Still here. Still terrified of setting foot on the beach after dark. :)

Oof, so sorry! :( I thought I had posted here but in the swirl of events maybe I typed but never sent. :P I have two choir concerts today, so I'll be posting tomorrow! Thank you both for your patience, I love both of your writing!

Hi, happy singing, and thank you! I appreciate both your efforts as well.

[waves at a passing Hetty]

Ahoy! I was at the museum at the other end of the island Saturday - anyone want to see some period keeper's gear and/or a tiny ship model of the kind made of bone planks by Napoleonic POWs?

Sure!

Apologies for my quietness, by the way. A project has had me somewhat distracted. I should have a post up within a day or so. To echo the praise already given, I truly enjoy reading your contributions Miss Dowling, and yours, Lens. The setting of this game and all of its mysteries, large and small, fascinate me.

But I still dread the beach. :)

Ship!


It's about 15cm long to the tip and the cutlass just visible below it was (unrelatedly) off an officer of the Bounty.

Lighthouse gear!


The weird round brass thing with a howling face is a lamp room vent, to avoid anything getting greenhoused into melting/any open doors up there interfering with the flash timing in the early evening and getting ships lost. The lamp's fairly self-explanatory, save that it's huge to go in the middle of a long cataditropic lens because some of ours switched over to Fresnels fairly late - very early 20th century, I think the last one came in. The glasses without sides reflect the relatively lower power of such, but being in the lamp room whilst the Light was active wasn't something anyone would aim to do if it could be avoided, so we needn't fear for the old-timey keepers' eyeballs much.

At any rate, now you know that our Merigg Light is thus better-equipped than most of its contemporary Scottish counterparts; praise the Canadian Board of Marine & Fisheries.


...as for being beach-ready, lots of people are shy about unveiling their flesh before the merciless yet all-cradling ocean! Matt's not alone. He does, however, have the advantage of knowing that without a heart sworn to the land, he will be looked favourably upon, whatever he deems his flaws. Particularly if he toasts himself in the sun a bit and covers himself in mustard. I don't actually know what the Lady would make of mustard. Or the Thief for that matter. Feel free to experiment.

Many thanks for sharing those. They’re genuinely wonderful. If I had a maritime museum in close proximity, I’d probably haunt it regularly.

Speaking of haunting, on an entirely different note, this exercise in role playing has gotten me thinking about this little piece of computer entertainment, which I enjoyed some years back. Wonderfully creepy, if you enjoy games that are in the vein of Myst and Riven.

http://www.darklingroom.co.uk/.../darkfall2/index.htm

Hey there, thanks for that, Matt, and gosh I'd like to play that game, though I'll mark it on my calendar for autumn else knowing myself, I'll never quite get round to it.

Just wanted to say that I am vaguely around and certainly entertained by the chatting about seals (Hetty, did you knock back the bread before leaving?), I just have a case of the summer-insomnia/stress-related stupids and find myself unable to word a thing in the shape the thing should be at all. I will endeavour to get an update up tomorrow, and thank you for your continued patience. Really pleasing to see these characters interact.

If you require immediate entertainment, the aquarium in Montery Bay has a live giant crab cam in its current deep sea exhibit, where you can see crabs few humans have actually seen alive with your very own eyeballs, in the comfort of your home, and without importing critters with a car-sized legspan into your kitchen or bathroom! Isn't that marvellous?

Ooh! Thank you both for sharing. And for your continued patience, I am recovering from a small stroke. Prognosis is good! I will have post this evening after work or tomorrow!

Gosh, that's alarming, I hope you at least feel better, even if you're not fully mended yet. Do take care of your poor brain and thank you very much for finding a moment to update me. May you be hydrated in your favoured manner, puzzled in a entertaining and convenient way, and find good foods for yourself. [nod]

Best wishes for a strong recovery, Henrietta! So sorry to hear it. Take all the time that you need to get better.

No hassle, just an observational post: saw this on the internet and found it curious that the same notion of the sea taking who it wants as a set tithe is native to Scotland, too (and incidentally at least imported to Nova Scotia, if it wasn't there already).

