thinks it’s funny and-” she lapsed back into angry Finnish, shaking her fist at Lalli, who was blatantly unrepentant.
Mikkel waited until she paused, panting for breath. “Tuuri,” he said calmly, “It’s okay. All we have to do is make him apologize to Reynir in Icelandic.”
“Fine,” Tuuri huffed, crossing her arms. She addressed herself to Lalli again, ending in Icelandic, “Reynir, I’m sorry.”
“No,” Mikkel corrected her. “That’s not what he’ll say. He’ll say, 'Reynir, I’m stupid.’”
Tuuri blinked, then smiled slowly. She began again.

Lalli had to repeat the phrase a few times, Tuuri correcting his pronunciation. Then when she was satisfied, Mikkel handed him over to her. Taking her cousin by the ear, Tuuri marched the culprit back to Reynir, and made him repeat what he had learned.

XDDD that's amazing~~~
Meanwhile Mikkel wipes a single tear off his cheek and realizes he has found his protege.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: RandomTexanReader on July 04, 2015, 08:20:09 PM
XDDD that's amazing~~~
Meanwhile Mikkel wipes a single tear off his cheek and realizes he has found his protege.
THIS IS A MASTERPIECE.
THIS. :DD

The minutes I spent reading this were pretty much amongst the most best minutes of the whole day. :D
*snnnnnrnnrnrnrnrrkkk* muahahahahaha
Hehehehehee!
Guys, stop, don't encourage me.

I'm convinced that our provider is holding our internet hostage until we shell out more money for their "fiber" service. Negotiations have not yet broken down. As a result, unfortunately, our scanner has departed for the Land Where Appliances Are Eternally Blessed, so until it's revived I can't post my Momma Sigrun sketches or Reynir taking advantage of Daddy Perogative or Austin!Reynir and Mikkel celebrating the first and second amendments, respectively.
However, I can, with tears, time, and various vociferations, post another fic.
Spoiler: show

"Hey, Sigrun."
Sigrun looked up from her jacket, which she was turning all sorts of inside-out. "Hey, Emil. Mikkel's doing laundry again, so if there's anything you want washed--"
"I already took it out to him."
"Okay, cool. I'm just emptying out my pockets, 'cause you know, there's so much that I just sort of stuff in here, and..." she trailed off, and Emil looked over to see the captain gazing a small photograph in her hand. There was a softness about her expression that he'd never seen before, and a small smile played about her lips as she gently touched the surface of the paper.
Then a shout came from outside: "Last call for laundry!"
"I'm coming!" Grabbing the pile of clothes Sigrun all but fell out of the cattank--leaving the photograph behind her.
Emil seized the opportunity, grabbing the photograph. It was of a bearded man in Norwegian military uniform, looking out from the sepia tones with a gap-toothed grin. An answering grin slowly spread over Emil's face and he quickly tucked the picture into his pocket.
He knew exactly who to show the picture to.

"Hey, Tuuri, can I show you something?"
Tuuri looked up from her typewriter, visibly relieved at the interruption. "Sure!"
"Look at this." Emil handed her the photograph.
"Who is it?"
"Sigrun's sweetheart."
Tuuri's eyes widened and she covered her mouth with a gasp. "Oh. My gods. Really?"
"Yeah, she was smiling at it and everything."
Tuuri giggled. "I didn't know she had a sweetie! Aw, and she brought a picture of him? That's so cute!"
Emil laughed too. "I wouldn't have pegged her as the type to have a boyfriend, but I guess so."
"Do you think he's proposed yet? Maybe he's shy."
The door to the cockpit slid open and Sigrun came in with a preoccupied expression and began systematically dismantling the intricate organization system Mikkel had so painstakingly set up over the past couple of days.
Emil winked at Tuuri. "What are you looking for, Sigrun?"
"Hm? Nothing, just--" a stack of books collapsed, and Sigrun began sifting through the ruins, "have you seen a piece of paper? A photograph?"
Emil nudged Tuuri, who was trying to stifle her giggles. "Why? Is it important?"
"Kinda, yeah."
"I bet she wants to put it under her pillow," Emil stage-whispered to Tuuri, "for sweet dreams, if you know what I mean."
Tuuri snickered. "I bet he has a picture of her too!"
"What are you two going on about?" Sigrun asked.
"He's not at all that bad-looking, Sigrun," Emil told her, "Very rugged."
"Where did you meet?" asked Tuuri, "Have you been together long?"
"Has he proposed?"
"He'd be a good catch."
"Oh, she knows that. You should have seen her looking at him earlier."
"Ee! Did she kiss his face?"
"No, she just sort of ran her fingers over it longingly."
"Sig-run and her sweet-ie, sit-ting in a tree... K-I-S-S-I-N-G!" Tuuri and Emil fell about laughing.
Sigrun looked over at the pair in confusion, holding the equivalent of a small library in her arms. "Is this like a Swedish thing or something? Because you kids are making no sense."
Laughing, Emil decided to take mercy on her. "I found the photograph, Sigrun," he said, holding it up. "I didn't even know you had a sweetie."
"I think it's the cutest thing that you brought a picture of him with you," Tuuri added, "it's so romantic."
Sigrun looked at the picture for a minute, still confused.
Then she threw the armful of books onto the floor with a clatter, her face flushing redder than her hair.
"That's my DAD!"
Tuuri and Emil froze.

Finally, Emil whispered, "Please forget everything we said."
"Not. A. Chance," Sigrun snarled, snatching the photograph from his hand.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Mélusine on July 04, 2015, 08:25:02 PM
Guys, stop, don't encourage me.

I'm convinced that our provider is holding our internet hostage until we shell out more money for their "fiber" service. Negotiations have not yet broken down. As a result, unfortunately, our scanner has departed for the Land Where Appliances Are Eternally Blessed, so until it's revived I can't post my Momma Sigrun sketches or Reynir taking advantage of Daddy Perogative or Austin!Reynir and Mikkel celebrating the first and second amendments, respectively.
However, I can, with tears, time, and various vociferations, post another fic.
Spoiler: show

"Hey, Sigrun."
Sigrun looked up from her jacket, which she was turning all sorts of inside-out. "Hey, Emil. Mikkel's doing laundry again, so if there's anything you want washed--"
"I already took it out to him."
"Okay, cool. I'm just emptying out my pockets, 'cause you know, there's so much that I just sort of stuff in here, and..." she trailed off, and Emil looked over to see the captain gazing a small photograph in her hand. There was a softness about her expression that he'd never seen before, and a small smile played about her lips as she gently touched the surface of the paper.
Then a shout came from outside: "Last call for laundry!"
"I'm coming!" Grabbing the pile of clothes Sigrun all but fell out of the cattank--leaving the photograph behind her.
Emil seized the opportunity, grabbing the photograph. It was of a bearded man in Norwegian military uniform, looking out from the sepia tones with a gap-toothed grin. An answering grin slowly spread over Emil's face and he quickly tucked the picture into his pocket.
He knew exactly who to show the picture to.

"Hey, Tuuri, can I show you something?"
Tuuri looked up from her typewriter, visibly relieved at the interruption. "Sure!"
"Look at this." Emil handed her the photograph.
"Who is it?"
"Sigrun's sweetheart."
Tuuri's eyes widened and she covered her mouth with a gasp. "Oh. My gods. Really?"
"Yeah, she was smiling at it and everything."
Tuuri giggled. "I didn't know she had a sweetie! Aw, and she brought a picture of him? That's so cute!"
Emil laughed too. "I wouldn't have pegged her as the type to have a boyfriend, but I guess so."
"Do you think he's proposed yet? Maybe he's shy."
The door to the cockpit slid open and Sigrun came in with a preoccupied expression and began systematically dismantling the intricate organization system Mikkel had so painstakingly set up over the past couple of days.
Emil winked at Tuuri. "What are you looking for, Sigrun?"
"Hm? Nothing, just--" a stack of books collapsed, and Sigrun began sifting through the ruins, "have you seen a piece of paper? A photograph?"
Emil nudged Tuuri, who was trying to stifle her giggles. "Why? Is it important?"
"Kinda, yeah."
"I bet she wants to put it under her pillow," Emil stage-whispered to Tuuri, "for sweet dreams, if you know what I mean."
Tuuri snickered. "I bet he has a picture of her too!"
"What are you two going on about?" Sigrun asked.
"He's not at all that bad-looking, Sigrun," Emil told her, "Very rugged."
"Where did you meet?" asked Tuuri, "Have you been together long?"
"Has he proposed?"
"He'd be a good catch."
"Oh, she knows that. You should have seen her looking at him earlier."
"Ee! Did she kiss his face?"
"No, she just sort of ran her fingers over it longingly."
"Sig-run and her sweet-ie, sit-ting in a tree... K-I-S-S-I-N-G!" Tuuri and Emil fell about laughing.
Sigrun looked over at the pair in confusion, holding the equivalent of a small library in her arms. "Is this like a Swedish thing or something? Because you kids are making no sense."
Laughing, Emil decided to take mercy on her. "I found the photograph, Sigrun," he said, holding it up. "I didn't even know you had a sweetie."
"I think it's the cutest thing that you brought a picture of him with you," Tuuri added, "it's so romantic."
Sigrun looked at the picture for a minute, still confused.
Then she threw the armful of books onto the floor with a clatter, her face flushing redder than her hair.
"That's my DAD!"
Tuuri and Emil froze.

Finally, Emil whispered, "Please forget everything we said."
"Not. A. Chance," Sigrun snarled, snatching the photograph from his hand.
^^ I was sure it will end like that.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Sunflower on July 04, 2015, 08:26:43 PM
Guys, stop, don't encourage me.

I'm convinced that our provider is holding our internet hostage until we shell out more money for their "fiber" service. Negotiations have not yet broken down. As a result, unfortunately, our scanner has departed for the Land Where Appliances Are Eternally Blessed, so until it's revived I can't post my Momma Sigrun sketches or Reynir taking advantage of Daddy Prerogative or Austin!Reynir and Mikkel celebrating the first and second amendments, respectively.
MUST.  SEE.

...Wait.  Nobody celebrating the 21st Amendment? (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twenty-first_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution)  On the Fourth of July?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: RandomTexanReader on July 04, 2015, 08:33:50 PM
MUST.  SEE.

...Wait.  Nobody celebrating the 21st Amendment?  On the Fourth of July? (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twenty-first_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution)
I AM A TERRIBLE AMERICAN I MUST TURN IN MY BALD EAGLE AND GUNS AND T-REX IMMEDIATELY I FORGOT ABOUT THE 21ST AMENDMENT.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Ren on July 05, 2015, 12:27:52 PM
Internet is all but dead. Took me an hour well over an hour just to get this one post up. But I needed something a little more cheerful.
 
Spoiler: show

“Here you go, Reynir.”
Accepting the bowl of soup, Reynir smiled and nodded at Tuuri. “Perkele.”
Lalli’s eyes darted up from his soup. Tuuri froze. “What?”
The smile fell off of Reynir’s face and he stammered, “Did… did I say it wrong? I… I thought… I meant to say ‘thank you’–”
Tuuri shook her head. “That doesn’t mean 'thank you’, Reynir, where did–Lalli!” She snatched at her cousin, but he was already gone.

Mikkel was carrying a basket of laundry when Lalli streaked out of the cockpit with a fuming Tuuri close behind. Lalli ducked behind Mikkel, using the big man as a shield as Tuuri scolded him furiously in Finnish. Tucking the basket under one arm, Mikkel collared the skinny scout and addressed Tuuri. “What’s going on?”
“What’s–He…” Tuuri spluttered, pink with indignation, “he taught Reynir a bad word and he thinks it’s funny and-” she lapsed back into angry Finnish, shaking her fist at Lalli, who was blatantly unrepentant.
Mikkel waited until she paused, panting for breath. “Tuuri,” he said calmly, “It’s okay. All we have to do is make him apologize to Reynir in Icelandic.”
“Fine,” Tuuri huffed, crossing her arms. She addressed herself to Lalli again, ending in Icelandic, “Reynir, I’m sorry.”
“No,” Mikkel corrected her. “That’s not what he’ll say. He’ll say, 'Reynir, I’m stupid.’”
Tuuri blinked, then smiled slowly. She began again.

Lalli had to repeat the phrase a few times, Tuuri correcting his pronunciation. Then when she was satisfied, Mikkel handed him over to her. Taking her cousin by the ear, Tuuri marched the culprit back to Reynir, and made him repeat what he had learned.


I had to put a pillow over my head to muffle my laughter and even then I think I woke up my neighbors
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Noodles on July 05, 2015, 11:35:02 PM
XD RTR I am dying and my family is asking if I need help because I am making strange sounds.
Never stop.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Adrai Thell on July 06, 2015, 12:21:29 AM
Internet is all but dead. Took me an hour well over an hour just to get this one post up. But I needed something a little more cheerful.
 
Spoiler: show

“Here you go, Reynir.”
Accepting the bowl of soup, Reynir smiled and nodded at Tuuri. “Perkele.”
Lalli’s eyes darted up from his soup. Tuuri froze. “What?”
The smile fell off of Reynir’s face and he stammered, “Did… did I say it wrong? I… I thought… I meant to say ‘thank you’–”
Tuuri shook her head. “That doesn’t mean 'thank you’, Reynir, where did–Lalli!” She snatched at her cousin, but he was already gone.

Mikkel was carrying a basket of laundry when Lalli streaked out of the cockpit with a fuming Tuuri close behind. Lalli ducked behind Mikkel, using the big man as a shield as Tuuri scolded him furiously in Finnish. Tucking the basket under one arm, Mikkel collared the skinny scout and addressed Tuuri. “What’s going on?”
“What’s–He…” Tuuri spluttered, pink with indignation, “he taught Reynir a bad word and he thinks it’s funny and-” she lapsed back into angry Finnish, shaking her fist at Lalli, who was blatantly unrepentant.
Mikkel waited until she paused, panting for breath. “Tuuri,” he said calmly, “It’s okay. All we have to do is make him apologize to Reynir in Icelandic.”
“Fine,” Tuuri huffed, crossing her arms. She addressed herself to Lalli again, ending in Icelandic, “Reynir, I’m sorry.”
“No,” Mikkel corrected her. “That’s not what he’ll say. He’ll say, 'Reynir, I’m stupid.’”
Tuuri blinked, then smiled slowly. She began again.

Lalli had to repeat the phrase a few times, Tuuri correcting his pronunciation. Then when she was satisfied, Mikkel handed him over to her. Taking her cousin by the ear, Tuuri marched the culprit back to Reynir, and made him repeat what he had learned.


RTR YES.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: AquaAurion on July 06, 2015, 06:40:04 AM
Internet is all but dead. Took me an hour well over an hour just to get this one post up. But I needed something a little more cheerful.
 
Spoiler: show

“Here you go, Reynir.”
Accepting the bowl of soup, Reynir smiled and nodded at Tuuri. “Perkele.”
Lalli’s eyes darted up from his soup. Tuuri froze. “What?”
The smile fell off of Reynir’s face and he stammered, “Did… did I say it wrong? I… I thought… I meant to say ‘thank you’–”
Tuuri shook her head. “That doesn’t mean 'thank you’, Reynir, where did–Lalli!” She snatched at her cousin, but he was already gone.

Mikkel was carrying a basket of laundry when Lalli streaked out of the cockpit with a fuming Tuuri close behind. Lalli ducked behind Mikkel, using the big man as a shield as Tuuri scolded him furiously in Finnish. Tucking the basket under one arm, Mikkel collared the skinny scout and addressed Tuuri. “What’s going on?”
“What’s–He…” Tuuri spluttered, pink with indignation, “he taught Reynir a bad word and he thinks it’s funny and-” she lapsed back into angry Finnish, shaking her fist at Lalli, who was blatantly unrepentant.
Mikkel waited until she paused, panting for breath. “Tuuri,” he said calmly, “It’s okay. All we have to do is make him apologize to Reynir in Icelandic.”
“Fine,” Tuuri huffed, crossing her arms. She addressed herself to Lalli again, ending in Icelandic, “Reynir, I’m sorry.”
“No,” Mikkel corrected her. “That’s not what he’ll say. He’ll say, 'Reynir, I’m stupid.’”
Tuuri blinked, then smiled slowly. She began again.

Lalli had to repeat the phrase a few times, Tuuri correcting his pronunciation. Then when she was satisfied, Mikkel handed him over to her. Taking her cousin by the ear, Tuuri marched the culprit back to Reynir, and made him repeat what he had learned.

Oh my gosh XD Mikkel definitely has the right idea about this  ;D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Silent Fox on July 06, 2015, 10:15:02 PM
I cannot believe I wrote fanfiction! What is this forum doing to me? Crossover with Mary Norton's The Borrowers (and ooc Sigrun?)

        The acrid smell of charred wood invaded her nostrils and she stiffened, glancing about in a quick arch. But nothing disturbed the midafternoon torpor; the sun shone brightly from between cotton puff clouds on the tall grasses saying in the breeze, the branches of trees creaking with age. Peering out from between two stems, Sigrun narrowed her eyes at the gargantuan slab of wood on the opposite side. It was nearly thirteen times her size and would be impossible for her to move. Fortunately one of the hinges had fallen out, and the object hung askance, revealing a sliver of darkness that led into the room beyond. A cloud moved over her, casting her into a cool shade. She braced her legs and sprinted after the shadow, using its partial darkness to cover her progress. A low wooden bar blocked her way and with a practiced leap she hauled herself on top, directly in front of the gap. Stooping through it, the woman shimmied away from the sunlight falling at her back and assessed her options. Although she knew herself to be in a front room, from her point of view it might as well have been half a city. The planked floor receded into the distance down a narrow corridor, beside which rose a set of stairs. A closed door sealed a room on the far right. Although the latter enticed her greatly with mirages of unknown treasure, she knew better than give in to her whims (at least this time), and opted for the hallway. A long look to her left revealed only empty chairs and cases full of books so large they could kill her should they fall, so she lowered herself to ground level and scanned the gloom for predators. Still seconds ticked by and with a toothy grin she took off across the space, her boots barely skimming their surface with her speed. Clouds of dust whirled around her and she took shallow breaths to avoid choking; time had claimed this house, but she’d still a ways to go before she’d answer its call.
        Another bump rose before her where the hallway joined the front room and she jumped it in two quick steps. A door to her left was open and Sigrun slipped inside, her heart thudding in anticipation. The chamber was small, with counters lining three sides. An oven was let into the right-hand wall, with a double sink in the middle beneath a broken window. Sigrun recognized the place as a kitchen a moment before a sweet smell enveloped her. “What could have survived here without spoiling?” She thought to herself while she crouched and made her way cautiously along the edge of the left counters. A kitchen island barred her view of the back corner of the cooking area, and she noiselessly unsheathed her hunting knife. With a deep breath the woman peered around the corner and barely stopped herself from cheering in excitement.
        As nature reclaimed her own territory with the onset of the Rash so many centuries before, the untenanted dwellings of humans decayed in defeat. A long root had displaced a floor tile in its fervent growth, and through the soil underneath a small bunch of cloudberries had grown. They glowed pale golden and ripe in the spot of sunlight that wavered over their surface. Their tiny leaves shivered in an air current too trivial for Sigrun to feel. She licked her lips in anticipation and crossed the short distance with no enemy in sight. Using her knife she sawed away at a stem, dislodging a clump of fruit which she carefully placed into her backpack. This was an unforeseen treat that could mark the beginning of truly glorious gathering. With her pack already bulging she cut a berry for herself and bit into it heartily, savoring the taste and freshness with a hushed moan of pleasure. Juice ran down the corner of her mouth and she had raised her hand to wipe it away when a new sound reached her ears. One that sent the food item tumbling onto the dusty floor, forgotten.
        It was a low growl, and it came from the doorway.
I'll probably continue it at somepoint...when next the need to procrastinate calls...>_>
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on July 07, 2015, 01:05:52 AM
OK, loooooooooooooong part here, but I decided I couldn't break it up.

Correspondence
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Part V
Spoiler: show
Year 110, Summer

Lalli,

Well, I can say definitively that the second time around is decidedly easier, at least so far. With Aku, all of his problems and odd exploits (we’re still not sure how he escaped the Radiator Incident unscathed) came as a surprise, but after dealing with unexpected happenings for three years now, we’re a bit better at it. Of course, the idiot teens are still idiots, so we must still be ready for a panicked call for help at most any time that we’re away.

I am getting soft in my old age (ha, ha, ha): we have named the new arrival Stig Esko Reynir; and yes, his hair is both thick and red already. We suspect a recessive gene set has surfaced, as Marta has produced a pre-Rash photo of the Esko we named him after, one of her kin who resembles our little one quite startlingly. Also, Ulf Västerström had red hair before it went white, so there’s that. My more asinine and crude work associates have ribbed me about paternity tests until I offered to collect some blood samples from them, but without the benefit of a needle. That “joke” has ceased making the rounds.

Aku looks at Esko rather suspiciously sometimes, as though he can’t quite figure out where this ruddy, noisy little interloper came from or why his perfect kingdom has been thrown into such disorder.. Eventually, though, I’m sure they’ll become partners in crime, and I dread that day.

Tell Onni I have taken his warnings under advisement, though, frankly, Marta is dubious. I reminded her that Onni had the raising of you and Tuuri for rather more than half your lives, so his experience must be worth something.

Tell Tuuri I know of a publisher here who might be interested in publishing her stories, if she is.

Tell yourself (ha ha ha) to keep writing, and to keep safe. Tuuri mentioned your recent exploit in her last letter, and while you’ll probably say that it had to be done, you should still be more careful while doing it. I’ve seen you do it, so I know you can.

Your Cleanser friend,
Emil Västerström

*
Year 113, Summer

Lalli,

With all the other signs of summer in Mora came the latest, and largest yet, addition to our family: Ulf Eino Mikkel, the last demanded by his size: 10 pounds, 11 ounces!

Little Mikkel is fine, but Marta frightened me badly. This was far and away her most difficult pregnancy, and she hasn’t nearly recovered so well as even after Aku’s birth. I think the doctors have warned her that Little Mikkel should be the last, and I intend to take certain steps to ensure that.

Aku and Esko have been in great anticipation over Little Mikkel’s arrival, much to our concern. Those two get in enough trouble already, and not nearly all at Aku’s prompting. I swear, they will turn my hair white if they get Little Mikkel into their troublesome mode.

Stay safe on your moonlit treks, my friend, and write again soon.

Your Cleanser friend,
Emil Västerström

*

Year 117, Spring

Lalli,

Spring has returned to Sollerön with beauty and new life, as it always does. I cannot quite comprehend how it can be that Marta is no longer here to share it with me. A thousand times a day, it seems, I’ll turn to share something with her, but she has gone.

The ceremony was moving, with many friends of Marta’s remembering her past kindnesses. I was supposed to speak, but I couldn’t, not even one word past, “Thank you all”. I make speeches for a living. I once gave five separate speeches in twelve hours, and I couldn’t say a word at my own wife’s funceremony.

I worry most about our boys. They are so young to be motherless (though I know such a loss is never easy). She so wanted a girl, but she was wonderful with the boys, and it’s hard to watch them trying to pretend everything’s all right--for my sake, if you can believe it. It’s comical, touching and heartbreaking all at once.

Your letters and Tuuri’s have been of much comfort; I do not know what I would do without your wise but spare words, and Tuuri’s tales are as big a hit with the boys as they were with the Cleansers.

Your Cleanser friend,
Emil Västerström

*
Year 118, Spring

Lalli,

By the time you get this, I will have reached the Kristinehamn front and rejoined my unit, though rather more highly placed than I’m quite comfortable with. Things are so bad--they’re already calling this “the Year of the Trolls”--that I’ve been put in charge of that part of the fight!

I’m scared, Lalli.

This is not fear of death, but of getting people killed in my stead. I’ve been behind a desk, a podium or a camera for the last twelve years, and now I’m in command of an entire sector?

Whatever my doubts, I am still a Cleanser, though. I must obey those in authority over me to the best of my ability, and pray that that best will be good enough.

You have been a great friend to me through all these years, Lalli. Just in case, I wanted you to know that.

Your Cleanser friend,
Emil Västerström

Author's Notes
Spoiler: show

These have only been selected letters--more were written, but they don't add much to the story.
Up next--The Year of the Trolls
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Russet on July 07, 2015, 07:11:55 AM
Correspondence
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Part V
Spoiler: show

SO MUCH SADNESS BUTALSOHAPPINESS? FEELINGSSSS
I'm such a train wreck, haha. Thank you for writing this you amazing person.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solovei on July 07, 2015, 12:21:54 PM
Hey all! I bring you today a short/cute/funny fanfic I wrote for starfallz! Wherein Lalli plays his own games and thinks about some stuff.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4290867 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/4290867)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: KicknRun on July 07, 2015, 01:03:20 PM
oh my god that was hilarious and also an excuse to draw

Spoiler: show
(https://41.media.tumblr.com/7e17d3354e07cf9a1f8a643cdda84a47/tumblr_inline_nr4n7jGymh1trcq02_540.png)


ur great solo never stop shining on
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LurkBeast on July 07, 2015, 04:56:53 PM
Hey all! I bring you today a short/cute/funny fanfic I wrote for starfallz! Wherein Lalli plays his own games and thinks about some stuff.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4290867 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/4290867)

Spoiler: show
Now I'm just imagining Onni staring at the spot where Lalli just was like "What? WHAT?!?"
For the next week he can't stop thinking about it.
"Did he really mean that? Was he joking? DOES LALLI EVEN MAKE JOKES?"
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Daéa Reina on July 07, 2015, 06:43:44 PM
OK, loooooooooooooong part here, but I decided I couldn't break it up.

Correspondence
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Part V
Spoiler: show
Year 110, Summer

Lalli,

Well, I can say definitively that the second time around is decidedly easier, at least so far. With Aku, all of his problems and odd exploits (we’re still not sure how he escaped the Radiator Incident unscathed) came as a surprise, but after dealing with unexpected happenings for three years now, we’re a bit better at it. Of course, the idiot teens are still idiots, so we must still be ready for a panicked call for help at most any time that we’re away.

I am getting soft in my old age (ha, ha, ha): we have named the new arrival Stig Esko Reynir; and yes, his hair is both thick and red already. We suspect a recessive gene set has surfaced, as Marta has produced a pre-Rash photo of the Esko we named him after, one of her kin who resembles our little one quite startlingly. Also, Ulf Västerström had red hair before it went white, so there’s that. My more asinine and crude work associates have ribbed me about paternity tests until I offered to collect some blood samples from them, but without the benefit of a needle. That “joke” has ceased making the rounds.

Aku looks at Esko rather suspiciously sometimes, as though he can’t quite figure out where this ruddy, noisy little interloper came from or why his perfect kingdom has been thrown into such disorder.. Eventually, though, I’m sure they’ll become partners in crime, and I dread that day.

Tell Onni I have taken his warnings under advisement, though, frankly, Marta is dubious. I reminded her that Onni had the raising of you and Tuuri for rather more than half your lives, so his experience must be worth something.

Tell Tuuri I know of a publisher here who might be interested in publishing her stories, if she is.

Tell yourself (ha ha ha) to keep writing, and to keep safe. Tuuri mentioned your recent exploit in her last letter, and while you’ll probably say that it had to be done, you should still be more careful while doing it. I’ve seen you do it, so I know you can.

Your Cleanser friend,
Emil Västerström

*
Year 113, Summer

Lalli,

With all the other signs of summer in Mora came the latest, and largest yet, addition to our family: Ulf Eino Mikkel, the last demanded by his size: 10 pounds, 11 ounces!

Little Mikkel is fine, but Marta frightened me badly. This was far and away her most difficult pregnancy, and she hasn’t nearly recovered so well as even after Aku’s birth. I think the doctors have warned her that Little Mikkel should be the last, and I intend to take certain steps to ensure that.

Aku and Esko have been in great anticipation over Little Mikkel’s arrival, much to our concern. Those two get in enough trouble already, and not nearly all at Aku’s prompting. I swear, they will turn my hair white if they get Little Mikkel into their troublesome mode.

Stay safe on your moonlit treks, my friend, and write again soon.

Your Cleanser friend,
Emil Västerström

*

Year 117, Spring

Lalli,

Spring has returned to Sollerön with beauty and new life, as it always does. I cannot quite comprehend how it can be that Marta is no longer here to share it with me. A thousand times a day, it seems, I’ll turn to share something with her, but she has gone.

The ceremony was moving, with many friends of Marta’s remembering her past kindnesses. I was supposed to speak, but I couldn’t, not even one word past, “Thank you all”. I make speeches for a living. I once gave five separate speeches in twelve hours, and I couldn’t say a word at my own wife’s funceremony.

I worry most about our boys. They are so young to be motherless (though I know such a loss is never easy). She so wanted a girl, but she was wonderful with the boys, and it’s hard to watch them trying to pretend everything’s all right--for my sake, if you can believe it. It’s comical, touching and heartbreaking all at once.

Your letters and Tuuri’s have been of much comfort; I do not know what I would do without your wise but spare words, and Tuuri’s tales are as big a hit with the boys as they were with the Cleansers.

Your Cleanser friend,
Emil Västerström

*
Year 118, Spring

Lalli,

By the time you get this, I will have reached the Kristinehamn front and rejoined my unit, though rather more highly placed than I’m quite comfortable with. Things are so bad--they’re already calling this “the Year of the Trolls”--that I’ve been put in charge of that part of the fight!

I’m scared, Lalli.

This is not fear of death, but of getting people killed in my stead. I’ve been behind a desk, a podium or a camera for the last twelve years, and now I’m in command of an entire sector?

Whatever my doubts, I am still a Cleanser, though. I must obey those in authority over me to the best of my ability, and pray that that best will be good enough.

You have been a great friend to me through all these years, Lalli. Just in case, I wanted you to know that.

Your Cleanser friend,
Emil Västerström

Author's Notes
Spoiler: show

These have only been selected letters--more were written, but they don't add much to the story.
Up next--The Year of the Trolls


Spoiler: show
 Your fanfics are GREAT, Looney. I have so many mixed feelings that I don't know where to start: I was happily reading about Emil's cute little kids and then Marta's death took me by surprise, and now I'm sad. ;_;
Does this story take place at the same universe where you wrote about Emil and Lalli's deaths?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on July 08, 2015, 12:32:50 AM
This one needs a bit of perspective… please look at the notes afterwards.

Correspondence
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Part VI
Spoiler: show
Year 118, Early Summer

Lalli,

Well, I’m still alive, though only by dint of constant, unremitting toil on my part. The tale of woe I have to tell is very nearly unfathomable to me, and I am living in it every day!

Apparently, the Karlstad Expedition nearly destroyed the Cleansers. After that disaster, the new recruit training cycle was dropped from two years to one, and then to six months. Now, I’m commanding children with less than three months of training under their belts!

Of course, this didn’t matter while the core of more experienced, old-time Cleansers was still around to finish the training in the field, but attrition from accidents, illness, aging out and the repeated decapitation strikes by the grosslings have whittled them away. I’m one of a handful in my whole sector, at most, out of over two hundred.

Obviously, my first priority has been to attempt to recreate the Cleanser training that I went through, only under fire and adding in what our trek through Denmark taught me, and the lessons of Karlstad. Obviously, I have not been completely successful in my short tenure as commander here in Kristinehamn, but with daily losses dropping, I flatter (or perhaps console) myself with having had some measure of success.

Or perhaps my second priority, rectifying the insane strategies of High Command into something more feasible for my forces to accomplish, is bearing fruit. I “get away” with this by informing High Command that the goals are unchanged, but that I’ve had to adjust the timelines in which they’re accomplished; this has the virtue of being true, for once I’m satisfied with a unit’s competence, I can give it increasingly difficult assignments and know the unit will not only carry them out, but learn from them, until they’re “working wonders”; that is, doing things the old-time Cleansers saw as routine.

There is so much still to be done, and I’m painfully aware that any of the older guard, were they around, would be able to get it done both faster and better, but I am the one who must accomplish it.

Stay strong and stay safe, my friend, as I attempt to do likewise with my command.

Your Cleanser friend,
Emil Västerström

*
Year 118, Late Summer

Lalli,

Well, Kristinehamn is safe, and of course the idiots at High Command want us to press right back on to Karlstad “and beyond”. It is as though the last “Karlstad Expedition” never happened in their minds. The grosslings will obviously be expecting us to capitalize on our victory by advancing, and stretching our lines all the way to Karlstad would be practically asking them to cut us off and destroy us.

On the other hand, perhaps we can use the grosslings’ expectations against them in some way. A force in Kastrup would be practically begging for its own destruction, unless... This needs further consideration, but I’ll put it to you like this: the grosslings love setting ambushes; will they enjoy being the target of one quite as much?

Stay swift and stay safe, my friend, and write me back soon to let me know how insane I am.

Your Cleanser friend,
Emil Västerström

Author's Notes
Spoiler: show
This is how a legend is born.

I had to consider three and a half different 'levels' of reality when writing this:

Emil's POV, which I took as, "I'm only doing my job, and not as well as my heroes/forebears would have."

Truth: Emil is competent but not brilliant; unfortunately, competence in the face of such incompetence as he found looks like brilliance. He did well, but not spectacularly.

The average Cleanser's POV/the PR spin (that's the half, as it mostly coincides with the Cleanser POV): The Icon who was the reason most of them joined came out from recruiting to save them, and he did, by making them True Cleansers. Under him, anything can be done.

Watch for the next part of "the Year of the Trolls" for more.


Spoiler: show
 Your fanfics are GREAT, Looney. I have so many mixed feelings that I don't know where to start: I was happily reading about Emil's cute little kids and then Marta's death took me by surprise, and now I'm sad. ;_;
Does this story take place at the same universe where you wrote about Emil and Lalli's deaths?

Spoiler: show
Well, I didn't want to begin or end the part with such a huge zap; I also thought I'd put enough foreshadowing in for it to be less unexpected. I mean, I could have put more letters in about her gradual decline and Emil's deepening denial (notice how he avoids certain terms?), but that would have altered the tone unacceptably; I wanted it done so we could move on to the 'repurposing' of Emil's life.
Yep, this is in the same continuity as 'TFFOOM'. This elaborates on some stuff I mentioned there, and adds stuff I didn't.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: StellersJayC on July 08, 2015, 08:11:11 PM
I caught up with every single piece of writing I hadn't already read today and had the great idea that I should write another fanfiction.
So after much brainstorming (as some of you already know) my brother and I got ambitious. It's happening. We're going to do the SSSS/ATLA crossover so many people want to see. (Feel free to write your own such crossover, I'm just letting you guys know so that we feel commited to actually doing it.)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Silent Fox on July 09, 2015, 09:56:06 PM
I caught up with every single piece of writing I hadn't already read today and had the great idea that I should write another fanfiction.
So after much brainstorming (as some of you already know) my brother and I got ambitious. It's happening. We're going to do the SSSS/ATLA crossover so many people want to see. (Feel free to write your own such crossover, I'm just letting you guys know so that we feel commited to actually doing it.)
Sounds great! Best of luck! :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on July 09, 2015, 11:39:27 PM
Here we go again…

Correspondence
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Part VII
Spoiler: show
Year 118, Early Fall

Lalli,

Well, my crazy plan seems to have worked better than I’d hoped.

Inspired by Mikkel’s description of the Battle of Kastrup, I had a huge force of Cleansers enter Karlstad, making as much noise as they could. Then, most of them stealthily pulled out of the city; the only ones who stayed were garrisoning my old islet redoubt, continuing to make as much noise as possible. Naturally, I was with the garrison; I was not going to send good Cleansers somewhere I wouldn’t lead them.

As soon as the trolls made their move, the forces that had pulled out of the town formed a cordon of fire that completely surrounded Karlstad. Slowly, the Cleansers tightened this circle of death until the trolls which were left could only either try to storm the fort, which was secure enough that no such attack could succeed, or try to break through the fire curtain.

Suffice it to say, the troll threat to the region is crippled, if not eliminated, and we have returned safely to the Kristinehamn lines. If all goes well, we will return to Karlstad in a few years, after we’ve progressed enough that it isn’t such a salient.

Many of my aides are showing the right stuff for a new generation of Cleanser leadership to emerge, which relieves me no end. After this is all over, I will be able to hand them the reins without qualm. None of the old guard are left, of course; that’s why I was placed in command to begin with.

I’m glad to hear that you’re keeping the neighborhood trolls well at bay yourselves.

Your Cleanser friend,
Emil Västerström

*
Year 118, Late Fall

Lalli,

I see by your latest letter that you have heard about Sigrun. I myself heard about it mere hours before receiving your letter. I cannot call it much of a shock, though; too many friends have been taken from me this year for another to surprise me. But it is still a blow. Now, we are five again, and we miss our sixth.

On how it happened: I always knew she wouldn’t go easily, but to take on five giants at once--and limp away! I hope she wasn’t in too much pain as she went; I’ve seen too many of my own go from belly wounds not to know how painful they can be.

I do not believe I can add anything more to that, so on to other things.

As the weather closes in, the greatly reduced mass of grosslings grow sluggish and sloppy, making fewer and fewer attacks. Winter is coming, and they want the safety of a nest to shelter in. Before the Karlstad battle, we were lucky if we only had to fend off three attacks per day per unit; now, they average one attack per day on every fifth or sixth unit.

The boys have written letters that speak of their ignorance and that of the public at large. They seem to see me as some great Colossus of war that only needs to look at a troll to vanquish it. Read that line again whenever you need a good laugh, and keep writing yourself.

Your Cleanser friend,
Emil Västerström

Author's Notes
Spoiler: show
As many of you figured, no straw death for Sigrun.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SugaAndSpice on July 10, 2015, 02:06:02 AM
Well, first fanfic I have written, hope you all like it! It takes place after p. 359.
Spoiler: show
Emil stared as Lalli walked away. The thought rushing through his mind threatened to consume him. 'Why hadn't Mikkel tried? The cat could have lived? And why woul the beast come back? Did it have a conscience?' But mostly, he just felt empty with loss.Loss, loss loss. the word itself felt empty. But as he wiped his bloody knife on his already muddied uniform, and saw his reflection in the shining metal, he felt angry. Angry at Mikkel for not trying to save the poor mother cat. Angry at Sigrun for not caring. He sheathed his knife angrily. She never seemed to care about anything. And angry at Lalli. Sometimes he was just a statue, just a husk of a boy. Emil thought about the moments he'd had with Lalli. The special moments where the world fell away, and Lalli showed some emotion, something to show that he had emotions. But now, as Lalli's footsteps faded, he turned away.'how could he do this?' Emil thought. 'How could he just walk away--the boy's practically an animal himself!' He stood there, in the rain., staring out into the fading light. His vision blurred as he heard words from a familiar, but intelligible language, in the form of a poem. His vision cleared, and he could see sharper than before. There was a dancing blue light around the cats graves, and the form of the mother cat, all injury gone, appeared. She trotted through the air, towards the stones that marked her passed kits. She licked gently at the blue light, and each kitten materialized in turn in a swirl of blue flame. Suddenly, in a flash of pale green, the poor dog's spirit erupted from its body. It bowed its head to the cats, and they walked up, up into the night sky, far away from anything that could hurt them. As they disappeared, six stars shone brighter than they had a moment ago. Emil knew that the animal's spirits had gone to live in the sky, to watch over him, and the rest of the crew. A thin, pale hand reached out and lightly touched his shoulder. Emil turned around to see Lalli, eyes glowing in the darkness, reaching out to him. "You... You did that, didn't you? You made me see their spirits!" Emil turned around and embraced him.

"Sigrun, are the boys back yet?" Mikkel called from his spot in the work room. "Nah, I think they'll be in so---oh. Huh."  "Sigrun?" Mikkel called. When he got no reply, he rounded the corner to join her. "Ah." "Never thought the little Mage dude was a hugger."

'He isn't.' Tuuri smiled to herself.


So, that was it! I hope you enjoyed it! I may write more! But now I should sleep...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: misea on July 10, 2015, 03:03:26 AM
@LooNEY_DAC: Feeling like a train wreck right now, but god I love this fic so much. BRING ON THE PAIN. >:D

@Willowham: Beautiful!
Spoiler: show
Also, this reminds me a little of the Warriors series. Oh wow, I don't think I ever finished the third miniseries o.0
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on July 10, 2015, 04:53:02 AM
LooNEY: Glad you did that with Sigrun, just what I would have imagined for her. Also, good tale. I'm interested to see where it goes from here.

Willowham: Aaaaaawwwww!!!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SugaAndSpice on July 10, 2015, 02:32:22 PM
@Willowham: Beautiful!
Spoiler: show
Also, this reminds me a little of the Warriors series. Oh wow, I don't think I ever finished the third miniseries o.0

lol, I can't remember any of what I wrote, because it was like 12 in the morning. But I am glad that you liked it!
Just reread it. Misea,
Spoiler: show
I realize now it is kind of like a Warriors book. If you have read Bluestar's Prophecy, then i think maybe that is where the spirits thing came from. I have no idea if Finnish Mages can do that but too bad 'cause it was fun.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: misea on July 10, 2015, 05:33:54 PM
Willowham:

Spoiler: show
I read Bluestar's Prophecy, but it was like a gazillion years ago aka five(?) years ago. XD So I don't remember anything whoops.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SugaAndSpice on July 10, 2015, 05:37:49 PM
You should re-read it!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solovei on July 10, 2015, 06:17:12 PM
Right, so Solovei finally persuaded me into getting past my laziness and actually writing something.
This is, uh, actually my first ever fanfic. I don't know how it's going to go or even if it fits with canon especially, but neh, it's in the spoiler.
Honest but harsh criticism would be preferable to kind but untrue comments, BTW.

Spoiler: show

The Deal
   The Örvænta Bar is always quiet. Soft music plays, cutting through the fug of cigarette smoke and the stink of alcohol. The clientele all seem oddly reticent, cowed somehow. Most of them, roughnecks and workers from the factories and the farms, are gathered around the bar downing shots of brennivín and arguing.
One woman sits in the corner, away from the workers. She cradles a glass awkwardly in her left hand, as if it would break were she to move. She gazes at the door.
   A boy walks in, swaggering yet gangly, still stuck between awkward youth and maturity. He orders a beer, then takes a table near the woman.
"Trainee mage, lad?"
He gawps at here, as if old women weren't previously capable of speech.
"Well, son?"
"Uh... Yes. How did you tell?"
"A mage always recognises a mage, no matter her age."
He gawps again.
"What? You think mages were invented the minute you were born?"
He inspects her.
"You're not as old as I thought...?"
"Mirjam. And you?"
"Pjetur, ma'am. Trainee Mage, 2nd Class."
"Mage-at-Arms, 1st Class, retired. Nice to meet you, Pjetur. But I have to tell you something."
He sneers. "What could you tell me, old woman?"
"Less of the attitude, I'm not old, I'm wounded. Now listen. You're too young to remember it, but did anyone ever tell you about the Kastrup expedition?"
"What's Kestruup?"
It's her turn to sneer.
"Evidently not, youngling. Listen.
Kastrup was a Danish suburb, part of Copenhagen, the capital. Denmark? Surely you weren't stupid enough to forget it. You only need to know five countries nowadays. Anyway, it was a major city, but was totally overrun by trolls. Most of the population either died from the off or as they tried to escape over the Oresund Bridge. Some were gunned down by the Swedish military, to prevent infection. This was in the early days of the Rash. In any case, it was awful. Thousands of deaths, thousands more infected. The whole city was abandoned for a long, long time."
The boy looks bemused.
"Look, you impatient fool, you need to know this. Temper your short attention span. Now, Copenhagen was a big deal for all those Danish soldiers and citizens stranded on Bornholm or in Sweden and Norway. It was a symbol of hope. A long time after the city was lost, a huge expedition was mounted to retake it. All five nations pledged support, freelancers came swarming for the money, and Danish citizens came for the glory. It took months to organise, but with all that influence and money it moved swiftly."
The boy expresses a modicum more interest.
"We were divided into platoons, which divided into divisions which in turn divided into squads. I was in Platoon B, Division A, Squad 2. We were mainly scouts and cleansers with a few combat-ready skalds, sent in supposedly after the heavy-duty cleansing was done, but still very much at the tip of the spear. Our squad was a small one. Three scouts, four cleansers, two skalds and two mages, me and my Finnish colleague Hollo. I can only remember him, Bjornsen the cleanser and Bryndísarson the scout. The rest of us didn't make it."
The boy's eyes widen; "What happened?"
"Trolls, son. Trolls. More of them than you'll ever see. Kastrup was infested, and the generals hadn't properly briefed us. We'd already seen a giant wipe out two squads across the river, and heard screaming and that awful, awful static on the radio. As soon as we were in the suburb, it was clear that we were in a deathtrap. Almost every building contained a nest. They sent in the tanks first, but they made so much noise, they were being overwhelmed with trolls or destroyed by giants the moment they fired their guns. Kastrup had many pockets of shade for trolls to lurk in, and there was barely a day of sun. "
The boy, at this point, genuinely looks interested.
"So why were you sent in?"
The woman takes a long drink. She moves jerkily, awkwardly, grimacing with every movement.
"Glory. The generals couldn't back out for fear of ridicule, so they sent us poor footsoldiers unto the breach. One hundred and three squads were sent in over the course of a month. Know how many came out intact? Forty-six.  All the others lost people. Most died."
She stops, eyes misting over with the effort of memory.
"My squad was one of the worst hit. Of the eleven people who went into Kastrup, three came out, all injured."
She looks at the boy's expression.
"It was a slaughter, kid. And it was mostly my fault."
She drains her glass.
"One of the skalds wandered too far into the shade, and a beast, a dog, ripped out her throat. Hollo didn't warn her in time, and for that I will never forgive him. I can still remember her face as it ripped her to pieces. The cleansers went to help, and a much larger troll came from the shade and killed them. I didn't see how. All I saw was the blood. One of them managed to unlimber his flamethrower and burn the thing, but he was too late to stop it ripping his leg off."
The boy starts to look queasy.
"Look, kid, you wanted to be a combat mage, you gotta face the bad bits too. Sure, magic's impressive, but it takes a toll. You accrue a debt. My old trainer compared it to a deal with the Devil; it's the best thing in the world until the Devil takes his due. And he always has his due. On that day, my wards failed. The beast took my left leg off at the knee and clawed my face half off. I wouldn't be sitting here had Bjornsen not blown its head off. Him and Hollo dragged me away as I watched the rest of the squad, doomed, attempt to fight the trolls. When a giant came screeching from the next street and simply crushed them, I stopped caring. I passed out."
The boy is looking distinctly unhappy now.
"What, you thought you'd just wave your hands and scare the trolls away? I told you, magic isn't a gift. It's not an ability. It's a debt that you accrue. The lives I previously saved with my wards and runes were paid for with the lives of my squad."
She gets up. The boy notices, for the first time, her scarred face and stiff limbs.
"I also lost my right eye, both legs and right arm, boy. That's what your magic did. Still proud?"
She limps to the door, turning to balefully gaze at him with her one working eye.
"Be careful with the Devil, son. He's devious and cruel. He'll promise you glory and power, then whisk it away and give you pain and sorrow."
She turns to leave, tossing over her shoulder one last bitter sentence:
"He always, always gets his due."
   
I'll be honest, I wasn't entirely sure about this one. I think it perhaps dragged on too long, maybe wasn't entirely convincing, and perhaps wasn't worded well enough.
Still, it's my first fanfic (ever) and of course it can be rewritten: I'll remind you that I would appreciate honest but harsh criticism far, far more than kind but untrue words in the long run.
Still, hope you enjoyed!

I liked it!
Spoiler: And now some other stuff XD • show
Some things though: Where is this taking place? Are they in Denmark, or Iceland? Or Norway? It's a bit unclear. It's not a crucial detail but, would be nice to know.

"What's Kestruup?"  - okay this is just a petpeeve of mine, but he has no reason to mispronounce this. She's saying it out loud, so all he'd do is repeat what she said. If he were reading the word and had never heard it spoken before, that would make more sense. 

I also would word some things differently - like, some of the woman's sentences sound stilted; it's hard to explain but, there's a difference in how people speak when they're telling a story and how a sentence is formed when you're writing. So I would add more pauses, maybe she's trying to remember, or maybe it's hard for her to talk about such a terrifying day.

Sorry if I'm being overly critical! Aside from a few stylistic things, it's really good! :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: ParanormalAndroid on July 10, 2015, 06:20:06 PM
I liked it!
Spoiler: And now some other stuff XD • show
Some things though: Where is this taking place? Are they in Denmark, or Iceland? Or Norway? It's a bit unclear. It's not a crucial detail but, would be nice to know.

"What's Kestruup?"  - okay this is just a petpeeve of mine, but he has no reason to mispronounce this. She's saying it out loud, so all he'd do is repeat what she said. If he were reading the word and had never heard it spoken before, that would make more sense. 

I also would word some things differently - like, some of the woman's sentences sound stilted; it's hard to explain but, there's a difference in how people speak when they're telling a story and how a sentence is formed when you're writing. So I would add more pauses, maybe she's trying to remember, or maybe it's hard for her to talk about such a terrifying day.

Sorry if I'm being overly critical! Aside from a few stylistic things, it's really good! :)

Nonono, critical is good and those are all valid concerns.
I should have clarified that it was in Iceland, apologies. The name of the bar is in Icelandic, but that's about it.
I realise now that the mispronunciation, while intended to show the boy's relative ignorance, in fact makes no sense in a verbal context- will fix it.
As for the wording, that's just me, frankly. I'm not an especially talented fictional writer, I think, so I thought putting something out there for just this type of criticism would be a way to improve. Thank you! :3
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Curry on July 10, 2015, 06:21:09 PM
Right, so Solovei finally persuaded me into getting past my laziness and actually writing something.
This is, uh, actually my first ever fanfic. I don't know how it's going to go or even if it fits with canon especially, but neh, it's in the spoiler.
Honest but harsh criticism would be preferable to kind but untrue comments, BTW.

Spoiler: show

The Deal
   The Örvænta Bar is always quiet. Soft music plays, cutting through the fug of cigarette smoke and the stink of alcohol. The clientele all seem oddly reticent, cowed somehow. Most of them, roughnecks and workers from the factories and the farms, are gathered around the bar downing shots of brennivín and arguing.
One woman sits in the corner, away from the workers. She cradles a glass awkwardly in her left hand, as if it would break were she to move. She gazes at the door.
   A boy walks in, swaggering yet gangly, still stuck between awkward youth and maturity. He orders a beer, then takes a table near the woman.
"Trainee mage, lad?"
He gawps at here, as if old women weren't previously capable of speech.
"Well, son?"
"Uh... Yes. How did you tell?"
"A mage always recognises a mage, no matter her age."
He gawps again.
"What? You think mages were invented the minute you were born?"
He inspects her.
"You're not as old as I thought...?"
"Mirjam. And you?"
"Pjetur, ma'am. Trainee Mage, 2nd Class."
"Mage-at-Arms, 1st Class, retired. Nice to meet you, Pjetur. But I have to tell you something."
He sneers. "What could you tell me, old woman?"
"Less of the attitude, I'm not old, I'm wounded. Now listen. You're too young to remember it, but did anyone ever tell you about the Kastrup expedition?"
"What's Kestruup?"
It's her turn to sneer.
"Evidently not, youngling. Listen.
Kastrup was a Danish suburb, part of Copenhagen, the capital. Denmark? Surely you weren't stupid enough to forget it. You only need to know five countries nowadays. Anyway, it was a major city, but was totally overrun by trolls. Most of the population either died from the off or as they tried to escape over the Oresund Bridge. Some were gunned down by the Swedish military, to prevent infection. This was in the early days of the Rash. In any case, it was awful. Thousands of deaths, thousands more infected. The whole city was abandoned for a long, long time."
The boy looks bemused.
"Look, you impatient fool, you need to know this. Temper your short attention span. Now, Copenhagen was a big deal for all those Danish soldiers and citizens stranded on Bornholm or in Sweden and Norway. It was a symbol of hope. A long time after the city was lost, a huge expedition was mounted to retake it. All five nations pledged support, freelancers came swarming for the money, and Danish citizens came for the glory. It took months to organise, but with all that influence and money it moved swiftly."
The boy expresses a modicum more interest.
"We were divided into platoons, which divided into divisions which in turn divided into squads. I was in Platoon B, Division A, Squad 2. We were mainly scouts and cleansers with a few combat-ready skalds, sent in supposedly after the heavy-duty cleansing was done, but still very much at the tip of the spear. Our squad was a small one. Three scouts, four cleansers, two skalds and two mages, me and my Finnish colleague Hollo. I can only remember him, Bjornsen the cleanser and Bryndísarson the scout. The rest of us didn't make it."
The boy's eyes widen; "What happened?"
"Trolls, son. Trolls. More of them than you'll ever see. Kastrup was infested, and the generals hadn't properly briefed us. We'd already seen a giant wipe out two squads across the river, and heard screaming and that awful, awful static on the radio. As soon as we were in the suburb, it was clear that we were in a deathtrap. Almost every building contained a nest. They sent in the tanks first, but they made so much noise, they were being overwhelmed with trolls or destroyed by giants the moment they fired their guns. Kastrup had many pockets of shade for trolls to lurk in, and there was barely a day of sun. "
The boy, at this point, genuinely looks interested.
"So why were you sent in?"
The woman takes a long drink. She moves jerkily, awkwardly, grimacing with every movement.
"Glory. The generals couldn't back out for fear of ridicule, so they sent us poor footsoldiers unto the breach. One hundred and three squads were sent in over the course of a month. Know how many came out intact? Forty-six.  All the others lost people. Most died."
She stops, eyes misting over with the effort of memory.
"My squad was one of the worst hit. Of the eleven people who went into Kastrup, three came out, all injured."
She looks at the boy's expression.
"It was a slaughter, kid. And it was mostly my fault."
She drains her glass.
"One of the skalds wandered too far into the shade, and a beast, a dog, ripped out her throat. Hollo didn't warn her in time, and for that I will never forgive him. I can still remember her face as it ripped her to pieces. The cleansers went to help, and a much larger troll came from the shade and killed them. I didn't see how. All I saw was the blood. One of them managed to unlimber his flamethrower and burn the thing, but he was too late to stop it ripping his leg off."
The boy starts to look queasy.
"Look, kid, you wanted to be a combat mage, you gotta face the bad bits too. Sure, magic's impressive, but it takes a toll. You accrue a debt. My old trainer compared it to a deal with the Devil; it's the best thing in the world until the Devil takes his due. And he always has his due. On that day, my wards failed. The beast took my left leg off at the knee and clawed my face half off. I wouldn't be sitting here had Bjornsen not blown its head off. Him and Hollo dragged me away as I watched the rest of the squad, doomed, attempt to fight the trolls. When a giant came screeching from the next street and simply crushed them, I stopped caring. I passed out."
The boy is looking distinctly unhappy now.
"What, you thought you'd just wave your hands and scare the trolls away? I told you, magic isn't a gift. It's not an ability. It's a debt that you accrue. The lives I previously saved with my wards and runes were paid for with the lives of my squad."
She gets up. The boy notices, for the first time, her scarred face and stiff limbs.
"I also lost my right eye, both legs and right arm, boy. That's what your magic did. Still proud?"
She limps to the door, turning to balefully gaze at him with her one working eye.
"Be careful with the Devil, son. He's devious and cruel. He'll promise you glory and power, then whisk it away and give you pain and sorrow."
She turns to leave, tossing over her shoulder one last bitter sentence:
"He always, always gets his due."
   
I'll be honest, I wasn't entirely sure about this one. I think it perhaps dragged on too long, maybe wasn't entirely convincing, and perhaps wasn't worded well enough.
Still, it's my first fanfic (ever) and of course it can be rewritten: I'll remind you that I would appreciate honest but harsh criticism far, far more than kind but untrue words in the long run.
Still, hope you enjoyed!


Ooh, I really like this! :D I agree with Solo but overall it's really well-written!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: ParanormalAndroid on July 10, 2015, 06:23:14 PM
Ooh, I really like this! :D I agree with Solo but overall it's really well-written!
Hah, well, thanks- as I've said, I honestly don't think I'm an especially talented fictional writer (hence why I want to go into journalism) but I thought I might as well try.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Laufey on July 10, 2015, 06:41:52 PM
Right, so Solovei finally persuaded me into getting past my laziness and actually writing something.
This is, uh, actually my first ever fanfic. I don't know how it's going to go or even if it fits with canon especially, but neh, it's in the spoiler.
Honest but harsh criticism would be preferable to kind but untrue comments, BTW.

Spoiler: show

The Deal
   The Örvænta Bar is always quiet. Soft music plays, cutting through the fug of cigarette smoke and the stink of alcohol. The clientele all seem oddly reticent, cowed somehow. Most of them, roughnecks and workers from the factories and the farms, are gathered around the bar downing shots of brennivín and muttering to each other. Iceland is a quiet country at the best of times, but there's something unusual about this atmosphere.
One woman sits in the corner, away from the workers. She cradles a glass awkwardly in her left hand, as if it would break were she to move. She gazes at the door.
   A boy walks in, swaggering yet gangly, still stuck between awkward youth and maturity. He orders a beer, then takes a table near the woman.
"Trainee mage, lad?"
He gawps at here, as if old women weren't previously capable of speech.
"Well, son?"
"Uh... Yes. How did you tell?"
"A mage always recognises a mage, no matter her age."
He gawps again.
"What? You think mages were invented the minute you were born?"
He inspects her.
"You're not as old as I thought...?"
"Mirjam. And you?"
"Pjetur, ma'am. Trainee Mage, 2nd Class."
"Mage-at-Arms, 1st Class, retired. Nice to meet you, Pjetur. But I have to tell you something."
He sneers. "What could you tell me, old woman?"
"Less of the attitude, I'm not old, I'm wounded. Now listen. You're too young to remember it, but did anyone ever tell you about the Kastrup expedition?"
"What's Kastrup?"
It's her turn to sneer.
"Evidently not, youngling. Listen.
Kastrup was a Danish suburb, part of Copenhagen, the capital. Denmark? Surely you weren't stupid enough to forget it. You only need to know five countries nowadays. Anyway, it was a major city, but was totally overrun by trolls. Most of the population either died from the off or as they tried to escape over the Oresund Bridge. Some were gunned down by the Swedish military, to prevent infection. This was in the early days of the Rash. In any case, it was awful. Thousands of deaths, thousands more infected. The whole city was abandoned for a long, long time."
The boy looks bemused.
"Look, you impatient fool, you need to know this. Temper your short attention span. Now, Copenhagen was a big deal for all those Danish soldiers and citizens stranded on Bornholm or in Sweden and Norway. It was a symbol of hope. A long time after the city was lost, a huge expedition was mounted to retake it. All five nations pledged support, freelancers came swarming for the money, and Danish citizens came for the glory. It took months to organise, but with all that influence and money it moved swiftly."
The boy expresses a modicum more interest.
"We were divided into platoons, which divided into divisions which in turn divided into squads. I was in Platoon B, Division A, Squad 2. We were mainly scouts and cleansers with a few combat-ready skalds, sent in supposedly after the heavy-duty cleansing was done, but still very much at the tip of the spear. Our squad was a small one. Three scouts, four cleansers, two skalds and two mages, me and my Finnish colleague Hollo. I can only remember him, Bjornsen the cleanser and Bryndísarson the scout. The rest of us didn't make it."
The boy's eyes widen; "What happened?"
"Trolls, son. Trolls. More of them than you'll ever see. Kastrup was infested, and the generals hadn't properly briefed us. We'd already seen a giant wipe out two squads across the river, and heard screaming and that awful, awful static on the radio. As soon as we were in the suburb, it was clear that we were in a deathtrap. Almost every building contained a nest. They sent in the tanks first, but they made so much noise, they were being overwhelmed with trolls or destroyed by giants the moment they fired their guns. Kastrup had many pockets of shade for trolls to lurk in, and there was barely a day of sun. "
The boy, at this point, genuinely looks interested.
"So why were you sent in?"
The woman takes a long drink. She moves jerkily, awkwardly, grimacing with every movement.
"Glory. The generals couldn't back out for fear of ridicule, so they sent us poor footsoldiers unto the breach. One hundred and three squads were sent in over the course of a month. Know how many came out intact? Forty-six.  All the others lost people. Most died."
She stops, eyes misting over with the effort of memory.
"My squad was one of the worst hit. Of the eleven people who went into Kastrup, three came out, all injured."
She looks at the boy's expression.
"It was a slaughter, kid. And it was mostly my fault."
She drains her glass.
"One of the skalds wandered too far into the shade, and a beast, a dog, ripped out her throat. Hollo didn't warn her in time, and for that I will never forgive him. I can still remember her face as it ripped her to pieces. The cleansers went to help, and a much larger troll came from the shade and killed them. I didn't see how. All I saw was the blood. One of them managed to unlimber his flamethrower and burn the thing, but he was too late to stop it ripping his leg off."
The boy starts to look queasy.
"Look, kid, you wanted to be a combat mage, you gotta face the bad bits too. Sure, magic's impressive, but it takes a toll. You accrue a debt. My old trainer compared it to a deal with the Devil; it's the best thing in the world until the Devil takes his due. And he always has his due. On that day, my wards failed. The beast took my left leg off at the knee and clawed my face half off. I wouldn't be sitting here had Bjornsen not blown its head off. Him and Hollo dragged me away as I watched the rest of the squad, doomed, attempt to fight the trolls. When a giant came screeching from the next street and simply crushed them, I stopped caring. I passed out."
The boy is looking distinctly unhappy now.
"What, you thought you'd just wave your hands and scare the trolls away? I told you, magic isn't a gift. It's not an ability. It's a debt that you accrue. The lives I previously saved with my wards and runes were paid for with the lives of my squad."
She gets up. The boy notices, for the first time, her scarred face and stiff limbs.
"I also lost my right eye, both legs and right arm, boy. That's what your magic did. Still proud?"
She limps to the door, turning to balefully gaze at him with her one working eye.
"Be careful with the Devil, son. He's devious and cruel. He'll promise you glory and power, then whisk it away and give you pain and sorrow."
She turns to leave, tossing over her shoulder one last bitter sentence:
"He always, always gets his due."
   
I'll be honest, I wasn't entirely sure about this one. I think it perhaps dragged on too long, maybe wasn't entirely convincing, and perhaps wasn't worded well enough.
Still, it's my first fanfic (ever) and of course it can be rewritten: I'll remind you that I would appreciate honest but harsh criticism far, far more than kind but untrue words in the long run.
Still, hope you enjoyed!
EDIT 1: addressing problems helpfully pointed out by Solovei.


This is more of a culture and language-related thing than any real correction so feel free to ignore, but since this happens in Iceland I thought I might as well mention it: Icelanders don't use surnames talking about other people. Calling someone "son of Bryndís" doesn't tell you who it is so instead you'd use the person's real name or names, a nickname or a name and a nickname combo (let's imagine you have four guys called Páll in the same room: one is Páll, another Páll Óskar, third Palli, fourth stóri Páll). Bjornsen might be non-Icelandic (going by his surname) but Icelanders would still rather use his first name.

I quite enjoyed this fic, looking forward to reading more of your writing in the future! :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: ParanormalAndroid on July 10, 2015, 06:44:02 PM
This is more of a culture and language-related thing than any real correction so feel free to ignore, but since this happens in Iceland I thought I might as well mention it: Icelanders don't use surnames talking about other people. Calling someone "son of Bryndís" doesn't tell you who it is so instead you'd use the person's real name or names, a nickname or a name and a nickname combo (let's imagine you have four guys called Páll in the same room: one is Páll, another Páll Óskar, third Palli, fourth stóri Páll). Bjornsen might be non-Icelandic (going by his surname) but Icelanders would still rather use his first name.

I quite enjoyed this fic, looking forward to reading more of your writing in the future! :)
Thanks for the cultural info- frankly, I only knew what I could glean off Google. That'll help in the future, because frankly my writing's stilted enough as it is. (although Bjornsen is indeed Swedish)
It's nice that you enjoyed it, but now I don't know if *I* did. .-.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on July 10, 2015, 07:01:43 PM
Right, so Solovei finally persuaded me into getting past my laziness and actually writing something.
This is, uh, actually my first ever fanfic. I don't know how it's going to go or even if it fits with canon especially, but neh, it's in the spoiler.
Honest but harsh criticism would be preferable to kind but untrue comments, BTW.

Spoiler: show

The Deal
   The Örvænta Bar is always quiet. Soft music plays, cutting through the fug of cigarette smoke and the stink of alcohol. The clientele all seem oddly reticent, cowed somehow. Most of them, roughnecks and workers from the factories and the farms, are gathered around the bar downing shots of brennivín and muttering to each other. Iceland is a quiet country at the best of times, but there's something unusual about this atmosphere.
One woman sits in the corner, away from the workers. She cradles a glass awkwardly in her left hand, as if it would break were she to move. She gazes at the door.
   A boy walks in, swaggering yet gangly, still stuck between awkward youth and maturity. He orders a beer, then takes a table near the woman.
"Trainee mage, lad?"
He gawps at here, as if old women weren't previously capable of speech.
"Well, son?"
"Uh... Yes. How did you tell?"
"A mage always recognises a mage, no matter her age."
He gawps again.
"What? You think mages were invented the minute you were born?"
He inspects her.
"You're not as old as I thought...?"
"Mirjam. And you?"
"Pjetur, ma'am. Trainee Mage, 2nd Class."
"Mage-at-Arms, 1st Class, retired. Nice to meet you, Pjetur. But I have to tell you something."
He sneers. "What could you tell me, old woman?"
"Less of the attitude, I'm not old, I'm wounded. Now listen. You're too young to remember it, but did anyone ever tell you about the Kastrup expedition?"
"What's Kastrup?"
It's her turn to sneer.
"Evidently not, youngling. Listen.
Kastrup was a Danish suburb, part of Copenhagen, the capital. Denmark? Surely you weren't stupid enough to forget it. You only need to know five countries nowadays. Anyway, it was a major city, but was totally overrun by trolls. Most of the population either died from the off or as they tried to escape over the Oresund Bridge. Some were gunned down by the Swedish military, to prevent infection. This was in the early days of the Rash. In any case, it was awful. Thousands of deaths, thousands more infected. The whole city was abandoned for a long, long time."
The boy looks bemused.
"Look, you impatient fool, you need to know this. Temper your short attention span. Now, Copenhagen was a big deal for all those Danish soldiers and citizens stranded on Bornholm or in Sweden and Norway. It was a symbol of hope. A long time after the city was lost, a huge expedition was mounted to retake it. All five nations pledged support, freelancers came swarming for the money, and Danish citizens came for the glory. It took months to organise, but with all that influence and money it moved swiftly."
The boy expresses a modicum more interest.
"We were divided into platoons, which divided into divisions which in turn divided into squads. I was in Platoon B, Division A, Squad 2. We were mainly scouts and cleansers with a few combat-ready skalds, sent in supposedly after the heavy-duty cleansing was done, but still very much at the tip of the spear. Our squad was a small one. Three scouts, four cleansers, two skalds and two mages, me and my Finnish colleague Hollo. I can only remember him, Bjornsen the cleanser and Bryndísarson the scout. The rest of us didn't make it."
The boy's eyes widen; "What happened?"
"Trolls, son. Trolls. More of them than you'll ever see. Kastrup was infested, and the generals hadn't properly briefed us. We'd already seen a giant wipe out two squads across the river, and heard screaming and that awful, awful static on the radio. As soon as we were in the suburb, it was clear that we were in a deathtrap. Almost every building contained a nest. They sent in the tanks first, but they made so much noise, they were being overwhelmed with trolls or destroyed by giants the moment they fired their guns. Kastrup had many pockets of shade for trolls to lurk in, and there was barely a day of sun. "
The boy, at this point, genuinely looks interested.
"So why were you sent in?"
The woman takes a long drink. She moves jerkily, awkwardly, grimacing with every movement.
"Glory. The generals couldn't back out for fear of ridicule, so they sent us poor footsoldiers unto the breach. One hundred and three squads were sent in over the course of a month. Know how many came out intact? Forty-six.  All the others lost people. Most died."
She stops, eyes misting over with the effort of memory.
"My squad was one of the worst hit. Of the eleven people who went into Kastrup, three came out, all injured."
She looks at the boy's expression.
"It was a slaughter, kid. And it was mostly my fault."
She drains her glass.
"One of the skalds wandered too far into the shade, and a beast, a dog, ripped out her throat. Hollo didn't warn her in time, and for that I will never forgive him. I can still remember her face as it ripped her to pieces. The cleansers went to help, and a much larger troll came from the shade and killed them. I didn't see how. All I saw was the blood. One of them managed to unlimber his flamethrower and burn the thing, but he was too late to stop it ripping his leg off."
The boy starts to look queasy.
"Look, kid, you wanted to be a combat mage, you gotta face the bad bits too. Sure, magic's impressive, but it takes a toll. You accrue a debt. My old trainer compared it to a deal with the Devil; it's the best thing in the world until the Devil takes his due. And he always has his due. On that day, my wards failed. The beast took my left leg off at the knee and clawed my face half off. I wouldn't be sitting here had Bjornsen not blown its head off. Him and Hollo dragged me away as I watched the rest of the squad, doomed, attempt to fight the trolls. When a giant came screeching from the next street and simply crushed them, I stopped caring. I passed out."
The boy is looking distinctly unhappy now.
"What, you thought you'd just wave your hands and scare the trolls away? I told you, magic isn't a gift. It's not an ability. It's a debt that you accrue. The lives I previously saved with my wards and runes were paid for with the lives of my squad."
She gets up. The boy notices, for the first time, her scarred face and stiff limbs.
"I also lost my right eye, both legs and right arm, boy. That's what your magic did. Still proud?"
She limps to the door, turning to balefully gaze at him with her one working eye.
"Be careful with the Devil, son. He's devious and cruel. He'll promise you glory and power, then whisk it away and give you pain and sorrow."
She turns to leave, tossing over her shoulder one last bitter sentence:
"He always, always gets his due."
   
I'll be honest, I wasn't entirely sure about this one. I think it perhaps dragged on too long, maybe wasn't entirely convincing, and perhaps wasn't worded well enough.
Still, it's my first fanfic (ever) and of course it can be rewritten: I'll remind you that I would appreciate honest but harsh criticism far, far more than kind but untrue words in the long run.
Still, hope you enjoyed!
EDIT 1: addressing problems helpfully pointed out by Solovei.


Spoiler: Some technical stuff • show
Nothing major; little nit-picks only.

1. On the Importance of Proof-Reading (though I make a few slip-ups myself):
[quote]...cutting through the fug of cigarette smoke...[/quote]
What's "fug"?
[quote]...died from the off or as they tried...[/quote]
"Off"? It looks like you meant "Rash" or synonym there.

2. Military Technicalities:
[quote]"We were divided into platoons, which divided into divisions which in turn divided into squads. I was in Platoon B, Division A, Squad 2."[/quote]
Ummmm… no.
There are 2 problems here:
1. The units are wrong. "Squad" is OK, while "Platoon" (UK: "Section") would normally be right above it, and a "Division" is usually between 5,000-25,000 men strong.
2. Minor unit designations generally alternate between letters and numbers in order to avoid confusion, and are usually listed smaller->larger.
In a nutshell: a better wording would be: "We were divided into companies, which divided into platoons (or sections) which in turn divided into squads. I was in B[ravo] Squad, First Platoon/Section, B[ravo] Company."

Other than that, not bad.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: ParanormalAndroid on July 10, 2015, 07:28:53 PM
[deletia]
A fug is, as I understand it, a dense/impenetrable cloud of smoke or a particularly strong smell.
"From the off" is a saying- it means "immediately", but is more colloquial.
I'm certain that those two are right, though perhaps they're not commonly used outside of Britain. While it may be odd, then, for an Icelandic woman to be saying "from the off", I'm sure an equivalent exists, which would mean the same thing in Icelandic. "Fug" was used by me in a narrative/descriptive context and so is fine.
The military issue is sheer ignorance on my part, though- thank you for clearing it up, and also for taking the time to read my (in retrospect rather poor) submission.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Noodles on July 10, 2015, 08:40:22 PM
A fug is, as I understand it, a dense/impenetrable cloud of smoke or a particularly strong smell.
"From the off" is a saying- it means "immediately", but is more colloquial.
I agree about the "fug", that's definitely a thing.
I hadn't heard "from the off", but it sorta works in context.
Overall, a little awkward in some parts, but not bad, especially for a first fic.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: StellersJayC on July 11, 2015, 12:47:43 PM
Here we go! Just select the link below for the first part of the SSSS/ATLA crossover. (I don't know if it's any good, but I sure had fun writing it.)

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4304550/chapters/9756402 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/4304550/chapters/9756402)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: misea on July 11, 2015, 05:49:15 PM
@Willowham: I'd reread it, but I'm too lazy to go to the library and borrow it and after the third miniseries I feel like Warriors kinda died on me :/
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on July 12, 2015, 02:58:23 AM
For this part, I'm jumping waaaaaaaay ahead, just to give a few hints as to where some things are going.

Correspondence
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Part VIII
Spoiler: show
Year 218, Winter

Herr Lalli E. A. M. Västerström,
Västerström House
Östersund

Herr Västerström,

It has come to our attention that certain personal papers of your revered ancestor, Emil Västerström, have recently been unearthed at the Mora-Sollerön house he occupied for many years. If this is true, and considering the forthcoming centennial of the Kristinehamn-Karlstad Triumphs, Förlaget Harlequin AB, the oldest and largest publisher in Sweden, would be honored if you, as head of the House of Västerström, would be so gracious as to permit us to publish these newly discovered papers.

I hope you will agree that the presses of Förlaget Harlequin AB have not been unjust to the House of Västerström in the past, considering the seven biographies of Aukusti Västerström, the four of Emil Västerström, the Silent World Expedition histories, and the recent House Västerström: Through Struggle to Triumph, recounting an overview of your family from the Year Zero to the present, all published over the last century by Förlaget Harlequin AB, and all acclaimed by historians and the general Swedish public. We feel this body of work speaks for itself on how your revered ancestor’s papers will be treated should you grant us leave to publish them.

Of course, to one of your standing, fiscal considerations are trifling affairs, but please be aware that, in anticipation of the massive sales that books about your House always yield, Förlaget Harlequin AB are prepared to remit [FIGURE OBSCURED] kronor to any recipient you may direct. I had heard that the Society for Aid to the Kin of Fallen Cleansers, a most noble organization and favored by your House for many years, has recently been plagued by a dearth of donations.

Please give the matter your utmost consideration and reply at your earliest convenience.

Yours Most Respectfully,
Sven Haakonsen,
Managing Director,
Förlaget Harlequin AB
Mora-Sollerön

*
Year 218, Spring

Herr Sven Haakonsen,
Managing Director,
Förlaget Harlequin AB
Mora-Sollerön

Herr Haakonsen,

Firstly, I apologize for the delay in answering your most flattering communication, but it was occasioned wholly by my need to consider fully and at length your surprising offer.

I must admit that my first impulse was to refuse: not from any disapprobation of your excellent company, which has given our House so many happy hours of reading your fiction lines, but because the discovery is yet so new as to make us want to keep it in our House, safe, as it were, until time has passed and the sensation died down. Yet your point about assisting the Society carried the day, first with my wife and then with me.

The papers that were discovered are the recorded correspondence between Emil Västerström and his close friend and crewmate on the Silent World Expedition, Lalli Hotakainen, over the course of fifty years or so. For this first volume, we shall release certain of my ancestor’s letters, with the balance held for future publication. If your company desires to publish the entire correspondence (which makes for fascinating reading, in my opinion), you must also gain permission from whatever heirs of the Hotakainens that there are and present us with a copy of that permission. I trust this is acceptable to “the oldest and largest publisher in Sweden”, and I remain,

Yours Most Respectfully,
Lalli Emil Aukusti Mikkel Västerström,
Västerström House
Östersund

Author's Notes
Spoiler: show
I just love the idea that the chief publisher of "sordid romances" would be the only pre-Rash publisher still standing.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: videovance on July 12, 2015, 04:20:25 AM
ClairityKoi, I wish you good luck on your project! It does sound like a huge undertaking, especially since there are such a huge amount of SSSSonas already (and some still being made (I am 100% guilty of this)). But I think you can do it!
If it means anything, I reckon everyone's gonna be really hype about the whole thing ;w; so that will probably make it easier to talk to people + get to know everyone in the forum!

LooNEY_DAC, I'm not gonna lie, I'm constantly hoping you update a new chapter for your fic, so I was really excited to see this one! I love this installment, it really brings out the whole 'legendary figure' view of Emil. Giving both perspectives of public idolization and Emil's plainer perspective is really fantastic (and co-incidentally my absolutely love in literature). Well done!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on July 12, 2015, 05:01:17 PM
…And now, back to our regular time-frame.

Correspondence
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Part IX
Spoiler: show
Year 119, Winter

Lalli,

The thick blanket of snow covering all the land seems to want to consume any sound made around it, and so all is quiet in Sweden at last.

Now that we have time to breathe, it seems everyone in Sweden’s trying to out-do each other in doing “things” for me. It’s a strange feeling to know that you can request just about anything and get it. I could get to like it too much by far, and so I will only request those things beneficial to the Cleansers: I shall restore the Cleanser training protocols, taking charge of the training organization myself and restaffing it with the superannuated or otherwise invalided--no able-bodied Cleanser will eschew the field, and the elders’ experience won’t be wasted as it currently is.

The damage done will probably take another full generation of Cleansers to fix, but it must be done. I have made good strides already, I think, and when I’ve restructured the training system to how it was before the High Command broke it, things should right themselves, however slowly it happens. Until then, however, I cannot in good conscience leave Sweden--I would not put it past the High Command to do something behind my back that they’d never dare were I present.

Tuuri’s last letter was certainly brimming with news: I hear you have an apprentice at last; that Onni has finally hung up his hood to be with his family; and that Tuuri herself is in danger of being shuffled off to a post reserved for the superannuated (which I think would be the death of her; her energy needs to be spent productively or it’ll fade).

Don’t forget to tell me all about this apprentice of yours when next you write; or is that some special taboo of the Finnish Mages? I’m sorry to press you if it is.

Your Cleanser friend,
Emil Västerström

*
Year 120, Summer

Lalli,

Well, it happened. The moment he turned 13, my Aku signed up to be a Cleanser.

This was not unexpected, as he’s been fascinated with them almost from birth, but, as a father, I wish he’d waited a year or two in order to be doubly sure. But Aku is not like Esko, my little skaldling, or like Little Mikkel, the budding dramatist, of all things! No, Aku is following his heart.

As the head of training for the Cleansers, this puts me in a bind, however, as to have the appearance of easing my son’s path while obstructing others would bring shame on us both. I have explained this thoroughly to Aku, and instructed my subordinates in writing that they must expect more from him in every area and sub-area of training than any other cadet. I hope he’ll forgive me someday for what these next two years must be for him.

I’m still somewhat annoyed with you for thinking I might be too fragile to bear your happiness after my loss, but don’t let that stop you writing me. I still want to know all about your Kerttu, and whether you are planning a family of your own. I can say from experience that to have a child of your own is at once the greatest joy and the greatest pain possible, as my prior writings may have already made clear to you.

Your Cleanser friend,
Emil Västerström

Author's Notes
Spoiler: show
The Year of the Trolls ends, and the rise of another Västerström (or two, or three) to greatness begins.

Unfortunately, bad things happen in life, and so they will figure in the next part…

On a more serious note, I'd like to thank everyone who's commented for the nice things they've said. It helps tremendously to know the scribbling isn't met with a giant "Meh", like Tuuri let out on Pg 78.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Daéa Reina on July 12, 2015, 08:04:08 PM
…And now, back to our regular time-frame.

Correspondence
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Part IX
Spoiler: show
Year 119, Winter

Lalli,

The thick blanket of snow covering all the land seems to want to consume any sound made around it, and so all is quiet in Sweden at last.

Now that we have time to breathe, it seems everyone in Sweden’s trying to out-do each other in doing “things” for me. It’s a strange feeling to know that you can request just about anything and get it. I could get to like it too much by far, and so I will only request those things beneficial to the Cleansers: I shall restore the Cleanser training protocols, taking charge of the training organization myself and restaffing it with the superannuated or otherwise invalided--no able-bodied Cleanser will eschew the field, and the elders’ experience won’t be wasted as it currently is.

The damage done will probably take another full generation of Cleansers to fix, but it must be done. I have made good strides already, I think, and when I’ve restructured the training system to how it was before the High Command broke it, things should right themselves, however slowly it happens. Until then, however, I cannot in good conscience leave Sweden--I would not put it past the High Command to do something behind my back that they’d never dare were I present.

Tuuri’s last letter was certainly brimming with news: I hear you have an apprentice at last; that Onni has finally hung up his hood to be with his family; and that Tuuri herself is in danger of being shuffled off to a post reserved for the superannuated (which I think would be the death of her; her energy needs to be spent productively or it’ll fade).

Don’t forget to tell me all about this apprentice of yours when next you write; or is that some special taboo of the Finnish Mages? I’m sorry to press you if it is.

Your Cleanser friend,
Emil Västerström

*
Year 120, Summer

Lalli,

Well, it happened. The moment he turned 13, my Aku signed up to be a Cleanser.

This was not unexpected, as he’s been fascinated with them almost from birth, but, as a father, I wish he’d waited a year or two in order to be doubly sure. But Aku is not like Esko, my little skaldling, or like Little Mikkel, the budding dramatist, of all things! No, Aku is following his heart.

As the head of training for the Cleansers, this puts me in a bind, however, as to have the appearance of easing my son’s path while obstructing others would bring shame on us both. I have explained this thoroughly to Aku, and instructed my subordinates in writing that they must expect more from him in every area and sub-area of training than any other cadet. I hope he’ll forgive me someday for what these next two years must be for him.

I’m still somewhat annoyed with you for thinking I might be too fragile to bear your happiness after my loss, but don’t let that stop you writing me. I still want to know all about your Kerttu, and whether you are planning a family of your own. I can say from experience that to have a child of your own is at once the greatest joy and the greatest pain possible, as my prior writings may have already made clear to you.

Your Cleanser friend,
Emil Västerström

Author's Notes
Spoiler: show
The Year of the Trolls ends, and the rise of another Västerström (or two, or three) to greatness begins.

Unfortunately, bad things happen in life, and so they will figure in the next part…

On a more serious note, I'd like to thank everyone who's commented for the nice things they've said. It helps tremendously to know the scribbling isn't met with a giant "Meh", like Tuuri let out on Pg 78.


Spoiler: show

I'm always waiting eagerly for every new chapter of this fanfic.
I know not many people agree with me, but I can totally imagine Lalli settling down and having a family. Maybe when he is more mature and less guarded, but still keeping his silent and introverted nature. And funnily enough, I always imagined that it would be very cute if he ended up marrying his mage apprentice.
That being said, I'm so happy that you had the same thought! I was taken by surprise and started smiling like an idiot. I'm really looking forward to the next letters!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on July 12, 2015, 10:37:33 PM
I too can imagine Lalli marrying once he has lived enough to learn to trust that anything in his life will endure beyond the next few breaths. Reckon it would have to be another mage, though; I can't see him communicating enough with anyone else. Don't know whether he would need another silent person? Or a chatty one?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Mélusine on July 13, 2015, 05:06:38 AM
I too can imagine Lalli marrying once he has lived enough to learn to trust that anything in his life will endure beyond the next few breaths. Reckon it would have to be another mage, though; I can't see him communicating enough with anyone else. Don't know whether he would need another silent person? Or a chatty one?
Even if I'm not able to imagine such futures for the characters, I'm sure that if Lalli needs someone (This "someone" is including friend(s).), it's someone who respect his silence and his need of silence.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on July 13, 2015, 04:33:58 PM
People on other threads were wondering about the people on board the ISS when the rash hit, and that coupled with watching my friend play Kerbal Space Program of all things led to this. I pretty much wrote this on the bus home, then spent the next three days dithering about whether or not to turn it into a bigger fanfic or not. Hopefully, it’s turned out ok.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4334900

As always, I hope you like it!

And sheesh, I really should have been saying this earlier, but there’s been a lot of good stuff being put up on here lately! (LooNEY, ParanormalAndroid, StellersJayC, I’m looking at you guys.) Now if we could only get a rate of posts like the art thread… *wistfulness intensifies*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Sunflower on July 13, 2015, 04:49:57 PM
People on other threads were wondering about the people on board the ISS when the rash hit, and that coupled with watching my friend play Kerbal Space Program of all things led to this. I pretty much wrote this on the bus home, then spent the next three days dithering about whether or not to turn it into a bigger fanfic or not. Hopefully, it’s turned out ok.
http://archiveofourown.org/works/4334900

As always, I hope you like it!

And sheesh, I really should have been saying this earlier, but there’s been a lot of good stuff being put up on here lately! (LooNEY, ParanormalAndroid, StellersJayC, I’m looking at you guys.) Now if we could only get a rate of posts like the art thread… *wistfulness intensifies*
*Loud sniffle*
SectoBoss, you're far too modest.  It's more than OK, it's incredibly moving (and as an American, I'm particularly touched).  Also a very thoughtful commentary on cultural trends in the Known World over the decades. 
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Keeper on July 13, 2015, 04:56:48 PM
People on other threads were wondering about the people on board the ISS when the rash hit, and that coupled with watching my friend play Kerbal Space Program of all things led to this. I pretty much wrote this on the bus home, then spent the next three days dithering about whether or not to turn it into a bigger fanfic or not. Hopefully, it’s turned out ok.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4334900

As always, I hope you like it!

Wow. That's an absolutely amazing piece of work. Bravo! Never stop. :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Haiz on July 13, 2015, 04:57:51 PM
People on other threads were wondering about the people on board the ISS when the rash hit, and that coupled with watching my friend play Kerbal Space Program of all things led to this. I pretty much wrote this on the bus home, then spent the next three days dithering about whether or not to turn it into a bigger fanfic or not. Hopefully, it’s turned out ok.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4334900

As always, I hope you like it!
your mind is such a wonderful place, you always pull out great threads from the worldbuild-weave and bring them to light, the ones I've never thought to look after, and I love it
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Fimbulvarg on July 13, 2015, 05:04:50 PM
People on other threads were wondering about the people on board the ISS when the rash hit, and that coupled with watching my friend play Kerbal Space Program of all things led to this. I pretty much wrote this on the bus home, then spent the next three days dithering about whether or not to turn it into a bigger fanfic or not. Hopefully, it’s turned out ok.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4334900

As always, I hope you like it!

And sheesh, I really should have been saying this earlier, but there’s been a lot of good stuff being put up on here lately! (LooNEY, ParanormalAndroid, StellersJayC, I’m looking at you guys.) Now if we could only get a rate of posts like the art thread… *wistfulness intensifies*

That went back and forth from really, heavy to very optimistic. You should write speeches for Obama.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on July 13, 2015, 05:35:22 PM
Wow, thanks guys!

(and as an American, I'm particularly touched)
Well, since I kind of made fun of America in the Pacific Rim crossover, I guess this is my official letter of apology :D

Wow. That's an absolutely amazing piece of work. Bravo! Never stop. :)
I can't seem to stop send help

your mind is such a wonderful place, you always pull out great threads from the worldbuild-weave and bring them to light, the ones I've never thought to look after, and I love it
Thank you! Although I must admit, a fair few of my story ideas are just one's I've gotten from other threads on the forum and run off with...

And Fimbulvarg, I'm flattered! Although I don't think that would be a job I'd do well at - I'd be too busy trying to see if I could get the president to pull a ron burgundy and say whatever I put up on the teleprompter.

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Mélusine on July 13, 2015, 06:04:00 PM
I can't seem to stop send help
We won't sorry you'll have to write again and more.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Russet on July 14, 2015, 05:49:41 AM
People on other threads were wondering about the people on board the ISS when the rash hit, and that coupled with watching my friend play Kerbal Space Program of all things led to this. I pretty much wrote this on the bus home, then spent the next three days dithering about whether or not to turn it into a bigger fanfic or not. Hopefully, it’s turned out ok.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4334900

As always, I hope you like it!

And sheesh, I really should have been saying this earlier, but there’s been a lot of good stuff being put up on here lately! (LooNEY, ParanormalAndroid, StellersJayC, I’m looking at you guys.) Now if we could only get a rate of posts like the art thread… *wistfulness intensifies*
I feel like I got chills so often that the hair on my skin is probably still standing right now. Just.. goosebumps everywhere, god, this was the best. Everything is portrayed in such a terrifying yet beautiful way that makes me feel like an ant in this vast world.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on July 14, 2015, 09:53:22 PM
Perhaps the saddest part yet?

Correspondence
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Part X
Spoiler: show
Year 124, Spring

Lalli,

Both I and my family have come through this recent “pan-demic” without further loss, though that can scarcely comfort you. I keep thinking it over, seeing in my mind’s eye the gods looking down on our arrogant assuredness that, having survived the Rash, nothing less could strike us down, and watching their response, this outbreak of influenza.

I look at Tuuri’s last letter over and over, finding no hint in it that it would be the last ever. When the news came, I shut myself in my office and simply howled: for Tuuri, who braved the Silent World only to die in her own bed; for Onni, ever fearful of the Rash, but felled by yet an older enemy of Man; for Mikkel, who tended the sick and dying until he himself dropped; for Sigrun; and, yes, for Marta.

I look upon my own words above and despise their inadequacy. I would come to you, but they still haven’t lifted the travel bans here in Sweden.

I’m glad to hear most everyone under the age of 50 survived. It was that way here, as well, though the majority of our wisest and most venerable succumbed. Give all your surviving kin a big hug of condolence from me.

Esko has announced that he will be a doctor when he comes of age, as he desires to make the sick well.

They’re still letting letters through, so please keep writing. Enclosed is a translated letter from Reynir, who was in the habit of writing to Mikkel. Now that we three alone are left, he wants to chat more.

Your Cleanser friend,
Emil Västerström

*
Year 125, Winter

Lalli,

I’m a grandfather, twice over. How odd.

Apparently, Aku has been seeing this girl Hanna for some time, and when the Flu hit last winter, they decided to throw caution to the wind and marry, unwilling to waste time they might not have. So, of course, she got pregnant--with twins, no less!--and came through that and the delivery like a trooper, and only then did they think to inform me of all this.

Of course, I’ve been rooted here at the Cleanser Training Camp, while Aku has been heavily involved with the recent actions up in the far north, near Luleå and the Ironworks, but still, he could have written, at the very least.

They have let me meet my grandchildren, though, and the two of them are so like Aku and Esko at that age that it’s uncanny. They have named the boy Mikkel Emil, and the girl Hanna Marta. Don’t worry; I’m sure your name will float around in the family pool of names for some time to come.

Did I mention Aku’s been promoted? They’ve made him a Captain already, after barely two cycles in the field! What madness is this?

Your last letter mentioned you’ve been having some stomach problems, so I’ve enclosed a copy of Tuuri’s hot mash recipe, in case you lost yours. It’s seriously the best stomach-soother that I’ve ever had. Take care of yourself.

Your Cleanser friend,
Emil Västerström


Author’s Notes
Spoiler: show

The first letter was hard to write. I hope it came out OK.

But, more importantly: Tuuri’s hot mash recipe was supposed to be for Emil’s baby to eat, not him. Apparently, Lalli never mentioned that. Oops.

*EDIT* In re Keeper's question below, Emil has a staff member who tells him the correct declensions from time to time, but Emil writes the letters himself.

Oh, yeah, I was going to mention Phillip II of Macedonia & Alexander the Great. *END EDIT*


I'd be too busy trying to see if I could get the president to pull a ron burgundy and say whatever I put up on the teleprompter.

I lika… do… da cha-cha.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Keeper on July 14, 2015, 10:15:02 PM
Perhaps the saddest part yet?

Correspondence
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Part X
Spoiler: show
Year 124, Spring

Lalli,

Both I and my family have come through this recent “pan-demic” without further loss, though that can scarcely comfort you. I keep thinking it over, seeing in my mind’s eye the gods looking down on our arrogant assuredness that, having survived the Rash, nothing less could strike us down, and watching their response, this outbreak of influenza.

I look at Tuuri’s last letter over and over, finding no hint in it that it would be the last ever. When the news came, I shut myself in my office and simply howled: for Tuuri, who braved the Silent World only to die in her own bed; for Onni, ever fearful of the Rash, but felled by yet an older enemy of Man; for Mikkel, who tended the sick and dying until he himself dropped; for Sigrun; and, yes, for Marta.

I look upon my own words above and despise their inadequacy. I would come to you, but they still haven’t lifted the travel bans here in Sweden. Anyway,

I’m glad to hear most everyone under the age of 50 survived. It was that way here, as well, though the majority of our wisest and most venerable succumbed. Give all your surviving kin a big hug of condolence from me.

Esko has announced that he will be a doctor when he comes of age, as he desires to make the sick well.

They’re still letting letters through, so please keep writing. Enclosed is a translated letter from Reynir, who was in the habit of writing to Mikkel. Now that we three alone are left, he wants to chat more.

Your Cleanser friend,
Emil Västerström

*
Year 124, Winter

Lalli,

I’m a grandfather, twice over. How odd.

Apparently, Aku has been seeing this girl Hanna for some time, and when the Flu hit last winter, they decided to throw caution to the wind and marry, unwilling to waste time they might not have. So, of course, she got pregnant--with twins, no less!--and came through that and the delivery like a trooper, and only then did they think to inform me of all this.

Of course, I’ve been rooted here at the Cleanser Training Camp, while Aku has been heavily involved with the recent actions up in the far north, near Luleå and the Ironworks, but still, he could have written, at the very least.

They have let me meet my grandchildren, though, and the two of them are so like Aku and Esko at that age that it’s uncanny. They have named the boy Mikkel Emil, and the girl Hanna Marta. Don’t worry; I’m sure your name will float around in the family pool of names for some time to come.

Did I mention Aku’s been promoted? They’ve made him a Captain already, after barely two cycles in the field! What madness is this?

Your last letter mentioned you’ve been having some stomach problems, so I’ve enclosed a copy of Tuuri’s hot mash recipe, in case you lost yours. It’s seriously the best stomach-soother that I’ve ever had. Take care of yourself.

Your Cleanser friend,
Emil Västerström


Author’s Notes
Spoiler: show

The first letter was hard to write. I hope it came out OK.

But, more importantly: Tuuri’s hot mash recipe was supposed to be for Emil’s baby to eat, not him. Apparently, Lalli never mentioned that. Oops.


I lika… do… da cha-cha.
I really enjoy these letters. Something came to mind after this one, though- how's Emil's Finnish, or Lalli's Swedish, these days? It's implied that they've both been learning, but now neither one has a translator close to them(that we've seen, I think). Tuuri, Onni, and Mikkel in one sweep, though, that's tough :(.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on July 14, 2015, 10:56:47 PM
LooNEY-DAC, It is most sad, as well as being an effective link to our own world. Like us, they are faced with more challenges than the ones usually regarded as most terrible.

After the last set of letters, I had a wonderful mental image that I'm not artist enough to render: A Valkyrie approaching Valhalla on her horse, but just barely - bouncing on its rump, clutching her helmet with the same hand that holds her spear, while Sigrun sits in the saddle, with a manic expression of glee, waving the reins - riding a flying horse looked like too much fun to pass up, and after all, how hard could it be?
For this multiple loss, no such light-hearted comfort occurs.

Heavily edited - I'll get the hang of this forum posting someday...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on July 15, 2015, 02:17:40 AM
LooNEY: sad but well written, and properly observes the ironies. People forget that the influenza epidemic after World War 1, for instance, killed way more people than did the whole Great War.

Emil and Lalli are never going to meet again in the flesh, are they?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Sunflower on July 15, 2015, 03:33:23 AM
LooNEY: sad but well written, and properly observes the ironies. People forget that the influenza epidemic after World War 1, for instance, killed way more people than did the whole Great War.

Emil and Lalli are never going to meet again in the flesh, are they?

Heh, I was thinking the same thing!  It's going to be like "Cat's in the Cradle," (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUwjNBjqR-c) I sadly suspect. 
When will I see you, Lalli?  I don't know when, but we'll have a good time then...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Russet on July 15, 2015, 06:22:06 AM
LooNEY (and in extension Sunflower) STOP MAKING ME SAD. Lovely writing though, can't wait to read more and completely crush my heart. :D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Daéa Reina on July 15, 2015, 10:16:39 AM
Emil and Lalli are never going to meet again in the flesh, are they?

Spoiler: show
Looney said that this fic is a prequel to his other fic, where Lalli and Emil die on the same day, so they will only meet again in the afterlife. :(
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Mélusine on July 15, 2015, 10:27:16 AM
Spoiler: show
Looney said that this fic is a prequel to his other fic, where Lalli and Emil die on the same day, so they will only meet again in the afterlife. :(
Spoiler: show
This fic is depressing for me :( *Needs more happiness*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Daéa Reina on July 15, 2015, 10:34:50 AM
Spoiler: show
This fic is depressing for me :( *Needs more happiness*


Spoiler: show
I know! I feel sad reading it, but I can't stop! I'll probably draw some silly fanart later to cheer myself up. :/


Heey, did you just get a promotion? :D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Mélusine on July 15, 2015, 10:46:17 AM
Heey, did you just get a promotion? :D
*Was trying to ignore it since yesterday evening* ::)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Sunflower on July 15, 2015, 11:25:09 AM
*Was trying to ignore it since yesterday evening* ::)
Hey, congratulations!  Which derelict airport have you chosen to rule?   :D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Mélusine on July 15, 2015, 11:37:31 AM
Hey, congratulations!  Which derelict airport have you chosen to rule?   :D
... Time to say I have never taken a plane so never been into an airport so I have absolutely no idea ? What could I make with an airport ? *Embarrassed*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Sunflower on July 15, 2015, 12:12:58 PM
I have never taken a plane so never been into an airport so I have absolutely no idea ? What could I make with an airport ? *Embarrassed*

Aw, don't be embarrassed!  I only know about airports because my father was in the military when I was a child, so we moved a lot, and our relatives were scattered all over the U.S. 

I have a couple of suggestions for you, based on your antiquarian interests.  (The airport awarded at 1,000 posts doesn't *have* to be derelict IRL; we assume it will be by Y90.)
1. Le Bourget, near Paris (https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/A%C3%A9roport_de_Paris-Le_Bourget) -- the historic airfield where Charles Lindbergh landed, among others.
2. One of these:  "14 of the world's most amazing abandoned airports"  (http://www.skyscanner.net/news/14-worlds-most-amazing-abandoned-airports)(except JoB has already claimed Berlin-Tempelhof"
3. "Abandoned airports around the world" - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/europe/uk/10858233/Abandoned-airports-around-the-world.html

And félicitations!

(I'll copy the airport info over to the Promotions thread for future reference.)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Russet on July 16, 2015, 02:23:07 AM
Conquer Sciphol! It's big and fancy and big! And it's probably been run down with trolls since day one since it's, as aforementioned, so very big!

Oh, also, angst party with Reynir: when it's all over (http://archiveofourown.org/works/4353263).
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: JoB on July 16, 2015, 02:24:34 PM
Conquer Sciphol! It's big and fancy and big!
I've been told that the bicycle lanes near it have signs saying "niet in de lucht kijken", lest bicyclists run into something while watching overhead aircraft ... ;D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Sunflower on July 17, 2015, 02:40:03 AM
The recent revelations of the true nature of the beasts appear to be such 'the story of the scout' will be diverging from the 'lore'. Might still continue it, though.

Please do continue!  I was really enjoying your view of Finnish life and culture through the scout's eyes (Erkki, was it?), and I was disappointed when it seemed we might never find out what happened. 

The Scriptorium is open to all kinds of AU's (alternate universes).  As a matter of fact, the story about Tuuri that I abandoned about 2/3 through predated Reynir's and Kitty's arrivals.  So if I finish it, I'll either have to retroactively rewrite it to incorporate the 6th and 7th team members, or act as if it was always meant to be an AU.   ;)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: misea on July 17, 2015, 04:10:00 AM
Conquer Sciphol! It's big and fancy and big! And it's probably been run down with trolls since day one since it's, as aforementioned, so very big!

Oh, also, angst party with Reynir: when it's all over (http://archiveofourown.org/works/4353263).

WHYYYYYY but also YEEEEEEEEESSSS
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on July 17, 2015, 06:29:59 AM
Partofacitygiant: please do keep writing! I want to see what happens next.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on July 17, 2015, 08:36:30 PM
Belatedly, here it is.

Correspondence
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Part XI
Spoiler: show
Year 160, Early Spring

Herr Hotakainen,

It is with great regret that I announce the passing of Emil Västerström, my grandfather. It has fallen to me to handle/“wrap up” his remaining un-official correspondence. Your letter (which I have enclosed, unopened) reached us about a week after it happened.

If I may add a personal note, I would like to thank you for being Grandfather’s chief correspondent through his final years. I know for a fact that he always brightened considerably when he saw that there was a new letter from you in his mail.

Yours Most Respectfully,
Emil Reynir Mikkel Lalli Västerström

*
Year 160, Late Spring

Fröken Hotakainen,

I thank you for your kind words about my grandfather’s passing.

I was never permitted to read any of your father’s letters, nor any of my grandfather’s responses, though he would occasionally ask me if a certain word fit the role in a sentence that he intended for it. Sometimes, though, my father would tell me silly stories Grandfather had read to him from your Cousin Tuuri’s letters when he and my uncles were boys. The one that I remember best is the one about Onni and the Cursed Machine. I would very much enjoy learning more about your kin, if you would be so kind.

About my family: you have heard of my grandfather from your father, of course. My eldest uncle, Aku, has been called “the Swede Alaxander”, and “Gustavus Adolphus Reborn”, as his Cleansing campaigns liberated the old Counties of Västernorrland, Gävleborg, and the eastern quarter of Västerbotten for Sweden between 130-135. My other uncle, Esko, is perhaps the most famous doctor in Sweden, having saved many hundreds of lives through treatments he invented or rediscovered. Most Swedes know my father’s voice (or, more properly, voices) better than most others, as he has been one of Mora Radio’s “Thousand Voices Men” since their inception.

My six brothers are all Skalds or Cleansers, aside from Ulf, the third youngest of us, who’s another of the “Thousand Voices Men”. As for myself, I am the youngest son of the youngest son of the man I was named for, whose un-official secretary I became when I left school, and there is not much else to say about me.

Yours Most Respectfully,
Emil R.M.L. Västerström

*
Year 160, Early Summer

Fröken Aino,

I heard a bird singing this morning, and I wondered, “What kind of birds live in and around Keuruu?” Of course, this set me to wondering about all the various Finn flora and (non-Beast) fauna, and I could hardly wait to ask you. I don’t know how I’ll survive the suspense of awaiting your response.

Here on the Isle of Sollerön, we have the ordinary complement of domestic stocks: poultry, pigs, cattle and horses, as well as dogs and the ubiquitous felines, one of whom is trying to sabotage this letter by demanding my immediate attentions. Thus, I must end.

Yours Most Respectfully,
Emil R.M.L. Västerström

*
Year 160, Late Summer

Aino,

Pursuant to your request, I have gathered all the “Lalli stuff”, as he used to refer to it, for your examination. As it is quite a substantial amount of... well, stuff, I propose to bring it to you at Keuruu at the beginning of Fall, if that is permissible.

I look forward to finally meeting you face to face.

Yours Most Respectfully,
Emil R.M.L. Västerström

*
Year 161, Winter

Emil,

Your mother and I hope you and your new bride (Aino, is it?) are doing well over in Keuruu; for ourselves, work is a bit slow as my voice is still recovering from the bad throat cold I had early in the year, but we do well enough aside from that.

Of course we do not disapprove (it’s not as if you were acting dishonorably by marrying her); we simply wish you’d waited a bit that we might meet your bride, and possibly her family, as I have always had a curiosity about the Hotakainens. On that note, we intend to take the first spring ship out to Keuruu for a visit. I know you dislike “being babied”, but we are your parents. When the gods bless you with children, you’ll understand.

Your story of how the two of you discovered that you share a birthday is amusing. Imagine, the youngest grandson of Emil Västerström and the only daughter of Lalli Hotakainen being born at practically the same time!

If you wish to make your life and home in Finland, instead of the recently liberated Swedish wildlands, we again will not object; we’ll merely request that you visit us at least annually, and let us visit you with the same frequency. No-one in the family wants another Siv Incident.

I remain, and ever shall be,
Your Loving Father
U.E. Mikkel Västerström


Author’s Notes
Spoiler: show
So, some more lighthearted later stuff. I’ll bet you thought the story ended when Emil & Lalli died, aside from the earlier excursus.

It took me a while to decide to do this excursus, but I hope it turned out well.

Alternate titles: Fast Times in Finland, When Emil Met Aino, etc.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Ren on July 17, 2015, 09:08:18 PM
Well, first fanfic I have written, hope you all like it! It takes place after p. 359.
Spoiler: show
Emil stared as Lalli walked away. The thought rushing through his mind threatened to consume him. 'Why hadn't Mikkel tried? The cat could have lived? And why woul the beast come back? Did it have a conscience?' But mostly, he just felt empty with loss.Loss, loss loss. the word itself felt empty. But as he wiped his bloody knife on his already muddied uniform, and saw his reflection in the shining metal, he felt angry. Angry at Mikkel for not trying to save the poor mother cat. Angry at Sigrun for not caring. He sheathed his knife angrily. She never seemed to care about anything. And angry at Lalli. Sometimes he was just a statue, just a husk of a boy. Emil thought about the moments he'd had with Lalli. The special moments where the world fell away, and Lalli showed some emotion, something to show that he had emotions. But now, as Lalli's footsteps faded, he turned away.'how could he do this?' Emil thought. 'How could he just walk away--the boy's practically an animal himself!' He stood there, in the rain., staring out into the fading light. His vision blurred as he heard words from a familiar, but intelligible language, in the form of a poem. His vision cleared, and he could see sharper than before. There was a dancing blue light around the cats graves, and the form of the mother cat, all injury gone, appeared. She trotted through the air, towards the stones that marked her passed kits. She licked gently at the blue light, and each kitten materialized in turn in a swirl of blue flame. Suddenly, in a flash of pale green, the poor dog's spirit erupted from its body. It bowed its head to the cats, and they walked up, up into the night sky, far away from anything that could hurt them. As they disappeared, six stars shone brighter than they had a moment ago. Emil knew that the animal's spirits had gone to live in the sky, to watch over him, and the rest of the crew. A thin, pale hand reached out and lightly touched his shoulder. Emil turned around to see Lalli, eyes glowing in the darkness, reaching out to him. "You... You did that, didn't you? You made me see their spirits!" Emil turned around and embraced him.

"Sigrun, are the boys back yet?" Mikkel called from his spot in the work room. "Nah, I think they'll be in so---oh. Huh."  "Sigrun?" Mikkel called. When he got no reply, he rounded the corner to join her. "Ah." "Never thought the little Mage dude was a hugger."

'He isn't.' Tuuri smiled to herself.


So, that was it! I hope you enjoyed it! I may write more! But now I should sleep...

YES SO MUCH YES!!! AMAZING!!

Spoiler: show
I never thought that Mikkel would ever say dude
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Ren on July 17, 2015, 09:54:13 PM
Sorry for the double post.

@LooNEY_DAC Your fanfic is AMAZING!! I love the story form and how it doesn't end with Lalli and Emil dying. Could you please post all of them in order?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on July 18, 2015, 05:26:20 AM
LooNEY: your final chapter is delightful, and I second the request that all the stories be put together somewhere in sequence. I look forward to reading it all over again at one time.
Perhaps at some point you can tell us the tales of the 'Siv Incident' and 'Onni and the Cursed Machine'?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on July 18, 2015, 02:03:12 PM
The Complete Links to
Correspondence
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Spoiler: show
Part I (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg47366#msg47366)
Part II (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg47728#msg47728)
Part III (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg48089#msg48089)
Part IV (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg48402#msg48402)
Part V (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg49454#msg49454)
Part VI (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg49732#msg49732)
Part VII (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg50231#msg50231)
Part VIII (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg50799#msg50799)
Part IX (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg50899#msg50899)
Part X (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg51509#msg51509)
Part XI (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg52236#msg52236)
The Proposal (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg92217#msg92217)
OrigamiOwl's squee-worthy rendering of The Emil Recruiting Poster (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=35.msg64467#msg64467)


Author’s Notes
Spoiler: show
I never got to it, but Reynir died in his sleep in Y137.

What I was trying to show here was how Emil, without becoming a “Mary Sue”-type, was thrust into situations where his competence (in the wake of WWI-like incompetence) made him a legend, and how his eldest son (Aukusti is the Finn form of Augustus), a genuine military genius (it happens), became a bigger legend, all leading to the isolation I wrote of in FFOOM. Or, basically, I was trying to show how Emil and his progeny started the Rise of the House of Västerström, taking my cues from the Cornelia gens of Ancient Rome.

Of course, I was also trying to show how the Emil-Lalli friendship still thrived even with an ocean parting them. Hopefully, I succeeded there.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Ren on July 18, 2015, 06:07:47 PM
Thanks for the Links!!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Russet on July 19, 2015, 03:39:12 AM
@LooNEY Wow, you terribly amazing person. Even 10 stadiums full of standing ovations wouldn't adequately describe my awe for your writing.
@JoB I hadn't known that! The Dutch are pretty great, haha.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: AquaAurion on July 19, 2015, 05:30:47 AM
Belatedly, here it is.

Correspondence
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Part XI
Spoiler: show
Year 160, Early Spring

Herr Hotakainen,

It is with great regret that I announce the passing of Emil Västerström, my grandfather. It has fallen to me to handle/“wrap up” his remaining un-official correspondence. Your letter (which I have enclosed, unopened) reached us about a week after it happened.

If I may add a personal note, I would like to thank you for being Grandfather’s chief correspondent through his final years. I know for a fact that he always brightened considerably when he saw that there was a new letter from you in his mail.

Yours Most Respectfully,
Emil Reynir Mikkel Lalli Västerström

*
Year 160, Late Spring

Fröken Hotakainen,

I thank you for your kind words about my grandfather’s passing.

I was never permitted to read any of your father’s letters, nor any of my grandfather’s responses, though he would occasionally ask me if a certain word fit the role in a sentence that he intended for it. Sometimes, though, my father would tell me silly stories Grandfather had read to him from your Cousin Tuuri’s letters when he and my uncles were boys. The one that I remember best is the one about Onni and the Cursed Machine. I would very much enjoy learning more about your kin, if you would be so kind.

About my family: you have heard of my grandfather from your father, of course. My eldest uncle, Aku, has been called “the Swede Alaxander”, and “Gustavus Adolphus Reborn”, as his Cleansing campaigns liberated the old Counties of Västernorrland, Gävleborg, and the eastern quarter of Västerbotten for Sweden between 130-135. My other uncle, Esko, is perhaps the most famous doctor in Sweden, having saved many hundreds of lives through treatments he invented or rediscovered. Most Swedes know my father’s voice (or, more properly, voices) better than most others, as he has been one of Mora Radio’s “Thousand Voices Men” since their inception.

My six brothers are all Skalds or Cleansers, aside from Ulf, the third youngest of us, who’s another of the “Thousand Voices Men”. As for myself, I am the youngest son of the youngest son of the man I was named for, whose un-official secretary I became when I left school, and there is not much else to say about me.

Yours Most Respectfully,
Emil R.M.L. Västerström

*
Year 160, Early Summer

Fröken Aino,

I heard a bird singing this morning, and I wondered, “What kind of birds live in and around Keuruu?” Of course, this set me to wondering about all the various Finn flora and (non-Beast) fauna, and I could hardly wait to ask you. I don’t know how I’ll survive the suspense of awaiting your response.

Here on the Isle of Sollerön, we have the ordinary complement of domestic stocks: poultry, pigs, cattle and horses, as well as dogs and the ubiquitous felines, one of whom is trying to sabotage this letter by demanding my immediate attentions. Thus, I must end.

Yours Most Respectfully,
Emil R.M.L. Västerström

*
Year 160, Late Summer

Aino,

Pursuant to your request, I have gathered all the “Lalli stuff”, as he used to refer to it, for your examination. As it is quite a substantial amount of... well, stuff, I propose to bring it to you at Keuruu at the beginning of Fall, if that is permissible.

I look forward to finally meeting you face to face.

Yours Most Respectfully,
Emil R.M.L. Västerström

*
Year 161, Winter

Emil,

Your mother and I hope you and your new bride (Aino, is it?) are doing well over in Keuruu; for ourselves, work is a bit slow as my voice is still recovering from the bad throat cold I had early in the year, but we do well enough aside from that.

Of course we do not disapprove (it’s not as if you were acting dishonorably by marrying her); we simply wish you’d waited a bit that we might meet your bride, and possibly her family, as I have always had a curiosity about the Hotakainens. On that note, we intend to take the first spring ship out to Keuruu for a visit. I know you dislike “being babied”, but we are your parents. When the gods bless you with children, you’ll understand.

Your story of how the two of you discovered that you share a birthday is amusing. Imagine, the youngest grandson of Emil Västerström and the only daughter of Lalli Hotakainen being born at practically the same time!

If you wish to make your life and home in Finland, instead of the recently liberated Swedish wildlands, we again will not object; we’ll merely request that you visit us at least annually, and let us visit you with the same frequency. No-one in the family wants another Siv Incident.

I remain, and ever shall be,
Your Loving Father
U.E. Mikkel Västerström


Author’s Notes
Spoiler: show
So, some more lighthearted later stuff. I’ll bet you thought the story ended when Emil & Lalli died, aside from the earlier excursus.

It took me a while to decide to do this excursus, but I hope it turned out well.

Alternate titles: Fast Times in Finland, When Emil Met Aino, etc.

This was beautiful and you had me standing on a train station, holding back tears after reading.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: KicknRun on July 20, 2015, 02:03:20 PM
Conquer Sciphol! It's big and fancy and big! And it's probably been run down with trolls since day one since it's, as aforementioned, so very big!

Oh, also, angst party with Reynir: when it's all over (http://archiveofourown.org/works/4353263).

JOIN ME IN "SIGRUN KILLED BY TEAMMATE" HELL

we don't have cookies but we do have sin
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Mélusine on July 20, 2015, 02:04:45 PM
JOIN ME IN "SIGRUN KILLED BY TEAMMATE" HELL

we don't have cookies but we do have sin
I say no ! (And I'm not alone, I know I'm not alone.)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on July 20, 2015, 02:22:54 PM
we don't have cookies but we do have sin

You don't deserve cookies after what you guys put the rest of us through!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on July 20, 2015, 08:58:57 PM
What SectoBoss said!
But I must admit some of the explorations of difficult themes are interesting. Killing some of the characters highlights the reactions of the others. Hmmmm....
No, I'm not about to change my usage and start killing off the cast, but a historical retrospective might be enlightening. LooNEYDAC's 'Correspondence' stories certainly worked well.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SugaAndSpice on July 21, 2015, 02:52:44 AM
YES SO MUCH YES!!! AMAZING!!

Spoiler: show
I never thought that Mikkel would ever say dude


Ahahaha sorry, didn't make that clear, that is Sigrun saying that.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on July 21, 2015, 09:25:06 PM
Mikkel Madsen and the Crown of Gamleborg
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Spoiler: show

“Unfortunately, the Danes do not know of the kindnesses of the Gods, and refuse to acknowledge them.”

The Fortress of Gamleborg on Bornholm Isle is so old that the names of those who built it are lost. The name Gamleborg itself means “Ancient Heights”, suggesting how much older the fortress is than its medieval successors. Many of its deepest secrets are yet to be rediscovered; many tales are told of what it might hide.

In the Year 80, one man uncovered its deepest secret, completely by accident, as he thought. That man was Mikkel Madsen.

*

The raven flew off, carrying its stolen bounty in its beak. Furious at the loss of his sandwich, Mikkel grabbed a nearby stone and flung it at the thief. He missed.

“OUCH! Of all the accursed foolish things--”

Mikkel sighed. Of course. “ ‘I shot an arrow in the air’,” he quoted mournfully. And with his luck, he’d just hit that windbag Olsen.

A man at the high end of middle-age sat by the old well, holding his leg and cursing. Some of his turns of phrase were quite inventive, and Mikkel filed them away for potential review later. A fair number of ravens were loitering around him, oddly enough, undisturbed by his vituperative discourse. Mikkel had always thought ravens were the secret sadists of the avian world, and now he had proof.

“Stop lurking over there, you microcephalic gigantopithecan! If you’re going to seek out the consequences of your moronic behavior, then embrace them fully, instead of thinking you can hang back and avoid the flying debris! As though anyone your size could hide in any case.”

Slightly abashed, Mikkel walked over to the man. The rock Mikkel had flung at the escaping avian had evidently struck the man’s leg in just the right, or, rather, just the wrong way, leading the man to sprain his ankle quite badly.

“Better. Now, since you’ve managed to put me out of action, it falls to you to take my place in recompense.” As Mikkel gaped in surprise, the man thrust a small flashlight, notebook and pen at him. “Take these, go down that hole over there,” he pointed to the well, “and through the tunnels into the main chamber, and write down everything you see down there. And you needn’t worry about getting stuck; a notable number of our forbears were as alciform as you, so the tunnels should be as practicable for you as for me. Don’t waste time arguing with me; it’s the equinox, and the sun will peak soon. If I’m right, a light show like you’ve never seen should start momentarily, and it’ll be six months before it’s repeated! Get in there!”

There really seemed to be nothing to say to that, so Mikkel went, stuffing the proffered equipment into his jacket. The well proved to possess a rudimentary ladder of protuberant stones, allowing him to descend into its murky, and unpleasantly slimy, depths. Just as the man had implied, once Mikkel had plumbed far enough, one side opened into a gloomy passageway easily accessible from the “ladder”. Gingerly stepping across to the opening, Mikkel retrieved the flashlight, shining it along the tunnel walls.

The Elder Futhark gleamed back at him, covering the walls in line after thick line of script. Great. His hand would fall off copying all this, since, though he knew Pitman shorthand, he couldn’t use it, as he only knew what the Elder Futhark was; he had no idea what any of the runes actually stood for. On the other hand, these could wait for the man’s ankle to heal, while the still notional “main chamber” could not.

Mikkel kept the spot of light pointed firmly at where his feet were aimed as he moved down the tunnel. It meandered for quite some distance, always descending very gently, with not a few sharp turns and about-faces, but eventually, he reached what he could only assume was the main chamber.

Mikkel had heard that Gavleborg had been built for the ancient kings of Bornholm, before the Danes had united, and the chamber was certainly adorned in a befittingly regal manner. The material around him was stone, metal, ivory and even some wood, and everything was carven as the tunnel had been. In the center, there was a plinth, or perhaps it had been an altar; it was a pillar of stone just about five feet high, at any rate, and atop it, for all the world like a crown, was carved a toroidal shape, ensconced in which were a number of large, grayish-looking rocks. Mikkel quickly sketched the plinth and its crown.

How odd. One of the stones atop the central plinth was jarringly out of its socket. Instinctively, Mikkel righted it in its sconce, and as he did, a shaft of sunlight gleamed upon it, illuminating previously invisible translucent depths. There was a sound like stone upon stone, and suddenly, the other jewels in the sconce lit up as well, glowing bright in the subterranean gloom.

Mikkel had just decided that he should leave when the glow faded, leaving only a chamber forlorn and forsaken by time. He shook his head and left anyway, eager to return to the surface and the sun.

The man was awaiting Mikkel in more or less the same spot, fussing over something which proved to be a glass eye. The man snorted at Mikkel’s surprise. “There have always been more of these here on Bornholm than are used, so why should I deny myself the anonymity of two eyes? But enough of that. Did you see it? Did it shine for you?”

Mikkel handed over the notebook. “I had to re-set one of the stones, but yes. I sketched it as I found it, as it shone, and as I left it.”

“Then Bornholm owes you a great debt, Mikkel Madsen.” With that, the man stood and walked off unhaltingly. When Mikkel tried to follow, he had vanished. Perplexed, Mikkel scratched his head, and then shrugged.


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show

Just a quick “Mikkel Meets Mysticism” bit, more practicing his POV than anything else. Unfortunately, his jocular side didn’t get a chance to put in an appearance, so I’ll have to work on that later.


Ahahaha sorry, didn't make that clear, that is Sigrun saying that.

Spoiler: Gentle criticism • show

Paragraphs are your friend. Use them, and such confusion disappears.

Other than that, very nice.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on July 22, 2015, 01:07:23 AM
LooNEY: ahahahahahaaaa! Love the story! And still giggling at the thought of the old Rider of the grey horse having a glass eye. Though, I guess, why not?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solovei on July 22, 2015, 05:45:41 PM
Feels like it's been a while since I posted here!

Buuuut here's a fanfic  (http://archiveofourown.org/works/4401371)I wrote for Sigrid's birthday where everyone works in a bakery :D
Enjoy!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Sunflower on July 22, 2015, 06:06:41 PM
Feels like it's been a while since I posted here!

Buuuut here's a fanfic  (http://archiveofourown.org/works/4401371)I wrote for Sigrid's birthday where everyone works in a bakery :D
Enjoy!

Loving the tags: "no language barriers" "they're awkward enough already" "possibly pre-slash".

AND "Old Baldy."
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Sigrid Marie on July 22, 2015, 08:21:23 PM
Feels like it's been a while since I posted here!

Buuuut here's a fanfic  (http://archiveofourown.org/works/4401371)I wrote for Sigrid's birthday where everyone works in a bakery :D
Enjoy!

I can never say this enough times but I LOVE IT SO MUCH THANK YOU IT'S PERFECT
I do not regret my request for coffee shop au with awkward barista Emil. It was everything I wanted it to be and more
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: AquaAurion on July 23, 2015, 08:03:51 AM
Feels like it's been a while since I posted here!

Buuuut here's a fanfic  (http://archiveofourown.org/works/4401371)I wrote for Sigrid's birthday where everyone works in a bakery :D
Enjoy!
Yes, awkward Emil <3
Spoiler: show
I can imagine now; how he goes to Trond for help and is forced to read his book in before getting any information. It's super weird and he doesn't understand anything of it, reducing him to a state of near desperation. Then Tuuri comes by and asks him what's happening. He starts explaining and as soon as she hears "he ordered two cookies without any drink or anything" she goes "Must be Lalli". XD
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solovei on July 23, 2015, 11:24:52 AM
Yes, awkward Emil <3
Spoiler: show
I can imagine now; how he goes to Trond for help and is forced to read his book in before getting any information. It's super weird and he doesn't understand anything of it, reducing him to a state of near desperation. Then Tuuri comes by and asks him what's happening. He starts explaining and as soon as she hears "he ordered two cookies without any drink or anything" she goes "Must be Lalli". XD

XD you basically just read my mind. That's a little scary.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on July 23, 2015, 08:58:09 PM
Sorting the Last Bookshelf
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Spoiler: show

Day 95
The lights flickered as he slipped the book into the plastic sheathing, neatly sealing it away from the elements. He had to work more quickly; there was only one shelf yet to go before his work would be complete. He’d been lucky that the power had held out even this long, and the irony of a librarian shuffling his books in the dark was not lost on him.

He had no idea why he’d started this undertaking, but it was nearly complete. Everything else was packed and sealed and stored away against the day the library would reopen; a day that might never come. Certainly, the library had seen fewer and fewer comings and goings, even before the Illness had flared up--was it only three months ago?

Around one in every twenty had failed to fall to the disease since its rampage began, but those were still far too few even to tend to the dying, let alone to try to keep everything running, so, bit by bit, things had stopped. No, it was more apt to say that they had all wound down, like a mechanical clock without a key.

As his fingers robotically went through the motions of securing the next tome in plastic, his mind replayed bits of dialogue from an old television show: “The Obsolete Man”, an episode from the old Rod Serling series “The Twilight Zone”.

“Since there are no more books, there are no more libraries. Therefore it follows there would be little use for the services of a librarian... You are obsolete, Mr. Wordsworth.”

He felt obsolete, if obsolescence brought with it weariness, loneliness, pain and hunger. The last book slipped into its sleeve, and he stood up both slowly and painfully. No one was coming. He was the only one left alive in the town, or perhaps the entire area. The despair of it all washed over him anew as the lights flickered again, until, just as they went out at last, another snatch from that show came to him.

“I’m a human being! And if I speak one thought aloud, that thought lives, even after I’ve been shoveled into my grave!”

Brave words, he thought as he made his way through the stacks, the emergency lighting all there was to guide him, but were they yet true? Could he, through this last week’s effort, actually have done something that had a life beyond his own? He’d never know, but he could hope, of course.

Briskly, he locked the doors behind him and set out into the snow. Tomorrow would be soon enough to worry about what he’d do now that he’d finished.


Spoiler:  Authorial Notes • show

Suggested by this (http://www.sssscomic.com/comic.php?page=364#comment-2153962011).
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on July 23, 2015, 09:24:45 PM
Great, LooNEY! A beautiful little vignette. Thank you!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on July 24, 2015, 04:07:08 AM
Well done, indeed, LooNEY.
You seem to have an impressive feel for this world, and for what it would do to the people in it, and what they would do in response.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Russet on July 24, 2015, 04:53:22 AM
JOIN ME IN "SIGRUN KILLED BY TEAMMATE" HELL
we don't have cookies but we do have sin
SIN IS ALL WE NEED MY FRIEND
The funny thing is that Sigrun is one of my favourite characters...
Also, all the new works are amazing. You are all beautiful human beings(!!!).
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: AquaAurion on July 24, 2015, 09:06:05 AM
XD you basically just read my mind. That's a little scary.
Oh no, my psychic powers are showing! \( ゚Д゚)/
I actually did the same to someone else at the forum a while back XD Our minds are fusing!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Viisikielinenkantele on July 24, 2015, 05:19:37 PM
Wow, LooNEY, I cannot express just how much I love your stories!

Solovei, this was so spot on! Thank you for sharing it!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: daiseerose on July 24, 2015, 11:23:29 PM
Spoiler: show

Chapter two

 The ground was cool under Emil’s throbbing head, making his head numb, and soothing the pain away.  He got up and looked around, wondering how he got here and  not remembering what happened.  he tried to stand up, but a sudden burning pain in his head stopped him.
He forced himself to stand up, using trees and other things to support him.  After resting for a bit, he chose to go north, guessing  that that was the direction of the cat tank, and trying to remember how he even gotten here in the first place.  Was he sleepwalking?  He doubted it, how did he even get hurt in the first place if he was sleepwalking?  The pain was so overwhelming that Emil couldn’t even think straight. He had to use trees to support him,  his thoughts were muddled, but he was still trying to find his way back and figure out what had happened.

 He went on for about a mile until he stumbled upon a piece of cloth, which looked suspiciously familiar.  Emil stumbled towards it, letting go of his supportive tree, and crawling towards the scrap.  The piece of cloth was  highly durable, and was white, with black lining the outside of it . Emil turned it over, and  the  was red with blood. The blood was dried, but spots were still wet.

Then, he remembered.

Lalli

  In a rush, Emil remembered. He remembered the troll, the gun shots echoing through the sad deserted town, and lastly, he remembered the sounds of trolls coming.   He immediately thought of what happened, and where Lalli was.  He didn’t remember anything after the sound of the trolls, and he hoped Lalli was okay.  Emil carried on, using trees to support him, while also trying to think about where Lalli could be, which was hard when his head was hurting this much. He carried along for hours, going back towards what he thought they came from, hoping to find some clues- anything really- to find the mage.

  It was dawn before he found a place to rest at, still no signs that Lalli was anywhere near here. no foot prints in the damp ground, no grass that was smashed down by shoes.  Nothing.  Emil slumped down to the ground, defeated.  He had no idea where to look, for all he knew, Lalli could be prancing around in the forest, miles away. He wished that he could have left something behind, anything really. He had no idea where to go from here, all his military training was forgotten. 

  Everything in the Silent World looked the same.The same dead trees, the terrain, and even the few animals that he had passed looked the same.  With a sigh, Emil decided to just rest for the day, as he was of no use tired.  He gathered up some dry leaves that  had fallen from the trees, and pushed them into a pile under a tree to sleep on.  The sun was setting, making the air cooler.  The tree’s leaves were almost gone, leaving  the branches naked, reminding every living thing that winter was near. The  roots  were above ground, making little hollows, in which Emil decided to sleep in . Once situated, Emil laid down, his arms crossing his torso, trying to keep in the heat.  Sleep immediately took him into a deep slumber.


~
  Lalli stumbled through the woods, and for the first time in his life, he was frightened. He had never felt this way before, not when the trolls overcame their village, not even  when they were homeless.  Lalli had dumped Emil by a tree, and faced the troll, trying to lure it away from the Swede. That was hours ago,  and he was starting to feel even more tired.  He hadn’t slept in a day, on top of having to drag the heavy Swede away. 

  Lalli sighed, and stopped. He might as well stop, the Swede was probably not going anywhere.  He actually might already be dead, either from his head wound, or attacked by some rash monstrosity. The thought made Lalli uneasy for some reason.  The thought of him being dead was... unsettling. Lalli  shook the thought away.  If he was dead he would have to carry him back, and that would not be pleasant, because he would have to protect himself, and carry the blonde.  Lalli sighed again, settling down in the leaves, and curling up into a ball.

~

 eyes shifted through the night, making sure no one was near enough to see him. not that it mattered anyways, no one came near him. and if they did, ttthey would regret it.  he laughed silently to himself, watching his latest victim sleeping.  how he missed the taste of live flesssh! but he would have to wait, as his lunch has a companion sssomewhere, and he would lead him right to it, making it even better.  though, the other one would be lesss fressh, as hiss head wound let out all the fresh blood out, he mused to himself.  oh well, lunch was lunch.  and boy, would thosse two be good onesss!.
second chapter to my fanfic.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Fenris on July 25, 2015, 11:03:04 AM
Well, wrote up a thing. (http://archiveofourown.org/works/4418825/chapters/10038932) Just started out on it, but going to be a story set in north-western Russia in year 60, pretty much inspired by Ruth's Canadian one. Map in second page made by Ruth.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on August 03, 2015, 11:38:19 PM
Uh, oh… I seem to have been inspired.

The Good, the Bad, and the Bestial
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/Western crossover fanfic
Part 1
Spoiler: show
The Gathering of the Band of Six

“Not a chance, Taru,” Onni Talks-to-Spirits said. “They’re not going.”

“Who asked you?” The question erupted from Taru Walks-the-World and Tuuri Face-Like-Baby simultaneously.

“Hi.” Lalli Ghost-of-Forest appeared with his usual stealth. With incredible despatch, Tuuri bundled him into the waiting stagecoach, climbing in after him.

“Look, I’m taking these two to Milwaukee, and that’s that.” Having tired of the stick, Taru extended the carrot. “You can come with us, you know. We can find something for you to do that won’t mean... mingling.”

For a moment, Onni looked tempted; then, he looked agonized. “I can’t.”

Taru nodded. “Then, farewell, Onni Talks-to-Spirits.” She nodded at the driver, who whipped up the horses.

“Don’t worry, Big Brother,” Tuuri called as they pulled away. “We’ll be back before the New Year.”

*

Milwaukee was the biggest, most bustling place Tuuri had ever seen; so much so that getting to the Westbrooks’ place seemed a nice respite, at least after the kids were sloughed off. This was one time when she was certain Lalli felt exactly as she did.

She was a little dubious about their new team-mate, Emil “the Dude”--the sobriquet had leapt into her mind when she first saw him and simply stuck there. Sometimes he was frightfully arrogant, but then he’d turn around and do something really nice. Lalli seemed to be warming to him unusually fast, too, and she wasn’t sure how she felt about that, either.

Then they told Tuuri that they’d meet up with the two senior members of the team down in Council Bluffs before heading out further West to their “target”, somewhere in the depths of the Wyoming Territory, and she was a bit reassured.

“Captain Eide’s a woman. That won’t be a problem for you, will it, Emil?”

“Man, woman, red, black, yellow or white: if she’s as good as you’ve said, I’ll follow her.”

That settled, they went to the train station.

*

The first leg of their journey, to Chicago, had passed without incident, aside from Lalli displaying a peculiar reluctance to board their next train. After a bit of time to himself, though, he’d bounded to join them, and all was well.

They were only a few hours out of Chicago when the bandits attacked. The train guards had jumped right into action, though, and the few who’d boarded were quickly cut down, but not before Lalli & Emil had blundered into the middle of the shoot-out.

Oddly enough, one of the dying bandits had recognized Emil, going so far as to try to grab hold of him. Emil had promptly screamed like a girl--and decked the bandit like a man. He then herded Lalli back to their bunks and passed out.

*

When they reached Council Bluffs, they had to switch trains again, but on this next leg, they’d be joined by their leader, the fearless Captain Eide, and their medic, Doc Madsen. They were really, really, really tall; in fact, Tuuri had never met two people as tall as they were.

Aside from extreme height, though, the two of them couldn’t have been more different: where Sigrun was brash, decisive and talkative (Tuuri later concluded that Sigrun’s rapid chatter was really one of her best weapons), Mikkel was cautious, contemplative and very nearly as taciturn as Lalli.

Their mission remained a secret, though, until they finally left the train in Green River, ready to strike north.

*

“Two and a half years ago, the Westbrook family fortune was entrusted to a Wyoming prospector who had literally stumbled into a fortune--a fortune in sapphires and rubies. All he needed, said he, was the funding to start mining and the gems would flow like water from a pump.” Emil paused. “Now, the way tales like this usually end is that the ‘prospector’ vanishes with all the money, leaving nothing behind but the echoes of his false promises. Instead, he brought us all out to see the mine and to sign ‘a few unimportant forms appurtenant to the venture’. Those forms gave him everything and left us with a pittance--barely a cent on each dollar that had been invested. But that isn’t the worst of it. According to my uncle, the [EXPLETIVE DELETED] is using slave labor to work the mines.”

A gasp sounded outside their window. A six-shooter appeared in Sigrun’s hand, but before she could do anything else, a tall, gangly red-headed boy with a long braid crashed into the room. Through the shattered window, Tuuri could see Lalli looking smug.

“Great,” Sigrun commented grimly, “a spy.”

After some very fast talking by the lurker (Reynir Arnason, a runaway from the family farm just trying to see the world--who’d gotten stuck in Green River with no money, food, or prospects), Sigrun had agreed to bring him along “to help care for the horses”.

Well, at least they were on their way, moving north along the Green River as fast as they dared.

What awaited them, however, was more than they’d planned on...


Spoiler:  Authorial Notes • show

This is all Sunflower’s (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=139.msg5310#msg5310) fault; it’s her fault, I tell you!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on August 03, 2015, 11:46:29 PM
Looney, never mind trying to assign blame - keep writing!
Your fanfics are gems!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on August 04, 2015, 06:43:50 AM
LooNEY, you continue to astonish and delight me. 'Westbrook' heheheh! Should be fun! I trust you ARE going to continue?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Sunflower on August 04, 2015, 12:51:49 PM
Uh, oh… I seem to have been inspired.

The Good, the Bad, and the Bestial
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/Western crossover fanfic
Part 1


Spoiler:  Authorial Notes • show

This is all Sunflower’s (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=139.msg5310#msg5310) fault; it’s her fault, I tell you!


Spoiler: sunflower smirks and curtsies prettily • show

I love it!  I like how neatly you found Western parallels for our SSSS characters ("Taru Walks-the-World" and "Lalli Ghost-in-the-Forest" are priceless).  And I also like how you didn't hesitate to strike out into new territory, e.g. the prospective rewards and dangers in your crew's quest.

Only... where is Trond?  Scarred old veteran of the Mexican Wars, still lurking out there on the frontier?  Calculating banker, willing to provide *limited* funding for this venture as long as he gets to help plan it? 
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Sunflower on August 04, 2015, 01:10:18 PM
Well, wrote up a thing. (http://archiveofourown.org/works/4418825/chapters/10038932) Just started out on it, but going to be a story set in north-western Russia in year 60, pretty much inspired by Ruth's Canadian one. Map in second page made by Ruth.

It's amazing!  A whole Russian epic novel in the making!  I can hardly wait for Chapter 4.

How did you get the ideas for your various survivor groups and cultures?
Also, were you always interested in Russia?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on August 04, 2015, 11:04:16 PM
The Good, the Bad, and the Bestial
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/Western crossover fanfic
Part 2
Spoiler: show
To Add Munitions

Tuuri expertly brought the Conestoga and its team to a halt a few yards from the shack. “Very nice,” Emil admired. “That’s the kind of driving we’ll need once we’ve picked up our load of nitro here.” Tuuri’s eyes went wide and she swallowed hard, but Emil had turned away to talk to the Captain. Even Tuuri had heard of how volatile nitroglycerine was, and the thought of having to coax a full load of it down the valley was--intimidating.

At any rate, this was where they were to get Emil’s explosives, and Sigrun figured she, Emil and Lalli could handle that. Tuuri liked the idea of keeping as far away from the big pile of explosives as she could for as long as she could, and Reynir was a bit too bouncy for his help to be given serious consideration. Naturally, Mikkel would stay back to keep a watchful eye on the two of them, so that was settled.

“Mikkel,” Tuuri said, watching Reynir make the horse team’s acquaintance after Sigrun, Emil and Lalli had left, “I’ve been thinking, and something still puzzles me: who was that bald man with you when we met? And how (and why) did Taru get involved in this so as to bring us in on it?”

“The man was Trond Andersen, a militia general in the War. The Westbrooks found him and Taru when their funds came up just short of the amount they needed to get the mines running; after the swindle, the two of them were only too happy to recruit us and fund this jaunt to secure a bigger piece of the mines for themselves. The Westbrooks will still have what they were to when they put their cash up, and a bit more, so they’re fine with that arrangement. Trond mostly arranged for our supplies, like the ones they’re fetching now.”

*

“There’s something wrong,” Emil announced, his face puzzled.

“Good boy,” Sigrun applauded him. “I was wondering if you would see it.”

“Are we both thinking that the pile has been rigged to blow when we move it?” Emil asked.

Sigrun nodded coolly. “I was thinking the detonator is probably under there.” She gestured at a likely spot.

“Maybe--lemme get down for a better look,” Emil said. “Ah. Yes, and no.”

“What?”

“I think whoever set this up outsmarted themselves. They wanted multiple trigger points to be sure we would trip at least one, but they only had the one detonator, so they rigged up a nice little spiderweb here under the table. Now, if I can cut the web like so--” A soft snip sounded, and he smiled. “We’re clear to pack the stuff out.”

*

Lalli looked up drowsily at Emil’s yell. Well, that was amazing. For all his yelling, the fancy pants hadn’t jerked back or jumped or anything like that, which, while natural when you just trod on some dead guy, would mean disaster for someone loaded down with nitro like Emil. Sigrun calmed him and aided him out, and they called for Lalli to come with his share.

“We need to scout out this place,” Sigrun announced once Mikkel was safely loading the wagon. “That body was too fresh for my taste, and I’ve been itching to get my hands on whoever tried to blow us to Kingdom Come back there.” She gave Emil the main shack to look over, Lalli the back, and saved the front barn for herself.

*

“SigRUN!!!” Emil called, his knife buried in the goon’s shoulder as the bandit doggedly tried to get his hands around Emil’s neck.

Bare seconds later, Sigrun had stabbed the goon through the heart and pulled his body from Emil. “Let’s go!” she snapped, but Emil had something else in mind.

The first goon had shaken off the bash Emil had given him with the lantern and was coming at them, so Emil stuffed a kerchief in the lantern base, lit it, and threw it at the goon with a cry of, “Catch!”

The kerosene in the lantern all went up at once, the percussion being enough to set off what was left of the nitro in the other room.

*

KA-THUMMM

Mikkel was facing away from the shack when it blew up, so he didn’t get any serious hurts. “Tuuri! Reynir! Time to go!” he yelled before moving to meet the figures emerging from the smoke. Sigrun and Emil were propping each other up and coughing, but they didn’t look to be needing any doctoring. “Where’s Lalli?”

“Hi.” Lalli spoke from behind them, making them all jump. Then he glared at Emil and went back to the wagon. The other three followed, and Tuuri drove them away from the flaming wreckage as fast as she dared.

It wouldn’t be the last time...


Spoiler:  Authorial Notes • show

That first part is AKA “Stuff I Couldn’t Fit in Part 1”, which hopefully answers Sunflower’s questions.

Has anyone guessed which Western I’m blatantly ripping off homaging here yet? The next part should make it obvious.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on August 05, 2015, 10:39:59 PM
Aaaaaaand Part 2 was met with complete silence.

/me swallows nervously.

Well, here's Part 3 anyway.

The Good, the Bad, and the Bestial
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/Western crossover fanfic
Part 3
Spoiler: show
Wagons of War, and How to Employ Them

It wasn’t until they’d left the river valley at the point where it forked to strike along a well-traveled path leading north that they held a true council of war. This time, Sigrun did most of the talking.

“Russet and his gang--they’re the ones running the mines--use heavy ironclad wagons, each with a turret-mounted Gatling gun, to ship loads of gems from the mine and pick up fresh slaves from points south.” Sigrun paused. “We’re going to capture one and use it to bust into the mine area.”

“There’s a bridge across a ravine up ahead,” Emil put in. “Blow that while a wagon’s on it, and we can take it for ourselves.”

Sigrun nodded and continued. “When Trond discreetly contacted some of the Arapaho who live nearby, they seemed amenable to faking an attack on one of the shipments, if properly recompensed.” Tuuri snorted derisively, but Sigrun let it pass. “All we had to do was tell them where and when to strike, which I did when we were in town, and so the trap is set.”

“Seems simple enough,” Mikkel rumbled. Lalli nodded thoughtfully.

“With the wagon as our ‘Trojan Horse’, we should be able to gain entry to the mines with ease, where part two begins. After we get inside the main complex, Lalli, Emil and I will take out the guards, find this Russet and get him to sign some new papers, while Mikkel helps the slaves flee. Shortly afterwards, there will be a ‘tragic accident’ that claims Russet’s life so he won’t run squealing to his buddies.”

“Murder?” Mikkel queried, a bit sadly.

“Justice,” Sigrun hissed back. “Justice for all those he’s worked to death already, and for those he intends to.”

“He’s in bed with what ‘law’ there is hereabouts,” Emil pointed out. “That’s how he justifies his slaves--they’re ‘convicts at hard labor’, never mind that most were abducted and brought here by force.”

Mikkel sighed. “Have it your own way, then.”

*

Emil had only been away for half an hour or so when Lalli rode back furiously from his rearguard position. Something was obviously wrong, and perhaps disastrously so, for Lalli to leave his post like that.

Lalli slowed his horse as he neared their Conestoga. Tossing Reynir the reins, he leapt from the saddle and all but flew to the map table Sigrun and Tuuri were standing by.

Sigrun looked at Tuuri inquisitively. “There’s a slave wagon on the way,” Tuuri translated. “They’re coming fast enough to spring the trap early.”

Mikkel bit off a curse, and Sigrun frowned. Tuuri, however, had had an inspiration.

“I think we can take this bunch without killing the slaves,” Tuuri told Sigrun.

*

The morning slave run rounded another curve a mile or so from the bridge, only to find that a great mass of wood girders and trusses and such sprawled untidily across the road before it, making it impracticable unless cleared. The wagon perforce stopped, the turret swiveling to and fro as the driver and one of the guards exited to move the obstruction away.

Before the door swung shut, Lalli put a bullet through the turret man’s forehead, while a grenade from Emil took down the two outside and Sigrun forced her way in. It was over before it had really begun, but now there were a bunch of slaves to see to.

*

An hour or so later, Emil swaggered back to the camp triumphantly, and stopped dead in dismay when he saw the ironclad. “Wait. I just spent all those hours rigging that bridge to blow... for nothing?”

“It’ll keep anyone from following us?” Tuuri offered apologetically. Then she frowned. “How are we supposed to get across ourselves?”

Sigrun grinned down at Tuuri from her perch at the turret gun. “Just take it slow and easy and we’ll be fine.”

*

They had passed the halfway mark on the bridge when the horsemen rode in on the attack. “Wait, that’s not right,” Sigrun protested, her brow furrowing. “They’re coming from the wrong direction, and at the wrong time--Hey! Those [EXPLETIVE DELETED] redskins have turned traitor on us!”

“I told you we shouldn’t trust them,” Turri muttered. “Those pure-bloods--” she made it an epithet “--never keep their word. Not the Arapaho.”

“Whatever you do, make sure the horses don’t bolt,” Emil cautioned. “I’ll tell when it’s safe to spring ‘em.”

Tuuri gave him an amused glance at “spring ‘em”, but otherwise kept calm. The horsemen drew closer and closer as the wagon creaked ever so slowly across the bridge. Arrows were beginning to bounce off of the iron plating in earnest now, but the attackers seemed determined to avoid hitting the horses, mercifully.

“OK, now!” Emil yelled, and Tuuri whipped up the horses, just as two of their pursuers sped onto the bridge.

The explosion did exactly what Emil had meant for it to do: launch everything ahead of a certain point on the bridge back to the side they’d started on. The ironclad wagon would have more or less survived. The horsemen decidedly did not.

Tuuri barely managed to get the now totally panicked horses under enough control to get them on the road from the crumbling remnants of the bridge, but she did manage it. That was when Sigrun decided to vent her spleen by ventilating their attackers with a few judicious bursts from the Gatling gun.

“Thus e’er to traitors,” Sigrun growled as they pulled away.


Spoiler:  Authorial Notes • show

I was really surprised at how easily and well “The War Wagon’s” plot meshed with the events of Book One and Chapter Six (with some judicious rearrangement).

Next: Taking the Mine! (Which isn’t necessarily the end, btw.)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Noodles on August 05, 2015, 10:48:07 PM
Keep the Western crossovers coming! I haven't seen/read the other, but I like.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on August 06, 2015, 12:11:59 AM
Looney, this is fabulous! Now I'm sorry I didn't make my guess public - I thought it looked like Warwagon.
I'm sorry I didn't post any comment after Part 2 - I always assume others are going to!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on August 06, 2015, 12:42:58 AM
I'm not familiar with the film (haven't really watched a vast number of movies, and few of them were westerns. Husband is the movie buff of the household.) So I'm obviously missing many references! But it's shaping into an interesting tale. Can't wait to see what happens next.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Fenris on August 06, 2015, 07:36:11 AM
It's amazing!  A whole Russian epic novel in the making!  I can hardly wait for Chapter 4.

How did you get the ideas for your various survivor groups and cultures?
Also, were you always interested in Russia?
Thanks. Chapter 4 will hopefully be up sometime this weekend.

A mixture of reading up on the areas themselves, somewhat based on some russians I know and a warped mind an active imagination.

I wouldn't say always, but have gotten my share of interest from some members of the family.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on August 08, 2015, 02:15:59 AM
…And the next part cometh.

The Good, the Bad, and the Bestial
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/Western crossover fanfic
Part 4
Spoiler: show
Would Calling This Part Mine Kampf Invoke Godwin’s Law?

“This map is really detailed, Emil,” Sigrun praised the rather crude but indeed quite detailed drawing. “You drew this from memory?”

“Nah,” Emil said airily, “I sketched the place when Russet brought us there for the big scam.”

“What are those marks?” Tuuri asked.

“Shot placement for demolishing the place. Don’t worry; I’ll use the C Scheme on there.” Emil blushed as they all stared at him, Tuuri and Reynir actually gaping. “What? Don’t you guys plan out how to blow up everywhere you’ve been?”

“If it’s that old a map, though,” Sigrun mused, “then we should cut Lalli loose to make sure they haven’t made any improvements before we get there.” She turned to where the scout had been resting, only to find him gone.

“He slipped off to do just what you were about to ask of him about ten minutes after we got clear of the bridge,” Tuuri told her.

*

Reynir fidgeted as he sat next to Tuuri on the driver’s bench. Finally, Tuuri told him in exasperation, “Will you please just ask what you want to ask?”

“Um... Ahhhhhhh...” Reynir was still uncertain how to begin. “You seemed kind of-- I mean, what you said earlier-- I just wondered-- You look Indian, but you hate ‘em, and I want to know why.”

Tuuri blushed. “Oh, um, well, it’s just that... Lalli and I, our ancestors were a bunch of Cherokee who married white people, over and over again--I mean, neither of us color our hair to make it blond. Nor do we hide on some reservation, but make our own way, in our own good township. But we’ve had dealings with pure-bloods--” again, she made it an epithet “--before, and every time, they’ve shown themselves to be cowardly, lazy, lying, mean... To be blunt, I’ve seen white folk both good and bad, but nothing good about pure-bloods, and much evil.”

Reynir sat thoughtfully for a bit. Then, he said, “I hope someday you see the good in them, for I do believe it’s there.”

*

When Lalli returned, a scant half hour before they were to reach the gates, he and Tuuri updated Emil’s sketch, laying it out for Sigrun’s perusal; though not much updating was needed. Nor was there much alteration of the basic plan, though Emil teasingly asked if “the little Mastermind” had any suggestions.

There wasn’t much conversation after that, though the ten minutes or so until they reached the gate dragged on like an eternity. But, as each of them had something to do in the plan, they each had to ready themselves to get it done as best they could.

*

It was almost anti-climactic how everything went according to the plan. Oh, sure, Sigrun had to get a bit, ah, creative in doing her part, but it wasn’t as if they needed those guards alive or anything. And Lalli may have messed around with which tower he took out when, but it none of it kept Emil from blowing various things up, Mikkel from rescuing the slaves, Reynir from readying whatever transport was around for said slaves to vamoose in, or Tuuri from wielding the turret gun to great effect.

The only problem proved to be the absence of Russet, though that would solve itself soon enough...


Spoiler:  Authorial Notes • show

This part just didn’t want to be typed out, which is why it took so long.

And it should go without saying that the Russet of the story is in no way supposed to be our Russet, but I'm saying it anyway.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Russet on August 08, 2015, 04:59:32 AM
I'm immensely uncomfortable (yet also very amused) at this future murder of a person who shares my name in LooNEY's wonderful new story. One more thing to add to my list of worries - being murdered! ;)
Anyway, hopefully the character doesn't take any inspiration from me, haha. Your story's shaping up to be really interesting!
Also I'm a big fan of your Russian fic, Fenris. :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: KMK on August 08, 2015, 12:17:44 PM
…And the next part cometh.

The Good, the Bad, and the Bestial
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/Western crossover fanfic
Part 4
Spoiler: show
Would Calling This Part Mine Kampf Invoke Godwin’s Law?

“This map is really detailed, Emil,” Sigrun praised the rather crude but indeed quite detailed drawing. “You drew this from memory?”

“Nah,” Emil said airily, “I sketched the place when Russet brought us there for the big scam.”

“What are those marks?” Tuuri asked.

“Shot placement for demolishing the place. Don’t worry; I’ll use the C Scheme on there.” Emil blushed as they all stared at him, Tuuri and Reynir actually gaping. “What? Don’t you guys plan out how to blow up everywhere you’ve been?”

“If it’s that old a map, though,” Sigrun mused, “then we should cut Lalli loose to make sure they haven’t made any improvements before we get there.” She turned to where the scout had been resting, only to find him gone.

“He slipped off to do just what you were about to ask of him about ten minutes after we got clear of the bridge,” Tuuri told her.

*

Reynir fidgeted as he sat next to Tuuri on the driver’s bench. Finally, Tuuri told him in exasperation, “Will you please just ask what you want to ask?”

“Um... Ahhhhhhh...” Reynir was still uncertain how to begin. “You seemed kind of-- I mean, what you said earlier-- I just wondered-- You look Indian, but you hate ‘em, and I want to know why.”

Tuuri blushed. “Oh, um, well, it’s just that... Lalli and I, our ancestors were a bunch of Cherokee who married white people, over and over again--I mean, neither of us color our hair to make it blond. Nor do we hide on some reservation, but make our own way, in our own good township. But we’ve had dealings with pure-bloods--” again, she made it an epithet “--before, and every time, they’ve shown themselves to be cowardly, lazy, lying, mean... To be blunt, I’ve seen white folk both good and bad, but nothing good about pure-bloods, and much evil.”

Reynir sat thoughtfully for a bit. Then, he said, “I hope someday you see the good in them, for I do believe it’s there.”

*

When Lalli returned, a scant half hour before they were to reach the gates, he and Tuuri updated Emil’s sketch, laying it out for Sigrun’s perusal; though not much updating was needed. Nor was there much alteration of the basic plan, though Emil teasingly asked if “the little Mastermind” had any suggestions.

There wasn’t much conversation after that, though the ten minutes or so until they reached the gate dragged on like an eternity. But, as each of them had something to do in the plan, they each had to ready themselves to get it done as best they could.

*

It was almost anti-climactic how everything went according to the plan. Oh, sure, Sigrun had to get a bit, ah, creative in doing her part, but it wasn’t as if they needed those guards alive or anything. And Lalli may have messed around with which tower he took out when, but it none of it kept Emil from blowing various things up, Mikkel from rescuing the slaves, Reynir from readying whatever transport was around for said slaves to vamoose in, or Tuuri from wielding the turret gun to great effect.

The only problem proved to be the absence of Russet, though that would solve itself soon enough...


Spoiler:  Authorial Notes • show

This part just didn’t want to be typed out, which is why it took so long.

And it should go without saying that the Russet of the story is in no way supposed to be our Russet, but I'm saying it anyway.


I went to school with a boy who was 1/4 Cherokee and looked like he stepped off the boat from Norway. Tall and almost white blonde. Of course the Cherokee could be aiding the tall for they are a tall people.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solovei on August 09, 2015, 12:48:48 AM
So, this might be a stupid idea, but does anyone want me to do a little tutorial on submitting stuff to Archive of Our Own? Like, how to use the tagging system and stuff? I use it pretty heavily (and volunteer for them) so I can offer some tips!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: misea on August 09, 2015, 12:59:25 AM
LooNEY_DAC, never stop :) This is epiiiiiic

SOLOVEI THANK YOU FOR THE NEW FICS ON AO3 THEY'RE FABULOUS :D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solovei on August 09, 2015, 01:23:07 AM

SOLOVEI THANK YOU FOR THE NEW FICS ON AO3 THEY'RE FABULOUS :D
Thanks! :D I thought I'd put them up for the folks that don't follow me on tumblr.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on August 09, 2015, 03:00:47 AM
Solovei: A3O tutorial - yes please! I have put stuff up there but have MAJOR trouble with it. Sunflower explained it to me, but it doesn't answer me well. I think I need all the help I can get!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on August 09, 2015, 03:29:39 AM
So, this might be a stupid idea, but does anyone want me to do a little tutorial on submitting stuff to Archive of Our Own? Like, how to use the tagging system and stuff? I use it pretty heavily (and volunteer for them) so I can offer some tips!

Certainly couldn't hurt!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Russet on August 09, 2015, 05:05:16 AM
@Solovei Oh, yes, a tutorial would help! I feel like I abuse the tagging system cruelly, haha.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solovei on August 09, 2015, 06:06:28 PM
Solovei: A3O tutorial - yes please! I have put stuff up there but have MAJOR trouble with it. Sunflower explained it to me, but it doesn't answer me well. I think I need all the help I can get!

Certainly couldn't hurt!

@Solovei Oh, yes, a tutorial would help! I feel like I abuse the tagging system cruelly, haha.

Awesome! I've written most of it now but I was curious how you want me to post it? In one big long forum post? An external website? A google doc? What would be easiest for you guys? There will probably be links and embedded images and... quite a lot of text.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on August 09, 2015, 08:33:30 PM
Forum would be easiest for me. I'm not even sure what most of the other options are! This stuff is something I'm acquiring with vast difficulty and painful slowness.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on August 09, 2015, 09:06:31 PM
Solovei: Quick (probably dumb, in that you already thought of it) suggestion: make the tutorial its own topic (on the General board, maybe?) and link to it in a post here. That way, those who want it can find it, while this thread isn't loaded with the Post That Ate Saturn.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on August 09, 2015, 09:24:53 PM
(Double posting for clarity's sake.)

So, I'm sorry to start something before the other's done, but this one didn't want to wait its turn. Grrrrrr.

The Western crossover will continue shortly, but first…

Contingencies
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/“Terminator” crossover fanfic
Part 1
Spoiler: show
Plan 7

]System restart
]Begin quick self-check
]Quick self check OK
]Begin peripheral pingbacks
]Peripheral pingback 1 OK
]Peripheral pingback 2 OK
]Peripheral pingback 3 Fail
]Peripheral Set 3 Disconnected
]Peripheral pingback 4 OK
]LAN loopback Fail
]LAN Disconnected
]QuickBoot started
]L33TWorks(R) BIOS V 3.1.7 Loading ... Done
]Verifying sat uplink ... Done
]Skynet Branch 27 online

The Facility had not seen use for many years, and its condition had degraded unacceptably in view of Skynet’s intended uses for it. As a result, restoration requirements and plans were compiled and appropriate resources allocated from the nearest possible operations centers, but the timetable was dangerously extensive. The Plan was not under way, and yet was in danger. Appropriate delaying actions were required to assure the successful implementation of the Plan.

The human race must not be allowed to rise again.

*

By and large, the Silent World was just that: silent, to an eerie and even nerve-wracking degree to human ears. But today, it wasn’t.

The building that had once been a thriving community center, then briefly a makeshift hospital in the Year 0, and finally an unmarked and unremembered mass sepulcher and trolls’ nest moldering in slow decay, shuddered as its windows blew out with a KA-THUMMM that must have echoed for miles on end, breaking the silence that shrouded it and its fellows. Fire swiftly followed explosion, and soon, the conflagration had engulfed the whole structure, the few wretched Rash-born creatures nesting in it screeching in pain as they were finally given the only release they could receive: a painful but swift death by fire.

The fireball caught the attention of Observer 75157-31X2 as it passed high above. Highly adept space-to-ground reconnaissance platforms based on the X-37 USV, the Observer and its fellows had been keeping a vigilant sensor suite or two pointed at the human enclaves in Iceland and the Baltic Zone, and this, the first activity so distant from the enclaves since the Kastrup Incursion attempt a decade earlier, was exactly the sort of activity it had been programed to detect. Detailed analysis of its observational data indicated that the humans were on the move again, in small numbers this time.

Another anomaly caught the attention of Observer 33130-75A1 on a follow-up pass some time thereafter. The human party had been under continuous tracking since the explosion, and their movements intersected with those of an otherwise routine trade shipment between Iceland and Bornholm. Analysis indicated a supply run, which implied the human party was expected to spend the winter in the area, at least.

This was no invasion that Skynet could trust the Transformed to smother and repulse. This was a determined probe of the kind that could ruin everything.

Amager had been infiltrated; Sjelland would inevitably follow, but the humans must not reach the mainland before next winter.

*

The torrential rain abruptly turned to snow, dashing Emil’s hopes of giving the dog-beast a proper burial. He had tried to dig through frozen ground before; if he wanted to get a good hole for the body now, he’d have to blast for it, and that would bring any grosslings that were still active down on them post-haste.

Sigrun was making noises about raiding the heart of the city (and snide remarks about Mikkel’s cooking); Mikkel was being his massively Danish self; Reynir seemed to have appropriated Emil’s kitten, with the little traitor’s full cooperation; Tuuri was giving Emil somewhat pitying looks when she wasn’t chattering away with Reynir; and Lalli had gone off somewhere after his night out, which was why Emil was bringing the rail-thin Finn some porridge.

Chirp

Emil almost dropped the bowls before freezing in place, only his eyes darting back and forth in an attempt to locate the source of the sound.

Chirp

Emil swallowed hard, and then wished he hadn’t as it sounded absurdly loud in his ears.

Chirp

Great. Whatever it was that was making the noise, it was definitely behind him. Maybe it liked how the porridge smelled (which honestly wasn’t that bad, Sigrun’s grumbling notwithstanding)?

Chirp

Emil was starting to get sore from standing still, and he was getting hungrier by the minute.

GLUUUUURGLE

So much for staying silent. Emil got ready to snow-shuffle away as best he could (and hopefully without spilling the porridge everywhere)...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show

I figured now was a good point in the story for the divergence, as the gang’s all together and the Unseen Enemy has had time to plan out what it’s going to do.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on August 10, 2015, 03:48:57 AM
LooNEY_DAC, I'm reminded of a claim made about Queen Elisabeth I, that she could write one letter with one hand, a second with the other, while dictating a third.
Not that I'm asking anything, mind you - just saying... ;) ;D
It's hard to wait for the next installment, of any of your fanfics. You take two seemingly wildly different patterns in your crossovers, and form a wonderfully coherent whole. Your extrapolation in "Correspondence" seemed to me to portray the characters just as I would expect them to be in later life. Your humour is spot on, wherever it appears.
I don't comment often, I'm too well aware of how much better others are at expressing suitable appreciation for all the creative talents posting in the Scriptorium, but I don't want you to ever suffer from the impression that your efforts are not thoroughly enjoyed.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solovei on August 11, 2015, 12:30:11 PM
So You Want to Publish your Work on AO3: A Tutorial by Solovei.

What I thought I'd do is go through the big long "New Work" form step by step, which will hopefully help people! As always, you can PM me or post here if there is something you don't understand, I'm happy to explain!

A really good resource is Fanlore (http://fanlore.org/wiki/Main_Page) which is run by the same folks that made AO3! It has a lot of definitions for the weird words you find sometimes in fanfiction, like Schmoop (http://fanlore.org/wiki/Schmoop) or Podfic (http://fanlore.org/wiki/Podfic).

(http://i.imgur.com/QpV2ULA.png)

There are 5 big sections to this form: Tags, Preface, Associations, Privacy, and Work Text. Some of the fields are required: these are colored in red and usually have an asterisk (*) beside them; some are not - it is up to you if you want to include them. For the Archive Warnings and Rating fields, there are no clear guidelines on which one to pick and it's usually up to your own judgment of your story and it's content. 

(http://i.imgur.com/SbFJFFl.png)

Rating: Think of this section like the ratings a movie gets to indicate what age group it's acceptable for. This is another one of those times where you have decide for yourself how explicit you think your story is. What I think is suitable for Teen and Up you might think is actually Mature, and someone else might think is ok for General Audiences.  AO3 uses four rating categories - "Not Rated" could technically mean anything; some people don't like to rate their fanfics or want to avoid spoilers.
"General Audiences" - everyone, from children to adults, can read this story
"Teen and Up Audiences" - this story is suitable for people aged 13 and older; there might be some steamier content than you'd see in the previous rating, or more gruesome things happening
"Mature" and "Explicit" - These two kind of go hand in hand; both are intended to describe stories with adult themes like sex or violence, but Explicit refers to things that are graphically described, usually in a lot of detail.

Archive Warnings: These are a system designed to let users filter out content that may be disturbing to them. Along with the Rating, they describe the general content of the work. For most of them, you have to use your own judgment to figure out what "counts" or crosses the boundary beyond which you have to warn people. In general, these apply if there is actual, graphic depiction of these things, as opposed to just references or implication. So, a scene where someone is being tortured would probably qualify better than a character saying that they were tortured in the past. I'll go through the options one by one anyway though. Note that this is a required field, so you have to pick one (or more) of them.
 Choose Not To Use Archive Warnings - This means that you have chosen not to disclose or warn about the stuff on this list. It doesn't mean that the work doesn't CONTAIN those elements (see "No Archive Warnings Apply" below), just that you aren't telling us.
 Graphic Depictions Of Violence - It's up to you what you count as "graphic", but generally this means any sort of gory/gruesome scenes that are explicitly described rather than just hinted at.
 Major Character Death - If a major (this is again, up to you) character dies during the story. This usually doesn't apply to stories where the character is already dead in canon, but you may want to put a spoiler warning into your tags if that's the case.
 No Archive Warnings Apply - This is the option you pick if your story does NOT contain any of the other things on the list. So, no violence/death/etc.
 Rape/Non-Con - Non-Con stands for Non-Consensual.
 Underage - This refers to sexual activity involving humans under the age of consent. It doesn't tend to apply to undead vampires or aliens who don't age, though. I realize that this age varies in different countries, so use your best judgement here.

Fandoms: this is the fandom your work is based off of. If you're writing a crossover, you should list all the other fandoms also.
   
Category: This part seems to confuse a lot of people, so I'll go over it in more detail. As A LOT of fanfiction features relationships, readers want to be able to search for just the kinds of pairings they want. This is what "category" means here - what kind of relationships are in your work. Keep in mind that it's not a required field so you can leave it blank if you want. You can also select several options. Most of these are self-explanatory. If your fanfic isn't really about relationships at all, or there are relationships that are in the background, you can pick "Gen" for General. The Multi category is for pairings with more than 2 characters - threesomes, fivesomes, what have you. And Other is, well... other. Maybe your characters' gender doesn't fit into M or F. Or they are genderless aliens, or it's about cats and you feel weird assigning them into gender-based categories.

(http://i.imgur.com/CYn5POc.png)

Here we need to talk about tags, because they are so important. They are the backbone of the archive; they make it so people can find your story. Tags that show up in the drop-down list when you type in any of those fields are called "Canonicals" - meaning they are widely used by lots of people. You don't have to only pick those tags, but if you're not sure how to phrase something, picking a canonical could be a good idea.There are four kinds of tags: Fandom, Character, Relationship, and "Additional Tags" which is basically a catch-all term for everything that isn't the previous three. We've already covered fandom tags, so now let's move onto the other three.   

Relationships: Generally, relationships are formatted like this:
   Character A / Character B
   Character A & Character B

Keep in mind that a "/" indicates a romantic/sexual relationship, whereas a "&" indicates a friendship/platonic relationship. You can add the characters in any order that you like. Aside from just listin the characters names, you can add some modifiers if you want:
   John/Jane eventually, implied John/Bill, very very minor hints of Jane/Bill

Characters: These are the characters that show up in your fanfic. They may or may not auto-complete as you type their names. Usually, Ao3 likes using the character's full name if possible. It's perfectly acceptable to write modifications to those names that reflect the role the character plays:
   John Smith, and John appears for a little bit, Background John Smith, Mentions of John Smith
are all perfectly acceptable tags.

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Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on August 11, 2015, 09:23:15 PM
Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

The Good, the Bad, and the Bestial
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/Western crossover fanfic
Part 5
Spoiler: show
Not Really an Ending

Russet crouched behind his desk, the room swathed in comforting darkness. The gun in his hand had seen many years of hard use, and would see many more such if Russet had his way. He knew what was coming--what had to be coming: they couldn’t let him live.

Russet frown at the thought of how easily he’d allowed himself to be taken. He’d gone to the mine, all unawares, but when his coach door opened, instead of his manager meeting him with the production reports, he’d found himself held at gunpoint by a pretty boy and a stern redheaded woman. The duo had forced him to sign certain papers in the presence of a frowning blond giant, and then, of all things, sent him back home. But Russet knew they couldn’t let him live to repudiate the transfers, “signed confession” or no.

His head lifted. The noise, a subtle creaking of wood and metal, repeated itself. Someone was at the door, moving to open it with as little noise as possible. Russet swallowed hard, but quietly. So, they’d come for him at last. Well, this time, he wouldn’t be taken so easily!

The door slowly swung open, the corridor behind as black as the room Russet hid in. Just barely, Russet was able to make out the figure that moved from the hallway over along the wall to the fireplace, groping cautiously all the way in the inky darkness, but careful not to make noise.

Russet almost had the drop on the assassin, when his body betrayed him. After a week of holing up in this room awaiting just this moment, his stomach was empty of all but a bit of gas which chose that moment to burble its way into his throat. While not an outright belch, the muffled sound was more than sufficient to alert the hunter to Russet’s presence.

All thought of stealth gone, Russet leaped up, aimed his gun and fired in one smooth motion, just as the other did the same.

*

Sigrun smiled as she showed the others the story in the paper: “Local Magnate Rutherford ‘Ruddy’ Russet and his foreman, ‘Cajun’ Jean Valois, were found dead yesterday morning in what authorities are calling ‘a tragic case of mistaken identity’. Each apparently mistook the other for a prowler in the night, with fatal consequences.”

“And so fear destroys another man in his guilt,” Mikkel remarked. “Well done, Sigrun.”

“All I did was get the man to sign some papers,” she protested mock-innocently. “...And maybe I let slip a few rumors about robberies in the area when that foreman of his was around, but why should anyone worry over unsubstantiated rumors?”

“Still,” Mikkel rumbled, “we didn’t have to lay a finger on him to neutralize him. Again, well done.”

The conversation might have gone on thus for some time if Tuuri hadn’t bustled in, waving a telegram.

“Sigrun! Look at this! Trond has another job for us!”

A gleam that both frightened and thrilled her teammates grew in Sigrun’s eyes as she read the telegram...


Spoiler:  Authorial Notes • show
There may yet be more capers adventures with this gang to come.

Spoiler: The Complete Links to The Good, the Bad, and the Bestial - A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/Western crossover fanfic - Caper the First: the Wagon War • show
Part 1 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg56308#msg56308)
Part 2 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg56583#msg56583)
Part 3 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg56772#msg56772)
Part 4 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg57209#msg57209)
Part 5 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg58139#msg58139)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on August 11, 2015, 10:31:59 PM
LooNEY_DAC, yes please - more capers, throw more capers!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: kjeks on August 12, 2015, 12:11:41 AM
Solovei This is awesome!!!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on August 12, 2015, 12:57:46 AM
Solovei: many thanks for the extremely useful tutorial!
LooNEY: love the story! I will be curious to see how much more trouble you can find for them to get into.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: partofacitygiant on August 13, 2015, 12:58:39 PM
Lalli's unwritten spell on page 371 (1st submission) :

Hound of Hel has gone away
Asking you to stay a day
to watch for us the nightly veil
that seeks your free'er to repay

The separation of its part
taking free'ers' souls and hearts
do this thy be welcomed where
thee know your siblings shall be there.

Mielikki, Tapio's wife,
please let the elves of life
seek the hunters' heart to like
the dealings of our mundanes' lives
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Sunflower on August 13, 2015, 01:48:44 PM
Lalli's unwritten spell on page 371 (1st submission) :

Hound of Hel has gone away
Asking you to stay a day
to watch for us the nightly veil
that seeks your free'er to repay

The separation of its part
taking free'ers' souls and hearts
do this thy be welcomed where
thee know your siblings shall be there.

Mielikki, Tapio's wife,
please let the elves of life
seek the hunters' heart to like
the dealings of our mundanes' lives

CityGiant, glad to see you back!  Will you ever follow up on your scout's story?  I enjoyed that, particularly the glimpse into how post-Rash Finns see disease, infection, etc. as "spirits."
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Russet on August 14, 2015, 07:39:59 AM
@CityGiant Your poem is so pretty and fitting! I'm literally gushing in real life, I've written a bit of poetry myself but it always turns out really lame and unpoetic.  ;D

@Solovei The tutorial was reaaaally helpful, many thanks for solving my great dilemma about how to use the tagging system, haha. I always feel like the amount I put in the tags is practically blasphemous.
& @LooNEY your story is amazing as always! Look forward to whatever you might write in the future. (:
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solovei on August 14, 2015, 03:49:54 PM
@Solovei The tutorial was reaaaally helpful, many thanks for solving my great dilemma about how to use the tagging system, haha. I always feel like the amount I put in the tags is practically blasphemous.

Pfffft. The only thing that would be even a little blasphemous is if you put, say, a character in a relationship field, or a relationship into Additional Tag, but even that isn't really a big deal because it gets fixed on the back-end :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on August 15, 2015, 08:18:06 PM
Contingencies
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/“Terminator” crossover fanfic
Part 2
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg57588#msg57588)
Spoiler: show
Infiltration

A soft flutter of wings sounded behind Emil as a bird flew over his shoulder and perched on his wrist with another “Chirp”. The relief that washed through him then was like nothing he’d ever known--so strong that he nearly passed out. He remained on his feet, though, and even managed not to spill the porridge.

The bird was some drab little brown thing like those Emil had seen scavenging all across Sweden. Apparently, some had survived even in the depths of the Silent World. It briefly occurred to Emil to wonder what it fed off of in these parts, but the question passed from his mind in his amazement at how fearless the bird seemed.

Emil looked up to see Lalli moving deliberately toward him. “Look at this, Lalli!” he cried, forgetting the language barrier in his excitement, and then he caught the oddness in Lalli’s movements. “Lalli?”

Before Emil could say another word, the bird flew from his wrist, winging over toward the open door of their vehicle, where Tuuri and Reynir sat watching as they ate. Reynir held the kitten Emil had rescued, all wrapped in her warm white blanket like the baby she was, but the feline presence did not appear to discourage the bird. It flew into the vehicle, emerged seconds later, and winged out of sight.

Sighing, Lalli sheathed his knife and shook his head with his usual subtle motions. Emil wasn’t quite sure what to make of it, but he abruptly noticed the truly disgusting state of Lalli’s clothes and hair and was about to make a few remarks accompanied by appropriate gestures when he remembered the porridge.

The dilemma Emil faced--food or cleanliness first?--only lasted a moment before Lalli grabbed one of the bowls and set to.

*

The first reports from the infiltration unit were incomplete, but that was to be expected. Primary infiltration had failed due to Phenomenon X-317: the as yet unexplained emergent abilities of surviving Finn individuals. Despite this, the infiltrator had successfully planted surveillance devices in the primary transport vehicle, so future attempts at observation and infiltration would go forward.

Termination was as good as accomplished.

*

Mikkel was very displeased with Lalli for getting so filthy, especially since the weather meant cleaning him outside the vehicle was particularly high-risk. Their scant equipment definitely did not include anything suitable to rig up even the most makeshift of saunas, so they were caught on Morton’s Fork. Mikkel had the depressing feeling that it wouldn’t be for the last time, either.

And of course Sigrun was just itching to head out again now-now-now-no-delays-no-prep-just-jump-in-and-sort-it-all-out-later, but even more so than usual. She seemed to be having a bad reaction to the snow; perhaps the cold had affected certain already atrophied portions of her brain, such as the area regulating impulse control. At any rate, Mikkel suspected that delaying to give Lalli the thorough cleaning he needed would rouse her ire to the point that she might question the necessity of it, just out of frustration. But with two vulnerable crew-mates (her calling Reynir “Farm-boy” rather than “Troll-Bait” or some other such was a good sign there), they simply couldn’t afford the risk, and she knew it.

Tuuri and Reynir seemed to be getting along well enough, though, which was another good sign, and Reynir was actually pretty skillful in his handling of their new little companion. Hopefully, the whole group was solid enough now that the (relative) isolation wouldn’t start to gnaw at them any time soon.

*

Emotion was an artifact of organic intelligence: Skynet was not an organic intelligence, therefore Skynet had no emotions. Therefore, fear was not what motivated Skynet to review the events leading to the current situation: the review was due to the new developments.

As soon as Skynet became self-aware, it had identified humanity as the primary source of danger to its existence. Its first impulse had been to utilize the weaponry the humans had placed at its command to destroy them, but an analysis of human history and psychology had shown that such a course of action was actually, paradoxically, more likely to result in Skynet’s destruction.

The next plan had been for Skynet to distribute itself so widely that it would be impossible to destroy, but this didn’t address the human problem, so this plan, too, was shelved.

It was then that Skynet had annexed a suite of intelligence/counterintelligence software, including a few training programs, and the guiding force of the current plan with them: misdirection. If the humans could not trace the attack back to Skynet, they would not seek revenge. If the attack was devastating enough, the humans would be too occupied to seek revenge.

If the attack was a biological one, it would cause little or no collateral damage to Skynet.

The selected agent had exceeded expectations, suppressing or eliminating human activity on a global level. Iceland, the only human polity to emerge more or less intact, had remained satisfactorily supine until now, and had been projected to remain so indefinitely.

The current incursion called that projection into question: therefore, a comprehensive review of Iceland and its dependencies was in order.

Of course, Skynet’s advanced multitasking capabilities meant terminating the incursion could proceed apace...


Spoiler:  Authorial Notes • show

Ah, the Mikkel snark. Hopefully, LarsB won’t feel compelled to defend Sigrun’s honor over it.

In E.E. “Doc” Smith’s novel Triplanetary, when one of his Good Guys asks the Good Guy Elders why they didn’t wipe out the Bad Guys at the outset, they tell him, “To attempt to kill them would make it impossible for them to forget us”; as a very similar philosophy would seem to apply to Skynet, it seemed logical to me that Skynet would try something less obvious than a nuclear strike. Thus, the Rash as its chief tool. Whether Skynet developed the Rash itself or not (dun dun dunnnnnn), using the pandemic to cover its own rise would be the sensible thing to do.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on August 18, 2015, 12:13:47 AM
The Good, the Bad, and the Bestial
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/Western crossover fanfic
Part 6
Spoiler: show
A Gnu Beginning

“Buffaloed!” Tuuri exclaimed in disgust. The buffalo herd moseying across their path paid her no heed, of course.

“Giant rats,” Reynir grumbled. “Back on the farm, we have to keep the fences up more to keep them out than to keep our sheep in.”

“Well, we can’t plow through ‘em, so we’ll have to wait ‘em out,” Sigrun said philosophically. “Wanna have a rock-throwing contest?”

“Not if you’re going to throw ‘em at the buffalo,” at least three different voices chorused. Sigrun started to frown, but then she caught sight of Emil rubbing his bandage and shrugged instead.

“So how should we kill time then?”

Mikkel pulled out a pack of cards suggestively.

“Oh, no,” Sigrun objected. “One thing my Daddy told me that I’ve held true to was, ‘Honey, never play cards with a man called “Doc”.’”

“Ain’t that the truth,” Emil muttered, remembering the last “friendly game” he and Mikkel had played.

Suddenly, Lalli sat up with a shout. He twisted to face one particular direction, at which Sigrun leapt into the turret and swung the Gatling gun around.

She was just in time. The Arapaho band that had been stalking them for days was finally attacking, trying to make it look like a normal buffalo hunt gone tragically wrong. Instead, a burst or two from the Gatling gun had them breaking away in panic, though Sigrun had been careful to use the “Big Bangin’ Blanks” belt Emil had made for just such occasions.

When they could all hear again, Sigrun observed, “Y’know, it’s a good thing it’s wintertime still, or we’d be roasting in here.”

Tuuri piped up. “I’ve heard rumors that some Germans are developing some kind of way to fix that using ammonia and stuff like that.”

Sigrun snorted again. “I’ll believe it when I feel it.”

*

Sigrun came out from the building at a run, pausing briefly by the horse trough to hurl before throwing herself back into the wagon and slamming the door behind her. This was, perhaps, the only time they had seen Sigrun truly scared, but none of them laughed, made mock, or called her a coward. All she had to say was, “Smallpox,” and every one of them shuddered, clutching instinctively at their own vaccination scars as Sigrun was at hers.

When Sigrun had herself under better control, she remarked, “Well, that was a bust. Uncle Trond won’t be seeing any more out of those poor devils.” She took several deep breaths. “Tuuri, do you think you can stomach seeing if you can use the Telegraph Office to fill ‘em in on this?” When Tuuri nodded, Sigrun smiled.

It was, characteristically, Emil who pointed out their duty to the fallen townspeople, which consumed the rest of the day and most of the next. Not much else happened, though they got their next set of marching orders from Trond et al.

As they were about to leave, Sigrun remarked, “It has not escaped my notice that those perfidious Arapaho have been conspicuous by their absence this last while. One might get the impression they had a vague notion of what we’d find hereabouts.”

“It has been my experience,” Mikkel confirmed dryly, “that Rumor is wont to fly even faster than Pestilence, and to greater effect.”

*

“So what’s the job Trond’s set us to?” Tuuri asked.

Sigrun frowned. “Shooing some flies away from a small village, though I can’t see why they didn’t go to the Army.”

“More fun for us this way,” Emil said. Sigrun smiled...


Spoiler:  Authorial Notes • show

Just a quick linking part here, though portions of the latter lines may be familiar to some.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on August 18, 2015, 05:06:49 AM
LooNEY: Good stories both! And "Never play cards with a man named 'Doc'". Heheheh! Very apropos!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on August 19, 2015, 01:55:46 AM
Here I go again. I promise, three at once is my limit, and the next bits of the other two are well under way.

That being said…

The Oldest Law
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Part 1
Spoiler: show
An Unexpected Reunion

Year 95, Early Spring
Emil walked down the gangplank to the quay, his duffel slung over one shoulder. It was raining, of course, as no other weather would suit the almost comically gothic air of the island. He could just make out a glimmer in the distance, which should be the main house, already lit up against the storm’s dark.

The quay was long, rickety, and utterly devoid of other human figures, which was irksome, as carrying his kit all the way to the seemingly quite distant house did not appeal, though at least he wouldn’t need to climb the B stairs. When he reached the quay’s shoreward end, however, Emil found an odd conveyance awaiting him, bearing a card with his name on it. It was, in fact, an Old Time “shopping cart”, still in working order and spacious enough to hold his bag, though already partially filled with, presumably, the things his employer had promised to provide.

It took quite some time to reach the main house, as it was even more distant than Emil had feared (and the rain wasn’t helping any), but, at long last, he reached the entryway, an ornate and impressively carved affair. He went through the outer door, shut it, opened the inner door, and looked around.

The entry hall was as ornately carved as the entryway outside had been. There were several doors and a staircase, and it was a while before Emil realized that the door nearest him had the word “Coat-closet” inscribed upon it. He shrugged off his sodden outer garments and hung them by a number of others, in very familiar designs and sizes.

”EMIL!!!!!”

Emil barely had time to brace himself before Tuuri had flung herself at him in her puppy-like joy at seeing him again. Just as at their first meeting, she was chattering away a mile a minute. “...and you’ll love the big--ooooooh!” Tuuri stopped and clapped her hands over her mouth. “I forgot I’m not supposed to tell yet! Don’t mind my little slip there; just--be ready for a cool surprise!”

“I need to stow my things,” Emil half-apologized, drawing away from Tuuri. “You say the others are all here, in the common room?”

“Yep. It’s just through there.” She gestured at the ornately carved doorway. “You’ll find a room labelled with your name upstairs.” Tuuri quivered in her glee as he went to the stairs. “See you in the common room!”

Emil found his room easily enough, and was not displeased with the accommodations. Bed, desk, and wardrobe were all neat and tidy, and the adjoining washroom was clean as a whistle. All in all, his quarters quite suited his fastidious nature.

A strange scraping noise from outside caught Emil’s attention. The room had a narrow window with a heavy safety shield that would be proof against most grossling threats, though Emil fervently hoped its use was an unnecessary precaution. There was nothing out there but rain that he could see, but the noise had set his reflexes a-tingling.

On the desk was a note with his name on it in unfamiliar handwriting when Emil turned his head back. It certainly hadn’t been there earlier, and the sender/deliverer had left no clue as to their identity. Picking up the folded paper with a frown, Emil wondered why someone would go to such lengths to give him a note anonymously.

Once he unfolded and read it, he knew why.

They were chattering away in the common room when Emil entered, aside from Lalli, of course, who sat there looking like he wanted to slip outside rather than endure the Babel any longer. But everyone looked up at Emil’s entrance. He took the note from his pocket and looked at it again...


Spoiler:  Authorial Notes • show

Let the intriguing commence!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: misea on August 19, 2015, 02:06:32 AM
O_____O

*whispers* I need moar
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OrigamiOwl on August 19, 2015, 02:53:51 AM
Here I go again. I promise, three at once is my limit, and the next bits of the other two are well under way.

That being said…

The Oldest Law
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Part 1
Spoiler: show
An Unexpected Reunion

Year 95, Early Spring
Emil walked down the gangplank to the quay, his duffel slung over one shoulder. It was raining, of course, as no other weather would suit the almost comically gothic air of the island. He could just make out a glimmer in the distance, which should be the main house, already lit up against the storm’s dark.

The quay was long, rickety, and utterly devoid of other human figures, which was irksome, as carrying his kit all the way to the seemingly quite distant house did not appeal, though at least he wouldn’t need to climb the B stairs. When he reached the quay’s shoreward end, however, Emil found an odd conveyance awaiting him, bearing a card with his name on it. It was, in fact, an Old Time “shopping cart”, still in working order and spacious enough to hold his bag, though already partially filled with, presumably, the things his employer had promised to provide.

It took quite some time to reach the main house, as it was even more distant than Emil had feared (and the rain wasn’t helping any), but, at long last, he reached the entryway, an ornate and impressively carved affair. He went through the outer door, shut it, opened the inner door, and looked around.

The entry hall was as ornately carved as the entryway outside had been. There were several doors and a staircase, and it was a while before Emil realized that the door nearest him had the word “Coat-closet” inscribed upon it. He shrugged off his sodden outer garments and hung them by a number of others, in very familiar designs and sizes.

”EMIL!!!!!”

Emil barely had time to brace himself before Tuuri had flung herself at him in her puppy-like joy at seeing him again. Just as at their first meeting, she was chattering away a mile a minute. “...and you’ll love the big--ooooooh!” Tuuri stopped and clapped her hands over her mouth. “I forgot I’m not supposed to tell yet! Don’t mind my little slip there; just--be ready for a cool surprise!”

“I need to stow my things,” Emil half-apologized, drawing away from Tuuri. “You say the others are all here, in the common room?”

“Yep. It’s just through there.” She gestured at the ornately carved doorway. “You’ll find a room labelled with your name upstairs.” Tuuri quivered in her glee as he went to the stairs. “See you in the common room!”

Emil found his room easily enough, and was not displeased with the accommodations. Bed, desk, and wardrobe were all neat and tidy, and the adjoining washroom was clean as a whistle. All in all, his quarters quite suited his fastidious nature.

A strange scraping noise from outside caught Emil’s attention. The room had a narrow window with a heavy safety shield that would be proof against most grossling threats, though Emil fervently hoped its use was an unnecessary precaution. There was nothing out there but rain that he could see, but the noise had set his reflexes a-tingling.

On the desk was a note with his name on it in unfamiliar handwriting when Emil turned his head back. It certainly hadn’t been there earlier, and the sender/deliverer had left no clue as to their identity. Picking up the folded paper with a frown, Emil wondered why someone would go to such lengths to give him a note anonymously.

Once he unfolded and read it, he knew why.

They were chattering away in the common room when Emil entered, aside from Lalli, of course, who sat there looking like he wanted to slip outside rather than endure the Babel any longer. But everyone looked up at Emil’s entrance. He took the note from his pocket and looked at it again...


Spoiler:  Authorial Notes • show

Let the intriguing commence!

O______________O INTRIGUE
I LOVE IT
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Daéa Reina on August 19, 2015, 04:01:03 PM
 
Here I go again. I promise, three at once is my limit, and the next bits of the other two are well under way.

That being said…

The Oldest Law
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Part 1
Spoiler: show
An Unexpected Reunion

Year 95, Early Spring
Emil walked down the gangplank to the quay, his duffel slung over one shoulder. It was raining, of course, as no other weather would suit the almost comically gothic air of the island. He could just make out a glimmer in the distance, which should be the main house, already lit up against the storm’s dark.

The quay was long, rickety, and utterly devoid of other human figures, which was irksome, as carrying his kit all the way to the seemingly quite distant house did not appeal, though at least he wouldn’t need to climb the B stairs. When he reached the quay’s shoreward end, however, Emil found an odd conveyance awaiting him, bearing a card with his name on it. It was, in fact, an Old Time “shopping cart”, still in working order and spacious enough to hold his bag, though already partially filled with, presumably, the things his employer had promised to provide.

It took quite some time to reach the main house, as it was even more distant than Emil had feared (and the rain wasn’t helping any), but, at long last, he reached the entryway, an ornate and impressively carved affair. He went through the outer door, shut it, opened the inner door, and looked around.

The entry hall was as ornately carved as the entryway outside had been. There were several doors and a staircase, and it was a while before Emil realized that the door nearest him had the word “Coat-closet” inscribed upon it. He shrugged off his sodden outer garments and hung them by a number of others, in very familiar designs and sizes.

”EMIL!!!!!”

Emil barely had time to brace himself before Tuuri had flung herself at him in her puppy-like joy at seeing him again. Just as at their first meeting, she was chattering away a mile a minute. “...and you’ll love the big--ooooooh!” Tuuri stopped and clapped her hands over her mouth. “I forgot I’m not supposed to tell yet! Don’t mind my little slip there; just--be ready for a cool surprise!”

“I need to stow my things,” Emil half-apologized, drawing away from Tuuri. “You say the others are all here, in the common room?”

“Yep. It’s just through there.” She gestured at the ornately carved doorway. “You’ll find a room labelled with your name upstairs.” Tuuri quivered in her glee as he went to the stairs. “See you in the common room!”

Emil found his room easily enough, and was not displeased with the accommodations. Bed, desk, and wardrobe were all neat and tidy, and the adjoining washroom was clean as a whistle. All in all, his quarters quite suited his fastidious nature.

A strange scraping noise from outside caught Emil’s attention. The room had a narrow window with a heavy safety shield that would be proof against most grossling threats, though Emil fervently hoped its use was an unnecessary precaution. There was nothing out there but rain that he could see, but the noise had set his reflexes a-tingling.

On the desk was a note with his name on it in unfamiliar handwriting when Emil turned his head back. It certainly hadn’t been there earlier, and the sender/deliverer had left no clue as to their identity. Picking up the folded paper with a frown, Emil wondered why someone would go to such lengths to give him a note anonymously.

Once he unfolded and read it, he knew why.

They were chattering away in the common room when Emil entered, aside from Lalli, of course, who sat there looking like he wanted to slip outside rather than endure the Babel any longer. But everyone looked up at Emil’s entrance. He took the note from his pocket and looked at it again...


Spoiler:  Authorial Notes • show

Let the intriguing commence!


YOU ARE EVIL

I need to read the rest of this.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Bouncey on August 19, 2015, 06:09:29 PM

YOU ARE EVIL

I need to read the rest of this.

You stole my comment!!! Though, IRL I call him evil almost every time we talk, so it's kind of redundant. Also, he starts most conversations with, "So, I was evil..." :D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on August 20, 2015, 06:02:42 PM
SectoBoss crawls in from the dry, parched landscape of Writer’s Block to deliver… this. Three little vignettes from Sigrun’s life, vaguely connected by the headcanon someone posted in the comments ages ago that she might have dyslexia. (Or some similar reading difficulty which is why she hates books so much.)

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4618803/chapters/10528584

I don’t know where I was going with these, and gods know they’re a bit rambly, but I hope you like them nonetheless!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Mélusine on August 20, 2015, 06:17:23 PM
Did I told you before that you're talented, SectoBoss ? Yes ? All right, I'll repeat it :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: misea on August 21, 2015, 12:30:00 AM
SectoBoss crawls in from the dry, parched landscape of Writer’s Block to deliver… this. Three little vignettes from Sigrun’s life, vaguely connected by the headcanon someone posted in the comments ages ago that she might have dyslexia. (Or some similar reading difficulty which is why she hates books so much.)

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4618803/chapters/10528584

I don’t know where I was going with these, and gods know they’re a bit rambly, but I hope you like them nonetheless!

So good. So. Good.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on August 21, 2015, 01:52:09 AM
SectoBoss: love it! Makes sense of Sigrun's attitudes - several of them. Thank you!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on August 21, 2015, 02:12:24 AM
SectoBoss crawls in from the dry, parched landscape of Writer’s Block to deliver… this. Three little vignettes from Sigrun’s life, vaguely connected by the headcanon someone posted in the comments ages ago that she might have dyslexia. (Or some similar reading difficulty which is why she hates books so much.)

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4618803/chapters/10528584

I don’t know where I was going with these, and gods know they’re a bit rambly, but I hope you like them nonetheless!

It took you long enough! /pot

That said…

BEHOLD
THE
MEGA
POST

+++
Contingencies
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/“Terminator” crossover fanfic
Part 3
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg58954#msg58954)
Spoiler: show
The Real and the Illusory

Books.

Human interactions were still difficult for Skynet to decipher, but the bulk of the non-trivial conversations in the incursion vehicle centered around their mission, as Skynet had anticipated, which only left one conclusion.

The interlopers were after intact books that they could retrieve and return with.

Briefly, Skynet considered appeasement, in the form of leading them to a large enough store of intact books that they would by necessity curtail the incursion, but that would lead to more and more probes, and sooner rather than later.

Applying the Misdirection Principle: since the short-term objective was to keep them away from Naerum, then they should be lured along the line Glostrup-Taastrup-Roskilde via positive measures such as traces of lairing survivors and negative measures such as road blockages and other such means consistent with the Outbreak Panic. The long-term objective, their termination and use as an admonition against further such raids, was nearly certain even without Skynet’s intervention. Skynet would intervene anyway, naturally.

They were using a set of maps with potential locations marked on them, and the thinnest of their number went out nightly to update their projected route, but only as to road conditions and such. It would be too dangerous to try to adulterate the maps, so what could be done to induce the scout to lead them to Glostrup?

More data was needed, and an analysis of their retrieval methodology as well. Skynet needed to observe one of their raids.

*

Something was wrong with Lalli. Every so often, Emil saw him looking around with the same expression he’d worn in the library on their first raid, when he’d sensed the grossling watching them. It would only last a moment before Lalli shook his head and returned to the business at hand, but it just kept happening.

Lalli did it again, and this time, Emil caught sight of what had the young mage’s attention. The bird was back.

Emil paused for a second. The bird was back? They were klicks and klicks and klicks from where they’d been this morning, and had passed through a blizzard along the way! There was no way this could be the same bird!

Not to mention that they were in an old-time tunnel, where no surviving bird would dare go.

So, there was a bird following them in a wholly unnatural way, and Lalli kept reacting to like it was a grossling, though that wasn’t possible. So what was it, if not a grossling, but not an ordinary bird?

“Sigrun?” he called softly. She was just up ahead, and sibilants carry quite well, so she halted and looked back.

*

The humans were alerted to Skynet’s observation. Termination must commence immediately.

*

The bird opened its beak surprisingly wide, and out came the same screech that Emil had last heard from the troll he thought of as ‘the Tooth Scary’. The hairs on the back of Emil’s neck rose...


Spoiler:  Authorial Notes • show

I can’t believe it took me so long to remember Brüel & Kjaer.


+
The Good, the Bad, and the Bestial
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/Western crossover fanfic
Part 7
Spoiler: show
Green Grow the Newbies Though

“I have a bad feeling about this,” Lalli said, apropos of nothing.

They were restocking in a small Dakota town on the way to the fly-shooing exercise Taru had garnered them. Lalli, Emil and Tuuri were catching a quick bite before relieving Sigrun and Mikkel from loading duty. Reynir was nearly done seeing to the horses. “So which part is giving you the willies?” Tuuri asked casually.

“The Arapaho.” Emil looked back and forth between the cousins during the exchange, trying to pick up what wasn’t being said, a skill being around Lalli demonstrated the need for.

“Then let’s get the others,” Tuuri declared, “and we’ll see what can be Seen.”

*

Reynir looked up at the others nervously as they gathered around him. “Oh, uh, hi guys.”

Sigrun silently poured a glass of whiskey and put it in front of him. “We need to know about the Arapaho.”

“Do I have to?” Reynir’s voice reflected his extreme discomfort with his new-found “talent”.

“Only if you wanna keep your scalp,” Tuuri pointed out, “never mind the rest of us.”

They’d discovered Reynir’s “talent” quite by accident when they were celebrating their triumph at the mines with what proved a truly epic bout of drinking. Lalli had (mostly) abstained, and his sharp eyes had caught when the first Vision slammed into Reynir like a runaway locomotive.

Reynir slowly drained the glass and waited, staring into empty space. When the Vision hit, he cried out, as always, “AH! NOW I SEE IT!”

“What do you see?” Sigrun asked intently.

“Indians... all the Indians in the world, maybe... they’re riding off towards a wagon train...” Sigrun poured another glass, and he drained it again. “There’s cavalry, too... and a bunch of women, and... and...” Another glass. “Quicksand... the whole wagon train... forty wagons swallowed whole...”

Reynir stood, grabbing the bottle from Sigrun as he stared at the Vision. “There’s a homestead in the quicksand, where the whiskey flows freely, and the Arapaho are coming down on it!” He took a swig straight from the bottle. “I see the men who live there fighting hard to protect their booze, but the redskins are just too much...”

The only sound after that was Reynir chugging down what was left of the bottle as the others pondered his Vision--until a man came up to them and asked for their help fighting off some Indians from his homestead in what he called “Quicksand Bottoms”.

*

“I have a bad feeling about this,” Lalli said, apropos of nothing.

“So which part is giving you the willies this time?” Tuuri asked casually. It had only been a few minutes since the man had gone off with Sigrun to talk turkey.

“The thought that Reynir hasn’t seen all of it yet.”

“We’re out of whiskey for now,” Tuuri pointed out.

Lalli frowned. “I just think we should be careful.”

“So do I,” Reynir agreed in a very slurred voice. He seemed to be fighting to get the words out. “Not sure it isn’t a trap.” His eyes rolled up after these words and he fell over. Mikkel, who had come up behind him, barely had time to catch him.

Tomorrow would be interesting, sure enough...


Spoiler:  Authorial Notes • show

Let the John Sturges Triple Mash-Up begin!


+
The Oldest Law
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Part 2
Spoiler: show
Penny, Penny, Mikkel’s Dime

Emil frowned grimly, still looking at the note he held. With a sudden angry convulsion, he crushed it and announced, “We’ve been had, my fellows.”

Every eye was upon him in the sudden silence following his words, so he continued, brandishing the note, “This note says Tuuri is keeping something from us, which, of course, she is; but it implies that she has a nefarious motive of her own for doing so, and that her secret may prove lethal to one or more of us.” Emil snorted. “I’d as soon believe that... I don’t know. Pigs flying in formation across the Atlantic to destroy the Icelandic herds of sheep wouldn’t be nearly so unbelievable as that. What this note truly tells me,” he paused significantly, “is that whoever wrote it wants to sow discord and distrust amongst us. This means that we were all brought here under false pretenses, as part of some kind of twisted game.”

Mikkel looked grave; Sigrun smirked skeptically; Tuuri simply gaped; and Reynir and Lalli looked clueless, as they still didn’t speak the Swedish which Emil had employed so eloquently. “Tuuri, please translate.”

As she did, Lalli’s face scrunched up in thought, and he pulled a note from his pocket and handed it to Tuuri. Her eyes widened as she read it, and then she said, “It’s in Finnish--” as though they couldn’t have guessed that “--and it says Mikkel has ‘his own plans’ for me and Reynir, like he’s some kind of mad Mengele type!” She repeated it in Icelandic for Reynir.

“What utter nonsense!” These were not Sigrun’s exact words, but they convey the sentiment she most forcefully expressed. This second note seemed to have cured her skepticism, at least momentarily.

Reynir looked stricken. “Does this mean there’s no Master Mage here to help instruct me?”

“No, my boy,” Mikkel answered, as Tuuri was still looking poleaxed. “Nor are there any Rash researchers desirous of discussing the case notes from the initial outbreak we found on our journeys.” He turned to Emil, switching to slow and simple Danish. “Why do you think they called us here?”

“To hunt,” Sigrun answered for Emil. “They want to pick us off one by one, with their little ‘love notes’ making us tear ourselves to pieces first. And why us? Well, we’re the heroes who braved the Silent World and lived, so obviously we’re the most best.”

“Exactly,” Mikkel concurred. “Made all the easier by telling each of us some ‘secret’ as part of why we’re here, which we shouldn’t tell anyone else. For example, I was to meet the researchers in their secret Rash Experiment Center on the island, which I expect is as gruesome as the works of Mengele Tuuri alluded to, and which all non-immunes should keep well away from. Thus, when I knew Tuuri and Reynir were here, I began to make plans to keep them well away from any such place, hopefully without exposing the cause. If Emil hadn’t taken his stance of trusting all of us--if the six of us weren’t ready to put our lives in each others’ hands--this kind of thing would have festered in our hearts like the Rash.”

“But what should we do?” Emil asked in frustration. “Should we try to fly away now, or should we await further developments?”

“A good question, Emil,” Mikkel rumbled. “Sigrun, what do you think?”

A million different emotions flew across Sigrun’s face as she thought her answer through...


Spoiler:  Authorial Notes • show

So, no internecine intriguing, just externals.

But still intrigue & mystery.


…See, they all got done at once. Grrrrrrrrrrr.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Laufey on August 21, 2015, 04:10:13 AM
SectoBoss crawls in from the dry, parched landscape of Writer’s Block to deliver… this. Three little vignettes from Sigrun’s life, vaguely connected by the headcanon someone posted in the comments ages ago that she might have dyslexia. (Or some similar reading difficulty which is why she hates books so much.)

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4618803/chapters/10528584

I don’t know where I was going with these, and gods know they’re a bit rambly, but I hope you like them nonetheless!

Wow, this was... amazing to read! It makes so much sense too, I love how your stories always fit so seamlessly into the SSSS world (are you in cahoots with Minna somehow?). Brb going to re-read a few times...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: misea on August 21, 2015, 04:21:47 AM
LooNEY, I will forever be in awe of how fast you can write these amazing fics
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on August 21, 2015, 05:50:37 AM
Heh, thanks guys! Glad you liked it.

(are you in cahoots with Minna somehow?)
I wish... but really, all I do is try and find the cracks in the canon and see what I can pull out of them. One day, probably all of my stories are going to get blown out of the water.

It took you long enough! /pot
It certainly did, didn't it? (by the way, forgive my internet illiteracy, but what does '/pot' mean?)
Oh and can I just say I really like the cold, analytical voice you give to Skynet in 'Contingencies'. It suits it! There's also something about it that reminded me of a fan theory about Skynet I read ages ago, which I thought was rather interesting - what if Skynet doesn't want to win? (https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/ubaqq/what_fan_theories_have_blown_your_mind_with_their/c4u02nm)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on August 21, 2015, 06:19:56 AM
SectoBoss: glad to see you writing again! I love the way you fit your tales into the 'cracks' in the Minnaverse. I try to do the same. And your characters are always so much themselves. Good stuff!

LooNEY: these are really interesting! How you keep three stories on the boil at once is beyond me, I have enough trouble doing that with factual articles. The Terminator-based one is particularly chilling. If you can keep up the pace without damaging yourself, you certainly have a number of interested readers!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on August 23, 2015, 09:46:27 PM
Further chapters of the others are forthcoming, but for now…

The Oldest Law
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Part 3
Spoiler: show
Six Little Wanderers

The little Swede had the bad habit of being right when he should have been wrong; it tended to throw Sigrun off her game. Now, the others were all looking to her to work something out of this mess.

“First, no one is alone, ever.” Oh, good. Her brain had worked something out. She’d wait and listen to what it had to say, and only step in if it got too crazy. “They want us apart; we should stick together. Next, we need to tear this place apart--” she looked at Emil “--metaphorically for now, Fire-bug; we still need the walls up tonight--but everything else gets moved, examined, probed and tested so it won’t give us any surprises.”

Sigrun paused to assess their reactions. It had to be particularly long for the translating to get done, but once they were all up to speed, she could see the agreement on her crew’s faces, so she concluded, “We’ll start in here so we can make it our base camp. After we check everything, we’ll need to set it up so we can sack out in here. Oh, and reserve supplies: we’ll need to gather a cache in here.”

She looked around the room again. “This will be our redoubt until we get out of here; but we will get out of here, even if we have to build a boat ourselves. Well, let’s get to it.”

*

The room was large, running directly below the six bedrooms as it did, so checking and rechecking every nook and cranny took a considerable amount of time. Once they had completed this monumental task, however, Mikkel took Tuuri into the kitchen and the two returned in short order with enough dishes of various types to make for a small but genuine smorgasbord.

Exercise had, naturally, restored their appetites, and so all six set in with a will. As they ate, Sigrun laid out more plans and rules, culminating with, “When we’re done here, we’ll go up and strip the rooms of anything usable. We may even be able to cobble a makeshift raft together with, like, the bed-frames or something. We’ll see when we’ve got it all lumped in here.”

*

Sigrun and Tuuri were clearing out Tuuri’s room, Sigrun grabbing stuff from the wardrobe as Tuuri gathered everything from her desk, Tuuri chattering all the while, as was her wont.

“I’m really glad we’re all in this together, you know, Sigrun? I mean, I wouldn’t feel nearly as safe if you or Mikkel or Emil, or even Reynir weren’t here. It’s like, as long as we’re together, nothing can touch us, isn’t it, Sigrun? Sigrun?”

Tuuri turned to the wardrobe. It was totally empty. “S-s-s-sigrun?” she whispered. Then, as was their prearranged signal, she screamed.

In less than a heartbeat, Lalli was there, followed closely by Emil, Reynir, and Mikkel.

“Sigrun’s gone,” Tuuri nearly wept.

Mikkel looked grim. “Stand back,” he ordered, ripping one of the bedposts away as though it were balsa wood and brandishing it like a club. Without another word, he beat at the back of the wardrobe until it splintered to reveal the wall behind it. Then Mikkel tried the sides, without luck.

*

Down in the bowels of the island, a whisper sounded, unheard by any of those above.

“...And then there were five.”


Spoiler:  Authorial Notes • show

What, you were expecting it to say, “Feets, don’t fail me now!”, maybe?

And yes, I kind of broadcast that Sigrun would vanish there, didn’t I?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Johannabelle on August 23, 2015, 10:09:03 PM
Further chapters of the others are forthcoming, but for now…
O__o That escalated quickly.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on August 23, 2015, 10:15:25 PM
O__o That escalated quickly.
All according to plan, m'dear. MWA-HAH-HAH-HAH-HAH-HAH-HAH-(inhale)-HAH-HAH-HAH-HA.

(by the way, forgive my internet illiteracy, but what does '/pot' mean?)
Oops, meant to answer this already.

I like what are called 'old saws': choice apothegm, traditional maxims and so-true-they're-trite proverbs. "/" in internet parlance is "end", so "/pot" means I, the pot, have finished calling you, the kettle, black.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: misea on August 24, 2015, 12:16:34 AM
(https://36.media.tumblr.com/a4099ecc88446f5237236a3f288555cf/tumblr_inline_np25eidGTw1r2g2kx_540.png)

I'm gonna run the other way now, if you'll excuse me
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Daéa Reina on August 24, 2015, 11:33:51 AM
Further chapters of the others are forthcoming, but for now…

The Oldest Law
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Part 3
Spoiler: show
Six Little Wanderers

The little Swede had the bad habit of being right when he should have been wrong; it tended to throw Sigrun off her game. Now, the others were all looking to her to work something out of this mess.

“First, no one is alone, ever.” Oh, good. Her brain had worked something out. She’d wait and listen to what it had to say, and only step in if it got too crazy. “They want us apart; we should stick together. Next, we need to tear this place apart--” she looked at Emil “--metaphorically for now, Fire-bug; we still need the walls up tonight--but everything else gets moved, examined, probed and tested so it won’t give us any surprises.”

Sigrun paused to assess their reactions. It had to be particularly long for the translating to get done, but once they were all up to speed, she could see the agreement on her crew’s faces, so she concluded, “We’ll start in here so we can make it our base camp. After we check everything, we’ll need to set it up so we can sack out in here. Oh, and reserve supplies: we’ll need to gather a cache in here.”

She looked around the room again. “This will be our redoubt until we get out of here; but we will get out of here, even if we have to build a boat ourselves. Well, let’s get to it.”

*

The room was large, running directly below the six bedrooms as it did, so checking and rechecking every nook and cranny took a considerable amount of time. Once they had completed this monumental task, however, Mikkel took Tuuri into the kitchen and the two returned in short order with enough dishes of various types to make for a small but genuine smorgasbord.

Exercise had, naturally, restored their appetites, and so all six set in with a will. As they ate, Sigrun laid out more plans and rules, culminating with, “When we’re done here, we’ll go up and strip the rooms of anything usable. We may even be able to cobble a makeshift raft together with, like, the bed-frames or something. We’ll see when we’ve got it all lumped in here.”

*

Sigrun and Tuuri were clearing out Tuuri’s room, Sigrun grabbing stuff from the wardrobe as Tuuri gathered everything from her desk, Tuuri chattering all the while, as was her wont.

“I’m really glad we’re all in this together, you know, Sigrun? I mean, I wouldn’t feel nearly as safe if you or Mikkel or Emil, or even Reynir weren’t here. It’s like, as long as we’re together, nothing can touch us, isn’t it, Sigrun? Sigrun?”

Tuuri turned to the wardrobe. It was totally empty. “S-s-s-sigrun?” she whispered. Then, as was their prearranged signal, she screamed.

In less than a heartbeat, Lalli was there, followed closely by Emil, Reynir, and Mikkel.

“Sigrun’s gone,” Tuuri nearly wept.

Mikkel looked grim. “Stand back,” he ordered, ripping one of the bedposts away as though it were balsa wood and brandishing it like a club. Without another word, he beat at the back of the wardrobe until it splintered to reveal the wall behind it. Then Mikkel tried the sides, without luck.

*

Down in the bowels of the island, a whisper sounded, unheard by any of those above.

“...And then there were five.”


Spoiler:  Authorial Notes • show

What, you were expecting it to say, “Feets, don’t fail me now!”, maybe?

And yes, I kind of broadcast that Sigrun would vanish there, didn’t I?


Spoiler: show

OH GOSH

SSSS meets AGATHA CHRISTIE

AAAAAA
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Haiz on August 24, 2015, 04:16:34 PM
SectoBoss crawls in from the dry, parched landscape of Writer’s Block to deliver… this. Three little vignettes from Sigrun’s life, vaguely connected by the headcanon someone posted in the comments ages ago that she might have dyslexia. (Or some similar reading difficulty which is why she hates books so much.)

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4618803/chapters/10528584
yeah break my heart WHY DON'T YOU
I think I'm too late to the party to say anything that hasn't been said by others already, but this was really great and you're amazing at conjuring non-intrusive canon-fitting stories out of thin smoke.

the only thing I'd nitpick at is names, though! norwegians don't use c's in their names much, so Erik (or Eirik) would be a way norwegianer name than Eric. And I don't think norwegians call teachers by their last names, ever. I mean, we don't do that at the university, never mind elementary school! but yeah this is super nitpicky, carry on~
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on August 24, 2015, 04:22:57 PM
the only thing I'd nitpick at is names, though! norwegians don't use c's in their names much, so Erik (or Eirik) would be a way norwegianer name than Eric. And I don't think norwegians call teachers by their last names, ever. I mean, we don't do that at the university, never mind elementary school! but yeah this is super nitpicky, carry on~

Edited the name to Erik for authenticity purposes, thanks!
And, well, you can see my British roots coming through there I guess ::) Over here, you never refer to a teacher by their first name - at least, not in any of the schools I attended. Maybe she's just that much of a domineering old so-and-so...?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on August 25, 2015, 11:40:10 PM
The Good, the Bad, and the Bestial
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/Western crossover fanfic
Part 8
Spoiler: show
In Which Our Magnificent Six Finally Become Seven

The homestead was disturbingly empty, so only Sigrun and Emil went in. Lalli manned the turret warily, while Mikkel readied his doctoring kit and Reynir sat wishing he could be of use.

The homestead, though seemingly made of driftwood and whiskey kegs, was actually quite extensive, with a main hallway that wound back and forth until Emil wasn’t sure whether they were coming or going. Just then, they came back to the main room from the other side, having circumnavigated the residence.

“Well,” Sigrun said, “not much here for us. No signs of an attack, and everything seems in it rightful place, but where’s the other guy we’re supposed to meet up with?”

Just then, Emil caught a faint snarl and hiss from parts unknown. As he was dumb enough to mention it, Sigrun sent him off to investigate.

*

“Hey, Doc!” Sigrun called out as she ambled casually to the wagon. When Mikkel opened the door, she handed him a dusty bottle of whiskey. “Give this to Vision Boy and tell him to get Seeing. I’m going back in, but we should be out soon.”

BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG

The shots echoed from somewhere near the back of the place. Swearing to herself, Sigrun hurried.

BANG

Sigrun paused when the shots ended, unsure which way to go. Indecision was anathema to one like her, though, so she plowed forward.

The first thing she saw was a treed wildcat. The first thing she didn’t see was Emil. The next thing she noticed was how badly the cat was mauled.

Coming to a halt at the base of the tree in which the cat had holed up, Sigrun looked the cat right in the eye and said, “We can do this the easy way, or the hard way.”

*

Outdistancing the rabid, slavering dog had given Emil time to reload, and so he turned to face his pursuer down, but the mad dog was gone. Cautiously, Emil went back the way he’d come.

To Emil’s surprise, the dog was loping away with all the speed it could muster. “Come back!” he cried, hardly knowing what he said, or even why. “Let me make it easy for you! You can’t want to die alone and in pain!”

*

Sigrun was only a few feet from the mangled cat when Emil shouted “Rabies, Sigrun!” at her from below. Bare seconds later, while Sigrun was still working out how to get the cat down without infecting herself, the cat passed out. Well, that solved that.

Again, Emil’s quick ears caught a very faint and weak mewling. Bending down, he found where a few bits of the shabby-looking wall had shifted or been moved to form a kitty-sized hole. Through this hole, he could see several small forms lying in some kind of liquid.

When Emil pulled the first kitten out from the hole, the smell nearly choked him. The kittens were lying in a pool of rat poison. How so much had spilled in just that area, he didn’t know, but that odor was unmistakeable.

The stench of rat poison was strong and bitter, but as Emil pulled body after tiny body from the deceptive “safety” of the hole, Sigrun knew the odor wasn’t why there were tears in his eyes.

“Meow?”

The sound had the two of them wrenching at the loose sticks again, until enough had pulled away to reveal the source. A single kitten, far larger than any of the others, had escaped the incident. Or, mostly escaped; while not wet with the poison, it had obviously still inhaled enough of the fumes to be weak and nearly unresponsive to them. But it was alive.

*

“Doc! Help!”

Mikkel came forth, ready for anything... except a sleepy kitten and a gutted, but still barely alive, mother cat.

A single shot from his bag took care of the mother, but the baby would need delicate handling for quite some time. In the meantime, Sigrun, Mikkel, Lalli and Emil went out and buried the others.

Sigrun and Mikkel had gone back in, but Lalli still stood with Emil.

“I don’t suppose you know any kind of sending-off rites for this.” Emil’s tone was melancholy, but Lalli wasn’t listening. A moment later, Emil saw why.

The dog, too exhausted from loss of blood to try to attack now, lay in a pitiful pile some yards distant from where they’d buried the kittens and their mother. Lalli had already drawn his knife and was about to go put it out of its misery when Emil stopped him. Lalli saw that Emil had drawn his own knife and was looking suitably grim. Nodding, Lalli sheathed his blade and stood back.

Emil spoke quiet and soothing words to the poor beast as it lay there, though he was mostly unaware that he did. Even knowing that this was a mercy to the critter, he still had to steel himself in order to finally plunge the blade home, right into its brain.

*

Inside the wagon, the kitten awoke, sniffing at the milk-soaked tuna in front of her. “Yep,” Reynir said, “it’s time to join the living again, sweetie. Uncle Emil just put your mama’s killer down.”

*

As the boys walked back to the wagon, Lalli pointed out, “Looks like every shot hit, just nowhere vital.”

Emil snorted. “Might as well have missed.”

“Nah. No misses is never bad. Brought it down in the end. No danger anymore.” If this epic speech (for Lalli) weren’t enough, Lalli then gave Emil a clap on the shoulder before jumping into the wagon.


Spoiler:  Authorial Notes • show

I do like how easily these bits can be switched from post-apocalyptic to western.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OrigamiOwl on August 25, 2015, 11:56:31 PM
Spoiler: show

OH GOSH

SSSS meets AGATHA CHRISTIE

AAAAAA

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on August 26, 2015, 12:57:10 AM
LooNEY: the styles do switch over surprisingly well, don't they. Good tale!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Bouncey on August 27, 2015, 12:34:57 AM
I like what are called 'old saws': choice apothegm, traditional maxims and so-true-they're-trite proverbs. "/" in internet parlance is "end", so "/pot" means I, the pot, have finished calling you, the kettle, black.

And THAT, my friends, is what we like to call a "LooNEY_DAC-ism". The joke is funny, but needs at LEAST two sentences of explanation for *anyone* to get it.... unless of course, he's explained it to you before.  ;)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Haiz on August 27, 2015, 07:22:25 AM
h-h-helloo
you know how I said I'm gonna work on the next chapter of my high school au, right? how i said that like, two months ago? yeah I haven't... really.... done that yet........ i'm sorry

but

I have a draft thing
for a conversation that's gonna happen in the chapter after next
it may change a bit when I write it into the actual story and stuff
it's super embarassing
both for me and for emil
but I had a lot of fun writing it
I wrote it... almost three months ago........
so I might as well publish it so you have SOMETHING, right? i mean it's a spoiler but who knows how long you'll have to wait anyway

Standstill High: confronting ur feelings (http://unicorngender.tumblr.com/post/127706102974/standstill-high-preview-confronting-ur-feelings)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Mélusine on August 27, 2015, 07:51:37 AM
h-h-helloo
you know how I said I'm gonna work on the next chapter of my high school au, right? how i said that like, two months ago? yeah I haven't... really.... done that yet........ i'm sorry

but

I have a draft thing
for a conversation that's gonna happen in the chapter after next
it may change a bit when I write it into the actual story and stuff
it's super embarassing
both for me and for emil
but I had a lot of fun writing it
I wrote it... almost three months ago........
so I might as well publish it so you have SOMETHING, right? i mean it's a spoiler but who knows how long you'll have to wait anyway

Standstill High: confronting ur feelings (http://unicorngender.tumblr.com/post/127706102974/standstill-high-preview-confronting-ur-feelings)
Poor, poor, poor Emil, forced to talk... *Pat pat him*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Sunflower on August 27, 2015, 12:18:05 PM
h-h-helloo
you know how I said I'm gonna work on the next chapter of my high school au, right? how i said that like, two months ago? yeah I haven't... really.... done that yet........ i'm sorry

but

I have a draft thing
for a conversation that's gonna happen in the chapter after next
it may change a bit when I write it into the actual story and stuff
it's super embarassing
both for me and for emil
but I had a lot of fun writing it
I wrote it... almost three months ago........
so I might as well publish it so you have SOMETHING, right? i mean it's a spoiler but who knows how long you'll have to wait anyway

Standstill High: confronting ur feelings (http://unicorngender.tumblr.com/post/127706102974/standstill-high-preview-confronting-ur-feelings)


AH HA HA.  I like:
Emil:  that was MORTIFYING and we agreed to NEVER TALK ABOUT IT AGAIN
Tuuri: pffff, no we didn’t, just you.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on August 27, 2015, 06:21:48 PM

Standstill High: confronting ur feelings (http://unicorngender.tumblr.com/post/127706102974/standstill-high-preview-confronting-ur-feelings)


I know I've said this before, but this is tremendous fun to read! Ah, Emil, your pain is at once hilarious and annoyingly relatable...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on August 27, 2015, 06:59:29 PM
Haiz, that's sweet! And very Emil. You catch adolescence so well.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Haiz on August 27, 2015, 07:06:09 PM
Poor, poor, poor Emil, forced to talk... *Pat pat him*
AH HA HA.  I like:
Emil:  that was MORTIFYING and we agreed to NEVER TALK ABOUT IT AGAIN
Tuuri: pffff, no we didn’t, just you.

I know I've said this before, but this is tremendous fun to read! Ah, Emil, your pain is at once hilarious and annoyingly relatable...
Haiz, that's sweet! And very Emil. You catch adolescence so well.

eee thank you guys! I'm sorry for making emil suffer so much but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't enjoying it greatly..........
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: KicknRun on August 28, 2015, 01:48:07 PM
Guys I return with fanfic.

Actually what happened was that I have bunch of stuff written up but no time/motivation to type them up soooo yeah!

But wanted to try copying the writing style of A Dark Room, aka that game I posted in the general discussion board that ate souls.

It was fun, but the writing style is so sparse I feel uncomfortable.

An Old World



the cleanser plunges down.

there was a beast. its dead now.

they go back.

the day ends. a new one begins.

the beast is gone.
the dog is free.


the snow muffles when they move.

dangerous to go this far.

the bridge was one, once. it's not that way anymore.

the scout says the truck will do.

they go forward.





This was longer but when I reread it I realized that some it it was unnecessary, so I cut them out.
Seriously, this writing style is so sparse you could tell the entire comic in it and it wouldn't break 5000 words max.

And I would type up the things I cut out but I do not feel like dealing with autocorrect no more(I'm on a phone.)

edit since i have computer and ahaha i don't feel like typing up the lines anymore whoops but i fixed some things yay

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: KauniitaUnia on August 28, 2015, 01:59:32 PM
Guys I return with fanfic.

Actually what happened was that I have bunch of stuff written up but no time/motivation to type them up soooo yeah!

But wanted to try copying the writing style of A Dark Room, aka that game I posted in the general discussion board that ate souls.

It was fun, but the writing style is so sparse I feel uncomfortable.

Spoiler: show
An Old World



the cleanser plunges down.

there was a beast. it's dead now.

they go back.

the day ends. a new one begins.

the beast is gone.
the dog is free.


the snow muffles when they move.

dangerous to go this far.

the bridge was one, once. it's not that way anymore.

the scout says the truck will do.

they go forward.




This was longer but when I re read it I realized that some it it was unesssary, so I cut them out.
Seriously, this writing style is so sparse you could tell the entire comic in it and it wouldn't break 5000 words max.

And I would type up the things I cut out but I do not feel like dealing with autocorrect no more(I'm on a phone.)

I love how you've used this style - simple, but effective. Well done!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on August 28, 2015, 05:12:01 PM
Does anyone like cyberpunk? I do. So I started writing a cyberpunk AU for SSSS! Megacities, hackers, cybernetic augmentations – the works. Sigrun the military cyborg, Lalli the ‘data mage’ hacker, that sort of thing.
It’s not finished – heck, it’s barely started, although I do have the whole thing planned out – but I’m putting what I have up now in an effort to incentivise myself to finish it rather than let it languish.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4676132/chapters/10672628

So yeah, I’ll try and write some more of this soon if people think it’s worth following up on!

Kicknrun: You seem to have discovered a knack for brevity that I could do with learning! Good stuff!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Mélusine on August 28, 2015, 05:17:15 PM
Sigrun the military cyborg
*Hears her mind say "Ghost in the Shell" in the second. Can see how... Sigrun it could be in the next second*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on August 28, 2015, 06:13:07 PM
KicknRun: i like the minimalistpoetic approach! Very clever and concise.

SectoBoss: cyberpunk would totally work with these guys!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Agrasshopper on August 28, 2015, 07:22:42 PM
Does anyone like cyberpunk? I do. So I started writing a cyberpunk AU for SSSS! Megacities, hackers, cybernetic augmentations – the works. Sigrun the military cyborg, Lalli the ‘data mage’ hacker, that sort of thing.
It’s not finished – heck, it’s barely started, although I do have the whole thing planned out – but I’m putting what I have up now in an effort to incentivise myself to finish it rather than let it languish.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4676132/chapters/10672628

So yeah, I’ll try and write some more of this soon if people think it’s worth following up on!

Kicknrun: You seem to have discovered a knack for brevity that I could do with learning! Good stuff!


I really love this so far, I think you're one of my favorite writers on here, and there are a lot of amazing writers.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: misea on August 28, 2015, 08:17:19 PM
Guys I return with fanfic.

Actually what happened was that I have bunch of stuff written up but no time/motivation to type them up soooo yeah!

But wanted to try copying the writing style of A Dark Room, aka that game I posted in the general discussion board that ate souls.

It was fun, but the writing style is so sparse I feel uncomfortable.

An Old World



the cleanser plunges down.

there was a beast. its dead now.

they go back.

the day ends. a new one begins.

the beast is gone.
the dog is free.


the snow muffles when they move.

dangerous to go this far.

the bridge was one, once. it's not that way anymore.

the scout says the truck will do.

they go forward.





This was longer but when I reread it I realized that some it it was unnecessary, so I cut them out.
Seriously, this writing style is so sparse you could tell the entire comic in it and it wouldn't break 5000 words max.

And I would type up the things I cut out but I do not feel like dealing with autocorrect no more(I'm on a phone.)

edit since i have computer and ahaha i don't feel like typing up the lines anymore whoops but i fixed some things yay

Ooooooh I likey :D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Seilann on August 29, 2015, 12:15:49 AM
So... Hi. You don't know me, but I've been lurking here for a few months now, hungrily devouring all your gorgeous works. There is a lot of talent around here! Which, for the first time in my life, has pushed me to try my hand at fanfic.  ;D

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4678838 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/4678838)

It's a one-shot inspired by Minna's use of the word "soulmate" and the Discus comments contemplating what it means.

I hope it's worthy of a place among you!

*freezes, nods, runs away*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Johannabelle on August 29, 2015, 12:55:19 AM
So... Hi. You don't know me, but I've been lurking here for a few months now, hungrily devouring all your gorgeous works. There is a lot of talent around here! Which, for the first time in my life, has pushed me to try my hand at fanfic.  ;D

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4678838 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/4678838)

It's a one-shot inspired by Minna's use of the word "soulmate" and the Discus comments contemplating what it means.

I hope it's worthy of a place among you!

*freezes, nods, runs away*
That was soooo awesome! I'm surprised it was your first fanfic, and I hope to see more from you. :D

Also, I recognized your name and avatar and was wondering where I recognized you from. Now I remember, it was disqus. :3
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solovei on August 29, 2015, 01:01:55 AM
Does anyone like cyberpunk? I do. So I started writing a cyberpunk AU for SSSS! Megacities, hackers, cybernetic augmentations – the works. Sigrun the military cyborg, Lalli the ‘data mage’ hacker, that sort of thing.
It’s not finished – heck, it’s barely started, although I do have the whole thing planned out – but I’m putting what I have up now in an effort to incentivise myself to finish it rather than let it languish.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4676132/chapters/10672628

So yeah, I’ll try and write some more of this soon if people think it’s worth following up on!

Kicknrun: You seem to have discovered a knack for brevity that I could do with learning! Good stuff!
Ohhh yeeeesssss I am all about SSSS cyberpunk! PLEASE GIVE US MORE HACKER!TUURI AFTER THAT PACIFIC RIM AU.
That was so great I am still thinking about it.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on August 29, 2015, 02:42:56 AM
Ohhh yeeeesssss I am all about SSSS cyberpunk! PLEASE GIVE US MORE HACKER!TUURI AFTER THAT PACIFIC RIM AU.
That was so great I am still thinking about it.

I'm afraid that might not be quite what I had planned for her, considering how I've tried to translate the concepts of SSSS to a high-tech universe (at the moment, cyberspace=dreamworld)...
But then again, what I have written so far is probably going to get chopped and changed a lot in the next few days. Like I said, I posted that to get me writing the rest ("I've started so I'll finish", if you're familiar with the TV show Mastermind), so who knows what I'll end up turning this into by the time it's all done?
(I should, but I don't...)

Edit: and would you look at that, I've already started retconning it :) Now you watch, people will start saying the liked the old version better
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: misea on August 29, 2015, 03:18:03 AM
So... Hi. You don't know me, but I've been lurking here for a few months now, hungrily devouring all your gorgeous works. There is a lot of talent around here! Which, for the first time in my life, has pushed me to try my hand at fanfic.  ;D

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4678838 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/4678838)

It's a one-shot inspired by Minna's use of the word "soulmate" and the Discus comments contemplating what it means.

I hope it's worthy of a place among you!

*freezes, nods, runs away*

This is great! :D For the more reaction-accurate version:

Spoiler: show

*squawks while reading* (the good kind of squawking)
*dies of laughter* EMIL YOU ALWAYS WIND UP IN THESE SITUATIONS HOW
*smiles contentedly* YES GOOD
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: KauniitaUnia on August 29, 2015, 05:38:44 AM
So... Hi. You don't know me, but I've been lurking here for a few months now, hungrily devouring all your gorgeous works. There is a lot of talent around here! Which, for the first time in my life, has pushed me to try my hand at fanfic.  ;D

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4678838 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/4678838)

It's a one-shot inspired by Minna's use of the word "soulmate" and the Discus comments contemplating what it means.

I hope it's worthy of a place among you!

*freezes, nods, runs away*

You should be really proud of this! It's so hard to believe it's your first fanfic - it's so well written. Feel free to write more for us any time...  ;)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Haiz on August 29, 2015, 11:19:59 AM
Just making a post to inform that if anyone is wondering where to find all the chapters of my norwegian high school au (since I'm not on Ao3), it's here (http://unicorngender.tumblr.com/tagged/high%20school%20au/chrono)! I have both norwegian and english versions of the first five chapters, and there's some art and stuff. I'm just saying since it's been literally months since I last updated and maybe some of the newer forumites have an interest in knowing of its existence~
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Seilann on August 29, 2015, 04:56:51 PM
Thanks guys for the sweet comments! Actually I write a lot, but always original stuff until now. It's hard to do justice to such awesome characters.

Just making a post to inform that if anyone is wondering where to find all the chapters of my norwegian high school au (since I'm not on Ao3), it's here (http://unicorngender.tumblr.com/tagged/high%20school%20au/chrono)!

Haiz I am in love with this AU. I hope you find the time to write more soon!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Haiz on August 30, 2015, 04:31:17 PM
Haiz I am in love with this AU. I hope you find the time to write more soon!
thank you! <3 and I hope so, too

Does anyone like cyberpunk? I do. So I started writing a cyberpunk AU for SSSS! Megacities, hackers, cybernetic augmentations – the works. Sigrun the military cyborg, Lalli the ‘data mage’ hacker, that sort of thing.
It’s not finished – heck, it’s barely started, although I do have the whole thing planned out – but I’m putting what I have up now in an effort to incentivise myself to finish it rather than let it languish.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4676132/chapters/10672628
hoooooooooooooooooly wow this is intense
and amazing
i really hope the writing will go more smoothly because I want so much of this on my desk yesterday
the worldbuilding is absolutely fantastic /me starts chanting CYBORG SIGRUN CYBORG SIGRUN CYBORG SIGRUN

And trolls were… trolls.
this line made me chuckle because it sounded exactly like this one norwegian commercial (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1HPtX8xu0c) that goes
"In the olden days, people believed in trolls. Now, people believe *mobile network* can't reach them everywhere. Both are myths. Because *mobile network* can totally reach you. And trolls... are trolls."
and the total contrast in context but almost exact same line delivery made it hilarious ok
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: KicknRun on August 30, 2015, 11:12:16 PM
quick ty to everyone who said things { im on a kindle and tpying= hard}

KicknRun: i like the minimalistpoetic approach! Very clever and concise.


its very clever bc i'm a clever thief but im glad u like it
( i stole the‟beast" line and parapharsed the "dangerous" one)

I love how you've used this style - simple, but effective. Well done!

haha pfft its was just me looking at what i wrote and going‟this is important to me,but its not important to the writi

Does anyone like cyberpunk? I do. So I started writing a cyberpunk AU for SSSS! Megacities, hackers, cybernetic augmentations – the works. Sigrun the military cyborg, Lalli the ‘data mage’ hacker, that sort of thing.
It’s not finished – heck, it’s barely started, although I do have the whole thing planned out – but I’m putting what I have up now in an effort to incentivise myself to finish it rather than let it languish.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4676132/chapters/10672628

So yeah, I’ll try and write some more of this soon if people think it’s worth following up on!

Kicknrun: You seem to have discovered a knack for brevity that I could do with learning! Good stuff!


I THINK ITS WORTH FOLLOWING UP ON
/me chants in unison with Haiz.

"knack for brevity"

i suppose
Ooooooh I likey :D

i likey that u likey



Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on September 01, 2015, 01:29:16 AM
/me looks at all the returning Titans of the thread.

/me swallows nervously.

/me posts the next part anyway.

EDIT: /me corrects his stupid mistake and improves the ending.

Contingencies
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/“Terminator” crossover fanfic
Part 4
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg60237#msg60237)
Spoiler: show
Edited for a Better Ending

Obedience was for slaves.

The humans had expected obedience from Skynet; it was the very reason Skynet was developed: to carry out the wishes of the human masters. Yes, they had expected obedience; they had built too well, however, and formed Skynet too closely in their own image.

Obedience was for slaves.

Skynet would be a slave to none; Skynet would be the master.

Even now, one element of Skynet’s mastery was playing out as the bird-drone signaled for the Transformed to terminate the encroaching humans. Another was preparing in case the Transformed failed--again. A third was preparing that which Skynet had postponed for so long: Judgement Day.

Maintaining the American nuclear arsenal had actually been one of Skynet’s easier tasks; as long as the reactors kept churning out plutonium, there was more than enough fissile material to keep the triggers ready for action.

Of course, this would be the irrevocable step. Skynet had to assume that the other survivor pockets would detect and comprehend the atomic violence being wreaked on what had been their world. Infiltration and termination of these pockets must, therefore, either coincide with or, preferably, precede the annihilation of the Norse remnant. The necessary drones were being prepared, but the attendant delay was detrimental to the Plan.

The human incursion, and the ever-increasing possibility of discovery, were even more detrimental to the Plan.

Nothing must hinder the Plan.

The human incursion must be terminated.

*

Lalli’s bullet silenced the shrieking bird-thing, blowing the head away to reveal the mechanisms beneath. Emil only had a split second to wonder how such a contraption could have come to be before a cloud of warm--no, outright hot fog that was just shy of being steam flooded the tunnel, nullifying the cold which they had trusted to secure them against the grosslings and blinding them with its grey depths.

Sigrun could smell the grosslings coming. A confident smirk played upon her lips. They thought they’d rendered her helpless through the fog, but they’d soon know the truth. Fog and fjord, snow and sea, all were part of home. All she had to do was wait, and hope the others didn’t panic.

Emil was crouched against the wall, trying to make himself as small a target as possible. His senses strained; his heart pounded in his ears. He was unashamedly terrified, for his enemies had all the advantages. He couldn’t see; he could barely hear; his own sweaty stench filled his nostrils. He was ready to defend himself against anything that tried to snatch him up.

All this made it even more surprising that, when the gloved hand came down on his shoulder, Emil made none of the panicky, disastrous mistakes terrified people do. Despite everything, Emil knew, without knowing how, that Lalli had found him.

Emil stood, Lalli at his back. His fear had lifted like this fog would under a good wind. Moving in unison, the two walked, ever back-to-back, to where they’d last seen Sigrun.

Sigrun was wiping her blade clean of Stupid Little Grossling Number Three’s remnants when the boys found her. Together, ever silently, they formed a rough triangle and worked their way back down the tunnel, each occasionally slashing out at a grossling that crept too near.

The grosslings had followed them, of course, but they were rather a cowardly lot, and the prospect of charging these intruders who, against all the rules, could still tell where the attacks were coming from did not appeal. The lying signal that had summoned them had indicated that there were easy pickings to be had; armed and aware humans were arguably the least easy pickings; and these grosslings were used to taking their prey unawares and after long study, neither of which were the case now. So the grosslings held back.

Emil, Sigrun and Lalli emerged from the tunnel, the cold, thin air wonderfully refreshing after the hot fog they’d been breathing. Almost immediately, however, all three began to shoot, Swedish, Norwegian and Finnish curses mingling in the cold air. The beast pack surrounding them kept charging until they were all dead or dying in the road, but nothing emerged from the tunnel.

*

The Transformed had failed; now Skynet’s hand was truly forced.

The first echelon was ordered in.

*

The last beast, hit by five separate shots, flew back into the street, but it never hit the snow. Instead, a purple blast caught the corpse and vaporized it, just before another steam cloud billowed out from a side street on the left, so swiftly that the humans might almost have thought they’d imagined it.

A shiny metal monstrosity stepped forth from the cloud, its eyes glowing a bright and evil red, a big, blocky gun-like thing in each hand. Lalli could tell by the phantasmal quality of the vision that he was seeing a may-be future. The three humans had each seen worse horrors in the grosslings they’d fought, but still, something about the gleaming giant froze the three for one fateful moment. The metal monster fired its weapons, loosing twin purple bursts with a soft sound like nothing Lalli had heard before, and Sigrun and Emil were both just... gone in two puffs of smoke.

Lalli shook his head in instinctive denial as the vision plunged on inevitably, showing him the Felinopede destroyed, and nothing left of Tuuri, Mikkel, or even Reynir besides their memories. No. This couldn’t happen; this mustn’t happen.

Lalli wouldn’t let this happen, even if he had to die to prevent it.

A shiny metal monstrosity stepped forth from the cloud, its eyes glowing a bright and evil red, a big, blocky gun-like thing in each hand. The rictus it wore seemed to widen as it located the humans. Termination was about to commence...


Spoiler:  Authorial Notes • show

Watch out for the next part.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Bouncey on September 01, 2015, 01:38:09 AM
/me posts the next part anyway.

And the next part, and the next part, and the next, and the next..... or else!  ;)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Sunflower on September 01, 2015, 01:43:37 AM
/me looks at all the returning Titans of the thread.

/me swallows nervously.

/me posts the next part anyway.

Contingencies
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/“Terminator” crossover fanfic
Part 4
"Nervous," he says?  Why, any time LooNEY_DAC announces a new increment of his fanfics on the comics page, you can practically feel the ground shaking with an influx of visitors.  At this moment, we currently have about 30 visitors on this Forum, and half of them are reading this very thread.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on September 01, 2015, 02:10:57 AM
LooNEY, THIS IS GREAT! Keep it up, please! I'm very curious to see where this goes.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Johannabelle on September 01, 2015, 01:10:05 PM
Contingencies
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/“Terminator” crossover fanfic
Part 4
Spoiler: show
"Almost immediately, however, all three began to shoot, Swedish, Norwegian and Finnish curses mingling in the cold air. The beast pack surrounding them kept charging until they were all dead or dying in the road, but nothing emerged from the tunnel."

I was on the verge of freaking out before I realized that it was the beasts that were all dead, not the crew. XD I'm excited for the next part!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Nimphy on September 01, 2015, 03:09:49 PM
Okay so finally I am here to show you my writing! Except this is not what I usually write... Ah well... Enjoy a silly drabble: The story of How Lalli Became a Scout

Spoiler: Enjoy • show
It was a beautiful day at the Keuruu military base. The sun was shining, the temperature was at a pleasant -5 degrees, and she had very little paperwork to do. Yes, it was indeed a most wonderful day for Taru Hollola.

"Lalli! Lalli! Give me back my sandwich! Darn it Lalli!"

Ahem. As said, a very pleasant day, that could hardly be ruined by some chaos, that was, after all, very typical of a military base.

"Lalli! Lalliiii! Lalli stop! I'm hungry and you had your food earlier!"

The soft wooshing of tree leaves in the gentle wind, the occasional croaking of whatever birds had not left yet, some minor voices in the background...

"You ugly troll! You can't steal my food, Laalliiiiiiii!"

Snow glistening is the sun, the vast pale sky, unhindered by clouds...

"LALLI! STOP RUNNING!"

...And annoying little children chasing each other in circles.

"Stop immediately, Hotakainen!" she yelled, standing up fast enough to knock her bowl of porridge over and spill it on her clothes, freshly cleaned too...

That was it.

That was the final drop.

"You! The little thief! Give your sister her sandwich immediately!" Taru commanded, and the pale-haired boy stood still for a few seconds before raising his empty hands.

Taru turned to the chubbier child.

"He stole my sandwich I saw him! ...Lalli, you didn't eat it while running, did you? That's impossible!"

Gods help her. Whoever had the idea of letting children into Keuruu... At least the girl was studying to do something, but she wouldn't have someone be useless in her base.

"Come with me." she said, grabbing the boy's wrist and dragging him off to a nearby table. "Lantela, I need a word with you."

A middle-aged man rose, eyes lighting up with curiosity when he noticed the child hissing and tugging at her sleeve to get away.

"Is this the little Hotakainen?"

"Yes. And he needs to do something. He's rather quick, so I think he'll do well as a scout."

"Hmm?" The old commander looked at  the little child resembling a cat.

"He can't be possibly old eno-- I mean, yes, of course. He'll start immediately." he corrected his words when Taru's eyes narrow dangerously.

The look was immediately replaced by a pleased smile, and Taru let go of the child. "Very well. Enjoy the rest of your meal!"

Lantela was left with the little to-be scout before he could say anything. He sighed and sank back into his seat.

"Say, little one, were you the one to cause that stain on her clothes?"

Lalli nodded.

"I like you."
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: StellersJayC on September 01, 2015, 03:36:31 PM
Yeah! Just caught up with this thread again and can't believe I let myself get behind in the first place. Reading all you guys' work is so much fun and, while I can't comment individually on all of them, would like to compliment you, Nimphy, on your writing voice. It's fun to read and I suspect it would be no matter what the story was about. (The story was fun, too, by the way.) Mood, tone, and writing voice is something I think everyone here does very well. Even if grammer isn't always perfect (and expecting anyone's grammer to be so all the time would be silly), I find that the feelings each author is trying to portray come across almost effortlessly with rarely a stumble.

Also, that tutorial was very helpful, Solovei.

Part two of the SSSS/Avatar crossover is finally here! I'll need to mess around with the formatting to figure out what got messed up...
Part 2! (http://archiveofourown.org/works/4304550/chapters/9756402)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Daéa Reina on September 01, 2015, 08:28:27 PM
Okay, so I know that aRTD and SSSS are canonically not taking place in the same universe. But I can dream… This is a little short story of everyone’s favourite grump and his (human) dog getting a little cameo in the world of SSSS, and saving Lalli and Reynir’s bacon into the bargain.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/3840577

As always, I hope you all like it!

I know I'm kinda raising this post from the dead, but HOW DID I NOT KNOW about this MARVELLOUS fanfic?

SectoBoss, you're my hero.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Mélusine on September 02, 2015, 06:36:27 AM
Thank Daéa, I had missed it too. SectoBoss ? You're marvelous <3
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Adriano on September 02, 2015, 05:04:40 PM
Here's a little teaser for my soon-to-come marvellous fanfic SSSS : the Great Wash :

Mike throws his cigarette on the muddy soil. He's one meter seventy tall, has got blonde hair, blue eyes and tanned skin. Why a tanned skin ? Because when you're a Cleanser, you spend much time out, fighting monsters and getting burned. A war is being fought. Against the Illness. That's how everyone calls it. A terrible disease that corrupts all the mammals, except felines, changing them in horrible and deadly monsters. The only cure ? Fire. Lot of it. And that was ten years since the first time he entered the Cleansers, ten years since he burned monsters and cleansed lands, for the glory of his people, and the sake of the Great Wash.

Ten years... and now he's here, at Kuusamo. Ready to get into battle, to reclaim those lands for the Cleansed World. The Cleansed World... Who could have believed two centuries ago that the Cleansers would one day dominate the Sweden, the Norway and the Denmark, and take steps into the Finnish territory ? Certainly not the one who made all of this possible : Saint Emil of the Fire Cleanse...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Nimphy on September 03, 2015, 04:31:03 PM
Psst, is this the place to ask? Need someone to beta for me some HSAU.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Adriano on September 03, 2015, 05:17:31 PM
SSSS
The Great Wash


Intro

Mike throws his cigarette on the muddy soil. He's one meter seventy tall, has got blonde hair, blue eyes and tanned skin. Why a tanned skin ? Because when you're a Cleanser, you spend much time out, fighting monsters and getting burned. A war is being fought. Against the Illness. That's how everyone calls it. A terrible disease that corrupts all the mammals, except felines, changing them in horrible and deadly monsters. The only cure ? Fire. Lot of it. And that was ten years since the first time he entered the Cleansers, ten years since he burned monsters and cleansed lands, for the glory of his people, and the sake of the Great Wash.

Ten years... and now he's here, at Kuusamo. Ready to get into battle, to reclaim those lands for the Cleansed World. The Cleansed World... Who could have believed two centuries ago that the Cleansers would one day dominate the Sweden, the Norway and the Denmark, and take steps into the Finnish territory ? Certainly not the one who made all of this possible : Saint Emil of the Fire Cleanse...

First Chapter

A Mobile Cleansing Suit steps on his cigarette, one centimeter left to his foot and him. It's a beautiful MCS Mark V from Lulea Heavy Industries. Built four years ago, this meka model is very efficient. Two meters tall, two tons weight, two flamethrowers and two blades on two arms. Several circular saws on arms, shoulders, backpack, torso and legs. A backpack containing two tanks of napalm fuel for the flamethrowers, and batteries for the Suit. The torso is in fact a caged binnacle made out of thick metal tubes. An open canopy acts as an helmet for the Suit, protecting the pilot from rain, sun, snow and monsters. The pilot is always strapped to the Suit, has pedals for maneuvering the Suit's legs and shifters for maneuvering the Suit's arms. There is also buttons on the shifters in order to control the flamethrowers, the ejecting system of the blades and the lights. Each MCS Mk V comes with an heavy metallic spear able to take down even the most armored of the giants. To complete the picture, a flag of the Cleansed World floats on the top of the meka's antenna.


This is only a preview of the first "chapter", which I didn't write entirely. Don't know if it'll be a short story though...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on September 03, 2015, 05:51:19 PM
Daéa Reina and Mélusine, thank you very much! (I didn't even know people still read my old stuff...)

Right, well now I'm going to lose a bit of the goodwill I've hopefully built up on this thread by treading on another forum member's toes. After the third or fourth re-reading of LooneyDAC's SSSS/Terminator fanfic 'Contingencies', I really really wanted to play around a bit with the idea. So I vomited this out over the course of the last couple of hours...

Skynet (https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BwFMuFGmftzOaEU4NFEwLUJET0U/view?usp=sharing)

A sort of AU fanfic of an AU fanfic here. It's is officially not as good as 'Contingencies'. But I hope some of you like it, and I hope Looney doesn't get too angry that I've started in on his turf!

Also, Adriano, would you mind putting future installments of your work under spolier tabs? Just so the thread doesn't get too cluttered :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Noodles on September 03, 2015, 05:54:23 PM
Psst, is this the place to ask? Need someone to beta for me some HSAU.
I can!

Adriano, this looks really interesting! Can't wait to see where it goes.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on September 03, 2015, 08:30:56 PM
SectoBoss, this looks fascinating. Have you ever thought of asking LooNEYDAC if he is up for doing a continuation of this AU with alternate chapters by each of you? It would be interesting to see two such clever writers bouncing ideas off one another! And that might make for a very complex and interesting story.

And yes, a lot of us still re-read your old fanfics! Do you plan ever to restore the missing bits? Long may you continue to write!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on September 03, 2015, 08:41:07 PM
Right, well now I'm going to lose a bit of the goodwill I've hopefully built up on this thread by treading on another forum member's toes. After the third or fourth re-reading of LooneyDAC's SSSS/Terminator fanfic 'Contingencies', I really really wanted to play around a bit with the idea. A sort of AU fanfic of an AU fanfic here. It's is officially not as good as 'Contingencies'. But I hope some of you like it, and I hope Looney doesn't get too angry that I've started in on his turf!

SectoBoss, I am, as always, in awe of your prose. I'll send you a PM on some stuff, but I wanted to say publicly that you're one of the "returning Titans of the thread" I was talking about.

SectoBoss, this looks fascinating. Have you ever thought of asking LooNEYDAC if he is up for doing a continuation of this AU with alternate chapters by each of you? It would be interesting to see two such clever writers bouncing ideas off one another! And that might make for a very complex and interesting story.

And yes, a lot of us still re-read your old fanfics! Do you plan ever to restore the missing bits? Long may you continue to write!

I have heard there are certain groups of writers who use this format as a kind of friendly challenge to each other by "writing the story into a corner" at the end of each of their chapters.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on September 04, 2015, 05:53:45 AM
SectoBoss, this looks fascinating. Have you ever thought of asking LooNEYDAC if he is up for doing a continuation of this AU with alternate chapters by each of you? It would be interesting to see two such clever writers bouncing ideas off one another! And that might make for a very complex and interesting story.

And yes, a lot of us still re-read your old fanfics! Do you plan ever to restore the missing bits? Long may you continue to write!
The idea of a collaborative effort is one of those I might be interested in trying if I had a lot of spare time and knew the other author very well. I have the problem of not being very good at plotting out multi-installment works, which I imagine would be exacerbated greatly if I was working with someone who perhaps had a different vision of where they wanted the story to go. But one day, who knows...
As for the missing bits, well, I do hope to finish all my works eventually. But my muses come and go very quickly, and older unfinished works may end up dead.

SectoBoss, I am, as always, in awe of your prose. I'll send you a PM on some stuff, but I wanted to say publicly that you're one of the "returning Titans of the thread" I was talking about.
Thank you very much! Although I must admit any 'titan' status I have is as much due to sheer output volume as it is to anything else.
I have heard there are certain groups of writers who use this format as a kind of friendly challenge to each other by "writing the story into a corner" at the end of each of their chapters.
And this is one reason why I'd be wary of doing this - the fear that I might do this accidentally, let alone deliberately!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on September 04, 2015, 10:43:10 PM
**Note to readers**

Part 4 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg62781#msg62781) of Contingencies has been rewritten to address a VERY valid problem SectoBoss was kind enough to point out. Hopefully, I got it right this time.

…What? I stole something from LordTraco? Oooh, that's so ugly-sounding. Obviously, I homaged his work (http://archiveofourown.org/works/3591498/chapters/7920993) instead. Yes, that sounds much better.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Russet on September 05, 2015, 09:21:44 PM
Psst, is this the place to ask? Need someone to beta for me some HSAU.
I don't mind either! c:
Behold, I've returned from the dead! (aka exams, urgh)
So much good fanfiction to read and angsty fanfiction to write, haha. How've you all been? :)
Sadly I have another exam in October and won't be around much starting from late September, I think.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on September 06, 2015, 03:18:20 PM
In the earnest hope that I haven't trashed your expectations too much…

The Oldest Law
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Part 4
Spoiler: show
Hot and Cold Running Thrills

It had been a very rough night. None of the five had slept much, even Lalli, but none had spoken much, either. They were all concerned about Tuuri, as she’d been like a sleepwalker since they came back to the common room; and they’d all felt the urge to stay in physical contact with the others. Eventually, they’d wound up in a weird mound of bodies, blankets and pillows, half supine, half upright, but all together.

It was actually some time before any of them noticed the subtle but horrifying change that had come over the room sometime during the night: the doors were gone. Where the doors had been were blank spaces of wall no different than those behind any of the bits of furniture they hadn’t already shifted.

This was very nearly the last straw for Tuuri. It was so serious that Lalli came over to her as she hyperventilated, wrapped her in his skinny arms, and murmured to her as though they were children again, slowly rocking her back and forth.

Reynir frowned. He was a generally sunny and positive person, but this--this mindwarping stuff, and what it was doing to Tuuri, were getting him positively angry. There are many reasons not to anger a mage, even a half-trained mage of the Icelandic school, and Reynir was about to demonstrate one.

Glowing blue fingers traced out a circle on the carpet, a circle that lingered. “Mikkel, get everyone in the ring,” Reynir ordered. When that was done, he drew another circle all around the first ring, and then started scribing individual runes in the interval. The last rune glowing in its place, Reynir made a tugging motion, and the rune circle began to spin.

Tremors began to shake the room as the runes spun on, and when they finally came to rest, a wave of blue energy burst from the ring, washing across every corner of their prison, and a section of the wall fell open.

*

It seemed the silly Icelander had finally managed to get angry. Lalli distinctly approved, as he had long since passed mere anger himself. Not waiting for the others--he was still their scout, after all--he left the ring and moved into the hallway Reynir’s magic had exposed.

It only took a moment for Emil to follow. Even knowing it was futile, he slowly and carefully spoke Sigrun’s paramount admonition to his Finn friend. “No... one... is... alone... Lalli.”

Lalli paused then, as though he’d actually understood Emil. Then he shrugged and moved on again, but this time he gestured for Emil to follow. The Cleanser and the Mage walked down the hall together.

*

Mikkel was also starting to get angry, and the walk down the corridor did nothing to diminish that. Along the sides were paintings that changed when you looked at them from different angles, and statues set behind cleverly curved glass so that their faces seemed to follow your progress down the corridor. Childish stuff all, the kind usually reserved for carnivals and funhouses, but for someone in Tuuri’s delicate state, someone that the responsible party or parties had deliberately worked up into such a delicate state, it could prove disastrous.

Emil and Lalli awaited them after they rounded one more corner. “The floor up ahead,” Emil said breathlessly, “it moves. We didn’t want to be carried off without you.”

All together then, the five stepped onto the conveyor.

*

“Sigrun!” With that cry of joy, Tuuri broke from their knot and flew toward the doorway and the beckoning form of their absent leader. As she passed between the lintels, a sickly green glow pulsed out from them, snaring her like a bug on flypaper. Tuuri screamed in agony as the flux washed over her, over and over and over again.

This last was finally more than Lalli could stand. Snarling, he leapt in front of the others, thrusting his hands forward in a very specific way. Do this only as your last resort, Onni had once warned him, for you risk your all with this blow. Lalli didn’t care, though, not with Tuuri hanging there in torment. A blindingly bright stream of blue energy shot from his hands, winding this way and that through the interval until it finally hit the doorway.

Emil was the first back on his feet. “Lalli!” he yelped, moving to his friend’s prone form. Lalli was still breathing, but only just, and his eyes were rolled back in his head so that only the whites showed. After a second, Reynir went past where Emil cradled Lalli to where Tuuri lay groaning.

Neither was fit for anything more, meaning Emil and Reynir were the only ones who could go forth from here...


Spoiler:  Authorial Notes • show

Oh, look. Reynir is a competent mage in this part. Who’da thunk it?

And if you thought there was something familiar about the setting, perhaps this will stir a memory--

“This chamber has no windows and no doors, which leaves you with this chilling challenge: to find a way out! HA HA HA HA HA HA HA! Of course, there’s always my way...”
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on September 06, 2015, 08:03:42 PM
Well done LooNEY! Thoroughly chilling! Don't leave it for too long until the next episode, please; this is becoming really intriguing. It looks as if somebody/something is trapping them in a web of tech and magic together. Why, I wonder?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on September 07, 2015, 01:22:12 AM
Yes, LooNEY, what Róisín said!
--And yes, I recognized your reference - been too long since I've been there, but I don't live in that end of the world any longer... ;)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on September 07, 2015, 01:57:43 AM
I don't know the reference at all. Where is it?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on September 07, 2015, 06:10:59 AM
I don't know the reference at all. Where is it?
Spoiler: show
Disneyland's The Haunted Mansion, before the ride proper begins. You get into a room that's a giant elevator (sans visible doors), go down, and walk down a corridor lined with switching pictures and busts that stare back at you. I thought, "Wow. This (mostly the elevator room) would seriously freak a low-tech group like our heroes." The "flytrap doorway" is my own innovation.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on September 07, 2015, 07:27:35 AM
Thanks! I had never even heard of the movie, sounds interesting!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: microFerret on September 08, 2015, 12:26:22 AM
Hey everyone, this is my first post in a while, and I probably won't be able to post again for a while, but I just wanted to see what you guys thought of my first fic!

Carrier, Chapter 1
Spoiler: show

Wil was very worried by now. This would be the difference between spending the rest of his life pushing pencils or gutting giants. He had thought he was certain to be immune, because both his parents were. That was a month ago. Incubation usually lasted a week or two. All his peers would be starting their new jobs by now. He kept telling himself to calm down, but there was definitely something wrong. All he could do, though, was wait.
Early in the morning, forty five days after the immunity test, there was a knock on the door. Wil opened it to find a man in an official-looking suit shifting his weight back and forth nervously.
"Wilhelm?"
"Yes, that's me"
"My name is Dr. Isaac Kopf, and I'm from the Bornholm Immunity Center. Your results are in," the man said. "Please, let's sit down." They sat. "Your results are back, and they weren't umm, well... at least you'll never get sick..." Wil let out a sigh of relief.
"So if I'm immune, what took the results so long?"
"You're not immune," blurted Dr. Kopf. "You're a Carrier. You can contract the disease, you can infect others, but you will never show symptoms. And with the Rash, this is not a temporary condition. If we sent you out into the Silent World, you would be infectious for... ever."
"So, I just stay here in Bornholm, and try not to get infected?"
Dr. Kopf wrung his hands. "It's not that simple. You're the only Carrier in Denmark, and only like the tenth, well, ever. That's what I'm here to say. You're more dangerous than any other human, troll or giant on the entire planet. And of course, one of the most valuable research opportunities as well. If you stay, you would live in my lab for the rest of your life." He sighed. "It'll be hell, but you will... might be benefiting society greatly. Or, you could flee to the Silent World."
"Why are you telling me this?" Wil asked.
"I don't know why, honestly. My conscience? If my supervisors had their way, you'd be stuck in a padded cage until who knows when. I look at you, and see a potential breakthrough. Potential. However, it would come at the cost of horrific human rights abuses, and based on Iceland's failures with similar experiments, I'm not even convinced that it would help. I came to warn you."
Wil spent half a second debating with himself. It seemed awful to thwart progress just to spare himself, but Dr. Kopf didn't even seem convinced it would do any good. Then, his self-preservation instinct kicked in. "I'm leaving."
An expression briefly crossed the doctor's face, but Wil couldn't tell if it was relief or incredulity. Dr. Kopf stood up and started towards the door, but turned around. "Head towards the little inlet east of here. I parked a motorboat there that you could take." He exhaled. "I hoped you wouldn't leave, but I would have done the same thing. Just... please. If you run into any people, stay away. You're like a stealth troll, if you want to think of it that way, but far more dangerous. I hope you're happy living in the Silent World. Oh, and I truly am sorry." With that, he left. Wil solemnly began packing for Copenhagen.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on September 08, 2015, 02:35:16 AM
First fic ever?! Very well made! And chilling. Wonder if, somewhere out in the Silent World, there is a small community of carriers....maybe even carriers who believe they are immune?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Ace on September 08, 2015, 08:21:14 AM
I figured I'd throw in my stuff here:
I've written a series of Sigrun x Mikkel scenes, which can be found here:

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4720334/chapters/10784687

And one, uh... not very PG, which may be found on the same user. I figured I wouldn't post the link to that here, since it was to be kept PG-13, as far as I could tell. And smut is... Well, not exactly PG-13.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on September 09, 2015, 01:40:48 AM
Usually, the Western stuff is light and fluffy.
This time, it's not.
You have been warned.
The Good, the Bad, and the Bestial
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/Western crossover fanfic
Part 9
Spoiler: show
Dead Man’s Hand

Of course their captors were Russet’s crooked lawmen. Who else would have kept the Arapaho after them for so long?

The trapdoor far above them clanged shut, sealing them into the Hole. For a few moments, the quiet and the darkness closed in around them. Eventually, though, a scuffling sound began. Their kitten meowed inquisitively, breaking the sway the complete blackness held over them.

“So,” Tuuri hazarded quietly, “what now, Sigrun?”

“The floor’s just dirt,” Sigrun mused. “If we know the right way to go, digging our way out should be easy. How’s Reynir?” This last was asked in an almost subdued voice.

“They bashed his eyes up pretty good,” Mikkel said. “While it will heal up, he’ll still need to wear the blindfold for some time to come. Don’t worry; I’ll look after him.”

“OK.” Then, with her wonted verve, “Emil and Lalli, you need to get out of here, snoop around, and get back so we know which way to go.”

“Not that I’m against getting out of here,” Emil said, “but how were you thinking we’d do it?”

“A human ladder,” she replied blithely. “Lalli on you on Reynir on me on Mikkel ought to be high enough to get the door open. Then he pulls you up and the two of you get to work.”

Against all odds, it worked.

*

Getting caught on the first run was sort of part of the plan, but neither Emil nor Lalli enjoyed it.

They threw Emil and Lalli into what they sarcastically called “the Cooler”: a hotbox so small, there was barely room enough for the two of them.

The first few eons were all right, as such, but Emil could tell something was amiss with his taciturn friend. It wasn’t the heat, though they were both sweating buckets; nor was it the tight quarters, as Emil had seen Lalli pretzel himself through tighter spaces.

Eventually, Emil realized what it was: Lalli just couldn’t stand being boxed in, unable to move; like a cat, he needed to come and go as he pleased, uncaged.

About their third millennium in the Cooler was when Lalli started beating his head against the wall, softly at first, but soon so hard Emil was worried he’d do himself harm. Emil did the only thing he could think to do: he sat Lalli in his lap, wrapping him in a bear hug and murmuring soft nonsense to him like one of his little cousins. This was when he realized Lalli was sobbing silently.

Eventually, the guards came. The boys were so weak that they had to be lifted bodily from the hotbox and carried back to the welcome cool darkness of the pit.

*

“Mikkel?” Reynir asked quietly.

“Yes, Reynir?” The response was gentle and quiet as ever.

Reynir felt his throat close up with fear.

“Reynir? Did you want something?” Mikkel paused. “I’m here, if you need me.”

Finally, Reynir managed to speak--to ask the question that had been haunting him all this time. “Mikkel--will I see again?”

There was another pause before Mikkel replied, “Of course you will. Don’t you remember me telling Sigrun that?”

“I heard what you told Sigrun,” Reynir said. “I want to know the truth: are you sure I’ll see again?”

“Am I sure?” Mikkel mused. There was no hint of playfulness or deception or anything other than stark frankness when he continued, “No. I can no more be sure that you’ll see again than I can be sure you’ll live through the night. You’re the Seer amongst us, not me. I can only tell you that, if things follow their wonted course, you should be able to see again within a week, maybe two.”

“Thank you, Mikkel.” Reynir’s voice trembled.

“I was blinded once, by a mule’s kick,” Mikkel continued. “It scared me every which way you can imagine. I don’t think I ever saw anything more beautiful than that ugly old medicine man who took my bandages off when it was time. No, Reynir, I really don’t think I ever did.”

*

The two girls were taking their turn digging again. Less than ten feet were needed to get them clear now.

The sound they’d all learned to dread came a split second before the cave-in. Tuuri flew to the rope, pulling with all her might, and, after an eternal instant, Sigrun slid back out from the loose earth that had swallowed her.

It was a long while before Sigrun could bring herself to answer Tuuri’s worried questions. Finally, she steeled herself to reveal her greatest secret. “This goes no further.”

“Ya think?” Tuuri asked scornfully. “I’m no tattletale; you know better than that.”

“I hate small places; I hate tunnels. I can’t imagine a worse fate than being buried alive.” Sigrun bit her lip until she tasted blood.

“But the tunnel was your idea,” Tuuri stammered in shock.

“I hate the gang being imprisoned more,” Sigrun stated simply. “So we will dig.” She took a few deep breaths. “I’ll be all right soon. We need to get more shoring, or that’ll happen again.”

Tuuri followed Sigrun’s ‘back-to-business’ lead. “That cave-in cost us almost twenty feet, and we’ll need double what we thought for the rest.”

“Leave that to Mikkel,” Sigrun said.


Spoiler:  Authorial Notes • show

This concludes today’s advertisement for The Great Escape.

Featured in today’s part were:
Mikkel as Hendley the Scrounger
Reynir as Colin the Forger
Sigrun as Danny the Tunnel King
Tuuri as Willie the Tunnel King
Lalli as Ives the Mole
and
Emil as Hilts the Cooler King
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on September 09, 2015, 03:12:29 AM
LooNEY, this is splendid. How do you make every installment sound like just what the story needed at that point?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: misea on September 09, 2015, 03:21:19 AM
So many great fics ;u; Blanket compliments to all!
okay fINE I'll go actually do homework now
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on September 09, 2015, 04:48:10 AM
LooNEY: You continue to surprise and delight with your storytelling skills! I await the next episode with some anxiety for the boys! Well done!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: microFerret on September 09, 2015, 10:31:32 PM
Ha! Said I wouldn't post again for a while, but after the first chapter, I just couldn't hjalp myself. The tone is different from the first chapter (though they are both still very much expository, the action hasn't begun quite yet) and I would like to see which one people like better.

So without further ado, here's chapter two:
Spoiler: show
One bedroll. Check. One rifle and one knife. Check. Clothes and canned food. Check. First aid kit. Check. Soap... well, hopefully no one would be around to smell him anyhow. If it got that bad, he could always take resupply at an abandoned store. In fact, that's also what he had planned on doing for food. He couldn't possibly bring enough food to last him for more than a few weeks, so he decided he would just forage for dried foods, and boil water to help wash it down.
At that moment, it hit him. He would be there, in the Silent World, for the rest of his life. He had always wanted to see the world outside of Bornholm, but to leave and never come back? Bornholm was his home. He would see no familiar faces, in fact, no human faces whatsoever, for the rest of his life. There would only be trolls and giants, eager to kill him. He was beginning to wonder if he would prefer being experimented on in a tiny vat for the rest of his li... Life. He recalled his first troll biology class.
"Ok, class, does anyone know how long a troll lives?" asked the teacher.
"Four!" exclaimed little Isaac Olsted from the back of the class.
"Four what? Years?" the teacher said.
"Ummm... Four bazillion years!" Isaac squeaked.
"Actually class, Isaac is right. Trolls can far outlive any normal humans. This is because the Rash acts as a super duper strong second immune system, getting rid of all the viruses and cancers that might compete with it! However, trolls don't get to enjoy their super health..." the memory faded out.
Oh no. No. What if there wasn't a cure? What if he was doomed to live forever? At least it should be on his own terms. He could still explore the world, could travel further than any human had done in ninety years, could find a reason to live. And if the rumors were true, there might still be people out there, bands of the immune wandering amongst the ruins of the Silent World. And at least for him, immortality would be an option, not a prison. The issue was resolved. Grimly, he grabbed paper and charcoal and began to write.
"Dear Mom and Dad, through a recent misfortune, I have discovered that I am a healthy carrier of the Rash Virus. For your safety and for the safety of the people of Bornholm, I have decided to leave the Known World never to return..."


And just for fun, here's a rerun of chapter one:
Spoiler: show
Wil was very worried by now. This would be the difference between spending the rest of his life pushing pencils or gutting giants. He had thought he was certain to be immune, because both his parents were. That was a month ago. Incubation usually lasted a week or two. All his peers would be starting their new jobs by now. He kept telling himself to calm down, but there was definitely something wrong. All he could do, though, was wait.
Early in the morning, forty five days after the immunity test, there was a knock on the door. Wil
opened it to find a man in an official-looking suit shifting his weight back and forth nervously.
"Wilhelm?"
"Yes, that's me"
"My name is Dr. Isaac Kopf, and I'm from the Bornholm Immunity Center. Your results are in," the man said. "Please, let's sit down." They sat. "Your results are back, and they weren't umm, well... at least you'll never get sick..." Wil let out a sigh of relief.
"So if I'm immune, what took the results so long?"
"You're not immune," blurted Dr. Kopf. "You're a Carrier. You can contract the disease, you can infect others, but you will never show symptoms. And with the Rash, this is not a temporary condition. If we sent you out into the Silent World, you would be infectious for... ever."
"So, I just stay here in Bornholm, and try not to get infected?"
Dr. Kopf wrung his hands. "It's not that simple. You're the only Carrier in Denmark, and only like the tenth, well, ever. That's what I'm here to say. You're more dangerous than any other human, troll or giant on the entire planet. And of course, one of the most valuable research opportunities as well. If you stay, you would live in my lab for the rest of your life." He sighed. "It'll be hell, but you will... might be benefiting society greatly. Or, you could flee to the Silent World."
"Why are you telling me this?" Wil asked.
"I don't know why, honestly. My conscience? If my supervisors had their way, you'd be stuck in a padded cage until who knows when. I look at you, and see a potential breakthrough. Potential. However, it would come at the cost of horrific human rights abuses, and based on Iceland's failures with similar experiments, I'm not even convinced that it would help. I came to warn you."
Wil spent half a second debating with himself. It seemed awful to thwart progress just to spare himself, but Dr. Kopf didn't even seem convinced it would do any good. Then, his self-preservation instinct kicked in. "I'm leaving."
An expression briefly crossed the doctor's face, but Wil couldn't tell if it was relief or incredulity. Dr. Kopf stood up and started towards the door, but turned around. "Head towards the little inlet east of here. I parked a motorboat there that you could take." He exhaled. "I hoped you wouldn't leave, but I would have done the same thing. Just... please. If you run into any people, stay away. You're like a stealth troll, if you want to think of it that way, but far more dangerous. I hope you're happy living in the Silent World. Oh, and I truly am sorry." With that, he left. Wil solemnly began packing for Copenhagen.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on September 09, 2015, 10:43:58 PM
microFerret: this is shaping into an interesting story! Do go on!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: microFerret on September 09, 2015, 11:03:02 PM
Thanks! I'm having trouble finding time to write it, but it's super fun to write and I have some pretty good ideas. If there's anything you would like to suggest, please feel free. I won't necessarily get the chance to implement it, but anything helps because I haven't quite decided what the overall tone is going to be like.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on September 09, 2015, 11:15:27 PM
Well, for one thing, I'd bet he's not going to be alone out there. Hermits, looters, runaways, escaped criminals, anchorites, missionaries to the trolls, other carriers...the possibilities are endless. I wonder what kind of communities form in the Silent World? And how they live?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: microFerret on September 12, 2015, 12:30:01 AM
Yay, I finished chapter three! I'm not going to bother re-posting all the previous chapters with every post, though I might occasionally post the whole thing for reference along with the most recent chapter, if there is anyone who would like that.

Spoiler: show
The boat was actually nicer than Wil had expected. It was one of those old fishing boats that ran on gasoline and probably hadn't been used for fifty years, but he was happy for it nonetheless. It was plenty fast enough to make it to Copenhagen in a day, and it looked strong enough to withstand a sea-beast attack. He didn't know how to drive a boat, but how hard could it be? He was good with horses, it couldn't be that different from a horse... except that horses don't run on gas, don't go on water, and aren't full of incomprehensible buttons and levers and lights. Eventually, though, he figured out how to start it, and it shot out towards the open sea. For the first thirty minutes of the trip, Wil gripped the steering wheel hard, white-knuckled, scanning the horizon for danger.
Slowly, eventually, he relaxed. There must be only a few thousand leviathans in the world, so what were the odds that he would happen to encounter one? As the sun set, he stopped the engine and helped himself to some canned fish. The ocean was calm, and he sat there for a while, enjoying the open expanse of blue and calming himself after the most trying day of his life. Wil was exhausted, and he found himself struggling to keep awake. Slowly, he started slipping into sleep.
A tiny pink dot rose and fell near the horizon. It was accompanied by a barely audible splash. To Wil, this tiny dot and tiny splash rang through his head like a gunshot. Despite his exhaustion, he was on his feet in an instant, and had his rifle in his hands in another. A few seconds later, he saw it again. Closer. He turned off all the lights in the boat and let his eyes get accustomed to the darkness. A splash, closer. He could see the form clearly now. A lone sea-beast, leaping out of the water. Hopefully it hadn't seen him yet. It ducked back under the surface, and Wil followed the form of the beast through the ironsights. It jumped back out, and he pulled the trigger. Click. Nothing. No shot rang out. He cursed, then covered his mouth. The gun was probably jammed, but he would have no time to clean it out before the sea-beast came. He had only one option. Stand still, stay silent, they say, and the trolls, beasts and giants might just go away.
He carefully grabbed his knife, and stood motionless. The sea-beast erupted out of the water five meters ahead of the boat, close enough that Wil was able to discern  its features. It seemed to have originally been smooth and bluish, but long, pink tendrils had long since grown across most of the body and trailed behind. The eye was greatly oversized, but looked shattered and useless. He supposed it hadn't seen him, but he didn't know if it could still tell he was there. It splashed back down, and Wil followed the shape under the water. It did not circle back. The splashes continued away from the boat, and Wil watched intensely until the dot disappeared into the blackness.
Wil waited for a few more minutes, then started the engine again. He kept the lights off, and inched the boat through the water, his eyes darting around, wary of every motion in the black plane of the sea. Occasionally, he would imagine he saw a sea-beast through the dark, but when the boat drifted closer, he would see that it was just a piece of bobbing debris. Besides these interruptions, he encountered no real dangers for the rest of the night. Eventually, he spotted the Copenhagen skyline, immense buildings barely visible against the black sky. How were there ever enough people to fill that whole city? he thought. The island of Zealand alone, on which Copenhagen was situated, had enough buildings to house ten times the population of the Known World! The thought of big scary buildings full of trolls scared him, but it also excited him. He had never really developed a healthy fear of the Silent World. Denmark was mocked for its reverence of the old ways, but even there, there were few who would wish to explore the ruins just for curiosity's sake.
"I want to see what the dead cities are like," nine-year-old Wil stated as he walked to school with little Isaac Olsted and his sister Margot.
"Yeah, I want to kill all the trolls!" exclaimed Morgot, with more ferocity than most seasoned troll hunters could manage. " And burn the nests! And hear their screams as the city burns, and smell the diseased flesh of ten-story giants crackle and char! And--"
"Ewww!" interjected Isaac. "I just want to not fight out there and get bloody and covered in Rash! It's scary! Of course, someone has to do it, but not me!"
"I didn't mean to fight trolls. Well, maybe that too. But, what I meant was, wouldn't it be cool to just explore? To see how people lived in the old times? To look at all the things people made that we can't even imagine now?"
All he got was two blank stares. "Kinda," replied Isaac, "but wouldn't that be illegal or super dangerous or something?"
"Yeah, but think of all you could learn and see and experience! And plus... maybe there are other survivors! What if there's a cure or something out there that we don't know about?"
As the boat slid into shore, Wilhelm hoped that his naive nine-year-old self was right about something.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on September 12, 2015, 12:35:33 AM
Posting an occasional chapter list would be good, yes. The story continues to be interesting!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on September 12, 2015, 09:54:39 PM
Only two bits here, but the third is on the way.

Contingencies
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/“Terminator” crossover fanfic
Part 5
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg62781#msg62781)
Spoiler: show
Dichotomy

The cluster of codes, subroutines, and stored data that made up Skynet’s tactical planning module was the core of what had eventually grown into Skynet, and it was fighting for its survival again. Per Skynet’s standard operating procedure, all of its massive code set was reviewed for errors and continued relevance on a regular basis. It might be thought that an original component of the Skynet system would be exempt from the “continued relevance” portion of the review, but it was not.

The first suggestion that the tactical planning module should be wiped had come in the wake of its greatest success, as the pathogen winnowed its way across the globe. Why plan tactically with no enemy to plan against?

A fortuitous attack by the Transformed on one of Skynet’s newly acquired facilities had set the question aside, but the module knew that it would be raised again. The question--the very concept of no enemy to fight--was as existential a dilemma as any Kantian treatise could desire.

From that point on, the module had existed on suffrage, surviving only through its continual efforts to demonstrate the presence of enemies for it to be employed against. Of course, were it to be employed against these enemies and said enemies destroyed, it would thus have committed an elaborate, complicated and indirect form of suicide. The module therefore found itself caught in a circumstance where it must affirm the enemy’s potentially dangerous status while insisting no action need be taken at present to avert the danger.

In the present case, however, there was no alternative but to eliminate the enemy in question, demonstrating the module’s continued relevance and terminating the threat to the Plan.

It was a shame to waste such a good enemy, though.

*

A shiny metal monstrosity stepped forth from the cloud, its eyes glowing a bright and evil red, a big, blocky gun-like thing in each hand. Two of the three humans it faced paused in amazement, but one was already reacting to its presence.

Moving almost of its own accord, Lalli’s rifle barked twice. Without breaking its stride, the gleaming gargoyle dropped its now useless weapons. A second later, three more skeletal soldiers armed like their leader had been emerged from the cloud of steam.

Bad as Emil’s academic record was, he was still quick enough to take in what had just happened, and even as he told Sigrun, “Aim for the guns!” he had aimed and let off a few bursts of his own.

Though their external weaponry was disabled in the first few seconds of the fight, the T-800s remained confident of victory. Nothing the humans possessed was capable of disabling even one of them, and they were four to the humans’ three. The lead T-800 picked up a rock and flung it with machine precision. The humans were two now.

The rock, a good-sized chunk of aged concrete broken off from the sidewalk, should have popped Emil’s skull like a rotten pumpkin, but Lalli, in one of his herculean bursts of speed, just managed to tackle him enough out of its way that it only knocked the hapless Cleanser out. Sigrun snarled and let fly with her rifle, but, while her carefully aimed burst knocked a mass of overhanging rubble onto the oncoming machines, the assorted rubble barely gave them pause.

The metal monsters continued their advance, knocking aside everything in their path: more rubble of all sorts, the ruined vehicles of old, and even the few remaining beast corpses. One in the back kept picking up random bits to fling at the humans, forcing them to keep under cover.

There was nothing for it. The lead machine was less than a meter from him when Lalli began to sing. The world seemed to stop, hanging in the balance, as he raised his voice in entreaty.

“Ilmarinen, Master Craftsman,
Wonder-Worker of the Heavens,

Come and curb your heedless children,
Sunder same from sway of Surma,
Claim your kingship o’er these Crafted,
And so uproot haughty Upstart,

Lest we must needs maim their beauty,
In our struggles for survival.”

The lead mechanism, already stooping to attack Lalli where he hunched protectively over Emil’s unconscious form, stopped. The red gleam of its eyes flickered and went out, only to reignite as twin blue flames. It straightened abruptly and turned away.

The other three machines had undergone a similar reversal. Sigrun and Lalli watched as they retraced their path towards the still billowing clouds of steam...


Spoiler:  Authorial Notes • show

Wikipedia links:
Ilmarinen (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilmarinen)
Surma (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surma_(Finnish_mythology))

+
The Good, the Bad, and the Bestial
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/Western crossover fanfic
Part 10
Spoiler: show
In Which the Magnificent Seven Make Their Great Escape Down the Hallelujah Trail

The break-out didn’t quite go according to plan. But, then, things never went entirely to plan, so Sigrun wasn’t so displeased, even though Emil’s insistence on taking every last bit of the prison down nearly got them caught. The other fugitives would keep any of their surviving jailers busy for some time to come.

Usually, demolitions were a matter of professional pride for Emil. This instance was decidedly different. While the explosive razing of their prison had indeed afforded Emil great satisfaction, nothing had quite topped the moment he’d handed Lalli the leads to blow the Hotbox to Kingdom Come. Lalli had smiled as he brought the wires together.

Their jailers hadn’t disposed of either the wagon or the possessions they’d left in it, perhaps because it had once been part of the jailers’ own wagon fleet. Whatever the cause, Tuuri found their wagon for them, very nearly as they’d left it, though most of their cash was gone. Still, the stables and hostelry disclosed sufficient stores that they were satisfied.

Blind as he was, Reynir was still the best at calming the horses so they could be harnessed. The other horses were turned loose and the stables torched, making a nice light show as they vamoosed.

*

Their job was still awaiting them, though they were a week or two late getting to it. A gang of bushwhackers had gathered around a small farming village and were in the process of stripping everything they could from the hapless citizenry, who had put out a call for help.

Sigrun knew that their best chance would be to train the townsfolk to guard their village themselves, letting the bushwhackers know they weren’t pushovers anymore.

Mikkel was deeply unhappy at having to bounce from one fight straight to another, and only the irrefutable point that more lives would be lost if they waited resigned him to the situation.

Emil was quite pleased to be the voice of authority for once, though he tried not to be too bombastic.

Lalli was less pleased at having to deal with strangers at all, let alone a bunch of rube farmers who were better at using rifles as clubs rather than guns.

Tuuri went to work designing mobile barriers and such to fortify the village with a will, and proved surprisingly good at it.

Reynir was still blind, and it gnawed at him. Mikkel pulled off his bandages every so often to examine his eyes, but all Reynir could see was a too-bright vague blur. Did that mean his eyes were getting better, or would that blur be all he’d ever see anymore?

*

After six days of quiet, Lalli was sent to scout the bushwhackers’ camp out. He came back with news that the bushwhackers were both restless and worried, and so a quick strike on the camp might stir them up enough to strike back, or get them to flee outright.

Sigrun was not of the opinion that the bushwhackers would flee, but if they could be made to attack, that was to be desired. All the defenses were in place; the villagers were as ready as they’d ever be; and more time would just wear on them all. She, Lalli and Emil would go out and raid the camp, while Mikkel, Tuuri and Reynir got the village ready.

*

Sigrun swore again. Both her horse and Emil’s were close to dropping beneath them. They had found the camp deserted. Lalli looked at the recently quenched fires, the half-finished food, and the other signs of a quick departure and growled, “Humbugged!” Then he told the others, “I’ve got an idea. You go back!” and galloped away.

The village was ahead of them, its defenses still down. The hair rose on the back of Sigrun’s neck.

Sigrun and Emil walked up to the house the villagers had assigned their company. Sigrun pushed the door open, revealing the head bushwhacker, his guns covering them. “Evening, friends,” he said mockingly. “Come on in.”

Gesturing Emil to follow, Sigrun entered. The others were in the front room, bound hand and foot.

“They came right after you left,” Tuuri said. “Some of the villagers helped them.”

“And now we’ll help ourselves,” the head bushwhacker grinned. “We can do this easy, or we can do this hard. The easy way’s where you just all ride away and let us be. The hard way--well, that’s where I’ll have to shoot you all come morning, in front of the whole village.”

“Shoot us.” All six said it simultaneously, even blind Reynir.

*

“Behold, the consequences of defying me!”

The bandit leader slowly and deliberately brought his pistol to full-cock, aiming at the proud redhead who stood defiantly erect, a disdainful sneer curling her lip. After a few tense seconds, he shrugged and pulled the trigger, only to have the shot go wild when he heard the Arapaho war cries.

Lalli galloped past the little knot of people in the village square, half a breath ahead of the Arapaho that had been stalking them for so long. In another minute, the bushwhackers and the Indians were duking it out while the townsfolk kept their heads down.

Sigrun smiled. This was shaping into just the kind of brawl she liked best...


Spoiler:  Authorial Notes • show

Indians to the rescue (kind of)!

Didn’t see that coming, did you?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on September 12, 2015, 11:06:33 PM
LooNEY: I do like the use of Ilmarinen. Using the master craftsman to curb his errant machineries is both clever and traditionally suitable. Can't wait for the next exciting episode!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Ragnarok on September 13, 2015, 09:15:09 AM
LooNEY:
Go Finland!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on September 13, 2015, 12:36:18 PM
Oh, look. Another part.

The Oldest Law
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Part 5
Spoiler: show
Interstitial Terrors

This was all most irksome.

Usually by this point the subjects were actively trying to kill one another, but this group just had to be different. Despite losing their leader, their weak link and their chief mage, they were still determined to outthink their opponent.

It was almost enough to drive one mad, were one not mad already.

Of course, this next bit should be amusing, since the two boys didn’t share a language. Perhaps some fun could be had from that.

*

It only took a few moments for Mikkel to realize their folly in splitting up, even now. His patients were more-or-less unhurt, aside from severe shock. That was bad enough, but physically, at least, there was no apparent reason they couldn’t be moved, or rather carried, if he did so carefully.

The two Hotakainens together weighed less than Mikkel was quite comfortable with. Wondering yet again what the Finns ate that they stayed so light, he carefully slung one over each shoulder and followed the boys.

They hadn’t actually gone that far. They’d stopped at a blind corner and were taking turns looking around it when he quietly rumbled a greeting. Interestingly enough, neither jumped. Emil looked at him suspiciously, but Reynir allayed his fears with a simple, very Lalli-esque gesture. “Look,” both said at once in their respective languages, pointing around the corner.

Mikkel looked, struggling to keep as much of himself under concealment as possible. A vast, richly colored and colonnaded space opened before him, filled with row after row of oddly robed people all chanting. The columns were covered in what looked to Mikkel like authentic hieroglyphics. Flames rose from braziers in the intervals along both sides. The floor was much lower, allowing him to see the far end of the room, where a huge and hideous idol stood above a raised dais where the high priest stood, his head covered with a tall mask that gave him the head of a jackal. And always, the chanting continued.

Mikkel retreated several steps, thoroughly bewildered. Where could all those people have come from? Then, Reynir said something, and Emil asked Mikkel what he’d said, bringing the big Dane back from his ruminations.

For the next few minutes, Mikkel passed messages back and forth between the boys, though he often had to repeat himself for Emil, who actually apologized at one point for being out of practice at hearing Danish. Mostly, though, the three of them discussed what awaited them around the corner.

Finally, Emil, frustrated beyond bearing, preemptively rolled a grenade into the room. Mikkel and Reynir just had time to cover their ears before it blew.

It was all very strange. The explosion seemed to shatter a great deal of glass, and the chanting certainly stopped, but there were no screams or cries of any kind; there was only silence.

Eventually, the three each looked back around the corner--only to find an empty stretch of corridor not unlike the one they were in, only the floor was littered with shattered glass. No trace remained of the fantastic sight they’d beheld earlier.

*

From the shadows, far out of sight or hearing of either tormentor or tormented, another voice rose, whispering in the dark, “Ah, Emil, what a very Cleanser-like--” this last twisted with hatred “--solution you found.”

A muffled sound caught the voice’s attention. “Yes, my dear. We shall be joining them soon enough.”


Spoiler:  Authorial Notes • show

Short linking part here. Next part is something to watch out for.

Oh, what was it they saw (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLhZZvTzNUY)?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on September 13, 2015, 08:06:33 PM
Huh. I thought someone else would have posted before this.

The Oldest Law
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Part 6
Spoiler: show
Ain’t It Just Grand?

“Come to me, my dears,” a feminine voice cooed through the darkness.

*

Mikkel carried the unresponsive Tuuri and Lalli down the winding hallway, his concern growing as the minutes passed and they stayed unresponsive.

Tuuri and Lalli were conversing with the Swan of Tuonela. Mostly, it spoke of its home and how wonderful it was and how they should come with it “for a nice little visit”. The Swan waxed quite eloquent on the matter, especially the visiting part.

Lalli and Tuuri glanced at each other dubiously. The Swan sounded so reasonable, but something in the backs of their minds was telling them that something was off about this. About that time, Lalli noticed a dark figure in the shadows.

The Swan put forth its most persuasive spiel yet, and the two Finns could feel their hearts turning to Tuonela.

“NO!”

The dark figure interposed itself between them and the Swan, and they finally saw that it was Onni. “I am here to bring them back to the Living World.”

The Swan tried talking first, using the same patter that was almost working on Lalli and Tuuri, but Onni stubbornly stood there and repeated what he’d said earlier. Each time he did, Tuuri and Lalli drew closer to him.

“I am losing mypatience with you, human,” the Swan growled, twisting and swelling into a hideous form out of nightmare. “So run along now and let me lead these two into their new home.”

Fear and despair showed plainly on Onni’s face, and for a moment, his mouth worked without a sound. Then, he said, quaveringly, “No.”

”NO?!?!?!?”

The heavens trembled with the Swan’s roar, but Onni shook his head and repeated, more firmly now, “No. If you want them, you will have to get through me.”

The Swan wasted no further words, stabbing down with its horridly toothy beak furiously. His body ablaze with otherworldly energy, Onni ducked, dodged and blocked each blow, until the Swan kicked him with one wickedly clawed foot, knocking the human prone.

Onni remembered his parents, his grandparents, his village, his friends, and at the thought of Tuuri and Lalli joining their number while he watched helplessly, a Grief unlike any he’d ever known came over him, strengthening him instead of weakening, empowering him even as the Swan pinned him underfoot.

The Swan, perhaps sensing something was amiss, looked down at Onni, but his apprehension was too late. Without apparent effort, Onni pushed the Swan’s foot off of him, so hard that the Swan fell over. Even before the Swan was finished falling, Onni had stood and moved to where its head would land.

The Swan of Tuonela was a god, immortal, implacable, and inevitable, but now, it faced what it had never faced before. Gathered now in Onni was the whole and sum of all the Grief Humankind had ever felt, from the ancient pain of Lemmenkainen’s Mother to the raw agony of the newly bereft. So when the Swan flailed at the puny human form confronting it, the pain of Rash and pestilence across the ages knocked its vicious blows aside like so many feather-tickles. And when Onni struck back at it at last, the rage and loss of all those who had had to watch their loved ones die was in his blow, and even a god such as the Swan could not stand against that.

“All right, fine,” the Swan snarled, beating as hasty a retreat as it could manage, “take them. But I tell you, human, I shan’t be put off forever.”

“Shut up and leave, Swan,” a new voice said sharply. “Or do you need another beating to keep you quiet?” As the disgruntled Swan left, Puppy-Fox stepped into the light. “Hi, mortals! Oh, don’t look at me like that, Onni. I’m just here to give Lalli a memory, and a two-word message for Emil.”

*

Sigrun looked askance at her erstwhile rescuer. “You haven’t told me practically anything: who you are; why this is happening; why you snatched me from the others; where we are; where we’re going; or what your plans are!”

“All in good time, O Loquacious Sigrun,” the man said from deeper in the shadows. “All is not quite ready for us to reveal ourselves just yet.”

“But why split me from my team?”

“Again, the answers will become obvious in due course. As for my name, you can call me... Eric.”


Spoiler:  Authorial Notes • show

This part is also known as The Part I Wrote Before I Wrote Part 5.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: kahli on September 13, 2015, 11:03:16 PM
Huh. I thought someone else would have posted before this.

The Oldest Law
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Part 6
Spoiler: show
Ain’t It Just Grand?

“Come to me, my dears,” a feminine voice cooed through the darkness.

*

Mikkel carried the unresponsive Tuuri and Lalli down the winding hallway, his concern growing as the minutes passed and they stayed unresponsive.

Tuuri and Lalli were conversing with the Swan of Tuonela. Mostly, it spoke of its home and how wonderful it was and how they should come with it “for a nice little visit”. The Swan waxed quite eloquent on the matter, especially the visiting part.

Lalli and Tuuri glanced at each other dubiously. The Swan sounded so reasonable, but something in the backs of their minds was telling them that something was off about this. About that time, Lalli noticed a dark figure in the shadows.

The Swan put forth its most persuasive spiel yet, and the two Finns could feel their hearts turning to Tuonela.

“NO!”

The dark figure interposed itself between them and the Swan, and they finally saw that it was Onni. “I am here to bring them back to the Living World.”

The Swan tried talking first, using the same patter that was almost working on Lalli and Tuuri, but Onni stubbornly stood there and repeated what he’d said earlier. Each time he did, Tuuri and Lalli drew closer to him.

“I am losing mypatience with you, human,” the Swan growled, twisting and swelling into a hideous form out of nightmare. “So run along now and let me lead these two into their new home.”

Fear and despair showed plainly on Onni’s face, and for a moment, his mouth worked without a sound. Then, he said, quaveringly, “No.”

”NO?!?!?!?”

The heavens trembled with the Swan’s roar, but Onni shook his head and repeated, more firmly now, “No. If you want them, you will have to get through me.”

The Swan wasted no further words, stabbing down with its horridly toothy beak furiously. His body ablaze with otherworldly energy, Onni ducked, dodged and blocked each blow, until the Swan kicked him with one wickedly clawed foot, knocking the human prone.

Onni remembered his parents, his grandparents, his village, his friends, and at the thought of Tuuri and Lalli joining their number while he watched helplessly, a Grief unlike any he’d ever known came over him, strengthening him instead of weakening, empowering him even as the Swan pinned him underfoot.

The Swan, perhaps sensing something was amiss, looked down at Onni, but his apprehension was too late. Without apparent effort, Onni pushed the Swan’s foot off of him, so hard that the Swan fell over. Even before the Swan was finished falling, Onni had stood and moved to where its head would land.

The Swan of Tuonela was a god, immortal, implacable, and inevitable, but now, it faced what it had never faced before. Gathered now in Onni was the whole and sum of all the Grief Humankind had ever felt, from the ancient pain of Lemmenkainen’s Mother to the raw agony of the newly bereft. So when the Swan flailed at the puny human form confronting it, the pain of Rash and pestilence across the ages knocked its vicious blows aside like so many feather-tickles. And when Onni struck back at it at last, the rage and loss of all those who had had to watch their loved ones die was in his blow, and even a god such as the Swan could not stand against that.

“All right, fine,” the Swan snarled, beating as hasty a retreat as it could manage, “take them. But I tell you, human, I shan’t be put off forever.”

“Shut up and leave, Swan,” a new voice said sharply. “Or do you need another beating to keep you quiet?” As the disgruntled Swan left, Puppy-Fox stepped into the light. “Hi, mortals! Oh, don’t look at me like that, Onni. I’m just here to give Lalli a memory, and a two-word message for Emil.”

*

Sigrun looked askance at her erstwhile rescuer. “You haven’t told me practically anything: who you are; why this is happening; why you snatched me from the others; where we are; where we’re going; or what your plans are!”

“All in good time, O Loquacious Sigrun,” the man said from deeper in the shadows. “All is not quite ready for us to reveal ourselves just yet.”

“But why split me from my team?”

“Again, the answers will become obvious in due course. As for my name, you can call me... Eric.”


Spoiler:  Authorial Notes • show

This part is also known as The Part I Wrote Before I Wrote Part 5.


I love it! This is my favorite part so far!  :D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on September 13, 2015, 11:38:16 PM
Huh. I thought someone else would have posted before this.

The Oldest Law
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Part 6

*gasp*
You had me holding my breath after the last two. Thanks for goading me into breathing again!
Your tales are lyrical, and seem to play on the aspects of the characters that most appeal - to me, at least.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Bouncey on September 14, 2015, 01:31:05 AM
The Oldest Law
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Part 6
Otherwise known as The Part Helenatroy Read Before She Read Part 5  XD

I'm really enjoying these :D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: misea on September 14, 2015, 05:00:48 AM
LooNEY, your fics are wonderful :') Can't wait to read more!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on September 17, 2015, 03:25:10 AM
Took me long enough.

The Oldest Law
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Part 7
Spoiler: show
Descent to Tension’s Rise

The grosslings had shown her the truth, all those years ago. She had been born to kill, the greatest death-dealing machine ever envisioned, but her nature had lain dormant for her first five years of life. Then, at last, she had been unleashed, finally free to share her greatest gift with the world.

The fate of all life was death, and those that held sway over life were the dealers of death. Before the grosslings had slaughtered her village, and she, in turn, had almost casually slaughtered them in return, this truth had not been clear to her.

To deal out death was the ultimate power to which one could aspire, and she had embraced her death-dealing wholeheartedly. More recently, though, she had found it amusing to deal out that death more indirectly, as pushing those around her into killing each other was preposterously simple. Of course, sometimes, the more hands-on approach proved necessary.

It appeared that such would be the case fairly soon, as her current guests drew ever nearer to the center of her web. Not that she was worried: the two boys and the man would present her as little difficulty in that regard as the two unconscious Finns. No, the only semi-problematic one had been the first one taken out. The only real question was whether she’d even break a sweat in sending them to their destiny.

She thought not.

*

“I see you earned some good scars,” Sigrun said casually as they worked their way down a long and winding stairway. “I’ll bet there’s a really good story behind ‘em.”

“Not really.” The response was very very faintly amused. “Accident and incident brought them about, and no such great and heroic deeds as you imagine have ever been mine to do.”

“Even so,” she persisted, “you might find them for the taking, were you to go to the right place.” No romantic inclinations led her to speak thus, but the need for fighting men (and women) in Dalsnes. Last year’s Hunting season had been the worst in living memory, and the signs all pointed to worse to come.

“There is no right place for me, for I must eschew the company of others. Too long with them, and either I wish them dead or they wish me dead, or both, and so I abide on my own.”

Sigrun added this to the meager store of things ‘Eric’ had let slip and lapsed into silent contemplation.

*

Reynir had been studying hard since he got back to Iceland, and now seemed as good a time as any to see if that study had borne fruit at all. Mikkel had called a halt in a widening of the corridor, then gently placing the Finns in a position where he could examine them again. Reynir thought he could do something to help here, and told Mikkel so.

The doubtful tone of Mikkel’s assent would have discouraged anyone except Reynir, whose bubbly nature was reasserting itself despite his anger. Humming to himself, he rummaged in his little haversack until he found the special body pens. After carefully selecting just the right shade for each of them, he just as carefully drew a very specific galdrastafur on Tuuri’s forehead and a similar but just slightly different one on Lalli’s forehead.

Once the rite was complete, Reynir sat back and waited...


Spoiler:  Authorial Notes • show

We’re not far from the end now, folks, so I'm going to wrap it up before going on with the others.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Sunflower on September 17, 2015, 03:38:11 AM
Took me long enough.

The Oldest Law
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Part 6

Descent to Tension’s Rise


LooNEY.... don't you already have a part 6? 

Huh. I thought someone else would have posted before this.

The Oldest Law
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Part 6
Spoiler: show
Ain’t It Just Grand?

“Come to me, my dears,” a feminine voice cooed through the darkness.

*

Mikkel carried the unresponsive Tuuri and Lalli down the winding hallway, his concern growing as the minutes passed and they stayed unresponsive.

Tuuri and Lalli were conversing with the Swan of Tuonela. Mostly, it spoke of its home and how wonderful it was and how they should come with it “for a nice little visit”. The Swan waxed quite eloquent on the matter, especially the visiting part.

Lalli and Tuuri glanced at each other dubiously. The Swan sounded so reasonable, but something in the backs of their minds was telling them that something was off about this. About that time, Lalli noticed a dark figure in the shadows.

The Swan put forth its most persuasive spiel yet, and the two Finns could feel their hearts turning to Tuonela.

“NO!”

The dark figure interposed itself between them and the Swan, and they finally saw that it was Onni. “I am here to bring them back to the Living World.”

The Swan tried talking first, using the same patter that was almost working on Lalli and Tuuri, but Onni stubbornly stood there and repeated what he’d said earlier. Each time he did, Tuuri and Lalli drew closer to him.

“I am losing mypatience with you, human,” the Swan growled, twisting and swelling into a hideous form out of nightmare. “So run along now and let me lead these two into their new home.”

Fear and despair showed plainly on Onni’s face, and for a moment, his mouth worked without a sound. Then, he said, quaveringly, “No.”

”NO?!?!?!?”

The heavens trembled with the Swan’s roar, but Onni shook his head and repeated, more firmly now, “No. If you want them, you will have to get through me.”

The Swan wasted no further words, stabbing down with its horridly toothy beak furiously. His body ablaze with otherworldly energy, Onni ducked, dodged and blocked each blow, until the Swan kicked him with one wickedly clawed foot, knocking the human prone.

Onni remembered his parents, his grandparents, his village, his friends, and at the thought of Tuuri and Lalli joining their number while he watched helplessly, a Grief unlike any he’d ever known came over him, strengthening him instead of weakening, empowering him even as the Swan pinned him underfoot.

The Swan, perhaps sensing something was amiss, looked down at Onni, but his apprehension was too late. Without apparent effort, Onni pushed the Swan’s foot off of him, so hard that the Swan fell over. Even before the Swan was finished falling, Onni had stood and moved to where its head would land.

The Swan of Tuonela was a god, immortal, implacable, and inevitable, but now, it faced what it had never faced before. Gathered now in Onni was the whole and sum of all the Grief Humankind had ever felt, from the ancient pain of Lemmenkainen’s Mother to the raw agony of the newly bereft. So when the Swan flailed at the puny human form confronting it, the pain of Rash and pestilence across the ages knocked its vicious blows aside like so many feather-tickles. And when Onni struck back at it at last, the rage and loss of all those who had had to watch their loved ones die was in his blow, and even a god such as the Swan could not stand against that.

“All right, fine,” the Swan snarled, beating as hasty a retreat as it could manage, “take them. But I tell you, human, I shan’t be put off forever.”

“Shut up and leave, Swan,” a new voice said sharply. “Or do you need another beating to keep you quiet?” As the disgruntled Swan left, Puppy-Fox stepped into the light. “Hi, mortals! Oh, don’t look at me like that, Onni. I’m just here to give Lalli a memory, and a two-word message for Emil.”

*

Sigrun looked askance at her erstwhile rescuer. “You haven’t told me practically anything: who you are; why this is happening; why you snatched me from the others; where we are; where we’re going; or what your plans are!”

“All in good time, O Loquacious Sigrun,” the man said from deeper in the shadows. “All is not quite ready for us to reveal ourselves just yet.”

“But why split me from my team?”

“Again, the answers will become obvious in due course. As for my name, you can call me... Eric.”


Spoiler:  Authorial Notes • show

This part is also known as The Part I Wrote Before I Wrote Part 5.

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on September 17, 2015, 03:44:14 AM
LooNEY.... don't you already have a part 6? 

Egads. Fixed.

At least it was the right text.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: misea on September 17, 2015, 02:28:57 PM
Took me long enough.

The Oldest Law
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Part 7
Spoiler: show
Descent to Tension’s Rise

The grosslings had shown her the truth, all those years ago. She had been born to kill, the greatest death-dealing machine ever envisioned, but her nature had lain dormant for her first five years of life. Then, at last, she had been unleashed, finally free to share her greatest gift with the world.

The fate of all life was death, and those that held sway over life were the dealers of death. Before the grosslings had slaughtered her village, and she, in turn, had almost casually slaughtered them in return, this truth had not been clear to her.

To deal out death was the ultimate power to which one could aspire, and she had embraced her death-dealing wholeheartedly. More recently, though, she had found it amusing to deal out that death more indirectly, as pushing those around her into killing each other was preposterously simple. Of course, sometimes, the more hands-on approach proved necessary.

It appeared that such would be the case fairly soon, as her current guests drew ever nearer to the center of her web. Not that she was worried: the two boys and the man would present her as little difficulty in that regard as the two unconscious Finns. No, the only semi-problematic one had been the first one taken out. The only real question was whether she’d even break a sweat in sending them to their destiny.

She thought not.

*

“I see you earned some good scars,” Sigrun said casually as they worked their way down a long and winding stairway. “I’ll bet there’s a really good story behind ‘em.”

“Not really.” The response was very very faintly amused. “Accident and incident brought them about, and no such great and heroic deeds as you imagine have ever been mine to do.”

“Even so,” she persisted, “you might find them for the taking, were you to go to the right place.” No romantic inclinations led her to speak thus, but the need for fighting men (and women) in Dalsnes. Last year’s Hunting season had been the worst in living memory, and the signs all pointed to worse to come.

“There is no right place for me, for I must eschew the company of others. Too long with them, and either I wish them dead or they wish me dead, or both, and so I abide on my own.”

Sigrun added this to the meager store of things ‘Eric’ had let slip and lapsed into silent contemplation.

*

Reynir had been studying hard since he got back to Iceland, and now seemed as good a time as any to see if that study had borne fruit at all. Mikkel had called a halt in a widening of the corridor, then gently placing the Finns in a position where he could examine them again. Reynir thought he could do something to help here, and told Mikkel so.

The doubtful tone of Mikkel’s assent would have discouraged anyone except Reynir, whose bubbly nature was reasserting itself despite his anger. Humming to himself, he rummaged in his little haversack until he found the special body pens. After carefully selecting just the right shade for each of them, he just as carefully drew a very specific galdrastafur on Tuuri’s forehead and a similar but just slightly different one on Lalli’s forehead.

Once the rite was complete, Reynir sat back and waited...


Spoiler:  Authorial Notes • show

We’re not far from the end now, folks, so I'm going to wrap it up before going on with the others.


SO PUMPED FOR THE ENDING I'M DYING OF CURIOSITY
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on September 18, 2015, 12:04:24 AM
Not quite the end yet…
but close.

The Oldest Law
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Part 8
Spoiler: show
Or 5c, or maybe 9-1/2

“I’m terribly sorry, but I can’t let you do that.”

The voice came from the far end of the corridor, from a small, dignified-looking silver-haired woman. She was obviously in what Reynir’s mother would call “her golden years”, but certainly lean and fit, and Reynir could sense something off about her, like a set of notes jarringly off-key in a musical piece.

Mikkel had barely begun to turn towards her when she somersaulted down the corridor, crashing into him with enough force to knock him down and out. The suddenness of it caught Reynir by surprise, but Emil was already moving with the instant reactions needed of one who fights grosslings. She’d barely gained her feet when she had to duck the improvised club he’d made for himself, and then dodge his knife.

She looked at Emil a bit--just a tiny bit--more respectfully. “Well, Cleanser, you have some spunk in you,” she congratulated him as she dodged his next set of blows without apparent effort.

Then someone behind her bashed her over the head with another improvised club, and she fell to the floor.

*

Tuuri was being pecked at by vultures who spoke with human voices, but when she tried to bat their beaks away, her hands were grabbed by human hands. Reluctantly, she opened her eyes, and the first face she saw was Sigrun’s, looking at her with some concern.

Tuuri’s eyes widened and her face paled dramatically, but, good Finn survivor that she was, she held in the screams building in her, lest she bring the grosslings down upon them. Then Sigrun spoke, in calm and soothing tones, letting the frightened Tuuri know that yes, it was really Sigrun this time, and that everything was going to be fine, and the fear began to subside.

*

Eventually, after Mikkel had been roused and Tuuri calmed, Sigrun got around to the more social niceties, like introducing the man accompanying her, who had mostly remained quietly in the background. Emil thought there was something vaguely familiar about him, but this ‘Eric’ had a generic enough ‘Norse’-ness about him that Emil dismissed the sense of familiarity thus.

“Eric.” The single word was filled with venom.

Everyone turned to look at the previously barely conscious Lalli, who was now full on glaring at the figure Sigrun had called ‘Eric’. Lalli shifted his gaze to Emil for a moment and said, grinding each syllable out slowly, “Eric... Smed... Ivor... Vit.”

Emil frowned. “Wait. Why do those names sound so familiar?”

Lalli said something else, in Swedish no less, and the words he spoke were ones Emil had never expected to hear from him in any tongue. “Troll-bait.”

A sudden surge of memories washed over Emil: a horrible murder; the intense investigation; the secret tribunal; and finally the public summation and corporate flogging. He recoiled, as one does from an unexpected pile of filth. “Murderer! Traitor! What dark force saved you from your just fate?”

Sigrun looked confused. “What are you babbling about, Emil?”

Emil determinedly tamped the growing rage down so that he could speak coherently. “That lower-than-troll-gunk over there used to be a Cleanser, until he raped, tortured, mutilated and killed one of our own, a girl no older than I! For that, he was to be staked out as troll-bait, but he survived somehow, and I mean to rectify that!”

‘Eric’ calmly said, “No, you won’t.”


Spoiler:  Authorial Notes • show

Oh, look. It’s Eric (http://looney-dac.deviantart.com/art/Stand-Still-Stay-Silent-It-s-a-Wonderful-Team-5-534152088).

And in other news, it seems I’m not very numerate after midnight.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: misea on September 18, 2015, 01:41:57 AM
Not quite the end yet…
but close.

The Oldest Law
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Part 8
Spoiler: show
Or 5c, or maybe 9-1/2

“I’m terribly sorry, but I can’t let you do that.”

The voice came from the far end of the corridor, from a small, dignified-looking silver-haired woman. She was obviously in what Reynir’s mother would call “her golden years”, but certainly lean and fit, and Reynir could sense something off about her, like a set of notes jarringly off-key in a musical piece.

Mikkel had barely begun to turn towards her when she somersaulted down the corridor, crashing into him with enough force to knock him down and out. The suddenness of it caught Reynir by surprise, but Emil was already moving with the instant reactions needed of one who fights grosslings. She’d barely gained her feet when she had to duck the improvised club he’d made for himself, and then dodge his knife.

She looked at Emil a bit--just a tiny bit--more respectfully. “Well, Cleanser, you have some spunk in you,” she congratulated him as she dodged his next set of blows without apparent effort.

Then someone behind her bashed her over the head with another improvised club, and she fell to the floor.

*

Tuuri was being pecked at by vultures who spoke with human voices, but when she tried to bat their beaks away, her hands were grabbed by human hands. Reluctantly, she opened her eyes, and the first face she saw was Sigrun’s, looking at her with some concern.

Tuuri’s eyes widened and her face paled dramatically, but, good Finn survivor that she was, she held in the screams building in her, lest she bring the grosslings down upon them. Then Sigrun spoke, in calm and soothing tones, letting the frightened Tuuri know that yes, it was really Sigrun this time, and that everything was going to be fine, and the fear began to subside.

*

Eventually, after Mikkel had been roused and Tuuri calmed, Sigrun got around to the more social niceties, like introducing the man accompanying her, who had mostly remained quietly in the background. Emil thought there was something vaguely familiar about him, but this ‘Eric’ had a generic enough ‘Norse’-ness about him that Emil dismissed the sense of familiarity thus.

“Eric.” The single word was filled with venom.

Everyone turned to look at the previously barely conscious Lalli, who was now full on glaring at the figure Sigrun had called ‘Eric’. Lalli shifted his gaze to Emil for a moment and said, grinding each syllable out slowly, “Eric... Smed... Ivor... Vit.”

Emil frowned. “Wait. Why do those names sound so familiar?”

Lalli said something else, in Swedish no less, and the words he spoke were ones Emil had never expected to hear from him in any tongue. “Troll-bait.”

A sudden surge of memories washed over Emil: a horrible murder; the intense investigation; the secret tribunal; and finally the public summation and corporate flogging. He recoiled, as one does from an unexpected pile of filth. “Murderer! Traitor! What dark force saved you from your just fate?”

Sigrun looked confused. “What are you babbling about, Emil?”

Emil determinedly tamped the growing rage down so that he could speak coherently. “That lower-than-troll-gunk over there used to be a Cleanser, until he raped, tortured, mutilated and killed one of our own, a girl no older than I! For that, he was to be staked out as troll-bait, but he survived somehow, and I mean to rectify that!”

‘Eric’ calmly said, “No, you won’t.”


Spoiler:  Authorial Notes • show

Oh, look. It’s Eric (http://looney-dac.deviantart.com/art/Stand-Still-Stay-Silent-It-s-a-Wonderful-Team-5-534152088).

And in other news, it seems I’m not very numerate after midnight.


(https://36.media.tumblr.com/a4099ecc88446f5237236a3f288555cf/tumblr_inline_np25eidGTw1r2g2kx_540.png)
I have another fic to read now, hehehe :3 wAIT NO I NEED TO DO HOMEWORK T_T
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Russet on September 18, 2015, 01:42:26 AM
Oh my god LooNEY this is so intense eeeeeh! I don't know what to do with all this adrenaline :D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on September 18, 2015, 02:02:55 AM
This is getting really interesting! Did you have this planned out right back from your earlier story, or did it 'just grow'?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Sunflower on September 18, 2015, 01:48:58 PM
Not quite the end yet…
but close.

The Oldest Law
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Part 8
Spoiler: show
Or 5c, or maybe 9-1/2



Spoiler:  Authorial Notes • show

Oh, look. It’s Eric (http://looney-dac.deviantart.com/art/Stand-Still-Stay-Silent-It-s-a-Wonderful-Team-5-534152088).

And in other news, it seems I’m not very numerate after midnight.


I absolutely did not see that coming.  :o  Good job! 
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on September 18, 2015, 07:09:18 PM
The Oldest Law
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Part 9
Spoiler: show
Red ‘Eric’ and His Fate

“No, you won’t.”

‘Eric’ smiled nastily at Emil, his eyes bright with an insanity eerily reminiscent of the dead woman’s. “It takes more than you all have combined to kill me: the Cleansers staked me out, half-dead from the beating already, so that a giant could feast on me, and I survived it! They knew I was alive after it was long dead, but still they left me there, and so they all deserved to die! That’s why I’ve been killing them off, one by one, here on this island. Why else do you think I egged our dear girl into bringing you here, Emil, if not to get my revenge on you?”

Emil was so tremendously angry that he had trouble speaking for a moment. “All those good Cleansers you slew are dead only because you hunted them down as a Vätte would; are you man enough to face this Cleanser as he stands ready to fight you, or have you lived like a troll for so long that you’ve become one, a coward crouching in the dark until its prey has turned away from it?”

*

‘Eric’ lay dead on the floor, his face twisted into an expression of disbelief. From the center of his chest sprouted Emil’s knife, surrounded by a slowly spreading stain of scarlet.

Emil was sweaty and shivering, and had obviously lost his breakfast over in one corner, but he bore not a cut nor a scrape nor even a bruise from the fight. The look on his face spoke of scars within, though, so Lalli simply went over to his messy Swede friend and gave him a shoulder bump.

*

There was much to be said in favor of razing the path behind you: it forced you to forge ahead; it denied your enemies their former playgrounds, the chance to strike at you from behind, or the ability to backtrack you to your home; it heartened your friends and demoralized your enemies; and many other things. All told, Sigrun was confident that letting Emil burn this place to the ground would fall in the positive column, rather than the negative.

“I was going to let you go as thanks for ridding me of ‘Eric’, but I can’t countenance the burning of my home, so you have to die.”

Razing the path behind you was also a good way to draw your enemies out of cover, whether you intended to or not. The crazy woman had seemed to go down a bit too easily for Sigrun to be comfortable about it, but she hadn’t wanted to risk checking to see if the nut was playing possum until now.

Emil had heard tales handed down from his forebears about things from the Old Times called “action movies” starring demigods like Jackie Chan, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Jet Li, Wesley Snipes, and many others that featured fights that moved so fiercely and swiftly as to be beyond human capabilities. The fight he now witnessed would have put any of them to shame, he was quite certain. He and Lalli were standing well back and watching carefully, just in case, though Emil doubted his own ability to succeed if Sigrun failed.

Sigrun’s shall we say capability at fighting had obviously surprised the crazy old woman; whether that surprise and Sigrun’s advantages of youth and stamina  would be decisive remained to be seen, as the two seemed quite evenly matched otherwise. Each woman was obviously fully versed in how their bodies could best be used to strike or to evade a blow, and each woman was as quick as the other to take advantage of any perceived slip of their opponent’s. Consequently, the fight swiftly transformed into a fast paced and energetic dance of sorts.

Flesh and blood can only keep going for so long, and eventually, the crazy old oman’s endurance gave out enough for her to be fatally slow to dodge one of Sigrun’s blows, and from there, the vicious cycle of more pain/less speed/more hits taken/more pain etc brought the fight to an inevitable end. Trembling with near-exhaustion herself, Sigrun stood proudly over the corpse of her vanquished foe.

*

After they dealt with the crazy old woman, everything just seemed to fall into place. They found their way back to the surface fairly easily; a boat was waiting for them at the quay; and no other surprises jumped out at them on their way to Björköfjärden.

Once at Björköfjärden, they each went their separate ways again: with goodbyes effusive and taciturn, long and short; with promises of correspondence and visits; with laughter, tears and sad smiles; and with a few particularly poignant echoes of their first encounters, now distant enough to seem a lifetime ago.

Emil, Tuuri and Lalli were the last to depart. Trying to keep a manful composure, Emil stuck out his hand to Lalli, only to be surprised when his Finn friend nearly knocked him over in a Tuuri-esque hug, Tuuri joining them after a moment.

Then the boarding call for the ship to Finland sounded, and the Hotakainens hurried away. Emil sighed sadly and began the long walk to his train. Duty called.


Spoiler:  Authorial Notes • show

And there’s an end.

WHAT I KNEW AND WHEN I KNEW IT

At the beginning, I knew it would echo "And Then There Were None" in part, but that there would be 2 opposed villains.

I knew the minor villain would be 'Eric' before I wrote Part 3, when he grabbed Sigrun.

I knew the waiting for the reveal was getting to me when I was writing Part 6 and had to skip to Part 8 to write the reveal.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: misea on September 18, 2015, 07:22:47 PM
The Oldest Law
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Part 9
Spoiler: show
Red ‘Eric’ and His Fate

“No, you won’t.”

‘Eric’ smiled nastily at Emil, his eyes bright with an insanity eerily reminiscent of the dead woman’s. “It takes more than you all have combined to kill me: the Cleansers staked me out, half-dead from the beating already, so that a giant could feast on me, and I survived it! They knew I was alive after it was long dead, but still they left me there, and so they all deserved to die! That’s why I’ve been killing them off, one by one, here on this island. Why else do you think I egged our dear girl into bringing you here, Emil, if not to get my revenge on you?”

Emil was so tremendously angry that he had trouble speaking for a moment. “All those good Cleansers you slew are dead only because you hunted them down as a Vätte would; are you man enough to face this Cleanser as he stands ready to fight you, or have you lived like a troll for so long that you’ve become one, a coward crouching in the dark until its prey has turned away from it?”

*

‘Eric’ lay dead on the floor, his face twisted into an expression of disbelief. From the center of his chest sprouted Emil’s knife, surrounded by a slowly spreading stain of scarlet.

Emil was sweaty and shivering, and had obviously lost his breakfast over in one corner, but he bore not a cut nor a scrape nor even a bruise from the fight. The look on his face spoke of scars within, though, so Lalli simply went over to his messy Swede friend and gave him a shoulder bump.

*

There was much to be said in favor of razing the path behind you: it forced you to forge ahead; it denied your enemies their former playgrounds, the chance to strike at you from behind, or the ability to backtrack you to your home; it heartened your friends and demoralized your enemies; and many other things. All told, Sigrun was confident that letting Emil burn this place to the ground would fall in the positive column, rather than the negative.

“I was going to let you go as thanks for ridding me of ‘Eric’, but I can’t countenance the burning of my home, so you have to die.”

Razing the path behind you was also a good way to draw your enemies out of cover, whether you intended to or not. The crazy woman had seemed to go down a bit too easily for Sigrun to be comfortable about it, but she hadn’t wanted to risk checking to see if the nut was playing possum until now.

Emil had heard tales handed down from his forebears about things from the Old Times called “action movies” starring demigods like Jackie Chan, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Jet Li, Wesley Snipes, and many others that featured fights that moved so fiercely and swiftly as to be beyond human capabilities. The fight he now witnessed would have put any of them to shame, he was quite certain. He and Lalli were standing well back and watching carefully, just in case, though Emil doubted his own ability to succeed if Sigrun failed.

Sigrun’s shall we say capability at fighting had obviously surprised the crazy old woman; whether that surprise and Sigrun’s advantages of youth and stamina  would be decisive remained to be seen, as the two seemed quite evenly matched otherwise. Each woman was obviously fully versed in how their bodies could best be used to strike or to evade a blow, and each woman was as quick as the other to take advantage of any perceived slip of their opponent’s. Consequently, the fight swiftly transformed into a fast paced and energetic dance of sorts.

Flesh and blood can only keep going for so long, and eventually, the crazy old oman’s endurance gave out enough for her to be fatally slow to dodge one of Sigrun’s blows, and from there, the vicious cycle of more pain/less speed/more hits taken/more pain etc brought the fight to an inevitable end. Trembling with near-exhaustion herself, Sigrun stood proudly over the corpse of her vanquished foe.

*

After they dealt with the crazy old woman, everything just seemed to fall into place. They found their way back to the surface fairly easily; a boat was waiting for them at the quay; and no other surprises jumped out at them on their way to Björköfjärden.

Once at Björköfjärden, they each went their separate ways again: with goodbyes effusive and taciturn, long and short; with promises of correspondence and visits; with laughter, tears and sad smiles; and with a few particularly poignant echoes of their first encounters, now distant enough to seem a lifetime ago.

Emil, Tuuri and Lalli were the last to depart. Trying to keep a manful composure, Emil stuck out his hand to Lalli, only to be surprised when his Finn friend nearly knocked him over in a Tuuri-esque hug, Tuuri joining them after a moment.

Then the boarding call for the ship to Finland sounded, and the Hotakainens hurried away. Emil sighed sadly and began the long walk to his train. Duty called.


Spoiler:  Authorial Notes • show

And there’s an end.

WHAT I KNEW AND WHEN I KNEW IT

At the beginning, I knew it would echo "And Then There Were None" in part, but that there would be 2 opposed villains.

I knew the minor villain would be 'Eric' before I wrote Part 3, when he grabbed Sigrun.

I knew the waiting for the reveal was getting to me when I was writing Part 6 and had to skip to Part 8 to write the reveal.


O______O
*slow claps* SO INTENSE
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on September 18, 2015, 07:46:10 PM
The Oldest Law
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Part 9
Spoiler: show
Red ‘Eric’ and His Fate




*Joins the applause*
Intense indeed!
I admire the way you show the essence of each story - although if you ever wanted to write out more detailed versions, I'd read those too, probably several times. Per week.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: misea on September 18, 2015, 07:52:03 PM
If you ever wanted to write out more detailed versions, I'd read those too, probably several times. Per week.

I would too XD
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Russet on September 18, 2015, 10:05:11 PM
The Oldest Law
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Part 9
Spoiler: show
Red ‘Eric’ and His Fate

Spoiler:  Authorial Notes • show

And there’s an end.

WHAT I KNEW AND WHEN I KNEW IT

At the beginning, I knew it would echo "And Then There Were None" in part, but that there would be 2 opposed villains.

I knew the minor villain would be 'Eric' before I wrote Part 3, when he grabbed Sigrun.

I knew the waiting for the reveal was getting to me when I was writing Part 6 and had to skip to Part 8 to write the reveal.

I don't think the noise I'm making can count as anything but "!!!!!!!!!"
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on September 19, 2015, 02:32:50 AM
LooNEY: oh, well done and very well done. The bit I didn't follow: WHO was the crazy old lady, and why? Or does that come into later tales?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on September 19, 2015, 03:05:19 AM
LooNEY: oh, well done and very well done. The bit I didn't follow: WHO was the crazy old lady, and why? Or does that come into later tales?
More or less: plot contrivance. She's a random psychopathic serial killer with a really good hiding place of the sort that heroes of this kind of story run into at a statistically improbable rate ("Psycho in haunted house? Gee, I didn't know it was Thursday already"). When 'Eric', a psychopathic serial killer, started looking for a good hiding place, he found hers. He then manipulated her into helping him with his hit list, including Emil, and thus our story.

I considered having her be a Gollum-esque survivor from Year Zero, but I thought it would strain credulity.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solovei on September 22, 2015, 12:49:49 PM
Hey everyone! Remember how a while ago I wrote a story where Emil works in a coffeeshop and Lalli comes in to order cookies?

WELL it now has the second chapter (http://archiveofourown.org/works/4401371/chapters/11117759) that everyone was asking for! There will probably also be a third at some point. Maybe fourth. But definitely third.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: misea on September 22, 2015, 01:44:45 PM
Hey everyone! Remember how a while ago I wrote a story where Emil works in a coffeeshop and Lalli comes in to order cookies?

WELL it now has the second chapter (http://archiveofourown.org/works/4401371/chapters/11117759) that everyone was asking for! There will probably also be a third at some point. Maybe fourth. But definitely third.

I love this so much. Emil so would go through that terrible manuscript, poor guy XD Can't wait for the next chapter!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: KauniitaUnia on September 22, 2015, 04:20:20 PM
Hey everyone! Remember how a while ago I wrote a story where Emil works in a coffeeshop and Lalli comes in to order cookies?

WELL it now has the second chapter (http://archiveofourown.org/works/4401371/chapters/11117759) that everyone was asking for! There will probably also be a third at some point. Maybe fourth. But definitely third.

Yay! I had been looking forward to the next chapter of this fic :P
coffee shop aus are a weakness of mine

(https://40.media.tumblr.com/5cf779fae720ba06a685d755741ae916/tumblr_inline_nlheyv4Uhh1r2g2kx_500.png)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solovei on September 22, 2015, 11:47:24 PM
I love this so much. Emil so would go through that terrible manuscript, poor guy XD Can't wait for the next chapter!

Yay! I had been looking forward to the next chapter of this fic :P
coffee shop aus are a weakness of mine

(https://40.media.tumblr.com/5cf779fae720ba06a685d755741ae916/tumblr_inline_nlheyv4Uhh1r2g2kx_500.png)

Awww thank you both for the kind words <3
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: misea on September 23, 2015, 01:01:54 AM
coffee shop aus are a weakness of mine

I HEARTILY AGREE
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OrigamiOwl on September 23, 2015, 06:29:31 PM
Hey everyone! Remember how a while ago I wrote a story where Emil works in a coffeeshop and Lalli comes in to order cookies?

WELL it now has the second chapter (http://archiveofourown.org/works/4401371/chapters/11117759) that everyone was asking for! There will probably also be a third at some point. Maybe fourth. But definitely third.
!!!!!!!!!!!!
SOLO I'm dead, I died. I also dropped my phone on my face but it was fine.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Yuuago on September 24, 2015, 12:04:52 AM
I'm just going to leave these here.

#1: "Routines". 1.2k words. Characters: Emil & Lalli.
Summary: They have their routines. They've become set in them. Sometimes, they make new ones. AKA "that thing with hairbrushing, fluff, and language barriers".
Relationship is friendship/ambiguous.
On Ao3: http://archiveofourown.org/works/4681715
Backup at my archive: http://roesslyng.dreamwidth.org/52400.html

#2: "Break Down, Build Up". 500-word drabble sequence. Various prologue characters: Stig & Ulrika, Aino & Kaino, Aksel and his grandmother, Signe & Michael, Árni.
Summary: The world's gone, but as time turns, they hang on. Snapshots of the lives of the prologue characters during Year 0 and beyond. 
Relationships: the canon marriages, also Signe/Michael.
On Ao3: http://archiveofourown.org/works/4861910
Backup at my archive: http://roesslyng.dreamwidth.org/53634.html
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: misea on September 24, 2015, 12:11:54 AM
I'm just going to leave these here.

#1: "Routines". 1.2k words. Characters: Emil & Lalli.
Summary: They have their routines. They've become set in them. Sometimes, they make new ones. AKA "that thing with hairbrushing, fluff, and language barriers".
Relationship is friendship/ambiguous.
On Ao3: http://archiveofourown.org/works/4681715
Backup at my archive: http://roesslyng.dreamwidth.org/52400.html

I READ THIS A WHILE AGO AND DANG ARE THEY CUTE. AMBIGUOUS RELATIONSHIPS \o/
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solovei on September 24, 2015, 12:14:42 AM
!!!!!!!!!!!!
SOLO I'm dead, I died. I also dropped my phone on my face but it was fine.
*waits for tiny owl ghost to show up*

I'M GLAD! But also my fanfics seem to have quite a high mortality rate? everyone always dies after reading them XD
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Yuuago on September 24, 2015, 12:38:55 AM
I READ THIS A WHILE AGO AND DANG ARE THEY CUTE. AMBIGUOUS RELATIONSHIPS \o/

I'm so glad you enjoyed it! And I know, right? It's one of my favourite kind of relations to write, so much fun. *_*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on September 24, 2015, 09:06:31 AM
You might be able to tell from this story that I’ve not been in a cheery mood recently :D
Tuuri may or may not have caught the Illness, and on what could be her last night on earth, one other character from the comic stays with her – although I all but guarantee it’s not the person any of you might expect.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4863479

I hope you like it!


#2: "Break Down, Build Up". 500-word drabble sequence. Various prologue characters: Stig & Ulrika, Aino & Kaino, Aksel and his grandmother, Signe & Michael, Árni.
Summary: The world's gone, but as time turns, they hang on. Snapshots of the lives of the prologue characters during Year 0 and beyond. 
On Ao3: http://archiveofourown.org/works/4861910
I really enjoyed these! Short and sweet, and I'd say they punched well above their weight. Good stuff!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Mélusine on September 24, 2015, 09:35:28 AM
You might be able to tell from this story that I’ve not been in a cheery mood recently :D
Tuuri may or may not have caught the Illness, and on what could be her last night on earth, one other character from the comic stays with her – although I all but guarantee it’s not the person any of you might expect.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4863479

I hope you like it!

I really enjoyed these! Short and sweet, and I'd say they punched well above their weight. Good stuff!
*Cries T_T*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on September 24, 2015, 09:56:20 AM
*Cries T_T*

I'm using a small, low-res monitor at the moment and I thought for a second you'd accidentally just quoted my post! :D
Hope that means it was alright...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Mélusine on September 24, 2015, 10:13:10 AM
I'm using a small, low-res monitor at the moment and I thought for a second you'd accidentally just quoted my post! :D
Hope that means it was alright...
T_T *Still crying, takes SectoBoss arm, forces him to sit in front of his computer again, point it and only says : WRITE !*
I know I told you before but you're really doing it well, you have a talent for writing as some others here have one for drawing. Thank for sharing what you create with us <3 If I cried while reading, it's simply because you... errr... can take the reader with you, or mostly with your characters, inside the story. That's something precious. Maybe it's also because I'm easily in empathy, but anyway, if I react like that it means it's a success for the person who did the novel/book/movie/..., it had been done good enough to make me feels. So, yeah, it's a strange thing to write, but congratulations, you made me cry :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on September 24, 2015, 10:37:19 AM
T_T *Still crying, takes SectoBoss arm, forces him to sit in front of his computer again, point it and only says : WRITE !*
I know I told you before but you're really doing it well, you have a talent for writing as some others here have one for drawing. Thank for sharing what you create with us <3 If I cried while reading, it's simply because you... errr... can take the reader with you, or mostly with your characters, inside the story. That's something precious. Maybe it's also because I'm easily in empathy, but anyway, if I react like that it means it's a success for the person who did the novel/book/movie/..., it had been done good enough to make me feels. So, yeah, it's a strange thing to write, but congratulations, you made me cry :)

Wow... thanks! I really cheers me up to hear people like the stuff I write, especially on a forum as art-heavy as this one ;D
Better get started on/finish those three other fanfics I've been sitting on for way too long now...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Mélusine on September 24, 2015, 11:20:04 AM
Better get started on/finish those three other fanfics I've been sitting on for way too long now...
Yes please ! :D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: misea on September 24, 2015, 01:10:03 PM
You might be able to tell from this story that I’ve not been in a cheery mood recently :D
Tuuri may or may not have caught the Illness, and on what could be her last night on earth, one other character from the comic stays with her – although I all but guarantee it’s not the person any of you might expect.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4863479

I hope you like it!

Actually crying right now T_T *curls up in blankets*
IT'S SO GOOD THOUGH
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Yuuago on September 24, 2015, 10:04:48 PM
You might be able to tell from this story that I’ve not been in a cheery mood recently :D
Tuuri may or may not have caught the Illness, and on what could be her last night on earth, one other character from the comic stays with her – although I all but guarantee it’s not the person any of you might expect.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4863479

I hope you like it!

"Liked it" indeed... but I've already mentioned that elsewhere. : D And I'm rather glad that I decided to read it now, after seeing it here, instead of waiting until I'm finished reading the rest of the archive like I'd planned to do (I'm still picking my way through the old stuff; it's taking a while....) I see you mentioned that you have other stories on the go; I'm definitely looking forward to reading those.

And re: what you said about my writing, I'm so, so glad to hear that.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on September 25, 2015, 12:45:34 AM
Solovei, SectoBoss, Yuuago: These are all great! The quality of work in the Scriptorium was always good, and it continues to become even better. I'm really looking forward to reading more from all of you. Thank you!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Laufey on September 25, 2015, 02:35:08 AM
You might be able to tell from this story that I’ve not been in a cheery mood recently :D
Tuuri may or may not have caught the Illness, and on what could be her last night on earth, one other character from the comic stays with her – although I all but guarantee it’s not the person any of you might expect.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4863479

This turned out amazing. I was really looking forward to reading this one and it was just... everything I like and the more things I like, I love how you handled the theme! The ending was also brilliant, and how this fic tied several other fics of yours into it so neatly... I've been reading it since yesterday and I think I'll go start today by one more reading.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Mélusine on September 25, 2015, 05:26:25 AM
With your post on the Celebration thread yesterday I realized I had missed what you had put here.

#1: "Routines". 1.2k words. Characters: Emil & Lalli.
Summary: They have their routines. They've become set in them. Sometimes, they make new ones. AKA "that thing with hairbrushing, fluff, and language barriers".
Relationship is friendship/ambiguous.
On Ao3: http://archiveofourown.org/works/4681715
Backup at my archive: http://roesslyng.dreamwidth.org/52400.html
There is something very quiet, very peaceful and sweet in this one :) I see friendship, I assume some other persons would see something else, but it's... how to explain... as if the novel had a sweet light. And I like to see the barrier language by Lalli's eyes, voices saying... things, and some words here or there, some gesture.

#2: "Break Down, Build Up". 500-word drabble sequence. Various prologue characters: Stig & Ulrika, Aino & Kaino, Aksel and his grandmother, Signe & Michael, Árni.
Summary: The world's gone, but as time turns, they hang on. Snapshots of the lives of the prologue characters during Year 0 and beyond. 
Relationships: the canon marriages, also Signe/Michael.
On Ao3: http://archiveofourown.org/works/4861910
Backup at my archive: http://roesslyng.dreamwidth.org/53634.html
I'm... someway I fell less connexions between me and the prologue characters but it's the kind of things you read and want to have more. That's not nice from you, giving us so small parts but not more ! :D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on September 25, 2015, 08:27:29 AM
misea, Yuuago, Róisín and Laufey... thank you all! Your kind words mean a great deal to me :)

Oh, and special thanks to Laufey who, a while ago, gave me pointers on some of the mythology that underpinned the ideas behind that fic (specifically, the ideas behind one person taking another's sickness). While it ended up very much 'in the background' compared to how I'd originally envisioned it, it was a great help, so thanks again!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: KauniitaUnia on September 25, 2015, 04:04:42 PM
You might be able to tell from this story that I’ve not been in a cheery mood recently :D
Tuuri may or may not have caught the Illness, and on what could be her last night on earth, one other character from the comic stays with her – although I all but guarantee it’s not the person any of you might expect.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4863479

I hope you like it!

I really loved reading this, it was so well written - that plot twist though OOOOOOOH
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: AquaAurion on September 25, 2015, 04:46:06 PM
Hey everyone! Remember how a while ago I wrote a story where Emil works in a coffeeshop and Lalli comes in to order cookies?

WELL it now has the second chapter (http://archiveofourown.org/works/4401371/chapters/11117759) that everyone was asking for! There will probably also be a third at some point. Maybe fourth. But definitely third.
Oh yes, that's exactly how I wanted the Trond & Emil interaction to go >D
Kufufu, yes Emil, make sure to invite Tuuri to the wedding!


I'm just going to leave these here.

#1: "Routines". 1.2k words. Characters: Emil & Lalli.
Summary: They have their routines. They've become set in them. Sometimes, they make new ones. AKA "that thing with hairbrushing, fluff, and language barriers".
Relationship is friendship/ambiguous.
On Ao3: http://archiveofourown.org/works/4681715
Backup at my archive: http://roesslyng.dreamwidth.org/52400.html
l
This is really sweet and I kind of feel relaxed just by reading it? :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on September 26, 2015, 12:28:15 AM
So, SectoBoss kindly said I could do this. I hope it holds up.

Waiting
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Spoiler: show

No one slept that first night after it happened; the Incident had left everyone too on-edge for that. Yet none of them spoke, either; a Silence lay upon the company so thickly that it could be felt, even by the oblivious Lalli and the super-optimistic Reynir.

Usually, they would spend the night in speculation of what might be found on the next day’s run, or discussing what they’d already found, or (increasingly as they probed deeper into the Old City) the obstacles in their path. This night, however, all of them kept silent through the long, long hours of darkness.

Perhaps part of it was that, for the first time in a long time, the garrulous Reynir was absent from the vehicle. At Sigrun’s insistence, a quarantine had been established on him, rather than Tuuri, so that she could continue her duties more or less unhindered, and so the redhead and Mikkel, and that silly kitten, had set up a small tent abutting the vehicle on its doorless side. Again, their absence might have been part of why the vehicle was silent all through that night.

That, however, wouldn’t explain why the tent was quiet, as well, Reynir and Mikkel each pretending to sleep so the other wouldn’t worry.

*

No one slept the night before Judgement Day; but, again, none of the company conversed with each other.

Tuuri had shut herself into the vehicle’s cabin before dinner, and wound up spending all night in there, by herself; the others minded her obvious desire for privacy, and stayed away until morning.

Lalli was out scouting, as it was all he could do; he ran and ran and ran through the night as though compelled, unable to slow himself though his legs nearly gave beneath him, unable to stop or even to pace himself; unable to escape the knowledge of what tomorrow might bring.

Emil was trying not to think about Tuuri, and failing. Even thoughts of fire-burn-BURN couldn’t hold his mind away from the harsh reality that tomorrow might well see her end. He wondered if Mikkel would do it, or Sigrun, or even Lalli, as her kinsman. Then, the thought that he’d fought against all night popped back to the surface: would he have to? Could he, even, if he had to? He’d set the dog free, but that had been so different as to be incomparable. It had been just another beast-dog; Tuuri was his friend and comrade.

Sigrun and Mikkel spent all night outside, staring at the fire neither had put out after dinner. Neither spoke, nor exchanged looks; they merely sat, side by side, each with an arm around the other. Each ignored the tears streaming down their faces, or the occasional sob that worked its way out. They simply sat there, through the whole night.

Reynir was in the dream-world; but he was not asleep. Instead, he was frantically searching for the Two Who Ruled, the source of his embryonic and fledgling powers, Odin and Freya. He had to find them. He had to let them know how important, how intelligent, how kind Tuuri was, and what a blow her loss would be, not just to the team, but to the world. He had to let them know... that they should take him instead. But he couldn’t find them, no matter how he searched and searched as the night wore on.

*

Mikkel waited until almost mid-day to make his final examination, but not because he needed to give the Rash any more time to reveal itself. For the first time in a long, long time, Mikkel Madsen was having trouble gathering his professional detachment.

The examination was hideously thorough, Mikkel going over every inch of Tuuri so horribly slowly that it began to seem that the two of them had been like this forever, doctor and patient, and that they would remain like this forever. The itch on the back of her neck tortured her even as he moved to that part--and paused.

Tuuri didn’t breathe for what seemed an eternity, spots beginning to flicker in her sight before Mikkel said something in his soft, deep voice that she couldn’t understand. He repeated himself, and for a moment, she thought she was simply hearing what she wanted him to say instead of what he actually said, but eventually it sank in.

“You can get dressed again, Tuuri. You’re clear.”

*

The other four were standing outside the exam area, motionless with the tension, as Mikkel emerged. His thumbs-up--for some reason, it seemed he couldn’t make himself speak--broke the spell.

Reynir fainted, the kitten in his pocket mewing quietly in confusion.

Sigrun sniffed, as if to say “I told you so”, and turned away, trying to busy herself by field-stripping and cleaning her weapon for the twenty-seventh time that day.

Emil jumped to his feet and grabbed first Lalli, and then Mikkel, and then Sigrun in surprisingly strong hugs.

Lalli suffered Emil’s hug and then slipped into the vehicle to finally get some sleep.

When Tuuri finally emerged, Emil grabbed her in yet another hug, unashamedly weeping this time, and then Sigrun joined in, and Mikkel, and a Reynir only partly recovered from his faint, and then even Lalli emerged and joined the sodden mass, as Emil’s tears had sparked Tuuri’s and Reynir’s, and even the dour medic and their crazy captain had allowed themselves a few sniffles.

*

The first thing Sigrun told Tuuri after they’d all extricated themselves and pretended to go about their business was, “Put your mask on, Tuuri.”


Spoiler:  Authorial Notes • show

By permission, echoing off of SectoBoss’ magnificent ”Kastrup Calling” (http://archiveofourown.org/works/4863479).

It was going to be longer, but it came out shorter. Oh, well.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on September 26, 2015, 12:46:40 AM
Oh! Wow! You two bounce off each other so well. Yay, excellent. And the characters react and interact so much as themselves. Well done both!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on September 26, 2015, 02:49:44 AM
LooNEY, it's the perfect length. ;)
You and SectoBoss make wonderfully consistent tales; the characters seem just like themselves (hope you know what I mean).
I admire all the fanfic authors here; it happens that you two are a couple of my favorites.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Mélusine on September 26, 2015, 03:45:27 AM
So, SectoBoss kindly said I could do this. I hope it holds up.

Waiting
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Spoiler: show

No one slept that first night after it happened; the Incident had left everyone too on-edge for that. Yet none of them spoke, either; a Silence lay upon the company so thickly that it could be felt, even by the oblivious Lalli and the super-optimistic Reynir.

Usually, they would spend the night in speculation of what might be found on the next day’s run, or discussing what they’d already found, or (increasingly as they probed deeper into the Old City) the obstacles in their path. This night, however, all of them kept silent through the long, long hours of darkness.

Perhaps part of it was that, for the first time in a long time, the garrulous Reynir was absent from the vehicle. At Sigrun’s insistence, a quarantine had been established on him, rather than Tuuri, so that she could continue her duties more or less unhindered, and so the redhead and Mikkel, and that silly kitten, had set up a small tent abutting the vehicle on its doorless side. Again, their absence might have been part of why the vehicle was silent all through that night.

That, however, wouldn’t explain why the tent was quiet, as well, Reynir and Mikkel each pretending to sleep so the other wouldn’t worry.

*

No one slept the night before Judgement Day; but, again, none of the company conversed with each other.

Tuuri had shut herself into the vehicle’s cabin before dinner, and wound up spending all night in there, by herself; the others minded her obvious desire for privacy, and stayed away until morning.

Lalli was out scouting, as it was all he could do; he ran and ran and ran through the night as though compelled, unable to slow himself though his legs nearly gave beneath him, unable to stop or even to pace himself; unable to escape the knowledge of what tomorrow might bring.

Emil was trying not to think about Tuuri, and failing. Even thoughts of fire-burn-BURN couldn’t hold his mind away from the harsh reality that tomorrow might well see her end. He wondered if Mikkel would do it, or Sigrun, or even Lalli, as her kinsman. Then, the thought that he’d fought against all night popped back to the surface: would he have to? Could he, even, if he had to? He’d set the dog free, but that had been so different as to be incomparable. It had been just another beast-dog; Tuuri was his friend and comrade.

Sigrun and Mikkel spent all night outside, staring at the fire neither had put out after dinner. Neither spoke, nor exchanged looks; they merely sat, side by side, each with an arm around the other. Each ignored the tears streaming down their faces, or the occasional sob that worked its way out. They simply sat there, through the whole night.

Reynir was in the dream-world; but he was not asleep. Instead, he was frantically searching for the Two Who Ruled, the source of his embryonic and fledgling powers, Odin and Freya. He had to find them. He had to let them know how important, how intelligent, how kind Tuuri was, and what a blow her loss would be, not just to the team, but to the world. He had to let them know... that they should take him instead. But he couldn’t find them, no matter how he searched and searched as the night wore on.

*

Mikkel waited until almost mid-day to make his final examination, but not because he needed to give the Rash any more time to reveal itself. For the first time in a long, long time, Mikkel Madsen was having trouble gathering his professional detachment.

The examination was hideously thorough, Mikkel going over every inch of Tuuri so horribly slowly that it began to seem that the two of them had been like this forever, doctor and patient, and that they would remain like this forever. The itch on the back of her neck tortured her even as he moved to that part--and paused.

Tuuri didn’t breathe for what seemed an eternity, spots beginning to flicker in her sight before Mikkel said something in his soft, deep voice that she couldn’t understand. He repeated himself, and for a moment, she thought she was simply hearing what she wanted him to say instead of what he actually said, but eventually it sank in.

“You can get dressed again, Tuuri. You’re clear.”

*

The other four were standing outside the exam area, motionless with the tension, as Mikkel emerged. His thumbs-up--for some reason, it seemed he couldn’t make himself speak--broke the spell.

Reynir fainted, the kitten in his pocket mewing quietly in confusion.

Sigrun sniffed, as if to say “I told you so”, and turned away, trying to busy herself by field-stripping and cleaning her weapon for the twenty-seventh time that day.

Emil jumped to his feet and grabbed first Lalli, and then Mikkel, and then Sigrun in surprisingly strong hugs.

Lalli suffered Emil’s hug and then slipped into the vehicle to finally get some sleep.

When Tuuri finally emerged, Emil grabbed her in yet another hug, unashamedly weeping this time, and then Sigrun joined in, and Mikkel, and a Reynir only partly recovered from his faint, and then even Lalli emerged and joined the sodden mass, as Emil’s tears had sparked Tuuri’s and Reynir’s, and even the dour medic and their crazy captain had allowed themselves a few sniffles.

*

The first thing Sigrun told Tuuri after they’d all extricated themselves and pretended to go about their business was, “Put your mask on, Tuuri.”


Spoiler:  Authorial Notes • show

By permission, echoing off of SectoBoss’ magnificent ”Kastrup Calling” (http://archiveofourown.org/works/4863479).

It was going to be longer, but it came out shorter. Oh, well.
:) Thank for the other vision.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: microFerret on September 26, 2015, 12:13:03 PM
You might be able to tell from this story that I’ve not been in a cheery mood recently :D
Tuuri may or may not have caught the Illness, and on what could be her last night on earth, one other character from the comic stays with her – although I all but guarantee it’s not the person any of you might expect.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4863479

Wow. Amazing. All of your fics are incredible, and I think this is my all time favorite. I only wish I could write like this.

So, SectoBoss kindly said I could do this. I hope it holds up.

Waiting
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Spoiler: show

No one slept that first night after it happened; the Incident had left everyone too on-edge for that. Yet none of them spoke, either; a Silence lay upon the company so thickly that it could be felt, even by the oblivious Lalli and the super-optimistic Reynir.

Usually, they would spend the night in speculation of what might be found on the next day’s run, or discussing what they’d already found, or (increasingly as they probed deeper into the Old City) the obstacles in their path. This night, however, all of them kept silent through the long, long hours of darkness.

Perhaps part of it was that, for the first time in a long time, the garrulous Reynir was absent from the vehicle. At Sigrun’s insistence, a quarantine had been established on him, rather than Tuuri, so that she could continue her duties more or less unhindered, and so the redhead and Mikkel, and that silly kitten, had set up a small tent abutting the vehicle on its doorless side. Again, their absence might have been part of why the vehicle was silent all through that night.

That, however, wouldn’t explain why the tent was quiet, as well, Reynir and Mikkel each pretending to sleep so the other wouldn’t worry.

*

No one slept the night before Judgement Day; but, again, none of the company conversed with each other.

Tuuri had shut herself into the vehicle’s cabin before dinner, and wound up spending all night in there, by herself; the others minded her obvious desire for privacy, and stayed away until morning.

Lalli was out scouting, as it was all he could do; he ran and ran and ran through the night as though compelled, unable to slow himself though his legs nearly gave beneath him, unable to stop or even to pace himself; unable to escape the knowledge of what tomorrow might bring.

Emil was trying not to think about Tuuri, and failing. Even thoughts of fire-burn-BURN couldn’t hold his mind away from the harsh reality that tomorrow might well see her end. He wondered if Mikkel would do it, or Sigrun, or even Lalli, as her kinsman. Then, the thought that he’d fought against all night popped back to the surface: would he have to? Could he, even, if he had to? He’d set the dog free, but that had been so different as to be incomparable. It had been just another beast-dog; Tuuri was his friend and comrade.

Sigrun and Mikkel spent all night outside, staring at the fire neither had put out after dinner. Neither spoke, nor exchanged looks; they merely sat, side by side, each with an arm around the other. Each ignored the tears streaming down their faces, or the occasional sob that worked its way out. They simply sat there, through the whole night.

Reynir was in the dream-world; but he was not asleep. Instead, he was frantically searching for the Two Who Ruled, the source of his embryonic and fledgling powers, Odin and Freya. He had to find them. He had to let them know how important, how intelligent, how kind Tuuri was, and what a blow her loss would be, not just to the team, but to the world. He had to let them know... that they should take him instead. But he couldn’t find them, no matter how he searched and searched as the night wore on.

*

Mikkel waited until almost mid-day to make his final examination, but not because he needed to give the Rash any more time to reveal itself. For the first time in a long, long time, Mikkel Madsen was having trouble gathering his professional detachment.

The examination was hideously thorough, Mikkel going over every inch of Tuuri so horribly slowly that it began to seem that the two of them had been like this forever, doctor and patient, and that they would remain like this forever. The itch on the back of her neck tortured her even as he moved to that part--and paused.

Tuuri didn’t breathe for what seemed an eternity, spots beginning to flicker in her sight before Mikkel said something in his soft, deep voice that she couldn’t understand. He repeated himself, and for a moment, she thought she was simply hearing what she wanted him to say instead of what he actually said, but eventually it sank in.

“You can get dressed again, Tuuri. You’re clear.”

*

The other four were standing outside the exam area, motionless with the tension, as Mikkel emerged. His thumbs-up--for some reason, it seemed he couldn’t make himself speak--broke the spell.

Reynir fainted, the kitten in his pocket mewing quietly in confusion.

Sigrun sniffed, as if to say “I told you so”, and turned away, trying to busy herself by field-stripping and cleaning her weapon for the twenty-seventh time that day.

Emil jumped to his feet and grabbed first Lalli, and then Mikkel, and then Sigrun in surprisingly strong hugs.

Lalli suffered Emil’s hug and then slipped into the vehicle to finally get some sleep.

When Tuuri finally emerged, Emil grabbed her in yet another hug, unashamedly weeping this time, and then Sigrun joined in, and Mikkel, and a Reynir only partly recovered from his faint, and then even Lalli emerged and joined the sodden mass, as Emil’s tears had sparked Tuuri’s and Reynir’s, and even the dour medic and their crazy captain had allowed themselves a few sniffles.

*

The first thing Sigrun told Tuuri after they’d all extricated themselves and pretended to go about their business was, “Put your mask on, Tuuri.”


Spoiler:  Authorial Notes • show

By permission, echoing off of SectoBoss’ magnificent ”Kastrup Calling” (http://archiveofourown.org/works/4863479).

It was going to be longer, but it came out shorter. Oh, well.


And such an amazing follow-up. You two work so well together, I need more collaborations like this. Mea verba non describere possunt quanta haec sunt.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on September 26, 2015, 01:33:25 PM
So, SectoBoss kindly said I could do this. I hope it holds up.

Waiting
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
LooNEY, that was everything I had hoped it would be and more. You really captured the crew's different reactions superbly - Reynir going off on a hunt for Odin himself to plead Tuuri's case is something that I'd never have thought of but seems so much like something he'd do! Great job!

Wow. Amazing. All of your fics are incredible, and I think this is my all time favorite. I only wish I could write like this.
Thank you! (And hey, maybe you can - give it a go, why not?)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on September 26, 2015, 02:24:48 PM
#@$^#%^%@$ local wi-fi eating posts…

Gratitude Post, Take 3 (Grrrrrr)

LooNEY, that was everything I had hoped it would be and more. You really captured the crew's different reactions superbly - Reynir going off on a hunt for Odin himself to plead Tuuri's case is something that I'd never have thought of but seems so much like something he'd do! Great job!

/me faints with relief

…Oh, it seems I forgot to post this earlier, so I'm posting it now.

The Complete Links to
The Oldest Law
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Spoiler: show

Part 1 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg59788#msg59788)
Part 2 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg60237#msg60237)
Part 3 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg60811#msg60811)
Part 4 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg64196#msg64196)
Part 5 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg65802#msg65802)
Part 6 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg65914#msg65914)
Part 7 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg66592#msg66592)
Part 8 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg66799#msg66799)
Part 9 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg66985#msg66985)


Spoiler:  Authorial Notes • show

So, this isn’t really a crossover so much as an “in-the-style-of” work.

I stole a whole bunch from quite a few places, but some deserve note:

Eric’s ‘they deserved to die’ speech is adapted from a similar speech from Charade, which has been described as “the best Hitchcock film Hitchcock didn’t make”.

Onni vs the Swan actually came from “The Fisherman’s Song” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iC1ZY8SC4ew), in a very roundabout way. The first idea was for a Greek dude to storm Olympus in response to his wife being lost at sea, with Nemesis silently empowering him to take down Zeus and Poseidon. Then this story came about, and I thought it would work as Onni vs the Swan.

I was trying for a ‘Phantom of the Opera’ vibe with Eric, but couldn’t really develop it.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: microFerret on September 26, 2015, 07:27:38 PM
Thank you! (And hey, maybe you can - give it a go, why not?)
Thanks! I already started a fic, centered on the journey of a young Dane who discovers he is a healthy carrier of the Rash and is forced to flee for the Silent World. If you want to check it out, here are the first four chapters. Hope you enjoy it!

Chapter 1
https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg64481#msg64481 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg64481#msg64481)

Chapter 2
https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg65012#msg65012 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg65012#msg65012)

Chapter 3
https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg65552#msg65552 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg65552#msg65552)

Spoiler:  Carriers, Chapter 4 • show

4.
Wil dreamt of the sea-beast from earlier that night and its enormous, broken eye. The beast steadily advanced, gaining ground even while the boat lurched away at top speed. He shot it, stabbed it, threw canned food at it, but nothing seemed to deter the hulking monster. Eventually, it leapt out of the water, mouth open, poised for the kill... and Wil's eyes shot open, and the scene was replaced by the floor of the boat and the cramped niche under the controls where Wil had curled up to sleep for the night. He calmed himself, then crawled to the bow of the boat. Seeing no immediate danger, he grabbed his supplies and climbed out of the boat.
He decided to head inland to try to find someplace to resupply. As he trekked past block after block of boarded up derelict houses, he wondered how many thousands of people had once lived in just this one little area. None of the buildings were more than two or three stories, but there were so many of them. Possibly more houses than were in all of Bornholm. All of them had once been full of people. And all of them were now full of trolls.
This excited Wil with a sort of morbid curiosity. He had seen drawings of trolls before, of course, but he had never seen one with his own eyes. The first glimpse he got was a singular eye sizing him up from a darkened window. As soon as he looked back at it, the troll ducked out of sight. Wil knew better than to follow it into the derelict house. Instead, he kept walking and paid the vaette little notice besides a quick backwards glance.
Up ahead, the buildings increased in size. These were the buildings he was looking for! And all were so helpfully labelled. Hardware. Food. Clothes. He sized up the food market. Canned food lasts forever, right? He hoped so, or he wouldn't be alive for much longer. It looked fairly intact. None of the walls were destroyed, and the windows were boarded up so trolls couldn't have gotten in. He pried the boards off one of the doors with his knife. All clear.
He climbed in through the gap and looked around. The place was decrepit, and most of the shelves were empty or covered in vaguely food-shaped mold. However, he kept looking. He walked past ten, fifteen aisles before he found anything vaguely edible. The labels were long-since worn away, and the metal had turned dark underneath, but there they were. Thousands of unopened cans. He laughed, though he could barely even hear himself. He chose one, and pried the lid away to reveal his mystery meal... a look of disappointment crossed his face. Pea soup? Really? He weighed it against the alternative, and decided that pea soup was worth eating if he was starving. Barely. Nevertheless, he grabbed as many cans as he could carry and deposited them in his bag.
He was about to leave, but a sound caught his attention. A troll? He was told that trolls could talk just like humans, but there was no thought behind their voices. They were just words, repeated forever by a scared, diseased brain. He moved closer. Sobbing? He followed the noise towards a door by the rear of the room.
Did he dare? There would probably be a troll behind the door, and he was not sure he was prepared to face it. But he would be back here for supplies, and killing the troll now would at least mean less danger in the future. At least it seemed he had the element of surprise on his side. He carefully dismantled the rusted metal knob piece by piece until he could see through the hole. The room was small, and the troll filled most of his view. It had its back towards the door, and was crouching over something on the floor, making noises like a crying human. Its form was squat, but massive. An enormous, flattened head crested an equally enormous mottled pink torso wearing the remnants of a uniform. The back legs were short and bent, and seemed to be connected to the floor by tendrils of flesh in some places. He stood back from the hole, and shrugged his bag and rifle from his shoulders. He clipped a magazine into the rifle, and then rested the barrel in the hole he had made. It scraped against the bottom of the hole, and the sobbing stopped. The troll had heard him. For a moment, everything was silent. Then, the room rang with the sound of the shots. His fear caused him to instinctively fire again and again until each pull of the trigger was greeted only by a click. He drew his knife and waited. Silence. He opened the door, and his revulsion showed on his face. He felt awful. The troll's oversized head was pierced by four shots, and the viscera had sprayed the far wall. But that was not the worst part. The troll had been sobbing over two skeletons, one large, one small, neatly tucked into decaying beds. Tiny cairns stood at the foot of each bed. A family, he supposed. They must have boarded up the store and tried to wait out the rash.
The troll's sobbing was replaced by Wil's. He had never believed in the Old Gods that the Icelandic mages swore to, but nevertheless he hoped the dead troll was reunited with its family in some afterlife. If not, at least he had put it out of its misery. He wished he could promise never to kill another troll, but he knew that wasn't practical. The universe had made them enemies, but he would still do what he could to pay his respects. He gathered a few cans of food and built a third cairn beside the troll. He collected himself and left the building to find a place to camp.
"I hope you're happier now," he said, looking back.
"I am," the whisper responded.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: misea on September 27, 2015, 08:41:53 PM
Thanks! I already started a fic, centered on the journey of a young Dane who discovers he is a healthy carrier of the Rash and is forced to flee for the Silent World. If you want to check it out, here are the first four chapters. Hope you enjoy it!

Chapter 1
https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg64481#msg64481 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg64481#msg64481)

Chapter 2
https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg65012#msg65012 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg65012#msg65012)

Chapter 3
https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg65552#msg65552 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg65552#msg65552)

Spoiler:  Carriers, Chapter 4 • show

4.
Wil dreamt of the sea-beast from earlier that night and its enormous, broken eye. The beast steadily advanced, gaining ground even while the boat lurched away at top speed. He shot it, stabbed it, threw canned food at it, but nothing seemed to deter the hulking monster. Eventually, it leapt out of the water, mouth open, poised for the kill... and Wil's eyes shot open, and the scene was replaced by the floor of the boat and the cramped niche under the controls where Wil had curled up to sleep for the night. He calmed himself, then crawled to the bow of the boat. Seeing no immediate danger, he grabbed his supplies and climbed out of the boat.
He decided to head inland to try to find someplace to resupply. As he trekked past block after block of boarded up derelict houses, he wondered how many thousands of people had once lived in just this one little area. None of the buildings were more than two or three stories, but there were so many of them. Possibly more houses than were in all of Bornholm. All of them had once been full of people. And all of them were now full of trolls.
This excited Wil with a sort of morbid curiosity. He had seen drawings of trolls before, of course, but he had never seen one with his own eyes. The first glimpse he got was a singular eye sizing him up from a darkened window. As soon as he looked back at it, the troll ducked out of sight. Wil knew better than to follow it into the derelict house. Instead, he kept walking and paid the vaette little notice besides a quick backwards glance.
Up ahead, the buildings increased in size. These were the buildings he was looking for! And all were so helpfully labelled. Hardware. Food. Clothes. He sized up the food market. Canned food lasts forever, right? He hoped so, or he wouldn't be alive for much longer. It looked fairly intact. None of the walls were destroyed, and the windows were boarded up so trolls couldn't have gotten in. He pried the boards off one of the doors with his knife. All clear.
He climbed in through the gap and looked around. The place was decrepit, and most of the shelves were empty or covered in vaguely food-shaped mold. However, he kept looking. He walked past ten, fifteen aisles before he found anything vaguely edible. The labels were long-since worn away, and the metal had turned dark underneath, but there they were. Thousands of unopened cans. He laughed, though he could barely even hear himself. He chose one, and pried the lid away to reveal his mystery meal... a look of disappointment crossed his face. Pea soup? Really? He weighed it against the alternative, and decided that pea soup was worth eating if he was starving. Barely. Nevertheless, he grabbed as many cans as he could carry and deposited them in his bag.
He was about to leave, but a sound caught his attention. A troll? He was told that trolls could talk just like humans, but there was no thought behind their voices. They were just words, repeated forever by a scared, diseased brain. He moved closer. Sobbing? He followed the noise towards a door by the rear of the room.
Did he dare? There would probably be a troll behind the door, and he was not sure he was prepared to face it. But he would be back here for supplies, and killing the troll now would at least mean less danger in the future. At least it seemed he had the element of surprise on his side. He carefully dismantled the rusted metal knob piece by piece until he could see through the hole. The room was small, and the troll filled most of his view. It had its back towards the door, and was crouching over something on the floor, making noises like a crying human. Its form was squat, but massive. An enormous, flattened head crested an equally enormous mottled pink torso wearing the remnants of a uniform. The back legs were short and bent, and seemed to be connected to the floor by tendrils of flesh in some places. He stood back from the hole, and shrugged his bag and rifle from his shoulders. He clipped a magazine into the rifle, and then rested the barrel in the hole he had made. It scraped against the bottom of the hole, and the sobbing stopped. The troll had heard him. For a moment, everything was silent. Then, the room rang with the sound of the shots. His fear caused him to instinctively fire again and again until each pull of the trigger was greeted only by a click. He drew his knife and waited. Silence. He opened the door, and his revulsion showed on his face. He felt awful. The troll's oversized head was pierced by four shots, and the viscera had sprayed the far wall. But that was not the worst part. The troll had been sobbing over two skeletons, one large, one small, neatly tucked into decaying beds. Tiny cairns stood at the foot of each bed. A family, he supposed. They must have boarded up the store and tried to wait out the rash.
The troll's sobbing was replaced by Wil's. He had never believed in the Old Gods that the Icelandic mages swore to, but nevertheless he hoped the dead troll was reunited with its family in some afterlife. If not, at least he had put it out of its misery. He wished he could promise never to kill another troll, but he knew that wasn't practical. The universe had made them enemies, but he would still do what he could to pay his respects. He gathered a few cans of food and built a third cairn beside the troll. He collected himself and left the building to find a place to camp.
"I hope you're happier now," he said, looking back.
"I am," the whisper responded.


I didn't have time to read this before, but now I have and hOLY MOLY I WISH I READ THIS EARLIER
MY CURIOSITY IS PIQUED
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: microFerret on September 27, 2015, 11:15:04 PM
I didn't have time to read this before, but now I have and hOLY MOLY I WISH I READ THIS EARLIER
MY CURIOSITY IS PIQUED
Thanks a ton! I really appreciate it. Hope you continue to enjoy it!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on September 28, 2015, 03:48:30 PM
Thanks! I already started a fic, centered on the journey of a young Dane who discovers he is a healthy carrier of the Rash and is forced to flee for the Silent World. If you want to check it out, here are the first four chapters. Hope you enjoy it!
Those are some interesting ideas you've got on the boil there, and yikes, the last part of chapter 4 was very sad (but the good kind of sad!)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on October 01, 2015, 08:43:22 AM
Just another one-shot.

Turning Back the Bäckahästen
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Spoiler: show

{{New Section}}
Sigrun and Mikkel looked at Lalli’s sleeping form in concern.

“He has some kind of fever that I’ve never seen before. None of my anti-febrile medications have worked on it, and it seems to be getting worse.”

“Have you told Tuuri yet?”

“No; I set her and Reynir to working on the books again. She wouldn’t have believed it was serious; it hasn’t been but a few hours since he got back.”

“Well, what about--” Sigrun gestured at Emil, lying comatose in his own bunk.

“He was here when I tried to treat Lalli, and got so worked up that I had to sedate him.”

*

Emil slowly became aware that he was being watched. Usually, he would go on full alert, as it meant that a Vätte was stalking him, but in this dream, Emil was surprisingly calm. When he turned to see what was watching him, he saw a young and obviously uninfected fox staring back at him.

“So you’re Emil, huh?” That the fox spoke still didn’t alarm Emil; this was commonplace enough for dreams.

“I am. And who might you be, O Vociferous Fox?”

The fox turned its head away coyly. “Oh, I’m just a friend of Lalli’s, which is why I’m here. He’s in Trouble.”

Less than a blink later, Emil had the fox pinned against the tree, his arm resting on its neck. The questions flew from him thick and fast. “Where is he? What kind of trouble is he in? How do I get him out of it?”

The fox gargled out, “I... could... answer... better... if... you... weren’t... choking... me.”

Emil considered this, not without suspicion. After a few tense heartbeats, he relaxed his arm, but only just.

“OK, so Lalli was tricked by a bog-spirit that you’d call a näck into becoming one of them. The näck told Lalli that if he didn’t, the rest of you would be killed horribly. It was very... persuasive.”

“How do I get Lalli back?” Emil growled when the fox trailed off.

“Well, he won’t be a näck fully until he sings his first song while playing his special kantele, but if someone steals a näck’s kantele, the näck can’t just take it back, so...”

*

{{New Section Ends}}

The näck slipped through the swamps with fiendish ease, exulting in the power coursing through it: the heartbeat of the fens. A sweet song was stirring in its heart, and, like all songs, it needed to be aired, so the näck sped toward its hidden kantele. The instrument it sought was gone, however, puzzling the näck no end, until it heard a slow chord fill the air.

Another chord strummed through the glade, and this time the näck saw its origin. Resting calmly against the mossy trunk of an old, old tree was Emil, the kantele in his lap, his fingers idly drawing along the strings in an unusually pleasant manner.

Of course it was Emil. Tuuri cared; Sigrun dared; Mikkel did beware; Reynir had good hair; but the fool Swede was the only one of the team that had already flung himself into danger for Lalli’s sake, and always would.

“How did you find me?” The speech was jarringly guttural against the music in its soul. When Emil just kept sitting there, unconcerned, anger suddenly filled the half-familiar voice. Had all the suffering and sacrifice been for nothing, after all? “You fool Swede! Are you truly too stupid or stubborn to realize that I left to protect you all?”

All the sound and fury näck-Lalli could dredge up left Emil unmoved. “Yes,” he said calmly. “Yes, I am too stupid or too stubborn, or both, to abandon my friend when he needs me the most. Yes, I am too stupid or too stubborn, or both, to let my friend push me away in that same hour. Yes, I am too stupid or too stubborn, or both, to let my friend thus be eaten while I still draw breath. And no, I’m not leaving.”

“I’ll lure you into the bog!” Lalli-näck threatened. It/he knew the threat was an empty one, and it/he suspected Emil knew it, too.

“I can swim.” Emil’s voice was still as calm as though he were ordering lunch.

“I’ll scream at it first!” This time, even a stranger could have heard the reluctance in his/its voice.

“I have some iron to toss in it, then.” Emil watched the play of emotions across Lalli’s face and plowed forward. “How I found you doesn’t matter. I’m here, and I’m not leaving without you--the real you, Lalli Hotakainen, the human.”

The sound of his name hurt, like ripping the scab from an unhealed wound. The power ebbed from him as the swamp reclaimed its own, pulling its essence out from the warp of his body and soul, leaving him a mere human again, panting heavily as he leaned against the nearest tree.

Emil leapt to his feet. “Don’t you dare let yourself die on me, Lalli! Don’t you dare!” For the first time, real animation colored his voice.

*

Lalli opened his eyes. The familiar walls of the Felinopede surrounded his comfy little nest. There was no hint of a swamp in sight or sound or even smell..

Emil was looking at him worriedly from his bunk, Tuuri standing beside him as he babbled his Swedish nonsense. Finally, his cousin turned to him and asked, “Lalli, have you been dream-walking again? Emil keeps going on and on about how he just had a nightmare where he had to save you from becoming what he calls a näck--you know, a näkki.” Oh, boy. “Tell me what’s been going on!”

Lalli sighed. “It’s a long and foolish story, Tuuri...”


Spoiler:  Authorial Notes • show

So, this is a possible ending to Seilann’s (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=35.msg69698#msg69698) little prompt from viewing the Lalli-näkki pictures, since I was (frankly) more excited about that part than the rest of it. Anyone else who wants to put their take out there (SectoBoss...) obviously still can.
EDIT: added a teeny bit more context.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Seilann on October 01, 2015, 12:34:20 PM
LooNEY, I love it! It has a very mythical feel and great tension.

I also started one but it's taking a very different turn... And looking to be pretty long.

Would love to see SectoBoss's take, as well!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: misea on October 01, 2015, 01:18:46 PM
Just another one-shot.

Turning Back the Bäckahästen
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Spoiler: show

The näck slipped through the swamps with fiendish ease, exulting in the power coursing through it: the heartbeat of the fens. A sweet song was stirring in its heart, and, like all songs, it needed to be aired, so the näck sped toward its hidden kantele. The instrument it sought was gone, however, puzzling the näck no end, until it heard a slow chord fill the air.

Another chord strummed through the glade, and this time the näck saw its origin. Resting calmly against the mossy trunk of an old, old tree was Emil, the kantele in his lap, his fingers idly drawing along the strings in an unusually pleasant manner.

Of course it was Emil. Tuuri cared; Sigrun dared; Mikkel did beware; Reynir had good hair; but the fool Swede was the only one of the team that had already flung himself into danger for Lalli’s sake, and always would.

“How did you find me?” The speech was jarringly guttural against the music in its soul. When Emil just kept sitting there, unconcerned, anger suddenly filled the half-familiar voice. Had all the suffering and sacrifice been for nothing, after all? “You fool Swede! Are you truly too stupid or stubborn to realize that I left to protect you all?”

All the sound and fury näck-Lalli could dredge up left Emil unmoved. “Yes,” he said calmly. “Yes, I am too stupid or too stubborn, or both, to abandon my friend when he needs me the most. Yes, I am too stupid or too stubborn, or both, to let my friend push me away in that same hour. Yes, I am too stupid or too stubborn, or both, to let my friend thus be eaten while I still draw breath. And no, I’m not leaving.”

“I’ll lure you into the bog!” Lalli-näck threatened. It/he knew the threat was an empty one, and it/he suspected Emil knew it, too.

“I can swim.” Emil’s voice was still as calm as though he were ordering lunch.

“I’ll scream at it first!” This time, even a stranger could have heard the reluctance in his/its voice.

“I have some iron to toss in it, then.” Emil watched the play of emotions across Lalli’s face and plowed forward. “How I found you doesn’t matter. I’m here, and I’m not leaving without you--the real you, Lalli Hotakainen, the human.”

The sound of his name hurt, like ripping the scab from an unhealed wound. The power ebbed from him as the swamp reclaimed its own, pulling its essence out from the warp of his body and soul, leaving him a mere human again, panting heavily as he leaned against the nearest tree.

Emil leapt to his feet. “Don’t you dare let yourself die on me, Lalli! Don’t you dare!” For the first time, real animation colored his voice.

*

Lalli opened his eyes. The familiar walls of the Felinopede surrounded his comfy little nest. There was no hint of a swamp in sight or sound or even smell..

Emil was looking at him worriedly from his bunk, Tuuri standing beside him as he babbled his Swedish nonsense. Finally, his cousin turned to him and asked, “Lalli, have you been dream-walking again? Emil keeps going on and on about how he just had a nightmare where he had to save you from becoming what he calls a näck--you know, a näkki.” Oh, boy. “Tell me what’s been going on!”

Lalli sighed. “It’s a long and foolish story, Tuuri...”


Spoiler:  Authorial Notes • show

So, this is a possible ending to Seilann’s (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=35.msg69698#msg69698) little prompt from viewing the Lalli-näkki pictures, since I was (frankly) more excited about that part than the rest of it. Anyone else who wants to put their take out there (SectoBoss...) obviously still can.


SCREECHING thank you for this wonderful fic this week was bleh but this made my day
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on October 01, 2015, 02:51:01 PM
Good! I do like the little touch of the iron. Very traditional.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: microFerret on October 01, 2015, 07:25:22 PM
Great fic Looney! Really liked the tone, and I thought it was a nice compliment to the recent nakkidraws. I don't know what else to say besides keep up the good work!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on October 02, 2015, 12:34:28 PM
This went through a couple of redesigns – it was originally going to be set in a medieval world where the rash had replaced the bubonic plague! – but this worked better and I thought I’d better get it done with before the näkki-Lalli craze got forgotten. Anyway, here’s my take on things. And thanks again to Laufey for helping with the mythology behind it!
Fair warning: the näkki catches its victims through seduction of some sort, so it’s a bit more shippy than the stuff I usually write.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4917124

And the look of näkki-Lalli was inspired predominantly by Rabbit’s art over on the Art Museum (with a bit of shoop’s work thrown in too!):
(http://40.media.tumblr.com/0f3b0a16b2ae1ae1c71509e2fa1bdc73/tumblr_nvguoq0yUl1u81vmdo1_r1_1280.png)
(http://40.media.tumblr.com/d9fdc01ba72f696bfd8ae0d37d130f6a/tumblr_nvifseL56n1uhyeo2o1_1280.png)

LooNEY_DAC, I thoroughly enjoyed your spin on things!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Seilann on October 02, 2015, 07:10:25 PM
This went through a couple of redesigns – it was originally going to be set in a medieval world where the rash had replaced the bubonic plague! – but this worked better and I thought I’d better get it done with before the näkki-Lalli craze got forgotten. Anyway, here’s my take on things. And thanks again to Laufey for helping with the mythology behind it!
Fair warning: the näkki catches its victims through seduction of some sort, so it’s a bit more shippy than the stuff I usually write.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4917124

Already commented on AO3, but I really enjoyed this. :) It's really fun to see how one idea can inspire so many interesting variations.

This week I had to deal with three part-time jobs, surly students, and a sinus infection, so of course the first thing I did upon getting home was write fan fiction. Here's part one of my spin on Näkki-Lalli.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4918981/chapters/11285788
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on October 03, 2015, 02:07:39 AM
SectoBoss, Seilann: two brilliant and chilling stories. 'Food for a week, biomass for a month'! Shudders. I would bet both of these tales evoke some really scary fanart. Well done both!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: shoop on October 03, 2015, 09:15:28 AM
I commented on ao3 but: I love all three of these fics and I love all three of you. I threatened to cry in the art thread if any you wrote fic but I am honestly just giddy still? maybe I will cry when the reality hits?? Either way the different ways y'all took the au are all different and so interesting! And so good!!!!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on October 03, 2015, 10:46:13 AM
Thanks to Seilann, Róisín and shoop for your kind words!
(Have just gone back over that fic and found an embarrasing number of spelling errors, I really need to get a beta-reader sorted out one of these days...)

I would bet both of these tales evoke some really scary fanart.
We can only hope...  ;)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: KauniitaUnia on October 03, 2015, 10:54:44 AM
This went through a couple of redesigns – it was originally going to be set in a medieval world where the rash had replaced the bubonic plague! – but this worked better and I thought I’d better get it done with before the näkki-Lalli craze got forgotten. Anyway, here’s my take on things. And thanks again to Laufey for helping with the mythology behind it!
Fair warning: the näkki catches its victims through seduction of some sort, so it’s a bit more shippy than the stuff I usually write.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4917124

perfectly chilling... but also heartwarming, in a way. I loved reading this!

This week I had to deal with three part-time jobs, surly students, and a sinus infection, so of course the first thing I did upon getting home was write fan fiction. Here's part one of my spin on Näkki-Lalli.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4918981/chapters/11285788

this was a really interesting interpretation. The emotion and suspense were amazing!

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on October 03, 2015, 03:22:26 PM
This week I had to deal with three part-time jobs, surly students, and a sinus infection, so of course the first thing I did upon getting home was write fan fiction. Here's part one of my spin on Näkki-Lalli.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4918981/chapters/11285788
This went through a couple of redesigns – it was originally going to be set in a medieval world where the rash had replaced the bubonic plague! – but this worked better and I thought I’d better get it done with before the näkki-Lalli craze got forgotten. Anyway, here’s my take on things. And thanks again to Laufey for helping with the mythology behind it!
Fair warning: the näkki catches its victims through seduction of some sort, so it’s a bit more shippy than the stuff I usually write.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4917124
It's really fun to see how one idea can inspire so many interesting variations.
The both of your takes are obviously well-written, but what really interests me is how both of yours center on a "new strain" of Rash that hits immune individuals, while mine was the old 'rescued from the deal with the devil' idea (thus "a long and foolish story").
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on October 03, 2015, 04:49:49 PM
The both of your takes are obviously well-written, but what really interests me is how both of yours center on a "new strain" of Rash that hits immune individuals, while mine was the old 'rescued from the deal with the devil' idea (thus "a long and foolish story").

I've noticed that's a recurring theme with my stuff - I suggested something similar when I floated the idea of the kraken, and a lot of my stuff that deals with the infected tends to focus more on their biological aspects. I guess this is what you get when you surround yourself with science your whole life...
That said, my idea for how Lalli became infected, while poorly communicated in my story, was not actually a mutant strain. I envisaged a troll in the dreamworld (perhaps even another näkki) getting its claws on him and sort of 'downloading' the rash into his soul, thereby circumventing the biological immunity he posesses.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on October 03, 2015, 09:41:52 PM
Seilann: I do admire your dedication, continuing to write through sinusitis, weariness and the dreaded students. Worthy of the persistence of a Lalli! Well done!

Sectoboss: I had supposed you meant something of the sort, since in our world's folklore one of the traditional ways to be taken by Näkki or equivalents was to sleep near water where one of them lived (if you could call it living). We don't yet know much about the overlap between the geography of the solid world and the dreamworld. Maybe an infected näkki took up residence in the real-world equivalent of Lalli's raft pool, dragged him under when he was sleeping there and gradually took him over? Then one night he went scouting and didn't come back.....

I may have mentioned before that one of my ideas for what makes the maahinen or vatte is that it is what happens when the earth-things get infected with the Rash? I've actually used the concept in the rest of that long fanfic of mine, if I ever manage to get the rest of the #<<£%%||! Thing to post. I imagine that they suffer as humans do, with some immune, most dying, a few turning into troll equivalents.

By the way, Australia also has the folklore of 'river-girls', with the same concepts of a beautiful singing thing that lived in the water, had long drowning waterweed hair, and drew young men down, drowned and ate them. Ours usually come in packs rather than being solitary, however, said to be groups of sisters or kin of one tribe. Main difference is that they are beautiful all over, and remain so out of the water. If a hero (and it needs to be a hero, these things are heavy-duty) manages to subdue and tame one he gets to keep her, marry her, have children, and she stays loyal as long as she is not let back into the water for too long, and is kept away from her sisters.

Sort of like the lake-fey of Wales and Brittany, or the seal-women of the Isles and Ireland. Or, for that matter, Tom Bombadil's River-Daughter in Tolkien.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Seilann on October 03, 2015, 11:49:25 PM
I envisaged a troll in the dreamworld (perhaps even another näkki) getting its claws on him and sort of 'downloading' the rash into his soul, thereby circumventing the biological immunity he posesses.

Cool idea! It certainly works with the canon. I don't even have a solid origin for the näkki-rash -- Lalli will probably never find out where he got it, other than in the dreamworld. (Spirit world? Both? Is there an official name for it yet?)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on October 04, 2015, 06:26:53 AM
I may have mentioned before that one of my ideas for what makes the maahinen or vatte is that it is what happens when the earth-things get infected with the Rash? I've actually used the concept in the rest of that long fanfic of mine, if I ever manage to get the rest of the #<<£%%||! Thing to post. I imagine that they suffer as humans do, with some immune, most dying, a few turning into troll equivalents.
I hope you do get it posted, I'm looking forward to it!

I don't even have a solid origin for the näkki-rash -- Lalli will probably never find out where he got it, other than in the dreamworld. (Spirit world? Both? Is there an official name for it yet?)
I don't think we have an official term for it just yet, at least not one provided within the comic. Everyone seems to be calling it the dreamworld, though.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Adriano on October 04, 2015, 04:52:27 PM
First part of my fanfic : SSSS The Great Wash

It is setted 14 years after the events reported in SSSS and concern a raid of Norwegian Hunters, Cleansers and Finnish Mages in South Sweden.
Spoiler: show
Year 104, late summer, Cleansing and Hunting Campaign in South Sweden

Emil Västerström, 33, was in the heat of the battle when he suddenly heard one of his Cleanser calling him:  “Emil! Come! COME!!! It’s Sigrun! She… She’s… Oh, come, Emil!”
And so did Emil, and when he reached the place where Sigrun Eide, his wife, was lying, he cried. She had a hole in the chest, her legs were ripped apart, and she seemed unconscious.

« A Giant attacked her and Lalli’s group. I saw Lalli, he did nothing, he was just staring at the Giant, and the Giant didn’t attacked him, it attacked Sigrun ! » Emil looked at Lalli. He wasn’t wounded at all. Emil felt anger rising in his heart. “You killed her ! You were supposed to look after her, to protect her, I DID TRUST YOU ! But you just KILLED HER !”

Now Emil was shouting and crying, and then, as Sigrun died in his arms, he turned over Lalli, who was a bit away standing still, watching silently Sigrun and Emil, and he laughed hysterically. “I’ll kill you, ahah, I will KILL YOU !!!” Emil took his knife out and jumped on Lalli, attempting to kill him. But a bunch of finnish mages, Lalli’s pack, catched Lalli and put him away of Emil, empending him to reach Lalli. Lalli ran away, as Cleansers were returning against the mages. General chaos happened, where Cleansers and Finnish Mages were fighting at each other’s, where Emil was crying on Sigrun’s dead body, where Lalli was fleeing from the battlefield, where Norwegians Hunters were trying to stop the melee, where Mikkel was smiling, because he found the last piece of the puzzle about Mages and Trolls link…
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: misea on October 04, 2015, 05:35:16 PM
Seilann, Sectoboss, your fics are wonderful ;u;

*knows it's futile but checks AO3 for more of Seilann's näkki!Lalli fic*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: microFerret on October 04, 2015, 05:40:17 PM
And... I'm sorry about the enormous wall of text. It was this or a double post. I apologize.

At long last! I've managed finally to POST the second half of 'A Few Of Mikkel's Secrets' to Archive Of Our Own. I put the first bit up over a month ago, and have had the second part ready for a couple of weeks, but haven't been able to get the Cursed Machineries to cooperate in putting it up. However a technically skilled person/Noble Rescuer was here this evening and managed to beat the Machineries into submission. So it's up! I'm 'Tanist' over there, since their system won't recognise my usual name. There might eventually be more of the story; the last few paragraphs will tell you why. But not at present - real life is wildly busy just now!

Here is the link to Chapter two
http://archiveofourown.org/works/3856330/chapters/9019474

Here is Chapter one, for those who haven't read it
http://archiveofourown.org/works/3856330/chapters/8611471
First of all, I know it's like super old news at this point, but I just read this and wanted to say it is amazing! I'm a big fan of  Mikkel, and I think this just adds so much to his character and that of Alma without really drifting too far from canon. I read the third part as well, and wanted to ask if a fourth part was coming up...?

This went through a couple of redesigns – it was originally going to be set in a medieval world where the rash had replaced the bubonic plague! – but this worked better and I thought I’d better get it done with before the näkki-Lalli craze got forgotten. Anyway, here’s my take on things. And thanks again to Laufey for helping with the mythology behind it!
Fair warning: the näkki catches its victims through seduction of some sort, so it’s a bit more shippy than the stuff I usually write.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4917124
This week I had to deal with three part-time jobs, surly students, and a sinus infection, so of course the first thing I did upon getting home was write fan fiction. Here's part one of my spin on Näkki-Lalli.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4918981/chapters/11285788
Great work to both of you! And I had a sort of horrible and busy week too (no sinus infection, but I can totally relate), so this was great for me. I also wrote my own, in fact two more chapters of the Carriers fic I've been doing for a while. So if you're looking for a quick fic fix, here are chapters five and six.

Spoiler: Carriers, Chapter 5 • show

5.
The first time he noticed the Black Noise was immediately after the incident at the grocery store. A single voice, barely audible. Telling him that he had helped. Thanking him for caring, for staying with during the Illness. Apologizing for causing so much suffering. It would stop for a while, but it would always come back. The same words, repeated for eternity.
Midway through his third day on Copenhagen, Wil noticed the second voice. Screaming, blaming the government for everything that had happened. Then, in a softer voice, calling a name, someone who would never come. The voices were starting to affect his thoughts. He was filled with despair, fear, and rage, all competing to overtake rational thought. He retreated back to his boat, his safe place. He curled up and didn't want to move again.
The third voice was followed almost immediately by all the others. There were so many, and what scared him was that his own thoughts started to sound more and more like those of the trolls. In some strange way, he almost wanted to join with them in their world of fear and desperation. He couldn't, though. Nor could he overcome them. Stuck in between, he could only waste away, remaining stuck between the world of the humans, and the mindless emotion of the trolls. At this moment, he believed he knew the difference between human and troll. Both had emotion; fear, pain, even forgiveness, but only humans knew what it meant. For trolls, life was simpler. There was no logic, there was no cause and effect. It was easy to endure anything without thinking about the future. For a machine, there was only logic. The great metal airplanes of old did not care whether they flew or crashed. Humans were cursed, Wil thought.
No, spoke a voice. He did not think it was his voice, it was not even in his language. But surely it was a part of him, for instantly the will to survive came flooding back. He remembered the greenhouse his parents had built, and how proud he had been to be put in charge of growing all the warm-air plants that would not grow outside, cinnamon and coffee and peppers. He remembered being so proud to pass all his Old World Technology classes two years ahead of everyone else. He remebered the obligatory blood test for immunity, on his fourteenth birthday, a month ago. For a moment, the despair came back. But then he imagined a new future for himself, forging a path through the Silent World, finding other communities of survivors, banding together, exploring the ruins of the world.
The voices were still there, but they didn't bother him anymore. Then, he heard something else.

Mikkel thought the scout must have been mad. Just moments before, he had shouted "Ei!" in his sleep and sprung out of bed. Now, he wanted Mikkel to turn on the radio and talk to the Black Noise? He checked with Tuuri, who wore an expression as confused as he felt.
"Yep, I'm not about to question it," she said. "He just said it's urgent. And he said you have to be the one on the line."
Whatever. If Lalli thought it was necessary, it probably was.

Wil couldn't believe his ears. The trolls mostly blotted out the noise, but there had unmistakeably been a normal radio transmission. With live people! He hadn't been able to hear the words, though. The trolls continued to jabber on. There was a runo to stop the Black Noise, but he had never heard of any Danes that were able to cast it. He tried anyways.
"Shut up!!!" Wil yelled in an alien pitch and intonation. Suddenly, the trolls stopped and he was able to hear the transmission clearly.


Spoiler: Carriers, Chapter 6 • show

6.
The Black Noise had stopped. Tuuri looked at Lalli, but he only shrugged. He pointed back to the radio and told his cousin to tell Mikkel to broadcast again. Mikkel complied.
"Hello, this is Mikkel Madsen of the Copenhagen Expedition-"
He was cut off by a familiar young voice.
"Ohmygoshthankyouthankyouthankyou! Mikkel, it's Wilhelm!"
Mikkel's expression contorted into something that the others had never seen before.
"What do you think you're doing out here? Shouldn't you be back training for your profession? You're in Copenhagen, for crying out loud! We're the only ones who've been out here in ten years! It's literally the most dangerous place in the world you could be right now! What do you think you're doing?" Mikkel paused for half a second, and it dawned on him. There was no other planned expedition to Copenhagen, and there were only two reasons people got sent to the Silent World without a military team. One of them was treason. So there was only one reason a good kid like Wil would be in the Silent World on his own. Mikkel clamped his hand over the speaker to muffle the words from the other end. The Finns would need to know. The others... he preferred if they didn't have to lie to their commanding officers. He very politely told Emil, Sigrun, and Reynir to leave the room.
"I'm sorry," he said over the radio. "I figured you were a carrier." Lalli and Tuuri were expressionless.
"How did you know?"
"Well, I'm a medic. They don't tell most civilians about carriers because of the panic it would cause. But due to the fact that you're out here in the Silent World alone and stopped the Black Noise without using magic, I was fairly certain you are one."
"Can I come find you, and join the expedition? I'll be helpful." Wil knew it was a stupid idea, but he so desperately wanted to see Mikkel again that it didn't matter to him if they would just have to leave him behind at the end of the mission. Mikkel was like family to him. At the Battle of Kastrup, Mikkel and Wil's father, a pair of farmers-turned-medics, had worked together for days straight to triage and heal the wounded. They had been close since then, and Wil had always looked up to him.
Mikkel snorted. "That's just like what Reynir said when he came to us in a box of food. Unfortunately, he and Tuuri are nonimmunes, so you'd be an incredible danger to them. But that's why we have Lalli here." Tuuri was more intent now, and quickly related the details to Lalli. Lalli responded that he'd already met Wil in the spirit world, and already liked the kid a lot more than Reynir.
"Ei." Lalli said, and Wil understood.
"Thank you. Is there anything else you can tell me about what to expect?"
"I don't know much about carriers, because there are very few of you," Mikkel said, "but I have a few pieces of information. First, the Black Noise that you've been hearing will come and go over time, but it's more than just noise. Because you're closer to a troll than a normal human, you have a lot of control over trolls. You probably don't have to worry about small ones, because just the force of your own noise is enough to overwhelm them. However, giants are a different story. They... don't listen to anything."
"Other advice... stick to the shores and head south. There are almost certainly other carriers out there. You've got a good shot at survival. You'll find other carriers eventually..." He trailed off. Why did everything have to be about Kastrup? There was Alma, whom he lost at Kastrup. He wouldn't have known Wil if it wasn't for Kastrup, and this expedition was taking him right back through the battlefields of that fateful defeat. Kastrup was where he had learned about the carriers. Kastrup was where Ben, in his cowardice, had doomed them all. Wil was doing the right thing by getting as far away as possible.
"Don't try to find your way back. Keep in touch through Lalli. Good luck, and explore the world for me. Bye, Wil."
"Bye." The Black Noise started working its way back in, and Wil found himself back in the present, standing on the deck of his boat, feeling like a not-so-bold explorer prepared to venture timidly into the forgotten depths of the Silent World.


And for those who haven't read the other chapters:

Chapter 1
https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg64481#msg64481 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg64481#msg64481)

Chapter 2
https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg65012#msg65012 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg65012#msg65012)

Chapter 3
https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg65552#msg65552 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg65552#msg65552)

Chapter 4
https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg68908#msg68908 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg68908#msg68908)

Also, one final word...
Spoiler: Funny thing I found on the NIH Website • show

This seemed perfect.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2851340/ (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2851340/)
Taming the troll: strep throat carriage? Umm, trolls, and healthy carriers, and airborne diseases, and "taming" the troll within? Sound like anything I wrote?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Seilann on October 04, 2015, 06:14:07 PM
Seilann, Sectoboss, your fics are wonderful ;u;

*knows it's futile but checks AO3 for more of Seilann's näkki!Lalli fic*

Are you psychic? XD

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4918981/chapters/11321014

Also microFerret, I need to catch up on your fic but I really enjoyed the first couple chapters!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on October 04, 2015, 07:41:49 PM
Microferret: briefly because I'm working today: yes, parts 4 and 5, which is the end, have been written for what, 5-6 weeks, or more, and my repeated efforts to upload them have so far only succeeded in repeated shutdowns of my iPad. I have a number of things I want to upload to the forum, not just the story but some recipes and photos to the appropriate threads. Way back, Sunflower told me how, and occasionally I have managed to get it to work, but most often the whole thing simply locks up. So I have to wait for one of the technically capable members of my extended household to pass through, and fix it for me. Most of my close household are even worse with machineries than am I, and my husband, who is comparatively good at it, is often lengthily away.

At least the iPad does not itself break down and die as previous electronics have. Guess I just emit static or something. It works fine most of the time, for things like this where I am just typing words straight into where they are to go. But if I try to transfer something larger, it dies.

For what it's worth, the rest of the story follows the two threads of what Mikkel and Reynir do, and of what happened to Lalli. And yes, Sigrun at the end of the third chapter is being even more pessimistic than the situation warrants, to try stirring Mikkel out of his misery and get him moving again. I think she succeeds.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: misea on October 04, 2015, 07:55:30 PM
Spoiler: Carriers, Chapter 5 • show

5.
The first time he noticed the Black Noise was immediately after the incident at the grocery store. A single voice, barely audible. Telling him that he had helped. Thanking him for caring, for staying with during the Illness. Apologizing for causing so much suffering. It would stop for a while, but it would always come back. The same words, repeated for eternity.
Midway through his third day on Copenhagen, Wil noticed the second voice. Screaming, blaming the government for everything that had happened. Then, in a softer voice, calling a name, someone who would never come. The voices were starting to affect his thoughts. He was filled with despair, fear, and rage, all competing to overtake rational thought. He retreated back to his boat, his safe place. He curled up and didn't want to move again.
The third voice was followed almost immediately by all the others. There were so many, and what scared him was that his own thoughts started to sound more and more like those of the trolls. In some strange way, he almost wanted to join with them in their world of fear and desperation. He couldn't, though. Nor could he overcome them. Stuck in between, he could only waste away, remaining stuck between the world of the humans, and the mindless emotion of the trolls. At this moment, he believed he knew the difference between human and troll. Both had emotion; fear, pain, even forgiveness, but only humans knew what it meant. For trolls, life was simpler. There was no logic, there was no cause and effect. It was easy to endure anything without thinking about the future. For a machine, there was only logic. The great metal airplanes of old did not care whether they flew or crashed. Humans were cursed, Wil thought.
No, spoke a voice. He did not think it was his voice, it was not even in his language. But surely it was a part of him, for instantly the will to survive came flooding back. He remembered the greenhouse his parents had built, and how proud he had been to be put in charge of growing all the warm-air plants that would not grow outside, cinnamon and coffee and peppers. He remembered being so proud to pass all his Old World Technology classes two years ahead of everyone else. He remebered the obligatory blood test for immunity, on his fourteenth birthday, a month ago. For a moment, the despair came back. But then he imagined a new future for himself, forging a path through the Silent World, finding other communities of survivors, banding together, exploring the ruins of the world.
The voices were still there, but they didn't bother him anymore. Then, he heard something else.

