Hooks Hurt

Hooks Hurt — Blue Ink Alchemy

"Peace, however comforting, is stagnation. Conflict, however messy, is life." - Bob Chipman.

Sooner or later, you're going to run into difficulty. It's a fact of life. Everything isn't always hunky-dory. A tire goes flat, a check bounces, a bone gets broken, a job market tanks, a lover cheats, a bill gets skipped, a chore gets neglected, a payment gets forgotten. It happens. There's no way around it. Even when you do everything right, even if you put yourself onto the rails of a carefully-laid plan for moving forward, someone or something is going to put a penny on those rails and you'll have to respond accordingly to the subsequent disaster. That's life. It's a mess. It's conflict. Why should the lives of our characters be any different? It's fantasy, you might say. It's fiction. We can have our characters exist in a consequence-free world if we want. It's our world so it's our rules, right? This will work in a video game like Grand Theft Auto or Just Cause. But can you imagine the world of Harry Potter as one without conflict? Or A Song of Ice and Fire? Or hell, Jersey Shore? Yeah, I said Jersey Shore's fictional. Those might be people in a reality show, but I challenge them to be 'real' in any sense of the word in person. I mean if they look fake, sound fake, act fake and give out fake expectations... Yeah. Conflict. Let's have some of that. We want to live vicariously through our fiction. But fiction without conflict and without consequence is ultimately boring. The stories we truly enjoy, the ones that stick with us and pull is back in just by glancing at a title or cover, are the ones with deep conflict, long-lasting consequences for the characters, the sorts of things we dive into fiction to escape from. Why? Because we empathize. We understand. And in the end, we root for the characters who are just as under the gun and behind the 8-ball as we are. In writing one draft and preparing to revise another, with a tip of my hat to the brutally honest people of Book Country, I've realized that with this conflict comes passion, even if it's dark and often misdirected passion, and that passion is an emotion onto which readers can also grab hold. Or, in other words, it's something that will grab the reader and pull them bodily into the narrative. I was wondering where my hooks were. I think I answered my own question. Without conflict, there's no passion. Without passion, there's no hook. Therefore we must begin with conflict. And we can't let up on it until the end. The conflicts may change. One may end as another begins. Or multiple conflicts may intersect or even collide with one another. Good. The more conflicts and chaos, the more deep and nuanced the story becomes. The challenge for the writer is to keep all of this chaos straight, at least in their mind, to keep it from becoming a jumbled mess of angst and post-modern darkness. I'm not saying to open with something exploding or a big gunfight or a little spaceship being chased by a bigger one. You can, but it's kid's stuff, really. Open with a deeper, inner conflict. One set up by society rather than bullets. Find the deep things that bother your character, their fears and what pisses them off. Tap one of those veins right at the start, and you're more likely to suck in a reader within your first page. Conflict should suck for our characters, and be as prevalent and relentless, as it is for us. Otherwise, what's the point?

---

Blue Ink Alchemy

Hooks Hurt

Hooks Hurt — Blue Ink Alchemy

"Peace, however comforting, is stagnation. Conflict, however messy, is life." - Bob Chipman.

Sooner or later, you're going to run into difficulty. It's a fact of life. Everything isn't always hunky-dory. A tire goes flat, a check bounces, a bone gets broken, a job market tanks, a lover cheats, a bill gets skipped, a chore gets neglected, a payment gets forgotten. It happens. There's no way around it. Even when you do everything right, even if you put yourself onto the rails of a carefully-laid plan for moving forward, someone or something is going to put a penny on those rails and you'll have to respond accordingly to the subsequent disaster. That's life. It's a mess. It's conflict. Why should the lives of our characters be any different? It's fantasy, you might say. It's fiction. We can have our characters exist in a consequence-free world if we want. It's our world so it's our rules, right? This will work in a video game like Grand Theft Auto or Just Cause. But can you imagine the world of Harry Potter as one without conflict? Or A Song of Ice and Fire? Or hell, Jersey Shore? Yeah, I said Jersey Shore's fictional. Those might be people in a reality show, but I challenge them to be 'real' in any sense of the word in person. I mean if they look fake, sound fake, act fake and give out fake expectations... Yeah. Conflict. Let's have some of that. We want to live vicariously through our fiction. But fiction without conflict and without consequence is ultimately boring. The stories we truly enjoy, the ones that stick with us and pull is back in just by glancing at a title or cover, are the ones with deep conflict, long-lasting consequences for the characters, the sorts of things we dive into fiction to escape from. Why? Because we empathize. We understand. And in the end, we root for the characters who are just as under the gun and behind the 8-ball as we are. In writing one draft and preparing to revise another, with a tip of my hat to the brutally honest people of Book Country, I've realized that with this conflict comes passion, even if it's dark and often misdirected passion, and that passion is an emotion onto which readers can also grab hold. Or, in other words, it's something that will grab the reader and pull them bodily into the narrative. I was wondering where my hooks were. I think I answered my own question. Without conflict, there's no passion. Without passion, there's no hook. Therefore we must begin with conflict. And we can't let up on it until the end. The conflicts may change. One may end as another begins. Or multiple conflicts may intersect or even collide with one another. Good. The more conflicts and chaos, the more deep and nuanced the story becomes. The challenge for the writer is to keep all of this chaos straight, at least in their mind, to keep it from becoming a jumbled mess of angst and post-modern darkness. I'm not saying to open with something exploding or a big gunfight or a little spaceship being chased by a bigger one. You can, but it's kid's stuff, really. Open with a deeper, inner conflict. One set up by society rather than bullets. Find the deep things that bother your character, their fears and what pisses them off. Tap one of those veins right at the start, and you're more likely to suck in a reader within your first page. Conflict should suck for our characters, and be as prevalent and relentless, as it is for us. Otherwise, what's the point?

---

Blue Ink Alchemy

Hooks Hurt

Hooks Hurt — Blue Ink Alchemy

"Peace, however comforting, is stagnation. Conflict, however messy, is life." - Bob Chipman.