It used to be that folk in the Hebrides wouldn't try to rescue people who started drowning close to shore, considering them 'claimed' and the owed sacrifice to be greater if first denied, though I don't know if that's current.

I watched ABG's playthrough of this, since time, energy, I haz not them, but thought it'd be of definite interest here, either way: https://vide01.itch.io/the-keeper

"Oops."  XD

Something something atmosphere something...

Must say I'm loving Hetty's laser-guided questions here, even if Matt doesn't appreciate them. Let me know if you two need rescuing from conversing and would prefer to be herded somewhere else.

edit: knocking the above to restate its ongoing relevance and showing you this swoosh, because it is awesome: https://hookteeth.tumblr.com/post/693397925263556608
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:37, Tue 23 Aug 2022.

Sincere apologies for being quiet for so long. I had a loss at the end of August and found engaging in creative endeavors somewhat difficult. I should be more consistent from this point forward.

Great story from Matt there, though!

Indeed! So sorry for your loss and glad you are still here as am I! I will post tomorrow.

I'd like to note that whilst she was partly raised in the wee town over there on the mainland, it's equally possible Hetty was born on Merigg itself - I leave it to Hetty as to whether that's true or whether she even knows, her parents not being about to ask (which is maybe why Matt thinks she's from elsewhere despite the light station being the only home for her).

As a quiet tangent, if either of you are interested in experimental and/or weird weird fiction, culturally semi-Scottish islands and themes of home and belonging, Deep Wheel Orcadia by Harry Josephine Giles is an equally fascinating and tantalising piece of literature. It's presented as a subtle verse novel in a future Orcadian-Highland-blend dialect with Standard English translation, and is something of a slice-of-life amongst the "islanders" of the titular space station as they try to keep up with industrial shift, a secret fugitive arrives as a 'tourist' and strange things happen. A semi-warning that it ends at exactly the right place for its story (of the world before whatever happens does) and it's mildly infuriating, but also an awesome finale.

Are we still here?

If so I can/will wrap up the slow inter-character interaction (much as I love what y'all are doing, but 2 posts a month means I'm going to have to go back to my notes, find momentum and take a runup) and summarise to somewhere faster as soon as I'm less stupid from painkillers/chronic put-together-badly issues.

If not, we made a very bonny thing while it lasted and I'll quietly sweep up after another week or so's silence.

Also, I should have posted this before All Hallows', or maybe on All Souls, but an eerie song for ye: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejMci7rdqAA

I'm still about!

Truly an unsettling little song, that. Very appropriate for this story.

I am still about too! There have been some changes at work which will be good for me but things need to settle a bit and I am also helping others adjust as well. I have been enjoying this immensely! And truly love writing with both of you!

Yay, we're here! ^_^

Also glad to hear your new position suits you, Hetty. Do you think you'll get an answer in to Matt or should I just get my broom out and sweep the chapter into a nice pile?

If so, can I just confirm that neither of you wants to talk about anything that might have happened at night? The deep night version of Merigg seems very distant even in a bright-cloudy daylight, I know, and I will quite gleefully watch our protagonists build themselves little walls of secrets even as their fingertips metaphorically brush over their mutual construction.

I have not had a weekend with much brainpower, however, and it is somehow 1:30am now, so...goodnight, and I am greatly pleased you're both still interested and invested in this odd and quiet thing.

I did just post and Hetty would not share her experience! I am good to move the scene on if Matt is as well?

Appreciated. Matt?

I do have a relative visiting this week but am also plotting away here, no worries. Plus I need to be entirely distracted from the Goncharov* memery, that (lack of) film is an actual cognitohazard.

It's like having part of a song stuck in my head that can't be exorcised due to not knowing the rest to sing, but in the storytelling part of my brain, or a sensation exactly between obsession and being in a chairoplane. Is this what Fandom^TM feels like all the time? Aghdfgrgnngrnkllkq.


*(1973)

Congratulations on the favorable work changes, Miss Dowling!

I am entirely good with moving the scene forward, Lens. Do I need to add anything there before you transition things?