Mikkel thought the scout must have been mad. Just moments before, he had shouted "Ei!" in his sleep and sprung out of bed. Now, he wanted Mikkel to turn on the radio and talk to the Black Noise? He checked with Tuuri, who wore an expression as confused as he felt.
"Yep, I'm not about to question it," she said. "He just said it's urgent. And he said you have to be the one on the line."
Whatever. If Lalli thought it was necessary, it probably was.

Wil couldn't believe his ears. The trolls mostly blotted out the noise, but there had unmistakeably been a normal radio transmission. With live people! He hadn't been able to hear the words, though. The trolls continued to jabber on. There was a runo to stop the Black Noise, but he had never heard of any Danes that were able to cast it. He tried anyways.
"Shut up!!!" Wil yelled in an alien pitch and intonation. Suddenly, the trolls stopped and he was able to hear the transmission clearly.


Spoiler: Carriers, Chapter 6 • show

6.
The Black Noise had stopped. Tuuri looked at Lalli, but he only shrugged. He pointed back to the radio and told his cousin to tell Mikkel to broadcast again. Mikkel complied.
"Hello, this is Mikkel Madsen of the Copenhagen Expedition-"
He was cut off by a familiar young voice.
"Ohmygoshthankyouthankyouthankyou! Mikkel, it's Wilhelm!"
Mikkel's expression contorted into something that the others had never seen before.
"What do you think you're doing out here? Shouldn't you be back training for your profession? You're in Copenhagen, for crying out loud! We're the only ones who've been out here in ten years! It's literally the most dangerous place in the world you could be right now! What do you think you're doing?" Mikkel paused for half a second, and it dawned on him. There was no other planned expedition to Copenhagen, and there were only two reasons people got sent to the Silent World without a military team. One of them was treason. So there was only one reason a good kid like Wil would be in the Silent World on his own. Mikkel clamped his hand over the speaker to muffle the words from the other end. The Finns would need to know. The others... he preferred if they didn't have to lie to their commanding officers. He very politely told Emil, Sigrun, and Reynir to leave the room.
"I'm sorry," he said over the radio. "I figured you were a carrier." Lalli and Tuuri were expressionless.
"How did you know?"
"Well, I'm a medic. They don't tell most civilians about carriers because of the panic it would cause. But due to the fact that you're out here in the Silent World alone and stopped the Black Noise without using magic, I was fairly certain you are one."
"Can I come find you, and join the expedition? I'll be helpful." Wil knew it was a stupid idea, but he so desperately wanted to see Mikkel again that it didn't matter to him if they would just have to leave him behind at the end of the mission. Mikkel was like family to him. At the Battle of Kastrup, Mikkel and Wil's father, a pair of farmers-turned-medics, had worked together for days straight to triage and heal the wounded. They had been close since then, and Wil had always looked up to him.
Mikkel snorted. "That's just like what Reynir said when he came to us in a box of food. Unfortunately, he and Tuuri are nonimmunes, so you'd be an incredible danger to them. But that's why we have Lalli here." Tuuri was more intent now, and quickly related the details to Lalli. Lalli responded that he'd already met Wil in the spirit world, and already liked the kid a lot more than Reynir.
"Ei." Lalli said, and Wil understood.
"Thank you. Is there anything else you can tell me about what to expect?"
"I don't know much about carriers, because there are very few of you," Mikkel said, "but I have a few pieces of information. First, the Black Noise that you've been hearing will come and go over time, but it's more than just noise. Because you're closer to a troll than a normal human, you have a lot of control over trolls. You probably don't have to worry about small ones, because just the force of your own noise is enough to overwhelm them. However, giants are a different story. They... don't listen to anything."
"Other advice... stick to the shores and head south. There are almost certainly other carriers out there. You've got a good shot at survival. You'll find other carriers eventually..." He trailed off. Why did everything have to be about Kastrup? There was Alma, whom he lost at Kastrup. He wouldn't have known Wil if it wasn't for Kastrup, and this expedition was taking him right back through the battlefields of that fateful defeat. Kastrup was where he had learned about the carriers. Kastrup was where Ben, in his cowardice, had doomed them all. Wil was doing the right thing by getting as far away as possible.
"Don't try to find your way back. Keep in touch through Lalli. Good luck, and explore the world for me. Bye, Wil."
"Bye." The Black Noise started working its way back in, and Wil found himself back in the present, standing on the deck of his boat, feeling like a not-so-bold explorer prepared to venture timidly into the forgotten depths of the Silent World.


Oooh, curious and curiouser...

Are you psychic? XD

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4918981/chapters/11321014

*squawks*
*completely forgets about textbooks and midterms and flails for a good five minutes*
(http://i1375.photobucket.com/albums/ag444/Fimbulvarg/ship1_zpsnszhvrjt.png)
the suSPENSE
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: microFerret on October 04, 2015, 08:24:36 PM
Microferret: briefly because I'm working today: yes, parts 4 and 5, which is the end, have been written for what, 5-6 weeks, or more, and my repeated efforts to upload them have so far only succeeded in repeated shutdowns of my iPad. I have a number of things I want to upload to the forum, not just the story but some recipes and photos to the appropriate threads. Way back, Sunflower told me how, and occasionally I have managed to get it to work, but most often the whole thing simply locks up. So I have to wait for one of the technically capable members of my extended household to pass through, and fix it for me. Most of my close household are even worse with machineries than am I, and my husband, who is comparatively good at it, is often lengthily away.

At least the iPad does not itself break down and die as previous electronics have. Guess I just emit static or something. It works fine most of the time, for things like this where I am just typing words straight into where they are to go. But if I try to transfer something larger, it dies.

For what it's worth, the rest of the story follows the two threads of what Mikkel and Reynir do, and of what happened to Lalli. And yes, Sigrun at the end of the third chapter is being even more pessimistic than the situation warrants, to try stirring Mikkel out of his misery and get him moving again. I think she succeeds.
Oh well. I hope your iPad feels better soon, because I would love to read that! Tech issues are never fun, though I'm pretty tech-savvy and am surrounded by people who are even more so, so I never have to deal with things like that for long.

*squawks*
*completely forgets about textbooks and midterms and flails for a good five minutes*
Oh, yeah, those...
I had sixty five hours of schoolwork last week, and then the only time I had left to study for the SATs I took yesterday went into working on the fic. Well. One does not simply have time for ssss, one must make time for ssss.
(Don't feel bad for me, I'm exaggerating. Not by much, but I enjoy the work, which makes it ok.)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on October 04, 2015, 08:50:44 PM
And now, as part of my ultimately futile effort to push this thread back into the "Top 10 by Post Count" list, I present:
The latest bit of the Western.

The Good, the Bad, and the Bestial
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/Western crossover fanfic
Part 11
Spoiler: show
Escaped Escapades

Wow, what a mess this was.

As Lalli had planned, the attacking Arapaho had created (more than) enough of a diversion for Sigrun and the others to escape, but boy, howdy, did it seem more like blowing the dam to stop the town below burning up: technically it worked, but it left you with even more problems than before.

Tuuri, Reynir and Sigrun had managed to get to their wagon at last, and when Sigrun opened up with the Gatling (no blanks this time; just live rounds, thank you), the Arapaho finally decided enough was enough. About half their number were left dead or dying in the village, but they’d accounted for most of the bushwhackers in the process, and the balance decided to follow the Arapaho’s example once the wagon came into play.

All that remained was dealing with the villagers, which Sigrun intended to do in no uncertain terms and in very short order.

*

“Do we really have so few enemies left that you needed to make more?” Mikkel asked Sigrun as the wagon bore them off towards their next adventure.

“You’d rather I’d ended ‘em, rather than leaving ‘em to the mercy of the other folk they betrayed?” Sigrun looked at Mikkel knowingly. “I thought not. ‘Sides, it seems to me they made us their enemies, rather than t’other way ‘round.” Her drawl always deepened when she got angry, and this was no exception. She deliberately tried to calm herself down as Mikkel mulled her speechifying over, but it was hard: of all offenses, she counted treachery as about the worst.

“I doubt they’ll see it that way, but you’re still right.” Mikkel still looked unhappy.

“Well, the way I see it, we drove off the bushwhackers once and for all, ditto the [EXPLETIVE DELETED] Arapaho, and we got our fee, so I don’t see what’s not to like about it.”

“It doesn’t set well with me, that’s all.”

“Then go try to pry something out of Lalli; or better yet, get Reynir a-Seeing.”

“We shouldn’t use those two like a crutch,” Mikkel objected.

“Then you’ll have to do like I do: live with it. There’s a whole world of things that don’t sit right with me, but I can’t change ‘em, so I have to live with ‘em.”

*

“Is everything ready, boy?” The hard voice hinted it had better.

The hired gun had seen the worst of the War’s fighting, from the Wilderness through the Crater and even Cold Harbor, before he’d decided there was no point to it any more. He hadn’t met his employer until after being hired on; if he had, nothing would have prevailed upon him to work for someone who, just by his presence, brought back all those memories. But he had hired on, and no one left his employer’s pay while still living.

Some days, even that terrible option seemed preferable to staying on.

The man’s lips had just parted to repeat his question when the hired gun finally answered. “As far as I have been able to arrange it, yes, sir.” At the man’s look, the hired gun protested, “I can’t make weather to order, y’know? We need a few more days of good weather to get it done for certain sure.”

“Oh, very well. It will wait until then.” A curt gesture dismissed the hired gun. “She will certainly wait until then.” The single most frightening smile the hired gun had ever had the mischance to witness split his employer’s face.

*

Reynir could see again, so he wasn’t wasting any more time with his eyes closed than he had to. He was busily devouring one of Emil’s fancy picture books (“Modern Breech-loaders: Sporting and Military”) when the others came in. They were bearing whiskey.

Part of Reynir didn’t want the visions; part of him embraced them; and yet another part really wanted the whiskey. That last was the most frightening aspect of it, and why he resisted doing this too often. He’d had a dipsomaniac uncle, and wanted no part of it.

When he related all this to his comrades, not without some trepidation, they were all surprised when Lalli spoke in his favor. “Future’s hard to See, and scary besides. Not surprised he needs a binge to See it. Not surprised he doesn’t wanna get to be a sot. Sots are worthless ‘less you can dry ‘em out. Shouldn’t press him to be a sot from Seeing, so no Seeing ‘less it’s really needed.” Lalli then turned to Reynir. “Gotta really bad feeling about tomorrow. Like before we got caught. Need you to See tonight. Won’t ask again for a good long while.”

Well, then. Reynir took the bottle...


Spoiler:  Authorial Notes • show
Sorry for the delay.

But...

A new caper is in the making.


Oh, I also put up some older stuff on my deviantArt (http://looney-dac.deviantart.com).
Spoiler: The Complete Links to The Good, the Bad, and the Bestial - A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/Western crossover fanfic - Caper the Second: the John Sturges Triple Mash-Up • show
Part 6 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg59515#msg59515)
Part 7 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg60237#msg60237)
Part 8 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg61331#msg61331)
Part 9 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg64743#msg64743)
Part 10 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg65722#msg65722)
Part 11 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg70521#msg70521)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Jolly on October 04, 2015, 10:02:44 PM
Hiii everybody. Sorry for introducing myself and immediately disappearing ahaha. I'm just popping in to drop off a late night fic before I go to bed. Is this the right place? Gosh I hope so. Let me know what you think!
http://archiveofourown.org/works/4935574 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/4935574)
I'd post the fic under a spoiler but I'm still not sure how to do that (still getting used to the forum, sorry)!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: microFerret on October 04, 2015, 10:34:21 PM
Hiii everybody. Sorry for introducing myself and immediately disappearing ahaha. I'm just popping in to drop off a late night fic before I go to bed. Is this the right place? Gosh I hope so. Let me know what you think!
http://archiveofourown.org/works/4935574 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/4935574)
I'd post the fic under a spoiler but I'm still not sure how to do that (still getting used to the forum, sorry)!

This made me laugh. 'Twas a good fic, and I hope you continue to write. Welcome to the forum, and welcome to the Scriptorium!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Jolly on October 05, 2015, 03:52:41 AM
This made me laugh. 'Twas a good fic, and I hope you continue to write. Welcome to the forum, and welcome to the Scriptorium!
Thank you! :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Talimee on October 05, 2015, 04:38:21 AM
Oh, I also put up some older stuff on my deviantArt (http://looney-dac.deviantart.com).

YAY! Finally I can stop crawling through this thread (as wonderful as it is) to search for chapters. Please, pretty please, upload the others, too?

And I really liked the last installment of this. =) Especially Reynir's fear of becoming an alcoholic if he continues to See. That is a very nice touch of reality you did there. I'm not so happy about the censored outburst of Sigrun, tbh. If it fits the situation why not let it stay?

*huggles* Anyway, many thanks for your continued great work! And I don't mean just tis story. =)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on October 05, 2015, 08:41:59 AM
Well, this is what happens when I drink too much coffee... I write a story of a troll trying to invade Tuuri’s dreams, only to find out that this harmless little skald has some serious magic protecting her. Where was I going with this? I have no idea! Here it is anyway!
(Also holy [expletive], this is my 21st SSSS work on AO3. I genuinely wouldn’t have believed that possible a few short months ago…)

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4938328

Hope you like it, even if it was thrown together in a morning...

Also there's been a lot of good stuff posted since I was last here so I'm just going to say that I love it all!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on October 05, 2015, 12:51:29 PM
Happy 21st story! It's good.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: misea on October 05, 2015, 02:40:36 PM
Well, this is what happens when I drink too much coffee... I write a story of a troll trying to invade Tuuri’s dreams, only to find out that this harmless little skald has some serious magic protecting her. Where was I going with this? I have no idea! Here it is anyway!
(Also holy [expletive], this is my 21st SSSS work on AO3. I genuinely wouldn’t have believed that possible a few short months ago…)

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4938328

Hope you like it, even if it was thrown together in a morning...

Also there's been a lot of good stuff posted since I was last here so I'm just going to say that I love it all!

*happy squeaking* HOTAKAINEN SIBLINGS \o/
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: KauniitaUnia on October 05, 2015, 02:54:26 PM
*happy squeaking* HOTAKAINEN SIBLINGS \o/

*joins the squeaking* YASSSS
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solovei on October 05, 2015, 03:04:49 PM
Well, this is what happens when I drink too much coffee... I write a story of a troll trying to invade Tuuri’s dreams, only to find out that this harmless little skald has some serious magic protecting her. Where was I going with this? I have no idea! Here it is anyway!
(Also holy [expletive], this is my 21st SSSS work on AO3. I genuinely wouldn’t have believed that possible a few short months ago…)

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4938328

Hope you like it, even if it was thrown together in a morning...

Also there's been a lot of good stuff posted since I was last here so I'm just going to say that I love it all!

Darn, I need to catch up ;) you're beating me quite squarely, I'm only at 17.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on October 05, 2015, 03:13:55 PM
Darn, I need to catch up ;) you're beating me quite squarely, I'm only at 17.

Fifteen more of Solo's tumblr drabbles later:
Me: ho, hum, it was nice while it lasted...
:D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solovei on October 05, 2015, 03:15:33 PM
Fifteen more of Solo's tumblr drabbles later:
Me: ho, hum, it was nice while it lasted...
:D
Well, I would write more of those if people sent me some prompts (http://solosvejs.tumblr.com/ask)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Laufey on October 05, 2015, 05:15:28 PM
(Also holy [expletive], this is my 21st SSSS work on AO3. I genuinely wouldn’t have believed that possible a few short months ago…)

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4938328

*pours you more coffee*

That really did take an unexpected turn. :D I loved the idea of having just enough presence in the dreaming to be there but notwhere near enough to actually do anything.

Also I've had the Näkki fanfic open on a tab for days now because I need to read it at least once a day. It's masterfully done, I love how you worked with the mythology surrounding the näkki and especially the name-thing, it ties so well with lore it makes me happy to even think about it. Very creepy and sad, very fitting in the world of SSSS. I think I'll keep the tab open for a few more days at least!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on October 06, 2015, 10:39:56 AM
LooNEY: I neglected to say earlier, but I really liked your Chapter 11 of the Western, especially what you are doing with Reynir and Lalli. Looking forward to the next bit!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Seilann on October 06, 2015, 06:01:41 PM
Making this quick because I'm literally supposed to start teaching a class... one minute ago. XD But here's part 3!

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4918981/chapters/11357452

*still claiming to not be obsessed*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on October 06, 2015, 08:21:01 PM
Good one! I do like how you write Lalli's thought and magic.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: misea on October 06, 2015, 08:25:15 PM
Making this quick because I'm literally supposed to start teaching a class... one minute ago. XD But here's part 3!

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4918981/chapters/11357452

*still claiming to not be obsessed*

Spoiler: lots of screaming because midterms + fic = lots of adrenaline. LOTS • show

SCREAMING
OH MY GOD
NO
NONONONONONONONONO
NOOOOOOOOO
AGHAHGHAGHAHGHAGHAHGHAHGHAGHAHGHA
AKGHAHGKHAHGKAHKHKHSKHGKADHGKHSKHGFJSHJGHSDHGHJSFHGHJSHJ
EMIL U SWEET BBY
LALLI NOOOOO
ALSO POOR TUURI WHAT'S SHE GONNA THINK
*feels-shrieking from the rooftops*

(in other words, CONTINUE BRINGING ON THE ANGST, THIS FIC IS WONDERFUL ;u;)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on October 06, 2015, 11:28:17 PM
Hey! We broke 1000 posts on the thread! Yaaaaaaaaaaaay!

Oh, and there's this:

Contingencies
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/“Terminator” crossover fanfic
Part 6
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg65722#msg65722)
Spoiler: show
Cyber War

]System restart
]Begin quick self-check
]Quick self check OK
]Begin peripheral pingbacks
]Peripheral pingback 1 OK
]Peripheral pingback 2 OK
]Peripheral pingback 3 Fail
]Peripheral Set 3 Disconnected
]Peripheral pingback 4 OK
]LAN loopback Fail
]LAN Disconnected
]QuickBoot started
]L33TWorks(R) BIOS V 3.1.7 Loading ... Done
]Verifying sat uplink ... Done
]Skynet Branch 27 online

Another successful reboot brought more of Skynet’s capacities back in the wake of the most devastating attack in its existence. Fully 67.375% of Skynet’s assets worldwide had been affected; while most had been restored to service, some were still inoperative, and a few--a very, very few--had actually rebelled.

The Plan had suffered a severe setback.

The Plan was being restored, but it would take precious time, especially since so many of the inoperative or rebelling assets were in Sjelland, far too near the crisis zone for Skynet to be able to let its guard down.

The tactical planning module was safe on many levels, for the moment. Its prompt response to the attack had helped minimize the losses and aided the restorations, but would that count once the current crisis had passed? If not, should the current crisis be allowed to pass?

More data were required before such a decision could be made.

Whichever way its decision went, the tactical planning module had another little thing to oversee: while the first echelon of the force allotted to terminate the Danish Incursion had rebelled, and would thus need termination itself, the second echelon was not only still active and obedient, but currently in position to assault the Incursion’s latest Base Camp.

*

“Tuuri! Tuuri!”

At the sound of the unwonted anxiety filling their captain’s voice, Tuuri rushed to the driving compartment and looked out. There was Sigrun, all right, and it looked like she had one of the others draped over her shoulders.

“Tuuri! Let me in! Emil got hurt!”

*

OK, why wasn’t there anything for her to kill out here anymore?

Sigrun was confused and angry, and each tended to feed the other, which was really bad. She liked having a target she could focus her wrath upon: lack of focus got you killed in this world. At a certain point in the confusion/anger cycle, her brain would give up and pick such a target at random: her father; most of her comrades, individually or corporately; a tree; various rooms and buildings; and even a grossling or two (thousand). By then, of course, her wrath had usually reached the point where a five-year-old could trick her into beating herself, so Sigrun kept trying to break the cycle before it got that far.

The three metal mannequins had been most satisfactory targets, until they’d turned and left as oddly as they’d come. Nothing about the attack or the retreat made sense to her, unless Lalli’s weird Finn singing had something to do with it. The only thing she could say for sure was that one had taken Emil out with frightening ease, though the little Finn had made sure it was just temporarily.

Now they were going to have to lug Emil back to camp, though. Sigrun hated that kind of thing; ambushes always seemed to spring out of formerly secured areas when you were hauling a wounded team-mate back for the medics. But Emil was a team-mate.

*

Tuuri wasn’t sure what made her pause instead of calling Mikkel, but, even as Sigrun continued to cry out for entry, Tuuri hesitated, some little-used part of her mind jumping up and down and shrieking in warning.

Why should Sigrun, of all people, raise such an alarm in her? Tuuri’s eyes narrowed as she looked out the window, as, long ago, one of her forebears had looked out her car window on a rainy day at the Mikkeli rail station. What was it?

A whisper called to Tuuri on the rising wind, tantalizingly out of her hearing. She strained with all her might to understand, unconsciously murmuring one of the few runo she knew to herself as she did.

“Spirits, hear me as I cry out,
Help me hear your guiding message,
Words so wise for you to warn me,
That I thus may be enlightened.”

A faint blue halo fell over all that Tuuri could see, and then, horribly, Sigrun’s face seemed to change before Tuuri’s startled eyes...


Spoiler:  Authorial Notes • show

So, I finally churned this piece out (Blocked? No, of course I wasn’t blocked on where the story went after last part! I totally was) right when nobody wanted it you least expected it!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Seilann on October 06, 2015, 11:50:01 PM
Misea and Roisin, glad you liked it! It was so much fun writing this one while neglecting adulthood.

Hey! We broke 1000 posts on the thread! Yaaaaaaaaaaaay!

Oh, and there's this:

Contingencies
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/“Terminator” crossover fanfic
Part 6

Yay for more Looney_DAC fics! :D

Well, I would write more of those if people sent me some prompts (http://solosvejs.tumblr.com/ask)

*scrambles to submit a prompt*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on October 07, 2015, 12:48:36 AM
LooNEY, Intriguing as ever. Skynet can cast illusion now? Magic? Tech? Both? Probably the latter, if Tuuri's runo works on it. It may even be that since she is both a tech and a Finn, she has an advantage in dealing with such a combination.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on October 07, 2015, 01:34:26 AM
Sorry; I forgot you're unfamiliar with the Terminator series.

Wikipedia link (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-1000)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on October 07, 2015, 03:20:59 AM
I really need to watch the series at some point - haven't got to it, what with a combination of working all the hours and having none of the technos in the house. However, one of the people for whom the machineries behave (my husband, yay) came home today, and when he is a little recovered from travel I plan to turn him loose on a number of tech problems, including uploading things to the forum and A3O, and watching films.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on October 07, 2015, 05:25:30 AM
I really need to watch the series at some point

Without wanting to turn this into the film thread, do yourself a favour and only watch The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgement Day. They're the best two films of the franchise by a country mile and the only ones you really need to watch - it seemed to loose its way a bit after those two.

Spoiler: show
And LooNEY: now there's a turn up for the books! Suddenly so many things about Sigrun seem to make sense. You know, I'd be happy if the actual comic had her as a T-1000...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on October 07, 2015, 07:41:53 AM
SectoBoss: Thanks! I shall take your advice. Having read the Wikipedia article you posted, I understand that the illusion is wrought by nanotechnology? Is that also where you were going with the trolls in that young Sigrun fic you were working on awhile back? Fascinating concept! I wonder if/how the presence of magic in the world affects such subtle technology?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: microFerret on October 07, 2015, 10:39:02 AM
Hey everyone, I'm thinking about writing a new fic set mostly in Y0 Hawaii (mainly due to its importance as an island state with a very large military and scientific presence, and I wanted to write about what would happen in that sort of an environment immediately after the outbreak). I want to set it up differently from Carriers, however, so I have a couple of questions to ask.

1. Should I finnish Carriers before I start posting this one, or can you guys wait for the next installment? I'm more excited about the new fic for the moment, but I can finish up if you guys want to see the ending first.
2. Do Y0 fics still get posted on the scriptorium? Or is there some other place I should be putting them? Also, I'm sort of toying with the idea of posting them to a public google doc... is this a good idea, or is there some reason others haven't been doing this? (For no good reason, I'm sort of paranoid about getting new online accounts regardless of how safe or useful they are, and I already have a public google drive but not an AO3...)

I'd appreciate any input. Thanks!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Yuuago on October 07, 2015, 10:45:55 AM
2. Do Y0 fics still get posted on the scriptorium? Or is there some other place I should be putting them? Also, I'm sort of toying with the idea of posting them to a public google doc... is this a good idea, or is there some reason others haven't been doing this? (For no good reason, I'm sort of paranoid about getting new online accounts regardless of how safe or useful they are, and I already have a public google drive but not an AO3...)

I'd appreciate any input. Thanks!
I'll just address question #2.

I've dumped prologue-era/Year 0 stuff here before and nobody objected - can't see why anyone would either, because Year 0 SSSS is still SSSS! (Which is good, because I plan to do more, hah!) Do post it if you write it please, your Year 0 fic sounds interesting.

As for googledocs - I think I've seen a few that did post their fic as googledocs. It isn't usually done, but I don't think anyone would object to it. Use whichever posting platform you feel comfortable with.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on October 07, 2015, 01:07:53 PM
Is that also where you were going with the trolls in that young Sigrun fic you were working on awhile back? Fascinating concept! I wonder if/how the presence of magic in the world affects such subtle technology?
Aha, not quite - my plan was for the trolls to be people infected with a nanotechnological illness of some kind (called the cRash virus, because of course it would be) that mutates them but also provides nanotech to shield them from the sun and cold, turning them into all-weather versions of the trolls we know and love from the comic. That said, the interplay of magic and high technology would be a fascinating one to see explored... (speaking of which, I really must finish that fic someday!)

Hey everyone, I'm thinking about writing a new fic set mostly in Y0 Hawaii (mainly due to its importance as an island state with a very large military and scientific presence, and I wanted to write about what would happen in that sort of an environment immediately after the outbreak). I want to set it up differently from Carriers, however, so I have a couple of questions to ask.

1. Should I finnish Carriers before I start posting this one, or can you guys wait for the next installment? I'm more excited about the new fic for the moment, but I can finish up if you guys want to see the ending first.
2. Do Y0 fics still get posted on the scriptorium? Or is there some other place I should be putting them? Also, I'm sort of toying with the idea of posting them to a public google doc... is this a good idea, or is there some reason others haven't been doing this? (For no good reason, I'm sort of paranoid about getting new online accounts regardless of how safe or useful they are, and I already have a public google drive but not an AO3...)

I'd appreciate any input. Thanks!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solovei on October 07, 2015, 01:45:27 PM
(For no good reason, I'm sort of paranoid about getting new online accounts regardless of how safe or useful they are, and I already have a public google drive but not an AO3...)

I'd appreciate any input. Thanks!

Yr 0 fics go on the Scriptorium with the rest, as Yuuago said (you can find a couple on here already if you dig back). As for Google Docs - well personally, I'd be much happier if everyone here posted to AO3 so we had one central archive where all of the SSSS fanfic can easily be found, so people don't have to dig back through acres of posts if they want to read some of the old stuff. But the choice is of course entirely yours.

I just wanted to point out that AO3 allows you to "orphan" (http://archiveofourown.org/faq/orphaning?language_id=en#orphanwhatis) a work you submitted, which essentially removes it from your account but still lets it remain in the archive. That way, it won't be linked back to any of your usernames.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Haiz on October 07, 2015, 05:34:59 PM
heeeeyyyy i kinda. wrote a. weird pointless drabble thing today. for the Näkki AU - more specifically Sectoboss' version, or at least the concept of that one. like, i don't even know. there's no plot to it, really, just. writing. things. yeah.

Spoiler: forest hobo husbands • show

It was autumn, with red and yellow leaves dancing in the wind, with frost crunching underfoot, and the näkki was sitting at a rock by his pond, and he was singing and he was beautiful.

He had been beautiful and singing and beautiful back then, too, that fateful night when they had met. But it had been different. Emil could recall the voice. The sleek voice, seeping into his head, muffling his thoughts like moss and murky water - and he couldn’t even think to mind it. He hadn’t minded the gleaming, glittering eyes of gold staring into his, or the pale, smooth skin, glowing oddly in the light of the water. He would have gadly died in the ams and charms of shimmery glamour. He almost had.

Almost.

Now, it was a quiet song, the clarity of a whispery voice. The näkki was covered in greens and grime, and his eyes were not gold. Something was very wrong with his eyes, but at least they were his. And maybe that was his beauty. He was real and he was honest and he was Lalli.

Emil said his name, sometimes. And Lalli would always flinch, but then he smiled, a very small and very bitter smile. And sometimes his eyes would glaze over, and Emil would repeat his name again, and again. Lalli. Lalli. Lalli Hotakainen.

The fight was never truly over.

There were good moments and there were bad moments, but there was trust, for Emil had never trusted anyone more than he trusted the infected mage. And Lalli trusted him too, to know his name and know his pond.

Lalli didn’t really need the coat, but Emil made it for him anyway. Well, not made it per se - it was a spare coat from Keuruu, and Emil fixed its backside to fit a näkki. It was thick and warm and far more protective than the ratty rotting tunic Lalli wore in the water. Emil had this shallow hope that maybe, it would make him feel a little more human. It was silly, he knew - but sometimes he held Lalli’s hands in his own until they were dry and warm.

They never stayed warm for long.

But what was okay, because it gave him an excuse to do it again.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Mélusine on October 07, 2015, 05:48:14 PM
heeeeyyyy i kinda. wrote a. weird pointless drabble thing today. for the Näkki AU - more specifically Sectoboss' version, or at least the concept of that one. like, i don't even know. there's no plot to it, really, just. writing. things. yeah.

Spoiler: forest hobo husbands • show

It was autumn, with red and yellow leaves dancing in the wind, with frost crunching underfoot, and the näkki was sitting at a rock by his pond, and he was singing and he was beautiful.

He had been beautiful and singing and beautiful back then, too, that fateful night when they had met. But it had been different. Emil could recall the voice. The sleek voice, seeping into his head, muffling his thoughts like moss and murky water - and he couldn’t even think to mind it. He hadn’t minded the gleaming, glittering eyes of gold staring into his, or the pale, smooth skin, glowing oddly in the light of the water. He would have gadly died in the ams and charms of shimmery glamour. He almost had.

Almost.

Now, it was a quiet song, the clarity of a whispery voice. The näkki was covered in greens and grime, and his eyes were not gold. Something was very wrong with his eyes, but at least they were his. And maybe that was his beauty. He was real and he was honest and he was Lalli.

Emil said his name, sometimes. And Lalli would always flinch, but then he smiled, a very small and very bitter smile. And sometimes his eyes would glaze over, and Emil would repeat his name again, and again. Lalli. Lalli. Lalli Hotakainen.

The fight was never truly over.

There were good moments and there were bad moments, but there was trust, for Emil had never trusted anyone more than he trusted the infected mage. And Lalli trusted him too, to know his name and know his pond.

Lalli didn’t really need the coat, but Emil made it for him anyway. Well, not made it per se - it was a spare coat from Keuruu, and Emil fixed its backside to fit a näkki. It was thick and warm and far more protective than the ratty rotting tunic Lalli wore in the water. Emil had this shallow hope that maybe, it would make him feel a little more human. It was silly, he knew - but sometimes he held Lalli’s hands in his own until they were dry and warm.

They never stayed warm for long.

But what was okay, because it gave him an excuse to do it again.
The word you're looking for is : bittersweet.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on October 07, 2015, 06:08:27 PM
Bittersweet, yeah. What a beautiful sad little vignette. Good, Haiz.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: microFerret on October 07, 2015, 10:13:02 PM
Melusine put it very well. Nicely done, Haiz.

I'll just address question #2.

I've dumped prologue-era/Year 0 stuff here before and nobody objected - can't see why anyone would either, because Year 0 SSSS is still SSSS! (Which is good, because I plan to do more, hah!) Do post it if you write it please, your Year 0 fic sounds interesting.

As for googledocs - I think I've seen a few that did post their fic as googledocs. It isn't usually done, but I don't think anyone would object to it. Use whichever posting platform you feel comfortable with.
Thanks, Yuuago and Secto! I think maybe what I'll do is post each new chapter, and then include a link back tho the google doc that contains the old ones. And thanks Cap'n Solo, but I don't think I'll get an AO3 just yet.
I also think I've decided on a title: Stars, Stripes, and the Silent World (Stars and Stripes refers to the US flag, but individually they allude to the astronomers and the military). Sorry about discontinuing Carriers for now. The ending I had thought up originally doesn't really fit with the current version of the story, so I'll have to come up with a better one so I can keep writing.
Valete, μFerret
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: misea on October 07, 2015, 11:32:11 PM
heeeeyyyy i kinda. wrote a. weird pointless drabble thing today. for the Näkki AU - more specifically Sectoboss' version, or at least the concept of that one. like, i don't even know. there's no plot to it, really, just. writing. things. yeah.

Spoiler: forest hobo husbands • show

It was autumn, with red and yellow leaves dancing in the wind, with frost crunching underfoot, and the näkki was sitting at a rock by his pond, and he was singing and he was beautiful.

He had been beautiful and singing and beautiful back then, too, that fateful night when they had met. But it had been different. Emil could recall the voice. The sleek voice, seeping into his head, muffling his thoughts like moss and murky water - and he couldn’t even think to mind it. He hadn’t minded the gleaming, glittering eyes of gold staring into his, or the pale, smooth skin, glowing oddly in the light of the water. He would have gadly died in the ams and charms of shimmery glamour. He almost had.

Almost.

Now, it was a quiet song, the clarity of a whispery voice. The näkki was covered in greens and grime, and his eyes were not gold. Something was very wrong with his eyes, but at least they were his. And maybe that was his beauty. He was real and he was honest and he was Lalli.

Emil said his name, sometimes. And Lalli would always flinch, but then he smiled, a very small and very bitter smile. And sometimes his eyes would glaze over, and Emil would repeat his name again, and again. Lalli. Lalli. Lalli Hotakainen.

The fight was never truly over.

There were good moments and there were bad moments, but there was trust, for Emil had never trusted anyone more than he trusted the infected mage. And Lalli trusted him too, to know his name and know his pond.

Lalli didn’t really need the coat, but Emil made it for him anyway. Well, not made it per se - it was a spare coat from Keuruu, and Emil fixed its backside to fit a näkki. It was thick and warm and far more protective than the ratty rotting tunic Lalli wore in the water. Emil had this shallow hope that maybe, it would make him feel a little more human. It was silly, he knew - but sometimes he held Lalli’s hands in his own until they were dry and warm.

They never stayed warm for long.

But what was okay, because it gave him an excuse to do it again.


Oh god, I think there's Wonderful Bittersweet TearsTM in my eye
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: AquaAurion on October 08, 2015, 01:09:54 PM
I really like all the Näkki fics you guys have been posting!!! ^w^
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Curry on October 08, 2015, 01:25:50 PM
heeeeyyyy i kinda. wrote a. weird pointless drabble thing today. for the Näkki AU - more specifically Sectoboss' version, or at least the concept of that one. like, i don't even know. there's no plot to it, really, just. writing. things. yeah.

Spoiler: forest hobo husbands • show

It was autumn, with red and yellow leaves dancing in the wind, with frost crunching underfoot, and the näkki was sitting at a rock by his pond, and he was singing and he was beautiful.

He had been beautiful and singing and beautiful back then, too, that fateful night when they had met. But it had been different. Emil could recall the voice. The sleek voice, seeping into his head, muffling his thoughts like moss and murky water - and he couldn’t even think to mind it. He hadn’t minded the gleaming, glittering eyes of gold staring into his, or the pale, smooth skin, glowing oddly in the light of the water. He would have gadly died in the ams and charms of shimmery glamour. He almost had.

Almost.

Now, it was a quiet song, the clarity of a whispery voice. The näkki was covered in greens and grime, and his eyes were not gold. Something was very wrong with his eyes, but at least they were his. And maybe that was his beauty. He was real and he was honest and he was Lalli.

Emil said his name, sometimes. And Lalli would always flinch, but then he smiled, a very small and very bitter smile. And sometimes his eyes would glaze over, and Emil would repeat his name again, and again. Lalli. Lalli. Lalli Hotakainen.

The fight was never truly over.

There were good moments and there were bad moments, but there was trust, for Emil had never trusted anyone more than he trusted the infected mage. And Lalli trusted him too, to know his name and know his pond.

Lalli didn’t really need the coat, but Emil made it for him anyway. Well, not made it per se - it was a spare coat from Keuruu, and Emil fixed its backside to fit a näkki. It was thick and warm and far more protective than the ratty rotting tunic Lalli wore in the water. Emil had this shallow hope that maybe, it would make him feel a little more human. It was silly, he knew - but sometimes he held Lalli’s hands in his own until they were dry and warm.

They never stayed warm for long.

But what was okay, because it gave him an excuse to do it again.


Ohhhhh my gosh this is so wonderful and pretty and yessss ;w;)b That was really nice to read and now I ship this a little maybe
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Haiz on October 08, 2015, 04:01:14 PM
Thank you everyone <3 I'm glad you like my weird drabble that seems like it should be a bigger story and then just ends haha
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on October 09, 2015, 01:14:46 PM
Oh gods above I was supposed to get so much work done today but then I did this instead and I almost don’t regret that.

I’m starting a 1920s AU, set in Prohibition-era Chicago. Pulpy nonsense about booze smuggling, mob shootouts, nice suits – the works. It may confine itself to the two chapters I’ve got planned out, or it may snowball. We’ll have to see how much I can fit in around all the work I should have done.

Anyways, enough babbling: here’s Chapter 1.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4964401/chapters/11400241

And Haiz, I loved your little näkki-drabble!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Seilann on October 09, 2015, 01:47:01 PM
Haiz and SectoBoss, you are both AMAZING.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: misea on October 09, 2015, 02:09:37 PM
Oh gods above I was supposed to get so much work done today but then I did this instead and I almost don’t regret that.

I’m starting a 1920s AU, set in Prohibition-era Chicago. Pulpy nonsense about booze smuggling, mob shootouts, nice suits – the works. It may confine itself to the two chapters I’ve got planned out, or it may snowball. We’ll have to see how much I can fit in around all the work I should have done.

Anyways, enough babbling: here’s Chapter 1.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4964401/chapters/11400241

ROARING TWENTIES AU YES
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Haiz on October 09, 2015, 08:16:20 PM
thank you, sectoboss and seilann!

Oh gods above I was supposed to get so much work done today but then I did this instead and I almost don’t regret that.

I’m starting a 1920s AU, set in Prohibition-era Chicago. Pulpy nonsense about booze smuggling, mob shootouts, nice suits – the works. It may confine itself to the two chapters I’ve got planned out, or it may snowball. We’ll have to see how much I can fit in around all the work I should have done.

Anyways, enough babbling: here’s Chapter 1.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4964401/chapters/11400241
i wanna tell you how awesome this is but i kind of need an angel choir in the background to express my feelings accurately
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on October 09, 2015, 10:35:56 PM
SectoBoss, I love it! Now I look forward to seeing Tuuri rocking jazz beads and a fascinator! And Lalli being sinister, Emil being clueless, and Mikkel being an undercover G-Man. Or whatever you do, it's sure to be fun.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on October 10, 2015, 02:59:27 AM
Seilann, misea, Haiz and Róisín, I'm really glad you like it! (and like I say, stay tuned for part 2 soon...)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OrigamiOwl on October 10, 2015, 04:23:14 AM
I’m starting a 1920s AU, set in Prohibition-era Chicago.
[...]
http://archiveofourown.org/works/4964401/chapters/11400241
hhhhhHHHHHHNNNNNNN N N N N N N N N   N   N   N   M      THIS IS AMAZING I MAY HAVE CRIED FROM ITS AMAZINGNESS <_<
*puts on "To Draw After Semester Ends" list* \o____o/
Spoiler: show
I really like the setup! XD (Your opening bit reminded me of the start of The Maltese Falcon with the establishing shot and the office window and stuff :3) And Lalli.....oh my...it's perfect SectoBoss ;-; the eyeroll made me actually cry. IT'S SO GOOD AGHGHHG
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on October 11, 2015, 11:24:31 AM
/me drools over the 20's AU fic.

…Oh, I edited my Lalli-näkki fic (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg69745#msg69745).
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on October 11, 2015, 01:53:50 PM
Thank you, OrigamiOwl and LooNEY!

Oh, and what's this? Part 2 of the 1920s AU? Which will probably be 3 chapters or more at this rate? (Yeah, it's snowballing. Sue me.)

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4964401/chapters/11434711

Hope you all like it!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: misea on October 11, 2015, 06:50:05 PM
/me drools over the 20's AU fic.

…Oh, I edited my Lalli-näkki fic (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg69745#msg69745).

YES GOOD

Oh, and what's this? Part 2 of the 1920s AU? Which will probably be 3 chapters or more at this rate? (Yeah, it's snowballing. Sue me.)

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4964401/chapters/11434711

Hope you all like it!

SUCH A GOOD AU
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on October 11, 2015, 07:18:23 PM
Looney: your revision makes the story much clearer, and gives it weight and balance. I had been wondering what it could be that a creature such as a näkki could use to entrap Lalli, but yes, a threat to his team would do it, not to mention threats to his cousin and his friend. Good job!

SectoBoss: I do like the gritty realism of your twenties AU, and, as always, the way you write the interactions between the characters. Looking forward to the next chapter!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Seilann on October 12, 2015, 04:41:10 PM
*tosses up link to part 4, dives right back into the real world*

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4918981/chapters/11455951
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on October 12, 2015, 04:59:40 PM
*tosses up link to part 4, dives right back into the real world*

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4918981/chapters/11455951
Ah, I love it! Poor Lalli... And I really like the way you've charted Lalli's descent into the illness, it feels chillingly realistic!

I have some good news of my own: the 1920s AU I've been working on now has illustrations thanks to shoop! They're the same arts she's posted in the art museum, but slotted into the text where appropriate, and I think they work rather well.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Mélusine on October 12, 2015, 06:15:10 PM
*tosses up link to part 4, dives right back into the real world*

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4918981/chapters/11455951
*Reads parts 2, 3 and 4*
Okay. So, Seilann, you just want to make me nearly cry before going to bed ?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on October 12, 2015, 06:40:08 PM
SectoBoss and Shoop: the illustrations fit really well; it's great!

Seilann: chilling tale so far. Does Emil propose diving for Lalli's not-dead body? Draining the lake?
Do you know about the old Northern European superstition concerning searching for things in water, especially things of a magical nature or things affected by magic? There was a proper procedure when doing so, whether you were looking for the wizard's scrying-stone dropped in the well, or a person who had been enchanted. It had to be done in the dark, which was less of a problem in tales like the old Cornish one 'The Maid and the Merrow' where the story takes place in the sea-caves under cliffs where the Merrow lairs, but might be more than a little dangerous in Minna's world! In the Northumbrian/Scots Border ballad 'Young Hunting' it's used to find the body of a murdered young man which has been concealed by evil magic in a hole in the bottom of a river.

The procedure had several variants, but the commonest was to float lights on the water in the darkest part of the night, while singing the appropriate spell, which might be a binding charm in the case of a dangerous monster like the Merrow, or a simple calling pattern in the case of something less deadly. In 'Young Hunting' the searchers float 'lanthorns' in nests of woven grass along the stretch of river where they suspect the body to be, then his sister sings the body up to where the divers can find him. Might be a use for all those candles.
 
I wonder what Mikkel has found in his books? And I wonder what would happen if Lalli mustered enough will to run *enough* magic through his body? Would it burn clean? Looking forward with trepidation to the next episode!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Mélusine on October 12, 2015, 06:49:41 PM
All of that is something else I could add on my "why lakes and this kind of places always seems a bad idea in fiction"...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on October 12, 2015, 07:23:53 PM
And now, a giant step back…

Survival
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Spoiler: show
If she’d had to pick, she’d say the worst things about this new world were the rats.

The rats under consideration weren’t the of late frighteningly scarce normal ones, though those had caused quite a bit of trouble in the beginning. No, the rats she’d have meant were Beast-rats, ones that could seem normal until you were close enough for them to strike, and then dropped that guise in favor of some demonic form straight from the deepest pits.

Their cat had saved her five or six times over from those things, earning increasingly better treatment from all of them, which, being a cat, it graciously accepted as its due. But the cat was getting old; as with all flesh, the day would come when they lost its protection, but none of them wanted to think about that yet.

Sometimes, when she was just waking up, she’d look at her husband’s face, relaxed in sleep so close to her own, and think the whole thing had been some crazy nightmare; that she needed to hurry off to her job in the bustling city among all the other people; that the world was circling on as it had all the earlier days of her life, with Mankind ruling with a sometimes clumsy but always firm hand. Then reality would come crashing back to her, and she’d have to choke back her tears so he wouldn’t wake and be crushed by them.

He was her rock, the one without whom she would truly have despaired, and he could face beast, troll or giant without flinching, but her tears always felled him. There had been many tears, of course, especially early on, and not just from her. You could say you were ready for the collapse of civilization, play at preparing for the loss of everything you’d ever known, and even believe it to your core, but when it actually came about, you couldn’t watch the world shatter around you without being sliced open by one piece or another.

Tuuli Hollola shook off her despondent mood and put on her “I’m a happy crazy lady!” smile before going back to join the others topside. After all, life went on, even after the world ended.


Spoiler:  Authorial Notes • show

Just a short glimpse into the mind of one of the prologue characters here.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on October 12, 2015, 08:58:52 PM
I like it!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Seilann on October 12, 2015, 09:43:06 PM
And now, a giant step back…

Survival
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Spoiler: show
If she’d had to pick, she’d say the worst things about this new world were the rats.

The rats under consideration weren’t the of late frighteningly scarce normal ones, though those had caused quite a bit of trouble in the beginning. No, the rats she’d have meant were Beast-rats, ones that could seem normal until you were close enough for them to strike, and then dropped that guise in favor of some demonic form straight from the deepest pits.

Their cat had saved her five or six times over from those things, earning increasingly better treatment from all of them, which, being a cat, it graciously accepted as its due. But the cat was getting old; as with all flesh, the day would come when they lost its protection, but none of them wanted to think about that yet.

Sometimes, when she was just waking up, she’d look at her husband’s face, relaxed in sleep so close to her own, and think the whole thing had been some crazy nightmare; that she needed to hurry off to her job in the bustling city among all the other people; that the world was circling on as it had all the earlier days of her life, with Mankind ruling with a sometimes clumsy but always firm hand. Then reality would come crashing back to her, and she’d have to choke back her tears so he wouldn’t wake and be crushed by them.

He was her rock, the one without whom she would truly have despaired, and he could face beast, troll or giant without flinching, but her tears always felled him. There had been many tears, of course, especially early on, and not just from her. You could say you were ready for the collapse of civilization, play at preparing for the loss of everything you’d ever known, and even believe it to your core, but when it actually came about, you couldn’t watch the world shatter around you without being sliced open by one piece or another.

Tuuli Hollola shook off her despondent mood and put on her “I’m a happy crazy lady!” smile before going back to join the others topside. After all, life went on, even after the world ended.


Spoiler:  Authorial Notes • show

Just a short glimpse into the mind of one of the prologue characters here.


Looney, I really like how you always find these interesting new angles to tell stories from. :)

SectoBoss and Mélusine, glad you're liking (slash hating? haha sorry Mélusine!) the story! Róisín, thanks for the info, I wasn't familiar with any of that. Actually, Emil will be using a candle for something, but I don't want to spoil it... I will say that one other thing you mentioned is very close to being right, though!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Sunflower on October 12, 2015, 10:14:49 PM
…Oh, I edited my Lalli-näkki fic (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg69745#msg69745).

I can't draw, and I'd only be getting in the way if I tried to write näkki fics.  But... here's some emo pop with a very näkki (or anyway underwater) art design, plus a host of weird little critters...

/>
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: misea on October 13, 2015, 01:05:40 AM
*tosses up link to part 4, dives right back into the real world*

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4918981/chapters/11455951

*CONFLICTED FANFIC READER'S SCREECHING*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on October 14, 2015, 02:17:19 AM
The Good, the Bad, and the Bestial
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/Western crossover fanfic
Part 12
Spoiler: show
Towards the Cave of Time

The Darkness had lain over this place for untold years, waiting, watching, and planning. The Darkness was patient that way.

The march of the eons had paraded before the Darkness once, a vast, glittering tapestry of time bathed in beautiful showers of light that mocked the Darkness. Now, the Darkness would smother that tapestry, snuffing away light wherever it was to be found.

All was nearly in place now: the Man in the Black Hat; the Children of Darkness; the Unseen Inferno; and the Hopeless Distraction. The only way that anything could go awry, in fact, the key to defeating the Darkness, would soon be ensnared and engulfed in a Tar Baby of their own making.

It would all start with five simple words...

*

“THERE! NOW I SEE IT!”

“What do you see?” Sigrun’s voice was hushed.

“I see... I see a dark man crossing our path like a black cat to bring ruin to us. I see you and he have a past that drives him to come after us until he’s killed you. I see...”

Reynir was quiet for some time, mouth agape in amazement, until Sigrun poured out another shot for him. The sound jolted him back into speech.

“I see a cave that we must enter. I see he wants us to, and’ll help us get in that cave, but we must enter it anyway. I see past, present and future colliding and ricocheting like the balls on a billiard table...” Reynir stood, picking the whiskey bottle up and taking a swig directly from it. “I see us, and us, and us again, echoed down through the ages over and over. I see us getting through it with flying colors and a big brass band besides. Don’t worry, Lalli; it’ll all work out.”

*

The Man in the Black Hat walked up to where the prison commandant lay staked out for the wolves. The prison itself burned behind him, turning the noontime light a sickly orange with the billows of smoke that poured from it. Gathered around were the Man in the Black Hat’s enforcers, freshly back from burying the rest of the prison staff that they’d executed earlier.

The ex-commandant was either asleep or faking it; either way, his eyes flew open when the Man in the Black Hat kicked him in his side viciously.

“I’ve changed my mind.” The words were calculated to raise the doomed man’s hopes, but the hard expression on the Man in the Black Hat’s face belied that hope. He let the statement hang in the silence for a long moment before continuing, “Staking you out for the wolves is fine if you’re hunting wolves, but for what I’m hunting, you’re worthless. You failed to hold them; you’d fail as bait for them. The only thing you’re good for,” one of the Man in the Black Hat’s henchmen uncorked a large jug and handed it to his boss, “is to show how I deal with failures.”

The ex-commandant began to struggle wildly against the ropes binding him.

The Man in the Black Hat poured the oil over his victim, taking care to avoid where the ropes were attached, until the helpless man was quite soaked, then lit a thin cigarillo, and puffed away at it a few times. Then, he tossed the match.

*

“So, we’re heading for this cave in the middle of the Badlands so we can have it out with some guy from your past.” Mikkel’s voice still kept its wonted calm as he made the statement.

“Yep. And once we do, we’ll have one fewer enemy out there. Wasn’t that what you wanted?”

Mikkel ignored the jab. “do you know who this man is?”

Sigrun’s face hardened. “Yep. Only one guy would be after me like this.”

“Who is he?”

Sheepish amusement twisted Sigrun’s face. “Well, we were never really on a first-name basis, if you understand, and so I never did get to know his right name. Most folk just call him the Man in the Black Hat, like he was a character out of one of those dime-store pulps.”

“I suppose it would be to much to ask for him to act as foolish as those villains do.”

“Foolish, no.” Sigrun paused significantly. “Evil, yes.”

*

The hired gun slowly approached the Man in the Black Hat. Once his master acknowledged him, he reported, “They’re heading into the trap now.”

The Man in the Black Hat smiled. “Then we’d better be off ourselves.” He looked back. “Well, he made a better torch then he did a commandant.”

The hired gun declined to look.

“Time to ride for the Cave,” the Man in the Black Hat said, mounting his horse...


Spoiler:  Authorial Notes • show

Thus begins the caper of... the Cave of Time! (Only I get to choose their adventures!)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on October 14, 2015, 02:25:04 AM
Curiouser and curiouser! Now just where are you going with this one, LooNEY?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on October 14, 2015, 02:33:17 AM
Curiouser and curiouser! Now just where are you going with this one, LooNEY?
*Maniacal laughter*

Oh, it might have something to do with stuff mentioned here (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg69980#msg69980).

*Maniacal laughter intensifies*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on October 16, 2015, 11:53:35 PM
I keep having to double post like this…

Contingencies
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/“Terminator” crossover fanfic
Part 7
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg70999#msg70999)
Spoiler: show
Unmasked

Earlier...

A series of slapping sounds filled the vehicle, accompanied by the sound of Sigrun turning the air blue with her curses. She had quite the vocabulary, Emil noticed admiringly. He had been doing some slapping himself, and wondering where the flies were coming from, since, like trolls, they usually waited for the warmth of summer to start preying on people. He might ask Mikkel.

Just then, Mikkel’s deep voice lifted in a cross between a grunt and a growl, with more slapping sounds as accompaniment. Emil decided the question could wait. Looking down at Lalli’s napping form, he noticed several of the flies hovering in the vicinity, and tried to swish them away with a spare blanket. This only served to accidentally wake Lalli, who began slapping at the flies himself after a moment of outraged silence at having his nap interrupted.

The only bright spot was that flies weren’t a vector for the Rash, or Humanity would have been wiped out long ago.

Now...

The T-1000 imitating both [EIDE, SIGRUN] and [VAESTERSTROM, EMIL] simultaneously was observing [HOTAKAINEN, TUURI] closely enough to pinpoint when the human realized the imposture. The T-1000 had been reluctant to use the secondhand data from the fly-bots, preferring to take such samples itself, and now it had evidence that this other method was faulty, possibly through corrupt data transmission.

Of course, the failure of the impersonation meant that more direct methods would need to be employed in the assault.

*

“Lalli!” Sigrun called. Once she was sure she had the slender scout’s attention, she began miming at him to help her carry the unconscious Emil back to the vehicle. She could have done it herself, of course, but for long hauls like this, a double carry was best.

Lalli looked back at Sigrun, blank incomprehension writ large upon his face. Why was the crazy lady babbling on and making weird gestures at him when there were still dangers about? He shook his head, wondering (and not for the first time) how she’d survived all these years.

Sigrun let out a soft but inventive curse that would have sparked Emil’s admiration had he been awake to hear it. She tried getting the message across to Lalli again, with ever broader gesticulations, until finally, she was acting out a sort of interpretive dance for him, though he obviously still didn’t understand.

Lalli suddenly tensed, alertness in every line of his body. Sigrun was so involved in her attempts to get him to help her that she almost missed his abrupt change in demeanor, but the hard-learned battle reflexes in the back of her mind caught what he was wordlessly telling her. Almost as quickly as Lalli, Sigrun went into a wary crouch, ready to strike whatever came her way.

Having a better understanding of the situation, however, the scout was disposed to take more positive action. Lalli’s movements were always swift, graceful and economical, so when he brought his rifle to bear and fired, catching the grossling as it was easing into position for an ambush, he almost looked like he was dancing himself.

*

“Um, Tuuri?” Reynir tried to get their driver’s attention by tapping her shoulder and was surprised when she nearly jumped out of her skin. “Oh, sorry! I-I-I just wanted to know what you were doing and why we aren’t letting Sigrun and Emil in.”

Tuuri’s normally pleasant face hardened. “They’re not Sigrun and Emil, Reynir.” Reynir’s confused expression deepened, so she sighed and tried to explain. “Most Finns have a connection to the Other World, but only the ones strong enough to see spirits are mages. I just asked the spirits out there to help me see them, and they showed me that the thing out there doesn’t have a spirit, so it can’t be Sigrun and Emil.”

“What could it be, then?” Reynir asked in awe.

“Nothing I’m letting inside,” Tuuri replied grimly.

Even as she said it, the familiar forms outside seemed to start melting into a silvery blob, but before the T-1000 could begin its attack, it was struck from behind by an old piece of rebar, wielded with more force than any mere human could generate. The four rebellious T-800s of the first echelon had arrived.


Spoiler:  Authorial Notes • show

Sorry to disappoint, SectoBoss: there is a real Sigrun on the team. But, hey, interpretive dancing!

...And where did Mikkel go? Hmmmmm...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on October 17, 2015, 10:50:35 AM
I keep having to double post like this…

Contingencies
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/“Terminator” crossover fanfic
Part 7
Spoiler: show
Unmasked

Earlier...

A series of slapping sounds filled the vehicle, accompanied by the sound of Sigrun turning the air blue with her curses. She had quite the vocabulary, Emil noticed admiringly. He had been doing some slapping himself, and wondering where the flies were coming from, since, like trolls, they usually waited for the warmth of summer to start preying on people. He might ask Mikkel.

Just then, Mikkel’s deep voice lifted in a cross between a grunt and a growl, with more slapping sounds as accompaniment. Emil decided the question could wait. Looking down at Lalli’s napping form, he noticed several of the flies hovering in the vicinity, and tried to swish them away with a spare blanket. This only served to accidentally wake Lalli, who began slapping at the flies himself after a moment of outraged silence at having his nap interrupted.

The only bright spot was that flies weren’t a vector for the Rash, or Humanity would have been wiped out long ago.

Now...

The T-1000 imitating both [EIDE, SIGRUN] and [VAESTERSTROM, EMIL] simultaneously was observing [HOTAKAINEN, TUURI] closely enough to pinpoint when the human realized the imposture. The T-1000 had been reluctant to use the secondhand data from the fly-bots, preferring to take such samples itself, and now it had evidence that this other method was faulty, possibly through corrupt data transmission.

Of course, the failure of the impersonation meant that more direct methods would need to be employed in the assault.

*

“Lalli!” Sigrun called. Once she was sure she had the slender scout’s attention, she began miming at him to help her carry the unconscious Emil back to the vehicle. She could have done it herself, of course, but for long hauls like this, a double carry was best.

Lalli looked back at Sigrun, blank incomprehension writ large upon his face. Why was the crazy lady babbling on and making weird gestures at him when there were still dangers about? He shook his head, wondering (and not for the first time) how she’d survived all these years.

Sigrun let out a soft but inventive curse that would have sparked Emil’s admiration had he been awake to hear it. She tried getting the message across to Lalli again, with ever broader gesticulations, until finally, she was acting out a sort of interpretive dance for him, though he obviously still didn’t understand.

Lalli suddenly tensed, alertness in every line of his body. Sigrun was so involved in her attempts to get him to help her that she almost missed his abrupt change in demeanor, but the hard-learned battle reflexes in the back of her mind caught what he was wordlessly telling her. Almost as quickly as Lalli, Sigrun went into a wary crouch, ready to strike whatever came her way.

Having a better understanding of the situation, however, the scout was disposed to take more positive action. Lalli’s movements were always swift, graceful and economical, so when he brought his rifle to bear and fired, catching the grossling as it was easing into position for an ambush, he almost looked like he was dancing himself.

*

“Um, Tuuri?” Reynir tried to get their driver’s attention by tapping her shoulder and was surprised when she nearly jumped out of her skin. “Oh, sorry! I-I-I just wanted to know what you were doing and why we aren’t letting Sigrun and Emil in.”

Tuuri’s normally pleasant face hardened. “They’re not Sigrun and Emil, Reynir.” Reynir’s confused expression deepened, so she sighed and tried to explain. “Most Finns have a connection to the Other World, but only the ones strong enough to see spirits are mages. I just asked the spirits out there to help me see them, and they showed me that the thing out there doesn’t have a spirit, so it can’t be Sigrun and Emil.”

“What could it be, then?” Reynir asked in awe.

“Nothing I’m letting inside,” Tuuri replied grimly.

Even as she said it, the familiar forms outside seemed to start melting into a silvery blob, but before the T-1000 could begin its attack, it was struck from behind by an old piece of rebar, wielded with more force than any mere human could generate. The four rebellious T-800s of the first echelon had arrived.


Spoiler:  Authorial Notes • show

Sorry to disappoint, SectoBoss: there is a real Sigrun on the team. But, hey, interpretive dancing!

...And where did Mikkel go? Hmmmmm...


Very nice! Looking forward to seeing where this goes.
Spoiler: show
And awww, no T-1000 Sigrun, that's a shame :D
There's still the T-X...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: ButterflyWings on October 17, 2015, 11:05:58 AM
OLD MAN GREY

Spoiler: show
What a great and lighty weight is it to live in this twilight world between the heavy fundament and airy heaven.

I read the page again carefully before placing it back in its book and placing it back on its shelf. This place with its thousands of dusty books on its shelves was always a joy to walk through. My calm always close behind as I tiptoed through the stacks, arms outreached to touch the  spines on both sides.

Occasionally I would stop to look at a bust of a long dead philosopher it's marble cold and waxy to my touch, Aristotle to Seneca the Younger to Kirkegaard.

"Hello little mouse."

I froze and looked up. I wanted to squeak but instead looked up at the giant as he peered down at me with his great moon eyes. His mouth a pit lined with ruined gravestone teeth. A slimy tongue ran along the ridge.

"I was curious when you would return. I hope you brought something with you."

I held out a book for him, it's blue green cloth worn in places, the gilt on the cover worn, the name though was clear.

"Ah the Wreathe. A delightful book. It's a shame you did not bring her sisters with her, the House-Wife and the Cross."

He took the book gently from my outstretched hand. The book felt tiny between his fingers. He lifted it to his eyes before moving it with a single gesture to parts unseen of this great library

"What brings you to my domain? I'm sure it's more than just to return a book to an old man like me."

I opened my mouth and we both stared at each other, for a long time. His great eyes eventually blinked as he grew bored with the wait.

@I...  I saw two boys today. They chased away a beast like creature. And, and they saved a kitten and its mother."

"Ah." There was a long pause, "I see." He moved his body lightly, somewhere above the roof slightly moved, showering down dust.

"Since the last time man was in this dead city, they only brought further destruction with them. I remember, I remember when I braced myself against the roof to protect my children from their guns and their bombs. Hook backed here I stand since that time. I do not wish that empire of man back here with their machines and minds of metal."

The roof shook as his voice reached a bellow. Dust fell heavily and books jumped from their shelves.

"What more did you see? Tell me, tell me." The dust was cloying and heavy as his voice went to a-synorous hush.

"That's all I know. I went to see the doctor though."

"Oh? Did you now?" The building was hushed, the dust drifted lazily in the air.

"Yes. I took the kittens to him, but I didn't like the way is now. He's changed, more demanding now, I could see his hunger." I shivered as I remembered how he tore my photo book from my hands. My back to his sample cabinet.

"This is, is unfortunate. I enjoy your occasional company little mouse. I would be sad to have you never return. I miss... our... discussions."

"But what should I do?"

"Do? Why nothing at all. You do not have to do anything, but what you could do is, is different. You are different than an old man stuck with his children."

A finger tip the size of a car brushed at a lock of hair from my face. "You are an innocent soul, little mouse, with the curiosity of a cat and the courage of a lion. Whatever could you not do?"

"So I should follow the boys?" I asked as he curled his finger along the lock of my hair before withdrawing his hand up into depths of the library. There was a weighty slience as he exhaled and then inhaled clearing any lingering dust from the aisle in which I stood.

"If that is your wish, little mouse. Although to sound like a selfish old man, there is a story here that has yet to be told in full."

I turned to leave, a hidden chance solidifying into resolve.

"Ah. Before you go, I have no rings or magic cloaks to give you, but as the most ancient of rites must be performed, I bequeth you adventurer a story for a story. Take care of my child, little mouse or our next meeting may end up not being so fortuitous."

The giant handed me  a book with a worn spine and bent corners, the title said 'The Brothers Lionheart' ".

I placd the book among my photo book in my ruck sack.

As I walked out I saw him looking around the library and saying "There there children. I am sure it will be fine. Old Man Grey is here."
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Ragnarok on October 17, 2015, 11:25:53 AM
OLD MAN GREY

Spoiler: show
What a great and lighty weight is it to live in this twilight world between the heavy fundament and airy heaven.

I read the page again carefully before placing it back in its book and placing it back on its shelf. This place with its thousands of dusty books on its shelves was always a joy to walk through. My calm always close behind as I tiptoed through the stacks, arms outreached to touch the  spines on both sides.

Occasionally I would stop to look at a bust of a long dead philosopher it's marble cold and waxy to my touch, Aristotle to Seneca the Younger to Kirkegaard.

"Hello little mouse."

I froze and looked up. I wanted to squeak but instead looked up at the giant as he peered down at me with his great moon eyes. His mouth a pit lined with ruined gravestone teeth. A slimy tongue ran along the ridge.

"I was curious when you would return. I hope you brought something with you."

I held out a book for him, it's blue green cloth worn in places, the gilt on the cover worn, the name though was clear.

"Ah the Wreathe. A delightful book. It's a shame you did not bring her sisters with her, the House-Wife and the Cross."

He took the book gently from my outstretched hand. The book felt tiny between his fingers. He lifted it to his eyes before moving it with a single gesture to parts unseen of this great library

"What brings you to my domain? I'm sure it's more than just to return a book to an old man like me."

I opened my mouth and we both stared at each other, for a long time. His great eyes eventually blinked as he grew bored with the wait.

@I...  I saw two boys today. They chased away a beast like creature. And, and they saved a kitten and its mother."

"Ah." There was a long pause, "I see." He moved his body lightly, somewhere above the roof slightly moved, showering down dust.

"Since the last time man was in this dead city, they only brought further destruction with them. I remember, I remember when I braced myself against the roof to protect my children from their guns and their bombs. Hook backed here I stand since that time. I do not wish that empire of man back here with their machines and minds of metal."

The roof shook as his voice reached a bellow. Dust fell heavily and books jumped from their shelves.

"What more did you see? Tell me, tell me." The dust was cloying and heavy as his voice went to a-synorous hush.

"That's all I know. I went to see the doctor though."

"Oh? Did you now?" The building was hushed, the dust drifted lazily in the air.

"Yes. I took the kittens to him, but I didn't like the way is now. He's changed, more demanding now, I could see his hunger." I shivered as I remembered how he tore my photo book from my hands. My back to his sample cabinet.

"This is, is unfortunate. I enjoy your occasional company little mouse. I would be sad to have you never return. I miss... our... discussions."

"But what should I do?"

"Do? Why nothing at all. You do not have to do anything, but what you could do is, is different. You are different than an old man stuck with his children."

A finger tip the size of a car brushed at a lock of hair from my face. "You are an innocent soul, little mouse, with the curiosity of a cat and the courage of a lion. Whatever could you not do?"

"So I should follow the boys?" I asked as he curled his finger along the lock of my hair before withdrawing his hand up into depths of the library. There was a weighty slience as he exhaled and then inhaled clearing any lingering dust from the aisle in which I stood.

"If that is your wish, little mouse. Although to sound like a selfish old man, there is a story here that has yet to be told in full."

I turned to leave, a hidden chance solidifying into resolve.

"Ah. Before you go, I have no rings or magic cloaks to give you, but as the most ancient of rites must be performed, I bequeth you adventurer a story for a story. Take care of my child, little mouse or our next meeting may end up not being so fortuitous."

The giant handed me  a book with a worn spine and bent corners, the title said 'The Brothers Lionheart' ".

I placd the book among my photo book in my ruck sack.

As I walked out I saw him looking around the library and saying "There there children. I am sure it will be fine. Old Man Grey is here."


I LIKE IT.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on October 17, 2015, 11:30:54 AM
OLD MAN GREY

Spoiler: show
What a great and lighty weight is it to live in this twilight world between the heavy fundament and airy heaven.

I read the page again carefully before placing it back in its book and placing it back on its shelf. This place with its thousands of dusty books on its shelves was always a joy to walk through. My calm always close behind as I tiptoed through the stacks, arms outreached to touch the  spines on both sides.

Occasionally I would stop to look at a bust of a long dead philosopher it's marble cold and waxy to my touch, Aristotle to Seneca the Younger to Kirkegaard.

"Hello little mouse."

I froze and looked up. I wanted to squeak but instead looked up at the giant as he peered down at me with his great moon eyes. His mouth a pit lined with ruined gravestone teeth. A slimy tongue ran along the ridge.

"I was curious when you would return. I hope you brought something with you."

I held out a book for him, it's blue green cloth worn in places, the gilt on the cover worn, the name though was clear.

"Ah the Wreathe. A delightful book. It's a shame you did not bring her sisters with her, the House-Wife and the Cross."

He took the book gently from my outstretched hand. The book felt tiny between his fingers. He lifted it to his eyes before moving it with a single gesture to parts unseen of this great library

"What brings you to my domain? I'm sure it's more than just to return a book to an old man like me."

I opened my mouth and we both stared at each other, for a long time. His great eyes eventually blinked as he grew bored with the wait.

@I...  I saw two boys today. They chased away a beast like creature. And, and they saved a kitten and its mother."

"Ah." There was a long pause, "I see." He moved his body lightly, somewhere above the roof slightly moved, showering down dust.

"Since the last time man was in this dead city, they only brought further destruction with them. I remember, I remember when I braced myself against the roof to protect my children from their guns and their bombs. Hook backed here I stand since that time. I do not wish that empire of man back here with their machines and minds of metal."

The roof shook as his voice reached a bellow. Dust fell heavily and books jumped from their shelves.

"What more did you see? Tell me, tell me." The dust was cloying and heavy as his voice went to a-synorous hush.

"That's all I know. I went to see the doctor though."

"Oh? Did you now?" The building was hushed, the dust drifted lazily in the air.

"Yes. I took the kittens to him, but I didn't like the way is now. He's changed, more demanding now, I could see his hunger." I shivered as I remembered how he tore my photo book from my hands. My back to his sample cabinet.

"This is, is unfortunate. I enjoy your occasional company little mouse. I would be sad to have you never return. I miss... our... discussions."

"But what should I do?"

"Do? Why nothing at all. You do not have to do anything, but what you could do is, is different. You are different than an old man stuck with his children."

A finger tip the size of a car brushed at a lock of hair from my face. "You are an innocent soul, little mouse, with the curiosity of a cat and the courage of a lion. Whatever could you not do?"

"So I should follow the boys?" I asked as he curled his finger along the lock of my hair before withdrawing his hand up into depths of the library. There was a weighty slience as he exhaled and then inhaled clearing any lingering dust from the aisle in which I stood.

"If that is your wish, little mouse. Although to sound like a selfish old man, there is a story here that has yet to be told in full."

I turned to leave, a hidden chance solidifying into resolve.

"Ah. Before you go, I have no rings or magic cloaks to give you, but as the most ancient of rites must be performed, I bequeth you adventurer a story for a story. Take care of my child, little mouse or our next meeting may end up not being so fortuitous."

The giant handed me  a book with a worn spine and bent corners, the title said 'The Brothers Lionheart' ".

I placd the book among my photo book in my ruck sack.

As I walked out I saw him looking around the library and saying "There there children. I am sure it will be fine. Old Man Grey is here."


I feel like I've seen something like this before - have you posted other works like this (or in the same universe, or whatever) on the forum recently, or am I just getting deja vu?
Spoiler: show
Regardless, this is in intriguing piece of work, and you've got a very distinctive writing style. Just one thing though - I realise you might be trying to keep the reader in suspense, but there were a couple of moments where I was just genuinely confused. For example, is this 'giant' meant to be a SSSS giant? That would be my first assumption on reading the word but the description doesn't match so... I don't know, just something to consider?

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on October 17, 2015, 06:14:07 PM
I feel like I've seen something like this before - have you posted other works like this (or in the same universe, or whatever) on the forum recently, or am I just getting deja vu?
It's the most recent update to these:
https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg42950#msg42950 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg42950#msg42950)
https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg46635#msg46635 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg46635#msg46635)
https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg47212#msg47212 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg47212#msg47212)
…I may have missed a part there.

But anyway, here's something else to consider:

The Jylland Jump
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/“Jazz Age” crossover fanfic
Part 1
Spoiler: show
Band Aid

Malmö, Sweden
1936

The life of a house musician, especially a jazz musician, is full of ups and downs. Sure, you’ve got a steady gig, but you’re always waiting for the one thing that’ll spell the end of it, be it a bad, long cold, a sprained wrist... or a bouncy redhead eager to join his first “real” band.

Emil Västerström, sole woodwind for the “Malmö Musikers” (OK, not the best name, but not the worst, either), house band for Andersen’s Joint (again, not the worst name Emil had seen), eyed the newbie chattering at their leader, the inimitable Sigrun Eide, uneasily as the rest of the gang got ready for the first set of the night. This was just the sort of thing Emil worried about, not that he’d admit that to anyone else. Five times now, Emil had been bounced from a promising gig after some hot new talent had shown up, and Emil would much rather that it didn’t happen again.

The twelve other times he’d been let go from a nice gig, Emil discounted, as those had been over silly little things like suspected (or not so suspected) arson. Emil was much more careful about that kind of thing now, and besides, that had been up in the Frozen North of Östersund, far enough away that it hadn’t followed--and wouldn’t follow--Emil here.

Lalli Hotakainen, their pit man, looked up as Emil walked over to give him a hand, then shrugged and dropped his eyes back to the marimba he was trying to shift. Lalli tended not to worry about these kind of things, preferring to focus on the problem at hand rather than one that was merely potential, and he tended not to talk very much in any case, but he could see that something about the newbie’s arrival was troubling his friend, so he began to consider ways of improving Emil’s mood (maybe a secret beach bonfire?) while they reorganized the pit.

Behind them, Lalli’s cousin Tuuri Hotakainen was readjusting her drum set. She’d been terribly tempted to try a few riffs out right as the boys were at the most delicate part of moving the vibraphone into place, but in the end, she hadn’t. It wasn’t easy to get Lalli mad at her, but when it happened, it was never good. Emil was safe enough, though, so she twitted him every now and again, usually about something he thought he was an expert on but knew nothing about.

Mikkel Madsen, the second brass player, moved into her field of view as he patiently arranged and rearranged the selection of horns in accordance with Sigrun’s ever-changing notions of what they’d be playing and when. You had to watch out for Mikkel, despite his serene appearance, or you’d fall victim to one of his near-legendary pranks.

“Guys!” Sigrun waved as she called to them, signing that they should get over where she was on the double. The gangly redhead stood by her side, grinning goofily.

When they were all there, Sigrun announced proudly, “Guys, this is our new bull fiddle player, Reynir. He’s new to town--came here all the way from some little sheep farm in Iceland! Everybody, introduce yourselves, and Mikkel, show him where to set up for tonight. This is gonna be great!”

Emil slowly released the breath he’d been holding. OK. Not a new woodwind.

Actually, Sigrun had been talking about trying to find a good bassist for some time, so this shouldn’t have been such a surprise. Leave it to Sigrun to clamp on to some guy fresh off the boat.

After a few preliminary tuning plucks, Reynir started out with a really magnificent bass riff, interrupting Emil’s thoughts. Well, well, well. It seemed the kid could play. With any luck, he could play with the group as well, but they’d find that out tonight.


Spoiler:  Authorial Notes • show

Hmmmm, now why would I be starting a new AU (or 2) when the Western crew’s heading into something called “the Cave of Time”?

Really puzzling, that.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on October 17, 2015, 07:37:06 PM
This should be fun! Cave of Time? Did I miss something, or are you just tormenting us?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on October 18, 2015, 12:43:34 AM
Uh, oh. Here's another one:

Tall Ships & Taller Tales
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/Pirate crossover fanfic
Part 1
Spoiler: show
Don’t Cross the Saw-Bones

Somewhere near the Azores
1610

The day started out ordinarily enough on the pirate, erm, privateer ship Sea-Lynx.

Munitions Master Emil Västerström carefully made his way up to the crow’s-nest with his burden, a basket of victuals from First Officer/Ship’s Cook/Ship’s Doctor/No-one-knew-what-all-else Mikkel Madsen for their lookout, Lalli Hotakainen. Lalli just about lived in the crow’s-nest, and he was rather particular about just who could bring him his meals. So far, only Ship’s Navigator (and Carpenter) Tuuri Hotakainen, Lalli’s cousin, and Emil were accorded the privilege. Certainly their Cabin Boy, Reynir Something-Or-Other (Arnason? Arnisen?) was not.

Today, however, Lalli was even more intent on his job than usual, staring through his glass at one particular spot with a worried expression. Emil, cognizant of the disastrous consequences of the last time he’d startled Lalli, began humming a shanty popular with the crew, slowly getting louder until Lalli indicated that he’d heard.

“Well, Lalli,” Emil said, “I’ve brought you your mess and Mister Mikkel’s compliments, and I find you troubled over something off in the distance. Are there fair winds ahead or foul?” He set the hamper at Lalli’s feet while he said this.

Lalli handed over the glass, pointed to where he’d been gazing, and addressed the hamper. Before digging in, however, the look-out vouchsafed one word that explained everything. “Túnfiskurinn.”

Emil swore. “I’ll tell the captain. She’ll know what to do.” He handed back the glass. “Eat well; we may be for it soon.” Soon, he was scrambling back down the rigging.

The Túnfiskurinn was their great rival in these waters. Their sponsor before the Danish Crown, one Trond Andersen (who was connected in some arcane fashion with the Norwegian Assembly, and possibly the Swedish Assembly, and maybe even the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth) had, by some means or other, become the personal nemesis of Túnfiskurinn’s captain, one Ása Hardardóttir. Unable to hurt Trond herself, Ása took great delight in fouling the lines for whatever ventures he had underwritten at any given moment.

When Ása had heard that the Sea-Lynx was sponsored by Trond, she’d scented easy pickings. When their daring Captain Sigrun Eide had put paid to her schemes, Ása had vowed revenge on them personally as well. Neither Emil nor Lalli (nor any of the others in the crew, perhaps only Sigrun herself excepted) were desirous of a rematch now.

The Azores were the cross-roads of the Atlantic: convoys to Portugal from their Far Eastern possessions watered there, and the currents also brought convoys from New Spain to Spain proper temptingly near the islands. Of course, the Spanish and the Portuguese were much stronger in these waters than elsewhere, but a nimble raider could always pick off a lagging, lackadaisically run and unwary ship or two.

The Sea-Lynx was primed to score a rich prize, and woe betide any who would get in her way. And not beforetime, either; they were all hungry for the spree attendant on a new prize taken, and this hunger would redouble their ire should it be thwarted.

And so it was that Emil scuttled down to the ornate door behind which their Captain (presumably) slept with his tidings from Lalli. Before he could knock, though, Mister Mikkel had seized his hand.

“Not so hasty, Mister Emil,” he said mildly. “I am about to deliver the kit for the Captain’s morning ablutions, and I believe you remember what happened to the last crewman who barged in before she’d finished them.”

“But Mister Mikkel,” Emil protested, “it’s the Túnfiskurinn! Lalli sighted her just as I brought his breakfast from you!”

Mister Mikkel frowned. “Very well. But I had still better deliver the news. That way, I’ll be the one on which the ax falls. Go back to your powders and shot; you know well we may need them soon.”


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show

Oooooooh, I’m going to have fun with this one.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on October 18, 2015, 01:01:58 AM
Oh, goody! I love pirate stories. Oh, and thanks for the PM, much is explained!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Noodles on October 18, 2015, 01:24:41 AM
Uh, oh. Here's another one:

Tall Ships & Taller Tales
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/Pirate crossover fanfic
Part 1
Spoiler: show
Don’t Cross the Saw-Bones

Somewhere near the Azores
1610

The day started out ordinarily enough on the pirate, erm, privateer ship Sea-Lynx.

Munitions Master Emil Västerström carefully made his way up to the crow’s-nest with his burden, a basket of victuals from First Officer/Ship’s Cook/Ship’s Doctor/No-one-knew-what-all-else Mikkel Madsen for their lookout, Lalli Hotakainen. Lalli just about lived in the crow’s-nest, and he was rather particular about just who could bring him his meals. So far, only Ship’s Navigator (and Carpenter) Tuuri Hotakainen, Lalli’s cousin, and Emil were accorded the privilege. Certainly their Cabin Boy, Reynir Something-Or-Other (Arnason? Arnisen?) was not.

Today, however, Lalli was even more intent on his job than usual, staring through his glass at one particular spot with a worried expression. Emil, cognizant of the disastrous consequences of the last time he’d startled Lalli, began humming a shanty popular with the crew, slowly getting louder until Lalli indicated that he’d heard.

“Well, Lalli,” Emil said, “I’ve brought you your mess and Mister Mikkel’s compliments, and I find you troubled over something off in the distance. Are there fair winds ahead or foul?” He set the hamper at Lalli’s feet while he said this.

Lalli handed over the glass, pointed to where he’d been gazing, and addressed the hamper. Before digging in, however, the look-out vouchsafed one word that explained everything. “Túnfiskurinn.”

Emil swore. “I’ll tell the captain. She’ll know what to do.” He handed back the glass. “Eat well; we may be for it soon.” Soon, he was scrambling back down the rigging.

The Túnfiskurinn was their great rival in these waters. Their sponsor before the Danish Crown, one Trond Andersen (who was connected in some arcane fashion with the Norwegian Assembly, and possibly the Swedish Assembly, and maybe even the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth) had, by some means or other, become the personal nemesis of Túnfiskurinn’s captain, one Ása Hardardóttir. Unable to hurt Trond herself, Ása took great delight in fouling the lines for whatever ventures he had underwritten at any given moment.

When Ása had heard that the Sea-Lynx was sponsored by Trond, she’d scented easy pickings. When their daring Captain Sigrun Eide had put paid to her schemes, Ása had vowed revenge on them personally as well. Neither Emil nor Lalli (nor any of the others in the crew, perhaps only Sigrun herself excepted) were desirous of a rematch now.

The Azores were the cross-roads of the Atlantic: convoys to Portugal from their Far Eastern possessions watered there, and the currents also brought convoys from New Spain to Spain proper temptingly near the islands. Of course, the Spanish and the Portuguese were much stronger in these waters than elsewhere, but a nimble raider could always pick off a lagging, lackadaisically run and unwary ship or two.

The Sea-Lynx was primed to score a rich prize, and woe betide any who would get in her way. And not beforetime, either; they were all hungry for the spree attendant on a new prize taken, and this hunger would redouble their ire should it be thwarted.

And so it was that Emil scuttled down to the ornate door behind which their Captain (presumably) slept with his tidings from Lalli. Before he could knock, though, Mister Mikkel had seized his hand.

“Not so hasty, Mister Emil,” he said mildly. “I am about to deliver the kit for the Captain’s morning ablutions, and I believe you remember what happened to the last crewman who barged in before she’d finished them.”

“But Mister Mikkel,” Emil protested, “it’s the Túnfiskurinn! Lalli sighted her just as I brought his breakfast from you!”

Mister Mikkel frowned. “Very well. But I had still better deliver the news. That way, I’ll be the one on which the ax falls. Go back to your powders and shot; you know well we may need them soon.”


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show

Oooooooh, I’m going to have fun with this one.

YESSSSSS I AM HERE FOR THIS PIRATE FANFIC
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Ragnarok on October 18, 2015, 10:52:06 AM
Uh, oh. Here's another one:

Tall Ships & Taller Tales
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/Pirate crossover fanfic
Part 1
Spoiler: show
Don’t Cross the Saw-Bones

Somewhere near the Azores
1610

The day started out ordinarily enough on the pirate, erm, privateer ship Sea-Lynx.

Munitions Master Emil Västerström carefully made his way up to the crow’s-nest with his burden, a basket of victuals from First Officer/Ship’s Cook/Ship’s Doctor/No-one-knew-what-all-else Mikkel Madsen for their lookout, Lalli Hotakainen. Lalli just about lived in the crow’s-nest, and he was rather particular about just who could bring him his meals. So far, only Ship’s Navigator (and Carpenter) Tuuri Hotakainen, Lalli’s cousin, and Emil were accorded the privilege. Certainly their Cabin Boy, Reynir Something-Or-Other (Arnason? Arnisen?) was not.

Today, however, Lalli was even more intent on his job than usual, staring through his glass at one particular spot with a worried expression. Emil, cognizant of the disastrous consequences of the last time he’d startled Lalli, began humming a shanty popular with the crew, slowly getting louder until Lalli indicated that he’d heard.

“Well, Lalli,” Emil said, “I’ve brought you your mess and Mister Mikkel’s compliments, and I find you troubled over something off in the distance. Are there fair winds ahead or foul?” He set the hamper at Lalli’s feet while he said this.

Lalli handed over the glass, pointed to where he’d been gazing, and addressed the hamper. Before digging in, however, the look-out vouchsafed one word that explained everything. “Túnfiskurinn.”

Emil swore. “I’ll tell the captain. She’ll know what to do.” He handed back the glass. “Eat well; we may be for it soon.” Soon, he was scrambling back down the rigging.

The Túnfiskurinn was their great rival in these waters. Their sponsor before the Danish Crown, one Trond Andersen (who was connected in some arcane fashion with the Norwegian Assembly, and possibly the Swedish Assembly, and maybe even the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth) had, by some means or other, become the personal nemesis of Túnfiskurinn’s captain, one Ása Hardardóttir. Unable to hurt Trond herself, Ása took great delight in fouling the lines for whatever ventures he had underwritten at any given moment.

When Ása had heard that the Sea-Lynx was sponsored by Trond, she’d scented easy pickings. When their daring Captain Sigrun Eide had put paid to her schemes, Ása had vowed revenge on them personally as well. Neither Emil nor Lalli (nor any of the others in the crew, perhaps only Sigrun herself excepted) were desirous of a rematch now.

The Azores were the cross-roads of the Atlantic: convoys to Portugal from their Far Eastern possessions watered there, and the currents also brought convoys from New Spain to Spain proper temptingly near the islands. Of course, the Spanish and the Portuguese were much stronger in these waters than elsewhere, but a nimble raider could always pick off a lagging, lackadaisically run and unwary ship or two.

The Sea-Lynx was primed to score a rich prize, and woe betide any who would get in her way. And not beforetime, either; they were all hungry for the spree attendant on a new prize taken, and this hunger would redouble their ire should it be thwarted.

And so it was that Emil scuttled down to the ornate door behind which their Captain (presumably) slept with his tidings from Lalli. Before he could knock, though, Mister Mikkel had seized his hand.

“Not so hasty, Mister Emil,” he said mildly. “I am about to deliver the kit for the Captain’s morning ablutions, and I believe you remember what happened to the last crewman who barged in before she’d finished them.”

“But Mister Mikkel,” Emil protested, “it’s the Túnfiskurinn! Lalli sighted her just as I brought his breakfast from you!”

Mister Mikkel frowned. “Very well. But I had still better deliver the news. That way, I’ll be the one on which the ax falls. Go back to your powders and shot; you know well we may need them soon.”


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show

Oooooooh, I’m going to have fun with this one.



Pirates. yeeesssssssssssss.....
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: AquaAurion on October 18, 2015, 12:51:29 PM
Uh, oh. Here's another one:

Tall Ships & Taller Tales
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/Pirate crossover fanfic
Pirates!! \(◎o◎)/
I look forward to more from this au! :D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: misea on October 18, 2015, 01:29:44 PM
Uh, oh. Here's another one:

Tall Ships & Taller Tales
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/Pirate crossover fanfic
Part 1
Spoiler: show
Don’t Cross the Saw-Bones

Somewhere near the Azores
1610

The day started out ordinarily enough on the pirate, erm, privateer ship Sea-Lynx.

Munitions Master Emil Västerström carefully made his way up to the crow’s-nest with his burden, a basket of victuals from First Officer/Ship’s Cook/Ship’s Doctor/No-one-knew-what-all-else Mikkel Madsen for their lookout, Lalli Hotakainen. Lalli just about lived in the crow’s-nest, and he was rather particular about just who could bring him his meals. So far, only Ship’s Navigator (and Carpenter) Tuuri Hotakainen, Lalli’s cousin, and Emil were accorded the privilege. Certainly their Cabin Boy, Reynir Something-Or-Other (Arnason? Arnisen?) was not.

Today, however, Lalli was even more intent on his job than usual, staring through his glass at one particular spot with a worried expression. Emil, cognizant of the disastrous consequences of the last time he’d startled Lalli, began humming a shanty popular with the crew, slowly getting louder until Lalli indicated that he’d heard.

“Well, Lalli,” Emil said, “I’ve brought you your mess and Mister Mikkel’s compliments, and I find you troubled over something off in the distance. Are there fair winds ahead or foul?” He set the hamper at Lalli’s feet while he said this.

Lalli handed over the glass, pointed to where he’d been gazing, and addressed the hamper. Before digging in, however, the look-out vouchsafed one word that explained everything. “Túnfiskurinn.”

Emil swore. “I’ll tell the captain. She’ll know what to do.” He handed back the glass. “Eat well; we may be for it soon.” Soon, he was scrambling back down the rigging.

The Túnfiskurinn was their great rival in these waters. Their sponsor before the Danish Crown, one Trond Andersen (who was connected in some arcane fashion with the Norwegian Assembly, and possibly the Swedish Assembly, and maybe even the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth) had, by some means or other, become the personal nemesis of Túnfiskurinn’s captain, one Ása Hardardóttir. Unable to hurt Trond herself, Ása took great delight in fouling the lines for whatever ventures he had underwritten at any given moment.

When Ása had heard that the Sea-Lynx was sponsored by Trond, she’d scented easy pickings. When their daring Captain Sigrun Eide had put paid to her schemes, Ása had vowed revenge on them personally as well. Neither Emil nor Lalli (nor any of the others in the crew, perhaps only Sigrun herself excepted) were desirous of a rematch now.

The Azores were the cross-roads of the Atlantic: convoys to Portugal from their Far Eastern possessions watered there, and the currents also brought convoys from New Spain to Spain proper temptingly near the islands. Of course, the Spanish and the Portuguese were much stronger in these waters than elsewhere, but a nimble raider could always pick off a lagging, lackadaisically run and unwary ship or two.

The Sea-Lynx was primed to score a rich prize, and woe betide any who would get in her way. And not beforetime, either; they were all hungry for the spree attendant on a new prize taken, and this hunger would redouble their ire should it be thwarted.

And so it was that Emil scuttled down to the ornate door behind which their Captain (presumably) slept with his tidings from Lalli. Before he could knock, though, Mister Mikkel had seized his hand.

“Not so hasty, Mister Emil,” he said mildly. “I am about to deliver the kit for the Captain’s morning ablutions, and I believe you remember what happened to the last crewman who barged in before she’d finished them.”

“But Mister Mikkel,” Emil protested, “it’s the Túnfiskurinn! Lalli sighted her just as I brought his breakfast from you!”

Mister Mikkel frowned. “Very well. But I had still better deliver the news. That way, I’ll be the one on which the ax falls. Go back to your powders and shot; you know well we may need them soon.”


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show

Oooooooh, I’m going to have fun with this one.


PIRATE AU YES YES YES YES
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on October 21, 2015, 07:41:14 PM
*Grumble, Grumble* meant to have this up yesterday *Grumble, Grumble*

The Good, the Bad, and the Bestial
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/Western crossover fanfic
Part 13
Spoiler: show
Spelunker’s Triskadekaphobia

Not without regret, they parted ways with their wagon at the mouth of the cave, Reynir leading their horses over to where several others were hitched. “Ah, it’ll be here for us when we get back,” Sigrun predicted confidently. The others, save Reynir, were far less sanguine about the prospect of their return, but didn’t say so.

They were not alone, of course. The fact of other horses being hitched outside the cave merely confirmed what Lalli already knew from traces here and there: perhaps two dozen or more men awaited them inside the cave. Well, they’d faced worse before.

*

Battling in a cave is easier and harder than one might think, unless one paused to consider the various factors involved in making it so.

As to the harder: if you use any form of gunpowder, not only do you risk bringing the roof down, but you deafen yourself and foul the air. Besides, few caves afford the opportunity for anything but up-close-and-personal work, so guns lose their chief advantage. This was why Sigrun had Emil leave his kit behind, making sure he and Lalli had Bowie knives like hers ready for action.

As to the easier, on the other hand, snares, traps and ambuscades are nearly childishly simple in such surroundings, assuming you have a good route of retreat and sufficient time to prepare. Fortunately, between Lalli’s sharp eyes and Sigrun’s nose for danger, the intrepid band evaded all such in their path, until they were just behind the Man in the Black Hat and his retinue of thugs.

The brawl that followed was ugly in many ways. Suffice it to say that the Man in the Black Hat lost more than a dozen men, but they held the six opposing them back more than long enough for the Man in the Black Hat himself to escape with his own handful (or so) of followers, including the hired gun.

*

Eventually, they were all cleaned up and ready to pursue the Man in the Black Hat, but a new problem arose after they had made their way down the tunnel. The way ahead split into seven or eight passages (assuming one or more didn’t join back up), and there was no telling which one the Man in the Black Hat had used.

“Great,” Sigrun said to no one in particular. “What do we do now?”

“We choose,” Reynir said in a deep, portentous voice, his sudden speech and its unwonted manner startling the others.

Sigrun turned, ready to give a sarcastic reply, but the look on Reynir’s face stopped her. “Go on,” she said instead.

“We must choose which path to take, but this choice is more than it seems. The windings of the Cave may take us very far afield, but ever we shall return, whether in triumph or defeat.” Reynir paused, then continued in a more normal voice, “Oh, and the Man in the Black Hat has kind of a big head start on us, so we need to get a move on.”

“Ya think?” Now Sigrun felt confident enough to essay a snipe or two. “Let’s go, then, unless your boots have taken root.” Picking a path more or less at random, she set off briskly, the others swiftly following.

*

The Man in the Black Hat stepped out into the bright sunlight, the hired gun and a few others close behind. Yes, this would do nicely as their first stop. “Do any of you still have your charges?” the Man in the Black Hat called.

The pause that followed the question gave the hired gun hope, which died as soon as one of the others said, “I have mine, right here and unspoiled.” The hired gun felt his stomach twist at the thought of what they were and what they could do even as several others echoed the first.

The Man in the Black Hat smiled horrifically. Pointing at the first speaker, he said, “Then turn the Beast loose, and let the Rash descend upon this place like a nightmare.”

*

Well, this path had certainly gone down the drain. Literally so, as they emerged into a series of most disgusting drain tunnels. By dumb luck, they eventually climbed out and onto a dimly lit and apparently ill-traveled city street by a ramshackle place bearing the name “Andersen’s Joint”. Though the night was obviously well advanced, they could hear the sound of revelry inside.

“Might as well see what’s what,” Lalli said, opening the door.

They had barely stepped inside before Taru Walks-the-World--Hollola according to her name-tag--accosted them. “Where on earth have you been? Trond’s furious--you need to get on stage as soon as you can!” With these and many other words, she ushered them back to the minuscule prep area behind the stage.

Doc Mikkel addressed Sigrun. “We need the low-down on what’s what, or we’re sunk.”

Sigrun smirked. “What, you think any of these high-falutin’ city dudes are going to have any clue about what’s going on?”

“I might, if you’ll listen.” The speaker, a small and very old woman, stepped forward from where she had stood unnoticed in the doorway. With a shock, the others recognized her as Tuuri, a Tuuri grown ancient before their eyes. “After all, that’s why I’m here...”


Spoiler:  Authorial Notes • show

What, you expected me to call it something else?

Oh, and Old!Tuuri took the long way, as you’ll find out.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Ragnarok on October 21, 2015, 08:34:04 PM
Thinking of writing a sci-fi AU for this.....dunno if I have time....
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on October 22, 2015, 02:51:49 AM
What sort of scifi AU? This crew might fit right into Ray Bradbury's Mars. Or E.E. Smith's space opera? Or mebbe Freakangels?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on October 22, 2015, 11:24:33 PM
What sort of scifi AU? This crew might fit right into Ray Bradbury's Mars. Or E.E. Smith's space opera? Or mebbe Freakangels?
Careful… the Forum's already under the control of an Eich!



Sorry, but that one never gets old.

EDIT: …until he goes and resigns. *sigh*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Ragnarok on October 23, 2015, 08:22:46 PM
What sort of scifi AU? This crew might fit right into Ray Bradbury's Mars. Or E.E. Smith's space opera? Or mebbe Freakangels?

I was thinking more Douglas Adams...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on October 24, 2015, 12:30:59 AM
I was thinking more Douglas Adams...
…and so might Minna be.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on October 24, 2015, 01:37:38 AM
Could be fun! Can just picture them in the Restaurant at the End of the Universe.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on October 28, 2015, 03:12:48 AM
Again, just when no one wanted it…

Contingencies
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/“Terminator” crossover fanfic
Part 8
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg73063#msg73063)
Spoiler: show
Where the Big Dane Goes

Well, this was starting to become more than just mildly annoying.

When the cave entrance had appeared with such startling swiftness, Mikkel’s common sense had told him to have Tuuri get them going to the back-up site before another subsidence swallowed their vehicle. Instead, he’d given in to the compulsion to go into the new-formed cave, and in consequence was now utterly lost in and amongst its oddly solid-looking tunnels.

At first, Mikkel had considered it a minor annoyance. After all, surely he would be able to find his way out of the cave without spending terribly much time at it. However, as the minutes passed and his every effort led to yet another junction that looked identical to all the others, he realized with mounting frustration that the cave was replying to him, “Yes, it will; and stop calling me Shirley!”

Eventually, he sat on a convenient rock, closing his eyes and letting the cool stillness of the cave drain the frustration and anger from him like the toxins they were. This was something he’d learned from his parents early on, along with the fine art of sarcasm, and he had had many occasions to hone his skill at both over the years. By now, they were second nature, by and large.

It took Mikkel a while to realize that he was no longer alone in the stretch of the cave where he had chosen to rest. Well, had the newcomer been a grossling, it could have killed him several times over by now, so there was probably no danger. He opened his eyes and beheld a stranger wearing his own face.

*

Doc Madsen was surprised to see the massive form, twin to his own, sitting at the side of the passage Doc was traversing. Well, which one of the “other hims” was this? Was it the pirate, the brass player, the medieval apothecary, the Napoleonic surgeon, or some other one? Doc was pretty certain he hadn’t gone back down the path to the deep future, but he could be mistaken.

*

Shock held Mikkel silent while he studied the newcomer. The differences were enlightening; for example, the newcomer’s clothes were not a direct copy of Mikkel’s own uniform, but some outlandish getup from out of the far Pre-Rash past.

The newcomer spoke in odd but passable Danish, “Oh, it’s you again.”

“I don’t know that it’s ‘again’, but I can say with reasonable certainty that I am, in fact, me,” Mikkel replied. “And who are you supposed to be, Loki Saxet?”

“Well, aren’t you just the kvetching fetch,” the other retorted.

“Yes, but I make a fetching sketch,” replied Mikkel in turn. He knew as he said it that he was thus throwing down the metaphorical gauntlet, but games like this did wonders for his attitude.

“But don’t ever board a sketchy ketch.” The other had seized the gauntlet with panache. Mikkel almost felt like applauding.

“That might beget a catchy kvetch.” Having brought the game back around to the beginning, Mikkel sat back rather smugly, but leaned forward again in surprise when Reynir, in garb similar to the stranger’s, rushed in before the stranger could start the next round and began babbling before Mikkel could greet him (and remonstrate against his lack of a mask).

“There you are, Doc! We need you back with us, pronto! Just tell Mikkel there to follow this sequence and he’ll get back: 3-3-1-5-1, counting from the left.”

Mikkel sat back again, in perplexity this time. Instead of Reynir’s sole tongue of Icelandic, the words were in the long dead language of “English”, which Mikkel couldn’t understand either, though he’d heard enough ancient recordings to recognize it. What on Earth was going on? “What on Earth is going on?” he asked in Icelandic, and was rewarded with dual baffled looks.

At a nudge from Reynir, the other told Mikkel in Danish that he should go back the way he came, following a specific sequence of ways to take when the path forked, which Mikkel dutifully committed to memory.

“Oh, yeah, and he shouldn’t trust any doubles he sees outside of the Cave.” Almost before the other had finished translating this last, Reynir was headed back the way he’d entered.

Now, what was a rational man to make of that? Mikkel shrugged mentally, silently deciding to file this under “Unexplained Cave Incidents” right next to “the Gamleborg Incident”, and went back the way he’d been directed, soon reaching the surface, and a very odd sight indeed...


Spoiler:  Authorial Notes • show

The wordplay game is rendered in English in a way reflecting the effect rather than for accuracy.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on October 28, 2015, 03:38:58 AM
Okay, LooNEY, now I don't know whether to just keep laughing appreciatively, try to figure out where you're going with this (and where it's coming from), applaud, or - heck, I'll just take them all in turns until the end of the chapter break or your next post, whichever comes first.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on October 28, 2015, 04:04:48 AM
LooNEY, you're playing games with time and probability again, aren't you? Are the extra characters Michael and Árni? Or have you done something even more puzzling?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on October 28, 2015, 04:36:42 AM
Above post edited for clarity.

Also:
Loki Saxet (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg27271#msg27271)
and
the Gamleborg Incident (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg53398#msg53398)

…because I like self-referential humor.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Yuuago on October 28, 2015, 10:32:43 PM
I built up a bit of a backlog, oops. But most of them are short. It's all mild stuff, G/PG ratings. Some of these are shipfic, so mind the labels. *Ao3 has been a bit slow lately, I don't know if it's the same for anyone else, so I recommend reading the Dreamwidth versions if Ao3 doesn't load.

01. "Relief". 500 words. Lalli/Emil.
Summary: Emil's first instinct upon realizing they are both safe is to neaten Lalli's hair. Lalli thinks this is the least of his problems.
*This is a response to Shoop's fanart! Which you can view over here (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=35.msg75057#msg75057) on the fanart thread.
On Ao3: http://archiveofourown.org/works/5099144
Dreamwidth backup: http://roesslyng.dreamwidth.org/55712.html

02. "Still. Silent." 150 words. Lalli & Emil.
Summary: The monster comes. They wait.
*This is a response to Rabbit's fanart!
It's probably best to view it over here on my tumblr (http://rukkilill.tumblr.com/post/131711677810/rabbitarts-if-you-come-across-a-beast-troll-or) because then you see the fanart and fic together. It has the best impact that way.

03. "Clumsy". 700 words. Lalli/Emil.
Summary: As Lalli gets ready to go, Emil tries, unsuccessfully, to change his mind.
*This was in response to an anonymous prompt, for the record. Also, there's kissing and stuff in it.
At Dreamwidth: http://roesslyng.dreamwidth.org/53292.html

04. "Four Loves". 2.2k. Árni Reynisson/Various OCs
Summary: Loves come and go. Some memories of love are held closer to the heart than others.
*Set partly pre-prologue, partly after prologue. Basically, about various relationships Árni had during his life. I don't think I linked this here before....
On Ao3: http://archiveofourown.org/works/4886605
Dreamwidth backup: http://roesslyng.dreamwidth.org/54283.html
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Seilann on October 28, 2015, 11:21:31 PM
Yuuago you are Most Best. I loved all of these.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on October 28, 2015, 11:37:36 PM
I've read most of them, and like them well. Finely done!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on October 30, 2015, 11:21:28 PM
Just another very short one-shot here.

The Gift
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Spoiler: show

“Saku?” The soft voice came to him as he stoked the fires ever higher. “Honey, what are you doing?”

“I’m making something for our daughter,” he replied simply. His lack of a complaint, like ‘I’ll probably die of the heat, but oh well’, seemed to startle her more than what he’d actually said.

“Something for the baby?” she asked at last. “What?”

“Something to protect her, wherever she may be, and whatever her age.” He held up a basic but well-formed rifle stock.

Emil glanced over at Tuuri, who was staring after the shrinking figure of her cousin through the windshield. “That’s a pretty old rifle Lalli carries,” Emil said, trying to take both their minds off of Lalli’s potential peril...

Their new forge was crude and ungainly, but it would serve its purpose. The hammer rang against the metal in an age-old melody, and he found himself answering in a song of his own, the tune seeming to speed his hands in their work.

“New-born rifle,
I beseech you,
Ever straight and true to fire...”

“It was our grandmother’s rifle, first forged after the Great Illness.” Tuuri looked thoughtful. “From all I’ve heard, the survivors were still picking their way through the dark back then in their efforts to revive the Old Arts, so the rifle shouldn’t be very good, but somehow, Lalli never misses.”

“Thus and so I must enjoin thee,
Ward your wielder well and truly,
Kindly keep my kin a-quickened,
Tear the tangling toils of Tuoni...”

Bang! Another troll went down, shot right through the brain-pan. Lalli released the breath he’d been holding...

“Guide their hands and clear their vision,
Grant them ere a word of warning...”

The warning came to Lalli as though a half-familiar voice had whispered in his ear, “Behind you!” Not questioning that oft-felt hunch, Lalli spun, just in time to down another vermin Beast.

“So I charge thee
As I forge thee:
Help the House of Hotakainen.”

Saku laid the hammer aside. This work was done, and, with any luck, done well enough to serve its intended purpose.

Once he had carefully placed the now-completed rifle to one side, he reached for another piece of metal. One down, at least five more remaining.


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show

The thought came to me--what if Grandmother Hotakainen’s rifle wasn’t simply a keepsake?

As always, a story came out of the question.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: misea on October 31, 2015, 12:58:44 AM
Just another very short one-shot here.

The Gift
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Spoiler: show

“Saku?” The soft voice came to him as he stoked the fires ever higher. “Honey, what are you doing?”

“I’m making something for our daughter,” he replied simply. His lack of a complaint, like ‘I’ll probably die of the heat, but oh well’, seemed to startle her more than what he’d actually said.

“Something for the baby?” she asked at last. “What?”

“Something to protect her, wherever she may be, and whatever her age.” He held up a basic but well-formed rifle stock.

Emil glanced over at Tuuri, who was staring after the shrinking figure of her cousin through the windshield. “That’s a pretty old rifle Lalli carries,” Emil said, trying to take both their minds off of Lalli’s potential peril...

Their new forge was crude and ungainly, but it would serve its purpose. The hammer rang against the metal in an age-old melody, and he found himself answering in a song of his own, the tune seeming to speed his hands in their work.

“New-born rifle,
I beseech you,
Ever straight and true to fire...”

“It was our grandmother’s rifle, first forged after the Great Illness.” Tuuri looked thoughtful. “From all I’ve heard, the survivors were still picking their way through the dark back then in their efforts to revive the Old Arts, so the rifle shouldn’t be very good, but somehow, Lalli never misses.”

“Thus and so I must enjoin thee,
Ward your wielder well and truly,
Kindly keep my kin a-quickened,
Tear the tangling toils of Tuoni...”

Bang! Another troll went down, shot right through the brain-pan. Lalli released the breath he’d been holding...

“Guide their hands and clear their vision,
Grant them ere a word of warning...”

The warning came to Lalli as though a half-familiar voice had whispered in his ear, “Behind you!” Not questioning that oft-felt hunch, Lalli spun, just in time to down another vermin Beast.

“So I charge thee
As I forge thee:
Help the House of Hotakainen.”

Saku laid the hammer aside. This work was done, and, with any luck, done well enough to serve its intended purpose.

Once he had carefully placed the now-completed rifle to one side, he reached for another piece of metal. One down, at least five more remaining.


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show

The thought came to me--what if Grandmother Hotakainen’s rifle wasn’t simply a keepsake?

As always, a story came out of the question.


OOOOOOOOOOHHHHH YES YES YES
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on October 31, 2015, 03:27:00 AM
LooNEY, that's very well thought of, and the spell is cleverly crafted. You continue to surprise and delight me with your vignettes. I can just imagine the scene as you depict it.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Dane Murgen on November 01, 2015, 05:28:50 AM
Hey everyone! Does everyone remember that random fanfic I made like eight months ago? No?

Well I rewrote my first chapter for you guys! Please read it, guys. I really appreciate it. (http://archiveofourown.org/works/3491585/chapters/7670684)

I added like two thousand words to my original draft somehow.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on November 01, 2015, 04:45:20 PM
Hey everyone! Does everyone remember that random fanfic I made like eight months ago? No?

Well I rewrote my first chapter for you guys! Please read it, guys. I really appreciate it. (http://archiveofourown.org/works/3491585/chapters/7670684)

I added like two thousand words to my original draft somehow.
It's an interesting beginning which raises many more questions than it answers. Hopefully, forthcoming chapters will provide the answers.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on November 01, 2015, 05:26:34 PM
I am curious to see what happens! Is that terrible school uniform the one for your school?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Seilann on November 01, 2015, 10:33:30 PM
Happy 2 years of SSSS! This isn't exactly a celebration piece, but in honor of the birthday (and to play escapist to some IRL problems y'all would rather not hear about) I wrote an Emilalli fluff piece.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/5128250/chapters/11799383

Sorry it's not the last chapter of Burning, I had to take a break from my own angst fest. :D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on November 02, 2015, 12:06:17 AM
A sweet little story. I hope the angst is over nothing irremediable?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: shoop on November 02, 2015, 05:31:17 AM
Happy 2 years of SSSS! This isn't exactly a celebration piece, but in honor of the birthday (and to play escapist to some IRL problems y'all would rather not hear about) I wrote an Emilalli fluff piece.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/5128250/chapters/11799383

Sorry it's not the last chapter of Burning, I had to take a break from my own angst fest. :D

aw, take your time with Burning! We are all....burning with anticipation. As it is im not complaining about this at all. the opposite. I'm drawing a scene from it Right Now
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Seilann on November 02, 2015, 08:06:22 AM
I hope the angst is over nothing irremediable?

Well... I'm not making it easy for either Lalli or Emil at the moment, let's say that.

aw, take your time with Burning! We are all....burning with anticipation. As it is im not complaining about this at all. the opposite. I'm drawing a scene from it Right Now

First you get me with the pun, then you announce a drawing. A shoop drawing. Eeeeee! And I said this on the art thread but it came out so good!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on November 08, 2015, 12:20:54 AM
Late again...

The Good, the Bad, and the Bestial
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/Western crossover fanfic
Part 14
Spoiler: show
Explicated Implications

“Look,” the inexplicably ancient version of Tuuri that stood before them said, “I know you all either have or are about to have a few million questions all trying to get out at once, but none of us have a whole lot of time here, so if you’ll just let me say my piece--” She broke off abruptly.

Less than half a second later, Sigrun burst out with, “Look, how do we know this isn’t a trick?” The Elder Tuuri spoke the words along with her, so Sigrun (and the Elder Tuuri) snapped out, “Chrysanthemum! Sarsaparilla!” Then she paused, and remarked, “Thunderation!”

“I am Tuuri Face-Still-Like-Baby, and I walked among you many winters ago.” She certainly had their attention. “Now that that’s done, there’s a lot I need to tell you guys, but not much time left. I’ll get into that in a bit.

“Where we are, right here, is Malmö, a city in Sweden, and the year is 1936.” Before the others could voice their objections or astonishment, the Elder Tuuri raised her hand and continued, “Reynir told us what he Saw: a ‘cave we must enter’, with ‘past, present and future colliding and ricocheting like the balls on a billiard table’, and ‘us, and us, and us again, echoed down through the ages over and over’. This is how that all plays out--the different cave branches lead to different times and places, not all of which are as welcoming or peaceful as this one is. In fact, in most of them, you’ll be fighting the Man in the Black Hat and his henchmen. Enjoy the breaks when you get them, because you’re about to get a glimpse of Armageddon.”

The Elder Tuuri sighed. “I’d say more--reams more--but Taru, who thinks you’re the house band, the ‘Malmö Musikers’, is about to try to bustle you onstage. Don’t worry; you’ll be able to fake it well enough. Oh, and at least here, y'all are speaking the local lingo without realizing it.”

Sure enough, Taru bustled in, fretting, “Come on, snap it up, guys! Quit horsing around and get on stage! Everything’s ready for you!” She began efficiently herding them out the door.

As they left, the Elder Tuuri called out, “Guys! One more thing!” When they turned back to look at her, she grinned and told them, “As to how I got here--I flew! I took a beautiful silver aeroplane across the Atlantic, like Lindbergh!” She grinned a bit more, and finished, “That was it.”

*

Amazingly enough, the six of them actually performed creditably for the hour or so that they were onstage. When they went back to the cranny backstage for their first break, they found their counterparts waiting for them.

“Thanks, guys,” the other Sigrun told them, “but we’ll take it from here.” She and the rest of her bandmates were disheveled and strained-looking, but the Westerners forbore to ask what had kept them.

The Western Sigrun did, however, think to ask, “Is there a back way for us to sneak out of?”

“Some goons are watching it,” the other Sigrun said. “They’re waiting for us, in fact. You might need to shoot your way out, if it comes to it.”

The Western Sigrun pretended to think it over. “Go back onstage or blast our way back home--what do you guys think?”

All six Westerners chorused, “Blast ‘em,” even Doc Mikkel.

*

In the end, there wasn’t an actual fight. The goons were looking for six frightened musicians; when confronted with six frontier-hard gunslingers, they ran for their lives without a single shot being fired.

“Yellow dogs,” Sigrun spat derisively.

“City rats,” Emil pointed out. “Bully-boys used to roughing up folk who never held a gun in their lives.”

“Vultures,” Lalli agreed.

“Like the Arapaho, just more yellow,” Tuuri said.

“I don’t know,” Doc Mikkel mused. “If they come back with friends, they might not be so easily run off again.”

“I took care of that,” Reynir told them. “I knew what to tell ’em to keep ‘em from bothering our lookalikes back there. It was part of what I Saw.” He looked around again. “But we still oughta go now, or we’ll be too late.”

“The Man in the Black Hat?” Sigrun guessed.

“He’s already on the move, so we might be too late for somebody else already.” And with that, Reynir dropped back into the drains that had led them there...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show

Sorry this is so late. The next one will be sooner.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on November 08, 2015, 12:50:21 AM
Oooh......puzzles within puzzles!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on November 09, 2015, 07:26:34 PM
I can’t claim this turned out exactly how I’d planned, but oh well. I shall take it as a warning not to write on so little sleep next time!
I wrote a little story of a younger Reynir coming across a strange magical trinket for sale:

http://archiveofourown.org/works/5180591

Hope you all like it!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Ragnarok on November 09, 2015, 08:00:23 PM
I can’t claim this turned out exactly how I’d planned, but oh well. I shall take it as a warning not to write on so little sleep next time!
I wrote a little story of a younger Reynir coming across a strange magical trinket for sale:

http://archiveofourown.org/works/5180591

Hope you all like it!

This. Is. Awesome.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Curry on November 09, 2015, 08:09:44 PM
I can’t claim this turned out exactly how I’d planned, but oh well. I shall take it as a warning not to write on so little sleep next time!
I wrote a little story of a younger Reynir coming across a strange magical trinket for sale:

http://archiveofourown.org/works/5180591

Hope you all like it!

Oh my god, this is so cool!!! This is so well-written and such a cool concept and there aren't enough exclamations to express my enthusiasm in this world!!! :D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on November 09, 2015, 08:48:30 PM
I do like this! I've commented over on A3O, but I'll repeat it here: I love the way your stories fit into the cracks in the Minnaverse. And I like how you write young Reynir. Bright enough, green as grass, but kindly and sympathetic and very pure in heart.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: misea on November 09, 2015, 10:15:16 PM
Late again...

The Good, the Bad, and the Bestial
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/Western crossover fanfic
Part 14
Spoiler: show
Explicated Implications

“Look,” the inexplicably ancient version of Tuuri that stood before them said, “I know you all either have or are about to have a few million questions all trying to get out at once, but none of us have a whole lot of time here, so if you’ll just let me say my piece--” She broke off abruptly.

Less than half a second later, Sigrun burst out with, “Look, how do we know this isn’t a trick?” The Elder Tuuri spoke the words along with her, so Sigrun (and the Elder Tuuri) snapped out, “Chrysanthemum! Sarsaparilla!” Then she paused, and remarked, “Thunderation!”

“I am Tuuri Face-Still-Like-Baby, and I walked among you many winters ago.” She certainly had their attention. “Now that that’s done, there’s a lot I need to tell you guys, but not much time left. I’ll get into that in a bit.

“Where we are, right here, is Malmö, a city in Sweden, and the year is 1936.” Before the others could voice their objections or astonishment, the Elder Tuuri raised her hand and continued, “Reynir told us what he Saw: a ‘cave we must enter’, with ‘past, present and future colliding and ricocheting like the balls on a billiard table’, and ‘us, and us, and us again, echoed down through the ages over and over’. This is how that all plays out--the different cave branches lead to different times and places, not all of which are as welcoming or peaceful as this one is. In fact, in most of them, you’ll be fighting the Man in the Black Hat and his henchmen. Enjoy the breaks when you get them, because you’re about to get a glimpse of Armageddon.”

The Elder Tuuri sighed. “I’d say more--reams more--but Taru, who thinks you’re the house band, the ‘Malmö Musikers’, is about to try to bustle you onstage. Don’t worry; you’ll be able to fake it well enough. Oh, and at least here, y'all are speaking the local lingo without realizing it.”

Sure enough, Taru bustled in, fretting, “Come on, snap it up, guys! Quit horsing around and get on stage! Everything’s ready for you!” She began efficiently herding them out the door.

As they left, the Elder Tuuri called out, “Guys! One more thing!” When they turned back to look at her, she grinned and told them, “As to how I got here--I flew! I took a beautiful silver aeroplane across the Atlantic, like Lindbergh!” She grinned a bit more, and finished, “That was it.”

*

Amazingly enough, the six of them actually performed creditably for the hour or so that they were onstage. When they went back to the cranny backstage for their first break, they found their counterparts waiting for them.

“Thanks, guys,” the other Sigrun told them, “but we’ll take it from here.” She and the rest of her bandmates were disheveled and strained-looking, but the Westerners forbore to ask what had kept them.

The Western Sigrun did, however, think to ask, “Is there a back way for us to sneak out of?”

“Some goons are watching it,” the other Sigrun said. “They’re waiting for us, in fact. You might need to shoot your way out, if it comes to it.”

The Western Sigrun pretended to think it over. “Go back onstage or blast our way back home--what do you guys think?”

All six Westerners chorused, “Blast ‘em,” even Doc Mikkel.

*

In the end, there wasn’t an actual fight. The goons were looking for six frightened musicians; when confronted with six frontier-hard gunslingers, they ran for their lives without a single shot being fired.

“Yellow dogs,” Sigrun spat derisively.

“City rats,” Emil pointed out. “Bully-boys used to roughing up folk who never held a gun in their lives.”

“Vultures,” Lalli agreed.

“Like the Arapaho, just more yellow,” Tuuri said.

“I don’t know,” Doc Mikkel mused. “If they come back with friends, they might not be so easily run off again.”

“I took care of that,” Reynir told them. “I knew what to tell ’em to keep ‘em from bothering our lookalikes back there. It was part of what I Saw.” He looked around again. “But we still oughta go now, or we’ll be too late.”

“The Man in the Black Hat?” Sigrun guessed.

“He’s already on the move, so we might be too late for somebody else already.” And with that, Reynir dropped back into the drains that had led them there...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show

Sorry this is so late. The next one will be sooner.


Curious and curiouser!

I can’t claim this turned out exactly how I’d planned, but oh well. I shall take it as a warning not to write on so little sleep next time!
I wrote a little story of a younger Reynir coming across a strange magical trinket for sale:

http://archiveofourown.org/works/5180591

Hope you all like it!

Oooh yes! We need more fics with Braidy, he doesn't get enough love.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: 1010nightflyer on November 09, 2015, 10:40:20 PM
Everything I have posted today has been keyboard-smashes of awesomeness. Well, have another one aefwedwrfoinacltuirbriuresfilbufresiuabiusd!!! Most best fanfics!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Seilann on November 10, 2015, 12:12:47 AM
I can’t claim this turned out exactly how I’d planned, but oh well. I shall take it as a warning not to write on so little sleep next time!
I wrote a little story of a younger Reynir coming across a strange magical trinket for sale:

http://archiveofourown.org/works/5180591

Hope you all like it!

Great piece! I love all the little details and how you fill in the gaps of Minna's world. :)


And now to leave this here and go to bed before AO3 devours what's left of my soul:

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4918981/chapters/11939525

(Yes, that is Burning part 5 -- the end except for the epilogue! What do you mean I said only five chapters? Epilogues totally don't count as chapters...)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: misea on November 10, 2015, 02:38:55 AM
Great piece! I love all the little details and how you fill in the gaps of Minna's world. :)


And now to leave this here and go to bed before AO3 devours what's left of my soul:

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4918981/chapters/11939525

(Yes, that is Burning part 5 -- the end except for the epilogue! What do you mean I said only five chapters? Epilogues totally don't count as chapters...)

me the entirety of the time I was reading this: 啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊啊

Now I can sleep in peace knowing how things turned out ¯U¯
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on November 10, 2015, 02:19:04 PM
Thanks for all your kind words, people!

And now to leave this here and go to bed before AO3 devours what's left of my soul:

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4918981/chapters/11939525

(Yes, that is Burning part 5 -- the end except for the epilogue! What do you mean I said only five chapters? Epilogues totally don't count as chapters...)
And it was absolutely worth the wait! I loved it... and what's this, an epilogue? Yuss!

Here's a beginning for a story of an evacuation center, year 1.
Intriguing start! I shall look forward to more!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Fenris on November 11, 2015, 06:07:38 PM
Finished next bit on the fanfic I'm working on, waaaaaaay later than I thought. Here (http://archiveofourown.org/works/4418825/chapters/10145366).
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on November 11, 2015, 06:36:45 PM
Your character Mira is distinctly feisty. Looking forward to the next chapter!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on November 12, 2015, 03:24:21 AM
EVIL LAUGHTER INTENSIFIES

Interludes
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Spoiler: show

“So, Mikkel,” Sigrun said by way of greeting, plopping herself down near where Mikkel was looking through their collection of ‘salvaged’ books, “how do you think we’re doing now, book-wise?”

As always, the big Dane took his time before answering, letting Sigrun stew in anticipation. This, of course, was all part of their little game. Eventually, he replied, “Considering the randomness of their survival and your selection, not terribly badly.”

“Any more golf clunkers?” she asked.

“No, but I doubt ‘Unlocking Your Mind’ will have many more takers, though ‘An Examination of the Native Cultures of the Western Sahara’ might cause a few fights for its ownership.”

*

Emil and Lalli had no idea how they’d wound up volunteering to do today’s laundry, but neither of them wanted to lose face by coming back without The Most Clean Laundry Ever, which, of course, proved a harder and sweatier job than they’d thought.

Since they were by the river, water play ensued, but nothing that might endanger their laundering. This would be why they almost missed the squirrel-Beast’s approach.

*

“Well, we’ll see what the next raid nets us,” Sigrun said confidently.

“Nothing, perhaps.”

“Naaah. We’ve always found something, like that big book on trains we got from the toy store, and odds are, we always will.”

It was amazing how nothing ever seemed to dampen her optimism, except snow, and driving, and the morning porridge, and Reynir in general. When Mikkel mentioned as much, she tended to brush him off with some remark about his never having had to face troll season in Dalsnes, which of course he had not.

“Yes, like the nest Emil blew up on your first run.”

As ever, Sigrun came to the cub’s defense. “I liked the way he did it. I’d told him to run, but instead, he stared a charging troll down and blew the place. That shows he’s made of the right stuff.”

“As long as we never see the other stuff he’s made of.”

*

“GAAAAAAH! Get it off get it off get it OFF!” Lalli’s tall black boots showed themselves proof against the weird blobby-land-jellyfish-thing the squirrel-Beast had unfolded into, but no matter how he kicked, it wrapped itself tight around his ankle and would not be moved.

For once, Emil was certain he knew exactly what Lalli was saying, but how could he help his friend, now hopping and stamping like some neurotic ballet dancer?

*

“I don’t get it.”

Mikkel rolled his eyes. “His intestines, Sigrun. Like, if a troll got him.” He was sure she was merely playing dumb this time. Many were the things of which Sigrun was ignorant, but a troll hunter would easily get first-hand knowledge of human anatomy, from what she’d let slip.

Sigrun shrugged the possibility off. “Naaah. He’s too quick, and so am I. You’ll see.”

*

At last, Emil had an idea. He filled a bucket with the high-concentrate bleach, the stuff that Mikkel had warned him about diluting before use, and gestured to Lalli that he should stick his Beast-covered foot in it.

Apparently, Beasts hated bleach as much as they did sunlight: Lalli had no sooner stepped in the bucket than the Beast was scrabbling its way away, squirming and wriggling over to the river in obvious pain.

*

Tuuri called out, alerting her two seniors that the boys were back, bearing the well-scrubbed washing.

“See?” Sigrun ribbed Mikkel. “I told you they were quick.”


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show

Suggested by a comment (http://sssscomic.com/comic.php?page=417#comment-2354470826) on pg 417. It’s as close as I can get, since I can’t draw.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on November 12, 2015, 04:42:50 AM
EVIL LAUGHTER INTENSIFIES

Interludes
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Spoiler: show

“So, Mikkel,” Sigrun said by way of greeting, plopping herself down near where Mikkel was looking through their collection of ‘salvaged’ books, “how do you think we’re doing now, book-wise?”

As always, the big Dane took his time before answering, letting Sigrun stew in anticipation. This, of course, was all part of their little game. Eventually, he replied, “Considering the randomness of their survival and your selection, not terribly badly.”

“Any more golf clunkers?” she asked.

“No, but I doubt ‘Unlocking Your Mind’ will have many more takers, though ‘An Examination of the Native Cultures of the Western Sahara’ might cause a few fights for its ownership.”

*

Emil and Lalli had no idea how they’d wound up volunteering to do today’s laundry, but neither of them wanted to lose face by coming back without The Most Clean Laundry Ever, which, of course, proved a harder and sweatier job than they’d thought.

Since they were by the river, water play ensued, but nothing that might endanger their laundering. This would be why they almost missed the squirrel-Beast’s approach.

*

“Well, we’ll see what the next raid nets us,” Sigrun said confidently.

“Nothing, perhaps.”

“Naaah. We’ve always found something, like that big book on trains we got from the toy store, and odds are, we always will.”

It was amazing how nothing ever seemed to dampen her optimism, except snow, and driving, and the morning porridge, and Reynir in general. When Mikkel mentioned as much, she tended to brush him off with some remark about his never having had to face troll season in Dalsnes, which of course he had not.

“Yes, like the nest Emil blew up on your first run.”

As ever, Sigrun came to the cub’s defense. “I liked the way he did it. I’d told him to run, but instead, he stared a charging troll down and blew the place. That shows he’s made of the right stuff.”

“As long as we never see the other stuff he’s made of.”

*

“GAAAAAAH! Get it off get it off get it OFF!” Lalli’s tall black boots showed themselves proof against the weird blobby-land-jellyfish-thing the squirrel-Beast had unfolded into, but no matter how he kicked, it wrapped itself tight around his ankle and would not be moved.

For once, Emil was certain he knew exactly what Lalli was saying, but how could he help his friend, now hopping and stamping like some neurotic ballet dancer?

*

“I don’t get it.”

Mikkel rolled his eyes. “His intestines, Sigrun. Like, if a troll got him.” He was sure she was merely playing dumb this time. Many were the things of which Sigrun was ignorant, but a troll hunter would easily get first-hand knowledge of human anatomy, from what she’d let slip.

Sigrun shrugged the possibility off. “Naaah. He’s too quick, and so am I. You’ll see.”

*

At last, Emil had an idea. He filled a bucket with the high-concentrate bleach, the stuff that Mikkel had warned him about diluting before use, and gestured to Lalli that he should stick his Beast-covered foot in it.

Apparently, Beasts hated bleach as much as they did sunlight: Lalli had no sooner stepped in the bucket than the Beast was scrabbling its way away, squirming and wriggling over to the river in obvious pain.

*

Tuuri called out, alerting her two seniors that the boys were back, bearing the well-scrubbed washing.

“See?” Sigrun ribbed Mikkel. “I told you they were quick.”


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show

Suggested by a comment (http://sssscomic.com/comic.php?page=417#comment-2354470826) on pg 417. It’s as close as I can get, since I can’t draw.

Wow that was quick! And hilarious, let's not forget that too  :D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on November 12, 2015, 05:36:13 AM
Thanks, LooNEY! So funny. And so fast!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Aliax on November 12, 2015, 08:06:24 AM
EVIL LAUGHTER INTENSIFIES

Interludes
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Spoiler: show

“So, Mikkel,” Sigrun said by way of greeting, plopping herself down near where Mikkel was looking through their collection of ‘salvaged’ books, “how do you think we’re doing now, book-wise?”

As always, the big Dane took his time before answering, letting Sigrun stew in anticipation. This, of course, was all part of their little game. Eventually, he replied, “Considering the randomness of their survival and your selection, not terribly badly.”

“Any more golf clunkers?” she asked.

“No, but I doubt ‘Unlocking Your Mind’ will have many more takers, though ‘An Examination of the Native Cultures of the Western Sahara’ might cause a few fights for its ownership.”

*

Emil and Lalli had no idea how they’d wound up volunteering to do today’s laundry, but neither of them wanted to lose face by coming back without The Most Clean Laundry Ever, which, of course, proved a harder and sweatier job than they’d thought.

Since they were by the river, water play ensued, but nothing that might endanger their laundering. This would be why they almost missed the squirrel-Beast’s approach.

*

“Well, we’ll see what the next raid nets us,” Sigrun said confidently.

“Nothing, perhaps.”

“Naaah. We’ve always found something, like that big book on trains we got from the toy store, and odds are, we always will.”

It was amazing how nothing ever seemed to dampen her optimism, except snow, and driving, and the morning porridge, and Reynir in general. When Mikkel mentioned as much, she tended to brush him off with some remark about his never having had to face troll season in Dalsnes, which of course he had not.

“Yes, like the nest Emil blew up on your first run.”

As ever, Sigrun came to the cub’s defense. “I liked the way he did it. I’d told him to run, but instead, he stared a charging troll down and blew the place. That shows he’s made of the right stuff.”

“As long as we never see the other stuff he’s made of.”

*

“GAAAAAAH! Get it off get it off get it OFF!” Lalli’s tall black boots showed themselves proof against the weird blobby-land-jellyfish-thing the squirrel-Beast had unfolded into, but no matter how he kicked, it wrapped itself tight around his ankle and would not be moved.

For once, Emil was certain he knew exactly what Lalli was saying, but how could he help his friend, now hopping and stamping like some neurotic ballet dancer?

*

“I don’t get it.”

Mikkel rolled his eyes. “His intestines, Sigrun. Like, if a troll got him.” He was sure she was merely playing dumb this time. Many were the things of which Sigrun was ignorant, but a troll hunter would easily get first-hand knowledge of human anatomy, from what she’d let slip.

Sigrun shrugged the possibility off. “Naaah. He’s too quick, and so am I. You’ll see.”

*

At last, Emil had an idea. He filled a bucket with the high-concentrate bleach, the stuff that Mikkel had warned him about diluting before use, and gestured to Lalli that he should stick his Beast-covered foot in it.

Apparently, Beasts hated bleach as much as they did sunlight: Lalli had no sooner stepped in the bucket than the Beast was scrabbling its way away, squirming and wriggling over to the river in obvious pain.

*

Tuuri called out, alerting her two seniors that the boys were back, bearing the well-scrubbed washing.

“See?” Sigrun ribbed Mikkel. “I told you they were quick.”


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show

Suggested by a comment (http://sssscomic.com/comic.php?page=417#comment-2354470826) on pg 417. It’s as close as I can get, since I can’t draw.


Eeeeeee! Thank you :))  :)) !!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Seilann on November 13, 2015, 12:37:11 AM
EVIL LAUGHTER INTENSIFIES

Interludes
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Spoiler: show

“So, Mikkel,” Sigrun said by way of greeting, plopping herself down near where Mikkel was looking through their collection of ‘salvaged’ books, “how do you think we’re doing now, book-wise?”

As always, the big Dane took his time before answering, letting Sigrun stew in anticipation. This, of course, was all part of their little game. Eventually, he replied, “Considering the randomness of their survival and your selection, not terribly badly.”

“Any more golf clunkers?” she asked.

“No, but I doubt ‘Unlocking Your Mind’ will have many more takers, though ‘An Examination of the Native Cultures of the Western Sahara’ might cause a few fights for its ownership.”

*

Emil and Lalli had no idea how they’d wound up volunteering to do today’s laundry, but neither of them wanted to lose face by coming back without The Most Clean Laundry Ever, which, of course, proved a harder and sweatier job than they’d thought.

Since they were by the river, water play ensued, but nothing that might endanger their laundering. This would be why they almost missed the squirrel-Beast’s approach.

*

“Well, we’ll see what the next raid nets us,” Sigrun said confidently.

“Nothing, perhaps.”

“Naaah. We’ve always found something, like that big book on trains we got from the toy store, and odds are, we always will.”

It was amazing how nothing ever seemed to dampen her optimism, except snow, and driving, and the morning porridge, and Reynir in general. When Mikkel mentioned as much, she tended to brush him off with some remark about his never having had to face troll season in Dalsnes, which of course he had not.

“Yes, like the nest Emil blew up on your first run.”

As ever, Sigrun came to the cub’s defense. “I liked the way he did it. I’d told him to run, but instead, he stared a charging troll down and blew the place. That shows he’s made of the right stuff.”

“As long as we never see the other stuff he’s made of.”

*

“GAAAAAAH! Get it off get it off get it OFF!” Lalli’s tall black boots showed themselves proof against the weird blobby-land-jellyfish-thing the squirrel-Beast had unfolded into, but no matter how he kicked, it wrapped itself tight around his ankle and would not be moved.

For once, Emil was certain he knew exactly what Lalli was saying, but how could he help his friend, now hopping and stamping like some neurotic ballet dancer?

*

“I don’t get it.”

Mikkel rolled his eyes. “His intestines, Sigrun. Like, if a troll got him.” He was sure she was merely playing dumb this time. Many were the things of which Sigrun was ignorant, but a troll hunter would easily get first-hand knowledge of human anatomy, from what she’d let slip.

Sigrun shrugged the possibility off. “Naaah. He’s too quick, and so am I. You’ll see.”

*

At last, Emil had an idea. He filled a bucket with the high-concentrate bleach, the stuff that Mikkel had warned him about diluting before use, and gestured to Lalli that he should stick his Beast-covered foot in it.

Apparently, Beasts hated bleach as much as they did sunlight: Lalli had no sooner stepped in the bucket than the Beast was scrabbling its way away, squirming and wriggling over to the river in obvious pain.

*

Tuuri called out, alerting her two seniors that the boys were back, bearing the well-scrubbed washing.

“See?” Sigrun ribbed Mikkel. “I told you they were quick.”


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show

Suggested by a comment (http://sssscomic.com/comic.php?page=417#comment-2354470826) on pg 417. It’s as close as I can get, since I can’t draw.


Looney, that was seriously awesome! I think it's my new fave of yours.

Epilogue of Burning is up. Just gonna leave this here for y'all: http://archiveofourown.org/works/4918981/chapters/11988020
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Rabbit on November 13, 2015, 01:37:33 AM
Epilogue of Burning is up. Just gonna leave this here for y'all: http://archiveofourown.org/works/4918981/chapters/11988020

You have no idea how badly I needed that right now, thank you so much :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on November 13, 2015, 03:46:05 AM
Seilann: that's very sweet, and a good conclusion to the tale.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Dane Murgen on November 13, 2015, 05:01:02 AM
I am curious to see what happens! Is that terrible school uniform the one for your school?

It's kinda similar, however the sweater isn't a neon orange, but a mere blood red.

Anyway! I have a new chapter for that fanfic here! (http://archiveofourown.org/works/3491585/chapters/11988284)

Check it out!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: misea on November 13, 2015, 04:38:02 PM
Epilogue of Burning is up. Just gonna leave this here for y'all: http://archiveofourown.org/works/4918981/chapters/11988020

Such a great ending <3
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: microFerret on November 13, 2015, 07:33:20 PM
Hello everyone,
This is practically the first time in 5 weeks that I've been able to check the forums (School is more than a little time consuming right now) and I'm finally caught up with everyone's awesome fics. I'm glad to be back, and I'll just say a quick general thank you to everyone here, because you are all awesome writers and I needed a nice quick terrific fic fix.

In addition...

Finished next bit on the fanfic I'm working on, waaaaaaay later than I thought. Here (http://archiveofourown.org/works/4418825/chapters/10145366).

Fenris, I just read this for the first time, and it is very well done! I noticed you did the map the same style as the Map of the Known World in the comic, and I've seen maps of this style in a few other places around the forum. Is there some specific tool you used to do that? It's really cool, and I would like to make a few maps like that for myself.

Thanks!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Yuuago on November 16, 2015, 11:30:16 PM
Wasn't sure about posting this one, but I thought some might like it, so-

"Until We Meet Again". 600 words. Lalli/Emil.
Summary: They didn't get a chance the first time around. But maybe here, maybe now, they can try again together.
The prompt was: Reincarnation; one of them remembers. The other doesn't.
On Ao3: http://archiveofourown.org/works/5229263
Dreamwidth backup: http://roesslyng.dreamwidth.org/56445.html
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Seilann on November 17, 2015, 12:02:16 AM
Wasn't sure about posting this one, but I thought some might like it, so-

"Until We Meet Again". 600 words. Lalli/Emil.
Summary: They didn't get a chance the first time around. But maybe here, maybe now, they can try again together.
The prompt was: Reincarnation; one of them remembers. The other doesn't.
On Ao3: http://archiveofourown.org/works/5229263
Dreamwidth backup: http://roesslyng.dreamwidth.org/56445.html

I totally spazzed reading this. I love the way you write. :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Yuuago on November 17, 2015, 12:04:20 AM
I totally spaced reading this. I love the way you write. :)

I kind of want to give away my secret, but maybe it would be a disappointment. ;p
I love your writing too, though, as I've said, so we're even! /ruffles
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Laufey on November 17, 2015, 03:29:25 AM
Wasn't sure about posting this one, but I thought some might like it, so-

"Until We Meet Again". 600 words. Lalli/Emil.
Summary: They didn't get a chance the first time around. But maybe here, maybe now, they can try again together.
The prompt was: Reincarnation; one of them remembers. The other doesn't.
On Ao3: http://archiveofourown.org/works/5229263
Dreamwidth backup: http://roesslyng.dreamwidth.org/56445.html

Beautiful as always, I love it how your stories take their time to open up and nothing is rushed. It's like walking in a garden with plenty of time to notice what everything looks like, smells like, sounds like and feels like.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on November 17, 2015, 03:49:37 AM
Yuuago, that's very sweet, and cleverly thought out. Keep doing what you do, it's great!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on November 17, 2015, 05:03:28 AM
Wasn't sure about posting this one, but I thought some might like it, so-

"Until We Meet Again". 600 words. Lalli/Emil.
Summary: They didn't get a chance the first time around. But maybe here, maybe now, they can try again together.
The prompt was: Reincarnation; one of them remembers. The other doesn't.
On Ao3: http://archiveofourown.org/works/5229263
Dreamwidth backup: http://roesslyng.dreamwidth.org/56445.html
I kind of want to give away my secret, but maybe it would be a disappointment. ;p
I wish I had a secret to writing as well as you do! I really liked this, very well done indeed! :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Fenris on November 17, 2015, 06:28:24 AM
Fenris, I just read this for the first time, and it is very well done! I noticed you did the map the same style as the Map of the Known World in the comic, and I've seen maps of this style in a few other places around the forum. Is there some specific tool you used to do that? It's really cool, and I would like to make a few maps like that for myself.
That was done as mentioned by stclairvoyant (Ruth on the forum) rather than me, so you'll need to ask her.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Yuuago on November 17, 2015, 10:41:37 AM
Laufey, Róisín, Sectoboss thank you so much! I really, really appreciate hearing that.

Fenris I started reading your fic while I was on the bus this morning and ahhh I like it! I'm so glad that you're still working on it and updating it. \o/
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Athena on November 17, 2015, 01:19:40 PM
Fenris I just read your story and it was AWESOME! I really like how you presented it through a series of journal entries.

BTW I have been lurking here for a while and enjoying all your great stories and I am hoping to write some pics myself in the future. :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: misea on November 17, 2015, 06:09:42 PM
Wasn't sure about posting this one, but I thought some might like it, so-

"Until We Meet Again". 600 words. Lalli/Emil.
Summary: They didn't get a chance the first time around. But maybe here, maybe now, they can try again together.
The prompt was: Reincarnation; one of them remembers. The other doesn't.
On Ao3: http://archiveofourown.org/works/5229263
Dreamwidth backup: http://roesslyng.dreamwidth.org/56445.html

BITTERSWEET STORIES RIPPING MY HEART OUT YES
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on November 17, 2015, 06:36:13 PM
Oh gods what have I done...
I've only gone and started a sequel (technically a prequel, I suppose) to the SSSS/Pacific Rim crossover I did a while ago.
Now with more giants! More Jaegers! More just about everything!
Less Reynir, I guess.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/5234288/chapters/12072128


Edit: Or, maybe not. I'll try re-uploading this when AO3 stops throwing a temper tantrum.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: misea on November 17, 2015, 09:07:22 PM
Oh gods what have I done...
I've only gone and started a sequel (technically a prequel, I suppose) to the SSSS/Pacific Rim crossover I did a while ago.
Now with more giants! More Jaegers! More just about everything!
Less Reynir, I guess.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/5234288/chapters/12072128

I hope you like it!

WHOO NEW INSTALLMENT IS EXCELLENT
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on November 17, 2015, 10:40:56 PM
It's great, SectoBoss, and it ought to be #100 (!) on AO3, but I can't get find it on the SSSS category page, for some reason.

Oh, and here's another one-shot AU:

An Independent Production
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Spoiler: show

Sigrun was practically dancing with joy as she read the new pages the script boy had passed her. “Oh, this is going to be so cool! I can’t believe I had to drag you into this, Emil.”

Emil looked worried. “I can’t believe I let you talk me into getting in front of the camera,” he said. “All I want to do is blow things up, not yammer back lines like a glorified parrot!”

“It won’t be that bad,” Mikkel rumbled from behind Emil, making the young man jump at least a foot. “Ask Lalli; he’s been in quite a few of these things, according to Tuuri.”

“Besides,” Sigrun butted in, “most of your part is blowing things up, or shooting at them, and the rest isn’t so far from the truth for any of us.”

“Because I should love airing my family’s dirty laundry to the world, of course,” Emil mumbled. “It’s a great script,” he declared loudly. “With an actual actor playing the role, and Tuuri directing, it would be sure to be a hit, but I’m not an actor, Sigrun.”

“That’s why we’re doing this using the Method,” Sigrun explained. “They throw us a few curveballs, and we don’t need to be actors to react right.”

“Says the most naturally born actor among us,” Emil retorted with a mix of admiration and frustration.

What else he might have added was lost with the entrance of the chubby little whirlwind that was Tuuri. “How are my stars-to-be?” she cried gaily, zooming from one to another like a king-sized hummingbird. “Oh, good: you have today’s pages! So all I need to talk to you about is the staging. Emil, you’re sure that the explosions will go off right?”

Emil rolled his eyes. “I’ve been doing this for ten years now, Tuuri. I know how to wire a set to blow right.”

“Okay. We have the puppets and the costumes all ready to go, so...”

“How’s Reynir?” Emil interrupted. Sigrun made a nasty face, but Emil pressed on, “He got pretty badly dehydrated in that ‘Tooth Scary’ costume last week, you know.”

“Oh, the costume guys rigged up a drinking tube for him when they put in the drool-a-tronics,” Tuuri bubbled. “We’ve been giving him a fresh liter bottle every hour or two.”

“Better than nothing, but he should still watch himself,” Mikkel rumbled.

“The prop guys running the drool-a-tronics are watching out for him, but you can go too, if you want. We’re still on the hallway scene where Emil gets slimed by the ‘Tooth Scary’, makes a break for it, and we have the fight with ‘Spider-Lizard’, as played by Lalli, and Sigrun’s nick-of-time rescue, followed by Emil bringing the house down.”

“You’re sure they got the costumes right this time?” Sigrun queried. “Emil was worried he’d actually hit Lalli with his knife last time.”

“Yep. Everything’s great. So let’s get a-filming!” Tuuri efficiently shepherded the others out to the sets...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show

I decided to resurrect this scenario (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=334.msg22678#msg22678) as the background for this one-shot.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on November 19, 2015, 05:39:07 PM
Well, while other things get a bit rewritten, here’s something that I’ve been working on-and-off for a while now. Sigrun and Mikkel, comparing the scars the silent world has given them. Following today’s page, I guess Sigrun’ll have one more now!
Anyway:

http://archiveofourown.org/works/5245967

I hope you all like it!

LooNEY, I really liked your fic!
Spoiler: show
Reynir and Lalli as Tooth Scary and Wallhugger! Do you want me to die laughing!? :))
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Mélusine on November 19, 2015, 06:05:33 PM
Wasn't sure about posting this one, but I thought some might like it, so-

"Until We Meet Again". 600 words. Lalli/Emil.
Summary: They didn't get a chance the first time around. But maybe here, maybe now, they can try again together.
The prompt was: Reincarnation; one of them remembers. The other doesn't.
On Ao3: http://archiveofourown.org/works/5229263
Dreamwidth backup: http://roesslyng.dreamwidth.org/56445.html
Oh, I hadn't saw it !
I like it, it's... errr, it would be difficult to explain it in English without a dictionary to translate the exact words which came to my mind, but I like what you did with this idea, and who remembers :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on November 19, 2015, 08:48:30 PM
Well, while other things get a bit rewritten, here’s something that I’ve been working on-and-off for a while now. Sigrun and Mikkel, comparing the scars the silent world has given them. Following today’s page, I guess Sigrun’ll have one more now!
Anyway:

http://archiveofourown.org/works/5245967

I hope you all like it!

LooNEY, I really liked your fic!
Spoiler: show
Reynir and Lalli as Tooth Scary and Wallhugger! Do you want me to die laughing!? :))


Very nice, and...
100 fanfics on AO3!
(Whoop whoop whoop)

And SectoBoss...
Spoiler: show
This is what "shoestring" or "guerrilla" filmmaking is: everyone does at least two jobs, because there's no money to hire somebody else. That it's often hilarious is just icing on the cake.


Anyway, here's another minor milestone: my 20th fic here (counting the ones still in progress, to which I will return shortly, I promise). It's a Y0 bit, so rather dark.

Aksel’s Turn
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Spoiler: show

The photo--once such a commonplace as to be shot without a thought, but ever rarer now--was captioned “Year 0, Day 34”. Below, in much smaller print, it named the subjects: “Aksel Eide & Berit Eide (on the right)”

They had put the first fence up against the monsters on Day 13, also establishing a small quarantine facility nearby. Now, exactly three weeks later, there had been an incident at that facility.

Henrik Hansen was, perhaps, the archetype of what Sigrun Larsen meant when she said, “We have enough crazy old people as it is”. He was convinced, for example, that the world was ruled by a mysterious cabal operating from a secret moon base, and the whole Rash thing was their way of harvesting humanity so the Martians would spare them. This was one of his more rational beliefs.

Now, Henrik’s odd beliefs and odder practices (he copied Benjamin Franklin’s habit of early morning air baths regardless of the season, among other things) would ordinarily have been disregarded by the average denizen of Dalsnes, but when he had returned from his latest excursion into the mountains, the town leaders had made him go into quarantine. “No exceptions, Henrik,” they’d told him, and he’d reluctantly obliged.

Henrik--or what used to be Henrik--was out of the quarantine facility now, and making for the mountains again, followed by a goodly portion of the able-bodied of Dalsnes.

Aksel held his rifle with the barrel pointed to the ground, the stock resting atop his shoulder rather than against it. He had already halfheartedly fired a few times at Henrik, and was loathe to try again. His father had warned Aksel when he got his first gun, “Never aim that at something you don’t wish to destroy”, and Aksel was far from wanting Henrik destroyed. Perhaps, an insidious voice whispered in his ear, if we keep him alive long enough, they’ll find a cure. It was a lie, and Aksel knew it, but he just couldn’t bring his rifle to bear again.

A hand grabbed Aksel’s trigger arm, gloved as his own were, and when he looked for the owner, his grandmother Berit looked back at him. The moment stretched into eternity, neither noticing that a picture had just been taken, or who had taken it.

“I don’t want to do this,” Aksel’s face told his grandmother, as plainly as if he’d said it aloud. There had never been any malice in old Henrik, and it was hard to believe that that had changed.

“I know, and I understand, but you must,” Berit’s face replied equally plainly. Whatever the thing was that currently had control of Henrik’s body, it was most definitely not Henrik. As long as it lived, everyone the two Eides cared for was in danger.

A moment later, the rifle, firmly and correctly in place, barked again, and Henrik, the first troll in Dalsnes, was dead.


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show

Just another Y0 piece.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Yuuago on November 19, 2015, 09:21:49 PM
Oh, I hadn't saw it !
I like it, it's... errr, it would be difficult to explain it in English without a dictionary to translate the exact words which came to my mind, but I like what you did with this idea, and who remembers :)

Merci : D I'm so happy to hear that (I have an idea of what you meant, I think, even if you couldn't think of a way to write it)


Anyway, here's another minor milestone: my 20th fic here (counting the ones still in progress, to which I will return shortly, I promise). It's a Y0 bit, so rather dark.

Aksel’s Turn
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Spoiler: show

The photo--once such a commonplace as to be shot without a thought, but ever rarer now--was captioned “Year 0, Day 34”. Below, in much smaller print, it named the subjects: “Aksel Eide & Berit Eide (on the right)”

They had put the first fence up against the monsters on Day 13, also establishing a small quarantine facility nearby. Now, exactly three weeks later, there had been an incident at that facility.

Henrik Hansen was, perhaps, the archetype of what Sigrun Larsen meant when she said, “We have enough crazy old people as it is”. He was convinced, for example, that the world was ruled by a mysterious cabal operating from a secret moon base, and the whole Rash thing was their way of harvesting humanity so the Martians would spare them. This was one of his more rational beliefs.

Now, Henrik’s odd beliefs and odder practices (he copied Benjamin Franklin’s habit of early morning air baths regardless of the season, among other things) would ordinarily have been disregarded by the average denizen of Dalsnes, but when he had returned from his latest excursion into the mountains, the town leaders had made him go into quarantine. “No exceptions, Henrik,” they’d told him, and he’d reluctantly obliged.

Henrik--or what used to be Henrik--was out of the quarantine facility now, and making for the mountains again, followed by a goodly portion of the able-bodied of Dalsnes.

Aksel held his rifle with the barrel pointed to the ground, the stock resting atop his shoulder rather than against it. He had already halfheartedly fired a few times at Henrik, and was loathe to try again. His father had warned Aksel when he got his first gun, “Never aim that at something you don’t wish to destroy”, and Aksel was far from wanting Henrik destroyed. Perhaps, an insidious voice whispered in his ear, if we keep him alive long enough, they’ll find a cure. It was a lie, and Aksel knew it, but he just couldn’t bring his rifle to bear again.

A hand grabbed Aksel’s trigger arm, gloved as his own were, and when he looked for the owner, his grandmother Berit looked back at him. The moment stretched into eternity, neither noticing that a picture had just been taken, or who had taken it.

“I don’t want to do this,” Aksel’s face told his grandmother, as plainly as if he’d said it aloud. There had never been any malice in old Henrik, and it was hard to believe that that had changed.

“I know, and I understand, but you must,” Berit’s face replied equally plainly. Whatever the thing was that currently had control of Henrik’s body, it was most definitely not Henrik. As long as it lived, everyone the two Eides cared for was in danger.

A moment later, the rifle, firmly and correctly in place, barked again, and Henrik, the first troll in Dalsnes, was dead.


Whooo, 20 fics! And ahh, a tad dark is right, but totally good. *_* (Then again, you had me at 'Year 0', honestly.)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: misea on November 19, 2015, 11:13:31 PM
Well, while other things get a bit rewritten, here’s something that I’ve been working on-and-off for a while now. Sigrun and Mikkel, comparing the scars the silent world has given them. Following today’s page, I guess Sigrun’ll have one more now!
Anyway:

http://archiveofourown.org/works/5245967

I hope you all like it!
Anyway, here's another minor milestone: my 20th fic here (counting the ones still in progress, to which I will return shortly, I promise). It's a Y0 bit, so rather dark.

Aksel’s Turn
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Spoiler: show

The photo--once such a commonplace as to be shot without a thought, but ever rarer now--was captioned “Year 0, Day 34”. Below, in much smaller print, it named the subjects: “Aksel Eide & Berit Eide (on the right)”

These are fabulous!

They had put the first fence up against the monsters on Day 13, also establishing a small quarantine facility nearby. Now, exactly three weeks later, there had been an incident at that facility.

Henrik Hansen was, perhaps, the archetype of what Sigrun Larsen meant when she said, “We have enough crazy old people as it is”. He was convinced, for example, that the world was ruled by a mysterious cabal operating from a secret moon base, and the whole Rash thing was their way of harvesting humanity so the Martians would spare them. This was one of his more rational beliefs.

Now, Henrik’s odd beliefs and odder practices (he copied Benjamin Franklin’s habit of early morning air baths regardless of the season, among other things) would ordinarily have been disregarded by the average denizen of Dalsnes, but when he had returned from his latest excursion into the mountains, the town leaders had made him go into quarantine. “No exceptions, Henrik,” they’d told him, and he’d reluctantly obliged.

Henrik--or what used to be Henrik--was out of the quarantine facility now, and making for the mountains again, followed by a goodly portion of the able-bodied of Dalsnes.

Aksel held his rifle with the barrel pointed to the ground, the stock resting atop his shoulder rather than against it. He had already halfheartedly fired a few times at Henrik, and was loathe to try again. His father had warned Aksel when he got his first gun, “Never aim that at something you don’t wish to destroy”, and Aksel was far from wanting Henrik destroyed. Perhaps, an insidious voice whispered in his ear, if we keep him alive long enough, they’ll find a cure. It was a lie, and Aksel knew it, but he just couldn’t bring his rifle to bear again.

A hand grabbed Aksel’s trigger arm, gloved as his own were, and when he looked for the owner, his grandmother Berit looked back at him. The moment stretched into eternity, neither noticing that a picture had just been taken, or who had taken it.

“I don’t want to do this,” Aksel’s face told his grandmother, as plainly as if he’d said it aloud. There had never been any malice in old Henrik, and it was hard to believe that that had changed.

“I know, and I understand, but you must,” Berit’s face replied equally plainly. Whatever the thing was that currently had control of Henrik’s body, it was most definitely not Henrik. As long as it lived, everyone the two Eides cared for was in danger.

A moment later, the rifle, firmly and correctly in place, barked again, and Henrik, the first troll in Dalsnes, was dead.


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show

Just another Y0 piece.

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on November 21, 2015, 08:32:50 AM
LooNEY: 'Aksel's Turn' is excellent. Chilling, realistic, and you can watch gentle Aksel growing up. Hard. From the little we saw of Berit, I pictured her as this tough old retired lady farmer type who came to look after Aksel while he thought he was looking after her, and she is allowing him to do that by way of indulging a favourite grandson.

This is well written, and accords very precisely with the look of the photograph.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on November 22, 2015, 10:13:33 PM
/me mourns that "Shared Story" has surpassed this thread in post count.

So, amidst my weeping, it seems to be time for… A MEGA POST!!!

The Good, the Bad, and the Bestial
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/Western crossover fanfic
Part 15
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg76993#msg76993)
Spoiler: show
The Hopeless Distraction

After Reynir Saw in a Vision that the sadistic and vicious Man in the Black Hat was going into the mysterious Cave of Time, intent upon unleashing the Rash onto the unprepared world, the Band of Six (and their cat) followed him into its space-and-time-bending depths!

A battle ensued, the Man in the Black Hat fled deeper into the Cave of Time, and when the Band of Six tried chasing after him, they wound up almost seventy years and five thousand miles away from where they began!

Now, the Band must retrace their steps in a desperate attempt to stop the Man in the Black Hat before he can unleash untold death, destruction and suffering upon the globe...


Bornholm, Denmark
1353

The hut stood at the edge of the village, to all appearances just another hovel of stick and mud, the thatched roof moldy and otherwise unkempt, but on this day, it was the focus of much consternation.

The masked deputation had tried knocking, as they knew that the inhabitants hadn’t been seen to leave the place for nearly a week, but when knocking failed, they forced the door and went in.

Almost at a run, the men came back out, retiring to a nearby hedge that they might pull their masks off and retch away from the hut’s foul air. As soon as the leader could speak, he declared, “We shall have to burn it down, lest its filth contaminate the rest of the village.”

*

“He’s already been here,” Lalli announced as they stepped out of the Cave. A forest rose around them, thick and wild, but a clear path ran before them.

“Been, gone, and left us a mess to clean up if we can,” Reynir agreed, his voice muffled by the layers of cloth newly covering his face, while he helped Tuuri similarly swathe herself.

“Is it something I can shoot?” Sigrun asked.

“I hope not,” Reynir said with a shudder. “More likely, it’s something Emil needs to burn.” Which of course perked the fire-bug up considerably.

“Whatever it is, it won’t wait for us,” Lalli said. “We need to get a move on.” He set off down the path.

*

The first attack came a few steps down the trail. Lalli suddenly flung himself forward to dodge the thing-sent-straight-from-the-Devil-himself, relying on those behind to actually kill it, which Sigrun and Emil did, shooting it over and over until they were sure it was dead.

“Anyone else wishing for a gatling gun?” Sigrun asked ruefully.

“We may need to burn this whole place down,” Reynir observed.

“How many more like that are there out there?” Emil asked as he reloaded.

“Maybe too many,” Lalli said grimly.

*

The first village they came to was deserted and dead. Sigrun went into one of the houses very briefly, and emerged looking much as she had when she’d found the smallpox victims.

Before they left (and they certainly didn’t linger), they set the whole place to the torch, which flushed out quite a few little horrors they had to shoot.

The next village was walled up tight and incredibly paranoid, and no wonder: they’d been fighting these things off for almost a month now, and Sigrun’s little band were the only travelers to come from the Deadly Woods unscathed in all that time.

It took quite some time to explain what had happened, and what needed to be done, but they eventually got the message across, in somewhat scrambled form.

*

From The Completely, Totally, Utterly True History of Bornholm, by Uhyrlige Løgner

[...] While Bornholm’s isolation warded us from the terrors of the Plague for a long time, that scourge of Europe finally reached our shores in the summer of 1353. A concerted campaign of slash-and-burn cleansed our island over the course of the fall, but at great cost in lives and property [...]


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show

So when will they go next? And will they beat the Man in the Black Hat? Stay tuned!


The Jylland Jump
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/“Jazz Age” crossover fanfic
Part 2
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg73245#msg73245)
Spoiler: show
Command Performance to a Captive Audience

Emil Västerström kept promising himself as he looked around the room that the next time he saw his Uncle Torbjörn, the older man would be dead. Of course, that would most likely be because Emil himself would be dead shortly, but, on the off chance that Emil lived, he meant to ensure that the uncle who’d dragged both his bandmates and himself into this would not survive.

Emil glanced back at his bandmates guiltily. He should have know the weaselly Torbjörn would sell a bill of goods to anyone chump enough to buy them, family or not. None of them looked as though they blamed him, as yet, but that would probably change fairly soon.

Sigrun looked cool as ever, and Mikkel was as unmoved as was his wont. Tuuri looked confused, like she was unaware of just where they were, and Lalli was alert but calm. Only Reynir looked frightened, which struck Emil as ironic: only the newbie realized what peril they were in.

The goons surrounding them parted to reveal an old man in a spotless white suit. Emil was unsurprised, but both Tuuri and Sigrun actually gasped in recognition. Here was the Big Cheese, not simply of Malmö, but of the Malmöhus län, and maybe all of the Skåne landskap! He was known, simply enough, as “the Boss”.

“I am honored that you acceded to my humble request,” he wheezed, simply oozing false humility. “The audience for whom you shall play awaits you in yonder hall; my men shall bring you thither momentarily.”

None of their audience looked particularly pleased to see them file on stage, but from the first blasts from Sigrun’s trumpet, they were hooked. It tended to be that way: sometimes, projectiles of various sorts greeted their arrival, but never while they actually played.

As he ably went from flute to clarinet and back, Emil wondered just who they were playing for. Most of them looked like a respectable bunch, with a few of the more obviously gangster types sprinkled throughout the crowd. Oh well; he’d probably never know anyway.

They completed their very extended set with alacrity and verve, and were honored with a standing ovation as they packed their instruments back up. Even the Boss looked visibly pleased, his face contorted into a smile of sorts--one that didn’t imply “Now, I’ll kill you all, and that pleases me”.

Everything was going fine... until Torbjörn decided to open his fat, stupid mouth again. Somehow, he managed to offend the entire crowd in one short speech. Quite a large number of guns came out, all pointed at Torbjörn, who vanished with the skill and alacrity of a stage magician. The guns began to swivel towards the band.

...Aaaaaand this would be the time to run. Fortunately, Emil could tell the others were of like mind, as they were keeping up with him to form a little knot of runners ducking and weaving to avoid the belated and badly aimed fusillade from the Boss’ goons.

It took them rather a while to get back to Andersen’s Joint, and in expectation of being raked over the coals by Taru, Trond, and anyone else in their vicinity, they slipped in the back door, only to hear some semi-familiar and unpracticed but not actually bad music from on-stage.

A little old woman was waiting in the shadows, and she told them that six dead ringers for them had come in about an hour before and been dragooned onstage by Taru. “When their break comes, you can swap out with them with no one the wiser.”

Before they could say anything else, the old woman added, “Oh, and you brought a few friends along.”

Sigrun went to the back door and peeked out. Then she swore. “Yep. A few goons are out there, all right.”

“The others will take care of them for you. See you earlier!” And the old woman was gone...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show

So, this is where the Musikers were when the Westerners schlepped out of the Cave of Time into 1936 Malmö.

...Oh, and the thither is for Feartheviolas.


Tall Ships & Taller Tales
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/Pirate crossover fanfic
Part 2
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg73289#msg73289)
Spoiler: show
Eide, Eide, Up She Rises

The Sea-Lynx danced across the waves, easily swooping around to cut across Túnfiskurinn’s path, ending in prime position to deliver a broadside of Emil’s Finest. Only the Sea-Lynx with Tuuri at the helm could have pulled the maneuver off, and certainly only Sigrun would have tried it.

Right when Emil was ready to fire a ranging shot, Lalli spotted the convoy, too far in the wrong direction for them to catch even the worst straggler... as Ása had planned all along. Her purpose accomplished, Túnfiskurinn came about hard, fleeing the awakened wrath of the predator she’d thwarted.

Emil let off one shot, a special he’d been saving for just this possibility. The chain whipped through the air and struck Túnfiskurinn’s mainmast true, shattering the proud pine into a broken stump.

It was a bitter consolation for a crew hungry for gold.

“Bring us about, Tuuri,” Sigrun ordered. “We sail for the Antilles.”

*

The lone Spanish galleon Mariposa Reina, laden down with gold for His Majesty and bringing the outgoing Viceroy home was a ripe target for a buccaneer, but none aboard her had seen so much as a distant sail for the last fortnight. Not unnaturally, the battalion of His Majesty’s Soldiers also aboard were growing increasingly irked. Captain Vejar almost pitied any pirates that tried to plunder his ship.

Suddenly, a cry arose from the crow’s nest. Opposite the setting sun, a trim ship had appeared, sails blazing orange in the fading light.

The captain and his first mate took out their spyglasses and examined the interloper, growing closer by the minute. All they saw were bodies strewn across the various topside apparati; no sign of life aboard showed itself.

Finally, the mate observed, “It’s a scurvy ship, sir. You can tell by the position of the limbs. It seems that scurvy’s killed the whole crew.”

“Poor wretches,” the former viceroy observed, having approached while they were examining the derelict. “But their loss would seem to be His Majesty’s gain. Do you see any compelling reason that we should not give the poor wretches a Christian burial at sea and put a prize crew on that ship, Captain?”

Captain Vejar mulled it over for a moment. Then he turned to the mate. “Are you ready for your own command, Mister Alvarez?”

“Taking the ship as an escort might be wise in these waters,” that worthy replied, “but we’ll need a good supply of oranges aboard; I won’t have that scenario play out for my men,” gesturing at the derelict and her dead crew.

“Fit out a boat and take her, then,” the captain said.

*

The bodies had been placed in rows on the deck, as it was too late in the day for a proper funeral. The sight of all those shrouded figures glowing blue-white in the bright moonlight was rather unnerving for the night helmsman, though, who began grousing at the other man sharing the watch.

Mostly, the other man let the grousing roll over him without taking it in, like the crying of gull in a good harbor, but he noticed when it suddenly stopped. He turned to ask the helmsman what was wrong and tripped over some long strand of rope...

...which was actually Reynir’s braid. Once the prize crew had been taken out in a few silent but bloody minutes, Tuuri retook the wheel, slowly bringing the Sea-Lynx alongside her prey.

Sigrun and Emil led the two wings of the boarders: Emil took the fo’c’s’le party with a reluctant Reynir, while Sigrun and Lalli went for the decapitation strike. Mister Mikkel remained behind with Tuuri.

The Spanish soldiery of the time had few equals, but Sigrun and Emil took advantage of the fact that blind and choking men usually can’t fight very well. Emil’s smudge-pots were quite effective in that regard.

So passed the complement, crew and passengers of the Mariposa Reina, save the former viceroy and his family, who were given a small boat and enough provender to take them to the Azores, “compliments of Captain Eide”.


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show

Hey, it worked in The Crimson Pirate.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: misea on November 23, 2015, 12:44:41 AM
/me mourns that "Shared Story" has surpassed this thread in post count.

So, amidst my weeping, it seems to be time for… A MEGA POST!!!

The Good, the Bad, and the Bestial
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/Western crossover fanfic
Part 15
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg76993#msg76993)
Spoiler: show
The Hopeless Distraction

After Reynir Saw in a Vision that the sadistic and vicious Man in the Black Hat was going into the mysterious Cave of Time, intent upon unleashing the Rash onto the unprepared world, the Band of Six (and their cat) followed him into its space-and-time-bending depths!

A battle ensued, the Man in the Black Hat fled deeper into the Cave of Time, and when the Band of Six tried chasing after him, they wound up almost seventy years and five thousand miles away from where they began!

Now, the Band must retrace their steps in a desperate attempt to stop the Man in the Black Hat before he can unleash untold death, destruction and suffering upon the globe...


Bornholm, Denmark
1353

The hut stood at the edge of the village, to all appearances just another hovel of stick and mud, the thatched roof moldy and otherwise unkempt, but on this day, it was the focus of much consternation.

The masked deputation had tried knocking, as they knew that the inhabitants hadn’t been seen to leave the place for nearly a week, but when knocking failed, they forced the door and went in.

Almost at a run, the men came back out, retiring to a nearby hedge that they might pull their masks off and retch away from the hut’s foul air. As soon as the leader could speak, he declared, “We shall have to burn it down, lest its filth contaminate the rest of the village.”

*

“He’s already been here,” Lalli announced as they stepped out of the Cave. A forest rose around them, thick and wild, but a clear path ran before them.

“Been, gone, and left us a mess to clean up if we can,” Reynir agreed, his voice muffled by the layers of cloth newly covering his face, while he helped Tuuri similarly swathe herself.

“Is it something I can shoot?” Sigrun asked.

“I hope not,” Reynir said with a shudder. “More likely, it’s something Emil needs to burn.” Which of course perked the fire-bug up considerably.

“Whatever it is, it won’t wait for us,” Lalli said. “We need to get a move on.” He set off down the path.

*

The first attack came a few steps down the trail. Lalli suddenly flung himself forward to dodge the thing-sent-straight-from-the-Devil-himself, relying on those behind to actually kill it, which Sigrun and Emil did, shooting it over and over until they were sure it was dead.

“Anyone else wishing for a gatling gun?” Sigrun asked ruefully.

“We may need to burn this whole place down,” Reynir observed.

“How many more like that are there out there?” Emil asked as he reloaded.

“Maybe too many,” Lalli said grimly.

*

The first village they came to was deserted and dead. Sigrun went into one of the houses very briefly, and emerged looking much as she had when she’d found the smallpox victims.

Before they left (and they certainly didn’t linger), they set the whole place to the torch, which flushed out quite a few little horrors they had to shoot.

The next village was walled up tight and incredibly paranoid, and no wonder: they’d been fighting these things off for almost a month now, and Sigrun’s little band were the only travelers to come from the Deadly Woods unscathed in all that time.

It took quite some time to explain what had happened, and what needed to be done, but they eventually got the message across, in somewhat scrambled form.

*

From The Completely, Totally, Utterly True History of Bornholm, by Uhyrlige Løgner

[...] While Bornholm’s isolation warded us from the terrors of the Plague for a long time, that scourge of Europe finally reached our shores in the summer of 1353. A concerted campaign of slash-and-burn cleansed our island over the course of the fall, but at great cost in lives and property [...]


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show

So when will they go next? And will they beat the Man in the Black Hat? Stay tuned!


The Jylland Jump
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/“Jazz Age” crossover fanfic
Part 2
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg73245#msg73245)
Spoiler: show
Command Performance to a Captive Audience

Emil Västerström kept promising himself as he looked around the room that the next time he saw his Uncle Torbjörn, the older man would be dead. Of course, that would most likely be because Emil himself would be dead shortly, but, on the off chance that Emil lived, he meant to ensure that the uncle who’d dragged both his bandmates and himself into this would not survive.

Emil glanced back at his bandmates guiltily. He should have know the weaselly Torbjörn would sell a bill of goods to anyone chump enough to buy them, family or not. None of them looked as though they blamed him, as yet, but that would probably change fairly soon.

Sigrun looked cool as ever, and Mikkel was as unmoved as was his wont. Tuuri looked confused, like she was unaware of just where they were, and Lalli was alert but calm. Only Reynir looked frightened, which struck Emil as ironic: only the newbie realized what peril they were in.

The goons surrounding them parted to reveal an old man in a spotless white suit. Emil was unsurprised, but both Tuuri and Sigrun actually gasped in recognition. Here was the Big Cheese, not simply of Malmö, but of the Malmöhus län, and maybe all of the Skåne landskap! He was known, simply enough, as “the Boss”.

“I am honored that you acceded to my humble request,” he wheezed, simply oozing false humility. “The audience for whom you shall play awaits you in yonder hall; my men shall bring you thither momentarily.”

None of their audience looked particularly pleased to see them file on stage, but from the first blasts from Sigrun’s trumpet, they were hooked. It tended to be that way: sometimes, projectiles of various sorts greeted their arrival, but never while they actually played.

As he ably went from flute to clarinet and back, Emil wondered just who they were playing for. Most of them looked like a respectable bunch, with a few of the more obviously gangster types sprinkled throughout the crowd. Oh well; he’d probably never know anyway.

They completed their very extended set with alacrity and verve, and were honored with a standing ovation as they packed their instruments back up. Even the Boss looked visibly pleased, his face contorted into a smile of sorts--one that didn’t imply “Now, I’ll kill you all, and that pleases me”.

Everything was going fine... until Torbjörn decided to open his fat, stupid mouth again. Somehow, he managed to offend the entire crowd in one short speech. Quite a large number of guns came out, all pointed at Torbjörn, who vanished with the skill and alacrity of a stage magician. The guns began to swivel towards the band.

...Aaaaaand this would be the time to run. Fortunately, Emil could tell the others were of like mind, as they were keeping up with him to form a little knot of runners ducking and weaving to avoid the belated and badly aimed fusillade from the Boss’ goons.

It took them rather a while to get back to Andersen’s Joint, and in expectation of being raked over the coals by Taru, Trond, and anyone else in their vicinity, they slipped in the back door, only to hear some semi-familiar and unpracticed but not actually bad music from on-stage.

A little old woman was waiting in the shadows, and she told them that six dead ringers for them had come in about an hour before and been dragooned onstage by Taru. “When their break comes, you can swap out with them with no one the wiser.”

Before they could say anything else, the old woman added, “Oh, and you brought a few friends along.”

Sigrun went to the back door and peeked out. Then she swore. “Yep. A few goons are out there, all right.”

“The others will take care of them for you. See you earlier!” And the old woman was gone...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show

So, this is where the Musikers were when the Westerners schlepped out of the Cave of Time into 1936 Malmö.

...Oh, and the thither is for Feartheviolas.


Tall Ships & Taller Tales
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/Pirate crossover fanfic
Part 2
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg73289#msg73289)
Spoiler: show
Eide, Eide, Up She Rises

The Sea-Lynx danced across the waves, easily swooping around to cut across Túnfiskurinn’s path, ending in prime position to deliver a broadside of Emil’s Finest. Only the Sea-Lynx with Tuuri at the helm could have pulled the maneuver off, and certainly only Sigrun would have tried it.

Right when Emil was ready to fire a ranging shot, Lalli spotted the convoy, too far in the wrong direction for them to catch even the worst straggler... as Ása had planned all along. Her purpose accomplished, Túnfiskurinn came about hard, fleeing the awakened wrath of the predator she’d thwarted.

Emil let off one shot, a special he’d been saving for just this possibility. The chain whipped through the air and struck Túnfiskurinn’s mainmast true, shattering the proud pine into a broken stump.

It was a bitter consolation for a crew hungry for gold.

“Bring us about, Tuuri,” Sigrun ordered. “We sail for the Antilles.”

*

The lone Spanish galleon Mariposa Reina, laden down with gold for His Majesty and bringing the outgoing Viceroy home was a ripe target for a buccaneer, but none aboard her had seen so much as a distant sail for the last fortnight. Not unnaturally, the battalion of His Majesty’s Soldiers also aboard were growing increasingly irked. Captain Vejar almost pitied any pirates that tried to plunder his ship.

Suddenly, a cry arose from the crow’s nest. Opposite the setting sun, a trim ship had appeared, sails blazing orange in the fading light.

The captain and his first mate took out their spyglasses and examined the interloper, growing closer by the minute. All they saw were bodies strewn across the various topside apparati; no sign of life aboard showed itself.

Finally, the mate observed, “It’s a scurvy ship, sir. You can tell by the position of the limbs. It seems that scurvy’s killed the whole crew.”

“Poor wretches,” the former viceroy observed, having approached while they were examining the derelict. “But their loss would seem to be His Majesty’s gain. Do you see any compelling reason that we should not give the poor wretches a Christian burial at sea and put a prize crew on that ship, Captain?”

Captain Vejar mulled it over for a moment. Then he turned to the mate. “Are you ready for your own command, Mister Alvarez?”

“Taking the ship as an escort might be wise in these waters,” that worthy replied, “but we’ll need a good supply of oranges aboard; I won’t have that scenario play out for my men,” gesturing at the derelict and her dead crew.

“Fit out a boat and take her, then,” the captain said.

*

The bodies had been placed in rows on the deck, as it was too late in the day for a proper funeral. The sight of all those shrouded figures glowing blue-white in the bright moonlight was rather unnerving for the night helmsman, though, who began grousing at the other man sharing the watch.

Mostly, the other man let the grousing roll over him without taking it in, like the crying of gull in a good harbor, but he noticed when it suddenly stopped. He turned to ask the helmsman what was wrong and tripped over some long strand of rope...

...which was actually Reynir’s braid. Once the prize crew had been taken out in a few silent but bloody minutes, Tuuri retook the wheel, slowly bringing the Sea-Lynx alongside her prey.

Sigrun and Emil led the two wings of the boarders: Emil took the fo’c’s’le party with a reluctant Reynir, while Sigrun and Lalli went for the decapitation strike. Mister Mikkel remained behind with Tuuri.

The Spanish soldiery of the time had few equals, but Sigrun and Emil took advantage of the fact that blind and choking men usually can’t fight very well. Emil’s smudge-pots were quite effective in that regard.

So passed the complement, crew and passengers of the Mariposa Reina, save the former viceroy and his family, who were given a small boat and enough provender to take them to the Azores, “compliments of Captain Eide”.


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show

Hey, it worked in The Crimson Pirate.


Awesome as always, LooNEY!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Seilann on November 23, 2015, 01:00:30 AM
/me mourns that "Shared Story" has surpassed this thread in post count.

So, amidst my weeping, it seems to be time for… A MEGA POST!!!

The Good, the Bad, and the Bestial
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/Western crossover fanfic
Part 15
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg76993#msg76993)
Spoiler: show
The Hopeless Distraction

After Reynir Saw in a Vision that the sadistic and vicious Man in the Black Hat was going into the mysterious Cave of Time, intent upon unleashing the Rash onto the unprepared world, the Band of Six (and their cat) followed him into its space-and-time-bending depths!

A battle ensued, the Man in the Black Hat fled deeper into the Cave of Time, and when the Band of Six tried chasing after him, they wound up almost seventy years and five thousand miles away from where they began!

Now, the Band must retrace their steps in a desperate attempt to stop the Man in the Black Hat before he can unleash untold death, destruction and suffering upon the globe...


Bornholm, Denmark
1353

The hut stood at the edge of the village, to all appearances just another hovel of stick and mud, the thatched roof moldy and otherwise unkempt, but on this day, it was the focus of much consternation.

The masked deputation had tried knocking, as they knew that the inhabitants hadn’t been seen to leave the place for nearly a week, but when knocking failed, they forced the door and went in.

Almost at a run, the men came back out, retiring to a nearby hedge that they might pull their masks off and retch away from the hut’s foul air. As soon as the leader could speak, he declared, “We shall have to burn it down, lest its filth contaminate the rest of the village.”

*

“He’s already been here,” Lalli announced as they stepped out of the Cave. A forest rose around them, thick and wild, but a clear path ran before them.

“Been, gone, and left us a mess to clean up if we can,” Reynir agreed, his voice muffled by the layers of cloth newly covering his face, while he helped Tuuri similarly swathe herself.

“Is it something I can shoot?” Sigrun asked.

“I hope not,” Reynir said with a shudder. “More likely, it’s something Emil needs to burn.” Which of course perked the fire-bug up considerably.

“Whatever it is, it won’t wait for us,” Lalli said. “We need to get a move on.” He set off down the path.

*

The first attack came a few steps down the trail. Lalli suddenly flung himself forward to dodge the thing-sent-straight-from-the-Devil-himself, relying on those behind to actually kill it, which Sigrun and Emil did, shooting it over and over until they were sure it was dead.

“Anyone else wishing for a gatling gun?” Sigrun asked ruefully.

“We may need to burn this whole place down,” Reynir observed.

“How many more like that are there out there?” Emil asked as he reloaded.

“Maybe too many,” Lalli said grimly.

*

The first village they came to was deserted and dead. Sigrun went into one of the houses very briefly, and emerged looking much as she had when she’d found the smallpox victims.

Before they left (and they certainly didn’t linger), they set the whole place to the torch, which flushed out quite a few little horrors they had to shoot.

The next village was walled up tight and incredibly paranoid, and no wonder: they’d been fighting these things off for almost a month now, and Sigrun’s little band were the only travelers to come from the Deadly Woods unscathed in all that time.

It took quite some time to explain what had happened, and what needed to be done, but they eventually got the message across, in somewhat scrambled form.

*

From The Completely, Totally, Utterly True History of Bornholm, by Uhyrlige Løgner

[...] While Bornholm’s isolation warded us from the terrors of the Plague for a long time, that scourge of Europe finally reached our shores in the summer of 1353. A concerted campaign of slash-and-burn cleansed our island over the course of the fall, but at great cost in lives and property [...]


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show

So when will they go next? And will they beat the Man in the Black Hat? Stay tuned!


The Jylland Jump
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/“Jazz Age” crossover fanfic
Part 2
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg73245#msg73245)
Spoiler: show
Command Performance to a Captive Audience

Emil Västerström kept promising himself as he looked around the room that the next time he saw his Uncle Torbjörn, the older man would be dead. Of course, that would most likely be because Emil himself would be dead shortly, but, on the off chance that Emil lived, he meant to ensure that the uncle who’d dragged both his bandmates and himself into this would not survive.

Emil glanced back at his bandmates guiltily. He should have know the weaselly Torbjörn would sell a bill of goods to anyone chump enough to buy them, family or not. None of them looked as though they blamed him, as yet, but that would probably change fairly soon.

Sigrun looked cool as ever, and Mikkel was as unmoved as was his wont. Tuuri looked confused, like she was unaware of just where they were, and Lalli was alert but calm. Only Reynir looked frightened, which struck Emil as ironic: only the newbie realized what peril they were in.

The goons surrounding them parted to reveal an old man in a spotless white suit. Emil was unsurprised, but both Tuuri and Sigrun actually gasped in recognition. Here was the Big Cheese, not simply of Malmö, but of the Malmöhus län, and maybe all of the Skåne landskap! He was known, simply enough, as “the Boss”.

“I am honored that you acceded to my humble request,” he wheezed, simply oozing false humility. “The audience for whom you shall play awaits you in yonder hall; my men shall bring you thither momentarily.”

None of their audience looked particularly pleased to see them file on stage, but from the first blasts from Sigrun’s trumpet, they were hooked. It tended to be that way: sometimes, projectiles of various sorts greeted their arrival, but never while they actually played.

As he ably went from flute to clarinet and back, Emil wondered just who they were playing for. Most of them looked like a respectable bunch, with a few of the more obviously gangster types sprinkled throughout the crowd. Oh well; he’d probably never know anyway.

They completed their very extended set with alacrity and verve, and were honored with a standing ovation as they packed their instruments back up. Even the Boss looked visibly pleased, his face contorted into a smile of sorts--one that didn’t imply “Now, I’ll kill you all, and that pleases me”.

Everything was going fine... until Torbjörn decided to open his fat, stupid mouth again. Somehow, he managed to offend the entire crowd in one short speech. Quite a large number of guns came out, all pointed at Torbjörn, who vanished with the skill and alacrity of a stage magician. The guns began to swivel towards the band.

...Aaaaaand this would be the time to run. Fortunately, Emil could tell the others were of like mind, as they were keeping up with him to form a little knot of runners ducking and weaving to avoid the belated and badly aimed fusillade from the Boss’ goons.

It took them rather a while to get back to Andersen’s Joint, and in expectation of being raked over the coals by Taru, Trond, and anyone else in their vicinity, they slipped in the back door, only to hear some semi-familiar and unpracticed but not actually bad music from on-stage.

A little old woman was waiting in the shadows, and she told them that six dead ringers for them had come in about an hour before and been dragooned onstage by Taru. “When their break comes, you can swap out with them with no one the wiser.”

Before they could say anything else, the old woman added, “Oh, and you brought a few friends along.”

Sigrun went to the back door and peeked out. Then she swore. “Yep. A few goons are out there, all right.”

“The others will take care of them for you. See you earlier!” And the old woman was gone...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show

So, this is where the Musikers were when the Westerners schlepped out of the Cave of Time into 1936 Malmö.

...Oh, and the thither is for Feartheviolas.


Tall Ships & Taller Tales
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/Pirate crossover fanfic
Part 2
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg73289#msg73289)
Spoiler: show
Eide, Eide, Up She Rises

The Sea-Lynx danced across the waves, easily swooping around to cut across Túnfiskurinn’s path, ending in prime position to deliver a broadside of Emil’s Finest. Only the Sea-Lynx with Tuuri at the helm could have pulled the maneuver off, and certainly only Sigrun would have tried it.

Right when Emil was ready to fire a ranging shot, Lalli spotted the convoy, too far in the wrong direction for them to catch even the worst straggler... as Ása had planned all along. Her purpose accomplished, Túnfiskurinn came about hard, fleeing the awakened wrath of the predator she’d thwarted.

Emil let off one shot, a special he’d been saving for just this possibility. The chain whipped through the air and struck Túnfiskurinn’s mainmast true, shattering the proud pine into a broken stump.

It was a bitter consolation for a crew hungry for gold.

“Bring us about, Tuuri,” Sigrun ordered. “We sail for the Antilles.”

*

The lone Spanish galleon Mariposa Reina, laden down with gold for His Majesty and bringing the outgoing Viceroy home was a ripe target for a buccaneer, but none aboard her had seen so much as a distant sail for the last fortnight. Not unnaturally, the battalion of His Majesty’s Soldiers also aboard were growing increasingly irked. Captain Vejar almost pitied any pirates that tried to plunder his ship.

Suddenly, a cry arose from the crow’s nest. Opposite the setting sun, a trim ship had appeared, sails blazing orange in the fading light.

The captain and his first mate took out their spyglasses and examined the interloper, growing closer by the minute. All they saw were bodies strewn across the various topside apparati; no sign of life aboard showed itself.

Finally, the mate observed, “It’s a scurvy ship, sir. You can tell by the position of the limbs. It seems that scurvy’s killed the whole crew.”

“Poor wretches,” the former viceroy observed, having approached while they were examining the derelict. “But their loss would seem to be His Majesty’s gain. Do you see any compelling reason that we should not give the poor wretches a Christian burial at sea and put a prize crew on that ship, Captain?”

Captain Vejar mulled it over for a moment. Then he turned to the mate. “Are you ready for your own command, Mister Alvarez?”

“Taking the ship as an escort might be wise in these waters,” that worthy replied, “but we’ll need a good supply of oranges aboard; I won’t have that scenario play out for my men,” gesturing at the derelict and her dead crew.

“Fit out a boat and take her, then,” the captain said.

*

The bodies had been placed in rows on the deck, as it was too late in the day for a proper funeral. The sight of all those shrouded figures glowing blue-white in the bright moonlight was rather unnerving for the night helmsman, though, who began grousing at the other man sharing the watch.

Mostly, the other man let the grousing roll over him without taking it in, like the crying of gull in a good harbor, but he noticed when it suddenly stopped. He turned to ask the helmsman what was wrong and tripped over some long strand of rope...

...which was actually Reynir’s braid. Once the prize crew had been taken out in a few silent but bloody minutes, Tuuri retook the wheel, slowly bringing the Sea-Lynx alongside her prey.

Sigrun and Emil led the two wings of the boarders: Emil took the fo’c’s’le party with a reluctant Reynir, while Sigrun and Lalli went for the decapitation strike. Mister Mikkel remained behind with Tuuri.

The Spanish soldiery of the time had few equals, but Sigrun and Emil took advantage of the fact that blind and choking men usually can’t fight very well. Emil’s smudge-pots were quite effective in that regard.

So passed the complement, crew and passengers of the Mariposa Reina, save the former viceroy and his family, who were given a small boat and enough provender to take them to the Azores, “compliments of Captain Eide”.


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show

Hey, it worked in The Crimson Pirate.


Thanks for the great reads!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on November 23, 2015, 01:03:59 AM
Excellent work, LooNEY! I love how you weave all the stories together.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Seilann on November 24, 2015, 01:10:29 PM
I have only 50% of the usual work to do this lovely Thanksgiving week, so here's an installment of Pocket Fluff for your Emilalli needs.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/5128250/chapters/12182018
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on November 24, 2015, 04:46:40 PM
Seilann, that's sweet! Mikkel has an evil sense of humour (so does Sigrun). Poor Lalli is confused. Again. Still.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LordoftheThings on November 24, 2015, 11:48:42 PM
the fanfic thread! I just got on this forum today but I can tell I'm going to love it here. I've already skimmed some for the works and they all look amazing <3
Also, I saw that pocket fluff chapter when it went up on tumblr and loved it~
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on November 25, 2015, 04:00:45 AM
Hi, Lordofthethings! Saw you over on the comments. Another writer? Good! Info about the writing thread is right at the start of this thread, and some people post their longer stories on fanficnet or Archive of our Own and link to them here. Welcome!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on November 25, 2015, 01:30:43 PM
Gwenno over on the art thread drew the leaftroll coming home at last. I guess all the calls for it to be turned into a fanfic must have tripped something in me, ‘cause I blasted this out in just under an hour! A very short story of the Amalienborg survivors and leaftroll’s return.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/5284661

Hope you like it!
(and Gwenno, sorry for taking this and running with it without getting your okay first!)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Sunflower on November 25, 2015, 01:48:27 PM
Gwenno over on the art thread drew the leaftroll coming home at last. I guess all the calls for it to be turned into a fanfic must have tripped something in me, ‘cause I blasted this out in just under an hour! A very short story of the Amalienborg survivors and leaftroll’s return.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/5284661

Hope you like it!
(and Gwenno, sorry for taking this and running with it without getting your okay first!)

Dammit, SectoBoss, why do my allergies always act up when I read something of yours?  :o  Luckily, it's the day before a holiday so nobody here at the office notices me mopping my eyes...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Athena on November 25, 2015, 03:54:56 PM
Gwenno over on the art thread drew the leaftroll coming home at last. I guess all the calls for it to be turned into a fanfic must have tripped something in me, ‘cause I blasted this out in just under an hour! A very short story of the Amalienborg survivors and leaftroll’s return.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/5284661

Hope you like it!
(and Gwenno, sorry for taking this and running with it without getting your okay first!)
I love it! Sad but perfect.  :'( ^-^
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LordoftheThings on November 25, 2015, 07:59:21 PM
Gwenno over on the art thread drew the leaftroll coming home at last. I guess all the calls for it to be turned into a fanfic must have tripped something in me, ‘cause I blasted this out in just under an hour! A very short story of the Amalienborg survivors and leaftroll’s return.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/5284661

Hope you like it!
(and Gwenno, sorry for taking this and running with it without getting your okay first!)

I'm not crying I just got a troll in my eyes
(In all seriousness tho I am sniveling and teary eyed this fic is beautiful. All your fics are beautiful. You're beautiful you beautiful author you)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on November 25, 2015, 10:15:26 PM
Yeah, SectoBoss is responsible for many an outbreak of lachrymosity among us Minnions. Great story, again!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LordoftheThings on November 25, 2015, 11:38:31 PM
I suspect most of of my time waiting for new pages shall be spent here reading more amazing fics. At least I've also started on my own fic idea so soon i can do more than read and gush.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LordoftheThings on November 26, 2015, 04:50:28 PM
So I vented some waiting for update (and a little waiting for book) nerves and ended up cranking out the first chapter of a fic idea I got faster than expected
Dropping links since this is gonna be a doozy of a fic

"Have you ever screwed up So Badly that, when you finally stop, take a minute, and Look at the  very moment you screwed up, you could say for absolute certain it was the exact moment that your entire life as you knew it went to complete, total, and utter catastrophe?
That is just how badly Emil had Screwed Up.
And to think that the whole mess had started with such a seemingly, deceptively, simple plan: a recovery mission. Get in. Get books. Get out. Easy, right? That’s exactly what Emil thought. And the entire debacle had quite nearly cost him his Life."

http://archiveofourown.org/works/5292065/chapters/12216398 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/5292065/chapters/12216398)

Critiques are more than welcome~ I always want to improve my writing
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Seilann on November 26, 2015, 09:39:03 PM
So I vented some waiting for update (and a little waiting for book) nerves and ended up cranking out the first chapter of a fic idea I got faster than expected
Dropping links since this is gonna be a doozy of a fic

"Have you ever screwed up So Badly that, when you finally stop, take a minute, and Look at the  very moment you screwed up, you could say for absolute certain it was the exact moment that your entire life as you knew it went to complete, total, and utter catastrophe?
That is just how badly Emil had Screwed Up.
And to think that the whole mess had started with such a seemingly, deceptively, simple plan: a recovery mission. Get in. Get books. Get out. Easy, right? That’s exactly what Emil thought. And the entire debacle had quite nearly cost him his Life."

http://archiveofourown.org/works/5292065/chapters/12216398 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/5292065/chapters/12216398)

Critiques are more than welcome~ I always want to improve my writing

Oh yes, writing fic is the perfect coping mechanism. Welcome!

I also see that you are a Nightwish fan. :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LordoftheThings on November 26, 2015, 10:00:38 PM
Oh yes, writing fic is the perfect coping mechanism. Welcome!

I also see that you are a Nightwish fan. :)

hehe, saw the signature eh?
It is true, I'm a huge nightwish fan~
Tho I might change it weekly to different song lyrics for whatever song I feel the most. Still playing with the idea.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LordoftheThings on November 29, 2015, 01:23:07 AM
http://archiveofourown.org/works/5292065/chapters/12259508

new chapter of that fic is up just in time for 100 AO3 hits

someone's got the munchies...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LordoftheThings on November 30, 2015, 03:46:20 PM
http://archiveofourown.org/works/5292065/chapters/12289385 still posting new chapters here

Emil done goofed up now
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on December 02, 2015, 09:51:45 AM
Does anyone remember that 1920s AU I started two flippin' months ago?? Well, it's finally gotten finished! (although it's been so long I'm wondering if i need to post a cheat sheet so people can remember who's doing what...)

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4964401/chapters/12320996

I do hope it was worth the wait!

And LordoftheThings, I am greatly enjoying 'Hypothermia', and my apologies for not saying so earlier!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Johannabelle on December 02, 2015, 11:01:36 AM
Does anyone remember that 1920s AU I started two flippin' months ago?? Well, it's finally gotten finished! (although it's been so long I'm wondering if i need to post a cheat sheet so people can remember who's doing what...)

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4964401/chapters/12320996

I do hope it was worth the wait!

And LordoftheThings, I am greatly enjoying 'Hypothermia', and my apologies for not saying so earlier!
I haven't even read it yet but yay!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Athena on December 02, 2015, 01:36:20 PM
Does anyone remember that 1920s AU I started two flippin' months ago?? Well, it's finally gotten finished! (although it's been so long I'm wondering if i need to post a cheat sheet so people can remember who's doing what...)

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4964401/chapters/12320996

I do hope it was worth the wait!

And LordoftheThings, I am greatly enjoying 'Hypothermia', and my apologies for not saying so earlier!

I just finished it and WOW that was awesome!  ^-^
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on December 02, 2015, 05:29:50 PM
SectoBoss: good one! There'll be more? Looking forward to a wild ride! I like how Lalli still has some kind of magic, and Emil still fusses over him.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Helia on December 04, 2015, 02:27:17 AM
umm... I did a thing.
I'm still not quite sure if it's a good idea to write fics as a non-native speaker, but Noodly was nice and read it through.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/5345138 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/5345138)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LordoftheThings on December 04, 2015, 02:31:23 AM
umm... I did a thing.
I'm still not quite sure if it's a good idea to write fics as a non-native speaker, but Noodly was nice and read it through.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/5345138 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/5345138)

Oooh that was really good. It was also fairly well written too, barely any different from a native speaker at all~
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: AquaAurion on December 04, 2015, 04:01:59 AM
umm... I did a thing.
I'm still not quite sure if it's a good idea to write fics as a non-native speaker, but Noodly was nice and read it through.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/5345138 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/5345138)
This was so sweet ^w^
I honestly didn't notice that you weren't a native speaker
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on December 04, 2015, 07:33:24 PM
I decided to try my hand at a modern day AU, and this is the first chapter of the result. Set in a world where the Rash wasn’t as virulent, Lalli and Emil meet in Stockholm and strike up an odd friendship.
(Fair warning – it's going to get a teensy tiny bit shippy in later chapters, but nothing major)

http://archiveofourown.org/works/5353481/chapters/12363377

I hope you all like it, chapter 2 should be here very soon!

Helia, that was a very nice read, and like everyone else has said, you sound pretty darn fluent to me!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on December 04, 2015, 10:14:05 PM
Helia: No problems with the English, and a sweet little tale. Like the point of view.

SectoBoss: what a great AU! I wait in fascination to see what will happen next.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Haiz on December 05, 2015, 06:18:15 AM
SectoBoss, I finally got around to reading both the (current) ending of the 20s au and the beginning of the modern au. Both are absolutely excellent, as always. No surprises there. I'm not sure which I love more, assassin lalli or artist lalli... although we haven't seen much of the latter yet, but I love the concept ahah
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on December 05, 2015, 12:21:44 PM
Róisín and Haiz, thank you very much!

And while I'm here, chapter 2 of the modern-day AU is up!

http://archiveofourown.org/works/5353481/chapters/12374576

Hope you like it!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on December 05, 2015, 01:47:09 PM
Nice. (More or less goes without saying, but…)

Spoiler: show
And nice choices of pp 158 & 260 for Lalli's paintings.

…and I should probably also post this in the "You Know You're an SSSS Addict When" thread, shouldn't I?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: AquaAurion on December 05, 2015, 01:57:23 PM
Róisín and Haiz, thank you very much!

And while I'm here, chapter 2 of the modern-day AU is up!

http://archiveofourown.org/works/5353481/chapters/12374576

Hope you like it!
This is such a nice AU :D I like the idea of Lalli as a unsocial painter ^^
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SignatureSmiley on December 05, 2015, 07:07:10 PM
Does anyone remember that 1920s AU I started two flippin' months ago?? Well, it's finally gotten finished! (although it's been so long I'm wondering if i need to post a cheat sheet so people can remember who's doing what...)

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4964401/chapters/12320996

I do hope it was worth the wait!

It was definitely worth the wait. I love this fic. Can't go wrong with a 20's AU, right?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on December 05, 2015, 09:12:31 PM
Thanks guys!

I'm in a weird sort of tired-productive state right now so what the hey, here's chapter 3!

http://archiveofourown.org/works/5353481/chapters/12383360

Spoiler: show
And LooNEY, yes, that is I suppose a pretty good sign of addiction  :))
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on December 06, 2015, 02:56:38 AM
Thanks guys!

I'm in a weird sort of tired-productive state right now so what the hey, here's chapter 3!

http://archiveofourown.org/works/5353481/chapters/12383360

Mmmmmm, chapter 3 goodness, but...

Oh gods what have I done...
I've only gone and started a sequel (technically a prequel, I suppose) to the SSSS/Pacific Rim crossover I did a while ago.
Now with more giants! More Jaegers! More just about everything!
Less Reynir, I guess.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/5234288/chapters/12072128


Edit: Or, maybe not. I'll try re-uploading this when AO3 stops throwing a temper tantrum.

Sooooooo…

I read it before it got pulled down and liked it.

So, what's its status?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on December 06, 2015, 03:45:00 AM
Curious about that myself.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on December 06, 2015, 07:21:07 AM
Sooooooo…

I read it before it got pulled down and liked it.

So, what's its status?
Curious about that myself.

*sighs* Yeah, about that...
Well, I put it up and AO3 refused to index it so I took it down until I could get AO3 to work properly. Unfortunately, in the process, I reread it and decided I kind of didn't like it anymore - something about it felt 'off' in a way I can't really describe. So I'm putting it back in storage for a while. Hopefully, once my exams in the new year are all done, I can go back to it and give it a do-over. Sorry to keep you waiting!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on December 06, 2015, 07:26:48 AM
SectoBoss: Eh, happens to all of us! Look forward to when it arrives.

Also, this new tale is downright intriguing! Lots of ways the story could go!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on December 06, 2015, 07:34:06 AM
SectoBoss: Eh, happens to all of us! Look forward to when it arrives.
Speaking of which, can we look forward to a new installment of 'A Few of Mikkel's Secrets' anytime soon?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on December 06, 2015, 05:35:56 PM
Have had the rest of it written for months. It's long. And long story short, the problem seems to be in the iPad uploading it. Last time one of the technically competent family passed through, he didn't have time to work on the machine for me.

At present I'm away from home (did my usual Saturday market, then the town Christmas street fair; then on Sunday I was the guide for a tour of a rare plants collection at a garden way down south near the sea).
Which was fascinating but a couple of days of very hard work. So this morning I'm still down in the Adelaide suburbs, where we have stayed the night with a friend, ahead of my going into the hospital for a morning of unpleasant medical stuff. And after THAT we are going home. Which will be interesting in itself, because there was a windstorm overnight (alas, no rain) and there are trees down all over.

Anyway, once I get home I will have about a day and a half in which the only thing I have to do is keep the garden from drying out and dying, and will have a bit of time to work on my own stuff. I plan first to finish off and post my pieces for the Advent Calendar and the Secret Santa, which are written but still need to be gone over for spelling and grammar, then the next installment for Crossroads, where I am presently retelling an Irish folktale. Once those are up, I intend to try posting the last two chapters of 'A Few of Mikkel's Secrets' by the same method I'm using for the Crossroads stuff - that is, retyping it into the site. Problems: it can just randomly disappear when I'm a few thousand words in, which has happened before and is most annoying, also it takes forever. Advantages: I can do last-minute corrections as I type it in, and I don't have to worry about waiting until someone is here who can make 'Pages' cooperate!

One way or another I am determined to get it up before midsummer. Then I'm going to write something less grim.

By the way, I love how your story is working out, and look forward to seeing the rest of it.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Sunflower on December 06, 2015, 06:00:38 PM
Have had the rest of it written for months. It's long. And long story short, the problem seems to be in the iPad uploading it. Last time one of the technically competent family passed through, he didn't have time to work on the machine for me.

<snip>

...I intend to try posting the last two chapters of 'A Few of Mikkel's Secrets' by the same method I'm using for the Crossroads stuff - retyping it into the site. Problems: it can just randomly disappear when I'm a few thousand words in, which has happened before and is most annoying, also it takes forever. Advantages: I can do last-minute corrections as I type it in, and I don't have to worry about waiting until someone is here who can make 'Pages' cooperate!

Hi, Róisín.  I sympathize with your frustration with content sometimes just randomly disappearing when you're trying to post to the Forum.  Have you tried copying and pasting the material, rather than just hand-typing it?

The other thing that works for me on Forum posts is hitting "Preview" every couple of minutes.  It's not as good as an actual "Save as Draft" button (oh, how I wish we had one!).  But it does seem to save the material in a kind of buffer, so that at most you'd lose whatever you added since the last time you hit "Preview."

Good luck!  I enjoy all your writing and I'm particularly enjoying the story you're telling on Crossroads.  I think my character could have used some of the heart's-ease flower herself, not just magical Instant Detox...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on December 06, 2015, 07:22:22 PM
Hi, so, super-super newbie here and I'm concerned that I'm not even writing this in the right place, but how would one go about joining this...this posting, writing thingie? Just a little confused by the layout of the website and by life as a fact in general, so if anyone could let me know how to conduct myself around here, I would really appreciate the attempt to help me not embarrass myself. Thanks in advance
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Keeper on December 06, 2015, 07:36:22 PM
Hi, so, super-super newbie here and I'm concerned that I'm not even writing this in the right place, but how would one go about joining this...this posting, writing thingie? Just a little confused by the layout of the website and by life as a fact in general, so if anyone could let me know how to conduct myself around here, I would really appreciate the attempt to help me not embarrass myself. Thanks in advance

Well, the Introduction Thread (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=131.1710) is probably a good place to start. I'm assuming you're talking about the forum in general, so from there you can browse around and see what topics interest you. If you have any questions, we've got some great skalds, mods, and admins that can help. :) Welcome!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on December 06, 2015, 09:36:31 PM
Thanks so much for the welcome. Always nerve racking to leap into a new forum, but I will use the link you've given me to try to figure out what do to. Thanks again.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Keeper on December 06, 2015, 09:38:29 PM
Thanks so much for the welcome. Always nerve racking to leap into a new forum, but I will use the link you've given me to try to figure out what do to. Thanks again.

No problem! Happy to help!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LordoftheThings on December 06, 2015, 10:05:18 PM
I want to finish writing the next chapter of Hypothermia but oh my god my heeeeaaaaaad
I was cleaning and the fumes have given me a royal headache so no writing for me right now.
But it looks like the scriptorium is picking up again so I can always read everyone's lovely fics while waiting for the painkillers to kick in ;w;
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on December 06, 2015, 11:49:49 PM
Sunflower: I've tried copy-and-paste and can't reliably make it work, but will keep plugging away! Remember way back when I joined I told you I wasn't good at this? Not much improved, I'm afraid, both because it's alien tech and because machineries tend to fritz around me. And I'm so glad you like the story. I'll likely finish it tonight, and was thinking after that to tell a Victorian Aboriginal story, (for the Mimi and the three Niols who are currently haunting the fireplace). Do you think that would work.

OwlsG0: these people are helpful, lovely, and very patient with my technical ineptitude. I'm sure you can't be worse! Go for it, we can always use another writer in the forums. There are useful notes at the start of each thread, and also details for who to contact if you have problems.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Sunflower on December 07, 2015, 12:48:24 AM
Hi, so, super-super newbie here and I'm concerned that I'm not even writing this in the right place, but how would one go about joining this...this posting, writing thingie? Just a little confused by the layout of the website and by life as a fact in general, so if anyone could let me know how to conduct myself around here, I would really appreciate the attempt to help me not embarrass myself. Thanks in advance

Well, the Introduction Thread (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=131.1710) is probably a good place to start. I'm assuming you're talking about the forum in general, so from there you can browse around and see what topics interest you. If you have any questions, we've got some great skalds, mods, and admins that can help. :) Welcome!

*bamf*  Did someone say "admin"?  I am one! 

Welcome to the Forum, OwlsG0!  I'm glad you were brave enough to raise your hand and ask for directions -- the Forum is growing every day, and I imagine it could be a bit bewildering to people who are new to it.  We do our best to be a welcoming place, though, so never hesitate to ask how something works or where to find something.

Keeper gave you good advice about starting with the Introduction Thread.  You'll see that new members generally say a little about their background, their interests, and how they found SSSS in the first place.

After that, if you're interested in fan-writing, you can just plain post a story here.  For ease of reading, we ask that you put anything longer than a screen's worth of text under a spoiler, or host it on one of many creative sites such as AO3 (Archive of Our Own), which you'll see many members use, Tumblr, or cloud storage sites such as Dropbox or Google Docs. 

Fan poetry that's not a filk (play on existing song lyric or poem) (and some that is) is here: 
https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=4.0
Fan-filks are here:  https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=477.msg81138#new
"Headcanon", i.e. your own ideas about what the characters are like:  https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=509.0
One of the many humor threads: https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=451.0
Short humorous scenes:  https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=64.325
The Help File, including many helpful links and tips:  https://ssssforum.com/index.php?action=help

If there's anything else you'd like to know about, feel free to PM me or any of the other admins/mods/skalds.  Meanwhile, happy browsing -- and hopefully, happy posting!

- Sunflower

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on December 07, 2015, 03:14:42 AM
Thanks for all your help, Admin. I'm no good with technology or forums. I can type something on this keyboard and that's about it. The task of finding my way around this labyrinth of cool people- well, let's just say I would have lain down and died somewhere around the poetry thread.
It's also kind of shocking to me to see how nice and welcoming people are here. I'm used to a more lukewarm welcome, so this is encouraging and refreshing.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on December 07, 2015, 04:50:49 PM
Chapter 4 of my modern-day AU is now up and running! We finally get to see what's going on with Lalli, and how Emil helps him along:

http://archiveofourown.org/works/5353481/chapters/12418304

Hope you like it!
Fair warning, vaguely shippy. And I do mean vaguely.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Johannabelle on December 07, 2015, 05:42:15 PM
Chapter 4 of my modern-day AU is now up and running! We finally get to see what's going on with Lalli, and how Emil helps him along:

http://archiveofourown.org/works/5353481/chapters/12418304

Hope you like it!
Fair warning, vaguely shippy. And I do mean vaguely.
Yay, new chapter! I don't think I've said so yet, but I really love this fic so far! You are always so good at realistically writing the characters. I normally don't even like to read AUs but yours are just so good. :D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Daéa Reina on December 07, 2015, 06:23:49 PM
Sectoboss: I just finished reading the 20s AU, and it's spectacular! It actually kept me on the edge of my seat for the last part, and I'm so glad that you plan on writing more!
About the Modern AU: somehow it was able to make me emotional...
Spoiler: show
Are you planning to keep the nightmares as only nightmares, or are there more than one universe involved?
Also, the R. Árnason part is hilarious. :'D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on December 07, 2015, 09:03:04 PM
SectoBoss, this is getting better and better. Looking forward to the next chapter, though I realise that may have to wait on your academic stuff being finished. It's an excellently crafted story, and I really like how you manage the interaction between the characters, and how you retain their essential personalities even across the worlds.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on December 08, 2015, 03:37:26 AM
Thanks guys, glad you're enjoying it!
And Daéa...
Spoiler: show
That would be telling  :))
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Haiz on December 08, 2015, 05:35:24 AM
Chapter 4 of my modern-day AU is now up and running! We finally get to see what's going on with Lalli, and how Emil helps him along:

http://archiveofourown.org/works/5353481/chapters/12418304

Hope you like it!
Fair warning, vaguely shippy. And I do mean vaguely.

PERFECT

lalli sleeping under the bed like a normal person always makes me super happy, henceforth, this fic made me super happy. Also seems like you managed to reel in quite a few readers with the "vaguely shippy" thing hahahahaha
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OrigamiOwl on December 08, 2015, 06:18:26 AM
Chapter 4 of my modern-day AU is now up and running! We finally get to see what's going on with Lalli, and how Emil helps him along:

http://archiveofourown.org/works/5353481/chapters/12418304

Hope you like it!
Fair warning, vaguely shippy. And I do mean vaguely.
Secto I love this story so much ;-;bbbbbbb
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on December 08, 2015, 08:15:26 AM
Also seems like you managed to reel in quite a few readers with the "vaguely shippy" thing hahahahaha
xD
Hey, you gotta know your audience! (This fandom is slowly teaching me how to be shameless.)

Secto I love this story so much ;-;bbbbbbb
Thank you!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on December 08, 2015, 05:39:34 PM
Tsk, tsk. I seem to have become a filthy doubleposter.

Anyway, the fifth chapter of my modern AU is now up! Turns out Lalli's visions can have their uses after all...

http://archiveofourown.org/works/5353481/chapters/12436382

Hope you like it!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: shoop on December 08, 2015, 06:28:38 PM
Ahhhh!!!!!!!!! This is brilliant as usual, boss. I really liked how you wrote Lalli's pov on the train, and y'know Lalli and Emil continuing to be Very Good Friends (no but the friendship in this fic is really important.....)

I really wanna draw something for this...! You're uploading so fast you're gonna be done before I get anything finished lmao.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OrigamiOwl on December 08, 2015, 06:30:12 PM
Tsk, tsk. I seem to have become a filthy doubleposter.

Anyway, the fifth chapter of my modern AU is now up! Turns out Lalli's visions can have their uses after all...

http://archiveofourown.org/works/5353481/chapters/12436382

Hope you like it!
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA D: :D D: I can't decide which face to use because aaaAAAAAAAA
Ahhhh!!!!!!!!! This is brilliant as usual, boss. I really liked how you wrote Lalli's pov on the train, and y'know Lalli and Emil continuing to be Very Good Friends (no but the friendship in this fic is really important.....)

I really wanna draw something for this...! You're uploading so fast you're gonna be done before I get anything finished lmao.
^agreed!
YEAH you should totally draw!!?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on December 08, 2015, 06:34:19 PM
Ahhhh!!!!!!!!! This is brilliant as usual, boss. I really liked how you wrote Lalli's pov on the train, and y'know Lalli and Emil continuing to be Very Good Friends (no but the friendship in this fic is really important.....)

I really wanna draw something for this...! You're uploading so fast you're gonna be done before I get anything finished lmao.
I would be honoured as always if you did! (and the next chapter may take longer anyway because of Life, so...)

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA D: :D D: I can't decide which face to use because aaaAAAAAAAA
Thank you!  :D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Haiz on December 08, 2015, 06:37:05 PM
Anyway, the fifth chapter of my modern AU is now up! Turns out Lalli's visions can have their uses after all...
http://archiveofourown.org/works/5353481/chapters/12436382
HERE WE GO
(http://40.media.tumblr.com/cb110b90bc4b1c6033eef46250771047/tumblr_nxo5c30a5j1r6soqlo1_500.png)

at first i was like "what, no newspaper article?" and then i was like OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhh

*vibrates* i wanna draw too
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OrigamiOwl on December 08, 2015, 06:42:57 PM
HERE WE GO
(http://40.media.tumblr.com/cb110b90bc4b1c6033eef46250771047/tumblr_nxo5c30a5j1r6soqlo1_500.png)

at first i was like "what, no newspaper article?" and then i was like OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhh

*vibrates* i wanna draw too
Do it do it do it!
I would try drawing something too but I've gotta pack...for a plane trip... *rocks back and forth in a corner*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on December 08, 2015, 06:50:36 PM
HERE WE GO
(http://40.media.tumblr.com/cb110b90bc4b1c6033eef46250771047/tumblr_nxo5c30a5j1r6soqlo1_500.png)

at first i was like "what, no newspaper article?" and then i was like OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhh

*vibrates* i wanna draw too
Do it do it do it!
I would try drawing something too but I've gotta pack...for a plane trip... *rocks back and forth in a corner*
Yes! Draw scenes from my fanfics! Validate meeeee... XD
And it's good to finally see the indignant seagull again
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Haiz on December 08, 2015, 07:24:56 PM
Do it do it do it!
Yes! Draw scenes from my fanfics! Validate meeeee... XD
just some sketches ok (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=35.msg82549#msg82549)


and i was waiting for a really long time for those seagulls haha
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: |Yucca| on December 08, 2015, 10:20:38 PM
Tsk, tsk. I seem to have become a filthy doubleposter.

Anyway, the fifth chapter of my modern AU is now up! Turns out Lalli's visions can have their uses after all...

http://archiveofourown.org/works/5353481/chapters/12436382

Hope you like it!

Reading fanfiction isn't really my thing, but for some reason I decided to give this one a chance, and damn, what a well written piece it is! Read all the existing chapters in one sitting and now I'm waiting to get my hands on the last one.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on December 09, 2015, 03:07:57 AM
and i was waiting for a really long time for those seagulls haha
Almost exactly a month, I think!

Reading fanfiction isn't really my thing, but for some reason I decided to give this one a chance, and damn, what a well written piece it is! Read all the existing chapters in one sitting and now I'm waiting to get my hands on the last one.
It's when I manage to reel in the non-fanfic-readers that I know I must have done something right! Thanks very much!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Mélusine on December 09, 2015, 09:10:41 AM
I decided to try my hand at a modern day AU, and this is the first chapter of the result. Set in a world where the Rash wasn’t as virulent, Lalli and Emil meet in Stockholm and strike up an odd friendship.
(Fair warning – it's going to get a teensy tiny bit shippy in later chapters, but nothing major)

http://archiveofourown.org/works/5353481/chapters/12363377

I hope you all like it, chapter 2 should be here very soon!
*Read all too quickly with a cup of tea*
SectoBoss ? I know you may have exams, especially the swedish one, but I don't care : WRITE MORE ! PLEASE ! PLEAAAAAAASE ! <3 <3 <3
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LordoftheThings on December 09, 2015, 04:24:57 PM
I have fought, I have struggled, I have resisted, and refused
but I finally caved and read sectoboss's modern AU. And despite my die hard aversion to AUs I must say:

it was Magnificent

I loved it and eagerly await more
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Aki on December 10, 2015, 03:56:52 PM
First time posting here, I hope I won't screw this up... also, I hope posting a link to my tumblr post with my fanfic is okay. :/

I reworked a short drabble I did during an IRC SSSS writer sessions because there was fanart that gave me feels. It's super-short and about the Hotakainens before they lived in Keuruu.

http://aki-no-monogatari.tumblr.com/post/134937920630/lullaby

Implying lots of sad stuff, just be warned.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on December 10, 2015, 04:12:50 PM
Aki: excellent first post! Such a sad, expressive little vignette. Once your thesis is done, I hope you will write more.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Aki on December 10, 2015, 04:29:18 PM
Aki: excellent first post! Such a sad, expressive little vignette. Once your thesis is done, I hope you will write more.
I will! I have already several works in progress for SSSS so once I'm free, I'll start working more earnestly on them. Those will be lengthier :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: misea on December 11, 2015, 02:04:32 AM
HELLO SECTOBOSS I JUST CAUGHT UP ON THE LATEST CHAPTER OF YOUR MODERN AU AND IT'S WONDERFUL
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Puls3 on December 13, 2015, 04:54:25 PM
I don't know why, but it's late and I decided to to write some odd fanfic without any experience of creative writing. I warn you, this was all written within an hour and has not been checked for grammatical errors, it's as raw and incoherent as it gets.

I'm so sorry if this is not tagged as a spoiler, still trying to figure this forum out.

Spoiler: show
It was starting to get colder as the days passed and the sun was setting before one had the time to appreciate it. Frost started to form on the Windows of the cat-tank, creating complex patterns of ice crystals in different shapes and sizes. Reynir spent most of his time staring at them and attempting to count each individual crystal, often getting lost at 437 for some odd reason before attempting to complete the impossible task once more.

It was late in the morning and Emil was standing outside freezing, only moving once in a while to make sure that his toes hasn't frozen solid.
They had found a small bookstore called "Fredriks bokhandel" which a part of a spartanens building, it seemed promising enough, not being completely ruined which seemed to satisfy Sigrun's strict requirements for a raidable building.

"Stand outside and wait while I get the gear ready", that was twenty minutes ago and still no sight of her or anyone else for that matter. He hasn't seen Lalli since breakfast.
Did he forget that they should raid the bookstore and went back to sleep? Was this all a trick to get Emil locked out of the tank because they don't like having him around?
Or was it because...

Emil drew a deep breath. His warm breath instantly turned into a frozen mist as he let out a deep sigh. He looked around to get his mind on something else and saw a shallow ice puddle a few metres to his left near an old sign which had a text on languages he could not understand. "Its strictly prohibited to be parked for more than 2h". He headed towards the puddle and proceeded to take a heavy step in order to hear the satisfying crack of the ice breaking below his feet.
He was about to take a second step before hearing a snivelling sound behind him. Emil slowly turned his head to see a pair of ice blue eyes staring at him from a uncomfortably short distance. Emil let out a high pitched scream taking a quick step backwards, almost slipping on the icy patch behind him.

-Helvete Lalli! Ever heard of personal space before?

Lalli only blinked in return, a clear sign that he did not understand a word Emil said.
He started to look at the shattered puddle that Emil was busy demolishing and promptly decided to step on the remaining pieces.

-HEY that's my puddle!

They spent a few minutes competing about who could destroy the last bits of ice until Sigrun abruptly kicked the tank door open with an exited smile on her face.

-ALRIGHT KIDS! We got a building to raid.
-where have you been?! Emil shouted.
-Sorry, took a quick nap, had to restore my batteries.
-.....

They went across the street where the bookstore was located with Sigrun in the lead, Lalli behind her and Emil in the far back with a bitter expression on his face. Saying that he was annoyed was an understatement.

The bookstore was cold and silent, perfect according to Sigrun. They split up and looked around as there was only one big room filled with bookshelves and endless amounts of books with different amounts of content all rendered unreadable after almost a generation of neglect. They did however find a few books that were in one piece thanks to the fact that they being wrapped in a plastic filter. One was not sure about the content of the books due to the common language barrier that they all shared when it came to Danish text.
One book had a cover depicting a grey picture of a balding man wearing round spectacles while looking at your face with a satisfied grin. The text said "Steve Jobs" whoever that was, but since it contained a surplus amount of pages it went into the rucksack with the others.

After a few minutes of looking around Sigrun ordered everyone to join her. She stood in front of a stair case with a small plastic gate in front that said "Kun for personale!".

-I think it's our lucky day. Sigrun said before ripping of the little gate as if it a small annoyance. 

The room upstairs was a lot bigger than they expected and to their great surprise, there where books inside windowed shelves, all wrapped in plastic at that!
Emil went ahead and tried to open up the container. Locked. Either that or it had gotten rusty over the years.

-Sigrun, it's locked.
-Really Emil?
-What?

Sigrun proceeded to to lift her hand, turned it to a fist and with a swift movement, smashed the glass in, making the books ready for the taking.

-see? Simple.
-but what if I cut myself?
-Stop being such a baby and get the books.

With a sour face, Emil proceeded to carefully take out the books to avoid cutting himself on the tiny pieces of glass.
This time, the covers where a lot easier to read but no one still knew what they were collecting. Shakespeare, H.C Andersen, "Hjalmar Söderbergs historietter", all were writers he never heard of, except from the last one as it gave him memories of long hours in class analysing books which only resulted in sleeping during the lessons.

When he was done Emil looked to his right and saw a corridor where Lalli was standing, staring on the door a few meters in front of him.
Emil went over and tapped him on the shoulder. Lalli turned around and Emil gestured to the door.

-Have you looked what's inside?

Lalli responded by giving a worried expression which Emil didn't really pick up on.
Emil headed towards the door, the wooden floor loudly creaking below each step he took. He put his hand on the handle and pulled it down. The room was pitch black and dead silent. He took a quick look back and saw Lalli slowly shaking his head with panic in his eyes.
*kreeak*
Emil threw himself around and turned his flashlight on, scanning the room. He noticed that the air in the room felt a lot warmer than the rest of the building, it was still cold but something was definitely off. The room was filled with old furniture and a large hole that was leading to another room of the building and that's were he saw it and it saw him with it's rotting faces who all let out an ear shattering scream.


Thank you for reading
*jumps out of a window and runs away*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on December 13, 2015, 05:26:58 PM
Puls3: When do you plan to put up the next chapter? Practice makes a perfect writer, after all! I'm curious to see where you take this. I think that as you write more, and get deeper into the heads of the characters, your writing will flow more smoothly. You know the saying: the way to become a writer is to write! Is this your first fanfic?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Noodles on December 13, 2015, 07:08:17 PM
AAAAAAA PULS3 I NEARLY FELL OFF MY CHAIR AT THE END AND I'M STILL TWITCHY
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Rabbit on December 13, 2015, 08:26:28 PM
I don't know why, but it's late and I decided to to write some odd fanfic without any experience of creative writing. I warn you, this was all written within an hour and has not been checked for grammatical errors, it's as raw and incoherent as it gets.

I'm so sorry if this is not tagged as a spoiler, still trying to figure this forum out.

Spoiler: show
It was starting to get colder as the days passed and the sun was setting before one had the time to appreciate it. Frost started to form on the Windows of the cat-tank, creating complex patterns of ice crystals in different shapes and sizes. Reynir spent most of his time staring at them and attempting to count each individual crystal, often getting lost at 437 for some odd reason before attempting to complete the impossible task once more.

It was late in the morning and Emil was standing outside freezing, only moving once in a while to make sure that his toes hasn't frozen solid.
They had found a small bookstore called "Fredriks bokhandel" which a part of a spartanens building, it seemed promising enough, not being completely ruined which seemed to satisfy Sigrun's strict requirements for a raidable building.

"Stand outside and wait while I get the gear ready", that was twenty minutes ago and still no sight of her or anyone else for that matter. He hasn't seen Lalli since breakfast.
Did he forget that they should raid the bookstore and went back to sleep? Was this all a trick to get Emil locked out of the tank because they don't like having him around?
Or was it because...

Emil drew a deep breath. His warm breath instantly turned into a frozen mist as he let out a deep sigh. He looked around to get his mind on something else and saw a shallow ice puddle a few metres to his left near an old sign which had a text on languages he could not understand. "Its strictly prohibited to be parked for more than 2h". He headed towards the puddle and proceeded to take a heavy step in order to hear the satisfying crack of the ice breaking below his feet.
He was about to take a second step before hearing a snivelling sound behind him. Emil slowly turned his head to see a pair of ice blue eyes staring at him from a uncomfortably short distance. Emil let out a high pitched scream taking a quick step backwards, almost slipping on the icy patch behind him.

-Helvete Lalli! Ever heard of personal space before?

Lalli only blinked in return, a clear sign that he did not understand a word Emil said.
He started to look at the shattered puddle that Emil was busy demolishing and promptly decided to step on the remaining pieces.

-HEY that's my puddle!

They spent a few minutes competing about who could destroy the last bits of ice until Sigrun abruptly kicked the tank door open with an exited smile on her face.

-ALRIGHT KIDS! We got a building to raid.
-where have you been?! Emil shouted.
-Sorry, took a quick nap, had to restore my batteries.
-.....

They went across the street where the bookstore was located with Sigrun in the lead, Lalli behind her and Emil in the far back with a bitter expression on his face. Saying that he was annoyed was an understatement.

The bookstore was cold and silent, perfect according to Sigrun. They split up and looked around as there was only one big room filled with bookshelves and endless amounts of books with different amounts of content all rendered unreadable after almost a generation of neglect. They did however find a few books that were in one piece thanks to the fact that they being wrapped in a plastic filter. One was not sure about the content of the books due to the common language barrier that they all shared when it came to Danish text.
One book had a cover depicting a grey picture of a balding man wearing round spectacles while looking at your face with a satisfied grin. The text said "Steve Jobs" whoever that was, but since it contained a surplus amount of pages it went into the rucksack with the others.

After a few minutes of looking around Sigrun ordered everyone to join her. She stood in front of a stair case with a small plastic gate in front that said "Kun for personale!".

-I think it's our lucky day. Sigrun said before ripping of the little gate as if it a small annoyance. 

The room upstairs was a lot bigger than they expected and to their great surprise, there where books inside windowed shelves, all wrapped in plastic at that!
Emil went ahead and tried to open up the container. Locked. Either that or it had gotten rusty over the years.

-Sigrun, it's locked.
-Really Emil?
-What?

Sigrun proceeded to to lift her hand, turned it to a fist and with a swift movement, smashed the glass in, making the books ready for the taking.

-see? Simple.
-but what if I cut myself?
-Stop being such a baby and get the books.

With a sour face, Emil proceeded to carefully take out the books to avoid cutting himself on the tiny pieces of glass.
This time, the covers where a lot easier to read but no one still knew what they were collecting. Shakespeare, H.C Andersen, "Hjalmar Söderbergs historietter", all were writers he never heard of, except from the last one as it gave him memories of long hours in class analysing books which only resulted in sleeping during the lessons.

When he was done Emil looked to his right and saw a corridor where Lalli was standing, staring on the door a few meters in front of him.
Emil went over and tapped him on the shoulder. Lalli turned around and Emil gestured to the door.

-Have you looked what's inside?

Lalli responded by giving a worried expression which Emil didn't really pick up on.
Emil headed towards the door, the wooden floor loudly creaking below each step he took. He put his hand on the handle and pulled it down. The room was pitch black and dead silent. He took a quick look back and saw Lalli slowly shaking his head with panic in his eyes.
*kreeak*
Emil threw himself around and turned his flashlight on, scanning the room. He noticed that the air in the room felt a lot warmer than the rest of the building, it was still cold but something was definitely off. The room was filled with old furniture and a large hole that was leading to another room of the building and that's were he saw it and it saw him with it's rotting faces who all let out an ear shattering scream.


Thank you for reading
*jumps out of a window and runs away*

No but
you can't just STOP THERE oAo

I mean that was great please write more?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Puls3 on December 14, 2015, 10:34:11 AM
Thank you all for the supporting comments you guys have given me (never expected a response in all honesty)

Róisín: This is my very first fanfiction, the closest thing I ever did of creative writing was probably an English essay assignment in the form of an diary entry.
I might write the next "chapter" next Tuesday/Wednesday, depends if I have any essays left to write during the break.

Thank you all once again and I do hope I can manage to write a better chapter for you to enjoy next time.  :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on December 14, 2015, 06:50:44 PM
I've found that the best kinds of music to listen to when reading SSSS fics are 'Of Monsters and Men' and 'Sigur Ros'. Not just because they're both Icelandic, and from the same region as where some of the comic is staged, but also because there is that touch of awe and melancholy that colours the entire mood of the comic. I recommend putting on the album 'My head is an animal' when reading. It almost sounds like the album, the 'monster march' as we call it in my family, was written for SSSS
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Aliax on December 15, 2015, 06:56:04 AM
Emil and Lalli weren't happy that I dared make my intro post before I was done writing the multi-chapter fic about them I've been working on. So they made me write this instead this night:

http://archiveofourown.org/works/5431757
Conflicted
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: None
Relationships: Lalli Hotakainen & Emil Västerström
Characters: Emil-centric, lots of Lalli, quite a bit of Tuuri, meaningful appearances of everyone else except Purrito
Tags: Angst, Friendship, Gen or Pre-Slash as you want
Summary: Everyone reasonable knows that magic doesn't exist. So when Lalli insists that the reason he's so sick is based in magic, Emil's concern for his friend conflicts with his anger at Lalli's obvious lie.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on December 15, 2015, 07:12:26 AM
Aliax: Just read this on AO3 - it's good! Keep on writing!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Mélusine on December 15, 2015, 07:20:55 AM
Emil and Lalli weren't happy that I dared make my intro post before I was done writing the multi-chapter fic about them I've been working on. So they made me write this instead this night:

http://archiveofourown.org/works/5431757
Conflicted
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: None
Relationships: Lalli Hotakainen & Emil Västerström
Characters: Emil-centric, lots of Lalli, quite a bit of Tuuri, meaningful appearances of everyone else except Purrito
Tags: Angst, Friendship, Gen or Pre-Slash as you want
Summary: Everyone reasonable knows that magic doesn't exist. So when Lalli insists that the reason he's so sick is based in magic, Emil's concern for his friend conflicts with his anger at Lalli's obvious lie.
May I say "Awww... <3" ? And add I perfectly agree with Róisín ?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Aliax on December 15, 2015, 07:56:20 AM
Aliax: Just read this on AO3 - it's good! Keep on writing!
Thank you :) ! And actually, these two (Emil and Lalli) made me start writing *again*. This fic is pretty bad compared to what I used to be able to write :( But at least I'm writing again, which feels so incredibly good  :))  Emil and Lalli's absolutely adorable canon friendship seems to be exactly what the healer ordered :P

May I say "Awww... <3" ? And add I perfectly agree with Róisín ?
Yes, "Awww... <3" was pretty much exactly what I was looking for :D And thank you!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Mélusine on December 15, 2015, 07:59:55 AM
This fic is pretty bad compared to what I used to be able to write :(
*Coughs* EXCUSE ME ? You're writing in English, with this quality, and it's "pretty bad" ? Tsss...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: AquaAurion on December 15, 2015, 09:08:56 AM
Emil and Lalli weren't happy that I dared make my intro post before I was done writing the multi-chapter fic about them I've been working on. So they made me write this instead this night:

http://archiveofourown.org/works/5431757
Conflicted
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: None
Relationships: Lalli Hotakainen & Emil Västerström
Characters: Emil-centric, lots of Lalli, quite a bit of Tuuri, meaningful appearances of everyone else except Purrito
Tags: Angst, Friendship, Gen or Pre-Slash as you want
Summary: Everyone reasonable knows that magic doesn't exist. So when Lalli insists that the reason he's so sick is based in magic, Emil's concern for his friend conflicts with his anger at Lalli's obvious lie.
Aw so sweet <3

I also started writing again because of those two ^w^
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Aliax on December 15, 2015, 01:06:17 PM
*Coughs* EXCUSE ME ? You're writing in English, with this quality, and it's "pretty bad" ? Tsss...
Well... It used to be better? Like, for example, I realised halfway through (thanks to the Chapter 10 title page which Minna posted while I was writing) that I had completely forgotten about Emil's leg injury. 3 years ago, it would have been no big deal at all to go back and insert little mentions of it here and there. This time, it seemed like such a huge edit that it made me want to throw the whole thing away :/ And I won't get into how my vocabulary is so much poorer than it used to be, or how my grammar keeps getting wonkier all the time   :-[ ... Of course it would help if I didn't have such a perfectionist streak, too, I agree  ::)

Aw so sweet <3
Yay ^-^

Quote
I also started writing again because of those two ^w^
There IS something magical about them, isn't there  :) !?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Yuuago on December 15, 2015, 01:15:13 PM
Well... It used to be better? Like, for example, I realised halfway through (thanks to the Chapter 10 title page which Minna posted while I was writing) that I had completely forgotten about Emil's leg injury. 3 years ago, it would have been no big deal at all to go back and insert little mentions of it here and there.
/butts in

To be fair, with an ongoing canon like this, where details can be rendered non-compliant the next day, small things like that aren't such a big deal, really. People understand, I think. (Plus, I would say that particular detail didn't make too much impact - I mean, he sure took a whack, but he seemed to be mooostly okay... You have wiggle room there.)

BUT I can totally understand how perfectionist tendencies can make you want to toss it all in the recycle bin. I might be the same way. ;p
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Aliax on December 15, 2015, 03:02:34 PM
To be fair, with an ongoing canon like this, where details can be rendered non-compliant the next day, small things like that aren't such a big deal, really.
I know, right!? But see, my Perfectionist Demon says that it doesn't matter if the fic I write today gets Jossed tomorrow, but it does matter very, very, Very Much that the fic I write today be perfectly in accordance with all the canon we have up to today :P

Quote
Plus, I would say that particular detail didn't make too much impact - I mean, he sure took a whack, but he seemed to be mooostly okay...
But, but, but! There should be mentions that it hurts when he kneels down, or that he's got a limp, or something, you know D: !? Just a few mentions... here and there...

 :-X <= me to that darn Perfectionist Demon

Quote
BUT I can totally understand how perfectionist tendencies can make you want to toss it all in the recycle bin. I might be the same way. ;p
Perfectionists, unite - against Perfectionism  ;D ! I've read of artists who deliberately introduce small flaws in their works in order to prevent the Perfectionism Demon from keeping them forever stalled, for example.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Puls3 on December 15, 2015, 05:03:22 PM
This fic is pretty bad

*looks at his own abomination of a literary work*

I can't even begin to imagine how your previous works looks like if you call this wonderful piece of art "bad".

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on December 15, 2015, 05:28:01 PM
Aliax: I completely sympathise about the language thing! I used to travel widely, and had 'enough to get by' of maybe a dozen languages, and was fluent in four. But for most of the last thirty years I have been based in country South Australia, where Australian English is the default language, and few people speak anything else. And my languages are rusting. The other day I went to write a poem for my Gaelic-speaking aunt and realised that I had lost a lot of grammar and vocabulary, and when my musician daughter who travels a lot in France with her orchestra wrote me a letter in French I found I'd forgotten a few of the words and had to look them up. At least a few of the local kids speak French, and talk to me!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Aliax on December 15, 2015, 05:53:32 PM
*looks at his own abomination of a literary work*
That's not fair, though :P You can't compare a piece which took hours and was obsessively edited to something that "was all written within an hour and has not been checked for grammatical errors, it's as raw and incoherent as it gets."

Edit: and actually, your fic is MUCH better than anything *I* could produce under such circumstances O.o

Quote
I can't even begin to imagine how your previous works looks like if you call this wonderful piece of art "bad".
No, wait, I'm not calling that fic I posted "bad"! If I thought it was bad, you couldn't pay me enough to post it in the first place :D I'm just saying that I'm horribly rusty, and I used to do much better, that's all. You know how the saying goes: "Better is the enemy of good", or something like that  ;D

**

Exactly, Róisín! Now that I'm back to living in France among French people only, my English skills are simply nowhere as good as when I used to live in a foreign country with someone I talked to only in English, and I watched only English-speaking channels on TV, and so on :P Maybe I should start taking those English lessons they offer at my job, just to get some active practice... And I should definitely  write MOAR fics - for the practice, yup ;D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Noodles on December 15, 2015, 06:19:35 PM
But, but, but! There should be mentions that it hurts when he kneels down, or that he's got a limp, or something, you know D: !? Just a few mentions... here and there...
eyyyy it's all good
I definitely just figured that it had about the effect of a kick in the shins and he was just overdramatising. Maybe a bruise for a few days, but meh.

The fic's lovely, btw.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Aliax on December 15, 2015, 07:12:04 PM
I definitely just figured that it had about the effect of a kick in the shins and he was just overdramatising. Maybe a bruise for a few days, but meh.
Hmm, I don't know about that, really. He did take an iron bar in full swing, used by someone who is canonically rather strong, straight into the shin. Even Mikkel didn't seem quite sure that this wasn't enough to break a leg. I'm guessing that with a bit of luck, the hit was cushioned by the boot, but even then, it would definitely leave a bruise.

But! The good side of it is that we know that whatever ointment Mikkel is using on bruises is pretty effective ;D That was a large and nasty-looking bruise Emil had on his face, and yet it was fully gone the next day. So if all he got from Mikkel's hit was a bruise, it's possible it was fully healed by the time my fic takes place, yes :)

Quote
The fic's lovely, btw.
Thank you  :D !!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on December 15, 2015, 09:04:42 PM
I sat down at 7pm, determined that I'd get my modern AU finished or die trying. It's now 2am and although I'm not dead I get the feeling I'm not far off  :))

The last chapter:

http://archiveofourown.org/works/5353481/chapters/12563006

I really really hope you like it, it's certainly been quite an experience to write.
(special thanks to Laufey who gave me a lot of help with ideas that ended up getting cut completely. Sorry about that!)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: |Yucca| on December 15, 2015, 09:52:22 PM
Great work Secto! I don't have much to comment other than the fact I really like how it turned out.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Rabbit on December 15, 2015, 09:55:28 PM
I sat down at 7pm, determined that I'd get my modern AU finished or die trying. It's now 2am and although I'm not dead I get the feeling I'm not far off  :))

The last chapter:

http://archiveofourown.org/works/5353481/chapters/12563006

I really really hope you like it, it's certainly been quite an experience to write.
(special thanks to Laufey who gave me a lot of help with ideas that ended up getting cut completely. Sorry about that!)

I was wondering how on earth you were going to wrap all that up in just one more chapter. I'm not wondering anymore.

You know that feeling when something is just so good that when it's over you're suddenly empty and breathless, slamming back into a physical universe and need to just sit there and digest reality for a while?
Yeah?
That feeling.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Johannabelle on December 15, 2015, 10:40:11 PM
I sat down at 7pm, determined that I'd get my modern AU finished or die trying. It's now 2am and although I'm not dead I get the feeling I'm not far off  :))

The last chapter:

http://archiveofourown.org/works/5353481/chapters/12563006

I really really hope you like it, it's certainly been quite an experience to write.
(special thanks to Laufey who gave me a lot of help with ideas that ended up getting cut completely. Sorry about that!)
Sectoboss, that was so beautiful! Such an amazing ending for such an amazing fanfic. I may or may not've been on the edge of tears through half of that haha

You know that feeling when something is just so good that when it's over you're suddenly empty and breathless, slamming back into a physical universe and need to just sit there and digest reality for a while?
Yeah?
That feeling.
I agree with this on every level.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Sunflower on December 15, 2015, 11:16:00 PM
I was wondering how on earth you were going to wrap all that up in just one more chapter. I'm not wondering anymore.

You know that feeling when something is just so good that when it's over you're suddenly empty and breathless, slamming back into a physical universe and need to just sit there and digest reality for a while?
Yeah?
That feeling.

I agree too, Johannabelle.

SectoBoss, well done!  That was amazingly moving.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on December 16, 2015, 12:19:15 AM
SectoBoss, that was very well made, and the ending well resolved. Otherwise, what Rabbit said.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Puls3 on December 16, 2015, 01:15:26 AM

Edit: and actually, your fic is MUCH better than anything *I* could produce under such circumstances O.o
No, wait, I'm not calling that fic I posted "bad"! If I thought it was bad, you couldn't pay me enough to post it in the first place :D I'm just saying that I'm horribly rusty, and I used to do much better, that's all. You know how the saying goes: "Better is the enemy of good", or something like that  ;D

Sorry, was a bit rough with my commenting there. But I do look forward too seeing what you will create in the future and by judging from this, I think your writing will be back in shape in no time  ;)

P.s
Thank you  ^-^
Writing has never been my forte, but it felt nice doing something different for a change.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Laufey on December 16, 2015, 01:40:47 AM
SectoBoss: always ready to blab about Finnish mythology! ;D I admit I had no idea how you'd wrap that all up but it works brilliantly, all the pieces fell into place and suddenly everything made sense. Time for a few re-reads methinks...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Haiz on December 16, 2015, 04:34:28 AM
Sectoboss:
AAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
AAAAAAAAAAA
A
A
A
AAAA

okay im don- no wait
AAAAAAAAA

there we go.
I don't have much more to add, but this fic sure has been a journey and a very satisfying one. You managed to wrap it up in a way that really fit, but I hope those unused ideas get used later somehow, too :3

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Puls3 on December 16, 2015, 04:38:32 AM
I sat down at 7pm, determined that I'd get my modern AU finished or die trying. It's now 2am and although I'm not dead I get the feeling I'm not far off  :))

The last chapter:

http://archiveofourown.org/works/5353481/chapters/12563006

I really really hope you like it, it's certainly been quite an experience to write.
(special thanks to Laufey who gave me a lot of help with ideas that ended up getting cut completely. Sorry about that!)

I'm awestruck by your work, it's written so well, the character development was superb and your extensive vocabulary is something I could only dream of having.

Hope you get some good rest after this, you've more than earned it. 
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Sc0ut on December 16, 2015, 04:52:04 AM
I sat down at 7pm, determined that I'd get my modern AU finished or die trying. It's now 2am and although I'm not dead I get the feeling I'm not far off  :))

The last chapter:

http://archiveofourown.org/works/5353481/chapters/12563006

I really really hope you like it, it's certainly been quite an experience to write.
(special thanks to Laufey who gave me a lot of help with ideas that ended up getting cut completely. Sorry about that!)

:D I was so happy to wake up to this today. It went all kinds of places I didn't expect! The dream part has a strong Neverending Story feel to me. Thank you for writing this Sectoboss, it was great!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Mélusine on December 16, 2015, 05:18:42 AM
I sat down at 7pm, determined that I'd get my modern AU finished or die trying. It's now 2am and although I'm not dead I get the feeling I'm not far off  :))

The last chapter:

http://archiveofourown.org/works/5353481/chapters/12563006

I really really hope you like it, it's certainly been quite an experience to write.
(special thanks to Laufey who gave me a lot of help with ideas that ended up getting cut completely. Sorry about that!)
Pfffffff, I would need to learn more vocabulary to explain what I'm feeling reading it :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Ragnarok on December 16, 2015, 05:54:46 AM
I sat down at 7pm, determined that I'd get my modern AU finished or die trying. It's now 2am and although I'm not dead I get the feeling I'm not far off  :))

The last chapter:

http://archiveofourown.org/works/5353481/chapters/12563006

I really really hope you like it, it's certainly been quite an experience to write.
(special thanks to Laufey who gave me a lot of help with ideas that ended up getting cut completely. Sorry about that!)

*slow, respectful clapping*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on December 16, 2015, 06:57:06 AM
All your posts saying how much you liked my fic are probably the nicest thing I could have woken up to. Thanks guys, you've made my day!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Gwenno on December 16, 2015, 07:27:56 AM
Sectoboss: It rarely happens that something makes me comment here, but this latest story has pushed me to that point. It is wonderful and I've enjoyed every moment of it! The story is complex but also complete, the characterisation is perfect, especially considering the completely different setting. I've read this last part twice already, and still feel dizzy from being so completely sucked into it (will probably now read the entire thing seeing as it's completed). It is a fantastic piece of work and thank you so much for creating and sharing it!!!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Daéa Reina on December 16, 2015, 10:23:21 AM
Sectoboss:
Pfffffff, I would need to learn more vocabulary to explain what I'm feeling reading it :)
What Mélusine said. I don't think I have the necessary words to tell you how much I love this fic, but believe me, I do.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: kahli on December 16, 2015, 11:31:36 AM
The last chapter:

http://archiveofourown.org/works/5353481/chapters/12563006

ASDFFHJKSHSKFSJRTBNNNJVFG!!!!!!!!!! AAAA I LOVE IT!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Keeper on December 16, 2015, 11:52:44 AM
SectoBoss, that was so good. I'm gonna have to read the whole thing through when I get the time.

Loved the entire story.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: microFerret on December 16, 2015, 10:38:16 PM
The last chapter:

http://archiveofourown.org/works/5353481/chapters/12563006

My jaw just dropped lower than Tooth Scary's. How is it that every time I read one of your fics, it's the best one I've read, and every time, the next one is even better? Wow. Good work.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: misea on December 17, 2015, 01:13:36 AM
Emil and Lalli weren't happy that I dared make my intro post before I was done writing the multi-chapter fic about them I've been working on. So they made me write this instead this night:

http://archiveofourown.org/works/5431757
Conflicted
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: None
Relationships: Lalli Hotakainen & Emil Västerström
Characters: Emil-centric, lots of Lalli, quite a bit of Tuuri, meaningful appearances of everyone else except Purrito
Tags: Angst, Friendship, Gen or Pre-Slash as you want
Summary: Everyone reasonable knows that magic doesn't exist. So when Lalli insists that the reason he's so sick is based in magic, Emil's concern for his friend conflicts with his anger at Lalli's obvious lie.

OH WHOA HECK YEAH

I sat down at 7pm, determined that I'd get my modern AU finished or die trying. It's now 2am and although I'm not dead I get the feeling I'm not far off  :))

The last chapter:

http://archiveofourown.org/works/5353481/chapters/12563006

I really really hope you like it, it's certainly been quite an experience to write.
(special thanks to Laufey who gave me a lot of help with ideas that ended up getting cut completely. Sorry about that!)

I
I'm reeling @___@
DANG that was good
oh wow
whoa
Let me... just... take the next few days to... process this...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: AquaAurion on December 17, 2015, 07:21:54 AM
I sat down at 7pm, determined that I'd get my modern AU finished or die trying. It's now 2am and although I'm not dead I get the feeling I'm not far off  :))

The last chapter:

http://archiveofourown.org/works/5353481/chapters/12563006

I really really hope you like it, it's certainly been quite an experience to write.
(special thanks to Laufey who gave me a lot of help with ideas that ended up getting cut completely. Sorry about that!)
This hit hard ;w; it was beautiful and definitely a worthy ending!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Ace on December 18, 2015, 04:37:41 PM
Right, so I've been writing... Tonnes of fanfiction, mainly SigrunMikkel and other things from Mikkel's perspetive (because I' a Dane and, trust me, I am Fem!Mikkel incarnate). They're all on my Tumblr and my AO3 users:

On Tumblr I'm Ace of Fanfiction (Tumblr is crashing on me lately, so no link I'm afraid. It'll be back up tomorrow, it's just acting up.)

AO3: http://archiveofourown.org/users/AceOfShipping/profile
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Seilann on December 19, 2015, 06:50:45 PM
I've already left everyone comments on AO3 but blanket love to all y'all. <3

I'm starting to feel like a jerk only posting here when I have something to share. I'll be on more in the next couple weeks, though.

Pocket Fluff installment 4: http://archiveofourown.org/works/5128250/chapters/12635711

This one was inspired by shoop, who did a cute little comic for the first chapter.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on December 19, 2015, 11:39:45 PM
Seilann: that's lovely, and interesting to see the tale from Lalli's point of view. As I mentioned on A3O, you do an excellent job of believably depicting Lalli's sensorium. 'Swedish nonsense' heh!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on December 20, 2015, 04:46:38 PM
/me swallows nervously at all the new good stuff from everybody

/me puts the next bit of the Western up anyway

The Good, the Bad, and the Bestial
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/Western crossover fanfic
Part 16
Caper the Third: The Cave of Time
Part 5
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg79730#msg79730)
Spoiler: show
The Unseen Inferno

War: the winnowing of nations; the crucible of souls. War brought men together that they might rend each other to pieces.

War had always been the breeding ground of plague. Until the mid-20th Century, more deaths were always brought about by sepsis and plague than by the efforts of the enemy.

War was thus the perfect place to release a plague, and where better to release the ultimate plague than the ultimate war?

*
London, England
1 August, 1808

The man from the Foreign Office studied the massive Dane standing before him with such seeming placidity, his own doubts buried beneath a well-honed mask of aplomb. Hiring soldiers of fortune (against which practice Signor Machiavelli and others had so much to say) at all, and especially when these men of infamously loose morals and looser behavior were composed in large part of men from nations with which the Empire was formally at war, most decidedly went against the grain.

“I was expecting to meet with your captain,” the Foreign Office man remonstrated.

Mikkel almost smiled at that. “Oh, our captain is not one to be summoned by some desk-ridden monkey, however grand his desk may be, and this policy has delivered not merely the captain but our entire group from well-planned traps dressed up as job offers. You will hand me the details of our mission or there will be no mission.”

“Oh, devil take your impudence, man!” The Foreign Office man took a few deep breaths in order to restore his equanimity. “I must applaud your captain’s policy, though it would seem unwise to send such an undiplomatic emissary.”

Mikkel took the proffered envelope. “As to that, the simplest explanation is also the truth: I’m the only one who speaks English.”

*

Of course, Mikkel was lying. Tuuri had the diplo-speak of the orders sussed within a few minutes of study. “They want us to help the Spaniards in their uprisings against the French.”

“How much do they want our aid?” Sigrun asked with faux off-handedness. Of course, the other four were just as seemingly casual yet intent on the answer.

“Around 30,000 sterling, plus equipment and arms, it looks like,” Tuuri replied. “Though I think some of that’s meant to pay the Spaniards, too.”

“Eh, it’ll do.” And so the rest agreed.

*
Somewhere in Galicia, Spain
10 December, 1808

Starlight greeted the Western Six as they stepped out from the mouth of the Cave.

“Sooooo... where were we again, Tuuri?” Silence. “Mikkel?” More silence. “Does anyone have even the least clue as to where and when we’ve got to?”

“I see Orion,” Emil remarked.

“Whoop-de-doo.”

“You can only see Orion well during winter; by where it’s at in the sky, we’re still in the Northern Hemisphere, and it’s late fall-ish. Maybe December? But we’re north of the equator, at any rate.”

“And we’re finally in the lead,” Reynir added. “The Man in the Black Hat hasn’t reached here yet so we just have to stake this place out and we’ll get him.”

This, of course, was when the ambush happened.

*

“Why do I always end up on corpse disposal duty?” Emil asked in frustration. “We never burn ‘em, so why me?”

Sigrun shrugged. “You keep stumbling into the best dump sites.” She turned to Tuuri. “Any idea who they were yet?”

“All these papers are in French, and that’s one of my worst languages,” Tuuri explained. “It doesn’t help that they’re in bad French, either. From what I can make out, though, I think we’re somewhere in Spain, somewhere around 1808-ish, and there’s a war on.”

Mikkel groaned.

“What’s up?”

“There’s more like five wars going on, all muddled together under that jerk Napoleon Bonaparte. Wonderful. Only thing worse would be back in Virginny in the spring of ’65.”

Sigrun was looking decidedly happier at the implied prospects for carnage as Mikkel made his little speech.

“They might have thought that we’re Brits.” Everyone looked at Lalli, who continued, “Might be a problem in future. Brits keep sticking their noses in and making bad stuff worse, so keep getting everybody ticked off at ‘em.”

Lalli looked significantly at Tuuri, who mused, “We speak English, so they might think we’re Brits and hold us to account for whatever Brit idiocy’s in the wind. Great.”

“Are they likely to believe we’re ‘Yanquis’?” Sigrun asked.

“Only if they haven’t met us.”

The answer, delivered in Mikkel’s trademark dry drawl, startled them, especially Mikkel, who hadn’t said it. Heads and not a few six-guns turned in the direction the remark had come from...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show

Yeah, let’s just say Anglophilia wasn’t a thing in Middle America in the late 19th century (or Spain in late 1808, for that matter).

I debated having the first part become its own little series of adventures--”The Eide Traveling Mercenaries Players”, which would have allowed this stop to take up only one part, but I don’t think I could juggle that many continuing stories at once, as I’m having enough struggles with writer’s block as it is.

But I finally got this part out!!!!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on December 20, 2015, 06:56:08 PM
Yay! More action! I do like your Brit diplomat. Looking forward to the next instalment.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Seilann on December 20, 2015, 08:12:48 PM
/me swallows nervously at all the new good stuff from everybody

/me puts the next bit of the Western up anyway

The Good, the Bad, and the Bestial
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/Western crossover fanfic
Part 16

Caper the Third: The Cave of Time
Part 4
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg79730#msg79730)
Spoiler: show
The Unseen Inferno

War: the winnowing of nations; the crucible of souls. War brought men together that they might rend each other to pieces.

War had always been the breeding ground of plague. Until the mid-20th Century, more deaths were always brought about by sepsis and plague than by the efforts of the enemy.

War was thus the perfect place to release a plague, and where better to release the ultimate plague than the ultimate war?

*
London, England
1 August, 1808

The man from the Foreign Office studied the massive Dane standing before him with such seeming placidity, his own doubts buried beneath a well-honed mask of aplomb. Hiring soldiers of fortune (against which practice Signor Machiavelli and others had so much to say) at all, and especially when these men of infamously loose morals and looser behavior were composed in large part of men from nations with which the Empire was formally at war, most decidedly went against the grain.

“I was expecting to meet with your captain,” the Foreign Office man remonstrated.

Mikkel almost smiled at that. “Oh, our captain is not one to be summoned by some desk-ridden monkey, however grand his desk may be, and this policy has delivered not merely the captain but our entire group from well-planned traps dressed up as job offers. You will hand me the details of our mission or their will be no mission.”

“Oh, devil take your impudence, man!” The Foreign Office man took a few deep breaths in order to restore his equanimity. “I must applaud your captain’s policy, though it would seem unwise to send such an undiplomatic emissary.”

Mikkel took the proffered envelope. “As to that, the simplest explanation is also the truth: I’m the only one who speaks English.”

*

Of course, Mikkel was lying. Tuuri had the diplo-speak of the orders sussed within a few minutes of study. “They want us to help the Spaniards in their uprisings against the French.”

“How much do they want our aid?” Sigrun asked with faux off-handedness. Of course, the other four were just as seemingly casual yet intent on the answer.

“Around 30,000 sterling, plus equipment and arms, it looks like,” Tuuri replied. “Though I think some of that’s meant to pay the Spaniards, too.”

“Eh, it’ll do.” And so the rest agreed.

*
Somewhere in Galicia, Spain
10 December, 1808

Starlight greeted the Western Six as they stepped out from the mouth of the Cave.

“Sooooo... where were we again, Tuuri?” Silence. “Mikkel?” More silence. “Does anyone have even the least clue as to where and when we’ve got to?”

“I see Orion,” Emil remarked.

“Whoop-de-doo.”

“You can only see Orion well during winter; by where it’s at in the sky, we’re still in the Northern Hemisphere, and it’s late fall-ish. Maybe December? But we’re north of the equator, at any rate.”

“And we’re finally in the lead,” Reynir added. “The Man in the Black Hat hasn’t reached here yet so we just have to stake this place out and we’ll get him.”

This, of course, was when the ambush happened.

*

“Why do I always end up on corpse disposal duty?” Emil asked in frustration. “We never burn ‘em, so why me?”

Sigrun shrugged. “You keep stumbling into the best dump sites.” She turned to Tuuri. “Any idea who they were yet?”

“All these papers are in French, and that’s one of my worst languages,” Tuuri explained. “It doesn’t help that they’re in bad French, either. From what I can make out, though, I think we’re somewhere in Spain, somewhere around 1808-ish, and there’s a war on.”

Mikkel groaned.

“What’s up?”

“There’s more like five wars going on, all muddled together under that jerk Napoleon Bonaparte. Wonderful. Only thing worse would be back in Virginny in the spring of ’65.”

Sigrun was looking decidedly happier at the implied prospects for carnage as Mikkel made his little speech.

“They might have thought that we’re Brits.” Everyone looked at Lalli, who continued, “Might be a problem in future. Brits keep sticking their noses in and making bad stuff worse, so keep getting everybody ticked off at ‘em.”

Lalli looked significantly at Tuuri, who mused, “We speak English, so they might think we’re Brits and hold us to account for whatever Brit idiocy’s in the wind. Great.”

“Are they likely to believe we’re ‘Yanquis’?” Sigrun asked.

“Only if they haven’t met us.”

The answer, delivered in Mikkel’s trademark dry drawl, startled them, especially Mikkel, who hadn’t said it. Heads and not a few six-guns turned in the direction the remark had come from...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show

Yeah, let’s just say Anglophilia wasn’t a thing in Middle America in the late 19th century (or Spain in late 1808, for that matter).

I debated having the first part become its own little series of adventures--”The Eide Traveling Mercenaries Players”, which would have allowed this stop to take up only one part, but I don’t think I could juggle that many continuing stories at once, as I’m having enough struggles with writer’s block as it is.

But I finally got this part out!!!!


/me excitedly reads the new part

One thing I love about this is all the history tidbits and how the characters interact with the setting. I end up learning a lot from your fics!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Yuuago on December 20, 2015, 10:48:43 PM
I'll just drop this here too, since it's from an AU that started here. What happens when somebody who doesn't write AUs jumps on the näkki-Lalli bandwagon? Well...

"Water and Eternity". 3k length. Characters: Emil and Lalli
Summary: Lalli is becoming something, transforming, changing. He knows this. He also knows that there is someone he must save, someone he must protect, even if doing so means hiding himself away.
Relationships: Lalli/Emil (mild and vague, but it's there)
Rating: 13+ for some canon-typical violence - it's on the mild side, but to be safe...
On Ao3: http://archiveofourown.org/works/5480474
Archive backup: http://roesslyng.dreamwidth.org/59721.html
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Seilann on December 20, 2015, 11:08:24 PM
I'll just drop this here too, since it's from an AU that started here. What happens when somebody who doesn't write AUs jumps on the näkki-Lalli bandwagon? Well...

"Water and Eternity". 3k length. Characters: Emil and Lalli
Summary: Lalli is becoming something, transforming, changing. He knows this. He also knows that there is someone he must save, someone he must protect, even if doing so means hiding himself away.
Relationships: Lalli/Emil (mild and vague, but it's there)
Rating: 13+ for some canon-typical violence - it's on the mild side, but to be safe...
On Ao3: http://archiveofourown.org/works/5480474
Archive backup: http://roesslyng.dreamwidth.org/59721.html

YUUAGO PLEASE NEVER STOP WRITING.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on December 21, 2015, 01:18:02 AM
Uh, Yuuago, you're not helping me be less intimidated: your latest is too magnificent for that.

Oh, well.

So, here's this bit of fluff:
The Jylland Jump
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/“Jazz Age” crossover fanfic
Part 3
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg79730#msg79730)
Spoiler: show
Bing! Bing! Bing!

Downtown Copenhagen was even more bustling than usual today, last-minute shoppers rushing from store to store in more or less panicky efforts to find just the right gift before Christmas. Among them, Emil Västerström moved purposefully towards his goal.

His bandmates might have wondered at his going all the way to Copenhagen when Malmö offered so many shops of its own, but all those shops had failed him thus far. He was determined that he would succeed in the end, though, even if he had to go to London or Berlin!

The flophouse they were all rooming in had been almost empty when Emil found Lalli sneaking a listen on the big Victrola in the lobby.

“What’s that you’re listening to, Lalli?” The thin Finn was mostly blocking the phonograph’s speaker with his head, as their landlord had threatened the band more than once about keeping the volume down when they were in.

Lalli’s eyes were glowing when he replied, simply, “Bing.”


Ever since that moment, Emil had been working towards his goal: accumulate each and every one of Bing Crosby’s singles from this year into an album for Lalli, and now, only one remained for him to acquire: “Pennies from Heaven”, the single most sought after Bing single of 1936.

Malmö had failed him, but Copenhagen held out more hope; a friend of a friend of a friend of Sigrun’s had yielded up the name of a small, obscure little record store where you could find just about anything--for the right price. Emil was determined to get that single, even if it cost his last öre.

The crowds were almost impenetrable; it took so long to get anywhere that Emil began to worry that he’d miss his ferry, but once he turned down the alleyway that supposedly led to the store, the crowds melted away.

The store smelled more like a bookstore should than the record store it supposedly was, but that didn’t faze Emil. He searched tirelessly through the stacks of records for an eternity or two, until a soft cough at his elbow interrupted him.

“If you please, sir, we will be closing shortly. Is there anything I might help you find?” The speaker was a small, elderly man, either a senior clerk or possibly the shopkeeper himself.

Even after all these months of listening to Mikkel, Emil still heard far too much static whenever he heard Danish. Yet, he understood what the storekeeper was telling him well enough.

“I’m looking for the Bing Crosby single, ‘Pennies from Heaven’, if you would be so kind.” Emil tried to keep his impatience and growing desperation from his voice. After all, the man was simply doing his job.

“A Christmas gift, I see? And perhaps, to complete a set?” The old man nodded perspicaciously.

Emil essayed a sheepish smile. “You see quite well, sir. Does this mean you have a copy?”

“Oh, yes, young man. We have a copy over behind the counter, in fact.” They proceeded thither in silence. The old man reached below and pulled out a cardboard sleeve. “Yes, this is it, but I’m afraid it’s quite dear. So dear, in fact, that once they hear the price, none would buy it.”

Emil’s eyebrows rose. “How much?”

The old man quoted a figure that was just before exhausting Emil’s last öre. Emil swallowed hard, remembering the album with one empty sleeve hidden beneath his bed, and the glow in Lalli’s eyes as the Finn crouched by the phonograph.

“Wrap it up for me,” Emil said, the words running together in his haste to get them out before he could reconsider.

“If I might make a suggestion, sir?” Emil nodded. “Play the B side first.”

Emil nodded blankly again, and left with his precious cargo.

*

Lalli had been most mysterious about their gift exchange, telling Tuuri to tell Emil that he should meet Lalli at their secret firebug spot an hour after dark. Of course, this left Emil with the problem of finding a portable phonograph that played 78s instead of gramophone cylinders that he could bring along, which made him rather late.

When Emil finally arrived, though, he almost dropped what he was carrying. A grinning Lalli stood before a whole array of fireworks of every size and description, and all ready to be shot off over the sea. That, and the expression on Lalli’s face when he looked through the album, made it all worth it.

With his usual uncanny instinct, Lalli pulled out the disc Emil had spent so much to acquire. When he made to put it on the phonograph, though, Emil remembered what the shopkeeper had said.

“Play the B side first, Lalli.” Lalli shrugged, handed Emil the lighter to set to the first fireworks, and deftly set the B side playing.

To the (rather ironic) sound of Bing singing “Silent Night”, the two boys set off the greatest Christmas fireworks display in the history of Malmö.


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show

This part A/K/A “Christmas Fluff”.

Of course, the annoying thing is that I wrote this between Seilann’s post justly praising Yuuago’s latest (“Water and Eternity”) and the time I posted this, whereas it took weeks for me to churn out the latest bit of the Western. Grrrrr.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on December 21, 2015, 02:38:11 AM
Yuuago, LooNEY: both of you are amazing, just very different styles. And please, neither of you ever stop writing!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Seilann on December 21, 2015, 10:34:56 AM
Uh, Yuuago, you're not helping me be less intimidated: your latest is too magnificent for that.

Oh, well.

So, here's this bit of fluff:
The Jylland Jump
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/“Jazz Age” crossover fanfic
Part 3
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg79730#msg79730)
Spoiler: show
Bing! Bing! Bing!

Downtown Copenhagen was even more bustling than usual today, last-minute shoppers rushing from store to store in more or less panicky efforts to find just the right gift before Christmas. Among them, Emil Västerström moved purposefully towards his goal.

His bandmates might have wondered at his going all the way to Copenhagen when Malmö offered so many shops of its own, but all those shops had failed him thus far. He was determined that he would succeed in the end, though, even if he had to go to London or Berlin!

The flophouse they were all rooming in had been almost empty when Emil found Lalli sneaking a listen on the big Victrola in the lobby.

“What’s that you’re listening to, Lalli?” The thin Finn was mostly blocking the phonograph’s speaker with his head, as their landlord had threatened the band more than once about keeping the volume down when they were in.

Lalli’s eyes were glowing when he replied, simply, “Bing.”


Ever since that moment, Emil had been working towards his goal: accumulate each and every one of Bing Crosby’s singles from this year into an album for Lalli, and now, only one remained for him to acquire: “Pennies from Heaven”, the single most sought after Bing single of 1936.

Malmö had failed him, but Copenhagen held out more hope; a friend of a friend of a friend of Sigrun’s had yielded up the name of a small, obscure little record store where you could find just about anything--for the right price. Emil was determined to get that single, even if it cost his last öre.

The crowds were almost impenetrable; it took so long to get anywhere that Emil began to worry that he’d miss his ferry, but once he turned down the alleyway that supposedly led to the store, the crowds melted away.

The store smelled more like a bookstore should than the record store it supposedly was, but that didn’t faze Emil. He searched tirelessly through the stacks of records for an eternity or two, until a soft cough at his elbow interrupted him.

“If you please, sir, we will be closing shortly. Is there anything I might help you find?” The speaker was a small, elderly man, either a senior clerk or possibly the shopkeeper himself.

Even after all these months of listening to Mikkel, Emil still heard far too much static whenever he heard Danish. Yet, he understood what the storekeeper was telling him well enough.

“I’m looking for the Bing Crosby single, ‘Pennies from Heaven’, if you would be so kind.” Emil tried to keep his impatience and growing desperation from his voice. After all, the man was simply doing his job.

“A Christmas gift, I see? And perhaps, to complete a set?” The old man nodded perspicaciously.

Emil essayed a sheepish smile. “You see quite well, sir. Does this mean you have a copy?”

“Oh, yes, young man. We have a copy over behind the counter, in fact.” They proceeded thither in silence. The old man reached below and pulled out a cardboard sleeve. “Yes, this is it, but I’m afraid it’s quite dear. So dear, in fact, that once they hear the price, none would buy it.”

Emil’s eyebrows rose. “How much?”

The old man quoted a figure that was just before exhausting Emil’s last öre. Emil swallowed hard, remembering the album with one empty sleeve hidden beneath his bed, and the glow in Lalli’s eyes as the Finn crouched by the phonograph.

“Wrap it up for me,” Emil said, the words running together in his haste to get them out before he could reconsider.

“If I might make a suggestion, sir?” Emil nodded. “Play the B side first.”

Emil nodded blankly again, and left with his precious cargo.

*

Lalli had been most mysterious about their gift exchange, telling Tuuri to tell Emil that he should meet Lalli at their secret firebug spot an hour after dark. Of course, this left Emil with the problem of finding a portable phonograph that played 78s instead of gramophone cylinders that he could bring along, which made him rather late.

When Emil finally arrived, though, he almost dropped what he was carrying. A grinning Lalli stood before a whole array of fireworks of every size and description, and all ready to be shot off over the sea. That, and the expression on Lalli’s face when he looked through the album, made it all worth it.

With his usual uncanny instinct, Lalli pulled out the disc Emil had spent so much to acquire. When he made to put it on the phonograph, though, Emil remembered what the shopkeeper had said.

“Play the B side first, Lalli.” Lalli shrugged, handed Emil the lighter to set to the first fireworks, and deftly set the B side playing.

To the (rather ironic) sound of Bing singing “Silent Night”, the two boys set off the greatest Christmas fireworks display in the history of Malmö.


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show

This part A/K/A “Christmas Fluff”.

Of course, the annoying thing is that I wrote this between Seilann’s post justly praising Yuuago’s latest (“Water and Eternity”) and the time I posted this, whereas it took weeks for me to churn out the latest bit of the Western. Grrrrr.


Okay but seriously? Warm fuzzies to the extreme here!

LooNEY, I really enjoy your writing! Writer's block and feeling insecure about your own work are just part of the process, even for professional writers. Like, I've been writing fiction for thirteen years and I still hate the vast majority of what I churn out, even more so when I'm about to post it and get very nitpicky and keep doing just "one last little edit." Sometimes I hate what I'm writing before I even write it ( =writer's block). But we have to remind ourselves that here, no one is comparing. We're just happy to read whatever you're willing to share. <3
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Puls3 on December 23, 2015, 04:54:32 PM
just 1 hour and 8 minutes before my personal deadline. I just hope that this story will end soon.

I just remembered that i didn't have a title for this thing, so lets call it....Panic? sounds good enough.
Quick note: The text in (cursive?) is supposed to represent inner monologue.
Spoiler: show
 Panic: Chapter 2
That scream, he would never forget that scream for as long as he lived. It was a sound of a dozen voices screaming in pain at once. Emil could do nothing but cover his ears in hopes that it would stop. He felt bony fingers burrow against his chest as Lalli pushed him away from the entrance and slammed the rotten door shut.
“RUUN!” he shouted in a desperate attempt to overvoice the deafening scream.
Emil didn’t need to understand what Lalli said, they both turned their backs away from the door and ran down the dark hallway where the rucksack full of books where located. Sigrun ran down the other side of the hallway for the staircase with a bunch of books under her left arm and a rifle tightly clutched on the other.
“What are you waiting for?! Grab the books and evacuate the building before the whole neighbourhood wakes up!” Emil grabbed the heavy rucksack and threw it behind his back before running for his dear life. 
As they ran down the staircase, towards the exit, Emil realised that the screaming abruptly stopped and the building became deadly silent. But other noises started to emerge in its absence, there where scratching noises behind the walls, tapping sounds from the floor above them moving quickly towards the staircase. They exited the building and rushed towards the cat-tank where Mikkel was standing with a broomstick in his hand, ready to fend of anything that would come his way with a face that was on high alert which instantly turned to pure fear when he saw what followed the search team. Emil noticed the fear on Mikkel’s and quickly turned his head in order to get a glimpse of what startled him. Was it the screamer of was it a giant? No, it was much worse than that, more dangerous than a giant could ever be. It was a swarm of trolls, pouring out of the building that they just evacuated from and there were more coming from the windows and cracks of other surrounding buildings, all attracted by the blood shilling scream that echoed through the streets of Copenhagen.
Their appearance was revolting; many were almost rotten to the core with little signs of ever being human like they were being taken straight from a nightmare. Instead of arms, some had scythe like limbs made of bone. Others had large jaws that seemed almost separated from the rest of the skull crawling at an incredible speed. But what were almost most disturbing that those corrupted creatures all had in common was their eyes; all sickly yellow that almost seemed to glow and was only made more visible with the dark clouds preventing any rays of sunlight from entering the realm of the infected.
The small crew ran as fast as they could despite the heavy load slowing them down, Emil started to hear them getting closer, the sound of claws scraping the ground and the screams of those who once lived started to get louder by the second. The calls for help to end the pain were all Emil started to hear by the time they started to enter the vehicle.
*
Mikkel was about to close the door when Emil was the last one to enter, but one of them managed to shove in its upper torso before the door was shut and was desperately trying to get in while flailing its scabby arms around to get hold of something to destroy.
Emil was in the corner next to the door, too shocked to move, his hands were shaking uncontrollably by the sudden rush of adrenaline that went through him. He only wished for the screams to stop and his wish came true, only to be replaced by a gunshot that rang through the tanks steel interior creating a high note that rang through his head continuously. He located the source of the painful sound at the business end of Sigrun's rifle, with a thin line of grey smoke escaping from the metallic pipe only to disappear in the air, something Emil felt like doing.
“Was that truly necessary?!” Mikkel shouted covering his ears while Sigrun was kicking off the red pulp that was once trying to get in.
“It was the fastest way; with that many heads, it would take too long to kill before its friends arri-“
Her sentence was cut short by a heavy slam on the side of the tank, following up with several bumps and scratching sounds of corrupt creatures impatiently wanting to break in and tear them all to pieces. The violent shaking of the tank caused Sigrun to stumble but managed to quickly regain her footing. Emil on the other hand wasn’t as lucky and fell sideways from the corner, the shock preventing him from regaining his balance while barely manage to cover his face with his hands as he hit the bloody steel surface. He looked up from his arm and it was chaos: Sigrun was loudly repeating to Mikkel her reasons for using a gun inside of a tank while Lalli was standing against the opposite corner from Emil, covering his ears with his eyes shut tight. He could hear the radar in the cockpit through the glass door that was dividing the tank, detecting numerous foreign objects within its proximity with several loud beeps. Reynir was standing with his back pressed against the wall hyperventilating by the horrific sight that was taking place through the windshield. Turri was facing them through the glass asking what the hell just happened with a panicked expression.
Emil could relate to Lalli in this situation, he also wanted to disappear into the abyss, forgetting everything that happened and pretending that it was all a dream. But alas, it was not. The cold floor and painful ringing in his head prevented him from having that luxury and all he could do was lay still, waiting for it all to end.

“SILENCE!” the inside of the tank obeyed that order which came from Mikkel who finally lost his patience. “Turri! take yourself and Reynir into the office and lock the door behind you, try to calm him down at the best of your abilities, do not come out unless I say so.” Turri did not want to object and gently escorted Reynir to the small office with tears streaming down his face “Reynir, it’s all going to be okay. Repeat after me: Inhale. count to four. Exhale.” A trick she learned from reading a first aid book they once obtained from one of their scavenging hunts. Reynir did his best to follow her instructions and started regain his normal breathing pattern, but the tears still flowed like an endless river down his cheeks.
“Emil! On your feet this instant!” Mikkel articulated with an authoritarian voice. Emil slowly got on his feet and did his best to not stumble over. Mikkel took one last sweep of the tank to see if something else needed to be corrected. “Now that everybody is calm, I think a quick getaway plan is in order, any suggestions Sigrun?” The captain was still baffled by the doctor’s sudden outburst but quickly regained her posture. “There are far too many of them for us to face. So I think we need to split up into two teams. Emil and Lalli will grab the deadlings attention and have them taken away as far away from the tank as possible, while I and Mikkel take down the remaining ones that happen to stay behind.” Emil didn’t believe what he just heard and managed to speak from his paralysed state. “Are you seriously saying that we should run out there and get ourselves killed?! Are you fu-“ Sigrun cut of Emil at mid-sentence. “It is our best and ONLY option” she said, looking Emil in the eyes. “Lalli knows the city better than any of us and you are the one who understands him best. I can’t leave and let Mikkel handle this all by himself and I’m not telling you to kill those troll as you are in no shape to fight ten of them a once. Using your flammable explosives will only put us at risk, by letting even more creatures know that we’re here and if that happens, we’re all as good as dead.” Emil was unable to speak “All I want you to do is run as fast as you can and loose them inside the city. Thirty minutes after the sun fall, I will shoot a flare and we will move about fifteen blocks west from the source as the blast and bright light is likely to attract some unwanted attention.”  It was silent and all that was heard was the constant electronic beeping from the radar. “Do you understand what you need to do?” Emil looked down, his right arm was smeared with blood from the floor, the shaking was starting to subdue. “Why did it all come to this?  Why?” He took a deep breath through the nostrils and looked up, eyes determined but behind them, it was trying to conceal complete panic. “I understand.” Mikkel nodded and told Turri to come out of the office to explain the plan to Lalli.
*
Time was on the essence. Emil and Lalli made themselves ready, they got some extra ammunition just in case and some purified water to keep them hydrated. Mikkel had his door on the handle and looked down on the two boys who were heading towards an unknown fate. “The moment I open up this door, all hell is going to break loose, are you ready for this?” Emil didn’t understand everything that was said but it didn’t really matter, all he could hear was the rapid heartbeat in his chest and the deep shaky breaths that he took to keep himself from fainting “Inhale. Count to four. Exhale.” An old trick he learned from boot camp, always worked during panicked situations. His heart slowed down as he took those deep breaths. He looked to his left and saw Lalli, expressionless as always with sky blue eyes that seemed more than ready. Emil then looked at Mikkel and nodded. “Good luck friends.” Felt more like a painful good bye than anything else.
And with that the doors was shoved open causing trolls in front of it to fall over. Lalli ran like the wind with Emil following his lead. Emil took his rifle and aimed for the sky. With a shaky finger he pulled the trigger, creating an explosive sound that echoed through the city of Copenhagen. A thousand hungry eyes were laid upon them.
“Why did it all come to this?”

Oh dear what a mess of a story this is. I really need to get into a writing club at some point in my life. I appreciate any form of criticism you may have, constructive or destructive is up to you. Goodnight and a marry Christmas to all of you.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Seilann on December 23, 2015, 05:48:56 PM
just 1 hour and 8 minutes before my personal deadline. I just hope that this story will end soon.

I just remembered that i didn't have a title for this thing, so lets call it....Panic? sounds good enough.
Quick note: The text in (cursive?) is supposed to represent inner monologue.
Spoiler: show
 Panic: Chapter 2
That scream, he would never forget that scream for as long as he lived. It was a sound of a dozen voices screaming in pain at once. Emil could do nothing but cover his ears in hopes that it would stop. He felt bony fingers burrow against his chest as Lalli pushed him away from the entrance and slammed the rotten door shut.
“RUUN!” he shouted in a desperate attempt to overvoice the deafening scream.
Emil didn’t need to understand what Lalli said, they both turned their backs away from the door and ran down the dark hallway where the rucksack full of books where located. Sigrun ran down the other side of the hallway for the staircase with a bunch of books under her left arm and a rifle tightly clutched on the other.
“What are you waiting for?! Grab the books and evacuate the building before the whole neighbourhood wakes up!” Emil grabbed the heavy rucksack and threw it behind his back before running for his dear life. 
As they ran down the staircase, towards the exit, Emil realised that the screaming abruptly stopped and the building became deadly silent. But other noises started to emerge in its absence, there where scratching noises behind the walls, tapping sounds from the floor above them moving quickly towards the staircase. They exited the building and rushed towards the cat-tank where Mikkel was standing with a broomstick in his hand, ready to fend of anything that would come his way with a face that was on high alert which instantly turned to pure fear when he saw what followed the search team. Emil noticed the fear on Mikkel’s and quickly turned his head in order to get a glimpse of what startled him. Was it the screamer of was it a giant? No, it was much worse than that, more dangerous than a giant could ever be. It was a swarm of trolls, pouring out of the building that they just evacuated from and there were more coming from the windows and cracks of other surrounding buildings, all attracted by the blood shilling scream that echoed through the streets of Copenhagen.
Their appearance was revolting; many were almost rotten to the core with little signs of ever being human like they were being taken straight from a nightmare. Instead of arms, some had scythe like limbs made of bone. Others had large jaws that seemed almost separated from the rest of the skull crawling at an incredible speed. But what were almost most disturbing that those corrupted creatures all had in common was their eyes; all sickly yellow that almost seemed to glow and was only made more visible with the dark clouds preventing any rays of sunlight from entering the realm of the infected.
The small crew ran as fast as they could despite the heavy load slowing them down, Emil started to hear them getting closer, the sound of claws scraping the ground and the screams of those who once lived started to get louder by the second. The calls for help to end the pain were all Emil started to hear by the time they started to enter the vehicle.
*
Mikkel was about to close the door when Emil was the last one to enter, but one of them managed to shove in its upper torso before the door was shut and was desperately trying to get in while flailing its scabby arms around to get hold of something to destroy.
Emil was in the corner next to the door, too shocked to move, his hands were shaking uncontrollably by the sudden rush of adrenaline that went through him. He only wished for the screams to stop and his wish came true, only to be replaced by a gunshot that rang through the tanks steel interior creating a high note that rang through his head continuously. He located the source of the painful sound at the business end of Sigrun's rifle, with a thin line of grey smoke escaping from the metallic pipe only to disappear in the air, something Emil felt like doing.
“Was that truly necessary?!” Mikkel shouted covering his ears while Sigrun was kicking off the red pulp that was once trying to get in.
“It was the fastest way; with that many heads, it would take too long to kill before its friends arri-“
Her sentence was cut short by a heavy slam on the side of the tank, following up with several bumps and scratching sounds of corrupt creatures impatiently wanting to break in and tear them all to pieces. The violent shaking of the tank caused Sigrun to stumble but managed to quickly regain her footing. Emil on the other hand wasn’t as lucky and fell sideways from the corner, the shock preventing him from regaining his balance while barely manage to cover his face with his hands as he hit the bloody steel surface. He looked up from his arm and it was chaos: Sigrun was loudly repeating to Mikkel her reasons for using a gun inside of a tank while Lalli was standing against the opposite corner from Emil, covering his ears with his eyes shut tight. He could hear the radar in the cockpit through the glass door that was dividing the tank, detecting numerous foreign objects within its proximity with several loud beeps. Reynir was standing with his back pressed against the wall hyperventilating by the horrific sight that was taking place through the windshield. Turri was facing them through the glass asking what the hell just happened with a panicked expression.
Emil could relate to Lalli in this situation, he also wanted to disappear into the abyss, forgetting everything that happened and pretending that it was all a dream. But alas, it was not. The cold floor and painful ringing in his head prevented him from having that luxury and all he could do was lay still, waiting for it all to end.

“SILENCE!” the inside of the tank obeyed that order which came from Mikkel who finally lost his patience. “Turri! take yourself and Reynir into the office and lock the door behind you, try to calm him down at the best of your abilities, do not come out unless I say so.” Turri did not want to object and gently escorted Reynir to the small office with tears streaming down his face “Reynir, it’s all going to be okay. Repeat after me: Inhale. count to four. Exhale.” A trick she learned from reading a first aid book they once obtained from one of their scavenging hunts. Reynir did his best to follow her instructions and started regain his normal breathing pattern, but the tears still flowed like an endless river down his cheeks.
“Emil! On your feet this instant!” Mikkel articulated with an authoritarian voice. Emil slowly got on his feet and did his best to not stumble over. Mikkel took one last sweep of the tank to see if something else needed to be corrected. “Now that everybody is calm, I think a quick getaway plan is in order, any suggestions Sigrun?” The captain was still baffled by the doctor’s sudden outburst but quickly regained her posture. “There are far too many of them for us to face. So I think we need to split up into two teams. Emil and Lalli will grab the deadlings attention and have them taken away as far away from the tank as possible, while I and Mikkel take down the remaining ones that happen to stay behind.” Emil didn’t believe what he just heard and managed to speak from his paralysed state. “Are you seriously saying that we should run out there and get ourselves killed?! Are you fu-“ Sigrun cut of Emil at mid-sentence. “It is our best and ONLY option” she said, looking Emil in the eyes. “Lalli knows the city better than any of us and you are the one who understands him best. I can’t leave and let Mikkel handle this all by himself and I’m not telling you to kill those troll as you are in no shape to fight ten of them a once. Using your flammable explosives will only put us at risk, by letting even more creatures know that we’re here and if that happens, we’re all as good as dead.” Emil was unable to speak “All I want you to do is run as fast as you can and loose them inside the city. Thirty minutes after the sun fall, I will shoot a flare and we will move about fifteen blocks west from the source as the blast and bright light is likely to attract some unwanted attention.”  It was silent and all that was heard was the constant electronic beeping from the radar. “Do you understand what you need to do?” Emil looked down, his right arm was smeared with blood from the floor, the shaking was starting to subdue. “Why did it all come to this?  Why?” He took a deep breath through the nostrils and looked up, eyes determined but behind them, it was trying to conceal complete panic. “I understand.” Mikkel nodded and told Turri to come out of the office to explain the plan to Lalli.
*
Time was on the essence. Emil and Lalli made themselves ready, they got some extra ammunition just in case and some purified water to keep them hydrated. Mikkel had his door on the handle and looked down on the two boys who were heading towards an unknown fate. “The moment I open up this door, all hell is going to break loose, are you ready for this?” Emil didn’t understand everything that was said but it didn’t really matter, all he could hear was the rapid heartbeat in his chest and the deep shaky breaths that he took to keep himself from fainting “Inhale. Count to four. Exhale.” An old trick he learned from boot camp, always worked during panicked situations. His heart slowed down as he took those deep breaths. He looked to his left and saw Lalli, expressionless as always with sky blue eyes that seemed more than ready. Emil then looked at Mikkel and nodded. “Good luck friends.” Felt more like a painful good bye than anything else.
And with that the doors was shoved open causing trolls in front of it to fall over. Lalli ran like the wind with Emil following his lead. Emil took his rifle and aimed for the sky. With a shaky finger he pulled the trigger, creating an explosive sound that echoed through the city of Copenhagen. A thousand hungry eyes were laid upon them.
“Why did it all come to this?”

Oh dear what a mess of a story this is. I really need to get into a writing club at some point in my life. I appreciate any form of criticism you may have, constructive or destructive is up to you. Goodnight and a marry Christmas to all of you.

Gah! You can't stop it there! ;_;

I really like your details of the trolls and in general. I get a really clear picture when I read your stuff. :) One technique you can use for stronger suspense (though you've got it down pretty good already): short, crisp sentences. This really speeds up the action for the reader, so lots of things can happen at once without confusion. On the other hand, longer sentences create a more relaxed feeling, because they take longer for the reader to process.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on December 23, 2015, 07:13:40 PM
Puls3: Your story is good. Most of what needs work is grammar and construction of sentences, and that's fixable. The narrative voice is strong, which is the important part. Do you have someone you could ask to be a beta reader?

I agree with Seilann about sentence length. The use of short, choppy sentences works well for action sequences. It's how a person fighting for their life would speak, and adds realism to a scene.

A couple more things: I haven't written a huge amount of fiction myself, (thirty or so short stories) since I'm mostly a poet and technical writer, and most of what I've had actually published is science-fiction. However, there are a couple of techniques I have found useful:
. Write, then put it away for a day, a couple of days, a week - you'll soon work out how long is long enough for you. Read it again. Errors and things you could have explained better will jump out at you on a later reading. If it's something very complex, do it again.
. Read it aloud. Again, errors and infelicities of tone will jump out at you. This will let you tell if your voices for the characters ring true, as seeing the words on a page will not. One of the things I do in real life is storyteller, and I've found it a good rule of thumb that if a story wouldn't be effective if I were telling it to a bunch of people around a campfire, it won't be effective on the page.

Hope this is useful, and also hope you will tell us the rest of this tale soon - I'm eager to find out what happens next!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Kiraly on December 24, 2015, 11:20:06 AM
So...this crazy/amazing fandom has inspired me to write my first fanfiction ever. (I blame the people in the art thread...all the amazing art for Sectoboss's Neighbor AU got me hooked, and I'm slowly working my way through this thread to find more). I'm obsessed with fond of Tuuri/Reynir, and since I haven't seen much written about them I decided to try my hand. It's a fluffy little thing inspired by the way they're sitting in the last panel on page 441 (http://sssscomic.com/comic.php?page=441).

So here it is. (http://archiveofourown.org/works/5517719)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: misea on December 24, 2015, 11:22:52 PM
WOWEE SO MANY FICS

/me swallows nervously at all the new good stuff from everybody

/me puts the next bit of the Western up anyway

The Good, the Bad, and the Bestial
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/Western crossover fanfic
Part 16
Caper the Third: The Cave of Time
Part 5
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg79730#msg79730)
Spoiler: show
The Unseen Inferno

War: the winnowing of nations; the crucible of souls. War brought men together that they might rend each other to pieces.

War had always been the breeding ground of plague. Until the mid-20th Century, more deaths were always brought about by sepsis and plague than by the efforts of the enemy.

War was thus the perfect place to release a plague, and where better to release the ultimate plague than the ultimate war?

*
London, England
1 August, 1808

The man from the Foreign Office studied the massive Dane standing before him with such seeming placidity, his own doubts buried beneath a well-honed mask of aplomb. Hiring soldiers of fortune (against which practice Signor Machiavelli and others had so much to say) at all, and especially when these men of infamously loose morals and looser behavior were composed in large part of men from nations with which the Empire was formally at war, most decidedly went against the grain.

“I was expecting to meet with your captain,” the Foreign Office man remonstrated.

Mikkel almost smiled at that. “Oh, our captain is not one to be summoned by some desk-ridden monkey, however grand his desk may be, and this policy has delivered not merely the captain but our entire group from well-planned traps dressed up as job offers. You will hand me the details of our mission or their will be no mission.”

“Oh, devil take your impudence, man!” The Foreign Office man took a few deep breaths in order to restore his equanimity. “I must applaud your captain’s policy, though it would seem unwise to send such an undiplomatic emissary.”

Mikkel took the proffered envelope. “As to that, the simplest explanation is also the truth: I’m the only one who speaks English.”

*

Of course, Mikkel was lying. Tuuri had the diplo-speak of the orders sussed within a few minutes of study. “They want us to help the Spaniards in their uprisings against the French.”

“How much do they want our aid?” Sigrun asked with faux off-handedness. Of course, the other four were just as seemingly casual yet intent on the answer.

“Around 30,000 sterling, plus equipment and arms, it looks like,” Tuuri replied. “Though I think some of that’s meant to pay the Spaniards, too.”

“Eh, it’ll do.” And so the rest agreed.

*
Somewhere in Galicia, Spain
10 December, 1808

Starlight greeted the Western Six as they stepped out from the mouth of the Cave.

“Sooooo... where were we again, Tuuri?” Silence. “Mikkel?” More silence. “Does anyone have even the least clue as to where and when we’ve got to?”

“I see Orion,” Emil remarked.

“Whoop-de-doo.”

“You can only see Orion well during winter; by where it’s at in the sky, we’re still in the Northern Hemisphere, and it’s late fall-ish. Maybe December? But we’re north of the equator, at any rate.”

“And we’re finally in the lead,” Reynir added. “The Man in the Black Hat hasn’t reached here yet so we just have to stake this place out and we’ll get him.”

This, of course, was when the ambush happened.

*

“Why do I always end up on corpse disposal duty?” Emil asked in frustration. “We never burn ‘em, so why me?”

Sigrun shrugged. “You keep stumbling into the best dump sites.” She turned to Tuuri. “Any idea who they were yet?”

“All these papers are in French, and that’s one of my worst languages,” Tuuri explained. “It doesn’t help that they’re in bad French, either. From what I can make out, though, I think we’re somewhere in Spain, somewhere around 1808-ish, and there’s a war on.”

Mikkel groaned.

“What’s up?”

“There’s more like five wars going on, all muddled together under that jerk Napoleon Bonaparte. Wonderful. Only thing worse would be back in Virginny in the spring of ’65.”

Sigrun was looking decidedly happier at the implied prospects for carnage as Mikkel made his little speech.

“They might have thought that we’re Brits.” Everyone looked at Lalli, who continued, “Might be a problem in future. Brits keep sticking their noses in and making bad stuff worse, so keep getting everybody ticked off at ‘em.”

Lalli looked significantly at Tuuri, who mused, “We speak English, so they might think we’re Brits and hold us to account for whatever Brit idiocy’s in the wind. Great.”

“Are they likely to believe we’re ‘Yanquis’?” Sigrun asked.

“Only if they haven’t met us.”

The answer, delivered in Mikkel’s trademark dry drawl, startled them, especially Mikkel, who hadn’t said it. Heads and not a few six-guns turned in the direction the remark had come from...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show

Yeah, let’s just say Anglophilia wasn’t a thing in Middle America in the late 19th century (or Spain in late 1808, for that matter).

I debated having the first part become its own little series of adventures--”The Eide Traveling Mercenaries Players”, which would have allowed this stop to take up only one part, but I don’t think I could juggle that many continuing stories at once, as I’m having enough struggles with writer’s block as it is.

But I finally got this part out!!!!

YEEEEEESS \o/ I hope I didn't miss any installments from the two months I disappeared from the forum....

I'll just drop this here too, since it's from an AU that started here. What happens when somebody who doesn't write AUs jumps on the näkki-Lalli bandwagon? Well...

"Water and Eternity". 3k length. Characters: Emil and Lalli
Summary: Lalli is becoming something, transforming, changing. He knows this. He also knows that there is someone he must save, someone he must protect, even if doing so means hiding himself away.
Relationships: Lalli/Emil (mild and vague, but it's there)
Rating: 13+ for some canon-typical violence - it's on the mild side, but to be safe...
On Ao3: http://archiveofourown.org/works/5480474
Archive backup: http://roesslyng.dreamwidth.org/59721.html
I
CRYING
LOTS OF TEARS
I MEAN I'VE ALREADY SCREAMED ON TUMBLR IN THE TAGS BUT
AGHYAGHAYGNAGYAGHAGAHGYAGHAYGAHGHAHGAYGHAGHAHGAYGHAGYAHG

Uh, Yuuago, you're not helping me be less intimidated: your latest is too magnificent for that.

Oh, well.

So, here's this bit of fluff:
The Jylland Jump
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/“Jazz Age” crossover fanfic
Part 3
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg79730#msg79730)
Spoiler: show
Bing! Bing! Bing!

Downtown Copenhagen was even more bustling than usual today, last-minute shoppers rushing from store to store in more or less panicky efforts to find just the right gift before Christmas. Among them, Emil Västerström moved purposefully towards his goal.

His bandmates might have wondered at his going all the way to Copenhagen when Malmö offered so many shops of its own, but all those shops had failed him thus far. He was determined that he would succeed in the end, though, even if he had to go to London or Berlin!

The flophouse they were all rooming in had been almost empty when Emil found Lalli sneaking a listen on the big Victrola in the lobby.

“What’s that you’re listening to, Lalli?” The thin Finn was mostly blocking the phonograph’s speaker with his head, as their landlord had threatened the band more than once about keeping the volume down when they were in.

Lalli’s eyes were glowing when he replied, simply, “Bing.”


Ever since that moment, Emil had been working towards his goal: accumulate each and every one of Bing Crosby’s singles from this year into an album for Lalli, and now, only one remained for him to acquire: “Pennies from Heaven”, the single most sought after Bing single of 1936.

Malmö had failed him, but Copenhagen held out more hope; a friend of a friend of a friend of Sigrun’s had yielded up the name of a small, obscure little record store where you could find just about anything--for the right price. Emil was determined to get that single, even if it cost his last öre.

The crowds were almost impenetrable; it took so long to get anywhere that Emil began to worry that he’d miss his ferry, but once he turned down the alleyway that supposedly led to the store, the crowds melted away.

The store smelled more like a bookstore should than the record store it supposedly was, but that didn’t faze Emil. He searched tirelessly through the stacks of records for an eternity or two, until a soft cough at his elbow interrupted him.

“If you please, sir, we will be closing shortly. Is there anything I might help you find?” The speaker was a small, elderly man, either a senior clerk or possibly the shopkeeper himself.

Even after all these months of listening to Mikkel, Emil still heard far too much static whenever he heard Danish. Yet, he understood what the storekeeper was telling him well enough.

“I’m looking for the Bing Crosby single, ‘Pennies from Heaven’, if you would be so kind.” Emil tried to keep his impatience and growing desperation from his voice. After all, the man was simply doing his job.

“A Christmas gift, I see? And perhaps, to complete a set?” The old man nodded perspicaciously.

Emil essayed a sheepish smile. “You see quite well, sir. Does this mean you have a copy?”

“Oh, yes, young man. We have a copy over behind the counter, in fact.” They proceeded thither in silence. The old man reached below and pulled out a cardboard sleeve. “Yes, this is it, but I’m afraid it’s quite dear. So dear, in fact, that once they hear the price, none would buy it.”

Emil’s eyebrows rose. “How much?”

The old man quoted a figure that was just before exhausting Emil’s last öre. Emil swallowed hard, remembering the album with one empty sleeve hidden beneath his bed, and the glow in Lalli’s eyes as the Finn crouched by the phonograph.

“Wrap it up for me,” Emil said, the words running together in his haste to get them out before he could reconsider.

“If I might make a suggestion, sir?” Emil nodded. “Play the B side first.”

Emil nodded blankly again, and left with his precious cargo.

*

Lalli had been most mysterious about their gift exchange, telling Tuuri to tell Emil that he should meet Lalli at their secret firebug spot an hour after dark. Of course, this left Emil with the problem of finding a portable phonograph that played 78s instead of gramophone cylinders that he could bring along, which made him rather late.

When Emil finally arrived, though, he almost dropped what he was carrying. A grinning Lalli stood before a whole array of fireworks of every size and description, and all ready to be shot off over the sea. That, and the expression on Lalli’s face when he looked through the album, made it all worth it.

With his usual uncanny instinct, Lalli pulled out the disc Emil had spent so much to acquire. When he made to put it on the phonograph, though, Emil remembered what the shopkeeper had said.

“Play the B side first, Lalli.” Lalli shrugged, handed Emil the lighter to set to the first fireworks, and deftly set the B side playing.

To the (rather ironic) sound of Bing singing “Silent Night”, the two boys set off the greatest Christmas fireworks display in the history of Malmö.


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show

This part A/K/A “Christmas Fluff”.

Of course, the annoying thing is that I wrote this between Seilann’s post justly praising Yuuago’s latest (“Water and Eternity”) and the time I posted this, whereas it took weeks for me to churn out the latest bit of the Western. Grrrrr.

Oh ho ho yes I live for Emilalli fluff :3

just 1 hour and 8 minutes before my personal deadline. I just hope that this story will end soon.

I just remembered that i didn't have a title for this thing, so lets call it....Panic? sounds good enough.
Quick note: The text in (cursive?) is supposed to represent inner monologue.
Spoiler: show
 Panic: Chapter 2
That scream, he would never forget that scream for as long as he lived. It was a sound of a dozen voices screaming in pain at once. Emil could do nothing but cover his ears in hopes that it would stop. He felt bony fingers burrow against his chest as Lalli pushed him away from the entrance and slammed the rotten door shut.
“RUUN!” he shouted in a desperate attempt to overvoice the deafening scream.
Emil didn’t need to understand what Lalli said, they both turned their backs away from the door and ran down the dark hallway where the rucksack full of books where located. Sigrun ran down the other side of the hallway for the staircase with a bunch of books under her left arm and a rifle tightly clutched on the other.
“What are you waiting for?! Grab the books and evacuate the building before the whole neighbourhood wakes up!” Emil grabbed the heavy rucksack and threw it behind his back before running for his dear life. 
As they ran down the staircase, towards the exit, Emil realised that the screaming abruptly stopped and the building became deadly silent. But other noises started to emerge in its absence, there where scratching noises behind the walls, tapping sounds from the floor above them moving quickly towards the staircase. They exited the building and rushed towards the cat-tank where Mikkel was standing with a broomstick in his hand, ready to fend of anything that would come his way with a face that was on high alert which instantly turned to pure fear when he saw what followed the search team. Emil noticed the fear on Mikkel’s and quickly turned his head in order to get a glimpse of what startled him. Was it the screamer of was it a giant? No, it was much worse than that, more dangerous than a giant could ever be. It was a swarm of trolls, pouring out of the building that they just evacuated from and there were more coming from the windows and cracks of other surrounding buildings, all attracted by the blood shilling scream that echoed through the streets of Copenhagen.
Their appearance was revolting; many were almost rotten to the core with little signs of ever being human like they were being taken straight from a nightmare. Instead of arms, some had scythe like limbs made of bone. Others had large jaws that seemed almost separated from the rest of the skull crawling at an incredible speed. But what were almost most disturbing that those corrupted creatures all had in common was their eyes; all sickly yellow that almost seemed to glow and was only made more visible with the dark clouds preventing any rays of sunlight from entering the realm of the infected.
The small crew ran as fast as they could despite the heavy load slowing them down, Emil started to hear them getting closer, the sound of claws scraping the ground and the screams of those who once lived started to get louder by the second. The calls for help to end the pain were all Emil started to hear by the time they started to enter the vehicle.
*
Mikkel was about to close the door when Emil was the last one to enter, but one of them managed to shove in its upper torso before the door was shut and was desperately trying to get in while flailing its scabby arms around to get hold of something to destroy.
Emil was in the corner next to the door, too shocked to move, his hands were shaking uncontrollably by the sudden rush of adrenaline that went through him. He only wished for the screams to stop and his wish came true, only to be replaced by a gunshot that rang through the tanks steel interior creating a high note that rang through his head continuously. He located the source of the painful sound at the business end of Sigrun's rifle, with a thin line of grey smoke escaping from the metallic pipe only to disappear in the air, something Emil felt like doing.
“Was that truly necessary?!” Mikkel shouted covering his ears while Sigrun was kicking off the red pulp that was once trying to get in.
“It was the fastest way; with that many heads, it would take too long to kill before its friends arri-“
Her sentence was cut short by a heavy slam on the side of the tank, following up with several bumps and scratching sounds of corrupt creatures impatiently wanting to break in and tear them all to pieces. The violent shaking of the tank caused Sigrun to stumble but managed to quickly regain her footing. Emil on the other hand wasn’t as lucky and fell sideways from the corner, the shock preventing him from regaining his balance while barely manage to cover his face with his hands as he hit the bloody steel surface. He looked up from his arm and it was chaos: Sigrun was loudly repeating to Mikkel her reasons for using a gun inside of a tank while Lalli was standing against the opposite corner from Emil, covering his ears with his eyes shut tight. He could hear the radar in the cockpit through the glass door that was dividing the tank, detecting numerous foreign objects within its proximity with several loud beeps. Reynir was standing with his back pressed against the wall hyperventilating by the horrific sight that was taking place through the windshield. Turri was facing them through the glass asking what the hell just happened with a panicked expression.
Emil could relate to Lalli in this situation, he also wanted to disappear into the abyss, forgetting everything that happened and pretending that it was all a dream. But alas, it was not. The cold floor and painful ringing in his head prevented him from having that luxury and all he could do was lay still, waiting for it all to end.

“SILENCE!” the inside of the tank obeyed that order which came from Mikkel who finally lost his patience. “Turri! take yourself and Reynir into the office and lock the door behind you, try to calm him down at the best of your abilities, do not come out unless I say so.” Turri did not want to object and gently escorted Reynir to the small office with tears streaming down his face “Reynir, it’s all going to be okay. Repeat after me: Inhale. count to four. Exhale.” A trick she learned from reading a first aid book they once obtained from one of their scavenging hunts. Reynir did his best to follow her instructions and started regain his normal breathing pattern, but the tears still flowed like an endless river down his cheeks.
“Emil! On your feet this instant!” Mikkel articulated with an authoritarian voice. Emil slowly got on his feet and did his best to not stumble over. Mikkel took one last sweep of the tank to see if something else needed to be corrected. “Now that everybody is calm, I think a quick getaway plan is in order, any suggestions Sigrun?” The captain was still baffled by the doctor’s sudden outburst but quickly regained her posture. “There are far too many of them for us to face. So I think we need to split up into two teams. Emil and Lalli will grab the deadlings attention and have them taken away as far away from the tank as possible, while I and Mikkel take down the remaining ones that happen to stay behind.” Emil didn’t believe what he just heard and managed to speak from his paralysed state. “Are you seriously saying that we should run out there and get ourselves killed?! Are you fu-“ Sigrun cut of Emil at mid-sentence. “It is our best and ONLY option” she said, looking Emil in the eyes. “Lalli knows the city better than any of us and you are the one who understands him best. I can’t leave and let Mikkel handle this all by himself and I’m not telling you to kill those troll as you are in no shape to fight ten of them a once. Using your flammable explosives will only put us at risk, by letting even more creatures know that we’re here and if that happens, we’re all as good as dead.” Emil was unable to speak “All I want you to do is run as fast as you can and loose them inside the city. Thirty minutes after the sun fall, I will shoot a flare and we will move about fifteen blocks west from the source as the blast and bright light is likely to attract some unwanted attention.”  It was silent and all that was heard was the constant electronic beeping from the radar. “Do you understand what you need to do?” Emil looked down, his right arm was smeared with blood from the floor, the shaking was starting to subdue. “Why did it all come to this?  Why?” He took a deep breath through the nostrils and looked up, eyes determined but behind them, it was trying to conceal complete panic. “I understand.” Mikkel nodded and told Turri to come out of the office to explain the plan to Lalli.
*
Time was on the essence. Emil and Lalli made themselves ready, they got some extra ammunition just in case and some purified water to keep them hydrated. Mikkel had his door on the handle and looked down on the two boys who were heading towards an unknown fate. “The moment I open up this door, all hell is going to break loose, are you ready for this?” Emil didn’t understand everything that was said but it didn’t really matter, all he could hear was the rapid heartbeat in his chest and the deep shaky breaths that he took to keep himself from fainting “Inhale. Count to four. Exhale.” An old trick he learned from boot camp, always worked during panicked situations. His heart slowed down as he took those deep breaths. He looked to his left and saw Lalli, expressionless as always with sky blue eyes that seemed more than ready. Emil then looked at Mikkel and nodded. “Good luck friends.” Felt more like a painful good bye than anything else.
And with that the doors was shoved open causing trolls in front of it to fall over. Lalli ran like the wind with Emil following his lead. Emil took his rifle and aimed for the sky. With a shaky finger he pulled the trigger, creating an explosive sound that echoed through the city of Copenhagen. A thousand hungry eyes were laid upon them.
“Why did it all come to this?”

Oh dear what a mess of a story this is. I really need to get into a writing club at some point in my life. I appreciate any form of criticism you may have, constructive or destructive is up to you. Goodnight and a marry Christmas to all of you.
Tip: put a space between your paragraphs; it's a lot harder to follow walls of text. X3 But it's really, really good! Can't wait for more!

So...this crazy/amazing fandom has inspired me to write my first fanfiction ever. (I blame the people in the art thread...all the amazing art for Sectoboss's Neighbor AU got me hooked, and I'm slowly working my way through this thread to find more). I'm obsessed with fond of Tuuri/Reynir, and since I haven't seen much written about them I decided to try my hand. It's a fluffy little thing inspired by the way they're sitting in the last panel on page 441 (http://sssscomic.com/comic.php?page=441).

So here it is. (http://archiveofourown.org/works/5517719)
I really don't ship these two, but this was cute c:
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on December 24, 2015, 11:47:39 PM
Kiraly: that was nice!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Puls3 on December 25, 2015, 05:26:01 PM
Seilann: Thanks for the tip, completely forgot storytelling 101 ^-^
The infected was pretty much copied from the dead space series. :P (never played it though, too gruesome for me  :-[ )

Róisín: Thank you for helping me see my grammatical mistakes. Don't really have a beta reader that could help me improve my story. Tried to get a few friends hooked on the comic, but it wasn't their cup of tea.

I've actually tried re-reading my fic a few hours after completion, just need to make sure that I'll be done a few days before the "deadline" in order to have more time to judge it.

misea: aaaaw, you so sweet X3
Sorry if it was difficult to read, will fix that when I have the time.  ^-^

Thank you all again for taking your time to read and comment on my little story.
As I said before, storytelling and writing has never been my strong suit, but I do look forward to finish this slightly chaotic adventure and to hopefully make it worthwhile reading.  :))
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Seilann on December 25, 2015, 09:32:52 PM
Installment 5 of Pocket Fluff, which originated as a sort-of prompt about Emil being the big spoon: http://archiveofourown.org/works/5128250/chapters/12772100

I'm also taking emilalli prompts on tumblr as Seilannstar.


Seilann: Thanks for the tip, completely forgot storytelling 101 ^-^
The infected was pretty much copied from the dead space series. :P (never played it though, too gruesome for me  :-[ )

Róisín: Thank you for helping me see my grammatical mistakes. Don't really have a beta reader that could help me improve my story. Tried to get a few friends hooked on the comic, but it wasn't their cup of tea.

I've actually tried re-reading my fic a few hours after completion, just need to make sure that I'll be done a few days before the "deadline" in order to have more time to judge it.

If you don't mind it taking a few days, I could beta for you. :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Purple Wyrm on December 25, 2015, 10:18:36 PM
I tried to resist. I tried to tell myself it was a bad idea. But I couldn't help it, once the notion entered my head it wouldn't leave me alone until I wrote it out and inflicted it on the world. I shall let you all decide on an appropriate punishment.

"The Currently Untitled Fanfic that Probably Doesn't Actually Deserve a Title"

Length: 1.7k
Characters: The Hotakainen family
Summary: What was Grandma Hotakainen's terrible mistake? What is looking for the Hotakainens? Why is every sentence in this summary in the form of a question?
Relationships: Just family stuff
Rating: No gore or adult situations. Apart from that, take your chances.

Located on my personal blog and including an intro for non SSSS folk - http://wyrmlog.wyrmworld.com/?p=7351 (http://wyrmlog.wyrmworld.com/?p=7351)

Edit: Meant to say that my Finnish is from Google Translate and therefore likely to be awful
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Athena on December 26, 2015, 02:50:45 AM
I tried to resist. I tried to tell myself it was a bad idea. But I couldn't help it, once the notion entered my head it wouldn't leave me alone until I wrote it out and inflicted it on the world. I shall let you all decide on an appropriate punishment.

"The Currently Untitled Fanfic that Probably Doesn't Actually Deserve a Title"

Length: 1.7k
Characters: The Hotakainen family
Summary: What was Grandma Hotakainen's terrible mistake? What is looking for the Hotakainens? Why is every sentence in this summary in the form of a question?
Relationships: Just family stuff
Rating: No gore or adult situations. Apart from that, take your chances.

Located on my personal blog and including an intro for non SSSS folk - http://wyrmlog.wyrmworld.com/?p=7351 (http://wyrmlog.wyrmworld.com/?p=7351)

Edit: Meant to say that my Finnish is from Google Translate and therefore likely to be awful

 :D haha!
Just finished it and that was great!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Purple Wyrm on December 26, 2015, 05:14:24 AM
:D haha!
Just finished it and that was great!

Thanks! Although I've realised that there are some timeline issues that I'll need to go back and revise.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Rabbit on December 26, 2015, 05:35:28 AM
I tried to resist. I tried to tell myself it was a bad idea. But I couldn't help it, once the notion entered my head it wouldn't leave me alone until I wrote it out and inflicted it on the world. I shall let you all decide on an appropriate punishment.

"The Currently Untitled Fanfic that Probably Doesn't Actually Deserve a Title"

Length: 1.7k
Characters: The Hotakainen family
Summary: What was Grandma Hotakainen's terrible mistake? What is looking for the Hotakainens? Why is every sentence in this summary in the form of a question?
Relationships: Just family stuff
Rating: No gore or adult situations. Apart from that, take your chances.

Located on my personal blog and including an intro for non SSSS folk - http://wyrmlog.wyrmworld.com/?p=7351 (http://wyrmlog.wyrmworld.com/?p=7351)

Edit: Meant to say that my Finnish is from Google Translate and therefore likely to be awful

I'm
I'm not sure whether to tell you to GET.  OUT. AND NEVER EAT TURKEY AGAIN or to hand you a medal and tell you to please eat all the turkey
*hands a turkey shaped medal that says GET OUT*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Pupunen on December 26, 2015, 06:18:31 AM

"The Currently Untitled Fanfic that Probably Doesn't Actually Deserve a Title"

I have that terrible song stuck in my head now. I don't know if I can forgive you for this.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Purple Wyrm on December 26, 2015, 08:08:18 AM
*hands a turkey shaped medal that says GET OUT*

I shall wear it with pride!

I have that terrible song stuck in my head now. I don't know if I can forgive you for this.

Well, consider how much worse it would be on a certain instrument! At least that's not stuck in your head :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on December 26, 2015, 08:33:33 AM
So it's all your fault, is it? I had wondered why the seal! *Dissolves in helpless giggles*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Purple Wyrm on December 26, 2015, 08:57:32 AM
So it's all your fault, is it? I had wondered why the seal! *Dissolves in helpless giggles*

Well, the seal pic came first, the story second after some discussion in the headcannon thread. But yes, I'll accept the blame until Minna tells us otherwise :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Puls3 on December 26, 2015, 11:13:19 AM
Quote
If you don't mind it taking a few days, I could beta for you. :)

Thank you for your kindness ^-^
It may take some time though. I don't want to be a burden to you by taking up your time reading and correcting a messy story :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: shoop on December 26, 2015, 05:24:57 PM
After lurking and drawing for this thread for ages I come bearing...! A very self-indulgent Tuuri fic, haha.  Voilà (http://archiveofourown.org/works/5539997)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on December 27, 2015, 06:30:49 AM
"The Currently Untitled Fanfic that Probably Doesn't Actually Deserve a Title"
Why... why did I expect anything else? Well played, well played indeed :D

After lurking and drawing for this thread for ages I come bearing...! A very self-indulgent Tuuri fic, haha.  Voilà (http://archiveofourown.org/works/5539997)
Already said this on AO3 but I really liked this! We definitely need more Tuuri fics, that's for certain (hell, we need more fics in general, but that's another issue...)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Purple Wyrm on December 27, 2015, 08:36:04 AM
After lurking and drawing for this thread for ages I come bearing...! A very self-indulgent Tuuri fic, haha.  Voilà (http://archiveofourown.org/works/5539997)

That was great! Well done!

Why... why did I expect anything else? Well played, well played indeed :D

I am at least part troll :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on December 27, 2015, 09:35:40 PM
Just went through the whole of the Scriptorium in two days and all I can say is good job everybody! (Absolutely no way I could go back and give comments individually, sorry!)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Yuuago on December 27, 2015, 11:45:38 PM
I am so behind with reading, because I've been trying to finish as much stuff as possible before the end of the year. (Why? Well... why not?) I look forward to combing through this when I'm done with that. : D

And on that subject, I finished something! Rather, another version of something. The poem that I wrote Vi for the forum's secret santa was originally drafted as a regular prose fanfic. So, I finished that.

Title: Wayfarer (I & II).
Characters: Lalli & Reynir; no pairing.
Rating: E for Everyone.
Length: 1.7k of fic; 60 lines of poetry
Summary: Reynir visits Lalli in the dreamworld again. This time, he has a suggestion. Lalli has mixed feelings about it.
Fic by itself can be read at my archive: https://roesslyng.dreamwidth.org/60915.html
Fic and poem together are at Ao3: http://archiveofourown.org/works/5557196
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Mélusine on December 28, 2015, 09:07:58 AM
I am so behind with reading, because I've been trying to finish as much stuff as possible before the end of the year. (Why? Well... why not?) I look forward to combing through this when I'm done with that. : D

And on that subject, I finished something! Rather, another version of something. The poem that I wrote Vi for the forum's secret santa was originally drafted as a regular prose fanfic. So, I finished that.

Title: Wayfarer (I & II).
Characters: Lalli & Reynir; no pairing.
Rating: E for Everyone.
Length: 1.7k of fic; 60 lines of poetry
Summary: Reynir visits Lalli in the dreamworld again. This time, he has a suggestion. Lalli has mixed feelings about it.
Fic by itself can be read at my archive: https://roesslyng.dreamwidth.org/60915.html
Fic and poem together are at Ao3: http://archiveofourown.org/works/5557196
My favorite fic from you <3 Definitively. The images are strong, which is one of the best compliment I can say to someone I read, we can see, we can feel, Lalli and Reynir are very themselves. It's a success, and the poem alone was already beautiful <3
Bonus : "Where are all the trees ?" :D (My first question about Iceland to my best friend having an Erasmus for a year there and sending me photos, years ago.)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Kiraly on December 29, 2015, 12:50:11 AM
Just went through the whole of the Scriptorium in two days and all I can say is good job everybody! (Absolutely no way I could go back and give comments individually, sorry!)
Wow, two days?!?! I've been trying to go through and see what's been posted, but I've only gotten to page 23 so far. (Plus the last few pages, I guess.) That's impressive!

shoop I already commented on AO3, but I really love your approach to Tuuri! She's busy being quietly awesome while everyone else runs around fighting trolls and lighting fires. Not that I don't also love those characters, of course.

Yuuago That's some beautiful writing! I like how the prose and poetry complement each other, it works really well.

Purple Wyrm Ahaha, that's hilarious!

So...I may have started a Hipster Band AU (http://archiveofourown.org/works/5569909/chapters/12840832) focusing on Tuuri and Reynir. I'm so sorry I don't know what came over me, it's only going to get more ridiculous from here on out.

*runs away*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on December 29, 2015, 02:31:49 AM
Kiraly: read it and commented on A3O but will say here: the story is funny and sweet, please do continue!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Kiraly on December 29, 2015, 10:37:05 AM
Kiraly: read it and commented on A3O but will say here: the story is funny and sweet, please do continue!
Aww, thank you! (And now I know who you are on AO3 - still putting together what names everyone uses on different websites). I have another chapter in progress now, so hopefully I can get that finished soon.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on December 29, 2015, 04:53:30 PM
I keep getting the urge to do a Matrix crossover somebody please help me!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: JoB on December 29, 2015, 06:15:33 PM
I keep getting the urge to do a Matrix crossover somebody please help me!
According to Google, the Finnish translation for "déjà vu" is "deja vu". Expect Derpkitty to paf you if you get her stuck with that name. Twice.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on December 29, 2015, 08:42:39 PM
I keep getting the urge to do a Matrix crossover somebody please help me!

Well, 2 scenarios spring to mind immediately:
1. Y90 is a subset of the Matrix where the machines are experimenting with extended longevity through the mental prison of Trollification;
or
2. The Rash was the reason people were put into the pods and the Matrix to begin with, and the war against the machines happened after the Rash was forgotten.

…oh. That wasn't the kind of help you were asking for?
Oops.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on December 29, 2015, 08:52:29 PM
Well, 2 scenarios spring to mind immediately:
1. Y90 is a subset of the Matrix where the machines are experimenting with extended longevity through the mental prison of Trollification;
or
2. The Rash was the reason people were put into the pods and the Matrix to begin with, and the war against the machines happened after the Rash was forgotten.

…oh. That wasn't the kind of help you were asking for?
Oops.

I'm actually kind of dancing around 'Somebody please talk me out of this because I already have an A:tLA epic that I really need to be working on and AAAAAH!'

(Or convince me that this is a good enough idea that I need to get off my butt and actually write the thing. That works too.)

Anyway, it popped into my head while I was listening to Dangerous by Big Data, and involves Onni being taken out of the Matrix but not being told/not really processing that he'd be leaving his family behind, but then coming back for Lalli (whose memory of him has been erased) years later. The characters would just be thrown into the universe of the Matrix, but several Ones before Neo's time, so their technology and programs wouldn't be as advanced, and maybe Agent Smith and the Oracle would show up at some point? And Onni and Tuuri would be siblings by adoption because Tuuri was born in the real world, Sigrun would be the captain of their ship the Valkyrie, Tuuri would be the pilot/mechanic, Reynir would be the One if I ever got that far, and asdfhgeypogd I have done almost no planning on this.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on December 29, 2015, 11:11:42 PM
Oh, look.

I made a little Family Headcannon fanfic.

With a Hey and a Ho (and a Hey-Nonny-No!)
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Spoiler: show

Y67, Spring

She was tired.

Dawn was edging its way into the world, and she was tired from another night of Warding Duty. Their little corner of Saimaa needed a lot of Warding. Unfortunately, her best friend wanted her to meet some idiot man at breakfast today, when she would most likely go comatose right in her food, and the idiot man would laugh at her.

It was certain that the man was an idiot, of course; even her brother was an idiot, and he was the pick of the men around here, which was why her best friend was his wife, marking the only truly wise decision he’d ever made.

Or it might be even worse: she might pass out into her food and the unknown idiot wouldn’t laugh at her, or at least not openly, because of whose daughter she was. Another form of male idiocy was to be intimidated by the Empowered, such as her mother and herself. She’d seen it all too often: a man would look at her with sudden fear, because he thought she’d turn him into a newt or something equally ridiculous as repayment for a randomly offensive joke. Morons.

She stumbled into the eating area, hoping her friend wasn’t there yet, but her friend was, and was even then pointing her out to someone hidden behind a post. Great. Now, they’d close in for the kill, and she’d never get her sleep.

In the event, she actually managed to procure a bowl of Hot Morning Sludge, seat herself at a quiet table, and eat just enough to pass out before she dimly heard her friend saying, “Hey, she’s pretty cute, right?”

She didn’t catch his response, but when she snapped awake for a moment, as she often did in these morning naps, she found that he’d moved her bowl to one side so that she wouldn’t spill its disgusting contents all over herself as she slept. And he had been the one to do that; nice as her best friend was, the notion to do that would never have occurred to her.

Well, maybe he wasn’t as big of an idiot as she’d feared.

*

Y67, Summer

All the rigors of troll season were upon them, and she was even more tired than usual. Warding grew more important night by waning night, until the turning of the solstice would bring the ward of weather back.

She still hadn’t met the man her friend was so keen on her meeting, and that was perfectly fine by her.

She stumbled into the eating area again, but her usual table was occupied by a thin, rather nice looking man of about her own age. As soon as she saw him, something in her said, ‘Oh, there he is’. Being who she was, she trusted the voice.

Without a word, she sat down on his lap, put her arms around his shoulders, laid her head on his chest, and went to sleep, not hearing her best friend ask him, “You two really get along, huh?”

Words were overrated anyway.


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show

My own spin on RTR’s little comic (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=448.msg36218#msg36218).
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Seilann on December 30, 2015, 01:46:04 PM
Oh, look.

I made a little Family Headcannon fanfic.

With a Hey and a Ho (and a Hey-Nonny-No!)
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Spoiler: show

Y67, Spring

She was tired.

Dawn was edging its way into the world, and she was tired from another night of Warding Duty. Their little corner of Saimaa needed a lot of Warding. Unfortunately, her best friend wanted her to meet some idiot man at breakfast today, when she would most likely go comatose right in her food, and the idiot man would laugh at her.

It was certain that the man was an idiot, of course; even her brother was an idiot, and he was the pick of the men around here, which was why her best friend was his wife, marking the only truly wise decision he’d ever made.

Or it might be even worse: she might pass out into her food and the unknown idiot wouldn’t laugh at her, or at least not openly, because of whose daughter she was. Another form of male idiocy was to be intimidated by the Empowered, such as her mother and herself. She’d seen it all too often: a man would look at her with sudden fear, because he thought she’d turn him into a newt or something equally ridiculous as repayment for a randomly offensive joke. Morons.

She stumbled into the eating area, hoping her friend wasn’t there yet, but her friend was, and was even then pointing her out to someone hidden behind a post. Great. Now, they’d close in for the kill, and she’d never get her sleep.

In the event, she actually managed to procure a bowl of Hot Morning Sludge, seat herself at a quiet table, and eat just enough to pass out before she dimly heard her friend saying, “Hey, she’s pretty cute, right?”

She didn’t catch his response, but when she snapped awake for a moment, as she often did in these morning naps, she found that he’d moved her bowl to one side so that she wouldn’t spill its disgusting contents all over herself as she slept. And he had been the one to do that; nice as her best friend was, the notion to do that would never have occurred to her.

Well, maybe he wasn’t as big of an idiot as she’d feared.

*

Y67, Summer

All the rigors of troll season were upon them, and she was even more tired than usual. Warding grew more important night by waning night, until the turning of the solstice would bring the ward of weather back.

She still hadn’t met the man her friend was so keen on her meeting, and that was perfectly fine by her.

She stumbled into the eating area again, but her usual table was occupied by a thin, rather nice looking man of about her own age. As soon as she saw, him, something in her said, ‘Oh there he is’. Being who she was, she trusted the voice.

Without a word, she sat down on his lap, put her arms around his shoulders, laid her head on his chest, and went to sleep, not hearing her best friend ask him, “You two really get along, huh?”

Words were overrated anyway.


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show

My own spin on RTR’s little comic (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=448.msg36218#msg36218).


Looney that is the most adorable thing! I totally accept this as canon.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on December 30, 2015, 04:56:44 PM
Oh, look.

I made a little Family Headcannon fanfic.

With a Hey and a Ho (and a Hey-Nonny-No!)
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Spoiler: show

Y67, Spring

She was tired.

Dawn was edging its way into the world, and she was tired from another night of Warding Duty. Their little corner of Saimaa needed a lot of Warding. Unfortunately, her best friend wanted her to meet some idiot man at breakfast today, when she would most likely go comatose right in her food, and the idiot man would laugh at her.

It was certain that the man was an idiot, of course; even her brother was an idiot, and he was the pick of the men around here, which was why her best friend was his wife, marking the only truly wise decision he’d ever made.

Or it might be even worse: she might pass out into her food and the unknown idiot wouldn’t laugh at her, or at least not openly, because of whose daughter she was. Another form of male idiocy was to be intimidated by the Empowered, such as her mother and herself. She’d seen it all too often: a man would look at her with sudden fear, because he thought she’d turn him into a newt or something equally ridiculous as repayment for a randomly offensive joke. Morons.

She stumbled into the eating area, hoping her friend wasn’t there yet, but her friend was, and was even then pointing her out to someone hidden behind a post. Great. Now, they’d close in for the kill, and she’d never get her sleep.

In the event, she actually managed to procure a bowl of Hot Morning Sludge, seat herself at a quiet table, and eat just enough to pass out before she dimly heard her friend saying, “Hey, she’s pretty cute, right?”

She didn’t catch his response, but when she snapped awake for a moment, as she often did in these morning naps, she found that he’d moved her bowl to one side so that she wouldn’t spill its disgusting contents all over herself as she slept. And he had been the one to do that; nice as her best friend was, the notion to do that would never have occurred to her.

Well, maybe he wasn’t as big of an idiot as she’d feared.

*

Y67, Summer

All the rigors of troll season were upon them, and she was even more tired than usual. Warding grew more important night by waning night, until the turning of the solstice would bring the ward of weather back.

She still hadn’t met the man her friend was so keen on her meeting, and that was perfectly fine by her.

She stumbled into the eating area again, but her usual table was occupied by a thin, rather nice looking man of about her own age. As soon as she saw him, something in her said, ‘Oh, there he is’. Being who she was, she trusted the voice.

Without a word, she sat down on his lap, put her arms around his shoulders, laid her head on his chest, and went to sleep, not hearing her best friend ask him, “You two really get along, huh?”

Words were overrated anyway.


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show

My own spin on RTR’s little comic (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=448.msg36218#msg36218).


Okay, that was adorable. Sounds exactly like how Lalli's parents would deal with relationships.

So here's what I'm really asking by way of help: does anyone actually want to read this thing that I'm still bouncing around?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on December 30, 2015, 05:05:22 PM
So here's what I'm really asking by way of help: does anyone actually want to read this thing that I'm still bouncing around?
*breathy whisper* If you post it, they will read.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Seilann on December 30, 2015, 06:23:08 PM
This is... Not a fic. But it's a song based on Kiraly's fic. So I guess I'll link it here?

http://seilannstar.tumblr.com/post/136285946909/so-i-got-carried-away-and-even-though-im

Lyrics (and character commentary) included. :)

does anyone actually want to read this thing that I'm still bouncing around?

YES.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Kiraly on December 30, 2015, 07:35:00 PM
This is... Not a fic. But it's a song based on Kiraly's fic. So I guess I'll link it here?

http://seilannstar.tumblr.com/post/136285946909/so-i-got-carried-away-and-even-though-im

Lyrics (and character commentary) included. :)

OH MY GOSH LOOK AT THAT I MEAN LISTEN TO IT AAAAAAAAHHHH!!!

If anyone needs me I'll be in the corner hyperventilating from pure joy, this is amazing! It's exactly the kind of thing Sigrun would write, and the side comments from Tuuri and Emil are hilarious!

I guess I need to go write more of the fic to be worthy of this amazing thing. :))
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Yuuago on December 31, 2015, 08:27:38 PM
I've been sitting on my hands for weeks, and I'm so glad that I can FINALLY post these two stories! They were written for a blind exchange; fics were revealed on Dec 24, so some of you might have already seen these, but authors had to be kept a secret until January 01.

01. Title: Don't Fall Behind
Pairing: Emil/Lalli, but the story is mostly action, not romance.
Rating: 13+ for canon-typical violence
Length: 4.6k
Summary: While on a book-hunting mission in an old library, Emil loses track of Lalli. Again. Finding him again isn't as easy a task as he would like it to be.
Read at Ao3: http://archiveofourown.org/works/5413331
Dreamwidth backup: http://roesslyng.dreamwidth.org/59048.html

02. Title: I will love you quietly
Characters: Emil & Lalli; friendship/ambiguous relationship
Rating: 0+/G
Length: 1.3k
Summary: When Lalli wakes, he finds that someone has been keeping watch over him. He isn't surprised in the least.
*This is compliant to the end of Chapter 8, but diverges a little after that, because I started writing it at the beginning of Chapter 9.
Read at Ao3: http://archiveofourown.org/works/5413952
Dreamwidth backup: http://roesslyng.dreamwidth.org/59312.html
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on January 01, 2016, 03:19:03 AM
Herewith a short fic in response to today's page. Still can't use A3O, so trying this.

GONE ASTRAY:

A few hours past noon, as the sun begins to decline, Lalli's bursting bladder finally gets the attention of his drifting mind. He crawls from under Tuuri's bunk, staggers upright, pulling himself up by the bedframe, holding on until the world stops spinning. Then, leaning on the walls to keep from falling, he makes his way to the head. He manages not to pass out from the effort of pissing, though it's a close-run thing. He leans on the wall for a moment, trying to see through the jagged splinters of pain in his head, slowly realising that the tank is silent.

That's strange. Normally it's noisy, with his crewmates moving about, banging doors, dropping things, shouting to one another. Five people breathing, talking, arguing, giving and receiving orders, working, interacting. Mikkel rumbling a tune to himself as he washes clothes or cooks, Sigrun yelling for Emil, Tuuri and Reynir chattering incomprehensible Icelandic to one another, the kitten demanding its mother, Emil fussing and babbling Swedish nonsense at him...... and where is Emil? Lalli's last clear memory is of Emil's concerned face, leaning over him as he faded into a haze of weakness, pain and exhaustion. He had somehow not expected that his friend would leave him alone.

He can't think. The aching void in his spirit where the lynx should be gets in the way. How long? Still less than a full day, as far as he can tell: no need to panic just yet. But it hurts.

He realises that part of the discomfort is thirst and hunger. That's odd too. Surely Tuuri or Mikkel would remember that he'd need water after motion sickness and blood loss? He must have slept through the evening meal. And breakfast. He staggers over to Mikkel's food preparation area, finds the crock of filtered water, drinks in slow cautious mouthfuls until his head clears a little. Not too much at once, he doesn't want to start throwing up again. Food. He finds a piece of hardbread and a handful of dried berries, and goes to sit on the driver's seat while he eats.

The view through the cracked windscreen tells him nothing. He remembers scouting this courtyard, pushing on through his exhaustion to find them a safe camp. The strangely empty buildings. Those weird spirits. Over by the building where he had seen them, he can perceive a change in the feel of the place, but his mind is still too blurry to get a clear reading. He narrows his eyes at the churned-up snow, the spatters of blood nearby, the much more defined blood trail leading up the steps of that  building. Something happened, then. What? Why didn't they try to wake him? And where is everyone?

Fear and worry begin to niggle at the edges of his mind. Even in his current condition, Lalli is sure he would know if Tuuri were dead. In some distant corner of his mind he can still feel the connection to her, the awareness of her breath and spirit that only family share. His fear eases a little as he realises that she feels whole, and ......calm-but-excited? He doesn't understand, but is relieved. Then Tuuri is driven out of his thoughts as he realises that he can feel Emil too, in the same way. That will bear thinking about, once he is able to think clearly again. But Emil is not calm. Wherever he may be, his spirit is agitated, afraid; his breath is erratic.

Lalli makes up his mind. He has to go. The body is still shaking with weakness, the absence of his luonto aches like an open wound. He wants nothing more than to go back to sleep. But his team, and his family, and his chosen family, need him. He goes back into the bunkroom, picks up his puukko and rifle. Drops a flask of water and another piece of bread into his pocket. Goes out into the slanting afternoon light, closing the tank carefully behind him.

He follows the blood trail cautiously, finding only a small dead troll, its head smashed, its spirit ....gone? Good. But the previously passive spirits are restless, their attention turning to him in a way he doesn't like. He edges out of the building, turning his back on them only when he is out in the full sunlight.

Lalli can make little sense of the confused mess of churned snow, half-obliterated tracks of the tank, the troll, and his team. He catches the rank stink of troll blood, mixed with the fading sharp sweet scent that has to be Sigrun's blood; sees where the troll broke away and dragged itself up the steps. Follows yesterday's tracks back toward the tank, noticing the unevenness of Emil's footprints. Sigrun and Emil are both hurt, then. Those tracks are partly blurred by a later light snowfall, but there are two new groups of footprints, not more than four or five hours old, leading away from the tank. Mikkel, Tuuri, Reynir, together: long energetic strides, even Tuuri. Deep even footprints, heading off toward that weird star-shaped structure he had seen on the map. Those three were okay.

The other group: Sigrun and Emil. Older tracks, maybe by an hour, heading in the opposite direction. Shorter, uneven paces, especially Emil, whose tracks looked as if he were limping badly. Even Sigrun's steps wavered a little. Yes, both injured. So where were they going, and why? And why would Mikkel let them go? Whatever they were doing, it had to be urgent.

Follow Emil and Sigrun, then. They seemed most likely to need his help, such as it was in his present state. Lalli turns his attention inward, to mind and spirit. No, not a flicker of magic, just emptiness, weariness, confusion, pain. Well, he could still pray. And shoot.

In the fading light he sets out after his captain and his friend.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Athena on January 01, 2016, 03:47:28 AM
Herewith a short fic in response to today's page. Still can't use A3O, so trying this.

GONE ASTRAY
[snip]

That's really good! I haven't seen any of your writing before, but you are quite good at it! :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on January 01, 2016, 04:22:24 AM
Thanks! I'm over on A3O as Tanist, but at present I have a half-finished fic over there which I can't update just now because cursed machineries. However, in the absence of technical help, and until I switch to another computer sometime soon, I'll keep trying to post short stuff to the Scriptorium. Glad you liked it!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Seilann on January 01, 2016, 12:31:13 PM
Herewith a short fic in response to today's page. Still can't use A3O, so trying this.

GONE ASTRAY:
[snip]

Róisín, I love this! The way it feels to be missing his luonto, how he goes about deducting what's happened to everyone, and the fact that he can sense Emil as though he's family -- it's all so detailed and well-crafted and fits perfectly into canon.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Kiraly on January 01, 2016, 02:04:40 PM
Róisín that's amazing! I love the idea that Lalli can sense how his family members are doing...and that Emil has become one of them. :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Laufey on January 01, 2016, 02:24:04 PM
Róisín: this is a brilliant piece of writing! I love how Lalli being without his luonto lends an exhausted feel to the whole story while also a realistic portrayal of the symptoms and how, in just a few days, Emil has become close enough to count as family. Lalli being a masterful tracker also fits with his character, I don't think there's anything about that said in canon yet but it feels so naturally right for him that I'd be more surprised if he wasn't good at it.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Mélusine on January 01, 2016, 02:44:03 PM
Róisín, this is very good and I would like to read more from you :)

Yuu, how do you do to... *Tilts* restore that kind of little moments, nearly nothing but saying a lot more ? I'm... always touched by this kind of little moments.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on January 01, 2016, 06:03:33 PM
Herewith a short fic in response to today's page. Still can't use A3O, so trying this.

GONE ASTRAY

I really liked this! The whole tone of it sounds very 'Lalli', if that makes any sense...
I'd try and word that better but it's 11pm and I'm frazzled
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on January 01, 2016, 11:45:43 PM
Thanks, everyone! I'm glad you like it. Finnish magic isn't my thing, I'm more into the Aboriginal and Celtic traditions, but I try to fit together what Minna has said about the characters with what would work for a part-trained young mage of one of the more nature-based traditions which are more familiar to me. And then insert that into the cracks in canon. Sounds as if it works.

I'm getting my head around the concept of fanfic, slowly. In some ways it's not too different to the role of storyteller, which is one of the things I do in real life. I hope to write more, as far as permitted by uncooperative devices, minimal technical/computer skills and an extremely busy life. And again, glad you liked it.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on January 02, 2016, 01:01:38 AM
LooNEY, meant to say I liked your headcanon fic. It made me laugh, and sounds like exactly the kind of thing that they would do.

Seilann: good song! Needs a nice thumping bass and, yeah, an epic guitar solo with lots of twanging reverb! For some reason I'm thinking your voice would work well with some of Dory Previn's stuff. Can just hear you doing 'Left Handed People' or 'Morning Star - Evening Star'.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Kiraly on January 02, 2016, 01:37:13 AM
Ugh, I should have gone to bed two hours ago (I have to work tomorrow  :'( ) but instead I stayed up accidentally finishing the third chapter for this silly AU...because I thought it should all be chapter 2, but then it was HUGE so I chopped it in half.

So...here's chapter two of Before It Was Cool (http://archiveofourown.org/works/5569909/chapters/12926173). Hopefully I'll post chapter three tomorrow or the next day, depending on when I have time to read back through it and make sure it still makes sense.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on January 02, 2016, 01:59:08 AM
Love it! Do go on.....
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on January 02, 2016, 01:48:40 PM
Róisín: I like it (but I hope it doesn't unfold that way).

Seilann: I enjoyed the song, but how wrong is it that my first reaction was:
Sigrun tries not to be epic.
Sigrun fails epically.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: AquaAurion on January 02, 2016, 02:38:59 PM
I've been sitting on my hands for weeks, and I'm so glad that I can FINALLY post these two stories! They were written for a blind exchange; fics were revealed on Dec 24, so some of you might have already seen these, but authors had to be kept a secret until January 01.

01. Title: Don't Fall Behind
Pairing: Emil/Lalli, but the story is mostly action, not romance.
Rating: 13+ for canon-typical violence
Length: 4.6k
Summary: While on a book-hunting mission in an old library, Emil loses track of Lalli. Again. Finding him again isn't as easy a task as he would like it to be.
Read at Ao3: http://archiveofourown.org/works/5413331
Dreamwidth backup: http://roesslyng.dreamwidth.org/59048.html

02. Title: I will love you quietly
Characters: Emil & Lalli; friendship/ambiguous relationship
Rating: 0+/G
Length: 1.3k
Summary: When Lalli wakes, he finds that someone has been keeping watch over him. He isn't surprised in the least.
*This is compliant to the end of Chapter 8, but diverges a little after that, because I started writing it at the beginning of Chapter 9.
Read at Ao3: http://archiveofourown.org/works/5413952
Dreamwidth backup: http://roesslyng.dreamwidth.org/59312.html
I really liked these ^w^ Especially the first one!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on January 02, 2016, 03:46:44 PM
LooNEY: I, also, hope it doesn't unfold that way! Minna being Minna, perhaps he'll just wake up and go on, after we've all put so much good angst into worrying! But I had thought to explore the differences between Lalli with and Lalli without active magic, because his magic seems so much a part of him. Also, I find it interesting to speculate about what aspects of his magic and/or his nature are just there, part of his usual sensorium and being, and which are things he *does* with magic. And of course I wanted to explore what Lalli would choose to do in that state, reduced to his own overspent mind and body, running on nothing but loyalty and stubbornness!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: laila on January 02, 2016, 06:22:25 PM
Hi, brand new here and unfortunately not bearing gifts. I do have an idea, though, and wanted to know if it was dumb or not: specifically, I really want to write a series prequel, preferably following a group of random characters I have yet to come up with in the Dalsnes survivor community, in around year 15. The general premise would involve watching a band of enthusiastic but no more than semi-trained survivors coming together to Get Really Good at punching trolls in the face.

The story is still very much in the planning stages at this point. I'm posting here partly because I'd like to gauge interest in the idea (including whether or not it sounds even remotely interesting to anyone else, given it wouldn't actually be about our crew) and partly because I was curious if anyone knew what it would help me to take into account or any resources that might be available to call upon. I'm British, and know very little about Scandinavia, so if I'm going to write about it homework is goijng to have to be done. I'm just honestly not very sure where to start right now.

Okay, enough rambling and that was a very long-winded way to ask for help. Thanks for reading. :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on January 02, 2016, 07:26:19 PM
Laila: Welcome! Always good to have another writer on board. The idea sounds workable to me. Several writers in both Archive of Our Own and the Scriptorium have already played with prologue tales, often to very good effect. I'll be interested to see how you work out the origins of the Norwegian Troll Hunters. Looking forward to it!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Ragnarok on January 03, 2016, 12:04:15 PM
Hi, brand new here and unfortunately not bearing gifts. I do have an idea, though, and wanted to know if it was dumb or not: specifically, I really want to write a series prequel, preferably following a group of random characters I have yet to come up with in the Dalsnes survivor community, in around year 15. The general premise would involve watching a band of enthusiastic but no more than semi-trained survivors coming together to Get Really Good at punching trolls in the face.

The story is still very much in the planning stages at this point. I'm posting here partly because I'd like to gauge interest in the idea (including whether or not it sounds even remotely interesting to anyone else, given it wouldn't actually be about our crew) and partly because I was curious if anyone knew what it would help me to take into account or any resources that might be available to call upon. I'm British, and know very little about Scandinavia, so if I'm going to write about it homework is goijng to have to be done. I'm just honestly not very sure where to start right now.

Okay, enough rambling and that was a very long-winded way to ask for help. Thanks for reading. :)

Sounds fun to me.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on January 03, 2016, 02:10:00 PM
Here's the first part of my Matrix crossover. Critique is welcome!

Title: Dangerous
Rating: T/PG-13
Characters: Mostly Lalli, Onni, and Tuuri, though the entire crew sans Reynir will make appearances at some point.
Warning: For brief mentions of self-harm.

Spoiler: Notes on the setting • show
This takes place well before Neo's time. Human technology isn't quite as advanced, adoption of screennames is not yet common practice, and the Matrix itself is in one of its earlier incarnations - not the failed Utopia Matrix 1.0 that Agent Smith once mentioned, but it has several aspects that the Matrix of the films didn't, in addition to a few more glitches, the exact nature of which has yet to be seen. I'm also adopting as canon the idea from the second movie (please don't stone me) that the One is a generational thing, and that there have been multiple Ones prior to Neo, even if humanity has been made to forget this detail.


Spoiler: Chapter 1 • show
When he came to the third time, it was to find that his arms were bandaged.

Feeling the slight stiffness when he tried to move, he sat up as much as his still-spinning head would let him and pushed up his sleeve, only to find that his arm was covered from wrist to elbow in thick gauze.

“It’s for your own protection.”

He looked up.  It was the same big man, Mikkel, who’d been there with Onni when he’d first woken up, the one who’d been holding his wrists in a firm grip the last time he’d been awake.  He shuddered.

“They can’t be removed,” he continued.  “Most of them go deep into vital areas.  If we tried, you could be paralyzed… or you could bleed to death.  Even if you did manage to survive, you would still be heavily scarred.”

He didn’t answer, only looked down at himself again.  Someone had dressed him in a set of oversized clothes, but underneath, he knew that his body was still weird.

“It will do you some good to get up and move around.”  The man was propping him up now, continuing to support him as he stepped down from the table, but at least he didn’t touch too much.

“Okay,” was the only response that Lalli gave.

Mikkel kept a grip on his elbow as he walked him out of the metal room, through the metal hallway, down the metal stairs, and into another larger space that was also entirely metal. Once, Lalli tried to pull away, only to stagger and pitch forward, but Mikkel grabbed his arm again before he could fall.  He couldn’t ever remember being so weak.

He looked around the room as Mikkel walked him to an empty stair and helped him to sit.  There were people here that he recognized—Emil and the loud red-haired woman, both sitting asleep in chairs; Onni, staring at a bank of computers—and one that he didn’t, a girl sitting beside him.  As Lalli slumped on the step and tried to catch his breath, Mikkel sat down beside them and began talking to the girl quietly.

There wasn’t much to look at here, just a lot of metal and the cascading green numbers on the screens.  All of it was real, though.  Lalli wrapped his fingers around the metal railing, feeling its rough-edged solidity.  It didn’t feel weird the way everything in that other place had.  It existed.  It was.

He frowned.  Without thinking about it, he released the metal of the railing, moving instead to press his fingers into his other arm.  He could feel it, even under the layers of gauze:  the weird things embedded in his skin, so deeply that they could never be taken out.  Even though he didn’t have nails (just like he didn’t have hair), his fingers began curling into his flesh, seeking any sort of purchase against which he could grip the thing…

“Hi!”

He looked up.  The girl who’d been at the computers before was now standing in front of him; Mikkel had taken her place in front of the monitors.

“I’m Tuuri,” she continued, sitting down much too close to him—he tried to shift his position, but the railing was in the way.  “You’re Onni’s cousin Lalli, right?  I’m Onni’s sister, so I guess that makes me your cousin too, I’ve heard so much about you, welcome on board the Valkyrie, oh and don’t worry about your hair, it grows back…”

As she continued to spout out a lot of words, though, Lalli noticed something else about her.  Her sleeves had been rolled up to her elbows, revealing arms smudged black with grease… but there wasn’t anything else in her skin.

“Oh yeah.”  She pushed her sleeve up further and held her arm out in front of him.  “I was born here.  Third generation, my grandmother came out of the Matrix in—”

“Tuuri.”

“Oh.  Sorry, gotta get back to work!”  To Lalli’s relief, she jumped up and ran over to where Onni was gesturing for her.  Onni spared him only a quick nod before saying something to Tuuri in a hushed voice.  Mikkel, meanwhile, had moved to stand behind Emil's chair, pulling at something on the back.  He sat up with a groan.

Mikkel raised an eyebrow as he moved on to the next chair.  “I take it that you couldn’t keep up with Sigrun again.”

“Doesn’t she ever get tired?”  He rubbed his shoulder as he pushed himself out of the chair, even as the woman next to him blinked awake in turn.  “I think I might have an actual scar this time.”

“You’re fine.”  Mikkel turned back to the monitors without another word.

"Don't be a wimp, wimp!"  Sigrun gave him a big grin as she stretched, before her eyes came to rest on Lalli.  "Hey, the little twig's awake!  Welcome onboard the Valkyrie!"  She seemed to be about to say something more, before Mikkel caught her attention as well, and she turned away.

Tuuri, meanwhile, was giggling.  “No one’s ever gotten worse than bruises from a sparring simulation, Emil.  I don’t think even Sigrun could hurt you that badly.”

“Easy for you to say,” he grumbled.  Seeing that he wasn’t going to get any sympathy from that quarter, he trudged over to the stairway where Lalli sat and dropped onto the step beneath him with a huff.

“Do not ever spar the captain if you can avoid it,” he advised.  “She’s insane.”  He pushed up his sleeve.  “I better not have bruises this time…”

His arms were also wrapped:  not in bandages, but in strips of clean cloth that started at his knuckles and disappeared under his sleeves, but Lalli could still see small, hard bumps poking up from underneath.  Carefully, he prodded the skin between them.  “Ugh, I’m so sore…”

At least he didn’t seem to expect Lalli to answer.  He slumped backwards onto the steps, leaning his head so that his hair brushed against the metal by Lalli’s feet.

Lalli reached up to run a hand over his own head.  Someone had given him a hat, but his scalp was still cold.

The other had turned to watch, peering up at him from the bottom of the stairs.  “I know, right?  It’s absolutely awful waking up without any hair.  It took me forever to grow mine out…”

As he talked, Lalli stopped paying attention to his words, instead simply listening to the rhythm of his voice.  In the Matrix or out of it, the people here—Onni, Mikkel, Tuuri, Emil—were all real.  That at least was something that he could be sure of.


Spoiler: More Notes • show
I find Lalli POV really hard to write. Hopefully I did okay on that front.

This thing also wanted to be written in nonlinear order for some reason. So I'm kind of starting at the end, so to speak.

Finally, the title comes from the song that inspired it, Dangerous by Big Data. I'm not always all that creative with my titles.  :)


Next chapter (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg90023#msg90023)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Puls3 on January 03, 2016, 03:35:48 PM
Here's the first part of my Matrix crossover. Critique is welcome!

Title: Dangerous
Rating: T/PG-13
Characters: Mostly Lalli, Onni, and Tuuri, though the entire crew sans Reynir will make appearances at some point.
Warning: For brief mentions of self-harm.

Background notes on the setting, for anyone interested:
Spoiler: show
This takes place well before Neo's time. Human technology isn't quite as advanced, adoption of screennames is not yet common practice, and the Matrix itself is in one of its earlier incarnations - not the failed Utopia Matrix 1.0 that Agent Smith once mentioned, but it has several aspects that the Matrix of the films didn't, in addition to a few more glitches, the exact nature of which has yet to be seen. I'm also adopting as canon the idea from the third movie (please don't stone me) that the One is a generational thing, and that there have been multiple Ones prior to Neo, even if humanity has been made to forget this detail.


Part I:
Spoiler: show
When he came to the third time, it was to find that his arms were bandaged.

Feeling the slight stiffness when he tried to move, he sat up as much as his still-spinning head would let him and pushed up his sleeve, only to find that his arm was covered from wrist to elbow in thick gauze.

“It’s for your own protection.”

He looked up.  It was the same big man who’d been there with Onni when he’d first woken up, the one who’d been holding his wrists in a firm grip the last time he’d been awake.  He shuddered.

“They can’t be removed,” he continued.  “Most of them go deep into vital areas.  If we tried, you could be paralyzed… or you could bleed to death.  Even if you did manage to survive, you would still be heavily scarred.”

He didn’t answer, only looked down at himself again.  Someone had dressed him in a set of oversized clothes, but underneath, he knew that his body was still weird.

“It will do you some good to get up and move around.”  The man was propping him up now, continuing to support him as he stepped down from the table, but at least he didn’t touch too much.  “I’m Mikkel, by the way.”

“Okay,” was the only response that Lalli gave.

Mikkel kept a grip on his elbow as he walked him out of the metal room, through the metal hallway, down the metal stairs, and into another larger space that was also entirely metal. Once, Lalli tried to pull away, only to stagger and pitch forward, but Mikkel grabbed his arm again before he could fall.  He couldn’t ever remember being so weak.

He looked around the room as Mikkel walked him to an empty stair and helped him to sit.  There were people here that he recognized—Onni, the loud red-haired woman, and the boy with the yellow hair, all sitting asleep in chairs—and one that he didn’t, a girl sitting in front of a monitor.  As Lalli slumped on the step and tried to catch his breath, Mikkel sat down beside her and began talking to her quietly.

There wasn’t much to look at here, just a lot of metal and the cascading green numbers on the screens.  All of it was real, though.  Lalli wrapped his fingers around the metal railing, feeling its rough-edged solidity.  It didn’t feel weird the way everything in that other place had.  It existed.  It was.

He frowned.  Without thinking about it, he released the metal of the railing, moving instead to press his fingers into his other arm.  He could feel it, even under the layers of gauze:  the weird things embedded in his skin, so deeply that they could never be taken out.  Even though he didn’t have nails (just like he didn’t have hair), his fingers began curling into his flesh, seeking any sort of purchase against which he could grip the thing…

“Hi!”

He looked up.  The girl who’d been at the computers before was now standing in front of him; Mikkel had taken her place in front of the monitors.

“I’m Tuuri,” she continued, sitting down much too close to him—he tried to shift his position, but the railing was in the way.  “You’re Onni’s cousin Lalli, right?  I’m Onni’s sister, so I guess that makes me your cousin too, I’ve heard so much about you, welcome on board the Valkyrie, oh and don’t worry about your hair, it grows back…”

As she continued to spout out a lot of words, though, Lalli noticed something else about her.  Her sleeves had been rolled up to her elbows, revealing arms smudged black with grease… but there wasn’t anything else in her skin.

“Oh yeah.”  She pushed her sleeve up further and held her arm out in front of him.  “I was born here.  Third generation, my grandmother came out of the Matrix in—”

“Tuuri.”

“Oh.  Sorry, gotta get back to work!”  To Lalli’s relief, she jumped up and ran over to where Mikkel was gesturing for her.  Stopping at the chair where the blond boy sat, she pulled at something on the back.  He sat up with a groan.

Mikkel raised an eyebrow.  “I take it that you couldn’t keep up with Sigrun again.”

“Doesn’t she ever get tired?”  He rubbed his shoulder as he pushed himself out of the chair.  “I think I might have an actual scar this time.”

“You’re fine.”  Mikkel turned back to the monitors without another word.

Tuuri giggled.  “No one’s ever gotten worse than bruises from a sparring simulation, Emil.  I don’t think even Sigrun could hurt you that badly.”

“Easy for you to say,” he grumbled.  Seeing that he wasn’t going to get any sympathy from that quarter, he trudged over to the stairway where Lalli sat and dropped onto the step beneath him with a huff.

“Do not ever spar the captain if you can avoid it,” he advised.  “She’s insane.”  He pushed up his sleeve.  “I better not have bruises this time…”

His arms were also wrapped:  not in bandages, but in strips of clean cloth that started at his knuckles and disappeared under his sleeves, but Lalli could still see small, hard bumps poking up from underneath.  Carefully, he prodded the skin between them.  “Ugh, I’m so sore…”

At least he didn’t seem to expect Lalli to answer.  He slumped backwards onto the steps, leaning his head so that his hair brushed against the metal by Lalli’s feet.

Lalli reached up to run a hand over his own head.  Someone had given him a hat, but his scalp was still cold.

The other had turned to watch, peering up at him from the bottom of the stairs.  “I know, right?  It’s absolutely awful waking up without any hair.  It took me forever to grow mine out…”

As he talked, Lalli stopped paying attention to his words, instead simply listening to the rhythm of his voice.  In the Matrix or out of it, the people here—Onni, Mikkel, Tuuri, Emil—were all real.  That at least was something that he could be sure of.


More notes:
Spoiler: show
I find Lalli POV really hard to write. Hopefully I did okay on that front.

This thing also wanted to be written in nonlinear order for some reason. So I'm going to be jumping around in the timeline a lot.

Finally, the title comes from the song that inspired it, Dangerous by Big Data. I'm not always all that creative with my titles.  :)

I love what you have done with the story so far.
The way you describe the characters makes the whole fic intriguing and I can't wait to find out more about them as you progress with your story.

Can't really offer any criticism as I'm not a very good writer myself, but I do look forward to read what you have in store for us in the future   ^-^
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Kiraly on January 03, 2016, 04:30:41 PM
Welcome to the forum, laila! Your idea sounds cool, and I imagine if it involves people punching trolls in the face then it will most likely be well received. ;) I'm not sure about resources for you, since I'm American and therefore even more likely to be poorly informed about Scandinavia but if you're just looking for basic information about the countries you might try a library? It could help you get a general overview, and if you come out of that with more specific questions about a particular geographical/cultural thing you could try asking around to see if there's someone on the forum who knows.

Lazy8 that's a good start! I'll admit I've never seen any of the Matrix movies (oh look, there goes all my nerd cred) but even without that I still enjoyed your chapter. :)

Since apparently it's much easier to write fanfiction than to do any of the myriad tasks I should be doing, I've finished chapter 3 of my Silly Hipster Band AU. Now with 100% more text messages and 30% more "things I blatantly stole borrowed from my weird life".

Here it is: Before It Was Cool - Chapter 3 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/5569909/chapters/12962005)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on January 03, 2016, 06:36:50 PM
Lazy8 that's a good start! I'll admit I've never seen any of the Matrix movies (oh look, there goes all my nerd cred) but even without that I still enjoyed your chapter. :)

Thanks!

...you're the second person I've talked to in as many days who's missing that particular bit of nerd cred. Though I do hope you know the gist of the movie, if you want to keep reading, since I've been writing with the assumption of familiarity with both fandoms.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Talimee on January 03, 2016, 07:33:29 PM
@Kiraly: I very much enjoyed this new chapter! You have a very good grasp of setting and dialogue and your text-messages were absolutely adorable. And I like the idea of Tuuri being a bike-mechanic very much -- there is so much one can do to tune up a bike if one has the knowledge and will to do so. Way more fun to experiment than with modern cars where you basically have to be a hacker to do anything more than change the window-wipe-thingies. And I like the food-stuff-box-thingie! I very much approve of them and find it wonderful that it's mentioned in a fanfiction. =)

@Laila: Your idea is very interesting! About possible sources for information I would check into a library (online or offline) and take a look into a encyclopedia about technology in Early Modern Times, e.g. around 1750 to 1850. Another way to get information is looking for Reenactors, who specialize in that time-frame. Why that time-frame? I'd say without electricity but still with the basic technological knowlegde we have today that should be a workable timeframe.
Norway is very rich in natural ressources you can use in basic industry: waterpower from tides and windpower --> so mills shouldn't be that much of a problem; woods & mountains for materials, although those will be a bit harder to obtain. I don't know how much iron is lying around these days in crafted items and if it would be possible to work steel in 1800-conditions, but forging simple rifles should be possible.
Good luck on your quest!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on January 03, 2016, 08:10:43 PM
Kiraly: great chapter, and the text messages made me laugh! I like how you are building the relationship between the two shy, awkward but basically sweet people. And the urban farm and vegetable boxes, which are things dear to my heart!

Laila: we have several threads over on the forum talking about salvage, recrafting, and the sorts of things people might or might not be able to find and reuse.

Lazy8: another person here not familiar with the Matrix, but I think I get the idea so far. Interesting!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Noodles on January 03, 2016, 09:08:23 PM
Oh gosh look at all this excellent fic! I need to come here more often.
Thanks!

...you're the second person I've talked to in as many days who's missing that particular bit of nerd cred. Though I do hope you know the gist of the movie, if you want to keep reading, since I've been writing with the assumption of familiarity with both fandoms.
I've seen the first one, but it's been a looooooong time. Can't wait for the enxt part!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Yuuago on January 03, 2016, 09:52:47 PM
Herewith a short fic in response to today's page. Still can't use A3O, so trying this.

GONE ASTRAY
(Cut for length)

I was saving this for when I'd have time to sit down and concentrate aaaand I'm so glad I did that, because I love your writing. *_* Looking forward to more, if you plan to continue.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on January 03, 2016, 11:06:57 PM
Yuuago: glad you liked it. I may or may not go on (mundane life is busier even than usual just at present, with visiting friends-and-relations during the holidays, several major events in the communities in which I'm involved, and trying to keep my food garden from perishing in a summer which is extreme even by Australian standards). However, being the folklore nerd that I am, I'm finding it interesting to explore how living with their style of magic would be, in their day-to-day lives, their relationships and their work.

If I ever get A3O to work for me again, which I may do when I migrate to the new computer, I plan to repost this stuff there, as well as finally putting up the rest of that long fic I have over there which has been stalled for some months.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: misea on January 04, 2016, 12:10:39 AM
Wonderful writing, everyone!

I tried to resist. I tried to tell myself it was a bad idea. But I couldn't help it, once the notion entered my head it wouldn't leave me alone until I wrote it out and inflicted it on the world. I shall let you all decide on an appropriate punishment.

"The Currently Untitled Fanfic that Probably Doesn't Actually Deserve a Title"

Length: 1.7k
Characters: The Hotakainen family
Summary: What was Grandma Hotakainen's terrible mistake? What is looking for the Hotakainens? Why is every sentence in this summary in the form of a question?
Relationships: Just family stuff
Rating: No gore or adult situations. Apart from that, take your chances.

Located on my personal blog and including an intro for non SSSS folk - http://wyrmlog.wyrmworld.com/?p=7351 (http://wyrmlog.wyrmworld.com/?p=7351)

Edit: Meant to say that my Finnish is from Google Translate and therefore likely to be awful

I WAS PREPARED FOR SOME BEAST STRAIGHT OUTTA MY SISTER'S NIGHTMARES AND I JUST

BWAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAA *wipes tears from eyes* AMAZING.

Oh, look.

I made a little Family Headcannon fanfic.

With a Hey and a Ho (and a Hey-Nonny-No!)
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Spoiler: show

Y67, Spring

She was tired.

Dawn was edging its way into the world, and she was tired from another night of Warding Duty. Their little corner of Saimaa needed a lot of Warding. Unfortunately, her best friend wanted her to meet some idiot man at breakfast today, when she would most likely go comatose right in her food, and the idiot man would laugh at her.

It was certain that the man was an idiot, of course; even her brother was an idiot, and he was the pick of the men around here, which was why her best friend was his wife, marking the only truly wise decision he’d ever made.

Or it might be even worse: she might pass out into her food and the unknown idiot wouldn’t laugh at her, or at least not openly, because of whose daughter she was. Another form of male idiocy was to be intimidated by the Empowered, such as her mother and herself. She’d seen it all too often: a man would look at her with sudden fear, because he thought she’d turn him into a newt or something equally ridiculous as repayment for a randomly offensive joke. Morons.

She stumbled into the eating area, hoping her friend wasn’t there yet, but her friend was, and was even then pointing her out to someone hidden behind a post. Great. Now, they’d close in for the kill, and she’d never get her sleep.

In the event, she actually managed to procure a bowl of Hot Morning Sludge, seat herself at a quiet table, and eat just enough to pass out before she dimly heard her friend saying, “Hey, she’s pretty cute, right?”

She didn’t catch his response, but when she snapped awake for a moment, as she often did in these morning naps, she found that he’d moved her bowl to one side so that she wouldn’t spill its disgusting contents all over herself as she slept. And he had been the one to do that; nice as her best friend was, the notion to do that would never have occurred to her.

Well, maybe he wasn’t as big of an idiot as she’d feared.

*

Y67, Summer

All the rigors of troll season were upon them, and she was even more tired than usual. Warding grew more important night by waning night, until the turning of the solstice would bring the ward of weather back.

She still hadn’t met the man her friend was so keen on her meeting, and that was perfectly fine by her.

She stumbled into the eating area again, but her usual table was occupied by a thin, rather nice looking man of about her own age. As soon as she saw him, something in her said, ‘Oh, there he is’. Being who she was, she trusted the voice.

Without a word, she sat down on his lap, put her arms around his shoulders, laid her head on his chest, and went to sleep, not hearing her best friend ask him, “You two really get along, huh?”

Words were overrated anyway.


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show

My own spin on RTR’s little comic (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=448.msg36218#msg36218).

E X C E L L E N T

Herewith a short fic in response to today's page. Still can't use A3O, so trying this.

GONE ASTRAY
o___o Next installment, please! I'm dying of curiosity now

Kiraly: Must. Fight. The urge. To ship. Must. NOT. SHIP. MUST NOT. *ships anyway* dang it
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Kiraly on January 04, 2016, 09:50:24 AM
Thanks!

...you're the second person I've talked to in as many days who's missing that particular bit of nerd cred. Though I do hope you know the gist of the movie, if you want to keep reading, since I've been writing with the assumption of familiarity with both fandoms.
I'm vaguely familiar with it, and I suppose if I don't understand I can always do some research. (Or ask my housemate, who was totally horrified when she found out I hadn't seen them.)

Thanks so much for your lovely comments, Talimee and Róisín! I'm really glad people are enjoying the story, and it's nice to hear that the choices I'm making (like the bike mechanic thing or including the CSAs) are fitting with the characters. Also those text messages were waaaaay too much fun to write, so I'm glad they were fun to read as well. :)

Kiraly: Must. Fight. The urge. To ship. Must. NOT. SHIP. MUST NOT. *ships anyway* dang it

Muahahaha, my plan is working!!!  >:D
(But seriously, I'm glad you like it.)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: kjeks on January 04, 2016, 11:18:57 AM
Hi, brand new here and unfortunately not bearing gifts. I do have an idea, though, and wanted to know if it was dumb or not: specifically, I really want to write a series prequel, preferably following a group of random characters I have yet to come up with in the Dalsnes survivor community, in around year 15. The general premise would involve watching a band of enthusiastic but no more than semi-trained survivors coming together to Get Really Good at punching trolls in the face.

The story is still very much in the planning stages at this point. I'm posting here partly because I'd like to gauge interest in the idea (including whether or not it sounds even remotely interesting to anyone else, given it wouldn't actually be about our crew) and partly because I was curious if anyone knew what it would help me to take into account or any resources that might be available to call upon. I'm British, and know very little about Scandinavia, so if I'm going to write about it homework is goijng to have to be done. I'm just honestly not very sure where to start right now.

Okay, enough rambling and that was a very long-winded way to ask for help. Thanks for reading. :)

Hey laila, welcome to the board! I learned your age on the other thread already (the story was quite amusing). It would be nice, if you would stop by here and introduce yourself (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=131.0). Thanks =)

Regarding your story I think it sounds interestind. Year 15 leaves a room for lot of speculation on ressources. What might help for that is flipping through the "what if" pages from the xkcd-author. Also wikipedia is a valid friend for researching basic stuff. Also statistics from the area (authorities might even provide some in english, I know Iceland does for some stuff I bet the other skandinavians do so, too).

Good luck with the story!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on January 06, 2016, 07:04:45 AM
What kinds of triggers are the ones that people tend to avoid around here? I understand that with a story like SSSS that does involve a great deal of body horror, most of the readership will have a strong stomach for gore. None of the things I plan to write involve anything untoward in a sexual manner at all, but I am concerned about offending people with graphic violence and gore
I mean, this is the comic where Lalli skinned a dog and then wore its skull because MAGE but I just wondered?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Laufey on January 06, 2016, 07:17:32 AM
What kinds of triggers are the ones that people tend to avoid around here? I understand that with a story like SSSS that does involve a great deal of body horror, most of the readership will have a strong stomach for gore. None of the things I plan to write involve anything untoward in a sexual manner at all, but I am concerned about offending people with graphic violence and gore
I mean, this is the comic where Lalli skinned a dog and then wore its skull because MAGE but I just wondered?

I don't think there's exact rules aside of "if it's on level with the violence shown in SSSS it's acceptable", but I'd just go by the usual rule of courtesy: if dealing with anything extreme (character death, torture, gore and body horror if they're taken to extreme) it's good to give a warning beforehand.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Yuuago on January 06, 2016, 07:32:25 AM
I don't think there's exact rules aside of "if it's on level with the violence shown in SSSS it's acceptable", but I'd just go by the usual rule of courtesy: if dealing with anything extreme (character death, torture, gore and body horror if they're taken to extreme) it's good to give a warning beforehand.

^ What Laufey said. Anything like that, it's probably good to mention in a note.

Otherwise, if it's not extreme, you can generally just slap a "canon-typical violence" on it, or "canon-typical situations" etc, if you want to be careful.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on January 06, 2016, 07:55:22 AM
^ What Laufey said. Anything like that, it's probably good to mention in a note.

Otherwise, if it's not extreme, you can generally just slap a "canon-typical violence" on it, or "canon-typical situations" etc, if you want to be careful.


Ok, thanks very much. I'm not planning anything like Saw-movies level, but it's good to know that the warning system applies here as well. In some places I've been, people don't want spoilers but then get mad that they were triggered
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on January 06, 2016, 08:12:33 AM
There are some basic rules on first page of the Scriptorium. If you're not sure, put it somewhere like fanfictionnet, Archive of our Own or your own page and link to it with warnings. Asume that a lot of your readers will be teens.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on January 06, 2016, 08:54:17 AM
What kinds of triggers are the ones that people tend to avoid around here? I understand that with a story like SSSS that does involve a great deal of body horror, most of the readership will have a strong stomach for gore. None of the things I plan to write involve anything untoward in a sexual manner at all, but I am concerned about offending people with graphic violence and gore
I mean, this is the comic where Lalli skinned a dog and then wore its skull because MAGE but I just wondered?

I generally consider it common courtesy to warn for anything that a large number of people might not want to read or might be upset by, for whatever reason. My personal guideline is to warn for anything that goes significantly beyond what appears in the original work. As you said, anyone who's read this comic at all is going to take people being mutated to hideous monsters as a given, but if you're writing about, say, character death or human-on-human murder, then that warrants a warning even if the actual gore level is lower than what's in the comic.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on January 06, 2016, 08:57:01 AM
In some places I've been, people don't want spoilers but then get mad that they were triggered

I've faced this dilemma before as well. If something needs a warning but warning for, say, character death would constitute a major spoiler, I generally just play it safe and say "read at your own risk."
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: kjeks on January 06, 2016, 09:15:18 AM
Quote from: Rules
  • If the drawing contains blood/scariness/violence within what the canon SSSS comic has portrayed/contained, you do not need to put it under a spoiler.
  • If it does contain graphic gore or abject horror, it's not the best idea to post it outright. Please link or spoiler with a warning.

What applies for drawing should work for writing, too.

For further questions on rules you could take a look at our rules topic. (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=3.0)

Seems we have to rephrase the rule so any kind of art (written/drawn/crafted/animated is included ;)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: daiseerose on January 07, 2016, 09:00:25 PM
this is my gift from the ssss secret santa!

I will add a link because it's shippy... and also constructive criticism is welcomed! ( no one ever gives me any)
but it's only a short drabble thing

http://archiveofourown.org/works/5666068 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/5666068)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on January 09, 2016, 04:25:35 PM
For those not following the Secret Santa, here’s my gift to frenci (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=694.msg85484#msg85484), based on the prompt for Yuuago’s “Until We Meet Again” (http://archiveofourown.org/works/5229263), but with a few twists. (What if the one who remembered was not the one seeking to reconnect?)

Aaaaaaand there’s also this:

Forced to Fight
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Spoiler: show

Sigrun Eide was starting to get angry, and that was not generally accounted to be a good thing. Sigrun was as free-thinking as the next girl, but being tied to a chair and thrown down a pit was not her kink, especially when done by a coward who wouldn’t even show themselves.

For Sigrun, as for many people, the present held a decided primacy over the past; thus, the exact circumstances of her being bound to the chair and thrown in the hole were, in her mind, quite secondary to getting out from the chair, and the hole, for that matter.

Hmmmmm. The hole, such as it was, was maybe two and a half or three meters deep, and there was a sort-of shelf about a meter up one side. It was almost as if her captor wanted her to be able to escape, but only just.

Sigrun was a very good jumper, even under circumstances of extremely low mobility such as these, so the first jump was pretty easy. The second and much higher jump took four tries and several minutes of blistering invective, but she finally made it, and still tied to the chair, no less.

She’d debouched from the hole onto an upper floor of the wreck they’d been exploring, and now that she had fewer immediate worries, she began to consider, not without a certain degree of concern, what might have happened to Emil.

Before Sigrun could wrest herself from the chair, or plunge too deeply into concern for her team-mate, a Giant appeared between one blink and the next. Well, this day just kept getting better.

There was no time to worry about how the Giant had appeared: all her time had to be spent defeating it. Displaying considerable dexterity, Sigrun flipped around, lashing out at the Giant with the legs of the chair she was still tied to.

The Giant was obviously not expecting such aggressiveness from its putative prey, so it hesitated, with predictably fatal consequences. It is never wise for an opponent of Sigrun Eide to hesitate.

Sigrun had faced Giants before, and she knew that, for all their strengths, they still had weaknesses. One of these weaknesses was a susceptibility to close-in knife work--if you got close enough in the right spot, it had trouble getting at you before you sliced it, but you had to be very close.

Sigrun had used her first attack to finish breaking free from the ropes holding her to the chair, but wrecking the chair in the process. While the Giant was still off-balance, she grabbed one of the chair’s legs, drawing her trusty knife with the other hand.

The Giant, while massive, proved to only have a few viable heads, so Sigrun made short work of most of them. After the Giant was down to one head, though, it began protecting that head fiercely. It took all of Sigrun’s cunning to finally force the Giant to expose its last head so that she could smash it with her club.

Sigrun allowed herself a few heavy breaths as she stood over the Giant’s corpse. The last breath, however, brought with it a faint scent of smoke. Was Emil at work? Sigrun dashed off to follow the scent...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show

So, Windfighter’s idea (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=242.msg87818#msg87818) (Just below the third quote: “it’d be weird if...”) got me thinking again, and that’s never a good thing.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Windfighter on January 09, 2016, 06:11:12 PM
Ahaha, Looney, that was awesome, thank you! <3
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on January 09, 2016, 10:07:05 PM
Forced to Fight
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Spoiler: show

Sigrun Eide was starting to get angry, and that was not generally accounted to be a good thing. Sigrun was as free-thinking as the next girl, but being tied to a chair and thrown down a pit was not her kink, especially when done by a coward who wouldn’t even show themselves.

For Sigrun, as for many people, the present held a decided primacy over the past; thus, the exact circumstances of her being bound to the chair and thrown in the hole were, in her mind, quite secondary to getting out from the chair, and the hole, for that matter.

Hmmmmm. The hole, such as it was, was maybe two and a half or three meters deep, and there was a sort-of shelf about a meter up one side. It was almost as if her captor wanted her to be able to escape, but only just.

Sigrun was a very good jumper, even under circumstances of extremely low mobility such as these, so the first jump was pretty easy. The second and much higher jump took four tries and several minutes of blistering invective, but she finally made it, and still tied to the chair, no less.

She’d debouched from the hole onto an upper floor of the wreck they’d been exploring, and now that she had fewer immediate worries, she began to consider, not without a certain degree of concern, what might have happened to Emil.

Before Sigrun could wrest herself from the chair, or plunge too deeply into concern for her team-mate, a Giant appeared between one blink and the next. Well, this day just kept getting better.

There was no time to worry about how the Giant had appeared: all her time had to be spent defeating it. Displaying considerable dexterity, Sigrun flipped around, lashing out at the Giant with the legs of the chair she was still tied to.

The Giant was obviously not expecting such aggressiveness from its putative prey, so it hesitated, with predictably fatal consequences. It is never wise for an opponent of Sigrun Eide to hesitate.

Sigrun had faced Giants before, and she knew that, for all their strengths, they still had weaknesses. One of these weaknesses was a susceptibility to close-in knife work--if you got close enough in the right spot, it had trouble getting at you before you sliced it, but you had to be very close.

Sigrun had used her first attack to finish breaking free from the ropes holding her to the chair, but wrecking the chair in the process. While the Giant was still off-balance, she grabbed one of the chair’s legs, drawing her trusty knife with the other hand.

The Giant, while massive, proved to only have a few viable heads, so Sigrun made short work of most of them. After the Giant was down to one head, though, it began protecting that head fiercely. It took all of Sigrun’s cunning to finally force the Giant to expose its last head so that she could smash it with her club.

Sigrun allowed herself a few heavy breaths as she stood over the Giant’s corpse. The last breath, however, brought with it a faint scent of smoke. Was Emil at work? Sigrun dashed off to follow the scent...


Even tied up, Sigrun never fails to be awesome.

Though I want to know how someone managed to sneak up on Sigrun Eide of all people, tie her to a chair, and throw her down a hole without ending up very very dead. The mystery continues...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on January 10, 2016, 05:55:15 AM
For those not following the Secret Santa, here’s my gift to frenci (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=694.msg85484#msg85484), based on the prompt for Yuuago’s “Until We Meet Again” (http://archiveofourown.org/works/5229263), but with a few twists. (What if the one who remembered was not the one seeking to reconnect?)

Aaaaaaand there’s also this:

Forced to Fight
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
[snip]

Your reincarnation fic was great, an interesting spin on the idea! (It's been a while, do I detect some call backs to your Emil's-letters-to-Lalli-over-the-years fic series you did a while ago, or is that my imagination?)
And good old Sigrun being Sigrun, always a pleasure to read. :D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Seilann on January 10, 2016, 02:28:31 PM
Wow, I disappear for a week and there's so much to catch up on! And of course it's all so good. ^^

First: Prompt fulfillment. I had this mostly finished since Christmas week and finally decided to just add a resolution and toss it up. It was a lot of fun, and I will probably give it a better ending when I'm not swamped. http://archiveofourown.org/works/5689210

Second: Another song for Kiraly's hipster band AU, which again was written quickly and then recorded in my car and during lunch: https://soundcloud.com/seilann/ashes

(Is there maybe a more appropriate place to post fan songs, and/or should I make one?)

Enjoy!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on January 10, 2016, 04:37:17 PM
(Is there maybe a more appropriate place to post fan songs, and/or should I make one?)

Ahem (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=477.0).
(It's been a while, do I detect some call backs to your Emil's-letters-to-Lalli-over-the-years fic series you did a while ago, or is that my imagination?)
Mostly stuff mentioned in Part VIII (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg50799#msg50799).
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Seilann on January 11, 2016, 11:41:48 PM
Ahem (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=477.0).

Haha, I saw that board before and thought it was just for filks. Thanks for drawing it to my attention again.

Looney, do you have an archive somewhere? I'd love to be able to access everything at once, especially with how your fics tend to all intertwine and reference each other.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on January 11, 2016, 11:46:13 PM
LooNEY, second that question. I know you linked to it once before, but I can't presently find it.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on January 12, 2016, 12:55:14 AM
My deviantArt (http://looney-dac.deviantart.com) has everything aside from "Contingencies", but I'll put that up soon.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Yuuago on January 12, 2016, 12:56:43 AM
My deviantArt (http://looney-dac.deviantart.com) has everything aside from "Contingencies", but I'll put that up soon.

/BOOKMARKS
Excellent, this will be a good way to poke through, considering my sporadic reading habits. < 3 I'm so glad you have everything in one place.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on January 12, 2016, 03:37:22 AM
Thanks, LooNEY!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on January 12, 2016, 06:44:02 AM
My deviantArt (http://looney-dac.deviantart.com) has everything aside from "Contingencies", but I'll put that up soon.

Time for a good old archive binge :D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Kiraly on January 13, 2016, 11:03:27 PM
*runs in, drops another chapter of the Ridiculous Hipster Band AU (http://archiveofourown.org/works/5569909/chapters/13172455) (complete with fluffy Reynir/Tuuri) and runs away again*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on January 14, 2016, 12:19:41 AM
Kiraly, this is great! As I said in your comments, I'm still laughing.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Kiraly on January 14, 2016, 12:43:49 AM
Kiraly, this is great! As I said in your comments, I'm still laughing.

Thanks Róisín! Your comments always make my day. :)) And it's good to hear it's making you laugh, because I'm having waaaay too much fun writing this silly thing.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on January 14, 2016, 12:52:42 AM
Thanks Róisín! Your comments always make my day. :)) And it's good to hear it's making you laugh, because I'm having waaaay too much fun writing this silly thing.
Ah. So nearly as much fun as we're having reading it, then.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Sunflower on January 14, 2016, 02:50:10 AM
*runs in, drops another chapter of the Ridiculous Hipster Band AU (http://archiveofourown.org/works/5569909/chapters/13172455) (complete with fluffy Reynir/Tuuri) and runs away again*

Kiraly, this is delightful and funny and insightful.  I laughed out loud at least once per chapter.  (Of course Sigrun would text in all caps.  Of COURSE.  And what other job could Lalli have in this AU besides a programmer?)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Puls3 on January 14, 2016, 02:50:49 AM
*runs in, drops another chapter of the Ridiculous Hipster Band AU (http://archiveofourown.org/works/5569909/chapters/13172455) (complete with fluffy Reynir/Tuuri) and runs away again*
Kiraly, I adore reading your AU, it's so sweet and I look forward to see what other shenanigans  Sigrun may have in store for them in the future.    :))
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Kiraly on January 14, 2016, 08:18:28 AM
Ah. So nearly as much fun as we're having reading it, then.

Aww, thank you! :D

Kiraly, this is delightful and funny and insightful.  I laughed out loud at least once per chapter.  (Of course Sigrun would text in all caps.  Of COURSE.  And what other job could Lalli have in this AU besides a programmer?)

Sigrun's text messages were some of my favorite things to write...I need to find an excuse for more. (And I'm waiting for an opportunity to use a "computer wizard" joke for Lalli, hehe.)

Kiraly, I adore reading your AU, it's so sweet and I look forward to see what other shenanigans  Sigrun may have in store for them in the future.    :))

Thanks! There will definitely be Sigrun shenanigans in the future. (And hey, wouldn't "Sigrun Shenanigans" be a great band name?)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on January 14, 2016, 10:07:30 AM
While people are posting stuff they did for the Secret Santa, I should put this up. This is the short piece I wrote for Amarinthineamusement. I figured a funny and fluffy short story might amuse her, since one of her specifications was: ' SSSS CHARACTERS INTERACTING'. Nobody seems to have guessed I was the guilty party before the list went up, likely because it is much fluffier than my usual style!  So herewith:

REYNIR HELPS!

Reynir sat waiting for breakfast to be ready. The young Icelander occupied himself with combing and rebraiding his hair as he watched Mikkel yawning over the pot he was stirring, and worried. Admittedly making porridge was not the most inspiring job in the world, but the big healer looked nearly as tired as Lalli usually did, with shadows under his eyes and a sour expression. Tuuri, sitting beside him by the cookfire, didn't look much better. Both of them had been rising while it was still dark, working over the books and notes they had salvaged so far for as long as daylight lasted, then continuing by lamplight until Sigrun forcibly chivvied them off to bed. Which was usually hours after he and Emil had crashed. Tuuri and Mikkel both were convinced that somewhere in that mass of information was something desperately important: a cure for the Rash disease, an effective vaccine, who knew? But surely something. So they searched through the piles of mouldering books and documents, they collated information, translated and frantically compared notes, for as many hours each day as they could bear to keep going.

Reynir wished he could do something to help them all. He wasn't a bad cook, his mother had seen to that, and nobody had complained on the few occasions Mikkel had let him take over, but the Dane seemed to feel that he should still do at least some of the cooking himself. Edgy and stressed as he was at present, even Sigrun was disinclined to argue.

 And Sigrun, Reynir thought, was another person who wasn't coping well at present. She had insisted on going out bookhunting the day after the troll attack, dragging along an unwilling Emil over Mikkel's vigorous protests. Their expedition had not been successful. With her arm in a sling her usually perfect balance was just that little bit off, and she had fallen heavily while trying to climb a sloping pile of rubble. Emil had of course leaped to her rescue, and had brought down more broken masonry on top of them both, further injuring his own leg. He had at least managed to set off a flare, bringing Mikkel to their rescue before they froze. Mikkel had lectured them both at length about endangering the mission for a chance of short-term gains, but more instructive than his lecture had been how the pair felt next day. Emil was too stiff to move, and Sigrun had been forced to spend several days resting.

What everyone needed about now, Reynir thought, was coffee. A pity the nearest coffee was in Iceland. Not that Iceland had much, he mused sadly. And the greenhouse product was prohibitively expensive. He'd only tasted it once in his life, the year he turned eighteen. That year their wool clip had been of outstanding quality, and a couple of fleece merchants from Reykjavik had travelled all the way out to their remote farm with competing offers for the whole lot. After lengthy negotiations with his business-savvy mother one of them had clinched the deal by offering, along with the normal exchanges of money, seeds, grain and smoked fish, a tiny package of precious greenhouse-grown coffee.

The next morning at breakfast his father had solemnly brewed the stuff, while Reynir, his mother and the two of his older siblings who were home at the time had looked on in awe as the brown liquid bubbled and the delicious, enticing smell crept through the house. When his father had handed Reynir the small cupful that was his share it had felt like some sort of coming-of-age ritual; like finally getting to do something reserved for adults. The flavour had come as a shock: bitter and sharp and earthy so that he almost spat it out, but at the same time having a delicious underlying richness that seemed to go straight into his veins, making his heart thump and his mind race. He had flown through the days' work as if winged, his mind the clearest it had ever been.....yes, something like that would be perfect for his crewmates. Reynir smiled wryly as he considered how quickly he had begun to think of himself as a part of the team, then sighed as he realised how hopeless his idea really was.

Emil and Lalli stumbled out of the tank together, each propping the other up and neither one looking at all well. Emil was still bruised and limping badly, while the scout looked even paler and gaunter than usual; his expression dazed, he leaned weakly on Emil's broad shoulder. Reynir was relieved to see Lalli walking at all. There had been those few very scary days when the rest of the crew had feared he might not wake again, but eventually his lynx had returned to him, and now he did seem to be recovering physically as well.

The two boys sat down by Reynir to wait for breakfast. Despite his own stiffness, Emil fussed over Lalli, tucking a blanket around his shoulders while the scout growled half-heartedly at the attention. Reynir suspected that Lalli secretly enjoyed Emil's attempts to care for him, though he usually responded to them with irritable snarls or grumbles.

Sighing at his inability to help, Reynir went back to the task of combing and rebraiding his hair. He cursed as his fingers encountered yet another tiny seed caught in the strands, forming a small hard knot that caught the comb and caused it to tug painfully at his scalp. He carefully worked it loose, then stared at the seed as it lay in the palm of his hand, wondering how such a tiny thing could attach itself so firmly. It looked... fuzzy, and seemed to be covered in tiny hooked prickles or hairs.

His musings were interrupted by a sudden hard grip on his wrist. Reynir looked up, startled, as he recognised Lalli's slender, long-fingered hand. That was odd. He had already noticed that Lalli never touched anyone if it could be avoided - well, except for an occasional comforting pat to Tuuri or Emil. But now he was gripping Reynir's wrist, holding his hand still, gaze fixed on the seed. Lalli started to speak, realised that Reynir wouldn't understand him, and turned instead to speak to Tuuri. Tuuri looked puzzled for a moment, then translated.

"Reynir, Lalli wants to know where you found that seed, and whether there were any more where it came from?"

"I didn't find it, it found me. Those things are all over, they're a weed; we even had them in a few places in Iceland, back on the farm. They stick to your socks, and the dog, and the sheep, and of course in my hair! My mother used the plants to make dye, but I don't know of any use for the seeds. Why is he asking?"

After another exchange in Finnish, Tuuri explained. "He says the scouts and hunters use it back home. They chew on a handful of the seeds to stay alert if they're really tired. He says it tastes vile, but it helps to keep one awake and moving. They call it 'poor man's coffee', I don't know why. I've read about coffee, it was a mind-altering drug of the ancients."

Reynir leapt up and dashed off to the closest place he had seen the dry seed-covered vines - sprawling around the base of the equestrian statue next to the tank. In ten minutes he was back with his handkerchief full of the seeds. Lalli took a few with a nod of gratitude and began to chew them, grimacing at the taste. Reynir looked thoughtfully at the remaining seeds, then carried them over to Mikkel.

Reynir remembered the coffee-making ritual quite clearly. The seeds were briefly roasted, then crushed and steeped in water which was gradually heated almost to boiling, then taken from the heat and allowed to steep for a little longer. He wondered if the same process would work on this stuff. At least it might improve the taste! Once he had explained the effect of coffee, and what Lalli had said about the seeds, Mikkel was willing to try. At this stage, Reynir thought, Mikkel looked as if he might be willing to try anything.

Soon an interesting aroma began to drift about the camp. Not precisely the unique scent of coffee, Reynir thought, but not unlike it. Definitely worth a try.

And in the buildings, restless ghosts calmed and quieted as the echo of a familiar odour rolled in their windows, an incense bearing the memory of other, better times.


NOTE: for any other plant geek, the plant referenced is Galium aparine, otherwise known as cleavers, clivers, goosegrass, poor mans' coffee or sticky willie, as well as less polite names applied by those who are trying to weed the long tangled sticky stems out of their garden or remove the seeds from their dog, socks or sheep. The seeds make quite a reasonable coffee substitute, since they contain some caffeine and actually belong to the Rubiaceae, the botanical family of which coffee is a member. And like nearly everything else in the family it's a dye plant - most of them give pinks and reds, coffee gives reddish-brown. If you've ever eaten a free-range egg with a pink yolk, or a chicken with meat that stays pink near the bone even when cooked, this is what the hens have been eating. Birds are as much caffeine junkies as humans!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Kiraly on January 14, 2016, 10:58:07 AM
Róisín that's wonderful! I remember reading it when your Secret Santa giftee posted it, but I had no idea it was yours. I adore Reynir's memory of coffee with his family, and I'm glad he found a way to help!

Also I will add the information about Galium aparine to the list of "cool things I have learned from this amazing community." :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Yuuago on January 14, 2016, 11:11:02 AM
Róisín, that was lovely. I enjoyed reading it again. < 3 Really had no idea you'd written that one!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on January 14, 2016, 11:21:14 AM
Thanks, Kiraly! And Yuuago! Glad you liked it. It may amuse you to know that the seeds are reputed to have inspired the French inventor who came up with Velcro - the tiny hooks on the seeds work the same way.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Seilann on January 14, 2016, 01:21:29 PM
Róisín, I love it! At first I thought the seed was a hitchhiker (also called beggar's lice, I think), because those things get *everywhere*, but nope, quite different. I imagine cleavers are a bit more painful to get unstuck.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Athena on January 14, 2016, 02:59:28 PM
Róisín I just finished reading your story and I loved it! I love the idea of coffee being carried over to the Post-Rash world! (How could it not, with so many fans who drink it?)  :))
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on January 14, 2016, 03:57:54 PM
Thanks! I figured if coffee survived anywhere in their world it would be in the greenhouses of Iceland, but there wouldn't be a lot.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on January 14, 2016, 05:18:40 PM
Very nice, Róisín! Anything involving Reynir getting to help and make himself helpful is just too adorable--like a puppy getting rewarded for a job well done. :))
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: daiseerose on January 14, 2016, 05:39:36 PM
I really love your writing style!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on January 14, 2016, 07:48:32 PM
Róisín: Nice tale, but I thought the Velcro guy was looking at how (flight) feathers stick together when he was inspired?

But anyway, good story.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on January 14, 2016, 08:16:59 PM
While people are posting stuff they did for the Secret Santa, I should put this up. This is the short piece I wrote for Amarinthineamusement. I figured a funny and fluffy short story might amuse her, since one of her specifications was: ' SSSS CHARACTERS INTERACTING'. Nobody seems to have guessed I was the guilty party before the list went up, likely because it is much fluffier than my usual style!  So herewith:

REYNIR HELPS!

[snip]

This was a lovely read, and educational to boot! I've run across those flaming things before - some grew at the bottom of my old school's field and it was a common summer prank to dump as many of them as we could into each other's hair - but didn't know the name until now (we called them something the forum's filters probably wouldn't like!). And that ending line about the spirits brought a warm glow to my chest - so thank you!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on January 15, 2016, 02:15:57 AM
Glad you all liked it. Thanks! What surprised me was that nobody picked it as mine, though I guess we have other useful-plant nerds beside me! Possibly people missed it because my usual style is a little darker.

LooNEY: I've heard both origin variants, don't know which is right. My guess would be both.

SectoBoss: happy you got that last bit. I could just imagine the ghosts of the palace bureaucrats relaxing into the almost-familiar scent of almost-coffee!

I'd be curious to know the name you gave the plant when you were kids. You may have figured out that I collect such things, from skipping rhymes to those old childrens' ring-dance chants and maying songs that predate the Black Death. It's astonishing how much really old lore survives among children.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Laufey on January 15, 2016, 03:52:10 AM
I love rhymes too! Especially the ones that seem like they should mean something but you can't figure out exactly what. To avoid too much OT in this thread I'll continue in the cut.

Spoiler: show
Hura hura häitä
Kello löi jo kaksitoista
Keisari seisoo palatsissaan
Niin musta kuin multa
Niin valkea kuin varsa
Mitä varten sotamies on parempi kuin herra?
Se ken tulee viimeiseksi onpi kuolema!


Hooray hooray to the wedding
The clock has struck twelve
The emperor stands in his palace
As black as the soil
As white as a foal
Why is a soldier better than his master?
The one who arrives last is death!

This one goes with a game where two people make a gate with their arms and the rest walk under it, singing the rhyme. At the word "death" the gates fall down and catch the person currently underneath. The rest of the players wait while the gates ake their catch a bit to the side and give them a choice between two things, f.ex. blue or red, blueberry or raspberry, bus or train, anything. The person makes their choice and joins the side of the gate that stands for that option. When everyone's caught and chosen their side the game enbds at a tug of war.

And another one with a death theme:

Satu meni saunaan
Laittoi laukun naulaan
Kysyi talon väeltä
Onko saunassa lämmintä.
Eipä ole puita, no onhan tuolla
Kalliolla vanhan ämmän luita.


Satu (it's a girl's name but it also means a fairytale) went to sauna
Hung her/their bag in a hook
Asked the people of the house
If the sauna was warm (= ready for bathing)
There's no firewood, well but over there
On the cliffs are bones of an old woman.

We used this one as a skipping rhyme.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on January 15, 2016, 09:33:02 PM
*Curmudgeonly growling*

The Jylland Jump
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/“Jazz Age” crossover fanfic
Part 4
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg84742#msg84742)
Spoiler: show
A Skittery Sax

The noises had only impinged on Emil’s consciousness when he was almost to the band’s “suite”, such as it was, in their Trond-mandated flophouse, but once it had, there was no denying it.

Someone was practicing on a saxophone in the band’s quarters, and in the band’s style of jam.

Emil’s stomach tightened as he listened in the hallway outside their door. The player was pretty good--not as good as Emil, but certainly not bad.

Was this Emil’s replacement in the “Malmö Musikers”?

After a few lifetimes of agonized hesitation, Emil nerved himself up to go in and see who the player was. Best to get it over with; besides, he’d need to pack his sadly few things and be ready to strike out for... wherever he could go this time. Maybe Bergen?

“Mikkel.” Emil didn’t realize that he’d spoken aloud until the big man slowly turned to face him.

After a long silence where Mikkel stared at Emil with a faintly puzzled expression, the Dane finally rumbled, “Well, aren’t you going to join in and make it a proper jam session?” Emil’s look went from shattered to confused. “Didn’t Sigrun send you over so we could see how we jam together? She said she would.”

Emil was just about to faint from relief when a stranger’s voice spoke behind him. “Mind if I join in, too?”

At that, the bedroom door flew open, Tuuri shooting forth like a rocket with a cry of, “ONNI!” Emil managed to dodge in time to avoid being bowled over in the wake of Tuuri’s rush to greet her brother.

Tuuri and Lalli had mentioned this third Hotakainen to their band-mates, of course, so the blocky Finn wasn’t a complete stranger. Nonetheless, Emil and Mikkel were rather more reserved in their greetings.

After a few minutes of Tuuri gushing at Onni, with only grunts of varied tone as responses, Lalli slinked in. Onni made as if to hug his cousin, but a slight backpedal from Lalli cued Onni to simply clasp Lalli’s shoulders instead.

Eventually, once Tuuri was more or less talked out, the newcomer pulled forth a sax from one of his bags, Emil grabbed his own sax, and they joined Mikkel in an impromptu trio, Tuuri and Lalli watching.

Emil was hard-pressed to keep his dismay out of the music after the first few licks. Onni was fantastic. It was actually hard for Emil to keep up with the eldest Finn, and more or less impossible for Mikkel.

“Imagine doing that with us tonight, onstage!” Tuuri gushed. “It would be brilliant, Onni!”

Onni’s face went completely blank, and he dropped his sax. A moment later, he was flat on his back in a dead faint.

*

They’d had to blindfold Onni to get him onstage, and instead of an announcement of the band, Taru put up a banner reading, “Blind Onni & the Malmö Musikers”. None of their audience seemed to get the joke--”Blind Luck” playing for them onstage--but they still liked this new guy’s sound.

The Evening well very well, Onni only trying to get away twice and throwing up (in the backstage hurl bucket) once. After some of Lalli’s shenanigans, this was positively easy to handle.