Sooner or later, you're going to run into difficulty. It's a fact of life. Everything isn't always hunky-dory. A tire goes flat, a check bounces, a bone gets broken, a job market tanks, a lover cheats, a bill gets skipped, a chore gets neglected, a payment gets forgotten. It happens. There's no way around it. Even when you do everything right, even if you put yourself onto the rails of a carefully-laid plan for moving forward, someone or something is going to put a penny on those rails and you'll have to respond accordingly to the subsequent disaster. That's life. It's a mess. It's conflict. Why should the lives of our characters be any different? It's fantasy, you might say. It's fiction. We can have our characters exist in a consequence-free world if we want. It's our world so it's our rules, right? This will work in a video game like Grand Theft Auto or Just Cause. But can you imagine the world of Harry Potter as one without conflict? Or A Song of Ice and Fire? Or hell, Jersey Shore? Yeah, I said Jersey Shore's fictional. Those might be people in a reality show, but I challenge them to be 'real' in any sense of the word in person. I mean if they look fake, sound fake, act fake and give out fake expectations... Yeah. Conflict. Let's have some of that. We want to live vicariously through our fiction. But fiction without conflict and without consequence is ultimately boring. The stories we truly enjoy, the ones that stick with us and pull is back in just by glancing at a title or cover, are the ones with deep conflict, long-lasting consequences for the characters, the sorts of things we dive into fiction to escape from. Why? Because we empathize. We understand. And in the end, we root for the characters who are just as under the gun and behind the 8-ball as we are. In writing one draft and preparing to revise another, with a tip of my hat to the brutally honest people of Book Country, I've realized that with this conflict comes passion, even if it's dark and often misdirected passion, and that passion is an emotion onto which readers can also grab hold. Or, in other words, it's something that will grab the reader and pull them bodily into the narrative. I was wondering where my hooks were. I think I answered my own question. Without conflict, there's no passion. Without passion, there's no hook. Therefore we must begin with conflict. And we can't let up on it until the end. The conflicts may change. One may end as another begins. Or multiple conflicts may intersect or even collide with one another. Good. The more conflicts and chaos, the more deep and nuanced the story becomes. The challenge for the writer is to keep all of this chaos straight, at least in their mind, to keep it from becoming a jumbled mess of angst and post-modern darkness. I'm not saying to open with something exploding or a big gunfight or a little spaceship being chased by a bigger one. You can, but it's kid's stuff, really. Open with a deeper, inner conflict. One set up by society rather than bullets. Find the deep things that bother your character, their fears and what pisses them off. Tap one of those veins right at the start, and you're more likely to suck in a reader within your first page. Conflict should suck for our characters, and be as prevalent and relentless, as it is for us. Otherwise, what's the point?

---

Blue Ink Alchemy

Hooks Hurt

Hooks Hurt — Blue Ink Alchemy

"Peace, however comforting, is stagnation. Conflict, however messy, is life." - Bob Chipman.

Sooner or later, you're going to run into difficulty. It's a fact of life. Everything isn't always hunky-dory. A tire goes flat, a check bounces, a bone gets broken, a job market tanks, a lover cheats, a bill gets skipped, a chore gets neglected, a payment gets forgotten. It happens. There's no way around it. Even when you do everything right, even if you put yourself onto the rails of a carefully-laid plan for moving forward, someone or something is going to put a penny on those rails and you'll have to respond accordingly to the subsequent disaster. That's life. It's a mess. It's conflict. Why should the lives of our characters be any different? It's fantasy, you might say. It's fiction. We can have our characters exist in a consequence-free world if we want. It's our world so it's our rules, right? This will work in a video game like Grand Theft Auto or Just Cause. But can you imagine the world of Harry Potter as one without conflict? Or A Song of Ice and Fire? Or hell, Jersey Shore? Yeah, I said Jersey Shore's fictional. Those might be people in a reality show, but I challenge them to be 'real' in any sense of the word in person. I mean if they look fake, sound fake, act fake and give out fake expectations... Yeah. Conflict. Let's have some of that. We want to live vicariously through our fiction. But fiction without conflict and without consequence is ultimately boring. The stories we truly enjoy, the ones that stick with us and pull is back in just by glancing at a title or cover, are the ones with deep conflict, long-lasting consequences for the characters, the sorts of things we dive into fiction to escape from. Why? Because we empathize. We understand. And in the end, we root for the characters who are just as under the gun and behind the 8-ball as we are. In writing one draft and preparing to revise another, with a tip of my hat to the brutally honest people of Book Country, I've realized that with this conflict comes passion, even if it's dark and often misdirected passion, and that passion is an emotion onto which readers can also grab hold. Or, in other words, it's something that will grab the reader and pull them bodily into the narrative. I was wondering where my hooks were. I think I answered my own question. Without conflict, there's no passion. Without passion, there's no hook. Therefore we must begin with conflict. And we can't let up on it until the end. The conflicts may change. One may end as another begins. Or multiple conflicts may intersect or even collide with one another. Good. The more conflicts and chaos, the more deep and nuanced the story becomes. The challenge for the writer is to keep all of this chaos straight, at least in their mind, to keep it from becoming a jumbled mess of angst and post-modern darkness. I'm not saying to open with something exploding or a big gunfight or a little spaceship being chased by a bigger one. You can, but it's kid's stuff, really. Open with a deeper, inner conflict. One set up by society rather than bullets. Find the deep things that bother your character, their fears and what pisses them off. Tap one of those veins right at the start, and you're more likely to suck in a reader within your first page. Conflict should suck for our characters, and be as prevalent and relentless, as it is for us. Otherwise, what's the point?

---

Blue Ink Alchemy

The Writer's Conflict

The Writer's Conflict — Blue Ink Alchemy

"Peace, however comforting, is stagnation. Conflict, however messy, is life." - Bob Chipman.

Sooner or later, you're going to run into difficulty. It's a fact of life. Everything isn't always hunky-dory. A tire goes flat, a check bounces, a bone gets broken, a job market tanks, a lover cheats, a bill gets skipped, a chore gets neglected, a payment gets forgotten. It happens. There's no way around it. Even when you do everything right, even if you put yourself onto the rails of a carefully-laid plan for moving forward, someone or something is going to put a penny on those rails and you'll have to respond accordingly to the subsequent disaster. That's life. It's a mess. It's conflict. Why should the lives of our characters be any different? It's fantasy, you might say. It's fiction. We can have our characters exist in a consequence-free world if we want. It's our world so it's our rules, right? This will work in a video game like Grand Theft Auto or Just Cause. But can you imagine the world of Harry Potter as one without conflict? Or A Song of Ice and Fire? Or hell, Jersey Shore? Yeah, I said Jersey Shore's fictional. Those might be people in a reality show, but I challenge them to be 'real' in any sense of the word in person. I mean if they look fake, sound fake, act fake and give out fake expectations... Yeah. Conflict. Let's have some of that. We want to live vicariously through our fiction. But fiction without conflict and without consequence is ultimately boring. The stories we truly enjoy, the ones that stick with us and pull is back in just by glancing at a title or cover, are the ones with deep conflict, long-lasting consequences for the characters, the sorts of things we dive into fiction to escape from. Why? Because we empathize. We understand. And in the end, we root for the characters who are just as under the gun and behind the 8-ball as we are. In writing one draft and preparing to revise another, with a tip of my hat to the brutally honest people of Book Country, I've realized that with this conflict comes passion, even if it's dark and often misdirected passion, and that passion is an emotion onto which readers can also grab hold. Or, in other words, it's something that will grab the reader and pull them bodily into the narrative. I was wondering where my hooks were. I think I answered my own question. Without conflict, there's no passion. Without passion, there's no hook. Therefore we must begin with conflict. And we can't let up on it until the end. The conflicts may change. One may end as another begins. Or multiple conflicts may intersect or even collide with one another. Good. The more conflicts and chaos, the more deep and nuanced the story becomes. The challenge for the writer is to keep all of this chaos straight, at least in their mind, to keep it from becoming a jumbled mess of angst and post-modern darkness. I'm not saying to open with something exploding or a big gunfight or a little spaceship being chased by a bigger one. You can, but it's kid's stuff, really. Open with a deeper, inner conflict. One set up by society rather than bullets. Find the deep things that bother your character, their fears and what pisses them off. Tap one of those veins right at the start, and you're more likely to suck in a reader within your first page. Conflict should suck for our characters, and be as prevalent and relentless, as it is for us. Otherwise, what's the point?

