Author Topic: The SSSS Scriptorium  (Read 894003 times)

LooNEY_DAC

  • Ruler of a Derelict Airport
  • *****
    • DeviantArt
  • Posts: 1257
Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
« Reply #795 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.

LooNEY_DAC

  • Ruler of a Derelict Airport
  • *****
    • DeviantArt
  • Posts: 1257
Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
« Reply #796 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.

Buteo

  • Ranger
  • ****
  • Posts: 767
Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
« Reply #797 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.

Solovei

  • Ruler of a Derelict Airport
  • *****
    • Tumblr
  • You name it, Captain Solo will ship it.
  • Posts: 1747
Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
« Reply #798 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 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 or Podfic.



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. 



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.



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.

Additional Tags: Very very important. This is where you put tags that are not Character OR Relatonship tags - things that describe your story and get it found by people who are browsing the archive. Readers like seeing additional tags because it tells them what the story is about before they read it - together with the summary, they're like the synopsis you read on the back of the book that lets you decide if you want to look further. There are a lot of canonical tags already in the archive, and they cover lots of things, for instance:
   Genre tags: Humor, Romance, Science Fiction, Fantasy
   Story or Plot elements: Fluff and Angst, Deviates From Canon, Slow Build
   Character tropes or aspects: Creepy Hannibal, Cecil is a Dork, Awesome Frigga
   Tags about the fanfic itself: My First Work in This Fandom, Late Night Writing, Not Beta Read, I Can't Believe I Wrote This

...and so on and so forth. But, please remember that you are by no means restricted to any of these. Go ahead and write whatever you want! Any tags are good tags; it shows the readers that you've thought about the story and want other people to notice it. Some people will tell you that you should refrain from adding "chatty" tags, but DO NOT LISTEN to them. Add whatever you like and AO3's army of dedicated volunteers (me among them) will take care of the rest. It is perfectly acceptable and will not break the website.

Now, let's move onto the Preface! These are the things that will go around your fanfic like titles, summaries, and notes. Think of it as the meta-data for your story. The Summary and Notes fields will take some HTML, so you can add links as well as basic formatting (bold, italic, underlined) here.

Work Title: Pretty straight-forward! You can call your story whatever you like :)

Add co-authors?: Check this box if you wrote your story with someone else. There will be a place to enter their username. They have to also be registered on the site for this to work.   

Summary: There are different ways to do a summary. Some people like to do a generic outline of the plot, like:
   "A and B decide to go to a park after their big fight with the Evil Overlord and have some cute adventures! Unfortunately, C also tags along."
It's also quite popular to pick out a significant quote from the story to use in place of a summary:
   "This is it," B said gravely. "This is how it ends" There was only one ball left, and she HAD to have that stuffed giraffe.

The summary is also a good place to tell your reader if the story has spoilers for a certain part of the source material, if it takes place in a specific time period (like, pre- or post-canon, in the middle of a specific episode, etc), has possible triggers not covered by the tags or the warnings... basically anything you think people need to know about your story BEFORE they click on it.

You can of course combine all of these elements! So in the end your summary might look like this:
   "I can't believe they don't have banana ice cream. This is unacceptable!"
   A and B go to a theme park and have some CRAZY adventures!
   
   Spoilers for Episode 5! Chapter 4 will be up soon.

Notes: These are "Author Notes" that will go INSIDE the story. That is, people will only see them after they click on the link. Think of them as a header and footer. You can put whatever you want here... a link to your tumblr, credits to people who helped out, a rant about how hard it was to write that one particular scene. Checking "at the beginning" will put the note before the body of the story, and "at the end" will put it after. You can have both!

Let's move onto Associations! These are more meta-level things that let your work be linked to other works in the archive. All of them are optional.

Post to Collections / Challenges: This is common for kinkmemes and other events that many fan communities host. If your work is part of one of those, you can enter the name of it here.

Gift this work to: If your story is a gift/present/written for a friend who is also an AO3 user, you can enter their name here. The fanfic will still be posted on YOUR account, but the headline will read "[Title] by [your username] for [their username]"

This work is a remix, a translation, a podfic, or was inspired by another work: This means that your work was directly inspired or uses content from another fanfic. For instance, if it's a rewriting of someone else's story from another point of view, you could put that here.

This work is part of a series: A series groups together individual works that are connected by some sort of theme. Readers can go forward and backwards through stories in a series, and a series is given it's own landing page. You can see an example of one here.

This work has multiple chapters: If your story has only one chapter (regardless of length), leave this unchecked. Chapters are different from series in that they are part of one work and share a set of tags that you define for the work as a whole.



Set a different publication date: This option lets you change the date your story appears to have been posted, but only in the past.

Choose a language: This is the language your story was written in, or at least the majority of it.

Select work skin: This setting affects how your story will look on the site, and can usually be left blank.