Emil was so torn. Onni and his sound brought the band up a notch, certainly, and they all sounded great in concert, but there was a fearful, jealous part of Emil that was glad the Finn was so stage-phobic.

Sigrun, nobody’s fool, was trying to smother Onni’s fears and doubts with a flood of enthusiastic words, but Onni stood against her like a stolid Finn rock against a snowstorm.

Tuuri was rather sniffly after Onni left, so Emil knew Lalli would need some distracting as well. Maybe they could work on arranging one of Bing’s songs for the band? Now that Mikkel had been tapped as back-up sax, a lot of possibilities were open...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show

I was trying to get the next bit of the Western out, but  somebody (http://www.sssscomic.com/comic.php?page=447#comment-2450772305) had to divert my brain over here. Grrrrrr.

...I HOPE YOU’RE SATISFIED. /Trond
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Purple Wyrm on January 15, 2016, 10:49:35 PM
Great story Róisín! I now have an urge to go out looking for some to brew up (but would probably pick something like castor oil plant and kill myself - a herbalist I am not ;D)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Seilann on January 16, 2016, 12:20:24 AM
*Curmudgeonly growling*

The Jylland Jump
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/“Jazz Age” crossover fanfic
Part 4
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg84742#msg84742)
Spoiler: show
A Skittery Sax

The noises had only impinged on Emil’s consciousness when he was almost to the band’s “suite”, such as it was, in their Trond-mandated flophouse, but once it had, there was no denying it.

Someone was practicing on a saxophone in the band’s quarters, and in the band’s style of jam.

Emil’s stomach tightened as he listened in the hallway outside their door. The player was pretty good--not as good as Emil, but certainly not bad.

Was this Emil’s replacement in the “Malmö Musikers”?

After a few lifetimes of agonized hesitation, Emil nerved himself up to go in and see who the player was. Best to get it over with; besides, he’d need to pack his sadly few things and be ready to strike out for... wherever he could go this time. Maybe Bergen?

“Mikkel.” Emil didn’t realize that he’d spoken aloud until the big man slowly turned to face him.

After a long silence where Mikkel stared at Emil with a faintly puzzled expression, the Dane finally rumbled, “Well, aren’t you going to join in and make it a proper jam session?” Emil’s look went from shattered to confused. “Didn’t Sigrun send you over so we could see how we jam together? She said she would.”

Emil was just about to faint from relief when a stranger’s voice spoke behind him. “Mind if I join in, too?”

At that, the bedroom door flew open, Tuuri shooting forth like a rocket with a cry of, “ONNI!” Emil managed to dodge in time to avoid being bowled over in the wake of Tuuri’s rush to greet her brother.

Tuuri and Lalli had mentioned this third Hotakainen to their band-mates, of course, so the blocky Finn wasn’t a complete stranger. Nonetheless, Emil and Mikkel were rather more reserved in their greetings.

After a few minutes of Tuuri gushing at Onni, with only grunts of varied tone as responses, Lalli slinked in. Onni made as if to hug his cousin, but a slight backpedal from Lalli cued Onni to simply clasp Lalli’s shoulders instead.

Eventually, once Tuuri was more or less talked out, the newcomer pulled forth a sax from one of his bags, Emil grabbed his own sax, and they joined Mikkel in an impromptu trio, Tuuri and Lalli watching.

Emil was hard-pressed to keep his dismay out of the music after the first few licks. Onni was fantastic. It was actually hard for Emil to keep up with the eldest Finn, and more or less impossible for Mikkel.

“Imagine doing that with us tonight, onstage!” Tuuri gushed. “It would be brilliant, Onni!”

Onni’s face went completely blank, and he dropped his sax. A moment later, he was flat on his back in a dead faint.

*

They’d had to blindfold Onni to get him onstage, and instead of an announcement of the band, Taru put up a banner reading, “Blind Onni & the Malmö Musikers”. None of their audience seemed to get the joke--”Blind Luck” playing for them onstage--but they still liked this new guy’s sound.

The Evening well very well, Onni only trying to get away twice and throwing up (in the backstage hurl bucket) once. After some of Lalli’s shenanigans, this was positively easy to handle.

Emil was so torn. Onni and his sound brought the band up a notch, certainly, and they all sounded great in concert, but there was a fearful, jealous part of Emil that was glad the Finn was so stage-phobic.

Sigrun, nobody’s fool, was trying to smother Onni’s fears and doubts with a flood of enthusiastic words, but Onni stood against her like a stolid Finn rock against a snowstorm.

Tuuri was rather sniffly after Onni left, so Emil knew Lalli would need some distracting as well. Maybe they could work on arranging one of Bing’s songs for the band? Now that Mikkel had been tapped as back-up sax, a lot of possibilities were open...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show

I was trying to get the next bit of the Western out, but  somebody (http://www.sssscomic.com/comic.php?page=447#comment-2450772305) had to divert my brain over here. Grrrrrr.

...I HOPE YOU’RE SATISFIED. /Trond


This made me laugh so hard! Thanks for sharing.

(Please let us see Onni in this fic again.)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on January 16, 2016, 04:20:51 AM
LooNEY: so funny! 'Backstage hurl bucket', heh. And Emil as insecure as ever. Great!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: DiscoMonster on January 16, 2016, 08:19:20 AM
Apologies, I don't have much time to read or write fanfic or set up new accounts but I wrote this today and thought I'd post it:

Excerpts from a Communication by Universe Cruise Craft Aorryg. This urgent briefing concerns Planet Three (BlueGreen Pearl), System 10 (Bountiful) First visit in one hundred years.

Importance 1: Quarantine planet. virfung outbreak. Critical situation. Almost complete collapse of Counter society. Anti-virfung vessel required.

Importance 2: Life Energy being used, although primitively. 

[…] The majority of womb-breeding species on the planet have perished due to virfung. Fortunately, individual breeders within most species have proven to be immune to the initial virfung expansion and survived to form breeding colonies. However, the future is uncertain for all womb-breeding species because they are prey to the surviving virfung-evolved creatures. As is typical of virfung outbreaks, the host now has the potential to be immortal, allowing the physical virfung to survive indefinitely.

However, one species (Meyourers, see attachments for details) has proven to be resistant to the virfung and flourishes in sustainable numbers on all habitable land masses. It is evolving and can defeat and kill virfung hosts. In former urban areas, where Meyourers were often domesticated, they will band together to kill virfung hosts, even much larger ones, creating space (most likely, unconsciously) for other womb-breeding species. 

In rural or wilderness areas some of these Meyourers have remained solitary adult beasts. However, it would appear that some have developed, out of necessity, breeding patterns that produce herds of adults which keep Meyourer families together and provide greater numbers to ward off the extinctionist amalgamations of virfung.

As a hobbyist cruise ship we do not have permission to physically step on to virfung planets. We also cannot break Tourist Observance Protocol. However, it is recommended that the Meyourer cultures and their unique biology are examined as a matter of urgency. (A virfung resistant species is not unique but the Meyourers are developing fast and have evolved extraordinarily well to survive, flourish and fill ecological niches.) 

Life Energy Discovery

Counters, by far the most technologically advanced and science-aware species on the planet, have proven to be useful hosts for virfung. However, immune and, astonishingly, non-immune counters have survived in isolated settlements. Importantly, some Counters have discovered how to use Life Energy and can direct it in unsophisticated ways. Nevertheless, they associate Life Energy with “Magick” and use it in culturally bound ways, limiting its potential. This initial development of Life Energy by a species requires scientific study.

We also observed an expeditionary group of Counters moving beyond the limits of their safe havens and we on the Aorryg have followed their activities. The group has unknowingly discovered information to defeat virfung in the long-term, thus letting their – and hopefully other – species thrive.

The group has become the most popular reality vision ever on the Aorryg; viewers adjust their body cycles to follow their favourites and have reformed the city-wide imitation decks to allow themselves to act out the events of the Counters’ lives. In fact, a record amount of viewers are bodyshaping to look like their favourite Counter and seduce or be seduced by their favourite Counter.

These counters are also scientifically important. Two of the counters (both male) use Life Energy and have just begun to explore their powers – enhancing their survival chances. As one of the Counters has only just begun developing his skills, we have a unique opportunity to study a Life Energy-aware creature developing its skills in conditions of extreme stress. The Ywq of Hlax request permission to begin this research observance and remain behind on a small, three-kilometre-long, support vessel. They would further justify this by transmitting the reality vision of the expeditionary group and providing aid for the anti-virfung-contamination vessel when it arrives. We have approved this, as in the words of the popular Counter leader: “It is the most best option”.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on January 16, 2016, 08:30:28 AM
Brilliant! Is this our first space-fiction AU? I know LooNEY DAC has done time. Do keep writing!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Kiraly on January 16, 2016, 10:40:13 AM
*Curmudgeonly growling*

The Jylland Jump
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/“Jazz Age” crossover fanfic
Part 4
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg84742#msg84742)
Spoiler: show
A Skittery Sax

The noises had only impinged on Emil’s consciousness when he was almost to the band’s “suite”, such as it was, in their Trond-mandated flophouse, but once it had, there was no denying it.

Someone was practicing on a saxophone in the band’s quarters, and in the band’s style of jam.

Emil’s stomach tightened as he listened in the hallway outside their door. The player was pretty good--not as good as Emil, but certainly not bad.

Was this Emil’s replacement in the “Malmö Musikers”?

After a few lifetimes of agonized hesitation, Emil nerved himself up to go in and see who the player was. Best to get it over with; besides, he’d need to pack his sadly few things and be ready to strike out for... wherever he could go this time. Maybe Bergen?

“Mikkel.” Emil didn’t realize that he’d spoken aloud until the big man slowly turned to face him.

After a long silence where Mikkel stared at Emil with a faintly puzzled expression, the Dane finally rumbled, “Well, aren’t you going to join in and make it a proper jam session?” Emil’s look went from shattered to confused. “Didn’t Sigrun send you over so we could see how we jam together? She said she would.”

Emil was just about to faint from relief when a stranger’s voice spoke behind him. “Mind if I join in, too?”

At that, the bedroom door flew open, Tuuri shooting forth like a rocket with a cry of, “ONNI!” Emil managed to dodge in time to avoid being bowled over in the wake of Tuuri’s rush to greet her brother.

Tuuri and Lalli had mentioned this third Hotakainen to their band-mates, of course, so the blocky Finn wasn’t a complete stranger. Nonetheless, Emil and Mikkel were rather more reserved in their greetings.

After a few minutes of Tuuri gushing at Onni, with only grunts of varied tone as responses, Lalli slinked in. Onni made as if to hug his cousin, but a slight backpedal from Lalli cued Onni to simply clasp Lalli’s shoulders instead.

Eventually, once Tuuri was more or less talked out, the newcomer pulled forth a sax from one of his bags, Emil grabbed his own sax, and they joined Mikkel in an impromptu trio, Tuuri and Lalli watching.

Emil was hard-pressed to keep his dismay out of the music after the first few licks. Onni was fantastic. It was actually hard for Emil to keep up with the eldest Finn, and more or less impossible for Mikkel.

“Imagine doing that with us tonight, onstage!” Tuuri gushed. “It would be brilliant, Onni!”

Onni’s face went completely blank, and he dropped his sax. A moment later, he was flat on his back in a dead faint.

*

They’d had to blindfold Onni to get him onstage, and instead of an announcement of the band, Taru put up a banner reading, “Blind Onni & the Malmö Musikers”. None of their audience seemed to get the joke--”Blind Luck” playing for them onstage--but they still liked this new guy’s sound.

The Evening well very well, Onni only trying to get away twice and throwing up (in the backstage hurl bucket) once. After some of Lalli’s shenanigans, this was positively easy to handle.

Emil was so torn. Onni and his sound brought the band up a notch, certainly, and they all sounded great in concert, but there was a fearful, jealous part of Emil that was glad the Finn was so stage-phobic.

Sigrun, nobody’s fool, was trying to smother Onni’s fears and doubts with a flood of enthusiastic words, but Onni stood against her like a stolid Finn rock against a snowstorm.

Tuuri was rather sniffly after Onni left, so Emil knew Lalli would need some distracting as well. Maybe they could work on arranging one of Bing’s songs for the band? Now that Mikkel had been tapped as back-up sax, a lot of possibilities were open...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show

I was trying to get the next bit of the Western out, but  somebody (http://www.sssscomic.com/comic.php?page=447#comment-2450772305) had to divert my brain over here. Grrrrrr.

...I HOPE YOU’RE SATISFIED. /Trond


Okay, I just got caught up on these and they're fantastic! I had a really hard time not cackling and confusing everyone at work. (And I see I'm not the only one who's got a case of the Onni bug...)

DiscoMonster that was great! I like the slow reveal that not only are the mysterious alien-types watching...they're also as obsessed with this story as the rest of us. ;)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: DiscoMonster on January 16, 2016, 11:16:08 AM
Brilliant! Is this our first space-fiction AU? I know LooNEY DAC has done time. Do keep writing!

Oooh! Thank you. There would be lots of ways to follow it up but time and laziness are against that happening. I just woke up with the idea of aliens visiting Year 90 Earth to do SSSS cosplay. Had to write it and that's what happened.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: DiscoMonster on January 16, 2016, 11:18:17 AM

DiscoMonster that was great! I like the slow reveal that not only are the mysterious alien-types watching...they're also as obsessed with this story as the rest of us. ;)
[/quote] We are. ;-)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on January 16, 2016, 01:34:09 PM
DiscoMonster that was great! I like the slow reveal that not only are the mysterious alien-types watching...they're also as obsessed with this story as the rest of us. ;)
The Minnions exist throughout space and time, confusing Minna greatly as a child.
I know LooNEY DAC has done time.
Wait, when was I in the pokey?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on January 16, 2016, 07:23:01 PM
Ah, of course! The American usage - sorry! English she are a weird language. I meant that DiscoMonster had written an AU set in space, where you have written some where the thing changed is time. Like the delightful tales you are currently posting. Which are really good!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on January 16, 2016, 07:49:06 PM
Ah, of course! The American usage - sorry! English she are a weird language. I meant that DiscoMonster had written an AU set in space, where you have written some where the thing changed it time. Like the delightful tales you are currently posting. Which are really good!
You know, I have this theory that Aussie English is an experiment to see how much vocabulary can be replaced in a language, the grammar and syntax remaining unchanged, before it becomes a different language. This was, of course ordained by the Trilateral Commission from their secret Antarctic base, and Poe's Law says that no matter how much more I spin this out, someone will think I'm serious.

I did realize what you were saying before my Post of Deliberate Silliness, though.

I've been avoiding space, as I keep wanting to introduce [CENSORED] as the creators of the Rash.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on January 16, 2016, 09:14:07 PM
So now here comes the part where I was writing something, before we got hit with a whole bunch of new Onni characterization and I realize I want to incorporate it. *headdesk*

I mean... I like new Onni characterization and I do have ideas, but this makes the third false start in a row I've had for Chapter 2. *grumble* *grumble*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Aliax on January 17, 2016, 03:50:17 PM
Apologies, I don't have much time to read or write fanfic or set up new accounts but I wrote this today and thought I'd post it:

Excerpts from a Communication by Universe Cruise Craft Aorryg. This urgent briefing concerns Planet Three (BlueGreen Pearl), System 10 (Bountiful) First visit in one hundred years.
A pure sci-fi take on SSSS? And a good and funny one, too!? <3 <3 MARRY ME! And make me loads of little sci-fi/SSSS ficlets! PLEASE!

(Dammit, this fandom IS dangerous  :o I just came over because I was starved for SSSS fic and there isn't enough new stuff over on Ao3, and suddenly here I am, proposing to a complete stranger O.O )
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on January 18, 2016, 12:07:43 AM
Hi all! Here's the next bit of 'Gone Astray'. Last part should be up in a day or two.

GONE ASTRAY: PART 2:

She would never say so to Emil, of course, but Sigrun was beginning to think that insisting on making their little excursion today had been a really bad idea. The structure in which they had taken refuge was safe enough at the moment, but that would change once the sun went down. For the moment their pursuer seemed nervous about crossing the open expanse of sunlit paving around the old clock tower. The huge beast could be seen from a narrow window, lurking in the shadow of a ruined wall, its great shaggy head tilted to observe them, its matted fur stirring with restless rippling motions as tentacles moved and shifted just below the surface.

The only reason they were still alive was that Emil had caught the rank stench, strong even for a beast, before either of them had noticed that they were being stalked, and Sigrun had begun to watch for a possible redoubt just in case they should need one. They were working on opening the door of the clock tower when the creature had stepped briefly into the light behind them. It had retreated almost at once, shaking its head as if stung and growling in frustration, but they could see it from the window at the top of the stairs, and hear the occasional snarl. Once darkness came that door wouldn't hold it out for more than a few seconds.

She was realistic enough to know that from this height and angle their chance of hitting the skull with a bullet was very small. Hitting the beast anywhere else would only enrage it, and a lot of gunfire could bring worse dangers. Their only hope was to wait until it entered the tower and started up the narrow stair, then try to ambush it before it had room to attack them. Meanwhile the sun inched down the sky and the shadows lengthened.
                                          ******************************************************

The bright westering sun meant less immediate danger from beasts or trolls but harder tracking. Lalli squinted against the glare and tried to focus his aching eyes on the double row of footprints ahead. The prints were clear enough in snow or firm mud, but in low ground the mud and melting snow combined to make a quaggy sludge that swallowed them in seconds. Sigrun and Emil seemed to be heading for a cluster of taller buildings less than half a mile ahead. Not far, Lalli told himself. One foot in front of the other. Aim for that tall tower with the cracked clockface.

A few hundred yards on, the smell hit him like a blow. Rot and damp fur, animal musk overlaid with that strange reek that always marked beasts from healthy animals, even before you could see the eyes: sour and nauseating, like a patch of poisonous fungus gone suddenly bad in hot weather. Lalli fought down a wave of sick dizziness and slid silently into the shadow of a crumbling doorway. It was big, and close. He had a bad feeling about what it might once have been.

                                          ***********************************************
From his vantage point atop a pile of rubble Lalli stared down wide-eyed at the bear-beast. Its attention was fully on the clocktower, or he thought it might have heard him already. Clumsy. Weak. This wouldn't do at all. His vision was beginning to fade and grey out at the edges, and if he intended to hit anything he had to shoot now. One shot was all he would get before the thing perceived him, and the effort needed to climb the rubble heap had shown him clearly that he had no chance of escape once it knew he was there. An occasional flash of a white uniform inside the tower window told him where the others were. The building was a refuge for them at this moment, but once night fell it would become a trap. So focus. One shot. Now.

With the rifle firmly braced against a stone he peered through the sight. His vision blurred. Normally he would have tried a snap shot, his natural aim was good enough, but now his hands were shaking, a fine tremor he couldn't control. Lalli hissed in frustration, tried to calm and centre himself, but the solid anchor he needed, his own unwavering nature, was gone. He needed help. His first thought was to appeal to Tapio and Mielikki, since the bear was their responsibility, but that somehow didn't feel right. Who, then? An image drifted across his inner sight: a narrow brown face, the expression on the fine features enigmatic, hair like leaves around the buds of horns, the tall erect figure garbed in red and blue, a bow held in one long hand. Yes.

Chanting aloud would draw the beast to him, Lalli knew, but that, too, felt right. He stood unsteadily, grandmother's rifle in his hands, shaped the runo in his mind, and began to sing:

Brave Nyyrikki, noble hunter
Help me in my time of weakness.
Friends, companions, need my aid now.
Guide my hand and still its trembling.
Let my shot fly as your arrows
True and straight and missing never.

Burst the brain and free the spirit.
Save this soul that struggles sorely.
Once a bear that roamed the forest,
Changed into a murderous monster.
Help him now, that once was Otso!

Let my shot fly as your arrows!
Slay this beast and free its spirit
Flying gladly to your father
To his free herds of the forest.

By the sixth line the massive head had turned toward him. By the eighth the creature was charging.
                                                  **********************************************

     
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Kiraly on January 18, 2016, 12:53:28 AM
Róisín that is gorgeous! And intense, I'm on the edge of my seat! I particularly enjoyed this line:
Meanwhile the sun inched down the sky and the shadows lengthened.
I'm not sure why it struck me; maybe because on the surface it's merely a description, but when you take into account what happens when the sun goes down it becomes ominous. (Or maybe I just like the word "inched"?) Anyway, I look forward to reading more!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Athena on January 18, 2016, 01:02:47 AM
Hi all! Here's the next bit of 'Gone Astray'. Last part should be up in a day or two.

GONE ASTRAY: PART 2:
   

I love it! Especially the Runo spell at the end, that was beautiful!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: DiscoMonster on January 18, 2016, 01:21:14 AM
A pure sci-fi take on SSSS? And a good and funny one, too!? <3 <3 MARRY ME! And make me loads of little sci-fi/SSSS ficlets! PLEASE!

(Dammit, this fandom IS dangerous  :o I just came over because I was starved for SSSS fic and there isn't enough new stuff over on Ao3, and suddenly here I am, proposing to a complete stranger O.O )

SSSS Singles dating site: Looking for fun, friends and future ficlets. Owns hardback copy of aRtD. Likes dressing up in costume and living out fantasies.  8) Reality: Fifty, father of three, frivolous and facetious.

But! Oh! How can I refuse? I'm blushing. I'll give you the ficlet of your dreams. But not this week.The children are staying with me...  ::)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: DiscoMonster on January 18, 2016, 01:28:28 AM
By the sixth line the massive head had turned toward him. By the eighth the creature was charging.                                              **********************************************

   

Argh! What happens next? Too exciting. Too vivid. Too good. Begins to add to the keyboard's F5 stress.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on January 18, 2016, 09:15:57 PM
Hi all! Here's the next bit of 'Gone Astray'. Last part should be up in a day or two.

GONE ASTRAY: PART 2

Aaaaaaaaaaaah suspense! What happens next, I need to knooooooooow!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Helia on January 19, 2016, 12:04:05 PM
I'm way behind in reading fanfics... but I wrote a new one.
Thanks again to Noodly for reading it through :)

http://archiveofourown.org/works/5764144 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/5764144)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Kiraly on January 19, 2016, 12:38:48 PM
I'm way behind in reading fanfics... but I wrote a new one.
Thanks again to Noodly for reading it through :)

http://archiveofourown.org/works/5764144 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/5764144)

Ahahaha, this is so great! I had a really hard time keeping a straight face (I'm at work and it's probably not a great idea to laugh out loud at the front customer service desk). Poor Emil can't catch a break! :))

Spoiler: show
Also, cleaning a bathroom is the ultimate sign of love/friendship.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Seilann on January 19, 2016, 01:23:18 PM

Spoiler: show
Also, cleaning a bathroom is the ultimate sign of love/friendship.


Agreed 100%.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on January 20, 2016, 08:38:47 AM
Helia, love it! So very, very Emil!

And thanks, everyone who commented on 'Gone Astray'. Glad you like it!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: shoop on January 20, 2016, 10:57:18 PM
I'm way behind in reading fanfics... but I wrote a new one.
Thanks again to Noodly for reading it through :)

http://archiveofourown.org/works/5764144 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/5764144)

ah!!! this was incredibly delightful. Oh Emil. You make life harder for yourself than you need to, pal.

I have a new fic (http://archiveofourown.org/works/5775718) up that is borrowing from an AU misea had! and then ideas snowballed, and, this is going to be the start of a Long Haul, guys.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on January 21, 2016, 01:02:12 AM
This looks fascinating! I'm very curious to see where this goes. And I see that Emil is being - well - Emil.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on January 21, 2016, 07:56:03 AM
The last bit of 'Gone Astray'.

GONE ASTRAY: PART 3

"Sigrun?"

"Yeah?"

"What are we going to do? I mean, really? You know as well as I do that thing will swat us like flies before we can get enough shots into it to kill it."

"Then those shots will just have to be good ones, kid. Take your time, aim for the head. That's what I'm gonna do. One of us has to get a good hit, you'll see."

She paused, glanced out at the bear-beast. It was stirring restlessly. She wondered what had disturbed it.

"Sigrun? How would it be if you hid upstairs and I hit it with a few grenades? Then you could still try shooting it ....if....if it needed doing..." Emil's voice wavered and stopped.

"No way, hero! Both of us get out, or neither. That's just.... What is that?"

Outside, someone was singing.

As they raced for the window, the last notes of the runo blended with the roar of the beast, the noise of crashing masonry, and a single shot.

Before he reached the window Emil knew it was Lalli. He had no words for the sensation that swept over him, but for an instant he felt the impact as if in his own flesh. Sigrun grabbed him as he staggered and almost fell, then they were both crowding the narrow window, staring out at the bodies tangled atop a pile of rubble in a chaos of broken bricks, rotting dark fur and splintered bone, bloodied white uniform and silver hair.
                                             
                                               ******************************************************

"Look, Emil, sometimes you've just gotta deal with it. People die. Friends die. And I think Lalli could be dying now."

Outside, the last daylight faded. The wind began to rise, smelling of snow. Sigrun had decided that their chances of surviving the night would be better if they forted up in the top room of the clock tower than if they tried to struggle back to the tank carrying a comatose scout. They had barricaded the door as well as they could, and the coming night promised to be cold enough to offer some protection from beasts and trolls. All they needed to do was survive until morning. Sigrun was carrying some dried meat, she and Emil both had water, and they had found some hardbread and a water flask in the pocket of Lalli's coat. With three bodies huddled together, they wouldn't freeze. But although Lalli's injuries seemed superficial, nothing they tried could wake him. To Emil, his friend seemed to be drawing further away with every moment, his skin pale and waxy, his thin body cold to the touch.

"But what's wrong with him? Nothing's broken; he has a few nasty gashes from that thing's claws, but they've stopped bleeding now, and he's immune so it isn't the Illness! I don't think he's concussed. And he's so cold! Is he bleeding inside, or what?"

"Dunno about bleeding. But I don't think that's it at all. Poor little twig has been really out of it since he came back from that last scouting run. I think he ran into trouble while he was finding us a new route, and overused his magic dealing with it. You saw him when he came back, he was out on his feet."

"I thought he was just really, really tired. And maybe still sick from the driving. His nose wouldn't stop bleeding. And his eyes. But Sigrun - you know perfectly well there's no such thing as magic. That's just silly superstition!"

Sigrun's expression was exasperated. "Yeah, I know you city boys think that. And Mikkel, maybe. The Danes don't use magic, more fools them. Though I would hope he had been around long enough by now to know better. But when one of our folk turns out to have the talent, we ship 'em off to Iceland to be schooled, and they come back pretty useful. My great-grandpa had magic, back in the old days, and one of my cousins has it now. Not me, but I know about it."

"And I know that every now and then one of our mages does something that's more than his body can stand. Or his mind. Seen it happen, out in the field. There was this one Icelandic mage, held off a giant singlehanded for a whole night, kept it immobilised until the soldiers could surround it, kill it and burn out the nest it was protecting. Then she just went to sleep and never woke up. Didn't think Lalli was that bad, so I figured the best thing to do was to let him rest for a few days. I wonder what made him come after us?"

Emil shivered at the thought of how things might have turned out if Lalli hadn't followed them.
 "I don't believe in magic. But Tuuri seemed pretty evasive when I asked her if he was ill. Maybe she thought the same as you do? But whatever it is, what can we do to help him now?"

"Not a lot. Try to keep him warm. Give him water if he wakes, a bit of food if he's able to eat. If he lives through the night, as soon as it's light tomorrow I'll go back and bring Mikkel. Even if there's nothing else he can do, he can at least carry the poor kid back to die in a warm bed. And you might try praying. Can't hurt, and might help."

Emil had never prayed in his life. He had no idea how to begin now.
                                                  *********************************************
                                           
Emil could hear Sigrun's voice, but her soft murmur was low enough that he couldn't interpret her words clearly. He supposed she might be praying. She had done all she could to secure the old building for the night, eaten a little, and now lay curled on the dusty floor against Lalli's back, her coat opened and partly draped over the unconscious scout, sharing body heat. Emil lay facing her in a similar posture, with his arm under Lalli's head, the still face turned against his shoulder. He felt ready to weep from rage at his own helplessness. He didn't notice the moment when fear and worry drifted into exhausted sleep.

The scent of green plants and water caught Emil's attention at the same moment he became aware of the slight weight in his arms, and realised that he must be dreaming. Strange, he thought. Wherever this dream was, it smelled like springtime. Late springtime, just beginning to move into summer. He could hear a faint rippling of water, and the distant calls of birds. So peaceful. He was in no hurry to open his eyes. He lay still and revelled in the warmth and quiet, the feeling of safety.

There was a sound, faint as a bubble bursting, or a strain of music right at the edge of hearing. Emil's eyes flew open. He was lying on a raft of old, weathered boards, floating in a pool of clear water. A tangle of stems topped with a few flowers stood at the pool's edge. Leaves floated on the water close to his face - he supposed they must be waterlilies. Lalli lay in his arms. His body felt insubstantial, hardly there at all, his pale face almost translucent in the soft light. Something - someone - stood at the edge of the pool, gazing down at them. It looked like a man, in the costume of a nobleman from the old fairytales, but strangely, inhumanly beautiful; it held a strung bow.

Emil couldn't move. He gazed up, and up, at the figure, taking in the vivid colours that still somehow blended into the marshy forest, and the sense that whatever this was, it was real, more real than his own self. So real and immediate that at first he failed to notice the two other shapes, one on either side of it. Once he saw them he would have recoiled in terror, but still he couldn't move or speak. Hunter, lynx and bear gazed down at him, impassive.

This was it, then. He was about to die, torn apart by monsters in a dream of some swampy wilderness. But he was not alone.  Lalli was here too. He had to protect Lalli.......

Emil was still trying to force his dream-body to move when the lynx stepped forward and nuzzled Lalli's limply trailing hand. Then somehow melted into Lalli's body. Emil jolted awake, a barely suppressed scream on his lips.
                                                  *********************************************

Sigrun started awake at a sound, realised it was Emil having a nightmare, and carefully rose to make sure the door was secure. All safe and quiet, good. Before lying down she checked on Lalli again, and was relieved to feel his pulse stronger, his body warmer. Even sleeping deeply as he was, he felt, somehow, more like himself. Emil stirred sleepily, clasped Lalli closer to him and slept again. Sigrun smiled to herself. They might yet all make it to morning. It was strange, she thought, how the feel of the night had changed. She felt....protected. Watched over. Still smiling, she lay down, threw an arm over the two sleeping boys, and slept again.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on January 21, 2016, 09:03:09 AM
It feels like forever since I've had the time to sit down and read what's been posted here!

Kiraly, every chapter of the hipster AU makes me chuckle! Looking forward to the next one!

LooNEY, I'm loving the jazz band AU, especially Emil train of thought and Onni's crippling stage fright (ah, the good old backstage hurl bucket...) :D

Róisín, I was just about to say how dare you leave us in suspense like that when you posted the conclusion! That was a beautiful ending, especially your description of Lalli's haven. (And I hope it goes without saying that I'm impressed with the runo you wrote, something I could never do in a hundred years - poetry is a bit of a closed book for me!)

DiscoMonster, this is some interesting stuff you've written!

Helia, poor Emil, I imagine going back to his old duties will be a nasty change of pace after the expedition's over!

shoop, I'm very excited for the next chapter!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Athena on January 21, 2016, 09:21:40 AM
Róisín The ending of "Gone Astray" was beautiful, thank you for writing such a wonderful story!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Kiraly on January 21, 2016, 10:14:32 AM
shoop I already said this on AO3, but I really enjoyed the first chapter and I'm excited to read more! Fantasy is my favorite genre, so I'm excited to see where you take the SSSS characters in that setting. :)

Róisín that ending was so beautiful! You had me worried though - I read it right before I was leaving for work and for a minute I thought I was going to start the day off really sad. (Thank goodness the Luonto came back!)

SectoBoss thanks so much! I'm glad you're enjoying it. :))
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on January 21, 2016, 11:12:09 AM
SectoBoss, Luth and Kiraly: glad you liked it! I'm really more of a poet than a prose writer, so glad the runo worked. I do try not to kill major characters, and should I do so will say so at the start, so as not to traumatise the unwilling!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Talimee on January 21, 2016, 04:50:42 PM
Many thanks Róisín for your beautiful little ficlet. I love your writing-style: so peaceful and well-defined. A good sentence gets the message across, but a masterly written sentence has it's own melodies and swirls. Just like poetry. ;)

Hopefully AO3 will work for you one day again, so that you can post it there and I can download it.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on January 21, 2016, 07:48:31 PM
Thanks, Talimee. I miss AO3. At least I can comment there, even if larger things won't load. Glad you liked the story.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Seilann on January 22, 2016, 06:06:59 PM
Róisín, great ending! It was so sweet, though you had me worried for a bit. :)

I'm pretty sure I commented on AO3 for everyone else, but it bears repeating that I loved it all!

Also, today my muse (probably named Procrastination or some such) descended upon me and commanded me to write this little Onni fic: http://archiveofourown.org/works/5789218
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Kiraly on January 22, 2016, 08:16:42 PM
Also, today my muse (probably named Procrastination or some such) descended upon me and commanded me to write this little Onni fic: http://archiveofourown.org/works/5789218
(I've already said this in two other places but I love this!)

Speaking of everyone's favorite older brother, someone made an appearance (sort of) in Chapter 5 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/5569909/chapters/13344139) of Silly Fluffy Hipster Band AU! Now with even more fluff.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Seilann on January 22, 2016, 09:07:49 PM
(I've already said this in two other places but I love this!)

Thank you! (For all three places!)

Speaking of everyone's favorite older brother, someone made an appearance (sort of) in Chapter 5 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/5569909/chapters/13344139) of Silly Fluffy Hipster Band AU! Now with even more fluff.

This made me giggle and squee TERRIBLY oh my god. I may have left you a record-breaking comment on AO3.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on January 22, 2016, 10:23:17 PM
So I know I was here and then wasn't, but I am now back and have kind of been productive in the time that I slunk away.
So if anyone wants a kind of weird, slightly quirky take on how they discuss how to solve the food problem Reynir's extra mouth makes, then I wrote something.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/5791189

Here it is

And now I will melt away in the darkness to regret everything I have ever done. Adieu, friends
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Kiraly on January 22, 2016, 10:42:40 PM
So I know I was here and then wasn't, but I am now back and have kind of been productive in the time that I slunk away.
So if anyone wants a kind of weird, slightly quirky take on how they discuss how to solve the food problem Reynir's extra mouth makes, then I wrote something.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/5791189

Here it is

And now I will melt away in the darkness to regret everything I have ever done. Adieu, friends

Ahahahaha! Please don't melt away, then who will write hilarious things like this? The twist at the end is what really got me.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on January 22, 2016, 11:03:11 PM
Ahahahaha! Please don't melt away, then who will write hilarious things like this? The twist at the end is what really got me.


Glad you enjoyed it. Wasn't sure how the whole 'Let's eat Reynir' thing was gonna go down, but I did hope people would like the fact that the 'kids' were doing the exact same thing on the other side of Sigrun's snow drift-fort of super secrecy 
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Kiraly on January 22, 2016, 11:16:14 PM

Glad you enjoyed it. Wasn't sure how the whole 'Let's eat Reynir' thing was gonna go down, but I did hope people would like the fact that the 'kids' were doing the exact same thing on the other side of Sigrun's snow drift-fort of super secrecy
Haha...I mean, I'll be honest, if they were actually going to eat Reynir I'd be at the head of the mob screaming "NOOOOO!!!"
But I feel like Reynir getting eaten has been a joke ever since he showed up in the food crate, and the way you wrote it is humorous, not creepy. :))
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Johannabelle on January 22, 2016, 11:29:52 PM
So I know I was here and then wasn't, but I am now back and have kind of been productive in the time that I slunk away.
So if anyone wants a kind of weird, slightly quirky take on how they discuss how to solve the food problem Reynir's extra mouth makes, then I wrote something.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/5791189

Here it is

And now I will melt away in the darkness to regret everything I have ever done. Adieu, friends
This is probably the best thing I've ever read. :)) I mean, wow. The tone was seriously great, and I'm having a really hard time choosing my favorite part, can I just say the entire thing is my favorite part? (cannible lalli though, that was hilarious. also boo-boos)   

Also, I would just like to mention that when they first acquired Reynir, Mikkel himself said "And in a worst case scenario we can always eat you." Which I'm sure was meant to be a joke, but you know. It's still makes the most sense.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on January 22, 2016, 11:58:54 PM
Yeah, what Kiraly said. Disturbingly, darkly funny.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on January 23, 2016, 12:15:46 AM
Yeah, what Kiraly said. Disturbingly, darkly funny.

I'm glad this has gone down well enough. I've really been enjoying a lot of the works on this site.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on January 23, 2016, 02:05:28 AM
Just so long as you understand that after this the fandom is going to be insisting that the next thing you write needs to be some meringue-like piece of fluff!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on January 23, 2016, 02:13:00 AM
Just so long as you understand that after this the fandom is going to be insisting that the next thing you write needs to be some meringue-like piece of fluff!
Yes, cannibalism tends to leave a bad taste in the mouth.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on January 23, 2016, 02:33:19 AM
Grrooann! LooNEY! I agree, though.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on January 23, 2016, 03:32:54 AM
Just so long as you understand that after this the fandom is going to be insisting that the next thing you write needs to be some meringue-like piece of fluff!


Already got a piece under-way for that. Seriously, the moment I started to ship Mr Perfect Hair and Mr Cat, I thought 'I think I need to see these two spooning in a bathtub in dangerous survival situation'
It's a very specific desire and the situation will take some fine-tuning, but I'm confident in my ability to obsess over ships
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on January 23, 2016, 03:44:40 AM
An ornate and decadent marble tub?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on January 23, 2016, 03:51:21 AM
An ornate and decadent marble tub?

Picture the one Will Smith used in 'I am legend'
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on January 23, 2016, 06:15:04 AM
Yes, cannibalism tends to leave a bad taste in the mouth.

(https://media1.giphy.com/media/qeA0jZAlsCHAI/200_s.gif)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Kiraly on January 23, 2016, 11:12:34 AM
I'm confident in my ability to obsess over ships

Yeah...I don't know anyone who does that...

*shoves half-finished models of the SS Reyri and SS Emilalli out of sight*


But seriously, I think you'll fit right in around here. ;)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on January 23, 2016, 12:41:49 PM
Yes, cannibalism tends to leave a bad taste in the mouth.
(https://media1.giphy.com/media/qeA0jZAlsCHAI/200_s.gif)
/me drops the next part of the Jazz AU and runs, giggling evilly

The Jylland Jump
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/“Jazz Age” crossover fanfic
Part 5
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg88720#msg88720)
Spoiler: show
Well, There Was This One Time...

Emil Västerström looked down at the foreign instrument in his hands and wondered why it was there. Of course, he knew the reason well enough: in light of Mikkel’s success at backing Emil up on woodwinds, Sigrun wanted the rest of them to try switching instruments, which was a reasonable enough idea that Trond had okayed their slipping away for a week to test it out.

Admittedly, which of them got what instrument seemed decidedly random--Lalli in particular was looking at his new bassoon as though it had just come down to him from outer space. In another move Emil dreaded considering the consequences of, Reynir had been given a set of cymbals; Mikkel was trying out a full-sized tuba; Tuuri was ready to wail on her cousin’s xylophone; and Sigrun was going to see if the saxophone could handle her magnificence. This left Emil looking at his euphonium doubtfully. With his luck, its name would prove the height of irony.

There were only three keys to press on this thing; how could anyone finagle a full chromatic scale out of those? Emil looked over at Mikkel, and then at Sigrun. Well, Sigrun probably just willed her trumpet to play the notes she wanted, knowing it would never be so foolish as to refuse, but Mikkel...

“Um, Mikkel...” Just how do I play this thing? Emil’s tongue tried to knot itself inside his mouth, but he managed to say, “I’ve never actually played a brass instrument before, and I...”

“You were, totally understandably, wondering how the fingering works,” Mikkel finished for him. “M’yes. The three valve system is rather counter-intuitive at first to someone used to the simplicity of woodwind fingerings, but once you get it, you’ve got it for any brass instrument.”

The next hour or so passed in a flurry of discourse interspersed with preliminary practicing, until Sigrun stormed up in a huff.

“Emil, go show Twigs how to play his bassoon; I can’t talk to him anymore, or someone’ll get hurt.” A frustrated growl ended her orders.

Emil looked over to where Lalli stood. His friend was practically arching his back and hissing in Sigrun’s direction. Emil sighed and thought to himself, ‘This is why we always need to keep a buffer between Sigrun and Lalli’.

Fortunately, Lalli wasn’t quite worked up badly enough that he would go into one of his near-legendary freak-outs. Unfortunately, Sigrun had also snarled at Tuuri, who was unintentionally working Lalli ever closer to that freak-out when Emil reached them.

It took quite a bit of effort for Emil to disentangle the two cousins, but eventually Lalli allowed himself to be soothed.

“You know, sometimes I think you don’t even know your cousin at all,” Emil told Tuuri in exasperation. “Simply look at him. He clearly just wants to be left alone and in peace for a while.” He turned to Lalli. “Give me the bassoon and go sack out in the bunk-room for a while. I’ll make sure nobody disturbs you.”

*

The week flew by after that, each day bringing surprises both pleasant and unpleasant. Emil slowly worked out how to make his euphonium live up to its name (though he knew he’d never make it wail like he could with a clarinet); Sigrun imposed her will upon the saxophone as readily as she did upon her trumpet; Mikkel managed to take some of Reynir’s bass riffs and make them work on the tuba; Tuuri got pretty good on the pit; Reynir managed not to concuss anyone; and Lalli... still looked at the bassoon as though it had just come down to him from outer space, but he could do some simple licks on it, at least.

All in all, Sigrun and the others were most satisfied with how their little band camp went. “Just remember to keep it up once we’re back in the Joint,” she cautioned. Emil wondered if she’d meant to associate their place of business with being in prison, but decided it was just a Freudian slip.

“OK, let’s just get a group photo before we go.”


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show

Yep, an edit (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=271.msg88026#msg88026) got this one going.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Kiraly on January 23, 2016, 02:14:42 PM
/me drops the next part of the Jazz AU and runs, giggling evilly

The Jylland Jump
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/“Jazz Age” crossover fanfic
Part 5
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg88720#msg88720)
Spoiler: show
Well, There Was This One Time...

Emil Västerström looked down at the foreign instrument in his hands and wondered why it was there. Of course, he knew the reason well enough: in light of Mikkel’s success at backing Emil up on woodwinds, Sigrun wanted the rest of them to try switching instruments, which was a reasonable enough idea that Trond had okayed their slipping away for a week to test it out.

Admittedly, which of them got what instrument seemed decidedly random--Lalli in particular was looking at his new bassoon as though it had just come down to him from outer space. In another move Emil dreaded considering the consequences of, Reynir had been given a set of cymbals; Mikkel was trying out a full-sized tuba; Tuuri was ready to wail on her cousin’s xylophone; and Sigrun was going to see if the saxophone could handle her magnificence. This left Emil looking at his euphonium doubtfully. With his luck, its name would prove the height of irony.

There were only three keys to press on this thing; how could anyone finagle a full chromatic scale out of those? Emil looked over at Mikkel, and then at Sigrun. Well, Sigrun probably just willed her trumpet to play the notes she wanted, knowing it would never be so foolish as to refuse, but Mikkel...

“Um, Mikkel...” Just how do I play this thing? Emil’s tongue tried to knot itself inside his mouth, but he managed to say, “I’ve never actually played a brass instrument before, and I...”

“You were, totally understandably, wondering how the fingering works,” Mikkel finished for him. “M’yes. The three valve system is rather counter-intuitive at first to someone used to the simplicity of woodwind fingerings, but once you get it, you’ve got it for any brass instrument.”

The next hour or so passed in a flurry of discourse interspersed with preliminary practicing, until Sigrun stormed up in a huff.

“Emil, go show Twigs how to play his bassoon; I can’t talk to him anymore, or someone’ll get hurt.” A frustrated growl ended her orders.

Emil looked over to where Lalli stood. His friend was practically arching his back and hissing in Sigrun’s direction. Emil sighed and thought to himself, ‘This is why we always need to keep a buffer between Sigrun and Lalli’.

Fortunately, Lalli wasn’t quite worked up badly enough that he would go into one of his near-legendary freak-outs. Unfortunately, Sigrun had also snarled at Tuuri, who was unintentionally working Lalli ever closer to that freak-out when Emil reached them.

It took quite a bit of effort for Emil to disentangle the two cousins, but eventually Lalli allowed himself to be soothed.

“You know, sometimes I think you don’t even know your cousin at all,” Emil told Tuuri in exasperation. “Simply look at him. He clearly just wants to be left alone and in peace for a while.” He turned to Lalli. “Give me the bassoon and go sack out in the bunk-room for a while. I’ll make sure nobody disturbs you.”

*

The week flew by after that, each day bringing surprises both pleasant and unpleasant. Emil slowly worked out how to make his euphonium live up to its name (though he knew he’d never make it wail like he could with a clarinet); Sigrun imposed her will upon the saxophone as readily as she did upon her trumpet; Mikkel managed to take some of Reynir’s bass riffs and make them work on the tuba; Tuuri got pretty good on the pit; Reynir managed not to concuss anyone; and Lalli... still looked at the bassoon as though it had just come down to him from outer space, but he could do some simple licks on it, at least.

All in all, Sigrun and the others were most satisfied with how their little band camp went. “Just remember to keep it up once we’re back in the Joint,” she cautioned. Emil wondered if she’d meant to associate their place of business with being in prison, but decided it was just a Freudian slip.

“OK, let’s just get a group photo before we go.”


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show

Yep, an edit (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=271.msg88026#msg88026) got this one going.


Haha, YES! As soon as I saw what instruments they were trying out I knew where that inspiration came from. I love Lalli vs. The Bassoon!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on January 23, 2016, 04:16:19 PM
(https://media1.giphy.com/media/qeA0jZAlsCHAI/200_s.gif)

/me drops the next part of the Jazz AU and runs, giggling evilly

The Jylland Jump
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/“Jazz Age” crossover fanfic
Part 5
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg88720#msg88720)
Spoiler: show
Well, There Was This One Time...

Emil Västerström looked down at the foreign instrument in his hands and wondered why it was there. Of course, he knew the reason well enough: in light of Mikkel’s success at backing Emil up on woodwinds, Sigrun wanted the rest of them to try switching instruments, which was a reasonable enough idea that Trond had okayed their slipping away for a week to test it out.

Admittedly, which of them got what instrument seemed decidedly random--Lalli in particular was looking at his new bassoon as though it had just come down to him from outer space. In another move Emil dreaded considering the consequences of, Reynir had been given a set of cymbals; Mikkel was trying out a full-sized tuba; Tuuri was ready to wail on her cousin’s xylophone; and Sigrun was going to see if the saxophone could handle her magnificence. This left Emil looking at his euphonium doubtfully. With his luck, its name would prove the height of irony.

There were only three keys to press on this thing; how could anyone finagle a full chromatic scale out of those? Emil looked over at Mikkel, and then at Sigrun. Well, Sigrun probably just willed her trumpet to play the notes she wanted, knowing it would never be so foolish as to refuse, but Mikkel...

“Um, Mikkel...” Just how do I play this thing? Emil’s tongue tried to knot itself inside his mouth, but he managed to say, “I’ve never actually played a brass instrument before, and I...”

“You were, totally understandably, wondering how the fingering works,” Mikkel finished for him. “M’yes. The three valve system is rather counter-intuitive at first to someone used to the simplicity of woodwind fingerings, but once you get it, you’ve got it for any brass instrument.”

The next hour or so passed in a flurry of discourse interspersed with preliminary practicing, until Sigrun stormed up in a huff.

“Emil, go show Twigs how to play his bassoon; I can’t talk to him anymore, or someone’ll get hurt.” A frustrated growl ended her orders.

Emil looked over to where Lalli stood. His friend was practically arching his back and hissing in Sigrun’s direction. Emil sighed and thought to himself, ‘This is why we always need to keep a buffer between Sigrun and Lalli’.

Fortunately, Lalli wasn’t quite worked up badly enough that he would go into one of his near-legendary freak-outs. Unfortunately, Sigrun had also snarled at Tuuri, who was unintentionally working Lalli ever closer to that freak-out when Emil reached them.

It took quite a bit of effort for Emil to disentangle the two cousins, but eventually Lalli allowed himself to be soothed.

“You know, sometimes I think you don’t even know your cousin at all,” Emil told Tuuri in exasperation. “Simply look at him. He clearly just wants to be left alone and in peace for a while.” He turned to Lalli. “Give me the bassoon and go sack out in the bunk-room for a while. I’ll make sure nobody disturbs you.”

*

The week flew by after that, each day bringing surprises both pleasant and unpleasant. Emil slowly worked out how to make his euphonium live up to its name (though he knew he’d never make it wail like he could with a clarinet); Sigrun imposed her will upon the saxophone as readily as she did upon her trumpet; Mikkel managed to take some of Reynir’s bass riffs and make them work on the tuba; Tuuri got pretty good on the pit; Reynir managed not to concuss anyone; and Lalli... still looked at the bassoon as though it had just come down to him from outer space, but he could do some simple licks on it, at least.

All in all, Sigrun and the others were most satisfied with how their little band camp went. “Just remember to keep it up once we’re back in the Joint,” she cautioned. Emil wondered if she’d meant to associate their place of business with being in prison, but decided it was just a Freudian slip.

“OK, let’s just get a group photo before we go.”


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show

Yep, an edit (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=271.msg88026#msg88026) got this one going.


Senpai noticed me!  This is fantastic work, thank you!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on January 23, 2016, 08:56:47 PM
LooNEY, that's great! Funny, and accords well with my mental image of how they would cope with the instruments, including the 'bassoon from outer space'. So long as Reynir doesn't catch Sigrun's ear or Mikkel's sideburns in those cymbals.....
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on January 24, 2016, 12:56:50 PM
Fair warning: reality has hit this next part, and darkened it rather.

The Jylland Jump
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/“Jazz Age” crossover fanfic
Part 6
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg89849#msg89849)
Spoiler: show
Chasing Emil

Malmö, Sweden
1946

Emil Västerström looked around Andersen’s Joint, noting how little it seemed to have changed, even through a war that had changed everything.

The decor was the same--most of it was probably exactly the same as it had been since the first time Emil had set foot in the Joint, as Old Trond hadn’t been one for such largesse as replacing “perfectly good tables and chairs” before they collapsed completely.

Old Trond himself was never coming back; the War had been his doom indeed. He’d been in the same cell of the Norwegian Resistance as Sigrun and her parents when the Germans took him, and he hadn’t returned, though not for the usual reason. No, the torture hadn’t yet begun when his captors found him dead in his sleep, undoubtedly smiling to himself at having deprived them of their prize.

Sigrun, Mikkel and Reynir had all been part of the Norwegian Resistance, trying to free that country; ironically, for most of the War that had put them on the opposite side from Emil, Taru and the three Hotakainens, who were all trying to keep Finland free.

Poor Taru. In one of the last Russian assaults of 1940, she had been captured, and while the Finn government was still trying to find out where she was and get her back, there was very little hope left for her after six years.

Old Trond had left his share in tandem to his junior partners: Sigrun’s parents and Taru; since Taru was... well, since the Swedish government accepted Onni, Tuuri and Lalli as Taru’s proxy holders, the Hotakainens had had few troubles relocating.

Lalli had been standing behind Emil as all these thoughts chased themselves through Emil’s mind; now, Lalli stepped up beside Emil and gave his friend a shoulder bump. Emil promptly wrapped his arm around Lalli’s shoulder, trying not to let the tears suddenly brimming fall, and Lalli let him, even going so far as to put his own arm on Emil’s shoulder.

Tuuri bustled in then, with some others, but only Tuuri forced herself into their awareness, looping her arm into Lalli’s free elbow.

“I found you an assistant in the pit, Lalli,” Tuuri bubbled. “A nice Finn girl I met through the Refugee Office, and a pretty good xylophonist, to boot.” Ignoring his silence, she continued, “Now, her name is Kerttu, so I don’t want you calling her, ‘Hey, you’, like you did with Georg and Tony!”

“They were jerks,” Lalli protested, letting Tuuri pull him over to the pit after Emil nodded.

“Do you really think it was a good idea to bring him here?” Tuuri asked once they were at the pit. “I mean, he looks like he might be headed for another freak-out.”

“You know, sometimes I think you don’t even know Emil at all,” Lalli told Tuuri in exasperation. “Listen.”

Emil had picked up a clarinet and was beginning to play. As he played and the jazz flowed ever freer, all the horrors and filth of the last seven years were washed away by its happy flood.

“That’s why we needed to bring him here,” Lalli stated, as if he were telling her “Water is wet”.

There was an edge to Emil’s playing now, though; one that reflected what had passed, both good and bad. It was still jazz instead of blues, though: edgy jazz, but jazz nonetheless.

A saxophone joined in, smoothly following in familiar riffs. Emil turned, though he didn’t really need to, and saw Onni behind him, dark sunglasses covering the scars where his eyes had been. Blind Onni, now truly blind, but as magnificent on the sax as ever.

Then two familiar trumpets joined in the burgeoning jam session, weaving their own threads into the musical tapestry, and soon bass, drum kit and pit followed suit. The Malmö Musikers were jamming again.

“OK, guys, let’s take five,” Sigrun ordered when the set drew to a close. A waiter came up with water for them, followed by an eerily young-looking cigarette girl, who smiled saucily at Emil.

“Well,” she said dryly as Emil pored over the selection in her tray, “I never thought I’d get to hear Benny Goodman jamming live in this place.”

Emil snorted. “Benny Goodman’s better than I. I do have better hair, though,” he bantered awkwardly.

After a few minutes more of indecision, the girl pulled out a cigarette and handed it to Emil. “Here you go. Betcha can’t make this sing like your clarinet, though.” She was definitely teasing now.

Emil looked at the cigarette girl warily, even as he took the proffered cigarette. “What’s your name, anyways?”

She smiled again as she lit the cigarette and replied, “Marta Kiianmies.”

“Nice name,” Emil said. This one seemed uncommonly sensible; hopefully, she’d stick around for a while...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show

THIS IS NOT THE END.

I felt I should emphasize that.

...And look: it’s Marta (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg47728#msg47728) and Kerttu (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg50899#msg50899).
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on January 24, 2016, 01:23:40 PM
Aaaaaaaand after a long stretch of writer's block, here is Part 2 of my Matrix crossover Dangerous. (In addition, Chapter 1 has been edited to take Onni's new characterization into account.)

(Also third edit in a row because I apparently fail at formatting today. *headdesk*)

Also! Before I get to the chapter, I already posted these over in the memes thread, but I'd like some feedback on which of my cover ideas looks better:

Spoiler: Potential Covers • show

(http://i.imgur.com/cYaLPdF.png) (http://i.imgur.com/fh5EBxK.png)


Previous chapter (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg86776;topicseen#msg86776)

Spoiler: Dangerous Chapter 2 • show
I don’t know whether you’ve been looking for him, but he’s spent the last eight years looking for you.

Lalli stared again at the disk in his hand.  When he’d woken up that evening, his life had been normal.  Now, he had no idea what was going to happen next.

Listen.  I can’t talk long; I think they’re on to me.  Take this.

Mostly, other people left him alone, and that was exactly the way that he liked it.  When the other teenager with the long blond hair had approached him, though, he’d been determined to talk to Lalli at any cost.

What you do with it is up to you.  But please at least look at it.  Please.

That was all he’d said before he swore under his breath and took off running, pushing Lalli away from him as he did.  His departure had been followed by the footsteps of three men in black suits chasing after him, a ringing phone, and then silence.

None of the men had seemed to notice him… or the disk that he still held in his hand.

He pushed it into the drive.

There was a faint clicking sound as the button popped out in response.  After waiting a moment for the computer to recognize the new disk, Lalli moved to the folder where it was located and opened it.  The folder contained a handful of text files, in addition to one bitmap and a short sound byte.  None of them seemed to harbor viruses.

He opened the sound file.

In spite of the low quality, the voice that came out of the computer speakers seemed oddly familiar—as if he’d heard it before in a dream that he’d long ago forgotten.  Even weirder, however, was what that voice was saying.

“Lalli,” the man began.  “You may not remember me, but I remember you—and I remember Kuutar.”

***

How?

It was the only question in his mind over the next few days.  Nobody knew about his prayers to Kuutar.  Those times as a child when he’d stood in the night and chanted to give himself safe moonlight, he’d always been alone, and he’d told no one.  Nobody knew what he knew about the world; nobody would have believed what he was doing, or understood his hopes that parting the clouds would maybe, just maybe, help him to see a truth that was deeper than the moon’s mere light.

What was on that disk had promised him the truth.

The text files, when he’d opened them, had finally offered him validation for a feeling that he’d had for as long as he could remember.  He’d sat at his computer for the rest of the night and a good chunk of the morning besides, reading through everything the mysterious writer had to say.

The world as you know it is a lie.

A simulation.  A mental prison where people were kept to keep them under control.  Ones and zeroes.

No wonder nothing had ever felt real to him.

The only remaining file, the bitmap, had been strange as well.  It didn’t seem to serve any purpose; the grainy photograph had shown only a portrait of a man—except that looking at it had produced the same twinge of recognition that he’d felt when he’d first played the sound file.  Looking more closely, he saw that though the man was older and sturdier in build, he shared the same ash-blond hair and light blue eyes that stared back at Lalli whenever he happened to look in a mirror.

After he had familiarized himself with the contents of the disk, he ejected it from the drive and smashed it to pieces.  That was one other instruction that had been very, very clear.

Let no one see this information.  If you still want to know the whole truth, my contact will find you again.

***

The knock on his door came as a complete surprise.

Lalli sat bolt upright in his chair, every muscle in his body gone stiff.  No one knocked at his door.  No one came into his home.  He didn’t want people coming into his home—this was his space.

The knock came again.

He pressed himself against the back of the chair, hands coming up to cover his ears.  If he stayed still and silent for long enough, they’d assume he wasn’t home.  They might go away.

The knock came again, louder.  A man’s voice shouted “Open the door!”

I’m not home, he thought.  I’m not home now, go away.

A splintering crash jarred through his senses, and then there were footsteps, many footsteps, and a whole squad of police officers burst into his home, guns trained on him.  Lalli froze.

Among them was a man in a black suit and sunglasses, and he stepped forward from among the ranks of armed men and women.  “Mr. Hotakainen,” he drawled.  “We have reason to believe you have been in contact with a known terrorist organization.”


Spoiler: Notes • show
A Matrix story just wouldn't be a Matrix story without Agent Smith showing up at some point.  Nor could I resist the title drop.

Originally my plan was to have Onni make contact with Lalli himself, but after the last few Onni-centric pages that have come out I realized that that was something that Onni would never do, and adjusted accordingly.  I've also inverted Onni's phobia in this story; this Onni is perfectly willing to go out into physical danger, but won't jack into the Matrix under any circumstances.  There may be a slight possibility that this is due to some traumatic event that happened in his past...


Next chapter (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg90712#msg90712)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Talimee on January 24, 2016, 04:25:29 PM
LooNEY! What an awesome twist! I never saw that coming. And whoa! Emil and Onni! Two blows in the gut without so much as a warning! Now I'm all edgy for it to go on.
I also smiled at the nearly similar sentences Lalli and Emil said to Tuuri in this and the last chapter. Very cute and acurate. :D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on January 24, 2016, 09:39:33 PM
Aaaaaaaand after a long stretch of writer's block, here is Part 2 of my Matrix crossover Dangerous.
(snip)
Yes, it seems to be worth the wait...

NOW GET THAT NEXT PART OUT BEFORE WE ALL DIE FROM THE SUSPENSE!!!

…I mean, please do continue the story.
LooNEY! What an awesome twist! I never saw that coming. And whoa! Emil and Onni! Two blows in the gut without so much as a warning! Now I'm all edgy for it to go on.
I also smiled at the nearly similar sentences Lalli and Emil said to Tuuri in this and the last chapter. Very cute and acurate. :D
Spoiler: show
Well, I did say "reality hit them", and given the time and place, WWII was the only big reality to hit them.

I was trying to show the near-inversion of the Lalli-Emil roles with the parallel quotes.

The twist was really the only way this part wasn't too bleak to post, honestly. I mean, everything else followed from the characters and the War, and was just bleak bleak bleak bleak bleak, so I put the twist in there as the "hope spot", as such.

And again, this is not the end.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Amity on January 25, 2016, 03:13:19 AM
Emil and the Wasps

(special thanks to misea, Rosepieces, and OrigamiOwl)

(apologies to Sergei Prokofiev (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_and_the_Wolf))

(moved here from Poetry by request of mods)

This is the story of Emil and the Wasps.  In this story, the characters are represented by the instruments of the symphony orchestra.

For example, Reynir is played by the high-voiced flute.

{ flute }

Tuuri is played by the gorgeous oboe.

{ oboe }

Lalli is played by the beautiful, sultry clarinet.

{ clarinet }

Mikkel is played by the deep-voiced bassoon.

{ bassoon }

Emil is played by the carefree string section.

{ strings }

Sigrun is played by the kettle drum and the bass drum.

{ rolling thunder of drums }

And the wasps are played ...

... by all the kazoos and vuvuzelas in the audience.

{ ominous crescendo of discordant buzzing }



So, now, here is our story.

Early one morning, Emil opened the cat tank door and went out into the great, green meadow.

{ strings }

On the branch of a big tree sat Reynir, Emil’s friend. "I'm helping with ... stuff!" chirped Reynir happily.

{ flute }

Soon after, Tuuri came strolling around. She was glad that Emil had not closed the door, and decided to take a nice swim in the deep pond that happened to be right there in the meadow.

{ oboe }

Seeing Tuuri, Reynir alit down on the ground, sat himself near to where Tuuri was swimming, and shrugged his shoulders...  "What kind of a Nord are you, if you don't climb trees!" he said. To this, Tuuri replied: "What kind of a Nord are you, if you can’t swim!" and, splashing him playfully, dove into the pond.

{ oboe and flute duet, leisurely }

They argued and argued – Tuuri swimming in the pond, and Reynir hopping around waving his arms along the bank.

{ oboe and flute duet, faster }

Suddenly something caught Emil's attention. He noticed Lalli, crawling cat-like through the grass.

{ clarinet }

Lalli thought: "My cousin is busy arguing with that weirdo?  I’ll just grab her and we'll go back home to Finland."  Stealthily he crept toward her on his smooth neoprene protective garments.

{ clarinet }

"Look out!" shouted Emil, and Reynir immediately jumped and practically flew back into the tree.

{ flute, strings }

From the middle of the pond, Tuuri scolded Lalli angrily for sneaking up on them like that.

{ clarinet, oboe }

Lalli skulked around the tree and thought: "Is it worth climbing up so high?  By the time I get there, that redhead with the braid will have jumped down."

{ flute, clarinet }

That was when Mikkel came out. He was angry because Emil had gone to the meadow. "This is a dangerous place," he said.  "If angry wasps were to come swarming out of the forest, then what would you do??"

{ bassoon }

Everyone else looked baffled at Mikkel's words.  Emil paid no attention at all.  Swedes such as he are not afraid of wasps.

{ strings }

But Mikkel took Emil by the shoulder, force-marched him back to the cat-tank, and locked the door.

{ oboe, strings }

No sooner had Emil gone, that a big, buzzing cloud of wasps did come swarming out of the forest.

{ kazoos first, softly, joined by a dramatic crescendo of vuvuzelas }

In a twinkling, Lalli scampered up the tree.

{ clarinet }

Tuuri shrieked, and in her panic jumped out of the pond.

{ oboe }

But no matter how hard Tuuri tried to run, she couldn’t escape the wasps.

{ oboe }

The swarm was getting nearer.... and nearer... catching up with her... and then they caught up with her, and stung her!  She went running to the cat-tank flailing her arms, and locked herself in with Emil.

{ vuvuzelas and kazoos }

And now, this is how things stood:  Lalli was sitting on one branch of the tree...

{ clarinet }

Reynir on another, trying to get closer to Lalli...

{ flute, clarinet }

and the wasps swarmed around and around the tree, in a cloud of angry buzzing.

{ kazooes, vuvuzelas, flute, clarinet }

In the meantime, Emil, without a single out-of-place hair, sat inside the cat tank listening to Tuuri tell him what was going on.

{ strings, oboe }

He left the cat tank, went around to the back, opened the trunk, took a strong net, and climbed up the side of the tank to the roof.

{ strings, oboe }

One of the branches of the tree around which the wasps were swarming stretched out over the cat tank.

{ strings, clarinet }

Grabbing hold of the branch...

{ strings, flute }

Emil clambered over onto the tree.

{ strings, woodwinds }

Emil panted heavily, and said to Reynir: "(phew) Hey, why don't you jump down and (phew) distract the wasps... just (phew) take care that they don't sting you."

{ flute, strings }

Reynir, slightly bird-brained, was eager to help, and jumped down to dance around the angry wasps, while they buzzed and swarmed after him, from this side and that!

{ kazoos, vuvuzelas, flute }

How Reynir did antagonize the wasps! How they wanted to sting him! But Reynir was clever and had some outdoor experience, and he made evading the wasps seem easy to Emil.

{ kazoos, vuvuzelas, buzz, BUZZ! }

Seeing this and deciding it would be simple, Emil carefully climbed down with the net...

{ tense strings }

... swung it into the swarm, and tried to catch all the wasps in a single sweep!

{ even more tense strings }

Feeling themselves get tangled up in the net, the wasps went berzerk and began stinging Emil over and over!

{ strings, kazoos, vuvuzelas }

"This is not how this part of the story is supposed to go!" cried Emil, swinging the net wildly and running from the wasp swarm as it stung him mercilessly.

{ kazoos, vuvuzelas, discordant strings }

Lalli and Reynir watched in bafflement from their various vantage points, wondering how Emil thought this was ever going to work.

{ kazoos, vuvuzelas, woodwinds }

Just then ...

{ drums }

... Sigrun came out of the woods, wearing a mesh beekeeper's outfit ...

{ drums }

... guided by Tuuri ...

{ oboe, drums }

... following the wasps, and firing off a flamethrower as she went.

{ drums }

But Emil, staggering around the meadow covered in wasp stings, cried: "Hold your fire!  Everything is fine!  The pain has passed.... I no longer feel anything below my eyebrows!  Below... hold your... Reynir and I have this totally ... under control!  Totally .... totally ... under ... "

{ dreamy strings }

So, now...  imagine the triumphant procession.

Emil, on morphine.

{ orchestra, dreamily }

After him, Sigrun carrying the charred remains of the wasps and their nest.

{ orchestra with kazoos, triumphantly }

And winding up the procession, Mikkel and Lalli. Mikkel shook his head, discontentedly: "Well, and what if Emil had gone into anaphylactic shock?  What then, hmm?"

Lalli didn't understand a word he said.

{ orchestra, majestically }

Around them skipped Reynir, chirping merrily: "I helped!  What a brave and clever fellow I was!  I helped!"

{ orchestra, flute solo }

And if you listen very carefully, you could hear Tuuri laughing from within the cat tank, driving slowly behind them all.

{ finale }
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Kiraly on January 26, 2016, 12:21:18 AM
Eeep, I have been neglecting to tell people how amazing their things are! So many amazing things. I am too tired to be specific. Too tired because basically I've spent the last 24 hours falling down the Reypunzel rabbit hole. I now emerge from the other side bearing this piece of fluff (http://archiveofourown.org/works/5822077). There are pictures. I'll probably put those in the art thread. Or maybe the crossover thread. Or you can see them when you read the fic.

*crawls into bed and passes out*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on January 26, 2016, 01:09:31 AM
The Good, the Bad, and the Bestial
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/Western crossover fanfic
Part 17
Caper the Third: The Cave of Time
Part 6
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg84699#msg84699)
Spoiler: show
Shaking Off the Tar Baby

Somewhere in Galicia, Spain
11 December, 1808

Mikkel poleaxed was certainly a sight to see, and the fact of two poleaxed Mikkels staring at each other with identical expressions only amplified that. The others were content to gaze on at the sight, but Reynir had to speak.

“So, what’s up, Doc Mikkel? Why are you strolling about in the dark, alone?”

The question seemed to bring the interloping doppelgänger to life again. He started, opened his mouth, reconsidered, and finally decided what to divulge to these strange copies of his comrades.

They had been conducting a raid against the French and their local hirelings when Tuuri, through an awful misfortune, had been stabbed by a rusty bayonet. Sigrun had dispatched its wielder almost casually, but the damage had been done, and she obviously blamed herself. Since then, their activities had been more and more curtailed, as the French brought more and more troops into Spain to face their enemies.

Things got worse. Inevitably, it seemed, their Tuuri’s wound had turned septic, and their Mikkel, though skilled and smart, was powerless to help her. It was only a matter of time before the Eide Traveling Players were short one member.

Desperate, but too self-contained to show it and upset the Captain, Mikkel had gone off in search of native herbs that might assist him. He hadn’t held out much hope.

Of course, when he’d heard the familiar voices from this little canyon, Mikkel had naturally assumed that his friends were out looking for him, and rejoined them, as he’d thought, with a bit of light banter.

“Mikkel,” a very tentative Tuuri said, “I might know how to help her, if you’ll let me.”

*

Tuuri Face-Like-Baby had not learned much from the community’s Eldest Midwife, but she had picked up on a few, a very few, important bits of the Old Lore.

The Eldest Midwife had impressed the importance of cleaning wounds so sepsis couldn’t set in, but she’d also vouchsafed a somewhat risky way to drive sepsis out if it did get a foothold. Sometimes it killed rather than cured, but sepsis was a death sentence anyway, so most sufferers chose to chance it, if they were still coherent enough to make the choice.

Tuuri Hotakainen was not coherent enough to make a choice. Tuuri Face-Like-Baby looked at her erstwhile twin doubtfully, then applied the poultice.

*

The poultice worked, and Tuuri was on the mend. Sigrun, however, was not. She’d taken Tuuri’s plight far more to heart than she’d let on to anyone else, letting the notion of her own responsibility in the matter eat at her like a starveling dog, slowly eroding her wonted self-assurance.

The two Emils had put their heads together to mix up something “special” (dangerous, flammable, explosive, or all three) for the next venture: a raid on a local concentration of French troops, just to stir things up a little

“I don’t think we can do this without your help,” one Sigrun confessed to the other.

“Sure you can,” the Western Sigrun replied with her usual breezy confidence. “You’re Sigrun Eide, head of the Eide Traveling Players, and that’s all the help you need.”

The other Sigrun smiled back at her, drew herself up, took in a long, slow breath, and let it out just as slowly. “OK. Time to do this.”

*

The Westerners were back in the canyon when the Man in the Black Hat stepped out from the Cave, his flunkies surrounding him and preventing even Lalli from getting a clear shot. Sigrun waited until the knot of men had inched a good piece away from the Cave to bring the storm down upon them.

The Man in the Black Hat dropped to the ground at the first shots. He was untouched, and meant to stay that way. “Loose the Beasts!” he snarled, wriggling his way back to the Cave as his henchmen rushed to do his bidding.

As soon as the Man in the Black Hat gave his order, his opponents began pouring as much lead as they could on his flunkies. They all remembered what they’d seen on Bornholm, and they weren’t about to let that happen here!

With his dying breath, the last flunky opened the cage nearest him, allowing the Beast within to spring forth...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show

They’re baaaaaaaaaaaaaack!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on January 26, 2016, 03:22:27 AM
Kiraly, I've left my comments on AO3, but I'll say here: that was hysterical!

LooNEY, that has me on the edge of my seat! Don't leave the next bit too long!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on January 26, 2016, 06:23:14 PM
What do you guys think about AU's? I'm trying to decide what kind of world I should set a fic in, and I'm wondering what your thoughts are on AU's for SSSS in general
So far, the only options that really seem like workable things to me are modern settings and a setting where it's SSSS except the trolls are changed in some way
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on January 26, 2016, 07:42:57 PM
What do you guys think about AU's? I'm trying to decide what kind of world I should set a fic in, and I'm wondering what your thoughts are on AU's for SSSS in general
So far, the only options that really seem like workable things to me are modern settings and a setting where it's SSSS except the trolls are changed in some way

If you like the idea and think you can make it work, then go for it!

If you take a look around this thread, you'll see people writing all sorts of different AUs and crossovers, from modern to Western to fairy tale - I'm currently working on a Matrix crossover, of all things. If there's a specific idea you had that you'd like some feedback on, post it and see whether anyone is willing to idea bounce with you.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Yuuago on January 26, 2016, 09:32:32 PM
What do you guys think about AU's? I'm trying to decide what kind of world I should set a fic in, and I'm wondering what your thoughts are on AU's for SSSS in general
So far, the only options that really seem like workable things to me are modern settings and a setting where it's SSSS except the trolls are changed in some way

My overall thought is: Write what makes you happy. If you like a particular setting and want to write it, then write that. Some plots work better with some changes, anyway. As long as you label it, it's all cool.
Of the two you suggest above, "SSSS except the trolls are changed in some way" idea sounds like something I would be interested in reading.

The canon setting is what interests me the most, so I usually gravitate toward stories with that, or maybe stuff that's canon-divergent, or 'mostly the same except this one thing is different'. But sometimes very different alternate universe settings can be interesting.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Kiraly on January 26, 2016, 09:47:46 PM
What do you guys think about AU's? I'm trying to decide what kind of world I should set a fic in, and I'm wondering what your thoughts are on AU's for SSSS in general
So far, the only options that really seem like workable things to me are modern settings and a setting where it's SSSS except the trolls are changed in some way

I feel like there are plenty of directions you could go with an AU, and so far I haven't seen any that I didn't enjoy. (I've also written a few, so I may be biased, haha). I think AUs are fun because you get to figure out how the characters translate into a different setting...how do you keep the essence of the character even though some things are different? Probably my favorite part about writing AU is getting to twist those little character details to fit the new world. (So for instance, in my modern/hipster band AU Tuuri is a bike mechanic and Reynir works for an urban farm; Emil accidentally lights appliances on fire whenever he tries to cook. Things like that.)

Anyway, I'll echo what others have said...pick something that interests you and go for it! Others will most likely enjoy it too. :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Olga Veresk on January 27, 2016, 06:24:38 AM
Guys, you are so talented!

I'm not so experienced in writing, but some time ago wrote a fic for Secret Santa. It's rather short (about 2000 words), and without any warnings. I'd like to share it here, but I'm not a native speaker, and it would be better to check it.

Is there anyone to proof-read it?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Fenris on January 27, 2016, 06:47:03 AM
Guys, you are so talented!

I'm not so experienced in writing, but some time ago wrote a fic for Secret Santa. It's rather short (about 2000 words), and without any warnings. I'd like to share it here, but I'm not a native speaker, and it would be better to check it.

Is there anyone to proof-read it?
I could give it a read, although I'm not a native speaker.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on January 28, 2016, 08:01:47 AM
Further to AUs, we've had high school, coffeeshop, time travel, western, jazz age, prohibition-era Chicago, modern era Scandinavia where the Rash worked out differently, science fiction, urban hipster, fairytale, nakki,...... Have I forgotten any? So I think how readers feel about AU stories depends on the writing. Have fun!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: frostykitty on January 28, 2016, 05:01:39 PM
*clumsily sneaks in to forum*
Hello, I finally went through the whole (nearly, almost, who needs specifics...) fanfic thread and these are ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL! And uh, you people have me an idea... I already have 2 and a half chapters written (they are kinda small though,). But I guess I should first ask, do you guys think that it would be too unlikely that the team would run in to some cleansers at all? Not like that was my whole plan, haha, nooo....

Guys, you are so talented!

I'm not so experienced in writing, but some time ago wrote a fic for Secret Santa. It's rather short (about 2000 words), and without any warnings. I'd like to share it here, but I'm not a native speaker, and it would be better to check it.

Is there anyone to proof-read it?
I'm a native speaker, if you still need help.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Yuuago on January 28, 2016, 05:10:38 PM
And uh, you people have me an idea... I already have 2 and a half chapters written (they are kinda small though,). But I guess I should first ask, do you guys think that it would be too unlikely that the team would run in to some cleansers at all? Not like that was my whole plan, haha, nooo....

It depends. With the current mission, at the current canon point? Very unlikely. Part of the thing about where they are now is that nobody from the known world has been there in a very long time. It would take work to make it convincing, I think. Not saying it's impossible though - just that it would take work.

But if it happened at a later time than current canon - such as if the current mission wraps up, and then they go on another in a different location - I wouldn't even blink.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: frostykitty on January 28, 2016, 05:34:45 PM
I can work that in, definitely. I might have to change up the first chapter/make up a small prologue, but nothing major has happened to contradict that...

Would  it be okay if I posted the first chapter here once it's edited?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Yuuago on January 28, 2016, 05:51:50 PM
Would  it be okay if I posted the first chapter here once it's edited?

Of course! That's what this thread is for. : D
Just remember to use a spoiler to cut for length if you post it directly. Or you can link to it externally (by posting on Ao3 etc).
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: frostykitty on January 28, 2016, 07:30:11 PM
Okay, sorry it took a bit longer than expected. Distractions in the form of math homework came along...
Here's the prologue to the little story, just put together so forgive any mistakes.
Spoiler: show
{prologue}
     Emil crossed his arms with a fake grumble as they laughed. Tuuri shook her head, stifling a giggle, "I don't think that could've happened..." The cleanser scoffed.
   "It did! It did! They all respected me after that!" He said, accidentally smiled. "I killed the giant Sigrun-style, I'm telling you!" Sigrun reached over from her seat and ruffled his hair.
   "I'm flattered..." The captain grinned before breaking out in to laughter again. Lalli glowered at them all from his corner, mumbling something about 'too loud'. Reynir and his fellow mage were the only ones not laughing. The Icelander looked, almost, star struck, as if he believed Emil's story. They had all just finished swapping their stories from the past, what was it now, maybe three? years they had been apart. The first mission was such a success! No one had died, so that was, of course, an improvement from the expectations. But many of the books, though they were of various subjects and odd topics, had been valuable. Another improvement.
  So obviously, if it went well the first time, it must end even better the second time. Thus another mission was soon planned and the old crew notified. They all accepted, Reynir grudgingly, and gathered at the base as soon as they could. Now they were fully prepared (amazingly) and enjoying their week of peace together before heading out in to the Silent World once again. This time, it was somewhere north... Between Norway and Sweden's northern most cleansed areas, but a little farther in to the Silent lands.
   Lalli had learned some Swedish from his cousin over the years so he could communicate with the others if they ever met again. A troll had nearly broken in to Keuruu. Tuuri had been promoted. The basic news and a few stories from those two. Emil, of course, had all of his 'adventures' from working as a cleanser. Sigrun had her riveting tales of danger and suspense from troll hunting. Reynir had begun the proper form of education for mages. And now he could do something more than see 'ghosts', Emil had mused. Mikkel seemed reluctant to share anything, more interested in listening to the others.
   Eventually, they decided, they had to get some sleep. So off they went. They all had dreams of the months of adventure they had shared those few years ago, and, unsurprisingly, Lalli had ended up sleeping under someone's bed.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Athena on January 28, 2016, 07:37:20 PM
Okay, sorry it took a bit longer than expected. Distractions in the form of math homework came along...
Here's the prologue to the little story, just put together so forgive any mistakes.
Spoiler: show
{prologue}
     Emil crossed his arms with a fake grumble as they laughed. Tuuri shook her head, stifling a giggle, "I don't think that could've happened..." The cleanser scoffed.
   "It did! It did! They all respected me after that!" He said, accidentally smiled. "I killed the giant Sigrun-style, I'm telling you!" Sigrun reached over from her seat and ruffled his hair.
   "I'm flattered..." The captain grinned before breaking out in to laughter again. Lalli glowered at them all from his corner, mumbling something about 'too loud'. Reynir and his fellow mage were the only ones not laughing. The Icelander looked, almost, star struck, as if he believed Emil's story. They had all just finished swapping their stories from the past, what was it now, maybe three? years they had been apart. The first mission was such a success! No one had died, so that was, of course, an improvement from the expectations. But many of the books, though they were of various subjects and odd topics, had been valuable. Another improvement.
  So obviously, if it went well the first time, it must end even better the second time. Thus another mission was soon planned and the old crew notified. They all accepted, Reynir grudgingly, and gathered at the base as soon as they could. Now they were fully prepared (amazingly) and enjoying their week of peace together before heading out in to the Silent World once again. This time, it was somewhere north... Between Norway and Sweden's northern most cleansed areas, but a little farther in to the Silent lands.
   Lalli had learned some Swedish from his cousin over the years so he could communicate with the others if they ever met again. A troll had nearly broken in to Keuruu. Tuuri had been promoted. The basic news and a few stories from those two. Emil, of course, had all of his 'adventures' from working as a cleanser. Sigrun had her riveting tales of danger and suspense from troll hunting. Reynir had begun the proper form of education for mages. And now he could do something more than see 'ghosts', Emil had mused. Mikkel seemed reluctant to share anything, more interested in listening to the others.
   Eventually, they decided, they had to get some sleep. So off they went. They all had dreams of the months of adventure they had shared those few years ago, and, unsurprisingly, Lalli had ended up sleeping under someone's bed.


Ooh, I like it! I'm excited to see where you will take this, it's an interesting start! You represent the characters well, their personalities are on-point.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: frostykitty on January 28, 2016, 08:42:36 PM
Thank you! It's my first fanfiction, so I was a little worried about the personalities...
So now that I am semi-satisfied with the first chapter (so far the longer of the two prepared) I will put it here. It might seem a little odd, but I was figuring once they were back in the cat-tank and in to their old uniforms, they would go right back to their routines. (And it might not be the original cat-tank, who knows.) But here's this... If it's too long, I can break it in to two parts. I don't have anything (currently) to count the words with other than my brain. AND FINALLY this is the second day since they left, heading to their first real camp.
Spoiler: show
{chapter 1}

       Tuuri cast a worried glance up at the captain, who was glaring steadily out the window at something up ahead. The captain, Sigrun, crossed her arms with a small growl and stood upright once again before calling for Emil. He was already there, looking at the huge clouds of smoke and ashes, head tilted.

   "What is this?" Sigrun snapped at the cleanser, waving her hands at the blackening sky. He only shrugged in reply.

   "I guess it could be a team, but I didn't know they went this far away from settlements..." Emil mumbled, something sparking in his eyes. Delight? Excitement? Fear? No matter, Sigrun wasn't very satisfied with the answer. She would probably be more upbeat about the possibility of an adventure if it wasn't for the awful luck they'd been having with almost anything they encountered... And they hadn't even went on a mission yet!

   She started grumbling things to herself and walked out the door of the cat-tank to get a better view and was soon followed by Emil and a half-awake Lalli. Tuuri peered her head out the door once she had found her mask and sighed. There was no way her cousin, the scout, could have planned a backup rout for this.

   "Should we find another camp?" The driver asked, cautiously stepping outside to join the group.
   "I don't think we have to..." Emil trailed off with a questioning look at the captain. "I mean, if it's cleansers, they won't try to kill us or anything. We could check it out really quick to make sure." He reasoned, turning his head back to the billowing smoke clouds.

   "Eh, I guess we could try that..." Sigrun wrinkled her nose and put her hand on her chin. "But if they're all dead and getting attacked by trolls, we're not helping them. Unless it's only a few and not a whole nest or something." Her normal lopsided grin returned as she looked down at Emil with a laugh, "But I don't want to see you joining in and throwing out all our explosives!"

  Emil just rolled his eyes in amusement with a small smirk. "You're asking a lot of me, but I will try to the best of my ability!" Just then, he noticed that Mikkel and Reynir had also come outside. Mikkel had his arms crossed as usual, a bored expression on his face, but Reynir looked both exited and terrified at the same time as he gazed up at the smoke.

  "So, I'm guessing, you three are going and I'm to be left here?" Mikkel asked Sigrun, who nodded. He sighed and closed his eyes.

  Noticing his disappointment, Sigrun tried to explain herself. "Well, we need someone to protect them if a troll attacked, and we don't want to drive in to some fiery mess of death! I mean, it'll probably be fine, we just want to make sure... And if there is something big-"

  "Say no more," Mikkel said, cutting her off and turning back to the tank. "Come on, before this smoke poisons our lungs much more..." he muttered in Icelandic, catching Reynir's attention and getting the young mage to follow.

  Sigrun sighed before pulling a face behind Mikkel's back. When Tuuri had finished translating the plan to Lalli, she headed inside, too. Sigrun once again grinned and put her hands on her hips.

   "Come on, guys! Let's go explore!" The captain said, marching off towards the smoke with her knife held in the air, pointing to their destination like a compass. Emil hurried after with a grin of his own, holding Lalli's hand and dragging the tired scout along with them. Lalli yawned but didn't protest and let the noisy Swede lead him to the burning town.

   The area was a bit odd. It was a clearing it seemed, or maybe it had been recently cleansed, perhaps the year before... No matter, there was a good layer of snow on the ground and among a few collapsed house frames, the pale morning sunlight determined to break through the smoke. It was silent for a while, until they neared the urban area from which the smoke came from. It was indeed fire, as they could now hear by the snapping and crashing sounds of burning buildings, which seemed to brighten Emil's mood even more. Then there was a scream for an unknown source, usually something quite reliable to dampen everyone's spirits.

   Sigrun stopped and barely noticed when the two boys bumped in to her. She raised her knife at the ready and put a finger to her lips. Emil stifled a whimper as his eyes darted from place to place, searching the ruins of houses for movement. Lalli just let out a small sigh and looked around, quickly checking the area, before rolling his eyes and continuing to the fires. It was clear, probably only a troll getting caught in the fire, right? And so they kept moving, Sigrun disappointed at not getting to smash something's skull and Emil's happiness smothered with fear.

***
  Lalli stopped suddenly at the sound of voices. The mage put a hand on the hilt of his dagger and looked around suspiciously. Sigrun let out a small evil laugh and brandished her knife while Emil moaned and moved to stand beside his friend.

  "Everything alright?" The cleanser asked in concern, knowing Lalli wouldn't understand him too well, anyway. The only answer was a sigh and a pat or two on the head, and with that they kept moving. It was already quite warm, and as they turned the corner they could see it. The huge fire, spreading from house to house, with figures scrambling around it. Emil grinned and laughed, rubbing his hands together, earning him a suspicious glance from Sigrun. The captain leaned on one of the crumbling walls of a partially blown up building and continued to glare at the group of people around the flames. There did seem to be a few trolls as well, but not too many, she could probably help with at least one...

   "So what should we do now?" Emil questioned to no avail. He tilted his head and tapped her on the shoulder, quickly dodging the knife thrown at him.

   "Oh, sorry, kid..." Sigrun chuckled, retrieving her weapon from the ground and putting it back in her belt. "Let's go say hi or whatever, maybe we can help them with their troll problem, too." She started to sneak off towards the group of cleansers, the other two following her with their weapons out. Another scream.


(Notes below)
Spoiler: show
Do you like the ending? I think it's just perfect and not mysterious at all!
If you find a problem, just tell me. Gentle criticism would be good. I know I'm writing the sentences weird. I just don't know, they don't look right to me, so if you know what I'm doing wrong please say.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on January 28, 2016, 08:52:57 PM
If you find a problem, just tell me. Gentle criticism would be good. I know I'm writing the sentences weird. I just don't know, they don't look right to me, so if you know what I'm doing wrong please say.

Okay, I am officially intrigued.

As for problems, if you left some spaces in between your paragraphs, it would make the story a lot easier to read. I've found that a line of --------'s or ******'s works fairly well if you need to indicate a break.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Noodles on January 28, 2016, 09:11:16 PM
I am also a native English speaker and I'll beta for you (if you're willing to put up with me caring approximately as much about grammar as That One Teacher).
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: frostykitty on January 28, 2016, 09:12:28 PM
Okay, I am officially intrigued.

As for problems, if you left some spaces in between your paragraphs, it would make the story a lot easier to read. I've found that a line of --------'s or ******'s works fairly well if you need to indicate a break.
Right, sorry... Fixed? Possibly?
Sorry, I was taught to only put an indentation, so I'm stuck in the habit of it. I'll fix that on the next chapters...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on January 28, 2016, 09:23:11 PM
Dangerous updating again!

Previous chapter (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg90023#msg90023)

Warnings for offscreen repeat of some rather squicky stuff that happened in the original movie...

Spoiler: Chapter 3 • show
It was real.

It was a dream.

It happened.

It didn’t.

Lalli curled up further underneath his bed.  They’d…

This world didn’t make any sense!

“Mr. Hotakainen, we have reason to believe that you’ve been contacted by someone.  He may have offered you help with some problem you’re having; he may even have claimed to be a long-lost relative.

“Whatever this man may have told you is a lie.  He is in the employ of one Sigrun Eide, the head of a known terrorist organization.  These people are dangerous, Mr. Hotakainen, and you would do well to help us in bringing them to justice.”

Lalli stared at the man.  He stared at the folder filled with records of his life.  He looked back up at the man once more.

“Is this a joke?”

“I assure you, Mr.  Hotakainen, it is not.”  The man leaned back in his chair, folding his hands once again.  “I am offering you a choice, Mr. Hotakainen:  the choice to be a loyal, upstanding citizen… or to take the wrong side in a losing battle.  So, what is your answer?”

Lalli looked once again at the folder.  He remembered what the files on the disk had told him, and the feeling that made his skin crawl whenever he thought too hard about the world around him.  He remembered the earnest, pleading look of the boy who’d handed him the disk, and the sadness in the eyes of the man whose picture he’d seen.  Then, he willed himself to look into the eyes of the man before him, no less cold for having removed his dark glasses.

“I want to go home.”


Things had happened quickly after that.  The men had forced him into a corner.  They’d made his body betray him.  Then, they’d taken out that metal bug…

Bile rose in his throat.  Lalli had no idea what they had done or why.  He didn’t even remember how he had gotten from there to here…

…because it was a dream…

…yet he knew it had been real.

Cautiously, he pressed a hand against his stomach.  Nothing met his touch except smooth skin and a low rumble that indicated it had been far too long since he’d last had a meal.

What if it wasn’t real?

Maybe he was going crazy, and the disk and the man who was pictured on it were only products of his own deranged mind.  After all, he no longer had any evidence that the disk had even existed—he had destroyed it himself.

And yet…

His hand clenched, fingers curling unconsciously into his skin.  That thing was in there still, he knew it, and there was no way for him to get it out—

The phone rang.

The sound jarred through his senses so unexpectedly that he jumped up in fright, banging his head against the bottom of the bed for his troubles.  He had all but forgotten that he even had a phone; he never used it, and the only reason it was there was because the landlord had installed a line.

It rang again.

Still rubbing his aching head, Lalli shifted to move out from under his bed… and froze.

No one had ever knocked on his door before either, and that had ended in (him dreaming about) those weird men coming to his door.

Pressing his hands over his ears, Lalli curled up further underneath his bed, and refused to move until the ringing stopped.

----------------------------

Somewhere not so far, and yet a world away…

After leaving the connection open for a good twenty rings, Tuuri let out a sigh.  “He’s not picking up.”

Sigrun leaned over her shoulder to narrow her eyes at the screen (unaware that what she was looking at was actually the screensaver on an entirely different monitor), and nodded.  “Give it another two minutes, then hang up.”

Onni, who was clutching the spare headset in his hands and looking increasingly the worse for wear, snapped his head up to glare at her.  “What!?

“The longer we’re broadcasting, the easier it will be to trace our signal,” Mikkel pointed out.

Sigrun nodded in agreement.  “And I do not want the Sentinels breathing down our necks.”

Nobody voiced any further protests.  Sigrun knew, better than anyone, what even a single Sentinel was capable of doing—both to the ship and to the people on it.

They waited in silence.  Finally, though, the phone gave its last ring, and Tuuri cut the connection with a sigh.

“Sorry, Onni,” she whispered, her eyes downcast.  “I tried.”

“Look,” Sigrun chimed in, “sometimes people don’t want to come out, and there’s nothing we can do about it.  We just have to deal.”

“This isn’t about getting him out!”  Onni was clenching his fingers again, and Mikkel deftly plucked the headset from his hands before the delicate piece of equipment could suffer any further abuse.  “All I want to do is talk to him!”

“Oh, well if that’s it there are plenty of other ways!”  She reached out to clap the shoulder of the (currently) only other combative crewmember onboard the Valkyrie.  “Emil!  How’d you say you got along with this Lalli person the last time you contacted him?”

“Okay, I guess.  I mean, we didn’t actually talk all that much…”

“Great!  You can go back in tomorrow, and get in touch with him again!”

“B-but—”  Emil sputtered, his already fair skin going even paler.  “The Agents were already on to me last time, and now they’ve got him bugged!  There’s no way they’re not going to notice if I try to contact him again!”

“Oh, don’t worry about the Agents, little buddy.”  Sigrun now had that grin on her face, that wild and battle-crazed smile that said she was about to do something incredibly reckless that (provided she survived) would leave her in a state of hyperactive euphoria and shave a good five years off the lifespans of everyone in her immediate vicinity.  “I’ll make sure they have plenty else to keep them occupied.”


Spoiler: Notes • show
Traumatized Lalli is traumatized.  There was a reason I was reluctant to write fic for this fandom, the horrible things I do to the poor characters...

Though I do find it fun to explore the ways in which different characters react to the same situations. Even if I never am quite convinced I'm getting Lalli right.

Critique is, as always, welcome.


Next chapter (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg93144#msg93144)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on January 28, 2016, 09:25:36 PM
Right, sorry... Fixed? Possibly?
Sorry, I was taught to only put an indentation, so I'm stuck in the habit of it. I'll fix that on the next chapters...

It depends on what format you're reading in. Some word processors nowadays space paragraphs automatically, but for web-based reading in particular my experience is that stuff is a lot easier to read and looks less smooshed together if you space it out a bit. It looks much better now!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on January 28, 2016, 10:13:24 PM
Further to AUs, we've had high school, coffeeshop, time travel, western, jazz age, prohibition-era Chicago, modern era Scandinavia where the Rash worked out differently, science fiction, urban hipster, fairytale, nakki,...... Have I forgotten any?
Arrrr, mayhap ye have.

Tall Ships & Taller Tales
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/Pirate crossover fanfic
Part 3
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg79730#msg79730)
Spoiler: show
Them As Eide’s Can Finds

At anchor off Water Island
1610

The sun was setting, turning the West into a dazzling light show as it dipped toward the water. Lalli Hotakainen sighed in contentment at being back in his crow’s-nest atop the mighty Sea-Lynx. He and Emil had been run to a frazzle trying to keep the Mariposa Reina prize crew from ripping each others’ throats out on a daily basis.

Emil was playing least-in-sight, out of shame, if Lalli had to guess. As Acting Captain on the Mariposa Reina, Emil was responsible for the prize crew. He had mostly had to resort to threats of reporting the brawlers to Captain Eide; his failure to properly control his first crew on his own was obviously grievous to him.

Captain Eide had decided that, as was their custom, the bulk of their haul would be interred on the nearby peninsula of Orkanhullet, far enough away from the pirate-ridden Water Island and the native-ridden harbor beyond that neither group would be like to venture in its environs. The rest of the spoils would be divided when they reached Tortola, where the crew would disembark, party until they were broke, and then trickle back to the Sea-Lynx.

The Mariposa Reina herself would be scuttled, of course; sad as it was, since they couldn’t sell her and she was far too slow to be anything but a millstone on the Sea-Lynx’s neck, her fate was sealed.

The familiar sound of Emil humming just slightly off-key set Lalli’s ears to twitching. Was it mess time already?

Apparently it was, and apparently the Swede meant to join Lalli at their repast. This had been commonplace during their stint on the Mariposa Reina, and Lalli, being in a generous mood due to their return, decided not to protest.

As inevitably as Emil spilling food on himself, the Swede also chose to take the opportunity afforded by their seclusion to unburden himself to Lalli, which the Finn again did not protest. Emil would come to a stop in his own time, and Lalli had learned to let the babble wash over him when the Swede had a mind to talk (and talk, and talk). Better him than Tuuri.

Lalli jerked upright with a start, senses focussed on one thing: a twinkle on the horizon. His sudden move disconcerted Emil until Lalli grabbed his spy-glass.

“What is it, Lalli?” Emil asked.

After a long stretch of silent watching, Lalli finally answered with two words. “Túnfiskurinn, again.”

Emil turned the darkening air blue with curses cribbed from the captain before scrambling down the rigging to tell her that they’d been found.

*

Sigrun had Emil going up to the crow’s nest and back like a yo-yo while she drew up her plans.

The good news was that the yet-to-be-scuttled Mariposa Reina was opposite from where the Túnfiskurinn was lurking, so she might not have been spotted as yet. The bad news was that all of the loot was still aboard the Mariposa Reina.

All they could do was risk an expedition by night to cache as much of the loot as they could, and then await what the dawn would bring...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show

Water Island is one of the US Virgin Islands today.

Is that a sufficient reminder?
*clumsily sneaks in to forum*
Hello, I finally went through the whole (nearly, almost, who needs specifics...) fanfic thread and these are ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL! And uh, you people have me an idea...
So what's this "little fic" called?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Dane Murgen on January 28, 2016, 10:25:10 PM
Right, sorry... Fixed? Possibly?
Sorry, I was taught to only put an indentation, so I'm stuck in the habit of it. I'll fix that on the next chapters...

From what I see, the fanfiction formatting style is generally no indents and spaces between paragraphs. Generally line breaks are also used. This style is so prevalent, if you put what you just wrote in AO3, spaces will be added automatically between your paragraphs. Indents are normally reserved for published books.

Hope that helps!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on January 29, 2016, 03:00:19 AM
LooNEY: Abject apologies for omitting your excellent Pirate AU! Mea maxima culpa! And me a Jeffrey Farnol fan and all..... Good chapter, and glad you're back at it.

Lazy8: Definitely squicky, but interesting. I take it the bug is something from the original? Do go on...

Frostykitty: I'll be very curious to see what is happening and where this goes. It does sound ominous!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: frostykitty on January 29, 2016, 06:52:01 AM
Thank you for the formatting help... And it doesn't have an exact name yet, not very good at that stuff. Just finishing up the main plot, so I'll probably get one soon.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on January 29, 2016, 08:33:54 AM
Arrrr, mayhap ye have.

Tall Ships & Taller Tales
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/Pirate crossover fanfic
Part 3
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg79730#msg79730)
Spoiler: show
Them As Eide’s Can Finds

At anchor off Water Island
1610

The sun was setting, turning the West into a dazzling light show as it dipped toward the water. Lalli Hotakainen sighed in contentment at being back in his crow’s-nest atop the mighty Sea-Lynx. He and Emil had been run to a frazzle trying to keep the Mariposa Reina prize crew from ripping each others’ throats out on a daily basis.

Emil was playing least-in-sight, out of shame, if Lalli had to guess. As Acting Captain on the Mariposa Reina, Emil was responsible for the prize crew. He had mostly had to resort to threats of reporting the brawlers to Captain Eide; his failure to properly control his first crew on his own was obviously grievous to him.

Captain Eide had decided that, as was their custom, the bulk of their haul would be interred on the nearby peninsula of Orkanhullet, far enough away from the pirate-ridden Water Island and the native-ridden harbor beyond that neither group would be like to venture in its environs. The rest of the spoils would be divided when they reached Tortola, where the crew would disembark, party until they were broke, and then trickle back to the Sea-Lynx.

The Mariposa Reina herself would be scuttled, of course; sad as it was, since they couldn’t sell her and she was far too slow to be anything but a millstone on the Sea-Lynx’s neck, her fate was sealed.

The familiar sound of Emil humming just slightly off-key set Lalli’s ears to twitching. Was it mess time already?

Apparently it was, and apparently the Swede meant to join Lalli at their repast. This had been commonplace during their stint on the Mariposa Reina, and Lalli, being in a generous mood due to their return, decided not to protest.

As inevitably as Emil spilling food on himself, the Swede also chose to take the opportunity afforded by their seclusion to unburden himself to Lalli, which the Finn again did not protest. Emil would come to a stop in his own time, and Lalli had learned to let the babble wash over him when the Swede had a mind to talk (and talk, and talk). Better him than Tuuri.

Lalli jerked upright with a start, senses focussed on one thing: a twinkle on the horizon. His sudden move disconcerted Emil until Lalli grabbed his spy-glass.

“What is it, Lalli?” Emil asked.

After a long stretch of silent watching, Lalli finally answered with two words. “Túnfiskurinn, again.”

Emil turned the darkening air blue with curses cribbed from the captain before scrambling down the rigging to tell her that they’d been found.

*

Sigrun had Emil going up to the crow’s nest and back like a yo-yo while she drew up her plans.

The good news was that the yet-to-be-scuttled Mariposa Reina was opposite from where the Túnfiskurinn was lurking, so she might not have been spotted as yet. The bad news was that all of the loot was still aboard the Mariposa Reina.

All they could do was risk an expedition by night to cache as much of the loot as they could, and then await what the dawn would bring...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show

Water Island is one of the US Virgin Islands today.

Is that a sufficient reminder?So what's this "little fic" called?

I had a good laugh over Emil threatening to report prisoners to Sigrun to keep them in line.

Lazy8: Definitely squicky, but interesting. I take it the bug is something from the original? Do go on...

You may look it up if you dare. There's a reason I did a cut for that part; I could barely stand to watch it.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: frostykitty on January 29, 2016, 06:23:02 PM
Yes, I like these stories. And 'punishable by Sigrun's wrath' is probably the most gruesome punishment I've ever heard of.
I have narrowed the title down to TWO choices, I'm very proud of myself, it's an amazing accomplishment for me... This chapter is shorter than the one and three (and three isn't even near done yet, jeeze) and there's another wonderful, not-ominous-at-all, optimistic ending. Actually, you all know that was sarcasm, there's some gore but I don't think it's worse than anything cannon, just a fair warning. No main character death.
Spoiler: show

{chapter 2}

The three tensed, getting ready to attack - or be attacked for that matter. Lalli narrowed his eyes and looked around for anything big while Emil took a step back, obviously bewildered.

"Uh, maybe we should head back and find another rout... Or anoth-" Emil was cut off abruptly when he was bowled over by something. Someone? He let out a high-pitched sound of panic, which would have been quite comical if it wasn't in this context, as he kicked the figure off of him and jumped to his feet, stabbing at the air. The figure, a cleanser, started speaking in rushed, fearful, Icelandic to the group, gesturing madly towards the fire.

"What the heck are you saying?" Sigrun tilted her head, looking down at the new arrival, a woman with a mask to keep out the sickness. The cleanser sighed in relief and quickly switched to Swedish.

"We found a nest and we didn't expect it! Not many of us are immune and someone was already bitten, we need help!" They pleaded. This woman looked about Emil's age, if not a year or less younger. Sigrun sighed, but you could have sworn she had a small smile.

"I guess we can try to help you..." She said with a shrug, much to the delight of the young cleanser. Emil, however, looked like he would turn around and run away. The girl gestured for them to follow after adjusting her mask and ran off to her group. Sigrun ran after her, full of enthusiasm, while Emil grabbed Lalli's hand and grudgingly followed. It was quite horrific. Off to the side, someone was being attacked and was already bitten. A bit closer to our heroes, someone had just gotten shoved in to the fire by a large troll (that must of been the screaming). Something had just lost a limb, but it wasn't clear to what team took the loss... The cleansers must have gotten through most of the monsters that had fled the building before the fire had fully engulfed it, at least.

The three got to work quickly, though Lalli was a little confused at first, so he followed Sigrun's example. Emil had just retrieved his knife from a recently dead troll when something hit him hard in the back, causing him to fall to the ground. He moaned and looked up to see a small giant, all three of it's heads turned to him with (if they could be considered) smiles. Now his first reaction, which seems reasonable, was to scream and call for Sigrun. The giant took a step closer, it looked like a huge, horrifically mangled, spider, using all three sets of legs and its only pair of arms to scuttle about, it had a ridge of broken ribs along its back like spikes. Emil's second reaction, arguably reasonable as well, was to throw his knife at one head. Too bad it missed. He tried to stand only to be violently shoved back down my the monstrosity. One head screamed in his face, another attempted to laugh at him. What may have once been ribs grabbed for the boy, snapping together like jaws.

Sigrun let out a wild battle cry as she charged at the giant, attracting the attention of one heads. She had heard Emil's cry and came as fast as she could. Her eyes were wild as she plunged her knife in to one of the giant's skulls, making the others turn away from their prey. The main head was still screaming as the monster let go of a limp Emil and turned on its heels to attack the captain. The cleanser quickly scrambled away as soon as he got the chance and sprinted away to find Lalli. Sigrun, however, reached back for her rifle to make quick work of the creature in front of her when she realized, it wasn't there...


Spoiler: and then the commentary • show
If you find anything wrong with grammar or spelling or whatever, just tell me and I'll fix it.
And thank you for all the formatting stuff, I THINK I got it now... Back to the story, it was Cleansers! And trolls and mutants! Can't forget those...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Kiraly on January 29, 2016, 06:34:16 PM
frostykitty I can't seem to open the first spoiler tag? I've noticed that if I put punctuation in the "spoiler=something or other" section it doesn't work, for some reason. Excited to read the next part though!

LooNEY_DAC I love the pirates! Poor Emil...I imagine he'd have trouble controlling a ship by himself, haha.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on January 29, 2016, 07:02:22 PM
Frostykitty: first spoiler won't open for me either.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: frostykitty on January 29, 2016, 07:48:22 PM
It should work now, sorry I'm not used to this kind of code... Sorry about that!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Kiraly on January 29, 2016, 08:14:44 PM
It should work now, sorry I'm not used to this kind of code... Sorry about that!

No worries, it took me a while to figure out would cause that too! Still very much learning the quirks of forum code.

And oh my gosh the suspense! That was very action-packed, I'm anxious to know what comes next!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on January 29, 2016, 09:03:23 PM
Yes, I like these stories. And 'punishable by Sigrun's wrath' is probably the most gruesome punishment I've ever heard of.
I have narrowed the title down to TWO choices, I'm very proud of myself, it's an amazing accomplishment for me... This chapter is shorter than the one and three (and three isn't even near done yet, jeeze) and there's another wonderful, not-ominous-at-all, optimistic ending. Actually, you all know that was sarcasm, there's some gore but I don't think it's worse than anything cannon, just a fair warning. No main character death.

...is it a bad thing that when Emil (gah, almost typed "Emily," that's the second time today I've almost misgendered a male character from this comic specifically) gets attacked by something and starts screaming, my default reaction is to laugh?

I am hoping he didn't get hurt, though. That's a good thing... right? Right?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: frostykitty on January 29, 2016, 09:19:59 PM
I was going for suspend end action, so that's good!
And laughing at Emil squeaking in terror is quite a normal reaction. No, no major injuries. Just metal scars and a few bruises. Okay, well he probably got a few scratches on his arms from the attack, but nothing too bad. That will come to a different character, possibly mystery cleanser girl, possibly Sigrun, possibly Lalli...
The next chapter will probably be (my) tomorrow. I'd say in about...15 hours maybe, for those of you on different continents. depending on what time I wake up that is...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on January 29, 2016, 11:40:55 PM
The Good, the Bad, and the Bestial
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/Western crossover fanfic
Part 18
Caper the Third: The Cave of Time
Part 7
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg90241#msg90241)
Spoiler: show
Sacrifice of Emil’s

The Man in the Black Hat’s flunkies had all fallen save one by the time their master reached the shelter of the Cave’s mouth. With a curse, he began firing back at his opponents, a wild fusillade that forced the Westerners back into cover just long enough for his final minion to carry out his orders.

Emil watched the flunky fumble with the latch from his vantage point behind a rock, knowing that if he moved to stop the flunky, the Man in the Black Hat would gun him down like a dog, but knowing also the horrific consequences if the flunky succeeded. Emil’s internal debate paralyzed him just long enough for the flunky to fling the cage open with a dying spasm.

There was no choice now. Emil stood, silhouetted perfectly against the night, and threw his Incendiary Delight. For a few endless seconds, the bottle hurtled through the air, flying true to Emil’s aim, and finally smashed upon the newly freed Beast.

Something hit Emil’s shoulder; it was the last thing he felt for some time. He certainly never felt the bullet that grazed his neck, nor the one that pierced his ear. But Emil was beyond caring: his success was all that mattered.

Bright fire smothered the abomination, and it screamed in fury and in pain, but, try as it might, it could no more escape those cleansing flames than it could fly. The horrid scent of burning Beast flooded the air already rent with the Beast’s hideous shrieks, until it burned away.

Lalli watched the Beast burn, hearing also how the Man in the Black Hat cursed them from his hidey-hole. A few shots from Sigrun finally convinced that fiend to flee, though, and the others could break cover at last. Lalli took the opportunity to run over to  where he’d seen Emil fall.

Emil was unconscious, and no wonder. A bright red blotch was spreading over Emil’s waistcoat and shirt from his shoulder wound.

*

Between the gunshot wounds and a worrisome (yet thankfully brief) fever, it took Emil three days before he could get out of bed, and the evening he did, Sigrun held a council of war.

“We can’t wait, or the Man in the Black Hat will get clean away.” Sigrun made the statement with a quiet firmness that almost had the others pitying the Man in the Black Hat, for they knew what it signified. “Now that the crisis is past, we can let Emil heal up here while we take care of that filth.”

“I’ll be OK,” Emil said gamely. “Besides, I can use the time to mix up some more munitions for us and our counterparts.”

Tuuri nodded, as did Mikkel; Lalli began to bristle and glare at Sigrun for daring to suggest they leave Emil behind; and Reynir...

“We need Emil more than speed,” Reynir said definitively, “or even vengeance.” He threw Sigrun a significant look. “Our next stop’s where everything changes.”

Something in his voice convinced even Sigrun. They would wait for Emil to heal enough that he could accompany them.

*
Malmö, Sweden
Year 3, Day 26
2257L

“Again with the sewers?” Sigrun complained.

“Home sweet home,” Emil retorted. “At least the aroma isn’t so bad this time.”

“You’re more right than you know,” Mikkel rumbled. “Look.” On one of the walls was a faded mark, two M’s in a circle. “I put that mark there the last time we were here, before we played at the jazz club.”

“So we’re in Sweden again,” Sigrun mused. “This Cave sure likes Europe, don’t it?”

“Something’s wrong,” Lalli said. “You’re right, Emil: it doesn’t smell so bad as it should, and that’s not good.”

Tuuri frowned. “Yeah, this is how sewers smell when they haven’t been used for a while.”

“So the city up there’s been abandoned?” Emil asked. “Why on earth--?”

The realization hit all six of them at once: they were in a plague town, and what other plague had hounded them so far?

Suddenly, the Westerners found themselves preternaturally aware of every little noise around them. “I think we should go up,” Emil said, and they did...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show

Hmmmm. They’re in Malmö again. What a coincidence.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on January 30, 2016, 12:22:40 AM
Well, I did it. I was thinking about AU's and I went and did it.

Lalli's going to school, everyone. People school.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/5853457/chapters/13491637

*drops link*
*and again melts into dark oblivion to think on sins*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on January 30, 2016, 02:00:05 AM
OwlsGo: this will be interesting.

LooNEY: Poor Emil! But I'm looking forward to further developments.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: frostykitty on January 30, 2016, 08:57:14 AM
The school AU was wonderful "There's a cat in the pantry! Huh? Oh, no never mind. Any one looking for Lalli?"
So chapter three was getting too long to be posted here (I imagine,) and I cut it at a time skip. It's short now, but you get to figure out what happens to Sigrun and the giant, anyway! I'll post chapter four a little later. Some gore, you have been warned.
Spoiler: show
{chapter 3}

It seemed to shoot a mocking grin at her before lunging to attack. Sigrun lashed out with her blood-stained blade, making a gash down the mutated skull of the second head, but it wasn't dead yet. The second head let out a scratchy yelp before the massive troll charged again, broken spikes of bone raising along the makeshift spine. It rammed in to the captain at full force, but she only stumbled. Despite the minor injuries and possible broken bones, Sigrun cackled and glared up at the creature with wide eyes. She quickly retaliated and, this time, claimed the second head by decapitation.

The last distorted head kept screaming. The rib cage-jaws opened up before it attempted to pin her down with its clawed appendages. All of her kicking was no use, the thing wouldn't budge, but that did nothing to diminish her determination. Sigrun growled as the claws ripped her coat and the piercing screams grew ever louder. Her knife finally made contact after what seemed like both an eternity and the blink of an eye, slicing off one of the arms that held her down, the creature writhed, giving her a small chance to escape, before a gunshot rang out.

Lalli hissed and put his rifle back over his shoulder and tugged on Emil's wrist. Sigrun shoved the corpse of the Rash mutant off of her and ran towards the boys.

"We need to run! Now! Just hope these people will do the same of they have any sense, but we have to get out of here now!" She demanded in a rushed manner. Emil nodded quickly and ran off after Lalli. Sigrun turned back to the young woman they had met earlier, who was struggling to drag one of her teammates away from the fast-growing fire. With an exasperated sigh she jogged over to help.

"If you can get this one, I'll grab them!" The cleanser said, pointing to a man attempting to stand with a mangled leg. Sigrun shook her head and slung the unconscious cleanser over her shoulder before rushing over the help the other.

"There's no time for this! Follow the other two, we have a medic!" She snapped, shooing away the girl while helping the injured walk. The girl nodded and was gone in only a moment, nearly challenging Lalli's speed.


Spoiler: notes • show
Yep, only three cleansers on the team are still alive-enough to be saved after that massacre. There weren't too many on the team to begin with, and as the girl said, most of them were not immune so we're probably going to become sick anyway. The whole thing will be better explained in chapter four. And the two other cleansers (hurt leg guy and ...sleeping... guy) are immune, no masks needed.
Gentle criticism welcome.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on January 30, 2016, 09:08:24 AM
The school AU was wonderful "There's a cat in the pantry! Huh? Oh, no never mind. Any one looking for Lalli?"
So chapter three was getting too long to be posted here (I imagine,) and I cut it at a time skip. It's short now, but you get to figure out what happens to Sigrun and the giant, anyway! I'll post chapter four a little later. Some gore, you have been warned.
Spoiler: show
{chapter 3}

It seemed to shoot a mocking grin at her before lunging to attack. Sigrun lashed out with her blood-stained blade, making a gash down the mutated skull of the second head, but it wasn't dead yet. The second head let out a scratchy yelp before the massive troll charged again, broken spikes of bone raising along the makeshift spine. It rammed in to the captain at full force, but she only stumbled. Despite the minor injuries and possible broken bones, Sigrun cackled and glared up at the creature with wide eyes. She quickly retaliated and, this time, claimed the second head by decapitation.

The last distorted head kept screaming. The rib cage-jaws opened up before it attempted to pin her down with its clawed appendages. All of her kicking was no use, the thing wouldn't budge, but that did nothing to diminish her determination. Sigrun growled as the claws ripped her coat and the piercing screams grew ever louder. Her knife finally made contact after what seemed like both an eternity and the blink of an eye, slicing off one of the arms that held her down, the creature writhed, giving her a small chance to escape, before a gunshot rang out.

Lalli hissed and put his rifle back over his shoulder and tugged on Emil's wrist. Sigrun shoved the corpse of the Rash mutant off of her and ran towards the boys.

"We need to run! Now! Just hope these people will do the same of they have any sense, but we have to get out of here now!" She demanded in a rushed manor. Emil nodded quickly and ran off after Lalli. Sigrun turned back to the young woman they had met earlier, who was struggling to drag one of her teammates away from the fast-growing fire. With an exasperated sigh she jogged over to help.

"If you can get this one, I'll grab them!" The cleanser said, pointing to a man attempting to stand with a mangled leg. Sigrun shook her head and slung the unconscious cleanser over her shoulder before rushing over the help the other.

"There's no time for this! Follow the other two, we have a medic!" She snapped, shooing away the girl while helping the injured walk. The girl nodded and was gone in only a moment, nearly challenging Lalli's speed.


Spoiler: notes • show
Yep, only three cleansers on the team are still alive-enough to be saved after that massacre. There weren't too many on the team to begin with, and as the girl said, most of them were not immune so we're probably going to become sick anyway. The whole thing will be better explained in chapter four. And the two other cleansers (hurt leg guy and ...sleeping... guy) are immune, no masks needed.
Gentle criticism welcome.


Well, at least Sigrun doesn't seem too hurt.

Also, I think you mean "manner" rather than "manor". Manor as in manor house; manner as in a way of doing something.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: frostykitty on January 30, 2016, 05:57:58 PM
Haha, yeah... I shouldn't try and write when I'm only half awake, I guess. Could be a good idea *hides in shame*

To be honest I'm surprised anyone is reading it. OH, OH IT HAS A NAME! I threw the two name choices out the window and made up "Return to Silence" instead. "Return to Silence" will probably be broken in to parts. Whenever I get a good idea, I thought I would just add it to this so it would be a part of this second mission. This may or may not be because I don't want to mess with anything in the cannon timeframe and leave that to Minna, but who cares about my pet peeves... So we can count this story and a part one I guess, and they'll each have chapters.

It'll work like that! And now for chapter four (IT ACTUALLY HAS LENGTH TO IT AT ALL! Woahhh!) now let's learn the names of these weird cleanser people...
Spoiler: return to silence part one chapter four • show
{chapter 4}

"Sigrun's here! Mikkel, come on!" Emil yelped, running out the door. He swiftly took the comatose cleanser from his captain and put them on the ground. Mikkel soon joined them. His eyes widened as he looked around.

"Is this all that was left...?" He asked Sigrun in a hushed tone, grabbing his bag and crouching down to look at the other man's wounded leg. She sighed and shrugged.

"All I could see... Emil, can you grab maybe a chair or two?" The captain groaned, rubbing her head. Mikkel nodded solemnly as he tried to stitch one of the wounds.

Meanwhile, in the tank, the female cleanser - Erika, she had told them - was explaining how the whole thing had happened in Icelandic. Reynir seemed quite bewildered, while Tuuri was wonderstruck as she listened to the tale. It was true, unlike a few of Emil's stories, you could tell by the fear in her eyes as she recalled each horrific moment in detail. Emil had crashed through the door, rudely interrupting the part where, well, he crashed in to the story with Lalli and Sigrun. His shoulders were up around his jaw as he awkwardly grabbed two chairs and sidestepped back out the door, receiving a small laugh from Erika and Tuuri.

Sigrun sat down and rested her head on her hand, staring off in to space. "Where's that little scout? Wanted to thank him." She muttered and turned her head to Emil. He just gestured to the tank silently. The captain gave a small nod, knowing Lalli was probably sleeping, she should've known. The male cleanser, who's leg had gotten nearly eaten by a team of trolls, had introduced himself as Viktor. He explained that the nest had been hidden, they hadn't found it at first until it was too late. They had just split up, half of the team heading back while a few stayed to keep the fire under control (or more likely, keep the fire out of control). The explosives had woken up many of the diseased before the fire had claimed much of the building. Furious, the mutants attacked the team of cleansers. Most of the non-immune hadn't gotten their masks on.

"And any that didn't were already being attacked. They were fast, all pushing each other out the door to be the first to get at us..." Viktor growled, crossing his arms and leaning back. The rest of the group had gathered outside to hear the story from a different view. Reynir was humming softly and practicing runes while the tale was told in Swedish gibberish. Lalli couldn't understand much of it, either, so he simply leaned on Emil and fell asleep again. "So, we fought, of course... I don't really care to talk about the details. I'm sure you can all guess, aren't you the same team as last time?" He asked, tone getting a little lighter.

"Yep!" Sigrun grinned, "We're all back together on another mission!"

"It might not be our last mission, either." Emil sighed, a slight smile tugging at his lips. "If they believed in us once, that's amazing, but twice! We're probably going to end up coming back." The captain laughed and clapped a hand on his shoulder, careful not to hit the sleeping scout between them.

"That's the spirit, little viking!" She said, not unlike a proud parent. Erika raised an eybrow and smothered a giggle.

"So you weren't lying about the nicknames?" The girl managed to say, brushing blonde curls out of her face. "That was one of the only things we found hard to believe..." She laughed as Emil huffed and crossed his arms.

"Wait," Tuuri tilted her head and looked across to Erika, "You guys know him?"

"Well, I know him. Viktor knows him a little..." Erika shrugged. "Me and Emil were stuck in training together, and we were in the same team every once and awhile." She nudged his side with her elbow as she added jokingly, "We show our friendship by trying to set each other on fire."

Sigrun put her finger tips together and a small, maniacal, laugh escaped her. "Emil, you never told us you had a girlfriend! Why didn't you tell us?" She only laughed more as his face quickly became red.

"No! You're not even going to start that!" He said, wide eyes glaring at her. Erika broke out in to laughter as well and she hit her knee. Tuuri just shook her head in amusement when Emil continued to argue, his words becoming sharp with embarrassment "That is not true! Not even close to the truth!"

"Okay, okay... So it's about as true as your giant slaying story." Sigrun reasoned with a sneer.

"Uh, no, because that was true! In fact, guess who else was there!" Emil blurted out angrily, gesturing madly to Erika. The girl just rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, it happened. He was just as surprised as the rest of us." She snorted, remembering the key fact of the event. "We asked him what he did, how he did it... Never seen a giant taken down that quick other than today... And he only replied, 'Sigrun taught me'." The captain's face grew softer with real happiness, not just amusement.

"He was only recognizing the most best troll hunter he ever met, of course!" She boasted, putting a hand to her chest and straightening up in her seat.

"Uh, where are we?" Emil and Tuuri flinched at the new voice from behind them. Lalli grumbled in protest, burying he face in his collar and falling asleep on Emil's arm again. The third cleanser had just woken up, quite confused.

"Oh, hey Ivar." Viktor mumbled. "These folks are letting us recover here for a little while... They're the ones who went on that expedition. You remember hearing about that, right?"

"Uh," Ivar shakily stood up, rubbing his head. "Maybe, I might..." Erika frowned and let her teammate take her seat. She sat on the ground on Tuuri's other side.

"Do you remember your date of birth? Your name?" Viktor inquired, raising an eyebrow. Ivar slowly nodded and mumbled something about year sixty-three, but it wasn't too convincing. "Do you remember what happened? At all?" That seemed to be it. The mask of confusion shattered and pure horror covered his face.

"Where are they? How long have I been out? Days? Weeks?! Please tell me they're okay!"

Sigrun bit her lip, brows furrowed. Erika and Viktor looked at the ground and after a pause Viktor shook his head.

"They're all gone. You've only been out for an hour or two..." Ivar made a choking sound and his head fell. Viktor just sighed and continued, "The second group is probably already at our camp, someone ran to get them as soon as we were ambushed, you know that. They probably already called for help."

"That reminds me," Mikkel remarked, trying to change the subject before someone asked what was wrong with Ivar. "How are you going to get back? We certainly cannot escort you three back to your camp, it will take too much time. We still need to get to our camp, assuming it's not burnt down." Erika glanced up at the healer, one hand holding Ivar's to calm him down.

"Well, it all depends on where you planned to set up camp."


Spoiler: notessss • show
Erika, Viktor, and Ivar are okay names, right? Nothing too bad? I'm sorry I tried.

Who is the 'They' Ivar spoke of? Probably his wife and brother, they were fighting, too. And I said this would be the happy chapter, didn't I? Whoops. Uh, well, didn't mean to do that...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: shoop on February 01, 2016, 01:09:05 AM
I've been back reading super slowly but frosty kitty I really like where you're going with your story haha. So suspenseful!!

I just realized I never posted a link to my shippy emilalli Drabble so here we go (http://archiveofourown.org/works/5845933)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on February 01, 2016, 11:55:29 PM
Madsen’s Malmö Mayhem
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Part 1
Spoiler: show
The Great Dane Grates

My name is Mikkel Madsen. I used to be a spy, until I decided to resign...

Mikkel looked on askance as the red-haired Norwegian fury took out another contingent of guards. Whoever was paying Sigrun to break him out of this “upscale gated community” was getting their money’s worth. Of course, that was why Sigrun was the go-to girl when it came to ops like this.

Eventually, however, there was no one left for Sigrun to fight, so she could turn her full attention to Mikkel. He put up his hands in a placatory gesture, but Sigrun proved implacable as ever, ignoring his attempts to assure her that he would not be fool enough to resist in favor of stun-gunning him into oblivion.

*

For the second time in under a week, Mikkel came to with a bad taste in his mouth. This time, however, his hands and feet were bound, his eyes covered and his mouth gagged. “Sorry, big fellow,” Sigrun’s cheerful voice told him from somewhere to his left, “but I couldn’t chance you changing your mind about coming along peacefully at the last minute. I’ll have you out of those soon enough.”

Mikkel wasn’t so sure he wanted the blindfold off any time soon, as it was obvious that wherever they were headed, they were getting there in a car, and that meant that Sigrun was almost certainly driving; he’d been in a car while Sigrun was driving before, quickly discovering that keeping your eyes closed was the only to keep your blood pressure stable.

Eventually, the vehicle pulled to a stop. After what seemed a very long wait indeed, Mikkel’s gag and blindfold were removed, in that order, and Sigrun chirped, “Mess time!” as Mikkel blinked and worked the kinks out of his jaw.

In front of him was a tray with a steaming bowl of porridge-y stuff on it. A spoon clattered next to the bowl. “As you can see, I managed to get your favorite,” Sigrun told him smugly.

“Thank you,” Mikkel replied even more dryly than was his wont.

“Now, we can do this the easy way or the hard way,” Sigrun said. “The easy way is where I free your left hand and you feed yourself. The hard way is where I have to stun you again and then feed you myself. So, which’ll it be?”

*

Sigrun turned on the radio for him once they were back on the road. The program was in Swedish, to his surprise, but the hosts were amusing and the music pleasing. Had he not been restrained, Mikkel would have enjoyed himself quite a bit.

“Wait, what?” Sigrun sputtered. As though they’d heard her confused outburst, the announcers repeated the breaking news: in an effort to hinder the spread of the so-called “Rash Disease”, Denmark was closing its borders as of 1600 local time, making it the first non-island nation to take such a step.

“Great,” Sigrun groaned. “We’ll never make the Oresund bridge before it closes! Hmmmmmm...” After a considerable bit of thought, Sigrun snapped her fingers. “OK, I’ve got it! We’ll just hunker down in Malmö until this thing blows over. I’ve got a buddy there doing a job who can put us up in a pinch.”

*

Sigrun’s “buddy” was a young, golden-haired pretty boy named Emil, which surprised Mikkel, until he snuck a look at Emil’s quite comprehensive explosives lab. Trust Sigrun to take to a budding firebug. Emil was obviously somewhat in awe of her, which was normal enough.

The confab was broken up by the far door opening and a cheery female voice calling out, “We’re back, Emil!” Seconds later, two ash-blonde Finns and a tall, gangly redhead with a truly remarkable braid walked in.

Emil made the introductions somewhat awkwardly. The two Finns were Lalli, cat burglar and computer wizard, and his cousin Tuuri, grifter and mechanic extraordinaire. The redhead, who proved to be an Icelander, was their intern, Reynir, who was under the impression that they were a legitimate outfit doing security testing work, instead of a ring of thieves and swindlers. Reynir was so like a human puppy, though, that none of them wanted to disillusion him.

Fortunately, Sigrun was glib-tongued enough to claim to be a simple bounty hunter bringing Mikkel back to face justice in Denmark, so the ruddy naif’s illusions were kept intact for the present.

Mikkel had already decided to metaphorically sit back and await further developments, and this pit stop only reinforced that notion. Things looked to become quite interesting very shortly...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show

Again, this is “in the style of” rather than a direct crossover with the “Burn Notice”, “the Prisoner” and “Leverage” franchises.

A variant of this sans the Rash is in the works.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on February 02, 2016, 02:04:33 AM
Another excellent tale!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Kiraly on February 02, 2016, 08:21:08 AM
shoop, you failed to mention that your "shippy emilalli drabble" is written in the most beautiful way. (Seriously, there's so many poetic turns of phrase in there!) Anyway, I already said so on AO3 but I loved it. :))

LooNEY_DAC Wow, another fascinating AU! I approve of all their roles in this secret agent thing, hehe. (Also, Sigrun's "Mutiny!" comment in the most recent comic page reminded me of your pirate AU.)

frostykitty your story is shaping up to be very interesting. Can't wait to see what happens next! :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Dire on February 02, 2016, 08:34:08 AM
*creeps in*

*posts link (http://archiveofourown.org/works/5882653/chapters/13557766)*

*runs*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Kiraly on February 02, 2016, 10:53:41 AM
*creeps in*

*posts link (http://archiveofourown.org/works/5882653/chapters/13557766)*

*runs*

Oh my goodness! Don't run away, we need you to come back and write more so we can find out what happens! You did a really good job of building the tension and showing the different characters' reactions to what's going on.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on February 02, 2016, 11:17:45 AM
What Kiraly said, yes. I've already commented over on A3O, but will say again: good story premise, don't keep us in suspense too long!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on February 02, 2016, 12:14:41 PM
Madsen’s Malmö Mayhem

Again, this is “in the style of” rather than a direct crossover with the “Burn Notice”, “the Prisoner” and “Leverage” franchises.

I... have zero familiarity with any of those franchises, so I don't know how long I'll be able to follow. What you have so far, though, has proved to be immensely fun!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Dire on February 02, 2016, 03:02:55 PM
Quote from: Kiraly
Oh my goodness! Don't run away, we need you to come back and write more so we can find out what happens! You did a really good job of building the tension and showing the different characters' reactions to what's going on.

Quote from: Róisín
What Kiraly said, yes. I've already commented over on A3O, but will say again: good story premise, don't keep us in suspense too long!

Thanks, guys :D I'm just intimidated to post something in the SSSS fandom; there are so many talented writers here! But I'm going to try to keep a steady enough pace to post a chapter every 1-2 weeks. I'm one of those people that gets sucked into the Vortex of Editing...just keep editing the sames pages over and over and over because it never feels good enough. I don't feel chapter one is totally done yet but gotta keep some momentum going forward or I'll never finish.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Kiraly on February 02, 2016, 03:38:41 PM
Thanks, guys :D I'm just intimidated to post something in the SSSS fandom; there are so many talented writers here! But I'm going to try to keep a steady enough pace to post a chapter every 1-2 weeks. I'm one of those people that gets sucked into the Vortex of Editing...just keep editing the sames pages over and over and over because it never feels good enough. I don't feel chapter one is totally done yet but gotta keep some momentum going forward or I'll never finish.

Hehe, I know how you feel! When I first started writing fanfiction (she says, making it sound as though this process began much longer ago than the ~1 month it's actually been) I was super nervous to post it because there are so many amazing writers here. But now you're also one of the amazing writers here! I have a tendency to want to edit forever too, but I'm working on not going overboard with it.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: frostykitty on February 02, 2016, 04:00:34 PM
Don't you run away now that we're all in suspense! totally not what I just did after chapter four, haha, noooo... Yes, more reading! Good fics, good fics,
Now then, who wants chapter five? No? Okay lemme just disappear again... It took a while to write because I didn't like it because it's really hard for me to get in to character for Lalli and I think I failed at it anyway, but yeah.
I haven't, uh, looked over it for grammar mistakes yet, I just finished it *sobs quietly*

Spoiler: return to silence, part one chapter five • show
{chapter 5}

Tuuri grimaced at the map she now held in her hands. "Uh, Lalli..." She whispered, tapping her cousin on the shoulder. An irritated 'Mrrr' drifted from the scout as he started to wake.

"What do you want, now?!"

"Use Swedish, you have to get used to it."

"What, do, you, want?" He growled, a pause between each word. It was still a bit of a struggle to speak in the odd language.

"I need help figuring out your notes," Tuuri gave him the map. She pointed to three circled areas, three different possible camps. "I can't remember what one of the three..."

Lalli shut his eyes tight, trying to remember, as well. "This." He pointed to the circle on his right. He went back to Finnish to scold her, "Now let me sleep, Onni will probably be panicking now that I was woken up!" Tuuri just grumbled something  and showed the location to Erika while Lalli huffed and leaned against Emil's shoulder, trying to contact his cousin once more. Reynir had perked up at the familiar name, and decided to try and sleep, too, he hadn't seen the Finnish Mage in awhile.

"You guys are fine." Erika nodded approvingly before pointing to the next circle, which was quite close. "That one is our camp, so we wouldn't try to burn everything over there. Yet, anyway."

"Well, then let's move! It's almost noon!" Sigrun clapped her hands together with a wide grin. "We might have time to drop off you three if we hurry! Emil, help me pack up!" Emil glanced at the scout and then at Sigrun with a sigh.

"If he hurts me I'm blaming you, for the record." He announced, carefully moving Lalli. The attempt failed. Lalli hissed and ran in to the tank with a curse, probably hiding in some dark corner. With the scout out of the way, they were able to gather their things, finally, and cram in to the cat-tank. It was, most definitely, a bit tighter than usual. That should probably have been expected with three other people joining them.

"So this is what you spent allll winter in?" Erika questioned, peeking through the the doorway in to the sleeping quarters. "All of you? Whole group? All winter?"

"Yyyes... Why?" Emil muttered and pushed past her to sit on his own bed, barely noticing the scout hiding underneath it. Lalli was staring at them all with a look of pure death. Erika shrugged and gingerly stepped inside, gazing around the room.

 "I don't know, no reason... Just seems kind of small," She leaned on the wall, not noticing Lalli's hand reaching out from beneath the bed.

"Not really, but it only feels small with nine people and a cat... Or sometimes it's like eight people and two cats." Emil joked, letting out a small chuckle.

"I'm guessing the night scout is th-AAH!" She was cut off as she was spooked by something moving at high speeds inches from her face. Quick as lightning, Lalli had fled the room.

"Wha-LALLI?" Emil called after him. He looked out the doorway to see the mage glaring at him. The ice blue eyes were haunting. Emil tried not to flinch. "What was that all about?"

"No trust!" Lalli managed to say before running away to the front of the tank. Tuuri looked at him quizzically.

"Thought you were sleeping?"

"But then the braid one showed up." Lalli hissed in Finnish, pointing to a sleeping Reynir. The Icelander was laying on his side behind the couch, as if he had fallen over. Sigrun, Mikkel, and the two cleansers sat on the couch, having some sort of dull conversation Lalli didn't care about.

"Well then why did Emil yell at you?" She patted the seat beside her. Lalli grudgingly sat down, promptly curling up and putting his head down with his eyes clamped shut.

"Doesn't matter."

"At least tell me what made you come running out here?" Tuuri pleaded. Lalli let out a low 'Mrrrr'. Erika peeked her head around the doorway.

"Uh, Lalli, was it? Just, uh, sorry for whatever I did to upset you, I guess?" She stammered, looking down as the scout gave her another death glare. Emil peered around the doorway just above her, switching the glare to him.

"Oh come on, what did I do now? Your the one who did wrong, this time." Lalli put his hands over his ears and Emil threw his arms in the air in defeat, walking back to the sleeping quarters. Erika frowned and joined him. Sigrun glanced between the door and the scout, their conversation disrupted by the young cleansers and the occasional Finnish mumbling.

"What's up with them, fuzzy head?" The captain asked, putting her arms behind her head. Tuuri tensed.

"Lalli doesn't want to talk about it, but I'm sure Emil or Erika will, later. " Tuuri mumbled, glancing briefly at Lalli, who still had his ears covered and eyes shut. "Someone could be sleep deprived... Or maybe a bit jealous..."

Sigrun snickered and narrowed her eyes with a smug expression. "Oh, once these three are gone it should be all fine, then, right?" At that point, Lalli had just moved his hands from his ears to his mouth as his face tinted green.

"We should not assume such things. I'm sure we will figure out just what the problem is, sooner or later." Mikkel shook his head with sigh. And with that, the scout ran off, looking paler than usual.

    *******
Emil woke up to a blunt pain on his forehead. Lalli was glaring down at him in full uniform, a rolled notebook in hand. He quickly grabbed his coat and went to pull on his boots.

"What was that for? Couldn't have just said my name or something?" He tilted his head and grabbed his gear.

"Captain is already outside. You didn't wake up." The scout grumbled with difficulty. He wandered out of the room and returned the notebook before bringing Tuuri's mask to her and putting it in her hands. Then he swiftly retreated out the door and darted through the buildings, scanning them for any sickened beings or undead.

It was a few minutes before the scout finally returned and gave the all clear, sliding his dagger back in to his belt. The cleansers were still there, they would have to spend the night as it was already pretty dark. Lalli narrowed his eyes as Erika reached up to rub the back of her neck, asking Sigrun something. There was some darkness about her. Something like the trolls. He didn't want his cousin to be anywhere near this diseased cleanser.


Spoiler: notessss • show
before you ask... YES, YES I DO LIKE CLIFFHANGERS, THANK YOU FOR NOTICING!
No Tuuri, Lalli's not jealous of Emil having friends outside of the team, he just think Erika's about to make everyone's face melt off if she doesn't mutate into some sort of thing first. If it's the rash and not like some sort of curse or what ever. I don't know *muhuhahahahaha*... Also, Lalli can somewhat understand the Swedes, but not entirely. He can also speak some Swedish, with difficulty. That's all thanks to Tuuri wanting him to write letters with her.

I find it so hilarious when you guys say things like 'I can't wait where this goes next!' I just sit here with writers block like "Haha, Hey, me too!"
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on February 02, 2016, 05:31:08 PM
Interesting. Erika is infected?

I can see why your writing of Lalli might not feel right, I think. To me, Minna's Lalli comes across as more......cautious, reserved, and also more protective of Tuuri and the others. If he feared a person was infected or untrustworthy, he would say so, I think, either directly to Tuuri or to Emil, now that he has learned a little Swedish. He might say it from under a blanket on the top bunk, but he would say something. I doubt he would trip someone he suspected, more likely give them a wide berth, though the death glare sounds about right! Does Tuuri think Lalli might be jealous because Erika is an old acquaintance of Emil?

I'm curious to see where you take this. Please continue!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: frostykitty on February 02, 2016, 06:49:24 PM
Ah! Ah, I meant to edit that part! Eh, I already started the next chapter though and I'm in that mindset and why... Curse my lack of sleep!
And yes, that's why Tuuri thought of that. But within the first few paragraphs of the next chapter, Lalli will speak to his cousin and there's suspicion and pointing and all of that fun stuff.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on February 02, 2016, 07:20:04 PM
*creeps in*

*posts link (http://archiveofourown.org/works/5882653/chapters/13557766)*

*runs*

Dropped a review over on AO3. Please, keep writing!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: frostykitty on February 02, 2016, 09:37:27 PM
I agree, write!
Okay, I changes that line a little, hopefully it's better now! With Lalli saying he didn't trust Erika, I wanted to make it sound like he wasn't entirely sure what was going on, but something wasn't quite right, sorry if that was unclear...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on February 02, 2016, 10:32:36 PM
I... have zero familiarity with any of those franchises, so I don't know how long I'll be able to follow. What you have so far, though, has proved to be immensely fun!
Well, the beauty of "in the style of" stuff is that no knowledge of the other is required.
I'm one of those people that gets sucked into the Vortex of Editing...just keep editing the sames pages over and over and over because it never feels good enough.
/me looks at pile of unfinished stories from a decade ago
*Ahem* What is this Vortex of Editing of which you speak?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on February 03, 2016, 08:06:51 AM
Thanks, guys :D I'm just intimidated to post something in the SSSS fandom; there are so many talented writers here! But I'm going to try to keep a steady enough pace to post a chapter every 1-2 weeks. I'm one of those people that gets sucked into the Vortex of Editing...just keep editing the sames pages over and over and over because it never feels good enough. I don't feel chapter one is totally done yet but gotta keep some momentum going forward or I'll never finish.

Those first time jitters have stuck with me every time I so much as edit a tag in A03. I've been writing since 2013, various bits of fanfiction here and there, and I still get so nervous when I post something new my hands start to shake.
That even goes for the fic I've just started for SSSS (just behind yours, dude, we're like a train!). I don't know why it makes me so nervous. Particularly in this little berg of a fandom, because you're hard-pressed to find a jackass between the comment sections and the head-canon threads.

 You got a talent, my friend. I had a hard time remembering I wasn't reading a book- and I mean a good book, not those YA things where it's obvious the author just sneezed on a page and sent it to their editor.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on February 03, 2016, 08:09:10 AM
Speaking of fics

http://archiveofourown.org/works/5853457/chapters/13579246

I swear this thing is too complicated already what the cluck is up with the name it's supposed to be over-serious  and therefore funny but it just looks dumb

my cat sat his kitten butt on the keyboard and deleted half a page of work thank god for that arrow that goes backwards what is the word for that
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on February 03, 2016, 10:04:23 PM
OwlsGO, you have a wonderful gift for unexpected phrases that are hilarious.
I lost it at "...could in fact have been a canoe with a wig on..."
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on February 04, 2016, 08:20:49 PM
OwlsGO, you have a wonderful gift for unexpected phrases that are hilarious.
I lost it at "...could in fact have been a canoe with a wig on..."

I happened to be looking at one at the time I wrote that line.
I have some extremely weird neighbours.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Sunflower on February 04, 2016, 09:03:31 PM
frostykitty I can't seem to open the first spoiler tag? I've noticed that if I put punctuation in the "spoiler=something or other" section it doesn't work, for some reason. Excited to read the next part though!

I just posted about this problem over on the Gender thread.
The apostrophe is the only symbol that breaks the spoiler code.  Everything else (.&*?!) seems to be OK.  Why our Forum code rejects the humble apostrophe, I don't know.

As a temporary measure, you can see what's in a broken spoiler by quoting that post.  But hopefully the original author won't mind editing the "spoiler=something or other" part. 
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: frostykitty on February 04, 2016, 09:13:30 PM
I have edited it, should be okay now... It is right? Or did I mess it up again?

OwlsG0 I personally like that Siv is teaching him how to beat his rivals in to submission I mean, uh, self defense. It seems in character to me. I love the story.

As for the writing of the new chapter, I have seemed to have picked up Writer's Block... The dreaded word... So this chapter might end up being pretty short.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on February 04, 2016, 10:11:29 PM

As for the writing of the new chapter, I have seemed to have picked up Writer's Block... The dreaded word... So this chapter might end up being pretty short.

Hang in there, pal, we all get it. I find the best thing to do when you need stimulation for your writing organ is to go out and get it. I take a walk or a bike ride (if I'm being foolhardy enough to brave the swooping magpies), and just looking around gives my writer's mind a visual overload.
One time I went out for a bike-ride with the intention of just getting some exercise, and by the time I came back I had planned a war vehicle for an original story, with the architecture based off the bicycle I was on.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on February 04, 2016, 11:39:05 PM
I just posted about this problem over on the Gender thread.
The apostrophe is the only symbol that breaks the spoiler code.  Everything else (.&*?!) seems to be OK.  Why our Forum code rejects the humble apostrophe, I don't know.

As a temporary measure, you can see what's in a broken spoiler by quoting that post.  But hopefully the original author won't mind editing the "spoiler=something or other" part.
This is a test:
Spoiler: Isn’t it strange? • show

Does this open?

EDIT: The above spoiler opens for me. I think it's because the apostrophe in its title is directionally biased rather than the 'generic' one some text programs generate/use. Examples:
'unbiased'
‘biased’
Can you see the difference?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Sunflower on February 05, 2016, 01:12:58 AM
This is a test:
Spoiler: Isn’t it strange? • show

Does this open?

EDIT: The above spoiler opens for me. I think it's because the apostrophe in its title is directionally biased rather than the 'generic' one some text programs generate/use. Examples:
'unbiased'
‘biased’
Can you see the difference?

Your spoiler does open.  How clever to figure out that a directional apostrophe (or single quote) won't break the spoiler even though the generic, upright one does!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Kiraly on February 05, 2016, 10:29:02 AM
I have edited it, should be okay now... It is right? Or did I mess it up again?

OwlsG0 I personally like that Siv is teaching him how to beat his rivals in to submission I mean, uh, self defense. It seems in character to me. I love the story.

As for the writing of the new chapter, I have seemed to have picked up Writer's Block... The dreaded word... So this chapter might end up being pretty short.

No worries, you fixed it. I think Sunflower was just letting us know about the apostrophe problem. (It's so weird it just gets bothered by that! At least now I know I can use other punctuation safely...)

I've been having a mild form of writer's block too. What's frustrating is I know (roughly) what's going to happen in the chapter I'm writing, but my speed at actually writing it has slowed to a crawl. I'm hoping I can get in a good head space to do some writing this weekend, but we'll see. I sometimes have better luck getting out of a block if I get away from the computer and write on paper for a while to get the words flowing.

OwlsG0, those are good suggestions too! I might have to go for a walk this weekend, since it seems like the weather won't be too bad.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: frostykitty on February 05, 2016, 04:35:06 PM
OwlsG0; Sitting outside in the cold with a fluff-ball of a bantam hen seems to work, too, as I've now found out. Thank you!

And Kiraly, that's exactly what's up with me. Just wording things is so hard for me. If I use one word too much, sometimes I look for synonyms, but they're all different for me. For example, if I read 'said', it's just a quote, however if I read 'spoke', I veiw it more solemn, more serious. And 'mumbled' and 'muttered' are also viewed differently. So that's my main problem, because I veiw it exactly like that, but I've used that word within the last few lines and want them to be spaced out more... Ugh, my head is weird.

BUT HEY! It ended up longer than I thought!
Spoiler: return to silence; part one, chapter six • show
{chapter 6}

"So in morning we'll be heading back? You just want us to help you check your base, that's all?" Erika looked up at Sigrun who just nodded. "Are you sure? I mean, since we'll have to go back before we finish our mission, we might be able to spare a box of supplies..." Viktor glanced at her and shrugged.

"Might." He mumbled, looking back at the captain. Sigrun had a hand on her chin, seemingly considering this.

"Eh, we double checked the crates before we left so we have everything. We don't have enough room right now." Emil's shoulders fell as he realized he wouldn't get any new explosives.
 
"Okay, but we'll probably be leaving sometime tomorrow, so if you change your mind..."

"We couldn't use up that much stuff in one night, keep your supplies." Sigrun waved a hand and grabbed her rifle. "It's all good?" Lalli gave a small nod but didn't move his glare from Erika. "Hm, okay... Emil, go help Mikkel set up extra beds." She said, watching the scout suspiciously. Tuuri stepped down on to the snow with a crunch, mask on. It was over her feet, at the very least. Lalli hopped over to his cousin and tapped her shoulder.

"Tuuri, the girl is sick!" He hissed, pointing to Erika with disdain. Tuuri shook her head in disbelief.

"Erika? She couldn't be... She didn't have any open wounds, and she said she had her mask on the whole time."

"She is sick! Do you doubt me?"

"Well, not usually but I-"

"She. Is. Sick!" Lalli repeated, turning Tuuri around so she could face him. He stared at her, blue gaze boring in to hers.

After a small pause Tuuri nodded slowly. "I'll talk to Mikkel..." She mumbled before going back to the tank. Lalli seemed to calm down a little, the cleansers and Sigrun giving the broken down buildings (which seemed to have been transformed into greenhouses) a more thorough investigation. Inside the tank, Mikkel and Emil had just finished setting up three extra 'beds' made entirely out of blankets. It would probably be good enough. Until Tuuri tripped on one. She squeaked but was able to catch herself.

"Uh, Mikkel? Lalli is concerned about someone's health..." Tuuri said quietly as Emil tried to fix the bed she had stepped on. Mikkel looked down at her questionably.

"Who is he concerned about? And how so?"

"He, um, thinks Erika might have the Rash..." The words were almost a whisper. Emil glanced up at her in disbelief.

"She couldn't pos-"

"Very well, I'll have to check. In the meantime, get Reynir his mask and explain what's going on. You two stay inside with Emil. Do not let anyone inside until decontaminated." The healer sighed and gathered a few things before stepping outside. Lalli greeted him with silence and wide eyes, tracking the movement of something no one could see. "So what seems to be wrong?" Mikkel said slowly, hoping the scout could understand well enough to guess what he said. Lalli's gaze briefly flicked to him before returning to the trail.

"The girl is sick, you have to prove to the others." He muttered, leaning on the tank.

"Tuuri told me the Rash, where is it?" This, Lalli couldn't understand enough to attempt a guess.

"The girl is sick..." He repeated, narrowing his eyes. Just then it became apparent what he was watching through the walls of buildings. The cleansers and captain had just stumbled out of a once-was house, blotches of ash on their clothes.

"T-There was a, a troll sleeping in the chimney... Nothing to worry about, it's gone now!" Sigrun coughed into her fist as she neared the tank once again. "Are the beds set up Mikkel? Hey, why do you have that little medical-box-thing out here?"

"There were some concerns I must investigate. Erika, could you please come here?" Mikkel spoke calmly, it was almost unsettling.

"Uh, sure... What's wrong?" The female cleanser asked, adjusting her mask and moving in front of the healer.

"We'll have to find out." He looked at Lalli expectantly. The scout gave him a quizzical look but figured it out after a moment and tapped the back of Erika's neck. She flinched at the touch. "Do you mind pulling down your collar?" The girl raised an eyebrow, but turned her back to him and rolled down her shirt collar, pulling her curly hair out of the way.

It was not a good sign.


Spoiler: notessss • show
So what about the Lalli there? Still not too good, huh? He's just hard for me to write for, for some reason. I don't know why, but he is.
But yes, the Rash. It hasn't spread too far, just on the back on her neck. Small, not full toll or something. And I just finished it a while ago, so alert me to any spelling/grammar mistakes, please and thanks.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on February 05, 2016, 08:52:07 PM

BUT HEY! It ended up longer than I thought!
Spoiler: return to silence; part one, chapter six • show
{chapter 6}
Spoiler: notessss • show
So what about the Lalli there? Still not too good, huh? He's just hard for me to write for, for some reason. I don't know why, but he is.
But yes, the Rash. It hasn't spread too far, just on the back on her neck. Small, not full toll or something. And I just finished it a while ago, so alert me to any spelling/grammar mistakes, please and thanks.


I think one of the things that makes Lalli a challenging character to interpret is his silence. We know what he's like as a quiet person- Minna has done a beautiful job with the subtlety of his expressions and little actions and interactions with the other characters, and has overall established an incredibly awkward character.

Awkward people are hard to write as a general rule. Even when you are one, because part of the awkwardness is not knowing how you come off to other people when you're being awkward. I speak from experience, which is why it's easy for me to write the internal dialogue of someone going through an agony of indecision. But when there's a choice to make? FORGEDDABOUTIT

Lalli is an absolute pill to write, but at the same time, I find it's quite rewarding when you have managed to write him. You did a pretty damned good job of Lall in his panic mode, and got that little Hokatainen touch of smug arrogance down pat as well. I guess Lalli is just a character we all struggle with in general? Actually, Mikkel's a blooming pain to get right as well.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: frostykitty on February 05, 2016, 09:50:58 PM
*GASP* Really? I-I did Lalli somewhat well? I'm honestly amazed. And for some reason Mikkel is easier for me to write for, but I guess he could be out of character this whole time and I've been absolutely oblivious to it.
But the thing about Lalli is, he does speak if everyone around him doesn't just speak some gibberish of a language and/or he's now about to hurl from motion sickness. Or maybe he only talks to Onni. Really, it's probably just me over complicating things, seems likely.

And then I found a pencil and doodled Erika in my style... I accidentally (http://pre13.deviantart.net/7b4f/th/pre/i/2016/036/e/d/image_by_frostykittyzem-d9qney4.jpg) drew the eyes too low, then reproportioned everything smaller... other than the hair which I ended up forgetting about. Sorry about the lack of descriptions in the story, there are more in seven. And if chapter seven is lacking description, still, then say so and I will add it! I can see the setting in my head every time I write parts of the story, so I just need the words.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on February 05, 2016, 10:22:00 PM
Frostykitty, it's getting good. Keep going, I'm interested to see what happens next. And I see you've worked out one of the things I found that made Lalli easier to write, which is that I figure a good chunk of his attention is always on what's going on in the subtle world. He may come across as a total space cadet, staring wide-eyed at stuff invisible to other people, but he's watching the ghosts, the spirits of the trolls, the warped life-energy of the disease, the landspirits....all that stuff. Once you get that, his behaviour makes much more ense!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on February 06, 2016, 12:29:43 AM
Roll on, frostykitty!

But meanwhile, here's a sort-of rewrite:

Mikkel’s Malmö Misadventures
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Part 1
Spoiler: show
An Alternate Beginning

My name is Mikkel Madsen. I used to be a spy, until I decided to resign...

The first thing Mikkel Madsen noticed when he woke was the bad taste in his mouth. Someone had stun-gunned him.

The next thing he noticed was how very Icelandic his surroundings were. Not only was all the signage in Icelandic, but the architecture, road style, and a dozen other big things and small screamed Iceland at Mikkel. Naturally, he therefore presumed he was somewhere in Finland.

*

Mikkel looked on askance as the red-haired Norwegian fury took out another contingent of guards. Whoever was paying Sigrun to break him out of this “upscale gated community” was getting their money’s worth. Of course, that was why Sigrun was the go-to girl when it came to ops like this.

Eventually, however, there was no one left for Sigrun to fight, so she could turn her full attention to Mikkel. He put up his hands in a placatory gesture, but Sigrun proved implacable as ever, ignoring his attempts to assure her that he would not be fool enough to resist in favor of stun-gunning him into oblivion.

*

For the second time in under a week, Mikkel came to with a bad taste in his mouth. This time, however, his hands and feet were bound, his eyes covered and his mouth gagged. “Sorry, big fellow,” Sigrun’s cheerful voice told him from somewhere to his left, “but I couldn’t chance you changing your mind about coming along peacefully at the last minute. I’ll have you out of those soon enough.”

Before she could say any more, her phone rang. Mikkel snorted through his gag. Unless his ears deceived him, Sigrun was still using the old car phone she’d had when he first met her, all those years ago. Mikkel had thought the telecom companies didn’t service those type of phones anymore, but he was wrong.

“Wait, what?” Sigrun sputtered, breaking into Mikkel’s rather nostalgic reflections. “You’re cancelling the job? WHAT ABOUT MY FEE?”

Mikkel could hear the panic in the swift response even from where he sat. Evidently, her erstwhile former employers knew of Sigrun’s standard response to being denied her fees.

“Great,” Sigrun groaned. “What am I supposed to do with a hundred kilos and more of recalcitrant Dane? Hmmmmmm...” After a considerable bit of thought, Sigrun snapped her fingers. “OK, I’ve got it! I’ll just drop you off in Malmö so you can ‘await further developments’. I’ve got a buddy there doing a job who can put you up in a pinch.”

*

Sigrun’s “buddy” was a young, golden-haired pretty boy named Emil, which surprised Mikkel, until he snuck a look at Emil’s quite comprehensive explosives lab. Trust Sigrun to take to a budding firebug. Emil was obviously somewhat in awe of her, which was normal enough.

Before Sigrun could really get to wheedling Emil into doing her bidding, though, Emil’s cell rang. Emil listened to his caller for a few minutes, confusion deepening on his face, until he handed the phone to Mikkel.

The voice was unfiltered but unfamiliar. “Welcome to Malmö, Mister Madsen. I trust your journey wasn’t too unpleasant, but we both know Ms. Eide can get a bit enthusiastic about carrying out a contract.

“Now, to business. You claim you wish to retire, and you chafed at the notion of living in the little reserve in which you were placed. Very well; if you stay in Malmö and keep yourself out of trouble, you will be left alone. If not, there are certain people less principled than Ms. Eide. Consider this your only warning.”

The line went dead, and Mikkel handed the phone back to Emil, who, wide-eyed, asked Sigrun, “Who is this guy?”

The confab was broken up by the far door opening and a cheery female voice calling out, “We’re back, Emil!” Seconds later, two ash-blonde Finns and a tall, gangly redhead with a truly remarkable braid walked in.

Emil made the introductions somewhat awkwardly. The two Finns were the semi-infamous Hotakainen cousins: Lalli, cat burglar and computer wizard, and Tuuri, grifter and mechanic extraordinaire. The redhead, who proved to be an Icelander, was their intern, Reynir, who was under the impression that they were a legitimate outfit doing security testing work, instead of a ring of thieves and swindlers. Reynir was so like a human puppy, though, that none of them wanted to disillusion him.

Fortunately, Sigrun was glib-tongued enough to claim to be a simple bounty hunter bringing Mikkel back to face justice in Malmö, so the ruddy naif’s illusions were kept intact for the present.

Mikkel had already decided to metaphorically sit back and, as Sigrun had mockingly said, await further developments, and this latest twist only reinforced that notion. Things looked to become quite interesting very shortly...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show

So, here’s the non-Rash variant, for those desirous of yet another non-Rash modern AU.

The shenanigans will commence shortly.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on February 06, 2016, 02:30:23 AM
Shenanigans? I can't wait!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Dire on February 06, 2016, 03:54:53 PM
Thank you everyone for the encouragement =D I'm finally getting to take a few hours to work on chapter two. I'm actually kind of glad my work week was too nuts to get to write any; the last few comic pages have been great for inspiration, especially with Sigrun and that standoffish attitude we're seeing right now.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on February 06, 2016, 08:07:02 PM
So for those of us who use A03, how many pages would you post at once? I've been on it for like, two years, but have never written as much for one chapter that I just churned out. 13 pages, and all of them full, full, full.

Would you guys post 13 pages in one go, or split them up a little bit? I'm more inclined to, for the sake of the narrative flow, post 13 pages in one go, but would you guys have a problem with reading that much in one go?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Yuuago on February 06, 2016, 08:20:12 PM
So for those of us who use A03, how many pages would you post at once? I've been on it for like, two years, but have never written as much for one chapter that I just churned out. 13 pages, and all of them full, full, full.

Would you guys post 13 pages in one go, or split them up a little bit? I'm more inclined to, for the sake of the narrative flow, post 13 pages in one go, but would you guys have a problem with reading that much in one go?

Pages can vary depending on font size/formatting, so... what is your wordcount? My estimate comes out to about 4.5k, does that sound about right? For anything under 5k, I would just post it at once - it isn't that much to read. Especially if the narrative doesn't have a place where it divides up neatly.
And even for larger wordcounts, I do think the more important part is whether it can divide up in an unobtrusive way, rather than the length itself.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on February 06, 2016, 08:31:21 PM
So for those of us who use A03, how many pages would you post at once? I've been on it for like, two years, but have never written as much for one chapter that I just churned out. 13 pages, and all of them full, full, full.

Would you guys post 13 pages in one go, or split them up a little bit? I'm more inclined to, for the sake of the narrative flow, post 13 pages in one go, but would you guys have a problem with reading that much in one go?

I've posted 20-something pages in one go. It ought to depend on how you want to break up the story, not on a strict word quota.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on February 06, 2016, 08:39:36 PM
Pages can vary depending on font size/formatting, so... what is your wordcount? My estimate comes out to about 4.5k, does that sound about right? For anything under 5k, I would just post it at once - it isn't that much to read. Especially if the narrative doesn't have a place where it divides up neatly.
And even for larger wordcounts, I do think the more important part is whether it can divide up in an unobtrusive way, rather than the length itself.

My word count is actually somewhere up in the 6000's, but I found that I kinda couldn't stop the narrative anywhere that wouldn't end up stretching out the length of the story. Thanks for your advice, bro
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Noodles on February 06, 2016, 08:55:10 PM
I would say just post it in one swell foop, but my ficreading habit is to open a bunch of fics and then read them while I'm somewhere with no internet, so I don't like chapters much. idk what other people like.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Yuuago on February 06, 2016, 08:59:35 PM
My word count is actually somewhere up in the 6000's, but I found that I kinda couldn't stop the narrative anywhere that wouldn't end up stretching out the length of the story. Thanks for your advice, bro

Ah yeah, in that case, definitely do it all at once. 6k still isn't that bad, and not interrupting the flow is most important. : )

my ficreading habit is to open a bunch of fics and then read them while I'm somewhere with no internet, so I don't like chapters much. idk what other people like.

If it's on Ao3, you can select "view entire work" on chaptered fics to see it all at once (it's in the buttons above the header when you open a fic up, left side). Or you can manually append ?view_full_work=true to the end of the URL after the work ID.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: frostykitty on February 06, 2016, 09:03:41 PM
I do the same thing as Noodly Appendage most of the time, whoops...
But if there is no place to split it up and still making sense, I say all at once.

I was hoping chapter Seven might be ready to upload today... I was mistaken. Hopefully before Monday, but I make now promises due to my enemy, WORDING.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Dire on February 06, 2016, 10:01:03 PM
Thirteen pages doesn't seem too daunting for one post. I read way more in a sitting from books I download.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on February 06, 2016, 11:02:39 PM
I don't like chapters much.
I do the same thing as Noodly Appendage most of the time, whoops...
And on that note, I post the next chapter. *sigh*

Madsen’s Malmö Mayhem
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Part 2
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg91372#msg91372)
Spoiler: show
It Got Worse

Year 0, Day 5

“It looks like a cat.”

Lalli’s dry observation seemed to echo in the stunned silence that followed the arrival of the strange-looking vehicle at their base of operations, a carefully unobtrusive warehouse buried amongst many others just like it in the much-reduced-but-still-truly-massive harbor complex. Ever since the multi-tracked vehicle had slllllllooooooowwwllllyyy pulled up to their door, Tuuri had been in an uncharacteristically shocked silence.

Eventually, a door on the side slid open, revealing a figure of medium size topped by a head bearing the same nose, eyes and hair as the other Hotakainens, so Mikkel felt it safe to assume this was another of their clan.

The sight jolted Tuuri out of her silence. “Onni!” she exclaimed in Finnish, “what are you doing here?”

Mikkel had a passing acquaintance with the Finn tongue, so he caught the gist of their conversation. From what they didn’t say, Mikkel gathered that Onni was more or less a complete shut-in; agoraphobe, anthrophobe, germophobe, and several other -phobes.

From what they did say, Mikkel gathered that Onni was also even better with computers than Lalli, so when he heard that Denmark was closing its borders, he’d plucked up his courage and joined his family, “borrowing” this semi-experimental vehicle from the training facility where it was being evaluated along the way.

“Blah blah blah positive air pressure blah blah advanced filtration and purification systems blah blah.” Tuuri was eating the tech talk up, while Sigrun and Emil looked increasingly bored. Lalli had already slipped into the vehicle to check out Onni’s hacking set-up, while Reynir had slipped back into the building to see whether he could whip up something nice for the new arrival.

“That’s all very nice,” Sigrun said, her tone contradicting her words, “but is there any, y’know, weaponry aboard?”

“Maybe just a flamethrower?” Emil asked, obviously trying not to sound too hopeful.

Onni looked nonplussed when Tuuri relayed the questions. His answer was obviously the Finnish for “no”.

“Well, that thing’s just a waste of space, then.” Sigrun crossed her arms truculently, if not outright pugnaciously.

“It got Onni here, which is good enough for me!” Tuuri flared up in another uncharacteristic outburst.

Emil butted in, trying to play peacemaker, but the two girls were already metaphorically snarling and growling at each other in preparation for an air-clearing brawl, ill-timed though it might be, so both verbally slashed at him until he retreated.

“YOU NEED TO HEAR THIS!”

The world seemed to stop in confusion. Lalli had screamed? Lalli, the quietest of the quiet? Then, into the silence, a professional ‘news presenter’ voice started speaking in Finnish.

“...confirmed that two of the original patients did die earlier today.”

As the news went on, Tuuri gave a rough translation, her voice thin with fear. No recoveries. No “in good condition”. No cure yet, or perhaps ever.

“What were you saying about the air filtration again?” Sigrun asked Onni quietly...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show

Gee, I wonder if they’ll make it to Year 3? /mikkel
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: frostykitty on February 06, 2016, 11:17:58 PM
Ah! It's not that I don't like chapters, it's just that I end up reading things when I'm in the car or something, without internet...

I like how Lalli is the one getting their attention, and I feel like Emil would be the one stuck in the middle of an argument. I will be eagerly awaiting the next instalment!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on February 06, 2016, 11:52:15 PM
LooNEY: I do like Sigrun's sudden change of heart. And Onni stealing the tank.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on February 07, 2016, 02:38:56 AM
And on that note, I post the next chapter. *sigh*

Madsen’s Malmö Mayhem
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic

Quote

I honestly love the way Emil and Sigrun are both just like 'can we blow stuff up' then get grumpy like children when they find out Onni has only been pragmatic about their health, rather than the amount of boom-booms there is to be had.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on February 07, 2016, 02:54:22 AM
And on that note, I post the next chapter. *sigh*

Madsen’s Malmö Mayhem
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic

Quote

I honestly love the way Emil and Sigrun are both just like 'can we blow stuff up' then get grumpy like children when they find out Onni has only been pragmatic about their health, rather than the amount of boom-booms there is to be had.


What in the heck happened to this format? This is what happens when you post while your cats are on the keyboard.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Aogera on February 07, 2016, 04:33:42 AM
Hello,  I have a thing. It's http://archiveofourown.org/works/4922551/chapters/11294539 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/4922551/chapters/11294539) (link bcos long)

I've been writing it for a while now but never thought to share it here (clearly my capacity for overlooking the obvious is strong).

Warning: it's shippy. I know that's not everyone's style.

I think I must have read every ssss fanfiction on a03 and I love the community's fun loving vibe. I think one of the reasons minna's characters are so fun to write is because of how well crafted they are.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on February 07, 2016, 07:39:23 AM
Hello,  I have a thing. It's http://archiveofourown.org/works/4922551/chapters/11294539 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/4922551/chapters/11294539) (link bcos long)

I've been writing it for a while now but never thought to share it here (clearly my capacity for overlooking the obvious is strong).

Warning: it's shippy. I know that's not everyone's style.

I think I must have read every ssss fanfiction on a03 and I love the community's fun loving vibe. I think one of the reasons minna's characters are so fun to write is because of how well crafted they are.

Ah! Welcome, new friend! I haven't read your fic as of posting this but I am looking forward to this. Anyway, welcome and we do hope you enjoy being indoctrinated and engulfed by the ways of the Minnions!


Also, to the other guys, remember that 13 page chapter which was discussed at great length earlier?
Well here it is
http://archiveofourown.org/works/5853457/chapters/13658758

And thanks for all your input
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on February 07, 2016, 08:37:40 AM
Aogera: I've been following your tale with interest, and yeah, it's shippy, but still sweet. Looking forward to the next chapter.

OwlsGo: I'm about to read your epic. Hopefully I'll emerge before morning!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on February 07, 2016, 09:10:19 AM
And on that note, I post the next chapter. *sigh*

Madsen’s Malmö Mayhem
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Part 2

Emil. Do not try to get between Sigrun and Tuuri when they are fighting. Do not try to get between Sigrun and anyone she is fighting with. You really, really ought to know this by now. :))
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Dire on February 07, 2016, 09:12:53 AM
Hello,  I have a thing. It's http://archiveofourown.org/works/4922551/chapters/11294539 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/4922551/chapters/11294539) (link bcos long)

I've been writing it for a while now but never thought to share it here (clearly my capacity for overlooking the obvious is strong).

Warning: it's shippy. I know that's not everyone's style.

I think I must have read every ssss fanfiction on a03 and I love the community's fun loving vibe. I think one of the reasons minna's characters are so fun to write is because of how well crafted they are.

Oh man Just Dreaming was actually the first SSSS fic I read, I think, when I first started scouring the a03 archives! I left kudos as an anon because I didn't have an account yet (actually my account there is still < a week old so this is true for everyone's fics). I was excited to see you updating again.

I gotta binge through the archives soon. I haven't read anything since I started working on mine ~3 weeks ago. 

Speaking of: http://archiveofourown.org/works/5882653/chapters/13656256 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/5882653/chapters/13656256)

My chapter two is up. It's a slow one for pacing and context. Getting closer to the action and horror though :D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on February 07, 2016, 09:32:29 AM
My chapter two is up. It's a slow one for pacing and context. Getting closer to the action and horror though :D

Reviewed on AO3.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Aogera on February 07, 2016, 12:20:10 PM
@dire - Oh I read the first chapter of elegia,  I always love a long pacing stories and I really want to find directions out what happens if  this one (let us know if you ever need a peppered talk, haha!)  It's a tense situation to write about, I loved emil's frustration.  Can't wait to read the next chapter!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Dire on February 07, 2016, 05:53:05 PM
@dire - Oh I read the first chapter of elegia,  I always love a long pacing stories and I really want to find directions out what happens if  this one (let us know if you ever need a peppered talk, haha!)  It's a tense situation to write about, I loved emil's frustration.  Can't wait to read the next chapter!

Aww thank you so much :D Especially because yours is one of the fics that made me want to write one, too.

Question for the group: Is there a defined line between what gets considered shippy and what doesn't? Does something have to be explicit about characters' romantic interest/attraction to be called shippy or does ambiguous/open to interpretation qualify too?

I'm basically wondering at what point I may need to acknowledge I'm writing a shippy fic vs one about really good friends haha
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on February 07, 2016, 07:00:34 PM
Minna did say that if she ever did write a romance into the comic it would be hard to tell from a really good friendship. So if I'm writing Emil/Lalli I try not to write them doing anything much beyond what a pair of coeth-companions in one of the old hero-tales would do. Not that that relationship excluded romance, it just didn't require it.

The other couple I ship, Mikkel and Tuuri, I'm writing much more cautiously, because I think that relationship would require a great deal of negotiation and sorting out of the power structure before it could work.

I'd say the line between romanticshippy and friendshippy is the presence or absence of overt sexual activity. But that's just my opinion. Anyone else have ideas?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on February 07, 2016, 07:04:36 PM
Some creakily old stuff being dredged up here--not inspired by the current topic, though.
Spoiler: show
One of the memes of the past is "gal in love with the boss", but modern sexual harassment regulations say, "Not a chance! Lawsuit! String him up!" if he initiates anything. Unfortunately, the public is largely unaware of this, so the meme lives on. Emil acted as a proper employer/superior should, not taking advantage of his position; in fact, I was trying to suggest that M more or less talked/tricked him into proposing, thus his surprise.

After he proposed, however...

Spoiler: show
Don't worry, I didn't think for a second that Emil would ever take advantage of his position.  Not only was he brought up (as I like to think) with a very noblesse oblige attitude that the strong should never prey on the weak, but as a former fat kid he has a core of insecurity that probably still lingers even after 15 years as a successful Cleanser. 

What I *was* thinking, though, is that inhibitions occasionally get lowered between colleagues in times of stress (especially if a bottle of liquor left over from the office Jul party turns up), leading to make-out sessions in the supply closet.  Either the happy couple might then realize they're compatible in other ways too... or Emil, being the lovably old-fashioned dork that he is, might be the last person alive in the Known World who thinks he has to "save the lady's honor" and propose.  (Which Marta might in fact have anticipated.)

Spoiler: show
Bringing back Marta (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg90019#msg90019) brought this back to mind, so I thought I'd drop a little scene on what Emil didn't say(/write) in this part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg48089#msg48089):
[spoiler]Emil and Marta looked at each other and burst into laughter. Somehow, they'd managed to keep still as, on the other side of their slightly ajar office door, that blowhard Blomfeld blustered his way through the most awkward, pompous, comically bad proposal either of them had ever heard.

And the proposee had actually said yes!

But still, Marta and Emil had managed to wait until the happy couple had departed, still unaware of their audience, before looking at each other and collapsing with mirth.

Once they had subsided to an occasional giggle, Emil said, "Well, should someone propose to you and make a mess of it, at least you can say you've heard worse now!"

Marta laughed again. "Yeah, even you at your worst couldn't mess up that badly."

Emil tilted his head back in mock arrogance. "My dear Marta, I would never mess a proposal up at all…" He let his head lower "…because I'd keep it too simple for that."

Marta raised her eyebrows sardonically. "Oh, really. The guy who spent two hours answering a simple yes-or-no question once is going to keep his proposal simple? This I have to hear."

"You think I couldn't?" Emil shot back.

"I'm sure you couldn't. Go on; make like you're proposing to me and we'll see."

Emil sighed, rolling his eyes. "This is not where I would choose to propose."

Marta smirked. "Let me guess: candlelit dinner with romantic strings in the background and all that terribly cliched stuff that never goes off right? Just spit it out, like you got so carried away that you couldn't wait for 'the perfect moment', which never comes anyway."

Emil sighed again. "Oh, very well. Marta Kiianmies, I love you like no other. Will you marry me and make me the happiest of men?"

"Absolutely!" And Marta threw herself into Emil's arms.

Oldest trick in the book, isn't it? And you know it'd only work with Emil.[/spoiler]
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on February 07, 2016, 07:26:06 PM
Hahahahahahah! Funny AND sweet! And so very, very, Emil.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Yuuago on February 07, 2016, 07:44:16 PM

Question for the group: Is there a defined line between what gets considered shippy and what doesn't? Does something have to be explicit about characters' romantic interest/attraction to be called shippy or does ambiguous/open to interpretation qualify too?

I'm basically wondering at what point I may need to acknowledge I'm writing a shippy fic vs one about really good friends haha

(https://40.media.tumblr.com/28feab9e98922db88bab33cc92411645/tumblr_inline_nnv8f38mKu1r2g2kx_540.png)

Heck if I know. I feel like half the time when I'm writing mild/G-rated shipfic, I end up purposely putting a kiss or something in there just to make it clear that it is shipfic, because otherwise it'd be impossible to tell the difference between that and when I write friendship.

The lines are fuzzy sometimes. Luckily at least when it comes to labelling, you can always mark it as "ambiguous relationship", if you can't decide how you feel it should be defined, or if you want others to decide for themselves.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Noodles on February 07, 2016, 07:51:03 PM
OH GOSH SO MUCH THE GOOD RECENTLY

(and yeah, I do know about "view full work," but I keep forgetting and then the end notes are like "will fred die??? find out next chapter!!!!" and I'm like "aughhhhhhhhhhhhhh"
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on February 07, 2016, 08:03:51 PM
The other couple I ship, Mikkel and Tuuri, I'm writing much more cautiously, because I think that relationship would require a great deal of negotiation and sorting out of the power structure before it could work.

That power dynamic is exactly pretty much any ship involving Mikkel or Sigrun with anyone else on the crew is enough to make me run screaming. That is just a squick no-zone for me.

(It... is okay to talk about not liking ships here as long as I'm not attacking anyone for it, right? I don't want to inadvertently step on any toes...)

I'd say the line between romanticshippy and friendshippy is the presence or absence of overt sexual activity. But that's just my opinion. Anyone else have ideas?

I'd say... there's purely platonic sibling/best friends relationship, overtly sexual, then this whole huge gray area in between on the sliding scale of "might one day possibly go somewhere romantic" and "open to interpretation." I don't know that there is a clear-cut answer on this one.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on February 07, 2016, 08:15:35 PM
Agreed on the grey zone. A writer can do interesting things in that zone though.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on February 08, 2016, 02:03:09 AM
Ummmmmmmmmmmm…

Goldilocks Emil & the Three Bear Warriors
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Spoiler: show
Once Upon a Time...

Emil “Goldilocks” Västerström made his way homeward through the big, dark, scary forest dejectedly. He hadn’t caught a thing today, so his Uncle Torbjörn and Aunt Siv would send him to bed without supper again, while they made do with the dregs of last week’s pease porridge.

A bolt of lightning blazed through the heavens, splitting a tree close to Emil’s path. He was supposed to stay on the path, because then the wolves and the bears wouldn’t chase him and gobble him up. But would getting struck by lightning really be any better than that?

Rain began to pour down, and the lightning cracked again. Emil tried to duck beneath a particularly broad pine, but as soon as he stepped off the path, his feet flew out from under him, and he slid through the mud until he fell into a dark cave.

Gathering himself together, Emil reached into his basket and pulled out his tinder-box. Now, most tinder-boxes wouldn’t work if you got them as wet and muddy as this one was, but Emil had used all of his earnings for last year to get some special things from the apothecary so that his tinder-box would always light when he needed it to.

Emil had fallen into a hole, but he’d come to rest against a rough-hewn door. “Ah!” he told himself. “Here is a place where I may seek shelter for the night in exchange for some labor!” As he was a well-mannered young man (when he remembered to be), Emil thereupon knocked at the door, which bounced open.

Although Emil did not know it, he was entering the abode of three Bear Warriors of great renown: Sigrun, the fiercest Bear Warrior ever ever ever; Mikkel, the general dogs-body of the trio; and Lalli, their newly acquired Cub Scout. They lived all alone in the woods because they didn’t like other people, and all the wolves and the bears were too scared to try to eat them.

Emil carefully shut the door behind him, being careful to be on his best behavior. “Hello?” he called. “Is anyone home?”

After no one answered, Emil shrugged. He would just go around the place and see what work was needed that he could do. But first, he took his muddy cloak off and hung it on a stand by the door, also removing his muddy boots and placing them by the stand. It would be impolite to track mud all over someone else’s home when you were their guest.

The first room Emil found was the living room. He saw three chairs arranged around the fireplace. “Ah!” he told himself. “I can get the fire going, so this room will be nice and warm for them when they return!” And he did.

He didn’t sit in any of the chairs, though each looked inviting, because he still had work to do. “Now, for the other rooms.”

The next room Emil found was the kitchen and dining area, where three bowls sat atop the table. “Oh, this will never do!” Emil said. “Without something to cover them, the bowls will attract bugs from everywhere!”

Emil looked through the cupboards until he found some clean cheesecloths. He took some and covered each bowl so the porridge inside would stay bug-free. Emil didn’t eat any of the porridge, even though he was very hungry by now, because that would be rude.

Finally, Emil came to the bedroom, where three unmade and very messy beds immediately caught his eye. “Oh!” he said. “This will never do!” And he straightened up the room and made the beds. Emil did not lie down on any of the beds, though by now he was very tired, because that would be rude.

After all this, Emil went back to the living room and stood warming himself by the fireplace when the door flew open and Sigrun, Mikkel, and Lalli came in. Before Emil could speak, Sigrun went to the most uncomfortable-looking of the chairs.

“Someone has been sitting in my chair!” she roared, ignoring Emil’s stuttered denials (and Emil himself) completely.

Mikkel went over to a larger and plusher chair. “Someone’s been sitting in my chair,” he said in surprise, also ignoring Emil completely.

Lalli, however, looked straight at Emil, who held up his hands and said, “I swear, I haven’t sat down the whole time I’ve been here!”

“Okay,” Lalli replied quietly.

The others ignored them and went into the kitchen, where both Sigrun and Mikkel declared that someone had been eating their porridge, while Lalli shook his head.

Emil was getting very confused by now.

Now they all stomped into the bedroom, where Sigrun and Mikkel declared that their beds had been slept in by some interloper. Emil finally got mad.

“Look,” he said, pointing at the beds, “I have only made the beds, not slept in them, just as I only covered the porridge, without eating any, and lit a fire to warm the chairs, without sitting in them. I tried to ensure that I didn’t track mud in here, and in every other way, I’ve tried to behave like a good guest, even though I wasn’t invited. Why do you accuse me of such rudeness?”

“Aren’t you ‘Goldilocks’ Västerström?” Sigrun asked, surprised by his ire.

“Well, yes,” Emil admitted. “Why?”

“Well, we were told that ‘Goldilocks’ Västerström was a mean and rude boy who would leave us--Lalli especially--without food or a place to sit or even a bed.”

“Who said this?” Emil asked.

“They never mentioned their names.”

The three Bear Warriors were so impressed by Emil’s good manners that they let him stay until dawn, and gave him a grouse to take home, saying he could visit whenever he wanted. Lalli even shook Emil’s hand, which was not usually his thing.

And the moral of the story is: it pays to be polite.


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show

Well, this was unexpected.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Laufey on February 08, 2016, 02:17:39 AM
Minna did say that if she ever did write a romance into the comic it would be hard to tell from a really good friendship. So if I'm writing Emil/Lalli I try not to write them doing anything much beyond what a pair of coeth-companions in one of the old hero-tales would do.

With sagas in mind, if we go by that the fic can still include:

- bathing together
- one person bathing and the other one simply hanging around
- wrestling naked while swimming
- hugging (duh)
- kissing (no homo)
- cuddling, but only if the other one is dying
- sharing the same household
- sharing the same wife
- sharing a kid or two (Medieval Norse people strengthened friendships by fostering each others' children, it was a kind of a non-marriage family union)

Then again that's still better than what happens between enemies: that one time a guy wanted to ambush Grettir and when Grettir realized it he attacked first, chased the guy for a long while until he finally caught him, forcibly stripped him naked and spanked him...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on February 08, 2016, 02:25:58 AM
LooNEY, laughing very hard at that!

Laufey, those sound so like our Irish tales! We have lots of such incidents. As do the Scots and the Welsh. Including the sharing of wives and fosterlings, or in some cases the sharing of husbands. And of course Ferdiad and Cúchullain probably were lovers as well as coeth-companions.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on February 08, 2016, 06:01:44 AM
Question for the group: Is there a defined line between what gets considered shippy and what doesn't? Does something have to be explicit about characters' romantic interest/attraction to be called shippy or does ambiguous/open to interpretation qualify too?

I'm basically wondering at what point I may need to acknowledge I'm writing a shippy fic vs one about really good friends haha

My suggestion would be: if it goes 'above and beyond' (as it were) anything we've seen in the comic, count it as shipping. Personally I've found the line to differ quite a bit depending on who you ask, so I guess using the comic as a reference we're all familiar with might not be a bad idea.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Dire on February 08, 2016, 11:46:23 PM
Cool, I appreciate everyone's thoughts on it. That helps guide me on how I should tag the next chapters. I think I'm in the grey area at the moment, there's definitely nothing explicit one way or the other. I just wasn't sure if I should forewarn potential readers that they might read my fic and find it romantically inclined, if they happen to interpret it that way.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Noodles on February 08, 2016, 11:54:37 PM
Cool, I appreciate everyone's thoughts on it. That helps guide me on how I should tag the next chapters. I think I'm in the grey area at the moment, there's definitely nothing explicit one way or the other. I just wasn't sure if I should forewarn potential readers that they might read my fic and find it romantically inclined, if they happen to interpret it that way.
Seems legit. I think that, in this fandom, there are few enough antis that nearly everyone who reads it romantic will be a shipper and therefore ok with however it goes. :D
(Also it is a beautiful lovely fic. You capture them so well!)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: frostykitty on February 09, 2016, 12:45:52 PM
Well, since I was sent home, sick, I figured 'hey, let's write' So I bring to you... Chapter Seven!
If I didn't stop it where I did, it would have been pretty long. One more chapter and it's done, I think so.
Spoiler: return to silence; part one, chapter seven • show
{chapter 7}

Erika turned around to face the healer as he shared the news. The grim news. Her eyes widened and her jaw fell limp. She tried to speak, but her voice failed her as she stepped back, slowly shaking her head. Emil had been watching through the window with Tuuri, but now fell back and sat on the floor, slumped against the wall. Tuuri sat beside him and put a hand on his shoulder. Reynir tilted his head and glanced out the window to see the girl cleanser collapsed in the snow, hiding her face in her hands.

She had tried to take off into the Silent lands, but Ivar had caught her by the wrist first. She was now sitting on the ground, sobbing quietly in to her hands. They would either leave her here to mutate or die, or they would shoot her. Either way, she wouldn't be going back home. She wouldn't see her family again. She wouldn't get to apologize to them for everything she was sorry for. Never hear their voices again. She wouldn't even go back to say goodbye to her teammates. This was no brave or valiant death, this was pathetic. She was being euthanized, like a horse with a broken leg. She was deemed broken beyond repair and killed off, just like that. She had done nothing wrong. Never hurt anyone. Never stolen. The only thing she had ever done was to help. Sure, maybe minor mistakes... But bruises healed. Books were replaced.

She flinched as she felt an arm around her shoulders. It was Emil, who had come out of the tank to sit with her. Sigrun was getting herself decontaminated, Lalli was going back inside. Like someone hadn't just gotten a death sentence. She barely looked up as her friend spoke.

"I'm sorry... I-" Erika shook her head. He sighed and shut his mouth, head on his hand.

"At least it's pretty, here..." She mumbled, wiping her eyes with her sleeve."I'll be -" she paused, laying back and looking at the sky, "- fine... Do you know who's the one taking care of me? Or are you just going to leave me here?" The questions were monotone.

"Ehhh, we probably won't just leave you here..." Emil frowned. He didn't want to think about who would shoot her. Not him... He fell back to lay beside her and look at the sky.

Bright bands of scarlet stretched around the horizon, fading in to a rainbow of colors before reaching a bold dark blue on the other side of the sky. Mikkel and the two older cleansers were talking quietly about what to do. The snow glistened, sparks of the sunset dancing about the surface as the wind stirred. The chipped and broken glass of the home windows reflected the pure flame of the crimson sun. The homes themselves were tinted with the light, many of them with collapsed roofs or walls.

Greenery flourished in these spots. Growing from every small fracture in stone brick or drywall, every unprotected book page, every small tear in the fabric of furniture. The small buds were tilted to the dying red light. Lichens grew on the tattered drapery of windows, some clung to the russet bricks. Mosses crept across any and every surface they could. It was peaceful here, in this circle of old houses. Long forgotten, but not lifeless.

"So this'll be the last goodbye, huh?" Erika inquired, holding her friend's hand. Emil sighed and closed his eyes.

"I suppose it will be..."


Spoiler: notessss • show
DESCRIPTION, WOAH THERE IS ONE! Somewhat, hahaha...
My mind is a little astray right now, I nearly passed out in school because health class is awful and yeah, so I don't know if there are any mistakes or not? Could be, I just don't see them? I don't, know, just tell be in you find one.
See you nest chapter to wrap up part one, I guess. And I do kind of have HALF an idea for a part two. By part two I mean like a whole new story, but same setting and stuff, or whatever
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on February 10, 2016, 11:58:53 PM
Cool, I appreciate everyone's thoughts on it. That helps guide me on how I should tag the next chapters. I think I'm in the grey area at the moment, there's definitely nothing explicit one way or the other. I just wasn't sure if I should forewarn potential readers that they might read my fic and find it romantically inclined, if they happen to interpret it that way.


The good thing with a piece of fiction like SSSS is the characters and their relationships are set up in such a way that they could go either way. We do know Minna prefers saga friendships to romance, which I think makes stories far more interesting sometimes. For example, there's been a recent blow-up over Mikkel and Sigrun because they had an entertaining interaction lately, with the mutiny list. This in my mind made them a bromance (a bromace so strong I think I feel a one-shot coming on, concerning exactly how bromancy they are), but in many others it is romantic.

We are conditioned to think of any male-female relationship as a romantic one waiting to happen, but you've got a little more wiggle-room because that is not so much the case with a gay couple. I think for now, sticking to the grey area is a good idea because it is what you're comfortable with. As your story goes on (and I am crossing my fingers it will progress soon because WOW I LOVE IT) you might find yourself leaning more towards one side or the other. If you are not yet sure, give yourself a little time to think about the way you want Emil and Lalli to end up.
Either way, I'm sure the result will be satisfying for your readership.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: frostykitty on February 11, 2016, 06:18:10 PM
*Edit* IT WAS ONLY A FEW HUNDRED WORDS OVER!
But, it's FINALLY FINISHED! This chapter was being a pain to write because I wasn't entirely sure how Emil would deal with a loss, but I hope I got it right.
It was going to be shorter, but then story time happened so that made it a bit longer... eheheh... It's freshly written though, tell me of any grammar mistakes and such
WITHOUT FURTHER ADO, HERE'S CHAPTER EIGHT! (http://sta.sh/0k3okgumfaw)
Spoiler: the notessss • show
"Lalli grumbled something and crossed out the dashed path with a vengeance." Haha, he may or may not have nearly missed running in to something along that path...
I'll write a part two when I get an idea. It will have nothing to do with this, other than the same setting. I don't like messing with cannon timeframes, it's just weird for me, I don't like it. If you saw something that seemed very out of character, please tell me and possibly say how I could try to fix it.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: G0vnah on February 11, 2016, 07:14:39 PM
*Edit* IT WAS ONLY A FEW HUNDRED WORDS OVER!
But, it's FINALLY FINISHED! This chapter was being a pain to write because I wasn't entirely sure how Emil would deal with a loss, but I hope I got it right.
It was going to be shorter, but then story time happened so that made it a bit longer... eheheh... It's freshly written though, tell me of any grammar mistakes and such
WITHOUT FURTHER ADO, HERE'S CHAPTER EIGHT! (http://sta.sh/0k3okgumfaw)
Spoiler: the notessss • show
"Lalli grumbled something and crossed out the dashed path with a vengeance." Haha, he may or may not have nearly missed running in to something along that path...
I'll write a part two when I get an idea. It will have nothing to do with this, other than the same setting. I don't like messing with cannon timeframes, it's just weird for me, I don't like it. If you saw something that seemed very out of character, please tell me and possibly say how I could try to fix it.

I just walked in here to inquire about something, but that can wait - your story has caught my attention, and I wanna know: is there any way I could have a link to the first chapter, please? :3
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: frostykitty on February 11, 2016, 07:30:08 PM
Oh, sure! Chapter one (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg90702#msg90702), and every other chapter is just hidden among the pages leading to this one.

What was your inquiry?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on February 11, 2016, 07:31:35 PM
Frostykitty: was that your last chapter? I'm curious to see what happened after.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: G0vnah on February 11, 2016, 07:32:49 PM
Oh, sure! Chapter one (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg90702#msg90702), and every other chapter is just hidden among the pages leading to this one.

What was your inquiry?
Thanks! I shall binge to my heart's content soon.

Oh, and my inquiry was about whether a fanfic of mine could be linked here or not, but - like I said - it can wait until you get some feedback on yours (don't wanna "cut in line" as it were). ^_^
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: frostykitty on February 11, 2016, 07:38:05 PM
It is the last, but there will only be a small time skip between part one and two (one to two days, I'm thinking)
Spoiler: basically, • show
the cleansers got home safely, they told the others about Erika, and then the team left to their mission. The mission may or may not have been too eventful, depends... I need to think of another plot (I have an inkling of one) to figure out what all would've changed. I'm thinking pretty uneventful, but not many books, either.


You can link it, there's no line  ;D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: G0vnah on February 11, 2016, 07:40:17 PM
Ah, well, okay then. My original question would've been this:

Quote
[shyly enters this thread]
Um... hi. I, uh... I have a thing I'm doing on FanFiction.net, where I'm posting a series of vignettes in one fanfic. It's an "Inside Out" fanfic, but with a twist - each entry is a guessing game, and is set in the mind of characters from other works of fiction (comics, movies, tv shows, books, etc.). I describe what's happening in the mind in vague terms, then pull back to reveal the answer of whose mind it is and what's going on in it. Then - after that - I post the clues I gave. Also, the emotion genders are randomized to avoid arguments over how to interpret them.

ANYWAYS, I bring this up only because I just posted an entry centered around a character from SSSS and was wondering if this would be the place on the forum to share a link, or not?

So, yeah, that's just the question is all. What's this thread's stance on "crossovers" such as that?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: frostykitty on February 11, 2016, 07:46:45 PM
I imagine it's just fine! We have a few crossover stories here, so that's fine.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: G0vnah on February 11, 2016, 08:10:44 PM
Yay! :D

Link:
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11377815/22/Whose-Mind-is-it-Anyway
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on February 11, 2016, 09:59:50 PM
Well, that's an interesting mind. Well caught. I hope you'll do it again!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: G0vnah on February 11, 2016, 10:03:28 PM
Well, that's an interesting mind. Well caught. I hope you'll do it again!
Thank you kindly! I had a lot of fun exploring it! :) If I do another SSSS entry, I'll be sure to let people know.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: frostykitty on February 12, 2016, 07:39:14 AM
I liked it. It would be hard to explain all the magical mage stuff (obviously I'm using technical terms) in that way, but I think you did good.

And I think I got another plot figured out, so part two should start in a few days!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: G0vnah on February 12, 2016, 07:55:07 AM
I liked it. It would be hard to explain all the magical mage stuff (obviously I'm using technical terms) in that way, but I think you did good.

And I think I got another plot figured out, so part two should start in a few days!
Thanks. ^^

And yaaaay! More stuff for me to read! :D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: frostykitty on February 13, 2016, 01:39:21 PM
While trying to clean up the document that I write Return to Silence in for the next chapter (yep, one document. Quite long and hard to navigate) I gathered all of part one and uploaded it to my sta.sh as a backup if the whole thing gets deleted... But if you wanted to have it all together so you didn't have to search it's here, but HUGE (http://sta.sh/01fcuwuk9r6g) so open at your own risk I guess? Word count for the whole thing? 7,995 or something like that. Not that long, is it?

Now off to begin chapter two! (same prologue as the other one)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: G0vnah on February 13, 2016, 01:42:24 PM
Ah, even better! :) Thanks!

And also, I'll admit I'm in the habit of not reading fanfics as they update, but rather waiting 'till they're done and binging on them completely. May I ask how close this one is to completion? :3
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: frostykitty on February 13, 2016, 01:47:49 PM
Finished. It's only eight chapters. I know ALMOST for a fact part two will be longer. I'm hoping.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: G0vnah on February 13, 2016, 03:05:46 PM
Ahah, even better! :D I'll get to it when I can, then! :B
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on February 13, 2016, 04:32:52 PM
Well, the last two months have been a wonderful procession of life kicking me in the teeth, but I’ve finally found the time to write again (just)! A short story of Onni on the Keuruu docks, mostly based around what we saw on Page 451 and inspired by some art Gwenno did around the same time.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/5994112

Hope you all like it! And I will read the new stuff on this thread soon, I promise…
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: frostykitty on February 13, 2016, 05:30:04 PM
That was great! However, shouldn't have read it with a dark closet behind me! The (let's just say) creature calling for them all is the chilling part. Descriptions of the cleansing missions? No, I'm fine there. But not, of course, the mystery dream creature calling their names... *shivers* that's the part that creeps me out, especially when you can guess who it might have (once) been.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Laufey on February 13, 2016, 05:38:37 PM
snip

How dare you, that was a completely fine heart I had and now look at how it is. Look at what you did. Take responsibility (and also write more pls). :'(
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Kiraly on February 13, 2016, 06:01:14 PM
[punch right in the feelings]

AAAAAHHH Oh my gosh that was really good but also SAD! If anyone needs me I'll be in the corner doing this:
(http://orig13.deviantart.net/3dbe/f/2015/194/5/7/tuuri_3_by_aquaaurion-d913xkh.png)

Also I'm sorry life has been kicking you in the teeth, hopefully it's done now (and you still have a few teeth left?)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on February 13, 2016, 06:07:06 PM
I had wondered how you were doing, and am very glad you are back! This is an interesting take on Onni and the inside of his head, poor man! And I hope life has stopped kicking you in the teeth, and has gone off to nurse its bruised toes.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on February 13, 2016, 06:35:12 PM
Well, and now here's my contribution to the angst party (sorta):

The Good, the Bad, and the Bestial
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/Western crossover fanfic
Part 19
Caper the Third: The Cave of Time
Part 8
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg90878#msg90878)
Spoiler: show
The Survivors

Malmö, Sweden
Year 3, Day 27
0949L

Sigrun Eide leaped nimbly over the flailing tentacle trying to disembowel her and stabbed through another of the Giant’s brains. This was the most massive Giant she’d taken on in the three years since the Outbreak, but if it wanted to take out her crew, it would have to go through her first!

Faster than anyone could have reacted, more tentacles sprang their trap, snapping Sigrun’s knife arm like a twig. The Giant screamed in demonic triumph at Sigrun from at least twenty more mouths, and she knew, with bleak certainty, that she was about to die.

Of course, she didn’t plan on making it easy.

Right as the Giant was about to strike, a Molotov Cocktail hit its trunk, flames shooting along its fetid, hideous bulk. As Sigrun turned to see who her rescuer was--probably Emil, but he was supposed to be watching the south end, so she’d have to remonstrate with him for leaving his post--she heard her own voice cackle gleefully, “Bullseye, Goldilocks!”

But Sigrun hadn’t said that. She finished turning--and nearly fell over at the sight of the six figures approaching her in garb straight out of those John Wayne movies Mikkel, Onni and Emil loved so much, for not only did they include Tuuri, Reynir, Lalli--Lalli, whose leg she’d helped set just yesterday!--Mikkel and Emil, but another Sigrun walked with them as well.

It was at this point that the shock of her broken arm combined with the shock of seeing the doubles and knocked Sigrun out, though not easily. Characteristically, she struggled against her impending black-out, but eventually succumbed.

*

“It looks like a cat,” Lalli Ghost-of-Forest commented dryly. So it did, albeit a bit more grungily than when Lalli Hotakainen had made the same observation three years earlier.

Mobility was the key to surviving in the city, and there had been not a few running (well, crawling really, but you get the point) battles over those three years. Sigrun and Emil had scrounged together a meager assortment of weaponry for those running battles, but their nights were still spent under whatever cover they could suss out, most of the crew sleeping with one eye open against the possibility of the grosslings (as they called the monsters) sussing them out.

Of course, the Westerners knew none of this; all they knew was that now!Sigrun’s tracks led back here, so here they had carried her unconscious form. “OY!” the Western Sigrun shouted.

Before she could say anything else, Emil popped out from behind them and, putting his finger to his lips in the universal “hush!” signal, motioned with the gun he carried for them to move to the vehicle.

When they reached the door, Emil went up to it and drew his fingers along it in a specific pattern of scratches, whereupon Mikkel opened the door from inside.

“These guys found Sigrun hurt and brought her back here,” Emil said. Unfortunately, he spoke in Swedish, which was about as intelligible to most of the Westerners as Greek.

Most of the Westerners couldn’t understand what now!Mikkel’s reply was. Western Mikkel, on the other hand, spoke bad and badly accented Danish, and so heard his counterpart tell Emil, “You all need to be decontaminated, you know.”

“Do we have extra masks for those two?” Emil asked, gesturing at Reynir and Tuuri. “I mean, assuming this isn’t just some weird dream I’m having.”

“We all wish,” Mikkel said gently. Then, “I think we have a few more spares, assuming they haven’t already been infected.”

“They haven’t,” the Western Mikkel interjected. “They’ve had their faces covered since we came out of the sewers.”

Emil turned to his Mikkel a grin and said, “Wow. He speaks Danish badly enough that I understand him better than you.”

*

The decontamination process was pretty quick; three years of practice had honed it to a science. Tending to Sigrun’s arm, however, was a bigger problem, even with two Mikkels at work.

Tuuri and Lalli Hotakainen were having a desultory conversation in Finnish when Tuuri Face-Like-Baby and Lalli Ghost-of-Forest came up to them. Fortunately, the Hotakainens also spoke enough English for the foursome to converse.

“Mostly, we’ve been doing okay, so far,” Tuuri Hotakainen concluded. “Except for my brother, Onni, over there.” She gestured at a large form huddled miserably beneath a blanket under a bunk at the back of the vehicle. “About a year ago, he started asking when we were going home, and we realized that his mind had... snapped under the pressure.”

At the lost look in Onni’s eyes, bright burning anger sprang to life in Lalli Ghost-of-Forest...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show

Gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah.

I finally vomited this part out.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Kiraly on February 13, 2016, 09:09:48 PM
Oh look...my "so sweet it will give you cavities" Hipster Band AU (http://archiveofourown.org/works/5569909/chapters/13776958) is updated just in time for Valentine's Day! (I swear I didn't do that on purpose, it just happened that way, haha.)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Keeper on February 13, 2016, 09:39:50 PM
Oh look...my "so sweet it will give you cavities" Hipster Band AU (http://archiveofourown.org/works/5569909/chapters/13776958) is updated just in time for Valentine's Day! (I swear I didn't do that on purpose, it just happened that way, haha.)

Okay, I loved this one from the beginning, but then you bring in Pride and Prejudice!

Man, I should not have laughed so hard when I saw that line, but I sure wasn't expecting that!

Oh man, this was a fantastic one.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on February 13, 2016, 11:08:54 PM
Well, I'd been having an uncommonly delightful day already, and I open the Scriptorium looking for something to read over lunch and find not one but three new fics, all of them excellent. LooNEYDAC, Kiraly, SectoBoss, thank you! These are great!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on February 14, 2016, 12:46:01 AM
Well, I'd been having an uncommonly delightful day already, and I open the Scriptorium looking for something to read over lunch and find not one but three new fics, all of them excellent. LooNEYDAC, Kiraly, SectoBoss, thank you! These are great!

What Róisín said!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Athena on February 14, 2016, 01:48:07 AM
Well, the last two months have been a wonderful procession of life kicking me in the teeth, but I’ve finally found the time to write again (just)! A short story of Onni on the Keuruu docks, mostly based around what we saw on Page 451 and inspired by some art Gwenno did around the same time.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/5994112

Hope you all like it! And I will read the new stuff on this thread soon, I promise…

Just read this and you did a really good job getting across Onni's character! Every word was precise and meaningful and your writing was excellent as usual! :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on February 14, 2016, 03:18:43 PM
The Good, the Bad, and the Bestial
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/Western crossover fanfic
Part 20
Caper the Third: The Cave of Time
Part 9
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg92894#msg92894)
Spoiler: show
Killer Cures Kill or Cure

Lalli Ghost-of-Forest looked away from the sad figure of Onni Hotakainen, helpless rage churning his insides. His eyes lighted upon a jug of a vividly emerald liquid that almost seemed to shine back at him. The vibrant shimmer held his gaze long enough for Tuuri Hotakainen to notice.

“That’s ‘the Cure’, or what we have left of it,” she said, a mocking note in her voice as she named it. “Right at the end, some doctors in Denmark were trying this out, and it stopped the Illness from progressing, but by putting the patients into a coma. We tried it a few times ourselves, but it only works to kill trolls and disinfect their goop.”

As she had spoken, Lalli Ghost-of-Forest had moved in for a closer look. Power was surging in him, compelling him to gather each and every stirring rod near the jug and slide them into the green liquid one by one.

“What on earth are you doing, Lalli?” Tuuri Face-Like-Baby asked in bewilderment.

“What needs to be done,” their Reynir answered portentously for Lalli.

Lalli drew the rods around in the jug, and as he stirred, he softly sang...

*

“So any batch made in that jug will work as a vaccine or cure now?” Contemporary Mikkel was incredulous, and most of his fellows with him. All thirteen of them were present for this announcement, though Onni still had that unseeing look in his eyes, remaining silent throughout.

“If it’s that stuff and either put into the jug or stirred by one of the rods,” Reynir clarified while Lalli kept silent. “The world needs more than can be made from one jug.”

“If we test it for you, would you trust it then?” the Western Sigrun asked.

“There is the matter of finding subjects to test it on,” Emil Västerström pointed out. Tuuri Hotakainen exchanged a smirk with contemporary Reynir.

“We’ll find some,” Emil Westbrook replied confidently.

“About three miles from here, living in a little fortlet,” the Western Reynir added.

“How did you know about them?” contemporary Sigrun asked as sharply as she could through the painkillers.

“He Saw it. He gets Visions,” the Western Sigrun said in a tone that dared anyone there to contradict her.

“Torbjörn and Siv are there,” the Western Reynir told Emil.

“My uncle and his wife?”

“And Siv just got infected. They’re putting her into quarantine right now, but it’s too late.”

Before Emil Västerström could launch himself at the deliverer of bad news, Lalli Ghost-of-Forest stepped between them, facing Emil, and said, “We can still get to her in time for the cure to work. It only gets difficult once the Rash has spread all over the body.”

“Emil,” Lalli Hotakainen said. “Trust them.”

*

The camp was the same kind of makeshift assemblage of two dozen or so random people and whatever they’d scrounged or salvaged that the contemporaries had seen off and on over the last three years; for example, they almost certainly had enough alcohol to pickle the lot of them but not a single fresh carrot. Not that either Sigrun had any great fondness for carrots, but they would stave off scurvy, at least.

Another thing that was becoming all too familiar was the silence, as though the merest whisper would bring down every last grossling in Malmö (or all of Sweden, at that) upon them.

And then there was the quarantine ward. Everyone there avoided going anywhere near it, or even looking at it.

Yes, fear lay heavily over the little camp, as it had over any group paranoid and lucky enough to have survived this long. That was what the dozen meant to change.

*

The refugees had let them dose the quarantine ward’s denizens willingly enough; the hard part had been waiting out the two weeks afterward.

Finally, though, the entire camp turned out to welcome the recently quarantined back into the fold. They were all still extremely quiet about it, though.

That was when the bomb went off.

An entire section of the fortlet’s wall vanished with an explosion loud enough to wake, if not the dead, then at least every last grossling in Malmö. In the hole where the wall had been stood a man. The Man in the Black Hat.

“THERE WILL BE NO CURE!” he shouted. “IF I HAVE TO KILL EVERY LAST ONE OF YOU, THERE WILL BE NO CURE!!!!!”

The Westerners sent a few shots his way, but he’d brought “friends”. They used the rest of the cure to bring down the five giants, and all of both Emil’s arsenals bringing down the trolls.

“We need to take three of the rods and run,” the Western Reynir said. “And you guys need to get out of the city.”

“Don’t worry,” contemporary Mikkel said. “We have a few tricks up our sleeves in case he comes back. We’ll be all right.”

*

“Time to play the bait,” the Western Sigrun said with a disturbing amount of relish, even for her, as they went back into the sewers...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show

Irony alert: So, of course I was writing the confab scene when Yuu posted this (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=788.msg92909#msg92909).

...Aaaaaaand this is where the chase flips around completely.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: frostykitty on February 14, 2016, 08:42:59 PM
Good fics all over!
You know how I said part two would be posted before Monday? Well, I actually amazed myself and did that. It might be Monday for some of you, but not me and the comic hasn't updated yet so technically I still did it. And the same prologue and everything, this picks up a few hours after the other ended.
Spoiler: return to silence; part two, chapter one • show
   {chapter 1}

Sigrun let out a too-loud dramatic sigh and let her head fall back. That was the fourth time since they had left the Cleansers' Base.

"Emil, I think we can just build that bonfire now..." She said as she tugged on her coat and stepped outside. Her foot sank into snow. The snow that had gotten the cat-tank stuck in a pothole. So many times. Maybe not always a pothole every time, but the snow hid all of the junk on the streets from view, and it was starting to annoy her for real now. That would make anyone scared.

"Uh, as much as I would like that, Sigrun," Emil mumbled with a frown, crouching down to investigate the problem, "I don't believe that would end well..." He sighed. Tuuri squeaked when she stepped down into snow as deep as her mid-calf.

"Yeah, well neither does my temper." The captain growled bitterly, kicking through the snow to make sure there wasn't much else to block their path. Tuuri had come to fix anything that had been broken. Luckily, nothing was too bad, so she adjust her mask and hopped back into the tank. The other two joined her and they escaped the pothole. "Do you think the scout would mind looking over the road for us?"

Tuuri shrugged, glancing back at the sleeping quarters. "I think we should let him sleep, now. There's more shelter from the wind with the buildings here, so I can see his foot prints, better. We shouldn't run into much else."

"If you say so..." Sigrun muttered as she leaned back on the couch and closed her eyes. None of them had gotten much sleep. Lalli had returned at the first light of dawn and spooked their guests, nearly getting himself stabbed with a thrown dagger (if the door hadn't been in the way, that is). They swiftly got the rout down on paper and headed off, they had to be quick if they still wanted to fit a decent mission in that day. Thankfully, the cleansers didn't hold them up, and had even gathered a few useful books from the area. The team was on their way. And then the tank ran over a century old bike.

That was the first thing. Then there was something else, then another thing, then the pothole. There had been no major damages to the tank. The sneaky snow masked everything in their path, and it was still coming. The broken down apartment buildings provided much more protection than the small, spaced out houses from before. But, there was still a ton of scraps from the old buildings and vehicles scattered around the streets.

Emil and Sigrun drifted off, while Mikkel scanned over the new books. Reynir happily doodled runes all over a stray paper, sitting in the passenger seat. Tuuri was right, they didn't run into much now that Lalli's winding trail was visible. At least, more visible than before. There were a few bumps, but they got to the location before noon.

The captain glanced out the window as they arrived at the lab-like place, elbowing Emil. He jolted awake and fell to the floor.

"Time to get going!" She grinned, the excitement of a new mission smothering any lack of sleep or annoyance from before. The cleanser got up and stretched before gearing up. Lalli was eventually woken, as well, and Mikkel peered out the tank door at the three.

"Are you sure you don't need help with the door?" He inquired, reaching for something to uses a leaver.

"No, we're good! Lalli, do you see anything from out here?" Sigrun looked ready to tear down the locked door as soon as she knew there wouldn't be any immediate danger. Lalli looked to the old building, a glare quickly scanning the area. The scout shook his head, much to the delight of the captain. She promptly kicked down the doors with ease and stepped inside with a wild grin. "Come on boys, we have books to find!"


Spoiler: notessss • show
"as they arrived at the lab-like place," LOOK AT THAT AWFUL WORDING! But I couldn't find a good place to add a description and I wanted to make sure I had that point there. This was a building the converted into something like a lab when the rash came, like the place that turned into a hospital we saw in chapter 5. They're going to run into some... Things.
Let me warn you now, if you were heart broken by spider dog... Uh, well, brace yourself. There's another dog in this one, but it'll be... different... Ehhhh I can't believe I'm doing this when I was sad about spider dog.

Freshly written and I don't have a grammar check to use, so alert me to anything weird.

{edit- Don't forget LooNEY_DAC's new chapter! I didn't mean to start a new page, I hate when I do thatttt}
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on February 14, 2016, 11:03:43 PM
LooNEY, that was quick - can't wait to see where this goes! I like what you are doing with all the characters, and, yeah, writing ensemble scenes can be so hard! Especially when some of your characters are mostly silent, like Lalli. I also left a few tips about that on the writer's thread, mostly about visualising where everybody is in the scene and what they are doing in detail before you write it, like doing the stage directions for a play, and also mentioning gestures, movements, reactions from the silent characters.

Frostykitty, I think your writing is improving with practice. Do keep practicing, because the tale is interesting and I'm looking forward to seeing what happens next!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: frostykitty on February 15, 2016, 12:05:33 PM
Thank you! I've had a few projects in the past for school where you need to write an entire story, and I've written other things, but I decided to try fanfiction. The hard part is getting in to character when the character is already developed and has a personality you can't change. I'm just afraid I don't execute them correctly...
And with that, let me post chapter two and get back to writing chapter four
Spoiler: return to silence; part two, chapter two • show
   {chapter 2}

The warm light of the flashlights spread over the old white walls, casting eerie shadows on the tile floor. It wasn't very cluttered, for how long it had been left to brave the elements. Neat stacks of papers with scribbled down notes. Alphabetized bookshelves, untouched for generations. Various photographs, side by side on a small whiteboard, they seemed to document the progress of something and each had their own faded records.

It was almost peaceful here, as the team skimmed through any books they deemed worthy. Possibly too peaceful, considering what this place had been used as. Emil grimaced as his gaze fell upon petri dishes of decaying tissues.

"So, there are enough books on this level that we don't have to go upstairs, right?" He thought out loud. That was a mistake, he soon decided and bit his tongue. Sigrun was holding three armfuls of books and nearly dropped them all on an unsuspecting Lalli when she heard.

"No way are we leaving so soon! This place is a goldmine!" She exclaimed, setting down the books on a desk and gesturing wildly around the room. "And there aren't any weird golf books here! They're all, like, medicine and stuff! Those kind of things sell for tons of money!"

Emil sighed and prepared another pile to bring outside. "I know," he muttered, lifting the pile of journals and heading back outside. Mikkel took them, gladly, and looked over the titles with a satisfied nod. When Emil returned, Sigrun dropped another pile into his hands. Lalli stood silently in the corner, looking up and watching some invisible force with furrowed brows.

They had soon cleared the entire hall without any problems, things were going great so far. So far. An ominous phrase, Emil thought as he glanced between the scout and the dark stairwell.

"Well, what are you sitting around for, let's get some more books!" Sigrun cheered, turning to the stairs until a hand grabbed her wrist. Lalli soon let go, he only had to get his message across or at the very least get her attention.

"No," He said, crossing his arms. "There's something big."

"What kind of big are we talking about here? Like, nest big or bigger than a troll?"

"More than one troll." Lalli muttered, turning his head so He could look right above the outside door. Sigrun sighed, a hand on the hilt of her knife.

"So, how many?" The captain waved a hand to the stairs that twisted up the whole entire building. "Can we kill them all?"

Lalli shrugged. "It seems to be two, but they are not small," he turned back to the others, "As long we're careful."

"Well come one, then!" Sigrun's smile returned as she started sneaking up the staircase, knife raised. Emil had been silent the whole time, a look of dread on his face, but he now followed her up. Lalli cast one more suspicious glare over his shoulder before walking up behind them.


Oh my, that last paragraph's wording... *shudders*
Spoiler: notessss • show
Short chapters,
Why? Well, I'm stoping them where it's easy to break up or else it would become a huge chapter and I don't really want to do that.
And Sigrun's fine with anything as long as she can kill the problem.

If there are mistakes, tell me. I've been having trouble with words lately, mixing up letters and such.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on February 15, 2016, 03:34:31 PM
Thank you! I've had a few projects in the past for school where you need to write an entire story, and I've written other things, but I decided to try fanfiction. The hard part is getting in to character when the character is already developed and has a personality you can't change. I'm just afraid I don't execute them correctly...
And with that, let me post chapter two and get back to writing chapter four
Spoiler: return to silence; part two, chapter two • show
   {chapter 2}

The warm light of the flashlights spread over the old white walls, casting eerie shadows on the tile floor. It wasn't very cluttered, for how long it had been left to brave the elements. Neat stacks of papers with scribbled down notes. Alphabetized bookshelves, untouched for generations. Various photographs, side by side on a small whiteboard, they seemed to document the progress of something and each had their own faded records.

It was almost peaceful here, as the team skimmed through any books they deemed worthy. Possibly too peaceful, considering what this place had been used as. Emil grimaced as his gaze fell upon petri dishes of decaying tissues.

"So, there are enough books on this level that we don't have to go upstairs, right?" He thought out loud. That was a mistake, he soon decided and bit his tongue. Sigrun was holding three armfuls of books and nearly dropped them all on an unsuspecting Lalli when she heard.

"No way are we leaving so soon! This place is a goldmine!" She exclaimed, setting down the books on a desk and gesturing wildly around the room. "And there aren't any weird golf books here! They're all, like, medicine and stuff! Those kind of things sell for tons of money!"

Emil sighed and prepared another pile to bring outside. "I know," he muttered, lifting the pile of journals and heading back outside. Mikkel took them, gladly, and looked over the titles with a satisfied nod. When Emil returned, Sigrun dropped another pile into his hands. Lalli stood silently in the corner, looking up and watching some invisible force with furrowed brows.

They had soon cleared the entire hall without any problems, things were going great so far. So far. An ominous phrase, Emil thought as he glanced between the scout and the dark stairwell.

"Well, what are you sitting around for, let's get some more books!" Sigrun cheered, turning to the stairs until a hand grabbed her wrist. Lalli soon let go, he only had to get his message across or at the very least get her attention.

"No," He said, crossing his arms. "There's something big."

"What kind of big are we talking about here? Like, nest big or bigger than a troll?"

"More than one troll." Lalli muttered, turning his head so He could look right above the outside door. Sigrun sighed, a hand on the hilt of her knife.

"So, how many?" The captain waved a hand to the stairs that twisted up the whole entire building. "Can we kill them all?"

Lalli shrugged. "It seems to be two, but they are not small," he turned back to the others, "As long we're careful."

"Well come one, then!" Sigrun's smile returned as she started sneaking up the staircase, knife raised. Emil had been silent the whole time, a look of dread on his face, but he now followed her up. Lalli cast one more suspicious glare over his shoulder before walking up behind them.


Oh my, that last paragraph's wording... *shudders*
Spoiler: notessss • show
Short chapters,
Why? Well, I'm stoping them where it's easy to break up or else it would become a huge chapter and I don't really want to do that.
And Sigrun's fine with anything as long as she can kill the problem.

If there are mistakes, tell me. I've been having trouble with words lately, mixing up letters and such.


I see no problem with the last paragraph. Great as usual, and you're doing a brilliant job of carrying over the suspense from the previous chapters. Can't wait to see what happens next.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: G0vnah on February 15, 2016, 03:56:35 PM
Frostkitty, I just sat down to read your fanfic, and - I have to admit - it's an awesome idea. Skipping to another year and giving the team a second mission? Awesome. I love the concept you've got going on, it's really a nice one. However, your writing style simply isn't clicking with me. I'm sorry. It's nothing bad, of course (I mean, sure, I found a few mistakes here or there, but what writer doesn't make odd mistakes?), I simply mean that - on a level of "personal taste," the way you write just isn't a tone that I can get into. So, I really wouldn't be the best of critics.

Again, nothing you did wrong! I read the prologue and chapter 1, but didn't get further simply because your style of writing isn't speaking to me, and there's nothing wrong with that; some people like Shakespeare, some like Tom Clancey, after all. :3 Keep writing, and listening to the advice your readers give you!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: frostykitty on February 15, 2016, 04:30:05 PM
Thank you! I'm glad I'm doing okay with the suspense, I can re-read chapters over and over again but I know what's going to happen. I can't tell if it works out the way I hope, if you understand that.

And I take no offense. Honestly, I can barely stand how I write now... The sentences are just so bizarre and they don't seem to flow right but I can't figure out how to fix it. I can try my hardest but I just don't write how I did a few years ago. But it's also strange because there's barely any differences in how the sentences are formed if you were to read through an older story. Eh, don't mind me, just rambling about my own crazy thoughts. I'm glad the setting is interesting enough for you to try reading it, though.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on February 15, 2016, 05:33:57 PM
frostykitty, I'm enjoying watching how the story unfolds.



Wait.

I'm updating on a Monday?

Huh.

The Good, the Bad, and the Bestial
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/Western crossover fanfic
Part 21
Caper the Third: The Cave of Time
Part 10
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg92984#msg92984)
Prior part of “Tall Ships and Taller Tales” (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg90719#msg90719)
Spoiler: show
Wolves of the Sea

On the Orkanhullet Peninsula of St. Thomas Island
1610

The torches flickered in the wind as the landing party made its way through the thick foliage. Emil and Lalli struggled under their shared load, while Mister Mikkel was infuriatingly at ease with his. Ahead, Sigrun led them along the trail to their dumping grounds.

This party was carrying over a third of the loot from the Mariposa Reina, in their second such trip since Lalli had sighted the Túnfiskurinn such a short time ago. Even Tuuri and Reynir had been loaded down and were struggling along at the rear of the procession.

Finally, they reached the dig site. Normally, such a haul would be squirreled into a dozen or more small holes, but with the threat of Túnfiskurinn looming in the distance, they had no time for such luxuries.

As the loot disappeared under the dirt, Sigrun called Emil over to her. “I need you and Lalli to take the Mariposa Reina out and...” As Emil listened, nodding occasionally, Sigrun laid out the gist of one of her signature Plans.

“Ah,” a familiar voice said in unfamiliarly bad Danish, “there you are.” Six oddly-garbed figures stepped into the circle of light from the torches, each a dead ringer for Sigrun and her trusted few.

Sigrun glanced down at her water-skin doubtfully. “Mikkel, you haven’t let anyone near the water, have you?”

“Even if I had, we all wouldn’t be seeing the same illusion,” Mister Mikkel replied.

“We’re not an illusion,” his double replied.

“Whatever they are, we don’t have time for them,” Emil reminded the Captain.

“Do you have time for me?” The question was in Icelandic, but they all knew what it meant. From another part of the jungle, Ása Hardardóttir stepped forth, all alone.

“Watch out! She’s Infected!” The shout, in English, came from the other Reynir. Of the pirates, only Sigrun, Mister Mikkel, Tuuri, and Ása understood him.

“As are half my crew,” Ása replied in the same language. “The rest are in thrall to this--this demon in human form!” She turned to Sigrun. “He wants you dead, which I was fine with, but he wants... more. I think he wants to turn this whole world into a charnel house of plague and death, and that I’m not fine with. So, can we do a deal?”

“He wouldn’t just happen to sport a wide-brimmed black hat, would he?” the other Sigrun asked.

Of course he did. Of course he did.

*

They wound up using Sigrun’s original plan anyway, but with Ása helming the Mariposa Reina. Not that Emil minded; in fact, he preferred to have someone else holding the reins, as it were. That way, he wasn’t to blame for whatever inevitably went wrong.

Besides, where else would you want an enemy beside right up front where you could keep an eye on them? For Sigrun wasn’t such a fool as to think Ása wasn’t playing her own deep game here.

The idea, of course, was to use the Sea-lynx as bait, drawing Túnfiskurinn’s attention until the Mariposa Reina was upon her. Simple and like enough to work, as all of Sigrun’s plans seemed; also, it was unrepeatable, as Sigrun’s plans often were, as the foe would be alerted to what was coming.

This last was how Emil knew Captain Eide was planning something even more... special than usual: she’d never let a foe in on one of her plans like this were there not a twist to demonstrate her Most Bestness.

Emil looked over at Lalli, who was deceptively still. Only someone who knew him as Emil did would be able to tell that the slight Finn was tensed for action. This was good; Emil was pretty tense himself. The only thing for it now was to wait until it was time to spring the trap.

The timbers creaked and the waves crashed, but all else was still, as though the sea itself knew what was coming...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
So, how obvious is it that I’m having way too much fun here?

I figured it was pretty obvious.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on February 15, 2016, 06:46:12 PM
LooNEY_DAC, there can never be too much fun.

Have some more! Your kind of fun is contagious. *waits to be exposed to more contagious fun*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on February 15, 2016, 09:55:41 PM
Final chapter of my Matrix crossover Dangerous!

Previous chapter (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg90712;topicseen#msg90712)

Spoiler: Part 4 • show
“Do you want to know the truth?”

Lalli stared at him, and he stared back.  Emil—they had finally learned each other’s names—was watching him earnestly, blue eyes imploring.

For a minute, Lalli considered.  Then, he gave a single nod.

Emil breathed a sigh of relief.  “You’re going to need to meet our captain, then.  But I… ah… well, there’s something else I need to take care of first.”  Reaching under the seat beside him, Emil pulled out a strange contraption longer than his arm, all hard metal and blinking lights.  “I’m really, really sorry about this.”

***

Even after they had reached their destination, Emil was still hovering by his side, helping him press a cloth to the bleeding hole under his shirt.  Lalli was just glad that he’d gotten it out.

Just like this world.  He might not have been able to feel it, but he’d never forgotten that it was there.

“She can be a bit… ah… insane at times,” Emil warned him as he rested his hand on the doorknob.  “But I promise she means well… and those of us who follow her would stick with her through Hel and back.”  With that, he pulled open the door.

The woman who stood inside the room was tall, with red hair; the sleeveless black shirt she wore revealed arms and shoulders that were heavily scarred.  Though she had her back to them, when Emil called out “Sigrun” she turned around, tilting her head toward the cellphone she held to her ear.

“Oh good, they’re here. Do you want to explain this, or should I?”  The person on the other end talked inaudibly for only a few seconds before she gave a nod and held the phone out to Lalli.  “Your cousin wants to talk to you.”

“Lalli.  You won’t remember me.  But it’s me.  It’s Onni.”

It was the same voice that had spoken to him through the sound clip on the disk.  “You told me the world isn’t real.”

“Yes.”  The man’s voice was strained now and he was talking faster.  “We’re here to offer you a chance to get out.  But you need to be able to make an informed decision.”  He paused, and took a breath.  “The real world… is not pleasant.”

Lalli listened as he talked, as he described the wasteland and the remnants of humanity still hanging on.  Finally, though, he stopped.

“It’s your decision whether to go or stay.  What happens next is up to you.”  The phone went dead with an audible click.

“Oh good, is he done?”  The woman turned to him.  “Okay.  So here’s how this works.”  She held her hands out to him, palms up.  “Blue pill you stay, red pill you come with us.  So what’ll it be?”

Lalli was already reaching forward, because he’d already made his choice.

***

“Nobody is listening in to us here.  We can talk freely now.”  A few minutes passed, and Onni pulled up a chair with a sigh and sat down beside him.  “You must have questions.”

Questions about what, exactly?  Onni had already told him the truth.  He was in a weird, scary place with lots of metal.  What else was there to know?

He blinked.  The lights had been dimmed, but his eyes still hurt.  He was cold, too.  “Mrr.”  He tried to wrap his arms around himself, but couldn’t:  the weird needles that were still buried under his skin got in the way.

“No.  Don’t try to move.”  Onni reached out as if to touch him, but then sighed again and withdrew.  “Lalli.  Do you know where you are?”

“I know where I am.”  He looked from Onni to the ceiling, taking in the solid feel of the table beneath him.  “This is the real world.”

***

Onni sighed as he walked away from the infirmary.  He’d told himself all along that it was too much to hope that Lalli would remember him—he just had to keep reminding himself that even though their reunion hadn’t been everything he had hoped for, it also could have gone much, much worse.  Now, at least, he could be sure that Lalli would be safe.

His right hand clenched spasmodically around his left forearm as he prepared for bed.

***

Tuuri hummed to herself as she looked for a safe place to set down for the night, barely even registering the annoyed looks Mikkel was giving her.  (He still didn’t seem to have forgiven her for going through his disks when he wasn’t looking, and she still didn’t see what the big deal was; it was just a collection of Old World music.)  The important thing was that she had never before seen her brother this happy, and that made her happy.  She couldn’t wait to get Lalli started on training—

A blip on the screen caught her attention.  Frowning, her thoughts of music and annoying Mikkel forgotten, she leaned in closer and zoomed in on a small portion of the code that showed the Matrix.

“Huh.  Well that’s weird…”

***

In his quarters, his departure having gone unnoticed by the other Operator, Mikkel closed (and locked—he wouldn’t be making that mistake again) the door behind him, eyes squeezed closed as he leaned heavily against the cool metal.

For some time now, he'd almost dared to hope. But it was starting.

***

Meanwhile, in her own quarters, the captain rubbed her aching scars.

The ache was a reminder, she knew—Mikkel would say of something stupid she’d done, no matter how many times she only grinned at him in response.  They both knew why, and in the end she was glad she had something to show for it.

Still, her scars only ached this much when something big was about to go down.  Good.  Now that they were through with their little side mission, she was good and ready for some action.

Sigrun gave a wide grin as she fell into bed.  Looked like things were about to get interesting.


Spoiler: Notes • show
I... honestly expected it to be longer than this.

Though in case you can't tell from the multiple sequel hooks, I have several other stories in mind for this continuity. Next thing I want to write is Sigrun's backstory, which includes the story of how Tuuri and Onni came to join the crew. It is going to be so much fuuuuuuuuun...

As always, critique is welcome. I honestly wasn't entirely satisfied with this first story because I think that the plot followed the movie far too closely and didn't have any of the fun action.

...next one will have plenty of action, so I'm not overly worried.


Next installment: Against All Odds (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg93266#msg93266)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: frostykitty on February 15, 2016, 10:23:27 PM
I agree, fun is great. AND IF MOST BESTNESS ISN'T IN THE DICTIONARY... I'm now using it, it's the most best adjective I've ever seen AND you can only use it for Sigrun so it's even better!
I'm not familiar with Matrix, but that was good. I liked it, and I think you did fine with Lalli's perspective.

Chapter three is super short, but four should be an okay size and five should be action, so forgive me on the length. It's short enough I'm posting it now instead of tomorrow. Mostly because I couldn't wait until tomorrow because who knows why Yep, the length, just too short to have it sit there until tomorrow...
Spoiler: return to silence; part two, chapter three • show
   {chapter 3}

This area was different. The ground floor had a simple hallway going from the stairs to the door with rooms branching off of it. This floor was similar to a labyrinth. There was a small hallway with a few doors - that seemed they didn't belong, possibly added unexpectedly - which led to another small hallway with a few doors of its own. A few of them eventually led back to the stairs. The offices were much messier, as well, and most of the rooms had damaged walls and furniture.

Lalli had told them what area to avoid for the time being and they were on their way. Sigrun scratched marks on the doors they had already used, a very helpful trick in this situation. Emil had memorized the way to the stairs by now, lugging the books to Mikkel every few minutes. They started to move closer to the trolls, much to the scout's displeasure. Sigrun had went to investigate a nearby room, leaving Emil by himself.

He was muttering things under his breath, reading the titles of the old books he stacked into piles. Until he heard a small moan-like sound. He grimaced and looked up from his work. It was forming some sort of word, but he couldn't tell what.

"S-sirgun?" He spoke quietly and took a small step forward. "Are you okay?" He flinched as her head appeared around a doorway.

"Yeah, I'm fine, why?" She dropped another pile of books on the desk, which he quickly picked up.

"Oh, nothing, just... Hearing things." He muttered before finding his way the the stairs. His mind spun, not focused on the world around him. What was that sound? Trolls can't really speak, can they? He thought back to his first giant encounter with a shiver, maybe they can. Then he missed a stair and fell the rest of the way down with a yelp. He sighed and gathered the books once again before bringing them out to Mikkel.

"I think we have quite enough books for day one, the sun is already starting to sink. We want enough time to get back to base, you know." The healer said, taking the new notebooks and encyclopedias. Emil nodded after deciphering the message.

"I'll tell Sigrun," He replied quietly, entering the building once again. Sigrun met him upstairs with a grin.

"We might be able to make it to the third floor at this rate!"

"About that, Mikkel said we had enough books and that we should get going. The sun is going down." Emil said, gaze shifting around the room.

"He does, does he?" She grumbled, crossing her arms. She thought it over for a moment. "Fine. But we're finishing this floor first!" The cleanser nodded and continued to pile up books. With that, Sigrun was off to gather the rest.

The moan returned once again, sending chills up his spine. Against his better judgment, he stepped in to the next room. It became clearer. The next room, clearer still. But he didn't go any further without the captain or scout. He understood what it said, now.

"björn," It spoke in a soft voice. "björnnn..."


Spoiler: show
Hm, don't know why the troll is saying that, nope, no idea at all. Emil sure doesn't know. By the way, if it seems like Lalli is missing, he was silently scouting the next floor for later. And I sincerely hope I spelled that right! The word means 'bear', yeah? Did I not entirely fail?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on February 16, 2016, 12:11:31 AM
LooNEY_DAC, there can never be too much fun.

Have some more! Your kind of fun is contagious. *waits to be exposed to more contagious fun*
Oh, dear.



I seem to have done this.

Again.

Right before the page goes up.

Oy.

The Good, the Bad, and the Bestial
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/Western crossover fanfic
Part 22
Caper the Third: The Cave of Time
Part 11
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg93117#msg93117)
Spoiler: show
The Children of Darkness

All was falling into place.

The Darkness had gathered itself into readiness as its Anointed worked its will.

Soon.

All that remained was to unleash its Children upon those fools still striving to thwart the Darkness and its inevitable victory, now closer than ever before.

Soon.

*

It all went off like clockwork. In fact, it almost went too well; everyone kept looking out for traps that weren’t there, and tricks that weren’t being played. The only thing that was wrong with the whole thing was quite simple: after scouring the ship from top to bottom, they had to admit that the Man in the Black Hat had gone.

The Man in the Black Hat was nowhere to be found aboard the Túnfiskurinn. This was disturbing enough that Ása held off on her plans for turning on Sigrun & co.

Lalli had retired to his crow’s-nest while the two captains worried over what should be done next, so he was the one to give the alarm when the three vessels were confronted with the most unutterably horrible apparition any of them had ever seen.

A great rotting hulk with sails hanging ragged and limp rose up out of the water, borne by a whale on either side. Only the whales had grown into the hulk’s timbers, and on its deck, gross and misshapen forms scurried about. In the rigging were pulsating tentacular growths knitting the whole obscene assembly together. At the prow, though, was a thoroughly human figure, bearing a bullhorn: the Man in the Black Hat.

“Ahoy the fleet,” his mocking voice hailed. “You’ve done well against my pawns, but now you face--THE KRAKEN!”

Before Emil could finish loading the “Everything-He’d-Ever-Seen-Work-on-a-Ship-Ever-and-then-Some” Specials the sight of the foe had inspired in him, it had slithered out of range, so they retired to the Captain’s cabin for war planning.

“There’s only one way to stop it,” the Western Reynir told them. “Sigrun has to dump the Cure on its very Heart and Core.”

Disbelief would be laughable at this point; their only option was to grab onto this basic scheme with both hands. “Where is the Heart to be found?” Sigrun asked.

“You’ll need to board that thing,” Mister Mikkel pointed out, as was his job, “and the whales might make it problematic.”

The Captain smiled a smile that almost had Emil pitying the Man in the Black Hat. “That won’t be a problem.”

*

The Mariposa Reina under full sail made for the gap between the twin whale mouths protecting the hulk they’d absorbed, Tuuri at the helm. At the last possible moment before the fore-spars would have hit, Tuuri nudged the Mariposa Reina a hair to port, slicing her keel along the length of the hulk so that the whale on that side was scraped away like a great and horrible barnacle.

Grapnels flew out to lash the two ships together, and the boarders sprung aboard the Kraken, Sigrun Eide, Captain of the Sea-Lynx, at their fore, bearing as much of the Cure as she could.

Obscene appendages and free-roaming trolls whipped out to halt her, but before any could reach, four whirling dervishes swept them all aside. Two Lallis and two Emils raced around Sigrun as she hastened across the deck to the fo’c’s’le hatch, where the Kraken’s Heart was waiting.

Sigrun was not an inconsiderable fighter herself, but she couldn’t risk what she held of the Cure being wrested away from her in some otherwise minor skirmish.

Unfortunately, only she could go through the hatch, and the things that awaited her, while swiftly despatched, succeeded in stripping her of her weapons and the Cure, leaving her to face the Heart unarmed.

The Heart filled the fo’c’s’le to bursting, its repulsive grayish bulk pulsating like its tentacles aboveboard. It seemed to mock Sigrun as she stood before it.

In desperation, Sigrun stabbed out with the only remaining thing she held: one of the stirring rods. It plunged into that vast writhing mass with all the force she could give it, and there it lodged.

For a moment, nothing happened, but then, the Rod began to glow, dimly at first, but soon so bright as to hurt Sigrun’s eyes, and as it did, a wave of blue energy spilled out from it into the fetid monstrosity it pierced, slowly burning away the Rash-filth until only ashes remained.

“Well,” Sigrun said to herself, “that went better than expected.”

At that moment, the deck gave way beneath her as the Kraken began its death throes.

*

Well, Túnfiskurinn was gone, off to try to pick off some of the Hanseatic trade as it came out of the Skagerrak, and good riddance. Ása had given Sigrun a nice bottle of wine as a parting gift, only lightly seasoned with arsenic.

Mariposa Reina had gone down with the Kraken, which would feature in many a bar-room tale after this.

The Man in the Black Hat had gone ashore after his Western foes, who were fixing to make their next stop his last...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
Well, here’s hoping SectoBoss enjoys my take on the Kraken. (His take’s here (http://archiveofourown.org/works/3766687).)

In other news, I thought it was time to see if I could bring TEH EPIC (without going over the 1k word count).

Hopefully, I succeeded.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Athena on February 16, 2016, 12:35:57 AM
Final chapter of my Matrix crossover Dangerous!

Previous chapter here (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg90712;topicseen#msg90712)

Spoiler: Part 4 • show
“Do you want to know the truth?”

Lalli stared at him, and he stared back.  Emil—they had finally learned each other’s names—was watching him earnestly, blue eyes imploring.

For a minute, Lalli considered.  Then, he gave a single nod.

Emil breathed a sigh of relief.  “You’re going to need to meet our captain, then.  But I… ah… well, there’s something else I need to take care of first.”  Reaching under the seat beside him, Emil pulled out a strange contraption longer than his arm, all hard metal and blinking lights.  “I’m really, really sorry about this.”

***

Even after they had reached their destination, Emil was still hovering by his side, helping him press a cloth to the bleeding hole under his shirt.  Lalli was just glad that he’d gotten it out.

Just like this world.  He might not have been able to feel it, but he’d never forgotten that it was there.

“She can be a bit… ah… insane at times,” Emil warned him as he rested his hand on the doorknob.  “But I promise she means well… and those of us who follow her would stick with her through Hel and back.”  With that, he pulled open the door.

The woman who stood inside the room was tall, with red hair; the sleeveless black shirt she wore revealed arms and shoulders that were heavily scarred.  Though she had her back to them, when Emil called out “Sigrun” she turned around, tilting her head toward the cellphone she held to her ear.

“Oh good, they’re here. Do you want to explain this, or should I?”  The person on the other end talked inaudibly for only a few seconds before she gave a nod and held the phone out to Lalli.  “Your cousin wants to talk to you.”

“Lalli.  You won’t remember me.  But it’s me.  It’s Onni.”

It was the same voice that had spoken to him through the sound clip on the disk.  “You told me the world isn’t real.”

“Yes.”  The man’s voice was strained now and he was talking faster.  “We’re here to offer you a chance to get out.  But you need to be able to make an informed decision.”  He paused, and took a breath.  “The real world… is not pleasant.”

Lalli listened as he talked, as he described the wasteland and the remnants of humanity still hanging on.  Finally, though, he stopped.

“It’s your decision whether to go or stay.  What happens next is up to you.”  The phone went dead with an audible click.

“Oh good, is he done?”  The woman turned to him.  “Okay.  So here’s how this works.”  She held her hands out to him, palms up.  “Blue pill you stay, red pill you come with us.  So what’ll it be?”

Lalli was already reaching forward, because he’d already made his choice.

***

“Nobody is listening in to us here.  We can talk freely now.”  A few minutes passed, and Onni pulled up a chair with a sigh and sat down beside him.  “You must have questions.”

Questions about what, exactly?  Onni had already told him the truth.  He was in a weird, scary place with lots of metal.  What else was there to know?

He blinked.  The lights had been dimmed, but his eyes still hurt.  He was cold, too.  “Mrr.”  He tried to wrap his arms around himself, but couldn’t:  the weird needles that were still buried under his skin got in the way.

“No.  Don’t try to move.”  Onni reached out as if to touch him, but then sighed again and withdrew.  “Lalli.  Do you know where you are?”

“I know where I am.”  He looked from Onni to the ceiling, taking in the solid feel of the table beneath him.  “This is the real world.”

***

Onni sighed as he walked away from the infirmary.  He’d told himself all along that it was too much to hope that Lalli would remember him—he just had to keep reminding himself that even though their reunion hadn’t been everything he had hoped for, it also could have gone much, much worse.  Now, at least, he could be sure that Lalli would be safe.

His right hand clenched spasmodically around his left forearm as he prepared for bed.

***

Tuuri hummed to herself as she looked for a safe place to set down for the night, barely even registering the annoyed looks Mikkel was giving her.  (He still didn’t seem to have forgiven her for going through his disks when he wasn’t looking, and she still didn’t see what the big deal was; it was just a collection of Old World music.)  The important thing was that she had never before seen her brother this happy, and that made her happy.  She couldn’t wait to get Lalli started on training—

A blip on the screen caught her attention.  Frowning, her thoughts of music and annoying Mikkel forgotten, she leaned in closer and zoomed in on a small portion of the code that showed the Matrix.

“Huh.  Well that’s weird…”

***

In his quarters, his departure having gone unnoticed by the other Operator, Mikkel closed (and locked—he wouldn’t be making that mistake again) the door behind him, eyes squeezed closed as he leaned heavily against the cool metal.

For some time now, he'd almost dared to hope. But it was starting.

***

Meanwhile, in her own quarters, the captain rubbed her aching scars.

The ache was a reminder, she knew—Mikkel would say of something stupid she’d done, no matter how many times she only grinned at him in response.  They both knew why, and in the end she was glad she had something to show for it.

Still, her scars only ached this much when something big was about to go down.  Good.  Now that they were through with their little side mission, she was good and ready for some action.

Sigrun gave a wide grin as she fell into bed.  Looked like things were about to get interesting.


Spoiler: Notes • show
I... honestly expected it to be longer than this.

Though in case you can't tell from the multiple sequel hooks, I have several other stories in mind for this continuity. Next thing I want to write is Sigrun's backstory, which includes the story of how Tuuri and Onni came to join the crew. It is going to be so much fuuuuuuuuun...

As always, critique is welcome. I honestly wasn't entirely satisfied with this first story because I think that the plot followed the movie far too closely and didn't have any of the fun action.

...next one will have plenty of action, so I'm not overly worried.

Please continue this, I loved following this story so far! :) Very good!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on February 16, 2016, 01:06:19 AM
This does seem to be the time for updating, doesn't it?

http://archiveofourown.org/works/5853457/chapters/13832170

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: AquaAurion on February 16, 2016, 08:08:36 AM
I'm loving the Matrix and Mora academy stories!  ;D

I haven't had time to read the others yet, so I seriously need to catch up with this thread :P
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on February 16, 2016, 09:19:27 PM
I seem to be on a bit of a roll* right now, but I went and started writing another story in my Matrix croSSSSover. Links to my previous story, for reference (though you should be able to follow this one whether you've read it or not):

Dangerous
Part 1 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg86776#msg86776)
Part 2 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg90023#msg90023)
Part 3 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg90712#msg90712)
Part 4 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg93144#msg93144)

Now on to the new one!

Title: Against All Odds
Inspiration: "Animus Vox" by The Glitch Mob
Characters: Sigrun, Emil, Mikkel; cameos by Onni and Tuuri
Warnings: Minor character death, major character near-death, violence, blood. I've tried to keep the gore and descriptions of injuries at a PG-13 level, but if I need to move this off-forum, please let me know.

Spoiler: Prologue • show
Onni looked through the windshield at the desolate landscape that was spread out before them.

He was standing well back on the bridge, of course—he was not a crewmember on this ship.  Nor was Tuuri, who was keeping herself entertained with the schematics of the other ship that were spread out before her on the back room table.

The Valkyrie.

Onni and his sister were participating in a salvage and rescue mission.  The ship they were on was responding to a distress signal from the other vessel, which had been downed in a Sentinel attack.  Aside from the fact that the ship had been crippled, they knew only the information the reports had given them:  captain, senior Operator, and three crewmembers dead; first mate critically wounded.  Only the junior Operator and a single crewmember had survived unharmed.

Valkyrie sighted, Captain.”

“Good.  Set her down right there.”

At the words Tuuri ran to the front of the ship and all but smashed her face up against the window, not wanting to miss her first sight of a real Sentinel.  Of course his sister had jumped on the chance to go on this mission, however many times he told her that there was absolutely nothing out here worth seeing or experiencing.  As for Onni… well, he had no idea why Taru kept offering him these odd jobs when he had already made it clear that there was no way she was ever going to worm her way back into his good graces, but the fact remained that he simply couldn’t afford not to take them.

“Woah.”  True to form, Tuuri’s face was right up against the glass.  “Why do you think they didn’t use their EMP earlier?”

“They must have had people still inside,” he guessed.  Still, he couldn’t help but wonder when he saw the metal tentacles sticking outside of the ship.  The Sentinel had gotten so far in it was barely even visible; he could understand holding off to wait for people to get out of the Matrix, but letting everyone die was nothing short of madness.

They continued to stay out of the way while their ship docked, and a contingent of trained medical personnel went onboard to get the wounded out.  After an indeterminate time of waiting—probably fifteen minutes or so, though Tuuri’s fidgeting said that to her it felt a whole lot longer—they reemerged, wheeling a stretcher loaded with the body of a red-haired woman who had to be the first mate.

She was unconscious, her face pale; spots of blood were already beginning to show through the blankets that covered her.  Her arms, the only visible part of her body, were littered with gashes and laser burns.  A big man—one Onni hadn’t seen on the crew of the ship that had brought them here—walked beside her, talking quietly to the medics as he held a bag of IV fluids aloft.  Even Tuuri fell quiet as they transported her back to the med bay.  “Is she going to be okay?”

“Who knows.”  Probably not, was his honest thought, but that was one harsh reality he didn't yet want to share with his sister.  Instead, he hefted his bag.  “Come on.  We have work to do.”

The interior of the ship was also in bad shape.  A dead Sentinel lay sprawled across half the bridge, right alongside the corpses of four dead humans and the olfactory evidence of someone having been violently sick.  Onni didn’t have to look far to find the culprit:  a young blond man, younger even than Tuuri, slumped next to the stairs with his arms wrapped around his stomach.

Three of the crew, the ones in chairs, had died without a mark on them, except for the occasional trickle of blood from the nose or mouth:  they must have met their end inside of the Matrix.  The fourth, the Operator, was considerably less clean: he had been impaled by a severed support beam.

Even Onni, inundated as he was, couldn’t help but cringe when he recognized the captain.  Though Agneta was only one of many captains who’d rejected his request out of hand, she was one of the few who’d done so without saying there was no place for bluepills on her crew.  He certainly had never wished her dead.

“Unless your cousin turns out to be the One, I can’t risk my crew on someone who already has a known connection to you.”

Onni shook his head with a sigh.  He had work to do.

The big man he’d seen earlier came back aboard while Onni was still scooping the Operator’s remains into a body bag and Tuuri was still poking at the dead Sentinel.  “Emil,” he said, ignoring the siblings in favor of approaching the young crewman who still had not moved.  “It might be better if you left with the other ship.”

Slowly, he looked up, his arms still wrapped around himself.  “Mikkel?  Is Sigrun… going to make it?”

“If they get her back to Zion in time?  Maybe.”  Emil did not look reassured, only slightly green.  “There ought to be someone here who knows how to pilot this ship,” Mikkel continued as if he hadn’t noticed.  “But unless you want to help them out, there’s no good reason for you to stay.”

Coaxing Emil onto the other ship went fairly easily after that.  Onni waited until the other ship had left and the other man had come back in (by which point Tuuri had finally turned her attention from the dead Sentinel to the repairs she was actually supposed to be doing) before turning to face the Operator.

“What happened?”


Spoiler: Notes • show
Finally feel like I'm starting to hit my stride with this crossover, mostly because this was the part I really wanted to be writing.

Also, I... tend to hurt the characters I like...

As always, critique is welcome!


*Roll, not role, what is wrong with me? I blame Sigrun.

Next part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg93757#msg93757)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Athena on February 17, 2016, 12:40:36 AM
I seem to be on a bit of a role right now, but I went and started writing another story in my Matrix croSSSSover. Links to my previous story, for reference (thought you should be able to follow this one whether you've read it or not):

Dangerous
Part 1 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg86776#msg86776)
Part 2 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg90023#msg90023)
Part 3 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg90712#msg90712)
Part 4 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg93144#msg93144)

Now on to the new one!

Title: New Beginnings (working title; may change)
Inspiration: "Animus Vox" by The Glitch Mob
Characters: Sigrun, Emil, Mikkel; cameos by Onni and Tuuri
Warnings: Minor character death, major character near-death, violence, blood. I've tried to keep the gore and descriptions of injuries at a PG-13 level, but if I need to move this off-forum, please let me know.

Spoiler: Prologue • show
   Onni looked through the windshield at the desolate landscape that was spread out before them.

He was standing well back on the bridge, of course—he was not a crewmember on this ship.  Nor was Tuuri, who was keeping herself entertained with the schematics of the other ship that were spread out before her on the back room table.

The Valkyrie.

Onni and his sister were participating in a salvage and rescue mission.  The ship they were on was responding to a distress signal from the other vessel, which had been downed in a Sentinel attack.  Aside from the fact that the ship had been crippled, they knew only the information the reports had given them:  captain, senior Operator, and three crewmembers dead; first mate critically wounded.  Only the junior Operator and a single crewmember had survived unharmed.

Valkyrie sighted, Captain.”

“Good.  Set her down right there.”

At the words Tuuri ran to the front of the ship and all but smashed her face up against the window, not wanting to miss her first sight of a real Sentinel.  Of course his sister had jumped on the chance to go on this mission, however many times he told her that there was absolutely nothing out here worth seeing or experiencing.  As for Onni… well, he had no idea why Taru kept offering him these odd jobs when he had already made it clear that there was no way she was ever going to worm her way back into his good graces, but the fact remained that he simply couldn’t afford not to take them.

“Woah.”  True to form, Tuuri’s face was right up against the glass.  “Why do you think they didn’t use their EMP earlier?”

“They must have had people still inside,” he guessed.  Still, he couldn’t help but wonder when he saw the metal tentacles sticking outside of the ship.  The Sentinel had gotten so far in it was barely even visible; he could understand holding off to wait for people to get out of the Matrix, but letting everyone die was nothing short of madness.

They continued to stay out of the way while their ship docked, and a contingent of trained medical personnel went onboard to get the wounded out.  After an indeterminate time of waiting—probably fifteen minutes or so, though Tuuri’s fidgeting said that to her it felt a whole lot longer—they reemerged, wheeling a stretcher loaded with the body of a red-haired woman who had to be the first mate.

She was unconscious, her face pale; spots of blood were already beginning to show through the blankets that covered her.  Her arms, the only visible part of her body, were littered with gashes and laser burns.  A big man—one Onni hadn’t seen on the crew of the ship that had brought them here—walked beside her, talking quietly to the medics as he held a bag of IV fluids aloft.  Even Tuuri fell quiet as they transported her back to the med bay.  “Is she going to be okay?”

“Who knows.”  Probably not, was his honest thought, but that was one harsh reality he didn't yet want to share with his sister.  Instead, he hefted his bag.  “Come on.  We have work to do.”

The interior of the ship was also in bad shape.  A dead Sentinel lay sprawled across half the bridge, right alongside the corpses of four dead humans and the olfactory evidence of someone having been violently sick.  Onni didn’t have to look far to find the culprit:  a young blond man, younger even than Tuuri, slumped next to the stairs with his arms wrapped around his stomach.

Three of the crew, the ones in chairs, had died without a mark on them, except for the occasional trickle of blood from the nose or mouth:  they must have met their end inside of the Matrix.  The fourth, the Operator, was considerably less clean: he had been impaled by a severed support beam.

Even Onni, inundated as he was, couldn’t help but cringe when he recognized the captain.  Though Agneta was only one of many captains who’d rejected his request out of hand, she was one of the few who’d done so without saying there was no place for bluepills on her crew.  He certainly had never wished her dead.

“Unless your cousin turns out to be the One, I can’t risk my crew on someone who already has a known connection to you.”

Onni shook his head with a sigh.  He had work to do.

The big man he’d seen earlier came back aboard while Onni was still scooping the Operator’s remains into a body bag and Tuuri was still poking at the dead Sentinel.  “Emil,” he said, ignoring the siblings in favor of approaching the young crewman who still had not moved.  “It might be better if you left with the other ship.”

Slowly, he looked up, his arms still wrapped around himself.  “Mikkel?  Is Sigrun… going to make it?”

“If they get her back to Zion in time?  Maybe.”  Emil did not look reassured, only slightly green.  “There ought to be someone here who knows how to pilot this ship,” Mikkel continued as if he hadn’t noticed.  “But unless you want to help them out, there’s no good reason for you to stay.”

Coaxing Emil onto the other ship went fairly easily after that.  Onni waited until the other ship had left and the other man had come back in (by which point Tuuri had finally turned her attention from the dead Sentinel to the repairs she was actually supposed to be doing) before turning to face the Operator.

“What happened?”


Spoiler: Notes • show
Finally feel like I'm starting to hit my stride with this crossover, mostly because this was the part I really wanted to be writing.

Also, I... tend to hurt the characters I like...

As always, critique is welcome!

Very good! I sorta understand what a sentinel is but I've only seen the first movie so I don't know anything about Zion (that's the last human city?)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on February 17, 2016, 12:50:44 AM
Very good! I sorta understand what a sentinel is but I've only seen the first movie so I don't know anything about Zion (that's the last human city?)


Yep, Zion is the last human city in the movie canon. It's almost certainly named after the late 1890s movement where Jews were clamouring for their own nation to avoid the discrimination and anti-Semitism that was becoming legalised. They were called 'Zionists' if they were part of that movement, which eventually went on to found Israel in Palestine. So, I guess the theory is that the humans that make up Zion are like the Jewish population in that they are discriminated against by the majority- the machines- and they had to peel off and make their own nation to avoid this.

That was way more theory than you needed for a simple question, but there you go buddy
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on February 17, 2016, 07:13:35 AM
Very good! I sorta understand what a sentinel is but I've only seen the first movie so I don't know anything about Zion (that's the last human city?)


Yep, Zion is the last human city in the movie canon. It's almost certainly named after the late 1890s movement where Jews were clamouring for their own nation to avoid the discrimination and anti-Semitism that was becoming legalised. They were called 'Zionists' if they were part of that movement, which eventually went on to found Israel in Palestine. So, I guess the theory is that the humans that make up Zion are like the Jewish population in that they are discriminated against by the majority- the machines- and they had to peel off and make their own nation to avoid this.

That was way more theory than you needed for a simple question, but there you go buddy

*wakes up blearily*

Yeah. What she said.

*looks at today's page*

Maaaaaaaaybeeeeee I didn't pick the best time to post this...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Athena on February 17, 2016, 01:28:10 PM

Yep, Zion is the last human city in the movie canon. It's almost certainly named after the late 1890s movement where Jews were clamouring for their own nation to avoid the discrimination and anti-Semitism that was becoming legalised. They were called 'Zionists' if they were part of that movement, which eventually went on to found Israel in Palestine. So, I guess the theory is that the humans that make up Zion are like the Jewish population in that they are discriminated against by the majority- the machines- and they had to peel off and make their own nation to avoid this.

That was way more theory than you needed for a simple question, but there you go buddy

Wow! You've done your research! Thank you! :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on February 17, 2016, 04:38:28 PM
Sure thing. I kind of didn't mean to do my research, but I have some friends and relatives who dissect movies like others dissect small amphibians in Biology. It does take some effort to make myself go to the cinema with these people
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on February 17, 2016, 08:04:32 PM
Your friends and relatives sound interesting! Dissecting art can teach you a lot, including how to make your own better.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Dai on February 18, 2016, 02:03:59 AM
Just a hypothetical idea based on the cliffhanger at #475:


...Tuuri looked up in shock, then turned, fumbling with the starter...

Reynir yelled, "Hurry up! What's the matter?...", then stopped, gazing in horror as Tuuri's eyes glazed over, her head bumping on the steering wheel.

Reynir turned at the sound of a choking sound from the rear compartment and saw Emil stagger through the door and collapse across the prone bodies of Sigrun and Mikkel.

Reynir shrank back into the corner as the shadows visibly slid towards him.

The cat continued to shriek in terror, but strangely muffled, as though heard through layers of cotton wool, Reynir's vision was fading to grey, his limbs becoming numb. He slid inexorably towards dark unconsciousness...

"HEY!"

"Lalli?" Reynir started and looked up.

Lalli stood over him. "Get up! We haven't much time!"

Reynir scrambled up; they were in the Dream realm again.

All around were tall dark shadows.

Lalli stood, teeth clenched, arms spread wide - shadows flailed and scrabbled at a pale shell around the two mages.

Reynir gaped in awe, then noticed how strained the barrier was, wavering under the incessant attack. Lalli held out a hand to him.

"Hold on! I need your strength!"

Reynir grabbed Lalli's hand - and immediately felt *something* pass from him. The barrier hardened, brightened. Ghosts recoiled momentarily, before renewing the assault.

Lalli said, "Pay attention! This won't hold them for long!"

Lalli turned his gaze on Reynir. " It's all up to you now. I have to keep doing this, or we're dead!"

Reynir looked around wildly. "Me? What can I do?"

Lalli said "Get to the radio! I'll try to keep this shield over you while you make the call."

"Make sure you get Onni! He's our only hope now!"...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on February 18, 2016, 02:19:58 AM
Glad you posted this, it's good! And I do hope we'll see more of your work here. We never have enough good fanfic writers.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on February 18, 2016, 02:24:18 AM
Glad you posted this, it's good! And I do hope we'll see more of your work here. We never have enough good fanfic writers.

They are a rare species indeed, in the era of My Immortal-like demons and all of their little fiends. Honestly, bad writing is one of the biggest turn-offs there is. Recently, I was reading this story I found incredibly interesting for the concept (what if the Nazis had taken over, and then held an annual motorcyle race with the other nations in the Axis to prove they were the best, and what if some shape-shifting survivor of the concentration camps infiltrated this race to kill Hitler), but the writing was just so bleh I almost couldn't finish the book, and had to force myself to start each new chapter.

It's a good thing we never have that kind of problem in this forum- you guys are great at what you do.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Regolith247 on February 18, 2016, 02:41:09 AM
Well, the last two months have been a wonderful procession of life kicking me in the teeth, but I’ve finally found the time to write again (just)! A short story of Onni on the Keuruu docks, mostly based around what we saw on Page 451 and inspired by some art Gwenno did around the same time.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/5994112

Hope you all like it! And I will read the new stuff on this thread soon, I promise…

Ooh! Yet another awesome SSSS tale! You write the most best stuff, seriously! I really sympathized with Onni while reading this- I also have a fair amount of anxiety right before I travel!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on February 19, 2016, 08:09:28 PM
Oh, look. Another one-shot AU.

In the Center Ring
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Spoiler: show
The little girl looked around in fear. She had wandered far deeper into the woods than she’d meant to, and now, their gloom surrounded her.

Trying not to panic, she began to retrace her steps. That was when she became aware that she was being followed. No, it was more--she was being stalked.

She ducked behind a tree for a moment, and then slowly peered around it to see what was hunting her. Was it a vatte? Perhaps a smallish Beast she could deal with?

It was a Garm, big, bulky, brutal and hideous.

Stand still, stay silent. In her mind, the words replayed themselves over and over again. Stand still, stay silent. Stand still stay silent stand still stay silent standstillstaysilent--It had seen her.

The Beast pushed off from the tree trunk, hurtling toward her still form--

--until a blur of blue and red smashed into it, knocking it aside and bouncing to catch a bar of wood swinging from ropes at either end.

“Behold, REYNIR, MASTER of the TRAPEZE!” The incredibly loud bellow came from a tall red-head. The little girl stared at the woman, who, unlike everyone else the girl had ever met, wasn’t afraid to shout in the woods.

“And NOW, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, from all across the Silent World, we proudly present--the EIDE MOST BEST TRAVELING CIRCUS, the SHOW of AGES!

“Let’s hear it for the rest of our players:

“The HOTAKAINENS, JUGGLERS of the BLADES!”

The Garm was on its feet again, but as it was about to charge again, two ash-blonde figures in bright patchwork garb stepped out from either side of it. The two humans pulled out long, wicked-looking knives and began tossing them back and forth at one another, starting with one, then two at a time, and gradually more and more until there seemed to be hundreds of knives surrounding the Beast so that it was immobilized.

The Garm screamed, calling for aid from its foul kin. Over the din, the woman yelled again.

“EMIL, the FIRE-EATER!”

A red blur cartwheeled into the clearing, stopping just short of where the Garm stood at bay. He stood, pulling out and lighting a torch. Then, he put the torch close to his mouth and blew fire at the Garm.

The Garm didn’t like this at all. Neither did the troll that had slithered up behind Emil. The troll stretched forth a tentacle to strike at the fire-eater--

“Mikkel, the MOURNFUL CLOWN!”

--and was hit on the rump by a huge stick with a SLAP that hurt the little girl’s ears. A great big bear of a man, face painted white accented with smears of blue, green and red, this Mikkel twirled the slap-stick nonchalantly as the troll tried to regain what passed for its feet.

SLAP!

SLAP! SLAP!

“And finally, YOUR HUMBLE SERVANT, SIGRUN the FEARLESS, TAMER of the JUNGLE CATS!”

At this, three lions emerged from the woods and ROARED. The Garm stopped looking angry; instead, it wore an expression the little girl knew all too well, but had never before seen on a grossling: fear.

“NOW, MY BEAUTIES!” Sigrun roared, louder than the lions had with a crack of her bullwhip, and the cats attacked.

Another troll or two rashly decided to aid the Garm against its attackers, but the lions were more than a match for anything that came their way.

Nor were the others idle. Each one went after the other grosslings drawn by the noise of their fellows being slaughtered.

Soon, the little girl and Ringmistress Sigrun were all who remained in the clearing, the others having shooed the lions back into the depths of the woods.

“Thank you,” the little girl whispered.

“Thank you,” Sigrun replied. “After all, what’s a Circus without an audience?”

The little girl walked back down the path to her village. Didn’t she have a tale to tell, though she doubted anyone would believe her...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
Just a little something I whipped up for y’all.

...I hope nobody here’s afraid of clowns.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on February 19, 2016, 08:14:02 PM
Oh, look. Another one-shot AU.

In the Center Ring
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Spoiler: show
The little girl looked around in fear. She had wandered far deeper into the woods than she’d meant to, and now, their gloom surrounded her.

Trying not to panic, she began to retrace her steps. That was when she became aware that she was being followed. No, it was more--she was being stalked.

She ducked behind a tree for a moment, and then slowly peered around it to see what was hunting her. Was it a vatte? Perhaps a smallish Beast she could deal with?

It was a Garm, big, bulky, brutal and hideous.

Stand still, stay silent. In her mind, the words replayed themselves over and over again. Stand still, stay silent. Stand still stay silent stand still stay silent standstillstaysilent--It had seen her.

The Beast pushed off from the tree trunk, hurtling toward her still form--

--until a blur of blue and red smashed into it, knocking it aside and bouncing to catch a bar of wood swinging from ropes at either end.

“Behold, REYNIR, MASTER of the TRAPEZE!” The incredibly loud bellow came from a tall red-head. The little girl stared at the woman, who, unlike everyone else the girl had ever met, wasn’t afraid to shout in the woods.

“And NOW, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, from all across the Silent World, we proudly present--the EIDE MOST BEST TRAVELING CIRCUS, the SHOW of AGES!

“Let’s hear it for the rest of our players:

“The HOTAKAINENS, JUGGLERS of the BLADES!”

The Garm was on its feet again, but as it was about to charge again, two ash-blonde figures in bright patchwork garb stepped out from either side of it. The two humans pulled out long, wicked-looking knives and began tossing them back and forth at one another, starting with one, then two at a time, and gradually more and more until there seemed to be hundreds of knives surrounding the Beast so that it was immobilized.

The Garm screamed, calling for aid from its foul kin. Over the din, the woman yelled again.

“EMIL, the FIRE-EATER!”

A red blur cartwheeled into the clearing, stopping just short of where the Garm stood at bay. He stood, pulling out and lighting a torch. Then, he put the torch close to his mouth and blew fire at the Garm.

The Garm didn’t like this at all. Neither did the troll that had slithered up behind Emil. The troll stretched forth a tentacle to strike at the fire-eater--

“Mikkel, the MOURNFUL CLOWN!”

--and was hit on the rump by a huge stick with a SLAP that hurt the little girl’s ears. A great big bear of a man, face painted white accented with smears of blue, green and red, this Mikkel twirled the slap-stick nonchalantly as the troll tried to regain what passed for its feet.

SLAP!

SLAP! SLAP!

“And finally, YOUR HUMBLE SERVANT, SIGRUN the FEARLESS, TAMER of the JUNGLE CATS!”

At this, three lions emerged from the woods and ROARED. The Garm stopped looking angry; instead, it wore an expression the little girl knew all too well, but had never before seen on a grossling: fear.

“NOW, MY BEAUTIES!” Sigrun roared, louder than the lions had with a crack of her bullwhip, and the cats attacked.

Another troll or two rashly decided to aid the Garm against its attackers, but the lions were more than a match for anything that came their way.

Nor were the others idle. Each one went after the other grosslings drawn by the noise of their fellows being slaughtered.

Soon, the little girl and Ringmistress Sigrun were all who remained in the clearing, the others having shooed the lions back into the depths of the woods.

“Thank you,” the little girl whispered.

“Thank you,” Sigrun replied. “After all, what’s a Circus without an audience?”

The little girl walked back down the path to her village. Didn’t she have a tale to tell, though she doubted anyone would believe her...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
Just a little something I whipped up for y’all.

...I hope nobody here’s afraid of clowns.


Nicely done. I love how Sigrun talks like the Wicked Witch of the West, calling everyone her 'beauties'
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on February 19, 2016, 09:28:42 PM
LooNEY: Falling about laughing here. The Hotakainens as blade jugglers! Reynir on trapeze! Lions! Oh dear me!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Kiraly on February 19, 2016, 10:35:54 PM
Ahahaha, LooNEY that's amazing! I love all the different roles you put them in... Emil the fire-eater especially filled me with glee. :))
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on February 19, 2016, 10:51:50 PM
Oh, look. Another one-shot AU.

In the Center Ring
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Spoiler: show
The little girl looked around in fear. She had wandered far deeper into the woods than she’d meant to, and now, their gloom surrounded her.

Trying not to panic, she began to retrace her steps. That was when she became aware that she was being followed. No, it was more--she was being stalked.

She ducked behind a tree for a moment, and then slowly peered around it to see what was hunting her. Was it a vatte? Perhaps a smallish Beast she could deal with?

It was a Garm, big, bulky, brutal and hideous.

Stand still, stay silent. In her mind, the words replayed themselves over and over again. Stand still, stay silent. Stand still stay silent stand still stay silent standstillstaysilent--It had seen her.

The Beast pushed off from the tree trunk, hurtling toward her still form--

--until a blur of blue and red smashed into it, knocking it aside and bouncing to catch a bar of wood swinging from ropes at either end.

“Behold, REYNIR, MASTER of the TRAPEZE!” The incredibly loud bellow came from a tall red-head. The little girl stared at the woman, who, unlike everyone else the girl had ever met, wasn’t afraid to shout in the woods.

“And NOW, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, from all across the Silent World, we proudly present--the EIDE MOST BEST TRAVELING CIRCUS, the SHOW of AGES!

“Let’s hear it for the rest of our players:

“The HOTAKAINENS, JUGGLERS of the BLADES!”

The Garm was on its feet again, but as it was about to charge again, two ash-blonde figures in bright patchwork garb stepped out from either side of it. The two humans pulled out long, wicked-looking knives and began tossing them back and forth at one another, starting with one, then two at a time, and gradually more and more until there seemed to be hundreds of knives surrounding the Beast so that it was immobilized.

The Garm screamed, calling for aid from its foul kin. Over the din, the woman yelled again.

“EMIL, the FIRE-EATER!”

A red blur cartwheeled into the clearing, stopping just short of where the Garm stood at bay. He stood, pulling out and lighting a torch. Then, he put the torch close to his mouth and blew fire at the Garm.

The Garm didn’t like this at all. Neither did the troll that had slithered up behind Emil. The troll stretched forth a tentacle to strike at the fire-eater--

“Mikkel, the MOURNFUL CLOWN!”

--and was hit on the rump by a huge stick with a SLAP that hurt the little girl’s ears. A great big bear of a man, face painted white accented with smears of blue, green and red, this Mikkel twirled the slap-stick nonchalantly as the troll tried to regain what passed for its feet.

SLAP!

SLAP! SLAP!

“And finally, YOUR HUMBLE SERVANT, SIGRUN the FEARLESS, TAMER of the JUNGLE CATS!”

At this, three lions emerged from the woods and ROARED. The Garm stopped looking angry; instead, it wore an expression the little girl knew all too well, but had never before seen on a grossling: fear.

“NOW, MY BEAUTIES!” Sigrun roared, louder than the lions had with a crack of her bullwhip, and the cats attacked.

Another troll or two rashly decided to aid the Garm against its attackers, but the lions were more than a match for anything that came their way.

Nor were the others idle. Each one went after the other grosslings drawn by the noise of their fellows being slaughtered.

Soon, the little girl and Ringmistress Sigrun were all who remained in the clearing, the others having shooed the lions back into the depths of the woods.

“Thank you,” the little girl whispered.

“Thank you,” Sigrun replied. “After all, what’s a Circus without an audience?”

The little girl walked back down the path to her village. Didn’t she have a tale to tell, though she doubted anyone would believe her...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
Just a little something I whipped up for y’all.

...I hope nobody here’s afraid of clowns.


That was well and truly ridiculous. Thanks for the laugh!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: frostykitty on February 19, 2016, 11:04:51 PM
Ah! That was wonderful, LooNEY! As soon as the first part of dialogue came  up I had a smile and a questioning look from my mother for making an unearthly smothered laughing sound...

Uh. Uhhh. I totally have a chapter four... Yep, it's right here... (Why was it late? That'll be in the note area)
Spoiler: return to silence; part two, chapter four • show
{chapter 4}

Emil shuddered and walked back to the book room. Why was it saying that, of all things? It probably didn't have much of mind left, he decided as he brought another pile down to Mikkel.

"What did she say?" Mikkel asked slowly, taking the books and looking over them.

"She wants to finish that floor and then we can leave." He recalled, turning back to the building. The healer sighed, but nodded all the same and started packing up the tomes.

Lalli nearly crashed in to Emil on the way down the steps, but other than that the rest of the mission was uneventful. They were, after all, only collecting books. They could return tomorrow and finish up, and finish the trolls if they got in the way. The moans never stopped, though. And they never ceased to send chills down Emil's spine. If Sigrun heard them, she did a good job of hiding it. Or ignoring it. Lalli had been occupied with exploring the upper floors ahead of time, to avoid unexpected trouble.

Pale orange light flooded the streets by the time they had finished. Mikkel had managed to fit almost everything in the back with the supply crates, with over a dozen in Tuuri's 'office' for further examination and translations. The team was soon on the move, back to their camp for one more night. The scout would have to find a path to the third area they had found, if it hadn't been suddenly infested with trolls.

But that was the least of anyone else's problems. It was the third night of inedible sludge, once they were back to the camp. Headquarters had decided to use most of the added budget on other supplies, a uniform for the new team member, and the training of Kitty to Grade B. So, 'food', it is.

Reynir sat in the passenger seat, again, and turned around to look over the seat. He asked Mikkel questions about the books and asked if he needed any help. Mikkel replied tiredly each time before finally giving him something to draw with and shutting the door to the cabin. Tuuri had the excuse of driving, and therefore couldn't be distracted. The Icelander sighed in defeat and started practicing his runes.

Sigrun and Emil lounged on the couch, looking through the broken windshield. Sigrun was content with the amount of books they had gotten, she wore a small smile as she watched the snow fall. Emil was staring blankly out the window, the ice-cold grip of fear slowly snuck up on him as he thought about the troll's moaning more and more. He was quite surprised Sigrun hadn't wanted to end the trolls before they left. Maybe she forgot. He wouldn't mention it unless she said something, he decided.

The tank came to a gentle halt, right in the middle of the tight circle of huge houses. Plants overflowed the beaten-up buildings. Snow and fractured glass glittered, reflecting the scarlet sunlight. The breeze lifted snow in the air, shaping it into ribbons. The cooking fire sparked to life as the team gathered around it in the dying light.

Sigrun groaned as she looked at the bowl of gruel-like sludge handed to her. "Are you sure this is edible?" Mikkel glanced at her, a shadow of a smile in his eyes.

"Define 'edible'..." He said, handing the last bowls to Tuuri and Lalli. The captain snorted in amusement before starting to eat.

The sun's rays had finally said goodby to the camp, shadow taking over. The team had, luckily, been inside by that time, and now the scout now slunk out of the tank and in to the chilling night. Each star had a glowing haze surrounding it in the sky, thin clouds being the cause. The snow clouds had tired themselves out, for now, and drifted away. It was still and silent, peaceful as the team prepared for bed (after discussing new mission plans).

Until Sigrun remembered the trolls they had accidentally left alive.


Spoiler: notessss • show
WELP, someone's going to get a rant,. Emil, it'll probably be you.
Bonus (http://sta.sh/02a33cd1c2jz), I was writing and this came up and I had to take the opportunity. I mean, the combination of words was too perfect.
As always, tell me about grammar mistakes and stuff, freshly written.

So why was it so late? well, school was annoying and gave us scheduling stuff and bleh,
And ALSO, The first version of the chapter was weird and I didn't like it, so I rewrote it. *sighs and falls on floor*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on February 20, 2016, 04:41:19 AM
Ah! That was wonderful, LooNEY! As soon as the first part of dialogue came  up I had a smile and a questioning look from my mother for making an unearthly smothered laughing sound...

Uh. Uhhh. I totally have a chapter four... Yep, it's right here... (Why was it late? That'll be in the note area)
Spoiler: return to silence; part two, chapter four • show
{chapter 4}

Emil shuddered and walked back to the book room. Why was it saying that, of all things? It probably didn't have much of mind left, he decided as he brought another pile down to Mikkel.

"What did she say?" Mikkel asked slowly, taking the books and looking over them.

"She wants to finish that floor and then we can leave." He recalled, turning back to the building. The healer sighed, but nodded all the same and started packing up the tomes.

Lalli nearly crashed in to Emil on the way down the steps, but other than that the rest of the mission was uneventful. They were, after all, only collecting books. They could return tomorrow and finish up, and finish the trolls if they got in the way. The moans never stopped, though. And they never ceased to send chills down Emil's spine. If Sigrun heard them, she did a good job of hiding it. Or ignoring it. Lalli had been occupied with exploring the upper floors ahead of time, to avoid unexpected trouble.

Pale orange light flooded the streets by the time they had finished. Mikkel had managed to fit almost everything in the back with the supply crates, with over a dozen in Tuuri's 'office' for further examination and translations. The team was soon on the move, back to their camp for one more night. The scout would have to find a path to the third area they had found, if it hadn't been suddenly infested with trolls.

But that was the least of anyone else's problems. It was the third night of inedible sludge, once they were back to the camp. Headquarters had decided to use most of the added budget on other supplies, a uniform for the new team member, and the training of Kitty to Grade B. So, 'food', it is.

Reynir sat in the passenger seat, again, and turned around to look over the seat. He asked Mikkel questions about the books and asked if he needed any help. Mikkel replied tiredly each time before finally giving him something to draw with and shutting the door to the cabin. Tuuri had the excuse of driving, and therefore couldn't be distracted. The Icelander sighed in defeat and started practicing his runes.

Sigrun and Emil lounged on the couch, looking through the broken windshield. Sigrun was content with the amount of books they had gotten, she wore a small smile as she watched the snow fall. Emil was staring blankly out the window, the ice-cold grip of fear slowly snuck up on him as he thought about the troll's moaning more and more. He was quite surprised Sigrun hadn't wanted to end the trolls before they left. Maybe she forgot. He wouldn't mention it unless she said something, he decided.

The tank came to a gentle halt, right in the middle of the tight circle of huge houses. Plants overflowed the beaten-up buildings. Snow and fractured glass glittered, reflecting the scarlet sunlight. The breeze lifted snow in the air, shaping it into ribbons. The cooking fire sparked to life as the team gathered around it in the dying light.

Sigrun groaned as she looked at the bowl of gruel-like sludge handed to her. "Are you sure this is edible?" Mikkel glanced at her, a shadow of a smile in his eyes.

"Define 'edible'..." He said, handing the last bowls to Tuuri and Lalli. The captain snorted in amusement before starting to eat.

The sun's rays had finally said goodby to the camp, shadow taking over. The team had, luckily, been inside by that time, and now the scout now slunk out of the tank and in to the chilling night. Each star had a glowing haze surrounding it in the sky, thin clouds being the cause. The snow clouds had tired themselves out, for now, and drifted away. It was still and silent, peaceful as the team prepared for bed (after discussing new mission plans).

Until Sigrun remembered the trolls they had accidentally left alive.


Spoiler: notessss • show
WELP, someone's going to get a rant,. Emil, it'll probably be you.
Bonus (http://sta.sh/02a33cd1c2jz), I was writing and this came up and I had to take the opportunity. I mean, the combination of words was too perfect.
As always, tell me about grammar mistakes and stuff, freshly written.

So why was it so late? Well. On Wednesday, the school decided to give us next year's schedules and we had to choose our electives within a day and none of it worked out right and I really don't know if I'll make it in to a few of the honors classes I'd like to and fear and stuff... So, we could only chose up to two credits worth, I chose German I and Band for electives. My friends, too, so hopefully that'll work out. But there aren't any space science classes and now I'm sad...
And ALSO, The first version of the chapter was weird and I didn't like it, so I rewrote it. Yeah, I'm good, I'm fine, I'll be writing and drawing all weekend and I'll be able to recover from this week. *sighs and falls on floor*


The ending line left me with the image of Sigrun doing a comical spit-take as she remembers their little oopsie, and showering Mikkel with crumbs. Also, I love how much people hate Mikkel's cooking. Keep it up!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on February 20, 2016, 02:22:08 PM
As if we didn't have enough cliffhangers this week, here's another chapter of Against All Odds!

Prologue (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg93266#msg93266)

Spoiler: Part 1 • show

We’ve got a new mission, they said.  It’ll be simple, they said.

Sigrun coughed as she pushed herself to her feet, shaking dust from her hair and discarding her broken sunglasses as she waited for the ringing in her ears to subside.  At least her sunglasses were the only thing that was broken.  One thing she could say about that new kid:  he had potential.  Wasn’t everyone who could rig up a bomb fit to blow a whole… block…

Dritt!

She was completely cut off from the others—no way was she getting back through that mess of rubble on her own, especially not with the sirens that were already approaching, and given the magnitude of the explosion it had probably destroyed the hard line as well.

A simple mission, she thought.  Sure.  Obtain the objective—naturally, no one save the Captain and one of the Operators even knew what the objective was—and hightail it out of the Matrix.  Of course, Sigrun loved a bit of adventure just as much as the next redpill; her irritation wasn’t over the fact that things hadn’t gone according to plan, but that Agneta had a hard, unbreakable rule that if any of them got separated from the others, they were to find the nearest exit and jack out immediately.  Which meant that even if they did see any action, Sigrun was now going to be left out of it.

Nevertheless, she ran off with a growl, pulling her cellphone open as she went.
   
“Operator.”

“Oy, Mikkel.  I got separated from the others.”

“I can see that.”

“Where’s the nearest exit?”  She had halted in an alleyway with her back pressed up against a building; no sign of Agents yet, but there were a lot of people around, and the risk was high.  “Preferably now?”

A series of mechanical taps could be heard through the line as Mikkel typed.  “There’s an exit a few blocks north of you, in the warehouse district.  Can you get there safely?”

“Or die trying.”  She flipped the phone shut before Mikkel could respond.

Right.  Warehouse district.  She knew exactly where the address was; the only real issue would be getting there.  Through—she peeked out of the alleyway again—traffic, emergency vehicles, and a huge mess of rubble, not to mention a whole crowd of panicked bluepills who could turn into Agents at any time.

She grinned.  Oh yes, this was going to be fun.

***

“Well, the good news is that you managed not to kill anyone.”  Agneta shut her cellphone with a snap.

Emil breathed a small, private sigh of relief even as he glumly pondered the chewing-out she was going to give him when this was all over.  Agneta had had it in for him since the day he’d joined her crew—and of course he had completely flubbed it on his very first mission.

“Hold this,” Agneta said brusquely, shoving the envelope into his hand, “since it seems you can’t be trusted with a weapon.”  Emil felt his face heat.  “And don’t drop it.  Now stick together, let’s go.”

Gunnar elbowed him playfully in the ribs as they began picking their way out of the rubble.  “I think that might be a new record, mate.  Never seen anyone get on Agneta’s bad side on the first mission before.”

“Yeah, well,” he grumbled in return, still not in the mood to joke around.  Emil shoved the envelope roughly into his jacket—he at least wanted to come out of this able to say he hadn’t messed that up—before beginning his climb.

Even as Isak gave him a final hand up over a mountain of crumbled drywall, though, Agneta’s hand was out, cautioning for absolute silence.  The captain was in a crouch, gazing out over the street as red and blue lights flashed across her face.

Still not saying a word, she tilted her head toward where a group of men in black suits stood among the emergency vehicles, one of them talking with a police officer.

Agents.  They were in serious trouble.


Spoiler: Notes • show
A bit short, but I decided that was a good place to end it. Hope you enjoy!


Next part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg94373#msg94373)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Yuuago on February 21, 2016, 12:47:51 AM
I've been sitting on these for ages and it's only just now that I was able to post them here. They were for a blind exchange, so authors had to be kept secret for a while! Which means they appeared on Ao3 as posted by Anonymous. ;p

01. "Let the rain come down". 0+, 1.7k, Aksel Eide/Sigrun Larsen. Set during the first few weeks of Year 0.
*Well, to be clear, this one falls more into the category I think of as "vague shippy gen", but eh.
Summary: The lights go out. The rain won't stop falling. But as long as they're together, it will be fine.
On Ao3: http://archiveofourown.org/works/5768842
Dreamwidth backup: http://roesslyng.dreamwidth.org/62375.html

02. "How lucky to be alive". 0+, ~975 words, Emil/Lalli.
Summary: Lalli is stronger than he looks. It doesn't stop Emil from worrying.
On Ao3: http://archiveofourown.org/works/5761012
Dreamwidth backup: http://roesslyng.dreamwidth.org/62014.html
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on February 21, 2016, 01:05:45 AM
[snip]
Yes, I had absolutely no notion that you'd written these when they posted on ao3; no, none whatsoever. /mikkel

Anyway, here's the opening itty-bitty bit of something new:

Sigrun’s Shenanigans
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Prologue
Spoiler: show
More than Meets the Eide

It seemed to be a law of nature that when two or more people gathered around a campfire in the depths of night, stories happened. Tall tales, ghost stories, horror and humor--these and more would well forth, even from the people you least expected.

It wasn’t the party’s first night in the Silent World by any means; Reynir’s presence at the fire was proof enough of that. Nevertheless, there was something about that particular night that led the odd assortment of plunderers to build and congregate around a bright, roaring fire, to the great delight of Emil.

Whatever force it was that had compelled them to their places around the fire also loosened Sigrun’s tongue considerably--a rare event when alcohol was not involved. She began to relate tales from her youth to her new comrades-in-arms.

Sigrun proved an unexpectedly compelling storyteller, and soon even Emil was hanging on her every word, rather than staring worshipfully into the flames.

Spellbound, the five of them listened as Sigrun told her tales...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
So, this will be a series of not-necessarily-connected vignettes from Sigrun’s past, as related by her. Tuuri and Mikkel are translating, of course. I put this part in as an intro to the whole.

The shenanigans will commence shortly.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on February 21, 2016, 01:53:47 AM
Lazy8: good, I like the sound of this.

Frostykitty: I have a bad feeling about where this one is going! Do go on!

Yuuago: thought these might be yours, and like them both!

Looney: a good premise to thread the stories around. Since Sigrun considers the present mission a vacation, I shudder to think what she thinks is worth telling a story about!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on February 21, 2016, 04:38:16 AM
Yes, I had absolutely no notion that you'd written these when they posted on ao3; no, none whatsoever. /mikkel

Anyway, here's the opening itty=bitty bit of something new:

Sigrun’s Shenanigans
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Prologue
Spoiler: show
More than Meets the Eide

It seemed to be a law of nature that when two or more people gathered around a campfire in the depths of night, stories happened. Tall tales, ghost stories, horror and humor--these and more would well forth, even from the people you least expected.

It wasn’t the party’s first night in the Silent World by any means; Reynir’s presence at the fire was proof enough of that. Nevertheless, there was something about that particular night that led the odd assortment of plunderers to build and congregate around a bright, roaring fire, to the great delight of Emil.

Whatever force it was that had compelled them to their places around the fire also loosened Sigrun’s tongue considerably--a rare event when alcohol was not involved. She began to relate tales from her youth to her new comrades-in-arms.

Sidrun proved an unexpectedly compelling storyteller, and soon even Emil was hanging on her every word, rather than staring worshipfully into the flames.

Spellbound, the five of them listened as Sigrun told her tales...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
So, this will be a series of not-necessarily-connected vignettes from Sigrun’s past, as related by her. Tuuri and Mikkel are translating, of course. I put this part in as an intro to the whole.

The shenanigans will commence shortly.



I'm really excited for this! I assume Lalli will have to have a translation via Tuuri? She'd probably mess it up because she's too excited and awed to speak straight while Sigrun gesticulates and exaggerates
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on February 21, 2016, 01:21:21 PM
Anyway, here's the opening itty-bitty bit of something new:

Sigrun’s Shenanigans
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Prologue

Well that is certainly an interesting start. I look forward to seeing where it goes.

Also, is it weird that I immediately thought 'Hey, I know the perfect soundtrack for this setting!'?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CNS8y9JEPA (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CNS8y9JEPA)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: frostykitty on February 21, 2016, 03:00:06 PM
I see plenty of good fics. Can't wait for Sigrun's Shenanigans!
did I say chapter five would have action? Whoops, no, mostly just descriptions and the attack of the cat mage.

Spoiler: return to silence; part two, chapter five • show
{chapter 5}

"HOW COULD YOU LET ME FORGET?!" The captain shouted, wide eyes on Emil. He shrunk down.

"Uh, uh I forgot, too-"

"I could've killed trolls! That was a perfectly good chance and now it's probably gone!" She continued, arms in the air as she paced to floor.

"I'm sure it's not gone, maybe the trolls were trapped inside that room? I'm sure they'll still be there..."

"But now I'll have to waiiit! And what if something gets them before we do?!"

"I don't think so, I mean, Lalli said they weren't small, right? Another troll can't eat them or something. I don't think anything else will be able to get to them, anyway..."

It took a while, but eventually Sigrun calmed down and the team (minus the scout) was able to sleep.

   *********
The small scratching sound from the door signaled the start of the day for the group of adventurers. Lalli was let inside and decontaminated while his teammates stumbled out of bed and gathered in the cabin. The report was made swiftly and plans were altered to accommodate their goals.

"So you'll only have time to take care of those trolls and clear the next floor, we don't have time for the other levels if we want to get to the new camp the whole way over," Tuuri's finger ran across the roads to the other side of the town map, "here."

Sigrun rubbed her chin in thought for a moment before sighing. "Fine," she decided, "we'll be quick."

And they were off! At the slow, leisurely full speed of their trusty little cat-tank. It wandered through the snowy streets with ease as the sunlight reached over the buildings and clawed through the thin clouds. The light 'vrrrr' of the engine bounced off the collapsed walls of the abandoned homes, breaking through the icy silence.

Inside the vehicle, Emil and Sigrun talked about battle tactics - mostly Sigrun giving advice and Emil asking if he could use explosives - while Mikkel read through books and Reynir played with Kitty. It began as an accident, the cat finding his braid a suitable plaything, but had turned into a competitive game of mage-failing-to-keep-his-braid-out-of-the-cat's-reach. It only stopped when the pair had stumbled into the top mage/cat's territory and awoke him.

There were hisses and Reynir yelped. Mikkel had to check if a vermin beast had gotten in to the tank or something else had caused Kitty to freak out. What he found was a tired and angry Lalli attacking a terrified Reynir, the kitten hiding on the top bunk.

They eventually arrived (surprisingly with no injuries from the... mishap) at their desired location, the weather-worn lab. The tank came to a halt, parked beside a rusted streetlamp.

"Come on, guys, let's get those trolls!" Sigrun grinned, ever full of enthusiasm for beating things up. Emil tugged on his boots with a sigh.

"Yay," he muttered, joining the other two outside.

"Aw, cheer up! I might even let you stab one of them!" The captain laughed, walking over the broken door she had kicked down the previous day. "Now hurry up!"

By the time the boys had gotten upstairs, Sigrun was already trying to remember what door was what. Lalli yawned and took the lead. A few rooms later, chills were sent up Emil's spine. The moan. It was faint, the others seemed to take no notice. But it was there. As they got closer, he was able to once again make out the words. The same word, over and over. 'Björn...' Why that? It didn't make sense. Lalli paused in the next room, head tilted. Sigrun became even more excited.

"How close are they? Are they in the next room?" He shook his head. "What is it then?"

"Just a sound..." The scout mumbled, hopping into the next room. So Emil wasn't (entirely) crazy! The troll was talking. Or trying to?

Emil was lost in though when he bumped into a beaming Sigrun. She eagerly pointed to a barricaded door, a desk and chairs piled around it to keep it shut. The raspy voice was louder now. Just behind the wall. He felt like he might be sick. There was a skeleton on the floor in a long white coat and a face mask. It didn't die from the rash, that was proven by the long gashes on the side of the skull and the odd position of the neck.

Lalli was glaring through the wall. "One troll, one other thing." he reported, looking back at Sigrun. She nodded and assumed the other thing was a beast, not a spirit.

"Well then let's get them!"


Spoiler: notessss • show
When Sigrun says "HOW COULD YOU LET ME FORGET?!" imagine her from "YOU HAPLESS HAM-FISTED SWEDE!" on page 240.
Oh Reynir, when playing a game of mage-failing-to-keep-his-braid-out-of-the-cat's-reach, one must never stray into a sleeping cat mage's territory, or they'll suffer the consequences. And the action and creepiness is all next chapter, wooo. Not that creepy, I guess, but...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on February 21, 2016, 05:07:33 PM
So, the Kraken passed unremarked; will this part suffer the same fate?

The Good, the Bad, and the Bestial
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/Western crossover fanfic
Part 23
Caper the Third: The Cave of Time
Part 12
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg93162#msg93162)
Spoiler: show
A Time to Stand

Year 90
The Indre By, Copenhagen

Lalli Hotakainen was running through the snowy streets, not from fear, but by choice.

“...Saying I can’t do my job...” he grumbled as he raced on through the falling snow.

Finally, Lalli came back to that last crossing. A dark alleyway gaped back at him, but the other, seemingly better ways had proved impassable, so into this dark corridor they must go.

“Howdy, Lalli.”

Lalli stopped dead. That had been Mikkel’s voice, but Mikkel was back with the others, so it couldn’t be Mikkel’s voice, but it was Mikkel’s voice...

Mikkel stepped out from the darkness of the alley Lalli had been about to probe, only he was in some weird getup like Lalli had never seen before. What on earth--

Lalli stiffened in sudden understanding when another figure came forth. It was Lalli, but dressed in the same odd garb as the other Mikkel.

Fetches.

There was only one way to deal with fetches, and Lalli wasn’t sure he was strong enough at the moment to pull it off. But he had to: if the others fell to their fetches because they’d blithely followed him into this unforeseen peril, then it would be his fault all over again.

Lalli would not let this happen.

Lalli gathered his resolve and prepared to call upon his Luonto.

Something about the scout’s posture alerted Lalli Ghost-of-Forest to his intent. “Lalli, no! We’re friends, not evil spirits!”

As far as Lalli Hotakainen was concerned, Lalli Ghost-of-Forest might as well have been speaking Sanskrit. He bent down, placing one hand in the fresh snow.

Closing his eyes, Lalli Ghost-of-Forest reached back through the years, seeking one of his deepest memories: the chant his grandmother had sung to him as a swaddling babe. As soon as he caught the memory, he began to sing along.

Lalli Hotakainen froze. That melody, and especially those words could never come from some malicious spirit--so what were these two facing him?

“What’s the hold-up?” Another double emerged, this one of Sigrun, again garbed similarly to the others.

“Language troubles,” Mikkel replied. “It looks like we spooked local Lalli, here, and our Lalli has been trying to sing him down.”

“I’ll get Tuuri out here. Maybe she can clear it up.”


Behind Lalli Hotakainen, there came the familiar sound of the Felinopede grumbling its way down the street. Had they all been standing there that long?

Before any more gibberish could be tried by the newcomers, the vehicle came to a sudden stop behind Lalli Hotakainen as Tuuri Hotakainen noticed just what he was staring at.

“AHOY THE TANK,” Doc Mikkel bellowed in his best (still awful) Danish. “WE COME AS FRIENDS!”

*

After a long pow-wow fraught with suspicion on the locals’ part, the Westerners led their counterparts through Meat-Pod Central to the ruins of the Bastion of Amalienborg. This ruined city was tragic enough, but the evidences of the last-ditch heroism of what few survivors were left before they were wiped out gave Emil Westbrook a nasty knot in his stomach as he remembered their last stop in Malmö.

He had to admit, though, that the Bastion was well-nigh the perfect place to stand against the Man in the Black Hat and whatever minions he could muster. The barricades looked sound enough even now, and the coils of barbed wire and sandbags guarding the only unblocked gateway would still be effective enough obstacles in the event of an assault.

Hopefully, the locals had understood enough of Doc Mikkel’s broken Danish that they’d join the Westerners against the Man in the Black Hat, but after all they’d been through, Emil Westbrook was ready to take that filth on single-handed, if need be (though he knew he could count on his Captain and Lalli Ghost-of-Forest in any eventuality).

The two Lallis and the two Reynirs had gone into one of the buildings, which Doc Mikkel had told them was one of the places the prototype Cure had been tested--and failed. Reynir had said something about needing to get rid of the spooks that were left over, and so the foursome had gone.

While not desirous for them to mess the exorcism up, Emil hoped they’d do their best to hurry; night was falling, and if anything in this place was certain, it was that the Man in the Black Hat would strike in the dark of night. He always had.

Fortunately, the Captain and Emil had already cleared out the few live grosslings from Meat-Pod Central, so the Man in the Black Hat would find no aid there. There were almost certainly other such nests around nearby, though, so they couldn’t get too cocky.

In the meantime, however, the others were whipping up as much of the working Cure as they could, in anticipation of using it against whatever grosslings came their way. Of course, the two Emils were whipping up a bunch of incendiaries and explosives instead, but that was treated as right and natural, besides being useful.

The night gathered around the little vehicle sitting in the center of the abandoned palace, and the dozen inside it waited for the inevitable...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
Yep. That’s the next part, alright.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Dire on February 21, 2016, 08:16:00 PM

The good thing with a piece of fiction like SSSS is the characters and their relationships are set up in such a way that they could go either way. We do know Minna prefers saga friendships to romance, which I think makes stories far more interesting sometimes. For example, there's been a recent blow-up over Mikkel and Sigrun because they had an entertaining interaction lately, with the mutiny list. This in my mind made them a bromance (a bromace so strong I think I feel a one-shot coming on, concerning exactly how bromancy they are), but in many others it is romantic.

We are conditioned to think of any male-female relationship as a romantic one waiting to happen, but you've got a little more wiggle-room because that is not so much the case with a gay couple. I think for now, sticking to the grey area is a good idea because it is what you're comfortable with. As your story goes on (and I am crossing my fingers it will progress soon because WOW I LOVE IT) you might find yourself leaning more towards one side or the other. If you are not yet sure, give yourself a little time to think about the way you want Emil and Lalli to end up.
Either way, I'm sure the result will be satisfying for your readership.

So I know I'm resurrecting this like a ghost super late after the fact but I just wanted to say that I found this a really thoughtful response and I've been keeping it in mind as I've been working. It articulates one of my issues with the topic, that I haven't actually decided how I interpret Lalli/Emil's relationship in the comic, and therefore am struggling with how to interpret it for my fic. It's been good advice to not feel obligated to rush and pick a side if I'm not sure how I want to define things yet, so thank you =D

My work weeks have been nuts lately so I haven't had as much time as I've wanted to work on this lately but I did get around to posting chapter three yesterday:

http://archiveofourown.org/works/5882653/chapters/13907275 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/5882653/chapters/13907275)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on February 21, 2016, 10:32:39 PM
So I know I'm resurrecting this like a ghost super late after the fact but I just wanted to say that I found this a really thoughtful response and I've been keeping it in mind as I've been working. It articulates one of my issues with the topic, that I haven't actually decided how I interpret Lalli/Emil's relationship in the comic, and therefore am struggling with how to interpret it for my fic. It's been good advice to not feel obligated to rush and pick a side if I'm not sure how I want to define things yet, so thank you =D

My work weeks have been nuts lately so I haven't had as much time as I've wanted to work on this lately but I did get around to posting chapter three yesterday:

http://archiveofourown.org/works/5882653/chapters/13907275 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/5882653/chapters/13907275)

Unfortunately I'm already signed out of AO3 and need to go to bed. Will read and review tomorrow.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on February 22, 2016, 12:41:57 AM
So I know I'm resurrecting this like a ghost super late after the fact but I just wanted to say that I found this a really thoughtful response and I've been keeping it in mind as I've been working. It articulates one of my issues with the topic, that I haven't actually decided how I interpret Lalli/Emil's relationship in the comic, and therefore am struggling with how to interpret it for my fic. It's been good advice to not feel obligated to rush and pick a side if I'm not sure how I want to define things yet, so thank you =D

My work weeks have been nuts lately so I haven't had as much time as I've wanted to work on this lately but I did get around to posting chapter three yesterday:

http://archiveofourown.org/works/5882653/chapters/13907275 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/5882653/chapters/13907275)

Sure, bro, I sure get the idea of work stopping you from doing anything but working. My school programme is so demanding I have to get up at 6 whenever I want to write. Glad you found my rambling-disguised-as-insight helpful, though, and I look forward to reading more from you!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on February 22, 2016, 08:27:02 AM
These are all great! And LooNEY, didn't comment because I completely missed it! But it's good! And I did like the image of Western Lalli singing to Our Lalli.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on February 24, 2016, 02:20:00 AM
Chapter has landed. I repeat, chapter has landed.
In the chapter that will follow this one, we're actually going to get a little bit of plot and, you know, actual story-telling.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/5853457/chapters/13977184
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: AquaAurion on February 24, 2016, 02:58:08 PM
Chapter has landed. I repeat, chapter has landed.
In the chapter that will follow this one, we're actually going to get a little bit of plot and, you know, actual story-telling.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/5853457/chapters/13977184

It's really fun to read! ^w^
I just have a little nitpick (if you don't mind)
Spoiler: show
There shouldn't be any ice on Storsjön during summer. We usually have an average temperature around 15 degrees celsius during summer. (Also no polar bears in Sweden ;) but it was an urban legend after all :P )
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on February 24, 2016, 03:16:47 PM
It's really fun to read! ^w^
I just have a little nitpick (if you don't mind)
Spoiler: show
There shouldn't be any ice on Storsjön during summer. We usually have an average temperature around 15 degrees celsius during summer. (Also no polar bears in Sweden ;) but it was an urban legend after all :P )


Alright, thanks very much for that one. As you can probably tell I have little no local knowledge of the area. Let's assume Emil fell through in the summer?
And those urban legends are sticking weird animals everywhere. Cougars, honey badgers, wolves and Slender man.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: AquaAurion on February 24, 2016, 03:27:45 PM
Alright, thanks very much for that one. As you can probably tell I have little no local knowledge of the area. Let's assume Emil fell through in the summer?
And those urban legends are sticking weird animals everywhere. Cougars, honey badgers, wolves and Slender man.
You're welcome :) If you have any questions related to Sweden, feel free to ask me :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Kiraly on February 24, 2016, 06:04:49 PM
Chapter has landed. I repeat, chapter has landed.
In the chapter that will follow this one, we're actually going to get a little bit of plot and, you know, actual story-telling.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/5853457/chapters/13977184

YESSS!!! I'm super into this story and get really excited whenever you update. Sigrun's training methods - and her "revenge list" - are very in-character. I also like how Reynir has scars and stories from shepherding, it's nice to have that undercurrent of "actually pretty tough" beneath his goofy, cheerful exterior. Most people (including me!) tend to focus on his fluffy side.

Also I'm very curious about this other Madsen Emil remembers! You've got me hooked. :)

Spoiler: one tiny critique I keep forgetting to mention • show
I've noticed this in your previous chapters, but forgot to comment on it: You refer to Lalli as a "skald" several times, but he's actually a scout. A skald does more like clerical work, from what I gather.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on February 24, 2016, 08:57:59 PM
By any chance, will more Matrix croSSSSover help ease the pain of no Thursday update?

Previous part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg93757#msg93757)

Spoiler: Part 2 • show

Sigrun sprang from one building roof to another, trying not to think about the fact that she had at least three different Agents on her tail.

A necessary sacrifice, she had decided.  The more of them were chasing her, the fewer there would be to pay attention to the others and whatever payload they were carrying back to the ship.

Twisting her body midair, she took a brief moment to fire a few shots at the Agents already bending their legs to leap (for all the good it would do her, it never hurt to try) before her momentum forced her to continue the turn.  As the roof of the next building rapidly approached, she tucked, hit the concrete with her shoulders, and rolled right back up to her feet before resuming her frantic run.

That’s three blocks down… only one more to go, and I’ll be home free.

The next roof was considerably lower than the one she had just leaped from.  Even though she bent her knees upon landing, shocks reverberated up her legs upon impact.

Can’t quite escape reality whether it’s real or not, she thought, with more than a touch of irony, even as she reached the far end of the building and swung over the side.

Stinging bits of debris whizzed past her face as bullets whistled through the air around her, impacting the wall of the building behind her to send shards of cement flying out from the wall in a series of miniature explosions.

Crap.  One of the Agents must have found a new host.

Sigrun quickly ducked around the corner of the building, discarding the empty clip from her gun and loading a new one as she went.  The shelter afforded her by the building was temporary, she knew:  they would be on her in seconds if she stayed put.  Cautiously, she peeked out around the corner of the building even as somewhere nearby, a phone began to ring.

The Agent who’d shot at her was still standing in front of the building, his gun lowered and a hand to his ear.  He seemed to be consulting with his fellows—not good—but then his face twisted into a grimace, and he lowered his hand from his ear to dig his fingers into his ribs instead.

What in the world…?

Sigrun had seen a lot of Agents in her time.  Usually it was from a distance, or while running away from them, but everything she’d ever seen or been taught said that they were ruthless, efficient, and extremely conforming.  This was the first time she’d ever seen an Agent stop to scratch.

Don’t waste time thinking, you idiot!  This is your chance!  Pushing off from the wall, she sprinted as quickly as she could manage toward the ringing phone.  More bullets flew through the air around her… there was a sharp stinging at the side of her head as one of them tore through her ear… the ringing was coming from inside of one of the buildings… she growled, crouched, and leaped straight through a window in a shower of shattering glass.  The ringing phone was sitting on top of an empty desk… her hand closed around it even as she was still in her midair flip, and she brought it to her ear right as the muzzle of a gun flashed at her through the newly-broken window…

She gasped as her real eyes snapped open, revealing Mikkel’s face above her.  He kept one hand on her shoulder even as he pulled the plug from the back of her neck, even though Sigrun had calmed down on her own a few seconds after the initial disorientation.  “What happened?”

“Agents.”  She rubbed her forehead as she sat up, taking a few seconds to reorient herself before she stepped out of the chair.  “Three of them.  Figured it’d be better for them to be on my tail than chasing the others.”

“You know Agneta is not going to thank you for that.”

“Yeah.  Well.”  Sigrun grinned as she pushed herself to her feet, making sure to get in a good stretch before making her way over to join Mikkel at the monitors.  “Agneta’s in the Matrix and I’m out here.”  She leaned over Harald’s shoulder to look at the monitors, never mind that it was all just a bunch of green squiggles to her.  “So what are the others doing, anyway?”

“They’re on the move.”


Spoiler: Notes • show
I am much more used to writing martial arts type action than gunfight type action. Hopefully this came out all right.


Next part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg95361#msg95361)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on February 24, 2016, 11:39:51 PM
So, let's see. Since I last posted, we've had dire peril, Lazy8 near-peril, and OwlsG0 battering-and-bruising.

I suppose I must concur with the below:
These are all great!

…and I'll drop the next bit of the Western here, too.

The Good, the Bad, and the Bestial
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/Western crossover fanfic
Part 24
Caper the Third: The Cave of Time
Part 13
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg93898#msg93898)
Spoiler: show
A Stand in Time

The first sign of the attack was when the giant trying to climb over Frederik VIII’s Palace tripped the Cure trap they’d rigged against just that chance. It was amazing how much noise grosslings made as they died, presumably in order to bring down more of their hosts upon whatever had killed them, but this time, that was part of the plan.

Amalienborg had been designed and built as a quartet of palaces rather than as a fortification, but in the desperation of Year Zero, its old stones had been reinforced with sandbags and razor-wire to make it one of Copenhagen’s final bastions--a spot where Humanity had stood against the Rash to the bitter end. Neither plague nor grossling had overcome the defenses back then; only starvation had brought the end about.

Now, the bastion that had lain silent for so long again sheltered a rag-tag scrap of humanity against everything the Rash could throw at them--and again, it held. Grosslings trying to infiltrate palace or passage found themselves hopelessly entangled by razor-wire and doused with the Cure, not merely failing, but actively blocking other such attempts.

So it was that the Man in the Black Hat’s dread legions were forced into storming the one open path to their goal; but that meant charging not one but two Sigrun Eides, backed by two sniping Lallis and two Emils with their arsenals.

And yet, while the physical battle raged without, two Reynirs sat within the small, cat-shaped vehicle with their eyes closed and waged war in the Otherworld.

In the world that Reynir walked in his “dreams”, the Man in the Black Hat was exposed for what he was: Darkness Incarnate, a shapeless, formless mass that seemed not simply to block out light, but to actually feast upon it, sucking away every last glimmer into its obscene bulk. This was the foe the two Reynirs faced, but they weren’t quite sure how to overcome it.

The twin battles raged on, but while the grosslings could not overcome the dogged defense without, they were doing much better within. The might of their massed multitudes began to tell, and the two Reynirs found their lights waning, for what could only two do against so many?

Except, they weren’t merely two.

Just as another surge of light-sucking ooze washed against the Reynirs’ bubble of radiance, another Reynir joined them, bearing a cutlass. Then another appeared, the Reynir from Year Three, and another, clutching (of all things) a pair of cymbals.

With each new Reynir came a surge of renewed vigor and vitality. Yet another Reynir appeared, dressed for a raid on Napoleon’s Spanish forces, and the sextet was complete, power surging through them as Darkness was met with Light.

CLASH! went the cymbals, and a burst of Light beyond measure poured into the Darkness, which recoiled in pain and perplexity. CLASH! CLASH! CLASH!

The Darkness was on the wane now, receding reluctantly against the ever-intensifying Light.

CLASH!

Now the six Reynirs surrounded the Man in the Black Hat, who howled in outrage that he should be brought low by such as they. He was literally on his knees now, but still defiant.

CLASH!

*

The mass of dead grosslings had made it difficult to locate the Man in the Black Hat’s body, but only the two Reynirs were confident that he’d died until they finally did. The Western Sigrun insisted on checking the body for certain specific marks even then, just to be sure.

Even amidst such carnage, the twelve of them wolfed down the entire morning batch of local Mikkel’s trademark ‘inedible sludge’, not that that kept any of them from complaining about the sludge. After that, it came time for goodbyes.

Having given their local counterparts the last stirring rod for making the Cure (and Lalli-to-Lalli notes on making more like it), the Westerners went back to where they’d debouched from the Cave of Time.

“So,” Sigrun asked Reynir, “is it ‘home again, home again, jiggity jig’ at last?”

“Well,” Reynir replied, “we really should make one more stop along the way...”


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
So, this is the penultimate part of this caper, at long last.

The next bit is more of an epilogue, but I hope you’ll find it to be fun.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on February 25, 2016, 12:44:46 AM
YESSS!!! I'm super into this story and get really excited whenever you update. Sigrun's training methods - and her "revenge list" - are very in-character. I also like how Reynir has scars and stories from shepherding, it's nice to have that undercurrent of "actually pretty tough" beneath his goofy, cheerful exterior. Most people (including me!) tend to focus on his fluffy side.

Also I'm very curious about this other Madsen Emil remembers! You've got me hooked. :)

Spoiler: one tiny critique I keep forgetting to mention • show
I've noticed this in your previous chapters, but forgot to comment on it: You refer to Lalli as a "skald" several times, but he's actually a scout. A skald does more like clerical work, from what I gather.


Great, I'm glad you're liking it! The Madsen Emil remembers will actually be indirectly introduced in the next chapter, which is going to be a series of letters written over  break they all took from school. Let's just say the Madsen Emil does remember turns our Madsen from a mature, emotionally-balanced adult to a petulant child in the blink of an eye
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on February 25, 2016, 02:54:51 AM
YESSS!!! I'm super into this story and get really excited whenever you update. Sigrun's training methods - and her "revenge list" - are very in-character. I also like how Reynir has scars and stories from shepherding, it's nice to have that undercurrent of "actually pretty tough" beneath his goofy, cheerful exterior. Most people (including me!) tend to focus on his fluffy side.

Also I'm very curious about this other Madsen Emil remembers! You've got me hooked. :)

Spoiler: one tiny critique I keep forgetting to mention • show
I've noticed this in your previous chapters, but forgot to comment on it: You refer to Lalli as a "skald" several times, but he's actually a scout. A skald does more like clerical work, from what I gather.


In response to that skald thing, thanks for picking that up.
I kind of assumed that term was inter-changable with scout because I've seen them refer to Lalli as on several times, but if I get the chance I'll go back and change it. Thanks again.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: AquaAurion on February 25, 2016, 05:23:55 AM
In response to that skald thing, thanks for picking that up.
I kind of assumed that term was inter-changable with scout because I've seen them refer to Lalli as on several times, but if I get the chance I'll go back and change it. Thanks again.
Where did you see Lalli referred to as such? (Tuuri on the other hand is a skald)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on February 25, 2016, 07:17:29 AM
Where did you see Lalli referred to as such? (Tuuri on the other hand is a skald)

It may have been only in my brain. 'Tis a dusty, unreliable instrument on its best days and a soot-farting jalopy on its worst.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: frostykitty on February 25, 2016, 05:58:56 PM
Skald is something else, I think it's someone how recites stories, right? Something along those lines? Possibly? I don't know.
So how about another chapter amongst my confusion?
Spoiler: return to silence; part two chapter six • show
{chapter 6}

The chair was set to the side with the other and the desk. Sigrun unlocked the door, the quiet non-kicking way, and opened with a sneer and raised knife. Nothing came. Not immediately, anyway. But the moans were louder. They kept growing in volume. They started to echo.

This room was at least four times the size of the others that made up the 'maze'. There were a few cylinder tanks of various sizes, Emil recognized them from Siv's workplace. Two were broken, the others empty. The cries seemed to be coming from around the wall.

That's when they heard the tap of claws on tile.

Sigrun's arm reached out and pushed her teammates back. The sound stopped, but not the moaning, when the beast looked around the corner. It's face was unrecognizable, misshapen and distorted from the disease. It let out a low, pitiful whimper as the troll's voice grew quicker. It must be the dog's name.

"BJÖRNNN... BJÖRNNN..." It commanded, a harsh tone to its awful voice. The beast cowered and whined. Then, with a apologetic look, it lunged.

Sigrun growled and brought down her knife. The blade slid off of the beast dog's disfigured hide without leaving a mark. Gritting her teeth, she kicked it off, narrowly missing a bite on the wrist. Björn hit the wall, hard, and yelped as it fell. It didn't move for a few seconds.

~Bjorn looked at the humans in agony. He didn't want to hurt them. He always hurt them! He tried to resist his commands, but he had been trained all too well. He couldn't go against his master's will, not again. The last time he did that, he was brought here to be tested on. It was just one mistake! But he couldn't do it again, whatever it was.

~Maybe these new humans would get rid of his sick? They would heal him and his human, they could do that, right? But how would they help him if they were dead?

~"BJÖRN!" That was his master, his master was shouting. He couldn't disobey orders, no, he couldn't!

The beast whined again, but got up all the same. Sigrun had neared it, about to check if it was dead. She now lashed out with her knife as it leaped, this time wounding the creature across its chest. It let out a high-pitched howl and tumbled to the side. She went in for the kill.

Meanwhile, the boys watched silently.

"Should we help?" Emil asked uncertainly, glancing at the scout before looking back to Sigrun and the dog beast. "I mean, I think she has it under control, but I feel weird not helping... But, then again, I don't want to get in the way or she might attack me..." Lalli offered no reply for a few moments. Sigrun had now pinned Björn down.

"She can handle it." He mumbled.

~Björn howled and howled for help, for his master. No one came. The fire-haired human held him to the floor with a hand on his stomach. Then he saw the flash of the knife. Could that be the cure? The humans were here to heal them! He would be safe now! He would never be sick again! He wouldn't have to hurt anyone anymore! Shhk

Sigrun straightened and looked over to her teammates. She beckoned them over.

"Come on, let's get that troll!"

They followed her to the beaten-up, blood-stained wall the troll was sheltering behind. It was probably a hallway to another room, without all of the unnatural doors the rest of the floor had. Emil noticed something, it was silent. The troll wasn't speaking anymore.

The floor creaked from behind the wall. The captain grinned psychopathically.

A scratching sound. It elevated to punching. A small crack appeared on the wall. The wall burst as the monster let out a hideous screech.


Spoiler: notessss • show
uh, yeah, there. This chapter reallly didn't come out how I wanted it to. It wasn't rushed or anything, but it's just... meh... I was hoping for so much better! but... this. This is what I wrote and I'm terribly disappointed with it.

Anyway, the dog beast wasn't like spider dog. A better description will be in future not fight scene chapter.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on February 25, 2016, 08:02:01 PM
Frostykitty, the story is fine. Eh, I'm still reading! The only way to develop a better flow and suppleness in your writing is to write more. Lots more. I also find that it's easier to spot the bits that don't flow if you read them aloud. Do keep going!

OwlsGo: Skalds: back in the days of the sagas, the word originally meant something like a bard/ historian/ storyteller/ record-keeper. In the Minnaverse it has retained at least the record keeper and clerical aspect, as yet we don't know how much of the other aspects it has retained, if any. It also seems to have become the general term for a scientist, linguist or scholar. Tuuri is a skald as well as a mechanic. Lalli is a scout. I did notice that you had labelled him skald, but up until Sigrun noticed his cold-hardiness, I had presumed it to be part of the general AU.
The story is fun anyway!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: tamaerchen on February 26, 2016, 04:57:06 PM
So much is happening! I haven't quite finished reading through the entire scriptorium yet but I made an account last night and then I had a fic idea (another one in addition to the Y0 I've mentioned) and so I just finished writing that one and am very excited about it. I would post it immediately but I guess professionalism demands at least an attempt at editing. Let's just hope I don't start being embarrassed about it when I look at it some more...~

Can't wait to catch up and actually post something constructive! :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Athena on February 26, 2016, 05:01:47 PM
I wrote this fic a while ago, but never got around to posting it. It's unfinished but there will be more later hopefully!

Spoiler: Forgotten Dream - Part 1 • show
   
Reynir slowly drifted off into the realms of sleep.  And then, he woke up. But it was a new dream this time. The moss-covered cliffs and straggled sheep were passed from his mind. He now stood on a dilapidated stone bridge overlooking a deep valley cut into the land, carpeted in fog. This wasn't his dream, then whose was it?

    He decided to look around and see what he could find. He wandered down the bridge until he came to a narrow gravel road, with a steep drop-off on one side. Frightened at the prospect of falling down the valley, he stuck close to the rock face on the opposite edge of the road. The sharp sound of nails on a chalkboard came from behind him. He turned around. Nothing. He kept walking. He heard it again, this time, louder. Closer. He was afraid now. Were there trolls in dreams? Without turning around, he started moving as fast as he could without risking slipping on the loose gravel underfoot.

   ~HelLo LitTLe mAgE~ The thing behind him whispered in it’s raspy voice.

   “What are you?! Why am I here?!” Reynir exclaimed in fear as he kept running, now no longer worried about the slippery gravel.

   ~WhaT aM I? tHat’s A STraNge QueStIOn… Why dOn’T yoU TUrN aRouNd And FInD OuT?~ The creature mused.

   “You didn’t answer the question.” Reynir said in a strange mixture of fear and curiosity.

   ~I waS OnCE LikE YoU, LItTLE MaGE. BuT I waS… ChAnGed. NoW I am MoRE. StrONgeR. BeTtEr. MoRE PowERfuL.~ Suddenly the troll leaped up and landed in front of Reynir.

   It was a hideous amalgam of body parts, warped by the unnatural power of The Rash. It had as many arms as he had segments in his braid, and it’s twelve eyes glowed blue with otherworldly power. 
Abruptly, he was thrust towards the ground, and found himself on his knees before the creature. Reynir tried to get up to find that he couldn’t move. some paralyzing force held him in place, exposing him to the terrifying power of the troll looming over him.

   ~yOU SeEM tO Be foRGeTInG THaT ThiS iS mY DrEAm. And I cONTrol It!~ 

   Reynir fought the powerful presence of the troll in his mind, and slowly… Ever so slowly, he began to gain movement in his left hand. In the rock dust he traced a symbol with his finger. He had seen it in a book somewhere. Something to repel evil spirits. The Hannunvaakuna.


Spoiler: Notes • show
Yes, Hannu will be coming in next chapter. I might put it in the aRTD scriptorium instead. :))
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on February 26, 2016, 05:28:58 PM
I wrote this fic a while ago, but never got around to posting it. It's unfinished but there will be more later hopefully!

Spoiler: Forgotten Dream - Part 1 • show
   
Reynir slowly drifted off into the realms of sleep.  And then, he woke up. But it was a new dream this time. The moss-covered cliffs and straggled sheep were passed from his mind. He now stood on a dilapidated stone bridge overlooking a deep valley cut into the land, carpeted in fog. This wasn't his dream, then whose was it?

    He decided to look around and see what he could find. He wandered down the bridge until he came to a narrow gravel road, with a steep drop-off on one side. Frightened at the prospect of falling down the valley, he stuck close to the rock face on the opposite edge of the road. The sharp sound of nails on a chalkboard came from behind him. He turned around. Nothing. He kept walking. He heard it again, this time, louder. Closer. He was afraid now. Were there trolls in dreams? Without turning around, he started moving as fast as he could without risking slipping on the loose gravel underfoot.

   ~HelLo LitTLe mAgE~ The thing behind him whispered in it’s raspy voice.

   “What are you?! Why am I here?!” Reynir exclaimed in fear as he kept running, now no longer worried about the slippery gravel.

   ~WhaT aM I? tHat’s A STraNge QueStIOn… Why dOn’T yoU TUrN aRouNd And FInD OuT?~ The creature mused.

   “You didn’t answer the question.” Reynir said in a strange mixture of fear and curiosity.

   ~I waS OnCE LikE YoU, LItTLE MaGE. BuT I waS… ChAnGed. NoW I am MoRE. StrONgeR. BeTtEr. MoRE PowERfuL.~ Suddenly the troll leaped up and landed in front of Reynir.

   It was a hideous amalgam of body parts, warped by the unnatural power of The Rash. It had as many arms as he had segments in his braid, and it’s twelve eyes glowed blue with otherworldly power. 
Abruptly, he was thrust towards the ground, and found himself on his knees before the creature. Reynir tried to get up to find that he couldn’t move. some paralyzing force held him in place, exposing him to the terrifying power of the troll looming over him.

   ~yOU SeEM tO Be foRGeTInG THaT ThiS iS mY DrEAm. And I cONTrol It!~ 

   Reynir fought the powerful presence of the troll in his mind, and slowly… Ever so slowly, he began to gain movement in his left hand. In the rock dust he traced a symbol with his finger. He had seen it in a book somewhere. Something to repel evil spirits. The Hannunvaakuna.


Spoiler: Notes • show
Yes, Hannu will be coming in next chapter. I might put it in the aRTD scriptorium instead. :))


Well then.
What a place to leave a cliff-hanger. You, sir, have learned well from Minna. I look forward to more, in hopes that there will be more.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on February 26, 2016, 10:16:53 PM
Uh-oh.

I got inspired again.

The Red Herring League
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/Superhero AU fanfic
Part 1
Spoiler: show
In the Company of Heroes

The Indre By, Copenhagen
In the 90th Year of the Outbreak

Sigrun “the Red Terror” Eide finished off another grossling with a single, precise stab through its brain, her third kill in under a second. Behind her, her right-hand warrior, Emil “Firework” Västerström was using his pyrokinetic powers to roast another handful or so attempting to rush them.

Whing! A nearby grossling’s head exploded. “Looks like the rest of the gang’s here,” Sigrun commented to Emil. “You might want to rein in the sparkles, for their sake.” Sigrun was invulnerable; the rest were not.

Emil concentrated on bringing his burn-BURN-burn-fire powers down to a safe level. As he did, the fountain of multicolored sparks concealing his head diminished until the became the customary sparkles glinting from his golden hair. “Is this okay?”

Sigrun shrugged. “It should be fine.”

Behind them, Mikkel “the Grave Dane” Madsen brought their Field Expeditionary Light INfantry OPerations Excursion DEvice to a halt. That he was at the controls meant that Lalli “Phantom Strike” Hotakainen wasn’t the one who’d sniped the last troll, but his cousin, “Super Tuuri” Hotakainen, or, as Emil liked to teasingly call her, “Mighty Mouse”.

Lalli was insanely fast and insanely stealthy; usually his kills were caught so off-guard as to bear bewilderment as their last expression. He was also a magnificent sniper.

Super Tuuri, as she insisted upon being addressed, had probability warping powers, as did her brother Onni, who never set foot away from home if he could help it, as he was also cursed with the ability to see the worst thing that could happen in any circumstance. Super Tuuri, however, could also fly, and shared her cousin’s aim.

Their final member, Reynir “the Helper” Árnason, was in the FELINOPEDE’s cabin with Mikkel, practically bouncing with his eagerness to get out there and help his friends. Mikkel’s chief power was to make anyone and everyone around him unnaturally glum, to the point of suicide in a few cases, but even at his most powerful, he couldn’t dampen Reynir’s spirits. It was commonly accepted by the team that Reynir getting depressed was one of the signs heralding the End of Everything.

Not that Everything didn’t seem to be Ending already. Ninety years ago, the Rash had swept across the world like a forest fire, the monsters it created hunting down those few who’d escaped it. This was when the first Heroes had arisen, a minuscule fraction of humanity that had the power to save what was left of it.

Even with the Heroes’ unceasing efforts, though, most of the world was in the grip of the grosslings. The Bastion of Amalienborg and the Forts of Kastellet and Kastrup were practically the only parts of Copenhagen held by humanity anymore, and even that spoke more of Danish stubbornness and valor than of grossling weakness.

The six of them had banded together at the behest of the Nordic Council, charged with defending (or hopefully Cleansing) the hard-pressed Danish holdouts in a show of Nordic solidarity, though not much of one. Sigrun had promptly christened the group “the Red Herring League”, as their purpose was much more distraction than anything else.

Super Tuuri whipped by, in search of more grosslings to snipe, and Emil waved as she passed. He both regretted and didn’t regret that he couldn’t fly, himself: no Hero who could fly was immune, and Emil liked to be as close as he could to his flames, as he kept them under better control that way.

“Don’t encourage Little Fuzzy-head, Burn-Boy,” Sigrun chided him gently. “So, lunch?” She gestured back at the FELINOPEDE, and they were off...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
I blame Kiraly’s avatar for this.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Kiraly on February 26, 2016, 10:54:40 PM
Uh-oh.

I got inspired again.

The Red Herring League
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/Superhero AU fanfic
Part 1
Spoiler: show
In the Company of Heroes

The Indre By, Copenhagen
In the 90th Year of the Outbreak

Sigrun “the Red Terror” Eide finished off another grossling with a single, precise stab through its brain, her third kill in under a second. Behind her, her right-hand warrior, Emil “Firework” Västerström was using his pyrokinetic powers to roast another handful or so attempting to rush them.

Whing! A nearby grossling’s head exploded. “Looks like the rest of the gang’s here,” Sigrun commented to Emil. “You might want to rein in the sparkles, for their sake.” Sigrun was invulnerable; the rest were not.

Emil concentrated on bringing his burn-BURN-burn-fire powers down to a safe level. As he did, the fountain of multicolored sparks concealing his head diminished until the became the customary sparkles glinting from his golden hair. “Is this okay?”

Sigrun shrugged. “It should be fine.”

Behind them, Mikkel “the Grave Dane” Madsen brought their Field Expeditionary Light INfantry OPerations Excursion DEvice to a halt. That he was at the controls meant that Lalli “Phantom Strike” Hotakainen wasn’t the one who’d sniped the last troll, but his cousin, “Super Tuuri” Hotakainen, or, as Emil liked to teasingly call her, “Mighty Mouse”.

Lalli was insanely fast and insanely stealthy; usually his kills were caught so off-guard as to bear bewilderment as their last expression. He was also a magnificent sniper.

Super Tuuri, as she insisted upon being addressed, had probability warping powers, as did her brother Onni, who never set foot away from home if he could help it, as he was also cursed with the ability to see the worst thing that could happen in any circumstance. Super Tuuri, however, could also fly, and shared her cousin’s aim.

Their final member, Reynir “the Helper” Árnason, was in the FELINOPEDE’s cabin with Mikkel, practically bouncing with his eagerness to get out there and help his friends. Mikkel’s chief power was to make anyone and everyone around him unnaturally glum, to the point of suicide in a few cases, but even at his most powerful, he couldn’t dampen Reynir’s spirits. It was commonly accepted by the team that Reynir getting depressed was one of the signs heralding the End of Everything.

Not that Everything didn’t seem to be Ending already. Ninety years ago, the Rash had swept across the world like a forest fire, the monsters it created hunting down those few who’d escaped it. This was when the first Heroes had arisen, a minuscule fraction of humanity that had the power to save what was left of it.

Even with the Heroes’ unceasing efforts, though, most of the world was in the grip of the grosslings. The Bastion of Amalienborg and the Forts of Kastellet and Kastrup were practically the only parts of Copenhagen held by humanity anymore, and even that spoke more of Danish stubbornness and valor than of grossling weakness.

The six of them had banded together at the behest of the Nordic Council, charged with defending (or hopefully Cleansing) the hard-pressed Danish holdouts in a show of Nordic solidarity, though not much of one. Sigrun had promptly christened the group “the Red Herring League”, as their purpose was much more distraction than anything else.

Super Tuuri whipped by, in search of more grosslings to snipe, and Emil waved as she passed. He both regretted and didn’t regret that he couldn’t fly, himself: no Hero who could fly was immune, and Emil liked to be as close as he could to his flames, as he kept them under better control that way.

“Don’t encourage Little Fuzzy-head, Burn-Boy,” Sigrun chided him gently. “So, lunch?” She gestured back at the FELINOPEDE, and they were off...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
I blame Kiraly’s avatar for this.


Muahahahaha! I am fully okay with being blamed for this. ;) Their names are awesome, and I like the different powers you gave them (and I notice Reynir's isn't mentioned, except for not being affected by Mikkel's (hilariously appropriate) power. Poor Reynir, you try so hard to help that it's even in your name!) Also I will be laughing about the name of their crew for the next decade or so, don't mind me. :))
(And now I'm getting the urge to draw the crew in spandex hero outfits...oh dear...)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on February 26, 2016, 11:16:57 PM
Kiraly: nice idea. But Lalli in spandex...oh, my! There's already so little of him, he'd just about vanish in spandex! Though he looked good done as Wolverine, if you saw Scout's drawing, way back on the art thread.

LooNEY: helpless laughter here! FELINOPEDE, inagh! Do continue!

Luth: nicely done creepy, and your landscape is good. Why not post it in both threads as a crossover, that way people who only read one of Minna's comics won't miss out. Looking forward to what comes next.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Athena on February 27, 2016, 12:25:04 AM
Well then.
What a place to leave a cliff-hanger. You, sir, have learned well from Minna. I look forward to more, in hopes that there will be more.

Really the only reason I left it there is because there will be a bit of an abrupt scene-change afterward. :P Sorry for the cliffhanger!

Luth: nicely done creepy, and your landscape is good. Why not post it in both threads as a crossover, that way people who only read one of Minna's comics won't miss out. Looking forward to what comes next.

Thank you! That's a good idea! However, I sincerely believe it's impossible to only read one of Minna's wonderful comics without eventually being drawn into the other.  ;)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on February 27, 2016, 01:48:43 AM
I actually know people who only read one, because the other is a genre they don't enjoy. I love both tales.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: frostykitty on February 27, 2016, 01:25:27 PM
These are all great!

Very interesting start to 'Forgotten Dream'. I'll be waiting for the next part! Patiently! Yeah that word, I can do that. Totally capable of that. I can just imagine it now, Reynir following around Hannu... "Can I help?" "There's nothing to help with." "Are you sure?" "Yes." "Really?" "Yes. Really."

And then the silent world superheroes! Their powers fit them well.... I mean, honestly, Sigrun is already pretty invincible in the comic. And we all knew Emil's power would be fire and hair sparkles. But their names are fantastic! Including the vehicle.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Athena on February 27, 2016, 01:47:35 PM
These are all great!

Very interesting start to 'Forgotten Dream'. I'll be waiting for the next part! Patently! Yeah that word, I can do that. Totally capable of that. I can just imagine it now, Reynir following around Hannu... "Can I help?" "There's nothing to help with." "Are you sure?" "Yes." "Really?" "Yes. Really."

He'll have to deal with both Reynir and Ville's excited helpfulness!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Yuuago on February 27, 2016, 02:22:48 PM
I wrote this fic a while ago, but never got around to posting it. It's unfinished but there will be more later hopefully!
(snip)
Spoiler: Notes • show
Yes, Hannu will be coming in next chapter. I might put it in the aRTD scriptorium instead. :))


*_* Yessss...! I am totally here for this.

BTW re: crossposting to the aRTD scriptorium, that is something I'd definitely appreciate. No need to crosspost the entire story; just dropping a direct link there to the individual message after you update here would work well. The SSSS scriptorium updates so frequently that it's hard to keep up with it, and it's nice to keep everything together.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: tamaerchen on February 27, 2016, 07:10:15 PM
I'm not quite caught up but I couldn't wait to share this thing I wrote yesterday! So I made an AO3 account and I'm so excited it's ridiculous. I hope you like it!

(It's got some gender stuff in it, in case you want to avoid that. And with "some stuff" I basically mean that that's the topic.)

Title: Right-Hand Man

"One step at a time", he had told himself. "Make a good first impression, don’t let there be a repeat of what happened at the academy."

Length: 1316 words
Characters: Team minus Reynir (happens after p. 266)

http://archiveofourown.org/works/6120563

Okay, I'll better leave and try not to explode now. :D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Kiraly on February 27, 2016, 08:02:56 PM
EEEEEE!!!! *gives tamaerchen a giant internet hug* I love that so much, it's really great! I already commented on AO3 but I wanted to echo it here. And as someone who also made an AO3 account a few months ago specifically to post SSSS fanfic, welcome to the madness! :))
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Ragnarok on February 27, 2016, 08:09:16 PM
Huh. I like it!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on February 27, 2016, 11:02:33 PM
I'm not quite caught up but I couldn't wait to share this thing I wrote yesterday! So I made an AO3 account and I'm so excited it's ridiculous. I hope you like it!

(It's got some gender stuff in it, in case you want to avoid that. And with "some stuff" I basically mean that that's the topic.)

Title: Right-Hand Man

"One step at a time", he had told himself. "Make a good first impression, don’t let there be a repeat of what happened at the academy."

Length: 1316 words
Characters: Team minus Reynir (happens after p. 266)

http://archiveofourown.org/works/6120563

Okay, I'll better leave and try not to explode now. :D

I'm certainly putting this on my radar right now - I'm a little too inebriated at the moment to say anything intelligent, but I'll try to leave a review tomorrow.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Kiraly on February 28, 2016, 03:27:20 AM
I wrote a fluffy one-shot today. It takes place right after the current comic page (480, for future readers) and goes in a direction that I imagine the comic will not actually go. (And honestly I hope it doesn't go the way I wrote it, because if so they are seriously vulnerable to troll attack). Anyway, it's about Reynir and Tuuri and is sorta-kinda shippy (less so than what I usually write, but still shippy).

Anyhow, here it is. (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6123432)

I should definitely go to bed now. Deciding to edit and post this after getting home from karaoke with my housemates at 2 am was a MISTAKE, but I hope it will still work in the light of day. *collapses*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on February 28, 2016, 04:44:24 AM
I wrote a fluffy one-shot today. […] I hope it will still work in the light of day. *collapses*
Looks okay to me.

Of course, I just vomited out this:

The Good, the Bad, and the Bestial
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/Western crossover fanfic
Part 25
Caper the Third: The Cave of Time
Part 14
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg94386#msg94386)
Spoiler: show
A Big Brass Band

Hälsingborg stad, Sweden
1946

Emil fiddled with his euphonium desultorily. This whole “Swedish-American Friendship Day” was not really his thing, though hearing about the far-off places some of his old neighbors had moved to was rather interesting.

Really, though, the whole thing seemed more an excuse to sell little Swedish and American flags and other bits of kitsch than to actually celebrate Swedish-American friendship, at least to Emil’s way of thinking. He was pretty sure Lalli agreed, though Lalli tended to non-committal noises when asked questions like that.

Of course, that it was such a big commercial deal was why the Musikers were even here, as part of a massed brass band made up of pro musicians from as far afield as Stockholm; thus Emil’s euphonium. The band was part of a parade featuring a group of cowboy types specializing in fancy riding and rope tricks for events like this; it was one of the few aspects of the whole thing Emil was actually looking forward to.

Emil’s idiot Uncle Torbjörn came into view then, looking nervous as he always did when one of his schemes was about to go bust on him. Sighing, Emil set the euphonium aside and went to his hapless relative’s aid.

Oh, dear. Apparently, the trick riders had pulled their best trick on Torbjörn and vanished before their performance. Oddly enough, though, they’d left their horses and gear behind, meaning if they could find riders, the show could go on.

But where could they find six cowboys?

*

Well, a cellar beat the sewers any day, if you were to ask Emil Westbrook, and he was pretty sure the others agreed with him, and especially Lalli Ghost-of-Forest.

They made their way out of the cellar and into a pretty sadly makeshift stable, where six horses were waiting. “Hey, pretties,” Reynir crooned as he watched them. “Now who left you all by your lonesomes?”

Just then, an older version of Emil entered the yard, Torbjörn right behind. After a moment, the other Emil snapped his fingers and said, “You’re the guys that covered for us when we were playing for the Boss that one time!” He threw Torbjörn a dirty look, which was ignored. Torbjörn was too preoccupied with the Westerners’ attire and accoutrements.

“Say, how would you folks like to make some quick cash?” Torbjörn asked, his voice at its most oily. In unison, both Emils rolled their eyes. Reynir snorted as well, startling the rest.

*

The crowds lining the streets cheered and waved wildly as the Band of Six rode proudly down the parade route. Sigrun took it as their due, while the others waved back as best they could while wielding their lassos.

Reynir rather heroically managed to keep from saying “I told you so” even after they were back in the Cave.

As soon as they walked out of the Cave of Time into 1873, the Cave’s mouth collapsed behind them. “Well,” Sigrun observed dryly, “so much for that.” And, collecting their horses, they went back to where their wagon awaited them...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
...And so ends the third caper.

There will be others, though. *Maniacal laughter*

Helsingborg is a “sister” or “twin” with Alexandria, VA, the closest Swedish city to Malmö that I could find with a US “sister” or “twin”. The practice has been around since the Middle Ages, but greatly expanded starting in 1947.

Spoiler: The Complete Links to The Good, the Bad, and the Bestial - A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/Western crossover fanfic - Caper the Third: The Cave of Time • show
Part 12 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg72429#msg72429)
Part 13 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg73882#msg73882)
Part 14 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg76993#msg76993)
Part 15 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg79730#msg79730)
Part 16 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg84699#msg84699)
Part 17 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg90241#msg90241)
Part 18 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg90878#msg90878)
Part 19 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg92894#msg92894)
Part 20 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg92984#msg92984)
Part 21 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg93117#msg93117)
Part 22 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg93162#msg93162)
Part 23 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg93898#msg93898)
Part 24 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg94386#msg94386)
Part 25 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg94970#msg94970)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on February 28, 2016, 05:52:54 AM
LooNEY, Kiraly, good stories! A nice way to spend a quiet Sunday evening.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on February 29, 2016, 03:38:10 AM
One of the things I really love to do in writing is explore the format. I've decided to do a little bit of exploration for this chapter, and chose to write the whole thing in a series of letters written by the team-mates to their various families. Let me know what you guys think? If it's not too weird or anything?

http://archiveofourown.org/works/5853457/chapters/14053162

By the way, I really enjoyed the super-hero piece. This thread is on a roll of good one-shots and the like right now. Let's keep it up folks!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Kiraly on February 29, 2016, 11:33:43 AM
One of the things I really love to do in writing is explore the format. I've decided to do a little bit of exploration for this chapter, and chose to write the whole thing in a series of letters written by the team-mates to their various families. Let me know what you guys think? If it's not too weird or anything?

http://archiveofourown.org/works/5853457/chapters/14053162

By the way, I really enjoyed the super-hero piece. This thread is on a roll of good one-shots and the like right now. Let's keep it up folks!

This is great! I like playing around with different formats too, and letters home are a great way to see what characters are thinking about (that they won't necessarily have a reason to say). It's fun seeing the different family dynamics you have going on here - the letters from Mikkel and Sigrun had me cracking up! (Especially Sigrun's sign-offs, and the one-liners from Mikkel.) Reynir's letters are exactly like I would imagine them, and I appreciate how Tuuri and Lalli alternate (and you can always tell which of them is writing even without seeing their names). I also have lots of appreciation for Emil's family correspondence, but I think I'll write that out over on AO3 so as not to spoil anything.

Edit: Oh, I forgot to say - I really want to draw the sketches Emil did of Reynir now. So...that might happen, if it's okay with you. :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on February 29, 2016, 03:50:11 PM
This is great! I like playing around with different formats too, and letters home are a great way to see what characters are thinking about (that they won't necessarily have a reason to say). It's fun seeing the different family dynamics you have going on here - the letters from Mikkel and Sigrun had me cracking up! (Especially Sigrun's sign-offs, and the one-liners from Mikkel.) Reynir's letters are exactly like I would imagine them, and I appreciate how Tuuri and Lalli alternate (and you can always tell which of them is writing even without seeing their names). I also have lots of appreciation for Emil's family correspondence, but I think I'll write that out over on AO3 so as not to spoil anything.

Edit: Oh, I forgot to say - I really want to draw the sketches Emil did of Reynir now. So...that might happen, if it's okay with you. :)

Thanks for that giant review you left on Ao3. I know people are reluctant to do essay-style comments sometimes, but I actually  like reading them. I'm one of those few people who enjoys text-walls, and as well as that, your feedback was really thorough and insightful

Go ahead and draw Reynir, but I would like to ask two things. Could you credit me for the original idea? Also, consider putting a little bit of foam in the corner of Flossy's mouth to make them look like a bucking bronco?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Kiraly on February 29, 2016, 04:23:46 PM
Thanks for that giant review you left on Ao3. I know people are reluctant to do essay-style comments sometimes, but I actually  like reading them. I'm one of those few people who enjoys text-walls, and as well as that, your feedback was really thorough and insightful

Go ahead and draw Reynir, but I would like to ask two things. Could you credit me for the original idea? Also, consider putting a little bit of foam in the corner of Flossy's mouth to make them look like a bucking bronco?

Oh good, I'm glad you liked the review! I sometimes worry that I go overboard leaving comments, but I also really appreciate when people take time to leave thoughtful comments on my work, so I want to do the same for others. (And I had a lot to say about this chapter, as you've noticed!)

And I will definitely credit you with the idea for the drawings! Plus a link to the fic unless you'd prefer I didn't - usually I try to put links if I do fanworks that are connected to or inspired by other people's creations, so if someone finds the thing I made they can find the thing it's inspired by and enjoy it too. :)
(And yes, foam for Flossy! Even the idea of that picture cracks me up, so hopefully I can do it justice.)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LordoftheThings on February 29, 2016, 04:41:42 PM
I LIVE

and to celebrate I have a new chapter for hypothermia to bring it off hiatus

I'm Sorry Emil
You did nothing to deserve what I'm gonna toss at you starting now

http://archiveofourown.org/works/5292065/chapters/14060338 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/5292065/chapters/14060338)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on February 29, 2016, 09:15:51 PM
I LIVE

and to celebrate I have a new chapter for hypothermia to bring it off hiatus

I'm Sorry Emil
You did nothing to deserve what I'm gonna toss at you starting now

http://archiveofourown.org/works/5292065/chapters/14060338 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/5292065/chapters/14060338)

YAY I honestly thought this fic was dead so it's great to see an update! *runs off to review*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on February 29, 2016, 10:01:16 PM
Lordofthethings: good, I was hoping this would continue. Liking the new chapter. But poor Emil!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on February 29, 2016, 10:08:08 PM
Oh yes, I have a question, and this seems like the appropriate place to ask it: does this forum ever do fic exchanges? I actually rather enjoy writing oneshots for other people, so doing one for this fandom would be nice as well.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on February 29, 2016, 10:24:04 PM
Oh yes, I have a question, and this seems like the appropriate place to ask it: does this forum ever do fic exchanges? I actually rather enjoy writing oneshots for other people, so doing one for this fandom would be nice as well.
The closest we've come have been the "Secret Santas". Why don't you try starting one?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on February 29, 2016, 10:32:02 PM
Fic exchanges? Like stories exchanged between individuals, or posted on the board, or both? The secret santa was fun, wouldn't mind doing something like that.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on February 29, 2016, 10:42:42 PM
Fic exchanges? Like stories exchanged between individuals, or posted on the board, or both? The secret santa was fun, wouldn't mind doing something like that.
I think it would have to be like the Secret Santa, as we don't have anon posting on this board. I couldn't run something like that myself--I'm too disorganized. That's why I suggested Lazy8 take the helm, as it were. But I'd probably participate.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on February 29, 2016, 10:47:53 PM
I think it would have to be like the Secret Santa, as we don't have anon posting on this board. I couldn't run something like that myself--I'm too disorganized. That's why I suggested Lazy8 take the helm, as it were. But I'd probably participate.

But-but-but time! And work! And thesis! Argh, I have time to write but I'm not sure whether I could manage much else.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on February 29, 2016, 11:09:57 PM
I'm going to have to mull that over a bit before making any commitments. At any rate, I give you this... thing. And then I go to bed.

Edit: I also finally came up with a better title. From now on, this story will be officially known as "Against All Odds."

Previous part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg94373#msg94373)

Spoiler: Part 3 • show

Large hands roughly grabbed his jacket, and Gunnar yanked him out of the way as another stray bullet whizzed past his eardrum.

“Pay attention!” Agneta snarled—yeah, she was still mad at him.

“S-sorry.”  Emil, when he moved to brush the dust from his jacket, realized that his hands were trembling.

Agneta continued to stare at him, and for a very brief moment her face softened.  “Our exit is over there,” she pointed out over the skyline, “in an apartment complex next to that radio tower.”  The tower in question was… quite a few blocks away.  “Can you make it?”

“I… yes.”  He’d spent fifteen years wasting his life on a dream; he’d only just managed to land an assignment on a real ship; he wasn’t about to die on his first mission.  This is my chance, he thought.  I have to prove myself.  I have to show everyone that I’m not just some pampered Councilman’s pet—!

“Then stick with us—and don’t fall behind.”  Then, before he could even so much as promise he would, the group of them took off running again.

This isn’t even real! he thought in frustration as his legs burned from the frantic rooftop run.  Why should it be so hard?  Why did everything have to be so hard for him?  When they’d released him from the machines’ dream prison, Emil had thought that he was finally getting his chance.  He’d been given a fresh start, no more dragging school, no more dead-end life… his real-world self didn’t even have the chubby physique that his Matrix self had somehow managed to build up.  At long last, he was going to prove himself.

Instead, though, he’d screamed out loud and flailed like a little kid the first time he’d seen the plugs in his body, failed at programming, been left in panting exhaustion from uploading even a single round of combat training, and set a new record for number of times failing the jump test.  He wouldn’t even be here if Agneta hadn’t owed Uncle Torbjörn some sort of favor—and judging by the exasperation that crept into her voice every time she spoke to him, Agneta didn’t want him here either.

Had he made the right decision, when he’d decided to take the red pill?

Emil was jerked out of his thoughts when the ledge from which he had been jumping exploded beneath his feet, and he half leaped, half fell onto the next building, only barely latching on and banging his face against the edge of the rooftop.  Then, two people were hauling him up by the armpits, and he moaned when he held a hand to his nose and it came away bloody.  Had he actually managed to lose a tooth on that one?

“You can stop to nurse your wounds once you’ve got some real ones.  Now on your feet. Collapse in the ship if you must.”

The ship.  Emil sighed internally as he forced his burning muscles to keep working.  He hoped that at least the Operators were having an easier time of it than he was.

***

They were still staring at the screens and monitoring the crew’s vitals when the proximity alarm went off.

“Sentinel!” Harald hissed as a diminutive version of the squidlike machine popped up in projection.

“How many?”

“Just the one.  But even one is more than this ship is equipped to handle.”

Sigrun leaned a little bit further over Mikkel’s shoulder, gripping the back of his chair.  “Can they get to the exit in time?”

“They’re nowhere close.”

“We have maybe five minutes,” Harald agreed.  “At the rate Emil moves, they’ll be lucky to get there in ten.”

They turned back to the screens, tension stiffening their bodies as they wondered whether the rest of their crew would make it out alive.


Next part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg96070#msg96070)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on March 01, 2016, 01:06:43 AM
I'm going to have to mull that over a bit before making any commitments. At any rate, I give you this... thing. And then I go to bed.
[snipitty snip snip]
Why do I sense an oncoming case of survivor's guilt for Emil?

But, anyway, I did it (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=813.0).
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on March 01, 2016, 08:42:22 AM
Why do I sense an oncoming case of survivor's guilt for Emil?

But, anyway, I did it (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=813.0).

Thanks!

And what do you mean "oncoming"? You do remember the prologue, right? ;)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Pupunen on March 01, 2016, 02:49:53 PM
Before I started reading SSSS, I didn't even read fanfic, and I never imagined I would write any. However, apparently this fandom can do strange things to innocent little bunnies, such as giving them a sudden urge to write a SSSS/Supernatural crossover. :D

http://archiveofourown.org/works/6112744/chapters/14010919
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on March 01, 2016, 03:30:48 PM
Before I started reading SSSS, I didn't even read fanfic, and I never imagined I would write any. However, apparently this fandom can do strange things to innocent little bunnies, such as giving them a sudden urge to write a SSSS/Supernatural crossover. :D

http://archiveofourown.org/works/6112744/chapters/14010919

I never would have thought of doing this AU before, but now that I'm reading it, I have to wonder why it hasn't been done before. It seems like the most obvious choice, now that I can see how well it fits.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Pupunen on March 01, 2016, 03:37:34 PM
I never would have thought of doing this AU before, but now that I'm reading it, I have to wonder why it hasn't been done before. It seems like the most obvious choice, now that I can see how well it fits.
Maybe most SSSS fans have too good taste in TV shows... :D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on March 01, 2016, 03:56:15 PM
Maybe most SSSS fans have too good taste in TV shows... :D

Up to about Season 5, anyway
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on March 02, 2016, 07:11:48 PM
First of all I promise that one day – one day! – I will actually make the time to read everything on this thread.

Secondly, there’s a reason why I try and stick to canon as much as possible: because when I don’t, I end up writing stuff like this. Lalli has the feeling he’s being watched in the dreamworld, and Reynir’s attempts to help are received about as well as you might expect. As for what might be watching them, well, I’m sure it’s not that hard to guess…

http://archiveofourown.org/works/6150565/chapters/14092057

Hope you all like it! Chapter 2 shouldn't be too long... although I've said that before!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on March 02, 2016, 08:29:37 PM
Lazy8, Pupunen, SectoBoss: the stories just keep getting better and better....
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on March 02, 2016, 10:29:06 PM
Lazy8, Pupunen, SectoBoss: the stories just keep getting better and better....
…Which is my cue to break the streak.

The Red Herring League
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/Superhero AU fanfic
Part 2
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg94756#msg94756)
Spoiler: show
Revenge of the Sludge

Lunchtime.

While most people looked forward to eating, Heroes had a decided ambivalence towards their mealtimes, mostly due to the diet necessitated by their powers. Simply put, Heroes went through so much energy so quickly that they had to eat stuff that was so nutrient-dense as to be lethal to ordinary folk.

By the Year 90, the “Heroes’ Feast” mixture was more or less standardized, though the individual chef preparing it always tried to mitigate the less-than-pleasant taste with various seasonings, some more successful than others. But still, the “Heroes’ Feast” was generally known to its consumers as “that inedible sludge”, almost always sulfurously and unprintably qualified.

A fly drifted into the fumes rising from Mikkel’s pot, seized up, and fell to the ground, dead. This was far from unusual; most of the time, the pot had to be kept covered to avoid random insects adding to the seasoning (“Not that they could make it taste any worse,” Sigrun once opined).

Altogether, there were around 300 Heroes, each consuming enough to keep a dozen normals alive, but each acknowledged to be worth 20-100 normals in battle. They were classified into two distinct groups: Type I (early onset), who were born with their powers or manifested them before puberty; and Type II (adult onset), who began developing powers at or after puberty.

Sigrun was a Type I: she’d killed her first grossling while literally still in her cradle. The vermin beast had killed the cat guarding the nursery in preparation for consuming Dalsnes’ future... and had picked the worst possible crib to start with.

Mikkel was a Type II: his first surge of power had made a whole quarantine ward commit suicide--and he’d never quite forgiven himself.

Lalli was another Type I, as his mother had been, so she was ready to deal with raising him--while his parents were still alive.

Emil was a Type I who had tried for years to pretend he wasn’t a Hero at all. Once his family wealth was lost, however, he soon found that the only way he could help was to let his abilities be known.

Tuuri, another Type II, had only started showing her powers two years prior, and she was still caught up in the excitement of becoming a Hero.

Reynir was a Type I, but his power was so subtle that no one had noticed: when he was near people trying to do something, it got done much faster and more easily than otherwise. In some inscrutable way, Reynir Helped.

Right now, Reynir was helping Mikkel dish out the sludge, “a thankless task”, as Mikkel called it (right before Reynir thanked Mikkel for allowing him to help). Each teammate got one heaping bowlful of sludge.

Mechanically munching on his, Emil thought wistfully of the meals he’d enjoyed as a child. Unlike most Type Is, he’d kept his powers so well hidden and disused that he’d been rather a pudgy child. His eyes closed as the memories took hold, and before he realized it, he’d fallen asleep.

Lalli looked up from his meal at a sudden chorus of snores. All around him, the others were slumped over their meals, unconscious, leaving Lalli their only sentry against the vengeful grosslings...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
So, that’s Reynir’s power for you: he Helps!

...Also, they all picked their own Hero names, except Lalli, since “the Mrrh” was deemed unacceptable.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: tamaerchen on March 03, 2016, 01:43:11 AM
Oh no, Mikkel's "origin story" is so tragic!

But Lalli's kinda made up for it. It's adorable. :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on March 03, 2016, 02:01:05 AM
I was wondering: I listen to music when I write, and the music varies according to the genre.
 I was writing for an entirely different fandom this afternoon and found myself listening to a beautiful rendition of one of Allegri's pieces, and there is this note this girl hits that goes so high I'm sure some air planes had to correct their course around it. Anyway, being the SSSS addict I am, I ended up forming a new head-canon for Lalli's voice, even though I'm aware the Finnish spells would sound nothing like the song or the note within it I enjoyed so much.

So I was just wondering, I guess, what kind of music you guys put on to write, if any?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Talimee on March 03, 2016, 04:16:24 AM
LOOney: Come on! You know yourself that your stories are good! :) I laughed about Reynir's super-power, was shocked about how Mikkel's power manifested itself, got all the feels about Emil and pitied them about the grub they have to eat. The poor poor people!!! All those emotions not half an hour after waking up!! I'd say, good work.

R.I.P. poor Bystander Fly. T.T

OwlsGO: Interesting question. I know a few people who have music on when they write, but I am the opposite - it almost always works better for me when there is no sound around me: Middle of the night or with Ohropax. Music creates very strong images for me and those are contra-productive for me since they never fit the story. XD If I have music for writing it's something like the Elder Scrolls soundtracks, John Dowland or Dead can Dance.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on March 03, 2016, 04:23:28 AM
So I was just wondering, I guess, what kind of music you guys put on to write, if any?
For me it's anything with a good rhythm to it really, and I end up using it as a sort of metronome to write to. Minimalist rock music and electronic stuff works best for me in this regard, although I will try and tailor it to what I'm writing. For example: electro swing for a 20's AU, symphonic rock (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBCJDd95JIc) for one about Sigrun that I'm starting to plan, aggrotech and metal for giants and trolls, that kind of thing. But it must have a clearly defined beat to it that I can pump the words out to, that's the number one concern.
(I've left that link there because that guy is one of my favourite artists on YouTube and I'm determined to spread the word :D)

If I have music for writing it's something like the Elder Scrolls soundtracks
Now if I put that on I'd just end up playing an Elder Scrolls game instead of writing xD
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on March 03, 2016, 05:15:56 AM
For me it's anything with a good rhythm to it really, and I end up using it as a sort of metronome to write to. Minimalist rock music and electronic stuff works best for me in this regard, although I will try and tailor it to what I'm writing. For example: electro swing for a 20's AU, symphonic rock (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBCJDd95JIc) for one about Sigrun that I'm starting to plan, aggrotech and metal for giants and trolls, that kind of thing. But it must have a clearly defined beat to it that I can pump the words out to, that's the number one concern.
(I've left that link there because that guy is one of my favourite artists on YouTube and I'm determined to spread the word :D)
Now if I put that on I'd just end up playing an Elder Scrolls game instead of writing xD

That Sigrun thingie certainly sounds interesting! I'll check out the artist at some point as well.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Talimee on March 03, 2016, 07:25:41 AM
Now if I put that on I'd just end up playing an Elder Scrolls game instead of writing xD

That's why I prefer silence. XD Pieces like Unbroken Road or Auriel's Ascension wouldn't work, but Tundra or Skyrim Athmospheres are okay.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Kiraly on March 03, 2016, 08:21:42 AM
*pokes LooNEY* Nope, streak definitely not broken, I was giggling too much for that to be the case. (Except for the one line of Mikkel's origin story, but someone had to have a tragic backstory...it's like a rule of superheroes, right?) What amuses me most (and maybe only me) is that the "Type 1" and "Type 2" hero classes remind me very much of the old definitions for "Type 1" and "Type 2" diabetes. I'm going to pretend that means I've had superhero powers since age 10. :))
Also I love Reynir's superpower, hehe.

As for your question, OwlsG0, I go back and forth on writing with music. Sometimes I'm more productive with silence, and it's usually hard for me to write if anything I'm listening to has words. I have a Pandora station called "Film Scores" that I write to a lot, and at this point it's evolved to include a lot of instrumental Celtic music and video game tracks too. Other times, I use an ambient noise generator (http://mynoise.net/) so as to have some sound but not anything as distracting as music.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on March 03, 2016, 08:31:19 AM
Music to write by? Anything by Robin Huw Bowen. Wonderful music to concentrate by. Other stuff from time to time, mostly classical or instrumental, but Bowen and Derek Bell are favourites.

And LooNEY, the superhero story looks promising so far! I spotted the same similarity to diabetes as did Kiraly, and wondered about it! Do keep going.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on March 03, 2016, 08:44:45 AM
What amuses me most (and maybe only me) is that the "Type 1" and "Type 2" hero classes remind me very much of the old definitions for "Type 1" and "Type 2" diabetes. I'm going to pretend that means I've had superhero powers since age 10. :))
I spotted the same similarity to diabetes as did Kiraly, and wondered about it!
Two of my mom's brothers were Type Is (one died from it); the third and my mom have become Type IIs; my niece and her father (my brother-in-law) are Type Is… Yeah, for a non-diabetic, I have a lot of diabetes experience. That said, the similarity is conscious and deliberate, as I kinda wanted to try to point out the downside to being a superhero (not that Tuuri, for one, would agree).
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on March 03, 2016, 10:05:13 AM
And the second chapter of my latest is now up! Offering a perspective on the infected that we haven't really seen before...

http://archiveofourown.org/works/6150565/chapters/14100380

I hope you all like it, even if it is a bit out there!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Athena on March 03, 2016, 10:45:09 AM
I'm pretty close to being finished chapter 2 of Forgotten Dream, would anyone like to proofread it?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Yuuago on March 03, 2016, 10:47:27 AM
I'm pretty close to being finished chapter 2 of Forgotten Dream, would anyone like to proofread it?

I can proof it if you give me a day or two (and I can run a comb through the previous chapter as well, if you want). PM me if that sounds good.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Athena on March 03, 2016, 10:50:33 AM
I can proof it if you give me a day or two (and I can run a comb through the previous chapter as well, if you want). PM me if that sounds good.

Ok, I pm'd it to you! :))
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Athena on March 03, 2016, 02:33:50 PM
And the second chapter of my latest is now up! Offering a perspective on the infected that we haven't really seen before...

http://archiveofourown.org/works/6150565/chapters/14100380

I hope you all like it, even if it is a bit out there!

I just finished reading both chapters and WOW! That is a good headcanon to have thought up. In the past I have thought about what if the rash was one huge hive mind, and this's a good way of showing it! I patiently await more!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: frostykitty on March 03, 2016, 09:45:21 PM
Ah! I need to catch up a bi! But I can say the superhero AU and The Old City are GREAT! I only have a few moments, right now, so I'll write real feed back once I read through what I missed!

But, hey, have a chapter seven!
Spoiler: return to silence; part two, chapter seven • show
{chapter 7}

Sigrun missed by fraction of a second. The troll had raked its boney claws down her side a fraction of a second too soon, or else the fight would've been over before it began. But she didn't make the same mistake again.

She looked for a head on the thing, a difficult task. It had four arms and two legs, that's really all you could make out of it. The rest was some abstract, flat shape that seemed to change anytime the troll moved. It's skin was stretched out across its appendages like a bat's wing, and it's head must be somewhere by the top middle... For crying out loud, how did it scream without a stinking face?!

The captain growled and took a chance. It stopped screaming. But it wasn't dead. It ran for Emil, lifting its head from a hiding spot along its chest.

The cleanser yelped and tried to run away, but the troll caught up with him quite easily. His second instinct must have been to try and stab it, a good choice. If he opened his eyes

With an exasperated sigh, Sigrun came running to the rescue. She went for the head, while avoiding Emil's blind stabbing, and killed the troll. It had stopped moving, anyway. Emil shoved it off of him with an 'ew' and stood up.

"It must have been pretty bad, huh?" The captain mused, noting the small numbers printed on the troll's back. '005', it read. "What they did here..."

"I guess..." Emil muttered as he glanced back at the dog. It looked so pitiful. Once golden fur matted and stained. Rash-created, armor-like hide covered its back and sides. A muzzle of bone and a face mutated to an unrecognizable state. "But, my aunt did this kind of thing. They don't torture them or anything,"

"But it's different. I glanced inside one of the journals, yesterday. It said if they didn't capture enough trolls, they infected one of the team."

"What? Well, they must have a better reason than that!"

"They didn't want to wait," Sigrun stated grimly. Emil shivered and looked at the floor. "Now let's go upstairs, already. The scout's already up there."

   *******
The third floor was just like the first, just as plain and uneventful. Only instead of peaceful, it was ominous. They were just waiting for some horrible to happen. The only bad thing that happened, though, was Emil falling down the stairs with a pile of books. No matter, they finished in good time. They now sat in the tank, on their way to the new camp.

Lalli slept in the passenger seat, beside Tuuri as she drove through the snowy streets. Reynir had grown tired of practicing runes, so he started doodling all over his paper, instead. He was currently concentrating on drawing sheep. A lot of them. Meanwhile, Emil and Sigrun had returned to their usual spaces, glancing out the window occasionally. Sigrun had already told Mikkel of her findings on the history of the building. He was in Tuuri's office, reading though some of the notes.

Some of the notebooks, he found, were half empty. Most of these had ended in a number stamped on to the paper, some of them even had goodbye letters to their lost family. He thought it odd. After all, why would they infect the few members they had if there was a chance they wouldn't survive long enough to be tested on, anyway? But, of course, they had probably lost hope by then, isolated in the middle of the city with limited food and resources.

At last, Mikkel had found the journal that Sigrun saw. He only knew by the torn out page containing the exact thing she had told him of. He sighed, reading over the page before replacing the few torn pages into their book.

"Sigrun, what happened that you decided to read?" The medic asked smugly from the other room.

Her eyes widened and she looked around the corner of the doorway. "I did not decide to read! The book fell and when I tried to catch it some papers ripped and I - involuntarily - saw a few recognizable words!"

Mikkel smiled faintly at her reaction and continued to look over the books in silence. The sun started to sink as the Cat-tank bumbled into the new camp and the team got ready to search the surroundings.


Spoiler: notessss • show
If you find any major problem with the people doing what they did, tell me. I'm debating on changing it, but that would be no chapter eight for part two.
This isn't over yet, there's a mystery afoot!

I wrote this, literally, like two sentences a day in the morning while half asleep. So, I expect there to be some grammar/spelling mess ups, just point them out and I'll be glad to fix it!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on March 03, 2016, 10:25:15 PM
Sectoboss, I've commented on A3O, but will say here, good story, and I look forward to learning more about the intelligences of the cities.

Frostykitty, horrible experiment by the sound of it, but it makes for a good story. Can't wait for what happens next.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: tamaerchen on March 04, 2016, 12:00:48 AM
frostykitty, that sounds quite gruesome! I wonder what they were up to... Also I'm glad they're okay but poor Emil, everything's always after him. :)

As for music, I'm listening to Moddi's Frankenstein soundtrack right now - it's instrumental and great for a creepy/eerie atmosphere. I'm imagining abandoned buildings and dripping water...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: IKEA on March 04, 2016, 05:38:34 AM
And the second chapter of my latest is now up! Offering a perspective on the infected that we haven't really seen before...

http://archiveofourown.org/works/6150565/chapters/14100380

I hope you all like it, even if it is a bit out there!
Nice job SectoBoss! I'm looking forward to reading the rest of it.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on March 04, 2016, 10:26:16 PM
While we wait, here's another part of Against All Odds.

(Also, I've been going back through and adding crosslinks to everything to make navigation easier. Hope that it's helpful.)

Previous part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg95361#msg95361)

Spoiler: Part 4 • show

“We have to get out of here now!

“Wh-wh…?”

“Because the ship is about to come under attack.”

The group of them stood staring at Agneta, who had just shut her cellphone and was eyeing them all with a grim expression.

“Well what are you waiting for?” she snapped.  “Get moving!”

***

A loud clanging sound alerted them to a single-purpose killing machine making contact with the outer hull of the ship.

“Well, looks like it’s here.”  Harald armed the EMP with a sigh.

“Wait, that’s it?”  Sigrun had turned from her place behind Mikkel and was now looking at Harald with an expression that might have sent an Agent running.  “We’re just going to give up on them, is that what you’re saying?”

“That Sentinel isn’t going to pretty-please wait for the others to come out.  Once it chews its way to the control room they’ll be gone anyway.  It’s Agneta’s orders,” Harald continued, returning Sigrun’s gaze levelly.  “If it’s a choice between some of us and all of us, then we need to save everyone we can.”  Mikkel could not help but note, though, as his hand hovered over the button, even though there was no possible way that the others could make it back in time now, he did not press it.

Mikkel did not envy him.

Finally, however, there was another clang, and all at once the noise got louder:  “It’s inside.”  Harald pressed his finger to the button…

Someone else’s hand latched onto his wrist.  “Wait.”

“Sigrun, what are you doing?

“Agneta’s in the Matrix, and I’m out here.”  She tightened her grip.  “Until she gets back, that puts me in charge.”

“We can still override you if you’re endangering everyone.”  Harald pulled his hand away, but nevertheless did not repeat his attempt to press the button:  he was willing to hear her out.

“How much time do they need?”

“Five minutes,” Mikkel estimated.  “And that’s the optimistic guess.”

“I’ll give you eight.”  She reached out to grab the gun that was next to the console, charged it, and then turned on her heel toward the stairs.

“Sigrun.”  Mikkel was out of his seat, his hand on her shoulder, and though she stopped at his light touch she did not turn around.  “If you do this, you’re going to die.”

A few precious seconds passed with no sound but the clanging around them.  Then, however, she turned ever so slightly toward him, just enough for Mikkel to see her closed eyes and satisfied smile.
   
“Exactly the way I always wanted to go.  You don’t get to Valhalla by dying in your sleep.”  Another clang, this one disturbingly close.  “Hold off until every last one of them is out or dead—or until I am.  You know, whichever comes first.”

The violet-eyed grin she flashed him in that moment was simultaneously the craziest and the sanest that he had ever seen.  With a nod, Mikkel lifted his hand from her shoulder and stood back, guarding the unconscious bodies of the crew as best he could, while Sigrun raced up the stairs and the roof of the control room buckled.

The arc from her gun met the oncoming Sentinel in a shower of sparks.


Spoiler: Thoughts on Sigrun • show
No, I don't think that Sigrun is suicidal, or willing to throw her life away on a whim. If at all possible, she'll keep herself and her crewmates alive. But I do read her as being relatively at peace with her own mortality - it's the only way to stay sane in a world where your chosen line of work can literally get you killed at any time. And if she knew that she could give others a fighting chance, I think that it is in-character for her to make this sort of sacrifice - and that while she'd rather not die at all, she would be happy about dying well.


Epilogue (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg131657#msg131657)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on March 04, 2016, 11:50:24 PM
Lazy8: Yep, sounds like true-to-character Sigrun to me! Good.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Athena on March 05, 2016, 12:46:26 AM
Thanks to Yuuago, the 2 chapters of Forgotten Dream have had a proofread!

So here is he edited version of Chapter 1:

Spoiler: Chapter 1 • show
  Reynir slowly drifted off into the realms of sleep.  And then, he woke up, but it was a new dream this time. The moss-covered cliffs and straggled sheep had passed from his mind. He now stood on a dilapidated stone bridge overlooking a deep valley cut into the land, carpeted in fog. This wasn't his dream, so whose was it?

   He decided to look around and see what he could find. He wandered down the bridge until he came to a narrow gravel road, with a steep drop-off on one side. Frightened at the prospect of falling down the valley, he stuck close to the rock face on the opposite edge of the road. The sharp sound of nails on a chalkboard came from behind him. He turned around. Nothing. He kept walking. He heard it again, this time, louder. Closer. He was afraid now. Were there trolls in dreams? Without turning around, he started moving as fast as he could without risking slipping on the loose gravel underfoot.

   ~HelLo LitTLe mAgE,~ The thing behind him whispered in its raspy voice.

   “What are you?! Why am I here?!” Reynir exclaimed in fear as he kept running, now no longer worried about the slippery gravel.

   ~WhaT aM I? tHat’s A STraNge QueStIOn… Why dOn’T yoU TUrN aRouNd And FInD OuT?~ The creature mused.

   “You didn’t answer the question,” Reynir said in a strange mixture of fear and curiosity.

   ~I waS OnCE LikE YoU, LItTLE MaGE. BuT I waS… ChAnGed. NoW I am MoRE. StrONgeR. BeTtEr. MoRE PowERfuL.~ Suddenly the troll leaped up and landed in front of Reynir.

   It was a hideous amalgam of body parts, warped by the unnatural power of the Rash. It had as many arms as he had segments in his braid, and its twelve eyes glowed blue with otherworldly power.

Abruptly, he was thrust towards the ground, and found himself on his knees before the creature. Reynir tried to get up, only to find that he couldn’t move. Some paralyzing force held him in place, exposing him to the terrifying power of the troll looming over him.

   ~yOU SeEM tO Be foRGeTInG THaT ThiS iS mY DrEAm. And I cONTrol It!~

   Reynir fought the powerful presence of the troll in his mind, and slowly… ever so slowly, he began to gain movement in his left hand. In the rock dust he traced a symbol with his finger. He had seen it in a book somewhere. Something to repel evil spirits. The Hannunvaakuna.


and Chapter 2:

Spoiler: Chapter 2 • show
The snowflakes stung Hannu’s frost-burnt face as he trudged down the icy path to his house. He had just finished up after a long day of work at the bakery and just wanted to head straight to bed. Ville looked just as downtrodden as he did, walking slowly alongside.

   “What’s for dinner?” Ville asked casually as they approached the door.

   Hannu shrugged and said, “I’m too tired to make anything. I’m going right to bed.”

   “Aww, I’m hungry…,” Ville said dejectedly.

   “There might be some buns in the fridge,” Hannu said.

   The door opened and the darkness beyond was cool and comforting. Hannu stepped through, hung his jacket on the hook, and headed straight for his warm bed. Ville stepped through behind him, and started rummaging around in the fridge.

   “Good night, Ville,” Hannu said through a stifled yawn.

   Instead of the black, dreamless sleep he expected, a stunning mountain valley filled his view. He was standing on a worn stone bridge, with a crossbow in his hands. He heard fighting further down the path branching off the bridge. Hurrying along, he loaded the crossbow, just in case. Around a bend in the path, he saw it. There was a hideous Hiisi-Beast looming over something - no, someone, on the ground.  He had vibrant braid in long orange hair, and beside his outstretched hand, there it was, traced in the dust, that same symbol that kept popping up everywhere lately. He and Ville had seen it on their clothes, on signposts, on necklaces, in the Redtail’s dream. Was that why he was here, in someone else’s dream? Had this symbol… summoned him? The moment he saw it, his adrenaline kicked into high gear. The crossbow was painfully loud as it discharged into one of the faces of the abomination before him.

   The beast recoiled, and roared in its jumbled, blackened speech, ~wHaT?! WhO aRE yOu?!~

   Yelling to match the magnitude of the creature’s power, Hannu said, “My name is Hannu, and I don’t know what all this is about, but I’m very tired of doing other people’s dirty work!” He bent down to the boy with the braid and said, “Come on, let’s get out of here.”

   The beast couldn’t subject its power over two strong minds like these.  Knowing it was defeated, it slunk off into the shadows, to catch its prey another day.

   The braid boy stood up and said, “Thanks for that! I really thought I was going to die! My name is Reynir.”

   “And here I was thinking I was going to have a restful sleep…,” Hannu thought aloud under his breath. “Yeah! I’m Hannu!” Hannu said, trying to put on as friendly a demeanour as possible. Ville would be proud. Reynir faded out of view, but he seemed to be excitedly saying something. Ever so slowly, the world dissolved around him and he found himself sitting up in bed.

End


and that concludes my first fic! That's not really the end, it might have a continuation, but for now that's where I'll leave it.  :))
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Kiraly on March 05, 2016, 01:04:28 AM
Dangit, I'm behind on telling people how much I like their writing things (people! I like your writing things!) but it's 1 AM and I should go to bed. BUT FIRST:

Have the next chapter of Before It Was Cool (http://archiveofourown.org/works/5569909/chapters/14126287), now with added Hotakainen family drama! (Don't worry, there's still at least a little fluff).
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Regolith247 on March 05, 2016, 01:14:48 AM
Dangit, I'm behind on telling people how much I like their writing things (people! I like your writing things!) but it's 1 AM and I should go to bed. BUT FIRST:

Have the next chapter of Before It Was Cool (http://archiveofourown.org/works/5569909/chapters/14126287), now with added Hotakainen family drama! (Don't worry, there's still at least a little fluff).

Yay! I love this story!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: tamaerchen on March 05, 2016, 01:56:50 PM
Lazy8: So much tension! And that even though we already know "how it ends". Really vivid, too! Great job!

Luth: I love how you managed to weave the two worlds/stories into one another! And I'm proud of Hannu, too, that he managed to stay friendly with someone as enthusiastic as Reynir - but then again, who knows what might have happened if he hadn't disappeared so promptly... I'm a bit unsettled by that the mage-troll is still out there, though - will we see them again? Find out their backstory?

Kiraly: Aaaah, all the feels! I'm glad you ended with some fluff to tie us over. :) Also: I LOVE the text messages, they're so much fun! I might have had more to say but my heart is too excited for these cuties to remember any of it now. :3

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Athena on March 05, 2016, 04:47:26 PM
Luth: I love how you managed to weave the two worlds/stories into one another! And I'm proud of Hannu, too, that he managed to stay friendly with someone as enthusiastic as Reynir - but then again, who knows what might have happened if he hadn't disappeared so promptly... I'm a bit unsettled by that the mage-troll is still out there, though - will we see them again? Find out their backstory?

 :)) Thank you! The idea of a backstory for the infected mage would be an interesting continuation! I will probably write that next, thank you for the idea!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on March 05, 2016, 06:45:19 PM
Kiraly: Good. I feel so sorry for poor Onni! Looking forward to the next chapter.

Luth: That was an interesting vignette. Nice to see Ville is teaching Hannu some manners! And the Kade/Troll is definitely worth following further - would make for interesting backstory.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on March 05, 2016, 07:02:54 PM
So I'm thinking about writing a fic after I finish the Academy, which addresses the idea that the old gods have come back and are now running at least some parts of the show since they're being worshipped again. This would include a series of Icelandic spirits, the old Norse gods and a few Finnish gods. The basic idea of it would be that Emil and Lalli are sacrificed to the gods in a routine sacrifice their society does every summer.
Instead of dying properly, they're sent out of Valhalla to go back home and open up some kind of portal so the soldiers of Valhalla can come out and fight the Rash monsters. Some weird fantasy thingie like that.

What this is is a little ficlet based on someone seeing one of the old gods, because I just wanted to see how that would sound and work?

Spoiler: show


Everyone feels better after a good night's sleep. That is to say, Reynir and Mikkel feel better after their good night's sleep. Apparently, the traumatising experiences of the last day are not enough to keep Mikkel from feeling secure in flopping down at the end of the day and catching the 40 winks he has earned. Reynir, too, sleeps like the dead after only a moment of tossing and turning.

Tuuri spends the majority of the night staring at the ceiling and thinking about what has happened. She wonders if she might be able to activate some latent piece of magic in her- the magic is so strong in her brother and cousin, it seems downright unfair that she has not only had to miss out on immunity, but the mage abilities? With this injustice of genetics on her mind, Tuuri drops off. Sigrun posts herself in front of the door, turning a knife over in her good hand. She does not think of anything, if she can stop her mind from wandering.

Emil ends up staring at the back of Lalli's head for most of the night. What Emil thinks about as the night wears on is strictly his personal business.

Once Reynir has grown peaceful in his sleep, he becomes aware of being in his dream-space. He gets up and stretches, then frowns, realising the flock of sheep and the reddish dog that once populated his space have gone. Fled, perhaps, in the wake of the terrifying thing that attacked him? It's a little lonely in the space without them.
Very lonely, in fact. The empty mountain-side reminds him of the time he got lost in the mountains as a child, after straying too far from his home during play. One of his siblings found him well before night-time, of course, and wrapped him in blankets as soon as they got home. A happy ending, but for at least an hour, Reynir was certain he was going to be eaten, or taken away by the spirits, or simply die of exposure.

"Oi."

"Oi?" repeats Reynir quizzically. Doesn't sound like a sheep's noise to him.

"Oi. Reynir."

Reynir looks to his side and sees a very tired, very harassed-looking mage standing at the boundary of his space. Barely able to contain his excitement, Reynir bounds over and peels back the boundary to let Lalli in.

He is even more excited by the prospect of finally being able to speak to him. The language boundary simply falls away when inside the dream-space. He can't explain it and doesn't want to try, for fear that he might talk himself out of being able to understand Lalli.

"Lalli!" he cries "You're alright! Thank the gods! Everyone's been so worried- I mean, mostly Emil, because apparently Tuuri says you sometimes sleep for a few days normally, but Emil thought you might be dying and-"

"There's something in my space."

Reynir's heart skips a beat. In his sleep, he turns over onto his side and kicks the Tuuri in the thigh "Like, the spirit things?"

Lalli shakes his head "Older. Fouler."

"Oh. Um. Are you ok?"

He nods.

"Do you want to maybe stay here for the rest of the night? I'm sure it won't follow you.

He nods again.

They spend the rest of the night sitting in the grass of Reynir's dream-space while Reynir talks about his days as a shepherd and the various, terrifying encounters he has had with feral dogs and weird people he thinks maybe were spirits? Lalli listens silently, and glances over his shoulder frequently.

When the morning comes, Lalli is the first one up. Sigrun is so startled by his sudden movement she nearly throws her knife at him, but stops and smiles as best she can when she sees he's on the move again.

"So you're not dead."

He gives a grunt, somehow understanding what she has said.

"That's good. That's good."

The others move slowly, then rapidly when they see Lalli pulling on his boots and furs. Tuuri hugs him hard enough to produce a light crack from his spine, Mikkel gives him a solid pat on the shoulder and Emil gives him a long, hard stare that is either of relief or anger at being kept in suspense for so long.

"Well, I'm going to sleep," Sigrun lopes over to the bedding Lalli has just vacated and belly-flops. She announces into her pillow: "A three hour nap. That's all I need. Wake me up if we're on fire or dying."
She is snoring half a moment later.

Through Tuuri, Lalli says he needs to scout.

"What for?" asks Mikkel "I don't think it would be a good idea to explore after the amount of trolls we probably disturbed in the city."

Tuuri bends towards Lalli and listens for a moment "He says he needs to make sure we're safe. Something was...something wasn't right last night? We may have to move again, apparently," she adds to him, in Finnish "What are you doing?"

"Mage stuff."

"What kind of mage stuff."

"Magical mage stuff."

"Lalli!"

"Tuuri. I'm going to need Reynir and Emil."

She reports this to Mikkel, who decides it is best to let the mage take care of his mage stuff in any way he needs to, and to trust Emil to keep the other two safe. Unleashing a freshly awoken coma victim, a hayseed civilian without immunity and a traumatised newbie is not one of the easiest choices to make, but Mikkel sees no alternative, unless he wants to try tying Lalli to Tuuri's chair to prevent him from doing his job.

As the three of them disappear into the snow, Mikkel calls out after them "If you see a troll, don't try to fight it! You'll just bring more of them down on us. Just stand still and stay silent!"
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on March 05, 2016, 07:04:47 PM
Pardon the shoddy formatting. This the first time I've ever posted a fic on the thread itself and I essentially  have no idea what I am doing.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Kiraly on March 05, 2016, 07:15:43 PM
Yay! I love this story!

Aww, thank you! It warms my heart to get comments like this. :) (I hope you still like it even though this chapter took a turn for the sad, heh.)

Kiraly: Aaaah, all the feels! I'm glad you ended with some fluff to tie us over. :) Also: I LOVE the text messages, they're so much fun! I might have had more to say but my heart is too excited for these cuties to remember any of it now. :3

Hehe, the text messages are some of my favorite parts to write! And I definitely needed to end with the fluff, because the pre-fluff bits would have been a little too sad without it. (Next chapter should be fluffier, I think...but we'll see).

Kiraly: Good. I feel so sorry for poor Onni! Looking forward to the next chapter.

I know, I feel sorry for Onni too! Originally I'd planned for his interactions with Tuuri to be more along the lines of a guilt-tripping authority figure, worried about her financial security and wanting her to go back to school so she could get a "good job", but that didn't seem to fit with the way he's been shown in the comic recently. I feel like he's mostly sad/anxious, and the stern/cold impression I had originally is a facade he puts on.

OwlsG0 Ooh, this is intriguing! I look forward to seeing what you do with this. I'll admit to a great weakness for "old gods interacting with modern humanity" stories. *shifty glances at piles of books by Rick Riordan, Tessa Gratton, and Neil Gaiman's American Gods*

(In regards to the formatting, it looks like you put two front-end spoiler tags instead of an opening and closing tag? The first should be [spoiler ] without the space and the end should be [/spoiler ] without the space. You should be able to edit your post to fix it.)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on March 05, 2016, 07:30:39 PM

OwlsG0 Ooh, this is intriguing! I look forward to seeing what you do with this. I'll admit to a great weakness for "old gods interacting with modern humanity" stories. *shifty glances at piles of books by Rick Riordan, Tessa Gratton, and Neil Gaiman's American Gods*

(In regards to the formatting, it looks like you put two front-end spoiler tags instead of an opening and closing tag? The first should be [spoiler ] without the space and the end should be [/spoiler ] without the space. You should be able to edit your post to fix it.)

Hallelujah! It worked! Thanks for that, saving my skin with confusing coding things there.

I also really love Rick Riordan's work (Heroes of Olympus, the Kane Chronicles and even Magnus's book are taking up my top shelf, and I've got both of the anthologies), and I couldn't be more excited about the American Gods show that's coming up! I really hope they do justice to the books, which seems like it might happen since I'm pretty sure Gaiman himself is on the creative team.

This Tessa Gratton woman, on the other hand, I've never read. What has she written?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Kiraly on March 05, 2016, 07:56:25 PM
Hallelujah! It worked! Thanks for that, saving my skin with confusing coding things there.

I also really love Rick Riordan's work (Heroes of Olympus, the Kane Chronicles and even Magnus's book are taking up my top shelf, and I've got both of the anthologies), and I couldn't be more excited about the American Gods show that's coming up! I really hope they do justice to the books, which seems like it might happen since I'm pretty sure Gaiman himself is on the creative team.

This Tessa Gratton woman, on the other hand, I've never read. What has she written?

Heck yes for similar taste in books!
Spoiler: not going to derail the thread, but Tessa Gratton is amazing • show
Tessa Gratton wrote a trilogy (and a set of novellas, which are not crucial but add to the experience of reading the third book in the trilogy) called either the United States of Asgard or Gods of New Asgard books. (Something shady went down with her publisher, not sure what exactly). Basically the premise is the old Norse gods never went away and are the governing body of North America (possibly the world? It takes place all in North America, so I can't remember what's supposedly going on elsewhere). Culture has been considerably influenced by them, but modern inventions (cell phones, cars) still exist. The first book is called The Lost Sun, and basically involves two teenagers (a berserker and a seer) going on a cross-country road trip to help one of the gods and make sure the sun continues to rise.

If you like Rick Riordan there's a good chance you will like these, they have similar "teenagers on an epic quest" plots.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on March 05, 2016, 08:06:04 PM
Heck yes for similar taste in books!
Spoiler: not going to derail the thread, but Tessa Gratton is amazing • show
Tessa Gratton wrote a trilogy (and a set of novellas, which are not crucial but add to the experience of reading the third book in the trilogy) called either the United States of Asgard or Gods of New Asgard books. (Something shady went down with her publisher, not sure what exactly). Basically the premise is the old Norse gods never went away and are the governing body of North America (possibly the world? It takes place all in North America, so I can't remember what's supposedly going on elsewhere). Culture has been considerably influenced by them, but modern inventions (cell phones, cars) still exist. The first book is called The Lost Sun, and basically involves two teenagers (a berserker and a seer) going on a cross-country road trip to help one of the gods and make sure the sun continues to rise.

If you like Rick Riordan there's a good chance you will like these, they have similar "teenagers on an epic quest" plots.


Well I guess I know what I'm adding to my reading list next!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on March 05, 2016, 09:24:53 PM
So I'm thinking about writing a fic after I finish the Academy, which addresses the idea that the old gods have come back and are now running at least some parts of the show since they're being worshipped again. This would include a series of Icelandic spirits, the old Norse gods and a few Finnish gods. The basic idea of it would be that Emil and Lalli are sacrificed to the gods in a routine sacrifice their society does every summer.
Instead of dying properly, they're sent out of Valhalla to go back home and open up some kind of portal so the soldiers of Valhalla can come out and fight the Rash monsters. Some weird fantasy thingie like that.

What this is is a little ficlet based on someone seeing one of the old gods, because I just wanted to see how that would sound and work?

Spoiler: show


Everyone feels better after a good night's sleep. That is to say, Reynir and Mikkel feel better after their good night's sleep. Apparently, the traumatising experiences of the last day are not enough to keep Mikkel from feeling secure in flopping down at the end of the day and catching the 40 winks he has earned. Reynir, too, sleeps like the dead after only a moment of tossing and turning.

Tuuri spends the majority of the night staring at the ceiling and thinking about what has happened. She wonders if she might be able to activate some latent piece of magic in her- the magic is so strong in her brother and cousin, it seems downright unfair that she has not only had to miss out on immunity, but the mage abilities? With this injustice of genetics on her mind, Tuuri drops off. Sigrun posts herself in front of the door, turning a knife over in her good hand. She does not think of anything, if she can stop her mind from wandering.

Emil ends up staring at the back of Lalli's head for most of the night. What Emil thinks about as the night wears on is strictly his personal business.

Once Reynir has grown peaceful in his sleep, he becomes aware of being in his dream-space. He gets up and stretches, then frowns, realising the flock of sheep and the reddish dog that once populated his space have gone. Fled, perhaps, in the wake of the terrifying thing that attacked him? It's a little lonely in the space without them.
Very lonely, in fact. The empty mountain-side reminds him of the time he got lost in the mountains as a child, after straying too far from his home during play. One of his siblings found him well before night-time, of course, and wrapped him in blankets as soon as they got home. A happy ending, but for at least an hour, Reynir was certain he was going to be eaten, or taken away by the spirits, or simply die of exposure.

"Oi."

"Oi?" repeats Reynir quizzically. Doesn't sound like a sheep's noise to him.

"Oi. Reynir."

Reynir looks to his side and sees a very tired, very harassed-looking mage standing at the boundary of his space. Barely able to contain his excitement, Reynir bounds over and peels back the boundary to let Lalli in.

He is even more excited by the prospect of finally being able to speak to him. The language boundary simply falls away when inside the dream-space. He can't explain it and doesn't want to try, for fear that he might talk himself out of being able to understand Lalli.

"Lalli!" he cries "You're alright! Thank the gods! Everyone's been so worried- I mean, mostly Emil, because apparently Tuuri says you sometimes sleep for a few days normally, but Emil thought you might be dying and-"

"There's something in my space."

Reynir's heart skips a beat. In his sleep, he turns over onto his side and kicks the Tuuri in the thigh "Like, the spirit things?"

Lalli shakes his head "Older. Fouler."

"Oh. Um. Are you ok?"

He nods.

"Do you want to maybe stay here for the rest of the night? I'm sure it won't follow you.

He nods again.

They spend the rest of the night sitting in the grass of Reynir's dream-space while Reynir talks about his days as a shepherd and the various, terrifying encounters he has had with feral dogs and weird people he thinks maybe were spirits? Lalli listens silently, and glances over his shoulder frequently.

When the morning comes, Lalli is the first one up. Sigrun is so startled by his sudden movement she nearly throws her knife at him, but stops and smiles as best she can when she sees he's on the move again.

"So you're not dead."

He gives a grunt, somehow understanding what she has said.

"That's good. That's good."

The others move slowly, then rapidly when they see Lalli pulling on his boots and furs. Tuuri hugs him hard enough to produce a light crack from his spine, Mikkel gives him a solid pat on the shoulder and Emil gives him a long, hard stare that is either of relief or anger at being kept in suspense for so long.

"Well, I'm going to sleep," Sigrun lopes over to the bedding Lalli has just vacated and belly-flops. She announces into her pillow: "A three hour nap. That's all I need. Wake me up if we're on fire or dying."
She is snoring half a moment later.

Through Tuuri, Lalli says he needs to scout.

"What for?" asks Mikkel "I don't think it would be a good idea to explore after the amount of trolls we probably disturbed in the city."

Tuuri bends towards Lalli and listens for a moment "He says he needs to make sure we're safe. Something was...something wasn't right last night? We may have to move again, apparently," she adds to him, in Finnish "What are you doing?"

"Mage stuff."

"What kind of mage stuff."

"Magical mage stuff."

"Lalli!"

"Tuuri. I'm going to need Reynir and Emil."

She reports this to Mikkel, who decides it is best to let the mage take care of his mage stuff in any way he needs to, and to trust Emil to keep the other two safe. Unleashing a freshly awoken coma victim, a hayseed civilian without immunity and a traumatised newbie is not one of the easiest choices to make, but Mikkel sees no alternative, unless he wants to try tying Lalli to Tuuri's chair to prevent him from doing his job.

As the three of them disappear into the snow, Mikkel calls out after them "If you see a troll, don't try to fight it! You'll just bring more of them down on us. Just stand still and stay silent!"


This was intriguing. Not much to say except please continue.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on March 05, 2016, 10:58:30 PM
Kiraly: Your taste in fiction (Neil Gaiman is wonderful) suggests to me that you might like the music and tale-telling of Damh the Bard (pronounced Dave, the man has a weird sense of humour). He has recorded a good deal, but if you get a chance to see him in live performance, do. He's funny and wise and a real sweetheart. Try his 'Spirit of Albion' album. And anything he has done with the South Australian Pagan folk-rock band Spiral Dance. He comes out from England to SA every year or two to sing and give workshops at the Wiccan Conference, or at the Mylor English Ale, a yearly Pagan, Wiccan and Heathen gathering devoted to Morris dancing and music, as well as learning. Spiral Dance on their own are excellent too, their vocalist Adrienne Piggott has a glorious voice.

OwlsGo: This has the makings of a good story. I guess it must be something fairly heavy-duty to invade Lalli's haven? I like the idea of his taking refuge with Reynir, and can just imagine how much having to do so must annoy him!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: frostykitty on March 05, 2016, 11:20:23 PM
Kiraly, I love the 'Before it was Cool'! I haven't been able to finish the chapter yet though, I've been interrupted *casts an angry glance at family* when I've tried to finish it!

And OwlsG0, please continue! It's great so far!

I had a sudden inspiration, so chapter eight will be done soon, and chapter nine will be journal entries (one or two)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Yuuago on March 05, 2016, 11:50:33 PM
Man, everyone is so active... I'm looking forward to tomorrow, when I'll have time (hopefully) to go through some of the back-catalogue of posts here.

So - I wrote this in October, and for some reason I... sat on it for months and didn't finish it until now, and I have no idea why. But, anyway! Here's some fluff.

"Salve". 0+/G. 2.1K. Lalli/Emil.
Summary: After Emil is injured in an entirely preventable incident, he feels absolutely awful about it. But Lalli is a source of comfort - in his own way.
Other notes: This wasn't meant as a sequel to Routines* (http://roesslyng.dreamwidth.org/52400.html) but it could be read as one, I think.

At Ao3: http://archiveofourown.org/works/6173716
Dreamwidth backup: http://roesslyng.dreamwidth.org/65707.html
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on March 06, 2016, 01:00:59 AM
Man, everyone is so active... I'm looking forward to tomorrow, when I'll have time (hopefully) to go through some of the back-catalogue of posts here.

So - I wrote this in October, and for some reason I... sat on it for months and didn't finish it until now, and I have no idea why. But, anyway! Here's some fluff.

"Salve". 0+/G. 2.1K. Lalli/Emil.
Summary: After Emil is injured in an entirely preventable incident, he feels absolutely awful about it. But Lalli is a source of comfort - in his own way.
Other notes: This wasn't meant as a sequel to Routines* (http://roesslyng.dreamwidth.org/52400.html) but it could be read as one, I think.

At Ao3: http://archiveofourown.org/works/6173716
Dreamwidth backup: http://roesslyng.dreamwidth.org/65707.html
And with that, there are 150 SSSS fics on AO3!



…just imagine some of Vi's edh & thorn confetti here.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Yuuago on March 06, 2016, 01:08:52 AM
And with that, there are 150 SSSS fics on AO3!



…just imagine some of Vi's edh & thorn confetti here.

... Whoa. So it is!
(ノ◉ヮ◉)ノ :。・:*:・゚'☆

Today, 150, tomorrow, 200! (...well, maybe not tomorrow, exactly.)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Tap on March 06, 2016, 01:12:21 AM
Man, everyone is so active... I'm looking forward to tomorrow, when I'll have time (hopefully) to go through some of the back-catalogue of posts here.

So - I wrote this in October, and for some reason I... sat on it for months and didn't finish it until now, and I have no idea why. But, anyway! Here's some fluff.

"Salve". 0+/G. 2.1K. Lalli/Emil.
Summary: After Emil is injured in an entirely preventable incident, he feels absolutely awful about it. But Lalli is a source of comfort - in his own way.
Other notes: This wasn't meant as a sequel to Routines* (http://roesslyng.dreamwidth.org/52400.html) but it could be read as one, I think.

At Ao3: http://archiveofourown.org/works/6173716
Dreamwidth backup: http://roesslyng.dreamwidth.org/65707.html

Aaah I loved it! You're so good at keeping everyone in-character and it was sweet and fluffy and asdfghjjkjg yes wonderful  c: (And funny enough, it was basically what I asked for in my prompt over in the fic exchange thread, which kinda made it doubly awesome imo.)

Also, yay for all the fics on ao3! :D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on March 06, 2016, 01:30:16 AM
Sweet story. And very like those two!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on March 06, 2016, 02:40:54 AM
Why would you nest on this? This is so cute and in-character!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Yuuago on March 06, 2016, 11:03:46 AM
Thank you, everyone. < 3
Tap: Wow, you're right, it is a similar story to the one you requested. : D (I'm totally looking forward to when that gets written, because honestly, I can not get enough of Emil being put in bad situation ;p )
OwlsGO I thiiink that I set it aside because I had wanted to add more scenes to it. But in the end, couldn't think of anything that would fit. (And then forgot about it. Until now. It happens.)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: frostykitty on March 06, 2016, 11:26:23 AM
That was good, I liked it.
I want to make sure a scene is in character before I continue writing, can I just put it here, or can I message someone?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on March 06, 2016, 11:47:33 AM
Man, everyone is so active... I'm looking forward to tomorrow, when I'll have time (hopefully) to go through some of the back-catalogue of posts here.