---

Blue Ink Alchemy

The Art of Thor: Attacking Strategy

The Art of Thor: Attacking Strategy — Blue Ink Alchemy

Ghosts are the sort of units made for this type of attack. Art by Shiramune

Thus, what is of supreme importance in war is to attack the enemy's strategy.

The very genre of StarCraft 2 lends it and the study of its nuances to tactical reasoning. It's called a real-time strategy game for a reason. If no actual strategy was involved, it'd be a real-time blowing-crap-up simulator. And while lots of stuff blows up but good in your average StarCraft 2 match, most of those explosions are due to at least one of the players involved implementing some form of strategy. Therefore, when you're preparing to attack the enemy, your actual aim becomes to undermine their strategy with yours. There are multiple ways to do this, and I'm going to discuss three in particular, all of which could be subjects in and of themselves in terms of proper execution. And when I figure out exactly how to pull these off well, I'll be sure to let you know.

Ambushes

Being caught out of position has been the downfall of many a military operation. With a little intelligence and preparation, you can predict the route the enemy is going to take and prepare a force to deal with them in transit. You may try to flank them from one or both sides, wait until they pass to rake their formation or harass them at multiple points. But the biggest damage you're doing is actually psychological. Provided you were careful with the disposition and placement of your forces, your opponent will not have seen the ambush coming. They thought they had a clean route right to your front door. They might have already been thinking ahead to the order in which they were going to burn your base's buildings down. And then lo and behold, their forces are under attack. It's a plan that can deprive a key push of momentum, buy you time to build up your own forces or simply a way to keep your opponent off-balance.

Feints

Similar to ambushes, a feint sets up your opponent's expectations and then knocks them down with authority. An example would be using close-range or melee units to harass the defenses or resources of the enemy, pulling them back when their counterattack begins and bringing the enemy into range of the more powerful artillery you had lurking just out of range, hidden by the fog of war. If your force survives you can continue pushing into the enemy position, and even if it doesn't your opponent must now rethink their units and deployment to compensate for this new information. Beyond the mere exchange of fire, however, a canny player can work a feint from a different perspective. For example, a Terran player is likely to begin building Marines. If the Terrans' opponents are the Protoss, and a few waves of Marines or Marauders break on the Protoss defenses but do a little more damage with each push, the Protoss player may opt to build Colossi to compensate. However, the Terran player has actually developed his air power and when the 'death ball' approaches, the Protoss player faces a squadron of cloaked Banshees that use the Marines & Marauders as backup units. This is just one example, and I'm certain you can think of others.

Economic Damage

Ultimately, all of the strategy, tactics and unit composition of any plan hinges on one thing: having enough resources to pull it off. From the start of the match any player worth their salt is sending workers to collect minerals, harvest gas and expand the means of production. They are dilligent, tireless and essential to building bigger, more impressive units. They're also quite vulnerable to attack. A potent strike on the mineral line of an opponent can slow or cripple their efforts. In some cases your opponent will quit entirely (especially if they believe they've been cheesed). Early harassment, steathed units or a focused push can absolutely gut their economy. Not only do you deprive them of the resources those gatherers were collecting, they must also expend time and resources to build more. You can use this opportunity to surge ahead in general army count or push higher into your tech tree. How else would you attack the enemy's strategy?

---

Blue Ink Alchemy

The Art of Thor: Attacking Strategy

The Art of Thor: Attacking Strategy — Blue Ink Alchemy

Ghosts are the sort of units made for this type of attack. Art by Shiramune

Thus, what is of supreme importance in war is to attack the enemy's strategy.

The very genre of StarCraft 2 lends it and the study of its nuances to tactical reasoning. It's called a real-time strategy game for a reason. If no actual strategy was involved, it'd be a real-time blowing-crap-up simulator. And while lots of stuff blows up but good in your average StarCraft 2 match, most of those explosions are due to at least one of the players involved implementing some form of strategy. Therefore, when you're preparing to attack the enemy, your actual aim becomes to undermine their strategy with yours. There are multiple ways to do this, and I'm going to discuss three in particular, all of which could be subjects in and of themselves in terms of proper execution. And when I figure out exactly how to pull these off well, I'll be sure to let you know.

Ambushes

Being caught out of position has been the downfall of many a military operation. With a little intelligence and preparation, you can predict the route the enemy is going to take and prepare a force to deal with them in transit. You may try to flank them from one or both sides, wait until they pass to rake their formation or harass them at multiple points. But the biggest damage you're doing is actually psychological. Provided you were careful with the disposition and placement of your forces, your opponent will not have seen the ambush coming. They thought they had a clean route right to your front door. They might have already been thinking ahead to the order in which they were going to burn your base's buildings down. And then lo and behold, their forces are under attack. It's a plan that can deprive a key push of momentum, buy you time to build up your own forces or simply a way to keep your opponent off-balance.

Feints

Similar to ambushes, a feint sets up your opponent's expectations and then knocks them down with authority. An example would be using close-range or melee units to harass the defenses or resources of the enemy, pulling them back when their counterattack begins and bringing the enemy into range of the more powerful artillery you had lurking just out of range, hidden by the fog of war. If your force survives you can continue pushing into the enemy position, and even if it doesn't your opponent must now rethink their units and deployment to compensate for this new information. Beyond the mere exchange of fire, however, a canny player can work a feint from a different perspective. For example, a Terran player is likely to begin building Marines. If the Terrans' opponents are the Protoss, and a few waves of Marines or Marauders break on the Protoss defenses but do a little more damage with each push, the Protoss player may opt to build Colossi to compensate. However, the Terran player has actually developed his air power and when the 'death ball' approaches, the Protoss player faces a squadron of cloaked Banshees that use the Marines & Marauders as backup units. This is just one example, and I'm certain you can think of others.

Economic Damage

Ultimately, all of the strategy, tactics and unit composition of any plan hinges on one thing: having enough resources to pull it off. From the start of the match any player worth their salt is sending workers to collect minerals, harvest gas and expand the means of production. They are dilligent, tireless and essential to building bigger, more impressive units. They're also quite vulnerable to attack. A potent strike on the mineral line of an opponent can slow or cripple their efforts. In some cases your opponent will quit entirely (especially if they believe they've been cheesed). Early harassment, steathed units or a focused push can absolutely gut their economy. Not only do you deprive them of the resources those gatherers were collecting, they must also expend time and resources to build more. You can use this opportunity to surge ahead in general army count or push higher into your tech tree. How else would you attack the enemy's strategy?