We're nearly there! The next section is Privacy. The two options here will affect who can view and comment on your work. While we're here, lets talk about the statistics you can see on your story. AO3 keeps track of three things: hits, kudos, and comments. Hits are how many times people have read your story. Kudos are sort of the equivalent of clicking "Like" on facebook - they're a nice way to let someone know you appreciated the fanfic but maybe don't have anything in particular to say about it. Both guests and registered users can leave kudos, but you can only leave one per work. Comments are, well... comments! Comments are a great way to tell your favorite authors what you loved about their story and encourage them to keep writing!

And look, this big box is where you can finally paste in your story! If it already contains formatting, like bold or italic text, you will want to click the "Rich Text" button first. This will bring up an editor similar to the one you see on the forum, where you can add things like hyperlinks, images, lists, and alignment.



Once you're done, just click on "Preview" to see how the finished work will look, or "Post without preview" if you want to go ahead and submit it -- and you're done! Your fanfic is out there for people to read and admire :)

But Solo, you say! I already submitted my work before I knew all of these things! What can I do?

You can edit your work and everything about it AT ANY TIME after you publish it. You can do that from the story's page, or from your dashboard. "Edit" will take you back to the same form you filled out when submitting, while "Edit Tags" will give you only the Tags portion of that form (so, Character/Relationships/Ratings/Category/Warnings). It doesn't matter which one you use.
:hat:Support your fanfic authors!:betterhat:
Co-admin of the SSSS Wiki | AO3 |
:chap2:
:chap3:
:chap4:
:chap5:
:chap6:
:chap7:
:chap8:

Fluent: :canada: :russia:
Managing to stumble through: :sweden:

LooNEY_DAC

  • Ruler of a Derelict Airport
  • *****
    • DeviantArt
  • Posts: 1257
Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
« Reply #799 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
« Last Edit: May 25, 2016, 09:31:29 PM by LooNEY_DAC »

Buteo

  • Ranger
  • ****
  • Posts: 767
Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
« Reply #800 on: August 11, 2015, 10:31:59 PM »
LooNEY_DAC, yes please - more capers, throw more capers!

kjeks

  • Retired Moderator
  • Ruler of a Derelict Airport
  • *
  • Posts: 1729
Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
« Reply #801 on: August 12, 2015, 12:11:41 AM »
Solovei This is awesome!!!
:germany: :uk: :norway:
:sweden: :france: :ireland: :turkey: :kurdish: :sign: =>Learning:
:vaticancity: =>Leftovers

Forum Rules
Helpful Information

Róisín

  • Traveller on the Bird's Path
  • Elder of the Ruined Realm
  • ********
  • Posts: 8636
Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
« Reply #802 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.
Avatar is courtesy of the amazing Haiz!

partofacitygiant

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 62
Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
« Reply #803 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
« Last Edit: August 13, 2015, 01:28:04 PM by partofacitygiant »
almost fluent, :finland: :uk:
barely listenable :sweden:
nearly gets :norway: :estonia:

 :chap5: :chap6: :chap7: :chap8: :chap9:

Sunflower

  • Saraswati
  • Admiral of a Sunken Ship
  • *
  • Preferred pronouns: She/her
  • Posts: 4158
Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
« Reply #804 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."
"The music of what happens," said great Fionn, "that is the finest music in the world."
:chap3:  :chap4:  :chap5:  :book2:  :chap12:  :chap13:  :chap14:   :chap15:  :chap16:

Speak some:  :france:  :mexico:  :vaticancity:  Ein bisschen: :germany:

Russet

  • Safe-Zone Citizen
  • **
    • Tumblr
  • eaten by the trolls that took over the tropics.
  • Preferred pronouns: she/her
  • Posts: 140
Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
« Reply #805 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. (:
:artd: | :chap0::chap1::chap2::chap7::chap8::chap9::chap10:
Fluent: :uk: :china: :malaysia:
Learning: :japan: :france:

Solovei

  • Ruler of a Derelict Airport
  • *****
    • Tumblr
  • You name it, Captain Solo will ship it.
  • Posts: 1747
Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
« Reply #806 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 :)
:hat:Support your fanfic authors!:betterhat:
Co-admin of the SSSS Wiki | AO3 |
:chap2:
:chap3:
:chap4:
:chap5:
:chap6:
:chap7:
:chap8:

Fluent: :canada: :russia:
Managing to stumble through: :sweden:

LooNEY_DAC

  • Ruler of a Derelict Airport
  • *****
    • DeviantArt
  • Posts: 1257
Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
« Reply #807 on: August 15, 2015, 08:18:06 PM »
Contingencies
A “Stand Still. Stay Silent”/“Terminator” crossover fanfic
Part 2
Prior part
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.
« Last Edit: May 25, 2016, 08:14:02 PM by LooNEY_DAC »

LooNEY_DAC

  • Ruler of a Derelict Airport
  • *****
    • DeviantArt
  • Posts: 1257
Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
« Reply #808 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.

Róisín

  • Traveller on the Bird's Path
  • Elder of the Ruined Realm
  • ********
  • Posts: 8636
Re: The SSSS Scriptorium
« Reply #809 on: August 18, 2015, 05:06:49 AM »
LooNEY: Good stories both! And "Never play cards with a man named 'Doc'". Heheheh! Very apropos!
Avatar is courtesy of the amazing Haiz!