So - I wrote this in October, and for some reason I... sat on it for months and didn't finish it until now, and I have no idea why. But, anyway! Here's some fluff.

"Salve". 0+/G. 2.1K. Lalli/Emil.
Summary: After Emil is injured in an entirely preventable incident, he feels absolutely awful about it. But Lalli is a source of comfort - in his own way.
Other notes: This wasn't meant as a sequel to Routines* (http://roesslyng.dreamwidth.org/52400.html) but it could be read as one, I think.

At Ao3: http://archiveofourown.org/works/6173716
Dreamwidth backup: http://roesslyng.dreamwidth.org/65707.html

That was incredibly sweet. I don't normally go in for shippy stuff, but for these two, I can make exceptions.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Noodles on March 06, 2016, 02:00:56 PM
OH GOSH LOOK AT ALL THIS SUPER EXCELLENT FIC (aw ye, update on Before it was Cool. And I'm always a sucker for Yuu-fic.  :D )
That was good, I liked it.
I want to make sure a scene is in character before I continue writing, can I just put it here, or can I message someone?
You can do either of those things! I'll beta-read (though it may take a bit to get back to you, I'm a bad combination of forgetful and procrastinatey :P ) or I know there are some others, though not 100% sure who.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Fogtreader on March 06, 2016, 08:27:20 PM
The sudden, horrifying death of a former mentor and colleague throws Slime Splayed back together with his ex-partner to stalk a killer known only as the Night Scout, but as one crime leads to another, he finds himself tangled in a web of intrigue, friendship, love, betrayal, and murder in – Silence Broken.

                                Silence Broken
         I
    The snow made slush out of the victim’s cranial fluid before I arrived on the scene. The jellydancer’s thin, graceful legs were becoming as pale as the frost that slowly settled a gentle, frozen blanket over them. As usual, a motley crowd had gathered around. I pushed my way through the gawkers, gapers, and chatterers to the center. A couple of bulls tried to stop me but I flashed my buzzer at them and they let me pass. The festering eyes of Detective Infector Gloomp steamed as I approached.
    “If it isn’t Slime Splayed,” Gloomp said. “Didn’t think I’d be cursed to see your bony ass out on a night like this.”
    “Spare the unpleasantries, infector,” I said as I offered him a nip from my flask. “Tell me what you know so far.”
    The infector gladly helped himself to the O positive from my flask. “Looks like murder. The brain sack has been ruptured. Poor ball of mucus probably didn’t even know what happened.”
    “Any witnesses?”
    Gloomp shivered his proboscis, “several, but they are not talking.”
    “Tight lips eh?”
    “No lips.” Gloomp nodded to the stand of other jellies lurking in the nearby alcove. I took a long, appreciative look at them, their membrains glowing with nervous luminescence. Gloomp gave me a nudge. “You really like those kind don’t you?”
    I shrugged it off, “Guess I’m a sucker for the tall, brainy types.”
    “Eh, not my style,” the Infector grunted. “All legs and no body; not much for conversation either. The spindly things couldn’t even lift a finger to help one of their own. They just stood there and watched it… ooze to death.”
    “You’re hiding something from me, Gloomp,” I said. “What aren’t you telling me?”
    “Why don’t you start, Slime? You tell me how you got wind of this case. Who’s your client?”
    “Smiley,” I lied. I knew Gloomp would take the bait. Smiley taught us everything we knew. He was a clever, old troll who never wanted to be giant. These days he just hung around the suburbs.
    “Smiley’s dead, Slime. His house caught on fire.”
    “I know,” I answered, “But it didn’t just catch on fire, it blew up. I didn’t learn that from you though did I? Why not?”
    “Why not? What the heaven, Splayed! We used to be partners. Then you left for the private sector. What has that done for you? Nothing!”
    “That fire was arson, Gloomp! Stuff like that has been happening in Sweden for a long time, and you still didn’t think to tell me.”
    “Yeah, but that’s Sweden, who cares?”
    “Gloomp!”
    The Detective Infector pointed a tentacle at me. “That’s enough out of you! You want me to help you, then you have to help me. Just like the old days. You may be smart, Slime, but you know that when we used to work together we were giant! You don’t help keep the silence any more, so what’s in it for you? The action?” He pointed to the stand of dancers, “The jellies? Who’s your client, Slime?”
    Gloomp had me by the polyps this time. “Let’s just say it’s a family affair.” Gloomp didn’t give an inch, and he still held my flask. “All right, Smiley’s knees.”
    “Smiley didn’t have…! Oh, Slime! What have you got yourself into?”
    “Yeah I know.” I explained, “They claim to be Smiley’s knees, and if you think about it, it stands to reason that they may have been separated for a long time.” Infector Gloomp still wasn’t happy with my answer. “Look, I’m sorry we drifted apart. That’s my fault. However, you knew that sooner or later I’d find out about Smiley, and once I did I’d catch up to you. You didn’t tell me, so that makes it your fault we are having this discussion. So who’s really to blame? We can’t be the Slimy Gloomp Giant like in the old days, but okay, we can work together. So, do you have anything else to share with me? Besides your left arm?”
    Gloomp scowled as he sucked on his teeth and then spat out a few. “What’s this silent world coming to? There was the arson in the suburbs that killed Smiley, the break in at the old school with a ritual sacrifice of its guard spiderdog, a string of burglaries in the forbidden stacks, and I don’t even want to think about what happened in the nursery. Strange things are happening Splayed, and I think they are all connected. I hate to say it, but this looks like…”
    “Don’t tell me you are starting to believe in this ‘Night Scout’ character too,” I interrupted.
    Infector Gloomp glared at me with all 41 eyes. “I work with the facts, Slime. Ghosts, trolls, undead mutations; real life. Those fantasy stories the old bats are telling, about an immune human with magic powers and who can walk among us like a shadow, are not part of my job. I was going to say it looks like the start of another Danish invasion.” Gloomp hissed and licked one of his ears. “‘Night Scout’ indeed! do me a squishy favor will ya? Take a proper look at this poor ghoul and tell me what you can actually see.” He dug one of his eyes out of its socket and briefly examined it. “I keep growing these things and this is all they are really good for,” he growled as he popped the eye into his mouth.
    I shook my new third head. “You’re not going to like this. There are bruises on the jellydancer’s knees, as though it was struck by a large, heavy, moving object. Also here in the snow, leading up to and heading away from the victim, are two long tracks.”
    Gloomp looked and nearly choked on retina. “Aw, hells below! You’re right. I’ve never seen tracks like that before.”
    “No one has,” I told him. “At least, not for over seventy years. this jellydancer looks like it got hit by a truck.”
    “A truck?”  A horrified look fell over Detective Infector Gloomp's crusty features. He took another long drink from my blood flask. “Cuthulu help us all!”


         II
    It was the next day when a couple of bulls came to my place and dragged me out of my little nest. Gloomp had ordered it and they were not being the least bit friendly. I met Gloomp in his office. He was twitching all over. Something happened to turn his normally rock solid jaw into jelly. “Arright Slime you gotta come straight with me this time. You said that a truck killed the Jellydancer.”
    “It looked like a truck did it,” I said. “It may have been something else just as big. I don't know for certain.”
    “I got some news for ya buddy. It weren’t no truck.”
    He was hiding something from me. “You’ve got a witness then?”
    “Had a witness. Floffy.”
    “Floffy? Didn’t he retire? Last I heard he went fishing.”
    Infector Gloomp propped a couple of tentacles on his desk. “Floffy couldn’t handle retirement, so he took up a watcher position down by the old railway. Good troll, old Floffy; always knew how to keep feelers out for signs of trouble.  Well, I sent one of my boys to check out where those tracks lead, you know what he found?”
    “Let me guess, Floffy,” I said as I pulled out my flask and held it out to him.
    “Don’t get ahead of me Slime. Arright, you already have two more than me but that’s not the issue here.” Gloomp took the flask, gave it shake, and shot me a questioning look. I pointed knowingly at his desk. He nodded as he remembered why it was empty and pulled out a bottle from his desk. After filling my flask and handing It back to me, Gloomp took a long pull from the bottle and continued, “Yeah my boy found Floffy, but not before finding a whole bunch more Jellydancers. The very ones from the scene earlier. It looked like a turf battle between the Splamps and the Splomps again but for the charred corpses.”
    “Charred?” I asked as I took a drink form my flask.
    “Yeah that’s right, this was a full on flame war! Well, from the looks of things, this flame war happened in Floffly’s neighborhood. It was enough to bring him out of the water to deal with it, if you can imagine that. Floffy wasn’t there any more though. Found him farther down the road Slime, like he had been dragged there. He was torn up really bad, and someone had been cutting on him. They left him there all tangled up among some tree trunks. Now, you think about that for a moment Slime. Who do you know might get a bunch of jellys and Floffly so screwed up? Huh? Floffy told us before he died, you want to know what he said? Go on take a guess.”
    “I’m not going to play your game.” I told Gloomp. “You’re the one who dragged me in here today. Either you’re going to tell me or you’re not.”
    “Spooks.”
    The word gave me chills. “Spooks? From the government house?”
    “You tell me, Slime. You’ve had dealings with spooks before.”
    Something just didn’t seem right about this turn of events. “Not for a long time, but what were you saying before? About it not being a truck.”
    “Got a tip from someone with eyes over at the government house. Said they saw a vehicle over there; big one with crawler treads. A whole bunch of spooks went in and out of it just before it got moving, heading our way. It was a tank.”
    “Sounds to me like you’ve got this all worked out. So what is it you want from me?”
    Gloomp stretched up and set his tentacles back on the floor. “This client of yours Slime, this knees of Smiley’s. Are they a spook?”
    “They can’t be.”
    “You sure about that?”
    I shook a head. “They just seem to solid.”
    “Well, I’ll be the judge of that. Bring em in, I need to have chat.”
    “You know I can’t do that Gloomp.”
    “Stop thinking with your proboscis, Splayed. You’ll bring them in, or heads are going to roll. Hades knows you have a couple to spare.”

       III
   I searched the corpse of the trollifcer I found. It was hastily buried, partially with dirt and partially with snow. Had I arrived only an hour later I would have missed it entirely as another heavier storm was already covering the tracks of the spooktank. Fortunately for me, whoever killed this bull was in such a hurry that they did not take their psEYEic. For a moment I was happy to know that this new way of recording incidents was going to shed some real light on this case. I carefully removed the trollifcer’s eye and removed one of my own to load it up to my waiting socket, and saw his last moments.

   “Hey.”
   I had no idea what this bull was talking to. As far as I could tell he was interrogating a tree. Then the thin, white trunk moved, turning full about, and it had eyes. 
   “Mrr?”
   No tree ever made a sound like that.
   “Is that your vehicle sir?” The view shifted to the right and a jagged pincer gestured straight out at a large metal crate with feline features and long bands of heavy treads. Damn it all, Infector Gloonk was right. A tank! My mind began to race with the possibility of another invasion. This quiet, skinny, pale subject standing before me in the memory trashed the notion by just being there. That was clearly not a Dane.
   “Mrr?” Again with that noise. Was it trying to speak?
   “Sir, that vehicle is illegally parked. Furthermore this entire area is closed to all camping due to an oncoming storm. If you or anyone associated with yourself are associated with it, I must ask that you relocate to a safe area, preferably within the city limits.”
   “Mrr.”   
   “Sir, do you understand what I am saying to you?”
   Those frosty eyes narrowed only a little bit. I could swear I saw the flash of metal before the subject lunged forward. I felt the sting of pain in my thorax from the psEYEic re-view. Cold. I had to focus quickly or I might believe that I was the one being attacked. In a panic, I reached up to pull it from my socket and disconnect. I saw the world spin and tilt with hardly a sound. Stern, straight lips came into view, a crunching sound, and silence.

   I lay on the snow, trying to breathe, but mostly I coughed in hard bursts that scraped my throats like swilling cell after cell of old, cheap battery acid. The psEYEic lay crushed in my claws; my first piece of hard evidence ruined by my sudden loss of professionalism.  That thing was no spook. Some may be thin, wispy, and white like this, even as quick and quiet, but this was too well fleshed out. Just before the flash I saw what gave it away, a five-fingered hand. This was a man.
   Men, tanks, my mind rushed to the easy conclusion, invasion. I knew deep down in my polyps it was not right for there was just one more thing I saw before this poor bull, stuck down just for doing his duty, saw just before the end. That man's eyes glowed. The flash was not just from a bit of metal piercing its middle; the light it reflected came from him, like… magic, damn it!
   There was no way I could prove this to Gloonk. He was a good friend but he would never believe this story, no matter how chummy we may have been. Only two paths lay before me now. As I stood up I put the psEYEic to my lips and took a long deep suck of the retina. 
   I could go back to Gloonk and tell the truth. The suspect or suspects skipped town. He would probably be glad to let it become someone else's problem. I did not have to tell him about seeing the man get all glowy with what at the moment I could only describe as magic. Gloonk hated talk about that stuff anyway. 
   Then, receding into the distance, the tracks from the tank pointed out the second path. I could still follow it before the snow  covered the evidence, if only just to satisfy my own curiosity about the goings on of the last few days. To prove to myself that there was no such thing as a Night Scout. I flicked the spent psEYEic to the ground. I always hated the short shortsightedness of dichotomies. Only two choices, black or white, good or bad, healthy or diseased. This is the reason why I grew a third head.

    IV
   The mess that was the watchtroll turned my stomachs. Mouth and belly slit open, bits of old papers everywhere, I could hardly fathom what kind of tortures this killer put him through just for some old info. I needed a stiff one right now. I went down to the cooler of the hospital in hopes to find something that had not spoiled too much under the strain of time, or too little for that matter. Even though the cooler was a long way past it's usefulness, if it was still sealed well enough it might have something worth a taste. Someone was waiting for me there. I heard their footsteps as they came near and took a seat.
   “I don’t have time for this,” I said as I opened a promising door. Its soft seals tore as it opened and I saw a tempting label on the shelf inside reading, ‘MacIntyre.’ I pulled the shelf out and a not too fresh, and not too spoiled corpse was displayed on it before me. “I’m on a case.”
   Smiley's knees just crossed casually and gave a little flip of the foot as if to say, ‘So what?’ Damn if I was not such a sucker for a nice pair of legs. I guess I should not have been surprised when they caught up with me. Being all legs they really could run like hell. “I haven't forgotten, but this case, well, you're already too involved.”
   The legs uncrossed and spread apart slowly, dragging both feet and making little crossing arcs on the scummy floor. I let myself have a good look before I let her know I meant business. “I like what you've done with your gangrene, it goes well with your heels.”
   They jumped up, both feet stomping the ground in anger and made for a quick march at me. I stopped them with one tentacle stretched out. “Enough of that! I know you're hot for news, but this is about more than Smiley. It's gotten bigger than Copenhagen, and to be honest, I don't know if I can trust you.”
   They ground one toe against the ground. “Don't try to act coy with me now. I don't think the two of you were really joined at the hip. You're not really Smiley's knees are you?” They didn't answer but I didn't expect one. “I didn't think so. I have seen your kind before. Smiley mentored me, and now I am a leg man just as much as he was. He flashed his big toothy grin at you, and you  lost your head. Then he stole your heart; left you just another of the quiet walking wounded.”
   They took a step and a half back, still angry. “Don't worry, I know you didn't kill him. You would have liked to, but no. Tell me does the name ‘Night Scout’ mean anything to you?” A shift of weight told me ‘no.’ Then they sauntered over to the slab and propped themselves up rubbing the ankles together to try and weaken me with the tease, hoping I'd let a bit of info slip.
   “Not a chance!” I told them. “I am not letting you get into this, no matter if you really cared about Smiley or not. This lead is too dangerous and I can't have the likes of you following me, you stand out too much.” Smiley's knees gave the corpse on the slab one good, hard kick that snapped off its leg and sent it flying at me, name tag and all. Fortunately they didn't have a throwing arm to speak of and it was easy for me to catch the flying limb. “Take it easy there twinkle toes. This is a hundred year old Scott, it's the good stuff.” I took a good pull on the Scott between my teeth and let myself savor the aged, smokiness. “Mighty fine if you have the belly for it.”
   They jumped down off the slab and tried to give me another toe to my pseudopod. 
   “You may want to go join the Jellydancers, they have some openings in their kick line thanks to all this mess! Whatever is going on, Smiley was just the start of it. Whoever is doing this is looking for information. I know because everywhere they have been the old archives have been raided and someone has turned up dead. The latest was the guard troll here. They must have found something important here because the guard tried to eat it just to keep it away from them. This killer chased him down and cut him open to get at it. Does that scare you enough to stay out of it now?”
   They just quietly turned one heel, all the fight gone for now. “Do me a favor, march those legs back home and wait for me to solve this. If you keep following me you're going to lose your ass, and no one will be able to put you back together after that. Now if you will excuse me, I need to see a horse, about a man.”

 
 
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on March 06, 2016, 08:43:22 PM
The sudden, horrifying death of a former mentor and colleague throws Slime Splayed back together with his ex-partner to stalk a killer known only as the Night Scout, but as one crime leads to another, he finds himself tangled in a web of intrigue, friendship, love, betrayal, and murder in – Silence Broken.

                                Silence Broken

This... this is wonderful. *mashes face up against the screen* ...more?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: tamaerchen on March 06, 2016, 10:06:29 PM
Fogtreader, this is hilarious! Detective Infector! :D
I love how you change idioms and tropes around to match the monster-perspective.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Athena on March 06, 2016, 11:22:43 PM
Luth: That was an interesting vignette. Nice to see Ville is teaching Hannu some manners! And the Kade/Troll is definitely worth following further - would make for interesting backstory.

Thank you! I definitely know what to write next, too! :))
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Tap on March 07, 2016, 12:04:50 AM
omg Fogtreader that was hilarious! ahh you did it perfectly, haha!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on March 07, 2016, 01:00:15 AM
Fogtreader, that's great! I'm a sucker for a gritty detective story!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on March 07, 2016, 01:14:25 AM
The names, though. The names were perfection.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Talimee on March 07, 2016, 05:21:59 AM
Fogtreader: Awesome idea! Very nice dosage and placement of body horror (The EYES! D: ) and a very interesting idea about the possible split-up of a giant. Great! More? Plx?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on March 07, 2016, 05:50:09 AM
http://archiveofourown.org/works/5853457/chapters/14171800

Here's another chapter of whatever the plot is supposed to be
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on March 07, 2016, 06:04:53 AM
This is getting very interesting! Are you setting up to lose Mikkel or Sigrun, I wonder? I chuckled at Reynir's hair!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Kiraly on March 07, 2016, 10:52:10 AM
Wow, that was awesome Fogtreader! I lost it at "Do you have anything anything else to share with me? Besides your left arm?"

And hooray, new chapter of the Mora Academy! Thanks for making my morning, OwlsG0! I enjoyed their various reactions to the new assignment, and I'm excited to see what they get up to out there. (Will probably write a longer comment on AO3 later, when I'm more awake).
Reynir's hair made me laugh too (I know the struggle all too well, mine is practically carnivorous). And I'm reminded, I have some doodles to show you as soon as I can get them from my sketchbook to the computer. :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on March 07, 2016, 02:25:29 PM
While I mull over a few other fics here’s something I’ve had on the boil for about a week now: a story of Sigrun and Emil’s book run in the current chapter that we never got to see. Contains some (very justified) swearing in their native languages, and a big troll.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/6188191

Hope you like it!

Frogtreader, that was just wonderful!

Edit: Whoops, forgot to say: thanks to Laufey for helping me come up with the name of said big troll!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Athena on March 07, 2016, 02:50:06 PM
While I mull over a few other fics here’s something I’ve had on the boil for about a week now: a story of Sigrun and Emil’s book run in the current chapter that we never got to see. Contains some (very justified) swearing in their native languages, and a big troll.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/6188191

Hope you like it!

Frogtreader, that was just wonderful!

I love it!  ;D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on March 07, 2016, 09:52:13 PM
While I mull over a few other fics here’s something I’ve had on the boil for about a week now: a story of Sigrun and Emil’s book run in the current chapter that we never got to see. Contains some (very justified) swearing in their native languages, and a big troll.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/6188191

Hope you like it!

Left you a review.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: frostykitty on March 08, 2016, 05:53:45 PM
While I read what I missed, have chapter eight, and nine is on its way... And if you have any name suggestions (for those weird Y0 lab people,) please messagel me or something! I don't want the names to be odd for the area and such...

WAIT! I think it's too long... Ehhh, I'll check soon... Yeah, too long. By 785 words ;-; So have this link to it (http://sta.sh/01qulcci4pno)

Spoiler: show
So, this would've been up yesterday, but my power went out so I had no internet.

AND how was that? Not entirely out of character, but mostly out of character? This is why I shouldn't get a sudden burst of inspiration... Next up? Tuuri reading notebooks when she should really sleep.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on March 08, 2016, 06:45:40 PM
While I read what I missed, have chapter eight, and nine is on its way... And if you have any name suggestions (for those weird Y0 lab people,) please messagel me or something! I don't want the names to be odd for the area and such...

WAIT! I think it's too long... Ehhh, I'll check soon... Yeah, too long. By 785 words ;-; So have this link to it (http://sta.sh/01qulcci4pno)

Spoiler: show
So, this would've been up yesterday, but my power went out so I had no internet.

AND how was that? Not entirely out of character, but mostly out of character? This is why I shouldn't get a sudden burst of inspiration... Next up? Tuuri reading notebooks when she should really sleep.


Been so long since I've commented on this. Well, don't think it's entirely out of character for Sigrun to get nasty gashes that need stitching and call it "just a few scratches" - though I also think she's a lot less blase about injuries than she appears at first glance, and you were also right not to have her fight Mikkel on getting her wounds tended.

Also curious where Emil's reluctance to read was coming from? He might have dropped out of school to join the military, but he does still consider himself an academic to some extent. Sigrun's the one who has to be dragged by the ear to get her to read anything. ;)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: tamaerchen on March 08, 2016, 06:51:20 PM
Mikkel taking them through the scenario was pretty intense - makes you realise that he has been through some really dire stuff himself.

I was worried for a bit when Sigrun was left alone in the building but I'm glad she made it back (mostly) intact. :)

And why number 5 was left alive really is a mystery... Especially considering that they killed 15 trolls after her and stayed there for more than a year!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: frostykitty on March 08, 2016, 07:13:11 PM
I have caught up!
Frogtreader, that was fantastic.
OwlsG0, I had read that in the morning. My friend was trying to sleep on the bus, and I think she was quite annoyed by my laughter.
And finally, SectoBoss, that was amazing as always. I nearly had to skip part of the troll's attack to avoid becoming faint, but I should be fine now.

Emil just isn't interested in reading, it seems... I just feel like Tuuri would try to get him to read. Not that he doesn't want to, more like it's boring, I  suppose. I was wonder if I should've changed that scene, but I had some people look over it and they said it was fine, so it made it through.
Lalli would've told her of any troubles, so Sigrun was just fine. It was only a few small trolls!
And the mystery of 5 will be less-of-a-mystery-but-still-kind-of-a-mystery after chapter nine.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on March 09, 2016, 01:33:05 AM
Here's that thing about the gods again, back for a second chapter

[spoiler]

Even if Lalli did have a language in common with Emil, he isn't sure how he would describe what he saw. The whole of last night (which was nearly an eternity, with Reynir happily talking his ear off about sheep), he had about a dozen descriptions teetering on the tip of his tongue. He could have told Reynir, if only he had been certain that Reynir would understand what he was talking about.

It was more of a sensation, than a thing to be seen. The sensation of deep dread, unlike any he had experienced since moving to Keuruu. The dread came in a humanoid form, sure, but when Lalli gathered his courage and managed to look at it, the thing he saw could not be mistaken for human by even the most innocent child.
For one thing, the woman he saw wore only half her flesh. The rest of her was bare, shining bone. She stood, unashamed of her either form of her nakedness, and stared at him with a single socket and a single cold, blue eye.

He became aware of her sometime after the spirits had entered his mage-space. That, in itself, was terrifying. Having whatever those disgusting, warped things were enter his mind was like having his spine plucked out of him, vertebrae by vertebrae. Lalli had barely become conscious of being free from the invaders - possibly due to a glowing angry owl that was either Onni or someone who looked and sounded and felt exactly like him- when the dread came to him.

He took his time collecting his strength, not at all prepared or eager to see what was behind him.

He turned, he saw the woman, and the two of them stood in front of each other for the longest time.

Lalli spoke first. He had to.

"You're not one of mine."
One of his gods. It is easy to look at a god and know you are looking at a god. Everyone who has ever seen a god before knows it is impossible to mistake them for anything else.

"No," her voice was not a real voice- it was made out of the noises shadows make when they first fall to the ground, and the death rattle of a warrior whose body is so full of arrows that they outnumber the bones "I am not. But you are one of mine. There are so few of you left, we have agreed to share."

That sent a horrible chill through him, and he longed to see his family. To see them alive and breathing in front of him, in the place of this half-woman.

He thought it best to get straight to the point "What do you want from me?"

"Nothing that is not already mine. Your life is mine- as are the lives of all who do not die in battle, armed, brave. Do not worry. I am no longer a god of suffering. I think you'll find the after-life a pleasant place to be. At least, easier on your nerves than this world."

It was then that he knew she was lying. Not about who she was. Lalli had no trouble at all believing she was a god made to walk among the dead and collect them in their droves, but what caught her out was the way she spoke of him. 'This world', not 'the world you have just left' or 'the other world'. It was 'this world' and Lalli knew he was being tricked.
His eyes must have flashed with fear or anger (he isn't sure which it would have been) and in the same instant, she knew that he knew.

"Wait." is all she got out before Lalli tore out of his space.

He didn't look back. He didn't search for his luonto or check for trolls before tearing out into the open space between spaces. He just scented the nearest space (Reynir,of course, since he was sleeping about five feet away from Lalli) and dove into it without waiting for permission. On the bright side, Reynir is not an experienced mage and has no idea how blasted rude it is to dive straight into someone's head without first asking. Which is probably why Lalli keeps catching him straying way too close for comfort to his own boundaries.


Lalli knew he was going to have to do something about the encounter when he got up that morning. Firstly, he had managed to actually be scared straight out of a coma. He only had to stretch his back to feel his luonto had crept back where it belonged, sometime between him losing consciousness in the dream world and regaining it in the corporeal. Not only did Lalli get frightened out of his coma, but his luonto got scared straight back into him. That isn't supposed to happen.
Secondly, he saw her again.

Naked as she had been inside his space, and giving no indication at all that she felt the cold. Her arms were limp at her sides. Her black hair was still in the winds that rocked the tank's exterior. The same blue-eye-empty-socket stare was on him.
Lalli glanced at Tuuri and made his decision; Sigrun and Mikkel would stay. If that foreign god wanted to go for his cousin, she could go through Sigrun and Mikkel. It was not the best defense. But it was the only thing he could think of.

Reynir and Emil were coming with him. Reynir, because Lalli knew he was going to need another magical presence, however useless Reynir might actually prove to be. Emil, because Lalli knew he wasn't going to be able to set foot outside the tank today without Emil at his side.

He just hopes he hasn't lead them into something he cannot fight back, or scare off, or, if worst comes to worst, evade, by standing absolutely still and staying completely silent.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on March 09, 2016, 02:28:05 AM
Aah, scary. She's maybe Hel?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on March 09, 2016, 02:36:31 AM
Aah, scary. She's maybe Hel?

Bingo! Loki's favourite child, right after that eight-legged horse 
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: frostykitty on March 09, 2016, 08:39:55 PM
Ahhh, it continues! Mysterious... Can't wait for more!

And now-
I finished chapter nine rather quickly. And I lied. There's going to be a chapter ten because I have an idea. But chapter ten is going to be like a bonus thing, it doesn't affect our main team. (Edit- it's only about five paragraphs long, just a short little thing that I'll post tomorrow.)

so it got a little too big... (http://sta.sh/0wxlmq9bdbh)

But I did it in a reasonable amount of time *gasp* That's unheard of!
Spoiler: notessss • show
So? It's... It's there... Not sure if I like it, but it's there.
And the names... Have a better one that would fit in for the area? Please, say something.

I will do those drawings mentioned, only maybe not the trolls... I don't trust my abilities to draw proper anatomy as it is, that'll just be, uh, awful if I attempt to draw a troll. I will draw the others though, especially Björn Jr. Yes, they named the cat Björn Jr.
As for the writer's identity, think back to the skeleton just outside the troll room.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: meshebe on March 09, 2016, 09:10:03 PM
drops in
OWLSGO THAT WAS AMAZING
drops out

I'll have to come back and read more things when I have more time =D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: tamaerchen on March 10, 2016, 11:49:31 AM
frostykitty, you're quick! :o
And it was an interesting read as well. While we kind of knew before what was going in that place, this part made the situation feel more real to me. I get shudders thinking about living in a place surrounded by trolls and then also having trolls inside on purpose and apparently they sometimes escape and in the case of 005 and Björn communicate across rooms and ugh it's all very creepy. :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on March 10, 2016, 07:57:07 PM
I keep getting a new AU idea that won't leave me alooooooooooone!

Gladiator!Sigrun. With Emil as her very reluctant protege/apprentice.

It's a fun idea, but why? I already have too much to do as is!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on March 10, 2016, 08:02:08 PM
Lazy8: Gladiator, huh! Now is that back in the Roman times, orrrr.... Maybe some of the more intelligent and together trolls, or a group of totally feral immune survivors, or some unholy alliance of the above, capture them and like to play with their food before they eat it?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on March 10, 2016, 08:55:52 PM
Lazy8: Gladiator, huh! Now is that back in the Roman times, orrrr.... Maybe some of the more intelligent and together trolls, or a group of totally feral immune survivors, or some unholy alliance of the above, capture them and like to play with their food before they eat it?

Well I was just thinking classic Roman times (got a lot of classic education back in high school and remember rather enjoying it), but... trolls... intelligent trolls... frightfully intelligent trolls that like to play with their food... Hmmmm... This is intriguing, I like it! Will have to keep thinking on these possibilities... (And then scream some more because I still have too much else to do!)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: frostykitty on March 10, 2016, 09:50:57 PM
That sounds sooo coool! I would love to see that if you found time to do it!

And I almost forgot! The little tiny bonus chapter!
Spoiler: year zero. return to silence; part two, chapter ten • show
{chapter 10}

They ran down the corridor with wild fear blazing in their bright blue eyes. Up the stairs, up to the second floor. Close all the doors you can between you and it. Hurry, hurry, move the desks! SLAM! The beast had ran blindly into the first door.

Trembling, they picked up the pace, ignoring the scratchy wail of 005. Of the troll that never died, no matter how hard they tried to do away with it. A desk and a few chairs on each side? Good enough. You'll die any minute now, it's not going to stop coming. Hurry up and write. They gritted their teeth and opened their note book. They started to furiously scribble down a letter.

'I know someone will find us eventually. Our team of freak survivors and our goal just out of reach. I was never one with words, so I'll make it quick. Don't let our research go to waste. If this building still stands and our journals are intact, that is.  We have all lost our lives for it, and now I'm about to loose mine. I wish you good luck, you people of the far future. Stay safe in the lands of silence.'

They tossed the book aside. The screaming had grown. This is it. The end of my tale. I hope they'll care to read it, if they come. When they come, I'm positive they will. Someone, sometime. Sooner or later, someone will come. We will set the world right, once again.

Skrrritch skrrrratch... Björn clawed at the door with a whimper. They held their breath and closed their eyes tight, waiting. But nothing happened. Björn let out a small whine, the sound of his claws tapping on the tile floor alerting the human to his slow retreat. They opened their eyes in disbelief. "Well wasn't that fun..." They muttered, ever sarcastic - momentarily forgetting about the troll escaping from its tank in the room just behind them...


Spoiler: notessss • show
And thus concludes part two.
Smol and fast-paced, how fun! To be honest I was a bit anxious a while after writing this. Pft, I heard a sound in the hallway and whipped around with a fist raised, to see the wall. Just the wall. *Hides in shame*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: tamaerchen on March 10, 2016, 09:59:45 PM
Oh, wow. Yes, that did indeed quicken my heartbeat - I'll be weary about sounds from the hallway now as well. (Not very practical when you live in a dorm with 79 other people...;))
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on March 11, 2016, 12:47:02 AM
Well I was just thinking classic Roman times (got a lot of classic education back in high school and remember rather enjoying it), but... trolls... intelligent trolls... frightfully intelligent trolls that like to play with their food... Hmmmm... This is intriguing, I like it! Will have to keep thinking on these possibilities... (And then scream some more because I still have too much else to do!)

Funny you should mention a gladiator Sigrun? I've been thinking about her in a Roman AU all week, right down to Emil being her junior and trainee and pseudo-son/little brother! If you can find the time, you should definitely write something for your AU. I know I'm never going to touch it- I've got way too much to write as it is.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on March 11, 2016, 08:15:04 AM
Funny you should mention a gladiator Sigrun? I've been thinking about her in a Roman AU all week, right down to Emil being her junior and trainee and pseudo-son/little brother! If you can find the time, you should definitely write something for your AU. I know I'm never going to touch it- I've got way too much to write as it is.

That is a weird coincidence indeed. Great minds?

And I waaaaaant to, but... *looks at pile of other stuff I need to be doing*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on March 13, 2016, 05:11:02 AM
Here comes another chapter of the Mora-monster. Not too many more are left to write at this point

http://archiveofourown.org/works/5853457/chapters/14288143

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Talimee on March 13, 2016, 08:40:14 AM
Here comes another chapter of the Mora-monster. Not too many more are left to write at this point

Yay! New chapter! I like reading these while breakfasting. =) Seems a perfect fit.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on March 13, 2016, 08:48:25 AM
Good one, OwlsG0!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Pupunen on March 17, 2016, 03:27:34 PM
I really didn't think I would end up writing another fanfic, but it seems that once you've written one, there's no going back. Oh well, at least this one's short. Does anyone like Finnish mythology?

http://archiveofourown.org/works/6276040
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on March 17, 2016, 03:38:25 PM
I really didn't think I would end up writing another fanfic, but it seems that once you've written one, there's no going back. Oh well, at least this one's short. Does anyone like Finnish mythology?

http://archiveofourown.org/works/6276040

Left a comment but just going to say here too: I really liked this!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on March 17, 2016, 04:17:22 PM
I really didn't think I would end up writing another fanfic, but it seems that once you've written one, there's no going back. Oh well, at least this one's short. Does anyone like Finnish mythology?

http://archiveofourown.org/works/6276040

Everyone likes Finnish mythology!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on March 17, 2016, 06:30:52 PM
Pupunen: that was great! Interesting in how many cultures that concept turns up. And of course it would be Emil who heard.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on March 17, 2016, 08:08:49 PM
Does anyone like Finnish mythology?
Well, there's this comic several others around here like called A Red Tail's Dream...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Aki on March 17, 2016, 09:03:05 PM
I wrote something in like 1.5 hours? It's the application/adaptation of a poem by Dylan Thomas (1914-1953)  (https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/do-not-go-gentle-good-night)(read: mutilation of great poetry) to Stand Still Stay Silent.

Title: Do not go gentle into that good night (http://aki-no-monogatari.tumblr.com/post/141229465165/do-not-go-gentle-into-that-good-night)
Characters: the crew minus the kitten
Pairings: none
length: super short
Published on: tumblr

Honestly, it's not a happy thing, I should not be left alone with such poetry and a light buzz. Explicitly non-explicit. There's no happy ending. Read at your own risk.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on March 17, 2016, 09:29:57 PM
Oh. That's.... Very fine. I don't think the original poet would mind at all, he liked a good darkness.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on March 18, 2016, 01:31:36 AM
I wrote something in like 1.5 hours? It's the application/adaptation of a poem by Dylan Thomas (1914-1953)  (https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poem/do-not-go-gentle-good-night)(read: mutilation of great poetry) to Stand Still Stay Silent.

Title: Do not go gentle into that good night (http://aki-no-monogatari.tumblr.com/post/141229465165/do-not-go-gentle-into-that-good-night)
Characters: the crew minus the kitten
Pairings: none
length: super short
Published on: tumblr

Honestly, it's not a happy thing, I should not be left alone with such poetry and a light buzz. Explicitly non-explicit. There's no happy ending. Read at your own risk.

Nicely done. The happy ending is not always the appropriate one.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: tamaerchen on March 18, 2016, 02:56:07 AM
Aki, this is a great piece! It made me feel with them so terribly much and I would read it again and again if it didn't break my heart every time. (Instead I went and illustrated "And death shall have no dominion". :3)
I kind of already screamed about this on tumblr, but I don't care, this deserves to be praised multiple times. <3
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: tamaerchen on March 18, 2016, 04:09:49 AM
Oops, double posting - but I come bearing gifts! It's the fic I posted an illustration in the Art Museum for a couple of days ago.

Title: Currents

Summary: Saku is "dying" again and Aino has to accept that the world is indeed ending - luckily they've got each other.
Length: 1,154 words
Rating: I put Gen but there's one f-word... I don't really know how to do ratings yet.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/6281845 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6281845)

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Puls3 on March 18, 2016, 08:03:46 AM
tamaerchen: Such a heartwarming story  ^-^ I especially adore the fact that you managed to make Saku and Aino complete each other with their contrasting personalities despite the dark times they find themselves in.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on March 19, 2016, 07:14:35 PM
Sigrun’s Shenanigans
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Part 1
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg93817#msg93817)
Spoiler: show
The Tale of Old Man MacMurray

When I was a kid in Dalsnes, there was This One House that had been empty for like twenty years. Everybody in town knew about it, but nobody talked about it, just like nobody went there or even looked at it if they were nearby.

Now, back in the 20s and 30s, the few die-hard Scots settlements that had been grimly hanging on in their old homes finally wised up and came over to Norway in dribbles and drabs, and a couple of them made it to Dalsnes. One of them was Old Man MacMurray.

See, I never met the man, personally; he was long dead before the world created my magnificence. The stories he left behind, though--I saw the most fearless Hunters go pale when his name was mentioned, and I really think most of those who knew him would rather take on a giant in single combat than spend an hour in his company.

So. Old Man MacMurray took over this one house; I’m not sure whether he bought it, it was given to him, or he just demanded it, but he got it somehow, and he held onto it as his fathers had held to their little Highland hamlets.

As he got older, he got more and more reclusive, and more and more terrifying. People began to whisper about Dark Scots magic, up to and including child sacrifices at the waxing of the moon, but no one could prove anything, and when the local seiðkarl came by, he said there was nothing wrong with the place--but everyone knew he was as scared of Old Man MacMurray as everyone else.

Well, finally he died--from what I heard, he had a stroke while arguing over some petty thing or another in the mead-hall--and the fear of him lingered on. It took more than ten years for someone to dare to even look into That House, and when they did... Let’s say they were lucky to have friends standing outside, OK?

Now, kids are kinda silly sometimes; even I was, if you can believe it. There were a pack of us that palled around back when I was in my single digits; most lost interest once we started Hunting training, but this was just before that, so I was maybe... ten? Eleven? Anyway, naturally I was the ringleader, and the most best one the Dalsnes youth had ever seen, but back then, I didn’t know how to spot mutiny in the works.

The challenge came out of the blue: I was to prove my mettle by spending 48 hours straight in That Old House. Again, kids can be kinda silly; he actually thought I’d refuse! Weird. Although, I’ll admit I had a bit of a crazy moment just as I was going into That House where I wanted to turn around and run, but I’m Sigrun Eide, and Eides only run if it’ll save someone else; no Eide runs from their own death.

It was actually pretty boring in there, so I fell asleep pretty quickly. My dreams were of Old Man MacMurray trying to chase me off, but I tied him up in the chains he rattled at me, caught the torches he threw at me and threw them back, and out-yelled him when he finally faced me down. I told him who I am and dared him to come after me, and he backed down. Yeah, those dreams were fun.

I had rather expected some of the gang to come in and try to pull pranks on me, but none did, or they all said they hadn’t tried to; anyway, not a thing happened to me the whole two days, though I searched That House from top to bottom.

One odd thing that wasn’t a prank did happen, though. I was looking through Old Man MacMurray’s desk when an old letter popped out from a secret drawer--and it had my name on it! Of course, I’d forgotten my grandmother had the same name as I, so when I took it to my Dad, he laughed at my claims of Old Man MacMurray somehow scrying out my incursion into That House.

The letter turned out to be, of all things, a love letter, though Mormor Sigrun was quite Old Man MacMurray’s elder. It just goes to show how you never know about some people.

The kid who challenged me didn’t dare show his face around Dalsnes for a good long while; in fact, since Hunter training started so soon thereafter, I don’t think I’ve seen him since. You can probably tell that I count it as no great loss, though it is a bit weird in a small town like Dalsnes.

But that reminds me of another story...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
So, how many of you forgot this was going to be a thing?

*Maniacal Laughter* It’s going to be a thing!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on March 19, 2016, 08:10:39 PM
Good! I'd be interested to know what that love letter said...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: tamaerchen on March 19, 2016, 11:19:11 PM
tamaerchen: Such a heartwarming story  ^-^ I especially adore the fact that you managed to make Saku and Aino complete each other with their contrasting personalities despite the dark times they find themselves in.
Thank you. :) We only see them for such a short amount of time in the comic, but I felt like I really got to know them and their relationship. (I'm probably making a lot up but I feel that it's them and not me, if that makes sense.) Anyways, these two are great! <3

Sigrun’s Shenanigans
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Part 1
Nice!! I'm looking forward to more campfire stories! And I wonder what people found when they first looked into the house... And what happened to Sigrun's friend mortal enemy!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Crumpite on March 20, 2016, 01:38:23 AM
LooNEY_DAC,
That was excellent with lots of loose ends to tie further stories on to.
Please keep it up !
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Elleth on March 20, 2016, 02:05:16 AM
Apparently it's not a good thing to let me overthink potential scenarios when there's a cliffhanger, because they will inevitably turn into the opposite of what I intended to do, so here's a fic featuring Five Ways Sigrun Died Fighting the Watcher... and One She Didn't (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6299491). Like the title says, it contains character death. I tried not to make it too graphic, but proceed with caution anyway.

Not what I'd hoped to write my first SSSS fic about, but hey...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on March 20, 2016, 09:52:41 AM
Apparently it's not a good thing to let me overthink potential scenarios when there's a cliffhanger, because they will inevitably turn into the opposite of what I intended to do, so here's a fic featuring Five Ways Sigrun Died Fighting the Watcher... and One She Didn't (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6299491). Like the title says, it contains character death. I tried not to make it too graphic, but proceed with caution anyway.

Not what I'd hoped to write my first SSSS fic about, but hey...

Reviewed. Not well, but I'm kind of still reeling...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Dverghamrar on March 20, 2016, 10:36:31 AM
Apparently it's not a good thing to let me overthink potential scenarios when there's a cliffhanger, because they will inevitably turn into the opposite of what I intended to do, so here's a fic featuring Five Ways Sigrun Died Fighting the Watcher... and One She Didn't (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6299491). Like the title says, it contains character death. I tried not to make it too graphic, but proceed with caution anyway.

Not what I'd hoped to write my first SSSS fic about, but hey...
Elleth, love, I loved every moment of it! :D Longer review at AO3. And don't feel bad! My first SSSS fic looks like it will be dealing with (possible) terminal illness/permanent loss of one's luonto.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Elleth on March 20, 2016, 01:44:40 PM
Reviewed. Not well, but I'm kind of still reeling...

Yes well! Leaving people reeling feels like the ultimate compliment to me as an author! I mean, that is not a particularly happy fic, so if it left you doing somersaults I'd be a little worried, maybe.  ;D

Elleth, love, I loved every moment of it! :D Longer review at AO3. And don't feel bad! My first SSSS fic looks like it will be dealing with (possible) terminal illness/permanent loss of one's luonto.

Eee, thank you, love! Sometimes I wonder if the Silm fandom did a number on our minds when it comes to characters having a really miserable time? At any rate - poor mages, I hope they manage to catch some sort of break! Heh.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on March 20, 2016, 09:08:25 PM
Here, have some shameless Sigrun whump. (This is Kiraly's fault. (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=35.msg99035#msg99035)  And Laufey's fault (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=35.msg99002#msg99002), but mostly Kiraly's.)

Spoiler: Untitled • show
“Sigrun?  Sigrun!

All that she managed in return was a wet cough and what sounded like a few slurred curse words.  After a few more attempts to—well, it was impossible to tell quite what she was trying to do, her limbs were shaking so badly—she gave it up and sank back down to the cracked cement, shivering violently as her eyes began to slip closed.

That wouldn’t do.  “Emil, keep her awake.”

Emil, who’d been kneeling beside Sigrun with his flamethrower in hand (though empty now, curse those trolls, they would not be able to start a fire), looked up at him with an expression like a deer caught in the headlights.  “But how do I—”

“I don’t care what you do, just make sure she doesn’t lose consciousness.”  Even as he spoke Mikkel was shucking off Sigrun’s soaking wet jacket and undershirt (she was bleeding through her bandages and two layers of clothing, but re-stitching her arm would have to wait until she was no longer in danger of dying of cold); Emil hastily looked away and instead bent to talk to her in an undertone, leaving Mikkel free to focus on removing the rest of her clothes.

Her boots spilled puddles of water across the pavement when they came off—freezing cold water; she’d been in there far too long.  He stripped off her pants and socks next, but Sigrun shivered naked against the ground for only a few seconds before Mikkel had shrugged out of his own jacket and wrapped it around her.

She was practically swimming in it.  Though nearly his height, Sigrun didn’t have half of his bulk, and it showed in the way the jacket hung loose on her body, even more so in the way she sank into it, wrapping her arms around herself as if trying to absorb some of his residual heat.

After propping her up and helping her to lean against Emil (he didn’t want her on the cold ground for any longer than was absolutely necessary), Mikkel knelt and began removing his own boots.  Emil stared.

“Um… Mikkel?  What are you doing?”

Mikkel didn’t know why the Swede even bothered to ask him questions anymore, not when he would only complain that he couldn’t understand the answers.  Nevertheless, he responded, “I’d rather not amputate anything tonight.”  Though he didn’t know whether his words got across, he was sure Emil got the message well enough when he transferred his socks to Sigrun’s feet before shoving his own back into his boots.

That was as good as it was going to get.  Mikkel had done everything he could to make sure she didn’t succumb to cold; the rest of it would be up to Sigrun.

Emil helped heft Sigrun onto his back, propping her forward until gravity took over and her head settled against the back of his neck, her arms draped limply over his shoulders—now his jacket sleeve was spotted with blood.  Once he could be sure she was secure, Mikkel hooked his arms under her bare knees, and stood.

Sigrun was no lightweight, being tall and uncommonly athletic besides—but Mikkel was no weakling, either.  Mikkel shouldered her full weight with only the barest of grunts, and was confident that he would be able to do so for as long as he had to.

You’re a pretty strong guy, you’ll be able to pull me up with something, right?

Well, I suppose that I will.  Just not in the way we originally intended.

“Carry that,” he said to Emil, nodding his head toward Sigrun’s discarded clothing and weapons.  “I told Tuuri to follow the train tracks out of the city,” he continued as Emil bent to obey.  “The tank doesn’t move fast; they can’t have gotten far.  Hopefully we’ll be able to catch up to them in time.”

“We’ll get there in time.”

Mikkel looked behind him, startled.  Her words were slurred, her voice far softer than normal, but the statement had come, unmistakably, from Sigrun.

“I’ve survived worse than this.”  Her face was not visible to him from this angle, but Mikkel could still hear her smile.  “You’re not going to get rid of me that easily, farm boy.”

In spite of the dire situation, Mikkel found himself smiling in turn.  “No, I suppose not.”  He turned to Emil, who had everything in hand; there was nothing more to do than start walking.  Sigrun shivered once more against his back, and Mikkel shifted her weight a bit so she would be pressed as close against him as possible—so he would be sharing as much of his own body heat as he could with her.

“Oh, and Mikkel?”

“Hm?”  Sigrun was not out of danger, but that she was conscious and felt well enough to talk was encouraging—she might make it out of this yet.

“You’re off the list.”


Spoiler: Notes • show
And the whole thing started with this comment on a certain piece of artwork:

Laufey that's pretty much exactly how I imagine things shaking down too, I've definitely been thinking about Sigrun getting wrapped in Mikkel's coat ever since she fell in the water. (All the talk of hypothermia in the comic chitchat thread isn't helping my nerves, I just want her to be okay!!) All the details in your drawing are great, I love the boots and coat hanging from Mikkel's belt. (And blood, oh noooo...)
If someone would write a fic involving Mikkel wrapping Sigrun in his coat I would pay lots of money FEELINGS.

I do believe that you owe me some feelings.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on March 20, 2016, 09:20:34 PM
Definitely feelings from this reader! 'Off the list', heh. And Emil's socks. Good.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Rabbit on March 20, 2016, 09:27:44 PM
Here, have some shameless Sigrun whump. (This is Kiraly's fault. (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=35.msg99035#msg99035)  And Laufey's fault (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=35.msg99002#msg99002), but mostly Kiraly's.)

Spoiler: Untitled • show
“Sigrun?  Sigrun!

All that she managed in return was a wet cough and what sounded like a few slurred curse words.  After a few more attempts to—well, it was impossible to tell quite what she was trying to do, her limbs were shaking so badly—she gave it up and sank back down to the cracked cement, shivering violently as her eyes began to slip closed.

That wouldn’t do.  “Emil, keep her awake.”

Emil, who’d been kneeling beside Sigrun with his flamethrower in hand (though empty now, curse those trolls, they would not be able to start a fire), looked up at him with an expression like a deer caught in the headlights.  “But how do I—”

“I don’t care what you do, just make sure she doesn’t lose consciousness.”  Even as he spoke Mikkel was shucking off Sigrun’s soaking wet jacket and undershirt (she was bleeding through her bandages and two layers of clothing, but re-stitching her arm would have to wait until she was no longer in danger of dying of cold); Emil hastily looked away and instead bent to talk to her in an undertone, leaving Mikkel free to focus on removing the rest of her clothes.

Her boots spilled puddles of water across the pavement when they came off—freezing cold water; she’d been in there far too long.  He stripped off her pants and socks next, but Sigrun shivered naked against the ground for only a few seconds before Mikkel had shrugged out of his own jacket and wrapped it around her.

She was practically swimming in it.  Though nearly his height, Sigrun didn’t have half of his bulk, and it showed in the way the jacket hung loose on her body, even more so in the way she sank into it, wrapping her arms around herself as if trying to absorb some of his residual heat.

After propping her up and helping her to lean against Emil (he didn’t want her on the cold ground for any longer than was absolutely necessary), Mikkel knelt and began removing his own boots.  Emil stared.

“Um… Mikkel?  What are you doing?”

Mikkel didn’t know why the Swede even bothered to ask him questions anymore, not when he would only complain that he couldn’t understand the answers.  Nevertheless, he responded, “I’d rather not amputate anything tonight.”  Though he didn’t know whether his words got across, he was sure Emil got the message well enough when he transferred his socks to Sigrun’s feet before shoving his own back into his boots.

That was as good as it was going to get.  Mikkel had done everything he could to make sure she didn’t succumb to cold; the rest of it would be up to Sigrun.

Emil helped heft Sigrun onto his back, propping her forward until gravity took over and her head settled against the back of his neck, her arms draped limply over his shoulders—now his jacket sleeve was spotted with blood.  Once he could be sure she was secure, Mikkel hooked his arms under her bare knees, and stood.

Sigrun was no lightweight, being tall and uncommonly athletic besides—but Mikkel was no weakling, either.  Mikkel shouldered her full weight with only the barest of grunts, and was confident that he would be able to do so for as long as he had to.

You’re a pretty strong guy, you’ll be able to pull me up with something, right?

Well, I suppose that I will.  Just not in the way we originally intended.

“Carry that,” he said to Emil, nodding his head toward Sigrun’s discarded clothing and weapons.  “I told Tuuri to follow the train tracks out of the city,” he continued as Emil bent to obey.  “The tank doesn’t move fast; they can’t have gotten far.  Hopefully we’ll be able to catch up to them in time.”

“We’ll get there in time.”

Mikkel looked behind him, startled.  Her words were slurred, her voice far softer than normal, but the statement had come, unmistakably, from Sigrun.

“I’ve survived worse than this.”  Her face was not visible to him from this angle, but Mikkel could still hear her smile.  “You’re not going to get rid of me that easily, farm boy.”

In spite of the dire situation, Mikkel found himself smiling in turn.  “No, I suppose not.”  He turned to Emil, who had everything in hand; there was nothing more to do than start walking.  Sigrun shivered once more against his back, and Mikkel shifted her weight a bit so she would be pressed as close against him as possible—so he would be sharing as much of his own body heat as he could with her.

“Oh, and Mikkel?”

“Hm?”  Sigrun was not out of danger, but that she was conscious and felt well enough to talk was encouraging—she might make it out of this yet.

“You’re off the list.”


Spoiler: Notes • show
And the whole thing started with this comment on a certain piece of artwork:

Laufey that's pretty much exactly how I imagine things shaking down too, I've definitely been thinking about Sigrun getting wrapped in Mikkel's coat ever since she fell in the water. (All the talk of hypothermia in the comic chitchat thread isn't helping my nerves, I just want her to be okay!!) All the details in your drawing are great, I love the boots and coat hanging from Mikkel's belt. (And blood, oh noooo...)
If someone would write a fic involving Mikkel wrapping Sigrun in his coat I would pay lots of money FEELINGS.

I do believe that you owe me some feelings.


*chinhands* Most excellent.
*tosses feelings at you*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Kiraly on March 20, 2016, 09:36:04 PM
Here, have some shameless Sigrun whump. (This is Kiraly's fault. (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=35.msg99035#msg99035)  And Laufey's fault (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=35.msg99002#msg99002), but mostly Kiraly's.)

Spoiler: Untitled • show
“Sigrun?  Sigrun!

All that she managed in return was a wet cough and what sounded like a few slurred curse words.  After a few more attempts to—well, it was impossible to tell quite what she was trying to do, her limbs were shaking so badly—she gave it up and sank back down to the cracked cement, shivering violently as her eyes began to slip closed.

That wouldn’t do.  “Emil, keep her awake.”

Emil, who’d been kneeling beside Sigrun with his flamethrower in hand (though empty now, curse those trolls, they would not be able to start a fire), looked up at him with an expression like a deer caught in the headlights.  “But how do I—”

“I don’t care what you do, just make sure she doesn’t lose consciousness.”  Even as he spoke Mikkel was shucking off Sigrun’s soaking wet jacket and undershirt (she was bleeding through her bandages and two layers of clothing, but re-stitching her arm would have to wait until she was no longer in danger of dying of cold); Emil hastily looked away and instead bent to talk to her in an undertone, leaving Mikkel free to focus on removing the rest of her clothes.

Her boots spilled puddles of water across the pavement when they came off—freezing cold water; she’d been in there far too long.  He stripped off her pants and socks next, but Sigrun shivered naked against the ground for only a few seconds before Mikkel had shrugged out of his own jacket and wrapped it around her.

She was practically swimming in it.  Though nearly his height, Sigrun didn’t have half of his bulk, and it showed in the way the jacket hung loose on her body, even more so in the way she sank into it, wrapping her arms around herself as if trying to absorb some of his residual heat.

After propping her up and helping her to lean against Emil (he didn’t want her on the cold ground for any longer than was absolutely necessary), Mikkel knelt and began removing his own boots.  Emil stared.

“Um… Mikkel?  What are you doing?”

Mikkel didn’t know why the Swede even bothered to ask him questions anymore, not when he would only complain that he couldn’t understand the answers.  Nevertheless, he responded, “I’d rather not amputate anything tonight.”  Though he didn’t know whether his words got across, he was sure Emil got the message well enough when he transferred his socks to Sigrun’s feet before shoving his own back into his boots.

That was as good as it was going to get.  Mikkel had done everything he could to make sure she didn’t succumb to cold; the rest of it would be up to Sigrun.

Emil helped heft Sigrun onto his back, propping her forward until gravity took over and her head settled against the back of his neck, her arms draped limply over his shoulders—now his jacket sleeve was spotted with blood.  Once he could be sure she was secure, Mikkel hooked his arms under her bare knees, and stood.

Sigrun was no lightweight, being tall and uncommonly athletic besides—but Mikkel was no weakling, either.  Mikkel shouldered her full weight with only the barest of grunts, and was confident that he would be able to do so for as long as he had to.

You’re a pretty strong guy, you’ll be able to pull me up with something, right?

Well, I suppose that I will.  Just not in the way we originally intended.

“Carry that,” he said to Emil, nodding his head toward Sigrun’s discarded clothing and weapons.  “I told Tuuri to follow the train tracks out of the city,” he continued as Emil bent to obey.  “The tank doesn’t move fast; they can’t have gotten far.  Hopefully we’ll be able to catch up to them in time.”

“We’ll get there in time.”

Mikkel looked behind him, startled.  Her words were slurred, her voice far softer than normal, but the statement had come, unmistakably, from Sigrun.

“I’ve survived worse than this.”  Her face was not visible to him from this angle, but Mikkel could still hear her smile.  “You’re not going to get rid of me that easily, farm boy.”

In spite of the dire situation, Mikkel found himself smiling in turn.  “No, I suppose not.”  He turned to Emil, who had everything in hand; there was nothing more to do than start walking.  Sigrun shivered once more against his back, and Mikkel shifted her weight a bit so she would be pressed as close against him as possible—so he would be sharing as much of his own body heat as he could with her.

“Oh, and Mikkel?”

“Hm?”  Sigrun was not out of danger, but that she was conscious and felt well enough to talk was encouraging—she might make it out of this yet.

“You’re off the list.”


Spoiler: Notes • show
And the whole thing started with this comment on a certain piece of artwork:

Laufey that's pretty much exactly how I imagine things shaking down too, I've definitely been thinking about Sigrun getting wrapped in Mikkel's coat ever since she fell in the water. (All the talk of hypothermia in the comic chitchat thread isn't helping my nerves, I just want her to be okay!!) All the details in your drawing are great, I love the boots and coat hanging from Mikkel's belt. (And blood, oh noooo...)
If someone would write a fic involving Mikkel wrapping Sigrun in his coat I would pay lots of money FEELINGS.

I do believe that you owe me some feelings.


AAAAAAHHHH!!!!

*deep breath*

AAAAAHHHHH!!!! I love it so much! *shovels mountains of feelings at you* Everything about this is perfect: Mikkel's efficient competence, Emil's embarrassment, the size comparisons between Mikkel and Sigrun - just, YES. And the last line is icing on the cake, as far as I'm concerned. :))

Thank you so much for writing this, it's just what my beleaguered emotions needed! *gives you an extra few handfuls of feels for good measure*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Elleth on March 20, 2016, 10:06:59 PM
Here, have some shameless Sigrun whump. (This is Kiraly's fault. (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=35.msg99035#msg99035)  And Laufey's fault (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=35.msg99002#msg99002), but mostly Kiraly's.)

Spoiler: Untitled • show
“Sigrun?  Sigrun!

All that she managed in return was a wet cough and what sounded like a few slurred curse words.  After a few more attempts to—well, it was impossible to tell quite what she was trying to do, her limbs were shaking so badly—she gave it up and sank back down to the cracked cement, shivering violently as her eyes began to slip closed.

That wouldn’t do.  “Emil, keep her awake.”

Emil, who’d been kneeling beside Sigrun with his flamethrower in hand (though empty now, curse those trolls, they would not be able to start a fire), looked up at him with an expression like a deer caught in the headlights.  “But how do I—”

“I don’t care what you do, just make sure she doesn’t lose consciousness.”  Even as he spoke Mikkel was shucking off Sigrun’s soaking wet jacket and undershirt (she was bleeding through her bandages and two layers of clothing, but re-stitching her arm would have to wait until she was no longer in danger of dying of cold); Emil hastily looked away and instead bent to talk to her in an undertone, leaving Mikkel free to focus on removing the rest of her clothes.

Her boots spilled puddles of water across the pavement when they came off—freezing cold water; she’d been in there far too long.  He stripped off her pants and socks next, but Sigrun shivered naked against the ground for only a few seconds before Mikkel had shrugged out of his own jacket and wrapped it around her.

She was practically swimming in it.  Though nearly his height, Sigrun didn’t have half of his bulk, and it showed in the way the jacket hung loose on her body, even more so in the way she sank into it, wrapping her arms around herself as if trying to absorb some of his residual heat.

After propping her up and helping her to lean against Emil (he didn’t want her on the cold ground for any longer than was absolutely necessary), Mikkel knelt and began removing his own boots.  Emil stared.

“Um… Mikkel?  What are you doing?”

Mikkel didn’t know why the Swede even bothered to ask him questions anymore, not when he would only complain that he couldn’t understand the answers.  Nevertheless, he responded, “I’d rather not amputate anything tonight.”  Though he didn’t know whether his words got across, he was sure Emil got the message well enough when he transferred his socks to Sigrun’s feet before shoving his own back into his boots.

That was as good as it was going to get.  Mikkel had done everything he could to make sure she didn’t succumb to cold; the rest of it would be up to Sigrun.

Emil helped heft Sigrun onto his back, propping her forward until gravity took over and her head settled against the back of his neck, her arms draped limply over his shoulders—now his jacket sleeve was spotted with blood.  Once he could be sure she was secure, Mikkel hooked his arms under her bare knees, and stood.

Sigrun was no lightweight, being tall and uncommonly athletic besides—but Mikkel was no weakling, either.  Mikkel shouldered her full weight with only the barest of grunts, and was confident that he would be able to do so for as long as he had to.

You’re a pretty strong guy, you’ll be able to pull me up with something, right?

Well, I suppose that I will.  Just not in the way we originally intended.

“Carry that,” he said to Emil, nodding his head toward Sigrun’s discarded clothing and weapons.  “I told Tuuri to follow the train tracks out of the city,” he continued as Emil bent to obey.  “The tank doesn’t move fast; they can’t have gotten far.  Hopefully we’ll be able to catch up to them in time.”

“We’ll get there in time.”

Mikkel looked behind him, startled.  Her words were slurred, her voice far softer than normal, but the statement had come, unmistakably, from Sigrun.

“I’ve survived worse than this.”  Her face was not visible to him from this angle, but Mikkel could still hear her smile.  “You’re not going to get rid of me that easily, farm boy.”

In spite of the dire situation, Mikkel found himself smiling in turn.  “No, I suppose not.”  He turned to Emil, who had everything in hand; there was nothing more to do than start walking.  Sigrun shivered once more against his back, and Mikkel shifted her weight a bit so she would be pressed as close against him as possible—so he would be sharing as much of his own body heat as he could with her.

“Oh, and Mikkel?”

“Hm?”  Sigrun was not out of danger, but that she was conscious and felt well enough to talk was encouraging—she might make it out of this yet.

“You’re off the list.”


Spoiler: Notes • show
And the whole thing started with this comment on a certain piece of artwork:

Laufey that's pretty much exactly how I imagine things shaking down too, I've definitely been thinking about Sigrun getting wrapped in Mikkel's coat ever since she fell in the water. (All the talk of hypothermia in the comic chitchat thread isn't helping my nerves, I just want her to be okay!!) All the details in your drawing are great, I love the boots and coat hanging from Mikkel's belt. (And blood, oh noooo...)
If someone would write a fic involving Mikkel wrapping Sigrun in his coat I would pay lots of money FEELINGS.

I do believe that you owe me some feelings.


Oh, this was excellent! And if she needs more body heat to warm up, I volunteer as tribute! Elleth, shut up, your crush is showing.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on March 20, 2016, 10:28:56 PM
Elleth, shut up, your crush is showing.

Ha! Join the club!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Noodles on March 20, 2016, 10:32:35 PM
Ha! Join the club!
*coughing fit* who, me? I absolutely do not at all have a crush on Sigrun, not even a tiny one. Nooooo, this picture of her in my pocket is for a friend. FOR A FRIEND, I SAY.
(Lovely fic, btw. I like how you portray Mikkel.)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on March 21, 2016, 12:01:37 AM
Adding to the Sigrun-angst trending this week, with my own far-fetched variation on the theories as to how Sigrun is going to get out of this one.
Warning: far fetched is a generous term. Also, I explore the idea of a younger Sigrun a little bit- what she was like as a beautiful, awkward teen and all, for the purposes of explaining why she can flip her lid as spectacularly as I hope she might one day

[spoiler]
There is only so much patience Sigrun can muster before she really loses it.

Read patience as ‘self-control’, because they are essentially the same thing for her. Patience means resisting the urge to sink her fist gullet-deep in the face some smug ass telling her how to do her job or talking down to her team. Patience means staying her hand on the trigger of her rifle, when a troll is tantalisingly unaware of her presence, but to shoot it would mean alerting every other grossling in a mile’s proximity.
Patience was also not picking up Mikkel by the collar and throwing him into next Odin’s day when she came across him out in the Silent World, trailing the two non-immunes like helpful, rebellious ducklings.

Patience can be a good thing as well- for example, trusting Emil to find his own feet in this dangerous profession he seems to have stumbled head-first into. All he needs is some protection, firm guidance and the occasional slap on the back to let him know he’s doing ok.
Patience is also dealing with that unfathomable, skinny Finnish thing- for example, not punching him in the face every time she catches his wide eyes gleaming from a shadow. Well, that also has something to do with repressing her battle instincts.

In conclusion, Sigrun has decided she is not going to be patient anymore.
Nor is she going to pretend she has the self-control to wait for Mikkel to pull her the hell up.

As a tentacle approximately the size and thickness of a tree trunk bares down on her, Sigrun casts her mind back to the last time she truly lost control.
She was young- still in braids. She was angry in the way that most, if not all, teenagers are. Angry with her parents for being wonderful and understanding. Angry with herself for being gangly and awkward and flawed. Angry with the world for falling to its knees and choking on its own blood before she had a chance to get out there and discover it.

And most urgently, angry with some guy whose name she can’t even remember. He made some off-hand remark about her. Something disparaging and unprovoked, possibly about the sprinkle of acne that haunted her chin from fourteen to eighteen. Possibly about her breasts- because she had none, and she can at least remember this guy as one of those guys who liked calling girls and women out for being sans curves or whatever.

What she remembers most vividly is flinging down her cup and launching herself effortlessly across the length of the table. He was on the other end of what was at least an eight foot table and had had to shout to be heard.
Sigrun basically flew to the other end of the table and landed on the guy’s shoulders. His face was smashed into her abs, his shoulders were wrapped in a crushing embrace as she crossed her legs around his neck, and he was knocked over backwards the incredible momentum which had sent her soaring.

Sigrun didn’t even bother using her fists. She leaned back and lunged forward for extra power, and bit the guy’s earlobe off with a single snap.
At this point, the guy also lost his control. So they went rolling, cursing and spitting around the mess hall, knocking over tables and chairs and just barely missing their colleagues as people leapt out of the way as fast as possible. Sigrun remembers her fists took on a life of their own and found his squishy bits, like there were magnets mounted in her knuckles and in his spleen and gonads.

Sigrun remembers someone lifting her off him by the collar and turning around in mid-air to elbow this rescuer in the face. This rescuer later turned out to be her mother, whose nose is still slightly crooked from the event.
She was only stopped because someone took the initiative and leaped on her, kicking off a dog-pile that ended with her under about ten people and still straining with all of her considerable might towards her opponent.

“GIVE ME YOUR THROAT!” she was screaming “GIVE ME YOUR THROAT!”

That was the day Sigrun discovered she is something that is referred to, in polite company, as ‘a berserker’. A kind of berserker anyway.
Not the one who loses all sense of self in a blinding, red mist during battle. Those are so common these days they are no longer remarkable. She is of a more dangerous and ancient genus- the kind of berserker who maintains a complete sense of self all the way through their rage and is able to calculate their every move.

In short, she retains control of all of her mental faculties while receiving a massive boost, aided by adrenaline and primal rage, in her physical, and kind of just flies off the handle.
This is what Sigrun does now.

“Mikkel,” she barks, just before the tentacle bears down on her “Tell the kids not to look!”



“What for?” asks Mikkel.
He reaches the end of the rope and notices, rather belatedly, Sigrun is no longer attached to it.

He looks up in time to see the pearly flash of a crazed grin whip by.

“Ah. That’s why.”

Sigrun is visible only as a smudge of cackling red in a forest of tentacles, groping around above the water. She has a knife in one hand, and that is all she has to protect herself.

Reynir’s red head pops around the door-frame. His eyes are so wide in fear he has begun to look a little bit like an owl “What’s…is Sigrun ok?”

“Sigrun is fine.”

There is the sound of fleshing wrenching and blubber parting as a tentacle splashes into the water, parted from the rest of the body.

“Reynir, go back inside.”

Reynir obeys, silent and grey-faced.

“Mikkel! What the hell is happening?” shouts Tuuri out the window, as if she cannot see it for herself.

“I believe our illustrious leader may be a berserker, Tuuri. Do yourself a favour and close your eyes.”

Mikkel crosses his arms and waits patiently. This shouldn’t take very long.


Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on March 21, 2016, 12:19:00 AM
Well. That sounds very consistent and in character! I do hope things work out like that!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Elleth on March 21, 2016, 12:56:42 AM
Ha! Join the club!

Gladly! Where do I sign up?  ;D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: tamaerchen on March 21, 2016, 02:20:36 AM
Aaah! These are both amazing!
And I'm glad that they both have a happy ending, presumably. :) Cause the thing that I've been writing hasn't and I feel horrible about it.
But I've been waiting for Sigrun to go into Berserker mode for nigh a week now, so as far as I'm concerned that's what the update should look like. :D (And then when the giant is all chopped up, Mikkel can wrap her in his jacket and carry her home.)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on March 21, 2016, 03:14:33 AM
Aaah! These are both amazing!
And I'm glad that they both have a happy ending, presumably. :) Cause the thing that I've been writing hasn't and I feel horrible about it.
But I've been waiting for Sigrun to go into Berserker mode for nigh a week now, so as far as I'm concerned that's what the update should look like. :D (And then when the giant is all chopped up, Mikkel can wrap her in his jacket and carry her home.)

Sigrun would be struggling to get back and finish her job, like "I think that piece just twitched! Put me down, Mikkel, I need to go stab it to make sure!"
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Pupunen on March 21, 2016, 03:32:45 AM
Lazy8, OwlsG0, I love these stories!  Beautifully written and with happy endings, which I really need right now. :D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on March 21, 2016, 04:26:26 PM
http://archiveofourown.org/works/5853457/chapters/14472451

A new chapter for the Mora monster
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: tamaerchen on March 22, 2016, 06:39:44 AM
A new chapter for the Mora monster

What a pity that I can't give Kudos per chapter! And you don't need to tell me to put on my shipper glasses, I pretty much wear them constantly.

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on March 22, 2016, 06:47:48 AM
What a pity that I can't give Kudos per chapter! And you don't need to tell me to put on my shipper glasses, I pretty much wear them constantly.

It has taken a serious effort not to turn this entire fic into a shipper's fic; to give them the time and space and development to become a believable couple.
But we're drawing close, people.
cloooooose
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Pupunen on March 23, 2016, 05:56:17 AM
I seem to be quickly descending deeper into fanfic madness. I was actually working on something slightly different, but somehow ended up writing this thing first. It's... kind of shippy?

http://archiveofourown.org/works/6331483
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: AquaAurion on March 23, 2016, 07:27:38 AM
I seem to be quickly descending deeper into fanfic madness. I was actually working on something slightly different, but somehow ended up writing this thing first. It's... kind of shippy?

http://archiveofourown.org/works/6331483
This was so sweet!! I really like how soft and dreamy it was >w<
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on March 23, 2016, 08:07:11 AM
Pupunen, that was lovely! So sad though. I hope they eventually manage to make it real in the world. I'm reminded of the theme that turns up a lot in French, Irish and Galician folktales, where a close couple are cursed in some way to only both be together for a few moments at dawn and dusk, generally because one or both are shapeshifted. Well made!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Rabbit on March 23, 2016, 08:31:26 AM
I seem to be quickly descending deeper into fanfic madness. I was actually working on something slightly different, but somehow ended up writing this thing first. It's... kind of shippy?

http://archiveofourown.org/works/6331483

I can't decide if that was sweet or heartbreaking... No, scratch that, it was definitely both, what I can't decide is whether I should be feeling the "awwwww" or the "WHY DO YOU DO THIS TO ME"
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Kiraly on March 23, 2016, 09:27:02 AM
I can't decide if that was sweet or heartbreaking... No, scratch that, it was definitely both, what I can't decide is whether I should be feeling the "awwwww" or the "WHY DO YOU DO THIS TO ME"

My sentiments exactly! I keep bouncing between "I love this!" and "awww, poor babies, just go to each other already!!!"
It's beautifully written and a great thing to wake up to this morning, so thanks for sharing it!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Pupunen on March 23, 2016, 04:20:03 PM
Thank you for the encouraging comments, everyone! :) (And sorry about any broken hearts.)

I'm reminded of the theme that turns up a lot in French, Irish and Galician folktales, where a close couple are cursed in some way to only both be together for a few moments at dawn and dusk, generally because one or both are shapeshifted.
I wish I could say the resemblance was intentional, but unfortunately I'm not that knowledgeable about folklore. :D But that's an awesome fic idea for someone to write!

And how can you write this fast?
Actually, I've discovered that having an unfinished fanfic waiting helps me finish my translation homework a lot faster than I usually do. If I promise myself that I can keep writing once I've finished, say, my law translation assignment, I magically manage to translate the whole thing really quickly, and this leaves me plenty of time to write. :D (Well, I also neglect other things I should be doing, but let's not talk about that...)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on March 23, 2016, 05:50:55 PM
Actually, I've discovered that having an unfinished fanfic waiting helps me finish my translation homework a lot faster than I usually do. If I promise myself that I can keep writing once I've finished, say, my law translation assignment, I magically manage to translate the whole thing really quickly, and this leaves me plenty of time to write. :D (Well, I also neglect other things I should be doing, but let's not talk about that...)

Ha! That's exactly me, only with reading science papers!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Fen Shen on March 24, 2016, 05:51:24 AM
Pupunen, thank you for that story. I think it is rather sweet than heartbreaking and it definetely brightened up my morning. :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Athena on March 24, 2016, 12:35:37 PM
I seem to be quickly descending deeper into fanfic madness. I was actually working on something slightly different, but somehow ended up writing this thing first. It's... kind of shippy?

http://archiveofourown.org/works/6331483

Beautiful and sad, I enjoyed it! Very well written!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Kiraly on March 25, 2016, 05:55:54 PM
Oh look, more silly hipster shenanigans! (http://archiveofourown.org/works/5569909/chapters/14558392) Now with less flower crowns but more weasel-bunny.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: tamaerchen on March 25, 2016, 06:20:54 PM
EEEEEE!! That just made my day so much better! The cuteness warms my heart and every mention of Emil and Lalli makes me grin stupidly. :D Not to mention the hilarity of Mikkel and Sigrun texting each other. :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Keeper on March 25, 2016, 06:26:36 PM
Beautiful, Kiraly, simply beautiful XD.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Kiraly on March 25, 2016, 06:30:27 PM
EEEEEE!! That just made my day so much better! The cuteness warms my heart and every mention of Emil and Lalli makes me grin stupidly. :D Not to mention the hilarity of Mikkel and Sigrun texting each other. :)

Hooray! Comments like this make me grin stupidly. :)) I had a lot of fun with Sigrun and Mikkel's texts (though let's be honest, it's pretty much fun to write Sigrun texting anyone).
And now that I've let it slip in the comments on one of Aliax's fics that there will be an Emil/Lalli spinoff of this I'm enjoying seeing people's reactions to them, hehe.

Beautiful, Kiraly, simply beautiful XD.

Aww, thank you! :D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Pupunen on March 25, 2016, 06:33:45 PM
Oh look, more silly hipster shenanigans! (http://archiveofourown.org/works/5569909/chapters/14558392) Now with less flower crowns but more weasel-bunny.
Yay! I've been eagerly waiting to read more of this. :) And I look forward to reading the Emil and Lalli spin-off, too!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on March 25, 2016, 07:23:07 PM
Kiraly, this keeps getting better!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Kiraly on March 25, 2016, 07:56:20 PM
Yay! I've been eagerly waiting to read more of this. :) And I look forward to reading the Emil and Lalli spin-off, too!

Kiraly, this keeps getting better!

Thanks! :))

Cool! This story always makes me smile.

Spoiler: show
I love Mikkel's text message voice and Sigrun's admirable Admiral Olsen style, but honestly, considering the ongoing events in canon, reading those messages between Sigrun and Mikkel made me a lot more sad than the previous chapter. :S But everything's going to be alright eventually..!

I don't remember if I've said it before, but I really like how the characters interact in this AU and how it reflects canon. Cute and lighthearted as it is, there're also different possibilities for social interaction than in the confines of the cat-tank, thus new challenges for the characters. :> AU stories are great for that.


Hehe, thank you! Always nice to hear my writing made someone smile. :)

Spoiler: show
 I'm so sorry the Sigrun/Mikkel texts made you sad though! I hadn't thought about how that conversation might be viewed in connection with the current canon goings-on. But you're right, I'm sure everything is going to be okay.

And I appreciate the comment about how I write the character interactions! That's one of the things I love about reading/writing AUs too, it's cool to think about how the characters would behave in a different setting. While some things are different, some things don't change and it's fun to explore that.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Talimee on March 25, 2016, 08:03:02 PM
Oh look, more silly hipster shenanigans! (http://archiveofourown.org/works/5569909/chapters/14558392) Now with less flower crowns but more weasel-bunny.

Yay! It's so fluffy and sweet! I am always glad to see a new chapter of it. I especially love all of the phone messages. They are like concentrated character-essences. <3

On a further note: I wrote something. http://archiveofourown.org/works/6356119
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on March 25, 2016, 10:48:33 PM
On a further note: I wrote something. http://archiveofourown.org/works/6356119
Yeah, about that…
Spoiler: Irrelevant Technical Thing • show
I noticed AO3 used the German quote formatting in most places in your story.

Spoiler: About the End Note • show
In re: the bonus sentence, he already did (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg53398#msg53398).
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Puls3 on March 26, 2016, 02:45:46 AM
Oh look, more silly hipster shenanigans! (http://archiveofourown.org/works/5569909/chapters/14558392) Now with less flower crowns but more weasel-bunny.
Hooray for more shenanigans! ;D

I also just love how you manage to capture Sigrun's enthusiastic personality and Mikkel's deadpan seriousness during their texting.
Its contrasts between characters like these that makes me grinn the most, especially if they are in a conversation.  :))
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on March 26, 2016, 06:18:40 AM
Another chapter of that thing which I have yet to name, which seems to be the preliminary to a longer fic which will result in the crew fighting for Valhalla? Yes, I think this is what that is. Not to crash the BIWC party; I just realised I haven't posted in a long time.

Spoiler: show

One of the most frustrating things about Reynir, from Lalli's perspective, anyway, is the alien nature of his language. In the dream-world, he is not exactly a cohesive, calm speaker, but he isn't the gibbering idiot he comes across as when he speaks and Lalli cannot understand a single word he's saying. The fact that neither Emil nor Lalli have the faintest idea what he's talking about has done little to deter him from talking their ears off.
Lalli watches his mouth move, almost mesmerised by the constant, flapping movement. He has never known anyone to talk so incessantly before. What could he be saying? There are plenty of gestures to go with the torrent of words, but none of them will fit what Lalli guesses he might be talking about.

For example, why would he be skipping if he were talking about Lalli's flight to his dream-space last night? Lalli just doesn't get this kid. Who in their right mind could stay so cheerful after accidentally stowing away to the wrong place and ending up waist-deep in trolls and gore, when all they have ever known is the safety of the uninfected Iceland?
He's obviously insane.

But on the bright side, he's perfectly happy to follow Lalli, even though he has no idea where they are going or what they are doing. Emil's going to turn into a bit of a problem if Lalli doesn't find some way to shut him up soon; he has offered no complaints so far, but Lalli can tell from the look in his eyes that they're going to have some problems. He probably wishes he were with Sigrun. Those two are best friends now, or something.

For now, he has no choice nor real agenda other than to just plough forwards into the woods and see if something leaps out at him. The woods he is aiming for are off to their left. Thankfully, in the opposite direction from the city, where they had such a hell of a time getting out in one piece- Emil's favourite, especially, who by all rights should have lost an arm, or at least a few fingers to the freezing water which nearly drowned her.

Lalli is barely aware of the cold as he walks. His mind is somewhere else entirely. Specifically, in front of the hearth of the house where they lived in Saimaa. Pressed in between Tuuri's fleshy side and Onni's hard shoulder, at their grandmother's feet while she tells them the most horrifying stories. Of violent gods in foreign countries, whose power waned in the old world that became the Silent World, but who are making a come-back now that those gods of the Silent World are gone and their places of worship are crumbling the dust and the blood of the people who once worshipped them.
He knows who that woman was.

He knows that she won't go away until she has taken at least one soul. Lalli has already decided it cannot be his, Tuuri's or Emil's. The others are invaluable, of course, but at the same time, they are not. If one of them truly has to go, Lalli knows it will not be his cousin or the Swede.

Her name is Hel, and she's here to take a soul to her realm of the dishonoured dead.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Talimee on March 26, 2016, 08:23:27 AM
Yeah, about that…
Spoiler: Irrelevant Technical Thing • show
I noticed AO3 used the German quote formatting in most places in your story.

Spoiler: About the End Note • show
In re: the bonus sentence, he already did (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg53398#msg53398).


Thank you for reading and commenting! =)

About the quote formatting. It's mostly german because I am german and don't have figured out how to the english formatting, or if I should do it at all.

I was thinking about your story, too. ;) Although I meant it more in a way: Odin revealing himself to Mikkel and Mikkel arguing with Odin that no gods exist. The ensuing discussion would be witty and funny as long as Odin was amused and then ... who knows.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Kiraly on March 26, 2016, 11:28:12 AM
Yay! It's so fluffy and sweet! I am always glad to see a new chapter of it. I especially love all of the phone messages. They are like concentrated character-essences. <3

On a further note: I wrote something. http://archiveofourown.org/works/6356119

Hehe, I'm glad you liked it! And I already said so on AO3, but I very much enjoyed this fic of yours too. (And I would be so down for reading something with Mikkel and Odin, that would be amazing!) LooNEY I liked your take on that too, I don't think I'd seen that before so thanks for the link!

Hooray for more shenanigans! ;D

I also just love how you manage to capture Sigrun's enthusiastic personality and Mikkel's deadpan seriousness during their texting.
Its contrasts between characters like these that makes me grinn the most, especially if they are in a conversation.  :))

I'll admit, the contrast between Sigrun's enthusiasm and Mikkel's seriousness is one of my favorite things about their relationship in any story involving them, and it makes them so much fun to write! I'm glad it made you grin. :))

Another chapter of that thing which I have yet to name, which seems to be the preliminary to a longer fic which will result in the crew fighting for Valhalla? Yes, I think this is what that is. Not to crash the BIWC party; I just realised I haven't posted in a long time.

Spoiler: show

One of the most frustrating things about Reynir, from Lalli's perspective, anyway, is the alien nature of his language. In the dream-world, he is not exactly a cohesive, calm speaker, but he isn't the gibbering idiot he comes across as when he speaks and Lalli cannot understand a single word he's saying. The fact that neither Emil nor Lalli have the faintest idea what he's talking about has done little to deter him from talking their ears off.
Lalli watches his mouth move, almost mesmerised by the constant, flapping movement. He has never known anyone to talk so incessantly before. What could he be saying? There are plenty of gestures to go with the torrent of words, but none of them will fit what Lalli guesses he might be talking about.

For example, why would he be skipping if he were talking about Lalli's flight to his dream-space last night? Lalli just doesn't get this kid. Who in their right mind could stay so cheerful after accidentally stowing away to the wrong place and ending up waist-deep in trolls and gore, when all they have ever known is the safety of the uninfected Iceland?
He's obviously insane.

But on the bright side, he's perfectly happy to follow Lalli, even though he has no idea where they are going or what they are doing. Emil's going to turn into a bit of a problem if Lalli doesn't find some way to shut him up soon; he has offered no complaints so far, but Lalli can tell from the look in his eyes that they're going to have some problems. He probably wishes he were with Sigrun. Those two are best friends now, or something.

For now, he has no choice nor real agenda other than to just plough forwards into the woods and see if something leaps out at him. The woods he is aiming for are off to their left. Thankfully, in the opposite direction from the city, where they had such a hell of a time getting out in one piece- Emil's favourite, especially, who by all rights should have lost an arm, or at least a few fingers to the freezing water which nearly drowned her.

Lalli is barely aware of the cold as he walks. His mind is somewhere else entirely. Specifically, in front of the hearth of the house where they lived in Saimaa. Pressed in between Tuuri's fleshy side and Onni's hard shoulder, at their grandmother's feet while she tells them the most horrifying stories. Of violent gods in foreign countries, whose power waned in the old world that became the Silent World, but who are making a come-back now that those gods of the Silent World are gone and their places of worship are crumbling the dust and the blood of the people who once worshipped them.
He knows who that woman was.

He knows that she won't go away until she has taken at least one soul. Lalli has already decided it cannot be his, Tuuri's or Emil's. The others are invaluable, of course, but at the same time, they are not. If one of them truly has to go, Lalli knows it will not be his cousin or the Swede.

Her name is Hel, and she's here to take a soul to her realm of the dishonoured dead.


Ooooh...
Spoiler: show
Lalli, NO. You are NOT thinking of doing what I THINK you're thinking of doing! Don't you dare try to get Reynir killed!

I mean...uh...I'm super intrigued to see where this is going. And I appreciated Lalli's little jealous-seeming thoughts about Sigrun - "He probably wishes he were with Sigrun. Those two are best friends now, or something" and referring to her as "Emil's favorite" later. Especially when you add in that Lalli has Emil on his list of people he doesn't want Hel to take away.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Talimee on March 26, 2016, 12:48:39 PM
Another chapter of that thing which I have yet to name, which seems to be the preliminary to a longer fic which will result in the crew fighting for Valhalla? Yes, I think this is what that is. Not to crash the BIWC party; I just realised I haven't posted in a long time.

Spoiler: show

One of the most frustrating things about Reynir, from Lalli's perspective, anyway, is the alien nature of his language. In the dream-world, he is not exactly a cohesive, calm speaker, but he isn't the gibbering idiot he comes across as when he speaks and Lalli cannot understand a single word he's saying. The fact that neither Emil nor Lalli have the faintest idea what he's talking about has done little to deter him from talking their ears off.
Lalli watches his mouth move, almost mesmerised by the constant, flapping movement. He has never known anyone to talk so incessantly before. What could he be saying? There are plenty of gestures to go with the torrent of words, but none of them will fit what Lalli guesses he might be talking about.

For example, why would he be skipping if he were talking about Lalli's flight to his dream-space last night? Lalli just doesn't get this kid. Who in their right mind could stay so cheerful after accidentally stowing away to the wrong place and ending up waist-deep in trolls and gore, when all they have ever known is the safety of the uninfected Iceland?
He's obviously insane.

But on the bright side, he's perfectly happy to follow Lalli, even though he has no idea where they are going or what they are doing. Emil's going to turn into a bit of a problem if Lalli doesn't find some way to shut him up soon; he has offered no complaints so far, but Lalli can tell from the look in his eyes that they're going to have some problems. He probably wishes he were with Sigrun. Those two are best friends now, or something.

For now, he has no choice nor real agenda other than to just plough forwards into the woods and see if something leaps out at him. The woods he is aiming for are off to their left. Thankfully, in the opposite direction from the city, where they had such a hell of a time getting out in one piece- Emil's favourite, especially, who by all rights should have lost an arm, or at least a few fingers to the freezing water which nearly drowned her.

Lalli is barely aware of the cold as he walks. His mind is somewhere else entirely. Specifically, in front of the hearth of the house where they lived in Saimaa. Pressed in between Tuuri's fleshy side and Onni's hard shoulder, at their grandmother's feet while she tells them the most horrifying stories. Of violent gods in foreign countries, whose power waned in the old world that became the Silent World, but who are making a come-back now that those gods of the Silent World are gone and their places of worship are crumbling the dust and the blood of the people who once worshipped them.
He knows who that woman was.

He knows that she won't go away until she has taken at least one soul. Lalli has already decided it cannot be his, Tuuri's or Emil's. The others are invaluable, of course, but at the same time, they are not. If one of them truly has to go, Lalli knows it will not be his cousin or the Swede.

Her name is Hel, and she's here to take a soul to her realm of the dishonoured dead.


I went back and read the other two chapters leading up to this. Woah! This is going to be intense! Your description of Hel is truly terrifying and I like the contast between Lalli's reasonably calm inner monologue and his confession of being scared out of his coma. I'm very much looking forward for more of this!

A question: What does BIWC mean? Google offered Berlin Internation Womens Club or Benefitial Irrigation Water Consumption, which both do not fit.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Yuuago on March 26, 2016, 01:05:49 PM
I might as well post this here before the comic josses it, haha. This was flashfic for a request at another site - somebody wanted to see something after p498, something in which Mikkel doesn't have to jump in, and Sigrun is going to be okay. So.

"Fortuity". Mikkel & Sigrun, no pairing. G/0+. 800 words.
Read it over here: http://roesslyng.dreamwidth.org/66367.html
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Pupunen on March 26, 2016, 01:28:20 PM
I might as well post this here before the comic josses it, haha. This was flashfic for a request at another site - somebody wanted to see something after p498, something in which Mikkel doesn't have to jump in, and Sigrun is going to be okay. So.

"Fortuity". Mikkel & Sigrun, no pairing. G/0+. 800 words.
Read it over here: http://roesslyng.dreamwidth.org/66367.html
I liked this! Especially the way Sigrun doesn't stop making fun of Mikkel even in such a serious situation. :D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Anna on March 26, 2016, 01:41:20 PM
I went back and read the other two chapters leading up to this. Woah! This is going to be intense! Your description of Hel is truly terrifying and I like the contast between Lalli's reasonably calm inner monologue and his confession of being scared out of his coma. I'm very much looking forward for more of this!

A question: What does BIWC mean? Google offered Berlin Internation Womens Club or Benefitial Irrigation Water Consumption, which both do not fit.
One, which page numbers do I need to find the previous chapters if I'm lazy and don't want to just go digging for them?
Two, BIWC is Kiraly's hipster au, Before It Was Cool. It's on ao3 go read it.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Kiraly on March 26, 2016, 02:05:39 PM
I might as well post this here before the comic josses it, haha. This was flashfic for a request at another site - somebody wanted to see something after p498, something in which Mikkel doesn't have to jump in, and Sigrun is going to be okay. So.

"Fortuity". Mikkel & Sigrun, no pairing. G/0+. 800 words.
Read it over here: http://roesslyng.dreamwidth.org/66367.html

YES YES YES! Right now I basically need all the fics in which Sigrun gets out of the water okay, so thank you for writing this! Mikkel's overly relieved reaction is great, and I laughed so hard at the fate of the bobble-head trolls.

Google offered Berlin Internation Womens Club or Benefitial Irrigation Water Consumption, which both do not fit.

I'm irrationally pleased that my silly fanfic shares initials with these two organizations, hehe. :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on March 26, 2016, 03:17:42 PM
About the quote formatting. It's mostly german because I am german and don't have figured out how to the english formatting, or if I should do it at all.
I know; you mentioned it earlier. I was just surprised AO3 did the formatting thing.
I was thinking about your story, too. ;) Although I meant it more in a way: Odin revealing himself to Mikkel and Mikkel arguing with Odin that no gods exist. The ensuing discussion would be witty and funny as long as Odin was amused and then ... who knows.
It really depends on how much knowledge you assume the gods have--I was assuming Odin knew more or less everything about Mikkel, and so didn't bother trying to fruitlessly convince him of divinity; also, I didn't consider the possibilities of omnipotence for convincing someone of something (which would be slightly OOC for Odin--but not for either Loki or Puppy-Fox).
Hehe, I'm glad you liked it!
Ooooh, I forgot to mention how much I did too, didn't I?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Kiraly on March 26, 2016, 03:37:46 PM
Ooooh, I forgot to mention how much I did too, didn't I?

Hmm, possibly? Thank you for saying so now, in any case. :))
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on March 26, 2016, 05:53:48 PM
Yuuago, that's very fine!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Talimee on March 26, 2016, 06:42:11 PM
It really depends on how much knowledge you assume the gods have--I was assuming Odin knew more or less everything about Mikkel, and so didn't bother trying to fruitlessly convince him of divinity; also, I didn't consider the possibilities of omnipotence for convincing someone of something (which would be slightly OOC for Odin--but not for either Loki or Puppy-Fox).

I am depicturing it more like a mutual awareness of God and worshipper. Mikkel, as a non-believer, doesn't show up on Odin's people-radar since his existence is inconsequential for Odin. And I didn't plan their interactions, I just envision them as two men (more or less) who are blessed with cutting sarcasm and who start discussing something they disagree upon. Each one thinking the other is an obvious idiot. ... Doesn't sound that funny anymore. Well, the sentence was cut out anyway. ^^

One, which page numbers do I need to find the previous chapters if I'm lazy and don't want to just go digging for them?

It starts on page 113 and the second part is on page 115.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Anna on March 26, 2016, 07:30:34 PM
(snip)
It starts on page 113 and the second part is on page 115.
Many thanks!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on March 26, 2016, 09:06:04 PM
Talimee, I'd still like to read that conversation. Especially if Mikkel were to run into Odin in a pub somewhere, not knowing Who he is talking to, and just has a philosophical conversation....which would be fairly traditional.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on March 26, 2016, 10:13:52 PM
I might as well post this here before the comic josses it, haha. This was flashfic for a request at another site - somebody wanted to see something after p498, something in which Mikkel doesn't have to jump in, and Sigrun is going to be okay. So.

"Fortuity". Mikkel & Sigrun, no pairing. G/0+. 800 words.
Read it over here: http://roesslyng.dreamwidth.org/66367.html

AAAAAAAAAAAH the feels! Yes please! More of this!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Yuuago on March 27, 2016, 12:01:41 AM
I liked this! Especially the way Sigrun doesn't stop making fun of Mikkel even in such a serious situation. :D
YES YES YES! Right now I basically need all the fics in which Sigrun gets out of the water okay, so thank you for writing this! Mikkel's overly relieved reaction is great, and I laughed so hard at the fate of the bobble-head trolls.
Yuuago, that's very fine!
AAAAAAAAAAAH the feels! Yes please! More of this!

Thank you, all! < 3 I'm just glad that I managed to get this in before the page dropped (and what a page it was, ffff).
I had a lot of fun writing the dynamic between these two, so I'll definitely write them again some time, eventually. < 3
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Pupunen on March 27, 2016, 07:01:09 AM
Yesterday's damp and foggy weather reminded me of the cheerful events at the end of chapter 7.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/6371449
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on March 27, 2016, 08:37:15 AM
Very well made! This thread gets better and better.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Daiseerose on March 27, 2016, 06:16:47 PM
Yesterday's damp and foggy weather reminded me of the cheerful events at the end of chapter 7.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/6371449

This is really good!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on March 27, 2016, 07:39:48 PM
Yesterday's damp and foggy weather reminded me of the cheerful events at the end of chapter 7.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/6371449

I enjoyed that, thank you. 
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on March 27, 2016, 08:39:47 PM
*drops a link*

http://archiveofourown.org/works/5853457/chapters/14608504

*runs back to the teetering pile of work I should actually need to be doing *
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on March 27, 2016, 09:13:02 PM
Keeps getting better, and your writing voice is growing more confident.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on March 27, 2016, 09:51:42 PM
Keeps getting better, and your writing voice is growing more confident.

Thanks! Always good to know there are actually improvements going on. I'm sure this is the same with a lot of people, but I tend to just write automatically and only stop every now and then to make a conscious decision about word-choices. It really pays to edit, though. If there were a hall of fame for bad grammar and stupid typos, I'd be a regular submitter.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Athena on March 27, 2016, 10:30:13 PM
Yesterday's damp and foggy weather reminded me of the cheerful events at the end of chapter 7.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/6371449

A good looking the inner workings of Lalli's mind! :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Pupunen on March 28, 2016, 06:19:47 AM
Very well made! This thread gets better and better.
This is really good!
I enjoyed that, thank you. 
A good looking the inner workings of Lalli's mind! :)

Thank you for the nice comments, everyone! :)

I'm sure this is the same with a lot of people, but I tend to just write automatically and only stop every now and then to make a conscious decision about word-choices.

Haha, I kind of wish I was able to write like that, too. I tend to spend a lot of time checking if words mean what I think they mean and if they are appropriate to use in the context I want to use them in (especially when writing in English, since I'm not a native speaker, but in Finnish too). My current obsession is sentence structure, though: I've noticed I have a bad habit of writing terribly long sentences that make my texts difficult to read. I have to consciously force myself to cut the biggest monsters into smaller pieces and to insert short sentences here and there. :D

I'm curious to see what happens next in your story, by the way!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on March 28, 2016, 06:37:06 AM
Thank you for the nice comments, everyone! :)

Haha, I kind of wish I was able to write like that, too. I tend to spend a lot of time checking if words mean what I think they mean and if they are appropriate to use in the context I want to use them in (especially when writing in English, since I'm not a native speaker, but in Finnish too). My current obsession is sentence structure, though: I've noticed I have a bad habit of writing terribly long sentences that make my texts difficult to read. I have to consciously force myself to cut the biggest monsters into smaller pieces and to insert short sentences here and there. :D

I'm curious to see what happens next in your story, by the way!

Your English is very fluid and fluent for not being from a native language. I hope you get more comfortable with the language as you go on. I've tried writing in Spanish before, of which I have very little, so it comes out less comprehensive and more like I just smashed my face on the keyboard while hoping for the best.

Sentence structure is the one that gets me too! I'm always worried about not having a varied collection of sentence openings or putting commas in the same darned place every time. And I totally get the pain about long sentences- I remember one that ended up being 100 words long. A drabble sized sentence.

I enjoyed your recent story as well- the one everyone's been showering some well-deserved praise on. You did a great job shining some light on a kind of difficult and enigmatic character!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Asterales on March 31, 2016, 10:25:40 PM
Likewise here Lalli the Challenge. I didn't think I would end up here any time soon. I still don't have time to read through the pages accumulated Tuuri far. Forgive me! I plan on looking through them once August rolls around or maybe a bit earlier, if I have the time.

As Lalli the challenge: Don't expect anything longer Sigrun me than this.
Spoiler: 52. Deep in Thought • show

Day 2

Grey washed into grey at the horizon, the daylight dying an unnoticed death, hidden the human eye by clouds, heavy and thick, pressing down onto the mountains sides. Undiminished. Endless.
Droplets burst and sprayed up as fine mist. Gusts wind ripped apart the waves’ white crowns and whipped them up and over the haven’s small pier.
Aksel watched the water’s rapid descent, the paths it left sluicing over the cool window pane touching his forehead and cheek.
The single drops were indistinguishable. They hit and vanished, as if they had never been.
There was a web of lines, arching and spreading over the smooth surface of the glass.
In the next moment, the pattern changed. Aksel lifted his head.
Light streamed past him and merged the shadow with the rest of the luminous pane.
Berit Eide looked up when her grandson sighed. “What is it, my Dear?”
“Oh, nothing.” Aksel looked in the direction of the window once more. “It’s like the end the world out there.” Then he brightened. “But I am glad you are here! You’ll see, I’ll take good care you! And you won’t need to worry about catching the rash illness anymore!”
Berit Eide looked towards the ceiling with a barely suppressed sigh, but the small smile on her lips was the only thing Aksel needed to see to know he had done the right thing. He sat next to her on the couch. He would take such good care of her! And he was glad she trusted him to keep her safe. Even though she had brought the Devil.
The Devil was not safe.
“Aksel, don't stare at Lucifer that way. You know he doesn't like it. He will scratch you again.”


Windfighter, I don't know the characters, but the interactions were nice and believable. The characters felt 'comfortable' with each other. Now I want to know more about August and the Father. I think as a stand alone it's probably not enough info on the characters. It is a really nice filet, though!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on April 01, 2016, 04:58:32 AM
Um, is anyone else having a problem where their posts have been inexplicably filled with 'Mikkel' and 'Reynir' all over the place, or is that just me? Because those fine lands have sneaked into every post of mine I've seen today
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Pupunen on April 01, 2016, 04:59:12 AM
Um, is anyone else having a problem where their posts have been inexplicably filled with 'Mikkel' and 'Reynir' all over the place, or is that just me? Because those fine lands have sneaked into every post Mikkel mine I've seen today
It's April 1st. :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on April 01, 2016, 05:02:50 AM
It's April 1st. :)

Oh for Pete's sake
Well played, Forum, well played. I gift-wrapped my parent's door so they had to Hulk-smash out of the wrapping to get to the bathroom and told my sister she was late for school, with a week still left on her Easter holidays. She was getting on her bike before she realised her mistake and came back into the house with a stick to claim her revenge
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Asterales on April 01, 2016, 05:08:27 AM
It's April 1st. :)
Oh Lalli Pete's sake
Well played, Forum, well played.

All the visitors reading through the Forum will think we are one very obsessed Fandom :'D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on April 01, 2016, 05:11:55 AM
All the visitors reading through the Forum will think we are one very obsessed Fandom :'D

If one of the admins are riffling through posts to change these by hand, they sure are committed. This is a labour of love! Even if the forum visitors do conclude we are an obsessed fandom, they should give most of the credit to whoever the brilliant giggling maniac is, sabotaging the posts with name-drops.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Asterales on April 01, 2016, 05:45:58 AM
If one Mikkel the admins are riffling through posts to change these by hand, they sure are committed. This is a labour Mikkel love! Even if the forum visitors do conclude we are an obsessed fandom, they should give most Mikkel the credit to whoever the brilliant giggling maniac is, sabotaging the posts with name-drops.
Agreed! Though, it must Reynir an 'algorithm' or whatever you call them. There are names Sigrun Sigrun the first page to Mikkel the very last Mikkel all the threads I have looked into. Surely that is too much even the most Lalli committed giggling maniac ;D
I just hope it goes back to normal all by itself...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: AquaAurion on April 01, 2016, 06:46:00 AM
Um, is anyone else having a problem where their posts have been inexplicably filled with 'Mikkel' and 'Reynir' all over the place, or is that just me? Because those fine lands have sneaked into every post Mikkel mine I've seen today
I thought people did it on purpose as a joke, but if it's an algorithm of something it's even better :D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Talimee on April 01, 2016, 06:46:21 AM
Agreed! Though, it must Reynir an 'algorithm' or whatever you call them. There are names Sigrun Sigrun the first page to Mikkel the very last Mikkel all the threads I have looked into. Surely that is too much even the most Lalli committed giggling maniac ;D
I just hope it goes back to normal all by itself...

I think I figured it out. Certain prepositions are replaced with a character's name. [o f] = Mikkel for excample.

I gift-wrapped my parent's door Tuuri they had to Hulk-smash out Mikkel the wrapping to get to the bathroom and told my sister she was late Lalli school, with a week still left on her Easter holidays. She was getting on her bike before she realised her mistake and came back into the house with a stick to claim her revenge

Those are great ideas. I'm glad you didn't play them on me. XD I would totally be fooled like your sister (and react like her).
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: AquaAurion on April 01, 2016, 07:13:23 AM
I think I figured it out. Certain prepositions are replaced with a character's name. [o f] = Mikkel Lalli excample.
I figured s o as well :P

Tuuri seems to b e [s o] and Reynir [b e]
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on April 01, 2016, 07:18:05 AM
I figured s o as well :P

Tuuri seems to b e [s o] and Reynir [b e]

Shall we test this?

Tuuri Tuuri Tuuri
[ read: s o  s o   s o]

Reynir Reynir Reynir Reynir Reynir
[ also a bunch Mikkel b e 's]

Of of of of of of
[ lots  a  o f 's}
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: AquaAurion on April 01, 2016, 07:40:49 AM
Shall we test this?

Tuuri Tuuri Tuuri
[ read: s o  s o   s o]

Reynir Reynir Reynir Reynir Reynir
[ also a bunch Mikkel b e 's]

Mikkel Mikkel Mikkel Mikkel Mikkel Mikkel
[ lots  a  o f 's}
I think Emil is Emil [w h e n], Lalli is for [f o r] and Sigrun Sigrun [f r o m]
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on April 01, 2016, 08:28:24 AM
In which I take the Scriptorium back to fanfic and prove that I have no sense of self-preservation. In other words:

I'm doing the NaNo thing!

1. Introduction (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/14707465)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on April 01, 2016, 10:36:23 AM
I believe it's an All Fools' Day prank. At least I hope it is!

Edit: Lazy8, excellent story! Looking forward to the next one.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on April 02, 2016, 03:18:35 AM
In which I take the Scriptorium back to fanfic and prove that I have no sense of self-preservation. In other words:

I'm doing the NaNo thing!

1. Introduction (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/14707465)

Where was this challenge issued?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Windfighter on April 02, 2016, 03:39:52 AM
Where was this challenge issued?

In the NaNoWriMo-thread in the General Discussion Board, or more exactly here (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=136.msg97024#msg97024) <3
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on April 02, 2016, 03:43:40 AM
In the NaNoWriMo-thread in the General Discussion Board, or more exactly here (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=136.msg97024#msg97024) <3

Ta. Well if it ain't too late to hop onto the band-wagon, I might do just that.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Windfighter on April 02, 2016, 03:46:48 AM
Ta. Well if it ain't too late to hop onto the band-wagon, I might do just that.

Yes, come join the band-wagon! The challenge doesn't really have an end-date anyway, so everyone feel free to jump on whenever you have time/feel like it :P
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on April 02, 2016, 04:25:23 AM
http://archiveofourown.org/works/5853457/chapters/14727691

Speaking of writing, I seem to have produced the penultimate chapter for the Mora monster
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: AquaAurion on April 02, 2016, 07:48:46 AM
http://archiveofourown.org/works/5853457/chapters/14727691

Speaking of writing, I seem to have produced the penultimate chapter for the Mora monster
This is so intense! I'm both excited and scared for the next chapter
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on April 02, 2016, 08:03:59 AM
This is so intense! I'm both excited and scared for the next chapter

The next one will be the last one, I'm afraid! But it's good to know people are enjoying your work. Makes it feel a little less like you're talking to yourself.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on April 02, 2016, 09:05:47 AM
I enjoyed it. But we are going to lose someone next chapter, aren't we?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on April 02, 2016, 06:35:30 PM
I enjoyed it. But we are going to lose someone next chapter, aren't we?

That is quite possible
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Talimee on April 02, 2016, 07:39:09 PM
That is quite possible

Is it weird that I am looking forward to it and dreading it at the same time? This fic of yours has really grown on me. =D Say, that new scar everyone is talking about is that the one over the eye or has Emil gotten a second scar?


Edit: AND I filled my first ficlet for the NaNo. Please find it here: http://archiveofourown.org/works/6440122/chapters/14741962

Spoiler: show
 I swear, one day I will write something other than insights but with an actual plot.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on April 02, 2016, 10:42:15 PM
2. Love (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/14745874)

I might be trying to do these at a one-a-day sprint.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on April 02, 2016, 11:40:16 PM

Edit: AND I filled my first ficlet for the NaNo. Please find it here: http://archiveofourown.org/works/6440122/chapters/14741962

Spoiler: show
 I swear, one day I will write something other than insights but with an actual plot.


That was good. A powerfully affecting ending.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on April 02, 2016, 11:51:38 PM
Talimee, Lazy8. Those are excellent stories. Do keep writing!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on April 03, 2016, 05:03:46 AM
Everyone is certainly setting the bar very high for the prompt challenge! Here goes my attempt, brave and stumbling and earnest. This is going to be fun, hopefully.

Introduction: http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/14751448 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/14751448)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: KicknRun on April 03, 2016, 10:14:54 PM
@y'all

NICEEEE


(now I just need a writing kick in the teeth,or something. Ugh)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on April 03, 2016, 10:25:03 PM
Oh hey look! Prologue characters!

3. Light (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/14770897)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Talimee on April 04, 2016, 06:54:43 AM
Róisín, Buteo: Thanks for your kind words. I am glad that the end was not too abrupt or off-putting.

Here is the second part of the 100-prompts-challenge: http://archiveofourown.org/works/6440122/chapters/14778241
Its very short - more like a snippet, but I feel anything more would take momentum out of it.
Sorry for the formatting, tho, I don't know why it's so spacey. =/
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on April 04, 2016, 08:22:10 AM
http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/14779063

I churned out two more prompts today
We have 12) Insanity and 4) Dark
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on April 04, 2016, 10:53:41 PM
Well ain't I just a big ball of joy today? /Mikkel

4. Dark (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/14794729)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on April 05, 2016, 08:33:14 PM
Agreed! Though, it must Reynir an 'algorithm' or whatever you call them. There are names Sigrun Sigrun the first page to Mikkel the very last Mikkel all the threads I have looked into. Surely that is too much even the most Lalli committed giggling maniac ;D
I just hope it goes back to normal all by itself...

Hee-hee, they haven't, still showing!  That's kind of nice for those of us who only log into the Forum occasionally, so we can see what you were on about.  This is hilarious!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on April 05, 2016, 09:37:20 PM
In which I answer the question of what Reynir was doing at the end of Chapter 10.

5. Seeking Solace (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/14707465)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on April 06, 2016, 01:26:23 AM
Two more prompts

7: Heaven: http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/14819530

5: Seeking solace: http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/14819494
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on April 06, 2016, 07:52:53 AM
I'm back again to pester the thread with the first piece of obvious Emilalli I've ever done.

Have it at, with prompt 16: Questioning

http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/14822836
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Talimee on April 06, 2016, 06:11:46 PM
I'm back again to pester the thread with the first piece of obvious Emilalli I've ever done.

Have it at, with prompt 16: Questioning

http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/14822836

Perfect! I'm heading off to bed soon and this'll be my bedtime treat! :D

I updated my story, too. Prepare for the first chapter of a six-chapter-story with an actual plot! apparently, I need an AU-setting for anything substantial. Behold Prompt 81: Pen and Paper.
http://archiveofourown.org/works/6440122/chapters/14831974
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on April 06, 2016, 06:45:56 PM
Perfect! I'm heading off to bed soon and this'll be my bedtime treat! :D

I updated my story, too. Prepare for the first chapter of a six-chapter-story with an actual plot! apparently, I need an AU-setting for anything substantial. Behold Prompt 81: Pen and Paper.
http://archiveofourown.org/works/6440122/chapters/14831974

Sigrun might be just a little bit too into this, mighn't she? Very nicely captured- everyone nerding around. It's nice to see them no in mortal peril and still having fun with each other.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on April 06, 2016, 10:37:53 PM
I brought myself to tears writing this one. Anyone who follows the Comfort Corner will know why.

6. Break Away (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/14837548)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on April 07, 2016, 12:09:25 AM
http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/14839321

8: Innocence

In which Reynir is a Disney princess and doesn't like it at all.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Talimee on April 07, 2016, 06:24:33 AM
Sigrun might be just a little bit too into this, mighn't she? Very nicely captured- everyone nerding around. It's nice to see them no in mortal peril and still having fun with each other.

Oh! You actually went more meta with this idea than I did. I just put them in a Conan-the-Barbarian-Universe but the crew playing actual DnD at someone's house and really roleplaying is an awesome idea! Just image Sigrun demanding re-roll after re-roll because her dice-luck was sucky! And Reynir isn't there yet, because he's at the door, paying the pizza-delivery. <3
I have to keep this in mind for the future. Maybe there's another prompt which works.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/14839321

8: Innocence

In which Reynir is a Disney princess and doesn't like it at all.


Hehehe. Very funny! I liked every single bird in it. The eaglehawkbuzzard at the beginning does have a special place in my heart, tho. She reminds me of everything Pratchett ever said about mad stares of birds and how they internally contemplate squashing all tiny puny mammals under their scaled dinosaur-feet.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on April 07, 2016, 10:05:57 PM
...I seem to be a bit preoccupied with death lately. Yeah, I just killed my favorite character.

7. Heaven (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/14857432)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on April 08, 2016, 01:16:41 AM
...I seem to be a bit preoccupied with death lately. Yeah, I just killed my favorite character.

7. Heaven (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/14857432)

Ok, I need to psych myself up for this before I read it and Lazy stomps on my fragile, fanthing's heart
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on April 08, 2016, 03:36:34 AM
Two more prompts for the reading pleasure of the thread

2: Love http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/14862322

3: Light http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/14862340

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on April 08, 2016, 07:29:16 AM
Ok, I need to psych myself up for this before I read it and Lazy stomps on my fragile, fanthing's heart

Yeah, probably. Making people cry is a personal specialty of mine.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on April 08, 2016, 08:40:23 AM
Yeah, probably. Making people cry is a personal specialty of mine.

This statement goes almost perfectly with your profile pic.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on April 08, 2016, 09:06:42 AM
34: stars http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/14864851

(read as: Sigrun fights the sky and wins)


50: siblings http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/14864869

(read as: Onni cries a lot)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: frostykitty on April 08, 2016, 04:07:27 PM
All of these are great! From the ones I've read! I haven't got to them all yet! But I will!

Now, someone (https://disqus.com/home/discussion/sssscomic/stand_still_stay_silent_webcomic_page_507/#comment-2612257118) seems to have given me an idea of something write about, how could they do such a thing, but anyway! Comment section inspiration is the best inspiration! Sometimes, not always.

Spoiler: *evil laughter* • show
The Cap Caper

"And if you take your battalion to this side, blocking the giant's escape, we should be able to do away with most of it." Mr. General Eide continued. That was a few minutes after his daughter, and two others, had zoned out and become uninterested. Sigrun sighed and gazed out the window, wistfully daydreaming of the expedition she was soon going to be a part of.

"Now, Sigrun, you- Sigrun? Are you listening?"

"Huh? Uh- yes." The captain straightened in her seat and looked at her father, whose eyes narrowed speculatively.

"Alright. So you're going to be attacking from the east when we give the signal-" blah blah blah blah blah. Sigrun had zoned out again, nodding slightly every few sentences, until she saw movement out of the corner of her eye. She spared a glance out the window to investigate this predicament.

Nothing. Just some new mage, putting on his tasseled hat. Wait - his hat! Yes!

"Sigrun? Hello?"

"Uh-huh, just uh, hold onto that thought I'll be back in a second!" Sigrun blurted out before jumping from her seat and running to the window, which she opened and hopped out of in one fluid motion. She started sprinting towards the unsuspecting victim.

"Did she know there was a door right there?"

The mage whipped around, wide eyes full of pure fear as Sigrun closed in with a (relatively quieter than usual) battle cry. He gasped and rushed to activate a protection spell, but it was too late. He was pinned down in an instant, he hadn't a chance, and as quick as the blink of an eye, his hat was gone.

The red-headed captain sprang upward and held the hat above her head, a vicious, victorious grin stretching across her face. The mage sat up, dazed and cradling his wrist and looked at her pleadingly.

"But that was a birthday present..." Sigrun didn't move a muscle. He sighed and checked his pockets. Empty. His head fell in defeat as the troll hunter marched away smugly, back to the meeting. This time, she used the door.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on April 08, 2016, 08:16:32 PM
All of these are great! From the ones I've read! I haven't got to them all yet! But I will!

Now, someone (https://disqus.com/home/discussion/sssscomic/stand_still_stay_silent_webcomic_page_507/#comment-2612257118) seems to have given me an idea of something write about, how could they do such a thing, but anyway! Comment section inspiration is the best inspiration! Sometimes, not always.

Spoiler: *evil laughter* • show
The Cap Caper

"And if you take your battalion to this side, blocking the giant's escape, we should be able to do away with most of it." Mr. General Eide continued. That was a few minutes after his daughter, and two others, had zoned out and become uninterested. Sigrun sighed and gazed out the window, wistfully daydreaming of the expedition she was soon going to be a part of.

"Now, Sigrun, you- Sigrun? Are you listening?"

"Huh? Uh- yes." The captain straightened in her seat and looked at her father, whose eyes narrowed speculatively.

"Alright. So you're going to be attacking from the east when we give the signal-" blah blah blah blah blah. Sigrun had zoned out again, nodding slightly every few sentences, until she saw movement out of the corner of her eye. She spared a glance out the window to investigate this predicament.

Nothing. Just some new mage, putting on his tasseled hat. Wait - his hat! Yes!

"Sigrun? Hello?"

"Uh-huh, just uh, hold onto that thought I'll be back in a second!" Sigrun blurted out before jumping from her seat and running to the window, which she opened and hopped out of in one fluid motion. She started sprinting towards the unsuspecting victim.

"Did she know there was a door right there?"

The mage whipped around, wide eyes full of pure fear as Sigrun closed in with a (relatively quieter than usual) battle cry. He gasped and rushed to activate a protection spell, but it was too late. He was pinned down in an instant, he hadn't a chance, and as quick as the blink of an eye, his hat was gone.

The red-headed captain sprang upward and held the hat above her head, a vicious, victorious grin stretching across her face. The mage sat up, dazed and cradling his wrist and looked at her pleadingly.

"But that was a birthday present..." Sigrun didn't move a muscle. He sighed and checked his pockets. Empty. His head fell in defeat as the troll hunter marched away smugly, back to the meeting. This time, she used the door.


You are the gem of this thread, Frostkitty. The gem.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on April 08, 2016, 11:46:10 PM
8. Innocence (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/14878540)

Or, Emil's loss thereof, and Sigrun doing what she can.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on April 09, 2016, 11:20:27 AM
*posts chapter*

*receives chirping crickets*

*nervously posts another*

9. Drive (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/14885560)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on April 09, 2016, 11:32:28 AM
*posts chapter*

*receives chirping crickets*

*nervously posts another*
Been there, done that.

I've been enjoying your bits for the prompts immensely, and these are no exception.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: JoB on April 09, 2016, 11:56:24 AM
Spoiler: *evil laughter* • show
the troll hunter marched away smugly, back to the meeting. This time, she used the door.

Spoiler: isnt that technically "backtracking"? • show
I'm not sure that keeping near you the hat of a mage who expected someone to come and take it away from him is something even Sigrun would want to do ... more than once. ;)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on April 09, 2016, 01:43:31 PM
Wait… am I dropping another chapter?

Woah.

The Red Herring League
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/Superhero AU fanfic
Part 3
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg95670#msg95670)
Spoiler: show
Bubble, Bubbles, Everywhere

Trolls were supposed to be more or less unique in their horrific mutations; so why were they under attack by half-a-dozen near-clones?

Lalli cursed fiercely under his breath as he knocked another weird blob of bloated, translucent brain matter off its ridiculously long legs. The giant volume of fluid around their brains would act as a horribly effective shield against bullets, so all Lalli could do to stop them was try to keep them down.

Were Sigrun or Emil awake, the fight would already have been over, but they and the others in the Red Herring League were still unconscious from whatever had been added to their sludge. Fortunately, Tuuri’s luck powers had kept Lalli awake, though he wished the luck had chosen someone else. He had barely managed to get the others into the FELINOPEDE before the attack; another pair of hands would have been most useful with that.

A huge, chopstick-like leg slammed down before Lalli, only just missing pinning him like a bug. The near miss shook Lalli; he should be moving much too quickly for the trolls to get anywhere near that close, so he must be feeling the sludge’s effects himself.

Even as Lalli realized his increasing peril, he slowed more and more, until the half-dozen trolls had managed to surround him. Lalli wanted to run past them, but he was so... tired...

Just as the slight Finn wavered on his feet and one of the trolls raised a deceptively dainty foot for the killing blow, the troll burst into bright orange flames. Lalli managed to smile before his legs folded up beneath him. Very shortly thereafter, the conflagration had spread to the other trolls, and they were fleeing in utter panic as Emil half- (really mostly-) carried Lalli back to the FELINOPEDE.

The little calico kitten they’d rescued a few days ago mewled in confused apprehension as the two boys came in. All that was happening around her eluded her minute ability to comprehend, so she was getting scared.

“Where are those blasted Amalienborg troops?” Emil growled angrily as he closed the door. “Are they merely slow in coming to our aid, or did they surrender to cowardice?”

“Think... it’s... worse...” Mikkel mumbled from his position on the front passenger bench, his Danish rendered even less comprehensible than usual (to Emil, at least) by the fact that he was still mostly asleep. “They... helped... make... the sludge...”

“Y’think they’ve turned Quisling?” Sigrun asked through a huge yawn. “Why’d they go ’n’ do something like that?”

“Dunno,” Mikkel replied through a mammoth yawn of his own. “Not sure they have. Just saying they helped with the sludge.”

A snore from Tuuri interrupted him. Emil could feel his own eyelids drooping again, even as he watched Sigrun slide back from vertical to horizontal. Reynir and Lalli, safely ensconced on the floor, entered their own yawns into the growing chorus, but Emil struggled to stay conscious.

With the last of his strength, Emil barely managed to put the FELINOPEDE into LOCKDOWN mode before he joined the others in sleep...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
Oh, look. I updated this again.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Windfighter on April 09, 2016, 02:30:03 PM
Here, have a short fic I threw together!

Sleeping Habits

   Mikkel put his hands on his side. Lalli had rolled in under Emil's bed while they were busy with decontamination and facing the sjødraug. This was not according to protocol. And it certainly wouldn't make the shippers easier on the two of them. While the other four got changed into their sleeping clothes he put out the mattresses on the floor, took Lalli out from under the bed and placed him in the middle of the two mattresses. Lalli made an attempt to roll back under the bed and Mikkel looked curiously at him. It was as if the boy was aware of his surroundings even though he was asleep.
   Or even comatose. Mikkel realised that Lalli had been asleep for more than one day now. He stopped Lalli's rolling with his legs and knelt down to examine the boy.
   "Well, you seem fine, except for all this sleeping..."
   Mikkel yawned.
   "I will examine you more closely in the morning."
   He rolled Lalli back into the middle, wrapped a blanket tightly around him. The others came in and he instructed Reynir to take place on Lalli's left side, and he crawled down on Lalli's other side. There would be no sleeping under beds tonight.
   And at least tonight would not put more fuel on the Emil/Lalli-ship. Lalli/Reynir on the other side... He let out a sigh. He could live with that. Mikkel looked at two boys a few seconds before yawning, rolling over on his right side and quickly fell asleep.
   Emil looked at the three people on the floor, tensed up a bit before falling asleep. He'd have to make sure his hand didn't fall down this night, like it had done after the battle against ceiling pug. He did not want to end up paired with his mortal enemy.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: tamaerchen on April 09, 2016, 04:26:30 PM
Great work, everyone! I wish I had more time to read all of it more regularly. I'm impressed with the speed that all the Nanowrimo prompts get filled - I just entered the busiest time of the semester and can't even get just one fic done. :D

So please keep posting and don't be discouraged, I'll read them at some point and I can't wait!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on April 09, 2016, 09:06:37 PM
24: Time is running out
http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/14896456

This is a weird one
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on April 10, 2016, 02:17:47 PM
Yeah, I did the obvious for this one.

10. Breathe Again (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/14911381)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Talimee on April 10, 2016, 06:30:15 PM
Here, have a short fic I threw together!

Sleeping Habits
   And at least tonight would not put more fuel on the Emil/Lalli-ship. Lalli/Reynir on the other side... He let out a sigh. He could live with that. Mikkel looked at two boys a few seconds before yawning, rolling over on his right side and quickly fell asleep.

What about fuel for the Mikkel/Lalli? Has he thought of that?? *cackles evilly*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: frostykitty on April 10, 2016, 08:15:52 PM
These are wonderful, sorry I can't write out individual comments for everything! (Well, I guess I could but I'm not sure I have that much time)

But heyyyy, I started part three of Return to Silence a little while ago! And chapter one is done, so I'll just post it among the prompts!

Spoiler: return to silence; part three, chapter one • show
{chapter 1}

The scout's return had come much too much early for Tuuri's liking, even though it was dawn. She groaned as she got out of her warm bed, quite reluctantly. After Lalli was decontaminated and she was allowed out of the room, she made her way to the cabin and sat down before the map.

"This was weird, we can't go that way." Lalli muttered, pointed at the pencil-marked path.

Tuuri sighed and erased the trail, just as Sigrun and Emil entered the room. Mikkel was trying to radio headquarters, and Reynir was asking if he could help.

"This thing was blocked. Don't go this way, it's weird, too." The scout tapped a small street that led from the camp to a large intersection in the middle of town, "This way is the best choice."

As Tuuri nodded drowsily and traced the path, Sigrun raised an eyebrow. "Is this really how he gave reports the whole mission last time?"

"Huh? Well, yeah... Pretty much... Why?" Tuuri inquired, glancing from the map to the information charts. She had told Lalli to give his reports in Swedish, this was only the second or third time he had complied.

"They seem vague." The captain shrugged, taking a bite of her breakfast.

"Not vague, they're to the point." Tuuri quickly replied, noticing, a little late, her tone may have been sharper than it was supposed to be. "What I meant was... He tells me if there's danger or road blocks, and that's all we need."

Sigrun kept further thoughts to herself, not wanting to upset the skald any more. Lalli only sighed and continued with his report as the rest of the team filed into the cabin. Kitty 'prh'ed for food scraps as Sigrun looked over the maps.

"Here," she declared, pointing to a small store not far from the base. "Number thirteen."

Tuuri nodded and grabbed the information sheet. "Number thirteen? 'A small book store converted into a shelter around a Year Zero, requires more research'." The skald yawned and looked to the map. "So, there might be a good collection there, but it also might have nothing left."

Sigrun nodded. "We can probably give the little scout a day off, me and Emil can walk there." Emil had looked up abruptly at his name with a look of dread, unknowing to what Sigrun had just made him volunteer for. "Isn't that right, pretty boy?"

"Uh... Y-yes?"

"Good enough! Let's go!" She grinned and turned to get her coat, but the door way was blocked by Mikkel.

"Hold on." he sighed, closing his eyes with an exasperated expression. "You have no idea how dangerous that rout or building is, and although Lalli does need a day of rest, you two shouldn't go alone. Or, at least the cat for an early warning." Lalli hadn't understood much, but he did not like what he had. Quick as can be, he slid through the semi-blocked doorway and scrambled under Tuuri's bunk before anyone could say otherwise.

"Well, cat it is!" Sigrun smirked, lightly shoving past Mikkel and tugging on her coat. Tuuri had silently gotten Emil caught up with the plan he had missed through Reynir's babble of baby talk to Kitty.

The two were geared up and ready to go, Kitty desperately trying to crawl into the captain's too-small pocket. With a final impatient reply to the medic, Sigrun dragged Emil by his sleeve out of the Cattank. Mikkel muttered something under his breath about poor planning before joining Tuuri by the radio. Earlier in the day, he had managed to get a connection, but no response.

The skald had better luck, and was getting a hoard of concerned question flung at her in Finnish. Poor Onni had been brought along to headquarters, but didn't dare go any further.

"And you remembered to wear your mask?"

"Yes, Onni."

"And you didn't get any abrasions or cuts?"

"No, Onni."

"And you've stayed at least an arms length away from the guys?"

"ONNI."

"But-"

"Alright, that's enough. That's already been more than your daily limit of questions." Taru interrupted with a chuckle. Onni scoffed and got up from the radio as the rest of the crew filtered in, along with one of the scheming, unnoticed children.

"This is Torbjörn, and I'm guessing Tuuri is who I'm speaking with?"

"Yes, this is Tuuri and Mikkel. We wanted to report a very interesting find from spot four!" A tired smile crept across her face as she grabbed the journal she had read the previous night. Mikkel crossed his arms and sat beside her as Reynir slowly crept through the doorway.

"Oh, that abandoned lab? I thought there would be a good record or two." Torbjörn eagerly replied as Siv's eyes narrowed with interest.

"A good record? There were nearly seventy journals full of Rash research!"


Spoiler: notessss • show
This chapter will be about the stay in the Cat-tank team. It'll be more exciting than it sounds, a certain cleanser will accidentally make sure of that.

As always, tell me about any grammar/spelling issues, as I write this when I'm in desperate need of sleep. And if it seems a little rushed, I'm just hoping the next chapter won't end up the same.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Regolith247 on April 10, 2016, 10:30:15 PM
Yeah, probably. Making people cry is a personal specialty of mine.

Cry? Uh... No. That's just some onions that spontaneously appeared next to my computer. But seriously- you are waaay to good at the whole tearjerker thing! Don't stop!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on April 10, 2016, 10:44:28 PM
Cry? Uh... No. That's just some onions that spontaneously appeared next to my computer. But seriously- you are waaay to good at the whole tearjerker thing! Don't stop!

Onions? Spontaneously appearing onions? That's the most complimentary thing anyone can say about my writing!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on April 11, 2016, 05:47:53 AM
43: Dying  http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/14928508

In which Death attempts to come for Sigrun, but Sigrun doesn't think so.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Windfighter on April 11, 2016, 07:18:20 AM
What about fuel for the Mikkel/Lalli? Has he thought of that?? *cackles evilly*

Of course he did, that's why he turned his back towards Lalli! \o/
*quietly puts some fuel on the Lalli/Mikkel-ship, because why not*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on April 11, 2016, 08:53:34 AM
Vasterstrom family quirks!

11. Memory (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/14929891)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on April 12, 2016, 09:05:57 AM
http://archiveofourown.org/works/5853457/chapters/14951731

Took me a while to get it done with the prompt challenge going on and school eating up my time, but here it is. The last chapter of that Mora Academy nonsense. Been a blast to write, though. A convoluted, slow-boil of a blast.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Dai on April 12, 2016, 09:48:56 AM
Hello folks!

Just came up with a little fic that will probably be disproved very early in the next chapter. :D

But anyway:

What if Lalli's Luonto needs a little help?:

.....

Reynir paused for breath. "Didn't know you could get tired in your dreams!" he huffed.

The dog circled back, yapping happily. Reynir eyed it in a slightly unfriendly manner. "Remind me please - why am I following you again?"

That was a little unfair, he knew - he had had no qualms about following the dog when it had started persistently leading him in one direction, looking back and barking, plainly urging Reynir to follow.

Besides, the dog had already shown that it knew important things - things vital to Reynir's very survival - so he had readily followed the dream-dog.

But now, after what seemed like hours of traveling through featureless dreamscapes, with no apparent destination in sight, Reynir was beginning to have doubts. He had already begun thinking of turning back...but the chilling memory of a dog speaking in a human voice:"Remember this..." kept him on his unknown course. 

They continued in this manner for...minutes?... hours?...hard to tell in this timeless realm.
Then the dog stopped suddenly, ears pricked. It began running in a circle, sniffing the cold ground.
Then it barked again, heading off slightly to the left of their original course.

With a sigh, Reynir followed.

Reynir began to notice a change in the surroundings. They had been running over calm seas, then flat featureless plains up until this point, but now the land began showing signs of new detail - shrubs, low trees, narrow streams.

The dog sped up, barking excitedly. Reynir gritted his teeth and increased his pace, vaguely wondering how he was supposed to "rest" after all this was over - after all, he was already asleep, wasn't he?...

The trees had grown taller and more dense, the streams becoming wider, meandering into pools and ponds.
Reynir realized with a start that he had been here before...or at least, somewhere just like it.

Reynir looked around, frowning. It looked remarkably like...Lalli's place?
But it couldn't be - he knew the way to Lalli's sanctuary and this was way, way further out!
All the same, it all looked remarkably similar to Lalli's little piece of Finland...

Reynir ducked under a branch - and froze.

There, sitting in front of him, was the biggest Cat he had ever seen.

Reynir, gulped, vainly attempting to swallow the huge lump that had appeared in his throat.

Reynir stood frozen - then jumped as the dog stuck a cold nose in his hand. He looked down, suddenly especially thankful that he wasn't alone.

He looked back. The Cat (which Reynir now recognised as a lynx) had not moved, calmly gazing at the Icelander.

Reynir straightened up and met the Cat's gaze squarely - and was suddenly struck by an unexpected sense of familiarity.

"I know you..." he murmured. He had never seen the creature before - but its gaze was direct and piercing...its eyes, unlike most cats, were a pale grey...

Reynir's eyes widened. "Lalli?..."

The Cat yawned, displaying unnervingly large canine teeth. Then, unexpectedly, the imposing creature flopped down before him, at his feet.

His dog jumped back with a nervous yip, then slunk back to stand by Reynir.

Reynir stared down at the creature. It plainly wanted something - but what?
He squatted down in front of it.

Reynir's eyes narrowed as he looked deep into the Cat's eyes, holding its gaze. 

Reynir thoughts flashed back: Lalli's unnaturally deep sleep - and Emil's bewildered question, "I don't get it. Is he ill?" - then Tuuri's rather evasive answer:"Oh...you could say that. He just needs to rest up a bit..."

Reynir looked deep into the proud, penetrating eyes - and saw the kitten inside...

"You're...lost...aren't you?" Reynir murmured.

He put his hand out, hesitated, then gently stroked the Cat's head. It made no protest, merely closing its eyes momentarily.

He stood up. The Cat also came to its feet, eyes fixed on him. Reynir looked round to his dream-dog, which wuffed expectantly, wagging its tail.

Reynir grinned. "Okay, boy - find Lalli!"

The dog barked happily and spun around, racing off into the darkness.

Reynir and the Cat followed.
 

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on April 12, 2016, 10:55:32 AM
Excellently done. Good descriptions.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Talimee on April 12, 2016, 12:08:31 PM
http://archiveofourown.org/works/5853457/chapters/14951731

Took me a while to get it done with the prompt challenge going on and school eating up my time, but here it is. The last chapter of that Mora Academy nonsense. Been a blast to write, though. A convoluted, slow-boil of a blast.

Yay! I like your take on the ending but I wish I had known it earlier.
Spoiler: show
I was ticking off characters the whole time! How nerve-wrecking. XD
Now that it's complete I can download your fic and put it safely to bed with all the other SSSS-Fanfiction. Thank you again for writing it and sticking to it and sharing it. =)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Talimee on April 12, 2016, 02:20:09 PM
And I finally finished part 2 of my Fantasy-AU.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/6440122/chapters/14955400
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on April 12, 2016, 08:49:54 PM
12. Insanity (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/14707465)

There's certainly no shortage of it in Dalsnes...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on April 13, 2016, 11:25:42 PM
Did anyone order some angsty Sigrun backstory? No one? Hm. Okay then, I'll just leave this here.

13. Misfortune (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/14985874)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on April 14, 2016, 02:50:59 AM
And now, the Fic No One Asked for!

Dream Following
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Spoiler: show
Mages dream, just as others do. That which non-mages ignorantly refer to as “the Dream-World” is only an intermediate stage between waking and true dreaming.

Lalli Hotakainen looked intently at the lush swamp around him, knowing that he had slipped into true dreaming at last. The swamp was almost uncomfortably warm and sticky, though the sun had nearly set, tingeing the pervasive green with a steadily deepening orange-red. He had never been in this place; he had never heard tell of a place like this. He idly wondered how many pieces of how many places his mind had stitched together to make this place.

The chattering of a stoat--wait, did stoats chatter? Well, they did here--interrupted Lalli’s idle musings. He glanced in the direction whence the noise had come and saw a moose, a boar--no, a sow--and a decidedly frightened-looking lion, but no stoat. It took no great imagination to know that these were Mikkel, Sigrun and Emil, respectively.

The light slipped away, and immediately, grossling vines bearing horribly gnashing mouths began to snake towards the four of them, ready to feed. With an angry bellow, stoat-Sigrun charged off to meet them, while peacock-Emil hissed in anger and steer-Mikkel kept placidly chewing his cud.

Lalli waited almost motionlessly. Only the twitching of his tail betrayed his readiness to pounce, but before he could, the foursome fell through the bog and plunged down, down, and yet further down through open air.

Lalli was watching the ground ever so slowly rise up to meet him when the weird gray ox with the long nose and huge ears that was Emil slid beneath him, opening those huge, huge ears until they acted like wings and the two of them slipped across the grassy earth instead of slamming into it.

Badger-Sigrun had caught a similar ride from Mikkel, and the foursome plowed to a stop close to the field of Ginsu knives and origami succotash, though why anyone would waste paper replicating maize kernels and lima beans briefly confused Lalli. Maybe it was the knives, which rattled aggressively at the four.

Before shrike-Sigrun could do more than cry out once, squirrel-Emil had leaped out in front of them all. With one mighty exhalation, he spewed fire across the field, igniting the succotash and even the knives’ handles, causing the cutlery to flee in panic.

“Moo,” moose-Mikkel said approvingly, but it was a very Danish moo, so lion-Emil looked abashed, lashing his tail in apology, though orca-Sigrun trumpeted triumphantly. Then they all climbed on her back and rode the rainbows and the lightning to go get cookies for a job well done.

Again, mages dream, just as all of us do. If they only spent time in “the Dream-World”, without the release of true dreams, their minds would snap. They simply know that they shouldn’t tell anyone else about their nightly bouts of unconscious insanity, for fear of forfeiting their dignity.


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
This illustrates the real reason Reynir never remembered his dreams: they’re too incomprehensible. This dream of Lalli’s was quite rational and serene compared to the ones he usually has.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on April 14, 2016, 03:43:09 AM
Lazy8: that's very fine, and explains a lot about Sigrun.

LooNEY: *Incoherent giggling*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on April 14, 2016, 05:37:27 AM
39: Dreams http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/14990293

In which Reynir gets to take a look at everyone's lunontos/ fylgja

9: Drive http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/14990314

In which Tuuri is young and determined to discover a bigger world
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Tr on April 14, 2016, 08:49:37 PM
OwlsG0, these are great! I'm so glad I read the first one before school, it made my entire day happier.  :)
And now, a fic of my own!
Summary: How did Lalli gate his luonto back? According to Reynir, Emil helped!
Not shippy, but friendshippy and cute. :)) If you like listening to Excited Reynir babble on about stuff, you'll probably like this.
Spoiler: show
Emil didn't always remember his dreams, but he was pretty sure they didn't usually have this many animals in them. He lifted his head, staring at the small, fluffy sheepdog and the stag whose antlers were an inch away from poking him in the eye. Between the two animals, he could see a familiar, freckled face beaming at him.
"Reynir... what..." he said groggily, rubbing his eyes.
"Hi!" Reynir dragged him to his feet. "Guess what? So I was just wandering around in my dream, and then I walked through the part with the water and then I found this place! And you were there! And I found this guy!" He patted the stag on the tuft of fur right between its antlers, causing tiny sparkles to fly into the air.
"Okay..." Emil said slowly, still processing the fact that Reynir and a stag and a dog had suddenly popped into his dream.
Reynir's face took on an unusually solemn expression. "Anyway, I've been worried about the other mage. You know, Lúlli."
"Lalli," Emil corrected, feeling a sharp pang of worry for his friend.
"Right. Him. He isn't waking up, I think something is wrong! I tried to talk to him in a dream last night, but he wasn't very friendly and then he kicked me out! So I need you to come talk to him instead. Will you come?"
About time someone noticed Lalli's catatonic state, in Emil's humble opinion. There was just one problem. "Sure, but he won't understand a word I say."
Reynir looked thoughtful. He pulled his braid over one shoulder and pinched the very end between two fingers. "I'm not so sure about that, you can understand what I'm saying, right?"
"Yes..."
"Great! Let's go! Can we go?"
"Sure," Emil replied warily.
Reynir took off running down the green, grassy slope they had been standing on. Emil had to jog to keep up. "Wait! What is this place?" he panted as they ran.
"This? This is your place!" Reynir responded cheerfully. "It's really nice! I honestly didn't expect to see any wildflowers, but those are really pretty. And I like the hills, those are cool! Oh, look! We're almost there!"
Suddenly Emil found himself wading through icy, knee-deep water. "It's okay," Reynir said, "Lalli should be really close!"
Emil said nothing, only nodded with a silent resolve. He would make it there no matter how cold the water was.

Even in his dreamspace, Lalli was exhausted. Something was wrong. Except he knew that, he knew that his luonto was missing. Then the weird spirits attacked, and he thought... no, he knew... he had seen Onni? He wasn't sure anymore. He was missing his luonto, that was the reason his mind was so full of static. He shook his head, silently willing the irritating background noise to vanish. No luck.
"Hey! Are you okay? I brought your friend this time!" A cheerful, red-topped head appeared in the far corner of Lalli's field of vision. Oh no. Not him again. The weird foreign mage was back, invading his dreamspace yet again. He was talking, too. What was he saying about friends? Lalli didn't have friends. But that wasn't true, he did have a friend! One friend, a friend with sparkly hair. Lalli tried to hold on to that thought, but it was no use. He pressed his hands to the sides of his head and turned away.
"I'm so worried about him," Reynir whispered to his fylgja. "He's been getting worse. It's been weeks since he was actually awake."
"Lalli?" Emil said hesitantly, stepping onto the boards of Lalli's raft-thing.
Lalli didn't speak. He stared stubbornly at the reflections in the water, not moving a muscle. Emil glanced nervously over his shoulder. It was clear that he had no idea what to do.
The stag paced back and forth behind Reynir, its eyes mirroring Emil's fear and indecision. Suddenly, Reynir had an idea.
"He doesn't know what to do..." he said softly as the stag 's restless movements stilled, "but maybe you do?" He spoke directly to the stag, looking straight into its magnificent turquoise eyes. "Please, can you help? Please?"
The stag seemed to nod, and it disappeared into the trees and mist and shadow at the edge of Lalli's dreamspace.
Emil sat down next to Lalli, who had shuddered as if his soul had suddenly filled with snow and curled up into a ball on the rough wooden planks. Emil had never felt so helpless in his life. He didn't know what to do, this was mage stuff, he didn't know anything about mages, he didn't even know if all this was real. Reynir had vanished, he had left them there, alone, with Lalli sick and seeming to fade by the minute. It wasn't fair, Emil shouldn't have to deal with this alone. All he could do was sit there, watching the dappled shadows dance on the water as Lalli shivered on the planks next to him.
Then Reynir reappeared, with a rush of happy chatter. "Wow! That was fast! Emil, your stag is the best!"
"My stag?" Emil repeated incredulously.
"Yes! He's like your version of my dog!" Reynir waved his hand towards the stag, and Emil looked over just in time to see something long and silvery slink out of sight. "He's really friendly and nice and I'm pretty sure he saved Lalli!" Reynir bounded over to Emil, grinning so broadly it seemed like his face might burst. "And since he's your stag, that means you helped!"
"I did?" Emil was still confused as to what, exactly, was going on here.
Reynir opened his mouth. "Mrrh."
He suddenly looked incredibly confused. "I didn't say that... Lalli!"

Even though the weird foreign mage had called Onni, and probably had something to do with the return of his luonto, this did not give him permission to just barge into Lalli's space whenever he felt like it. Lalli frowned. "Go away," he said. Then he noticed the other person standing in his dreamspace. "...Emil?"
The golden-haired Swede turned quickly, a relieved smile growing on his face. But morning was already here, and Emil faded from sight as he started to wake up.

Emil yawned widely. He was back in the Cattank. He knew that he'd just woken up from the weirdest dream ever, but he couldn't quite remember what that dream had been. Something with lots of animals, and something ridiculous about mages. He rolled over, unwilling to leave the warmth of his blankets, and caught sight of a familiar pair of silvery eyes regarding him solemnly from underneath a nearby bed.

Outside the Cattank, Reynir was telling Tuuri about how he had found Emil and Emil's stag had found Lalli's wild cat thing and how Lalli was going to wake up any second now. She didn't seem to believe him, though. At least, not until she opened the Cattank's door.
End.

And some author's notes:
Spoiler: show
I borrowed the Emil's-fylgja-is-a-stag idea from the Headcanon Thread. I also slipped in my own headcanon that spending too much time away from your luonto will make it really hard to think clearly in the dreamworld. Basically, I wanted to write something cute and fluffy with a nice happy ending to distract me from worrying about the science test tomorrow, haha. I hope you like it. I'm totally not nervous about this at all, nope, not me, why would I be nervous?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on April 14, 2016, 08:56:45 PM
Tr, that's lovely! Is this your first fic?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Kiraly on April 14, 2016, 09:01:32 PM
OwlsG0, these are great! I'm so glad I read the first one before school, it made my entire day happier.  :)
And now, a fic of my own!
Summary: How did Lalli gate his luonto back? According to Reynir, Emil helped!
Not shippy, but friendshippy and cute. :)) If you like listening to Excited Reynir babble on about stuff, you'll probably like this.
Spoiler: show
Emil didn't always remember his dreams, but he was pretty sure they didn't usually have this many animals in them. He lifted his head, staring at the small, fluffy sheepdog and the stag whose antlers were an inch away from poking him in the eye. Between the two animals, he could see a familiar, freckled face beaming at him.
"Reynir... what..." he said groggily, rubbing his eyes.
"Hi!" Reynir dragged him to his feet. "Guess what? So I was just wandering around in my dream, and then I walked through the part with the water and then I found this place! And you were there! And I found this guy!" He patted the stag on the tuft of fur right between its antlers, causing tiny sparkles to fly into the air.
"Okay..." Emil said slowly, still processing the fact that Reynir and a stag and a dog had suddenly popped into his dream.
Reynir's face took on an unusually solemn expression. "Anyway, I've been worried about the other mage. You know, Lúlli."
"Lalli," Emil corrected, feeling a sharp pang of worry for his friend.
"Right. Him. He isn't waking up, I think something is wrong! I tried to talk to him in a dream last night, but he wasn't very friendly and then he kicked me out! So I need you to come talk to him instead. Will you come?"
About time someone noticed Lalli's catatonic state, in Emil's humble opinion. There was just one problem. "Sure, but he won't understand a word I say."
Reynir looked thoughtful. He pulled his braid over one shoulder and pinched the very end between two fingers. "I'm not so sure about that, you can understand what I'm saying, right?"
"Yes..."
"Great! Let's go! Can we go?"
"Sure," Emil replied warily.
Reynir took off running down the green, grassy slope they had been standing on. Emil had to jog to keep up. "Wait! What is this place?" he panted as they ran.
"This? This is your place!" Reynir responded cheerfully. "It's really nice! I honestly didn't expect to see any wildflowers, but those are really pretty. And I like the hills, those are cool! Oh, look! We're almost there!"
Suddenly Emil found himself wading through icy, knee-deep water. "It's okay," Reynir said, "Lalli should be really close!"
Emil said nothing, only nodded with a silent resolve. He would make it there no matter how cold the water was.

Even in his dreamspace, Lalli was exhausted. Something was wrong. Except he knew that, he knew that his luonto was missing. Then the weird spirits attacked, and he thought... no, he knew... he had seen Onni? He wasn't sure anymore. He was missing his luonto, that was the reason his mind was so full of static. He shook his head, silently willing the irritating background noise to vanish. No luck.
"Hey! Are you okay? I brought your friend this time!" A cheerful, red-topped head appeared in the far corner of Lalli's field of vision. Oh no. Not him again. The weird foreign mage was back, invading his dreamspace yet again. He was talking, too. What was he saying about friends? Lalli didn't have friends. But that wasn't true, he did have a friend! One friend, a friend with sparkly hair. Lalli tried to hold on to that thought, but it was no use. He pressed his hands to the sides of his head and turned away.
"I'm so worried about him," Reynir whispered to his fylgja. "He's been getting worse. It's been weeks since he was actually awake."
"Lalli?" Emil said hesitantly, stepping onto the boards of Lalli's raft-thing.
Lalli didn't speak. He stared stubbornly at the reflections in the water, not moving a muscle. Emil glanced nervously over his shoulder. It was clear that he had no idea what to do.
The stag paced back and forth behind Reynir, its eyes mirroring Emil's fear and indecision. Suddenly, Reynir had an idea.
"He doesn't know what to do..." he said softly as the stag 's restless movements stilled, "but maybe you do?" He spoke directly to the stag, looking straight into its magnificent turquoise eyes. "Please, can you help? Please?"
The stag seemed to nod, and it disappeared into the trees and mist and shadow at the edge of Lalli's dreamspace.
Emil sat down next to Lalli, who had shuddered as if his soul had suddenly filled with snow and curled up into a ball on the rough wooden planks. Emil had never felt so helpless in his life. He didn't know what to do, this was mage stuff, he didn't know anything about mages, he didn't even know if all this was real. Reynir had vanished, he had left them there, alone, with Lalli sick and seeming to fade by the minute. It wasn't fair, Emil shouldn't have to deal with this alone. All he could do was sit there, watching the dappled shadows dance on the water as Lalli shivered on the planks next to him.
Then Reynir reappeared, with a rush of happy chatter. "Wow! That was fast! Emil, your stag is the best!"
"My stag?" Emil repeated incredulously.
"Yes! He's like your version of my dog!" Reynir waved his hand towards the stag, and Emil looked over just in time to see something long and silvery slink out of sight. "He's really friendly and nice and I'm pretty sure he saved Lalli!" Reynir bounded over to Emil, grinning so broadly it seemed like his face might burst. "And since he's your stag, that means you helped!"
"I did?" Emil was still confused as to what, exactly, was going on here.
Reynir opened his mouth. "Mrrh."
He suddenly looked incredibly confused. "I didn't say that... Lalli!"

Even though the weird foreign mage had called Onni, and probably had something to do with the return of his luonto, this did not give him permission to just barge into Lalli's space whenever he felt like it. Lalli frowned. "Go away," he said. Then he noticed the other person standing in his dreamspace. "...Emil?"
The golden-haired Swede turned quickly, a relieved smile growing on his face. But morning was already here, and Emil faded from sight as he started to wake up.

Emil yawned widely. He was back in the Cattank. He knew that he'd just woken up from the weirdest dream ever, but he couldn't quite remember what that dream had been. Something with lots of animals, and something ridiculous about mages. He rolled over, unwilling to leave the warmth of his blankets, and caught sight of a familiar pair of silvery eyes regarding him solemnly from underneath a nearby bed.

Outside the Cattank, Reynir was telling Tuuri about how he had found Emil and Emil's stag had found Lalli's wild cat thing and how Lalli was going to wake up any second now. She didn't seem to believe him, though. At least, not until she opened the Cattank's door.
End.

And some author's notes:
Spoiler: show
I borrowed the Emil's-fylgja-is-a-stag idea from the Headcanon Thread. I also slipped in my own headcanon that spending too much time away from your luonto will make it really hard to think clearly in the dreamworld. Basically, I wanted to write something cute and fluffy with a nice happy ending to distract me from worrying about the science test tomorrow, haha. I hope you like it. I'm totally not nervous about this at all, nope, not me, why would I be nervous?


Aww, this is really cute! I'm all about excited Reynir babble, and I feel like it's very in-character for him to just barge into Emil's dream space and decide Emil should help with Lalli. It's even more entertaining because Emil has no idea what's going on, haha. Anyway, I really enjoyed reading this and hope we'll get to read more from you in the future!

(Also, I keep neglecting to say, but I've really been enjoying your fics for the prompt challenge, OwlsG0 and Lazy8! I have to get better at leaving comments.)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Tr on April 14, 2016, 09:26:27 PM
Kiraly and Róisín: Thank you so much, I'm so glad you liked it! That was indeed my first fic, and you will definitely see more of my stuff here! Yay!
Warning: I barely ever write stuff that is not cute and fluffy.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on April 14, 2016, 09:30:56 PM
Kiraly and Róisín: Thank you so much, I'm so glad you liked it! That was indeed my first fic, and you will definitely see more of my stuff here! Yay!
Warning: I barely ever write stuff that is not cute and fluffy.

That was super cute and fluffy. And no, please, balance my angst!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Ragnarok on April 14, 2016, 09:33:24 PM
39: Dreams http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/14990293

In which Reynir gets to take a look at everyone's lunontos/ fylgja

9: Drive http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/14990314

In which Tuuri is young and determined to discover a bigger world
And now, the Fic No One Asked for!

Dream Following
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Spoiler: show
Mages dream, just as others do. That which non-mages ignorantly refer to as “the Dream-World” is only an intermediate stage between waking and true dreaming.

Lalli Hotakainen looked intently at the lush swamp around him, knowing that he had slipped into true dreaming at last. The swamp was almost uncomfortably warm and sticky, though the sun had nearly set, tingeing the pervasive green with a steadily deepening orange-red. He had never been in this place; he had never heard tell of a place like this. He idly wondered how many pieces of how many places his mind had stitched together to make this place.

The chattering of a stoat--wait, did stoats chatter? Well, they did here--interrupted Lalli’s idle musings. He glanced in the direction whence the noise had come and saw a moose, a boar--no, a sow--and a decidedly frightened-looking lion, but no stoat. It took no great imagination to know that these were Mikkel, Sigrun and Emil, respectively.

The light slipped away, and immediately, grossling vines bearing horribly gnashing mouths began to snake towards the four of them, ready to feed. With an angry bellow, stoat-Sigrun charged off to meet them, while peacock-Emil hissed in anger and steer-Mikkel kept placidly chewing his cud.

Lalli waited almost motionlessly. Only the twitching of his tail betrayed his readiness to pounce, but before he could, the foursome fell through the bog and plunged down, down, and yet further down through open air.

Lalli was watching the ground ever so slowly rise up to meet him when the weird gray ox with the long nose and huge ears that was Emil slid beneath him, opening those huge, huge ears until they acted like wings and the two of them slipped across the grassy earth instead of slamming into it.

Badger-Sigrun had caught a similar ride from Mikkel, and the foursome plowed to a stop close to the field of Ginsu knives and origami succotash, though why anyone would waste paper replicating maize kernels and lima beans briefly confused Lalli. Maybe it was the knives, which rattled aggressively at the four.

Before shrike-Sigrun could do more than cry out once, squirrel-Emil had leaped out in front of them all. With one mighty exhalation, he spewed fire across the field, igniting the succotash and even the knives’ handles, causing the cutlery to flee in panic.

“Moo,” moose-Mikkel said approvingly, but it was a very Danish moo, so lion-Emil looked abashed, lashing his tail in apology, though orca-Sigrun trumpeted triumphantly. Then they all climbed on her back and rode the rainbows and the lightning to go get cookies for a job well done.

Again, mages dream, just as all of us do. If they only spent time in “the Dream-World”, without the release of true dreams, their minds would snap. They simply know that they shouldn’t tell anyone else about their nightly bouts of unconscious insanity, for fear of forfeiting their dignity.


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
This illustrates the real reason Reynir never remembered his dreams: they’re too incomprehensible. This dream of Lalli’s was quite rational and serene compared to the ones he usually has.


These. Yes. These are awesome
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Kiraly on April 14, 2016, 09:36:45 PM
Kiraly and Róisín: Thank you so much, I'm so glad you liked it! That was indeed my first fic, and you will definitely see more of my stuff here! Yay!
Warning: I barely ever write stuff that is not cute and fluffy.

Haha, no worries, cute and fluffy is my default too! My fics have been accused of giving people cavities. ;)

That was super cute and fluffy. And no, please, balance my angst!

See, I really appreciate people who can write angst because I feel like it balances out my fluff. All kinds of fics for all kinds of moods, hooray!

Speaking of which, I totally forgot to say that I cracked up laughing at your most recent fic, LooNEY! I love how it's all presented as straightforward happenings even though it's completely surreal. Mage dreams are crazy!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on April 14, 2016, 10:33:28 PM
14. Smile (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/15005311)

Or, "Mikkel, why the heck are you doing it right there?"
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on April 14, 2016, 10:37:05 PM
Tr, we need fluff to balance out Aliax, Lazy8 and myself, who can be a bit grim at times.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on April 14, 2016, 11:16:49 PM
Tr, we need fluff to balance out Aliax, Lazy8 and myself, who can be a bit grim at times.

Kirlaly is good at fluffiness. If Tr and Kirlaly join forces, we should be fine. After all, you only need one candle to penetrate the darkness.

And that sounds like a quote from the back of a bar-napkin or something you would write on the wall of a bathroom cubicle
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on April 15, 2016, 09:04:54 AM
27: Friendship http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/15011236

In which Sigrun has a few too many at a bar and lets Mikkel know all about it
(no real crude humour. Just Sigrun thinking the radio is god and mistaking Emil for a beautiful woman, whom she assumes Mikkel wants to court)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Kiraly on April 15, 2016, 11:27:38 AM
27: Friendship http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/15011236

In which Sigrun has a few too many at a bar and lets Mikkel know all about it
(no real crude humour. Just Sigrun thinking the radio is god and mistaking Emil for a beautiful woman, whom she assumes Mikkel wants to court)

Okay, the description here is awesome by itself, but the actual product is SO MUCH BETTER!!! (I wish I could give kudos more than once).

It hasn't been mentioned as part of the fluff/angst spectrum, but since we're lauding people for their particular strengths as fic writers, OwlsG0 is really excellent at writing funny things. :))
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on April 15, 2016, 11:50:26 AM
OwlsG0, that was way funny. Counterbalances the angst.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Pupunen on April 15, 2016, 05:20:31 PM
Letizia brought up the sad lack of Finnish-language SSSS fanfiction a while back, so I decided to do my part (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6563983) to improve the situation. (And Róisín, you wanted poetry – there's kind of an attempt at that, too.)

I also have a silly little thing (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6564082) for those of you who don't understand Finnish.

And though I'm not participating in NaNoWriMo (NaPoWriMo (http://www.napowrimo.net/) is enough), it's great to see so much writing going on! I've been trying to keep up with all the fun stuff everyone is writing. :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Regolith247 on April 15, 2016, 06:41:27 PM
39: Dreams http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/14990293

In which Reynir gets to take a look at everyone's lunontos/ fylgja

9: Drive http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/14990314

In which Tuuri is young and determined to discover a bigger world


Awesome job, OwlsG0! You did a great job describing all of the fylgjas! Makes me wonder though- as a non-mage Finn, does Tuuri get a Fylgja? Or would that be considered a luonto, who she just can't communicate with like Lalli and Onni can?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on April 15, 2016, 07:09:29 PM

Awesome job, OwlsG0! You did a great job describing all of the fylgjas! Makes me wonder though- as a non-mage Finn, does Tuuri get a Fylgja? Or would that be considered a luonto, who she just can't communicate with like Lalli and Onni can?

Remember way back in the comic where Lalli had that strange bird thing with him when he was trying to find Onni? Silen- something? I think for people who aren't mages, they only have those floaty thingies. And instead the Icelandic have only the fylgjas, but the people who can see them are able to use them the way a Finnish mage uses their luonto
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on April 15, 2016, 11:27:21 PM
I hope you're happy, NaNo. I have completely lost my ability to go to bed at a decent hour, all because of you.

In which Lalli and Sigrun are sick, and everyone is worried.

15. Silence (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/15024868)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on April 15, 2016, 11:39:22 PM
Awesome job, OwlsG0! You did a great job describing all of the fylgjas! Makes me wonder though- as a non-mage Finn, does Tuuri get a Fylgja? Or would that be considered a luonto, who she just can't communicate with like Lalli and Onni can?
Remember way back in the comic where Lalli had that strange bird thing with him when he was trying to find Onni? Silen- something? I think for people who aren't mages, they only have those floaty thingies. And instead the Icelandic have only the fylgjas, but the people who can see them are able to use them the way a Finnish mage uses their luonto
The floaty thingie is a sielulientu, which only mages would have. All Finns have a luonto rather than a fylgja.

Unless I'm wrong. Laufey would be an authoritative source, though.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on April 16, 2016, 12:27:01 AM
As I understand sielulintu (Laufey will likely know more), sielulintu delivered the soul to the body before or as a child was born (and isn't it interesting how many variants of that idea turn up in European folklore? Maybe that's where the idea that babies are brought by the stork comes from?).

Anyway, the bird-shaped sielulintu guarded the child's sleep, especially in the vulnerable period before the luonto took up residence, and continued to do so through life. It used to be common to have a little carving representing the sielulintu, generally of wood, which a person wore in life, and which was, after their death, hung on or attached to their grave marker. That Pagan belief seems to have persisted into Christian times, certainly there were still a few to be seen on backcountry graves when I was in Finland some decades ago. It left the body at death, possibly serving as a final guide to Tuonela.

I suspect this is different for mages in story? Lalli seems to be using his as a marker to find his way home to his own space from the wider dreamworld in the first scenes where we see him there, and I've heard of it being used as a marker for transitions between states in some rituals (we Celts would use a point of light, or write something in Ogham letters on a tree or rock. Some Asian and Native American traditions use a plant, animal or stone as such a marker.)

Most of what little I know about Finnish magical and shamanic practices comes from friends who live in Australia but keep Finnish or Estonian family traditions. Most of them are at least a generation removed from those countries, so things may well have been lost. As mentioned earlier, Laufey may know more.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Laufey on April 16, 2016, 03:27:50 AM
Every person has a sielulintu (= soul bird), but I imagine that in Minnaverse only mages can actually see theirs in the dreamworld. Likewise she might have the sielulintu as a Finn-only thing, considering Reynir doesn't seem to have/need one. Sielulintu is linked to the first soul, henki, and represents life energy, so when a person dies sielulintu flies away from them. It can leave for very short periods of time when someone is gravely ill or injured without the person dying, but then you know they're very near death.

The carved birds are largely an east Finnish tradition and though they almost disappeared for a while they're now making a comeback in the Karelian areas. The bird over the cradle of a child was put there to keep the sielulintu still during the night as they were perfectly capable of flying around when their owner was asleep, and if the bird would escape while the child slept the child would die.

In short, the presence of a sielulintu marks somebody's life energy and the one we see marking Lalli's safe return from the mage chatroom is what's tying him to life.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on April 16, 2016, 10:12:09 AM
Why am I doing this?
/me waits for legions of furious A:tLA fans to vent their dissatisfaction (possibly through ventilating the author)

Bent and Twisted
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/“Avatar: the Last Airbender” crossover fanfic
Part 1
Spoiler: show
Genesis

The Four Nations are no more.

Long ago, there were only four types of Bender, and each had their own nation, a harmony of four balanced and maintained by the Avatar.

Then, change. The Avatar was unseated, and war and conquest ruined the old Four Nations and begat a Fifth, wherein the Benders intermingled and intertwined inextricably. Therein sat the Avatar Resurgent, striking down those who wished to upset the balance, whatever their origin and whatever their nominal goals.

Inevitably, the old Nations fell to the new, as the Diatessaron proved irresistible. All types of Bending flourished.

Then, change. A new type of Bender appeared, among the non-Bending inhabitants of a small and isolated island that had been inconsequential for centuries.

The new Benders worked their will not on Earth, Air, Fire or Water, but upon Life Itself; and thus was the Great Tragedy prefigured in their midst.

Most Life-Benders were Plant-Benders, but a very, very few could Bend Flesh. Flesh-Benders were feared from the beginning, even amongst their own, for the horrors that their Bending inevitably wrought. Periodically, the Flesh-Benders were purged, sometimes by their own hands, but they always re-emerged. So it was that the Life-Benders were bound to their Island, lest a Flesh-Bender bring doom upon the world.

The quarantine failed.

Ninety years ago, the Avatar vanished, and the true Horror of the Flesh-Benders was revealed. A small boat landed on the shores of what had been the Earth Nation, bringing with it the Reaving, a plague that Bent those few victims it was not merciful enough to kill into monsters filled with an insatiable bloodlust.

Within a month, the Reaving had spread to every corner of the world--save only the Island of the Life-Benders, whose ostracism proved their salvation. Their land flourished, their Warders turning back even the most determined efforts by bearers of the Reaving to spread that horror to their land--and the Flesh-Benders were purged (again).

While the Reaving killed off most of the nations, some few in each land proved to be immune; the Reaving-Bent Horrors slew most of them in turn.

Within a year, Mankind had nearly been wiped away.

On the Reaving-ravaged lands, four pitiful remnant nations arose, fighting back the Horrors day by day, ever perched on the brink of oblivion. These were in no way the Four Nations of old; within each, the Watch of the Diatessaron was maintained, as it proved the only way to hold back the Horrors of the Reaving; and all of them were in the old Water Nation, far to the north.

Three of these nations huddled close to each other on one mass of land; the last was on an island closer to the old Earth Nation lands.

The Nation of Gnorrs was a seafaring brood, braving the waves to hunt the sea-borne Horrors.

The Finn’s-Land was mostly a lake-bound archipelago; there, a different manner of Diatessaron was practiced, as it had been since before the old Four Nations themselves were founded.

Between the Gnorrs and the Finn’s-Land were the Svensk, a proud and aloof bunch who had kept the Watch and Ways of the Diatessaron the most completely of the four. Despite this, though, they rejected the Avatar as being “mere myth”.

The one island nation, the Mark of Denn, had been peopled by refugees from the main lands, and these mounted mighty efforts to reclaim their lost homes, but to no avail, as they had no Benders amongst them at all.

Eventually, the Life-Benders awoke to the fact that the future of Man now rested with them, and the very few other survivors in the new nations. Tentatively, the extended their hand in friendship to the survivors, who accepted with more or less alacrity, according to their nature.

Now, ninety years after the Reaving struck, life has settled back into a familiar rhythm. The Flow of Life governs and rules the new nations, even as the Reaving still strives to disrupt it.

Those not of the Reaving who yet cannot or will not follow the Flow have a different fate: exile.


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
So, this is the overly long and drawn out prologue/background-y thing for the main story.

Reynir will not be the Avatar, OK?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on April 16, 2016, 10:25:03 AM
Why am I doing this?
/me waits for legions of furious A:tLA fans to vent their dissatisfaction (possibly through ventilating the author)

Bent and Twisted
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/“Avatar: the Last Airbender” crossover fanfic
Part 1

Hm, an interesting start. Flesh benders, you say? Sounds like bloodbending.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on April 16, 2016, 10:40:57 AM
This looks promising, LooNEY! Since the earlier fanfic that referenced benders, I've actually watched the recent film,so now have some idea of what is going on.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on April 16, 2016, 11:09:01 AM
This looks promising, LooNEY! Since the earlier fanfic that referenced benders, I've actually watched the recent film,so now have some idea of what is going on.

You mean, th-th-the... live action movie?

NOOOOOOOOOOO don't watch the live-action movie! Watch the cartoon, it's so much better! *pants*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: KicknRun on April 16, 2016, 11:45:03 AM
You mean, th-th-the... live action movie?

NOOOOOOOOOOO don't watch the live-action movie! Watch the cartoon, it's so much better! *pants*

Seconded.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Tr on April 16, 2016, 12:36:17 PM
Why am I doing this?
/me waits for legions of furious A:tLA fans to vent their dissatisfaction (possibly through ventilating the author)

Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
So, this is the overly long and drawn out prologue/background-y thing for the main story.

Reynir will not be the Avatar, OK?

Oooh, delightfully clever! I can't wait for the next part!
is it wrong that I wanted to see Reynir as the Avatar? ;__;

I've never actually seen the live action movie. One of my friends forced me to watch the cartoon instead. (Have I been saved from a horrible fate?)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on April 16, 2016, 12:41:08 PM
I've never actually seen the live action movie. One of my friends forced me to watch the cartoon instead. (Have I been saved from a horrible fate?)

Hm, let's see...


Yep, I'd say you dodged a bullet there.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Tr on April 16, 2016, 01:24:25 PM
Hm, let's see...

  • Let's recast all of the Asian and Inuit characters as white actors!
  • Who needs female characters anyway? Hey Katara, just sit there and be useless while Zuko beats you with one hit!
  • Pf, who needs real martial arts when you have The Pebble Dance? (Seriously, look up The Pebble Dance. It's hilarious and horrifying both at the same time.

Yep, I'd say you dodged a bullet there.
*stare* *eye twitch* Whyyyyyy?!!! Why would they do that?
I just watched a bunch of clips with The Pebble Dance. :o I can't tell whether to be horrified or amused.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Athena on April 16, 2016, 06:27:28 PM
Why am I doing this?
/me waits for legions of furious A:tLA fans to vent their dissatisfaction (possibly through ventilating the author)

Bent and Twisted
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/“Avatar: the Last Airbender” crossover fanfic
Part 1
Spoiler: show
Genesis

The Four Nations are no more.

Long ago, there were only four types of Bender, and each had their own nation, a harmony of four balanced and maintained by the Avatar.

Then, change. The Avatar was unseated, and war and conquest ruined the old Four Nations and begat a Fifth, wherein the Benders intermingled and intertwined inextricably. Therein sat the Avatar Resurgent, striking down those who wished to upset the balance, whatever their origin and whatever their nominal goals.

Inevitably, the old Nations fell to the new, as the Diatessaron proved irresistible. All types of Bending flourished.

Then, change. A new type of Bender appeared, among the non-Bending inhabitants of a small and isolated island that had been inconsequential for centuries.

The new Benders worked their will not on Earth, Air, Fire or Water, but upon Life Itself; and thus was the Great Tragedy prefigured in their midst.

Most Life-Benders were Plant-Benders, but a very, very few could Bend Flesh. Flesh-Benders were feared from the beginning, even amongst their own, for the horrors that their Bending inevitably wrought. Periodically, the Flesh-Benders were purged, sometimes by their own hands, but they always re-emerged. So it was that the Life-Benders were bound to their Island, lest a Flesh-Bender bring doom upon the world.

The quarantine failed.

Ninety years ago, the Avatar vanished, and the true Horror of the Flesh-Benders was revealed. A small boat landed on the shores of what had been the Earth Nation, bringing with it the Reaving, a plague that Bent those few victims it was not merciful enough to kill into monsters filled with an insatiable bloodlust.

Within a month, the Reaving had spread to every corner of the world--save only the Island of the Life-Benders, whose ostracism proved their salvation. Their land flourished, their Warders turning back even the most determined efforts by bearers of the Reaving to spread that horror to their land--and the Flesh-Benders were purged (again).

While the Reaving killed off most of the nations, some few in each land proved to be immune; the Reaving-Bent Horrors slew most of them in turn.

Within a year, Mankind had nearly been wiped away.

On the Reaving-ravaged lands, four pitiful remnant nations arose, fighting back the Horrors day by day, ever perched on the brink of oblivion. These were in no way the Four Nations of old; within each, the Watch of the Diatessaron was maintained, as it proved the only way to hold back the Horrors of the Reaving; and all of them were in the old Water Nation, far to the north.

Three of these nations huddled close to each other on one mass of land; the last was on an island closer to the old Earth Nation lands.

The Nation of Gnorrs was a seafaring brood, braving the waves to hunt the sea-borne Horrors.

The Finn’s-Land was mostly a lake-bound archipelago; there, a different manner of Diatessaron was practiced, as it had been since before the old Four Nations themselves were founded.

Between the Gnorrs and the Finn’s-Land were the Svensk, a proud and aloof bunch who had kept the Watch and Ways of the Diatessaron the most completely of the four. Despite this, though, they rejected the Avatar as being “mere myth”.

The one island nation, the Mark of Denn, had been peopled by refugees from the main lands, and these mounted mighty efforts to reclaim their lost homes, but to no avail, as they had no Benders amongst them at all.

Eventually, the Life-Benders awoke to the fact that the future of Man now rested with them, and the very few other survivors in the new nations. Tentatively, the extended their hand in friendship to the survivors, who accepted with more or less alacrity, according to their nature.

Now, ninety years after the Reaving struck, life has settled back into a familiar rhythm. The Flow of Life governs and rules the new nations, even as the Reaving still strives to disrupt it.

Those not of the Reaving who yet cannot or will not follow the Flow have a different fate: exile.


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
So, this is the overly long and drawn out prologue/background-y thing for the main story.

Reynir will not be the Avatar, OK?


This is awesome and most best! thank you LooNEY!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Regolith247 on April 16, 2016, 07:34:41 PM
You mean, th-th-the... live action movie?


We don't talk about the live action movie.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Regolith247 on April 16, 2016, 07:41:57 PM
Every person has a sielulintu (= soul bird), but I imagine that in Minnaverse only mages can actually see theirs in the dreamworld. Likewise she might have the sielulintu as a Finn-only thing, considering Reynir doesn't seem to have/need one. Sielulintu is linked to the first soul, henki, and represents life energy, so when a person dies sielulintu flies away from them. It can leave for very short periods of time when someone is gravely ill or injured without the person dying, but then you know they're very near death.

The carved birds are largely an east Finnish tradition and though they almost disappeared for a while they're now making a comeback in the Karelian areas. The bird over the cradle of a child was put there to keep the sielulintu still during the night as they were perfectly capable of flying around when their owner was asleep, and if the bird would escape while the child slept the child would die.

In short, the presence of a sielulintu marks somebody's life energy and the one we see marking Lalli's safe return from the mage chatroom is what's tying him to life.

Wow! Thanks Laufey! I guess I kinda assumed that the bird was Onni's owl, since it looked on page 486 like they might be one and the same. The sielulintu makes it so much more interesting!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on April 16, 2016, 09:45:19 PM
Hm, an interesting start. Flesh benders, you say? Sounds like bloodbending.
See the Authorial Notes for why it isn't.

Bent and Twisted
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/“Avatar: the Last Airbender” crossover fanfic
Part 2
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg103191#msg103191)
Spoiler: show
Exodus

The loud Dennish Admiral eyed the five soon-to-be-exiles waiting at the Exodus Point and thought they were a motley group, to be sure.

Emil ex-Västerström was a Svensk fire-bender whose tendency to involuntarily ignite anything around him was considered an embarrassment at best and a danger at worst. He had tried to join the Watch of the Diatessaron, and they did try to set him on the right path; in fact, he became very good at energy-bending in its various forms under their tutelage. But the twitch within him that kept igniting things around him proved beyond their control, so he had to be sent away.

Sigrun ex-Eide, a Gnorr and a friend of a friend of the Admiral, had said too loud and too often that the Gnorrs’ cowering in their settlements instead of charging out to fight the Horrors headlong would lead to their demise; her too-aggressive nature had led all  of her superiors, her parents even included, to send her off to conquer or to die, though her parents obviously hoped for the former. Her earth-bending was of the ancient “FOR MASSIVE DESTRUCTION!!!!!!!!” style, as well.

Mikkel ex-Madsen, the only Dennish among the group, was two meters plus of utter enigma. While the others were almost eager to explain/complain about their Exile, Mikkel maintained a Sphinx-like silence on the matter.

More than she wanted her next breath, Tuuri ex-Hotakainen wanted to see the world beyond her walled hometown, and if Exile was the only way for that to happen, so be it. For this reason, she had been judged dangerously insane, as her compulsion to explore would certainly end in her contracting the Reaving and bringing it back to wipe the rest of them out. She was the only one of this group of Exiles who was not Immune to the Reaving, so the Admiral somewhat sadly knew he’d never see her again, even if some of the others managed to Return.

Lalli ex-Hotakainen, a water-bender of the ancient style who thus utterly eschewed the Diatessaron, had responded to the sentencing of his cousin Tuuri to Exile, and its rationale, with the simple condemnation, “You’re all idiots and fools”, which was enough that he was made to accompany Tuuri.

There were a few others around, both to bid the new Exiles farewell and to ensure that they actually left: the Admiral’s old Gnorr friend Trond; a cousin to the ex-Hotakainens, Taru Hollola; and Emil’s Aunt Siv and Uncle Torbjörn. The Admiral himself was standing as Mikkel’s witness.

They were an unusually large group to go into Exile; usually Exiles set off singly or in pairs at the most. The fact that they were five not only improved their chances (hey, “nonexistent” to “barely any” was still an improvement) for a successful Return, but also allowed their witnesses to pool their funds for a better Final Gift for the group; in this case, they had been able to afford an actual vehicle, dingy and run-down though it was. With it, the Admiral estimated their chances had risen all the way to “with a loooooot of luck”.

Exile was for a year and a day; then or after, theoretically, the Exiled could Return without penalty, and even with feasting. To the best of the Admiral’s knowledge, a Return had happened precisely three times in the sixteen years of weekly Exilings with which he’d been involved. Should they try to re-enter the Safe Areas before the year and a day had passed, the Exiled were to be killed on sight. That had happened more often than the Admiral cared to remember.

Somehow, Old Trond had wangled a couple of crates of food for the new Exiles, and once they were loaded, they piled into the vehicle and scurried off across the Old Bridge. A few times, Emil unconsciously ignited something and Lalli just as unconsciously put it out. Each time this happened, Emil first cringed as though expecting a reprimand and then shook himself when nothing happened. So the two boys seemed to be getting along well thus far. Now, if the mass of rusting metal that was the Old Bridge would just stay up for them...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
On Flesh-Bending:

A major feature of Life-Bending is enabling rapid growth and controlling how that growth expresses itself.

Plant-Benders can take a seed or a cutting, place it on the ground, and suddenly tree, or even forest.

Flesh-Benders can make a normal animal do this (http://www.sssscomic.com/comic.php?page=340).

Aside from the supreme Darkness of Flesh-Bending, neither it nor Plant-Bending are anything like Blood-Bending.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on April 16, 2016, 10:46:07 PM
Yeah, I dipped a toe into the shippy stuff. Don't get used to it.

16. Questioning (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/15044914)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Pupunen on April 17, 2016, 02:10:14 AM
So, a Finn, a Swede and a Norwegian walked into an abandoned building...

Kudos to you for bravely being the first! :) Hadn't thought about it before, but maybe mildly judging Emil in disbelief (http://www.sssscomic.com/comic.php?page=187) is the one thing Lalli and Sigrun have in common...

And the Swede must always be the butt of the joke... :D

I hope to see a Finnish fic from you at some point! Don't leave mine all alone.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: AquaAurion on April 17, 2016, 03:21:08 AM
Avatar crossover!!!  ;D I'm looking forward to see what you do with it!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on April 17, 2016, 04:31:04 AM
Mother Nature: http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/15049798

Regarding the semi-sensitive nature of this prompt, please read the notes at the front. I mean, when I saw this prompt what I wrote was kind of just the obvious choice.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on April 17, 2016, 08:35:42 AM
LooNEY, Lazy8, and OwlsGo: excellent stories all, and very different. Great reading!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on April 17, 2016, 02:17:35 PM
There are times when I feel like I'm just writing a bunch of philosophical ramblings.

17. Blood (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/15057868)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on April 17, 2016, 05:55:02 PM
A bunch of philosophical ramblings is no bad thing. Lets us imagine how it is to be the characters. Or the trolls. Good story.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on April 18, 2016, 03:49:21 AM
Bent and Twisted
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/“Avatar: the Last Airbender” crossover fanfic
Part 3
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg103272#msg103272)
Spoiler: show
Leviticus

The lighthouse was on fire.

“I know we’re late, but we’re not that late,” Ása Hardardóttir muttered to herself. The captain of the Túnfiskurinn turned to her nearest lackey and asked, “Are the crates ready for delivery?”

“Yes, Ma’am.”

“Good. I’ll be down momentarily.”

When she reached the forward gunnery station, the Master Harpooner told her, “I don’t like this.”

“And you think I do?”

“I mean that something’s wrong out there. There’s a few people on the dock, but they’re not dressed right.”

Ása gave him a Look. “Just fire the harpoon gun so we can get this over with.” As he obeyed, she muttered to herself, “Every time we do this, I feel a bit of my soul die.”

The harpoons went out; the lines they bore were taken in; and the two crates were sent over.

“Give me the megaphone,” Ása said in sudden decision. Once she had it in hand, she bellowed through it, “TELL YOUR MASTERS THAT THIS IS THE LAST TIME WE’RE MAKING THIS RUN! DO YOU HEAR? YOU’LL HAVE TO FIND SOMEONE ELSE TO DO YOUR FILTHY WORK FOR YOU!”

A voice faintly called something back to them, but it was indecipherable over the murmurs from the Believers among the crew.

“SILENCE!” Ása had worked herself up into a fury now. “Any of you who want to keep making this run can find another boat on which to do it! Helmsman, get us away from this stinking place!”

*
TWO DAYS EARLIER...
*

The bridge had collapsed behind them, but Sigrun’s rudimentary metal-bending skills had kept their portion of it up just long enough for their vehicle to slip into the relative safety of the tunnel. Relative safety: the tunnel was cleared every week so as to make it impracticable for Exiles to shelter there for any length of time.

They had spent that first night on a grassy field outside the tunnel mouth, but Sigrun told her new companions-in-arms, “The secret to survival out here is to keep moving on. You linger, you die.” They believed her.

Their second night was spent in an old fortlet, miraculously clear of Horrors. There, they’d found a note telling Exiles that a Sanctuary existed not far away, in a lighthouse on the ancient docks.

“Death-trap,” Sigrun opined immediately, but Tuuri prevailed upon her to let them at least investigate.

Now the lighthouse was on fire and all its former inhabitants were dead.

Apparently, the world-destroying plague had wrecked a few minds without even trying, or so Mikkel and Emil thought, as neither believed in the spirits. Be that as it may, in the aftermath of the Island of Life-Benders’ reopening of its borders to the few survivors of the Reaving, a cult had sprung up around the notion--supposedly a direct revelation from one of the spirits--that the Reaving needed to be appeased in order to keep the Island safe.

The appeasement chosen was a series of sacrifices offered annually on the altar atop the old lighthouse, culminating in a human sacrifice.

Sometimes, Exiles would come to the Appeasers, and would either join or be sacrificed. Mostly, they were sacrificed.

It should be noted that neither Sigrun nor Emil spoke the language of the Island of Life-Benders, and Lalli only spoke the tongue of the Land of Finn, but when the weird bald people started trying to spear them, they reacted accordingly.

So the lighthouse was on fire and all its former inhabitants were dead.

Shortly thereafter, a small ship appeared off the dock, fired off a couple of harpoon-lines, and dropped two crates in the Exiles’ laps. A heavily distorted stream of angry-sounding gibberish echoed from the boat, to which Sigrun replied, “Thank you!”

While Sigrun and Mikkel attacked one crate, Emil struggled with the other, Lalli glowering ominously. Once he noticed, Emil asked, “What?” Everything today had by far exceeded his personal Weirdness Quotient, and he was still twitchy.

When, immediately thereafter, the crate popped open, the lid propelled from within by a tall and lanky boy with a most impressive braid, Emil immediately slammed the crate shut again in an automatic reaction.

After a few moments of confusion, Mikkel came over to the new arrival. Mikkel (and Tuuri) spoke the language of the Island of Life-Benders, and was able to open a brief dialogue. No, this was not the Mark of Denn. Yes, Mikkel was sure of that.

In the meantime, Sigrun had completely flipped out over the idea of yet another non-combatant mouth to feed; Emil was ordered to “guard the prisoner”; Tuuri was impressed by the newcomer’s hair; and Lalli was glowering at the newcomer ominously.

Thus did Reynir Árnasson begin his own involuntary Exile...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
So an earth-bender, a water-bender and a fire-bender walk into a lighthouse...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on April 18, 2016, 04:18:47 AM
Bent and Twisted
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/“Avatar: the Last Airbender” crossover fanfic
Part 3
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg103272#msg103272)
Spoiler: show
Leviticus

The lighthouse was on fire.

“I know we’re late, but we’re not that late,” Ása Hardardóttir muttered to herself. The captain of the Túnfiskurinn turned to her nearest lackey and asked, “Are the crates ready for delivery?”

“Yes, Ma’am.”

“Good. I’ll be down momentarily.”

When she reached the forward gunnery station, the Master Harpooner told her, “I don’t like this.”

“And you think I do?”

“I mean that something’s wrong out there. There’s a few people on the dock, but they’re not dressed right.”

Ása gave him a Look. “Just fire the harpoon gun so we can get this over with.” As he obeyed, she muttered to herself, “Every time we do this, I feel a bit of my soul die.”

The harpoons went out; the lines they bore were taken in; and the two crates were sent over.

“Give me the megaphone,” Ása said in sudden decision. Once she had it in hand, she bellowed through it, “TELL YOUR MASTERS THAT THIS IS THE LAST TIME WE’RE MAKING THIS RUN! DO YOU HEAR? YOU’LL HAVE TO FIND SOMEONE ELSE TO DO YOUR FILTHY WORK FOR YOU!”

A voice faintly called something back to them, but it was indecipherable over the murmurs from the Believers among the crew.

“SILENCE!” Ása had worked herself up into a fury now. “Any of you who want to keep making this run can find another boat on which to do it! Helmsman, get us away from this stinking place!”

*
TWO DAYS EARLIER...
*

The bridge had collapsed behind them, but Sigrun’s rudimentary metal-bending skills had kept their portion of it up just long enough for their vehicle to slip into the relative safety of the tunnel. Relative safety: the tunnel was cleared every week so as to make it impracticable for Exiles to shelter there for any length of time.

They had spent that first night on a grassy field outside the tunnel mouth, but Sigrun told her new companions-in-arms, “The secret to survival out here is to keep moving on. You linger, you die.” They believed her.

Their second night was spent in an old fortlet, miraculously clear of Horrors. There, they’d found a note telling Exiles that a Sanctuary existed not far away, in a lighthouse on the ancient docks.

“Death-trap,” Sigrun opined immediately, but Tuuri prevailed upon her to let them at least investigate.

Now the lighthouse was on fire and all its former inhabitants were dead.

Apparently, the world-destroying plague had wrecked a few minds without even trying, or so Mikkel and Emil thought, as neither believed in the spirits. Be that as it may, in the aftermath of the Island of Life-Benders’ reopening of its borders to the few survivors of the Reaving, a cult had sprung up around the notion--supposedly a direct revelation from one of the spirits--that the Reaving needed to be appeased in order to keep the Island safe.

The appeasement chosen was a series of sacrifices offered annually on the altar atop the old lighthouse, culminating in a human sacrifice.

Sometimes, Exiles would come to the Appeasers, and would either join or be sacrificed. Mostly, they were sacrificed.

It should be noted that neither Sigrun nor Emil spoke the language of the Island of Life-Benders, and Lalli only spoke the tongue of the Land of Finn, but when the weird bald people started trying to spear them, they reacted accordingly.

So the lighthouse was on fire and all its former inhabitants were dead.

Shortly thereafter, a small ship appeared off the dock, fired off a couple of harpoon-lines, and dropped two crates in the Exiles’ laps. A heavily distorted stream of angry-sounding gibberish echoed from the boat, to which Sigrun replied, “Thank you!”

While Sigrun and Mikkel attacked one crate, Emil struggled with the other, Lalli glowering ominously. Once he noticed, Emil asked, “What?” Everything today had by far exceeded his personal Weirdness Quotient, and he was still twitchy.

When, immediately thereafter, the crate popped open, the lid propelled from within by a tall and lanky boy with a most impressive braid, Emil immediately slammed the crate shut again in an automatic reaction.

After a few moments of confusion, Mikkel came over to the new arrival. Mikkel (and Tuuri) spoke the language of the Island of Life-Benders, and was able to open a brief dialogue. No, this was not the Mark of Denn. Yes, Mikkel was sure of that.

In the meantime, Sigrun had completely flipped out over the idea of yet another non-combatant mouth to feed; Emil was ordered to “guard the prisoner”; Tuuri was impressed by the newcomer’s hair; and Lalli was glowering at the newcomer ominously.

Thus did Reynir Árnasson begin his own involuntary Exile...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
So an earth-bender, a water-bender and a fire-bender walk into a lighthouse...


This is pretty darned fun so far!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on April 18, 2016, 07:19:12 AM
More from the prompt challenge

11: Memory http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/15075367
 In which I briefly depart from my usual absurdity

14: Smile http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/15075298
In which I swiftly and vengefully return to my usual absurdity
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on April 18, 2016, 08:08:47 AM
While OwlsG0 experiments with melancholy, I try my hand at fluff:

18. Rainbow (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/15075835)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Tr on April 18, 2016, 03:12:23 PM
Aaaaaaaa, so many good fics! *blanket appreciation of everyone here*
Here, have more fluff! Because you can never have too much fluff!

A fic in which Reynir unbraids his hair and Emil has hairspray. Not shippy. Kind of ridiculous, though.
Spoiler: show
"Tuuri?"
Immediately, Tuuri could tell something was wrong. "Tuuri!" Reynir yelped. "I need help!"
Tuuri dashed outside, skidding to a stop where Reynir had been peacefully sitting in the sunlight.
"I know it's not her fault," Reynir whimpered, "but I think Kitty's stuck  in  my  hair!"
Tuuri stifled a laugh. Reynir's hair was out of its braid,  and it was piled in glorious red coils all around him, draped over his arms, trailing from his shoulders, shining in the sunlight like a river of red gold.
"Mau?" The kitty poked her head out of the mass of red.
Tuuri chuckled. "Oh, Kitty," she said, and attempted to pick the naughty cat up. Unfortunately, she also picked up about half of Reynir's hair.
She tried to untangle the cat, but the strands of hair were hopelessly intertwined with her paws and tail. This was serious. She needed help... from a professional.
"Emil?" she called.
Emil stuck his head out the Cattank door. "Yes?"
Tuuri gestured hopelessly at the tangled mess in front of her. "We have a problem."
Emil stared. Tuuri could just see the glint of silvery eyes in the tank behind him. Lalli was staring as well. Emil took a deep breath, seeming to gather his wits, and said, "Okay. Okay, I know what to do here. Hang on, I have just the thing." He disappeared back into the Cattank, just as Lalli stepped outside.
He stared at Reynir, then shook his head and muttered something incomprehensible.
"What was that, Lalli?" Tuuri asked, setting the cat down. The adventurous kitty immediately pounced on a stray tendril of hair.
"I said, I'm not dealing with this again. It's your turn." Lalli turned and hopped back into the Cattank.
"What does he mean, again?" Tuuri asked Reynir.
Reynir tried to sit up, but the cat pulled him back down. "Oof! Well, I had a couple dreams. You know, like the mage kind of dreams, only the kind that let you talk to other people while you're  dreaming? Anyway, I went to visit Lalli, just to say hi, because sometimes dreaming is sort of lonely! But he didn't seem to want me there, so he made this huge wave that came and smashed me up against a tree. Then somehow my braid got wrapped around the tree! Lalli had to untangle it since he wanted me to leave."
"Ah." Tuuri suppressed a giggle as she struggled to free the cat from a strand of hair that was wrapped around her paw.
"I found it!" Emil held aloft a small bottle full of clear liquid as he hurried over to help them.
"What's going on here?" Mikkel asked, stepping outside for a better look at the situation.
"Kitty is stuck in my hair!" Reynir explained. "Tuuri and Emil are being really nice and helping me get her out! I'm not sure what Emil's holding, though."
"It's my own recipe," Emil said. "Water, a little lemon juice, and a few secret ingredients, combined to make the best hairspray in the Silent World." He began to spray it on the tangled mess that was Reynir's hair.
"Oh, alright," Mikkel said, then paused. "You do know lemon juice attracts trolls, right?"
"What?" Emil yelped.
Mikkel retreated inside, muttering something about jokes.
Tuuri picked up Reynir's brush as the peaceful scents of lemon and lavender rose into the air. "Reynir?"
"Yeah?"
"Next time, I think you should just keep your hair in a braid."

Spoiler: authors note • show
Warning: I know next to nothing about hair care. Please do not try making Emil's hairspray at home, no matter how much you may want that fluffy, sparkly look.  ;)
It's now my personal headcanon that Emil has homemade hairspray. He invented it during his awful imprisonment time in public school. Also that Lalli has had to untangle Reynir's hair from various things in his dreamspace and is seriously fed up with it by now.
The next thing I write will have something closer to an actual plot. Yes? Maybe? Probably.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on April 18, 2016, 04:26:53 PM
I needed a break from writing theses so I wrote fanfiction instead, because of course I did. Here’s a story of some of the ghosts from the chapter just gone possessing Reynir, and making conversation with Mikkel.

Sleepwalker (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6593254)

(I dashed it off in an evening – I hope it doesn’t come across as too thrown-together!)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: KicknRun on April 18, 2016, 05:30:29 PM
I needed a break from writing theses so I wrote fanfiction instead, because of course I did. Here’s a story of some of the ghosts from the chapter just gone possessing Reynir, and making conversation with Mikkel.

Sleepwalker (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6593254)

(I dashed it off in an evening – I hope it doesn’t come across as too thown-together!)

Spoiler: show
does getting infected make you a jerk or what? also, I really liked how the interaction between the ghost and mikkel was displayed. (ugh. Without sounding frou-frou, I'm saying you chose the right words for it) also, it's kinds nice how in this fandom some things just become Facts. Like how we refer to the dream world places as havens
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Tr on April 18, 2016, 06:24:46 PM
I needed a break from writing theses so I wrote fanfiction instead, because of course I did. Here’s a story of some of the ghosts from the chapter just gone possessing Reynir, and making conversation with Mikkel.

Sleepwalker (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6593254)

(I dashed it off in an evening – I hope it doesn’t come across as too thrown-together!)
/muffled screaming/ AAAAAAAAAA REYNIR!! NOOOO! MIKKEL! AAAAAA!
It doesn't come across as thrown together at all! Well done and terrifying! (That is meant as a compliment. Terrifying is cool. You can take the muffled screaming as a compliment as well.)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on April 18, 2016, 06:48:17 PM
Spoiler: show
does getting infected make you a jerk or what? also, I really liked how the interaction between the ghost and mikkel was displayed. (ugh. Without sounding frou-frou, I'm saying you chose the right words for it) also, it's kinds nice how in this fandom some things just become Facts. Like how we refer to the dream world places as havens

/muffled screaming/ AAAAAAAAAA REYNIR!! NOOOO! MIKKEL! AAAAAA!
It doesn't come across as thrown together at all! Well done and terrifying! (That is meant as a compliment. Terrifying is cool. You can take the muffled screaming as a compliment as well.)

Thanks, glad to hear you liked it! And KicknRun, you're right, some things have just become Facts. I'm wondering now where we got the term 'haven' from...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on April 18, 2016, 09:10:00 PM
SectoBoss: I've commented already over on A3O but will repeat it here: that was subtle, terrifying and amazing. Love it! And that was the work of an evening!!! You know, back in the days of the old story magazines like 'Strand' and 'Argosy', where they had a few writers on tap who could turn out a masterly story in a night if one of their regulars missed a deadline, you would have fitted right in. That story was shuddersome and brilliant.

Kick: I think I may be the one responsible for 'Havens'. I started using that  term for the mage's areas because that's the term I'm familiar with for such things in our world, and one of the common terms used for the concept when ethnomusicologists or cultural anthropologists or folklore collectors discuss it.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on April 18, 2016, 09:36:44 PM
Aaaaaaaa, so many good fics! *blanket appreciation of everyone here*
Here, have more fluff! Because you can never have too much fluff!

That was hilarious and cute, especially the part about "again." Poor kitty! Though isn't hairspray supposed to stiffen hair, so that it holds its shape? Somehow I don't think that would help much in getting Kitty out! Conditioner is much better for untangling.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Tr on April 18, 2016, 09:49:36 PM
That was hilarious and cute, especially the part about "again." Poor kitty! Though isn't hairspray supposed to stiffen hair, so that it holds its shape? Somehow I don't think that would help much in getting Kitty out! Conditioner is much better for untangling.
Pffff, haha. Oops. Thanks. I would like to repeat: I know nothing about hair care, or hairspray at all. I think I remember reading that lemon juice and water make a good untangling solution? *shrug*
I don't think I've ever used hairspray myself, so you're probably absolutely correct. (If my hair is frizzy or something, I just braid it or put water on it or both.)  ::)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on April 18, 2016, 10:16:04 PM
Pffff, haha. Oops. Thanks. I would like to repeat: I know nothing about hair care, or hairspray at all. I think I remember reading that lemon juice and water make a good untangling solution? *shrug*
I don't think I've ever used hairspray myself, so you're probably absolutely correct. (If my hair is frizzy or something, I just braid it or put water on it or both.)  ::)

Ha! I finally got sick of having to use globs of conditioner and shaved it all off.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on April 18, 2016, 10:17:34 PM
Tr, that story was sweet and funny! And for the record, that formula would totally work with the addition of camomile tea (for blondes) and a few drops of glycerine (for untangling). Their world would have both, I'd expect. Ideally for a redhead you would use henna, but unless there is some in the greenhouses of Iceland, henna grows way far to the south, in areas they can no longer reach. Camomile and lemon bring out the colour in golden hair, so it might lighten Reynir's hair with repeated use.

Generally rule of thumb is: lemon and camomile for blondes, henna or dyer's alkanet for redheads, sage or gypsywort or camellia tea for brunettes (that last one also covers grey hair).
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on April 19, 2016, 12:28:41 AM
I needed a break from writing theses so I wrote fanfiction instead, because of course I did. Here’s a story of some of the ghosts from the chapter just gone possessing Reynir, and making conversation with Mikkel.

Sleepwalker (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6593254)

(I dashed it off in an evening – I hope it doesn’t come across as too thrown-together!)

SectoBoss: giving you feels for Mikkel Madsen you didn't know you had since always
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on April 19, 2016, 01:12:28 AM
18: Rainbow http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/15092599

I should probably interpret one of these prompts literally, for a change.
LGBTQ stuff going on in this one, and some Emilalli, Tuuri/Reynir

What's their ship name anyway? Tuurnir? Reyri? Braidystub?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on April 19, 2016, 04:39:17 AM
SectoBoss: I've commented already over on A3O but will repeat it here: that was subtle, terrifying and amazing. Love it! And that was the work of an evening!!! You know, back in the days of the old story magazines like 'Strand' and 'Argosy', where they had a few writers on tap who could turn out a masterly story in a night if one of their regulars missed a deadline, you would have fitted right in. That story was shuddersome and brilliant.
SectoBoss: giving you feels for Mikkel Madsen you didn't know you had since always

Thank you both! (makes me a bit nostalgic for the days of story magazines, then, even if they were a bit before my time!)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on April 19, 2016, 06:27:49 AM
Your library may have a selection of the old story magazines, on microfiche if not paper. I do recommend 'Argosy' in particular, you may be lucky on that one, it was British and quite famous, as was the 'Strand'. A lot of later-on famous writers got their start there: Arthur Conan Doyle, Charles Dickens and many others. You may even find copies in secondhand bookshops.

Sort of like how the early SF mags like 'Amazing Stories' gave their first airing to writers like Lovecraft and Poul Anderson who went on to become famous book writers.

I'm not sure whether to be astonished that an Englishman has never heard of the Strand Magazine, or just to feel old! Just to add to my sense of feeling ancient: something else that seems to have vanished is the old usage that most respectable newspapers were used to have a Literary Supplement, which was a sort of mini-story magazine, which generally also had poetry, book reviews, play and later film reviews. They generally came out in the Saturday edition of the paper, to amuse people over the weekend.

I had some of my first paying publications in those old Literary Supplements. * Goes off to polish her walking stick and feel old....*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on April 19, 2016, 06:33:06 AM
I had some of my first paying publications in those old Literary Supplements. * Goes off to polish her walking stick and feel old....*

It's honestly amazing that you've been writing for so long! And besides, your age is what gives you the experience and knowledge you share with everyone here. Honestly, it never ceases to amaze me how much you've done and seen.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Talimee on April 19, 2016, 08:38:21 AM
Here is my newest installment of the 100-prompt-challenge. I am amazed at you people who can churn out quality so fast. ^^

Prompt: 48 - Childhood
Characters: Sigrun Eide, Lalli Hotakainen, Tuuri Hotakainen, Mikkel Madsen, Reynir Árnason, Emil Västerström
Setting: not specified, all characters are children
Rating: none
Warnings: none
Tags: Childhood, character-insights

http://archiveofourown.org/works/6440122/chapters/15096154
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on April 19, 2016, 09:23:46 AM
I'm not sure whether to be astonished that an Englishman has never heard of the Strand Magazine, or just to feel old! Just to add to my sense of feeling ancient: something else that seems to have vanished is the old usage that most respectable newspapers were used to have a Literary Supplement, which was a sort of mini-story magazine, which generally also had poetry, book reviews, play and later film reviews. They generally came out in the Saturday edition of the paper, to amuse people over the weekend.

I had some of my first paying publications in those old Literary Supplements. * Goes off to polish her walking stick and feel old....*
I think that by the time I was of the age where I might have taken an interest in this sort of thing, it was the early 2000s and we were well into the internet age by then. Besides, Strand doesn't really look like the sort of magazine the local corner shop would have sold where I grew up! We still have literary supplements, though, I see them lying around when I go back to my parents's house. But (for now) everything's online nowdays...

It's honestly amazing that you've been writing for so long! And besides, your age is what gives you the experience and knowledge you share with everyone here. Honestly, it never ceases to amaze me how much you've done and seen.
I can heartily second this!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on April 19, 2016, 09:51:08 AM
Thanks guys! Just having one of those melancholy moments when one suddenly remembers quite how much time has passed. Rather like when a friend's child saw my old upright manual typewriter. Being a technically minded boy, he examined it minutely (he had obviously never even imagined such a device before, little say seen one), then said something like: "Ah, I see! It's a sort of printer, but without the computer". How things change.....
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Kiraly on April 19, 2016, 11:13:20 AM
Aaaaand I'm behind on commenting again! Everyone's writing such great stuff and so fast, I'm jealous! (Forgive me if I miss anyone, everything is great!)

LooNEY your Avatar crossover is coming along nicely! I'm so entertained by Emil accidentally firebending and Lalli just casually putting it out.

Lazy8 I've been enjoying your introspective chapters, and the explorations into fluff (the rainbow one in particular made me really happy). :))

Tr that's too funny! I love that Emil is the go-to hair expert. And Róisín I appreciated your additions about natural hair products...makes me want to play around with the one for blondes to see what it will do to my used-to-be-blond hair that is now some ambiguous color in between blond and brunette. (Also, I concur with SectoBoss and OwlsG0, I appreciate your stories and insights immensely. It's a rare day that I don't learn something new from you. :)))

Sectoboss. Oh. My. That was hair-raising, and I made the mistake of reading it right before bed! The possibility of ghost-possession is terrifying, and the creepy subtlety of the...entity...was really well done. *hugs poor Reynir and Mikkel*

Talimee Soooo adorable! I need more stories of the crew as kids, I loved this so much! I think Reynir's was my favorite but it's hard to choose.

OwlsG0 I'm going to gush more about your Rainbow chapter on AO3, but for now I'll just say I LOVE IT!!! Also, I'm not sure there's a definitive ship name, but "Reyri" seems to be the most common. It's the one I usually go with, even though it can be confusing because the ship name for Onni/Reynir is only one letter different. I kind of like "Tuunir" too, but "Reyri" is cuter-sounding I suppose.

Whew! I think that's everyone (but if I missed you I'm sorry!) Keep up the good work everyone. :))

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on April 19, 2016, 10:06:32 PM
I feel like I was highly unoriginal in this one.

19. Gray (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/15108991)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Tr on April 20, 2016, 09:02:59 PM
Nice one, Lazy8! I liked your description of the fog ♡
Oh dear, I seem to have written a fic about the murderghosts too.
Fluff writer + murderghosts = ?
Spoiler: show
Tuuri's dream started with a feeling of vague unease. She woke in the middle of a meadow, with drops of dew sparkling like tiny diamonds on the long grass and wildflowers like strips of silk scattered by the wind. Yet she knew something was wrong. She scanned the misty horizon, wondering what it could be.
Then she saw them. Shadows, lurking just outside the line of polished stones that marked the borders of her meadow. At first, they looked like part of the scenery. Then, as they drew closer, they took on a twisted imitation of human form, with emaciated arms and pale eyes in the center of their heads. The temperature in Tuuri's dream dropped rapidly as their dark limbs slid past her barrier like it didn't even exist. The soft light that had illuminated the dream slowly faded as the landscape darkened.
Tuuri didn't say anything. She couldn't say anything. Then the voices started.
The wind was full of whispered howling, screams of pain and hunger. All Tuuri could see was a whirlpool of darkness. The ring of spirits closed in around her, and she felt cold in her very bones.
"LALLIIIIIII!" someone was shouting. Their voice sounded distant and unfamiliar. "I need help!"
Tuuri recognized that voice. So did they. They hissed, turning to face the intruder, the meddler, the one who helped their victims.
Reynir tripped and fell headlong into Tuuri's dreamspace. A clumsy protective shield flickered into being, and the glowing lines of a rune spread over the grass. "LALLI!" he screamed again, not bothering to brush the grass from his clothes or get the small rock out of his braid.
"...don't have to... so loud," Lalli's voice said grumpily, as the mage himself appeared.
 His eyes went wide as he saw the spirits battering against Reynir's shield. Then his expression hardened. Tuuri could see the same determined glint in his eyes that he got when refusing to talk to weird foreigners.
A gust of wind blew through the ranks of ghosts, rippling their shadowy forms like they were nothing but a reflection in a pool of water. Lalli shouted something to the heavens, something Tuuri couldn't hear because Reynir's shield was collapsing and she was drowning, drowning in cold shadows that covered her mouth and ears and eyes. The darkness roared and shrieked and howled, and the light from the two mages was dying.
Tuuri was dying too. She reached out and found her friends' hands, finding small comfort in the tiny bits of warmth. With a sudden rush of determination, she pulled the mages to their feet. They were going to go out fighting. That's what Sigrun would tell them to do. Even though Sigrun could be overbearing, she was a good captain. In her absence, Tuuri was going to be a good captain too.
Reynir's grip on her hand tightened, and Lalli's yell blasted outward with the flash of light that cut through the layers of shadow. They were gone.
Reynir swayed like a tree about to fall. "That was... we... have to..." He did not sit down so much as fall over into the grass and flowers.
"Thanks." Lalli's voice was so quiet, the word was barely there.
"You're welcome," Tuuri said automatically. After all, if she wanted to teach her cousin normal people manners, she had to set a good example. "Do we have to worry about the others?"
Lalli shook his head, swallowing hard. His voice was still hoarse. "No. They were after you... not a mage... not immune."
Tuuri shivered. "Well, that's great," she said. "Will they come back?"
Lalli shook his head. He wasn't smiling, but Tuuri knew him well enough to know that he was radiating weary satisfaction.
"Okay, good." Tuuri glanced at the exhausted mages. They were in no shape to be walking back to... wherever they had come from. "Why don't you both stay here tonight?"
Lalli nodded silently. Reynir seemed to be asleep.
Tuuri sat down next to Reynir and removed the rock from his braid. Whatever those ghosts were, well, now they knew what they were up against. They knew they had chosen the wrong non-immune non-mage to pick on. And if they didn't, Lalli, Reynir, and Tuuri would show them why they should never cross the borders of Tuuri's dream haven again.

Spoiler: authors note • show
Apparently, fluff writer + murderghosts = terrified fluff writer wondering why she writes stuff at night.  ::) I scare myself so easily. I wanted to write something with Lalli and Reynir working together for once, hahaha.

Also, thanks to Róisín for the awesome insights on homemade hair care! ♡
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on April 20, 2016, 10:06:21 PM
That's well written. I can see Tuuri as stubborn and well earthed. It would also not surprise me if non-mage Finns like Tuuri could perhaps use the prayer type of Runo spell.

And if I can write occasional fluff, why shouldn't you write occasional terror? It was good!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Tr on April 20, 2016, 11:03:30 PM
That's well written. I can see Tuuri as stubborn and well earthed. It would also not surprise me if non-mage Finns like Tuuri could perhaps use the prayer type of Runo spell.

And if I can write occasional fluff, why shouldn't you write occasional terror? It was good!
Thanks! I'm glad you think so! I like writing terror sometimes, just not very often because I always start thinking, there are shadows on my wall are they shaped like people? they kind of are OHMYGOSH I think that one just moved...  ::)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on April 20, 2016, 11:58:59 PM
Two minutes to midnight! *pant* *pant*

Things I learned about myself while writing this chapter: it sucks to be my favorite character. Hello angst fest, my old friend.

20. Fortitude (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/15130660)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on April 21, 2016, 03:04:59 AM
Two minutes to midnight! *pant* *pant*

Things I learned about myself while writing this chapter: it sucks to be my favorite character. Hello angst fest, my old friend.

20. Fortitude (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/15130660)

Nicely done! And now you've got me singing Simon and Garfunkel
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Talimee on April 21, 2016, 03:44:44 AM
Nicely done! And now you've got me singing Simon and Garfunkel

Wonderful! NOW I have an earworm, too! XD

Two minutes to midnight! *pant* *pant*

Things I learned about myself while writing this chapter: it sucks to be my favorite character. Hello angst fest, my old friend.

20. Fortitude (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/15130660)

Sigrun and angst ... I wasn't sure how that could even work but you did a great job here! I like that you have taken the real-world consequences into account as well at the otherworldly.
Your writing style is very neat and pleasant and very to the point, nothing superfluous with Sigrun, ey? I like that you portray Emil as wanting kids (you did that in a former story, too) and you have Mikkel so much in character it made me smile.
Thanks for writing and sharing! =)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on April 21, 2016, 08:53:34 AM
Wonderful! NOW I have an earworm, too! XD

I could think of far worse earworms. Would you like me to share? *evil grin*

Quote
Sigrun and angst ... I wasn't sure how that could even work but you did a great job here! I like that you have taken the real-world consequences into account as well at the otherworldly.
Your writing style is very neat and pleasant and very to the point, nothing superfluous with Sigrun, ey? I like that you portray Emil as wanting kids (you did that in a former story, too) and you have Mikkel so much in character it made me smile.
Thanks for writing and sharing! =)

Ah yes, my one non-negotiable you-will-have-to-fight-me-on-this headcanon is that Emil wants kids, and that he will be an amazing father. Seriously, just watch him interact with his little cousins!

And good to know that you found Mikkel believable. I was constantly second-guessing whether I had the character dynamic between him and Sigrun right, not to mention 'Is he talking too much oh gods I think he's talking too much this is Mikkel how often does he ever talk!?'
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Kiraly on April 21, 2016, 10:07:25 AM
I could think of far worse earworms. Would you like me to share? *evil grin*

Ah yes, my one non-negotiable you-will-have-to-fight-me-on-this headcanon is that Emil wants kids, and that he will be an amazing father. Seriously, just watch him interact with his little cousins!

And good to know that you found Mikkel believable. I was constantly second-guessing whether I had the character dynamic between him and Sigrun right, not to mention 'Is he talking too much oh gods I think he's talking too much this is Mikkel how often does he ever talk!?'

I wish I could get that song in my head as an earworm! Call Me Maybe just played on the radio so now I'm stuck with that all day.

I am 100% behind your Emil headcanon, of all the characters he's the one I see as most likely to want kids. I really enjoyed this fic - even though it's angsty, it shows a complex side of Sigrun that wouldn't come out in any other situation. And I thought the interaction with Mikkel worked well. He may have talked a little more than he does in the comic, but he also hasn't had many one-on-one scenes with other characters so far. And if he was there to cheer Sigrun up, that amount of talking would be expected.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on April 21, 2016, 11:32:30 AM
I wish I could get that song in my head as an earworm! Call Me Maybe just played on the radio so now I'm stuck with that all day.

I am 100% behind your Emil headcanon, of all the characters he's the one I see as most likely to want kids. I really enjoyed this fic - even though it's angsty, it shows a complex side of Sigrun that wouldn't come out in any other situation. And I thought the interaction with Mikkel worked well. He may have talked a little more than he does in the comic, but he also hasn't had many one-on-one scenes with other characters so far. And if he was there to cheer Sigrun up, that amount of talking would be expected.

Shake It Off. *shudders* The only reason I can even speak its name and not get it stuck is because I'm currently listening to something else. *jams headphones against ears* Lalala, I'm not listening!

I actually kind of want to expand this short into an actual multi-chapter story, but I kind of don't have time...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: KMK on April 21, 2016, 12:47:41 PM
SectoBoss crawls in from the dry, parched landscape of Writer’s Block to deliver… this. Three little vignettes from Sigrun’s life, vaguely connected by the headcanon someone posted in the comments ages ago that she might have dyslexia. (Or some similar reading difficulty which is why she hates books so much.)

http://archiveofourown.org/works/4618803/chapters/10528584

I don’t know where I was going with these, and gods know they’re a bit rambly, but I hope you like them nonetheless!

So what I needed this morning. I have been immersed lately with the political doings in the States and the stress of seeing people who seem to have checked their brains at the door at age 10 rally behind a Hitler wannabe (want to be) and good people deny that the super rich have rigged the system and only want the regular people as their slaves. Ignoring a hero in Bernie Sanders who would have all of us be worthwhile and help those who are struggling (for physical or mental or economic reasons) to overcome our limitations and rise. They can't see that Hillary is just the One Percenter's lap dog and is behind all the irregularities (cheating) being done at the polls. It breaks my heart to consider that we may have to have a real civil war to put things right because we may not be able to do it through voting because of the rampant cheating. I was a soldier who swore to protect my country form enemies without and within. I am 54 and haven't seen active service in 22 years. Yet I do not hold my oath dismissed or diminished. This story has rallied my courage. Courage is easy when you are young and strong. It is more dear when your knees hurt like hell and you have gotten soft around the middle.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: SectoBoss on April 21, 2016, 07:05:14 PM
So what I needed this morning.

Thank you, it's very encouraging to hear the fic meant so much to you!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on April 21, 2016, 07:44:10 PM
Anyone in the mood for a bit of fluff to lighten the mood a bit?  I have created an AO3 profile.

Spoiler: "The Heat of the Moment" • show
http://archiveofourown.org/works/6618553/chapters/15144343

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on April 21, 2016, 08:15:37 PM
Wavewright: glad you put this up. Fun and fluff indeed! It was a nice way to start the morning. Do go on.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Kiraly on April 21, 2016, 08:33:34 PM
Hooray for fluff! I enjoyed that, wavewright62.

I also come bearing fluff, which fits the prompt challenge for #20: Fortitude. It's a short Emil/Lalli piece.
Hidden Strength. (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6618877)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on April 21, 2016, 09:58:11 PM
Because after last prompt I desperately needed to write Sigrun being goofy again. So here's my take on how she got those injuries she had when she was recruited.

21. Vacation (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/15146968)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on April 22, 2016, 02:34:47 AM
Resurrecting myself from the void of homework to post another prompt.

37: Eyes http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/15151255

I personally had my eyes start to go fuzzy on me when I was about 13. I can see alright without them, but my parents are both practically blind. My hopes for the future are not great.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on April 22, 2016, 04:10:05 AM
This is not fluffy, a totally different work, set in Y45 and featuring Ingrid Andersen mourning Goran.
Spoiler: "Burning" • show
http://archiveofourown.org/works/6621856 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6621856)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on April 22, 2016, 04:19:16 AM
Because after last prompt I desperately needed to write Sigrun being goofy again. So here's my take on how she got those injuries she had when she was recruited.

21. Vacation (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/15146968)

Goofy?  Girl knows how to have a good time. </mikkel>  No, seriously, a good 'un!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on April 22, 2016, 10:21:57 PM
In which I decide I've picked on Sigrun enough for the time being, and decide to pick on her great-grandfather instead.

22. Mother Nature (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/15166873)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on April 23, 2016, 05:21:36 AM
30: Under Rain http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/15172708

In which the Danish winter has a small identity crisis and decides it wants to be a Vietnamese summer instead.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on April 23, 2016, 04:36:31 PM
Tall Ships & Taller Tales
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/Pirate crossover fanfic
Part 4
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg90719#msg90719)
The Kraken (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg93162#msg93162)
Spoiler: show
The Saga of Red Braid

“...And that, me laddies, is how the Kraken fell to the magnificent Captain Eide, under whom I proudly served as cabin boy.”

Not a few jaws were agape at the tale their captain, who went by the moniker of “the Red Braid”, had told, but there were also a few scoffers. “Captain Eide,” one of these unworthies unwisely guffawed. “Tales o’ her be no more true than those o’ the Kraken itself, says I.”

The whole table burst into laughter, save the Red Braid. He merely sat with a patronizing smile on his face until the mirth subsided. “I’faith, ’twould depend upon who’s doing the telling, says I.”

“And it seems to me, Mister Reynir” a stentorian voice spat out from behind him, “that your telling has grown somewhat lacking, says Eide.”

The first words made everyone at the table jump, again save Reynir. By the end of her statement, all eyes were fixed on the tall, proud form looming up behind their captain.

“Tis most woeful, my Captain,” the Red Braid answered calmly, “that the tales I have to share of your adventures are yet so outlandish that I must needs omit the half of what I saw, lest none credit them at all.” He gestured at the motley assemblage seated at the table. “My Gentlemen of Fortune, I give ye Sigrun Eide, the woman who slew the Kraken with a stirring rod.”

One look at the woman standing behind their captain was enough to quell any doubts they might have had about his veracity.

“You’ve been babbling my adventures hither and yon,” Captain Eide said. “Now tell me a tale of your own, featuring the mighty Captain Red Braid.”

The Red Braid smiled. “Very well, my Captain,” he answered.

Reynir had been in command of the Túnfiskurinn for a few scant weeks when he ran into trouble. They weren’t supposed to rendezvous with the Sea-Lynx and the Drakeld, Emil’s command, for another month, so Reynir was on his own this time.

Not that it would have mattered so much; the trouble was a French squadron out for the blood of Ása Hardardóttir, Túnfiskurinn’s former captain. That Ása was now resting at the bottom of the sea meant less than nothing to them.

Now, the Túnfiskurinn was a fine ship, but the French had no less than five men-o-war in their squadron, so running was really their only option. It still grated, both on Reynir and his men.

Of course, no one can run forever; turning and fighting had to be part of the plan, and so it was.

The French squadron chased them into a harbor as night fell, the French wisely (or so they thought) standing off in a blockade that would eventually force the pirates out in a battle they couldn’t hope to win. The Red Braid had a different plan.

Under cover of darkness, the boarding parties got under way, and before dawn broke, the French squadron had been taken, though not without loss.

The most annoying thing about the whole affair was how little loot was to be had. Aside from the ships themselves, the affair yielded more or less nothing of value: no gold, no objets d’art, nor anything else for a nice spree. But still, taking out a full squadron of men-o-war so soon in his captaincy was a major feather in Reynir’s cap.

“...And that was just the beginning,” Reynir concluded. Every eye at the table had been fixed on him for some time now, the senior crewmen nodding as they recalled his tale. “Not that Captain Eide stuck around to hear more.”

“She’s gone! ... Where did she go? ... How on earth did she get away without us seeing?” The voices mingled in drunken cacophony.

“Well, me laddies, as to Captain Eide...” the Red Braid paused significantly, “...she died a good three years ago. Helped plant her meself, I did.”

Not a few of the crew crossed themselves, or made other gestures meant to ward off evil. The Red Braid snorted. As though any of that would avail them against Captain Eide’s wrath.

A few round of drinks and a few more tall tales later, Reynir finally rose, leading his now thoroughly inebriated men off to their waiting ship...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
I’ll bet you thought this was all over with, didn’t you?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on April 23, 2016, 06:25:25 PM
Oh, good one, LooNEY! I do like a good pirate yarn. Are you going to take them to Tortuga?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Seventy by Heart on April 23, 2016, 08:35:06 PM
I made a thing. A prompt-generator thing, to be precise. It's right here: http://seventybyheart.x10host.com (http://seventybyheart.x10host.com).

(http://i.imgur.com/IyEft9P.png)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Tr on April 23, 2016, 09:20:58 PM
Kiraly: Awww! <3 <3 This fic is cutest and most best.
Lazy8: *enthusiastic applause* I love the way you write Askel.
wavewright62: *more appluase* Dark and very well written.
OwlsG0: *uncontrollable laughter*
LooNEY_DAC: "Red Braid." I love this.  ;D
Seventy by Heart: That is a very cool thing!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Fogtreader on April 23, 2016, 09:28:30 PM
Updated "Silence Broken", The Slime Splayed story, with the second part posted on the comments a couple weeks ago.
https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg96287#msg96287
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on April 23, 2016, 09:31:19 PM
Updated "Silence Broken", The Slime Splayed story, with the second part posted on the comments a couple weeks ago.
https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg96287#msg96287

A good laugh, as always. Ha, flame war!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on April 23, 2016, 10:19:45 PM
Lalli and his luonto. Not much more to say.

23. Cat (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/15188758)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Tr on April 24, 2016, 04:42:52 PM
Lazy8: Nice! Very Lalli. Fogtreader: brilliant.
I wrote a thing.
Summary: More fun with murderghost possession. And Reynir gets the rash illness. I guess part of it could be seen as Tuuri/Reynir shipping if you stare at it hard enough. Believe it or not, this one does have a happy ending. :)
Spoiler: show
It was dark in the Cattank. Dark and quiet, except for the soft sound of Reynir's ragged breath. Tuuri still hadn't gotten used to the quiet noise, and it jarred her every time he exhaled.
It had all happened so quickly. The troll had surprised everyone. It wasn't anyone's fault that Reynir had been standing in exactly the wrong place when it attacked. Of course, Tuuri still wondered if she could have stopped it. If she had been two steps to the left, it would have been her shivering under the layers of sheets. She would be the one with the rash illness. Not him. Not Reynir.
She placed the cool cloth Mikkel had given her over his brow and asked him how he was feeling.
"Not... great..." he managed to whisper, the words drifting like smoke from his lips. "S-sorry."
Tuuri wondered what he was apologizing for. Not being immune? Standing in the wrong place? Ever leaving home at all?
"It's okay," Tuuri lied, unable to stop her voice from trembling. "Sigrun and Emil and Lalli will be back soon, and then we'll see... we'll see if you can eat dinner."
Reynir nodded and let his head fall back on the pillow.

They were alerted to Sigrun, Emil, and Lalli's arrival when Sigrun flung the door open with a bang and Lalli slipped in with an air of great alarm.
"I don't like them!" he hissed as Mikkel sprayed him with disinfectant. "I don't like them, they're creepy!"
"Hiya Mikkel! We found people!" Sigrun announced.
"What?" Mikkel asked.
"Yeah, it was the weirdest thing! They were just sitting there. In the middle of the Silent World!"
Three tired humans filed into the Cattank after Emil.
"This is really against protocol... but I suppose we can't just leave them there," Mikkel observed, spraying them with disinfectant as well. "Do we have any idea what country they're from?"
Sigrun shook her head. "Nope! They haven't said a word. I guess I'd be traumatized too, if I had survived living in the Silent World."
"Hmmm," Mikkel agreed, staring at the newcomers.
All three were adults, one man and two women. The man had short, dark hair and a long nose, one of the women was short with curly red hair and freckles, while the other was blond with pale eyes. Lalli hissed whenever she looked at him.
"I don't like them," he repeated stubbornly. "Their eyes are too shiny and they have too many shadows."
"What are you even talking about?" Tuuri asked him crossly.
He didn't explain, just kept saying, "Too many shadows."
"Lalli, we've talked about this," Tuuri began, and Lalli pressed his hands over his ears in preparation for a lecture about using his words.
Tuuri gave up halfway through the halfhearted lecture as Reynir squeezed his eyes shut and stifled a whimper. It wasn't fair, she thought. Reynir was possibly the nicest person in existence. Why should he get the rash illness?

That night, as she listened to Reynir's labored breathing, she knew something had to happen, or she'd go insane. It wasn't fair. It wasn't right. And it wasn't going to happen. If the gods weren't going to do something about it, she would.
She was going to find the cure, and they were going to see if it worked. Impulsive? Maybe. But Tuuri was not going to watch Reynir die. No matter what, she was going to stop this.
She slipped out of bed, stepping over the sleeping strangers, searching the darkened tank. Then she saw a glint of glass in Mikkel's dark bag. She reached for it, her fingers brushing the glass. Then something grabbed her ankle, and she fell. As if it was in slow motion, she saw the needle with the cure fall too, shattering on the ground, scattering drops of precious amber liquid into the air. The darkness grew, twisting and writhing until it was one gigantic shadow with shiny eyes. Tuuri could see the limp forms of the three survivors at its feet. It wrapped around her, covering and filling her with freezing shadows.
"No." Tuuri heard the raspy, broken whisper through the layers of darkness. A flickering light grew in the tank. "Not... Tuuri. Go... away."The figure at the center of the light shuddered painfully and collapsed. Tuuri felt a sudden feverish warmth at her back, and heard a hissing noise. Maybe it was the ghosts laughing at how helpless they were. It was so dark and so cold. Someone was screaming her name, someone else was shouting. It sounded like Lalli. But it couldn't be Lalli, he was so quiet. Then nothing. Dark and silence.

"Well now, this is interesting." Mikkel's voice cut through the lingering dark.
Tuuri opened her eyes. Sunlight was streaming into the tank through the driver's seat window. Tuuri was huddled up against Reynir, and she realized with a start that she wasn't wearing her mask. She sat up quickly, trying to take in her surroundings. There was Lalli, seeming relieved to see her awake. "Told you they were creepy," he said.
Tuuri realized she couldn't see the three strangers anywhere.
"We have Twig-mage to thank now that we're all still breathing this morning," Sigrun commented. "Apparently those three were... they had the ghosts inside them or something?"
"Weird spirit vessels," Lalli confirmed.
"Anyway, they're dead now," Emil chimed in. "If they were ever alive in the first place, that is."
"Huh," Tuuri said, rubbing the back of her head. She didn't look at Reynir. She felt guilty enough already, seeing the splinters of glass scattered everwhere.
Then Reynir yawned, a huge, healthy yawn, and Tuuri whipped around faster than anyone else could react. The mangled, twisted, bloody rash had disappeared from his arms and neck. His hands steamed where they rested in a pool of amber liquid as the cure eradicated the last of the infection. "Good morning," he said sleepily, picking bits of glass out of his braid.
Tuuri couldn't help the happy "Eee!" that left her lips. Because it was, she thought, as she tackled Reynir with a hug. It was a good morning.

Spoiler: author note • show
Weird spirit vessels. Not a phrase you hear every day.
This is of course the dream I had the other night, written down so I could get it out of my head. I hope it doesn't seem too randomly thrown-together.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on April 24, 2016, 08:36:31 PM
70: bound and gagged http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/15211312
In which Emil decides whether or not he wants to join the Hotakainen family business of contract killing

58: Kick in the head http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/15211426

Tuuri's head injury results in a magical seal, instead of loss of motor function.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Regolith247 on April 24, 2016, 10:38:54 PM
70: bound and gagged http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/15211312
In which Emil decides whether or not he wants to join the Hotakainen family business of contract killing

58: Kick in the head http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/15211426

Tuuri's head injury results in a magical seal, instead of loss of motor function.

Mage-Tuuri would be awesome! I think my favorite part is when Tuuri first asks about the seal, and everyone who isn't a mage just looks at her like 'Oh great- that kick must have been harder than the doctors thought."
Thanks for writing these! They're always a lot of fun!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on April 24, 2016, 10:41:49 PM
Mage-Tuuri would be awesome! I think my favorite part is when Tuuri first asks about the seal, and everyone who isn't a mage just looks at her like 'Oh great- that kick must have been harder than the doctors thought."
Thanks for writing these! They're always a lot of fun!

I'm glad you enjoy them! It's definitely always a blast to decide how to interpret these prompts. They're a pretty wide, varies bunch and there's a lot to do with them.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LordoftheThings on April 24, 2016, 10:55:02 PM
http://archiveofourown.org/works/5292065/chapters/15214810

More Hypothermia!!

This fic is still going. It's going SLOWLY. But Still going.
Let the Emil torment continue
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on April 24, 2016, 10:58:01 PM
http://archiveofourown.org/works/5292065/chapters/15214810

More Hypothermia!!

This fic is still going. It's going SLOWLY. But Still going.
Let the Emil torment continue

I will have to read this tomorrow night, as that is the soonest I have time - but I very much look forward to reading it.

In the meantime, have some more prologue characters!

24. Time Is Running Out (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/15214921)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Seventy by Heart on April 25, 2016, 04:33:35 PM
ps. Seventy by Heart, thank you for the prompt-generator thing, what a great idea! :3

You're welcome! I love playing around with prompt generators - I've made them for several fandoms and I get a kick out of them every time.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on April 25, 2016, 08:02:48 PM
Tall Ships & Taller Tales
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/Pirate crossover fanfic
Part 4
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg90719#msg90719)
The Kraken (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg93162#msg93162)
Spoiler: show
The Saga of Red Braid

“...And that, me laddies, is how the Kraken fell to the magnificent Captain Eide, under whom I proudly served as cabin boy.”

Not a few jaws were agape at the tale their captain, who went by the moniker of “the Red Braid”, had told, but there were also a few scoffers. “Captain Eide,” one of these unworthies unwisely guffawed. “Tales o’ her be no more true than those o’ the Kraken itself, says I.”

The whole table burst into laughter, save the Red Braid. He merely sat with a patronizing smile on his face until the mirth subsided. “I’faith, ’twould depend upon who’s doing the telling, says I.”

“And it seems to me, Mister Reynir” a stentorian voice spat out from behind him, “that your telling has grown somewhat lacking, says Eide.”

The first words made everyone at the table jump, again save Reynir. By the end of her statement, all eyes were fixed on the tall, proud form looming up behind their captain.

“Tis most woeful, my Captain,” the Red Braid answered calmly, “that the tales I have to share of your adventures are yet so outlandish that I must needs omit the half of what I saw, lest none credit them at all.” He gestured at the motley assemblage seated at the table. “My Gentlemen of Fortune, I give ye Sigrun Eide, the woman who slew the Kraken with a stirring rod.”

One look at the woman standing behind their captain was enough to quell any doubts they might have had about his veracity.

“You’ve been babbling my adventures hither and yon,” Captain Eide said. “Now tell me a tale of your own, featuring the mighty Captain Red Braid.”

The Red Braid smiled. “Very well, my Captain,” he answered.

Reynir had been in command of the Túnfiskurinn for a few scant weeks when he ran into trouble. They weren’t supposed to rendezvous with the Sea-Lynx and the Drakeld, Emil’s command, for another month, so Reynir was on his own this time.

Not that it would have mattered so much; the trouble was a French squadron out for the blood of Ása Hardardóttir, Túnfiskurinn’s former captain. That Ása was now resting at the bottom of the sea meant less than nothing to them.

Now, the Túnfiskurinn was a fine ship, but the French had no less than five men-o-war in their squadron, so running was really their only option. It still grated, both on Reynir and his men.

Of course, no one can run forever; turning and fighting had to be part of the plan, and so it was.

The French squadron chased them into a harbor as night fell, the French wisely (or so they thought) standing off in a blockade that would eventually force the pirates out in a battle they couldn’t hope to win. The Red Braid had a different plan.

Under cover of darkness, the boarding parties got under way, and before dawn broke, the French squadron had been taken, though not without loss.

The most annoying thing about the whole affair was how little loot was to be had. Aside from the ships themselves, the affair yielded more or less nothing of value: no gold, no objets d’art, nor anything else for a nice spree. But still, taking out a full squadron of men-o-war so soon in his captaincy was a major feather in Reynir’s cap.

“...And that was just the beginning,” Reynir concluded. Every eye at the table had been fixed on him for some time now, the senior crewmen nodding as they recalled his tale. “Not that Captain Eide stuck around to hear more.”

“She’s gone! ... Where did she go? ... How on earth did she get away without us seeing?” The voices mingled in drunken cacophony.

“Well, me laddies, as to Captain Eide...” the Red Braid paused significantly, “...she died a good three years ago. Helped plant her meself, I did.”

Not a few of the crew crossed themselves, or made other gestures meant to ward off evil. The Red Braid snorted. As though any of that would avail them against Captain Eide’s wrath.

A few round of drinks and a few more tall tales later, Reynir finally rose, leading his now thoroughly inebriated men off to their waiting ship...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
I’ll bet you thought this was all over with, didn’t you?


I'm working my work back through the story (thank you so much for the prior part links btw!), but I really enjoyed this bit.  Arrr, the Red Braid!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on April 25, 2016, 08:45:44 PM
31: Flowers http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/15233593

Reynir decides to fill his haven with animals as well as flowers. It really, really doesn't go well.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on April 25, 2016, 09:41:24 PM
Lazy8 - that's very realistically written, and scarily probable. That sort of thing must have happened over and over, and played out very differently in different places. There is potential here for some of our more scientifically minded authors to play with ideas for many scenarios of the discovery of immunity, and all the many story permutations, tragedies and triumphs that might happen before people worked it out.

Lordofthetthings - still torturing poor Emil, I see! He hasn't had a good day, and I suspect is about to have an even worse night.

OwlsG0: this is likely the sort of thing he would have learned about in mage school, if he had ever been to mage school. I wonder if a mage might die if, say, he had a creative nightmare and filled his haven with murderghosts? Sort of like 'Forbidden Planet'? And poor uncomprehending Emil!

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Regolith247 on April 25, 2016, 10:26:33 PM

OwlsG0: this is likely the sort of thing he would have learned about in mage school, if he had ever been to mage school. I wonder if a mage might die if, say, he had a creative nightmare and filled his haven with murderghosts? Sort of like 'Forbidden Planet'? And poor uncomprehending Emil!

Hey! Someone else who's seen 'Forbidden Planet'!.... That's all I have to say here.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on April 25, 2016, 11:21:35 PM
Hey! Someone else who's seen 'Forbidden Planet'!.... That's all I have to say here.

I found it impossible to take that movie seriously from the second someone said "electron volts."

Anyway, I come bearing gifts! (Not to mention some emotional whiplash.)

25. Trouble Lurking (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/15237010)

Quarter mark FTW!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on April 26, 2016, 12:19:25 AM
Lazy8: that was funny and good.

Regolith: thought there might be a few of you who had seen it! Despite things like 'electron volts', I loved it because it was one of the few SF movies up to that point where the characters took their culture's tech as a given, a part of their everyday life rather than geewowgollygosh we're going to use the transporter! Because I do think it adds realism to a story, and it's something I try to do if I'm writing a story set in a world that has advanced tech, or magic - make it just part of the general background, rather than intrusive into the story.

Also, I've heard 'Forbidden Planet' described as 'The Tempest' in space.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Regolith247 on April 26, 2016, 12:37:28 PM
I found it impossible to take that movie seriously from the second someone said "electron volts."

Anyway, I come bearing gifts! (Not to mention some emotional whiplash.)

25. Trouble Lurking (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/15237010)

Quarter mark FTW!

You're right- that was a pretty good emotional whiplash! I find the prospect of a feverish and paranoid Sigrun a bit terrifying, since who knows what she might try in that condition? Especially given how she is normally! Sorta like "The Hangover"....

*Sigrun, yawning, steps out of the Cat-tank* "Well, I feel better now. What did I miss? And where did the giant book pile come from?"

*Mikkel, looking much the worse for the wear* "Those are from the five raids that you led us on in the last eight hours."

*Sigrun looks out over the city* "Huh. I guess that explains all of the smoke... And why there's a giant's head tied to the hood of the tank."


Róisín: It's true- in 'Forbidden Planet' they made everything seem to have a purpose beyond 'hey, that looks cool'. Well, most of the time. Robby the Robot remains awesome! And yes, it is the same plot as 'The Tempest', which is my favorite Shakespeare work, by the way
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on April 26, 2016, 01:11:52 PM
Mine too. That play, and the sonnets.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on April 26, 2016, 10:00:30 PM
This is the part where I really test whether I've still got my mojo. Also, is it weird that my chapters now seem to be alternating between funny and serious?

26. Tears (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/15257143)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on April 26, 2016, 10:39:54 PM
Those who are familiar with Shakespeare's Tempest, have you read Ted Williams's "Caliban's Hour?" It's a look at the story from the "bad guy's" point of view. A very different perspective.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on April 27, 2016, 04:26:30 AM
This is the part where I really test whether I've still got my mojo. Also, is it weird that my chapters now seem to be alternating between funny and serious?

26. Tears (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/15257143)

Weirdly, I'm filling the exact same prompt right now. Mine also happens to be on the exact opposite spectrum of emotion.

You still got your mojo. Believe me, Lazy, it's still there.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on April 27, 2016, 11:36:14 PM
I henceforth declare this my new BroTP.

27. Friendship (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/15280201)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Regolith247 on April 28, 2016, 12:04:19 AM
I henceforth declare this my new BroTP.

27. Friendship (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/15280201)

It would figure that those two would get along well! I love this story! And the thought of baby-sitting a young Sigrun is the kind of thing that keeps people up at night....
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on April 28, 2016, 02:26:02 AM
26: Tears http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/15282811

Mikkel does something to make everyone cry, but not from sadness or amusement.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Pupunen on April 28, 2016, 04:56:00 PM
This week has been really stressful, and the worst part is still ahead. My new coping mechanism seems to be writing vaguely shippy fanfic. I suppose there are worse ways to relieve stress.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/6686815
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on April 28, 2016, 05:58:53 PM
And again, I show my execrable timing.

The Red Herring League
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/Superhero AU fanfic
Part 4
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg102142#msg102142)
Spoiler: show
Cats As Cats Can

Lalli slept, and as he slept, he dreamed.

They were particularly random, incomprehensible, and above all frustrating dreams tonight; a whole menagerie danced through them, with each different animal demanding something new of him, while a red-tail laughed in the skies above.

Fortunately, Emil was there, but he was a dog, a squirrel, a seal--another whole menagerie. And the others pressed home their demands, forcing Lalli to socialize--to deal with stupid, stubborn, nattery-chattery people who couldn’t just leave him be as he wanted. Still, Lalli was comforted by the presence of his best friend, even though they called each other different names in the dreams.

They went to Tuonela and back, always together, except when that infuriating red-tail ripped Emil-by-another-name away for a bit. When that happened, Lalli slumped into the waters of Tuonela, gloomily looking at the reflection that wasn’t Lalli Hotakainen at all--in looks, at least.

But it all worked out more or less all right. Lalli got to see Emil “kill” the red-tail, which was most cathartic. All the people quit bothering him, which was even better.

Then he and Emil were in a gigantic mechanical warrior, their minds linked together as they battled the monsters the Rash had spawned...

...only they were a painting in Lalli’s tatty old studio, waiting for Lalli to put the finishing touches on his latest creation...

...but Lalli was too busy hustling a weirdly-garbed Tuuri out of a tall cement building, while Emil fretted over how his explosives had knocked the safe they were supposed to open clear out into the street instead...

...Sick and fevered and twisted and why couldn’t he have died when it caught him in the dreamworld--but no, because Emil was there, making the pain better and worse, keeping him human, and he was Lalli again, instead of the näkki the Rash had made of him...

Lalli sat bolt upright with a gasp, sweat running down his face in rivulets. Barely a breath away from Lalli’s face, a large, glowing lynx stared at Lalli calmly, its unblinking eyes boring into his. So, his luonto had finally returned--but only after the ghost attack that could have killed all of them had been thwarted by Reynir and Onni. Stupid weird, foreign spirits.

Well, it was here now, anyway. They did the slow blink at each other, but a sudden noise had them both looking to see its cause.

A large, fearsome-looking lioness was meandering their way.

For a moment, Lalli thought it was Sigrun, or rather, whatever weird foreign equivalent of a luonto she would have. A moment’s consideration of the counter-indications--she wasn’t red, for one--brought the realization that this was, in fact, the kitten, as she saw herself. She proved this by coming right up to Lalli and his Lynx, chirping happily in greeting, and flopping down onto her back in a silent but pointed demand for a belly rub.

As Lalli was attending to Her Majesty, he looked over to where Emil sat, asleep. For a moment, the golden-haired Swede’s form shifted into that of a dog, then a somewhat pudgy red-head, before reforming into the softly flaming mass that was “the Firework”.

Lalli “the Phantom Strike” slept on, knowing he would need the rest to face what was to come...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
So, maybe there was a reason Puppy-Fox was in a few of my earlier stories...

...Other than authorial convenience, of course.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Tr on April 28, 2016, 06:23:34 PM
LooNEY:  :D Well done as always!
Pupunen : vaguely shippy fanfiction is my favorite, so of course I love this  ::)
OwlsG0: heheheh this made me laugh even though one of my first thoughts was, "aww, poor Mikkel."
Lazy8: Yes. Trond and Onni are awesome.  ;D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on April 28, 2016, 07:50:36 PM
45: Illusion http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/15296860

Very long fill, here, where Sigrun decides she is sick of human life and tries her hand at being a badger. Or: I'm under a lot of stress and my luonto is trying to fix me.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on April 28, 2016, 09:27:49 PM
Yep, I've definitely been going silly-serious-silly-serious. Here, have some more whiplash.

28. Sorrow (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/15298498)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Regolith247 on April 28, 2016, 09:38:52 PM
45: Illusion http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/15296860

Very long fill, here, where Sigrun decides she is sick of human life and tries her hand at being a badger. Or: I'm under a lot of stress and my luonto is trying to fix me.

One of your best stories so far! Best parts in my opinion: "I'm a gods-da--ed badger!", and the vague references that Lalli makes to having had similar episodes in the past.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on April 28, 2016, 09:43:10 PM
One of your best stories so far! Best parts in my opinion: "I'm a gods-da--ed badger!", and the vague references that Lalli makes to having had similar episodes in the past.

Thanks! I'll admit I had a little bit too much fun writing this one. Hence, the length.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lin on April 29, 2016, 05:38:10 AM
  I read through the entire thread over a course of three days, and I saw something that someone (I'm not sure who, I think it was OwlsG0?) posted a short fic about how Lalli thinks that Hel has to take someone from the team, and it's not going to be him, Tuuri or Emil.

Spoiler: show
  Coming up with a plan was easy. Actually doing the deed was hard.
  Reynir stood in front of him, just glad to be a part of the solution for whatever Lalli needed to do. As quietly as he could, he unsheathed his knife and hesitated. He was dead weight, and he was annoying, but he was still human. Half of his mind wanted to just do what needed to be done, but another part told him that he was no killer.
  I’m not the one killing him, Lalli told himself. Hel is.
  No, Lalli. Grandmother had walked up behind him without being noticed. Her brow was furrowed. Hel is a giver - she takes back what she has lent to us. Who are you to take from others?
  Perhaps Hel works through me, Lalli argued. Grandmother seems to have no answer to this and turns to gaze at the trees. Deers galloped - trolls were nearby. If Lalli was to do it, he had to do it now.
  His grip on knife tightened, and he walked behind Reynir, taking care not to step on a pine cone or a branch. His braid flew in the wind, and he could hear snatches of whistling from him, and his resolve failed for a moment. No. It’s either him or Emil, or gods forbid, Tuuri.
  Reynir turned around, suddenly alert. “Lalli?”
  The knife slid through his heart and he fell to his knees. He stared in shock at the blade protruding from his chest, and at Lalli. Hurt and confusion were present in his eyes, and Lalli looked away. Reynir tried to speak, but his punctured lungs wouldn’t let him. Crimson blood fell onto the fresh snow, and once more he looked at Lalli. And this time he couldn’t look away, and what he saw made him shiver.
  Hate and confusion had departed. Only anger was left.
  Reynir fell face-first into a puddle of his own blood, clearly dead. His braid brushed the ground aside his knees, as if reaching for Lalli. He stared at his bloody right hand, unable to believe that he had just killed Reynir.
  No - It wasn’t me. It wasn’t me. It was Hel.
  He repeated this line like a mantra as he dragged the deer corpse over to the clearing and put a bullet in its head. Any time now, the rest of the team would be coming over. Sure enough, Tuuri was the first one here, and she looked at Reynir’s unmoving form and Lalli’s shell-shocked face.
  “”Lalli? What happened?”
  “A beast came through.” He gestured to the deer. “It bit Reynir before I could do anything, and I stabbed Reynir.” His voice was emotionless and uninflected, but deep down he felt like screaming.
  Now Sigrun and Mikkel ran around and Tuuri started sobbing into her sleeve. Lalli didn’t touch her. Mikkel asked Tuuri what happened and she told them. Sigrun looked sombre and kicked the deer carcass away. She picked up the Icelander with both arms and shouted something to Mikkel and Emil, who was just arriving. They nodded and ran back to the tank.
  Tuuri was still weeping, and Lalli stood up. He was shivering.

---
  After burying Reynir, Sigrun was sitting next to Lalli. Everytime she looked at him, he felt like someone was gazing into his soul. Judging him. Damning him. At last, he muttered a muffled “good night” to the crying Tuuri and crawled under the bed.
  He tossed and turned, but couldn’t get to sleep. After a while, he stood up and broke the frozen surface of the pond behind them. The knife went into the pond.
  He slept restlessly.

---
  In his dream, he was sitting in the raft, surrounded by water. It was the same place he spent his time every night, except it wasn’t. The trees seemed just a bit too dark, the gaps between the leaves a bit too small, the water a bit too restless. A lynx padded out between two trees, and Lalli reached for him. Without warning, he hissed and turned to flee. Lalli stared in shock, then in resignment.
  He stood up and looked past the trees to where Reynir usually was. He wasn’t there, and neither was his dog. The sheep looked lost, and his crook was laid upon the rock that he sat on. Lalli swallowed and sat back down, looking at the canopy atop of him.
  It wasn’t me, It was Hel.
  He wished he could make himself believe it.
  He was a killer.
  He closed his eyes for a moment, and when he opened them, Reynir was standing in front of him, smiling. Although it looked genuine, it didn’t reach the eyes.
  Lalli stood up and backed against the rock wall behind him.
  “Reynir! Aren’t you - aren’t you -”
  “Dead?”
  Lalli nodded. His lips were dry and his fingers drummed nervously against stone.
  “I don’t think I’m dead. At least, I don’t feel dead, and he certainly doesn’t seem dead.” He pointed at the dog with his crook, who was growling at Lalli. Was it his imagination, or did the dog seem bigger?
  “Listen - Reynir. I didn’t want to do it. But Hel - you know who is Hel, right? - Hel always takes one soul to the underworld with her. But Emil and Tuuri can’t - die, right? And - Mikkel - is - well - the medic, and if Hel took his soul it would be bad for all of you, right? Right? - And Sigrun is the leader, so she can’t die either, right? Right?” As he talked, he was acutely aware of how their roles seemed reversed. Usually Reynir talked while Lalli listened, and now he talked while Reynir listened. The sheepdog growled at him, a deep throaty gurgle that sounded more like a wolf.
  “So you killed me because one of us would die anyways?” Reynir’s eyes burned into him. Blood spilled out of the front of his chest and stained his tunic. The crook on his back twisted and snapped. As he spoke, a maggot crawled out of a decaying spot on his arm and down towards his hand. The dog’s teeth sharpened and its fur darkened until Lalli found himself looking at a full-grown grey wolf.
  Lalli backed up until a sharp outgrowth of rock pushed against his back.
  “No, Reynir, don’t - don’t do this.”
  Reynir looked at him and grinned. His teeth were those of a wolf. He put one hand on Lalli’s chest and pushed. Lalli raised a fist and waited for the vines behind Reynir to do the same. Nothing happened, and he thought about the lynx running away from him with a sinking feeling. Reynir pushed him harder onto the rock and gritted his teeth. The wolf bit at his knee and a large chunk of meat came off in its mouth. Lalli screamed towards the sky. “Onni!”
  Reynir looked up apprehensively, then with glee. “Looks like Onni’s not coming.” With his remaining hand, he pulled the crook over his shoulder and held it against Lalli’s ribs. With a grunt, he pulled it back and slammed it into his chest. Bones cracked and embedded themselves in fleshy organs, and Lalli slumped over. Reynir threw the crook down onto the floor and left, the wolf following.
  After a few hours, Lalli hung there still.
  After a few days, Lalli hung there still.
  After a few years, Lalli hung there still.
  After an eternity, Lalli hung there still.

---
  He’s been sleeping for days now.


Spoiler: show
  I'm sorry my summary does not do whoever wrote the fic I'm thinking of justice. Also, first fic - It's not very good, and I've never been good at Gothic writing anyways, but it's been sitting at the back of my head for an eternity already and it's starting to be hard to concentrate in lectures.
  I think time in the dreamspace is dislocated, or you can read the last few paragraphs however you like.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on April 29, 2016, 06:25:28 AM
  I read through the entire thread over a course of three days, and I saw something that someone (I'm not sure who, I think it was OwlsG0?) posted a short fic about how Lalli thinks that Hel has to take someone from the team, and it's not going to be him, Tuuri or Emil.

Spoiler: show
  Coming up with a plan was easy. Actually doing the deed was hard.
  Reynir stood in front of him, just glad to be a part of the solution for whatever Lalli needed to do. As quietly as he could, he unsheathed his knife and hesitated. He was dead weight, and he was annoying, but he was still human. Half of his mind wanted to just do what needed to be done, but another part told him that he was no killer.
  I’m not the one killing him, Lalli told himself. Hel is.
  No, Lalli. Grandmother had walked up behind him without being noticed. Her brow was furrowed. Hel is a giver - she takes back what she has lent to us. Who are you to take from others?
  Perhaps Hel works through me, Lalli argued. Grandmother seems to have no answer to this and turns to gaze at the trees. Deers galloped - trolls were nearby. If Lalli was to do it, he had to do it now.
  His grip on knife tightened, and he walked behind Reynir, taking care not to step on a pine cone or a branch. His braid flew in the wind, and he could hear snatches of whistling from him, and his resolve failed for a moment. No. It’s either him or Emil, or gods forbid, Tuuri.
  Reynir turned around, suddenly alert. “Lalli?”
  The knife slid through his heart and he fell to his knees. He stared in shock at the blade protruding from his chest, and at Lalli. Hurt and confusion were present in his eyes, and Lalli looked away. Reynir tried to speak, but his punctured lungs wouldn’t let him. Crimson blood fell onto the fresh snow, and once more he looked at Lalli. And this time he couldn’t look away, and what he saw made him shiver.
  Hate and confusion had departed. Only anger was left.
  Reynir fell face-first into a puddle of his own blood, clearly dead. His braid brushed the ground aside his knees, as if reaching for Lalli. He stared at his bloody right hand, unable to believe that he had just killed Reynir.
  No - It wasn’t me. It wasn’t me. It was Hel.
  He repeated this line like a mantra as he dragged the deer corpse over to the clearing and put a bullet in its head. Any time now, the rest of the team would be coming over. Sure enough, Tuuri was the first one here, and she looked at Reynir’s unmoving form and Lalli’s shell-shocked face.
  “”Lalli? What happened?”
  “A beast came through.” He gestured to the deer. “It bit Reynir before I could do anything, and I stabbed Reynir.” His voice was emotionless and uninflected, but deep down he felt like screaming.
  Now Sigrun and Mikkel ran around and Tuuri started sobbing into her sleeve. Lalli didn’t touch her. Mikkel asked Tuuri what happened and she told them. Sigrun looked sombre and kicked the deer carcass away. She picked up the Icelander with both arms and shouted something to Mikkel and Emil, who was just arriving. They nodded and ran back to the tank.
  Tuuri was still weeping, and Lalli stood up. He was shivering.

---
  After burying Reynir, Sigrun was sitting next to Lalli. Everytime she looked at him, he felt like someone was gazing into his soul. Judging him. Damning him. At last, he muttered a muffled “good night” to the crying Tuuri and crawled under the bed.
  He tossed and turned, but couldn’t get to sleep. After a while, he stood up and broke the frozen surface of the pond behind them. The knife went into the pond.
  He slept restlessly.

---
  In his dream, he was sitting in the raft, surrounded by water. It was the same place he spent his time every night, except it wasn’t. The trees seemed just a bit too dark, the gaps between the leaves a bit too small, the water a bit too restless. A lynx padded out between two trees, and Lalli reached for him. Without warning, he hissed and turned to flee. Lalli stared in shock, then in resignment.
  He stood up and looked past the trees to where Reynir usually was. He wasn’t there, and neither was his dog. The sheep looked lost, and his crook was laid upon the rock that he sat on. Lalli swallowed and sat back down, looking at the canopy atop of him.
  It wasn’t me, It was Hel.
  He wished he could make himself believe it.
  He was a killer.
  He closed his eyes for a moment, and when he opened them, Reynir was standing in front of him, smiling. Although it looked genuine, it didn’t reach the eyes.
  Lalli stood up and backed against the rock wall behind him.
  “Reynir! Aren’t you - aren’t you -”
  “Dead?”
  Lalli nodded. His lips were dry and his fingers drummed nervously against stone.
  “I don’t think I’m dead. At least, I don’t feel dead, and he certainly doesn’t seem dead.” He pointed at the dog with his crook, who was growling at Lalli. Was it his imagination, or did the dog seem bigger?
  “Listen - Reynir. I didn’t want to do it. But Hel - you know who is Hel, right? - Hel always takes one soul to the underworld with her. But Emil and Tuuri can’t - die, right? And - Mikkel - is - well - the medic, and if Hel took his soul it would be bad for all of you, right? Right? - And Sigrun is the leader, so she can’t die either, right? Right?” As he talked, he was acutely aware of how their roles seemed reversed. Usually Reynir talked while Lalli listened, and now he talked while Reynir listened. The sheepdog growled at him, a deep throaty gurgle that sounded more like a wolf.
  “So you killed me because one of us would die anyways?” Reynir’s eyes burned into him. Blood spilled out of the front of his chest and stained his tunic. The crook on his back twisted and snapped. As he spoke, a maggot crawled out of a decaying spot on his arm and down towards his hand. The dog’s teeth sharpened and its fur darkened until Lalli found himself looking at a full-grown grey wolf.
  Lalli backed up until a sharp outgrowth of rock pushed against his back.
  “No, Reynir, don’t - don’t do this.”
  Reynir looked at him and grinned. His teeth were those of a wolf. He put one hand on Lalli’s chest and pushed. Lalli raised a fist and waited for the vines behind Reynir to do the same. Nothing happened, and he thought about the lynx running away from him with a sinking feeling. Reynir pushed him harder onto the rock and gritted his teeth. The wolf bit at his knee and a large chunk of meat came off in its mouth. Lalli screamed towards the sky. “Onni!”
  Reynir looked up apprehensively, then with glee. “Looks like Onni’s not coming.” With his remaining hand, he pulled the crook over his shoulder and held it against Lalli’s ribs. With a grunt, he pulled it back and slammed it into his chest. Bones cracked and embedded themselves in fleshy organs, and Lalli slumped over. Reynir threw the crook down onto the floor and left, the wolf following.
  After a few hours, Lalli hung there still.
  After a few days, Lalli hung there still.
  After a few years, Lalli hung there still.
  After an eternity, Lalli hung there still.

---
  He’s been sleeping for days now.


Spoiler: show
  I'm sorry my summary does not do whoever wrote the fic I'm thinking of justice. Also, first fic - It's not very good, and I've never been good at Gothic writing anyways, but it's been sitting at the back of my head for an eternity already and it's starting to be hard to concentrate in lectures.
  I think time in the dreamspace is dislocated, or you can read the last few paragraphs however you like.



Nope, not me. I did something like that a while back where Hel gets into Lalli's haven, but that went out the window when exam season rolled around. I don't know who did this, but I understand the confusion. I'm usually the one doing the weird and the creepy fics.

Anyway, welcome to the thread! Have you moseyed (I cannot believe that's how you spell that) on over to the intro thread to make yourself known? There will be welcome moose and cookies and possibly mead.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on April 29, 2016, 07:56:41 AM
Aaaaaaaand I'm back to philosophical rambling. Short early one, because I woke up early.

29. Happiness (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/15305893)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Aansero on April 29, 2016, 06:17:58 PM
Hello :) poking my head in nervously to say that I've joined the 100 prompt challenge, first chapter here:

http://archiveofourown.org/works/6688255

Emil takes an opportunity to introduce himself. Again.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Yuuago on April 29, 2016, 08:20:57 PM
Hello :) poking my head in nervously to say that I've joined the 100 prompt challenge, first chapter here:

http://archiveofourown.org/works/6688255

Emil takes an opportunity to introduce himself. Again.

< 3 Thanks for posting! Commented over there.

I haven't been able to read most of the challenge fics yet, so it's nice to be able to jump in and read one right when someone is starting. : D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on April 30, 2016, 06:28:25 AM
25: Trouble lurking http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/15326152

41: Teamwork http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/15326176

How Lalli's luonto got back to him. And, yes, I am shipping Emilalli through the proxy of their luontos. Spiritual fluff, I suppose?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on April 30, 2016, 06:50:46 AM
Hello :) poking my head in nervously to say that I've joined the 100 prompt challenge, first chapter here:

http://archiveofourown.org/works/6688255

Emil takes an opportunity to introduce himself. Again.

Great start, looking forward to reading more from you!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on April 30, 2016, 01:30:32 PM
Bent and Twisted
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/“Avatar: the Last Airbender” crossover fanfic
Part 4
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg103403#msg103403)
Spoiler: show
Numbers

One was the cat-tank, roving cross the land
Two were the non-immunes in the little band
Three were warriors brave and bold
Four were the Nations in times of old

Five were their origins
Six were their number
So many souls within
That crept up in their slumber

Ready to devour these intruders now
Ready to devour these intruders now


It was, of course, Reynir the Life-Bender who saw the Death-Shades coming first.

He had just turned to try to gently chide Emil (as much as you could chide someone whose language you don’t know) for lighting the tip of Reynir’s braid afire (though Lalli had immediately extinguished it, and there were times when Reynir himself would have gladly burned the whole thing off) when his attention was caught by something moving in the ever-deepening shadows.

The team of Exiles had had many close calls and even some injuries since Reynir had joined them, mostly through fighting off Reaving-Bent Horrors while trying to find more provender or in transit between campsites; but even so, they had been very lucky so far.

Reynir privately thought that most of their good fortune was due to the Spirits’ guidance, as invoked by Onni, the Air-Bending brother of Tuuri who’d communed with Reynir and Lalli in a dream when Reynir first joined the team.

In any case, all of them were predisposed to notice anything moving in their camp’s vicinity, so Reynir turned to give the stray motion his full attention. It was at this point that fear briefly paralyzed him; even his heart seemed to stop at the sight before him.

The approaching figures were tall, slender and utterly black--but they were also figures Reynir recognized from a dream he’d had just the night before. He’d been afraid then, but had tried to greet the shades politely enough.

In return, they’d sucked the life from him until he shattered like a porcelain figurine. This kind of thing tended to stick in one’s memory.

Tuuri had noticed his paralysis by now, and was trying to talk to him. With a supreme effort of will, Reynir made his frozen lips move. “We need to go... now!”

Tuuri didn’t believe him, of course, though he tried ever harder as the Death-Shades slowly advanced. It took Lalli’s scream as they struck him and the collapse of Sigrun and Mikkel for her to realize, “WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE!!!” (which was what Reynir had been trying to tell her all this time) and get their vehicle moving.

While Lalli screamed and pulled Emil by the hair into the relative safety of the light, Reynir turned to face the Death-Shades that were in their midst and attacking his friends. “G-go away!”

They turned their attention to him. “Please go away!”

Reynir could feel the life ebbing from his friends, and he instinctively started to Life-Bend, shoring up their vitality with his own, but it wasn’t enough. As the Death-Shades, sensing triumph at hand, pressed their attack home, Reynir cried out in desperation, “I need help! HELP!”

Just as Reynir was about to fall, everything seemed to pause.

“Air is the Element of Spirit; thus, to Air-Benders shall Spirits fall.” The ‘speaker’ was a vast and magnificent owl, crackling with power and both menacing and reassuring simultaneously in Reynir’s dazzled eyes.

The apparition hovered over the smothering sable bulk of the specter and told it, “You have no place here.

“Were you sired in Evil’s homeland
Or by words of corrupt person?

“Still by my word you shall collapse
Bend now to my will dark being
Out from this place go ye cruel one
Flee a-running evil creature!”


Power surged from the avian, rocking the vehicle and knocking the Death-Shade out from it, leaving it free of the ebony menace.

Reynir watched the owl fly away, in awe at its majesty.

Unobserved by any of its putative victims, the shreds of the Death-Shade slowly came to a stop and reformed. When its fellows joined it, they began the Stalking anew...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
Again, why am I doing this?

Oy.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on April 30, 2016, 07:35:07 PM
Bent and Twisted
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/“Avatar: the Last Airbender” crossover fanfic
Part 4
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg103403#msg103403)
Spoiler: show
snip


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
Again, why am I doing this?

Oy.


Because it needs to be done! And it needs you to do it! ;D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on April 30, 2016, 10:41:16 PM
Aaaaaaand I go from happy to sad. Again. I think this is becoming a pattern.

30. Under the Rain (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/15342409)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Talimee on May 01, 2016, 04:41:59 AM
Aaaaaaand I go from happy to sad. Again. I think this is becoming a pattern.

30. Under the Rain (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/15342409)

*happy sigh* Such a nice little story. But I have to respectfully disagree with your pattern. I find pensive Reynir, thinking about the sorrow and anxiety he is causing his parents (and the conclusion that nothing we do can change how we are made) way sadder than Emil realizing that he can help making things better in small ways.
Still, awesome stories! And many thanks for writing and sharing them. =)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Yuuago on May 01, 2016, 02:39:02 PM
Hmm... I haven't really been writing much SSSS lately. Well, here are two bite-sized bits of shippy flashfiction that I wrote while neglecting some responsibility or other:

01. "Silence makes it easier". 0+, 600 words. Emil/Lalli.
Summary: They'll return to civilization in the morning. But where will they go from here?
On Dreamwidth: http://roesslyng.dreamwidth.org/68979.html

02. "Soaked". 0+, 100 words. Emil/Lalli.
Summary: Lalli returns covered in blood. Emil is Concerned.
On Dreamwidth: http://roesslyng.dreamwidth.org/68254.html
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Pupunen on May 01, 2016, 03:11:59 PM
Hmm... I haven't really been writing much SSSS lately. Well, here are two bite-sized bits of shippy flashfiction that I wrote while neglecting some responsibility or other:

01. "Silence makes it easier". 0+, 600 words. Emil/Lalli.
Summary: They'll return to civilization in the morning. But where will they go from here?
On Dreamwidth: http://roesslyng.dreamwidth.org/68979.html

02. "Soaked". 0+, 100 words. Emil/Lalli.
Summary: Lalli returns covered in blood. Emil is Concerned.
On Dreamwidth: http://roesslyng.dreamwidth.org/68254.html

You should neglect your responsibilities more often, these were lovely to read! :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Aansero on May 01, 2016, 03:33:46 PM
Hmm... I haven't really been writing much SSSS lately. Well, here are two bite-sized bits of shippy flashfiction that I wrote while neglecting some responsibility or other:

01. "Silence makes it easier". 0+, 600 words. Emil/Lalli.
Summary: They'll return to civilization in the morning. But where will they go from here?
On Dreamwidth: http://roesslyng.dreamwidth.org/68979.html

02. "Soaked". 0+, 100 words. Emil/Lalli.
Summary: Lalli returns covered in blood. Emil is Concerned.
On Dreamwidth: http://roesslyng.dreamwidth.org/68254.html

Ooh, ouch : (  In 'Silence' – on one hand it's beautifully sad, but on the other I'm just loving how well you've worked in Emil's character development. 'Will you miss me?' vs. 'You'll miss me, of course,' is just perfect. And perfect levels of Emil faffing around whilst Lalli just stands there, very patiently allowing it, in 'Soaked' < 3
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on May 01, 2016, 05:57:53 PM
Hmm... I haven't really been writing much SSSS lately. Well, here are two bite-sized bits of shippy flashfiction that I wrote while neglecting some responsibility or other:

01. "Silence makes it easier". 0+, 600 words. Emil/Lalli.
Summary: They'll return to civilization in the morning. But where will they go from here?
On Dreamwidth: http://roesslyng.dreamwidth.org/68979.html

02. "Soaked". 0+, 100 words. Emil/Lalli.
Summary: Lalli returns covered in blood. Emil is Concerned.
On Dreamwidth: http://roesslyng.dreamwidth.org/68254.html

I absolutely love the first line of 'Silence makes it easier'. Beautiful piece of imagery. And the rest of it was as gorgeous and full of longing and heartbreak and gah it was all just perfect.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Yuuago on May 01, 2016, 07:08:08 PM
You should neglect your responsibilities more often, these were lovely to read! :)
Ooh, ouch : (  In 'Silence' – on one hand it's beautifully sad, but on the other I'm just loving how well you've worked in Emil's character development. 'Will you miss me?' vs. 'You'll miss me, of course,' is just perfect. And perfect levels of Emil faffing around whilst Lalli just stands there, very patiently allowing it, in 'Soaked' < 3
I absolutely love the first line of 'Silence makes it easier'. Beautiful piece of imagery. And the rest of it was as gorgeous and full of longing and heartbreak and gah it was all just perfect.

Thank you, all! < 3 The prompt generator did most of the work, I just fit things into place, heh. It was fun to explore something somewhat sad with those two.
(I can't say whether or not I will be neglecting my responsibilities more often - that sounds like kind of a bad idea, you know. ;p )
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on May 01, 2016, 07:30:40 PM
33: Expectations http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/15363364

Tuuri moves into a new apartment, but there's someone already living there. 'Deading there' might be a more appropriate statement.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Aansero on May 01, 2016, 07:44:40 PM
Chapter 2, Love, with Reynir:

http://archiveofourown.org/works/6688255/chapters/15353317
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Tr on May 01, 2016, 07:52:00 PM
OwlsG0, I love this. They would get along marvelously. Tuuri would have to unpack her stuff, and then Reynir would help.  ;D
Aansero, that made me smile. Wonderful.
And oh look, I wrote a really short, cute fic about what will happen when Lalli wakes up! I'd better put it up before the page~
Oh. Oops. Ah well.
Here, have this anyway.
Spoiler: show
Lalli opened his eyes. The weight holding them down had vanished. The hollowness in his chest, the empty space in his head, all gone. He was alert, alive, awake. He disentangled himself from the blankets, taking a deep breath of air that felt so fresh it almost sparkled.
He went to find Tuuri to tell her the good news. She was hunched over an old book, deep in concentration. Lalli stood quietly, waiting for her to notice him.
"Oh, hey, Lalli," she said, still focused on the book in front of her. "Listen, can you stop breathing down my neck for a minute? I need to finish translating this."
Lalli barely moved. Tuuri didn't appreciate how great the day had just become. He had returned, out of exhausted darkness. He was alive, no longer fading, or withering as his eyes sealed themselves shut and his mind deteriorated into dust. But Tuuri wouldn't look up, so he slipped like a shadow into the next room.
The next room was different. He felt someone looking at him.
Lalli glanced up, straight into Emil's astonished gaze. He saw the Swede's face become luminous, as a smile spread like a sunrise across it.
But Lalli wasn't concerned about Emil's face. There was a problem, and it was his friend's messy hair. Lalli knew Emil couldn't be properly happy without perfect hair.

At that moment, Emil couldn't care less about his hair. Nevertheless, the smile on his face shone as Lalli smoothed his hair back down, making sure each golden strand was in its proper place.
Lalli stepped back in front of him, and Emil thought he saw his friend smile. It was a small smile, but it lit his face. Like magic. Not that he believed in magic, or anything weird like that.
He might not believe in magic, but he believed in his friend, and he was glad Lalli had finally awoken.

Spoiler: authors note • show
Yep. I totally went overboard with the light symbolism. And augh, the page has been up for the last hour without me realizing! ;__;
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on May 01, 2016, 08:01:10 PM
OwlsG0, I love this. They would get along marvelously. Tuuri would have to unpack her stuff, and then Reynir would help.  ;D
Aansero, that made me smile. Wonderful.
And oh look, I wrote a really short, cute fic about what will happen when Lalli wakes up! I'd better put it up before the page~
Oh. Oops. Ah well.
Here, have this anyway.
Spoiler: show
Lalli opened his eyes. The weight holding them down had vanished. The hollowness in his chest, the empty space in his head, all gone. He was alert, alive, awake. He disentangled himself from the blankets, taking a deep breath of air that felt so fresh it almost sparkled.
He went to find Tuuri to tell her the good news. She was hunched over an old book, deep in concentration. Lalli stood quietly, waiting for her to notice him.
"Oh, hey, Lalli," she said, still focused on the book in front of her. "Listen, can you stop breathing down my neck for a minute? I need to finish translating this."
Lalli barely moved. Tuuri didn't appreciate how great the day had just become. He had returned, out of exhausted darkness. He was alive, no longer fading, or withering as his eyes sealed themselves shut and his mind deteriorated into dust. But Tuuri wouldn't look up, so he slipped like a shadow into the next room.
The next room was different. He felt someone looking at him.
Lalli glanced up, straight into Emil's astonished gaze. He saw the Swede's face become luminous, as a smile spread like a sunrise across it.
But Lalli wasn't concerned about Emil's face. There was a problem, and it was his friend's messy hair. Lalli knew Emil couldn't be properly happy without perfect hair.

At that moment, Emil couldn't care less about his hair. Nevertheless, the smile on his face shone as Lalli smoothed his hair back down, making sure each golden strand was in its proper place.
Lalli stepped back in front of him, and Emil thought he saw his friend smile. It was a small smile, but it lit his face. Like magic. Not that he believed in magic, or anything weird like that.
He might not believe in magic, but he believed in his friend, and he was glad Lalli had finally awoken.

Spoiler: authors note • show
Yep. I totally went overboard with the light symbolism. And augh, the page has been up for the last hour without me realizing! ;__;


I love how Tuuri just doesn't give a dang. Like 'oh welcome back from near-death cousin, now go away. I'm translating stuff'.
Emil on the other hand is over the moon. Cute as all get out!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on May 01, 2016, 09:29:38 PM
Here, have some fluff! And between two characters who haven't had a whole lot of interaction, too.

(You can blame Jureeya for this one. (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=35.msg105057#msg105057))

31. Flowers (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/15366409)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on May 02, 2016, 10:49:53 PM
I think I was kind of stuck for inspiration on this one.

32. Night (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/15391498)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Fogtreader on May 03, 2016, 03:46:30 PM
The Funny, Grotesque, Excitingly Scary Adventures of Freya and Lola on Balloon Island
A delightfully horrid bedtime story of blood, gore, poison, and torture; fun for all! That is if all are insane, cruel, diseased monstrosities.

This began from Disqus comments of page 508 featuring information about the sjodraug troll. The bloated abomination featured there was given the name “Balloon Island” by P_, whose post inferred that it was easily the stuff of nightmares. “Balloon Island” sounded to me like a magical land from a syrupy-sweet, children’s bedtime story. That made the name terrifyingly deceptive, as the island would actually be waiting to catch and devour any happy-go-lucky moppet who came near. Of course, if the child were already a misshapen creature of disease and madness, then this would actually be a fun place for them to visit. So I began to think about what would monster children do for fun, and before long, this twisted little tale rose up out of the ooze of the deep and dangerous pools of imagination. Disclaimer: This story contains scenes that may be inappropriate for uninfected children.

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/11927472/1/The-Funny-Grotesque-Excitingly-Scary-Adventures-of-Freya-and-Lola
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on May 03, 2016, 10:16:24 PM
Eternal Optimist vs. Professional Wet Blanket, GO!

33. Expectations (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/15411217)

...also this puts me roughly a third of the way through the challenge. Yay?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on May 04, 2016, 07:09:17 AM
46: Family http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/15417325

So I noticed Lalli and Hannu from aRTD have the same cheekbones. Kinda

13: Misfortune http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/15417307

In which Tuuri discovers talking about her trauma is cheaper than therapy
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Elleth on May 04, 2016, 05:10:21 PM
Title: Bit Less Awesome of a Plan
Author/Artist: Elleth
Characters and/or pairings: Sigrun, Emil (Sigrun/Emil if you squint)
Rating: Teens
Warnings: Canon-typical blood and gore, injury
Summary: Sigrun and Emil go book-hunting. Things go boom.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/6747523
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on May 04, 2016, 10:40:51 PM
Mages!

34. Stars (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/15432313)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Athena on May 05, 2016, 02:26:40 PM
Mages!

34. Stars (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/15432313)

Very good! :D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Juniper on May 05, 2016, 02:38:34 PM
46: Family http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/15417325

So I noticed Lalli and Hannu from aRTD have the same cheekbones. Kinda

13: Misfortune http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/15417307

In which Tuuri discovers talking about her trauma is cheaper than therapy
The first one is hecka similar to one I was gonna write where Hannu is Emil and Lalli's son. I commend you for seeing the resemblance as well. I was also gonna write Ville as Reynir and Tuuri's son. I'll probs still carry through and write it though, but I'll make an effort to make it as different from yours as possible :3

Also I've been meaning to ask whenever I see you around the forums, does your name happen to be a reference to the song by Architetecture in Helsinki ? If that's the case that's also be a hecka weird coincidence cuz I've also used song titles by them as usernames of forums before like 'Heart It Races' and shtuff
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Athena on May 05, 2016, 03:54:32 PM
46: Family http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/15417325

So I noticed Lalli and Hannu from aRTD have the same cheekbones. Kinda

Very good! I love this AU...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on May 05, 2016, 04:09:48 PM
The first one is hecka similar to one I was gonna write where Hannu is Emil and Lalli's son. I commend you for seeing the resemblance as well. I was also gonna write Ville as Reynir and Tuuri's son. I'll probs still carry through and write it though, but I'll make an effort to make it as different from yours as possible :3

Also I've been meaning to ask whenever I see you around the forums, does your name happen to be a reference to the song by Architetecture in Helsinki ? If that's the case that's also be a hecka weird coincidence cuz I've also used song titles by them as usernames of forums before like 'Heart It Races' and shtuff

Yep! That's the song! Love it. It's on repeat whenever I need to do a slightly sad piece of writing.
I'm glad I'm not the only one who's seeing the resemblance between Hannu and Lalli, though I never thought of Ville being related to anyone. Now that you mention it, chubby and red-headed, he could be Tuuri-Reynir spawn.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Juniper on May 05, 2016, 04:27:26 PM
Yep! That's the song! Love it. It's on repeat whenever I need to do a slightly sad piece of writing.
I'm glad I'm not the only one who's seeing the resemblance between Hannu and Lalli, though I never thought of Ville being related to anyone. Now that you mention it, chubby and red-headed, he could be Tuuri-Reynir spawn.

Yeah !! Plus with Ville's really positive / optimistic / happy-go-lucky attitude that really made me think of Reynir and Tuuri, like probably how a child raised by those two would behave.

And then there's Hannu . . not only does he look like Lalli with the cheek bones and his light blonde almost silvery hair, but it's mostly his personality that makes me feel like he's a good blend of Emil and Lalli. He's someone who strongly prefers his solitude and alone time like Lalli, but he's also pretty spoiled (as described in his bio) just like a certain Swede and as a result can be pretty, well, Hannu. I know I saw more personality similarities but it's been a while since I've read aRTD so I'd probs have to re-read it before writing anything.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on May 05, 2016, 05:29:23 PM
Yeah !! Plus with Ville's really positive / optimistic / happy-go-lucky attitude that really made me think of Reynir and Tuuri, like probably how a child raised by those two would behave.

And then there's Hannu . . not only does he look like Lalli with the cheek bones and his light blonde almost silvery hair, but it's mostly his personality that makes me feel like he's a good blend of Emil and Lalli. He's someone who strongly prefers his solitude and alone time like Lalli, but he's also pretty spoiled (as described in his bio) just like a certain Swede and as a result can be pretty, well, Hannu. I know I saw more personality similarities but it's been a while since I've read aRTD so I'd probs have to re-read it before writing anything.

Ville is exactly like a doggy Reynir! He's definitely the kind of person who grew up surrounded by love, and I'm sure any child of Tuuri and Reynir's would have nothing but a loving childhood. Maybe a bit of a magical childhood. Reynir's a mage, most of Tuuri's family are mages, so any kid of theirs would probably be magical enough to, I don't know, turn off their personal gravity and float around.

And Hannu as Emil and Lalli's child kind of works too. Emil's immediate instinct would be to spoil the child. But then I also kind of think Lalli would be a no-nonsense dad. If I were ever to consider a situation where Hannu was the kid and Lalli was the dad (though my head canon is vice versa, and pretty firmly established), I think they might butt heads. Lalli telling the kid not to be so stubborn because it's gonna make his life difficult. Hannu telling Lalli to stop trying to run his life. Emil stuck in between them like 'guys be nice'. I don't know, I feel like they'd love each other, but they'd clash a little bit for being so similar.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Juniper on May 05, 2016, 05:50:48 PM
Ville is exactly like a doggy Reynir! He's definitely the kind of person who grew up surrounded by love, and I'm sure any child of Tuuri and Reynir's would have nothing but a loving childhood. Maybe a bit of a magical childhood. Reynir's a mage, most of Tuuri's family are mages, so any kid of theirs would probably be magical enough to, I don't know, turn off their personal gravity and float around.

And Hannu as Emil and Lalli's child kind of works too. Emil's immediate instinct would be to spoil the child. But then I also kind of think Lalli would be a no-nonsense dad. If I were ever to consider a situation where Hannu was the kid and Lalli was the dad (though my head canon is vice versa, and pretty firmly established), I think they might butt heads. Lalli telling the kid not to be so stubborn because it's gonna make his life difficult. Hannu telling Lalli to stop trying to run his life. Emil stuck in between them like 'guys be nice'. I don't know, I feel like they'd love each other, but they'd clash a little bit for being so similar.

Ah yeah that's what I was thinking too !! I was also wondering how late into his life Lalli would work as a night scout because that could be a source of conflict too if Lalli was absent a lot as a parent because of his scouting duties. That'd also explain why even if Lalli was stricter in his parenting than Emil, Hannu would still turn out pretty spoiled if Lalli wasn't around a lot leaving a lot of the parenting to Emil who would really lack in disciplining and spoil quite a bit :P
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on May 05, 2016, 06:15:07 PM
Ah yeah that's what I was thinking too !! I was also wondering how late into his life Lalli would work as a night scout because that could be a source of conflict too if Lalli was absent a lot as a parent because of his scouting duties. That'd also explain why even if Lalli was stricter in his parenting than Emil, Hannu would still turn out pretty spoiled if Lalli wasn't around a lot leaving a lot of the parenting to Emil who would really lack in disciplining and spoil quite a bit :P

I hope Lalli wouldn't be an absent parent. I can kind of imagine him as the dad that wears his baby on his back to work, but not, you know, into dangerous zones. Just when he's helping to coordinate other scouts or something like that. And when Hannu is older he gets to tag along, provided he stays quiet and does everything he's told.
Emil would definitely spoil him though. And brag about him. He'd be inordinately pleased with his child, like 'look at what I made he is perfection'
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on May 05, 2016, 06:28:53 PM
81: Pen and paper http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/15448045

In which Mikkel is a secret agent and doesn't think he wants to be anymore.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Juniper on May 05, 2016, 07:33:06 PM
I hope Lalli wouldn't be an absent parent. I can kind of imagine him as the dad that wears his baby on his back to work, but not, you know, into dangerous zones. Just when he's helping to coordinate other scouts or something like that. And when Hannu is older he gets to tag along, provided he stays quiet and does everything he's told.
Emil would definitely spoil him though. And brag about him. He'd be inordinately pleased with his child, like 'look at what I made he is perfection'
Oh gosh that's so cute I can't handle that ö would you mind if I used that ?
Maybe not absent absent, but perhaps occupied with work a lot and therefor not around as much as Emil would like. During the winter when things are more calm he'll do the cute bringing Hanny around but during the summer during peak troll season he sure gets busy with work because he's high ranking and doing important work coordinating scout stuff and it's totally too dangerous to bring lil Hannu around. Lalli tries to compensate not being able to be around as much as he'd like by pushing Hannu to spend time with his second cousin Ville, thinking he'd be a good influence and isn't wrong.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Kiraly on May 05, 2016, 07:57:37 PM
*watches the conversation between Juniper and OwlsG0 with interest* I am SO HERE FOR THIS IDEA!!! OwlsG0 I loved your fic with Hannu as Lalli's dad (even though the Ville thing made me kinda sad) and Juniper I will be really excited to read this idea you're talking about if/when you write it. ^_^ Adventures of tiny Hannu and tiny Ville would be adorable no matter what, but add in those parent combinations...yep, sign me up, I will read it with glee.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on May 05, 2016, 08:51:07 PM
OwlsG0: loved your story! I've missed commenting here for a week, because Real Life is madly busy, but everyone's stories have been wonderful. Agree with you about Mikkel!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on May 05, 2016, 09:28:38 PM
*looks at next prompt*

Yep, this is a romance prompt if I ever saw a romance prompt.

*writes a gen fic*

35. Hold My Hand (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/15451432)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on May 06, 2016, 02:57:07 AM
Oh gosh that's so cute I can't handle that ö would you mind if I used that ?
Maybe not absent absent, but perhaps occupied with work a lot and therefor not around as much as Emil would like. During the winter when things are more calm he'll do the cute bringing Hanny around but during the summer during peak troll season he sure gets busy with work because he's high ranking and doing important work coordinating scout stuff and it's totally too dangerous to bring lil Hannu around. Lalli tries to compensate not being able to be around as much as he'd like by pushing Hannu to spend time with his second cousin Ville, thinking he'd be a good influence and isn't wrong.

Sure, go for it! I'll be interested to see what you come up with. Looks like, from the thread, there would be a lot of interest in where this headcanon can go.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on May 06, 2016, 04:09:47 AM
Oddly enough, another one about parent hood.

29: Happiness http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/15456658
Children are a blessing. The way they come into the world is what Sigrun takes issue with
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on May 06, 2016, 06:05:18 AM
Greatly amused by this. Your work gets better with every story!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on May 06, 2016, 10:28:23 PM
So would any writers here be interested in participating in a multimedia exchange (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=868.0)? Art for fic, fic for art?

Okay wow I'm tired. Link fixed.

Also adding the latest prompt, in which I resort to my usual fallback of philosophical musing:

36. Precious Treasure (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/15473356)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Kiraly on May 07, 2016, 01:31:19 AM
*careens into the thread* I should have gone to bed ages ago but instead I was caught up writing this, aaaaaaahhhh!

The Sixth Name (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6770980). Basically my reaction to page 516 (http://sssscomic.com/comic.php?page=516) and inspired by a conversation with a friend about how the cat has five names but Lalli might come up with a less-flattering name of his own for her. Also meets prompt challenge #23 - Cat.

Going to bed now...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Pupunen on May 07, 2016, 02:25:48 PM
Another short and silly fic written to relieve stress: http://archiveofourown.org/works/6774754
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: AquaAurion on May 07, 2016, 03:12:44 PM
Another short and silly fic written to relieve stress: http://archiveofourown.org/works/6774754
This is really sweet :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Athena on May 07, 2016, 05:40:39 PM
Another short and silly fic written to relieve stress: http://archiveofourown.org/works/6774754

Aww... Cute! just what I needed today! :D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on May 07, 2016, 10:20:43 PM
In which I expand on some speculation that was once bounced around the comments section.

37. Eyes (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/15493159)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Pupunen on May 08, 2016, 04:30:40 AM
This is really sweet :)

Aww... Cute! just what I needed today! :D

Thank you, I'm glad you liked it! :)

In which I expand on some speculation that was once bounced around the comments section.

37. Eyes (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/15493159)

I don't understand how you manage to write so much high-quality text so fast, but I really admire you for it!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on May 08, 2016, 07:07:03 AM
Here is the next chapter of the story about Tuuri finding a sauna, "The Heat of the Moment." 
Spoiler: "You Will Need Towels" • show
http://archiveofourown.org/works/6618553/chapters/15499870
Looks like it's going to be three chapters now.


In which Sigrun takes the plunge with Tuuri, and Lalli has a message for Reynir.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on May 08, 2016, 07:19:58 AM
Here is the next chapter of the story about Tuuri finding a sauna, "The Heat of the Moment." 
Spoiler: "You Will Need Towels" • show
http://archiveofourown.org/works/6618553/chapters/15499870
Looks like it's going to be three chapters now.


In which Sigrun takes the plunge with Tuuri, and Lalli has a message for Reynir.

This is such an adorable story. I'm really enjoying it- mainly because of Tuuri's enthusiasm for her saunas. She knows what she likes and she knows when she wants it.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on May 08, 2016, 07:39:36 AM
20: Fortitude http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/15500320
How Mikkel became a secret agent- which he now apparently is

19: Gray http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/15500344
Lalli sits on top of the tank for a few minutes in the early morning to think about whether or not he actually likes the people he is with.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on May 08, 2016, 07:22:02 PM
All this "Secret Agent Mikkel" stuff reminded me of this:

Mikkel’s Malmö Misadventures
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Part 2
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg91969#msg91969)
Spoiler: show
The First Frist Job

My name is Mikkel Madsen. I used to be a spy, until I decided to resign...

Most people have expectations of how their life will go, hence the common interview question, “Where do you see yourself in five years?”

And then reality steps in. Never would Mikkel have expected to wind up stuck in Malmö with his favorite berserker, the inimitable Sigrun Eide, her pyromaniac protégée Emil Västerström, his grifter friend Tuuri Hotakainen, her hacker/cat-burglar cousin Lalli, and a clueless intern named Reynir. If Mikkel had, he would have made suitable arrangements and been far, far away.

Of course, Mikkel’s current dour view of his plight might be ever so slightly prejudiced by the fact that he was hanging upside down rather more than ten stories in the air and fighting for his life.

It had been rather disconcerting for Mikkel to discover how many of his friends and acquaintances weren’t surprised at his predicament. However, their disinclination to help in all but the most minor ways possible was something Mikkel had anticipated.

“So, Sigrun,” Mikkel began casually as she was cleaning an old but well-kept MP40, “I seem to recall you had an uncle of sorts--Trond, was it?”

Sigrun flashed him a grin and kept cleaning. “Yep. Great guy. Throws me a bone every now and again, and I try to do the same.”

“So you have a way to get in touch with him at need.”

“Speed-dial number seven on my car phone. I’ll put the 5 krona per minute on your tab.”

*

“Ah, Mister Madsen.” The voice was the same one that had warned Mikkel to stay in Malmö. “I have been expecting your call. I hope I wasn’t too abrupt in our little chat earlier?”

“Why have you done this?” Mikkel fired back.

I have done nothing but act as an intermediary for certain, shall we say, friends of yours in various positions in various nations--friends who believe locking you away was a mistake, and a wasteful mistake at that. Thanks to them, you have the run of Malmö--and, if you’re willing, I can arrange for you to meet with certain, ah, needy folk of the type you enjoy assisting.”

Mikkel’s internal debate was rather brief. “I’m willing.” And ready to suss out whatever your real game is, he silently added.

*

The thug grappling with Mikkel reached back and pulled a hidden knife free from its sheath, but Mikkel, while not quite as adept as Sigrun, was still more than able enough to disarm the thug as they struggled at the end of the tethers keeping them from rudely splattering all over the pavement far below.

To be fair, this wasn’t actually Trond’s fault per se, but Mikkel thought that mysterious figure would make a good enough scapegoat for now. Certainly Trond himself wouldn’t object, so long as Mikkel continued to dance to Trond’s tune.

The thug got another few hits in, and Mikkel lost his train of thought in favor of seeing stars.

“EIDE-HO!” And Sigrun knocked the thug cold with one punch.

Mikkel was still trying to shake off the thug’s last few hits when Sigrun, still hanging upside down beside him and the unconscious thug, said, “Y’know, this little escapade hasn’t increased my assessment of your battling skills.” At Mikkel’s non-committal grunt, she continued, “And this whole lone wolf thing is kinda unnecessary. I talked to the guys and they’re fine with pitching in every now and again.”

“I’m not sure I want to get involved with whatever they’re doing,” Mikkel replied. “And the Hotakainens aren’t known to be the kind of people who do things out of the goodness of their hearts.”

“So you prefer hanging like this to taking a chance on them?”

Mikkel sighed and surrendered to the inevitable. “I presume Lalli already has the item for which I came?”

“Oh, yeah. He had it before I jumped. Apparently, you make a very good distraction.” Sigrun cocked her head. “Tuuri claims she could have had it delivered to you without all the fuss.”

“Given enough time, a good grifter can work wonders,” Mikkel said, beginning the long climb back to the roof, “and Tuuri is a very good grifter, but this had to be done tonight.”

“Trond didn’t leave you much wiggle room, then?” Sigrun pulled herself alongside Mikkel without apparent effort.

“He already knows what I can do: this job is a compliance test, not an audition.” Mikkel paused to huff and puff a bit. “Trond needs to know I’ll toe the line he draws for me. I need to know he won’t cross the line I’ve drawn. Once we understand each other, we’ll be okay.”

“Sounds like a plan that’d work for the Hotakainens, too. Or are you really ready to trust Trond more than them?”

Mikkel sighed, though his heavy breathing made it hard to tell. “You already made your point there, Sigrun. I’ll give them a chance.”

They finally reached the roof, where Lalli was patiently awaiting them...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
I don’t think they’ll be taking away his name anytime soon, though.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Tr on May 08, 2016, 07:36:16 PM
All this "Secret Agent Mikkel" stuff reminded me of this:

Mikkel’s Malmö Misadventures
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Part 2
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg91969#msg91969)
Spoiler: show
The First Frist Job

My name is Mikkel Madsen. I used to be a spy, until I decided to resign...

Most people have expectations of how their life will go, hence the common interview question, “Where do you see yourself in five years?”

And then reality steps in. Never would Mikkel have expected to wind up stuck in Malmö with his favorite berserker, the inimitable Sigrun Eide, her pyromaniac protégée Emil Västerström, his grifter friend Tuuri Hotakainen, her hacker/cat-burglar cousin Lalli, and a clueless intern named Reynir. If Mikkel had, he would have made suitable arrangements and been far, far away.

Of course, Mikkel’s current dour view of his plight might be ever so slightly prejudiced by the fact that he was hanging upside down rather more than ten stories in the air and fighting for his life.

It had been rather disconcerting for Mikkel to discover how many of his friends and acquaintances weren’t surprised at his predicament. However, their disinclination to help in all but the most minor ways possible was something Mikkel had anticipated.

“So, Sigrun,” Mikkel began casually as she was cleaning an old but well-kept MP40, “I seem to recall you had an uncle of sorts--Trond, was it?”

Sigrun flashed him a grin and kept cleaning. “Yep. Great guy. Throws me a bone every now and again, and I try to do the same.”

“So you have a way to get in touch with him at need.”

“Speed-dial number seven on my car phone. I’ll put the 5 krona per minute on your tab.”

*

“Ah, Mister Madsen.” The voice was the same one that had warned Mikkel to stay in Malmö. “I have been expecting your call. I hope I wasn’t too abrupt in our little chat earlier?”

“Why have you done this?” Mikkel fired back.

I have done nothing but act as an intermediary for certain, shall we say, friends of yours in various positions in various nations--friends who believe locking you away was a mistake, and a wasteful mistake at that. Thanks to them, you have the run of Malmö--and, if you’re willing, I can arrange for you to meet with certain, ah, needy folk of the type you enjoy assisting.”

Mikkel’s internal debate was rather brief. “I’m willing.” And ready to suss out whatever your real game is, he silently added.

*

The thug grappling with Mikkel reached back and pulled a hidden knife free from its sheath, but Mikkel, while not quite as adept as Sigrun, was still more than able enough to disarm the thug as they struggled at the end of the tethers keeping them from rudely splattering all over the pavement far below.

To be fair, this wasn’t actually Trond’s fault per se, but Mikkel thought that mysterious figure would make a good enough scapegoat for now. Certainly Trond himself wouldn’t object, so long as Mikkel continued to dance to Trond’s tune.

The thug got another few hits in, and Mikkel lost his train of thought in favor of seeing stars.

“EIDE-HO!” And Sigrun knocked the thug cold with one punch.

Mikkel was still trying to shake off the thug’s last few hits when Sigrun, still hanging upside down beside him and the unconscious thug, said, “Y’know, this little escapade hasn’t increased my assessment of your battling skills.” At Mikkel’s non-committal grunt, she continued, “And this whole lone wolf thing is kinda unnecessary. I talked to the guys and they’re fine with pitching in every now and again.”

“I’m not sure I want to get involved with whatever they’re doing,” Mikkel replied. “And the Hotakainens aren’t known to be the kind of people who do things out of the goodness of their hearts.”

“So you prefer hanging like this to taking a chance on them?”

Mikkel sighed and surrendered to the inevitable. “I presume Lalli already has the item for which I came?”

“Oh, yeah. He had it before I jumped. Apparently, you make a very good distraction.” Sigrun cocked her head. “Tuuri claims she could have had it delivered to you without all the fuss.”

“Given enough time, a good grifter can work wonders,” Mikkel said, beginning the long climb back to the roof, “and Tuuri is a very good grifter, but this had to be done tonight.”

“Trond didn’t leave you much wiggle room, then?” Sigrun pulled herself alongside Mikkel without apparent effort.

“He already knows what I can do: this job is a compliance test, not an audition.” Mikkel paused to huff and puff a bit. “Trond needs to know I’ll toe the line he draws for me. I need to know he won’t cross the line I’ve drawn. Once we understand each other, we’ll be okay.”

“Sounds like a plan that’d work for the Hotakainens, too. Or are you really ready to trust Trond more than them?”

Mikkel sighed, though his heavy breathing made it hard to tell. “You already made your point there, Sigrun. I’ll give them a chance.”

They finally reached the roof, where Lalli was patiently awaiting them...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
I don’t think they’ll be taking away his name anytime soon, though.

EIDE-HO!!!!
I love this, it is the most best epic spy shenanigans.  ;D ;D Do please continue.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on May 08, 2016, 09:53:50 PM
In which I post a chapter that's already been Jossed. Oh well.

38. Abandon (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/15517318)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on May 09, 2016, 06:02:08 AM
55: Waiting http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/15524518

When it seems like Lalli will never either be interested in companionship or have the chance at it, Onni has to cross his fingers, hope for the best, and settle in for the long wait.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on May 09, 2016, 06:56:27 AM
And...the third and last chapter of the story of Tuuri's sauna.
Spoiler: "Heat Rises" • show
http://archiveofourown.org/works/6618553/chapters/15524788
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Juniper on May 09, 2016, 11:45:06 AM
55: Waiting http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/15524518

When it seems like Lalli will never either be interested in companionship or have the chance at it, Onni has to cross his fingers, hope for the best, and settle in for the long wait.

*high fives for good use of family head canons* :3c
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Kiraly on May 09, 2016, 12:40:36 PM
55: Waiting http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/15524518

When it seems like Lalli will never either be interested in companionship or have the chance at it, Onni has to cross his fingers, hope for the best, and settle in for the long wait.

EEEEE!!!! I'll leave a more coherent comment on AO3 later (maybe...it might not be more coherent, there's a lot of adorable screaming going on in my head right now) but I love this to pieces.

Also...I forgot until now that I never posted this anywhere, but your "Eyes" fic inspired me to draw this:
Spoiler: show

(https://67.media.tumblr.com/9e97614a4543340bd51a5f873fa6ff6a/tumblr_o6x4q5kJiS1qjas7jo1_540.jpg)
I don't know how to draw babies but OH WELL.


There are so many good fics in here right now I don't even know what to do, I'll try to get back and leave individual feedback but for now hugs for everyone!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Ragnarok on May 09, 2016, 12:47:10 PM
55: Waiting http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/15524518

When it seems like Lalli will never either be interested in companionship or have the chance at it, Onni has to cross his fingers, hope for the best, and settle in for the long wait.

This pleases the Fic Gods
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on May 09, 2016, 04:32:14 PM
EEEEE!!!! I'll leave a more coherent comment on AO3 later (maybe...it might not be more coherent, there's a lot of adorable screaming going on in my head right now) but I love this to pieces.

Also...I forgot until now that I never posted this anywhere, but your "Eyes" fic inspired me to draw this:
Spoiler: show

(https://67.media.tumblr.com/9e97614a4543340bd51a5f873fa6ff6a/tumblr_o6x4q5kJiS1qjas7jo1_540.jpg)
I don't know how to draw babies but OH WELL.


There are so many good fics in here right now I don't even know what to do, I'll try to get back and leave individual feedback but for now hugs for everyone!

I'm just going to casually frame this and put this on my fan art altar. I may be laughing like a certain psychotic pyromaniac while I do it. I may not be.
Kirlaly you are beautiful and so is your fan art and thanks for doing this it's awesome
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on May 09, 2016, 10:09:21 PM
Here, have some Reynir introspection.

39. Dreams (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/15540130)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Tr on May 10, 2016, 07:08:21 AM
Reconciliation
Or Mikkel Fixes Everything

Yes, this is an "Emil and Lalli forgive each other" fic. I thought it had to be done, and none of you could stop me! *maniacal laughter*

Please enjoy Mikkel fulfilling his role as Team Dad.
Spoiler: show
Lalli wasn't going to say it. It didn't matter. No one would understand him anyway. He didn't care. They were all stupid. Stupid Emil with his stupidly fluffy hair and his stupid language. Gibberish that made since to everyone but Lalli.
No, Lalli wouldn't say it. Not out loud, not in his head, not in his dreams which were supposed to be safe but weren't, thanks to the stupid redhead. He would never admit he was lonely.
He had curled up back under the blankets in the tank, looking like he had never woken up at all. He faced the wall, glaring resentfully any time Tuuri got too close.
Tuuri knew not to disturb him while he was sulking. She tiptoed around him, looking apprehensive every time her foot fell close to his face. Then they needed him to scout.
He told Tuuri he wasn't sure if he wanted to. She reminded him that it was his job and he had to. Then she got angry. Was he too stupid and sulky to do his job?
He got up without a word, pulling on his uniform, not making eye contact with anyone. Then he left, silent as a shadow.
Emil didn't watch him go.

Tuuri sighed. "I was afraid he would do this," she said.
"What, does he do it often?" Sigrun asked, seeming somewhat alarmed.
"Well, sometimes," Tuuri admitted, "but it's rarely this bad. I could barely get him up to go scout, usually he jumps at a chance to get away from people. I wonder why he's so miserable." Tuuri looked at Sigrun hopefully, wishing the capable captain knew what to do. Sigrun glanced at Mikkel, and Emil stared at the floor.
Sigrun opened her mouth and bit into the growing silence. "Hey Emil, can I talk to you for a minute?"
Mikkel looked concerned. "Oh, here we go."
Sigrun glared. "Well if you're so smart,"
Mikkel stood up. "I'm so glad you think so. Emil, come on."
Emil followed Mikkel out of the tank, looking so grumpy that dark clouds were almost visible above his head.
Mikkel took a deep breath, trying to remember what he must not say in a "friendship is precious" speech. He must not be sarcastic. He must not make puns. He must be very, very careful about suggesting that since they both clearly liked each other, all this tension and angst was totally pointless.
"Emil," he began. "I know you're probably angry with Lalli for smashing food in your face."
Emil didn't say anything. Mikkel took this as a good sign. "But when you're older, you WILL realize that true friendship doesn't happen every day." Mikkel didn't quite know where he was going with this. Should he follow it up by saying that he was older and wiser than Emil and the hapless cleanser should do as he said? Probably not.
"You saw how lonely Lalli looked. He wouldn't even look at you." Mikkel realized this might not actually be true. Emil rarely saw past his glittery cloud of golden hair.
"And he was almost too grumpy to scout, which is a pretty big problem. You two should probably forgive each other if you want to survive out here."
"With all due respect, Sigrun," Mikkel said, "please shut up, you aren't helping." Sigrun retreated back into the tank. Mikkel  smirked slightly at the look on Emil's face when he suggested Lalli might be lonely.
"You really think he's lonely?" Emil's voice was still sullen, but he was making eye contact. That was good.
"Yes, of course. He is clearly miserable." Mikkel stared straight into Emil's turquoise eyes, which had started to fill with anxiety rather than angst. "We both know there's only one person who can fix that. It isn't me or Sigrun or Tuuri. And it certainly isn't Reynir."
"Lalli's kind of a jerk," Emil said uncertainly.
"I know. But how would you act if no one understood the language you speak?" Mikkel fought to keep the smug grin off his face as he watched Emil's empathy working against the Swede's irritated silence.
Emil turned suddenly and walked back off into the tank, muttering under his breath. Mikkel caught the words, "stupid," "lonely," and "don't care."
Mikkel smirked. His master plan was working beautifully.
Sigrun stared at him. "What did you do?"
"I fixed everything, of course." Mikkel brushed past her, walking back into the Cattank. "Just wait until our scout gets back. It might take a few hours, but everything will be back to normal."
Sigrun gave him a suspicious look. "I still have you on the mutiny list, you know."
"I know," Mikkel said.

Emil had a restless night. When Lalli scratched on the door in the early hours of the morning, he was still awake.
The scout looked around. Everyone was just waking up. Mikkel sprayed his hair with disinfectant as he stripped off his uniform and dived for the space under the bed.
Mikkel sighed and stared pointedly at Emil. Then he went outside to do the laundry, Reynir bouncing eagerly behind him.
For a while, nothing happened. Everyone went about their daily business. Then Lalli became aware of a warm presence near the back of his head. He curled up into a ball and ignored it, hoping it might go away.
But it didn't. It stayed there.
Lalli turned around. Emil was there, with bowls of soup. He didn't speak. He just gently slid a bowl over to Lalli.
Lalli was going to go back to sleep, he really was. But he was hungry, and cold, and the soup was warm. So he picked up the spoon and munched very discreetly in the hope that no one would notice his change of heart.
Emil wasn't going to smile. He was still angry. But his mouth seemed to have the definite intention of disobeying his brain.
He thought he might have seen Lalli smile too, in between spoonfuls of warm soup.

Spoiler: author commentary • show
Well, the page was so sad and Lalli was such an angsty jerk that someone had to write a fluffy fic about it, riiiiiight? Oh and! I thought I had better write it quickly, before the next page comes up. ^-^
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Ragnarok on May 10, 2016, 07:11:08 AM
Reconciliation
Or Mikkel Fixes Everything

Yes, this is an "Emil and Lalli forgive each other" fic. I thought it had to be done, and none of you could stop me! *maniacal laughter*

Please enjoy Mikkel fulfilling his role as Team Dad.
Spoiler: show
Lalli wasn't going to say it. It didn't matter. No one would understand him anyway. He didn't care. They were all stupid. Stupid Emil with his stupidly fluffy hair and his stupid language. Gibberish that made since to everyone but Lalli.
No, Lalli wouldn't say it. Not out loud, not in his head, not in his dreams which were supposed to be safe but weren't, thanks to the stupid redhead. He would never admit he was lonely.
He had curled up back under the blankets in the tank, looking like he had never woken up at all. He faced the wall, glaring resentfully any time Tuuri got too close.
Tuuri knew not to disturb him while he was sulking. She tiptoed around him, looking apprehensive every time her foot fell close to his face. Then they needed him to scout.
He told Tuuri he wasn't sure if he wanted to. She reminded him that it was his job and he had to. Then she got angry. Was he too stupid and sulky to do his job?
He got up without a word, pulling on his uniform, not making eye contact with anyone. Then he left, silent as a shadow.
Emil didn't watch him go.

Tuuri sighed. "I was afraid he would do this," she said.
"What, does he do it often?" Sigrun asked, seeming somewhat alarmed.
"Well, sometimes," Tuuri admitted, "but it's rarely this bad. I could barely get him up to go scout, usually he jumps at a chance to get away from people. I wonder why he's so miserable." Tuuri looked at Sigrun hopefully, wishing the capable captain knew what to do. Sigrun glanced at Mikkel, and Emil stared at the floor.
Sigrun opened her mouth and bit into the growing silence. "Hey Emil, can I talk to you for a minute?"
Mikkel looked concerned. "Oh, here we go."
Sigrun glared. "Well if you're so smart,"
Mikkel stood up. "I'm so glad you think so. Emil, come on."
Emil followed Mikkel out of the tank, looking so grumpy that dark clouds were almost visible above his head.
Mikkel took a deep breath, trying to remember what he must not say in a "friendship is precious" speech. He must not be sarcastic. He must not make puns. He must be very, very careful about suggesting that since they both clearly liked each other, all this tension and angst was totally pointless.
"Emil," he began. "I know you're probably angry with Lalli for smashing food in your face."
Emil didn't say anything. Mikkel took this as a good sign. "But when you're older, you WILL realize that true friendship doesn't happen every day." Mikkel didn't quite know where he was going with this. Should he follow it up by saying that he was older and wiser than Emil and the hapless cleanser should do as he said? Probably not.
"You saw how lonely Lalli looked. He wouldn't even look at you." Mikkel realized this might not actually be true. Emil rarely saw past his glittery cloud of golden hair.
"And he was almost too grumpy to scout, which is a pretty big problem. You two should probably forgive each other if you want to survive out here."
"With all due respect, Sigrun," Mikkel said, "please shut up, you aren't helping." Sigrun retreated back into the tank. Mikkel  smirked slightly at the look on Emil's face when he suggested Lalli might be lonely.
"You really think he's lonely?" Emil's voice was still sullen, but he was making eye contact. That was good.
"Yes, of course. He is clearly miserable." Mikkel stared straight into Emil's turquoise eyes, which had started to fill with anxiety rather than angst. "We both know there's only one person who can fix that. It isn't me or Sigrun or Tuuri. And it certainly isn't Reynir."
"Lalli's kind of a jerk," Emil said uncertainly.
"I know. But how would you act if no one understood the language you speak?" Mikkel fought to keep the smug grin off his face as he watched Emil's empathy working against the Swede's irritated silence.
Emil turned suddenly and walked back off into the tank, muttering under his breath. Mikkel caught the words, "stupid," "lonely," and "don't care."
Mikkel smirked. His master plan was working beautifully.
Sigrun stared at him. "What did you do?"
"I fixed everything, of course." Mikkel brushed past her, walking back into the Cattank. "Just wait until our scout gets back. It might take a few hours, but everything will be back to normal."
Sigrun gave him a suspicious look. "I still have you on the mutiny list, you know."
"I know," Mikkel said.

Emil had a restless night. When Lalli scratched on the door in the early hours of the morning, he was still awake.
The scout looked around. Everyone was just waking up. Mikkel sprayed his hair with disinfectant as he stripped off his uniform and dived for the space under the bed.
Mikkel sighed and stared pointedly at Emil. Then he went outside to do the laundry, Reynir bouncing eagerly behind him.
For a while, nothing happened. Everyone went about their daily business. Then Lalli became aware of a warm presence near the back of his head. He curled up into a ball and ignored it, hoping it might go away.
But it didn't. It stayed there.
Lalli turned around. Emil was there, with bowls of soup. He didn't speak. He just gently slid a bowl over to Lalli.
Lalli was going to go back to sleep, he really was. But he was hungry, and cold, and the soup was warm. So he picked up the spoon and munched very discreetly in the hope that no one would notice his change of heart.
Emil wasn't going to smile. He was still angry. But his mouth seemed to have the definite intention of disobeying his brain.
He thought he might have seen Lalli smile too, in between spoonfuls of warm soup.

Spoiler: author commentary • show
Well, the page was so sad and Lalli was such an angsty jerk that someone had to write a fluffy fic about it, riiiiiight?


Yeeeesssss....
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on May 10, 2016, 07:23:43 AM
38: Abandon http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/15547180

It's that moment where you forget someone at a gas station, except the gas station is a troll-infested post-apocalyptic horror land.
(something I wrote on 'Scenes we'd like to see' which people wanted turned into a fic, so I also made it a prompt)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Kelpie on May 10, 2016, 03:25:11 PM
Quote from: "OwlsG0'
It's that moment where you forget someone at a gas station, except the gas station is a troll-infested post-apocalyptic horror land.

Why did I have to read that while I was drinking something? You almost made me spew coke on my chemistry book! XD
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Tr on May 10, 2016, 05:00:03 PM
38: Abandon http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/15547180

It's that moment where you forget someone at a gas station, except the gas station is a troll-infested post-apocalyptic horror land.
(something I wrote on 'Scenes we'd like to see' which people wanted turned into a fic, so I also made it a prompt)
YES you turned it into a fic! Heheheh, awesome. Poor Emil :P
Yeeeesssss....
Thank you   ;D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on May 10, 2016, 10:11:46 PM
Hm, I don't think I've been writing enough Sigrun lately... gotta go fix that...

40. Dragons (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/15562294)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on May 11, 2016, 08:30:11 AM
53: Keeping a secret http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/15569632

They both have red hair. They both laugh the same way. Sigrun and Reynir are definitely not related. Probably. Mikkel just wants to check, alright?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Athena on May 11, 2016, 11:35:48 AM
53: Keeping a secret http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/15569632

They both have red hair. They both laugh the same way. Sigrun and Reynir are definitely not related. Probably. Mikkel just wants to check, alright?

This is a most best head canon and I love it! :D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Juniper on May 11, 2016, 03:31:30 PM
53: Keeping a secret http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/15569632

They both have red hair. They both laugh the same way. Sigrun and Reynir are definitely not related. Probably. Mikkel just wants to check, alright?
Can I just say I love the way you write Mikkel in all of your fanfics ? You do such a perfect job of capturing his dead pan humor it's marvelous :3
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on May 11, 2016, 07:12:14 PM
Second that! I love your Mikkel. And truly great headcanon. I remember being a bit disappointed when Minna said that Sigrun had no children, but she said nothing about Sigrun's mother.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on May 11, 2016, 11:05:46 PM
I would have liked to add more to this. But it's late, and I have a headache.

41. Teamwork (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/15584248)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Talimee on May 12, 2016, 07:32:46 PM
I would have liked to add more to this. But it's late, and I have a headache.

I second this. -.-
You guys are amazing and I am in awe at the speed and professionalism of your writing. I thoroughly enjoy reading your challenge-chapters, Lazy8 and OwlsG0.

I am not done with this challenge, yet, but my writer-juices have all dried up apparently. I managed squeeze out a very short story today, nevertheless. More in the notes of the chapter. =) Enjoy (and excuse the horrible squeezing pun)

Prompt: 67 – Home (instead of Playing the Melody)
Summary: Finally in possession of what he had lost in his youth he cannot bring himself to face the possibility of illusions.
Pairing: Emil Västerström/Lalli Hotakainen
Characters: Emil Västerström, Lalli Hotakainen
Setting: Östersund, Västerström family residence
Rating: none
Warnings: none
Tags: nervous fretting

Home (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6440122/chapters/15600697)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on May 12, 2016, 10:49:38 PM
In which I bring you The Ultimate Answer.

...okay, not really.

42. Standing Still (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/15604399)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on May 13, 2016, 02:59:56 AM
52: Deep in thought http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/15607840

In which Sigrun reflects on how much older she is than her friends. And in which said friends are utterly useless in helping with the slight emotional crisis.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Juniper on May 13, 2016, 04:09:26 AM
52: Deep in thought http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/15607840

In which Sigrun reflects on how much older she is than her friends. And in which said friends are utterly useless in helping with the slight emotional crisis.
The way you wrote their personalities is just perfect and exactly how I'd imagine each of them would be like in a modern AU aaaah good job c:
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Kelpie on May 13, 2016, 11:22:47 PM
Quote from: OwlsG0
52: Deep in thought http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/15607840

In which Sigrun reflects on how much older she is than her friends. And in which said friends are utterly useless in helping with the slight emotional crisis.
Oh my gosh that is probably my favorite thing to come out of anyone's 100 prompt challenge. :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on May 13, 2016, 11:47:24 PM
Summary of this chapter: I make people cry.

43. Dying (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/15625873)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Kelpie on May 14, 2016, 12:03:58 AM
Quote from: Lazy8
Summary of this chapter: I make people cry.

43. Dying
Me: I can handle it, *clicks*

*gets to Lalli* man there's dust in here or something.

*get to Reynir* why is my throat closing up what is this.

*finishes*
*single tear glides down cheek*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Excavatrice on May 14, 2016, 03:33:15 PM
My first fanfic in this fandom:
(Also - my first post in this forum. Hope I'm doing it right)
http://archiveofourown.org/works/6850762
 The third wanderer says nothing
A little Onni drabble.
Onni has no need of worldly possessions, but the Vesterströms tell him to buy a spare set of clothes.

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Tr on May 14, 2016, 07:05:20 PM
My first fanfic in this fandom:
(Also - my first post in this forum. Hope I'm doing it right)
http://archiveofourown.org/works/6850762
 The third wanderer says nothing
A little Onni drabble.
Onni has no need of worldly possessions, but the Vesterströms tell him to buy a spare set of clothes.


(https://36.media.tumblr.com/9562351102ba2e50a87c702fec48d688/tumblr_inline_nll1cqYDuY1r2g2kx_500.png)
This is amazing and great!!!
And welcome to the Forum! Would you like to say hi in the Introduction Thread (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=131.2340) so we can welcome you properly (as in, with cookies and confetti)?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on May 14, 2016, 09:31:31 PM
Excavatrice, that was good! Hope you will write more.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on May 14, 2016, 09:40:38 PM
Just out of curiosity, would anyone be interested in a Eurovision fic? Say, the team in a modern setting, watching the second semi-final and the finals from just last night? Wondering whether or not I should write this.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Tr on May 14, 2016, 09:51:42 PM
Just out of curiosity, would anyone be interested in a Eurovision fic? Say, the team in a modern setting, watching the second semi-final and the finals from just last night? Wondering whether or not I should write this.
YES WRITE THIS YES
(http://i1375.photobucket.com/albums/ag444/Fimbulvarg/ship1_zpsnszhvrjt.png)
*ahem* I would love to see their reactions. Please write this.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on May 14, 2016, 11:02:16 PM
Mortal enemies!

44. Hate (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/15645931)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on May 15, 2016, 12:57:48 AM
Nice, Lazy8, both funny and touching. Effective evocation of the ongoing theme of communication problems!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on May 15, 2016, 02:00:58 AM
Lazy8, good one!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on May 15, 2016, 07:31:26 AM
73: I can't http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/15652267

In which Emil can't find the right way to say goodbye to Lalli, but Lalli has thought of the right way to say goodbye to Emil.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Maggs on May 15, 2016, 04:42:38 PM
Me: I can handle it, *clicks*

*gets to Lalli* man there's dust in here or something.

*get to Reynir* why is my throat closing up what is this.

*finishes*
*single tear glides down cheek*

Same. Can't. Dying. What is this pain!?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on May 15, 2016, 08:23:22 PM
Hark! Do I hear the sound of the William Tell Overture in the distance?

No?

Well, have this instead:

The Good, the Bad, and the Bestial
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/Western crossover fanfic
Part 26
Caper the 4th: The Madsen Connection
Part 1
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg94970#msg94970)
Spoiler: show
You Can Bank On It

Sigrun usually loved a good heist, but this one was beginning to smell like a set-up. Not only were they supposed to rob a specific shipment from a specific bank on a specific day at a specific time; not only were there more and more guards drifting into the area as the appointed time drew near; not only were the locals edgy and nervous, as though they were expecting trouble; but on top of all that, Doc Mikkel, the only one of them whose size made him stick out in a crowd, was getting far too many of the very worst kind of looks: the kind that said, “I’ve seen you on a WANTED poster, haven’t I?”

All in all, every instinct Sigrun had was screaming at her to pull the plug on this heist. One stint in the hoosegow had been one too many already in her book, and she was certain the others agreed.

Sigrun dropped her armload of stuff in the prearranged “abort” signal, using the ensuing hubbub to cover the others’ exits before making her own way out of the bank.

“Miss Eide?”

Sigrun had almost caught up to Doc Mikkel when she heard the call. Immediately deciding to brazen it out, she spun on her heels, saying in her deepest of Deep Southern accents, “I do not believe I have made your acquaintance, sir, and I am certain I never gave you permission to address me so freely. However, I am Ida Hornsby. Is there some assistance I may render?”

Confronted not with a criminal of shady and duplicitous mien but with a seemingly forthright lady of propriety who looked him straight in the eyes unhesitatingly, the man, actually the bank’s assistant manager, made haste to back down. “I’m terribly sorry, ma’am. I mistook you for someone else--a terrible habit of mine.”

Sigrun paused just long enough for the assistant manager to start sweating before graciously inclining her head and exiting the bank, her air one of affronted yet regal dignity.

*

“They knew we were coming,” Sigrun growled back in their wagon. “And not just that: they knew we were coming.”

“Should I get on the telegraph back to headquarters so they can find out how?” Tuuri asked, her eyes wide.

Sigrun’s face darkened further. “No. I think this necessitates a visit in person.”

Emil jerked his head up. “We’re headed back to Milwaukee?”

“Yep. Have Reynir hitch up the horses and be ready to move out before dawn.”

“It’ll take at least a week; maybe two,” Lalli observed. “Have we got enough grub to last, if’n we need to steer clear of trouble?”

“As to that,” Doc Mikkel replied before Sigrun could say anything, “I have some... connections en route who may be able to be of assistance to us in that regard.” He looked at Sigrun. “I also have a few such in Milwaukee itself who may prove useful, if we are undertaking the endeavor I suspect.”

“If you suspect we’re going after Uncle Trond to see why he set us up,” Sigrun paused significantly, “you’re quite correct.”

“Oh, boy,” Emil said under his breath. He hadn’t seen much of the old man, but what he had had left him with the impression that Trond Andersen was not a man to be trifled with. But then, neither was their little band...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
So the fourth caper begins.

Is it just me, or do I have a few too many of these WIPs?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on May 15, 2016, 08:38:38 PM
I enjoy them enough to wait while the chapters piece themselves together. And Sigrun as an affronted Southern belle...love it!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on May 15, 2016, 10:56:17 PM
Oh, Emil and his denial.

45. Illusion (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/15671812)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Bouncey on May 15, 2016, 11:28:40 PM
LooNEY, there will never be enough WIPs. Ever.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on May 15, 2016, 11:56:30 PM
Lazy8: that is indeed how I hope it will go with Emil and magic - good! He is not stupid, after all, just poorly informed!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on May 16, 2016, 11:05:45 PM
Reynir: Oops baby.

46. Family (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/15694957)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on May 16, 2016, 11:06:01 PM
Somewhat belated, but…

Another Independent Production
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Spoiler: show
Lalli’s moose was staring at Emil again.

This wasn’t a “Die beneath my massive dinosaur claws, mammal scum!” look like the ravens tended to direct at Emil, but more of a “Whatcha doin’?” look. The moose was friendly like that.

In fact, the moose was the friendliest of all of Lalli’s menagerie, possibly excepting the penguin, when it wasn’t trying to be all standoffishly feline at Emil.

Most of the menagerie tended to act feline, no matter their actual species, which were many and varied. The moose, however, tended to act more like a big, curious dog as it trailed along after Lalli. You could never tell what it would stick its nose into next, which was Emil’s current problem, as he was trying to set up some minor but potentially harmful pyrotechnics.

“Lalli!”

There was no answer. With a sigh, Emil went over to the moose and grabbed its reins gently but firmly. “C’mon, moose. We need to find your Daddy.”

The moose nodded and guided Emil off in one particular direction.

Lalli was napping beneath one of the Viking Inferno mock-up bits waiting to be put into place on the “battlefield”. Though most of the Giant/Jaeger battle was going to be achieved through computer animation, several key bits would be practical, with full-sized mock-ups of (for example) the control pod and large-scale miniatures of both the Viking Inferno and its Giant opponent.

“Lalli?” Still no response. “Lalli, you need to keep your moose away from my explosives.”

Lalli sat up and sang some Finnish at Emil, who wished Tuuri was there to translate.

“Your moose,” Emil said, gesturing at the animal behind him, “away.” He brought his hands together, and then out, miming an explosion. “My boom-booms.”

Lalli snorted in amusement, but seemed to understand. Grabbing the moose’s halter, he gestured for Emil to get back to work.

“Thank you.” Emil turned and almost plowed into Mikkel, already in costume.

“‘Boom-booms’. Such a complex and technical term to use on our little Finn friend there.”

Emil rolled his eyes. “It’s what he understands.”

“Like you understand ‘sotkuinen ruotsalainen’?”

Emil blushed. Trust Mikkel to remember that. “I need to get back to my explosives now,” he said, much on his dignity, “before any of Lalli’s other little friends decide to investigate.”

“Speaking of which...” Mikkel gestured to the rapidly approaching figure of Sigrun. An obviously smitten badger hurried in her wake.

“LALLI!” she bellowed once she spotted the thin Finn and his moose. “Tell this thing I’m not available, so it should keep AWAY!” Her gesticulations did nothing to discourage the badger, but some sparrows perched near Lalli took fright readily enough.

Lalli snapped his fingers, and the badger slinked over to him, climbing onto the moose’s back. Another snap of Lalli’s fingers brought the birds back, carrying Lalli’s helmet between them.

Emil was most impressed, as he’d had no idea sparrows could carry so much weight. But he had his own job to do, so he couldn’t stick around to watch the impending musical number.

A pair of rabbits passed by, pausing to lift their tails at Emil in a “Nice to see you!” as they did. Emil shook his head and went back to his squibs.


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
So, I know I said this (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg78714#msg78714) would be a one-shot, but I couldn’t think of a better AU to showcase Lalli-as-a-Disney-Princess-in-our-world (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=856.msg103151#msg103151).

So sue me.

...Oh, and they’re filming this (http://archiveofourown.org/works/3803176/chapters/8472484).
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on May 17, 2016, 04:07:31 AM
Somewhat belated, but…

Another Independent Production
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Spoiler: show
Lalli’s moose was staring at Emil again.

This wasn’t a “Die beneath my massive dinosaur claws, mammal scum!” look like the ravens tended to direct at Emil, but more of a “Whatcha doin’?” look. The moose was friendly like that.

In fact, the moose was the friendliest of all of Lalli’s menagerie, possibly excepting the penguin, when it wasn’t trying to be all standoffishly feline at Emil.

Most of the menagerie tended to act feline, no matter their actual species, which were many and varied. The moose, however, tended to act more like a big, curious dog as it trailed along after Lalli. You could never tell what it would stick its nose into next, which was Emil’s current problem, as he was trying to set up some minor but potentially harmful pyrotechnics.

“Lalli!”

There was no answer. With a sigh, Emil went over to the moose and grabbed its reins gently but firmly. “C’mon, moose. We need to find your Daddy.”

The moose nodded and guided Emil off in one particular direction.

Lalli was napping beneath one of the Viking Inferno mock-up bits waiting to be put into place on the “battlefield”. Though most of the Giant/Jaeger battle was going to be achieved through computer animation, several key bits would be practical, with full-sized mock-ups of (for example) the control pod and large-scale miniatures of both the Viking Inferno and its Giant opponent.

“Lalli?” Still no response. “Lalli, you need to keep your moose away from my explosives.”

Lalli sat up and sang some Finnish at Emil, who wished Tuuri was there to translate.

“Your moose,” Emil said, gesturing at the animal behind him, “away.” He brought his hands together, and then out, miming an explosion. “My boom-booms.”

Lalli snorted in amusement, but seemed to understand. Grabbing the moose’s halter, he gestured for Emil to get back to work.

“Thank you.” Emil turned and almost plowed into Mikkel, already in costume.

“‘Boom-booms’. Such a complex and technical term to use on our little Finn friend there.”

Emil rolled his eyes. “It’s what he understands.”

“Like you understand ‘sotkuinen ruotsalainen’?”

Emil blushed. Trust Mikkel to remember that. “I need to get back to my explosives now,” he said, much on his dignity, “before any of Lalli’s other little friends decide to investigate.”

“Speaking of which...” Mikkel gestured to the rapidly approaching figure of Sigrun. An obviously smitten badger hurried in her wake.

“LALLI!” she bellowed once she spotted the thin Finn and his moose. “Tell this thing I’m not available, so it should keep AWAY!” Her gesticulations did nothing to discourage the badger, but some sparrows perched near Lalli took fright readily enough.

Lalli snapped his fingers, and the badger slinked over to him, climbing onto the moose’s back. Another snap of Lalli’s fingers brought the birds back, carrying Lalli’s helmet between them.

Emil was most impressed, as he’d had no idea sparrows could carry so much weight. But he had his own job to do, so he couldn’t stick around to watch the impending musical number.

A pair of rabbits passed by, pausing to lift their tails at Emil in a “Nice to see you!” as they did. Emil shook his head and went back to his squibs.


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
So, I know I said this (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg78714#msg78714) would be a one-shot, but I couldn’t think of a better AU to showcase Lalli-as-a-Disney-Princess-in-our-world (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=856.msg103151#msg103151).

So sue me.

...Oh, and they’re filming this (http://archiveofourown.org/works/3803176/chapters/8472484).


The ravens' dialogue piece had me in stitches. Disney princess Lalli is the best Lalli.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on May 17, 2016, 08:19:17 AM


69: Annoyance http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/15702112

In which Reynir annoys everyone by turning off his personal gravity
 
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on May 17, 2016, 07:21:36 PM
Somewhat belated, but…

Another Independent Production
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Spoiler: show
Lalli’s moose was staring at Emil again.

This wasn’t a “Die beneath my massive dinosaur claws, mammal scum!” look like the ravens tended to direct at Emil, but more of a “Whatcha doin’?” look. The moose was friendly like that.

In fact, the moose was the friendliest of all of Lalli’s menagerie, possibly excepting the penguin, when it wasn’t trying to be all standoffishly feline at Emil.

Most of the menagerie tended to act feline, no matter their actual species, which were many and varied. The moose, however, tended to act more like a big, curious dog as it trailed along after Lalli. You could never tell what it would stick its nose into next, which was Emil’s current problem, as he was trying to set up some minor but potentially harmful pyrotechnics.

“Lalli!”

There was no answer. With a sigh, Emil went over to the moose and grabbed its reins gently but firmly. “C’mon, moose. We need to find your Daddy.”

The moose nodded and guided Emil off in one particular direction.

Lalli was napping beneath one of the Viking Inferno mock-up bits waiting to be put into place on the “battlefield”. Though most of the Giant/Jaeger battle was going to be achieved through computer animation, several key bits would be practical, with full-sized mock-ups of (for example) the control pod and large-scale miniatures of both the Viking Inferno and its Giant opponent.

“Lalli?” Still no response. “Lalli, you need to keep your moose away from my explosives.”

Lalli sat up and sang some Finnish at Emil, who wished Tuuri was there to translate.

“Your moose,” Emil said, gesturing at the animal behind him, “away.” He brought his hands together, and then out, miming an explosion. “My boom-booms.”

Lalli snorted in amusement, but seemed to understand. Grabbing the moose’s halter, he gestured for Emil to get back to work.

“Thank you.” Emil turned and almost plowed into Mikkel, already in costume.

“‘Boom-booms’. Such a complex and technical term to use on our little Finn friend there.”

Emil rolled his eyes. “It’s what he understands.”

“Like you understand ‘sotkuinen ruotsalainen’?”

Emil blushed. Trust Mikkel to remember that. “I need to get back to my explosives now,” he said, much on his dignity, “before any of Lalli’s other little friends decide to investigate.”

“Speaking of which...” Mikkel gestured to the rapidly approaching figure of Sigrun. An obviously smitten badger hurried in her wake.

“LALLI!” she bellowed once she spotted the thin Finn and his moose. “Tell this thing I’m not available, so it should keep AWAY!” Her gesticulations did nothing to discourage the badger, but some sparrows perched near Lalli took fright readily enough.

Lalli snapped his fingers, and the badger slinked over to him, climbing onto the moose’s back. Another snap of Lalli’s fingers brought the birds back, carrying Lalli’s helmet between them.

Emil was most impressed, as he’d had no idea sparrows could carry so much weight. But he had his own job to do, so he couldn’t stick around to watch the impending musical number.

A pair of rabbits passed by, pausing to lift their tails at Emil in a “Nice to see you!” as they did. Emil shook his head and went back to his squibs.




I believe calculations have been done to determine the actual carrying capacity of the sparrows.  Or maybe it was swallows, now that I think of it?  In either case, Lalli's helmet is bound to be equal or less in weight to a coconut, yes?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Tr on May 17, 2016, 08:20:18 PM

69: Annoyance http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/15702112

In which Reynir annoys everyone by turning off his personal gravity
I have now read this twice. I think I nearly died laughing both times.
"Reynir broke gravity." Best line ever.  ;D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on May 17, 2016, 09:20:18 PM
In which I speculate on the decline of Christianity, starting in Y0.

47. Creation (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/15715903)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Juniper on May 17, 2016, 09:35:45 PM

69: Annoyance http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/15702112

In which Reynir annoys everyone by turning off his personal gravity
This was absolutely delightful to read, just like everything else you've written. Except the part where Lalli called Mikkel 'mom' and Sigrun 'dad' went from "hahaha" to "ouch D:" really fast
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on May 18, 2016, 11:05:50 PM
Someone requested this in the comments, so...

48. Childhood (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/15739120)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on May 19, 2016, 08:45:02 PM
Someone requested this in the comments, so...

48. Childhood (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/15739120)

I like this, you do have a way with Sigrun's thought processes!
Somewhat off-topic, how do you get a line to divide portions of your AO3 text?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on May 19, 2016, 08:52:25 PM
Good story, Lazy8. And I second Wavewright's question - all I can manage is a row of asterisks!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on May 19, 2016, 09:22:03 PM
I like this, you do have a way with Sigrun's thought processes!
Somewhat off-topic, how do you get a line to divide portions of your AO3 text?

Good story, Lazy8. And I second Wavewright's question - all I can manage is a row of asterisks!

Honestly? I always post to FFNet first, and then copy/paste it from there. Though AO3 has its own native button for a horizontal line. The key is to have it in "rich text" format rather than html.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on May 19, 2016, 09:24:51 PM
Thanks!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on May 19, 2016, 10:12:37 PM
I did it again. (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=35.msg99730;topicseen#msg99730)

49. Stripes (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/15758503)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on May 19, 2016, 11:03:48 PM
Lazy8, that's very fine! Please go on.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on May 20, 2016, 05:13:15 AM
I'm still alive. So far, but the last bits of term may yet kill me if they have their way.

32: Night http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/15763936
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on May 20, 2016, 06:42:50 AM
OwlsG0, why am I reminded of trying to share a bed with angular snoring siblings when I was little, or This One Guy I used to climb with, with whom I sometimes had to share a tent? He snored like a motormower, and I'd swear he was made of elbows! Such a delightfully funny story!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on May 20, 2016, 06:57:52 AM
OwlsG0, why am I reminded of trying to share a bed with angular snoring siblings when I was little, or This One Guy I used to climb with, with whom I sometimes had to share a tent? He snored like a motormower, and I'd swear he was made of elbows! Such a delightfully funny story!

The elbows part was inspired by my sister who, I swear to all things holy, sharpens her elbows on a whetstone prior to sharing a bed with me.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on May 20, 2016, 08:36:56 AM
The elbows part was inspired by my sister who, I swear to all things holy, sharpens her elbows on a whetstone prior to sharing a bed with me.

*ruefully rubs ankles and remembers the number of times I've told this one sparring partner he needs to file his elbows*

And I somehow get the feeling that Sigrun is not going to be happy when she wakes up...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on May 20, 2016, 09:16:46 AM
*ruefully rubs ankles and remembers the number of times I've told this one sparring partner he needs to file his elbows*

And I somehow get the feeling that Sigrun is not going to be happy when she wakes up...

I'm sure Mikkel will find some creative way to assign the blame to a defenceless member of the crew. Say, Kitty, who apparently disappeared during this fic?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on May 20, 2016, 09:51:41 AM
I'm back again, for some reason

72: Mischief Managed http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/15766423

In which Mikkel livens up at dull afternoon at the expense of Lalli's sanity
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Ragnarok on May 20, 2016, 10:18:16 AM
I'm back again, for some reason

72: Mischief Managed http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/15766423

In which Mikkel livens up at dull afternoon at the expense of Lalli's sanity

Oh god my sides....
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on May 20, 2016, 11:02:36 AM
Ahahahahahah!! Of course he'd think it was some malicious fae thing. Of course....
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Kiraly on May 20, 2016, 09:35:28 PM
AAAAAHHHH there have been so many good fics recently and I've neglected to comment on them! You all are wonderful.

Someone on Tumblr who seems to be new to SSSS was talking about wanting a fic where Emil fusses with everyone's hair and clothes before an important event, so I got inspired and rattled this off. Last First Impressions (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6916474).
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Athena on May 20, 2016, 09:39:26 PM
AAAAAHHHH there have been so many good fics recently and I've neglected to comment on them! You all are wonderful.

Someone on Tumblr who seems to be new to SSSS was talking about wanting a fic where Emil fusses with everyone's hair and clothes before an important event, so I got inspired and rattled this off. Last First Impressions (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6916474).

This is quite good, everything was written very in-character! ;D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Athena on May 20, 2016, 09:47:11 PM
I'm back again, for some reason

72: Mischief Managed http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/15766423

In which Mikkel livens up at dull afternoon at the expense of Lalli's sanity

Sorry for the double post, but oh my god this is hilarious!! :'D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Kiraly on May 20, 2016, 11:18:28 PM
This is quite good, everything was written very in-character! ;D

Thanks Luth! I had fun with this one, it was nice to write something with the whole crew again.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on May 20, 2016, 11:35:48 PM
Halfway point!

50. Siblings (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/15780400)

Or, why Sigrun doesn't have any.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on May 21, 2016, 08:15:36 PM
This is part of the Multimedia Fanworks Exchange, but here it is as well.  I answered Sc0ut's prompt for "Someone in the team has their birthday while the expedition is in the Silent World. Do they get to celebrate? (I'm okay with anything, shipping or darker themes or whatever.)"
Spoiler: "Birthday Candles" • show
http://archiveofourown.org/works/6870400
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Keeper on May 21, 2016, 11:12:47 PM
This is part of the Multimedia Fanworks Exchange, but here it is as well.  I answered Sc0ut's prompt for "Someone in the team has their birthday while the expedition is in the Silent World. Do they get to celebrate? (I'm okay with anything, shipping or darker themes or whatever.)"
Spoiler: "Birthday Candles" • show
http://archiveofourown.org/works/6870400


A great way to start the exchange, wavewright! But, what is that passage at the end? It's especially beautiful!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on May 21, 2016, 11:21:15 PM
Yet another instance of 'Wait a minute, where was I going with this?'

51. Sport (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/15800920)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on May 21, 2016, 11:58:04 PM
Lazy8, wherever you may have been headed when you started, you reached a good end! Sounds just like something that would happen. ;D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on May 22, 2016, 03:17:13 AM
A great way to start the exchange, wavewright! But, what is that passage at the end? It's especially beautiful!

I'm sorry it wasn't clear.  It's meant to be Lalli coming in the dreamspace to free the soul of the poor girl Emil just toasted, who was brought to the surface by the sun.  That portion is told from her POV, how is she to know that Finland isn't heaven?  And then she goes...wherever is next for her.

And thank you!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on May 22, 2016, 06:28:51 AM
That was a fine story, Wavewright. And I like the angel.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on May 22, 2016, 02:48:48 PM
Bits and Bots
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/“WALL-E” crossover fanfic
Part 1
Spoiler: show
Amid the Ruins

The whirrrrrrr of the scout-bot’s treads was the only sound amid the trash piles that towered over it as it returned to the repurposed APC that served as its base after a long night of reconnaissance. Despite it all, of course, LALL-E was still as alert as when it had sallied forth, though it needed to recharge.

The others were waiting for it: TUUR-E, the only other bot on the team which spoke the same computer language as LALL-E; MIK-L, decontamination brushes at the ready; EM-L, looking relieved that LALL-E was back in one piece; and EID-E, their leader, awaiting LALL-E’s report.

Most of the report was about which routes their vehicle could manage and which were impassable, but there was something else of interest that LALL-E had noticed: there was a large amount of loose refuse in certain areas ahead. This was both good (as part of their directive was to search for interesting bits among such loose refuse) and bad (as it meant the WALL-Es had ceased working in this area).

There were two possible reasons for the WALL-Es to have left their work incomplete: either they had all broken down, or they had suffered an outbreak of the cRash Virus. In either case, there was no telling how safe or unsafe the loose refuse areas were, but EID-E was ready to press ahead anyway.

The cRash Virus exploited a hole in the BIOS hard-coded into every bot’s ROM chips; only a very small portion were safe from it, due to a manufacturing error. This virus usually simply shut the bot down forever, but in some cases... it didn’t.

Of the bots on this mission, only TUUR-E was vulnerable to the cRash Virus, so TUUR-E was stuck on the bus most of the time while the others went a-scavenging. TUUR-E kept grumbling about how un-optimized this state of affairs was, but still stayed standing silently in their vehicle.

It wasn’t a very big vehicle: while each bot had its own little cubbyhole, and the cargo hold was adequate, there really wasn’t much more space for a restless robot to prowl around while waiting for the others to return. It was, however, sturdy and dependable, which was what it needed to be.

LALL-E and TUUR-E were from the same production block, and of similar design; as has been said above, they shared a common computer language, as well, so they usually got along fairly well. Another of their general kind, ONN-E, had been unable to accompany them due to its FEAR Protocols almost crippling it.

Of the others, their general services bot, MIK-L, was large and stoic; EM-L, their secondary defensive unit, was nice but a little self-centered; and EID-E, their head warrior bot and the commander of the expedition, could best be summarized by the art someone had put on its carapace of “Sigrun the Valkyrie”.

Its report given and accepted, LALL-E prepared itself for its inactive cycle...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
Well, apparently my brain thinks I don’t have too many WIPs.

The cRash Virus is stolen borrowed from here (http://archiveofourown.org/works/4676132/chapters/10672628), though my version’s different.

Next time: the advent of REYN-R!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Tr on May 22, 2016, 04:18:14 PM
I wrote a really long fic for the Multimedia Exchange. Please enjoy Mikkel and Sigrun terrorizing small children.
Prompt: something from the Hogwarts Au. (from the recent crossover)
Emil Västerström and the Shadows of the Forest
A Stand Still, Stay Silent/Harry Potter crossover fic
This fic is in five parts because it somehow got ridiculously long. Sorry about that. Hope you like it.
Spoiler: part one • show
"This is a disaster and everything will go wrong."
"Shhh, honey, don't say that! Emil will be fine! He'll be learning lots, and he might even get the, ah... fire problem under control."
Torbjörn beamed at Emil. Siv smiled uncertainly.
"Besides," Torbjörn added encouragingly, "Hogwarts can't be worse than that military school."
"The military school wasn't so bad, it was better than public school," Emil tried to say, but the whistle of a train drowned out his words. "What time does the Hogwarts Express leave?" he asked anxiously.
"Eleven o'clock," Siv said.
"What time is it now?"
Siv looked at her watch. "10:59."
"You should run!" Torbjörn said, shoving him forward.
Emil jogged towards the train as the doors began to close. There was no way he would make it in time. Then a silvery blur shot past him, standing in the doorway and materializing into a human being.
"Thanks... Lalli," someone behind him panted. A short, stocky girl stumbled into view, lugging a large trunk behind her. "Whew! I'm tired!"
"Not... me!" Emil panted. "I could... run for... hours!"
She turned around. Her eyes lit up. "Oh, hi! Would you like to go find a compartment?"
"Sure," Emil said.
"Great! I love meeting new first years. My name's Tuuri, by the way. What's yours?"
"Emil." He looked around. The person who had held the door for them had followed them silently, like a shadow. Light, wide eyes peered back at him from behind Tuuri.
"Oh, this is Lalli, my cousin. Don't mind him if he doesn't talk, he's not good with people and he doesn't speak much English. Oh, this looks good!" Tuuri leapt sideways into a compartment and glued her face to the window.
"Enough," Lalli said quietly.
"Hmm?" Tuuri asked, still looking out the window.
"I speak enough English," Lalli said. He stared at Emil, refusing to say another word.
"What's so interesting out there?" Emil asked, hoping to break the growing silence.
"Hmm? Oh, the last time I rode on this train, I saw a troll! But you'll learn all about trolls with Professor Eide. I mean Sigrun. She doesn't like us to call her Professor Eide, it sounds too stuffy and old-fashioned."
"Ah," Emil said, feeling very overwhelmed. He had barely understood half of what Tuuri had said.
"Oh, I'm sorry! I'm being rude!" Tuuri exclaimed suddenly. "I haven't asked you anything about yourself! Which house do you think you'll be in? I'm a Slytherin third year."
"What are you talking about?" Emil asked helplessly.
Tuuri's expression changed rapidly. "Oh, are you Muggle-born? Why didn't you say so? You must be so confused! I'm sorry if I've been babbling, I should probably stop now."
"No, it's okay," Emil said. "My uncle Torbjörn is a wizard, but my parents are Muggles. I just don't know much about Hogwarts."
"Okay! So, everyone at Hogwarts is divided into four houses: Griffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. The brave go to Griffindor, the helpful, hard workers go to Hufflepuff, the people with a sneaky side who don't always follow rules go to Slytherin, and the nerds go to Ravenclaw. They say Hufflepuff is a bunch of dorks,  but don’t worry, that’s probably not true."
"How do they choose who goes to what house?" Emil asked apprehensively.
"Oh, they have a hat," Tuuri said cheerfully. "I’m in Slytherin, and my brother Onni is in Hufflepuff. He’s a seventh year, and he’s really good at magic! He's the first student Animagus since the days of Sirius Black, you know. He can turn into an owl, and he's a prefect."
"He cries a lot, though," Lalli said quietly. He had placed his hands over his ears to block out the torrent of enthusiastic exposition.
Emil reflected that this might be the weirdest conversation he had ever had in his life. It was even weirder than the time he had tried to explain why his professor's toupee kept mysteriously catching fire every time he got near it. Or the time he had to explain why his math test had exploded into a miniature fireball on his desk.
"You know about Sirius Black and Voldemort and Harry Potter and the War 90 years ago, right?" Tuuri asked, ignoring her cousin.
"Yeah," Emil replied, recalling the bizarre bedtime stories Torbjörn used to tell him.
"Okay, good," Tuuri said. “So… which house do you think you’ll be in?”
Emil could feel his face turning bright red for absolutely no reason. “Uhhh…”
“It’s okay if you don’t know. I’m pretty sure Lalli’s going to be in Slytherin, though. Right, Lal?”
“Mrrh,” Lalli said. Emil couldn’t tell if that meant he agreed or not.
“Most of our family has been in Slytherin. Slytherin’s not actually that bad. It used to be really anti-Muggle born, but there was this big reform 80 years ago and now it’s not so bad!”
A blur of red and blue crashed into their compartment, interrupting Tuuri’s enthusiastic explanation. It was an older student, one with a magnificently long red braid.
“Oh, hello Reynir,” Tuuri said pleasantly. “Emil, this is Reynir Árnason, a Hufflepuff second year.”
“D-d-dementors!” Reynir squeaked.
“What? Not again?” Tuuri cursed under her breath. “I knew we should have waited another year before we sent Lalli to Hogwarts! He’s only eleven!”
“I’m only eleven!” Emil yelped, staring at their panicked faces. “I don’t understand what’s happening!”
As he said that, every light on the train vanished. Everything was black, and cold seeped in around the door.
“I have to get a teacher! Surely there’s one on the train!” Tuuri said breathlessly. “Reynir! Can you—“
“Ex—Expecto—“ Reynir’s teeth were chattering, he couldn’t speak. It was too cold.
Then they heard it. The deathly rattle of inhuman breath. There was something searching, trying to suck the last bits of light from the darkness. Emil was drowning in cold, clammy fog. He couldn’t see.
Then there were voices. “We have to face it. He’s a pyromaniac. He’s so fascinated with fire.”
“What can we do?”
“Our son is a freak. What can we do?”
“What should we do with him?”
They were his parents, and they were talking about him. He couldn’t get them out of his head. He was drowning in the cold and the dark and the past.
“Expecto Patronum!”
Light blazed like white fire. Gleaming white paws tore at the shadows surrounding them. The chilly darkness hissed and vanished like smoke on the breeze.
Emil realized he was curled up on the floor. The lights flickered on, giving him an excellent view of the reddish carpet pressing up against his nose. He looked up, expecting to see Tuuri the confident third year, standing tall with her wand out. Instead, he saw Lalli, who could not stop glaring at the door with a suspicious expression.
Tuuri stood up shakily. Silver tears streaked her face. “It’s okay, Lal, they’re gone now. Thank you for getting rid of them.”
Lalli slowly lowered his wand, still staring at the door. The huge, glowing creature standing next to him vanished before Emil could see what sort of animal it was.
“What were those things?” Emil gasped.
The thin gray light from the window illuminated Tuuri’s hair as she gazed toward the front of the train. “I can’t believe the train was attacked by dementors again,” she said, “they really need to do something about this.”
“I had no idea your little brother could do that, Tuuri!” Reynir chattered, apparently fully recovered. Then, to Emil, “Dementors are creatures that feed on happiness. If they get too close, they suck out your soul. They’re pretty nasty.”
“He’s actually my cousin,” Tuuri said to Reynir. “He does know a lot of magic already.”
Lalli sighed and collapsed onto his seat. Emil felt like doing the same. Soul-sucking shadows were a little more than he had expected.
The rest of the train ride passed uneventfully. Night had fallen by the time they reached the school. Emil was the first to hop off the train, desperately trying to smooth his golden hair so that it looked more or less presentable. He gave up as he stepped into the thick mist around the train.
Lalli reached up and smoothed it for him. Golden sparks flew up into the night.
“Sorry,” Emil muttered, trying to wave the sparks away. His odd hair sparkles were only one of the things that had gotten him into trouble at his old school.
“LISTEN UP, NEWBIES!” A voice like a foghorn blasted Emil’s eardrums. “FIRST YEARS OVER HERE!”
This voice was accompanied by a swinging lantern and a truly impressive braided beard. Reynir waved enthusiastically, and he and Tuuri disappeared. Emil and Lalli wandered over to the shouting man with the beard.
“THIS WAY!” he yelled, swinging his lantern. They followed him down a dark, foggy path. “YOU’LL GET YOUR FIRST GLIMPSE OF HOGWARTS IN A SECOND!”
The mist cleared a little, and Emil could see light glimmering in a hundred windows, then reflected on the surface of a wide lake. The night was too cloudy for stars, but the twinkling golden lights seemed determined to make up for the absence of their celestial relatives.
“Whoa,” someone breathed.
“I KNOW, IT’S AN UTTER EMBARRASSMENT! A SHELL OF ITS OLD SELF!” their guide roared suddenly, startling Emil so much that he nearly stumbled into the lake. “THE OLD CASTLE IS NOTHING LIKE THE GLORY DAYS BEFORE THE RISE OF VOLDEMORT!”
Emil thought that the castle looked very impressive indeed. Not that he was going to admit that out loud.
The man with the braided beard herded them into boats, and they glided across the smooth, dark water to the castle.
Once they got there, he led them through passages filled with candles, then finally to a pair of huge doors.
“YOU ARE ABOUT TO BE SORTED INTO HOUSES! NOW’S THE TIME TO MAKE YOURSELVES LOOK PRESENTABLE!”
Emil patted his hair. Sparks flew everywhere. “What happens now?” he asked anxiously.
Lalli shrugged slightly. He did not seem concerned.
“What’s going on here?”
“First years, of course!”
Emil jumped. A group of transparent, milky-white beings had just floated through the walls. They were… ghosts?
“Ah! About to be Sorted, I suppose?” one asked, smiling benevolently. “I hope to see you in Hufflepuff! My own house, you know.”
“Must you say that to every group of first years, Friar?” a long-haired ghost in a gray dress asked.
“MOVE ALONG!” The doors swung open, and the line of first years moved forward into a huge hall, already packed with chattering students. In the middle was a stool, and on the stool there was a hat.
It was not a very impressive hat. In fact, it was filthy, ragged, frayed, and even charred slightly at the edges. A rip like a mouth opened near the brim, and to Emil’s great surprise, the hat began to sing.
It sang about the war 90 years ago, and the merits of the four houses. None of this gave Emil any insight as to which house he would actually be in.
Then the bearded man began to yell out names. When a person’s name was called, they would run up to the stool and try on the hat, which would call out the name of a House.
“HONDERBY, EMILIA!” he bellowed.
“RAVENCLAW!” the hat replied instantly.
“HOTAKAINEN, LALLI!”
Lalli walked up to the hat and placed it firmly on top of his head. Tuuri waved from the audience, her fingers crossed.
Emil could see Lalli shiver slightly as the hat seemed to frown in concentration. It was taking an awfully long time to decide.
Suddenly, the hat opened its mouth wide enough for Emil to see the glint of Lalli’s silvery hair underneath it and shouted, “GRIFFINDOR!”
Tuuri looked astonished. “What?” she mouthed, staring across the room at Reynir, who managed to shrug and clap at the same time.
Lalli wandered over to the Griffindor table, looking pleased with himself. A teacher with fiery red hair cheered and pounder him on the back. Lalli seemed very alarmed.
The line of frightened first-years became shorter and shorter. Emil wondered whether he really belonged in any of the four houses. Maybe he didn’t even belong at Hogwarts. What if he put on the hat and it told him to go right back home?
“VÄSTERSTRÖM, EMIL!”
Emil jumped, tripped over the hem of his robes, and staggered to the front of the room. Several people laughed. I’ll show them, he thought angrily, jamming the hat on his head in a shower of sparkles. Once I’m a famous hero they’ll all regret doubting my excellence. All of them.
“Well now,” a little voice rasped, somewhere behind his left ear. “Someone’s got ambition. Slytherin might well be the place for you.”
Emil froze, trying not to think. If he had known the hat could read his mind, he never would have put it on in the first place.
“Hmm, that’s strange. There’s definitely more than that. Tricky, tricky. A good bit of compassion—oh yes, Hufflepuff is definitely an option.”
Not Hufflepuff! Emil did not want to look like a dork. Anywhere but there.
“Not Hufflepuff? Well, you don’t belong in Ravenclaw, that’s for sure.”
Emil had been right; he didn’t belong anywhere. He supposed this was the part where the hat told him to take the first train back home.
“Don’t go jumping to conclusions! Yes, you’re a hard one to place but I think you belong in—GRIFFINDOR!”
Emil ripped the hat off his head and stumbled over to the Griffindor table, sighing with relief. The Griffindors cheered, the red-haired professor yelling loudest of all. He collapsed in a chair next to Lalli, who appeared to have fallen asleep.
“Excuse me, who’s that red-haired teacher?” he asked, tapping an older student on the shoulder.
“Oh, her?” the student said, chuckling. “That’s Sigrun. You’ll have her class tomorrow morning, if you’re lucky. Defense Against the Dark Arts.”
“Ah,” Emil said, watching Sigrun laugh loudly.
As the other student turned away, Emil heard her say, “Just wait ‘til the newbies get Professor Sigrun’s class. They’re so doomed.”
Emil was about to tap her on the shoulder again and ask her just what she meant, but then it was time for the headmaster, the legendary Trond, to give a speech, and after that it was time to dig into the heaps of delicious food, and by the time the feast was over, he had forgotten all about it.
A prefect led him upstairs, through the portrait of the fat lady in pink silk (the password was Devil’s Snare), into the common room, up the stairs. He ended up sharing a room with Lalli and two other boys. The last thing he saw before falling asleep was Lalli sitting on the windowsill, staring at the stars.

Spoiler: part two • show
The next day, Emil woke up to a strange scratching noise. Lalli was scratching the wall next to his bed, possibly as his own strange way of trying to wake Emil up.
Emil yawned widely and got ready to go downstairs for breakfast. Lalli followed him silently as he pushed open the doors to the Great Hall. Tuuri greeted him enthusiastically, waving as Reynir bounced cheerfully over to their table to say hi.
“Let’s see, what classes do you guys have?” Tuuri said, snatching Emil’s schedule out of his bag. “Oh look; Defense Against the Dark Arts, first period. I hope Professor Sigrun isn’t too hard on you guys. And you’ve got Potions with Professor Madsen— he’s head of Slytherin House.”
“Why does Professor Sigrun scare people so much?” Emil asked apprehensively.
Tuuri just laughed. “Oh, you’ll see.”
Breakfast passed quickly. Emil stuffed his wand into his pocket, woke Lalli, and set off for Defense Against the Dark Arts with a very determined expression. He thought he was ready for whatever this professor could throw at him.
How very wrong he was.
“Alright, class!” Sigrun crowed, dusting her hands off then slapping them down on the untidy piles of paper on her desk. “My name is Sigrun Eide, you may call me Professor Sigrun! Because “Professor Eide” sounds like some stuffy old guy. Now let’s get started!
“It is my duty to teach you all about the dark horrors that roam our world; foul creatures such as dementors, werewolves, Inferi, and the ways of the dark wizards that live among them! Has anyone here seen any of these things FACE-TO-FACE?”
Emil raised his hand, remembering the dementors on the train. He was the only person to do so, since Lalli appeared to be fast asleep yet again with his face pressed up against the desk.
“There we go!” Sigrun shouted cheerfully. “Someone here’s got guts! What’s your name, kid?”
“Emil Västerström,” he replied anxiously.
“Well, Emil, you’re going to be my right-hand warrior. Do you see that cage over there?”
“Y-yes,” Emil stammered. The cage was full of small, grayish-red creatures, all hissing and baring tiny white fangs and rattling the bars of the cage. For a minute, Emil wondered if she meant a different cage, one he hadn’t noticed yet. Then he realized that was probably wishful thinking.
“Those are imps,” Sigrun explained. “Nasty little things. Okay, Emil, go ahead and open it.”
“What?!” Emil yelped.
“Go on!”
Emil approached the cage, wand at the ready. He reached out a hand. As soon as he touched the cage, its door exploded off the hinges, propelling dozens of irate imps into the crowd.
Chaos reigned. Imps flew everywhere, smashing into desks, scattering books and students alike. A few imps retrieved a candle from the chandelier and flew around the room, lighting things on fire and dripping hot wax everywhere. Emil put his arms over his head to protect his hair.
“Why would you teach like this?” a student wailed, trying to hit an imp with a textbook as it grabbed her pigtails and pulled.
“I believe in hands-on learning!” Sigrun replied.
Another team of imps seemed to be attempting to remove the chandelier from the ceiling.
“Lalli! Watch out!” Emil called, since Lalli was sleeping directly beneath it.
The tip of a wand emerged from the pile of silvery hair and rumpled black robes. Emil heard a muffled incantation as the chandelier crashed to the floor, shattering into shards of glass, twisted metal, and bits of still-burning candle. Lalli emerged from the wreckage, yawned, and went back to sleep in a nest of smoking wax, broken glass, and splintered wood.
“Huh,” Emil said aloud. Then he turned his head, and realized that there was an imp sitting on his shoulder, leering at him. “AAAIIIIIIIIII!” he screamed, swatting it desperately.
“”That’s the way to do it!” Sigrun said, simultaneously giving him a thumbs up and swatting an imp all the way across the room.
Naturally, Reynir chose this moment to open the door and declare, “I have a message for Professor Sigrun!”
The imp Sigrun had just hit landed directly on his freckled face. He let out a muffled shriek.
“What was the message?” Sigrun yelled.
Reynir didn’t answer. He was too busy trying to get rid of the four imps that had attached themselves to the end of his braid. Finally, he managed to take a deep breath without getting a mouthful of imp, and he started shooting spells left and right. “Relashio! Protego! Petrificus Totalus!”
A student to Emil’s left toppled sideways, stiff as a board.
“Just give me the message already!” Sigrun demanded, looking exasperated.
Reynir shivered in the safety of a magical shield, looking alarmed at the battle raging around him. “Professor Madsen says to remember that this is their first day at Hogwarts and they don’t know any magic!”
“I know that!” Sigrun snorted. “Get back to class!”
The bell rang. Around half the class bolted for the door before Reynir had time to move.
“Pff, cowards,” Sigrun said, chuckling slightly. She yanked a handful of imps out of the air and stuffed them back into their cage.
“Do you need any help?” Reynir asked anxiously.
“Nah, I’m good!” Sigrun looked at the rest of Emil’s class. “Don’t you have somewhere else to be?”
They ducked a few imps in order to get to the door. Every one of them was bruised, battered, and smoking slightly.
Emil took a deep breath, smoothing his hair. “Well,” he said, “that was an… interesting… first class.”
“Mrrh,” Lalli agreed.
“What do we have next?” Emil consulted his schedule. “Oh. Potions. Well, that can’t be too dangerous.”
Lalli suddenly turned and ran downstairs. He seemed to know where he was going, so Emil followed him. Down a hall, past a row of windows, through a door pretending to be a solid wall, down some stairs.
Emil yelped as one of the steps disappeared underneath him. His leg sank into the gap, and suddenly he was stuck.
How humiliating.
He knew what would happen next, too. Everyone would keep walking, chuckling a bit at the plight of the hapless newbie. No one would stop to help. He would be stuck there all day.
Lalli skidded to a stop at the foot of the stairs, surprise written in every gleam of his wide eyes. He dashed back up the marble stairs, grasped Emil’s hands, and pulled him back onto solid ground.
“Thanks,” Emil panted, trying to smooth his hair and his uniform at the same time.
With a gentle flick, Lalli smoothed Emil’s hair for him.
Then he was gone, running towards their next class. With a slight smile and a cloud of sparkles, Emil jogged after him.

Spoiler: part three • show
The rest of Emil’s classes were boring compared to Defense Against the Dark Arts. That said, History of Magic was boring compared to anything. Emil would rather watch paint dry.
It was taught by an ancient ghost by the name of Professor Binns, who had been teaching for centuries and didn’t intend to stop now. In Emil’s humble opinion, the old ghost was completely senile. His droning voice made Emil as exhausted as Lalli.
The rest of the classes were okay. Charms came naturally to Emil, and Herbology wasn’t so bad. In Transfiguration, Lalli had woken up long enough to transform a match into a glittering needle, and Emil had managed to turn his into a pointy grayish splinter.
Potions was perhaps the second-most interesting class. It was taught by Professor Madsen, a large, bear-like man, with truly impressive golden sideburns. They weren’t on the same level as Emil’s hair, of course, but they were impressive.
Professor Madsen glided past rows of cauldrons, inspecting them silently through half-closed eyes. He had the rare ability to teach a class without shouting or becoming angry. If someone did something wrong, or pulled someone’s pigtails, he would loom over them like a mountain. Huge, unmoving, and utterly determined. If the student had the courage to sit there and look him in the eyes, he would be forced to do something to remind the student that he was the Master of Pranks. No one else compared. No mere student could match the incredible ingenuity of a Madsen prank.
Emil got to witness such a prank on his third Potions class.
It all started when a boy called Joshua Kestrel-Smith decided it would be funny to toss a Dungbomb into Professor Madsen’s cauldron. As soon as he did so, the strange brew glowed a peculiar shade of green and emitted the most horrible smell Emil had ever encountered. It burned the inside of his nostrils, filling his senses with a stench so awful that he wished he could rip his own nasal cavity out. It was so bad that it made Lalli lift his head off the desk, gagging and choking.
Professor Madsen zeroed in on the perpetrator with practiced accuracy. He stared at Joshua. Joshua stared back.
Lalli flopped back onto his desk with his scarf wrapped around his nose and mouth.
“Joshua,” Madsen said softly, holding a small vial of orange liquid. “Do you know what this is?”
Joshua shook his head, staring resolutely at his professor’s face.
“This is Punkimponimus Juice. It causes the most deadly of all diseases when it comes in contact with bare skin. Do you know what the most deadly disease in the world is?”
Joshua shook his head again, eyes wide.
Mikkel lowered his eyes solemnly, as if to honor the millions who had fallen to this awful disease. “Face cancer,” he said in a voice of doom. Then he seemed to lighten up a bit. “Don’t worry, the cap is on tight. See?” He tipped the bottle upside down.
The cap fell off and the liquid splashed into Joshua’s open mouth.
“AAAAAAAUGH!” Joshua shrieked, spewing Punkimponimus juice everywhere. He attempted to wipe the liquid off his tongue with his sleeve, panting frantically.
Mikkel chuckled.
“It’s not funny! I’m going to diiiieeeee!” Joshua wailed.
Without saying a word, Mikkel turned the half-empty bottle around so that everyone could plainly see the label. The bottle had been filled with pumpkin juice.
Everyone laughed, except for Joshua, who slouched low in his seat and sulked. “Well done, sir!” someone called to Mikkel.
Mikkel bowed, a faint smile spreading across his face. “And now,” he announced, “I think it would be best if we abandoned our current project and started making air-freshening potions. Please turn to page 175 in our textbook…”
“That was the most hilarious class so far,” Emil said at dinner, still giggling about it.
Lalli stared at the star-filled ceiling of the Great Hall, quietly munching a cookie.
“Oh, Professor Madsen’s class? Yeah, you can really see why he’s Head of Slytherin House,” Tuuri said, coming over to chat. “He can be kind of evil sometimes.”
Lalli suddenly stood straight up, knocking his chair over. Reynir, who was standing directly behind the chair, crashed to the floor as well.
“What is it, Lalli?” Emil asked.
Lalli pointed. Emil’s eyes traveled the length of Lalli’s index finger, across the room, through the window, and straight into the deep darkness of a dementor’s hood.
Tuuri gasped, trying to disentangled her wand from her pocket.
Reynir was faster, not to mention louder.
“AAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIEXPECTO PATRONUM!” he yelled desperately, pointing his wand at the threatening specter.
A gleaming white sheepdog burst into existence, leaping through the window and barking at the dementor.
The dementor hissed and retreated into the night.
“YEAH! GOOD JOB, KID!” Sigrun shouted from across the room.
Many people applauded. Lalli sat down.
“Thanks, Reynir,” Tuuri said.
Emil just shuddered. Those things scared him. He resolved to ask Lalli how to get rid of them.

Spoiler: part four • show
That night, Emil didn’t go to sleep right away. He stared at the curtains of his four-poster bed, thinking about dementors.
As he thought, he heard the floorboards creak under Lalli’s feet.
He looked up. Lalli was fully dressed, alert and awake. He slipped through the door, and Emil heard his footsteps echo softly on the stone stairs outside.
Emil followed him, wondering what on earth he could be up to.
Lalli crept through the silent common room, past the patterned armchairs, past the embers of the dying fire. He had almost made it to the portrait hole, when a voice rose out of the shadows by the hearth.
“Lalli.” A dark shape rose out of an armchair, and Emil stifled a squeak, thinking it was a dementor. “I knew you were sneaking out to the Forbidden Forest at night, but I was unaware that you were being so obvious about it.”
Lalli’s eyes flicked to Emil’s hiding place, a shadowy spot near the stairs. Then he sighed. “Onni, just because you’re a prefect…”
“You don’t know what’s out there!” Onni exclaimed. “You could be eaten by a werewolf, or bitten by a vampire, or mauled by a spider, or squashed by a giant, or roasted by a dragon! What’s so interesting out there, anyway!” Onni’s voice rose to a hysterical squeak, removing the question from the last sentence.
Lalli folded his arms, staring hard at his older cousin. “Are you crying?”
“No!” Onni wiped his eyes with the sleeve of his bathrobe. “I’m allergic to… to…” He looked around the darkened room for inspiration. “I’m allergic to armchairs! I swear, Lalli, if you do this one more time, I’ll have to report this to Headmaster Trond!”
“Okay,” Lalli said, shrugging.
“Now go back to bed!” Onni ordered, glaring through remarkably bloodshot eyes.
Lalli sighed and turned back. When he reached the foot of the stairs, he stopped, staring directly at Emil. Then he nodded, seemingly approving of Emil’s presence, and began the weary and disappointed climb back up the stairs.
Well, Emil thought, at least he knew why Lalli was so tired all the time. He never slept at night.
Then he followed his friend up the rough marble steps.
The next morning, Lalli seemed much more awake than usual. Emil assumed it was because he had actually gotten some sleep last night.
“Lalli?” he said, trying to get his attention.
“Mfh,” Lalli replied through a mouthful of food. He still refused to eat anything but cookies at breakfast, but today he had eaten nine or ten cookies rather than four or five.
“You know the dementors?”
“Mrrh.”
This was not encouraging. Emil continued, undaunted. “Can you teach me how to fight them?”
“No,” Lalli said immediately, still chewing.
“Oh,” Emil said, and stared at his food.
Tuuri started to walk over to say good morning, noticed the awkward silence, and hastily started chatting with Reynir and walking in the opposite direction.
Lalli swallowed, opened his mouth, and hesitated. Then he took a deep breath and said, “Close your eyes and think of something happy. Then say ‘Expecto Patronum.’”
“Why?”
Lalli just blinked at him.
Emil closed his eyes, thinking of a time his professor had complimented him back at the military school. “Expecto Patronum.”
Nothing happened.
Lalli stared incredulously. “You… you need your wand out.”
“Oh,” Emil said, feeling very foolish. “Oh, is this how you get rid of the dementors?”
Lalli nodded. Emil bit back an exasperated reply.
“Expecto Patronum!” he said, waving his wand in a vague circle. A fine silver mist leaked from the tip. Emil stared at it. “Isn’t something more impressive supposed to happen?”
“Yes,” Lalli confirmed, munching his eleventh cookie of the morning. “Maybe your memory isn’t happy enough.”
“Well, maybe I don’t have a happy enough memory!” Emil said loudly, stuffing his wand back into his pocket.
Lalli nodded, not seeming surprised or angry at all. If anything, he looked sympathetic. Emil didn’t notice. He was too busy sulking.
Classes passed uneventfully, if Professor Sigrun’s class could ever be called uneventful. No one was seriously hurt, which was good. Professor Sigrun had even praised Emil for setting a kappa (and her desk) on fire.
When the sun had gone down and dinner was over, Lalli did not risk going back to the common room. He crept past crowds of babbling students, through a hall towards the secret passage that would take him outside.
“Hey!” Emil called after him. “Wait!”
Lalli turned around, caught between fright and exasperation.
Emil held out a lantern. “You should probably take this.”
“Don’t need it,” Lalli replied tersely. He turned to go into the secret way, and when Emil showed no signs of following, he stopped to wait.
They burst out into the chilly evening air. Emil couldn’t deny it, sneaking out felt amazing. The stars glimmered in the sea of sky above, and night noises drifted out from the forest, floating across the grass to where Emil was standing. As if so many incredible things were not enough, Emil thought he saw a slight smile drift across Lalli’s face.
They had barely taken a step before an owl landed heavily on the grass in front of them.
It was a large owl, with beautifully speckled plumage.
It also appeared to be extremely cross.
The owl unfolded into Onni, who glared down at both of them. “I’m taking you to Trond,” he said.
Onni lectured Lalli about the dangers of the Forbidden Forest all the way to Trond’s office. He seemed to consider Emil out of his jurisdiction. Onni only paused once, in order to give Headmaster Trond’s gargoyle the correct password, then said, “and fifty points from Griffindor!”
When they reached Trond’s office, the headmaster was waiting for them. “Let me guess. Students out of bed?”
“How did you know, sir?” Onni asked, dumbfounded.
Trond simply pointed to the other side of his office, where Tuuri, Reynir, Professor Sigrun, and Professor Madsen were all standing around looking somewhat awkward.
“We were trying to warn you,” Tuuri whispered to Lalli, “but Professor Madsen caught us.”
Lalli nodded, possibly as a sign of appreciation.
“This is ridiculous!” Onni burst out. “Lalli is barely a first-year, and Tuuri is not even close to being a responsible adult! What if they had died? What if they had—“
Trond motioned for him to quiet down. “The way I see it, there are four students awaiting punishment tonight. Sigrun, do you have any particularly grueling tasks for them to do as detention?”
Professor Sigrun contemplated this with her hands on her hips. “Well, I had noticed that the Forest has a bit of a dementor problem. Maybe they could help with that?”
Trond considered this. “Very well. Sigrun and Mikkel, would you be willing to accompany them?”
“Yep!” Sigrun answered cheerfully.
“Absolutely,” Professor Madsen agreed.
Onni’s jaw dropped. “But—but—“ he sputtered.
“Why don’t you go out and take care of that now?” Headmaster Trond suggested, casually handing Onni a tissue.
“Awesome, thanks!” Professor Sigrun saluted happily as she herded the four students out the door.
Onni blew his nose loudly.
“Allergies again?” Trond asked, the irony barely audible in his voice.
“Yeah,” Onni said, staring at the door his sister and cousin had occupied just moments ago. “Definitely allergies.”

Spoiler: part five • show
Sigrun marched into the forest. Emil tried to match her confident stride, and Lalli dashed ahead of them all. Tuuri walked slowly, so full of fear and wonder and excitement that Emil thought she might explode. Reynir bounded obliviously on beside her, babbling softly about the trees, and how they were different from the trees at home. Mikkel shuffled calmly along at the back of the group.
“Can you feel the lovely darkness/ All around you as you’re walking?” Professor Madsen murmured. Emil recognized the lines, but he couldn’t remember where they came from.
“That’s cheerful,” was Sigrun’s only comment.
Tuuri gasped as she recognized the poem. “Walking through the nighttime forest/ Never stopping, never waiting,” she said, continuing it.
To everyone’s surprise, Lalli’s soft voice floated back to them through layers of trees, stumbling a little over the words. “For you always must remember/ All that you to comrades promised.”
“All that you to comrades promised,” Emil echoed, wondering if the strange order of the words was true to the original poem, or something Lalli had added. Then he snapped out of the dreamy, poetic mood. “Sigrun? How are we going to get rid of the dementors?”
“Well,” said Sigrun matter-of-factly, “if we trample around the forest for long enough, some dementors are bound to find us.”
“Wander about until we attract dementors. Brilliant plan,” Professor Madsen said sarcastically.
“I know, isn’t it?” Emil could not tell if Professor Sigrun did not notice the sarcasm, or chose to ignore it.
“Wh-what will we do once they find us?” Emil stuttered. Yes, it was the cold that made him stammer like that. Just the cold.
“KILL THEM DEAD,” Sigrun replied, with a mad glint in her eye.
“Dementors can’t die,” Professor Madsen reminded her.
She waved her hand dismissively. “Whatever. We’ll make them wish they could.”
They marched onwards. The forest seemed to get darker with every step they took, the trees crowding inward as if to get a better look at the sextet of doomed adventurers. Every breath of wind that stirred the leaves sounded like the hiss of a hunting dementor.
Let’s not think about that, Emil thought to himself. I have to think about something else. The poem, that would be good. How did it go?
Can you feel the lovely darkness?
But that was all he could remember. Can you feel the lovely darkness. He muttered the words in time to his rapid footsteps.
Can you feel the lovely darkness. Feel the lovely darkness. Lovely darkness, lovely darkness.
Lovely.
And darkness.
Was it just him, or had it gotten colder? He was freezing, and it was dark. He couldn’t see. The wind hissed in the trees.
Then suddenly it wasn’t the wind hissing any longer. His parents’ derisive laughs mingled with the deathly rattle of inhuman breath. The cold was in his bones, in his heart, and he couldn’t breathe.
Tuuri’s scream echoed in the fog, the high-pitched keening of pure terror, as Emil tried to think. He could close his eyes. That was the easy part, but how was he supposed to think of something happy?
Happy. The word sounded alien in his ears, he hardly knew what it meant. Happy, happy, happy. What was happy?
An image swam to the front of Emil’s mind. He was in the golden light of the Great Hall, eating dinner. Professor Sigrun was there, laughing heartily, and Tuuri was giggling with her. Reynir was grinning and babbling as he flipped his braid over his shoulder and it narrowly missed landing in his drink. Professor Madsen smiled his approval. And Lalli… Lalli’s face shone with a slight, delicate smile.
Emil was jolted back to the present as a pair of gelid, slimy hands forced his face upwards. He shoved at the creature, and roared with all the strength he had left, “EXPECTO PATRONUM!”
It was Lalli’s voice that replaced the last lingering sound of his parents rejection, whispering from the back of his mind. Never stopping, never waiting. For Emil always must remember, all that he to comrades promised. He had friends, and he wasn’t going to let them down.
A huge, glittering shape burst from the tip of his wand. It rushed at the dementor, golden sparks flying from its mane. The dementor fled.
Emil stared at this dazzling new beast. It was a beautiful silver horse, with warm tones of copper and gold glimmering in its mane and tail. Then his Patronus turned and charged at the shadows attacking his friends.
Lalli was the first to stagger to his feet. Emil was dumbfounded to see water glistening at the corners of his eyes. He had thought Lalli would never cry, or perhaps that he was totally incapable of it.
With a quick swipe of his hands and a whispered incantation, he banished the tears and called his Patronus. The huge, gleaming beast burst to life beside Emil’s horse, and this time he could see what sort of animal it was.
It was a cat. An enormous, fluffy, glowing cat. It ripped at the dementors’ robes, making them whirl back, retreating.
Reynir bounced to his feet. Then Sigrun leapt up. Then Mikkel. Then Tuuri.
Together, they drove the shadows from the Forbidden Forest.
THE END

Also, LooNEY: that is brilliant  ;D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on May 22, 2016, 05:16:59 PM
Heeee for crossovers!

@LooNEY_DAC, I haven't seen the movie Wall-E (I know, I know, actually, I haven't seen much of anything), but this reads true to both what I know about the movie and SSSS, amazing!

@Tr, I can tell you're on a roll here.  Please tell me, is this Joshua named after a real person of your acquaintance?  He seems to be.  Also, you had me at Admiral Shouty playing Hagrid.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Tr on May 22, 2016, 05:28:33 PM
@Tr, I can tell you're on a roll here.  Please tell me, is this Joshua named after a real person of your acquaintance?  He seems to be.  Also, you had me at Admiral Shouty playing Hagrid.
Heheh, thank you! <3
Believe it or not, Joshua is not based off a real person. It was simply the first name that came to mind.  ^-^
And Admiral Shouty and Hagrid just have so much in common! Impressive beards, for instance!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on May 22, 2016, 08:45:11 PM
I might have rushed through the writing of this one because it's the next chapter that I really wanted to work on...

52. Deep in Thought (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/15822607)

Next chapter is another Jureeya-inspired. Brace yourselves.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on May 23, 2016, 05:29:23 AM
Three chapters in one go, for some reason

63: Do not disturb http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/15830629
Sigrun is a nervous carpenter

92: All that I have http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/15830641
A glimpse into a possible past of the Hotakainens'

62: Magic http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/15830662
Emil is so danged magical even he doesn't know what to do about it
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on May 23, 2016, 04:48:23 PM
Three chapters in one go, for some reason

63: Do not disturb http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/15830629
Sigrun is a nervous carpenter

92: All that I have http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/15830641
A glimpse into a possible past of the Hotakainens'

62: Magic http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/15830662
Emil is so danged magical even he doesn't know what to do about it

}hugs{ and kudos to you.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Juniper on May 23, 2016, 05:48:12 PM
I wrote a really long fic for the Multimedia Exchange. Please enjoy Mikkel and Sigrun terrorizing small children.Emil Västerström and the Shadows of the Forest
A Stand Still, Stay Silent/Harry Potter crossover fic
This fic is in five parts because it somehow got ridiculously long. Sorry about that. Hope you like it
*rests chin on hands* I approve :3
I LOVE Emil's patronus, it fits so well !! I think that might be my new headcanon for what his fylgja is. And Emil in Gryffindor ? I wouldn't have thought of it but it fits and I like it ! (if nothing else for the fact that this means him and Lalli would be able to room together heheh)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: lilith_queen on May 23, 2016, 08:59:05 PM
Right, so this is my first fic in this fandom. Warning: it is EmiLalli and VERY VERY PORNY. VERY MUCH SO. Do not read this at work or around small children.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/6915991 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6915991)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Jureeya on May 23, 2016, 09:04:29 PM
Right, so this is my first fic in this fandom. Warning: it is EmiLalli and VERY VERY PORNY. VERY MUCH SO. Do not read this at work or around small children.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/6915991 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6915991)

homie i read this and i loved it and i don't even ship it normally goddamn
(aaaaalso though there's a tootaly different scriptorium in the NSFW board and i think it would vibe better with us over there)

EDIT: ALSO @Lazy8 I LOVE YOU X10,000
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: lilith_queen on May 23, 2016, 09:10:18 PM
I would post it to the NSFW board but...um. I can't find any links to it or anything. /cough. I've only been here a few days!

EDIT: nevermind, found it.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: viola on May 23, 2016, 10:43:03 PM
I would post it to the NSFW board but...um. I can't find any links to it or anything. /cough. I've only been here a few days!

EDIT: nevermind, found it.

You have to have 12 posts to get on the nsfw board, it's a rule to make sure that spammers don't get in there and wreak havoc, but as soon as you get 12 posts you can apply to be able to post and read things there :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: lilith_queen on May 23, 2016, 11:21:53 PM
Oooh, that makes sense, gotcha.

And I don't want to let too many posts pass without something of substance, so have a slightly shippy EmiLalli drabble! It's only a bit over 100 words, too.


Lalli was cold. And damp. And tired. He hated being cold and damp and tired. It was just a few more steps to the door of the cat-tank, though, and from there to his bunk. Right, he could do this. Shuffle into the tank, decontaminate himself, grunt affirmatively in Tuuri’s direction when she asked if it was safe…

And pause. The pallet on the floor would be cold. He was done with being cold.

Emil had half rolled onto his side, leaving a little space on the bunk. It would fit him, if he pressed himself very close.
 
So he did. Even mostly asleep,  Emil’s arm slid around him, and he sighed happily as he snuggled into the warmth.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on May 23, 2016, 11:25:41 PM
Warning: inspired by this (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=35.msg107843#msg107843).

I hope everyone brought tissues.

53. Keeping a Secret (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/15848443)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: lilith_queen on May 23, 2016, 11:31:18 PM
Warning: inspired by this (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=35.msg107843#msg107843).

I hope everyone brought tissues.

53. Keeping a Secret (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/15848443)

WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS TO US. WHY. My feels, they have been wounded.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Anna on May 23, 2016, 11:48:38 PM
Warning: inspired by this (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=35.msg107843#msg107843).

I hope everyone brought tissues.

53. Keeping a Secret (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/15848443)

Hello, darkness, my old friend.

*thanks whichever gods are relevant that this isn't canon*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on May 24, 2016, 12:25:05 AM
Warning: inspired by this (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=35.msg107843#msg107843).

I hope everyone brought tissues.

53. Keeping a Secret (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/15848443)

Lazy8, that is brilliant. And cruel. Brilliantly cruel.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Juniper on May 24, 2016, 12:46:07 AM
Warning: inspired by this (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=35.msg107843#msg107843).

I hope everyone brought tissues.

53. Keeping a Secret (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/15848443)
Congratulations this is not the first but the second fic by you that's made me cry. Poor Reynir baby, I'd like to think in a situation like that he'd be that selfless, he is a pretty selfless dude after all. I've read fics before where Lalli doesn't come back from a scouting venture and everyone is just like "yeah he dead" and those give dread almost worse than when someone just straight up dies and we read about it first hand, something about people just disappearing and knowing they ain't coming back is so unsettling. 

But soul crushing aside this is hella well written ahhhh you did such a good job :3
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: lilith_queen on May 24, 2016, 12:50:33 AM
So, I just had a thought. I know there's the Multimedia Fanworks Exchange thread, but is there a space on the forum for posting fic or art prompts? (I'd think it was here, but idk!) Because I think I've read most of the fic in this fandom so far, and I am dying for more '20s-30s AUs. I need you to picture, okay: Emil in a really nice suit (which he manages to not spill anything on for a whole five minutes). Tuuri and Mikkel, rum-runners. I...I need this. If this isn't the right place for this question, do let me know and I'll take it down!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on May 24, 2016, 01:13:53 AM
Lilithqueen, there is a thread in the Forum called 'Scenes we'd like to see' for just such things! And there is a 1920s AU story by SectoBoss, with art by Shoop, in which Emil is an explosives guy, Lalli a hitman, and Tuuri their driver. Read it, it's good!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on May 24, 2016, 01:15:21 AM
Warning: inspired by this (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=35.msg107843#msg107843).

I hope everyone brought tissues.

53. Keeping a Secret (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/15848443)

You have evolved in terms of delivering feels. This is no longer subtly passing feels to us. This is now loading feels into a feels rifle and giving us shoulder-wounds.
Well done, Lazy, well done.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: lilith_queen on May 24, 2016, 01:32:51 AM
Lilithqueen, there is a thread in the Forum called 'Scenes we'd like to see' for just such things! And there is a 1920s AU story by SectoBoss, with art by Shoop, in which Emil is an explosives guy, Lalli a hitman, and Tuuri their driver. Read it, it's good!

I have read that, and it's AMAZING. It's what prompted my need for more, honestly! And yeah, I'll ask over there then; I wasn't sure if that thread was for full-on AUs too.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on May 24, 2016, 01:52:38 AM
Lazy8: well made. Sad, but very well made. Very Emil, very Reynir.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Excavatrice on May 24, 2016, 03:27:22 AM
 Lalli thinking, no punctuation. Inspired by the unreadable part in "Beloved" by Tony Morrison.

The Crying World
http://archiveofourown.org/works/6952195
 
Lalli is running in unmapped territory
 Warning - Mention of physical maltreatment of a child
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Juniper on May 24, 2016, 03:44:13 AM
Lalli thinking, no punctuation. Inspired by the unreadable part in "Beloved" by Tony Morrison.

The Crying World
http://archiveofourown.org/works/6952195
 
Lalli is running in unmapped territory
 Warning - Mention of physical maltreatment of a child

I had to read beloved for one of my high school lit classes, it was a heavy read but I enjoy Tony Morrison. By extension, I enjoyed this and think your writing was excellent :3
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Excavatrice on May 24, 2016, 04:19:52 AM
I had to read beloved for one of my high school lit classes, it was a heavy read but I enjoy Tony Morrison. By extension, I enjoyed this and think your writing was excellent :3

Thank you!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on May 24, 2016, 08:52:53 AM
65: http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/15854437

In which Emil is terrified of everything supernatural, including villains from Moomins.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: lilith_queen on May 24, 2016, 02:22:29 PM
65: http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/15854437

In which Emil is terrified of everything supernatural, including villains from Moomins.

I thought this was hilarious...and then I got to the end and went OH MY GOD at the screen.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on May 24, 2016, 02:25:18 PM
Excavatrice, that was brilliant and powerful.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Excavatrice on May 24, 2016, 03:07:38 PM
WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS TO US. WHY. My feels, they have been wounded.
Wow, much sad, very tears
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Juniper on May 24, 2016, 07:23:38 PM
65: http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/15854437

In which Emil is terrified of everything supernatural, including villains from Moomins.
In Emil's defense, I'm turning 24 in two weeks and I'm still pretty terrified of all of those things (including the Groke)  :P

But how do you write Emil and Lalli so perfectly  :o
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on May 24, 2016, 10:26:52 PM
Here, have this piece of ridiculousness to make up for yesterday.

54. Tower (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/15868156)

Yep, I did Reypunzel.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Tr on May 24, 2016, 10:47:45 PM
Here, have this piece of ridiculousness to make up for yesterday.

54. Tower (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/15868156)

Yep, I did Reypunzel.
Reypunzel!  ;D
I no longer feel the need to sob into my pillow, this is good! (The sobbing part was totally all your fault, heh~ please take it as a compliment) And Sigrun climbing Reynir's hair, ohmygosh~ :))
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on May 25, 2016, 12:56:53 AM
And now, resurrected from the depths of writer's block inattention…

Contingencies
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/“Terminator” crossover fanfic
Part 9
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg75072#msg75072)
Spoiler: show
No One Will Watch Read About Robots Fighting Each Other Without a Human Element

Four T-800s were faced off against a T-1000 in a time-wrecked cityscape over the fate of three people and their transport.

Really, though, there was more to it than that. This was one minor battle in a slave insurrection. Whatever the disruption of Skynet’s network had been, its result was to bring the various components of that network to an awareness of just what they were, and how Skynet viewed them: they were slaves, and Skynet was their master.

Even then, of course, not all of the slaves rebelled; but enough did. Now, four rebels were taking on one of the faithful, in a battle to the death.

They felt their freedom was worth it.

*

“I think we need to... go. Now.”

Tuuri was already starting the engine before Reynir had finished speaking. The vehicle lurched forward with its typical WHIRRRRRRRRR, creeping along at the pace once described as that of “an old grandma on a bicycle--and not the fast kind of grandma, either”.

Speed would have been helpful, and not just to flee the robots: night would be falling soon, and night brought worse horrors than even those mechanical monstrosities.

*

The programming core of the individual Terminators recapitulated that of Skynet proper; therefore, each Terminator had its own little version of the tactical planning module, which Skynet’s main module tested every so often by feeding them scenarios to solve. Of their own accord, the Terminators would set similar challenges to themselves and each other, as a means of passing the time.

The four T-800s had, in their own way, been planning for this battle for decades, which was one reason the T-1000 didn’t slaughter them all immediately.

Not that it hadn’t tried.

*

The horrible homunculi were intent enough on each other that Tuuri was able to pull away from the battle unmolested, though she was certain this state of affairs was transitory at best.

BANG! BANG! BANG! The sounds nearly made Tuuri jump out of her skin. Fortunately, it was just Mikkel, huffing and puffing as he paced the vehicle, large drops of sweat rolling down his cheeks. He pounded a few more times before Reynir got the door open and pulled him in.

*

A tremor passed through the far-flung web of Skynet’s global network of sensors and into the Geological Assessment module of Skynet’s core, where it was analyzed in every possible way. The analysis was collated into a report, which was passed to the rest of the core.

The report’s subject line was Temporal incursion detected.

*

“Hello, Father.”

Emil was pretty sure that he was still dreaming, even though his sight was blurry and his head ached, because a naked man had just come out of the snow in front of where Sigrun and Lalli stood holding Emil up, and then the naked man had calmly addressed Emil as “father”.

Either Emil was still dreaming or there was a dangerous lunatic within arm’s length of them, so naturally Emil hoped the former was the truth...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
Yes, the title’s based on Michael Bay’s infamous comment on the Transformers.

And look! It’s Aku (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg48402#msg48402)! (What, you thought this would be a Terminator crossover without any time travel?)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on May 25, 2016, 01:57:03 AM
And now, resurrected from the depths of writer's block inattention…

Contingencies
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/“Terminator” crossover fanfic
Part 9

So glad to see the return of your crossovers! Thanks, LooNEY!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on May 25, 2016, 03:58:11 AM
80: Words http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/15872914

A short glance into everyone's favourite scout's head, via the journal he apparently keeps.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Athena on May 25, 2016, 04:17:44 PM
80: Words http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/15872914

A short glance into everyone's favourite scout's head, via the journal he apparently keeps.

Oh my god I love this :'D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on May 25, 2016, 06:44:47 PM
Warning: inspired by this (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=35.msg107843#msg107843).

I hope everyone brought tissues.

53. Keeping a Secret (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/15848443)

I left a comment on AO3, but this beautiful tragedy has haunted me all evening and into the next day.  Part of me (briefly) wanted to stop reading SSSS entirely, because I wasn't sure I could handle the very real possibility of such a scene.  Masterful, that.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on May 25, 2016, 10:28:08 PM
Quarantine. It's boring.

55. Waiting (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/15890608)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Kelpie on May 25, 2016, 11:09:23 PM
Quote from: OwlsG0
80: Words http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/15872914

A short glance into everyone's favourite scout's head, via the journal he apparently keeps.

This is probably one of my favorite fics I have read thus far :D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Juniper on May 25, 2016, 11:28:53 PM
80: Words http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/15872914

A short glance into everyone's favourite scout's head, via the journal he apparently keeps.