---

Blue Ink Alchemy

Cadmon's Journal: Third Entry

Cadmon's Journal: Third Entry — Blue Ink Alchemy

A new experiment has begun. In Reading, Pennsylvania, a friend is running a tabletop game set in the world of George RR Martin's Song of Ice and Fire. What follows are the recollections of my character, Cadmon Storm, in a journal he keeps on his person or ravens he sends to other characters. All characters, locations and events are copyright George RR Martin and the events that take place during this game can and will deviate from series canon. Most of the kids I grew up with barely knew Braavos existed. There were a few who were curious about the lands across the Narrow Sea, but for the most part it was all about the gossip and impressing one's parents. My mother had just been happy I was alive. I never felt the compulsion to impress anybody. Since I found the lessons dull and the company irritable, I was often running down books and maps in Storm's End and engaging the maester with questions while the other children played. So when I left Storm's End at my mother's behest, I got to see those lands in person. The years I spent aboard the Black Bertha were happy ones. The sailors were happy to teach a cabin boy so willing to learn, and I learned to play their games of dice as much as I learned their knots. It couldn't last forever - what does? - and a raven from Dragonstone caused Ser Davos to put me off of the Bertha in Braavos. He explained it to me as well as he could. "The Greyjoys have started a rebellion, and Lord Stannis needs me back home. It won't be like the little skirmishes we've had here and there with pirates. It will be a brutal, extended business and I want you nowhere near it." "I can fight." I was nine. Of course I protested. "I can carry water to the wounded." "You're a brave boy, Cadmon, but you're still a boy. It's important for you to stay safe. Stay in Braavos, stay close to the docks. I promise you, you won't go any longer without word than I can help it. Maester Cressen will take my letters and send them across the Narrow Sea to you." "You could learn to write yourself, you know." Ser Davos made a face. "Such things are for smarter men. You're smarter than I am already. Keep that up. Be smart, and stay here. Learn." I wasn't happy about it. I was resolved, in my childlike sense of justice, to resent Ser Davos right up until the first letter came from Dragonstone. Maester Cressen wrote the words of Ser Davos that told me of the Greyjoy Rebellion, of his lord Stannis storming the islands with Eddard Stark and how Jaime Lannister and Thoros of Myr had slain scores of men. It was the first of many, and I read it over and over in the candlelit nights on the docks. People need their ships tied up and cast off when they arrive or depart. They may not know where the nearest spice merchant or inn or whorehouse is. They might just need an extra pair of hands carrying cargo to its destination. I was one of several children who fulfilled these roles. We're called Gulls on the Docks. I spent the next couple years on those docks. As Ser Davos had bid me I learned all I could. I was starting to pick up words and phrases in Valyrian, listening to the news from the other Free Cities, watching the bravos duel one another. I sometimes bet a little of the money I had on the duels. The fact that I won more often that I lost was a sore spot with some of the other Gulls, especially a Tyroshi boy named Symuril. "That was utter shit." Sym kicked a stone away as we walked back to the docks following a nasty duel. He was a dark-haired boy but he'd gotten half of it painted blue in the Tyroshi style. "Ilastus shouldn't have fallen for that last feint. He'd seen it before." "But his blood was up. He wanted to split Timon like a ripe melon. He ended up taking the split himself, but I understand why he attacked so aggressively." "Feh. It still shouldn't have happened." "It was going to. Ilastus was hot-headed, moreso than most bravos. Timon knew this and used it. That's how fights are. It doesn't change the fact that you owe me ten." Sym glared at me. "It was a cheap win, damn close to cheating, and I don't owe you anything." I walked to stand in front of him. "You owe me. Pay me." Symuril was older than me by at least one name day. I was close to my twelfth when this happened. He sneered at me, his green-brown eyes full of childish conviction, and poked my chest with a finger. "Timon's a cheat and a liar. I bet fans of his aren't any different. And I don't pay money to cheats and liars." It was stupid of me to throw the first punch. Yet that's what I did. As much as it had been what he'd wanted, Symuril was surprised by it. He responded in kind, though, and we were suddenly on the ground, tussling in the gutter. Ser Davos, Storm's End and my mother were another world, and in that moment I was a young bravo dueling with an upstart from another Free City because he'd impinged my honor and, frankly, I didn't like him all that much. We punched, kicked, bit and wrestled until I ended up on top of him, punching his face with all the strength I had. I don't know where his stiletto came from. But it was a slender little blade that stuck in my side. It was an intense pain, which made me scream, a feeling of intense heat washing over my belly and side as the blood flowed. I reached for my own weapon at the small of my back, which I'd forgotten in my rage-fueled haste. It was a dagger of Valyrian steel, a gift from Ser Davos, the blade wide and slightly curved with a single edge. It was made to be easy to draw and slash in the same motion, and that's exactly what I did. I was surprised by how much Symuril bled when I opened his neck. I'd seen game slaughtered before, and during a pirate skirmish one of Davos' men had lost a leg. Still, seeing such things is not the same as getting blood squirted on your face yourself because you slit someone's throat. The Tyroshi boy's eyes went wide and he gasped, both hands reaching for his throat, his stiletto forgotten in my side. I stayed on top of him and pulled the thin blade out of me, putting my hand down over the wound. I felt him kicking under me, each passing moment making the motions more feeble. His eyes never left mine as blood gushed from under his hands and oozed from his mouth. Even when he stopped moving entirely, and his bowls emptied themselves into his stylish trousers, his green-brown eyes shouted their accusations. I was crying when I rolled off of his corpse and limped away. I don't know how I got as far as I did. I remember dragging myself up the steps towards the doors, one of weirwood and one of ebony. My nostils were full of the smell of incense. The doors parted as the last of my strength left me. I remember gentle hands on my body, and an old man's voice speaking in Valyrian, two words I recognized. "Not today."

---

Blue Ink Alchemy

Family Commander: First Skirmish

Family Commander: First Skirmish — Blue Ink Alchemy

I was correct, Ghave turned out to be a real fun guy. *hides* As promised what follows is an account of how a bit of Commander play went down at the Loomis home in Allentown on Saturday. Wizards of the Coast, in my opinion, knocked it out of the park with these preconstructed decks. They are solid investments in terms of rare cards, they stand alone as perfectly playable decks and give great jumping-off points for future supposition and deck-building exercises. But more on that later. I opened up Counterpunch and made a few tweaks right off the bat. Not that there is anything wrong with the deck as it's built, but the presence of the Aquastrand Spider convinced me that the presence of the Sporeback Troll and Cytospawn Shambler would not go amiss. I also included a Kavu Predator since I knew plenty of life-gain would be happening and a Heavenly Inferno deck altered to include his sentimental favorite Shivan Dragon. Close as it is to the deck he's played for years, a red-white one with a "big creatures SMASH" theme, it wasn't hard for him to get to know it pretty well. My niece is still getting used to using Political Puppets. I don't think many changes were made to the deck, and there are a lot of combos to it that beginning players might miss out on. Still, she had enough weapons in the deck to make us all very nervous. My brother-in-law started with Mirror Mastery. It was probably the deck I knew the least about among the pre-cons. As such, the smart thing would likely have been to make him my primary target, but as such things tend to go around the family gaming table, whomever played the last card that several annoyed everybody else became the target. So the first match got underway. It took me some time to wrap my mind around the ins and outs of Ghave's token production and counter-swapping, but it proved to be really irritating for an opponent wanting to eliminate a creature, as Ghave can always move tokens around in response to threats. Unfortunately my main means of protecting myself from flying threats didn't show up until late in the game, and by then my brother-in-law had used his Commander's ability of doubling spells on Call the Skybreaker so many times that he had, at one point, nine 5/5 flying elementals on his battlefield. He might have had more. I can't remember clearly. I just remember lots and lots of pain. He then switched decks to Devour for Power. This means that most of his creatures now contained black. As did many of my father's. Which in turn meant that the bulk of my creature removal spells were useless, as they can only remove non-black creatures. That coupled with an early expulsion of really useful cards from my starting hand really slowed me down. Still, my fungus minions and I soldiered on as best we could, even if in the end the kraken from my brother-in-law's deck rolled over our faces. In my haste to exile creatures from graveyards I'd forgotten all about Wrexial. It proved to be at least part of my undoing. In retrospect I should have taken more time to study the other decks. Cards like Call the Skybreaker and Windfall might not have taken me by surprise if I had. I will make sure I'm not as unprepared for next time. From what I saw, Political Puppets would be a deck well suited to my play style. I like to build up momentum, wait for my opponents to open themselves up and then run them into the ground by one means or another. I may let my niece try out Counterpunch and experiment on the Puppets with a couple tweaks I have in mind. The other thing I want to do is take the Heavenly Inferno deck, pull out white and replace it with green. Basically the notion is to dial down the other creature types and ramp the dragons up to maximum. With a little help from the planeswalker Sarkhan (even if he goes mad due to my machinations...) and some of the cards I already own, a plan of mine that's been rolling around for some time may soon come to fruition... Commander Archenemy.

---

Blue Ink Alchemy

IT CAME FROM NETFLIX! Killers

IT CAME FROM NETFLIX! Killers — Blue Ink Alchemy

[audio:http://www.blueinkalchemy.com/uploads/killers.mp3] We mix things up all the time. Mix some leftover pasta, meat, sauce and veggies together and you get goulash. Throw some tequila and frozen fruit in a blender, and you get margaritas! It's similar with fiction. Genres mix all the time. Action is mixed with comedy and comedy with romance. You might even throw some sci-fi, fantasy or steampunk in there if you're feeling bold, or you've had too much to drink in your latest binge in the wake of rejection letters. It is possible, however, to mix things in wrong proportions. You can overpower a drink with too much booze, undersaturate your casserole with sauce or have too much going on in your story... or not enough. While Killers isn't suffering from a lack of genre and ideas, it is suffering from a lack of originality. And humanity. And humor. We're introduced to Jen sandwiched between her parents on a flight to France after she's been dumped. As soon as they arrive, she meets Spencer. A few awkward silences and vague flirtations later, Jen and Spencer have a series of dates that lead to a happy marriage. Spencer moves back to the states and they start building a life together. But it turns out Spencer is a spy, or was and didn't fill out his exit paperwork properly. Since espionage employers are thoroughly unforgiving people, people start trying to kill Spencer and Jen, which not only threatens their lives but the future of their marriage. Oh, and this is all supposed to be really, really funny. It must be said that Killers looks good, at least. It's hard not to with attractive leads. And the French scenery is gorgeous, too. It lifts a love of sumptuous European locales directly from any number of romantic comedies whose audience might have been duped into seeing this thing. The direction and cinematography are clean and straightforward, relying on jump cuts and by-the-numbers angles rather than slight-of-hand camera work and lens flares. While this works well for the film and captures the primary appeal of our actors, it's a very shallow form of attractiveness.
Here, check out ~70% of this film's appeal. In fact, 'shallow' is a good word for Killers. It has about the same amount of substance in its narrative as a handful of potato chips has nutritional value. The writing, like the camera work, is strictly formulaic. The dialog is only slightly stilted, but that doesn't change the fact that it's assembled with toothpicks and held together with rubber cement. It's not what I could call 'solid'. At least in Spenser's case, it makes sense for him to be as stiff as he is. And Jen's dad is the most stoic of stoic dads. But everybody talks in this stilted, formula manner. It's really irritating, to me at least, and takes a lot of wind out of the sails of the would-be jokes. The other main problem with Killers is that of its several blended genres, none of them are strong enough to work on its own. Now, this might be a necessary evil with a mish-mash like this, but it's difficult to be a romantic action comedy when the two leads are relatively flat cyphers, the action doesn't pop as it does in its contemporaries and the comedy isn't overly funny, for reasons I've already mentioned. At the very least, you want some chemistry between your leads, some truly punchy or funny lines or actually inventive action. When all of that is missing, you have a movie that's all appearance and no substance.
Mr. Selleck's moustache is unimpressed. Finally, this has been done before. That isn't to say filmmakers can't take old ideas in new directions. But if you're going to do something new with a franchise or a concept, do something good with it.* The problem Killers faced even before it started in with the shallow dialog, formula plot and complete lack of spark is that we've seen this sort of thing done before, and better, in True Lies. And say what you want about Mr. and Mrs. Smith, at least Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie had something approaching banter and chemistry. Ashton and Katherine seem more concerned about hitting their marks and twisting their faces into another iteration of dull surprise than they are about conveying emotion, let alone an original thought. Killers feels like it was assembled by a committee of robots fed the criteria of what most American movie-goers are looking for: attractive stars, exotic locales, cheap laughs, gun fights and whatever passes for humor among their circle of friends. It functions, to be sure, but it's so derivative and dull as to be entirely skippable. Get True Lies or Mr. & Mrs. Smith from Netflix instead. The goal for a film like Killers is to at least partially be romantic, comedic or action-packed. Instead, we get a flaccid, hollow and thoroughly uninteresting flick that's devoid of passion, lacking in laughter and staggeringly boring. Josh Loomis can't always make it to the local megaplex, and thus must turn to alternative forms of cinematic entertainment. There might not be overpriced soda pop & over-buttered popcorn, and it's unclear if this week's film came in the mail or was delivered via the dark & mysterious tubes of the Internet. Only one thing is certain... IT CAME FROM NETFLIX. * Don't, for example, let squishy shallow humans take center stage when your flick's supposed to be about giant badass transforming robots.