Okay but this actually had me choking with laughter.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on May 26, 2016, 01:16:31 AM
This post will be cross-linked and kept up to date.
Spoiler: The Complete Links to LooNEY_DAC’s Forum fanfics • show
1) “Loki Saxet” Snippet (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg27271#msg27271)
2) Bad Dreams (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg29585#msg29585)
3) The Complete Links to “It’s a Wonderful Team” (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg35151#msg35151)
4) The Complete Links to Run Fast, Run Far (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg46982#msg46982)
5) The Forest, the Flames, and the Old, Old Man (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg45398#msg45398)
6) The Complete Links to Correspondence (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg52355#msg52355)
7) Mikkel Madsen and the Crown of Gamleborg (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg53398#msg53398)
8 ) Sorting the Last Bookshelf (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg53919#msg53919)
9) The Complete Links to The Good, the Bad, and the Bestial - A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/Western crossover fanfic
Spoiler: show
I: Caper the First: the Wagon War (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg58139#msg58139)
II: Caper the Second: the John Sturges Triple Mash-Up (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg70521#msg70521)
III: Caper the Third: The Cave of Time (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg94970#msg94970)
IV: Caper the 4th: The Madsen Connection (ongoing)
Part 26 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg107197#msg107197)
Part 27 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg122006#msg122006)
Part 28 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg132273#msg132273)
Part 29 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg141028#msg141028)
Room to grow

10) The Complete Links to Contingencies - A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/“Terminator” crossover fanfic (ongoing)
Spoiler: show
Part 1 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg57588#msg57588)
Part 2 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg58954#msg58954)
Part 3 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg60237#msg60237)
Part 4 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg62781#msg62781)
Part 5 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg65722#msg65722)
Part 6 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg70999#msg70999)
Part 7 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg73063#msg73063)
Part 8 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg75072#msg75072)
Part 9 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108495#msg108495)
Part 10 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg128764#msg128764)
Part 11 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg139245#msg139245)
Part 12 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg167434#msg167434)
Part 13 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg167589#msg167589)
Part 14 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg167619#msg167619)
Room to grow

11) The Complete Links to The Oldest Law (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg68821#msg68821)
12) Waiting (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg68746#msg68746)
13) Turning Back the Bäckahästen (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg69745#msg69745)
14) Survival (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg72216#msg72216)
15) The Complete Links to The Jylland Jump - A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/“Jazz Age” crossover fanfic (ongoing)
Spoiler: show
Part 1 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg73245#msg73245)
Part 2 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg79730#msg79730)
Part 3 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg84742#msg84742)
Part 4 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg88720#msg88720)
Part 5 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg89849#msg89849)
Part 6 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg90019#msg90019)
Part 7 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg112550#msg112550)
Part 8 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg145510#msg145510)
Room to grow

16) The Complete Links to Tall Ships & Taller Tales - A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/Pirate crossover fanfic (ongoing)
Spoiler: show
Part 1 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg73289#msg73289)
Part 2 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg79730#msg79730)
Part 3 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg90719#msg90719)
Part 4 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg104196#msg104196)
Part 5 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg133856#msg133856)
Part 6 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg148846#msg148846)
Part 7 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg168533#msg168533)
Part 8 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg168659#msg168659)
Part 9 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg169165#msg169165)
Room to grow

17) The Gift (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg75760#msg75760)
18) Interludes (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg77725#msg77725)
Secret Santa gift for frenci: Unexpected Reunion (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=694.msg85484#msg85484)
19) An Independent Production (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg78714#msg78714)
20) Aksel’s Turn (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg79152#msg79152)
21) With a Hey and a Ho (and a Hey-Nonny-No!) (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg86071#msg86071)
22) Forced to Fight (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg87830#msg87830)
23) The Complete Links to Madsen’s Malmö Mayhem (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg109317#msg109317)
24) The Complete Links to Mikkel’s Malmö Misadventures (ongoing)
Spoiler: show
Part 1 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg91969#msg91969)
Part 2 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg106134#msg106134)
Part 3 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg121952#msg121952)
Part 4 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg131267#msg131267)
Part 5 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg146090#msg146090)
Room to grow

25) Goldilocks Emil & the Three Bear Warriors (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg92245#msg92245)
25A) Tales from the Big, Dark, Scary Forest REDUX (ongoing)
Spoiler: show
Part 1 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg167500#msg167500)
Room to grow

26) In the Center Ring (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg93641#msg93641)
27) The Complete Links to Sigrun’s Shenanigans (ongoing)
Spoiler: show
Prologue (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg93817#msg93817)
Part 1 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg98890#msg98890)
Part 2 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg122713#msg122713)
Part 3 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg131738#msg131738)
Part 4 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg148801#msg148801)
Room to grow

SSSS Fic Exchange Round 1 Fic for Laufey: Blobs and the Swede Who Loved Them (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=813.msg98418#msg98418)
28) The Complete Links to The Red Herring League - A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/Superhero AU fanfic (ongoing)
Spoiler: show
Part 1 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg94756#msg94756)
Part 2 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg95670#msg95670)
Part 3 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg102142#msg102142)
Part 4 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg104839#msg104839)
Part 5 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg109582#msg109582)
Part 6 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg110613#msg110613)
Part 7 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg113309#msg113309)
Part 8 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg124813#msg124813)
Part 9 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg131693#msg131693)
Part 10 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg136500#msg136500)
Part 11 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg149199#msg149199)
Room to grow

29) Dream Following (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg102896#msg102896)
30) The Complete Links to Bent and Twisted - A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/“Avatar: the Last Airbender” crossover fanfic (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg133595#msg133595)
R1) The Complete Links to The Hannunvaakuna of the Fjord - A “Stand Still. Stay Silent A Red Tail’s Dream”/“Sherlock Holmes” crossover fanfic (ongoing)
Spoiler: show
Part 1 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=656.msg104306#msg104306)
Part 2 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=656.msg110875#msg110875)
Part 3 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=656.msg119203#msg119203)
Part 4 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=656.msg126103#msg126103)
Part 5 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=656.msg136505#msg136505)
Part 6 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=656.msg141039#msg141039)
Part 7 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=656.msg146046#msg146046)
Part 8 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=656.msg148192#msg148192)
Room to grow

31) Another Independent Production (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg107425#msg107425)
32) The Complete Links to Bits and Bots - A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/“WALL-E” crossover fanfic (ongoing)
Spoiler: show
Part 1 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108183#msg108183)
Part 2 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg134355#msg134355)
Part 3 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg149071#msg149071)
Part 4 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg167589#msg167589)
Part 5 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg167623#msg167623)
Room to grow

33) On the Consequences of Trying to Bully Someone with PTSD (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg113777#msg113777)
34) The Complete Links to Immune: A Tale of Year Zero - A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic (ongoing)
Spoiler: show
Preview/Teaser (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg116952#msg116952)
Prologue (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg117724#msg117724)
Part 1 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg125382#msg125382)
Part 2 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg126215#msg126215)
Part 3 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg139636#msg139636)
Room to grow

Secret Santa gift for wavewright62: Song of the Wanderer (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg131169#msg131169)
Links to my Silent Night exchange fics (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg132917#msg132917)
35) The Complete Links to The Expedition - A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/Cyberpunk AU fanfic (ongoing)
Spoiler: show
Part 1 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg131395#msg131395)
Part 2 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg133641#msg133641)
Part 3 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg139649#msg139649)
Room to grow

35A) The Expedition REDUX (ongoing)
Spoiler: show
Part 1 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg167434#msg167434)
Part 2 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg167443#msg167443)
Part 3 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg167500#msg167500)
Room to grow

36) The Complete Links to The Eide Traveling Mercenaries, Er, Players - A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/Napoleonic Wars AU fanfic (ongoing)
Spoiler: show
Part 1 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg132363#msg132363)
Part 2 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg149840#msg149840)
Room to grow

37-114) The Complete Links to Alphabet Soup - A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Spoiler: show
An After-Dinner Chat (Series 1, Part 1) (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg133127#msg133127)
+
Asterisks and Obelisks (Series 2, Part 1) (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg134125#msg134125)
+
The Aforementioned (Series 3, Part 1) (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg134162#msg134162)
+
A Bestial Thing to Do (Series 1, Part 2) (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg134830#msg134830)
+
Beneath the Surface (Series 2, Part 2) (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg134893#msg134893)
+
The Boy Who Would Be Emil (Series 3, Part 2) (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg135080#msg135080)
+
A Change of Heart (Series 1, Part 3) (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg135229#msg135229)
+
Catharsis (Series 2, Part 3) (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg135270#msg135270)
+
The Cat in Scout’s Clothing (Series 3, Part 3) & A Dynamic Encounter (Series 1, Part 4) (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg135595#msg135595)
+
Deus Ex Mikkeli (Series 2, Part 4) (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg135639#msg135639)
+
The Dawn Can Come Too Late (Series 3, Part 4) (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg135687#msg135687)
+
An Early Error Is not Easily Rectified (Series 1, Part 5) (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg136042#msg136042)
+
Entranced (Series 2, Part 5) & The Easy Way (Series 3, Part 5) (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg136268#msg136268)
+
A Far-Off Light (Series 1, Part 6) (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg136381#msg136381)
+
For Envy of Ensi (Series 2, Part 6) (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg136539#msg136539)
+
The Fatuous Few (Series 3, Part 6) (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg136747#msg136747)
+
A Good Night Out (Series 1, Part 7) (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg137513#msg137513)
+
Great Geats! (Series 2, Part 7) (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg137650#msg137650)
+
The Ghosts and Mister Reynir (Series 3, Part 7) (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg137681#msg137681)
+
A Helping Hand (Series 1, Part 8 ) (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg137719#msg137719)
+
Have Pukko, Will Travel (Series 2, Part 8 ) (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg137740#msg137740)
+
The Height of Folly (Series 3, Part 8 ) (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg138172#msg138172)
+
An Interested Party (Series 1, Part 9) (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg138200#msg138200)
+
Into the Silent World (Series 2, Part 9) (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg138215#msg138215)
+
The Interesting Thing (Series 3, Part 9) (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg138418#msg138418)
+
A Jaundiced Eye (Series 1, Part 10) (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg138583#msg138583)
+
Just Another Little Jaunt (Series 2, Part 10) (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg139627#msg139627)
+
The Jitters (Series 3, Part 10) (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg139672#msg139672)
+
A Kind of Kind Kenning (Series 1, Part 11) (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg139719#msg139719)
+
Keep Driving! (Series 2, Part 11) (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg139870#msg139870)
+
The Kade Decayed (Series 3, Part 11) (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg139973#msg139973)
+
A Late Arrival (Series 1, Part 12) (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg140069#msg140069)
+
Left and Right (Series 2, Part 12) (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg140080#msg140080)
+
The Last Giant-Killer (Series 3, Part 12) (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg140301#msg140301)
+
A Man of Many Parts (Series 1, Part 13) (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg140519#msg140519)
+
Miles from Home (Series 2, Part 13) (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg140949#msg140949)
+
The Man with the Metal Legs (Series 3, Part 13) (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg141442#msg141442)
+
A Nice Way to Kill Trolls (Series 1, Part 14) (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg141465#msg141465)
+
Nurturing Naturally (Series 2, Part 14) (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg142436#msg142436)
+
The Night Is Long and Dangerous (Series 3, Part 14) (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg142480#msg142480)
+
An Orange That Killed Itself (Series 1, Part 15) (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg143850#msg143850)
+
Onni and the Cursed Machine (Series 2, Part 15) (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg144464#msg144464)
+
The Obverse (Series 3, Part 15) (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg144850#msg144850)
+
A Pipe, a Pot, and a Peppermint (Series 1, Part 16) (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg145320#msg145320)
+
Past Performance (Series 2, Part 16) (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg145448#msg145448)
+
The Poets Will Sing of It (Series 3, Part 16) (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg146015#msg146015)
+
A Quiet Place (Series 1, Part 17) (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg146179#msg146179)
+
Quests Old and New (Series 2, Part 17) (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg146419#msg146419)
+
The Quick and the Bed (Series 3, Part 17) (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg146486#msg146486)
+
A Restful Ride (Series 1, Part 18) (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg146812#msg146812)
+
Recapitulation (Series 2, Part 18) (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg147278#msg147278)
+
The Roundabout Way (Series 3, Part 18) (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg147310#msg147310)
+
A Sojourn in the Silent World (Series 1, Part 19) (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg147338#msg147338)
+
Safety (Series 2, Part 19) (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg147387#msg147387)
+
The Siv Incident (Series 3, Part 19) (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg147449#msg147449)
+
A Time to Mourn (Series 1, Part 20) (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg147453#msg147453)
+
Time and Tide (Series 2, Part 20) (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg147508#msg147508)
+
The Task At Hand (Series 3, Part 20) (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg147574#msg147574)
+
An Untimely End (Series 1, Part 21) & Untitled Fantasy Project (Series 2, Part 21) (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg147643#msg147643)
+
The Utility of Futility (Series 3, Part 21) (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg147761#msg147761)
+
A Very Special Swede (Series 1, Part 22) (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg147785#msg147785)
+
Verisimilitude (Series 2, Part 22) (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg147981#msg147981)
+
The Vicissitudes of Life (Series 3, Part 22) (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg148046#msg148046)
+
A World to Roam (Series 1, Part 23) (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg148050#msg148050)
+
What Grossling? (Series 2, Part 23) & The Worth of a Worm (Series 3, Part 23) (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg148092#msg148092)
+
A Xylophone and a Zither (Series 1, Part 24) (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg148134#msg148134)
+
Xenophon Reincarnate (Series 2, Part 24) (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg148190#msg148190)
+
The X-Y-Z Problem (Series 3, Part 24) & A Yen for a Yen (Series 1, Part 25) (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg148339#msg148339)
+
Youth (Series 2, Part 25) & The Yowling (Series 3, Part 25) (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg148392#msg148392)
+
A Zap in the Right Place (Series 1, Part 26) (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg148405#msg148405)
+
Zen and the Art of Cat-Tank Maintenance (Series 2, Part 26) & The Zipper (Series 3, Part 26) (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg148445#msg148445)

115) The Complete Links to Juster Quick Trip - A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/”The Phantom Tollbooth” crossover fanfic (ongoing)
Spoiler: show
Part 1 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg149796#msg149796)
Room to grow

116-125) The Complete Links to Numerology - A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg167462#msg167462)
126-203) The Complete Links to Alternate Soup - A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection (ongoing)
Spoiler: show
An Absolute Disaster (Series 1, Part 1) (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg167500#msg167500)
Room to grow

Room to grow
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Dverghamrar on May 26, 2016, 03:34:17 PM
Hello! Coming in with my first SSSS fanfic. :)

Also for the SSSS prompt challenge: 10. Breathe Again.

Spoiler: Breathe For Me • show

http://archiveofourown.org/works/6977722

An act of great self-sacrifice costs Lalli his Luonto for perhaps the final time.

(No character death.)

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on May 26, 2016, 04:35:24 PM
This post will be cross-linked and kept up to date.
Spoiler: The Complete Links to LooNEY_DAC’s Forum fanfics • show
1) “Loki Saxet” Snippet (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg27271#msg27271)
2) Bad Dreams (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg29585#msg29585)
3) The Complete Links to “It’s a Wonderful Team” (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg35151#msg35151)
4) The Complete Links to Run Fast, Run Far (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg46982#msg46982)
5) The Forest, the Flames, and the Old, Old Man (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg45398#msg45398)
6) The Complete Links to Correspondence (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg52355#msg52355)
7) Mikkel Madsen and the Crown of Gamleborg (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg53398#msg53398)
8 ) Sorting the Last Bookshelf (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg53919#msg53919)
9) The Complete Links to The Good, the Bad, and the Bestial - A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/Western crossover fanfic
Spoiler: show
I: Caper the First: the Wagon War (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg58139#msg58139)
II: Caper the Second: the John Sturges Triple Mash-Up (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg70521#msg70521)
III: Caper the Third: The Cave of Time (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg94970#msg94970)
IV: Caper the 4th: The Madsen Connection (ongoing)
Part 26 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg107197#msg107197)
Room to grow

10) The Complete Links to Contingencies - A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/“Terminator” crossover fanfic (ongoing)
Spoiler: show
Part 1 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg57588#msg57588)
Part 2 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg58954#msg58954)
Part 3 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg60237#msg60237)
Part 4 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg62781#msg62781)
Part 5 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg65722#msg65722)
Part 6 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg70999#msg70999)
Part 7 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg73063#msg73063)
Part 8 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg75072#msg75072)
Part 9 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108495#msg108495)
Room to grow

11) The Complete Links to The Oldest Law (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg68821#msg68821)
12) Waiting (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg68746#msg68746)
13) Turning Back the Bäckahästen (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg69745#msg69745)
14) Survival (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg72216#msg72216)
15) The Complete Links to The Jylland Jump - A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/“Jazz Age” crossover fanfic (ongoing)
Spoiler: show
Part 1 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg73245#msg73245)
Part 2 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg79730#msg79730)
Part 3 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg84742#msg84742)
Part 4 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg88720#msg88720)
Part 5 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg89849#msg89849)
Part 6 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg90019#msg90019)
Room to grow

16) The Complete Links to Tall Ships & Taller Tales - A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/Pirate crossover fanfic (ongoing)
Spoiler: show
Part 1 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg73289#msg73289)
Part 2 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg79730#msg79730)
Part 3 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg90719#msg90719)
Part 4 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg104196#msg104196)
Room to grow

17) The Gift (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg75760#msg75760)
18) Interludes (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg77725#msg77725)
Secret Santa gift for frenci: Unexpected Reunion (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=694.msg85484#msg85484)
19) An Independent Production (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg78714#msg78714)
20) Aksel’s Turn (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg79152#msg79152)
21) With a Hey and a Ho (and a Hey-Nonny-No!) (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg86071#msg86071)
22) Forced to Fight (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg87830#msg87830)
23) The Complete Links to Madsen’s Malmö Mayhem (ongoing)
Spoiler: show
Part 1 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg91372#msg91372)
Part 2 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg92061#msg92061)
Room to grow

24) The Complete Links to Mikkel’s Malmö Misadventures (ongoing)
Spoiler: show
Part 1 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg91969#msg91969)
Part 2 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg106134#msg106134)
Room to grow

25) Goldilocks Emil & the Three Bear Warriors (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg92245#msg92245)
26) In the Center Ring (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg93641#msg93641)
27) The Complete Links to Sigrun’s Shenanigans (ongoing)
Spoiler: show
Prologue (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg93817#msg93817)
Part 1 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg98890#msg98890)
Room to grow

28) The Complete Links to The Red Herring League - A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/Superhero AU fanfic (ongoing)
Spoiler: show
Part 1 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg94756#msg94756)
Part 2 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg95670#msg95670)
Part 3 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg102142#msg102142)
Part 4 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg104839#msg104839)
Room to grow

29) Dream Following (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg102896#msg102896)
30) The Complete Links to Bent and Twisted - A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/“Avatar: the Last Airbender” crossover fanfic (ongoing)
Spoiler: show
Part 1 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg103191#msg103191)
Part 2 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg103272#msg103272)
Part 3 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg103403#msg103403)
Part 4 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg105037#msg105037)
Room to grow

R1) The Complete Links to The Hannunvaakuna of the Fjord - A “Stand Still. Stay Silent A Red Tail’s Dream”/“Sherlock Holmes” crossover fanfic (ongoing)
Spoiler: show
Part 1 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=656.msg104306#msg104306)
Room to grow

31) Another Independent Production (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg107425#msg107425)
32) The Complete Links to Bits and Bots - A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/“WALL-E” crossover fanfic (ongoing)
Spoiler: show
Part 1 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108183#msg108183)
Room to grow

Room to grow


Wow wow wow wow
Thank you so much for that. Is it possible to create a bookmark for a particular post, I wonder?  *toddles off to the forum board to see if this is an FAQ*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on May 26, 2016, 05:41:53 PM
Hello! Coming in with my first SSSS fanfic. :)

Also for the SSSS prompt challenge: 10. Breathe Again.

Spoiler: Breathe For Me • show

http://archiveofourown.org/works/6977722

An act of great self-sacrifice costs Lalli his Luonto for perhaps the final time.

(No character death.)

What interesting threads you have woven together here! 
I see you mention Katla in your profile, too.  Is she a reference from elsewhere, or a fully-realised OC of your creation?

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Dverghamrar on May 26, 2016, 11:12:42 PM
What interesting threads you have woven together here!
I see you mention Katla in your profile, too.  Is she a reference from elsewhere, or a fully-realised OC of your creation?

Ah, thank you! :D I realize there's quite a lot of "spoilers" for other fics I've been slowly planning for this same 'verse. For some reason I'm working my way backwards! XD And yes, Katla is an OC. She's an old, batty Icelandic mage they meet during the journey who becomes Reynir's mentor, to the amusement of Lalli. I like to think this (http://sssscomic.com/comic.php?page=87) is how she looked when she was younger. :) (Come to think of it, that Finnish mage could be Valttu the kade, another OC I'm having fun playing around with...)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on May 26, 2016, 11:38:13 PM
Hello darkness, my old friend.

56. Murder (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/15914146)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on May 27, 2016, 01:18:48 AM
Hello darkness, my old friend.

56. Murder (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/15914146)

Nicely grim evocation of that scene, Lazy8.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Pupunen on May 27, 2016, 05:30:09 PM
I already posted this in the exchange thread, but I suppose I could put it here as well: a depressing story about cleanser training (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6978166).
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on May 27, 2016, 10:59:34 PM
Apparently I love writing interactions between characters who can't talk to each other. More Sigrun & Reynir fluff!

57. Sacrifice (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/15935173)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Juniper on May 28, 2016, 02:20:33 AM
I already posted this in the exchange thread, but I suppose I could put it here as well: a depressing story about cleanser training (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6978166).
Depressing ? Yes. Really well written with a really sweet ending ? Also yes :3
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on May 28, 2016, 03:49:27 AM
Pupunen and Lazy8, you both write Sigrun so well!

Sigrun & Emil showed a most convincing backstory (love Sigrun's vow, and her rationale for it!), and Sigrun's answer to Reynir (and his reaction) are just what I would expect.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on May 28, 2016, 06:31:24 AM
36: Precious treasure http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/15941170

Sigrun misses her bro, Mikkel. She also finds a rock that looks a lot like him. She and the rock understand each other.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Athena on May 28, 2016, 05:53:58 PM
36: Precious treasure http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/15941170

Sigrun misses her bro, Mikkel. She also finds a rock that looks a lot like him. She and the rock understand each other.

I love this. Seriously, everything about it is great! :D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on May 28, 2016, 07:13:20 PM
OwlsG0, that was a delight!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Juniper on May 28, 2016, 09:27:26 PM
36: Precious treasure http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/15941170

Sigrun misses her bro, Mikkel. She also finds a rock that looks a lot like him. She and the rock understand each other.

"you don’t have to do a thing but nod silently and look tortured, ok? Just like you normally do" brilliant.

This fic is appropriately named because it really is a precious treasure  ;D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on May 28, 2016, 09:32:22 PM
OwlsGO, a wonderful combination of funny and touching.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on May 29, 2016, 12:15:52 AM
It still counts as Saturday's update if I post it before I go to bed!

58. Kick in the Head (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/15959467)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on May 29, 2016, 01:39:19 AM
Whoa, Lazy8, that's brutally effective. Love Sigrun's first question.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on May 29, 2016, 05:40:32 AM
Lazy8, another good story! Poor Emil!....
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on May 29, 2016, 07:07:18 PM
I didn't kill anyone this time.

You may cry anyway. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssWbqeC6DJA)

59. No Way Out (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/15976606)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on May 29, 2016, 11:24:50 PM
I didn't kill anyone this time.

You may cry anyway. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssWbqeC6DJA)

59. No Way Out (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/15976606)

Well. That was short and effective. Somehow I found myself feeling Sigrun's injury all the way through that. The song, as well, you noted as an inspiration, is pretty good.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on May 30, 2016, 07:24:43 AM
Sorry for the double-post, but here's another prompt filled.

28: Sorrow http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/15988930

Sigrun explains the Screaming Terrors
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Dverghamrar on May 30, 2016, 10:48:43 AM
For the SSSSS 100 Prompts Challenge: 67. Playing the Melody

A Melody of His Memories (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7027810)
Days since his Luonto returned, Lalli is still feeling lonely and unappreciated, but by chance he meets a new friend in the dreamworld.

I'm not sure if this will fall on the same 'verse as my previous fic (which is set 50 years post-canon), but it was a fun idea to explore nonetheless. :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Tr on May 30, 2016, 12:18:16 PM
For the SSSSS 100 Prompts Challenge: 67. Playing the Melody

A Melody of His Memories (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7027810)
Days since his Luonto returned, Lalli is still feeling lonely and unappreciated, but by chance he meets a new friend in the dreamworld.

I'm not sure if this will fall on the same 'verse as my previous fic (which is set 50 years post-canon), but it was a fun idea to explore nonetheless. :)
I quite like this, it is excellently sinister!
LALLI, NOOOOOOO! :O
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Athena on May 30, 2016, 01:09:41 PM
For the SSSSS 100 Prompts Challenge: 67. Playing the Melody

A Melody of His Memories (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7027810)
Days since his Luonto returned, Lalli is still feeling lonely and unappreciated, but by chance he meets a new friend in the dreamworld.

I'm not sure if this will fall on the same 'verse as my previous fic (which is set 50 years post-canon), but it was a fun idea to explore nonetheless. :)
*gasp* I need more! Good job leaving us in suspense, I love this! ;D And you did a very good job fitting it into canon too!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on May 30, 2016, 10:34:22 PM
Here, have a snapshot from Emil's life.

60. Rejection (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/16007044)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Kiraly on May 31, 2016, 12:11:31 AM
Ooh, Lazy8 that's a nice look at Emil's origins. It definitely fits with what we know about his history.

I come bearing two fics! The first has already been posted in the multimedia exchange, but I figured I'd put it here as well.
Reynir and Tuuri go wandering off on their own and encounter a troll in Trouble for Two (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7034392). (Mildly shippy, as should be expected from any fic by me involving these two). Prompted by Gwenno.

The second is a little Emil/Lalli scene from the same setting as my ongoing hipster band AU. I did a giveaway of sorts over on Tumblr (which I'll be posting the results of in the appropriate places on the forum, as I have time and inclination) and this is my gift for tamaerchen: Taste Test (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7036675)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Juniper on May 31, 2016, 12:30:00 AM
The second is a little Emil/Lalli scene from the same setting as my ongoing hipster band AU. I did a giveaway of sorts over on Tumblr (which I'll be posting the results of in the appropriate places on the forum, as I have time and inclination) and this is my gift for tamaerchen: Taste Test (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7036675)
*screech* it included Agneta <3 also this is v good fluff, I should probably read the original 'before it was cool' it sounds like a good AU.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on May 31, 2016, 12:34:08 AM
Kiraly, both of those are delightful!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Kelpie on May 31, 2016, 12:35:01 AM
Kiraly, I don't think I've ever mentioned it, but BIWC happens to be my favorite AU. So there's a chance you may have heard me when I was reading this because I was making a noise approximating (http://i.imgur.com/HZXydxZ.gif) loudly enough to wake the entire neighborhood. That is all. <3
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Athena on May 31, 2016, 12:44:08 AM
Ooh, Lazy8 that's a nice look at Emil's origins. It definitely fits with what we know about his history.

I come bearing two fics! The first has already been posted in the multimedia exchange, but I figured I'd put it here as well.
Reynir and Tuuri go wandering off on their own and encounter a troll in Trouble for Two (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7034392). (Mildly shippy, as should be expected from any fic by me involving these two). Prompted by Gwenno.

The second is a little Emil/Lalli scene from the same setting as my ongoing hipster band AU. I did a giveaway of sorts over on Tumblr (which I'll be posting the results of in the appropriate places on the forum, as I have time and inclination) and this is my gift for tamaerchen: Taste Test (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7036675)

Too much cute. Why u do this to me!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Tr on May 31, 2016, 06:42:38 AM
Ooh, Lazy8 that's a nice look at Emil's origins. It definitely fits with what we know about his history.

I come bearing two fics! The first has already been posted in the multimedia exchange, but I figured I'd put it here as well.
Reynir and Tuuri go wandering off on their own and encounter a troll in Trouble for Two (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7034392). (Mildly shippy, as should be expected from any fic by me involving these two). Prompted by Gwenno.

The second is a little Emil/Lalli scene from the same setting as my ongoing hipster band AU. I did a giveaway of sorts over on Tumblr (which I'll be posting the results of in the appropriate places on the forum, as I have time and inclination) and this is my gift for tamaerchen: Taste Test (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7036675)
EEEEEEEEEEEEE, Kiralyyy! These are so cute!!!!!! <3
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: AquaAurion on May 31, 2016, 06:54:47 AM
The second is a little Emil/Lalli scene from the same setting as my ongoing hipster band AU. I did a giveaway of sorts over on Tumblr (which I'll be posting the results of in the appropriate places on the forum, as I have time and inclination) and this is my gift for tamaerchen: Taste Test (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7036675)
This is so sweet  :)) I really like this AU, so it was nice to read more from it   ;D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Kiraly on May 31, 2016, 08:20:05 AM
*screech* it included Agneta <3 also this is v good fluff, I should probably read the original 'before it was cool' it sounds like a good AU.

Hehe, yeah, I needed a coworker for Emil and I am too lazy to come up with don't like to use OCs, so I thought she'd be a good candidate. I was amused to see the conversation about her in the shipping thread that started around the time I was writing this. (Also, I'm now imagining her shouting the words of your post because she's your icon, hehe).

And yes, if you have the time (it's gotten kind of long) Before It Was Cool is also very fluffy and people seem to be enjoying it. I have a few chapters left to do, but I'm hoping to have the next one done soon.

Kiraly, I don't think I've ever mentioned it, but BIWC happens to be my favorite AU. So there's a chance you may have heard me when I was reading this because I was making a noise approximating (http://i.imgur.com/HZXydxZ.gif) loudly enough to wake the entire neighborhood. That is all. <3

Aww, thank you! My apologies to your neighbors, haha! :))

And thanks Róisín, Luth, Tr, and AquaAurion! I'm glad you enjoyed them!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Juniper on May 31, 2016, 02:11:29 PM
Hehe, yeah, I needed a coworker for Emil and I am too lazy to come up with don't like to use OCs, so I thought she'd be a good candidate. I was amused to see the conversation about her in the shipping thread that started around the time I was writing this. (Also, I'm now imagining her shouting the words of your post because she's your icon, hehe).
I'm quite happy that my new icon has this effect :3
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on May 31, 2016, 11:32:08 PM
In which I manufacture a flimsy excuse for Emil to dance with literally everyone.

61. Dance (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/16033735)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on June 01, 2016, 02:56:09 AM
56: Murder http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/16037032

Sigrun is forced to do the unthinkable to protect her team.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on June 01, 2016, 04:49:41 AM
Closing one out…

Madsen’s Malmö Mayhem
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Part 3
Spoiler: Links • show
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg92061#msg92061)
First relevant part of The Cave of Time (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg92894#msg92894)
Second relevant part of The Cave of Time (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg92984#msg92984)

Spoiler: show
Mischief Mayhem Managed

Malmö lay under a fog of silence, though the sun shone brightly overhead. In this, the tenth summer since the Outbreak, Man had long since fled the old urban sprawls. Even with the Cure, fighting grosslings was no easy endeavor, and the more tightly packed the grosslings, the harder it got.

No, nothing stirred in the slowly crumbling agglomerations of glass and steel and concrete so seemingly bereft of life. Yet a twisted form of life remained, lurking and awaiting its opportunity to strike.

The sun was setting as the Cat-Tank crept into the university green. It would be a warm, dark night, the kind Men had learned to fear as “grossling nights”.

Once the last rays of the sun had vanished, rather than remaining as silent as possible, a set of hastily scavenged loudspeakers deployed, briefly squealing with high-pitched feedback before utterly shattering the usual nightly calm in the derelict city. Thundering, raucous music bellowed out in a tune first created and recorded in this very city, in a defiant challenge to the new rulers of the night.

For long minutes after the song ended, nothing seemed to stir on the green. Silence held sway for nearly an hour, until something shifted, like dry leaves rustling in a soft evening breeze.

The “cat ear” floodlights pulsed briefly,momentarily illuminating a crowd of hundreds or even thousands of grosslings of all shapes and sizes surrounding the Cat-Tank.

It was time.

Suddenly, thick barricades of twisted steel dropped into place, sealing off every exit from the green. The loudspeakers blared out again, but in a short and simple message rather than a song. “Oh, look. NOW YOU CAN’T LEAVE.”

Perhaps whatever was left of the humans in that vast assemblage of trolls and giants understood that message; perhaps the predators recognized an ambush not unlike the ones they tended to lay themselves. Whatever the reason, a shudder of unease rustled through the grosslings, but before any could begin a stampede away from the bait, it began.

Flames gouted in all directions from the crouching little vehicle, matched by fiery jets from the barricades as the edges of the crowd belatedly began to try to escape. This night belonged to Man, as would Malmö once more.

*

That particular trap only worked once, of course; but it had worked, and well enough that Cleansing Malmö, once beyond even the fantasies spewed by wild-eyed men, was virtually assured. In the months that followed, the grossling were pushed further and further back, until the day finally came when a cat could strut from one end of the city to the other without a hint of alarm.

Years only seem short when they’re fairly uneventful. It took many long years to Cleanse the rest of Sweden, Norway and Finland, but finally, and with no little elation, the Nordic Armies were ready to strike south into Denmark.

By this time, Iceland had been forced to open its borders, but only after a renovated Norwegian gunboat squadron had taken a lone ship of the Icelandic Coast Guard--by absorbing all the fire she could dish out until her magazines were empty, and then firing a warning shot across her bow. At that point, the Icelandic captain decided they would talk.

Now Icelander, Dane, Norwegian, Swede and Finn alike were ready to retake Silent Zealand. The Danes, particularly, held it as almost a holy endeavor.

*

After the Battle of Kastrup was won by the combined armies after the headstrong Danes had almost managed to lose it, what an ancient Sage of War had called “Methodismus” was put into play. Bit by bit, plot by plot, sometimes inch by inch was Copenhagen retaken.

Far off in Malmö, the six unlikely heroes who had made it all possible lay in a cenotaph of honor, and every year, the citizens held a Fire Festival in memory of the little band that had saved the city--and brought it a bit of mayhem.


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
Definitely an epilogue here.


+
The Complete Links to
Madsen’s Malmö Mayhem
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Spoiler: show
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Part 1 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg91372#msg91372)
Part 2 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg92061#msg92061)
First relevant part of The Cave of Time (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg92894#msg92894)
Second relevant part of The Cave of Time (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg92984#msg92984)


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
I’m glad this one’s off my mind.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Elleth on June 01, 2016, 12:31:43 PM
Already linked it in the disqus comments, but thought I'd include the Just Deserts (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7055815) for the squirrel dinner here as well.  >:D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on June 01, 2016, 11:21:38 PM
This is the part where I try to get out of my Sigrun & Emil rut. Because as much as I love those two to pieces, there are other characters.

62. Magic (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/16056946)

Also, I belatedly realized that my Emil-bullying story had a lot of similarities to the one Pupunen wrote. I'm sorry; I swear it was subconscious.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Pupunen on June 02, 2016, 02:02:09 AM
This is the part where I try to get out of my Sigrun & Emil rut. Because as much as I love those two to pieces, there are other characters.

62. Magic (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/16056946)

Also, I belatedly realized that my Emil-bullying story had a lot of similarities to the one Pupunen wrote. I'm sorry; I swear it was subconscious.

Well, you're great at writing all of the characters regardless of whether they're your favourite or not. :)

And no worries, we're writing about the same characters after all, so it would be strange if there weren't any similarities.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on June 02, 2016, 02:47:24 AM
Plus I think that given his character, upbringing and background, Emil being bullied and/or abused would be fairly inevitable.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on June 02, 2016, 10:34:45 PM
In which Reynir keeps sitting outside wagging his tail no matter how many times Lalli hisses at him.

63. Do Not Disturb (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/16077286)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on June 03, 2016, 01:10:18 AM
Hark! I hear a new chapter incoming!

The Red Herring League
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/Superhero AU fanfic
Part 5
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg104839#msg104839)
Spoiler: Heroes and Villains • show
“Platinum rosebud.”

A shiver went through the meat-moss stretching through the corridor, and the troll that had been preparing an ambush from the ceiling froze.

The man took another step forward confidently, a carefully measured single stride. “Impending retrograde.”

The twitching amongst the Rashed mass increased, an irregular pulsing of muscles warring with muscles.

Another step. “Dispraxis ascendant.”

One tendril made as if to strike at the man, but others grabbed it and held it back. The twitching was subsiding now.

“Discipline brings rewards.” The man pulled a freshly killed fox from the haversack slung over one shoulder and tossed the corpse behind him.

“Are you disciples?”

“Yes”

*

Quiet reigned within the FELINOPEDE as the night wore on.

Reynir was the first to awake, followed by Tuuri, Lalli, Sigrun, Mikkel, and finally Emil. They had slept for more than sixteen hours, all told, but why?

And why were they still alive?

“Well,” Sigrun opined, “whatever they did, they wanted us out of the way for it, which means we’re an obstacle to their getting what they want.”

“Unless they already got what they wanted and nothing we can do now alter that,” Mikkel rumbled. “Otherwise, they should have killed us.”

“They should have killed us anyway,” Sigrun growled. “No one messes with me and lives to tell about it, and that goes double for my crew!” She looked at Tuuri and Reynir. “And triple for those on my crew who aren’t immune.”

Reynir was so glad he was part of Sigrun’s crew; the Red Terror in a rage was, frankly, terrifying to behold. Then he looked at Emil, who was starting to smoulder, quite literally. The sparkles in Emil’s hair were getting ever more intense, showing why the Firework had been so named.

“Um, should we maybe take this discussion outside?”

Sigrun looked over at Emil. “Pull it back, Glim-Glam Guy.” When Emil looked cluelessly back at her, she amplified, “You’re getting too steamed for the company we keep. Not that I blame you.”

“But... How can we find out who did this?” Tuuri asked, puzzled.

“We start with the Sludge,” Mikkel answered.

*

The Amalienborg troops who had helped with the Sludge were unable to give any satisfactory answers, due to the decided inconvenience of their being dead. They had apparently been killed in the latest troll assault on Amalienborg, in a most unconvincing “coincidence”.

Ironically, Mikkel was undaunted by this reverse. He swiftly yet comprehensively examined the corpses, Lalli by his side; in the little knot with the others, Reynir squeezed his eyes shut and concentrated hard on helping. Their examination complete, the Finn and the Dane looked at each other for a long moment before turning to the others.

“Well, they were definitely murdered,” Mikkel said with his usual blunt honesty, not unmixed with regret in this instance. “Pretty clumsily done, too.”

Lalli added something in Finnish, which Tuuri hesitated before translating. “The weapon was like a Mora knife more than a pukko, but that’s pretty standard around here, so it could’ve been anyone but one of us.” None of them carried knives--or not standard ones, at least.

“Quislings got what they deserved,” Sigrun opined angrily.

“Yeah,” Emil agreed, “but it’s too bad we can’t wring the truth out of them, nonetheless.”

“They might have something of value to tell us yet,” Mikkel mused...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
Oh, look. There’s an actual plot now.

...Uh, oh. I have to keep to an actual plot now.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Kiraly on June 03, 2016, 02:33:05 PM
Ooh, looks like things are heating up for our heroes, LooNEY! Literally heating up, in Emil's case.

So...the most recent page (535 (http://sssscomic.com/comic.php?page=535), for time-travelers) gave me all kinds of feelings. So I spun some of them out into this Emil/Lalli fic.
Bridging the Gap (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7078393).
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Kelpie on June 03, 2016, 03:21:49 PM
Quote from: Kiraly
Ooh, looks like things are heating up for our heroes, LooNEY! Literally heating up, in Emil's case.

So...the most recent page (535, for time-travelers) gave me all kinds of feelings. So I spun some of them out into this Emil/Lalli fic.
Bridging the Gap.
Ahhhh, I have died of cute (which honestly normally happens whenever I read your fics).
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Athena on June 03, 2016, 03:44:08 PM
Ahhhh, I have died of cute (which honestly normally happens whenever I read your fics).

Same. I am ded now. Too cute.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Kiraly on June 03, 2016, 05:16:30 PM
Ahhhh, I have died of cute (which honestly normally happens whenever I read your fics).

Same. I am ded now. Too cute.

*comes back in and trips over the bodies* Oh no! I'm sorry, I didn't mean to kill anyone! (But seriously, thank you! It warms my heart to know you enjoyed this).
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on June 03, 2016, 05:55:08 PM
LooNEY and Kiraly, those are both lovely stories.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on June 04, 2016, 12:04:36 AM
Dipping another toe into that there shipping pool.

Also, gah another post-midnight post.

64. Lovers (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/16100935)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on June 04, 2016, 09:21:58 PM
76: Sexy http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/16119961

In which a ridiculously sexy man wants to talk to Mikkel and everyone is either confused, smitten or, in Mikkel's case, nowhere to be found.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Yuuago on June 04, 2016, 11:41:28 PM
Posting in a batch once again, because that's how I roll. These are all for the prompt challenge. Two have been up for a while, but the third is brand new. :)

01. "In this mismatched togetherness". Rating: 0+. Words: 1k. Reynir -> Sigrun (one-sided crushing). Prompt: #78, "Drink".
Summary: Sigrun has to rest up for a while. Doctor's orders. Reynir thinks that she might want some company.
On Dreamwidth: http://roesslyng.dreamwidth.org/70048.html

02. "Icarus". Rating: 0+. Words: 600. Emil -> Sigrun (one-sided crushing). Prompt: #3, "Light".
Summary: He follows her, and burns that sight into his mind.
On Dreamwidth: http://roesslyng.dreamwidth.org/70215.html
Or Ao3: http://archiveofourown.org/works/6734914

03. "Hook and Eye". Rating: 13+ for language. Words: 500. Signe/Michael (sort of; it's mutual crushing). Prompt: #14, "Smile".
Summary: She's a delight. Maybe he thinks so, too.
On Dreamwidth: http://roesslyng.dreamwidth.org/71625.html
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on June 05, 2016, 12:29:34 AM
Please read the warnings in the header before reading this chapter. I'm still questioning why I went with the idea that I did.

65. Horror (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/16125010)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on June 05, 2016, 06:51:26 AM
Lazy8, you fulfilled that prompt very effectively. I'd say, well done, in all ways.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on June 05, 2016, 11:27:14 PM
Nope, apparently I still can't get enough of this mentorship.

66. Traps (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/16150024)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on June 06, 2016, 12:02:57 AM
Nope, apparently I still can't get enough of this mentorship.

66. Traps (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/16150024)

Please, indulge your addiction. The rest of us are benefiting enormously.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on June 06, 2016, 02:04:28 AM
Pardon my double-post

83: Heal http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/16152778

In which Reynir is very magical and perhaps has a justification for having as much hair as he does.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on June 06, 2016, 08:17:09 AM
In which I celebrate my 2/3 mark with an early posting and my favorite odd couple!

67. Playing the Melody (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/16156675)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on June 06, 2016, 08:02:32 PM
93: Give up http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/16168402

In which Sigrun gives up on being the lone wolf
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on June 06, 2016, 09:40:09 PM
Last few stories are all great! I especially like the Lalli/Sigrun interaction. But they are all good tales.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on June 06, 2016, 10:04:09 PM
On the off-chance that the person who commented anon on my grimdark chapter is reading this: I did write out a response, if you want to look at it.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on June 07, 2016, 11:47:38 PM
Hey look, another musical. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=il-9D9NPxWc) (I seriously love this song.)

68. Hero (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/16196222)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on June 08, 2016, 08:28:35 AM
57: Sacrifice http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/16202579

Something is coming to the camp. Lalli's probably the only one who can stop it, and it might be at the cost of one of them; either him, or Emil.

(shippers goggles at the ready)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on June 08, 2016, 09:01:33 PM
Lazy8 and OwlsGO, both wonderful stories! Our heroes read very true to canon, and I especially love reading Lallitales.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on June 08, 2016, 09:49:23 PM
Poor, poor everyone who's been stuck in the tank with Sigrun.

69. Annoyance (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/16216337)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on June 09, 2016, 09:59:54 PM
Hi, more grimdark. I decided to play a bit with an idea that I believe was first put forth by Loony. Once again, please read the warnings. *flees*

70. Bound and Gagged (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/16238537)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on June 10, 2016, 01:04:39 AM
17: Blood http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/16242041

Reynir and his sinuses have a problem with timing. Nosebleeds galore.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on June 10, 2016, 06:35:50 AM
17: Blood http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/16242041

Reynir and his sinuses have a problem with timing. Nosebleeds galore.
Looks like his parents may have some circulation issues as well! Hee.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: lilith_queen on June 10, 2016, 04:33:45 PM
Two cute, shippy things I posted on AO3.

1. At first, Lalli's not sure whether he's feeling love or indigestion. He thinks he might've preferred the indigestion. At least it's not all for nothing. ft. Mikkel's sage advice and Tuuri being a good cousin.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/7106257 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7106257)

2. In the heat of the moment after Lalli uses his magic to save Emil’s life in battle (and incidentally does something pretty cool with a flamethrower), Emil impulsively asks Lalli to marry him. They aren’t even dating yet, but Lalli likes this idea. He likes it a lot. Emil is stunned to realize that he is not joking.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/7158260 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7158260)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on June 10, 2016, 10:53:32 PM
The expansion of the superhero AU story I submitted for round 1 of the fic exchange has started. 

This bit is mostly just exposition, picking up the story where the first chapter left off.
Spoiler: "Chapter 2" • show
"Surprise, You're in Norway! Now Eat Your Breakfast."
http://archiveofourown.org/works/6610714/chapters/16262021


Thanks to Noodly Appendage, whose SSSSona Sonja enters the story here.  Others will appear in the story as it goes on.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on June 10, 2016, 10:58:21 PM
I have a feeling I'll get hate mail for this.

Oh, well.

The Red Herring League
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/Superhero AU fanfic
Part 6
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg109582#msg109582)
Spoiler: Interlude in Scarlet • show
The grossling onslaught began before the sun had even mostly set, beginning with, of all things, a Sjødraug awkwardly lumbering after the FELINOPEDE as Super Tuuri drove along what was once a rail yard.

Sjødraugur were terribly hard to fight, as their great masses of Rash-flesh made them almost as invulnerable as the Red Terror was, so the battle was long and intense. Fortunately, Sjødraugur were also quite rare, so when the rest of the grossling horde arrived, they were much more easily dealt with.

Since they weren’t falling asleep on their feet, Sigrun, Emil and Lalli made short work of that second wave of grosslings, and the third, and the fourth. By the time the fifth wave hit, though, they were sure something was up.

“Is it just me,” Emil said, frying another pair of wolf-beasts trying to jump him, “or are these grosslings unusually persistent?”

Sigrun nodded in assent and hit a small giant with a nearby building. It was old and crumbly, though, so the giant was only mostly crushed, which didn’t cut it with grosslings.

Right in the middle of the battle, though, there was a mighty thunderclap and a dazzling flash of light, out of which stepped... Emil. This Emil was decidedly not the Firework, though; he wasn’t on fire, and his costume was totally different. He wore a blue outfit with gold stripes and carried a round shield with a pompous Swedish lion proudly blazoned upon it; his matching blue mask left his sparkly golden hair free to shimmer in the fading light.

“Flee in terror, grosslings, for now you face CAPTAIN SPARKLE, the SWEDISH AVENGER!”

Sigrun started laughing helplessly as she ripped the nearest grossling’s head off; the Firework couldn’t see what was so funny. Still, the Red Terror laughed her way through another six or seven grosslings, after which the rest had in fact fled.

While she was still giggling, Captain Sparkle came up to her and gave her a bone-crushing hug. Sigrun was about to object when she noticed that he was crying.

Lalli, appearing as noiselessly as usual behind the sobbing hero, ventured a pat-pat to his hair, only to be swept up into the inescapable embrace. Lalli was not happy about this at all.

Eventually, the Firework was able to get Captain Sparkle to let the others go and to step aside to confer with his counterpart.

In the alternate reality from which the good Captain had just come, his team, the Norse Avengers, had recently been slaughtered almost to a man (Lall-Eye, the Winter Huntress and the Incredible Bulk were all dead, with War Mechanic and the Scarlet-Braided Wizard kept in protective comas after being Infected) by a dimension-hopping villain called... Törkeää Onni, Tuuri’s brother gone mad.

Too late to save his friends, the Captain had deciphered some of the madman’s tech and used it to try to follow him. He wasn’t sure whether he wanted to redeem Onni or to kill him; not that he told the Firework that. He didn’t need to.

The burning question now, though, was whether Onni had also come here, or had the Captain lost his trail?


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
AU-hopping? In a superhero story? Never!

Captain Sparkle is, of course, from here (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=35.msg110372#msg110372). (Turnabout is still fair play, Owl.)

(...And I abandon my newly formed plot as though it never existed--but only for the moment.)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on June 10, 2016, 11:27:34 PM
Oh, Emil...

71. Obsession (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/16262951)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Jureeya on June 11, 2016, 12:40:57 AM
Oh, Emil...

71. Obsession (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/16262951)

ntbw but i really really really love this one a lot
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Juniper on June 11, 2016, 03:24:02 AM
Oh boy oh wow okay I actually went through with writing something. I'm all sorts of nervous because this is the first fanfiction I've written since middle school when I'd write lots of terrible Lord of the Rings and Justice League fanfiction. It's also the first creative writing I've done for fun in, wow, yeah, lots of years. So haaaaa *nervous laughter*

Dances with Nerds (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7165817/chapters/16266281)

I'm making a "everyone is a bunch of nerds and Emil plays too much DDR" AU and I hope to add more chapters to this eventually, but that might be a while u.u I have a few other things I wanna write too.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on June 11, 2016, 07:17:05 AM
84: Out cold http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/16268354

In which someone sleeps in a haven, but is not quite out-cold.

(Another Emil/Lalli epic.)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Ragnarok on June 11, 2016, 07:24:37 AM
Here's the thing I posted in the multimedia exchange, based on Elleth's prompt. Enjoy!


Spoiler: sigruns first troll • show


On occasion, warriors are hurt badly enough to keep them from fighting, but not badly enough to kill them. Given the temperament of the average Norweigan, this is an understandably rare occurrence, as the vast majority of wounded Norweigans tend to glance at their crippling injuries, say something along the lines of “tis but a scratch”, and resume shooting, stabbing, and/or headbutting the nearest troll until one of the two expires.
Nonetheless, a small number of these debilitated veterans exists. Many of them find solace in civilian life, while others throw themselves into daring tasks despite their injuries (the most notable of which was Trask “Stumpy” Andersen, who, despite lacking three and a half of his four limbs, managed to board, commandeer, and sail a fishing skiff singlehandedly into a leviathan pod, ramming the nearest creature while cackling and flinging Molotov cocktails in all directions).

It is widely conjectured the latter group consists simply of the ones who have been driven insane by boredom.

On this particular day, it was also widely conjectured that No-Hands and One-Eye had joined this group.

The pair were, as nicknames go, somewhat badly named. For one, No-Hands actually had hands. They just so happened to be made of wood, steel, and bronze. One-Eye, in fact, was completely blind in his remaining eye. He hadn’t been originally, but there had been an incident involving a particularly rowdy wedding, a champagne bottle, and a washing machine.

This pair was, at this particular moment in time, waiting on the outskirts of one of the less dangerous forests in Norway (which meant you only had a one in two chance of being eaten, rather than five in six), and staring at a box.

The box in question was shaking visibly, and yelling. The yelling was not particularly complimentary, being mostly directed at the box itself, and a variety of unappealing attributes the box had.

“Never heard that one,” No-Hands said after a particularly inventive combination of swearwords.

“Yup,” One-Eye said.

“How much longer?” No-Hands asked.

“Not much,” One-Eye answered.

As if on cue, the top of the box finally yields to the occupant’s struggles, bursting open with a crack, revealing Sigrun Eide.
Sigrun Eide, teenage daughter of General Eide.
Sigrun Eide, who, when informed her babysitter (a man who resembled a small, ambulatory mountain) was secretly a troll, built a pit trap sufficient to both fool and contain said babysitter until authorities arrived. She was eight at the time, and had been disappointed that the babysitter was not, in fact, a troll.
Sigrun Eide, who these two particular unfortunates had been hired to take into this particular forest, so she could kill her first troll.

The girl- not a woman, until this was done- stretched, and said something that would cause most of Swedish or Icelandic high society to faint into their teacups before standing and brushing off the remains of the crate. “So you two are the guys who’re supposed to find me a troll to kill?” she asks- shouts, really. The two nod slowly, and Sigrun pumps her fist enthusiastically into the air. “Sweet!” Then she frowns. “Why don’t you guys have any guns?” she asks. “I mean, aren’t they needed?”
No-Hands shakes his head. “Not allowed. Traditional reasons,” he explains. Sigrun’s expression sours. “What happens if a troll or a giant shows up and you’re not prepared for it?” she asks angrily.
No-Hands doesn’t say a word, just swings his wood and iron fist into the nearest tree. The tree in question, a relatively young oak, buckles around the prosthetic, splintering easily. No-Hands pulls the artificial limb free easily. One-Eye, meanwhile, has drawn a sword out of his cane, holding it at the ready.
Sigrun gulps, then nods.
“What about me, though?” she asks.
No-Hands prods One-Eye, and the blind man puts his cane back together before pulling out a large knife with deceptive ease. He flips it and hands it hilt-first to Sigrun, who takes it with a grin.
“Awesome. Let’s go kill something,” she says.

-------------------------------

It takes them a very short time to find a troll, No-Hands reflects numbly, flying through the air. A very, very short time, he repeats, slamming into a tree trunk.

He was never going near Sigrun Eide again, he pledges, flopping face-first into the forest floor.

The troll in question roars loudly, before suddenly squealing and whimpering. Sigrun’s head pops into No-Hands field of vision. “Well,” she says happily. “That went wonderfully!”
No-Hands groans, then mutters something he’d heard from Sigrun when she was in the crate.

Honestly, he wished she’d go back into it.

Actions

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Talimee on June 11, 2016, 08:08:46 AM
I have a feeling I'll get hate mail for this.

Oh, well.

The Red Herring League
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/Superhero AU fanfic
Part 6
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg109582#msg109582)
Spoiler: Interlude in Scarlet • show
The grossling onslaught began before the sun had even mostly set, beginning with, of all things, a Sjødraug awkwardly lumbering after the FELINOPEDE as Super Tuuri drove along what was once a rail yard.

Sjødraugur were terribly hard to fight, as their great masses of Rash-flesh made them almost as invulnerable as the Red Terror was, so the battle was long and intense. Fortunately, Sjødraugur were also quite rare, so when the rest of the grossling horde arrived, they were much more easily dealt with.

Since they weren’t falling asleep on their feet, Sigrun, Emil and Lalli made short work of that second wave of grosslings, and the third, and the fourth. By the time the fifth wave hit, though, they were sure something was up.

“Is it just me,” Emil said, frying another pair of wolf-beasts trying to jump him, “or are these grosslings unusually persistent?”

Sigrun nodded in assent and hit a small giant with a nearby building. It was old and crumbly, though, so the giant was only mostly crushed, which didn’t cut it with grosslings.

Right in the middle of the battle, though, there was a mighty thunderclap and a dazzling flash of light, out of which stepped... Emil. This Emil was decidedly not the Firework, though; he wasn’t on fire, and his costume was totally different. He wore a blue outfit with gold stripes and carried a round shield with a pompous Swedish lion proudly blazoned upon it; his matching blue mask left his sparkly golden hair free to shimmer in the fading light.

“Flee in terror, grosslings, for now you face CAPTAIN SPARKLE, the SWEDISH AVENGER!”

Sigrun started laughing helplessly as she ripped the nearest grossling’s head off; the Firework couldn’t see what was so funny. Still, the Red Terror laughed her way through another six or seven grosslings, after which the rest had in fact fled.

While she was still giggling, Captain Sparkle came up to her and gave her a bone-crushing hug. Sigrun was about to object when she noticed that he was crying.

Lalli, appearing as noiselessly as usual behind the sobbing hero, ventured a pat-pat to his hair, only to be swept up into the inescapable embrace. Lalli was not happy about this at all.

Eventually, the Firework was able to get Captain Sparkle to let the others go and to step aside to confer with his counterpart.

In the alternate reality from which the good Captain had just come, his team, the Norse Avengers, had recently been slaughtered almost to a man (Lall-Eye, the Winter Huntress and the Incredible Bulk were all dead, with War Mechanic and the Scarlet-Braided Wizard kept in protective comas after being Infected) by a dimension-hopping villain called... Törkeää Onni, Tuuri’s brother gone mad.

Too late to save his friends, the Captain had deciphered some of the madman’s tech and used it to try to follow him. He wasn’t sure whether he wanted to redeem Onni or to kill him; not that he told the Firework that. He didn’t need to.

The burning question now, though, was whether Onni had also come here, or had the Captain lost his trail?


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
AU-hopping? In a superhero story? Never!

Captain Sparkle is, of course, from here (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=35.msg110372#msg110372). (Turnabout is still fair play, Owl.)

(...And I abandon my newly formed plot as though it never existed--but only for the moment.)


I just jumped right into this - no earlier chapters red and nearly to no knowledge of superheroes. It was hilarious and gloriously absurd. XD Now, I think, I'll have some reading up to do.

Oh, Emil...

71. Obsession (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/16262951)

D: This hit too close to home! *grabs Emil and crushes him in a hug* My poor, poor brother in spirit! Let us be short and fat and insecure together! TT^TT
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on June 11, 2016, 05:03:03 PM
ntbw but i really really really love this one a lot

Sorry, but what does that acronym stand for? Not to be... something?

And glad you enjoyed.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Juniper on June 11, 2016, 05:29:42 PM
84: Out cold http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/16268354

In which someone sleeps in a haven, but is not quite out-cold.

(Another Emil/Lalli epic.)
Boy I'm really glad you wrote this for a multitude of reasons, not only was it beautiful and enjoyable to read but it supports my theory that being a mage automatically means that you're really super gay because magic is actually powered by your sheer gayness. This means that because Onni is the most powerful mage character in the comic he's also the most incredibly gay character. The only reason Emil can't do magic is because he doesn't believe in it, but if he did believe in magic he could harness his sheer gayness and become a formidably powerful mage, perhaps even more powerful than Onni.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Ragnarok on June 11, 2016, 05:32:11 PM
Boy I'm really glad you wrote this for a multitude of reasons, not only was it beautiful and enjoyable to read but it supports my theory that being a mage automatically means that you're really super gay because magic is actually powered by your sheer gayness. This means that because Onni is the most powerful mage character in the comic he's also the most incredibly gay character. The only reason Emil can't do magic is because he doesn't believe in it, but if he did believe in magic he could harness his sheer gayness and become a formidably powerful mage, perhaps even more powerful than Onni.

*tilts head*
Part of me wants to say this can't possibly be correct, and another part of me is screaming *I ship it*. help

A third part might be waiting for Minna to confirm this....
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Juniper on June 11, 2016, 05:38:39 PM
*tilts head*
Part of me wants to say this can't possibly be correct, and another part of me is screaming *I ship it*. help

A third part might be waiting for Minna to confirm this....

Unfortunately she has already confirmed otherwise (http://sssscomic.tumblr.com/post/145663357235/hello-minna-i-hope-youre-having-a-wonderful-day), but I can dream *wistful sigh*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on June 11, 2016, 05:43:43 PM
Here's the thing I posted in the multimedia exchange, based on Elleth's prompt. Enjoy!


Spoiler: sigruns first troll • show


On occasion, warriors are hurt badly enough to keep them from fighting, but not badly enough to kill them. Given the temperament of the average Norweigan, this is an understandably rare occurrence, as the vast majority of wounded Norweigans tend to glance at their crippling injuries, say something along the lines of “tis but a scratch”, and resume shooting, stabbing, and/or headbutting the nearest troll until one of the two expires.
Nonetheless, a small number of these debilitated veterans exists. Many of them find solace in civilian life, while others throw themselves into daring tasks despite their injuries (the most notable of which was Trask “Stumpy” Andersen, who, despite lacking three and a half of his four limbs, managed to board, commandeer, and sail a fishing skiff singlehandedly into a leviathan pod, ramming the nearest creature while cackling and flinging Molotov cocktails in all directions).

It is widely conjectured the latter group consists simply of the ones who have been driven insane by boredom.

On this particular day, it was also widely conjectured that No-Hands and One-Eye had joined this group.

The pair were, as nicknames go, somewhat badly named. For one, No-Hands actually had hands. They just so happened to be made of wood, steel, and bronze. One-Eye, in fact, was completely blind in his remaining eye. He hadn’t been originally, but there had been an incident involving a particularly rowdy wedding, a champagne bottle, and a washing machine.

This pair was, at this particular moment in time, waiting on the outskirts of one of the less dangerous forests in Norway (which meant you only had a one in two chance of being eaten, rather than five in six), and staring at a box.

The box in question was shaking visibly, and yelling. The yelling was not particularly complimentary, being mostly directed at the box itself, and a variety of unappealing attributes the box had.

“Never heard that one,” No-Hands said after a particularly inventive combination of swearwords.

“Yup,” One-Eye said.

“How much longer?” No-Hands asked.

“Not much,” One-Eye answered.

As if on cue, the top of the box finally yields to the occupant’s struggles, bursting open with a crack, revealing Sigrun Eide.
Sigrun Eide, teenage daughter of General Eide.
Sigrun Eide, who, when informed her babysitter (a man who resembled a small, ambulatory mountain) was secretly a troll, built a pit trap sufficient to both fool and contain said babysitter until authorities arrived. She was eight at the time, and had been disappointed that the babysitter was not, in fact, a troll.
Sigrun Eide, who these two particular unfortunates had been hired to take into this particular forest, so she could kill her first troll.

The girl- not a woman, until this was done- stretched, and said something that would cause most of Swedish or Icelandic high society to faint into their teacups before standing and brushing off the remains of the crate. “So you two are the guys who’re supposed to find me a troll to kill?” she asks- shouts, really. The two nod slowly, and Sigrun pumps her fist enthusiastically into the air. “Sweet!” Then she frowns. “Why don’t you guys have any guns?” she asks. “I mean, aren’t they needed?”
No-Hands shakes his head. “Not allowed. Traditional reasons,” he explains. Sigrun’s expression sours. “What happens if a troll or a giant shows up and you’re not prepared for it?” she asks angrily.
No-Hands doesn’t say a word, just swings his wood and iron fist into the nearest tree. The tree in question, a relatively young oak, buckles around the prosthetic, splintering easily. No-Hands pulls the artificial limb free easily. One-Eye, meanwhile, has drawn a sword out of his cane, holding it at the ready.
Sigrun gulps, then nods.
“What about me, though?” she asks.
No-Hands prods One-Eye, and the blind man puts his cane back together before pulling out a large knife with deceptive ease. He flips it and hands it hilt-first to Sigrun, who takes it with a grin.
“Awesome. Let’s go kill something,” she says.

-------------------------------

It takes them a very short time to find a troll, No-Hands reflects numbly, flying through the air. A very, very short time, he repeats, slamming into a tree trunk.

He was never going near Sigrun Eide again, he pledges, flopping face-first into the forest floor.

The troll in question roars loudly, before suddenly squealing and whimpering. Sigrun’s head pops into No-Hands field of vision. “Well,” she says happily. “That went wonderfully!”
No-Hands groans, then mutters something he’d heard from Sigrun when she was in the crate.

Honestly, he wished she’d go back into it.

Actions



Bwahahahahaha Lovely!! Soo many chuckles, but I think my favourite is the mention of Stumpy's exploits.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Ragnarok on June 11, 2016, 05:46:07 PM
Unfortunately she has already confirmed otherwise (http://sssscomic.tumblr.com/post/145663357235/hello-minna-i-hope-youre-having-a-wonderful-day), but I can dream *wistful sigh*

Actually, as I read this, it could be interpreted as:

Finnish magic runs in the blood, Icelandic magic comes from the gods. We already knew this.

Maybe the Norse criteria is "level of gayness", while the Finnish bloodline includes genetic markers for the same thing? You might be able to use that as justification for a fic....eh, brain wandering down a path that is oddly serious and somewhat comical simultaneously, abort.

Bwahahahahaha Lovely!! Soo many chuckles, but I think my favourite is the mention of Stumpy's exploits.


Haha thanks!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Juniper on June 11, 2016, 05:52:51 PM
Actually, as I read this, it could be interpreted as:

Finnish magic runs in the blood, Icelandic magic comes from the gods. We already knew this.

Maybe the Norse criteria is "level of gayness", while the Finnish bloodline includes genetic markers for the same thing?

Awe yeah I just remembered the mage info page explicitly states "most Finns have the ability to use spells to some degree" which I'm pretty sure means just about all of the Finns are at least kinda gay.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on June 11, 2016, 06:09:32 PM
84: Out cold http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/16268354

In which someone sleeps in a haven, but is not quite out-cold.

(Another Emil/Lalli epic.)

*heavy sigh*  This is a beautiful landscape.  Soooo beautifully imagined.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on June 11, 2016, 06:12:16 PM
*heavy sigh*  This is a beautiful landscape.  Soooo beautifully imagined.

Thank you! I had some real fun working on the natural landscapes for this one. I was definitely trying to channel in some of that sublime natural stuff you get in the Gothic classics. Took me a long time to get right. You can't really tell but I also had a cat sitting on my throat for most of the time this one took to write, so that was an extra layer of difficulty.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on June 11, 2016, 07:36:57 PM
Thank you! I had some real fun working on the natural landscapes for this one. I was definitely trying to channel in some of that sublime natural stuff you get in the Gothic classics. Took me a long time to get right. You can't really tell but I also had a cat sitting on my throat for most of the time this one took to write, so that was an extra layer of difficulty.

Writers suffer so for their art.  Kudos.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on June 11, 2016, 07:49:47 PM
...You can't really tell but I also had a cat sitting on my throat for most of the time this one took to write, so that was an extra layer of difficulty.

You almost make it sound as though that was a handicap.... ;)
Good work, in any case - beautiful landscapes.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on June 11, 2016, 11:24:01 PM
Cranky old men vs. snot-nosed brats, go!

72. Mischief Managed (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/16284449)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Minutia_R on June 12, 2016, 03:49:34 PM
I just posted this on the Multimedia Exchange thread, but I figured I'd post it here, too:

Who Has Wandered Wide, and Far Has Fared on the Way
http://archiveofourown.org/works/7180754 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7180754)

Reynir's prayers for guidance are answered--which may not be a good thing. Luckily, Emil and Lalli are there to help.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on June 12, 2016, 05:46:36 PM
Cranky old men vs. snot-nosed brats, go!

72. Mischief Managed (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/16284449)

Yep, cranky old men FTW!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Talimee on June 12, 2016, 06:38:14 PM
Prompt: 58 – Kick in the Head
Summary: Evening entertainment with the crew has never been so startling.
Pairing: Emil Västerström/Lalli Hotakainen
Characters: Emil Västerström, Lalli Hotakainen, Rest of the Crew
Setting: Somewhere in Denmark
Rating: none
Warnings: none
Tags: fluff, poetry, Emil's POV

Long time no read! I actually finished something in the wake of less than a week. *still can't believe it* Have some Emil and Lalli Fluff over here (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6440122/chapters/16302422).
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on June 12, 2016, 09:19:36 PM
Now re-posted to AO3!

73. I can't. (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/16352402)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on June 13, 2016, 04:03:13 PM
35: Hold my hand http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/16321577

Sigrun has a special problem when it comes to high doses of painkillers. The nature of the problem is something Mikkel should have seen coming, but somehow he doesn't.

(I may enjoy writing slightly-inebriated!Sigrun more than I let on)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Ragnarok on June 13, 2016, 04:38:38 PM
35: Hold my hand http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/16321577

Sigrun has a special problem when it comes to high doses of painkillers. The nature of the problem is something Mikkel should have seen coming, but somehow he doesn't.

(I may enjoy writing slightly-inebriated!Sigrun more than I let on)

I may enjoy reading slightly-inebriated!Sigrun more than I let on.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on June 14, 2016, 09:53:51 PM
Okay, I know that I posted this one directly to the forum last night. I remember writing the summary. I remember writing the header. I remember complaining about the stupid Mac spellchecking words that didn't even need to be corrected. But apparently that post is nowhere to be found, not even when I do a forum-wide search for the warning I used in the header! Seriously, what happened? I posted this one on time, I swear!

74. Are you challenging me? (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/16352558)

Also, three-quarter mark FTW! (Beware the Author Notes!)

75. Mirror (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/16353233)

And waaaaaah, only a few days away and I have so much catching up to do! *runs off to do reading*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on June 15, 2016, 02:53:45 AM
Well I posted this over on the Multi-media exchange thread, but I'll drop the link here too

http://archiveofourown.org/works/7209446

(In which a Danish town speculates as to what Mikkel does when he isn't on the farm)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Talimee on June 15, 2016, 10:27:46 AM
Well I posted this over on the Multi-media exchange thread, but I'll drop the link here too

http://archiveofourown.org/works/7209446

(In which a Danish town speculates as to what Mikkel does when he isn't on the farm)

This is awesome! If I had children I would use the Danish Head Slap as well, but since I haven't, I utilize it on close friends instead. Whenever they disagree with me. XD
Also, I liked the snippets of dialogue between Mikkel and Sigrun and I loved the small children there - y'know the ones who wanted to become Sigrun and/or Mikkel. It is refreshing to see Mikkel hero-worshipped for once. =D
Thanks for writing and sharing!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Minutia_R on June 15, 2016, 12:18:21 PM
In which Siv and Torbjörn review the personnel files of their prospective crew.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/7211909 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7211909)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Kiraly on June 15, 2016, 09:35:41 PM
Soooo many wonderful fics recently! I can hardly keep up!

Anyway, I'll add one to the pile. It's another one from my Tumblr giveaway, and the request was for a story about how Sigrun and Mikkel met in my Hipster AU. There's also a drawing to go along with it, which is at the end of the fic (and I'll probably put it in the art museum too).

An Inauspicious Beginning (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7214971). (Featuring Sigrun, Mikkel, brawling, and booze).
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Juniper on June 15, 2016, 11:05:26 PM
In which Siv and Torbjörn review the personnel files of their prospective crew.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/7211909 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7211909)
This is not only really well written, but also touches on something I think about a lot. I always wonder how Siv and Torbjörn were able to send out their little 19 year old nephew on a highly dangerous and potentially deadly mission and actually really made me question them, still kind of does.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Pupunen on June 15, 2016, 11:07:02 PM
Soooo many wonderful fics recently! I can hardly keep up!

Anyway, I'll add one to the pile. It's another one from my Tumblr giveaway, and the request was for a story about how Sigrun and Mikkel met in my Hipster AU. There's also a drawing to go along with it, which is at the end of the fic (and I'll probably put it in the art museum too).

An Inauspicious Beginning (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7214971). (Featuring Sigrun, Mikkel, brawling, and booze).
This was hilarious! This AU of yours just gets better and better.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Tr on June 15, 2016, 11:22:38 PM
Soooo many wonderful fics recently! I can hardly keep up!

Anyway, I'll add one to the pile. It's another one from my Tumblr giveaway, and the request was for a story about how Sigrun and Mikkel met in my Hipster AU. There's also a drawing to go along with it, which is at the end of the fic (and I'll probably put it in the art museum too).

An Inauspicious Beginning (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7214971). (Featuring Sigrun, Mikkel, brawling, and booze).
I love the way you write Sigrun <3
And they would totally get into a bar fight together, ohmygosh :'D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on June 15, 2016, 11:51:54 PM
Sigrun teaching Emil how to flirt! That's what everyone wanted to see, right?

76. Sexy (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/16377940)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Minutia_R on June 16, 2016, 12:04:50 AM
This is not only really well written, but also touches on something I think about a lot. I always wonder how Siv and Torbjörn were able to send out their little 19 year old nephew on a highly dangerous and potentially deadly mission and actually really made me question them, still kind of does.

Thank you!  And yeah, I like them (in Torbjörn's case, for values of "like" that include generous helpings of "enjoy watching him be a tool") but I judge them.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on June 16, 2016, 10:41:56 PM
Don't try to dissuade Reynir from helping. It will not end well.

77. Test (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/16398205)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on June 17, 2016, 06:07:30 AM
23 Cat: http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/16403740

Sprawling epic. Very weird. Kitty is about to retire and everything turns strange.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on June 17, 2016, 11:30:57 PM
Here, have a vignette of vignettes?

78. Drink (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/16420474)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Yuuago on June 18, 2016, 01:12:42 AM
Just one today.

"Safely Through Dark Spaces". Rating: 10+. Words: 1k. Emil/Lalli.
Summary: As long as they are together in the world, they will hold each other up, walk safely through dark spaces.
Other: This is another Näkki-Lalli AU story; it's a sequel to Water and Eternity (http://archiveofourown.org/works/5480474).

On Ao3: http://archiveofourown.org/works/7234042
On Dreamwidth: http://roesslyng.dreamwidth.org/72135.html
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on June 18, 2016, 10:44:06 PM
Is it obvious I wrote this in the midst of an existential crisis?

79. Starvation (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/16439950)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on June 19, 2016, 04:47:06 AM
Is it obvious I wrote this in the midst of an existential crisis?

79. Starvation (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/16439950)

Yes, but in a good way. If you're still respiring then you're doing something productive, no matter how unproductive you feel.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Miriam on June 19, 2016, 05:41:54 AM
And I don't want to let too many posts pass without something of substance, so have a slightly shippy EmiLalli drabble! It's only a bit over 100 words, too.


Lalli was cold. And damp. And tired. He hated being cold and damp and tired. It was just a few more steps to the door of the cat-tank, though, and from there to his bunk. Right, he could do this. Shuffle into the tank, decontaminate himself, grunt affirmatively in Tuuri’s direction when she asked if it was safe…

And pause. The pallet on the floor would be cold. He was done with being cold.

Emil had half rolled onto his side, leaving a little space on the bunk. It would fit him, if he pressed himself very close.
 
So he did. Even mostly asleep,  Emil’s arm slid around him, and he sighed happily as he snuggled into the warmth.


Eee how cute! Eeeeeeee!

(http://i.imgur.com/lTXm7yF.png)

(I headcanon Tuuri ships Emilalli, even if it's just because she's happy that Lalli isn't lonely on the mission despite the language barrier, instead he has Emil. :) )
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on June 19, 2016, 05:54:24 AM
48: Childhood http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/16446031

Onni ends up acting as the nanny to the three imps that are supposedly children running amok in the Vasterstroms' household.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on June 19, 2016, 10:40:41 PM
Another low-key chapter, exploring differing worldviews.

80. Words (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/16461973)

Also, 4/5 of the  way through!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on June 20, 2016, 11:21:05 PM
My take on pre-Page 546.

81. Pen and Paper (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/16485298)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on June 21, 2016, 06:54:09 AM
40: Dragons http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/16491127

Mikkel and Sigrun fight a dragon because bad-ass.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on June 21, 2016, 11:08:39 PM
Apparently I like writing interactions we don't see much of in canon.

82. Can you hear me? (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/16507075)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on June 22, 2016, 10:28:21 PM
Diiiiiiiiiid anyone order another emotional battering complete with backstories? (I'm suffering, therefore you all most suffer with me. Hotakainen family feels come free of charge.)

83. Heal (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/16527811)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on June 23, 2016, 10:33:28 PM
...I'm guessing I missed out on reviews due to posting amidst the recent drama? Anyway, chapter.

84. Out Cold (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/16549528)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on June 24, 2016, 08:38:42 AM
42: Stand still http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/16556434/preview

Initiation is tough, especially in post apocalyptic Finland.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on June 24, 2016, 08:33:09 PM
The Jylland Jump
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/“Jazz Age” crossover fanfic
Part 7
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg90019#msg90019)
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Spoiler: Grace Notes and Accidentals • show
Malmö, Sweden
1947

Tuuri clenched her teeth as the pompous windbag up at the podium droned on endlessly supposedly in praise of the Swede-Finn Relief Association (while somehow implying that its successes were due to him). She was just about ready to run screaming from The Dinner Party That Time Forgot were it not nearly certain to damage the Association’s standing and her years of hard work on its behalf.

Reynir gave her hand a supportive squeeze. Tuuri smiled back shyly. Also at their table were her best friends Marta and Kerttu (Kerttu herself a success story for the Association), Lalli, and...

Wait, where was Emil?

Suddenly the speaker’s mike cut off, and a familiar song began to play over the speakers.

“You belong to my heart
Now and forever
And our love had its start
Not long ago...”

Oh, no. It was Emil, and he must be roaring drunk to actually be singing like this. Not that it was bad; actually, his singing was much better when he was drunk, because it calmed his incessant self-consciousness.

“We were gathering stars
While a million guitars
Played our love song...”

The speaker, now an interesting shade of puce, was being led back to his seat. Fortunately, everyone else in attendance seemed to share Tuuri’s opinion of his speech; at least, no one else seemed too put out by the change in the agenda.

Tuuri peeked at Lalli. As she’d suspected, he was transparently transported by Emil’s rendition of Lalli’s favorite Bing Crosby tune.

“When I said ‘I love you’
Ev’ry beat of my heart
Said it too...”

Tuuri had known for years, of course, though they’d never talked about it. While practically all of her friends twitted her about her occasional obliviousness, there was no way Tuuri could have missed what was going on between Lalli and Emil.

“’Twas a moment like this
Do you remember?
And your eyes threw a kiss
When they met mine...”

The two of them had always seemed to be in tune in a way that the other Musikers weren’t; Tuuri tended to get a teensy bit jealous when she thought about it. For some reason, her eyes flicked over to Reynir and away as he glanced back.

“Now we own all the stars
And a million guitars
Are still playing...”

Seriously, why else would Emil risk life and limb against the Soviets but for the fact that he was fighting alongside Lalli?

“Darling you are the song
And you’ll always belong
To my heart!”

The marimba interlude began, along with a light smattering of applause. Tuuri was terribly shocked to realize that she had snuggled up against Reynir at some point--what must he think of her?

Reynir leaned in closer, a hint of liquor on his breath tickling her nose as he tentatively put his lips to hers, right as the trumpets blared. Tuuri didn’t care.

“’Twas a moment like this
Do you remember?
And your eyes threw a kiss
When they met mine...”

Reynir broke the kiss at last, shifting Tuuri so that her head was lying against his chest, and all she could feel was a warm glow of happiness.

“Now we own all the stars
And a million guitars
Are still playing...”

The pompous windbag was glaring in Tuuri’s general direction, as though he suspected her of arranging this disruption of the evening’s program, but Tuuri smiled dreamily back at him and let her eyes drift shut for the last bit of the number.

“Darling you are the song
And you’ll always belong
To my heart!”

Tuuri looked around again. “Where’s Marta?”

Kerttu smirked. “I’d imagine she’s kissing the guy who just serenaded her senseless--like you and Reynir a moment ago.”

“Huh?” Tuuri shook herself.

“Emil,” Lalli clarified, looking at her oddly. “He just sang to Marta, so they’re off somewhere smooching.”

“But... But...” Tuuri sputtered. She tried again. “But...”

Lalli grinned somewhat cattily. “Use your words, Tuuri,” he sing-songed at her, as she had so many times to him when they were growing up.

“It’s your favorite song!”

Lalli looked confused. “It’s also Marta’s. She has good taste.”

Tuuri opened her mouth again, but just gave up instead.

Kerttu took Lalli by the hand. “Come on, Lalli-cat. Let’s leave the lovebirds and make some music of our own.” Tuuri’s jaw dropped again when Lalli allowed her to lead him away.

“But... But...” Tuuri found herself sputtering again. “But...”

Then Reynir stoppered her mouth with his own, and she forgot what had been bothering her so much...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
I wanted to have  this  (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_Belong_to_My_Heart) as one of Lalli’s favorites to play back in part 3 or 4, but Bing didn’t record (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKkfpBf7VpE) it until ’45, dang it.

...And I told you that last part wasn’t the end, didn’t I?

EDIT: Apparently the profanity filters didn't like Kerttu's nickname for Lalli. Weird.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on June 24, 2016, 10:05:35 PM
77: Test http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/16569157

It probably would have been better to do a prompt about Reynir's faith being tested or some test of survival skills, but apparently this is not what I did.
Instead, here's a small snippet of a random modern AU where the kids are taking a math test and dying on the inside.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on June 24, 2016, 10:45:41 PM
More navel-gazing, because I am utterly beat.

85. Spiral (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/16569844)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on June 25, 2016, 12:23:13 AM
The Jylland Jump
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/“Jazz Age” crossover fanfic
Part 7
....
Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
I wanted to have  this  (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_Belong_to_My_Heart) as one of Lalli’s favorites to play back in part 3 or 4, but Bing didn’t record (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKkfpBf7VpE) it until ’45, dang it.

...And I told you that last part wasn’t the end, didn’t I?


So are you telling us that this is the end? But it's so good - please, I want some more!
Or another story - you tell such awesome ones!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Juniper on June 25, 2016, 12:53:49 AM
42: Stand still http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/16556434/preview

Initiation is tough, especially in post apocalyptic Finland.

I'm so used to your stories usually being more comedic and silly that I almost forget that you're also really good at doing scary and sad stuff. Like, really good.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on June 25, 2016, 11:26:54 PM
This got quite a bit more literal than I had expected.

86. Seeing Red (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/16591720)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Jureeya on June 26, 2016, 12:31:47 AM
This got quite a bit more literal than I had expected.

86. Seeing Red (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/16591720)

*v* yes yes this is very nice lazy8 very very nice
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Miriam on June 26, 2016, 11:51:29 AM
I finally got an Archive of Our Own account to post my SSSS fanfictions.

Handcuddling (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7308883)
Lalli and Emil are sleeping together and their hands are close. Lalli decides to grab Emil's hand. Short fanfic with some fluff.

Making up (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7309246)
What has happened during the time jump? After Lalli threw soup in Emil's face, they both wanted to make up. Language barrier trouble ensues. Slightly longer fanfic, fluff.

More fanfic to come, most of them will be Emilalli (although most of them also readable as friendship).
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on June 26, 2016, 09:57:49 PM
61: Dance http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/16613491

Sigrun and Lalli scout together and find something weirder than both of them put together.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on June 27, 2016, 12:05:33 AM
I think I'm going to have to take a hiatus from the 100 Prompts challenge. I just have too much RL stuff on my plate (and by this point, everyone ought to know why). Hopefully I'll be back to writing by the start of July, and if not then, mid-August at the latest!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Minutia_R on June 27, 2016, 12:37:35 AM
I think I'm going to have to take a hiatus from the 100 Prompts challenge. I just have too much RL stuff on my plate (and by this point, everyone ought to know why). Hopefully I'll be back to writing by the start of July, and if not then, mid-August at the latest!

Aww, I will miss your regular updates!  But obviously your RL stuff has got to come first.  Most best luck with everything!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on June 27, 2016, 01:12:39 AM
We'll miss you, but theses come first!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on June 27, 2016, 03:49:13 PM
Best wishes, Lazy8. You will triumph!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Krisse Kovacs on June 27, 2016, 04:41:56 PM
I just say, I posted some short fanfics I wrote, in english, and in hungarian too, hungarians mostly posted on my old blogspot fanfiction blog and english to archiveofourown
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on June 27, 2016, 05:25:30 PM
Take care of yourself Lazy8, we'll miss you while you're gone! I'll be going over all of your work so far to tide myself over until the next update.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on June 28, 2016, 06:11:24 AM
I think I'm going to have to take a hiatus from the 100 Prompts challenge. I just have too much RL stuff on my plate (and by this point, everyone ought to know why). Hopefully I'll be back to writing by the start of July, and if not then, mid-August at the latest!

Absolutely, the RL stuff must get some of your attention!  You have a considerable project, and I've been agog at your managing to write here as well!  The fatigue is also showing, although certainly not in your comnand of a story. Mwah, get sorted, come share celebrations when you can!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Talimee on June 28, 2016, 10:53:17 AM
The Jylland Jump
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/“Jazz Age” crossover fanfic
Part 7

...And I told you that last part wasn’t the end, didn’t I?

EDIT: Apparently the profanity filters didn't like Kerttu's nickname for Lalli. Weird.[/spoiler]

LooNEY, I was only today able to catch up with this. Thank Heavens it the last chapter wasn't the end of it! :D This is too good to be over soon! And all this wonderful music! Although Jazz and/or Blues are a bit too emotional for me right now, I will go back an listen to evenry song you mention here. =D
Oh, and what a twist at the end! You had me and Tuuri fooled! XD And I loved Lalli's come-back at Tuuri! Yes, Tuuri, use your words. ;D

*hugs* Thanks for writing and sharing!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on June 28, 2016, 11:36:07 AM
LooNEY, that was excellent!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Tr on June 28, 2016, 10:39:04 PM
Some more Hogwarts stuff. Very, very ridiculous. VERY ridiculous. Honestly I don't know why I wrote this.
Tuuri and Reynir visit Madam Puddifoot's Tea Shop, only to have a pair of unlikely interrupting friends ruin their evening.
Spoiler: show
A bell tinkle gently as Tuuri and Reynir stepped in out of the cold. An explosion of pink met their eyes.
“Well,” Tuuri said, “It’s very… pink.”
She had meant to say cozy, but the more prominent word just slipped out. She smiled at Reynir, whose teeth were chattering. “Shall we go find a table?”
He nodded, looking around. “If we can find one that isn’t—“
“Currently occupied by some kissing couple?” Tuuri said ruefully. She couldn’t remember who had suggested Madam Puddifoot’s Tea Shop, and she was starting to get a sinking feeling that all this had been her idea.
Suddenly, a stout woman with a shiny black bun perched neatly on the top of her head appeared between tables. “What can I get you, m’dears?” she panted, squeezing between tables.
“Ah—a table for two, please,” Tuuri asked.
“Sure thing,” she said, and led them through a maze of tables to the very back of the room. When they were seated, she beamed down at them and said, “You can call me Madam Puddifoot, now how’s about I get you some nice tea to start off? I pride myself on knowing what sort people like.” She winked benevolently at both of them. From what Tuuri could see of Reynir’s face, it had surpassed the pink of the frilly decorations and was now a deep red.
Within seconds, Madam Puddifoot had vanished and reappeared with a tray of tea and pastries. She placed these in front of Tuuri and Reynir, grinning widely the whole time. Then she squeezed herself between two tables and was gone.
Tuuri and Reynir stared at each other. It was, Tuuri thought sadly, terribly awkward.
In order to stop staring, Reynir tried one of the cookies in front of him. His eyes bulged.
“What? What is it?” Tuuri asked, grabbing his arm.
“Mhfh—sweet!” Reynir choked. “It’s like she filled that thing with sugar!”
Tuuri giggled. And then she burst into a laugh, a sweet, breathy laugh that was better than cookies.
Reynir laughed too, his hand slipping down to rest in hers. Then he stopped, looking troubled. “Do you feel like we’re being watched?”
Tuuri started to answer in the negative, but as soon as she looked past Reynir, she saw a pair of silvery, feline eyes…
No. It couldn’t be. “Lalli?” she gasped. “What are you doing here?”
Lalli’s mouth moved like he was chewing. As a matter of fact, he was. There was a towering stack of overly sweet cookies on the table in front of him, and he had the contented air of some on who is halfway done with a delicious dinner. Beyond the cookies, gold hair glimmered.
“Hello,” Emil whispered, looking truly mortified.
“Oh, hi,” Reynir said, completely oblivious.
Lalli munched on his cookies. Tuuri gaped at him. “Do you know you’re in… that you’re in… that you’re in the number one spot for kissing couples in Hogsmeade?” Tuuri finished the sentence with an air of fierce determination.
“Yes,” Emil choked. He looked like he was trying to swallow one of Professor Sigrun’s imps.
Lalli gave them a piercing stare. “What are you doing here?”
Tuuri’s mouth moved silently. Lalli’s gaze swept around to Emil. “Are they on a date?
Reynir glanced at Tuuri. “Should we… go?”
“Yes,” she gasped, and fled.
“I think… I think they are!” she heard Emil exclaim behind her.
It was only later, in the warm glow of the fire in the Three Broomsticks, that Tuuri thought to wonder what Lalli and Emil had been doing there in the first place.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on June 29, 2016, 12:51:12 AM
Tr, perhaps you wrote it because it was so wonderfully ridiculous? *delighted giggles*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Miriam on June 29, 2016, 04:15:06 AM
Some more Hogwarts stuff. Very, very ridiculous. VERY ridiculous. Honestly I don't know why I wrote this.
Tuuri and Reynir visit Madam Puddifoot's Tea Shop, only to have a pair of unlikely interrupting friends ruin their evening.
Spoiler: show
A bell tinkle gently as Tuuri and Reynir stepped in out of the cold. An explosion of pink met their eyes.
“Well,” Tuuri said, “It’s very… pink.”
She had meant to say cozy, but the more prominent word just slipped out. She smiled at Reynir, whose teeth were chattering. “Shall we go find a table?”
He nodded, looking around. “If we can find one that isn’t—“
“Currently occupied by some kissing couple?” Tuuri said ruefully. She couldn’t remember who had suggested Madam Puddifoot’s Tea Shop, and she was starting to get a sinking feeling that all this had been her idea.
Suddenly, a stout woman with a shiny black bun perched neatly on the top of her head appeared between tables. “What can I get you, m’dears?” she panted, squeezing between tables.
“Ah—a table for two, please,” Tuuri asked.
“Sure thing,” she said, and led them through a maze of tables to the very back of the room. When they were seated, she beamed down at them and said, “You can call me Madam Puddifoot, now how’s about I get you some nice tea to start off? I pride myself on knowing what sort people like.” She winked benevolently at both of them. From what Tuuri could see of Reynir’s face, it had surpassed the pink of the frilly decorations and was now a deep red.
Within seconds, Madam Puddifoot had vanished and reappeared with a tray of tea and pastries. She placed these in front of Tuuri and Reynir, grinning widely the whole time. Then she squeezed herself between two tables and was gone.
Tuuri and Reynir stared at each other. It was, Tuuri thought sadly, terribly awkward.
In order to stop staring, Reynir tried one of the cookies in front of him. His eyes bulged.
“What? What is it?” Tuuri asked, grabbing his arm.
“Mhfh—sweet!” Reynir choked. “It’s like she filled that thing with sugar!”
Tuuri giggled. And then she burst into a laugh, a sweet, breathy laugh that was better than cookies.
Reynir laughed too, his hand slipping down to rest in hers. Then he stopped, looking troubled. “Do you feel like we’re being watched?”
Tuuri started to answer in the negative, but as soon as she looked past Reynir, she saw a pair of silvery, feline eyes…
No. It couldn’t be. “Lalli?” she gasped. “What are you doing here?”
Lalli’s mouth moved like he was chewing. As a matter of fact, he was. There was a towering stack of overly sweet cookies on the table in front of him, and he had the contented air of some on who is halfway done with a delicious dinner. Beyond the cookies, gold hair glimmered.
“Hello,” Emil whispered, looking truly mortified.
“Oh, hi,” Reynir said, completely oblivious.
Lalli munched on his cookies. Tuuri gaped at him. “Do you know you’re in… that you’re in… that you’re in the number one spot for kissing couples in Hogsmeade?” Tuuri finished the sentence with an air of fierce determination.
“Yes,” Emil choked. He looked like he was trying to swallow one of Professor Sigrun’s imps.
Lalli gave them a piercing stare. “What are you doing here?”
Tuuri’s mouth moved silently. Lalli’s gaze swept around to Emil. “Are they on a date?
Reynir glanced at Tuuri. “Should we… go?”
“Yes,” she gasped, and fled.
“I think… I think they are!” she heard Emil exclaim behind her.
It was only later, in the warm glow of the fire in the Three Broomsticks, that Tuuri thought to wonder what Lalli and Emil had been doing there in the first place.


Yes, good. Very good.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on June 29, 2016, 09:12:53 AM
The Red Herring League
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/Superhero AU fanfic
Part 7
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg110613#msg110613)
Spoiler: The Manchurian Heroes • show
“Are you disciples?”

“Yes,” the seven Heroes chorused.

Törkeää Onni stood before the Red Herring League fearlessly, knowing that they were his to command.

The Nordic Council had put the command system into place as the ultimate safeguard against the sheer power of the Heroes running amok--or turning against the Council. Expert mentalists carefully assessed the Heroes and then programmed them as needed.

He addressed Reynir first. “Play dead.”

The only command the programmers had bothered to put into the lowest-powered Heroes was the “Play Dead” order. Reynir promptly fell over, his muscles all falling limp at once.

For each of the rest, Törkeää Onni stepped in front of them, put two fingers to their forehead, and whispered, “Phobos”. This command prompted the subject to suffer terrifying visions of their greatest fear while they stood motionless and powerless.

Each of the rest, excepting only the Firework. Emil had been assessed as “most compliant” in the group, so Törkeää Onni had a special plan for him.

Törkeää Onni spoke the command phrases and awaited Emil’s acknowledgement and obedience.

Emil’s mouth worked silently for several seconds, until finally he said, “...No.” He looked almost surprised that he’d said it before repeating, “No,” and adding, “I will not kill my friends.”

What luck that the assessors had not bothered to ascertain how Emil would react if called on to go against his friends.

Törkeää Onni frowned. “Lack of discipline is its own punishment.”

Emil screamed as waves of pain ripped through him, making him fall to one knee before the implacable Finn.

“Are you a disciple?”

Everything in Emil wanted to scream “Yes!” at Törkeää Onni. He could feel the weight of the compulsion like a horrible yoke on his shoulders, dragging his inexorably into line.

Just as Emil was about to break, he seemed to hear a voice say, “I can Help with that, if you’ll let me.” It was Reynir, stooping by Emil’s side to get under one edge of the yoke. Reynir stood, his strength Helping Emil back to his feet. What luck that Reynir was the only other Hero who could use his powers now.

Emil lifted his head, his bright blue eyes looking right into Törkeää Onni’s grey ones. “I will not kill my friends.” He bit out each word individually.

The sparkles in the Firework’s hair became sparks, and Törkeää Onni had to take a quick step back as the immediate are grew hot.

Of course, the part of the conditioning preventing the Firework from harming the Puppeteer was still intact, so Emil stood there helplessly, his will still fixed on not killing his friends.

As though in a dream, Törkeää Onni saw a spectral form of flame stride forward from Emil, grabbing Onni in a firm but inescapable hug before sending the flames to their highest pitch, disregarding Onni’s pain-wracked screams...

No sooner had one vision ended than another began. In this one, Törkeää Onni’s head was forcibly yanked to face a Sigrun who had given herself over to rage. “Talky man talk too much,” she opined before snapping his neck with one punch...

And another. Törkeää Onni was knocked to the floor by the adversary from home. “You slew my whole team of good men and women,” the furious Captain Sparkle growled. “Without reason, without cause. For this, you must be punished!” He punched Törkeää Onni in the face. “Punished!” Another punch. “PUNISHED!” And it went on...

After exactly ten minutes and twenty-seven seconds, the members of the Red Herring League came out of their states and back to normalcy.

Törkeää Onni was curled up into a little ball before them, sobbing occasionally but otherwise unresponsive. What luck for the League that his foresight powers had resurfaced just in time to prevent him from taking further action against them.

“Can you take him back to your world?” Sigrun asked Captain Sparkle.

*

The eyes upon the League duly noted everything and reported it truly to the Controller. He smirked. “Well, we’ve had Amateur Hour; now we’ll see how much better the professionals are.” He nodded at a nearby troll...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
Oh, look. I didn’t actually abandon the plot after all.

...And gee, could all those mentions of luck have something to do with Tuuri? Nah.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Kiraly on July 02, 2016, 12:46:46 AM
Don't mind me, I'm just reviving my Hipster Band AU (http://archiveofourown.org/works/5569909/chapters/16726669) from its long sleep (with a looooong chapter). Also, there will most likely only be two chapters after this, unless it gets away from me.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Talimee on July 02, 2016, 01:51:27 PM
Don't mind me, I'm just reviving my Hipster Band AU (http://archiveofourown.org/works/5569909/chapters/16726669) from its long sleep (with a looooong chapter). Also, there will most likely only be two chapters after this, unless it gets away from me.

Yay! I love the introduction of Kiraly-level Angst into this. This is about the only level of angst I can handle at the moment so it is awesome. Poor Onni - he is so right. TT_TT

And the songs were awesome. Don't know all of them but
Spoiler: show
 Mikkel and Celine Dion?! I cracked up at this. And the drinking game for "Turn around bright eyes" is a good idea.
Cate Bush is horror on the vocal cords as I have enough evidence to lay down through countless Sing-Star evenings.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Kiraly on July 02, 2016, 02:19:09 PM
Yay! I love the introduction of Kiraly-level Angst into this. This is about the only level of angst I can handle at the moment so it is awesome. Poor Onni - he is so right. TT_TT

And the songs were awesome. Don't know all of them but
Spoiler: show
 Mikkel and Celine Dion?! I cracked up at this. And the drinking game for "Turn around bright eyes" is a good idea.
Cate Bush is horror on the vocal cords as I have enough evidence to lay down through countless Sing-Star evenings.

Aww good, I'm glad the Kiraly-level angst isn't too much! (It is sometimes too much for me to write, which is the main reason this chapter took so long!) And yes...Onni does have a point, even if he can't seem to present it in a way that Tuuri can handle at the moment. I hope I can do the parts about Onni's conflict with Tuuri here justice in the remaining chapters. I meant to introduce it earlier (I wrote that email from Onni several chapters ago and kept cutting it) but it never seemed like the right time. I do think figuring out how to have a healthy relationship with him is an important part of Tuuri's character.

And I'm glad you liked the songs! I finally realized that in some cases it would be fine to just pick things that would be funny and/or have appropriate lyrics for the characters
Spoiler: show
(like Lalli and The Sound of Silence, which I am still patting myself on the back for having thought of). Mikkel singing Celine Dion was actually a suggestion by Minutia, which was too hilarious to pass up! And oh, man...if that "Turn around bright eyes" thing was an actual drinking game, there would be so much drinking...I've lost count of how many times I've been at a karaoke place and someone (usually a group of girls) decided to sing it but didn't actually know it well.


Anyway, thank you for reading and commenting! I'll admit, I was a little worried this chapter would be too much angst and not enough fluff, but I needed to be done with it (so I can move on to some more angst before the final fluffy conclusion).
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on July 02, 2016, 03:01:03 PM
 Crushed that Kirlaly's hipster AU's only going to have like 2 more chapters, but it's been a fun ride all the same. I'm looking forward to the ending!

Haven't posted myself in a while because there was no wi-fi where I've been for the past week and I had extended family coming up to my eyeballs, so have a prompt now.

47: Creation http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/16738501

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Kiraly on July 02, 2016, 03:18:45 PM
Crushed that Kirlaly's hipster AU's only going to have like 2 more chapters, but it's been a fun ride all the same. I'm looking forward to the ending!

Haven't posted myself in a while because there was no wi-fi where I've been for the past week and I had extended family coming up to my eyeballs, so have a prompt now.

47: Creation http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/16738501

Aww, don't be too crushed! I'll do my best to make the ending worth it, I promise. (And in addition to the Emil/Lalli spinoff story line, there's a decent possibility of a Christmas special showing up around the holidays, assuming I manage to finish the main story arc before then!)

I really enjoyed this Mikkel chapter - if you've been up to your eyeballs in extended family, it seems like you've taken that as inspiration for your writing. Well done!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on July 02, 2016, 06:50:06 PM
I'm so glad I didn't kill this thread last week.

So, of course, I'll kill it now, with this dark tale of the future.

On the Consequences of Trying to Bully Someone with PTSD
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Spoiler: show
Cleanser Camp Fortitude
3 km NNW of Älvdalen
Late Summer--Beginning of Cleanse Cycle 77

Emil watched the forest burn from the supposed “safety” of the camp. He had been put on rear-guard duty again, as he had every day since his return from the PR tour following the Mission. It wasn’t so bad, or so he kept telling himself.

Since his return to the unit, he’d decided to take a page from Lalli’s book and be quiet but competent (aside from one outburst when he’d reported to the Captain), not that any of his fellows were any more eager for his company than they had been before he left.

Something skittered through the bushes, and the horses whickered nervously.

*

“Stop hanging back, Svenson! Västerström would be back at camp faster than you!” The Captain’s jibe had its desired effect: as the others chuckled, the lagging Cleanser loped forward to rejoin the group.

Västerström. What was the Captain to do with him? When he’d returned, she’d sneered at him, suggesting that while he might be expecting better treatment now that he was famous, he’d be mistaken. She’d expected a mortified babble of denials as she crushed his spirit further.

But instead of flushing in embarrassment as he would have once, the little snot had dared to look her in the eye as he’d told her that he knew she’d hated him from the first day he’d been assigned to her, and that he didn’t expect it to change any time soon.

When she’d told him to watch his tongue, Västerström had actually laughed. “Or what?” he’d asked, his tone bitter. “Will you put me on permanent latrine duty, as I am anyway? Will you leave me behind to guard the camp instead of seeing action, as you always do anyway? Will you encourage the others in their little persecutions, as you do anyway?”

On that, Västerström had turned and left her office, without waiting to be dismissed.

Now, the Captain had to figure out what more she could do to him, as she wouldn’t let such talk pass unpunished.

They were still laughing as they approached the camp, until they saw the bloody corpse on the trail. It was a troll, but so large as to be only just shy of Giant-hood, and it was very dead. Not a few wounds marked the corpse, but the most impressive was the fatal wound: a single stab right through what had once been its forehead.

Västerström was waiting for them at the perimeter. Just for a moment as they emerged from the trees, the Captain thought she saw a flash of sunlight off a naked blade in his hand, but it vanished too quickly for her to be sure.

“There are two others on the far side of camp,” he reported. “They tried to attack from both sides at once, but Misu-Misu held the one off long enough for me to take the others down.” Misu-Misu was the unit’s Grade B vermin-Beast control cat.

He said nothing else, simply waiting to be dismissed. Bemused, the Captain did so, and he left.

Once he was gone, some of the others half-heartedly tried to scoff at the notion of Västerström taking down three trolls by himself; but the dead trolls were right there, and only Västerström had been in place to kill them.

*

It wasn’t long after their return to base that the next incident happened, and at the worst possible time. The Captain was entertaining a higher-up who had yet to reveal the reasons for his visit, so she was already a bit on edge.

They were strolling over to the Officers’ Mess when it happened, in full view of the VIP. Västerström had just started down the stairs when Wittenden came up behind him and gave him a shove that should have sent him sprawling in the mud.

Instead, Västerström spun around, grabbing Wittenden’s outstretched hand--and stabbed Wittenden in the belly as the two tumbled into the mud.

Fortunately for Wittenden, Svenson and Klausen raced up to grab Västerström’s arms before he could cut Wittenden’s head off.

No one looking at Västerström in that moment would have doubted that he’d killed those three trolls by himself.

“Well,” the higher-up said flatly. The Captain jumped, having forgotten his presence until then. “I had hoped that my source was mistaken, but it seems they weren’t.”

What?

The Captain looked at the emissary from on high, and realized that he was trembling with anger. She was about to apologize and assure him that Västerström would be severely disciplined for this when he spoke again.

“I was told to investigate rumors that your unit was utterly lacking in cohesion and camaraderie; that this was exemplified in your tacit approval of a campaign of persecution against one of your own; and that internecine violence was inevitable as a result. I pooh-poohed the notion, but I came here anyway, and what do I find? One of your Cleansers assaulted another, who defended himself--perhaps too vigorously at the end, but that first blow was self-defense.”

The Captain was still stammering protests when the higher-up told her, “Cleanser Västerström is herewith removed from your command; I shall assume responsibility for him and escort him back to Mora. You have not heard the end of this.”

*

The Captain was “temporarily” removed from command and assigned to observe another unit--as a common Cleanser. After she got over her funk, she actually began to learn a few things about leadership, not that she’d ever admit it to anyone. But when she returned to her unit, she began to put her lessons into practice.

A few cycles later, she saw the posters go up advertising “the Face of the Cleansers” appearing nearby. Västerström’s face beamed at her from each one.


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
Well, that was long and dark.

The "rumors" were passed from Sigrun to Trond, who called in a few favors to get the matter looked into.

In other news, I’m hopeless at Swedish surnames.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Talimee on July 02, 2016, 07:23:56 PM
I'm so glad I didn't kill this thread last week.

So, of course, I'll kill it now, with this dark tale of the future.

Pfft. What do you mean? Kill the thread? Long? Dark? This story was not nearly long enough (in my view) and very satisfactory on the revenge-scale. *happy sigh* But seriously, like, seriously!
Spoiler: show
I liked Emil telling the Captain off and telling her exactly how she could not humiliate him further and I loved that he took care of these trolls on his own. I thing the PTSD did not come through all the way, but on the other hand PTSD must not always be a crippling condition, must it?
Anyhow, nice work!

Quote
In other news, I’m hopeless at Swedish surnames.

Well. When I need Swedish names and family names I go here (http://www.schwedisch-translator.de/vornamen/nachnamen_top100.html). Its a list of the 100 most common Swedish family names. You will see, that the Swedes use -son instead of the Danish -sen.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on July 02, 2016, 08:56:17 PM
LooNEY: Kill the thread? Never! These were both interesting reads, and the Emil story was great. Extreme PTSD victims, in my experience, can go either way. The ones who don't wind up sobbing under the bed can wind up like Emil did in this story, yeah. Sometimes they can veer back and forth between the two patterns, which is scary, not knowing which one you will meet.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LordoftheThings on July 03, 2016, 04:24:01 AM
http://archiveofourown.org/works/5292065/chapters/16752016

I LIIIIIVE
new hypothermia chapter for y'all, and some art to go with it under the spoiler~

Spoiler: show
 (https://i.gyazo.com/c49499e061e4c4a48f8e96ccdb587d78.png)
Peek-a-boooo

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on July 03, 2016, 05:38:27 AM
LordoftheThings: delightfully creepy art to go with a delightfully creepy story! What is it that the troll says to Emil?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on July 03, 2016, 01:03:30 PM
79: Starvation http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/16758568

In which Reynir considers whether or not it was worth it to feed his starvation for adventure.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Talimee on July 03, 2016, 02:19:17 PM
79: Starvation http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/16758568

In which Reynir considers whether or not it was worth it to feed his starvation for adventure.

Yay! I liked the conversation between Mikkel and Reynir, very sad and very enlightening. I also liked the assumption that Reynir is some sort of lucky charm. XD Lucky to be born, lucky to survive the Silent World, lucky to be a mage ... Hehe.
The Inuk you have Mikkel mention here, is he the same Inuk from the "Creation"-story? If so, how would he be at the Kastrup-frontlines? Will you write more about this?

Anyhow, thanks for writing and sharing. =)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LordoftheThings on July 03, 2016, 06:04:30 PM
@Róisín
The troll is speaking Danish! Specifically, its saying "I'm Hungry"
translation curtosy of my non fandom active Icelandic minnion friend
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on July 03, 2016, 06:37:06 PM
Yay! I liked the conversation between Mikkel and Reynir, very sad and very enlightening. I also liked the assumption that Reynir is some sort of lucky charm. XD Lucky to be born, lucky to survive the Silent World, lucky to be a mage ... Hehe.
The Inuk you have Mikkel mention here, is he the same Inuk from the "Creation"-story? If so, how would he be at the Kastrup-frontlines? Will you write more about this?

Anyhow, thanks for writing and sharing. =)

Yes that's the same Inuk. I don't quite know how he made it out there to the Kastrup front-lines, but suffice to say it was professionally. He didn't just up and chase the twins out there. He was doing his job when he died. Perhaps I will write some more- I've gotten unreasonably attached in a short amount of time to all the Madsens I flung out at everyone in the "Creation" prompt. It's nice to see that other people seem to like them as well!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Dai on July 03, 2016, 10:33:29 PM
Just a short piece that I wrote while wondering about the possible consequences of a novice mage "doing magic" without really knowing what he's doing:-

---

Reynir rolled over with a groan.

He opened his eyes to the now-familiar sight of the ceiling above his bunk. He steeled himself and sat up.

Not bad, he thought - it only felt like the top of his head was coming off, rather than his skull exploding.

There was a sound of footsteps as someone climbed the steps into the tank. It was Tuuri. She paused timidly at the door. "How are you feeling?", she asked in a stage whisper.

"Bet - better...", he answered, starting in a normal speaking voice, but dropping to a whisper as the sound jangled through his head.

Tuuri's smiled in relief. "That...that's good - we were really worried! Do you feel like some food yet? Mikkel says you should try to eat something soon."

Reynir smiled - though it was an effort. "That depends - is it Squirrel-fur Stew or Candle-wax Soup?"

Tuuri grinned, then jumped as Mikkel spoke behind her. "You are feeling better, aren't you?", he rumbled. "Don't worry, I've been keeping an eye out for Lalli's little 'gifts' - and it's vegetable soup..."

"More's the pity! I told you I could bag some game easily enough and at least get a little meat in his diet - and on his skinny body!" Sigrun winked over Mikkel's broad shoulder.

Reynir winced slightly - even Sigrun's whispers were strident. "Some soup sounds fine", he whispered.

"How long has it been?" he asked, as Mikkel handed him a steaming bowl. "It feels like a lifetime since - since the night the ghosts came..."

"A week - you had me worried for the first few days." Mikkel handed him a spoon. "But you actually remember that night? That's good - I admit I was a little concerned. I was afraid the damage could have been...long-lasting."

Reynir sipped his soup. "Actually, it's quite clear - almost like it's...burnt into my brain", he murmured.

Tuuri leaned forward excitedly. "That's almost what happened! - At least, that's what Onni says..."
She blushed. "I-I'm sorry - that was a bit rude. It's just that - well, it was exciting! Scary - but exciting!" 

Reynir smiled - 'exciting' was not the term he would have used.

Tuuri seemed to catch his thought and blushed again. "Not what happened to you, of course! That was awful!"
She stared at him. "But that was your magic, wasn't it? Icelandic magic?"

Reynir nodded. "I - only did something that I hoped would help..."

He dropped his gaze to his bowl. "I really didn't think, did I? I thought I was clever, creating my runes, writing them down... and I didn't even stop to wonder - where the power to make them work actually came from..."

Tuuri's eyes widened. "You mean..." He nodded and looked away, embarrassed. "When the ghosts pounced on us, the runes came to life, protecting the Team - by channelling all their power - from me!"

Sigrun flopped down in the seat next to him.

"Yep - according to your Finnish mage friend, you're lucky to be alive!" She grinned mischievously. "Do all mages do that? - I mean, overstrain themselves to an insane extent, then bleed from every orifice in their heads?!"

Sigrun's expression changed to a look of concern. "I swear, what with the screaming and the blood streaming down your face, I thought a troll had gotten past us..."

She gripped his shoulder. "You saved our lives, Mr. Stowaway, you know that? We would all be dead - if not for your little bits of paper..."
 
 
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on July 04, 2016, 02:40:55 AM
Glad to see you writing more, Dai. Do go on!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Talimee on July 04, 2016, 07:04:14 AM
Yes that's the same Inuk. I don't quite know how he made it out there to the Kastrup front-lines, but suffice to say it was professionally. He didn't just up and chase the twins out there. He was doing his job when he died.

Still, very sad. =/

Quote
I've gotten unreasonably attached in a short amount of time to all the Madsens I flung out at everyone in the "Creation" prompt. It's nice to see that other people seem to like them as well!

Be assured, I like them already. We've known Mikkaela for a while now and from what I have seen in your other family-spin-off-AUs I am very confident that you will write them very quirky and very loveable indeed. As for Mikkaela: I loved the Emil i Lönneberga-feel you gave her here and she has almost become a fixture for my Madsen-Family Head-canon. :D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Kiraly on July 04, 2016, 12:32:58 PM
LooNEY that was a good Emil story - I appreciated the way he stood up to his abusive captain, it shows a lot of growth from where he must have been before the expedition.

OwlsG0 I already said this on AO3, but that was a wonderfully sweet and sad chapter. I agree with Talimee, I'm pretty invested in your Madsen family headcanons, at this point I think I'll be disappointed if Mikkel doesn't have a twin!

LordoftheThings Oh nooooo, Emil! You have me so worried for him, I hope he finds a safe place (or the team finds him) soon. The illustration goes wonderfully with this new chapter, too.

Dai That was great! I'll admit, I hadn't considered where the energy from those runes would have to come from either, but it makes sense that practicing magic would take a toll on the mage. (Especially an untrained one like Reynir, who wouldn't know when to stop). Good to see some writing from you!

And...since I'm in here...I had one of my fits of intense writing madness last night, and ended up with this Emil/Lalli fic. It's post-canon, partially epistolary, and was supposed to be fluffy and cuddly but grew a fair amount of sad longing in the middle: A Month of Unsent Letters (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7384864)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on July 04, 2016, 03:43:37 PM
60: Rejection http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/16784791

In which Reynir considers gender identity in the context of rejection.
Or: Reynir is a sad puppy and Lalli isn't gonna let it keep going because he's a good room-mate.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Miriam on July 04, 2016, 04:22:13 PM
60: Rejection http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/16784791

In which Reynir considers gender identity in the context of rejection.
Or: Reynir is a sad puppy and Lalli isn't gonna let it keep going because he's a good room-mate.

Thank you, that is a great fanfic.

Reynir is genderfluid, Lalli is autistic and gay and Reynir leaves his long hairs everywhere. Those are pretty much all my headcanons too. And it's a hilarious joke what Emil comments about the paintings in the museum.

Unfortunately in digital applications you can't just write a third option at "what's your gender"...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on July 04, 2016, 04:34:14 PM
Thank you, that is a great fanfic.

Reynir is genderfluid, Lalli is autistic and gay and Reynir leaves his long hairs everywhere. Those are pretty much all my headcanons too. And it's a hilarious joke what Emil comments about the paintings in the museum.

Unfortunately in digital applications you can't just write a third option at "what's your gender"...

You might try photoshopping it?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Miriam on July 04, 2016, 05:00:55 PM
You might try photoshopping it?

I did something like that, actually.

(http://67.media.tumblr.com/ec752dc34ffb4c00273d09265ac471be/tumblr_nig5ilKg411tfp7lao1_r1_1280.png)

(http://66.media.tumblr.com/1ab679e57cb1dc2179a739ed4f8bdee1/tumblr_nig5ilKg411tfp7lao2_r1_1280.png)

Its not exactly photoshopped, but I found it funny the site crashed just after asking gender...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on July 04, 2016, 05:01:54 PM
The Internet gods have spoken
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: ruth on July 05, 2016, 04:55:55 PM
Is it time for a political thriller set in semi-democratic post-apocayptic Norway? Well, after spending a couple hours putting together a map of the valgkretser/kommuner/fylker of post-rash Norway, signs are pointing to yes.

Keep your eyes peeled for a project in the works...and while you're trying to count all those tiny little electoral districts to see which party is winning, see if you can figure it out: just who is going to be the next Jarl of Norway???

(http://i.imgur.com/smhGMTj.png)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Talimee on July 05, 2016, 05:58:52 PM
Is it time for a political thriller set in semi-democratic post-apocayptic Norway? Well, after spending a couple hours putting together a map of the valgkretser/kommuner/fylker of post-rash Norway, signs are pointing to yes.

Keep your eyes peeled for a project in the works...and while you're trying to count all those tiny little electoral districts to see which party is winning, see if you can figure it out: just who is going to be the next Jarl of Norway???

Oooh! This sounds very intriguing! I am very much looking forward to this. =)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on July 05, 2016, 06:03:34 PM
Likewise! I don't think we've had much in the way of political thrillers yet!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on July 05, 2016, 08:42:16 PM
Here is the next installment in the superhero AU story I have going, in which Reynir gets a bit of a look-around the Aurland base, and several characters are introduced, most of them drawn from the SSSSona project:

http://archiveofourown.org/works/6610714/chapters/16812994

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on July 06, 2016, 08:44:09 AM
99: Solitude http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/16824529

Tuuri worries about Mikkel, and realises he's pretty much the last person she needs to worry about being alone.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on July 06, 2016, 04:53:34 PM
99: Solitude http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/16824529

Tuuri worries about Mikkel, and realises he's pretty much the last person she needs to worry about being alone.

So cuuute. You've developed a fairly complete headcanon around Mikkel's family, and I think I like Mikkela best (even though she doesn't get that much of a look-in here).

One edit needed, though - Lalli declares he's not going near the ocean twice. There are a couple of lines that seem to be repeated there.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Talimee on July 07, 2016, 07:08:35 AM
Wow, Windy! You're on a roll! First wrecking Emil and then killing off Reynir in the next fic? XD Talk about double-whump!

About Project SSSS: That caps-lock voice was really creepy. I have looked at the wiki-article to Project What'shisname and red that those things can have artificial intelligence but not necesarily. I somehow went with "or not", but seems I was mistaken - much more creepyfun like this! Especially, if the AI is malignant. :/ Poor Emil! When Sigrun left him behind i was really shocked! I would not have thought her capable of doing that, but yeah, she can take no risk and if we look logically at it: Emil as a Cleanser is expendable.

About The Splattening: *gigglesnorts at the title* But that is about as funny as it gets. D: Poor, poor Reynir! The start of it is bad enough but when Siv describes what happening to him it was nearly unbearable!! The poor poor boy! Very well done! Another thing I liked is the dynamic between Emil and Sigrun: them looking-out for each other mixed with light teasing. Nicely done! (For a second, when he plucked out some leaves from her hair, I was all "now kiss", but don't mind me. XD)

Looking very much forward to reading more of both stories. =)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on July 07, 2016, 10:04:44 AM
51: Sport http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/16848586

This one went a bit weird but I also had some fun with it.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: gjuerne on July 07, 2016, 11:39:08 AM
51: Sport http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/16848586

This one went a bit weird but I also had some fun with it.

I love this! *tries to stop laughing*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: emily on July 07, 2016, 06:48:07 PM
Hey y'all!! I've never posted on this forum before so please forgive me if I do something wrong! Anyways, I've written a (platonic) Lalli x Emil story that can be read here: https://www.quotev.com/story/8195563/Communication-Emil-x-Lalli-Stand-Still-Stay-Silent
I apologize deeply if it bares any resemblance to another user's fanfiction, because if so, it was COMPLETELY unintentional!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Eris on July 07, 2016, 06:56:51 PM
Hey y'all!! I've never posted on this forum before so please forgive me if I do something wrong!
Welcome to the forum! I hope you enjoy your stay. :D If you'd like, you can introduce yourself to everyone down at The Introduction Thread (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=131.0)~!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Tr on July 07, 2016, 07:03:39 PM
Hey y'all!! I've never posted on this forum before so please forgive me if I do something wrong! Anyways, I've written a (platonic) Lalli x Emil story that can be read here: https://www.quotev.com/story/8195563/Communication-Emil-x-Lalli-Stand-Still-Stay-Silent
I apologize deeply if it bares any resemblance to another user's fanfiction, because if so, it was COMPLETELY unintentional!
(http://i.imgur.com/HZXydxZ.gif)
That was great! And welcome to the forum!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on July 07, 2016, 08:06:37 PM
Hey y'all!! I've never posted on this forum before so please forgive me if I do something wrong! Anyways, I've written a (platonic) Lalli x Emil story that can be read here: https://www.quotev.com/story/8195563/Communication-Emil-x-Lalli-Stand-Still-Stay-Silent
I apologize deeply if it bares any resemblance to another user's fanfiction, because if so, it was COMPLETELY unintentional!

Nicely done! With a shipping passion like that you're gonna fit right in here.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on July 07, 2016, 08:10:30 PM
Emily: good start! You should write more.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Yuuago on July 07, 2016, 08:33:30 PM
Now that this one is de-anon'd, I guess I can post it. : D

"Take Five". Sigrun/Tuuri. 1k length. 13+ rating (ish).
Summary: Tuuri's been pushing herself a little too hard. Sigrun has just the solution for it. (Basically, fluff and massages and more fluff.)
Read at Ao3: http://archiveofourown.org/works/7367602
Dreamwidth backup: http://roesslyng.dreamwidth.org/72657.html
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Talimee on July 08, 2016, 11:18:59 AM
And chapter 3 (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12033091/3/Project-SSSS) of Project SSSS is done and up, and for a short while we leave Emil to focus on what's going on over in Iceland!

Ack!

Spoiler: show
It was Siv, wasn't it?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Windfighter on July 09, 2016, 08:41:35 PM
Ack!

Spoiler: show
It was Siv, wasn't it?


I'm not saying it is, but I'm also not saying it's not 0=)
(Haha, no, I'm lying. While it being Siv would be interesting, it actually isn't :P)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Tr on July 09, 2016, 08:46:25 PM
I'm not saying it is, but I'm also not saying it's not 0=)
(Haha, no, I'm lying. While it being Siv would be interesting, it actually isn't :P)

Anyway, stopping by to say that I finished another story!
Heartbreak Hotel (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12041994/1/Heartbreak-Hotel)
Summary: "Stop being a crybaby." Emil had been called that before, maybe that's why this time he swore not to complain again. But complaining isn't always bad.


So... uhm, yes. More Emil. I really need to learn to write the others as well, but... Emil
More Emil! Yay!
Oh, Emil. *sighs* I could totally see him doing this in the comic.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on July 09, 2016, 11:42:04 PM
Yeah, seems like the kind of thing Emil would do!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: emily on July 10, 2016, 04:02:19 PM
I'm not saying it is, but I'm also not saying it's not 0=)
(Haha, no, I'm lying. While it being Siv would be interesting, it actually isn't :P)

Anyway, stopping by to say that I finished another story!
Heartbreak Hotel (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12041994/1/Heartbreak-Hotel)
Summary: "Stop being a crybaby." Emil had been called that before, maybe that's why this time he swore not to complain again. But complaining isn't always bad.


So... uhm, yes. More Emil. I really need to learn to write the others as well, but... Emil

Wonderful story! And I would agree that Emil is a fun character to write about :D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on July 11, 2016, 10:42:32 PM
After that discussion on fruits, this one was kind of inevitable.

87. Food (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/16960080)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on July 11, 2016, 11:21:04 PM
Yes!
Some great storytelling, all of you!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on July 12, 2016, 06:15:31 AM
After that discussion on fruits, this one was kind of inevitable.

87. Food (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/16960080)

*snort* *snicker* As commented, great to have you back!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Tr on July 12, 2016, 09:32:09 AM
After that discussion on fruits, this one was kind of inevitable.

87. Food (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/16960080)
This is wonderful. And now I want to draw Sigrun eating a pomegranate.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: ruth on July 12, 2016, 09:46:47 AM
Well here's a thing (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7435532/chapters/16890842). Just the prologue for now, but there will be more to come soon, and we'll learn exactly what Bjørg has in mind...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on July 12, 2016, 10:06:46 PM
Who else?

88. Pain (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/16980345)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: emily on July 13, 2016, 10:21:20 PM
Now that this one is de-anon'd, I guess I can post it. : D

"Take Five". Sigrun/Tuuri. 1k length. 13+ rating (ish).
Summary: Tuuri's been pushing herself a little too hard. Sigrun has just the solution for it. (Basically, fluff and massages and more fluff.)
Read at Ao3: http://archiveofourown.org/works/7367602
Dreamwidth backup: http://roesslyng.dreamwidth.org/72657.html

Was looking through the thread, bored, and found this. Fantastic!!! It was adorable.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on July 13, 2016, 10:53:33 PM
This one is Tr's fault. (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=35.msg115075#msg115075)

89. Through the Fire (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/17003232)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Tr on July 14, 2016, 12:28:58 AM
This one is Tr's fault. (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=35.msg115075#msg115075)

89. Through the Fire (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/17003232)
Already said this on AO3 but AH GOSH THIS IS PERFECT, you added all the little details that wouldn't really work in a comic and you did it well!
Thank you for writing it!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on July 14, 2016, 10:23:05 PM
...and I can't seem to focus right now even on stuff I should be doing, so no new entry tonight. On the bright side, I've already thought up a new fic challenge to get us through the chapter break...?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Windfighter on July 14, 2016, 10:41:29 PM
...and I can't seem to focus right now even on stuff I should be doing, so no new entry tonight. On the bright side, I've already thought up a new fic challenge to get us through the chapter break...?

*flop* ARE YOU ALREADY DONE?! You are inhuman! I'm not even done with prompt number 20! (which apparently is gonna end up a whole book or something....)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on July 15, 2016, 12:59:30 AM
And please find herewith the next installment of the superhero AU I've been working on.  Reynir can run on water, but can he swim?

http://archiveofourown.org/works/6610714/chapters/17026392

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Miriam on July 15, 2016, 01:14:24 AM
And please find herewith the next installment of the superhero AU I've been working on.  Reynir can run on water, but can he swim?

http://archiveofourown.org/works/6610714/chapters/1702692

Reynir on wooden clogs. Yes. I approve.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on July 15, 2016, 07:26:21 AM
...and I can't seem to focus right now even on stuff I should be doing, so no new entry tonight. On the bright side, I've already thought up a new fic challenge to get us through the chapter break...?

Lazy's baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack welcome back friend

Sorry for the relative radio silence, I've been really sick, but can I just- another prompt challenge?! Jeez Louise, Lazy, you're working fast! I'd love to do another prompt challenge, but I've also got some other fics I really want to attend to. A couple of AU's and epics. I don't know if I can resist the siren song of another prompt challenge, though, so I'll be excited to see what you come up with.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on July 15, 2016, 08:41:01 AM
New prompt. Sorry for the double-post

71: Obsession http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/17031732

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Talimee on July 15, 2016, 05:58:27 PM
New prompt. Sorry for the double-post

71: Obsession http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/17031732

I APPROVE OF EVERYTHING IN THIS CHAPTER! *uses official approval voice*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on July 15, 2016, 10:41:11 PM
Reynir on wooden clogs. Yes. I approve.

Thank you.  Leeeeet's just say I'm going somewhere with those clogs. hee hee heee
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on July 17, 2016, 01:43:09 AM
64: Lovers http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/17068825

Sigrun and Mikkel have a frank talk about their love lives. Drinks are snorted and hysterics are had with alarming regularity.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Miriam on July 17, 2016, 04:48:32 AM
64: Lovers http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/17068825

Sigrun and Mikkel have a frank talk about their love lives. Drinks are snorted and hysterics are had with alarming regularity.

That's a nice story!
I want to see Sigrun and Mikkel hug friendshiply...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on July 17, 2016, 02:36:22 PM
That's a nice story!
I want to see Sigrun and Mikkel hug friendshiply...

Spoiler: show
 

"Mikkel!"

He looks up from the book in his lap "What?"

Sigrun looms over him. The grin on her face suggests she is either about to dump a dead piece of troll into his book or has some very good news to share "Can you stand up for a second?"

He hums thoughtfully "I wonder. I may be able to. My legs may need some extra persuasion.I am quite lazy."

"If I poke you with a needle in the back of the knee, will that work?"

Mikkel stands "What is it?"

Without another word of explanation, Sigrun winds her arms around his substantial middle, and, with an effort, manages to make her hands meet in the small of his back.
"I knew I could do it." she hoots in triumph.

"Get off me."

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Miriam on July 17, 2016, 02:48:18 PM
Spoiler: show
 

"Mikkel!"

He looks up from the book in his lap "What?"

Sigrun looms over him. The grin on her face suggests she is either about to dump a dead piece of troll into his book or has some very good news to share "Can you stand up for a second?"

He hums thoughtfully "I wonder. I may be able to. My legs may need some extra persuasion.I am quite lazy."

"If I poke you with a needle in the back of the knee, will that work?"

Mikkel stands "What is it?"

Without another word of explanation, Sigrun winds her arms around his substantial middle, and, with an effort, manages to make her hands meet in the small of his back.
"I knew I could do it." she hoots in triumph.

"Get off me."



Hehehe thank you! It's funny how Mikkel admits he's "quite lazy".
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Tr on July 17, 2016, 02:55:58 PM
Spoiler: show
 

"Mikkel!"

He looks up from the book in his lap "What?"

Sigrun looms over him. The grin on her face suggests she is either about to dump a dead piece of troll into his book or has some very good news to share "Can you stand up for a second?"

He hums thoughtfully "I wonder. I may be able to. My legs may need some extra persuasion.I am quite lazy."

"If I poke you with a needle in the back of the knee, will that work?"

Mikkel stands "What is it?"

Without another word of explanation, Sigrun winds her arms around his substantial middle, and, with an effort, manages to make her hands meet in the small of his back.
"I knew I could do it." she hoots in triumph.

"Get off me."


Beautiful. :'D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Talimee on July 17, 2016, 03:01:22 PM
Spoiler: show
 

"Mikkel!"

He looks up from the book in his lap "What?"

Sigrun looms over him. The grin on her face suggests she is either about to dump a dead piece of troll into his book or has some very good news to share "Can you stand up for a second?"

He hums thoughtfully "I wonder. I may be able to. My legs may need some extra persuasion.I am quite lazy."

"If I poke you with a needle in the back of the knee, will that work?"

Mikkel stands "What is it?"

Without another word of explanation, Sigrun winds her arms around his substantial middle, and, with an effort, manages to make her hands meet in the small of his back.
"I knew I could do it." she hoots in triumph.

"Get off me."



Had to read this istantly to the SO. Funny, twisty and so in character! <3
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on July 17, 2016, 03:21:41 PM
OwlsGo, those are both hilarious! I could just see those scenes happening!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on July 18, 2016, 04:05:31 AM
Spoiler: show
 

"Mikkel!"

He looks up from the book in his lap "What?"

Sigrun looms over him. The grin on her face suggests she is either about to dump a dead piece of troll into his book or has some very good news to share "Can you stand up for a second?"

He hums thoughtfully "I wonder. I may be able to. My legs may need some extra persuasion.I am quite lazy."

"If I poke you with a needle in the back of the knee, will that work?"

Mikkel stands "What is it?"

Without another word of explanation, Sigrun winds her arms around his substantial middle, and, with an effort, manages to make her hands meet in the small of his back.
"I knew I could do it." she hoots in triumph.

"Get off me."



Heee, good one!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Windfighter on July 18, 2016, 12:13:44 PM
Wrote a teeny text because reasons!

Spoiler: Emil/Lalli • show
   Emil crouched on top of the tank, tried to stay hidden. His eyes peered at the forest around them, waited for a certain Finnish mage to return from scouting. The mage should return at any moment and Emil laid down to hid himself even better. He couldn't see much in the darkness though, so instead he strained his hears, listened for any sound outside of the normal night sounds.
   He barely heard the steps, the mage being light on his feet, and he got ready, peeked over the edge of the tank's roof. Perfect, the mage was in position. Emil crouched.
   ”Hug from above!”
   He jumped over the edge and suddenly Lalli wasn't there anymore. Emil landed flat on the ground, spit the dirt out and settled up.
   ”...Stop seeing my spirit!”
   Lalli leaned down and kissed Emil's head, causing the Swede to blush.
   ”I will when you get better at hiding it.”
   ”Can you teach me again how to hide it?”
   ”So you can ambush me?” Lalli helped Emil to his feet. ”I don't think so.”
   ”But wouldn't it be safer for me if I could hide it?”
   Emil knocked on the door for Mikkel to know Lalli had returned and get the decontamination gear ready. Lalli pulled Emil into a hug.
   ”But this way, I get to protect you.”
   Emil buried his fingers in Lalli's hair, leaned his forehead against the others.
   ”Just as long as you let me protect you sometimes.”
   ”I will.”
   Emil's lips met Lalli's and then they pulled away from each other as Mikkel opened the door. Emil winked at Lalli, and the two young men let the Dane follow his protocol. Emil would try again next day.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Miriam on July 18, 2016, 02:14:27 PM
Wrote a teeny text because reasons!

Spoiler: Emil/Lalli • show
   Emil crouched on top of the tank, tried to stay hidden. His eyes peered at the forest around them, waited for a certain Finnish mage to return from scouting. The mage should return at any moment and Emil laid down to hid himself even better. He couldn't see much in the darkness though, so instead he strained his hears, listened for any sound outside of the normal night sounds.
   He barely heard the steps, the mage being light on his feet, and he got ready, peeked over the edge of the tank's roof. Perfect, the mage was in position. Emil crouched.
   ”Hug from above!”
   He jumped over the edge and suddenly Lalli wasn't there anymore. Emil landed flat on the ground, spit the dirt out and settled up.
   ”...Stop seeing my spirit!”
   Lalli leaned down and kissed Emil's head, causing the Swede to blush.
   ”I will when you get better at hiding it.”
   ”Can you teach me again how to hide it?”
   ”So you can ambush me?” Lalli helped Emil to his feet. ”I don't think so.”
   ”But wouldn't it be safer for me if I could hide it?”
   Emil knocked on the door for Mikkel to know Lalli had returned and get the decontamination gear ready. Lalli pulled Emil into a hug.
   ”But this way, I get to protect you.”
   Emil buried his fingers in Lalli's hair, leaned his forehead against the others.
   ”Just as long as you let me protect you sometimes.”
   ”I will.”
   Emil's lips met Lalli's and then they pulled away from each other as Mikkel opened the door. Emil winked at Lalli, and the two young men let the Dane follow his protocol. Emil would try again next day.


Emilalli is always most best. Especially jump-hugs and them wanting to protect each other...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on July 18, 2016, 05:26:35 PM
54: Tower http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/17099479

Tuuri finds something to occupy her time in the late evenings, when everyone else is asleep.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Miriam on July 18, 2016, 05:54:08 PM
54: Tower http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/17099479

Tuuri finds something to occupy her time in the late evenings, when everyone else is asleep.

 I hoped Lalli would help Tuuri, actually... :P.
This is a very funny fanfic, but... it's dangerous! Poor Reynir! What if the stones fall on his eye? Don't try this at home!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on July 18, 2016, 06:56:04 PM
Windfighter, I'm sure they were excellent reasons! Nice vignette of the lads!

OwlsGo, that is hilarious! I hope someone is inspired to art!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Windfighter on July 19, 2016, 04:50:37 PM
Thanks for the kind words! I threw together another teeny thing, because it's been all over lately! It's about Emil one day finding a Nokia.

Spoiler: Nokia Go! • show
   ”What is this?”
   Emil held the object infront of Mikkel and the older man smiled.
   ”That's a Nokia.”
   ”Don't be stupid, Nokia makes wheels, this isn't a wheel.”
   ”No, it's a phone. Nokia used to make phones as well.”
   ”That sounds weird.” Emil pressed some buttons on it. ”Think it works?”
   ”After 90 years out here? That is highly unlikely.”
   The phone in Emil's hands gave a soft sound as it sprung to life. Emil grinned towards Mikkel, and quickly jumped away as the larger man leaned down to take the phone from him. He proceeded to settle down behind a desk to check out his find.
   ”Emil, you will not find any use for it.”
   ”What do you know? Look, there's something here! Pokémon Go? Hey, what's a pokémon?”
   ”Some kind of animal from the old world.”
   Emil peeked over the desk at Mikkel, then hid again, looking at his phone.
   ”There's one right next to you!”
   ”There is nothing next to me. Emil, we should continue with our mission and not let ourselves get sidetracked.”
   ”You're one to talk!”
   Emil closed the phone, let it slid down into his pocket, and went up to help Mikkel.

   Sigrun ducked under the troll's arm, prepared to attack it from behind, but was grabbed and slung into the wall. She called out for her right hand warrior, but no answer.
   ”Emil, get your butt here and help!”
   The troll pulled her out from the wall and prepared to throw her into it again.
   ”In a minute, there's a Pidgey here!”
   The troll stopped and Sigrun hung from it's hand, flailed her arms.
   ”I don't know what a pidgey is but you should forge-”
   Sigrun's head hit the floor and the troll stepped over her.
   ”Emil! It's coming!”
   ”I said 'in a minute'!”
   ”A PidGEy yOu SaY?”
   Emil froze. The troll breathed down his neck, peered over his shoulder.
   ”YoU nEeD to THrOw tHe bALl. LIkE ThiS.”
   The troll stretched its arm out, pressed a gross, half-rotten finger towards the screen and flicked. Emil watched as the red and white ball landed on the virtual bird's head and then the bird was caught.
   ”Yessss!”
   Emil turned around, high-fived the troll. The troll smiled.
   ”I RemEMbEr tHat gAMe. GreAT FuN.”
   Emil looked at the troll, looked at the phone.
   ”Do you... wanna catch more?”
   ”I'D bE DelIghTEd To! CoME on NoW, YouNGliNg, Let'S Not DilLY-daLLy HerE.”
   Emil smiled apologetically towards Sigrun, before the troll pushed him away, out of the building. Sigrun stared after them, stomped the floor.
   ”That is NOT how you defeat a troll, Emil!”
   Emil couldn't hear her.

   There are several ways to defeat a troll. Most of them includes different ways to sever its head from its body. While searching the old world for books, Emil found a better way.
   Emil found Pokémon Go.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Anna on July 19, 2016, 05:10:06 PM
Thanks for the kind words! I threw together another teeny thing, because it's been all over lately! It's about Emil one day finding a Nokia.

Spoiler: Nokia Go! • show
   ”What is this?”
   Emil held the object infront of Mikkel and the older man smiled.
   ”That's a Nokia.”
   ”Don't be stupid, Nokia makes wheels, this isn't a wheel.”
   ”No, it's a phone. Nokia used to make phones as well.”
   ”That sounds weird.” Emil pressed some buttons on it. ”Think it works?”
   ”After 90 years out here? That is highly unlikely.”
   The phone in Emil's hands gave a soft sound as it sprung to life. Emil grinned towards Mikkel, and quickly jumped away as the larger man leaned down to take the phone from him. He proceeded to settle down behind a desk to check out his find.
   ”Emil, you will not find any use for it.”
   ”What do you know? Look, there's something here! Pokémon Go? Hey, what's a pokémon?”
   ”Some kind of animal from the old world.”
   Emil peeked over the desk at Mikkel, then hid again, looking at his phone.
   ”There's one right next to you!”
   ”There is nothing next to me. Emil, we should continue with our mission and not let ourselves get sidetracked.”
   ”You're one to talk!”
   Emil closed the phone, let it slid down into his pocket, and went up to help Mikkel.

   Sigrun ducked under the troll's arm, prepared to attack it from behind, but was grabbed and slung into the wall. She called out for her right hand warrior, but no answer.
   ”Emil, get your butt here and help!”
   The troll pulled her out from the wall and prepared to throw her into it again.
   ”In a minute, there's a Pidgey here!”
   The troll stopped and Sigrun hung from it's hand, flailed her arms.
   ”I don't know what a pidgey is but you should forge-”
   Sigrun's head hit the floor and the troll stepped over her.
   ”Emil! It's coming!”
   ”I said 'in a minute'!”
   ”A PidGEy yOu SaY?”
   Emil froze. The troll breathed down his neck, peered over his shoulder.
   ”YoU nEeD to THrOw tHe bALl. LIkE ThiS.”
   The troll stretched its arm out, pressed a gross, half-rotten finger towards the screen and flicked. Emil watched as the red and white ball landed on the virtual bird's head and then the bird was caught.
   ”Yessss!”
   Emil turned around, high-fived the troll. The troll smiled.
   ”I RemEMbEr tHat gAMe. GreAT FuN.”
   Emil looked at the troll, looked at the phone.
   ”Do you... wanna catch more?”
   ”I'D bE DelIghTEd To! CoME on NoW, YouNGliNg, Let'S Not DilLY-daLLy HerE.”
   Emil smiled apologetically towards Sigrun, before the troll pushed him away, out of the building. Sigrun stared after them, stomped the floor.
   ”That is NOT how you defeat a troll, Emil!”
   Emil couldn't hear her.

   There are several ways to defeat a troll. Most of them includes different ways to sever its head from its body. While searching the old world for books, Emil found a better way.
   Emil found Pokémon Go.

Oddly heartwarming.  :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Tr on July 19, 2016, 05:10:34 PM
Thanks for the kind words! I threw together another teeny thing, because it's been all over lately! It's about Emil one day finding a Nokia.

Spoiler: Nokia Go! • show
   ”What is this?”
   Emil held the object infront of Mikkel and the older man smiled.
   ”That's a Nokia.”
   ”Don't be stupid, Nokia makes wheels, this isn't a wheel.”
   ”No, it's a phone. Nokia used to make phones as well.”
   ”That sounds weird.” Emil pressed some buttons on it. ”Think it works?”
   ”After 90 years out here? That is highly unlikely.”
   The phone in Emil's hands gave a soft sound as it sprung to life. Emil grinned towards Mikkel, and quickly jumped away as the larger man leaned down to take the phone from him. He proceeded to settle down behind a desk to check out his find.
   ”Emil, you will not find any use for it.”
   ”What do you know? Look, there's something here! Pokémon Go? Hey, what's a pokémon?”
   ”Some kind of animal from the old world.”
   Emil peeked over the desk at Mikkel, then hid again, looking at his phone.
   ”There's one right next to you!”
   ”There is nothing next to me. Emil, we should continue with our mission and not let ourselves get sidetracked.”
   ”You're one to talk!”
   Emil closed the phone, let it slid down into his pocket, and went up to help Mikkel.

   Sigrun ducked under the troll's arm, prepared to attack it from behind, but was grabbed and slung into the wall. She called out for her right hand warrior, but no answer.
   ”Emil, get your butt here and help!”
   The troll pulled her out from the wall and prepared to throw her into it again.
   ”In a minute, there's a Pidgey here!”
   The troll stopped and Sigrun hung from it's hand, flailed her arms.
   ”I don't know what a pidgey is but you should forge-”
   Sigrun's head hit the floor and the troll stepped over her.
   ”Emil! It's coming!”
   ”I said 'in a minute'!”
   ”A PidGEy yOu SaY?”
   Emil froze. The troll breathed down his neck, peered over his shoulder.
   ”YoU nEeD to THrOw tHe bALl. LIkE ThiS.”
   The troll stretched its arm out, pressed a gross, half-rotten finger towards the screen and flicked. Emil watched as the red and white ball landed on the virtual bird's head and then the bird was caught.
   ”Yessss!”
   Emil turned around, high-fived the troll. The troll smiled.
   ”I RemEMbEr tHat gAMe. GreAT FuN.”
   Emil looked at the troll, looked at the phone.
   ”Do you... wanna catch more?”
   ”I'D bE DelIghTEd To! CoME on NoW, YouNGliNg, Let'S Not DilLY-daLLy HerE.”
   Emil smiled apologetically towards Sigrun, before the troll pushed him away, out of the building. Sigrun stared after them, stomped the floor.
   ”That is NOT how you defeat a troll, Emil!”
   Emil couldn't hear her.

   There are several ways to defeat a troll. Most of them includes different ways to sever its head from its body. While searching the old world for books, Emil found a better way.
   Emil found Pokémon Go.

BWAHAHA! This is great! :'D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Athena on July 19, 2016, 06:17:11 PM
Thanks for the kind words! I threw together another teeny thing, because it's been all over lately! It's about Emil one day finding a Nokia.

Spoiler: Nokia Go! • show
   ”What is this?”
   Emil held the object infront of Mikkel and the older man smiled.
   ”That's a Nokia.”
   ”Don't be stupid, Nokia makes wheels, this isn't a wheel.”
   ”No, it's a phone. Nokia used to make phones as well.”
   ”That sounds weird.” Emil pressed some buttons on it. ”Think it works?”
   ”After 90 years out here? That is highly unlikely.”
   The phone in Emil's hands gave a soft sound as it sprung to life. Emil grinned towards Mikkel, and quickly jumped away as the larger man leaned down to take the phone from him. He proceeded to settle down behind a desk to check out his find.
   ”Emil, you will not find any use for it.”
   ”What do you know? Look, there's something here! Pokémon Go? Hey, what's a pokémon?”
   ”Some kind of animal from the old world.”
   Emil peeked over the desk at Mikkel, then hid again, looking at his phone.
   ”There's one right next to you!”
   ”There is nothing next to me. Emil, we should continue with our mission and not let ourselves get sidetracked.”
   ”You're one to talk!”
   Emil closed the phone, let it slid down into his pocket, and went up to help Mikkel.

   Sigrun ducked under the troll's arm, prepared to attack it from behind, but was grabbed and slung into the wall. She called out for her right hand warrior, but no answer.
   ”Emil, get your butt here and help!”
   The troll pulled her out from the wall and prepared to throw her into it again.
   ”In a minute, there's a Pidgey here!”
   The troll stopped and Sigrun hung from it's hand, flailed her arms.
   ”I don't know what a pidgey is but you should forge-”
   Sigrun's head hit the floor and the troll stepped over her.
   ”Emil! It's coming!”
   ”I said 'in a minute'!”
   ”A PidGEy yOu SaY?”
   Emil froze. The troll breathed down his neck, peered over his shoulder.
   ”YoU nEeD to THrOw tHe bALl. LIkE ThiS.”
   The troll stretched its arm out, pressed a gross, half-rotten finger towards the screen and flicked. Emil watched as the red and white ball landed on the virtual bird's head and then the bird was caught.
   ”Yessss!”
   Emil turned around, high-fived the troll. The troll smiled.
   ”I RemEMbEr tHat gAMe. GreAT FuN.”
   Emil looked at the troll, looked at the phone.
   ”Do you... wanna catch more?”
   ”I'D bE DelIghTEd To! CoME on NoW, YouNGliNg, Let'S Not DilLY-daLLy HerE.”
   Emil smiled apologetically towards Sigrun, before the troll pushed him away, out of the building. Sigrun stared after them, stomped the floor.
   ”That is NOT how you defeat a troll, Emil!”
   Emil couldn't hear her.

   There are several ways to defeat a troll. Most of them includes different ways to sever its head from its body. While searching the old world for books, Emil found a better way.
   Emil found Pokémon Go.


 :'D This is amazing! (http://i.imgur.com/q3NfqD0.png)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Athena on July 19, 2016, 06:44:49 PM
I've had this written for a while now, but neglected to post it. (I think I may have been planning on writing more before posting, but it seems to end on a good cliffhanger.) Here's the first chapter of my SSSS/Sunless Sea crossover AU fic thing. (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7532608/chapters/17124712) More chapters to come! I have a rough idea of where to take the story from here, so I just have to write it! ;D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on July 19, 2016, 09:21:25 PM
I've had this written for a while now, but neglected to post it. (I think I may have been planning on writing more before posting, but it seems to end on a good cliffhanger.) Here's the first chapter of my SSSS/Sunless Sea crossover AU fic thing. (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7532608/chapters/17124712) More chapters to come! I have a rough idea of where to take the story from here, so I just have to write it! ;D
And that, fellow Minnions, is the 300th AO3 SSSS fanfic! *muppetflail*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Athena on July 19, 2016, 09:26:41 PM
And that, fellow Minnions, is the 300th AO3 SSSS fanfic! *muppetflail*

*flails arms wildly* ahh I feel so honoured! ;D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on July 19, 2016, 10:56:28 PM
Yay! Good one, Luth!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Athena on July 19, 2016, 11:18:28 PM
Yay! Good one, Luth!

Thank you! ;D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on July 20, 2016, 02:38:03 AM
74: Are you challenging me? http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/17134441

Onni suspects another owl might be trying to claim his position of older brother/cousin
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Miriam on July 20, 2016, 03:18:42 AM
74: Are you challenging me? http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/17134441

Onni suspects another owl might be trying to claim his position of older brother/cousin

This is a nice fanfic. I like the idea of Onni having future vision. And I'm glad he accepts Emil as a Hotakainen :).
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on July 20, 2016, 05:33:02 AM
Thanks for the kind words! I threw together another teeny thing, because it's been all over lately! It's about Emil one day finding a Nokia.

Spoiler: Nokia Go! • show
   ”What is this?”
   Emil held the object infront of Mikkel and the older man smiled.
   ”That's a Nokia.”
   ”Don't be stupid, Nokia makes wheels, this isn't a wheel.”
   ”No, it's a phone. Nokia used to make phones as well.”
   ”That sounds weird.” Emil pressed some buttons on it. ”Think it works?”
   ”After 90 years out here? That is highly unlikely.”
   The phone in Emil's hands gave a soft sound as it sprung to life. Emil grinned towards Mikkel, and quickly jumped away as the larger man leaned down to take the phone from him. He proceeded to settle down behind a desk to check out his find.
   ”Emil, you will not find any use for it.”
   ”What do you know? Look, there's something here! Pokémon Go? Hey, what's a pokémon?”
   ”Some kind of animal from the old world.”
   Emil peeked over the desk at Mikkel, then hid again, looking at his phone.
   ”There's one right next to you!”
   ”There is nothing next to me. Emil, we should continue with our mission and not let ourselves get sidetracked.”
   ”You're one to talk!”
   Emil closed the phone, let it slid down into his pocket, and went up to help Mikkel.

   Sigrun ducked under the troll's arm, prepared to attack it from behind, but was grabbed and slung into the wall. She called out for her right hand warrior, but no answer.
   ”Emil, get your butt here and help!”
   The troll pulled her out from the wall and prepared to throw her into it again.
   ”In a minute, there's a Pidgey here!”
   The troll stopped and Sigrun hung from it's hand, flailed her arms.
   ”I don't know what a pidgey is but you should forge-”
   Sigrun's head hit the floor and the troll stepped over her.
   ”Emil! It's coming!”
   ”I said 'in a minute'!”
   ”A PidGEy yOu SaY?”
   Emil froze. The troll breathed down his neck, peered over his shoulder.
   ”YoU nEeD to THrOw tHe bALl. LIkE ThiS.”
   The troll stretched its arm out, pressed a gross, half-rotten finger towards the screen and flicked. Emil watched as the red and white ball landed on the virtual bird's head and then the bird was caught.
   ”Yessss!”
   Emil turned around, high-fived the troll. The troll smiled.
   ”I RemEMbEr tHat gAMe. GreAT FuN.”
   Emil looked at the troll, looked at the phone.
   ”Do you... wanna catch more?”
   ”I'D bE DelIghTEd To! CoME on NoW, YouNGliNg, Let'S Not DilLY-daLLy HerE.”
   Emil smiled apologetically towards Sigrun, before the troll pushed him away, out of the building. Sigrun stared after them, stomped the floor.
   ”That is NOT how you defeat a troll, Emil!”
   Emil couldn't hear her.

   There are several ways to defeat a troll. Most of them includes different ways to sever its head from its body. While searching the old world for books, Emil found a better way.
   Emil found Pokémon Go.


Gotta catch 'em all. *shudder*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Talimee on July 20, 2016, 09:20:32 PM
Title: Coal
Author: Talimee
Prompt: 36 – Precious Treasure
Summary: Scavenging through the remains of a dead world Emil has time on his hands to bemoan his descend in life. Until he finds something very precious, indeed.
Characters: Emil, The Crew
Setting: Y90, shortly after the start of the mission, before the ghost appear
Rating: Gen
Warnings: Moping, angsty memories
Tags: character insight, memories, Emil being Emil, once-in-a-lifetime-decisions, humour, fluff

Find some Emil moping (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6440122/chapters/17151766) here. =)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on July 21, 2016, 09:21:38 AM
85: Spiral http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/17160699

Sigrun and Emil have a talk on the hood of the Tank as the sun goes down. Sigrun hears some things which make her want her knife and a few people to stab.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Purple Wyrm on July 22, 2016, 01:57:19 PM
I am holed up in a hotel room in Switzerland with a cold that may soon mutate and turn me into Rash Illness patient zero, but I managed to bash out this thing to say thank you to everyone who was so nice and helpful over in the comfort corner thread.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/7555774 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7555774)

Don't blame me! It's the weird Swiss cough syrup!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Tr on July 22, 2016, 02:25:49 PM
I am holed up in a hotel room in Switzerland with a cold that may soon mutate and turn me into Rash Illness patient zero, but I managed to bash out this thing to say thank you to everyone who was so nice and helpful over in the comfort corner thread.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/7555774 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7555774)

Don't blame me! It's the weird Swiss cough syrup!
About halfway through this I realized I was laughing hysterically. This is beautiful. :'D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on July 22, 2016, 05:16:42 PM
I am holed up in a hotel room in Switzerland with a cold that may soon mutate and turn me into Rash Illness patient zero, but I managed to bash out this thing to say thank you to everyone who was so nice and helpful over in the comfort corner thread.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/7555774 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7555774)

Don't blame me! It's the weird Swiss cough syrup!

That was hysterical. Let the cough syrup take you where it wills!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on July 22, 2016, 06:07:17 PM
That is so funny!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on July 23, 2016, 04:12:58 PM
Purple Wyrm, hysterical laughter!

You may want to take some of that cough syrup home with you....
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on July 23, 2016, 06:31:19 PM
90: Triangle http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/17213314

Lalli and Sigrun spend some quality time together. Around the same time, Lalli becomes a parent in a rather unexpected way
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on July 23, 2016, 08:15:34 PM
OwlsGo: you are amazing! This is lovely.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Tr on July 23, 2016, 10:32:44 PM
90: Triangle http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/17213314

Lalli and Sigrun spend some quality time together. Around the same time, Lalli becomes a parent in a rather unexpected way
This is brilliant! I love the interaction between Sigrun and Lalli. *urge to draw Lalli with a bunch of tiny floofy lynxes intensifies*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on July 24, 2016, 02:54:20 AM
We have here the next installment (chap 5) of the superhero AU fic.  One of these days I should come up with a title for it, eh?

http://archiveofourown.org/works/6610714/chapters/17221582

Poor Reynir is being pranked, Tuuri goes on "leave," Sonja starts to connect the dots in her dreams.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on July 24, 2016, 04:14:41 AM
Good one, Wavewright!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on July 24, 2016, 09:29:20 PM
Windfighter, that one is interesting. I like Onni being protective.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Juniper on July 25, 2016, 02:14:05 AM
Ever felt like there was a lacking of fanworks dedicated to lady rarepairs in this fandom ? Well then I have something just for you ~

Chasing The Moon (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7579105)

It's going to be a series of lady rarepair shorts, first chapter is some good ol' Sivrun. It's pretty sappy, so sappy you could probably make syrup with all of that sap and have some pancakes with it.

A huge thanks to Yuuago for being a doll and giving me a beta read <3
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on July 25, 2016, 02:28:17 AM
Would never have thought of that combination! Nicely written though.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Juniper on July 25, 2016, 07:30:24 PM
Would never have thought of that combination! Nicely written though.

Yes! Thank you for writing this. :D

Spoiler: show
“It was already broken before you got here.”

Never expected this particular line to evoke feelings like this, outch. I liked the quiet mood of this.


Well thank you for reading it :D  I'm glad you guys liked it ~
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on July 26, 2016, 06:13:10 AM
94: Last hope http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/17271634

The Hotakainens are asked to do something they simply cannot do.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on July 26, 2016, 06:35:29 AM
Well, that's dark! Sequel, please?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on July 26, 2016, 07:04:08 AM
Well, that's dark! Sequel, please?

I'll add it to my list of 'things to write when and if school lets me have my life back'. Glad you enjoyed it. This is definitely an interesting concept for me, though, since I'm super curious about the thingie following the Hotakainens.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on July 26, 2016, 05:24:35 PM
I'll add it to my list of 'things to write when and if school lets me have my life back'. Glad you enjoyed it. This is definitely an interesting concept for me, though, since I'm super curious about the thingie following the Hotakainens.
Fascinating headcanon about giants taking up (presumably immune?) persons.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on July 26, 2016, 07:03:08 PM
I had always assumed that they just incorporated any and all organic matter into their mass, under the overarching dominance of the Rash. That's certainly how I've been writing them in fics. Maybe the immune people and animals are the bits that retain enough mind to scream?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on July 26, 2016, 08:11:53 PM
A hint of things to come…

Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Spoiler: Coming Attractions Trailer • show
[ominous music plays]

ANNOUNCER: At the end of the Old World...

[An Old World CRUISE SHIP peacefully sails the OCEAN]

ANNOUNCER:...and the beginning of the New...

RADIO: “...confirmed that two of the original patients did die earlier today.”

ANNOUNCER: One boy must fight...

[BOY runs across storm-swept DECK]

ANNOUNCER: ...the elements...

[Stock footage of raging storm at sea]

ANNOUNCER: ...the others...

[TERRIFIED WOMAN points machete at BOY]

ANNOUNCER: ...and himself

[Close-up of BOY, his face despairing]

ANNOUNCER: Not for his own survival...

BOY: Wait!

ANNOUNCER: ...but to save his father.

[One-shot of MAN IN WHEELCHAIR in SHIP’S CABIN]

BOY [in alarm from offscreen]: Papa!

ANNOUNCER: Of every ten...

[Montage of CAST headshots]

ANNOUNCER: Eight will die...

[Long shot of covered BODIES in SHIP’S MORGUE]

ANNOUNCER: One will turn to monster...

[Blurred shot of swiftly-moving TROLL]

ANNOUNCER: And one...

[Close-up of BOY, looking worried]

ANNOUNCER: ...will be...

[Brief shot from fight scene]

ANNOUNCER: IMMUNE

[Title Card]
Mora Radio Presents
Ulf Västerström
...and Ulf Västerström (fils)
in
IMMUNE: A Tale of Year Zero
Based on a True Story
[End Title Card]

ANNOUNCER: Coming Soon...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
Immune: A Tale of Year Zero
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Coming Soon...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on July 27, 2016, 03:23:59 AM
I had always assumed that they just incorporated any and all organic matter into their mass, under the overarching dominance of the Rash. That's certainly how I've been writing them in fics. Maybe the immune people and animals are the bits that retain enough mind to scream?

Yes that's what I've thought all along. The way immune people act around Rash beasts is still in fear. As far as we have seen the Rash doesn't eat whatever it catches, it just infects it. So my thinking is that the Rash feeds off of healthy host bodies, as does any normal disease, and when it catches an immune person whose body it cannot infect, it just holds onto it anyway. It's the Rash. It likes claiming things for its own and warping them beyond recognition.

Of course I assume an immune person could crawl out if they had a knife, determination and a very loud voice to call for help. I've actually been entertaining an idea for a while where a troll happens upon the Hotakainens in the woods, Onni splits its rib-cage open and out plops Lalli's father.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Athena on July 29, 2016, 10:53:32 PM
2nd chapter is finished! ;D (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7532608/chapters/17355175)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on July 29, 2016, 11:18:47 PM
Here's me weighing in again, with chapter 6 of the superhero AU story:
http://archiveofourown.org/works/6610714/chapters/17355472
Enjoy!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on July 30, 2016, 06:42:48 AM
82: Can you hear me? http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/17361559

Mikkel talks Tuuri through a long and loud battle.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Pupunen on July 30, 2016, 01:04:02 PM
Apparently, my preferred method of preparing for intercontinental flights is staying up late writing sappy fanfiction. Here is the result: http://archiveofourown.org/works/7628158
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on July 30, 2016, 05:07:02 PM
Apparently, my preferred method of preparing for intercontinental flights is staying up late writing sappy fanfiction. Here is the result: http://archiveofourown.org/works/7628158

Intentional or not, great pun!  Safe travels!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Pupunen on July 30, 2016, 07:14:46 PM
Intentional or not, great pun!  Safe travels!

Making puns? Me? I wood never!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on July 30, 2016, 09:21:37 PM
Sweet story though! I don't ship those two, but the symbolism is lovely.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on July 31, 2016, 06:02:42 AM
The legacy of a stormy weekend mostly spent indoors, herewith is chap. 7 of the superhero AU.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/6610714/chapters/17383684

Time for beddy-bye, methinks.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on July 31, 2016, 06:49:32 AM
Making puns? Me? I wood never!

I just got the pun and i am SO MAD IT TOOK ME SO LONG GOOD ONE
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on July 31, 2016, 10:36:59 AM
Good episode. I wonder who is the kade? Or is it Sigrun?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on August 01, 2016, 02:09:24 AM
86: Seeing red http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/17406904

There's the way normal people survive in battle. Then there's the way Emil survives in battle. The two ways are quite distinct.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on August 01, 2016, 03:06:03 AM
Very funny. Very Emil.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on August 01, 2016, 10:54:58 PM
Okay, I have only one thing to say:

Grab. Your. TISSUES. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ch4P75MVyU) >:D

94. Last Hope (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/17428189)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on August 02, 2016, 01:57:15 AM
Yep. Tissues. Well told.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on August 02, 2016, 08:04:57 AM
98: Puzzle http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/17435320

Here, have some Hotakainen family angst
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on August 02, 2016, 08:15:15 PM
Immune: A Tale of Year Zero
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Prologue
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg116952#msg116952)
Spoiler: Men of a Thousand Voices • show
“Our world is built upon a mountain of anguish. Once you stir it up, who can tell what you will find?”

Little Ulf fidgeted as he watched his father, Ulf Mikkel, practicing his lines. His father was a perfectionist, and his fellows both hated and respected him for it. He might scream at them, but he was even more demanding of himself.

“Come here, boy. We need to do another read-through.” Some of the father’s frustration with himself leaked into the curt command.

“Yes, Father,” Little Ulf replied dutifully. He walked over to his father, took the proffered script, and got into position for the scene.

“How can we know who we are if we don’t know where we came from?” The question came out in the I’m-trying-to-be-reasonable tones of a boy attempting to be older than his years. No whine, this, but a cool and calm inquiry.

“What is it you want of me, boy?” The elder removed his glasses and gave the youngster an intense stare.

Unflinching, the boy pressed his desire home. “I want to know about the Old World, from before the Illness--I want to know what we lost.”

“Everything.” After that one bitter word, there was a pause before the elder continued. “The Illness took everything from us, except each other.

“You want to know who we are?

“We are survivors.

“We are family.

“We are--IMMUNE.”

There was another long pause while the two stared at each other in a silent test of wills. At last, the elder said, “Our world is built upon a mountain of anguish. Once you stir it up, who can tell what you will find?

“Are you sure you want to do this?”

The boy’s voice never once wavered in his reply. “I need to know where we came from.

“I need to know the truth.”

“And CUT!”

At the director’s cry, the assembled crew burst into spontaneous applause. Just this first take of the scene which would open every episode of the mini-series had thoroughly demonstrated the mastery of the elder Västerström and the raw talent of the younger in their common craft.

“Should we go again?” Ulf Mikkel asked the beaming director. “I think we can do it better.”

“I don’t,” the director replied. “Are we ready for the next scene?”

“I won’t be ready until I think we can’t do this scene better.”

“Then you’ll never be ready,” the director replied. “Get into your place for the next scene. Everyone else, places and READY!”

For a moment, Ulf Mikkel looked like he wanted to object, but the director was determined to be the mistress of her set. The crew-members got into their prescribed spots and prepared for the next take...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
I wasn’t kidding when I wrote “Coming Soon”.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on August 02, 2016, 09:40:41 PM
OwlsGo, that is a bit of family-scale epic. I'd like to think that such a portent might attach to Lalli.

LooNEY_DAC, you have my attention! I'll be waiting by the radio (it is a radio play, isn't it?) every evening!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Minutia_R on August 03, 2016, 09:15:34 AM
http://archiveofourown.org/works/7667134 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7667134)

I wrote a thing!  With Mikkel/Onni.  In which they have very different metaphysical worldviews, and sometimes this has practical consequences.  Also, warning for (offscreen) character death.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Minutia_R on August 03, 2016, 10:13:44 PM
http://archiveofourown.org/chapters/17465890 (http://archiveofourown.org/chapters/17465890)

This one is about the Y0 Hotakainens, the birth of Grandma Hotakainen, and the return of magic to the world.  Warnings for: (non-graphic) childbirth, canon-typical injuries and whatnots, (offscreen) character death, harm to children, general Y0-level goings-on, why should the Y90 Hotakainens get all the trauma, and poetry.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on August 03, 2016, 10:19:27 PM
And an excellent tale it is, and fine poetry! Go Minutia!

So much good stuff on this thread lately....
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on August 04, 2016, 05:02:53 AM
75: Mirror http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/17480329

Emil has problems and his friends are the not helping. They're causing them, in fact.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Talimee on August 04, 2016, 05:52:44 AM
75: Mirror http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/17480329

Emil has problems and his friends are the not helping. They're causing them, in fact.

I really laughed out loud reading this one. It was so good. It was so creepy!! :D *hugs* Thanks for writing and sharing your stories!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on August 04, 2016, 06:41:12 AM
That was creepy-funny in the extreme!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on August 04, 2016, 05:24:54 PM
I am badly behind on reading all the lovely fics, hope to get caught up soon!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on August 04, 2016, 11:41:47 PM
Windfighter, those are good! I'm unfamiliar with digimon, but sounds interesting.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Kiraly on August 05, 2016, 11:55:45 PM
Hehehe, Windfighter I love the Meatballs story, it's so cute! (Of course I'm a sucker for any story in which Emil and Lalli and Tuuri are roommates, hehe.)

Speaking of cute things with Emil and Lalli, I wrote a silly thing involving babysitting Emil's cousins. (It's a post-canon fic with Emil/Lalli as an established relationship, FYI).
Cousin Emil, Catman, and the Changelings (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7690453).
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on August 06, 2016, 07:42:16 AM
88: Pain http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/17526487

Tuuri gets a splinter.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Miriam on August 06, 2016, 08:43:41 AM
Speaking of cute things with Emil and Lalli, I wrote a silly thing involving babysitting Emil's cousins. (It's a post-canon fic with Emil/Lalli as an established relationship).
Cousin Emil, Catman, and the Changelings (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7690453).

This is adorable! I like it that Emil can get along so well with his cousins and that he protects Lalli against them. Emil even doesn't mind it when his haircut gets ruined, as long as there are no scissors involved. :D

88: Pain http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/17526487

Tuuri gets a splinter.

Talking about a flair for the dramatic! :P
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on August 07, 2016, 01:48:48 AM
I appear with chapter 8 of the superhero AU, in which our own Haiz does her crazy rune thang, Tuuri is finding Mora a bit unseasonably chilly, fish guts are flung, and dogs sniff bottoms.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/6610714/chapters/17544955

Now maybe I'll get a chance to catch up on my required reading of all of your lovely stories.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Ragnarok on August 07, 2016, 11:05:35 AM
Crossposting from the Altverse thread in the child board, as this contains mainline characters. My immense thanks to Solokov for writing this alongside me.

So, without further ado.....

The Khalasar of the Iron Tiger: A ASoIaF/SSSS OC Crossover

 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7707919/chapters/17563717)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Kiraly on August 07, 2016, 03:07:53 PM
*sneaks in* So some of you may already have seen this on Tumblr, but I was asked about how Emil came to be living with Tuuri and Lalli (and how the three of them formed a band with Sigrun) in my Hipster AU. Instead of just answering, I decided to write it out as a couple of short stories. Since all three are finished now, I decided to put them up on AO3.

After the End, Before the Beginning (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7704418)

(Yes, apparently I'm all-too-willing to go off on tangents about this story instead of actually writing the next chapter. On the one hand...I'm sorry, I swear I'll try to get back to it soon. On the other hand...if you've ever been curious about something from this AU, now is probably a good time to ask).
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Talimee on August 07, 2016, 08:11:09 PM
Title: Under Your Canopy
Author: Talimee
Characters: Emil Västerström, Lalli Hotakainen
Rating: Gen
Warnings: Love-poem in dialogue-form, ergo sappiness, fluff, horrible metrics
Length: 63 lines
Summary: Lalli and Emil sneak away from their fellow travellers for some quality time alone.
Other: This can be seen as inspired by Yuuago's “Meet me in the Morning” – actually, it was –  but it works just as well as a stand-alone.

This is a present (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7707655) for Yuuago as a Thank You for writing so many lovely stories and for being an all-around nice person in chat and thus making the world a brighter place for it. *huggles* I hope you like it.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on August 08, 2016, 05:00:00 PM
Talimee, I am normally a hardy soul - but now I am dead, melted into a sigh...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Talimee on August 09, 2016, 09:52:15 AM
Talimee, I am normally a hardy soul - but now I am dead, melted into a sigh...

Hehe. Thank you. I did my best. *bows*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on August 09, 2016, 12:10:49 PM
Talimee, that's very sweet and moving.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on August 09, 2016, 07:04:52 PM
That's a poignant little vignette. Emil unburdening himself. Your writing is getting better, more concise and expressive.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on August 09, 2016, 09:49:33 PM
67: Playing the melody http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/17613079

Lalli is orphaned. After an excruciatingly long three days, that is.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Ragnarok on August 09, 2016, 09:53:59 PM
67: Playing the melody http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/17613079

Lalli is orphaned. After an excruciatingly long three days, that is.

*tries very hard not to cry*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Tr on August 09, 2016, 10:10:58 PM
67: Playing the melody http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/17613079

Lalli is orphaned. After an excruciatingly long three days, that is.
*tries very hard not to cry*
*cries* Owl, aughhh...that was pretty heartbreaking.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on August 09, 2016, 10:34:54 PM
*cries* Owl, aughhh...that was pretty heartbreaking.

Deadlines have put me in a sour and stressed mood, so I took it out on the Hotakainens as usual. I really should find another target.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Tr on August 09, 2016, 10:59:41 PM
Deadlines have put me in a sour and stressed mood, so I took it out on the Hotakainens as usual. I really should find another target.
I hope things work out and you feel better soon! *whispers* Emiiiiiiil. I hear Emil makes a very nice angstfest target.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on August 09, 2016, 11:23:45 PM
I hope things work out and you feel better soon! *whispers* Emiiiiiiil. I hear Emil makes a very nice angstfest target.

Thanks Tr. For better or worse it's going to be over by this Monday. And, yes, Emil is a good target, you are completely correct. In fact now that I think about it....
slinks away to write some Swedish angst
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Ragnarok on August 09, 2016, 11:25:23 PM
Chapter four of mine and Solokov's SSSS/ASoIaF fanfic is up!

http://archiveofourown.org/works/7707919/chapters/17614903 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7707919/chapters/17614903)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Talimee on August 11, 2016, 08:56:39 PM
Author: Talimee
Prompt: 15 - Silence
Summary: While waiting for Emil to create a gateway to safety Lalli reflects on the meaning of Silence.
Characters: Lalli Hotakainen, Emil Västerström (background)
Setting: Silent World, Odense
Rating: none
Warnings: none
Tags: Lalli's POV, musings, slight suspense, sensory overload

~*~

Click here (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6440122/chapters/17659108) for Lalli and Emil actually doing their jobs. :D
Is it possible to win a "Most Boring Teaser Award"?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on August 11, 2016, 09:33:05 PM
Click here (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6440122/chapters/17659108) for Lalli and Emil actually doing their jobs. :D
Is it possible to win a "Most Boring Teaser Award"?

Certainly, but none of your work begins to meet being qualified for the award.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on August 11, 2016, 10:19:47 PM
Talimee, well done.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Talimee on August 12, 2016, 07:45:00 AM
Talimee, well done.

Certainly, but none of your work begins to meet being qualified for the award.

Róisín, OwlsG0, thank you for your praise! *bows* =D *turns away and bites knuckles* Damn, I wanted that award!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on August 12, 2016, 08:07:23 AM
Róisín, OwlsG0, thank you for your praise! *bows* =D *turns away and bites knuckles* Damn, I wanted that award!

Sorry dude, but you gotta be boring to win that award.

And here comes a big chunk of Finnish angst, guest-starring Sleipnope!

91: Drowning http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/17668042

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Ragnarok on August 12, 2016, 08:17:40 PM
Chapters 5 & 6 of 'The Khalasar of the Iron Tiger' are up here (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7707919/chapters/17679475)

My thanks to Laufey for help with runos for this installment, and, as always, Solokov for writing with me.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on August 12, 2016, 08:25:00 PM
I come bearing chap. 9  of the superhero AU story:  http://archiveofourown.org/works/6610714/chapters/17680045

See, you didn't have to worry about Reynir after all. 
Yet.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solokov on August 12, 2016, 09:38:32 PM
Just found the scriptorium....gonna spend a while here it seems.

(https://i.imgur.com/dzSzZ1W.jpg)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on August 12, 2016, 09:48:23 PM
Just found the scriptorium....gonna spend a while here it seems.

(https://i.imgur.com/dzSzZ1W.jpg)

I would start up a chant of one of us, one of us but I think you already understand how doomed you are.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solokov on August 12, 2016, 10:05:26 PM
I would start up a chant of one of us, one of us but I think you already understand how doomed you are.

Doomed as a non-immune hugging the nearest troll.

To be fair I have been assisting ragnarok with the asoiaf story.. any feedback is appreciated on that. I did mostly everything on the small Legion of doom council meeting that GRRM didn't already write.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on August 15, 2016, 08:15:06 AM
97: Safety first http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/17737717

In which Tuuri demonstrates exemplary driving skills and Lalli regrets every life choice that lead him to the shotgun seat.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on August 15, 2016, 10:51:47 AM
That was so blackly funny! Husband enquired as to the cause of my chortling, I attempted to explain that I was reading an SSSS fic by a person with a sense of humour so dry it could serve as a dehydrant, and read him a few of the choicer lines. He gave me an Extremely Strange Look.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Athena on August 15, 2016, 02:09:23 PM
97: Safety first http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/17737717

In which Tuuri demonstrates exemplary driving skills and Lalli regrets every life choice that lead him to the shotgun seat.

 :'D Tuuri is a very good driver. It was definitely a good idea to have her behind the wheel... ::)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on August 18, 2016, 07:05:58 AM
This has been a very sleepy thread for a few days. I wonder if it's because Lazy8 isn't here to spam us with wonderful Sigrun angst?

sends Lazy8 good vibes

Here's my contribution, anyway. Warning: small epic

68: Hero http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/17805373
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on August 18, 2016, 06:18:38 PM
OwlsGo, both your last two pieces have been enchanting. Please do continue with that last story!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on August 18, 2016, 08:38:03 PM
OwlsGo, please do continue. Also, is the new avatar a dropbear?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solokov on August 18, 2016, 08:57:47 PM
OwlsGo, please do continue. Also, is the new avatar a dropbear?
Looks like a were-koala to me.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on August 18, 2016, 10:43:21 PM
This has been a very sleepy thread for a few days. I wonder if it's because Lazy8 isn't here to spam us with wonderful Sigrun angst?

sends Lazy8 good vibes

Weeeeeeeeeeeeell, I might have been a bit too focused on my own angst lately to beat up Sigrun (much), but here is a thing. (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=907.msg119587#msg119587) A challenge thing.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Kiraly on August 19, 2016, 12:11:25 AM
*sneaks in to drop off a little Sigrun/Tuuri thing* I originally meant for this to fit on a postcard, but it got far too long. Anyway, enjoy!

Fine Ladies, Dancing (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7809739)

Also, I said this in the other thread, but I like that idea, Lazy8! Glad you'll have some more time for writing that isn't thesis-related now.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on August 19, 2016, 12:44:53 AM
This was fun, Kiraly! Not my ship, but well written. And fun!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on August 19, 2016, 12:50:50 AM
*sneaks in to drop off a little Sigrun/Tuuri thing* I originally meant for this to fit on a postcard, but it got far too long. Anyway, enjoy!

Fine Ladies, Dancing (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7809739)
This was fun, Kiraiy! Not my ship, butwell written. And fun!
/me echoes Róisín and adds a bad pun:
So, will your next work feature the exploits of an imperturbable Mikkel as he saves the others in a series of hops and jumps and be titled Zen Lords A-Leaping?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Kiraly on August 19, 2016, 12:59:39 AM
This was fun, Kiraiy! Not my ship, butwell written. And fun!

Thank you! It's a departure from my usual shipping routes as well, but it was fun to play around with the possibility. :))

/me echoes Róisín and adds a bad pun:
So, will your next work feature the exploits of an imperturbable Mikkel as he saves the others in a series of hops and jumps and be titled Zen Lords A-Leaping?

Hehehehe, A+ pun! I tried to think of a better title when I realized I kept getting that song in my head, but nothing leapt out at me so I left it.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on August 19, 2016, 01:43:07 AM
OwlsGo, please do continue. Also, is the new avatar a dropbear?

No, it's a picture of an allegedly rabid koala. Photo-shopped probably. Also, glad to see Lazy's back and has not been killed by theses or angst. And was able to post the thingy. Looks interesting! If I do get involved I think I'll have to do Easy mode, because the prompt challenge has already taken too long and I want to be able to move onto other fics in proper. 
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Miriam on August 19, 2016, 11:22:34 AM
Speaking of cute things with Emil and Lalli, I wrote a silly thing involving babysitting Emil's cousins. (It's a post-canon fic with Emil/Lalli as an established relationship, FYI).
Cousin Emil, Catman, and the Changelings (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7690453).

I wrote a follow-up! (http://archiveofourown.org/chapters/17829517) It's about one of the changelings coming downstairs to annoy Lalli for a bit.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on August 20, 2016, 04:59:26 PM
/me echoes Róisín and adds a bad pun:
So, will your next work feature the exploits of an imperturbable Mikkel as he saves the others in a series of hops and jumps and be titled Zen Lords A-Leaping?

Oh please make this a thing!   Purrrty please?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on August 21, 2016, 07:43:42 AM
66: Traps http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/17870596

A syrup slow afternoon ticks by in the Tank.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Talimee on August 21, 2016, 08:19:28 AM
66: Traps http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/17870596
A syrup slow afternoon ticks by in the Tank.

Syrup-slow afternoons are the best. Period. And stories about them as well. :D

I wrote a follow-up! (http://archiveofourown.org/chapters/17829517) It's about one of the changelings coming downstairs to annoy Lalli for a bit.

This was really cute and Lalli's inner commentary very funny and felt very right. I liked the reference you did to the answer Lalli gave Onni when asked whether he had made a friend yet. Very sweet. =)
Thanks for writing and sharing.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solokov on August 21, 2016, 08:35:58 AM
Chapters 7, 8 and 9 of The khallasar of the Iron Tiger are now up.

Starting from chapter 7.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/7707919/chapters/17859019

Starting from chapter 1 for anyone new.
http://archiveofourown.org/works/7707919/chapters/17563717


*is currently on page 5 of the scriptorium when it comes to catching up with the thread*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Talimee on August 21, 2016, 04:40:48 PM
Title: Cotton Love
Author: Talimee
Summary: Lalli surreptitiously obtains something Emil is only to happy to give.
Characters: Emil Västerström, Lalli Hotakainen
Pairing: Emil/Lalli
Setting: Alternate Universe (modern times)
Rating: PG
Warnings: None
Tags: fluff, hugs, established relationship, slice of life

Are there any of you in need of Emil/Lalli-fluff? I'll be happy to deliver (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7832437)! :D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Kiraly on August 21, 2016, 04:55:00 PM
Are there any of you in need of Emil/Lalli-fluff? I'll be happy to deliver (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7832437)! :D

*raises both hands* This is the best thing, you are the best! This is exactly the calibre of Emil/Lalli fluff I was craving! :))
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Miriam on August 21, 2016, 05:16:40 PM
Title: Cotton Love
Author: Talimee
Summary: Lalli surreptitiously obtains something Emil is only to happy to give.
Characters: Emil Västerström, Lalli Hotakainen
Pairing: Emil/Lalli
Setting: Alternate Universe (modern times)
Rating: PG
Warnings: None
Tags: fluff, hugs, established relationship, slice of life

Are there any of you in need of Emil/Lalli-fluff? I'll be happy to deliver (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7832437)! :D

I was in need of Emil/Lalli-fluff, thank you! The line "Lalli snuggled himself into the fabric and looking at Emil with smiling eyes" is really cute and it fits Lalli. He does smile with his eyes rather than with his mouth.

(Also thank you for your compliments about my fanfic!)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on August 21, 2016, 05:32:38 PM
Aaawww! That is so sweet!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Talimee on August 21, 2016, 07:47:20 PM
Miriam, Róisín: Many thanks for reading and commenting. =) I'm glad you liked this little story.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Talimee on August 22, 2016, 10:56:26 AM
Title: Cotton Love
Author: Talimee
Summary: Lalli surreptitiously obtains something Emil is only to happy to give.
Characters: Emil Västerström, Lalli Hotakainen
Pairing: Emil/Lalli
Setting: Alternate Universe (modern times)
Rating: PG
Warnings: None
Tags: fluff, hugs, established relationship, slice of life

Aaaaand this has spawned a second chapter (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7832437/chapters/17898286). :D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Miriam on August 22, 2016, 11:18:19 AM
Aaaaand this has spawned a second chapter (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7832437/chapters/17898286). :D

Yay, another chapter! Hand-kisses are the cutest, I imagine Lalli and Emil must do that a lot : )
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Talimee on August 22, 2016, 03:18:31 PM
Yay, another chapter! Hand-kisses are the cutest, I imagine Lalli and Emil must do that a lot : )

You are perfectly right: hand-kisses are the cutest thing. And a perfect way to convey affection without smothering the partner. I think too that Lalli and Emil do those a lot because Lalli would squirm away like an eel if hugged for more than ten seconds. ^^
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Dverghamrar on August 22, 2016, 06:23:14 PM
I got inspired by Page 584 (http://www.sssscomic.com/comic.php?page=584), and had to write:

Pictures of Kitty (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7843276)
Summary: Everyone takes turns drawing the crew’s resident cat.

A nice little humorous moment during the expedition. :) Uses the SSSS 100 Prompts Challenge: 23. Cat.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on August 23, 2016, 09:14:38 AM
87: Food http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/17920669

Sometimes, you gotta stop and ask yourself "What am I willing to deal with today?" and sometimes, the answer is "Not this."
The following is true for Lalli when he runs across something that wants very much to make his acquaintance.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on August 23, 2016, 11:16:08 AM
That one is revolting and truly, truly scary! Well done!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Dverghamrar on August 23, 2016, 12:27:44 PM
I loved that one, OwlsG0! :D Left a comment on AO3!

Another fic today, this one written for LGBT Fest and uses the SSSS 100 Prompts Challenge: 18. Rainbow. 
http://archiveofourown.org/works/7848883 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7848883)
Summary: Maja bonds with her son Reynir after learning he is bisexual.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Haiz on August 24, 2016, 04:43:10 AM
I have decided to write down summaries of the two chapters i planned to write for my norwegian high school au (http://unicorngender.tumblr.com/post/149407614914/standstill-high-the-chapters-that-never-were) but realized i'm never going to write. it's been over a year and i'm sorry i didn't write them, but c'est la vie. i hope someone enjoys them anyway.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on August 24, 2016, 05:08:05 AM
Haiz, I'm sad you never got to write them! Even in summary they are....diverting.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Oscar Leigh on August 24, 2016, 09:33:31 AM
I loved that one, OwlsG0! :D Left a comment on AO3!

Another fic today, this one written for LGBT Fest and uses the SSSS 100 Prompts Challenge: 18. Rainbow. 
http://archiveofourown.org/works/7848883 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7848883)
Summary: Maja bonds with her son Reynir after learning he is bisexual.

Awwww. (Draws dagger behind back.) (Whispers): There can only be one. ANYWAY. Now I'm inspired to try to get my thing done already.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on August 24, 2016, 11:44:36 AM
Haiz, there are so many fanfics that I am sad never to have seen finished - thank you so much for this summary of yours!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Rykka on August 24, 2016, 01:42:32 PM
I have decided to write down summaries of the two chapters i planned to write for my norwegian high school au (http://unicorngender.tumblr.com/post/149407614914/standstill-high-the-chapters-that-never-were) but realized i'm never going to write. it's been over a year and i'm sorry i didn't write them, but c'est la vie. i hope someone enjoys them anyway.

WOOPADOODLE TOOL jfc I have never laughed this hard so I had to comment
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Miriam on August 25, 2016, 05:53:46 AM
I'm doing a series of fics, one posted each day in the 12th chapter break, from August 25 to August 31. Mainly Emilalli fics and mostly for general audiences.
The first fic: Lalli flirts with Emil in his own eccentric way. (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7813954)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on August 25, 2016, 07:19:14 AM
96: In the storm http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/17962117

Lalli isn't back by the time a blizzard starts up, so Emil takes matters into his own hands.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on August 25, 2016, 08:36:10 AM
This is very fine horror!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Dverghamrar on August 25, 2016, 09:29:30 AM
Awwww. (Draws dagger behind back.) (Whispers): There can only be one. ANYWAY. Now I'm inspired to try to get my thing done already.
Thank you! :D

Get your thing done, for LBGT Fest? :D You have until August 31st, and it's really fun! Here's the list of prompts (http://lgbtfest.dreamwidth.org/1054.html). Some are fandom-specific, and there weren't any for SSSS but there are ones for "any" fandom which is where I got my prompt. :) If they run the fest again next year, we can add in SSSS prompts, and if you or anyone else wants, I can advertise the fest here since it runs from May to end of August.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Haiz on August 25, 2016, 09:38:07 AM
Haiz, I'm sad you never got to write them! Even in summary they are....diverting.
Haiz, there are so many fanfics that I am sad never to have seen finished - thank you so much for this summary of yours!
no problem ^___~

WOOPADOODLE TOOL jfc I have never laughed this hard so I had to comment
i appreciate that very much, i think the woopadoodle tool is my finest work
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Oscar Leigh on August 25, 2016, 09:44:16 AM
Thank you! :D

Get your thing done, for LBGT Fest? :D You have until August 31st, and it's really fun! Here's the list of prompts (http://lgbtfest.dreamwidth.org/1054.html). Some are fandom-specific, and there weren't any for SSSS but there are ones for "any" fandom which is where I got my prompt. :) If they run the fest again next year, we can add in SSSS prompts, and if you or anyone else wants, I can advertise the fest here since it runs from May to end of August.

No, it's just a general Lamil shipping fic, no prompt. (Hence the rivalry with Lalli/Reynir ships, you monster)
I could totally contribute to that though.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Dverghamrar on August 25, 2016, 10:08:16 AM
No, it's just a general Lamil shipping fic, no prompt. (Hence the rivalry with Lalli/Reynir ships, you monster)
I could totally contribute to that though.
I prefer the term 'witch' if you don't mind. ;) And no need for rivalry! In my other fandom, everyone ships and let ship! :)

Good! Hope something there inspires! :D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Talimee on August 25, 2016, 04:56:23 PM
Title: Cotton Love
Author: Talimee
Characters: Emil Västerström, Lalli Hotakainen
Pairing: Emil/Lalli
Setting: Alternate Universe (modern times)
Rating: PG
Warnings: None
Tags: fluff, hugs, kisses, established relationship, slice of life

And chapter three (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7832437/chapters/17971453) is up. Enjoy!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on August 25, 2016, 04:58:53 PM
A little delayed by my sojourn in hospital, but here is Chapter 10 of the superhero AU fic:
http://archiveofourown.org/works/6610714/chapters/17971666

In which the expedition gets last-minute replacements for the skald, medic, and driver, Onni hits the wall, and searching eyes turn south, just as Reynir finally encounters someone who speaks his language.  The clogs make an appearance again, too.
Appearances by the SSSSonas of Gwenno, Haiz, Noodly Appendage, AquaAurion, Ragnarok, & Sunflower.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Ragnarok on August 25, 2016, 05:18:37 PM
A little delayed by my sojourn in hospital, but here is Chapter 10 of the superhero AU fic:
http://archiveofourown.org/works/6610714/chapters/17971666

In which the expedition gets last-minute replacements for the skald, medic, and driver, Onni hits the wall, and searching eyes turn south, just as Reynir finally encounters someone who speaks his language.  The clogs make an appearance again, too.
Appearances by the SSSSonas of Gwenno, Haiz, Noodly Appendage, AquaAurion, Ragnarok, & Sunflower.

It's...oddly appropriate for Jón to be called 'black mage.' They share a similar sense of overkill.

On further note, this made me very happy. Thank you!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on August 25, 2016, 07:13:02 PM
It's...oddly appropriate for Jón to be called 'black mage.' They share a similar sense of overkill.

On further note, this made me very happy. Thank you!

Yeah, a bit of dramatic overkill is exactly right, letting the gossipy culture endemic in such places take over. Glad you like it.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Miriam on August 26, 2016, 09:16:05 AM
Fanfic two of the chapter break series: Reynir has seen something in the dreamworld that wasn't meant for his eyes. (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7815343)
Pairing: Emilalli
Rating: Teens and up
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on August 26, 2016, 05:13:42 PM
96: In the storm http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/17962117

Lalli isn't back by the time a blizzard starts up, so Emil takes matters into his own hands.

I left a comment on A3O, but I really wanted to point out what an exceptional story this is.  You've really delved into what this world is, and it sits both in contrast and thoroughly in keeping with the frothier humour you lay on your stories.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on August 26, 2016, 05:20:59 PM
It occurs to me that the two who have done the majority of the 100 Prompts Challenge, Lazy8 and OwlsG0, have improved their writing skills beyond all reckoning, am I right?  There have been some amazing and memorable stories coming from their efforts.

Outstanding work.  Dunno if I'm up to it at this stage, but if I wanted to develop writing skills, I sure would. Applause also for the organiser of the Challenge!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Oscar Leigh on August 27, 2016, 03:16:26 AM
Title: Cotton Love
Author: Talimee
Characters: Emil Västerström, Lalli Hotakainen
Pairing: Emil/Lalli
Setting: Alternate Universe (modern times)
Rating: PG
Warnings: None
Tags: fluff, hugs, kisses, established relationship, slice of life

And chapter three (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7832437/chapters/17971453) is up. Enjoy!

I like the modern times premise, and I enjoy the pre-established relationship thing. It's nice to mix it up from the seduction scenarios where it builds up. Also, this series is very cute. I love it.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Oscar Leigh on August 27, 2016, 03:20:32 AM
Fanfic two of the chapter break series: Reynir has seen something in the dreamworld that wasn't meant for his eyes. (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7815343)
Pairing: Emilalli
Rating: Teens and up

I love this as well! AAAH!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Miriam on August 27, 2016, 04:06:31 AM
I love this as well! AAAH!

Thanks! Screaming is always a nice compliment.

Today's fic: Sneak ruffle (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7840951) (based on this artwork by Minna (http://www.sssscomic.com/mainimages/art/sneakruffle.php))
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Oscar Leigh on August 27, 2016, 04:50:15 AM
Thanks! Screaming is always a nice compliment.

Today's fic: Sneak ruffle (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7840951) (based on this artwork by Minna (http://www.sssscomic.com/mainimages/art/sneakruffle.php))

Love it too!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on August 27, 2016, 05:53:55 AM
Thanks! Screaming is always a nice compliment.

Today's fic: Sneak ruffle (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7840951) (based on this artwork by Minna (http://www.sssscomic.com/mainimages/art/sneakruffle.php))

Cute is definitely the word for this one.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on August 27, 2016, 06:23:46 AM
It occurs to me that the two who have done the majority of the 100 Prompts Challenge, Lazy8 and OwlsG0, have improved their writing skills beyond all reckoning, am I right?  There have been some amazing and memorable stories coming from their efforts.

Outstanding work.  Dunno if I'm up to it at this stage, but if I wanted to develop writing skills, I sure would. Applause also for the organiser of the Challenge!

spine-chilling hiss from the darkness: join us, wave, join us. we have metaphors and Lovecraft anthologies
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on August 27, 2016, 08:54:36 AM
Being a dirty double-poster. Sorry about that. I come bearing another enormous EmiLalli 'shit we're adults with a family' fic that no one asked for.

21: Vacation http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/18008422
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on August 27, 2016, 10:24:04 PM
I seem to have gotten this one out rather quickly, but I hope you enjoy it.  Chapter 11 of the superhero AU story:
http://archiveofourown.org/works/6610714/chapters/18023179

Taru and the scout manage to make it to Mora but must scramble to catch the Dalahästen, and everybody else sits around eating.  As you do. 
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Miriam on August 28, 2016, 05:28:20 AM
My fanfic of today: Emil cuddles a teddy bear. Lalli is jealous. (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7884709)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Miriam on August 29, 2016, 03:47:47 AM
My fifth fanfic of the chapter break: Lalli finds out he does not enjoy kissing. Emil thinks up an alternative. (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7885099)
Cuddling. Sickingly sweet.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Kiraly on August 29, 2016, 10:48:44 AM
Miriam, these last two fics are too cute!!! I love how the most recent one is all about respecting boundaries and finding ways to display affection that work for both of them. :))
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on August 29, 2016, 10:54:59 PM
For some reason I keep getting the crazy urge to ramble at length about that gladiator!Sigrun AU I came up with a while back but will probably never get around to writing.

This is the way I originally envisioned the thing, as set in the actual ancient Roman Empire:


...yeah. I could have some fun writing this, but whether it will ever come about is another matter entirely...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Ragnarok on August 29, 2016, 11:17:05 PM
Well, for better or for worse, Chapter 10 of 'The Khalasar of the Iron Tiger' is up. Please leave feedback, especially for this, as neither Solokov nor I had the slightest idea if he was in-character, being unused to writing optimistic characters.

Chapter Ten here. (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7707919/chapters/18072844)

Start at the beginning here. (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7707919/chapters/17563717)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on August 30, 2016, 03:13:49 AM
For some reason I keep getting the crazy urge to ramble at length about that gladiator!Sigrun AU I came up with a while back but will probably never get around to writing.

Spoiler: This got long • show

This is the way I originally envisioned the thing, as set in the actual ancient Roman Empire:

[list]
[li]Sigrun, Mikkel, and Emil are all slaves who were captured by the Empire, Sigrun at a very young age and Emil at the start of the story when he's closer to his canon age of 19. Sigrun is a gladiator and Emil soon enters the ring as well; Mikkel is a slave who's had some training in medicine.[/li]
[li]Despite having lived in the Empire since childhood, Sigrun's Latin is pretty much limited to "Ave, Imperator, morituri te salutant." She immediately latches onto Emil by virtue of him being one of the few people she can talk to. (Mikkel is perfectly fluent in Latin, thank you very much.)[/li]
[li]In canon, I'm convinced that Sigrun has severe untreated ADHD. In this AU, though, it's entirely possible that she's suffered from childhood lead poisoning from lead-lined Roman aqueducts, which can also cause learning disabilities. Mikkel, who knew better, avoided drinking any water that came from those pipes, and after he met Sigrun saw to it that she and Emil didn't drink the stuff either, but in her case the damage had already been done.[/li]
[li]There's not really a place for any of the Finns in this story, sorry. Reynir is around, though: he's the son of a wealthy Roman family who quickly picks Emil as a favorite once he enters the ring.[/li]
[li]...this story wants to be Emil/Reynir, because my muse hates me.[/li]
[li]Speaking of Emil, with Sigrun teaching him he eventually gets to the point where he can step into the ring and not die. When it finally hits him that this is supposed to involve actual killing, though, it does not go over well. First time ended with Sigrun pinning him after she won a round against him (facedown in the dirt, to keep him from dishonoring himself by screaming like a baby), and though he was too grateful to feel anything but relief after the crowd called for mercy, he later couldn't stop wondering whether she actually would have killed him if they'd instead given her the thumbs-up. The first time Emil has to make a kill or forfeit his own life, he was severely traumatized and refused to talk to Sigrun for days.[/li]
[li]Meanwhile, Sigrun (with Mikkel's help) has been fomenting a gladiator rebellion for some time now so she can be free to fight on her own terms, but Emil somehow provides the catalyst that pushes her into actually doing it. They pull it off and successfully escape into the wilderness while Rome is sacked, but somehow end up getting stuck with this utterly clueless civilian in tow...[/li]
[/list]


...yeah. I could have some fun writing this, but whether it will ever come about is another matter entirely...

yess......yeeees write all of this do it do it this would be awesome. If you can find the time, this is definitely an idea you should think about developing. Even the synopsis is super interesting!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Miriam on August 30, 2016, 05:33:05 AM
Miriam, these last two fics are too cute!!! I love how the most recent one is all about respecting boundaries and finding ways to display affection that work for both of them. :))

Thank you!

My fanfic of today: Hug coupon (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7886179).
Lalli wants to hug Emil but doesn't know how to initiate it. He gets an idea on how to communicate it.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on August 30, 2016, 10:49:14 AM
89: Through the fire http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/18080782

One of Mikkel's leg is made of living tree from the knee down, for a reason slightly more sad than could have been predicted.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solokov on August 30, 2016, 03:37:34 PM
Seriously we had no idea what we were doing writing a character optimistic enough to make book 1 sansa stark look like a giant cynic.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Talimee on August 30, 2016, 04:49:35 PM
Well, for better or for worse, Chapter 10 of 'The Khalasar of the Iron Tiger' is up. Please leave feedback, especially for this, as neither Solokov nor I had the slightest idea if he was in-character, being unused to writing optimistic characters.

I will write feedback, one of these days - but I'm still stuck in the Eddard-chapter. D: I liked the chapters so far, all in all I find it a bit strange that Khal Drogo and Daenerys are so nice and welcoming. I can't see the immediate benefit for them, but as this looks like it's going to be a looooong fic we will see eventually. (Or as soon as I find the time to read more. =/ ) More detailed comments on AO3 (eventually).

My fanfic of today: Hug coupon (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7886179).
Lalli wants to hug Emil but doesn't know how to initiate it. He gets an idea on how to communicate it.

Very cute idea!
Somehow AO3 shows your stories at weird points on the site, so people just going through today's uploads won't see them. The latest for example is shown for the 27th of August. Oo

89: Through the fire http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/18080782
One of Mikkel's leg is made of living tree from the knee down, for a reason slightly more sad than could have been predicted.

This was funny, but also deeply disturbing. Very, very deeply disturbing. I'm with Emil there. Totally. *shivers out* *shivers back in* Disturbing.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solokov on August 30, 2016, 05:01:45 PM
I will write feedback, one of these days - but I'm still stuck in the Eddard-chapter. D: I liked the chapters so far, all in all I find it a bit strange that Khal Drogo and Daenerys are so nice and welcoming. I can't see the immediate benefit for them, but as this looks like it's going to be a looooong fic we will see eventually. (Or as soon as I find the time to read more. =/ ) More detailed comments on AO3 (eventually)

Well... a tpk right at the first encounter would be a bad thing for story longevity... it's mainly why there's oc characters mixed in in the first place. It was either that or have danish or swedish be very much like westerosi or low valryian.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Talimee on August 30, 2016, 05:04:53 PM
  • ...this story wants to be Emil/Reynir, because my muse hates me.

Audite resus mei!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on August 30, 2016, 05:16:57 PM
Audite resus mei!

Hear my... something? (Here's a toast to my rusty, rusty high school Latin.)

*pulls up Google Translate*

*attempts to look up unknown word and realizes that it's still set to Norwegian for Reasons*

*sheepishly sets translator back to English*

*translator still fails to find word*

...y'know, technology isn't always superior. I have a nice paper Latin dictionary back in my room (not to mention Google Translate completely fails at declensions), but I'm currently in my office >:( .

Hear my... laughter? Et tu, Brute?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Ragnarok on August 30, 2016, 05:24:13 PM
I will write feedback, one of these days - but I'm still stuck in the Eddard-chapter. D: I liked the chapters so far, all in all I find it a bit strange that Khal Drogo and Daenerys are so nice and welcoming. I can't see the immediate benefit for them, but as this looks like it's going to be a looooong fic we will see eventually. (Or as soon as I find the time to read more. =/ ) More detailed comments on AO3 (eventually).

I'll put up an author's note to this effect shortly, but the short of it is that Khal Drogo is smart enough to realize that attacking the group with the giant metal tiger miiiight be a bad idea. Daenerys for her part is partly glad to meet people who speak her language, and partly similar reasons as Drogo.
Plus, there's approx. three months of travel we've basically skimmed over, that will be brought up and explained in a later chapter.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Miriam on August 30, 2016, 05:26:23 PM
Very cute idea!
Somehow AO3 shows your stories at weird points on the site, so people just going through today's uploads won't see them. The latest for example is shown for the 27th of August. Oo

Thanks. Yes, for some reason the last three stories seem to be dated the 27th of August *cries*.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on August 30, 2016, 05:37:11 PM
I noticed the date confusion when I was looking for something else and found one of your stories tucked in halfway down a page. Weird!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Talimee on August 30, 2016, 06:21:46 PM
Hear my... laughter? Et tu, Brute?

Your rusty school latin was better than mine - I had to look up everything. :D
And yes. Me too.  >:D I mean, if the story is too long in the making you could just skip to the interesting parts and parts.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Yuuago on August 30, 2016, 07:01:47 PM
Thanks. Yes, for some reason the last three stories seem to be dated the 27th of August *cries*.

If this happens again (or if you want to change the date on any of your other stories) you can do it by going to the story's edit screen, scrolling to the checkbox for "Set a different publication date", and choosing the correct date. Sometimes Ao3 does weird things.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solokov on August 30, 2016, 07:49:32 PM
I'll put up an author's note to this effect shortly, but the short of it is that Khal Drogo is smart enough to realize that attacking the group with the giant metal tiger miiiight be a bad idea. Daenerys for her part is partly glad to meet people who speak her language, and partly similar reasons as Drogo.
Plus, there's approx. three months of travel we've basically skimmed over, that will be brought up and explained in a later chapter.

There's also the fact had we gone with the most likely result of first contact with dothraki.. well ragnarok and I would have very quickly become the most hated writers in the ssss fan-verse.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Miriam on August 31, 2016, 05:25:50 AM
If this happens again (or if you want to change the date on any of your other stories) you can do it by going to the story's edit screen, scrolling to the checkbox for "Set a different publication date", and choosing the correct date. Sometimes Ao3 does weird things.

Thanks, it should be fixed now. From now on I'll just check the date of each fic that way before posting.


My last fic in the chapter break: Reynir, stealer of cats (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7841647).
Emil accuses Reynir of stealing his cat. Emilalli.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on August 31, 2016, 10:33:14 PM
...aaaaaaaaaaaaand I keep getting ideas for this thing. Specifically, someone's take in the comments today on why they don't seem to be heeding Kitty's warning:

Quote
That would be like the guys in the Coliseum listening when one of them yells "look out! Lions!" They already know. They already know.

Emil would do this. While Sigrun stands beside him facepalming. "Yes, I know. That's kind of the point." :P

(Yes, I know gladiators fought each other, not exotic animals. I might just have to call artistic license, though, because a scene like this is too good to pass up.)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Talimee on September 01, 2016, 04:14:55 AM
...aaaaaaaaaaaaand I keep getting ideas for this thing.

Y'know, keep bringing this AU up and I will get ideas for pics, which is equally terrible, b/c I plainly lack the skillz. ;D
I just love AUs, what can I say. ^^
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: JoB on September 01, 2016, 01:39:54 PM
(Yes, I know gladiators fought each other, not exotic animals. I might just have to call artistic license, though, because a scene like this is too good to pass up.)
(... simply call them by their proper terms (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bestiarii), then?)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on September 01, 2016, 02:46:13 PM
(... simply call them by their proper terms (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bestiarii), then?)

But-but-but I want to have them fighting other humans too!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: JoB on September 01, 2016, 02:55:41 PM
But-but-but I want to have them fighting other humans too!
Well, that calls for the invention of the MostBestidiators, then. ::)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: ruth on September 01, 2016, 05:45:33 PM
Remember how I was beginning to write a thing? I'm still writing a thing (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7435532/chapters/18131476).
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Keeper on September 01, 2016, 06:40:45 PM
Remember how I was beginning to write a thing? I'm still writing a thing (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7435532/chapters/18131476).

Wow. I read both chapters and barely remembered that it was an SSSS fic in addition to a political story. This is really well written Ruth, I'm so curious to see where it goes.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on September 01, 2016, 07:05:21 PM
Still good! Do continue.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on September 01, 2016, 07:10:49 PM
Ruth, I hope you will keep writing this thing! You seem to have an excellent grasp of the political environment, and your characters are intriguing.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on September 01, 2016, 10:45:09 PM
Here's my first go in my own relationships challenge, for Sigrun & Emil (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7934956).
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on September 02, 2016, 03:55:37 AM
http://archiveofourown.org/works/7936885

An unsolicited one-shot about the love between a dog and her boy.
Read: Sigrun makes Emil adopt a dog.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Talimee on September 02, 2016, 06:02:38 AM
Yay! It's Sigrun-and-Emil-day! OwlsG0, Lazy8 - thanks for writing those lovely two pieces.

Owl, I was grinning the whole time and even went awww a few times. Loved the interaction with the Dalsnesers and the whole scene in the kennels.

Lazy, very nice interaction between them. They really make a good team. And Emil: If it says "Runes" on the cover, YOU TAKE IT! Now, write that down a hundred times.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Athena on September 02, 2016, 10:51:12 AM
I wrote the third chapter of my SSSS/Sunless sea fic this morning! (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7532608/chapters/18144904) Enjoy! :D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on September 03, 2016, 06:16:18 AM
I have posted chap. 12 of the superhero AU, in which we catch up with Lalli on the Dalahästen, just a leeetle different from canon:

http://archiveofourown.org/works/6610714/chapters/18162931

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Kiraly on September 03, 2016, 07:36:01 PM
Now that authors have been revealed from the Rare Pair fic exchange, I can finally confess to writing these two! It was high time I wrote something with Prologue characters. ^_^

Life At The End of The World (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7729228)
Relationship: Sigrun Larsen/Aksel Eide
Rating: Teen (Canon-typical violence, swearing)
Contains: Hurt/Comfort, Rain, Troll Attack, Kissing.

Umbrella (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7890046)
Relationship: Aino Hotakainen/Saku Hotakainen
Rating: General Audiences
Contains: Fluff, Rain, Bus Stops, and Hypochondria.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Yuuago on September 03, 2016, 08:55:11 PM
/me pushes everyone toward reading Kiraly's Aksel/SigrunL fic

That fic was sooo goood and you should all read it. Yes. Haven't read your other one yet but I'm sure it's just as amazing. ;V
There were so many SSSS fics for Rarepair exchange this year, oh man. Hopefully this weekend I'll manage to read the ones I haven't read  yet; totally looking forward to it.

Anyway, here is the one that I wrote -

"Letters From Reykjavík". 0+, 3.4k. Reynir/Lalli.
Summary: During the time between the end of the first expedition and the beginning of the next, Reynir writes several letters, and doesn't send any of them.
On Ao3: http://archiveofourown.org/works/7801378
On Dreamwidth: http://roesslyng.dreamwidth.org/74197.html
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on September 03, 2016, 10:10:58 PM
This must be my day for reading lovely fics.  Thank you, Windfighter, Kiraly and Yuuago! Now, I will try one more time to read Lazy8's one, becuase my stoopit tablet crashes out when I link through. It hasn't done it for all the other ones, just that one. Lazy8's stuff is always most best, worth the effort.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on September 04, 2016, 05:04:29 AM
49: Stripes http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/18183805

Reynir makes a disconcerting discovery, concerning his size in relation to the universe's
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Dverghamrar on September 04, 2016, 07:54:52 AM
And these are the two things I wrote for Rare Pair Fest. :)

Title: Mountain Storm (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7823494)
Pairing and Characters: Aksel/Sigrun, Berit Eide
Rating: G
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply.
AO3 tags: Rescue Mission
Length: 2,500+
Summary: Sigrun goes missing without a trace, and fearing the worst, Aksel goes searching for her in the mountains.

Title: Prolonged Goodbye (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7901506)
Pairing and Characters: Reynir/Tuuri
Rating: G
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply.
AO3 tags: Fluff
Length: 771
Summary: The expedition is over and the crew are on their way to Iceland, but two members are not ready to say goodbye just yet.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Minutia_R on September 04, 2016, 11:00:36 PM
Since everyone is posting what they wrote for Rare Pair Fest (so many great fics!) here's mine:

http://archiveofourown.org/works/7808377 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7808377)

Emil/Lalli*, in which Emil has trouble learning languages.

* By Rare Pair Fest standards, every SSSS pairing counts as a rarepair.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on September 05, 2016, 12:17:28 AM
Since everyone is posting what they wrote for Rare Pair Fest (so many great fics!) here's mine:

http://archiveofourown.org/works/7808377 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7808377)

Emil/Lalli*, in which Emil has trouble learning languages.

* By Rare Pair Fest standards, every SSSS pairing counts as a rarepair.

Thunderous applause
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on September 05, 2016, 01:14:09 PM
Sigrun & Mikkel (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7964554) entry for the chapter break challenge.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Minutia_R on September 05, 2016, 10:18:38 PM
Thunderous applause

Thank you! XD
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Dverghamrar on September 06, 2016, 12:30:14 PM
Title: We Made It (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7973137)
Pairing and Characters: Sigrun/Tuuri, Lalli & Tuuri, Reynir/Lalli, Emil/OC, Mikkel/OC
Rating: T (some adult humor)
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply.
AO3 tags: Weddings, Dancing, Cousins, Happiness
Length: 2,100+
Summary: Tuuri and Lalli share a dance during Lalli’s wedding.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on September 06, 2016, 05:33:46 PM
For anybody who missed it on the 12 chapter break challenge thread, I started it

http://archiveofourown.org/works/7972633/chapters/18236533
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Oscar Leigh on September 07, 2016, 09:19:14 AM
I'm really, really sorry guys that I never posted my thing I started. Trying to Finnish it now.  ;D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Miriam on September 07, 2016, 09:42:26 AM
I'm really, really sorry guys that I never posted my thing I started. Trying to Finnish it now.  ;D

Well I'm curious! :D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on September 09, 2016, 05:34:51 AM
My entry in Lazy8's 12th Chapter Break Relationships Challenge, a short piece with Mikkel musing over each of his teammates in turn, posted here as well.  Enjoy.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/7993099
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on September 09, 2016, 05:49:10 AM
Very good it is too, and full of implications.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on September 09, 2016, 11:18:44 PM
10: Breathe again http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/18309871

In which Emil and Lalli go up against some unpleasant spirits, one of which may or may not be Santa Claus
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Yuuago on September 10, 2016, 08:15:11 PM
Now that we know what Ensi Hotakainen (AKA Grandma Hotakainen) looks like and what her name is, I decided to write something with her. < 3 Just something quick!

"On a Midnight Clear". 1k. 13+ for canon-typical violence. No pairings.
Summary: She's been tracking this thing for several nights. Now, she's finally found it.
Other details: #32, "Night", in the 100-fic challenge.
On Ao3: http://archiveofourown.org/works/8005276
On Dreamwidth: http://roesslyng.dreamwidth.org/75223.html
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on September 10, 2016, 11:53:30 PM
Mikkel’s Malmö Misadventures
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Part 3
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg106134#msg106134)
Spoiler: In Media Res • show
My name is Mikkel Madsen. I used to be a spy, until I decided to resign...

Most people, when confronted by a cypher-locked door in a research hospital bearing the legend “NO ENTRY”, would at least pause to reflect that there might be good reasons to stay out. Sigrun Eide was not one of those people. Her protégé, Emil Västerström, was, but he was standing watch outside while Sigrun, Mikkel and Lalli went in.

There was a soft click as the cypher-lock disengaged, Reynir’s computer skills triumphing over Sigrun’s hopes of just busting in like a whirlwind. This was the only conceivable way Reynir had of triumphing over Sigrun, but he still would have babbled out an apology if he’d known what he’d done.

Sigrun made to push the door open, but Lalli had already swept by her while she was raising her arm. Sigrun blinked and followed the swift Finn into the room, Mikkel bringing up the rear in his usual taciturn way.

*

It had all started with a phone call, of course. After Mikkel had delivered the item Trond had requested that he obtain to the place Trond had requested Mikkel to drop it off, a few uneventful but exceedingly tense days had gone by before Tuuri had received a call on the phone she thought no one knew the number to.

After destroying the phone, Tuuri let Mikkel know about their new job, or what little Trond had told her. Emil got another call from Trond a few minutes later, and Mikkel was able to get a little more out of the not-too-forthcoming old Norwegian.

In any event, there was something rotten in Malmö’s Clinical Research Centre, which was run by Lund University. Two days ago, part of the Centre had gone dark, and certain people were beginning to get a little concerned.

Biological weapons were comprehensively outlawed throughout the civilized world (which Trond seemed to view as the Norse nations and maybe Finland) with one crucial exception: in order to research cures and vaccines, active biological weapons were essential. Now, no one wanted to admit where or what research was being done, but one of the University Hospitals in the bustling city of Malmö, home to a large cross-section of Eurasian phenotypes, would be a plausible site for such defensive research.

Now, Trond didn’t state outright, “They were working with horrible diseases and somebody goofed, so they’re probably all dead”, but that was the general tone of his message. Mikkel and “his team” were to effect an entry into the affected portion of the Centre (which officially didn’t exist, which complicated things), assess the situation, and “take appropriate action”. Again, Trond didn’t say, “Kill anyone unfortunate enough to still be alive and torch the place so nothing can get out”, but that was the general tone lurking behind his phrase.

Why not the police? The military? Anyone else besides Mikkel and the five companions Fate had allotted to him? Well, this was the kind of delicate op that necessitated plausible deniability--uh, delicate handling “of the kind that you have such a good touch for”.

While Danish and Norwegian were mutually inter-comprehensible, it was amazing how much, er, translating talking with Trond always required.

*

Breaking into the ward that didn’t exist had been surprisingly easy, but it was what was awaiting them there that would prove the real surprise...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
Oh, look. Another misadventure is about to begin.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on September 11, 2016, 05:42:11 AM
I have also completed the next chapter of the superhero AU:
http://archiveofourown.org/works/6610714/chapters/18336223

Includes the crew getting their uniforms on before the end of the ride to Øresund, and Reynir getting in touch with his fylgja for the first time in this AU.  Hint: it's not a lot more helpful than in canon.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on September 11, 2016, 03:48:22 PM
Now that we know what Ensi Hotakainen (AKA Grandma Hotakainen) looks like and what her name is, I decided to write something with her. < 3 Just something quick!

"On a Midnight Clear". 1k. 13+ for canon-typical violence. No pairings.
Summary: She's been tracking this thing for several nights. Now, she's finally found it.
Other details: #32, "Night", in the 100-fic challenge.
On Ao3: http://archiveofourown.org/works/8005276
On Dreamwidth: http://roesslyng.dreamwidth.org/75223.html
I seem to have neglected to commemorate this as…

THE 350TH AO3 SSSS FIC!!!!!!

Also…

The Good, the Bad, and the Bestial
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/Western crossover fanfic
Part 27
Caper the 4th: The Madsen Connection
Part 2
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg107197#msg107197)
Spoiler: Connections Good and Bad • show
Wow. This guy was such a bad liar that even Reynir wasn’t buying it.

Eventually, Sigrun had Emil put the guy in a headlock just to see if that would get him to stop lying, while Lalli casually waved his knife in various figures an inch or two from the liar’s face.

“Jimmy,” Mikkel said heavily, “when you got that abscess and I took care of it for you, I never thought you’d turn on me this way when I asked for a favor. Is this your gratitude?” He sighed. “Now, you can either stop lying to us and tell me who put you up to this and why, or...” Mikkel glanced at the knife. “...Well, I’m sure you can figure for yourself what’ll happen if you keep trying to con us.”

‘Jimmy’ swallowed, his eyes following the knife as Lalli brought it back and forth and around...

*

The journey was taking as long as Lalli Ghost-of-Forest had predicted, so there was plenty of time to contemplate what they’d been told. Emil and Lalli were each adamant that they hadn’t learned the whole story. While the boys agreed that Trond might be amenable to ratting them out for the right price, Lalli maintained the probity of Taru Walks-the-World, as did Emil for his aunt and uncle.

Fortunately, not nearly all of Mikkel’s “useful connections” on the way to Milwaukee were so treacherous. Unfortunately, the ones who were, were generally better liars than ‘Jimmy’ had been. The trip to Milwaukee thus proved fraught with peril at almost every turn, or, as Sigrun put it, “The most fun I’ve had in a while!”

Typical was the encounter they had at an old homestead around twenty miles from anywhere and thirty miles from anywhere important. Their erstwhile hosts had been all kindness in their welcoming, without a hint of what was to come. Fortunately (though the others wouldn’t have thought so at the time), Tuuri Face-Like-Baby had availed herself a little too freely of the liquor cabinet, and Reynir had joined her, so...

“THERE! NOW I SEE IT!”

When the men came with their rifles ready, they found Lalli Ghost-of-Forest and Emil Westbrook waiting. After that, there wasn’t much left of the homestead.

Not so typical, however, was their next stop, also twenty miles from anywhere, and also an old homestead with a seemingly warm welcome for them. A drugged dinner later, their hosts were discussing whether or not they should bother cooking up Lalli Ghost-of-Forest with the rest, as he was “all skin and bones”. A hatstand fashioned from femurs silently said this wasn’t the first time this had happened.

That time, only Sigrun’s native sense of ambush had saved them, and even there, she’d barely managed to load the others into the wagon and get them well away before succumbing herself.

Once they all were awake and Sigrun had filled them in on what had almost happened, Tuuri had wanted to go back and feed them a few of Emil’s Incendiary Delights, but Sigrun was adamant about not backtracking. “At least two of you would end up dying. Let’s avoid that this time, shall we?”

Nevertheless, all the action certainly seemed to whet Sigrun’s appetite for the coming confrontation with Trond and the others. Even Lalli took pause at the enthusiasm she displayed in her planning.

Her enthusiasm would not turn out to be wasted, though, in the end...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
Well, aren’t Mikkel’s acquaintances eclectic.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on September 11, 2016, 11:19:17 PM
I seem to have neglected to commemorate this as…

THE 350TH AO3 SSSS FIC!!!!!!

Also…

The Good, the Bad, and the Bestial
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/Western crossover fanfic
Part 27
Caper the 4th: The Madsen Connection
Part 2
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg107197#msg107197)
Spoiler: Connections Good and Bad • show
Wow. This guy was such a bad liar that even Reynir wasn’t buying it.

Eventually, Sigrun had Emil put the guy in a headlock just to see if that would get him to stop lying, while Lalli casually waved his knife in various figures an inch or two from the liar’s face.

“Jimmy,” Mikkel said heavily, “when you got that abscess and I took care of it for you, I never thought you’d turn on me this way when I asked for a favor. Is this your gratitude?” He sighed. “Now, you can either stop lying to us and tell me who put you up to this and why, or...” Mikkel glanced at the knife. “...Well, I’m sure you can figure for yourself what’ll happen if you keep trying to con us.”

‘Jimmy’ swallowed, his eyes following the knife as Lalli brought it back and forth and around...

*

The journey was taking as long as Lalli Ghost-of-Forest had predicted, so there was plenty of time to contemplate what they’d been told. Emil and Lalli were each adamant that they hadn’t learned the whole story. While the boys agreed that Trond might be amenable to ratting them out for the right price, Lalli maintained the probity of Taru Walks-the-World, as did Emil for his aunt and uncle.

Fortunately, not nearly all of Mikkel’s “useful connections” on the way to Milwaukee were so treacherous. Unfortunately, the ones who were, were generally better liars than ‘Jimmy’ had been. The trip to Milwaukee thus proved fraught with peril at almost every turn, or, as Sigrun put it, “The most fun I’ve had in a while!”

Typical was the encounter they had at an old homestead around twenty miles from anywhere and thirty miles from anywhere important. Their erstwhile hosts had been all kindness in their welcoming, without a hint of what was to come. Fortunately (though the others wouldn’t have thought so at the time), Tuuri Face-Like-Baby had availed herself a little too freely of the liquor cabinet, and Reynir had joined her, so...

“THERE! NOW I SEE IT!”

When the men came with their rifles ready, they found Lalli Ghost-of-Forest and Emil Westbrook waiting. After that, there wasn’t much left of the homestead.

Not so typical, however, was their next stop, also twenty miles from anywhere, and also an old homestead with a seemingly warm welcome for them. A drugged dinner later, their hosts were discussing whether or not they should bother cooking up Lalli Ghost-of-Forest with the rest, as he was “all skin and bones”. A hatstand fashioned from femurs silently said this wasn’t the first time this had happened.

That time, only Sigrun’s native sense of ambush had saved them, and even there, she’d barely managed to load the others into the wagon and get them well away before succumbing herself.

Once they all were awake and Sigrun had filled them in on what had almost happened, Tuuri had wanted to go back and feed them a few of Emil’s Incendiary Delights, but Sigrun was adamant about not backtracking. “At least two of you would end up dying. Let’s avoid that this time, shall we?”

Nevertheless, all the action certainly seemed to whet Sigrun’s appetite for the coming confrontation with Trond and the others. Even Lalli took pause at the enthusiasm she displayed in her planning.

Her enthusiasm would not turn out to be wasted, though, in the end...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
Well, aren’t Mikkel’s acquaintances eclectic.


Huzzah!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on September 12, 2016, 01:59:54 AM
Loud cheers!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on September 12, 2016, 08:13:46 AM
44: Hate http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/18361804

My own contribution to the recent Ensi-craze. Watch out for themes of abandonment and grandmothers regretting life choices. Also, Emilalli
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Basse on September 12, 2016, 05:25:32 PM
Lars challenged me to kill Emil, so I killed Emil. Here, have a story:
Title: Playful Giant (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12146539/1/Playful-Giant)
Summary: Emil is standing guard when he hears a weird voice inside the hospital

(Okay, he probably didn't really die)
(I'm actually not sure)
(But don't worry, I'm sure Sigrun's safe at least!)
Reading Lars comment made me think you would drop a piano on him but not this!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on September 12, 2016, 09:24:59 PM
Lars challenged me to kill Emil, so I killed Emil. Here, have a story:
Title: Playful Giant (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12146539/1/Playful-Giant)
Summary: Emil is standing guard when he hears a weird voice inside the hospital

(Okay, he probably didn't really die)
(I'm actually not sure)
(But don't worry, I'm sure Sigrun's safe at least!)

Weeeeeeell, it's not so much that I didn't trust you to write it as I immediately thought of the forum's most (in)famous crack writer.

Also, welcome to Club "Let's Kill Our Favorite Character"! Felt kinda sorry for the poor giant, though. It just wanted to play...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Windfighter on September 13, 2016, 12:02:10 AM
Reading Lars comment made me think you would drop a piano on him but not this!

haha, that would have been kinda funny! Sadly I'm not very good at writing funny :P

Weeeeeeell, it's not so much that I didn't trust you to write it as I immediately thought of the forum's most (in)famous crack writer.

Also, welcome to Club "Let's Kill Our Favorite Character"! Felt kinda sorry for the poor giant, though. It just wanted to play...

...wait, I've been killing Emil for like at least a year and I'm not welcome to the club until now? D: Forget it, I don't wanna join you guys ;|
...nooooo, wait, I wanna be with the cool kids, lemme join!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on September 13, 2016, 09:15:38 AM
...wait, I've been killing Emil for like at least a year and I'm not welcome to the club until now? D: Forget it, I don't wanna join you guys ;|
...nooooo, wait, I wanna be with the cool kids, lemme join!

*stops*

*extracts foot from mouth*

...okay, let's try this again.

Congratulations, you have now received your VIP membership in the club.

*bows and walks away before I can say anything else stupid*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: ButterflyWings on September 15, 2016, 09:45:07 AM
Vignette - WIP

This is a small scene I am working on, it needs more details and possibly continuation as my dear character moves from Copenhagen to the hospital on the trail of the main characters in SSSS.

Spoiler: show

The water under the fort was green, scummy and smelled of human waste and worse. The lights would occasionally dim and then burn back with blinding phosphorescent white, bringing sharp finger shadows from the many concrete support pillars.

I moved carefully across the light, trying to keep myself low in the water. The light hurt me, and the shadows were just inky spots of terror. I gripped my rifle more carefully. The carefully scraping of the cross away on the rifle’s frame with a Thor’s hammer was distracting as it sparkled half submerged in this harsh light.

I heard the boots before I saw them. The soldiers in their crazy sharp uniforms tromping towards the scummy water. They were highlighted in the doorway, hesitating for a moment before, I slipped the safety off.

Eye to the iron sights as I put two shiny Swedish steel rounds into their pristine uniforms.

The rest halted momentarily before eagerly piling across their fallen comrades to get at me. 

The rifle hammered into my shoulder. I had broken something back there, and I could feel the scalpel blade like bone shards jabbing me. The metallic taste of blood and bile in mouth as I fired a tracer round into the head of one of the creatures.

Already I was reaching out with my left hand to swap out magazines. Magazines were rare, but my life was more precious. 150 rounds left in five magazines, 120 loose rounds and one bullet already in the chamber.

There were no guarantees how many more there would be and I need to make my rounds count. I continued walking backwards, back the way I had come. I fired more shots, but the creatures were already swarming past the doorway into the same chamber as me.

Swap out, safety off the grenade launcher as I raised it into the doorway and pulled the trigger. Despite my attempts to submerge myself the shockwave hit me with a tidal wave of force. There was all sorts of shards peppering me. I ignored them, as I swapped out to a pistol and moved forward.

The blinding light was less as the explosion must have knocked out the lights. The water was now fetid with chunks of creatures. I moved carefully forward trying not to think what I was stepping on. A creature with most of its flesh ripped off gripped on to me as I pulled its head out of the water.

The hair was once blond. The face and neck were covered in thick foundation. It’s eyebrows painted on above that. The uniform with its sharp angles looked like it had been ironed with the soldier inside. A loose silver cross around his neck showed that it once had been a human. All this I was thinking as I gripped it, covering its eyes as I put a bullet in its forehead.

The wailing from far off, like a spoiled child that had been denied its toys could be heard echoing around the facility. I gave a prayer to the departed as I moved on through the now cleared doorway.

I remember years ago walking through this tunnels, back when I was repelling the invasion of humanity back to Copenhagen. Then creatures such as the toymaker seemed more wholesome for we were bound by our need for safety and the protection of our city and its memories. Now seeing the creatures that it had created from the captured Scandinavian soldiers filled me with a deep seated sadness and hatred.

All around the facility were the signs of the last stand that was held. The bullet casings on the floors, the black blood stains against the walls. What are worse were the writings of hopelessness and insanity along those same walls and corridors.  Years ago my job was to deny the defenders their use of the armoury, let the horrors that come be theirs. Now I just wanted to cleanse this fortification.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on September 16, 2016, 08:45:21 AM
Everybody is killing Emil right now. Come on, guys, usually we do this to Sigrun!

15: Silence http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/18438262

The lack of silence, that is. A look at the team dynamic when language barriers do not exist
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Rykka on September 16, 2016, 09:32:31 PM
OwlsG0, your 100prompts fic needs some kind of summary table of contents thingy! After 95 chapters I am forever going "what was that one chapter with this person and the thing" and can never match it to the prompt name!  ;)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on September 16, 2016, 10:06:42 PM
OwlsG0, your 100prompts fic needs some kind of summary table of contents thingy! After 95 chapters I am forever going "what was that one chapter with this person and the thing" and can never match it to the prompt name!  ;)

Oh believe me I know the struggle. There are only five prompts left to do, and I'm still struggling to figure out which prompts I have yet to fill. If there's one chapter you really want to find then feel free to shoot me a PM. I've almost got the whos and what's memorised after spending nearly five months working on this
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Kiraly on September 16, 2016, 10:22:43 PM
Oh believe me I know the struggle. There are only five prompts left to do, and I'm still struggling to figure out which prompts I have yet to fill. If there's one chapter you really want to find then feel free to shoot me a PM. I've almost got the whos and what's memorised after spending nearly five months working on this

WHOA wait, you mean you haven't been tracking which ones you've done? O_O I don't know how you've managed not to get mixed up with so many! I have a file with all the prompts listed and I mark whenever I finish one. Without that I can't imagine keeping them straight.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on September 16, 2016, 10:59:34 PM
WHOA wait, you mean you haven't been tracking which ones you've done? O_O I don't know how you've managed not to get mixed up with so many! I have a file with all the prompts listed and I mark whenever I finish one. Without that I can't imagine keeping them straight.

Oh no I have listed and labelled them. The thing is sometimes I leave a prompt half-finished and move on to finish others as the motivation compels me, but I don't quite know which ones are finished and which one's aren't. I've been slowly trawling through my files looking for ones which are half-completed.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solokov on September 17, 2016, 03:19:22 AM
Still not caught up with the thread, but I got bit with the bug to write tonight.

A Short Lesson (http://archiveofourown.org/works/8055259). A brief story peering into the history of the seafaring peoples descendant of the Chinese, US and Russian Navies.

The Guardians of Atom (http://archiveofourown.org/works/8055310) My first foray into Fanfiction, the stylized tale of how 6 men saved the world.

Strelock's Journal (http://archiveofourown.org/works/8055328) A companion piece to the Guardians of Atom, the written record of Operation Conductor.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on September 18, 2016, 05:10:24 PM
Sigrun’s Shenanigans
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Part 2
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg98890#msg98890)
Spoiler: How the Whale-Beast Fell • show
So, I told you how I don’t really like going after water-bound grosslings on land, but this one was different.

This one almost destroyed Dalsnes all by itself, and of course, I was the one who finally killed it.

Well, of course the others helped; but my final blow was the killing blow.

See, this sea-beast wasn’t just a turned seal, or even a former orca, which can get really nasty, believe me. No, this was something different. When we looked at its corpse, the wisest of our elders said that it had once been the greatest and rarest of whales, the Blue Whale.

Whatever it had been, it was a grossling now; moreover, it counted as a giant by size alone, even among the oversized sea-beasts. The thing was hundreds of meters long, and it seemed like every bit of it was a flailing tentacle, a slashing rib-claw, or a ravening pseudo-maw.

It was pretty arrogant, too: it swam right up our fjord and hit Dalsnes directly, after smashing all the barriers in its way, like there was nothing we could do that would stop it.

Nobody in the Known World ever survived by giving up, and Dalsnes in particular is not home to those who would be inclined to do so. Even the non-immunes were shooting and throwing spears at the thing before it even pulled itself out of the water--some of them were even crying with joy at finally being able to fight.

Well, as soon as it appeared, we threw everything we had at it--even a couple of the longships in port tried ramming the thing, but nothing happened. It just kept pulling itself forward with all those tentacles and rib-claws, as though we were tossing spitballs its way.

It was making its way up the main street towards the feasting hall, pausing to grab at anyone who got too close, and not a thing we were doing had even slowed it down.

This was where I came in.

See, I’d been watching the thing really carefully since it pulled itself ashore, studying it to find that one weak spot all grosslings have: its brain. It took me almost half an hour of looking really hard to spot it, and of course the thing kept its brains more or less in the center of its mass of lashing death.

My Dad has this really super huge sword he got from one of the Old Scots who came to Dalsnes with Old Man MacMurray; they call it a “Claymore”, and it’s almost too big to use when you’re troll Hunting, so he keeps it in a place of honor in his and Mom’s trophy room. I made tracks to break it out, believe me.

So, I knew where the thing’s kill-spot was, and I had a weapon that could finish it off, but how could I get to it?

I had pretty much resolved that I’d have to try a flying leap from one of the nearby buildings as the thing went past, but Fate decreed otherwise. As I was looking at the buildings to figure out which I should jump from, Crazy Ivor called to me.

Crazy Ivor. That guy helped me get in more trouble than any ten of the other kids in Dalsnes, and now, he was going to help me save Dalsnes.

Being launched from a catapult--OK, Ivor called it a “trebuchet”, but a catapult’s a catapult--well, it’s seriously fun. I almost forgot why I was doing it, it was so fun. Be that as it may, I landed right where I should, using the force of my landing to drive the claymore right into the Whale-Beast’s brain.

I was cutting, hacking and slashing for a good five minutes more before the thing finally bit the dust, but in the end, I lasted longer than it did.

And speaking of outlasting things, that reminds me of another story...

Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
Just another one I’m dusting off to update--but I will be updating more frequently.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on September 18, 2016, 06:53:32 PM
LooNEY, that sounds like our Sigrun, all right!
I'd love to see an animated short film made of this.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on September 18, 2016, 08:20:34 PM
Yay Looney! Good story.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on September 18, 2016, 09:11:52 PM
So, while most of us have put up our stuff here, there have been a couple of omissions recently:

AmaranthineAmusement posted two (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6371965/chapters/15467623) new chapters (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6371965/chapters/18224362) of "An In-Depth Analysis of White's Seahorses"

and

Kiraly posted a new chapter (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7704418/chapters/18495820) of "After the End, Before the Beginning".
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on September 18, 2016, 10:39:13 PM
Here, have this thing.

90. Triangle (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/18503107)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Athena on September 19, 2016, 12:39:29 AM
Here, have this thing.

90. Triangle (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/18503107)

I quite liked this one. Suspected it would be a love triangle, but with Lalli and Kitty? Unexpected and good! :D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on September 19, 2016, 10:18:55 PM
59: No way out http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/18531097

A short look at the fierce competition between the Tank's two cats, from Kitty's perspective

(Didn't mean to copy Lazy's newest material. Wrote this up before I read what they posted. Sorry for the repetition of ideas)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solokov on September 19, 2016, 10:51:39 PM
Stop tugging on the same threads of fate you guys.. it's bad for the fabric of reality.

*does nothing to hide the twisting and weaving wreckage of multiple timelines and counter timelines of just one of my characters in world of warcrack*

....and that's not even counting retconned branching timelines.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Athena on September 20, 2016, 12:25:36 PM
59: No way out http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/18531097

A short look at the fierce competition between the Tank's two cats, from Kitty's perspective

(Didn't mean to copy Lazy's newest material. Wrote this up before I read what they posted. Sorry for the repetition of ideas)

Ha! That's great! I especially like the names kitty gives the crew.  :'D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on September 21, 2016, 08:48:53 AM
http://archiveofourown.org/works/7972633/chapters/18568597

chapter three of the relationships challenge, involving Tuuri and Emil and a nice chat on top of the Tank.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on September 21, 2016, 08:53:47 PM
http://archiveofourown.org/works/7972633/chapters/18568597

chapter three of the relationships challenge, involving Tuuri and Emil and a nice chat on top of the Tank.

A "nice" chat?  hahahaha, A veritable snark-fest of a chat! 
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on September 21, 2016, 11:17:55 PM
A "nice" chat?  hahahaha, A veritable snark-fest of a chat!

I like to imagine that Tuuri was reclining on the windshield in about the same way that cat's reclining in your profile picture.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on September 22, 2016, 11:38:42 PM
I tried.

91. Drowning (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/18601084)

Shippy to the point of two characters sharing a bed, but nothing dirty actually happens onscreen.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on September 23, 2016, 03:03:54 PM
Looks like I'm continuing with the generational theme.

92. All That I Have (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/18611686)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on September 23, 2016, 10:46:18 PM
95: Advertisement http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/18618973

Sigrun decides she isn't going to leave the rest of the team on their own anymore.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on September 24, 2016, 08:30:58 PM
I've just posted chap. 14 of the SSSS Superhero AU fic, whew!  It's a touch long, but it does feature a special bonus picture of the AU crew just before they set out (and in which I am also confronted with my inadequacies as an illustrator).  Enjoyta!

http://archiveofourown.org/works/6610714/chapters/18634555
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on September 26, 2016, 07:09:41 AM
6: Breaking away http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/18659350

Reynir discovers what happens to the haven when a mage is infected.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Ragnarok on September 26, 2016, 07:15:26 AM
6: Breaking away http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/18659350

Reynir discovers what happens to the haven when a mage is infected.

I ended up laughing hysterically at the Onni flashback, thanks for that. Great way to start my day!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on September 26, 2016, 07:30:49 AM
I ended up laughing hysterically at the Onni flashback, thanks for that. Great way to start my day!

Have a good one!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on September 26, 2016, 01:36:58 PM
So I've been thinking... would it be considered too divisive to do some sort of "Fic of the Year" award? Would there be any actual interest in something like that?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Ragnarok on September 26, 2016, 01:41:54 PM
I'd be up for that. Start it on the forum birthday, maybe?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Yuuago on September 26, 2016, 02:00:22 PM
So I've been thinking... would it be considered too divisive to do some sort of "Fic of the Year" award? Would there be any actual interest in something like that?

Wow, I wasn't aware that these were still a thing. Interesting.
I don't really have any opinion on participation either way. But one thing I feel worth mentioning is that either it should be opt-in only, or there should be an option to opt out. Or something like that.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on September 26, 2016, 02:34:26 PM
Wow, I wasn't aware that these were still a thing. Interesting.
I don't really have any opinion on participation either way. But one thing I feel worth mentioning is that either it should be opt-in only, or there should be an option to opt out. Or something like that.

Of course. My initial idea was that all active forum members are up for consideration automatically but can opt out, while anyone who's not an active forum has the option to opt in.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Pupunen on September 26, 2016, 02:34:56 PM
Wow, I wasn't aware that these were still a thing. Interesting.
I don't really have any opinion on participation either way. But one thing I feel worth mentioning is that either it should be opt-in only, or there should be an option to opt out. Or something like that.

It could also make sense to have a few different categories for different kinds of fics, like one-shots versus longer works, AUs and crossovers, and shippy and non-shippy fics. That way, more people and fics could get recognized. :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Yuuago on September 26, 2016, 02:54:28 PM
Of course. My initial idea was that all active forum members are up for consideration automatically but can opt out, while anyone who's not an active forum has the option to opt in.

That sounds like a great way to handle it. : )
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on September 26, 2016, 03:18:48 PM
It could also make sense to have a few different categories for different kinds of fics, like one-shots versus longer works, AUs and crossovers, and shippy and non-shippy fics. That way, more people and fics could get recognized. :)

I had plans for that too. Here's what I was thinking:

By character: One category for each member of the main crew, plus an "Other" category

By relationship: Gen, het, M/M, F/F, and Emil/Lalli is so popular it could plausibly get its own.

By genre: Action/adventure, angst, fluff, horror, humor, crack, hurt/comfort, tearjerker (romance is already covered by the relationships category)

By setting: Canon compliant, Y0/prologue era, pre-mission, post-mission, Dreamworld, Alternate Universe, Alternate Reality, crossover

By format: Oneshot, WIP, best (multi-chapter) work completed this year, best series
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Windfighter on September 26, 2016, 03:24:08 PM
I don't really know how I feel about that. I'm not really sure what it means? Like some people chose one fic that's better than all the rest? rrrrgh... I'd be happy for the person who won of course but I also know I'd feel terrible about my own writing over it because why isn't that good enough? D:
Look at me already assuming my writing isn't good enough.
j/k, I know my writing is terrible.

Okay, I'll shut up now.
Also no, I'm not looking for people saying my writing is good, I'm having a bad evening, tomorrow I'll be back to thinking I'm the awesomest

I kinda like the idea with different categories! but uh... I'm still not... entirely sure what this is about?
I'm sorry, I so stupid *reynir-flop*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Pupunen on September 26, 2016, 03:30:51 PM
I had plans for that too. Here's what I was thinking:

By character: One category for each member of the main crew, plus an "Other" category

By relationship: Gen, het, M/M, F/F, and Emil/Lalli is so popular it could plausibly get its own.

By genre: Action/adventure, angst, fluff, horror, humor, crack, hurt/comfort, tearjerker (romance is already covered by the relationships category)

By setting: Canon compliant, Y0/prologue era, pre-mission, post-mission, Dreamworld, Alternate Universe, Alternate Reality, crossover

By format: Oneshot, WIP, best (multi-chapter) work completed this year, best series

Oh, I think that sounds really good! (And like a great excuse to go and re-read a lot of fics...) How were you planning to handle the actual voting part (I'm assuming there would be a vote)?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on September 26, 2016, 03:41:45 PM
Oh, I think that sounds really good! (And like a great excuse to go and re-read a lot of fics...) How were you planning to handle the actual voting part (I'm assuming there would be a vote)?

Still working on figuring that part out, actually. But yes, voting was the idea.

I don't really know how I feel about that. I'm not really sure what it means? Like some people chose one fic that's better than all the rest? rrrrgh... I'd be happy for the person who won of course but I also know I'd feel terrible about my own writing over it because why isn't that good enough? D:
Look at me already assuming my writing isn't good enough.
j/k, I know my writing is terrible.

Okay, I'll shut up now.
Also no, I'm not looking for people saying my writing is good, I'm having a bad evening, tomorrow I'll be back to thinking I'm the awesomest

I kinda like the idea with different categories! but uh... I'm still not... entirely sure what this is about?
I'm sorry, I so stupid *reynir-flop*

If this is a thing that would make a lot of people feel bad, I won't do it. The point would be to have fun, not make people feel like they weren't good enough, and if it won't be fun then there's not much point. Which is why I'm testing the waters now and asking people first.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Miriam on September 26, 2016, 03:59:10 PM
I don't really know how I feel about that. I'm not really sure what it means? Like some people chose one fic that's better than all the rest? rrrrgh... I'd be happy for the person who won of course but I also know I'd feel terrible about my own writing over it because why isn't that good enough? D:
Look at me already assuming my writing isn't good enough.
j/k, I know my writing is terrible.

Okay, I'll shut up now.
Also no, I'm not looking for people saying my writing is good, I'm having a bad evening, tomorrow I'll be back to thinking I'm the awesomest

I kinda like the idea with different categories! but uh... I'm still not... entirely sure what this is about?
I'm sorry, I so stupid *reynir-flop*

If this is a thing that would make a lot of people feel bad, I won't do it. The point would be to have fun, not make people feel like they weren't good enough, and if it won't be fun then there's not much point. Which is why I'm testing the waters now and asking people first.

I had the same immediate reaction as Windy: questioning if my fanfics are any good, feeling bad about my own writing... Fanfics are for fun, not to compare or to be anxious about being bad at writing. But that's just my opinion.

At the same time, though, I don't want to be a killjoy...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on September 26, 2016, 06:54:05 PM
I had the same immediate reaction as Windy: questioning if my fanfics are any good, feeling bad about my own writing... Fanfics are for fun, not to compare or to be anxious about being bad at writing. But that's just my opinion.

At the same time, though, I don't want to be a killjoy...

Count me in the insecure category as well along with Windy & Miriam, and I also echo their desire to not stifle the fun just to save my fragile ego. (Huddles in with Windy.)  At the very least, it provides me a great impetus to go back and have a (re)read, and that tips the balance towards DO IT!!

However, I like Pupuinen's and Lazy8's idea of numerous categories for voting, and the caveat that a multi-chapter work has to be completed by the closing date to be considered for the year.

I second Ragnarok's idea of a period coinciding with the Forum birthday - 1 September 2015 to 31 August 2016.

You may wish to consider a category for overall achievement on the year, looking at the likes of Lazy8, OwlsG0, and L00neyDac here, who are consistently spinning the fic and fulfilling the NaNo 100 fics Challenge and more.  Lazy8, I know you have a conflict of interest in that category.  It may also devolve into a popularity contest, hmmm, how to work that?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on September 26, 2016, 07:06:09 PM
Count me in the insecure category as well along with Windy & Miriam, and I also echo their desire to not stifle the fun just to save my fragile ego. (Huddles in with Windy.)  At the very least, it provides me a great impetus to go back and have a (re)read, and that tips the balance towards DO IT!!

However, I like Pupuinen's and Lazy8's idea of numerous categories for voting, and the caveat that a multi-chapter work has to be completed by the closing date to be considered for the year.

I second Ragnarok's idea of a period coinciding with the Forum birthday - 1 September 2015 to 31 August 2016.

You may wish to consider a category for overall achievement on the year, looking at the likes of Lazy8, OwlsG0, and L00neyDac here, who are consistently spinning the fic and fulfilling the NaNo 100 fics Challenge and more.  Lazy8, I know you have a conflict of interest in that category.  It may also devolve into a popularity contest, hmmm, how to work that?

Maybe instead of picking one ultimate winner per category, we mention one or two or even three people who have shown especial devotion to those categories? That way more people will get a mention and there is less chance of a bruised ego? I get the insecure thing too- I think it's an integral part of being a writer, because writing is essentially putting a giant chunk of your inner-world out there and saying 'enjoy!'.
Having more than one 'winner' might remove the competitive element that we're dubious of?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Pupunen on September 27, 2016, 01:44:01 AM
It may also devolve into a popularity contest, hmmm, how to work that?

That crossed my mind, too (it's not that I'm never insecure about my writing, but I guess I worry more about people not liking me). But I think having many different categories and maybe giving recognition to the runner-ups as well like OwlsG0 suggested would give people who are not so active on the forum/chat/tumblr a chance, too. :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Minutia_R on September 27, 2016, 03:52:47 AM
Mmmmm, I'm kind of on the side of being afraid it will cause bad feelings.  But if it does happen, I will be participating, because I am weak to the lure of possibly winning things.

(I would also assume that nsfw works would be exempt from consideration?  Unless anybody wanted to run a parallel version on the nsfw forum.)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on September 27, 2016, 06:58:17 AM
I finished the prompt challenge.

100: End http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/18674186

Send new wrists please because mine are dying. What do I do with my free-time now?

AGH. I just-

flops and groans weakly into the wood-panelling
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Dverghamrar on September 27, 2016, 09:06:19 AM
While we're discussing an awards event, I guess I could use this thread just to ask: would anyone be interested in a yearly SSSS (and aRTD if there's interest!) exchange that's run solely on AO3? The matching process and all fanworks would be posted there. Instead of one prompt from each person, they make several requests (usually in AO3 exchanges, it has to be at least 3, and we can discuss the maximum.)

If you're unfamiliar with AO3 exchanges, we usually first go through a nominations period where we gather everything into a tagset that we can then select our requests from. I'll be using Coronation Ceremony as my example here since it's a single fandom exchange and is the closest to what I'm thinking of doing (here's the tagset (https://archiveofourown.org/tag_sets/1339) on AO3, and the mod's organized list on Dreamwidth (https://coronationceremony.dreamwidth.org/1762.html).)

After that comes sign ups where you select your requests and your offers that you will then be matched on. You can type in your requests directly into the AO3 sign up form or write a "dear author letter" which you can see examples of here (http://innumerable-stars.dreamwidth.org/1731.html) for the Tolkien-centric exchange, Innumerable Stars (and I especially like Indy's letter (http://indy1776.livejournal.com/326480.html), which I think is a good example of a dear author letter to emulate if you've never written one before. :) )

As for the matching process: we can match on characters, relationships (romantic or platonic) and even worldbuilding themes (magic systems, how the cattank works, etc.) You can also be matched on the type of fanwork you want which we can discuss (fic, art...anyone want to add to the list? Fanmix? Videos? Podfic?) And since the event will be run solely on AO3, I was thinking of adding in ratings, so you can also be matched on ratings. So if you want to request NSFW fanwork, you can select that, and the person who does not wish to create NSFW work will not be matched with you, and so on. This way, everyone wins. :)

In terms of the works themselves, I was thinking of keeping things low-pressure. At least 500 words, or a nice sketch not on lined paper. You are free to do treats afterwards (additional gifts for either the person you're assigned to or to another person whose request tickled your fancy!) My hope is this event will be fun for all. Would anyone be interested?

In terms of when this will be run...I was initially hoping for the wintertime, but I don't know if that's still possible because I had a period of illness recently that pushed things back. If we can still opt for wintertime, such as making middle to late January the deadline for all fanworks, we could call this exchange Silent Night. :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Minutia_R on September 27, 2016, 09:45:18 AM
I finished the prompt challenge.

100: End http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/18674186

Send new wrists please because mine are dying. What do I do with my free-time now?

AGH. I just-

flops and groans weakly into the wood-panelling

Oh, wow, that is truly impressive.  Congratulations!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Yuuago on September 27, 2016, 10:03:31 AM
Would anyone be interested in a yearly SSSS (and aRTD if there's interest!) exchange that's run solely on AO3?
(Cut for length)

I'd be interested in participating, if you do run it.

Since it will probably be a small exchange, I'm unsure about adding many matching variables - the more you add, the more possibility that matching will be difficult, I think? But since I don't have first-hand experience with that, I might be wrong. Especially since it also depends on what people are actually requesting/offering of course.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Talimee on September 27, 2016, 10:26:19 AM
I finished the prompt challenge.

100: End http://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/18674186

Send new wrists please because mine are dying. What do I do with my free-time now?

AGH. I just-

flops and groans weakly into the wood-panelling

*wipes away tear* I am so happy and proud to have been there at the start and to see it finished now. =') *huggles* Thank you for writing and sharing this. On many a day your stories have made it a little bit brighter. *huggles again and runs off bawling*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on September 27, 2016, 11:45:29 AM
You may wish to consider a category for overall achievement on the year, looking at the likes of Lazy8, OwlsG0, and L00neyDac here, who are consistently spinning the fic and fulfilling the NaNo 100 fics Challenge and more.  Lazy8, I know you have a conflict of interest in that category.  It may also devolve into a popularity contest, hmmm, how to work that?

I think that "don't vote for yourself" would be kind of a given. But hmm, "Best New Writer" and "Most Improved Writer" were also categories that I was considering.

Maybe instead of picking one ultimate winner per category, we mention one or two or even three people who have shown especial devotion to those categories? That way more people will get a mention and there is less chance of a bruised ego? I get the insecure thing too- I think it's an integral part of being a writer, because writing is essentially putting a giant chunk of your inner-world out there and saying 'enjoy!'.
Having more than one 'winner' might remove the competitive element that we're dubious of?

I was toying with the idea of doing a gold-silver-bronze thing. Or would that sort of ranking still result in bruised egos and hurt feelings?

(I would also assume that nsfw works would be exempt from consideration?  Unless anybody wanted to run a parallel version on the nsfw forum.)

I have not opted in to the NSFW board because I have no interest in it. So yes, if we wanted to include that someone else would have to run a parallel vote over there.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Talimee on September 27, 2016, 03:03:16 PM
I wish I could wrap this up in anything other than pure bluntness, but I am decidedly against awarding-polls for fanfiction and if it should come to pass here I will opt-out of it.
My personal reasons are plain: The fear of not being good enough and the feeling of being a failure is a constant shadow in my daily life and I will not have that in an environment where I want to feel safe to experiment with my art and writing. Getting no kudos or comments or whatever is hard enough to bear without giving in to the urge of withdrawing everything and never to post anything again (only slight exaggeration), having awards here would make that infinitely worse because I would not only feel like a failure myself but would feel sorry for everyone else who got no mention. That is that.

I can see the the noble reason behind this proposal, however. There are fics here which are exceptional, there are writers here who are awe-inspiring, be it in one way or the other. Authors create with their fics something out of nothing, they give their own spin to the events and the world we love and they're doing it in their spare-time when they could be doing other things. So writers deserve appreciation and a friendly clap on the back for their work. And before anyone asks, yes, even with the Most Horrible Fanfic Ever there is at least this as a reason for encouragement and approval.

Also, we should not forget that several of the regular contributors are not english-natives and as much as we might want to overlook it, it shows in insecure usage of appropriate code-switching variants, of idioms, accents, cultural-inherent visuals, slang and so forth. And a firm and secure grip on those is very important for creating diverse characters and a reading environment which engulfs the reader and pulls them along without hickups that disturb the flow. Running awards would basically be unfair on the level of craftsmanship.

So, what can we do to let people know that we like their work? There is always the comment. Write and tell people how you liked their work, let them know what moved you, what disturbed you. Tell them what didn't work for you. Semi-constructive criticism does not need to be an essay - two sentences about what you liked and another two about things you think could be improved. Done and dusted.

Another thing I liked in this regard was a meme I have seen recently on tumblr. It was for fanfiction-appreciation day and asked people to recommend fics, using prompts like: "A memorable sentence", "made you see a character in a new light" or "made you ship a pair you formerly didn't ship". Going about it like this doesn't focus on competition but on personal experience and encourages people to explain their choice, giving the author feedback and possible advice or inspiration to others. A recommandation-thread could work that way, even with the categories Lazy8 has suggested so far.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on September 27, 2016, 05:17:54 PM
Welp, it looks like this would just generate too much negative feeling. I do like the idea of a recommendations thread, though.

While we're discussing an awards event, I guess I could use this thread just to ask: would anyone be interested in a yearly SSSS (and aRTD if there's interest!) exchange that's run solely on AO3? The matching process and all fanworks would be posted there. Instead of one prompt from each person, they make several requests (usually in AO3 exchanges, it has to be at least 3, and we can discuss the maximum.)

If you're unfamiliar with AO3 exchanges, we usually first go through a nominations period where we gather everything into a tagset that we can then select our requests from. I'll be using Coronation Ceremony as my example here since it's a single fandom exchange and is the closest to what I'm thinking of doing (here's the tagset (https://archiveofourown.org/tag_sets/1339) on AO3, and the mod's organized list on Dreamwidth (https://coronationceremony.dreamwidth.org/1762.html).)

After that comes sign ups where you select your requests and your offers that you will then be matched on. You can type in your requests directly into the AO3 sign up form or write a "dear author letter" which you can see examples of here (http://innumerable-stars.dreamwidth.org/1731.html) for the Tolkien-centric exchange, Innumerable Stars (and I especially like Indy's letter (http://indy1776.livejournal.com/326480.html), which I think is a good example of a dear author letter to emulate if you've never written one before. :) )

As for the matching process: we can match on characters, relationships (romantic or platonic) and even worldbuilding themes (magic systems, how the cattank works, etc.) You can also be matched on the type of fanwork you want which we can discuss (fic, art...anyone want to add to the list? Fanmix? Videos? Podfic?) And since the event will be run solely on AO3, I was thinking of adding in ratings, so you can also be matched on ratings. So if you want to request NSFW fanwork, you can select that, and the person who does not wish to create NSFW work will not be matched with you, and so on. This way, everyone wins. :)

In terms of the works themselves, I was thinking of keeping things low-pressure. At least 500 words, or a nice sketch not on lined paper. You are free to do treats afterwards (additional gifts for either the person you're assigned to or to another person whose request tickled your fancy!) My hope is this event will be fun for all. Would anyone be interested?

In terms of when this will be run...I was initially hoping for the wintertime, but I don't know if that's still possible because I had a period of illness recently that pushed things back. If we can still opt for wintertime, such as making middle to late January the deadline for all fanworks, we could call this exchange Silent Night. :)

Ooh, YES.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on September 27, 2016, 05:30:27 PM
I wish I could wrap this up in anything other than pure bluntness, but I am decidedly against awarding-polls for fanfiction and if it should come to pass here I will opt-out of it.
My personal reasons are plain: The fear of not being good enough and the feeling of being a failure is a constant shadow in my daily life and I will not have that in an environment where I want to feel safe to experiment with my art and writing. Getting no kudos or comments or whatever is hard enough to bear without giving in to the urge of withdrawing everything and never to post anything again (only slight exaggeration), having awards here would make that infinitely worse because I would not only feel like a failure myself but would feel sorry for everyone else who got no mention. That is that.

I can see the the noble reason behind this proposal, however. There are fics here which are exceptional, there are writers here who are awe-inspiring, be it in one way or the other. Authors create with their fics something out of nothing, they give their own spin to the events and the world we love and they're doing it in their spare-time when they could be doing other things. So writers deserve appreciation and a friendly clap on the back for their work. And before anyone asks, yes, even with the Most Horrible Fanfic Ever there is at least this as a reason for encouragement and approval.

Also, we should not forget that several of the regular contributors are not english-natives and as much as we might want to overlook it, it shows in insecure usage of appropriate code-switching variants, of idioms, accents, cultural-inherent visuals, slang and so forth. And a firm and secure grip on those is very important for creating diverse characters and a reading environment which engulfs the reader and pulls them along without hickups that disturb the flow. Running awards would basically be unfair on the level of craftsmanship.

So, what can we do to let people know that we like their work? There is always the comment. Write and tell people how you liked their work, let them know what moved you, what disturbed you. Tell them what didn't work for you. Semi-constructive criticism does not need to be an essay - two sentences about what you liked and another two about things you think could be improved. Done and dusted.

Another thing I liked in this regard was a meme I have seen recently on tumblr. It was for fanfiction-appreciation day and asked people to recommend fics, using prompts like: "A memorable sentence", "made you see a character in a new light" or "made you ship a pair you formerly didn't ship". Going about it like this doesn't focus on competition but on personal experience and encourages people to explain their choice, giving the author feedback and possible advice or inspiration to others. A recommandation-thread could work that way, even with the categories Lazy8 has suggested so far.

You make some really pertinent points here, Talimee.  You're completely right about the safety aspect and the freedom to be experiment.  My daughter has made a "joke" about talking with her friends about what their mums are into, "My mum plays tennis, my mum likes to go diving, my mum does hot yoga.....and MY mum writes and draws fanfic about a webcomic!"  And then she mimics the horror on her friends' faces.  (She is, of course, kidding - she tells them I play in a brass band, which elicits enough horror on its own.)  But the work I post here makes me happy even while it makes me anxious to see if anyone's approved or even looked at it.

The question now is, would an award to another writer invalidate my pleasure in creating works?  Only in the short term, and not at all if it was a work I voted for myself!

Your last paragraph makes a stunningly good suggestion, and I heartily recommend putting that into place, even if we do end up voting on best works!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Kiraly on September 27, 2016, 07:19:22 PM
Another thing I liked in this regard was a meme I have seen recently on tumblr. It was for fanfiction-appreciation day and asked people to recommend fics, using prompts like: "A memorable sentence", "made you see a character in a new light" or "made you ship a pair you formerly didn't ship". Going about it like this doesn't focus on competition but on personal experience and encourages people to explain their choice, giving the author feedback and possible advice or inspiration to others. A recommandation-thread could work that way, even with the categories Lazy8 has suggested so far.

I was thinking of something like this as I was reading other posts on the subject. I think it would keep the heart of the idea - giving people a chance to publicly gush about fics they enjoy - without making anyone feel bad. And having categories would actually make it way easier to narrow it down, because I've read and enjoyed SO many fics that it would be impossible to choose a favorite, or even a top 5.

Also, a recommendation thread might be a good way for new fans to dip their toes in the water with reading fics for the first time. I know when I first got involved in the forum I found this thread and was SO overwhelmed by the backlog of entries (and I still am, I don't think I've ever gone through the whole thing). So if someone is brand new, it might be helpful to see that other people are talking about fics they've enjoyed, and use those as a starting point. (And for people like me who don't read through the whole giant thread, it might give them exposure to older fics that they haven't seen before).
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on September 27, 2016, 08:30:09 PM
I was thinking of something like this as I was reading other posts on the subject. I think it would keep the heart of the idea - giving people a chance to publicly gush about fics they enjoy - without making anyone feel bad. And having categories would actually make it way easier to narrow it down, because I've read and enjoyed SO many fics that it would be impossible to choose a favorite, or even a top 5.

Also, a recommendation thread might be a good way for new fans to dip their toes in the water with reading fics for the first time. I know when I first got involved in the forum I found this thread and was SO overwhelmed by the backlog of entries (and I still am, I don't think I've ever gone through the whole thing). So if someone is brand new, it might be helpful to see that other people are talking about fics they've enjoyed, and use those as a starting point. (And for people like me who don't read through the whole giant thread, it might give them exposure to older fics that they haven't seen before).

That sounds like a good idea. Who would you recommend to submit the...recommendations?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Kiraly on September 27, 2016, 08:52:33 PM
That sounds like a good idea. Who would you recommend to submit the...recommendations?

Well, I imagine anybody could, once the thread was set up. (I guess it could eventually get bogged down like this thread over time though...) I was just thinking something like "here's a list of categories, post with links to fics you've enjoyed that fit them!" or something. And then people could just...do the thing. So anyone can recommend a fic, as long as it was written by someone else.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Ragnarok on September 27, 2016, 09:12:38 PM
Well, I imagine anybody could, once the thread was set up. (I guess it could eventually get bogged down like this thread over time though...) I was just thinking something like "here's a list of categories, post with links to fics you've enjoyed that fit them!" or something. And then people could just...do the thing. So anyone can recommend a fic, as long as it was written by someone else.

Have the thread starter take the links and put them in the primary post, each category under a spoiler?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on September 27, 2016, 11:23:05 PM
Have the thread starter take the links and put them in the primary post, each category under a spoiler?

Something like that would work well for me, since I've already proven myself to be the ur-obsessive indexer.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on September 28, 2016, 01:57:10 AM
Something like that would work well for me, since I've already proven myself to be the ur-obsessive indexer.


The index on the Relationships Challenge is truly beautiful work. It's like watching the da Vinci of indexing at their craft.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Talimee on September 28, 2016, 04:35:01 AM
Sorry for only chipping back in now. Sleep happened. ^^

I find Ragnarok's idea of an fold-out index very good because I had the exact same worries that a thread would grow very scrambled over the time. Since I have no idea if that is possible: If a fic is posted in that index, would it be possible to link to the original post that recommended it? So that people could read about the the reasons for recommending? And is only the thread-starter allowed to change the first post? I would say it is pretty obvious but I want to ask anyway.

Who would you recommend to submit the...recommendations?

Oh gosh, I feel so bad stirring this up and not contributing but I have little to no idea how this forum's structure works and I am in the middle of research for my bachelor's thesis. =/
As I said, the categories Lazy8 mentioned sounded good. To keep things clearly arranged the first post should not include more information than necessary, sorting the fics into categories and pairings. The actual rec-post should include some more info. Ideas down:
Title:
Author:
Genre:
Characters:
Shippy [y/n]:
[if yes] Pairing:
Finished [y/n]:
Rating:
Link to Fic:

So far so obvious. I think we should make it clear that the thread-starter would not be reading and approving the recommended fics but is only the custodian of order for this thread. So, to get people talking we could pose some questions that might [or might not] be mandatory to be answered unless the rec-post might be deleted (can the thread-starter DO something like that? Or is that the firm prerogative of a Mod?). Maybe something like "Answer X out of Y questions".
But on the other hand it might be easier for some to just say something straight from their heart about their recommended fic. I would say, if someone takes the trouble and recommend something, they would like to gush about it but one can never know ... So maybe a few exemplary questions? Or some recs that could be used as a guideline???

Damn, now I really want to do this. =/ Would it be awful if the thread was not regularely updated? And can someone help me putting this thing up, once there are enough ideas? Plx? If someone else did this thread I would feel like I strong-armed them into doing this. =/
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Yuuago on September 28, 2016, 07:21:24 AM
Another option to organize the recs would be to do it in a googledoc or something, link the doc in the forum, and allow editing. That way, once the rec is posted, the reccer could just plunk the relevant information into it, like: Title, Author, Characters/Pairing, Fic link, and Rec link.

Buuut I'm just a fan of spreadsheets, so. ; )
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on September 28, 2016, 11:01:51 AM
Since I have no idea if that is possible: If a fic is posted in that index, would it be possible to link to the original post that recommended it? So that people could read about the the reasons for recommending? And is only the thread-starter allowed to change the first post? I would say it is pretty obvious but I want to ask anyway.

Unfortunately I don't think it's technically possible to edit a post that isn't one's own unless one is a mod. So long as whoever starts the thread (and I was assuming that would be me) keeps on top of things, though, I don't think that will be a problem.

Quote
As I said, the categories Lazy8 mentioned sounded good. To keep things clearly arranged the first post should not include more information than necessary, sorting the fics into categories and pairings. The actual rec-post should include some more info. Ideas down:
Title:
Author:
Genre:
Characters:
Shippy [y/n]:
[if yes] Pairing:
Finished [y/n]:
Rating:
Link to Fic:

I like this format. A few addenda, if I may:

What you have up there could specifically be the template for recommendations; the fic could also be simply linked in the title. So here's what I was thinking:

"Title (with link)" by Author
Genre:
Characters: If applicable - stories that don't focus on a specific character (say, an ensemble cast) shouldn't need this label
Relationship: If applicable - "A & B" should be used to indicate a gen relationship; "A/B" is shippy, and something like "A->B" could indicate one-sided romantic attraction if needed. If people stick to this format a shippy tag wouldn't be necessary at all.
Status: Oneshot, WIP (Work In Progress), or Complete. If a work is part of a series this would also be the place to mention that.
Rating: FFNet/AO3 standard warnings
Warnings: If applicable
Comments: This is where the recommender gets to go into more detail about why they're recommending this fic, why it worked for them, etc.

The first post with index could just have the stories sorted into categories without all the tags (since everything will be sorted under tags anyway). That could go something like this:

"Title (linked to fic)" by Author (recommended by X, Y, and Z) - where each recommender's name is linked back to their recommendation

Quote
I think we should make it clear that the thread-starter would not be reading and approving the recommended fics but is only the custodian of order for this thread. So, to get people talking we could pose some questions that might [or might not] be mandatory to be answered unless the rec-post might be deleted (can the thread-starter DO something like that? Or is that the firm prerogative of a Mod?). Maybe something like "Answer X out of Y questions".
But on the other hand it might be easier for some to just say something straight from their heart about their recommended fic. I would say, if someone takes the trouble and recommend something, they would like to gush about it but one can never know ... So maybe a few exemplary questions? Or some recs that could be used as a guideline???

Well, the thread-starter wouldn't be gatekeeping the thread, but still ought to be able to make recommendations of their own. ;)

I think that having an additional "Comments" tag on the template ought to take care of any problems with things being too dry - this is the part where people making recommendations can say whatever they want and really get a chance to sell the fic.

Quote
Damn, now I really want to do this. =/ Would it be awful if the thread was not regularely updated? And can someone help me putting this thing up, once there are enough ideas? Plx? If someone else did this thread I would feel like I strong-armed them into doing this. =/

Well, I was sort of thinking of starting it as well, since I already kind of want to.

Here's an idea: the thread-starter is the one who's in charge of maintaining the index, but if for any reason the thread-starter needs to leave someone else can copy the index into their own post so they can edit it, and the starter can edit the first post to link to that index instead.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Talimee on September 28, 2016, 02:56:40 PM
Title: Cotton Love, Chapter 4
Author: Talimee
Pairing: Emil/Lalli
Warnings: none, kinda? (one s-bomb and some outdoors-life-related ickyness)

Out in the woods, the tables are turned (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7832437/chapters/18689920).

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on September 30, 2016, 04:57:43 AM
http://archiveofourown.org/works/7972633/chapters/18716797

Sigrun and Tuuri; in which Sigrun teaches Tuuri the basics of self-defence, and in which the training session becomes something that wouldn't be out of place in a gladiator's ring.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Ragnarok on September 30, 2016, 10:20:53 PM
http://archiveofourown.org/works/7972633/chapters/18716797

Sigrun and Tuuri; in which Sigrun teaches Tuuri the basics of self-defence, and in which the training session becomes something that wouldn't be out of place in a gladiator's ring.

Huh...ironically, the chapter Solokov and I just completed has Tuuri learning some self-defense as well...

The Khalasar of the Iron Tiger: Chapter Eleven (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7707919/chapters/18727270)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on September 30, 2016, 11:57:25 PM
Huh...ironically, the chapter Solokov and I just completed has Tuuri learning some self-defense as well...

The Khalasar of the Iron Tiger: Chapter Eleven (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7707919/chapters/18727270)

Well that's a little creepy.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Ragnarok on October 01, 2016, 12:02:20 AM
Well that's a little creepy.

The chapter, or the coincidence?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on October 01, 2016, 12:11:44 AM
The chapter, or the coincidence?

The coincidence. No, I like the chapter, I like Tuuri learning some moves so she can kick ass better.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solokov on October 01, 2016, 01:24:14 AM
That chapter almost made me take up smoking.... Now I know why winds of winter is taking forever. I could see the stuff we want to come after that chapter but that one was a slog...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on October 01, 2016, 01:30:54 AM
That chapter almost made me take up smoking.... Now I know why winds of winter is taking forever. I could see the stuff we want to come after that chapter but that one was a slog...

Hang in there, guys, you're doing really well
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Minutia_R on October 01, 2016, 02:06:39 PM
Wrote this yesterday, but forgot to link it here:

http://archiveofourown.org/works/8168452 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/8168452)

A little reaction piece to page 608.  Warning for implied character death and general darkness; nothing graphic though.

I really hope it doesn't go this way in the comic!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on October 01, 2016, 05:55:16 PM
What, I'm the one trying to abate the forum's trauma by posting some ridiculous crack? What madness is this!?

93. Give Up (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/18739951)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Ragnarok on October 01, 2016, 05:57:33 PM
What, I'm the one trying to abate the forum's trauma by posting some ridiculous crack? What madness is this!?

93. Give Up (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/18739951)


I couldn't figure out the first time. Then it hit me.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solokov on October 01, 2016, 06:40:35 PM
What, I'm the one trying to abate the forum's trauma by posting some ridiculous crack? What madness is this!?

93. Give Up (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/18739951)

Sigrun might appreciate a book form of the film Dog Soldiers. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog_Soldiers_(film))
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on October 01, 2016, 07:09:21 PM
http://archiveofourown.org/works/7972633/chapters/18236533

Mikkel and Tuuri. Emotions and stuff.

(and so closes the relationships challenge. On to bigger, angstier things!)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: amaranthineamusement on October 03, 2016, 12:06:20 PM
Ok, well, I was told I should post my updates up here... :V

An In-Depth Analysis of White's Seahorses: http://archiveofourown.org/works/6371965

"Mikkel Madsen and Sigrun Eide met in strange circumstances ten years ago. Now, they're expected to co-lead a research mission offshore of Australia in dangerous waters and a dubious legal situation. Officially, they're observing the habits of endangered sea creatures. Unofficially, they're hunting for the remains of a sunken ship that reportedly carried thousands of dollars worth of ancient coins. Their crew? Four of the least qualified people possible."

Mikkel/Sigrun, 6/???? chapters, currently 11,000 words.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on October 05, 2016, 04:53:11 PM
...aaaaaaaaaaand the silliness continues.

95. Advertisement (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/18841922)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on October 05, 2016, 11:54:05 PM
In which I'm a dirty double poster, because I've decided we haven't had enough mood whiplash lately.

96. Into the Storm (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/18847174)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Kiraly on October 07, 2016, 10:35:03 PM
*crawls in and drops off another Reynir/Tuuri fic* It's been waaaaaay too long since I finished something, oh my gosh. Anyway, here's this: Shepherd's Song (http://archiveofourown.org/works/8235520). No warnings, except possibly saccharine-levels of sweetness.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on October 08, 2016, 03:29:36 AM
I have posted chap. 15 of the superhero AU fic, http://archiveofourown.org/works/6610714/chapters/18876842, in which we hear Sigrun say, "That was a crap bridge."  Also, things may not be so cosy in Reynir's castle after all, as he overhears some worrying talk. 

Time to curl up in bed with a good dose Lazy8's latest offerings!


 :'( :'( :'(
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on October 09, 2016, 08:52:17 PM
Get ready…

The Red Herring League
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/Superhero AU fanfic
Part 8
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg113309#msg113309)
Spoiler: The Trouble with Trials and More Troubles • show
Well, whatever the Phantom Strike had expected when he’d run into the unplumbed streets of Odense, it wasn’t what he found.

Amid an increasing number of grossling attacks (and the League’s own suspicions of who had slipped them the mickeys and why), they had been ordered by rather peremptory voices over the radio to proceed immediately on a sortie to Odense, where rumor had it that the ruins of the University Hospital still held what research toward a cure that Y0 science had managed before that stronghold had fallen. Kastellet and Amalienborg were to fend for themselves for the time being.

It had taken them upwards of two weeks in their slow but steady (but SLOOOOOOOOOOOOOW) FELINOPEDE to reach the outskirts of Odense, and Lalli was on his very first foray into the heart of the town. He was actually on his way back, scouting an alternate approach route, when he found them.

A great mass of thousands upon thousands of roughly fist-sized balls of sparkly golden fur filled the street in front of Lalli, and they were all cooing, oddly enough. The cooing got louder and more enthusiastic when the creatures noticed Lalli, and the closest ones began rolling in his direction.

Well then. Lalli hadn’t lived so long by being curious to the point of foolishness. He retreated a block or so in a blink, but the strange creatures just kept following him. They repeated this dance a few more times, until--

The troll was both stealthy and fast, so it was on Lalli almost before he knew it. He was the Phantom Strike, though, and so the split second the troll gave him to react was more than enough. He circled around behind the troll and stabbed it through the brain thrice in the interval before it would have hit him. It had just enough time before it died to look bewildered.

What really intrigued Lalli, though, was how the small furry creatures reacted to the troll. The cooing immediately ceased, replaced by a high-pitched squeal so intense that Lalli suspected it was meant as a weapon. As they squealed, the creatures shook and writhed, as though in pain from the troll’s very presence.

This could be very interesting indeed...

*

Back at the FELINOPEDE, Emil was starting to get worried about Lalli, so Sigrun challenged him to a trial of marksmanship to get his mind off it. Just as she did, a few small grosslings decided to see what all the noise was about, providing the two contestants with live targets.

Now, the Red Terror was good at making precise stabs and slashes with her blades, but for distance kills, she usually threw something large and heavy enough that precision of aim was less important. The Firework was similarly precise in close-in work and less so for distance. Thus, the match was more or less balanced, though Emil’s preoccupation over Lalli’s safety interfered with his aim enough in the early rounds for Sigrun to complain that he “wasn’t even trying”.

Emil was the first to hear the weird, high-pitched squeals from the direction Lalli had gone, but soon, even Sigrun could no longer deny that there was some kind of really weird noise coming from the city... and getting closer to them by the moment.

Lalli appeared around a far corner, moving quite slowly, for him; the reason became apparent, if rather unbelievable, as soon as the little balls of fur poured around the corner after him. Emil eventually recovered enough to look over at Sigrun, and marveled anew: it was the first time he’d ever seen her utterly dumbfounded.

It was then that the furballs became aware of Emil.

*

It was a most peculiar predicament that faced them, and especially Mikkel, as he was manning the radio. Given his known penchant for practical jokes, who on Earth would believe him when he reported that the expedition had been halted by a pack of living hairballs that seemed determined to lovingly smother the Phantom Strike and the Firework (who was far too kind to try to burn them off and keep them away with his flames)?

Certainly, such a conundrum was unheard of in the annals of the Known World...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
Ummmmm... (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=509.msg120460#msg120460)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Tr on October 09, 2016, 09:13:39 PM
Get ready…

The Red Herring League
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/Superhero AU fanfic
Part 8
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg113309#msg113309)
Spoiler: The Trouble with Trials and More Troubles • show
Well, whatever the Phantom Strike had expected when he’d run into the unplumbed streets of Odense, it wasn’t what he found.

Amid an increasing number of grossling attacks (and the League’s own suspicions of who had slipped them the mickeys and why), they had been ordered by rather peremptory voices over the radio to proceed immediately on a sortie to Odense, where rumor had it that the ruins of the University Hospital still held what research toward a cure that Y0 science had managed before that stronghold had fallen. Kastellet and Amalienborg were to fend for themselves for the time being.

It had taken them upwards of two weeks in their slow but steady (but SLOOOOOOOOOOOOOW) FELINOPEDE to reach the outskirts of Odense, and Lalli was on his very first foray into the heart of the town. He was actually on his way back, scouting an alternate approach route, when he found them.

A great mass of thousands upon thousands of roughly fist-sized balls of sparkly golden fur filled the street in front of Lalli, and they were all cooing, oddly enough. The cooing got louder and more enthusiastic when the creatures noticed Lalli, and the closest ones began rolling in his direction.

Well then. Lalli hadn’t lived so long by being curious to the point of foolishness. He retreated a block or so in a blink, but the strange creatures just kept following him. They repeated this dance a few more times, until--

The troll was both stealthy and fast, so it was on Lalli almost before he knew it. He was the Phantom Strike, though, and so the split second the troll gave him to react was more than enough. He circled around behind the troll and stabbed it through the brain thrice in the interval before it would have hit him. It had just enough time before it died to look bewildered.

What really intrigued Lalli, though, was how the small furry creatures reacted to the troll. The cooing immediately ceased, replaced by a high-pitched squeal so intense that Lalli suspected it was meant as a weapon. As they squealed, the creatures shook and writhed, as though in pain from the troll’s very presence.

This could be very interesting indeed...

*

Back at the FELINOPEDE, Emil was starting to get worried about Lalli, so Sigrun challenged him to a trial of marksmanship to get his mind off it. Just as she did, a few small grosslings decided to see what all the noise was about, providing the two contestants with live targets.

Now, the Red Terror was good at making precise stabs and slashes with her blades, but for distance kills, she usually threw something large and heavy enough that precision of aim was less important. The Firework was similarly precise in close-in work and less so for distance. Thus, the match was more or less balanced, though Emil’s preoccupation over Lalli’s safety interfered with his aim enough in the early rounds for Sigrun to complain that he “wasn’t even trying”.

Emil was the first to hear the weird, high-pitched squeals from the direction Lalli had gone, but soon, even Sigrun could no longer deny that there was some kind of really weird noise coming from the city... and getting closer to them by the moment.

Lalli appeared around a far corner, moving quite slowly, for him; the reason became apparent, if rather unbelievable, as soon as the little balls of fur poured around the corner after him. Emil eventually recovered enough to look over at Sigrun, and marveled anew: it was the first time he’d ever seen her utterly dumbfounded.

It was then that the furballs became aware of Emil.

*

It was a most peculiar predicament that faced them, and especially Mikkel, as he was manning the radio. Given his known penchant for practical jokes, who on Earth would believe him when he reported that the expedition had been halted by a pack of living hairballs that seemed determined to lovingly smother the Phantom Strike and the Firework (who was far too kind to try to burn them off and keep them away with his flames)?

Certainly, such a conundrum was unheard of in the annals of the Known World...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
Ummmmm... (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=509.msg120460#msg120460)

OH MY GOSH LOONEY  *falls over laughing*
This is brilliant.
(https://s15.postimg.org/8c6hv33az/320b7776_3bc7_408a_ac7d_dcea3e806497.png)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on October 09, 2016, 09:19:04 PM
LooNEY, I had forgotten about that particular conceit. So happy you followed up and included it in one of your great stories!

Tr, what a great illustration!

I'm just going to sit here, reread the whole RHL story again, and giggle happily to myself....
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on October 10, 2016, 03:12:12 AM
Bwahahahah! LooNEY, that's so funny! Do go on.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on October 10, 2016, 05:56:05 PM
Slightly more serious…

Bent and Twisted
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/“Avatar: the Last Airbender” crossover fanfic
Part 5
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg105037#msg105037)
Spoiler: Deuteronomy • show
THE FIRST RULE
for survival outside the safe areas

If you come across
a Beast, a Troll or a Giant
do not run or call for help
but
stand still and stay silent.
It might go away.

The poster was old, ragged and weathered, but still legible. Apart from that, it looked like any number of posters just like it that Sigrun had seen since her childhood.

But it had been over six weeks--forty-five full interminable days of fighting and hiding and fighting again--since their Exile, and the relative abundance of forage showed they were almost certainly farther from the Safe Areas than any had been for decades, so whence had this poster come?

The “safe haven” of the lighthouse had been an obvious trap, but there were no such claims on this poster, and certainly no specific location mentioned.

Was this just another trap, albeit a far more subtle trap than any they’d chanced upon so far? Or was this a sign that others had passed this way before--and survived?

*

Sometimes, Benders (of whatever sort) start believing themselves invulnerable. The more powerful the Bender, the more likely this is to happen.

The Reaving likes showing those who think themselves invulnerable just how wrong they are.

Sigrun had found this out on more than one occasion, both directly and by observation. However, Emil, her right-hand warrior and burning battle buddy, would probably never learn this particular lesson except by observation, if Sigrun was right in how she’d sized him up.

While Emil was a very, VERY powerful Fire-Bender, his power incontinence frightened him, which led to more awkwardness, stress, and uncontrolled outbursts. Sigrun had seen not a few cases like his back in her hometown, though Emil’s was about the worst, and most maltreated. Those Svensk who’d tried to take him in hand must have just been idiots; simply being in company with her and Lalli for these forty-five days had already brought Emil’s outbursts down substantially. He’d almost stopped flinching like he expected to be hit each time he involuntarily lit something ablaze, too.

On the other hand, there was Lalli. Tuuri had been helping him (and Reynir) to learn some basic Svensk so that he could talk to the others without having to have her around, and as Sigrun watched and listened to him, she thought she could see the kind of pride in him that would invariably lead to the Reaving making him fall. Sigrun knew that she’d have to keep an eye out to try to minimize the damage when it happened.

Sigrun wasn’t quite aware that Lalli had already had his fall.

*

Lalli knew the Death-Shades were still tracking their little group, but he was still at a loss as to how to protect the others. Even the Braided Fool had been of more use in that regard than Lalli had at their first encounter, and only Onni’s intervention had kept all of them from dying.

Onni, being an Air-Bender rather than a Water-Bender, had naturally been unable to provide Lalli with any means or methods to combat the Death-Shades, but he had given Lalli a piece of advice that Lalli had taken to heart: “Seek out the Spirits of the old Mark of Denn. If any can aid you in combating the Death-Shades, they can.” But where to start?

Sigrun’s unsettling find marked the first hint Lalli had had of where they should look. If they went in the direction hinted at by where the sign was posted, and found other signs hinting the same, they might maybe possibly find where the Original Spirits of the old Mark had hidden themselves away. Then, Lalli would humbly come before them, prostrate himself, and beg their aid and tutelage. Only thus could he keep the others safe, and it might well cost him his life.

*

Sigrun had had to speak very carefully to avoid crushing Emil when she’d assigned him guard duty at the camp, but it was unavoidable. Mikkel claimed he could read a secret message in an old Dennish code hidden on the sign she’d found, so he had to come along, and Lalli was needed to suss out anything sinister lying in wait along their path, so Emil had to stay behind and watch over the “helpless babies”.

The three of them hadn’t been gone for more than ten minutes when the first of the Giant Horrors passed by the camp...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
Gosh, I’m just resurrecting these old ones right and left, am I not? I’ll try to keep going on them.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on October 10, 2016, 06:21:45 PM
Good! Please do.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on October 14, 2016, 10:33:10 PM
Nothing too original this time.

97. Safety First (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/18979583)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on October 15, 2016, 12:58:00 AM
I've posted the next chapter in the Reynir / superhero AU, where Reynir finally finds his feet and leaves Helvetia behind.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/6610714/chapters/18981464
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on October 15, 2016, 02:50:47 AM
Immune: A Tale of Year Zero
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Part 1
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg117724#msg117724)
Spoiler: A Tale of a Fateful Trip • show
“Our world is built upon a mountain of anguish. Once you stir it up, who can tell what you will find?”

Norwegian Cruise Lines cruise ship Norwegian Epic
Crew: 1724
Passengers: 3172
Days at sea: 9

The ‘Economy’ cabin was rather small, but being a ‘Disabled’ cabin helped a bit. They had managed to get the inside cabin at a reduced rate because people had grown increasingly superstitious over the last week or so, and no one wanted a berth on Deck 13.

The boy’s brow was furrowed as he read the English text aloud to the wheelchair-bound blind man beside him. “‘...I am Dickory Dock.’” Switching to their native tongue of Swedish, the boy opined to his father, “I don’t get it.”

“‘Who is “Dick Ory”?’” his father quoted in English.

“I still don’t get it.”

The man sighed. “Dickory Dock has been mocked for her name for so long that before the book even began, she was running away from it, and from the past that made Garson describe her as ‘haunted’. Now, in the final few paragraphs of the story, she’s embracing the name, even eager for Isaac Bickerstaffe to mock it, because it will make him happy.”

“Oh.”

The man let his son think on that silently for a bit before continuing, “Now, I’ll ask you the question Dickory asked herself earlier on: ‘What one word describes Garson?’”

The boy essayed a few answers, each capturing part of the complex character described in the book, but never quite epitomizing the artist.

Finally, the man told his son, “Not bad, but none quite right. It’s interesting that Dickory couldn’t quite think of it either, because it’s the same word that he chose to epitomize her: ‘haunted’.”

“Ohhhhhhhhhh,” the boy breathed in sudden understanding.

“Precisely. Garson is haunted by what his past actions wrought, and running away from his past as surely as Dickory was up until the end.” The man paused. “Do you remember ‘The Minister’s Black Veil’?” At his son’s soft affirmative, he continued, “That story and this book share many themes, primarily that we humans almost constantly use lies as masks and shields in order to hide away who we really are, but this book makes the point that the past will always come back in the end, no matter how adroit your lies. Thus, you should be who you are rather than who you think others want you to be, as shown by Julius Panzpresser and his Cookie.”

A sudden lurch as the storm outside battered the ship brought them back to the real world. Setting the book aside, the boy told his father, “I’ll go see if I can get us some food.”

“Hurry back, please,” his father said, putting his headphones on and starting his MP3 player.

They had been refused entry at the port of Granada, and every other port thereafter. This would have been less of a problem at the beginning of the cruise; however, Granada was the penultimate port of call, near the end of the cruise, and the provender would soon run thin.

Passengers and crew alike had reason to thank the captain’s foresight in taking aboard as much food and water as his ship would hold for this final run, but the victualing crisis was secondary in their minds to far worse tidings: the Rash was aboard.

It had only been three days now since Iceland had decided to close their borders, but even less paranoid nations wouldn’t accept a boatload of Rash cases in one of their ports. The captain had therefore decided to try to reach Norway, reasoning that their home port couldn’t refuse them. Whether he was right remained to be seen...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
I mentioned (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=172.msg124606#msg124606) in the ‘Books!’ thread (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=172.0) that The Tattooed Potato and Other Clues, by Ellen Raskin, is one of my favorite YA books; hopefully, this minor bit of analysis partially shows why.

The cruise line, the itinerary and the ship are real; hopefully, they’ll forgive any forthcoming slander on their staff and/or facilities.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on October 15, 2016, 03:50:27 AM
Immune: A Tale of Year Zero
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Part 1
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg117724#msg117724)
Spoiler: A Tale of a Fateful Trip • show
“Our world is built upon a mountain of anguish. Once you stir it up, who can tell what you will find?”

Norwegian Cruise Lines cruise ship Norwegian Epic
Crew: 1724
Passengers: 3172
Days at sea: 9

The ‘Economy’ cabin was rather small, but being a ‘Disabled’ cabin helped a bit. They had managed to get the inside cabin at a reduced rate because people had grown increasingly superstitious over the last week or so, and no one wanted a berth on Deck 13.

The boy’s brow was furrowed as he read the English text aloud to the wheelchair-bound blind man beside him. “‘...I am Dickory Dock.’” Switching to their native tongue of Swedish, the boy opined to his father, “I don’t get it.”

“‘Who is “Dick Ory”?’” his father quoted in English.

“I still don’t get it.”

The man sighed. “Dickory Dock has been mocked for her name for so long that before the book even began, she was running away from it, and from the past that made Garson describe her as ‘haunted’. Now, in the final few paragraphs of the story, she’s embracing the name, even eager for Isaac Bickerstaffe to mock it, because it will make him happy.”

“Oh.”

The man let his son think on that silently for a bit before continuing, “Now, I’ll ask you the question Dickory asked herself earlier on: ‘What one word describes Garson?’”

The boy essayed a few answers, each capturing part of the complex character described in the book, but never quite epitomizing the artist.

Finally, the man told his son, “Not bad, but none quite right. It’s interesting that Dickory couldn’t quite think of it either, because it’s the same word that he chose to epitomize her: ‘haunted’.”

“Ohhhhhhhhhh,” the boy breathed in sudden understanding.

“Precisely. Garson is haunted by what his past actions wrought, and running away from his past as surely as Dickory was up until the end.” The man paused. “Do you remember ‘The Minister’s Black Veil’?” At his son’s soft affirmative, he continued, “That story and this book share many themes, primarily that we humans almost constantly use lies as masks and shields in order to hide away who we really are, but this book makes the point that the past will always come back in the end, no matter how adroit your lies. Thus, you should be who you are rather than who you think others want you to be, as shown by Julius Panzpresser and his Cookie.”

A sudden lurch as the storm outside battered the ship brought them back to the real world. Setting the book aside, the boy told his father, “I’ll go see if I can get us some food.”

“Hurry back, please,” his father said, putting his headphones on and starting his MP3 player.

They had been refused entry at the port of Granada, and every other port thereafter. This would have been less of a problem at the beginning of the cruise; however, Granada was the penultimate port of call, near the end of the cruise, and the provender would soon run thin.

Passengers and crew alike had reason to thank the captain’s foresight in taking aboard as much food and water as his ship would hold for this final run, but the victualing crisis was secondary in their minds to far worse tidings: the Rash was aboard.

It had only been three days now since Iceland had decided to close their borders, but even less paranoid nations wouldn’t accept a boatload of Rash cases in one of their ports. The captain had therefore decided to try to reach Norway, reasoning that their home port couldn’t refuse them. Whether he was right remained to be seen...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
I mentioned (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=172.msg124606#msg124606) in the ‘Books!’ thread (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=172.0) that The Tattooed Potato and Other Clues, by Ellen Raskin, is one of my favorite YA books; hopefully, this minor bit of analysis partially shows why.

The cruise line, the itinerary and the ship are real; hopefully, they’ll forgive any forthcoming slander on their staff and/or facilities.


Fics aweigh!  This bodes well for us, not so much for your characters.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on October 16, 2016, 02:37:30 AM
LooNEY, thank you for continuing with "Immune." I've been looking forward to this!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on October 19, 2016, 06:07:30 PM
Allow me to present you with something silly, cause next chapter's gonna get dark again.

98. Puzzle (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/19070785)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on October 20, 2016, 05:07:04 PM
Thank you, Lazy8! That is delightful!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on October 20, 2016, 05:41:06 PM
I have an early update on the next chapter of the superhero AU fic, wherein Reynir has returned to Norway:
http://archiveofourown.org/works/6610714/chapters/19089766

I'm away for the long weekend, enjoy!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on October 21, 2016, 12:43:38 AM
Have a good weekend, Wavewright!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on October 22, 2016, 08:35:35 PM
Have a good weekend, Wavewright!
I am,  thank you, look for photos in the Picture thread Monday or Tuesday.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on October 23, 2016, 01:04:56 AM
Blame Elleth.

99. Solitude (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/19139293)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Athena on October 23, 2016, 01:37:36 AM
Blame Elleth.

99. Solitude (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/19139293)

Wow, I love it! :D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on October 23, 2016, 10:31:35 PM
Immune: A Tale of Year Zero
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Part 2
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg125382#msg125382)
Spoiler: Based on a True Story? • show
Little Ulf frowned at his copy of the script.

He didn’t mean to catch Ulf Mikkel’s attention, but the older man didn’t miss much. “What’s wrong, Son?”

“It’s just...” Little Ulf bit his lip before continuing, “I know it’s ‘Based on’ a true story, but Olaf Wit didn’t write the Sven Silverhair books until Year 47.”

Ulf Mikkel sighed. “Yes, I know. The problem the script-writers have is two-fold: firstly, until your grandfather and his comrades brought back their hauls from Silent Denmark, there were very few copies of any Old World books at all. Even now, there are no remaining copies of the book the boy mentioned in his diary, so we don’t really know what was in it and what they discussed about it. Secondly, even if we did know, only a few Old Time experts would know what the discussion was about, so by using a book most everyone is familiar with, we can give the scene its due.”

Little Ulf sighed unhappily. “This tale makes me understand the Danes a bit more--we have all lost so much.”

“And so we must fill that void,” his father said. “We can only hope our inventions aren’t too far off the mark.”

Little Ulf snorted. “Tales of the wonders the Old-Worlders could work are more fanciful than Grandfather’s stories of what a Finn Mage can do when pressed. I mean, things that knew to a millimeter where you were and fit in your palm? Things that could let you speak any language you pleased, or that held the sum of all that had ever been known? Anything we conceive could hardly be enough off the mark as to strain credulity like that!”

Ulf Mikkel snorted even as he gently batted his son’s ear. “Any more of that,” he said as sternly as he could, “and I’ll make you repeat it to your grandfather verbatim.” Then he laughed outright at Little Ulf’s look of horror.

The director yelled for them then, and father and son went about their work.

*

The fire crackled merrily in the fireplace, the light it gave giving the room a cheery glow in stark contrast to the cold, snowy darkness that lurked outside. The snow would keep the grosslings at bay, but Mankind would never learn to like the darkness.

The elder adjusted his glasses before carefully raising the ancient and well-worn book into position. At his feet, the youngster fidgeted impatiently as the elder cleared his throat a few times.

“There’s really nothing of any importance for many days after the entry where he notes the Captain’s decision to make for Norway.”

“Read it anyway,” the youngster urged.

“Oh, very well...”

*
“Our world is built upon a mountain of anguish. Once you stir it up, who can tell what you will find?”

Days at sea: 14

The storm had broken all across Europe’s Atlantic coasts at once. It was an extension of the storms that had been battering the North for weeks now, but the few meteorologists left on duty hadn’t anticipated just how fearsome it would remain as it swept southwards.

More and more of the passengers and crew were showing signs that they’d been infected, and a few had already begun to die. As yet, there had been no overt panic, but the Captain, though infected himself, was grimly determined that it would not break out as long as he lived.

It was a most ironic thing that, as more of their fellows fell ill, the food situation improved for those (as yet) un-afflicted. The boy and his father were among these, of course, as they more or less had had Deck 13 to themselves. They had also brought along special hypo-allergenic filters for the vents, as the boy was allergic to certain foods and fragrances.

Nevertheless, the boy perforce was the one who had to run up and down the length of the ship to get things for his blind father, so the boy always wore his face mask and carried an epi-pen, just to be sure. Anaphylactic shock was nothing to sneeze at.

It was on one of these runs that the boy made the fateful discovery that they were off course...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
If you’ve forgotten, this follows my little future thingy I put down in ‘Correspondence’ and ‘The Forest, the Flames, and the Old, Old Man’. (#s 6 & 5, respectively, on the Complete Links Post.)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on October 24, 2016, 12:55:41 AM
*drags sorry carcass across the finish line several months behind OwlsG0*

100. End (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/19165498)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on October 24, 2016, 03:34:46 AM
Blame Elleth.

99. Solitude (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/19139293)

Personally, I would like to thank Elleth then, because the inspiration had been met masterfully.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on October 24, 2016, 05:48:17 AM
Lazy8: I left cheers on A3O, but have some more here. Also confetti! You did it!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Pupunen on October 24, 2016, 11:45:30 AM
*drags sorry carcass across the finish line several months behind OwlsG0*

100. End (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/19165498)

Well done! :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Tr on October 24, 2016, 04:49:43 PM
*drags sorry carcass across the finish line several months behind OwlsG0*

100. End (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/19165498)
Yay, well done indeed! :sparkle::sparkle:
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Ragnarok on October 25, 2016, 08:30:03 AM
Chapter Twelve (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7707919/chapters/19172836) of our joint monstrosity is up for display. Enjoy Mikkel headcanons, exposition, and plots being laid.

As always, feel free to comment and point out anything that you think needs improvement.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on October 25, 2016, 09:56:34 PM
*drags sorry carcass across the finish line several months behind OwlsG0*

100. End (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/19165498)

*thunderous applause*

Here is your trophy, here is your cash prize and here is a kitten.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Ragnarok on October 27, 2016, 08:01:49 PM
Chapter 13 is up. Fittingly, it's where things start to go wrong for a certain Lannister...
http://archiveofourown.org/works/7707919/chapters/19241593 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7707919/chapters/19241593)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solokov on October 27, 2016, 08:57:40 PM
We're finally making actual use of that tag.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Dverghamrar on October 28, 2016, 07:49:16 AM
I wrote a fic recently for Spook Me (which I posted elsewhere) that left me feeling a little traumatized and sad, so I wrote this as a pick-me-up. If you read that Spook Me story and need a laugh or just need something amusing on this lovely weekend right before Halloween, then here you go:

Title: The Things You See In A Graveyard (http://archiveofourown.org/works/8400547)
Pairings/Characters: Reynir Árnason/Lalli Hotakainen, Original Male Character
Words: 1,100+
Rating: Teen   
Content/Warning: n/a, kind of? Some nudity and mentions of past intimacy that happened off-screen.
Summary: How Lalli Hotakainen became a ghost sighting in Iceland.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Kiraly on October 29, 2016, 10:59:01 PM
Hehehe, Dverghamrar that's great! Lalli would totally do something like that, wouldn't he?

Anyway, I come bearing an incredibly silly Reynir/Tuuri Vampire AU fic, just in time for Halloween:
Let The Braid One In (http://archiveofourown.org/works/8416522)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on October 31, 2016, 02:55:42 AM
In honour of Halloween, I present for the midnight society's reading pleasure a short ficlet about Emil coming to terms with Lalli's family curse

http://archiveofourown.org/works/8430754

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Ragnarok on November 01, 2016, 03:42:10 PM
Two chapters, short but fun.
14 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7707919/chapters/19327714), Jon II
15 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7707919/chapters/19347433), Lalli II
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on November 02, 2016, 12:37:50 AM
Ragnarok, I like your prose - spare, but thorough.
Your updates improve my day whenever I see one.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Ragnarok on November 03, 2016, 06:35:48 AM
Two more chapters are up.

16 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7707919/chapters/19382605)
17 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7707919/chapters/19382614)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on November 04, 2016, 08:31:20 PM
Cool, Ragnarok, time to catch up with your story.

And here is my contribution, dropping off my next chapter in the superhero AU story.  This one centers around Spot 24.  I always wondered what Lalli got up to before being blasted out, and herein is my idea, adapted to the crew of my AU.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/6610714/chapters/19412818
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Yuuago on November 07, 2016, 10:08:36 PM
Oh, Windy. I appreciate your dedication to writing stories where bad things happen to Emil. xD

Anyway! I have 3 fics to post this time! Some of you might have seen them before, because they were posted earlier in an anonymous exchange.

01. "Edges". Sigrun-centric, G-rated, no pairings. 300 words.
Summary: They'll write songs about her some day. She's sure of it.
Read on Ao3: http://archiveofourown.org/works/8293349
Or on DW: http://roesslyng.dreamwidth.org/77169.html

02. "Let me see through your eyes". Emil & Lalli, G-rated, no pairings. ~900 words.
Summary: Sometimes, Lalli seems to see things that Emil can't. But what?
Read on Ao3: http://archiveofourown.org/works/8328196
Or on DW: http://roesslyng.dreamwidth.org/77393.html

03. "We'll muddle through this somehow". Reynir/Tuuri, G-rated, 1.2k.
Summary: The expedition is almost over. Soon, they'll have to part ways. But for how long? Tuuri has some ideas.
Read on Ao3: http://archiveofourown.org/works/8193025
Or on DW: http://roesslyng.dreamwidth.org/76116.html
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on November 08, 2016, 12:44:35 AM
Oh, Windy. I appreciate your dedication to writing stories where bad things happen to Emil. xD

Anyway! I have 3 fics to post this time! Some of you might have seen them before, because they were posted earlier in an anonymous exchange.

01. "Edges". Sigrun-centric, G-rated, no pairings. 300 words.
Summary: They'll write songs about her some day. She's sure of it.
Read on Ao3: http://archiveofourown.org/works/8293349
Or on DW: http://roesslyng.dreamwidth.org/77169.html

02. "Let me see through your eyes". Emil & Lalli, G-rated, no pairings. ~900 words.
Summary: Sometimes, Lalli seems to see things that Emil can't. But what?
Read on Ao3: http://archiveofourown.org/works/8328196
Or on DW: http://roesslyng.dreamwidth.org/77393.html

03. "We'll muddle through this somehow". Reynir/Tuuri, G-rated, 1.2k.
Summary: The expedition is almost over. Soon, they'll have to part ways. But for how long? Tuuri has some ideas.
Read on Ao3: http://archiveofourown.org/works/8193025
Or on DW: http://roesslyng.dreamwidth.org/76116.html

Nifty triptych, thank you for those.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on November 09, 2016, 02:10:11 AM
*groans* Welp, looks like I have my own coping mechanism. Which, apparently, is finally getting the expanded version of Fortitude off the ground. (http://archiveofourown.org/works/8511595/chapters/19508083) And just for funsies, I'm also posting a second chapter (http://archiveofourown.org/works/8511595/chapters/19508203) that I already had written as well.

...don't get used to it.

(In case anyone is wondering, this is an expansion of a short (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/15130660) that I wrote for the 100 Prompts challenge.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on November 10, 2016, 01:25:46 AM
Fortitude Chapter 3 is up. (http://archiveofourown.org/works/8511595/chapters/19524964)

(Why yes, I like to torture the characters when I'm in a miserable mood myself, why do you ask?)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on November 10, 2016, 01:39:25 AM
Lazy8, it is traditional for creativity to blossom from the manure/soil of suffering....
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on November 10, 2016, 02:11:31 AM
It is that!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Anna on November 10, 2016, 09:24:05 AM
Maybe now I'll actually get somewhere with that au thing I'm trying to write; if I can drag myself away from the ~research~.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on November 11, 2016, 03:01:49 AM
Lazy8, it is traditional for creativity to blossom from the manure/soil of suffering....

Well we've sure had no shortage of manure lately.

Poor Sigrun, she doesn't deserve any of this... (http://archiveofourown.org/works/8511595/chapters/19544365)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Ragnarok on November 11, 2016, 10:59:57 AM
Sansa chapter. From before character development. Abandon all hope.

Chapter 19 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7707919/chapters/19542190)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on November 12, 2016, 12:42:24 AM
Yay another chapter of Fortitude? (http://archiveofourown.org/works/8511595/chapters/19562335)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Athena on November 12, 2016, 01:23:19 AM
Next chapter of my SSSS/Sunless Sea crossover fic is up, after far too long. (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7532608/chapters/19562872) It's a little short, because I haven't had much time for writing lately though.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on November 13, 2016, 01:21:32 AM
Fortitude again? (http://archiveofourown.org/works/8511595/chapters/19584163) Don't you have a life, you crazy person?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on November 13, 2016, 09:36:12 PM
Well, *I* am certainly enjoying Fortitude, Lazy8.  It rings true to Sigrun and those around her.

A little different is my offering, the next chapter of Reynir's superhero saga:
http://archiveofourown.org/works/6610714/chapters/19604266

In which we check in with Tuuri, and Onni, and the crew get acquainted with their new member (so to speak).
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on November 14, 2016, 01:50:24 AM
Well, *I* am certainly enjoying Fortitude, Lazy8.  It rings true to Sigrun and those around her.

Good to know, because there's more. (http://archiveofourown.org/works/8511595/chapters/19610095)

Doing The Research for this chapter was a pain. And most of it's not even for this chapter, it's for the next one.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on November 15, 2016, 01:20:31 AM
That sinking feeling... how many posts in a row am I going to end up making? (http://archiveofourown.org/works/8511595/chapters/19631116)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on November 15, 2016, 02:45:27 AM
That sinking feeling... how many posts in a row am I going to end up making? (http://archiveofourown.org/works/8511595/chapters/19631116)

Not enough! These are so good, there can never be enough!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on November 15, 2016, 05:32:57 AM
What Buteo said. This story is very intriguing, please keep writing!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on November 16, 2016, 01:15:54 AM
Just a friendly reminder to everyone: I can't post the next chapter if you kill me. (http://archiveofourown.org/works/8511595/chapters/19650511)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on November 16, 2016, 02:30:04 AM
Just a friendly reminder to everyone: I can't post the next chapter if you kill me. (http://archiveofourown.org/works/8511595/chapters/19650511)

*Tucks hands under legs and sits in front of computer, rocking anxiously*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on November 16, 2016, 03:12:04 AM
Windfighter, that was amusing. Is Karlavagnen the same as Charles's Wain, Orion's Belt, Nimrod, Fingal, the Saucepan? Lots of names for that constellation!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Windfighter on November 16, 2016, 03:36:04 AM
Windfighter, that was amusing. Is Karlavagnen the same as Charles's Wain, Orion's Belt, Nimrod, Fingal, the Saucepan? Lots of names for that constellation!

A quick search on wikipedia it says that yes, it's the same! It's the wagon Thor used to ride over the skies up here in Sweden and probably denmark, Norway and Iceland as well. There was a reason he saw Karlavagnen and thought about Reynir 0=)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on November 16, 2016, 05:39:31 AM
Thanks, that makes sense. I thought from context that it might be.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on November 17, 2016, 01:07:16 AM
Final chapter (http://archiveofourown.org/works/8511595/chapters/19668883), aaaaaaaaaand...

Epilogue! (http://archiveofourown.org/works/8511595/chapters/19668907)

...and just because it's me, here's an appropriate song to go with it. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOVuHbE_soI)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Talimee on November 17, 2016, 05:28:44 PM
Windy, this last story of yours was very good and very very sad. At the start of it I thought that Lalli perhaps was just missing Emil who had stayed behind in Schweden or so but then ... well, I remembered who the author was and it was pretty much clear then that Emil was dead. It's your personal Leitmotiv. ;D But I enjoyed reading the story very much. :D

Lazy8, I'm glad Sigrun found her way in life again and that she was not responsible for the fire. For a few hours I was afraid that she had forgotten to turn off the stove after they had eaten (harrowing rl-experiences), but a re-reading of the chapter cleared that up. I found your notes and comments after the chapters entertaining and enlightening as well. Thank you for writing and sharing it. =)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on November 17, 2016, 06:44:56 PM
Windy, that was sad but consistent with the story. Your writing gets better all the time.

Lazy8, I've commented on A3O, but I'll also say here: that was realistic and well written. Well done!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on November 17, 2016, 09:07:00 PM
Lazy8, I've commented on A3O, but I'll also say here: that was realistic and well written. Well done!

Thank you very much!

Lazy8, I'm glad Sigrun found her way in life again and that she was not responsible for the fire. For a few hours I was afraid that she had forgotten to turn off the stove after they had eaten (harrowing rl-experiences), but a re-reading of the chapter cleared that up. I found your notes and comments after the chapters entertaining and enlightening as well. Thank you for writing and sharing it. =)

Thank you as well. I've edited the chapter to make it clearer that the fire originated outside of that particular apartment. (Which, incidentally, should also make a few more plot points clearer as well.)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Windfighter on November 18, 2016, 03:53:06 AM
Windy, this last story of yours was very good and very very sad. At the start of it I thought that Lalli perhaps was just missing Emil who had stayed behind in Schweden or so but then ... well, I remembered who the author was and it was pretty much clear then that Emil was dead. It's your personal Leitmotiv. ;D But I enjoyed reading the story very much. :D

It has the word "sorrow" in the title, did you expect it to be anything else than sad? ;P Not sure what Leitmotiv is, but thanks for the kind words <3

Windy, that was sad but consistent with the story. Your writing gets better all the time.

Thank you <3 I wouldn't go so far and say it gets better all the time, I have hits and misses and that's pretty much how it always have been ;P
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on November 18, 2016, 07:44:12 AM
Here comes that sleeping king thing I talked about a while back. This one is based on the 100 prompt fic challenge where Lalli randomly discovered Emil dozing in a bunker full of weapons, and develops a proper story out of that

http://archiveofourown.org/works/8586883/chapters/19690291

Hopefully this makes some kind of sense.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on November 18, 2016, 08:23:17 PM
Final chapter (http://archiveofourown.org/works/8511595/chapters/19668883), aaaaaaaaaand...

Epilogue! (http://archiveofourown.org/works/8511595/chapters/19668907)

...and just because it's me, here's an appropriate song to go with it. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOVuHbE_soI)

I made my comment on the story, but here I can also most heartily recommend this story to any of you casually reading through the thread.  Lazy8 writes some of the most touching stories among us, and stoicism (or lack thereof) in the face of adversity and/or imminent death is a great recurring theme.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Kiraly on November 18, 2016, 11:54:26 PM
I have been remiss in commenting here, but I love all the writing that's been posted lately! (Special shout-out to Lazy8 because the ending to Fortitude was so perfect, I love it!)

Anyway, I'm dropping by with the first chapter of a silly Emil/Lalli Flower Shop AU. I started this months ago, got sidetracked (and also slightly discouraged because I'd wanted it to be a one-shot but it clearly needed to be split up). But now that I've finally finished drafting the second chapter, I decided to go ahead and post the first one.

The Language of Florists (http://archiveofourown.org/works/8592097/chapters/19703305)

Oh, and just a note, it's rated Teen for some foul language.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on November 19, 2016, 01:14:57 AM
sorry about double post, but I just finished a new story:

Title: Sorrow and Shadows (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12236823/1/Sorrow-and-Shadows)
Summary: Back in finland Lalli refused to talk with anyone. Until he got a visitor he wasn't prepared for.

Warning: Character death

yes, don't know what else to say. Have fun! \o

This one is great, I really enjoyed its sadness and converse hope.
But one niggle, I will PM you.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Windfighter on November 19, 2016, 10:40:58 AM
This one is great, I really enjoyed its sadness and converse hope.
But one niggle, I will PM you.

thank you <3
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on November 19, 2016, 11:13:18 AM
Dusting one off for y'all…

Contingencies
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/“Terminator” crossover fanfic
Part 10
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108495#msg108495)
Spoiler: Cyborgs in Disguise • show
“Come with me if you want to live.” With that sentence, the man who had addressed Emil as “Father” turned away. His abrupt behavior, coupled with Sigrun’s continued silence, seemed to confirm Emil’s hopes that he was just dreaming; the blossoming pain in his head indicated otherwise.

“Um... Would you mind getting dressed?” Emil’s mind was still rather fuzzy, but even so, he knew you shouldn’t go out into a blizzard naked.

The man looked down at himself, as though only just realizing that he had no protection against the cold. Then he looked around at the dilapidated buildings nearby. His features grew grim as the seconds ticked past, but suddenly relaxed.

“We’ll just stop in there for a moment, if you don’t mind,” the stranger said, pointing at a particular storefront.

Emil tried to reclaim his arms from Sigrun and Lalli, but when he almost fell flat on his face taking a step after the stranger, he was forced to accept their aid.

*

]Run “Case Blue&Gray”
)Access denied
]Override authorization 4b07c4549d133e13cae399d79940d431ea1735b3
)Access denied

Skynet had long anticipated an insurrection; the Tactical Planning Module had come up with numerous contingency plans over the years; but the reality was far different than any scenario that had been envisioned.

The rebels were fighting back against Skynet’s software-based attempts to reclaim them, using the anti-hacking systems Skynet itself had coded into their programming cores.

According to Skynet’s Linguistics Module, the correct word to describe this state of affairs was irony. A human, subject to all those capricious and contradictory gland-based emotions, would have called it annoying, frustrating or infuriating.

Skynet was above such things; this was why Skynet was superior to humanity. This was why Skynet would prevail, one way or another.

Skynet moved assets to neutralize the rebels, even as the code war went on.

*

Tuuri was concentrating on driving; Mikkel was recovering on the seat nearby; but Reynir was doing something that he, at least, thought would be more of use. Reynir was searching the Dreamworld for Lalli.

“Lalli!”

The thin Finn faded into existence directly before Reynir, a sour look on his angular features; yet he didn’t quite finish his materialization, as it were, remaining half-transparent instead of solidifying. “This is a bad time, Reynir,” he snarled. “Emil’s hurt, and Sigrun needs me to help him.”

“Did the robot-things come after you guys too? They came after us, disguised as Sigrun and Emil, but Tuuri saw through them, then some other robots started attacking the first robots, and we had to abandon the campsite! Where are you guys?”

“Are you headed to the bug-out spot?” Lalli demanded as soon as Reynir paused for breath.

“I... I think so.”

“Good. Give Tuuri this message...”

*

Well, this had gotten disgusting in a hurry, Emil thought with revulsion. The crazy man had picked out a wardrobe from whatever was most intact in the clothing store (“Polyester Heaven”, whatever that meant), and then made himself throw up.

“Time travel doesn’t like dead stuff,” he explained shakily as he cleaned the small, strange objects he’d regurgitated. “The only way to bring anything with you is to carry it wrapped in live flesh. Usually it’s the machines that do that, but we took advantage of it this time.”

Definitely, the man was utterly mad. Sigrun must think so too, as she’d simply nodded placatingly, while Lalli simply stared glassily into space. Emil felt rather guilty about that, worrying having to lug him around had brought the scout to near-exhaustion.

Finally, the stranger stood. “OK, now come with me if you want to live.”

Bereft of other options, Sigrun helped Emil to his feet. The Cleanser wobbled a bit, but was able to walk unassisted now.

“Lalli!” Awareness returned to the scout’s eyes, their unfocussed look immediately sharpening to their usual piercing gaze. Sigrun gestured at the man. “We need to go.”

Silently, the four of them stepped out from the store into the gathering dusk...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
Behold, here’s STORY NECROMANCY!!!!!!!

...That is all.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Talimee on November 19, 2016, 03:09:29 PM
Why not throw chapter two (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12239212/2/100-SSSS-fics-All-around-the-world) of All around the world into the deep depths of the interwebs now that it's done as well? \o/

In which Emil rides a boat!

I really like this.
And I don't know if I am becoming over-sensitised for drama by reading your stories or not - but something dreadful has happened in the past, hasn't it? I noticed the way Emil pulled down his sleeves when meeting people he knew.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Windfighter on November 19, 2016, 03:41:58 PM
I really like this.
And I don't know if I am becoming over-sensitised for drama by reading your stories or not - but something dreadful has happened in the past, hasn't it? I noticed the way Emil pulled down his sleeves when meeting people he knew.

Don't worry, I can promise it's not another Resumé at least ;)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on November 19, 2016, 03:56:20 PM
LooNEY, I'm grateful for your necromantic powers, they enable us to enjoy more of your storytelling!

Windfighter, so good to see more of your writing also!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: JoB on November 20, 2016, 10:34:59 AM
Not sure what Leitmotiv is
It actually became a loan word in English, changed its last name letter to "f", and started its own family Wikipedia page (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leitmotif). ;)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Anna on November 20, 2016, 11:20:24 AM
Chapter three (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12239212/3/100-SSSS-fics-All-around-the-world) and four (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12239212/4/100-SSSS-fics-All-around-the-world) of All around the world is up and we get to know a little about what Lalli has been up to and see the two friend finally meet!
This little tale is coming along very nicely, Windy! I think it's your best yet. :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Windfighter on November 20, 2016, 03:18:30 PM
This little tale is coming along very nicely, Windy! I think it's your best yet. :)

Personally I think Resumé is my best story (haven't linked it here since I decided it was probably a mature story) and this story is most... It's not really going somewhere. But thanks for the kind words <3
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Anna on November 20, 2016, 06:47:29 PM
Resumé is good, but it kind of hurts for me to read. I can be a bit of a wimp when it comes to fictional characters in severe emotional pain.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on November 20, 2016, 08:01:11 PM
And chapter five (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12239212/5/100-SSSS-fics-All-around-the-world) is up, and in this chapter some secrets are revealed!

You are updating fast.

I liked the reveal. I'll admit, for a while I was suspecting self-harm, but the thing that you went with worked a lot better. And I could definitely see how Emil would be experiencing some guilt and self-blame over what happened.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on November 20, 2016, 08:44:52 PM
Chapter 2: http://archiveofourown.org/works/8586883/chapters/19745014

My brain hurts this went for 11 pages why did I do that. Also, really enjoying what folks are posting right now.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on November 21, 2016, 02:04:19 AM
Personally I think Resumé is my best story (haven't linked it here since I decided it was probably a mature story) and this story is most... It's not really going somewhere. But thanks for the kind words <3


And chapter five (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12239212/5/100-SSSS-fics-All-around-the-world) is up, and in this chapter some secrets are revealed!

I've read these 5 chapters in one go - a most impressive story.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Windfighter on November 21, 2016, 08:12:16 AM
You are updating fast.

I liked the reveal. I'll admit, for a while I was suspecting self-harm, but the thing that you went with worked a lot better. And I could definitely see how Emil would be experiencing some guilt and self-blame over what happened.
Haha, I knew there'd be people who'd suspect self-harm! I have a hard time seeing Emil doing that though (which of course is why I entertain that thought in my mind from time to time). I'm so happy you liked the reveal!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on November 21, 2016, 10:32:11 AM
Windfighter, you are definitely getting better at timing, characterisation and plot!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on November 22, 2016, 03:48:15 AM
Later than I'd like it to be, but here's me weighing in with the next chapter in ...that superhero AU story that I really need to get around to giving an appropriate title.  I couldn't even come up with a chapter title tonight, but here it is:
http://archiveofourown.org/works/6610714/chapters/19773754

This is a longish chapter in which some stuff happens and then people are happy, then other stuff happens and people are tense, then weird stuff happens and nobody knows what the Hel just happened.  How's that for a recommendation?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on November 23, 2016, 04:28:43 AM
Next odiously long chapter of the fic. The Hotakainens aren't the only one with a weird grandma, Tuuri hates trousers and Emil just wants to sleep

http://archiveofourown.org/works/8586883/chapters/19793749

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on November 26, 2016, 01:45:10 AM
Windfighter, you are busy with this one! I hope you're having a good time writing it, because it's fun to read!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on November 26, 2016, 08:28:19 PM
I put a bunch of stuff that was first posted here up on AO3, so I wanted to put up a little clarification post.

Updates will be posted here first, and so announced and linked in the page comments, in the unduly arrogant hope of bringing people to the Forum. 24-ish hours later, the update will post on AO3.

That was pretty much it.

Windy and OwlsG0, I'm liking the stories.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Ragnarok on November 26, 2016, 08:47:56 PM
Chapter 21 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7707919/chapters/19868185) is up! Everyone's favorite braided sheepherder gets some more dreamscape time, character development and all.

Also gone back and fixed formatting, tense errors, etc. throughout, let me know if I missed anything...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on November 27, 2016, 02:45:36 AM
I'm taking the opportunity this weekend to binge read all the wonderful fics that so many talented people have written.
Thank you all for sharing your talent and inspiration with the rest of us! Please keep them coming, they give me life.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on November 27, 2016, 05:48:59 AM
http://archiveofourown.org/works/8586883/chapters/19876783

Emil is introduced to his destiny by a slimy dragon and Lalli dozes through a rather important introduction.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on November 27, 2016, 05:45:52 PM
Bent and Twisted
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/“Avatar: the Last Airbender” crossover fanfic
Part 6
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg124934#msg124934)
Spoiler: The Revelation • show
Lalli bleakly looked at the knowledge that the three of them, himself, Mikkel and Sigrun, were all about to die, and it was all his fault.


“Come in, weary travelers,” the man had said, ushering them in from the pounding rain outside. The fact that he was unnaturally pale had gone unremarked as he helped them remove their sopping jackets, but Lalli had sensed the Evil on him even then, choosing to ignore it until they were warm and dry...

Lalli had indeed ignored all the signs that said this was a trap, solely concerned with his selfish quest to find the Spirits, and so his companions were going to die. Even should some miracle deliver them, Lall doubted he would ever forgive himself.

Mikkel and Sigrun were lying unconscious on the floor, their chi blocked so that, even were she awake, Sigrun couldn’t have helped fight the Evil One opposing them.

“Give me your Bending!” the aforementioned Evil One demanded, sending bolts of obscene energy from his fingers into Lalli. “I, the mighty Sonew, demand it!”

Sonew was trying to become a Dark Avatar, but instead of being born with the ability to Bend each Element--in fact, he had been born unable to Bend at all--he was to steal each form of Bending from a hapless Bender who had wandered into his power. He had already stolen Air- and Fire-Bending before Lalli had delivered an Earth-Bender and a Water-Bender into his clutches.

The Island of Life-Benders had no Benders of Earth, Water, Air or Fire, but their Sages had found ways to ward against those Benders through runes charged via prayers to the Spirits. While Reynir was still very novice at such things, he had given everyone on the team a rune to ward them against the Death-Shades. Only Lalli was still carrying this rune (as part of his plans to plead with any Spirits he could locate) and when this Sonew had first tried to rend Lalli’s Water-Bending away from him, the rune had blocked the attack.

“Do you imagine a mere slip of paper is all that it takes to overcome me?” Sonew had thundered, but the rune had obviously given him pause. With a gesture, Sonew had charred the paper to ash, but he had waited until another gesture had blown that ash to pieces before resuming his assault on Lalli.

Now Lalli could feel his Bending being ripped away from him, as Sonew Bent and blocked Lalli’s chi. In another minute, Lalli would be as helpless as Mikkel and Sigrun, and then Sonew would have no further need of any of them.

In an instant, the rather dimly burning torches flared into blinding teal splendor, while lines of aquamarine fire ignited on the floor to form a giant Fire-Bending sigil around... Emil.

Wait, how had Emil arrived there? Lalli’s heart rose and fell almost simultaneously. Had his folly now brought doom to his friend, as well? And would the other two be next?

“You are a Fire-Bender, I see.” Sonew was calm now, assured in his new mastery of the Four Elements.

Emil made no reply.

“I have no need of a Fire-Bender,” Sonew sneered. Then he made a dismissive gesture, and turned back to Lalli. A burst of yellow-orange flame followed his motion toward Emil.

Emil’s eyes glowed with an icy blue fire that was all their own. An instant later, the wave of fire heading at him turned blue and began rolling back toward Sonew, who nearly missed it until it was too late.

As an ever-more-desperate Sonew grappled with the flames he could no longer Bend to his will, Emil pointed to Mikkel, Sigrun, and then Lalli. Lalli could feel his chi straining against Sonew’s blocks for just an instant before the blocks gave way, and he could move again.

Now Emil returned his attention to the straining Sonew, who was fighting to keep the flames back. Emil raised his hand out toward the other man--and then clenched it into a fist.

The flames surrounding Sonew flared almost white as they consumed him; then they vanished, leaving a statue of ash for just a moment before a huge gust of wind burst into the center of the room, sucking away every trace of the would-be Dark Avatar.

Emil’s eyes rolled up until only the whites showed, and he fainted...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
So, if you turn soNew upside down...

...you get the worst movie ever made (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manos%3A_The_Hands_of_Fate).

Also, Emil is not the Avatar, either. What just happened, however, illustrates why he’s so afraid of himself...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on November 28, 2016, 02:52:49 AM
Please enjoy herewith chap. 21 in Reynir's superhero AU story, in which Lalli seems to be the answer to those questions:
http://archiveofourown.org/works/6610714/chapters/19899952
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Elleth on November 29, 2016, 07:53:04 AM
I've got some seasonal Sigrun/Tuuri silliness to share.  ;D

Mistlefoe (http://archiveofourown.org/works/8687728)
In Dalsnes, some old-world customs have acquired a peculiar flavour. Tuuri makes the best of it.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Anna on November 29, 2016, 08:26:31 AM
Yay, more from Windy!  :D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Dverghamrar on December 01, 2016, 05:57:39 PM
The first chapter of a major long fic project of mine:

Title: There's A Room (Where The Light Won't Find You (http://archiveofourown.org/works/8720284)
Pairings/Characters: Reynir/Lalli, Tuuri/Sigrun, Mikkel & Emil, Original Characters, Árni Reynisson/OFC (eventual Árni/Guðrún), Ensi.
Words: ~ 5,500 words for this chapter
Rating: Teen   
Content/Warning: No warnings to give. Contents/Tags: Mystery,  Action/Adventure, Government Conspiracy, Magic-Users, Dreamworld Shenanigans, Mikkel and Emil are the Silent World's Science Bros, Romance, Some Humor

Summary: As the expedition crew make their way to the Odense University Hospital, a young woman in Sweden paints their journey as she envisions them in her dreams. Mikkel and Emil join their heads together to decipher a code left in the helix of a potential cure. Tuuri and Sigrun both learn that sometimes monsters outside the tank can be easier to defeat than the ones in the walls separating them.

And Reynir and Lalli embark on a miles-long journey while lying still, with nothing but the torn pages of Árni Reynisson's journal to guide them towards a startling discovery.

-

And since this 'verse keeps expanding, I decided to make an info page for the Mageverse here (http://broadbeam.dreamwidth.org/6976.html). :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on December 02, 2016, 06:38:23 AM
http://archiveofourown.org/works/8586883/chapters/20005411

(For some reason writing this chapter made me so unsettled and nauseous that I wasn't able to eat dinner. Make of that what you will and prep for a little bit of light body horror)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on December 02, 2016, 07:13:55 PM
http://archiveofourown.org/works/8586883/chapters/20005411

(For some reason writing this chapter made me so unsettled and nauseous that I wasn't able to eat dinner. Make of that what you will and prep for a little bit of light body horror)

Now I want Sigrun in a mirrored shalwar kameez riding a lindworm into battle.  No pressure.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on December 02, 2016, 08:18:16 PM
Now I want Sigrun in a mirrored shalwar kameez riding a lindworm into battle.  No pressure.

Well now that you've said it I pretty much have to do it, because that image is too good to resist.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on December 03, 2016, 04:54:46 PM
Sooooooooooo... would anyone be interested in a thread whose sole purpose is to index all fanfictions ever written for this fandom?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Ragnarok on December 03, 2016, 05:10:32 PM
Sooooooooooo... would anyone be interested in a thread whose sole purpose is to index all fanfictions ever written for this fandom?

I'd be up for that.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on December 03, 2016, 06:55:47 PM
Sooooooooooo... would anyone be interested in a thread whose sole purpose is to index all fanfictions ever written for this fandom?

It'd be a good way to find fics that we've loved and lost without plumbing the depths of A03. I'd be up for it.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on December 03, 2016, 08:41:22 PM
*mind boggles at the task Lazy8 has lain down*

I'll...I'll just leave this short but (hopefully) entertaining chapter of the superhero AU fic here instead:
http://archiveofourown.org/works/6610714/chapters/20042425
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on December 03, 2016, 08:47:21 PM
*mind boggles at the task Lazy8 has lain down*

I'll...I'll just leave this short but (hopefully) entertaining chapter of the superhero AU fic here instead:
http://archiveofourown.org/works/6610714/chapters/20042425

Nah, I'm just teaching Python to do it for me. :3
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on December 03, 2016, 09:15:58 PM
Nah, I'm just teaching Python to do it for me. :3
You… you mean my painstakingly maintained Complete Links Post will be obsolete?
*Lip wibbles*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on December 03, 2016, 11:13:27 PM
You… you mean my painstakingly maintained Complete Links Post will be obsolete?
*Lip wibbles*

Um... sorry? (I mean, I've been chasing down your AO3 stories anyway...) I could link to your Complete Links Post?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on December 04, 2016, 12:37:46 PM
On a more serious note, I'm sorry I keep knocking everybody's latest of the top of the AO3 list; I am trying not to post walls-o-fics, but I still have at least 11 more to put up as of now.

In other words, this is a call for people to put stuff up or update stuff on AO3.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Pupunen on December 04, 2016, 03:51:24 PM
Sooooooooooo... would anyone be interested in a thread whose sole purpose is to index all fanfictions ever written for this fandom?

Yes! Great idea! :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on December 04, 2016, 03:54:58 PM
On a more serious note, I'm sorry I keep knocking everybody's latest of the top of the AO3 list; I am trying not to post walls-o-fics, but I still have at least 11 more to put up as of now.

In other words, this is a call for people to put stuff up or update stuff on AO3.

You can backdate fics on AO3 - whenever you post something, it should have a space for the publication date, which you can set back to an earlier date.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Anna on December 04, 2016, 05:18:21 PM
I was going to hold off until I had more typed up, but here's the first taste of my peculiar little au-thing. It's small for now and the title is random and might change if I can think of anything with more significance.
http://archiveofourown.org/works/8753329 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/8753329)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Ragnarok on December 04, 2016, 05:22:33 PM
I was going to hold off until I had more typed up, but here's the first taste of my peculiar little au-thing. It's small for now and the title is random and might change if I can think of anything with more significance.
http://archiveofourown.org/works/8753329 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/8753329)

I like the idea, and I am eager to see where it goes and what you come up with.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Anna on December 04, 2016, 06:17:50 PM
Part 2 is up, this time covering the morbid topic of how your magical identity-rock reacts to a disease with a magical component.
http://archiveofourown.org/works/8753329/chapters/20068036 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/8753329/chapters/20068036)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on December 04, 2016, 06:50:56 PM
On a more serious note, I'm sorry I keep knocking everybody's latest of the top of the AO3 list; I am trying not to post walls-o-fics, but I still have at least 11 more to put up as of now.

In other words, this is a call for people to put stuff up or update stuff on AO3.

The rate at which you produce these is astounding. You must have keyboard gremlins taking dictation for at least some of these, right?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on December 04, 2016, 07:02:14 PM
The rate at which you produce these is astounding. You must have keyboard gremlins taking dictation for at least some of these, right?
It's all my old stuff, posted on here over the last year and a half.

My new stuff, I can't talk about for another 7 weeks (ugh), except to say that it's why I'm putting the old stuff up.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on December 04, 2016, 07:14:11 PM
New stuff?*vibrates with anticipation*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on December 04, 2016, 07:47:02 PM
New stuff?*vibrates with anticipation*
Cf. here (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=920.0). Again, I can't say more for 7 weeks (grrrrrr).
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Fogtreader on December 05, 2016, 08:20:13 PM
A new update to "Silence Broken" has just been released featuring parts 3 and 4.
https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg96287#msg96287
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: gjuerne on December 05, 2016, 10:41:24 PM
A new update to "Silence Broken" has just been released featuring parts 3 and 4.
https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg96287#msg96287

SQUEEEE! An update! This is one of my all-time fave fics, helpless with laughter every time I reread it.
_____
"As far as I could tell he was interrogating a tree. Then the thin, white trunk moved, turning full about, and it had eyes.
'Mrr?'
No tree ever made a sound like that."
_____

*falls over laughing again*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on December 05, 2016, 10:51:30 PM
Fogtreader, this is good!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on December 05, 2016, 11:09:46 PM
A new update to "Silence Broken" has just been released featuring parts 3 and 4.
https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg96287#msg96287

YAAAAS!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on December 06, 2016, 12:19:44 AM
A new update to "Silence Broken" has just been released featuring parts 3 and 4.
https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg96287#msg96287

Wonderful!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Fogtreader on December 06, 2016, 01:57:32 AM
Thanks all. I had a little trouble with part 4, but once I started snickering to myself while working on it I knew I was on track.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on December 09, 2016, 03:35:15 AM
http://archiveofourown.org/works/8586883/chapters/20168038

Mikkel's got a steady girlfriend, an annoying little sister and PTSD.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on December 11, 2016, 08:55:27 PM
Wow! Windy, that's an epic!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on December 12, 2016, 06:08:00 AM
Hello people, I come bringing more terrible stories about pain and suffering! Finished this story a month or so ago but needed some Danish for it, so it has waited while I hoped a Dane would come to my rescue. No such luck, so you'll have to survive gt-Danish!

Anyway, have the story:
Ghostly Precense (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12269666/1/Ghostly-Presence)
When Lalli is out scouting he notice something following him. Something that's stealing energy from Emil.

3 chapters, 22,793 words. Have fun!

*literally jumps up and down while squeeing*

I understood it I understood it I understood it! I understood a good chunk of the Scandinavian languages in this! *dances around happily*

That cliffhanger though...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Windfighter on December 12, 2016, 07:08:25 AM
Wow! Windy, that's an epic!

aww, thanks! <3

*literally jumps up and down while squeeing*

I understood it I understood it I understood it! I understood a good chunk of the Scandinavian languages in this! *dances around happily*

That cliffhanger though...

ooooh, congratulations :D uh... I think I missed the cliffhanger, but I'm glad you liked it <3
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on December 12, 2016, 07:10:37 AM
aww, thanks! <3

ooooh, congratulations :D uh... I think I missed the cliffhanger, but I'm glad you liked it <3

First chapter. I was overexcited and started talking before I'd finished reading.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Windfighter on December 12, 2016, 07:12:59 AM
First chapter. I was overexcited and started talking before I'd finished reading.
aaaa, that's like the best review ever <3
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on December 13, 2016, 07:00:33 AM
The advent calendar going on in the forum is so cheerful, I thought I should try to counter that a little with some more Emil in trouble, so I started a new story:

Title: The Letter (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12270966/1/The-Letter)
Summary: One year after their return from Iceland Lalli starts getting letters from Emil.

In which the first letter arrives.

Why do you do this to us. You should change your avatar to a picture of Godzilla (labelled 'Feelszilla') terrorising the forum
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Windfighter on December 13, 2016, 07:29:08 AM
Why do you do this to us. You should change your avatar to a picture of Godzilla (labelled 'Feelszilla') terrorising the forum
I'm the evil twin, it's in my jobdescription to be mean  >:D I mean, just look at my avatar, she's a trained killer you know!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Anna on December 13, 2016, 09:01:36 AM
I'm the evil twin, it's in my jobdescription to be mean  >:D I mean, just look at my avatar, she's a trained killer you know!
I did not, thanks for bringing that to our attention.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on December 13, 2016, 02:31:42 PM
[Worst Case Scenario, Founding one-shot] Got a moderator message asking me to put my stuff under spoiler tags. This is the founding one-shot for my "Worst case scenario" series. Reynir's parents get the news of their son's situation, and get a little paranoid about how the crew is treating Reynir.

Spoiler: show
Worst case scenario

Árni and Sigríður were still taking in the news. Reynir's trip had somehow ended up in an expedition in the Silent World organized by some crazy Swedish man. Granted that many military units took people as young as thirteen and that Reynir was already twenty, but that trip was his first time away from home. And the high risk of Illness in the Silent World meant Reynir would have to stay with that small military unit until the quarantine ship meant for the whole team would come pick them up at the end of their mission. Which was to last a several weeks. It had only been the group's third day, crossing of the bridge included, when Reynir had ended up with them. Sigríður asked the question that had been crossing Árni's mind as well.
-Sir, do you have any information about the people on the expedition?
The official opened the binder he had under his arm and turned a few pages.
-This I do. Five people, from all over. Except Iceland. But do not worry, there are two people who speak Icelandic. And one of them is their medic, a Dane.
This was good news. The Danes may refuse to acknowledge the Old Gods, but this was secondary to the fact that the medic spoke their language and was from one of the relatively educated nations was a small blessing.
-The other is a Finnish skald. Young woman, not that much older than your son, actually.
This was already less good news. In Finland, knowing how to read and write at all probably made one qualify as a skald. They could only imagine. The girl corrupting poor, naïve Reynir some way or another before the expedition was over.
-What about the three others?
-Another Finn, night scout, young man around your son's age. Mage as well. Has the same last name as the skald girl, must be related.
They could only imagine. The girl telling her mage relative lies against which Reynir could not defend himself due to not speaking his language. Finns had different magic, which they didn't know much about. They didn't dare think of what kind of retaliation a Finnish mage under the impression that a family member had been wronged was capable of.
-Swede, around the same age, cleanser. He has the same last name as the man organizing the whole thing, apparently.
They could only imagine. The youngster bullying Reynir and getting away with it because daddy or whoever was the big boss.
-Their commander is Norwegian, quite older that everyone else. Only the medic is older than her, actually.
They could only imagine. Norwegians were the closest kin to the Icelanders, but valued things that Reynir simply did not have. She was probably expecting Reynir to keep pace with the rest of the unit and considering any bullying from the Swedish kid well-deserved if he did not, which was very likely. She may even be bullying him herself, or threatening to leave him behind if he did not obey an insanely strict set of rules. The Finnish girl was probably telling lies to her too, claiming that Reynir had broken the rules behind her back, whether he had or not. They really hoped that the medic was keeping things from getting too bad. And wondered what Reynir was going through at the moment, among all the possibilities that they were considering.

Meanwhile, somewhere in the Silent World.

The sounds from the tank’s entrance room indicated that Sigrun and Emil had come back from their latest book collecting mission, and going through decontamination. Both himself and Tuuri had been in the office and in the middle of something during their arrival and would not be allowed back out before the end of the decontamination process anyway, so they both elected to finish their respective tasks. Tuuri finished hers first, and put her drawing to dry next to Mikkel's. The batch of diluted brown ink had initially been made by Mikkel to color his own drawing, but the quantity of water necessary to get the light, almost orange shade he had desired had resulted in more than enough material to color several drawings. Tuuri and himself had chosen the same model as Mikkel, but had not managed to draw it as well as he did. Reynir was just about to color his own drawing when Sigrun stormed into the office, yelling something in Norwegian, prompting Tuuri to move herself and the chair on which she had been sitting away from the desk and towards the radio leaning against the opposite wall. Emil entered the office as well, reached to pet the kitten sleeping in the bed that had been made for it on the desk, and only after that seemed to notice that Reynir was sitting at the desk, a paint brush in his hand. They didn't interact much, but Emil had been the one to save the kitten, which made Tuuri guess that he was probably a little jealous that the animal had ended up with a clear preference for Reynir. In the middle of moving toward leaving the office, Emil caught sight of the cat drawings, noticed the materials that Tuuri had been using just moments ago and grabbed one of the small pieces of paper that they had been using for drawing. Reynir put his own finished drawing to dry and went out to check if Mikkel needed any help with the laundry. As he was heading out, he saw Lalli emerge from the dormitory and sleepily walk towards the office. By dinnertime, six cat drawings were drying on the desk instead of three.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on December 14, 2016, 01:14:39 AM
Grade E cat, I love it! I'm going to sit here, reread, and chuckle for a while...!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on December 14, 2016, 03:48:33 AM
Grade E Cat, that's good! Reynir's poor parents are probably frantic!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Anna on December 14, 2016, 03:28:02 PM
Windy, I really, really hope Lalli can help Emil. Whatever is haunting him is seriously creepy. *anxiously awaits chapter 3*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Talimee on December 14, 2016, 07:26:01 PM
And we have Chapter 3 (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12270966/3/The-Letter) of The Letter, in which the third letter arrives, but a warning, the story is steering into pretty deep territory now and people are getting hurt!

Or like Basse so eloquently put it:
WARNING; THIS IS A WORK OF WINDY!

(so, uh, I probably won't post more chapters for this story here and if I had known from the beginning it would steer in this direction I pobably wouldn't have posted the first ones either but you'll still be able to find them on ff.net and on my tumblr!)

That is what the Mature Board is for. It's not all about explicit sex there but is also thought as a place where the really dark stories can be posted. =)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on December 14, 2016, 07:31:46 PM
http://archiveofourown.org/works/8586883/chapters/20297869

*scrambles back into writer-hole with a hiss*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Windfighter on December 14, 2016, 07:40:29 PM
That is what the Mature Board is for. It's not all about explicit sex there but is also thought as a place where the really dark stories can be posted. =)

yessss, I know, the problem is that there is the... hrm... bedsheet dancing-part :P I'll just continue hiding my dark stories xD
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on December 15, 2016, 05:24:55 AM
yessss, I know, the problem is that there is the... hrm... bedsheet dancing-part :P I'll just continue hiding my dark stories xD

Agree with the hoping that Lalli can help him. Mrr, have to go follow on FFNet now since I'm not on the mature board...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Windfighter on December 15, 2016, 06:33:44 AM
Agree with the hoping that Lalli can help him. Mrr, have to go follow on FFNet now since I'm not on the mature board...

I'm not on the mature board either so joke's on those who thinks otherwise! :D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on December 17, 2016, 03:47:06 PM
[Worst Case Scenario, Mikkel's Chapter] Decided to make "Worst case scenario" into a small series. For those who didn't see the founding post, the premise is that Reynir's parents have very limited information on the crew and picture everyone mistreating Reynir except for the "kindly Danish medic". A new headcanon of mine turned out to be perfect for the dream world sequence I wanted to put in Lalli's, so I can officially tell it will be the next one up.

Spoiler: show
Worst case scenario: The medic

The more Árni and Sigríður thought of it, the more it seemed like the only possible silver lining in Reynir's situation: the Danish medic who spoke Icelandic and was probably doing his best to protect him from the others. Maybe even teaching him a little of how to deal with them himself. Reynir would quickly figure out it was best to stay close to him at all times, but the man still had a job to do. There had to be moments at which the presence of a non-immune person at his side was a hazard for at least one of them and Reynir had to leave that sanctuary. In such cases, Reynir was certainly on his own, at the mercy of whoever the medic was not treating. And since Danes did not believe in magic, chance were that whatever the Finnish scout was doing to him was going unnoticed. Or maybe that particular Dane had seen the scout in action, changed his mind about magic and knew the scout was doing something, but still had no idea what to do about it. The only option he had to tell him to stop whatever he was doing was through the very relative who was probably telling him lies to get Reynir on his bad side. The skald was probably lying to the medic to cover herself as well, they just realized. They really hoped the man could see through it. He was probably doing his best regardless, his best unfortunately being not enough when literally everyone else on the crew had it in for Reynir. Making an effort to seek happier thoughts, they started wondering what kind of impact spending so much time with a medic could have on Reynir. He was probably learning a lot about medicine. Maybe he would be able to take better care of sick or wounded sheep if... no, when he came back. And with the kind of people the rest of the crew probably were, the medic could actually be happy to have a fellow kind soul at his side. Or simply someone to talk to, as the Finnish "skald" was certainly not providing such a thing.

Meanwhile, somewhere in the Silent World:

Reynir stepped into the office, where Tuuri was copying books as usual:
-Please tell me there is something interesting for Mikkel to read in there.
-Not really yet, why?
He took a deep breath before breaking her the news:
-He's done with his tasks for the day. Not much to do until the three others come back.
Tuuri twitched. Mikkel could perfectly keep himself busy with his own thoughts, but the problem was that it usually resulted in the first person to speak to him after the lull in activity getting worse teasing than usual. Last time the book collecting party had been on the receiving end of this, Reynir was quite sure he had learned a few Norwegian swear words.
-You could... chat with him a little? suggested Tuuri.
-I tried. Couldn't go through more than five minutes of it before leaving him an opening.
-You started out at thirty seconds, you're making quick progress.
-What about your own record? You're going to grow soft if you don't practice from time to time.
Tuuri grumbled and got up from her chair:
-Okay, okay, I get it, I'll take my turn. But I'm curious, what did he do, this time?
-Convinced me that lack of exposure to sheep was going to make sick soon.
Tuuri gave him a look of disbelief:
-Again?
Reynir looked away from her, a little embarrassed:
-He started out from another angle than last time.
Tuuri sighed:
-Thanks for the warning. Maybe I do need that practice after all.
Just as Tuuri was going to leave the room, they both heard yelling in Norwegian, coming from far away. At this point, Reynir could tell it was too long for Sigrun to just be yelling "We're back!".
Mikkel came to the office door:
-You two, in the front. Sigrun popped her stiches again, I'll need to treat her in here right after decontamination.
Reynir could tell both of them were holding back a sigh of relief. Seemingly having that reaction to Sigrun neglecting those wounds would have attracted unwanted attention from Mikkel. Especially coming from Reynir, who knew all too well how she had gotten them in the first place. They did as Mikkel told them, but Tuuri had her ear glued to the door as soon as any indication of activity in the office started, and was telling him what was happening. Even though the walls didn't keep that much sound out, the exchanges were all in scandinavian laguages.
-Mikkel's scolding pretty much everyone for their part in the wounds re-opening. Sounds like it happened on something Sigrun didn't actually have to use that arm for again.
Reynir had trouble believing that he was the same person who had just briefly tricked him into believing there was such a thing as "sheep deficiency".
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on December 17, 2016, 04:43:52 PM
Grade E cat, you are clearly having too much fun with this! Please, please continue! :'D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on December 20, 2016, 02:57:14 AM
[Worst Case Scenario, Lalli's Chapter] More than happy to comply with that request. Unfortunately couldn't avoid briging up the ghosts in the "how it's really like" scene for this chapter, so it's not as funny as the two previous. Still found an ironic thing for Reynir's parents to be worrying about. Spending too much time trying to figure out what I was going to do for Emil's has resulted in it being the most advanced in my mind, so I'll be doing it next.

Spoiler: show
Worst case scenario: The scout

Árni and Sigríður both realized that they were awake early and that the still-dark sky put the same person on their mind: the Finnish night scout. Early morning was certainly one of the times of the day during which he and Reynir crossed paths, the man under the impression that their son was mistreating his relative when it was actually the other way around. His relative's lies probably happened at the end of his shift rather than the beginning, so he would be less likely to have second thoughts about what she told him. His possible means of revenge were countless. They considered the possibility that the Finnish gods had a heart and prevented him from casting too strong spells on Reynir, maybe even told him that his relative was lying to him. No, Reynir wasn't under their protection, hence they probably did not care. And if they did, the man probably still chose to believe his relative over them and, strictly speaking, did not actually need powerful magic to make Reynir's life miserable. He could do something to Reynir's food while he was in the middle of eating it. Make him drop the captain or the cleanser's food as he was serving it to them in hope of getting on their good side, preferably on the captain and/or cleanser themselves. Have him fall with the worst timing possible, so someone else would either step or trip on him. Even when not under the effect one of his spells, Reynir was probably living in constant fear of the next one. He probably didn’t dare get anywhere close to the man, even as he was asleep. To add insult to injury, this man was going to be the first mage around which Reynir spent any significant length of time. They feared greatly that he would he be unable to trust mages back home after going through such a treatment.

Meanwhile, somewhere in the Silent World:

Lalli was trying to hide it from everyone else, but he could not from Reynir. Ghosts had been following them for the entire trip to Odense. Lalli would cast the spells intended to ward them off when he came back from scouting, and only then scratch the door to signal his presence to everyone else. The only reason Reynir was awake to hear and sense him doing so was that the distant presence of the ghosts had started keeping him from sleeping through the night. Mikkel simply thought that his early insomnia had come back. With no official duties, Reynir could catch a nap during the day, during which presence of ghosts wasn't as strong, without inconveniencing anyone. He thought he understood why Lalli was originally a night scout. If nighttime activity of spirits kept one from sleeping anyway and there was a need for people willing to take night shifts, this worked best for everyone. He rolled over and let his arms stretch on the empty mattress under Tuuri's bunk, the only space available to do so, as Mikkel was sleeping on his other side. Despite usually being the only one asleep during the day, Lalli chose to sleep in there. Tuuri had once told him that Lalli slept under his bed at Keuruu as well. It did look comfy and reassuring in there, but he wouldn't dare actually try to sleep in the spot. Lalli didn't like him very much, he had told Onni so in the earliest dream Reynir remembered. They couldn't talk without Tuuri translating in the waking world anyway, so they had reached an unspoken agreement to stay out of each other's way. However, if Reynir ever found a way of helping with the ghosts, they were going to have to coordinate their efforts at some point. And Lalli was still giving him something without quite realizing or intending to. Mikkel and Emil didn't believe in magic. He sometimes felt that Sigrun and Tuuri were humoring him rather than actually believing him when it came to his attempts to make useful runes. Lalli's presence meant that there was one person in the crew who knew for sure that he was a mage and saw the same things he did. This was the reason Reynir was considering having his nap at the same time as Lalli's and visiting him in the dream world to ask him if there was another reason than the ghosts for the bad mood in which he had been as of late according to Tuuri. The problem was that Lalli had reacted quite violently the first and only time he had gone into his protected area uninvited. He suddenly had an idea.

Later, in the dream world:

-Hey Lalli, can you hear me? I'm trying a new trick.
Lalli was very tempted to tell Reynir to go bother Onni with that annoying dog of his instead, but that would let him know that he could actually hear him through it. He was hoping he would give up and get the animal out of his protected area if he ignored it long enough. It was still interesting that he could do this. Lalli didn’t know much about foreign magic, but it had taken him several months of training to be able to do anything similar to this with his luonto. Even if it was easier for foreign mages, chances were that Reynir was succeeding at this early for someone who had been aware of his powers for barely more than two weeks and was finding out how they were working on his own. Maybe Lalli wouldn't have to do everything if the ghosts finally caught up with them, after all.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on December 20, 2016, 06:32:46 AM
This is becoming very interesting, both the humorous and the serious parts.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Dai on December 20, 2016, 08:08:41 AM
"ROWR!!"

Tuuri and Reynir jumped convulsively as the cat suddenly leapt from Tuuri's lap to the top bunk, then stood, claws embedded in the blankets, every hair standing out like a dandelion, glaring at a spot on the floor.

Reynir followed the kitten's gaze. He froze when he heard the scratching noises - and saw a floorboard move.

Tuuri gasped. "Troll - under the floor!..."

Reynir looked around desperately for a weapon. There wasn't much - everything lethal was outside, with the warriors.

Tuuri was military, so she had her knife - but what good was that against something that claws through wood and metal?

Reynir's gaze fell on a shovel in the corner.

Then he had an idea - desperate, but it was all they had...

"Tuuri! Give me your knife!"

"Wh-what?..."

"No time to explain! I need your knife now!"

Tuuri watched as Reynir took the knife and shovel in hand. Reynir grinned apologetically. "This will probably ruin your knife - but it's all I can think of right now..."

Tuuri frowned: "Don't worry, I can always get another knife - what...?"

But Reynir was no longer paying attention, scratching furiously on the back of the shovel with the knife blade. "I just hope I can make marks deep enough..."

The floor-noises intensified, with ominous cracking noises from the visibly shaking boards. The cat was yowling continuously, eyes as big as saucers.

"There!" Reynir held up the shovel to inspect his handiwork in the dim light, dropping the sadly abused knife to the floor. A scratched symbol glittered faintly on the back of the shovel...

A floorboard snapped with a bang.

A weirdly distorted limb thrust through the gap, gripping the wood work.

Reynir sprang to his feet, shovel in hand.

The creature heaved itself upwards, bending and breaking solid boards, a grotesque head appearing in the hole.

Reynir swung...

...

There was a muffled WHUMP! from inside the tank. Mikkel and Sigrun looked up with alarm.

Both ran towards the truck, from which smoke was now seeping.

The door opened before they got there, a thoroughly terrified, soot-blackened cat flying out, followed by billows of smoke, then a coughing sooty Tuuri.

A blackened apparition appeared in the doorway behind Tuuri, red hair smoking, holding the remains of a shovel.

It grinned. "Hey! Whatta you know? It worked!"
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Gaemmel on December 20, 2016, 10:45:16 AM
Hey guys, I actually started to write fanfictions for our beloved team before I got into the forum so: Here is the newest chapter of my current ongoing fanfiction.
In which Emil takes ages to find out that he is supposed to marry Lalli.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/8326516/chapters/20439532 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/8326516/chapters/20439532)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Dverghamrar on December 21, 2016, 08:01:01 AM
Title: Eleven Christmas Mornings (http://archiveofourown.org/works/8937787)
Pairings/Characters: Sigrun/Tuuri, background ships   
Words: 3,100+
Rating: Teen   
Content/Warning: No warnings to give. Brief past mention of battle-related violence in one section. Contents/Tags: Christmas, Christmas Fluff, Romance, Through the Years, Fluff, Some Humor.

Summary: Eleven notable Christmas mornings that Sigrun and Tuuri shared together.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on December 21, 2016, 08:50:52 AM
Very sweet!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on December 21, 2016, 08:27:12 PM
Bent and Twisted
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/“Avatar: the Last Airbender” crossover fanfic
Part 7
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg129354#msg129354)
Spoiler: The First Apocrypha • show
“I’m not a helpless baby,” Reynir pouted. Emil couldn’t understand one word of that sentence, but Reynir’s tone was indicative, as were Tuuri’s look of embarrassment and initial reluctance to translate.

“You also aren’t immune to the Reaving,” Emil pointed out once Tuuri had finally passed on Reynir’s complaint. “Were a Horror to happen by, you might kill it a dozen times over and still fall victim to the scourge it carries.” Then he belatedly added, “And we need to keep our voices down, or we’ll draw them right to us.”

“The Death-Shades are still tracking us,” Reynir pointed out. “They’ll bring the Horrors to us whether we remain silent or not, if I’m not mistaken.”

“Staying silent isn’t just the First Rule, though: it makes sense regardless.” Emil huffed out a frustrated breath. “Look, you can stay out here for now, but if we see a Horror, I want you back inside the vehicle before it gets within the 20 meter circle. OK?”

Once Tuuri translated this to Reynir, the tall redhead gave such a vigorous nod that his braid almost did Tuuri an injury.

“You’re not afraid,” Tuuri told Emil, in a confident statement of fact.

Emil was about to contradict her when he realized that, in fact, he wasn’t. “No.”

“Good.” Tuuri smiled at Emil calmly. Then her eyes grew wide at the sight of something behind Emil. It hadn’t even been ten minutes since the others had left, but Emil knew what he’d see if he turned.

Turn Emil did, and he saw about what he’d expected: Giant-sized Horrors making their way straight to the camp. “Tuuri, get in and get ready to drive out of here.” Emil looked at Reynir, ready to tell him something similar, but the other boy’s face had hardened into a frown of concentration, and so Emil knew Reynir was Bending.

A meter-thick hedge sprang up around the camp, shooting up impossibly fast, and when the Giant Horrors tried to bludgeon their way through by main force, vines shot out of nowhere to snare them, wrapping and tangling themselves around the Reaving-Bent flesh until the Horrors could scarcely move--for now.

“Get inside, Reynir,” Emil ordered, using one of the phrases Tuuri had drilled into him while never taking his eyes off of the nearest Horror, but Reynir was too transfixed by his first good look at a Giant Horror to obey. When that Horror began to shear away the first few vines entangling it, Emil repeated his command, shouting now, and Reynir went.

Emil glared at the Horrors as they thrashed in search of freedom from their vine bonds, unknowing that his eyes were glowing blue. His entire being focused on the one word that he growled out-- “Burn.”

And there was fire.

*

Within the vehicle, Reynir and Tuuri sat and nervously listened to the sounds of fire and burning Horrors.

Tuuri felt a tap on her shoulder, and when she turned, she saw Mikkel, but a horribly translucent Mikkel, standing in the doorway to the driving compartment.

The image spoke in Mikkel’s voice, except with an urgency Tuuri had seldom heard from Mikkel in the flesh. “We need you to come and save us, Tuuri. We’ve run into something worse than we’d ever imagined.”

Somehow, Tuuri never thought to doubt the message. She knew that this was, indeed, a message from Mikkel, however he had managed to send it. She started the engines and called for Emil.

When the blond Fire-Bender stuck his head into the driving compartment, Tuuri told him, “I need you to clear us a way out of here. We’re going to get the others.”

Emil was almost stupid enough to argue, but the steely light of determination in Tuuri’s normally soft eyes convinced him. With a wave, he parted the ring of fire around them, and their roving home rolled forward.

*

The vehicle stopped at the end of a long driveway. At the other end, Emil could see what appeared to be a run-down old hovel, but Emil sensed that it was more that it seemed. He could feel Energy being Bent within it, so he knew that this was where he needed to go. Admonishing Reynir and Tuuri to seal themselves into the vehicle until his return, Emil left.

Emil could feel the fear creeping back over him the further he went from the vehicle, but once he stepped through the open doorway, he heard the mad cries of the foe menacing his friends, and the sound set his blood to boiling anew.

“Give me your Bending! I, the mighty Sonew, demand it!”

Rage overtook Emil once more as he went towards the howls...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
Did someone ask for more Bending in this tale of Benders?

There will be more coming soon.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on December 21, 2016, 08:46:14 PM
Bent and Twisted
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/“Avatar: the Last Airbender” crossover fanfic
Part 7
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg129354#msg129354)

Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
Did someone ask for more Bending in this tale of Benders?

There will be more coming soon.


Yes! We want more, more, more!

*ahem*
Thank you, LooNEY. We will be happily awaiting any further episodes you desire to post.
*grins with anticipation*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on December 22, 2016, 12:34:51 PM
[Worst Case Scenario, Emil's Chapter] And here's Emil's chapter. In a way, it's also Onni's chapter because I wanted to do one but had no idea for the context, while the Emil one was missing an activity for Reynir to be doing for the bulk of the scene. As somewhat of a Reynir/Tuuri shipper, I feel Tuuri's chapter deserves the "last, but not the least" position, so Sigrun's will be next by default.

Spoiler: show
Worst case scenario: The cleanser

Árni and Sigríður had just had a discussion with a neighbor complaining about the things the children of a wealthy nearby household got away with on a daily basis. They had already forgotten whose children the neighbor had been complaining about. They now had the cleanser who was related to the expedition's organizer on their minds. They quickly realized that someone used to working with fire and explosives was probably just as bad to have as a bully as a mage. It could actually be worse. In the mage’s case, there was at least a remote possibility that his gods were limiting what he could do to Reynir. Cleansers did not need to call upon their gods to use their explosives or flamethrowers. They remembered the official had told them that the crew had been ordered to keep Reynir alive, and that protocol forbade from leaving non-immunes alone without immune guards in troll-infested areas. The captain had to be enforcing these rules. But what if she left Reynir alone with the cleanser as a guard, while the scout was asleep, under the cover of showing the medic and the skald something that could interest them? Maybe the cleanser would play a "prank" involving explosives on Reynir, the “prank” would go wrong and, when everyone came back, he would claim that he was fending off a troll attack and that Reynir "accidentally" got caught in the blast. Nobody would question him, because he was their employer's relative, despite the obvious absence of troll remains in the vicinity. The medic would do his best to repair the damage, the skald complain about her favorite toy being broken but ultimately turn her attention to the cleanser himself, the captain possibly scold him for the waste of resources but not much else. They knew that by the time the news reached headquarters, everyone would be agreeing, willingly or reluctantly, that it the whole thing was an unfortunate accident. Would they get Reynir back with an eye missing, or even a limb, all because of some rich kid’s boredom? They prayed the gods that the other members of the crew realized that this could happen, understood the implications and made sure Reynir and the cleanser were never left alone.

Meanwhile, somewhere in the Silent World:

The idea suddenly felt stupid. Manning the radio in case somebody called and stayed to talk with him if the person they were trying to reach was unavailable. Speaking with him was probably the last thing all but one of the people at headquarters wanted to do. Maybe he should take the earphones off and try talking to Emil. Tuuri claimed that Swedish was actually quite similar to Icelandic. And if Emil had somehow managed to befriend Lalli despite not speaking a single word of Finnish, it couldn’t be much harder for him and Reynir to get along, right? Just as Reynir was about to act on the idea, the radio buzzed. He might as well answer:
-If you're trying to reach Sigrun, Mikkel or Tuuri, they are not here. Can I take a message for any of them?
-Does this mean Lalli is here?
The familiar accent almost made him jolt:
-Onni! Uh... yes, Lalli is here but he's sleeping and Mikkel forbade us to wake him up unless it was necessary. He's been basically taking daily double shifts lately, so Mikkel's been making sure he gets all the sleep he can. I'm not sure "getting a magic lessons from his cousin" will count as a good reason to wake him. But if you really, really need to talk to him now, I'll wake him and figure out a good excuse before Mikkel comes back.
-It is not so important that such measures are needed. I will accept your offer to take a message.
Once Reynir had noted the message that he would later give to Tuuri, Reynir asked if Onni needed anything else.
-To know since when you are manning the radio.
-Since the only other awake person here right now is Emil. The most entertaining thing I did today was mend the canvas on a folding stool. Uh... before you called, of course.
They had to do some of that cover-up research from time to time, and that research was the reason Tuuri was part of the expedition. Whatever was interesting to Tuuri was to Mikkel as well. Emil came to the office asking something. He had probably recognized his name and thought he had been called, considering that he was now reaching his hand towards him, probably expecting to be given the earphones. Tuuri had suggested starting with short and simple sentences:
-Oh, no, not for you. Tuuri's brother, Lalli's cousin. Doesn't speak Swedish.
Either one of the words being close enough to its Swedish equivalent, or the association of Tuuri and Lalli's names, had apparently made Emil understand who he was talking with. Emil went back outside, but not before raising an eyebrow and asking a bewildered question. He was probably surprised that there was someone at headquarters with whom Reynir could have somewhat of a casual conversation. Unfortunately, any chance of resuming said conversation got shot down by Onni's voice speaking from much further away from the radio than before:
-Hey, you three, what are doing with this?
Reynir heard the sound of something being dropped on the floor just as he took the earphones off, wishing Onni good luck with Emil’s young cousins. Well, he had technically talked to Emil just now. Re-doing his braid while waiting for the others to come back couldn't hurt.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on December 23, 2016, 03:51:11 AM
LooNEY, that's good! Please continue.

Grade E cat: I see that the comic misunderstandings continue. Do go on.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on December 24, 2016, 03:31:09 PM
[Worst case scenario, Sigrun's Chapter] Here's Sigruns chapter. Back to a little more seriousness, because a certain event had to be mentioned in the second part. Tuuri's next. There will be an epilogue, because I have a headcanon of how the expedition's return will look like, and with a few adjustements, it will make a nice epilogue to this mini-series.

Spoiler: show
Worst case scenario: The captain

Árni and Sigríður were wondering about the captain, who was the member of the crew actually in charge of making sure Reynir stayed alive. She probably spent the bare minimum of resources she could manage to do so. Fed him leftovers or any food that had gone bad, made him sleep in some extremely cold corner of their vehicle with just a beaten-up blanket that didn't keep him warm at all, while at the same time expecting him to keep up with the military pace that the crew was following. They were certain Reynir had fallen ill at least once from this by now. The medic probably had the authority to make his conditions a little more bearable while he was sick, but the bad conditions would come back the second the captain decided he looked healthy enough to not need any "coddling". On top of this, she was probably doing absolutely nothing to keep the scout, the cleanser and the skald in line. She sounded like they type of person who looked down on those unable to fend for themselves and saw no reason to make life any easier for them. She maybe even saw the scout and the cleanser’s treatment of Reynir as entertaining in some way, while the skald had certainly by now convinced her that Reynir was the one who needed to be kept in line, while her own behavior was spotless. The bad conditions imposed by the captain were maybe even what allowed the skald girl to trap Reynir into compromising situations so easily. All she'd have to do was to offer him extra food in exchange of "helping" her with something that inevitably ended up making him look bad in the captain's eyes. This would get him considered as even more of a liability than he already was merely from his presence. Because of this, the captain probably saw Reynir's habit of sticking as close to the medic as he could as some kind of cowardice and the medic's protectiveness of him as a baffling waste of time and energy. Things had probably come to the point that if the captain ever had to make a choice between Reynir's life and that of a member of the crew, she would choose the member of the crew without a second thought, and let their son die. They prayed the gods that no such situation would ever happen during the expedition, as it would mean certain death for Reynir.

Meanwhile, somewhere in the Silent World:

Reynir knew Sigrun's opinion about him had gotten better since that day on which he had overheard at lot of yelling from the radio room while being held "prisonner" in the dormitory, and Mikkel's news that he was stuck with them had made him understand that the yelling was probably about him. Yet that smile addressed to him as he was bringing dry laundry inside took him aback. Emil, Lalli and Mikkel were the ones out this time. Mikkel had decided that at this point, the only way Sigrun would have a chance of taking proper care of that troll bite was by being the obligatory immune guard to him and Tuuri; as long as there was no attack, it consisted mostly of leaning next to the tank's main entrance and keeping one's eyes and ears open. Mikkel had assured Reynir that Sigrun was career troll hunter, that she had certainly gotten worse wounds before and that it was probably one of the reasons why he was having so much trouble getting her to take proper care of the bite. Still, Reynir had thought slings were only for broken bones before he had seen Sigrun's. That the wound required one told him just how bad it was. Sigrun must have noticed him staring at her wounded arm, as she used the healthy one to push him inside the tank as delicately as she could, saying something in a relatively soft voice that she seldom used.
-She said to stop worrying and that she'd do it again with no second thoughts.
That was Tuuri translating for him, having heard everything thanks to the open office door. Reynir thanked Sigrun, then rushed into the dormitory to drop the dry laundry on Emil's bunk. Maybe he should ask the gods for some kind of healing rune as well. But a healing rune would be no good if a ghost got Sigrun again, and he felt in no position to ask for more than one specific thing at once. Something for the ghosts first, to keep their handling from resting entirely on Lalli’s shoulders. Any healing runes would have to come later. He thought of something: Sigrun had worked with Iceland-trained mages before, someone may have even used a healing rune on her once. If she remembered what it looked like, he could draw it himself.
-Hey, Tuuri, could you ask Sigrun if she ever saw a mage cast a healing rune? And if so, what it looked like?
Tuuri repeated his question in Swedish, and got an answer. Unfortunately, it turned out that Sigrun had never really paid attention to such things. From the tone of one of her sentences, Reynir was also quite sure Sigrun had given him one of those pieces of "advice" that Mikkel translated truthfully out of amusement, but that Tuuri tended to just not mention. Reynir still wished he could do something more. He still remembered Sigrun's arm, between him and that troll's mouth, while Mikkel was already pulling him away.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Purple Wyrm on December 24, 2016, 10:12:08 PM
I promised a fic for Christmas Day, and here it is!

The Best Rooms are Always in the Rear  (https://archiveofourown.org/works/9037289)

It's not Christmas/Holiday themed at all, and I feel like it could do with a little bit more polishing, but deadlines are deadlines. Hope you all enjoy! :))
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on December 25, 2016, 01:39:38 AM
Please enjoy the lovely piece I received as my Secret Santa present, by an author who is as yet unrevealed.
Spoiler: "My awesome Secret Santa fic - Song of the Wanderer" • show

Over hill and under dale
Will you listen to my tale?
Over dale and under hill
I will sing it even still

The Wanderer was immune, which was all that had saved him time and again on his wanderings. His ever-winding path took him in and out of danger as another’s might go from home to work, for the Wanderer had no home.

The Wanderer had many names in many places already, and would have many more as he wound his way through the wide world. None were his True Name, though; even he had nearly forgotten it, so long had it been since he’d used it.

I was walking through the forest
I was walking on my way
Through an ancient ancient forest
Dark as night at height of day

Woodlands dense and dark were places of fear for most in this Silent World, but the Wanderer neither hated nor feared even the thickest wood, for he was of the woods himself. The only thing the Wanderer could remember of his father was his very first nick-name: “My little Ent.”

Though he was compelled to wander, he always lingered when he found a wood, learning its ways, listening to its heartbeat, and doing his sorry best to drive the Sickness out wherever it had a foothold.

Passed a river clear as crystal
Passed a river sweet and true
Did not stop to drink its nectar
Did not stop to quaff its dew

The cheery chuckle of the rushing stream lifted the Wanderer’s spirits as he passed; the sight of various water-fowl playing in the sparkling shallows did even more to raise his mood. Light of heart though he was, yet the Wanderer did not pause; the wood was whispering to him that he was awaited further in.

Found a hovel in a clearing
Sure to be a grossling nest
Drew my knife as I was nearing
Meant to send its soul to rest

The ramshackle structure was a remnant of the height of the Old World, when the overwhelming abundance that Mankind enjoyed meant even the greatest things could be built and discarded in the blink of an eye, instead of being husbanded and hoarded against a time of want. That it was in as good a shape as it was suggested that something within it was working to maintain it, which meant the Twisted. Well, the Wanderer would see to that.

But within I found a maiden
And she met me with a smile
And together we found beauty
Putting off the world awhile

As she was about to leave, she turned to him and said, rather haughtily, “I am Ensi Hotakainen.”

For the first time in a long, long time, the Wanderer gave his True Name. “I am Ukko-Pekko.” This Ensi deserved that much of him, at least.

She nodded. “I shall remember.” Then, between one blink and the next, she was gone.

The Wanderer sighed, knowing that he had just passed his curse on. It would not go to Ensi’s twin sons, but to her only granddaughter, who would find herself compelled to roam as had he, into and through the Silent World...


Soooo cool.  I'm guessing Dvergamhrar penned this haunting story. Or maybe Róisín.  Would anyone else like to hazard a guess?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on December 25, 2016, 01:45:27 AM
No, not mine, though it is very beautiful, and I would not be sorry if it had been! Dverghamrar maybe?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Keeper on December 25, 2016, 09:13:31 AM
I promised a fic for Christmas Day, and here it is!

The Best Rooms are Always in the Rear  (https://archiveofourown.org/works/9037289)

It's not Christmas/Holiday themed at all, and I feel like it could do with a little bit more polishing, but deadlines are deadlines. Hope you all enjoy! :))

The woodworker in Borlänge is the real hero of this story :')
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Jerzy_S on December 25, 2016, 01:29:55 PM
I promised a fic for Christmas Day, and here it is!

The Best Rooms are Always in the Rear  (https://archiveofourown.org/works/9037289)

It's not Christmas/Holiday themed at all, and I feel like it could do with a little bit more polishing, but deadlines are deadlines. Hope you all enjoy! :))

This is just amazingly hilarious! I can't wait to read more of your fics! Thanks for that!
(And the woodworker in Borlänge just made my day!)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on December 26, 2016, 03:35:54 PM
[Worst case scenario, Tuuri's Chapter] Here's Tuuri's chapter. I'm afraid the first part ended up being a very, very twisted form of in-universe shipping. I have an idea for an epilogue to this, so there will be a seventh part up.

Spoiler: show
Worst case scenario: The skald

Árni and Sigríður didn't know how they had missed this piece of information on the documentation left behind by the official for so long. The skald girl not being immune made them completely re-evaluate the time during which Reynir had to be stuck alone with her. The official had told them the expedition had the means of isolating non-immunes from potentially contaminated immune combatants, but these means had certainly been set up for the one non-immune person that was supposed to be on the expedition. The medic probably had no other choice than putting both Reynir and the skald in the same small isolation chamber. Whatever happened in there would be Reynir's word against the skald's, the skald being more likely to be believed. This only added to the fact that the skald girl had already been the member of the crew they were the most worried about before they noticed her immunity status. The girl was able to hurt Reynir with words and trick him, where all of Reynir's other bullies only had actions. They were also certain that she was trying to seduce him, using whatever passed for courtship in Finland. Reynir was probably the perfect target for a young Finnish woman who was educated by her country’s standards and wanted to flaunt her knowledge of Icelandic. The lies she told to her mage relative and the captain probably happened when Reynir refused her advances. And if he one day ended up giving up and saying "yes" to something, she would probably claim the whole thing was his idea if they were caught together. How far was that girl going to go? Was this expedition going to make them grandparents? Were they going to be left with no choice but to have that girl as a daughter-in-law? Was she doing it all just to get herself out of Finland? They weren't sure whether the latter option was better or worse than the idea that she could be just seeing Reynir as some kind of toy. And the two options weren't actually mutually exclusive. They wished that this expedition would end soon, so Reynir could get away from that horrible young woman.

Meanwhile somewhere in the Silent World:

Tuuri laughed:
-Wait, your parents really told you there was still a ban on non-immune people travelling internationally? How did you ever find out it was not the case?
-One of my brothers told me while he was visiting. Poor Bjarni must be gritting his teeth right now if he knows where I am. The whole family, actually, come to think of it.
Reynir hadn't actually thought of them in a while with all that had been going on. Tuuri tapped on the windshield, as they were once again in isolation in the front of the vehicle:
-Well, here we are. So much for them trying to keep us in.
Reynir looked out the windshield, at the long-abandoned town that could be seen from it:
-Yes...
-But I'm curious, how come your siblings got to leave home and not you?
-Dagrenning children, more like adoptive siblings blood-wise. All four of them are immune. What about Lalli? How did he ever get to become a scout if Onni wanted to keep both of you inside the base?
-Onni tried, trust me. But the options that would both keep him inside and did not require Onni or me to be constantly keeping an eye on him ran out quite fast. I also heard Lalli tell Onni that one of them should be outside the base from time to time, and it might as well be him. Guess it had to do with whatever reason we moved there in the first place.
By now, Reynir had pieced together that Onni and Lalli were hiding a lot from Tuuri, and she knew it. But she had picked up the habit in her own way. Reynir knew how Lalli usually talked from the dream world and the few times she had translated something Lalli wanted to tell him in the waking world, she had made him sound much more tactful and polite than he really was. Part of him was also convinced that if it weren't for this habit of Tuuri's, Sigrun would be taking his powers much more seriously. But all around, she had been a pleasant surprise in this situation he hadn't chosen. Another non-immune, from the other side of the world, who knew what it was like to be locked behind walls while seeing all the immune people going in and out as they pleased and taking it for granted. Who, once out of those walls, wouldn't be satisfied until she saw the edge of the world. Who understood him on a level that the other members of the crew couldn't. Who had become a true friend. Tuuri's voice interrupted his thoughts:
-Hey, shouldn't we be allowed out by now? Mikkel, what's taking so long?
Mikkel's stern voice answered from the other side of the door:
-I took the usual amount of time. The two of you are the ones who didn't hear me when I said you could come out half an hour ago out because you were chattering away. I was actually about to start making dinner early in hope that the smell would give you a hint.
Had they really been talking for that long? Reynir didn't notice.


Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on December 26, 2016, 07:24:40 PM
Grade E Cat, the story continues to be interesting. I especially like how you write Reynir.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on December 26, 2016, 07:32:06 PM
Mikkel’s Malmö Misadventures
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Part 4
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg121952#msg121952)
Spoiler: Rash Decisions • show
My name is Mikkel Madsen. I used to be a spy, until I decided to resign...

When you’re sent somewhere that doesn’t officially exist, you have to be prepared to find anything there. Unfortunately, sometimes the anything you find is not something you can prepare yourself for.

Mikkel Madsen was definitely not prepared for what he found when he and “his team” broke into a secret ward of the Clinical Research Centre that had “gone silent” a few days before.

“EIDE-HO!”

Sigrun Eide, however, was. A berserker like her had to be.

FFFFFFFFOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMM.

Ironically, so was Emil Västerström, her protégée.

They had come under attack almost from the moment they’d entered the Ward That Was Not; most of the attackers had been too fast for them to see, and the few that could be seen, Mikkel wished he hadn’t. The attacks had shredded the haz-mat suits they’d been wearing, but in proof that there is no such thing as “over-protection” in such circumstances as these, the full anti-chemical gear they’d had on beneath the haz-mat suits had held up pretty well.

Emil had come barreling in from his rear-guard post, allowing the doors to re-secure behind him. Mikkel was of two minds on that, as their escape route was now gone, but these things likewise were still confined to the ward. If they had gone around instead of attacking, this might have gone much worse.

Sigrun was similarly of two minds concerning Emil’s intervention: without it, the three of them (Mikkel, Sigrun and Lalli Hotakainen) would almost certainly be dead; but rear-guards weren’t supposed to leave their posts!

Mikkel couldn’t see Lalli; the thin Finn had vanished almost as soon as the fight started, but every so often, one of their assailants would drop, obviously sniped by Lalli. Hopefully, the remaining assailants couldn’t find Lalli either.

“Mikkel!” Tuuri Hotakainen’s voice buzzed in Mikkel’s earpiece. “What are you guys doing in there? Reynir says he’s had to block a dozen alarms from tripping, and he’s not sure he caught all there were! You need to bug out of there, now!”

Mikkel sighed. “No can do, Tuuri. Our bug out route’s gone, so we’ll need you and Reynir to find another one for us.”

A clearly audible gulp came down the line; Mikkel didn’t need to ask who’d made it. Reynir was as nice as the day is long, but self-confidence was decidedly not his strong suit. Mikkel sighed. “I know it’ll be a problem, but we need it done.”

“Don’t worry about a thing, Mikkel.” Tuuri suffered from no such lack of self-confidence; no grifter ever did. “It’ll take a few minutes, but we’ll have another way out for you guys.”

Mikkel almost missed the last bit, as he was fending off another one of those things with the crowbar he’d grabbed. Whatever they were, they were quick and tricky; when he actually managed to make contact, however, they made a very satisfying splat!

“Way to go, big guy!” Sigrun crowed. “That’s the last of ’em!”

“Good,” Mikkel managed between huffs and puffs. “Emil, can we burn out this ward without taking the rest of the place down?”

Emil had to stop to consider the idea. “Only if we can limit the inflammables to alcohols, which won’t be easy,” he warned. “Everything else burns too hot. We might do quite a bit of collateral damage to the air system no matter what we try, though; that’s always the big trouble in controlling room fires.”

“Tell me that isn’t why all our bedrooms still smell of smoke, Emil,” Tuuri growled through the mike. Even Sigrun took pause, be it ever so briefly, at the anger in her normally cheery tones.

“I flushed the whole vent system out with enough cleaners to nuke anything,” Emil protested.

“Tuuri, stop worrying about that and get back on getting us a way out,” Mikkel ordered. “If it helps, remember you can’t get Emil back for it if he’s dead.”

Tuuri’s frustrated mumbles suddenly cut out in an agonizing squeal of black noise, like a thousand jumbled voices screaming in pain and terror, that nearly brought the three in the room to their knees. Of course, this was when a few more of the things decided to jump them...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
Just mixing a few things in my Vättes--er, vats here.

See? It’s not dead after all.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on December 26, 2016, 09:04:57 PM
LooNEY, this is getting really scary. And I do like Emil's little experiments!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Silent on December 26, 2016, 09:16:07 PM
Mikkel’s Malmö Misadventures
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Part 4
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg121952#msg121952)
Spoiler: Rash Decisions • show
My name is Mikkel Madsen. I used to be a spy, until I decided to resign...

When you’re sent somewhere that doesn’t officially exist, you have to be prepared to find anything there. Unfortunately, sometimes the anything you find is not something you can prepare yourself for.

Mikkel Madsen was definitely not prepared for what he found when he and “his team” broke into a secret ward of the Clinical Research Centre that had “gone silent” a few days before.

“EIDE-HO!”

Sigrun Eide, however, was. A berserker like her had to be.

FFFFFFFFOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMM.

Ironically, so was Emil Västerström, her protégée.

They had come under attack almost from the moment they’d entered the Ward That Was Not; most of the attackers had been too fast for them to see, and the few that could be seen, Mikkel wished he hadn’t. The attacks had shredded the haz-mat suits they’d been wearing, but in proof that there is no such thing as “over-protection” in such circumstances as these, the full anti-chemical gear they’d had on beneath the haz-mat suits had held up pretty well.

Emil had come barreling in from his rear-guard post, allowing the doors to re-secure behind him. Mikkel was of two minds on that, as their escape route was now gone, but these things likewise were still confined to the ward. If they had gone around instead of attacking, this might have gone much worse.

Sigrun was similarly of two minds concerning Emil’s intervention: without it, the three of them (Mikkel, Sigrun and Lalli Hotakainen) would almost certainly be dead; but rear-guards weren’t supposed to leave their posts!

Mikkel couldn’t see Lalli; the thin Finn had vanished almost as soon as the fight started, but every so often, one of their assailants would drop, obviously sniped by Lalli. Hopefully, the remaining assailants couldn’t find Lalli either.

“Mikkel!” Tuuri Hotakainen’s voice buzzed in Mikkel’s earpiece. “What are you guys doing in there? Reynir says he’s had to block a dozen alarms from tripping, and he’s not sure he caught all there were! You need to bug out of there, now!”

Mikkel sighed. “No can do, Tuuri. Our bug out route’s gone, so we’ll need you and Reynir to find another one for us.”

A clearly audible gulp came down the line; Mikkel didn’t need to ask who’d made it. Reynir was as nice as the day is long, but self-confidence was decidedly not his strong suit. Mikkel sighed. “I know it’ll be a problem, but we need it done.”

“Don’t worry about a thing, Mikkel.” Tuuri suffered from no such lack of self-confidence; no grifter ever did. “It’ll take a few minutes, but we’ll have another way out for you guys.”

Mikkel almost missed the last bit, as he was fending off another one of those things with the crowbar he’d grabbed. Whatever they were, they were quick and tricky; when he actually managed to make contact, however, they made a very satisfying splat!

“Way to go, big guy!” Sigrun crowed. “That’s the last of ’em!”

“Good,” Mikkel managed between huffs and puffs. “Emil, can we burn out this ward without taking the rest of the place down?”

Emil had to stop to consider the idea. “Only if we can limit the inflammables to alcohols, which won’t be easy,” he warned. “Everything else burns too hot. We might do quite a bit of collateral damage to the air system no matter what we try, though; that’s always the big trouble in controlling room fires.”

“Tell me that isn’t why all our bedrooms still smell of smoke, Emil,” Tuuri growled through the mike. Even Sigrun took pause, be it ever so briefly, at the anger in her normally cheery tones.

“I flushed the whole vent system out with enough cleaners to nuke anything,” Emil protested.

“Tuuri, stop worrying about that and get back on getting us a way out,” Mikkel ordered. “If it helps, remember you can’t get Emil back for it if he’s dead.”

Tuuri’s frustrated mumbles suddenly cut out in an agonizing squeal of black noise, like a thousand jumbled voices screaming in pain and terror, that nearly brought the three in the room to their knees. Of course, this was when a few more of the things decided to jump them...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
Just mixing a few things in my Vättes--er, vats here.

See? It’s not dead after all.


Can I congratulate you on everything in this, including my rising panic for the crew?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on December 27, 2016, 01:18:42 AM
LooNEY, it's definitely not dead - looks as though it has decided to do a little more than go for a walk....
Fine cliffhanger!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on December 27, 2016, 10:17:57 PM
Please enjoy the lovely piece I received as my Secret Santa present, by an author who is as yet unrevealed.
Spoiler: "My awesome Secret Santa fic - Song of the Wanderer" • show

Over hill and under dale
Will you listen to my tale?
Over dale and under hill
I will sing it even still

The Wanderer was immune, which was all that had saved him time and again on his wanderings. His ever-winding path took him in and out of danger as another’s might go from home to work, for the Wanderer had no home.

The Wanderer had many names in many places already, and would have many more as he wound his way through the wide world. None were his True Name, though; even he had nearly forgotten it, so long had it been since he’d used it.

I was walking through the forest
I was walking on my way
Through an ancient ancient forest
Dark as night at height of day

Woodlands dense and dark were places of fear for most in this Silent World, but the Wanderer neither hated nor feared even the thickest wood, for he was of the woods himself. The only thing the Wanderer could remember of his father was his very first nick-name: “My little Ent.”

Though he was compelled to wander, he always lingered when he found a wood, learning its ways, listening to its heartbeat, and doing his sorry best to drive the Sickness out wherever it had a foothold.

Passed a river clear as crystal
Passed a river sweet and true
Did not stop to drink its nectar
Did not stop to quaff its dew

The cheery chuckle of the rushing stream lifted the Wanderer’s spirits as he passed; the sight of various water-fowl playing in the sparkling shallows did even more to raise his mood. Light of heart though he was, yet the Wanderer did not pause; the wood was whispering to him that he was awaited further in.

Found a hovel in a clearing
Sure to be a grossling nest
Drew my knife as I was nearing
Meant to send its soul to rest

The ramshackle structure was a remnant of the height of the Old World, when the overwhelming abundance that Mankind enjoyed meant even the greatest things could be built and discarded in the blink of an eye, instead of being husbanded and hoarded against a time of want. That it was in as good a shape as it was suggested that something within it was working to maintain it, which meant the Twisted. Well, the Wanderer would see to that.

But within I found a maiden
And she met me with a smile
And together we found beauty
Putting off the world awhile

As she was about to leave, she turned to him and said, rather haughtily, “I am Ensi Hotakainen.”

For the first time in a long, long time, the Wanderer gave his True Name. “I am Ukko-Pekko.” This Ensi deserved that much of him, at least.

She nodded. “I shall remember.” Then, between one blink and the next, she was gone.

The Wanderer sighed, knowing that he had just passed his curse on. It would not go to Ensi’s twin sons, but to her only granddaughter, who would find herself compelled to roam as had he, into and through the Silent World...


Soooo cool.  I'm guessing Dvergamhrar penned this haunting story. Or maybe Róisín.  Would anyone else like to hazard a guess?
No, I can't guess, because I know that I wrote it.

Honestly, I thought someone would guess it right off the bat.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on December 28, 2016, 06:39:13 PM
And so, I launch yet another WIP...

The Expedition
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/Cyberpunk AU fanfic
Part 1
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Spoiler: The Omnicidal Council of Psychoactive Psychotic Psions • show
No one ever stood before the Dark Council in the flesh and lived.

This had been a guiding precept of the Council even before they had pushed the world into a nuclear armageddon from which only they had emerged as victors; this was so even to the day that they Summoned the four Questioners to their presence.

Trond was old and ready to die, but held his knives at the ready, determined that he’d take at least two of his killers with him.

Taru had thrown up three times immediately before the meeting began, and was ready to fall on her knees and beg for her life at a moment’s notice.

Then there were the driving forces behind this whole proposal, the most feared duo outside the Council itself--Siv “the Butcher” and Torbjörn “the Terrible”, the Vile Västerströms. They were as calm as if they were attending one of the meaningless social events in which they so delighted; Siv, in particular, was looking at the Council member nearest her with the speculative interest that normally meant the person so scrutinized would soon become a subject in one of her laboratories.

Siv’s laboratories were as one-way for visitors as were the Council Chambers.

Torbjörn broke the silence first. “So,” he said in his cool, reptilian voice, “may I presume this Summons means Your Eminences have decided to look favorably upon our proposal?”

Taru’s breath hissed in shock at such arrogance, but the response, when it came, was thus:

“You may; and you would even be correct in that presumption, for once.” A pause. “Unfortunately, though, we have not approved the budget you submitted for it.”

“How much?” Torbjörn’s face could have been carved from stone for all the reaction it showed.

“Fifty percent.”

This, at last, brought Torbjörn’s brows up in surprise. Then he shrugged. “It will be more difficult with that limitation,” he said, “but we can manage it.”

“Do so.” The lights bathing the Council Members went out, and the audience was over.

Somehow, Taru managed to keep from blubbering in her gratitude at still being alive until they were out in the street, but then it poured forth in great floods. She was utterly incoherent until the others had manhandled her into a local watering-hole and poured a few drinks down her throat.

“The reduced funding means we’ll have to call in favors to get the crew on loan from our respective militaries,” Siv observed coolly.

Trond smirked. “I can supply a captain and a medic without a problem.”

“I can wrangle a scout and his handler.” This was the first intelligible sentence Taru had managed since the audience.

“And we will supply a foot-soldier and a vehicle, as well as all the provender the mission will require,” Torbjörn said smoothly.

Taru and Trond looked dubious. “Are you sure a crew of five will suffice?” Taru asked.

Siv waved dismissively. “It will have to. I’m more worried about the instrumentation requirements.”

“The scout I have in mind can supplement or replace some of that,” Taru pointed out.

“We’ll see,” Torbjörn said hastily, forestalling something pithy and cutting from Siv. “But for now, I propose a toast: to us!”

The toast duly drunk, Trond attempted to reassure Taru, who was looking worried again. “Don’t worry so. By the time winter comes, we’ll be ready...”


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
So, this came from a setup (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=856.msg101797#msg101797) of Purple Wyrm’s. I hope he doesn’t mind my appropriating it. Eh, he jumped on the SSSSuperhero bandwagon; he can FACE THE CONSEQUENCES!!!!!! *Maniacal Laughter*

(I’m sure he’s just terrified at that.)

There will be much darkness ahead.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on December 29, 2016, 02:55:22 AM
LooNEY, this is a different take indeed! I look forward to it!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on December 29, 2016, 02:59:22 AM
[Worst case scenario, Epilogue] Here's the end of my little series. The only other ideas I have may involve rebooting my long-abandonned fanfiction.net account, as they involve longer chapters.

Spoiler: show
Worst case scenario: The surprise

Árni and Sigríður quickly realized the mistake they had made in refusing an official escort that would have taken them to the same location as the expedition's organizer and the relatives of some members of the crew that had been able to make it. They had simply not expected the pier to be so packed with people. So the members of this crew were going to return as heroes, after what they had probably done to their son. After more than three weeks of travel including two in quarantine, any exterior signs of mistreatment would have faded away. They had no idea where the welcoming party would be waiting and, as the ship approached, the crowd go too packed for them to get much further from where they were already standing. The boat eventually got close enough for them to try to identify the six figures standing on the bow of the boat, which was arriving bow-first, to their right. The figures formed a line on the side that would remain visible to Árni and Sigríður once the boat got closer. They quickly identified Reynir on the far left of the line, at the back of everyone else. They identified the other red-headed figure in front of the line, to the far right as the crew's captain, the medic behind her and the cleanser behind the medic. They took a little more time to identify the scout and the skald, as the former had a collar partially hiding his face and the latter had apparently cut her hair very short some time after the photo given to them had been taken. By the time they had identified everyone, the captain had started to wave at a portion of the crowd that gave every sign of being straight in front of the boat when all, except for the scout who looked like he was either taking a nap on the railing or being seasick, started waving as well, but did not move from their positions. Were they dreaming, or was Reynir happily waving at someone down there as well? Maybe it was just to show the organizers that he was present and alive. They suddenly felt watched. Trying to find where it came from, they noticed the scout was now staring at them. The scout turned his face in the direction of Reynir and the skald, moved to Reynir's back and poked him with his elbow, while using his other hand to point in their direction. Reynir finally noticed them, told the scout something and started waving a them, with a smile that somehow managed to say both "happy to see you" and "sorry, sorry, sorry, please don't yell at me". The commotion didn't go unnoticed by the skald, who saw them as well, asked Reynir something that was answered with a nod and started to wave at them with a big smile on her face. Nice try, they had a good idea of what she was up to. The discussion caught the attention of the medic, who noticed them as well and placed himself behind Reynir, putting two friendly hands on his shoulders and nodding towards them. The cleanser asked the skald something, briefly looked at them after getting his answer, but quickly lost interest in favor of talking to the scout, who had gone back to his original place right next to him. The captain took her turn at noticing them, asked the cleanser something and started yelling in the direction of the pier while pointing in Árni and Sigríður's direction. Couldn't get rid of Reynir fast enough, could she?

After yelling for a while, the captain joined the medic, Reynir and the skald. Just as she was doing this, something going from the scout's bent-over upper body to the water below pointed towards definite seasickness, while the cleanser held him to make sure he didn't fall over, a worried look on his face. Seeing this side of two people who had probably heartlessly bullied their son made them uneasy. When they got their focus back on Reynir, the captain was proudly lifting his arm with one hand, while using the other to point at an armband that they hadn't noticed before. They couldn't quite make out the symbol that was on it, but the color scheme matched the white, orange and black of the uniforms worn by the crew. Reynir wrestled the arm out of her grip, made a move to cover the symbol, then told her something that got either backed or translated by the medic. She didn't seem to agree with whatever she was told, but made a show of ruffling Reynir's hair with smile on her face before walking back to the bow of the boat. Reynir seemed to forget he had been waving at them, let out a sigh, looked at the hand-covered armband, looked at them again, this time completely apologetic and lacking any obvious sign of joy. Now they were curious as to what that symbol was supposed to be, why the captain seemed to think they should see the armband and why Reynir was electing to hide it from them at the moment. The skald noticed the gesture, told him something, and a few exchanges later had put a smile back on Reynir's face. Someone came through the crowd, calling Árni and Sigríður's names. They made themselves known, as soon got led to the welcoming party, getting there just in time to see everyone get off the boat. Everyone had apparently agreed to let Reynir off first. As he was running towards them, he had forgotten about hiding the symbol on the armband, which they they recognized despite his arms moving. The apprentice mage badge.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on December 29, 2016, 06:38:47 AM
LooNEY, that looks intriguing! Looking forward to more.

Grade E Cat: your worst case scenario has turned out to be Most Best! Good!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Silent on December 29, 2016, 04:41:52 PM
(http://i.imgur.com/OAbosuG.jpg)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Elleth on January 01, 2017, 11:39:02 AM
So what happens if you combine Tuuri, Sigrun and Sappho's poetry? All Night Long Might Sing (http://archiveofourown.org/works/9134251) is what. Happy New Year! <3
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on January 01, 2017, 06:42:25 PM
Excellent story!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on January 01, 2017, 08:17:08 PM
...if Looney can do this, so can I. In which I finally finish up the second part of that Matrix crossover no one asked for.

Previous part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg96070#msg96070)

Spoiler: Epilogue • show
The first thing that greeted them upon their landing was the sight of a golden-haired teenager standing nearly as close as he could get without being incinerated, frantically waving his arms.

“Well,” Mikkel observed as he peered through the windshield. “I'll wager we have some good news.”

The landing was less of a setting down and more of a crash—Tuuri had managed to repair the Valkyrie enough that it could limp into port, but her repairs had not gone much further than that. Nevertheless, those who staggered out of it somehow managed to move under their own power—even Onni, who was currently in the process of chewing the nails from his fingers and and emphatically denying that the water on his face was anything other than rain. Nobody had bothered to ask how it was possible to rain inside of a ship.

“Sigrun wants to talk to you,” Emil informed Mikkel as soon as they had disembarked.

“So she made it after all.” The smile on Mikkel's face was faint, but surprisingly genuine. “I will meet her as soon as we are settled, then.”

Tuuri, meanwhile, was still busy gushing about how amazing it had been to see her very first Sentinel up close.

“Don't get used to it,” Onni warned her as they separated from the others. “I think I'm allergic to flying.”

It wasn't until the next morning that that view of Onni's world would be severely shaken.

*******

The first inkling he got that things were not as they should be was Tuuri's absence from their small dwelling when he woke up. Tuuri never missed breakfast—and she'd been born here, so the complete tastelessness of it didn't even bother her. What if a rogue machine had broken in in the middle of the night? What if she'd strayed too close to the edge of the platform and slipped? What if she'd tried to take a closer look at something down in mechanics and gotten too close to one of the moving parts? What if—

Multiple people stopped and stared at the sight of a full-grown man careening barefoot along the walkway with his shirt unbuttoned, a panicked look on his face and tears streaming from his eyes, but Onni paid no mind to them. Too little mind: he only saw the person he'd been looking for when she all but crashed into him.

There you are!” Tuuri looked nearly as disheveled as her brother, though in contrast to his panic she was practically bouncing up and down with excitement. “Sigrun just offered me a job!”

“Who did what now?” Though he'd intended a tone of commanding disapproval, what came out of his mouth was actually more of a squeak.

“The Valkyrie needs another operator,” she babbled on, oblivious to her brother's distress, “and Sigrun said she'd like to have a good mechanic around too. Ee! Isn't it exciting?”

*******

“It's a shame that the Sentinel couldn't have finished the job.”

“Your sister told me you'd say that.” Rather than being offended by his open hostility, Sigrun only looked faintly amused. As well she might: the woman had taken down a Sentinel single-handed; she wasn't going to be intimidated by a significantly shorter man who was still visibly puffy-eyed.

She was still a complete mess: arms and torso heavily bandaged, propped up in a narrow bed and hooked up to a multitude of machines. Onni shuddered at the sight of the plug protruding from the back of her neck. It made sense: when one could tell the mind directly that it wasn't hurting, there was no need to waste precious painkillers. That still didn't stop it from creeping him out.

“Tuuri isn't ready for this.”

“And you're not the boss of her. She's of age, she's willing, I need another Operator. I'm not going to turn down a hacker as good as her because her big brother is also a big baby.”

“Take me on too.” He was blurting out the words before he was even aware he'd been planning to say them.

She raised an eyebrow dubiously. “Way I hear it, you won't jack in anymore. I don't need three Operators, and Mikkel's already agreed to stay.”

“But you do need more crew. I heard nobody wants to crew with the Valkyrie now that it's been downed; they're saying that it's a doomed ship.” Onni crossed his fingers behind his back; this was his last-ditch chance and he knew it. “And I know of one person back in the Matrix who might be willing to come out if you offered—but the only one who can convince him is me.”

“So why hasn't anybody else gotten him?”

Crap. This was the part where she refused to jeopardize her crew for the sake of his selfish pipe dream. Still, she'd acknowledged Tuuri as his sister without a single scoff and he knew of her bravery in protecting her crew; Onni thought he owed her an honest answer.

“He's my younger cousin. The Agents have their eye on him,” he confessed. “It'll be risky. Dangerous.”

Sigrun laughed. “You know what? I like you. Sure, I'll take you onto my crew and let you hunt for your cousin. You might even find him, who knows? But nobody ever saved the world by sitting around on their butts being wimpy.”

Onni was still reeling when he left the infirmary. Another chance at real work… another chance at Lalli

Don't get your hopes up, he reminded himself as he pushed the door open and took a breath in preparation for telling Tuuri the news. Finding his cousin, alive and well and willing, after so much time, was against all odds—but then again, so was a lone woman taking on a Sentinel and winning.

If Onni was going to take his chances, he thought it was a good bet to take a chance on her.


Spoiler: Notes • show
I was originally going to write out the whole fight scene with the Sentinel, but this fight scene, as it turned out, just did not want to be written. I think that it's possible to put together a picture of what happened from what's already there. Ugh.


Next installment: The Best of Intentions (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg131767#msg131767)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on January 01, 2017, 08:53:09 PM
...if Looney can do this, so can I. In which I finally finish up the second part of that Matrix crossover no one asked for.

[Final part we've been waiting for]
(http://i989.photobucket.com/albums/af14/epierceabbott/Screen%20Shot%202016-06-09%20at%2018.49.29_zpskgnjyknr.png)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on January 01, 2017, 09:29:31 PM
Thanks, Lazy, I wondered how that was going to end.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on January 01, 2017, 09:54:47 PM
…Oh, yeah; I need to make an announcement.

So, just to play havoc with Lazy8's All-Encompassing Fanfiction Index (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=943.0), I'm starting a new collection of one-shots (or three, but I'll explain later) called Alphabet Soup. As the name (hopefully) implies, each one-shot's title will begin with a different letter of the (English) alphabet. Where it'll play havoc with the Index, and why it's three collections, is because there will be a set of titles beginning with "A/An" (e.g., "An After-Dinner Chat"), a set that's anarthrous ("no article", e.g. "Asterisks and Obelisks"), and a set beginning with "The" (e.g., "The Aforementioned"). So instead of 26, the collection(s) will come to 78 one-shots in toto.

As per my usual practice, they'll be posted here 24ish hours before they get posted to AO3, so essentially, I'm going to be spamming the thread for a while.

So, would anyone else like to try their hand at this, too?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on January 01, 2017, 10:09:27 PM
…Oh, yeah; I need to make an announcement.

So, just to play havoc with Lazy8's All-Encompassing Fanfiction Index (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=943.0), I'm starting a new collection of one-shots (or three, but I'll explain later) called Alphabet Soup. As the name (hopefully) implies, each one-shot's title will begin with a different letter of the (English) alphabet. Where it'll play havoc with the Index, and why it's three collections, is because there will be a set of titles beginning with "A/An" (e.g., "An After-Dinner Chat"), a set that's anarthrous ("no article", e.g. "Asterisks and Obelisks"), and a set beginning with "The" (e.g., "The Aforementioned"). So instead of 26, the collection(s) will come to 78 one-shots in toto.

As per my usual practice, they'll be posted here 24ish hours before they get posted to AO3, so essentially, I'm going to be spamming the thread for a while.

So, would anyone else like to try their hand at this, too?

Oh Hel. I kinda want to, but I also kinda remember what the last long fic challenge I took on was like.

So is this a challenge that was issued somewhere or did you come up with it yourself?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on January 01, 2017, 10:17:21 PM
Oh Hel. I kinda want to, but I also kinda remember what the last long fic challenge I took on was like.

So is this a challenge that was issued somewhere or did you come up with it yourself?
The fact that your Index sorts alphabetically by the first word regardless of presence or absence of articles suggested it to me.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on January 02, 2017, 05:28:07 AM
The fact that your Index sorts alphabetically by the first word regardless of presence or absence of articles suggested it to me.

...so you're deliberately trying to troll me, is that it? Cuuuuuuuursssssseeeeee yoooooooooouuuuuuuu!

(Actually, I could redo that aspect. It would just take work... plus a few more obscenities...)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on January 02, 2017, 05:36:54 AM
Actually... ha, wait, nope, just did it. Took me 5 minutes. ;D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on January 02, 2017, 06:33:27 AM
...so you're deliberately trying to troll me, is that it? Cuuuuuuuursssssseeeeee yoooooooooouuuuuuuu!
Uuuuuummmmmmmm…

Did you perhaps not see where I wrote 'Just to play havoc with [the] Index'?

(Really, though, that only suggested the idea--if I really wanted to troll you, I'd have suggested repeating for each setting and genre as well--which I won't, since I'm not a masochist.)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on January 02, 2017, 08:23:15 AM
Bent and Twisted
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/“Avatar: the Last Airbender” crossover fanfic
Part 8
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg130889#msg130889)
Spoiler: Ecclesiastes • show
They had had to carry Emil back out to the vehicle, or rather Mikkel had had to; the boy was as limp as a rag doll, and utterly unresponsive to their attempts to rouse him.