---

Blue Ink Alchemy

The Commander Returns

The Commander Returns — Blue Ink Alchemy

Just imagine this guy immune to your spells and regenerating all damage. It's been a while since I've blogged about Magic: the Gathering, but recent trips home have pulled me back into what players would call the 'local meta' of my family. Here's a quick recap: Once, they called it Elder Dragon Highlander. It is a variant of Magic: the Gathering geared for multiplayer mayhem. It was so named because the decks used by players were defined by a legendary creature, usually an elder dragon. The deck could only contain colors matching those in the dragon's casting cost, and only one copy of each card other than basic land was allowed. And Highlander? Well. In the end, there can be only one. The variant turned out to be staggeringly popular, to the point that Wizards of the Coast decided to give it the official multiplayer variant treatment. It has now joined the ranks of Planechase (which I haven't played) and Archenemy (which my family won't play with me any more for some odd reason...) with a selection of high-end preconstructed decks with unique, rare and prized cards among the lists. And, unwilling to be sued by an angry sword-wielding member of the Clan MacLeod, the variant has been remained Commander. I've tried my hand at the varant several times before, with varying degrees of success. Teneb the Harvester was my first go-to Commander. As a fan of necromancy as a means to victory as well as motivations for villainy, altering my Reanimator deck into an (at the time) EDH variant seemed logical. It worked very similarly to it's Standard origins, with creatures not staying dead, only it was very big creatures not staying dead. As I mentioned previously, though, my sister-in-law fielded Teneb so I needed to choose another. The other massive, legendary dragon to which I have access is Vorosh the Hunter. Back when Time Spiral was the hotness, Ravinca block boosters were still kicking around on the cheap. I'd picked up quite a few back then, and in doing so had acquired many creatures with Graft abilities. Since Vorosh is all about the +1/+1 counters when he noms on an opponent's face, why not also make him trampling, or regenerating, or immune to spells or abilities? It never quite worked as well as I'd hoped, so I tabled it. Razia, Boros Archangel had better prospects, but my father immediately adopted her as his first Commander ever, as red and white are his main colors. 'Ouch' is the word that best describes what happened next. Turning back to darker roots, I mined my Dragonfire Archenemy deck for ideas. Lyzolda, the Blood Witch offered me her sultry services and I obliged. The resulting deck was nasty but suffered from a bit of the old 'glass cannon' syndrome. Still, of my previous attempts, it might have the most potential as a homegrown Commander deck, provided I can lay my hands on some of the tastier singles new to the variant thanks to Wizards (Command Tower, the Vows, etc). Considering its roots and the presence of dragons elsewhere at the family gaming table, a more vicious Commander might be Karrthus, Tyrant of Jund. In the meantime, now that I have Accorder's Sheilds out the yin-yang, maybe I can keep Lyzolda from being what the kids call "bolt bait." I mean, a Commander with 1 toughness? Better be ready to defend it. Speaking of the latest expansion block, I tried to breathe new life into Vorosh's deck with some infect and proliferation. Again, it was a noble effort but it never quite hit the stride necessary to keep up with the others around me, especially now that the new pre-constructeds had been introduced. My last purely homegrown attempt was a red/blue number with the twin wizards Tibor & Lumia at its helm. It had a tight focus on direct nastiness against my opponents and their spells, but lacking the mana ramp of other decks it was quickly left behind. I was frustrated, and unsure of what I'd do next, other than insisting we stick to Standard constructed so I could roll all over people with my Katamyri deck. And then, as a belated Father's Day present, my father picked up the pre-constructed deck Counterpunch. What an interesting choice. So much of the counter-based tomfoolery I'd been fumbling with in my Vorosh deck but in the colors of Teneb. My father, however, expressed trepidation at the word 'counter' in the title. "No, it's not Counterspells. It's the counters on the creatures and the little generated creatures often represented by counters." (His response was "Oh. That makes me feel MUCH better.") I then explained that counterspells or, at the very least, denial was the purview of the Political Puppets pre-constructed deck. He felt better since he hadn't gotten me that one, but he's still not sure what to expect. The deck appears, as The Casual Planeswalker put it, pretty darn solid, but I do have a tweak or two in mind. I have, after all, been toying with a very similar concept for the better part of a year. Expect an after-action report on some nice, wholesome family fun (with the occasional muttered swear or threat of physical violence) after I pick up the deck from Allentown this weekend.

---

Blue Ink Alchemy

The Art of Thor: Talking Terrain

The Art of Thor: Talking Terrain — Blue Ink Alchemy

Siege tanks love some high ground.

With regard to narrow passes, if you can occupy them first, let them be strongly garrisoned and await the advent of the enemy.* Should the army forestall you in occupying a pass, do not go after him if the pass is fully garrisoned, but only if it is weakly garrisoned.

It can be difficult to learn the ins and outs of every map without quite a bit of time spent out of game or ranked matches looking up every nuance of each one. I'm certainly not going to suggest you do that. Instead, I'd like to touch on some general suggestions and observations when it comes to terrain. A lot of build orders call for you to send a worker to scout. You may see the pros doing it too. The truth is, other than giving you the initial position of the enemy, this potential loss of an early gatherer does not provide more vital intelligence, as to what your opponent is currently building or when their attack is coming. Likewise, unless they invest in some other means of observing you, they won't have that intelligence either. Most of these terrain suggestions will provide you with some means to gather that intelligence, and possibly exploit the advantages some of your units provide.

The Higher Ground

StarCraft 2 maps are not flat surfaces. Plateaus, cliffs and ridges run throughout the battlefield. Many historical military engagements have proven that significant advantage exists in positions upon higher ground. In the case of StarCraft 2, if nothing else, you have the capability to look down into a trench or pathway and see where the enemy is going and in what numbers - at least until you're spotted and they turn your brave scout into a bloody smear. The high ground provides opportunities beyond mere observation. Certain units - seige tanks and colossi for example - lay down their fire in an indirect fashion, spreading destruction over a wide area. Doing so from a higher position limits the amount of retribution that can be brought against that position. Such planning can stall or possibly even stop an incoming attack, buying you more time to mount your counter-offensive.

The Path Less Traveled

In most cases, a player with some skill will quickly outgrow their initial placement and need to expand. There are some builds that can take you entirely to success on one base, but sooner or later you're going to run out of minerals. Expansions solve the potential problem of economic shortfall, but these positions are more exposed to entry, especially from unexpected angles. Destructible rocks, reeds, smoke and other aspects of the environment will make these approaches less obvious. However, opening these approaches provide some interesting opportunities. Most of them lead almost directly into the mineral line of the expansion. Fast units, such as hellions, speedlings/banelines and blink stalkers, can exploit this placement, bring some damage into the workers behind the expansion, and bug out before your opponent can retaliate. It doesn't work for every map or every strategy, but with the right timing and units it can be devastating.

Choke Points

Most maps put the players in a position with a ramp that can be walled off and provides some natural defense. Other terrain features can limit the approaches of an opposing force into your bases. As many historical battles can teach us, with the right positioning and preparation, a small force can hold off a much larger one while taking minimal casualties. Other than the immediate benefit of deterring your opponent, preparing and keeping choke points also allows one the opportunity to build in relative peace. Many players, faced with a daunting defensive position, will throw ever-growing waves of similar forces against it. While they will break through eventually, a canny player will exploit this to build a rapid response and sortie out when the next wave hits. Of course, if either player goes for air superiority and the other is unprepared, terrain becomes something of a moot point. But that's a consideration for another time. * Because then, as Tu Yu observes, "the initiative will lie with us, and by making sudden and unexpected attacks we shall have the enemy at our mercy."

---

Blue Ink Alchemy

The Art of Thor: Talking Terrain

The Art of Thor: Talking Terrain — Blue Ink Alchemy

Siege tanks love some high ground.

With regard to narrow passes, if you can occupy them first, let them be strongly garrisoned and await the advent of the enemy.* Should the army forestall you in occupying a pass, do not go after him if the pass is fully garrisoned, but only if it is weakly garrisoned.

It can be difficult to learn the ins and outs of every map without quite a bit of time spent out of game or ranked matches looking up every nuance of each one. I'm certainly not going to suggest you do that. Instead, I'd like to touch on some general suggestions and observations when it comes to terrain. A lot of build orders call for you to send a worker to scout. You may see the pros doing it too. The truth is, other than giving you the initial position of the enemy, this potential loss of an early gatherer does not provide more vital intelligence, as to what your opponent is currently building or when their attack is coming. Likewise, unless they invest in some other means of observing you, they won't have that intelligence either. Most of these terrain suggestions will provide you with some means to gather that intelligence, and possibly exploit the advantages some of your units provide.

The Higher Ground

StarCraft 2 maps are not flat surfaces. Plateaus, cliffs and ridges run throughout the battlefield. Many historical military engagements have proven that significant advantage exists in positions upon higher ground. In the case of StarCraft 2, if nothing else, you have the capability to look down into a trench or pathway and see where the enemy is going and in what numbers - at least until you're spotted and they turn your brave scout into a bloody smear. The high ground provides opportunities beyond mere observation. Certain units - seige tanks and colossi for example - lay down their fire in an indirect fashion, spreading destruction over a wide area. Doing so from a higher position limits the amount of retribution that can be brought against that position. Such planning can stall or possibly even stop an incoming attack, buying you more time to mount your counter-offensive.

The Path Less Traveled

In most cases, a player with some skill will quickly outgrow their initial placement and need to expand. There are some builds that can take you entirely to success on one base, but sooner or later you're going to run out of minerals. Expansions solve the potential problem of economic shortfall, but these positions are more exposed to entry, especially from unexpected angles. Destructible rocks, reeds, smoke and other aspects of the environment will make these approaches less obvious. However, opening these approaches provide some interesting opportunities. Most of them lead almost directly into the mineral line of the expansion. Fast units, such as hellions, speedlings/banelines and blink stalkers, can exploit this placement, bring some damage into the workers behind the expansion, and bug out before your opponent can retaliate. It doesn't work for every map or every strategy, but with the right timing and units it can be devastating.

Choke Points

Most maps put the players in a position with a ramp that can be walled off and provides some natural defense. Other terrain features can limit the approaches of an opposing force into your bases. As many historical battles can teach us, with the right positioning and preparation, a small force can hold off a much larger one while taking minimal casualties. Other than the immediate benefit of deterring your opponent, preparing and keeping choke points also allows one the opportunity to build in relative peace. Many players, faced with a daunting defensive position, will throw ever-growing waves of similar forces against it. While they will break through eventually, a canny player will exploit this to build a rapid response and sortie out when the next wave hits. Of course, if either player goes for air superiority and the other is unprepared, terrain becomes something of a moot point. But that's a consideration for another time. * Because then, as Tu Yu observes, "the initiative will lie with us, and by making sudden and unexpected attacks we shall have the enemy at our mercy."

---

Blue Ink Alchemy

Cadmon's Journal: Second Entry

Cadmon's Journal: Second Entry — Blue Ink Alchemy

A new experiment has begun. In Reading, Pennsylvania, a friend is running a tabletop game set in the world of George RR Martin's Song of Ice and Fire. What follows are the recollections of my character, Cadmon Storm, in a journal he keeps on his person or ravens he sends to other characters. All characters, locations and events are copyright George RR Martin and the events that take place during this game can and will deviate from series canon. The road from Moat Cailin to the Twins will be somewhat long. I don't blame Lord Luxon for bringing me along. It was I who discovered the girl, after all, and endeavored to keep her safe. She's had a difficult time of it, and while I cannot relate to her exact circumstances, I do know what it's like to realize you're an unwanted child among a noble house. I realized it at Storm's End, a year after I first met Ser Davos. When you grow up without the full support of a household in a castle, you often have time to yourself. When I wasn't finding time to learn more about reading or fighting, I was exploring. Storm's End, like most castles, is honeycombed with passages and tunnels either forgotten or rarely used. Most were simply shortcuts, and would lead one to the threshold of a hall or set of chambers without being seen. I'd discovered one that deposited me within earshot of the main hall when I learned the fate planned for me. "The boy is a menace." The harsh voice, pinched with anger, belonged to Symeon Trant. Young, fat and spoiled Sandor Trant's father. He'd been a guest at Storm's End for some time, angling to work with or even supplant the master-at-arms. I'd seen him fight in the yard. It might have been only for practice, but I knew how vicious he could be. "Are you seriously telling me you're afraid of a child?" The other voice was the castellan, Cortnay Penrose. He ruled Storm's End in the absence of Renly Baratheon. I'd met Lord Renly once or twice. He seemed a decent sort, boisterous and smiling, but I had to admit that him being here might not have improved my lot. He had his relation to the king to consider, and keeping a bastard in his house might have been unseemly. Lord Cortnay just wanted things running smoothly, and I Stayed out of his way, helping my mother when I could. "He spends far too much time with the maester and those pirates. He should be scrubbing floors and carving meat from game for our feasts." "He's seen in the kitchens more often than not. Maester Aloysius does not mind his company. And Ser Davos Seaworth is no longer a 'pirate', nor was he ever one in the strictest sense. He's the reason this castle still stands, lest you forget." "I wasn't cowering behind castle walls like you during the Rebellion. I was sacking King's Landing." "Yet now you seek to hide behind me from a mere boy?" "You will not always be castellan, you know. Renly Baratheon is not too distant. My brother also stands with him, a member of Robert's Kingsguard." "And running south to King's Landing to ask for help in dealing with a child is such a better alternative. I'm sure the courtiers will love to hear of it. That will go so well for House Trant. I wish you luck." There was a deadly silence. I dared not move, or even speak. "I will not forget this. House Trant will not forget. And when you find that bastard's body, I trust you will not forget, either." "I won't. Especially considering that bastard's mother is family of mine. He swept out of the hall. I peeked around the corner to watch him go. The castellan sat in the largest chair in the hall, rubbing his temples. I didn't know what he was going to do, but as I watched him, I realized he would do nothing. What could he do? He was charged with running Storm's End smoothly, and having guardsmen running around to protect a bastard boy when they needed to watch the walls and man the gates would not go well for him. And all the protective detail in the world would do no good in the dead of night when Trant's spoiled kid slipped into my room with a knife. I ran to my mother. I guess it was the only thing I felt I could do. She listened to my tale, and immeidately started packing two bags. "I am going to King's Landing," she told me. "Little remains for me here. Having you and keeping you did not endear me to my father." "What about mine?" She paused, then shook her head. "He already has a wife. To have me show up at his doorstep with you would be just as much an embarassment. No, it's King's Landing for me. I can find work thre." "Okay. I'll find us horses." She turned to me and smiled. "Cad, come here." I'd been tossing clothes into a bag. I put it down and walked to her. She knelt and ruffled my hair. "I'm glad you've helped me in the kitchens and around the halls so diligently. You make me so proud, with your strength and patience and learning to read! I never did that." I remember blushing. "I want to make you proud, Momma." She kissed my forehead. "You always will. But our paths must part." I looked up at her. "What? Why?" "Because King's Landing is no place for you. I've kept your father's identity secret all these years to protect all three of us. In King's Landing, such things become known all too easily. A woman alone is only as enigmatic as her smile and what's up her skirts. A woman with a boy out of nowhere brings up more questions, and someone will pay for the answers." "I don't understand." "I know. You will, in time." She kissed me again. "I want you to go with your friend. I want you to go with Ser Davos. If you are with him I know you will be safe. And... I have ways to find safety for myself. I don't want you to worry about me." "Momma..." "I know you're scared. I am, too. But it must be this way. We must go, and quickly, and in separate ways." Tears were in her eyes. I nearly started crying myself but I bit my lip, hard, to keep the sobs down. She gripped my shoulders. "We won't let our fears drive us, Cadmon. We'll face them and overcome them. I was afraid of disappointing my father when I couldn't read more than a few words, and I was even more afraid when he sent me here. But because of that, I had you. And you are the best thing that's ever happened to me. I will always love your father for that." I sniffled. She squeezed my shoulders. "I can't bear the thought of you coming to harm. That's why you need to go. Go to Ser Davos. I know you want to go to sea. I also know the sea will bring you back to me. But for now it will take you away. Just as I am going away. This is the way things must be if we are to see each other again in this life." She handed me my back, kissed my cheek one last time, and told me to go. So I went. I went to the docks to find the man who'd take me away from Westeros, from the Trants, into the unknown I'd dreamed of but never truly seen.