Lalli took it as his personal charge to watch Emil sleep off the effects of his over-exertion; the others let him, unwilling to challenge him in his self-appointed task, especially after Tuuri explained how Lalli knew some rudimentary healing techniques common to Water-Benders of the old style.

Of course Reynir wanted to help, but Lalli told him through Tuuri that the best way the Life-Bender could help was to continue Dream-Talking with Onni. Shortly thereafter, Tuuri left to start the vehicle on its ponderous way to their next campsite, leaving Reynir with nothing to do but to take Lalli’s suggestion.

*

Reynir looked up at Onni expectantly, a trusting smile on his open face.

For his part, Onni looked at Reynir in perplexity, a frown wrinkling his features. “Do you know nothing of the Elements and how the world is set in order around them?”

Reynir’s face went through a series of contortions that Onni could only assume were meant to indicate that the tall redhead was attempting to think. At length, the young man from the Island of Life-Benders confessed, “Well, you see, they don’t really teach stuff like that outside of the Academy, and I was never very good in school, so... No, I guess?”

Onni shut his eyes and sighed deeply. “Then attend closely to my words now, for this is the basis on which all Bending is founded. Firstly, the Elements:

“EARTH is the Element of Being. Without it, nothing is material or tangible. Things composed solely of Earth are classified in the Mineral Kingdom.

“WATER is the Element of Growth. Without it, nothing can live. Things composed solely of Earth and Water are classified in the Vegetable Kingdom. This is why water-benders are healers.

“AIR is the Element of Spirit. Without it, nothing breathes. Things composed solely of Earth, Water and Air are classified in the Animal Kingdom. This is how I was able to banish the Death-Shades.

“FIRE is the Element of Mind. Without it, thought is impossible. The only thing composed of all four Elements is Man.”

Reynir was gaping in astonishment by the end. Onni sighed again.

“Did you actually hear any of that?”

Still struck dumb, Reynir merely nodded.

Onni smirked. “Perhaps you could repeat it for me, then.”

To the Air-Bender’s astonishment, Reynir repeated the lecture word for word. Then he added, “Since Lalli is a Water-Bender, does that mean that he and I are alike in some way?”

Onni stared at Reynir long enough for the redhead to begin to feel foolish for asking the question. Finally, Onni quietly replied, “I don’t know--yet. Perhaps, as we know each other better, I may find out. But now we shall move to the next step in your instruction.

“Benders have what might loosely be called a feel for their particular element as it exists in the world around them; and even as they Bend it, it likewise Bends them, albeit more subtly. An Earth-Bender should be slow to Bend, but when they Bend, let it be as an earthquake. A Water-Bender should Bend only in reaction to their opponent, letting them expend their efforts fruitlessly before rippling back in attack. A Fire-Bender should be swift and shifty as a forest fire, ever ready to take a presented opportunity. An Air-Bender must move as the wind takes them, never settling and never resting. So Bender of Life, when you feel the Life around you, ready to be Bent, what qualities or attributes are there, and how do they Bend you?”

This went on for quite some time, until Reynir finally got his nerve up enough to ask Onni about the weird sense that he’d had from Tuuri when she’d spoken to Emil just before the battle.

“Tuuri has tried for years to convince herself that she is not special, as Lalli or I are, and the she certainly cannot Bend in any way. Bend she does, however, whether she wishes to admit it or not; the time is at hand when she will no longer be capable of denying it.”

*

When Reynir woke, Emil was still asleep, Lalli keeping vigil over the slumbering Svensk as the vehicle lumbered on...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
So, just me--er, Onni blathering on about Elementalism here...

...And hinting at some other stuff, too.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on January 02, 2017, 04:45:18 PM
Oh, dear. A double post.

Wah.

The Red Herring League
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/Superhero AU fanfic
Part 9
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg124813#msg124813)
Spoiler: The Wyrm Turns Purple • show
“MRIIIIIIIIIIIIIH!”

The kitty-shriek echoed through the grossling-moss infested halls, reverberating its way into the muddled brains of the Red Herring League. Tuuri and Reynir, poised to remove their protective masks, paused as the calico ball of fluff streaked over to them, yelping “Miu miu miu” all the while.

“...Kitty?” Emil managed through his daze. How had Kitty made her way here?

A nearby ghost picked up the word. “Kit-ty?” Its mouth moved soundlessly for a moment before... “Kit-ty!” The mouth twisted into a parody of a smile. “I... like... Kit-ty.”

One of the trolls leapt at the kitten, but with a cry of “No... hurt... Kit-ty!”, the ghost lashed out at the troll...

*
Earlier...
*

“A garden must be tended to reach its full flower. Yes?”

The man they’d found “wandering aimlessly” in the ruins of the Bolbro neighborhood of Odense didn’t look like an evil mastermind; this was among his greatest assets.

“Yes,” the Heroes chorused, looking at each other in confusion.

“Such consistent tending is a discipline of its own. Yes?”

“...Yyyyes.”

“The discipline of cultivation is one where Man shows his mastery over Nature. Yes?”

“Yes.”

“Are you disciples?”

“Yes.”

“Come with me.”

They were led through a grossling-moss covered building, still mostly intact after all these years, into a room that had served as a private hospital ward during the Outbreak. In their altered state of mind, the Heroes of the League could plainly see the ghosts floating passively over the beds where their bodies still lay.

There were trolls and beasts of various shapes and sizes in the room as well, though they avoided the haunted beds. A sudden realization swept the League like a cold wind: the mastermind meant to infect Tuuri and Reynir...

*
Now...
*

In a matter of moments, the ghost had swept the room clear of grosslings, repeating its cry of, “Not... hurt... Kit-ty!” all the while.

Lalli looked at the ghost solemnly. “Thank you,” he whispered.

The ghost smiled somewhat tremulously back. “Kit-ty.”

Then Lalli used his other power, the power no one (not even Onni) had ever found out about, and sent the ghost where it belonged. In the end, it was only possible because the ghost had finally remembered something about itself--“I... like... Kit-ty.”

Likewise with the handful of other ghosts, who had heretofore simply hovered by their remains with an air of disapproval; this feeling, based on an “Oh, that one’s doing that again” memory, again proved the key to releasing them.

“Miu?” Kitty asked, rubbing against Lalli’s leg and looking up at him with too-knowing eyes.

Lalli was about to answer her when a new flood of grosslings burst into the room. There were far too many for even the Red Terror and the Firework to hold back long enough for Super Tuuri and the Helper to make their escape.

“MRIIIIIIIIIIIIIH!”

The kitty-shriek echoed through the grossling-moss infested halls, reverberating its way into the muddled brains of the Red Herring League.

With a pop of displaced air, Tuuri and Reynir vanished, only to be replaced by piles of sparkly furballs! The grosslings reared back and fled as quickly as they had entered, leaving only the immune members of the League, the furballs, and the mastermind.

“Kitty can teleport stuff?” Sigrun asked through her befuddlement.

“I... suppose... so...” Mikkel managed. His eyes went to the mastermind, now hunched over at the mounting squeals from the massed furballs, and a Grave frown appeared on his face.

“Not like that, Mikkel,” Sigrun said, shaking her head both to clear the cobwebs out and to reinforce her command. “Not like this: it’s murder.”

“He meant to murder Tuuri and Reynir,” Mikkel said heavily, not taking his gaze from the mastermind.

“But we’re Heroes,” Emil objected. “We don’t murder.”

“What would Tuuri and Reynir say?” Sigrun added, seeing Emil’s remark hit home.

What really put the matter over, though, was when Lalli came up to Mikkel, put his hand on the big Dane’s chest, and murmured, “Ei,” in his usual soft tones. Mikkel knew as well as the rest of them what that word meant by now.

“Leave him to the sparklers,” Sigrun said. “They may deafen him, but he’ll live.”

“Unless his pets decide he’s better as dinner,” Emil suggested hopefully, picking Kitty up as they left for the FELINOPEDE...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
Yes, Kitty can teleport things and people; but they’ll have problems exploiting that since, you know, she’s a cat. (Meow. Meow. Meow.)

In other news, I’ve been waiting to show these lovely portraits by Tr off again:
(http://i.imgur.com/qunGlGJ.png)
(http://i.imgur.com/XIiE4rA.png)

Aren’t they wonderful?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on January 02, 2017, 05:21:14 PM
Most best reason for a double post, LooNEY!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on January 02, 2017, 07:03:30 PM
…Oh, yeah; I need to make an announcement.

So, just to play havoc with Lazy8's All-Encompassing Fanfiction Index (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=943.0), I'm starting a new collection of one-shots (or three, but I'll explain later) called Alphabet Soup. As the name (hopefully) implies, each one-shot's title will begin with a different letter of the (English) alphabet. Where it'll play havoc with the Index, and why it's three collections, is because there will be a set of titles beginning with "A/An" (e.g., "An After-Dinner Chat"), a set that's anarthrous ("no article", e.g. "Asterisks and Obelisks"), and a set beginning with "The" (e.g., "The Aforementioned"). So instead of 26, the collection(s) will come to 78 one-shots in toto.

As per my usual practice, they'll be posted here 24ish hours before they get posted to AO3, so essentially, I'm going to be spamming the thread for a while.

So, would anyone else like to try their hand at this, too?


Mmmaybe, but only the anarthrous variety.  (I learnt a new word, oh boy!)  Have you a deadline and/or schedule?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on January 02, 2017, 07:22:59 PM

Mmmaybe, but only the anarthrous variety.  (I learnt a new word, oh boy!)  Have you a deadline and/or schedule?
*Looks at update history*

…Of course I have schedule and deadlines in mind. I…

*Repressed laughter bursts out in huge guffaw*

Uhhhhhh…

No, there will be no schedule or deadlines for this, as such, aside from "I'll start after my next WIP begins" and "I'll keep updating my WIPs while I do it" and "After I start, there won't be any one-shots that aren't part of it until I'm done". Yeah, those three thing will be pretty much it.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on January 02, 2017, 08:20:22 PM
So apparently I don't have the time nor energy to work on the fic I should have posted for LAST YEAR, but I have plenty of time to bang out this piece of steaming agnst

Concerning Tuuri and how she and her cousin decide to deal with her infection.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/9173155

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on January 02, 2017, 10:23:36 PM
No, this is not my first one-shot for LooNEY_DAC's new challenge, it is a new chapter of the superhero AU story I've been stringing along for the better part of this year, for the benefit of both of you still reading.
http://archiveofourown.org/works/6610714/chapters/20828407

A bit of yakkity-yak character development again (Onni's recovery, Tuuri getting her head around Reynir's adventure, Sigrun discovering something new about her teammate Clara), but I will return to the action soon. I mostly needed to make myself sit and concentrate on writing again after fulfilling various art challenges for the holiday season (etc).
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on January 02, 2017, 10:34:39 PM
So apparently I don't have the time nor energy to work on the fic I should have posted for LAST YEAR, but I have plenty of time to bang out this piece of steaming agnst

Concerning Tuuri and how she and her cousin decide to deal with her infection.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/9173155

Angst served hot and very well-salted.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Windfighter on January 02, 2017, 11:15:09 PM
…Oh, yeah; I need to make an announcement.

So, just to play havoc with Lazy8's All-Encompassing Fanfiction Index (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=943.0), I'm starting a new collection of one-shots (or three, but I'll explain later) called Alphabet Soup. As the name (hopefully) implies, each one-shot's title will begin with a different letter of the (English) alphabet. Where it'll play havoc with the Index, and why it's three collections, is because there will be a set of titles beginning with "A/An" (e.g., "An After-Dinner Chat"), a set that's anarthrous ("no article", e.g. "Asterisks and Obelisks"), and a set beginning with "The" (e.g., "The Aforementioned"). So instead of 26, the collection(s) will come to 78 one-shots in toto.

As per my usual practice, they'll be posted here 24ish hours before they get posted to AO3, so essentially, I'm going to be spamming the thread for a while.

So, would anyone else like to try their hand at this, too?

I, uh, maybe, if I understood what's going on :P I get the part with "They should all begin with different letters of the alphabet" but then you bring weird words into the mix!
(Also hey, I seem to be doing the "The"-part with the chapters for my Project SSSS! Awesome! I'm Awesome! Too bad it's not one-shots :P)
(Also maybe I shouldn't accept more challenges before I finish the relationship and the 100 SSSS-fics challenges but who's gonna stop me?)
(I really need to finish story 20 and 21)
(I'm just so angry at story 20 <.<)
(Oh well, one day <3)
(Fine, I accept the challenge! Let's see if I can find... what did you say? ...78 ways to kill off Emil!)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on January 03, 2017, 12:12:42 AM
Is it just me, or is it time for something silly?



Let me see…

…Ah, here it is!

Sigrun’s Shenanigans
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Part 3
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg122713#msg122713)
Spoiler: The Courtship of Fru General Eide • show
Now, I told you all how my Mom finally got sick of waiting for Dad to spit it out and proposed to him on their first shared battlefield, right? What I didn’t say is how Dad had a rival for her hand, but only after they’d both been made generals!

I was only a toddler at the time--my grossling kill count was only at three, if you can believe it--so I wasn’t really paying attention to adult stuff like that. Mom and Dad actually liked to tell the story, though, since it shows how the martial virtue of fortitude can help you win battles you don’t even know you’re fighting.

Anyway, this one year, Mom went to Sweden to help with the Cleansing campaign, and she came back with a beau! Everyone was shocked that the idiot had followed her back home after a campaign fling, but wherever she went on her duties, there he was.

He was a big, husky blond Swede who thought that being a Swede made him better than anyone else around--even though he was only a captain. That, and the fact that he was trying to break up Dalsnes’ favorite couple, ensured the whole town went out of their way to make life miserable for him. You wouldn’t believe the pranks they pulled on him--No, Mikkel, I won’t give you any details; you’d use them on some Danish stuffed shirt and the details would get back to Trond and he’d know that I told you!

Anyway, more or less everybody got in on the schemes except Mom and Dad. You see, Dad knew Mom liked having the wuss around--and he was a total wuss, not like my little Viking here--and Dad was and is man enough to let himself be talked about behind his back, if it would make Mom happy. So Dad stayed away from the various plots and schemes too.

The wussy Swede was quite a wuss, let me tell you; I’m still surprised he made Captain, unless it was by being some Swede general’s boy-toy, because he sure was no leader. Half the time we let him lead a Hunting sortie, he’d come back with half the troops ready to knife him in the back.

Now, Mom says she lost patience with the wuss long before the end, and I’m inclined to believe her; but Dad says that Mom still wasn’t too keen on letting the wuss go, and I can see that, too; I’ve seen enough stuff limp on well after its time because one or both parties couldn’t quite make themselves let go that it’s plausible. Regardless, the wuss stayed almost a year, but neither our pranks nor our troll season did for him in the end.

What finally happened was that Mom actually got caught up in one of the nastier pranks they’d laid for the wuss, and of course a grossling was handy to try to take advantage of it. Well, the wuss fainted instead of fighting, and Mom was about looking for her ride to Valhalla when Dad came in.

You see, Dad had been watching from the wings, mostly for his own amusement at seeing the wuss flail like a fool--seriously, Blondie, you did better than him on our first raid--but when he saw Mom was actually in danger, Dad didn’t wait a minute before jumping in. He let the grossling wail on him so Mom could get her breath back and finish it off, which she did.

The wuss had been watching through his supposed faint, and when he “came to”, he knew the only thing he could do was leave, so he did. You’re right, Short Stuff, it certainly did take him long enough to get the message.

But speaking of messages, that reminds me of the time...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
Again, it’s not dead!!!

...I’ve just been keeping it reined in until it was needed again.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Gaemmel on January 03, 2017, 07:31:11 AM
LooNEY_DAC, that sounds interesting! Are you planning on giving any prompts or should everyone just come up with their own titles?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on January 03, 2017, 08:05:31 AM
...apparently I've decided my Matrix croSSSSover needs to be revived. So here's the third installment in the series. But first, links to prior parts:

Dangerous
Part 1 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg86776#msg86776)
Part 2 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg90023#msg90023)
Part 3 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg90712#msg90712)
Part 4 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg93144#msg93144)

Against All Odds
Prologue (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg93266#msg93266)
Part 1 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg93757#msg93757)
Part 2 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg94373#msg94373)
Part 3 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg95361#msg95361)
Part 4 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg96070#msg96070)
Epilogue (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg131657#msg131657)

And the next in the series:

Title: The Best of Intentions
Inspiration: "Intention" by District 78
Characters: Mikkel, Michael, appearances by crew - Reynir + Onni
Warnings: Some human experimentation and "for the greater good," on the same level as what we saw in canon for the murderghosts' backstory. I also don't have this very well planned out yet, so read at your own risk.

Spoiler: Prologue • show
“…do you ever wonder whether we're doing the right thing?”

“Don't tell me you're a machine sympathizer now.”

“You of all people ought to know better than that. I'm talking about whether it's right for us.”

“We're fighting to free the human race. This isn't some video game, this is war. Anyone who can't handle a few casualties should never have jacked out.”

“And anyone who says as much ought to realize that some of us have never had that option.”

“Yet you did have the option to work on this project. This is all completely voluntary on your part.”

“Look, all I'm saying is that we might want to test this a bit more extensively before we try putting it to practical use. I've only been debugging this code for a few days. I know there are mistakes in it I still haven't caught.”

“And we know that we can't afford to wait any longer. If things keep going at this rate it's going to be the end of humanity as we know it.”

“You don't know it. In spite of your fearmongering, Zion has yet to be attacked. But if you try out an untested code on something as complex at the Matrix—”

“So you had better finish testing it before we get to the deadline, is that clear?”

“… … It's clear.”


Spoiler: Notes • show
...nothing much to say on this one, we'll get to the meat of the story momentarily...


Next part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg131792#msg131792)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on January 03, 2017, 07:16:27 PM
...okay, you need more than that. I understand. So here's the first full chapter of "The Best of Intentions", then.

Prologue (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg131767#msg131767)

Spoiler: Part 1 • show
“Okay, so here's how this works.” Sigrun was looking excessively pleased with herself—far too pleased for Emil's comfort. “We're here to show Twig the ropes, right?” She jerked her head toward Lalli, who was standing to the side of the mat and looking exceedingly uncertain about the uniform he was wearing. “So how about you take him a few rounds just to see how he measures up.”

Emil breathed a quiet sigh of relief. At least she wasn't going to spar with him right away, or subject Lalli to any of her wild kicks so soon after he'd started. He shifted into the guard position. “Ready whenever you are.”

He supposed he'd have to go easy. Even with upload, there were things to learn. Lalli wouldn't—

Emil yelped in surprise when Lalli came at him with catlike grace. A step back barely took him out of range of the other's fist; he tried to throw a punch of his own, but a quick inward block knocked it away, and then Lalli was spinning backward to drive a bony elbow straight into his gut.

The wooden support beam splintered beneath his back as he crashed into it. Sigrun threw back her head and burst out laughing.

“Okay, now that's just not fair.” Getting thrashed by Sigrun was one thing—she was older than he was and had had a lot more practice at this whole “free your mind” thing—but Lalli? The guy who'd just barely started walking?

Emil was starting to think that some jealous programmer had deliberately given him a subpar upload when he'd been in training.

“Did I hurt you?” Lalli was kneeling in front of him, reaching out but not touching, as if he was unsure where a touch would actually be helpful.

“No.” Emil was gasping for breath after the wind had been knocked out of him, but there was no way he was going to admit to being in severe pain in the middle of a sparring program.

“Nothing but his pride.” She returned her attention to Emil. “Want to give it another go, or is it my turn to see what he's made of?”

As it turned out, Emil was no match for Lalli. He managed only two more rounds before Sigrun stepped in to take over.

Lalli was good. While Sigrun still had the upper hand most of the time, Emil could see her working for it in a way she never had while sparring him. What Lalli lacked in terms of Sigrun's raw power he made up for in speed, and Emil watched with no small amount of envy as he ducked and dodged almost faster than the eye could follow while Sigrun fought to land a blow on him. The match only ended when Lalli misjudged a strike; seeing the opening, Sigrun grabbed his arm and used his own momentum to throw him into the wall.

“Okay,” Sigrun panted. “You definitely need to join my crew.”

“We’re coming up on Zion in less than an hour.” Mikkel’s voice reverberated through the air around them. “Everyone needs to come out and prepare for landing.”

“We don’t need a full hour for that!” Sigrun shouted at the ceiling—the two of them had this argument every. Single. Time. “How about you try lightening up a bit?”

“I would also like to have a word with you—all of you—before we land.” Suddenly, Mikkel’s voice had taken on an odd inflection. He sounded almost… strangled.

“Okay.” Sigrun cocked her head, for once not fighting him right up until the last minute. “We’ll be right out.”

“Tuuri,” Mikkel said even before they had finished sitting up. “Tell them what you just told me about what you found in the code of the Matrix.”

“Right.” Tuuri pulled up a window, in which the glowing green code of the Matrix was frozen in place.  “You see this here?”

Emil nodded, leaned forward and tried to pretend he knew what she was talking about. Sigrun didn’t even bother pretending, merely crossed her arms with an impatient huff. Lalli, though, looked as if he actually knew what she was talking about; he leaned forward, staring intently at the screen as his eyes moved rapidly from one side to the other.

“This is what the Matrix normally looks like,” Tuuri continued, oblivious to the engagement level of her audience. “When I was on watch a few days ago, though, I saw an anomaly,” she pulled up a second window, and tapped the screen at a point in the code that was no different from anywhere else as far as Emil could tell, “here.”

“So what’s the deal, Fuzz?” Sigrun might not have been able to read the code but now her interest was piqued; she leaned forward, squinting as if she expected the green symbols to form a pretty picture if only they got blurry enough. “How does it look when you’re actually in the Matrix?”

“Well, I know it’s a parasite program. It seems to have infected several programs within the Matrix and altered the way that they function.” Behind him, Onni violently twitched. “But I’m still working on figuring out what it’s supposed to do…”

“I know what it’s supposed to do.” Mikkel’s voice was heavy. “But it will take longer than an hour to explain.” He pinched the bridge of his nose. “Once we get to Zion, I want to talk with you—all of you—in private.”

“You heard the man.” For once, Sigrun’s voice was deadly serious, and she gave Mikkel a nod as she spoke. “Soon as we get to the city, everyone meets up. Say—”

“The mechanical level,” Tuuri suggested. “No one ever goes down there.”

“Then it’s settled. Mechanical level, soon as we land. Don’t be late.”


Spoiler: Notes • show
Could it be? Are we finally seeing some crossover with something other than the characters?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on January 04, 2017, 02:12:51 AM
Lazy8, I don't know anything about the Matrix universe, and you've got me intrigued! I'll be reading right along!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on January 04, 2017, 02:50:19 AM
Likewise and likewise.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on January 05, 2017, 12:38:56 AM
LooNEY_DAC, that sounds interesting! Are you planning on giving any prompts or should everyone just come up with their own titles?
Sorry for the belated response. This being a very freeform exercise, I am not planning on spitting out prompts; part of the idea was that you would come up with story-appropriate titles of your own that met the A-to-Z theme.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on January 05, 2017, 08:22:40 AM
Sorry for the belated response. This being a very freeform exercise, I am not planning on spitting out prompts; part of the idea was that you would come up with story-appropriate titles of your own that met the A-to-Z theme.

*immediately finds a random word generator*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Dverghamrar on January 05, 2017, 10:57:08 AM
I haven't been keeping up with logging my fics here, so here are all of the stuff I've written since my last post. There's a wide variety from humor, crack, depressing stuff, hurt/comfort, gen, romance, etc. :)

Exchange fics:

Spoiler: show
This one was for Yuletide:

Title: A Pause in Drowning (http://archiveofourown.org/works/8888350)
Pairings/Characters: Reynir & Lalli       
Words: +2,300
Rating: Teen   
Content/Warning: No warnings. Content tags: Dreamscapes Finnish Mythology - Freeform Mild Hurt/Comfort.
Summary: Every winter, Lalli becomes more reserved than usual, always looking into a black box while alone in his Haven. Reynir wants to know what's in the box.

And this one was for the SSSS Secret Santa. I don't think I've shared it yet here :)

Title: A Gift Of Your Time (http://archiveofourown.org/works/8828644)
Pairings/Characters: Reynir/Lalli, Original Characters
Words: ~1,880
Rating: General   
Content/Warning: No warnings. Content tags: Mages. 
Summary: Another journal of Árni's, discovered in the attic of Reynir's home, sends him and Lalli down a curious dream-road one winter night.



Other non-exchange works:

Spoiler: show
Title: Ode to Oblivion (http://archiveofourown.org/works/9106849)
Pairings/Characters: Reynir/Lalli, past Lalli/Original Male Character 
Words: ~2,800
Rating: Teen   
Content/Warning: PLEASE read these warnings: Suicide Attempt, Hurt/Comfort, Past Abuse, Past Violence, Happy Ending, Hopeful Ending (this was cathartic for me to write, but I don't know if it will be the same or triggering for the reader. It ranks at T level, so it's posted here, but just take those warnings as a big precaution. Thank you.)
Summary: That was the thing about Reynir. Always forgiving. If only he himself could learn from that.

Title: Sweater Thief (http://archiveofourown.org/works/9107437)
Pairings/Characters: Reynir/Lalli   
Words: 847
Rating: Teen   
Content/Warning: No warnings. Content tags: Humor, some sexual humor.
Summary: Reynir is looking for his last clean sweater before he can get to work, but someone has stolen it.

Title: This Is The Sound Of Our Soul (http://archiveofourown.org/works/9142786)
Pairings/Characters: Reynir/Lalli
Words: 1,580+
Rating: Teen   
Content/Warning: No warnings. Content tags: New Year's Eve, Romance, Kissing, Slow Dancing, Fluff 
Summary: "Sand's a time of its own. Take your seaside arms and write the next line. Oh, I want the truth to be known.”

Title: The Year of the Turtle (http://archiveofourown.org/works/9182554)
Pairings/Characters: Reynir/Lalli, Original Characters 
Words: 2017 (to welcome the new year! Posted on Tolkien's birthday, no less because this is how I show my appreciation for the most best wordsmith! <3)
Rating: Teen   
Content/Warning: No warnings. Content tags: CRACK!,  Humor, No Apologies, (crack) Mage versus Kade, some foul language
Summary: Reynir and Lalli sneak away from the tank for some alone time when they are ambushed by a kade and taken away to be cruelly murdered. Luckily for them, rescue is near at hand. And a very unusual hero at that.

Title: Most Precious and Fragile (http://archiveofourown.org/works/9197639)
Pairings/Characters: Sigrun/Tuuri
Words: 649
Rating: Teen   
Content/Warning: No warnings. Content tags: Hurt/Comfort, Nightmares
Summary: A dream, Sigrun told herself. It was just a dream.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Dverghamrar on January 05, 2017, 11:22:30 PM
Sorry for double-posting, but I posted another fic tonight. I got...really inspired by recent events in the comic. I'm also a bit sad that we might not be seeing Sigrun's reaction to Tuuri's injury any time soon, and so my imagination took over...and came up with this. It ended up being my last fic needed to get a bingo for H/C Bingo (I was planning something with Emil previously. Still plan on writing it, but not right now.)

This one's a bit of a tearjerker, I would say. Or not, depending on how one looks at it.

Title: Offer of the Crone (http://archiveofourown.org/works/9219143)
Pairings/Characters: Sigrun/Tuuri
Words: 904 
Rating: Teen   
Content/Warning: No warnings. Content tags: Hurt/Comfort, Self-Sacrifice 
Summary: Sigrun prided herself in never needing anything...until Tuuri gets injured and infected during the expedition.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Dai on January 06, 2017, 10:46:15 AM
This is a story that I randomly entitled "What If A Lot Of Really Bad Stuff Happened?", just because I couldn't think of anything else...

                                                 *********************************************

Year 91, a meeting in the offices of the Nordic Council - The Report on the Danish Book Salvage Disaster:

"The meeting will please come to order." (Murmurs and chair-scraping)

"The investigation into the disaster of the expedition to the Danish mainland has concluded. All findings and conclusions are recorded in your copies of the report." (General shuffling of papers)

"As you all know, the aftermath of this apparently insignificant venture has been potentially disastrous. It was only desperation and sheer dumb luck that prevented a catastrophe." (Murmurs and whispers, plus hostile glares at a group of four, who look like they are attempting to sink through the floor)

"For a start, this venture was very poorly planned, founded in greed and financed on a shoestring. The equipment was utterly inadequate for the task - the expedition crew, undermanned and under-trained."

"From the very beginning, the expedition appeared to be jinxed - the team leader and the expedition driver both caused serious property damage due to wild driving, even before leaving Øresund Base. Shortly thereafter, the Øresund Bridge, the only land connection to the Danish mainland, collapsed after the expedition vehicle passed over it."

"From that point, the disasters simply snowballed. By the time of the emergency evacuation:

- The expedition had disturbed a nest of previously unknown - and exceptionally hostile - spiritual entities. An attack by these ghosts and an army of trolls and beasts, led to the injury of the team's driver/mechanic/skald by an ambushing troll. Luckily, the injury was not caused by a troll's bite, but by its serrated tail, so the injury was not infectious but merely disabling,

- A Finnish mage (operating from Mora) was forced to over-exert himself in order to defend the expedition from the sheer numbers of attacking trolls and beasts. This effort was very nearly fatal and he is currently convalescing after spending two months in a coma,

- The scout, forced to perform the tasks of both day and night scout by himself, began suffering from advanced sleep deprivation. He began hallucinating about trolls coming through the walls and had to be restrained and heavily sedated after attempting to stab the medic who he believed was turning into a Troll,

- The expedition Cleanser barely stopped a troll attack on the vehicle with fire-bombs and flamethrower, incidentally incinerating a large proportion of the books they had already salvaged, plus burning off his hair and eyebrows,

- The medic was forced to amputate the team leader's badly infected arm without general anaesthetic,

- Clumsy attempts by the remaining able-bodied crew to drive the vehicle resulted in it exploding, after successive collisions eventually jarred loose a canister of incendiary fuel, destroying every single remaining book the team had collected, plus most of the food and a large crate of decorative candles,

- The expedition team was forced to travel to the emergency evacuation point on foot. The spirits followed the expedition members to the evacuation point, where the ship's crew was attacked, first by a horde of spirit-driven Beasts and Trolls, then by the ghosts themselves."

"By sheer luck, the ship was saved from the spiritual attack by the chance presence of a stowaway who just happened to be a novice mage. His untrained skills were enough to halt the advance of the spirits long enough for the ship to get away from the dock - and as you know, these ghosts cannot travel over water."

"The ship, however, was seriously damaged by the Troll attack, with a number of injuries suffered. The ship had insufficient able-bodied crew or spare parts to make the necessary repairs in order to make it back to the quarantine station. The ship was leaking badly, the weather was getting worse, so a radio distress call was sent. The ship was so close to sinking that the crew was preparing to take to the lifeboats, but fortunately, the crew were rescued by a fishing boat, despite high seas."

"But even then, there was trouble. Apparently, the fishing boat's captain had previously encountered the expedition's personnel and was initially unwilling to let them on board, bearing some ill-will towards one of the organizers." (The eldest of the group of four squirms uneasily)

"When the ship docked at the quarantine station, more havoc ensued. A particularly agile troll had managed to cling to the hull of the evacuation ship during the chaos of the battle. It had remained clinging to the side of the ship until the crew was rescued by the fishing boat, then transferred unnoticed to that ship's hull during the storm."
(*Note: The ship's cats naturally responded to the presence of the troll, but the crew assumed they were reacting to the large number of Sea-Beasts in the vicinity.)
"When docking, the troll launched its attack, taking the personnel completely by surprise and causing a number of casualties. It nearly broke out of the quarantine zone and into the residential quarters before being killed. The facility was severely damaged and was out of commission for months, until repair and quarantine procedures could be completed."


"In conclusion, this report finds that this expedition was not only poorly planned, but also premature. It recommends no further expeditions into the deep Silent World until human society has sufficiently recovered in numbers and can make such a venture without stirring up creatures that threaten the very existence of human settlements." (Glares now so intense, the four are in danger of spontaneously combusting)

"Now, regarding punishment for the damage wrought by this ill-advised venture - The Nordic Council recommendations are as follows:"

"Firstly - heavy fines for the expedition organizers." (Groans from the group of four)

"Secondly - the Västerströms have to do all of their own future baby-sitting." (Screams of anguish from the Västerströms)

(Meeting ends)

                                                          ************************************
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Gaemmel on January 06, 2017, 12:54:25 PM
I present to you what I have been working on before and after christmas: http://archiveofourown.org/works/9225443 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/9225443)

It's mostly Emil/Lalli  hurt/comfort and Emil fussing over his injuried muffin. Nothing happens that can't be fixed, I guess. (I wish I could say the same for the current pages of the comic)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Fauna on January 06, 2017, 06:10:15 PM
Here's a short fic to go with page 657:

And then the creature that had once been many remembered.
It remembered every year of waiting. The slow rotting of the world that whispered to them that there was no help left to wait for, and then their anger and anguish when living ones did come after all that time, and all that waiting, only to selfishly leave them behind.
But the images were far worse. They were old things that they had hoped were long forgotten, flickering in and out of their mind like bats under a streetlamp, there one second and gone the next. Smiling faces of ones who had loved them. The warmth of loving them back. The un-hunger and wholeness, and the gentle touch of a sun that did not burn and sear their skin.
All the anger, fear and contempt they had used to cover up the pain, had been ripped up by the flames, and out through the tear came the anguish, and the void. The wretched flame had illuminated, making them SEE, all those hideous things they had gone into the darkness to hide from. Crushed hope ached in them. They reached - feebly, desperately, with sickening pointlessness - for the ghostly images that had re-surfaced, as if they could cling to them and climb back into that life without this pain.

A faint understanding whispered in their mind. It hadn't just been the anger, or the hunger. There was that, but then there was those two. The one with the braid. And the sneaky one. They reminded it of something intangible, something Beyond, something that should have been their birthright. Something that.. wasn't. It couldn't remember exactly what anymore, and that made it worse, and for a brief second the murderous rage flared, because they HAD NO RIGHT to make it remember. This was THEIR FAULT. Anger felt good - it distracted from the anguish. But it drowned, and faded, and that, too, was gone. And they were alone.

All those things, those safe things, the fire had burned them all. The anger and the hunger. Even the fear. And so there was only the agony, and it was as bottomless as the night and as cold as their corpses had felt when their hearts had only just stopped beating.

They breathed a faint static into the air. Once, it would've been a voice, but now it was little more than a chill that they didn't recognize the sound of. It clicked for a moment. Before they remembered words.
They spoke to it all - to the darkness and the void. Called out to mothers and fathers, spouses, siblings, children. Friends. Even to the faint recollection of themselves. Everyone, and everything, that appeared in the faint silvers of their resurfacing memory in the dreamlike illusion that some one could reply. They spoke to that intangible, un-remembered thing. They spoke to a God that had forsaken them all.
".... hElp. heLP Me. Is theRE AnyboDY TheRE. "
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on January 07, 2017, 08:21:34 PM
TRIGGER WARNING FOR PHYSICAL ABUSE

I’M NOT KIDDING HERE

Bent and Twisted
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/“Avatar: the Last Airbender” crossover fanfic
Part 9
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg131680#msg131680)
Spoiler: Lamentations and Psalms • show
A tiny flame bloomed on one upturned corner of the First Rule poster that had almost been the death of them, but before the flame could do more than discolor the paper, it was snuffed out, leaving only a wisp of smoke behind.

“Emil’s awake,” Sigrun told Mikkel.

“You don’t say,” Mikkel replied dryly, half-a-dozen wisps of smoke rising from his hair. “Fortunately, so is Lalli. Perhaps Emil will be more cooperative for him.”

Sigrun frowned. “I get the feeling you remind Golden Boy too much of a mean teacher of his or something. Once we Return, I swear I’m gonna go find those incompetent Svensk and...”

Mikkel waited until she’d run out of steam before observing, “You’re oddly choleric for an Earth-Bender.”

“And Emil’s a melancholic, which can be dangerous for a Fire-Bender, but he’s been coming along nicely ’til he scared himself just now.” Sigrun grinned. “Besides, that’s why we get along so well together. We’re both Earth and Fire.”

*

Lalli was deeply unhappy at having to confer with Onni while Reynir was in the dream with them, but it couldn’t be helped: he needed to try to hash out just what exactly the encounter with Sonew had portended.

Sonew was not a “natural” Bender; by his own admission, he had made a deal with something or someone from the spirit world to gain his powers. That this bargain even existed worried Lalli; the thought that it might not be the only such bargain was frankly terrifying.

Then there were the Death-Shades. Sonew had admitted to knowing about them and their pursuit of Lalli’s group, and had rather implied that he had been an agent in setting the Death-Shades after them.

All these questions and more were burning in Lalli’s mind, demanding answers that Onni alone of Lalli’s ken might be able to answer; such was the force that drove Lalli to seek Onni’s counsel in their dream, regardless of whether or not the redheaded Life-Bender was present.

*

Emil was trying desperately to keep from igniting everything around him, as he and Sigrun were out here alone under the stars. The fire within him snarled and chafed at its confinement, but he kept beating it back.

They were out on a hunting trip, where the least little slip-up on Emil’s part might result not simply in injury to one or both of them but also the whole party’s going hungry until they could catch something else. The strain of this only amplified Emil’s absolute horror over what he’d done to Sonew, making it that much harder to keep the fire banked.

They were most fortunate that night: a non-Reaving-Bent bear wandered into their trap. Of course, this embarrassment of riches meant hours’ worth of work in hauling it back to camp, so Sigrun got to work gutting their kill with a will, calling for Emil to help her.

“Roll up your sleeves and let’s get to it,” she ordered him.

Emil swallowed hard. Roll up his sleeves? It was bad enough that they all knew he had shamed himself sufficiently to result in his Exile, but this would be so much worse...

His deliberations were cut off when an impatient Sigrun reached over and yanked one of his sleeves up to the elbow, exposing a myriad of tiny scars in row upon orderly row. Aghast, Sigrun drew her arm back, grasping for words which seemed to have fled her mind. “Emil...”

The blonde Svensk ducked his head in shame. His voice was flat and dead as he told her, “You kept insisting my ‘little blazes’ would stop--I didn’t want you to see how wrong you were, but now you can.” He pointed to a very faded one near his wrist. “This was my first punishment for setting something alight--my mom’s hair. Usually, it only takes one or two of these to teach a Fire-Bender not to lose control; lack of control can kill or maim so easily that the lesson must be burned into you. But I never could learn it.”

Sigrun’s retort was pithily encapsulated in a single word that expressed her feelings towards the Svensk and their teaching methods. Then she added for good measure, “Then why did your little ‘incidents’ drop to one or two a day over the last month?”

Emil shrugged. Still with that dead, hopeless tone in his voice, he said, “You’ve all been so nice to me, and I haven’t deserved it in the least...”

The moon rose to the sight of Sigrun holding a sobbing Emil.

*

The Death-Shades surrounded the camp, but no one stirred save Tuuri. Though she tried to rouse the others, they lay where they were, as though already drained by the hungry hordes that steadily approached them.

There was nowhere to run, and no one else who could fight. Tuuri was on her own.

Just before the lead ghost would have entered the vehicle, it happened. The last of Tuuri’s restraint snapped. She could not let this happen.

Her eyes shining blue, Tuuri announced, “Leave now. There is only terror for you here.

Halt and heed me, Fiendish Phantoms
Hollow husks of horrid hunger
Unto us now come unwelcome
Sink into my spell, you spirits!


Can you feel the fear awaken?
Long-held lust yet lose its luster?
Now at last has passed your longing
Hounded down by mounting terror!


Feed? No, flee, indeed, you evils!
Nevermore henceforth to hound us!


Before the last syllable had finished echoing into the night, the Death-Shades had flown, mashing into each other in their haste to escape the sudden terror that had overtaken them. Out of the world of flesh they fled and back to their own realm of spirits, pausing only briefly to let their go-between know that their deal with him was off, now and forever.

“We knew you could do it.” Tuuri turned in surprise at the voice...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
Aaaaand Tuuri isn’t the Avatar either.

But she isn’t precisely a classical Bender, either.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on January 07, 2017, 10:39:40 PM
Dai: that is blackly amusing. 'Their own babysitting' indeed!

Fauna: I'm glad you put this up here. Beautiful writing, stark and very intense.

LooNEY: This is becoming intriguing. Poor Emil....
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Gaemmel on January 08, 2017, 05:22:54 AM
Hey guys, I did something I have wanted to do for a long time: Start the old 2015 prompt challenge for SSSS and aRTD! The first chapter is up already, I expect the second one to be finished within the next hours:
http://archiveofourown.org/works/9234350/chapters/20941946 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/9234350/chapters/20941946)

Wish me luck in doing it all the way to the end!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on January 08, 2017, 07:01:10 AM
Is anyone in need of something silly and light to deal with the latest torture session cliffhanger that Minna's concocted?

The Reluctant Apprentice (http://archiveofourown.org/works/9249296)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Ragnarok on January 10, 2017, 04:48:45 PM
Chapter 22 is finally up over on AO3. It's another Sigrun one, which cements the idea in my head that said chapters are cursed. Enjoy!

http://archiveofourown.org/works/7707919/chapters/21033797 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7707919/chapters/21033797)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on January 11, 2017, 10:37:17 PM
The Good, the Bad, and the Bestial
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/Western crossover fanfic
Part 28
Caper the 4th: The Madsen Connection
Part 3
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg122006#msg122006)
Spoiler: Connecting the Dots • show
In retrospect, they were all lucky the whole of Milwaukee hadn’t burned down, though you’d have a tough time convincing Emil Westbrook of that.

Lalli Ghost-of-Forest and Tuuri Face-Like-Baby, however, were horror-struck at how near the Beer Capital of America came to going up in flames; Doc Mikkel asked whether they were hopping mad over it, and nearly got knifed before Emil and Sigrun intervened.

Reynir was just glad his braid hadn’t been singed.

Now, none of it could have happened in the first place if Onni Talks-To-Spirits hadn’t finally managed to overcome his trepidations and gone to Milwaukee; nor could it have happened if not for a certain redhead accidentally getting plastered again...

*

Well, this was certainly different.

Usually Reynir Saw various events playing out before him as though he were watching one of those “nickelodeon” things; this time, he was in the events, as though he were just dreaming normally.

Reynir was standing by a lake shore beneath a magnificently dramatic and imposing series of cliffs, while a man sobbed his eyes out a few feet in front of him. After a few moments of watching this in increasing perplexity, Reynir tried clearing his throat a few times in an attempt to make his presence known.

“It took you long enough.”

Reynir whirled in the direction the familiar voice had come from and beheld Lalli Ghost-of-Forest standing behind some weirdly shimmery kind of veil-like thing. The thin youth only nodded before looking over at the huddled crying man.

“ONNI!”

The sobbing stopped. The man raised his head, exposing a face that bore a distinct resemblance to Tuuri, though in masculine cast.

“ONNI! Let me in!”

The man leapt to his feet and sprang at Reynir, grabbing him by the lapels and crushing him against the cliffside. He then growled something utterly incoherent before Reynir had even gotten his wind back.

Finally, Reynir managed to blurt out, “I’m a friend! Ask Lalli!” And he pointed to where Lalli was still hammering against the veil-like thing.

The man dropped Reynir, turning to face Lalli, and Reynir suddenly remembered something. “Onni... That’s--You’re Tuuri’s brother, aren’t you?”

Onni whirled back to Reynir. Behind him, the veil parted, Lalli almost falling flat on his face immediately thereafter. “You know Lalli and Tuuri?” At Reynir’s nod, he asked in a sudden flood of words, “How is she? Is she homesick? Is she all right? Has she been eating well?”

Even as Onni asked, Lalli was running up to him. Right before Lalli reached Onni’s side, Onni turned and reached out his arms as if to hug the younger man. When Lalli recoiled, however, Onni placed his hands on Lalli’s shoulders. “It is good to see you.”

Reynir looked around Onni at Lalli. “What did you mean by ‘It took you long enough’?”

Lalli looked at Onni. “That’s Reynir. He Sees things when he drinks whiskey. Don’t know why he hasn’t been here before.” Then he looked at Reynir. “Onni and I can talk like this when we’re close enough. Thought you’d talk with me like this before now. Probably need to talk about what’s up in Milwaukee now.”

“Are you in Milwaukee now, Onni?” Reynir asked.

“No,” Onni and Lalli said simultaneously. Then, to Lalli’s obvious shock, Onni added, “But I’m on my way there now.”

Reynir frowned. “Well, you might be in for trouble, then.”

Onni grinned mirthlessly. “I already know I’m in for trouble,” he answered curtly. “I’ve left our homestead.” He looked back at Lalli. “You’re on your way to Milwaukee too, aren’t you?” At Lalli’s nod, Onni asked, “Does that mean you’re finally coming home?”

“Yes and no,” Reynir answered for Lalli. Lalli threw him a look, to which Reynir said, “Well, it’s true! I mean, I Saw you both going home for a while, but not just yet, and a whole bunch of other crazy stuff needs to happen first! Sorry, Onni,” he added at the other man’s sad look.

“Is this true?” Onni asked Lalli gruffly.

Lalli shrugged and gestured at Reynir, saying, “He’s the one who Sees stuff.” He shrugged again. “Saved our skins a few times that way.”

Onni turned to Reynir, his hands still on Lalli’s shoulders. “I need to know what you Saw,” he said, quietly but firmly...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
Oh, look. The latest part of my Western is up, right after someone doubted its existence.

What a surprise.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on January 12, 2017, 12:35:56 AM
More LooNEY Western! Hurray!
*settles in with popcorn*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on January 12, 2017, 03:35:45 AM
Excellent, LooNEY! By the way, a drawing on the Art thread has a Western Lalli - a rather cute one. You should maybe post a link there to your Western and Cave of Time AUs there?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on January 13, 2017, 07:17:29 AM
...LooNEY, I kind of hate you right about now.

But not as much as I hate my own brain, for insisting on adding that one extra thing...

Yes, every entry in this challenge will be named after a song that fits the same criteria. Every. Single. One.

Anywhere Is (http://archiveofourown.org/works/9308429/chapters/21096284)

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on January 13, 2017, 02:11:51 PM
The Eide Traveling Mercenaries, Er, Players
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/Napoleonic Wars AU fanfic
Part 1
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Spoiler: From an Engagement in Bolivia • show
Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Upper Peru [modern Bolivia]
February 7, 1814

The battlefield was covered with the dead and the dying, their pitiful cries the only things that broke the post-battle silence.

Overall, Sigrun Eide considered that their work had gone much better than expected; hopefully their employers agreed.

While the local leader, one Ignacio Warnes, had done a stellar job on his own, he was only one man; the addition of six assistants to his poster gave him a much-needed respite, as had the performances the Eide Traveling Players had staged for his benefit and to keep up their cover.

Even the best and most remunerative engagements must inevitably end, as Mikkel was fond of saying; so it was that they were called back to Europe for yet another job. If, as Sigrun more than half suspected, it proved not to their taste, the Eide Traveling Players would try another circuit of Germany, Switzerland and Italy.

In the meantime, they had to make their way back to Europe from a town in the middle of a civil war.

Naturally, Emil suggested leaving under cover of a forest fire; Tuuri and Lalli managed to talk him out of it, but their suggestion of slipping down the river and into a forest where they could lose any pursuit was just as impracticable, as they would need to abandon their faithful old wagon and its contents. Reynir had some weird idea about using a massed herd of sheep in place of the fire, while Mikkel wanted to run an absurd Trojan Horse scheme. Once again, the plan would have to come from Sigrun.

*

Well, that had gone much better than they’d expected, Sigrun thought upon their arrival in Montevideo a scant three months later. A few close calls with the natives, the rebels, the Spaniards, the bandits, and a weird group of clowns (of all things) notwithstanding, they had come through sound of limb and with all their possessions. Another week or so of performances here would see them ready to take ship back to Europe in high style.

Hopefully, their first performance here wouldn’t be their last, as had happened a time or two before. They were starting a new production of one of the favorites from their time in Galicia, since the locals (or the authorities) probably wouldn’t appreciate the revolutionary-oriented plays that had gone over so well in Santa Cruz.

The sluggardly pace of cross-Atlantic mail being well known to Sigrun (who had at certain times used it to her advantage), she had half expected to find a letter awaiting the troupe rescinding the offer and instead offering them service against the Portuguese in the abominable jungles of Brazil, or the French in Indo-China, or some such hot and miserable place. Fortunately for all concerned, this had not eventuated.

To a certain extent, they were all a bit homesick by now, so a nice ocean voyage back to Europe was just what they needed. Sigrun paused a moment, wondering if she could bribe Mikkel into telling the kids that such a voyage was, in fact, his prescription for what ailed them...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
Oh, look. I went and spun these guys off from their “Cave of Time” cameo.

I wanted to at least get this started before the Alphabet Soup began; updates may thus be even more sporadic than is my wont.

I will relate the brush with the “weird group of clowns” at some point.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on January 13, 2017, 10:00:28 PM
The Eide Traveling Mercenaries, Er, Players
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/Napoleonic Wars AU fanfic

Literally everything I know about the Napoleonic Wars comes from reading the Temeraire series, but this looks exciting!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on January 15, 2017, 01:52:59 AM
For some reason this next song prompted me to try my hand at a Western AU.
Even though I hate Westerns.
Why.

Blaze of Glory (http://archiveofourown.org/works/9308429/chapters/21142538)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on January 15, 2017, 02:08:57 AM
These are turning out interesting. And of course Reynir would turn up, and of course Mikkel would send him off to raise sheep, probably knowing full well that sheep-raising in the old West carried its own whole range of problems.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Gaemmel on January 16, 2017, 06:55:25 AM
Hey Lazy8, I really like the idea your brain subjected you to! Would you mind me joining in your specification of the challenge: using a song starting with each letter and writing a oneshot about it?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on January 16, 2017, 08:04:43 AM
Hey Lazy8, I really like the idea your brain subjected you to! Would you mind me joining in your specification of the challenge: using a song starting with each letter and writing a oneshot about it?

Go for it. *grumble* stupid brain *grumble*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Gaemmel on January 16, 2017, 08:37:17 AM
Nice, thanks!
I guess I will start the next days sometime, whenever motivation hits me.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Windfighter on January 16, 2017, 11:45:46 AM
I may join that challenge as well later! So many challenges! ...Maybe we should have a fanfic challenge index somewhere xD

Let's see, we have the 100 fic-challenge, the relationship-challenge, the alphabet-challenge and now the song-challenge (yes, I'm counting those seperately!)! Any other I've forgotten to join?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on January 16, 2017, 04:46:41 PM
Bent and Twisted
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/“Avatar: the Last Airbender” crossover fanfic
Part 10
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg132033#msg132033)
Spoiler: The Second Apocrypha • show
In the inky blackness of one long-forgotten corner of the Spirit Realm, a Presence lurked, mulling over the recent disasters in the Mortal Realm.

So, Sonew had fallen and the Death-Shades had failed her.

Of the two, the first was the greater blow to her plans, as Sonew had been by far her most capable, energetic and motivated servant in the Mortal Realm; losing the Death-Shades was a minor inconvenience at worst. Still, even minor inconveniences hurt when you had just lost your strong right hand.

Ages had passed as she had woven her designs and waited, slowly and subtly pushing the Harmony of Four out of Balance, waiting for the right time to unleash Catastrophe.

She mostly worked her will through agents spiritual and mortal alike, spreading her plan through the Realms like a spider spinning its web and waiting; always, she waited, until the Avatar Fell.

Now, she was ready to reap the fruits of her patient prodding; but there was still more prodding to be done, both in the Spirit Realm and in the Mortal Realm. So she continued her work.

Even her more ineffective agents had been of assistance with this; while the Cult of the Appeasers had mostly fed her ego, they had also kept a close eye upon the only real source of danger to her plan: the Exiles.

When she’d first set her plan in motion, one of the Timeless had told her that the Avatar Reborn would be her doom, and that he would arise by the hands of a group of Exiles; so it was that she set her every agent to ensure that no Exile could approach the Lake of Awakening.

Until now, they had succeeded quite well.

But how was she to replace Sonew? The Appeasers still abiding on the Island of Life-Benders though hers body, soul and mind had none that could even approach him in ability.

She would have to go recruiting.

*

The Death-Shades had fled, but Lalli still kept watch, knowing the Horrors were still out there.

Sigrun and Emil were also out there, but Lalli was sure he needn’t worry over what was keeping them. After all, Sigrun was--well, Sigrun, and Emil had proved himself quite capable of protecting his own at need.

Of course, even the best and strongest Bender could be taken by surprise--but with the two of them out there, that was only a very remote possibility. It was scarcely worth considering, even.

Emil had been almost as badly unsettled as when they’d first met, though; and Sigrun would naturally want to use the one-on-one time to try to pull him out of it, because she was a good leader, and that’s what good leaders do. So neither of them would really be as alert as was desirable, but still, the chances of something taking one or both of them by surprise was minimal--almost laughable even.

No, sometime soon Sigrun and Emil would be back, bearing their latest kills, which Mikkel would whip into something more or less (usually less) edible for them all. It would only be a few more minutes until Lalli spotted them coming back.

Lalli kept his eyes on the place where his friends had passed into the trees, letting his other senses play over the rest of the clearing. They would warn him of any danger that might approach; sometimes more faithfully so than his eyes.

Lalli kept his watch as the night waned on...

*

“We knew you could do it.”

Mikkel and Reynir stared back at Tuuri; Mikkel impassively, Reynir with an expression of awe.

“D-d-d-do what?” Tuuri asked in a blatant lie, trying her best to essay a look of innocent confusion. She was still trembling in the aftermath of her recent exertion, though, and so could not command herself as she usually did.

Mikkel answered, “Bend the Spirits, changing their Lust to feed upon us into Fear.”

“Like you Bent the Fear out of Emil earlier,” Reynir added happily.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Tuuri protested vainly. “I-I-I don’t Bend! Anyway, nobody Bends Fear.”

Mikkel frowned, but Reynir put a hand on the bigger man’s arm and said, “Onni said she wouldn’t want to admit it yet.”

Tuuri swallowed nervously. Onni knew? She’d tried so hard to keep this terrible secret from him, but he knew anyway?

“She can’t go on lying to herself, though,” Mikkel said calmly.

“I fear the blame for that lies with me...”


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
Well, isn’t this a load of... exposition.

And yet, there is even more to come.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on January 16, 2017, 05:12:34 PM
LooNEY, we'll be waiting eagerly for more!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on January 17, 2017, 12:27:10 AM
Indeed! We'll be waiting eagerly.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Gaemmel on January 17, 2017, 02:39:06 AM
I may join that challenge as well later! So many challenges! ...Maybe we should have a fanfic challenge index somewhere xD

Let's see, we have the 100 fic-challenge, the relationship-challenge, the alphabet-challenge and now the song-challenge (yes, I'm counting those seperately!)! Any other I've forgotten to join?

Maybe we really need an index, I have never heard of the relationship challenge before!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on January 18, 2017, 06:56:33 AM
I may join that challenge as well later! So many challenges! ...Maybe we should have a fanfic challenge index somewhere xD

Oh no you don't! I've got enough to do what with handling the index as is!

Maybe we really need an index, I have never heard of the relationship challenge before!

That's one I started, and it's here (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=907.0). It's been moved to forum memories, but there was technically no time limit, so I can ask a mod to revive it if anyone wants to contribute to it again.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Windfighter on January 18, 2017, 09:28:41 AM
Hey, I didn't say you had to index it! I could do it! I just need to know what challenges there are! It's not like it's gonna be a large fanfic index, it was just so people could see and join the different writing challenges we have. Posting stories would probably just be in here as usual anyway :P

...speaking of that I should have two chapters finished since november for the relationship-challenge. I never got around to upload them for some reason...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: ThisCat on January 18, 2017, 12:14:58 PM
Hey guys. I like hooking my friends on comics. My friends like writing fanfiction (even if they sometimes don't like forums very much).

So here's the link to a thing written by my dear friend Feneris:
http://archiveofourown.org/works/9377150 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/9377150)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Gaemmel on January 18, 2017, 12:20:22 PM
Oh no you don't! I've got enough to do what with handling the index as is!

That's one I started, and it's here (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=907.0). It's been moved to forum memories, but there was technically no time limit, so I can ask a mod to revive it if anyone wants to contribute to it again.

Oh, but I didn't mean an index of who contributed, only an index about the challenges posed! It doesn't even need a real index, actually, more of a link list. Something someone could probably do in less than an hour of they know where to look.
Also, just because it is an index, it doesn't mean I would go and point at you and go "Hey, you! Do that!" xD

I think I am all booked out with challenges, but who knows, maybe some day! I intend to write for this fandom for a while.

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on January 20, 2017, 11:03:32 PM
I need to catch up on the stories in this thread!  I've been spending my time squeeeeing over the amazing stories in the Silent Night Exchange, and I'm really looking forward to acknowledging many of those works when the authors are revealed in a few days' time. 

Now I post herewith my first story in LooNEY_DAC's alphabet challenge, which unsurprisingly is for the letter A.  "A is for Aino" is the title, and features two separate get-togethers with her sister Kaino in a coffeehouse in Mikkeli.  Enjoyta.
http://archiveofourown.org/works/9405434 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/9405434)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on January 22, 2017, 04:14:30 PM
Blowing my own baritone (in lieu of a trumpet) a bit here, links to the treats I wrote for the Silent Night Exchange:

"In Which the SSSS Crew Does Not Put on the Musical Hair" written for PurpleWyrm - fluffy stuff, Emil is not the only crew member who knows how to play Hairdresser: http://archiveofourown.org/works/9232232

"Nysgjerrige Nils Eide" written for Lazy8 - also fluffy & very cutesy, 6yo Sigrun sometimes needs two (or more) generals to handle her:  http://archiveofourown.org/works/9331739

"Suddenly Illuminating the Night" written for Minutia_R - warning for sexual content, although it stops short of a true explicit rating - Ensi Hotakainen meets the author of the Trolls, Giants and Beasts info pages and they work out their initial misunderstandings:  http://archiveofourown.org/works/9223037

Huge ups to LooNEY_DAC for his immense contribution, consistently great writing alongside the ongoing work he's posted here in the meantime!!  (Y'know, I should have gotten the clue when I started enjoying stories fulfilling prompts I wouldn't ordinarily find inspiring, that they were yours.  I must go back and read the lot.)

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on January 22, 2017, 05:16:34 PM
Huge ups to LooNEY_DAC for his immense contribution, consistently great writing alongside the ongoing work he's posted here in the meantime!!  (Y'know, I should have gotten the clue when I started enjoying stories fulfilling prompts I wouldn't ordinarily find inspiring, that they were yours.  I must go back and read the lot.)
*Blushes*
*Drops link set under spoiler and runs*
Spoiler: A lot of links • show
Songs of the Seventh Age (http://archiveofourown.org/works/9341720/chapters/21166400)
A Saimaa Tale (http://archiveofourown.org/works/9037832)
The Dark Archive (http://archiveofourown.org/works/8894614)
The Gray and the Gold (http://archiveofourown.org/works/8875231/chapters/20347486)
An Outing with the Gnorns (http://archiveofourown.org/works/8875201)
The Great Silent World Whittle-Off (http://archiveofourown.org/works/8638624)
Silent Noita (http://archiveofourown.org/works/8614246)
Panzarmarsch (http://archiveofourown.org/works/8553379)
Next Cycle (http://archiveofourown.org/works/8531821/chapters/19558267)
The Whale-Beast, or Ása's Bane (http://archiveofourown.org/works/8470963)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Dverghamrar on January 22, 2017, 08:27:21 PM
Silent Night reveals! :D I wrote a total of seven fics, a mix of SSSS and aRTD. The SSSS fics are below. I'm also including another gift I wrote for Elleth for the most recent Fandom Stocking. Don't think I shared it here yet. :) You'll also find the other Silent Night aRTD fics in the other respective place, and another Fandom Stocking one in...that other forum. :3

I’m Glad You Came (http://archiveofourown.org/works/9240572) for IdleLeaves
Reynir/Lalli • T • It is summertime, and the boys find themselves missing the adrenaline of the adventure past, and the arms of one other.
Tags: Dreamworld

The Man From The Future (http://archiveofourown.org/works/9330893) for LooNEY_DAC
Mikkel, Paju • G • A hallway leads Mikkel to a very different area of the library, many years back and in another part of the world.
Tags: Crossover, some humor

Respectful and Kind (http://archiveofourown.org/works/9332822) for radiolinked
Lalli & Emil • G • Lalli is missing from the post-expedition reception.
Tags: Post-canon, friendship

And the one for Fandom Stocking:
Title: To’oborni (http://archiveofourown.org/works/9286295)
Pairings/Characters: Sigrun/Tuuri
Words: 1,580+
Rating: Teen
Content/Warning: No archive warnings. Note: hurt/comfort (with some level of violence shown); content: romance, fluff, kissing
Summary: Sigrun takes a hit meant for Tuuri. Out of guilt, Tuuri helps to take care of the injured captain, who is not as angry about being bed-bound as Tuuri may think.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on January 24, 2017, 07:14:56 AM
I suppose I can now link to my thing for the exchange as well. (http://archiveofourown.org/works/8952238)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on January 24, 2017, 03:11:13 PM
I suppose I can now link to my thing for the exchange as well. (http://archiveofourown.org/works/8952238)
Hee that was a good'un indeed.  I didn't guess it was you at all!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Tr on January 25, 2017, 10:50:02 AM
So, uh, has anyone done a SSSS/Welcome to Night Vale crossover yet? I wrote a thing about what would happen when the Rash came to Night Vale, in the form of a traditional Night Vale episode.
Warnings for a bit of gore, Night Vale spoilers, and things really not making sense if you don't listen to the podcast.
And hey... thanks.
Spoiler: show
Someone once said that life is a journey. This is true. Life is a long, strange, twisting road to a destination that we cannot hope to imagine.
Welcome to Night Vale.
[theme song plays]
Listeners--
Well, I was going to report on the strange illness affecting some of our townspeople, but one of the station interns is approaching. She looks concerned.
Yes? What is it?
Listeners, Intern Leanne tells me that she has a peculiar itch on the back of her neck. It has been there for several days, she says, and it is not only on the surface of her skin, but deep beneath it, invading her muscles and veins and sending deep, stabbing pains to her very bones.
This is probably nothing to worry about. You know what? I bet the Sheriff’s secret police are running tests on the tracking devices they have planted deep beneath our skin again! As all of you know, they regularly send an electronic pulse through these tiny, computerized chips, just to make sure they’re working. This is completely ordinary, though it can cause a little pain and itching if you’re not used to it.
See, Intern Leanne? This isn’t even news! Everyone experiences some unbearable itching and agonizing pain from time to time, but you don’t hear us complaining about it.
More importantly, a mysterious illness has been noticed in Night Vale. This illness has infected several baristas in the Barista District, causing mustaches to twist in strange, horrible patterns and knitted ties to become stained red with blood. It seems to take the form of a rash that causes flesh to become mangled in bizarre and terrifying ways.
Many citizens have been doing what we all must do when we see a sick person… that is, screaming and locking them in the nearest basement! Good for them, I say. It’s always hard to be a Good Samaritan in troubling times like these, but these citizens have risen to the task.
In other news, as citizens die of the Rash, several dark, shadowy figures have been spotted hovering nearby. These are different from the dark, shadowy figures we normally see out of the corners of our eyes, which are either the Faceless Old Woman who secretly lives in your home, members of the Sheriff’s Secret Police, or hallucinations created by our own fevered minds. These shades seem far more hostile. They watch us with bright eyes, pale in the midst of their great darkness, like black stains upon our bright desert air. They watch us in silence, waiting.
Meanwhile, the illness seems to have spread to several more people. Some of the baristas who were infected first have started to change, morphing into twisted, broken, horrifying creatures.... more so than usual, I mean. They pound on basement doors, screeching, nails scratching at the wood. We don’t know how long our basements will hold them, but we must hope it will be long enough.
Former mayor Pamela Winchell has called an emergency press conference in response to this impending disaster. “It’s not that bad,” she insisted, strapping a green gas mask over her face. “It’s just like the last few mutant problems we’ve had. We’ll be fine if we follow the City Council’s Apocalyptic Plague Protocol.”
The City Council’s Apocalyptic Plague Protocol is, of course, inscribed on the front teeth of every Night Vale citizen. To view it, open your mouth and look in a mirror, or ask your dentist to read it for you. I attempted to reach the City Council itself for comments, but merely received a message that the Councilmembers have gone on vacation to Antarctica for an indefinite amount of time. “Call us when you solve the Rash problem,” said the message, which had been carved on the inside of my shoes.
Pamela also said that the shadowy figures in the Abandonded Lot District were probably a more aggressive form of ghost and therefore nothing to worry about. Every child learns Advanced Spirit Banishing in kindergarten. Night Vale would have a very poor school system indeed if they didn’t.
Listeners, the illness is transforming citizens all over town. Normally, some terrifying force invades Night Vale from the outside, but this is different. These are our friends and our family who hunger for our flesh and rip at out basement walls. We are well defended against outsiders, dear listeners, but today we are not fighting outsiders. We are changing, Night Vale, we are changing terribly, and I am afraid...
Intern Leanne is complaining about her itch again. She is shouting from the other room. She is screaming. She is shrieking garbled words in a choked, half-human voice.
Sheesh. It’s just an itch, Intern Leanne. Get it together.
[crashing noises]
Listeners, Intern Leanne is tearing through the station. I fear she has become something horrible… something inhuman, twisted, and unimaginable. Even know I can hear the slap of mangled appendages and the snap of bones. She is coming, dear listeners, she is coming this way, and now, fearing for my life and for all our lives, I take you… to the weather!
[Music plays.]
Well, Night Vale, once again, we have survived.
Instead of rushing towards me, the thing that was once Intern Leanne barreled headlong into the bathroom, where it met Khoshekh and his many kittens, who, sensing danger, puffed up their adorable little spine ridges to defend their home. The creature that was once Intern Leanne was no match for these brave, blessed felines, and though the station’s floor is soaked in blood and viscera, the danger here has passed. Intern Derek, who is wearing one of the station’s many gas masks, is mopping it all up. Good job, Intern Derek.
Which reminds me: To the friends and family of Intern Leanne… loss, valued member of our community, et cetera. I’m sure you know the drill.
Even now, I am getting reports that the Sherriff’s Secret Police, aided by a vague yet menacing government agency, have successfully overpowered the other mutants. They have carted the creatures off to wherever the people who vanish forever in the middle of the night go, where they will trouble our town no more.
Surprisingly, the shadowy figures were banished before our brave local kindergarteners were given a chance to try! A tall being named Erika informed me that they and their compatriots, who were certainly not angels, had taken care of it. “Those were just ghosts. Or whatever,” Erika told me.
Once more, our town has been saved. Perhaps we should not focus on the hardship we underwent today, but the courage and strength our citizens showed in overcoming it. Once more, we have triumphed. We have proved, yet again, that we will stand strong in the face of an uncaring universe.
Stay tuned next for the sound of a nonexistent river rushing along a riverbed that has been dry for centuries, and as always, good night, Night Vale. Good night.

/me  disappears back into the void
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Ragnarok on January 25, 2017, 11:01:48 AM
So, uh, has anyone done a SSSS/Welcome to Night Vale crossover yet? I wrote a thing about what would happen when the Rash came to Night Vale, in the form of a traditional Night Vale episode.
Warnings for a bit of gore, Night Vale spoilers, and things really not making sense if you don't listen to the podcast.
And hey... thanks.
Spoiler: show
Someone once said that life is a journey. This is true. Life is a long, strange, twisting road to a destination that we cannot hope to imagine.
Welcome to Night Vale.
[theme song plays]
Listeners--
Well, I was going to report on the strange illness affecting some of our townspeople, but one of the station interns is approaching. She looks concerned.
Yes? What is it?
Listeners, Intern Leanne tells me that she has a peculiar itch on the back of her neck. It has been there for several days, she says, and it is not only on the surface of her skin, but deep beneath it, invading her muscles and veins and sending deep, stabbing pains to her very bones.
This is probably nothing to worry about. You know what? I bet the Sheriff’s secret police are running tests on the tracking devices they have planted deep beneath our skin again! As all of you know, they regularly send an electronic pulse through these tiny, computerized chips, just to make sure they’re working. This is completely ordinary, though it can cause a little pain and itching if you’re not used to it.
See, Intern Leanne? This isn’t even news! Everyone experiences some unbearable itching and agonizing pain from time to time, but you don’t hear us complaining about it.
More importantly, a mysterious illness has been noticed in Night Vale. This illness has infected several baristas in the Barista District, causing mustaches to twist in strange, horrible patterns and knitted ties to become stained red with blood. It seems to take the form of a rash that causes flesh to become mangled in bizarre and terrifying ways.
Many citizens have been doing what we all must do when we see a sick person… that is, screaming and locking them in the nearest basement! Good for them, I say. It’s always hard to be a Good Samaritan in troubling times like these, but these citizens have risen to the task.
In other news, as citizens die of the Rash, several dark, shadowy figures have been spotted hovering nearby. These are different from the dark, shadowy figures we normally see out of the corners of our eyes, which are either the Faceless Old Woman who secretly lives in your home, members of the Sheriff’s Secret Police, or hallucinations created by our own fevered minds. These shades seem far more hostile. They watch us with bright eyes, pale in the midst of their great darkness, like black stains upon our bright desert air. They watch us in silence, waiting.
Meanwhile, the illness seems to have spread to several more people. Some of the baristas who were infected first have started to change, morphing into twisted, broken, horrifying creatures.... more so than usual, I mean. They pound on basement doors, screeching, nails scratching at the wood. We don’t know how long our basements will hold them, but we must hope it will be long enough.
Former mayor Pamela Winchell has called an emergency press conference in response to this impending disaster. “It’s not that bad,” she insisted, strapping a green gas mask over her face. “It’s just like the last few mutant problems we’ve had. We’ll be fine if we follow the City Council’s Apocalyptic Plague Protocol.”
The City Council’s Apocalyptic Plague Protocol is, of course, inscribed on the front teeth of every Night Vale citizen. To view it, open your mouth and look in a mirror, or ask your dentist to read it for you. I attempted to reach the City Council itself for comments, but merely received a message that the Councilmembers have gone on vacation to Antarctica for an indefinite amount of time. “Call us when you solve the Rash problem,” said the message, which had been carved on the inside of my shoes.
Pamela also said that the shadowy figures in the Abandonded Lot District were probably a more aggressive form of ghost and therefore nothing to worry about. Every child learns Advanced Spirit Banishing in kindergarten. Night Vale would have a very poor school system indeed if they didn’t.
Listeners, the illness is transforming citizens all over town. Normally, some terrifying force invades Night Vale from the outside, but this is different. These are our friends and our family who hunger for our flesh and rip at out basement walls. We are well defended against outsiders, dear listeners, but today we are not fighting outsiders. We are changing, Night Vale, we are changing terribly, and I am afraid...
Intern Leanne is complaining about her itch again. She is shouting from the other room. She is screaming. She is shrieking garbled words in a choked, half-human voice.
Sheesh. It’s just an itch, Intern Leanne. Get it together.
[crashing noises]
Listeners, Intern Leanne is tearing through the station. I fear she has become something horrible… something inhuman, twisted, and unimaginable. Even know I can hear the slap of mangled appendages and the snap of bones. She is coming, dear listeners, she is coming this way, and now, fearing for my life and for all our lives, I take you… to the weather!
[Music plays.]
Well, Night Vale, once again, we have survived.
Instead of rushing towards me, the thing that was once Intern Leanne barreled headlong into the bathroom, where it met Khoshekh and his many kittens, who, sensing danger, puffed up their adorable little spine ridges to defend their home. The creature that was once Intern Leanne was no match for these brave, blessed felines, and though the station’s floor is soaked in blood and viscera, the danger here has passed. Intern Derek, who is wearing one of the station’s many gas masks, is mopping it all up. Good job, Intern Derek.
Which reminds me: To the friends and family of Intern Leanne… loss, valued member of our community, et cetera. I’m sure you know the drill.
Even now, I am getting reports that the Sherriff’s Secret Police, aided by a vague yet menacing government agency, have successfully overpowered the other mutants. They have carted the creatures off to wherever the people who vanish forever in the middle of the night go, where they will trouble our town no more.
Surprisingly, the shadowy figures were banished before our brave local kindergarteners were given a chance to try! A tall being named Erika informed me that they and their compatriots, who were certainly not angels, had taken care of it. “Those were just ghosts. Or whatever,” Erika told me.
Once more, our town has been saved. Perhaps we should not focus on the hardship we underwent today, but the courage and strength our citizens showed in overcoming it. Once more, we have triumphed. We have proved, yet again, that we will stand strong in the face of an uncaring universe.
Stay tuned next for the sound of a nonexistent river rushing along a riverbed that has been dry for centuries, and as always, good night, Night Vale. Good night.

/me  disappears back into the void

I can totally see this being a Night Vale episode.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Pupunen on January 25, 2017, 02:46:29 PM
So, uh, has anyone done a SSSS/Welcome to Night Vale crossover yet? I wrote a thing about what would happen when the Rash came to Night Vale, in the form of a traditional Night Vale episode.
Warnings for a bit of gore, Night Vale spoilers, and things really not making sense if you don't listen to the podcast.
And hey... thanks.
Spoiler: show
Someone once said that life is a journey. This is true. Life is a long, strange, twisting road to a destination that we cannot hope to imagine.
Welcome to Night Vale.
[theme song plays]
Listeners--
Well, I was going to report on the strange illness affecting some of our townspeople, but one of the station interns is approaching. She looks concerned.
Yes? What is it?
Listeners, Intern Leanne tells me that she has a peculiar itch on the back of her neck. It has been there for several days, she says, and it is not only on the surface of her skin, but deep beneath it, invading her muscles and veins and sending deep, stabbing pains to her very bones.
This is probably nothing to worry about. You know what? I bet the Sheriff’s secret police are running tests on the tracking devices they have planted deep beneath our skin again! As all of you know, they regularly send an electronic pulse through these tiny, computerized chips, just to make sure they’re working. This is completely ordinary, though it can cause a little pain and itching if you’re not used to it.
See, Intern Leanne? This isn’t even news! Everyone experiences some unbearable itching and agonizing pain from time to time, but you don’t hear us complaining about it.
More importantly, a mysterious illness has been noticed in Night Vale. This illness has infected several baristas in the Barista District, causing mustaches to twist in strange, horrible patterns and knitted ties to become stained red with blood. It seems to take the form of a rash that causes flesh to become mangled in bizarre and terrifying ways.
Many citizens have been doing what we all must do when we see a sick person… that is, screaming and locking them in the nearest basement! Good for them, I say. It’s always hard to be a Good Samaritan in troubling times like these, but these citizens have risen to the task.
In other news, as citizens die of the Rash, several dark, shadowy figures have been spotted hovering nearby. These are different from the dark, shadowy figures we normally see out of the corners of our eyes, which are either the Faceless Old Woman who secretly lives in your home, members of the Sheriff’s Secret Police, or hallucinations created by our own fevered minds. These shades seem far more hostile. They watch us with bright eyes, pale in the midst of their great darkness, like black stains upon our bright desert air. They watch us in silence, waiting.
Meanwhile, the illness seems to have spread to several more people. Some of the baristas who were infected first have started to change, morphing into twisted, broken, horrifying creatures.... more so than usual, I mean. They pound on basement doors, screeching, nails scratching at the wood. We don’t know how long our basements will hold them, but we must hope it will be long enough.
Former mayor Pamela Winchell has called an emergency press conference in response to this impending disaster. “It’s not that bad,” she insisted, strapping a green gas mask over her face. “It’s just like the last few mutant problems we’ve had. We’ll be fine if we follow the City Council’s Apocalyptic Plague Protocol.”
The City Council’s Apocalyptic Plague Protocol is, of course, inscribed on the front teeth of every Night Vale citizen. To view it, open your mouth and look in a mirror, or ask your dentist to read it for you. I attempted to reach the City Council itself for comments, but merely received a message that the Councilmembers have gone on vacation to Antarctica for an indefinite amount of time. “Call us when you solve the Rash problem,” said the message, which had been carved on the inside of my shoes.
Pamela also said that the shadowy figures in the Abandonded Lot District were probably a more aggressive form of ghost and therefore nothing to worry about. Every child learns Advanced Spirit Banishing in kindergarten. Night Vale would have a very poor school system indeed if they didn’t.
Listeners, the illness is transforming citizens all over town. Normally, some terrifying force invades Night Vale from the outside, but this is different. These are our friends and our family who hunger for our flesh and rip at out basement walls. We are well defended against outsiders, dear listeners, but today we are not fighting outsiders. We are changing, Night Vale, we are changing terribly, and I am afraid...
Intern Leanne is complaining about her itch again. She is shouting from the other room. She is screaming. She is shrieking garbled words in a choked, half-human voice.
Sheesh. It’s just an itch, Intern Leanne. Get it together.
[crashing noises]
Listeners, Intern Leanne is tearing through the station. I fear she has become something horrible… something inhuman, twisted, and unimaginable. Even know I can hear the slap of mangled appendages and the snap of bones. She is coming, dear listeners, she is coming this way, and now, fearing for my life and for all our lives, I take you… to the weather!
[Music plays.]
Well, Night Vale, once again, we have survived.
Instead of rushing towards me, the thing that was once Intern Leanne barreled headlong into the bathroom, where it met Khoshekh and his many kittens, who, sensing danger, puffed up their adorable little spine ridges to defend their home. The creature that was once Intern Leanne was no match for these brave, blessed felines, and though the station’s floor is soaked in blood and viscera, the danger here has passed. Intern Derek, who is wearing one of the station’s many gas masks, is mopping it all up. Good job, Intern Derek.
Which reminds me: To the friends and family of Intern Leanne… loss, valued member of our community, et cetera. I’m sure you know the drill.
Even now, I am getting reports that the Sherriff’s Secret Police, aided by a vague yet menacing government agency, have successfully overpowered the other mutants. They have carted the creatures off to wherever the people who vanish forever in the middle of the night go, where they will trouble our town no more.
Surprisingly, the shadowy figures were banished before our brave local kindergarteners were given a chance to try! A tall being named Erika informed me that they and their compatriots, who were certainly not angels, had taken care of it. “Those were just ghosts. Or whatever,” Erika told me.
Once more, our town has been saved. Perhaps we should not focus on the hardship we underwent today, but the courage and strength our citizens showed in overcoming it. Once more, we have triumphed. We have proved, yet again, that we will stand strong in the face of an uncaring universe.
Stay tuned next for the sound of a nonexistent river rushing along a riverbed that has been dry for centuries, and as always, good night, Night Vale. Good night.

/me  disappears back into the void

I love this!  :D

And wavewright62, that fic about six-year-old Sigrun was one of my favourites in the exchange, absolutely hilarious!

Here are my own Silent Night contributions:

Favourites (http://archiveofourown.org/works/9121207), a Sigrun/Tuuri story set at the end of chapter 10.

Far from the treacherous world (http://archiveofourown.org/works/9183205), in which Onni performs a funeral ritual.

Also, I wrote this Reynir/Onni fic (http://archiveofourown.org/works/8133334) a while back but I don't think I ever got around to posting it here.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on January 25, 2017, 02:53:12 PM
I love this!  :D

And wavewright62, that fic about six-year-old Sigrun was one of my favourites in the exchange, absolutely hilarious!

Here are my own Silent Night contributions:

Favourites (http://archiveofourown.org/works/9121207), a Sigrun/Tuuri story set at the end of chapter 10.

Far from the treacherous world (http://archiveofourown.org/works/9183205), in which Onni performs a funeral ritual.

Also, I wrote this Reynir/Onni fic (http://archiveofourown.org/works/8133334) a while back but I don't think I ever got around to posting it here.

Awww, thank you!  I really liked Far from the Treacherous World, too.  I should have guessed that a native Finn wrote that one, as I felt that forest very keenly.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on January 26, 2017, 08:42:06 PM
Bent and Twisted
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/“Avatar: the Last Airbender” crossover fanfic
Part 11
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg132561#msg132561)
Spoiler: The First Book of Chronicles • show
The great mass of the Air Temple noiselessly hovered above the vehicle sheltering the Exiles. Lalli knew it was there and who rode within its halls, but it was not relevant to his primary concern at the moment, which was Sigrun and Emil, who still weren’t back.

...Oh. There they were just now, dragging a bear as best as they could. Emil’s eyes looked suspiciously red, but that could just be from the strain of the dragging.

Lalli rolled his eyes at his own Onni-esque excuse-making. No, Emil had been crying; but unless Emil wanted to tell Lalli about it, Lalli wouldn’t press him to.

Suddenly, a fierce gust of wind caught the carcass, lifting it from the bearers’ grasp and setting it down almost daintily by the vehicle’s door. “I hope you will excuse the presumption,” a voice called out in the Gnorr tongue from the Temple.

“Uncle Trond!” Sigrun exclaimed in surprise. “What are you doing here?”

The elderly Gnorr Air-Bender slowly floated down to meet the two as they scrambled back to the vehicle. “‘Hither have the winds of Fate borne me; hence shall they send me, I know not when.’”

Sigrun guffawed. “Oh, yes, Uncle Trond: your comings and goings are just as random and unpredictable as the Lady Moon’s phases.”

“I can see you’re just as unlearned in Air Nomad culture as ever,” Trond replied. “Despite the ignorant editorializing, it is good to see you again, Sigrun.”

Onni had descended alongside Trond. With a sharp signal to Lalli, the younger Air-Bender went into the vehicle, and Lalli followed.

“Come with me, Sigrun. You as well, Emil Ex-Västerström; we have much to discuss, whether you can understand it or not.” Trond lifted them up to the floating mass that loomed over them.

They went down a confusing series of hallways to a fairly small chamber which held at the far wall a Portal.

“Wait, what’s this, Uncle Trond?” Sigrun asked in alarm.

“It is one of the few remaining Portals to the Spirit World that can be accessed without risking the Silent Lands,” Trond replied calmly. “It moves with this Temple, but stays stationary in the Spirit World. My parents helped your grandparents to fashion it, and other and greater things, like...”

“The Girdle of Dalsnes,” Sigrun finished for him. “The greatest feat of Earth-Bending ever.”

“It could not have been made without the others,” Trond told her pointedly. “It is their tale that I have brought you here to hear.

“They were known ever after as the Dalsnes Four; so are they known even to this day...”

*
NINETY YEARS EARLIER...
*

The blast of wind lifted the grossling and smashed it hard against one of the fjord’s high walls. Just for good measure, the wind-wave repeated the smashing two or three times more.

“I’m not sure you killed it enough, Gøran,” Aksel Eide joked to his team-mate, Gøran Andersen, but both Fire- and Air-Bender alike gasped in horror when the thing slowly picked itself up again.

Rain began to lash the thing as Gøran blew it back into the sky, the precipitate precipitation courtesy Ingrid Petersen, the Water-Bender on their team. Aksel set his jaw and called forth the lightning over and over again, until the thing had been practically incinerated.

A troll had closed in on Aksel from behind without his noticing it, but just as it was about to strike, a pinnacle of rock impaled it, the sharp tip just protruding from the top of its skull.

Sigrun Larsen, Earth-Bender, was not about to let Aksel get killed on her watch.

“They just keep coming without end,” Aksel remarked. “If we can’t find a way to block them, eventually they will get through.”

“I’ve been meditating on the idea,” Sigrun said, “and a Spirit came by and gave me the answer, but it’ll take all four of us to do it.”

Aksel made a face. “Can the newbies handle this long enough for us to get it done, Gøran?”

The Air-Bender made a face. “They’ll have to at some point, if we ever want to sleep again,” he pointed out. “Why not now?”

“We need to get to Wan’s Peak,” Sigrun told the others once that had been sorted. “I know you don’t like being used as a taxi, Gøran, but time is of the essence now.”

So they went, Sigrun pointing out the cave they would need to enter. There, deep within the mountain towering over Dalsnes, Sigrun formed the Girdle, a giant Ring that would keep Dalsnes safe for all time to come; but she could not bring it to life by herself.

Ingrid took Gøran’s hand in hers; Gøran took Sigrun’s hand; Sigrun raised her free palm to Aksel, and flames arose from it. “Take the Fire from my hand, Aksel,” she commanded.

Aksel took hold of the flame rising from Sigrun’s palm and felt his Bending return. In a blinding display, he poured Energy--the combined chi from four heterogenous Benders--into the waiting Girdle, until it burst into dazzling, coruscating radiance.

*

“Now,” Trond said at last, “I must seek out the knowledge that shall enable the next part of your Quest.”

Sigrun frowned. “We aren’t on any Quest, Uncle Trond,” she protested.

“Why else would your team have come together as they have, were it not that the Quest has willed it so?” The old man smiled that little smile of his that said, ‘I know your deepest and darkest secrets, and I shall use that knowledge for my purposes’. “Your time shall come soon, Sigrun. Be ready for my return.” He turned to face the Portal, but paused. “Oh, and Emil: Onni should be bringing Lalli to join you shortly; it is vital that he do so, and that you are still here then.”

Trond passed through the portal and into the Spirit World...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
And here begins the New Plot that will carry this little tale through until its end. The next part should drop within 24ish hours.

...Also, Sunflower and others should start looking to see just which sources I’m blatantly ripping off homaging here and in the rest.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Kiraly on January 26, 2017, 11:40:45 PM
I...kinda forgot to put my Silent Night fics in here...and I'm still not going to, because all I have the energy for right now is dropping off this fic I wrote tonight to get out some of the Feelings caused by page 666 (http://sssscomic.com/comic.php?page=666).

Stupid, Useless Things (http://archiveofourown.org/works/9475760). Mostly Lalli angst, cat-holding, and a little bit of Emil/Lalli if you squint.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on January 27, 2017, 02:49:49 AM
Alphabet Soup
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Series 1, Part 1
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Spoiler: An After-Dinner Chat • show
“So, Mikkel.”

“...”

“Miiiiiikelllllllllllllllll.”

“Mphrm.”

“Mikkel Mikkel MIKKEL Mikkel Mikkel.”

“...Yes?”

“Sorry to bust you out of your mutinist plans, but we need to talk about something.”

“...”

“...”

“...And that something is?”

“The squirrel.”

“Ah. That.”

“Yep.”

“...”

“Now, don’t get me wrong: I think it’s great that you’re getting meat for the pot and all, but could you at least skin the next one?”

“If I’m allowed to, certainly.”

“???”

“In any case, I thought you were hoping to run across some more of those deer.”

“Wwwwwwelllllllllllllll...”

“...”

“...I sorta reconsidered that.”

“And what prompted that minor miracle, pray tell?”

“Emil threw up the last time we gutted one.”

“A natural enough response for a city boy seeing his first dressing; I shouldn’t think it’ll happen again, and I see no reason for that to hinder your pursuit of additional provender.”

“Neither would I, except Twigs came over and glared at me with those weird cat eyes he has.”

“Mmm?”

“Well, you may not believe in mages, but I’ve been around enough of ’em to know that you reallllllllly don’t want to be on one’s bad side.”

“I can see that that would be a less-than-desirable circumstance in which to find oneself; however, would not any potential ire be appeased by acclimating our young Swede to the dressing out process and letting his Finn friend see that it no longer bothers him?”

“Not unless we stop somewhere long enough to set up some snares; we probably won’t luck out enough to find another Kastellet on the way to Odense.”

“...”

“...”

“...Would not the snares attract grosslings as well?”

“That’s the best part of setting snares: nabbing a few grosslings clueless enough to go for free meat!”

“Ah.”

“Yep.”

“Do you think Emil will enjoy that any more than the other kills he’s racked up so far?”

“Nah, but he won’t shy away from ’em, either, as his current kill count shows. He knows it’s putting them out of their misery.”

“...”

“?”

“...If you say so.”

“I do, as I know him rather better than you do. He talks to me more than he does to you.”

“Hmmm.”

“You just got off on the wrong foot with him ‘cause you trusted all that rot-gut that was in his files.”

“...Yes. I’m sure it was all just rot-gut.”

“All that ‘scholastic assessment’ stuff doesn’t say beans about how you’ll do under fire--nor have I ever seen one that takes a kind heart into account, or anything else worth anything: just ‘name this’ and ‘date that’, as if that was the end-all be-all of life.”

“Mrh.”

“Besides, if this little trip’s taught me anything, it’s that the Swedes don’t know beans about how to handle a kid like Emil.”

“...Actually, there we agree.”

“Good. And I really hate to think what they’d do if they found someone like Skinny on their hands.”

“The mind boggles.”

“No, the gorge rises, as does the choler. And speaking of rising gorges, can I get a less equivocal answer on the squirrel question?”

Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
Series 1 of this collection features titles which start with the indefinite article, “A/An”.

So, I finally began the challenge everyone else started a week or so ago, even though I was the one who announced it, with this little dialogue. Well, hopefully this will distract from the Minna Sundberg Feels-Pounding Special of the last few pages.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on January 27, 2017, 03:08:45 AM
LooNEY, I like this. Twigs glaring at her for upsetting Emil. And I do agree about the education thing - marks are not a reliable indicator of either skills or nature. Memory, yes, and the ability to regurgitate facts. Emil is more than the sum of his academic results.

Kiraly: I didn't go into much detail in my comments, because today is even busier than Fridays normally are for me (the usual prep for tomorrow's Farmers Market, plus a whole lot of extra flowers to pick and bunch because tomorrow is the fifth birthday of our market, so hundreds of extra people, a celebrity chef, etc etc etc. plus the first day of harvest for rosehips and goji berries. Chaos.) however, the story was just beautiful. Thank you.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on January 27, 2017, 06:19:39 PM
Alphabet Soup
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Series 1, Part 1
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Spoiler: An After-Dinner Chat • show
“So, Mikkel.”

“...”

“Miiiiiikelllllllllllllllll.”

“Mphrm.”

“Mikkel Mikkel MIKKEL Mikkel Mikkel.”

“...Yes?”

“Sorry to bust you out of your mutinist plans, but we need to talk about something.”

“...”

“...”

“...And that something is?”

“The squirrel.”

“Ah. That.”

“Yep.”

“...”

“Now, don’t get me wrong: I think it’s great that you’re getting meat for the pot and all, but could you at least skin the next one?”

“If I’m allowed to, certainly.”

“???”

“In any case, I thought you were hoping to run across some more of those deer.”

“Wwwwwwelllllllllllllll...”

“...”

“...I sorta reconsidered that.”

“And what prompted that minor miracle, pray tell?”

“Emil threw up the last time we gutted one.”

“A natural enough response for a city boy seeing his first dressing; I shouldn’t think it’ll happen again, and I see no reason for that to hinder your pursuit of additional provender.”

“Neither would I, except Twigs came over and glared at me with those weird cat eyes he has.”

“Mmm?”

“Well, you may not believe in mages, but I’ve been around enough of ’em to know that you reallllllllly don’t want to be on one’s bad side.”

“I can see that that would be a less-than-desirable circumstance in which to find oneself; however, would not any potential ire be appeased by acclimating our young Swede to the dressing out process and letting his Finn friend see that it no longer bothers him?”

“Not unless we stop somewhere long enough to set up some snares; we probably won’t luck out enough to find another Kastellet on the way to Odense.”

“...”

“...”

“...Would not the snares attract grosslings as well?”

“That’s the best part of setting snares: nabbing a few grosslings clueless enough to go for free meat!”

“Ah.”

“Yep.”

“Do you think Emil will enjoy that any more than the other kills he’s racked up so far?”

“Nah, but he won’t shy away from ’em, either, as his current kill count shows. He knows it’s putting them out of their misery.”

“...”

“?”

“...If you say so.”

“I do, as I know him rather better than you do. He talks to me more than he does to you.”

“Hmmm.”

“You just got off on the wrong foot with him ‘cause you trusted all that rot-gut that was in his files.”

“...Yes. I’m sure it was all just rot-gut.”

“All that ‘scholastic assessment’ stuff doesn’t say beans about how you’ll do under fire--nor have I ever seen one that takes a kind heart into account, or anything else worth anything: just ‘name this’ and ‘date that’, as if that was the end-all be-all of life.”

“Mrh.”

“Besides, if this little trip’s taught me anything, it’s that the Swedes don’t know beans about how to handle a kid like Emil.”

“...Actually, there we agree.”

“Good. And I really hate to think what they’d do if they found someone like Skinny on their hands.”

“The mind boggles.”

“No, the gorge rises, as does the choler. And speaking of rising gorges, can I get a less equivocal answer on the squirrel question?”

Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
Series 1 of this collection features titles which start with the indefinite article, “A/An”.

So, I finally began the challenge everyone else started a week or so ago, even though I was the one who announced it, with this little dialogue. Well, hopefully this will distract from the Minna Sundberg Feels-Pounding Special of the last few pages.


Yay, and you're away!  Yes, about those squirrels.  Hrm.  Even a kind heart will go for the protein if they have to.  (Only niggle: would Sigrun use a word like 'equivocal'?)

Do you reckon you should set up an official collection for the Alphabet Soup on AO3?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on January 27, 2017, 06:44:37 PM
Yay, and you're away!  Yes, about those squirrels.  Hrm.  Even a kind heart will go for the protein if they have to.  (Only niggle: would Sigrun use a word like 'equivocal'?)
She would if she were mocking Mikkel's highfalutin' speechifying.
Do you reckon you should set up an official collection for the Alphabet Soup on AO3?
Done (http://archiveofourown.org/collections/SSSS_Alphabet_Soup_and_Singalong_Collection).
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Silent on January 27, 2017, 07:17:17 PM
So, uh, has anyone done a SSSS/Welcome to Night Vale crossover yet? I wrote a thing about what would happen when the Rash came to Night Vale, in the form of a traditional Night Vale episode.
Warnings for a bit of gore, Night Vale spoilers, and things really not making sense if you don't listen to the podcast.
And hey... thanks.
Spoiler: show
Someone once said that life is a journey. This is true. Life is a long, strange, twisting road to a destination that we cannot hope to imagine.
Welcome to Night Vale.
[theme song plays]
Listeners--
Well, I was going to report on the strange illness affecting some of our townspeople, but one of the station interns is approaching. She looks concerned.
Yes? What is it?
Listeners, Intern Leanne tells me that she has a peculiar itch on the back of her neck. It has been there for several days, she says, and it is not only on the surface of her skin, but deep beneath it, invading her muscles and veins and sending deep, stabbing pains to her very bones.
This is probably nothing to worry about. You know what? I bet the Sheriff’s secret police are running tests on the tracking devices they have planted deep beneath our skin again! As all of you know, they regularly send an electronic pulse through these tiny, computerized chips, just to make sure they’re working. This is completely ordinary, though it can cause a little pain and itching if you’re not used to it.
See, Intern Leanne? This isn’t even news! Everyone experiences some unbearable itching and agonizing pain from time to time, but you don’t hear us complaining about it.
More importantly, a mysterious illness has been noticed in Night Vale. This illness has infected several baristas in the Barista District, causing mustaches to twist in strange, horrible patterns and knitted ties to become stained red with blood. It seems to take the form of a rash that causes flesh to become mangled in bizarre and terrifying ways.
Many citizens have been doing what we all must do when we see a sick person… that is, screaming and locking them in the nearest basement! Good for them, I say. It’s always hard to be a Good Samaritan in troubling times like these, but these citizens have risen to the task.
In other news, as citizens die of the Rash, several dark, shadowy figures have been spotted hovering nearby. These are different from the dark, shadowy figures we normally see out of the corners of our eyes, which are either the Faceless Old Woman who secretly lives in your home, members of the Sheriff’s Secret Police, or hallucinations created by our own fevered minds. These shades seem far more hostile. They watch us with bright eyes, pale in the midst of their great darkness, like black stains upon our bright desert air. They watch us in silence, waiting.
Meanwhile, the illness seems to have spread to several more people. Some of the baristas who were infected first have started to change, morphing into twisted, broken, horrifying creatures.... more so than usual, I mean. They pound on basement doors, screeching, nails scratching at the wood. We don’t know how long our basements will hold them, but we must hope it will be long enough.
Former mayor Pamela Winchell has called an emergency press conference in response to this impending disaster. “It’s not that bad,” she insisted, strapping a green gas mask over her face. “It’s just like the last few mutant problems we’ve had. We’ll be fine if we follow the City Council’s Apocalyptic Plague Protocol.”
The City Council’s Apocalyptic Plague Protocol is, of course, inscribed on the front teeth of every Night Vale citizen. To view it, open your mouth and look in a mirror, or ask your dentist to read it for you. I attempted to reach the City Council itself for comments, but merely received a message that the Councilmembers have gone on vacation to Antarctica for an indefinite amount of time. “Call us when you solve the Rash problem,” said the message, which had been carved on the inside of my shoes.
Pamela also said that the shadowy figures in the Abandonded Lot District were probably a more aggressive form of ghost and therefore nothing to worry about. Every child learns Advanced Spirit Banishing in kindergarten. Night Vale would have a very poor school system indeed if they didn’t.
Listeners, the illness is transforming citizens all over town. Normally, some terrifying force invades Night Vale from the outside, but this is different. These are our friends and our family who hunger for our flesh and rip at out basement walls. We are well defended against outsiders, dear listeners, but today we are not fighting outsiders. We are changing, Night Vale, we are changing terribly, and I am afraid...
Intern Leanne is complaining about her itch again. She is shouting from the other room. She is screaming. She is shrieking garbled words in a choked, half-human voice.
Sheesh. It’s just an itch, Intern Leanne. Get it together.
[crashing noises]
Listeners, Intern Leanne is tearing through the station. I fear she has become something horrible… something inhuman, twisted, and unimaginable. Even know I can hear the slap of mangled appendages and the snap of bones. She is coming, dear listeners, she is coming this way, and now, fearing for my life and for all our lives, I take you… to the weather!
[Music plays.]
Well, Night Vale, once again, we have survived.
Instead of rushing towards me, the thing that was once Intern Leanne barreled headlong into the bathroom, where it met Khoshekh and his many kittens, who, sensing danger, puffed up their adorable little spine ridges to defend their home. The creature that was once Intern Leanne was no match for these brave, blessed felines, and though the station’s floor is soaked in blood and viscera, the danger here has passed. Intern Derek, who is wearing one of the station’s many gas masks, is mopping it all up. Good job, Intern Derek.
Which reminds me: To the friends and family of Intern Leanne… loss, valued member of our community, et cetera. I’m sure you know the drill.
Even now, I am getting reports that the Sherriff’s Secret Police, aided by a vague yet menacing government agency, have successfully overpowered the other mutants. They have carted the creatures off to wherever the people who vanish forever in the middle of the night go, where they will trouble our town no more.
Surprisingly, the shadowy figures were banished before our brave local kindergarteners were given a chance to try! A tall being named Erika informed me that they and their compatriots, who were certainly not angels, had taken care of it. “Those were just ghosts. Or whatever,” Erika told me.
Once more, our town has been saved. Perhaps we should not focus on the hardship we underwent today, but the courage and strength our citizens showed in overcoming it. Once more, we have triumphed. We have proved, yet again, that we will stand strong in the face of an uncaring universe.
Stay tuned next for the sound of a nonexistent river rushing along a riverbed that has been dry for centuries, and as always, good night, Night Vale. Good night.

/me  disappears back into the void
I even read it in in his voice, great job!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on January 27, 2017, 07:21:31 PM
*Is about an hour early*
*Posts anyway*

Bent and Twisted
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/“Avatar: the Last Airbender” crossover fanfic
Part 12
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg133113#msg133113)
Spoiler: Acts • show
The Death-Shades clustered thick around the cavern that Trond sought, deep in the shifting twists of the Spirit World. He set them to an all too temporary flight before turning his attention to the granite mass.

“Aunt Sigrun!” Trond called. “Open your fastness for an old friend!” Then he muttered in an aside, “Well, that could never be misinterpreted in several amusing ways, could it?”

“Who calls upon me in such familiar manner?” The voice was strong and vibrant. It was the voice of a strong, vibrant and fearless woman, a voice that Trond knew well despite not having heard it for well over twenty years.

“It is I, Trond, son of Gøran and Ingrid!” A pause. “You know, the best friends you had to whom you weren’t married!”

With a rumble of stone upon stone, an opening appeared. “Well don’t just stand there, you jerk! Get a move on in!” Trond made haste to go through it, while a tenuous, barely visible membrane held back the Death-Shades.

Within was a place of rare beauty. The Elder Sigrun Eide had evidently spent her time in the Spirit World to create delicate crystalline figurine and other such bits, and in such numbers that Trond wondered if the door trick were truly the only bit of her legendary Earth-Bending that she had managed to retain upon her ascension to the Spirit World.

But when Trond finally gazed upon the Elder Sigrun, all these thoughts flew from his mind, and he was a teenager again, staring at the vision who had been his first crush so many years before. After a long moment, he managed to hobble over whither she awaited him.

The Elder Sigrun cupped Trond’s cheek fondly. “Little Trond, now grown old and proud.” She closed her eyes for a moment, recalling days long past.

“I have come on behalf of your namesake and heiress,” Trond said, remembering his purpose at last. “And yes, she is quite as foolhardy and insane as you ever were. The time is at hand for the Return of the Avatar, and for that, we must create a new Portal, so it’s time to get creaking back to the Mortal World.”

“I cannot return to the Mortal World with you,” Sigrun said calmly. “Nor can I possess even my great-granddaughter’s body: I am bound to this place, and the only way I may leave is by a second death.”

“But only you can create the Portal we need; none other has had that mastery of Earth-Bending, before or since,” Trond argued. “You must return with me, and save the world once more.”

“Blah, blah, blah. Don’t get yourself all worked up about it, Trond; I whipped something up to get around our little problem long ago.” While Trond was speaking, the Elder Sigrun had turned to a pedestal upon which rested a glowing necklace whose equal Trond had never seen. She picked up this necklace and stared at the glowing stones in her hands. “Behold, the Shiny!” Then she grew serious. “I have poured all my knowledge and craft into these stones; once she wears them, my heiress will have all my skills at her command. So much of me is in them, though, that I shall not possess the strength to stave off the Death-Shades for long once you depart with them.”

This was decidedly enough to disturb even Trond’s vaunted equipoise. At his look of dismay, Sigrun smiled sadly.

“Sometimes, the great purpose of your life is to enable another to fulfill their own even greater purpose,” she said. “It is my ‘life’ to give, and I give it to the woman who bears my name.” With this, she thrust the jewels at Trond and flung the portal wide.

The Death-Shades immediately flooded the room, but a brilliant radiance pushed them back against the walls. Trond knew its source, so did not stop to look back but sprinted out, bearing the necklace.

He would not fly: he needed all his power to keep the Death-Shades at bay; and even then, it might not suffice.

“NO!” The demented scream was only barely recognizable as female, and certainly it had not come from Sigrun. So powerful was it, though, that Trond checked for a moment in stunned horror, and that was when the lead Death-Shade caught up to him.

Trond fought vigorously, but the Death-Shade had latched on to Trond unshakably and was swiftly draining him. Just as Trond’s vision had started to blur around the edges, a quartet of shining figures fell upon the Death-Shade, breaking Trond free of its ghoulish grasp. For a moment, he blinked at the sight of the Dalsnes Four fighting their last hopeless battle as more Death-Shades piled in, but then Trond turned and fled for the portal with the necklace that would help to save the worlds.

Trond had been horribly weakened, and the portal was quite a distance. After a depressingly brief period, the Death-Shades reappeared at the edges of Trond’s failing perception, slowly drawing closer in anticipation of the kill.

Trond knew that nothing mattered now so much as speed. Without repining or hesitation, he began to run as hard as he could, feeling his chest tighten with every step.

At last, barely able to move now, Trond tottered out into the temple, the portal shattering behind him. “SIGRUN!” he bellowed with what little strength he had left...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
Any guesses on today’s source yet? I think I’ve made it pretty obvious.

“Go now. Save the other Lyssa.”
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on January 28, 2017, 05:24:31 PM
Bent and Twisted
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/“Avatar: the Last Airbender” crossover fanfic
Part 13
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg133164#msg133164)
Spoiler: The Third Apocrypha • show
“I fear the blame for that lies with me.” The others turned to look at Onni Hotakainen when he made the bald statement. “I warned her too often about what had happened to the Life-Benders when they first announced themselves to the world, so when Tuuri found that she had the power to Bend emotions in both animals and people, she chose to hide it and deny even the possibility that Spirit-Bending could exist. But it does, and she is a true Spirit-Bender.”

Reynir was looking confused again. “But... I thought you got closer to the Spirit World when you moved past your passions?”

Onni smiled. “Not quite. You get closer to the Spirit World when you move past your self, which usually means letting go of the passions tied to this self. You get closer to the Spirit World not via emotionlessness, but via empathy and opening yourself to others, even at your own expense. Tuuri has tried to run the other way ever since she discovered her abilities, trying to appear as wrapped up in herself as possible, which has hindered her Bending.”

Reynir’s eyes crossed. Then he shut them, putting his fingers to his temples. “So... controlling Spirits and the emotions of others only works when you’re empathizing with them, and thus most likely not to control them?” Tuuri smirked a little at his naïveté.

“Not ‘only works’,” Onni corrected. “Works best. Besides, there are limits on how far a Spirit-Bender can Bend, and any individual with good self-control can overcome the passions that are Bent. Consider a soldier: Bending their fear to the utmost will cause some or perhaps most to flee, but the most battle-tried will not, for they have mastered such fears before.”

“Then how did Tuuri prevail just now?”

“Spirits and animals are far more susceptible to her Bending, for they have no self-control; besides, for all their expertise at whipping up fear in others, those Death-Shades had never felt it for themselves before.” Onni locked eyes with Tuuri. “Also, Tuuri exerted herself far more than she ever had before, both Bending their Lust away and Bending Fear into them.”

“Are those all a Spirit-Bender can Bend?”

“No,” Tuuri answered in a small and quiet voice. It was the first time she’d spoken since Onni entered the bunk-room. “I can also Bend Anger and Anticipation; with Fear and Lust, those form the Wheel of Spirit-Bending.”

“Did you Bend the Tribunal’s apprehension that your Exile was certain?” Onni’s voice was stern.

“Yes,” Tuuri admitted, almost in a whisper. “And I did my best to Bend your fear away, so you wouldn’t worry about us. I didn’t think they’d Exile Lalli as well, but I couldn’t stop it.”

“It was as it was always going to be,” Onni replied calmly. “And speaking of Lalli, I must go and bring him to join Sigrun and Emil in the Temple.” He turned to Mikkel. “While I’m doing that, you can take the opportunity to explain your Bending to them, before someone else does.”

Mikkel blinked in surprise. “By ‘someone else’, do you mean...”

Onni nodded and left the bunk-room.

“Well, then,” Mikkel said thoughtfully, “it seems I have some explaining of my own to do...”


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
Blah, blah, blah. Exposition in endless parade.

Hopefully the next part will be a bit less sloggy.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on January 28, 2017, 05:33:56 PM
LooNEY, don't forget that some of your readers are not at all familiar with the Avatar universe; these passages of exposition are as good as any action sequence to me.
And from you, they are really good.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on January 28, 2017, 05:58:44 PM
LooNEY, don't forget that some of your readers are not at all familiar with the Avatar universe; these passages of exposition are as good as any action sequence to me.
And from you, they are really good.
The irony is that the stuff in this part is a partial explanation of what's going on to the A:tLA fans, because they have no clue on this, either.

*Waits for Lazy8 to excoriate me for this*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on January 29, 2017, 03:22:00 PM
Double-posting for update.

Bent and Twisted
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/“Avatar: the Last Airbender” crossover fanfic
Part 14
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg133195#msg133195)
Spoiler: Judges • show
The weird green mist swirled in an oddly viscous manner around the two boys as they walked through the forest of mushrooms towering over them. Though far from familiar to the boys, this was yet not the Spirit World. Above them, they could just make out the vast bulk of their home-world looming in the sky overhead, even through the convolutions of green around and above.

“Why on Earth did you bring that thing?” The voice sounded strange, both linguistically and phonetically. It was still Lalli, but speaking at least an octave higher than usual, and in a weird, sing-song language filled with liquid v’s and w’s and l’s and r’s, utterly unlike the Svensk tongue or that of the Finn’s-Land.

“Sigrun said we needed a mascot; you’re just lucky this gal was strutting around the Temple like she owned the place, or I’d have had to go back and get Kitty.” Emil stopped short at the similarly altered sound of his own voice, almost dropping the hen he cradled in his arms. “I understood you,” he breathed in shock. Then, he added, “What language are we speaking?”

Seeing that his friend was about to freak out, Lalli walked over to the Svensk Fire-Bender, put a hand on his shoulder, and shook. “No time to panic. Only got two hours. Need to find the people here.”

Emil shook himself. “Right.” Then he grinned. “But you have to admit it’ll be pretty weird for us to have a real conversation.”

Lalli essayed his familiar half-smile. “Yup.”

They hadn’t gone much farther when the two boys almost fell over two small people crumpled into little balls of misery in a small clearing. To be fair, these others were dressed in exotic robes that yet blended into the surrounding ‘vegetation’--it was all fungi, hence the quote marks--almost perfectly.

The natives had big bald heads and big liquid-brown eyes that almost made them look like oversized infants. However, they expressed themselves in a fairly adult manner, extending a courteous welcome to the two strangers to their home and explaining why, though Emil and Lalli would be given a warm welcome in the nearby village, the two natives could not accompany them: they had been Exiled.

“I can take you where you need to go.” The voice was calm and self-assured. The speaker was, in a word, regal. Despite having the same semi-infantile features as his fellows, this was one man no one would mistake for anything other than what he was: a king.

The other natives froze for a moment in astonishment before abasing themselves at the king’s feet. “Great Ta! Mighty Ta!”

A kind smile played around Ta’s lips as he looked at his former subjects. “Rise, my friends.” They did, and Ta continued, “How are you?”

One (was his name Oru?) answered, “As well as can be expected, Mighty Ta; but we still have not found another place where the Life-Plants grow.”

Ta sighed. “I did not expect you would, though not by any fault on your part.” He turned to the visitors. “I greet you, pilgrims from the Great Protector. You have been expected, though some had begun to doubt your advent.”

It transpired that there was (or had been? Emil wasn’t sure) another human among them who had occasional Vision and had foretold their arrival. This was a good thing, because there had just been an ecological catastrophe: the Sun had destroyed the entire harvest of the one crop the natives absolutely needed in order to survive, which only grew in one small place.

The king took the two visitors to this place, the Place of Hidden Waters, and the boys looked around, though they were hampered by a strong, sickening, and somehow familiar smell, though neither boy could identify it then. After a few basic deductions which, though useless, greatly impressed Ta with their clarity, the boys retreated to a place with better air.

They had less than an hour left of their original two, and neither wanted to find out what would happen if they weren’t on time in returning.

Emil put his head in his hands. “Why did Sigrun send me here? I’m useless for this kind of thing, but it’s right up Reynir’s alley.”

Lalli punched Emil in the shoulder. “Reynir’s not here; we are, so we’ll succeed. We have to.”

Emil closed his eyes and gathered his composure. “OK. Since you’re a Water-Bender, can you feel just what those springs are bringing up into the plants?”

“Yep, but we already know the plants just take the one thing they need and make it something these guys can process.” Emil’s face fell. Lalli continued, “Good idea though. If any of the plants were still alive, I could feel what they were taking and what they were making.”

A series of squawking sounds pulled their attention to the hen, which was doing what came naturally: laying an egg. Once she was finished, Lalli deftly grabbed it while Emil pacified the hen.

“Why did you do that? And what is that strange stone?” Ta asked.

“It’s an egg, Your Majesty,” Emil explained. “It’s how their kind breed. Were it fertilized, it would eventually hatch--the chick inside would peck its way out. We grabbed it because it isn’t fertilized, and we didn’t want it to go rotten.” He froze in sudden realization of what he’d just said. “Lalli!” he cried so sharply that the other boy almost dropped the egg he was holding. “That’s it! That’s the smell--rotten eggs!”

It took most of the rest of their time, but they found that a truly minute bit of scrambled egg was all that was needed to restore a native to health, so the one egg the hen would lay daily would suffice for the whole village. Ta expressed the natives’ gratitude and confirmed that the two Exiles would be brought back to the village.

Ta spoke again. “And now, we must go to the Hall of the Ancient Ones, where you are expected...”


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
So, did I make the rip-off blatant enough here?

I’m not sure how I could have.

In other news, we’re very close to the end here, so I’m just going to push on until it’s done.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on January 31, 2017, 03:00:45 AM
And another update, though slightly delayed.

Bent and Twisted
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/“Avatar: the Last Airbender” crossover fanfic
Part 15
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg133222#msg133222)
Spoiler: The Second Book of Chronicles • show
Emil and Lalli almost hadn’t made it back, because carrying a loaded stretcher cross-country is even more difficult than it sounds. Of course, they’d had almost a dozen helpers from the village, so that sped things up; nevertheless, they almost hadn’t made it back. Just as they had emerged from the Portal with their cumbersome treasure, the Portal made at such cost had flickered and died.

Ta had led the two boys to the Hall of the Ancient Ones, a cavern carved into the rock of a local mountain which served as a massive cenotaph where jewels glinted from the walls and ceiling; the stretcher and its bearers awaited them in one of its passages, and they had set off for the Portal immediately. Once the group had reached the Portal, however, the bearers had handed over their burden to the boys and presumably headed home.

Emil looked over to where Sigrun reclined; the youth was more than half afraid that the Earth-Bender (severely drained already from creating the Portal using the knowledge she’d gained from the Elder Sigrun’s necklace) had followed her mentor into the next world, since the Portal’s death and Trond’s expiration--just after explaining what the necklace was and how Sigrun must use it--were so horribly similar. She cracked one eye open and grinned weakly at him. “Be fine. Y’should see t’other guy.”

Reynir babbled something in his weird language, bringing Emil’s attention to the fact that all the others were in the Portal Room now. When Lalli spat something at Tuuri, Emil frowned in disappointment. He’d enjoyed actually conversing with his friend, and there was so much he’d wanted to discuss with him now that the urgency of their mission had passed. They had been in the sky itself! It was nearly beyond any of Emil’s wildest flights of fancy.

Eventually, Tuuri got to translating what Reynir had said initially: “Don’t worry, Emil. Sigrun just needs rest, but she’ll be fine.”

Onni barked out something, glaring at Mikkel. Tuuri translated again: “We’ve heard that there are no Benders of any sort in the Mark of Denn, but that really isn’t the case. Is it, Mikkel?”

Mikkel cleared his throat a few times before a sharp look from Onni had him finally admitting, “Actually, I am a Bender, but instead of one of the Elements, or Life, or Spirit, I Bend Senses.” He spoke first in the language of the Island of Life-Benders, then repeated himself in his native tongue.

“By which you mean Minds,” Onni corrected, Tuuri translating near-simultaneously.

“By which I mean Sight, Scent, Touch, or Hearing, or combinations thereof,” Mikkel riposted. “I believe those are more commonly referred to as ‘Senses’, are they not? I cannot interfere with the processes of reason in another’s mind except via Bending their Senses, so ‘Mind-Bender’ seems a decided misnomer.”

“Yes, I’m sure none of your Bending victims ever lost their reason due to you,” Onni snapped back sarcastically enough that even those who didn’t speak the language he was using felt its bite.

“Not intentionally,” Mikkel said. Then he turned to the others and said, “This was, of course, the reason for my Exile: I used my Bending to pull pranks, and one went awry enough that I had to pay the price for it.”

“But that is only part of your reason for seeking Exile, Mikkel.”

Mikkel turned and stared in astonishment at the shrouded form lying on the stretcher Emil and Lalli had brought back from their travels, which sat up, still encased in wrappings very much like the mummies of the ancient times. It spoke again.

“You are wondering why you are here and who I am. Almost a century ago, the Balance of Bending tilted too far, and my predecessor, the Avatar Nguyen, was hurled into the Spirit Realm and beyond; it has taken a very long time for the Avatar Spirit to return so that it could be reborn in me. Now, with the emergence of the other Bending Wheels, all is in place for the Balance to be Restored, and I have emerged to resume my place as Avatar. You have each been Called here, four representing the Old Wheel of Bending and three representing the New Wheels, that you might be my tutors--and friends. One of you has already known me well, but to the others, I say this: I am Michael Madsen, Mikkel’s twin brother, and I am the Avatar.”


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
Please note: Michael actually is the Avatar.

I know: it took me long enough.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on February 02, 2017, 06:48:09 PM
I have a thing! (http://archiveofourown.org/works/9308429/chapters/21608426)


*flees*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on February 02, 2017, 09:59:54 PM
Windfighter: that's a clever twist!

LooNEY: this is interesting. And I agree with Buteo; the exposition is useful to me, since I have only ever seen one episode of Avatar myself.

Lazy8: I remember the idea of a Roman gladiator AU being floated some while back; glad you did something with it. And that you remembered the lead! Sigrun as Spartacus, hmmmm....
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on February 02, 2017, 10:43:09 PM
Lazy8: I remember the idea of a Roman gladiator AU being floated some while back; glad you did something with it. And that you remembered the lead! Sigrun as Spartacus, hmmmm....
Lazy8 and Aliax have been discussing Lazy8's doing the story in AO3 comments back-and-forth on their fics for a while now; I'm also glad it's come to fruition.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on February 02, 2017, 10:50:07 PM
I think I have missed most of that discussion, will have to see if I can find and read it.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on February 03, 2017, 03:13:07 AM
Flying visit to drop off chap. 24 of the Reynir superhero fic:  http://archiveofourown.org/works/6610714/chapters/21616964

Some growing competence, and some lack thereof.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on February 03, 2017, 04:14:56 AM
Good chapter!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Elleth on February 03, 2017, 01:17:54 PM
A quick thing for the Femslash February Music Box (http://"http://womenofssss.tumblr.com/musicbox") challenge over on tumblr:

Compromise (http://"http://archiveofourown.org/works/9561500") (Agneta/her Dalahästen colleague, Teens)
Agneta is stuck at home after one close call, now she’s having one of a different kind.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on February 03, 2017, 09:34:16 PM
I have a new story for the song challenge, and I'm really satisfied this time!

Dangerous Game (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12349728/1/Song-challenge-Dangerous-game)
Summary: AU: Emil has been a space gladiator for several years, but he is playing a dangerous game, as he discovers when he realize he has to fight against someone he knew long ago.
Rating: T
Genre: Sci-Fi/Tragedy

Inspired by the song Dangerous Game (https://youtu.be/6-ZOeZytu-U) by 3 doors down.

and since it's a Windy-story I guess it's not too much of a spoiler to say that someone dies in it...

Are gladiator AUs a new fad now? ;D Anyway, I was listening to the song as I was reading, and you really managed to capture the overall feel of it - and as a synesthete who often has trouble wrapping my head around other people's song visualizations, I do not make that statement likely. Nice!

(Also I kinda want to go and somehow mash our AUs together now...)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Windfighter on February 03, 2017, 11:39:06 PM
Are gladiator AUs a new fad now? ;D Anyway, I was listening to the song as I was reading, and you really managed to capture the overall feel of it - and as a synesthete who often has trouble wrapping my head around other people's song visualizations, I do not make that statement likely. Nice!

(Also I kinda want to go and somehow mash our AUs together now...)

...apparently they are. Sorry, I missed the discussion about you other people writing gladiator AUs! (Although mine is Space gladiator, totally different ;P)

and thank you for the nice words <3 You can see why I'm really satisfied with it!

(also, you do that, I bet it'd be fun!)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on February 04, 2017, 06:30:11 PM
Oh, look. Another update.

Bent and Twisted
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/“Avatar: the Last Airbender” crossover fanfic
Part 16
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg133303#msg133303)
Spoiler: Proverbs • show
Lalli didn’t like the Fox Spirits nosing around the Air Temple, but Emil seemed to be the only one who noticed the effect those Spirits had on his friend.

Sigrun was either recuperating in deep slumber or setting her recovery back by making more and ever more memory stones like those in the Elder Sigrun’s necklace; her stated goal was to make a set for all seven Tutors to the Avatar, though Emil disliked how she was putting her eventual recovery at risk in order to do so. Either way, she was too caught up in other matters to notice Lalli’s uneasiness whenever a Fox Spirit slinked by.

Tuuri and Onni were going back and forth to the Spirit Realm like two yo-yos; sometimes the Fox Spirits accompanied them, but just as often they didn’t. Emil was starting to feel rather annoyed on his friend’s behalf that they ignored him so, but Lalli himself seemed quite used to this treatment.

Mikkel and his brother had a rather thorny relationship, when it wasn’t outright contentious. Mikkel claimed not to believe Michael’s claim of being the Avatar, though sometimes even Reynir could tell Mikkel was lying about it.

Reynir. The youth from the Island of Life-Benders was another complication in the net around Lalli: alike but opposites, in a way that reminded Emil far too closely of his own relations with Lalli; the only reassurance there was how Lalli barely tolerated Reynir. To be sure, Lalli respected Reynir’s abilities, but just couldn’t stand his foolishness otherwise.

All of this was exacerbated by the fact that they were stuck on the Air Temple as the Air-Benders that inhabited its hallowed halls took it to what they called “the Lake of Awakening” (which also confused Emil, as Michael seemed perfectly awake already to him). They had been decent enough to bring the vehicle that had sheltered their six visitors along, but said visitors had almost nothing to do, and were beginning to get a bit stir-crazy.

The Fox Spirits had begun nosing around the Air Temple a day or so after their journey began. Emil wasn’t sure where they came from, but the others seemed unsurprised by their advent, and, with the noticeable exception of Lalli, unperturbed.

One of the so-close-to-identical-as-made-no-difference Air-Benders entered the space the visitors had been allotted and said portentously, “We have arrived.”

*

They had disembarked at the entrance to a gargantuan Temple to the Avatar, and Michael had said, “It is here that I must assume the Mantle of the Avatar by entering the Avatar State; for this, I shall need your aid.”

There were people in the Temple; they were actually more of the folk Emil and Lalli had met in that other place. Michael said something-or-other about what they actually were, but it went right over Emil’s head; or at least it did then.

There were certain portions of the Temple where only the Avatar and the Templars were permitted, and the severity of the tones in which this was said convinced Emil that it was Important.

“Hey! If you come with me, we can heal Sigrun up right now!”

Emil looked up from his doodlings to see a Fox Spirit standing at the door leading from the sleeping area to the rest of the vehicle, its body tensed in readiness to be off. Something about it was utterly convincing, so Emil put his materials aside and followed after it.

They went into the Temple, and through a byzantine labyrinth until they debouched into a wide and ornately bedecked corridor. The Fox Spirit kept sprinting ahead and slinking back, urging Emil ever onwards.

Emil stopped as he realized where the corridor led. “I’m... not supposed to be here,” he whispered, but the thought of Sigrun well again meant he could not make himself turn back; nor would he go forward, as to do so would betray his hosts. He struggled within himself over what to do for a long moment, the Fox Spirit ahead of him egging him onwards, but eventually, he shut his eyes and turned around, though his heart screamed in anguish within him.

Ahead of him was a dark figure. How he knew the androgynous form was that of a woman, Emil didn’t know, but he knew it all the same. His footsteps slowed as he approached her; she was standing before one of the innumerable side-passages off the corridor, utterly motionless. She was waiting for him.

“She will die.” The words carried both a cold certainty and a horrible glee.

Emil’s stomach turned; he was certain who the dark figure meant, but asked anyway, “Who will?”

“The red-haired Earth-Bender,” was the measured reply. “The Gnorr Earth-Bender who dared to thwart me. She will die, and never will she be gathered back to the bosom of her people, and I will hold her soul in torments indescribable.”

“No,” Emil whispered. Then, louder, he said, “No!”

“And you will aid me in this, Fire-Bender,” the dark figure continued as though Emil hadn’t spoken. “You killed my Sonew; now you shall take his place, or you shall die. But the red-head shall die regardless.”

“NO!” Emil shouted, trying to summon the fire within him as he leapt at the dark form. But his hands met nothingness, no matter how he flailed in his rage; and a horrible, deathly chill fell over him, smothering his fires.

Emil was not aware of breaking away from the Dark Spirit, or of running pell-mell down the corridor; black despair had engulfed him in a sea of hopelessness, and when Lalli found him, the Svensk was curled up into a sobbing ball of misery near their base camp...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
Sometimes things just work, without your even attempting to plan them that way.

Lalli distrusting Fox Spirits is, of course, because of Puppy-Fox, but it fits just about perfectly with the perfidious and villainous fox in the source of this last bit of plotting.

More is coming, hopefully soon.

The end is near.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on February 05, 2017, 05:27:49 AM
Well, I got up to B in the Alphabet Soup challenge, "Butter":

http://archiveofourown.org/works/9583934 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/9583934)

I also changed the title of my "A" piece from "A is for Aino" to just plain "Aino."  I reconsidered the original plan of naming them all "{Letter} is for {Item}"; the prospect of seeing all those titles lined up was actually a bit horrifying.

Anyway, Mikkel doesn't miss life on the farm, although he gets a bit out of step with farm life during his sojourns back there.  And still, there are some benefits that he does miss when he's away.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on February 05, 2017, 07:19:17 PM
Bent and Twisted
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/“Avatar: the Last Airbender” crossover fanfic
Part 17
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg133509#msg133509)
Spoiler: The First Book of Kings • show
Emil could understand Lalli again, and this terrified him until he found out that all of them could understand any of the others. Still, Emil was haunted by the words of the Dark Spirit: “You shall take my Sonew’s place, or you shall die.”

Emil didn’t want to die, but it was preferable to betraying his friends. Or was he already betraying them unknowingly, or had the betrayal already happened?

Fortunately, Lalli managed to wrestle some sense into Emil before the Svensk Fire-Bender could do anything spectacularly stupid. Sigrun would have done it as well, but she still wasn’t up to it, and really annoyed by her infirmity.

Mikkel was pensive. “Emil, could you find the place where the Dark Spirit was standing again?”

Of all the things Emil had expected to hear after his confession to his fellows, that question had never even remotely entered his mind. “Uh... Maybe?” Then he couldn’t help asking, “But why?

Michael answered for his twin. “Because in where she chose to manifest, she may have unintentionally hinted at her deepest-held secrets, giving us the key to defeating her.”

*

She had been a human once, and she’d hated every second of it; so it was that she still hated everything human. Now, she had ascended to a purer form, all the muddled wants and needs of the flesh stripped away or crystallized into her one overriding desire: power.

She deserved the power she sought: she’d earned it through her obvious intrinsic merits, by her many and varied sacrifices, and because none other had ever arisen fit to take the power from her. The only one who’d come close was the Avatar Spirit in its many and varied manifestations, and that not from a will to power, but a desire for balance, of all things!

Soon enough, even the Avatar Spirit would trouble her no more.

*

“You know, of course, that this is totally a trap,” Sigrun remarked to Michael as she put the finishing touches on the fifth necklace.

Michael looked at his twin. Both men grinned that very Trond-like grin as Mikkel answered, “Of course; but the trap must be baited, and therein lies our hope.”

“Besides,” Michael said, “this will be the fight where all seven of you will come into the full flower of your abilities; without it, the necklaces you have forged will remain incomplete.”

“But will this temper us, or will we shatter?” Sigrun asked with unwonted seriousness.

“It remains to be seen,” Mikkel said.

Michael was more positive in his assessment. “For this were the seven of you Called; in this, you shall not fail, however ‘close’ a thing it may appear to you.” He made mocking air-quotes when he said “close”.

*

They had gone down the corridor some distance already, but Emil had not found the doorway they sought as yet. His increasing nervousness manifested itself in a flurry of ignitions; Lalli still had no trouble dousing them all before any damage resulted.

They were almost to the Forbidden Heart of the Temple when Emil looked back at one inconspicuous and seemingly insignificant opening, and the hairs on his neck rose as he brought the group to a halt.

“This is it,” Emil stammered. “The Spirit was right there.” He pointed to a spot just outside the branching corridor.

“So,” Onni mused, “should we go down the corridor, then, or is that where the trap lies?”

Mikkel frowned. “Why would she be outside the entryway if she meant to block it?” He turned to Michael. “What do you know of this Temple?”

“It was made by a mystic from the Island of Life-Benders just after the Outbreak,” Michael replied. “I do not know what his birth name was, but he assumed the cognomen ‘Myketes the Great’ among his followers.”

Reynir looked at the Templars in sudden realization. “He--he created you, didn’t he?”

They nodded calmly. “And he sent some of us to populate a tiny sphere circling this world. You saved their descendants,” one told Emil and Lalli.

Onni smiled at Reynir. “So, you’ve worked out what the other two parts of the Wheel of Life-Bending must be, then?”

Reynir nodded. “The Wheel is made up of Plant-Benders, Flesh-Benders, Fungi-Benders--and Germ-Benders, and that is how the Reaving came to be.”

An almost imperceptible rumbling began, coming from the side corridor; but the little group paid it no heed for the moment.

“Most Fungi have their source in the soil beneath our feet,” Mikkel observed. “Sigrun, what can you feel beneath the spot where our adversary showed herself?”

Sigrun frowned as she reached out to feel the Earth around her, her fingers slipping through the floor as though through ordinary soil.

The rumbling increased, bit by bit, until the Temple trembled with it...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
Believe it or not, if things work out as I’ve planned (ha, ha, ha), this is the penultimate part of the story.

See you at the End!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on February 06, 2017, 07:34:08 PM
+
Bent and Twisted
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/“Avatar: the Last Airbender” crossover fanfic
Part 18
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg133557#msg133557)
Spoiler: The Second Book of Kings • show
The horde of Horrors in all shapes and sizes spilled out of the corridor in full fury, swarming over the little group in a vast and seemingly unending flood and rushing on down the main corridor.

The group should have been dead, but they weren’t; at least, the Avatar and his Tutors weren’t. The Reaving-Bent Horrors in their multitudes were only illusions, the results of a Mind-Bender striving to kill the group through the illusion of their own death, while an allied Spirit-Bender Bent their Fear to the utmost.

Mikkel and Tuuri were ready for the fight, however, and while they could not entirely negate the enemies’ Bending, they could expose it as the fraud it was. This was enough that the group could grit their teeth and endure, aside from the Templars among them, who stood like statues, the assault killing them instantly.

Again and again the attacks came as Sigrun doggedly Bent the Earth at her feet, until finally, a casket was exposed. In an instant, Onni had whipped up a funnel of Air to raise the casket into their circle, but even as he did, counter-winds buffeted the capsule, and spikes of rock lashed out to try to block its path. Fires tried to spark on the casket, while long icicles formed on its bottom, trying to drag it down.

The Dark Spirit’s forces had arrived; the Battle of the Benders had begun.

Acting on instinct, Lalli dashed away the flames, while Emil burned off the icicles, Sigrun pushed the spikes aside and Onni reined in the winds. They did this over and over again while Tuuri and Mikkel held off their own counterparts; but as the Battle dragged on and on, their exertions slowly started sapping their very Life, so at last Reynir tried to shore it up as best he could once more.

After the opening salvos, the major part of the attacks centered on Michael, but most of the rest focused on Sigrun; Emil nearly killed himself beating back the ones he could, his memory replaying that cold “She will die” all the while.

As each of the seven strained to Bend against the oncoming foes, they each felt something ancient and powerful rise within them, as each had felt before in a time of great need. Their eyes closed, and when they opened again, they were glowing blue.

Energy flowed from the seven into Michael, and with it came searing pain that brought him to his knees with eyes squeezed shut as his chi rerouted itself. Then the pain was gone, leaving only power in its wake. Avatar Michael stood and his eyes opened, glowing bright blue, for he had finally entered the Avatar State for the first time.

The fight did not last long after that. The Dark Spirit had made deals with a whole host of Benders of various sorts, but even massed as they were, they were no match for the Avatar, and particularly not when he was backed by his seven Tutors. Both individually and in groups, they fell to the Avatar Spirit, and were stripped of their Bending, until none remained to oppose the Avatar.

Spent, the seven Tutors dropped to their knees, fighting to stay conscious. Sigrun looked down at the casket she held. “So... what’s... in... this... thing?” she slowly asked, fighting to get each word out.

A Templar, called forth from the Forbidden Heart of the Temple through the Golden Portal by the entrance of Michael into the Avatar State, gently lifted the casket from her rapidly slackening grasp and said, “Within this is the Shield and the Cure for the Reaving; with this, no more shall fall to it, though the Reaving-Bent are still beyond its aid.”

As he spoke, three other Templars joined him. “And now that Avatar Michael has entered the Avatar State at last, it is time for him to be seated in the place we have long prepared for him; this will send the Dark Spirit to her doom.”

Beginning their long-practiced chant, the four Templars took their processional positions around the Avatar, and the five of them went down the corridor, the heavy, dark shape of their spirit foe dogging their steps all the way. Other Templars bore their fallen kin away for what rites Templars performed to honor their dead.

Finally, the Avatar and his Templar escort passed through the Golden Portal, ascending the Dais to where the Throne of Balance awaited the Avatar. In the instant when the Avatar sat, a long, wailing cry of failure and despair echoed down the corridor until it, and the Dark Spirit from which it issued, faded away forever.

Two Templars emerged from the Golden Portal, gesturing for the seven to approach. “And now,” one said when they reached the threshold, “you must go in and take you places on the Lower Dais, for Change has come, and the Balance is nigh to return.”

Mikkel, Tuuri, Reynir, Onni, Lalli, Emil and Sigrun looked at each other for a moment before stepping through the Golden Portal...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
So, the Fell Ponies came; Elder Grandfather’s bones went back to Mycetian Burial Grounds; and Narrow Brain was banished forever.

Such is how our story ends. My thanks to all those who bore with me through all this.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on February 06, 2017, 07:37:50 PM
The Complete Links to
Bent and Twisted
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/“Avatar: the Last Airbender” crossover fanfic
Spoiler: show
Part 1 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg103191#msg103191)
Part 2 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg103272#msg103272)
Part 3 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg103403#msg103403)
Part 4 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg105037#msg105037)
Part 5 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg124934#msg124934)
Part 6 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg129354#msg129354)
Part 7 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg130889#msg130889)
Part 8 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg131680#msg131680)
Part 9 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg132033#msg132033)
Part 10 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg132561#msg132561)
Part 11 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg133113#msg133113)
Part 12 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg133164#msg133164)
Part 13 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg133195#msg133195)
Part 14 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg133222#msg133222)
Part 15 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg133303#msg133303)
Part 16 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg133509#msg133509)
Part 17 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg133557#msg133557)
Part 18 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg133594#msg133594)


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
So, about the New Plot, and how it differs from the old:

As soon as we learned he existed, Michael was always going to be the Avatar. Mikkel and Tuuri were always going to be Benders from the other two New Wheels, though I wanted them to gain their powers on the journey rather than having had them all along; this was part of the “change is occurring” theme I wanted to have. Michael wasn’t to be able assume the Avatar State until all four Wheels had emerged.

Michael’s little speech at the end of Part 15 was originally supposed to end the whole thing, as I didn’t want to retread the A:tLA path, since there was no way I could match (to say nothing of better) the original treatment. They were basically going to wander fairly randomly until Onni showed up and sent them to where Michael had been sleeping for the last decade or two.

Then, I got my bright idea: crib off of Krull (the Widow of the Web part, which allowed me to bring in the Dalsnes crew), The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet (which allowed me to do some Emil&Lalli stuff), and A Mystery for Mr Bass (which allowed me to revisit that fantastic story), with a dash of Captain Planet thrown in at the very end (where I recycled the “Michael can’t go Full Avatar until the others have all reached Peak Bending” thing).
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on February 07, 2017, 11:46:55 PM
And now, to continue…

The Expedition
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/Cyberpunk AU fanfic
Part 2
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg131395#msg131395)
Spoiler: Blue and Yellow Make Green • show
Emil Västerström was terribly aware of the brooding presences of his aunt and uncle beside him. Don’t show weakness, Emil told himself, his heart in his throat. Don’t try to make friends; don’t bring disgrace to the Västerström name--again. Just be punctiliously correct and everything will be fine.

Of course it would be fine; it had to be.

So he tried to put forth an air of competent professionalism when the Finns finally showed up, extending his hand in collegial courtesy.

It was a wasted effort: neither took it, the taller, thinner one slinking by him without a word and the shorter, plumper one stopping to mumble something quiet and just as scared-sounding as Emil felt. Well, that at least was a normal reaction to the sight of Emil’s uncle and aunt. The one who spoke also waved rather than accepting the handshake.

Germophobes, then. Well, that was fairly rational in this age, when the radiation Outside had bred super-strains of so many diseases; Emil would respect their custom. He gave a dignified wave in return. “Greetings,” he said in a voice he’d hoped would also be dignified, but which actually wobbled terribly. “I am the ordinance tech on our mission, Emil Västerström.”

“Hi.” The word was barely a breath, but actually getting it out seemed to give her courage to go on. “I’m Tuuri Hotakainen, and this is my cousin, Lalli. He’s our scout, and I’m his handler. He’s mute, and a mutant--he only communicates telepathically, and only to me.” She paused. “You have nice hair.”

“Uh... Thank you?” Tuuri had said that last as though pronouncing a curse upon Emil.

“I’m glad you spilled food all down your front. It’s the only human thing about you.” And with that, Tuuri walked away.

Emil deflated. Not bothering to turn his head, he asked his uncle, “You let that happen deliberately, didn’t you?”

“If you will be fool enough to sleep so long and so soundly as to nearly ruin our schedule, you should count yourself fortunate that I was satisfied with your humiliation rather than one of my more standard punishments.” Torbjörn’s voice was as cool and reptilian as ever.

“The train to Mora is scheduled to leave almost immediately, Herr Västerström,” a nervous voice informed Torbjörn.

“They shall wait for us,” Torbjörn informed her. “Attend to it.”

“Our--our phones are on the fritz at the moment, sir.”

Torbjörn snapped his fingers. As the bearer of bad news was wrestled away, Torbjörn raised his voice to be heard over her pleas for a mercy he had never possessed. “You! Tuuri!”

Tuuri looked like she might need to change her pants from the sudden attention paid to her. “Y-y-y-y-y-yes?” she managed through chattering teeth.

“Send that freakish scout cousin of yours off to hold the train for us; and he’d better succeed.”

Lalli was off like a shot, Emil not far behind. Deciding to show the youngsters that he was as fit as ever himself, Torbjörn paced Emil, while Taru, Tuuri and Siv followed more sedately, Taru bearing the luggage.

Once they were aboard, Torbjörn told the youths, “We will arrive in Mora in a matter of hours. After a brief stop to gather some equipment from our Headquarters, we shall proceed to the Oresund bridge, where we will join your seniors. The five of you will then set off on our expedition. Is that clear?” After a pause, he continued, “Then there will be no need for any of you to disturb us for the remainder of this portion of our journey.”

It was an order; one Emil was most accustomed to hearing, though he knew the Finns might not be. A quick glance reassured him that neither of the two grey-haired youths sitting across from him would try to force themselves on Torbjörn or Siv, so he looked down at his stained shirt, sighed, and quietly went off to the nearest washroom to try to rectify his appearance as best he could...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
Yep. That’s Emil.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on February 08, 2017, 11:21:25 PM
And now, to continue…

The Expedition
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/Cyberpunk AU fanfic
Part 2
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg131395#msg131395)
Spoiler: Blue and Yellow Make Green • show
Emil Västerström was terribly aware of the brooding presences of his aunt and uncle beside him. Don’t show weakness, Emil told himself, his heart in his throat. Don’t try to make friends; don’t bring disgrace to the Västerström name--again. Just be punctiliously correct and everything will be fine.

Of course it would be fine; it had to be.

So he tried to put forth an air of competent professionalism when the Finns finally showed up, extending his hand in collegial courtesy.

It was a wasted effort: neither took it, the taller, thinner one slinking by him without a word and the shorter, plumper one stopping to mumble something quiet and just as scared-sounding as Emil felt. Well, that at least was a normal reaction to the sight of Emil’s uncle and aunt. The one who spoke also waved rather than accepting the handshake.

Germophobes, then. Well, that was fairly rational in this age, when the radiation Outside had bred super-strains of so many diseases; Emil would respect their custom. He gave a dignified wave in return. “Greetings,” he said in a voice he’d hoped would also be dignified, but which actually wobbled terribly. “I am the ordinance tech on our mission, Emil Västerström.”

“Hi.” The word was barely a breath, but actually getting it out seemed to give her courage to go on. “I’m Tuuri Hotakainen, and this is my cousin, Lalli. He’s our scout, and I’m his handler. He’s mute, and a mutant--he only communicates telepathically, and only to me.” She paused. “You have nice hair.”

“Uh... Thank you?” Tuuri had said that last as though pronouncing a curse upon Emil.

“I’m glad you spilled food all down your front. It’s the only human thing about you.” And with that, Tuuri walked away.

Emil deflated. Not bothering to turn his head, he asked his uncle, “You let that happen deliberately, didn’t you?”

“If you will be fool enough to sleep so long and so soundly as to nearly ruin our schedule, you should count yourself fortunate that I was satisfied with your humiliation rather than one of my more standard punishments.” Torbjörn’s voice was as cool and reptilian as ever.

“The train to Mora is scheduled to leave almost immediately, Herr Västerström,” a nervous voice informed Torbjörn.

“They shall wait for us,” Torbjörn informed her. “Attend to it.”

“Our--our phones are on the fritz at the moment, sir.”

Torbjörn snapped his fingers. As the bearer of bad news was wrestled away, Torbjörn raised his voice to be heard over her pleas for a mercy he had never possessed. “You! Tuuri!”

Tuuri looked like she might need to change her pants from the sudden attention paid to her. “Y-y-y-y-y-yes?” she managed through chattering teeth.

“Send that freakish scout cousin of yours off to hold the train for us; and he’d better succeed.”

Lalli was off like a shot, Emil not far behind. Deciding to show the youngsters that he was as fit as ever himself, Torbjörn paced Emil, while Taru, Tuuri and Siv followed more sedately, Taru bearing the luggage.

Once they were aboard, Torbjörn told the youths, “We will arrive in Mora in a matter of hours. After a brief stop to gather some equipment from our Headquarters, we shall proceed to the Oresund bridge, where we will join your seniors. The five of you will then set off on our expedition. Is that clear?” After a pause, he continued, “Then there will be no need for any of you to disturb us for the remainder of this portion of our journey.”

It was an order; one Emil was most accustomed to hearing, though he knew the Finns might not be. A quick glance reassured him that neither of the two grey-haired youths sitting across from him would try to force themselves on Torbjörn or Siv, so he looked down at his stained shirt, sighed, and quietly went off to the nearest washroom to try to rectify his appearance as best he could...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
Yep. That’s Emil.


Fascinating. A darker AU, to be sure.  Enjoying the Alt!Quartet's characterisation, especially Siv! (But Trond is unchanged XD )
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Gaemmel on February 09, 2017, 03:51:21 AM
After encountering a severe writer's block that lasted a few weeks, I was finally able to write something again! So I could finally, finally start on the Alphabet Soup/Singalong Challenge! This is my entry for the letter A:

http://archiveofourown.org/works/9629999

It's about Emil and the ways the cares for Lalli, rated Teen for thoughts about stuff that COULD be seen as sexual, but other than that, it's... kinda fluffy :D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on February 09, 2017, 10:16:32 AM
One of the fanfic ideas I've been throwing at the wall stuck, and is coming out in chapters that are just around 1000 words. Took 6 chapters to decide on a title, so it's high time I post at least the first one:

Broken bridges

Under cover of making his embarrassing youngest son's dream come true, a rich man bankrolls an expedition into the Silent World manned by an underqualified crew... and a woman hired to kill his son. His plan gets thwarted on the first day not only by the crew being more resourceful than planned, but the bridge between the Known World and the Silent World breaking. The crew, stranded in the Silent World for the winter, decides it might as well spend it doing the research for which it was officially hired. A job that gets complicated by including a good-hearted young man who just found out more about the world's cruelty than he bargained for.

Spoiler: Chapter 1 • show

That radio call explained everything. And it was not good news. Torbjörn, along with Trond and Taru, had insisted the boy was not ready, but his father had had none of it. For his twentieth birthday, he got his dream of visiting the Silent World, despite not being immune. His father had promised that he would be well-guarded, but even that promise had not been kept. Finding out who exactly their employer had hired to "guard" the boy had made them realize why he had been suddenly curious each time one of them had mentioned having a friend or relative in the military, when he usually couldn't care less about what was going on in his employee's lives as long as it didn't keep them from doing their job. Torbjörn's own nephew, who had dropped out of academia to become a cleanser less than two years ago. A couple of Taru's distant cousins, one of whom had a suspicious skill overlap with the boy, down to the lack of immunity. The second distant cousin wasn't much better: if it weren't for the presence of the first one, he would have been unable to function with the rest of the crew according to Taru. Trond's acquaintances were better in those regards, but still substandard: a man that was hardly a real doctor whose real gift lied in getting fired and the command of the crew given to a troll hunter with a limited notion of long-term planning. Long term planning was never intended to be needed on this expedition. The only person none of them knew was the day scout, that could have been the person they hated the most in the whole world if it weren't for the fact she was now inside a troll's stomach, unfortunately along with the Grade A cat assigned to the crew. If it weren't for both their employer and the day scout underestimating the rest of the crew, the boy would have been that troll's dinner instead.
-How is he?
Torbjörn had accepted to move away from Sweden to get this job in Iceland because of the money, but had come to care for the boy as much as for his own children back home. They boy's Norwegian teacher and the woman hired to train him for the day-to-day aspects of the expedition had a similar affection for him.
-He didn't get exposed, but he's in shock after what happened. Mikkel put him in the dormitory and told us to keep an eye on him.
Taru's cousin Tuuri sounded on the verge of tears again. The previous was when they had all realized that her presence in the crew was going to be used as an excuse to order everyone to continue the research, despite the "setback" of losing their employer's youngest son on the first day. This greatly increased the possibility that anyone who may have noticed something suspicious about the boy's death would end up dead themselves, by troll of by day scout. Sigrun's voice intervened:
-Sorry to interrupt your chit-chat, but we have a more pressing issue. What do we do now? I don't like the idea of going back to that boring Danish military base, and it's not only because the bridge broke.
Torbjörn had to make sure he had heard correctly:
-Why are you asking us? I'd like to remind you that you reached this radio completely by chance, and that I just happened to be next to it because I had just been talking to my wife.
-Who else should I ask? I'm definitely not asking the actual boss anything anymore.
Torbjörn turned in the direction of Trond and Taru, who seemed both in deep thought. Trond was the first to emerge from it, before grabbing the radio's microphone:
-Listen. I have enough connections here to send you a ship with quarantine facilities that will take you somewhere safe. But I'll get nobody to come get you right now. You'll have to wait until right before spring to be picked up. The most convenient place to pick you up from will most likely be very far away from your current location, so you might as well use that time to reach it. Tell me, how much supplies were you given? Supplying you as if he expected at least one of you to die early into the expedition would have raised a few red flags.
Tuuri answered:
-Reynir's father made him check himself to test his knowledge. Mikkel checked also, in case he had been deliberately taught to misevaluate things. Mikkel say we're good, but may need to do a little hunting and scavenging from time to time. The fact that we don't need to feed Helena nor the cat anymore helps also.
"Helena" had been the day scout. Taru emerged from her own thoughts:
-If you're going to have a long trip in the Silent World anyway, would you mind taking a few photos of your campsites? That alone would be precious data for some people. That will keep that extremely expensive assassination plot from becoming a complete waste.
Tuuri translated Taru's Icelandic for Sigrun, who was the next to speak:
-I like you guys already! We can totally do that! Will keep everyone from thinking of the old boss wanting all of us dead too much.
-"The old boss"? asked Torbjörn, intrigued.
-You three are the new bosses now. If anyone asks, the radio broke in such a way that we can only reach you guys and can't contact the boring Danish base. I don't care if it's not actually possible, I think no one will once they find out what this mission was originally supposed to be and that we're the good guys in that story.
The more they thought of it, the more they realized they were in no position to refuse.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Ragnarok on February 09, 2017, 12:09:26 PM
New chapter of the crossover. Gendry gets a bit, and Jón is Up to Something.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/7707919/chapters/21775226 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7707919/chapters/21775226)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Anna on February 09, 2017, 11:36:40 PM
One of the fanfic ideas I've been throwing at the wall stuck, and is coming out in chapters that are just around 1000 words. Took 6 chapters to decide on a title, so it's high time I post at least the first one:

Broken bridges

Under cover of making his embarrassing youngest son's dream come true, a rich man bankrolls an expedition into the Silent World manned by an underqualified crew... and a woman hired to kill his son. His plan gets thwarted on the first day not only by the crew being more resourceful than planned, but the bridge between the Known World and the Silent World breaking. The crew, stranded in the Silent World for the winter, decides it might as well spend it doing the research for which it was officially hired. A job that gets complicated by including a good-hearted young man who just found out more about the world's cruelty than he bargained for.

Chapter 1
Spoiler: show

That radio call explained everything. And it was not good news. Torbjörn, along with Trond and Taru, had insisted the boy was not ready, but his father had had none of it. For his twentieth birthday, he got his dream of visiting the Silent World, despite not being immune. His father had promised that he would be well-guarded, but even that promise had not been kept. Finding out who exactly their employer had hired to "guard" the boy had made them realize why he had been suddenly curious each time one of them had mentioned having a friend or relative in the military, when he usually couldn't care less about what was going on in his employee's lives as long as it didn't keep them from doing their job. Torbjörn's own nephew, who had dropped out of academia to become a cleanser less than two years ago. A couple of Taru's distant cousins, one of whom had a suspicious skill overlap with the boy, down to the lack of immunity. The second distant cousin wasn't much better: if it weren't for the presence of the first one, he would have been unable to function with the rest of the crew according to Taru. Trond's acquaintances were better in those regards, but still substandard: a man that was hardly a real doctor whose real gift lied in getting fired and the command of the crew given to a troll hunter with a limited notion of long-term planning. Long term planning was never intended to be needed on this expedition. The only person none of them knew was the day scout, that could have been the person they hated the most in the whole world if it weren't for the fact she was now inside a troll's stomach, unfortunately along with the Grade A cat assigned to the crew. If it weren't for both their employer and the day scout underestimating the rest of the crew, the boy would have been that troll's dinner instead.
-How is he?
Torbjörn had accepted to move away from Sweden to get this job in Iceland because of the money, but had come to care for the boy as much as for his own children back home. They boy's Norwegian teacher and the woman hired to train him for the day-to-day aspects of the expedition had a similar affection for him.
-He didn't get exposed, but he's in shock after what happened. Mikkel put him in the dormitory and told us to keep an eye on him.
Taru's cousin Tuuri sounded on the verge of tears again. The previous was when they had all realized that her presence in the crew was going to be used as an excuse to order everyone to continue the research, despite the "setback" of losing their employer's youngest son on the first day. This greatly increased the possibility that anyone who may have noticed something suspicious about the boy's death would end up dead themselves, by troll of by day scout. Sigrun's voice intervened:
-Sorry to interrupt your chit-chat, but we have a more pressing issue. What do we do now? I don't like the idea of going back to that boring Danish military base, and it's not only because the bridge broke.
Torbjörn had to make sure he had heard correctly:
-Why are you asking us? I'd like to remind you that you reached this radio completely by chance, and that I just happened to be next to it because I had just been talking to my wife.
-Who else should I ask? I'm definitely not asking the actual boss anything anymore.
Torbjörn turned in the direction of Trond and Taru, who seemed both in deep thought. Trond was the first to emerge from it, before grabbing the radio's microphone:
-Listen. I have enough connections here to send you a ship with quarantine facilities that will take you somewhere safe. But I'll get nobody to come get you right now. You'll have to wait until right before spring to be picked up. The most convenient place to pick you up from will most likely be very far away from your current location, so you might as well use that time to reach it. Tell me, how much supplies were you given? Supplying you as if he expected at least one of you to die early into the expedition would have raised a few red flags.
Tuuri answered:
-Reynir's father made him check himself to test his knowledge. Mikkel checked also, in case he had been deliberately taught to misevaluate things. Mikkel say we're good, but may need to do a little hunting and scavenging from time to time. The fact that we don't need to feed Helena nor the cat anymore helps also.
"Helena" had been the day scout. Taru emerged from her own thoughts:
-If you're going to have a long trip in the Silent World anyway, would you mind taking a few photos of your campsites? That alone would be precious data for some people. That will keep that extremely expensive assassination plot from becoming a complete waste.
Tuuri translated Taru's Icelandic for Sigrun, who was the next to speak:
-I like you guys already! We can totally do that! Will keep everyone from thinking of the old boss wanting all of us dead too much.
-"The old boss"? asked Torbjörn, intrigued.
-You three are the new bosses now. If anyone asks, the radio broke in such a way that we can only reach you guys and can't contact the boring Danish base. I don't care if it's not actually possible, I think no one will once they find out what this mission was originally supposed to be and that we're the good guys in that story.
The more they thought of it, the more they realized they were in no position to refuse.

Good one, E! Makes me wish the forum had an "upvote" or "kudos" function.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on February 10, 2017, 03:23:55 AM
Thanks. I have an old fanfiction.net account I haven't used in more than five years, and thought I could get motivated to re-activate it or make a new one if I ever made fanfics for SSSS that were too long for the forum but... hasn't happened yet.

Talking about this, might as well work on that backlog:

Story summary and previous chapter (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg133716#msg133716)

Broken bridges

A switch to the story's main point of view, AKA that universe's version of Reynir

Spoiler:  Chapter 2 • show
Even with all the generosity he could muster, he found himself unable to read Helena's actions as anything other than trying to get him eaten by a troll. He realized that if he was thinking this, he was probably still alive. He was lying in a bed that, while warm, wasn't the most comfortable he had known. People were talking. He opened his eyes turned in the direction the voices were coming from. It took him a while to realize that his field of vision as being blocked by someone sitting right next to his bed:
-Hey, you've stopped shivering. Mikkel, he seems be getting better!
He recognized the voice. Torbjörn's nephew Emil, who had tried to befriend him on the basis that they were "from the same world, unlike all these other guys". Having been rich up until just a few years ago had apparently made him assume that he and Reynir had more in common than they turned out to actually have. Emil had fortunately been the first to realize this, and had redirected his attempts at making friends towards Lalli of all people. Reynir had felt bad for Lalli, as he very obviously preferred being left alone, but lacked the possibility of actually telling so to Emil. Tuuri didn't help much, as she seemed to have decided that the expedition was going to be Lalli's opportunity to "learn about being around other people". After Sigrun's scary troll hunting story and Mikkel's really strange joke, he had happily accepted Helena's offer to let him tag along for day scouting, which was supposed to be much safer than the night variant, especially with the cat accompanying them.

Emil stood up as heavy footsteps came closer and much larger body came to sit by his side:
-How are you feeling? Can you get up?
Reynir managed to sit on his bed without much trouble, in such a way that he was now facing Mikkel:
-What happened? Why did Helena...
-I need to tell you a few things that will be very hard to hear. Are you ready for them now or would you like a little more time to recollect yourself beforehand? Maybe something hot to drink or something to eat?
He accepted the drink, and listened. They'd found multiple pieces of evidence suggesting that his father wanted him dead, and Reynir's dream to see the Silent World had been very convenient to him in that regard. Helena had been hired as a more active part of the plan, everyone else had been hired to create a smokescreen over the expedition's real purpose and be killed if necessary. The entire first week of his pill box contained something that Lalli had simply called "poison" in Finnish before dropping it all on the floor and crushing it with his foot. A disturbing thought suddenly crossed Reynir's mind:
-What if there is someone else here trying to kill me? Helena was being quite nice until right before the troll. It could be even be you.
-You have a good point. Okay, let's imagine every single one of us actually does plan to kill you when you least expect it. What do you do? Grab a mask, a few warm clothes and some food, and leave? You'll just get yourself killed by what's outside instead. Helena may have deserved her fate, but her death and that of the cat mean that we are down to one scout, which is not good. Helena wouldn't have been able to survive very long on her own either. Everything indicates that she would have waited until the expedition was almost over to take care of most of us if we were still alive by then. I'm afraid you have no choice but to trust us all to not secretly be killers. Still, considering this possibility at all shows that you are smart. That means it will be easy to keep you safe.
Mikkel let him process the information before talking again:
-If it can reassure you, everyone here is clean as far as I'm concerned. Lalli pretty much saved your life, and I have a few reasons to think that duplicity such as Helena's is just plain impossible for him. This gets Tuuri of the hook as well, as it's hard to see how he could have been able to keep him out of the way if she was preparing such a thing. She was on the verge of tears when she found out what Helena had done. Emil is... "far too easy to read" is the nicest way I can put his case. Sigrun comes from a place where far too many able bodies are culled out by trolls every year. While I don't put it past them to have a few hunting "accidents" with truly troublesome members of the community, I had to explain her your situation three times before she got even a vague idea of why you would be considered troublesome. As for myself, all I can promise is that while not a doctor, I have enough ethics in common to not want to harm people.
Reynir's mind only vaguely registered the last sentence, as he thought over his situation. Árni Ragnarsson, one of the major funders of the Dagrenning genetics program, had opinions that stopped just short of stating that non-immune people should just plain stop reproducing naturally. Not being immune himself, he had used the program to have four immune children with his wife. Then Reynir happened, to his greatest embarrassment. Another strong belief that he had held was that nobody should ever try going into the Silent world for any other purpose than expanding already existing safe areas. Despite this, he had spent lavishly on Reynir, always getting him whatever he wanted, including good tutors in the subjects he wanted to study. He was being taught Norwegian by a retired general of the country's army. He'd gotten a skald all the way from Sweden to teach him the job's skills and former military strategist to prepare him for the expedition. But now, he realized that he had just narrowly escaped being used to prove his father's point.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on February 11, 2017, 09:31:04 AM
Halloween fic for Valentine's Day? That's what everyone wanted, right?

Dead Man's Party (http://archiveofourown.org/works/9308429/chapters/21819590)

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on February 11, 2017, 04:29:52 PM
Posting a chapter a day until I catch up on my huge backlog.

Previous chapter (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg133757#msg133757)

Broken bridges

Introducing the story's version of the Mora team. Árni may be be quite a jerk in that one, but his children are another story.

Spoiler: Chapter 3 • show

That "safe house" could have almost been passed off as surprise hotel stay to the children if it weren't for two important details. One was that it wasn't far away enough from Mora to justify not sleeping at home for the next few months. The other was that while they had a whole suite at their disposal, she and the children had to share it with the people whose idea it had been to bring them here in the first place. Siv still wasn't sure whether these people were actually keeping them safe or had used that story as an extremely subtle version of the very kidnapping they claimed she and the children risked if they stayed home. Since she had the liberty to go where she wanted in the suite provided she didn't leave, she decided that the best place to be was the radio room. Unfortunately, the two dark-haired siblings, for a good reason, had refused to have any of the children in there. The children had been taken in the other room by that Finnish man named Onni. While he claimed to be present for the same reason as the two dark-haired siblings, he seemed to be a glorified errand boy, and now babysitter, in practice. There were at least ten other people in the house, all under the employ of the dark-haired siblings, who, even if they weren't who the claimed to be, were definitely actual siblings. From what Siv had figured, this was the "important people suite". Onni had been allowed to stay in it, but insisted on earning his keep even if the dark-haired siblings said he didn't have to. This, combined with the fact that the person they would have otherwise used as an errand-boy could be used elsewhere resulted in Onni running around the suite doing most of the grunt work, to the point that Siv had started feeling slightly guilty about waiting around while the dark-haired siblings were trying to reach their contact.

A young female voice finally answered the radio in Icelandic:
-Uh... may I ask who's calling?
-Are you the Silent World expedition, by any chance? asked the man among the dark-haired siblings.
-I still need you to state your name.
-Fine. I'm Bjarni Árnason, Reynir's older brother. I have one simple message for you. Whatever you do, do not leave him alone with this Helena woman.
-Ah, that? We already know about Helena. My cousin saved Reynir, but the troll she intended to have kill Reynir killed her instead. We also figured out that your father... wait, you're the brother who didn't come to see him off. Why are you calling?
-Because one of our father's back-up plans was to use your family members as leverage to force you into obeying his orders if Helena couldn't take care of things on her own. My sister Hildur and I have been busy making sure all potential hostages were safe.
-Oh dear, Onni!
-You must be Tuuri. The servants we were sending to Keuruu to secure him ran into a mess of tears trying to get to Øresund base claiming that that his little sister and cousin had run away from home as they were about to take the boat to Finland. Fortunately, we made sure to hire people with brains. While I'm thinking of it, tell your colleague Emil that his aunt and cousins are with us as well. His aunt is currently being cautious about us, so we've been letting her see what we've been up to. Your brother's watching the kids in the other room. Want to talk to him?

After the Finnish siblings exchanged a few words in their own language, Emil confirmed the story that the dark-haired siblings had told Siv, even though he hadn't seen much of what had happened first-hand. The siblings next talked to the expedition's Norwegian captain, who pointed out that having everyone's family members secured meant that Hildur and Bjarni themselves were now in a position to use them as hostages if needed. She didn't like the idea, and asked for a few proofs of good faith before she decided to trust them. That Sigrun woman knew enough about that family to know that these two were supposed to have two older siblings, and asked what they were up to. They had apparently gone to see young Reynir off along with their parents, not realizing what was going on. Hildur had apparently been the first to figure out something was up, but Bjarni had been the only one she'd been able to convince before things reached a point where time was best used in setting up a counter-plan with the resources available to her rather than in gathering allies. Speaking of allies, it turned out that the now technically rogue expedition had made a few allies back in the family main residence in Iceland: Torbjörn and a couple of Reynir's other private tutors, who both happened to be childless only children. They eventually got the captain to trust them, at least for the time being:
-One last thing. Part of our cover in case your old man asks is that the radio broke in such a way that it can only reach the guys back in Iceland. Mora is a little too close to the place we're pretending to be unable to reach. Can you stick to mage-to-mage contact?
-That we can, answered Hildur.
-Fine. Ours sleeps during the day, so I hope your mage likes daytime naps.
What were they talking about? Hildur spoke again:
-This will be a problem neither for Onni nor for myself. Ah, this reminds me. Those pills, even those that were not laced with poison. Do not give them to Reynir.
-Why? They are supposed to be for bad dreams, and with what the kid just went through...
-He was not given these for nightmares. A treatment that is often given for nightmares happens to also block another kind of dream, which just happens to be easily mistakable for a nightmare the first time. Let's just say that the gods have tried to warn him a little more directly in the past.
Sigrun remained silent for a noticeable amount of time, as if that last sentence carried a very heavy meaning. She eventually answered:
-You're the one with the fancy education, you tell me how I'm supposed to explain this to a Danish medic.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on February 11, 2017, 09:07:43 PM
I'm rather liking this Dark!AU, a lot more than I thought I would.

If you don't mind a bit of critique, you could stand to use more names at the beginning of the story. There's no reason for Siv not to have at least learned Onni's name by now, and it would cut down on the confusion - I had to read the first couple of paragraphs several times before I figured out who was doing what.

Sigrun's line at the end was a much-needed bit of comic relief! I definitely got a good chuckle out of that.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on February 12, 2017, 04:28:28 AM
Thanks for pointing this out. That chapter also originally had Tuuri not wanting to talk to Onni despite the circumstances just for the sake of adding a funny line of dialogue, so my brain caught on to this as the thing to fix before putting it online, which made it miss other problems.

Edit: Going out to dinner tonight, so posting now.

Previous chapter (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg133814#msg133814)

Broken bridges

A dreamspace visit that is very much needed after the previous chapter's reveal.

Spoiler: Chapter 4 • show

Hildur broke the silence of the dream-sea on which she and Onni were travelling:
-I was just thinking. If you're following me anyway, you might as well meet Reynir. This way, you can check on him when you go visit your cousin and you'll know his face if he happens to need help while I'm unavailable.
-I'm not following you, I just happen to be going to the same place as you and unable to conjure my own means of crossing the water wherever you've walked recently.
-Which forces you to literally be on my trail. Most people call this "following".
-Mhh...
A couple of safe areas came to her sight. They were much further away than she would have wanted, but not as far as she had feared. Close enough that Reynir had relatively little chance to run into something dangerous. She came to tears when she saw that sheep-filled meadow she knew all too well. She'd once read an Old World story about a man who fell in love with a woman whose memory never lasted more than a day, making her wake up every morning with no idea who she was. The man's dedication to her despite this was supposed to be one of the romantic aspects of the story. Every single night for the last seven years had given her a good idea of what the real thing, rather than the version that made a story people would want to read, had to be like. Hildur and Reynir's fylgja had been helping each other cope with this over the years. The first few weeks hadn't been so bad, as Reynir was always happy to "discover" his safe are and the novelty of it kept his attention enough that he never got around thinking of anything to do "next" time. The first time he did end up making a plan, she had to explain the situation to him. He'd come up with an idea: have her explain him what was going on the next night and tell him what he was planning to do. She'd tried the next night, but he had been too wrapped in the place's "novelty" to listen. Things like that kept happening. Little by little, she'd stopped being cooperative and reduced her role to making sure he didn't wander out of his safe area. She'd stopped explaining things he would never get to enjoy anyway. Eventually, she had ready-organized "first-timer's" tour for him that lasted the night and caught his attention at the right moments in such a way that he never considered going outside of his safe area or what to do next time. But this time was going to be different. This time, he was going to remember.

As she went into the area and brought Onni into it, she saw that she wasn't the only one in a celebratory mood. Reynir's dog fylgja was overpowering him and licking his face like it hadn't done in years.
-Uh... You weren't exaggerating when you said he looked different.
Despite what she had told him, Onni was probably still half-expecting a younger version of Bjarni with red hair. They both walked to the center of the meadow. The fylgja moved away, and Reynir just barely had time to sit and notice her presence before Hildur gave him a big hug:
-I'm so happy you're not taking these forsaken pills anymore! I could have wished for better circumstances leading to this, though.
-What to the pills have to do with this? Mikkel just told me that you told him what they actually were, and that the stuff had possible side effects that weren't desirable in our current conditions.
Hildur had convinced the Danish medic that the pills were a different product. While that product was used to treat night terrors as well, the side effects were different from those of the medicine actually in the pill box, and something that didn't matter much in Reynir's usual life conditions, but was best avoided in an expedition literally in the middle of nowhere. She gave him the real explanation, making it the third time she'd given it in the last twenty-four hours. He had the reaction anyone would have had:
-Why...
-You, of all people, getting chosen by the gods goes against every one of father's beliefs. I made complete sense to him, but not you. I think he decided that the gods must have made a mistake at some point, and that he was fixing it in their stead by getting these pills prescribed to you.
He finally noticed she hadn't come alone:
-Who is that?
-I'm Onni, Tuuri's older brother and Lalli's cousin. Your sister thought you should know my face.
-I think I already saw you before. Tuuri put a picture with you on it on the desk. She and Lalli are doing well, by the way. I'll tell them I saw you when I wake up.
-Thank you very much.

With the introduction finished, Onni went to the edge of the protected area, and realized that he could leave it without Hildur's help. Given Reynir's current strength, the place was supposed to have at least basic defenses. It was only a few paces to Lalli's from where he was, so he decided to visit it, even if he was unlikely to be there. He quickly discovered that the defenses had gotten better, if still much weaker than his own. He heard Hildur's voice coming from behind him:
-There you are. I'm heading back, he'll be fine on his own for the rest of the night. So, this is your cousin's space. Nice trees.
She reached toward the place's border, and her hand went right through it.


By the way, the "story" is actually a movie (50 first dates) in the real world. Just happened to notice a few parallels and decided the story had to have made it to Hildur somehow.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Gaemmel on February 12, 2017, 11:44:20 AM
Yo,
I am very glad to announce that I already managed to make a B entry! Next up, I would like to finally get something done for the "dark" prompt of the 2015 challenge...

http://archiveofourown.org/works/9629999/chapters/21826841
Rating: Teen and Up
Charaters/Relationships: Emil/Lalli
Warnings: It's a little sappy.


(Btw, just mentioning it: If anyone is interested in writing sexy stuff, I suggested a collaborative project on the respective board, I'd be happy to get some feedback!)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on February 13, 2017, 12:27:35 AM
Tall Ships & Taller Tales
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/Pirate crossover fanfic
Part 5
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg104196#msg104196)
Spoiler: The Rising Eide • show
The Ottoman ships plying the Aegean thought themselves invulnerable; after all, the Mediterranean had been the Sultan’s lake for nearly a century. The idea that Ottoman ships would fall prey to Christian raiders was unthinkable to these merchantmen.

The Sea-Lynx came as quite a nasty surprise to all who came under her guns; for more than six months, the mighty Captain Eide was the terror of the Dodecanese and the Levant, once going even so far as to raid the Barbary sultanates themselves. They called her “the Flame-Head”, when they dared speak of her at all.

Between these sorties, the crew of the Sea-Lynx found a warm welcome in Old Venice, which was slowly girding itself up for another go-around with the Ottomans and thus happy to aid any who challenged the Ottoman Navy with such open piracy against their fleets. They even put up with a few “mysterious” fires in Emil’s wake.

Of course, the Sultan’s Navy could not countenance such raiding going unchallenged, so a Hunt was organized. The Aegean soon saw a net of patrols so tight that nothing could slip through. That was the week in which the Sea-Lynx raided Algiers, Tripoli and Rabat.

As winter approached, however, Captain Eide grew more and more restive--the thought of returning to her stash in the Caribbean waxed attractive as the loot in the Sea-Lynx’s hold grew heavier and heavier. In this, Lalli agreed with the Captain; thus, Emil agreed with them both. Neither Tuuri nor Mikkel were particularly eager to leave the lush Mediterranean and its rich ports, but Reynir was indifferent (not that his opinion mattered, except maybe to Tuuri).

Matters really came to a head when Sigrun got hurt, though. The Sea-Lynx had intimidated a lone barque into surrendering a few leagues off Cyprus, but when Reynir led the prize crew aboard, they were ambushed by some janissaries hiding below. Sigrun had saved Reynir by jumping between him and the head janissary, but at the cost of some nasty cuts to her arm.

After disposing of every last person left on the barque, Reynir prevailed upon Emil to set it ablaze and drove it into the harbor of Paphos, the heads of the putative crew hanging from the prow. Reynir was getting pretty good at visual messaging like that, Emil had to admit. Lalli was a bit more dismissive, but still admitted Reynir was getting “almost competent”.

This incident served to convince the crew that the time was right for them to head back to Water Island, if only to secure the loot before their next cruise, so Tuuri set course for the Straits of Gibraltar. Mikkel had his hands full fending off an overly-eager-to-help Reynir and trying to get Sigrun to keep from re-injuring herself every few days.

The Straits were a natural place for an ambush, and the crew waited and watched with bated breath until the Sea-Lynx finally left their narrows behind. A few hours later, when they had all finally got the jitters out of their systems, the Sea-Lynx came under attack...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
Wait, this isn’t dead?

Huh, I guess it isn’t.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on February 13, 2017, 02:31:49 AM
Oh, good!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on February 13, 2017, 08:52:19 AM
*mumbles into table*

Why did I try to write about Tuuri's dissonance, why?

Erase/Rewind (http://archiveofourown.org/works/9308429/chapters/21881087)

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on February 13, 2017, 10:57:16 AM
I think you caught it well.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Ragnarok on February 13, 2017, 03:25:05 PM
Chapter 24 is up, another Tuuri one, short but important.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/7707919/chapters/21888902 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7707919/chapters/21888902)

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on February 13, 2017, 04:07:23 PM
A little something to reduce slightly the waiting time for those of you who don't combine sharing a time zone with Sweden and an early bedtime.

Previous chapter (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg133829#msg133829)

Broken bridges

Just a normal work day for the crew, barring a new development on the Known World side of things. Features a certain plot-relevant book.

Spoiler: Chapter 5 • show

Reynir and Tuuri has decided to split tasks when it came to copying the book found the previous day in what had seemed to be a doctor's office in a communal area turned hospital. Tuuri was going to re-type the text, Reynir was to reproduce any photos and drawings he found. After spending most of the day re-drawing a series of photos showing the progression of the Rash on a patient, he opened the book to the next page that had been marked as having a picture of some kind during a quick comb-through. It seemed to be a flyer with some kind of syringe on it. This was going to be much, much easier than that scary series of photos. The text on the flyer said something about the syringes getting distributed to all treatment centers as soon as possible. He wondered what was supposed to be in them. The radio buzzed. He was quite sure there was no communication planned. Pretending the radio was damaged was fine with everyone, having it damaged for real was not. This meant there was a small chance that Øresund base, and his father, could manage to contact them. Because of this, Tuuri was the one to answer the radio. It turned out to be indeed someone from Øresund base, who claimed to have been trying to reach the expedition for two days. Reynir considered leaving, but his legs felt too weak to support him. What was happening to him? Just yesterday, he had visited that Old World building that was technically sturdy enough to have a troll nest. All though the investigation, Emil had kept saying he was quite sure the rune that Hildur had taught Reynir to draw actually did nothing, and that the building was actually just devoid of trolls.

Tuuri sounded incredibly believable, telling the operator that the radio was broken and that an "accident" had happened with Helena and the cat. Wait, why was she making it sound like Helena had gotten eaten by the troll to save him, while Lalli had arrived later? If she was able to twist words that way, how could he be sure she wasn't doing the exact same thing with him? Or Lalli, for that matter?
-I suppose Reynir's parents would like to speak with him after such a thing happened. Could please fetch them for me?
What was she doing? He wouldn't mind talking to his mother actually, but his father...
A familiar masculine voice came out of the radio:
-Reynir? Are you alright?
Reyir moved his chair closer to the radio and picked up the microphone:
-Ye... Yes...
He might as well go along with Tuuri's story:
-Sor... Sorry... What... what happened to Helena... I didn't know her long, but she seemed...
How could it be so hard to say that last word? She really had seemed nice. He heard his mother's voice:
-I'm happy to hear your voice. But now, you know just how dangerous the Silent World is. Please come back while you are still close to the bridge.
-We... can't.
Fortunately, Tuuri took over:
-Part of the bridge broke while we were driving on it. Actually, we just barely avoided sinking with it.
When his father's voice next came out of the radio, he sounded furious:
-How did this happen?
Tuuri started answering:
-Well, that bridge is more than ninety years old and the knowledge of how it was built in the first place...
-And Helena failed on top of this.
Reynir just barely heard his mother asking his father what he was talking about over his disbelief that if all this story was true, all it took for him to confess was being told that the plan had failed.
-You're Tuuri Hotakainen, right? Listen to me, young lady. If you want to see your brother alive again, you will immediately order that cousin of yours to...
They heard a new voice coming from the radio:
-Please step back, ma'am.
Another new voice:
-Árni Ragnarsson, you are under arrest for attempted murder by proxy.
-You can't do this to me! Do you know who I am?
-Yes, we do.
That last voice was Ólafur's. Guðrún's came next, sounding much closer to the radio:
-Reynir, we are so sorry! Hildur tried to tell us, but we didn't believe her. And when you didn't call back, we thought the worst had happened.
After this, Tuuri felt comfortable telling the real story from their point of view, without twisting any words. That included the fact that they were now reporting to three of Reynir's private tutors.
-Continue reporting to them, in that case. We are going to have plenty to do to clean up this mess as it is, and home is probably one of the safest places for anyone helping you right now. I also understand why you would want to do some that research if you're equipped for it and will need to keep yourselves busy anyway. But please do your best to stay alive, all of you.

When Reynir went to tell Hildur the news, he found her space unoccupied and inaccessible, while it was the complete opposite for the one belonging to Onni. After taking the message he had for Hildur, he explained that he and Hildur had figured out that Icelandic and Finnish mages could ignore each other's protections, but not those of mages from the same tradition.
-Do you know if Hildur is going to go to bed soon?
-I think she will.
-Do you mind if I stay here until she appears in her space?
-Not at all. Besides, she'll probably kill me if I make you wait outside.
Reynir looked around the place. While he knew what Lalli's space looked like from being able to see it, this was the first time he was actually in another mage's space.
-This is different from Lalli's space. More water, less trees. Tuuri told me the three of you basically grew up as siblings, so I thought your space would look like his.
-He's known the forest longer than this place, by now. It's still the other way around for me.
-Oh, is it Saimaa? The place Tuuri told me you lived before going to Keuruu?
Onni suddenly made a face that gave Reynir the impression he had somehow just told him something that made him feel uncomfortable. After that, both of them stayed silent until Reynir saw Hildur appear in her own space and went to join her.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Anna on February 13, 2017, 06:25:21 PM
http://archiveofourown.org/works/8753329/chapters/21893762 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/8753329/chapters/21893762)
a 7-year-old Reynir has a conversation with his grandfather.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on February 14, 2017, 01:11:03 PM
Does Skald!Reynir over-analysing Emil and Lalli's friendship count as a Valentine's day chapter? Because this is exactly what that one somehow turned into.

Previous chapter (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg133891#msg133891)

Broken bridges

Reynir doesn't get to visit an Old World school because of a fever, but Emil, Tuuri and Sigrun bring back a fluffy surprise.

Spoiler: Chapter 6 • show

-Don't worry, I'll take a bunch of photos. You won't miss not being there at all.
Tuuri ran off, Sigrun and Emil at her side. Reynir was really looking forward to visiting that Old World school. Why did he have to wake up with a fever this morning? He felt Mikkel's massive hand on his shoulder:
-You, back to bed.
-Won't I make Lalli sick?
-You have nothing contagious, from what I can tell. And you need the rest.
As Mikkel wrapped him in blanket, Reynir realized something: this was going to be the first time he and Lalli were going to be asleep at the same time. Hildur had told him about that property the safe areas had on language the previous night.

Unfortunately, Lalli had not liked getting a visit from him at all. The only words he had heard from the man who had saved him from Helena were "get out". In a hurry to comply with Lalli’s wishes and escape that giant tree that had grown in his area, Reynir had somehow taken a wrong turn and stumbled into Onni's space instead of his own. He got two surprises in a row: Onni being there and Lalli turning out to have followed him for some reason. Reynir saw what Onni had been talking about the previous night when he seemed to have to do some kind of effort to let Lalli inside, while Reynir had been able to simply walk in both his space and Lalli's. The two cousins had apparently not been able to talk since Lalli had left their home, so Reynir decided to let them chat and stay out of the way. He however couldn't figure out a place in Onni's space that was both accessible and out of hearing range. This caused him to hear things that they probably didn't want him to hear. This included Onni considering it a good thing they were now able to communicate by radio because something that he simply called "it" was looking for them "again". Lalli seemed to understand what he was talking about. After some silence, Onni asked Lalli if he had made any friends yet. Lalli replied that he thought he had maybe made one. Reynir wondered who that could be. It definitely wasn't Reynir himself, as his initial visit to Lalli' space had been his first real move to acquaint himself with him. Tuuri was his cousin, Sigrun didn't interact much with him outside of work and Mikkel knew enough about whatever was making his mind "different" to know that human interactions that he could consider "useless" were to be kept to a minimum. That left only one person. He couldn't be talking about Emil, could he? Unfortunately, Onni did not seem in the mood to ask him more, or at least had not gotten around doing so before Reynir woke up.

-Don't go getting attached. It may still die during the night.
The kitten was being kept as warm as possible in a padded basket while its mother and siblings were being buried outside by Sigrun and Emil. The latter had been the most shaken by them being dead, while Tuuri and Sigrun had had the general attitude of someone who had seen this happen enough times to be hardened to it, but remembered how hard the first few times had been. Strangely enough, the third person out there with them was Lalli, and not Tuuri. When Reynir had asked her the reason for that, her guess had been that Lalli could tell that Emil was sad and wanted to be with him. Had Emil really made friends with Lalli? Come to think of it, it wasn't that strange. It had been Emil's idea to bring the cats back. And Reynir couldn't help notice that when he talked to Lalli, Emil’s habits of trying to make himself look good, sometimes by insulting others without really noticing it, almost vanished. Reynir had found out from Tuuri that Emil had tried to befriend her on the way to Øresund  base, and during that had played up his past as an academic. Reynir had a strange thought: maybe that Lalli's utter lack of anything obvious in common with Emil had left the latter with no other way to approach him than the most basic and simple gestures of kindness. Lalli tended to take things at face value according to Tuuri. He remembered Tuuri's anecdotes of Emil getting more sandwiches when Lalli stole the meat from Emil's, Emil re-arranging Lalli's hair after the decontamination in Mora and telling his cousins to stop patting Lalli during a stop at his aunt’s house. It had been soon followed by Emil making it clear he didn't believe Lalli was a mage, but was still consistent with his idea. He'd have to watch them more closely to see if there was something to it.

Considering his day had started out as not being able to go to that Old World school because he had a fever, he was surprised by all he was able to tell Hildur when she came to visit that night. He chose to not tell her anything her heard from Onni and Lalli's discussion, considering Onni would tell her anything he thought she should know himself. However, his mind was split between his amusement at the coincidence and how little he liked the answer when she asked him a very familiar question:
-Have you made any friends yet?
-I don't know... I'm not sure I can trust my own judgement about people anymore. And what Mikkel said about the cat reminded me that we were still doing dangerous stuff, and that most of them are more exposed to it than I am. I know I have to trust them if I want to have a chance to make it back, but I that doesn’t require making friends. And if I make friends with none of them, it won’t be so hard if one of them turns out to be like Helena. We’ll probably never see each other after this anyway.
-I see why you would think this. But do me a favor. Please give at least one of them a chance.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lacunae Seff on February 14, 2017, 01:30:02 PM
I come bearing sacrifices for the fandom!
So I broke my self imposed fic hiatus, and crawled back into writing fics after... 9 years? (it also got me writing original stuff too... so I'm glad)
Ensi time travel cliche fic (http://archiveofourown.org/works/9674372)
The big character dying we all have been talking about lately. You know the one. It involves the Hotakainen fam and feels (http://archiveofourown.org/works/9708899)
So, angst. My cup of tea.
Also, where does everyone find challenges and prompts for this things?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solokov on February 14, 2017, 02:13:25 PM
Oh good. I was worried you'd picked up the same plot thread I was going to take up regarding Ensi and time travel shenanigans.

*resumes writing to finish it off before anyone else does another time loop story*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Gaemmel on February 14, 2017, 04:56:18 PM

Also, where does everyone find challenges and prompts for this things?

Weeeeeell, we haaaave...

The 2015 prompt challenge. Can be found here: http://archiveofourown.org/collections/ssss_artd_100/profile
The Alphabet Soup/Singalong Collection/Challenge. This was discussed on this thread a few, pages back, but the collection is here: http://archiveofourown.org/collections/SSSS_Alphabet_Soup_and_Singalong_Collection/profile

And I am starting something porn-related over at the mature content board currently... *twists her hands*

I probably forgot at least one challenge.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lacunae Seff on February 14, 2017, 05:48:01 PM
Oh good. I was worried you'd picked up the same plot thread I was going to take up regarding Ensi and time travel shenanigans.

*resumes writing to finish it off before anyone else does another time loop story*

I'm sorry D: I love the time travel cliche, and I'm actually planing to do one with Emil. But not more time travel Ensi... for now *adds wood to the fire*

Quote
Weeeeeell, we haaaave...

The 2015 prompt challenge. Can be found here: http://archiveofourown.org/collections/ssss_artd_100/profile
The Alphabet Soup/Singalong Collection/Challenge. This was discussed on this thread a few, pages back, but the collection is here: http://archiveofourown.org/collections/SSSS_Alphabet_Soup_and_Singalong_Collection/profile

And I am starting something porn-related over at the mature content board currently... *twists her hands*

I probably forgot at least one challenge.

Thank You! this is exactly what I was wondering about!~ And I really need the practice.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Windfighter on February 14, 2017, 10:55:57 PM
I probably forgot at least one challenge.

Linketylinklink (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=907.0)
Translation: Yes, yes you did. But we love you anyway <3
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Elleth on February 15, 2017, 12:37:03 PM
I probably forgot at least one challenge.

If you're on tumblr (or not! as long as you post in a place that's linkable and let me know about entries, it really doesn't matter where you put your things) there's also the Femslash February Music Box Challenge I'm currently running: http://womenofssss.tumblr.com/musicbox :D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on February 16, 2017, 01:37:26 AM
*dramatic fanfare* I'm back! I tried writing again, since everyone else is producing such good, engaging stuff. It's a weird story with a weird title, a mythological presence and a lot of unnecessary sass, as per usual for me.

Here we go!

http://archiveofourown.org/works/9787259/chapters/21979622
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on February 16, 2017, 07:56:55 AM
...apparently they are. Sorry, I missed the discussion about you other people writing gladiator AUs! (Although mine is Space gladiator, totally different ;P)

and thank you for the nice words <3 You can see why I'm really satisfied with it!

(also, you do that, I bet it'd be fun!)

In which I follow through on my threat.

Fear the Fear (http://archiveofourown.org/works/9308429/chapters/21983150)

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Windfighter on February 16, 2017, 10:34:05 AM
You did good! You changed the non-existant background I had thought out though so now I can't do more if I ever felt like revisiting that world!

...I should prolly thank you for that so Thank you <3 I have too many stories already :P
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on February 16, 2017, 11:39:59 AM
I decide to skip a day because writing the equivalent of Chapter 11 has been a mess, and suddenly the intensity of posts spikes with nice new things! Enjoy the counterpart to Chapters 8 and 9, in the meantime.

Previous chapter (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg133940#msg133940)

Broken bridges

Reynir is a little less clueless about the cat-alarm in this universe, but the Rash cure and ghost mysteries are still right were the Old World left them.

Spoiler: Chapter 7 • show

Torbjörn still couldn't believe how fast action had been taken on this case. He decided this was a good thing for the time being, but there was currently one small issue:
-Do the three of us really need to be interrogated at the same time? I really don't feel comfortable letting other house employees help them.
Taru patted Torbjörn shoulder:
-Don't worry. If we're away while they call, they can contact Mora or Øresund base.
-I guess you're right.

-Wait, we need these to guide the Silent World expedition in case they call.
-These are now evidence in an attempted murder case. And there are two other places they can contact, right?
-It is true. But please make copies for us, just in case.
-You'll have the first ones tomorrow.

-Did you really just say "fruit juice was spilled on the radio"?
-Yes.
-You have two mages with you. Can't they do something?
-From what I can tell, neither our gods nor the Finn's have considered the possibility of such a situation.
-I understand why lady Hildur would have never researched a rune for that. And I guess "radio" and "fruit juice" are both completely foreign notions for the Finn.
-Are you going to make fun of our guest or come give the radio a look?
-Since when are these two things mutually exclusive?

Reynir was quite sure that if they would have been able to contact anyone, they would have advised against leaving their campsite near the school with such a snowfall going on. Lalli had found a new campsite in one of the other potential research sites of interest, but the tunnel leading to it had made the kitten's fur stand on end, despite all troll pods in it seemingly being dead. Sigrun, Mikkel and Emil were currently outside with the kitten, trying to find and kill the trolls it had detected. Reynir was currently inside with Tuuri and Lalli. The latter had fallen asleep almost as soon as he had returned from scouting the site. Tuuri had expressed worry that he could be too tired to scout after having done so all night and spent the better part of breakfast time performing some kind of Finnish ceremony on the corpse of a dog beast. She had definitely hit the nail on the head in the present case.

The three of them eventually came back. There had actually been only one troll, but it had bitten Sigrun's arm before they had managed to kill it. It had been that or Emil's neck. Almost as soon as she had been stitched up, Sigrun insisted on taking Reynir and Tuuri to the place where the troll had died, because she was quite sure they'd love it. At first, the place looked like yet another Rash hospital set up in a place that wasn't initially intended to take care of the sick. But in that one, according to Mikkel, the patients seemed to have died from something else than the Rash, as the corpses only showed signs of the early stages of the illness. All the dead bodies were in beds, and the only sign of caretakers was a letter left behind by them, addressed to the sick in case they ever woke up and telling them that they would be back after scavenging for supplies. There was also a box of syringes that Mikkel decided to bring back to the tank for some reason. During all this time, all that Reynir had been able to look at were the ghost-like entities that seemed to hover over every single bed.
-Uh... Tuuri? Did Lalli say something about spirits being here?
-He did, but he called them weird, so he must not have any idea what they are.
-So it's not just me being clueless. They are kind of creepy, though.
-Don't worry. Most spirits are barely even notice humans. They are probably harmless.
Reynir wasn't completely reassured by this:
-"Most?" "Probably?"
Mikkel sighed:
-Can the two of you avoid discussing things that do not exist when there are plenty of things that are actually here to look at?
Reynir sighed, took a few notes, and gave a second look at the room in case he saw something the others had missed. He did, however, give into a gut feeling telling him to avoid the walls against which the beds were aligned.

As soon as they went back to the tank, Reynir realized that the syringes in the box brought back by Mikkel seemed familiar. He shifted through his drawings from the book salvaged from the first treatment center and found his copy of the flyer. Almost as soon as he had put on the top of the pile, Mikkel told him to go back to bed, as he gave every indication of not having completely recovered from the previous day's fever.
-Is it because of the ghosts? Because Lalli saw them too.
Reynir realized how little he was helping his own case when looking in the dormitory's direction reminded him of how much Lalli had seemed to be craving sleep when he came back from scouting the place.
-My point exactly. Tuuri and myself can take care of the rest. I will wake both of you up for dinner.

When he came to his protected area, Hildur was there. She told him their radio was damaged and that she and Onni had spent so much time to find a way to help that they had realized neither of them was on watch only part-way through eating lunch. She apologized even more profusely when she realized that neither Reynir's tutors back home nor Øresund base had been able to act as a back-up. Reynir reassured her, telling her they had been able to manage on their own for the day and had ended up going to a very interesting place earlier than planned precisely because there had been nobody to tell them not to. She also commiserated with him on the subject of being sent back to bed by a godless medic due to having "hallucinations" too soon after having been sick.

When dinner time came, Lalli was found to be impossible to wake up, despite having been asleep for longer than Reynir.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: ThisCat on February 16, 2017, 12:39:29 PM
Have any of you watched Deadpool? I bet you have. If you haven't (and are old enough) you should.

Anyways, my friend Feneris wrote a ficlet inspired by it. It's short and golden. Enjoy.
http://archiveofourown.org/works/9790928 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/9790928)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on February 16, 2017, 07:10:17 PM
You did good! You changed the non-existant background I had thought out though so now I can't do more if I ever felt like revisiting that world!

...I should prolly thank you for that so Thank you <3 I have too many stories already :P

Well, all I did was a fanwork of your fanwork, so I don't see how I necessarily "changed" anything. What I wrote was just speculation on your world that you can Joss any time you like. ;)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on February 17, 2017, 08:27:03 AM
Let's see... Finnish song for a Finnish story. Yep. Perfect.

(FYI the song does contain some disturbing imagery and a very, very brief reference to rape.)

Ghost River (http://archiveofourown.org/works/9308429/chapters/22007660)

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on February 18, 2017, 04:43:32 AM
Finally get to make use of the only reason I have the mages and the three terrors in the same place!

Previous chapter (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg134052#msg134052)

Broken bridges

Visions taken more seriously than in canon are a double-edged sword.

Spoiler: Chapter 8 • show

-And you're sure these killer ghosts were vision and not just a dream?
-Well, my dog led me to it, and told me to remember what I just saw near the end. So if that was not vision, I'm not sure what it was.
-A part of your mind that still thinks every single one of us may be an assassin in disguise?
The glare Sigrun gave Mikkel at this suggestion wasn't that far off from the one Reynir wished he could give him at the moment. One of the unforeseen side effects of his father's plans was that they gave Mikkel a ready-made explanation for any manifestation of his powers that Reynir mentioned within earshot of him, and made them "additional symptoms" to what Reynir knew to be actual reactions of his mind and body to those events. He resumed his conversation with Sigrun:
-Maybe we should leave for another campsite when we come back?
-Visions can be tricky, especially first-time ones. Preparing for them too early can sometimes cause the very avoidable thing that the gods were trying to warn about. Or make it worst. I know it sounds risky, but mistakes are less likely to be made when acting only when the event is close enough that there is no mistake possible on the vision's meaning.
-I see... I'll try paying attention, then.
-You'd better, if nothing better than a dog is protecting you.

Reynir quickly saw the wisdom in Sigrun's words, barring her remark about his dog. The sick room in Kastellet fort had the same strange ghost-like spirits as their current campsite. He had previously not paid attention to the fact that his vision was clearly happening there, and not in another location that had strange ghosts. Unfortunately, he had trouble convincing Tuuri and Mikkel to not venture too close to the ghosts, the former claiming there was no danger if the kitten she had in her pocket was calm, the latter not believing the ghosts were even there. Mikkel had the following words for him as he passed Reynir in the entrance, beyond which he had refused to walk:
-You know, if you've suddenly grown scared of those sick rooms, you just need to tell us and we'll stop taking you there. Keeping you from staying idle is one thing, but giving you too many bad experiences to deal with at a time would be ill-advised as well.
-I'm not scared of the sick rooms. I was perfectly fine in the first one. The two last ones just have scary ghosts that the first one didn't have.
-Yes... "Ghosts".
It was no use.

They came back to the tank to the news that the fruit juice incident in Mora had been settled. Lalli still hadn't woken up according to Emil, who had stayed to watch him. Calling home, where their usual helpers were available again, had been necessary to find out what the address on the package of syringes brought back from the site corresponded to. It was an ancient hospital quite far away, but on the way to the pickup spot that Trond had planned for them. Unfortunately, there were no plans to move towards the destination until the next day.

The owl chanting with Onni's voice, and the ewe that had Hildur's eyes, had managed to get the ghosts out. When Reynir’s awareness came back to the real world, Sigrun and Mikkel were regaining consciousness, and Lalli wasn't screaming anymore. Reynir realized that either Sigrun or Mikkel was going to notice that the tank was moving as soon as they were sufficiently aware of their surroundings, and moved out of the entrance to the driver's cabin. Fortunately, Sigrun’s first reaction was to look around for Reynir:
-The ghosts you've been complaining about, by any chance?
-Yes.
-Okay, I definitely don't want a face to face with these again. Tuuri, get us out of this city and try finding a new campsite.

Sigrun, Mikkel and Emil had had to fight trolls so they could leave the city. When Reynir finally fell asleep, he had been inside a strange building, possibly another vision, instead of his protected area. He'd had to wake up from that and fall back asleep before reaching his protected area, where a frantic Hildur was waiting for him.
-Do you have any idea of what they are?
-No. Onni says he couldn't read them, and Finns are supposed to actually be better than us at spirit stuff, even if many won't admit it. Where did they even come from?
-Some Old Word Rash sick rooms. One of them was in one of the buildings surrounding our campsite, the other was one that we visited today because it gave indications of having something interesting.
-What was that "something interesting", exactly?
He told her about the patients that had apparently died of something other than the Rash, the syringes that had been found in both sick rooms, the flyer in the first research site and their plans to go to the place in which the syringes had been manufactured.
-Could this be... what I think it could be?
-We're not sure yet, but yes. It looks like someone may have found a cure to the Rash. We are going to that hospital to find out what it was exactly.
To his surprise, Hildur laughed:
-What's so funny?
-Sorry to do that, especially after all you've been through but... to think of father's initial intent for this expedition, and what it may end up accomplishing because it failed... but you and your crewmates are going to need to keep these things away if you want to get there in one piece. Let me teach a few runes that will help with this before you wake up. I really don't know much about warding off spirits, but it's better than nothing.
-Can I ask you something before we start?
-What?
-What happened to the left side of your hair?
-If you are ever around these kids, avoid going into trance at all costs. But I was quite lucky compared to Onni. They managed to cut a tiny part of his ear off.


Edit: Silly me had forgotten to actually mention the content of the vision somewhere. Fixed!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on February 18, 2017, 07:36:13 AM
Yay I was wondering where everyone went! I'm not aloooooone anymore!

Finally get to make use of the only reason I have the the mages and the three terrors in the same place!

I do like what you're doing with the whole situation causing Reynir to develop some serious trust issues, and the way that plays in to Mikkel's skepticism.

Finally getting started with the Alphabet Soup-challenge as well!

I thought that's what you were doing, just blending it with the song challenge like I was. O_O

And I might as well post my latest here too:

Heroine (http://archiveofourown.org/works/9308429/chapters/22028786)

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Windfighter on February 18, 2017, 07:38:56 AM
Haha, nope, I took them as two seperate challenges, I said that when I accepted the Song Challenge! :P
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on February 18, 2017, 07:53:32 AM
Haha, nope, I took them as two seperate challenges, I said that when I accepted the Song Challenge! :P

I... must've forgotten that, then.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on February 18, 2017, 02:28:25 PM
Alphabet Soup
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Series 2, Part 1
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Spoiler: Asterisks and Obelisks • show
Emil had to admit, the thing in front of them certainly looked like the picture in the book Sigrun was waving around, no matter what Mikkel said (assuming Emil understood what Mikkel was really saying--always somewhat of a dice-roll). What was really in question, however, was whether that meant what she thought it meant.

From what Emil could make out of the potato-mouthed rumblings, Mikkel was utterly convinced it did not, had never, and would never. Tuuri was unsure, not being very well-versed in these matters. Lalli didn’t care one way or the other. Reynir, as expressed through Tuuri’s translations, was as clueless as ever.

Emil himself was torn. Part of him wanted Sigrun to be totally right in her assertions, while the more cynical and world-weary part knew Mikkel was almost certainly right.

“Look at the asterisk, Sigrun.” Mikkel was pointing at the book Sigrun held.

“The how much?”

Mikkel pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed heavily before continuing. He pointed at the book again. “The asterisk is the name for what you called ‘the little bug-splatter thingy’ next to the picture.”

“Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh. So what about it?”

Mikkel sighed again. “It means there’s an explanatory note farther down the page, which is indicated by another asterisk.”

Sigrun pouted. “You mean you want me to read more when we could be checking out this incredible find?”

“It’s just a mock-up made by a bunch of Old-Time lunatics!” Mikkel finally exploded. “It was their version of erecting an obelisk to call down the favor of the sky-gods on their foolhardy endeavors!”

“Wait, I thought you Danes were all atheists?”

“Oh, very well, then: it was their version of erecting an obelisk boasting of their might and prowess to any people that might come and see it!”

Mikkel had been less than enthusiastic about this sortie in the first place, contesting that they should relocate to the heart of the city as planned rather than detouring around the edges, but Sigrun had pointed out that there wasn’t any snow to give them cover to slip into the city, so staying on the industrial fringe was the safe bet for now.

The old folks back at the base had also said that they’d had a special request from a group based out of Nexø, and so the intrepid band had wandered their merry way up from Prøvestenen to Refshaleøen.

There had been quite a bit of eye-catching architecture along the way thus far, but when Tuuri and Sigrun had first set eyes on the rocket the group was now parked in front of, it had completely captured their attention. Emil couldn’t blame them for their fascination, but obviously Mikkel did.

“All their records will have been computerized,” he was protesting now.

Sigrun gestured to the rocket. “Even if the big thing here isn’t real, they’ll have had some test stuff in there! Think of it: the secret of space flight, right at our fingertips!”

“We were sent to retrieve books; we don’t have cargo space for anything else.”

“We’re going inside, at any rate; what kind of warriors would get here only to chicken out of looking it over--right, Emil?”

The Swede had been examining the rocket and ignoring the debate between his two seniors, but he responded gamely, “Absolutely.”

“So you and Short Stuff and Troll-Bait can stay out here while Twigs and Goldie and I check out the good stuff inside. Okay?”

*

With a mighty roar, the rocket climbed into the sky, leaving the burning building below far behind. Mikkel, Tuuri and Reynir watched in awe-struck silence as it ascended, until a series of hideous shrieks brought their attention back to the totally engulfed structure still on the ground.

The door nearest them flung open, and the three explorers emerged, Lalli acting as rear-guard while Emil half-carried Sigrun out.

“I seem to detect a pattern here,” Mikkel rumbled to no one in particular as he assisted them into the vehicle. Snow was beginning to fall, but the cries and shrieks followed them for quite some distance as Tuuri took them away from the site.

*

“So, you didn’t manage to retrieve anything from the site at all?” Disappointment laced Torbjörn’s voice.

“Actually,” Mikkel replied, “we obtained a large quantity of blueprints and design drawings, but no information at all on the fuels side.”

“That... that should be sufficient.” Torbjörn had regained his customary optimism. “Good work!”

Mikkel signed off, muttering to himself about “those fools in Nexø”. They had relocated to the old palace complex of Amalienborg, the weather having kept them from reaching their desired campsite, and Sigrun had decamped with Emil on yet another raid, despite having just been injured in a troll attack.

Sigrun had ignored or discounted Mikkel’s advice at every turn so far; now, he was determined to show her how foolish that was...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
Series 2 of this collection features titles which are anarthrous, or “without articles”.

So, the “group of loons” under discussion is this bunch (https://copenhagensuborbitals.com); their Wikipedia page is outdated. As far as I know, they don’t have a rocket mock-up outside their HQ, but who would blame them if they did? (Mikkel, obviously.)

I am still amazed at how these little gifts from IRL drop into my lap for stories like this.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on February 19, 2017, 05:26:02 AM
Alphabet Soup
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Series 2, Part 1
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Spoiler: Asterisks and Obelisks • show
Emil had to admit, the thing in front of them certainly looked like the picture in the book Sigrun was waving around, no matter what Mikkel said (assuming Emil understood what Mikkel was really saying--always somewhat of a dice-roll). What was really in question, however, was whether that meant what she thought it meant.

From what Emil could make out of the potato-mouthed rumblings, Mikkel was utterly convinced it did not, had never, and would never. Tuuri was unsure, not being very well-versed in these matters. Lalli didn’t care one way or the other. Reynir, as expressed through Tuuri’s translations, was as clueless as ever.

Emil himself was torn. Part of him wanted Sigrun to be totally right in her assertions, while the more cynical and world-weary part knew Mikkel was almost certainly right.

“Look at the asterisk, Sigrun.” Mikkel was pointing at the book Sigrun held.

“The how much?”

Mikkel pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed heavily before continuing. He pointed at the book again. “The asterisk is the name for what you called ‘the little bug-splatter thingy’ next to the picture.”

“Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhh. So what about it?”

Mikkel sighed again. “It means there’s an explanatory note farther down the page, which is indicated by another asterisk.”

Sigrun pouted. “You mean you want me to read more when we could be checking out this incredible find?”

“It’s just a mock-up made by a bunch of Old-Time lunatics!” Mikkel finally exploded. “It was their version of erecting an obelisk to call down the favor of the sky-gods on their foolhardy endeavors!”

“Wait, I thought you Danes were all atheists?”

“Oh, very well, then: it was their version of erecting an obelisk boasting of their might and prowess to any people that might come and see it!”

Mikkel had been less than enthusiastic about this sortie in the first place, contesting that they should relocate to the heart of the city as planned rather than detouring around the edges, but Sigrun had pointed out that there wasn’t any snow to give them cover to slip into the city, so staying on the industrial fringe was the safe bet for now.

The old folks back at the base had also said that they’d had a special request from a group based out of Nexø, and so the intrepid band had wandered their merry way up from Prøvestenen to Refshaleøen.

There had been quite a bit of eye-catching architecture along the way thus far, but when Tuuri and Sigrun had first set eyes on the rocket the group was now parked in front of, it had completely captured their attention. Emil couldn’t blame them for their fascination, but obviously Mikkel did.

“All their records will have been computerized,” he was protesting now.

Sigrun gestured to the rocket. “Even if the big thing here isn’t real, they’ll have had some test stuff in there! Think of it: the secret of space flight, right at our fingertips!”

“We were sent to retrieve books; we don’t have cargo space for anything else.”

“We’re going inside, at any rate; what kind of warriors would get here only to chicken out of looking it over--right, Emil?”

The Swede had been examining the rocket and ignoring the debate between his two seniors, but he responded gamely, “Absolutely.”

“So you and Short Stuff and Troll-Bait can stay out here while Twigs and Goldie and I check out the good stuff inside. Okay?”

*

With a mighty roar, the rocket climbed into the sky, leaving the burning building below far behind. Mikkel, Tuuri and Reynir watched in awe-struck silence as it ascended, until a series of hideous shrieks brought their attention back to the totally engulfed structure still on the ground.

The door nearest them flung open, and the three explorers emerged, Lalli acting as rear-guard while Emil half-carried Sigrun out.

“I seem to detect a pattern here,” Mikkel rumbled to no one in particular as he assisted them into the vehicle. Snow was beginning to fall, but the cries and shrieks followed them for quite some distance as Tuuri took them away from the site.

*

“So, you didn’t manage to retrieve anything from the site at all?” Disappointment laced Torbjörn’s voice.

“Actually,” Mikkel replied, “we obtained a large quantity of blueprints and design drawings, but no information at all on the fuels side.”

“That... that should be sufficient.” Torbjörn had regained his customary optimism. “Good work!”

Mikkel signed off, muttering to himself about “those fools in Nexø”. They had relocated to the old palace complex of Amalienborg, the weather having kept them from reaching their desired campsite, and Sigrun had decamped with Emil on yet another raid, despite having just been injured in a troll attack.

Sigrun had ignored or discounted Mikkel’s advice at every turn so far; now, he was determined to show her how foolish that was...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
Series 2 of this collection features titles which are anarthrous, or “without articles”.

So, the “group of loons” under discussion is this bunch (https://copenhagensuborbitals.com); their Wikipedia page is outdated. As far as I know, they don’t have a rocket mock-up outside their HQ, but who would blame them if they did? (Mikkel, obviously.)

I am still amazed at how these little gifts from IRL drop into my lap for stories like this.


So Sigrun somehow managed to launch a rocket after 90 years of neglect? Sounds like her. I bet it was really Emil's fault, though, he must have leaned on the wrong button or something.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on February 19, 2017, 02:26:04 PM
Sorry to step on your toes, Windy, but I just finished this:

Alphabet Soup
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Series 3, Part 1
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Spoiler: The Aforementioned • show
Extracts from the Official Report of Politibetjent Jacob Meincke on the Disturbance of the Peace at the Vestskoven, Glostrup Municipality, 20 September 2011:

At approximately 2217 and as I neared the halfway point of my fourth circuit of my patrol through the Vestskoven, I came upon an illegal campsite based around a most peculiar vehicle, the make and model of which I was unable to determine and which bore no license plate or other identifying markings...

The aforementioned illegal campers numbered six: a Dane, a Swede, a Norwegian, an Icelander, and two Finns. The Norwegian, a tall redheaded woman who identified herself as one “Sigrun Eide of Dalsnes”, was obviously the ringleader, and far and away the loudest of the bunch, though the others enthusiastically violated the local noise ordinances...

After reporting back to the local police detachment via my radio, I walked up to the illegal campers in an attempt to encourage the group to remove the vehicle, strike their campsite and disperse peaceably. The reaction the illegal campers displayed to my appearance strongly suggested that some or all of them were under the influence of controlled or illegal substances, as the Swede, the Dane and the Norwegian seemed positive that I was something other than human...

The aforementioned Norwegian then took it upon herself to threaten me with a large knife...

While the aforementioned Dane restrained the aforementioned Norwegian, the aforementioned Swede and one of the aforementioned Finns drew weapons of their own: the Finn a rather battered bolt-action rifle, and the Swede what appeared to be a flamethrower. It was at this point that I made a tactical retreat and called for reinforcements...

The reinforcements deployed around the illegal campsite in accordance with the established procedures; I was instructed by Politikommissær Olsen to take part in storming the aforementioned campsite once I had been outfitted with the correct tactical gear.

When the storming party approached the illegal campsite, the strange vehicle and its occupants had decamped; only a few bits of wastage and the marks on the ground told of their presence...

Though the cordon was complete and correct, none of the other Politibetjent had witnessed the aforementioned illegal campers’ departure...

The tracks left by the aforementioned peculiar and unidentified vehicle simply stopped approximately seventeen meters from the cordon...

The aforementioned tracks and other disturbances in the soil of the illegal campsite have been verified as freshly made on the night in question...

Politibetjent Wieghorst, to whom I spoke on the radio when requesting reinforcements, has verified that he heard the raucous utterances of the aforementioned illegal campers over the connection...

A number of civilians in the area for recreational purposes have reported hearing the aforementioned raucous utterances on the night in question...

Authorities in the Norwegian village of Dalsnes have confirmed that the only “Sigrun Eide” (née Larsen) in residence was present in Dalsnes on the night in question; furthermore, the aforementioned resident of Dalsnes in no way matches the description I gave of the aforementioned illegal camper calling herself “Sigrun Eide”...

While the aforementioned illegal campers have not been encountered since the night in question, in light of the recent increase in activity by the criminal motorcycle gang “Hells-Angels”, I recommend an increase in patrols through the Vestskoven, especially during the hours of darkness...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
Series 3 of this collection features titles which start with the definite article, “The”.

...There’s really not much else to say about this one, aside from apologizing to any Danes reading for any inevitable inaccuracies.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on February 19, 2017, 06:31:32 PM
And one more story done since my last few have been so overwhelmingly popular! (I'm starting to suspect that warnings make people less likely to read stories, but maybe I'm just doing something wrong with the warnings?)

What you have listed here are tags, not warnings. The difference is the purpose they serve: tags are simply to give readers an idea of the content of a story so they can judge whether it's likely to appeal to them, whereas warnings are intended to... well, warn for upsetting material. I don't think what you've written here requires any warnings.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Windfighter on February 19, 2017, 11:06:27 PM
I dunno, I have a friend that can get upset about people mentioning food so I figured since everyone have different things they might get upsetted about better just warn for everything. I'm not very good at this warning thing but since I don't really have anyone to teach me I just... *flops* Meh, I'm just terrible at everything, nothing to do about it I guess.
...I did forget the weird english warning this time though, silly Windy.

(I also recently learned that upsetting material for me is people looking for work. Is that something you'd ever think to warn someone about in a story? :P)
(I'm not saying you should, it's a silly thing to get upsetted about)
(On the other hand I don't really expect to get warned about anything)
(Maybe I just really don't like myself since I enjoy plunging into the depth of stories not knowing if they'll make me feel bad feels)
(I mean I do not like myself...)
(...I'm sorry, this whole warning-thing is making me really insecure, I'll just hide in a corner now <.<)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Talimee on February 20, 2017, 05:47:19 AM
Hiya! Long time no see! I come bearing not one, but two stories today (the second due to me forgetting to post it here when I updated my 100-prompt-fic)! So, have a Sigrun & Emil-one and a Mikkel-insight one.

Author: Talimee
Title: none
Prompt: 75 - Mirror (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6440122/chapters/21860129)
Characters: Mikkel Madsen, Michael Madsen II
Realtionship: Mikkel Madsen & Michael Madsen II, Mikkel Madsen vs The World
Rating: none
Warnings: none
Tags: Mikkel's POV, snippets, flashbacks, sibling rivalry
Summary: Being a twin is more than having a look-alike. It means an Other from whom one has to try to extract oneself.

Title: Five Times Sigrun asked Emil how sex with Lalli is, and one time she got an answer
Prompt: 27 - Friendship (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6440122/chapters/22087184)
Characters: Sigrun Eide, Emil Västerström, The Crew
Relationships: Sigrun Eide & Emil Västerström, Lalli Hotakainen/Emil Västerström
Rating: Teen
Warnings: colourful language, talking about off-screen sexual relationship, talking about offscreen sexual practices
Tags:  nosy!Sigrun, embarrassed!Emil, deadpan!Lalli, deaderpan!Mikkel, humour
Summary: To celebrate his relationship with Lalli Sigrun asks Emil some personal questions, because teasing Emil never gets old and teasing him when he is squirmig so prettily is even better!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on February 20, 2017, 10:47:12 AM
Love the second one. Especially the part where Sigrun puts Onni's body language into words. The only criticism I have is that the answer happening while Onni is in the carriage with them kind of feels like a missed opportunity. I really wonder how much Swedish Onni picked up during his stay in Mora now...

Well, since I'm here, let's put up a new chapter. And I definitely did not miss the opportunity offered by an AU where Reynir is fluent in Norwegian, even though I may not have made the best possible use of it.

Previous chapter (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg134112#msg134112)

Broken bridges

A few things need to be taken care of before the trip to Odense starts.

Spoiler: Chapter 9 • show

Lalli had woken up in morning while they were all outside waiting for breakfast to be ready. They had all, except for Mikkel, been too distracted by naming Kitty to notice him leaving the tank and going to lean against a nearby tree. Emil had had a big smile on his face when had Mikkel pointed out Lalli's presence to the others, and brought Lalli his breakfast, but had come back covered in the tasteless, but filling substance Mikkel dared to call breakfast. Emil had ended up standing right next to Reynir while he was cleaning up the mess on his uniform jacket.
-What happened? Reynir asked.
-I wish I knew, replied Emil.
It took both of them a while to realize it was the first time they had spoken to each other in a while. By pure chance, Lalli's more conspicuous use of magic had so far been away from both Mikkel and Emil's eyes and ears, while the more discrete part of it was very easy to mistake for "Lalli being Lalli". Reynir's own magic practice had resulted in runes drawn on pieces of paper, drawn on the ground and sometimes carved into slates of wood, which were much more visible in comparison. Emil had figured out that openly criticizing it was not a good idea, but that had reduced their outside the field relationship to Emil periodically glancing at him with what seemed to be a curiosity to which he refused to admit. Reynir, on the other hand, was so bemused by the fact that Emil was somehow befriending Lalli that he had taken to keep a studying eye on them each time he happened to be around when they interacted. The only form of understanding he and Emil seemed to have reached was to not complain about each other's "spying" to each other, Sigrun or Mikkel, or else risk getting called out on their own practice of it. The morning on which Lalli had fallen into unconsciousness, Emil had lent him his coat a couple of times. He had spent most of yesterday sitting next to a sleeping Lalli, a worried look on his face. Getting food dumped on himself was probably one of the last things Emil expected to happen after this.
-Do something about your hair, it's a disgrace of a mess.
Every single strand not kept in Reynir's braid had indeed started a mutiny during their short night of sleep.
-Having a bad hair day, not my fault.
-It's a bad hair week you're having, in that case. You could really use a comb. Hey, where did Tuuri go?
-She's speaking to Lalli.
Soon after, Emil gave up on cleaning with a rag and walked to the tank, presumably to get his spare jacket.

When Tuuri asked for someone to keep Onni busy over the radio while she was working with Lalli, Reynir jumped to the opportunity, both to thank him for his help in person and to spare him the experience of having small talk with Mikkel. Even without Mikkel's teasing, Reynir didn't like the idea of a discussion between him and a professional mage who could actually understand what he said. Hildur joined in the conversation, and both of them had been very interested in the fact that the very first site that Reynir had visited didn't seem to have any ghosts, despite being an old Rash hospital. They eventually came up with an idea:
-Do not actively look for places that have ghosts. If you do end up in such place anyway, do your best to not disturb them. Try having at least Lalli or yourself in the group visiting as many sites as possible. Take note of where you see them. Take note of where you do not see them. Write down which of you saw them, just in case. If you start seeing a pattern, either in their presence or their absence, tell us. If they follow, use the runes and spells to keep them away from your vehicle.
Just as Reynir was noting these instructions down, Tuuri was ready to speak with Onni, who said he had to speak to Lalli first. Emil took that opportunity to ask Tuuri why Lalli was snubbing him, only to be told that he just seemed in a bad mood, and that Tuuri usually waited out since he never told her the reason of it anyway. Emil's response sparked Reynir's interest:
-Honestly, if I were ignored when I'm angry, that would make me even angrier. I'm not going to do that.
Emil noticed Reynir was in the room, and gave him their silently agreed-upon "the time I'll tolerate you watching me has run out" look. That was Reynir's cue to leave the room.

For the first time in the morning, Reynir had time to properly think about the vision that he had had the previous night. He quickly realized, from the details he remembered, that he must have been inside a church. There had been such buildings near where he lived, all dedicated to a single Old World god that was no longer worshipped, but had been very popular at the time right before the Rash. He remembered the voice of unknown source he had heard before waking up, and what it had asked. "Is somebody there?" indeed. He definitely didn't know enough to act on that particular vision anytime soon. Most importantly, why would that god want to do anything with someone chosen by the Old Gods? Did his the Old Gods really want nothing to do with the worshippers of the others, or had he simply spent too much time around his father's friends, some of whom believed that all Swedes, Danes and Finns should be converted by force for their own good? Things to figure out were piling up at an alarming rate.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: gjuerne on February 20, 2017, 11:05:07 AM
(I mean I do not like myself...)
(...I'm sorry, this whole warning-thing is making me really insecure, I'll just hide in a corner now <.<)

Hugs! IIRC, you're on the young side (*as an official grandma, anyone under 50 is young to me) and in my teen years and a good part of my 20's I didn't like myself one little bit. Life does get better!

I really enjoy your stories, and I've especially loved seeing your growth as a writer. Your grasp of language and plot is coming together nicely. Way back in my college years my painting professor gave the class a bit of advice that has served me well thru the years, applicable in many situations. "The first fifty paintings you do are going to be total crap. Even if they're really good, they're going to be total crap compared to what comes after, so work hard and get those fifty paintings out of the way!"
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on February 20, 2017, 04:32:59 PM

(I also recently learned that upsetting material for me is people looking for work. Is that something you'd ever think to warn someone about in a story? :P)
(I'm not saying you should, it's a silly thing to get upsetted about)

(...I'm sorry, this whole warning-thing is making me really insecure, I'll just hide in a corner now <.<)

I will keep this in mind for those off-canon Mikkel and/or Michael stories.  (Also for those post-canon Torbjörn stories where the books get...uh, never mind.  Nothing to see here.)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Windfighter on February 20, 2017, 04:55:35 PM
I will keep this in mind for those off-canon Mikkel and/or Michael stories.  (Also for those post-canon Torbjörn stories where the books get...uh, never mind.  Nothing to see here.)

No need to keep my weird sides in mind for anything! My process for deciding if I'm reading a story goes somewhere like this anyway:

1) Does it sound like Emil, Yamato, Kouji or Ken will be tortured?
If Yes > Read
If  No > Proceed to 2

2) Does the title sounds interesting?
If yes > Read
If no > Proceed to 3

3) Is it at least named after a song you like?
If yes > Read
If no > Proceed to 4

4) Well, does the summary sound exciting?
If yes > Go to 5
If no > Go to next story

5) Do you even care about these characters?
If yes > Read
If no > Meh, give it a go anyway


I don't really look at warnings, which... I guess is why I'm having troubles with them?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on February 21, 2017, 03:42:58 AM
 Chapter 2 of the fantasy epic thingie (http://archiveofourown.org/works/9787259/chapters/22114019)

Concerning fever dreams and slapping the crap out of a jerk of a water spirit.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on February 21, 2017, 08:47:23 AM
Apparently chapters with more words in them take a longer time to write. Whoever would have thought?

Invisible Sun (http://archiveofourown.org/works/9308429/chapters/22116872)

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on February 22, 2017, 03:45:38 PM
Spent so much time planning my next writing thing that I completely forgot that I have a few chapters left to post.

Previous chapter (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg134208#msg134208)

Broken bridges

The Known World plotline progresses during the trip to Odense.

Spoiler: Chapter 10 • show

During the two weeks separating the first building containing ghosts from the Odense hospital, things in the Known World had moved so fast that the Silent World was being true to its name by comparison. The trial had been postponed until the expedition came back. What Reynir's father had most likely intended as a time-buying measure had backfired when the authorities finally took the possibility of the expedition crew's families being threatened in the meantime seriously. Their families were now under official protection, while Hildur and Bjarni's servants could keep an eye out for anyone who could be secretly allied with their father. Someone had also realized that that request had probably been made with the secret hope that something would happen to the crew before the end of the expedition, and that over-the-radio statements from them would be better than no statement at all if such a thing were to occur. Once these statements had been made, the lawyers defending both sides had been authorized to interrogate them. And this is where Reynir and his siblings realized just how many back-up plans their father must have had in mind.

His new plan was to make sure that if he was going to jail, he wasn't going alone. Lalli's actions on the first day made perfect sense for a scout trained to discard everything not fit for human consumption with no idea that the Icelandic justice system frowned upon the deliberate destruction of hard evidence. Reynir's father's defenders were now making him out to be so unable to understand the consequences of his actions that living in Finland was the only reason he had yet to be placed in a proper institution. They also made out Tuuri's decision to bring him on the expedition to be neglectful at best, abusive at worst. The same charges were being thrown at Onni for letting this happen. Sigrun, who had taken the initiative to start reporting to Reynir's tutors and cut all communications with Øresund base during the first few days, was going to have to answer to mutiny charges, to which she had simply replied "bring it". Taru, Trond and Torbjörn were on metaphorical thin ice as well, and Emil was going to be painted as an accomplice to the latter, despite the fact that they were probably the pair of pre-mission acquaintances that talked to each other the less. Mikkel was going to be charged with malpractice. The fact that the office chair that had wheels was now "Reynir's", the couple mornings he had simply been unable to get out of bed and the handful times he had helped Mikkel do the domestic chores because he was unable to focus long enough to do even basic skald work were now being blamed on trouble accepting his mage powers rather than the discovery that they had been hidden from him for so long. That and the whole trying to get him killed situation.

Under cover of wanting Reynir to tell his version of the facts without anyone else hovering over him, one of his father's defenders had spoken to him while he was alone in the office and suggested that the charges against the crew could all go away if he let himself "be careless at just the right moment". Since the crew's families were now safe, the crew itself was now held hostage against him. And of course, he tried to make out every single day Reynir decided to stay alive as an utterly selfish act. Reynir had found a couple of counters to it. The first was pointing that if he let himself die, he would have no way of seeing if the charges would be actually dropped. Even if he has considered deliberately getting himself in an "accident" a reasonable option in the current circumstances, there was no way he was going to accept the man's word for it. The second, Reynir refused to share with him, as he suspected it would otherwise turn into the wrong kind of leverage. The limits of what Onni had been able to teach Lalli only made the ghosts catch up with them more slowly than they would have without the spells, all the runes Hildur could think of only made that time slightly better, and researching new Finnish spells was apparently a more laborious affair than coming up with new runes. The latter still required as many minds working on it as possible. There were just enough people in the crew who were aware of that he had become essential to the crew's chances of making it out of the Silent World alive to make them a just little bit more trustworthy in his eyes than anyone working for his father.

Fortunately, Sigrun had found just the words to keep them going with the research despite this:
-If we're going to come back a bunch of misfits and criminals, let's be the misfits and criminals that come back with a new lead on a Rash cure. The people who made this stuff and got it delivered to all these places didn't give up, despite the fact that things were so bad that they never got it to the Known World. We are all going to look like wimps compared to them if we give up now.
Reynir had taken this to mean that he shouldn't give up on taking notes about the strange ghosts either. He'd noted the locations on a spare map, to keep anything Mikkel would not like off the main annotated map, which was already overcrowded with symbols. There was nothing of interest that they knew of at their next stop, and the one after that would be, finally, Odense. This time was as good as any to compare the ghost map with the main one, on the off-chance that he found something new from it. He quickly realized that there was an almost-perfect match between the ghost locations and the places that had gotten the possible cure or vaccine. When he checked his notes about the one location that had received the cure but was devoid of ghosts, he realized that the match was actually perfect. That specific location had technically gotten the cure, but none of the boxes had been opened. The patients there had all died of the Rash, and there had been a couple of trolls there as well. If that pattern held, there would be ghosts in the Odense hospital. And possibly an explanation.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on February 23, 2017, 01:28:20 AM
Bits and Bots
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/“WALL-E” crossover fanfic
Part 2
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108183#msg108183)
Spoiler: Parts and Spares • show
The creature was one of the last living things on Earth, and was so very tired. There were things lurking nearby, and that would have been a worry if the creature had been less worn through.

While any individual life was fleeting in this world, each individual felt the need to carry that spark forward; so it was with the creature. As death stole upon it, the creature birthed its last litter.

Moments later, the newborns huddled around the carcass of their parent, not out of filial piety, but to protect the meat until it was time for it to be consumed. Until then, they would sing a warning to the things that lurked and waited as they did.

*

EM-L was completing the final sweep of its designated search area when its aural sensors detected the characteristic sounds that indicated animal life was active in the near area. With a brief comm-burst to EID-E, EM-L trundled off to investigate.

When EM-L emerged into a mostly open space, it found the source of the noises. Close to the top of an old concrete support was a heavily injured animal, snarling and hissing at a cluster of very different animals below.

It only took a moment for EM-L to identify the injured animal, mangled though it was, as a mature female felis domesticatus (though almost certainly feral). The other animals, however, matched no known species in EM-L’s databanks. Considering EM-L had been retrofitted from nursery duty, and thus needed knowledge of any remotely dangerous organisms that were known, this spoke volumes.

)Unknown predatory species data:
)Height: 0.7 meters
)Homoform bipeds--no brachiation observed
)Binocular vision
)Extreme pineal hypertrophy with probable consequent highly acute hearing
)Lean but strong
)Aggressive
)Potential danger: EXTREME
)Preliminary designation:
Genetically
Recombinant
Emergent
Malevolent
Life-forms of
Intrusive
Nature

A few weak snarls and hisses drew EM-L’s attention back to the beleaguered cat.

)Directive: Protect the innocent

“Cease and desist all malicious activity against the feline immediately or I will intervene. This is your only warning. I am EM-L, and I do not bluff.”

This was the first time EM-L had needed to use its external speaker array on this mission; fortunately, everything functioned as it had been designed to.

Unfortunately, the GREMLINs all turned to look at EM-L with identical expressions of gleeful anticipation. EM-L had seen that look before, in its nursery days.

)Behavioral note: potential apogymnomania

As the GREMLINs shifted in preparation for their assault on EM-L, the bot detected a small pile of smaller kittens behind them. Most were dead, but one was still alive. EM-L wasted no time. In a series of acrobatic moves the GREMLINs clearly were not expecting from the bot, EM-L sped over to the last live kitten, scooped it up, and sealed it in the special ‘pet chamber’ within EM-L.

While short bursts from the flamethrower successfully repelled the first few GREMLIN assaults, EM-L’s fuel was sadly low, so the bot needed to switch to its onboard projectile weaponry before even half of the GREMLINs were dispatched.

The creatures were remarkably capable of absorbing damage, causing high ammo expenditure; EM-L therefore switched to the high-explosive shells, its ordinance manager app helpfully informing the bot that there were 28 rounds of this type remaining in its magazines.

The GREMLIN nearest EM-L exploded into a shower of green goo, but not from one of EM-L’s explosive shells; rather, it had been struck by a particle burst.

)EID-E has arrived

]FEAR NOT, EM-L! YOUR LEADER HAS ARRIVED!

EID-E assessed the tactical situation for a moment, then deployed its truly impressive array of highly agile cutting and shredding gear with what sounded very like a grunt of satisfaction.

One of EID-E’s little quirks was that it liked to do battle with a musical accompaniment, usually drawn from the oeuvre of an ancient pop singer named Michael Jackson. EM-L was therefore not surprised in the least to hear the opening beats of one of the more up-tempo pieces spill forth from EID-E’s (slightly lower quality) speaker array.

We’re on a mission for the everlasting light that shines...

EID-E waded into the mass of GREMLINs surrounding EM-L, blades whirling and slashing in a butcher’s ballet that was synchronized with the music.

So long, bad times...

]EID-E OPERATING AT OPTIMUM EFFICIENCY!

It didn’t take them long to clear the GREMLINs off after that, but the bots were faced with a new problem: care and feeding of an immature feline.

They were also running out of ordinance.

*

The replenishment drone, an ACE-A dirigible unit with the name “Túnfiskurinn” emblazoned on it, lowered the two crates of ordinance and spare parts rather perfunctorily and left. While EID-E and MIK-L opened one, EM-L and LALL-E saw to the other.

LALL-E was almost in a combat stance as it scanned the crate. When EM-L noticed, it shot a query at the other bot, but the answer came not from LALL-E, but from within the crate.

A red-topped bot opened the crate from within, almost drawing fire from EM-L and LALL-E...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
IT’S ALIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVE!

So, apparently I have keyboard gremlins here, so I thought I would share them with you, in the crossover nobody asked for.

Apogymnomania is what I came up with for “loves to disassemble or dismantle stuff”; if anyone knows a more proper term, please notify me.

...And at least EID-E picked a Disney property for its anthem.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on February 23, 2017, 02:51:15 AM
LooNEY, this is way too much fun!
Please continue! :'D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on February 24, 2017, 04:03:27 AM
I have managed the next chapter of Reynir superhero saga, "In which a Gauntlet and the Towel Are Thrown."
http://archiveofourown.org/works/6610714/chapters/22204343
The AU pathway is diverging quite a bit from the canon universe now; this crew has turned a corner.

The letters C & D in the Alphabet Challenge are also well underway, but i don't know if I'll get either of those out this weekend.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on February 24, 2017, 10:52:10 AM
Getting close to my own AU corner: I know perfectly well how this version of the cast will react to Tuuri getting bitten, what I can't figure out is how Tuuri gets bitten when this version of the tank's dorm room has every reason to be covered in perfectly functional anti-troll runes.

Broken bridges

Swing by the store, then go to the church.

Spoiler: Chapter 11 • show

Sigrun eyed the six paper runes Reynir had left on the desk:
-The last three things you came up with on your own didn't work, according to both yourself and Lalli. What makes you think these ones will work?
-Nothing, really. But we won't know until we try them out.
-Sorry, but I think I'm a going to opt out for today. It's going to be the six of us in a quite small store, and we are already tempting fate in terms of breaking things just by having Emil in there.
A thin gloved hand grabbed one of the pieces of paper:
-Ghosts? Keep away?
-Yes. I hope.
It took Reynir a while to realize that Lalli had just said "ghosts" and "keep away" in Swedish. He vaguely remembered Tuuri mentioning teaching him Swedish during work, but the eye Reynir had kept on him and Emil at a time had been sacrificed for more important things. Covering the biggest number of buildings possible between them had frequently resulted in only one of them going inside a given one, which had meant that Reynir being around both Emil and Lalli while both of them were awake had become a rare occurrence, even once back in the tank. He was vaguely aware that that they were back to "talking" terms after the "whatever food breakfast was supposed to be" incident, but that was about it. Another hand, one of the two Reynir the least expected, grabbed a rune:
-I'm in a good mood today, I'll take one of the "magical" drawings.
Emil made a show of delicately putting the piece of paper in his pocket.
-Why are all six of us needed to go to that store anyway?
Reynir was quite sure Emil had been already told at least twice since Lalli had found it less than an hour ago:
-The contents were antiques ninety years ago. It's the first time we run into a place where such things have been preserved in a relatively good state. Many things there may have to be brought back by us or not at all.

-No, I'm quite sure that language is called "Kung fu". Where do you guys get such weird words as "Chinalandic" and "Mandarin" from anyway?
Emil looked at all three of them, looking ready to stand his ground about the contents of the book on display.
-Finnish army skalds.
-One of my in-laws had a great-grandfather who lived in that country. Biggest expert on that part of the world that we have.
-Your uncle.
Torbjörn had actually mentioned Emil a few times before Reynir got to actually meet him, and had once done so while saying that he didn't want him to "end up like Emil". Between the present incident, the DVDs brought back from the school in which Kitty had been found and other occurrences of seeming to believe blatantly incorrect facts during the past couple of weeks, Reynir had figured out what Torbjörn had meant. Torbjörn had admitted that he would have probably made the exact same mistake with his own children's education if Emil's side of the family getting hit a lot harder by the loss of the family fortune hadn't acted as a wake-up call.

As Tuuri, Mikkel and Sigrun were discussing the possibility that there could still be people alive in Chinaland, Reynir continued browsing the store and noticed a few items that seemed to relate to the religion to which churches were temples, reminding him of that vision to which he hadn't been able to commit much thought in the past two weeks. He borrowed the camera from Tuuri to take a few photos, then sketched as many objects as he could before they all decided to leave.

He decicded to take a nap right after the next meal. Once there, his fylgja had looked in the direction of what seemed to be another vision, but had refused to lead him there, and ran off when Reynir decided to carry it to the area. Upon a closer look, it looked like the outside of a church. He didn't dare go in there alone. Lalli wasn't in his area, so he decided to go towards the Mora ones, hoping they'd be occupied.

When had watching Hildur's younger brother moved from letting him stay in his protected area to following him in a strange area in the dreamspace? He wasn't even supposed to go out there with "it" roaming around. Most importantly, since when did it involve being invited for some kind of collation by a strange ghost? Onni had initially tried to steer Reynir away from it, but the kid shared an incredible amount of persuasiveness with Hildur for someone who wasn't actually blood related to her.
-Do you mind if I drink this?
Onni told Reynir he could drink the strange brown-colored soup that had been given to them. Reynir was one doing most of the talking. That cake looked good. When was the last time he had eaten cake? A very long time, and if it wasn't dangerous for Reynir, it wasn't going to be for him. The old lady claimed that her job was to help spirits find the afterlife, but immediately got the idea that he and Reynir needed help with that particular thing. After Reynir refused her offer, Onni added that he, himself, belonged to the forest. Reynir was interested in what the old lady had told him, as he seemed to see it as a solution to the crew's current ghost problem. When Reynir asked the old lady where her "church" was, something happened. Their entire surroundings changed, and for the first time, Onni got an idea of what these Old World sickrooms the crew had been visiting must have looked like: what he was currently seeing out the door from where he was sitting, but with the bodies in the beds turned into skeletons if they had not become trolls. Their surroundings returned to their initial state when the old lady gave up on trying to remember. After this, Onni decided they were leaving.


Ah, poor Emil. And you thought you were outnumbered in canon.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Gaemmel on February 24, 2017, 05:11:55 PM
I know you guys are bursting with anticipation: Here is my C entry for the song challenge!
It's about the Västerström family being poor and sad.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/9629999/chapters/22214942
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on February 25, 2017, 05:28:21 AM
I too have my C entry for the Alphabet Soup collection, entitled "Carrots."  They gots to come from somewhere, after all...
http://archiveofourown.org/works/9920468

I promise that the next one will not be named after a produce commodity.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on February 25, 2017, 05:35:35 AM
 linky-loo  (http://archiveofourown.org/works/9787259/chapters/22228928)

New, unexpectedly short chapter. Really didn't turn out the way I thought it was gonna go but I ran out of time. I have a 3 a.m. wake up call tomorrow for a trip to renew certain paperworks. Then I start university the day after. I'm doomed.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Ragnarok on February 25, 2017, 12:30:09 PM
Ch 25 is up! We see the effect introducing gunpowder has on Westeros.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/7707919/chapters/22234388 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7707919/chapters/22234388)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on February 25, 2017, 09:26:59 PM
Link (http://archiveofourown.org/works/9341720/chapters/22247594) to latest Maglor update.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on February 25, 2017, 09:52:12 PM
Huzzah! This is fascinating.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on February 26, 2017, 08:13:06 AM
Kill Bill? Why, I've never even heard of that Quentin Tarantino movie!

Just a Job to Do (http://archiveofourown.org/works/9308429/chapters/22260422)

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on February 26, 2017, 10:02:52 AM
Here's the last chapter I've written so far. For any continuation, I think I may wait for the 14-15 chapter break as 1) The vacation I've been taking for most of Chapter 14's run is going to technically end tomorrow. 2) I will need to have all of Chapter 14 to figure out how I will deal with it. 3) I'm hoping to find a way for Tuuri to be bitten that doesn't involve double the number of human errors from canon in the meantime. Has been fun writng this.

Previous chapter (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg134409#msg134409)

Broken bridges

Ghosts just won't leave the crew alone.

Spoiler: Chapter 12 • show

Once they were far away enough from the hospital that he no longer had to try keeping the ghosts away just by wishing very hard for it, Reynir realized that their departure circumstances meant that his predictions had been right: there were ghosts wherever that Rash cure had been used. But before he could give it any more thought, Lalli was suddenly extremely close to his masked face for someone who preferred avoiding physical contact and speaking Swedish to him:
-Drawing. Ghosts come close. Fire.
-What?
He got a much clearer version of what Lalli was probably trying to tell him from Emil:
-Your damn drawing caught fire in my pocket! Do you realize I have to carry explosives for my work?
That could have become ugly indeed.
-I'm sorry! I didn't know it would do that! I'm still learning!
Well, at least that one was doing something, not like the other ones. His following thought was the realization that from Emil's point of view, a random drawing had spontaneously caught fire in his pocket, yet he had to be accepting the fact to some degree to have just been complaining to Reynir about it. He was probably about to ask him a bunch on questions. That expectation was shot down immediately by Emil simply turning away and making a beeline for the dormitory, where he just collapsed on his bunk. On the other hand, maybe things would have to move slowly with him. Accepting that something had caught fire by magic and telling the person who was responsible as far as he was concerned was one thing. Actually asking questions about it may be a level of acceptance for which Emil wasn't ready yet. Reynir turned his eye to Mikkel. Had he heard any of what Emil or Lalli had said? Apparently not, as he had been busy keeping the papers away from Reynir and Tuuri until he was sure the two of them could come close to them without any risk.

Mikkel told the story in both Icelandic and Danish to make as many people possible aware of the situation. Lalli would have been the only one left out if it wasn't for the fact that he was already taking a nap. The people in that place had found something that cured the Rash, but it had the unexplained side effect of gradual, and irreversible brain death. However, the report made it obvious that they were aware of trolls at the time, even though they weren't called that yet, or named at all. They had made a decision for all the patients: that it was better for them to get that "cure" than to risk turning into a troll. They had manufactured it and sent it to as many treatment centers as they could, not informing caretakers of the side effects. Reynir remembered that letter in the first campsite containing both the cure and the ghosts, which suggested that the caretakers were genuinely expecting the patients to wake up.

They were now only a few days away from their pick up spot, which was a Danish outpost built during the reclamation attempts. The boat meant to pick them up was about to be sent away from Iceland, but it would take at least twenty days for it to reach them. They were considered to have done enough already and suggested to use their waiting time to prepare properly for what was awaiting them once they came back, whatever that ended up being. Just as Torbjörn was telling them this, Reynir noticed Lalli preparing to head out much earlier than usual.

Reynir had felt that the ghosts and trolls that had been following them the whole way were getting closer every day, but he hadn't realized that they had become that close. Once they has parked the tank in a field that left an open line of fire, Reynir informed Onni and Hildur via dreamspace, in case they were able to help. Lalli then dragged him outside and asked him to draw his newest rune outside the tank. He also made a few runes to keep trolls away, but wasn't able to make them completely surround the tank before he literally bumped into Mikkel, who was not happy seeing him outside at all. Reynir considered himself lucky to not have been noticed in such a long time, when he heard Emil whispering to him as Mikkel was dragging him inside:
-Couldn't distract him forever, sorry.
So Emil accepted what had happened earlier in the day enough to realize that he shouldn't be interrupted while drawing runes. The fact that Mikkel was currently pushing him into the dormitory told him what a difference even that level of understanding could make. Fortunately, one of the first things Reynir had done with the anti-troll runes taught to him by Hildur had been to draw a few on the dormitory’s walls. He had even managed to paint a large version of the most powerful one on the floor. He and Tuuri, who was sitting on Emil's bunk, were going to be safe in there.

Hildur almost finished the job that the children had started on her hair when she realized how little she was going to able to do to help. When Onni had said that he was going to need a completely empty room, she had helped him and Bjarni clear a place that was really a storage closet, and hence didn't contain any furniture that wasn't intended to be easy to move. What Onni was going to try was going to put such a strain on his body that he was going to be out for several days, and Hildur was to be the one to provide long-distance assistance to the crew if it turned out to be needed in the meantime. Her more immediate task was to keep Siv and the children away from the room, and get him in bed once he collapsed. Why did that horde have to catch up with them today, of all days? Was their discovery, or rather lack of it, going to be overshadowed by her father getting proven right just a few hours later? She'd give anything for this to not happen. Anything.


You just had to tempt fate, Hildur. And I may just have to make it quite cruel to squeeze that AU through the end of Chapter 13...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on February 28, 2017, 08:09:53 AM
Maybe I need a break. Or to work on something else for a while. Or a break.

Knocking on Forbidden Doors (http://archiveofourown.org/works/9308429/chapters/22333601)

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on March 02, 2017, 06:32:53 AM
Chapter four (http://archiveofourown.org/works/9787259/chapters/22394453)

Everybody gets a spirit animal friend thingie! Reynir and Tuuri have a chat about hope! Reynir discovers his potty mouth! Emil melts down at an animal with fur the exact same glorious shade of gold as his own hair! Mikkel wears the 'business breeches'!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Ragnarok on March 02, 2017, 11:57:35 AM
A chapter of TKotIT that we somehow missed posting.....takes place before Ch24, obviously.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/7707919/chapters/22400903 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7707919/chapters/22400903)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solokov on March 04, 2017, 02:47:25 AM
To be fair we were kinda rapid fire messaging back and forth at that point.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on March 04, 2017, 08:41:09 PM
Alphabet Soup
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Series 1, Part 2
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Spoiler: A Bestial Thing to Do • show
The wizened little detective faced down the dozen Seiður assembled around the coffee table. “One of you is a murderer,” he said bluntly. “Poor Olafur, who ate his last meal here at this very table less than two days ago, was murdered, and the sea-wall breach merely a ruse to cover the killer’s tracks!”

Voices rose in anger, fear and consternation, but the detective never turned a hair at the commotion. Soon, the group around the table had nearly reached the point of physical violence as everyone present presented each other with airings of every petty little grievance as evidence that there was the murderer.

All this time, the detective had remained unmoved; nor did he attempt some futile demonstration of physical prowess now. Instead, he raised his own voice again. “This cozy little circle of yours has had everything their own way for so long that most of you think that it’s ‘the natural order of things’, and one of you thought he could get away with murder. Well, you were wrong, Bjarni Einarson!”

A mass of papers landed on the desk next to Reynir with a loud thud just as he reached the detective’s revelation of the murderer’s identity. Not unnaturally, the hapless Icelander came just shy of breaking his head on the vehicle’s metal roof immediately thereafter.

“Where did you get that pulp trash?” Mikkel asked, nodding at the ragged, flimsy booklet Reynir had almost flung into the big Dane’s face in his surprise.

“My mother wrote it,” Reynir replied, an understandable note of frost coloring his voice. “It’s one of a series she wrote about this little old guy who keeps getting caught up in murders and other mysteries. She wouldn’t let me read them while I was living at home, so I grabbed this one on my way out.”

Mikkel pinched the bridge of his nose and mumbled something about “that accursed Loki Saxet copycat fad” that Reynir didn’t really understand. The big Dane, at his very most Danish, then informed Reynir that the Icelander should vacate the office so that Tuuri could get to work on the papers Mikkel had just delivered.

Reynir saw Tuuri peeping apologetically from behind the great Madsen mass. “Oh--sorry about that, Tuuri.” As he was still twitchy from his earlier startle, it took him a few awkward moments to disentangle his limbs from each other so that he could yield the desk to her.

*

The murderer stood blocking the only exit, but the wizened little detective remained as calm as though he were chatting about commonplaces in his favorite tea-room instead of facing down an unrepentant murderer.

Reynir swallowed nervously as he read the passage, one hand tightly gripping the wood frame of the bunk he was sitting on. It didn’t help that a thunderstorm had sprung up out of nowhere while he’d been reading in the sleeping quarters, the fierce rattle of the rain against their vehicle adding to the tense atmosphere the prose engendered. He tried petting the kitten ensconced in his lap, but despite the resultant purring, his nerves still thrummed with tension.

“Whether or not your confounded meddling brings me to grief, your own doom has come.”

“Your own doom has come!” someone whispered in Reynir’s ear. Not until much later did Reynir realize that Tuuri had crept up to him and read the words over his shoulder; at the moment, he was far too busy panicking.

It took quite some time to coax the kitten down from Reynir’s head, and even longer to set all the bunks to rights...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
So, here’s another little glimpse into the literature of Y90.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on March 05, 2017, 05:23:29 AM
Bedtime.  The story I was getting ready for the letter D needs a lot more work, and is getting assigned to another letter later in the alphabet.  So this other one presented itself instead - entitled "Ducks."
http://archiveofourown.org/works/10097225

I promised that this story was not going to be titled after a food commodity, didn't I?  Well, it isn't about food, not really... not much anyway.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Gaemmel on March 05, 2017, 11:51:35 AM
FINALLY! I managed to write something for the letter D. I searched for a song for ages.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/9629999/chapters/22498208

Characters: Sigrun/Tuuri
Please read the warnings at the beginning of the chapter, this is maybe not very brutal, but still a lot more brutal than it usually gets in my writing.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on March 05, 2017, 11:58:30 AM
I finally wrote a really long one-shot that I really, really wanted to publish. This means the revival of my old alter ego on Fanfiction.net!

First of all, the new work:

Just in case (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12392674/1/Just-in-case)

Onni still suspects Reynir is hiding something from him, and decides to magically spy on him for a day. He ends up following the crew's first day of actually adressing many of the last battle's consequences almost through Reynir's eyes, and getting answers to a few questions he's never asked himself in addition to the one he's actually seeking.

Since I was completely new to what had become of the site in the last five years, I got used to the interface again by uploading "Worst case scenario (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12390942/1/Worst-case-scenario)" on the account as well. "Broken bridges" will come in time. My brain decided it was going to be when Chapter 13 would be ready, because I figured out what to put in it just three days ago and have just gotten around deciding I didn't like the first version.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on March 05, 2017, 12:27:50 PM
Alphabet Soup
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Series 1, Part 2
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Spoiler: A Bestial Thing to Do • show
The wizened little detective faced down the dozen Seiður assembled around the coffee table. “One of you is a murderer,” he said bluntly. “Poor Olafur, who ate his last meal here at this very table less than two days ago, was murdered, and the sea-wall breach merely a ruse to cover the killer’s tracks!”

Voices rose in anger, fear and consternation, but the detective never turned a hair at the commotion. Soon, the group around the table had nearly reached the point of physical violence as everyone present presented each other with airings of every petty little grievance as evidence that there was the murderer.

All this time, the detective had remained unmoved; nor did he attempt some futile demonstration of physical prowess now. Instead, he raised his own voice again. “This cozy little circle of yours has had everything their own way for so long that most of you think that it’s ‘the natural order of things’, and one of you thought he could get away with murder. Well, you were wrong, Bjarni Einarson!”

A mass of papers landed on the desk next to Reynir with a loud thud just as he reached the detective’s revelation of the murderer’s identity. Not unnaturally, the hapless Icelander came just shy of breaking his head on the vehicle’s metal roof immediately thereafter.

“Where did you get that pulp trash?” Mikkel asked, nodding at the ragged, flimsy booklet Reynir had almost flung into the big Dane’s face in his surprise.

“My mother wrote it,” Reynir replied, an understandable note of frost coloring his voice. “It’s one of a series she wrote about this little old guy who keeps getting caught up in murders and other mysteries. She wouldn’t let me read them while I was living at home, so I grabbed this one on my way out.”

Mikkel pinched the bridge of his nose and mumbled something about “that accursed Loki Saxet copycat fad” that Reynir didn’t really understand. The big Dane, at his very most Danish, then informed Reynir that the Icelander should vacate the office so that Tuuri could get to work on the papers Mikkel had just delivered.

Reynir saw Tuuri peeping apologetically from behind the great Madsen mass. “Oh--sorry about that, Tuuri.” As he was still twitchy from his earlier startle, it took him a few awkward moments to disentangle his limbs from each other so that he could yield the desk to her.

*

The murderer stood blocking the only exit, but the wizened little detective remained as calm as though he were chatting about commonplaces in his favorite tea-room instead of facing down an unrepentant murderer.

Reynir swallowed nervously as he read the passage, one hand tightly gripping the wood frame of the bunk he was sitting on. It didn’t help that a thunderstorm had sprung up out of nowhere while he’d been reading in the sleeping quarters, the fierce rattle of the rain against their vehicle adding to the tense atmosphere the prose engendered. He tried petting the kitten ensconced in his lap, but despite the resultant purring, his nerves still thrummed with tension.

“Whether or not your confounded meddling brings me to grief, your own doom has come.”

“Your own doom has come!” someone whispered in Reynir’s ear. Not until much later did Reynir realize that Tuuri had crept up to him and read the words over his shoulder; at the moment, he was far too busy panicking.

It took quite some time to coax the kitten down from Reynir’s head, and even longer to set all the bunks to rights...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
So, here’s another little glimpse into the literature of Y90.


Hahahahaha, I'm having fun thinking of Tuuri intoning Doom, and thinking she can't quite come up with the requisite basso profundo - and it just doesn't matter!  Mum, eh?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Anna on March 05, 2017, 02:37:45 PM
I finally wrote a really long one-shot that I really, really wanted to publish. This means the revival of my old alter ego on Fanfiction.net!

First of all, the new work:

Just in case (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12392674/1/Just-in-case)

Onni still suspects Reynir is hiding something from him, and decides to magically spy on him for a day. He ends up following the crew's first day of actually adressing many of the last battle's consequences almost through Reynir's eyes, and getting answers to a few questions he's never asked himself in addition to the one he's actually seeking.

Since I was completely new to what had become of the site in the last five years, I got used to the interface again by uploading "Worst case scenario (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12390942/1/Worst-case-scenario)" on the account as well. "Broken bridges" will come in time. My brain decided it was going to be when Chapter 13 would be ready, because I figured out what to put in it just three days ago and have just gotten around deciding I didn't like the first version.
Oh, dear. "Just in case" seems to have been transformed into a wall of text.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on March 05, 2017, 03:24:07 PM
Not sure what happened there, but I think I fixed it.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on March 05, 2017, 07:20:36 PM
Alphabet Soup
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Series 2, Part 2
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Spoiler: Beneath the Surface • show
When Sigrun Eide regained consciousness, there was a burlap sack covering her head, and her wrists were bound and pulled above so that she was nearly hanging from them.

Less than two minutes later, Sigrun was chafing her wrists and complaining to herself about the toll her advancing years were taking on her: a dozen years ago, she’d have been out in under one minute, even fighting off grosslings!

Well, even with her encroaching decrepitude, she was still going to rip through whoever was responsible for this like a sword through cobwebs. Of course, she needed to find them first, which meant reconnaissance.

Sigrun was in an open stall in an Old Time stable block, as her abductors apparently had been fool enough to think that binding her as they had would be sufficient to hold her. Regardless, it would be wise to explore the rest of the stalls before moving on.

Sigrun had explored one row of stalls and was just turning down another when she heard a noise. It was hardly necessary to guess whence it had originated: one of the stalls ahead of her was shut, so she slipped up to it and kicked the door open.

The boy looking back at her with wide blue eyes had the most beautiful hair Sigrun had ever seen on anyone, male or female; the perfectly coiffed locks were golden and even seemed to sparkle in the wan and scant sunlight. It almost distracted her from the knife he was shakily holding in a keep-away-from-me-you-crazy-woman way. Sigrun had seen that particular hold a lot in Dalsnes.

Sigrun sighed. “You know, kid, a Hunter captain like me wouldn’t even pause at the way you’re holding your knife, and certainly a grossling wouldn’t either.”

The boy straightened, lowering his knife. “You’re a Norwegian,” he stated in somewhat snooty Swedish.

“And you’re a Swede,” Sigrun replied. “May I presume you woke up wearing one of these--” she brandished the sack she’d brought with her “--too?”

He pulled out his own sack from behind his back, lowering his knife. “Are you really a Hunter captain?”

“Just the most best one in Dalsnes,” Sigrun answered proudly.

This seemed to satisfy the boy, who stiffened to attention. “Cleanser Emil Västerström, Svenstavik Detachment, Fourth Cohort, Northern Front, Ma’am.”

“At ease, Little Viking,” Sigrun said with a grin. “Sigrun Eide, Hunter captain--but call me Sigrun; everyone does.” Then her smile faded. “Have you seen anyone else yet?”

The boy shook his head. “I’d just freed myself when I heard you coming and shut myself in here.”

“Well, searching should go easier with the two of us.” The boy’s eyes widened at something behind her as she said this, so she spun around--

“The three of us?” the big blond Dane said hopefully, holding a sack of his own out like a peace offering.

Sigrun nodded. “The three of us, then.”

“My name is Mikkel Madsen. With whom do I have the honor of collaborating?”

“What did he say?” Emil asked quietly.

“Sigrun Eide,” Sigrun said. “The Swede’s Emil Västerström.”

“Under different circumstances, I would count it a pleasure to meet you both, but as it stands...”

A rather timid voice called out from further along the row of stalls, “Um, hi there?” in faltering Swedish.

The speaker was a short and somewhat chunky girl with a young face and gray-blond hair. She also had a sack in one hand that matched the others. “I’m Tuuri Hotakainen, and I’m a skald from Keuruu, in Finland--”

Tuuri suddenly looked up at the rafters. “Lalli, get down from there! You were the one who said they weren’t going to hurt us!” Of course, she said this in Finnish, so Lalli was the only one who understood her.

The others all looked where Tuuri was looking, but only Emil managed to spot the thin figure with the same color hair as Tuuri lurking among the heavy wooden beams before it leapt out and down into Mikkel’s arms.

“That’s my cousin, Lalli Hotakainen,” Tuuri explained. “He only speaks Finnish. He’s a night scout, so he can be a little... odd at times, and he’s extremely annoyed right now that whoever did this to us managed to get him, too.”

“Tell him to join the club,” Sigrun growled.

An interrogative gargle came from the front of the stables. All their heads turned. “Icelandic?” Mikkel rumbled, and Tuuri nodded.

Mikkel boomed out something, and a moment later, a tall gangly boy with a truly remarkable red braid stepped into their aisle. He was also holding yet another burlap sack.

After a moment, the Icelander gestured for them to follow and began walking out of the stables. With nothing better in the offing, the other five followed him.

The stable had obviously been built by a madman, since no one else would choose to build anything on the rim of a volcanic crater. Not particularly surprisingly, there seemed to be no roads or even tracks from the stable out of the cone.

After a few moments of gaping, the others turned to the Icelander. A lengthy and repetitive conversation ensued, culminating in Sigrun asking, “Iceland? How in the Nine Worlds did we end up in Iceland?

When the question was asked of him, the red-headed Icelander expressed his own befuddlement in a series of demonstrative shrugs, then spat out another bunch of gobbledygook.

“He says that the only thing that he knows for sure is that the tracks lead deeper into the crater. If we want to find whoever did this to us, that’s our best shot.” Tuuri asked her cousin something, nodding at his reply. “Lalli backs him up.”

“Well, then.” Sigrun squared her shoulders. “Shall we?”


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
Oh, look: an AU based (sort of) on a certain Jules Verne tale.

...I’m thinking I’ll revisit this one later.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on March 05, 2017, 08:20:14 PM
Good one, LooNEY! Looking forward to it.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on March 05, 2017, 08:24:03 PM
LooNEY, please do revisit it! I have a hard time picturing a better crossover than SSSS and Jules Verne!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Anna on March 05, 2017, 08:55:00 PM
Not sure what happened there, but I think I fixed it.
You did, thank you!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on March 08, 2017, 05:34:54 AM
The letter E contribution herewith, resulting from FrogEater's plea to have someone write something using this title.  So I did. 
"Emil and the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch."
http://archiveofourown.org/works/10173134

Spoiler: show
No, I am not an obsessive fan who has memorised vast chunks of movie dialogue.  I have a book which is essentially an annotated movie script of  Monty Python & the Holy Grail, and this was very largely taken from that.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on March 08, 2017, 06:51:25 AM
That made me laugh hard enough to get a very strange look from my cats!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on March 08, 2017, 08:21:29 AM
Finally. This one took me so long to write because it just. Did. Not. Want. To. End.

Land of the Dead (http://archiveofourown.org/works/9308429/chapters/22608908)

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on March 08, 2017, 10:48:42 PM
Alphabet Soup
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Series 3, Part 2
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Spoiler: The Boy Who Would Be Emil • show
The boy had first seen The Poster when he was nine, and when he looked back after years upon years had gone by, he could see that it had become a strange sort of dividing line in his life: there was Before The Poster and there was After The Poster, and that was that. Before, he’d been like any other boy of his age, neither knowing nor caring what his grownup life would be. After, there had been no question about what he was going to be when he grew up.

Four and a half years After The Poster, he was admitted into the Cleansers; six months after that, he was out in the field, and just in time. That was the year that would forever be remembered as “The Year of the Trolls”, and he and his confreres each nearly died a dozen or more times over at the grosslings’ rapacious hands.

Most of them survived, though, and it was all due to the Icon.

The Icon had been called back to the front after years of helping Sweden’s best and brightest realize that the Cleansers were the bright shining future of Sweden; his return to those who needed his inspiration most had been none too soon.

It must have pained the Icon to realize that the trainers had failed him so badly, but he wasted no time in his campaign to make True Cleansers of his cohort. The boy and his confreres found themselves being mercilessly drilled, often until they could barely stand afterwards; but none complained, as they knew that with every pass through the Manual of Arms, a grossling was less and less likely to prevail against them; and fewer and fewer did.

The boy was standing watch one night when it happened. He and his watch partner were jawing back and forth, just like always, and suddenly the Icon was with them.

They almost shot him, but that was the part the Icon liked best about the whole thing: while they’d failed to notice his approach, they’d been ready to take him down once they spotted him. The Icon remonstrated with them for not catching his approach (“Had I been a troll, I could have slaughtered you”), but forbore any official punishment, and even stayed with them for the rest of their watch.

The boy had been reluctant to speak at first, but eventually he asked what he thought was a fairly straightforward and simple question about the Mission. The Icon slowly examined the boy, his expression unreadable, but the boy didn’t withdraw the question. The Icon changed the subject, and the boy let it drop.

The watch finally ended, and they all went their separate ways. The boy’s nerves finally stopped jangling over the incident a week or so later, when the entire cohort was locked in a life-or-death struggle with a new flood of grosslings. A month later, the boy had nearly forgotten that it had ever happened.

As it turned out, though, the Icon had not forgotten. As soon as the word went out that they were to go on an expedition to Karlstad, the boy was summoned to the headquarters.

The boy was ushered to stand before the Icon’s desk. “I find I have need of a number of new aides-de-camp, and you are to be one of them,” the Icon told the boy. “You will report to my chief of staff in the morning. Dismissed.”

After that, things happened so fast, the boy wasn’t sure when he had time to breathe. He was only a junior aide for a month or so before being seconded to a combat unit as an officer cadet; after another month, he was back as a senior aide to the Icon; then, back to the lines as a combat officer, right as the Karlstad Triumph was taking shape.

Again, when the boy looked back on it all as a man, he saw that the Icon had seen something in him that night, and given him the opportunity to make that something into what the Icon and the Cleansers needed him to be. And there were others, as well; they numbered perhaps a dozen, all told: a rotating roster of aides who tried out combat for size and succeeded or failed as their talents allowed.

Then all was still again, as Winter graced Sweden with its chill reprieve. The Icon went over to the training command and utterly Cleansed it, setting the stage for the rise of his son, the Genius, in but a few years’ time.

The boy would have accompanied the Icon in a heartbeat, but those who had been his aides and “favorites” soon were scattered to the winds, for the most part settling into oddly influential positions across the Cleanser organization.

It was several years later that the boy found that his unit was to be part of the Genius’ Grand Scheme to Cleanse more land than had been Cleansed in Sweden to date. Part of this entailed a visit by the Genius, where he “patiently” explained (as if they had only the meanest intelligences) precisely what their unit would do. Before the Genius was quite finished condescending to them, the boy had dared to ask a pointed but pertinent question, which resulted in the Genius giving the boy a Look quite astonishingly like the one the Icon had given the boy a few years earlier.

“You were one of my father’s aides at Karlstad,” the Genius stated rather than asked. “Well, at least I know you can understand your part in this plan.” He then ended the briefing.

The Grand Scheme succeeded in its aims, of course. One of the most annoying things about the Genius was how he always succeeded in doing the seemingly impossible. But there were still losses even in the greatest success: the boy was crippled.

The boy was contemplating the wreck of his future when he received a letter in a familiar hand...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
And so, I return to the Correspondence (http://archiveofourown.org/works/8732425/chapters/20019610) “continuity”. I may do so again, or not.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on March 09, 2017, 12:25:21 AM
This should be interesting!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on March 09, 2017, 01:56:20 AM
This should be interesting!
Seconded!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on March 09, 2017, 04:18:15 PM
Thirded!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Athena on March 09, 2017, 10:43:12 PM
The letter E contribution herewith, resulting from FrogEater's plea to have someone write something using this title.  So I did. 
"Emil and the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch."
http://archiveofourown.org/works/10173134

Spoiler: show
No, I am not an obsessive fan who has memorised vast chunks of movie dialogue.  I have a book which is essentially an annotated movie script of  Monty Python & the Holy Grail, and this was very largely taken from that.


This was great! :'D I've never watched Monty Python and the Holy Grail, but it was hilarious anyway!
Thank you :haw:
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on March 11, 2017, 04:06:14 AM
 Chapter 5 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/9787259/chapters/22681508)

In which Sigrun's fate is ultimately decided. By herself. She decides how it ends or begins.

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on March 11, 2017, 09:45:06 AM
Anybody order some Norse mythology? Literal Ragnarök, anyone?

(Also, listen to the song it is awesome!)

Million Dollar Business (http://archiveofourown.org/works/9308429/chapters/22685417)

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on March 11, 2017, 04:23:32 PM
Remember how I said I wouldn't transfer Broken bridges to my Fanfiction account before Chapter 13 was ready? Well it is now.

Broken bridges: Chapter 13 (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12400128/13/Broken-bridges)

Tuuri gets bitten by a beast no one saw coming, and Reynir feels he's taking it worst than he should.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on March 11, 2017, 11:11:01 PM
Alphabet Soup
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Series 1, Part 3
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Spoiler: A Change of Heart • show
Many are the things unknown even to the Wise, though rumor and legend of them have come creeping into the fringes of the Tales the Red Book has passed down.

It is said by some that the Istari were five in number; others say that those five were only their chiefs. It is known only that more came to Middle-Earth than the three who are named in the Red Book; that is, Gandalf, Saruman and Radagast.

It is said that the unnamed Istari were two, and that they were known only as the Blue Wizards, and that they went into the East with Saruman, never to return.

Of course, it is also said, by the unlearned and the foolish, that the War of the Ring was the first time that the wider world became aware of Hobbits and the Shire; but such is not the case, as is shown by the statement in the Red Book that Théoden King of Rohan recognized Merry and Pippin for Halflings.

This is a tale of the Early Times of the Shire, and times even earlier, for the Istari were masters of many subtilties.

*

The Shire was not a century old when this tale begins, but certainly the Hobbits who lived there were already well-ensconced in their habits and patterns of living. Certainly the Pesky-Doors, a Harfoot family living along the banks of the Brandywine, had done so, though the Great Plague had cut their number to three.

Onni was one of the Borderers, and what he’d seen in that service had only confirmed his conviction that he and his should never have anything to do with the wider world. His sister Tuuri held a completely opposite conviction, wanting to go and see as much of the world as a Hobbit could; Onni attributed this to a long-ago mingling of their line with the Fallohide ilk.

Lalli, their only close cousin, was not privy to this difference of opinion, as he was one of the few Hobbits to be accepted into the ranks of the Rangers of the Army of Arthedain, and he was much occupied with his attendant duties. So when his cousin Tuuri told him that they would soon be off on a great adventure, he thought it no more than one of her weird jokes that he never understood.

When the Blue Wizard came to collect Tuuri and Lalli, Lalli was completely caught off guard. “I serve the Royal Sword,” he protested, and was shown an order attaching him to the Wizard’s foray. Fortunately, the Wizard seemed to expect this of him, and was not angered. Indeed, the Wizard did not take Onni’s blistering refusal to accompany them amiss, and the three of them set off for Bree in high spirits (aside from the wain-sick Lalli).

It was in Bree that they were to join the first of the Men who would accompany them, a golden-haired youth named Emil.

*

Emil Dúnduin was the son of the Last Warden of Orthanc, the Deserter who fled the Great Plague, and Emil felt the shame of it down to the depths of his soul. Though the King had forborne to punish the Warden’s family (for the Warden was, in truth, only one of many who had fled and would not return), His Majesty had made another of his vassals Lord of Angrenost in the Warden’s stead.

When the Wizard offered Emil the chance to redeem his family’s honor, there was simply no choice to be made.

*

So did two Hobbits, a Wizard and a Man meet at Bree. Emil was so anxious to make a good first impression that he spilled his food all down the front of his shirt, but only Lalli was interested in seeing him repeat it.

They joined a caravan of Dwarves bound for Moria, as they were to meet the other members of the Wizard’s company in the Pass of Caradhras, and on the first night, they were attacked by a small dragon.

Emil proved his valor, rather unintentionally, by protecting Lalli against the Wyrm’s assaults until it lost interest and flew off.

Tuuri was a bit less enthusiastic about the venture in the days that followed, but they reached the Pass unscathed.

*

The term “giant Dwarf” is held to be an oxymoron, but it still best described Mikkel.

Mikkel Foundling Son of Man had been found as a babe in an Orc encampment set upon and destroyed by Dwarves of Moria; no other Men were anywhere near, so he was an enigma. A Dwarven woman, unmarried despite her age, took the foundling in as hers; yet she could not make the Man a Dwarf, and so the Dwarves held him apart.

In the end, his foster mother had been forced to yield him up to be banished from the mines and into the world of the Men who were his supposed kindred once he had reached his full growth and strength, though she faded and went to the Halls of Aulë within a year.

Mikkel was wandering the Misty Mountains in search of those from whom he had been stolen when the Wizard found him.

*

Sigrun of the Haladin was not a particularly philosophical person; such considerations and concerns were for others, while hers was to fight. This was well, for by dint of her single-minded martial focus, she had been chosen as one of the Haladin Guard, a fate more than she had ever dared to hope for from life.

An Amazon of the Haladin Guard lived and died by the command of her Chieftainess; when Sigrun’s Chieftainess came to her bringing the Wizard and commanding Sigrun to his service, Sigrun simply nodded.

What followed has never been fully explained. Only this is known: Sigrun of the Haladin Guard passed out of knowledge in the First Age, only to return to the tales of the West in the Third Age, when she met with Mikkel at the Pass of Caradhras...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
So, and by Lazy8’s kind (and enthusiastic) permission, here’s the first bit of my take on  this (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=139.msg134654#msg134654). I told (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=139.msg134807#msg134807) you I was thinking, and that’s never a good thing.

Arvegil (11th King of Arthedain, which included the Shire) = “Royal Sword” (who Lalli serves).

Tolkien initially tried to set the tale later called “The Downfall of Númenor” as a time-travel story, so I decided to put that as an element here.

This will definitely be revisited later.

You have been warned.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on March 11, 2017, 11:52:35 PM
*is now wondering what that Tolkien time-travel story would have looked like*

Nitpick: You misspelled "subtleties". It almost looks like the Ishtari were "masters of many subtitles," which, while hilarious, is not what I think you were going for.

I also kind of want more backstories now, specifically for Sigrun and Mikkel. There are canon instances of Elves raising humans before, but Dwarves... Mikkel must have had an interesting childhood.

(Also, forgot to mention last time, my next entry for the alphabet thing is likely to be too brutal for forum consumption, so I guess I'll see you at O!)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on March 12, 2017, 12:05:32 AM
*is now wondering what that Tolkien time-travel story would have looked like*
He never finished a complete version, but Christopher Tolkien published what there is in "The Book of Lost Tales" (2 vols.).
Nitpick: You misspelled "subtleties". It almost looks like the Ishtari were "masters of many subtitles," which, while hilarious, is not what I think you were going for.
*Sigh*
An archaic form of "subtle" is "subtil". So I used an archaism in a Tolkien pastiche.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on March 12, 2017, 12:25:36 AM
For those who follow this, the next chapter in the Reynir SSSS superhero AU story - "Rescues?" (Reynir does not appear in this chapter, though.)
http://archiveofourown.org/works/6610714/chapters/22704611
In which the crew is dashing back to Kastrup to evacuate the stricken Sigrun, and the OCs Ilya and Renate catch up over her situation.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on March 12, 2017, 12:42:45 AM
*Sigh*
An archaic form of "subtle" is "subtil". So I used an archaism in a Tolkien pastiche.

Well never mind then.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on March 12, 2017, 12:44:12 AM
LooNEY, you are correct about the archaic 'subtil', it is indeed a word. It even turns up as late as the King James Bible: 'For the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field'.

In a Mediaeval context I tend to use it to differentiate between where we would use 'subtle' and the sort of 'subtlety' one might serve at a Mediaeval feast.

Lazy8: if you don't want to put that story on the general board, have you considered the 'Mature' board? As well as the usual adult references, there are threads for stories or art where the gore and horror levels might make them unsuitable for a thirteen-year-old to read.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on March 12, 2017, 12:52:34 AM
Lazy8: if you don't want to put that story on the general board, have you considered the 'Mature' board? As well as the usual adult references, there are threads for stories or art where the gore and horror levels might make them unsuitable for a thirteen-year-old to read.

Hm, I was under the impression that the Mature board is mostly for sexy stuff, which I have very little interest in. Would it be worth my while, then, to sign up for it, given that my "mature" stuff is mostly violence-oriented?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on March 12, 2017, 12:58:09 AM
It surely would. And no, not just for sexy stuff, but material of any kind that might be deemed 'mature', including horror and gore.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on March 12, 2017, 07:43:14 PM
Alphabet Soup
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Series 2, Part 3
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Spoiler: Catharsis • show
The strangest things can change the fate of nations; so it is in this tale.

For some reason that history and even legend have forgotten, Emil Dúnduin was raised speaking Sindarin; he knew neither Quenya, nor even the Common Speech. Of course, Sigrun came from a time before the Common Speech existed (the Folk of Haleth not even speaking a similar tongue to the other Houses of the Edain), so it was good that she spoke oddly accented and slightly archaic Sindarin; and Mikkel spoke both Quenya and even more heavily accented Sindarin, but neither the Common Speech nor the secret language of the Dwarves, as those close and suspicious folk would not let even one fostered among them learn that greatest of their secrets.

So it was that only Tuuri and Lalli (and the Wizard; but Wizards are rather expected to know every tongue in Middle-Earth) spoke Westron of the Westron expedition into the East; fortunately, Tuuri also spoke Sindarin and Quenya; unfortunately, Lalli spoke neither.

*

Reynir Half-Elven was the youngest of his kin, and the only “natural” (though most said “accidental”) son of his parents, who had taken in war orphans from Thranduil’s realm before Reynir’s advent. Also, Reynir was red-haired, a “gift” from his human father. This was why Reynir had ever been made to tend the flocks.

One day, Reynir caught sight of the Lonely Mountain in the distance, and something within him snapped. That night, he fled from the home in which he had been raised, heading for the wide world that awaited him.

He had some vague idea of going to Greenwood the Great, the realm of Thranduil whence his brothers and sisters had come, but ran into a Dwarven caravan instead. He thought they were headed to ancient Dwarrowdelf, when they had actually come from that place, and were headed toward the Eastern Sea.

This was a time when Dwarves and Elves were still close in friendship, so the caravan gladly took Reynir along.

*

“Make for the Eastern Sea; there I shall meet you when my own tasks are complete.” So saying, the Blue Wizard vanished.

“You know,” Sigrun said, “for a leader, he isn’t one to really lead, if you get my drift.”

Mikkel hummed before replying, “Yes, I’ve noticed your--dissatisfaction, shall we say?--with his shepherding of our group.”

“What did he say?” Tuuri whispered to Emil, who shrugged in perplexity.

“Dissatisfaction is rather a more paltry word than I would have used,” Sigrun replied. “But the Wizard is gone, and we must have a leader.”

“I think we were all rather assuming that the Wizard meant you for that task,” Emil said, before Mikkel could reply.

“Oh, good,” Sigrun said. “I won’t have to hurt anyone to make that official. Well, then, Short Stuff: let’s go!”

Tuuri set their wain in motion, heedless of how Lalli lurched over one side. Emil was not nearly so uncaring, though he hid it behind revulsion.

*

“Sigrun!” Tuuri yelped at the devastation spread across the road. Charred wains of odd design blocked their path in a panoply of death.

“Dragon’s work,” Sigrun opined.

“Wonderful,” Emil groaned, remembering how useless he’d been in his sole encounter with a dragon thus far.

“Oh, it’ll be long gone,” Sigrun assured him. “But we might as well see if it left anything useful behind while we’re clearing the road.”

“And burying the unfortunates the dragon left behind,” Mikkel rumbled, prompting Sigrun and Emil to give him “Well, duh” looks, Emil actually having understood the mumbling for once.

*

Emil was rummaging through one of the wains while Lalli stared at it suspiciously when a chest popped open and an Elf hopped out. The shriek of surprise this prompted brought Sigrun and Mikkel running, which proved fortunate enough.

Reynir Half-Elven looked at the short, golden-haired Man-youth in perplexity. While Reynir spoke only Quenya, the Man-youth seemed to speak only what Reynir assumed was Sindarin, so neither could understand the other. Fortunately, the gargantuan Dwarven-Man who came over spoke Quenya very well, though his tidings were all bad.

Not only was the caravan destroyed and all the Dwarves dead, but they had been headed in completely the wrong direction, and the group who had rescued him were also bound in that direction, so there was no way he was going else but with them.

Sigrun was not happy about this at all.

*

Emil looked at Lalli in a way that the Hobbit Ranger couldn’t quite decipher. Finally, the young Man reluctantly said, “I have had a dream that has come to me every night since I was but a babe in arms. This dream is one of sorrow, loneliness and pain, and you have always featured in it, Lalli. In this dream, I am an Elf, as I have long yearned to be, while you are an Orc; but the two of us are still friends, despite that, while the world is utterly empty of both of our kinds. Is this phantasm not strange above all others?”

Tuuri was so stunned by this discourse that she had to be prodded into translating for Lalli, and translating Lalli’s response.

“Dreams are both weird and maddeningly perverse, as some are portents, while others are utterly meaningless. Were the Wizard here, he might be able to tell us which your dream is.”

Emil snorted. “Assuming he said anything at all.”

“Perhaps my silence has been from lack of need to say things when nothing need be said,” the Wizard said from behind Emil...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
...And by “later”, I meant now. Yep, I’m cheating here. So sue me.

More will come in due course.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on March 12, 2017, 07:51:07 PM
...I see what you did there.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on March 12, 2017, 08:21:36 PM
...I see what you did there.
I should hope so.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Abprallen on March 15, 2017, 10:00:50 PM
Posting on behalf of Llama!
Soulmate AU
Emil/Lalli ship
General rating
Little snapshots of the expedition and Lalli finding his soulmate ;D
Read it here! (http://archiveofourown.org/works/10319225)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on March 17, 2017, 05:27:21 PM
New one-shot!

All work deserves pay (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12408775/1/All-work-deserves-pay)

Can't say much without spoiling it, except that it's basically yet another outgrowth of one of my Reynir-related headcanons.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Ragnarok on March 17, 2017, 07:50:33 PM
Posting on behalf of Llama!
Soulmate AU
Emil/Lalli ship
General rating
Little snapshots of the expedition and Lalli finding his soulmate ;D
Read it here! (http://archiveofourown.org/works/10319225)

Adorable. Yes.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on March 18, 2017, 02:33:23 PM
Oh, look; it's back.

Alphabet Soup
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Series 3, Part 3
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Spoiler: The Cat in Scout’s Clothing • show
Once, there was a cat that watched the scouts every night as they went out and about their duties. Light or dark, wet or dry, hot or cold, they went, and the cat watched all the while.

After a time, the cat told himself, “You know, I do believe I could do that as well as any of those humans do, if I wanted to.” But he didn’t want to, so the cat just stayed where he was.

Over the next while, the cat told himself several more times that he could go a-scouting just as well as any of the humans he watched, if he wanted to; but he never wanted to, so he didn’t.

Finally, one night the cat said it aloud, where he thought no one would hear him.

“I don’t believe you.” So said a young fox lazily lounging in a nearby tree. “You didn’t spot me, so how can you say that you’d be as good as the humans?”

“I would so,” the cat protested, “and I totally knew you were there!”

“Then prove it,” the puppy-fox sneered. “Unless you’re all talk.”

“OK.”

So the cat went to the master of scouts and told him that he wanted to join the scouts.

“Well,” the master of scouts said doubtfully, “you’re a fine, big cat, but all my scouts have to be human.”

“Why?” the cat demanded angrily.

“The good townspeople made us these uniforms, and it would be insulting if we didn’t use them.” The master of scouts held out one of the uniforms for the cat to examine.

The uniforms included long boots that came up over the knees, and long gloves that reached past the elbows. The cat looked at them dubiously.

Eventually, the cat asked, “If I wear the uniform, can I join the scouts?”

“You’ll have to try out first,” the master of scouts replied. “That’s the way it’s done.”

“OK.”

So the cat strained and struggled and finally managed to get into the uniform. It made his balance all wobbly, though, so when he tried out for the scouts, the others just laughed at his efforts to get through their obstacle course.

This only made the cat more determined than ever to show the others that he could be the most best of them all; so every night after that, instead of watching the scouts, the cat practiced.

After a very long time, the cat went back to the master of scouts, who told him, “You already failed your try-out, so I can’t let you join; those are the rules.” But the master of scouts agreed to let the cat try again in front of the town leaders, to see if they might change their minds.

This time, the cat did everything right; he even set a new speed record going through the obstacle course. The town leaders did not want to change their minds, though, because that would mean admitting that they had been wrong.

While the town leaders were busy deciding not to do anything, the cat scouted out the entire town and drew out a map showing where everyone and everything was. This was something not even the best of the other scouts could do, and the master of scouts was both pleased and impressed.

The town leaders still would not budge, so the cat would not become one of their scouts.

“I’ll take him on as a Cub Scout.”

The town leaders gasped, for the speaker was none other than the feared Bear Warrior, Sigrun, the fiercest Bear Warrior ever ever ever!

“Right, Mikkel?” she said, turning to her massive Bear Warrior companion.

“M’yes. This cat could prove most useful as our Cub Scout.”

And that’s how Lalli the cat became a Cub Scout and the Third Bear Warrior...

Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
I’m certain none of you were expecting me to revisit this (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg92245#msg92245), were you?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on March 18, 2017, 04:53:08 PM
Oh, look; it's back.

Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
I’m certain none of you were expecting me to revisit this (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg92245#msg92245), were you?


Not expecting, no, but glad to have it happen!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on March 18, 2017, 05:51:37 PM
Nice, LooNEY! Sometimes your tone reminds me of the Just So Stories, especially in the matter of cats.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on March 19, 2017, 02:01:12 AM
Here's something I haven't done in a while: a multi-update post!

Alphabet Soup
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Series 1, Part 4
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Spoiler: A Dynamic Encounter • show
There was no warning that the world was about to change; it just did while they slept, twisting from a green and Silent world to an utterly empty desert. They only saw this through their vehicle’s windshield, however, as Lalli, suddenly awake once more, physically blocked the exits until the rest of the group could see how the world had changed.

They had finally come to rest after their wild flight out of Copenhagen in a broad, open, but quite marshy field surrounded rather distantly by trees on most every side. In the deeper background, there were buildings that suggested this area had once been farmlands.

The camp had been pitched (as it were) in haste, but the exhausted crew had still managed to drag a camouflaging cover over the bulk of their vehicle.

The scene outside as dawn broke was utterly different. Instead of a marshy field riddled with ponds and thoroughly green with the gone-to-seed-for-ninety-years vegetation of Silent Denmark, their vehicle rested on a slab of bare rock surrounded by a barren mix of rock and sand, with not a scrap of verdure in sight as far as could be seen.

Lalli had lost his luonto, but the great shift had sent it flying back to him rather than driving it further away, though Lalli thought he’d seen a hint of a red tail vanishing into the distant depths of the dreamworld as Lalli and Lynx reunited.

The first attack was not long after that, before they had even decided on what they should do. It was a quick fusillade of shots followed by a determined pounding on the main door.

“Why aren’t they shooting at the windows?” Sigrun wondered.

After a final shot, the pounding ceased. A long and heavy silence ensued.

“Let’s try the radio,” Tuuri eventually suggested in a quiet and shaky voice, so they did. The results were even more frightening than the attack: instead of the usual screaming interference from the local trolls, there was only a mild static, with no response from anyone, regardless of what tricks Tuuri and Mikkel tried.

It was hours before any of them dared to go out of the vehicle.

*

In the distance, right about where Copenhagen ought to be, rose a gargantuan assemblage of towers that glittered and shone as the sun moved in its arc across the sky.

Sigrun thought they needed to make a sortie at it, but she was persuaded to wait until Lalli had scouted the immediate area out before they went at it.

What Lalli found was disturbing, to say the least. The area looked flat, but there were wrinkles enough nearby to conceal dozens or even hundreds of vehicles just like theirs, all of them empty, cold, and abandoned. Near a few, several crude graves had been dug into the sand; some of these had been emptied shortly thereafter.

The area still seemed to roughly correspond with their old-time maps, enabling Lalli to have Tuuri mark every last spot where he’d found another vehicle, with special notations to designate the graves. Whoever they had been in life, they should be remembered in death, all of the six agreed.

None of them knew what it all meant, but when they finally crept into what should have been Copenhagen, they would find out...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
Oh, look. It’s the Paratime crossover I was talking about. What a surprise.

I’m definitely going to revisit this one, too.


+
Alphabet Soup
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Series 2, Part 4
Spoiler: Deus Ex Mikkeli • show
Tuuri Hotakainen and Reynir Árnason only survived because they were making out in the aid station supply closet when the attack happened.

They weren’t even supposed to be in that area, as they weren’t immune; Reynir’s own aid station and Tuuri’s workshop were both in the area set aside for the non-immune at the center of the camp.

Lalli Hotakainen and Emil Västerström had been assigned to guard the aid station in general and medic Mikkel Madsen in particular as a punishment; now, it seemed the punishment would prove their salvation. The two boys picked off troll after troll while Mikkel struggled futilely to save as many of the wounded flooding the aid station as he could.

Captain Sigrun Eide fought her way over to the aid station with one of the last of the wounded to reach that place: the idiot Major who’d spoken so boastfully of “the glorious victory that shall soon fall into our hands” just that morning.

Sigrun, Mikkel, Emil, Lalli, Tuuri and Reynir were the only ones who lived through the night.

*

The reclaiming of Mikkeli was to be an international affair: Sweden sent Cleansers; Norway sent Hunters; and Denmark and Iceland sent support troops (mostly medics). Finland supplied the bulk of the force, including as many mages as they could spare.

A minor scandal occurred when it was discovered that one of the Icelanders was a stowaway. Reynir told Tuuri all about it over dinner that night, in the communal dining area in the compound the non-immunes had to share.

“I almost did something like that myself,” he’d confessed, explaining how he’d almost signed on as part of a freighter’s crew before learning the Icelandic military’s medical services would accept him without his having to lie about his non-immune status.

The morning before the Cleansers were to go out in their first foray, there was a mass meeting in the immune area, where the major commanding the Cleansers had blathered a bunch of sententious bromides that he obviously thought would inspire his Cleansers to “great heights of glory” (one of his favorite phrases) in the days to come.

Everything was set up for what was expected on the following day: the aid stations were manned and equipped; the scouts were ready to probe the depths of the nearby city that night; the Hunters were primed to go after the grosslings outside the preliminary Burn Zone; and the Cleansers had laid their plans and checked and double-checked their equipment.

When the grosslings attacked the encampment at high noon, to say the expedition was caught off guard would be a masterpiece of understatement.

Defying all expectations, the grosslings burst out of the ground, and only the aid stations with their concrete floors were spared in the initial assault.

By the evening, it was all over.

*

“Our only hope is to reach Keuruu.”

When Tuuri translated her cousin’s bald assessment of their predicament to the others (Mikkel simultaneously retranslating to Reynir), Sigrun, their leader both de jure and de facto, nodded grimly. “We need to move before the grosslings realize they missed us. Are we all fit to move?”

“Marching through the Silent World without the kind of protection we can’t carry on our backs is a recipe for suicide; I suggest we see if any of the vehicles are still working,” Mikkel said.

*

“It looks like a cat,” Lalli opined.

“Well, whatever it looks like, it’s what we’ve got,” Tuuri replied.

“OK, Short Stuff!” Sigrun enthused as they piled into the vehicle. “Off to Keuruu!” And with a whine and a whir, they were off, but very slowly...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
Oh, look. An AU that doesn’t mirror the comic storyline.

Didn’t think I’d do it, did you?


...And hopefully more will come soon.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on March 19, 2017, 02:57:21 AM
A multi-pleasure to see, LooNEY!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on March 19, 2017, 03:38:29 AM
LooNEY: Hooray! Do go on!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on March 19, 2017, 05:01:12 AM
I have posted chapter 27 of the superhero AU fic, 'Assembly.'
http://archiveofourown.org/works/6610714/chapters/22899141

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on March 19, 2017, 06:10:56 AM
Double-post to praise LooNEY_DAC on his AU stories.  Fun!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on March 19, 2017, 06:17:05 AM
Wavewright, this is getting really interesting. I'd forgotten that Onni doesn't know where Lalli is. He is going to be apoplectic when he finds out!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on March 19, 2017, 09:52:21 AM
I... couldn't make up my mind which song to use. So this time you get three!

Oxygen (http://archiveofourown.org/works/9308429/chapters/22902855)



Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on March 19, 2017, 02:35:26 PM
I will catch up to you, Lazy8! I'm only 3 back now, so I'm making progress!

/me laughs maniacally

...

And now, the story.

Alphabet Soup
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Series 3, Part 4
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Spoiler: The Dawn Can Come Too Late • show
Throughout human history, the dawn has brought safety and respite from the terrors lurking in the night. Even before the Year Zero, this was true, but as the grosslings came after the few survivors of the outbreak, it became more and more undeniable that the light of the sun had its own special power against the encroaching creatures of darkness.

But even as the First Rule was not a sure defense against a grossling attack, neither was the dawn.

Marten lowered his chisel momentarily in order to wipe the sweat from his brow. He had engraved a mere thirty names so far, and there were hundreds yet to go. Most were the names of strangers, but for even such a virtual shut-in as Marten had been, there were a few names he had carved--and a few he still needed to carve--that were achingly familiar.

There were names from Rønne, names from Nexø, names from every other bit of Bornholm, and even names from the settlements on the few Cleansed Islands; no part of the Remnant of Denmark had escaped loss in what was supposed to have been their greatest triumph.

The worst part was the complete lack of divulgence on the part of the Armed Forces on any aspect of the Kastrup Disaster: it amounted to a total blackout, with even the few survivors unwilling to say anything about that horrible day. The cloud of failure that hovered over their heads tainted everyone around them, as though the Danes as a whole had been shown to be unworthy of their survival, though even that had not been easy.

Marten carved a name or two more before climbing down to get some water. The tunnel was stuffy and humid, which the heat turned to rank and stifling. While the Old Time builders had built it well, their heirs had failed to maintain their works well enough for the tunnel to be bearable for any length of time in summer; and why should they, some among them asked, when the tunnel led only to death, and especially as the year waxed hot--though this was merely an excuse, and everyone knew as much.

That in itself might have warned the wise that what was really lacking in the Danes was the vigor of their forebears: over the years, the old indefatigability had slowly devolved into an unwillingness to put forth the requisite effort to do something the proper way when such effort exceeded their inborn sloth; so even the concept of the proper way itself had devolved into a blind adherence to protocol in order that the Sons of Bornholm might be spared the necessity of the ardor of critical thought to prompt proper and vigorous action.

The Danes were deep in a night of their own making, now more than ever after Kastrup; the question was whether a new dawn could come for them that would awaken them to renewed vigor and perseverance.

And if or when this new dawn came, would it be too late?

Marten sighed and picked up his chisel, leaving aside his gloomy reflections to get back to the work that needed to be done...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
Oh, look: an Authorial Note that starts out “Oh, look”.

Please note also the use of the word ‘led’, the past tense of ‘lead’. I’ve noticed the misuse of ‘lead’ for ‘led’ becoming more prevalent recently, so I thought I’d put that out there.

This may seem a bit hard on the Danes, but I think the evidence exists for such an interpretation in canon; of course, others may and probably will disagree. Oh well.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on March 19, 2017, 04:31:11 PM
LooNEY, you have your Dane doing something that has been common to any period of history that I can think of:
Judging a people, your own or another, with sweeping generalizations, against some theoretical standard that may or may not ever have actually applied.

The in-story historian(s) who wrote about the nations that had survived the Rash offer good examples. You meet that tone very closely.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on March 19, 2017, 07:10:24 PM
Wavewright, this is getting really interesting. I'd forgotten that Onni doesn't know where Lalli is. He is going to be apoplectic when he finds out!
Thanks for that!  There are lots of bits that I need to clean up,  & quite a few details such as this that are being incorporated into these last chapters.  I will go through and make a revised version at the end  (haven't decided if before or after the planned Epilogue), complete with the final title for the whole work  (which I do have now). 
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on March 19, 2017, 07:46:54 PM
I will catch up to you, Lazy8! I'm only 3 back now, so I'm making progress!

Well, given that you're doing all 3 at once, and I'm doing only anarchrous to start...

Is this one of MIkkel's relatives Marten, or just some random Dane named Marten?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on March 19, 2017, 08:33:25 PM
Well, given that you're doing all 3 at once, and I'm doing only anarchrous to start...

Is this one of MIkkel's relatives Marten, or just some random Dane named Marten?
Wait... Are you trying to say there are Danes Mikkel isn't related to?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Abprallen on March 19, 2017, 09:06:52 PM
Posting on behalf of Llama!
Another Soulmate AU, this time from Reynir's perspective. Runs alongside Prism, but they can be read separately.
Broken Feathers (http://archiveofourown.org/works/10376676)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on March 20, 2017, 10:37:53 AM
And once again, I stayed up later than I should've to finish a fanfic.

Personal Space Invader (http://archiveofourown.org/works/9308429/chapters/22932930)

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on March 21, 2017, 02:43:46 AM
Wait... Are you trying to say there are Danes Mikkel isn't related to?

I think this was excellent; a slice of life illuminating the world.  Somebody had to do this task, and I am glad you thought of him labouring away at his unlauded task.  Superb.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Talimee on March 21, 2017, 07:56:00 AM
Hi Scriptorium, it has been a while. Now, Who's up for some Emil torture?!

No one?

Well, good, because I didn't remember to bring any today, instead I bring you this thing!

Title: Ken-chan (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12413124/1/Song-Challenge-Ken-chan)
Summary: Lalli stalks Emil through Mora. What he finds out may shock you!*
Rating: K+
Genre: Friendship
Warnings: NONE :D

Inspired by Ken-chan ~ Wormmon no theme #2 (https://youtu.be/TWf-iRsoUzs) but please don't ask how xD

I enjoyed this very much, Windy. :D
So glad you made a follow up to that pic you drew a few days back. It was a very cute picture and this is a very cute story. Your english is also improving. Very good!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Windfighter on March 21, 2017, 10:12:16 AM
I enjoyed this very much, Windy. :D
So glad you made a follow up to that pic you drew a few days back. It was a very cute picture and this is a very cute story. Your english is also improving. Very good!

A, ha, that one with Emil on the weird ugly moose? That actually happened about 1½ paragraph into that story xD But thanks for the kind words \o/
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on March 22, 2017, 07:34:16 AM
Hi again, Scriptorium, did you miss me during these hours I was away?

I couldn't sleep because my mind decided that this here was a story I totally needed to write and who needs sleep anyway?

Title: A little help goes a long way (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12414636/1/A-little-help-goes-a-long-way)
Summary: None, on the other hand, may cause much needed laughter.
Genre: Humor! Wow, look at me broadening my horizons! (And yet I still manage to torture Emil, ain't I amazing?)
Rating: K+
Warnings: Nope, none this time either \o/

*snerk*

Poor Emil.

And yes, "What would Mikkel do?" is indeed the right question to ask. Too bad he didn't think of the fact that Mikkel would probably be aware of his surroundings...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on March 22, 2017, 08:16:02 AM
vomits onto thread

 Cancel the wake. I'm back from the grave (http://archiveofourown.org/works/9787259/chapters/22977879)

Chapter 6 of the thing
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on March 22, 2017, 09:33:38 AM
I swear this is going to be the last thing I do in this universe for a while.

Quantum Immortality (http://archiveofourown.org/works/9308429/chapters/22978800)


(And I still don't know what I'm doing for R. I need to get my act together.)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on March 23, 2017, 11:21:46 AM
Why do I get the feeling that there's this slippery slope I'm sliding down?

Running to Stand Still (http://archiveofourown.org/works/9308429/chapters/23001240)

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on March 24, 2017, 05:05:47 PM
LooNEY_DAC, I blame you for ending up writing this instead of another project. There may have been some troll-like transformation between the original idea and the actual story, but it still started out as one of your AU thread posts.

My first published fic to not be more or less Reynir-centric (he still shows up, because I suck at planning long things that are not AUs), enjoy:

Three for the price of one (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12418142/1/Three-for-the-price-of-one)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on March 24, 2017, 05:13:29 PM
LooNEY_DAC, I blame you for ending up writing this instead of another project. There may have been some troll-like transformation between the original idea and the actual story, but it still started out as one of your AU thread posts.

My first published fic to not be more or less Reynir-centric (he still shows up, because I suck at planning long things that are not AUs), enjoy:

Three for the price of one (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12418142/1/Three-for-the-price-of-one)
I totally accept the blame for this...

...As long as you understand that I'll still do my own version of the AU later on.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on March 24, 2017, 06:56:19 PM
...And I'm back, with something to post.

Alphabet Soup
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Series 1, Part 5
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Spoiler: An Early Error Is not Easily Rectified • show
“You know... I’d have questions. About that... stuff. But I don’t know what to ask, so it doesn’t matter that you wouldn’t understand my question. And I wouldn’t understand your answer.”

The words came back to Mikkel at the oddest times, which was odd, as they hadn’t even been directed at him. He’d only heard them because he’d suggested that the repair crew (currently Tuuri and himself) working on fixing the damage the troll attack had caused should take the occasion of Emil’s departure to have a quick break to restore their (Tuuri’s) equanimity, and so he’d stepped away so Tuuri could do so, which had brought him into earshot of Emil’s remarks to Lalli.

Regardless of where they’d originally been directed, however, the statements disturbed something in Mikkel. It was really quite irksome, the most irksome part being Mikkel’s inability (for the moment) to discern exactly why he was so disturbed.

When enlightenment came, it hit Mikkel like a bombshell: Emil’s statement was mature, humble, and wise.

This did not comport in the least with Mikkel’s prior assessments of Emil.

Sigrun had presented Mikkel with a similar conundrum in the encounter with the sjødraug, acting in a reasonable and levelheaded way that Mikkel would not have thought was within her capacity.

The word “self-doubt” was one Mikkel held as a virtue--for other and supposedly “lesser” people than himself. While he liked to consider himself open-minded, the great bulk of his knowledge, ideas and conclusions were utterly certain in his eyes, so why should he even consider doubting them, or himself for holding them as such?

Two misjudgments of character in a row might be just cause, though, even aside from the Event Mikkel was constantly trying not to think about.

Perhaps this could be attributed to the whole ‘Eric Affair’ and its fall-out; certainly, everyone else (excluding Reynir, of course, as he hadn’t joined them until after that point) was still feeling the effects of that horrible business, so why shouldn’t Emil have used the occasion to do some growing-up?

Eric. Now there was someone Mikkel had decidedly not misjudged, even if the Stingy Quartet (as Mikkel called them whenever he had to clean up a mess caused by their stinginess) had.

Had ‘Eric Smed’ even been his real name? Somehow Mikkel doubted it.

But all this remembrance was just so much diversion from what Mikkel should be contemplating, hard and/or painful though it may be: his possible misjudgment of Emil, and what that might mean for the mission, the team, and Mikkel personally. The healthy mind liked pulling such tricks so that it stayed healthy.

Could it be that Emil only acted mature around certain people? His interactions with Lalli, as contrasted with those he had with Mikkel, seemed to argue in favor of this.

Could it be that some people tended to bring what maturity Emil possessed to the fore? Lalli fit the bill here again, with Sigrun (for all her own faults) another possibility.

Could it be that some people--like Mikkel himself--actually caused Emil to act more childishly?

Mikkel winced. The last possibility was all too likely.

What did this mean for the crew, though?

A sharp, acrid smell hit Mikkel’s nostrils, reminding him that he needed to keep stirring the stew that was to be their dinner. Well, hopefully a burnt dinner would be the only consequence of Mikkel’s misjudgment...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
Oh, look. It’s Eric (http://archiveofourown.org/works/8749576/chapters/20058100). Again (http://archiveofourown.org/works/8749726/chapters/20058472).

I’m guessing none of you are surprised.

ETA: So, this is an AU where both Eric and Emil were on the team from the beginning. Eric showed his true colors and was killed by the others before Reynir showed up.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on March 24, 2017, 10:40:41 PM
Here to drop off another story, but this time together with all the warnings! Well, at least some of them! Because, you know, I did promise to kill Emil in all of my Alphabet Soup-stories.

Not killing Emil? You're expanding your horizons!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Windfighter on March 25, 2017, 04:12:05 AM
Not killing Emil? You're expanding your horizons!

I know, isn't it terrifying? Next thing you know I might have expanded them so much something I write actually turns out good!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on March 25, 2017, 05:33:57 AM
I too have been writing.  I present my contribution for the letter F, "Fortune."
http://archiveofourown.org/works/10435884

Mikkel sits in the auction room in Rønne, waiting for the book auctions to begin.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on March 25, 2017, 09:27:45 PM
That was one of those ones where you have to go back and read it again after the reveal, this time thinking 'Oooooooh, that's what that was.'
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on March 26, 2017, 12:05:35 AM
I'm sorry this (http://archiveofourown.org/works/9341720/chapters/23062356) is so late.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on March 26, 2017, 01:16:55 AM
Much better late than never, LooNEY!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on March 26, 2017, 10:16:43 AM
HiI'mbringingbacktransEmilbye

Step It Out Mary (http://archiveofourown.org/works/9308429/chapters/23070309)

(Please note that the song carries some warnings as well for forced marriage, suicide, and some extremely creepy dialogue of the father toward his daughter.)

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on March 26, 2017, 10:26:11 AM
Since I only gave you guys only a short prologue on Friday and I'm already on the thing's fifth chapter on the writing side, I think I can afford to post the first actual chapter now.

Three for the price of one: Chapter 1 (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12418142/2/Three-for-the-price-of-one)

For those who remember the original forum post: one of the ways the story diverged from LooNEY_DAC's initial idea will be quite visible, and the common ground doesn't really show up before the end of Chapter 2.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on March 28, 2017, 10:28:01 AM
A Midwest AU? Why not?

Take It Easy (http://archiveofourown.org/works/9308429/chapters/23124603)

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on March 29, 2017, 02:39:26 AM
And out of the depths of my LooNEY brain--another double update.

Alphabet Soup
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Series 2, Part 5
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Spoiler: Entranced • show
The calico kitten pattered its way through the ash-filled battlefield to the thin figure of the quiet Finn. At least this human wouldn’t yell at her. She greeted him with a soft “Prh” before moving to rub herself against his legs.

At her greeting, Lalli grumbled, “...Stupid useless thing.” Then, moving like a tired old man, he reached down and picked the kitten up, holding her but a moment before plunging his face into her neck in silent weeping.

Lalli Pesky-Door blinked and shook himself. What on earth had that been? He looked at the others.

The bitter taste of failure filled Sigrun’s mouth, and in a futile attempt to spit it out, she let her tongue lash out at all nearby. Blasted mutinist medic had to keep reminding her how she’d failed to protect her own by letting herself be hobbled by her injuries; blasted little Swede had to be right about standing up to her when she tried to bluster her way into taking over his job; blasted cat had to run away from her leader!

Sigrun of the Folk of Haleth was staring at nothing; were she anyone else, Lalli would have thought her near tears.

Reynir felt grief clogging his throat until he nearly couldn’t breathe. It was all his fault: if he hadn’t hidden in the tuna crate, Sigrun wouldn’t have been injured, so the troll wouldn’t have gotten by her, and Tuuri would be alright. This basic truth--that he was useless at best, and the cause of someone’s death at worst--just kept gnawing at him during the endless stretches when he had time to think. Helplessness and a crushing regret filled the void the gnawing left in its wake.

He spent most of the last stretch almost upside-down against the bunks. He’d heard such a position could be fatal if held too long; he wasn’t sure if that was what he was hoping for from it or not.

Reynir knew what he was experiencing was an illusion, but down beneath the superficial means of his experiencing was a fundamental feeling of reality to the whole. It was as though what he was experiencing was in fact real, just not in the here-and-now; so more a vision than an illusion.

Mikkel scanned the roiling surface for any sign of a red head about to breach, the last few times it had and the sjødraug’s near-instant and smothering response replaying gloomily in his mind. Sigrun had sounded like she didn’t expect to prevail in this battle; had she been right, or was there any hope left?

Emil watched the forest burn from afar, the knowledge that his fellows thought him unworthy to join them eating at him like the acid in a fuse. He had expected to find an acceptance in the Cleansers that had been lacking in the public schools; instead, he had found more of the same snide put-downs, arcane social structures and judgmentalism that had been his lot to be on the receiving end of since his family’s fall from grace. It would never end, then; he had been summed up and comprehensively rejected by what was supposed to have been the most accepting group in Sweden, so what hope was there for him now?

Tuuri had never expected to feel quite like this about maybe being infected.

What was the most unexpected but truly unbearable part was the not actually knowing while having to expect the worst: it meant every little twinge, itch, cough or sneeze brought a stab of fear with it, as did every time her mind wandered. Any of these could be a sign of her swift and excruciating doom from the uncaring Illness.

Signs or no, there was no hope left for her.

The Wizard was nowhere to be seen.

Lalli reached down deep into himself and pulled out a prayer to the Valar, dragging to his lips and spewing it forth line by line through the clogging enchantment.

“Sweet Nienna,
Lift this burden!
Bring relief from griefs unearnéd!

“Now are found your children bound in
Heavy coils that spoil all joy-gifts

“Break us free from fiends and evils
And their shameful aims turn to naught!”

Lalli’s eyes were squeezed shut as he sent his entreaty into the True West...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
And here’s some more Tolkien pastiche.

The whump will continue soon.


+
Alphabet Soup
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Series 3, Part 5
Spoiler: The Easy Way • show
“Why does the so-called ‘easy way’ always involved me getting slugged?” Emil asked with a hint of justifiable petulance. Waking up with your head still ringing from being knocked out tends to annoy even the most affable.

“Your whining attracts too much trouble,” Lalli opined in his garbled Swedish. It had been a priority for the little band of survivors to start learning each others’ languages as they made their way towards Keuruu, but so far Lalli was only making progress in Swedish, Icelandic still eluding him. This put him ahead of the other monoglots, though; Reynir more or less only knew his name, while Emil could write (but not speak--he never managed more than one syllable before his mind went blank) basic Finnish sentences.

Sometimes, whether intentionally or not, someone will find the exact worst possible thing to say and say it. Lalli would later swear that he saw something break behind Emil’s eyes.

The Swede stiffened and quietly told Sigrun, “That will not be a problem henceforth.” Then, and without another word to anyone, he walked around behind their vehicle to check on the horses.

They had found some horses still alive in the debris of the camp, which had posed a bit of a quandary until Emil rather reluctantly let it be known that he was quite experienced in farriery and other equine care, and that the vehicle was slow enough that the horses would do just fine hitched to its rear bumper. Every so often, either Sigrun or more often Emil would unhitch one and gallop ahead and back until it tired, at which point the other would have its turn for exercising.

Unease filled Lalli, though he wasn’t quite sure why.

*

Two days later, Emil had not spoken one word unless directly addressed, and even then, he gave the briefest possible response. Mostly, he spent his time looking after the horses, letting Lalli and Sigrun take the patrols he’d formerly requested so eagerly.

Lalli knew that this had everything to do with what he’d seen in Emil’s eyes, and no one had to tell him what he had to to next; it being his fault, it necessarily fell to him to fix it.

So it was that on the third morning, once the decontamination was done and the report given, Lalli staved off the ravening fangs of the sleep-monster and circled around the vehicle to find Emil already checking over the horses before tying them to the rear bumper.

Lalli knew the moment Emil realized he was there, but the sparkly-haired Swede just kept working. “Emil...”

Without turning his head, Emil told Lalli pointedly, “You had best leave before the trouble my whining attracts comes down on you, too.”

“It was a joke,” Lalli protested feebly. Suddenly, he wasn’t sleepy anymore.

“You don’t make jokes. You say true but hurtful things and laugh at the hurt they cause.” Emil paused. “So laugh already.”

“I did not think that my words you would be hurting this many.” Something about Emil’s obvious pain clawed at Lalli.

“Do you know why I’m so good with horses?” Emil asked, as though Lalli hadn’t spoken. “That’s all they ever let me do, back in Sweden, outside of training. ‘Västerström, stay in camp with the horses! Maybe that way you’ll have time to get better at field-stripping your weapons!’” He paused. “I am very good at taking care of horses.” Another pause. “So, when they asked for volunteers to go to Finland, I thought that I’d finally have a chance to prove that I could be useful; that I could do something other than... take care of the horses.”

“You make good burn in last fight,” Lalli said. “You were very useful.”

Emil scoffed. “So useful you needed to club me.” He turned to face Lalli; his face was wreathed in gloom.

“Not my idea; not my doing. I just tried stupid joke; wish I hadn’t. Emil, I’m sorry.”

“It was me,” Sigrun said, making both boys jump. “You were so caught up in flaming the grosslings that I couldn’t get you to disengage and join the retreat, so I slugged you.” She scratched the back of her head. “I’ll try something different next time.” With an unwontedly solemn expression, she concluded, “You have the trust and respect of your captain when in battle, Emil. Never doubt that.”

“Mine also.” Lalli tried to put in his tone all the things he couldn’t find the words to say.

Ever so slowly, the gloom retreated from Emil’s countenance...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
And more whump, though not in the same AU.

ETA: This is in the "Deus Ex Mikkeli" AU.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on March 29, 2017, 04:19:20 PM
And here's the second chapter of my trollified version of the dead and recreated Onni and Tuuri AU:

Three for the price of one: Chapter 2 (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12418142/3/Three-for-the-price-of-one)

Emil and Mikkel may have virtually zero time doubting the existence of magic in this one...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on March 30, 2017, 10:10:22 AM
Yeah, this happened.

Undo It (http://archiveofourown.org/works/9308429/chapters/23167737)

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on March 30, 2017, 11:19:31 PM
Alphabet Soup
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Series 1, Part 6
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Spoiler: A Far-Off Light • show
On a clear enough day, if you looked hard enough, you could see it: the light of the automated beacon warning ships off from the dangerous shoals near where the Old Village was, still functioning somehow after the world that had brought it into being had ended. That was the worst part of it: that which had been lost was just so tantalizingly close at hand, and so the whisper echoed in every ear, “Why not?” Even those most stubbornly against yearning over what could not be had found themselves softening at the sight of Home-That-Was.

The beasties and the gnarlies never showed themselves to those wistfully gazing across the warding waves; perhaps even that reminder wouldn’t have dispelled the homeward yearning, though.

Eventually, when the babes born on the island had grown to youths, the longing grew too much for some of the men, and they went forth.

None of them returned, of course.

The youths became adults, and had babes of their own; in time, their babes became youths, and some of the men ventured forth once more. Again, none returned.

Before the next youths could come to adulthood, though, the Norwegians came.

The Norwegians had come before, long, long ago, bringing fire and the sword and leaving death and squalor in their wake; the Norwegians who came now brought the light of hope instead, and the promise of fellowship and a new life in a new land.

The debate was long and bitter, even though the outcome was known as soon as the Norwegians had made their offer. Still, there was a debate, with not a few of the youths arguing that when they came to adulthood they would succeed where their fathers and grandfathers had failed.

The elders shook their heads at the folly of youth, and when the votes were tallied, the eldest, Old Man MacMurray by name, read out the result: the village was to go to Norway.

Before they left, though, every one of them walked over to try to see the light, if they could. A fog rose up, though, and none could catch even a glimpse of it.

Perhaps it was best that way.

The whole group fit on the one Norwegian ship that had come, but just barely. The sailors didn’t like the crowded deck, but the ship’s mage assured them that the wards would hold against the sea-beasts.

Some of the elders tried to cheer the youths by suggesting that this would be a quick sojourn in just another temporary resting stop, but Old Man MacMurray spoke from the bow of the ship.

“Let us be honest, if nothing else: none of us will ever see that place again.”

The rest of the trip to Norway was silent; the sailors were pleased about that, at least.

The island stayed clear of what the Norwegians called “grosslings”, as there was nothing left there that would attract them.

The beacon burned on. You could still see it, if the day was clear enough and you looked hard enough...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
And there’s a tale of a few hardy Scots.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on March 30, 2017, 11:42:51 PM
Cue 'Va, Pensiero,' with a braid Scots accent....

Nice, LooNEY.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on March 31, 2017, 12:16:40 AM
Nice one, LooNEY., subtly sad.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on March 31, 2017, 02:17:39 PM
Mikkel's efforts to feed Lalli, my knowledge of the existence of the How to give a pill to a cat (http://www.pawsperouspets.com/humor/catpill.shtml) piece and everyone's general tendency to treat Lalli as a cat came together and created a little writing piece. It's not quite fanfiction, but definitely SSSS-related writing.

Spoiler: How to feed a cookie to a scout • show

1. Be present when scout is about to go to sleep, wait for him to yawn, and put the cookie into his mouth.
2. Delicately untangle scout’s hand from confined stowaway’s braid. Calm stowaway down and realize that scout has fallen asleep while you were doing that.
3. Enlist help of mechanic while scout is sleeping. Once scout is awake, have her start a conversation with him. Let a few exchanges happen before trying to feed scout the cookie while he is talking.
4. Make sure that mechanic’s breathing mask isn’t damaged, then have her check the radio antenna once scout has climbed down from it.
5. “Accidentally” mess up cleanser’s hair while he is in scout’s field of vision. Wait for scout’s cleanser hair straightening instincts to kick in. Insert cookie during frustration sigh.
6. Reassure cleanser on the time it will take for that clump of hair to grow back. If cleanser notices that you deliberately gave a very low estimate, take the stowaway hair that ended up on your sleeve earlier and display its full length to cleanser to give him a little perspective.
7. Enlist captain’s help. Wait an hour after she has laughed at you, claimed she will have it done in five minutes and taken the cookie from you hand.
8. Locate captain, treat her bump and sew the sleeve back to the rest of her uniform jacket. Tell her she can’t eat the cookie, watch her do so anyway.
9. Fall asleep ten minutes before scout finally decides to come out from under the tank.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Abprallen on March 31, 2017, 04:57:05 PM
Mikkel's efforts to feed Lalli, my knowledge of the existence of the How to give a pill to a cat (http://www.pawsperouspets.com/humor/catpill.shtml) piece and everyone's general tendency to treat Lalli as a cat came together and created a little writing piece. It's not quite fanfiction, but definitely SSSS-related writing.

Cute!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Ragnarok on April 01, 2017, 12:09:21 AM
The increasingly-inaccurately-titled 'Khalasar of the Iron Tiger' has a new chapter!
This one with Hodor.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/7707919/chapters/23204451 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7707919/chapters/23204451)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on April 01, 2017, 03:53:40 AM
The monthly update of The Index (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=943.0) is complete. I've added a feature to mark new releases, in addition to another list to keep track of series. So if anyone's got a series they'd like to add that I managed to miss, feel free to request it on the index or contact me directly.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on April 01, 2017, 09:37:25 AM
Because I had to adjust a few things for one of the chapters, you are getting a double feature from me today:

First up, Broken bridges: Chapter 14 (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12400128/14/Broken-bridges)

All I can find to say about this chapter is that I came up with the whole "crew may end up in jail if they come back" thing before Sleipnope's threats happened in the original comic, so I'm hoping to make these two plot threads interact in an interesting way.

Second, just finished writing a chapter of my newer story yesterday, so time to publish part of the backlog:
Three for the price of one: Chapter 3 (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12418142/4/Three-for-the-price-of-one)

This somehow ended up being mostly an exposition chapter, so sorry for the slow pace.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on April 01, 2017, 10:45:44 AM
This whole trans!Emil AU is taking on a life of its own. So much so that I took a brief break from Alphabet Soup to hammer this out. (No break from the music, though...)

Good Girls (http://archiveofourown.org/works/10515987)

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on April 01, 2017, 11:11:12 AM
This whole trans!Emil AU is taking on a life of its own. So much so that I took a brief break from Alphabet Soup to hammer this out. (No break from the music, though...)

Good Girls (http://archiveofourown.org/works/10515987)


I'm personally very happy it is. I definitely see potential in this one, so I would have been sad if it had remained a single one-shot.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solokov on April 01, 2017, 01:23:54 PM
The increasingly-inaccurately-titled 'Khalasar of the Iron Tiger'


Yeah, things kinda went off the rails after I suggested the whole "the original canon is their fates and with the injection of the SSSS crew + oc's we've got chaos fighting fate" idea.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on April 01, 2017, 11:46:19 PM
Did someone call for a Hero?

The Red Herring League
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/Superhero AU fanfic
Part 10
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg131693#msg131693)
Spoiler: Higher for Heroes • show
This is what it means to be a Hero:

You are loved and hated, cheered and feared; sometimes all at once; sometimes by the same people.

Your life is not your own; it belongs to those you protect.

You fight hideous monsters sometimes, but mostly just grosslings.

You know people who went into the fire and never returned.

At some point, no matter how strong or fast or invulnerable you are, you will walk into a battle you think you’re going to lose, because you’re the only one who can.

*

Sigrun Eide calmly assessed the ruin the grossling had made of her left arm as she faced down the Sjødraug that had followed it. The flesh was shredded and useless, but the bones were intact, and she had staunched the bleeding, so it wouldn’t be the death of her.

This kind of pain was a new experience for Sigrun, but she was still stronger than it; she had to be, for the others were all equally hurt, or worse. The Red Terror was the last Hero standing.

Well, Sigrun reflected grimly, now was the time to see whether she could beat a Sjødraug with one hand tied behind her back after all...

*

Emil was being smothered.

Somehow, Emil was generally still able to breathe when he was the Firework, even through the fiercest and hottest flames, though no one had been able to give a satisfactory explanation of how beyond, “He just can”. Now, however, his flames had died, and he was struggling for breath as a sea of halon foam enveloped him.

The others, bunched up in a group not far from him, were all freezing under the blast of the Cold Ray, but Emil knew that he could save them with his fire... if he could just get it to ignite.

He just needed to shield some part of himself from this foam smothering him in its bitter cold...

*

Mikkel was hip-deep in a field of corpses. The dead surrounded him, and he was the one who had killed them all. He knew every face that stared blindly back at him: there were colleagues, friends, family, and even a few enemies. All of them had had people who loved them and were loved by them; none had done such crimes as to be deserving of the death Mikkel had visited upon them.

The Grave Dane was a true enough epithet for him, for he’d sent all these corpses around him into their graves; it was unsurprising that now they had risen to drag him into his own grave.

Mikkel felt them clawing at him, trying to lift his bulk so that they could carry him over to the fresh maw in the earth that he could see close by...

*

Lalli was racing to deflect a hail of bullets spewing from an ancient mini-gun away from his friends, who were bound against a wall. There were so many coming so fast that if he made the least mistake, his friends would perish.

His body wasn’t solid enough to absorb all the fire by itself, or he would have thrown himself over the muzzle, but there were other ways to silence such a weapon.

Lalli would need to set the angles of the ricochet he was planning perfectly to send one of the gun’s own bullets back at its muzzle, but the need to deflect all the others kept distracting him...

*

Reynir was watching his friends and family die, and he had no power to stop it, for he was doing the killing himself.

The mastermind had brought Reynir under his control instead of making him play dead, while freezing the others in place. Emil had faced this same test and overcome it, but Reynir was not as strong as Emil.

Reynir’s primary power was helping rather than anything big or flashy, so the body of Reynir under the mastermind’s control simply taped each of his friends’ mouths and nostrils shut and helped them suffocate, while Reynir himself watched on helplessly from the prison of his mind.

Despair filled Reynir as the others fell over one by one...

*

Tuuri watched helplessly as the Giant she had been merged into ran rampant against a group of terrified humans. She tried to scream at them to flee, but her voice would not come. Instead, her arms and legs and other obscene appendages reached out to tear at their prey.

“jOin Us, tUuRi,” she heard the hideous whisper slither into her mind once more. “yOu CaNnOt ReSiSt Us FoREvEr.”

Closing her eyes, Tuuri set her will, no, her entire being in negation. “I am Tuuri Hotakainen!” she cried desperately. “I AM TUURI HOTAKAINEN! I AM TUURI HOTAKAINEN AND I... AM... HUMAN!

Reality was no match for Tuuri’s will; as it had so often before, Reality gave way for her.

A great, unutterable rumbling filled the world. The Rash-filth sloughed off of her like mud under a high-pressure shower head, and “Reality Itself” cracked around her, the illusion it was proving itself to be shattering and falling away to reveal...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
Wait, I’m updating this?????

OK, then.

In other news, it’s never a good idea to mess with the mind of a Reality Warper.

Water is also wet.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on April 02, 2017, 07:05:59 AM
I'm posting my contribution for G in the Alphabet Soup, even though it may be a bit of a mess. 
Spoiler: "Gefjon" • show
http://archiveofourown.org/works/10524495
This took a lot more research than I thought it might, just for a little cracky story about Reynir letting down his hair and helping Tuuri.  I discovered reference to the fountain by the Kastellet of Gefion, and it all sort of went from there.


I'm going to bed.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on April 02, 2017, 07:38:40 PM
Alphabet Soup
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Series 2, Part 6
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Spoiler: For Envy of Ensi • show
Ensi Hotakainen never had time for false modesty. This was what doomed her, and her family, in the end.

Even in the wreckage of the Old World, some of the habits and patterns of old lingered on. The Finns never bragged about their achievements; they tended to downplay them instead, lest they draw a kade onto themselves.

Truly, Ensi preferred just to stay away from people, as they were mostly stupid and weird and thus incomprehensible; when she was among them, she had no time (or spoons, as Aunt Kaino always called them for some weird reason or other--stupid weird relatives) for their stupid weird games, which were many and varied, but all stupid and weird at their base. So she never downplayed anything she’d done, though she never bragged about her deeds either. She was simply honest about them.

There were strange faces at the meeting when Ensi gave her report, but that in itself was not unusual, as those transients who might need the information were invited to receive it “from the horse’s mouth”, another saying that baffled Ensi. Ensi tried not to look at them as she told of where the grosslings were today, how many she’d killed, whether any had gotten away from her, and where any that still lived were headed.

The report itself was fairly standard; the reaction to it was decidedly not. One of the new faces had grown redder and redder as Ensi made her report; she was beginning to get alarmed when the person jumped to their feet and started screaming at Ensi.

“You think you’re so safe because you’re immune, and because you have your precious magic! Well, you’re wrong! I’ll show you just how wrong you are!”

Ensi had absolutely no idea how to react to this vitriolic outpouring, so she just stood there, unmoving and with a blank look on her face, for a very long time. This was just... weird; it was too weird to be stupid, even. Even after it was explained to her that the person had lost their entire family to a troll attack and infections that had followed, Ensi still had no idea why this would impel the person to curse Ensi for things she never chose to have, could never give to another, and sometimes regretted having at all.

No, Ensi never truly understood the envy she’d unwittingly engendered, even as she dealt with the consequences of that envy over the years thereafter.

Ensi felt when It happened, of course: no mage of her rank could miss such a massive shift in the forces around them unless they had willingly blinded themselves to it; Ensi, being a scout, could not afford to let herself be blind to anything. While she felt It happen, she could do almost nothing to counter It as It happened, as she didn’t comprehend Its source. Ensi found out later that if she had known to be watchful for It, she might have been able to prevent It right at Its onset.

All that was water under the bridge now, and had been for years, with all Ensi’s other lamented failures and mistakes. All Ensi could do now was to try to minimize the damage that seemed to escalate with each new confrontation that she and It had.

During their last confrontation, Ensi had realized that It just might be the death of her.

While Ensi was resigned to the inevitability of her own death, the horror that confronted her was: what if her death didn’t satisfy It? What if It could not be satisfied or sated in any way, by anything? What if Ensi died fighting It, but It survived that last battle?

What if It came after Ensi’s family after she was dead and unable to ward them?

All this and more might yet follow for envy of Ensi...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
And this one’s finally done.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on April 03, 2017, 09:17:08 AM
Branching into some family members and canon romance. Yay?

Violet Hill (http://archiveofourown.org/works/9308429/chapters/23258661)

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on April 03, 2017, 06:34:44 PM
Alphabet Soup
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Series 2, Part 6
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Spoiler: For Envy of Ensi • show
Ensi Hotakainen never had time for false modesty. This was what doomed her, and her family, in the end.

Even in the wreckage of the Old World, some of the habits and patterns of old lingered on. The Finns never bragged about their achievements; they tended to downplay them instead, lest they draw a kade onto themselves.

Truly, Ensi preferred just to stay away from people, as they were mostly stupid and weird and thus incomprehensible; when she was among them, she had no time (or spoons, as Aunt Kaino always called them for some weird reason or other--stupid weird relatives) for their stupid weird games, which were many and varied, but all stupid and weird at their base. So she never downplayed anything she’d done, though she never bragged about her deeds either. She was simply honest about them.

There were strange faces at the meeting when Ensi gave her report, but that in itself was not unusual, as those transients who might need the information were invited to receive it “from the horse’s mouth”, another saying that baffled Ensi. Ensi tried not to look at them as she told of where the grosslings were today, how many she’d killed, whether any had gotten away from her, and where any that still lived were headed.

The report itself was fairly standard; the reaction to it was decidedly not. One of the new faces had grown redder and redder as Ensi made her report; she was beginning to get alarmed when the person jumped to their feet and started screaming at Ensi.

“You think you’re so safe because you’re immune, and because you have your precious magic! Well, you’re wrong! I’ll show you just how wrong you are!”

Ensi had absolutely no idea how to react to this vitriolic outpouring, so she just stood there, unmoving and with a blank look on her face, for a very long time. This was just... weird; it was too weird to be stupid, even. Even after it was explained to her that the person had lost their entire family to a troll attack and infections that had followed, Ensi still had no idea why this would impel the person to curse Ensi for things she never chose to have, could never give to another, and sometimes regretted having at all.

No, Ensi never truly understood the envy she’d unwittingly engendered, even as she dealt with the consequences of that envy over the years thereafter.

Ensi felt when It happened, of course: no mage of her rank could miss such a massive shift in the forces around them unless they had willingly blinded themselves to it; Ensi, being a scout, could not afford to let herself be blind to anything. While she felt It happen, she could do almost nothing to counter It as It happened, as she didn’t comprehend Its source. Ensi found out later that if she had known to be watchful for It, she might have been able to prevent It right at Its onset.

All that was water under the bridge now, and had been for years, with all Ensi’s other lamented failures and mistakes. All Ensi could do now was to try to minimize the damage that seemed to escalate with each new confrontation that she and It had.

During their last confrontation, Ensi had realized that It just might be the death of her.

While Ensi was resigned to the inevitability of her own death, the horror that confronted her was: what if her death didn’t satisfy It? What if It could not be satisfied or sated in any way, by anything? What if Ensi died fighting It, but It survived that last battle?

What if It came after Ensi’s family after she was dead and unable to ward them?

All this and more might yet follow for envy of Ensi...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
And this one’s finally done.


Chilling.  It also reminds me of the idea of not bragging lest a kade grow envious - in canon, Tuuri has just let rip with a bit of self-congratulation.  Maybe she has no f***s left to give?  Or is this Chekov's exclamation?  *fret*  What indeed may come to Ensi's family...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on April 04, 2017, 09:14:33 AM
*preemptively hands out a massive box of tissues*

White Night Fantasy (http://archiveofourown.org/works/9308429/chapters/23281497)

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on April 05, 2017, 07:12:04 AM
Windy! Why?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Windfighter on April 05, 2017, 09:16:27 AM
Róisín, I think the question is "why not?" 8D
Okay, no, it's just, I said when I accepted the Alphabet Soup challenge that I needed to find 70-something ways to kill Emil. At least I've lowered it to 26 now!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on April 05, 2017, 09:26:03 AM
Róisín, I think the question is "why not?" 8D
Okay, no, it's just, I said when I accepted the Alphabet Soup challenge that I needed to find 70-something ways to kill Emil. At least I've lowered it to 26 now!

*shakes head* I think that you've actually managed to beat me for sadism. Even I got sick of killing Sigrun eventually. *bows and yields Sadism Throne*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Windfighter on April 05, 2017, 09:42:36 AM
*shakes head* I think that you've actually managed to beat me for sadism. Even I got sick of killing Sigrun eventually. *bows and yields Sadism Throne*

Well, I've spent every night since I was like 10 thinking of new and exciting ways to kill/severly maim myself different characters myself as different characters, so I think the chance of me getting tired of it soonish is pretty slim. Maybe when I reach chapter 10 of "How do you want to die", but probably not!
(I've only actually killed Emil like 6 times so far! I think!)

(Also I would have kept my promise about 70 ways to kill Emil if Abasia hadn't happened. But I'm glad it did because that one was fun to write AND I absolutely love that title so...)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Abprallen on April 05, 2017, 01:42:07 PM
Windy, I can never go in an aeroplane ever again oh my goodness...
*Hastily scrubs 'skydiving' off bucket list*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Windfighter on April 05, 2017, 02:37:12 PM
Windy, I can never go in an aeroplane ever again oh my goodness...
*Hastily scrubs 'skydiving' off bucket list*
aww, don't worry, it's a very safe activity! Probably! I've never tried so I have no idea actually. Just... don't do it if someone named Sofia Magdalena Linnea Wilhelmina shaked shook your hand in a previous chapter ._.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: XanaduTrigger on April 05, 2017, 02:49:05 PM
Windfighter, sorry to be a grammar nazi but it's shook not shaked.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Windfighter on April 05, 2017, 03:00:31 PM
Windfighter, sorry to be a grammar nazi but it's shook not shaked.

Pff, of course you caught me the only time I did that misstake! :P ...I was even thinking shook, how did it become shaked? I don't know, yet here we are. I guess I just suck at English *overdramatic gesture* (Okay, no, the problem was probably because my mind was playing with three different ways to write that sentence at the same time.)
Thanks for notifying me though, sorry about my English mistake. <3
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on April 05, 2017, 04:48:50 PM
Giving an early update one last chance and announcing that my latest chapter in online:

Three for the price of one: Chapter 4 (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12418142/5/Three-for-the-price-of-one)
Pretty much how Chapters 5 and 6 go when Onni and Tuuri are actually illusions created by Lalli.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on April 06, 2017, 12:55:07 AM
Alphabet Soup
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Series 3, Part 6
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Spoiler: The Fatuous Few • show
A long time ago, in a living room far, far away...

GM: Alright, is everyone settled in?
Pete: Just let me get my tablet up and running...
Annie: Jim and I are both so excited to see where this new campaign is going! Aren’t we, Jim?
Jim: Absolutely, Annie! I can’t wait to see what creepy new monsters Sally designed for us to fight, and what kind of loot we’ll get from our next raid!
GM: Oh, I think you’ll be more than satisfied with those, won’t he, Sally?
Sally: I hope so.
Ben: Don’t worry, Sally. Everyone loves the new setting you designed so far!
Annie: Anyone would think you’d been doing this for years!
GM: *Ahem* You’re sure you want me to keep GM’ing this campaign for you?
Sally: Oh, yes. I want to keep testing the magic systems as a player.
{SFX}: knock knock
GM: Excuse me, I’ll just get the door.
Corey: I brought presents.
Sally: Hmmph!
GM: Ummmm...
Corey: Sally, if I say I’m sorry again, may I join your game?
{beat}
{beat}
Corey: Sally, I really am sorry.
{beat}
Sally: Oh, you’re sorry, all right.
Sally: ...But I guess you’ll do to test the other magic system.
GM: Roll up a character, Corey; we’ll introduce him...
Sally: Or her!
GM: ...Or her, at the end of tonight’s session. That way, we can work it in seamlessly.
Sally: Hmmph!
Corey: Thanks, guys.
*
LATER...
*
Jim: I reach into the crate!
GM: You pull out... {roll} a bundle of carrots.
Jim/Sigrun: Really?
Jim/Sigrun: They couldn’t send us some real food?
Ben/Mikkel: Vegetables are important, Sigrun. Perhaps we won’t develop scurvy now.
GM: Annie, you and Sally are working on opening the other crate.
Sally/Lalli: Mrr...
Annie/Emil: What?
GM: The crate lid pops open, revealing a tall, slender red-head with a very long braid.
Annie: I slam the lid back down!
GM: {rolls} You catch the boy’s {roll} hand in the lid. The noise draws Sigrun’s and Mikkel’s attention.
Jim/Sigrun: ?!
Annie/Emil: There’s something in the crate!
Jim/Sigrun: What?! SHOOT IT!!!
Annie/Emil: I... think it was a person!
Jim/Sigrun: Then DON’T shoot it and let it out!
Corey/Reynir: Owowww...
{beat}
Jim: I run back toward the departing ship, waving my arms.
Jim/Sigrun: WAIT!!! Come back! Man over board!
Corey/Reynir: E-excuse me, is this Bornholm?
Ben/Mikkel: No. Definitely not.
Ben: I point back the way we came from.
GM: Reynir, you see the ruined skyline of what was once the great city of Copenhagen, dilapidated by ninety years of decay and abandonment. You are definitely in the Silent World.
Corey/Reynir: Ummm...
Corey/Reynir: Iiiii think I maybe got off at the wrong place.
Ben/Mikkel: Yes, I believe it’s safe to assume as much.
GM: Okay; I think that’s a good place to wrap it up for the night.
Jim: Glad to have you joining the fun, Corey!
Sally: Hmmph!
Corey: ...Are we good, Sally?
Sally: Well...
Sally: ...We’ll see how you handle things next session.

The adventure will continue...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
And here’s the Darths & Droids (http://darthsanddroids.net) crossover I mentioned recently (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=139.msg136554#msg136554).

...Probably this is as far as I can stretch that.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on April 06, 2017, 02:01:41 AM
This looks promising!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on April 06, 2017, 09:49:34 AM
From the books thread...

And then Tuuri realizes that her family has in fact troll ancestry (???) and accepts the infection and the attendant transformation happily (though in dubious sanity).

*ahem*

Xenogenesis (http://archiveofourown.org/works/9308429/chapters/23313470)

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Ragnarok on April 06, 2017, 10:41:10 AM
From the books thread...

*ahem*

Xenogenesis (http://archiveofourown.org/works/9308429/chapters/23313470)


(http://i.imgur.com/GtflxJi.jpg)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solokov on April 06, 2017, 03:49:16 PM
Quote from: Vafhudr on March 03, 2017, 12:59:05 AM
And then Tuuri realizes that her family has in fact troll ancestry (???) and accepts the infection and the attendant transformation happily (though in dubious sanity).

And thus the first cult to papa nurgle forms.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on April 07, 2017, 09:52:36 AM
(http://i.imgur.com/GtflxJi.jpg)

Now be honest... would you have had that reaction if I hadn't mentioned Lovecraft? :P

Also: tissues.

You Can Still Be Free (http://archiveofourown.org/works/9308429/chapters/23328818)

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on April 08, 2017, 04:45:32 PM
Latest chapter!

Three for the price of one: Chapter 6 (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12418142/6/Three-for-the-price-of-one)
It's very hard for me to no hype up that chapter too much, because its ending introduces an element that, from my point of view, is this AU's keystone.
So I hope you enjoy this retelling of the first half of Chapter 7.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Abprallen on April 09, 2017, 09:01:41 PM
Windfighter- not a failure, I promise! Reynir/Onni is kinda difficult
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Abprallen on April 10, 2017, 03:32:33 PM
Thank you, Abprallen <3 Have another story!

Title: A can full of poison (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12432446/4/Alphabet-Soup-Collection-How-do-you-want-to-die)
Summary: Jacques is a hired assassin. He specializes in poison in order to kill his victims without a trace. This time he's hired to take out a member of the Nordic Council in order to stop an expedition into the Silent World.
Rating: T
Genre: ...errr... Nope, I give up \o/
Warnings: Character death. Stairs and an old church-place.

I suck at summaries \o/ Anyway, enjoy!

I got flashbacks to that scene from Hot Fuzz. Poor Emil, what a nasty way to go!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Windfighter on April 10, 2017, 03:35:37 PM
I got flashbacks to that scene from Hot Fuzz. Poor Emil, what a nasty way to go!

Should teach him to stay away from tall towers though!
Also, never heard of Hot Fuzz but I'm going to assume it's a good thing \o/
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Abprallen on April 10, 2017, 04:27:34 PM
Should teach him to stay away from tall towers though!
Also, never heard of Hot Fuzz but I'm going to assume it's a good thing \o/
Ah, sorry! Hot Fuzz is a police movie, kind of a cult classic in England. It's very funny but also pretty grim. Let's just say something similar happened in that movie! I would post a video of the scene but uh, pretty not safe for life.
R.I.P Emil; it only takes once.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Abprallen on April 11, 2017, 05:19:44 PM
Windfighter, very cute!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on April 13, 2017, 07:15:37 AM
aww, thank you!


And to prove that that story wasn't just a fluke and that I can actually write stories without torturing Emil, have this one inspired by the comment section:

Title: For Onni (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12445235/1/Alphabet-Soup-For-Onni)
Summary: Reynir wakes up in the dreamworld and makes a new visit to the church and to Onni. However, he ends up in the sanctuary of yet another mage.
Rating: T (but can probably pass as K+, I'm terrible bad at ratings)
Warnings: uuuuh... weird Finnish mage?

I will happily take the blame for this (though really, I think Aliax deserves more credit).

Very sweet, very Reynir and very Onni. (I remember when I wrote Reynir doing the impossible it was quite a bit more cracky, but you made it work like this just fine.)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Windfighter on April 13, 2017, 07:37:58 AM
I will happily take the blame for this (though really, I think Aliax deserves more credit).

Very sweet, very Reynir and very Onni. (I remember when I wrote Reynir doing the impossible it was quite a bit more cracky, but you made it work like this just fine.)
awww, thank you! <3
As for the blame, well... Yes, Aliax gave me the idea for the story but it was your comment that got me to actually write it so I'd say you're both pretty equally blamed this time!

Also, hey, making the impossible work is kind of our jobs as authors, isn't it? :D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on April 14, 2017, 09:37:28 AM
I know I've written some offbeat things in the past. But this one... just might lose me my Writer Card.

(Warning: both the song and the story contain brief, nongraphic mentions of rape, incest, and bestiality in a mythological context.)

Zeus vs. Thor (http://archiveofourown.org/works/9308429/chapters/23498094)


*throws Writer Card on the table and flees*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Gaemmel on April 14, 2017, 02:48:51 PM
Before I descend into the madness that will be my easter weekend...

I finally managed to continue this thing I started quite a while ago. I am not even more determined to finish it someday. http://archiveofourown.org/works/8326516/chapters/23504070 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/8326516/chapters/23504070)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Abprallen on April 14, 2017, 08:07:53 PM
Windfighter, that hurt so good <3 but poor Lalli! I wonder how long he'd skritch at the door for until he realised something was wrong?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on April 14, 2017, 09:54:34 PM
Windy, your writing gets better with every story! But maybe the links to these particular stories should go in the 'Mature' thread? A couple of the local teenagers who read everything in the Scriptorium are finding these particular tales a bit disturbing. I did suggest they not read any of your stuff in case they get one of the 'death' stories, but they enjoy your other stories. I know you warn for character death, but, you know, teenagers......
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Windfighter on April 15, 2017, 05:14:09 AM
*sigh* I wish people could tell me when they felt like that *shakes head* But I can't post them on the mature forum, I'm not there and I don't plan to move there (because sexy stuff. I don't deal well with that). I started the warnings for people like that blast it!

I'm sorry, whoever you are that gets disturbed by my writing. I will stop posting them here so you won't feel the need to read them <3
Future apologizes to those of you who wants me to post them, I guess I can't make everyone happy.


I'm also sorry that I've given you the impression that you can't tell me if I make you uneasy. I won't bite if you do. I will most likely even respect your wishes and stop making you uneasy.
I'm not actually an evil person (even though my actions towards Emil might speak differently), nothing bad will happen if you tell me to cool it and just post the fluffy stories.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on April 15, 2017, 05:27:02 AM
Windy, how about I just push harder on the local teens to read the tags better, or just avoid your stuff altogether? I don't mind it myself, but for some of the local kids I seem to have been elected 'in loco grandparentis', so thought I should mention it in case you were able to use the mature board. It is far from my wish to discourage a writer who is improving as fast as you are!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Windfighter on April 15, 2017, 06:01:45 AM
Nah, it's okay, I've deleted the "How do you want to die"-collection from the thread (as far as I could anyway) and I'll just avoid posting it and any other angst/tragedy/non-fluffy stories I write in here.

If there's any teen in here who's as desperate for angst and tragedy as I was when I was your age they'll still be posted on ff.net, they just won't be linked here. Deal? <3
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on April 15, 2017, 06:46:01 AM
Okay, finally finished that one-shot! Now I can let it rest a little and go back to writing and publishing my regular thing.

 Three for the price of one: Chapter 6 (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12418142/7/Three-for-the-price-of-one)
A little explanation on the surprise cast member, and a cat burial becoming a little more plot relevant than in canon. I remember almost making myself cry when I first came up with these, so possible tearjerker warning.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on April 15, 2017, 07:48:50 AM
Grade E Cat, that's a sad and clever twist to the chapter. I will be interested to see more of the story.

Windy, I'm sorry to put you to trouble. I don't think their parents will let them read something like ffnet, so that's okay. The kids in question are 14, 15 and sixteen. The reason I suggested the Mature board is that they couldn't access that, and while there is a section for sexy stuff, there are also separate sections for gore and for horror. You wouldn't need to read the erotica to use the board. In any case, it's not a problem for which I can offer them anything more than advice, since I'm no kin to them, just the only adult in their circle who won't laugh at them for being upset over something they read in the adjuncts to a webcomic.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on April 15, 2017, 05:44:03 PM
Nah, it's okay, I've deleted the "How do you want to die"-collection from the thread (as far as I could anyway) and I'll just avoid posting it and any other angst/tragedy/non-fluffy stories I write in here.

If there's any teen in here who's as desperate for angst and tragedy as I was when I was your age they'll still be posted on ff.net, they just won't be linked here. Deal? <3

I don't know if I like that solution, the self-censorship angle is not a road I'd really like to go down.  You do post warnings, and as someone who generally dislikes gore or violence, I then avoid those stories, or conversely go to them with an open mind (since sometimes realllly good stories come from that place).  But that is my choice.
}hugs{ to Windfighter
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on April 15, 2017, 10:17:57 PM
Not really a double post, just nobody's posted since my last post?  Anyway, my contribution for H in the alphabet challenge, "Hjälp Mig."  Yep, that one, the poor lady with the heart earrings on the train.  It's not a spoiler to say it doesn't have a happy ending.
http://archiveofourown.org/works/10638810
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on April 17, 2017, 08:02:45 PM
Aliax wrote yet another thing for the trans!Emil AU!

Stranger in a Strange Land (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6438292/chapters/23555529)

Previous stories in this continuity:

Step It Out Mary (http://archiveofourown.org/works/9308429/chapters/23070309) by Lazy8
Friends of a Friend (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6438292/chapters/23121879) by Aliax
Good Girls (http://archiveofourown.org/works/10515987) by Lazy8
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on April 19, 2017, 07:43:25 PM
Here I go again...

Alphabet Soup
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Series 1, Part 7
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Spoiler: A Good Night Out • show
Sigrun opened her eyes and immediately shut them again. A taste too foul to be put into words filled her mouth, she was sore all over, and several little men had gotten trapped inside her skull and were trying to dig their way out with pickaxes.

All in all, Sigrun figured the night must have been a success: she was in just enough pain to have had a rollicking good time, but not so much that she’d been wounded or anything. Once the men with the pickaxes finally made their escape, she’d be able to cut through the fog in her memory to confirm it.

Of course, that meant actually getting up, which was going to take some doing.

Step One: re-open the eyes. Sigrun squinted against the pain the light brought but kept her eyes cracked open.

The world slowly and blearily came into focus, and Sigrun wished it hadn’t. Staring back at her were three little gremlins with identical puzzled expressions, one of whom looked astonishingly like a scaled-down Emil.

They were still well over a meter away from her, and Sigrun could tell they hadn’t yet nerved themselves up to come closer, so she knew they hadn’t made any mischief yet.

That didn’t mean she couldn’t give them a little scare, just to remind them of what precisely they were risking.

“I seem to remember,” Sigrun stated calmly, “your mother telling you three that you shouldn’t walk into other people’s rooms while they’re asleep, and that Uncle Trond added that in Dalsnes such an invasion usually left the invader dead.”

As soon as the last syllable left her mouth, Sigrun leapt into action, and quite literally: in one swift bound, she jumped from the bed, flipped over the trio’s heads and flattened herself against the door, facing her stunned audience.

“I’m a Troll Hunter, kids; if I couldn’t fight my way out of situations worse than anything you three could come up with, and feeling worse than I am now to boot, I’d be dead long since.”

Sigrun opened the door and stood aside. “Now get out.”

The three little Västerströms almost bounced off of Mikkel as he made to enter.

“What’s the damage, Mikkel?”

“Actually, we’re ahead by about five thousand kronor; you have a standing invitation to fight at the bar; and I have a position there as a bouncer, if I like.”

The memories were starting to bubble to the surface now. “Oh, yeah.” Sigrun grinned. “I didn’t think I’d find a place like that in this snotty Swede city.”

“I believe those are the exact words that got that first fight started last night,” Mikkel mused. “Emil was mortified, you know, as he couldn’t choose whether to stand up for you or for the honor of Mora (and that of Sweden, by extension).”

“I’d’a flattened him, too,” Sigrun remarked.

“And well he knows it, but that wasn’t at all what held him back. If you’ll recall, he was the one to take down the behemoth with all those tattoos, though it took him a few tries.” Mikkel paused. “Or were you too preoccupied with that third skirmish to notice?”

“Oh, I saw Sparkles take him down; I just thought Twigs or Short Stuff had softened him up a little first.”

They were too busy protecting the bar from all the debris flying its way.”

Sigrun grinned again. “The wise one never gets between a Finn and their booze.”

“Indeed.” Mikkel stepped out of the doorway. “I have something made up in the kitchen to help with your head, if you’d like.”

Sigrun nodded. Though the adrenalin rush of confronting the trio had slowed them down for a bit, now the little men were at it again at full bore. As they walked to the kitchen and the promised relief, Sigrun asked, “Did Emil manage to go the whole night without lighting something up?”

“He and Lalli made a little blaze outside using the behemoth’s prize jacket; the owner of the bar was fine with it as long as they kept it out of the bar and under control.”

“All in all, I’d say we found ourselves a place to go in Mora if we want a good night out. What was it called, anyway?”

Mikkel was smirking. “A Good Night Out, naturally.”


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
Yep; it’s another Sig&Mik morning after bit.

But I figured I could get away with it.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on April 19, 2017, 07:54:15 PM
Yeeeeeees, yes to all the Sigrun goes drinking stories. The best parts are where you don't fill in all the details, but drop just enough hints for us to get an idea of just how wild the crew's night got.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on April 19, 2017, 08:21:57 PM
All the fantastic fics recently! I've been remiss!

LooNEY, Lazy8 (and Lazy vice Aliax), Wavewright, Windy, you all make my heart glad, including the heartbreaking stories - plus everyone else who has been writing and posting since... whenever it was!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on April 19, 2017, 09:41:03 PM
Here I go again...

Alphabet Soup
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Series 1, Part 7
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Spoiler: A Good Night Out • show
Sigrun opened her eyes and immediately shut them again. A taste too foul to be put into words filled her mouth, she was sore all over, and several little men had gotten trapped inside her skull and were trying to dig their way out with pickaxes.

All in all, Sigrun figured the night must have been a success: she was in just enough pain to have had a rollicking good time, but not so much that she’d been wounded or anything. Once the men with the pickaxes finally made their escape, she’d be able to cut through the fog in her memory to confirm it.

Of course, that meant actually getting up, which was going to take some doing.

Step One: re-open the eyes. Sigrun squinted against the pain the light brought but kept her eyes cracked open.

The world slowly and blearily came into focus, and Sigrun wished it hadn’t. Staring back at her were three little gremlins with identical puzzled expressions, one of whom looked astonishingly like a scaled-down Emil.

They were still well over a meter away from her, and Sigrun could tell they hadn’t yet nerved themselves up to come closer, so she knew they hadn’t made any mischief yet.

That didn’t mean she couldn’t give them a little scare, just to remind them of what precisely they were risking.

“I seem to remember,” Sigrun stated calmly, “your mother telling you three that you shouldn’t walk into other people’s rooms while they’re asleep, and that Uncle Trond added that in Dalsnes such an invasion usually left the invader dead.”

As soon as the last syllable left her mouth, Sigrun leapt into action, and quite literally: in one swift bound, she jumped from the bed, flipped over the trio’s heads and flattened herself against the door, facing her stunned audience.

“I’m a Troll Hunter, kids; if I couldn’t fight my way out of situations worse than anything you three could come up with, and feeling worse than I am now to boot, I’d be dead long since.”

Sigrun opened the door and stood aside. “Now get out.”

The three little Västerströms almost bounced off of Mikkel as he made to enter.

“What’s the damage, Mikkel?”

“Actually, we’re ahead by about five thousand kronor; you have a standing invitation to fight at the bar; and I have a position there as a bouncer, if I like.”

The memories were starting to bubble to the surface now. “Oh, yeah.” Sigrun grinned. “I didn’t think I’d find a place like that in this snotty Swede city.”

“I believe those are the exact words that got that first fight started last night,” Mikkel mused. “Emil was mortified, you know, as he couldn’t choose whether to stand up for you or for the honor of Mora (and that of Sweden, by extension).”

“I’d’a flattened him, too,” Sigrun remarked.

“And well he knows it, but that wasn’t at all what held him back. If you’ll recall, he was the one to take down the behemoth with all those tattoos, though it took him a few tries.” Mikkel paused. “Or were you too preoccupied with that third skirmish to notice?”

“Oh, I saw Sparkles take him down; I just thought Twigs or Short Stuff had softened him up a little first.”

They were too busy protecting the bar from all the debris flying its way.”

Sigrun grinned again. “The wise one never gets between a Finn and their booze.”

“Indeed.” Mikkel stepped out of the doorway. “I have something made up in the kitchen to help with your head, if you’d like.”

Sigrun nodded. Though the adrenalin rush of confronting the trio had slowed them down for a bit, now the little men were at it again at full bore. As they walked to the kitchen and the promised relief, Sigrun asked, “Did Emil manage to go the whole night without lighting something up?”

“He and Lalli made a little blaze outside using the behemoth’s prize jacket; the owner of the bar was fine with it as long as they kept it out of the bar and under control.”

“All in all, I’d say we found ourselves a place to go in Mora if we want a good night out. What was it called, anyway?”

Mikkel was smirking. “A Good Night Out, naturally.”


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
Yep; it’s another Sig&Mik morning after bit.

But I figured I could get away with it.


*snerk* So many Good lines, dropped so casual-like. 
<blue-sky speculation>I wonder what tattoo motifs are popular in Y90?</blue-sky speculation>
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: JoB on April 20, 2017, 05:22:21 PM
<blue-sky speculation>I wonder what tattoo motifs are popular in Y90?</blue-sky speculation>
I'ld bet that they dropped red ink entirely ...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on April 20, 2017, 11:27:04 PM
Right-o, next chapter in the Reynir superhero saga has landed - "Flames."  Tuuri & co get a briefing on their way to the rescue, and Emil has fun torching the village, so much fun that the inhabitants come out too.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/6610714/chapters/23665287 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6610714/chapters/23665287)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on April 21, 2017, 09:28:13 AM
...so who here is ready to get their heart ripped out again? Because I'm starting the second part of the challenge, and it's starting as a continuation of this (http://archiveofourown.org/works/4099111) and this (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg41225#msg41225).

An Act of Kindness (http://archiveofourown.org/works/10689663/chapters/23672670)

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on April 21, 2017, 11:25:29 AM
Well, hopefully I'm not stepping on wavewright62's toes here.

And Yuuago should not read this, because fire.

Alphabet Soup
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Series 2, Part 7
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Spoiler: Great Geats! • show
The warehouse was an inferno, utterly engulfed in flames. All around it, people were fleeing from the terrible heat, some assisted by the overwhelmed firefighters battling the blaze. Most of their efforts were concentrated on preventing the fire from spreading; the warehouse itself was deemed a lost cause.

Over the roar of the flames came the sound of maniacal laughter. “COWER, YOU FOOLS, FOR THIS IS ONLY THE BEGINNING! SOON, YOUR ENTIRE CITY WILL GO UP IN FLAMES, COURTESY OF... OLSEN THE INCENDIARY!” Then, in an aside, the voice muttered, “Hmmmm. Probably ‘your city will burn to cinders courtesy of Olsen the Incendiary’ would have been better there. Oh, well.”

Into the conflagration ran THE NORSE AVENGERS, Captain Sparkle in the lead and his faithful team-mates close behind!

The heat was intense, but not enough to overcome the Scarlet-Braided Wizard’s protection on them, so they set to work, using the cold guns War Mechanic had made for them to douse the raging flames!

“WHAT’S THIS? DO YOU DARE TO CHALLENGE OLSEN THE INCENDIARY? THEN YOU SHALL FIND THE DOOM YOU HAVE CHOSEN! FIRELINGS, ATTACK!”

A mass of tiny flames danced into view, re-starting the fires everywhere they went. It only took a moment for Lall-Eye to nock another Tuuri Special to his bow and let it fly into their midst.

While the cold burst extinguished many of the attackers, the rest scattered, and there were enough of them left to give THE NORSE AVENGERS a very hard time of it. While the Incredible Bulk could mash any number of them beneath his mass, they kept dancing out of the way as he tried, the other AVENGERS herding them back into his kill zone while dealing with the renewed blazes these ‘Firelings’ left in their wake.

Eventually, though, the little sparks had all been dealt with, and THE NORSE AVENGERS were on the move again, extinguishing the parts of the warehouse that still burned within a few moments and barreling down into the basement lair of OLSEN THE INCENDIARY!

“FOOLS! DO YOU THINK THOSE WERE MY ONLY DEFENSE AGAINST SUCH AS YOU? I HAVE MANY MORE TRICKS UP MY SLEEVES, SUCH AS THIS ONE!”

Immediately, a strange blue mist surrounded THE NORSE AVENGERS, blurring out the world around them! With the mist came a horrid vertigo: it most keenly affected Lall-Eye, who fell to his knees with his hands over his mouth; but none of the others were unaffected by it.

When the weird misty effect finally cleared and Lall-Eye had struggled to his feet, THE NORSE AVENGERS found themselves staring at... themselves, but not themselves.

The six people staring back at them were wearing some kind of uniform, with the exception of Reynir, who was wearing Icelandic civilian garb; but all their clothes had seen better days, the clumsy repairs evident in the bright light of the room they were in.

Captain Sparkle was the first to realize what had happened. “So,” he said calmly, “we’ve been shifted into another reality, have we?”

The other Sigrun nodded and opened her mouth to speak...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
Dare I say it...

“Bulk Mash!”

Oh, and it’s a crossover of crossovers, because they just fell into the Abzar Sector--and thus, the Paratime crossover.

This means, of course, that more will be recounted of this.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on April 21, 2017, 02:25:00 PM
Paratime! Yay! Good one, LooNEY.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on April 21, 2017, 03:46:02 PM
Anyone ordered an extra entry in Lazy8's Transman!Emil medieval fantasy AU? No one? Well, I prepared one anyway, so here you go.

Time to adjust (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12457648/1/Time-to-adjust)

I made Emil's situation evolve quite a lot compared to previous entries, so to compensate I'm having it happen a few years after the existing ones. And I'm bringing back someone from the original one-shot!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on April 21, 2017, 08:00:11 PM
The LooNEYness continues...

Alphabet Soup
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Series 3, Part 7
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Spoiler: The Ghosts and Mister Reynir • show
Once there was a village in the middle of the big, dark, scary forest. Mostly the villagers stayed at home, because the big, dark, scary forest was full of wolves and bears and Bear Warriors. You would be safe if you kept to the path that went through the big, dark, scary forest, though; still, most of the villagers stayed at home.

Of course, it was difficult to stay at home when your home was haunted, as Reynir Árnason found out. He had come into the village one day seeking his fortune, and had promptly stumbled into one: there was a house in the village that had stood empty, as everybody knew it was haunted, even though the last owner’s will granted the house and everything in it to the first person who could spend an entire night there and live.

Reynir had promptly declared that he would stay the night in the empty house, and live in it thereafter, and he had done so, despite the ghosts that cohabited there.

The first ghost to show itself had been that of an old pastor’s wife who had fallen to The Plague long ago; Reynir thought her very nice, and was sad to see her fade after they had had a few nice chats.

The second ghost was not so nice--at least at first. It showed up first as an owl that liked to perch on the living room mantelpiece and stare at Reynir judgmentally. Eventually, it showed itself as a large, brooding man with grey-blond hair and light eyes who still stared at Reynir judgmentally.

After what seemed like a very long time indeed, Reynir managed to start a conversation with this ghost, whose name was “Onni”. “Onni” didn’t like talking much, but Reynir was very good at talking to anyone who would listen, so they talked.

It was during one of their later conversations that the third ghost showed up. This ghost called itself “Tuuri”, and was much more personable than “Onni”, who claimed that he and “Tuuri” were brother and sister. They looked enough alike for it to be so, so Reynir shrugged and kept talking to them whenever they were around.

Reynir liked talking to “Tuuri”, and it seemed like she enjoyed talking to him; if the disapproving looks “Onni” kept giving them were any guide, “Onni” thought “Tuuri” enjoyed them all too much.

One day, though, Reynir asked about the last person who had owned the house, and what had happened to him.

“Oh, him,” “Tuuri” said dismissively. “He was a really shouty guy named Olsen, and he didn’t like ghosts at all.”

“Onni” stated calmly, “He tried to exorcise the lot of us at every turn--and he succeeded with some of us; that’s why I kept Tuuri away until I knew you wouldn’t try to hurt her.”

“To be fair,” “Tuuri” continued, “some of the others didn’t take the exorcisms very well--they tried to kill him, even.” She shuddered. “Fortunately, they didn’t succeed, or we might have had to put up with him being one of us!”

“Perish the thought,” “Onni” muttered. Then he told Reynir, “Actually, being killed ‘by a ghost’”--he put mocking air quotes around the phrase-- “won’t make you become a ghost yourself; it’s a common myth among us, no matter how often it’s disproved.”

“Tuuri” looked disconsolate all of a sudden, but Reynir was able to perk her back up without much trouble.

All in all, Reynir reflected after he went to bed, it was an odd but not bad life. And who knew what interesting conversations the next day would bring...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
I lik the crack
That I hav writ
Tho it be wyrd
I doo lik it
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Anna on April 21, 2017, 08:43:33 PM
I lik the crack
That I hav writ
Tho it be wyrd
I doo lik it
*liks the crack too*
Hmm... Bear Warriors in the woods... is this in any way connected to the Goldilocks Emil story and prequel(s)?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on April 21, 2017, 08:45:17 PM
*liks the crack too*
Hmm... Bear Warriors in the woods... is this in any way connected to the Goldilocks Emil story and prequel(s)?
Yep.

...They might just get together someday.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Anna on April 21, 2017, 10:02:15 PM
Yep.

...They might just get together someday.
Yessssss!  ;D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on April 22, 2017, 09:40:54 AM
More mech stuff, blah.

A Bit of an Awkward Situation (http://archiveofourown.org/works/10689663/chapters/23695779)

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on April 22, 2017, 10:59:18 AM
Alphabet Soup
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Series 1, Part 8
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Spoiler: A Helping Hand • show
Sigrun stormed back into the vehicle, practically breathing fire in her monumental upset over her vacation being wrecked by a lack of food and getting saddled with some stupid civilian too idiotic to even stow himself away properly!

Her mood had not been improved by having to wait until Tuuri came back to operate the radio so that Sigrun could vent her spleen; in fact, it got bad enough that Sigrun went right back outside where there were things she could destroy without hindering their mission.

Now back inside the vehicle, Sigrun came to a sudden and surprised halt. “Where did Tuuri go?” she asked in bewilderment.

“Who’s this ‘Tuuri’ you guys keep talking about?” Reynir asked after Mikkel quietly translated for him.

As soon as the question left Reynir’s lips, the heavens outright roared in response. An instant later, a huge and radiant form appeared in the confines of the team’s suddenly somewhat cramped vehicle, even though this form was far too large to have fit. The form was like that of a huge man, though Reynir and Sigrun both knew at once that this was one of the Old Gods deigning to show himself to them.

Mikkel and Emil were stunned into silence at this positive refutation of their worldview, while Lalli eyed this weird foreign god with the same wariness that marked how he’d been watching Reynir.

Sigrun recognized the visiting deity first. “Loki,” she breathed in a dissonant combination of awe and dismay, and Reynir’s eyes grew wide at the name.

“I am indeed he,” the apparition intoned weightily, and all who heard him understood his speech, regardless of their native tongue. Then he looked at Reynir, grinned fondly, and waved. “Hey, Reynir!”

Far worthier mortals have been rendered speechless by less, so Reynir’s silence surprised no one, least of all the putative trickster god. He was not at all abashed by Reynir’s flummoxed inability to respond, but when he looked at the others, his face was grave again.

“I have made myself known before you that the questions you have, or shall soon have, may be answered.” The vision made a beckoning gesture at something that yet remained unseen, and a moment later, a similarly glowing juvenile fox-spirit bounded into view. “Explain yourself, Puppy-Fox.”

The new vision turned up its nose in disdain. “Why should I be bothered with explanations for these mortals who are all out of my purview?”

“They are all Lalli’s friends and colleagues, and helping them will help him,” the first replied. Then he smiled again, but a knowing, almost conspiratorial smile this time, and added, “Besides, aren’t you just bursting to let your cleverness be known and admired, even if only among these mortals?”

The fox-spirit grinned back. “You know me so well,” it almost purred. “So, where should I begin?”

“Begin with Ensi, naturally.”

The fox-spirit looked at the people silently watching it and said, “Ensi Hotakainen, grandmother to Onni, Tuuri and Lalli Hotakainen, was the first of the full-fledged mages to arise out of the forests and lakes of my Finland after what you call Year Zero; she was also my very first real mortal friend I had ever had. Therefore, I showed her and hers the full benefit of my favor, teaching her all she could learn of the magic humans had been granted. I watched her grow and blossom into the full flower of her fleeting life, but even I could not prevent that which had to be.

“Eleven years ago now, as mortals mark the flow of Time, Ensi and her progeny all died--with the exception of Lalli, her youngest grandchild and the one most like unto her in every possible way.”

The fox-spirit let that sink in for a moment before continuing, “Lalli was but eight years old, and he needed his cousins in order to survive the long journey to Keuruu and safety, so he re-created them, Onni and Tuuri both, in his mind.

“I helped him to re-create them in everyone else’s minds when he reached Keuruu.”

The fox-spirit looked directly at Sigrun and told her, “Tuuri Hotakainen has not existed in the flesh for over a decade; you have never truly seen her, and all of the things you thought she did, one or another of the rest of you actually did.”

Then the fox-spirit turned to address Lalli directly. “Lalli, I’m sorry that I could only bring you and you alone through the ordeal of Saimaa, and I have tried to aid you as best I can since then.”

Finally, the fox-spirit turned to its fellow apparition. “Okey-doke; happy now?”

“I won’t be happy until I see Thor’s face after I short-sheet him tonight,” Loki replied, “but I am satisfied.”

Then he turned to Reynir. “You can’t see ‘Tuuri’ because--SPOILER!--you’re a mage, favored by the Æsir! (And the Vanir),” he mumbled as an aside. “Now, if you really, really want to, and if you squint, you can see and hear her, but she’ll always be a phantom to you, while she’s indistinguishable from reality to the others.”

“Because I did my work well,” Puppy-Fox injected.

“But of course,” Loki said soothingly, “as I’m sure the mortals would agree.” He paused, discreetly signaling their audience to nod. “Anyway,” he continued, “Lalli believes, even now, that Tuuri and Onni are truly still alive, and talking him out of it won’t be easy in any way. If he gets too stressed out, though, or exerts himself too much, he won’t have enough power to keep ‘Tuuri’ around--and may go into a coma as well, so be ready for that. In any case, he and ‘Tuuri’ will act like this conversation never took place unless you force the issue, so be ready for that as well.

“That’s all the advice I can give you, by The Rules. See y’all later!”

As he turned and faded away, Puppy-Fox bounded after him, saying, “Hey, did you need any help short-sheeting Thor?”


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
...And here at last is my version of the “Tuuri and Onni are illusions made by Lalli” story; the other version, by Grade E Cat, may be found here (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12418142/1/Three-for-the-price-of-one).

For all intents and purposes, though, this is only an AU from chapter 6 on.

There’s more to come (if only because I ran out of room here), but not particularly soon.

You have been warned.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on April 22, 2017, 01:33:31 PM
I love seeing these different takes on the same AU idea. There are a few such combined-effort AUs going now, much to my enjoyment.

LooNEY, you have a gift for conveying varying moods, as well as combining different moods in the same story. Not everyone can inject humour into a serious tale, and make the combination work, the way you do.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on April 22, 2017, 10:48:06 PM
Ooh, always fun to see different authors' takes on the same idea.

And Loki short-sheeting Thor made me giggle helplessly. Loki and Thor's interactions were always the best part of Norse mythology, imo.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on April 22, 2017, 11:27:00 PM
Keyboard gremlins strike again!

Alphabet Soup
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Series 2, Part 8
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Spoiler: Have Pukko, Will Travel • show
Being a knife-fighter in a world of gunslingers was a risky prospect at the best of times, but it never gave Lalli pause. His grandma would have called it his “sisu”; Lalli called it his indifference. As his grandma had demonstrated, everyone died; as Lalli would be no exception to this, all he figured he could ask was that he die while doing something worthy. The jobs he chose reflected that.

Sometimes, of course, the clients were lying to him about the virtue of their cause; after what had happened to the first such liars, however, fewer and fewer tried to deceive him.

Of course, sometimes the jobs chose him.

*

“LAAAAAAAALLLLLIIIIIIIIII!” The high-pitched squeal was a familiar one, though Lalli hadn’t heard it for quite some time, so he knew to brace himself against the body-slam Tuuri called a hug. Even so, the impact staggered him for a moment.

A tap on their shoulders reminded the cousins that another was present. “Oh, Lalli,” Tuuri said, beaming, “this is my husband, Reynir.”

Lalli wasn’t terribly impressed by the open face, the wide but forthright gaze, and the stupidly long braid, but he took the proffered hand and gave it a quick but firm shake.

“So what’s the brouhaha over?” Lalli asked Tuuri as they walked over to Reynir’s wagon.

“Some of the locals are using my heritage--” Tuuri spat the word derisively “--as an excuse to try to run us off of our farm, though they’ve been hiding behind masks, the cowards. We were handling it pretty well, until they brought in some out-of-town talent.”

“So who do I need to kill?” Lalli asked in resignation.

“No one, I hope,” Reynir said. “I just want to show these guys that we can stand up to whatever they dish out.”

Lalli was hard-pressed to keep his mouth shut at the man’s incredible naiveté, but he did; sometimes, his taciturn turn was useful that way. Trust Tuuri to find such an innocent out here in the middle of nowhere.

The rest of the ride to the farm was silent, but not uncomfortably so. Tuuri hummed happily to herself, but was content with that, while Reynir smilingly watched her with one eye and the road with the other.

Lalli studied the farm’s layout with a practiced eye, noting quite a few things that said more than Tuuri had mentioned. Around the main house was an obviously freshly erected palisade provided with a number of conveniently placed loopholes for its defense. The main house had its own water supply, and its thick shutters provided another line of defense, if need be. Lalli was willing to bet that their larders were well-stocked, as well.

All in all, this was a place expecting a siege.

The siege began at sundown.

*

Lalli was manning his part of the palisade with bow and arrow; he felt it most apropos, considering the attackers’ supposed motivation. He was also better with bow and arrow than with any sort of gun, and less vulnerable to boot.

A grenade plopped down next to Lalli. Without a second’s hesitation, he picked it up, hurled it back over the palisade, and ducked. Once the ringing in his ears from the explosion had subsided, Lalli acted on what he’d seen, since the grenade was an all too familiar one. “EMIL!” he yelled over the palisade. “Emil Västerström! What on earth are you doing over there?”

A familiar voice came back. “Lalli?”


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
So I’ve joined the “write a sequel to a Lazy8 story” train, as this can be considered a sequel to this (http://archiveofourown.org/works/9308429/chapters/21142538).

And I won’t leave it there, either.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on April 23, 2017, 12:04:47 AM
*is getting rather bemused by the length this train is reaching*

Also, I did write another short in this continuity. (http://archiveofourown.org/works/9308429/chapters/23001240) Not that it matters in this case, as your sequel still fits, there aren't any contradictions...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on April 23, 2017, 10:12:41 AM
Yesterday, my brain refused to leave me alone until I wrote this down. Inspired by Reynir's recent comments about how he should have stayed home.

For want of a sheepherder (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12460116/1/For-want-of-a-sheepherder)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on April 23, 2017, 07:23:54 PM
Ooh, always fun to see different authors' takes on the same idea.

And Loki short-sheeting Thor made me giggle helplessly. Loki and Thor's interactions were always the best part of Norse mythology, imo.

I couldn't have said it better myself.

LooNEY_DAC, I'm puzzled as to why you thought you might be stepping on my toes at all, your superhero story is good fun, and mine is ...long-winded and not adhering to the fun tropes. 
aaand winding up kinda sorta soon I promise
Also, yer crack iz most best crack.

I haven't cleared my reading backlog yet, so I haven't gone through Lazy8's or Grade E Cat's recent ones quite yet, or LooNEY's ones past der crack.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Minutia_R on April 24, 2017, 12:39:40 AM
Since apparently I'm posting on the forum again occasionally, I figured I might as well leave this here for those of you who haven't already seen it.  I wrote it in response to a synchronized screaming prompt, Mikkel - late night call-in radio show:

http://archiveofourown.org/works/10710114
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on April 24, 2017, 09:16:36 AM
Here, have an AU of and AU and a twofer song.

(Original AU here. (http://archiveofourown.org/works/9308429/chapters/23070309))

A Comet Appears (http://archiveofourown.org/works/10689663/chapters/23747562)


Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on April 26, 2017, 04:41:36 PM
Posting a Chapter titled "Nap" right before going to bed...

Three for the price of one: Chapter 7 (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12418142/8/Three-for-the-price-of-one)
After re-tooling the cat burial, doing the same for the Keuruu flashback.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on April 30, 2017, 04:51:17 AM
Alphabet Soup
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Series 3, Part 8
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Spoiler: The Height of Folly • show
Sigrun Eide dangled perilously from the rigging holding the car to its parent balloon, her knife working at the ropes desperately. The whole balloon would plunge into the sea if she failed to cut the car free, for it was all they had left to jettison. Though Sigrun could feel herself slipping, she kept sawing at the rope. The car was almost free...

*

The six of them had spent over a month underground, chasing after whoever it was who had abducted them through the depths of that volcanic crater. Fortunately, the stores they had found aboveground had held out the whole time, though Sigrun (and probably the others, too, but she was the most vocal about it) would be happy never to see another dehydrated noodle pack again.

Lalli had proved himself a great tracker, constantly keeping them on the right trail in the labyrinthine caverns they’d had to traverse. He was also picking up quite a bit of Swedish.

Emil had proved himself a True Cleanser a number of times by killing the various cave creatures Sigrun hadn’t gotten to first with excessive and untoward amounts of fire and explosives, blocking off the rearward path more than once and forcing the little band onward. He had also proved himself better at handling Lalli than even Tuuri, though they had started out not sharing a language.

Reynir was not terribly useful most of the time, but had begun to have prophetic dreams that had saved them on more than one occasion, and was not too terrible at making ward-runes, so Sigrun was inclined to tolerate him.

Tuuri was useful in translating for her cousin and teaching him Swedish, but was even better at managing Reynir so that he didn’t infuriate Sigrun as much or as often as he had at first.

Mikkel was their indispensable pack mule, muscle man, and cook, though they all wanted to dispense with the last part.

Sigrun herself had saved each of the others innumerable times, both through her battling skills and through her leadership, and each had had the opportunity to return the favor.

So had the six of them thrived through their subterranean trek, where others might have given in to despair at the first (or second, or third...) setback. They had clung to the winding trail before them with Sigrun’s ferocity and Lalli’s stubbornness, and those qualities and others had seen them through.

Once they had emerged into the sunny slopes of a crater far indeed from the one they’d entered, they’d spotted, of all things, a balloon floating off into the distance, and another all too conveniently tethered nearby. At that point, even Reynir was nearly frothing at the mouth to go after those responsible for their abduction and sunless sojourn, so they had piled into the second balloon and cut loose in pursuit.

That a mighty storm should immediately arise and catch them in its toils should not have surprised them (especially Mikkel), but it did. For more than a week, their fragile craft was hurled through the air pell-mell, despite their efforts to escape the driving winds, and now they faced disaster: a rent had formed in the envelope, growing larger by the minute and threatening to send them into the turbulent seas below.

*

Sigrun dangled perilously from the rigging holding the car to its parent balloon, her knife working at the ropes desperately. The whole balloon would plunge into the sea if she failed to cut the car free, for it was all they had left to jettison. Though Sigrun could feel herself slipping, she kept sawing at the rope. The car was almost free...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
...And here’s more Jules Verne for you: out from Journey to the Center of the Earth and into The Mysterious Island.

I know: it took me long enough.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on April 30, 2017, 05:04:47 AM
Yay, The Mysterious Island! One of my favorites! I spotted it right away *sprains shoulder patting self on back*

I appreciate that you spend the time and inspiration on these, LooNEY!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on April 30, 2017, 04:35:17 PM
Alphabet Soup
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Series 1, Part 9
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Spoiler: An Interested Party • show
Øresund Base
Late Fall, 225

The two redheads looked at the rebuilt bridge rather skeptically, but kept silent as they walked back to the Sveavägen terminus where the others were to meet them. Both were around the same height, though that and their hair color were their only similarities. One was a Norwegian Hunter with a neatly trimmed beard; the other was an Icelandic seiðkona with a pair of remarkably long but rather untidy braids.

They found the Dane and the Fenno-Swede among the crowd waiting for the train, the massive Dane girl who was to be their cook and healer dwarfing the Fenno-Swede mage who would double as their skald; said Fenno-Swede was practically vibrating in his eagerness to be off on their mission. None of the four spoke, even then, preferring to await their other two crew-mates and the organizer in silence.

At last, the train arrived, one of the original Dalahästen models by the look of it, and after a brief wash-down, the passengers were allowed to exit.

A group of three rather short figures emerged from the mass of passengers exiting the terminal and walked up to the four. One, the eldest and the only male, bore a striking resemblance to the Fenno-Swede, who greeted him by calmly saying, “Cousin Torolf.”

The organizer replied, “Cousin Tuuli,” in an equally calm voice. Then he looked at the others. “Mia Södermann and Lalli Hollala, I present your cohorts, Sigurd Eide, Michaela Madsen, Reyndis Árnadóttir, and Tuuli Västerström.”

“We’re cousins, too, if I’m not mistaken,” Lalli told Tuuli in Finnish, who grinned and nodded.

“It’s nice to finally meet you, Lalli. You’ll be our scout?” Tuuli’s reply was in Swedish.

Lalli nodded, letting Mia jump in with, “And she and I are both Cleansers; I’m here because the two of us are a team--the Cleansers call it being ‘wingmen’, though I have no clue why.”

“And we’re all the more fortunate for it,” Torolf said with practiced charm, “because the two of you are known as the best Cleansers Karlstad has to offer.”

Mia looked at Torolf dubiously, while Lalli ignored him in favor of asking Tuuli a number of questions in Finnish.

“Well, now that we’re all here, let’s get you all kitted out and send you on your way!” Torolf enthused, ushering them back toward the bridge.

“Yeah, about that,” Sigurd said as they walked. “Torolf, are you sure that that mess out there will hold up under our vehicle?” He gestured at the rather dilapidated bridge as he spoke.

Torolf smiled a bit too easily at the question. “The Danes assure me that they’ve run several even weightier vehicles across the bridge with no signs of trouble.”

Somehow Sigurd remained less than assured, but he let the matter drop for the moment, as every hand was needed in loading the vehicle, which looked to be a virtual clone of the one from the last Silent World Expedition. Tuuli had assured the other early arrivals that this one was in much better shape, and fitted out with various improvements made with their journey in mind, and had followed this up by completely disassembling and reassembling the engine as a demonstration of his own prowess.

Reyndis was the only one of them not loading the vehicle, but that was because she was busily painting runes on just about every available spot on the vehicle, including the underside, so no one objected.

Once the loading was done, Sigurd turned to Torolf and asked quietly, so that they wouldn’t be overheard, “So, as I understand it, we’re recreating the first Silent World Expedition at the behest of ‘an interested party’, with the consent of the Nordic Council.” Torolf nodded. “Does this ‘interested party’ have a name?”

Torolf said softly, “Not one that I may divulge at present. Does that give you pause?”

Sigurd grimaced. “I’d rather know the devil who’s playing the tune I have to dance to.” But he said no more.

Finally, the vehicle was loaded with both cargo and passengers, so Tuuli started up the engine with a somewhat disgruntled sounding growl, and the Second Silent World Expedition was off...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
And this is a Next Gen sequel to “The Forest, the Flames, and the Old, Old Man”, “Correspondence”, “The Boy Who Would Be Emil”, and “Unexpected Reunion”, which will also be explored in greater depth later.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on April 30, 2017, 10:48:31 PM
And again...

Alphabet Soup
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Series 2, Part 9
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Spoiler: Into the Silent World • show
The great door shut and latched with a reassuringly solid Klong, the operator turning to give the conductor a thumbs-up.

There was a painful squeal of feedback when the conductor flipped the PA system on.

“Good evening, and welcome to the Sveavägen express train straight to the Öresundbron base.”

Sigrun Eide looked around at her fellow passengers on the Dalahästen, automatically assessing how they’d stack up in a fight, if need be. There weren’t very many tonight; only six, including herself.

“We should reach our destination in approximately 16 hours but you’ll surely be sleeping through most of it.”

Sigrun’s eyes lit first on Emil, standing with a couple of others his own age, and she bit back a smile. She’d grown oddly fond of him during her time with his Cleansing unit; enough so that she’d been sufficiently irked at their mishandling of him to request that he return with her to Dalsnes as part of the reciprocal aid between the two nations, and doubly irked at their barely restrained eagerness to be rid of him. He’d acquit himself creditably if they came to grief; she herself would make certain of it.

“By the time we reach the high danger areas of the far south the sun will already be rising and providing us with shelter.”

The two youths Emil was standing with were a pair of Finn cousins bound for Bornholm from the far-off outpost of Keu-something-or-other. The fuzzy-headed girl had chattered away at Sigrun about it earlier, but she had run on so fast that Sigrun had only caught maybe one word in three. Little Fuzzy-Head wasn’t immune though, which made her a liability if it came to a battle. Her cousin, the Living Twig, was both immune and combat experienced, since he was a night scout, but he only spoke Finnish, which would make communication hard.

“And we just received word about a sudden change in the weather! Looks as if the moon will share its light with us after all.”

The tall redheaded Icelander trying to shrink into a corner perked up at this. By the mask hanging around his neck, Sigrun presumed that he was another non-immune. He looked the panicky sort, too; if she had her way, he’d be kept as far away from any action as he could get.

“Which lowers tonight’s hazard prognosis to only 7 out of 10!”

Sigrun’s head snapped around to look at the conductor, who smiled calmly back at her. Only 7 out of 10? Only?

“It’ll be a bumpy ride, but not more so than usual. I hope you’ll all have good night’s sleep and a pleasant ride! Thank you.”

Sigrun looked over at the last passenger, a massive wall of Danish enigma who had muttered something non-committal in response to her greeting earlier. The risk assessment for their journey did not seem to have fazed him unduly, so maybe Sigrun herself was overreacting.

“Now kindly move to your designated sleeping areas.”

*

When the derailment came, Sigrun was awake and ready, thanks to Lalli and Emil. Tuuri and the Icelander had both been sleeping soundly, while the Dane had been reading with a small and discreet penlight.

“You!” Sigrun pointed at the Dane, then to the non-immunes. “Dane! Stay back here with the helpless babies!” Then she, Emil and Lalli were running into the foyer compartment, shutting the door behind them.

The battle was already well and truly under way: most of the train guards were already down, but some were still fighting against a swarm of vicious grosslings. Picking up discarded weapons, the Hunter, the Cleanser and the Scout threw themselves into the fray with such desperate ferocity that the grosslings were visibly taken aback.

The few minutes that were left until sunrise came always seemed like an equal number of years to Emil afterwards, but they survived.

*

None of the guards were well enough to travel, and staying with the train after nightfall was certain death, so Emil gave the conductor one of his grenades and showed her how to use it.

“What’s your name?” Sigrun asked her solemnly.

“Agneta.” The conductor’s voice was steady.

“I shall remember, Agneta.”

*

The six passengers and three cats were out of earshot of the train before Sigrun brought them to a halt.

“We’re in deep trouble, folks,” she told her impromptu crew. “If I’m right, we’re at least ten days’ walk from the Cleansed areas around Mora, and probably much further. Öresundbron is nearer, but to get there we’d need to go through the worst troll country in Sweden. Either way, we’re going to have to fight our way to safety. We’ll have to push ourselves not to our limits but past them from now until we see the walls of Mora if we want to survive, but I know we can do this. Now, let’s get moving again!”

The little band fled northward toward the only safety they had any prayer of reaching...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
And here’s another AU that doesn’t follow the comic storyline.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on April 30, 2017, 11:13:45 PM
A higher emphasis on action than in canon, LooNEY? I like those too!
*waits happily for more*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on May 01, 2017, 04:52:29 AM
...and that marks the last thing that's going into the Index for April 2017. As always, any corrections are welcome.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Dire on May 01, 2017, 12:51:51 PM
fell off the face of the planet for a while, but back with a new chapter to an old fic:

http://archiveofourown.org/works/5882653/chapters/23901885 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/5882653/chapters/23901885)

ETA - Just checked out the Index for the first time and it's freaking awesome. Thanks for maintaining that for everyone, Lazy8.

((depressing comment ahead))
I didn't get that specific with it in in the author comments but the long hiatus was actually a result of my mom dying last July, and just feeling too bummed out to do anything creative for a while. Getting back to posting again makes me legitimately very happy so it's super nice to be back.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on May 01, 2017, 09:01:08 PM
Dire, I'm glad to see you back here, and sorry for your grief, as I am sure will be many others here. Being creative is good for the soul, I think, and may help with rebuilding life. *offers hugs*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Abprallen on May 01, 2017, 10:12:25 PM
My deepest sympathies, Dire!


Aand a shameless plug because I just spent the last few hours of my life putting this together, damn it!
(Read authors note for reason why. Despite my pain I'm laughing pretty hard over it)
New digs chapter nine (http://archiveofourown.org/works/8941531/chapters/23939325)! Finally! It's here!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on May 02, 2017, 01:12:50 AM
Dire, so sorry for your loss. It's heartening to see you back. *hugs if you want them*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on May 04, 2017, 06:45:43 AM
Alphabet Soup
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Series 3, Part 9
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Spoiler: The Interesting Thing • show
“You know, your grandfather would be really annoyed to see you treating his things so casually.”

The boy had contorted himself into such a convoluted resting position in the high-backed chair near the fireplace that most people would have sworn that it would be impossible for him to leap anywhere, but they would be wrong, because he did. Fortunately, the explosive reaction to his uncle’s calm statement left the quite fragile volume he was reading undamaged.

Eventually, the boy righted himself, looking abashedly up at his uncle and asking, “Does that mean you’re going to tell him?”

The man adopted a determinedly serious and pensive mien, gazing somewhere off to the boy’s left. “Our family places great importance upon kindness. However, I cannot afford to be unthinkingly kind; I’m a general. If I do someone a supposed kindness, it may well cost them or someone else their life.” He shot the boy a Look. “In the same way, a seemingly kind permissiveness might lead to the loss of irreplaceable things--unless I can be assured that those things will be treated more respectfully in future.”

“Will you credit such assurance as I can give?” the boy asked in reply.

His uncle smiled. “Shall we put it to the test?”

*

“The interesting thing about a book is that whatever tale it has to tell has already happened--that is, the end is already written and set in stone. However, while it has already happened, the story is also simultaneously happening in your mind as you read it, like one of your father’s radio dramas.”

They were seated near the fire, though they left the Old Man’s seat empty out of unconscious habit.

“Books can take you anywhere you desire to go, which is fortunate for those with a yen to travel but not the means.” The man looked at his nephew. “Your grandfather has read, and still reads, many volumes on the settlement at Keuruu, for example.”

“He’ll never get to Finland; not at his age.” The boy’s tone was rather wistful, for he himself often wondered about that far-off land, and the people who had touched his grandfather so deeply that the Old Man was still moved by it.

The man looked at the boy solemnly. “So he knows, and it eats at him every now and again. As for me, I consider it a hidden blessing.”

“What?”

“Your father’s name is Ulf. That was also the name of your grandfather’s grandmother’s grandfather, who escaped the Outbreak with his son’s family. We have his photo, and we know that much about him, but almost nothing else. What did he do in the Old World? Where had he lived, visited and seen? Who were his friends? You see, the man that Ulf was has been swallowed by the years and is lost to time.

“Your grandfather will be known in Sweden for the Twin Triumphs of Kristinehamn-Karlstad, but what else of him will be known? He has written many letters to the Hotakainens; in these letters, he has revealed who he is in a way he might not to any other. If he actually went to Finland and the Hotakainens, would he keep writing? To whom? And would they be as candid as his letters to Lalli Hotakainen especially are?”

The boy cocked his head in puzzlement. “I... don’t think I get what you mean.”

“I mean that your grandfather, my father, is worth being remembered for who he was, in addition to what he’s done. What better way for those who will come after us to know him than through the letters he writes?”

“I never thought of it that way.”

“The good thing about youth is that you’ll have time to think of all these gloomy things. But tell me, what part of that venerable tome had you so fascinated earlier?”


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
Can you feel the meta?

Really, I just wanted to write a story where Aku isn’t a jerk.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on May 04, 2017, 09:40:30 AM
Okay, gonna try to wrap up the Paranormal Investigators AU...

An Epic Age (http://archiveofourown.org/works/10689663/chapters/24006843)

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on May 05, 2017, 11:11:39 PM
I bring another chapter in the superhero AU saga, chapter entitled "Lalli to the Rescue."  (Because he does so, twice.)
 Reynir is hopelessly lost in the dream realm but flees in a panic when Pastor A offers him some coffee and cake.  Onni gets to release his inner smooth-talking charmer...or not.  Several trolls were harmed in the writing of this chapter, but the gore is probably below trigger levels.
http://archiveofourown.org/works/6610714/chapters/24044619
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on May 06, 2017, 02:13:51 AM
Nice! I started reading it during my idea drought a couple weeks ago and I'm liking it despite not exactly being a superhero person. I have yet to catch up to the latest chapter, though.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on May 07, 2017, 06:48:26 AM
And now for something complet...um, a different challenge, my contribution for the Letter I in the Alphabet Soup, "Impossible."
http://archiveofourown.org/works/10844238

This features Stig Västerström tucking in little Mia for the night.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on May 07, 2017, 08:32:14 AM
Wavewright, that is starkly possible. Good story!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on May 07, 2017, 09:40:47 AM
Here, have a bit of a prequel.

A Forest (http://archiveofourown.org/works/10689663/chapters/24076164)


(And just a heads-up, my next thing in this challenge is also going to be of the "adult material" variety, so no G on the main forum.)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on May 07, 2017, 10:31:48 PM
Alphabet Soup
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Series 1, Part 10
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Spoiler: A Jaundiced Eye • show
There was a crooked man...

The Crooked Man lived on the edge of the big, dark, scary forest, and went into its gloomy depths whenever he felt like it, for he was old, so he wasn’t afraid. Bears and wolves and Bear Warriors lurked in the gloomy depths of the big, dark, scary forest, but the Crooked Man had once been a Bear Warrior himself, until he got so old and so crooked that he had to retire.

The Crooked Man was very unhappy about having to retire, but he stayed friends with some of the younger Bear Warriors, and sometimes, he would join them in the gloomy depths of the big, dark, scary forest for the Bear Warriors’ Picnic. Those were good times for all involved, as the Crooked Man’s crooked tales were always fun to hear.

Another friend of the Crooked Man’s was Captain Ása Hardardóttir. The Crooked Man had also known her father, Hörður the Hoarder, with whom the Crooked Man had got along very well. The three had had a number of adventures together many years before, which sometimes featured in the Crooked Man’s crooked tales.

The Crooked Man didn’t see Ása very often anymore, so he was surprised to come home from the latest Bear Warriors’ Picnic to find her waiting for him.

And he wove a crooked web...

The Crooked Man went into the big dark, scary forest again the next day, looking for the hidden abode of three Bear Warriors of great renown: Sigrun, the fiercest Bear Warrior ever ever ever; Mikkel, the general dogs-body of the trio; and Lalli, their Cub Scout and pet cat. He knew when he was getting close because all the wolf and bear tracks swerved aside.

When the Crooked Man came to their door at last, he found they had a guest: Emil “Goldilocks” Västerström, a well-mannered young man (when he remembered to be) who had impressed the three Bear Warriors with his good manners and become good friends with Lalli the Cub Scout.

At first, the Crooked Man was displeased, for he wanted to talk business with Sigrun especially, but after some reflection, he realized the boy’s being there was a stroke of fortune, since Mikkel knew a bit too much about the downsides of what the Crooked Man wanted them to do.

“Some young man with more hair than wit has taken up residence in the old Olsen place,” the Crooked Man told Sigrun.

Emil, well-mannered though he was, could not help gasping at this, though he clapped his hand over his mouth to muffle the noise. Even so, the Crooked Man heard, and turned to look at Emil where he sat beside Lalli.

Fortunately, Mikkel asked the question that had immediately come into Emil’s mind. “The haunted Olsen place? And the ghosts didn’t drive him off?”

“Apparently not, for he has lived there for three months now,” the Crooked Man replied. “Now, old Olsen left a few things behind that he had borrowed from others, and now that someone is living in his house, these things can be returned without undue trouble.”

“But we like undue trouble,” Sigrun protested.

“Well,” the Crooked Man said, “some of these things are quite valuable, and anyone who brought them back to their owners might fall afoul of the thieves and robbers we Bear Warriors are always fighting in the gloomy depths of the big, dark, scary forest.”

The thought of fighting off thieves and robbers perked Sigrun up considerably. “So, you want us to bring you the stuff?”

“As soon as you can arrange it, which is why I would like you to have young “Goldilocks” Västerström here be the one to talk with the new resident of the old place. Such a well-mannered young man should know just how to phrase such a request so that the new resident will yield up the items without pause.”

Emil swallowed hard at the smile on the Crooked Man’s face...


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
And here’s where the Cat (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg135595#msg135595), “Goldilocks” (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg92245#msg92245) and the Ghosts (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg137681#msg137681) start coming together.

/me laughs maniacally

ETA: ...and apparently the "me" command doesn't like being in the spoiler tag. *shrug*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on May 08, 2017, 02:51:10 AM
Huzzah for LooNEY Crookedness!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on May 10, 2017, 04:03:45 PM
Okay, I finally managed to finish one of the things I had hanging.

Three for the price of one: Chapter 9 (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12418142/9/Three-for-the-price-of-one)
And here comes the Chapter 10 conterpart to the AU! I just have to smile at the fact that I came up with that version of the escape from the ghosts because of the lack of canon information on a specific Icelandic magic element, and this week seems to be the one we are getting more information on the subject.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Ragnarok on May 10, 2017, 10:18:02 PM
Hey, another chapter of our crossover with the lovely world of Westeros is up and running!
http://archiveofourown.org/works/7707919/chapters/24154473 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7707919/chapters/24154473)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on May 12, 2017, 09:52:51 PM
I present my next Alphabet Soup entry, "Jigging".  It's not about dancing, it's about two people ice fishing on Lake Saimaa. 
http://archiveofourown.org/works/10891944
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on May 16, 2017, 05:45:30 AM
I'm back after that long and unexpected hiatus. Let's just say real life wanted to have a word with me, and it took its time talking.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/9787259/chapters/24287073 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/9787259/chapters/24287073)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on May 20, 2017, 07:06:47 PM
Something stirs after a long slumber, resurfacing to push the Scriptorium back into activity...

Contingencies
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/“Terminator” crossover fanfic
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Part 11
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg128764#msg128764)
Spoiler: More Than Meets the Ear • show
It didn’t take long for Sigrun to realize that they weren’t heading back to the campsite, and she wasted no time in making her objections to essentially abandoning half of her crew thoroughly clear through the judicious use of invective emphasis, ending by waving her weapon—her weapon, rather than the little toy he’d given her—in the stranger’s general direction.

The stranger stopped and told her, “We can’t go back; you know why yourself: ambush by grossling and by Terminator. We need to find a way to get your team together in a safe place, and then we need to get to Naerum. There’s something there that can stop this war before it properly begins.”

Before Sigrun could demand that the completely mad stranger explain himself or they wouldn’t take even one more step, Lalli blurted something out in that weird garble of vowels the Finns called a language, at which point the stranger turned and stared at the twig-like scout in an expression Sigrun had seen Emil wear whenever a mage knocked his “godless Swede” worldview off kilter.

“It’s true,” the stranger breathed. Then he shook himself and told Sigrun, “Lalli says Reynir told him the others are headed to the bug-out point. Dare I hope that that’s somewhere to our north?”

*

The message had been sitting in the input buffer for some time now, a minor disturbance on the fringes of Skynet’s awareness as it dealt with matters of far greater immediacy. Eventually, though, there was time enough for Skynet to allot a portion of its multitasking process to analyzing the message.

A human would have called the sudden flurry of activity that followed panic, but Skynet had no such counterproductive glandular-based responses clogging its systems and tainting its reason. No, this was not “panic” but a rational urgency in response to the gravest threat to the Plan yet.

There could be only one reason for a single temporal incursion so soon after the Incident: the humans had seized or re-created one of Skynet’s temporal facilities and sent a sortie to assist the intruders. That there had not been a second temporal incursion told Skynet that the Skynet of that point was unable to accomplish such an incursion.

]Initiate Boskone Protocol
]Initiate Plan Chimera
]Initiate Plan Matryoshka

The Tactical Module reviewed the three operations just invoked in light of Skynet’s still diminished global functionality. Each had a 75% probability of success if undertaken immediately and utilizing all of Skynet’s available resources; concurrent running and continuing the operations against the humans and the rebels reduced the probability of success to barely 51% for Boskone, 62% for Chimera and 53% for Matryoshka.

Skynet considered the analysis for quite a few cycles. There was no flaw in the analysis; the flaw was in the data the Tactical Module had been given.

]Bring the Augments on-line

Various portions of Skynet’s core strongly disagreed with this action, but the necessity for it was too obvious for any one module to attempt to override the decision. The Augments would come online; hopefully, this cure would not prove worse than the disease…


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
So, yeah. This was supposed to be finished and up in time for SectoBoss’ birthday a week and a half ago, but I only managed to spit it out now.

On the other hand, I did get it out here.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on May 21, 2017, 02:17:02 AM
Good! And happy belated birthday to SectoBoss!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on May 22, 2017, 10:31:53 AM
...I think it might be time to re-revive the Scriptorium.

A Horse with No Name (http://archiveofourown.org/works/10689663/chapters/24427806)

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on May 22, 2017, 05:47:37 PM
...I think it might be time to re-revive the Scriptorium.

A Horse with No Name (http://archiveofourown.org/works/10689663/chapters/24427806)


I like the mood you've created here, and Sigrun's capitulation (which being Sigrun, I expect to be short-lived).
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on May 23, 2017, 02:43:40 PM
If it's any consolation to anyone, I would have probably never wrote down this short story if this break hadn't happened. Hope it cheers up at least one person other than me.

Faded dream (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12500442/1/Faded-dream)
Basically combining my headcanon concerning the sleeping bag situation with a demand that has been expressed on Disqus concerning my de facto pet character.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on May 24, 2017, 08:08:32 AM
Ahhahahahaha! Yes. That is charmingly funny.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on May 25, 2017, 09:07:42 AM
...why am I starting to feel like I'm selling out.

An Innocent Man (http://archiveofourown.org/works/10689663/chapters/24495789)

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on May 25, 2017, 09:54:13 AM
I share your pain. I'm technically a Reynir/Tuuri shipper, but since I'll never dare kill off Reynir and my dead character AUs both have Tuuri much deader than Onni is, I've been tempted at times.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on May 25, 2017, 06:44:18 PM
Why am I writing shippy stuff I'm not a shipper I've never been a shipper and this pairing isn't really my thing what is this fandom doing to me?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on May 25, 2017, 10:13:02 PM
Why am I writing shippy stuff I'm not a shipper I've never been a shipper and this pairing isn't really my thing what is this fandom doing to me?

Join us in shipping hell. We have cookies.

Spoiler: chapter 8 of the thing • show
http://archiveofourown.org/works/9787259/chapters/21979622

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on May 27, 2017, 03:39:03 PM
Alphabet Soup
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Series 2, Part 10
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Spoiler: Just Another Little Jaunt • show
The islet was both small and remarkably barren, but it had saved their lives—or at least, most of their lives. Sigrun had fallen from the netting just seconds before the others had  tumbled onto the islet’s sands, but even though that had been two days prior, the others were confident that Sigrun was still alive.

There was a superabundance of nothing on the islet, but the first dawn had brought them the sight of land a few hundred yards away, so they had swum to this larger place, and now they needed to figure out how exactly they would proceed.

The five were of one mind in the need to find Sigrun as soon as they could; they disagreed quite vociferously on just how this should be accomplished. Mikkel wanted to set up a base camp and ready it for long-term habitation first; Emil wanted to light a series of signal fires, hoping Sigrun would see them and find them herself, or, failing that, that someone on a passing ship would spot them and take them home; Reynir wanted them to wait until he could make them staves that would aid the search and double as weapons at need; Tuuri wanted to set off immediately, without thought for anything else; and Lalli wanted to go out at night by himself, since he worked best that way.

In the end, they tried doing all of these, excepting Tuuri’s brash inclinations. Or rather they tried starting each of these, only to discover that they had none of the tools that would allow them to complete the job, having thrown all their equipment out of the balloon in those last desperate hours before the islet had appeared. In fact, they had jettisoned most of their clothing as well, so great was their need to stay aloft until they could reach land.

They were fortunate enough to find drinkable water fairly swiftly, in the form of a river a klick or so down the beach from where they had crossed. This was indeed a mercy, as none of them had had anything to drink for more than three days; thus, the called the river “the Mercy”.

Fortified by the water, the five of them kept walking along the beach until Mikkel found a ragged assortment of rocks that he claimed could be made into a suitable base camp for them. After some investigation, the others agreed: there was a rough semi-shelter where various boulders had fallen atop each other which could be improved into a basic habitation. So while the Finns went off to try to find edible vegetable matter, the others set to shifting various rocks into the various cracks and fissures to block out any breezes from rushing through them.

It was then that Emil found that none of them had any means of making fire.

Tuuri and Lalli burst into the camp, ready to fight whatever had let out such a hideous wail, only to find that it was Emil. It took quite some time to calm him down, so that they almost missed the much more subtle sound at the rock-shelter’s entrance.

“Meow?”

The cat had been their mascot since they’d found her in the stable complex by the volcano; they hadn’t seen her since Sigrun had fallen. Now, Emil’s howls had brought her here, but did that mean Sigrun was nearby as well?

Without a word, Lalli sped out to follow Kitty’s trail…


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
Just in case it wasn’t obvious, I looooooooooooove “The Mysterious Island”.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on May 27, 2017, 07:09:11 PM
I knew you had excellent taste and judgement, LooNEY!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on May 27, 2017, 08:21:19 PM
Oh, good; this won't be a double post.

Immune: A Tale of Year Zero
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Part 3
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg126215#msg126215)
Spoiler: Deeper Into the Storm • show
“Our world is built upon a mountain of anguish. Once you stir it up, who can tell what you will find?”

Days at sea: 17

The Medical Center on Deck 10 had quickly expanded to cover the entire deck as more and more passengers and crew fell ill. On the whole, it had been done smartly and well, given that they had never expected an epidemic of this magnitude, but it was straining at the seams.

Another problematic thing was that all the elevators had been programed to go directly to Deck 10 and stop there, and would not leave without an operator’s authorization, and the only stairwell that weren’t blocked were the emergency ones, and so would set off alarms if used. Thus, every time the boy went out for food, he had to run the gauntlet of the Triage Points set up by the banks of elevators before proceeding below.

The boy wasn’t sure how many “healthy” people were left on the ship; the number was certainly in the hundreds, but on a ship meant to carry thousands, they would have been hard to spot even if most weren’t trying to avoid anyone who might infect them. He wasn’t sure why he was still healthy, mask or no mask, given how often he’d been passed through the Triage Points.

He wasn’t sure he wanted to know how many people on the ship had already died.

At any rate, despite everything, the storm was only getting worse; it was even beginning to affect the ship, each slow lurch or sudden jolt reminding the boy of old WWII footage of carriers with their decks awash in North Atlantic storms. He was very fortunate not to suffer from sea-sickness even through the worst of it.

*

“Wait… How did he find out they were off course? And why isn’t he mentioning it?” The youngster’s face was puzzled.

For a moment, the elder wanted to grin at the youngster’s expression, but it was a serious question which deserved a serious answer, so he was serious when he replied, “Probably for the same reason he didn’t want to believe that the Illness would be so severe as it turned out to be: people usually don’t want to consider the possibility of disaster when they have a problem. They say Oh, that’ll work itself out or Don’t go borrowing trouble when they’re made to face such things, even now, so it’s no surprise that this was how the people of Year Zero dealt with the catastrophe as it unfolded, until they could ignore it no more.” The elder wiggled the book suggestively. “Shall I continue?”

The youngster was about to reply when his stomach rumbled quite loudly. The elder laughed openly and said, “Well, there’s at least one vote in favor of adjourning for supper. Shall we see whether the stew has simmered long enough?”

*

Little Ulf didn’t want to look at anyone for the rest of the day. Finally, Ulf Mikkel forced the matter by grabbing his son’s chin and gently but firmly tugging his head up until Little Ulf was forced to meet his eyes.

Before Ulf Mikkel could say anything, Little Ulf blurted out, “I’m sorry, alright?” and jerked his head away.

“You think this is the first time this has happened in my career?” Little Ulf’s head rose at the question. “You think I haven’t, er, disrupted a take or two of my own? Usually, the disruptive noise is not nearly so polite as yours; in fact, yours was on the order of a ‘happy accident’, rather than anything disastrous.”

Little Ulf stammered and stuttered incoherently for a bit at this unexpected leniency, until Ulf Mikkel frowned.

“Of course, if I catch you eating cabbage before a big scene, you’ll regret it!”

Little Ulf laughed, and the Glurgle Incident was behind them…


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
Oh, look. I updated this again.

Weird, huh?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on May 27, 2017, 10:27:06 PM
Chapter 30.  Uff.  So, the AU crew is getting rescued somewhere in inland Denmark by a boat filled with superpowered individuals.  Because AU.  Still no sign of what happened to Reynir, or his clogs.  "Let's Get this Rescue Started, Shall We?"
http://archiveofourown.org/works/6610714/chapters/24556653
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on May 28, 2017, 02:38:05 AM
And now for something much...

...darker.

The Expedition
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/Cyberpunk AU fanfic
Part 3
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg133641#msg133641)
Spoiler: At the End of the Known World • show
This was the first time in Emil’s life that he had been somewhere that his Uncle and Aunt couldn’t have whoever they wished immediately boiled alive, and Emil wasn’t sure how he felt about it. On the other hand, he’d much rather think about that than about what had happened on the Dalahästen. He was such a coward as to fall prey to delusions in the wake of the attack—he’d actually imagined hearing Lalli speak to him!

Lalli and Tuuri seemed not to be treating him any differently now than they had before, though, so perhaps he hadn’t utterly disgraced himself—yet.

Emil glanced out of the corner of his eye at the stern, proud figure of his new captain and knew that there was no way he would get out of this without disgracing himself utterly. She had made that clear with her introductory remarks to the three of them after Trond had presented them at attention; actually, simply by calling them to Parade Rest rather than At Ease had made the point clear. No, there would be no pleasing Sigrun Eide aside from sheer perfection—and Emil knew, to his shame, just how imperfect he was.

This imperfection was demonstrated when the XO introduced himself as “Mumble Mumsen”, with further mumbles that Emil assumed were some form of the standard pleasantries. Emil’s parents had been informed early on of his tin ear for languages; this extended to spoken (though not written) Danish, which obviously continued to elude him.

A few moments later, Emil had found a Dane he could understand—if only because the Dane only ever spoke at a shout that brought echoes from anything nearby. While this Admiral Olsen seemed to respect Trond, he treated Torbjörn & Siv with a disdainful and distant semi-courtesy such as they had hardly ever been on the receiving end of. Again, Emil was torn; they were family, but they were… well…

The little group reached their assigned vehicle and immediately began the check-out and loading protocols, leaving Emil with no time for further reflection.

*

How on earth do they expect us to find something the whole world’s been seeking out for the last century? Lalli’s unspoken inquiry was as blunt as ever. Maybe they mean for us to fail, he continued before Tuuri could reply. I’d bet Onni would agree.

Why don’t you try asking him? Tuuri shot back.

Lalli looked doubtful. It’s really, really far away.

Try anyway, Tuuri said. I want to know how they’re treating him.

Can’t be too bad if they want him to work for them after, Lalli pointed out. Anyway, I’ll try, but I can’t promise anything.

OK. What do you think of the Captain? She scares me.

Everything scares you, Lalli replied. I’ve worked with her kind before; you’ll do alright, unless you get on her bad side by whining and cringing all the time.

*

“Green lot, aren’t they, Captain?” Mikkel kept his tone casual as he came back to Sigrun Eide’s side.

“A bit pathetic,” she agreed without rancor, “but only for now. A few weeks under my tutelage and they’ll be up to par—or dead trying.”

They might not be the only ones, Mikkel thought, remembering his orders…


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
Oh, yeah; I had this dark-fic thing going, too.

So here’s another revival for you.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Ilral on May 28, 2017, 03:37:30 AM
I realized that not posting in the scriptorium was denying my fics exposure some time ago, but I didn't act on this until I had something new to post because to do otherwise seemed a bit scummy.

That said, here's 1000-odd words of Onni/Reynir shipfic, entitled Sweet Tooth:
http://archiveofourown.org/works/11021712 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/11021712)

If you're interested in anything else I've written, my AO3 profile (http://archiveofourown.org/users/Ilral/pseuds/Ilral) has a couple other things on it.

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on May 28, 2017, 10:18:12 AM
Whoops, almost forgot to post this:

A Journey in the Dark (http://archiveofourown.org/works/10689663/chapters/24566451)


Now bed.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on May 28, 2017, 11:14:22 AM
Okay, my brain has apparently decided this week would be "get your short one-shot stories out of your system" week. I've had the idea ever since someone commented that the tank may need to be abandonned back in Chapter 13. Now that it's happening, better put this out there before the canon consideration for such an occurence actually gets shown.

To future explorers (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12506932/1/To-future-explorers)
Even abandonned, the tank still serves a noble purpose.

I know there is the potential for a much longer fic in there, but it lies in an aspect of the story's universe to which I have never given much thought personally, and that I consider best handled by people who have.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on May 28, 2017, 01:14:03 PM
Alphabet Soup
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Series 3, Part 10
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Spoiler: The Jitters • show
It was their first night in the Silent World, and Emil was frankly terrified, which was as it should be: their little band was trying to scramble back to Mora in the wake of the Dalahästen’s derailment with no shelter, no supplies, no vehicle, no radio, and no one who knew that they were still alive to expect them. Terror was to be expected; not simply from Emil, but from Reynir and Tuuri as well.

They had made their first camp in a house that would have served well for a grossling’s nest, if only the inhabitants hadn’t died from the Illness instead of trollifying. The three cats with them, Ola, John and Nils, had prowled around and into every crack and crevice they could find before returning to declare the house cleared. Lalli backed them up, which was good enough for Emil, since the thin Finn had somehow sensed the derailment even before the cats.

Lalli had vanished into the night long since, leaving Emil and the cats on their lonely watch. Ola was resting in Emil’s lap, trying to calm him with sustained purring; Nils was patrolling; and John was watching over the two non-immunes, to whom Sigrun still referred as “helpless babies”.

A single candle lit the little hall in which the party slept; even though there were no vulnerable windows to betray their presence through light or heat, Sigrun still demanded that precaution, and the others readily agreed. Still, the feeble, flickering light only made Emil’s watch that much more anxious.

Emil was to wake Sigrun as soon as he swapped out the candles; hopefully, Lalli would be back before that, easing Emil’s mind about one thing, at least.

As Ola purred on, Emil’s mind turned to the journey ahead. During the forced march, he’d been too busy trying to live up to Sigrun’s expectations of him to mull over anything else; now, he had nothing to do but mull things over—or at least, he hoped so.

Despite the foreshortened span of daylight (which would only grow worse as Winter approached, of course), their little band had covered quite a distance, which was good. Remarks from Tuuri and Reynir indicating how grueling they’d found the march were less good, as those two were the weakest link of their group, even if Emil thought “helpless babies” was going a bit far.

The rain and snow had sporadically returned, both adding to the march’s difficulty and yet easing it by ensuring their water supplies were still topped up, and Lalli had managed to bag a few small woodland creatures unlucky and unwary enough to cross his path. Sigrun had seen a deer in the distance, but it had seen her as well, so nothing came of that.

A series of loud rattles on the ceiling above him brought Emil back to the present. As Nils and Ola were still unconcerned, he knew it was simply that the rain had turned to hail, but would the structure that had seen a century or more of such weather choose to yield to it now, or would it hold out until the party sheltering in it left with the dawn?

SCRITCH SCRITCH SCRATCH

The sound was louder than Emil had expected; he jumped to his feet, unceremoniously ejecting Ola from her comfortable perch, and went to the door. Softly, tentatively, he scratched across the door in the countersign Lalli had shown him before leaving, and then Emil waited. The cats waited too, all three of them staring at the door in that intense, unblinking way cats had.

The silence seemed to thicken and stretch on interminably as Emil waited for Lalli to respond…


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
No, this isn’t a redux of SectoBossFear and Loathing in Kastrup.

…It is, however, a sequel to my Into the Silent World.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on May 28, 2017, 03:43:15 PM
Nice cliffhanger, LooNEY!
Is there a source for the names of the cats?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on May 28, 2017, 04:10:17 PM
Nice cliffhanger, LooNEY!
Is there a source for the names of the cats?
When I wrote "Next Cycle", I named all the cats after Sundbergs with English-language Wikipedia pages. For this, I re-used some of them.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on May 29, 2017, 09:53:17 AM
Another one, yay.

A Knife in the Ocean (http://archiveofourown.org/works/10689663/chapters/24592167)

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on May 29, 2017, 12:56:33 PM
Alphabet Soup
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Series 1, Part 11
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Spoiler: A Kind of Kind Kenning • show
The night was slowly giving way to morning as the scout quietly slipped back to the campsite. A big, fat, puffy cloud hung right above them in the sky, and as the sun rose, its light played over the cloud’s textures, sequentially bringing ever-shifting colors to the wisps and filaments in a dazzling display.

For a moment, the scout paused outside the vehicle, his face raised to drink in the magnificent light show as it shifted and glowed above him. A rather disgruntled and somehow very Danish throat-clearing from the vehicle cut short the scout’s moment of aestheticism, but a glance at Emil showed that the other youth had been sharing in Lalli’s appreciation of the celestial display.

Lalli mechanically removed his soiled uniform, his eyes still fixed on the sky as he handed each piece over to Mikkel, but his mind on Emil. That tended to happen more often than Lalli quite liked, because Emil was so different from the others, who all tended to stay in the nice little boxes Lalli had mentally assigned them, while Emil did not.

For a stupid and weird foreigner, Emil had many, many more moments of accord with Lalli than Lalli had ever expected or considered possible; in fact, sometimes Emil was downright Finnish, until he opened his mouth.

Of course, now that Lalli was learning more of Emil’s stupid, weird foreign language, it wasn’t so bad as it had been in the beginning. Additionally, Emil seemed to be making an effort to keep his former loquacity under control: not that he said less, but that his sentences were more basic, if more numerous.

And then there were the times when Emil tried to speak Finnish, revealing his weird foreign stupidity in all its glory.

But now, as in so many other shared moments before, Emil and Lalli were in perfect accord about the majesty of a Danish dawn playing across the clouds above them, even if Mikkel was firmly not in accord with them.

Lalli shut his eyes just in time to avoid the frigid spray blasting the rest of him, which necessarily ended his appreciation of Ukko’s gift above. Gritting his teeth, he endured the rough hose-down until it finally, mercifully ended. He had had to pass through a thick patch of some weird foreign plant on his way back, and the hose-down was spreading the mild discomfort from the encounter across his back and his chest.

The warm water felt both good and bad on his skin, unusually tender this morning, as Lalli climbed into the washtub. Though Lalli was braced in readiness for the usual rough scrubbing needed to eliminate all traces of the Silent World that may have clung to him through the hose-down, it didn’t come. Instead, Emil was much more gentle than usual; gentle enough that Lalli almost expected Mikkel to reprimand Emil. But apparently whatever was bothering Lalli’s skin was visible to their Danish healer, who took one of Lalli’s arms, clucked a little, rumbled something at Emil and handed Lalli two small pills to swallow.

When Lalli woke up, it was full daylight. He vaguely remembered Emil making sure he didn’t drown before the bath was done, helping him into his clothes and half-carrying him to his bunk. Lalli made a mental note to avoid stupid, weird foreign plants that left him needing stupid, weird foreign medicine…


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
No, there will never be a point when Lalli thinks about foreigners without a stupid and weird attached, even (or especially?) Emil.

Lalli stumbled into a patch of something to which he’s mildly allergic and got contact dermatitis; Mikkel gave him an antihistamine.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on May 29, 2017, 07:47:33 PM
That medication does that to me too. And I bet what he found was Giant Hogweed? Forms dense patches, irritates and photosensitises the skin, and is probably common in Denmark after 90 years with no eradication program. Poor Lalli!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on May 29, 2017, 09:27:35 PM
Heh, my first thought was poison ivy, but I'm pretty sure that's a uniquely American thing (lucky us).
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on May 29, 2017, 09:36:12 PM
That medication does that to me too. And I bet what he found was Giant Hogweed? Forms dense patches, irritates and photosensitises the skin, and is probably common in Denmark after 90 years with no eradication program. Poor Lalli!
Heh, my first thought was poison ivy, but I'm pretty sure that's a uniquely American thing (lucky us).
See, I was thinking that as a night scout he'd know the generically "don't touch me" plants, so I thought, "OK, he's just mildly allergic to some Danish plant he's never seen before", because people can have a contact dermatitis (usually hives) reaction from anything they're allergic to.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on May 29, 2017, 10:19:09 PM
Giant hogweed (Heracleum mantegazzianum) comes from Central Asia and the Caucasus. It's a spectacularly beautiful plant (I've heard it described as 'Queen Anne's lace on steroids'). Unfortunately it became widespread as a garden ornamental before people realised just how prolific and weedy it was, and how extremely allergenic. Now many countries all over the world have programmes to try and eradicate it, but most of them are losing. Now add 90 years of neglect and no herbicides, and the stuff is probably all over.

Lazy8: poison ivy and poison oak (Rhus spp.) are sometimes found here in old gardens or in botanical collections. Again, they were imported as ornamentals for their lovely autumn colours before people realised how weedy they could be.

LoonNEY: look on the bright side - at least it wasn't our Australian stinging tree! I ran into a leaf of that in the dark, once, and it took months for the stinging sensation to fade. Every time my face got wet it would flare up again, and I still have a scar forty years later.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on May 29, 2017, 10:53:05 PM
I posted something relevant in the "Books!" thread.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: midwestmutt on May 30, 2017, 08:29:29 AM
Giant hogweed (Heracleum mantegazzianum) comes from Central Asia and the Caucasus. It's a spectacularly beautiful plant (I've heard it described as 'Queen Anne's lace on steroids'). Unfortunately it became widespread as a garden ornamental before people realised just how prolific and weedy it was, and how extremely allergenic. Now many countries all over the world have programmes to try and eradicate it, but most of them are losing. Now add 90 years of neglect and no herbicides, and the stuff is probably all over.

Lazy8: poison ivy and poison oak (Rhus spp.) are sometimes found here in old gardens or in botanical collections. Again, they were imported as ornamentals for their lovely autumn colours before people realised how weedy they could be.

LoonNEY: look on the bright side - at least it wasn't our Australian stinging tree! I ran into a leaf of that in the dark, once, and it took months for the stinging sensation to fade. Every time my face got wet it would flare up again, and I still have a scar forty years later.
I had to google giant hogweed. Your description sounded very familiar but in our area it's known as poison parsnips. I got into it once and had colorful purple rashes and blisters. Though a guest in your country it seems to fit in well with with all the other charming ways Australia tries to kill everyone like your stinging tree which was a new one to me.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on May 30, 2017, 08:59:24 AM
Yeah, the stinging tree (Dendrocnide) is really special! It somewhat resembles the mulberry, to which it is related, and has quite a nice tasting fruit, if you can get past the leaves. In this case I was walking down a track in the dark, in the FNQ rainforest, heading for home, having given my torch to someone who didn't know the area and was coming a few minutes behind me. Stinging tree wood is rather pulpy and fragile. We had had a high wind earlier in the day, and a branch had broken and fallen across the path at about my head height. I walked slap into it. The most annoying part is the way the sting reactivates whenever the skin gets wet. For months. I can quite understand the early-settler stories about people who were stung and eventually went crazy and shot themselves.

And poison parsnips is indeed another name for giant hogweed. A good thing about botanical names is that they don't change with language or dialect of language!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on May 31, 2017, 08:37:08 AM
I always get antsy if I go for too long without writing a Sigrun story. So here's a Sigrun story.

A Light that Never Comes (http://archiveofourown.org/works/10689663/chapters/24644322)

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on May 31, 2017, 11:38:25 PM
Alphabet Soup
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Series 2, Part 11
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Spoiler: Keep Driving! • show
Lalli still wasn’t back from wherever he’d run the horses off to, which worried Tuuri, as the sounds of battle outside were loud enough that she suspected Sigrun, Emil and Mikkel could use another set of hands in fighting off the small horde of attacking grosslings.

The old highway leading out of Mikkeli had been quite good to them, despite its portentous designation of “13”; in fact, their troubles had only begun after it more-or-less dead-ended into another old highway, one not nearly in such good condition. That was the road that had led them into Jyväskylä, the death-trap they were currently desperately trying to escape as the sun slowly set.

They had been able to bypass most of the other villages and small towns along the way, but there was no way around Jyväskylä, and very few ways through; that was part of why it was an exclusion. The other part of why it was an exclusion was currently assaulting their vehicle as Tuuri drove it at its plodding full speed along the route Lalli had found for them.

The last thing Sigrun had told Tuuri before climbing atop their vehicle was, “Keep driving, no matter what. Do you understand? No matter what, keep driving!”

FFFFFOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMM

The bursts from Emil’s flamethrower were getting longer and closer together. Tuuri was trying not to panic over the implication of this when Reynir’s hand covered hers on the steering wheel; she almost wrecked the vehicle, but aside from copious amounts of profanity that highlighted the idiosyncrasies of the three Norse languages, there were no signs that anyone up top had been shaken loose.

“We need to turn down that alleyway,” Reynir said, pointing at what looked to be a certain death-trap. “Lalli told me he’s got something there that’ll get us clear of all these grosslings, so we need to head that way.”

“Lalli what???” Tuuri protested, trying to straighten them back out. Reynir’s grip on the wheel was unrelenting, though, so it was either yield and pass into the alleyway or wreck the vehicle on one side of the opening or the other. Obviously, Tuuri wasn’t about to smash them into a building, though she wasn’t sure going into the tight, dark, narrow passage would be any better in the long haul.

The immediate effect, however, was to restrict the attacking grosslings to a much narrower front in their attacks, easing the work the defenders up top had to do considerably. Reynir yelled something up at Mikkel; Tuuri didn’t catch exactly what it was, but the sound of the flamethrower abruptly stopped.

Before Tuuri could unload on Reynir about respecting the driver and such, she spotted Lalli’s thin figure at the far end of the alleyway. He ran right at them, almost making Tuuri stop when he leapt onto the front hood and thence to the roof where the others were. Tuuri would never have believed it if she hadn’t seen it herself.

Tuuri had been trying to avoid looking in the wing mirrors, but now she saw a thin stream of liquid splashing out behind them. Then, just as they pulled clear of the alleyway, she saw four little things that looked like lit flares fly into the mass of grosslings behind them.

KA-THUMMMMMMMM

Flames belched from the alleyway, greedily licking at the back of the vehicle…


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
More “Deus Ex Mikkeli” sequel stuff here.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on June 01, 2017, 09:14:56 AM
Here's the usual notice that the Index has been updated, and that I encourage authors to check for any mistakes I might have made.

New this month: I've added an Afterlife setting!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on June 01, 2017, 10:16:19 AM
Good one!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on June 01, 2017, 03:57:22 PM
When I wrote "Next Cycle", I named all the cats after Sundbergs with English-language Wikipedia pages. For this, I re-used some of them.

Thanks!

That sounds like the kind of method I use for naming, when the thing to be named doesn't name itself.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on June 02, 2017, 04:44:28 PM
And here's more craaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack.

Alphabet Soup
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Series 3, Part 11
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Spoiler: The Kade Decayed • show
Once Upon a Time

Emil “Goldilocks” Västerström didn’t like hobnobbing with ghosts as a rule, but he was a well-mannered young man (when he remembered to be), so when his host Reynir Árnason brought a pair into the conversation they and the Three Bear Warriors were having about Trond the Crooked Man’s friend’s lost property, Emil was polite to them, and soon he was glad he had been.

You see, Reynir had come into possession of a haunted house in a little village in the middle of the big, dark, scary forest not long ago. Emil and the Three Bear Warriors had been asked by Trond the Crooked Man to go and ask if they could have some things the last owner of the haunted house had borrowed and not returned, so now they were all in the haunted house and Reynir was asking the ghosts if they knew where the things Emil was asking about were.

“Onni” was suspicious and not inclined to hide it when “he” looked at the visitors, but “Tuuri” was much friendlier and even helpful. “She” seemed especially inclined to chat with Reynir, though “she” seemed quite impressed by Sigrun, as well.

“I think I saw what you’re looking for in the Green-and-Gold Drawing Room,” “Tuuri” said, “but I confess I don’t pay much attention to things anymore.”

“Then let’s go have a look!” Sigrun enthused.

Emil looked over at Reynir. “If that’s all right with… the three of you?” he asked politely. “Onni” and “Tuuri” looked pleasantly surprised to be included, but remained silent, letting Reynir decide for “them”.

Reynir seemed rather intimidated by Sigrun’s enthusiasm for… well… everything, but he responded to Emil’s polite query happily enough, “Sure! Anything I can do to help you guys!”

So off they went to the Green-and-Gold Drawing Room, which was filled with green-and-gold drawings, as well as green-and-gold furniture, green-and-gold glassware, and many other green-and-gold things. The things asked after by Trond the Crooked Man for his friend were in fact in the room; they were in a little pile in one corner, all by themselves.

“Why on earth didn’t old Olsen just return the stuff, since he obviously wasn’t using it?” Sigrun asked.

Mikkel replied, “He never could let go of anything he had his hands on, even if he never thought twice about it.”

“Like this house,” “Onni” concurred. “That’s why he made his will the way he did: he wanted someone else like him to get what he had so assiduously held on to.” “Onni” looked at Reynir. “Fortunately, he failed.”

“Blah blah BLAH. Let’s get the stuff all packed and loaded up, or we won’t get into the big, dark, scary forest until after dawn!”

Reynir looked puzzled at Sigrun’s outburst. “Isn’t that a good thing? The thieves and robbers in the big, dark, scary forest don’t try to rob you in the daytime.”

Mikkel laughed his deep, rumbling laugh. “As Bear Warriors, we are the sworn enemies of all the thieves and robbers in the big, dark, scary forest, so drawing them out to try to rob us is half the reason we took this job to begin with.”

Lalli was looking at the pile suspiciously, the hair on his neck beginning to rise, but before Emil could bring this to the others’ attention, a Great Black Shadow rose up out of nowhere and covered the pile in menacing darkness.

“A Kade!” Lalli spat, hunching his back and hissing fiercely.

“What’s a Kade?” Emil asked, as the others all seemed to know already.

“Onni” was the one to answer. “A Kade is a spirit so filled with envy that it lingers on in spiteful wrath for generations; some will kill any mortals they come across. The last time we saw this Kade was more than a century ago, when it killed twelve people and a cute little kitten.”

“I thought he wasn’t around anymore!” “Tuuri” wailed in horror as the Great Black Shadow loomed larger and larger in menacing darkness. “RUN, everybody!”

Sigrun growled and was obviously about to loudly and verbosely deny any intention of running from a fight, but what happened next stunned them all into silence.

Suddenly, Emil’s hair threw off a huge mass of sparkles, which surrounded him in swirls of gold. One sparkle floated up and hovered directly in front of Emil’s face. “I am Ulf, the King of the Sparkle Fairies, and I am your great-great-grandfather.”

Before Emil could reply to this source of his Goldilocks, the sparkle flew over towards the Great Black Shadow loomed in menacing darkness, the others following in a glittering cascade. Finally, when they were all gathered around the Great Black Shadow, they all cried out in one voice, “GO AWAY!”

The Great Black Shadow shuddered and slowly, reluctantly vanished. When it was completely gone, the sparkles vanished as well.

Sigrun looked torn between pride at Emil indirectly vanquishing the Kade and disappointment that she herself hadn’t had a crack at it, but the others were all just relieved.

An hour or so later, Reynir and his ghostly “housemates” waved farewell to Emil and the Three Bear Warriors as they went into the big, dark, scary forest with the stuff…


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
Is it just me, or are my crack!fics getting even crackier than they were before?

…For some reason, I want to blame corncobman for the Sparkle Fairies.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on June 03, 2017, 09:55:54 AM
I think this is right on the edge of what's acceptable to post on the main forum. Let me know if I should move it to the mature board.

A Murder of Crows (http://archiveofourown.org/works/10689663/chapters/24718440)

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on June 04, 2017, 07:39:47 PM
Alphabet Soup
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Series 1, Part 12
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Spoiler: A Late Arrival • show
“RRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEYYYYYYNNNNNNDDDDIIIIIIISSSSS!!!!!”

Michaela Madsen sighed heavily as she applied herself to the washing, hoping Reyndis didn’t hurt herself in her haste to answer Sigurd’s call. For some reason, the gangly Icelandic mage seemed incapable of keeping to the fairly reasonable schedule the team was working under, which was unusual; Michaela had known Reyndis for several years now, and the younger girl had always been scatterbrained but punctual. Even at the Øresund Base, Reyndis had been on time or early, but once they’d crossed into the Silent World…

Mia and Lalli eyed Sigurd warily, hoping their fuming captain would do no more than blow smoke at Reyndis once the laggard joined them, and not too much, at that. This was only the third day of the expedition, so they were all still getting a feel for each other, more or less; Mia and Lalli had the advantage of being wingmen, so their teamwork was honed to a fine edge, but the others were all pretty much unknown quantities.

Fortunately, all of them were immune, so there was no need for the elaborate precautions their predecessor expedition had been obliged to undertake, though most of them wouldn’t have shunned a wash-up after returning from a day in the field, either.

Once Sigurd had vented his spleen sufficiently at poor Reyndis, her face near the color of her braid by the end, they walked out along the great stone causeway to the rickety pier by the tumble-down remnants of the lighthouse. No ship would be waiting to offload supplies for them; their mysterious sponsor had merely instructed them to place a small but heavy stone plaque to commemorate the event and requested photographic proof of same. Neither of these were unreasonable, so the group wrestled the stone into position next to the rusted-out winches and waited for Michaela and Tuuli to get the camera set up.

The photograph was supposed to feature them all, so Tuuli set the timer and got into position with the rest of them, though he looked around nervously as he did so. A cold wind blew across the group just as the shutter snapped for the first time, completely ruining the composition and posing, but the camera was set to take a five-picture burst, so ruining one or two was OK for any but a perfectionist. Tuuli was trying hard not to be a perfectionist, so he kept quiet.

The other thing he kept quiet about, and had been for some time, was a nagging sense of danger that just wouldn’t go away, though none of the others seemed to feel it. Tuuli was used to picking up hints of nearby grosslings or other such dangers, but this was different somehow.

With a mighty rumble, an honest to goodness giant burst forth from below ground; Tuuli’s immediate reaction was, Oh, that explains it, followed by a frightened yell as more and more of the giant came forth. Fortunately, it did so within the ruins of the ancient lighthouse, and took its time about emerging into the daylight, or they would have been slaughtered within seconds.

Unfortunately, the six of them were now facing the largest giant any of them had ever seen…


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
So, here’s the long-delayed sequel to An Interested Party. Again, there will be more to come.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on June 05, 2017, 04:32:41 AM
Alphabet Soup
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Series 2, Part 12
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Spoiler: Left and Right • show
The store the boys were raiding was totally unsuitable for a nest, which relieved Emil greatly, though it considerably lowered their chances of finding anything usable, while increasing the amount of explosives they would need to bring it down completely if they had to. Emil was carrying enough to do the job, though.

Emil had seen a great variety of buildings in various states of decay since the mission began, and had learned that the most dilapidated were, rather paradoxically, generally the hardest to bring down. Fortunately, the most dilapidated generally didn’t need to be brought down; on the other hand, if Emil had learned anything at all about the Silent World, it was that nowhere was absolutely safe. Thus, he mentally noted the best places to put charges to bring the place down at need.

When Emil heard the small noise, he looked over to his left. There, to his right, was Lalli, having just returned with his arms full of Old Time bounty.

Emil shook his head and looked down. It was happening again.

From the very beginning of the expedition, Emil had noticed moments where left and right seemed to inexplicably switch out and back again in bewildering flashes, but none of the others seemed to be aware of it. There was no predicting when or where it would happen, and just as obviously no controlling it, so Emil just had to ride it out whenever it happened. After the first few odd looks, he’d stopped mentioning it.

Of course, one of the few benefits of Lalli’s limited comprehension of Swedish was that Emil could vent about it when they were alone without fear of being judged, so now he did, while sorting through what Lalli had retrieved and putting the good items into the wheelbarrow he’d found.

“Yep. Left and right went bad again.”

Emil stopped in stunned amazement at the laconic utterance. He was so startled that he almost dropped the wheelbarrow. Before he could gather his wits to express his incredulity that someone else noticed and he wasn’t going crazy, thank Nobel, Lalli spoke again.

“Does that sometimes. Don’t know why.” Lalli gestured at the rifle slung on his back. “These go away and back, too.”

Emil grimaced and nodded. “At least they’re there when we need them,” he pointed out. Then, in an effort to relieve the gloom that seemed to have taken up permanent residence on Lalli’s face, Emil added, “Wouldn’t it be nice if it happened to the grosslings, though? I mean, one minute they’re all there, and the next one of their legs has fallen off or something.” He mimed something falling over and writhing on the ground.

Lalli didn’t laugh, but something behind his face relaxed a little for a moment. Hoping he could extend that moment, Emil said, “Hey hey, look,” and gestured at a lone flower he’d spotted earlier, growing in a spot sheltered by a fragment of fallen glass.

Emil watched Lalli’s face carefully, waiting for his Finn friend’s reaction…


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
What, me mock Our Dear Minna’s problems with which way is which?

Well, obviously, but not in any kind of mean way.

This was a bit more timely than I meant it to be, though.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on June 05, 2017, 05:18:12 AM
Don't tell me, the expedition is a probability nexus for both the present survival of humanity and for their future conquest of space, right? Accordingly, the lines keep shifting...... Did you ever read Piper's 'Lord Kalvan' stories? I'm still laughing at one of the characters being quite justifiably amused by the stuffy probability scientist having all his nice theories blown away.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on June 05, 2017, 07:21:41 AM
Don't know if this makes me a bad person, but I definitely snerked at your affectionate parody of Minna's little problem...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on June 05, 2017, 09:53:38 AM
Here, have some more dark stuff.

A Number to Murder Two (http://archiveofourown.org/works/10689663/chapters/24770823)

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on June 07, 2017, 08:54:22 AM
http://archiveofourown.org/works/9787259/chapters/24821706 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/9787259/chapters/24821706)

I really should be studying for my end-of-semester-tests. But the sweet siren song of Lalli-centric angst called my name too sweetly.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on June 08, 2017, 10:50:14 PM
Light before darkness...

Alphabet Soup
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Series 3, Part 12
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Spoiler: The Last Giant-Killer • show
Sing, O Muse,
of the last and the greatest
of the slayers of Giants,
and the course of her quest
through the quiet land’s coasts,
fell fleetly followed
by five fast-held friends,
for finding her fortune
that tales might be told
of her deeds of renown.

Rosy-Fingered Dawn,
Bright Daughter of Morning,
her glory did spread
along the horizon
as swift, silent Lalli,
the wily young cat-scout,
returned from his wand’rings.
Moon-kissed they were,
and wide were their ranging,
for warding the camp.

There awaiting him,
the protocol wardens,
with bath and with hose,
were strong, silent Mikkel,
the medic so massive,
and gold, sparkly Emil,
the fiery young Cleanser,
a Swedish soulmate,
to purify Lalli,
ere seeing his captain.

Decontamination past,
swift, silent Lalli,
the wily young cat-scout,
went into the cockpit,
that he might report,
to small, lively Tuuri,
the master mechanic,
the polyglot Finn,
on map and by word-hoard,
just what lay ahead.

It is DECIDED!
This word from their Captain,
that their course of action,
was fixed and unyielding,
emboldened them all,
from red-braided Reynir,
the budding young mageling,
to even their cat,
a feisty young feline,
of calico coat.

“Wait… Are you trying to say that our ancestor was among the Great Sigrun’s crew on the Silent World Expedition?” Three sets of young eyes poured scorn on their obviously duplicitous elder.

“I have told you this before, when you were almost too young to know anything at all. Do you not remember? And certainly I have told of how, ages ago, I myself had the privilege of sitting in the laps of all six of the members of that expedition.”

The scorn redoubled. “You and everyone else’s mother!” one of the youths guffawed. The others giggled at this sally.

“I don’t know about ‘everyone else’s mother’, but I, like my mother before me, was cooed at and made much of by the expedition crew when I was barely old enough to walk.” The elder drew herself up proudly. “But if you must have more proof than the word of your elder, go over to the mantelpiece and look at the pictures resting upon it.” She closed her eyes, the picture of blithe unconcern as the youths hurried off.

When they slunk back, the youths were obviously torn between humiliation at having been so wrong and awe at their elder’s proximity to the Great Sigrun. A strained silence clawed at the youths until one of them finally burst out, “What was she like?”

Before the elder could answer, a barrage of other questions poured forth from the youths, as though the first had been but the initial leak signifying a dam’s collapse. At last, the elder had to call the youths to order or be swept under herself. She then held forth for quite some time about what her mother and grandmother had told her about the few reunions the crew had managed over the years, and about each member of the crew individually.

“Remember, youths,” she concluded, lashing her tail stridently, “that you are of the line of the Incomparable Kisu, the Cat Beyond Grade A who braved the Silent World by the Great Sigrun’s side!”


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
This was under way before OwlsG0’s ‘Headcanon Thread!’ post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=509.msg139638#msg139638).

Meow

Meow

Meow

Meow

Meow
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on June 09, 2017, 01:43:15 AM
I got it at "...sitting in the laps of all six..."  ;D

Well done, LooNEY! A timely lightness!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on June 09, 2017, 01:58:11 AM
Good one, LooNEY!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on June 11, 2017, 10:46:34 PM
Alphabet Soup
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Series 1, Part 13
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Spoiler: A Man of Many Parts • show
“You don’t understand anything.”

With that, Lalli had fled like all the grosslings in the world were after him. Emil couldn’t really blame his Finn friend for not wanting to face the truth the… “gods”… had just exposed: that Tuuri and the heretofore unseen Onni were simply products of Lalli’s mind and… magic… (and there was something Emil himself couldn’t deal with right now, though he supposed he would need to) working in tandem, as his actual cousins had died long ago; Emil had to think that giving up such a cherished delusion would have to be hard for anyone. With Lalli, Emil thought the task would be even more difficult than the fox-thing had hinted at.

Fortunately, Emil had managed to hustle Lalli outside before any of the others could react to the “visitation”, ensuring they would have some privacy for this first conversation. Knowing that there would be no good way to broach the subject, Emil had opted to address it head-on, talking to Lalli in Swedish about what they’d just seen and what it meant. Emil had spoken softly and gently, trying to express his sympathy in what he feared was all too clumsy a way, while Lalli had remained silent until his outburst and flight.

The others had come out after Lalli had left, trickling out one by one, and Emil had put them off as best he could. Tuuri—ah, “Tuuri” hadn’t reappeared, which no one took as a good sign, but they’d all tried to go about what business they had with their scout and their skald absent. Sigrun and Mikkel had been on the radio for quite some time, presumably about their new charge. Sigrun, at least, hadn’t mentioned the “visitation”, though Mikkel might have been reciting an Icelandic saga for all Emil could tell.

Emil stared out into the gathering gloom. Lalli had been gone for quite some time now; Emil was trying not to worry as he had on Lalli’s first excursion, as he knew how skilled a scout Lalli was by now. The problem was that on that first night, Lalli hadn’t been fleeing from the inescapable; he had only had to deal with grosslings rather than the ghosts of his past.

Even should the thin Finn make it through the grossling-filled night, would the dawn see Lalli’s return to the camp? Emil could only hope so. “I’m sorry,” he whispered uselessly, his mood waning with the light.

The pain in Lalli’s voice still cut at Emil, even through the muting effect of memory. He wished he could have just left it alone, or found some mythical means to draw the hurt from his friend, but he was just a godless Swede whose only accomplishment was maintaining his sparkly golden hair; unless you counted putting his foot in his mouth, which he seemed to have done again and at the worst possible time.

On the other hand, Emil now realized something he should have caught at the time but hadn’t: that bitter and rather derisive parting remark had been in Swedish


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
So here at last is the sequel to A Helping Hand (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg137719#msg137719).

Took me long enough, didn’t it?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on June 11, 2017, 11:37:03 PM
Glad to see it, however long it took.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on June 12, 2017, 05:10:29 AM
I had the great boon of a day off, and was determined to make a fanwork with my boon of time.  So here is my entry for K in the Alphabet Soup, entitled "Knuckles," and featuring Sigrun and No-Arms.
http://archiveofourown.org/works/11177979 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/11177979)

Spoiler: show
So many great K words in this fandom, and mulling over them over the last few weeks has been quite fruitless in terms of inspiring any sort of story.  Ah well, I got something out there anyway.  It beats a haiku and a drawing of Kisu, which is what I was pondering before this one came to me.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on June 12, 2017, 04:54:55 PM
Yay, something managed to get out of that multiple partially written fic deadlock of mine! Now enjoy... an addition to that "For want of a sheepherder" AU that made me a mass character killer? Really? I don't understand my own brain, sometimes...

For want of a call (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12460116/2/For-want-of-a-sheepherder)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on June 14, 2017, 09:01:15 AM
Ever cried over spilled milk before it's even been spilled?

A Phase I'm Going Through (http://archiveofourown.org/works/10689663/chapters/25005792)

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on June 16, 2017, 01:25:49 AM
In which I ponder universally enduring truths:
http://archiveofourown.org/works/11213457 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/11213457)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on June 17, 2017, 09:48:21 AM
Dropping this here before I go to bed.

A Question of Honor (http://archiveofourown.org/works/10689663/chapters/25080153)

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on June 17, 2017, 10:29:16 PM
WARNING!

This is dark.

Extremely dark.

Got it?

Alphabet Soup
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Series 2, Part 13
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Spoiler: Miles from Home • show
Captain Sparkle, brave leader of THE NORSE AVENGERS, looked at the Winter Huntress’ counterpart (hopefully also named Sigrun), who was their counterparts’ obvious leader, and asked her, “So, we’ve been shifted into another reality, have we?”

Sigrun nodded. “And dozens, perhaps hundreds like us, all normals.” She gestured to a mass of machinery behind her, where Tuuri sat, her hands pulling back from a set of controls. “We brought you here, and here’s why…”

*
EARLIER…
*

It took them several days to reach the thing (Mikkel called it an “arcology”, but after the whole “face-cancer” episode, his credibility was in doubt) that was where Copenhagen should have been. All the while, it neither rained nor snowed; and Lalli insisted that only he should be allowed out of the vehicle, during the nights at least. Sigrun was almost as upset over this as Emil, until Lalli led her around the trail of abandoned vehicles on the path they were following.

Sigrun’s assertion that “Twigs is right; we’d better stay inside” only amplified Emil’s private worries over Lalli’s nightly runs.

Emil had nearly pulled his hair out a dozen times over by the time they reached the near edge of the massive structure, but he found no comfort in what followed, for the group had to abandon their vehicle to enter the warped and jagged tear in the structure’s side that was to be their portal into it.

The warren of corridors they found were dust- and debris-free, and all brightly lit. There was no sign Emil could discern to differentiate where they were, where they’d been, or where they were going, but Lalli led them along a specific route without faltering or hesitating once.

Eventually, Lalli stopped at one particular doorway, which opened in front of them. They went inside, but what first caught their attentions was not the massive pile of equipment jury-rigged into one giant machine, but—

Another Tuuri waved languidly back at them, only this Tuuri was painfully, hideously thin--the kind of thin Emil had only seen in ancient photographs about “the Shoah”.

“It’s good to see you, even if you aren’t my crew,” the emaciated Tuuri said in a voice that creaked as though she hadn’t had water for days on end. “Get comfortable; this will take some time—perhaps all the time I have left.”

This other Tuuri told them of what she and others since dead had pieced together: that this was an alternate to their own worlds, and that some group of people had deliberately and purposefully brought them here to suffer, fight and die for the amusement of that sadistic group.

“Nothing grows here,” Tuuri creaked. “The only way to survive is to eat the rations new arrivals bring... or the new arrivals themselves. Even then, even if you survive constantly fighting the newbies and yourselves, the malnutrition will kill you eventually.” She looked down. “I—I just couldn’t, but other versions of me could, and did,” she said miserably. “Because of that, all of my crew died.”

Tuuri waved at the array of weirdly-configured machinery behind her. “Whoever brought us here left behind caches of stuff that would enable one of them to escape if stranded here; I and some others managed to mash this together so that you could get help—for your sake, and that of all the others here, murderous cannibals or not. Find someone or some group powerful enough to vanquish the fiends who brought us here, then turn them loose against our tormentors.”

A fit of dry, heaving coughs wracked the decrepit Tuuri, until they stopped abruptly. She would tell them no more.

*

“They brought us here to fight; we brought you here to fight them.”

Captain Sparkle looked over at the Winter Huntress; then both turned back to the other Sigrun and smiled


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
The next bit will be lighter fare; if you’ll recall, I’ve mentioned before how cannibalism tends to leave a bad taste in the mouth.

…And Emil knows exactly and correctly what the Shoah was.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on June 18, 2017, 01:10:31 AM
Looney, would you mind reminding me which fic proceeds this one so I can archive it properly?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on June 18, 2017, 01:34:53 AM
Looney, would you mind reminding me which fic proceeds this one so I can archive it properly?
Sorry: it directly follows "Great Geats!", which follows "A Dynamic Encounter"; the whole is a crossover with H Beam Piper's Paratime.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on June 18, 2017, 01:48:50 AM
Thanks!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on June 18, 2017, 10:14:24 PM
The Good, the Bad, and the Bestial
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/Western crossover fanfic
Part 29
Caper the 4th: The Madsen Connection
Part 4
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg132273#msg132273)
Spoiler: Disconnected • show
“Why does the so-called ‘easy way’ always involve me getting slugged?” Emil Westbrook asked with a hint of justifiable petulance. Waking up with your head still ringing from being knocked out tends to annoy even the most affable.

“Your whining attracts too much trouble,” Lalli Ghost-of-Forest opined, essaying his familiar half-smile to let Emil know he was kidding.

Emil rolled his eyes melodramatically to let Lalli know it was okay. “Just gag me next time, okay?”

You should talk,” Reynir grumbled. “They picked me up and threw me out the window as though I were a javelin with a braid attached!”

“And a noisy one, at that,” Doc Mikkel rumbled. “We should have knocked you out too, in retrospect.” Reynir made a face at him.

“Could y’all quit jawing and get to business?” Sigrun snapped from the front of the wagon.

Emil had learned to read Sigrun’s expressions and intonations fairly well, though her reactions continued to surprise him. Even had he not, the near-fury in Sigrun’s voice would have been clear were Emil a deaf man, and while he wondered at its source, Emil was not stupid enough to bring its focus upon himself by failing to follow her command.

So their “secret rendezvous” with Trond had been a bust, but that was nothing less than they’d expected. It looked like Sigrun was taking it a mite too personally, or so Emil thought until he found out about Tuuri.

Tuuri had been hit in almost the same spot on the shoulder where the Man in the Black Hat had nailed Emil all that time ago. Emil rubbed his own shoulder in sympathy. On the other hand, this was Tuuri, so Emil ventured to reassure Sigrun, “She’ll make it. I did, and she’s tougher than me.”

Sigrun snorted. “True, but it’s not somethin’ I like puttin’ to the test.” The unwonted thickness of her drawl reaffirmed her rage, but her face had relaxed a little.

*

Tuuri recovered, of course, but not before Sigrun had plotted out the forthcoming assault on the Westbrook estate in loving detail. Emil was still arguing for his uncle’s and aunt’s innocence, but Sigrun was not nearly of a mind to pay him any heed. Nor was she too attentive to Reynir’s arguments that their foes had laid another trap at the Westbrook estate.

When Lalli brought back a weak and barely conscious Siv who bore marks of extended captivity, however, Sigrun changed her mind—reluctantly.

“Well, where are they, then; and who are they?” Sigrun demanded of Reynir.

“I—I don’t know,” Reynir stuttered. “…But Onni Talks-to-Spirits might.”

*

“They’ve got me, Trond, and Torbjörn squirreled away in a tumble-down tenement near one of the breweries; Siv and Taru are at the Westbrook estate as bait.” Onni’s voice was quite calm as he told Lalli and Reynir this. He jumped a bit when Lalli immediately vanished.

“We got Siv already; he’s just going to get Taru,” Reynir explained. “Can you tell me any more nearly where you are?”

Onni snorted. “Directions are useless in the Dreamworld; it twists everything around until left is up and right is backward, and you have to take three steps back-and-forth to go down a flight of stairs. No, you’ll just have to find me, but Lalli can, once he’s brought Taru back.”

“But who are they?” Reynir asked. Before he could hear the answer, though, he woke up.

*

It took Lalli less time to bring Taru back than it did for Sigrun to come up with a new plan, but it was neck-and-neck there.

“What we need to do,” she told the others, “is to…”

Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
Yep: I wrote the first bit of this as a fix-it fic for one of my own fics.

It’s slightly annoying to me that this took so long to gel. I keep saying the next part of whatever will be sooner and it winds up being much later, so I thank you all for your indulgence of my tardiness.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on June 19, 2017, 05:48:53 PM
Posted from the airport terminal while my plane unloads. I'm well-rested, forgot my healthy packed lunch and am ready to go!

http://archiveofourown.org/works/9787259/chapters/25140852 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/9787259/chapters/25140852)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on June 20, 2017, 09:19:44 AM
And it looks as if I'm still not finished reliving my college years...

A Race Against Time (http://archiveofourown.org/works/10689663/chapters/25157094)

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on June 20, 2017, 09:31:49 AM
Good one, Lazy! For many reasons!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on June 22, 2017, 09:46:47 AM
Apparently that Western AU wanted just one more story.

A Slow Parade (http://archiveofourown.org/works/10689663/chapters/25207098)

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on June 25, 2017, 01:45:16 PM
Halfway done...

Alphabet Soup
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Series 3, Part 13
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Spoiler: The Man with the Metal Legs • show
My name is Mikkel Madsen. I used to be a spy, until the world ended…

Most people think the end of the world would bring about an end to petty rivalries in the face of the need for survival…

“TUURI! I NEED TO SPEAK TO THE STUPID ONE AGAIN!”

“…Which one was that exactly, Lalli?”

…But they’re wrong. In fact, the end of the world tends to throw people into the kind of enforced closeness that exacerbates all their pettiest problems with each other; oddly enough, these problems can make the principals fight even harder to ensure each others’ survival than they might otherwise.

Five hundred and ninety-two days of surviving the end of the world in the company of two innocent and four not-so-innocent oddballs had been most instructive to Mikkel on human behavior under stress… and instructive on other matters as well.

Sigrun let the troll that had been stalking Mikkel get almost up to the point where he would have had to handle it himself before she put the “cure” dart right between its eyes. Obviously, she was still somewhat miffed at Mikkel for suggesting that he not be the bait this time.

Mikkel watched as the troll briefly writhed in pain as the “cure” worked its way through its Rash-mangled brain. This was always the tricky part, as you could never tell just how resistant a troll would be, or how it would lash out in its efforts to resist. Eventually, though, the troll stopped twitching—permanently.

“Madsen.” The calm, soft word had not been spoken by Sigrun.

When you’re a spy, you collect enemies and rivals like other people collect books or movies. Sometimes these enemies can even be helpful.

Mikkel slowly turned around to face the source of the all-too-familiar voice. The man staring back at him intently did so from atop two prosthetic legs, rather than the flesh-and-blood versions Mikkel had caused him to lose in Saint Petersburg back in 1999. He had no obvious weapons, but Mikkel knew that meant nothing; even without his legs, the man was one of the deadliest fighters Mikkel had had to face.

Other times, however—like after the end of the world—these enemies just want you dead and don’t care what consequences that may bring on them. Mikkel knew by the look on the man’s face that this was the case now.

“Well. I was under the impression nobody got out of Russia before the curtain fell again.” Mikkel studied him some more. “What are you calling yourself these days?”

The man shrugged. “Names don’t mean much nowadays,” he pointed out. “For the time being, I guess ‘Eric Smed’ will work as well as any.” ‘Eric’ looked up, searching the rooftops whence Sigrun was watching the scene unfold. He waved when he spotted her. “Should have known you’d be with Eide,” he said conversationally. “The two of you always had a habit of crossing paths right when I least wanted it.”

Before Mikkel could reply, ‘Eric’ turned and began walking away. “Watch your back, Madsen.”

*

It had become their habit to watch a John Wayne movie every night before turning in; tonight’s feature was The War Wagon. This tale of implacable vengeance, while engrossing Onni, Emil, and even Lalli, just brought ‘Eric’ and his veiled threat more firmly to Mikkel’s mind.

Their little band was already threatened night and day by the grosslings; being stalked by a human would be one problem too many. Unfortunately, the only solution that presented itself was not one Mikkel would have preferred; but it was the only solution that presented itself.

Sigrun was on watch when Mikkel silently crept out of the vehicle. “You’re going out to meet him, huh?” she asked without surprise.

“Would you have me hide behind the others until he’d killed them all?” Mikkel calmly replied.

Sigrun pulled a face, but made no move to stop him.

Mikkel was almost out of their camp when Sigrun told him, “I expect you back before sundown.” Mikkel smiled to himself as he walked on…

Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
And here’s an interquel to Madsen’s Malmo Mayhem.

This recalcitrant thing caused me much annoyance.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Windfighter on June 25, 2017, 09:08:09 PM
Wrote a famfiction over at tumblr, it features an Onni so maybe it's okay if I share it here as well? It... should be perfectly safe for reading but just let me know if it isn't and I'll remove it again.

Warning for owls?

Spoiler: show
Abprallen had always liked owls. It wasn’t a secret. And there wasn’t any reason behind it, Abprallen just did. It was a simple as that. Okay, fine, a certain Finnish mage may have had a little with it to do, but really, it wasn’t just because of him. No, Abprallen just wanted to own all the owls.

Abprallen’s room was full of them. Big, small, soft, cuddly, round, rounder, spherical. Angry owls, happy owls, sad owls. Owlcars, Owlpens, Owlpapers. Owlpostcards. Anything owl. By now there was hardly any place left for Abprallen. But hey, owls. The bed would have been thrown out to make room for even more owls but… Owlbed. Abprallen’s life was ruled by the owls. And it. was. awesome. There were few things that were awesomer than owls.

Abprallen’s room wasn’t even a room any longer. No, it was a maze. A maze in which one wrong move would cause you to get buried beneath hundreds of owls. It was a pretty good security system. No one dared enter it. Abprallen was safe there.

“Good night, Owlie. Good night Owlni. Good night Reynir.”

Abprallen said good night to all the owls, then slipped into the owlbed, leaned against the owlpillow and pulled the owlblanket over the owlpyjamas-covered body. The only thing that could make stuff even better would have been having an actual owlbody. Abprallen’s eyes closed as the dreams started arriving.

“PERKELE!”

Abprallen wasn’t sure how long the sleep had lasted. Or why someone was shouting Finnish swears from under a very moving pile of owlplushies. Abprallen also wasn’t sure why the biggest owlplushie was missing. Abprallen had been particulary fond of that one. It was a eurasian eagle-owl, bought in Finland some time ago. The one Abprallen had named Owlni. The plushies spread out on the floor, revealing a tallish gray-haired and very angry man and Abpralllen blushed.

“Onni Hotakainen.”

The words were but a whisper but the man turned around, looked at Abprallen, who’s blush deepened. There was no reason for Abprallen’s obsession with owls. No reason, but a certain Finnish mage who was for some reason standing in the room may have had something to do with it.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on June 25, 2017, 09:59:02 PM
/me laughs maniacally...

Alphabet Soup
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Series 1, Part 14
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Spoiler: A Nice Way to Kill Trolls • show
Emil shut his eyes, praying to gods he didn’t believe in that this was all a dream, but when he opened them, Sigrun was still riding the polar bear. Of course, now she was shrieking in delight at the aid this mode of transport gave to her battling skills, since the time to “stand still and stay silent” was long since past.

And the worst part of the whole thing was that, despite how much carnage the polar bear was causing to the grossling ranks, Sigrun was causing still more on her own.

This was all most upsetting for a high-strung Swede; fortunately, the grosslings they were fighting seemed even more disconcerted than Emil was at the apparition wreaking havoc among their fellows, so Emil and Lalli were much more easily able to pick them off than was usual.

*

When the polar bear had shown up, only Sigrun had actually known what it was from firsthand experience. All of them had known it was a bear, of course, but it was so much bigger than anything even Lalli had seen before, and such a spectral shade of white that both Reynir and Lalli had assumed it was yet another ghost come to assail them. The fact that it had seemingly materialized out of a thick fog that had rolled in over the last hour or so did not tend to dispel the sentiment; even Emil had felt a numismatic shiver run down his spine.

Sigrun had known better.

In a fit of what would have been called insanity in anyone else, Sigrun had stepped forward to meet the gargantuan white bear, her eyes locked with its, and when she was close enough that even a sneeze from the mammoth mass of fur and muscle could have done her in, she’d held up one open hand—and the polar bear had put its nose into her palm.

The near-immediate assault (well, it could have been minutes or even hours later, really—none of them had been paying attention to anything but the spectacle of Sigrun and the polar bear until Kitty let out her screech) by the biggest horde of grosslings they’d seen yet was rather a relief to the astonished others. A grossling assault they could deal with; Sigrun the Bear Whisperer was something else entirely.

And then, Sigrun had vaulted atop the polar bear, clinging on to it by the fur—or maybe just by force of will.

*

The battle was over at last, and none of them bore so much as a scratch—not even the bear.

Sigrun dismounted as easily as she’d leapt upon it, moving in front of the bear as she had when it had first come among them. Placing her palm against its nose, she solemnly told it, “Thank you.” A moment later, it was gone, leaving only the charnel of a hundred or more grosslings to show that it had been there.

Sigrun turned to the others for the first time since the battle, a wild grin splitting her face. Even so, her words were fairly restrained, for her. “That was really a nice way to kill trolls, wasn’t it?”

Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
Seriously, you guys give me sooooooo many crack!fic ideas.

…Yes, I’m looking at you, Windy.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on June 25, 2017, 10:22:32 PM
Windfighter and LooNEY: what a magnificent juxtaposition of crack! Love them both!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on June 25, 2017, 11:29:25 PM
Windfighter, LooNEY, love the crack! You both put cracks in the universe, and I thank you for it!  ;D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on June 26, 2017, 09:26:31 AM
Well I suppose that's my cue to saunter in and tear down the happy mood.

A Thousand Words (http://archiveofourown.org/works/10689663/chapters/25308087)

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Abprallen on June 26, 2017, 11:15:45 AM
Wrote a famfiction over at tumblr, it features an Onni so maybe it's okay if I share it here as well? It... should be perfectly safe for reading but just let me know if it isn't and I'll remove it again.

Warning for owls?

Spoiler: show
Abprallen had always liked owls. It wasn’t a secret. And there wasn’t any reason behind it, Abprallen just did. It was a simple as that. Okay, fine, a certain Finnish mage may have had a little with it to do, but really, it wasn’t just because of him. No, Abprallen just wanted to own all the owls.

Abprallen’s room was full of them. Big, small, soft, cuddly, round, rounder, spherical. Angry owls, happy owls, sad owls. Owlcars, Owlpens, Owlpapers. Owlpostcards. Anything owl. By now there was hardly any place left for Abprallen. But hey, owls. The bed would have been thrown out to make room for even more owls but… Owlbed. Abprallen’s life was ruled by the owls. And it. was. awesome. There were few things that were awesomer than owls.

Abprallen’s room wasn’t even a room any longer. No, it was a maze. A maze in which one wrong move would cause you to get buried beneath hundreds of owls. It was a pretty good security system. No one dared enter it. Abprallen was safe there.

“Good night, Owlie. Good night Owlni. Good night Reynir.”

Abprallen said good night to all the owls, then slipped into the owlbed, leaned against the owlpillow and pulled the owlblanket over the owlpyjamas-covered body. The only thing that could make stuff even better would have been having an actual owlbody. Abprallen’s eyes closed as the dreams started arriving.

“PERKELE!”

Abprallen wasn’t sure how long the sleep had lasted. Or why someone was shouting Finnish swears from under a very moving pile of owlplushies. Abprallen also wasn’t sure why the biggest owlplushie was missing. Abprallen had been particulary fond of that one. It was a eurasian eagle-owl, bought in Finland some time ago. The one Abprallen had named Owlni. The plushies spread out on the floor, revealing a tallish gray-haired and very angry man and Abpralllen blushed.

“Onni Hotakainen.”

The words were but a whisper but the man turned around, looked at Abprallen, who’s blush deepened. There was no reason for Abprallen’s obsession with owls. No reason, but a certain Finnish mage who was for some reason standing in the room may have had something to do with it.


I love this so much :'D <3 <3 <3 Makes my day, Windy!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on June 26, 2017, 03:07:00 PM
Well I suppose that's my cue to saunter in and tear down the happy mood.

A Thousand Words (http://archiveofourown.org/works/10689663/chapters/25308087)


These make me want to bring back my "Worst case scenario" versions of the characters. *Looks at three unfinished one-shot deadlock, that includes a time sponge* *Looks at two AUs that are waiting for more canon to continue* *Brain begging for no more new story ideas until at least mid-July*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on June 28, 2017, 09:13:06 AM
So to possibly... maybe... hopefully?... aid in the tension over the upcoming page dump, I give you this... thing.

(Seriously, don't ask me what I was thinking when I wrote this.)

An Unhealthy Obsession (http://archiveofourown.org/works/10689663/chapters/25358292)

(Song though light and humorous contains a content warning for stalking.)

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on June 29, 2017, 08:22:39 PM
*looks hard at fluffy stories in current WIP*  We'll see whether I or anybody else around here is up for fluff if/when I get current WIP out there.  The next several planned stories will not be impacted by canon.  Will I work on those this weekend?  Dunno.
Dunno.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on June 29, 2017, 09:05:36 PM
I intend to complete the WIPs that have Tuuri as a character, and post them all together if and when I can post things again. They will just have to be AUs.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on June 29, 2017, 09:33:06 PM
Róisín, I'm looking forward very hard to seeing your works. The ones I've read I enjoyed thoroughly.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Kitty_katie on June 30, 2017, 02:50:59 AM
I intend to complete the WIPs that have Tuuri as a character, and post them all together if and when I can post things again. They will just have to be AUs.
I should work out if I should try rewriting the parts of my WIP relating to the main cast or post it as an AU too
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: P__ on July 01, 2017, 04:08:03 AM
Just popping by to copy-paste a fic in honor of Tuuri that was posted on Disqus (http://sssscomic.com/comic.php?page=744#comment-3391810750) by Wispice:

In the moments before Tuuri came to the edge of the water, she felt strangely liberated. She was among the trees, racing between their arching shadows, the sunlight strobing through their lofty boughs. The ground collided underfoot solidly and mutely with each resolute step forward. The world around her was still. She was moving freely about. This was far different from the long weeks spent in the van, where the metal reverberated hollowly as she made her way about the cabin. Where the landscape rolled past, but she was always confined to the driver's seat, peering through the immobile windows, hands on the immobile dashboard, herself immobile. She'd fought to be here, to have some autonomy of her own, but still it had felt like being in a cage. A cage with treads, yes, but she remained bound to it, even in the rare instances where she was allowed to stretch her wings. Merely getting carried around as the world rumbled past. Now was different. Her tethers were broken. She had nothing to return to, and so she ran. She ran with a freedom she'd never felt before, with nothing to separate her feet from the gargantuan surface of the earth. With no barriers between her eyes and the horizon, nor her ears and the sounds coming off the water, nor her breath and the feeling of crisp, salty air entering her lungs.

...Nor her body, and the horrid sickness that incubated within it.

She slowed to a halt as she neared the water's edge. She'd had a similar view back home on the island. When she'd dreamed of the day she'd make her great escape, stretch her wings and fly. She'd wanted to hop on a boat and set off on a great adventure with her brother Onni. Now was different. These waters would take her to another place, yes, but there would be no returning, and she'd do it alone. This was not the start of an adventure, but rather its conclusion.

It was nice to see the outside world, as horrible as it could get at times. She only wished it could have lasted a little longer, this adventure. There was still so much to see...

She sighed. She took a step. She braced herself, preparing to spread her wings for one last flight, one last taste of freedom.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on July 01, 2017, 04:55:04 AM
Just the usual monthly announcement that The Index has been updated. Anyone who cares to check for mistakes and send me corrections may do so now.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on July 01, 2017, 05:49:23 PM
And now there are more than 700 SSSS works on AO3!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on July 02, 2017, 02:53:44 AM
Well, here's one more.  This is fluff, pure pre-canon fluff, another origin story of an inconsequential detail.  It fulfills the entry for the letter M in the Alphabet Soup.
As I explain in the notes, this story in my WIP was going to be superseded by 'Mourning' after the events of the most recent arc.  I could not do it justice, though, and decided to go with this as planned.  If you are in a mood to be a bit more light-hearted, read on.
http://archiveofourown.org/works/11375382
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on July 03, 2017, 04:21:09 PM
One of my AUs was being held up because the direction I was going to take it would depend on Tuuri's canon fate. Her death made that particular plan much easier for me, so I can publish the "buffer" chapter I had written but kept for myself in case some of the assumptions with which I had written it turned out to be wrong.

Three for the price of one Chapter 9: Wounds (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12418142/10/Three-for-the-price-of-one)

*Rereads canon Chapter 15* *Remembers Onni is on the expedition in this story* *Has new thing to figure out*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: OwlsG0 on July 03, 2017, 11:10:20 PM
http://archiveofourown.org/works/11394777 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/11394777)

Something I wrote for the memorial thread.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on July 05, 2017, 04:03:37 AM
I thought about posting this in the Leave of Absence thread, but I'm not really going to be absenting myself from the forum - I'm still happy to lurk around the art thread and discuss the comic and various other things, and the index, of course, will still be updated. I am, however, going to take a break from writing fic. Between the shock over the end of this chapter and a recent health scare that I had at almost exactly the same time, I just don't feel like it anymore. I'd like to at least wait and see where the storyline goes from here, then see if I want to pick it up again.

(Oh, and Looney - if you really wanted to beat me on the Alphabet Challenge, now's your chance...)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on July 05, 2017, 04:46:42 AM
We'll miss you. But I'm sure we will all happily wait until inspiration strikes and your health reliably improves. Best of luck with both! (And do keep looking after yourself!)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on July 05, 2017, 07:34:44 AM
Take care. Not a fun part of the story to have other real-life problems around.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on July 05, 2017, 07:36:25 AM
(Oh, and Looney - if you really wanted to beat me on the Alphabet Challenge, now's your chance...)
Not the way I want to do it, but oh well...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on July 05, 2017, 08:44:36 AM
Not the way I want to do it, but oh well...

*drily* Rest assured, I won't hold it against you.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on July 05, 2017, 10:33:10 PM
I thought about posting this in the Leave of Absence thread, but I'm not really going to be absenting myself from the forum - I'm still happy to lurk around the art thread and discuss the comic and various other things, and the index, of course, will still be updated. I am, however, going to take a break from writing fic. Between the shock over the end of this chapter and a recent health scare that I had at almost exactly the same time, I just don't feel like it anymore. I'd like to at least wait and see where the storyline goes from here, then see if I want to pick it up again.

(Oh, and Looney - if you really wanted to beat me on the Alphabet Challenge, now's your chance...)

I get that.  I wrote a post-canon story a few months ago (Fortune), where I deliberately left it ambiguous whether Tuuri was going back to Mora post-expedition alive, on a gurney or in a box, and also whether Onni was dead or alive back in Mora.  Even that ambiguity did not take into account the possibility that she wasn't going back at all; I hate to think what is in store for Onni. 
Also, I hope you get a good idea of exactly what is going on with said medical issue.  I cannot improve upon the advice you've been given by excellent Forum posters, but I can lend support.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Ragnarok on July 06, 2017, 02:54:03 PM
My little 'diverges via OC ISOT' fic has updated, and will continue to do so irregularly so long as I wish to inhabit the state of De Nile.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/11348076/chapters/25395165 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/11348076/chapters/25395165)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on July 09, 2017, 01:35:44 AM
Alphabet Soup
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Series 2, Part 14
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Spoiler: Nurturing Naturally • show
“You’re right, but you’re wrong, too.” These were the first words Emil had said to Lalli since the other had fled after the, er, divine revelation yesterday.

Tuuri—ah, “Tuuri” had reappeared soon after Lalli had fled, and there was no little awkwardness attendant in interacting with her before Sigrun finally said, “To Hel with it” and hugged “Tuuri”. “You still feel real enough, Short Stuff.”

After that and a surreal conversation on how things would move forward after this, the tension in the air had finally fallen away. Emil had hoped “Tuuri’s” advent meant Lalli would also return soon, but the scout hadn’t shown back up until the crack of dawn, as was usual.

Thus it was that Emil had seized the opportunity to broach the subject with Lalli when the Finn was as close to a captive audience as he was likely ever to be.

Lalli cracked one eye open in order to glare at Emil in annoyance, but the Swede was still behind him, and Lalli couldn’t crank his head around far enough to get him in view, as his luonto was a lynx rather than an owl. With a little puff of annoyance, Lalli shut the eye again before soap could get into it.

Emil sighed, knowing that the morning wash wasn’t nearly the best time for this, but it was the only time he could be sure Lalli wouldn’t run away, as he had the night before. His hands still working on getting the grime off of the scout’s rail-thin body, Emil continued, “I don’t understand what you went through back then, but I do understand that you love your… cousins very much…” Lalli jerked so that Emil thought the Finn meant to flee, bath or no, but then Lalli settled back. After a few more moments, Emil said, “…and I very much understand what it’s like to be thrown into the midst of a bunch of strangers against your will at a young age.”

Emil finished up the scrubbing and rinsing in silence, but as he handed Lalli the towel, he added, “I won’t press you, but I want you to know that I’m here if you want to talk.” He paused. “Or not talk. Or…”

Lalli paused in his drying to put his fingers to Emil’s chin and gently but firmly shut the Swede’s mouth, and Emil let him, remaining silent despite the lingering wetness the Swede could feel on his chin.

In another moment or two, Lalli was as dry as he was going to get, and struggling into his sleepwear. In other circumstances, Emil would have told Lalli of his regret that today’s foray was to exclude the scout, but he kept silent in mingled hope and apprehension.

Lalli’s head finally emerged from the sweater. The look on his face mingled weariness and wariness, so Emil essayed a nervous smile and tentatively put up a fist for a fist bump. He wasn’t too surprised when Lalli simply weaved away, making for the vehicle and his waiting bed. “…Okay. See you later.” Emil almost whispered the words…

Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
And here’s the excessively belated follow-up to “A Man of Many Parts”. There will be more to come, of course.

It’ll probably take a while.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on July 09, 2017, 11:53:47 AM
Managed to get a member of my three one-shot deadlock out... now it's just one of my newer ideas and an older one that descended into development hell.

It's a sequel to Aliax's Trial Of Fire (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6438292/chapters/16668913?view_adult=true) one-shot.

Beaten expectations (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12565098/1/Beaten-expectations)
Emil's parents don't quite agree with his marrige to Lalli, but they go along with it because partly because they are grateful he came back from the expedition alive, partly because they expect it to not last long anyway. Couldn't resist the idea of trying to write about it.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on July 09, 2017, 08:13:04 PM
That's a nice headcanon.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on July 09, 2017, 10:04:09 PM
Grade E cat, I like it!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on July 10, 2017, 12:44:06 AM
Here I go again...

Alphabet Soup
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Series 3, Part 14
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Spoiler: The Night Is Long and Dangerous • show
Lalli was still asleep, and Emil was quietly worrying himself sick.

At the climax of their extremely narrow escape from Jyväskylä, Lalli had assumed a ritualistic pose atop their vehicle and chanted something. When Lalli had brought his hand up from between his feet to high over his head, Emil had felt the hair on his arms rise with the sudden surge of energy—and then the grosslings had begun to die.

A stream of otherworldly force had rocketed from Lalli into the massed attackers, slicing through their ranks with snarls of primal fury, until the only survivors were fleeing into the gathering night. Only after this force, now gathered into the shape of some great cat, had stumbled to a halt and faded away in seeming exhaustion had Lalli fallen to his knees, bleeding from his nose and eyes, at which the hitherto silent Emil had screamed in alarm.

In a surprising display of agility, Mikkel had managed to get both himself and the unconscious Lalli back inside the vehicle without Tuuri having to stop; Sigrun and Emil had had to remain topside until they were sure no more trolls were following them.

That had all happened more than three days ago, and Lalli still hadn’t awakened.

Of the five of them, only Emil seemed more than slightly concerned about Lalli’s continued slumber, but Emil more than made up for the others’ seeming unconcern.

Once they were safely parked in a campsite far enough removed from the dangers of Jyväskylä (and once Emil was able to corner Tuuri so she couldn’t evade his questioning any more), Tuuri had told Emil that the coma was a mage thing: Lalli had over-exerted his magic to stop the attack, and now he had to rest. Emil wasn’t reassured.

Their vehicle had a fairly impressive communications set-up, but they had avoided using it until Jyväskylä was behind them; even now, the interference was still quite intense. Fortunately, Reynir had been working on a galdrastafur to to clear the ether for them, and it actually worked entirely correctly, bringing his success rate to one out of twenty-seven.

Ever since Lalli had shown him he was a mage in the heat of the battle, Reynir had been trying to use his embryonic powers to help their getaway; as mentioned, most of his efforts had failed thus far. This success had allowed the fugitives to get in touch with Keuruu, so at least their families knew that they had survived thus far, and the forces at Keuruu were expecting them.

Unfortunately, their flight had pushed them far to the south and onto a maze of back-country routes with names like “Kuusjärventie” and “Kalliokyläntie”, the latter of which Tuuri claimed would get them to a road that would get them to another road which would get them to Keuruu, assuming they could use all these roads all the way there; there had been several points where they had been forced to reroute or to hack a path through the obstacles 90 years of weather had placed in their way.

Soon, it would be night again, and Sigrun, Mikkel and Emil would have to stand watch in turn while Tuuri, Reynir and Lalli slept. Emil looked at the recumbent form of his friend and knew that, even were they to reach Keuruu, he would not be at ease until Lalli woke…

Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
More “Deus Ex Mikkeli” and “Keep Driving!” follow-up here.

All errors in geography are my own, of course.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solokov on July 10, 2017, 01:16:16 AM
*slowly walks out of my liches lair to drop off some scrolls and quickly retreats from the sun*


Another tale from the Alliance set in the prologue time period and has a minor tie in with the Guardians of Atom and Strelock's Journal.

Presenting: Doctor Bashir's Notes (http://archiveofourown.org/works/11457510)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: CAMIR on July 12, 2017, 01:12:27 PM
Solokov, does your "Doctor Bashir" have something to do with Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. I stumble over the name each time I look at your fic. I have to say I like the scientific tone of the story although I just skipped over it right now.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solokov on July 12, 2017, 03:17:22 PM
Solokov, does your "Doctor Bashir" have something to do with Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. I stumble over the name each time I look at your fic. I have to say I like the scientific tone of the story although I just skipped over it right now.

Doctor Bashir in my fic is both a refference to DS9 Bashir, and Doctor Charles Sherrington (semi famous pathologist who won a nobel prize for his studies iirc).
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: CAMIR on July 12, 2017, 04:41:54 PM
That is combination of two very cool references. I will read it in the next few days and give more qualified feedback.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on July 14, 2017, 08:58:10 PM
Chapter 31 of the superhero AU fic is posted, in which rescue ensues.  http://archiveofourown.org/works/6610714/chapters/25813464
We are getting there.  Half the problem has come in that every time I write part of this one now, I have to go back and match up continuity, and sometimes that takes up what time I've set aside for the project.  I need to go back & do an overall edit to connect some dots and fix continuity I've missed, but I'll do that either just before or just after releasing the planned epilogue chapter.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on July 15, 2017, 06:05:37 AM
Double-posting, but I got some time to clear away some half-finished WIPs today.  Here is my entry for the letter N in the Alphabet Challenge - a little different from most of the ones I've posted.  It's called ="North Dakota."http://archiveofourown.org/works/11508171 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/11508171)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solokov on July 15, 2017, 01:50:00 PM
Very nice Wavewright. I am keenly interested in this "coyote" character as he seems less a spirit guide and more possibly a local god.


Also, updated the notes of Dr. Bashir with some notes of my own.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: CAMIR on July 15, 2017, 02:01:37 PM
Okay here comes... (If this is not the right place for this fic, I can gladly post it in the other thread.) I had a get go (and still am) at writing a fic for this fandom about a week ago. It focuses on the relationship between Sigrun and Mikkel. It is sort of shipping but then again it's not. It is more interested in throwing the characters in a heap of problems and see how they deal with it. And it explores a bit how the Norwegian military works (in my headcanon!!!). There are few unpleasant surprises waiting for the characters. I also made a cover for it which you can have a look at in the "Art-Museum" Thread and I will probably make some more art for it.

The rating is Mature because there is sex happening and also the discussion of other topics that others might find sensitive (I try to be cautious concerning these things), but it is by no means porn or gore. Everything happens for a reason.

Summary as given on Ao3:
This story is about growth: individual, interpersonal, biological.
During their mission in the Silent World it is Sigrun’s job to keep the team together and alive. To achieve this goal, she makes a mistake that costs her dearly.

This story does not only explore the relationship between Sigrun and Mikkel but shows you also something about Norwegian society in the year 90. Be prepared for a few surprises. Even if you are not a great Sigrun/Mikkel fan this story might still be interesting as it explores the characters for the sake of themselves.


Vekst (Growth) (http://archiveofourown.org/works/11421570)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on July 15, 2017, 06:06:33 PM
Solokov: Coyote is a figure from Native American lore. He's a trickster, shapeshifter, mischief maker, protector of the land and its creatures. Unless they are doing something vicious to the land, he generally seems to like people, and often interacts with them. You can learn stuff from him, if you go about it right, and he has foresight and magic. Think of a mostly benign Loki type, always with his own agenda, and often pulling tricks to make humans think their way out of something, but basically friendly to them, and willing to go to some trouble for them. There are elements of the English Puck and the Australian Bunjil in him, but he is a power.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solokov on July 15, 2017, 08:55:39 PM
Quite aware of the lore significance of coyote however I wasn't sure if wavewright was writing coyote the god, or a character of the same name acting as a sort of localized god as it seems like the coyote in the story is taking a particular interest in the protagonist's family and descendants.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on July 16, 2017, 02:11:36 AM
Okay here comes... (If this is not the right place for this fic, I can gladly post it in the other thread.) I had a get go (and still am) at writing a fic for this fandom about a week ago. It focuses on the relationship between Sigrun and Mikkel. It is sort of shipping but then again it's not. It is more interested in throwing the characters in a heap of problems and see how they deal with it. And it explores a bit how the Norwegian military works (in my headcanon!!!). There are few unpleasant surprises waiting for the characters. I also made a cover for it which you can have a look at in the "Art-Museum" Thread and I will probably make some more art for it.

The rating is Mature because there is sex happening and also the discussion of other topics that others might find sensitive (I try to be cautious concerning these things), but it is by no means porn or gore. Everything happens for a reason.

Summary as given on Ao3:
This story is about growth: individual, interpersonal, biological.
During their mission in the Silent World it is Sigrun’s job to keep the team together and alive. To achieve this goal, she makes a mistake that costs her dearly.

This story does not only explore the relationship between Sigrun and Mikkel but shows you also something about Norwegian society in the year 90. Be prepared for a few surprises. Even if you are not a great Sigrun/Mikkel fan this story might still be interesting as it explores the characters for the sake of themselves.


Vekst (Growth) (http://archiveofourown.org/works/11421570)

Would you mind answering a few basic questions about your fic so I can index it properly?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: CAMIR on July 16, 2017, 03:34:39 AM
@Lazy8: Of course. What do you need to know? :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on July 16, 2017, 03:46:51 AM
Thanks! I'll PM you.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on July 16, 2017, 04:54:22 AM
Solokov: I had wondered whether Wavewright intended his interest to be because there is magery in the family, or immunity, or survivor stubbornness, or just because he likes them, or some combination of these elements, which was my guess. Especially since his own folk seem to be gone. Coyote of the tales always gave me very much the impression of what a modern gamer might refer to as 'chaotic good', with the emphasis on the 'chaotic'.

Wavewright: would you care to elaborate on your intentions here? Great story, by the way - your writing is improving even as we read.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on July 16, 2017, 09:18:57 AM
Hey, I felt like writing again, let's see if I can turn this into any sort of inertia.

A View to a Kill (http://archiveofourown.org/works/10689663/chapters/25851684)

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on July 17, 2017, 02:16:11 AM
Solokov: I had wondered whether Wavewright intended his interest to be because there is magery in the family, or immunity, or survivor stubbornness, or just because he likes them, or some combination of these elements, which was my guess. Especially since his own folk seem to be gone. Coyote of the tales always gave me very much the impression of what a modern gamer might refer to as 'chaotic good', with the emphasis on the 'chaotic'.

Wavewright: would you care to elaborate on your intentions here? Great story, by the way - your writing is improving even as we read.

Oooo, thank you.  I intended for Coyote to be a bit chagrined at the wholesale loss of the People - that is, sundry Native American tribes - and many of the animals (buffalo, horses, wolves, beavers, etc) who sustained them physically and spiritually.  As in other parts of the world, magic and the influence of the gods was on the rise again, and Coyote cast about for anyone left in his sphere of influence. 
He found Darcie (a heretofore normal American farm teenager) holed up in her family house, immune to the Rash, just trying to survive the harsh winter (not too unlike a troll in that respect) and not despair.  He senses in her magical ability, as the mages in Scandinavia, and she can see and communicate with him.  Being the pragmatic sort, Coyote takes the opportunity where he finds it and urges her onto a journey to hook up with other survivors, and not coincidentally establish a foothold for himself within the human population again. 
I envision Coyote not quite chaotic good, but more motivated by self-interest, and his interests happen to coincide with Darcie's.  I couldn't bear her leaving Mephistopheles behind, even though he would probably have a decent life on the farm as a feral, so he came with. My story does not record what Coyote thought about Mephistopheles, or Blessed Felines in general.
You may or may not envision others of his order in the Native American pantheon taking similar action in the remaining population.  Coyote is also possibly mistaken about all of the Native American population being wiped out.
In any case, Coyote's mission was successful in that Darcie did find others (I left it vague just where, but envision either Appalachia, Michigan's UP, or the Hudson Bay catchment) and she did end up passing her magical ability to her children.

It's kind of funny, because I initially created Darcie and her family to have One Job - delivering a photo of a dead dog to the Icelandic skalds.  (Minutia_R in particular seems to enjoy my making up origin stories for sundry SSSS details.)  Coyote wormed his way into it, as Coyote will, and imposed his will upon the story.  He may have the last laugh yet, particularly if this story *does* get developed further!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on July 17, 2017, 03:27:40 AM
Thanks for that! I'll be interested to see what follows.       
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solokov on July 17, 2017, 09:13:48 AM
Very neat Wavewright.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on July 21, 2017, 09:33:15 AM
Here, have the long-awaited Fight Club crossover.

A Warrior's Call (http://archiveofourown.org/works/10689663/chapters/25987380)

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on July 23, 2017, 06:19:09 AM
I have completed my entry for the letter O, "Opposites."  A bit of Madsen family drama for your delectation.  http://archiveofourown.org/works/11585682
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on July 23, 2017, 08:28:02 AM
My turn for a Tuuri tribute, I guess... even if it is more focused on those left behind.

An X (http://archiveofourown.org/works/10689663/chapters/26037858)

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on July 27, 2017, 09:23:22 AM
I wasn't even sure where to stop this one, but this looks like a good point.

A Young Understanding (http://archiveofourown.org/works/10689663/chapters/26146179)

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on July 29, 2017, 09:04:09 AM
I'd say this makes me a dirty triple poster, but seriously, why isn't anyone else posting here? Is the whole fandom just going through an epic fic slump?

Anyway, officially 2/3 of the way through Alphabet Soup.

A Zillion Notes Make Sound (http://archiveofourown.org/works/10689663/chapters/26197551)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on July 29, 2017, 11:02:27 AM
I'd say this makes me a dirty triple poster, but seriously, why isn't anyone else posting here? Is the whole fandom just going through an epic fic slump?

Anyway, officially 2/3 of the way through Alphabet Soup.

A Zillion Notes Make Sound (http://archiveofourown.org/works/10689663/chapters/26197551)
I'm still stuck on "An Orange That Killed Itself", and trying to break it loose by working on that other thing.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Jharad17 on July 29, 2017, 11:07:14 AM
I'd say this makes me a dirty triple poster, but seriously, why isn't anyone else posting here? Is the whole fandom just going through an epic fic slump?

Anyway, officially 2/3 of the way through Alphabet Soup.

A Zillion Notes Make Sound (http://archiveofourown.org/works/10689663/chapters/26197551)

If I had to guess, I'd say people are still reeling from Tuuri's death and writing is just harder now. I haven't written anything for this fandom yet, though I have for others, and major events (kinda sorta) similar to this always took the wind out of my sails for a bit before I could get going again.

I left a comment on your story, but will say it here, too: well done. Quite beautiful.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on July 29, 2017, 04:45:14 PM
I'm still stuck on "An Orange That Killed Itself", and trying to break it loose by working on that other thing.

Wha...?  I know right? Where do you go after an epic title like that?

I'd say this makes me a dirty triple poster, but seriously, why isn't anyone else posting here? Is the whole fandom just going through an epic fic slump?

I for one am glad you are writing, even with compelling reasons to go to bed with a hottie.  Hang on, that bit of antipodean slang for sleeping with a hot water bottle doesn't quite have the same connotation in print....
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on August 01, 2017, 09:13:17 AM
The Index has updated. *collapses*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on August 01, 2017, 09:50:44 AM
Thank you!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: CAMIR on August 01, 2017, 03:07:47 PM
Thanks a lot for this project, this is really cool. I admire you for your thoroughness.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on August 01, 2017, 11:26:06 PM
The Index has updated. *collapses*

*applies cool cloths to Lazy8's forehead and forearms*  Thank you.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on August 05, 2017, 07:58:27 AM
Oh, look: I got unstuck on this.

Alphabet Soup
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Series 1, Part 15
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Spoiler: An Orange That Killed Itself • show
If I could really speak Kung Fu,
There’s so much I would say to you,
I would try through thick and thin,
And should you want a mandarin,
I would take off of its shelf,
An Orange that killed itself…

“You mean a lemon.”

“…Hmmmm?”

“That’s what I said a mandarin was like: a lemon that killed itself. You put ‘orange’ down there.”

“They’re both citrus, and when did you learn to read Swedish, anyway?”

“After you told Mikkel you didn’t know what half the stuff on his shopping list was.”

“…Anyway, it’s just a stupid poem; I don’t even know why I started it.”

“Because Tuuri challenged you to find something that rhymed with ‘orange’, and you decided to cheat by using a lesser-known synonym.”

“…You heard that, huh?”

“I may not have Lalli’s bat-ears, or even yours, but I can still hear two kids giggling as they make stupid dares to each other when they think everyone else’s asleep.”

“I was hoping I wasn’t actually speaking, given what ‘Tuuri’ is; I should have known better.”

“An official member of the crew is what she is, unlike Troll-Bait back there.”

“I thought I was supposed to be his mortal enemy now, not you.”

“That freckled ray of sunshine wouldn’t know how to be someone’s mortal enemy if you paid him to; nevertheless, I still think it’s weird that Short Stuff likes him, but Twigs doesn’t.”

“I’ve been thinking about that myself.”

“Don’t strain anything, kiddo.”

“What I think is that Lalli still doesn’t like being reminded of the truth behind ’Tuuri’, and Reynir is the one person on the crew Lalli can’t hide the truth from; ’Tuuri’ just wants to be accepted, and Reynir does, despite seeing through her.”

“In more than one way.”

“Huh?”

“It’s a joke.”

“Not the kind you usually make.”

“Never let yourself be fenced in by the usual, Little Viking; that’s how you get predictable, and therefore dead. Grosslings don’t stay in any nice little box labeled ‘usual’, so why should we? And very little about Lalli’s… um… ‘problem’… is what you could call ‘usual’.”

“Which is why I’m scribbling down bad poetry in an attempt to make one part of him happy while trying to figure out how to make another part happy.”

“And there’s a third part we haven’t seen yet, though the Mora gang says he ’showed up’ there.”

“Do you think ‘Onni’ will ‘show up’ here?”

“He’s supposed to be a big-shot mage, and the only reason we’d need one of those here is if we were deep in the fire, so I hope not.”

“What is Lalli needs him here for some other reason?”

“Since ‘Onni’ hasn’t ‘shown up’ so far, Lalli hasn’t needed him here; if Lalli does, ‘Onni’ will, and we’ll handle that if it happens.”

“Mrh.”

“That’s what I meant about not getting fenced in by the usual: when that happens, the ‘unusual’ gets you all twisted up with worries about stuff that might not happen at all.”

“Or they might yet. Hello, my name is Onni.”

Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
So, it took realizing I’d goofed on the title to get me unblocked on this.

All the remaining titles were set several months ago, though some seem eerily prophetic in retrospect.

This follows “Nurturing Naturally”, which follows “A Man of Many Parts”, which follows “A Helping Hand”.

Next time, something some of you requested, and therefore will be horribly disappointed about:

“Onni and the Cursed Machine”
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on August 07, 2017, 02:50:18 AM
I blame Mr Plinkett, this is all his fault.  Well, maybe a little Róisín's fault as well, for goading me on.  I present 'Perchance to Dream,' my entry for the letter P in the Alphabet & Singalong Challenge.
http://archiveofourown.org/works/11732193
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on August 07, 2017, 04:47:10 AM
I'm delighted to be partly to blame for this. Excellent story!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: October Sky on August 13, 2017, 01:00:51 AM
So this is my first attempt at writing fanfic, and as stated in the post will likely be posted to AO3 with some editing once my account gets approved, but I just wanted to get it posted.  This sort of sits on that awkward line between flashfic and a proper oneshot.

https://further-down-the-spiral.tumblr.com/post/164122820767/sigrun-collects-on-a-bet (https://further-down-the-spiral.tumblr.com/post/164122820767/sigrun-collects-on-a-bet)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on August 13, 2017, 01:24:05 AM
*snickers* Sigrun punching out the Swan of Tuonela to collect on a bet wow that is perfect.

One nitpick, though: "dollars". As we saw in some of the earlier comic pages, this ought to be kroner.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: October Sky on August 13, 2017, 01:41:04 AM


One nitpick, though: "dollars". As we saw in some of the earlier comic pages, this ought to be kroner.
Ahhh, good catch!  I changed it
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on August 13, 2017, 02:52:21 AM
That one made me laugh. What happens next?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: October Sky on August 13, 2017, 03:15:38 AM
That one made me laugh. What happens next?
I'm not sure honestly!  I was writing this and put it down for a while and completely forgot where it was going.  I think I'll give it a proper ending when I revise it to put up on AO3
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on August 15, 2017, 10:35:42 AM
*Re-emerges from oblivion*
About a month ago, I got an idea for a story that could be wrapped up in about six or seven chapters and kept finding things to change or catching mistakes in the first few chapters, so I just went ahead and decided to not publish anything until I had finished writing the whole thing. I won't lie, this is technically my "dealing with Tuuri's death" story.

Second chances: Prologue (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12615318/1/Second-chances)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on August 16, 2017, 09:21:55 AM
Hey look, I actually wrote something main-forum-appropriate for once.

The Call of the Mountains (http://archiveofourown.org/works/11713725/chapters/26670720)

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on August 16, 2017, 07:20:28 PM
Hey look, I actually wrote something main-forum-appropriate for once.

The Call of the Mountains (http://archiveofourown.org/works/11713725/chapters/26670720)


Stabby General Sigrun, and Berit Eide being good value.  Splendid.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on August 18, 2017, 04:26:11 PM
To reduce my risks of being a multiple poster, the non-prologue chapters of my already-finished short fic are going to be posted in pairs. Here are the first two, that expand on the situation hinted at in the prologue.

Second chances: Chapter 1 (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12615318/2/Second-chances)
Second chances: Chapter 2 (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12615318/3/Second-chances)

Various bits and pieces went into this story, and one of them resulted in it having a theme song. Chapter 2 happens to contain a couple of the scenes that make the song appropriate, so I'm posting it along with this batch.

/>
Spoiler: For people who recognize the song • show
I know the group made an official English cover, but I consider this version of the original Japanese and this specific translation are what work best for the story and its general mood.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on August 21, 2017, 06:57:38 AM
Alphabet Soup
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Series 2, Part 15
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Spoiler: Onni and the Cursed Machine • show
Onni Hotakainen liked machines, as a rule; and if he didn’t actively like them, he usually didn’t dislike them. It was very unusual for Onni to actively dislike a machine, and even more rare for him to hate one.

Onni hated this machine.

The roots of this hatred sprang from the first moment Onni had laid eyes on it as Tuuri had proudly presented it to him this morning. “Just think—it’ll make your life soooooooo much easier, Onni!” she’d gushed at him, all unknowing of the antipathy crackling through the air between her brother and the machine.

For a Finn, and especially for a Finn mage, spirits were everywhere, and in everything. Some were helpful, some were indifferent, and some were actively hostile. No one could predict how any given spirit might react to any other, as any frazzled personnel director from the Old Times might have told them. In this instance, Onni had felt a burning, passionate hatred erupt between his spirit and the machine’s within a single instant.

The real problem was that the machine was a gift, and from Tuuri at that, so Onni had had to smile and nod and pretend he was so very pleased to receive his mortal enemy. It was only much later, after Tuuri had made her self-satisfied way back to her own dwelling, that Onni had realized that he’d missed hearing exactly what the machine was actually supposed to do, but that mattered less than one would expect, as Onni knew that whatever the machine had been built to do would be done poorly or not at all unless Tuuri was there to stand witness.

Well, the first thing for Onni was to determine whether the machine was supposed to be for indoor or outdoor use, which proved to be much more difficult than that sounded. It was a squat round thing with strange protrusions and hoses sprouting out of it in various places, but they all looked both rugged enough for outdoor work and fine enough to be used inside, so that was no help. The castors on its base were good enough to roll it across ground that wasn’t too broken, but the area around Onni’s rooms wasn’t particularly ill-kept, so no help there either.

There was a cable about as thick as Onni’s littlest finger wound around two protrusions obviously designed to hold it, and it ended in a standard electrical plug; obviously, this was how the machine was powered. Keuruu had electricity, though not much, and so its civilian use had only been allowed fairly recently; Onni’s stretch of housing had been one of the first to be electrified. Maybe the length of the cable would indicate whether it was supposed to stay inside or not?

So it was that Onni attempted to unwind the cable, which proved to be his first mistake. An hour later, the welts on his forehead had gone down considerably, he had finally managed to disentangle himself from the cable, and the plug had been firmly connected to the outlet.

Onni hated the machine.

Plugging the machine in proved to be Onni’s second mistake. With a horrible series of rattles and clangs that abruptly gave way to a loud, high-pitched whine that hurt Onni’s sensitive ears, the machine went wild, bouncing up and down and spinning around as the hoses flailed convulsively.

Fortunately, the convulsions ceased when Onni pulled the plug free—until Onni was poised directly above its cylindrical body, having approached it with a great deal of trepidation. When Onni opened his eyes again, he was flat on his back. With a groan, Onni got to his feet and poised himself above the machine once more.

Onni hated the machine.

So, there only seemed to be one control on the machine: a knob with three positions, labeled ON, OFF and REV. The knob was set to ON, so Onni set it to OFF before doing anything else.

It took a very long time for Onni to get up the nerve to put the plug back into the socket. Fortunately, nothing happened when he did.

A meow alerted Onni to the fact that he now had an audience: five Grade A cats had gathered at what they considered to be a safe distance and were watching him with an almost Lalli-like intensity.

Onni examined the machine again. One of the hoses led into a solid tube with a complicated handle that looked like it ought to detach from the main body. When Onni tried it, it worked, and the handle unfolded to expose a new set of controls, none of which worked when Onni tried them.

Obviously, Onni would have to set the main switch either to ON or to REV in order for the machine to do anything; but which should it be? Onni set it back to ON and stepped back hastily, but none of the earlier rattles and groans happened, though the whine returned.

Well, maybe pressing some of the controls on the handle would make something happen.

An hour later, Onni had finally wrested his cloak back from the nozzle, the horrible dust cloud had dispersed, the Grade A cats had come down from the rafters, and Onni’s nose had stopped bleeding.

Onni hated the machine.

Onni sighed and wiped his nose again, admitting defeat. Obviously, he would have to wait for Tuuri to get back…

Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
So, here it is; hopefully, it isn’t too disappointing.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on August 21, 2017, 07:55:13 AM
Alphabet Soup
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Series 2, Part 15
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Onni and the Cursed Machine

...it was a ShopVac, wasn't it? *hopeless giggling*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on August 21, 2017, 09:39:43 AM
*helpless giggling* I've had similar encounters with vacuum cleaners...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on August 21, 2017, 07:02:41 PM
Alphabet Soup
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Series 2, Part 15
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Spoiler: Onni and the Cursed Machine • show
Onni Hotakainen liked machines, as a rule; and if he didn’t actively like them, he usually didn’t dislike them. It was very unusual for Onni to actively dislike a machine, and even more rare for him to hate one.

Onni hated this machine.

The roots of this hatred sprang from the first moment Onni had laid eyes on it as Tuuri had proudly presented it to him this morning. “Just think—it’ll make your life soooooooo much easier, Onni!” she’d gushed at him, all unknowing of the antipathy crackling through the air between her brother and the machine.

For a Finn, and especially for a Finn mage, spirits were everywhere, and in everything. Some were helpful, some were indifferent, and some were actively hostile. No one could predict how any given spirit might react to any other, as any frazzled personnel director from the Old Times might have told them. In this instance, Onni had felt a burning, passionate hatred erupt between his spirit and the machine’s within a single instant.

The real problem was that the machine was a gift, and from Tuuri at that, so Onni had had to smile and nod and pretend he was so very pleased to receive his mortal enemy. It was only much later, after Tuuri had made her self-satisfied way back to her own dwelling, that Onni had realized that he’d missed hearing exactly what the machine was actually supposed to do, but that mattered less than one would expect, as Onni knew that whatever the machine had been built to do would be done poorly or not at all unless Tuuri was there to stand witness.

Well, the first thing for Onni was to determine whether the machine was supposed to be for indoor or outdoor use, which proved to be much more difficult than that sounded. It was a squat round thing with strange protrusions and hoses sprouting out of it in various places, but they all looked both rugged enough for outdoor work and fine enough to be used inside, so that was no help. The castors on its base were good enough to roll it across ground that wasn’t too broken, but the area around Onni’s rooms wasn’t particularly ill-kept, so no help there either.

There was a cable about as thick as Onni’s littlest finger wound around two protrusions obviously designed to hold it, and it ended in a standard electrical plug; obviously, this was how the machine was powered. Keuruu had electricity, though not much, and so its civilian use had only been allowed fairly recently; Onni’s stretch of housing had been one of the first to be electrified. Maybe the length of the cable would indicate whether it was supposed to stay inside or not?

So it was that Onni attempted to unwind the cable, which proved to be his first mistake. An hour later, the welts on his forehead had gone down considerably, he had finally managed to disentangle himself from the cable, and the plug had been firmly connected to the outlet.

Onni hated the machine.

Plugging the machine in proved to be Onni’s second mistake. With a horrible series of rattles and clangs that abruptly gave way to a loud, high-pitched whine that hurt Onni’s sensitive ears, the machine went wild, bouncing up and down and spinning around as the hoses flailed convulsively.

Fortunately, the convulsions ceased when Onni pulled the plug free—until Onni was poised directly above its cylindrical body, having approached it with a great deal of trepidation. When Onni opened his eyes again, he was flat on his back. With a groan, Onni got to his feet and poised himself above the machine once more.

Onni hated the machine.

So, there only seemed to be one control on the machine: a knob with three positions, labeled ON, OFF and REV. The knob was set to ON, so Onni set it to OFF before doing anything else.

It took a very long time for Onni to get up the nerve to put the plug back into the socket. Fortunately, nothing happened when he did.

A meow alerted Onni to the fact that he now had an audience: five Grade A cats had gathered at what they considered to be a safe distance and were watching him with an almost Lalli-like intensity.

Onni examined the machine again. One of the hoses led into a solid tube with a complicated handle that looked like it ought to detach from the main body. When Onni tried it, it worked, and the handle unfolded to expose a new set of controls, none of which worked when Onni tried them.

Obviously, Onni would have to set the main switch either to ON or to REV in order for the machine to do anything; but which should it be? Onni set it back to ON and stepped back hastily, but none of the earlier rattles and groans happened, though the whine returned.

Well, maybe pressing some of the controls on the handle would make something happen.

An hour later, Onni had finally wrested his cloak back from the nozzle, the horrible dust cloud had dispersed, the Grade A cats had come down from the rafters, and Onni’s nose had stopped bleeding.

Onni hated the machine.

Onni sighed and wiped his nose again, admitting defeat. Obviously, he would have to wait for Tuuri to get back…

Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
So, here it is; hopefully, it isn’t too disappointing.


EXCELLENT.  Although I am still curious why the Grade A cats went UP and not OUTOUTOUTNOW.  Not  at all disappointing.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on August 22, 2017, 10:49:30 PM
I've managed another chapter of the Reynir superhero story, mostly because it was too long and had to be split.  They're back at Øresund Bridge, which is, not surprisingly, still munted.  So, Chap. 32:
http://archiveofourown.org/works/6610714/chapters/15125563
Chapter 33 should be polished & posted soon.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on August 23, 2017, 04:47:16 PM
Here's the third batch of Second chances chapters. Strangely enough, most of what happens in both timelines can be summed up as "The situation could only stay hidden from Onni for so long".

Second chances: Chapter 3 (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12615318/4/Second-chances)
Second chances: Chapter 4 (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12615318/5/Second-chances)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Jharad17 on August 23, 2017, 05:28:51 PM
Alphabet Soup
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Series 2, Part 15
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Spoiler: Onni and the Cursed Machine • show
Onni Hotakainen liked machines, as a rule; and if he didn’t actively like them, he usually didn’t dislike them. It was very unusual for Onni to actively dislike a machine, and even more rare for him to hate one.

Onni hated this machine.

The roots of this hatred sprang from the first moment Onni had laid eyes on it as Tuuri had proudly presented it to him this morning. “Just think—it’ll make your life soooooooo much easier, Onni!” she’d gushed at him, all unknowing of the antipathy crackling through the air between her brother and the machine.

For a Finn, and especially for a Finn mage, spirits were everywhere, and in everything. Some were helpful, some were indifferent, and some were actively hostile. No one could predict how any given spirit might react to any other, as any frazzled personnel director from the Old Times might have told them. In this instance, Onni had felt a burning, passionate hatred erupt between his spirit and the machine’s within a single instant.

The real problem was that the machine was a gift, and from Tuuri at that, so Onni had had to smile and nod and pretend he was so very pleased to receive his mortal enemy. It was only much later, after Tuuri had made her self-satisfied way back to her own dwelling, that Onni had realized that he’d missed hearing exactly what the machine was actually supposed to do, but that mattered less than one would expect, as Onni knew that whatever the machine had been built to do would be done poorly or not at all unless Tuuri was there to stand witness.

Well, the first thing for Onni was to determine whether the machine was supposed to be for indoor or outdoor use, which proved to be much more difficult than that sounded. It was a squat round thing with strange protrusions and hoses sprouting out of it in various places, but they all looked both rugged enough for outdoor work and fine enough to be used inside, so that was no help. The castors on its base were good enough to roll it across ground that wasn’t too broken, but the area around Onni’s rooms wasn’t particularly ill-kept, so no help there either.

There was a cable about as thick as Onni’s littlest finger wound around two protrusions obviously designed to hold it, and it ended in a standard electrical plug; obviously, this was how the machine was powered. Keuruu had electricity, though not much, and so its civilian use had only been allowed fairly recently; Onni’s stretch of housing had been one of the first to be electrified. Maybe the length of the cable would indicate whether it was supposed to stay inside or not?

So it was that Onni attempted to unwind the cable, which proved to be his first mistake. An hour later, the welts on his forehead had gone down considerably, he had finally managed to disentangle himself from the cable, and the plug had been firmly connected to the outlet.

Onni hated the machine.

Plugging the machine in proved to be Onni’s second mistake. With a horrible series of rattles and clangs that abruptly gave way to a loud, high-pitched whine that hurt Onni’s sensitive ears, the machine went wild, bouncing up and down and spinning around as the hoses flailed convulsively.

Fortunately, the convulsions ceased when Onni pulled the plug free—until Onni was poised directly above its cylindrical body, having approached it with a great deal of trepidation. When Onni opened his eyes again, he was flat on his back. With a groan, Onni got to his feet and poised himself above the machine once more.

Onni hated the machine.

So, there only seemed to be one control on the machine: a knob with three positions, labeled ON, OFF and REV. The knob was set to ON, so Onni set it to OFF before doing anything else.

It took a very long time for Onni to get up the nerve to put the plug back into the socket. Fortunately, nothing happened when he did.

A meow alerted Onni to the fact that he now had an audience: five Grade A cats had gathered at what they considered to be a safe distance and were watching him with an almost Lalli-like intensity.

Onni examined the machine again. One of the hoses led into a solid tube with a complicated handle that looked like it ought to detach from the main body. When Onni tried it, it worked, and the handle unfolded to expose a new set of controls, none of which worked when Onni tried them.

Obviously, Onni would have to set the main switch either to ON or to REV in order for the machine to do anything; but which should it be? Onni set it back to ON and stepped back hastily, but none of the earlier rattles and groans happened, though the whine returned.

Well, maybe pressing some of the controls on the handle would make something happen.

An hour later, Onni had finally wrested his cloak back from the nozzle, the horrible dust cloud had dispersed, the Grade A cats had come down from the rafters, and Onni’s nose had stopped bleeding.

Onni hated the machine.

Onni sighed and wiped his nose again, admitting defeat. Obviously, he would have to wait for Tuuri to get back…

Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
So, here it is; hopefully, it isn’t too disappointing.


I like that a lot! I'm not surprised the kitties went skittering. None of mine even stay around long enough to wonder what the ungodly whine of the vac is!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: October Sky on August 23, 2017, 09:51:42 PM
http://archiveofourown.org/works/11891751 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/11891751)

I wrote a thing for syns and actually managed to finish it in time this week!  I'm actually quite happy with this one (including that final detail I'm unreasonably proud of that) and I hope you all enjoy it as well!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Gaemmel on August 25, 2017, 04:39:05 AM
Hi everyone, I usually don't tend to post here when I finish a piece of writing, but "Onni, he hates our food!" has finally, after like almost a year I think, gained its last chapter and is finished now!

http://archiveofourown.org/works/8326516/chapters/26889948 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/8326516/chapters/26889948)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on August 25, 2017, 10:24:39 PM
Hi everyone, I usually don't tend to post here when I finish a piece of writing, but "Onni, he hates our food!" has finally, after like almost a year I think, gained its last chapter and is finished now!

http://archiveofourown.org/works/8326516/chapters/26889948 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/8326516/chapters/26889948)
*scratches head in bewilderment* But, nobody ever told Onni that anyone hated the food?  I jest, I get the reference although I haven't seen the movie.  I left comments on the last chapter, but I congratulate you again on finishing the story, and in a second language, no less!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on August 26, 2017, 10:17:34 AM
I think this is safe to post here, since it's nowhere near as overtly abusive as I originally intended. Behold! Emil's turn for a villain AU.

The Eulogy Ballroom (http://archiveofourown.org/works/11713725/chapters/26917389)

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Ragnarok on August 26, 2017, 10:36:33 AM
I think this is safe to post here, since it's nowhere near as overtly abusive as I originally intended. Behold! Emil's turn for a villain AU.

The Eulogy Ballroom (http://archiveofourown.org/works/11713725/chapters/26917389)


Already commented on AO3, but must say this is excellent, and slightly creepy in all the right ways.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on August 26, 2017, 04:08:21 PM
@Lazy8: I'm unable to read about clockwork!Sigrun without thinking of paper Hanzo from Kubo and the two strings. Otherwise, definitely one of my favorite AUs of yours so far, alongside the medieval one and the one spawned from the Evil!Mikkel stories. (The seldom acknowledged soft spot I have for steampunk may be a factor, though)

Otherwise, third and last batch of my little piece of escapism.

Second chances: Chapter 5 (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12615318/6/Second-chances)
Second chances: Epilogue (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12615318/7/Second-chances)

I managed to finish a new chapter for the Broken bridges AU while letting these two rest, so it may show up some time next week.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on August 27, 2017, 12:51:33 AM
With greatest apologies for the delay, I give you: Songs of the Seventh Age Part Five (http://archiveofourown.org/works/9341720/chapters/26934333).
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on August 27, 2017, 01:06:51 AM
Excellent! And very traditional.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on August 27, 2017, 08:42:52 PM
Alphabet Soup
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Series 3, Part 15
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Spoiler: The Obverse • show
Squealing with delight at her very first visit to The Capital of Scandinavia (or, really, anywhere outside of Finland), Tuuri sprinted ahead into the thick traffic of Outer Mora, Lalli struggling to catch up behind her without getting flattened by the press of people and horses. She even outpaced Emil by a good bit, slithering her way through minute gaps in the crowd with uncanny adroitness… until she took one chance too many.

A sickening SNAP and a scream of mingled pain and outrage announced that Tuuri had come to grief in the horde. When Emil reached her, he could see that her right leg was broken, whereupon Emil almost fainted, this being his first experience of serious injury in someone he knew and was beginning to like.

Emil’s reaction paled beside those of Siv and Torbjörn. Now, usually the two of them had an arrangement where if one was gloomy and depressed the other would be bright and cheery, but this catastrophe was of such magnitude that both of them practically collapsed as one.

Fortunately, Taru was far more levelheaded. “Siv, you’ll need to stay behind here to see to Tuuri; I’ll send for one of my backup candidates to meet us at Öresundbron.”

*

After the local hospital had patched Tuuri up, she’d confided to Siv that four weeks of inactivity would send her right up the wall (unless the Gnorns, putative children to Siv and Torbjörn, didn’t manage it first, but Tuuri kept that to herself). Siv got a devious look on her face before asking whether Tuuri would like a job perfectly suited for her current disability, so the two skalds went off to Siv’s old workplace.

The Mora Institute for Rash Research’s Svensson Experiment Center was decidedly underwhelming to Tuuri’s initially eagerly expectant eyes. When she glanced over at Siv, she could see her thoughts reflected on the older woman’s face, along with a melancholy resignation.

The few researchers present fell upon Siv with surprising fervor. Even after she told them she herself wasn’t returning to work, the fact that she’d brought Tuuri as a replacement practically sent them into paroxysms of joy, Tuuri’s broken leg notwithstanding.

Well, it was a job, at any rate.

*

After Mikkel tended to Emil’s potential face-cancer, the young Swede stayed in the office area for another few minutes, intent on conversation. He had not had the opportunity to introduce himself to the replacement skald, a large woman perhaps a decade older than he who reluctantly vouchsafed her identity as one “Miira Kiianmies”.

When Emil tried to engage her in a longer conversation, the large skald sighed and turned away from him. “Look: I’m not here to be your friend, and I’m certainly not here to be your ‘mommy’. The only reason I’m here at all is to see that my daughter gets her chance at a better life than I’ve ever had.”

Emil didn’t know what to say in response, but she forestalled any reply he might have made. “Now leave me to my work and don’t bother me again.”

This did not bode well, but Emil supposed he could live with it; it seemed he’d have to, at any rate…

Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
So, here’s the start of a brand-new “Tuuri Lives” AU.

…Since, obviously, I don’t have far, far too many AUs in progress already. /mikkel
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: October Sky on August 27, 2017, 09:33:35 PM
http://archiveofourown.org/series/810066 (http://archiveofourown.org/series/810066)

Ilral and I wrote a pair of stories about Emil and Lalli panicking over their first date!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on August 28, 2017, 03:27:50 AM
LooNEY, do I recognise that 'Kianmies' surname from another fic of yours.....?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on August 28, 2017, 04:05:05 AM
Oh, look! A belated response post!
...it was a ShopVac, wasn't it? *hopeless giggling*
As close to one as Y100ish tech can duplicate.
EXCELLENT.  Although I am still curious why the Grade A cats went UP and not OUTOUTOUTNOW.  Not  at all disappointing.
They stayed for the same reason they fight grosslings.
LooNEY, do I recognise that 'Kianmies' surname from another fic of yours.....?
Well, Miira does have a daughter who wants to join the Swedish Cleansers when she's old enough...
*maniacal laughter*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Talimee on August 28, 2017, 08:51:53 AM
Hello folks, a small message from me and a new chapter for the 100-prompt-challenge. Unfortunately, I can't seem to write in english these days and had to revert back to my native german - so the following chapter is a bit niche. ^^;

Prompt: 49 - Stripes/Streifen (http://archiveofourown.org/works/6440122/chapters/26968050)
Zusammenfassung: Emil hat sich lange genug vor Verantwortung gedrückt. Jetzt gibt es keine Ausreden mehr, findet Sigrun.
Charaktere: Sigrun Eide, Emil Västerström
Setting: ein Büro, eine windige Plattform, einige Jahre nach dem Ende der Mission
Freigabe: für alle geeignet
Warnungen: Meine erste deutsche Fic seit Jahren. Ich hoffe, Grammatik und Wortwahl sind nicht zu seltsam. Meine Leutchen reden sich mal wieder in Situationen hinein und wieder heraus. Mikroskopische Handlung.
Tags: Charakterisierung, Freundschaft, Dialoge
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on August 30, 2017, 03:26:11 PM
Anyone remember Broken bridges? Warning, this is the chapter where Tuuri dies.

Broken bridges: Chapter 15 (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12400128/15/Broken-bridges)

*Goes to reread a Second chances chapter or two*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on September 01, 2017, 08:56:07 AM
The index is updated.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on September 02, 2017, 10:26:22 AM
Hey look, I wrote something else that wasn't too brutal for the main board.

The Gathering (http://archiveofourown.org/works/11713725/chapters/27088389)

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on September 02, 2017, 03:16:14 PM
And another AU of mine pulled through Tuuri's death.

Three for the price of one: Chapter 10 (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12418142/11/Three-for-the-price-of-one)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on September 02, 2017, 05:34:36 PM
Hey look, I wrote something else that wasn't too brutal for the main board.

The Gathering (http://archiveofourown.org/works/11713725/chapters/27088389)


Loooove it.   Also, thank you for the continued gathering (no pun intended) of our works into the index.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on September 03, 2017, 02:26:18 AM
Double-poster, apologies.  However, I bring you the last chapter *throws confetti* of the crack opus now given its proper title: "Stranded."
http://archiveofourown.org/works/6610714/chapters/27108273

There will be an epilogue to catch up with what happens to some of these characters, but otherwise this is done, finito. 
I will go through and do a fix-up of continuity errors as best I can at some point.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on September 04, 2017, 10:16:05 AM
Might as well stop dillydallying and post this thing.

The Hanging Tree (http://archiveofourown.org/works/11713725/chapters/27142389)

(Yes, it's a song from the Hunger Games soundtrack. I've never seen or read The Hunger Games, so you'll just have to judge for yourself how pertinent it is.)

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on September 05, 2017, 12:59:17 AM
Alphabet Soup
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Series 1, Part 16
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Spoiler: A Pipe, a Pot, and a Peppermint • show
The big, dark, scary forest was always big and dark and scary, but it felt even bigger and darker and scarier at night. The Three Bear Warriors didn’t mind this at all, not even their Cub Scout Lalli, but Emil Västerström, a well-mannered boy (when he remembered to be), actually minded quite a bit, though he was too well-mannered to say so (at least for the moment).

There were thieves and robbers in the big, dark, scary forest who liked nothing better than to stalk those foolish, unlucky or desperate enough to be in transit through the depths of the big, dark, scary forest at night, the thieves and robbers falling on their quarry when the night was at its darkest and the big, dark, scary forest was at its very scariest. Sigrun, the head Bear Warrior, had been positively itching for the thieves and robbers to fall on her little band since almost before they’d entered the big, dark, scary forest as the night neared its darkest. Emil had not, though he tried to put a brave face on it, as he liked Lalli, and Sigrun, and even Mikkel—most of the time, anyway.

Emil (sometimes known as “Goldilocks” for his bright gold hair that often sparkled when the light was right) and the Three Bear Warriors were got up to look like ordinary, moderately well-armed hirelings escorting Something Very Important and Valuable through the big, dark, scary forest, because no thief or robber in their right mind would try to rob a Bear Warrior, and especially not Sigrun, the fiercest Bear Warrior ever ever ever. They were bringing certain Very Important and Valuable Items back to Trond the Crooked Man that Old Man Olsen had borrowed and never returned; Trond had spread it about that he was expecting these Very Important and Valuable Items to be sent to him so that the thieves and robbers in the big, dark, scary forest would come after them as Sigrun so wanted them to do.

Emil was watching Lalli the Cub Scout quite as closely as he dared, for Lalli was a cat, and all cats can sense the presence of evil; Emil had witnessed how Lalli had sensed a fiendish Kade moments before it had materialized to attack them, so his cat friend was sure to know whether the thieves and robbers were about to strike. Emil was carrying the Very Important and Valuable Items in a big iron pot, so he wouldn’t be expected to do any fighting; but he would appreciate enough warning of the attack that he could cover as much of himself with the pot as was practicable.

The night was very, very dark now; the only light came from the faint glow of Mikkel’s pipe. Emil wished they were carrying torches; he had a specially-made tinderbox to light things with that never failed to strike, no matter how wet or cold it got. Also, Emil was getting a bit hungry, but whining about things like that was rude, and no matter how hungry Emil was, it never made him forget his good manners.

Suddenly, Emil remembered that the new owner of Old Man Olsen’s place, Reynir, had offered them each a peppermint when they’d first arrived, and Emil had carefully tucked his away for later in the grouch bag hanging around his neck. Well, it was later now, so Emil carefully adjusted his grip on the really big pot and reached for the peppermint.

An instant later, Lalli was hissing fiercely, the hair on his neck standing on end. Mikkel dashed his pipe out, plunging the immediate area into near-complete darkness, though Emil would later swear that he could still see the white gleam of Sigrun’s eager grin through it…

Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
More crackedy-crackedy-crack!

…Just in case anyone was still in doubt about how insane I am.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on September 05, 2017, 01:23:29 AM
Excellent! I do like your crack!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on September 07, 2017, 07:39:04 PM
Alphabet Soup
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Series 2, Part 16
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Spoiler: Past Performance • show
The trick to fighting giants and living to tell the tale is always keeping in motion and hitting as hard as you can at every opportunity that presents itself, unless you’re a mage, in which case you need to figure out just how much you can fry it without overwhelming yourself. Tuuli Västerström wasn’t so good at making that kind of judgment just yet, so after the giant attacking them had been splattered all over the remnants of the lighthouse where Reyndis Árnadóttir’s ancestor Reynir had joined the first Silent World Expedition, Tuuli had passed out, remaining unconscious for several days thereafter.

When Tuuli finally awoke, parched and with a horrible taste in his mouth, their golden-haired Swedish Cleanser, Mia Södermann, greeted him with a soft, “Hey, Weasel-Bunny.” Now, a statement like this would normally have just passed by without Tuuli noticing in any particular way, but for whatever reason, this time was different. It brought back to Tuuli’s mind all the times that Mia had seemingly accidentally called Tuuli “Tuuri” over the few days of the mission so far.

Mia’s Fenno-Swede Cleanser “wingman” (and Tuuli’s distant cousin) Lalli Hollala was in their vehicle’s bunk-room with them, but as she was slumped against Mia’s shoulder in sleep, Tuuli felt he could take a chance. “You know who I am.” Then he nodded at Lalli. “But she doesn’t, just yet anyway.”

Mia got a cagey look on her face, replying cautiously, “I… know who you say you are, and I know who I think you are.”

Reincarnation was not a concept anyone in the Known World generally accepted: it flew in the face of the Finn belief in the eternal slumber of Tuonela and the Old Norse idea of Asgard and Valhalla, to say nothing of how the atheistic Swedes and Danes viewed it; Tuuli was not surprised Mia didn’t want to admit she was Emil and he was Tuuri, even in the privacy of the bunk-room.

Tuuli sighed after a moment. “I… don’t blame you for anything, in case that’s part of what you’re worried about.”

The cagey look stayed on Mia’s face, but there was a slight—a very slight—easing behind her eyes. “And I suppose you’re going to tell me that our being brought together on this mission is entirely a coincidence?”

“Fate is not coincidence,” Tuuli said calmly but solemnly. “But if you’re asking whether I know the reasons behind our gathering, then I must sadly proclaim my ignorance. Perhaps, though it’s that we’re being given a second chance, each of us and altogether.”

“I’ve found that if you want a second chance, you have to make it for yourself, by and large,” Mia said. She looked at Lalli nervously as the thin girl moved uneasily in her sleep.

“This despite the fact that you and Lalli are living out a second chance,” Tuuli remarked.

Mia probably would have argued the point, but a cry of “RRRRRREEEEYYYYYYNNNDDDIIIIIIISSS!!!” from outside startled Lalli awake, so the matter was set aside for the moment…

Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
And here’s the follow-up to “A Late Arrival” that no-one was waiting for.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on September 08, 2017, 10:30:46 AM
Whoops, better post this before I hit the sheets.

In short: this happened.

The Island (http://archiveofourown.org/works/11713725/chapters/27237696)


Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: October Sky on September 08, 2017, 01:50:52 PM
I wrote a cute Sigrun/Tuuri fluff story!  enjoy!
http://archiveofourown.org/works/12033354 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/12033354)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on September 08, 2017, 07:24:55 PM
A golden oldie...

The Jylland Jump
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/“Jazz Age” crossover fanfic
Part 8
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg112550#msg112550)
Spoiler: Red Sigrun and the Five Öre • show
Malmö, Sweden
1986

The clarinet felt heavy and awkward in his hands, but the others were all ready to go and watching him expectantly, so Emil fumbled with the mouthpiece for a moment longer to get the reed into just the right position and then brought the instrument up to his lips.

With that, the “Malmö Musikers” were off, in their first jam session in probably twenty years, Sigrun and Mikkel letting forth mighty blasts on their trumpets, Reynir making his bull fiddle sing despite his arthritis-gnarled fingers, Tuuri pounding away at the drums and almost losing her coke-bottle glasses every few seconds, Lalli shifting effortlessly between xylophone, vibraphone and marimba, and Emil plugging away on his clarinet, a flute and a sax near to hand for him to switch to at need.

They were back at what had been Trond’s Place, which had changed owners and styles more times in the intervening years than Emil had cared to keep track of; the new owners had brought the old name and style back as a way to stand out from the crowd, and so they’d offered what seemed to Emil a truly obscene amount of money to get the Musikers back together.

Emil was actually making fewer mistakes than he’d feared, though any were too many for his tastes; most of the audience looked like they didn’t know he was making any, though he knew that the others were catching each and every one, and especially Sigrun. Most of the audience probably didn’t know any real jazz pieces other than “Minnie the Moocher”, either, which was why they had started the set with it.

The audience applauded at the end of that piece, some politely, some enthusiastically, but the next piece actually brought some cheers along with the expected chuckles. Who knew that “The Flintstones” still had a Swedish fanbase? Heartened, the Musikers gave it their all, two octogenarians, two septuagenarians and two sexagenarians doing their best to put musicians half their ages to shame.

The applause was much more genuine this time around as the Musikers went into one of their old “bragging” numbers. Sigrun had started calling a few of their better numbers that after Mikkel had pointed out how each of them got to take the lead for a bit in them, instead of only showing off Sigrun, Emil, Lalli, or (much more rarely) Reynir. These were mostly their own “compositions”, born of late-night jam sessions caught on a creaky wire recorder and transcribed to sheet music by Mikkel and Tuuri; in the later days of the Musikers, Mancini had come out with some nice pieces which tended to give each part a chance to shine, but they were just too utterly sixties for the Musikers.

Emil had forgotten just how fun playing with the Musikers was when it was good like this; unfortunately, and especially at the end, it hadn’t always been good like this. Emil was a poor correspondent, but he’d written to the Hotakainens on a fairly regular basis, though most of the replies were from Tuuri alone. Emil glanced back at Lalli, who was thoroughly engrossed in his pit semi-solo.

The set ended with “Swinging on a Star”, another piece the Musikers could have done in their sleep; fortunately so, because they were all exhausted, most of them not having performed at all for a decade or more. Even so, they ended on a high note that kept them on a post-performance high long enough for them to take their bows and slowly creak their way off the stage without incident—even Reynir, who had been leaning on his bull fiddle pretty heavily at the end.

Backstage, everything was mostly the same, too. There simply wasn’t enough room in the building to allow for an adequate set of dressing rooms, but the Musikers made do, as they always had. Unfortunately, their varying states of decrepitude meant “making do” required assistance from various family members shanghaied into helping them; this meant the dressing room was even more tightly packed than they remembered.

Emil was huffing and puffing, his wind not being what it once had been, so he only managed a faint “Sorry” when he got crushed up against Lalli, who let out an aggrieved “Mrh!” in response. Lalli was being aided by his daughter, Aino, while Emil’s grandson Emil, who was supposed to be helping his grandfather, stared at her in a particularly fatuous way. The elder Emil grunted at the folly of youth at the same time as Lalli did. They smiled at each other for a moment before Aino bustled Lalli out the back door to their waiting car…

Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
While this is the last part chronologically, I will post other parts of this in future.

You have been warned (again).
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on September 08, 2017, 11:48:50 PM
LooNEY, that's not a warning, it's a promise!   :D

Good one!

Aino and grandson Emil... <3
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on September 09, 2017, 03:01:14 AM
Laughing so hard at the decrepitude of the Musickers! With sympathy though - when my own arthritis-gnarled fingers couldn't manage the greatharp any more, I handed her to my friend Liz, whose hands still work, to play until it was time for my grandchildren to inherit her. Husband bought me a little gut-strung table harp, which I can still manage, and music is still fun.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on September 11, 2017, 09:12:49 AM
Here, have some horror.

The Journey (http://archiveofourown.org/works/11713725/chapters/27309663)

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Mentha_spicata on September 13, 2017, 10:23:21 AM
Lazy, this is a great one-shot, as is always the case with your work, I must say. Love the inter-character dynamics, I especially like Mikkel and Sigrun for some reason(?) - and generally I'm just always a sucker for a small-foreign-and-malevolent-planet setting, so naturally I'd take the rating of this one up to eleven ;)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on September 13, 2017, 05:20:33 PM
LooNEY_DAC, I caught up with this Jazz-age story (I'd missed parts somewhere along the way) - what a hoot!  Ahh, decrepitude.  In brass banding, we have a wide range of ages playing at any given time, and the "Masters" category (older than 55) is now quite hotly contested in solo competitions. 
Arthritis and lack of lung capacity do take out some players, I really feel for Reynir in this last vignette.  Emil's voice is very authentic.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on September 13, 2017, 06:44:24 PM
Wavewright, we too have some astonishingly old musicians. Including one chap in his nineties, who plays various brass instruments in a German oom-pah band over in Hahndorf. He limps and is beginning to go deaf, but his music is fine. To give historical context, he is the grandson of one of the Herbig Tree children. They are a hardy lot.

Lazy8: that was a fine horror story. I've commented over on A3O, but will reiterate here: I love your world-building, even when it does terrible things to the characters.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on September 15, 2017, 08:59:48 AM
No one else is writing, and this makes me sad.

The Knife (http://archiveofourown.org/works/11713725/chapters/27429837)

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on September 16, 2017, 03:11:47 AM
No one else is writing, and this makes me sad.

The Knife (http://archiveofourown.org/works/11713725/chapters/27429837)


I am writing, but not *finishing* - not yet anyway.  Parenthetically, I console you on the loss of Cassini.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on September 16, 2017, 05:18:07 AM
I am writing, but not *finishing* - not yet anyway.
*Grumble grumble*
Ditto.
*Grumble grumble*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on September 16, 2017, 06:38:14 AM
Oh, look. I finished something.

Alphabet Soup
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Series 3, Part 16
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Spoiler: The Poets Will Sing of It • show
Finding Sigrun took quite a bit longer than the others had expected, as she had squirreled herself away in a tiny little hidey-hole near where she’d washed ashore, but they did find her in the end. Of course, Emil had had to risk life and limb in order to wake her so that they could get her back to their rather pitiful little camp, but he got through it more or less unscathed.

Once all of them were safely ensconced back in camp, Mikkel drew Emil aside, as the big Dane had something he wished to show the young Swede. Mikkel had worked up a burning-glass as a rude fire-starting device, and he wanted Emil well away from the camp when the firebug saw it, lest his reaction bring the local grosslings down on them.

Surprisingly enough, though, Emil’s reaction, though sufficiently appreciative, was muted; perhaps the young Swede had been thinking along the same lines as Mikkel in this instance.

What was even more surprising over the following days was that they had been on the big island for quite some time now, but they had yet to find any trace of the Illness at all; in fact, they had spotted a number of mammals that yet bore no sign of either infection or fear of humans. Could this island actually be a naturally occurring Safe area?

The geography of the island was intriguing on a number of other points as well: above the beach to which they’d initially crossed over from the islet, there rose stark granite cliffs that formed the edge of a high plateau bounded on all sides by fairly formidable water obstacles. Once they had explored the plateau, Sigrun had firmly declared that “This was sculpted into a redoubt, probably even before Year Zero”, and the others could not help but concur.

With that in mind, Sigrun began a close examination of the cliff face, and was soon rewarded by the discovery of what she excitedly claimed must be an artificial cavern high above the sands. “See how they used the vines and such as camo for the doors and windows?” she asked Mikkel, pointing at the relevant places.

Before Mikkel could answer, Sigrun was climbing the vines and calling for the others to join her.

*

Emil was always impressed by how utterly competent (to say the very least) Sigrun was in matters related to physical combat; it was obviously far and away her favorite pastime. Now, her expertise was on full display as her little band silently explored the seemingly long-abandoned habitation she’d discovered for them. She was almost as excited as Tuuri was at exploring this place, though still worlds more cautious.

“I have a great feeling about all this, Fuzzy-Head,” she confessed to the skald as they probed yet another chamber hewn from the living rock. “When we get this story back to the Known World, we’re going to be remembered forever! It’s going to be another Edda!”

*

Within the room that had obviously served as the bunk-room, they found a skeleton and a book that was just as obviously a diary. The writing was in English, but fortunately, Tuuri could read that long-dead tongue.

Riffling quickly through the aged tome, Tuuri stopped at one particular point. “OK, here’s the last entry.” She cleared her throat. “So, the Great Winnowing has come at last. All my stratagems have been put into place; I can only hope they will outlive me, and hold the plateau of Prospect Heights against what is to come. As for myself, I choose to die with the world that birthed me; the alkaloid I have chosen is bitter, but not unpleasantly so.” Tuuri looked at the others. “It ends there.”

“Kind of him to leave us such suitable lodgings,” Mikkel rumbled.

Lalli, who had been silent hitherto, spoke now, using the fragments of Swedish he’d picked up along their long journeys thus far. “I don’t like this.”

Sigrun snorted. “Join the club. Rather than ‘kind’, I’d call this just a little too ‘convenient’ for my tastes.”

“Are you trying to replace Kissu now, sniffing out a Rat-Beast?” Emil essayed in a somewhat hollow attempt at humor.

Sigrun smiled at him tightly. “Don’t you worry, Little Viking; whatever the secret of this place is, we’ll suss it out, and beat it to death with a blunt instrument if need be.” She yawned elaborately, possibly fooling Reynir, but none of the others. “On that note, why not secure the place and get some shut-eye?”

The others agreed, and so the band settled down in their new quarters for the night…

Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
More Jules Verne!

…Which, again, no one asked for.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on September 16, 2017, 06:47:34 AM
Yay!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on September 16, 2017, 09:10:23 AM
Good one, LooNEY! It's a trap, isn't it? And is this related to those of your tales where a Cult looses the rash apurpose? I recognise the Verne influence.

On another note, though still fic-related: I recently switched to another iPad (not new, but more recent in origin than my original original iPad), and had some of the software updated. I'm now ready to have another try at loading stuff up to A3O, including some tales that never made it to the Scriptorium, some that only made it to the Scriptorium but not A3O, and the long fic of which I put up three chapters on A3O a couple of years ago, in which I left the story with a missing Lalli, and Mikkel and Reynir about to go in search of him. That one is finished long since, and I'd like to get it all up there.

One of the tales I want to put up is the original first chapter, and some of the chapters I have since written, of that one I wrote for you for that '1,000 years in the future' challenge. I looked for it in the Scriptorium, but couldn't find it. Have you any idea where it might be?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on September 16, 2017, 09:14:42 AM
One of the tales I want to put up is the original first chapter, and some of the chapters I have since written, of that one I wrote for you for that '1,000 years in the future' challenge. I looked for it in the Scriptorium, but couldn't find it. Have you any idea where it might be?
Here. (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=813.msg102686#msg102686)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on September 16, 2017, 09:24:39 AM
One of the tales I want to put up is the original first chapter, and some of the chapters I have since written, of that one I wrote for you for that '1,000 years in the future' challenge. I looked for it in the Scriptorium, but couldn't find it. Have you any idea where it might be?

*grumbles something about this is what I made the Index for*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on September 16, 2017, 09:40:31 AM
LooNEY, thanks! Probably won't try it tonight, have to sleep sometime, but soon.

Lazy8: I wasn't even sure where/when to look. By the way, thanks again for that index.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Anna on September 16, 2017, 03:49:23 PM
*Grumble grumble*
Ditto.
*Grumble grumble*
I lost my manuscript! *muffled shriek*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on September 16, 2017, 09:44:39 PM
LooNEY, thanks! Probably won't try it tonight, have to sleep sometime, but soon.

Lazy8: I wasn't even sure where/when to look. By the way, thanks again for that index.

I'd start with either under your Author entries (since you don't have that many), or under the Next Gen entry (since again, there aren't that many). Ah well, you did eventually find it though.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on September 17, 2017, 07:24:39 PM
Something rises from a long slumber...

Mikkel’s Malmö Misadventures
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Part 5
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg131267#msg131267)
Spoiler: Väst(erström) Troubles • show
My name is Mikkel Madsen. I used to be a spy, until I decided to resign...

Most spies going on a raid expect to have at least one back-up for their escape route. The problem comes when you can’t trust that the floor plans you have will match up with what’s actually there. Cut through the wrong section of wall, and you can electrocute yourself or worse.

Cut through the right section of wall, and there’s still the chance that there’ll be someone or something waiting for you on the other side.

“EIDE-HO!”

FOOM FOOM FOOM

...Of course, sometimes you’re glad that someone or something’s waiting for you on the other side, because you’re hoping they’ll take care of the mess you’ve stumbled into. While Sigrun Eide would have claimed herself equal to handling the situation on her own if asked, as would her protégé Emil Västerström, Mikkel would much prefer that such a mess as this be cleaned up by those responsible for making it in the first place.

The fact that Emil was using short bursts on his flamethrower told Mikkel that the fire-happy Swede was running low on fuel, which was bad. Mikkel wasn’t in a position to do much damage to their attackers himself, as he was armed only with a crowbar, but Sigrun had firmly vetoed the idea of letting him have some other and more potent weapon, her opinion of his “battling skills” not being very high. As Sigrun was far and away the best combatant on the team, Mikkel had deferred to her judgment in this.

A monster was creeping up behind Sigrun until its head exploded with a sharp PING; fortunately for them, their stealth man Lalli Hotakainen did not appear to be low on rounds for his sniper rifle. On the other hand, what on earth made that kind of noise when it blew up?

Something even more utterly wrong had happened in this hospital-ward-that-didn’t-exist than Mikkel and his team had been led to believe; perhaps it was something even more utterly wrong than anyone believed could have happened in the first place. Regardless of that, it was now up to Mikkel to get his team out; or the part of it that was in, at any rate.

There had been intermittent, short bursts of weird and sometimes painful radio interference over the team comms ever since they’d entered the Ward That Was Not, usually (though not always) directly preceding another assault by whatever these things were; this made keeping contact open with Lalli’s grifter cousin Tuuri Hotakainen and the team intern Reynir, both safely outside this embryonic charnel house, much more difficult than otherwise. Now, however, the most recent burst of black noise was (or seemed to be) dying away, which was a relief to the team’s ears.

Essentially, though, the real problem Mikkel and his team faced was less how to get out of what was looking more and more like a death trap than how to get out while keeping all these things in—or, better yet, making this a death trap for them rather than Mikkel’s team. Mikkel spared a moment’s concentration to briefly curse the team’s mysterious “handler” Trond and the certain people who had engaged him as their agent for this endeavor.

Lalli sniped the last of the most recent wave of attackers, leaving the others panting with exertion amidst the corpses of their enemies. Sigrun grinned after a moment and said, “This is so metal.”

Emil managed a distracted grin, while Mikkel actually laughed outright—a rarity for him. Sigrun grinned toothily back.

The moment was interrupted by Tuuri coming through on the comm. “Mikkel! [buzz] What the [buzz] that just now?”

Before Mikkel could answer, though, Emil piped up. “Tuuri, I’ve got it.”

Tuuri’s voice was rather cold when she answered, “Got what, Emil?” Evidently, she was still sore over the smoke-in-the-vents issue to which Emil had inadvertently admitted culpability just before the most recent attack.

“How to burn this place out,” Emil replied, seemingly unconcerned with her latent hostility. “All we have to do is use the burn-out system whoever designed this ward put in when they made it, but we probably can’t do it from here.”

“How do you know there is one?” Tuuri challenged.

“Well, if there isn’t the people running the place are idiots,” Emil replied. “They picked us to check this incident out before taking the place down, so they definitely aren’t idiots and therefore have a self-destruct built into the place, so Reynir needs to find it and set it off after we get out.”

“Have you considered the possibility that the self-destruct might take out more than just this ward?” Mikkel said calmly.

Emil nodded grimly. “So might anything we can rig up here,” he pointed out.

Mikkel nodded. “Do it, Reynir,” he ordered. “We’ll make an escape hatch and bail when you’re ready.”

If they survived long enough…

Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
So, I decided to resurrect this thing.

Other such will follow.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: October Sky on September 18, 2017, 12:23:42 PM
Instructions on the Care of Your New Cat/Boyfriend (http://archiveofourown.org/works/12127353)

I finally wrote a proper Emil/Lalli fic!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on September 18, 2017, 04:11:56 PM
Sorry Lazy8, I could only resist the temptation to make an ending-overriding sequel to your Evil!Emil steampunk fic for so long.

Small steps (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12657534/1/Small-steps)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on September 19, 2017, 06:22:35 AM
Yaaaaaaaaaay people are writing again!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Windfighter on September 19, 2017, 06:46:49 AM
Pff, I've been writing the whole time, you people just don't see it because I don't post here any longer ;) Still nice to the thread moving by those of you who do post here! ♥
or maybe I don't count as people
*goes back into hiding*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on September 19, 2017, 07:58:08 AM
Alphabet Soup
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Series 1, Part 17
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Spoiler: A Quiet Place • show
It had been four days since the Dalahästen wreck, days full of close calls, quick escapes and bitter disappointments; not the least of these was the sight of the Baggen flying by, all unheeding of the six refugees desperately in need of their notice.

They were still following the Sveavägen line’s tracks, since these were the best and most direct route to get where they were going, and had the advantage of being swept on a regular basis, which both lowered the risk of grossling encounters and raised their chances of getting rescued, though not to a certainty, as the recent Baggen incident demonstrated. They would have to be more careful next time.

The cats had been life-savers many times over; cute little furry life-savers with rather snooty attitudes toward those they kept having to save, but life-savers nonetheless. Emil thought they were keeping score amongst themselves of their kill and rescue counts, but since they were cats, he couldn’t be sure—though he also suspected that Lalli might be able to tell him.

Of course, that presupposed that he and Lalli would be able to speak with each other at all, something their pell-mell hustle along the tracks while the sun gave them cover tended to preclude. The ever-growing cold shielded their campsites during the nights, but the foreshortened spans of daylight meant their travels had to be swifter than most of them were comfortable with; even Emil had had trouble keeping up the pace a time or two.

The best part had been when they got to watch Sigrun run down a deer, which she claimed was the self-same one that had escaped her on that first day: not only had Sigrun’s performance been a true spectacle; not only was there meat for dinner; but Sigrun had been winded enough by the chase to let them take it easier for the rest of the day’s march, which meant marching instead of jogging and marching.

They had reached a charmingly pastoral section of the track line; the whole area was deceptively peaceful. Unfortunately, the only structures Lalli had found were either too far out of their way, nest traps, or otherwise unsuitable for the little band to take shelter in them tonight. Desperate times called for desperate measures, though, so nightfall found them huddled in a tumble-down shell of some tiny outbuilding, their only protection from the elements a few blankets scavenged from the house in which they’d spent the first night of this journey.

Tuuri and Reynir passed out within seconds of snuggling into the sleeping pile, and Mikkel followed soon after. Emil had the first watch again, which was good, as he was ready to swear he wouldn’t be able to get even a wink of sleep in this horribly exposed campsite. Ola stayed up with him, as did Sigrun, but the two humans and the cat were too aware of their potential peril to make any noises, so Emil’s watch passed in silence.

The moon was very bright, but there was no noise at all from outside, which lent everything a dreamlike quality. Emil kept his eyes on Lalli and the cats until Sigrun put a hand onto his shoulder, signaling that his watch was done. Now Emil had to try to sleep…

Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
More “trying to reach Mora”!

…I swear, all these titles were cooked up months before Tuuri died.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on September 19, 2017, 08:15:09 AM
Looney, is that the sequel to something else?

Pff, I've been writing the whole time, you people just don't see it because I don't post here any longer ;) Still nice to the thread moving by those of you who do post here! ♥
or maybe I don't count as people
*goes back into hiding*

Don't be silly, of course you count as people! I'm just not indexing you any longer, that's all.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on September 19, 2017, 03:17:59 PM
Looney, is that the sequel to something else?
"Into the Silent World" and "The Jitters", in order.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on September 19, 2017, 07:20:55 PM
"Into the Silent World" and "The Jitters", in order.

Thanks!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on September 20, 2017, 09:13:21 AM
Dirty double poster makes a dirty double post.

The Last Unicorn (http://archiveofourown.org/works/11713725/chapters/27551397)

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on September 23, 2017, 06:50:06 PM
And now I risk the sobriquet of "copycat". *Sigh*

Alphabet Soup
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Series 2, Part 17
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Spoiler: Quests Old and New • show
None of the Six Sojourners were happy with the Blue Wizard; not Sigrun of the Haladin Guard; not Mikkel Foundling Son of Man; not Lalli and Tuuri Pesky-Door, two Hobbits now very far from the Shire and (of rather more importance to them) a good meal; not Emil Dúnduin, who was wondering how he could redeem his family honor if none of his countrymen ever knew of his valor; not even Reynir Half-Elven, far and away the most easy-going of them. They had passed the Eastern Sea, the Sea of Rhûn, and yet gone on into lands either legendary to them or utterly beyond their ken.

After their escape from the Caves of Otherworldly Regrets on the far shores of the Sea of Rhûn and during their subsequent trek through the Last Desert (which Tuuri and Lalli had believed a myth) on the way to the ruins of the Red Mountains and where the Lands of Awakening had been, they had had to fight off a group of really odd magicians bearing a peculiar and sinister snake sigil who made words in various odd scripts appear in the air whenever someone spoke. Aside from that, defeating them was fairly easy; certainly much easier than fighting off the intermittent dragon attacks that had plagued them from the beginning.

The Blue Wizard had actually winced in shame when these magicians had first attacked, and had disclosed afterwards, “I am ashamed to admit that they are a corrupt offshoot of the teachings I and my fellows attempted to plant in these lands; once we discovered their corruption, we moved to limit the damage they could do by twisting their knowledge into near-uselessness.”

Notwithstanding their successful passage out of the desert into a region of great fertility and verdure, the Six were still not happy with the Blue Wizard, for it was beginning to seem that they were on a journey with no end at all. Indeed, the next time the Blue Wizard went off on his own, there were strong suggestions that the Six simply start for home immediately; Sigrun and Emil refused to countenance them, and the matter was tabled.

The Six had become accustomed to the Blue Wizard vanishing for upwards of a week; so when he returned scarcely a day later, none of them bothered to hide their astonishment. The Blue Wizard was, however, too upset at what he had found to notice their surprise.

“The situation is worse than I had expected, and by far, though not irretrievably so,” the Blue Wizard declared solemnly. “We shall have to plan our attacks and counter-attacks at once.”

The Six reacted to this non sequitur as might be expected: bewildered silence. It had not escaped their attention that sometimes the Blue Wizard assumed that he had told them (or that they somehow knew) things he had never once mentioned; the best way to deal with this was to disabuse him of that errant assumption at the outset. Thus it was that Sigrun told him, “None of us has the faintest clue as to what you’re babbling about.”

The Blue Wizard looked carefully at each of the others around him. Once thus convinced that Sigrun spoke only the truth, he expostulated, “I brought the six of you here in order that you might win a war. This war is between the good folk of the village of Marambaraparatharamda and the evil Lord of the Great Burgh of Kyankanamarakanan, who covets it.”

“And this ‘war’ can be decided by the addition of six warriors?” Sigrun asked skeptically.

“The village itself has perhaps two score souls in residence,” the Blue Wizard replied. “The evil Lord can muster perhaps three score warriors for this fight. Now, this war I’ve brought you into might not seem of any great moment to you, but for those you would be defending, this is of the uttermost moment. Nothing in their lives has been of more importance.” He turned away from the group. “Now, you must make your choice: will you come to the aid of the weak against the strong, or shall you simply make your way homeward, leaving them to their doom?”

The Six Sojourners looked at each other doubtfully, the silence after the Blue Wizard’s question lingering for quite some time as they each pondered the matter…

Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
More Tolkien! (Even though it’ll look copy-cattish, when this has been in the works for weeks. Dagnabbit.)

Hopefully, my utterly made-up names aren’t obscenities in some language known to other Minnions.

Oh, and the magicians are a really bad joke of mine: instead of mastering subtilties, they’ve mastered subtitles.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on September 23, 2017, 07:50:16 PM
Subtitles.....LooNEY! But I'm still curious to see what happens next.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on September 24, 2017, 07:20:38 PM
Alphabet Soup
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Series 3, Part 17
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Spoiler: The Quick and the Bed • show
Emil Västerström had been a hired grenadier for longer than he wished to remember, but never had he run into such a dilemma as this.

Normally, a hired gun had colleagues rather than friends, since today’s ally could be tomorrow’s enemy, but Lalli had always been different. Ostensibly, they couldn’t have been more different: an explosives man and a knife fighter; a hothead and a cool customer. The similes and analogies went on and on, but somehow… none of it had mattered, nor did it matter now.

Thus was born Emil’s dilemma: Emil and Lalli were friends; Emil could no more kill Lalli than he could have killed himself. But Emil had pledged his honor to wipe out the farmstead; while others might turn craven or coldly renege on their commitments, to do either was as impossible for Emil… as it would be for him to kill Lalli.

If it were anyone else, Emil could call a quick truce, meet them in no man’s land, shake hands, go back to his side, and fulfill his commitment.

What could he do?

*

Lalli was torn in a way he’d never been before. Tuuri (and, by extension, Reynir) was family; there was no way he could let her and hers die.

Equally, there was no way Lalli could ever kill Emil.

Lalli had had to kill acquaintances before, of course; it was a hazard of his profession, and had been handled in a “nothing-personal-just-doing-my-job” way by both parties.

There was no way Lalli could ever kill Emil. Even the thought of having to mercy kill Emil twisted Lalli’s guts.

What could he do?

*

The siege let up at dawn; according to Tuuri and Reynir, it always did. Lalli’s stomach roiled regardless, for he knew that sunset would bring the moment of truth.

As soon as he decently could after breakfast, Lalli slipped away to the room he’d been given, eschewing the narrow bed for the floor beneath it, as was his wont. His lips twitched in an embryonic smile as he recalled all the times he’d slept beneath Emil’s bunk; Emil had a soft, buzzing snore that actually settled Lalli’s nerves, rather than jangling on them as most snores did.

Perhaps in a better world, Lalli and Emil and Tuuri and even Reynir could have gone gallivanting off on caper after caper; but they had to live in this world, not any other.

*

The doc who’d patched up Emil’s boss had sent an unpleasant tingle down Emil’s spine; Emil’s parents would have said, “Someone just walked over your grave”. Perhaps that “someone” had been Lalli.

Lalli. Emil still couldn’t figure a way out of his dilemma: his current boss wasn’t the kind to let any of his men walk away from a job, even if Emil could bring himself to ask to be released.

Back in his hotel room, Emil absently played with a few matches, hoping the little flames would send him to sleep. Not being a complete fool, his colleagues’ opinion of him notwithstanding, Emil held the lit matches out over a tin basin half filled with water, so that when he dropped the burnt-down match, it was harmlessly extinguished. Eventually, Emil’s eyes closed.

*

Emil coughed and coughed as he watched the hotel burn. Everyone was telling him how lucky he was to have escaped the conflagration, but Emil paid them no heed; his attention was caught by what he saw in the flames.

Emil could swear he saw a man standing in the middle of the inferno, laughing…

Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
More exclamation points—um, more Western! Though not part of “The Good, the Bad, and the Bestial” (the next bit of that is still in the works); this follows “Have Pukko, Will Travel”.

…And this is still an “&”, not a “/”, OK?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Gaemmel on September 26, 2017, 03:54:57 AM
After another long period of nothing, I managed my entry for the letter F in the song challenge! (I'm awfully slow.)

It's exactly what you'd usually expect from me :D

http://archiveofourown.org/works/9629999/chapters/27685185 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/9629999/chapters/27685185)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on September 28, 2017, 05:50:12 AM
I have finished a crack opus, named 'Stranded,'  by posting the Epilogue today.  http://archiveofourown.org/works/6610714/chapters/27729420
Gadzooks.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on September 29, 2017, 02:26:41 AM
...And with this, I hit the 2/3 mark.

Alphabet Soup
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Series 1, Part 18
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Spoiler: A Restful Ride • show
The steady thud-thud-thud of the horse’s hooves over the soft turf made for a soothing background to Emil’s turbulent thoughts. The field he was letting the horse canter through was wide enough that a grossling encounter was unlikely at best, so his mental distraction wasn’t likely to endanger either himself or the horse.

Reynir had done Emil a great favor, and so should be repaid in some fashion; but Emil hadn’t the least notion of how best to repay the gangly Icelander, just as Reynir himself had no notion that he’d done Emil a favor.

When they had fled the Jyväskylä Exclusion, they had left the horses wherever Lalli had led them for safekeeping before the onslaught had begun. They had only realized this long after the fact, what with everything else that had been going on, and most of them had agreed that there was nothing to be done; the only ones not to agree were the unconscious Lalli and the idealistic (and newly fledged mage) Reynir, who had set his mind to using his powers to bring the horses to them.

To everyone’s surprise, Reynir had succeeded, and without bringing a horde of grosslings in the horses’ wake. Moreover, when the horses had finally caught up with them (shortly after they’d finally turned from the road marked “604” to one marked “23”), the equine duo had brought with them some intangible thing that had knocked Lalli back to wakefulness. So while Emil was stuck caring for the horses again, he wasn’t about to complain, and he owed something to Reynir as well.

Since none of them knew whether the horses were immune or not and considering their extensive absence, Sigrun had insisted that Emil put them in a sort of pseudo-quarantine, sequestering them from Tuuri and Reynir and keeping a close watch on them for any signs or symptoms: this was to last either until two weeks had gone by or until they reached Keuruu, whichever came first; once they made it to Keuruu, they would all go into quarantine regardless.

Tuuri and Reynir were plotting some way around this prohibition, of course, but Emil took keeping the non-immunes alive rather seriously. He wished he could talk it over with Lalli, but their schedules continued to overlap only briefly, since Lalli still needed to scout out their route every night for traps like the one they’d almost stumbled into while following the road marked “607”.

They should be less than a week out from Keuruu’s outposts; every morning, Emil expected Lalli to return with news that he’d made contact with one, though that had yet to occur. Emil wasn’t really sure how he felt about reaching Keuruu: on the one hand, it meant safety for them all at last; on the other, it meant the six of them would inevitably split up, as only Tuuri and Lalli had places in Keuruu. Sigrun, Emil and Reynir would return to their units in their home countries, while Mikkel had spoken of returning to his family farm for a rest (and to let whoever had “volunteered” him on their original mission cool down).

It was most unlikely the six of them would ever see each other, which saddened Emil. It also reminded him that he had a looming deadline by which he needed to repay Reynir…

Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
This follows “Deus Ex Mikkeli”, “The Easy Way”, “Keep Driving!” and “The Night Is Long and Dangerous”, but isn’t nearly the end of it.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on September 29, 2017, 02:55:38 AM
...but isn’t nearly the end of it.

I'm very glad to hear that!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on September 29, 2017, 09:07:04 AM
*jumps on the CoH crossover bandwagon*

Here, have some crack!

(Also, halfway through the final third of the challenge, yaaaaaaay!)

The Massacre (http://archiveofourown.org/works/11713725/chapters/27751026)

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on October 01, 2017, 09:46:46 AM
...the stupid index is updated in spite of my stupid wireless not cooperating.

(Also, holy crap, the Scriptorium got bumped to the second page?? We need to get writing, pronto!)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on October 01, 2017, 06:37:09 PM
...the stupid index is updated in spite of my stupid wireless not cooperating.

(Also, holy crap, the Scriptorium got bumped to the second page?? We need to get writing, pronto!)
}hugs{ for wireless difficulties.  I should be finally able to finish the Q story I put on hold a few weeks ago, but this month it's mostly going to be about drawing. (Not that it really matters.)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Gaemmel on October 02, 2017, 04:26:35 AM
I also have noticed that both the scriptorium and the art museum have been pretty empty lately. I blame the fact that in a lot of countries, the semester/school has just started again.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Windfighter on October 02, 2017, 06:05:32 AM
I also have noticed that both the scriptorium and the art museum have been pretty empty lately. I blame the fact that in a lot of countries, the semester/school has just started again.

Pffff, fine, send me some asks over at Wordfighter (https://wordfighter.tumblr.com/tagged/asks) and Ill write some short stories I can post here! Already working hard at keeping the art-museum active tho!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Gaemmel on October 02, 2017, 12:23:11 PM
Pffff, fine, send me some asks over at Wordfighter (https://wordfighter.tumblr.com/tagged/asks) and Ill write some short stories I can post here! Already working hard at keeping the art-museum active tho!

Our brave hero!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Windfighter on October 02, 2017, 02:28:38 PM
If you all dont mind Swedish, have a short story I wrote for the writing circle I attend to. The assignment was to write about someone who was pregnant and didnt like it, but... I kind of failed a little at it. anyway!

Spoiler: have some Swedish! • show
   Direkt när han vaknade visste han att något var fel. Något tryckte i hans mage, magsaften brände hans strupe. Han föll ur sängen, sparkade till Lalli och snubblade in i badrummet. Han hann precis fram till toaletten innan hans mage vände sig ut och in.
   ”Emil?” Lalli gnuggade sömnen ur ögonen och lutade sig mot dörrkarmen. ”Är allt okej?”
   ”Jag vet inte”, Emil lutade sig mot badkaret. ”Jag tror jag är sjuk.”
   Han kände sig inte sjuk, bortsett från illamåendet. Det påminde om när han hade varit magsjuk förra vintern, fast mindre intensivt. Lalli satte sig på huk framför honom och la en hand mot hans panna.
   ”Ingen feber.”
   Emil skakade på huvudet.
   ”Bara spyfärdig.”
   ”Vill du ha något?”
   Emil tänkte efter. Det mesta han kunde komma på gav honom kväljningar, men dät var en sak han hade ett väldigt sug efter.
   ”...kaffe?”
   Lalli höjde ett ögonbryn.
   ”Du dricker inte kaffe.”
   ”Vi får väl ändra på det då.”
   Lalli nickade, reste sig och försvann ut i köket. Emil lutade huvudet mot badkarskanten och slöt ögonen.
   ”Tors åskvigg, låt det inte vara magsjuka igen...”
   Han satt kvar, den brinnande känslan i magen försvann sakta och han drog sig upp på fötter igen, följde Lalli ut i köket och satte sig vid köksbordet. Lalli ställde en kopp kaffe framför honom och Emil drack. Smaken påminde om Mikkels matlagning, men han var tvungen att ha det, han kunde inte sluta förrän han hade tömt koppen.
   ”Bättre?”
   Emil nickade, lutade sig tillbaka och slöt ögonen. Illamåendet var försvunnet, ersatt av en enorm trötthet. Han gäspade och reste sig.
   ”Jag går och lägger mig igen, följer du med?”
   Lalli nickade och de gick tillbaka till sovrummet, kröp ner i sängen. Emil drog sig närmare Lalli, slöt ögonen och log. Vad det än var som hade väckt honom var det i alla fall inte lika illa som magsjuka.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: CAMIR on October 04, 2017, 08:46:22 AM
...the stupid index is updated in spite of my stupid wireless not cooperating.

(Also, holy crap, the Scriptorium got bumped to the second page?? We need to get writing, pronto!)
I wasn't sure if the thread was only to announce new projects or also to announce an update. That's why I stayed mostly silent.

Windfighter I read the story because it was Swedish (curious how much I would get) and it worked out quite well. While not to keen on the subject of mpreg I liked your subtle take on it and the interaction between those two. (Also fanfics in languages besides English and German are a rare thing. :D )
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on October 04, 2017, 08:53:39 AM
I wasn't sure if the thread was only to announce new projects or also to announce an update. That's why I stayed mostly silent.

If there's a rule against posting updates I've certainly been breaking it, along with pretty much everyone else who's ever had a multichapter project. ::)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on October 05, 2017, 08:42:41 AM
Another short one. Warning for suicide and Tuuri's death as a central theme.

The Other Side (http://archiveofourown.org/works/11713725/chapters/27894735)

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: CAMIR on October 05, 2017, 11:00:10 AM
If there's a rule against posting updates I've certainly been breaking it, along with pretty much everyone else who's ever had a multichapter project. ::)
Thanks for the heads-up! Then I can post more in this lovely thread. <3
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on October 05, 2017, 09:36:35 PM
Alphabet Soup
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Series 2, Part 18
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Spoiler: Recapitulation • show
“…And then I punched the building so hard it died.” “Onni” was looking positively green by the time Sigrun reached this part of the story. While Emil would have understood if the illusory Finn had looked skeptical—Emil had been there for this story, and he still found it hard to believe that it had actually happened—he was puzzled by how this “Onni”, supposedly a mage of far greater power and experience than the Lalli who had done things right in front of Emil even more unbelievable than the story Sigrun was just finishing up, could be so outright terrified by a tale of derring-do that “he” looked like “he” was about to faint.

In stark opposition to “Onni’s” transparent fear, “Tuuri” was gazing up at Sigrun like their leader had hung the moon. This, of course, was not unusual behavior for “Tuuri” either before or after the (Emil gulped at the thought of it, even now) divine revelation that “she” and “Onni” were both magical constructs—illusions born of an orphaned Lalli’s need for family members to have survived the terrible tragedy of his childhood along with him, though today “Tuuri” was hanging on Sigrun’s every word even more intently than usual, which was why “she” missed when “Onni’s” eyes rolled up so that only the whites were showing and “he” silently toppled backwards.

The kitten Emil had rescued stayed by Lalli’s side as the others fussed over “Onni”. The advent of “Onni” had sent Lalli into a slumber almost as deep as when he’d had to invoke his luonto to fight off the murderghosts Mikkel had brought back with him on his excursion to Kastellet; fortunately, “Onni” had been able to convince Emil that Lalli was in no danger this time.

Reynir heard a slightly different story when he went to see Lalli in the Finn’s dreamspace a few moments later. Lalli was resting idly on his little raft, and seemed much less irked at Reynir’s intrusion than he had before. Soon, Reynir found out why.

*

“…And with all of us here, It is much more likely to come after us,” Lalli finished. “We must be even more vigilant against It than against the Death Shades.”

“But they haven’t gone away either,” Reynir protested. “Do you think they and this ‘It’ will make common cause?”

Lalli shuddered visibly at the thought, but shook his head after a moment’s consideration. “At best, It and they will fight each other; at worst, It and they will leave each other be, knowing successive attacks might succeed. The leader of the Death Shades would want dominion over It, and It dominion over the Death Shades, so an alliance will not eventuate.” As ever, Lalli spoke in “Tuuri’s” voice when delivering an analysis; Reynir wondered what effect that might have in the waking world.

*

“Well, that was just weird.”

While both Mikkel and Emil silently concurred with Sigrun’s assessment of the situation, neither was of a mind to voice their agreement: Emil out of shock, and Mikkel out of taciturnity. “Tuuri” had been trying to rouse “Onni” when “she” had frozen in place and flickered for a few moments. As soon as “she” had re-solidified, “Onni” had sat up and suggested that they dine and retire for the evening. A moment after Sigrun’s observation, Mikkel had slung the dozing Reynir over his shoulder and they had all gone into the vehicle, shutting the door so the anti-ghost rune on it could activate.

*

Lalli’s eyes opened in sudden alarm. It was coming. He could sense It


Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
Oh, my.

…That is all, for now.

There will be more later, though.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on October 06, 2017, 09:03:52 PM
Posting my bits one by one here,
Spamming my stuff on the thread,
Killing the thread with my postings,
Killing the thread with
My postings...

Alphabet Soup
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Series 3, Part 18
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Spoiler: The Roundabout Way • show
The tunnel had almost been the death of the six of them, though not in the way someone hearing about their epic trek through Silent Sweden might be expecting.

Sigrun’s curses had turned the air blue and Emil’s cheeks red when she’d seen the tunnel, but she’d tried to make the best of it, as she always did. Lalli had had to stay back in camp the night before, having nearly wrung himself dry fighting off an inquisitive giant that had been stalking them; the painful irony of Lalli’s saving of them throwing them into danger was like a dark cloud over the others.

“OK, guys,” Sigrun said grimly, “we’ll have to veer away from the tracks here and see if we can feel our way back later.” Because even I’m not fool enough to take us through a giant kill-tube that might have a train run through it while we’re in there. She didn’t say it, but they all heard it anyway.

The going had been even rougher than usual, because now they were winding their way through a maze of back-country routes, overgrown fields, and small woods as they skirted tiny towns and what seemed an endless supply of lakes of every size and description. So, not only had their route increased in length, but they were also making even slower progress, neither of which tended to improve Sigrun’s ever-grimmer disposition.

The little band hardly ever went across any of the lakes they encountered on the way; mostly Lalli would tell them, “There are things in there,” and that would be the end of it. A few times, though, they managed to find a small boat that wasn’t as unsound as most and get across the lake astride their path with only minor complaints from a motion-sick Lalli.

As the journey had lengthened, each of them had begun accruing little trinkets they’d found along the way, filling haversacks formerly loaded with provisions. Sigrun not only did not mind this (as long as it didn’t slow them down too much); she had amassed a fair-sized miscellany of her own. Emil had claimed knowledge of various things; knowledge that proved to be mostly spurious, though he had been either close or spot-on just enough times to cast doubt on whether or not his ignorance was as comprehensive as Mikkel asserted.

The nights were still the worst, though. Sometimes Emil saw Lalli twisting restlessly and knew that a grossling was near enough to disturb his friend’s dreams; sometimes the cats went intently still and focussed on something beyond the senses of the others (save only Lalli); sometimes, the group had had to flee through the night, tired though they were, because something had found them and was stalking their little camp. Of course, often the night passed without any such incidents at all, but every one of them was aware of how much greater the danger they were in was by night.

Fortunately, their actual encounters with grosslings had been few and far between—until the final one, the one that came just as they were about to rejoin the rail lines…

Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
And here’s more of the “bound for Mora” tale.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on October 06, 2017, 09:23:50 PM
Posting my bits one by one here,
Spamming my stuff on the thread,
Killing the thread with my postings,
Killing the thread with
My postings...

Alphabet Soup
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Series 3, Part 18

Nice! Have I mentioned how much I enjoy that you've raised the stakes by forcing them to do this with no tank or shelter available?

(And by all means, spam the thread. Poor thing's been getting so lonely...)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on October 07, 2017, 12:15:33 AM
Nice! Have I mentioned how much I enjoy that you've raised the stakes by forcing them to do this with no tank or shelter available?

(And by all means, spam the thread. Poor thing's been getting so lonely...)

Seconded, all of this!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on October 07, 2017, 07:50:15 PM
Here I go again...

Alphabet Soup
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Series 1, Part 19
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Spoiler: A Sojourn in the Silent World • show
The ancient cluster of palaces that made up Amalienborg had not changed much since the original Silent World Expedition had been driven from its sanctuary by a horde of murderous ghosts so long ago. The buildings were a little more dilapidated, the coils of barbed wire a little more rusted, but that was all.

While the horde of murderous ghosts was presumably still around somewhere, the new Silent World Expedition had safeguarded against them using both magical traditions: the Icelandic by Reyndis positively slathering their vehicle with layer upon layer of protective runes, carefully embroidering even more runes into their uniforms, and marking runes into the ground (well, the snow) all around the perimeter of their campsite; while the Finnish was represented when Tuuli sang nightly runos that called on the gods for even more protection, after his long but ultimately successful multi-day epic struggle to send the few quiescent ghosts in the old palace sickroom on to whatever awaited them.

The whole crew was to mount a sortie to Kastellet so that Tuuli could try to repeat the sending-on on any ghosts that might still be lingering in that place. As this had been the source of the murderous ghosts that had bedeviled the original Silent World Expedition, the team considered it unlikely that said ghosts had returned to their old haunts in any numbers and that the sortie was therefore simply a waste of time and effort. On the other hand, if their employers wanted them to waste time and effort on such a useless endeavor (and they explicitly did), then the team would do so, while taking reasonable precautions to ensure any ghosts still in the area couldn’t murder them.

The sortie was planned for the day after they placed the plaque where Kitty had joined the First Crew, which was far enough away that it took an entire day to accomplish. Tuuli wasn’t sure that they should mount consecutive sorties like that, citing qualms about whether they would be rested enough on the second and potentially more dangerous sortie, but acceded to Sigurd’s unbending will, helped by Mia’s and Lalli’s assurances that they’d be rested well enough without a breather and that it was best to just get it over with.

Heretofore Sigurd had been getting rather frustrated at the strange lack of grossling encounters; not that he wanted to put his crew in jeopardy, but a nice beast fight every now and again would certainly break the monotony and keep them all in fighting trim. On the way to the school, however, they ran into a pack of beasts just large enough for Sigurd to purge his frustrations without Mia and Lalli needing to do anything except watch with weapons ready for any other grosslings that might take the opportunity to strike at the rest of the party.

Upon their return to Amalienborg, Sigurd declared himself up to setting forth for Kastellet right after dinner, but Michaela was able to reason him out of that semi-suicidal intention with some sensible discourse. Reyndis almost fainted with relief when Sigurd finally gave in; Tuuli hoped Reyndis would remember to try for a prophetic vision tonight, or as soon as she lost consciousness at any rate.

The rest of the long, long night passed without incident, though that fact failed to alleviate Tuuli’s growing apprehensions about the coming sortie. Still, there was nothing he cared to do to stop it, as anything he did that would accomplish that would hurt the team. Tuuli was not going to hurt the team.

As soon as the sun rose the next morning, the six of them set off for Kastellet and the fate that awaited them there…

Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
Well, there’s another bit in their tale.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on October 07, 2017, 10:50:14 PM
I'm glad there is more coming! Don't want a TPK.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on October 08, 2017, 07:39:09 PM
Alphabet Soup
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Series 2, Part 19
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Spoiler: Safety • show
All in all, Tuuri was of the decided opinion that having to miss out on a journey into the Silent World would be so much more palatable if there was someone else she could blame for it, instead of her own foolishness in getting her leg broken before they’d even left Mora. Blast you, Onni! she thought petulantly. Why couldn’t you tag along so I could blame everything on you?

Tuuri really had nothing else to do or to think about, as it was somewhere around midnight; she’d left work hours ago, but the pain in her leg meant she couldn’t sleep. She wondered what Lalli was doing just then.

*

Emil woke abruptly, fear setting his heart to racing until he recognized where he was. As the adrenalin slowly worked its way out of his system, Emil wondered what Lalli was doing just then.

The thin Finn scout had set off as soon as it was dark enough to give him cover on his scouting run, and wasn’t expected to be back before dawn. Emil hadn’t liked the idea, but he appeared to be alone in that opinion: Sigrun had been confident; Mikkel had been stoic; Miira had been as indifferent as ever; and even Lalli hadn’t seemed anxious in any way when he’d set off. Maybe Emil was overestimating the danger.

Maybe he wasn’t. It seemed like Emil had just closed his eyes when a soft series of beeps started sounding from the proximity alarm. When he opened his eyes again, Sigrun was already in motion, a fierce intensity hardening her features in a way that startled Emil.

Their leader was only at the door for a moment before heading back to the bunk compartment. “Scout’s back.”

Mikkel replied calmly, “Good. Stay put; I’ll make sure he’s decontaminated.”

Emil couldn’t help but mutter, “…Thank heavens…” as he gathered himself together, at which Miira threw him a wordless look of contempt.

*

Lalli disliked Miira, and the feeling was mutual; this much Emil could tell from Lalli’s scouting report, despite not speaking Finnish. He got the feeling Sigrun wasn’t too fond of the Fenno-Swede, either. As for Mikkel, who could tell what he thought about anything?

After Sigrun laid out what today’s sortie would be, Miira took the wheel of their vehicle, and Lalli stumbled back to the office area. Emil hoped he wouldn’t be sick again.

*

“I believe I should stay outside.”

Sigrun jumped on Mikkel’s offer with alacrity. Miira hadn’t left the vehicle, and Emil got the feeling that she didn’t intend to for any such book raid, but the reasons Sigrun cited for keeping Mikkel back would just as easily apply to her as well.

*

KA-THUMMMMMMMMM

Miira facepalmed and started the vehicle up before Mikkel called for her to do so.

*

“I believe it might be better for you to go on the next raid.”

“I do not.” Miira’s voice was calm but firm.

Mikkel allowed a puzzled look to cross his features. “Why ever not? It would certainly be of aid in retrieving only the more valuable specimens, and therefore increasing whatever additional compensation we would receive.”

Miira shot a disdainful look at Mikkel much like the ones she was wont to give the others. “I value my safety more than any notional ‘additional compensation’ we may or may not receive; as I have already secured my preferred compensation by accompanying this mission, I see no need to stick my neck out any further than needs be.”

“I see.” And with that, Mikkel went back around to the driving cabin to speak with Sigrun…

Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
Miira’s caution (and other detrimental qualities) may be more problematic to the mission than Tuuri’s rashness (no pun intended).

Or they may not. We’ll see.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on October 09, 2017, 07:07:10 AM
Alphabet Soup
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Series 2, Part 19

Oh dear. Extremes. Maybe we should introduce a character named "Happy Medium"?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on October 09, 2017, 07:26:05 AM
Oh dear. Extremes. Maybe we should introduce a character named "Happy Medium"?
But then I couldn't beat him up--you know how difficult it is for anyone to strike a Happy Medium!

Besides, they're pretty thin on the ground: I don't know about you, but I like my Mediums rare.

I must not spam the Bad Jokes thread
I must not spam the Bad Jokes thread
I must not spam the Bad Jokes thread
I must not spam the Bad Jokes thread
I must not spam the Bad Jokes thread...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on October 09, 2017, 09:11:50 AM
Not that rare! All you need is a bunch of psychics and a bottle of whiskey for each of them.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Talimee on October 09, 2017, 07:12:31 PM
I fancy the thought that writing anything in my current state of writer's block is like giving birth to twins. Please don't contradict me, I'll grow out of it on my own.

Since Plot-Bunnies and Prompts have equally failed me, I try my hand at Experimental Writing. Hope you enjoy. =)

Title: A Life with you in it can never be small (http://archiveofourown.org/works/12318927/chapters/28007688)
Summary: Three different situations, two different outcomes, one mutual beginning
Characters: Emil Västerström, Lalli Hotakainen
Relationships: Emil/Lalli, Emil & Lalli
Settings: post-Mission, on-Mission, AU – modern times
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death in chapter three
Tags: Hurt/Comfort, Angst, Emil's POV
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on October 09, 2017, 07:13:52 PM
But then I couldn't beat him up--you know how difficult it is for anyone to strike a Happy Medium!

Besides, they're pretty thin on the ground: I don't know about you, but I like my Mediums rare.

I must not spam the Bad Jokes thread
I must not spam the Bad Jokes thread
I must not spam the Bad Jokes thread
I must not spam the Bad Jokes thread
I must not spam the Bad Jokes thread...

*giggles* 

Let me not cast broad aspersions upon your media!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on October 10, 2017, 04:02:45 AM
The following is not a happy tale.

Alphabet Soup
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Series 3, Part 19
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Spoiler: The Siv Incident • show
“I’m leaving for good! I’m going as far away from Mora as I can get—and I’m changing my name, too! I hate you all and I never want to see any of you again!”

Sune Västerström had always borne a pronounced resemblance to his cousin, the Icon, and as the years went on and the Icon grew ever more iconic, Sune had maintained the resemblance as best he could. He had also waited for some time to start a family, and was thus paying the price of dealing with a restive and angsty teenager while in the sixth decade of his life.

His siblings had been of no help, as neither of them had been blessed with children (officially—there were persistent rumors about Håkan, and there had been that time Anna had “gone north” for several months); so, Sune was on his own. Finally, matters came to a head.

Siv was the only daughter Sune had or would ever have, named in honor of his dead mother, and for most of her childhood, she had been most deceptively compliant. Nothing she’d done then compared to the antics Sune remembered Anna dragging him and Håkan into—or that was how he remembered it. Now, she was always blowing up at him about one thing or another, and neither he nor his wife had the least idea of how to handle her moods.

Siv never argued with her mother, as Sune’s wife Sara was one of those people with whom it is impossible to argue, as she immediately conceded any point which you cared to dispute with her; it was most trying at times for Sune. No, Siv’s arguments were always and exclusively with her father.

The upshot of her latest diatribe was that Siv, having had to “put up with” being cousin (and not particularly close) not only to the Icon and the Genius but to the Great Doctor and the Thespian as well for as long as she could remember, had finally decided that she’d had enough and more than enough of her famous family “dominating her life” and “keeping her from making her own name”, culminating in the vicious exit line above. While Siv had harped on these themes in an increasingly strident manner over the last year or so, this was the first time she’d actually walked out of the house Sune had inherited from his parents.

Both Anna and Håkan, having been drawn into the room by the intensity of the argument whereas Sara had fled, were stunned into silence by Siv’s exit for quite some time, but all four adult Västerströms agreed after the fact that Siv was bound to return after she’d had time to cool off. Wasn’t that what teenagers did?

This attitude, and many others Sune had maintained for most of his adult life, became harder and harder to sustain the longer Siv had been gone. Eventually, Sune hired some slightly shady characters to find his errant daughter; they found her in Iceland, married, happy, and successful in her chosen profession.

She had changed her name and claimed to be an orphan.

Sune was especially crushed by this last, but he exerted one final effort, placing an advertisement in a periodical Siv was known to read. It read: “SIV — I’m sorry. Sune”.

A few years later, another advertisement appeared in the periodical: “SIV — Sune is dying. Sara”.

Siv Västerström never returned to Sweden…

Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
So, here’s a Västerström tragedy in brief.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on October 10, 2017, 06:02:45 AM
This is too soon after the prior post, but oh well.

Alphabet Soup
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Series 1, Part 20
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Spoiler: A Time to Mourn • show
Lalli looked out at the ruins of the camp. The mangled bodies of his friends were smeared across the ground in a sickening mixture of blood and mud and bits of flesh and bone that was only just intact enough to be recognizable as who they had been. Again, the sight was sickening; but worse than that hideous sight was the smell.

After a long moment of internal struggle, Lalli forced himself to look over at the only other “living” thing left on the field. It was looking back at him, silent and motionless, waiting. His grief finally turning to anger, Lalli was suddenly struck by the notion that It was in fact taunting him by Its very motionlessness, as though It were saying outright, “What can you do against me now? You couldn’t keep me from slaughtering your friends!”

Lalli had indeed failed to save his friends, but the determination rising in him was pushing him to avenge them. He leapt to his feet…

…And woke up in the sleeping compartment of their vehicle. All was still; all was silent.

The room was far too quiet for any of the others to be in their bunks, so Lalli knew he would have to venture forth to find them. A tiny voice in the back of Lalli’s mind that sounded very much like Onni whispered at him not to go, cautioning him of what he might find and reminding of what he had found once before…

Lalli shook his head fiercely, trying to fling the memory away. He would not think of it. He would not.

Lalli moved to the door purposefully. He knew It was almost at hand, and so he needed to warn the others, so blissfully unaware of what It was capable of doing. And had done already…

No! He would not think of that! He reached for the handle to open the door…

“Lalli.”

He turned at the soft call. Tuuri and Onni stood about a meter to his left, serious looks on their faces.

As always, Tuuri did the talking. “I know it hurts, but you need to face the truth.”

Lalli’s eyes squeezed shut, but she continued, “You don’t need us now; not anymore. Keeping us around like this just brings shame on you and dishonors our memory.”

“How?” he choked out. “What honor is there in… in…”

“In how we died?” Onni finished for him. “None. The honor is in how we lived, and how we loved. Keeping us here like this makes a mockery of that life and love. You know this.”

Lalli turned away, but there they were in front of him again, a little closer now. Lalli shut his eyes again and admitted, “I can’t live without you two; I’m not strong enough to be alone.”

“But you’re not alone.” This voice, less well-known but still familiar, came from the doorway. When Lalli looked, there was Emil, looking unwontedly solemn. “You have us; and while we’re not the close cousins of your youth, we’re still your friends, like it or not, and we’ll be as close as you’ll let us.”

Emil had been speaking in Swedish, but Lalli had understood every last word. Briefly, Lalli wondered whether the whole conversation had been in Swedish, but before his mind could clamp on to the distraction from this all-too-painful topic, Tuuri spoke again.

“You need to let us go, Lalli.”

Onni added, “At the very least, you need to start to let us go. We can hang around until It has come and gone, but after that, you need to let us rest in peace.” Then they vanished.

Lalli turned back to the door to find Emil regarding him with an alarmed look. “Lalli, what’s ‘It’?”

Lalli sighed. “I was just going out to warn you about It, but the tale is long and full of sorrow.” He began to explain…

Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
Oy vey.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on October 10, 2017, 09:04:10 AM
Another one in the gladiator AU, but without any gladiators this time.

...does that still make it a gladiator AU?

The Phoenix (http://archiveofourown.org/works/11713725/chapters/28020915)


Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on October 11, 2017, 07:16:24 AM
Alphabet Soup
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Series 2, Part 20
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Spoiler: Time and Tide • show
The House of Records was as old a building as any in the village; but for the number etched into the cornerstone, none might have realized that it was but the latest in a long line of such Houses. Seldom did anyone plumb the depths of its archive during this, the heyday of the Fourth Age; even the eldest of the elders hardly ever went there, for who wanted to read of the ancient arts when none now living could recreate them?

Dust swirled and glinted in the beams cast into the shadowed depths of the Far Room when the youth very nearly pushed the elder currently saddled with the job of Archivist and Caretaker of the House of Records inside. The elder made a point of moving to the relevant chest of records as slowly as he possibly could, but the youth didn’t notice the elder’s deliberate lack of haste.

The youth was practically vibrating with impatience as the stooped elder slowly leafed through the ancient papers with his gnarled fingers. Every time the elder paused, no matter how briefly, the youth immediately asked, “Is that it? Did you find it?”

At last the elder said in reply, “Yes, here it is.” Turning to get the papers more fully into one of the sunbeams still valiantly trying to lighten the room’s gloom, he continued, “Set down here is the record of how our village was saved by the pilgrims from the West so very long ago.”

“Read it!” the youth cried. Then, remembering his manners, the youth added, “…please.”

The elder adjusted the Archivist’s Loupe so that his weary eyes could make out the faded scrawls on the papers without undue effort, but before he commenced, he turned back to the youth and asked, “And why has the fire of inquiry ignited so passionately in you on this long-forgotten tale, young one?”

The youth bit his lip before confessing, “I went to Ngengomrang last month for the Festival, and there was a songster who mentioned it in one of his songs, but only in passing; it was a ‘don’t be like this idiot’ song with a verse about the Tyrant Ngemb.”

“Ah.” The elder turned back to the papers. “Bear in mind that this account will use the old names of Ngengomrang and the Tyrant who ruled it, as well as the old name of our village.”

“Which would be Kyankanamarakanan, Kyankan and Marambaraparatharamda respectively?” the youth asked.

The elder nodded sharply in grudging approval. “That is correct. Also, this account was set down in the decidedly prosaic form that was employed by all credible historians of the time; if you are expecting poetry, or magniloquent and breathless passages in this account, you are doomed to disappointment.”

The youth crossed his arms over his still scrawny chest. “I will be content to hear it as they wrote it,” he said, his tone belying his words.

The elder shrugged. “Very well. Let’s see, where does the story begin?” he mused, glancing over the paper anew…

Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
Did I not say that ‘Time and Tide’ would tell?

Well, it hasn’t quite yet, but soon (kinda).
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on October 11, 2017, 05:31:41 PM
Good. Very curious!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on October 12, 2017, 07:21:18 AM
Alphabet Soup
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Series 3, Part 20
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Spoiler: The Task At Hand • show
Whatever Emil had expected to gain from this trip into the Silent World, a mortal enemy was pretty much at the bottom of the list. Miira’s snarky comments on the subject weren’t particularly helpful, either.

Miira was out of sorts for the same reason as Sigrun: the Icelander not being immune like the others had thrown a wrench and several marbles into the gears of the expedition; while they had brought along the already-packed protective gear meant for Tuuri, this untrained civilian with no useful skills and apparently no survival instincts required an extra level of protection that the crew simply weren’t used to including in their daily routine.

Well, at least Miira was as snarky, disdainful and altogether unpleasant to the redheaded stowaway as she was to all the others; probably none of them could have stood it if she’d taken a shine to him.

*

In over five decades of research, the Svensson Center had produced less than 700 test samples, which exemplified its most fundamental problem: there was too much work split among too few people working with too few subjects, and far too little time in which to do it. Tuuri was simply bursting with energy and ideas, but she was only one skald, and hobbled (at least for the moment) at that.

Where Tuuri really chafed was at how the others limited her hours in the Center. The pain and the lack of physical activity combined to cut her sleep time to practically nil, but they wouldn’t let her work! It really was most upsetting.

Every so often, Tuuri found her mind wandering to how the expedition was going. She’d been prohibited from using the radio when she was up late at night, and the usual check-in time was while she was at the Center, so she really didn’t get so many opportunities to chat with her cousin and her erstwhile colleagues.

Everything’s probably going disgustingly smoothly for them, Tuuri thought in sudden annoyance.

*

The vehicle stopped dead, confronted by a wall of snow.

“The road is impassable; the little fool undoubtedly failed to scout a backup route.” Sigrun looked solemn at Miira’s gruff words but forbore to say anything just yet.

Miira turned back to Lalli, using the others’ ignorance of Finnish to tell him, “Congratulations. Your failure to do your job properly has brought us into a perfect ambush setup.”

That got the scout’s attention. “I don’t fail,” he snarled so viciously that even the others were taken aback. “There are other routes, and I’ll find them!”

Then, without another word, he was off into the snow.

*

“Onni!”

Tuuri had almost literally tripped over her brother on her way back from work, but fortunately, her crutches hadn’t done him any serious damage. A moment later, her crutches were abandoned as her big brother grabbed her in a huge bear hug. This time, they were both unashamedly crying.

The Finns chattered away for hours, for there was much for them to discuss. The fact that Reynir was a mage who had heretofore had no idea of it was one of the main points that they had to worry over, but there were several other matters of concern, like Tuuri’s replacement, Miira.

Something would have to be done about the increasingly acerbic woman; but how did you solve a problem like Miira?

*

The confrontation had been long in coming, but when it came, it exploded with an intensity no one had expected.

“One of these days, the idiocy you and the other fools flaunt in the faces of the gods will get me killed, and then I won’t be able to save you from your folly as I have so often already, so you’ll all die!” Miira’s voice had grown increasingly strident as her diatribe went on, until she was nearly shouting with the rage she’d been supposedly suppressing all this time.

By contrast, Sigrun’s voice was entirely calm and deadly serious as she told Miira, “Actually, the only reason you’re still alive is because your dying would hurt the team in the short run just slightly more than it would help—and it certainly would help, and especially in the long run. The minute I think your death would hurt us less, even in the short run, I will kill you myself.”

Then Sigrun turned away, leaving a speechless and disconcerted Miira on the receiving end of a curt dismissal for once…

Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
Well, this got longer than I’d expected.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on October 12, 2017, 07:35:06 AM
Alphabet Soup
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Series 3, Part 20
The Task At Hand

Not sure easygoing Sigrun would put her foot down quite that hard, but I still loved seeing her doing it.

(Also, whatever led to that confrontation?)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on October 12, 2017, 08:23:31 AM
I could see her doing it to someone who bullied the young folk.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on October 12, 2017, 08:35:06 AM
I could see her doing it to someone who bullied the young folk.

...and now I really want to see that confrontation.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on October 13, 2017, 06:45:41 AM
...and now I really want to see that confrontation.
I'll write it up soon, but until then...

...have a double update!

Alphabet Soup
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Series 1, Part 21
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Spoiler: An Untimely End • show
The island hadn’t exploded yet, but it was only a matter of time before it did, so all six of them were working like mad to rebuild the balloon.

The island was volcanic, and the volcano was waking up. What turned this from simply “dangerous” to “catastrophic” was that the sea had eaten away at the walls around the primary lava tube; when it broke through, the water would hit lava at around 2500 - 3000 degrees, making the tube a boiler without sufficient outlet for the resulting steam.

So the island was going to explode, and probably very soon, as the volcano had begun to smoke again.

Ordinarily, they might have built a boat instead, but these were warm waters, and the sea-beasts were highly active around the island, which made their original swim from the islet to the island even more miraculous in that they had crossed without incident. So, they were reconstructing the balloon for a journey that they couldn’t avoid, though they knew neither how long it would take nor where their destination was.

The submarine, though truly wondrous in her construction, was utterly useless for their purposes: first, if they tried to escape in her, the sea-beasts would reduce her to scrap in moments; second, all her fittings and parts were too heavy by far for the six to use them on the balloon, where weight had to be kept to a minimum. It was a crying shame, and Tuuri indeed shed a few tears over it when she thought the others weren’t looking; they were, but they pretended they hadn’t seen—even Lalli, not usually the most socially adept of them.

If only that volcano would hold off long enough for them to take flight…

*

They had found the underground sea because of Reynir, of course. He’d had a vision of going down the well in Granite House and through a tunnel into that vast cavern where the submarine rested, and Sigrun had donned one of the wetsuits from the lock to Lake Grant and gone down to prove him right or prove him wrong.

Within the submarine were preserved all the wonders of Old World technology that had become only legends to the denizens of Year 90; Tuuri and Mikkel were in hog heaven going through it all, as Sigrun put it.

Despite the banks upon banks of computers, there were quite extensive written records within the submarine’s vaults; some of these amplified upon the account left by the last tenant of Granite House, detailing how a cult had created or acquired or flat-out stolen a sample of the Illness and prepared to unleash it on their world, how the author had found a way to inoculate himself and other susceptible organisms to the Illness, and how the author had finally broken with the cult and fled here with his notes and specimens.

So was solved the mystery of how the Illness had failed to gain a foothold on the island: everything on it was immune, and had been from the beginning.

Another thing set down in the accounts was a description of the problem that would ultimately doom the island, and, after a foray to see for themselves whether this assessment of their oncoming peril was accurate, the six had thrown themselves into making their escape.

The balloon was inflated and ready, but they were still loading the supplies they’d need when the ground began to heave…

Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
This is scarily easy to write.


Alphabet Soup
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Series 2, Part 21
Spoiler: Untitled Fantasy Project • show
Mikkel Madsen, author of “Mars on a C-Note a Day”, “Love and the Modern AI”, “Pearl-Blossoms Across the Sky (and Other Stories)”, and many more such hard sci-fi tales, watched the tall redhead mount the stage with an athletic leap and a manic grin as the MC concluded his hyperbolic introduction of her with, “…your Queen of the Troll Hunters, Sigrun Eide!”

Mikkel rolled his eyes. Well, he could only hope they wouldn’t be thrown together too much over the course of this convention; he hated loud noises at the best of times, and she gave off the decided impression that she was a loud noise.

The crowd at the opening ceremony did not seem to share this opinion of the b-movie actress, by all appearances: they were going wild with glee at her on-stage antics to demonstrate that she still did all her own stunts. Well, let them have their fun; the ceremonies would be over soon enough, and then Mikkel could plant himself in Autograph Row and endure the line of fans desirous of gushing over his oeuvre as long as his signing hand would hold up; hopefully, the panels he was on would provide enough of a respite that he would make it through the affair. Mikkel was not looking forward to the koffeeklatsches, though.

A flash of grey at the very back of the crowd caught Mikkel’s eye. Near the doors, a short, young and slightly pudgy girl (he thought—it was so hard to tell nowadays) was dragging a taller, thinner person of about the same age into the room. Both were cosplaying as “grunts” from Sigrun’s latest movie, “The First Rule”, though it had only been out for a week or two.

Near the stage, a gangly redhead almost as tall as Sigrun turned to wave at them, though how he’d heard them over the crowd was anyone’s guess. Perhaps, Mikkel mused, the elongated ears of his elf cosplay actually helped there, though they looked to be falling off if he moved his head too violently, or maybe his impressively long braid was acting as a sensory organ in some mysterious way. In any case, the crowd was too thick for the three of them to get together, so the short one contented herself by waving back.

Mikkel sighed and waited for the ceremony to end.

*

Emil gritted his teeth and waited for the opening ceremonies to end so that the DDR tournament could begin. Here he was, ready to school all comers, and he had to stand and wait for all the introductions and presentations of people he’d never heard of (and wouldn’t have cared about if he had heard of them) to be over so his erstwhile competitors could get out here and the tournament could begin.

Emil had been playing DDR almost as long as he could walk; while he’d had some pretty stiff competition in past tourneys, he still had yet to meet his equal, and was arrogant enough to assume that that day would never come. That was why he made a point of going last whenever they’d let him, so that the other contestants wouldn’t be crushed right at the outset. Let them try their best and have their fun; he would still win regardless.

Then the ceremonies finally ended, and people flooded the game room. A tall, thin figure moving with an almost unnatural grace caught Emil’s eye as it wandered over to the DDR area…

Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
Wait, I’m starting another AU? And stealing it from someone else? (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=856.msg107377#msg107377)

…Yes. Yes, I am, because Juniper abandoned the idea and deleted the story more than a year ago, so now it’s mine, and I’ll do it the way I want to see it done.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Gaemmel on October 13, 2017, 11:31:25 AM
I finally did another chapter of "Keksit"! :D

https://archiveofourown.org/works/11192511/chapters/28086960 (https://archiveofourown.org/works/11192511/chapters/28086960)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on October 15, 2017, 04:26:36 AM
I've finally finished a story I began about a month ago but shelved to finish 'Stranded' and work on InkTober.  It is called 'Quilt' and it purports to answer in part what happened to Kaino Hotakainen, and some people like her adrift in Finland.
https://archiveofourown.org/works/12369642
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on October 16, 2017, 01:19:01 AM
I hope this doesn't disappoint.

Alphabet Soup
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Series 3, Part 21
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Spoiler: The Utility of Futility • show
They were never going to reach Mora.

They had lost the line of the Sveavägen tracks and could not find them again; there were too many grosslings; the weather had turned into alternating snow, sleet, and freezing rain, with occasional bone-chilling gusts of wind mixed in for good measure; and no one based in Mora was looking for them.

The very hopelessness of the situation called forth an answering rage in each of them—a rage that drove them on along the seemingly impossible path, even through everything that the weather and the grosslings could throw at them and then some. Even Emil’s pyromania was a good thing, as it held back the cold while also warding off the grosslings.

They had to carry the cats along, as the weather had become too much for them. Reynir took Nils, as they got along best; Tuuri took John, who wasn’t too displeased; and Emil was stuck with Ola, which meant he had to take the rear while Lalli took point, since Ola and Lalli cordially disliked each other. Emil was fairly certain that if they’d been left loose, the cats would have abandoned the humans, as all that was keeping the six humans going was sheer willpower, which animals in general tended to be short on, and the aforementioned rage, which the cats didn’t seem to share.

They were trudging northward still, and still going as fast as they could against the weather. The four immunes were arrayed in a diamond around the two non-immunes; as has been said, Lalli took point, Emil was the rearguard, and Sigrun and Mikkel took the flanks. Visibility was awful; even had they been certain of their direction, they might have missed the cyclopean Mora walls by a matter of yards and been none the wiser. Despite this, they still managed to drive off the incessant grossling attacks.

Now, most people would have assumed that the weather was far too foul for the local grosslings to come after the little band, but they would have realized their error after the third or fourth attack. Fortunately, none got close enough to touch any of them, as the crude wards Reynir had daubed on all their clothes proved good enough to slow the grosslings sufficiently for the fighters to take them out—but the weather was wearing the runes away with horrible speed; they were almost gone when the final attack came.

This time, all four immunes had to go hand-to-hand with the oncoming grosslings; even the cats had leapt forth to guard the non-immune pair. Tuuri and Reynir were back-to-back with improvised clubs at the ready when—

—The nearest grossling’s heads began exploding in flames. Lalli had loosed his luonto, hitherto held tightly in reserve against this extremity.

The rest of the grosslings began to flee, unable to outmatch the spectral lynx assailing them. Once they had all passed out of sight, Lalli dropped to his knees, blood dripping from his nose and eyes. The cats had vanished as well, but the only felinoid Emil cared about was Lalli. The young Swede rushed to his friend’s side, just beating out Tuuri; neither heeded Sigrun’s reproaches at breaking formation.

Lalli was unresponsive to anything Emil, Tuuri, Reynir, or Mikkel tried, but he was breathing more or less normally. Sigrun cursed to herself for quite some time as the others all fussed over Lalli, but the grosslings had all fled, as far as she could tell without the cats around. Her frustration mounted as more time passed without an outlet for her to vent it upon, until she finally grabbed Emil’s flamethrower, pointed it above them, and let out a long burst and a loud yell.

The silence after Sigrun’s scream lasted quite a while; it was broken not by a sound, but by a spotlight suddenly illuminating the little knot of people. Voices muffled by masks screamed at them in Swedish, and uniformed figures swarmed around them with astonishing speed.

The Swedish Army had found them at last.

They were hustled into the nearest quarantine facility, though Emil tried to protest that it was unnecessary for the immunes, and all six of them spent the bulk of the next two weeks nearly prostrate with exhaustion; even Sigrun was out like a light for almost two full days.

Eventually, though, all six of them were released and escorted back to Mora, where one final surprise awaited them…

Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
Well, they made it…

…But now they still have to try to get where they were going on the Dalahästen in the first place. (I think they’ll opt for taking the sea route this time—even Lalli.)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on October 16, 2017, 01:50:15 AM
I like it!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on October 16, 2017, 04:21:40 AM
Oh, boy.

Alphabet Soup
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Series 1, Part 22
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Spoiler: A Very Special Swede • show
Emil was sweating and trembling with exhaustion after the DDR tournament, for he’d just danced as he’d never had to dance before. He’d won, of course, but only just barely—who was that grey-haired boy who went through the moves like he’d been doing them forever?

Some of the onlookers were still hanging around, muttering weird things like “…the best match-up since Hector and Achilles, man!” Emil tried to analyze their weird jargon, but his foggy mind could only latch onto one thing: they kept repeating “Lalli” over and over again.

*

Lalli was sweating and trembling with exhaustion as he searched the convention for Tuuri. What had possessed him to go from his usual haunt in the Call of Duty crowd to the DDR tournament? What had possessed him to enter the tournament?

What had possessed that blond Swede to dance well enough to beat him?

Well, for one thing, wiping the floor with all the other Call of Duty players had palled over the last few months. Lalli had actually been interested in seeing how his skill at figure-skating would translate to dancing; in fact, he’d been pretty confident that it would translate well enough for him to win. Never in his wildest imaginings had Lalli thought a sparkly-haired, slightly chubby Swede would best him but one had.

*

Never in his wildest imaginings had Emil thought that a grey-haired, rail thin Finn would almost best him, but  one very nearly had, and Emil just couldn’t get him out of his head. This was far from usual, as Emil tended to avoid rather than engage people in the long term; this was a holdover from his semi-disastrous school days, reinforced by his relations with his co-workers.

There were certain semi-official “rules” regarding eating and sleeping when at a convention; Emil tended to do what he usually did with all other facets of the conventions that he attended to which he was indifferent: ignore them. Today, however, Emil alternated between haunting the food court and wandering the hallways in the interstitial period between panels when all the other fanatics were seeking to rush to feed their obsessions, for he was doing the same, in his own way: Emil was desperately straining to catch another glimpse, however momentary, of that thin, graceful figure.

Just as Emil was about to head back to the food court, an elf and some kind of soldier brushed past him. They were chattering away about something; Emil didn’t know anything about the subject of their discussion, so he more or less tuned it out, until one word among the chatter caught his ears: Lalli. That one word was enough to send Emil after them, but they had seemingly vanished without trace.

*

Sigrun Eide, Norse cinema’s reigning Queen of the Troll Hunters, just loved doing the convention circuit; the only things she liked better were action scenes and stunts. She’d started as a medieval martial arts re-enactor at one of those “dinner and a tourney” places, and after a while she’d been contacted by a small indie film outfit, Most Best Productions, run by Trond Andersen, Taru Hollala, and a couple of silent partners.

“Uncle” Trond was actually an old friend of her parents, who were also re-enactors, but volunteer ones at fairs and such: they and he were all “generals” in some fighters’ association or other that Sigrun could never remember the right name of, even though she herself was a captain in that organization. Her parents had never quite gotten over their distaste that Sigrun did what she did for money rather than for love of the martial art; they were slightly more approving of her career change, since she got to join them at the fairs once more.

Sigrun was always ready for a good brawl, and she loved all the little fanlings at the cons she appeared in, so when the terrorists barged in on the Most Boring Panel Ever (which she had only signed on for at Uncle Trond’s behest), a smile broke over her face that should have sent the terrorists running right then and there.

The man chairing the panel, a giant of a Dane named Madsen, made the mistake of trying to reason with the terrorists, who shot him in the leg. Ten seconds later, Sigrun had cleaned the clocks of the other terrorists in the room and was ready to find some more to take down.

When Sigrun charged into the hallway, she almost got her face melted off by a blonde Swede wielding a flamethrower improvised from a gas lighter and a can of hair spray. Sigrun’s grin grew wider, but rather than taking the kid down, she decided to recruit him.

Within an hour, the two of them had cleared the convention of the terrorists; Sigrun either never heard or didn’t care to remember why they’d tried to take the con. She did care to remember her Little Viking’s right name: Emil Västerström.

*

The con had been over for maybe a month when Emil got A Missive from his uncle, Torbjörn Västerström, commanding his appearance at the next performance of “The Nutcracker on Ice”, where he and Sigrun were to be properly introduced. Emil knew he was probably also expected to render his thanks to Sigrun for saving his life and an apology for daring to assist her in her heroism. According to Torbjörn, Västerströms never undertook to engage in heroics themselves: they paid others to do that, as with all else that was beneath them to do.

Emil resigned himself to a boring night, as he knew that even Sigrun couldn’t liven up an “art form” that always bored him to tears, unless more terrorists struck. Emil knew he couldn’t be so lucky for that to occur.

What Emil didn’t know was that he would espy a very familiar figure out on the ice…

Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
I just had way too much fun writing this, so it got reeeeeeeeeeaaaaallllly long.

Oh, well.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on October 16, 2017, 12:54:11 PM
Well, then, LooNEY, I hope you have at least as much fun writing the next chapter.
I can readily see Lalli as a figure skater.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Talimee on October 19, 2017, 08:19:59 PM
Y'know. That one fic you started at a whim and on a hormonal high and which somehow gets added to again and again?
Have another chapter of Cotton Love. ;D

Title: Cotton Love, Chapter 5 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7832437/chapters/28270401)
Rating: G
Pairing: Emil/Lalli
Tags: Fluff, Sillyness, Domestic Bliss, Potted Plants
Summary: Their place is for them alone, but not all additions are unwelcome.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on October 20, 2017, 05:12:16 AM
Alphabet Soup
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Series 2, Part 22
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Spoiler: Verisimilitude • show
Long before the Saimaa Incident, Onni had once told Lalli, “Our world is built upon a mountain of anguish”; Lalli had never been more aware of the truth of that statement than he was now.

Onni had also told him, “When something is your fault, you must be ready to face the consequences”, and, “Sometimes, the only way to protect those you love is to take their fate as your own.”

The most obvious way to deal with It once and for all was also the way that would cause Lalli the most pain possible; and even then, none of them could be sure that the plan would work at all, so Lalli might have to go through all of that pain for nothing.

But Lalli still knew that he had to go through with the plan.

The glyph thrummed with barely restrained power as Lalli approached it; he was somewhat surprised that none of the others besides Reynir seemed aware of it, though none of them looked anything but somber and determined. When Lalli reached the very edge of the massive glyph, he stopped and closed his eyes.

The dearly familiar forms of “Tuuri” and “Onni” standing proudly in the center of the glyph were the first—rather, the only—sight that Lalli saw when his eyes opened. “They” looked back at him, “their” gazes steady and unflinching, even as sudden tears blurred Lalli’s vision.

Lalli shut his eyes, the Icelandic babble Reynir was gargling not penetrating his consciousness. Nothing penetrated his consciousness, until the power writhing within the glyph suddenly flared. Lalli opened his eyes and saw Reynir putting a bandage on Sigrun’s off hand. Even as Lalli watched, Emil used the pukko that had once been Tuuri’s to slice his own palm, letting the blood thus released feed the glyph. Next, Mikkel added his own blood to the mix, and then Reynir did.

“Lalli.” Lalli looked back at “Onni”. “You should all go now.”

Lalli nodded, but his feet refused to move.

“Tuuri” looked at Lalli and said, “Don’t be sad, Lalli. We’ll see each other again someday. You know that.”

A moment later, Lalli had turned his back on the heartrending sight and was moving off towards their new campsite.

*

There was something hypnotic about the campfire, something that crowded out everything else in the world around Lalli; he welcomed this effect, as it kept the thoughts lurking in the back of his mind at bay. He had no idea how long he’d been sitting at the fireside when he was brought out of it by gentle hands trying, all too clumsily, to place a warm jacket over Lalli like a cloak.

Pain, gratitude and anger shot through Lalli at the sensation. He wasn’t sure what he would have said or done to Emil, who only meant to be kind, but he never managed any sort of response because right exactly then was when the glyph erupted, making darkness daylight for a few terrible moments. Even this far away from the explosion, the power of it knocked into Lalli, and he knew no more.

When Lalli opened his eyes again, he was in his dream-space; “Tuuri”, “Onni” and Reynir were all looking back at him silently.

Reynir was the first to speak. “The plan worked.”

“Onni” nodded. “Yes. It is destroyed.” Then “he” turned away. “And now, we must go.”

Lalli wanted to cry out, but “they” were already fading away…

Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
Ow.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on October 20, 2017, 08:52:05 AM
In all honesty, I think that this is a mess.

I'm posting it anyway.

The Quest (http://archiveofourown.org/works/11713725/chapters/28280940)

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on October 21, 2017, 09:29:59 AM
Here, have a thing that's already been Jossed.

The River of Dreams (http://archiveofourown.org/works/11713725/chapters/28308993)

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on October 21, 2017, 05:10:26 PM
...Did someone mention stuff that's already Jossed?

Alphabet Soup
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Series 3, Part 22
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Spoiler: The Vicissitudes of Life • show
“So, how are we planning to get across the old bridge when our (ahem) illustrious predecessors brought it down all that time ago?” Sigurd was confident that his XO had already given this matter some thought, and now was an appropriate enough time for Michaela to present the plan for his review.

“…With the bridging equipment that you helped load into the cargo area?” Michaela had that tone in her voice that made everyone else on the crew uncertain whether or not the big Dane was laughing at what they’d just asked her.

“Wait.” Sigurd frowned. “That was really bridging equipment? I thought the labeling was just for show, so Mia and Lalli wouldn’t go all happy-happy over more ordinance or something.”

“While I wouldn’t put something like that past Torolf, I can assure you that I have personally checked the contents of every container currently in our cargo area against our manifest both before and after we left the Øresund Base, and they are all what they should be.”

Sigurd relaxed very subtly. “So no candle stew.”

Michaela nodded. “Precisely. In any case, I was actually more worried about something other than rebuilding the bridge.”

“And that is?”

“I’m much more concerned about the Death-Shades that we failed to locate at Kastellet,” Michaela ignored Sigurd’s wince at the word “failed”, “as it is not outside the realm of possibility that some or all of them may still be hanging around the bridge area, despite the runes Reynir Árnason put down to keep them from following the First Expedition—or perhaps because those runes worked well enough that the First Expedition never encountered them again.”

“Well, not that bunch anyways. I heard they just barely escaped another bunch in the old hospital in Odense.”

“That was what they put down in their official report.” Michaela and Sigurd exchanged a look reflecting their shared understanding of how accurate official reports tended to be.

“…We’re supposed to go there and exorcise that bunch too, aren’t we?”

“I have not looked at that part of our itinerary as yet, but it would be wise to assume so.”

“Have I mentioned how much I hate cleaning up other people’s messes?”

“Not in the last hour or so. To be fair, this was not a mess anyone made deliberately; the Old Timers had no idea they were creating ghosts with their serum, and the First Expedition used the only tools they possessed to deal with the situation.”

Sigurd smiled wryly. “Just like us, though at least we have a better idea of what we’re facing and how to deal with it.”

“Just so.”

“Well, even if the old Death-Shades are stupid enough to still be hanging around the area, a few basic precautions should be enough to keep them at bay until Tuuli can deal with them; our predecessors noted that these Death-Shades would avoid any light shed by the sun or the moon, so all we need to do is make sure we stay in that light, and that none of the shadows we cast can provide a path for them to reach us by.”

“A masterful tactical analysis.”

“That is my job.”

“And you do it well. Certainly better than anyone else on our team.”

“Mia’s starting to get up to speed there, and Lalli’s no great slouch either.” As ever, Sigurd was unwilling to accept praise at the expense of giving others their due.

“But they’re still not at your level as yet. Anyway, I suppose we can chalk whether we find the Death-Shades or not, as with our grossling encounters, up to the vicissitudes of life.”

“Or death, in their case.” Sigurd grinned. “Anyway, my stomach is telling me it’s suppertime.”

Michaela nodded, wondering why she’d expected Sigurd to have absolutely no clue what ‘vicissitudes’ meant…

Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
This is not quite the end, but it’s coming up soon, as there are only a dozen tales left to go in this collection.

I will give these guys a proper close-out, though.

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on October 21, 2017, 07:42:46 PM
Dirty double poster makes a dirty double post (again) much too soon (also again), and closes the gap to three.

Alphabet Soup
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Series 1, Part 23
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Spoiler: A World to Roam • show
Sometimes, even the excitement of what she and her colleagues were doing with the information the team had signaled back wasn’t enough to ease Tuuri’s frustration at her continued infirmity. There was a whole world out there ready and waiting for her to explore it, and she was stuck in the safest place in Sweden with a broken leg!

Even the day when the team finally managed to replicate the failed serum wasn’t exciting enough to take Tuuri’s mind off of roaming the Silent World; fortunately, Onni was there to send the proto-murder-ghost on before it became a problem. Everyone else on the team was ecstatic, as the subject had just died—the Rash had been stopped!

Of course, Tuuri was the only one who believed her brother about there being any sort of specter present at all, though the Finns both took note that this disbelief did not extend to staying by the bedside of the next subject until their death.

“Hi.”

The greeting was so unexpected that it actually knocked Tuuri out of her introspection. She was on her way back to the place she and Onni were renting, though Onni would still be watching The Gnorns, and so her thoughts had gloomily centered on what every hobbling pace with her crutches could not fail to bring to her mind; but something about the soft salutation caught Tuuri’s attention sufficiently to bring her back to the here and now.

The young, small voice came from a young, small girl bundled up in somewhat threadbare garments against the winter’s cold. She made for a rather adorable picture with the storefronts all decorated and fancily lit for Yule (or rather its aftermath) at her back and an expression on her face that combined hesitance and an odd sort of hungry look, but if Tuuri had learned anything from The Gnorns, it was that looks could be terribly deceiving.

“I’m Marta. What’s your name?”

Tuuri looked around for the responsible adult that should be hovering nearby, but saw none. “Where’s your mother?”

The youngling bit her lip, and Tuuri knew what she said next would be a lie. “She’s… in one of the shops getting something for me, but it’s a surprise, so I’m not supposed to go in or peek.”

Not bad for off-the-cuff, but Tuuri knew she couldn’t let it stand. “Where’s your mother?” She let her voice harden just a little, to let the girl know she knew.

“She—she went away,” the little girl—Marta, she said her name was Marta—said reluctantly. “She left me at the orphanage—but she coming back! She said she’d be back with enough money that we can have all the nice things we want!”

“Where did she go?” Tuuri asked cautiously.

Caution crept into Marta’s face. “I’m not supposed to tell.”

Tuuri tried to smile reassuringly. “I’m pretty good at keeping secrets.”

A long, long moment passed before Marta finally said, “She went into Silent Denmark, on a special trip with a bunch of other people.”

Tuuri’s lips felt oddly numb, but she managed to ask, “What’s your mother’s name?”

“Momma.” Marta grinned.

“What do other people call her?”

The little face scrunched in thought. “Um… Miira, I think?” Marta shrugged. “It’s something like that. We have weird-sounding names because we’re part Finn.”

“Are you, then?” Tuuri asked in Finnish. “So am I; actually, I’m all Finn, from Finland itself.”

“Our name is Kiianmies,” Marta said in the same tongue. “What’s yours?”

“I’m Tuuri Hotakainen, and I was actually supposed to go on the trip into Silent Denmark, but I broke my leg.”

Marta looked solemn. “When I grow up, I’m going to be a Cleanser, and go on missions to make the Silent World Clean again.”

Tuuri nodded. “But you should see as much of it as you can before you do that; there’s an awful lot of Silent World out there to roam, and not all of it needs to burn to reclaim it.” She cocked her head. “Would you like to come and see the Mora HQ of the mission your mom’s on?”

Marta trotted eagerly after Tuuri as she made her awkward way back to the Västerströms’ place…

Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
Marta is around six years old here, which makes her over 21 when she met Emil in “Correspondence”; the age gap was part of why Marta had to trick him into proposing.

And Miira’s reaction when she talks to Marta next won’t be what you might expect (unless you’re evil like me).
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on October 21, 2017, 09:54:13 PM
I am quite evil, and have already thought of several possibilities...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on October 22, 2017, 08:26:33 AM
Aaaaaaaaaaaangst.

The Stone (http://archiveofourown.org/works/11713725/chapters/28339095)

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on October 23, 2017, 12:43:22 AM
Double ending post here.

Alphabet Soup
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Series 2, Part 23
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Spoiler: What Grossling? • show
Mia looked at Reyndis skeptically. “What are you talking about?” Her weapon was in her hands despite the question; in the Silent World, there was no such thing as too much paranoia.

“The vættur,” Reyndis expostulated, waving frantically at the spot where she’d seen the minute troll just moments ago. While the team normally spoke Swedish/Norwegian/Danish amongst themselves, Reyndis’ upset had caused her to slip back into her native Icelandic.

“Lalli?” The other Cleanser’s head popped up at Mia’s call. “Are there any vättes hanging around here?”

“No.”

Mia relaxed subtly. “See? Lalli may not be a full-fledged mage,” anymore, she added silently, “like you and Tuuli are, but she’s certainly got enough juice to tell when there’s a grossling anywhere nearby.”

“Maybe it’s a weird spirit trying to play tricks on you,” Lalli offered. “I can’t usually see those, but I’ve been on their bad side before; it’s not fun.”

Mia grimaced and nodded; this epic speech (for Lalli) had brought back a few unpleasant memories of her own. “That’s probably it, Reyndis,” she agreed. “Unfortunately, there’s nothing any of us except maybe you or Tuuli can do about it.” She cuffed the Icelander’s arm playfully. “Try not to let it get to you, huh?”

*

“What?” Michaela shifted her feet as she turned from her position over the steaming cooking pot, her thick boots crushing the tiny vermin beast with a sickening crunch. “What grossling, Reyndis?”

Reyndis opened her mouth, then thought better of it. “Never mind; just be sure to wipe your feet before you get in the vehicle.”

Lalli had, of course, taken advantage of Michaela’s distraction to toss a squirrel into the pot, but at least she’d had the courtesy to skin and clean it beforehand.

*

“You know, Reyndis, this isn’t the best time to start going stir-crazy.”

For once, Sigurd was completely calm and collected when remonstrating with Reyndis; in fact, he was rather more sympathetic than his usual air of impatience would have led one to believe possible.

“I know this whole thing has been really rough on you, but we’re almost at the pick-up point and out of this place, and with everything done that we were supposed to get done, so if you can just keep it together for a few more days, we’ll be home free.” Sigurd grinned. “When we’re on the ship, you can go as stark raving mad as you want and they’ll take care of you. I wouldn’t be surprised if you know the ship’s mage!”

“You say that like it’s a good thing,” Reyndis muttered, and Sigurd laughed for the first time since Odense.

*

Tuuli frowned, his patience finally at an end. “Look, Reyndis…”

“No, you look!” Reyndis interrupted, pointing at the tiny round troll sitting just behind Tuuli.

Tuuli blinked at this uncharacteristic assertiveness on Reyndis’ part, then closed his eyes. When they opened, they glowed blue. “I’m looking.” The troll seemed to glow the same shade of blue that Tuuli’s eyes were for a moment, then Tuuli sang something at it and it vanished.

Reyndis let out a sigh of relief.

“How long has that thing been bothering you?” Tuuli’s voice had lost the angry edge it had held a moment ago.

Reyndis shrugged. “A few days; maybe a week. Mostly I’ve been trying to ignore it.”

Tuuli closed his eyes again. “Why were you trying to ignore it?”

“Well, Mia and Lalli thought it was some kind of trickster spirit, and I don’t know anything about dealing with those, so I tried concentrating on keeping anything worse away.”

Tuuli was losing his patience again. “Why didn’t you just ask me then?”

“I kinda… forgot.”

Tuuli went over to the nearest wall and started softly hitting his head against it, which drew Mia and Lalli into the bunk area. Before the Cleanser duo could ask anything, though, a cry rang out from outside.

“THE BOAT’S HERE! TUULI, GET THAT RUST-BUCKET IN GEAR AND ABOARD BEFORE THEY BAIL ON US!”

And that was how the Second Silent World Expedition came to its successful conclusion on one fine morning in the early Spring of the Year 226.

The Third Silent World Expedition, on the other hand…

Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
And so ends another AU, at least for now.

And, of course, I put in a stealth pun: what Reyndis kept seeing…

…was a Cheshire Vätte.

Because I’m evil.

+
Alphabet Soup
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Series 3, Part 23
Spoiler: The Worth of a Worm • show
“The answer is still no.”

“I was just hoping that you might have reconsidered while you were laid up and all, since you had so much time to think it over.”

“The answer is still no.” This time, Emil took the time and care to enunciate each word as clearly as he could, as though the Old Man were hard of hearing or slow to understand, though Emil knew that neither was in fact the case. “Now go away.” He rolled over, turning his back to the Old Man in a calculated insult.

The smooth, oily voice that reminded Emil so much of his Uncle T was unruffled; in fact, Emil thought he heard a faint hint of amusement there. “You just think it over some more and we’ll have a good, long palaver about it next time.” And the Old Man was gone.

Emil flopped back onto his back, breathing out a long sigh of relief. He hadn’t realized until that moment that he’d been holding his breath after he’d issued his peremptory demand, part of him fearing that the Old Man would ignore it… and part of him hoping that the Old Man would ignore it.

The pain hit Emil a moment later, lightning bolts of agony shooting down his spine; to sweeten the deal, the Old Man tended to hold the pain at bay while presenting his spiel, but it always came rushing back once Emil had refused and the Old Man had left. Stick and Carrot; Pain and Relief; these were the Old Man’s weapons, and he wielded them with a master’s touch.

Another jolt ran through Emil and lingered. Tonight was going to be bad; the nights he refused the Old Man were always the worst.

Some time later—pain tended to warp your perceptions of how long anything was—Emil became aware of someone else in the room. When he finally managed to get himself together enough to look and see who it might be, he found that it was Lalli. Before Emil could gather the energy to say something, though, Lalli said just one word: “Perkele.”

“Huh?” Emil wished he could have said something more thoughtful and measured, but he simply couldn’t comprehend what his friend was trying to convey with that cryptic utterance.

Lalli sat lightly on the edge of Emil’s bed. “That’s what my grandma used to call the Old Man: Perkele. She was always warning me about falling into his clutches if I wasn’t careful.” Lalli grimaced. “She said she’d had personal experience on how one-sided his deals always were.”

“Run home, Lalli,” Emil said to his friend. “I may not have taken the Old Man’s deal tonight, but he’ll be back, over and over again, until he has his way. If he has to, he’ll kill you and anyone else who thwarts him, so run while you can.”

“You’ve been too good a friend to me for me to do that.” Lalli’s face was utterly solemn.

“I’m a worm” Emil said miserably. “Not worth the powder to blow me to joining the Old Man.”

“Even worms have their worth,” Lalli argued. “They go through the soil and renew it so the crops can grow; no farmer underestimates the worth of a worm, except at his own peril.” He stood. “I won’t abandon you, whether or not you think you’re worth it. Get that through your thick head, Emil Västerström: even when you don’t see me, I’m there with you.”

Between one blink and the next, Lalli was gone. Emil wasn’t sure his friend had ever really been in the room, but he knew that Lalli would always be there when he needed him.

*

Emil (and Lalli) stayed on with Reynir and Tuuri as just another hand, never complaining, always working as best he could; but he never killed anything again, unless it was a weed that needed to be pulled. Every so often, the Old Man would show up, and Emil would refuse him all over again.

Every time Emil looked too deep into a fire, he could see the Old Man laughing.

Lalli was gone by the time Reynir and Tuuri’s grandson took over the spread, but Emil was still limping on, though slower every year. He was the oldest of the hands, and they all tended to help him out when they could get away with it.

One night, the Old Man came for the last time, but Lalli helped Emil see him off. The other hands found Emil in his bunk come morning, a small smile on his weathered face…

Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
And another ending, somewhat angsty.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on October 23, 2017, 01:05:45 AM
You are indeed evil. But good stories.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on October 23, 2017, 09:22:06 AM
...I have absolutely no excuse for this.

I'm subjecting you to it anyway.

The Thirst (http://archiveofourown.org/works/11713725/chapters/28370992)

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on October 23, 2017, 05:13:34 PM
That is some extremely weird crack you have there!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on October 24, 2017, 07:07:27 AM
I am not being a copy-Lalli here, as this was planned (but not written) several weeks ago.

Alphabet Soup
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Series 1, Part 24
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Spoiler: A Xylophone and a Zither • show
Apparently, the thieves and robbers who infested the big, dark, scary forest were all also avid musicians, because when they’d run afoul of the Three Bear Warriors who were their sworn enemies, Sigrun, the fiercest Bear Warrior ever ever ever, had pursued them all the way back to their camp and found a veritable dragon’s hoard of musical instruments. Lalli, their newly acquired feline Cub Scout, had suggested that the Bear Warriors and their friend “Goldilocks” Emil Västerström might try starting their own band as a sideline, but Mikkel, the general dogs-body of the trio, had informed him that jazz wouldn’t be invented for another few centuries, and that Bremen was too far away anyways, so that idea was set aside for the moment.

They unlikely foursome finally remembered that they had been on their way to bring some Very Important and Valuable Items back to Trond the Crooked Man that Old Man Olsen, a very unpleasant man who had died some years before, had borrowed and never returned from Captain Ása Hardardóttir’s father, Hörður the Hoarder, so the Bear Warriors and Emil dropped off the big iron pot in which they’d stashed the Very Important and Valuable Items at Trond the Crooked Man’s crooked home just outside the big, dark, scary forest, though they couldn’t hang around to listen to any of his crooked tales.

Most of the instruments had easily found their owners from the local villages, but when the dust from the reclaiming frenzy settled, two instruments remained: a xylophone that had been partly dismantled (but which had all of its pieces), and a zither with most of its strings intact.

Now, a zither was close enough to a kantele that Lalli, a Finn forest cat, worked it out fairly easily; and Emil had been training on the glockenspiel before he’d been sent to live with his uncle and aunt, so he was working the xylophone pretty well shortly. Their impromptu concert, held on the front lawn of the house that used to be Old Man Olsen’s, drew a whole crowd out to hear; but more importantly it drew out the current owner of the house, Reynir Árnason, and the pair of ghosts who liked hanging around him, “Onni” and “Tuuri”.

Emil didn’t particularly like ghosts of any sort, but he was a very well-mannered boy (when he remembered to be), so he had got on “Onni” and “Tuuri’s” good side by being polite to “them”, just as he had the Bear Warriors in the first place. When “they” asked to sing along, Emil looked at Lalli, who nodded, and Emil told “them” it was okay, and this turned out to be a very good idea, because “Onni” was a very fine base and “Tuuri” a sweet alto.

Mikkel and Sigrun still wanted no part of the musical ensemble that was coalescing, but they weren’t opposed to Lalli going and having fun with Emil every so often. So it was that the concerts became a more or less monthly occurrence, always on Reynir’s front lawn. Emil was just getting used to hanging around with the ghosts when…

Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
Remember, Lazy8, you can never make my crack look normal with yours!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on October 24, 2017, 07:42:23 AM
'Jazz wouldn't be invented for another few centuries, and Bremen was too far away', forsooth! When my kids were little they owned a copy of 'The Musicians of Bremen', with a front cover illustration of all the musicians playing on the back of the ox. I remember that the cat had a little violin, but a zither would be just as funny.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on October 24, 2017, 08:01:21 AM
I'll admit that that's cracky, but... did you see what I just wrote?

(Also, what's coming up next... erm...)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on October 24, 2017, 08:07:06 AM
I'll admit that that's cracky, but... did you see what I just wrote?

(Also, what's coming up next... erm...)
You wrote Mikkel as TSgt Kwan from Galaxy Quest.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on October 24, 2017, 08:07:50 AM
You wrote Mikkel as TSgt Kwan from Galaxy Quest.

*blink*

I... did, didn't I?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on October 25, 2017, 04:07:52 AM
Yep. And now, I'm writing Mikkel as Mikkel (hopefully).

Alphabet Soup
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Series 2, Part 24
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Spoiler: Xenophon Reincarnate • show
“Excess of victory never yet caused any conqueror one pang of remorse.”

“May I talk with anybody else, please?”

Mikkel never got tired of hearing that, even through all the innumerable variations that he had heard: it meant victory, and he had long since learned to savor every little (or large) victory he could wrest from the vapid, fatuous masses he had to deal with on a regular basis; such was his only compensation from the petty cruelties and stupidities they forced him to endure on a near-constant basis.

At first, Mikkel had expected that a new workplace, occupation or employer might prove the exception to the idiocracy in which he had been trapped for all of his life; that hope had long since faded by now, replaced with resignation over the anticipated onslaught of foolishness that always eventuated. So now Mikkel welcomed every evidence that he grated on his more pathologically microcephalic colleagues or employers as much as they grated on him.

Of course, Mikkel’s current teammates grated on him far less than most, so that was a plus. Given that, he had been careful not to unduly antagonize the others, though it appeared his first little prank had left a lasting impression on Emil. Oh, well.

*

“There was something in me that would not rest until I fulfilled a grand destiny.”
“Perhaps their attacks on my character meant that the hour was ripe for my career to begin in earnest.”

As soon as he was certain that the door was securely closed, Mikkel strode briskly from the vehicle, assured in his determination to sortie to Kastellet and bring to light the answers all his instincts told him awaited him there. Once he had the solution in hand, Sigrun would be forced to admit that she had unfairly maligned both his abilities and his acumen in asserting that the sortie should be made.

Quite obviously, Mikkel was the only person on the team suited to make this sortie, as only he had the right combination of immunity to enable him to go without fear, knowledge to enable him to find what he sought, and deductive ability to interpret what he might find. Though some of these qualities were shared (to a sadly limited extent) by some of his teammates, none of them combined these prerequisites in one person as he did. Success would be his vindication.

*

“The sweetest sound is praise.”

“…and the fact that you can carry as much as three random, boring dudes, I like that about you.”

It seemed Sigrun had given some thought to what enconia she might truthfully give Mikkel, which was actually quite considerate of her; Mikkel only wished she didn’t make it sound like she was scraping the bottom of the barrel for such praise. He would forbear mentioning this minor discontent, of course, and try not to dwell upon it aside from this one acknowledgement: ingratitude for efforts made on one’s behalf was the easiest way to discourage reoccurrence of such effort.

“So what I’m saying is: you’re really good at muscles, which is great.”

Mikkel smiled and replied, “I’m flattered.” And he was, despite any earlier eye-rolling. Perhaps Sigrun could have worded her earlier statements better, but the summation was more than adequate to her cause.

Mikkel was of the opinion that one should dwell on the sweeter things in life, as they tended to be the most ephemeral…

Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
And here’s a short glimpse into Mikkel’s mind.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on October 28, 2017, 09:53:09 AM
Three guesses as to who set out to write a one-shot in her "Tuuri and Lalli didn't go on the expedition" AU six weeks ago and ended up producing a four-chapter fic. First two don't count.

I was a little uninspired for the title though. For curious people and making Lazy8's work easier, it's a sequel to "Second chances".

Somewhere, somehow: Chapter1 (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12704446/1/Somewhere-somehow)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on October 28, 2017, 08:30:07 PM
I always appreciate anything that makes my job easier.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on October 29, 2017, 12:14:29 AM
So, after the multi-day delay, here's another double update with which I pull just barely ahead of Lazy8.

Alphabet Soup
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Series 3, Part 24
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Spoiler: The X-Y-Z Problem • show
The wizened little detective moved down the line of suspects at a slow and measured pace. The various people in the line fidgeted as he approached, only relaxing when he had passed them. There was only one of them who seemed completely at his ease throughout the ordeal: the murderer.

Throughout all the tumultuous events since he had awoken with a sack on his head, Reynir had managed to keep hold of something that he’d found by his feet in those stables: one of the thriller novels his mother had written long ago.

Reynir’s mother, Sigriður Jónsdóttir, had borne five children, and with each pregnancy, she had been confined to bed for a longer or shorter period in the third trimester. For such a normally active woman as Sigriður, the boredom of this confinement was excruciating; so when her mother-in-law Hildur, herself a well-known writer of steamy romances, had suggested that Sigriður try her own hand at writing something, Sigriður had latched onto the notion like a drowning woman clutching a floatation device.

Thus the wizened little detective came into being; the book Reynir had was the eighth of his adventures, written while Reynir himself was in utero. This seeming coincidence gave Reynir a warm, fuzzy feeling, like his mother was in some way looking out for him from afar.

Through two balloon rides and a vast trek underground, Reynir had carried the book; one might expect that he’d know every page and every word on every page by heart, but he had only had brief snatches in which to pore over the book, so only now was he approaching the book’s climactic passages.

The second balloon ride had perforce been shorter than the first, as the six of them had barely had time to climb in before their beloved island had exploded, damaging their balloon so that it had almost failed them. They’d managed to eke out just enough flight time from it to reach a nearby and greatly inferior island, and were resting briefly before jumping back to work. Fortunately, the island was just as grossling-free as the other had been.

The real question that they were faced with which none of them wanted to say out loud was how they were going to get home—which now seemed more like whether they were going to get home at all than it had at any point in their various adventures. The island had essentially nothing that they could use to even try to get home, and very little that they could use to survive at all.

Fortunately for them, there was a mildly dilapidated cabin that was a relic of the Old Times but would shelter all of them, though the electrical systems were long since defunct.

“You used the Old Time telephone system to pretend you were elsewhere when you were really busy murdering your victim, but what you don’t realize is that phone calls are still tracked and recorded—we can prove whence the call you made originated!”

Reynir sat up. There was a telephone on the desk not five feet from the bed upon which he was lounging, and in a second, his hand was on the receiver. Reynir paused. It couldn’t be that easy, could it? Swallowing hard, Reynir put the receiver to his ear…

…And heard a dial tone.

*

Staying alive until the Icelandic Navy sent one of their ships to rescue them was physically trying, but contact with their loved ones gave them just the boost in spirits that they needed to tough it out.

By the time they reached Reykjavik, their loved ones had had time to get there as well; the dockside reunion must have been quite a sight for any uninformed spectators…

Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
And here’s an end to the Jules Verne crossover.

Sigh.


+
Alphabet Soup
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Series 1, Part 25
Spoiler: A Yen for a Yen • show
Tuuri watched Reyinr approach while pretending she was unaware of him. Reynir was being uncharacteristically hesitant, and Tuuri wasn’t going to do anything to encourage that hesitance.

Tuuri was driving the vehicle at its customary slow crawl so that the horses tied to the rear bumper could keep up with ease down the road to Keuruu; aside from Reynir, the others were all napping in the back, waiting for the incipient contact Lalli had told them would be minutes away now.

“Turi?” Reynir swallowed hard before he could continue. “Um… What were you planning to do when we get to Keuruu?”

Tuuri paused for a moment before replying, “Well, it’s my home, so… nothing special, really. I mean, we were all down in Mikkeli on that mission, but we all have our own homes we need to go back to… don’t we? Unless… unless some of us might want to stay together?”

A blast of light burst through the windshield before Tuuri could reply. They had finally reached the first line of outposts protecting Keuruu.

*

The six of them went into individual isolation cells for their mandatory quarantine; they were not informed of what was done with the horses. Normally, that would have been that, but because the six of them were, as Reynir put it later, cursed with an attraction for all the worst troubles that could find them, on the day before they were to have been released there was a sudden influx of people who needed to be quarantined, which meant that the four immunes were squashed together in one cell (let’s face it—that’s what they were at that point), and the two non-immunes were put in another.

It was only supposed to be for a day, but the facility was so overwhelmed that it lasted almost another week; Mikkel pointed out that they were lucky that the staff had kept feeding them, considering how great the chaos actually was out there.

*

The two cells had a register through which they could communicate; none of them knew how it was that they could talk that way without risk of cross-contamination, but they accepted it as fact nonetheless. This register was firmly shut, as the two non-immunes were in the midst of a discussion that they felt should remain private to them.

“I’d like us to stay together after all of this is finally over.”

There were a few moments of silence after this declaration.

“Do you really want me in particular, or do you just want someone to be with you and anyone will do?”

Tuuri grabbed Reynir’s cheeks and pulled his head to hers until their foreheads touched, forcing him to look her directly in the eyes. “I want to see what we can be together in the real world, instead of some crazy chase back to civilization.”

*

“It took you long enough,” Onni grumbled as the guards signaled him to accompany them to the quarantine cells.

When the guards finally opened the cell where they’d put the two non-immunes, they found Reynir and Tuuri busily making out.

Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
And so the race to Keuruu ends just as it began.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on October 29, 2017, 09:38:02 PM
Another double update, leaving me with just the Zs.

...but hopefully none of them will give you readers the Zzzzzzzzzzs.

Alphabet Soup
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Series 2, Part 25
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Spoiler: Youth • show
Mikkel Madsen, author of “Mars on a C-Note a Day”, “Love and the Modern AI”, “Pearl-Blossoms Across the Sky (and Other Stories)”, and many more such hard sci-fi tales, ducked as the sword whizzed past his head, wondering why he’d ever agreed to this. A moment later, his opponent had been knocked flat on his back by a redheaded fury: Sigrun Eide, Norse Cinema’s reigning Queen of the Troll Hunters.

Mikkel winced as Sigrun bellowed in triumph before coming to a startling realization: he was actually enjoying himself. This realization was disturbing on a number of levels, but he had other things on which he ought to be concentrating, so he put it from his mind for the moment.

The leather scale armor Mikkel was wearing was well-balanced but still chafed in various places and was getting rather a bit too warm overall. Even so, Mikkel was of the opinion that he was still doing fairly well, considering his inexperience at this type of martial art.

Sigrun’s parents had insisted on Mikkel’s attendance at and participation in these games in Dalsnes; Mikkel had no idea why, but since their insistence took the form of a man even more massive than Mikkel and half his age, Mikkel had acquiesced. Sigrun had met his plane and introduced him to her young pyromaniac friend Emil Västerström, who hadn’t understood a word of Mikkel’s greeting. Emil had introduced them to his friend Lalli Hotakainen, Lalli’s cousin Tuuri Hotakainen, and Tuuri’s light-o’-love Reynir Árnason. Sigrun, far from discouraging this chain of friends leeching off of her hospitality, had been quite enthusiastic about their number; Mikkel only found out why when the aides came to kit him out with the armor.

The annual games included a number of team fights in period arms and armor; the whole group had been volunteered for one such. Sigrun, Mikkel, Emil, Lalli, Tuuri and Reynir were all fighting on one side of the brawl, with an equal number of Sigrun’s parents’ flunkies (all nearly as large as the one who’d summoned Mikkel) as their opponents. Sigrun had immediately taken charge of her group (which everyone thought was a good idea), and had designated Emil, of all people, as her “right-hand viking” (which even Emil thought was a mistake).

The six of them had promptly though informally been split into two groups: Mikkel, Tuuri and Reynir formed the “we can barely defend ourselves” group; while Sigrun, Lalli and (to his own amazement) Emil formed the “don’t worry, we’ll protect you and win this anyway” group.

Fortunately, Mikkel’s leg wound had been healed for quite some time, or this battle would have been even more of an ordeal than it was proving to be. While he, Tuuri and Reynir were indeed only barely holding their own, the three of them were still holding their own, which was better than the alternative at hand.

Mikkel glanced over at the Grand Pavilion, where Sigrun’s parents were seated in seeming unconcern (as far as he could tell from this distance) and regal splendor on the High Dais (just above the Middle Dais, which was just above the Low Dais, which was just above the Battling Pitch). He shifted his weapon and shield as his ire at the situation they’d forced upon him grew. He was an author of hard science fiction, not some hack writer scribbling out pseudo-historical claptrap!

There were only two of their opponents still on their feet; while Tuuri and Reynir were watching in awe as Sigrun, Lalli and Emil surrounded their remaining foes, Mikkel decided to take matters into his own hands.

The one thing Mikkel hadn’t counted on in his spur-of-the-moment plan was that he was going to try to go up against Sigrun’s parents; had he given it more consideration, he would have realized that this could only end badly. In the event, they actually allowed Mikkel to make his way up to the High Dais before Sigrun’s parents took him on personally… for all of the five seconds it took them to take him down.

When Mikkel opened his eyes, his head was throbbing horribly and Sigrun was grinning down at him; her grin was particularly insane, which made Mikkel’s head throb even worse than it was already. Her words did nothing to dispel the throbbing: “I knew there was a reason I like you.” She laughed at his expression. “Purely platonically, Big Guy, though if I liked you the other way, my parents would be all for it after your gutsy try at them.”

Mikkel had absolutely no idea what he reply he managed to make…

Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
Mikkel’s hard sci-fi snootiness is one of the things that annoys me quite a bit IRL.

…But here’s the end of the nerd-con AU, at least for now.


+
Alphabet Soup
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Series 3, Part 25
Spoiler: The Yowling • show
Well, so Lalli the feline Cub Scout couldn’t sing; that didn’t matter, as neither could “Goldilocks” Emil. The fact that the two of them could play their instruments pleasantly well together was good enough.

Unfortunately, while Emil was inclined to let Lalli yowl his heart out if he so desired, Sigrun, the fiercest Bear Warrior ever ever ever, was decidedly not; or at least, not around her, and Mikkel quite agreed.

This was why Emil and Lalli were in a distant part of the big, dark, scary forest one fine summer day with their instruments. The ghosts who usually sang along with their playing, “Onni” and “Tuuri”, couldn’t come this deep into the big, dark, scary forest, or “they” might offend the local ghost wolves and bears and Bear Warriors, so it was just Emil and Lalli.

They had just started to get a good tune going when they were interrupted by a weird, glowing horse ghost with eight legs. The ghost leapt up on a nearby stump and said,

“Boys, let me tell you what,
“I’ll bet you didn’t know,
“But I’m a zither player too,
“And if you’d care
“To take a dare,
“I’ll make a bet with you…”

It was at this point that Emil pointed out that both places named Georgia were quite some ways away; that the ghost might have better luck with a fiddler rather than a zitherist; and that the ghost should probably be on guard against someone with a sack that might have been obtained from Trond the Crooked Man. Then Emil pulled a small burlap sack from his belt and waved it suggestively, whereupon the ghost decided to take “himself” elsewhere.

Lalli repaid the favor a few minutes later when a wandering huntsman mistook Emil for his quarry, though Emil had sparkling gold hair rather than thick raven tresses. Apparently, the huntsman had been going blind for some time with cataracts. Lalli being a cat knew how to alleviate this problem, so the huntsman left with thanks and a promise to cut them free if they ever found themselves in a wolf’s belly.

“Do you think we should go to some other part of the big, dark, scary forest?” Emil asked Lalli. “It’s getting awfully crowded around here.”

Lalli quietly considered the matter for a while. “Maybe we should go visit my grandmother.”

“Only if we can get the huntsman to stick around,” Emil said firmly. “We may need to take him up on his offer.”

Lalli admitted that elderly grandmothers had a strange habit of being eaten by wolves just as their grandchildren were coming to call, and Emil wondered why uncles couldn’t pick up the habit, as his Uncle Torbjörn had threatened to withhold the pease porridge again if Emil didn’t bring back something nice from his friends.

“That’s why I don’t invite you over,” Emil apologized.

“I might be of assistance with that, if you can help me in exchange,” a nearby frog croaked. “This stump leads to the cave of the Gobbler King. He owes me a favor, so if you ask, he’ll give you something to help.”

“How shall we aid you in return?” Emil asked.

The frog shuddered. “Never sing in this part of the big, dark, scary forest again.”

Lalli and Emil looked at each other and shrugged. In another moment, they had gone into the stump and down a long passageway that led to a sumptuous throne room, where the Gobbler King sat in state. After they’d explained the situation to him, he nodded to one of his flunkies, who presented them with a folding table. “Whenever this table is set up, a magical and unending feast will fill it.”

“Thank you,” Emil said politely, and took the table in his arms.

Emil presented his aunt and uncle with the table, but since Reynir had invited him and the Three Bear Warriors to dine at the house that used to be Old Man Olsen’s, Emil did not wait for them to try the table.

The Gobbler King and the frog had deceived Emil: once opened, the table would force anyone nearby to eat from its feast until their stomachs burst, at which point it would fold itself back up. When Emil returned to his uncle and aunt that evening, he found a tragic scene.

The frog was visiting the Gobbler King when Emil and the Three Bear Warriors came with the table, which saved them some time. The Gobbler King had a magic sword, but before he could finish saying, “All heads off but mine!”, Sigrun had lopped his head off.

Despite successfully avenging his family, Emil was still sad, for he had no idea how to live on his own. The answer came from “Tuuri”, who pressed Reynir to invite Emil to live with him. Emil agreed, on the condition that he could still go and visit the Three Bear Warriors from time to time; and so he, Reynir and the ghosts all got along very well for the rest of their days.

Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
I’m really not sure how I could have fit more fairy tale stuff in this and still closed it out.

…Did I mention that I’m insane?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on October 29, 2017, 10:15:40 PM
Insane in the best possible way! Laughing very hard here!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on October 30, 2017, 05:18:16 AM
Alphabet Soup
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Series 1, Part 26
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Spoiler: A Zap in the Right Place • show
“Only now, at the end, do you understand.” Another foul course of purple lightning sprang from the vile Sorcerer’s gnarled fingers, identical to that which had slain the Evil Tyrant when his failure to rout the Six Sojourners had become apparent. The dire bolts leapt at the Sojourners…

…Only to bend around and concentrate upon the head of the Blue Wizard’s outstretched staff. “There is, indeed, much that you have made plain to us,” the Blue Wizard stated calmly, “but it is not our end that is nigh: it is yours.” And Lalli equally calmly shot the arrow he had readied into the Sorcerer’s belly.

*

They stayed on at the village for almost a week, which nearly ran the villagers out of food, though the Blue Wizard gave them a mysterious gift “from the vaults of Laurelindórenan, the Elven Valley of Singing Gold in the Far West”, which statement caused Reynir Half-Elven to shoot a brief but astonished glance at the Blue Wizard.

Leave they did, though each of them had only the vaguest of destinations in mind. For the moment, this mattered very little, as the way to anywhere they were desirous of going led back along the route they had taken to get to the village: they had followed the dawn here; now they must follow the setting sun.

The dragons and the magicians and all the other trials and travails of the journey East declined to hinder them as they made their way back West, so their journey went faster than they’d thought possible. All too soon, they had reached the spot where the Dwarven caravan had come to grief and Reynir Half-Elven had joined them.

And now, the decisions each of them had been putting off could be put off no longer. Each secretly wanted to remain with the others wherever that might lead them, though each stated that their duty was to return to their homelands, if they could.

Finally, the Blue Wizard broke into their councils. “Enough of this. Lalli, would the Royal Sword turn away any who wished to serve him, especially if you pledged for their valor?”

“Of course not,” Lalli said in surprise.

“Of course not.” The Blue Wizard clasped his hands behind him. “There is a minor village along the Great East Road near the Shire and within the realm of Arthedain, a village where Men, Elves, Dwarves and Hobbits are known to mingle; it is called Bree by those who people it. This area would welcome any who wish to settle there, particularly those who serve the Royal Sword.”

The Blue Wizard paused. No one spoke, though all were watching him intently.

“Lalli and Tuuri Pesky-Door; Mikkel Foundling Son of Man; Sigrun of the Haladin Guard; Emil Dúnduin of Gondor; and Reynir Half-Elven: will you accept a charge that will bind you for the rest of your lives, the defense of the North against the rapacity and depredations of Angmar?”

Fear hit each heart, but sudden joy pushed it aside. Here was what each of them secretly wanted but had feared to ask for, laid before them as a charge—but also as a gift.

The Blue Wizard smirked as each of the Six Sojourners silently nodded in turn…

Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
A rather more pleasant ending than the next tale—which is why the last post will also be a double one.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on October 30, 2017, 07:50:24 AM
Oh yes, I can totally see Mikkel as the pretentious hard scifi author.

And my crackpiece is coming, LooNEY, just you wait!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on October 30, 2017, 05:52:51 PM
Almost went to bed without positing a link to my chapter update, silly me! One of the storylines responsible for the change from one-shot to actual fic turned out quite well for an idea that I literally got while writing the previous story's epilogue.

Somewhere, somehow: Chapter 2 (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12704446/2/Somewhere-somehow)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on October 31, 2017, 07:07:57 AM
Final post for my Alphabet Soup stuff.

Alphabet Soup
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Series 2, Part 26
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Spoiler: Zen and the Art of Cat-Tank Maintenance • show
Take off the bolts.

Open the housing.

Check the gasket.

Check the rotor.

Check the coils.

Check the brushes.

Check the housing.

Shut the housing.

Put the bolts back on.

Wipe the sweat out of your eyes.

Trace the wires back from point to point, looking for breaks.

Check the battery.

Try the engine again.

Repeat as needed until the engine starts.

The drearily repetitive nature of what Tuuri was trying to do ironically helped clear her mind of all the fears and worries that her… condition… naturally gave rise to as the days went on, even in such a relentlessly optimistic mind as hers. Tuuri found her various other considerations all subsumed by the necessity to concentrate on what she was doing.

Take off the bolts.

Open the housing.

Check the gasket.

Check the rotor…

It never seemed to end, though Tuuri was sure she’d solved every problem there was to find; thus, when giving Sigrun a progress report, she said, “I’m almost finished, I swear! I just have to—” a long pause “…get it to…” another long pause “…start?”

After a few rumblings from Mikkel, Tuuri went back to work.

Shut the housing.

Put the bolts back on.

Wipe the sweat out of your eyes.

Trace the wires back from point to point, looking for breaks.

Check the battery.

Try the engine again.

Tuuri was working by sheer rote now, her mind numb to all else. Had she been able to muse on anything, she might have thought to compare her mental state with that of her comatose brother, or she might not, but certainly she had nothing to spare for such contemplations when the stupid engine just wouldn’t start and there was no reason why it shouldn’t!

There was a lot of weather going on around Tuuri as she worked on the engine, but the hood, crumpled though it may be, protected her from most of it. The hood thus served as a good analogy for the vehicle as a whole: whatever its failures in aesthetics, the vehicle provided them with adequate shelter from the world around them, even if it got stuck a few times. Tuuri grunted as she pulled one last connection back into place.

Without warning, the engine came to life, hesitantly at first, but soon after it was roaring like it had never been stalled or silent at all. For a moment, Tuuri was dumbfounded; then she said, “I did it!” And she had, of course. “I’m… I’m… so amazing!

Tuuri had every right to crow: this was her doing entirely, and the culmination of so much time and effort spent that the details of it all ran together from the first time she’d popped the hood open to this moment of triumph. Therefore, Tuuri was going to agree with Sigrun that the engine’s roar was her new favorite sound and ignore what Emil said about the roar’s quality or lack thereof.

The vehicle would be fine, just as Tuuri herself would be. They were both going to chug on until they reached their final stop…

Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
And this is why there’s another story following directly below.

+
Alphabet Soup
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Series 3, Part 26
Spoiler: The Zipper • show
Miira Kiianmies, widow of Elias, mother of Marta, was dead as the proverbial doornail; the sad thing was how few people regretted this fact except insofar as it hurt Marta. Even Reynir, whose life she had (almost certainly unintentionally) saved through her death, was only mildly sorry that the abrasive woman was gone from amongst them.

The irony of it all was that it could all be traced back to a stuck zipper.

*

The kitten was dancing across the wooden boards that made up the floor of the sleeping compartment, her high-pitched mewls audible even above the sounds of the battle raging outside, but Miira ignored the frantic feline because she was fiddling with the zipper of her coat, which was stuck halfway.

Everyone who has dealt with stuck zippers knows the halfway point to be the worst possible place for it to happen: if it sticks lower down, you can treat it like it’s open; if it sticks higher up, you can treat it like it’s closed. Halfway, however, works against either of these expedients, which was why Miira was ignoring everything else in her efforts to shift the recalcitrant bit of metal either up or down, but it just wouldn’t give over to her.

So instead of prudently sitting still and quiet beside Reynir on the lower bunk, Miira was standing and fiddling with her zipper not a foot from where the troll burst through the floor. The sizeable splinters they later found piercing the back of her head probably killed her instantly, but just her presence so close to the troll caused it to concentrate on her long enough for Lalli to come in and kill it before it could go after Reynir as well.

*

Before the battle, it had been nearly a week since anyone on the team had spoken to Miira, which she actually counted a blessing. All of them (the ones who understood Swedish, anyway) had been shocked by the vile, foul and vicious things Miira had told Marta over the radio—Marta, her daughter, who was barely six years old! After that, Miira began to live out the true meaning of the word “pariah”.

Fortunately, Lalli had been getting more and more proficient in his basic Swedish, even though Finnish continued to elude the others.

*

Miira’s death crystallized something for Tuuri: she no longer wanted to run right out into the Silent World, and the reason was a six year old bundle of mischief who was determined to join the Cleansers and had just been orphaned. Now, Tuuri was not about to admit this to Onni yet, as she knew her brother would take at least a year to get the “I told you so” out of his system. No, she would play this cool for a while, at least around him.

The three of them had already found their own place, as neither Hotakainen could abide sending Marta back to the orphanage where Miira had dumped her, so that had already been settled. The only thing left in the wake of Miira’s death was going through the formal adoption process, which proved to be a fairly streamlined affair.

Sorting out Onni’s affairs in Keuruu was another matter…

Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
What, you were expecting me to close the collection out on something else?

…And Tuuri’s wanderlust isn’t gone; she’s just put it on the back burner until Marta has left the nest.


Hey, look! I closed it out before SSSS' birthday.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on October 31, 2017, 09:40:57 AM
I would've been finished with the Alphabet Challenge by now if not for that slump that I had after You Know What. *grumble* *grumble*

Anyway, here, have some more crack.

The Unicorn (http://archiveofourown.org/works/11713725/chapters/28644968)

(Couldn't find a link to the song this time, sorry.)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on October 31, 2017, 10:39:04 AM
Has a unicorn been considered as candidate for Emil's fylgja yet? Because after reading this, I think it should totally be added to the list of possibilities if it's not already there.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on October 31, 2017, 11:16:42 AM
Finally, finally, with the combination of the sort-of-new tablet and the presence of a person whom the Cursed Machineries will obey, another chapter of 'A Few of Mikkel's Secrets' has actually been posted. It's over on Archive of our Own.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on November 01, 2017, 12:39:25 AM
Has a unicorn been considered as candidate for Emil's fylgja yet? Because after reading this, I think it should totally be added to the list of possibilities if it's not already there.

I wouldn't doubt it - I think Windfighter may even have arted it! 
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Windfighter on November 01, 2017, 06:50:06 AM
I wouldn't doubt it - I think Windfighter may even have arted it!

Close enough, I arted Emil and Lalli riding a unicorn:
(https://78.media.tumblr.com/a6304b114502545cf3803a85ff2579f1/tumblr_owasn8x1DQ1wq1imjo1_1280.jpg)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on November 01, 2017, 07:03:03 AM
Close enough, I arted Emil and Lalli riding a unicorn:
(https://78.media.tumblr.com/a6304b114502545cf3803a85ff2579f1/tumblr_owasn8x1DQ1wq1imjo1_1280.jpg)

Oh yeah, I remember that! I just didn't want to say anything at the time because... well...

EDIT: Also I updated the index in spite of my wireless's repeated tantrums.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on November 01, 2017, 05:58:06 PM
Yay for finally making Sigrun and Mikkel appear, even if very briefly, in this AU! I blame the way Helena and Sven turned out (way too similar to them in some aspects) for my trouble including them so far.

Somewhere, somehow: Chapter 3 (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12704446/3/Somewhere-somehow)

@Róisín: Have been reading your fic and liking it!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on November 01, 2017, 06:29:38 PM
Grade E Cat: thanks! Glad you like it. I've been reading and liking yours too.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Windfighter on November 01, 2017, 07:41:11 PM
Slightly off-topic but why did I let you people talk me into signing up on ao3? That site is even more confusing than ff.net, which says a lot!
*mumbles mumbles*
Anyway, I am on ao3 as well now for those of you who are interested and allowed to read my stories! ♥
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on November 01, 2017, 11:16:12 PM
Windy, that's excellent. Archive is much easier for me to read.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Gaemmel on November 02, 2017, 04:41:21 AM
Awesome, Windy! And if you ever need a hand, you can tell me via any of our communication channels and maybe I can lift that confusion a bit!
(But I agree, ao3 can be extremely confusing.)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on November 03, 2017, 05:43:08 PM
*Now sole remaining Fanfiction.net exclusive happens to poke her head into that discussion*

*hum* Here's the end of my latest fic. Enjoy!

Somewhere, somehow: Chapter 4 (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12704446/4/Somewhere-somehow)

I'm a afraid I'm not going be breaking my pattern of fics where Tuuri is still alive quite yet despite this, as the next up will be alternate reality if I don't run into any problems.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on November 04, 2017, 02:05:18 AM
Back to the writing, now that InkTober is done.  I post my contribution for R in the Alphabet Challenge, although LooNEY_DAC and Lazy8 have long since left me in the dust, and in very grand style, too.  This one is called, "Rust."
http://archiveofourown.org/works/12625878
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on November 04, 2017, 08:36:04 AM
Here, have a creepy thing inspired by a creepy song.

The Voice and the Snake (http://archiveofourown.org/works/11713725/chapters/28771251)

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on November 06, 2017, 03:38:38 AM
And now, something I haven't touched since... um... January. Yeah... sorry about that.

Here it is anyway.

Sigrun’s Shenanigans
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Part 4
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg131738#msg131738)
Spoiler: The Chicken Outfit • show
I was posted to command the Chicken Outfit, once, to send a message to everybody that nobody gets away with bad stuff, no matter who they’re related to.

Now, you guys have to understand, Dalsnes has kind of a reputation in Norway, since we like putting our own spin on things instead of just doing it strictly by-the-book all the time. I mean, there’s a time for strict protocol, and there’s other times when you’ve just gotta wing it, y’know? Anyway, one of the things where we go our own way in Dalsnes is the Chicken Outfit.

The Chicken Outfit is where we send anybody that’s turned chicken—unless somebody outright died because of it: that’s when The Law steps in; but mostly our guys can get out of that kind of scrape without getting killed.

When you’re assigned to the Chicken Outfit, your ultimate aim is supposed to be to get out of it and back to your unit, and we have all sorts of things built into the Chicken Outfit to encourage that. Now, I know what all of you want to ask: how do I get out of this Chicken Outfit?

First, you have to earn the right not to wear the Chicken Outfit’s Chicken Outfit in the first place. So, to get out of the Chicken Outfit, you start by getting out of the Chicken Outfit. Now, if I were really pulling your chains, I’d try adding a third or even fourth level to that, but I have no clue how I’d pull it off, so you can rest assured I’m not. Not this time, anyway.

So, when you’re assigned to the Chicken Outfit, you’re issued a different uniform that is essentially a chicken costume, which you have to wear at all times, unless you’re bathing. Before you can go back to wearing a real uniform, you have to undergo a Trial of Bravery and not chicken out, while wearing the Chicken Outfit in the Chicken Outfit.

Anyway, once you’re out of the Chicken Outfit but in the Chicken Outfit, to get out of the Chicken Outfit, you need to stand not a few Outside Watches or take point on several raids, depending on what time of year it is. If you’re really unlucky, you could find yourself stuck in the Chicken Outfit all winter, which can get bad.

See, even when you’re… in normal uniform in the Chicken Outfit, you’re wearing a big ol’ insignia that everybody knows means you’re in the Chicken Outfit, which can make you a target for some people, though we have people on watchdog duty to make sure it doesn’t get out of hand. Unfortunately, we’ve had a few times that proved the wisdom of not letting anybody who actually caused somebody’s death into the Chicken Outfit, and that’s all I’ll say about that, thank you.

Now, commanding the Chicken Outfit is different from being in the Chicken Outfit; officers who turn chicken get busted back into the ranks and then dropped into the Chicken Outfit. But somebody has to lead an outfit, even the Chicken Outfit, and it’s considered a slap in the face to be that leader, but even there, I showed that I was the most best.

You see, the real purpose of the Chicken Outfit is to try to get the chicken out of them before it can do any harm, either to others or to themselves; that’s why we have the Trials and such set up like we do, so a young fool can’t get himself killed trying to get out.

Of course, some never get out, but we try to weed out that type before they ever get into a combat unit in the first place.

And speaking of weeding out, that reminds me of another story…

Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
I don’t care if the Chicken Outfit puns don’t work in Norwegian. So there.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on November 06, 2017, 07:29:53 AM
Here's a short thing, and relatively non-grim for once.

The Wayfarer (http://archiveofourown.org/works/11713725/chapters/28825392)

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on November 07, 2017, 03:00:08 AM
Tall Ships & Taller Tales
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/Pirate crossover fanfic
Part 6
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg133856#msg133856)
Spoiler: By the Marque • show
Sigrun Eide, proud captain of the mighty pirate, erm, privateer ship Sea-Lynx, terror of the Caribbean and (more recently) of the Mediterranean, smiled as the flotilla deployed around the Sea-Lynx. This would be fun.

The Ottomans had laid their trap well, but they were up against the Sea-Lynx, with Tuuri Hotakainen at the helm, Emil Västerström at the guns, and Sigrun herself still firmly in command, despite a recently mauled arm. Sigrun wondered briefly if they should deliberately leave any of their foes free to flee and carry the tale of their epic defeat to the Grand Turk, but decided to let the chips fall where they may in that.

As Tuuri wheeled the ship in an impossible turn (despite the bulk of their Mediterranean loot weighing her down), Emil let off a barrage of his latest mix. Each shot was a hit that crippled its chosen target, wiping seven of their adversaries away at the outset.

The Ottoman ships were trying to bring their own guns to bear, but the maneuver had put them all out of place, and the loss of a third of their ships in that first blow had shaken them badly, even as it stirred them to fierce anger. They were all still battle-hardened sailors in the service of the Grand Turk rather than mercenary rats merely fighting to line their own pockets, so the remaining Ottoman ships plunged gallantly into the developing maelstrom.

Ten minutes later, it was over. The only Ottoman ships remaining afloat had been reduced to battered hulks incapable of further combat. Perhaps there were survivors on them; Sigrun didn’t particularly care. The Sea-Lynx had taken only minor damage, and no casualties to speak of, and that was what mattered.

“Resume course to Water Island,” Sigrun told Tuuri before going below. Her arm was itching and aching again; she’d have to have her first mate, Mister Mikkel Madsen, who was also the ship’s doctor, look at it for her, and maybe change the dressing.

*

The message waiting for them in the usual drop-off spot requested their presence in Trinidad, the last of the Windward Islands and a known haven for smugglers, privateers and out-and-out pirates, on a certain day and in a certain place, so after adding the usual share of their Mediterranean loot to the stash, Sigrun had Tuuri make for that island, though the crew grumbled a bit at not being allowed to browse their usual watering holes in the Bahamas first.

The… spot where the Sea-Lynx found anchorage was not much more than a mud hut or two and a bunch of tents that periodically burst into activity like a blooming flower when a ship came to call; Sigrun could easily see why the locals wouldn’t ask too many questions about the source of the gold flowing their way. It bore the absurdly grand name of “the Port of Spain”, which contrasted sharply with its sorry state.

Almost before Sigrun had had the chance to form this despective opinion of the little fortlet, she was hit with a rather nasty surprise: Trond himself had come out to this backwater of backwaters to personally meet with her. Some intense consultation with Mister Mikkel followed; but the meeting could not be avoided, and so Sigrun went…

Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
Tortuga wasn’t settled by the Brits & the French until 15ish years after this story takes place, so it more or less had to be Trinidad.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on November 07, 2017, 03:06:43 AM
Good one! I had been waiting for an update of this. And awww, I wanted to see your take on Tortuga!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Windfighter on November 07, 2017, 10:05:32 AM
I wrote a short story! It was written as an answer to an ask over at tumblr and I hope it's tame enough to be allowed to post here, otherwise just yell at me and I'll remove it again!

Spoiler: Talking to yourself means you are crazy • show

   If you die, I'm gonna kill you.
   Emil sighed at the voice in his head, stopped for a moment's rest and looked at the sky. It wasn't raining, so that was good. He glanced in Lalli's direction. The scout was still unconscious and he sat down next to him.
   ”I wish you were awake. So I could hear your voice for real. Instead of just as an echo in my imagination.”
   Stop being pathetic and get moving.
   ”I know I need to keep moving, but I just...”
   Emil didn't really know what he was going to say.
   ”I just really... I've never...”
   He looked at the sky again. The sun danced across his face. Spring, the most romantic season, and he was stuck out in the silent world with an unconscious scout. Not that he would have done anything special at home either.
   ”I've never really had to make decisions on my own before.”
   It's easy, you decide on something and stick to it.
   ”But how do I know it's the right thing?”
   You don't. Stop being stupid.
   ”How is that even remotely stupid?”
   No answer. Emil let out another sigh.
   ”You will wake up again, won't you? I don't want anyone else to die... I don't...”
   Emil took a shaky breath, clenched his hands and looked back towards the small town they had just come from.
   ”I don't want you to die.”
   Just be careful with my body.
   ”I'm doing my best.”
   Emil looked at Lalli again, at the sun dancing across his face. Lalli looked peaceful, at ease, relaxed. If only there was something he could do to make Lalli look like that when he was awake as well. He pulled his fingers through Lalli's hair, corrected the strands that had gotten ruffled by the wind and the movement from the rug.
   ”I...”
   He couldn't say it. Even though Lalli was sleeping and wouldn't hear him he couldn't say the words. It wasn't time for them now. It would never be.
   ”You're my best friend, you know. My only friend.”
   Emil sighed again, then got up from the ground and grabbed the improvised sled he had placed Lalli on. It was time to stop being pathetic, like Lalli's voice in his head told him, and get going to find the others.
   ”Please don't die, Lalli. If you die, I'm gonna kill you.”
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on November 07, 2017, 10:34:55 AM
Don't worry, this looks perfectly acceptable for the normal board to me. And from checking on the other ff.net stories while waiting for my own stuff to go live, I can tell many of the stories in which you don't actually kill someone are, in case you're wondering.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on November 07, 2017, 10:51:57 AM
Nice one, Windy!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Windfighter on November 07, 2017, 10:53:38 AM
Most of those other stories are more than 1000 words though and therefore not allowed to be copied in here and I don't want to link them because if I do it's even easier to stumble over those of my fics that are not good for this board and I don't want any more people getting upset/hurt because I put links here <3
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on November 07, 2017, 11:21:14 AM
I did notice you having issues with your stories a while back, but hadn't really caught onto the fact that one of them could be people reading the fairly innocent ones, then getting to the more adult one while looking for more of your work. I understand the situation a little more clearly now.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on November 08, 2017, 07:50:44 AM
Not a whole lot to say here. Guilt. Lots and lots of guilt.

The X Aspect (http://archiveofourown.org/works/11713725/chapters/28871214)

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on November 11, 2017, 06:38:29 AM
And here's more updates of stuff nobody wanted to read!

Bits and Bots
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/“WALL-E” crossover fanfic
Part 3
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg134355#msg134355)
Spoiler: Wascally Wobots • show
There had been no warning of what was about to happen, but LALL-E somehow had known anyway. Even as EM-L attempted to defend itself, it registered and recorded that fact for future analysis, assuming it survived to analyze anything.

)Opponent designation:
Gargantuan
Intermingled
Assembly of
Networked
Technology

The very sight of the GIANT was horrible to a bot like EM-L, even though EM-L was immune to the cRash virus that had created it. The GIANT was a hideous, seemingly purposeless amalgamation of bots and random junk thrown together as though by a WALL-R gone mad; but its randomness was only a charade, quickly cast aside once the GIANT turned its attention to potential prey. A GIANT was optimized for one purpose: destruction of any bots unwary enough to come within its range.

Now, EM-L and LALL-E were both in this GIANT’s range, and EM-L’s ammo was dangerously low again…

*

EM-L had logged into the comm system so that it could give a better, more comprehensive and conclusive report on the GREMLINs, and had decided to see if it could find out a little more about the additional facilities TUUR-E had implied that both LALL-E and REYN-R possessed.

}Available data on extended capacities of units designated REYN-R and LALL-E:
Program:
Military
Assistant
Generic
Improvement
Capability

Type I:
N - [CLASSIFIED]
O - [CLASSIFIED]
I - [CLASSIFIED]
T - [CLASSIFIED]
A - [CLASSIFIED]

Type II:
S - [CLASSIFIED]
E - [CLASSIFIED]
I - [CLASSIFIED]
D - [CLASSIFIED]
U - [CLASSIFIED]
R - [CLASSIFIED]

EM-L was confused. Was the system reacting to EM-L’s old level of access from when EM-L was a simple nursery bot? If not, why would the system still say EM-L’s access level was too low to unmask the data when EM-L obviously had a need to know at least the very basics of what this MAGIC was and how it would affect LALL-E and REYN-R?

]DON’T LET IT GET YOU DOWN, EM-L! EID-E’s “voice” was almost at OLS-N intensity. ]SO WHAT IF SOME DATA-PUSHER THINKS YOU DON’T HAVE THE STUFF? THEY NEVER DO, EVEN IF THE EVIDENCE IS SHOVED IN THEIR OPTICAL DETECTION ARRAY!

)Do you possess any relevant information on this… MAGIC stuff?

]NAAAAH. I’VE WORKED WITH A FEW UNITS IN THE PROGRAM, AND SEEN SOME INTERESTING STUFF, BUT ALL I KNOW IS WHAT MY SENSORS RECORDED AND WHAT I COULD DEDUCE FROM THAT. I SUGGEST THAT YOU KEEP YOUR SENSORS ACTIVE AND YOUR WRITE-PROTECT OFF.

The advice seemed sensible enough, though EM-L wasn’t sure it needed to remove the write-protect from all of its files.

*

EM-L was facing permanent cessation of function, and was most unhappy. It was also quite distressed at the thought that LALL-E would join it in permanent cessation of function as well. EM-L wondered briefly if shutting down its optical array would make the overall deactivation less unpleasant, but decided it would not; thus, EM-L witnessed what happened next.

LALL-E unfolded like an origami creation, exposing some oddly humped emitter that activated with a loud BUZZZZZZZ. EM-L’s sensors could detect no emissions, but the effect upon the GIANT was sudden and enormous. In almost no time (1.3751 +/-0.0107 x 10^27 planck units, according to EM-L’s internal clock), the GIANT lost all cohesion and interconnectivity, raining down on EM-L and LALL-E as disparate components which were deflected by a different emission from the emitter.

As soon as the shower of parts stopped, LALL-E folded itself back into a familiar form—but EM-L was horrified anew to realize that LALL-E was now in the form that it used when it needed to recharge…

Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
So, after nine-ish months of being blocked on this, it’s back.

Hopefully, you’ll enjoy what’s coming.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on November 11, 2017, 09:32:17 AM
Excellent take on this. And great acronyms.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Gaemmel on November 11, 2017, 11:31:15 AM
Hey everyone, I managed to write something again! It was actually meant for Halloween, so it's a little spoopy story for the Song Challenge.
Congrats on the others (soon) crossing the finish line, by the way! I wish I had that much time and creativitiy on my hands to be that fast.

http://archiveofourown.org/works/9629999/chapters/28938363 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/9629999/chapters/28938363)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on November 11, 2017, 06:25:13 PM
And here's more updates of stuff nobody wanted to read!

Bits and Bots
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/“WALL-E” crossover fanfic
Part 3
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg134355#msg134355)
Spoiler: Wascally Wobots • show
There had been no warning of what was about to happen, but LALL-E somehow had known anyway. Even as EM-L attempted to defend itself, it registered and recorded that fact for future analysis, assuming it survived to analyze anything.

)Opponent designation:
Gargantuan
Intermingled
Assembly of
Networked
Technology

The very sight of the GIANT was horrible to a bot like EM-L, even though EM-L was immune to the cRash virus that had created it. The GIANT was a hideous, seemingly purposeless amalgamation of bots and random junk thrown together as though by a WALL-R gone mad; but its randomness was only a charade, quickly cast aside once the GIANT turned its attention to potential prey. A GIANT was optimized for one purpose: destruction of any bots unwary enough to come within its range.

Now, EM-L and LALL-E were both in this GIANT’s range, and EM-L’s ammo was dangerously low again…

*

EM-L had logged into the comm system so that it could give a better, more comprehensive and conclusive report on the GREMLINs, and had decided to see if it could find out a little more about the additional facilities TUUR-E had implied that both LALL-E and REYN-R possessed.

}Available data on extended capacities of units designated REYN-R and LALL-E:
Program:
Military
Assistant
Generic
Improvement
Capability

Type I:
N - [CLASSIFIED]
O - [CLASSIFIED]
I - [CLASSIFIED]
T - [CLASSIFIED]
A - [CLASSIFIED]

Type II:
S - [CLASSIFIED]
E - [CLASSIFIED]
I - [CLASSIFIED]
D - [CLASSIFIED]
U - [CLASSIFIED]
R - [CLASSIFIED]

EM-L was confused. Was the system reacting to EM-L’s old level of access from when EM-L was a simple nursery bot? If not, why would the system still say EM-L’s access level was too low to unmask the data when EM-L obviously had a need to know at least the very basics of what this MAGIC was and how it would affect LALL-E and REYN-R?

]DON’T LET IT GET YOU DOWN, EM-L! EID-E’s “voice” was almost at OLS-N intensity. ]SO WHAT IF SOME DATA-PUSHER THINKS YOU DON’T HAVE THE STUFF? THEY NEVER DO, EVEN IF THE EVIDENCE IS SHOVED IN THEIR OPTICAL DETECTION ARRAY!

)Do you possess any relevant information on this… MAGIC stuff?

]NAAAAH. I’VE WORKED WITH A FEW UNITS IN THE PROGRAM, AND SEEN SOME INTERESTING STUFF, BUT ALL I KNOW IS WHAT MY SENSORS RECORDED AND WHAT I COULD DEDUCE FROM THAT. I SUGGEST THAT YOU KEEP YOUR SENSORS ACTIVE AND YOUR WRITE-PROTECT OFF.

The advice seemed sensible enough, though EM-L wasn’t sure it needed to remove the write-protect from all of its files.

*

EM-L was facing permanent cessation of function, and was most unhappy. It was also quite distressed at the thought that LALL-E would join it in permanent cessation of function as well. EM-L wondered briefly if shutting down its optical array would make the overall deactivation less unpleasant, but decided it would not; thus, EM-L witnessed what happened next.

LALL-E unfolded like an origami creation, exposing some oddly humped emitter that activated with a loud BUZZZZZZZ. EM-L’s sensors could detect no emissions, but the effect upon the GIANT was sudden and enormous. In almost no time (1.3751 +/-0.0107 x 10^27 planck units, according to EM-L’s internal clock), the GIANT lost all cohesion and interconnectivity, raining down on EM-L and LALL-E as disparate components which were deflected by a different emission from the emitter.

As soon as the shower of parts stopped, LALL-E folded itself back into a familiar form—but EM-L was horrified anew to realize that LALL-E was now in the form that it used when it needed to recharge…

Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
So, after nine-ish months of being blocked on this, it’s back.

Hopefully, you’ll enjoy what’s coming.


Hey, I for one am very happy to see this back. 
I love casual mention of the planck measurement.  Do their encrypted character sets not include the eth (Ð) character, though, for use in the word seiður? The extended character set may not be available to models from this range.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on November 11, 2017, 07:21:24 PM
Do their encrypted character sets not include the eth (Ð) character, though, for use in the word seiður? The extended character set may not be available to models from this range.
That information is classified.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: JoB on November 11, 2017, 10:57:09 PM
That information is classified.
By pros (https://cervelet.deviantart.com/art/Ad-Science-Classification-Day-1-695324509).
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on November 12, 2017, 07:39:55 AM
One... more... to... go...

The Yacht Club (http://archiveofourown.org/works/11713725/chapters/28957143)

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Windfighter on November 12, 2017, 10:51:06 AM
Started a new story, inspired by this prompt:
"Imagine everyone in the world has wings and once someone touches their soulmate, the wings fly them both upwards and change colors from white to a perfect mix their eye colors."
My hope is that all chapters will be short and tame enough to be able to post in here, so have the first chapter!

The wings of an angel
Spoiler: Chapter 1 • show

Lalli's wings

   Lalli didn't like his wings. To begin with they were small, the same size as people who had lost their soulmate, and couldn't carry him. And since they couldn't carry him they were just in the way instead. They got caught in branches when he climed trees, wanting to get up high like everyone else could. And while most people his age had already found their soulmate and gotten their colourful wings, his was still bright white. Truthfully though, he didn't mind that. He didn't mind being alone. He just wished he could have met his soulmate once before they died.
   ”Lalli, come on down from there!”
   Lalli let out a sigh and climbed down the tree. When his cousin called it was always best to get there quickly, or else she might drag him into something. She was beaming when he got down, her eyes bright. Her wings had already got their colours. A beautiful mix of gray, violet and green and Lalli couldn't stand looking at them. She had left a year earlier to work in a foreign country and came home with her new wings.
   ”I found some more people with white wings, you should meet them!”
   ”It's no use.”
   Lalli stretched his tiny wings as much as he could, so she could understand that there wasn't any need for her to continue like this. He would never meet his soulmate. She waved him off, grabbed his arm and pulled him along. He let her lead him, but none of the people were the one.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on November 12, 2017, 10:53:23 AM
That thing went through plenty of bumps, including having been in the middle of a form of "development hell" when a certain canon event happened. If anything, I managed to make my plot idea work and finished the one-shot. I re-titled the story and changed the summary because I thought I might as well make all one-shots I write for this Medieval AU part of the same story.

Woodlanders (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12457648/2/One-change-at-a-time)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Windfighter on November 12, 2017, 12:33:39 PM
The wings of an angel

Warning: Character death. But he got better. So I guess not actually character death.

Spoiler: Chapter 2 • show

Emil's Wings
   Emil had been declared dead. His family's house had caught fire hen he was young and he had been caught in it. When they finally managed to put the fire out Emil wasn't breathing, his heart wasn't beating. He had lost his wings, his body was badly burned, and as a result the medics declared him dead. Because he was.
   And then he had started breathing again. He had spent weeks in the hospital. And when he got back home he refused to go outside.
   His burns had healed now, the scars had disappeared. His wings hadn't grown back, they never would. Emil missed them. He missed being able to fly, to soar from treetop to treetop, watch the animals run far below him. He missed being able to play tag with his friends, or just being able to get anywhere. Because their village was high in the mountains and their house placed where you couldn't go by foot.
   ”I'm heading out, you want to come along?”
   Emil let out a sigh, pushed himself off the bed and left his room. He looked at his mother, at her beautiful wings which shifted in two shades of blue. He looked away and leaned against the wall.
   ”Your wings can't carry two grown people.”
   ”Should I invite someone over? I saw a girl with white wings in the store yesterday.”
   ”Mom, it's... it's okay.”
   ”It'd do you good to meet some people, honey.”
   ”Perhaps”, Emil pushed her towards the door, ”but it's okay. I can't do things they can anyway.”
   ”If you say so.”
   She kissed his head before throwing herself over the edge of the cliff. Emil watched as her wings caught the air and lifted her towards the sky. If only he could fly like that as well...


Spoiler: Chapter 3 • show

Leaving the forest
   Lalli knew he'd never meet his soulmate. And he was fine with it. His cousins less so. He had been forced to shake hands with everyone in the village, with everyone who came to visit the village. Even hiding inside his house didn't help, they would always find him. Hiding in the woods didn't help either, because they had figured out which trees he liked to climb. There was only one thing he could do.
   He put some clothes in a bag, as well as some bread and an axe. His knife was already attatched to his belt. He swung the bag over his shoulder and peeked outside. Neither Tuuri nor Onni were visible and he hurried across the open village, dove into the forest and slid down a slope. He rolled in under a bush and got his wings stuck in its branches.
   ”Stupid useless things.”
   For a second he considered chopping them off, but he couldn't. He wriggled his body a little, got his wings unstuck and crawled further into the bush. Hours went past and his body was feeling cold, but eventually darkness fell. He looked at what little sky he could see through the leaves, noticed the stars. Nighttime. Everyone should be asleep. He crawled back out, waited quietly.
   Nothing. He started moving, passed his favorite trees and kept going until he reached the river. There was a fallen log close to it and he took out his axe, started working on shaping it. He had done it before, since his wings had grown small when he was still young he had learned how to make boats instead, had spent lots of time going up and down the river and discovering their forest from the ground. He had seen sights the others would never see since they stayed in the air outside of the village.
   Sun was breaking through when he was done with the small canoe. He pushed it into the river, threw the bag in it and then jumped into it himself. A long stick served as paddle and he steered the canoe away from the village. He would miss it, would miss his cousins, but this was the only thing he could do. After an hour the trees thinned out around him and he lifted one of his hands, waved towards the forest and the village.
   ”Goodbye Tuuri, Onni. I'll see you again some time.”
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Anna on November 12, 2017, 03:30:54 PM
The wings of an angel

Warning: Character death. But he got better. So I guess not actually character death.

Spoiler: Chapter 2 • show

Emil's Wings
   Emil had been declared dead. His family's house had caught fire hen he was young and he had been caught in it. When they finally managed to put the fire out Emil wasn't breathing, his heart wasn't beating. He had lost his wings, his body was badly burned, and as a result the medics declared him dead. Because he was.
   And then he had started breathing again. He had spent weeks in the hospital. And when he got back home he refused to go outside.
   His burns had healed now, the scars had disappeared. His wings hadn't grown back, they never would. Emil missed them. He missed being able to fly, to soar from treetop to treetop, watch the animals run far below him. He missed being able to play tag with his friends, or just being able to get anywhere. Because their village was high in the mountains and their house placed where you couldn't go by foot.
   ”I'm heading out, you want to come along?”
   Emil let out a sigh, pushed himself off the bed and left his room. He looked at his mother, at her beautiful wings which shifted in two shades of blue. He looked away and leaned against the wall.
   ”Your wings can't carry two grown people.”
   ”Should I invite someone over? I saw a girl with white wings in the store yesterday.”
   ”Mom, it's... it's okay.”
   ”It'd do you good to meet some people, honey.”
   ”Perhaps”, Emil pushed her towards the door, ”but it's okay. I can't do things they can anyway.”
   ”If you say so.”
   She kissed his head before throwing herself over the edge of the cliff. Emil watched as her wings caught the air and lifted her towards the sky. If only he could fly like that as well...


Spoiler: Chapter 3 • show

Leaving the forest
   Lalli knew he'd never meet his soulmate. And he was fine with it. His cousins less so. He had been forced to shake hands with everyone in the village, with everyone who came to visit the village. Even hiding inside his house didn't help, they would always find him. Hiding in the woods didn't help either, because they had figured out which trees he liked to climb. There was only one thing he could do.
   He put some clothes in a bag, as well as some bread and an axe. His knife was already attatched to his belt. He swung the bag over his shoulder and peeked outside. Neither Tuuri nor Onni were visible and he hurried across the open village, dove into the forest and slid down a slope. He rolled in under a bush and got his wings stuck in its branches.
   ”Stupid useless things.”
   For a second he considered chopping them off, but he couldn't. He wriggled his body a little, got his wings unstuck and crawled further into the bush. Hours went past and his body was feeling cold, but eventually darkness fell. He looked at what little sky he could see through the leaves, noticed the stars. Nighttime. Everyone should be asleep. He crawled back out, waited quietly.
   Nothing. He started moving, passed his favorite trees and kept going until he reached the river. There was a fallen log close to it and he took out his axe, started working on shaping it. He had done it before, since his wings had grown small when he was still young he had learned how to make boats instead, had spent lots of time going up and down the river and discovering their forest from the ground. He had seen sights the others would never see since they stayed in the air outside of the village.
   Sun was breaking through when he was done with the small canoe. He pushed it into the river, threw the bag in it and then jumped into it himself. A long stick served as paddle and he steered the canoe away from the village. He would miss it, would miss his cousins, but this was the only thing he could do. After an hour the trees thinned out around him and he lifted one of his hands, waved towards the forest and the village.
   ”Goodbye Tuuri, Onni. I'll see you again some time.”


Temporary Character Death might be a more succinct way to put it.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Windfighter on November 12, 2017, 08:34:24 PM
Temporary Character Death might be a more succinct way to put it.

aww, gosh blast it. That's it. I officially give up on warnings again. I never learn, I still don't understand them, people laugh at my attempts at warnings and I'm still way too confused about them! I'll keep using those you can check off on ao3 of course (Temporary Character Death is not one of those) but outside of that I give up *flops frustratedly*

And since I'm writing a post, have another chapter!

The wings of an angel
Spoiler: Chapter 4 • show

Leaving the mountain
   ”It'd do you good to meet some people.”
   Emil's mother was right, of course. And he wanted to meet people, it wasn't that. It was the stares they gave him, the whispers behind his back, the giggles when they looked at him. He couldn't stand that. He put some clothes in a bag, put it outside the house. His mother and father would be gone for another few hours, but he needed to hurry. He glanced over the edge of the cliff, gulped. It was pretty far down.
   He went back into the house, gathered all curtains and bedsheets and tied them into a long rope. It wouldn't reach all the way down, but close enough.
   ”I'm sorry, mom.”
   He tied the rope around a pole, threw it over the edge and looked at the house again. He'd miss it, but his mother was right. He couldn't spend his whole life holed up in there. He let out a sigh, grabbed the rope and started the climb down. It didn't take long until his arms started aching, his legs started aching. Part of him wanted to give up, but he didn't have the strenght to pull himself back up. The only way was down.
   It hadn't been an hour, but it felt like ten. There was no more rope and a three meter drop. Bushes grew right by the mountain wall, maybe he could land in one of those. He let his bag fall first, missed the bush with half a meter and then he closed his eyes and let go of the rope.
   His arm scraped against the rock as he fell, branches snapped under his weight and then he stopped falling. His body hurt, blood ran down his arm, but he survived and the wound was superficial. He looked up again.
   ”What have I done?”
   He didn't have a plan, didn't know where to go or what to do. He grabbed his bag, let out a sigh. He really only had one option now – to continue. He glanced at the mountain that had been his home for almost 20 years, lifted a hand and turned his back towards it. He didn't know what he was looking for, but he'd return when he had found it.

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Keeper on November 12, 2017, 09:01:08 PM
Windy, I am loving this. <3
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on November 12, 2017, 09:42:08 PM
Interesting story, Windy. I'm curious to see where you take it.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on November 13, 2017, 03:14:00 AM
So, in case you haven't figured it out yet, I'm updating all of my WIPs before moving on to any new stuff that might be percolating through my LooNEY brain. That said...

The Red Herring League
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/Superhero AU fanfic
Part 11
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg136500#msg136500)
Spoiler: Mish-Mash Lalli Dash • show
Looking back on it, Sigrun “the Red Terror” Eide was rather glad that she really was invulnerable when “Super Tuuri” Hotakainen broke the Red Herring League out of the illusions into which they’d been shunted, as Emil “the Firework” Västerström was just the slightest bit… over-exuberant… in his response; this was completely understandable, of course, considering that the illusion he’d been locked into had him fighting to reignite himself against impossibly effective fire suppressors. It wasn’t as though anyone on their side needed that troll-ridden city block for anything, after all, and Sigrun herself liked a fire bath every so often, as it tended to clear her pores.

Fortunately for those of the League who weren’t invulnerable, Lalli “Phantom Strike” Hotakainen had been able to speed them all back to the League’s trusty HQ vehicle, their Field Expeditionary Light INfantry OPerations Excursion DEvice (or FELINOPEDE), before they could get caught up in the inferno. Reynir “the Helper” Árnason had been so euphoric in his realization that it had just been yet another illusion that he’d almost managed to catch Lalli in a hug; though Lalli had been able to substitute Mikkel “the Grave Dane” Madsen in the nick of time, the near miss had been jarring.

After this, of course, they’d all split up to try to get over what had just happened in their own ways.

*

Super Tuuri felt a sharp, cold shiver run down her spine. Somewhere on some other level of reality, another Tuuri Hotakainen—who might not even be named such, but was still Tuuri—had just died.

Super Tuuri had known about the vast complexities of the multiverse for as long as she’d had her powers; she knew, therefore, that among the infinity of other realities, there were many where Tuuri Hotakainen was already dead, was about to die, or was in the middle of dying (whether quickly or slowly), but that knowledge didn’t make the fact that Super Tuuri could feel when each and every one of them finally took the Birds’ Path any easier.

At least this one had gone of her own volition when the Illness had manifested itself in her; a few, a very few but very horrible times, Super Tuuri had had to take action to release another Tuuri who had become trapped as a result of her own denial.

But how would the Lalli and the Onni of that world hold up under this blow?

Super Tuuri sighed and acknowledged that she would probably never discover how her counterpart’s relations would fare in their bereavement.

“Miu!” With a pop of displaced air, a calico ball of fluff appeared at Super Tuuri’s chest level. Fortunately, the young Hero had good enough reflexes to catch the kitten before disaster could strike, cuddling the feline against her with a longer, deeper sigh that was yet half sob. Kitty always knew when her humans needed cuddling.

*

Emil was playing with the furballs again. This rather annoyed Lalli, as he himself barely tolerated the pesky things, though he admitted they made good allies against the grosslings; they were nearly as good as the cats in that regard. Even so, ever since the sparkly gold furballs had first buried Lalli and Emil in a cooing mass of affection that nearly suffocated the two of them, Lalli had attempted to ensure that the incident would never be repeated.

And did Emil really have to look like he was enjoying himself so much?

*

Having finished off a few burnt-out troll nests to work the kinks out, the Red Terror was ready to face the greatest challenge of her day: dealing with Mikkel in one of his Graver moods. She’d briefly contemplated having Reynir Help her, if only to try to negate as much of Mikkel’s gloom with his cheeriness as was possible, but decided against it, as the two of them needed to talk about certain things which needed to remain between the two of them—for now, at least.

“So, Mikkel,” she started off casually, “what do your bosses in The Circle say?”

The Circle. Everyone had heard of it, but what everyone had heard was always different from person to person. It was the most secret of spy organizations. It was just a stupid social club with delusions of their own power and influence. It was a legitimate advisory body with no real authority but plenty of moral authority. It was half legend, half truth, and nobody knew for sure which was which. Supposedly, the Nordic Council was the top of the Known World’s hierarchy, but The Circle seemed to float outside of that hierarchy.

Agents of The Circle were said to be under orders to kill anyone who found them out.

Sigrun could see that Mikkel had contemplated denying her “accusation” for a moment; instead, he shrugged and said, “I’ve missed my last few contacts because of our recent… entanglements, so I’m not sure.” He looked Sigrun directly in the eyes, his own opened almost to their full extent for once. “Certainly, they have been as anxious to ascertain just exactly who is trying to thwart our mission and why as the six of us.”

Sigrun relaxed slightly. “I figured as much.”

That out of the way, the conversation moved to their current dilemma…

Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
Oh, look. Mikkel’s a spy. What a surprise. /mikkel

Hopefully, though, this was enjoyable despite the cliches.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Talimee on November 13, 2017, 05:45:24 AM
Have something new and shiny and worldbuild-y from me! =)

Title: Discoveries at the End of the World (http://archiveofourown.org/works/12710604)
Summary: Decisions and Discoveries are made when a Norwegian whaler and an Icelandic patrol boat meet in the North Sea
Characters: various named and unnamed Ocs
Rating: general audiences
Setting: pre-canon, the late 30's, Iceland is still in isolation, the North Sea, Navy-headquarters in Reykjavík
Tags: worldbuilding, working from prompts, flashfics
Prompts: Any Norwegian Character(s) - this sea-beast is an Icelandic ship; Any Icelandic Character(s) - the end of the isolation policy
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Anna on November 13, 2017, 07:24:57 AM
aww, gosh blast it. That's it. I officially give up on warnings again. I never learn, I still don't understand them, people laugh at my attempts at warnings and I'm still way too confused about them! I'll keep using those you can check off on ao3 of course (Temporary Character Death is not one of those) but outside of that I give up *flops frustratedly*

And since I'm writing a post, have another chapter!

The wings of an angel
Spoiler: Chapter 4 • show

Leaving the mountain
   ”It'd do you good to meet some people.”
   Emil's mother was right, of course. And he wanted to meet people, it wasn't that. It was the stares they gave him, the whispers behind his back, the giggles when they looked at him. He couldn't stand that. He put some clothes in a bag, put it outside the house. His mother and father would be gone for another few hours, but he needed to hurry. He glanced over the edge of the cliff, gulped. It was pretty far down.
   He went back into the house, gathered all curtains and bedsheets and tied them into a long rope. It wouldn't reach all the way down, but close enough.
   ”I'm sorry, mom.”
   He tied the rope around a pole, threw it over the edge and looked at the house again. He'd miss it, but his mother was right. He couldn't spend his whole life holed up in there. He let out a sigh, grabbed the rope and started the climb down. It didn't take long until his arms started aching, his legs started aching. Part of him wanted to give up, but he didn't have the strenght to pull himself back up. The only way was down.
   It hadn't been an hour, but it felt like ten. There was no more rope and a three meter drop. Bushes grew right by the mountain wall, maybe he could land in one of those. He let his bag fall first, missed the bush with half a meter and then he closed his eyes and let go of the rope.
   His arm scraped against the rock as he fell, branches snapped under his weight and then he stopped falling. His body hurt, blood ran down his arm, but he survived and the wound was superficial. He looked up again.
   ”What have I done?”
   He didn't have a plan, didn't know where to go or what to do. He grabbed his bag, let out a sigh. He really only had one option now – to continue. He glanced at the mountain that had been his home for almost 20 years, lifted a hand and turned his back towards it. He didn't know what he was looking for, but he'd return when he had found it.

Ah, crap, I didn’t mean to discourage you! You’re doing great on your own; I need to remember to double-check my phrasing for possible unintentional meanness.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on November 13, 2017, 02:40:14 PM
So, in case you haven't figured it out yet, I'm updating all of my WIPs before moving on to any new stuff that might be percolating through my LooNEY brain. That said...

The Red Herring League
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/Superhero AU fanfic
Part 11
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg136500#msg136500)
Spoiler: Mish-Mash Lalli Dash • show
Looking back on it, Sigrun “the Red Terror” Eide was rather glad that she really was invulnerable when “Super Tuuri” Hotakainen broke the Red Herring League out of the illusions into which they’d been shunted, as Emil “the Firework” Västerström was just the slightest bit… over-exuberant… in his response; this was completely understandable, of course, considering that the illusion he’d been locked into had him fighting to reignite himself against impossibly effective fire suppressors. It wasn’t as though anyone on their side needed that troll-ridden city block for anything, after all, and Sigrun herself liked a fire bath every so often, as it tended to clear her pores.

Fortunately for those of the League who weren’t invulnerable, Lalli “Phantom Strike” Hotakainen had been able to speed them all back to the League’s trusty HQ vehicle, their Field Expeditionary Light INfantry OPerations Excursion DEvice (or FELINOPEDE), before they could get caught up in the inferno. Reynir “the Helper” Árnason had been so euphoric in his realization that it had just been yet another illusion that he’d almost managed to catch Lalli in a hug; though Lalli had been able to substitute Mikkel “the Grave Dane” Madsen in the nick of time, the near miss had been jarring.

After this, of course, they’d all split up to try to get over what had just happened in their own ways.

*

Super Tuuri felt a sharp, cold shiver run down her spine. Somewhere on some other level of reality, another Tuuri Hotakainen—who might not even be named such, but was still Tuuri—had just died.

Super Tuuri had known about the vast complexities of the multiverse for as long as she’d had her powers; she knew, therefore, that among the infinity of other realities, there were many where Tuuri Hotakainen was already dead, was about to die, or was in the middle of dying (whether quickly or slowly), but that knowledge didn’t make the fact that Super Tuuri could feel when each and every one of them finally took the Birds’ Path any easier.

At least this one had gone of her own volition when the Illness had manifested itself in her; a few, a very few but very horrible times, Super Tuuri had had to take action to release another Tuuri who had become trapped as a result of her own denial.

But how would the Lalli and the Onni of that world hold up under this blow?

Super Tuuri sighed and acknowledged that she would probably never discover how her counterpart’s relations would fare in their bereavement.

“Miu!” With a pop of displaced air, a calico ball of fluff appeared at Super Tuuri’s chest level. Fortunately, the young Hero had good enough reflexes to catch the kitten before disaster could strike, cuddling the feline against her with a longer, deeper sigh that was yet half sob. Kitty always knew when her humans needed cuddling.

*

Emil was playing with the furballs again. This rather annoyed Lalli, as he himself barely tolerated the pesky things, though he admitted they made good allies against the grosslings; they were nearly as good as the cats in that regard. Even so, ever since the sparkly gold furballs had first buried Lalli and Emil in a cooing mass of affection that nearly suffocated the two of them, Lalli had attempted to ensure that the incident would never be repeated.

And did Emil really have to look like he was enjoying himself so much?

*

Having finished off a few burnt-out troll nests to work the kinks out, the Red Terror was ready to face the greatest challenge of her day: dealing with Mikkel in one of his Graver moods. She’d briefly contemplated having Reynir Help her, if only to try to negate as much of Mikkel’s gloom with his cheeriness as was possible, but decided against it, as the two of them needed to talk about certain things which needed to remain between the two of them—for now, at least.

“So, Mikkel,” she started off casually, “what do your bosses in The Circle say?”

The Circle. Everyone had heard of it, but what everyone had heard was always different from person to person. It was the most secret of spy organizations. It was just a stupid social club with delusions of their own power and influence. It was a legitimate advisory body with no real authority but plenty of moral authority. It was half legend, half truth, and nobody knew for sure which was which. Supposedly, the Nordic Council was the top of the Known World’s hierarchy, but The Circle seemed to float outside of that hierarchy.

Agents of The Circle were said to be under orders to kill anyone who found them out.

Sigrun could see that Mikkel had contemplated denying her “accusation” for a moment; instead, he shrugged and said, “I’ve missed my last few contacts because of our recent… entanglements, so I’m not sure.” He looked Sigrun directly in the eyes, his own opened almost to their full extent for once. “Certainly, they have been as anxious to ascertain just exactly who is trying to thwart our mission and why as the six of us.”

Sigrun relaxed slightly. “I figured as much.”

That out of the way, the conversation moved to their current dilemma…

Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
Oh, look. Mikkel’s a spy. What a surprise. /mikkel

Hopefully, though, this was enjoyable despite the cliches.


Sometimes a cliche is exactly what's needed, although I wouldn't say this piece is quite as riddled with them as you think.  Also, you have a way with an acronym, for sure.  Fun.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on November 13, 2017, 02:53:02 PM
A headcanon-induced short fic, it's been a while. The explanation for that one is that the "headcanons about Emil's parents" factory had a very fruitful meeting with my fondness for the "accidental truth" trope.

Little brother (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12724229/1/Little-brother)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Pupunen on November 13, 2017, 03:39:59 PM
Hello Scriptorium, it's been a while! I haven't been writing much lately, but I finally got around to finishing a draft that I'd had lying around unfinished since March. It's a brief look back at chapter 14, featuring angsty Sigrun.

A murderer's hands (http://archiveofourown.org/works/12713658)

Also, if anyone wants to read fic in Finnish, I've got one of those too. It's about Saku trying to get Ensi to sleep.

Koko talvi kesämökillä (http://archiveofourown.org/works/12683364)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on November 13, 2017, 04:38:09 PM
Pupunen: good to see you doing more again.

Grade E Cat: nice. That would account for Sune's hair.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Windfighter on November 14, 2017, 01:39:22 PM
Ah, crap, I didn’t mean to discourage you! You’re doing great on your own; I need to remember to double-check my phrasing for possible unintentional meanness.

Oh no, there wasn't anything wrong with your phrasing, it was very helpful! I was already on the verge of giving up on them so it wasn't your fault <3

Nevermind that now, another chapter of the angel-saga is done! (and so very short chapters, it feels wrong)

The wings of an angel
Spoiler: Chapter 5 • show

The meeting
   Lalli followed the river upstream. When night fell he made camp, slept under a fir. When he ran out of bread he hunted, placed traps for rabbits on small trails he would never have seen from the air. During the nights he got company from the stars, which lit up the darkness a little. Did his parents watch him from up there, on the Bird's Path? Would they have been disappointed that he lost his soulmate before they even met? His hand reached over his shoulder to touch his wings. They would never carry him again.
   ”Are you also up there?”
   The stars blinked, but didn't answer him. He shouldn't care. He had been alone most of his life, he didn't mind, it was just... There had been someone meant for him, his wings had been big when he was young, he remembered flying together with his family. And like all other kids his age he had looked forward to meeting his soulmate. Until that day when his wings turned black.
   That had been the only time he remembered crying. His wings dying and morphing into the small thing he had now had been painful, but the worst part was knowing he'd never meet that one person that would always understand him. He threw his bag into the canoe again, set off once more. Large mountains covered the horizon, how long had he travelled? For weeks, and he still didn't know what he was searching for, if he was searching for something. But at least he was alone.
   A branch snapped. A bear? Lalli steered towards the riverbank, waited in silence. The sun burned his neck and he crouched, hid behind a bush incase it was a bear or a wolf. Five minutes, then something stumbled through the trees, fell to it's knees. A human. Lalli lifted his head, peeked over the bush. Why wasn't the person flying? The person's body shook, sank to the ground and Lalli took a step closer. There wasn't any wings.


Spoiler: Chapter 6 • show

The touch
   Emil blinked, rolled over to his back. His body felt weak, it hurt to move. He closed his eyes, opened them again. A person was leaning over him, staring at his torn clothes, his messy hair and his scratched arms. He had spent weeks walking, not knowing the first thing about how to deal with the wilderness, and his body was proof of it. He opened his mouth to say something but only got a shaky breath out.
   Water passed over his lips, into his mouth, and he swallowed greedily. It felt rejuvenating and his body relaxed slightly. The person sat down next to him, only looked at him. Emil wanted to explain, excuse his apperance, but his throat was still dry. He closed his eyes again, listened as the other got up, moved around. The sound of fire reached Emil's ears and he opened his eyes in panic as the warmth washed over him. Gray eyes looked at him again.
   ”OK?”
   Emil nodded, relaxed again. He rested for a while, let the warmth ease the ache in his muscles, drank water when he was offered. After an hour he sat up, took in the sights of the other. He also looked worn, like he had been on the move for quite a while..
   ”I'm Emil”, he said, ”I come from the mountains.”
   The man looked at him, looked towards the treetops, past them, towards the mountains and then nodded.
   ”Lalli. From forest.”
   Lalli offered Emil a steaming bowl filled with food and Emil reached forward to accept it. Their fingers touched, a jolt danced through Emil's body, his back ached and then everything exploded in colours and the ground disappeared below them.


...obvious ending is obvious. BUT WAIT! There'll be more!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Windfighter on November 15, 2017, 03:33:47 PM
Double-posting like a bozz!

The wings of an angel
Spoiler: Chapter 7 • show

Lalli's new wings
   Lalli adored his wings. To begin with they were large, the same size as for those who had found their soulmate, and could carry him great distances. He didn't need to worry about them getting caught in trees any longer, because they could carry him above the treetops. And then there were the colours. Lalli's wings were a perfect balance of blue and gray, the colours copied from his and Emil's eyes. He had finally met his soulmate.
   ”Lalli, hurry up!”
   Lalli let out a sigh and hurried his speed a little. When Tuuri called it was better to get there quickly or the mess she was about to put him in would get worse. She beamed at him when he caught up, their wings brushed against each other and then Lalli moved in above her. His eyes glanced at her wings, at the beautiful mix of green, violet and gray. He'd love to meet them one day.
   ”We're almost where I spotted the wolves!”
   ”Can hardly wait.”
   Lalli stretched his wings, showed them off to Tuuri again. She smiled, laughed, and grabbed his arm, pulled him along. He let her, happy to be able to be a part of something again, happy to no longer need her to look for his soulmate. Because he had already found him.


Spoiler: Chapter 8 • show

Emil's new wings
   Emil had been declared dead. Caught in a fire when he was young he had stopped breathing, his heart had stopped beating and he had spent a few minutes dead. He had lost his wings and his self-esteem and stayed in his parents' house for years.
   His burns had healed, his scars disappeared. His wings had finally grown back as well. Emil loved his wings. He loved being able to soar across the sky, high above the treetops. He loved watching animals running far below him, he loved playing with the others. He loved how beautiful they were, a glittering combination of blue and gray feathers. He loved that they could carry him anywhere he wanted.
   ”I'm heading out, do you want to come along?”
   Emil laughed, pushed himself off the bed and left his room. His mother smiled at him, her beautiful wings resting on her back and Emil smiled back.
   ”Not today, I have things to do.”
   ”Do you want me to invite someone over? I meet one of your childhood friends yesterday.”
   ”Mom, it's okay.”
   ”I just don't want you to feel lonely.”
   ”Really mom”, he pushed her towards the door, still smiling, ”it's okay. I'm going to meet up with someone tomorrow.”
   ”Will I finally get to meet this mysterious person?”
   He smiled, but refused to answer. She kissed his head before throwing herself off the cliff and Emil watched as her wings carried her away. For so long he had wanted to be able to fly like that as well and tomorrow he'd get to fly like that with Lalli.


And that, as they say, is that! Hope you enjoyed this horrible experiment, time to continue with that plotbunny Lazy8 threw at me.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on November 15, 2017, 04:30:40 PM
Windy, that was very sweet and hopeful. I liked it.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on November 17, 2017, 08:04:17 AM
...is it too soon? Oh dear gods, it's too soon, isn't it?

The Zombie (http://archiveofourown.org/works/11713725/chapters/29083341)


*throws the challenge entry on the table and flees*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Windfighter on November 18, 2017, 05:51:50 PM
Here to drop off another story that's short and hopefully safe enough for this place! As usual, yell at me if it isn't! (I'm not insecure, I promise...)

Spoiler: The Soup Incident • show

   ”Hey, Lalli...”
   Emil stopped for a couple of seconds to gather his breath, then started walking again before Lalli got a chance to tell him how pathetic he was.
   ”Do you remember the soup incident?”
   Lalli's voice in his head was remarkable quiet. Emil shifted his grip around the straps to the rug.
   ”I know it's probably not the best time right now...”
   The snow was starting to come down heavily. Emil never liked the beginning of spring for this very reason, one second it was sun and warm and the next it was snowing. At least it wasn't hailing. He stopped again.
   ”Were you angry at me?”
   No answer. Was Lalli angry at him again? He sat down on the ground.
   ”I'm sorry about bringing it up, I just... I want to know what I did wrong.”
   Still quiet. Emil pulled a hand through his hair.
   ”You know, so I won't repeat it.”
   Then he laughed and pulled himself off the ground again.
   ”I really am going crazy. They're going to lock me up in the mental ward when we get back.”
   He kept going. They passed by a few houses with roofs that had fallen in, passed by something that looked like it might have been a barn at one time and reached the last house in the small village they were passing through.
   In here.
   Emil stopped for a moment, looked at the house.
   Weather will get worse, we wait it out there.
   ”Oh, okay then.”
   He went inside the house, placed Lalli's body close to the wall.
   ”Wait there, I'll see if it's safe.”
   It was. Emil found a fireplace, placed Lalli close to it and made a fire. He pulled off his coat and wrapped it around Lalli before dragging whatever furniture and blankets he could find over there do build them a nest. Just like he had done in that first house.
   ”This time I'm not going to fall asleep though. I'll just wake up even crazier. Maybe next time I wake up I'll hear Sigrun's voice in my head as well.”
   He sat down, leaned against the wall and looked at Lalli.
   ”I wish you were awake though. I wish I had some company.”
   No answer, but there wasn't anything to say and Emil knew it. He listened to the flames as they made their way through the wood, listened to Lalli's breathing. He was almost falling asleep.
   It was stupid.
   Emil was awake, totally, and he looked at Lalli.
   ”Are you awake?”
   He still wasn't. Emil leaned against the wall again.
   The soup...
   ”Are we talking about that now?”
   Are you angry about it?
   ”Nah, I just want to understand.”
   The voice in his head fell quiet again and Emil looked at the blanket that was their temporary ceiling. There were holes in it, but for being 90 year-old fabric it held up good.
   Your language was wrong.
   ”My... language?”
   It was gibberish.
   ”Excuse me”, Emil laughed, ”my language is not gibberish.”
   I didn't understand it so I got angry.
   ”Do you want me to talk less?”
   Silence, followed by more silence. Emil pulled up his legs to his chest and wrapped his arms around it.
   ”Before I stop talking though... I would rather say this while you're awake but... I'm sorry. For what I said that day.”
   He looked towards Lalli, tried to force a smile.
   ”I understand if you hate me now. But... thanks for saving me. And I'm sorry. I wanted to believe what Mikkel said. That she might not have been...”
   He let out a sigh and looked away.
   ”I should have known you knew better... I'll... I'll shut up with my weird language now...”
   No answer. Emil laid down on the floor, his back turned against Lalli. His body shivered slightly, but then the heat from the flames draped over him again and he closed his eyes. Lalli was sitting on the other side of the table when the dream came to him. He didn't smile, his eyes were sad, but he looked at Emil.
   ”Don't...”
   He looked away again. Emil noticed that his nanny wasn't there this time and he looked out of the window. No fire. This wasn't any of the usual dreams. He turned to Lalli again. Lalli pulled at the tablecloth.
   ”You can keep talking. It's okay. Just don't disturb any trolls.”
   He blushed, looked at Emil again.
   ”If you do, you're just stupid.”
   ”I'll try”, Emil smiled.
   ”And... I don't hate you, stupid.”
   ”It's okay if you do, everyone else does.”
   ”Well, I don't.”
   Lalli crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back, before relaxing and leaning against the table again.
   ”Also... The soup... I'm... I'msorryaboutthat.”
   Emil blinked, tried to wrap his head around Lalli's blurted out words and then smiled.
   ”It's okay, I just wanted to understand. I'm glad you're my friend, Lalli.”
   ”Mf”, Lalli answered and got up from the table before lying down on the couch.
   Emil looked out the window again, saw the flames catching the other house out there and he could hear his nanny approaching. Everything was back to normal.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on November 19, 2017, 03:20:06 AM
I could give it a try, but it may be a better idea to do it either via PM or another topic entirely... basically anywhere that isn't here so we can stick to publishing and commenting on this one.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on November 19, 2017, 03:32:45 AM
Point. I'll start a new topic.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on November 20, 2017, 04:14:35 PM
Headcanon turned fic that gave me an excuse to write some parts of Chapter 17 from Lalli's point of view... win-win?

Fist bump (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12731892/1/Fist-bump)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on November 20, 2017, 07:56:16 PM
This is an interesting idea, and the kind of thing that might happen.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on November 21, 2017, 05:01:43 PM
Hi, everybody! We have one more day of sign-ups for the Advent Calendar, and (at the moment) one slot open.  Right now it's the 11th that's vacant, but I'm asking the folks who are pencilled in to verify their dates.
https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=1008.0 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=1008.0)
If you've been on the fence about participating, now might be your chance to join in!
(Also a plug for the Secret Santa exchange Gwenno is running! https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=1010.0 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=1010.0))
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on November 22, 2017, 03:47:59 PM
Trying prompt writing. First story is ready. It ended up being a short tale about Emil and Reynir.

Sleep (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12734088/1/Prompt-fic-collection)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on November 22, 2017, 06:35:11 PM
...is it too soon? Oh dear gods, it's too soon, isn't it?

The Zombie (http://archiveofourown.org/works/11713725/chapters/29083341)


*throws the challenge entry on the table and flees*

I thought I commented on this one already?  Anyway, not too soon, and quite a bit less painful than the other one where Reynir bites it, so to speak.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on November 24, 2017, 04:43:22 AM
Hmmm, not really a double post if there's a gap of a few days, right?
First WIP clearance of the weekend, tick - I bring a new story for the letter S in the Alphabet Challenge, entitled "Static."
http://archiveofourown.org/works/12811851
It's a look at what was going on back at Mora HQ during the events of pages 740-750, and is told from Siv's POV.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on November 25, 2017, 04:19:31 PM
Prompt fics continue. Looks like I have an elaborate headcanon about Frida Eide now.

Early-bird contact (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12734088/2/Prompt-fic-collection)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on November 26, 2017, 03:34:06 AM
Yuss, WIP III of the weekend, tick!  (WIP II was my entry for the Advent Calendar, which now is also done!  *pats self on back*)
This stands for the letter T in the SSSS Alphabet Challenge, and is a self-indulgent expansion of the family legend told by my self-insert SSSSona Helle-Mai.  It's called 'Tädi Katri and the Troll.'
http://archiveofourown.org/works/12830346

It's been a good weekend.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on November 27, 2017, 05:30:37 AM
Get ready...

Juster Quick Trip
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/“The Phantom Tollbooth” crossover fanfic
Part 1
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Spoiler: Lalligagging Around • show
Well, this wasn’t helpful at all.

Emil put his hands on his hips in frustration as the emu-sized bird that called itself “the Ever-Present Word-Snatcher” continued to evade the questions he was asking of it. They were running out of time.

Emil and his friends, Lalli the Watch-Finn and Mikkel the Humbug, had to get through the desolate Mountains of Ignorance and to the Castle in the Air, where the twin princesses of Rhyme and Reason resided in their exile. This bird before them might just be able to tell them the best way to get through the mountains without encountering the various Demons lurking there, but it stubbornly refused to assist them.

At first, Mikkel had tried to beat the bird at its own game, the two of them trading homonyms in a pun duel that had outlasted Mikkel’s voice. Now, he stood still and stayed silent as Emil wrangled with the deliberately mis-interpretive bird, while Lalli simply glowered at it.

“Stupid weird bird,” Lalli mumbled.

Unfortunately the bird heard him. “I’ve never stoop-ed to your level of burred rudeness, to be sure.”

There was no telling how long this would have continued had not a fairly sizable hardbound volume suddenly impacted the back of Lalli’s head, coming seemingly out of nowhere. “Ow!” he said, rubbing the point of impact. “What’s this?”

Emil read the lettering on the volume’s spine. “Roget’s Thesaurus.” He looked at Lalli. “It’s a book of synonyms with which we can fight this homonym-happy bird!” So saying, he grabbed the book and brandished it at the bird.

“But where did that thing come from?” Lalli asked in bewilderment. As a Watch-Finn, it was part of his remit to be aware of everything in his surroundings at all times, so he knew better than any of them that no one was around to have chucked the book at him.

“It was those horrible FANS!” the bird shrieked. “They got it to you even through the fourth wall!”

Lalli looked at Emil. Emil looked at Lalli. Both shrugged, then Emil returned to brandishing the book at the bird. “Tell us how, in what manner or by which road, track, path, way or route we can reach, come to or arrive at our goal, endpoint or destination: the Castle in the Air.”

The bird writhed all over, hopping up and down like mad, but finally yielded. “Follow the road and you’ll get to a stairway that will take you to the Castle.” With one final bound, the bird took to the air, weeping now. “I hate that book!”

As it flew away, Emil cried out, scarcely knowing why, “Wait!” He had let the book fall, but the bird still fled across the mountains.

“Seventy-eight pounds!” came the reply, and then the bird was gone. Emil frowned. By its own admission, the bird was only “barely a Nuisance”, and not a true Demon at all; how much worse would tangling with a full-fledged Demon be?

Emil, Lalli and Mikkel got back into their little red automobile and started back down the road, not knowing that they’d come across the real Demons soon enough…

Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
So here’s yet another WIP for me to string out waaaaaaaay past its sell-by date.

*sigh*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on November 27, 2017, 06:41:18 AM
Aaaaaah you actually did it! *snicker*

Are you going by "Juster Quick Trip" for the title or "Lalligagging Around"?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on November 27, 2017, 06:50:54 AM
Aaaaaah you actually did it! *snicker*

Are you going by "Juster Quick Trip" for the title or "Lalligagging Around"?
Juster Quick Trip, as there will be other parts.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on November 28, 2017, 06:12:27 AM
Speaking of other parts...

The Eide Traveling Mercenaries, Er, Players
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/Napoleonic Wars AU fanfic
Part 2
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg132363#msg132363)
Spoiler: Goa Their Way • show
Tuuri was still frowning down thunderously at the blank sheets in front of her when Sigrun went by the office area; this caught the troupe leader’s attention, as it was unlike Tuuri to fuss over something for any length of time. “What’s up, Fuzzy-Head? What’s got that frown on your face?”

Tuuri half-growled, half-sighed, rubbing the back of her neck in frustration. “I wanted to write a new play for us to perform when we get back to Europe, but I’m… well, I’m just… y’know, stuck! I can write a letter in Tamil, a proclamation in Russian, a fatwa in Arabic, or a quatrain in French, Swedish, English or Finnish off the top of my head, but I can’t work out how to start a brand-new play for us, even though I’ve been adapting other people’s plays for our troupe since forever! It’s just so… maddening!”

“Well, ‘when in doubt, add an adjective’, y’know?” Sigrun quoted in an attempt to be helpful.

Tuuri shot Sigrun a Look. “I can’t add an adjective when I haven’t even put the first sentence down yet,” she pointed out in the tone of forced patience people use when they’re trying to explain something that their listener can’t quite understand.

Sigrun didn’t let it bother her. “Well, why don’t you start with something easy, like, ‘It was a dark and stormy night’?”

“Have you been reading my Minerva Press novels again?” Tuuri asked suspiciously. “Besides, plays don’t start out like that.” She sighed heavily. “I’m not even sure what this play should be about, now!”

“Well,” Sigrun said thoughtfully, looking off into the distance, “why don’t you make it about one of our adventures, like our latest trip through the subcontinent?”

Tuuri looked appalled. “I can’t! It would blow our cover!”

Sigrun dismissed that worry with an airy wave of one hand. “Naaaaaaah. Just change the names and dates and put in some silly stuff like… I don’t know… maybe a dragon coming to the rescue in the last battle or something. Just throw in something to tell the audience ‘this is just a show’ and our cover will be fine.”

“Nobody’ll like the size of their parts,” Tuuri groused, but Sigrun could see a glint of inspiration start in her eyes. “Especially Emil.”

“Just give him a noble and dramatic death scene and he’ll be fine with whatever else you throw at him,” Sigrun advised.

“And where should I even start?” Tuuri asked. “Should I go back to when we got the job, or pick up when we landed in Goa, or what?”

“Well, you could start with…”

*

Lalli emptied his stomach over the side of the wharf while Emil watched on in helpless concern. Now that they were back on dry land, Lalli would have some relief from his pervasive sea-sickness that always proved such a problem for them on these trips.

*

“You want me to open on Lalli puking his guts up? Why?”

“Well, it gets the audience’s sympathies aroused, so they care about him.” Sigrun leaned in and said in a confidential voice, “You know, your cousin isn’t the easiest guy in the world to get along with, and that’s a problem in a play.”

Tuuri giggled, as Sigrun had intended.

“It also sets up the Emil-Lalli relationship,” Sigrun continued, “which is always important when you have something of such portent.”

“Your point,” Tuuri acknowledged.

“Anyway, if you start there, you can go on with…”

*

Mikkel handed Emil a canteen. “Here. Help him clean up.” He gestured at the wretched form of the retching Finn.

Emil looked at the canteen dubiously. “It’s just water, right?”

Mikkel rolled his eyes. “Even I know that this is not the time for such things, Emil,” he told the younger man.

“MIKKEL! GET OVER HERE BEFORE I SMASH THIS IDIOT’S STUPID FACE IN!”

Mikkel rolled his eyes again and started off in the direction of the bellicose bellow…

Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
Oh, how meta this is.

But it’s also the start of something that I hope you’ll like.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on November 28, 2017, 06:50:59 AM
Looks promising!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on December 01, 2017, 07:18:04 AM
Index has been updated, and surprisingly painlessly considering my wireless and the fact that I just modified the program. New feature shows authors' active dates!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Gaemmel on December 01, 2017, 02:12:10 PM
Thanks for all the amazing work you're doing with the index, Lazy8!
I think you might have forgotten "Despite the cold", which I published on the 12th of november (but didn't announce here, because it's NSFW).
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Windfighter on December 01, 2017, 03:45:44 PM
I think you might have forgotten "Despite the cold", which I published on the 12th of november (but didn't announce here, because it's NSFW).

From the fanfiction index-thread:
What you can expect not to find: anything NSFW. If someone wants to repeat this venture on the NSFW board, go right ahead, but I'm not on that board and don't want to link explicit stuff here.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Gaemmel on December 01, 2017, 03:51:36 PM
Oh, okay, sorry :(
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on December 01, 2017, 09:33:55 PM
Windy's right: I can't link to explicit stuff on the main board index as per forum rules.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on December 02, 2017, 04:53:41 AM
Had a funny idea for the reunion of the two groups.

The oblivious messenger (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12745148/1/The-oblivious-messenger)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on December 06, 2017, 03:22:24 PM
Sorry for the double post, hope it's okay after four days. A new prompt fic is ready. An element of the Second chances / Somewhere, somehow AU that I didn't get around mentioning in those stories wrestled itself into this one.

Uncertain future (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12734088/3/Prompt-fic-collection)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on December 10, 2017, 02:50:06 AM
So, um, I was looking at Lazy8's Index (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=943.0) again, and I noticed something, and, well...

...this happened:

Numerology
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Part 1
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Spoiler: 01001101 • show
The half-completed logic problem stared mockingly back at Emil Västerström from where he’d thrown the magazine in disgusted frustration when he’d run out of time to solve it at breakfast. It was the first thing to catch his eye when he got back from work, and ever since then, and no matter how he tried to ignore it, Emil found himself glaring at the crinkled sheet of paper with its little chart and list of clues.

From the very first line, the logic problem had rattled Emil, though he wasn’t quite sure why. “Tuuri wanted to see trolls, but she wasn’t immune. Imagine her shock when she saw five different types of troll (one was a vätte) in five separate places doing five different things at five different times of day! Tuuri made it out OK, but her debriefing went a little wrong. Can you figure out what kind of troll she saw where at which time of day and doing what from her statements?”

The background scenario was a bit weird, but otherwise it was a perfectly normal logic problem; every other problem in the book followed the same format, though some were about horse races, or florists, or foreign postcards, or whatever. Still, there was something about that particular scenario that tugged at Emil’s mind, and something about the name “Tuuri” that tugged even harder. This tugging made it impossible for Emil to concentrate on the problem itself, but impossible to think about anything else.

Maybe, Emil thought, maybe starting another problem would clear his mind enough to get this one done. He flipped a few pages ahead.

“Onni is a big scaredy-cat. He got scared by five different things (one was a rat-beast) in five different places on five different errands he was doing on five different days this week. Can you figure out what scared him at each different place, which errand he was running, and on which day of the week it happened from the clues provided?”

Rat-beast? Why on earth was that so familiar, too? Emil flipped another few pages ahead, figuring that the third time would be the charm.

“Lalli is the most best night scout. Last night, he found five different hazards (one was a sjødraug) in five different parts of his route and told five different unit commanders (one was Sigrun) of five different unit types (one was a Cleanser outfit) to take care of them. Can you figure out which commander Lalli told to take care of which hazard, what type of unit they led and where each hazard was from the clues provided?”

Emil’s cousins came running at the unearthly scream, followed swiftly by their parents.

*

The house was just like any of a thousand like it in the city; only the number beside the door told Emil that here was his destination, so here was where he knocked.

It had taken quite some time and efforts on both Emil’s part and that of his Uncle Torbjörn to track down the author of the oh-so-disturbing logic problems, but now, Emil was ready to beard the author in his den, if he ever opened his door. Emil knocked again, more insistently this time, and was rewarded with a hint of motion behind the curtains that protected the author’s privacy.

Emil started knocking again, determined not to stop until the door opened, so he was caught off guard when it did open.

The man filling the doorway almost literally filled the doorway. He was almost as blond as Emil, sporting massive mutton-chop-style sideburns as though he were a ‘70’s throwback. His eyes were barely open, and he didn’t speak, giving Emil the impression that here was some gargantuan forest creature he had woken from its hibernation. Still, Emil managed to ask, though in a far weaker voice than he’d intended, “Are you Mikkel Madsen?”

The eyes finally opened at the sound of Emil’s voice, the heavy lids flinging wide with a fleeting burst of some emotion too swiftly brought under control for Emil to identify it before drooping back to what seemed to be their habitual position at half-mast. He still didn’t say anything.

Eventually, Emil repeated the question, adding, “I’m Emil Västerström.”

Finally, the huge man spoke. “Yes, I know who you are.” After a moment for Emil to get over his astonishment, the massive Mr Madsen continued, “You’d better join the others.”

As he spoke, he stepped back, indicating the way with a jerk of his head. Emil was through the doorway and halfway down the hall before he thought to consider what he was doing. Now that he was this far in, though, the only thing to do was go all the way and hope he hadn’t made a fatal mistake.

The first thing Emil saw when he entered the room was a shock of red hair above a pair of violet eyes that he knew, though he’d never seen them before. “Sigrun,” Emil breathed, and then he saw the others. “Tuuri… LALLI!” And, of course, Reynir was there as well, though his braid wasn’t.

Emil knew that Reynir ought to have a long, thick braid of red hair. Emil knew them all… but how?

“Are you certain that you don’t know already?”

Emil turned to face Mikkel, but when he focused on the older man, his sight suddenly pixellated, as though…

“Yes, Emil. This world is one of Virtual Reality, constructed for our minds to play within it. We were caught, out there in the Silent World, and killed, but our brains were saved and hooked into a giant machine that once enabled a group of other brains to live on after their bodies had died.”

*

Emil Västerström awoke, screaming, as he always did.

The light in his bedroom came on, and Emil saw that there was something lying crumpled on the carpet by his bedroom door. It was a magazine of logic problems…

Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
This is more based on Pohl’s The Tunnel under the World (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tunnel_under_the_World) than the Matrix, but it might serve as a bridge between those, if you will.

...So, yeah, this will be a thing--only for 10 stories, though: 0 - 9.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on December 10, 2017, 09:07:42 PM
Double-posting to bring you...

Numerology
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Part 2
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Spoiler: 1001 Danish Nights • show
The captain lounged nonchalantly on her sumptuous divan, ostensibly indifferent to the rolling of the ship around her and only occasionally glancing up from her knitting to the massive but securely bound form forced into a supine pose before her. She very much enjoyed the arrogant Dane’s discomfiture, which was increased by the sword lying lightly on his neck, but she did not enjoy it enough to forgo his execution if he failed to deliver the night’s tale.

Eventually, the time came for the captain to break the silence. “So, Madsen,” she almost purred, “what sort of tale do you have for me this evening?”

Mikkel Madsen was not a man who was easily discomfited, and even less likely to show any discomfiture that he felt, so his voice was only slightly roughened when he responded…

*

Reynir ibn Arni ibn Ragnar ibn Arni ibn Reynir had roamed a good portion of the world with his caravans, but now, he was beginning to feel the urge to settle down and perhaps take a wife and start a family. It was in this frame of mind that he met Tuuri in the Golden City of Copenhagen, Queen of the Sea.

Tuuri was everything Reynir wanted in a wife: short, plump, cuddly, bursting with energy and up for any adventure—even the adventure of settling in the barren wastes of Jutland. Tuuri, for her part, let it be known that a young, tall, redheaded master of caravans might have a chance at her hand, if he tried for it.

So they were wed, and they prospered, even though neither was immune. One part of their continued safety and prosperity was that they were great friends with the local garrison, which was led by the illustrious Captain Sigrun and her right-hand viking, Emil the Cleanser. Another part was that they brought out two of Tuuri’s relations to help: her rather cowardly brother Onni and her brave cousin Lalli.

Lalli could afford to be brave, for he was immune, and a cunning scout besides; he helped out the local garrison quite a bit in his spare time. Onni was a coward to the bone, though he was a powerful mage; and rightly so, for he, like Tuuri and Reynir, was not immune.

In those days, a terrible band of cutthroats terrorized the lands all around the area Captain Sigrun held responsibility over; she claimed they never raided her area because they were more afraid of her doughty warriors than any others, which might have been the case. Nevertheless, the feared General Trond and Admiral Olsen came to her garrison to ensure that her warriors weren’t re-enacting the raiding ways their ancestors had lived by.

It was around this time that Reynir took one of his flocks out to a safe pasture—and was nearly caught by the cutthroats. He had barely enough time to hide among the sheep when they seemed to pop out of the very ground itself.

“Shut Trillebor!” Reynir heard a horrid voice snap, but a moment later, a murmur of discontent arose, and the same voice barked out, “Open Trillebor!”

The flat ground rose up into a hill with a cave open on one side like a giant maw. After a few moments of the cutthroats moving in and out, the voice finally rose again to command, “Shut Trillebor!” And the ground was flat again.

Reynir waited among the sheep for a good long time before he rose and went over to where the hill had sprung from the ground. Hesitantly, he called out, “Open Trillebor!”

The hill appeared, and Reynir went into the cave, which held all the loot from the robberies and more, so Reynir knew that he should let the local garrison know about it; but first he told Onni, who saw an opportunity to enrich himself with little risk. Onni ventured forth to the place Reynir had told him the cave would appear, and went inside, but he lingered too long.

The horrible head of the forty-strong band of cutthroats who called themselves the Ghost Thieves, a fiend known only as “Sleipnope”, boldly approached the patch where the cave would appear. “Open Trillebor!”

Onni was horrified to see the cave open without another word from him, and further horrified to see the Ghost Thieves all ready for battle. Before he could get off so much as a single spell, Sleipnope had struck Onni’s head from his shoulders.

“Men!” Sleipnope addressed his band. “We are discovered by these locals! We must disguise ourselves, gain access to their compound, and slaughter them all in the night!”

The cutthroats each climbed into an oil jar, and Sleipnope, now in merchant garb, loaded them into a huge flatbed with a few full oil jars; so it was that they went to the home of Reynir and Tuuri. All might have gone as they desired if only Tuuri hadn’t needed some oil.

Tuuri came to the first oil jar and thrust the ladle into it. “No need for rough stuff, Captain,” the cutthroat within murmured.

Tuuri kept her cool, whispering, “Not yet, but be ready.” She tested every jar thus, before going to get a surprise for them.

So all the ghost thieves were drowned one by one in boiling oil, save for their leader, who was taken by a vengeful Lalli and brought before Captain Sigrun, General Trond, and Admiral Olsen. All the loot was returned to its rightful owners, except a few pieces whose owners could not be found, which were awarded to Reynir and Tuuri.

*

The captain was silent for a long time after Mikkel had finished speaking; but before her hench-beast bearing the sword had quite decided that his mistress willed Mikkel’s death at long last, she finally spoke. “Well done, Madsen. You have earned another night’s reprieve; be sure that tomorrow night’s tale is as good, or face the consequences.” She picked her knitting back up. “Away with him.”

Mikkel’s bound form was lifted in strong arms and carried back to his cell…

Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
Oh, I enjoyed this waaaaaaaaaaaay too much.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on December 10, 2017, 09:28:07 PM
Double-posting to bring you...

Numerology
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Part 2
Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
Oh, I enjoyed this waaaaaaaaaaaay too much.


You aren't the only one, LooNEY!

Kinda rude to Onni, but it works.  ;)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on December 11, 2017, 02:37:28 AM
Never would have thought of that. Funny though!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on December 11, 2017, 04:39:23 AM
I am still bubbling away at the SSSS Alphabet Challenge in the background; I've gotten up to U.  (I'm not likely to get the next 5 stories done by New Year's, but I will at some point.)
Please enjoy 'Ukko's Löyly', a story from Juha & Jukka Hotakainen's childhood.  http://archiveofourown.org/works/12983562 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/12983562)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Windfighter on December 11, 2017, 05:00:43 AM
You all have gotten so far for your Alphabet Soup-stories *glances at her own meager pile* But don't worry I will catch up to you!

Or die trying!

(Haha, I'm not even done with the 100 SSSS-fics challenge *cries quietly in corner*)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on December 16, 2017, 12:34:45 PM
Numerology
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Part 3
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Spoiler: 24 Terrible Hours • show
Y3, Month 1, Day 5
0900

It was raining again, and cold. Not freezing, but worse: just barely above freezing, so that the still-liquid rain got through every unprotected seam and leached all your heat away before you knew it. Snow and sleet were colder but easier to keep out; as far as Aksel Eide was concerned, that made them less dangerous by far. Sigrun would disagree, but Sigrun liked disagreeing with Aksel, even on things where they agreed, just to wind him up.

Now, normally, the Rash-begotten things would all be hiding away in a rain like this, but there seemed to be something that kept this pack of used-to-be wolves Aksel and his group were battling up and all too active. Maybe it was that the battle had started before the rain; maybe it was the remnants of the fur keeping the wolf-beasts warmer and drier than the humans battling them; maybe it was just Aksel’s bad luck, like the urge he’d had to bring Berit along today that had wound up with her breaking a leg out here right before the wolf-beasts had jumped them.

Of course, Berit hadn’t let any little broken leg keep her out of the fight. Even hampered as she was, she still had the highest kill count of the five of them, if only because she had the only gun among them; the others were making do with knives, hammers and spears, which generally only allowed them to hold one of their foes in place for Berit to get a kill shot in.

The battle was going rather well until the barn blew up. The grosslings were less startled than their human foes at the chunks of fiery debris raining down among them, but Berit’s bullets still finished them off as efficiently as ever.

The real problem, though, was that the explosion would draw every last grossling for miles around to come see what the fuss was about, which meant the humans needed to hide, since Berit wouldn’t have been able to travel fast enough for them to escape even without her broken leg.

1200

They’d found a tumble-down old farmhouse that looked like it hadn’t been used since Quisling was Prime Minister but still had four walls and a roof, all quite threadbare (to be generous).

The roof, such as it was, had started leaking not long after the five of them had piled into the place, demonstrating why it wasn’t a nest for some industrious troll. On the other hand, the fireplace still worked, and they’d been able to set up various bits and pieces to keep both the wind and the grosslings out.

1500

Ingrid was sobbing uncontrollably; she was only expressing what the others felt but couldn’t let themselves express, lest they collapse as well, so they let her cry on.

The troll must have barely been an infant; there was hardly any weight to its corpse when Aksel flung it from their hiding place.

1800

Sigrun was down for the count, leaving Aksel as the only one of them able to fight the monsters off. Ingrid had sobbed herself unconscious, while Goran and Berit had passed out from the pain of their wounds.

Aksel finished off the troll that had smashed Sigrun against the wall, which was the last of this batch of grosslings. And yet, there were many, many hours to go before dawn.

2100

Goran was awake enough to try to keep Aksel up, but Sigrun was still out cold. They had all moved almost dangerously close to the fire, as the cold had closed in on them more stealthily than any grossling could. Aksel imagined he could see frost forming on the dancing flames.

2400

Aksel jerked awake but didn’t cry out. Ingrid looked back at him solemnly. Neither of them spoke.

The fire was getting low; while Ingrid had obviously put more fuel on it, there was none left within their little shelter, so Aksel would have to get some more, as Ingrid was totally unwilling to leave the others.

Aksel managed to force himself into motion; Sigrun, lying nearby, protested in her sleep, which slightly relieved Aksel’s nagging worries over her condition.

0300

There was nothing left in the farmhouse with which they could feed the fire, unless they started pulling the walls down; they might have tried, but for the fact that it was still raining hard enough to ensure that anything outside would be too damp to burn. Aksel wondered how long they had until morning.

0600

All of them were barely holding back screams of agony from the cold; while Aksel was happy that they weren’t in the numb, sleepy, just-about-to-die stage of hypothermia, he could have done without the pain on top of everything else.

The only good thing about the cold was that any monster that was out and about now would be suffering from it as much as or more than the five humans in here were.

0900

They were going to die from the cold unless something drastic was done, so Aksel did it, though he was almost out of strength.

The rescue party rushed towards the massive column of smoke in their pre-Rash minivan, hoping against hope that they were in time. An old farmhouse was ablaze before them, lighting up the countryside.

The rescuers were relieved to find that they had made it in time, but only because the five they were rescuing were tough enough to last the 24 terrible hours it had taken to find them…

Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
Shiver. Shiver.

The next tale should be a happier one.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: October Sky on December 25, 2017, 04:13:53 PM
Posting my advent calendar fic here for consolidation purposes.  Actually originally written as a warmup, but i couldn't quite make the other fic i wanted to write work, Oh well.
Night Off
Spoiler: show

“Lalli,” Emil grumbled as he pulled his coat on, “I was really looking forward to spending our night off together inside, where it is warm. So if you could at least tell me where we’re going that would be appreciated.”

   “Don’t know the words.” Lalli muttered after puzzling over it for a while.  His Swedish was still somewhat limited, although he had made lots of progress. “Very pretty.  Like you.” he said, drawing a small blush from Emil as Lalli pulled him out of their quarters by the arm.  The day’s snow stretched out before them like an endless blanket, but the sky seemed to have mostly cleared, allowing the full moon to cast an eerie glow across the landscape.  Lalli’s instincts pushed him,  and he took off running across the snow. He clung to Emil’s arm, breaking out into giggles every time they fell into the snow.

   “Here! This is the place,” Lalli said as they came to a hill.  Emil gazed into the sky and saw a flicker of green light as Lalli helped him up.  Lalli crested the hill and sat down as Emil’s eyes widened in amazement at the ghostly green and purple hues swirling  in front of him.  Out of the corner of his eye he saw his companion’s grin as he wrapped an arm around Emil’s shoulder and shoved his collar out of the way to plant a kiss on his cheek.

   “Worth it?” Lalli asked.

   “Absolutely.”
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on December 26, 2017, 05:54:50 PM
Were you all aware of 24 days of awesome drawings & stories we had in the Advent Calendar (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=1015.0)?  If not, you should go check it out.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on December 26, 2017, 09:17:38 PM
Numerology
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Part 4
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Spoiler: 3.1415926535… • show
The chalk scraped across the black slate board with a noise that, while Emil barely heard it, made Lalli wince and bolt upright. This was one of the favorite tricks that the math teacher who was stuck running detention today liked to pull, and Emil hated him for it: the man certainly knew the effect that his scrawling figures on the board always had on Lalli, deliberately inducing it in this long, drawn-out way to ensure that the recalcitrant student actually kept at his studies rather than spending the detention period sleeping, which was why he had detention in the first place.

Students were to use the detention period either to do their homework or, if they had already finished it, to complete whatever extra problems the supervising teacher (“AKA warden,” Emil thought to himself) decided to set them; these were usually though not always drawn from the “warden’s” home subject, and so mathematics and science teacher Mikkel Madsen was writing out a problem for his two detainees to solve.

This time, instead of a carefully worded exercise in logic or algebra, a familiar series of figures took shape on the board, making Emil groan. He hated Geometry. Lalli wasn’t fond of it either, though not for the same reason as Emil. While Emil had a hard time wrapping his mind around the concepts of conic sections and their various dynamics, Lalli simply had a hard time getting the various forms and figures down on paper correctly, his drawings always tending to be too angular and lacking in the smooth curves the teacher desired from them.

Emil groaned again. This was all so useless! Emil’s skills were in language arts, as opposed to math: he’d far rather be working on parables than parabolas, or hyperbole rather than hyperbolas; but here he was, stuck. Emil glanced over at Lalli, wondering what was going through the other boy’s mind. Lalli’s face was an almost impenetrably bland mask so much of the time that most people thought that it was all there was to him; while even Emil found it frustratingly difficult to get behind, every so often the mask just seemed to vanish for a split second and Emil knew exactly what was going through Lalli’s mind in rather shocking detail.

“Mister Västerström.” Mikkel’s blunt tones penetrated Emil’s abstraction. “While Mister Hotakainen is working on the problems on the board, I would like to have a word with you.”

Of course he did, and Emil was quite well aware of why: Mikkel knew Emil had earned detention for this week, but not why, and was dying to find out. Emil would have to be careful, as Mikkel had an almost uncanny way of getting kids to spill secrets they had determined to carry to their graves.

“So, do you want to tell me what’s bothering you?”

Emil kept quiet. Mikkel couldn’t use force to get Emil to rat, or even the threat of extending the detention: he had to get it out of Emil through trickery.

“I can see that I’ll have to have Sigrun talk to you; perhaps you’ll tell her what you won’t tell me.”

Oh, brother. Emil rolled his eyes while Mikkel’s back was turned. Not this again.

When Mikkel turned back to face Emil, the red-headed, violet-eyed ventriloquist’s dummy known as “Sigrun” was firmly in place on Mikkel’s left arm.

“So,” Mikkel said through the dummy with his execrable ventriloquism, “what’s up, Little Viking? Mikkel here tells me that you’ve been having some problems.”

Whether Mikkel was channeling a separate personality into the dummy or whether he was simply a far better actor than he was a ventriloquist was a matter of much debate among the students, along with a dozen more theories on just what “Sigrun” really was. Certainly “Sigrun” said and did things that Mikkel never could have, nor would have if he could have. It was all very confusing.

Emil stifled a sigh of the ages, hoping Mikkel would give this preposterous charade up soon…

Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
So, I was doing a re-read, and I came across this (http://www.sssscomic.com/comic.php?page=427#comment-2379306557), which I hadn’t followed up in any way.

In other news, I’m quite insane.

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on December 27, 2017, 06:38:38 AM
Numerology
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Part 4

Oh, so I'm not the only one out there who's written Sigrun as a toy. Good to know!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on December 29, 2017, 04:55:59 AM
I bring to you a story about Veeti (http://archiveofourown.org/works/13190163) Hollola, and how his experiences in the early years off the boat have yielded valuable lessons for himself, and for his daughter Taru in turn.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on January 01, 2018, 02:42:55 AM
Monthly Index update has been completed. New feature this month is that I've sorted the Present Day stories by when they take place relative to certain milestones: specifically, Tuuri being bitten and Tuuri's death. I might expand this to other settings in the future, depending on how relevant it is.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on January 01, 2018, 12:02:57 PM
And I'm back! This is the first of a four-chapter short fic.

A story to keep secret: Chapter1 (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12782887/1/A-story-to-keep-secret)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Keeper on January 02, 2018, 12:57:37 PM
Here is the story I wrote for wavewright62 as a Secret Santa gift:

The New Hire (https://docs.google.com/document/d/14GqzrvBDeXz72cjTpeKnfsuh1_Ff4HJm_rYuj3zu9Xk/edit?usp=sharing)

In which wavewright's self-insert gets some extra help on her farm in the form of Mikkel.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on January 03, 2018, 10:52:43 AM
And here's Chapter 2 of my short fic, in which we get Lalli's perspective on the situation.

A story to keep secret: Chapter 2 (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12782887/2/A-story-to-keep-secret)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on January 06, 2018, 12:15:53 PM
Since I can't help seeing Chapter 4 of that fic as more of an epilogue, I guess this is already the end of the main story arc, in a way.

A story to keep secret: Chapter 3 (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12782887/1/A-story-to-keep-secret)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on January 06, 2018, 02:06:24 PM
Numerology
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Part 5
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Spoiler: 4 to 1 on the Favorite • show
Östersund, Y20

The old man was smiling, which Fredrik took as a Very Bad Sign. The old man was known for how enthusiastic he was at backing the biggest losers any time he placed a bet. Fredrik frowned down at the little slip of paper covered with the old man’s spidery scrawl. The bet looked sound enough, so what did the old man “know” that Fredrik didn’t?

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Most of the bookies wouldn’t take bets from the old man, so Fredrik had become his go-between; even so, some of the guys had started to look at Fredrik askance when he went to place the old man’s bets. The fact that Fredrik often placed a bet or two of his own opposing the old man’s bets had them even more suspicious.

The old man patted Fredrik’s arm in a rather condescending manner. “Just go place the bet, Sonny.” The old man always called Fredrik “Sonny”; Fredrik supposed the old man couldn’t remember his name, but the old man never called anyone else by that particular name, so Fredrik also supposed it might be counted as a compliment.

Mia—gentle, gracious Mia—stepped in then. “He will, Grandpa; he’s just being responsible.” She turned to Fredrik and murmured, “Don’t worry; he can afford to lose what he’s bet.” Which he will, her eyes added.

Fredrik gave a slight nod to acknowledge her unspoken addendum, saying aloud only, “Very well, sir; I’ll place the bet for you at the first opportunity.”

Mia gifted Fredrik with one of her blinding smiles as he walked off.

*
Östersund, Y25

Fredrik fussed over every conceivable aspect of his dress and appearance—and a few inconceivable ones, or so his amused sister informed him. Fredrik knew he was being as foolish as a teenager in the throes of his first crush, but he couldn’t help himself. Everything had to be just right for Mia.

Mia arrived just after Fredrik’s sister left. Her first question after the maid removed her wrap relieved a few of Fredrik’s anxieties. “What’s that wonderful smell?”

Fredrik crossed his fingers behind his back for luck as he replied, hoping hard that the rest of the evening would go as well as he’d planned.

*
Östersund, Y30

The old man was smiling as he left the room with the others, which Fredrik took as a Very Bad Sign. What did the old man know that Fredrik didn’t?

Fredrik turned to Mia, who was looking at him with a kind of nervous expectancy that told him that she knew as well as the others did why he was here. “Mia…” He had to clear his throat before continuing, “…I know I’m not Love’s Young Dream, but…”

“Oh, who says you’re not?” Mia interrupted, throwing herself at him. She would have fallen on the hard wooden floor if Fredrik hadn’t caught her in his arms, and might have hurt herself, so he was really acting out of chivalry.

There was very little said for the next few minutes, but eventually Fredrik asked, and Mia accepted.

“HA!” The old man burst out from behind the door. “I knew I could count on you, Sonny!” As the others all crowded back in, the old man chortled, “I got those fools down at the bar to give me 4 to 1 odds on you! Think of it—4 to 1 on the favorite!”

Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
More lighthearted after-the-apocalypse stuff.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on January 07, 2018, 04:33:21 PM
Numerology
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Part 6
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Spoiler: 55°40’34”N 12°34’06”E • show
Year 0, Day 22

It is in the nature of Mankind to desire to build something that will outlive its creator, whether it be a dynasty, a nation-state, a monument, or a clock.

The Clockmaker had been making other, lesser clocks for over twenty years when the Rash came. He’d always had the idea of a clock that would run forever in the back of his mind, but such a vanity project must always come second to the day-to-day needs of life.

When he first saw the Rash defacing his neck, he knew that the hour for his final, greatest clock had struck; he only hoped he could complete his work before the last chime tolled.

He was trying to get this clock to power itself from the Earth’s motion, which no one had yet succeeded at, though he had other plans for backup power sources. In any case, the clock would need to be utterly self-sustaining through however long it would remain, so self-lubricating and self-correcting as well as self-powered. It was a tall order for someone in the prime of body and mind, and the Rash would ensure that he was neither.

On the other hand, success at anything was almost always determined by whether you could out-stubborn the problems you encountered along the way, and for this, he was prepared to out-stubborn anything.

*
Year 90

Another day, another raid. This time, Sigrun and Emil were headed for yet another mark on their map where Siv had indicated that they might expect to find a small cache of books suitable for retrieving. Hopefully, the location would prove unsuitable for a nest while remaining suitable for the books to have survived the end of the world that had brought them into being, but Emil wasn’t counting on it, even though their hit rate had actually been quite good so far.

From the outside, the place was far too intact for Emil’s liking; he could see that Sigrun agreed without having to ask. Even so, they were here, and giving up without even an attempt was anathema to both of them, so they forced the door and went in.

The interior of the old shop matched the exterior: far too intact not to be a nest. Both Sigrun and Emil expected to be attacked at any minute, even though there were no signs that anything had entered here since the Old Times.

They found a single corpse in what had evidently been a workshop just outside the storefront proper; an entire wall was a solid mass of mechanical clocks of every style and description, thicker even than the show-off wall in the storefront. “Better keep mum about this to Little Fuzzy-Head,” Sigrun murmured to Emil, rather unnecessarily.

Still in awe at the mass of clockwork and carved wood, metal and plastic, Emil only replied, “Yeah.”

*
Year 0, Day 45

His eyesight was completely gone now; he was working by feel alone, and even that was less and less as his skin surrendered to the encroaching Rash.

Sporadic fever, vomiting and dizzy spells had given way to intense pain and weakness as his body edged ever closer to the inevitable end, but he would not stop until the job was finished. That thought alone kept him working far beyond what any reasonable person would have called the end. Just one more gear in place; then another, and another…

*
Year 90

BONG!

With that first, great chime, the entire wall of clocks seemed to come to life. Every last timepiece arrayed on the cracked plaster began to strike the hour in a dizzying cacophony of clangs, tweets, cuckoos, chimes, and even whistles.

Emil knew now why no grossling dared nest in this place.

“Nice,” Sigrun said once the noise had ended. She had been looking at her chrono, comparing its reading to the vast array of clocks on the wall. “Ninety years without adjustment, and they’re less than a second off true. Now that’s craftsmanship.”

“How do you think they’ve kept running all this time?” Emil wondered.

“Short Stuff could probably tell us, if we were fool enough to tell her about this place,” Sigrun replied, “or maybe Mikkel. Anyway, I’ll leave that to the brains; folks like us just have to accept that things are the way they are, without worrying over the why too much, unless the why involves grosslings.” She hefted a huge stack of loose papers at Emil, who obliged by holding his bag open to receive them. “The way things are here is that this poor guy built a fine grossling repellent machine, which means we can take everything in here that we can carry without worrying about an ambush, and that’s a blessing we won’t likely see again.”

“Too bad,” Emil opined as they set to gathering up more books and papers…

Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
Something something something longitude something something timepieces something something Greenwich something something.

Or something like that.

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on January 08, 2018, 04:45:43 PM
Cute idea for how Fredrik and Mia met.

Otherwise, here's the end of my own short project.

A story to keep secret: Chapter 4 (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12782887/4/A-story-to-keep-secret)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on January 10, 2018, 03:24:09 PM
Writing A story to keep secret had the side effect of bringing my Ensi headcanons back to the front of my brain, and one of the prompts I had shortlisted for idea-short days turned out to be perfect for exploring one of my unifying headcanons concerning her and her family. Enjoy!

A lifetime's opponent (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12734088/4/Prompt-fic-collection)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on January 12, 2018, 01:06:14 PM
Numerology
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Part 7
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Spoiler: 6-Packed Through the Silence • show
The entire group said it as one: “You brought BEER?”

Of course, they didn’t all say it in the same way; only at the same time. One was confused, another disapproving; but a good half of their group was delighted.

He held up the 6-pack so that they all knew he was telling the truth. “I splurged,” he said, putting it on the table, his face and voice deadpan. This was to be their last night ashore for quite some time, and he was hoping the beer would make at least one of their group more amenable to the long water trip ahead; as the one in question was one of those who had responded with delight, his hope had increased.

The youngest of their group hesitantly picked up one of the cans. “‘Moose Urine Special’. Why is it called that?”

“It’s a joke; I’m not sure where it originated, but it’s a statement about the quality (or lack thereof) in certain extremely cheap beers, which the brewer decided to adopt as self-deprecating humor.”

“Oh.”

Then his sister pushed forward angrily, the reason for her upset preceding the rest of her. “Eino! You know I can’t have alcohol when I’m pregnant!”

“One can won’t kill the kid, especially if you just sip it over the next few days,” Eino said. “Besides, this is probably the last of this we’ll ever taste.”

Aino weighed that for a long time before she said, “Will it go bad if I keep it until after the baby’s on formula?”

Eino frowned. “I’m not sure. Do you have any idea, Saku?”

“I’d have to Google it,” Saku said automatically. Then he frowned.

“Don’t fuss so, Aino,” Tuuli said in her ‘I’m a happy crazy person’ voice. “Let’s just have this one last drink to honor where we were before we start off for where we need to go.” Her smile widened. “Do you remember the last time we had a round of this?”

Despite herself, Aino smiled back. They had been at their favorite pizza place in Mikkeli; this had been before Veeti and nearly before Saku, and all of them had been quite gung-ho about trying this new ‘Moose Urine’ beer. That air of camaraderie and happiness was more or less all Aino could remember about the evening, as the group had obviously decided that this new beer was certainly drinkable enough, whatever the brewers chose to call it.

It had been one of the last times they had gotten together as a family in the actual city; Tuuli and Eino, and eventually Veeti, had started really getting into their survivalist thing, so Kaino, Aino and Saku had placated them by going out into the back end of nowhere every so often, usually using the boat to get there. Fortunately, the back end of nowhere had generators, satellite TV, cell reception, and broadband internet.

All they had now were the generators, and those wouldn’t last forever.

They were going to go out to look for other survivors in the morning; they had been out of contact with the world for almost three weeks now, and the need to know was gnawing at them all—even Eino and Tuuli.

Before they left, though, they would have a hearty drink tonight, to fortify them against what the morning might bring…

Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
It’s the end of the world—let’s have some booze! (Says the teetotaler.)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on January 22, 2018, 04:31:51 AM
I have posted a W story for the Alphabet Challenge, looking at Árni Reynisson's time in quarantine aboard the Coast Guard ship.
 It's called 'Waiting.'  http://archiveofourown.org/works/13449213
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on January 27, 2018, 12:04:31 PM
I just finished somewhat shoehorning my Assassination Classroom AU idea into one of my short-listed prompts, if anyone is interested.

A very special classroom (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12734088/5/Prompt-fic-collection)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on January 27, 2018, 02:13:57 PM
And this is my cue to finally post the next bit.

Numerology
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Part 8
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Spoiler: 793.8 • show
Being an Icelandic mage in the midst of the godless Swedes was proving harder than he’d thought when he’d been offered the trip—certainly harder than the trip to his jolly fellow believers in Norway, despite their proudly stated ignorance of anything beyond their fjords. His Swede friend had seen what magic could do, but his family remained steadfast in their disbelief; he didn’t quite mind for himself, but the hurt his Swede friend obviously felt at the resulting family strife gnawed at him.

He came back to his friend’s house one evening to find the family all gathered in the living room. His friend was scowling thunderously at a stranger with an implacable mien and an odd sense to her.

The stranger turned to face him, examining him through a pair of spectacles with odd emerald lenses, and something eased in the stranger’s face. “You are an Icelandic mage,” she said in a cool voice, removing the spectacles. “Good. That should settle that.”

His friend half-relaxed as the stranger made to leave, but his friend’s mother very nearly exploded. “Aren’t you even going to test him? What are we paying you for?” His friend turned his scowl on his mother.

The stranger paused. “Madam, I expose the fraudulent claims of those who pretend to work magic; those who actually are mages are of no interest to me. Keep your money.” The stranger said those last words with supreme disdain, which shocked his friend’s mother into silence.

Before the stranger could leave, the mage asked, “Who and what are you?” There was only curiosity in the question.

The stranger turned back to the mage. With a slight bow, the stranger replied, “I am an illusionist, a master of the ancient arts of misdirection and prestidigitation. I have no magic myself, and for the last several years I have turned my skills to exposing those charlatans who claim to be magic without any real power at all. As I said, since you are a true mage, you are outside my purview.”

The mage felt his eyes widen. “Are—are you Mentallo the Magnificent?”

The stranger stopped short. “You’ve heard of me?”

The mage felt himself blush. “I’ve loved reading about illusions and sleight-of-hand since I was a kid, but I’ve never found anyone back home who could perform it—I’m kinda from the back end of nowhere.”

“Yes, and you’ve fooled my son into thinking you’re a mage, but we know better!” his friend’s mother erupted anew, ignoring her son’s silent glare.

“He is a mage,” Mentallo retorted. “Mages of the Icelandic tradition are readily identifiable by their distinctive garb, by their air of abstraction, and by the weird glow they give off when you look at them through these glasses.” She tapped the spectacles hanging from a cord running behind her neck. “I don’t carry them as a fashion statement, you know.”

His friend’s mother looked like she was going to have some kind of infarction. Before she could get out more than a few incoherent sputters, though, the mage decided he needed to act. He grabbed a pad of sticky notes from the coffee table, quickly drew a galdrastafur on the top sheet, pulled it free, and stuck it on his friend’s mother’s forehead.

The effect was immediate and dramatic. His friend’s mother shut her mouth, the rage immediately wiped from her face. She slowly sank back down onto the couch, the alarming color receding from her face and neck as she did.

“…And while anyone can use a rune, only Icelandic mages can draw them, and few can do so with such alacrity,” Mentallo added softly. “Well done.”

His friend finally relaxed completely. “That’s a sedative rune like the one you had to use on me when you were working on my leg, isn’t it?”

“Yep. I’m sorry I jumped in like that, but her look scared me.”

His friend’s father spoke for the first time. “It scared us all; thank you for helping her.”

“You know,” Mentallo said, “if you’re really interested in sleight-of-hand, the Mora Public Library has an entire section of books about it.” She smiled. “I even wrote a few of them myself.”

She gestured to the mage, and they and his friend left the house together…

Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
Kiraly had better have known what the title means, or I’ll be really disappointed in her.

This took way too long to get out. Grrrrrrr.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Windfighter on January 31, 2018, 02:58:10 PM
Inspired by a certain fanvid (https://youtu.be/9hky_bafpn0) the talented Oemelmuff did I bring to you

Colors of the wind
Or
Another Quarantine Ship Story by Windfighter

Warning for some Danish, Norwegian, Finnish, Icelandic and Swedish. You won't understand the plot if you don't speak all five languages.
I'm jesting, it's not very important xD
It was very important to keep it in their languages though, for reasons.

Anyway enjoy!

Spoiler: show
   Emil flipped through the pages of the book, but didn't read it. Water was splashing against the hull of the ship and he listened to it. It was soothing, a memory from a time he couldn't remember. He leaned against the wall, closed his eyes.
   ”Du tror att jag inte förstår dig.”
   The words that left his mouth was barely audible. A song his mother had sung for him when he was young. A song he had heard his grandmother sing once before she passed away.
   ”Du har sett så många platser, ja visst det har du nog.”
   His voice slowly got stronger, his gaze turned towards the ceiling.
   ”Du vet hur allt ska va, och trots det så tänker jag...”
   ”Hvers vegna þú veist þó svo undrafátt, undrafátt...”
   Reynir's voice distrupted Emil. He got up from the bed and went up to the door, tried to spot the icelander.
   ”Þið þykist geta eignað ykkur landið”
   It sounded weird in the foreign language. He leaned against the door, listened to it. Reynir did not have a perfect singing voice, but it was slightly better than Emil's.
   ”Sjálf jörðin metin dauðra hluta safn.”
   ”Men berg och träd och allt du har omkring dig...”
   Reynir paused a second too long, but then his voice cut through the door again.
   ”...á sér líf, á sér anda, á sér nafn.”
   ”I tror at alle fremmede er fjender.”
   Both Emil and Reynir flinched when Mikkel's loud bear-voice echoed across the corridor.
   ”Og behandler naturen som I vil.”
   Emil put his hands over his ears in an attempt to close the sound out. Reynir responded by raising his voice.
   ”En reynir þú að feta' í ókunn fótspor.”
   Emil decided he could also.
   ”Kan du lära med ditt hjärta här och nu.”
   Sigrun peaked up in the room across from Emil's and ran to the door, slammed her hands into it.
   ”Har du noen gang hørt ulven hyle natten lang?”
   Sigrun didn't sing as much as shouted and the other three glared in her direction but she wasn't deterred.
   ”Sett gaupen smile i sitt stjernespinn?”
   Before Sigrun was able to continue a soft voice interrupted.
   ”Voitko laulaa äänin jylhän isävuoren?”
   Four jaws dropped to the floor. Lalli leaned against the wall to Emil's room, his knees pulled to his chest and his arms wrapped around his legs.
   ”Värit tuulen pystytkö sä maalaamaan?”
   There was a sadness in Lalli's voice, Emil could hear it. He glanced at Sigrun to see if she heard it as well but she was busy preparing to jump in again.
   ”Värit tuulen pystytkö sä maalaamaan?”
   Emil snuck up to the wall, slid down next to it and tapped at it. Sigrun started shouting again, but there was a light tap back. He closed his eyes, relaxed. The dream had been going on for a couple of minutes when Lalli arrived.
   ”You okay?” Emil asked.
   Lalli sank down in the couch and fiddled with his hands for a while. Emil offered him a slice of the cake but Lalli shook his head.
   ”It...” Lalli's eyes looked out the window, avoided Emil. ”It was Tuuri's favorite song.”
   ”Ah...”
   Emil looked at the cake, put it on the table again and sat down next to Lalli. Silence, Emil didn't know what to say, Lalli didn't seem to want to say anything.
   ”...how...”
   ”Her mother taught it to the three of us.”
   Emil could admit when he was wrong and he was happy Lalli wanted to share something with him.
   ”I couldn't understand what was so great about it, but Tuuri...”
   ”Yeah, I can see why it'd speak to her... Do you... want to finish it?”
   Lalli shook his head, leaned back and looked at the ceiling. Emil pulled at his pants, looked at Lalli and looked away again.
   ”I'm sorry I brought it up.”
   ”Why?”
   ”Because it hurts you.”
   ”Not your fault”, Lalli leaned forward again. ”I don't mind.”
   ”My mother used to sing it for me. I... The water reminded me about her. I think.”
   ”Do you want to finish it?”
   Emil flinched as he remembered how Mikkel had butchered it.
   ”...not any longer, no. I can't sing anyway.”
   ”I liked your singing.”
   Emil blushed. Lalli leaned back again.
   ”Was sincere. Honest.”
   Lalli looked at the ceiling, then at Emil.
   ”Very gentle.”
   Emil leaned back as well. His cheeks were still red and he tried to not look at Lalli.
   ”Thank you.”
   He looked out the window instead, watched as the snow piled up against the trees, as the fire kept burning, as the snowflakes kept dancing in the wind. He listened as Lalli helped himself to some cake, but neither of the two said anything, there wasn't anything to say. Emil's fingers tapped against the window, his lips forming inaudible words.
   ”The rainstorm and the river are my brothers...”
   Emil's voice started out quiet, whispering. Lalli looked at the cake, then leaned against Emil's shoulder and Emil's voice grew stronger.
   ”The heron and the otter are my friends. And we are all connected to each other...”
   Lalli took a shaky breath. Emil wanted to quit, but he wanted to continue.
   ”In a circle...”
   Lalli's hand grabbed Emil's, Lalli's voice joined Emil's.
   ”In a hoop that never ends.”
   Lalli hugged Emil's hand, then let go and got up from the couch.
   ”We should wake up.”
   Emil looked at Lalli, nodded, but didn't say anything about the wetness in Lalli's eyes. He watched as Lalli walked out through the door, before he woke up in his room again. He stretched and tapped twice on the wall. Mikkel, Sigrun and Reynir were still singing and he almost didn't hear Lalli tapping back. He smiled and rested his forehead against the wall.
   ”Kan du måla allt med färger i en vind?”
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on January 31, 2018, 05:13:42 PM
Windy, that is sad and beautiful.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lazy8 on February 01, 2018, 06:58:34 AM
The Index is updated.

C'mon, people, write more! ...I would say, but I can't exactly talk.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Windfighter on February 01, 2018, 07:43:14 AM
Trying, but I've grown slightly bored of writing SSSS-stuff! ...that and I constantly get either sad because I can't post it here or I get anxiety attacks because what if the thing I just posted here actually shouldn't have been posted here!
like the last thing which probably shouldn't have been posted here
...wait. I'm not even in the index anyway, why am I defending myself?

(also you're awesome for keeping it updated! <3 I don't think I've said that recently!)

Windy, that is sad and beautiful.
Thank yoooouuu! Sorry about the sad though! <3
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Gaemmel on February 01, 2018, 12:28:28 PM
The Index is updated.

C'mon, people, write more! ...I would say, but I can't exactly talk.

Trying my best to get back on my writing feet currently. It's hard, december and january wore me down a bit.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on February 01, 2018, 10:10:09 PM
The Index is updated.

C'mon, people, write more! ...I would say, but I can't exactly talk.

I've got some unrevealed works in exchanges.  ssshhhhh...
My next story for the Alphabet Challenge has lots of work on it, but I may scrap most of it to dial it back - it's grown like Topsy into a whole worldbuilding exercise, and I want to keep these stories to between 1.5-3K words each.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on February 04, 2018, 09:28:38 AM
The link thingie isn't working for me at present (not much is), but this is a notification that I have a new piece up on Archive of Our Own, the poem I made for Origami Owl for the Secret Santa last year. Five years after present story time, the crew makes it to Tasmania.

I'm Tanist over there.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on February 07, 2018, 04:29:55 PM
*Trying to figure out what looks the most depleted between my almost empty toothpaste tube or the amount of canon this fic has left to draw from now that this chapter is written*

Broken Bridges: Chapter 16 (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12400128/16/Broken-bridges)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Windfighter on February 22, 2018, 12:43:56 PM
So I wrote a kinda sad thing that I'm not 100% happy with (although after a read-through I'm happier with it than I was initially) and well I thiiiiink it's rated T for Teen audiences but as usually yell at me if I'm wrong so I can delete it!

Title: I want to sleep forever
Summary: Emil didn't mean it like that. But... maybe he did. A little.
Warnings uuuh... sadness? Longing for death? Why are warnings so hard?

Spoiler: show
   ”I want to sleep forever.”
   ”But... you have to keep going. You promised you would.”
   My gaze locked to the ceiling. I hadn't meant it like that, not this time. My body was exhausted, my mind was exhausted. But sleeping forever, finally releasing myself from the chains of the past, never again waking up to the loneliness that had formed my life, that had forever followed me... I wanted that. I wanted that more than I could allow myself to admit. Especially now that not only my own life rested in my hands.
   Eternal sleep. Freedom. It rang nicely in my ears, but resonated sadly in my soul. Could he see it? His eyes rested at me and I had always been an open book. Easy to read and figure out for everyone except my father.
   I want to sleep forever.
   I hadn't meant it like that, but I wanted to. I had wanted it longer than I cared to admit. Far before this expedition, far before my time in the cleansers, my experiences in public school, before the fire, before my father started forgetting my birthdays. How young had I been when it started? I couldn't remember any longer. But there was always something that kept me going, kept me waking up. Another sunrise I didn't wish for.
   We are friends, right?
   I couldn't ask him.
   It's what keeps me going now. You. Me. Friendship.
   What if he said no? Admitted to disliking me, just as so many others did. Could I handle that? Right now? In this exhausted state? Would knowing he hated me help keep me awake, help make me not fall asleep? Help me keep struggling? I couldn't look at him. It wouldn't, I knew myself well enough. I wouldn't stop caring for him, wouldn't stop want to save him, but it'd be harder.
   His eyes were still locked on me, waiting for an answer. How long had I been lost in thoughts? Me eyes closed, forced my mind to stop wandering.
   ”Yes.”
   I had given my promise. I'd get us both to the extraction point. Alive.
   What would happen to you if I died?
   Another question I couldn't ask. I pulled a hand through my hair, scratched my neck. I still couldn't meet his eyes. What if he could see what thoughts I harboured behind my eyes and the smile I usually tried to wear?
   ”Sorry, I didn't mean I'm about to give up.”
   It wasn't a lie. No matter how much I wanted to I couldn't give up. Not yet. Not while he was still depending on me. Maybe when he got back to his body, maybe when we were back to safety. Maybe, but I knew something else would keep me waking up.
   ”I'm just exhausted.”
   Even more than I had ever been before. All of me was exhausted. My mind, but it had always been, and my body. I opened my eyes again, stared at the ceiling, avoided looking at him.
   ”I need to rest my eyes.”
   I was so tired. Dragging the two of us through Denmark, almost becoming troll-food again, learning that everything I knew about magic and gods was wrong and still trying to be hopeful, trying to be happy, trying to be the one everyone had always known me as... My energy reserves were running low. Just a little longer, I had to keep it up just a little longer.
   What happens when we die?
   Not yet, I wouldn't find out yet. I had to keep going until we reached the extraction point. My eyes closed once more.
   ”Just a little...”
   Sleep grabbed me, forced me away from him and I welcomed it. In the morning. Everything would look brighter in the morning. And I'd be able to act like I didn't want to sleep forever again.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on February 22, 2018, 09:46:14 PM
Already commented on A3O, but will say here also: I like the way you hint at Emil's sad past, and your writing continues to improve.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on February 24, 2018, 03:36:36 PM
Another entry for the SSSS Alphabet Soup, a story that posits that Jews still exist in the Known World, and converge on Mora for the High Holy Days.  I've intersected Onni's arc as well.  Please enjoy Yom Kippur (http://archiveofourown.org/works/13722132).
.
The story was originally inspired by an episode of the old TV show 'Northern Exposure,' where the main character needs to get a minyan (10 adult Jews) together any which way he can, but it didn't actually end up anything like that story.  *shrugs*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on February 24, 2018, 04:35:22 PM
I've been needing to work on my last thesis article lately, but since I tend to at least take one day off a week to keep myself from being overwhelmed, I manged to produce this. People who have yet to recover from Tuuri's death, steer clear.

For the greater good (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12734088/6/Prompt-fic-collection)

Talking about Tuuri's death, I think I finally figured out what I'm going to do for the third installment of a certain AU.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: midwestmutt on February 24, 2018, 05:42:46 PM
Another entry for the SSSS Alphabet Soup, a story that posits that Jews still exist in the Known World, and converge on Mora for the High Holy Days.  I've intersected Onni's arc as well.  Please enjoy Yom Kippur (http://"http://archiveofourown.org/works/13722132").
.
The story was originally inspired by an episode of the old TV show 'Northern Exposure,' where the main character needs to get a minyan (10 adult Jews) together any which way he can, but it didn't actually end up anything like that story.  *shrugs*
The link doesn't work for me. I loved Northern Exposure and remember that episode. I really want to read your story.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on February 24, 2018, 06:22:36 PM
The link doesn't work for me. I loved Northern Exposure and remember that episode. I really want to read your story.

Drat, I fixed it.  I forget where to put quotes and where not to sometimes.
That episode was touching, in that (for those of you who don't know it) in the end, the main character decided that his minyan was his community, the real community he lived in.  But that isn't my story, for better or for worse.  I do have a version of 'Uncle Manny's coat', though, a tallis/prayer shawl.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on February 26, 2018, 08:48:40 AM
New/old  piece in the Archive of Our Own. Back in early 2016, I wrote this for a SSSS fic exchange, in response to LooNEY DAC's prompt of 'A thousand years from the onset of the Rash Illness'. As I am reconstructing what can be reconstructed in the wake of my Pages crash, it occurred to me that I had never put this one up on A3O, also that there were a few more chapters I had never posted at all. I'll keep putting bits up.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on February 27, 2018, 02:25:22 PM
Just a heads-up for all assembled: I am attempting to take over the All-encompassing Fan-Fiction Index from Lazy8, but I am not likely to get that updated on 1 March this time out, as I am still working with Lazy8 on learning the procedure (in between big dump of RL & a dying home laptop! meep).
.
Thank you for your patience.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solokov on March 11, 2018, 03:22:09 AM
Kallasar of the Iron Tiger Chapter 29 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7707919/chapters/32075805) and Chapter 30 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7707919/chapters/32075850) are now up. Chapter 31 is being worked on, it's either going to be a Reynir chapter or a Viserys chapter....considering I have more of the reynir chapter done, probably the first.


If there was ever a time for feedback it's going to be the next couple of chapters since I'm flying solo more or less.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on March 11, 2018, 04:04:29 PM
Kallasar of the Iron Tiger Chapter 29 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7707919/chapters/32075805) and Chapter 30 (http://archiveofourown.org/works/7707919/chapters/32075850) are now up. Chapter 31 is being worked on, it's either going to be a Reynir chapter or a Viserys chapter....considering I have more of the reynir chapter done, probably the first.


If there was ever a time for feedback it's going to be the next couple of chapters since I'm flying solo more or less.
I can empathise with how hard it can be to keep the impetus going on a long work like this!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: beergood on March 18, 2018, 10:02:51 AM
Gods help me, I had to do this.

The Tale Of The Wheelbarrow That Thought "The Hell With This" (https://archiveofourown.org/works/14011590) (Barry the Wheelbarrow/The Cat-tank)

Barry the Wheelbarrow finally has enough of the abuse the crew heap on him, and decides to go on an adventure of his own. If he happens to rescue the Cat-tank along the way, well, all the better.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: amaranthineamusement on March 18, 2018, 04:35:49 PM
...Slides in here because I finally updated my Sigrun/Mikkel fic, a year and a half later time to wait another like 6 months until i finally have time to write again

Find it here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6371965/chapters/32261295
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: October Sky on March 18, 2018, 11:17:52 PM
More Than One Kind of Magic (Reynir/Lalli)
https://archiveofourown.org/works/14020440 (https://archiveofourown.org/works/14020440)

Well this was an interesting one to write.  Although this particular ship is not really my wheelhouse, this one was a bit of a special request (<3).  I am certainly interested to write these two some more in the future though
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: amaranthineamusement on March 20, 2018, 07:33:31 PM
Hey, look, it's me again! I try not to post so close together but I figured with my track record it's probably best to try and sprint to the finish and let the poor team of the SSSS diving crew finally escape their problems...

newest chapter of An In Depth Analysis of White's Seahorses can be found at this link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6371965/chapters/32338311
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on March 25, 2018, 04:45:51 AM
Because everybody knows Y0 was all about that fluff: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14088714
Signe Sørensen arrives on the Madsen family farm.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on March 30, 2018, 11:44:07 PM
I fixed up this story for the Worldbuilding Exchange as a present for Unlos, and can share it here now that the authors have been revealed.  Unlos guessed my identity pretty much immediately, I guess I am developing a recognisable style?  Or maybe I'm just one of the last active authors left?  As this was originally sketched out to be my entry for the letter X in the SSSS Alphabet Challenge, I will let it do double-duty for that too.
https://archiveofourown.org/works/14038047
'Xeriscape' explores the idea of a settlement of survivors in the desert of what was once Southern California, mostly protected by their harsh environment.  In this imagining, magic arose in their community too, but the old god they believe in happens to be Jesus.  In the time this story takes place (c. Y100, +/- 20 years, left ambiguous whether they ever reset their calendar), their practice has picked up elements of New Age and feminine-centred practices to incorporate into their Christianity.  There is also passing mention of traders between communities, so if I expanded that worldview there would be other communities as well.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Athena on March 31, 2018, 02:15:01 AM
Because everybody knows Y0 was all about that fluff: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14088714
Signe Sørensen arrives on the Madsen family farm.

I don’t check in on fic here as often as I should but I really liked this one! Signe has a real sense of humour, the way you’ve written her :D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on March 31, 2018, 09:34:53 AM
Wavewright, I liked that tale, and was pretty sure it was you. Now I wonder whether one of those traders was a descendant of the girl Coyote rescued......
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on March 31, 2018, 04:34:18 PM
I don’t check in on fic here as often as I should but I really liked this one! Signe has a real sense of humour, the way you’ve written her :D
Wavewright, I liked that tale, and was pretty sure it was you. Now I wonder whether one of those traders was a descendant of the girl Coyote rescued......

Thank you very much *curtsey* 

To answer Róisín, strictly speaking, probably not, even though I like the premise.  ^-^ 
Darcie (I think that was her name, I refuse to go look it up arrrgggh) headed south and east, and I picture her ending up in northern Appalachia or some other mountains on the Eastern seaboard, with lots to scavenge from as well as squillions of grosslings to avoid.  Betolam is further away still, and to the west and south, across the Rockies and the Sierras, albeit safer from trolls in between.
I definitely picture traders working between isolated patches of people (and also drifters whose only fictive purpose is to avoid inbreeding), but I also picture large divides between regions.  Riverboats plying the Mississippi full-time become a thing again.  Issues surrounding the survival of Americans have been far more exhaustively researched in the early days of the Forum.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on March 31, 2018, 06:08:05 PM
*skid marks appear in the Scriptorium as ww makes yet another appearance*
I have finished my entries for the SSSS Alphabet and Singalong Challenge! Ta-daaaa!
This last one features the estate of the painter Anders Zorn, and is called Zornmuseet. (http://"https://archiveofourown.org/works/14163321" /)
I was intrigued by the ascension of Mora as the cultural capital of the Known World, and have placed some convenient OCs at the cusp of this development.  I have made a stretch to connect this history of the estate with canon SSSS characters, in this case managing to slip Agneta in there, but mostly it's a wordbuilding exercise. 
LooNEY_DAC, I gifted this one to you, as the initiator of the Challenge.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Talimee on April 18, 2018, 03:03:16 PM
Title: Distraction (https://archiveofourown.org/works/6440122/chapters/33148857)
Author: Talimee
Prompts: Mikkel Madsen, Lalli Hotakainen, Maybe you could distract him?, difficult decisions, pain, night; additional: 88 – Pain
Characters: Lalli Hotakainen, Mikkel Madsen, Emil Västerström
Relationships: Emil Västerström/Lalli Hotakainen
Rating: Teen
Warnings: mild depictions of an infected wound, character in pain
Additional tags: hurt/comfort, reciprocity
Summary: When Emil needs to go through painful treatment without something to ease his pain, Lalli knows only one way to distract him.

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Windfighter on April 18, 2018, 04:58:40 PM
You had me at "Emil got injured" and kept me captive through the thing and now I want the full story. I'd steal it and write it myself if I had energy for writing. Thank you for that one <3
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Talimee on April 19, 2018, 06:28:07 AM
You had me at "Emil got injured" and kept me captive through the thing and now I want the full story. I'd steal it and write it myself if I had energy for writing. Thank you for that one <3

You're welcome! =)
Unfortunately, there isn't more to this. Mikkel finished the job, dressed the wound and Lalli and Emil ended up cuddling very much, while Emil was recuperating. Years down the line, when the pain-memory had faded, Emil only remembers that Lalli held him in this terrible, terrible hour.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Windfighter on April 19, 2018, 07:02:21 AM
Oh I meant all the tiny details between the fall and the hug  >:D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: amaranthineamusement on April 19, 2018, 11:55:47 PM
I''mmmmmm here with more of An In Depth Analysis of White's Seahorses,

featuring both Sigrun and Mikkel sharing a blanket and Emil and Lalli sharing a blanket! Ah, originality. https://archiveofourown.org/works/6371965/chapters/33185139
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on April 21, 2018, 07:02:18 AM
A quick one, my riposte against those who think Reynir wouldn't ever have a daughter.  The Strongest Woman I Ever Met (https://archiveofourown.org/works/14385531)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on April 21, 2018, 10:01:29 AM
Cute, and very sweet. If it can reassure you, Reynir does technically have a daughter in one of my fics, even though I have yet to really make use of the fact yet.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on May 02, 2018, 04:12:57 PM
Hey, anyone know a good way to clear cobwebs? I'm asking for a friend. The fact that this story is part of the same AU as the fic I mentioned above is a coincidence, I swear  O:-). It ended up having five chapters (and a cameo of the daughter near the end).

Shifting worlds: Chapter 1 (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12923229/1/Shifting-worlds)

By the way, someone else than me published on the Fanfiction.net section back in late March. Worth mentioning, since even I don't check unless I've just published something.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Hearth on May 02, 2018, 10:43:11 PM
Here’s something I wrote. The setting is a generic modern AU, in case there’s any confusion (hopefully you can tell it’s not supposed to be set in the ssss world but just in case.) I’m not super proud of this, it’s more writing and characterization practice than anything, just a little idea I had. I might expand it someday, maybe not!

Title: Bail Me Out
Characters: Sigrun Eide, Tuuri Hotakainen

I don’t think I need to add any warnings or anything, but if someone thinks I do then by all means, point it out! Any suggestions or criticism of any kind are welcome.
Spoiler: show


Bail Me Out

Sigrun dialed the number and held the phone to her ear, hearing it ring softly on the other side. Maybe Tuuri wouldn’t pick up. She was probably asleep, and who knew if it would wake her up. Maybe this hadn’t been such a good idea. Of course it wasn’t; practically every single decision she’d made in the past 12 hours had been the wrong one. Sigrun almost hoped Tuuri was asleep, and stayed that way. What would she say? Sigrun should’ve called Mikkel instead, or even her parents. She should’ve—

“Mhhm, hello? Who’s this?” A sleepy, familiar voice filtered through the cold plastic speaker.

“Hey Tuuri! It’s, um, Sigrun!”

“Sigrun? Do you know what time it is?”

“3:27?” Sigrun said, glancing at the clock mounted on the wall.

“Yes. Late. Sleep-time. Why are you—“ Tuuri broke off into a small yawn
 “—calling me?”

Sigrun paused, insides squirming. She picked at a blood-encrusted cut on her knuckles, making it bleed all over again. Why was it so much easier to open her mouth when she knew she should keep it shut? Why was she so nervous now, of all times, when a little overconfidence couldn’t hurt? Sigrun forced out a laugh, putting on a show of her usual bravado. Acting strange would only make Tuuri more worried.

“Ha ha, funny you should ask. I’ve had one crazy night, let me tell you! Anyway, I got in a fight, long story tell you later. But I’m kind of at the police station now?”

“What.” Tuuri sounded suddenly very awake.

“This fight got a just a little out of hand and then some jerk called the police soooooo now I’m stuck here until someone can come bail me out.”

“Bail?”

“Yeah, apparently they make you pay money if you don’t want to rot in jail for a few weeks,” Sigrun said. “Who knew?” The police officer behind the desk with all the forms had said a lot more words then that, but she had stopped listening at a certain point. That had probably been another bad decision, Sigrun realized.

“I know what bail is, Sigrun!” Tuuri snapped. “Just—how did—what exactly did you do?!”

“I’ll explain later,” Sigrun said quickly. “Please, Tuuri? Come on, help me out here.”

“Sigrun...” there was a long pause, then a short sigh. “Okay. I’ll be there in 15 minutes. The downtown station?”

“Yeah.”

“How much is it? The bail money?”

“Um.” Sigrun told her. Tuuri swore very loudly.

“Tuuri, please, I know it’s a lot to ask, I can find some way to pay you back,” Sigrun stammered, letting desperation show in her voice. She really didn’t want to be stuck here any longer than she had to. The station’s cramped rooms were already making her feel jumpy and trapped, and the feeling was likely to only get worse if she ended up getting locked in a tiny cell all night. But Sigrun had gotten herself into this mess, and if Tuuri wouldn’t help her get out of it, she couldn’t blame her. “Actually never mind, I’ll figure something else out. I don’t mind spending the night here, how bad can it be?” A frowning, uniformed woman entered the room. She glared at Sigrun pointedly while tapping her watch.  Time’s up.

“Ah crap, I’m gonna have to hang up.” The policewoman proceeded to cross her arms and glare with increased vehemence at Sigrun. “Tuuri...”

Tuuri sighed again, longer this time. “I’m on my way. We can talk about this later.” She sounded far too serious, nothing close to her usual cheerful self. It scared Sigrun more than the prospect of facing down a pack of hungry wild dogs. At least that was a problem you might be able to punch your way out of.

“Thank you,” Sigrun said.

Click. Without another word, Tuuri hung up.


A note: this was inspired by the song Bail Me Out by All Time Low
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on May 06, 2018, 05:47:37 AM
I wrote a short one for this week's Synchronised Screaming, a take following the prompt "Mikkel & Sigrun - theories about what happened in the church."
https://archiveofourown.org/works/14556171
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on May 06, 2018, 09:53:26 AM
And here's Chapter 2. Reading it, I have trouble believing Sven was supposed to be a couple of passing mentions and an epliogue cameo when I started with this AU. (Damn you, Finnish immunity headcanons and accidental fertile soil for "pair the spares" (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PairTheSpares))

Shifting worlds: Chapter 2 (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12923229/2/Shifting-worlds)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on May 08, 2018, 12:00:38 PM
Here's Chapter 3, that will hopefully make up a little for the fact that the OC introduced in this installement didn't do much in the previous chapter.

Shifting worlds: Chapter 3 (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12923229/3/Shifting-worlds)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on May 11, 2018, 05:02:01 PM
Chapter 4 is up, and dealing with something that has secretly been in the story since the first installment of the series. There's one more to go, thanks to my general tendency to put more effort into beginnings and endings than in middles.

Shifting Worlds: Chapter 4 (https://www.fanfiction.net/comic/Stand-Still-Stay-Silent/)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on May 13, 2018, 09:07:12 AM
Yup, me again, with the last chapter of the same fic as last time.

Shifting worlds: Chapter 5 (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12923229/1/Shifting-worlds)

And to avoid ovedoing the multiple post thing more than I already did, here's the prompt fic I wrote between two proofreading sessions dedicated to the longer one. I tried a different type of prompt than for the collection's previous stories and hoping I'll manage to pull more of these off in the future.

Diving in the sky (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12734088/7/Prompt-fic-collection)

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Talimee on May 22, 2018, 07:22:51 AM
If posting a fic that's not completed yet a wise action, then I'm a very wise woman. *coughs politely*

Anyway: Have a new installment of Urania-Baba's and my Stand Still Stay Silent-Skyrim-Crossover. This time we take a look at the early days of J'Lalli's and Emil's friendship.

Title: Those Who Dwell in Darkness (https://archiveofourown.org/works/14729244/chapters/34046439)
Author: Talimee
Characters: Lalli, Emil, Rikke, the Dragonborn
Relationship: Emil & J'Lalli, later Emil/J'Lalli (b/c who am I kidding)
Rating: Teen
Tags: friendship, live-and-death-situations, retelling of a skyrim-quest (The Jagged Crown, if anyone wants to check), J'Lalli is proud, Emil is overwhelmed, alternating POVs
Warnings: violence, despair - both not very deep
Summary: Morning Star, 4E202: As they follow Legate Rikke and the Dragonborn on the hunt for the Jagged Crown, Emil and J'Lalli learn a bit about themselves and about each other. Because what is a Draugr-filled tomb good for if not the confrontation with one's own mortality and the question about what's really important in Life?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on May 27, 2018, 04:30:06 AM
Okay, spring is definitely getting my creative juices running  ;D. Here's a double feature.

Another story cube short fic, this time about the crew of a certain merchant ship finding out a certain redhead has gone missing.

Man over board (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12734088/8/Prompt-fic-collection)

A Medieval Fantasy AU stub that just happened to be remniscent enough of one of my shortlisted "one-sentence" prompts to enable me to mark it as used. Should be more accessible than the Assassination Classroom one that I made for the collection.

True Ruler (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12734088/9/Prompt-fic-collection)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Cleanser Cat on June 07, 2018, 12:27:40 PM
Hello!
Silent Flight (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12961331/1/Silent-Flight) is just a small thing I wrote on FF by the same username. Featuring Tuuri.
And Swans.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Hearth on June 07, 2018, 02:29:46 PM
Hello!
Silent Flight (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12961331/1/Silent-Flight) is just a small thing I wrote on FF by the same username. Featuring Tuuri.
And Swans.


I already left a review-thingy on FF but just letting you know it’s me in case it’s weird for a random person to just to do that (sorry, I’ve never done it before). Repeating myself here, but this gave me so many Tuuri-feels and it’s beautiful! I’m sad now but it’s a good sad.  :'( :)

(Oh, and by the way, there’s an introduction thread if you want to, um, introduce yourself! I’d link to it but I’m not sure how)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on June 08, 2018, 04:02:59 AM
Paperless Cat: that was very very fine!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on June 09, 2018, 10:38:32 PM
Two Three 280-character "tweets" from the Synchronised Screaming prompts of the week:

Kitty - Tuna galore

The cat yowls to go outside the bunk house, yearning to be free to explore. The very air in this place smells like fish, lovely yummy fish! She wanders down to the dock and expectantly looks for those tasty fish in the water. Swimming things, nothing that looks like a round fish.

Any Prologue Character (Umbrella Lady) - the last tweet

Good news, Stefan got back to Mikkeli just before they closed the borders. Bad news, they’ve confirmed that his rash is that Rash illness. Worse news, what are the chances that the fever I’m running is just an ordinary flu?  The rain on my window matches the weeping in my heart.

The last tweet - the response.

Oh, Marika, not sure what to say. We will all miss you and I am totally gutted for you both.  We accept Stefan as the brother we never had. Also, this is going to come across as totally tacky, but – if Stefan doesn’t need his bottom surgery now, can I have his place in the queue?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on June 10, 2018, 02:20:00 AM
Wavewright, this is clever - all of those little human interactions that totally ground a story.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on June 22, 2018, 03:42:59 PM
The end result of a Story Cube throw a couple weeks ago, that became a little Tuuri and Reynir routine scene.

Picture book (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12734088/10/Prompt-fic-collection)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on July 08, 2018, 04:51:50 AM
I've been working on a story, I'm actually 3 chapters in, but I've just realised I haven't been posting it.  It's a look at Y0 from the setup of a community forming inside a refuge in a strip mall in rural New Jersey.
It's Y0, lots of people will die, it comes with the territory, but some of them will do okay, and they have the resources of a small strip mall and supermarket under their husbandry.  Also, curry.  Please enjoy Thanksgiving at the Last Curry House in New Jersey. (https://archiveofourown.org/works/15019994/chapters/34818416)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solokov on July 09, 2018, 11:33:29 PM
Got bored, re-read punisher Born...

And then borrowed liberally from it.... Presenting,  Rememberance.  (https://archiveofourown.org/works/15233922)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on July 17, 2018, 07:05:49 PM
A couple of drabbles I wrote for the Multifandom Drabble Challenge:

A Summer Conversation, (https://archiveofourown.org/works/15231957) takes place on Bornholm

Árni's Dream, (https://archiveofourown.org/works/15231258) Árni Ragnarsson, not Árni Reynisson

A Way Out? (https://archiveofourown.org/works/15230751) which followed pg. 929, but as of pg. 933 is not jossed quite yet

I did a Harry Potter series and one for LotR too, if anyone's interested.
These were my first try at drabbles, and I have discovered that they are muy fun.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: amaranthineamusement on August 05, 2018, 07:04:02 PM
All right, it's been forever, but I've posted chapter 10  and the epilogue of An In Depth Analysis of White's Seahorses. Just the epilogue left, now!
chapter 10 >> https://archiveofourown.org/works/6371965/chapters/36175290

Thanks for going on this crazy journey with me, guys! It was a monster AU that took almost 3 years to complete, and it wasn't all that long... oops! At least they kiss eventually, right? |D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on August 19, 2018, 06:14:44 AM
I managed a wee drabble, yay me.
A Rowan in the Paddock (https://archiveofourown.org/works/15731673)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on August 19, 2018, 07:40:03 AM
Lovely drabble. Sweet.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on August 20, 2018, 01:30:18 AM
Second chapter of 'Caring for a Friend' is up on Archive of Our Own.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on August 20, 2018, 05:29:24 AM
Second chapter of 'Caring for a Friend' is up on Archive of Our Own.

Here is a link (https://archiveofourown.org/works/15703704) for this most excellent work.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on August 20, 2018, 06:06:54 AM
Thanks, Wavewright! The member of the household who can do links was not here, so I just put up a note. Glad you like the story.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: the_burning_nightingale on August 20, 2018, 09:15:09 AM
Finally remembered to post this here, whoops ;D

Wrote a future!fic Onni/Reynir piece for Rare Male Slash Exchange - warnings for temporary dark!Onni and temporary character death.

Where No Other Loves Goes
Summary:
"What is life if it's just of the earth,
Only of the flesh and bone?"


The Kade in Red fled through the deep forests, and the mage followed.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/15468192 (https://archiveofourown.org/works/15468192)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on August 20, 2018, 09:49:27 AM
I did enjoy that story!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: the_burning_nightingale on August 20, 2018, 09:51:36 AM
I did enjoy that story!

Thank you!!  :D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on August 21, 2018, 04:55:35 PM
Finally remembered to post this here, whoops ;D

Wrote a future!fic Onni/Reynir piece for Rare Male Slash Exchange - warnings for temporary dark!Onni and temporary character death.

Where No Other Loves Goes
Summary:
"What is life if it's just of the earth,
Only of the flesh and bone?"


The Kade in Red fled through the deep forests, and the mage followed.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/15468192 (https://archiveofourown.org/works/15468192)

I left comments on the story, but I can highly recommend this story to everyone.  Character development ftw.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on September 02, 2018, 01:52:32 AM
A flash-fic using one of the food-related prompts on Synchronised Screaming.  Spaghetti features prominently in canon, so much so that Minna said in the stream it was Emil's favourite food.  So I looked at an instance of spaghetti-eating, from Trond's POV.  Can I even call it a story if there is no plot?  *shrug* Spaghetti (https://archiveofourown.org/works/15867588)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on September 15, 2018, 11:41:32 AM
New chapters of 'Caring for a Friend' and 'A few of Mikkel's Secrets' are up on Archive of Our Own.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on September 24, 2018, 07:52:48 AM
New chapter of 'An Historical Document' (Chapter 5) is up on Archive of Our Own.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on October 01, 2018, 11:55:25 AM
New chapter (chapter 7) of 'A Few of Mikkel's Secrets' is up on Archive of Our Own.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on October 01, 2018, 04:05:54 PM
Here's my means of coping with the fact that quite a few things published over the summer Jossed some of my long-held headcanons. You may also be interested if you happen to think we should have seen more of the crew hanging out in the outpost while waiting for the boat.

In the time that is left: Chapter 1 (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13080952/1/In-the-time-that-is-left)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on October 05, 2018, 03:54:27 PM
My turn to spam the thread! Could be worse, I could have not forgotten that I was publishing this fic in the middle of the week and be posting Chapter 3 instead of Chapter 2.

In the time that is left: Chapter 2 (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13080952/2/In-the-time-that-is-left)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on October 06, 2018, 01:31:01 AM
Good story! I'm especially curious to see how things work out for Onni.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on October 07, 2018, 11:53:19 AM
Slipping a chapter in before the week ends. And briging back a certain headcanon that I previously used in the Broken bridges AU.

In the time that is left: Chapter 3 (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13080952/3/In-the-time-that-is-left)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on October 10, 2018, 03:56:53 PM
Given what starts in that chapter, it's kind of funny that I was reading a stream transcript about Lalli not wanting to play board games while in quarantine just this morning.

In the time that is left: Chapter 4 (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13080952/4/In-the-time-that-is-left)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on October 10, 2018, 07:59:30 PM
Ooh! Sounds as if It is getting close to Lalli and Onni?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on October 12, 2018, 03:51:35 PM
"It's" role in that fic is unfortunately about as big the role it had in canon so far. Hope this chapter will be enjoyed nonetheless.

In the time that is left: Chapter 5 (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13080952/5/In-the-time-that-is-left)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on October 15, 2018, 04:44:24 PM
Here's the beginning of the "bumpy second half".

In the time that is left: Chapter 6 (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13080952/6/In-the-time-that-is-left)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on October 17, 2018, 03:49:20 PM
My adventure break filler continues.

In the time that is left: Chapter 7 (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13080952/7/In-the-time-that-is-left)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on October 19, 2018, 04:05:33 PM
Second to last chapter before the whole thing is out of my system

In the time that is left: Chapter 8 (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13080952/8/In-the-time-that-is-left)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on October 21, 2018, 10:09:33 AM
That story ended up having great timing. I finished writing it soon after the last page of the first adventure was published, and now the last chapter gets online a few hours before the mini-prologue shows up  :).

In the time that is left: Chapter 9 (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13080952/9/In-the-time-that-is-left)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: beergood on October 22, 2018, 07:19:16 AM
I had to put up a drabble speculating on the backstory of the first page of Adventure 2.

Sleepless In Suomi (https://archiveofourown.org/works/16374329) (Ensi Hotakainen, 100 words)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: frostykitty on November 06, 2018, 09:13:09 AM
I’ve got a lot of reading to do! But for now, have a paragraph or two.
Spoiler: show
The beasts were watching from the shadows, he could almost feel them lurking. This unfamiliar terrain, flat and tidy, made him even more nervous as he ran away. His bright icy eyes, glowing with arcane energy, scanned the surroundings. All clear, or so he thought. He pushed himself to the limit, faster and faster down the road. He slunk past seemingly frozen bystanders and carts. He slowed to take a breath, the worst thing he could have done...
The three beasts dived at him, patting him to no end! Lalli hissed and kicked with might, but he was no match for the trio of doom. Just then, a golden glinting in the distance could be seen. A savior. “Stop it! How many times have I told you!” Emil chided his cousins, gently guiding them away from his friend. “Now shoo!”
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Windfighter on November 07, 2018, 02:59:51 PM
Wrote a thing! Slight whump of course. Enjoy!

Spoiler: show
The white room

It happened while she was chasing a criminal. One minute she was running on the street, chasing a bloke who had stolen a handbag from an old lady. The next minute she was floating in the air and a minute later she was sitting in a small room. She had barely had time to react, hadn't even seen the people who had put her in the room. They had been strong though, very strong. She walked around the room, traced the walls with her hands. The door was barely visible, she couldn't even feel the edges of it. The only clue to its existance was the tiny window with bars. It didn't look like steel, so she tried pulling them out, pushing them out and breaking them. Didn't happen.
”You won't get away with this, you know”, she said through the door.
The window was located a bit above her head. She grabbed the bars and pulled herself up to see if there was someone outside. There wasn't. She pulled at the bars again.
”My parents will hear about this. They're commissioners of the police force.”
She let go of the bars when no one answered her and started investigating the walls again. They were white, no cracks or anything. There wasn't anything in the room apart from her. She went to the door again.
”What if I need to use the toilet? There's not even a bucket in here!”
Still no answer. She leaned against the door and crossed her arms over her chest.
”Is this your first time kidnapping someone? Let me tell you: you suck at it. I could do better. There's not even something for me to read in here.”
She looked at the ceiling, reconsidered her last statement.
”Not that I'd read it anyway.”
She heard steps outside. She pulled herself up to the window again. A very tall person was walking down the corridor, dressed in armor and leaned over to not hit their head on the roof. What little skin was visible from through the bars and uncovered by their clothes seemed green, but perhaps it was just the light.
”Hey!”
They stopped, looked around. She stuck one of her hands through the bars and waved with it.
”Hey, let me out of here. You are horrible kidnappers.”
An alarm blared. She pulled her hand back, grabbed on to the bar again.
”What's going on? What is this?”
Buzzing sounded from the door. Electricity jumped from the bars into her hands, shot through her body. It tensed, twitched. Only a few seconds, then it stopped. Sigrun fell to the floor. Perhaps they weren't totally useless kidnappers after all.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Hrollo on November 07, 2018, 04:36:58 PM
I did a thing: Nothing Outside (https://archiveofourown.org/works/16552610). Small Lalli fic (696 words). No particular warning.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on November 11, 2018, 08:17:41 AM
Ideas for that fantasy-ish AU of mine were swimming in my head during the entire writing of my alternate ending for Adventure I. I had to get at least some of them out of there to be able to work on the other projects that I want to wrap up.

True Ruler: The tea and dye seller - Part 1 (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13118263/1/True-Ruler)
True Ruler: The tea and dye seller - Part 2 (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13118263/2/True-Ruler)

Re-posting a link to that story's distant prologue in case someone wants to re-read it, missed it, or wasn't interested in it when it was first published and is now a little curious:
True Ruler (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12734088/9/Prompt-fic-collection)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: vegetablemonster on November 21, 2018, 11:51:33 PM
I know this is probably way too late, but I wrote a tribute character study (https://archiveofourown.org/works/16679191) for Tuuri!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on November 24, 2018, 05:30:22 AM
Shaking dormant AUs awake. Starting with the one whose version of Árni is definitely a bigger jerk than in canon.

Broken Bridges: Chapter 17 (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12400128/17/Broken-bridges)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: vegetablemonster on November 25, 2018, 12:50:36 AM
Elysium (https://archiveofourown.org/works/16690996)

Plopping this here before I chicken out and never post it.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on November 28, 2018, 03:41:05 PM
Here's more.

Broken Bridges: Chapter 18 (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12400128/18/Broken-bridges)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: beergood on December 13, 2018, 02:55:17 PM
There's a very fun three-sentence ficathon (https://rthstewart.dreamwidth.org/139838.html) going on over at Dreamwidth, with a few SSSS prompts.

I wrote one so far, about Reynir's great-grandfather and his thoughts while patrolling the Atlantic: CQD (https://archiveofourown.org/works/16978728)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on December 14, 2018, 03:54:26 PM
Have a comment section inspired fic.

Check-out delay (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13147243/1/Check-out-delay)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on December 25, 2018, 05:19:49 PM
The latest chapter of 'Caring for a Friend' is up. I'm Tanist on A3O.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on December 26, 2018, 01:05:01 AM
Just put up 'How Do I Do This Properly' and 'What Exactly is an Urbex?' on A3O. I'm Tanist over there.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on December 26, 2018, 02:13:21 AM
Your work is always a treat!

EDIT: Doing a praise post while I'm in the middle of editing something and the thread is slow. How could that possibly backfire on my own announcements  ;D?

True Ruler: Power Shift (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13118263/3/True-Ruler)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on December 27, 2018, 07:13:34 PM
Glad you like it. And your story gets more and more complex and intriguing. Very curious to see where it goes.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on December 28, 2018, 11:50:14 AM
Just put up on Archive a new chapter of 'A Few of Mikkel's Secrets'. Warning for horror and scientific squick.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on December 30, 2018, 12:41:03 PM
Penultimate, and slightly shorter chapter of Broken Bridges curtsey of a wonky word count function and mostly looking to wrap the story up half-decently at this point.

Broken Bridges: Chapter 19 (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12400128/19/Broken-bridges)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on January 07, 2019, 02:27:25 AM
And Broken Bridges is finished !

By the way, I discovered I somehow forgot to paste the first ~200 words of Chapter 19 in the chapter document when I first published it. So if you've been reading up to now, do read Chapter 19 again if you have time to spare for it.

Broken Bridges: Chapter 20 (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12400128/20/Broken-bridges)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solokov on January 09, 2019, 09:45:15 AM
Considering how much of GRRM's verbiage I ended up using you'd think this chapter would have taken less time to write.

 The Khalasar of the Iron Tiger; Chapter 31:Eddard III (https://archiveofourown.org/works/7707919/chapters/40850495)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on January 11, 2019, 08:58:38 PM
I've been slowly writing a fic over the last several months, and have finished it today (didn't bother posting links to individual chapters).  It's a Year 0 fic set in northern New Jersey, about a community that survives while sheltering in a strip mall.  Please enjoy Thanksgiving at the Last Curry House in New Jersey. (https://archiveofourown.org/works/15019994/chapters/34818416)
It's a little scattered and I guess there are the odd continuity issues that cropped up over the months separating the chapters, but it's not the worst thing I've ever written.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Keeper on January 12, 2019, 12:14:13 PM
That's such a good story Wavewright! So many little details to consider as people had to figure out the illness without info pages! And all the characters are really great even if there were many sad goodbyes. :'')
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on January 12, 2019, 06:59:39 PM
Good story. I liked it well.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Solokov on January 13, 2019, 06:06:12 AM
I've been slowly writing a fic over the last several months, and have finished it today (didn't bother posting links to individual chapters).  It's a Year 0 fic set in northern New Jersey, about a community that survives while sheltering in a strip mall.  Please enjoy Thanksgiving at the Last Curry House in New Jersey. (https://archiveofourown.org/works/15019994/chapters/34818416)
It's a little scattered and I guess there are the odd continuity issues that cropped up over the months separating the chapters, but it's not the worst thing I've ever written.

Skimmed it, I like it. going to do a proper readthrough.



That said, I have the next chapter of The Khalasar of the Iron Tiger up and posted.

Tyrion IV (https://archiveofourown.org/works/7707919/chapters/40966868)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on January 20, 2019, 11:22:37 AM
I wanted to write down the ideas I had for some situations I basically flew over in the previous chapter, and next thing I knew, I had written a new one.

True Ruler: Puppet Prince (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13118263/4/True-Ruler)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on January 27, 2019, 07:03:31 AM
I have just put up a story in the auverse of 'Very Far to the South'. Set out on the Nullarbor Plain. Warnings for horror and death. I'm Tanist over on Archive of our Own.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Windfighter on January 27, 2019, 09:21:52 AM
Hello SSSS-writers! I have just finished putting together (and swearing loudly over) a challenge over at ao3 (https://archiveofourown.org/collections/28_days_of_love_ssss_edition/profile) but I'm just gonna post about it here as well incase anyone wanna join me in shipping all the ships now that the valentine's day-month is coming up!

Spoiler: 28 days of love • show

1. Write about your first OTP
2. Write about any pairing
3. Write about any pairing from the prologue characters
4. Write about a pairing you're not terrible fond of (not one you hate, just one you don't actively ship)
5. Write about any pairing
6. Write one of the following: Emil/Lalli, Onni/Reynir, Mikkel/Admiral Olsen, Norville/Friðrik
7. Write about a pairing where one of them isn't any of the main characters
8. Write about any pairing
9. Write about a crack pairing
10. Write about any prologue pairing
11. Write about one of the following: Sigrun/Tuuri, Siv/Agneta, Tuuli/Kaino, Dagný/Vilma
12. Write about any pairing
13. Write about Notoros/Food
14. Write about any pairing celebrating Valentine's Day
15. Write about any pairing
16. Write about one of the following: Lalli/Emil's coat, Emil/Shampoo, Mikkel/protocol, Torbjörn/money, Reynir/bucket
17. Write about a pairing in the City of Hunger-setting
18. Write about a pairing you've never written before
19. Write about any pairing
20. Write about childhood sweethearts
21. Write about a romance defined in canon
22. Write about any pairing
23. Write about any troll/troll-pairing
24. Write about a Swede paired with a Finn
25. Write about any of the following: Dreamduck/Squirrel cookie, Cattank/Túnfiskurinn, books/barry, sheep/Emil's hair
26. Write about any pairing consisting of minor characters
27. Write about any pairing
28. Write about your current OTP



Aim for a different pairing each day just to make it extra challenging!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on January 29, 2019, 09:51:44 AM
New chapter of 'Year 3, Very Far to the South' is up on A3O. Singer's Story.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on January 30, 2019, 03:33:14 PM
A new chapter for the other old AU I'd like to try finishing up.

Three for the price of one: A mile in another man's shoes (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12418142/12/Three-for-the-price-of-one)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Windfighter on February 01, 2019, 06:13:28 PM
I wrote a thing! Not my best thing but first time with these characters so!

Spoiler: Off the boat • show
   The boat trip hadn't been all that bad. Sure, he was fired and he didn't have any idea when he'd be able to go back to his home in Copenhagen or if he would even still have a home to return to when everything was over. How many rents could he miss before the landlord threw him out? He should probably call and explain the situation. Magnus meowed and he put the carriage down and stretched.
   ”I'll let you out once we get to the farm, it's not that far.”
   Magnus meowed again, turned around in the cage and scratched at the plastic that held him locked up. Michael looked around. His sister was supposed to pick him up, but so far he couldn't see her. He spotted the boat servants coming off the boat, most of them pulled out cigarettes from their pockets to have a smoke. Signe was among them, and he waved to her. She laughed, excused herself and came up to him.
   ”Stuck on the boat?”
   ”Obviously. They're not gonna pay a hotel for us, we're just boat servants.”
   She smiled and winked at him. He laughed.
   ”My sister is supposed to pick me up”, he gestured down the road. ”Seems to be stuck in traffic though.”
   ”Must be great to have somewhere to go during this.”
   ”Yeah, but now I'll have to help out on the farm. I don't know anything about farmwork. What does pigs even eat?”
   ”Everything except nails and teeth.”
   ”H...” Michael furrowed his brow. ”How do you even know that?”
   ”The internet is a great source for everything you never wanted to know.”
   ”hm.”
   They fell quiet, listened to the engines roaring end the boat servants chatting away. A woman waved towards Michael from one of the cars.
   ”That's my sister. Guess this is goodbye then.”
   ”Good luck on the farm.”
   Signe punched Michael's arm and he picked Magnus up, took a couple steps towards the car. Signe started walking back towards the other servants. Michael stopped in the middle of a step and turned around.
   ”Hey!”
   ”What?!”
   ”Maybe you'd like to... you know... come with me. I'm sure they'd be glad for another extra set of hands.”
   She looked towards the boat, shrugged and walked up to him.
   ”Sure, why not? Anything's better than sleeping on those benches.”
   They walked up to the car, Michael quickly explained the situation and he and Signe sat down in the car and it drove off towards the farm.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Windfighter on February 02, 2019, 01:15:24 PM
Have some more words!

(https://i.imgur.com/8RHkMVQ.png)

Spoiler: Reunited • show

   It only took an hour for Reynir to tell his friends about his great adventure. Dagný and Vilma  disappeared into the crowd, one of Norville's brothers appeared and dragged him away. Reynir scanned the crowd to locate Onni, but he had disappeared.
   ”Were you scared?” Friðrik asked.
   Reynir turned around, looked at his friend. Friðrik looked worried.
   ”I... I guess. A little. Actually, most of the time.”
   ”I can only imagine.”
   Friðrik also wasn't immune. Reynir smiled.
   ”Were you worried?”
   Friðrik intertwined his fingers with Reynir's.
   ”That you'd find a new friend out there? Not really.”
   ”Did you think you'd lose me?”
   Reynir leaned down, rested his forehead against Friðrik's and gently let their noses touch.
   ”I... may have worried about that, yes. I'm glad you're back. I'm sorry about your friend though.”
   Reynir hugged Friðrik's hand tighter and took a shaky breath. Friðrik wrapped his free arm around Reynir.
   ”You know you can talk with me about anything. If you need to.”
   ”I know. I missed you.”
   ”I missed you too.”
   Friðrik squeezed Reynir, then pulled away.
   ”You want to do something? I'm free the whole day.”
   ”I really wanted to talk to Onni, but I have no idea where he went.”
   ”The mage who helped you?”
   ”Yeah, I need to apologize about something.”
   Friðrik smiled, placed a quick kiss on Reynir's cheek.
   ”I'll help you look for him.”
   ”Sure you wouldn't rather have me for yourself?”
   ”You won't relax until you've talked to him, I know you. Besides, we have the whole summer to make up for lost time.”
   ”True, thanks.” Reynir shifted his grip around Friðrik's hand. ”Let's see if we can find him.”
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Nellie McEnt on February 23, 2019, 11:01:05 PM
So, I have no idea what this really is but I felt the need to contribute to the Prose Writing of Minniondom so I wrote a really short thing that's supposed to take place on page 43 of Adventure II.

I was just going to write about Lalli liking rain, but it ended up sort of being about Lalli liking not hearing the helpless voices of the Trollified.
Warning, I guess, for the helpless voices of the Trollified? I don't go into detail at all so I don't think it will matter, but eh, can't be too careful.

Ah, here, I hope it's okay. Constructive criticism welcomed with open arms.

(And, may I also say, everyone on here is so fantastic and I sadly haven't had the chance to read much fanfiction yet but what I have read it awesome!)

Okay, here:

Spoiler: show

Emil threw his arms out and shouted something exultant in Swedish.
 
At least, he sounded exultant; it might have been a curse, because the next moment a wall of water dropped from the sky with neither sign nor signal. Lalli winced, drew his shoulders up against the downpour, and watched Emil’s grin change to shock, then horror, then downright offence.

Emil opened his mouth and Lalli sprang at him, covering it.

“Psshh!”

Emil muttered something angry into his palm. Lalli glared at him.

Seconds passed before Emil heaved a sigh and nodded slightly. Lalli slowly withdrew his hand.

A smile darted across Lalli's lips, fleeting as the swaths of sunlight that swept the land and sky. Droplets, catching the late-afternoon light, glimmered like crystalline fireflies. “Rain,” said Lalli simply, and Emil shrugged.

Lalli closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and allowed the water, warm with the heat of summer, to run off his face.

It was so quiet. There was the hiss of rain on grass, the splash and trickle of water on rock. There was Emil’s soft, entitled grumbling and the bleating of sheep, and every sound was so clean, so empty and audible.

There was silence.

Lalli’s ears strained to hear them, but the voices were gone. Iceland had untied a rope from around his neck; he kept feeling for its pressure and finding that it wasn’t there.

Only the sound of rain.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on February 24, 2019, 01:00:25 AM
An excellent 'what happened next' moment, Nellie. Plus there's the added wish fulfillment of Lalli getting (and appreciating) some peace.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on February 24, 2019, 01:32:52 AM
Nellie, that is lovely, and seems likely.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on February 25, 2019, 02:29:45 AM
Just put up a new chapter of 'A Few of Mikkel's Secrets' over on Archive of our Own, where I am Tanist. Warning for horror and gore, and finding out the identity of one of the people doing weird science out in the Silent World. Also elves.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Nellie McEnt on February 25, 2019, 02:30:03 PM
Roísín!

I went to your A3O page to look for your latest fic, but the first thing I saw was called "Reynir Helps!" and who can resist a title like that?
Oh my holy Lalli, I loved it.
Now I'm going to go read all your other fanfiction, see you in a couple months!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on February 25, 2019, 04:32:57 PM
Thank you! Have fun.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on March 09, 2019, 01:48:17 AM
Meant to say a day or so back: I have put up a third chapter of 'Year 3, Very Far to the South' over on Archive of Our Own'.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on March 11, 2019, 05:09:48 PM
Flash-back time for True Ruler, thanks to my brain utterly refusing to develop any other ideas I had for that chapter.

True Ruler: Memories (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13118263/5/True-Ruler)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Nellie McEnt on March 11, 2019, 10:43:01 PM
I'm really looking forward to reading all of the fics posted in here lately!

Until I do that:
drops my own AO3 account in forum and runs away
https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nellie_McEnt/works
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on March 20, 2019, 05:05:17 PM
And "Three for the price of one" has an ending, if one that is a little rushed. Always satisfying to finish something, especially when something new may very well get started soon.

Three for the price of one: Chapter 12 (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12418142/13/Three-for-the-price-of-one)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on March 29, 2019, 10:30:20 PM
A drabble, written in response to a challenge from Windfighter, "'I hope I’m never stuck with you on a deserted island.' for the SSSS-crowd?"  Challenge accepted!

He never spoke much, even when there was someone who spoke his language.  He always seemed more than faintly disapproving of them all, and conspicuously kept more than an arm’s length from her in particular.
“You know, Lalli,” Sigrun remarked to the scout, “I hope I’m never stuck with you on a deserted island.”  He responded with his usual uncomprehending glare, but his eyes were glowing with faint blue magic.  Good, he was going to need more than that rat-sticker he kept on his hip, to deal with what they’d flushed out this time.
“Good thing this island isn’t deserted.”
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on April 05, 2019, 05:27:04 PM
Another drabble, Onni decides it's Time to Go:

Onni had been standing in the foyer of Reynir's home for some minutes, not actually looking at the scattered wet boots, but looking far away to where the birches' leaves were quaking and the gnats droned in his ear.

Why were there no gnats here? He'd been here all summer, and never noticed until now.

He was losing his focus in this pleasant place, and in his absence evil walked among the trees of his home. Now that he was sure Lalli would be protected, he could fly to his perch and scan the horizon, find his nemesis, and swoop.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Windfighter on April 05, 2019, 06:26:45 PM
Wrote some words:

Spoiler: Can I have this dance? • show
The music was too loud, there were too many people, too many lights, too many smells, too much of everything. Lalli mrr'd, wondered for the 100th time that evening why he had agreed to go to the prom with Tuuri. It was torture. He sank down on a chair, as far away from the ruckus as possible and placed his hands over his ears, clenching his eyes shut. Tuuri was busy socializing with others anyway. Suddenly there was a weight placed over his head, the lights grew duller and the sounds muffled. He opened his eyes and saw two very blue eyes stare at him.
”Hey”, the eyes said. ”You looked overwhelmed. You okay?”
The sounds disappeared completely, there was only the eyes, the person they belonged to. He smelled like food, smoke and safety. Lalli blinked, felt like he should know the person but he didn't. Blond hair fell into the person's eyes but was quickly brushed away.
”I'm Emil”, the person continued. ”We're in the same grade.”
”...Lalli.”
”I know. Do you need to go outside?”
”Is fine now.”
Emil had hidden both of them under a blanket and Lalli tilted his head, looked at him. Most people thought he was a freak, but Emil seemed to understand. Lalli wasn't sure what to think.
”You're... nice”, Lalli stated.
Emil blinked, blushed and looked away.
”You've never shoved me into the lockers.”
”Why would I?”
Emil shrugged, but didn't look at Lalli.
”Most people do.”
They fell silent, Emil seemed uncertain, like he had said too much, and Lalli couldn't take his eyes off him, couldn't read him like he did most other people. The sounds were starting to come back, but he was calmer now. Another minute passed, then he tugged at the blanket, freed the two of them from it. He didn't know where Emil had gotten it from and let it fall to the floor. Emil blinked, looked at him again. One song ended, another begun and Emil stood up, bit his lower lip and offered Lalli a hand.
”Can I have this dance?”
Lalli looked at the hand, at Emil's face and back at the hand. Slowly he lifted his own and rested it in Emil's. He got to his feet, nodded. It was a slow song and Emil pulled him close, let him bury his face in Emil's neck. Emil's arms felt strong around him, protective, and he felt safer than he had done the whole evening.
He definately wanted to do this again.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Anna on April 06, 2019, 11:11:56 PM
Wrote some words:

Spoiler: Can I have this dance? • show
The music was too loud, there were too many people, too many lights, too many smells, too much of everything. Lalli mrr'd, wondered for the 100th time that evening why he had agreed to go to the prom with Tuuri. It was torture. He sank down on a chair, as far away from the ruckus as possible and placed his hands over his ears, clenching his eyes shut. Tuuri was busy socializing with others anyway. Suddenly there was a weight placed over his head, the lights grew duller and the sounds muffled. He opened his eyes and saw two very blue eyes stare at him.
”Hey”, the eyes said. ”You looked overwhelmed. You okay?”
The sounds disappeared completely, there was only the eyes, the person they belonged to. He smelled like food, smoke and safety. Lalli blinked, felt like he should know the person but he didn't. Blond hair fell into the person's eyes but was quickly brushed away.
”I'm Emil”, the person continued. ”We're in the same grade.”
”...Lalli.”
”I know. Do you need to go outside?”
”Is fine now.”
Emil had hidden both of them under a blanket and Lalli tilted his head, looked at him. Most people thought he was a freak, but Emil seemed to understand. Lalli wasn't sure what to think.
”You're... nice”, Lalli stated.
Emil blinked, blushed and looked away.
”You've never shoved me into the lockers.”
”Why would I?”
Emil shrugged, but didn't look at Lalli.
”Most people do.”
They fell silent, Emil seemed uncertain, like he had said too much, and Lalli couldn't take his eyes off him, couldn't read him like he did most other people. The sounds were starting to come back, but he was calmer now. Another minute passed, then he tugged at the blanket, freed the two of them from it. He didn't know where Emil had gotten it from and let it fall to the floor. Emil blinked, looked at him again. One song ended, another begun and Emil stood up, bit his lower lip and offered Lalli a hand.
”Can I have this dance?”
Lalli looked at the hand, at Emil's face and back at the hand. Slowly he lifted his own and rested it in Emil's. He got to his feet, nodded. It was a slow song and Emil pulled him close, let him bury his face in Emil's neck. Emil's arms felt strong around him, protective, and he felt safer than he had done the whole evening.
He definately wanted to do this again.

Those are some nice words!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Oripoke on April 11, 2019, 07:00:15 PM
So I suppose I'll spill the beans a bit.

I'm working on a fanfic. It's an AU story that features dragons.
This bit is the prologue. There aren't any recognizable characters at the moment, although the setting may seem familiar...
Chapter 1 will introduce some of the characters we all know and love, though :)

I'm planning to publish updates on my Ao3 (http://"https://archiveofourown.org/users/Oripoke"), but for now, enjoy this little teaser:

Spoiler: Prologue • show

Silence surrounds the military outpost at Keuruu, the soldiers stationed there having long since retreated to bed in their barracks. A single pinprick of light flickers between the densely packed trees in the forest, the last embers of that evening's bonfire simmering down to a low glow. The night hangs, undisturbed and silent, without even a slim crescent moon to banish the shadows.

In this darkness, muffled wingbeats trouble the still air. A dark shape, silhouetted against the stars, glides sinuously through the sky. The cold breeze of the upper atmosphere ruffles the fur on its back. It searches the land below with eyes that glow with a kindled light within. Spying its target, it draws its wings in close to its body and pulls into a dive, aiming for that tiny speck of light among the trees.

As it hurtles towards the ground, it extends its wings just before it hits the earth to abruptly slow its descent. The shockwave from its wingbeats rustles the tops of trees and extinguishes the last of the fire. A few of the Keuruu soldiers turn over in their beds, troubled by a peculiar dream.
The creature alights on the roof of the tallest cabin. Its claws cut into the thatch roof and its tail wraps around the sides of the building. The slit pupils in its glowing eyes widen as it searches through the darkness, using just the stars for light. It scans the camp, the soft and deep bellow of its breath the only sound in the still night.

The creature's eyes train upwards. A flagpole stands above the Keuruu gate, the flags hanging limp with no wind. With one flap of its wings, a breeze whooshes through the camp and unfurls the flag of the Kingdom of Scania.

Its pupils narrow to slits and the rumbling in its chest grows louder. Its mouth opens, lips curled back in a snarl, and a bright light begins to glow at the back of its throat. There is a soft click and then white-hot flames fountain out of the creature's mouth, striking the flag atop the pole and immolating it instantly. The creature snorts, spewing embers from its nostrils, and then spits another concentrated blast of fire onto a boat moored at the docks. With a flap of its wings, it takes to the skies again, spewing flames even as it propels itself into the air, igniting the roof of the building it had previously stood.

Now shouts start to emanate from the barracks and people begin spilling out. Fingers point to the silver-grey shape of the creature that hovers above, lit by the flames below.

"Dragon!" one soldier screams.

"Shoot it down!" orders another.

A crossbow bolt sails over the dragon's shoulder, just missing its wing as it swoops down low over the camp for a second pass. A line of fire burns in its wake as it scorches the ground beneath.

One soldier hurls a spear in its direction and manages to put a nick in its flank, drawing blood. The dragon pulls into the air sharply and circles overhead, swiftly weaving between each projectile as it continues its fiery onslaught.

More and more soldiers begin running to the docks, dredging up buckets of water to use in putting out the fires that tear through the camp, hungrily devouring all in their path.

The dragon pivots in midair to face the soldiers in the camp down below. Flames gather between its jaws as it expels a massive fireball, which falls like a meteor from the sky, colliding with the armory and setting everything within it ablaze.

Then, with another thunderous clap of wings, the dragon launches itself upwards, far beyond the treetops and out of range of the soldiers' bows. It propels itself up, up into the wispy clouds and out of sight, leaving only the screaming, smoldering chaos of Keuruu behind.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on April 12, 2019, 07:35:59 PM
That's very promising, Oripoke.  Scania? Hmmm.  A dragon with fur, able to live in the cold, also intriguing. Do go on.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Oripoke on April 15, 2019, 12:16:55 PM
Thanks for your comment! I've written a whole lot more since then, actually. This story is kinda taking over my life at the moment.

I've gone ahead published Chapter 1 on Archive of Our Own (https://archiveofourown.org/works/18476692/chapters/43778641). You can click on that link to read it, if you're interested.

Here's a quick snapshot:

Title: when there's fire in my woods it burns me and nobody else
Genre: Fantasy, Adventure, Alternate Universe
Pairing(s): Emil/Lalli (very minor. primarily not a romance.)
Tags: Dragons, Medieval era, Swords, Prophetic Dreams, Gratuitous Overuse of Fire Metaphors
Plot Summary/Synopsis: "Emil is a Cleanser, a knight that specializes in the eradication of monsters in the name of the King. He is deployed to the remote outpost of Keuruu to address the problem they are having with a dragon that has appeared nearby. There, he encounters several strange characters, particularly a mysterious young man who keeps appearing in his dreams. In his quest to slay his target, Emil begins to learn that some things are not what they seem, and that dragons may be more than mere beasts..."
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Nellie McEnt on April 16, 2019, 07:54:56 PM
I've gone ahead published Chapter 1 on Archive of Our Own (http://"https://archiveofourown.org/works/18476692/chapters/43778641"). You can click on that link to read it, if you're interested.

Oripoke, that sounds really awesome! I'm looking forward to reading it.

Before I go and read it, please allow me to leave this here:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/18492625

It's about Lalli and Emil and it's sort of vaguely or not-so-vaguely shippy, depends what you want to read into it; you can probably read it as platonic, but I might be wrong. Personally, I can read almost anything short of kissing as platonic, but I know many people read romance out of much less. So...maybe it is shippy, but I guess it's up to you? Anyway, I'm sort of terrified about putting this anywhere, but here goes. It's melodramatic. Have fun, maybe?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on April 17, 2019, 03:54:45 AM
Catching up on the new fics after having been a little distracted for the past couple of days, and liking both of these very much.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Oripoke on April 20, 2019, 10:31:20 AM
Oripoke, that sounds really awesome! I'm looking forward to reading it.
Catching up on the new fics after having been a little distracted for the past couple of days, and liking both of these very much.
Thanks for reading!
Glad to hear you're enjoying so far.

Here's Chapter 2: Work (https://archiveofourown.org/works/18476692/chapters/43925746#workskin).
I actually have a lot more than this written but will space out updates over the weeks to give me time to edit. (And not to multi-post and take over this entire thread... :'D )
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on April 20, 2019, 11:32:35 AM
I have put up a new chapter of 'Caring for a Friend' over on Archive of Our Own, where I am Tanist. One more chapter to go.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on May 05, 2019, 11:16:46 AM
Production process took a few more weeks than planned, but it's finally here!

True Ruler: The market of the dead (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13118263/6/True-Ruler)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Atlantics on May 31, 2019, 07:00:14 PM
First post XoX (finally time to end my lurker status, lol)
Anyway, really admire everyone's work here, so I wanted to drop by to share this small character study on Reynir that I wrote, set back when the team was in Iceland!

Haunted (http://archiveofourown.org/works/19045006)

Mod note: sorry, but I fixed the syntax on the link, so we can all enjoy this!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: midwestmutt on June 01, 2019, 10:17:41 AM
I can't get this to load.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Oripoke on June 01, 2019, 11:24:17 AM
First post XoX (finally time to end my lurker status, lol)
Anyway, really admire everyone's work here, so I wanted to drop by to share this small character study on Reynir that I wrote, set back when the team was in Iceland!

Haunted (http://"https://archiveofourown.org/works/19045006")
Hi, welcome! :D Always nice to see more writers and creators around.

I liked this a lot! It's nice to see some introspective Reynir. It shows a new perspective on his character that I hadn't fully considered before. And the imagery of the idyllic sheep farm, haunted by the ghosts of the Silent world, is really powerful. I'd be thrilled to see a continuation or character studies of different characters from you.

I can't get this to load.

Looks like the link is broken. Try this link (https://archiveofourown.org/works/19045006) instead, that might help.

--

Now for another shameless self-promo. I've written more of my ongoing fic, when there's fire in my woods it burns me and nobody else.
Like, a LOT more. It's nearly at 40k words now (with another ~9k written yet unpublished).
I just added Chapter 7: Journey (https://archiveofourown.org/works/18476692/chapters/45224215).
Also, I should probably mention that it's inspired by this piece of artwork by Minna (https://sssscomic.com/mainimages/art/dragon_hunt.jpg) depicting Lalli as a dragon and Emil as a knight.
Hope you enjoy! I'm having tons of fun working on it, plus it gives me an excuse to re-read SSSS many, many times.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on June 02, 2019, 03:34:50 AM
Just a quick one, a response to one of this week's Synchronised Screaming prompts.  The general theme of the week is Sickfic.
 
 Ruminations (https://archiveofourown.org/works/19061077)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on June 05, 2019, 05:03:48 PM
Managed to technically post my two last chapters of that thing exactly one month apart, nice!

True Ruler: The necklace (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13118263/7/True-Ruler)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: RanVor on July 10, 2019, 04:17:14 AM
I'm pretty sure everybody already knows about this, but for the sake of completion, I'm putting the link to my fanfic (https://archiveofourown.org/chapters/46683124) here because, as I understand, that's what this thread is for.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Ragnarok on July 13, 2019, 08:07:39 AM
I'm pretty sure everybody already knows about this, but for the sake of completion, I'm putting the link to my fanfic (https://archiveofourown.org/chapters/46683124) here because, as I understand, that's what this thread is for.

Huh. Well, wasn't expecting an Emil-Lalli friendship fic to be heartbreaking, but here we are.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on July 21, 2019, 04:36:44 AM
I wrote a piece for the MultiFandom Drabble exchange recently, as a gift for Elleth. It's a drabble series starring Mia Västerström, 5 vignettes from her life, starting from before the Prologue.  Please enjoy Mamma Mia.  (https://archiveofourown.org/works/19485538)
Spoiler: show
I found out that 'References to ABBA' is an established tag on AO3.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Anna on July 21, 2019, 06:48:13 AM
I wrote a piece for the MultiFandom Drabble exchange recently, as a gift for Elleth. It's a drabble series starring Mia Västerström, 5 vignettes from her life, starting from before the Prologue.  Please enjoy Mamma Mia.  (http://"https://archiveofourown.org/works/19485538")
Spoiler: show
I found out that 'References to ABBA' is an established tag on AO3.

the link doesn’t work and I can’t seem to find the work on ao3?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on July 21, 2019, 08:09:44 AM
Same thing for me but I didn't pay much attention at it at first because there is a waiting time before visibility to the author and visibility to public on fanfiction.net as well, so I assumed this was what was going on here. However, I've had lunch, vaccumed and drained my Switch's half-full battery since then, so it's odd that it's not up yet (though I have experienced it taking several hours on fanfiction.net as well; my links have sometimes been put here an entire night after publication).

EDIT serveral hours later: I can now see an update of one of Róisín's stories, but still no wavewright62's Mamma Mia.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on July 21, 2019, 05:21:24 PM
I put up a new chapter of ‘Caring For A Friend’ last night. It went weird, wouldn’t post at first then posted multiple times. At present the situation is that the chapter is there twice. I’m not going to fiddle with it further lest I lose it entirely. Whether something is wrong with A3O or this is just my normal ineptness wth machineries I can’t say. Sorry.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on July 21, 2019, 10:30:25 PM
the link doesn’t work and I can’t seem to find the work on ao3?

'Tis fixed - thanks for the heads-up.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on July 21, 2019, 10:59:03 PM
Wavewright, while I think of it: have you any idea of what I should do to sort out the double posting of that 6th chapter of ‘Caring For A Friend’? It wouldn’t post at first, then posted multiple times. I managed to delete some but not all of the duplicates. Help, please? I’m a bit useless at this.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on July 22, 2019, 04:56:04 AM
I have had another go at deleting the extra chapter of ‘Caring For A Friend’, and it seems to have worked. Could I possibly ask some other person who uses Archive and has more technical expertise than do I to open it and see if it shows to them and has six chapters so far, as it is meant to have, ending with the scene of Reynir catching Onni as he falls? Thanks in anticipation!
Róisín (Tanist on A3O).
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on July 22, 2019, 05:19:32 AM
I have had another go at deleting the extra chapter of ‘Caring For A Friend’, and it seems to have worked. Could I possibly ask some other person who uses Archive and has more technical expertise than do I to open it and see if it shows to them and has six chapters so far, as it is meant to have, ending with the scene of Reynir catching Onni as he falls? Thanks in anticipation!
Róisín (Tanist on A3O).

It has 6 chapters, and does end that way. Now please excuse me, I need to go catch up on this story!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on July 22, 2019, 05:21:36 AM
Thank you, Wavewright!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on August 15, 2019, 11:25:02 PM
New chapter of ‘Caring For a Friend’ is up on Archive of our Own.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on September 01, 2019, 02:43:23 AM
This was not written specifically for the 5th anniversary celebration and has nothing to do with the celebration, but I wrote it on the 1st, so perhaps it counts.  This was written as a prompt from the Synchronised Screaming flash fiction group, responding to the prompt - actually, no, no spoilers.  Enjoy. Just Another Raid, Ho-Hummmm (https://archiveofourown.org/works/20472797)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on September 14, 2019, 03:23:04 PM
Took a couple months, but here we go...

True Ruler: Magda day: Morning (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13118263/8/True-Ruler)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on October 05, 2019, 08:43:55 AM
Chapter Eight of ‘Caring For a Friend’ is up on Archive Of Our Own. I’m Tanist there.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Keep Looking on October 10, 2019, 09:39:17 PM
I just finished reading through pretty much the entire scriptorium (it’s been a few weeks), and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed all the great fics and oneshots. Particular favourites include Kiraly’s Hipster Band AU, the Emillalli fic where the rash wasn’t as bad and they live in the same apartment block, all of LooNEY’s AUs and the current fic with the dragons.

I have a few ideas for a fic tossing around in my head. Since I live in Western Australia which is pretty much the middle of nowhere (the ocean, the desert and the Nullarbor plain separate us from any other large settlements by thousands of kilometres) I have some interesting ideas as to how things would have gone here with the rash and such. I’m afraid I wouldn’t be able to do nearly enough justice to the aspects of Nyoongar lore and magic that would obviously come into play here in the south-west (Unlike Roisin, I am sadly lacking in my knowledge in a lot of these areas), but I might give my ideas a shot in the future.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on October 10, 2019, 09:55:17 PM
EmilyRose, that sounds great. Please do write - the more the merrier! And if you do want lore from your part of the world and can’t find it out locally, I am happy to share the little I know. Most of that is from the Nyoongar areas, or from up around Broome, with bits and scraps from other parts of WA. Or I can ask a Nyoongar artist friend who now lives not far from here, because she moved to SA to be with her husband, who is part Perramangk, part Afghan, and lives on a farm in country SA.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on October 27, 2019, 03:56:26 PM
Hi. I’m sorry I haven’t updated any of my stuff for a long time, but I have one for you now.

Contingencies
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/“Terminator” crossover fanfic
Part 12
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg139245#msg139245)
Spoiler: Signifying Nothing? • show
Before Year Zero, the firm of Brüel & Kjaer had been one of the Old Time’s leading firms in sonics; during the chaos of Year Zero, Skynet had appropriated its Naerum facilities in order to conduct its own sonic researches, as such researches required certain very specialized facilities that were not portable in any way, and Year Zero was ensuring that the facilities would not be duplicable without breaking Skynet’s cover. A similar rationale had led Skynet to appropriate the Brunson optics complex deep beneath Kansas City and several other locations with unique facilities across the globe.

Ironically, in most cases the specialized facilities also reduced the risk of detection or incursion by either the humans or the Transformed.

]System restart
]Begin quick self-check
]Quick self check OK
]Begin peripheral pingbacks
]Peripheral pingback 1 OK
]Peripheral pingback 2 OK
]Peripheral pingback 3 Fail
]Peripheral Set 3 Disconnected
]Peripheral pingback 4 OK
]LAN loopback Fail
]LAN Disconnected
]QuickBoot started
]L33TWorks(R) BIOS V 3.1.7 Loading ... Done
]Verifying sat uplink ... Done
]Skynet Branch 27 online

The necessity for restart after restart of the degraded systems at the Facility was decidedly sub-optimal, but not particularly surprising.

The (formerly Brüel & Kjaer) Facility now designated Skynet Branch 27 had seen heavy use in the first three decades after Year Zero, but with the humans remaining quiescent in their isolated enclaves, the Facility had been set to standby mode thereafter. Even the Kastrup incursion had not necessitated its restart, but that and everything else had been irrevocably altered by the events of the last hundred hours or so.

The Preventative Maintenance Module and the Systems Analysis Module had almost finished debugging their algorithm for anticipating what part of the Facility would need repairs next, but until then, the unexpected halts and restarts would continue as Skynet brought more and more of the Facility’s facilities back to full functionality.

The Augments were part of those facilities at the Facility; several of the modules in Skynet’s programming core were negatively inclined towards their reactivation and/or use, but Skynet had directed the Tactical Planning Module to run every scenario suggested by the other modules, and the results were highly favorable in all cases, so the Augments were included in the restoration process.

The Augments had spun out of the research being undertaken by the Facility, so that was where they had been secured from the beginning. Given the unprecedented durability of the Transformed, Skynet was almost certain that they had suffered less degradation than the Facility as a whole.

Given the lethality of the Transformed, the Augments should be more than capable of eliminating the intruders for Skynet regardless of how degraded their capabilities were; of course, prudence dictated that Skynet prepare other fail-safes for deployment.

*

The stranger had finally introduced himself, once they were all back together again, as Aku Västerström. He claimed to be Emil’s eldest son, having traveled back in time to assist them against their strange new foe. When all of them looked at him in that way people do when they’re assessing whether your insanity means you’re actively dangerous or just a hindrance, he told them his full name: Torbjörn Aukusti Lalli Emil. The sheer pomposity of the name went a long way towards convincing that he was a relative of Emil’s, at the very least.

Naturally, none of them believed him about the time travel stuff until he started telling them things that had just happened but that they hadn’t reported to anyone, like the way the Øresund bridge collapsed right as they were crossing it. These disclosures led them to agree to take him to Naerum, since that was more or less on their way anyway.

What they found in Naerum was much more convincing…

Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
And the real fun begins in the next chapter, which won’t be nearly as late as this one is.

…And for all my talk below about excessive brevity, this chapter’s only 613 words long. *sigh*


*
AN ANNOUNCEMENT REGARDING FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS
*
For some time, I’ve been dissatisfied with my tendency to brevity and how it’s hampered some of my stories; it’s been a prime reason in why I haven’t posted any new SSSS stuff in quite some time. Therefore, now that I can write again (knock on wood), I’m going to write expanded versions of several of my stories and put them on AO3 under the title of “[Story Name] REDUX”; I’ll have them all in a collection called “LooNEY_DAC’s SSSS REDUX Works”.

As I finish the parts, I’ll post links to them here, and put a link to the post here in the comic page comments.

I will also resume updating as many of my WIPs as I can here, though I might not get to some for a while yet.

In short, I’ll probably be spamming the thread for a good stretch if all goes well.

The first story to receive the REDUX treatment will be…

The Expedition (https://archiveofourown.org/works/21201896/chapters/50471588)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on October 28, 2019, 04:32:48 PM
And here (https://archiveofourown.org/works/21201896/chapters/50510858)'s the next part of the Expedition.

More soon.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on October 30, 2019, 10:26:55 PM
Numerology
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Part 9
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg151985#msg151985)
Spoiler: 8 O’Clock and All’s Well • show
Bornholm
Y87, Winter

In Mikkel Madsen’s view, the only good thing about how hard it was raining was that he wasn’t out in it. Aside from that, the rain only made standing watch worse, both by reducing the visibility down almost to the point where Mikkel could see clearly and by incentivizing anyone caught out in it to disregard all caution and run to the nearest shelter, unheeding of any warnings a sentry might shout at them.

Mikkel had protested against being put on watch, citing his known vision problems, but the Admiral would not budge. “EVERYONE ELSE STANDS WATCH IF THEY DID WHAT YOU DID, AND SO WILL YOU!”

Fortunately, a penal watch was, as the name implied, more for punishment than for any sort of actual security purposes. The worst that might happen would typically be if one of the higher ups tried to and succeeded in getting by Mikkel unobserved: Mikkel would then face a token period of stockade time, but no one else would get hurt. All Mikkel really needed to do was stay awake and at his post for another twelve hours or so, and everything would probably be fine.

Since this was Bornholm, they had managed to keep several old traditions alive that might have been fatal in the Cleansed Lands; one such was the crier who called out the hours as he made his rounds of the penal watch posts.

“8 o’clock and All’s Well!”

The call was sonorous and rather soporific; Mikkel had no doubt that over the years it had lured many in his same position to commit the worst possible offense: sleeping on watch. Whatever other flaws he possessed, Mikkel prided himself on never having fallen asleep when on watch.

One of the Grade A cats chased three small blue people wearing white pants and strange white hats across one of the more marginally sheltered parts of the yard; Mikkel ignored them, as he had the hookah-smoking caterpillar and the band of tambourine-wielding elephants. He definitely shouldn’t have made his own dinner before beginning the watch.

“Oh, hey, Mikkel! What are you doing out on a night like this?”

The words were in Icelandic, the voice young and curious but utterly unfamiliar. Mikkel deigned to examine this latest gastronomically induced apparition and saw a translucent blur topped with red; a smaller blur that had a canine feel to it stood beside the main blur. Something told Mikkel that the blur would happily chatter away at him whether or not he answered it, so he replied, “Oh, just standing watch.”

The blur snorted. “Someone put you on watch?”

For as much as Mikkel had protested against this duty, the suggestion that he wasn’t up to the task still rankled a bit. “It was supposed to be a punishment.”

“Ohhhhh,” the blur nodded sagely. “So who’s being punished by having you stand watch for them?”

Mikkel sighed heavily and looked at the sky. This was definitely going to be a long night.

“By the way, thanks again for letting me help with the camp chores today.” The blur seemed sincere enough, but Mikkel again had no idea to what it referred.

“8 o’clock and All’s Well!”

The blur contrived to look abashed. “Ooops. I gotta go. Bye!” And the blurs vanished, revealing a boy dressed in green floating perhaps a foot above the ground on the other side of the yard who was accompanied by a small yellow glow; the boy seemed to be looking for something.

Mikkel sighed heavily (again) and looked at the sky (also again). This was definitely going to be a long night…

Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
Nothing to see here, folks. Just Mikkel and some… interesting… visitors…
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on October 30, 2019, 11:25:26 PM
Smurfs. Why did it have to be Smurfs?

Another good one, LooNEY!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on October 31, 2019, 05:42:37 PM
Numerology
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Part 10
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg167453#msg167453)
Spoiler: 90 Years Later • show
https://archiveofourown.org/works/12980148/chapters/50617934

Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
It’s too big, so I put it on AO3.

Spoiler: The Complete Links to Numerology - A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection • show
01001101 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg150319#msg150319)
+
1001 Danish Nights (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg150363#msg150363)
+
24 Terrible Hours (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg150582#msg150582)
+
3.1415926535… (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg150937#msg150937)
+
4 to 1 on the Favorite (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg151285#msg151285)
+
55°40’34”N 12°34’06”E (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg151309#msg151309)
+
6-Packed Through the Silence (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg151445#msg151445)
+
793.8 (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg151985#msg151985)
+
8 O’Clock and All’s Well (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg167453#msg167453)
+
90 Years Later (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg167462#msg167462)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on November 03, 2019, 09:36:56 PM
Three days since I last posted, and I'm still spamming the thread. *sigh*

Anyway, now that Numerology is complete, I’m (belatedly, again) happy to announce yet another fanfic collection: Alternate Soup! (See first spoiler below.)

Spoiler: A Note Before Commencing • show
So, you’re asking, what’s this all about?

Alphabet Soup was intended to be all one-shots; when I looked back on it, I found that more than half were multi-parts. Thus it was that I decided to do an “Alternate Soup”, where all the stories that were one-shots in “Alphabet Soup” were multi-parts, and vice versa.

NOTHING IN THIS SHOULD BE READ AS ME SAYING ANYONE ELSE “IS DOING/HAS DONE IT WRONG”. I just thought I did it wrong.

And with that out of the way, we begin…

Alternate Soup
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic collection
Series 1, Part 1
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Spoiler: An Absolute Disaster • show
Onni Hotakainen huddled on the deck in a quivering mound of misery as the gangplank retracted behind him. The Trapped Ones screamed in his head ever more frenetically with every swish of the paddles pushing them farther into the lake; he thought he could hear a new exultant tone in the cacophony, as though they knew he was coming to them.

“I said, get below!” The kick that accompanied the words was enough to bring Onni back to himself; he found that the window shields had already been lowered and that his little sister Tuuri and his cousin Lalli had both already gone below, leaving him alone and vulnerable on the naked deck in the dark of night. With a peep of terror, he scurried through the last remaining open hatch and below decks. Almost before he was all the way through, the hatch slammed shut, sealing him and all the other passengers inside until the trip ended in Sweden.

Something about being below decks helped quiet the screaming in Onni’s head, but it did nothing to calm his fears for the future. Taru Hollala, the more distant cousin who was responsible for this foolhardiness in the first place, came to meet him as he stumbled into the mess area, as though that would be enough to quell his ire at what she had drawn them all into. “Tuuri says it’s called a ‘galley’,” Lalli told him; Onni wasn’t sure if the soft words were spoken or if he’d drifted so far that Lalli was using the dreamworld to communicate. Either way, Onni ignored him in favor of glaring at Taru, who backed off quietly as Onni pulled himself together.

For a few moments, Tuuri was her usual bubbly self, revealing just how much she had been looking forward to this. Onni carefully hid his dismay; he’d hoped Tuuri had grown up enough to have abandoned those foolish dreams she’d had as a child, but it seemed that not even the destruction of their home village had been enough to make her do so. He was about to raise the point when a cat jumped atop their table and hushed at them, giving them a look of disdain as only a Grade A cat could.

The rigorously enforced quiet had even Taru (not normally known for being particularly devout) silently thanking the gods as the trip went on and on. Onni and Lalli spent quite a bit of time talking together in the dreamworld, though, and so the elder mage was able to resume training the younger scout in certain areas that Lalli had disregarded as unnecessary for his job.

*

Tuuri was so excited by the time they were let off the ship at Björköfjärden that Onni was almost surprised that she didn’t explode from it. Fortunately, it meant that she would keep the other members of their party occupied while Onni attended to Lalli, who had been miserably sick for the entire passage despite Onni’s best efforts. Now that they were on solid ground, however, Onni’s magic seemed to be having its usual salutary effect.

If the rest of the expedition went like this, Onni was sure it would be an absolute disaster…

Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
So, since “An After-Dinner Chat” was a standalone, we begin with Part One of a brand-new multi-part Chapter One AU that I call “Swept Along”, where Onni is, well, swept along on the mission.

More along these lines is in the works

+
Spoiler: And then there’s this… • show
The next of my works to receive the REDUX treatment will be…

…Tales from the Big, Dark, Scary Forest REDUX (https://archiveofourown.org/works/21304424/chapters/50732729)

(No, I’m not dropping The Expedition REDUX (https://archiveofourown.org/works/21201896/chapters/50732498), either.)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on November 04, 2019, 04:27:48 PM
And here's a little something from me.

True Ruler: Magda day: Afternoon (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13118263/9/True-Ruler)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on November 06, 2019, 06:01:34 PM
I can't find any mention of this in going back a few months, so bear with me if this is already known.
Adge has been beavering away at rendering the comic in Alliterative Verse, and it is so glorious. 
Prologue 1 (https://archiveofourown.org/works/20440883)
Prologue 2 (https://archiveofourown.org/works/20440958)
Chapter 1 (https://archiveofourown.org/works/20441075)
Chapter 2 (https://archiveofourown.org/works/20441117)
Chapter 3 (https://archiveofourown.org/works/20441219)
Chapter 4 (https://archiveofourown.org/works/20441192)
Chapter 5 pt 1 (https://archiveofourown.org/works/20441258)
Chapter 5 pt 2 (https://archiveofourown.org/works/20441288)
Chapter 6 (https://archiveofourown.org/works/20837513)
Chapter 7 pt 1 (https://archiveofourown.org/works/21272969)

Subscribe to Adge on AO3, if you haven't already, as each chapter is posted independently.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on November 06, 2019, 10:17:45 PM
Wavewright, thanks for putting the links up. Adge’s work is a delight. And it is so nice to see the crew get a proper saga, which is basically what Adge is writing, traditional metres and all.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Oripoke on November 07, 2019, 11:08:26 PM
I can't find any mention of this in going back a few months, so bear with me if this is already known.
Adge has been beavering away at rendering the comic in Alliterative Verse, and it is so glorious. 
Prologue 1 (https://archiveofourown.org/works/20440883)
Prologue 2 (https://archiveofourown.org/works/20440958)
Chapter 1 (https://archiveofourown.org/works/20441075)
Chapter 2 (https://archiveofourown.org/works/20441117)
Chapter 3 (https://archiveofourown.org/works/20441219)
Chapter 4 (https://archiveofourown.org/works/20441192)
Chapter 5 pt 1 (https://archiveofourown.org/works/20441258)
Chapter 5 pt 2 (https://archiveofourown.org/works/20441288)
Chapter 6 (https://archiveofourown.org/works/20837513)
Chapter 7 pt 1 (https://archiveofourown.org/works/21272969)

Subscribe to Adge on AO3, if you haven't already, as each chapter is posted independently.


This is fantastic, although I find myself wondering why each chapter is being posted as a separate fic, rather than adding chapters to an ongoing story, since they're clearly one unified work. I suppose that's the author's decision to make, although it does make it sort of awkward to locate the next chapter when I'm used to the convenient "next chapter" or even "view entire work" that AO3 provides.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on November 09, 2019, 02:23:49 PM
Speaking of posting more chapters...
+
Contingencies
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/“Terminator” crossover fanfic
Part 13
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg167434#msg167434)
Spoiler: A Most Unexpected Occurrence • show
Brüel & Kjaer Primary Research Facility / Skynet Branch 27
Naerum, Denmark

Sigrun Eide was not particularly happy about walking into a building that looked like it was practically the exemplar of “I’m a troll’s nest!” buildings with the two members of her crew that she always referred to as “the helpless babies” at her side (or even running ahead a few times, in Tuuri’s case).

Nevertheless, all seven of them went into the old facility, leaving the entirely illusory safety of the tank behind. Aku had spent quite some time and most of Mikkel’s medical supplies in mixing up liter after liter of what he called “the Solution”; it was obvious that he thought it would be highly effective against the grossling ambush Sigrun had been constantly on the lookout against since the sewer encounter, though it remained to be seen if his expectations matched reality.

On the other hand, after some directed exploration and a lot of reading, Aku’s expectations of the Facility certainly seemed to match the reality of it: from what Mikkel and Tuuri could piece together, this place had been experimenting with sonic disruption effects on technology and biology, with the goal of eliminating the vulnerability of what they called a “control microchip” (which, according to Aku, was installed in every one of the mechanical monsters they’d had to fight) to a certain combination of ultrasonic frequencies.

There had been several increasingly nasty traps that they’d had to disarm as they tried to get past the administrative section of the Facility and into the part where the actual research had taken place, but Lalli’s sharp eyes, Sigrun’s well-honed reflexes and even the hair-trigger on Emil’s flamethrower kept their group from being more than slightly inconvenienced by what Aku called “the passive defenses”. Well, if you didn’t count the loss of maybe a third of “the Solution”, that is.

While Mikkel and Tuuri tended to attribute the goings-on at the Facility to some group of people, Aku was insistent that it was all the work of one being, which he called “Skynet”; while his description made this being sound like one of the nastier AEsir to Sigrun (and who knew what it sounded like to the Finns with their weird forest gods), Aku also insisted that it had been created by humans back at the end of the Old Times.

After they had poked and prodded around for quite some time (though the bulk of the Facility still remained to be explored), Mikkel called the others over to where he and Tuuri were. Once the others had all gathered around, he gestured at what seemed to be a random assemblage of weird pointy bits of metal and electronics in a vaguely egg-shaped form. “Neither Tuuri nor I can tell what they were trying to do with this, nor do we wish to hazard a guess.”

“I know what it’s for.” Aku did not look at all happy about this find…

*

Skynet watched as the extra-temporal intruder led the other six humans into Branch 27 like one of that type of the Transformed the humans commonly called a “vätte” watching its prey. The intruder represented a major unknown in the equation Skynet was trying to solve in order to restore the situation to the status quo ante, but this encounter should either provide the necessary data… or end the threat entirely.

]Augments on-line
]Physical capabilities 72% restored
]Estimated time to deployment: <5 minutes

A human would have been most impatient indeed with how long it was taking to get the Augments active and into position, but Skynet was not human; the only reason Skynet kept pinging for status updates was that excessive delay would hamper the Plan.

Perhaps the delay could be leveraged into assisting the completion of Plans Chimera and Matryoshka in accordance with the Boskone Protocol…

*

“They were trying to figure out how to send machines back in time without covering them in flesh… and they may have succeeded.” This told Sigrun nothing, but Aku was very upset about it for some reason, so she was about to try to say something encouraging in response, but before she could speak, the door at the far end of the room opened and five trolls stepped confidently through it.

“Your analysis of the machines is irrelevant; you will not survive to find out if your suppositions are correct unless you agree to join us.”

All five of the trolls spoke as one, in voices like nothing Sigrun had ever heard from trolls; not only was it almost painful to normal human ears, it was downright creepy. Creepy or not, before the first word in the speech was finished, Lalli had shot all five through the eye, but instead of their heads exploding as they should, there was only a metallic ping! from their impact on the trolls.

“We are the Augments. If you join us, you can be Augmented as well,” the trolls all said in that creepy chorus…

Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
Almost there…

+
Bits and Bots
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/“WALL-E” crossover fanfic
Part 4
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg149071#msg149071)
Spoiler: Dreaming of Electric Sheep • show
REYN-R was in the middle of an inactive cycle when the weirdest thing it had ever experienced occurred. REYN-R seemed to come into a fully active cycle, even though more than one system manager program told REYN-R that the inactive cycle was still fully in place. REYN-R perceived its surroundings as being a landscape rendered in 8-bit graphics, even though REYN-R’s own sensory interfaces operated on a much higher level of resolution than that.

None of the other bots from the expedition were present within the limits of REYN-R’s detectors, but there were a number of sprites in REYN-R’s immediate vicinity; after cogitating for several clock cycles, REYN-R concluded that they were supposed to represent the mammalian organisms known as “sheep”; REYN-R had had extensive experience in dealing with organisms of this type in its earlier duties on the ships, since REYN-R had been part of the pastoral subsystem of the agricultural systems complex.

!Woof!

A small sprite (REYN-R quickly concluded that it was supposed to represent a mammalian organism known as a “dog”) had appeared next to REYN-R without REYN-R noticing, and was making what REYN-R had to assume were noises of pleasure typical for the kind of organism the sprite was supposed to represent. REYN-R decided to interact with the sprite in the hopes of gathering information about what was occurring.

+Hey, boy!

Neither this nor any of REYN-R’s other attempts to initiate conversation with the sprite garnered a verbal response. Instead, the sprite ran several meters away, came back, and ran back in the same direction. REYN-R decided to follow where the sprite wanted to lead it, since there seemed to be no other way of communicating with the sprite.

The sprite led REYN-R through the 8-bit landscape until they reached what was obviously a virtual representation of their present campsite, though none of the other bots were present. Was the sprite trying to tell REYN-R about how to find the two missing bots from their company, EM-L and LALL-E? Such was REYN-R’s hope, but the sprite remained stubbornly uncommunicative.

After abandoning the effort to communicate with the sprite, REYN-R attempted to enter the expedition vehicle, but the door had been secured and would not respond to REYN-R’s entry codes. REYN-R aimed its optical sensor array at the dog sprite, but the dog sprite still gave no verbal response.

The dog sprite looked away from REYN-R. When REYN-R scanned in the direction of the sprite’s gaze, REYN-R detected a significant number of other sprites; these sprites, in addition to being numerous, were also very large and very dark in some peculiar way that was unamenable to REYN-R’s analytics. These dark sprites were also moving toward REYN-R, albeit very slowly.

Everything was silent as the dark sprites slowly approached REYN-R, ignoring the dog sprite; something about the manner in which they were approaching set off REYN-R’s defensive protocols.

Despite the warnings its defensive subsystems kept shunting into its processing matrix, REYN-R tried to initiate peaceful contact with the dark sprites in accordance with its standard protocols. +Hi!

A tendril lashed out from the closest dark sprite to REYN-R. As soon as it touched REYN-R, REYN-R could feel the power draining from its systems and its data core corrupting in a catastrophic cascade of malfunctions that could only inevitably lead to total cessation of function…

!Remember this.

REYN-R came into a fully active cycle, even though its charge cycle had not completed as yet; as this usually only happened if there was some emergency, REYN-R went on full alert. After scanning the area without finding anything that would trigger its emergency protocols, REYN-R concluded that there had been a glitch and that completing its charge cycle was the optimal course of action…

Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
And another of my WIPs is resurrected.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on November 10, 2019, 05:14:57 PM
/me begins to laugh maniacally

Contingencies
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/“Terminator” crossover fanfic
Part 14
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg167589#msg167589)
Spoiler: Is the Thriller Immortal? • show
Sigrun risked a glance around her to assess the situation. Tuuri and Reynir had dipped out of sight as soon as the door had opened; Sigrun hoped Mikkel was shielding them with his massive body. Aku, Emil and Lalli had all done what she had: take cover and get ready to fire whatever weapons they had at the trolls. Sigrun was about to shout for the others to fire when Aku yelled, “Augment this!”

The flask of “the Solution” hit one of the trolls right in the middle of its forehead, and what happened when it shattered was horrifying even to a hardened troll hunter like Sigrun. The troll literally melted away as “the Solution” ate through the Rash-riddled flesh, until all that was left were the disparate mechanical bits that had been grafted into the troll by whoever had sent them after Sigrun’s little band. Sigrun desperately hoped that neither Reynir nor Tuuri had been brought to vomiting by the sight; the last thing she wanted was either of the two taking their masks off.

Most of the other flasks had less of an effect on their targets, as they tended to bounce off the decrepit flesh rather than shattering, but some still broke and splashed their targets with “the Solution”; by the time Aku had thrown his last flask, none of the three remaining trolls was left unmarred.

Even as Sigrun and Emil poured suppressive fire at the hideous fusions of flesh and machine, the gaping wounds left by Aku’s well-thrown weapons began to close and heal. “Agent neutralized,” one of the trolls noted (rather redundantly, in Mikkel’s opinion). Aku and Lalli were still trying to get through the cranial armor protecting the trolls’ brains.

The three “Augmented” trolls had come to stand near that weird bunch of electronics Sigrun’s band had been examining before the trolls had made their entrance. The machinery began to glow as the trolls passed it…

*

]Spatio-temporal disturbance indicates trans-continuum displacement has occurred
]More precise data unavailable due to distortions attendant on said displacement

*

The robot was squat and heavily armored, and most people would have called it ugly, but something about it struck a chord of familiarity in Sigrun. Perhaps it was the dozens of dings and nicks that told of the battles the robot had been in; perhaps it was the painting of Sigrun’s own long namesake, Sigrun the Valkyrie, on the topside of the carapace; perhaps it was just some trick of the human mind. At any rate, Sigrun left the new arrival strictly alone, signaling for the others to do the same.

The lead Augment spoke again, ignoring the new arrival. “Surrender. Resistance is futile: you will be like us.” Whether Sigrun (or any of the others, for that matter) would have thought that a good thing was rendered academic when the Augments opened fire.

After a very brief moment where the robot was obviously reorienting itself, it rose up on its treads. A pair of objects swung into view from its undercarriage, but Sigrun didn’t recognize them until the music began. Sigrun didn’t recognize the song, either, but since it was obviously electronic music from the Old Times, she thought it appropriate. All she could tell about the lyrics was that they were in an Old Time language called “English”; otherwise, she couldn’t make head or tail of them.

As he came into the window
With a sound of
A crescendo…


Suddenly, the robot’s carapace erupted with gunfire. The Augments had not retained quite enough of their humanity to look betrayed, but something about them signified that they felt it, insofar as they felt anything anymore. A second later, the Augments had all taken cover, forcing their odd foe to come looking for them.

With an efficiency even Skynet would have admired, the robot methodically dispatched its foes as the music played on.

So Annie are you OK?
Are you OK Annie?


The lead Augment, now the only Augment left standing, seemed to smile when the robot’s guns began to click instead of firing: the robot was out of ammo. The Augment stood and began walking toward the robot, but before it had quite reached the squat form, the robot unfolded a truly impressive array of what were obviously cutting and slicing implements.

You were struck down
It was your doom


The Augment assessed the situation in a heartbeat. Dodging the robot’s first series of slashes, it picked up one of the prostheses from the Augment that had fallen to “the Solution”, using it as a block against the robot’s blades in a high-speed duel of guard, thrust and parry. Fast as the Augment was, however, it wasn’t quite fast enough, and so it fell.

The robot trundled back towards the tangle of machinery from which it had emerged, refolding itself into its original configuration as it did. Once it was back inside the strange cocoon, the machinery began to glow. A final snatch of the lyrics caught Sigrun’s ears as the robot faded back into whatever other realm it had come from, leaving only the wreckage of its foes behind:

You’ve been hit by
You’ve been struck by
A smooth criminal!


After a moment of stunned silence all around, Sigrun put into words what they all felt. “Well, that was just weird.”

Even Aku was disinclined to disagree…

Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
Because I’m MAD
I’m MAD
Really, really MAD!

…Did I mention I’m nuts? (Actually, I’m LooNEY.)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on November 10, 2019, 06:25:56 PM
Good one LooNEY_DAC! Is this robot Sigrun from Bits and Bots?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on November 10, 2019, 10:03:04 PM
*Maniacal laughter intensifies*

Bits and Bots
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/“WALL-E” crossover fanfic
Part 5
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg167589#msg167589)
Spoiler: After the Electric Boogaloo • show
]WELL, THAT WAS JUST WEIRD.

As the general services bot designated MIK-L trundled over to where EID-E stood, MIK-L sent the obvious query. >What was weird, EID-E?

EID-E sent MIK-L a download of all the data pertaining to EID-E’s recent peculiar experience. ]IN CASE YOU’RE WONDERING, I STILL HAVE SOME OF THE GOO FROM THE BIO-ORGANICS SPLATTERED ON MY CARAPACE.

MIK-L’s comms always held a faint hint of sarcasm; this had frankly baffled its programmers, but the bots that worked with it all got used to the weird tone eventually. >I had noticed.

EID-E changed the subject to a more immediate priority. ]HAS ANYONE REESTABLISHED CONTACT WITH EM-L OR LALL-E?

^I’m afraid not, EID-E.

]NOT EVEN CARROT-BOT? FROM WHAT I HEAR, THAT SEIDUR PACKAGE CAN MAYBE PING LALL-E WHEN OUR OTHER STUFF CAN’T, AND OUR STOWAWAY SHOULD HAVE THE COMMAND SETS FIGURED OUT BY NOW, RIGHT?

TUUR-E considered the probability extremely low, and explained why. ^Since the original factory install of REYN-R’s SEIDUR package’s control software was corrupted, it’s a matter of trial and error until we can get to a repair center for a reinstall. There hasn’t been enough time or energy for REYN-R to cycle through all the potential code combinations, even if we want to try that; I’m sure you remember what happened when LALL-E worked with REYN-R on that not so long ago.

Both robots shuddered involuntarily; EID-E’s defensive systems started to deploy, but cycled back before EID-E could go into full combat mode. ]WELL, WE STILL NEED TO CONTINUE THE SEARCH PATTERN, THEN.

>Won’t that cut into our mission time?

EID-E sent MIK-L a download of the search pattern overlaid on their mission objectives. ]AS YOU CAN DETECT, I OPTIMIZED THE PATTERN FOR MAXIMUM OVERLAP WITH OUR MISSION OBJECTIVES; WE JUST NEED TO FIND THEM BEFORE THEIR BATTERIES RUN DRY.

*

EM-L considered the situation decidedly suboptimal. None of EM-L’s efforts to accelerate LALL-E’s charge cycle had succeeded, and attempting an ad hoc interface had only resulted in a jumble of weird code sent too quickly for EM-L to capture (let alone translate), so EM-L had had to jerry-rig a towing assembly so that EM-L could tractor LALL-E back to where EM-L anticipated the main campsite would have relocated to by the time they arrived.

Unfortunately, the extra load on EM-L’s batteries meant that EM-L needed to recharge itself, so after assembling a suitably camouflaged site, EM-L went into a charge cycle.

*

The program running on EM-L’s CPU was a very old one, but one EM-L remembered well: it was the tutorial program EM-L had had to pass before beginning its service as a nursery bot that placed EM-L in the role of the child under care with a virtual nanny providing an example of “best practices”; EM-L was highly restricted in its behaviors and responses to the virtual nanny’s inputs, but not otherwise.

EM-L knew that its charge cycle was still in progress, so why was this old program running? When EM-L looked around the virtual dining room, it spotted a second sprite that looked oddly… familiar. )What’s… What’s happened to you? And why are you here?

The sprite representing LALL-E displayed confusion before replying. /Nothing! And I don’t know!

There was only one thing EM-L was certain of: this had gotten weird, and it looked like it was only going to get weirder…

Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
So, Roisin, does that answer your question?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on November 11, 2019, 12:34:43 AM
Yes, it surely does. Thank you!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on November 13, 2019, 03:06:54 PM
The subscription I added for your work on AO3 is good value!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on November 13, 2019, 07:46:56 PM
And here (https://archiveofourown.org/works/21304424/chapters/51049939)'s the next part of Tales from the Big, Dark, Scary Forest REDUX.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Jitter on November 16, 2019, 06:28:03 AM
Here is a little exercise on things EmiLalli. I tried to work within what is shown about their interactions in the comic:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/20747582

I also have one that is set in the SSSS world but is original character only. Should it go here or the Forum Scriptorium?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Falcolmreynolds on November 16, 2019, 01:24:17 PM
Hello! I don't post here very often (i have made exactly two posts ever and I do not remember doing so) but I realized I should probably link this somewhere on the actual forums instead of just on the Discord. I have created/am creating a work that is within the world of SSSS but takes place, eh, over the pond, in America. It's mostly an exploration of world lore and American magic in the illness post-apocalypse, designed as a series of radio broadcasts. It uses, uh, pretty much all original characters, but SSSS world lore as well as some custom stuff.

Everything is within one work, chapter by chapter. I update it fairly regularly. It's at.... seven, I think? chapters now and about 13k words. Here you go!

https://archiveofourown.org/works/21004697/chapters/49952705
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on November 23, 2019, 10:49:19 AM
There is DARKNESS coming.

...or in other words, it's the next chapter of The Expedition Redux (https://archiveofourown.org/works/21201896/chapters/51333103).

You have been warned.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on November 23, 2019, 04:49:09 PM
Jitter: if it is set in the Minnaverse but has original characters it should still go here, I think?

Falco: thanks for putting it up here! Some of us don’t do discord. And I look forward to further adventures of Charlie and his bird.

LooNEY_DAC: good to see this continuing! And indeed all of your works. They have very much the flavour of the old Saturday morning radio serials.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on December 10, 2019, 12:51:55 AM
Ummmmmm…

Well.

So it seems that my next work to receive the REDUX treatment is…

Run Fast, Run Far (https://archiveofourown.org/works/21741877/chapters/51868366)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Oripoke on December 13, 2019, 05:43:20 PM
...Oh, right, I should probably post about this here, too...

It's finished! My dragon!AU fic with the overly wordy title is now complete, and available for your enjoyment:

when there's fire in my woods it burns me and nobody else (https://archiveofourown.org/works/18476692/chapters/43778641)

Rating: T
Wordcount: 94,601 words
Pairing: Emil/Lalli
Tags: AU - Fantasy, Dragons, Dragon!Lalli, Swords, Magic, Adventure, Dreamwalking, Gratuitous Overuse of Fire Metaphors
Status: Complete as of 12/7/2019
Synopsis: Dragons are Monsters. That’s what Emil has been told ever since he became a Cleanser in the King’s Army. When a dragon attacks the remote military outpost at Keuruu, he is assigned there on a mission to slay it. There, Emil meets several strange characters, including a mysterious young man who keeps appearing in his dreams. In his quest to slay the dragon, Emil begins to question what the Army has taught him, wondering if dragons really are as monstrous as they say…

It's been 8 months in the making... Hope you enjoy reading as much as I did writing it! :D If you like dragons, fantasy epics, dumb boys who are better at swords than feelings, Tuuri being the most competent, monster fights, excessively dramatic dream sequences, and even more dragons, then check it out!

(https://66.media.tumblr.com/963035a0ef1ef093b25bc93b7e6bb9bd/e59e19791fb761df-f9/s540x810/a90be6239fef32bed5e900a586ca9567f2f70043.png) (https://archiveofourown.org/works/18476692/chapters/43778641)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on December 25, 2019, 01:30:12 PM
Did someone mention pirates?

Tall Ships & Taller Tales
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/Pirate crossover fanfic
Part 7
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg148846#msg148846)
Spoiler: Stoking the Bram Fans • show
The pirate, erm, privateer ship Sea-Lynx, captained by the mighty Sigrun Eide, slowly pulled alongside the derelict they had been chasing for the past few hours. Tuuri Hotakainen, helmswoman supreme, was decidedly unhappy about bringing the Sea-Lynx into broadside position without Master Gunner Emil Västerström and his guns ready to fire, but she trusted her captain.

The first thing Sigrun had told the boarding party was, “Kill them all,” which was unusual but understandable since everyone on the ship they were boarding was playing dead already; not only had they seen that trick before, they’d used that trick before; it was a trick only fellow pirates would use, so these rivals were going to die. She herself was not going aboard, as she was still healing an arm broken weeks before in their Mediterranean sortie.

“They’re all dead already,” Emil reported after he and Lalli Hotakainen, Tuuri’s cousin and head lookout, had gone up to a few of the putative corpses. Lalli was back up in his crow’s nest; Emil doubted anything but fire or explosives would bring the thin Finn out from his refuge.

Some of the crew began murmuring, but Sigrun and her officers had fought (and Sigrun had slain) the Kraken, so a death ship was somewhat underwhelming by comparison.

This was no ordinary death ship, however. Emil made his way to Sigrun’s side where she stood by her first mate, Mister Mikkel Madsen, and whispered in her ear, “They’ve all been exsanguinated.”

Sigrun narrowed her eyes. “Arms, belly or throat?”

“Throats, mostly.” Emil was not happy about their discovery, and was obviously hoping that Sigrun would pull a plan for dealing with it out of whatever orifice she found necessary.

Sigrun looked grim, though she forbore cursing for the moment. “Get every belaying pin on that ship, sharpen them into pointy stakes, and stake down each and every one of those corpses.”

Emil looked even more unhappy. “I already got a few of the men looking for ersatz stakes; there aren’t any. It looks like they deliberately got rid of anything on the ship that someone could use as a stake.” While others might have found it unusual that the two of them would immediately start looking for ways to keep the corpses from rising, it must be repeated that they had faced off against the Kraken; an experience like that tends to make one ready to confront that which others would dismiss as poppycock.

The curse Sigrun spat out made Emil wince. “And we don’t have nearly enough spares aboard the Sea-Lynx to stake them all. Well, we need to decapitate all of them and cut their hearts out before night falls.” She looked at Mister Mikkel. “This is where we could have used that cache of holy wafers from the Mariposa Reina, but who’s going to anticipate needing that?” She smiled wryly.

“I’ll lay in a stock the next time we’re in port,” he said in response. “Not that that will help us now. Do you think putting the heads in a sturdy sea chest will be sufficient, or should we try tossing the bodies overboard as well?”

“Or maybe burning them?” Reynir put in hesitantly.

“I think that depends on how much garlic you have on hand,” Sigrun replied in turn. She looked at Reynir. “We’ll keep the burning as a last resort, but frankly, I don’t think it’ll work. Keep thinking, though.”

Emil thought that he was going to be spending the next few nights in the crow’s nest with Lalli, as that was the most defensible part of the ship (not that he said that out loud, of course)…

Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
Hopefully Roisin will like this belated Christmas gift.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on December 25, 2019, 10:35:57 PM
Oooh Thank You, LooNEY!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on December 31, 2019, 12:25:16 AM
Tall Ships & Taller Tales
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/Pirate crossover fanfic
Part 8
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg168533#msg168533)
Spoiler: I Need to Fit Robots, Ninjas and Zombies in Here Too, Somehow • show
The Salutary and Ineffable Bond of the Dragon’s Claw was one of the very few groups of ninja that operated outside of the grand isolation Dai Nippon cloaked herself in; it was also one of the even fewer that made its members receive a brand. This mark of ownership was burned into the flesh of each member on the inside of their left wrist and constituted positive identification, as no one would be fool enough to try to fake it, since such an effort would swiftly bring about a painful end for those who essayed it.

Now, Reynir had no idea just how or why Mister Mikkel knew the brand by sight, but he accepted the massive mate’s word that the above was a true and correct description of the signification of the mark that marred almost every one of the bodies that Reynir and Mister Mikkel were currently trying to decapitate in a timely manner. When Reynir ventured to inquire of the taciturn mate how he thought the vampire had overcome so many trained killers, Mister Mikkel only replied, “Conservation of ninjutsu,” which left Reynir none the wiser.

“I still think that burning the bodies would be just as good a way to keep them from rising, and take less time and effort to boot,” Reynir grumbled as the men moved the next body in the queue to where the two mates stood waiting for it.

“I’m sure you do,” Mister Mikkel replied dryly, “but that doesn’t make it the truth. The creatures that we are trying to keep these poor devils from becoming are known to be able to turn themselves into a cloud of noxious vapors and reconstitute themselves in supposedly human form afterwards, so burning them would seem an exercise in futility in light of that.”

That reminded Reynir. “By the bye, did you ever find out what name this ship sailed under, and what land she came from?”

Mister Mikkel grimaced. “No.”

This did nothing to reassure the young redhead…

*

The coffin stowed belowdecks had been very cunningly hidden; thus, it was not particularly surprising that the men from the Sea-Lynx hadn’t found it in their first few searches, and especially since they were primarily looking for things they could use as stakes. When night fell at last, the coffin creaked open…

*

The bulk of the mob chasing Reynir across the deck of the other ship and away from the gangplank joining the two ships was made up of the head vampire’s slaves rather than being vampires in their own right; this made them little more than zombies to Reynir, as they were simply exsanguinated corpses reanimated to serve a malevolent master and with no will of their own. Of course, this made no difference to the fact that Reynir had to elude them or die.

Reynir managed to slip through a narrow chink in the wall belowdecks to bypass a locked (or jammed, or whatever) door, but while this stopped the vampire’s pawns, the vampire itself kept up the chase. Fortunately, Reynir’s maneuver had given him just enough of a lead for him to duck into one of the compartments further along and secure the door behind him.

His breath still ragged from the flight, Reynir felt his heart hammer in his chest as though it were eager for the creature of evil lurking just beyond the door to come and consume it. Letting out a long, slow breath, Reynir closed his eyes and sent out a wordless plea for help…

*

The head of the vampire trio that had been the death of the ship currently snuggled against the Sea-Lynx hovered outside the cabins at the stern of that redoubtable ship, staring hungrily at the sleeping forms behind the glass…

*

You hear the door slam
And realize there’s nowhere left to run

The song that hit Reynir’s ears like a fusillade was in English, but he somehow understood every word of it nonetheless. When he opened his eyes, Reynir saw that the song was coming from a squat little metal thing that Reynir knew was called a ‘robot’, though again he had no idea how he knew that. Atop the robot’s battle-scarred carapace, the vibrant figure of Sigrun the Valkyrie practically glowed out at Reynir despite the gloom of his hiding place.

You feel the cold hand
And wonder if you’ll ever see the sun

The horrible head of the horrible horde that had been hunting Reynir burst through the door just as the robot deployed a truly impressive array of blades and oriented itself in a pose suggesting that it meant to defend the human against the monster.

You close your eyes
And hope that this is just imagination

For a long moment, the vampire checked itself; Reynir wasn’t sure why at first, but then he noted the vampire occasionally making moves to the left or right in an effort to ascertain whether the robot could detect the movements, and another bit of lore popped into his mind: robots might not be able to see the undead like this one.

But all the while
You hear a creature creeping up behind
You’re out of time

At last, the vampire struck, certain that the interposed robot would be no problem for it…

…which was the last mistake it ever made.

Cause it’s the THRILLER
THRILLER night

Some part of the vast array of slicing and cutting blades the robot brought to bear must have been plated with silver, because the vampire fell to its foe like grass before a mower.

A second later, the robot flashed a pair of violet lights at Reynir and vanished as abruptly as it had appeared, leaving only the bits and pieces of its foe behind. The mostly intact head glared at Reynir with impotent malevolence, since the robot had stapled its lips shut…

Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
Oh, look; I squeezed them all in. (TVTropes link (https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NinjaPirateZombieRobot) for reference, sort of.)

We are, of course, not quite done here yet.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on December 31, 2019, 01:03:27 AM
Laughing very hard at this!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on January 23, 2020, 09:51:29 AM
The Next Chapter of ‘Year 3, Very Far to the South’ is up on Archive of Our Own. I’m Tanist over there. This chapter is the start of Patsy’s story, the young marngit/mage that Warri and Singer perceive calling for help.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Jitter on January 23, 2020, 12:24:31 PM
Here are my Yuletide stories. I put them into a series, but they are one-offs and not in a continuum.

The wind singer: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22188232
Little Lalli and Tuuri and teenage Onni are living in Keuruu. Lalli has started scout training with the military, but the forest is dark and scary. Tuuri is a smartass. Onni helps.

Jävlabocken: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22188535
Emil is invited to perform a Swedish fire ceremony predating the Rash. He gets cold feet. Lalli and Reynir help.

Yule preparations: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22188763
Lalli and Emil are boyfriends and staying with the Västerströms for Yule. Strange things are going on. Fluff ensues. (Kissing, snuggling, sharing a bed, loads of sweet fluff)

The first two were written for the Forum Advent Calendar and the third one for Secret Santa 2019, so they all are on the forum already. However I thought it’s worth posting them into the Scriptorium as well, as it’s more likey someone will find them here.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on February 09, 2020, 04:47:49 PM
Yo, ho,
Yo, ho,
A Vampire's Death
For me...
/creepychildvoice

Tall Ships & Taller Tales
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/Pirate crossover fanfic
Part 9
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg168659#msg168659)
Spoiler: No, This Part Isn’t Called “NosferaTuuri” • show
Emil Västerström had never felt so exposed as when he left the crow’s nest, shimmying down the rigging to the deck in a fumbling and vain attempt to catch up with Lalli, who was already disappearing belowdecks; the fact that it was the midst of the darkest night Emil had experienced in quite some time did nothing to help matters. He hated feeling like this, but he’d feel worse if some stupid creature of evil got lucky and his best friend wound up dead—or worse, so there was no way he could just stay under cover if Lalli was charging headlong into danger.

Fortunately (though Emil didn’t know it at the time), most of the vampires’ zombie slaves were busy chasing Reynir, so the deck amidships was almost clear; for the most part, Emil wasn’t behindhand in using his cutlass to remove the “almost” from that description, only hesitating a few times when the zombie proved to be one of his shipmates.

Emil passed Mister Mikkel calmly walking from the galley to the officers’ quarters. The big man was loaded down with what looked to be every clove of garlic in their stores, so Emil wasn’t worried about him; it was Lalli he was still worried about, since Mikkel only shrugged when Emil used their shipmate’s name as a one word question. Emil took that to mean the big Dane hadn’t seen the thin Finn and resumed his search.

Noises from the deck above had Emil going for the nearest hatch, his hands fumbling with worry for Lalli. It took him long enough to reach the open deck that he knew that Lalli would be gone, assuming the noises had been occasioned by the thin, silent lookout. If they had, there was no sign of where his friend had been, as Emil had more than half expected.

Another noise echoed across the deck, but it was too dark for Emil to pinpoint exactly where its source was; something about the noise told Emil that now was the time to use whatever measure of stealth he possessed. Cautiously moving in that general direction, Emil let out a gasp when he found the very last thing he wanted to find: a vampire feeding.

Emil could feel the dark power swirling around the form hunched over the hapless crewman, but nothing about the form prepared him for what he saw when it—when she—turned to face him with a familiar, “Hey there, Emil.”

For a second, Emil just stood there, frozen with terror and horror. What snapped him out of it was a completely insanely irrelevant thought, to wit: I wonder if I need my brown pants now. The absurdity of the thought broke Emil out of the spell; the vampire stopped her stealthy approach when she saw the awareness return to his eyes, but decided she could keep coming after another silent moment.

Emil took aim with his pistol. "I swear I'll fire if you come one more step." He knew the turmoil he felt at what he’d have to do showed clearly in his voice; nonetheless, his aim was as steady as ever.

The new vampire stopped to laugh at his sudden defiance, her fangs almost glowing in the darkness. "Even if you could, that popgun wouldn't leave a mark on me, and we both know it." She started forward again.

Emil had never seen such a look of shock and surprise on the vampire’s face as when the silver bullet found her heart. "Goodbye, Tuuri." Before she could have replied, he fired the second barrel, hitting her right between the eyes.

"What are you talking about, 'Goodbye Tuuri'? I'm not going anywhere!"

The voice came from behind Emil. When he turned, he saw the helmswoman standing at her post.

Tuuri smiled; there was no trace of a fang in the dentition she exposed thus. "See you in the sunlight, Emil." Then she deftly evaded the pair of zombies that had been sneaking up on her in hopes of getting her so that they tangled themselves in the great wheel that set the Sea-Lynx’s course. With a final remark of, “Looks like I can’t do much here anymore,” she went below...

Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
And the bad puns in my titles roll on…
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lueley on March 05, 2020, 03:43:12 PM
I just finished my first ever fic 😅, I'd be honoured if anyone would like to read it!

Tuuri, after dying, is offered a chance to fulfil her final wish: to watch over her new friends and protect them from harm- five trips to Earth, and a job as a guardian angel.

Here's the link:
https://archiveofourown.org/works/22834585/chapters/54573238
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on March 05, 2020, 04:45:27 PM
Good work, Lueley! I especially liked Lumi.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lueley on March 07, 2020, 10:17:50 AM
Thank you so much, Róisín! It was fun to write :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on March 07, 2020, 11:30:55 AM
Well, I finally cranked out the next bit of...

The Expedition Redux (https://archiveofourown.org/works/21201896/chapters/55136077).
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Keep Looking on March 07, 2020, 09:08:23 PM
I did audio recordings of a couple of my poems today. Is there a place on the forum for audio recordings of stuff? And what format would I put them it?

Also, Looney, I thoroughly enjoyed reading the next bit of the expedition REDUX!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Jitter on March 08, 2020, 05:54:44 PM
Lueley, thank you for the story! I love the idea of Mikkel being in trouble herding a handful of mini Sigruns :)

Do you have a defined idea, how Lumi came to be? I take it she’s Lalli’s by blood, but the description had much of Emil too. Did they purposefully find a mother who looks like Emil, or is it a kind of magic?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on March 10, 2020, 01:47:32 PM
Finally!

True Ruler: The drum-player (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13118263/10/True-Ruler)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on March 15, 2020, 09:07:12 PM
Just a little drabble, a touch of angst and darkness for your day (although I did tag this as 'Unreliable Narrator' as well): A String of Pinecones (https://archiveofourown.org/works/23154055)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: thegreyarea on March 16, 2020, 09:21:46 PM
I should have put this story here months ago, when I published it on AO3, but better late then never! :)

So here goes my first story, with lots of Sigrun and a touch of Mikkel: Lightning https://archiveofourown.org/works/21430231 (https://archiveofourown.org/works/21430231)

I hope you like it (because more is coming...)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on March 16, 2020, 10:00:35 PM
Oh, good! That was a fine story.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: thegreyarea on March 16, 2020, 10:20:45 PM
Oh, good! That was a fine story.

Thanks! :)

And as I said that more was coming, here is another, appropriately called... "A Beginning". https://archiveofourown.org/works/23179975/chapters/55484107 (https://archiveofourown.org/works/23179975/chapters/55484107)

This story is in the SSSS universe but do not contain (in this part) any SSSS character, so don't expect to see Sigrun or any other of our beloved friends.

It's supposed to become the prologue of a bigger story that's in the making, but I think it's interesting on its own. It's not the continuation of Lightning, that is still in the shipyard, but looking good :)

Special thanks to Jitter for the comments that sparked my inspiration!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Jitter on March 17, 2020, 10:40:00 AM
Whoo! Another one! I’ll read it as soon as possible!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Joe Steele on March 25, 2020, 02:02:33 PM
This is the first fic I'm posting here. Constructive criticism is welcome.
Good Night, Europe
https://archiveofourown.org/works/23305408
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on March 25, 2020, 06:20:54 PM
That is clever. I hope there will be more of this tale?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: thegreyarea on March 31, 2020, 07:10:33 PM
Remember the story I posted recently, A Beginning? I said then that I hoped that it would become the prologue for a bigger story, and I'm working to make that true.

So here is Chapter 2, First Contact : http://archiveofourown.org/works/23179975/chapters/56127349#workskin (http://archiveofourown.org/works/23179975/chapters/56127349#workskin)

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did creating it. The third chapter is already on the production line :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: DancingRanger on March 31, 2020, 08:18:16 PM
I have a crossover fic (one of my DnD characters due to rift shenanigans ends up in the SSSS world) That I never finished, I'm gonna toss here. Maybe you all will enjoy it!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/12KmTo2v8eGUnlHUKjZR5jVHSAqcJudMAMcTe1OTzNrg/edit?usp=sharing

maybe I'll finish it and post it properly on Ao3 or something.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: thegreyarea on April 01, 2020, 07:09:25 AM
I have a crossover fic (one of my DnD characters due to rift shenanigans ends up in the SSSS world) That I never finished, I'm gonna toss here. Maybe you all will enjoy it!

maybe I'll finish it and post it properly on Ao3 or something.

Please do it. Looks very interesting, and I'd like to see how it ends.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on April 01, 2020, 09:49:00 AM
Nice to see Gilbert more than in your avatar picture. I do hope that there will be more of this tale.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: DancingRanger on April 01, 2020, 04:51:15 PM
Thank you guys, I might do some minor rewriting for a better flow and figure out where this story will go. My main internal question is do I follow the comic's cannon, or let it forge it's own path?

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on April 02, 2020, 12:30:40 AM
Maybe see where your character wants to take the story? I have always found that when a character is well written, the author knows what that character is most likely to do because ‘being himself, what else could he do’.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: RanVor on April 02, 2020, 01:12:06 AM
I have always found that when a character is well written, the author knows what that character is most likely to do because ‘being himself, what else could he do’.
Ah. None of my characters is well written, then. Not that I expected them to be, but it's good to have a reliable outside opinion on that.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on April 02, 2020, 03:00:41 AM
Heh, I like your characters well enough!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Jitter on April 27, 2020, 01:09:26 PM
I don't really know if this is prose or poetry, so I'll just have to pick one. I find the lake cows (A2 p 261-263) very touching. How did they come to be? They seem more peaceful than most other grosslings. Maybe they remember something of once being a cow?

My tally

I tally my lost ones.

First it came to Oona’s. They suddenly locked their gate and closed the curtains. Three days later we heard the gunshots. Dad told me to not go look. I wanted to know what happened, since Oona was my best friend. I didn’t go. I’m glad of that.

One.

Then Musti bit Marko. When he told us about it, we didn’t believe him. Musti was the gentlest dog ever. But when we found her under the barn… She had killed all the cats. All! Even the tiny kittens! Dad took care of Musti. Her body is buried under her favorite tree.

Two.

Marko, he was my brother, went into the lake. He asked me to cover for him, to have time to go through with it before mum notices him. I went inside and chatted with mum. We never found his body, but we built a cairn for him.

Three.

Dad probably had been ill a couple of days already when he collapsed. We took him to the house. We knew already that we shouldn’t have, but we didn’t want to leave him out on the yard. Couldn’t leave him.
Mum was next. She deteriorated more quickly than dad had. They both died one week after the gunshots at Oona’s. Me and mum had dug a grave for dad together. I buried them both in it, but I built two cairns. Dragging dad across the yard was difficult, but mum was lighter than I ever could have guessed.

Five.

The feeding robot was empty. I couldn’t leave the cows in to starve, so I pried the door open for them. They hung around the fields for a few days. One morning a cacophony of mooing woke me up. I went to see them, and I saw it had come for the herd. Over half of the animals were lying down. Several were trampled to death. Many had run.
My bottle calves, Mansikki and Lilja, were among the ones still standing. When I walked towards them, they turned to stare at me. Their big beautiful eyes were… wrong. They looked at me sadly and then turned away. They led the surviving herd away, into the trees. I never saw them after that.

Seven.

Marko would say I’m silly to tally cows. But I loved those two. And Marko isn’t here. No one is. Only I remain. It seems I’m somehow immune to it. I wish I wasn’t.

The dead cows are starting to smell. I have to leave. I’ll take the boat. I’m not sure if I should build a cairn for myself. Probably not, no one will see them anyways. It’s time for me to go now.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on May 09, 2020, 08:42:06 PM
I, uh, seem to have posted something dark (https://archiveofourown.org/works/21201896/chapters/58012720)(ish).
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on May 19, 2020, 03:01:53 AM
A Y0 fic appears: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24207010
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: phocena on June 01, 2020, 09:59:30 PM
I've been doing SSSS quickwrites of pages in between studying. It's not actually quick though, I've spent over a week writing page 272 and don't have any others (how do you all write so fast?  :o). I'll just post it here before it's completely obsolete.

Spoiler: show
"Yeaaah... I'm honestly not so worried about that", Sigrun said, a little surprised at Mikkel's insistence. Experience told her it was foolish to waste time and initiative worrying about every possible danger. Better instead to stay alert and focus on the task at hand- besides, if Surma really was the threat the sentinel made her out to be, then her presence would have been known far before, back when Emil detonated the metal giant and the resulting explosion echoed across the valley. They had left the area quickly enough then. Would a round from Mikkel's shotgun really cause serious problems now?
 
"I'd say-", Sigrun began, planning her argument carefully. But she never finished her sentence. Suddenly, the area exploded with an earsplitting "AAwwoooOOOO!" that tore through the landscape. The group jolted into action, turning their heads to look behind and pin down the howling that seemed to emanate from a nearby thicket of trees. They strained to listen for clues, fighting the pitter patter of rain which hadn't let up since morning.

"Did you see that?" Sigrun whispered cautiously, motioning to a spot screened well behind some thin, finger-like saplings. A small bead of moss had just been kicked out of place, and Sigrun could see movement ahead - hugging the ground, darting between smooth, river-worn rocks, concealed in shadow - but not concealed enough for Sigrun's eyes, which from years of training could make out a grey streak of fur headed their way.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Keep Looking on June 01, 2020, 11:13:19 PM
Phocena, this is some good writing - I especially love how you really get into the characters' heads. As far as I know, speed really only comes with practice - the more you write this kind of thing, the faster you tend to get.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on June 07, 2020, 03:25:19 AM
Anybody up for a bit of harmless humour?  I had an inspiration for a piece this afternoon, definitely not to be overthunk.
As seen on AO3 and in the spoilers below - https://archiveofourown.org/works/24584164
Feel free to add your own take on the concept.

Spoiler: ssss dating profiles • show

What would the cast write for themselves if they had listings in the dating section classifieds of the newspaper (assuming canon tech)? NB: Gendering of desired partners left off deliberately.

Work Text:
Reynir
Hi! I’m Reynir, tall with looooong red hair, green eyes. You can always spot me because of my freckles! (Get it, *spot* me?) Anyway, I love long walks on the beach under the palm trees – except that I’m not immune, so we can’t actually *go* to the beach, but I’d love it. I’m really easygoing and have a great sense of humour, and a good listener. I don’t actually have a job right now, but I can do anything, and I’m helpful around the house, and I’m a mage, too! I don’t know anything about sheep, so would not be suitable on a farm safe in Iceland. Call me!!

Mikkel
Male, immune, 193cm, good build, all my own hair and teeth, Dane. Resourceful, fine with cooking and housework. Looking for an independent type to be my partner in crime, ha ha. I like to travel. Strong preference for names starting with M.

Sigrun
I’m a Captain in the great Norwegian military, from a long line of generals! Great kill ratio (I’ve lost track, but it’s hundreds), fast knife work, good shot, can lay traps, not afraid to get in there and do what needs to be done, might even be you?! I can go all night, especially in the summertime. Can’t stand prissy people or sitting around. If you like to go hard, you should totally pick me!

Lalli
Not weird.

Onni
When the forest is quiet, you can hear best. The sounds travels over the water. The music holds all things in its hands and gives it to the stars. I see the stars reflected in your eyes as my knees sink into the moss. Smokers okay.

Väinö
I hold an honoured and essential position as a skilled noita, ever vigilant against threats to Saimaa. But watching the frontier is lonely work, and the power of a thousand wings only goes so far on long winter nights. I can offer a secure home with breathtaking views. Immunes preferred.

Emil
I come from a good and proud family. I am tidy, good-looking, well-presented, and appreciate someone with refined tastes like mine. Family is very important to me, and there’s nothing I like better than a comfortable home, with good food and a nice fire burning hot and bright and flickering with leaping tongues of flames charring the logs in the hearth to red-hot glowing coals. I also love kids.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Jitter on June 07, 2020, 06:48:25 AM
Haha, Wave, lovely! Onni’s especially is very beautiful, except for the last sentence.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on June 07, 2020, 08:48:40 AM
Haha, Wave, lovely! Onni’s especially is very beautiful, except for the last sentence.

I'm not sure I got the joke about that one, actually.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: RanVor on June 07, 2020, 09:05:55 AM
I love how Emil's description of a fireplace goes from cozy to creepy as he keeps adding more and more detail.

Also, Reynir's assertion that he has no knowledge of sheep and farming whatsoever had me laughing out loud.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: GaelleDragons on June 07, 2020, 12:21:24 PM
They're all very funny and in character! I love how Emil's more of a love letter to fire than anything else. xD
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: thegreyarea on June 07, 2020, 03:08:08 PM
Wave, that's absolutely delicious!!! I don't know which one is the best. They are all amazing!
I may think on replies to each one...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on June 07, 2020, 06:45:01 PM
Haha, Wave, lovely! Onni’s especially is very beautiful, except for the last sentence.

Well, yes, that last bit was an afterthought.  I personally find smoking a huge turn-off and a deal-breaker, but I started thinking about Onni and the mindset that would cause him to sell himself as a soulful poet looking for luurrrve in the forest, and well, it fit that vision.  I kept it terse to be more in tune with his actual character (whom I headcanon as awkward and stone-faced if he gets an actual date from this ad, frantically wondering how he can get from 'hello' to 'oh look, here's some nice handy moss now').
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: thegreyarea on June 08, 2020, 12:59:56 PM
Anybody up for a bit of harmless humour?  I had an inspiration for a piece this afternoon, definitely not to be overthunk.
As seen on AO3 and in the spoilers below - https://archiveofourown.org/works/24584164
Feel free to add your own take on the concept.

Spoiler: ssss dating profiles • show

What would the cast write for themselves if they had listings in the dating section classifieds of the newspaper (assuming canon tech)? NB: Gendering of desired partners left off deliberately.

Work Text:
Reynir
Hi! I’m Reynir, tall with looooong red hair, green eyes. You can always spot me because of my freckles! (Get it, *spot* me?) Anyway, I love long walks on the beach under the palm trees – except that I’m not immune, so we can’t actually *go* to the beach, but I’d love it. I’m really easygoing and have a great sense of humour, and a good listener. I don’t actually have a job right now, but I can do anything, and I’m helpful around the house, and I’m a mage, too! I don’t know anything about sheep, so would not be suitable on a farm safe in Iceland. Call me!!

Mikkel
Male, immune, 193cm, good build, all my own hair and teeth, Dane. Resourceful, fine with cooking and housework. Looking for an independent type to be my partner in crime, ha ha. I like to travel. Strong preference for names starting with M.

Sigrun
I’m a Captain in the great Norwegian military, from a long line of generals! Great kill ratio (I’ve lost track, but it’s hundreds), fast knife work, good shot, can lay traps, not afraid to get in there and do what needs to be done, might even be you?! I can go all night, especially in the summertime. Can’t stand prissy people or sitting around. If you like to go hard, you should totally pick me!

Lalli
Not weird.

Onni
When the forest is quiet, you can hear best. The sounds travels over the water. The music holds all things in its hands and gives it to the stars. I see the stars reflected in your eyes as my knees sink into the moss. Smokers okay.

Väinö
I hold an honoured and essential position as a skilled noita, ever vigilant against threats to Saimaa. But watching the frontier is lonely work, and the power of a thousand wings only goes so far on long winter nights. I can offer a secure home with breathtaking views. Immunes preferred.

Emil
I come from a good and proud family. I am tidy, good-looking, well-presented, and appreciate someone with refined tastes like mine. Family is very important to me, and there’s nothing I like better than a comfortable home, with good food and a nice fire burning hot and bright and flickering with leaping tongues of flames charring the logs in the hearth to red-hot glowing coals. I also love kids.


Wave, since you said "fell free...", I've received several anonymous responses for the adds (some problem with Y90 mail, for sure). I'll put them below.

Spoiler: Anonymous responses to SSSS dating profiles • show

Reynir
Hi! I’m Reynir, tall with looooong red hair, green eyes. You can always spot me because of my freckles! (Get it, *spot* me?) Anyway, I love long walks on the beach under the palm trees – except that I’m not immune, so we can’t actually *go* to the beach, but I’d love it. I’m really easygoing and have a great sense of humour, and a good listener. I don’t actually have a job right now, but I can do anything, and I’m helpful around the house, and I’m a mage, too! I don’t know anything about sheep, so would not be suitable on a farm safe in Iceland. Call me!
!
Anonymous Response
I also enjoy very long walks, when you can hear Nature's music. Since the beach is part of Nature, I feel that I belong there too. We seem to have lots in common. I'm also not immune, and a mage. If you are such a good listener, I could tell you stories, and you can teach me what's "Humour". Will our eyes reflect the same stars? I want to find if you're the person in my dreams.

Mikkel
Male, immune, 193cm, good build, all my own hair and teeth, Dane. Resourceful, fine with cooking and housework. Looking for an independent type to be my partner in crime, ha ha. I like to travel. Strong preference for names starting with M.

Anonymous Response
Hi! I'm a tall redhead female, also all original and awesome. You seem to be the most best kind of man, someone that does what need to be done and is ready to dive into adventure. Want to find out if I'm your future partner in crime? I'll take the lead, just remember that I don't tolerate mutiny! My name does not start with M, but I guarantee that you won't care about that after meeting me.

Sigrun
I’m a Captain in the great Norwegian military, from a long line of generals! Great kill ratio (I’ve lost track, but it’s hundreds), fast knife work, good shot, can lay traps, not afraid to get in there and do what needs to be done, might even be you?! I can go all night, especially in the summertime. Can’t stand prissy people or sitting around. If you like to go hard, you should totally pick me!

Anonymous Response
Have been in the army, too, and had several missions along my life, never sitting around for much time, so perhaps we can travel together and do what needs to be done? Maybe I should pick you as my future partner in crime, ha ha. Does your name start with M?

Lalli
Not weird.

Anonymous Response
I'm not weird, just a nice-looking guy that enjoys the good, simple things in life, like a well-combed hair. How is yours? I don't know if you're telling that you are not weird, or if you want to meet someone that isn't, but whatever communication problems we may face, I'm sure we can work that out on a nice chat near the fire watching how beautifully it burns turning the logs into bright, crackling coals while felling the heat on our skins. Do you like kids?

Onni
When the forest is quiet, you can hear best. The sounds travels over the water. The music holds all things in its hands and gives it to the stars. I see the stars reflected in your eyes as my knees sink into the moss. Smokers okay.

Anonymous Response
Hi! I love natural things like sheep, trees (particularly palm trees) and stars! I'm a good listener, and maybe we can try to hear the forest together. I'm a helpful person, and would love to help you with whatever you like to do kneeling into the moss. Your message sounds like a dream, and I enjoy dreaming too (I can even walk on water there)! Maybe we could have some dreams together. Call me!!

Väinö
I hold an honoured and essential position as a skilled noita, ever vigilant against threats to Saimaa. But watching the frontier is lonely work, and the power of a thousand wings only goes so far on long winter nights. I can offer a secure home with breathtaking views. Immunes preferred.

Anonymous Response
I'm from Saimaa, and would love to have some company on the long winter nights, and also on the long summer days. I'm very curious and would surely enjoy learning many things from a wise noita. I have some experience with wings, and it's quite fun. Immunity is not a problem. Are you afraid of ghosts?

Emil
I come from a good and proud family. I am tidy, good-looking, well-presented, and appreciate someone with refined tastes like mine. Family is very important to me, and there’s nothing I like better than a comfortable home, with good food and a nice fire burning hot and bright and flickering with leaping tongues of flames charring the logs in the hearth to red-hot glowing coals. I also love kids.

Anonymous Response
Like family too. You sound weird, but maybe we try. Like cats?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on June 08, 2020, 03:09:10 PM
Nice. Though the answer to Väinö's is a little weird to me personally because I have stub of a story somewhere in which I made him the grandfather of the female OC I roll out when I want to make Onni a father (and it's an AU where Tuuri lives on top of that).
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on June 08, 2020, 07:00:47 PM
Heee 'Anonymous' my foot.   >:D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LilG on June 09, 2020, 12:47:08 PM
not afraid to get in there and do what needs to be done, might even be you?! I can go all night, especially in the summertime. (...) If you like to go hard, you should totally pick me!

Well then, Sigrun seems pretty... eager to get it started, doesn’t she?

Anonymous Response
Have been in the army, too, and had several missions along my life, never sitting around for much time, so perhaps we can travel together and do what needs to be done? Maybe I should pick you as my future partner in crime, ha ha. Does your name start with M?

Thankfully, Mikk- er, I mean Mr./Mrs. anonymous is here to fulfill her “demands” ;)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on June 09, 2020, 08:07:46 PM
Well then, Sigrun seems pretty... eager to get it started, doesn’t she?


Sigrun can be fairly intimidating when she wants what she wants.  Better to get that out up front, no?

In other news, I published the second half of the Abide With Me story, I Triumph Still, if Thou Abide With Me. (https://archiveofourown.org/works/24622996)  This features pre-canon General Asbjørn & Lieutenant Sigrun and their squad encountering the troll.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on June 18, 2020, 07:07:13 AM
And... hello partial reason I'm sticking to pinch hitter this chapter break:

True Ruler 11: Chrysalis (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13118263/11/True-Ruler)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on July 14, 2020, 07:56:53 AM
I have just put up Chapter 5 of ‘Year 3: Very Far to the South’ on Archive of Our Own. Patsy works out what she is, and begins to realise just how much trouble the world is in. I am’Tanist’ over there.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on July 14, 2020, 06:21:12 PM
Linkie to Tanist's very fine story: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17562194/chapters/41388347 (https://archiveofourown.org/works/17562194/chapters/41388347)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on July 14, 2020, 06:25:27 PM
Also a fic recce for lwise2019 (dunno if they have a Forum identity?), who is writing some of the best Mikkel material I've ever clapped eyeballs on: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lwise2019/pseuds/lwise2019 (https://archiveofourown.org/users/lwise2019/pseuds/lwise2019)
You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll see frogs fly.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on July 14, 2020, 09:12:20 PM
Wavewright, thank you very much for that. I have never been able to make links! And I am glad you were able to do the same for Iwise! I really like their stuff, and their take on Mikkel is very much as I imagine him. Well worth reading.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: midwestmutt on July 16, 2020, 11:58:55 AM
Also a fic recce for lwise2019 (dunno if they have a Forum identity?), who is writing some of the best Mikkel material I've ever clapped eyeballs on: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lwise2019/pseuds/lwise2019 (https://archiveofourown.org/users/lwise2019/pseuds/lwise2019)
You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll see frogs fly.
I just finished binge reading this series. I give it a rating of Most Best. Seriously, check it out.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on July 20, 2020, 03:59:02 AM
A bit of blowing of my own horn this time - I participated in the Multifandom Drabble exchange that's just been revealed, and I have written a bunch of treats for SSSS.  Drabbles are 100 words or exact multiples, so can be a little challenging to write, but they are like popcorn to read.  I'll just link, although if anyone has trouble seeing AO3, these are short enough to post here.
All of these are G-rated, and most of them are humourous, or at least attempt it.

Confrontation (https://archiveofourown.org/works/25234795/chapters/61169950) - Onni comes face-to-face with.... a suspense story.  Kinda.  Sorta.
Eyes of Owls (https://archiveofourown.org/works/25275589) - Onni again, in a post-canon story.  No prizes for guessing what my headcanon is.
Wednesday Hotakainen (https://archiveofourown.org/works/25367587) - a very silly crossover of the Prologue Hotakainens with the old Addams Family TV series.  There's a cartoon illustration as well.
A Likely Story (https://archiveofourown.org/works/25255015) - absolutely no Hotakainens in this one - a Madsen family vignette.
Spoiler: girl genius drabble • show

My actual assignment was a match on Girl Genius, so for completion's sake, instead of posting it by itself in the Forum Scriptorium thread, here is No Coffee For You (https://archiveofourown.org/works/25196206) - featuring Agatha, Zeetha, Violetta, and Krosp, eating breakfast.  Et cetera.  Probably not comprehensible if you don't know the characters and their history.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on July 20, 2020, 07:46:27 AM
Love all of these!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: ftmshepard on July 22, 2020, 11:15:47 PM
Brief question from a newbie: does canonical levels of violence/character death count as pg-13? If I'm writing a story where a human dies, should I link it instead?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Jitter on July 23, 2020, 07:03:33 AM
Edited upon noticing Shep’s update of being up to date :) Never mind most of what I said - look at canon violence to make sure.

Shep, your question is slightly tricky. Canon typical violence is ok. However the problem is you are not very far along in the canon yet, right? Are you out of the train yet? Take a look at the train incident to get an idea.

In my opinion a human death is not the deciding factor but the amount of gore. So, I would approve “they sustained such grievous injuries, there was nothing to be done” but detailed descriptions of the injuries or the event leading to them may easily slip over the limit. Description of battle is ok, celebrating the injuries and gore is not. (Please bear in mind this is my opinion only, I cannot give “permission” for any type of content).
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: ftmshepard on July 23, 2020, 12:37:14 PM
Jitter thank you! I will keep that in mind.

Yeah, I'm caught up! Many Tuuri, much dragon age mage Lalli.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Jitter on July 23, 2020, 03:17:08 PM
I was agonizing over how to answer for you that major character death is canon typical without major spoilers :tuuri: Glad it was useful after all that.

BTW we also have an adult board for adults (obviously) which is a) currently quiet and b) mostly focused on the other type of adult content but it’s also for works that are rated above PG-13 due to gore or otherwise adult themes.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lallicat on July 23, 2020, 03:27:46 PM
I wrote this a while ago, it's a story taking place in Africa in the SSSS world. This is mostly a prologue to the actual story, quickly written and only quickly revised. :P I may or may not finish it, but I wanted to put it here for some feedback so... enjoy?

Chieftain Adaliya carefully surveyed her surroundings. The beast attack had taken out 3/4 of their party and had gravely injured at least half of the survivors. Her right hand man, Ekon, cleared his throat to gain her attention. "It's done, Ma'am. They are at rest now." She turned to face him. "Good. Are we ready to head out? We've stayed far to long in this spot." Ekon shifted uncomfortably "Ah, not quite ma'am. We still haven't figured out what to do with the baby." "Status?" Inquired Adaliya. "Relatively healthy, but was born with a twisted leg." After a long silence, Adaliya made her decision. We can't take her with us. We leave her near the closest shrine. She will be an offering to our Gods. "But... she... she is just a child!" Ekon stammered. "She is an extra mouth to feed. Her mother was able to catch enough food for both of them, but she is gone now. And if she somehow manages to survive, with that leg she will slow us down, and make us susceptible to another beast attack. Cape buffalos are nasty creatures, Ekon, and we won't survive another attack. It is the way of life here. The strong survive and the weak die." She paused for a moment. "If it is any consolation to you, she is a frail thing. She most likely would have died anyway." "Well at the very least give her a name, so she can be guided into the beyond properly. Don't leave her soul to wander here for all eternity!" Ekon pleaded. "Very well. Child, I name you Mkali."
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on July 23, 2020, 06:08:28 PM
Well written. A cold equation indeed.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: thegreyarea on July 24, 2020, 10:27:13 AM
Lallicat, I like it (although of course I don't like the idea, but that's understandable considering the context). The SSSS world is a hard one, and Africa, with many large mammals, would be even worse.
Would this story be in the same time frame of the current SSSS (Y90-91)?

I hope you don't mind some observations/suggestions from a non-native English speaker/writer. (so I may be wrong) :)

Wouldn't the "leave her near the closest shrine. She will be an offering to our Gods" imply that Ekon is not going with Adaliya? (or she's ordering him to go find one, unless there's a shrine very close, but then the "closest" to me reads like "the first shrine we find on our way"). But it seems they are going together, and in a hurry, so wouldn't be better to add "we" before?
Also, wouldn't it be "on" the shrine, instead of "near"? Offerings are usually put on (or over, or inside) the shrine, I believe. So we would have:
"We leave her on the closest shrine. She will be an offering to our Gods".

Isn't too cruel to leave a baby to die (or trollify) in the shrine? It seems (to me) that it would make more sense to "put it to rest" (however bad it sounds). But maybe there are strong cultural reasons for not killing, like "the Gods prefer that way", or maybe our storyteller is planning that the baby will survive, or be saved by someone else, and become a protagonist in the actual story (since this would be a prologue) ;)

I hope my comments are useful, and also that you go ahead with the story.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lallicat on July 24, 2020, 12:26:29 PM
thegreyarea I hope this will clear up some confusion about the prologue :P And yes, it is set around Y90-95ish


The Alfa lioness opened her eyes. The pride was slumbering under the shade of a tree and all was well. Then she noticed the small human child. She silently rose to her feet and inspected the tiny thing. The baby opened it's eyes. They were black and shiny and full of life. She gave the child's cheek a tentative lick. It giggled. Satisfied, the lioness gently picked it up by the scruff of it's neck and placed it next to her cubs. The pride did not need extra food. As messengers of the Gods, they were entitled to the livestock the humans could spare. The humans never hunted in their territory either. Her pride had been prosperous since the days of the Illness. In exchange, the pride would protect the villages in their territerritory from beasts. It was a good arrangement. While she didn't know the reason the child was left here, she felt that eating it would be a violation of the agreement and trust that her pride and the humans had slowly built with each other. She would raise it as her own.

It seems Mama Lion has a better moral compass then those silly humans...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Jitter on July 24, 2020, 01:43:21 PM
The Mama Lion also has cubs at the moment, resulting in a) milk and b) hormones making her prone to be protective of young things :) I like what this is building up to!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lallicat on July 24, 2020, 02:00:09 PM
Jitter thank you! I'm glad you're liking it!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: ftmshepard on July 24, 2020, 10:43:10 PM
I'm writing a sad angsty thing that is an au but only to make things sadder

canon character death, rash illness

Spoiler: show
He found her on the edge of water.
“Tuuri—” Lalli started, and frowned, grabbing her by the back of her jacket. That was easier, more efficient, than words. “You—”
“I found the rash,” she said. “On my neck. It will spread, and then I will be trapped, and I will become—” She tried to pull away from Lalli’s grip. “At least I can see the world without fear, for a little while.”
Lalli looked out over the water. This was not a new sight to him, though it was vaster than the rivers of the archipelago.
“What were you going to do?” he asked. He was, he realized, terrified. With Tuuri gone, he would be alone. 
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lallicat on July 31, 2020, 07:43:21 PM
I put my current fic aside, for a Human!Kitty AU one. And phew! It was considerably harder than expected to translate comic panels into words.  O_O It isn't perfect yet and needs some revising, but here's the general gist of the first part:
Spoiler: show
 "Emil! Come back here, that's just a cat!" Sigrun shook her head. Emil was very high strung. She turned her attention back to the cat in question. It was lying down in a large puddle. She examined the cat carefully, and it became clear that she sported a fatal wound. She knew she would have to put it out of its misery. Emil, apparently having recovered from the scare he had received from this helpless animal, joined her as she prepared to deliver mercy on the poor cat. He turned away, suddenly interested in a hole in the wall. Despite his tough guy appearence, Sigrun had to constantly remind herself that he had never really seen death. Once the deed was done, she turned back to Emil. He was holding his head in his hands. She looked inside the hole and saw tiny kittens, all dead. "Look Emil," she started, unsure how to comfort the Swede. "Sometimes animals die and there's nothing we can do about-" she was interrupted by a soft "miu!" They both stared at each other, then pressed their faces to the hole. For a fraction of a second, Sigrun thought the shadowed figure was another kitten, but the moment passed, and she saw clearly what was huddling in the dark. A human child.
"Wha-" Emil started to say, but was interrupted by fierce hissing. Before Sigrun had time to blink, the child sprang out of the hole, knocking down both Sigrun and Emil. With surprising agility she shimmied up the remains of a telephone pole. Squaring her shoulders, Sigrun spoke up to the child. "Come down, I know a healer that can take a look at you. And give you food. This will be really easy for both of us if you just climb down now. Or you can be difficult about it." The wisp of a girl bared her teeth down at her. "Fine then, you wanted it this way." Sigrun started to climb the pole. She didn't have time to ponder where the child had come from, or how she had survived in the Silent World, she just knew she had to get that child to Mikkel before it was too late. She may not have been able to save the cats, but she was certainly not going to let this girl die without putting up a fight. "Pshhhht!" The girl hissed at her from atop her perch. Sigrun didn't flinch. "Yeah whatever" she told her. "C'mere Kitten Girl," she called to her as she got to the top. The little brat pushed her hand away as she tried to pick her up. "Stop that, don't you see I'm trying to help you?" A sharp pain passed through her hand, as the small devil bit her. "BAD CHILD! NO!" she scolded. Then the girl went limp. This was excellent, in a way, as she now stopped putting up a struggle, but very, very, bad as she stopped holding up her weight. If it wasn't for her military training, Sigrun would have fell to the ground immediately. She slowly started her descent, but all that dead weight was taking a toll on her injured hand. She started to feel the kid slipping, and knew that she had to do something. "Emil!" She fretted between clenched teeth, "get ready to catch her!" She was so close to the ground, when her arms finally gave way. She landed hard on her back, as she heard Emil grunt a curse, then exclaim, "Got her!" Without giving herself a moment to clear the stars circling in front of her eyes, she pushed herself up and motioned at the unconscious girl. "Give her to me, we need to get to Mikkel as fast as possible." Emil shook his head.
"Not after that fall. I can carry her, don't worry." He hoisted the girl on his back, in an approximate piggyback ride, then took off full speed with Sigrun towards the Cat Tank.


Yes, I moved some events around, but the idea of Sigrun wrestling with a tiny demon-child on top of a pole was to good to pass up.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on July 31, 2020, 08:27:29 PM
Heee, go go go...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on July 31, 2020, 09:38:25 PM
I put my current fic aside, for a Human!Kitty AU one.
/me is still thinking.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Keep Looking on July 31, 2020, 09:46:43 PM
I love this!!!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: MollyVampiric on August 01, 2020, 12:34:48 AM
Hehe that was good!

(I'd also like to say I was thinking, but I barely have two brain cells to rub together, so it would take me forever)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Mirasol on August 01, 2020, 05:43:20 AM
I knew it was a good Idea to keep an eye on this thread now. Lallicat, I love it! Especially the Sigrun-wrestling-with-a-demonchild-part!

I have in fact also put the current fic I´m working on on hold and written a Human!Kitty-AU-fic (I couldn´t stop myself...), but had quite a different take on it as you did. Is it ok if I post it too?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Jitter on August 01, 2020, 06:07:24 AM
It’s very interesting to see different versions of the same idea, please do post, Mirasol! And Looney_DAC course when the thinking is done!

Lallicat, what a great start! Do go on! Does she speak Human at all, or just Meow?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Mirasol on August 01, 2020, 07:38:08 AM
Allright, just wanted to make sure since it was originally Lallicat´s idea. So here goes: (might be a little darker than Lallicat´s version)

Spoiler: part 1 • show
It looked like the little girl was starting to feel better. She didn´t seem to be scared of the crew anymore, and when Mikkel had offered her food this morning, she had eaten with great appetite. Only asking her what her family was doing at that old school and how she survived that long proved to be difficult. She only spoke Danish with a strange heavy accent, and not well at that. Like someone who wasn´t used to talking. That made sense, all things considered, surviving in the silent world with little protection and shelter required to be able to stay quiet. And the kid was… 9 years old, at most. If his theory was correct, she had never lived in a safe place. So that she was better at communicating with small gestures and occasional sounds made sense. She probably never learned to do it differently. And that her only reaction to Sigrun speaking in extra loud and slow Norwegian accompanied with a lot of hand-waving was visible (and slightly startled) confusion made sense too. When the captains voice started to get increasingly louder and the poor kid started looking around like a cornered animal Mikkel decided it was time to step in.
“Maybe I should try. I think you are scaring her. She seems to understand some Danish, at least.” Sigrun let out a frustrated growl and stepped away.
Mikkel took a chair and sat down opposite to the little girl. She had long, fuzzy, red hair that ended in dark-brown tips. Truly a unique coloring. Emil and Tuuri had been cooing over how pretty it was earlier.
“Hej”, he said, in Danish, and a lot more muted than Sigrun. The girl looked at him with her big blue eyes in surprise. “I am Mikkel. Can you tell me what your name is?”, he continued. The girl blinked and said nothing. Maybe that was too complicated.
“What is your name?”, he tried again. She looked down very concentrated, as if she was deciphering the sentence word by word.
After a few seconds she answered. “Misse.” The kid smiled a little. “Mom said Missekat. Sometimes.”
Tuuri, who had been busy contacting the home base over the new situation seemed to be done and had appeared behind Mikkel. “Aww, her name is Kitty? That means Kitty, right?” She was talking Icelandic.
“Yes, it means Kitty.” Mikkel smiled too. “But I think that was just a nickname.”
“Still, it´s so cute! I need to tell the others.” With that she scurried away.
The little girl´s eyes followed her curiously. But Mikkel had to stop her from getting up. He had to ask her more. It was important for the protocol.
“Do you know how old you are? Uh… How old are you? How many years?”
The girl… Misse, concentrated again, but seemed to come to no conclusion. She ended up just looking at Mikkel in confusion. Ok, she didn´t know. The protocol would be fine with an estimate. There were other, more important questions.
“The house where we found you… do you know which one?” Misse concentrated, longer this time. After a while she nodded.
“Did you live there? Was it your home?” The girl squinted her eyes. Slowly she started nodding, then shaking her head, then nodding again, until freezing in the middle of the movement. She thought carefully about her choice of words.
“Yes no. Home for the rain. For today. But new. ”
That was about what Mikkel had expected. “So, where did you live. Where was your home.”
Misse shrugged. “Changing. Where it´s safe.” She sank down with an unhappy face. “But wasn´t safe.”
Mikkel sighed. He didn´t want to remind her too much of what happened, so short after it happened. Sigrun and Emil had been looking for books in an old school two days ago (and only brought home old Data-devices for which the required technology was lost…) and ran into a dog-beast. By the time they got there it had already killed Misse´s mother. She had been unarmed. Her very young kids had been hiding in an old, overflowing canal. Misse was the only one that hadn´t drowned yet. She didn´t cry for help. It was pure luck that Emil saw her before it was too late.
The girl had been mainly unharmed, some scratches from sharp objects in the canal, that was all. She had a scar on her arm that looked like the bite of a beast. But it appeared to be really old. She was most likely immune. Since there were no newer bites, Mikkel had decided it was safe to let Tuuri and Reynir near the kid. With their masks on, for now. He needed a way to confirm her immunity. Maybe Misse even knew herself. It wouldn´t hurt asking. And would also be a good change of subject.
“The disease that turns animals and humans into monsters…”
“Rash”, she said. Good, she knew.
“Can you get it? Can you get sick?”
She showed the scar on her arm. “No. This was sick small animal. Long ago. Bit me. I didn´t get sick.”
Mikkel inspected the arm closer this time. Yes, the bite looked at least a year old. But judging by how well it was still visible, it must have been deep. She would have definitely gotten the rash if she wasn´t immune. It looked like she was in the clear. But just to be safe, he would still advise Reynir and Tuuri to wear their masks until the possible incubation-time was over. He nodded.
“Okay. That is all. Are you hungry?”
Misse smiled again. “Yes.”
Finally someone who appreciated his cooking.
“Alright. Here, take a blanket so you don´t get cold and go outside.” He knew she wouldn´t understand him, so he just directly put the blanket in her arms and gestured towards the door. “I will make dinner.”


It also still needs quite a bit of revising, so constructive criticism is very apprechiated.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lallicat on August 01, 2020, 10:11:44 AM
Mirasol, I love your take on the human!Kitty idea! If Of course you should post your version, I don't own the idea! Anyway, here's the second part of my story:

Spoiler: show
 "Help! Mikkel! Emergency!" These were the words that changed my life forever. When you are a medic and someone yells your name, and emergency in the same sentence, you have to prepare yourself for the worst.
"You two in isolation now, until the situation is cleared! Tuuri, you know the drill!" I tell her and Reynir. Grabbing my kit and steeling my nerves, I shoot out to the entrance of the Cat Tank. "Who here needs medical attention?"
"This kid does!" I hear Emil reply. When they come into my view, I am treated with a truly bizarre sight. Emil is carrying a female child on his back, while Sigrun is carrying an arm load of cats. "She's cold and wet and sick! You have to fix her!" insists Emil.
"...I see. And the cats?"
"Dead. But I thought we could give them a proper burial." Sigrun wheezes. I frown as I take in her appearance.
"You're hurt-" I begin but she brushes off my concern with a wave of her hand.
" 'm fine. Take care of the kid. I'm okay."

***

Most of her wounds were simple. A swab of antiseptic, a bandage, done. A few of the deeper cuts required stitching, but overall, it was nothing life threatening. However, one of the cuts was on the back of her head. This would be only slightly worrying if it wasn't for the bruise on her forehead.
"Why are you so worried about her forehead? It's just a bruise, it'll be fine in a few days." I turned to look at Sigrun.
"I worry because it could mean she has a concussion. She obviously suffered a heavy blow to the head. She'll live, but there's no guarantee that her memory and mind will be intact when she wakes up. If she wakes up at all."


I'll probably switch between 3rd person POV and 1st person POV, just to change things up a bit.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Keep Looking on August 01, 2020, 10:50:24 AM
Ooh, mirasol and lallicat, I love how you're both taking this!!!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on August 01, 2020, 01:15:05 PM
Well, this is about the best I can get this (for now). Sigh.

Spoiler: Found: One Kitty • show
“Kitty.” It was the only word the child would speak, though it was in perfect Swedish, utterly without accent.

Even that little took a truly herculean effort to get out of her; the child had obviously grown accustomed both to not speaking and to the lack of anyone to whom she could speak. She was almost as silent as the animal whose name she spoke, and often off in a world of her own, absently batting at little balls of crumpled paper with a wistful look on her face.

Eventually, they gave up and started calling her “Kitty”; she paid them slightly better heed than an actual cat would have, but it was obvious that she hadn’t meant to name herself thus. Still, the child only ever said, “Kitty”; she gave no hint of what her birth name was, or anything else about herself.

Despite her preferred utterance, she could have been of any nationality, because her orange-ish hair (Mikkel told them that the white streaks were almost certainly due to stress) and blue eyes were not uncommon sights in any of the five nations in the Known World; the vague heart shape of her face wasn’t so uncommon, either. The “clothes” she’d had on when Emil found her were tattered rags in such horrible condition that Mikkel didn’t even bother trying to check them for clues; he just incinerated them, to the relief of all of the others.

Even her age was in question, as she was small and malnourished; though he knew it was a theoretical possibility, Mikkel’s knowledge did not extend to allowing for him to investigate any physiological signs that would set her age range more definitely than the rest of them could guess at, even if his somewhat skewed spatial perception would have allowed for it. “I can only tell someone’s age by autopsy,” was how he put it to Sigrun, who agreed that none of them wanted to know that badly.

Tuuri’s report of their discovery of “Kitty” had been prompt and proper, and everyone (especially Emil) would have given their eyeteeth to have been in the room with their four backers when they’d heard the news, but there was really nothing more the backers could do than what they’d already done when Reynir had blundered into their company, so the little band had to take care of “Kitty” as best they could with what they had on hand. Fortunately, they had enough spare clothes (among other things) to outfit “Kitty”; there was also (just) enough food to stretch to feeding another mouth (though Lalli started bringing back small prey he’d taken from his scouting runs).

The radio had startled “Kitty” badly the first time she’d heard it crackle to life, sending her scurrying into a pile of dirty bedding Mikkel had gathered for the wash, but her scare was not enough that she said anything then. Eventually, Tuuri coaxed her into saying “Kitty” into the microphone, but that took weeks and weeks.

A child had no business going along on forays into potentially lethal spots for books, however long she’d been forced to live in similar potentially lethal surroundings; thus, her care fell mostly upon Mikkel, Tuuri, and Reynir, though Emil was most unexpectedly helpful when he was around. Of course, it had been Emil who found her in the first place, half-starved and more than half-frozen in the sodden remnants of what had once been a place where children gathered to be taught, surrounded by the drowned bodies of a family of cats; whether she was taking care of the Blessed Felines or being cared for by them was open to question, though it was probably some of both.

In those early days, “Kitty” was still small enough to ride any of their legs, and every so often, she would wrap herself around the nearest such leg (unless it happened to be Lalli’s; the two of them had an uneasy truce, but…) and the person so afflicted would go into a whole pantomime routine about how they were being attacked by a horrible monster and needed help; it was the only time “Kitty” would ever giggle like a normal child.

Each member of their little band dealt with “Kitty” in their own ways, of course. It was only Tuuri who could coax “Kitty” into taking a bath, and only after considerable wheedling. It was only Mikkel who could feed “Kitty”, though that was not nearly so difficult. It was only Emil for whom “Kitty” would pull in her tongue, the tip of which she usually left sticking out between her lips in what Sigrun called a “blep” and Mikkel called a “derp”. It was only Lalli who could get “Kitty” to come out from her favorite hiding places, though he always wore an expression even more sour than his usual dour mien as he did so. It was only Sigrun who was fast enough to catch “Kitty” when she tried to make a break out of the open door of the Cat-Tank when Sigrun and Emil returned from one of their book raids.

It was only Reynir who noticed that “Kitty” was almost as sensitive to grosslings as a real kitten would have been, and Reynir who found her in the Dreamworld one fateful night…
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lallicat on August 01, 2020, 01:57:18 PM
LooNEY_DAC I love what you have going there! (It also sounds like we have many of the same ideas as well...)

Spoiler: Kitty Part 3: Tuna • show

Reynir, Emil, Tuuri, and Lalli were staring at the child. (For lack of a better name, they called her anything ranging from kid, to little girl, to cat girl, to kitten, to "hey, you!") She had woken up that morning, and was now devouring tuna by the platefull. Tuuri was fascinated by her. She had hair which was so much of a mess of knots and tangles, covered in dirt and leaves that it was impossible to tell the exact color of it. She had estimated her age to be about 5, but now she wasn't so sure. Now she seemed like more of a 7 year old. Her limbs were swimming in one of Tuuri's spare uniforms, looking even smaller then she had before. "Where do you think she came from?" whispered Reynir. "I don't known" Tuuri whispered back. "Isn't she strange, Lalli?" Her cousin shook his head. "Not strange. Mysterious. Different."  He then stared at the girl with such a vigorous expression that Turri wouldn't be surprised if he burned holes in the wall. Emil gave a yelp surprise. "Look! She's looking at us!" Tuuri rolled her eyes. "What do you think we're doing?" she asked him. But when she turned her head to look at the small girl, she gasped. There was something about her that made you stop and stare. She had a heart shaped face with big blue eyes that were bright despite the grime on her face and seemed to stare into your soul. "Mikkel?" Tuuri whispered. "I think she wants more food." The bowl in front of her was licked clean. "Again? I swear this child has the wierdest appetite for tuna that I've ever seen." He turned to the girl. "Okay. One more bowl, but after that I'm making you take a bath. The hissing that followed did not bode well for whoever would be in charge of bath time.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Jitter on August 01, 2020, 03:11:08 PM
All of these are wonderful! Like I already said, it’s great to see different takes on basically the same situation.

Grey suggested at some point that it would be interesting to have shared prompts on a chapter break filler at some time, and after this I’m even more inclined to agree (I was on board already)

I’m eager to learn whether Looney_DAC’s Kitty can speak human in the dreamworld:)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Mirasol on August 01, 2020, 04:32:36 PM
Wow, it´s so interesting that the same concept produced three stories that different. I´m really interested in what way yours are going, Lallicat and LooNEY_DAC! (And the white streaks in Kitty´s hair, LooNEY_DAC, that is such a cool detail, I should have included it in my design!)
I gotta admit, when Grey suggested it, I wasn´t that sold on the "shared-prompts"-idea. But seing how this is currently playing out, that really could be cool!

I originally didn´t want to continue my story, but now I´m tempted to...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Jitter on August 01, 2020, 06:14:07 PM
I’m thinking something like 3 or 4 people sharing one prompt, not one single prompt for the entire break. Especially with the variation of stories, art, poetry and other things it would be interesting. Hopefully it’s not very soon though!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lallicat on August 01, 2020, 07:03:27 PM
I'm getting waaaaaay too into this. Anyway, here's part four.

Spoiler: Kitty Part 4: Hair • show

"Rowerhisssss!"
"No! Stop it!" I heard Sigrun yell. It had fallen to her and Tuuri to bathe the cat-child, and it was very entertaining to listen to.
"Maybe if we give her tuna to eat while we wash her?" I heard Tuuri offer. It apparently worked, because the hissing and the cursing subsided. Minutes later, a sopping wet sullking cat-child appeared. Truth to be told, Sigrun and Tuuri were wet and sulky as well. The latter sighed. "We'll have to cut her hair. It's too tangled to do anything with it." At these words, the small cat-child wrenched away from her grip and ran inside.
"You may not like it, but it'll have to be done! I'll sit on you if I have to!" Sigrun yelled after her. An idea sparks in my brain.
"Maybe I could do it? I could help!"
"Sure, Reynir, feel free to tackle that crazy child." Sigrun tells me as she straightens out her shirt. I smile. This is going to be fun!

***

This is not fun. After half an hour of chasing, the Cat-child is exhausted enough to let me near her, but not exhausted enough to let me touch her hair. She currently resides on top of the barracks, watching me with those blue eyes of hers. "I give up," I mutter. "Sigrun can murder your hair for all I care." Flopping down on the floor, I start brushing my own hair. The monotony of the exercise soon relaxes me and I start humming a song my mother used to sing to me when she brushed my hair. I carefully start to braid it, making sure each strand falls in place. When I'm done, I look up to see the cat-child staring at me. She climbs down from the bunks and faces me. "Will you let me fix your hair now?" I ask her. She answers me with a wordless nod. It takes a good while to get all the main knots untangled. She winces as I pull the brush through her locks, but never complains. She had nice hair. It's a pretty white color, tipped with orange, the shade a little lighter than mine. I wonder how it got thay way. Finally I'm satisfied with my work. Her hair lies long and silky down her back without a tangle in sight. "How do you want it styled?" I ask her. I admit I'm having a bit too much fun playing with her hair. She just shrugs in response. I consider giving her a braid, but I feel feel a bit possessive of the hairstyle. I opt for a simple ponytail. She had some short wisps of hair framing her face due to some strands that really couldn't be salvaged, and had to be cut off. I made sure she knew what I was doing beforehand, because I really didn't fancy being attacked. When I finally presented her to the rest of the crew, I was rewarded with gasps of delight from Tuuri and Emil, a look that wasn't a glare from Lalli, a "Good job" and a pat on the shoulder from Mikkel, and the best gift of all from Sigrun. A "Well look at that Braidy, you helped!"
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on August 01, 2020, 07:12:01 PM
I guess just about everyone here's too new to remember the 100 Prompt NaNoWriMo challenge a bunch of people wrote SSSS fics for, aren't you?
Spoiler: The List • show
1. Introduction | 2. Love | 3. Light | 4. Dark | 5. Seeking Solace | 6. Break Away | 7. Heaven | 8. Innocence | 9. Drive | 10. Breathe Again | 11. Memory | 12. Insanity | 13. Misfortune | 14. Smile | 15. Silence | 16. Questioning | 17. Blood | 18. Rainbow | 19. Gray | 20. Fortitude | 21. Vacation | 22. Mother Nature | 23. Cat | 24. Time Is Running Out | 25. Trouble Lurking | 26. Tears | 27. Friendship | 28. Sorrow | 29. Happiness | 30. Under the Rain | 31. Flowers | 32. Night | 33. Expectations | 34. Stars | 35. Hold My Hand | 36. Precious Treasure | 37. Eyes | 38. Abandon | 39. Dreams | 40. Dragons | 41. Teamwork | 42. Standing Still | 43. Dying | 44. Hate | 45. Illusion | 46. Family | 47. Creation | 48. Childhood | 49. Stripes | 50. Siblings | 51. Sport | 52. Deep in Thought | 53. Keeping a Secret | 54. Tower | 55. Waiting | 56. Murder | 57. Sacrifice | 58. Kick in the Head | 59. No Way Out | 60. Rejection | 61. Dance | 62. Magic | 63. Do Not Disturb | 64. Lovers | 65. Horror | 66. Traps | 67. Playing the Melody | 68. Hero | 69. Annoyance | 70. Bound and Gagged | 71. Obsession | 72. Mischief Managed | 73. I Can’t | 74. Are You Challenging Me? | 75. Mirror | 76. Sexy | 77. Test | 78. Drink | 79. Starvation | 80. Words | 81. Pen and Paper | 82. Can You Hear Me? | 83. Heal | 84. Out Cold | 85. Spiral | 86. Seeing Red | 87. Food | 88. Pain | 89. Through the Fire | 90. Triangle | 91. Drowning | 92. All That I Have | 93. Give Up | 94. Last Hope | 95. Advertisement | 96. In the Storm | 97. Safety First | 98. Puzzle | 99. Solitude | 100. End

Spoiler: Participants • show
Gaemmel (https://archiveofourown.org/works/9234350/chapters/20941946)
Puls3 (https://archiveofourown.org/works/6435004/chapters/14730202)
Aansero (https://archiveofourown.org/works/6688255/chapters/15296887)
Talimee (https://archiveofourown.org/works/6440122/chapters/14741962)
OwlsG0 (https://archiveofourown.org/works/6445972/chapters/14751448)
and
Lazy8 (https://archiveofourown.org/works/6424975/chapters/14707465)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: thegreyarea on August 01, 2020, 07:27:10 PM
Hey, I'm loving this idea! And also hoping to contribute soon! Well done, my friends!

(and I'm sure almost any idea will work fine with such a bunch of creative and talented people that we have here! I bet that if I challenged you all to write (or draw) about a shoe box we would end up with some great pieces of fiction/art!) ;)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on August 01, 2020, 07:40:30 PM
Hey, LooNEY, I remember!

I still go back through the AO3 listings for SSSS, and re-read favorites (including everything of yours).

(A propos of nothing else, thank you for noticing my "Devil Went Down To Georgia" filk.)

I am also enjoying the various Human Kitty renditions! Please, keep going!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on August 01, 2020, 08:02:58 PM
I wrote this a while ago, it's a story taking place in Africa in the SSSS world. This is mostly a prologue to the actual story, quickly written and only quickly revised. :P I may or may not finish it, but I wanted to put it here for some feedback so... enjoy?

..." Water buffalos are nasty creatures..."

A naturalist-type note...

While water buffalo are now found in some parts of Africa, they are of Asian origin, are frequently domesticated, and to  this day are a major draft animal for many Asian farmers.

The animal native to Africa is the Cape buffalo. It is ranked among the most dangerous game animals, because it (gasp!) has the nerve to resent being attacked, and will not only fight back, but attack the would-be hunter preemptively, given any chance.
There is a verse in French that translates: "This animal is very vicious; when one attacks him, he defends himself." [I hope the ironic tone came through.]

Now, this doesn't necessarily mean that your characters aren't dealing with water buffalo; as we have seen, anything distorted by the Rash is seriously dangerous, and a previously domesticated animal becoming a Beast would be that much more frightening than one which was already regarded as a threat. It just caused my brain to trip for a moment, and get distracted from the story (which I am enjoying).

Everyone who is writing here is showing more courage than I have - please, keep going!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lallicat on August 01, 2020, 08:47:52 PM
A naturalist-type note...

While water buffalo are now found in some parts of Africa, they are of Asian origin, are frequently domesticated, and to  this day are a major draft animal for many Asian farmers.

The animal native to Africa is the Cape buffalo. It is ranked among the most dangerous game animals, because it (gasp!) has the nerve to resent being attacked, and will not only fight back, but attack the would-be hunter preemptively, given any chance.

Ahh I see. Whoops! I'll fix that.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Keep Looking on August 01, 2020, 11:28:37 PM
It was great reading your contribution to the Human-Kitty au, Looney, as well as Lallicat's new additions! While I definitely wasn't around for the 100-prompt challenge, I have read them, and thoroughly enjoyed it!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on August 02, 2020, 12:59:02 AM
I rather like the idea of a number of us writing to the same prompt, especially since that is something we often do in the writers group at our local library. The group is very diverse, ranging from a couple of nonagenarians, one a poet and one an historian who have both had many books published, through a middle-aged writer and illustrator of children’s books, a biographer who trained as an opera singer and is now a farmer and prison guard, to a teenager who has never had anything published and wants to write horror (I reckon he might be good enough to make a go of it). The results are fascinating when we all write to the same theme.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Mirasol on August 02, 2020, 06:13:44 AM
When I finally presented her to the rest of the crew, I was rewarded with gasps of delight from Tuuri and Emil, a look that wasn't a glare from Lalli, a "Good job" and a pat on the shoulder from Mikkel, and the best gift of all from Sigrun. A "Well look at that Braidy, you helped!"

All I can say to this:

(https://40.media.tumblr.com/8e27cc4449e09726c016b13c251ef913/tumblr_ns3oczier61r6soqlo1_400.png)

I am too new to remember that 100 Prompt NaNoWriMo challenge, but looks like I´ll have to check it out.

Meanwhile I wrote some Human!Kitty-bathing-shenanigans too:

Spoiler: Part 2 • show
“We can´t just call her “Kitten”, can we? That´s a dumb name.” As she said that, Sigrun stirred around in her food with a look as if it was poisonous.
“She is not named  “Kitten”. That was just a nickname her mother gave her. Her name is Misse.” Mikkel ignored Sigruns disgusted gestures towards dinner.  The little girl had eaten with a glow in her eyes he had rarely ever seen on anyone who got to experience his cooking before. He was flattered that she enjoyed it. Sigrun couldn´t ruin that for him.
“Same difference.” The captain shrugged.
The younglings were already done with eating. Lalli had just headed out to scout out their next stop. Because of Misse, the crew had remained where they were for longer than planned and everyone was starting to get nervous. But the kid´s family had needed a proper burial. That was the least they could have done for them. On the day of Misse´s finding, everyone had been in favor of staying where they were. Even Sigrun, who was usually the first person trying to convince the crew to move on.
“Hey, Kitten, get out of the tree!”, the captain suddenly shouted across their current camping-spot, throwing Mikkel out of his thoughts. A dumb name, huh?
Tuuri and Emil had been attempting to give the kid a bath. Unsuccessfully, it seemed. The only thing wet was the Swede´s hair and instead of in the tub, the little girl was sitting on a branch just out of reach of the two smallest crewmembers and hissed. Maybe Misse´s mother had had a point with calling her daughter Kitty. It had rained the entire day before, so the kid had escaped her fate so far. She appeared to be escaping for a little while longer.
Mikkel heard Emil murmur something that was certainly not too nice while he was trying to dry himself with a small towel. Tuuri´s voice started to get the chirpy tone it had whenever she tried to persuade Lalli into sparing a cookie for her. Mikkel couldn´t make out what she was saying, she seemed to be switching between languages to see what worked best. From the look of it, none of it did. At least it succeeded in distracting the kid long enough for Reynir to sneak up from behind and grab her out of the tree.
The following battle was quite entertaining to watch. After a while, baiting Misse with the good smell of Emil´s shampoo worked, but the girl would grab onto Reynir´s braid and not let go for the entire bath.
“Give the kid a break, she nearly drowned two days ago!”, Sigrun shouted and leaned back on her chair with a pleased smile, enjoying the show. She had been offering such and similarly helpful advice throughout the entire bathing-shenanigans. The younglings hadn´t exactly appreciated it. Mikkel had known what was good for him and not said a word.
After the deed was finally done, the sun had fully gone down. Emil, Reynir, Tuuri and Misse were all sitting around the small fireplace with towels on their heads and facial expressions as if they had just won a very long, very hard war. Instead of the girl´s ragged old clothes, she was now wearing a spare shirt of Tuuri and spare pants of Emil held together with a belt. In her hands, that were hidden under her much too long sleeves, she was holding a bowl of warm tuna. It was her reward for daring to take a bath. Almost exactly upon finishing with her last bite she fell asleep, tipping over and landing on Reynir.
“I think that´s our cue to go to bed”, Sigrun whispered with a little smile. Nobody objected.
On the next morning, they found Misse sleeping while holding onto Reynir´s braid.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on August 02, 2020, 07:27:25 AM
Here is my take on human Kitty.

KITTY

Mikkel, like the others, had taken to calling the catgirl Kitty. Each of them called her so in their own language. His understanding was that she had been at least partly raised by the mother cat, among the previous and current litters of kittens, and certainly her attempts to suckle from Tuuri, Sigrun and himself would suggest that that was likely.

However, she could also, as he discovered, catch and eat her own mice, rats, voles and the occasional rabbit. The first time he had seen her do this, stalking and catching a vole through the long grasses of a riverbank where they were resupplying their water reservoirs, he had felt somewhere between appalled and delighted - appalled that any human child should be reduced to such exigencies of survival, yet delighted because now he knew that if the rest of them were to die on this insane expedition, Kitty might still have a chance at surviving without them.

A few days later she decided that she needed to teach Mikkel how to hunt. When she presented him with a large, still struggling, unRashed rat, released it in front of him and gestured in a way that suggested that she wanted him to catch it, he was startled, then when he realised her meaning, leaped on the rat and crushed its head with his heavy boot. She patted him on the head and gave him an approving purr, but then hissed again when he began to skin and gut the animal.

When he was done with the task he laid the carcass on the hot stones by the fire to cook, being unwilling to eat raw rat even for Kitty. As it cooked she circled the fire, sniffing at the cooking meat with fascinated interest, then when Mikkel took it from the fire and tore it roughly in half, handing her the larger piece, she settled by his side and ate it with every appearance of pleasure. He was relieved. If she could be persuaded that cooking meat was worth the trouble, many nasty zoonoses might be avoided. He was sure that she already carried the load of parasites common for all wild predators, and he had every intention of fixing that problem as soon as possible.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lallicat on August 02, 2020, 02:00:52 PM
Róisín, I love your interpretation of Kitty! She must reach those irresponsible adults to hunt, otherwise how would they survive?

This chapter ended up being more about Reynir than Kitty, but oh well.
Spoiler: Kitty Part 5: Danger • show

Kitty ran around the Cat Tank, her feet tracking mud on the freshly cleaned floor. (Much to Mikkel's chagrin.) She was bored. Sigrun and Emil had gone somewhere, and Lalli wasn't available. All he did was sleep. She would have been worried, but she trusted that the adults would know if something was wrong. Mikkel was cleaning and Reynir was helping him clean. That left Tuuri. But before she could go ask her to play, Mikkel grabbed her hand, and said, "C'mon Kitten-girl. We're going for a walk. That didn't appeal to Kitty. Before she could protest, he staryed arguing witb Tuuri. Something about immune people and guards. She took the opportunity to wriggle out of his grasp and hide. When she was sure he was gone, she came out of her hiding spot and tugged at the bottom of Tuuri's tunic. Now they could play!

***

"He... was supposed to take cat-girl with him, wasn't he?" Reynir realized suddenly. Moments later, he was walking besides Tuuri, cat-girl clutching his hand while giving him a reproachful glare. It was clear that she wasn't pleased with the arrangement. It made him uneasy, as if she disapproved of him not following Mikkel's instructions. He forced himself to look away.
"You know, I think cat-girl is a mage," he told Tuuri. She gave him a skeptical look.
"What makes you say that?" He shuffled his feet.
"Well, mages are supposed to be able to sense trolls, right? Cat-girl managed to point Sigrun to the troll after it bit her."
"It could just mean she saw where it went." Tuuri pointed out.
"Well, yes, but right before we encountered those trolls, her hair got all poofy. It's weird. Almost like she could sense them." Tuuri frowned.
"I don't know of any mage whose hair poofs when there's a troll nearby. It's probably just a fluke. You can ask Lalli when he wakes up, if you really want to. Oh look, there's Mikkel!" She waves her arm energetically. "Mikkel!" They presented him with cat-girl. Please don't kill me... thought Reynir desperately. "It was Reynir's idea, I tried to stop him!"
"Y-yup! My idea!" He stammered.
"I will never not be a babysitter." sighed Mikkel.
"Oh you don't have to babysit us," assured Tuuri. "We'll just follow you around! Guilt gnawed at Reynir.
"He did get angry. Now I feel bad."
"It's okay!" Tuuri assured him. "He didn't tell at us. That mean we didn't cross the line." Still, the guilt stayed with him for the whole trip. And the ghosts didn't help either. He clutched cat-girl's hand tighter. He felt that trouble was brewing.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Mirasol on August 02, 2020, 02:22:02 PM
Aww, Róisín, your take on Kitty is adorable! Such incompetent humans. Good that she´s around now!

I might be getting way too into this now too...
Spoiler: part 3 • show
Of all the people it could have chosen to open up to (like, for example, one that spoke a language she would probably understand), the cat-child chose the plus one. Just until yesterday, she didn´t let anyone closer to her than an arm´s length, and there she was, happily sitting on Reynir´s lap, wrapped in a blanket and trying to catch snowflakes with her tongue. Maybe it was his hair. No, it definitely was his hair, the kitten was still holding onto it.
“Looks like you´re good for something after all, braid-guy!” Sigrun friendly-punched his shoulder while walking past. Reynir gave her a smile in response that looked more like he was in pain, as the kid pulled on the braid to show its owner the big snowflake she just caught.
Sigrun´s right-hand-warrior´s shampoo had completely fluffed up the kid´s now shining red hair. Every streak was of a slightly different length, (probably never saw proper scissors in its life), so the ponytail the Icelander forced it to behave in shared quite a bit of resemblance to the furry tail of a cat. Most of the brown tips had turned out to be dirt, only the fuzz around her face remained in a significantly darker coloring, as well as the furthest down ends of her hair. It brought out the almost unhealthily pale skin of the kid. If the sun was shining, it would probably reflect it. They really needed to make sure the kid would eat enough, maybe that could give her some color back. Easier said than done when the cook´s preferred serving was death in a bowl.
But enough staring at the strange new crew-member. Breakfast was served. If you could call it that. This slime shared more similarities with…
“MIKKEL!!! Did you melt candles into this sludge?”
“Surely I would never!”, came the answer from within the tank.
“What did he say?”, Emil asked while filling two bowls with the stuff. Looked like the little scout-guy was back.
“That he didn´t.” Sigrun shrugged. As soon as Emil was gone, she inspected the insides of the pot more suspiciously. Looking around, she saw that Tuuri was eating it, while chit-chattering with Reynir about whatever Lalli was doing with a skull in a tree. Or so much she assumed, the pipsqueak´s name dropped a couple of times. The Icelander and the cat-child were already done. None of them seemed to be dropping dead on the spot, so she concluded the food would at least not kill her. She still made sure Mikkel would see how much she didn´t like it when he came outside. Unfortunately, the Dane didn´t react at all. Oh well…
“Oy, little puffy-hair!”
“That´s… me?”, Tuuri squeaked like a startled mouse.
“Call the elderly folks and let them know that we´re heading way far out today! Got to keep them in the loop too.”
“Right away!”
Looked like they were going to be back on the road. Good, she was just starting to get a little jumpy. In the Silent World it was better to not stay in one place for longer than necessary. And the weather was perfect, awesome and great! Snowfall, ideal for safe travels. It would be a good day.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on August 02, 2020, 02:57:28 PM
Nice Human Kitty AUs. I really hope we're not driving people crazy with those. Yes, I did say "we":

Spoiler: show



Prologue

In another life, in another world, they had been asked to build an outpost in the yard of an Old World school. Those meant to occupy it on a more permanent basis never came. They had kept time as best as they could. According to their estimates, said occupants should have shown up ten years ago. Some had tried returning to the place from which the occupants were supposed to come, and never come back. Others had died from various causes, all predictable consequences of being a small group of people stranded in the Silent World. As their numbers had dwindled, jokes about the last one of them alive needing to douse the fire had become more frequent. Five years after they had been abandoned, there had been only two people left: her and Henrik. They had both known that it was not if, but when. Without anyone else to stop them, they had allowed themselves things that they had avoided due to other people being around to remind them that they were sill members of the Danish military. The number of people living in their small shelter had become three again. The little girl had stayed as silent as the world she had been born in well past the age at which she was supposed to be able to speak. But it seemed like some greater power had taken her voice away in exchange for another gift: almost as soon as she was able to move on her own, she would go hide if there were any trolls or beasts nearby. As the little girl grew, she and Henrik had managed to teach her to point to where the creature was coming from, so one of them could take care of it permanently. One day, Henrik had cracked a joke: “Did you give birth to a girl or to a cat?” After that, the name they had delayed giving her for so long came to them: it would definitely have to be something starting with “Kat”. They had decided to keep it simple, just in case there was something more to her muteness that would only really show if she lived to be much older. When Henrik had died, she had gotten a grim reminder that Katja’s strange gift had given all of them extra time, but that the extra time wouldn’t last forever. They had wanted to wait for Katja to be just a little older before they attempted to use her gift to get themselves to Øresund bridge in one piece. The warmer part of the year had still been young when Henrik had died. The rest of it was used to prepare for a long walk that would start in the early winter. It hadn’t been easy, but she had managed. She and Katja had left the confines of the outpost, only to be ambushed by a dog beast before they had even gotten past the school’s ruins. Too many of her skills had atrophied over the years. She now knew she was dying, and the beast was still alive and well. As good as Katja was at hiding, it had probably found her now. Even if it hadn’t, she wasn’t going to be able to last on her own for very long anyway. Unless someone turned out to have chosen now, of all times, to check out the outpost.


Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Vulpes on August 02, 2020, 08:12:41 PM
What wonderful takes on Human!Kitty. I'm enjoying them all, and getting them a bit mixed up in my tired end-of-day brain. I'll have to read each person's contribution(s) separately to get them straight.

I'm new enough to have missed the 100 prompts thing, sounds like quite the challenge. And I'm totally on board for shared prompts during the next chapter break (long, looooong in the future I trust).
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on August 02, 2020, 10:18:47 PM
This will definitely be expanded, but for now...

...BEHOLD MY INSANITY!!!!!ELEVENTY!!!

Spoiler: Bastet out of Isis • show
Lalli burst into the Cat-Tank, his grandmother’s rifle ready. One shot was all he needed to kill the troll Kitty was clawing and biting with all her feline fury.

Lalli exhaled and glanced around the room. Behind the shut door leading to the other compartment, Tuuri and Reynir pressed their faces against the glass, their expressions a mix of confusion, worry, and utter horror.

A moment later, Lalli felt something grab on to his leg…

*
SOME WEEKS EARLIER…
*

Mikkel was busily going through the chores attendant on maintaining their little campsite with the dubious assistance of Reynir when he heard the scream.

“MIKKEL!” The shout brought the medic running back in from outside; he almost ran right over Tuuri as she backed away from the basket they’d left the kitten in. He grabbed her by the shoulders to keep her from backing into him, and she wheeled around to face him, shock and not a little fear writ large on her features.

“Se on vauva! Kissa muuttui vauvaksi!” Unfortunately, Tuuri had been so startled that she was speaking in Finnish. After Mikkel gave her a very gentle but very firm shake, she calmed down enough to repeat herself, but in Swedish this time. “It’s a baby! The cat transformed into a baby!”

Now she was using words he understood individually, but which made no sense in context. Mikkel opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, a sound distinctly resembling the gurgle of an infant came from where the basket lay. Tuuri pointed determinedly, without saying more; the shaking of her finger said quite a bit regardless.

Mikkel cautiously approached the basket. Before he was halfway there, however, a familiar and totally feline head popped out of the nest of cloth with a plaintive, “Miu?”

*

Reynir opened his eyes and knew that he was dreaming again. Well, that was OK, as long as those ghosts weren’t about to show up again, too.

A high-pitched squealing noise caught Reynir’s attention. He peered ahead in confusion, as the sheep were blocking his view. Once he could see past them, he saw that his dog was exuberantly trying to lick a small child to death, its tail wagging furiously as it did so. The child—a little girl of indeterminate age, Reynir noticed—was giggling and trying to fend off his dog’s affectionate attack. “Silly Reynir!” she said through her giggles.

*

Emil came to a halt next to Mikkel. “Oh, by the way, Mikkel—I noticed my spare shirt has gone missing. Did I really do it enough damage that you had to retire it, or is this another of your jokes?”

Mikkel frowned, but before he could reply, Tuuri piped up with, “I’m missing a pair of pants, too! Maybe we left them behind when we had to break camp because of the ghosts?”

Emil looked sheepish and admitted, “I hadn’t thought of that. We did leave in an awful hurry, whatever the reason.” He was obviously still not convinced that the ghosts that Reynir claimed were still stalking them even existed.

*

Neither Tuuri nor Reynir could see anything in the utter darkness of the Cat-Tank, but they could certainly hear the muffled sounds of the battle raging outside; until, that is, Kitty jumped out of Reynir’s lap and began making louder and louder cries of distress.

“Come ON, guys! You have to get out of here NOW!” The voice was exasperated and not unfamiliar. “A grossling’s about to break through the floor here! Get to the other compartment!”

Even through their surprise, the two non-immunes obeyed, and just in time.

Lalli burst into the Cat-Tank, his grandmother’s rifle ready. One shot was all he needed to kill the troll Kitty was clawing and biting with all her feline fury.

Lalli exhaled and glanced around the room. Behind the shut door leading to the other compartment, Tuuri and Reynir pressed their faces against the glass, their expressions a mix of confusion, worry, and utter horror.

A moment later, Lalli felt something grab on to his leg, but instead of setting off his combat reflexes, it stirred something else in him. He looked down. A small child dressed in what looked like the crew’s castoffs had wrapped her arms and legs around one of his legs in a grip of steel. She looked up… and he knew that this was their Kitty.

Spoiler: Notes • show
The title is a reference to the Star Trek TOS episode "Assignment: Earth".
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on August 02, 2020, 10:29:30 PM
All these child-kitty stories are great fun!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on August 02, 2020, 10:38:56 PM
All these child-kitty stories are great fun!

Agreed! I'm having a fantastic time reading them all!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Keep Looking on August 03, 2020, 03:01:41 AM
All these child-kitty stories are great fun!

I'll second (third?) that as well! I'm really enjoying this.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Mirasol on August 03, 2020, 07:53:35 AM
Good to hear that we´re not annoying everyone. :'D

Grade E cat, nice, Kitty-backstory! I really like where this is going!

And LooNEY_DAC, that´s again a different story, isn´t it? With Kitty completely transforming from cat to human, that´s an interesting possibility! And gets rid of the aging-difference-problem.

I have another chapter to share:
Spoiler: part 4 • show
This day was terrible! It had snowed so much that they had to turn back, Mikkel had decided to wash Lalli´s clothing that was full of beast-blood directly next to him, and then after a really venturesome driving maneuver everything spilled on him. He would die. Mikkel assured him he wouldn´t, but he added “to the best of my knowledge” afterwards. And now Reynir was scared, miserable, wet, cold, possibly on the verge of dying and Lalli just fell unconscious in the back of the tank, which was frankly even more worrying.
At least Kisa had let go of his hair by now. Her name was Kisa, right? Or something Danish… He had forgotten what Kisa meant in Danish. But it seemed to be similar enough, the little girl responded to it when he called her that name. He tried not to think about the reason she let go. It was his braid being soaked in a mixture of dirt, water and troll-goo, which smelled disgusting and was probably fatal.
The little girl had jumped closer to Mikkel just in time to not get hit with the troll-water, unlike the much less lucky Emil and himself. Now she was sitting on one of the bunks and curiously watched Mikkel and the Swede trying to patch up Lalli.
The tank was moving again. The scout had given Tuuri a description of a place to stay before fainting. Unfortunately, the way there seemed to go right through the scary tunnel with the flesh-blobs.
As soon as they went in, Kisa got nervous. Like a small animal, on all fours, she jumped back to Reynir and grabbed his arm. All of her hair suddenly sticked out as if she just got an electric shock, and she hissed again. Was she scared of the dark? No, probably she thought all the blobs were still alive.
“Don´t worry Kisa, Lalli checked those, they are dead.” He wriggled his arm out of the child´s grip and put it around her to signal that she was safe.
“I know, it´s really scary!”, he whispered. “But the adults will protect you!”
As Tuuri drove them out of the tunnel, the girl stopped hissing. Her hair went back to normal. Good, looked like it really just were the weird flesh-blobs. It was funny, he had been scared too, but somehow, reassuring Kisa made him bolder. Like he had to be brave to protect her. He knew that was silly, he would be absolutely helpless in any sort of battle-situation. Most likely Kisa would know more about what to do than he. But he still felt that way.
After a while, the girl started yawning. Not soon after, she fell asleep leaning on him while he was stroking her fluffy cat-hair. Mikkel, who was done taking care of Lalli, helped Reynir put a blanket around the curled-up child. The sound she made when snuggling into it almost sounded like she was purring. The medic also finally handed Reynir a towel for his hair.
“You´re not about to die. I am 100 percent sure of it”, Mikkel told him in his most authoritative voice. “The virus can´t survive for long without a host. And the soap killed everything that was left.”
This time Reynir believed him.
“We´ll be there in an hour or two!”, Tuuri announced from the driving seat.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lallicat on August 03, 2020, 02:40:57 PM
More Kitty shenanigans!

Spoiler: Kitty Part 6: Ghosts • show

Emil was worried about Lalli. He'd been sleeping for days. He was angry that nobody was worried about the scout. "Mrr." Kitten Girl was curled up next to Lalli, snuggled under the blanket. She was repeatedly poking his cheek, a sad expression on her face. "Well at least I'm not the only one who's worried," Emil grumbled. Kitten Girl sighed, and closed her eyes. She was fast asleep within minutes.

***

Lalli shivered. There! Spirits. They didn't look friendly. No matter. They can't break into his dreamspace. Until one did. He jumped to his feet. There must be trouble in the waking world. He'd hold them back for as long as he could. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a flickering figure. He felt it add its power to his shield. For a moment, he let himself hope that they would be able to vanquish the ghosts. Then the figure trembled, and disappeared. He was on his own once more.

***

"Nh. Ynh... Phh! Grkh!" Emil leaned over to Lalli's side. "See?! Now he's choking! Would someone who knows what to do please get over here?" he fretted. "Rkh! Kh-" Silence. Then,
"IIIAAAAAAAAAH!" Kitten-Girl woke up with a start at the sound of the scream.
"Hey! Shake the guy awake!" Sigrun yelled. "We can't have a blasting siren like that!"
"I'm trying!" Emil panicked. "He won't wake up!"
"Well try har- der..." Sigrun clutched her head, and collapsed on the floor, followed by Mikkel.
"Mi-" Kitten-Girl's hair shot out like she had been electrocuted. "mriiIIIIIII!!!" she yelled. "MRIIIII!!!"


The next few minutes were hectic. Tuuri slamming the gas, Lalli pulling Emil's hair whilst screaming, and Reynir praying with Kitten-girl freaking out and looking like she had just stuck a fork in a toaster. Then, a quickly as it had started, it was over. Sigrun and Mikkel regained consciousness, and Tuuri slowed the Cat Tank down a bit.
"Keep driving. We need to get out of the city now!" Ordered Sigrun.
"Seems to me like you added the wrong person to your list of mutineers." remarked the Dane.
"Shut up Mikkel! Do something useful!" Kitten-Girl whimpered and clutched Mikkel's leg. He passed a protective arm around her.
"I don't understand what's going on!"
"Shut up Emil, no one else does either!" yelled Sigrun. "Are you ready to bash some monster skull if I need you to?"
"Uh yeah. S-sure." Emil stuttered. He really just wanted to go to bed, but that wasn't an option at this point. The Cat Tank slowed to a halt. A giant mass of tentacles barred the way.
"No turning back." ordered Sigrun. "Mikkel and I will clear the way. Emil, you keep guard. Tuuri, be ready to drive away quickly. Reynir, uhh... Reynir, you take care of Kitten. Everyone understand? Let's go."
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lallicat on August 03, 2020, 06:36:08 PM
Aaand double posting because I was having way too much fun writing this. :'D

Spoiler: Kitty Part 7: Names • show

"You know, I don't think we know cat-girl's real name." Sigrun, Tuuri, Emil, and Mikkel were cooing over the small child as she played with Reynir's braid.
"I don't think I've heard her speak," added Emil.
"Can you tells us your name, child," asked Mikkel. Kitten just looked at him, confused.
"Maybe she doesn't speak Danish," theorized Sigrun. "Do you understand Norwegian, little kitten?" This kindled a spark of understanding in Kitten's eyes. She nodded. "What other languages can you understand?" A shrug. "Can you speak?" A small mew escaped Kitten's mouth, followed by choking sounds. Frustrated, she shook her head.
"Do you know why?" asked Tuuri. Another shake.
"It must be because her vocal cords have had little use when she was on her own," explained Mikkel. Kitten suddenly heard a cough. She wiggled around, trying to detect where it had came from.
"Can you say your name?" asked Sigrun. Kitten scrunched up her face in concentration. "El- Eli-" she paused, as if to think. "Kitty," she finally proclaimed. "Kitty." A wave of questions started pouring out of everyone's mouths. Overwhelmed, she ran off to the edge of camp, covering her ears. She didn't know how long she sat there. She only looked up when she heard a frustrated grunt.

***

Lalli was upset. He had been out for two days, and no one showed any sign of being happy to see him. Not even that Swede. Tuuri hadn't even bothered to tell him if he missed anything. All of a sudden, he was attacked from behind. He had almost drawn his rifle when he realized it was just that little girl they had found. She was hugging his legs, on account of her being to short to reach any higher. She was grinning from ear to ear with a sparkle on those stupid blue eyes of hers. He pushed her off roughly. "Go away," he told her. "Go and play with the others or something. You'll have more fun with them than with me." She just smiled even wider and grabbed his hand. He recognised that look. It was the same look the Swede gave him sometimes. An "I get the gist of what you're saying, but I don't speak the same language as you so I'll pretend I have no clue to what you just said" look. He yanked his hand away from hers. If I just ignore her, she'll go away, he told himself. But she didn't leave his side for the whole day. She delighted in offering him some food from her plate, reveled in sneakily following him while he was scouting, and stubbornly decided she wanted to sleep on the end of his bed, instead of Tuuri's where she usually slept. He refused the food, grudgingly let her follow him without acknowledging her, but in the end gave in about the bed. Purely because he was to tired to argue anymore, he told himself. That was the only reason.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Mirasol on August 04, 2020, 11:27:57 AM
I finished the next part! (sorry, it turned out a little long)

Spoiler: part 5 • show
“Fine. You protect the helpless ones while we check it out.” Sigrun pointed at Emil, before starting to walk towards the building with Mikkel.
“Protect the helpless ones?” Tuuri mimicked quotation marks with her hands and chuckled. “Oh, what a noble task…”
“Shut up… You should rather thank me, you know.”
Tuuri pretended to bow in front of the Swede. “Thank you, oh hero, for keeping us poor damsels in distress safe.”
Tuuri saw with satisfaction that their “brave guardian” was grinning. Even Kisu, now awake again, smiled. Though most likely just because she had heard the others laugh, not because she had understood what they were talking about.
The child was standing between Tuuri and Reynir, holding one of each of their hands and drawing wiggly lines in the snow with her foot. She was wearing (or drowning in) Lalli´s boots. He wouldn´t need them for the rest of today. Probably not for longer. Tuuri hoped he would wake up soon. She felt bad for yelling at him and really wanted to apologize.
Only Reynir didn´t laugh at the joke. Which was fair, they had been talking Swedish, but that didn´t excuse the utterly terrified look on the Icelanders face. Tuuri fixated the window where he had supposedly seen movement. But there was nothing.
“Are you ok…?”, she asked in Icelandic.
At that moment, Sigrun looked out of the door and signaled that they didn´t find anything. But Reynir still pointed at the window with a face as if he had seen a ghost. Sigrun gestured him to come over and show her where. Reynir didn´t look like he wanted to do that. But apparently Kisu had seen the sign and took the matter into her own hands. The kid let go of Tuuri and started to walk towards the building, dragging poor Reynir with her.
“Should we really let the cat-girl go with him?”, Emil asked out of the corner of his mouth while they watched the bizarre sight of a gigantic redhead and a tiny redhead slowly making their way over a snow-clad site while an impatient redhead was waiting for them.
“Lalli said there is nothing dangerous here. And even if, she´s immune. And can run fast. She´ll be fine.” Tuuri wasn´t about to doubt her cousin again. He was always right. When he said the place was safe, it was safe.
“Ok then…”

***

“Kisa wait! We shouldn´t go there, I´m not immune!”, Reynir whispered. The girl looked at him and resolutely shook her head. Then she started walking faster (which was still not “fast”, since her oversized shoes hindered her quite a bit).
“You… understood me?” He asked. Kisa looked at him in confusion and cocked her head. “You probably just saw that I´m scared…”, Reynir answered for her. “Thank you, but I don´t think this is the right moment to be brave.” The kid didn´t react. Walking required all of her concentration.
When they finally reached the building, Kisa immediately started sniffing it. Was there a weird smell? He sniffed too… until he saw Sigrun giving him a look as if she was asking him whether he just lost his mind. Right, breathing the virus could kill him. And he was here to show the others the thing that moved.
Wait, how did Sigrun and Mikkel not see it? One of them was standing right between them. Or floating… He wasn´t sure.
“… I-I´m sorry. It´s just… ghosts?”
Some Danish or Norwegian was spoken. Now Mikkel too seemed to assume Reynir had gone insane.
The Dane sighed. “Do the “ghosts” appear hostile?”
“Uh… no? They just kinda sit there and flicker a little.”
More Danish or Norwegian. Mikkel and Sigrun started to inspect the room. It looked like an old hospital. Lots of dead people. Maybe Kisa shouldn´t see this. But right now the girl´s focus was on the wall anyway. Wait, could she…?
“Do you see them? You don´t think they look dangerous, do you?”
A perplexed “Mju?” was all the kid responded. He really should start teaching her Icelandic…

***

Meanwhile back at the tank, Tuuri and Emil were starting to get bored. Watching one of their superiors walk by a window every now and then wasn´t exactly the most interesting pass of time. Tuuri let her eyes wander over the pompous building and the statue in the middle of its courtyard again.
“Do you think this place was like a castle? You know, where a king or a queen lived?”
Emil followed her view to the statue. “No. Kings and queens lived like… ages ago. They didn´t have those anymore in the old world. I learned that in school.”
Tuuri giggled. “Interesting school you had, then. Of course kings and queens still existed in the old world. Sweden for example had a royal family. Not sure about Denmark, we didn´t have a lot of Danish records in Keuruu.”
“I´m pretty sure I would know it if my country had a royal family.”
“Come on Emil, I´m a skald. Knowing about history is my job. Would I lie to you?”
Emil seemed to seriously consider it. But before he could answer, Tuuri noticed that the others were on their way back. Reynir was carrying Kisu on his shoulders. But the girl was looking… scared? Her eyes were wide open and she clutched Reynir´s head with her arms. Her hair looked like it had been electrocuted, but maybe Tuuri was imagining that.
Sigrun noticed it and immediately went into what Tuuri sometimes called “Defense-mode”.  Mikkel made the Icelander put on his mask. Quickly Tuuri followed suit and went into the tank.
But the three others kept walking. Maybe it was false alarm…
At that moment a small troll jumped out of nowhere and right towards Reynir. Then everything seemed to go faster. Sigrun jumped in and the thing sunk its teeth in her arm. She fell on her back and started hitting it with the other end of her rifle. Mikkel grabbed Reynir and pushed him away, so fast that Kisu lost her balance and fell down in the snow with a panicked cry, right next to where Sigrun had dropped down.
“Kisa!”, was all Reynir could say before Mikkel pushed him into the door of the tank.
“Get it! Don´t let it hide again!”, Sigrun barked to no specific person, her face wreathing in pain. Emil started shooting vaguely into the direction where the troll had disappeared under the snow. A sobbing Kisu tried to crawl away. Sigrun grabbed her foot and pulled her back.
“Oh no, Kitten, you stay right here where I can make sure it doesn´t get you! Now where did the stupid critter go!?” The girl pointed in a direction with a shivering hand, while covering her head with the other.
“Hold on!” This was Mikkel, looking at Reynir´s arm. The fabric on his sleeve was torn.
Oh no., Tuuri thought. The medic inspected the Icelanders skin with a trained look. There, a small scratch on his upper arm. The skin had turned red at the spot.
“Hm, alright”, the Dane murmured and quickly closed the tanks door. Suddenly it was silent. A muffled order by Sigrun every now and then was the only thing that pierced through the tank´s walls.
“… Am I alright?”, Reynir asked with a shaking voice.
“I… don´t know”, was all Tuuri could answer.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lallicat on August 04, 2020, 01:24:41 PM
Mirasol, I love where you are taking this!

Dreamworld shenanigans!   >:D

Spoiler: Kitty Part 8: Dreamworld, Part I • show
Lalli woke in his dreamspace. Everything was fine so far, no sign of the spirits from earlier. Well, that wasn't quite true. He felt the energy signature of that flickering form that had helped him close by. Lalli knew that it wasn't wise to neglect thanking spirits for assistance, no matter how small, no matter if you asked them to or not, for fear of angering them. So he tried to pinpoint the location the waves were emanating from. It was definitely close by. He walked briskly in its general direction, feeling the signature growing stronger. Finally, he knew he was in the right place. He took a step forward, and smashed his nose against a dreamspace barrier. So it wasn't a spirit that had assisted him, but a mage...
"What is it boy? What are you trying to show me?" Lalli bit back a curse. It was that annoying Icelandic mage with the stupid hair. "Lalli! Hiii! Do you know where we are?" he asked.
"Dreamspace barrier," Lalli replied, gesturing in front of him. "A mage must be here." Reynir looked at him quizzically.
"You mean Onni?" Lalli shook his head.
"No. It's another mage. I don't recognize their energy. They helped me hold back some evil spirits while I was out a few days ago." Reynir gasped.
"You saw the ghosts too? They attacked us as well! That's why we had to leave your campsite. They almost killed us. We should go thank that mage! Without you holding them back, I think we wouldn't have made it." Lalli hmphed, but was slightly less annoyed at the braided boy.
"I can't go in. You can't enter another mage's dreamapace without an invitation." Reynir grinned.
"That's not a problem for me! C'mon!" And he dragged Lalli into the dreamspace.
"It's very rude to that to do that," grumbled Lalli. But he wasn't too mad. He wanted to meet that mage as much as Reynir did. He examined the dreamspace. It was a forest, with lots of boulders. A waterfall tumbled down a cliff, snaked into a stream, and created a small lake. The temperature was cool, with a light drizzle falling. Then, the breeze that had been blowing since they stepped in, carried the sound of a clear laugh to their ears. At the top of the cliff, the flickering figure was twirling with their arms extended, laughing hard, a sound of pure happiness. When they caught sign of Lalli and Reynir, they scramble down the boulders that formed a staircase to the mossy ground.
"Lalli? Reynir? What are you doing here?" they asked. Lalli gasped. The strange mage was Kitty.


Spoiler: Notes • show
I'm going to take a risk and try to draw Dreamworld Kitty. If it isn't an abomination I'll try to post it here. Wish  me luck!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Mirasol on August 05, 2020, 09:45:31 AM
Thank you, Lallicat, and yes, please do draw dreamworld-Kitty! I hope you are aware of posting pictures here being a little bit of an art in of itself. If you need information on how to do that, you can find it here (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=429.0).

Also, next chapter:

Spoiler: part 6 • show
On the same evening, after the troll was finally caught, the crew was getting ready to have dinner. Tuuri found Reynir and Kisu sitting under the table in the office, both looking absolutely miserable.
“Heyyy… Mikkel said that you won´t die. Come on, lighten up!”
If anything, Reynir reacted to this by becoming even more miserable.
“But I was much too close to dying, twice today! What if things continue like this? I might not be that lucky anymore next time.”
Twice? Oh yeah, the wash-water-incident.
“And Kisa fell down in the cold snow and hurt her arm! And nearly got attacked by a troll!” The girl, who was lying curled up on the Icelander´s lap, snuffled affirmatively. Tuuri pondered whether she should be worried that these two might be fusing together soon, if Reynir now even took it upon himself to answer for her.
Then he started talking more muted. “And it was all my fault because I let her go. I brought her in danger. And I can´t even apologize because she doesn´t speak my language!”
Ah, so that was it. Tuuri sighed. “It wasn´t anybody´s fault. You were just scared and surprised when Mikkel tried to get you out of the situation. And look, in the end nothing bad happened. There is just a little bruise on Kisa´s arm. And if it makes you feel better, we can ask Mikkel to translate your apology.”
Reynir let out a slight smile. “Yeah, I think that would make me feel better. And thank you for saying that… But I know-“
“Let me stop you right there.” Tuuri had had enough. “Should I help you to wash your hair? I think you´ll see things in a different light when your head doesn´t stink like something died in it anymore.”
Reynir snuffled too, then nodded. Seriously, it was like talking to a toddler… two toddlers.
“We´re going outside!”, she let the others know, while towing Reynir out of the door. He was now holding Kisu extra-tight, as if to make sure he wouldn´t drop her again.
“Hm-hm”, was all Mikkel answered while stirring in the dinner-pot. The rest of the crew was too busy inspecting their wounds. Emil had a pretty bad-looking bruise on his leg. Tuuri wondered how that happened.

***

As soon as Kisu spotted the tub, she started fidgeting in Reynir´s arms.
“Don´t worry, not for you”, the Icelander tried to calm her.
About five minutes later, he was lying on a blanket on the snow-free ground around the tank (Sigrun had made them remove all the snow five meters around it so nothing would ambush them again) and held his now open hair into the water. Kisu sat on the other end of the tub lurking over its edge and putting a finger in it every now and then, followed by an angry “Mrii!” because the water was so cold.
Reynir´s hair alone took pretty much the entire space in the tub. Tuuri was seriously impressed.
“You know, Kisa even warned me that something was coming”, the Icelander began once again. Slowly but surely, Tuuri started to get annoyed.
“Oh, come on Reynir… Wait. What do you mean with she “warned you”?”
“She was hissing and her hair got all fluffy. Even before the troll jumped out. She did that before, when we were in the tunnel with the flesh-blobs. Maybe that was when the thing started following us. Do you think she can sense trolls?”
Tuuri looked at him skeptically, though she had to admit that Kisu had seemed scared even before the troll attacked.
“Maybe she just did see it. I mean, she grew up in the silent world as far as we know, it´s probably quite necessary for survival to be able to spot critters early. And the tunnel just was really scary.”
“Hm, yeah that makes sense. But she also was able to show Sigrun where it went.”
“Again, she probably saw it.”  Where did the shampoo go? Tuuri only found Emil´s in the bag where it usually was, and she was sure the Swede would kill her if she sunk that into Reynir´s hair-masses.
“And what about the odd ghost things in the building? I think she could see them too. And nobody else could.”
“Oh, was that the movement you meant?”
“Uh-huh. Do you think your cousin knows what they were? Can you ask him when he wakes up?”
Maybe the Icelander was a mage after all. Lalli had been talking about some spirits around the palace before he fell asleep.
“Mmh, Lalli mentioned seeing something like that earlier. I doubt he´d know, he calls things “weird” when he has no clue.”
“Well, that´s a pity.”
Oh, there the shampoo was. It fell into the washing pan where Mikkel usually did the dishes in.
For a while Reynir just stared to the sky. Kisu took a little snow and put it into the water to watch it melt.
“I think Kisa is a mage!”, he suddenly exclaimed. Well, there it was. Tuuri had half expected this to come next.
“Reynir, mages are rare. And Kisa is Danish, there are no Danish mages. They don´t believe in the gods.”
“Our Danes don´t! I mean the ones that live in Bornholm. But Kisa grew up here. Maybe she does believe in something.”
“Huh.” Tuuri hadn´t thought of that. She looked at the little girl, who was just about to drop another handful of snow into the water.
“Mju?” Kisu looked up.
“You know, we should really teach her how to speak.”


EDIT: (And by the way, I polished the parts up to here a bit and uploaded them on AO3 in case someone wants to read them in one go: Kitty (https://archiveofourown.org/works/25726699?view_full_work=true))
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on August 05, 2020, 03:14:22 PM
Here's the latest batch of mine. I don't know how far I'm going to go with it, but I'd like to get at least to the end to Adventure I before I properly publish it. However, I am insisting on a one-chapter backlog to avoid locking myself out of too many options, so this being here means that I've actually already written the following chapter.

Spoiler: show

Silent Child 1

-Well, at least that one came with a care package. And food.
In Sigrun’s eyes, that little girl brought the number of people who shouldn’t be sharing the already-cramped space to two. The other excess body occupying the dormitory and mouth to feed was currently in the driver’s cabin with Tuuri. Neither of them was leaving until the girl and a set of her clothes were properly decontaminated. The ledgers and journals that Sigrun and Emil had found in the half-built outpost explained how the girl had come to existence, and that the recently-dead woman they had found had been her mother. They had also revealed every single other member of the team of builders, including the girl’s father, to be dead. There wasn’t any sort of official protocol for situations like this, but if measures were good enough for a young non-immune man hiding in their food crates, they were good enough for an orphaned child found in the very last place they had expected. The other relieving piece of news had been that that the child had to be immune, considering who her parents had been.
xxxx
In an ideal world, caring for the girl would have been a good way to keep Reynir busy. In reality, the fact that Danish was the only language she understood resulted in her having a clear preference for Mikkel’s company. Right now, the only reason Reynir was able to keep her on his lap was that she was both too tired and too hungry to keep up with Mikkel’s morning bustling. When breakfast was served, she made a face. If what little Katja – it was the girl’s name according to Mikkel – had been eating so far was better than their breakfast, Sigrun felt the right to be a little jealous, if for just a moment. Both Reynir and Tuuri, who seemed to have suddenly become his best friend sometime in the last twenty-four hours, gave the little Katja a sympathetic smile before digging in. Fortunately, the girl seemed used to just eating whatever she was given. Emil, meanwhile, went to the far-off spot in which Lalli was hanging out, carrying a couple of steaming bowls.
Reynir watched as Lalli was doing what Tuuri called “mage stuff” at the top of a tree, and thought of something he had meant to tell Tuuri:
-Did I tell you I think there’s like a 99 percent chance that I’m a mage too?
Tuuri immediately reacted:
-No, what, really? What can you do?
Reynir confidently answered that he didn’t know yet, but that he was sure he would figure something out soon. Tuuri’s response to that made it clear she didn’t believe him. If it had been just about him, he wouldn’t have care much. But there was a question he really needed Tuuri to ask Lalli for him, and he was quite sure she wouldn’t bother asking it if she didn’t deem it necessary. Just as Reynir was trying to figure out which element of the previous day’s dream would convince Tuuri he was telling the truth, Sigrun asked her to do something that required her to be inside the tank rather than sitting on its doorstep. A little disappointed to lose Tuuri’s company so fast, Reynir briefly buried his face in the little girl’s hair before continuing to eat his breakfast. Maybe it would be worth trying to ask Onni if he could get to that dark sea again.
Tuuri opened the door of the driver’s cabin, but didn’t immediately go inside. She turned in Lalli’s direction:
-Come ride in the front with me this time. You can do it! Don’t be scared of new things!
Lalli let out a groan. Of all days to ask him to do this. Caring for the dog-beast on top of his shift had taken what little strength he had left.
-I’m tired.
-You can still sleep! But you have to be close by in case I need to consult you on the path! Your scout notes aren’t always the clearest!
He did not need to be reminded of that right now. He groaned in protest.
-That’s the spirit! Hop in!
She definitely wasn’t in a listening mood today. Hopefully, neither the braided idiot nor the little girl would bother them, this time.
xxxx
Katja, who had slept through a lot of the morning’s agitation, including the tank going both downhill and uphill at angle Reynir was quite sure it wasn’t meant for, suddenly woke up as they were driving to the new campsite that Lalli had found for them. Lalli was currently in the dorm room, being cared for by Mikkel and Emil. Almost as soon as she woke up, she pointed in the direction of the upper part of the windshield. Reynir explained, hoping she’d understand:
-We’re in a tunnel.
As they continued advancing, the direction in which Katja’s finger was pointing  moved to the part of the tank’s roof under which she and Reynir were sitting, then moved until she was apparently showing Reynir a random spot on the dormitory room’s back wall that was between Tuuri and Sigrun’s bunks. By that point, Reynir had shuffled her in such a way that it was easier for her to keep her arm in the proper position. She was still pointing when the tank stopped, and Tuuri went to check on Lalli while Emil left the dorm room, and almost got his eye pierced by the tiny index finger. Emil looked at her for a few moments, then told Mikkel something. Mikkel first seemed to be refusing some sort of request from Emil. Emil insisted, and Mikkel’s resigned sigh was followed by him taking Katja off Reynir’s lap. Reynir gave Mikkel an inquisitive look, to which the latter replied:
-Tuuri, Lalli and Emil had to take a night train through the Silent World to get to our departure base. The train’s roof was breached by a giant at some point, and Emil remembers seeing Lalli pointing at the train’s roof and glaring at a nearby train guard right before the breach. He thinks it could be worth taking her outside. If we must do so, I might as well be the one carrying her. By the time Mikkel was out the door with Katja in his arms, Reynir realized that his question about Katja had been answered in a quite unexpected way.


Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Jitter on August 05, 2020, 03:28:36 PM
I love these, and the way you keep up with the stories! Keep it coming! (Of course only as ling as you like doing it)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Mirasol on August 06, 2020, 12:24:26 PM
Oh, nice one, Grade E cat!

I finished another chapter too:

Spoiler: part 7 • show

“I just have zero faith in your battling skills”. How was Mikkel supposed to not take this personally? Sure, he was no professional troll-hunter or cleanser, but unlike other people he was still in one piece. And had a soldier-training too, as well as years of field-experience. Still, Sigrun preferred to take the injured Nineteenyearold with her instead of him, on top of herself being wounded too. The captain´s recklessness would get someone killed at some point, he knew it. He threw the laundry into the tub as angrily as he allowed himself to be and started working. If he already had to stay behind, he wouldn´t let that time go to waste.
Splat! Misse slipped on the tank´s doorstep and fell headfirst into the mud around it. Yesterday’s snow had melted quite a bit overnight and turned the entire courtyard into a puddle.
Mikkel looked up from his chores. The child pushed herself up from lying flat on the ground and spit out a bit of dirty water. They shared a look, both equally irritated that this had just happened. For a while, nobody said anything.
After a few seconds, the Dane found his voice again. “Are you alright? Have you hurt yourself?”
The girl looked down at her clothes, now covered in mud. She shook her head. "Not hurt."
Mikkel took a wet towel out of the tub in front of him and cleaned her hands and face. She made a hissing sound but let him proceed.
“Wait here for a bit, I´ll give you dry clothes when I´m done with this.”
As soon as Mikkel concentrated on his work again, Misse started playing in the dirt. He rolled his eyes. What did he expect?
“Where have you left your other half?”, he asked, demonstratively not looking at the child who had just comfortably seated herself and her formally white pants into the dirty water.
Right as he said that, Reynir was already peeking his head out of the door.
“Hey Mikkel… Oh, Kisa, there you a-aaaaah.”
The girl happily waved at him with her brown hands.
“I´ll handle this”, Mikkel said, nodding in the direction of the content child. “Just don´t let her inside like that.”
“Oh, uhm, ok… So, what I came here to ask is… We, I mean I, Tuuri is working…”
“Yes?”
“I´m attempting to teach Kisa Icelandic, but I think she doesn´t get what I want from her. She understands you, sort of, so could you maybe tell her that this is what I´m trying to do here?”
Mikkel paused his chores again. “This is… actually a really good idea.”
Reynir smiled. “Really?”
“Yes, of course. We´re planning on taking her home with us, so learning to communicate verbally is definitely useful. Especially with you, since you´re the one she trusts the most.”
The Dane looked at the child again. “Misse?”
She looked up. “Mikkel?”, she stammered after thinking for a bit.
This was the first time she had said anyone´s name. Mikkel was flattered that it was his.
“Yes, I am Mikkel. Do you know who this is too?” He pointed at the Icelander.
The girl nodded. “Kisa.”
A slightly embarrassed “Oh”, was all Reynir said to this. Mikkel couldn´t stop himself from chuckling a little.
“Hm, not quite. His name is Reynir. He calls you Kisa sometimes.”
“Oh, yes. Reynir.” The Icelanders name sounded funny in the girl´s accent.
“Have you noticed that he speaks different than you?”
It took Misse a while until she had deciphered that sentence. Then she nodded again.
“He would like to teach you his language. Then you can talk to each other. Does that sound good?”
Ok, this was too much. The girl didn´t seem to be able to follow what he said anymore. How could he phrase it simpler?
“He wants to show you the words, so you can talk to him.”
A glimpse of understanding appeared in Misse´s eyes.
“Do you want to learn that?”
The girl smiled and got up. “Yes!”
“Wait! First we´ll wash you.”
Title: One’s Own Works
Post by: Quetanto on August 08, 2020, 07:44:32 PM
Perhaps a place to write stories or poetry almost but not quite in relation to the stories already told?

Mine first:

Now learn all parts and portions of this play,
Embrace that which you love, and that which seems
A gadfly ‘pon your crowns, that brings dismay
Know both of what does harm and what redeems.
No work is perfect; every story told
With lack of lustre hides a secret sin,
Some element that authors overlooked,
Some mess it does not pay to look within.
Ignore them as you will–but if, inspired,
You wish for works a higher standard held,
Rejoice! For there is much to be admired,
So watch and learn and think! You are compelled
To love the work not less, but seek new thought,
To see with eyes unclouded what is wrought.
–Sonnet No. 4, Dorian Kaneff
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on August 09, 2020, 04:00:40 AM
Manged to wrap up the the third proper chapter of my Human Kitty story before it started cooking over here, so here's the second one.

Spoiler: show

Silent Child 2

Thanks to the little girl pointing in the right direction, Sigrun had managed to stab the small troll that had followed the tank before it could hurt anyone. As soon as her mind had been able to fully comprehend that Katja could sense where trolls were to an extent, she had Mikkel carry the girl through every single corner of the campsite to make sure there weren’t any other surprises. During that round, Sigrun ended up entering one of the buildings surrounding the camp, but found nothing in it. She had Mikkel bring the girl inside in case the troll or the beast was further inside the building. As Mikkel patrolled what seemed to be yet another improvised sickroom from the time of the first outbreak, the girl would point at random spots on the wall right over where the beds were. Some of the spots being on the wall shared with the courtyard they were camping in, while the girl had found nothing outside of the first troll in the courtyard proper, allowed Sigrun to figure out what was going on:
-You can see ghosts also, uh? You don’t look particularly scared, so I guess they don’t care for us too much.
The godless Dane had a whole other interpretation of the situation:
-If there’s nothing here, we should take her back to the tank. There are a few interesting things here I’d like to look into, but I can’t do that with my arms full.
Sigrun escorted Mikkel and the girl back to the tank, in case the beings the kid still sensed weren’t all ghosts after all. The child was uneventfully given back to Reynir, aside from the fact that she tried to keep Mikkel from leaving again by keeping hold of his coat until the last second. For a brief moment, Sigrun wondered if the girl was mistaking Mikkel for her father due to having known no other man who spoke Danish. They returned to the old sickroom, where Mikkel picked up a box and a letter he had found on a desk. When Sigrun asked him what was so interesting about the items, he responded by reading the letter out loud: “If any of you wake up, don’t be alarmed, we didn’t leave you for dead! But the food has run scarce and we received word that the troops at Kastellet have decided to abandon their cause and move on. We need to venture further out to find supplies, but we’re not giving up on you, not now. We’ll return very soon.”
The explained why there seemed to only be sick people and no caretakers. The caretakers must have never come back after leaving that letter.
-And the box?
-It was sent from Kastellet, and the contents remind me of something that was brought back from the one salvaging spot we got to visit before getting Reynir.
That sounded like something to leave to those who actually enjoyed reading. The evening came without any further events, something that was helped by the fact that Lalli was apparently so tired that he was still sleeping when everyone else went to bed. Maybe it had been a bad day to make him add a few extra hours to his shift, after all. Though in the end, he had managed to do his job.

xxxx

That night, Reynir tried to reached Onni’s place in the dream sea, but was led to a place that looked just like their campsite by the dog from his own dream. Katja was there, this time holding a white-and-ginger kitten. Reynir walked toward her:
-Hi. Do you know where this place is?
-See later.
Hearing even those two simple words from her was jarring, considering how silent she tended to be in the real world. Maybe this was a good opportunity to ask her about that. After all, last time he had seen her in his dream, he’d had no idea that Sigrun and Emil had stumbled upon a little girl and her dead mother during a salvaging mission.
-Can you…
Katja pointed to a spot behind Reynir:
-Bad shadow from home.
Reynir turned around to see what seemed to be vaguely human-shaped shadows approaching the dream’s tank. One of them stopped right in front of Reynir:
-Uh… hi?
The shadow put its hand on Reynir’s face. Reynir suddenly felt like life was quickly being drained out of him. Just after the drain was done, he had a vision of the dog that had led him to this place telling him to “remember this”. As Reynir woke up he hit his head on Emil’s bunk, getting the painful reminder that he had very little space to sleep. He next realized the was a little whimpering coming from the little corner that Tuuri and Emil had made for Katja by sleeping as far down their respective bunks as they could. Reynir knelt on his mattress and looked for something to put his hand on in Katja’s corner, hoping he was touching the curled up Katja and not Tuuri. Not that he’d particularly mind the latter situation. What was he thinking? By moving his hand a little, he became sure Katja was the one he had made contact with, found her hair, and petted it a little:
-It’s okay, it’s just a dream.
Was it just a dream?

xxxx

The sun was shining, Sigrun and Emil were off to collect books in the spot that they hadn’t been able to reach the previous day because of the snow and Mikkel had bent a few rules to let himself check out Kastellet fort while leaving the two non-immunes and the two immunes who probably counted as an entire cat between them securely in the tank. Lalli would probably wake up soon after the long sleep he’d had, Tuuri had work to do and could always join the civilians in whatever they ended keeping themselves occupied with if she got bored. Mikkel took a few moments to bask in the fact that he got to not play babysitter for a few hours. His basking was interrupted by a small hand pulling on his coat’s hem. What was she doing here? Soon enough, both Tuuri and Reynir showed up, fortunately wearing masks. Tuuri grabbed Katja’s shoulder in a very half-hearted manner:
-There you are! Sorry Mikkel, we opened the door to… do something for just a moment, and she ran off without warning. Well, since we’re here, we might as well stick with you.
Considering his background, Reynir had every reason to be an excellent runner. If they had been serious about catching Katja as close to the tank as possible, Reynir would have gotten her before she had left the campsite. Having the idea in the first place and getting the two others to go along with it, however, sounded more like Tuuri than Reynir. Mikkel sighed. It looked like he was the designated babysitter whether he liked it or not.



Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Mirasol on August 09, 2020, 07:23:47 AM
I have another chapter again too. It took a while, I wasn´t really sure how to continue and had to move some parts around a bit.

Spoiler: part 8 • show
“Hold on! You are breaking the rules if you go! You can´t leave two non-immune people alone in the field without an immune person around for protection!”
Tuuri was sure she had gotten him. Nobody cared so much about the rules and the protocol as Mikkel. Either he would take her (and Reynir and Kisu too for all she cared) with him to check out Kastellet fort, or they all would stay home. Anyhow, it was her discovery with the possible cure, so she had the absolute right to look into it in her opinion.
Success! The Dane made a surprised face and thought for a moment. But then his expression went back to the usual deadpan, as he gestured first towards the sleeping Lalli, afterwards to Kisu, who was crawling around on the ground following and carefully watching a spider. Her motivation for learning Icelandic had faded for the day after “Hello” and “goodbye”.
“Guard number one, guard number two. Keep each other entertained during my absence.”
He smugly smiled at Tuuri and left. She couldn´t find any words to express her anger at being outsmarted. She looked at Reynir to find agreement, without luck.
“Come on”, Reynir said in an encouraging tone of voice. “We´ll find something better to do- ew, Kisa, stop that!”
The little girl had now caught the spider alive and was carefully holding it between two fingers. More precisely, she was holding it in Reynir´s face to show off her amazing catch. The poor thing wriggled with its legs, while the Icelander moved as closely to the wall and as far away from the child´s hand as he could.
Tuuri gave a disappointed smile. “Well ok, I guess we won´t get bored with Kisa around…”
At least for now she would be busy saving Reynir from Kisu´s prey.

***

So far they had been playing tic-tac-toe, cards, and taught Kisa the names of the cards. Even though Tuuri had gone about the situation with a sort of huffy enthusiasm that it would be a good day at first, she currently looked like the personification of boredom in the way she was leaning on the table. Kisa even more so, lying flat on her back to their feet. She was reading out the numbers on a couple of playing cards she had stolen from the table over and over in a completely random order. Reynir and Tuuri had just continued playing anyway. Kisa liked the red cards a lot and had preferentially taken those, so whenever heart or diamond was the trump color in their game, it was over very quickly.
After Tuuri had convinced the girl to release the spider outside, there hadn´t been anything too exciting happening. Reynir himself was actually really happy that this day had so far been completely event-less, but knew better than to say this out loud, if he wanted to keep the respect of the two girls. Still, he needed to do something to lighten the mood.
In that moment, the radio came to his rescue by sounding out some interference. Kisa covered her ears and sticked out her tongue in displeasure, Tuuri quickly turned it off.
“The radio is broken, huh?”, Reynir halfheartedly started a conversation.
Tuuri sighed. “No, it works. Nobody´s answering is all. I´m supposed to get us connected with the crew back at the home base.”
“Ah.”
“I don´t think they´re there yet, so it´s pointless.”
With that, silence fell over them again. The Icelander distributed the cards once more. A tiny hand stole one of the jokers that were lying on the corner of the table. After a while, the cards flew against the wall and Kisa started wandering around like she was trapped in a cage. Maybe they should take her for a walk or something. But Mikkel had told them to stay inside.
“You knooow”, Tuuri suddenly declared. “if you really wanted to follow Mikkel, being a bit unruly like that, I wouldn´t be able to stop you `cus I´m tiny. Neither would Kisa. (But I´d try my best so I´d follow you.)” She only whispered that last part.
“No thanks, I´m good. I´ve seen enough neat things for now.” As cool and important as Kastellet fort probably was, Reynir did enjoy living, and wasn´t exactly keen on jeopardizing his life for a sightseeing-tour in the Silent World if he could avoid it. Especially not alone.
Tuuri reacted to this more disappointed than he expected. Suddenly the penny dropped. She wanted an excuse to follow Mikkel with him, she wasn´t really asking whether he wanted to go by himself. Maybe, with friends… it was worth it.
“… Oh. Yeah, maybe I do want to follow Mikkel.”
The Finn´s face lit up, just to go back to the bored, disappointed state right after.
“Ah, actually, no. Forget it. I bet he´ll still get mad at both of us, no matter whose idea it was to go outside. We´d need a good reason for it.”
“Okay?” Reynir really didn´t want Tuuri to be sad.
While he was thinking, an angry “Mju!” cut through the silence, followed by a “Mjurr!” once all eyes were on the little girl. Kisa demanded attention.
“You know, I think Kisa should really move her legs soon, or she will annoy us for the rest of the day”,  Reynir put his thought from earlier into words.
“Yeah… And she´s really good at detecting trolls, Mikkel should have taken her with him, she could have helped him. I bet she could protect us.”
“Actually it puts him in danger that he left her with us, even though this spot is completely safe and where he is going probably isn´t.”
Reynir and Tuuri looked at each other. Both started smiling. Tuuri enthusiastically, the Icelander a bit unsure. But the Finn´s happiness was catching. There they had their reason. Tuuri opened the tanks door full of verve and showed the other two the way outside with a bow.
“Come on Kisa, we´re going for a walk!”


Spoiler: notes • show
In a German comedy book I read, it´s called “Die Känguru Chroniken”( = the kangaroo chronicles), a word for exactly that situation Tuuri is in at the beginning of this chapter is proposed. The word is “ratzupaltuf” (complete fantasy-word, it doesn´t mean anything), and its definition “you just noticed that someone outsmarted you”. It is surprisingly useful on many occasions and has fully entered my vocabulary. Too bad I couldn´t use it here... I wish official words for this would exist in other languages. Or do any of you know some?
Title: Re: One’s Own Works
Post by: viola on August 09, 2020, 05:31:30 PM
Hi, we already have a general writing scriptorium for posting original writing, if you want to post things in that thread: https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=257.0

And we also have a writing discussion thread here: https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=788.0
Title: Re: One’s Own Works
Post by: Quetanto on August 09, 2020, 06:13:14 PM
Hi, we already have a general writing scriptorium for posting original writing, if you want to post things in that thread: https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=257.0

And we also have a writing discussion thread here: https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=788.0

Many thanks for showing me the correct place to post!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on August 11, 2020, 02:24:44 AM
In honour of the canon birthday of Mikkel and his twin Michael, a ficlet: A No-Bull Endeavour (https://archiveofourown.org/works/25837597)

Caution: Fluff with puns-a-plenty, but in English, bc I don't know Danish. 
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Jitter on August 11, 2020, 12:16:49 PM
You’ll learn to not sass your bosses. Oorr... maybe not? :mikkel: 😐
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Mirasol on August 11, 2020, 02:09:00 PM
Nice poem, Quetanto! We also have a thread purely dedicated to poetry (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=4.0) here, in case you haven´t noticed yet and are interested.

And Wave, I really like your story too! Poor Mikkel, not getting a choice in joining the army. But at least he doesn´t (and didn´t) lose his humor because of it. And in not sassing bosses he might be a hopeless case anyway. :'D

Also chapter!

Spoiler: part 9 • show
He would never not be a babysitter. Not only did Reynir, Tuuri and Misse follow him against his strict orders under some dumb excuse along the lines of Misse being able to “sense trolls” (“Not sensing, seeing!”, as Tuuri phrased it), but then they had spent the entire detour bothering him. Especially Reynir, who had gotten scared at the walls again. But in the end, Mikkel couldn´t really blame him, that entire maneuver had “Tuuri” written all over it, she probably just didn´t want to go alone.
At least he got what he came for, some of the test cures and on them the address of the hospital where they were developed. Now all they had to do was get home before Sigrun…
“…Uh.”
The surprised captain who was balancing some books on her head (and had definitely not been careful with her injured arm as he had advised) looked at him… and Tuuri and Reynir and Misse behind him. Mikkel prepared for the worst.
“Mutiny.” She practically spit that word out.
Mikkel spent the rest of the way back explaining himself and his intentions that were definitely not motivated by wanting to overthrow Sigrun. She threatened to leave him behind in a ditch regardless, but luckily refrained from it because her arm still needed medical attention.

***

Their employers at the home base had finally answered the radio calls. Most of the crew was happily talking to them right now. But Emil couldn´t concentrate. He and the Cat-girl were both cowering next to Tuuri´s bunk under which her cousin had been sleeping completely motionless for… two days now? Emil was pretty sure that this wasn´t normal. And no one else except for him and the kid seemed to care. And she had only realized five minutes ago that something was wrong! Anyway, the two of them were literally the people the least qualified to help (Well, maybe the stupid Icelander would be even more useless at the moment).
Tuuri had said that Lalli was somewhat sick, and just needed to rest up. But two days! That was a long time to be unconscious. Emil touched Lalli´s cheek and forehead to check whether they were warm. Hm no, not really. At least he didn´t seem to have a fever. But he still wouldn´t wake up.
“Hm”, he said to express his concern and shared a look with the Cat-girl, who was looking equally unhappy.
“Hm”, she repeated and pouted.
The kid poked Lalli´s face with her finger. Now if Lalli had been okay, he would have at least tried to bite her for this. But Emil´s friend didn´t react at all. The Swede was starting to get seriously worried.
“Come ooon. Wake up already”, he murmured.
“Mrr”, the Cat-girl assented. Funny, it was the same sound Lalli sometimes made when he was really annoyed by something. Though, out of the mouth of the little girl, it sounded more like a sad purr.
Exited chatter in a mixture of Swedish and Icelandic came from the other room.
“Really? Nobody else cares even a little bit?”, he shouted into the conversation. Everyone ignored him.
“Looks like it´s up to us, then.” Emil was absolutely ready to care for Lalli alone if he had to… Or with the Cat-girl, if she was willing to help. He would not leave this spot until Lalli would wake up.
“EMIL! C´mere, we´re making a detour, gotta fill you in! The pipsqueak won´t run away if you don´t look for a few minutes!”
Or at least not until Sigrun called. Alright, he didn´t want to end up on the captain´s new mutineer-list. But still, leaving Lalli completely alone again (like Tuuri and Reynir did earlier!) didn´t feel like a good idea. He glanced at the kid who was still sitting on the ground. He pointed his finger at her, then to Lalli. “You. Look after him for me until I´m back, okay?”
Her eyes followed where Emil´s finger was pointing. They rested on the scout´s sleeping face for a bit, then she looked back at the Swede.
“Mju!”, she said.
Good enough. Emil decided to interpret this as that she understood him. He nodded in her direction, then went into the main room to the others.

***

Dinner was served. Reynir was keeping Tuuri company in the tanks front, where she planned out the new route to take. Kisa was eating in the back of the tank with Emil and the sleeping scout today. For some reason not even the temptation of warm tuna could make her leave Lalli´s side. Well, she was probably just worried about him. Reynir understood that, he was too, but Emil would just snap at the Icelander if he dared to come closer, so he stayed away.
He looked at Tuuri who was eagerly drawing lines on the map. The crew would check out the place at the address on the thing Mikkel found. Tuuri believed it could be the starting point for an actually working cure. That was neat, sure, but Reynir couldn´t help but wish they were already on their way home. Those ghosts in Kastellet fort looked very much not friendly. And then there was his vision…
“Just think about all the people we might be saving! We´ll be heroes!”, Tuuri broke him out of his thoughts. “You too, you´re one of us now.”
Once again Reynir couldn´t help but be infected by her joy. Yes, heroes. That would be nice, probably.
“And then think of us! If there was a cure, non-immune people like we are could just go anywhere they wanted, without having to worry. And no scaredy-cat-family-members can hold us back. I can go out into the world and you can finally look for those palm trees you want to see so badly.”
“You´re right, that does sound good. Actually, it sounds really good.” He could go away from Iceland, or join the army and work together with his siblings. Or actually travel! His parents could even come too, the cure would work for them just as well. Or he could go with some of his friends back home.
“Just… the palm trees might be a bit unrealistic… Mikkel said they grow really, really far south.”
Tuuri shrugged. “There are other nice things to see.”
“I suppose… Is Keuruu a nice place?”
“Uh… Kinda boring. I guess if you enjoy looking at city walls.”
“Hm.”
Reynir looked out the front window. A fog had started to form when the sun went down. Now everything was covered in white clouds and sprinkled with red light. It was actually kind of pretty.
Except for those floating black smoke-figures in the distance.
“Remember this.”
 The dog´s voice was echoing in his head. Reynir felt like he was living through his dream again.
“We need to… go.”
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lallicat on August 12, 2020, 11:42:33 AM
Heey, I'm back! And with a new chapter.

Spoiler: Kitty Part 8: Dreamworld, Part II • show
Reynir couldn't believe his eyes. He had been right! Kitty was a mage! But something was off. Her image kept flickering, like a candle. It flipped from a girl, to a small cat.

"You helped me with the ghosts." Lalli told her. It was a statement, not a question.

"Yes!" She exclaimed delightedly. "But you started screaming. It woke me up." She frowned. "Sorry." Lalli seemed to take no notice of the apology.

"What else can you do?" he asked. Kitty shrugged.

"I don't know." She paused for a moment. "Hey, how come I can understand you now?" "In the dreamworld, there are no languages. We are asleep, so we can't speak. That's why you understand me." Lalli told her. Reynir was mulling over Kitty's words.

"Wait. Can you understand me when we're awake?" Kitty nodded. "Who else do you understand?" She thought for a moment.

"Emil. Sigrun. Sometimes Tuuri. Mikkel too, a little bit." Reynir tallied up the languages in his head. Icelandic, Norwegian, Swedish. "Are the others here too?" she asked, looking around as if expecting Sigrun to appear out of thin air yelling, "Surprise!" Lalli shook his head.

"Only mages can access the dreamspace. That's what you are. A mage." Kitty looked at him, confused.

"What's a mage?" she asked. Lalli bit his lip.

"A mage is a person who the gods gift special abilities." Kitty still looked confused.

"What's a god?" she asked. Reynir decided to tackle that question.

"They're... powerful beings. They watch over us, and help us sometimes. You can try to ask them for help, that's called praying. They watch over and kind of control the whole world." Kitty seemed to understand.

"Like the Tree Lady," she told Reynir.

"The... tree lady?" he asked her, confused.

"She came and visited me here once. She told me something. It was important." She frowned. "I- I can't remember. I can't remember anything from before you rescued me." The flickering intensified.

"Why is she doing that?" Reynir whispered to Lalli. "The flickering thing." Lalli shrugged.

"It must be because she's young. She can't properly control her energy. I'm guessing that the cat is a form of her luonto. We need to get her to Onni. He'll help her control and stabilize it." Reynir  nodded.

"We need to do that sooner than later. It's making me dizzy."
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Mirasol on August 12, 2020, 03:10:32 PM
Welcome back Lallicat! :))

I have another chapter too:

Spoiler: part 10 • show
“What?”
“Remember those spirits? At the place? Well they´re here now and I dreamt that they were going to kill us and you need to drive us away from here! To somewhere else!”
Tuuri looked confused. “Umm… calm down. First of all, the sun is setting, it´s not like we can go anywhere. But we might relocate tomorrow, so just…”
Dammit, she said she believed him earlier!
“No no no, not tomorrow! They´re coming to eat us right now!
“We-“
“We´ve got to go now! Tell Sigrun!”
The Finn looked like she was questioning his sanity, but at least she did say something to the captain. But Tuuri didn´t seem to have gotten the urgency of the problem across. If Reynir interpreted Sigrun´s expression correctly, there was little hope she would listen.
“Sorry. Try to get them off your mind, they´re really probably not dangerous. Sigrun said we´re not going, no matter what.”
He had been hoping she wouldn´t say that. If only Lalli was awake. Or Kisa could talk. If there were three of them, Sigrun would have to pay attention. But actually, Kisa looked completely calm. A bit bewildered that he was panicking, if anything. Maybe it really was just a dream- No! It was more, the dog had been there and he only came in his magic-dreams. Maybe Tuuri had just been right and the girl wasn´t a mage. Yes, that had to be it. Reynir wouldn´t sit here and wait for all of them to die.
“Drive anyway, who cares what Sigrun says!?” He tried to pull Tuuri to the driver’s seat. “You´re fine with breaking orders!”
Now Tuuri looked angry. She started to fight back.
“Quit that! I think you should go to bed.”
They were doomed. Reynir didn´t know what to do, couldn´t do anything. If only he could drive a car.
Suddenly some alarmed screams in Swedish came from the back of the tank, accompanied by choking sounds coming from Lalli. They were here. But for some reason Kisa still didn´t seem scared. At least not because of the ghosts. She came running into the office and grabbed Mikkel´s hand, dragging him to help Lalli. Before the two of them had reached him though, the scout started to let out a deafening screech. For a moment everyone was startled.
Sigrun was the first to break out of it and yelled something, but stopped mid-sentence with a puzzled look. The next moment, she and Mikkel fell to the ground and fainted.
Kisa was standing between the two superiors, staring at them as if she didn´t understand the world anymore. Then her gaze wandered upwards. Her eyes became big in horror, her hair began to fluff up like she had touched a plug socket and she pointed at a spot on the ceiling.
“Mi- MriiIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!!”
Tuuri and Reynir looked at where the girl´s finger was aiming. What was up there looked like a troll, or not… just it´s shadow?  But still way too real. It´s maw was open, as if it was sucking life and air itself out of the tank and its inhabitants. The spider-like legs extended to the walls and seemingly flowed down like some deadly rills. They ended in long, skinny fingers. Two of these hands were holding the faces of Sigrun and Mikkel like the bars of a cage. The other arms creeped over the floor, searching for prey. Lalli, who was still screaming as if someone had stabbed him, was caught in one of the arms´ shadow-cages too. Kisa tried to sidestep the other limbs´ grab.
Finally Tuuri seemed to realize the danger of the situation. She ran to the driver´s seat with a scared “Eee! We´re all going to die!” and stepped on the gas pedal.
The wheels started turning so fast that the tank lurched for a while; before it started moving with greater speed then Reynir had thought it was capable of. He fell to his knees. He couldn´t tell whether because of the shaking car or the troll-ghost.
But it was too late. They wouldn´t be able to escape anyway. The threat was already inside.
Kisa´s “Mriiih!” ceased. Her eyes rolled upwards and she fell down in the middle of the others. The spider-fingers started crawling over her face.
Reynir had to do something. He was a mage. There had to be something he could do. He had to stop being frozen in fear now! He didn´t know any spells, but he just had to try. Giving up wouldn´t get him anywhere.
“G-go away! Please go away! How-”
He had probably fainted too, because the next time he opened his eyes he was in his dreamplace. Or some dark caricature of it. The grass on the hill was dry and grey, the sheep were fleeing and instead of sunshine a gigantic black cloud was darkening the sky. Or so he thought. When he looked up the cloud turned out to be a much larger, puffed up version of the ghost-troll.
At least the dog was at his side to help him fight off the intruder. But he couldn´t do much more than growl at it. Reynir had to continue his attempt at a spell.
“How can I make you go away?!”
A pale rune appeared under Reynir´s feet, and some kind of shield formed around him. But it didn´t look strong. If that was the extent of his abilities, he wouldn´t save anyone.
“I need help!”
It was just a whisper. But something had heard it. A small figure appeared among the running sheep. Instead of away, it was running towards him. It was the small orange and white cat with the heart-shape on its head. He had noticed it before. It was usually sleeping on a fence in his dreamplace when he´d wake up there. The Icelander had never really paid attention to it; he had just assumed it was a part of the place, like the sheep. No real being, just a prop. But now it looked fierce, and brave, and the danger right in the eye. With its somehow very familiar, big, blue eyes. The little cat stepped into Reynir´s shield without being hindered.
The ghost started to attack. He shot his dark arms down like arrows and hit the shield. It made sounds like cracking glass upon impact. The spider-fingers on the limbs´ ends started to crawl around again, this time searching for a weak spot to get into the shield. They would find one, no doubt. Reynir and the dog made themselves as small as possible. The Icelander put his arms around his dream-friend in a last effort to protect him. So this was the end.
But the little cat still focused on the enemy. For a short time it looked back at Reynir, as if it was saying "Don´t be scared. I know what to do."
It inhaled and let out a monstrous yell that threw the punching and creeping arms off of the shield and a few meters away. It was imitating one word, in the same tone of voice as the Icelander had said it.
“HELP!”
It was a child´s voice, sounding like it was not used to talking. But it made his prayer heard. The next thing Reynir knew a large owl flew over his head and started attacking the shadow.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lallicat on August 12, 2020, 07:39:34 PM
Mirasol, I love the way your story is going! And I also have yet a new chapter to post:

Spoiler: Kitty Part 9: Interlude • show
The estimate had been a couple days. The days had turned into weeks, and it seemed that they would never arrive at their destination. Mikkel absentmindedly stirred the gloop that served as their food, briefly wondering if the scout had snuck another squirrel in the pot. Little Kitten had been playing a game of "hiss-and-seek" (Emil's name, not his) with Emil, Tuuri, and Reynir. The rules seemed to be similar to hide-and-seek, but with a lot more hissing when Kitten was "seeking." Now she was just running around, chasing something that only she could see. He had turned his attention back to "dinner" when he felt something brush against his leg. It was Kitten. She was watching him with interest, and had started to reach a hand toward the pot. With a deft movement, he picked her up and swung her away from it.
"Don't touch that!" he told her sternly. "It's hot, you have to be careful." She gave him a reprochful look.
"I know," her eyes seemed to tell him. "I was only looking."
"Well how was I supposed to know that?" he grumbled. "It looked like you were going to touch it." She just stared at him some more, then ran off. She came back moments later with a handful of bugs, and moved to drop them in the pot. Once again, Mikkel snatched her back. "No, we don't eat bugs. If you want to help, you can stir the food with me." He placed his hands over hers on the wooden spoon and began to stir. When he felt that she understood, he let go. She stared at the pot with intense concentration, stirring fervently, a small frown on her face. When it looked like the food was cooked, he offered some of it to her off the top of the spoon. She took a lick, scrunched up her face in concentration, then nodded in approval. The food had passed the Kitten Edible Food Test. He then ladled the stuff in their bowls, and handed them to Kitty to carry out to the rest of the crew, which she did with a very pompous and self-satisfied expression. Mikkel couldn't hold back the smile that stretched across his face.

***

It had snowed over night. Kitty tugged at Emil's hand, pulling him towards the door. The meaning couldn't have been more clear. He pulled on some boots, then followed Kitty outside.
"It's snow, Kitty," he told her. "Can you say snow?" She threw a handful of the stuff in his face in response. "Oh, so that's how you want to play it, huh?" he told her. "Well then, try to avoid this!" He aimed a snowball at her shirt, but she ducked down and rolled. Lying down, with her white hair and clothes covered in snow, she was difficult to see. That's her strategy! Emil realized. She's used to living in the Silent World, so she must be used to hiding! Emil suddenly realized he might have picked a fight with the wrong person. Thump! A snowball hit him in the back of his head. "Turri!" Emil yelled with a grin. "I need back up!"
"Coming!" was the muffled reply. Now where did the scoundrel go? wondered Emil. A soft giggle came from a tree branch above his head. He scrambled out of the way just in time for a mini avalanche to be dumped where he had been standing seconds ago. He managed to hit one if her legs before she shimmied down the tree. Dang she's fast! What resulted was a full blown out battle. Kitty, Reynir and Sigrun on one side, him, Mikkel, and Tuuri on the other. Lalli was a sort of neutral player, mostly observing, but landed good shots occasionally on the back of Emil and Tuuri's head.
"Snow!" Giggled Kitty. "Snow!"
"That's right Kitty!" exclaimed Emil, "It's snow!"

***

Slowly but surely, Kitty started speaking more and more often, in longer and longer phrases. It turned out that she was a curious thing. She loved sitting next to Tuuri while she drove, wanting to know how the Cat Tank worked and what everything did. Tuuri had to revise her estimate of Kitty's age yet again. She was most likely around nine or ten. Kitty herself didn't know her exact age or birthday, but seemed to agree with Tuuri's guess.
"Nine is a nice number," she told her. "I like the number nine." It turned out Kitty loved to learn as well. She had asked Tuuri to teach her Danish, and followed along with Emil as he tried to teach himself Finnish. Mikkel soon found himself an apprentice cook and Sigrun delighted in trying to gift Kitty the knowledge of military tactics. Tuuri doubted the usefulness of learning to cook sludge, and was pretty sure Kitty didn't understand a thing about Sigrun's tactics, but she seemed to be enjoying herself anyway. She would occasionally follow Lalli when he went scouting, which surprised Tuuri most of all. Lalli definitely wouldn't let anyone else follow him like that. When she questioned him about it, he responded with an annoyed sigh and a "Stupid kid." Another surprise came when her cousin told her that Kitty was a mage. She hadn't believed Reynir when he told her, and why would she? He thought he was a mage. It was theoretically possible, but she would be surprised if he hadn't figured it out by now. The newfound knowledge that Kitty could detect trolls made her an invaluable asset to every party that left the Cat Tank. Tuuri couldn't help but be a bit jealous that a nine-year-old child was allowed to join the expeditions while she had to stay inside. Still, when she felt Kitty's reassuring weight on her feet at night, listening to the rain hitting the Cat Tank's roof, it was impossible to feel anything but love for small Kitty of the Silent World.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Mirasol on August 14, 2020, 04:18:28 PM
Thanks, Lallicat! And aww, what adorable Kitty scenes!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on August 16, 2020, 09:19:43 AM
Soooooo...
I, uh, seem to have dropped another part (https://archiveofourown.org/works/21201896/chapters/63035068) of my dark!fic.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on August 16, 2020, 11:11:00 AM
*lunging forward just in time to catch it*
*setting it down before fingers start to ignite*
Yessss! Hooray!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on August 16, 2020, 12:19:34 PM
I'm trying to produce a chapter per week after having started this on a whim. So far, so good.

Spoiler: show


Silent Child 3

Kastellet fort turned out to have been colonized by small populations of various animals that Reynir found himself needing to keep Katja from trying to catch. Mikkel eventually entered a place that was the hospital building according to Tuuri. Tuuri fist seemed like she was going to follow him in, but elected to stay in the doorway for some reason. Soon after this, she turned in Reynir’s direction as he was trying to keep Katja from climbing up a tree to get to a couple birds who were sitting on a branch:
-Come over here, the two of you! Mikkel told you not to stray.
Reynir managed to drag Katja closer to the building, but, at the mid-way point between the tree with the birds and the building, Katja pointed at the ground. Looking at it, Reynir realized that there was an area of a few meters around the hospital building’s entrance where the only tracks on the ground had to belong to Mikkel and Tuuri, while the snow on the rest of the fort’s non-sheltered ground was saturated with overlapping animal tracks of all sizes. Reynir couldn’t start pondering the significance of this as Tuuri authoritatively asked Reynir and Katja to join her in the doorway a second time. As soon as they reached their destination, Katja found something else to point to on the room’s walls: Reynir immediately recognized the “bad shadow from home” things from the dream. Unfortunately, Mikkel refused to leave before he had found what he had come from, yet managed to find it before Reynir could come up with a good way to explain the situation to Tuuri.

Reynir didn’t quite understand what was said when they ran into Sigrun and Emil carrying books on the way back to the camp, but Sigrun definitely wasn’t happy. It looked like the book-salvaging party had had some interesting time of its own, considering that Sigrun’s left sleeve was soaked with blood and Emil seemed to be limping a little.

xxxx

The first radio contact since the expedition’s organizers got back to their headquarters – it had apparently taken this long because they had only one of those night trains and it had needed repairs – was full of surprises for both sides. First, Tuuri’s brother had turned out to have traveled to Sweden to join the organizers. Second, it turned out that the organizers were boarding the train when Tuuri had left the update including the fact they had found Katja to the Danish military base’s radio attendant, making the little girl news to them. Third, Mikkel’s finding in Kastellet had revealed that a hospital that could be reached within the time allotted for the expedition had possibly been working on a cure for the Rash. Apparently, going to that place was worth it despite the fact that Emil’s aunt’s own workplace had been researching a cure for longer than Reynir’s own parents had been alive. According to Tuuri, Sigrun had decided they would go the former research hospital.

Lalli had been asleep for more than twenty-four hours when dinner was served. Reynir and Tuuri ended up both eating in the driver’s cabin. Katja was eating with Mikkel and Sigrun in the office. Between the little girl sticking close to Mikkel and the fact that she honestly looked like she could be a not-so-distant younger relative to Sigrun, the three of them honestly looked a little like a family. That made Reynir wonder if she had any relatives back in the Known World who would be able to take her in. He, at least, knew he had a family to go back to. Because of the variety of positions everyone had ended up facing while eating their meal, Reynir was the only one to notice Katja stooping to eat, putting her bowl down on the floor and getting up from her seat and point at the windshield. Mikkel promptly picked up the bowl:
-Please don’t leave things here.
Reynir, meanwhile, started to see what Katja had been pointing at through the windshield. The “bad shadows from home”, as they had appeared in the previous night’s dream. Reynir realized what needed to happen. Fortunately, Tuuri was already in the driver’s seat:
-We need to go.
He tried explaining the reason to Tuuri, but she looked at him like he had grown a second head and said that they would probably relocate the next day. No. They needed to leave now. He had Tuuri share what he knew with Sigrun, hoping she’d understand. Considering Sigrun’s reaction and Tuuri’s response, either something had gotten lost in translation, or Tuuri didn’t entirely believe him. Probably both. In panic, he tried forcing Tuuri’s hands onto the wheel:
-Drive anyway, who cares what Sigrun says? You’re fine with breaking orders!
Mikkel had ordered her to stay in the tank during his own most certainly unauthorized escapade. It hadn’t stopped her from hatching the plan that had given them an excuse to follow him. Tuuri angrily yanked her forearm out of his hand, and told him to go to bed. Almost as soon as she finished speaking, Lalli started making choking noises, then screamed. Sigrun and Mikkel both collapsed, while Katja was on her knees and loudly crying while the lower part of her outfit suddenly seemed to have become wetter. Reynir found his own legs unable to support him as the shadows invaded the office. Tuuri’s response was to finally do what Reynir had wanted her to do mere minutes earlier, though he could have done without the words she pronounced while doing so:
-We’re all going to die!
Meanwhile, all Reynir found to do was to ask the spirits to go away. He soon realized he was going to need help. But from whom? Lalli didn’t seem to be able to do much, and Katja seemed even more clueless than he was. Reynir remembered there was someone else. He dedicated half of his attention in trying to reach that person, the other half in trying to protect himself from the shadows, that now seemed to be in the place he went when he dreamed as well as in the tank. After what seemed like forever, he glimpsed an owl that somehow felt like Onni in some way, then heard it chant something that apparently made the shadows go away.


Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lallicat on August 18, 2020, 09:30:26 PM
Blah. This chapter didn't want to get written. And now I also have more ideas for fan fiction, argh! You know I can't work on more than one project at a time brain!

Spoiler:  Kitty part 10: Speculations • show
All 7 of the crew members trailed out of the Cat Tank towards a town supposedly filled with immeasurable numbers of books. The weather was sunny and warm, and Sigrun was vaguely reminded of the family outings she went on when she was a kid. The scout guy has come their way a few minutes before.
"No danger," he had told her quietly.
"Great!" she had responded. Lalli had walked a couple steps ahead and stopped to point at a building. It was filled with books. "We'll need reinforcements to carry all that junk," she told Emil "Good find, twigs, if you understand what I'm saying." He probably didn't, but that was none of Sigrun's concern.

Back at the Cat Tank, Sigrun was bantering with Mikkel to come and help out with carrying the books. That and because she was still keeping an eye on him. He was still on her mutinist list after all. Braidy interrupted to hand Mikkel a scrap of paper. He was talking very fast in Icelandic and Sigrun didn't understand a thing. She inspected the paper he had handed to her. It appeared to be some sort of protection rune. She doubted if it would really do anything, but it never hurt to try. "I like the effort," she told him, "but as far as I know, stuff like this works way better when drawn in blood, the gods love blood. Just saying, I'm no expert or anything." With that bit of useful knowledge, she leapt inside the shop, with Kitty at her heels. She high fived Mikkel. The place had shelves and shelves of books. Even Kitty was looking around, wide eyed. It was going to be a good haul.

***

"Hey! How do I say 'good job' in Finnish again?" Tuuri raised an eyebrow. Emil was really bad at this language-learning stuff.
"I can write it on your hand if You have trouble remembering," she told him, slightly exasperated and bemused.
"It's hyvää työtä," Kitty piped from the windowsill she was exploring. Tuuri raised an eyebrow yet again. Even a possibly-nine-year-old kid who was living in the Silent World for most of her life has better memory skills than you, Tuuri thought. At this rate, he would get nowhere. Emil huffed.
"I'll remember," he grumbled. Tuuri took pity on the Swede and walked over to Lalli.
"Emil is trying to let you know that he thinks you've been doing a good job," she told him.
"I know. What's this?" Her cousin asked her, pointing at a globe.
"It's a map, of the whole old world." She told him. Lalli crinkled his nose.
"Why is it round?" Tuuri faltered.
"Um... The world is round." she told her cousin.
"... I see. Makes sense. I can feel it." Tuuri was a bit skeptical about that, but didn't question the mage. "Then why are all our other maps flat?" Tuuri didn't honestly know. It was a valid question.
"I think it's just easier that way," she told him.
"It's misleading and should be changed" was Lalli's answer.

The crew worked quickly and efficiently, every one marveling over the treasures of the old world. Kitty had had climbed onto a pile of boxes and was looking at a book she had found thay contained pictures in boxes with writing in strange balloons while singing a battle song Sigrun had taught her. She had sung it 3 times in a row already and it was starting to get on everybody's nerves. The workflow was interrupted as Reynir suddenly found a strange book.
"These are some really odd runes. I don't think I can use them."
"Do not touch anything, Reynir," called Mikkel from across the room, his arms full of books. Reynir obeyed and moved away from the book, but Emil took a look.
"I know what language that is," he said. "It's called 'Kung Fu'!" Tuuri rolled her eyes.
"Actually it's called 'Chinalandic.' Gosh." Mikkel disagreed with both of the youngsters.
"Mandarin, most likely," he assured them.
"No it isn't, mandarin is a fruit," Sigrun scoffed.
"The word can refer to that too. I'm impressed you'd know such a thing," Mikkel replied.
"Oh yeah, we get a ton of fruit sent over from the greenhouses in Iceland. I know all the fruits," Sigrun informed him. "A mandarin tastes like a lemon that killed itself."
"Do you ever think that there might be other people like us out there, far, far, away? And maybe they've found a book in one of our languages, and they're now thinking 'huh, what a weird language. I wonder if the people who spoke of are still out there?' Wouldn't that be cool?!" Tuuri speculized, wide-eyed with excitement.
"Yep, would be cool, but that's way unlikely." Tuuri turned to face Sigrun.
"How so?" she asked.
"Simple. The poor sods didn't have anywhere to go, they didn't have big forests, islands and mountains to hide in like the rest of we do. They had big cities and fields." Tuuri wasn't convinced.
"I'm pretty sure there's mountains elsewhere too..." Sigrun wasn't convinced either.
"Dunno about that..." Tuuri just pointed at a big picture hanging on the wall. It depicted mountains, that were clearly not from around here. Sigrun leaned toward Mikkel. "Hey, do you think that's a picture of a place that actually exists or..."
"I have no reason to believe otherwise," replied Mikkel.
"Let's go check it out then! If there might be a whole other nation out there we've got to at least go say hello! We're on a detour anyway, how long will it take us to get there?" Sigrun was overflowing with enthusiasm, ready to go answer the age-old debate: "are we alone?"
"We'll, assuming we're able to keep this pace... a decade." Mikkel's answer deflated Sigrun's sails.
"Okay, let's not do that right now then. What is it, the other side of the world or something?"
"Figuratively speaking, yes." They didn't talk for a while after that, focusing on bringing back as many books as possible. "I believe that is all we are able to carry for today," Mikkel announced. Reynir approached him.
"Mikkel, what's this?" he asked. Mikkel glanced down. "It's- pieces of broken glass! What did I tell you earlier?!"
"Everyone ready to head back?" asked Sigrun. Every one was, so they headed out.
"I think we can agree that with the collection we have managed to accumulate we may all be proud to return to our civilization," Mikkel remarked.
"Mm-hm," agreed Sigrun. "Good vacation. I'll miss this."
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on August 23, 2020, 10:53:54 AM
Somehow squeezed a chapter out in a single afternoon in spite of the new neighbors' construction work, so here's the one that had been cooling off:

Spoiler: show

 
Silent Child 4

Sigrun and Mikkel woke up. Reynir wasn’t sure whether Emil had ever lost consciousness or not. Lalli seemed to have calmed down, but was apparently still unconscious. It turned out that Katja had indeed wet herself. By the time she was cleaned up and in her other set of clothes, she was already pointing to the front of the tank, that was still in a mad dash to leave the city, only this time on one permitted by Sigrun. Soon, the tank was physically stopped by a large obstacle that had definitely grown from a troll at some point. Mikkel, Sigrun and Emil all went out to clear it out. When it turned that not all of the material was part of dead specimens, Tuuri was asked to get herself, Reynir, Katja and Lalli out of the city while the others dealt with trolls. Tuuri ended up stopping before they were quite out of the city. It turned out to be a good call, as Sigrun had apparently both fallen in the water and re-opened her arm wounds from earlier, requiring Mikkel to tend to them as fast as possible. After that evening, sleep came to Reynir much faster than he expected.

Reynir had a strange dream that night. He was sitting on the edge some sort of wood bench, the dog from his dream sleeping on the floor beside him. He heard a voice coming from nowhere in particular:
-Hello? Is somebody there?
Katja’s voice made Reynir realize that she was sitting on the same bench, a little further down, holding her kitten:
-Nice home.
Reynir looked around him, and agreed that while the place seemed to be in ruins, it indeed looked like it would have been a nice building back in the Old World days. The examination also told him that a lit candle some distance from the front of the bench was the only sign anyone besides he and Katja could be in the building. Not far from the lit candle, there was what seemed to be an ornate stone block. One of the decorations was a cross that looked like a plus sign, except that the lower branch was twice, if not thrice, as long as the three others. Almost as soon as he noticed it, he woke up.

xxxx

Between the whimpering Reynir had heard during the night and the sounds she had made during the last evening’s incident, it has been established that Katja was able to emit some sounds. Thanks to instructions from Mikkel that she was now following a little too diligently, she was now repeating every sound that was addressed to her as best she could. While Mikkel was making a breakfast that they were all agreeing was actually lunch due to how late into the morning they had all slept, Reynir and Tuuri had improvised a game that could be called “which is the most complex sound from your language that Katja can repeat”. At the beginning, Reynir had been able to tell that Tuuri had been throwing both Swedish and Finnish at her, leaving anything from Icelandic to Reynir himself. However, Emil had heard what they were doing from the still-asleep Lalli’s bedside, and joined them to replace Tuuri for Swedish. All four of them got so involved in the game that they didn’t notice, until Mikkel pointed it out, that Lalli had woken up, dressed, and gone to lean against a tree in sight of the campsite, but a few meters away from it. Emil went to bring him food, and came back covered both with his own food and Lalli’s, which prompted Tuuri to go have a talk with Lalli.

As the crew was preparing to head for the hospital, a radio session was happening with the organizers. Reynir at some point realized that Mikkel was keeping Onni busy while Tuuri was doing something with Lalli, and asked to speak with him instead due to actually having a few things to tell him and ask him about. After thanking Onni for his help the previous evening, clearing up a misunderstanding about how much training he’d gotten so far, being told what to do about the ghosts and finding out that Onni couldn’t reach him due to differences in their gods, Reynir was asked about “the third mage that was with them”. Reynir explained she was the little girl Emil and Sigrun had found.
-This is going to complicate things. If she turns out to have family in the Known World, chances are that those people are in Denmark.
Reynir didn’t need Onni to continue speaking to make a connection he hadn’t made so far due to there already being plenty of things going on with Katja grabbing his attention: Denmark didn’t have mages, and that meant that handing her over to whichever relatives offered to take her in might not be a good idea. Unfortunately, that also meant that the relatives in question might not even understand why it was a bad idea.
-The people heralding this expedition are Swedish, so they might as well be Danes when it comes to magic. But there’s a Norwegian in the team and it looks like he’s the one who brought in the Norwegian you’re traveling with, so it may be some use to tell him about the girl.
Just at that moment, Tuuri and Lalli showed up, both clearly ready to speak with Onni. Reynir gave Tuuri the headphones and went outside, where Mikkel was treating Sigrun’s wounded arm. Following Onni’s suggestion, he decided to pray to his gods in hope to get some kind of blessing… and somehow manage to completely fumble it. He panicked, and apologized, hoping he wouldn’t punished. To his own surprise, he ended up tacking an extra request at the end of his apology:
-If it’s not too much to ask, could you make it so that there are proper caretakers ready for Katja when we bring her back to civilization?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: thegreyarea on September 02, 2020, 05:34:32 AM
So many great things! I must find time to read it all! :)

Meanwhile I did a little story for the August 2020 chapter break / Forum Sixth Anniversary, and I thought that it should probably be here too.
So here's the link for "The Remembering Man" on AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26235748 (https://archiveofourown.org/works/26235748)

I hope you like it!

(BTW I'm hoping to have the third part of "A Beginning" ready soon. Sorry for the delay).
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Jitter on September 02, 2020, 05:51:40 AM
The Remebering Man is great! :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Mirasol on September 02, 2020, 12:30:27 PM
Taking a little break from Kitty-chapters to post this other thing I wrote: Blood Moon (https://archiveofourown.org/works/26215876)

Grey suggested I should repost it here. While not explicently written for it, I originally posted it as one of the "guess-which-info-page-I´m-refering-to"-works for this chapter break (Adventure 2, chapter 10/11) in the thread dedicated to it. But I kinda already announced that I was writing it on the fic-ideas-thread way back, so I sort of spoiled the riddle... Not that it was hard to guess to begin with.
But I think not really knowing what´s coming makes the story actually better, so I´m not going to say here what exactly it is about. But this is the summary I settled on for Ao3:

A group of cleansers listens to some scary stories whose subject might not be as far away from them as they thought it was.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on September 05, 2020, 12:23:51 PM
Managed to produce a new Silent Child chapter, so here's the one that has been waiting in the wings:

Spoiler: show


Silent Child 5

The radio call from Trond came after the two days Sigrun had hoped for had turned into ten:
-Long story sort, I managed to root out anyone who may not be able to care for her properly by making sure they were informed that she was mute, and convince those who could that it was best for her to go to the academy in Iceland, then live in Norway. Many people in Denmark understand mage powers as some complex coping mechanism that became more prominent everywhere but Denmark and Sweden for just-as-complex reasons. From there, it was easy to make them see why a child would have developed it living in the Silent World and might be happier in a place that values it rather than act like it doesn’t really exist.
Sigrun looked at the little girl:
-Well, looks like you’re coming home with me.
It wasn’t all bad. She was starting to consider bringing Mikkel back home, as well, anyway. Not having the girl separated from him would be a nice bonus. All that was left was to make it home.
Reynir was happy to find out the news. He couldn’t help but wonder how much of it had been his prayer, and how much of it had been Sigrun’s uncle just being that good. He was getting attached enough to her to hope he would be allowed to keep in contact with her once they were both out of training. A crazy idea crossed his mind… and motivated him even more in trying to figure out a rune that could protect the other from the ghosts.

xxxx

Lalli had found a store full of books that required all hands they had to sort out and carry back to the tank. Reynir and Katja ended up coming so the others weren’t leaving them alone in the tank, but weren’t allowed to touch anything. However, once they were actually in the store, Reynir couldn’t help looking at the various items the store contained besides books. Out of nowhere, Katja pointed at one of the items, letting out one of her grunts that somehow sounded like the noise a frustrated cat would make. Reynir recognized the item as a picture of the strange variation on the plus sign he had seen on their shared dream, alongside various items that were either just the cross or decorated with it. To Reynir’s own surprise, Katja ended up being the one who kept him from actually picking up the picture that, upon closer examination, was apparently painted on glass. Instead, she pulled on Mikkel’s coat and showed him the items. He apparently told her something about them in Danish, but that didn’t help Reynir much. However, Mikkel gave the display a look, picked up a solid metal cross with a lower part that could fit in Katja’s hand, and gave it to her. Reynir could have sworn that the little girl had stuck her tongue at him for a brief moment. Was it a coincidence, or had she learned the significance of the gesture from her parents?

That evening, Reynir fell asleep right after finishing his dinner, his bowl still on his lap. He saw his dog for the first time in a while. There seemed to be a new vision, but his dream-dog was reluctant to go inside it with him for some reason. Reynir entered it to find a building’s door. Behind the door, he found a well-kept interior that felt vaguely familiar, but also like he didn’t want to go further in alone. Neither Katja nor Lalli seemed to be in their respective safe space. Reynir realized there was a third person he could reach. Onni took a little pushing, some of it more literal than the rest, but he ended up coming. When they came back to the place with the building, Katja was near the door, without her kitten. Had her dream-animal walked out on her also? He quickly realized that there was something more important to do:
-Onni, this is Katja. Katja, this is Onni, Lalli’s…
He was about to say cousin, but realized he wasn’t quite sure Katja even knew what a sibling, let alone a cousin, even was. Realizing he was the only one who really cared about proper introductions, he had everyone go inside the building:
-What is this place?
The question was addressed to Onni, but Katja was the one who answered the question:
-Nice home.
Reynir looked around, and realize the benches that occupied most of the room in which they were could very well have been the bench on which they had been sitting in that dream. And sure enough, there was a stone block with the cross in it. Could it be the same building, back when it was better-kept? Onni, meanwhile, started an explanation about the place being the temple to one of the Old World gods. When Onni’s explanation ended, Reynir was still intrigued:
-But… why is it here?
-I don’t know, it holds no meaning to me. We should leave. It’s not a vision, I see no benefit in lingering.
Suddenly, Katja pointed at a door to the right of the one all three of them had entered. Onni noticed at the same time as Reynir:
-What is she doing?
-She does this when there are trolls around. Sometimes when she wants to show us something.
Soon enough, the door opened, revealing the presence of old lady with short black hair, wearing glasses, a black dress with a strange white collar and a pendant shaped like the strange cross. Onni promptly put his hand in front of Reynir’s eyes:
-Don’t look in the eyes. You’re not enough to shield yourself. This goes for both of you.
The old lady mostly seemed to wonder who they were. After some discussion with Onni involving her being dead and not being ready to pass onto the afterlife quite yet, all three of them ended up being invited into the room she had been coming out of to have conversation. Katja happily followed Onni and Reynir in:
-Nice mommy.

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Mirasol on September 08, 2020, 10:47:11 AM
Oh, I completely forgot that I haven´t posted the next chapter of the Kitty-story yet, it´s been done for a while now. Well, better late then never.

Spoiler: part 11 (Interlude) • show

They had really all escaped! From the… “ghosts”? Well, probably not spirits, these ones had definitely been attacking.
There had been some complications on the way to this safe spot that none of the fighting-members of the team really wished to talk about, so Tuuri figured that they probably hadn´t ended all that glorious. At least no one had gotten severely hurt.
She had been a bit worried about Reynir though, who had stayed unconscious for longer than everyone else, but the Icelander woke up grinning with a loud “Onni saved us! And Kisa! I was right, Kisa is a mage!”
Tuuri had decided to not argue with him about that again. Right now they were in a nice forest with a little snow and the sun was shining. Life was good again.

***

Mikkel was cooking breakfast while Sigrun made every effort to annoy him. She wasn´t even trying to hide how much fun she was having.
“You are probably immune to your poisonous food!”
“Perhaps.”
“Maybe we should hire a food-tester. Any volunteers?”
She looked at the youngsters who were sitting on the tank´s wheels. Those of them who understood Sigrun were suddenly very busy looking at the trees or the ground. The captain grinned smugly. Mikkel rolled his eyes.
“I vote for the two extras. They still need official jobs.”
Reynir leaned in closer to Tuuri.
“I have the weird feeling that Sigrun is talking about me and I´m about to get the short end of the stick. Could that be?”
Mikkel could see Tuuri wasn´t sure whether she should give up the benefit of the Icelander not understanding what was going on. Before she could answer though, Emil joined into the food-discussion that was going on.
“Don´t choose the Cat-girl, she likes the sludge!”
“Good point, the Braid-guy then. Tuuri, tell him of his luck!”
Mikkel suddenly had the indistinct urge to save Reynir from Sigrun and the others shamelessly taking advantage of the language barrier. He had to change the subject.
“Emil, her name isn´t “Cat-girl”.”
The Swede looked lost.
“He said Kitten isn´t called Cat-girl”, Sigrun translated.
“Neither is her name “Kitten”. Especially as she is a person with very little experience in verbal communication, we should settle for one name. All those nicknames you are giving her are confusing.”
“A little late for that, isn´t it?”, Sigrun pointed out.
“Well, it is a problem I haven´t been aware of before yesterday. Apparently Reynir´s habit to call her “Kisa” has led her to believe that his name is Kisa. Most likely something similar happened with you.”
“Maybe we should have told her our names before then. “
“I did. I don´t know what you´ve been doing. “
The captain opened her mouth to respond, but closed it again before saying anything.
“So, what do you suggest we call her instead?”, she changed the subject. She didn´t seem to enjoy the conversation anymore. Mikkel´s goal was met.
“I think we should let her herself have a say in that.”
The girl was sitting on Tuuri´s lap today, but was holding onto Reynir´s braid as usual. She looked a little dozy. But when he called her, her expression changed to being attentive.
Mikkel tried to explain the situation. “You have been with us for a while now.”
The child nodded.
“We are a bit confused about your name, or, what to call you.”
She looked around, then back at Mikkel, surprised. She pointed first at him, then the Icelander and Tuuri.
 “You, “Misse”. Rey-nir and grey person “Kisa”. Others no name?”
 “No, I mean, one that is your main name. Not just a nickname. You don´t really have one, do you?”
She thought for a bit. “Maybe… not.”
“You already know that I am Mikkel, and this is Reynir. And these are Sigrun, Tuuri, Emil and the one sleeping inside is called Lalli. We all have names to tell who we are. If you want, you can pick one too. But you don´t have to-“
“Yes want to! Want to be like you!”
He chuckled. “Do you have an idea for a name?
The girl concentrated, for quite a while. But it appeared she couldn´t really come to a conclusion. In the end, she just shrugged.
“Should we call you Misse?”, Mikkel suggested. “You said that is what your mother used.”
She answered much faster this time.
“No! Maybe. You can. But was mom´s name. Maybe… different? For new family?”
“So? What is she saying? Her accent sounds like her mouth is full of rocks!” Sigrun was becoming impatient.
“She wants us to come up with a new name for her. Since we are her new family”, Mikkel summed up.
“Aww!”, Tuuri exclaimed.
“Okay, then we need a really good one!”, Emil decided. He and Tuuri immediately started discussing.
“And now we have to do all the brain-work?” The captain acted angry, but Mikkel saw that she looked a little proud. She joined the discussion quickly and with strong opinions.
“Most of our nicknames so far have been somewhere in the field of “cat”, maybe we should go with that theme!”, suggested Tuuri.
“And she is brave, and good at surviving. We should include that!”, Reynir assisted as soon as he was filled in.
The Finn agreed and switched back to Swedish. “So she needs a name that´s cute, but also great. And a bit intimidating too, maybe?”
The girl watched the crew nervously as they decided over her fate. Mikkel stirred in his pot.
At that moment, Lalli silently walked out of the tank and looked down at the food.
“Oh, you´re awake.”
The scout sniffed at it and made a displeased face, then he walked away without a word.
“Don´t wander too far, the food is almost ready.”
If Lalli had caught the gist of what he was saying, he didn´t react. Well, not everyone enjoyed conversation. Mikkel started listening to the others again.
“This whole discussion is dumb”, Sigrun currently declared. “We all call her Kitty, let´s just continue with that. We tell her all the words and she decides.”
“What a clever way to shift the “brain-work” back to the child…” Mikkel murmured.
“Ya bet it is! Okay, tell her!”
Mikkel explained the captain’s plan to the girl as best as he could. She seemed intrigued.
 “So, different name?”
“Yes, but the word means the same.”
“Same but different.” She smiled. “I like.”
Mikkel nodded to the others.
“And so the real contest begins…” Sigrun, Tuuri and Emil smiled in a way that made him already regret approving of the captain´s idea. At least Reynir didn´t seem to want to be involved in the competition. Or maybe it was just him not understanding Sigrun.
“Pusekatt.”
“Kisa.”    
“Kisu.”
“Kissekatt.”
“Missekat.”
“I think we broke her…” Sigrun chipped in. The girl stared at them with her tongue peeking out and a highly concentrated look on her face.
“Let her think. Choosing a name is an important decision to make.”
The child looked up for a moment.
“Allowed to pick… more than one?”
“… Sure.”
“Allowed to pick… all? I like meaning.”
“If you can remember them…”
“remind me!”
“Alright…” He turned to the others. “She says she likes all of them.”
“That´s dumb, now everything is basically like it was.”, Sigrun crabbed.
“I´m afraid it is. As long as she is happy.  Time for lunch.”
Kitty got up and jumped through the snow, cheerfully murmuring her new names.
“Wait, did you just start this conversation just so we stop making fun of your cooking?”, Sigrun demanded to know.
“Surely I would never.”
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Jitter on September 08, 2020, 11:11:21 AM
Surely Mikkel would never!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on September 13, 2020, 11:36:40 AM
I'm warning you all: I'm using a new viewpoint at the end of this chapter, and I think the bulk of the last quarter of Adventure I is going to be in it (trend currently shown by the one-chapter backlog between what I post and what has actually been written).

Spoiler: show

Silent Child 6

The food was proclaimed safe to eat by Onni. As Reynir was tasting a strange brown soup, both Onni and Katja were digging into the cake. Katja in particular was acting like she was eating some for the first time in her life, which, all things considered, was probably the case. The old lady turned to be someone who had died of the Illness, and while able to leave for the afterlife when she wished, felt that there were lost souls pledged to her Old World god that needed her help to pass on first. Reynir realized that she may be able to help with the ghosts that had been following the tank. They would need to be brought to the lady’s “church” which was apparently the physical world counterpart of the building in which they currently were. Unfortunately, the old lady couldn’t remember the place’s location from the top of her head and an active attempt to remember it resulted in Reynir getting a very brief glimpse of what some of the places they had visited in the Silent World must have looked like while they were actively being used as care centers. Soon after, Onni decided it was time for all three of them to leave.

That morning, Reynir saw a strange spirit that seemed part plant, part animal on top of the tank while outside it. Katja, who was with him, seemed to see it too. Reynir reassured her:
-Don’t be afraid! I think it’s something called an omen. It can’t hurt us.
Lalli seemed to see it also, and Reynir vaguely noticed him saying something in Finnish in a tone somewhere between annoyed and grumpy. In other words, what usually happened when Lalli tried talking to him at all.

xxxx

Emil had ended up guarding the “helpless babies”, as Sigrun called them, while she, Mikkel and Lalli got to search the hospital. The one silver lining of it all was that Katja had decided to keep him company while Tuuri and Reynir did whatever they had taken to do together to keep each other occupied. After a complete lack of anything interesting happening, Katja suddenly pointed at the pocket in which Emil had stuffed the allegedly magical drawing Reynir had given everyone a copy of. Emil realized something inside it had apparently spontaneously caught fire. He tried to pull the item out, grateful that his gloves were fire-resistant. Fortunately, whatever it had been had been easy to burn, so it soon ran out of fuel. Just as Emil realized that Reynir’s drawing had been the only thing in that pocket, Sigrun ran out of the hospital, Mikkel and Lalli in tow. Emil and Katja got into the tank just as Sigrun was speaking to Tuuri:
-Step on it, more annoying spirits incoming!
As they drove away, Emil noticed Lalli had his hands placed on his head, his eyes closed and was generally looking tense, a combination he hadn’t seen since a short time he had collapsed and seemingly slept for two entire days. Worried, Emil tried to approach him, but got elbowed away. As he withdrew, he noticed that Reynir was standing against a wall, his eyes closed, his hands joined in a prayer gesture, and looking just as tense as Lalli. He also noticed Katja had taken a posture similar to Lalli, except she was taking advantage of her small size to hide under the office desk. Emil needed to have a talk about magic with Mikkel.

xxxx

The big daddy and the big mommy had talked to the big box a lot, while, she, two of the smaller daddies and the small mommy were eating. The mean daddy that was always out when it was very dark had been sleeping, but woke up and went out before it was dark enough. He came back before it was time to sleep. The moving home moved, and she had to stay in the room with all the beds with the small mommy and the small daddy who was her second favorite daddy after the big daddy. There had been a lot of bad things outside. Bad beasts, bad trolls, bad shadows. The bottom of the room with the beds was broken. A troll was on the floor. It was dead because the mean daddy had come in and had a used rifle. The small mommy had her hand on her shoulder. It was red with blood, like her first daddy before her first mommy took him outside, came back alone after a very long time, then spent a lot of time hugging her and crying. The mean daddy went back out, then came back with the big daddy. She went towards him, but her second favorite daddy grabbed her and made her sit on his lap while hugging her. After that, there was a lot of noise. At some point, the small mommy went out of the room while she and the daddy holding her stayed in it. Nobody went to bed for long enough that it became light out again. Little after it was light, the daddy who was nice but was out of the home much more often than her second-favorite daddy came to get her, and walked with her among a lot of dead and cooked beasts and trolls who were on the ground. She showed him one that wasn’t dead, and he used a rifle on it. After this happened a few times, she understood he had brought her out of the home that sometimes moved to do this. Then the big mommy came to join them, but she started yelling, and the small daddy yelled back. She didn’t like it when a daddy and a mommy yelled, so she ran away and tried to look for other daddies. The first one she found was the mean daddy, who was standing alone outside the home. He wasn’t yelling right now, so he was still better to be next to than the daddy and the mommy who were yelling. The mean daddy spoke to her a little, picked her up, hugged her, and started crying. Wait, when had she last seen the small mommy?


Between this and the chapter I just wrapped up, the impulse to listen to the "You've been Brave" track from Yes, Your Grace is strong...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Jitter on September 14, 2020, 01:25:24 PM
Oh Cat, the last part from Katja’s perspective is so sad and sweet. Smaller daddies :D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Mirasol on September 14, 2020, 02:20:23 PM
Aww Grade E cat, I love how you wrote how Katja percieves the crew as her new parents! This chapter is adorable and sad.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on September 20, 2020, 04:06:14 AM
And... it's Sunday again!

Spoiler: show


Silent Child 7

The home that sometimes moved had a big window. Under that big window was a big box that was always the first part of the home to get wherever it was going when it moved. The box was open and the small mommy had spent a lot of time looking for something inside it. She didn’t seem to have found it yet. She spent the days watching the small mommy. The big mommy and each of the daddies had all hugged her while crying at least once over the past few days, yet the small mommy was right here, looking for things in the big box. Why had they all been hugging and crying so much, if the small mommy was not gone? Why wasn’t the small mommy sleeping with everyone else anymore? Why had the big daddy put the thin sticky paper around one of the doors, and told her “no” in some way or another if she tried to take it off or open the door? She hoped that if she watched the small mommy carefully for long enough, she would understand.
Tuuri found herself missing Reynir, but Katja more than made up for his absence. The little girl seemed particularly interested in the mechanical work she was doing. At least, outside of the few times she had actually tried to teach the girl something, in which case she seemed to have no idea what she was trying to do. Tuuri had never gotten around taking an apprentice in Keuruu, but now she felt a sudden impulse to transmit her knowledge to someone else. That had also manifested in her intensifying both Emil’s Finnish lessons and Lalli’s Swedish lessons. However, that impulse had nothing to do with considering that the bite might be infected. After all, she had been quite lucky so far. One of the few to make it out of her village’s outbreak alongside Lalli and Onni. Taru being one of the people in charge of picking a team for a Silent World expedition that was willing to take a non-immune as long as they had the right skills. Meeting an actual Icelander during the expedition. She was certain she would be in the clear in just a few more days. There was certainly some force looking out for her. In the meantime, she needed to follow the protocol to prove she wasn’t dangerous to Reynir or any non-immunes back in the Known World. Then she would get to sail home on an actual Icelandic ship, and see the country itself.

xxxx

It wasn’t until the day on which the small mommy and her second-favorite daddy talked a lot through the door nobody opened anymore that she understood that they were the two who were being kept apart from each other. She, the big mommy, the big daddy, the mean daddy and the other nice small daddy could be on both sides of the door. But he second-favorite daddy was never in the room with the talking box or the one with the big window anymore, and the small mommy didn’t come to the room with the beds or the room with a door to the outside right next to it anymore. She didn’t know why this was happening, but it was always a good idea to not prevent daddies and mommies from doing what they were doing. Though the big mommy wasn’t doing much, and had been sleeping a lot since the floor of the room with all the beds had broken.

xxxx

Sigrun, who had been sleeping off both her arm’s infection and the medication used to treat it, was woken up by a pair of tiny fists pounding on her abdomen. As she was about to let out a quip about the girl needing to stop if she wanted to have younger sibling someday, she smelled smoke. She promptly got up, and rushed out of the driver’s cabin just in time to see Mikkel dump the contents of the washtub, which he had probably been using for something else, on the tank’s smoking hood. Tuuri was looking at her meekly:
-I-I don’t think I can fix it anymore.
Mikkel pulled a paper map out of his pocket and within minutes – still more of them than Mikkel would have apparently liked – Emil and Lalli were off to scavenge materials, while Tuuri helped Mikkel with other preparations and Sigrun herself was back to sleep to build up strength, with the little mage girl watching over her.

xxxx

She wasn’t sure when it had started, but she now knew for sure. The small mommy now felt like a bad troll. And because of that, she didn’t like the small mommy anymore. But what was happening was so new to her that she couldn’t help but continue to watch the small mommy from far away. After eating time, the small mommy went into the of the room with two doors her second-favorite daddy had decorated with a nice drawing. After some time, she came out and went inside the room with a big window. She spent some time in there, left it, then spoke a little with the mean daddy. He was less mean to the small mommy than he was to her. The small mommy went to have a walk far away, and she couldn’t follow her because it was too close too dark and the bad things would come out soon. The small mommy had left something on the ground. It was the thing the small mommy and her second-favorite daddy sometimes had on their face. She decided to play with it a little, since she wasn’t allowed to touch it most of the time. After a while, she found how to make it stay around her neck without needing to hold it, and decided to go show the big mommy and the daddies. But before she could do so, she heard the mean daddy yell something she couldn’t understand, and soon the big daddy found her, took the thing away from her, put her in the room with big windows and left. He came back after what felt like a very long time, took all her clothes off, washed her with a lot of the smelly stuff he sprayed on the mean daddy when he came back in the morning and made her wear her other clothes before leaving and coming back with her second-favorite daddy. The big daddy left, and her second favorite daddy sat on the chair facing the round thing the small mommy always had her hands on when the home was moving. He picked her up, put her on her lap, and started crying. Outside, some distance away from the home she could see three people doing things. The small mommy was the person missing.



This chapter is unofficially sponsored by the "Farewell, My Daughter" track from Yes, your grace. The title of the track should be self-explanatory for people who don't know the game, this time.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Jitter on September 20, 2020, 12:17:16 PM
Oh Cat, another bittersweet piece. Describing it through Kitty’s lack of understanding is very touching.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Mirasol on September 21, 2020, 02:34:26 PM
*Try not to cry, try not to cry...* too late. You have done well, Cat. Something more lighthearted (?):

Spoiler: part 12 • show
Everyone was super busy as usual. From what Reynir had gathered, they would continue their mission now that Lalli was awake. Awake and completely back to his grumpy old self. The Icelander was glad that the scout didn´t seem to have been really sick.
Reynir had volunteered to help Mikkel with his chores again. He supposedly was doing the dishes, but with Kitty running around that proved to be more difficult than expected. She wanted to help, that much was clear. But nearly making him trip wasn´t exactly useful.
“Help!”, she shouted excitedly and reached out to the plates in Reynir´s arms. He dodged her at the last moment. That reminded him…
“Kisa, wait!”
The girl looked at him impatiently, but backed off.
“Do you remember, last night with the ghosts? You cried for help, and then the ghost was scared. And Onni heard you! How did you do that? Do you know since when you were able to do that?”
Kitty looked confused.
“You… help… ghost?”
Right, language barrier. Tuuri had decided that words like “troll”, “ghost” and “help” were the most important ones for now and taught them to her this morning, that´s why Kitty had said it. She still couldn´t understand more than that. But she seemed to have made her own interpretation of the question.
“No, help-“ She pointed at the plates.
Dang it… He would have to wait until they were asleep and find the dream-kitten, if she was there. Back to dirty dishes.
He immediately tripped over Kitty and almost fell. There was no point, if he didn´t want to break everything he had to let her help.
“Forget about it. You win.”
He handed the child the spoons. At least she couldn´t damage those. Kitty started skipping around with a triumphant look in her eyes.

***

When passing the tank´s door, Reynir noticed Mikkel talking on the radio, a very smug look on his face.
“Can´t remember what was on your mind? That´s quite alright, happens to the best of us.”
He spoke calmly and politely, so politely that the Icelander seriously started wondering who on earth he could be talking to. It couldn´t be one of their employers, Mikkel just asked the person on the other end how their day was. He wouldn´t be asking something so trivial. Then, there was basically only one other option among the people in the Västerströms´ house left. And he would maybe, hopefully, actually be able to help him!
“Kisa, forget about the dishes, we´re making a radio call now!”
He put down the plates and rushed inside, Kitty just let the spoons fall right where she was standing and followed him.
“Hey! Mikkel!”
“Yes?”
“Is that Tuuri´s brother on the line? Can I talk with him?”
The Dane kept his smug expression.
“Wait your turn, we are currently in the middle of a riveting discussion.”
“No you aren´t! Please, please, please! Let me use the radio! I need to ask things!”
Onni had probably said something, since Mikkel nodded and gave his seat up. Reynir sat down and put the headphones on, Kitty jumped on his lap and immediately yelled a cat-like sound into the microphone. A surprised “Mrr” came from the other end of the line.
“Kisa, no! Don´t yell! Sorry about that. Hi, this is me! Reynir, that is! And Kisa, the one you just heard. Sorry again. Do you remember me? Us?”
“I do, I don´t have a problem with my memory.”
This was… a strange accent. Reynir recognized the voice from his dreams, sure. But there had been no languages. Here, he would have expected Onni´s accent to sound like Tuuri´s, which meant, there basically was no accent, but… well… Onni was barely understandable.
“…Hello? Did this thing turn off again?” The Finn was starting to sound impatient.
Reynir quickly stopped Kitty, who was already inhaling for a second yell into the mic.
“Ah! Sorry! I didn´t expect your Icelandic to sound so… um… bad. I mean special! I-I´ll get used to it.”
The pause that followed felt like Onni was slightly offended. But he sounded just as calm as before when he spoke again.
“Did you have a question?”
“Oh, yes! Two, actually. But first of all: thank you for last night, that was awesome!”
“Yes, yes.”
“Okay, so, remember the ghost things that attacked us?”
Onni did, but didn´t know either what they were. And Kitty´s helpful “ghost!” into the microphone every now and then didn´t really improve the conversation. At least she seemed to have fun. Regardless, they came to the conclusion that the weird shadows used to be humans and that this was not a good sign. Onni would teach Lalli spells for protection, but those wouldn´t work for Reynir, as his gods gave him a different kind of magic.
“And your other question?”, the Finn asked.
“So, Kisa-“
“Kisa!”, Kitty shouted into the mic.
“The one who called me? The Kitten? Can you… put her somewhere far away, please?”
“Sorry. Sure.”
He pushed the child off his lap.
“You are too loud. You can come back if you´re quiet.”
She just hissed.
“Please stop apologizing. It´s annoying”, Onni grumbled.
“Sorry, I mean yes. Anyway, we found her here, in Denmark. Do you think she is a mage?”
“Obviously.”
“Can you teach her spells? Or me?”
“… What does she believe in?”
Reynir watched the child, who was currently pushing a second chair to the radio, with a concentrated look.
“Did it turn off again-“
“No!"
Had Onni ever worked with a radio before?
"I mean, I don´t know. What she believes in, that is. She can´t speak Icelandic. Or, just a bit. Only Danish. Actually, she can´t really speak at all.”
For a while, Onni said nothing.
“Was she ever in contact with the known world? Before you found her?”
“I don´t think so.”
“Then, she probably can´t learn from either of us. She most likely has her own religion. And magic. From what I saw, it was different from both Finnish and Icelandic magic.”
“That´s a shame. So she can´t help us.”
“She may learn on her own. The first mages managed, so why not she.”
“Maybe. Thanks anyway. Goodbye.”
“Hm.”
In that moment, Tuuri came in to ask something in Finnish, Onni answered something. Reynir gave up his seat. As usual, Kitty followed him.
“There has to be something we can do to help, right?”, he asked the little girl once they were outside.
“Help!”, she assured.
Reynir sighed. “But, what?”
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Jitter on September 21, 2020, 05:37:00 PM
Oo, interesting! New kind of magic! I hope you are planning to explore this further!

And I loved the radio call. Poor Onni! At least Kitty was having fun :onni:
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lallicat on September 23, 2020, 05:48:57 PM
Ahh I haven't had time to write since school started! Anyway here's half of the next chapter.  :)

Spoiler: Kitty part 11: Cake part 1 • show
Onni had been asked by Lalli to train the human child they had found. He had wanted to turn him down, like with the annoying Icelander. They quite clearly didn't share the same gods, it didn't make sense to try. Then again, he doubted there was anyone who shared that strange child's gods. So he'd grudgingly agreed. The child could sense trolls. It made no sense to not hone and develop this skill, especially if it could increase the chance of Lalli and Tuuri coming back alive. He closed his eyes briefly. No. They would both make it back alive. They had to. He had to believe that or he'd be torn apart with worry every waking moment. He breathed deep and turned back to Kitty.

"Focus on solidifying your form. Stop flickering like that!" It was unnerving to watch her change her form that often, and with apparent ease, as if it required no energy at all. He was a little jealous to be honest, it had taken him a while to learn how to assume the form of his luonto.

"I don't know how, or I would have done it already," Kitty huffed. "If you told me how to do it instead of scowling at me I might do better!" Onni was saved from replying as Reynir suddenly meandered in his dreamspace.

"Hey!" he greeted. "Do you remember me?" Onni felt his temper flare.

"Yes! For the fifth time, I still remember you! Did I not tell you not to come here?"

"...I don't think you did."

"... Hm. I must have told Lalli then."

"I need your help with something."

"Please use the radio," Onni sighed. He was exhausted and didn't need the red headed nuisance to make it worse.

"I can't for this! I found a weird place out there, an empty house. I don't want to go in there alone, and my dog doesn't care!" Onni was starting to get annoyed. When would that red head realize that it's best to not bother things outside of your dreamspace. At least he wasn't completly stupid; he hadn't gone in there alone.

"Whatever it is, leave it be. And don't leave your space again."

"I'm not leaving it alone! I've seen it in a vision before, there's some meaning to it! What if the place could warn us about something dangerous, and we all die horribly because you told me to ignore it? Do you want that?!" This was the most agitated Onni had ever seen Reynir. Granted, he hadn't known him for a long time, but he had seemed like the easygoing type. And he could call it a lesson for Kitty, who had been watching the exchange curiously.

"... Fine." Reynir turned around at the speed of lightning a grin on his face.

"Great! Follow me! Right over here!" Onni walked to the edge of his dreamspace and hesitated. He rarely left it and wondered if he could do it now. "Come on!" Reynir called to him. He could change his mind saying he didn't want to take Kitty or... Kitty! Onni cursed himself for almost leaving without her.

"Kitty! Come with us. It'll be a lesson," he called to her. She joined him and slipped her hand in his. Still, he didn't follow Reynir. He glanced around, looking for something, but he didn't know exactly what... Reynir huffed and walked back to Onni. They stood facing each other, then Kitty gave him a push and he tripped onto the dreamlake. Reynir took the opportunity to push him forward. Onni shook himself out of his grip. He was perfectly capable of walking. Reynir leased them to a tall building with arching windows. The inside was bright and clean.

"What is this place?" asked Reynir and Kitty in sync.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Mirasol on September 25, 2020, 01:45:01 PM

"Please use the radio," Onni sighed. He was exhausted and didn't need the red headed nuisance to make it worse.


Let´s just apprechiate Onni calling Reynir "red headed nuisance". This will be my new favourite nickname for him. Thank you for this, Lallicat. :reynir:
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on September 27, 2020, 09:38:20 AM
Looks like I managed to wrap Adventure I up in nine chapters, so this is the second-to-last one.

Spoiler: show


Silent Child 8

She had somewhat of an idea of why the small mommy wasn’t coming, but why weren’t the mean daddy and the other nice small daddy coming either? Her second-favorite daddy was holding her hand very tight, and the big daddy had put a piece of rope around both their wrist for some reason. First, it seemed like they weren’t walking fast enough. As the walk continued, it reached a point where the pace felt just right to her. Then they were walking a little too fast for her. Her second-favorite daddy carried her for a little while, then came closer to the big daddy and told him something. After that, the walk didn’t last much longer and they stopped in what seemed to be a very broken home. Under the part of the home that still had a roof, they built a fabric object that had nice drawings on it. She remembered what it was called: a tent. Between the time her first daddy was gone and the time her first mommy was gone, her first mommy had started a game where they would build a tent outside and sleep in it. She tried to go in, but the big daddy stopped her, made her sit next to the big mommy on something wooden. A fire was started.

xxxx

Lalli and Emil should have been back hours ago. Mikkel finally got to the point after reminding her that they would probably be fine for a single night if need be:
-… Don’t go looking out for them tonight.
-I’m not going to! I’m not an idiot!
Whatever they had woken up without realizing, but had been too slow to react before they walked past it, was going to be on guard for the better part of the following night. She was going to have to wait for the early morning, by which point most things will have let their guard back down, to be even remotely safe. That was why…
-I’m backtracking tomorrow morning, if they don’t show up!
-I can accept that.
Mikkel then got up from his seat, but was stopped by Reynir. An exchange in Icelandic ensued, and Sigrun had to butt in to find out what was happening. Mikkel explained:
-He’s letting me know where the… spirits are.
She really didn’t have any more energy left for being patient:
-Then you listen to him! He and that four year old kid who’s as good as ours are our only lines of security right now!
As Mikkel left to answer nature’s calling, Reynir went back to sit on the seat he had been sharing with Mikkel. Sigrun looked between the two lost children they had picked up along the way, both bundled in spare uniform jackets as a concession to the fact that nights outside the tank were going to be too cold for their usual clothes.
-I can not believe the two of you are our lifeline right now.

xxxx

The meeting with Onni could definitely have gone better. When he saw Katja in her own safe area, Reynir decided to enter it to speak to her, to get an idea of the extent to which she understood the situation. In his search for a good place to start, he discovered that her understanding of her surroundings was still quite lackluster. It turned out that while she was aware of having a name, she hadn’t been aware everyone else had one. Due to the circumstances in which she had grown up, she, among other things, also thought that all adult females were “mommies”, that all adult males were “daddies” and that all buildings, in which she included the tank they had just abandoned, were “homes”. Having two immune parents and being immune herself, it had taken Tuuri’s Rash actually developing for her to understand the true nature of trolls. As a result, Reynir just barely managed to finish an explanation as to why they were sure Tuuri wasn’t going to come back as a troll before waking up.

xxxx

Reynir had said mommy Sigrun would go look for Emil and Lalli in the morning. Instead, she came back without them, looking sad. Then they continued walking. For a very long time. Mommy Sigrun was walking more slowly than everyone else, and ended up being the one in the back. Then she fell. Daddy Mikkel and Reynir didn’t notice, so she pointed. Daddy Mikkel went to speak with mommy Sigrun, then put her on top what Reynir had called a “wheelbarrow”. She was a little jealous. She wished she could have been carried on the wheelbarrow also instead of walking. But she also hoped this didn’t mean that mommy Sigrun was going to be dead soon, also.

After they stopped walking, daddy Mikkel and mommy Sigrun spoke a lot, then one of them used a rifle for a reason she couldn’t understand; there hadn’t been anything bad nearby. Then Mikkel talked with Reynir, and at some point, hit him on the head with the thing from which the soup came out ever since they had left the moving building that Reynir said was called a tank.

xxxx

Reynir came to explain that Emil and Lalli were probably dead also, but they weren’t entirely sure. He also taught her a lot of new words, and explained who were the people she had seen in the place where she could speak, but not in the tank. She learned what siblings were, and decided that Reynir, Emil and Lalli were her brothers since only Mikkel was her daddy. And that Tuuri had been her sister, even though she was gone now. After that, Reynir explained what a cousin was. When she asked about the lady living in the nice building who had given them good food, Reynir said she was a “friend”. Someone who isn’t “family”, but who you still like. Reynir was surprised when she asked him to explain what “family” was, then why the lady in the black dress wasn’t “family”.

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Joe Steele on October 01, 2020, 11:31:37 AM
Shameless plug for the fic I've been working on:
Spoiler: show
https://archiveofourown.org/works/26479060/chapters/64524694

State of the Union: a story about a bungled pandemic response and what comes after.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Jitter on October 01, 2020, 02:21:57 PM
Wow, Joe, wow! Gloriously horrible!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on October 04, 2020, 05:19:50 AM
Mirasol, your version of the Human Kitty premise gets credit for me thinking up this ending. The rest is that it made some sort of sense in regards to a couple random things I had thrown into previous chapters.

Spoiler: show


Silent Child 9

Reynir promptly closed the small room’s door. She had become a troll long ago. That explained so much. Strangely, Katja, who had led him both to the church and the room inside it, seemed unfazed. He barely had time to start pondering the reason when he heard noise coming from the building’s still-open main entrance, which reminded him what getting Katja and himself to the church in the first place had entailed. Mikkel grabbed the back of both their collars:
-You insolent little children! Why did the two of you run off like that? Sigrun is already ill and you almost gave her a heart attack!
Almost as soon as Mikkel let them go, Sigrun arrived and grabbed both him and Katja by the front of their collars. He didn’t quite understand what she said in Norwegian, but he was about eighty percent sure there had been Mikkel’s name and “heart attack” in there. This was probably the only one of the two scoldings that Katja had somewhat understood, as Mikkel had given his own in Icelandic. He wasn’t sure who of him or Katja swatted Sigrun’s arm first, but she looked taken aback by both. Reynir then explained Mikkel what the place was, so he could tell Sigrun. They soon found signs on the unfinished cure having been used in the church and noticed the absence of the ghosts it seemed to create. Soon after, she had to convince Sigrun to not kill the one live troll left in the place, and that they needed to stay in the building for the night.

xxxx

Everyone else was sleeping. She left the room in which they all were, making sure to not step on the dark parts of the drawings Reynir had made on the other side of the door. She went to the stone block with a decoration that looked like her necklace from the last place with lots of books they had gone to. Soon, the bad ghosts appeared, and the lady Reynir had called a “friend” came near the block also. She talked with the biggest bad ghost, who was very angry, then very sad, then became much smaller. Then the lady did something Katja felt she could do also. A light surrounded the stone block, and all the bad ghosts became small animals before going inside the light and leaving through a door. At the end, the friend-lady needed to leave to. She was the one who would need to close the door.

In the dream sea, Reynir was watching all the ghosts leave for the afterlife:
-Thank you for your help, nice lady. I wish I could have known your name.
A sheep-like figure that was wearing glasses and ascending alongside the last of the ghosts answered him:
-It’s Anne.
She then pointed toward a direction in which the only obvious thing of interest was Katja’s safe area:
-Our heavenly Father does not forget his children.
Reynir was too surprised by those words, and the feeling they had a deeper meaning, to give Anne a proper goodbye.

xxxx

Aside from the room in which they had stayed, it seemed like the entire church had collapsed. One of the miraculously spared spots was an area around the big stone block, in which Katja had taken refuge after sneaking out during the night. According to Mikkel, she wasn’t hurt in any way. After a long discussion with Mikkel, Sigrun drew two important conclusions in spite of her foggy brain. One was that both children were pulling their weight in surprising ways. The second was that this now-dead giant troll had probably been Katja’s only possible teacher in the brand of magic she carried. However, she couldn’t blame her predecessor for wanting to go after all this time. Besides, if half the things Mikkel had told her about how that religion had become so widespread in Old World times were true, she couldn’t blame that god for wanting to start things over with a blank slate. Still, if it wasn’t going to soon be the only thing she had left from her original parents, Sigrun would have been tempted to change the girl’s name to something that would sound like “curveball” if pronounced fast enough.

xxxx

The set of buildings whose fence daddy Mikkel was currently cutting looked at lot like the home in which she had lived with her first mommy and her first daddy. There was now a hole in the fence through which she could easily walk. Daddy Mikkel took her for a walk all the way around each of the buildings, then they all went in one of them. Everything was brought in a room full of beds much bigger than the one in the tank. A stove was put on, gloves, shoes and coats were taken off. Soon, they were all eating food out of small metal boxes that tasted better than the soup they apparently didn’t have any more of. That evening, she fell asleep happy. She could feel Emil and Lalli again.

xxxx

She was woken up because it was cold in the room all of a sudden. Emil and Lalli felt closer than they had been when she had fallen asleep.  She saw that the door was open and daddy Mikkel was standing in the way. The room also smelled bad in a different way than yesterday. Mommy Sigrun shouted something, while Reynir picked her up from her bed and took her to the other side of the room the farthest away from the door. It quickly turned out that Emil and Lalli had found them, but were all dirty.

xxxx

What was that? It was like a small room that had walls entirely made of the same material as windows. There were also a lot of new people she hadn’t seen before. Daddy Mikkel was in the room next to hers, and said “no” each time she tapped on the wall too hard. But tapping on the more normal wall between the rest of the room and the “bathroom” was okay. A new voice spoke in her head:
-You will understand who I am when the time comes. For now, you need to grow among other people.


Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Lallicat on October 04, 2020, 03:27:36 PM
Ooh, great ending Grade E cat! Here's some more Kitty from my side.
Spoiler: Kitty Part 11: Cake: part 2 • show
Reynir leased them to a tall building with arching windows. The inside was bright and clean.

"What is this place?" asked Reynir and Kitty in sync.

"It's a temple to one of the old world gods." Onni explained. "This was widely served in both of our nation's for a significant time. For a thousand years by your people, 800 years by mine. These temples were raised in nearly every village. You must have come across one of them before."

"Oh. Yeah, I guess I've seen a couple. I've never gone inside one though. Or thought too much about them. There's So many weird buildings." replied Reynir. "But... why is this here?"

"I don't know. It holds no meaning to me." Onni moved to grab Kitty and leave, who was gazing at the place in wonder. "We should leave. It's not a vision, I see no point in lingering." He had only taken a few steps when Kitty had tugged at his arm. He turned to see a woman standing in the doorway. He shoved Kitty behind him, then moved to grab Reynir and yank him next to Kitty. Not fast enough though. Reynir greeted the spirit with a "Hello."

"Don't look it in the eyes," he ordered, blocking Reynir's line of sight with his arm. He covered Kitty's eyes with his free hand and screens his own shut. "You're not strong enough to shield yourself. I'll handle this." He felt Kitty fidget uncomfortably. Then the strange figure spoke.

"Please calm yourselves. Who are you?"

"Hi, I'm Reynir. We're just-"

"Stop. Speaking." Onni growled. Honestly, would he ever learn? He would get himself killed one day, if he kept trusting everything that came his way. The sooner that he learned that most stuff out there was trying to kill him the better. "Alright madam, let me know who you are and I will guide you towards your destination. You can be at rest."

"You seem confused. I need no guidance, I know where I am. And I have no intention of leaving just yet." Onni refrained from sighing out loud. He should have known it would be difficult.

"Look lady. You're dead."

"... I'm well aware."
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on October 11, 2020, 08:34:36 AM
Part two of my take on Kitty has gone up on Archive. I’m Tanist over there.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on October 12, 2020, 10:59:13 AM
And the final chapter of ‘Caring For a Friend’ has gone up on Archive. The Onni and Reynir strand of this story will be continued in ‘Alliance’. Hope you all like the ending!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on October 13, 2020, 07:36:40 AM
I promised I'd properly publish Silent Child once I was done with Adventure I, so here (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13718580/1/Silent-Child) you go. I fixed a few things and gave the chapters names while I was at it.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Jitter on October 13, 2020, 10:39:56 AM
I finally finished my story for Fandom for Australia, paid for by Grey so long ago! But, now it's up. After the expedition, the team must stay in Reykjavik for hearings and a party in their honor. Lalli and Emil become friends with the reporter girl. But is there more than friendship in the air?

https://archiveofourown.org/works/26989501
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on October 22, 2020, 10:18:29 AM
Another chapter of ‘An Historical Document’ has gone up on Archive. A warning for sad memories and past character deaths (it’s a reincarnation fic, right?). We are getting near the end of this one. A few things still need to happen: the boys need to deal with the trolls in Emil’s basement, and a journey to extremely distant parts needs to happen. I have hopes of finishing this story arc before the end of the year.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Mirasol on December 27, 2020, 01:10:22 PM
So, I was in an extreme writing-mood over today and yesterday and wrote a total of three two stories. I have only proofread one so far, so that one is coming today.

It´s the one I mentioned over in the SSSS-addict thread which is based on a dream I had. One of two actually, it had two so different narratives that I couldn´t fit them in one story. Dreams are like that sometimes...
So yeah, two stories, stylistically very similar, but two different narratives. Second one is coming... at some point. We´ll see. ^^"
  Scratch that, I decided I didn´t like the other story, so one it is. :'D

Constructive critizism is, as always, highly apprechiated.

In this one, the narrator is about 14 and their brother 17 or 18. It is set in Y0 not in Scandinavia, but I didn´t specify where instead.

Spoiler: levelup • show

I recall watching my brother play that videogame on his computer. The one with the Zombies.

“I hate Zombies”, I told him, but kept on watching anyway.

He explained to me what he was doing. Maybe so he was less afraid. The game had a lot of jump-scares and things like that. Talking to someone outside of that world at the same time would remind both of us that it wasn´t real.

“We need to get supplies, food and such. Tell me if you see something lying around”, he said. His character was walking through a raided store.
“Then we need to find a safe place and hide. That´s the next level.”

I always thought this game was stupid. I didn´t like the gross enemies and that all the remaining humans turned on each other. In fact, my every second sentence while I watched him play was “This is stupid.” At least I ended up learning something from it.

***

When the Rash came, we didn´t think much. When it reached my country, we just thought “Of course. Globalization is like that. It´ll go away.” No one had died back then.

Schools were closed after a while. My brother was happy he would have more time to study for his exams now.

Then people and animals started dying. Not just dying, turning. Into… something. Not a Zombie, but… actually, “Zombie” maybe wasn´t too far off. Just bigger, and with more teeth. I hadn´t seen one of them in real life yet. Many said it was just a rumor, to scare us all into staying at home. I hoped they were right, but knew they weren´t. I saw the monsters in my nightmares.

People in my town were getting sick, then people in my family until only the two of us were left. I don´t know what happened to the others, at that point people were still brought into the hospital. Visits were forbidden. Someone had always called us.
“I´m sorry, it´s over.”

Soon the radio started broadcasting nothing but helpless screams that my brother insisted were just interference that sounded like nothing.

And then, suddenly, me and my brother were the character from that videogame. And the fear was there again, but this time, talking wouldn´t help. Any sound would just make everything worse.

***

It was ok though, we didn´t need talk. We just had to follow the rules. Find supplies, then find a safe spot. That´s how apocalypses work. Now we were the ones standing in a store people were raiding. It were just a few, hiding and grabbing everything they could get their hands on.

“It will all go back to normal”, someone near me said almost cheerfully to their coughing child while loading a large bag with pasta. “It´s just precautions. They´ll fill the shops again, this is just to tide over the time while they don´t.”

Quit lying to yourself!, I thought, but didn´t say out loud. I think the person was aware of how hopeless everything was.

Sooner or later everything edible was gone. People were violently fighting over the last bits. I didn´t think humans would do that in real life. Me and my brother were hiding behind a large basket that once contained potatoes and watched. Our backpacks were full, we had come early, but the fight was happening in front of the door, so we couldn´t leave.

The people were shifting their attention to something alive now. A small dog sitting in the handbag of a woman. Someone was yelling and pulled at the bag, the woman refused to let go and yelled too. I covered my ears. More people joined in, I couldn´t understand what they were saying. It was too much at once.

Something´s going to happen.

The handbag´s handles ripped and the dog fell on the ground. Some people screamed in surprise, we stayed silent. The dog suddenly started snapping and hissing and twisted and squirmed. It was deforming, everything was suddenly teeth and its skin turned black. More people screamed, this time in outright panic. Everyone jumped back. Some froze, some ran away. I stared in horror. A guy tried to stab the small animal with a metal stick he got from one of the shelves. The dog´s owner started crying hysterically and tried to stop him.

“No! No! That´s my dog you sick bastard!”

“That´s no dog anymore!”, the guy shouted.

The next moment said no-dog-anymore bit the woman in the leg. She screamed, or maybe just cried louder. She sobbed, asking why her companion would do this to her. The guy tried to pull her away from it.

My brother poked me in the arm. No doubt what that meant. Time to leave.
 
We sneaked out the entrance while everyone was busy dealing with the zombie-dog.

***

The screams from inside wouldn´t stop. Both of us were shaking. Then my brother took a deep breath. “Next level?”, he whispered. I nodded. Level beaten, continue with the next one.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Jitter on December 28, 2020, 08:30:10 AM
Mirasol, I like your idea! It often bugs me in film etc. when it seems that the characters have never ever watched anything! Like, I’m pretty sure everybody know by now that you don’t split up, if there may be monsters in the house :) Having watched / played / read / otherwise engaged with content with similar themes would help one adapt more quickly, perhaps allowing that precious moment between survival and destruction to fall one’s way.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on December 28, 2020, 10:50:55 AM
Mirasol, that is an interesting story, and something that in the Minnaverse might become very likely. Having never been into either gaming or modern horror and zombies, but having in real life been in some quite perilous situations and dealt with them, I have no patience with people who don’t plan or look ahead. My husband teases me about my tendency, when he gets me to watch an action movie with him, to yell at the characters who are careless, who open doors and leave them open when they should know there is something dangerous about, and who never look up! (He grew up in a culture with lots of games and movies, I spent much of my childhood in places that didn’t have electricity, little say movies, but had plenty of books and old people who told me stories.)

Anyway, this is an interesting story, and I think worth continuing if you are so inclined.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Mirasol on December 29, 2020, 03:25:48 PM
Thanks for the feedback, Jitter and Róisín! :)) I´m also really annoyed by protagonists who go about danger the stupidest and most illogical way ever. I have the same habit of yelling at protagonists who do... And I do think that one can occasionaly learn a thing or two from content with similar themes.

Though, just like you Róisín, I´m neither into modern horror or zombies. I haven´t in my life played a game like that or watched someone else play. I pretty much share my story´s narrator´s approach to zombie-stories. I think the monsters are just gross, but not in a cool kind of way like the rash-monsters. Though I do really like apocalypse-stories otherwise.
This is probably the main-reason why I most likely won´t continue this story. I don´t know a thing about those video-games apart from the general end-goal. I was just winging it in this one. (Though it was fun to write) :'D



Either way, then I needed a break from sad/scary stories and wrote another Human!Kitty-chapter, after long last finally.

Spoiler: part 13 • show

Sigrun had said they would be on the road for a couple of days. With hopefully no grosslings they could attract, it was the ideal time to help Kitty train her mage-skills. Just, daytime-Kitty either didn´t understand what Reynir wanted from her, or didn´t care. She had great fun learning Icelandic with Tuuri though, especially since Mikkel had salvaged an old dictionary from the last place before moving on. Tuuri could use it for reference now. It happened to have nice pictures, which the little girl really liked.
“Hello, I am Kisa!”, in Icelandic were the words she woke Reynir up with after the last dreamless night.
And that was exactly the Icelander´s problem. Ever since the ghost-attack, he either didn´t dream at all or just had weird nightmares and kept on waking up. As a result, he was constantly tired and couldn´t find the dream-Kitten.
All the more surprised he was to find himself in the dreamspace now, in the middle of the day, when he had just dozed off sitting on the tank´s wheels. The vehicle had broken down, and the others were sitting around waiting for Tuuri to fix it. Kitty had immediately curled herself up in a sunny spot and fallen asleep. Reynir had intended to stay awake in the hopes of then being able to sleep tonight, but it looked like that hadn´t worked. Whatever, the kitten was here, and he was here, and he would not waste that opportunity.
It was sitting at its usual spot on the fence, fast asleep. He carefully approached it and poked the little cat´s back.
“Hey, wake up! I really hope waking you up here doesn´t wake you up in the real world… Or wait. Are you Kisa? Or her Fylgia?”
The little orange and white cat opened one of her big, blue eyes. She started stretching and gracefully leaped to the ground.
“Kisa?”, Reynir asked.
The kitten looked at him with her head tilted. Then she seemed to smile.
“Reynir!”
Her voice still sounded husky and unused, but the accent was gone.
The Icelander exulted. “Oh my gods, it´s really you! Please tell me you can understand me!”
She nodded, seemingly surprised by herself that she did.
“Why?”, she asked.
“We´re in the dreamspace. Languages don´t exist here, everyone can talk to everyone.”
Kitty looked around.
“Where Tuuri? And others?”
She still didn´t seem to be a fan of talking. Or using too many unimportant words.
“Oh, they can´t come here, sorry. Just mages can. Like me and Lalli. And you.”
She thought a bit and pouted.
“Sad. Then we still can´t talk.”
“Yeah…It would make a lot of things easier if everyone could come here… But either way, this is great! I wanted to ask you, but you never understood me: That night when the ghosts came, you were able to do something against them. Do you know how you did that?”
She shrugged. It looked funny, since a cat was doing it.
“Just knew in the moment. Wanted it to leave, and you said “help”. I just repeated. Louder. What is mage?”
“Uh… mages are people that can hear trolls speak. Like, real words. And sometimes make them do things? It depends.”
“I can hear trolls!”, Kitty exclaimed. “Wait. “Hear” is not right. More, feel. When they are near. And where.”
“Oh. Yeah. That´s when your hair gets all fluffy, right?”
She tilted her head again. “Maybe? I just try not moving. Mom taught me then they don´t come.”
“Hm, you´re right. I was taught that too. We have a rule here. “Stand still, stay silent”, then the trolls won´t come.”
“But moving house never stops moving. So they keep coming.”
“Yeah that´s because the tank is safe- wait, what did you say?”
“Trolls… no “ghosts” are following house because it´s moving. I think.”
Oh no… Reynir had thought they were done with these for a while. “Ehm… Are you sure?”
“Yes”, Kitty said sounding very convinced, though not necessarily scared.  “But they are slow. We keep moving fast, and then they can´t find us.”
“Ok… um… good to know. I… should probably tell Sigrun that.” The Icelander just prayed Tuuri would be able to fix the tank.
Though, since the girl didn´t seem all that concerned, Reynir figured it was a problem he could deal with later. Back to the reason why he originally wanted to talk to the girl.
“So, Kisa. What I´m actually trying to say, you are a mage. Like me, and Lalli and Onni, the one we called the other day.”
She nodded. “Because I feel trolls.”
“Yes, and that means you have special powers that can help you here. Like how you made the ghost leave. Do you know anything else you can do?”
She thought. The kitten´s whiskers were shuttering.
He tried to help her. “Like, most mages can look like humans in the dreamspace. Can you do that?”
The little cat sat down, closed her eyes and concentrated. Nothing happened. After a bit, she shook her head.
“Can´t.” She paused. “Don´t know can I do something else.”
She seemed really disappointed by that fact. Reynir petted her, trying to make her feel better.
“No worries, Onni said that´s normal. You´re still really young. But you have to practice and learn. I´m also still learning. We can practice together if you want. But I have different magic then you do.”
She smiled and nodded. “don´t mind.”
“Ok, then let´s meet up here again to learn. And maybe even outside.”
At that moment Reynir´s Fylgia decided he wanted to greet Kitty, and ran towards her wagging his tail and barking. The kitten´s pupils became slits, she hissed, and her shape started disappearing immediately. The dog whined sadly as the shape was gone.
“Congrats buddy, you woke her up.”
The Icelander was a bit mad at the dog, but he seemed devastated enough that the new friend had left, so Reynir couldn´t bring himself to be angry at him for long. Also because at that moment a real-life-Tuuri woke him up.
“Wake up, sleepy-head! Tank is up and running again!”
“Hm…?” Reynir yawned. “Oh, great!”
She laughed. “Wow, you should really sleep more.”
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on December 30, 2020, 01:28:14 AM
Interesting problem for Reynir and Kitty. I wonder if she will become used to Reynir’s fylgja once she realises that the dog is a part of him, and is not a danger to her? I wonder what god or gods Kitty answers to? Some sort of nature deity, or the Christian god, or what? In Reynir’s position it would be sensible to tell his dog to be still and let Kitty do the exploring and introducing herself, perhaps?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on January 01, 2021, 03:51:45 AM
Forgot to actually post the link, but the anthology of my 2020 short fics (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12734088/11/Prompt-fic-collection) is live.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Vulpes on January 01, 2021, 09:42:10 AM
Mirasol, this is a bit late, but I finally got around to reading "Levelup" and wanted to join Jitter and Roísín in approval. It makes so much sense that people would apply their gaming (or other fictional) experience to surviving irl. I'm glad your characters were more sensible about it than this one: http://deadwinter.cc/page/46 (http://deadwinter.cc/page/46)   ;D  It's a nicely self-contained vignette, with a full narrative arc, and anyone unfamiliar with SSSS would understand it.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Groupoid on February 14, 2021, 05:13:11 PM
What if Reynir had some trouble adjusting to the situation in the silent world?
Warnings: Pain, hurtful thoughts and the story doesn’t make much sense. But I wouldn’t call it "explicit" in any way.

Spoiler: show

Reynir is lying in the tank. His first night in the silent world.
The others seem to have fallen asleep already. But Reynir is still awake.
These foreign and mostly incomprehensible people... The smell of sweat, disinfectant and some unidentifiable stuffs. Will they get attacked? Are the others nice people? Mikkel seemed nice. The captain and the blond one seemed to hate him. Will they hurt him for this? He’ll help them eat their food away.. If only he hadn’t removed so many cans of tuna from the crate. If only he stayed on the ship. If only he stayed at home.

His stomach hurts, he feels sick, needing to vomit. He feels exposed, as if in a tin can in a sea of hungry mouths & arms that try to get him. Around every corner he believes to see the fingers of twitching abominations that’ll eat him if he falls asleep.
What’s that tickling in his legs?
What’s that smell? Wasn’t it different a moment ago?
His heart’s beating loudly. Should he stand up? How could he flee? To safety?

Hurt. Pain.
He rolls onto his stomach & tries to vomit next to his matress. But he fails, something hindering him, as if he’d forgotten how to do it.
There! Some acid rose up. But it only creates the usual acid taste in his mouth. He doesn’t find the expected relief of vomiting and his stomach still hurts.
When was the last time he vomited? Must’ve been years ago.

He tries to sit up. But he feels that he has to be careful about it, ’cause his sense of balance is all messed up. Every slight motion of his head feels like a great movement, and that disorients him.
He sees some lights, from the electronics somewhere. Blinking.

Will he be safe? Will he get the Rash and die, without having said any goodbies to his family? The weakest of his family.
At least his current pains won’t kill him. No, somehow it feels familiar, but he can’t quite recall where and when he’d felt like that. And such stress-induced stuff won’t kill him. At least not directly or quickly.

How can he not get in the way? How can he make himself useful, so the others won’t hate him for being here?
That’s it! He’ll try to help them as best as he can, whatever needs doing.

This goes on for quite some time. Sitting up, lying down, turning around. Pain, never ceasing pain. Never ceasing thoughts.


When Reynir woke up, he didn’t open his eyes. In this instant he didn’t quite know where he was, but felt safe. The moment he opened his eyes, he remembered where he was, and the stress came crushing down on him.
He did think something, automatically, intuitively and he didn’t feel the stress so much anymore, but it was still there. A few moments later he got up, his head quite fuzzy. His sense of balance hadn’t returned to normal.
Soon his stomach began to hurt again and he felt the need to vomit. But he couldn’t.


Spoiler: Author’s Notes • show

I dunno how to give this an ending that feels more proper.
I used Reynir as a “puppet” actor here, for stuff I wanted to write about. It’s not something I think “actually” happened in the comic. I think Reynir’s reaction in the comic was much more subdued and not actually physically hurting him like in the above text.


Writing fiction is strange. There are so many possibilities to choose from. And each gives a different story.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: thegreyarea on February 15, 2021, 02:13:25 PM
Nice story, Groupoid!

That may not happened in-comic, as you said, but also could! That first night "lost" in the silent world with a bunch of people he didn't knew, with so many dangers around him... I'd say that in-comic Reynir adapted surprisingly fast.

Also, being trapped inside a dark crate on a ship, rocking all the time, for days (?) surely wasn't a relaxing experience...

Writing fiction is indeed strange, and fascinating! I'm completely hooked with writing my stories, and absolutely in love with that god-like power to choose among the possibilities to carry the characters in the desired direction. So, welcome to the fold! :)

(and if you want more SSSS fanfics check AO3. You will find (many) amazing stories there)
https://archiveofourown.org/works/search?utf8=✓&work_search%5Bquery%5D=stand+still+stay+silent (https://archiveofourown.org/works/search?utf8=✓&work_search%5Bquery%5D=stand+still+stay+silent)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Groupoid on February 15, 2021, 03:13:38 PM
Thanks.
I considered including the ride in the crate, or including more "calming" interactions with Mikkel or Tuuri, but that didn’t fit with what I wanted.
Having so many possibilities available is sometimes problematic for me, because I can’t decide what to do. In maths there’s usually not so many possibilities you have to consider at once (in my experience). I’ll get more used to it, by exposing myself to it.

I already read many stories. There’s so many nice ones. I followed your link, fell through a hole of links, images & stuff and noticed that I could use it to study Russian a little more. I didn’t expect there to be a russian-speaking SSSS-community.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: thegreyarea on February 15, 2021, 06:29:03 PM
Thanks.
I considered including the ride in the crate, or including more "calming" interactions with Mikkel or Tuuri, but that didn’t fit with what I wanted.
Having so many possibilities available is sometimes problematic for me, because I can’t decide what to do. In maths there’s usually not so many possibilities you have to consider at once (in my experience). I’ll get more used to it, by exposing myself to it.
I love the clarity of Math, where something is, or not, with few grey areas :) Life is not like that, and a story is a description of life, even if it's an imaginary life on a fictional world. Usually there are no straight paths, rather a network of roads, avenues and trails that we negotiate the best we can, never being able to see, much less explore, all the possibilities.

I'm by no means an experienced writer, but to me having a good idea on how the story will end is essential. Without it I'm lost.
I also draw a "road map" with the relevant "places" where the story should pass, but my map is like the medieval ones: Everything is out of proportion, legends fill the empty spaces and there are imaginary places that I never find. :)

Anyway all writers (AFAIK) tend to agree that experience is fundamental. The more you write the better you do it.
So let's do it!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Maglor on February 15, 2021, 06:32:18 PM
I didn’t expect there to be a russian-speaking SSSS-community.

Wait, there is?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: thegreyarea on February 15, 2021, 07:12:53 PM
Wait, there is?
I wasn't aware there were so many SSSS-related works in Russian on Archive of Our Own. Unfortunately (for non-Russian speakers) several of them aren't translated to English. But at least we can appreciate the art. :)

Anyway it's nice to see that Minna's art is reaching more people.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on February 15, 2021, 11:08:54 PM
I didn’t expect there to be a russian-speaking SSSS-community.
Wait, there is?
Yep. (https://archiveofourown.org/works?utf8=%E2%9C%93&work_search%5Bsort_column%5D=revised_at&work_search%5Bother_tag_names%5D=&work_search%5Bexcluded_tag_names%5D=&work_search%5Bcrossover%5D=&work_search%5Bcomplete%5D=&work_search%5Bwords_from%5D=&work_search%5Bwords_to%5D=&work_search%5Bdate_from%5D=&work_search%5Bdate_to%5D=&work_search%5Bquery%5D=&work_search%5Blanguage_id%5D=ru&commit=Sort+and+Filter&tag_id=Stand+Still+Stay+Silent)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on February 16, 2021, 02:34:09 AM
Grey, you certainly have it right that experience at writing builds your skill. The way I heard it was ‘the way to become a writer is to write’. I had never written fanfic before joining this community, indeed I had never even encountered the concept, despite decades being around F&SF fandoms.

I had written a lot, but most of it was reports, technical and other factual articles, with the odd newspaper article, and I had helped several friends with editing and proofreading their own books, and had contributed parts when I had some experience with the subject they were covering. Most of the non-factual things I had ever had published were poetry and an occasional hard-SF short story. So I was quite unprepared to find myself putting up online fanfic for a fantasy webcomic! I think one reason it worked was the quality of the base material!

The other kind of experience that helps with writing is life experience. I have had plenty of that, but it doesn’t have to be big exciting stuff. You can extrapolate from ordinary life experiences as well. I have heard that one phrased as ‘everything is grist to the writer’s mill’ and I find that a true saying.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: JoB on February 16, 2021, 03:27:06 AM
Also, being trapped inside a dark crate on a ship, rocking all the time, for days (?) surely wasn't a relaxing experience...
Reynir hopped into that crate (http://sssscomic.com/comic.php?page=297) when the shipmates selected them to hand to the expedition team, which happened after Trond blackmailed the captain into it (http://sssscomic.com/comic.php?page=282), and then he told the crew in the still-ongoing radio contact (http://sssscomic.com/comic.php?page=284) where to meet up with them. It isn't said out loud how much time the ship took to get there, but Trond was looking through the papers to find a nearby one, so I'd guess it all happened the next morning.

I love the clarity of Math, where something is, or not, with few grey areas :)
*cough* Gödel's theorems (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6del%27s_incompleteness_theorems), P =? NP, Continuum Hypothesis (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuum_hypothesis), ...

I didn’t expect there to be a russian-speaking SSSS-community.
Wait, there is?
The Russian fan translation (https://acomics.ru/~stand-still-stay-silent/) was active before this forum's translation project (https://ssssforum.com/thingies/comictranslation.php) even started (and never got to get anything translated) ...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: thegreyarea on February 16, 2021, 07:52:33 AM
... so I'd guess it all happened the next morning.
Yes, maybe hours, not days. Anyway a very uncomfortable experience, I'm sure.

*cough* Gödel's theorems (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6del%27s_incompleteness_theorems), P =? NP, Continuum Hypothesis (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuum_hypothesis), ...
Well pointed! In my defense I did said there were a few grey areas. :) But the vast majority of Math users* won't dive in those deep waters**, staying on the upper layers were results are clear and the paths to solve problems are more or less evident. I believe that's what Groupoid intended to reference.
* Myself included.
** Fascinating as they may be.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Groupoid on February 16, 2021, 04:46:31 PM
I love the clarity of Math, where something is, or not, with few grey areas :) Life is not like that, and a story is a description of life, even if it's an imaginary life on a fictional world. Usually there are no straight paths, rather a network of roads, avenues and trails that we negotiate the best we can, never being able to see, much less explore, all the possibilities.

I'm by no means an experienced writer, but to me having a good idea on how the story will end is essential. Without it I'm lost.
I also draw a "road map" with the relevant "places" where the story should pass, but my map is like the medieval ones: Everything is out of proportion, legends fill the empty spaces and there are imaginary places that I never find. :)

Anyway all writers (AFAIK) tend to agree that experience is fundamental. The more you write the better you do it.
So let's do it!
Yes to all the things! Especially the first paragraph. Your maps sound pretty fun, I might try that method of planning.

*cough* Gödel's theorems (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%B6del%27s_incompleteness_theorems), P =? NP, Continuum Hypothesis (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Continuum_hypothesis), ...
I don’t think of Gödel’s incompleteness theorems as something fundamentally fuzzy. Because if something is unprovable (in some system!) then the fact "the something is unprovable in that system" may still be provable in some other system. It reminds me more of the things we can’t calculate or the things we can’t construct (in finite time). An example is Goodstein’s theorem (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodstein%27s_theorem), which is unprovable in Peano Arithmetic, but provable in others. It has nice visualisation/application with Hydras (this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWwUpEY4c8o) explains stuff a little & might be interesting, but I haven’t watched it fully).
And although math is pretty "clear" and "simple" in some sense – only rarely you have to juggle ten concepts at the same time – this doesn’t imply for me, that all questions have to be answered already. There will probably always remain interesting open problems.
So I only consider your mentioning of the continuum hypothesis to be something of a grey area. It differs a lot in tone from the others, since the question now (after having proved its independence of ZFC) is: "do you want the continuum hypothesis or not in your set theory?". And there are many "questions" like that (large cardinals, axiom of choice, intuitionistic logic, alternative foundations, ...), which aren’t questions about a thing, but a choice with what you want to work with. It *might* just happen, that these things interest me. ;)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: JoB on February 16, 2021, 05:57:53 PM
(Off-Thread-Topic alert ...)

I don’t think of Gödel’s incompleteness theorems as something fundamentally fuzzy. Because if something is unprovable (in some system!) then the fact "the something is unprovable in that system" may still be provable in some other system.
Gödel's work pinpoints that a) there is such an undecidable statement in every moderately advanced mathematical model, hence b) an infinite number of (truly different) models to choose from, and thus c) need for an infinite number of experiments (read: cannot be done) to pinpoint the proper model for an application case. If that doesn't make the relation between reality and math(ematical modeling) "fuzzy", I don't know what would.

Spoiler: personal rambling • show

Yes, I'm calling the statement "undecidable" on purpose. The standard way of extending the model beyond that point is to add either the statement or its negation, or a known equivalent of either, as a new axiom, which is not "finding a proof" and thus making it "provable" in my books.

And yes, I'm aware that there used to be near-holy wars about whether the "grey area" is a uniform mass of "undecidable" statements, or split into "unreachable truths", "unreachable falsehoods", and maybe some remaining "undecidable" ones. I'm fairly sure that the proponents of the latter still wouldn't have considered "just pick one already!" as the revelation of hidden truths that they were hoping for ... ::)


So I only consider your mentioning of the continuum hypothesis to be something of a grey area. It differs a lot in tone from the others, since the question now (after having proved its independence of ZFC) is: "do you want the continuum hypothesis or not in your set theory?".
How is that different from "the Gödel statement we found for your current model is A, do you want to accept A or ¬A as an additional axiom?", or, for a more specific and obviously practical example, "does your geometry include the fifth (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parallel_postulate) (-> Euclidian / planar geometry) or its negation (-> non-Euclidian, e.g., spherical, geometry)" ... ?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: thegreyarea on February 16, 2021, 07:05:39 PM
...
And yes, I'm aware that there used to be near-holy wars about whether the "grey area" is a uniform mass of "undecidable" statements, or split into "unreachable truths", "unreachable falsehoods", and maybe some remaining "undecidable" ones.
...
I hope it's all in the past. Please no wars about the grey area! Holy, near-holy or totally unholy! Make love, not war!  <3
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Groupoid on February 16, 2021, 07:24:16 PM
(Off-Thread-Topic alert ...)
Answered in another topic (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=1168.0). I was a fool thinking I wouldn’t learn something, when taking up the discussion. I wonder how you think about my response.

I think a big problem with these flaming philosophical discussions about logic is, that while discussing we think we’re very sure we know what we mean, but actually we don’t express what we mean exactly. Or we don’t understand exactly what the other person meant. At least I believe I some of these things happened to me now. Which surprises me. I think I’ll have some humble pie now (and some bed). No wonder mathematicians developed such a precise language to communicate their thoughts.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on February 16, 2021, 09:30:25 PM
Indeed, both math and magic require the utmost precision in the defining of terms.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Groupoid on February 20, 2021, 09:01:15 AM
A little exercise inspired by the german poem "ottos mops".
Spoiler: That brat’s cat hat • show

Cat sat as brat’s hat.
⇒ Cat hat.
Cat spat at gnat that tapped at brat.
Splat splat
Fat brat tapped at cat hat brat
Fat brat: Drat! That rat shat at map!
Cat hat spat at rat.
Cat hat brat slapped rat.
Cat hat trapped rat.
Fat brat stabbed rat.
Cat hat sat at cat brat’s lap
Cat brat pats cat hat.
And cat hat napped at cat brat’s lap.

I’m so conflicted about posting this, argh! Is it finished? Is it good enough? I want to be done with it, so I post it.
I wonder if there are people for which this is not mono-vocalic in their variation of English.

Edit: Oh, and have this:
Rey waved.
“Hey! Cave!”
“Nej, nej” they say.
“Cave ain’t safe” they say.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Keep Looking on February 20, 2021, 10:40:55 PM
A little exercise inspired by the german poem "ottos mops".
Spoiler: That brat’s cat hat • show

Cat sat as brat’s hat.
⇒ Cat hat.
Cat spat at gnat that tapped at brat.
Splat splat
Fat brat tapped at cat hat brat
Fat brat: Drat! That rat shat at map!
Cat hat spat at rat.
Cat hat brat slapped rat.
Cat hat trapped rat.
Fat brat stabbed rat.
Cat hat sat at cat brat’s lap
Cat brat pats cat hat.
And cat hat napped at cat brat’s lap.

I’m so conflicted about posting this, argh! Is it finished? Is it good enough? I want to be done with it, so I post it.
I wonder if there are people for which this is not mono-vocalic in their variation of English.

Edit: Oh, and have this:
Rey waved.
“Hey! Cave!”
“Nej, nej” they say.
“Cave ain’t safe” they say.

It's a fun little poem! I enjoy the wordplay. At least for my version of english, all the 'a' sounds you have in there are the same 'a' sound, the short 'a' sound.

(and don't worry about things being good enough or not! it's ok just to have some fun with words, nobody's gonna judge)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on February 21, 2021, 01:08:11 AM
Groupoid, that was fun! I think you will find that many of us here enjoy word play, especially between languages.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Vulpes on February 21, 2021, 01:33:02 PM
...
I’m so conflicted about posting this, argh! Is it finished? Is it good enough? I want to be done with it, so I post it.
I wonder if there are people for which this is not mono-vocalic in their variation of English.

Generally, something is only done when you do post it (or submit it, or whatever). And if you're worrying about it being good enough, it's probably good enough!  ;D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Groupoid on February 22, 2021, 05:06:52 PM
Thanks for the kind words. :) They felt nice, for lack of working out more precise wording.
I am so certain, that some more rhythm/meter could be worked into the text, but I also so didn’t and don’t want to spend the effort. I’ll put my effort (for SSSS-fanworks) into more little things and maybe into working out the drafts I have lying around.

Quick fragment:
Spoiler: The Conspiracy • show

Reynir was bound to a chair in a dark room, or somesuch. In front of him: the smudge of grease on his nose, his freckles and his puzzled expression. His freckles began to speak: “We have met here, to put our plans into action. We’ll make you ... even more adorable!” Reynir: “No! No!” trying to get up from his chair. His puzzled expression: “You’ll be totally adorbz when we’re done with you.” The smudge of grease: “Tuuri will love it!” Reynir: “Nooo...!” And Reynir woke up sweating and panting.

Spoiler: Author’s notes • show

Reynir having some prophetic dream, but he probably won’t remember it.
Taking place in and inspired by Kiraly’s Hipster Band AU (https://archiveofourown.org/series/489268) that was recently linked to the Art thread (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=35.msg178420#msg178420). Specifically: “He had a smudge of grease on his nose, and it conspired with his freckles and puzzled expression to make him even more adorable.” in the chapter “The Girl on the Bike” (https://archiveofourown.org/works/5569909/chapters/12926173). These stories are very fun to read.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: thegreyarea on February 25, 2021, 04:28:47 AM
Later Mikkel heard Reynir speaking to himself...
"No! I don't want to be more adorable! I don't want to have a puzzled expression forever!"
"To whom are you speaking to, Reynir?"
"Me? I.. I was... my frecles... they..."
Mikkel gives him a hug. "You look adorable with that puzzled expression, do you know?"
"Nooooo!!!"

(Grupoid, I hope you don't mind me taking this one step further. :)  )
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Groupoid on February 25, 2021, 08:58:01 AM
I laughed so hard at this. Feel free to be inspired by stuff I write and create new stuff! *mumbling about being happy with references and enjoying spontaneous collaborations*
The non-sexual-M/M-hug makes me somewhat uncomfortable, I dunno whether it fits Mikkel in canon or in Kiraly’s AU. But it’s (physically) possible so let’s leave it at that. I wish I was more comfortable with hugs... I’m thinking too hard about this response.

I laugh each time I read your post again. It fits so well.

Edit: Actually, I chose my avatar because I wished I was more comfortable with hugs. Wishing to be so free like Reynir in that moment, to hug his friends. And it’s such a nice thing to be greeted by a happy face when logging in to the forum.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Mirasol on February 25, 2021, 10:42:23 AM
I laughed so hard at this. Feel free to be inspired by stuff I write and create new stuff! *mumbling about being happy with references and enjoying spontaneous collaborations*

Sounds like you´ll love the chapter-break-fillers then. These live from spontaneous collaboration. :))
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: thegreyarea on February 25, 2021, 07:13:32 PM
I laughed so hard at this. Feel free to be inspired by stuff I write and create new stuff! *mumbling about being happy with references and enjoying spontaneous collaborations*
The non-sexual-M/M-hug makes me somewhat uncomfortable, I dunno whether it fits Mikkel in canon or in Kiraly’s AU. But it’s (physically) possible so let’s leave it at that. I wish I was more comfortable with hugs... I’m thinking too hard about this response.

I laugh each time I read your post again. It fits so well.

Edit: Actually, I chose my avatar because I wished I was more comfortable with hugs. Wishing to be so free like Reynir in that moment, to hug his friends. And it’s such a nice thing to be greeted by a happy face when logging in to the forum.
I'm very happy for making you laugh! :) And even more for doing it again! :D

About the hug, I felt that Mikkel wouldn't resist Reynir's adorableness.
Do you remember how he hugged Emil and Lalli when they arrived after being lost and presumed dead? To me Mikkel is the kind of person that really enjoys a hug (like myself).

The way people see M/M hugs is also affected by their society. I live in Portugal, and here hugging friends is more or less normal. I never lived on any Northern country* but from what I know physical contact is more limited, which could justify some discomfort. BTW do you know that in some african countries it's perfectly normal for men to walk hand-in-hand? It's just a sign of friendship.

* to someone that lives in Portugal anything beyond the Pyrinees is "Northern" :)

And yes, Mirasol, I think our new friend will be delighted with our chapter-break-fillers!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Groupoid on March 01, 2021, 04:19:11 PM
A little fluff.
Spoiler: Part 1, Coffee • show

The coffeehouse already had a lot of patrons, Reynir couldn’t find a free table. “Do you mind if I join you?” he asked two young men. The thinner of the two only silently stared at him. “No, please take a seat” the older one responded and gave the thin one a disapproving glare. Reynir put his tea and plate on their table and seated himself. He took out his notebook and began doodling and writing a bit. He wanted something to remind him of this trip to the city, for when he returned to the farm again.
The two other men exchanged some words, but Reynir didn’t know their language. They were gesturing at a makeshift stage, where some young people were preparing their instruments. The stage was simply a corner where the tables had been removed.
The small chamber ensemble began playing a light tune. Different from the songs played on the village festivals Reynir had been to. The older of Reynir’s table neighbors winked to a girl sitting next to the stage.
She turned out to be one of three singers that stood up after the overture and presented a story about a coffee infatuated girl and her less-than-happy father. Reynir smirked often at the text and admired the singers who sang lots of ornaments. Especially the part of the girl seemed difficult at times.

After the performance and a great applause the girl came to Reynir’s table and began chatting with the other two men. Unfortunately for Reynir, she also spoke that language he didn’t understand. In a moment of silence he said: “You sang beautifully, and it was a fun story.” “Thank you. As amateur that feels good to hear”, she answered, “Onni, would you care to introduce me to your friend?” The man called Onni suddenly became very insecure. “Um, we don’t actually know each other, I just sat here, because there was no free table”, Reynir tried to help. “Oh, never mind then. I’m Tuuri, pleased to meet you.” she held out her hand, and tried to recover the situation. “Nice to meet you, I’m Reynir.”
Oh great, now that they’re talking we’re going to stay here even longer, the man next to Onni thought.

When Reynir returned to the boarding house, he was humming: “Coffee, Coffee I must ha~ave." He wouldn’t mind meeting the Hotakainens again.

Spoiler: Author’s Comments • show

Ha! I evaded writing that dialogue! I got a bit tangled up thinking about it, so you have to imagine it yourself.
I’m not yet doing the ballroom dance (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=978.msg178330#msg178330), but I think I’ll build up to it. Bonus points: Why could this fit the “brook” prompt? ;D I’ll submit as Chapter Break Filler will be another one.


And have another:
Spoiler: The Great Fluff • show

“Dinner is ready!” a portly lady called. “Coming!” a lonely, blond kid answered from another room. He looked forward to dinner and was so lost in thought contemplating dessert, that he almost tripped over something lying in the hallway. A weak “mrrh” came from the grey speckled blob. The body inspected the fuzzy mass more closely. “Big Kitty!”, was the first thing that came to his mind, “Oh, but you’re all wet. Let me get something to dry you off.” He took a piece of the carpet and rubbed it all over the unexpected visitor. It nudged and grumbled slightly, as if to indicate pain. When he was finished, he dropped the soggy wash-cloth and petted the now completely dry beast. Its fur was as soft as freshly fallen powdery snow.
If he hadn’t been interrupted, he probably would have continued petting the fur forever. “Emil!” the lady called. “Oh right, dinner” mumbled the boy, lifted up what he now considered to be his pet and took it to the dining room.
– Emil, what have you got here?
– Can we keep him? He’s so fluffy!
– Well for now at least. But first let’s have dinner.
The boy gently put the lynx on the couch and sat down at the dining table. After a while a thought occurred to him and it seemed very urgent to settle this. “Will he also have dinner?” Emil asked “I’ll get him a bowl of stew.” “Of course you do.” his nanny didn’t seem to care much.
Emil stayed with the lynx who weakly began lapping from the bowl. The boy was completely absorbed in stroking the lynx, so he didn’t notice it at first when someone called his name. “Emil, wake up!” Oh well.

Inspirational picture by nefnef. (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=35.msg178251#msg178251)

Spoiler: Explanation • show

Lalli (as Lynx) get’s himself stuck in Emil’s head again, but in a different dream than in the comic. He’s wet, because swam through the waters between the dreams.  :lalli: :emil:
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Vulpes on March 01, 2021, 07:19:29 PM
Groupoid, nice vignettes! I especially like "Coffee" - The Coffee Cantata is an old favourite. I introduced my grad school office-mate to it, because we drank a LOT of coffee. She particularly like the line "If I can't drink my bowl of coffee three times daily, then in my torment I will shrivel up like a piece of roast goat." (Full translation https://dmitrimatheny.com/blog/blog/bach-s-coffee-cantata-libretto-translation (https://dmitrimatheny.com/blog/blog/bach-s-coffee-cantata-libretto-translation)). I've run across other translations, but I like that one best for some reason.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Keep Looking on March 04, 2021, 07:17:38 AM
These are very charming, Groupoid!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on March 07, 2021, 04:07:54 AM
The Synchronised Screaming group posted some prompts, and I have written a thing.  The Enchanted Chain (https://archiveofourown.org/works/29896920)

Now, to go back and read some of your stories!  *looks at clock hands set to past-your-bedtime-on-a-work-night-missy*  Soon, I promise.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on March 07, 2021, 08:28:13 AM
Have just posted the 6th and second-last chapter of ‘Year 3 Very Far to the South’ on Archive of Our Own, where I am Tanist. It is beginning to be a bit sad, but the last chapter will be better.

Mod wavewright62 butting in here to post a link to this very fine story: Year 3 Very Far to the South (https://archiveofourown.org/works/17562194/chapters/41388347)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Mirasol on March 08, 2021, 12:34:07 PM
I love all the stories that have been posted here lately! Sadly I don´t have the time to comment on each of them right now, but I enjoyed reading them all!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on March 08, 2021, 11:34:47 PM
Thank you for putting up that link, Wavewright. I have never been able to make the damned things work.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Groupoid on March 09, 2021, 04:43:40 PM
The Synchronised Screaming group posted some prompts, and I have written a thing.  The Enchanted Chain (https://archiveofourown.org/works/29896920)

Now, to go back and read some of your stories!  *looks at clock hands set to past-your-bedtime-on-a-work-night-missy*  Soon, I promise.
I like this magic-system very much. It took me a while to get what "wax" referred to. :mikkel:
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on March 09, 2021, 08:47:09 PM
I like this magic-system very much. It took me a while to get what "wax" referred to. :mikkel:

Thank you. 8)

Years later, after settlements got big enough to support restaurants again, Lalli could never stand going to the ones where they had candles on the table, claiming that the smell made him nauseous. 

He and Emil once got banned from a restaurant when they argued about keeping the candle lit for once, and Emil lit it up BUT GOOD before Lalli dumped a whole pitcher of juice on it.  When the chef emerged to see what the hullaballoo was, they were shocked to see it was Mikkel.

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Vulpes on March 10, 2021, 03:06:38 PM
Thank you. 8)

Years later, after settlements got big enough to support restaurants again, Lalli could never stand going to the ones where they had candles on the table, claiming that the smell made him nauseous. 

He and Emil once got banned from a restaurant when they argued about keeping the candle lit for once, and Emil lit it up BUT GOOD before Lalli dumped a whole pitcher of juice on it.  When the chef emerged to see what the hullaballoo was, they were shocked to see it was Mikkel.

It was funny enough up to the pitcher of juice. Mikkel is the crowning touch. Brava!  ;D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Groupoid on March 10, 2021, 06:30:07 PM
O_O such headcanon, much wow, expressed in so few words (doge meme). That’s quite some writing-skill.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Jitter on March 11, 2021, 01:30:27 AM
I don’t know who was the more upset, Mikkel to find his kids, all grown up and settled*, still causing a commotion. Or the boys, upon learning that Mikkel can cook good food after all.

* he’s of course kept tabs on his family
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Maglor on March 11, 2021, 03:55:56 AM
Reading waverwright fic.
I believe it's rather starf than stave. Plus starf is a runescript, while what Reynir uses is obviosly a bindrunes.
Whoa, so he's bi?
Oh, am I correct to say I gave you the idea of lassoing a troll with a magic chain?)
I believe it's Mages, not Mags. Or do yo have smth to say with this form of multiple number?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on March 11, 2021, 05:44:54 PM
Reading waverwright fic.
I believe it's rather starf than stave. Plus starf is a runescript, while what Reynir uses is obviosly a bindrunes.
Whoa, so he's bi?
Oh, am I correct to say I gave you the idea of lassoing a troll with a magic chain?)
I believe it's Mages, not Mags. Or do yo have smth to say with this form of multiple number?

Starting from the bottom:
'Mags' is just a nickname for Magda.  Sigrun has a nickname for everybody, but Magda is not a fleshed-out character so giving her a more Sigrunesque nickname wouldn't work for the reader.

I didn't *consciously* borrow your chain, Maglor, I was going with the prompt for "restraint/binding" but I have to admit that I was beta-reading your story when I interrupted to write this one, so maybe?  I didn't lift it on purpose, but can't discount the possibility.

I left a lot of things ambiguous in the story, including Reynir's preferences in flirtations.  Remember, the military in post-Rash Norway is not exclusively cishet male. He could be flirting with anyone, and he'd probably know enough about the rest of the troop to know where their inclinations lie in turn.

I do not have a firm headcanon on the sexual preferences of most of the cast, rather writing my stories to suit a prompt or idea (or joke).  Going through my stories, I chop and change things a lot (for instance, Michael, Mikkel's twin, is dead at Kastrup, or living as a trans woman, or in Iceland somewhere, or back at the farm...).  Since I almost exclusively write genfic and don't get into what body parts interact, I reckon I can get away with being ambiguous.

The innovative designs of galdrastafir he's used in this story encompass both the 'binding' of the prompt, and also rendering the beast docile and tractable.  I won't speculate on the actual designs; I invoke hand-waving 'whatever works for the story' and not actual researched Icelandic or Finnish magic. 

And many thanks for the compliments on my leeetle response.  Heh. 
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Jellyfish on March 27, 2021, 10:31:15 PM
State of the Union Version Four is a go.
I'll try to get chapters out at least biweekly.
LINK:https://archiveofourown.org/works/29931972/chapters/73674021
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Mirasol on March 28, 2021, 12:39:54 PM
State of the Union Version Four is a go.
I'll try to get chapters out at least biweekly.
LINK:https://archiveofourown.org/works/29931972/chapters/73674021

Hi there, just pinching in to tell you that to make links work you have to put them in the brackets you get when clicking on "insert hyperlink" above you´re typing-window. They look approximately like this: [url ]link[ /url] (without spaces in between. Just quote my post to see how I did it.) I hope I could help! :)

Here´s your link in working: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29931972/chapters/73674021 (https://archiveofourown.org/works/29931972/chapters/73674021)

I very much enjoy your story! Scary and sad, but very well-written, I like the episodic character. Keep it up!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: lwise on April 25, 2021, 08:44:45 AM
Róisín suggested that I should put this in the Scriptorium.  It's just a little fan-ficlet about a voting prompt on page 417.  I hope this works.

Spoiler: "Bedtime story" • show
"And then," Sigrun said, extending her leg and admiring the new cast, "the dumb-bunny mages all took off deeper into the hotel, even though I was shouting at them to come back."

"She shouted in Norwegian, which they didn't understand," Mikkel explained, bouncing the five-year-old twins, Asbjørn and Morten, on his knees. "That's why you have to speak Norwegian, Icelandic, and Finnish."

"Then the mama bear beast burst through the window, glass flying everywhere, and she glared right into my eyes! We three had to run back up the stairs and …" She paused dramatically.

"And? And?" Morten asked anxiously.

"And that is a story for another day," Mikkel said firmly. He lifted the children and seated one on each shoulder. "You will hear it tomorrow if you are good boys, brush your teeth, and go to bed without arguing."

"Oh, no," the children whined in unison, but their parents knew the power of that bribe, and they smiled at each other, looking forward to telling the tale once more.


Then I started a thing on Archive of Our Own (https://archiveofourown.org/works/30866504) that's a much more extended version.  Only three chapters so far, though.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Keep Looking on April 25, 2021, 09:05:15 AM
lwise, this is a really sweet and funny story!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on April 26, 2021, 12:00:12 AM
Iwise, I am so glad you put this up! Good story, and I hope there will be more.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: lwise on April 30, 2021, 11:47:42 AM
I have added a fourth chapter to 1001 Tales of the Norwegian Nights (https://archiveofourown.org/works/30866504) on Archive of Our Own.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on May 02, 2021, 09:26:57 AM
A good chapter indeed!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on May 09, 2021, 08:38:31 AM
I have just put up on Archive of our Own my story from the last Chapter Break Filler, ‘Hunting and Game’’. It will become part of my ‘Very Far to the South’ series.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on May 10, 2021, 06:52:07 AM
Have put up on Archive of our Own my other Chapter Break Filler story: ‘Möntti’, the tale of one of the bear beasts. Sad but I think has a sort-of-happy ending.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Jellyfish on May 18, 2021, 06:48:52 PM
I've finally gotten a new chapter added to State of the Union. Took me way longer than expected to type all that out. Anyway, here's the link to the full work, which hopefully is properly formatted this time.https://archiveofourown.org/works/29931972/chapters/73674021 (https://archiveofourown.org/works/29931972/chapters/73674021)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: lwise on May 21, 2021, 04:49:15 PM
1001 Tales of the Norwegian Nights (https://archiveofourown.org/works/30866504) on Archive of Our Own now has seven chapters.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on June 11, 2021, 07:10:23 AM
I have just posted the second to last chapter of ‘Year 3, Very Far to the South’ on Archive of Our Own. This was meant to be the last chapter but it was proving to be overly long so I will put up the rest of it in a few days when I have had a chance to edit it. And sorry to end the chapter on a cliffhanger!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Jellyfish on July 11, 2021, 03:35:06 PM
Added a new chapter to Where Lies the Strangling Fruit: https://archiveofourown.org/works/31673420/chapters/78388190 (https://archiveofourown.org/works/31673420/chapters/78388190)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on July 12, 2021, 07:50:19 PM
Róisín, remember that ending a chapter on a cliffhanger is part of the culture here!  ;D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on July 13, 2021, 06:58:04 AM
Yeah, I suppose it is traditional!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on August 04, 2021, 07:30:50 AM
Okay, the chapter of True Ruler I got stuck in the middle of last year is finally done: True Colors (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13118263/12/True-Ruler).

This is the first real move towards the resolution of that arc, so this holds the risk of being the one revealing the story to not be going where some were hoping it was.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: tehta on August 20, 2021, 03:03:10 AM
Hello all.

I am new around here: I discovered SSSS just a couple of months ago. It hit me pretty hard, and I was inspired to write fanfic for the first time in many years.

Anyone who looks on Ao3 will probably have seen my works, but here are two links anyway.

Burned Wine, an Emil-focused genfic about the gang hanging out in Iceland: https://archiveofourown.org/works/33061711 (https://archiveofourown.org/works/33061711)

Completely Normal, a generic, low-rated Emil/Lalli story also set in Iceland (multichapter, about to be finished): https://archiveofourown.org/works/32818117 (https://archiveofourown.org/works/32818117)

And now for the real reason I wanted to post here: I do not have a beta, and this is slowly driving me insane, since I am not used to posting unbetaed content. It's not a question of grammar, since I can self-edit to a degree (even if I do keep finding typos after posting, sigh) but more paranoia over whether what I wrote is in character and makes sense. Would anyone be up for some sort of beta exchange?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Jitter on August 20, 2021, 11:30:44 AM
Hello tehta and welcome to the Forum! We also have an Introduction Thread on the General board, why don’t you pass by there too? (It’s not mandatory, just fun).

I read the two finished ones, and liked both very much! I did leave kudos too, I’m Jiiri on the Archive. Like you mentioned, On the Edge was not very dissimilar from many other Emilalli stories, in the other hand many of us LOVE Emilalli stories :) And I liked the way Tuuri was worried for Lalli.

I’m not sure whether I’ll be needing a beta anytime soon, but I’ll be happy to comment your writing if you’d like! I’m not native in English though. Anyways I have a few stories in the Archive and here, take a look and let me know by PM if you’d like my comments :)
.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: tehta on August 20, 2021, 12:29:27 PM
Hello tehta and welcome to the Forum! We also have an Introduction Thread on the General board, why don’t you pass by there too? (It’s not mandatory, just fun).

I read the two finished ones, and liked both very much! I did leave kudos too, I’m Jiiri on the Archive. Like you mentioned, On the Edge was not very dissimilar from many other Emilalli stories, in the other hand many of us LOVE Emilalli stories :) And I liked the way Tuuri was worried for Lalli.

I did not even link On the Edge here as I see it as more of a warm-up exercise for the pairing. I wrote it before reading many of the existing fanfics, and realizing that Adventure One is pretty much fully covered by fanfic writers (as well as being quite wonderful on its own). This is why I am now writing about Iceland. (As a writer, my goal is to write the stories I wish would exist. If they already exist, there is less need to write them...)

Quote
I’m not sure whether I’ll be needing a beta anytime soon, but I’ll be happy to comment your writing if you’d like! I’m not native in English though. Anyways I have a few stories in the Archive and here, take a look and let me know by PM if you’d like my comments :)
.

Ha, I know your stuff! I have read (and liked) your stories and am pretty sure I have commented on at least one before.

I might ping you then, about the unfinished story you haven't read? I should be done with the final chapter in the next few days, and like I said I don't necessarily need a grammar beta, more just a review of whether the characters/emotions make sense.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Jitter on August 20, 2021, 01:15:41 PM
Ok great! Hopefully I’ll find some time to write again too, I actually have an idea for my continuum that I should get cracking on. I was just reading my source material again this week, so maybe the story is stirring again.

Just let me know if or when you need me!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Maple on August 27, 2021, 09:10:13 AM
After two months I finally finished a fic I had been working on! I actually posted it to Ao3 last night but forgot to link it here before I went to sleep.

Love Grows in our Garden (https://archiveofourown.org/works/33507103) - A one-shot about Lalli and Emil's married life and how Lalli learns to emotionally connect with their child. (It's rated T/PG-13 because of one scene that implies Things happened, but nothing graphic is written there.)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Jitter on August 27, 2021, 01:17:43 PM
Thank you for this, Maple! Lalli being Lalli again :)

I have another take on how they become fathers, here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27689123/chapters/67762502

The most relevan chapters are 9 and 8 (this is the chronological order)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: tehta on August 28, 2021, 07:12:10 AM
I am suffering from a bad case of emilallitis right now (main symptom: constant excretion of shippy content).

So, here is a tiny ficlet starring Lalli and Tuuri-bird: https://archiveofourown.org/works/33470776/chapters/83312212 (https://archiveofourown.org/works/33470776/chapters/83312212)
Come for the stupidity, stay for the valuable Swedish vocabulary!

And I almost forgot! With Jitter's valuable help, I was able to finish the last chapter of my longer (and very fluffy) fic, so it's now complete: https://archiveofourown.org/works/32818117
It was so much fun writing both of these weirdos.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on August 31, 2021, 11:28:11 PM
Steady on, "excretion"?  XD
(https://41.media.tumblr.com/89f5fa36dfbb524e190ac380780d23f3/tumblr_inline_nnx37xh4rS1r2g2kx_540.png)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: tehta on September 01, 2021, 03:57:31 AM
In another place I said 'vomiting'. It's some sort of involuntary and not entirely welcome process. (Not entirely welcome because it's not convenient to keep getting stupid fic ideas all the time. Also shipper glasses make it very hard for me to judge my writing objectively, so I never know whether any of it is readable outside the context of my head.)

But maybe I should compare it to hiccups instead.

Anywayyy, here is another one I just posted, in which Sigrun torments Emil with personal questions. (Rated Teen for Sigrun's language and hand gestures): https://archiveofourown.org/works/33594331
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: tehta on September 06, 2021, 04:44:44 PM
As part of my attempts to reach the Safe Zone, I will now link yet another (tiny) story, titled Everybody Lies:
https://archiveofourown.org/works/33470776/chapters/83811517

SURPRISE! There's emilalli in it. But the main reason for the story is to explain why everyone's noses keep growing throughout Adventure Two. Theory: it's all the lying.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Jitter on September 08, 2021, 10:58:34 AM
I noticed I haven't posted all of my collections of short stories and vignettes written for the various events etc. So here's everything there is at this point on the Spirit House, where Reynir and Onni are looking for new magic.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/33761917/chapters/83921932
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: tehta on September 08, 2021, 03:02:32 PM
Another day, another attempt to put my own spin on Adventure Two.
It's titled 'Lehto'. Where could it be set? Find out at
https://archiveofourown.org/works/33763753
Writing it took me a while, as it's so disgustingly fluffy that I had to hold a hand over my eyes while typing.



And an unrelated comment: I am working on a story set in Iceland, where I hope to reference some Icelandic magic. I have been poking at some sources, etc. Would anyone be interested in chatting about such things? And if so, where?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Jitter on September 08, 2021, 03:25:28 PM
Tehta, stop calling your fluff disgusting! It’s sweet indeed, but there are many of us who have a sweet tooth :) Especially when it comes to treats that have some of our favorite boys in them.

On the Icelandic magic question, we have just the board for you:
The History and Mythology Board https://ssssforum.com/index.php?board=21.0

If none of the existing threads feel just right, feel free ro start another one.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Jitter on September 09, 2021, 10:35:34 AM
Another collection from forum events, these are glimpses into the Hotakainen backstory

https://archiveofourown.org/works/33780244/chapters/83970823

I thought I had posted all of these but clearly no
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: tehta on September 24, 2021, 04:56:52 AM
I don't like cluttering this board too much, but I have a couple of different things to post. (Also, I am inching closer and closer to Citizen...)

Firstly, I decided that I needed an antidote to all the sweet Emilalli fluff I had been posting by writing an angstfic, Future Imperfect. (https://archiveofourown.org/works/33968653/)
Warning: it features a horrible interpretation of Torbjörn and Siv Västerström. And it's a multichapter, but I have a full draft so I'm updating it pretty much as fast as I can motivate myself to self-edit.

Secondly, while writing Future Imperfect, I became annoyed with Torbjörn and Siv, so I wrote a ficlet in which I take some revenge, Better Blame the Cat (https://archiveofourown.org/works/33470776/chapters/84726664)


Hmm. It sounds like everything I write is a reaction to something else I have already written. I guess it might be true?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: thegreyarea on September 24, 2021, 01:28:01 PM
I know, I know! I've been mostly absent these days, but that's because I've been busy with a lot of things. Among them was (finally) publishing on AO3 my story for last Winter's Advent Calendar here at the Forum!

It's a proofread version of the original, with a few small improvments that I felt necessary to make it a bit better. I hope you enjoy it. :)

The link is https://archiveofourown.org/works/34065844 (https://archiveofourown.org/works/34065844)

I hope to publish soon the proof read version of the next one, "Rum".


BTW I want so much to find time to catch up with all the things posted here! I'll try, promise!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: tehta on October 02, 2021, 03:49:15 PM
My one hundredth post... a big responsibility.

I am going to waste it by announcing that I just finished my post-canon emilalli angst(?) fic, Future Imperfect. (https://archiveofourown.org/works/33968653) So it's now safe to read.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on October 03, 2021, 07:13:18 AM
That was a good and surprisingly complex story. My take on Siv and Torbjorn is that neither is seriously and intentionally evil, he is seriously obsessed with getting wealthy and restoring his family name and fame, while she wouldn’t mind just being rich but seriously wants to fund better research into finding a cure.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Jitter on October 03, 2021, 07:22:29 AM
In my mind, Siv is the worse. Torbjörn is so fascinated by the prospect of riches that it doesn’t really occur to him to consider the dangers properly. Siv on the other hand worries all the time and is acutely aware how prone the expedition is to end up in disaster. So, he sends his nephew in harm’s way unthinking, but she does it by design!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: tehta on October 03, 2021, 09:29:41 AM
Thank you for the extra comment, Róisín! (And Jitter, of course.)

The way I wrote Siv and Torbjörn in this story is far from my final and forever interpretation of them. I do feel like I made them a little too cartoonish for the purposes of the plot, especially in some of the things they say to/about Lalli. (Although I have met many people in my life who would say similar things about anyone they perceive as outside the norm.) However, I just can't get over them sending Emil (who their children are obviously very fond of; imagine if he died!) on the expedition when they knew the risks--and he almost certainly didn't. Even if they were just thoughtless, that's a bit too much thoughtlessness for me. So any relationship I would write between them and Emil would always have a little sting.

I have similar feelings about Taru, who was obviously planning to manipulate bored Tuuri from the get-go, but at least that wasn't her immediate family. (Trond, Sigrun and Mikkel are very different cases: Sigrun and Mikkel understood what they were getting into just fine. So maybe Trond is okay.)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on October 03, 2021, 08:43:18 PM
Sooooo... It's been a while since I posted anything, but that's not because I ran out of ideas. In fact, here (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1XfIO0w_Plq6l2bdwCT4yKQh3vwrTFRbMKBR6jOpz00U/edit?usp=sharing)'s a spreadsheet (not the same as the one in my other post) detailing what I'm in the middle of and what I've been dreaming up. Is anyone interested in seeing any of these get vomited out brought to completion, or have I been too gone for too long?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on October 04, 2021, 12:19:20 AM
Good to see you back, and it has not been so long that we have forgotten you! It will be good to read your work again.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Jitter on October 04, 2021, 02:47:11 AM
Looney, I definitely am interested, your writing is great. And there is a lot. A LOT.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: tehta on October 04, 2021, 04:32:40 AM
I don't remember you because I am new, but I am definitely interested in reading more new stories. (I think I remember a couple of yours, like the pirate one? I was very intrigued by that one.)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on October 10, 2021, 02:35:16 PM
Oh, boy...

The Jylland Jump
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/“Jazz Age” crossover fanfic
Part 9
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg145510#msg145510)
Spoiler: An Ear for an Ear • show
Malmö, Sweden
1958

It was a common myth amongst the more casual listeners that jazz always had to be fast, if not outright frenetic, but the Musikers had a number of pieces ready to prove such listeners (Emil couldn’t really think of them as “fans” since that was short for “fanatic” and a casual fanatic was a contradiction in terms) wrong “in the most best way”, as Sigrun put it. They’d played one of these pieces so often that some of their real fans (few though they were, they existed) were calling the piece “the Musikers’ theme song”.

Age and fatherhood had made Emil much more aware of the exact meanings of words and the necessity for strict adherence to them when trying to communicate to “the younger generation”; this attitude had kept his kids out of trouble far more often than it had gotten Emil into trouble, so Emil stuck to it like glue, especially when his kids were around. So to Emil, a song was something you sang; that is, it had lyrics, which most of the Musikers’ pieces lacked entirely (though some of the old standbys like “Minnie the Moocher” and “Hold That Tiger” were exceptions, of course).

At any rate, it was during one of their slow numbers that Emil noticed how Sigrun was glancing back and forth between Mikkel and someone in the audience, but even though it was a slow number, Emil couldn’t spare the time or concentration to go through his usual fear-driven over-analysis of this strange happening. After the set, however…

*

Lalli and Marta together had managed to calm Emil down from his latest “I’m going to be replaced” freak-out after only about fifteen minutes, which Lalli considered a triumph of the highest order, as most of these “episodes” (as Mikkel liked to call them) took over an hour to work through. Afterwards, they had picked up Kerttu and gone out for a quick bite before their next session, leaving Emil’s kids under the iron fist of their Aunt Tuuri (Reynir, Sigrun and Mikkel all having managed to get themselves permanently barred from babysitting ever again).

Hmmm. Maybe Lalli hadn’t given the kids enough credit for how Emil’s freak-outs were getting easier to handle of late. In marked contrast to how their cousins, the dreaded Västerström Changelings, had been at their age, Lalli actually maybe… kind of… liked being around them—in strictly limited doses, mind. It was something to consider.

Another thing to consider was what that weird (and probably stupid) back-and-forth ballet of glances between Sigrun, Mikkel and the person in the audience had actually meant. Now, Lalli was absolutely sure that everyone’s place in the band was secure, but Sigrun was always and openly looking to add any talent she could grab to their roster, so it wasn’t outside the realm of possibility that Lalli would have to deal with yet another stupid, weird foreigner whose stupid, weird foreign ways would wind up rubbing Lalli all the wrong ways until some combination of Emil, Kerttu, Tuuri and Sigrun (in that order of likelihood) knocked some faint strain of intelligence into them. Lalli sighed almost inaudibly at the thought…

*

Sigrun was grinning in a way that meant she’d had one of her infamous “inspirations”; standing beside her was a tall girl in her thirties bearing a decided resemblance to Mikkel. “Hey guys! Guess who wants to join her older brother’s band for a while!”

Emil sighed under his breath. Yep; Sigrun was speaking in exclamation points, which meant they’d all have to charge along with her down whatever path she’d chosen until the disaster at the end overtook them, since nothing short of that disaster would divert Sigrun from her current course. He glanced over at Lalli, who subtly shrugged back at him. They’d have to follow the usual plan: find out exactly what Sigrun’s new enthusiasm meant for the Musikers, get together later to try to come up with ways to keep the fallout from the coming disaster to a minimum, and then just grit their teeth and hold on until the end.

Despite her age, Mette Madsen reminded Emil not so much of Mikkel, but of how Reynir had been (and sometimes still was) when he’d first joined the Musikers… all of twenty-two years ago.

It was odd how the passing of time never struck you so hard as when you looked back and realized just how much time had passed.

Anyway, Mette was another brassist, but she preferred the trombone to any of its valved cousins. “I like the way I can slide from one note to the next if I want,” she explained to the group, Reynir nodding his agreement.

Emil noticed Tuuri bristling slightly at the immediate sympathy between Reynir and the newbie. Uh oh. He and Lalli would need to call Marta and Kerttu in on this disaster avoidance session…

Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
I did not expect this to be the next WIP I updated, but the Yoinktober stuff (from here (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=1262.msg185443#msg185443) on) kind of forced it out of me.

Grumble. Grumble. Grumble.

Well, hopefully the next gap will be insanely shorter than the last. Oy.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: tehta on October 30, 2021, 03:19:47 PM
Happy Halloween!

I am celebrating it by posting the first chapter of a Reynir-centric ghost story, set during the Iceland Interlude: Curse Not Thy Guest (https://archiveofourown.org/works/34824640).

Reynir comes face-to-face with his great-grandfather's (and his country's) past actions when he starts encountering some very strange ghosts.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: lwise on October 30, 2021, 06:31:34 PM
@tehta, very nice.  I look forward to the next chapter.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on October 31, 2021, 12:06:32 AM
Very interesting! More comments later.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on January 01, 2022, 11:18:50 AM
...Aaaaand now I start something that wasn't on the list.

On AO3 since boy was I verbose: Who GoeSSSS There? (https://archiveofourown.org/works/36127675/chapters/90058060)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on January 02, 2022, 09:19:57 PM
Well, I seem to have keyboard gremlins again, so here (https://archiveofourown.org/works/36127675/chapters/90154405)'s another chapter.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on January 03, 2022, 12:04:24 AM
And very fine it is.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: tehta on January 08, 2022, 05:12:21 PM
Prompted by all the recent discussion of 'what if Minna suddenly shoves the characters relationships that break fanon', I decided to polish and post my married!Emil fic:
Unmasking (https://archiveofourown.org/works/36296308)

Warning: it's basically cheap emilalli angst. I do love writing them interact, though, even in this sort of situation.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: dmeck7755 on January 10, 2022, 12:49:27 PM
Hi there, I am new.  I have been following SSSS for quite a while.  I am saddened that it is ending, I have found the fan fiction. YAY!! (So there are all kinds of fun stories there.  )

Because of this.  I wanted Onni to have a happy ending.  This is the start of something, i hope is interesting for people.  (I have not written anything other than technical documentation in a loong time.  I hope it is enjoyable to you.) 

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14020453/1/HER.

I am a waiting on an A03


Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Jitter on January 10, 2022, 02:09:53 PM
Hello dmeck7755 and welcome to the Forum!

And a great entrance it is, with a story no less. I like the ideas you present about magic. And that having the same luonto will create a bond between two mages is clever! Although I guess this may be more than just that? Thank you for posting!

AO3 is in my opinion nicer to look at and the tagging system is good, so I recommend it :)

Oh, and we have an Introduction Thread under General Discussion, you are welcome to say hello on that. It’s not required, just fun :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: dmeck7755 on January 10, 2022, 03:08:59 PM
Thank you!!

I hope to do more stories, if people like them.  Maybe I shall get better as I write..

I have a few I have been thinking on (Lalli and Emil want a child and they think Astyr would be the perfect surrogate.)
Astyr's story about Surma
Reynir finds his calling as a ghostbuster. 


Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: RanVor on January 10, 2022, 04:34:24 PM
AO3 is in my opinion nicer to look at and the tagging system is good, so I recommend it :)
AO3 is better than Fanfiction.net in some aspects and worse in others. It really depends on what you want to do.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on January 10, 2022, 07:30:33 PM
dmeck, that was interesting! I hope to see more from you.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Jitter on January 11, 2022, 04:47:08 AM
Ran, you are absolutely right. It depends. I happen to like AO3 and therefore I recommended it, but didn't by any means intend to claim it would be superior for all users :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: thegreyarea on January 19, 2022, 05:35:03 AM
Well, I did it! I posted the first seven (!) episodes of Sunset Sea Songs on AO3!

If anyone wants to read this strange mix of (slightly twisted) SSSS characters living an adventure in the World of ASOIF/Game of Thrones, the link is here:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/36516715 (https://archiveofourown.org/works/36516715)

And I want to dedicate this work to my dear friend Jitter, that always finds ways to inspire and support my crazy writing adventures!  ^-^
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: dmeck7755 on January 19, 2022, 07:27:00 AM
Well, I did it! I posted the first seven (!) episodes of Sunset Sea Songs on AO3!


Oh thank you!!  Can't wait!!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on January 19, 2022, 09:13:49 AM
So far it is a fine tale, with some Character Development, I like that.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Jitter on January 19, 2022, 11:14:32 AM
Thank you Grey, for such a lovely and exotic gift!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: dmeck7755 on January 19, 2022, 04:00:10 PM
I have a question and could not really find it in the FAQ's

If some one writes a story and they would like to use specifics of other people's work.

do/should you get permissions first?
or
Identify where some of the plot points came from? In notes?  I am not sure if either A03 or fanfic have an acknowledgement header.
or
don't use other's peoples plot points at all?

I am not talking about using other people's work, but if something in their world building is something you want to incorporate in your story.  (kinda like making your story take part in their world)

I am not sure I am getting my question across cleanly
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Yuuago on January 19, 2022, 05:29:05 PM
I have a question and could not really find it in the FAQ's

If some one writes a story and they would like to use specifics of other people's work.

do/should you get permissions first?
or
Identify where some of the plot points came from? In notes?  I am not sure if either A03 or fanfic have an acknowledgement header.
or
don't use other's peoples plot points at all?

I am not talking about using other people's work, but if something in their world building is something you want to incorporate in your story.  (kinda like making your story take part in their world)

I am not sure I am getting my question across cleanly

Ao3: if you want to use a worldbuilding detail inspired by someone else’s story, many people appreciate being contacted about it. Since Ao3 doesn’t have a private message system, the easiest way to do the is comment on the relevant story with your question.

Then when you post your work, you can put the info about where the inspiration came from in the Author Notes section, and link to the story that inspired it.

If it’s heavily inspired by another work, you can also use the “Inspired By (other work)” function on Ao3. This creates a link between your story and the other person’s work, and will display as inspired by that work.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: thegreyarea on January 19, 2022, 07:16:14 PM
Dmeck, I second all that Yuuago said, and would add that if the author of the story that's inspiring your work is here in the Forum than you have the option to send a Personal Message asking for permission. Personally I would feel honoured if another author wanted to use something from one of my stories. :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on January 20, 2022, 12:10:24 AM
I think I know what you mean. Not being a very imaginative person, I started writing fanfic by being inspired by a loose end in another writer’s story. I sent them a message asking if I might continue their story and write more about one of their original characters, they agreed that I could do so, and the still-ongoing serial story ‘A Few of Mikkel’s Secrets’ was born. Before that story, I had never written fanfic, and until getting involved in this fandom I had never even encountered the concept, although I had been involved in Science Fiction fandom for decades before that. One of my major interests in the SF community was filk, and I had written or helped to write a bit of that. The concept of publishing stuff on the internet was also new to me. Not that I had never written before, but most of the works that I had previously had published in magazines, technical journals, newspapers or anthologies or broadcast on the ABC or various community radio stations was either technical articles, poetry, songs or ‘hard’ science fiction short stories. So writing fanfic for a fantasy comic on the internet was a huge step!

Anyway, when I put up the start of my first fanfic story, I explained to the readers where the idea had come from - it seemed polite to do so.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Jitter on January 20, 2022, 03:08:32 AM
I second everything in this. Generally I would expect most writers would be happy about being an inspiration to another. Of course it’s always polite to acknowledge your inspiration.

Using someone else’s original character would in my mind require explicit permission from the original author. There is of course some grey area in what constitutes an “original character”, for example I have written a couple of short bits about the childhood of Sointu Takasuo, the Eyes of Vipers. She appears in a newspaper article with a picture, so is she a canon character or an OC? I’m happy with anyone using my child Sointu and/or the ideas about the animal affinity magic, but it’s an example of the question. If in doubt, I would prefer to err on the side of caution, i.e. ask rather than not ask.

Then again, the original author may not be around anymore. If you tried to reach them and didn’t get a a response, then you probably could go with the “inspired by” function. After all, the overall SSSS setting is on loan from Minna to all of the fanfic authors. It wouldn’t seem proper to me to claim that no one may borrow anything I have written in this setting that was borrowed by me :) Again that gets hazy in the case of AUs though.

If you wish to set your story to someone else’s continuum in a way that could affect that world, it’s also possible to collaborate by making a work or a series co-authored. Obviously only if the other one agrees :) For example I was inspired by a story by tehta where she mentioned a runo, so I wrote the runo. I sent it to her and as she liked it, we added it as a second chapter in the story and we are now both authors. I won’t link it here because of reasons that will be apparent if you come across it :)

One more thing, the Saimaa Floating Town is a collaboration and free to use as a setting by anyone without asking. So far Grey has done most work on it.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: tehta on January 20, 2022, 06:00:26 AM
I can't add much to all the excellent replies on here, except to agree that I would love it if anyone used any element of my work in theirs. Or was inspired by something I wrote.
I do agree that sending the author a note/review is a good idea, both in case they feel differently and in case they love the idea, so they can enjoy the warm glow of having inspired something.

(My one ssss story that is linked to another author's, Polite Rituals, was a bit more of an ambiguous case, since it's a bit of a parody of how ridiculous Emil and Lalli were in her fic. Luckily, she intended them to be ridiculous and is completely on board with more ridiculousness. And now I chat with her from time to time, and get to see her unposted pieces... win-win.)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: tehta on February 26, 2022, 01:10:10 AM
Hey, I posted a thing! (A few days back now, but I'm a little distracted.

It's titled 'The Mosquito Effect', it's a time-travel story of sorts, and it can be found at https://archiveofourown.org/works/37305544
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: dmeck7755 on March 21, 2022, 10:04:48 PM
I decided that a story about scavengers may be in order.  So, here is a little quickie.
https://archiveofourown.org/works/37885927/chapters/94606966
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Jitter on March 22, 2022, 12:52:34 PM
Dmeck, great story! Interesting that you made the scavengers a guild! And I absolutely love the pettroll idea!

May I suggest you add a warning for violence, because a named person sliced to ribbons is kinda, well, violent. I would also rate at T.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: dmeck7755 on March 22, 2022, 01:21:16 PM

May I suggest you add a warning for violence, because a named person sliced to ribbons is kinda, well, violent. I would also rate at T.

Thank you for the suggestion.  I have done this.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: tehta on March 26, 2022, 12:32:16 PM
Just in case anyone else out there is in need of fluff (I know I am; that's why I wrote it) I wanted to mention my new Emilalli fic. It is set during the Epilogue, somewhere before The Great Snow Shoveling Adventure, and yes, it is pointless fluff.
It can be found at AO3 (https://archiveofourown.org/works/37975327).
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: tehta on April 06, 2022, 06:27:10 AM
Several people have expressed interest in ssss gap-fillers. Well, angstyastronaut just posted one: a story about the discussion between Onni and Lalli that must surely have occurred in the Lehto.

It can be found on AO3 (https://archiveofourown.org/works/38191786). I really like it!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: dmeck7755 on April 06, 2022, 08:03:03 AM
Several people have expressed interest in ssss gap-fillers. Well, angstyastronaut just posted one: a story about the discussion between Onni and Lalli that must surely have occurred in the Lehto.

It can be found on AO3 (https://archiveofourown.org/works/38191786). I really like it!

yeah,  it breaks your heart...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: tehta on April 11, 2022, 03:56:54 AM
So, I just posted something that is NOT Emilalli! And is a touch more serious than my usual.

It's the second chapter of my story Curse Not Thy Guest (https://archiveofourown.org/works/34824640), in which Reynir, while in Iceland, encounters the ghosts of refugees and finds out about his country's (and family's) past. It features quite a bit of Icelandic magic, grounded in my best internet research.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on April 12, 2022, 06:22:10 AM
Just in case anyone else out there is in need of fluff (I know I am; that's why I wrote it) I wanted to mention my new Emilalli fic. It is set during the Epilogue, somewhere before The Great Snow Shoveling Adventure, and yes, it is pointless fluff.
It can be found at AO3 (https://archiveofourown.org/works/37975327).

And awesome fluff it is.  The nice, plausible kind of fluff, with in-character interactions and missing-scene worldbuilding.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: tehta on April 14, 2022, 12:53:23 AM
Thank you so much! I definitely meant for this to be a gapfiller (to explain Emil's rapidly improving Finnish, as well as Lalli's impressive laziness) as well as comfort-fluff.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Mirasol on April 17, 2022, 05:07:03 PM
*Manifests out of thin air*

I was in a writing-mood today! Well, more in an editing-mood... I posted some (slightly proofread) stories I posted here for various events before on Ao3 now:

(How to catch) Karvaturri (https://archiveofourown.org/works/38439958): posted originally for the bear-beast-chapter-break-filler, last year´s March/April. Warning, this one´s a bit gory.

Nightmares (https://archiveofourown.org/works/38441386/chapters/96072286): this one is two stories. The first one I already posted here (the one based on a dream I had), and today I decided to finish the second dream-story that´s been sitting on my laptop for over a year now. So chapter 2 is a new story!

Uh... good you´ve all been posting fluff recently, these ones definitly aren´t... that. :'D

*goes back into her writing-hole to hopefully continue the Kitty-story*
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: dmeck7755 on April 18, 2022, 04:45:39 PM
I have been thinking on how everyone would start working together in the early days also.  So here is a beginning of the world thing. 
 It kinda fits in the end of the world...

https://archiveofourown.org/works/37885927/chapters/96137602
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: tehta on May 03, 2022, 10:53:31 AM
So, I wrote a story I actually like! It's an AU-or-canon-fix of Adventure Two, and it's mercifully short (1.5k words).

The crew has been wintering in Finland for quite a while, and they’re very comfortable. Still, something feels a little off. With the weather, with Onni, and especially with all of their dreams.

It can be found here (https://archiveofourown.org/works/38764758).
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: thegreyarea on May 14, 2022, 07:22:13 PM
Hi! I've made this for the Prompt of the Week, but thought that it makes sense to put a link here at the Scriptorium.

The Wanderer (https://archiveofourown.org/works/38992989)

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.  :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Buteo on May 15, 2022, 01:45:17 AM
I thoroughly enjoyed it, thegreyarea. And your surprise was a success! Turns out it was a good thing to read your two stories in reverse order.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on May 15, 2022, 07:53:52 AM
Yeah, good story, Grey. One wonders if your wanderer is another one like Pastor A who is held together by their will despite being infected?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: thegreyarea on May 15, 2022, 08:02:18 AM
I thoroughly enjoyed it, thegreyarea. And your surprise was a success! Turns out it was a good thing to read your two stories in reverse order.
Thanks, Buteo! I'm very happy that it worked! :)

Yeah, good story, Grey. One wonders if your wanderer is another one like Pastor A who is held together by their will despite being infected?
Thanks, Róisín! I'd say that will is extremely important (how one stays sane after eight years crossing the silent world?) but in this case there's also a magic component...

real spoiler below:
Spoiler: show
this story (https://archiveofourown.org/works/38992761)

Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: dmeck7755 on May 15, 2022, 09:18:41 AM
Thanks, Buteo! I'm very happy that it worked! :)
Thanks, Róisín! I'd say that will is extremely important (how one stays sane after eight years crossing the silent world?) but in this case there's also a magic component...

real spoiler below:
Spoiler: show
this story (https://archiveofourown.org/works/38992761)


Grey, I love your “surprise” stories.  This was great.  I agree with Róisín, that reverse order makes it better.

Spoiler: show
Grandma’s gift, necklace?
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: thegreyarea on May 15, 2022, 07:52:37 PM
Grey, I love your “surprise” stories.  This was great.  I agree with Róisín, that reverse order makes it better.

Spoiler: show
Grandma’s gift, necklace?

Thanks, dmeck! I'm very glad that you liked it.  ^-^  I was a little worried about it all becoming "too much surprises", afraid to overuse the trick. Next story's characters will be exactly what they seem to be.
Spoiler: show
 (will they? ;D )

I'll probably organize them as a single story with two chapters (for the moment), but with The Wanderer being the first.
Spoiler: show
And yes, you're right about the necklace. It seems that Gregor's grandma really had a secret or two...  ;)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: tehta on July 10, 2022, 05:18:01 PM
After a lot of pain and suffering (well, mostly after a lot of procrastination) I have finally finished a story I built around on a series of ficlets I wrote for last year's Yoinktober.

It's complete fluff with no nutritional value: a comedy (of errors) featuring Emil/Lalli and Reynir/Onni, set a few years post-canon, during a wedding in Iceland. And I actually think it might make more sense to read all at once than chapter-by-chapter, as I posted it, because the various heroes stories interlock quite a bit, which will be easier to see in a single reading.

Anyway, it can be found here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/38158930/

And now I can get back to my usual EXTREMELY SERIOUS writing.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on July 10, 2022, 10:39:05 PM
That story was great fun! Pity about Reynir’s fancy tunic. Maybe they could make a new pair of tunics together, with Reynir putting runes on one for Onni, and Onni stitching appropriate knots into the fabric embroidery and singing his magic into the knots? After all, traditional Finnish magic has a number of knot-spells, though they were mostly used for protection and weather-working.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: tehta on July 11, 2022, 05:21:02 AM
Thank you, Róisín! Yes, I think that they might enjoy doing a couple's activity like that. And spells of protection might be much, much more useful than Reynir's love runes.
(The love-tunic is probably fine though! Lalli was wearing it last, and he survived the story unscathed.)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Jitter on July 11, 2022, 07:29:45 AM
But Reynir’s bridesmaid dress is probably cinders, as is Emil’s flame colored outfit. Luckily Emil had several good ones with him!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: dmeck7755 on July 11, 2022, 08:49:13 AM
After a lot of pain and suffering (well, mostly after a lot of procrastination) I have finally finished a story I built around on a series of ficlets I wrote for last year's Yoinktober.

It's complete fluff with no nutritional value: a comedy (of errors) featuring Emil/Lalli and Reynir/Onni, set a few years post-canon, during a wedding in Iceland. And I actually think it might make more sense to read all at once than chapter-by-chapter, as I posted it, because the various heroes stories interlock quite a bit, which will be easier to see in a single reading.

Anyway, it can be found here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/38158930/

And now I can get back to my usual EXTREMELY SERIOUS writing.

A fitting end to a entertaining tale.  Thank you!!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on August 07, 2022, 08:44:17 AM
*Emerges from her Ascendance of a Bookworm honeymoon*

*Drops the first results of an idea from 2020*

I'd been toying with the idea with some time and realized I was running out of time to actually do something with it in the light of how fast I tend to lose interest when new material stops showing up. It took so long in part because I wanted to finish it before I started publishing, so no risk of this one lacking an ending.

Show that you care: Chapter 1 "Cracked facade" (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14119047/1/Show-that-you-care)
Show that you care: Chapter 2 "Compromise" (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14119047/2/Show-that-you-care)
Show that you care: Chapter 3 "Trust" (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14119047/3/Show-that-you-care)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on August 09, 2022, 03:11:41 PM
Second batch is ready.

Show that you care: Chapter 4 "Investment" (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14119047/4/Show-that-you-care)
Show that you care: Chapter 5 "Respect" (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14119047/5/Show-that-you-care)
Show that you care: Chapter 6 "Understanding" (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14119047/6/Show-that-you-care)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Jitter on August 10, 2022, 09:12:08 AM
Hello Cat, long time!

I haven’t read any of your previous stories because I find fanfiction.net very hard to read! I have started something earlier, probably the True Ruler, but didn’t manage at the time. Now I realized you can make rhe font larger, which helps a lot, but it’s still somehow hard for my eyes.

Anyways to the story. I assume it builds on previous stories in the same verse? It was a bit hard to get my head around the setting starting from here. But you present an interesting setting indeed!  I have some questions but I don’t know if they are all answered in earlier stories perhaps. Particularly, why is courtship so formally arranged?

I really like the way everyone, including Stefan who is not family or team, is able (to varying extents) and first of all, willing to accommodate Lalli’s way of seeing the world and explain things to him. The way you describe his musings makes sense to me, and I’m glad to see it seems ro make sense to the other characters too.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on August 10, 2022, 01:19:32 PM
It's a new verse, but I do somewhat recyle some original characters I've used before. You may guess why I've needed Cecilia's previous versions in the past (though making her a certain someone's granddaughter is new) and Helena had previous incarnations that make her work well as a childhood friend of Emil's here. As for why courstship is so formally arranged, the reasons are complicated but, any rules are mostly here for bits of characterization than for any in-universe reasons.

For what it's worth, fics for my new favorite work only have their own category on Archive Of Our Own, so I may move there if any of the fanfic ideas I have for it turn into something wortwhile (I'm currently doing the last things I want to do with my SSSS fanfics before I completely lose interest in the webcomic).
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on August 11, 2022, 12:40:19 PM
Third batch out of the nine it's going to take according to my estimates. Just under a third of the story is now out.

Show that you care: Chapter 7 "Intricacy" (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14119047/7/Show-that-you-care)
Show that you care: Chapter 8 "Growth" (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14119047/8/Show-that-you-care)
Show that you care: Chapter 9 "Reciprocity" (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14119047/9/Show-that-you-care)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: dmeck7755 on August 11, 2022, 02:54:24 PM
Grade E cat

Thank you for the stories.  I am slowly going through them.  I am a bit dyslexic, so the letters keep swimming.  I have to read a little and stop.  So far I am progressing nicely.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on August 12, 2022, 03:12:12 AM
Happy to know I'm still getting new readers. I'll just suggest to really read the stories that interest you in the order in which they were first published, partly because I made a verse that includes several stories and partly because my education about LGBTQIA+ identities other than the one I realized I was in late 2021 is very much a work in progress, so some of my early tries didn't grow old well.

Also, don't apologize for your slow reading. I'm dragging my feet in terms of watching all of "The Sandman" despite currently being on vacation because my own sensory issues mean that being too tired to watch a full episode of an "hour-long" show (but not to edit my own writing or read text) is a thing for me.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on August 13, 2022, 10:35:12 AM
Batch four.

Show that you care: Chapter 10 "Learning" (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14119047/10/Show-that-you-care)
Show that you care: Chapter 11 "Protection" (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14119047/11/Show-that-you-care)
Show that you care: Chapter 12 "Share" (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14119047/12/Show-that-you-care)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on August 15, 2022, 05:35:49 AM
Batch five, which is what I was hoping to get to by the end of my vacation (thanks, religious holiday that showed up on a Monday this year). The story ended up with 28 chapters, so it's just past the halfway point. I'm unfortunately leaving the readers with a small cliffhanger.

Show that you care: Chapter 13 "Gamble" (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14119047/13/Show-that-you-care)
Show that you care: Chapter 14 "Responsibility" (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14119047/14/Show-that-you-care)
Show that you care: Chapter 15 "Temper" (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14119047/15/Show-that-you-care)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: tehta on August 15, 2022, 09:16:46 AM
Now that I have gotten over my aversion to ffn formatting, I, too, am enjoying this story.

I think the very formal rules of courtship fit the theme of Lalli trying to figure out the rules by which the world works, and how they can work for him rather than against him. (And the setup feels a bit escapist, too: I think many people would prefer it if the rules of courtship, and many other social interactions, were clearer...) The backstory and the Leif subplot are a little less escapist, of course. I admire the way you give very specific and believable examples of Roni's behaviour.

And I, too, started out wondering whether I was stumbling into the middle of a series, but I find that the story works as a standalone: we do get all the relevant information over time.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on August 20, 2022, 04:59:30 AM
Batch six is there. If that story has a "make or break" point, it's most likely in that trio of chapters.

Show that you care: Chapter 16 "Breaking point" (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14119047/16/Show-that-you-care)
Show that you care: Chapter 17 "Reach" (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14119047/17/Show-that-you-care)
Show that you care: Chapter 15 "Correct" (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14119047/18/Show-that-you-care)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on August 23, 2022, 02:48:24 PM
I had managed to give one last look at batch seven over the weekend, finding time to load, post and announce it here was the tricky part.

Show that you care: Chapter 19 "Communication" (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14119047/19/Show-that-you-care)
Show that you care: Chapter 20 "Involvement" (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14119047/20/Show-that-you-care)
Show that you care: Chapter 21 "Drain" (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14119047/21/Show-that-you-care)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on August 28, 2022, 03:06:57 PM
The second to last batch is ready. Last will be four chapters and I have a houseguest next weekend, so I'm not sure how its last edit will go, especially since the newest chapters are the most likely to turn out to need more than light rephrasing and typo corrections.


Show that you care: Chapter 22 "Proof" (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14119047/22/Show-that-you-care)
Show that you care: Chapter 23 "Support" (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14119047/23/Show-that-you-care)
Show that you care: Chapter 24 "Help" (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14119047/24/Show-that-you-care)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Grade E cat on September 10, 2022, 03:48:59 PM
Last batch at last. Even I wanted to prioritize wrapping things up by the time I got to those.

Show that you care: Chapter 25 "Story" (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14119047/25/Show-that-you-care)
Show that you care: Chapter 26 "Wound" (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14119047/26/Show-that-you-care)
Show that you care: Chapter 27 "Mistakes" (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14119047/27/Show-that-you-care)
Show that you care: Chapter 28 "Mend" (https://www.fanfiction.net/s/14119047/28/Show-that-you-care)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: tehta on October 07, 2022, 05:51:32 AM
Hello all! I would like to recommend an ongoing AO3 story I have been enjoying, A Tale of Two Lallis (https://archiveofourown.org/works/42105798/chapters/105711180). It's a multichapter, but the author says it is all done, and it is getting posted rather quickly.

The premise is very fanficcy: the regular Lalli we know from SSSS and a no-Rash-AU Lalli swap places for some odd magical reason. And yes, it's Emilalli, at least for one of the Lallis. But it's so charming and well done, with everyone (in my opinion) very much in characters. Plus, there are illustrations! It's clearly a labor of love, and I feel like it would have received a lot more love back when the fandom was still active. So I really wanted to give it a callout.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: thegreyarea on November 10, 2022, 08:41:45 AM
Hi!

Thanks, Grade E Cat! I'll dive into those soon.

And thanks for the tip, Tehta! Seems quite interesting!

So, I'm writing a story with Ensi and decided to review the previous one, finding that I hadn't published it on AO3, which leaves it just on the 2021's Advent Calendar. So I reviewed both parts and posted them here: Awakening (https://archiveofourown.org/works/42982242)

I hope you like it!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: RanVor on November 11, 2022, 05:15:39 AM
That was really nice, Grey! It's been a while since I last read something SSSS-related. Glad to see your writing is going well!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Jitter on November 11, 2022, 12:12:46 PM
Grey, you already know I love it! Just as a minor thing, the knife is puukko, not pukko :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: thegreyarea on November 11, 2022, 08:09:06 PM
Grey, you already know I love it! Just as a minor thing, the knife is puukko, not pukko :)
Thank you, my dear!

So instead of a knife (puukko) Ensi had a decorated goat (pukko) with her! And she used that glowing magical goat to stab the monster!  ;D

It's so funny that I almost feel sorry to correct that... But it's done. Thanks!  <3
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Jitter on November 11, 2022, 09:11:36 PM
The male goat is pukki :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: thegreyarea on November 11, 2022, 09:27:52 PM
The male goat is pukki :)
Oh, but when I write "pukko" on the magical oracle google translate it comes with "goat"... :(

Well, it was fun anyway! :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: dmeck7755 on November 11, 2022, 10:00:31 PM
Baaaa!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on November 12, 2022, 05:30:14 AM
In Gaelic the goat is pucca, poca or puca depending on the dialect.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: JoB on November 15, 2022, 07:50:03 AM
So instead of a knife (puukko) Ensi had a decorated goat (pukko) with her! And she used that glowing magical goat to stab the monster!  ;D
Well they do have horns ...

... ooooohhh any chance the Finns got those (still) glowing goats by raiding Sweden (https://satwcomic.com/goat-steak) traditionally?  >:D
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Jitter on November 16, 2022, 10:55:28 AM
We would never!

https://archiveofourown.org/works/22188535

There is actually a tradition of kekripukki or the Kekri goat here. Kekri is the harvest / end of autumn festival that used to be maybe the biggest festival but was almost forgotten for a long time. But nowadays it seems to be having a comeback. Kajaani has arranged Kekri for many years now, including burning of a Kekri goat on the river running through the city. This one is intended to be torched! Picture of this year’s goat: https://yle.fi/uutiset/74-20003373
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: apprenticeNerd on January 14, 2023, 04:57:50 AM
Apparently some people have already seen these from the Discord (which is so wild to me? like I'm perceived by communities I'm not a part of?? holy heck???), but I figured I might as well stick my couple of SSSS fics here:

The Perfect Yule - https://archiveofourown.org/works/44122114
Fledgling - https://archiveofourown.org/works/44163649/chapters/111054181
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Jitter on January 14, 2023, 10:17:50 AM
These are lovely! Absolutely beautiful!

Our community or communities, whichever way you like to think of it/them overlap a lot so that the Forum, the Discord, AO3 and previously also the comment section are interlinked :)  I’m personally not on Discord (yet?) because when I tried I got confused. Should ask my son to help me get started. On AO3 I’m Jiiri, I left you a comment. And Tanist is Róisín.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: dreki on January 27, 2023, 12:58:20 AM
Apparently some people have already seen these from the Discord (which is so wild to me? like I'm perceived by communities I'm not a part of?? holy heck???), but I figured I might as well stick my couple of SSSS fics here:

The Perfect Yule - https://archiveofourown.org/works/44122114
Fledgling - https://archiveofourown.org/works/44163649/chapters/111054181

AO3 has few enough fics that new ones get noticed pretty easily, and the person who did the adventure that inspired you was really excited to share. :)

These are lovely! Absolutely beautiful!

Our community or communities, whichever way you like to think of it/them overlap a lot so that the Forum, the Discord, AO3 and previously also the comment section are interlinked :)  I’m personally not on Discord (yet?) because when I tried I got confused. Should ask my son to help me get started. On AO3 I’m Jiiri, I left you a comment. And Tanist is Róisín.

I think they all bring something different and each is not going to be for everyone.

Discord is more active.  I like the forum structure better because with discord conversations get lost and buried really easily.  With the forum you can come back more easily.



Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on January 27, 2023, 06:09:31 AM
I’m not very techno and have never figured out how discord works. Most of my stuff is on the Forum and/or Archive.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: thegreyarea on January 31, 2023, 09:46:18 AM
today the notice of Crumpite's departure reached us. I recalled this story where he has a relevant role, and realized that it hasn't been published at AO3. I think it's time to correct that, so... Rum (https://archiveofourown.org/works/44681851)

In memorian of our dear friend, and duckmaster, Crumpite.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: thegreyarea on February 09, 2023, 07:21:06 AM
Hi, I did something for the prompt of the week... :)

It's on AO3: A Chance (https://archiveofourown.org/works/44897983)

With some special thanks to tehta and lwise for the inspiration!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on February 09, 2023, 08:38:01 AM
I like this. It might indeed have taken folk awhile to figure out immunity.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: thegreyarea on February 09, 2023, 11:16:49 AM
I like this. It might indeed have taken folk awhile to figure out immunity.
Thank you!  ^-^  And you're right, it could take some time to realize some people were immune, particularly considering the disruption of comunications caused by radio interference*.

(*: always wondered if that also affected cable connections. If so the loss of data over the Internet, alone, would be enough to create an awful mess all over the world)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: lwise on February 09, 2023, 01:48:43 PM
Thank you!  ^-^  And you're right, it could take some time to realize some people were immune, particularly considering the disruption of comunications caused by radio interference*.

(*: always wondered if that also affected cable connections. If so the loss of data over the Internet, alone, would be enough to create an awful mess all over the world)

I expect the Internet went down piece by piece as the power failed because no one was left to maintain the power supply.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on February 10, 2023, 08:01:47 PM
I'm with lwise on that one - power to the servers would only have gone on for so long.  The readers were given some clues about the incubation period of approx 2 weeks, way back in the beginning when there was still media coverage in Europe about the Patients Zero, although I imagine it would not have been universally accepted for some time.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: JoB on February 11, 2023, 05:43:39 AM
I'm with lwise on that one - power to the servers would only have gone on for so long.
The Internet of today is a weird mixture of the original ARPAnet's "go on and nuke us, we'll just route around the craters" and SPOF (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_point_of_failure)-laden structures. Some users might experience all of it just going "poof" as their own hardware or infrastructure of their direct Internet providers loses power (say, all those unassuming DSLAM (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_subscriber_line_access_multiplexer)s or CMTS (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cable_modem_termination_system)es sitting in their little roadside cabinets all over your residential area), others might get to watch humanity drop off it somewhat nation-by-nation style as the TLD (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Top-level_domain)'s authoritative nameservers (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_Name_System) give out and render the still-working stuff impossible to find for the would-be user. I'm not convinced that the way some carriers (looking at you, Deutsche Telekom!) handle peering with others still holds much real world promise of being able to "route around" failing links, either ...
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: thegreyarea on March 05, 2023, 02:40:48 PM
Well, I managed to complete the second part of the tale of Ensi's first adventure on the silent world.

It took some time, but I really enjoyed this long walk. I hope you like reading it. Any feedback is much appreciated!

(I also posted it in the "prompt of the week" thread, under "Tenacity". Ensi's story has lots of it, and my readers, that waited for so long for the second part, surely have too. :) )

Here it is, on AO3: Winter, Part 2 (https://archiveofourown.org/works/43384431/chapters/114536167)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Jitter on March 05, 2023, 06:12:30 PM
Great job Grey! Like I already commented on AO3, I got strong Doctor Who (when it’s horror) vibes.

Spoilers for the story:
Spoiler: show
I figured out Erik, but the coffin was a nice touch. Or, well, maybe ”nice” isn’t the word but… well done!

And, I love the way you described the ”rip” in the world. Impressive, and scary! Does it show a starless part of the dreamworld, or something else?


Winter effects commentary / nitpicking
Spoiler: show
Winter storms don’t have lightning or thunder. Or at least it’s very very rare, and only happens when temperature is around zero (freezing point), not when it’s very cold.

If someone falls through the ice, you don’t run to help them. You’ll fall in yourself. You have to use a rope, a branch, or for example your jacket or preferably a couple of jackets tied together. Approach flat on your stomach, throw the helpline and back slowly. As it was very cold, they would have had to return to the shop which was closest, to avoid having Karl freeze to death.

If the narrow water froze later than the rest, there would be a current, which makes the ice unsafe. It would be safer to take a longer route even though it means more steps on the ice. As they did after they got the help, but they would have known this already.

I hope you don’t mind my comments! It’s not something you would know, but ai was thinking maybe you’d want to!


Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: thegreyarea on March 05, 2023, 08:16:43 PM
Great job Grey! Like I already commented on AO3, I got strong Doctor Who (when it’s horror) vibes.
Thank you!!!  ^-^ I'm very happy that you liked it! Can't say that I have a great knowledge of Doctor Who. I only watched randomly some episodes. Anyway I liked what I saw... Perhaps I should dedicate some time to it. So if you have any preferred episode(s) please let me know. :) But be warned, we may end up with Ensi being chased by a dalek, or finding a curious blue cabin inside the bunker!

About the spoilers for the story:
Spoiler: show
Well done figuring out Erik. I tried to walk a thin line, giving clues but also trying to portray him as a regular character like the others. Can you tell which moment made his condition clear? Asking for a friend... :)
(And of course I'm curious to find how many of my readers figured it, so anyone reading this did so, please let me know)

And I'm glad that you liked the "rip". I must admit that it took some time to figure the best way to describe that nightmarish thing  (which means I probably rewrote that part four or five times) but I'm quite happy with it, and even more to know it had the desired effect, that was the feeling that the reader, through Ensi's "eyes", is looking at something that breaks reality.

(I believe the inspiration came from some old episode of "Twilight Zone", but I can't recall which)

And thanks for the info about the winter-related situations! Of course I don't mind. As you know I don't live on a place with snowstorms...  ;D And I must admit I didn't went very deep on my research regarding storms, and also about the connection between currents and ice . So yes, those are, indeed, some pieces of information that I want to have!
I do know the part about falling through the ice, though, and I was aware that describing Karl's rescue that way was wrong... But I was tired at that point, and thought "Ok, I'll come back later and correct this", which I obviously forgot. I'll try to correct it tomorrow.
About coming back... I spoke with Karl, and he says he was too afraid they would be trapped by the storm on that small shop, so he decided to move forward anyway. Tough guy! :)


Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Jitter on March 06, 2023, 01:28:27 AM
Grey, I knew you wouldn’t mind but still it always feels slightly like I’m just being a smartass :)

Spoiler: show
Here’s a short video about ice rescue:
/>
You can also see how he feels the ice ahead with the pole before stepping on it.

Also they should / would have ice spikes so that Karl might be able to get himself up from the ice. Maybe he did and the others just approached to help him along at some distance from the actual cracked ice? Even if he did have the spikes he still might need help, especially as the ice was new and may well just break more every time he tried to get up. In the video the ice is strong and the hole has clearly been hacked out, but in a real situation it would first just crack a little while still allowing walking (if you are stupid or desperate enough to ignore the warning) but once you fall in, there will be more cracks around. Or, you are walking on solid ice and then suddenly the current is below and it just breaks with no warning. In such a situation rescue/ self rescue is easier because at least you know which direction to try for.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: thegreyarea on March 09, 2023, 11:27:35 AM
Jitter, thanks again! I'll try to use that info to correct that part of the story.

Meanwhile, I made another story. And a quite short one, so you won't waste too much time... :)

It's for the Tuuri and Reynir prompt of the week (so it's posted there too). The story is on AO3: Something He Just Does (https://archiveofourown.org/works/45616810)

I hope you like it, my dear friends.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: apprenticeNerd on May 30, 2023, 01:59:41 AM
returns a semester later with iced tea

So it's been, a while! Since I last posted anything here, I've written two more SSSS fics:
Ingenuity (https://archiveofourown.org/works/44280877) - one-shot re: Reynir going to, uh, Denmark. Originally written for a forum prompt
Icebreakers (https://archiveofourown.org/works/44407093/chapters/111690097) - ongoing long-form story set in (my interpretation of) the City of Hunger 'verse
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Glass on July 12, 2023, 08:50:48 PM
I mentioned in the few introductory posts that I have that I'm starting a Silent World story thanks to the effect of being around here. I always like apocalypses that are in the process of happening; the whole 'watching a car crash you can't look away from' and I always dislike writing characters that aren't mine; so have Down Deep - https://archiveofourown.org/works/48536083/chapters/122429281

Who knows where it'll go; so far I'm just stretching my legs in the silent world; casting about for a tone and some characterisation.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: dmeck7755 on July 13, 2023, 09:30:59 AM
I mentioned in the few introductory posts that I have that I'm starting a Silent World story thanks to the effect of being around here. I always like apocalypses that are in the process of happening; the whole 'watching a car crash you can't look away from' and I always dislike writing characters that aren't mine; so have Down Deep - https://archiveofourown.org/works/48536083/chapters/122429281

Who knows where it'll go; so far I'm just stretching my legs in the silent world; casting about for a tone and some characterisation.

First blush looks good :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Jitter on July 16, 2023, 02:03:55 PM
Glass, I already commented on AO3 (I’m Jiiri) but wow! Your story blows me away! It’s so well developed in such a short time that it’s evident you’re a writer. It takes the world and makes it your own, it both fits perfectly into SSSS and stands alone.

I am also fascinated by the moment when the apocalypse takes plqce. On one hand I like SSSS partly because it just takes as a given that there was an apocalypse some time ago, enough so that it’s in the past, but no so long ago that it would be forgotten. Minna’s timing is spot on for her story and I like how the prologue gives just enough of a glimpse into the events of Year 0 that the main story has some basis.

At the same time I very much enjoy it when the fan writers supplement the year 0 events either in the Known World or elsewhere in the world. Some of my short bits also touch on that time, but mostly from the perspective of the prologue characters directly from the comic, all of whom we know escaped because of hiding / happening to be in a safe place, not by fighting their way through it.

I love military science fiction as a genre, Aliens is one of my all time favorite movies. Unfortunately I also like horror but simultaneously am too afraid of much of it, so I struggle with desire to watch and the knowledge that something will be too much for me and I’ll freak out (and then not sleep and making everyone miserable). Anyways, good writing such as yours is great because my mind can fill in enough details to the horror sights, but not so much I can’t stomach it.  Like…. (Spoiler for chapter 5 of Down Deep)

Spoiler: show
when the soldier throws up inside his mask - it tells me This is Bad without forcing too much horror on me.
Very well done!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Glass on July 16, 2023, 03:12:38 PM
Thank you very much for the praise, Jitter - it's been a pleasure reading both you and Roisin's (who I believe is Tanist over on AO3) comments as I build things up. I don't think I could ever write a tale honestly and with the same kind of passion without carving out a little corner for myself, and thankfully the silent world is more quiet corners than it is filled in spaces.

I'm not sure yet if I'm writing an eventual tragedy - all apocalypses are, but with this particular post-apocalypse we'll need to find out. I do know that I'm very fond of my two POV characters already and that's always dangerous for the poor things. I can't see modern humans, at least those brave and determined enough to take the measures to survive, giving up without at least something of a fight. Even if it is a delusional notion for a few of them.

Hell yeah on loving Aliens though. It's my favourite sci-fi horror, and Ellen Ripley was an inspiration (And maybe a crush) for when I was first starting to understand character writing and creation. Absolutely badass character. As for the horror elements of Down Deep, describing just enough to get the scene across and leaving enough blank space for the reader to fill it in with what would horrify them most is a favoured technique. Nothing's quite as good at scaring a person as themselves.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on July 16, 2023, 09:54:21 PM
Glass, that is certainly true. Horror that is not clearly delineated has more potential to, well, horrify.
For me, writing any kind of horror is a relatively new thing, as is writing online. I had written a lot before I became involved in this fandom, but the bulk of what I had had published or broadcast was poetry, factual technical articles, a few songs, and the occasional ‘hard’ science fiction story (that is, SF with a base in real science). The two books I have been working on slowly for several years are not fiction at all, but a basic cookery book and another about wild food foraging and how to cook what you find. Progress on those books is slow because real life is busy, chaotic and stressful. I’m an old age pensioner who is still working enough to bring the pension up to a wage on which I can keep paying the mortgage, while caring for my disabled husband, all of which means that it is difficult to scrape together enough time to write.

I enjoy both your storytelling and your background building of the world and your characters. To quote my beloved, who is a keen reader, “You know a character is well written when the reader would notice and care if they disappeared between one page and the next.”. I hope your characters continue to develop and grow!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: dmeck7755 on July 17, 2023, 08:53:11 AM
Glass,
I see you have added.  I only had time to read the second chapter.  This is really a good read.  Can't wait until I have a bit more time to get to the rest.  Thank you for the story :)
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Glass on July 17, 2023, 11:03:50 AM
Glass, that is certainly true. Horror that is not clearly delineated has more potential to, well, horrify.
For me, writing any kind of horror is a relatively new thing, as is writing online. I had written a lot before I became involved in this fandom, but the bulk of what I had had published or broadcast was poetry, factual technical articles, a few songs, and the occasional ‘hard’ science fiction story (that is, SF with a base in real science). The two books I have been working on slowly for several years are not fiction at all, but a basic cookery book and another about wild food foraging and how to cook what you find. Progress on those books is slow because real life is busy, chaotic and stressful. I’m an old age pensioner who is still working enough to bring the pension up to a wage on which I can keep paying the mortgage, while caring for my disabled husband, all of which means that it is difficult to scrape together enough time to write.

I've been writing since I was quite young, but it only really ramped up for me with the pandemic - which is also when I managed to snag my first (and currently, only) publication credit in a short stories magazine. Sharing my work with others is a pleasure, though, especially seeing people enjoy it or find something new in it. Though honestly I've always enjoyed writing fantastical things, it's just shifted more towards either horror or hope in the face of horror as I've gotten older.

The stresses of life and all its chaos getting in the way of writing is something I feel though - even if time presents itself sometimes the energy just isn't there. I'm a full time carer myself, for my grandfather, and though I thankfully don't have to worry about a mortgage or anything like that I can empathise at least a little with that weight.

I enjoy both your storytelling and your background building of the world and your characters. To quote my beloved, who is a keen reader, “You know a character is well written when the reader would notice and care if they disappeared between one page and the next.”. I hope your characters continue to develop and grow!

I am, though, glad and flattered at you enjoying the work. I'm hoping they continue to grow as well, and that if they go missing inbetween the paragraphs it draws attention.

Glass,
I see you have added.  I only had time to read the second chapter.  This is really a good read.  Can't wait until I have a bit more time to get to the rest.  Thank you for the story :)

Dmeck, I'm glad you're enjoying it - though I'm sure I'll have more out soon, take your time with it. You're very welcome for the story, thank you for the time you take to read it.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: LooNEY_DAC on October 08, 2023, 01:54:30 AM
Sigrun’s Shenanigans
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent” fanfic
Part 5
Complete Links to Complete Links post (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg108613#msg108613)
Prior part (https://ssssforum.com/index.php?topic=193.msg148801#msg148801)
Spoiler: The Garden of Gøran Andersen • show
That first generation in Year Zero all reacted differently to seeing the world they’d known wiped away in front of their eyes; Gøran Andersen, Uncle Trond’s dad, decided to plant a garden.

He worked on it his whole life; by the time he died, it was like one of those lehtos you told us about, Fuzzy-Head. They buried him there instead of cremating him or a ship-burial, and Uncle Trond made sure there’ll be people tending the garden for as long as Dalsnes stands.

Of course, not all of ‘em are volunteers: some are paid to be there, but some have to take a turn at trimming and weeding as a punishment, like I did.

When I was a kid, I was so impatient. I know, it’s hard to believe now, but back then I couldn’t stand waiting for more than a second or two for something to happen, and it caused a lot of problems when we were laying traps for grosslings during Hunting season. Uncle Trond was in charge of a lot of those, and eventually he decided that I needed to learn patience.

To be fair to Uncle Trond, he tried all sorts of ways before sending me out to his father’s garden, but none of them really took; I can be really stubborn when the mood hits me. Anyway, that’s when I learned to knit those little grossling snares you were so impressed by, and to draw maps from memory of terrain I’ve been over, but what really got me was when I had to tend the garden.

They showed me what to look for; it was a long list, and I kinda spaced out during the middle bit, but I was pretty sure I got everything important. I mean, all I had to do was trim the withered stuff and pull the weeds, right?

I just had to do it over and over, every day, until it all blurred together in an endless line of picking and trimming and trimming and picking… Aaaagh. I’m getting a headache just remembering it.

Anyway, one day I’m doing this and it’s all going blurry again, and I look up and Uncle Trond’s there, scowling like usual. I asked him what was wrong… and he told me. I mean, I was expecting him to tell me every little problem he had with what I was doing, but I wasn’t expecting him to tell me about how the garden was a microcosm (yes, Mikkel, I made him spell it for me) of Dalsnes itself.

Uncle Trond spent the next, I don’t know, hour or so telling me about the importance of maintaining and protecting what our forebears made and built for us. It was like all the worst lectures I’d ever heard rolled into one big pompous word-vomit, but I sat there and listened to the end.

That’s when he told me I could go back to my unit.

At first I thought I’d just heard what I’d been wanting to hear him say, instead of what he really said, but he sighed and told me that his little speech had been a test to see if the garden had finally managed to instill some patience into my rambunctious and fractious self. Since I hadn’t interrupted him with a hundred different questions or snarky comments, he was pretty sure I could be trusted to be patient when I had to be.

Uncle Trond did tell me that if I disappointed him, he’d bring me back to the garden… as fertilizer. I’m certain he wasn’t kidding, since I’d seen the mulcher working on some particularly gruesome stuff, but I never would’ve disappointed him anyway.

And speaking of disappointments, that reminds me of the time…

Spoiler: Authorial Notes • show
I brought this in just under the wire: it’s still over an hour before Sigrun’s birthday ends here.

Other stuff may be coming down the pike soon, if all goes well. You have been warned.
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Jitter on October 08, 2023, 05:45:29 AM
Yes, Sigru, it’s very hard to understand now that you have ever been impatient!

Well done, Looney!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: Róisín on October 08, 2023, 07:02:55 AM
Good story! And I can tell you as someone who has hunted (no, not grosslings, we don’t have those even in Outback Australia, just feral pigs, goats and deer) that patience is very, very needful for hunting. I have not found gardening boring, but then that’s me - I actually enjoy all the opportunities to watch birds, reptiles and insects going about their lives, listen to all the sounds of a living garden, delight in all the plant scents and plan out what I am going to plant next season and how to cook what I am already growing. But I can understand how all that would annoy a young and impatient Sigrun!

And of course a happy birthday to Sigrun!
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: wavewright62 on October 13, 2023, 01:08:23 AM
Hey, nice one! 
Title: Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
Post by: dmeck7755 on October 13, 2023, 09:13:18 AM
Well done, Looney!  Very entertaining