---

Blue Ink Alchemy

Cadmon's Journal: First Entry

Cadmon's Journal: First Entry — Blue Ink Alchemy

A new experiment has begun. In Reading, Pennsylvania, a friend is running a tabletop game set in the world of George RR Martin's Song of Ice and Fire. What follows are the recollections of my character, Cadmon Storm, in a journal he keeps on his person or ravens he sends to other characters. All characters, locations and events are copyright George RR Martin and the events that take place during this game can and will deviate from series canon. Now that I have time where I am not on the road or dealing with immediate threats, it occurs to me I should put down some record of my thoughts and travels. I know I am a bastard. I know that my account may not matter to many or amount to much in any end equation. Yet I still feel compelled to put ink to paper in the form of some record of this journey I find myself upon. Maybe some future bastard staring down a life of derision and bleak prospects will find something of use in these words. My name is Cadmon Storm. My mother is Rhiannon Penrose, a serving girl at Storm's End. She did not tell me, during my childhood years, who my father is. I learned later that she wished me to grow up free of expectation or ambition, to have as normal a childhood as possible. But with the surname of Storm in the ancestral home of House Baratheon, that of the King of the Andals and Lord of the Seven Kingdoms, my childhood was not what I would call 'normal'. Few children wished to associate with me of their own will. They kept to themselves, to lessons with the maester and the septons. I found myself the unwilling recipient of several beatings by my peers, I'm assuming under the guise of learning my place as a bastard in a great House. I often would sneak free of the castle to wander amongst the villagers, and then down to the docks not far from Storm's End. The salty folk who made their living there had much more tolerance for a bastard and I found myself spending more and more time there. I had gotten into the habit of learning all I could. My mother encouraged this, always sneaking a little food from the kitchens for when I returned from my wanderings. Despite not having the focused instruction of the trueborn children of Storm's End, I picked up a few things on life at court, the lot of servants and the trades of the sea. I watched the swordplay in secret by day, and practiced down by the waters of the Narrow Sea at night. One of these practice sessions lead to what was the first pivotal moment of my young life. I'd found a broken oar handle, just long enough for my little hands to grip and swing properly. I was six, maybe seven. I'd paused in my usual trek down to the docks to practice what I'd seen the previous day on a sturdy oak not far off the road. One could see Storm's End from the docks and vice versa, so it wasn't uncommon for the children of the servants in the castle to run errands while the servants worked. One of those children, a girl with two or three name days on me, was coming up from the docks with a basket of onions. A boy older than us both was walking down from the castle, wearing the azure & sable colors of House Trant. He was looking up at the trees and the girl was minding her basket, which is how they collided. "Clumsy idiot!" The boy was spitting leaves as he got to his feet. "I'm so sorry!" The girl scrambled, trying to collect all of the spilled onions. "You've struck the son of a noble house! Do you know what that means? My father is going to flog you within an inch of your life!" He seized her arm and she gasped in pain. One of her onions rolled up against my foot. I bent and picked it up with my left hand, the oar handle in my right. I may have been a boy, but even then I knew right from wrong. And letting this pompous wet-nosed ass harm an innocent if somewhat clumsy girl was wrong. "Let her go." They both turned and stared at me and the boy just squeezed her harder. "I know you. You're that bastard boy who's always skulking around. Go back to the woods, bastard, before I have my father flog you too." "He's not here." He blinked at me. "What?" "Your father isn't here. Neither is mine. We're both bastards out here." He spat, releasing the girl to draw a dagger from his belt. In his hand it was nearly a shortsword. "You take that back!" I raised my 'sword' the way I'd seen them do in the courtyard a hundred times. "Make me." The girl, grasping onto a modicum of sense, grabbed her basket of onions and ran. The boy snarled and lunged at me. I backed up, moving to one side. He followed me and kept trying to stick me with his knife. It was on his seventh attack that it occured to me that I'd seen this, too. One boy lunged, the other stepped to one side and hit them. Once an instructor had aimed his blow at the oncoming sword-arm, to knock the blade away. I did the same, bringing my oar handle down with both hands. The boy made a very unmanly shrieking noise and dropped his dagger, only to swing at me with his free hand. He punched me in the throat and for a moment I was unable to breathe. He jumped on me, forcing me to the ground, and started punching my face. "STOP!" The boy didn't stop. I felt my nose break under his fist. Large hands pulled him away from me. I was helped to my feet, still gripping my makeshift weapon and the girl's onion. Several men dressed for the sea were trying to make sense of our melee, and one in the middle, wearing a black surcoat and drumming shortened fingers on his crossed arm, had an expression that demanded an explanation. "He hit me!" The boy was still shrieking. "The bastard hit me!" "Better me than the girl." My jaw hurt. Talking hurt. I did it anyway, wiping blood from my face with the back of my right hand. "He was going to have a girl beaten for running into him. He wasn't watching where he was going." "Liar!" "Enough, both of you." The man with the shortened hand looked from me to the boy and back again, then over his shoulder at the girl. "I think what we have here is an accident and a misunderstanding. Girl, apologize to the young Trant for running into him." "Forgive me." Her voice was timid, unsure. "Never!" The boy pulled away from the hands holding him. "You cost me my dagger! It was a gift from my father!" "This little girl disarmed you?" "No!" He thrust out his jaw at the man, pointing angrily at me. "The bastard did! He stole my dagger! He's a thief!" The man knelt so that he was eye-to-eye with the boy and his voice became more quiet and more menacing. "I know from thievery, boy. If he'd stolen it he'd be away from here as fast as his little legs could carry him. But here he stands." He glanced at the ground, found the small dagger and handed it to the boy. "I think you're making a hurricane out of a storm cloud, and what's more, you're making a fool of yourself." The boy opened his mouth, then closed it again. His fingers tighened around the dagger, holding it close to his chest. He thrust his jaw out again but tears welled in his eyes. "It's not fair! He's a bastard! I should be right!" "Life isn't fair, boy." At that, the trueborn dagger-lover burst into tears and bolted for the castle. The man stood and shook his head, then looked at me. His eyes flicked to the onion in my hand, then the oar handle. "What's your name?" "Cadmon." "Well, Cadmon, we'd best do something about that nose. It'll heal crooked otherwise." Before I could protest, he seized the end of my nose with his shortened fingers and tugged it back into place. It hurt so badly I passed out on the spot. That's how I met Ser Davos Seaworth.

---

Blue Ink Alchemy

The Game's Just Begun

The Game's Just Begun — Blue Ink Alchemy

So the Game of Thrones season finale was last night. I'll be seeing it myself tomorrow night, but in the meantime I know a lot of people are hungry for more. I'll just have to do my best to help. I've added a new page, simply entitled 'Westeros', where I've indexed the Beginner's Guide posts and will be adding the snippets I write about Cadmon Storm. Those are non-canonical, as I've mentioned, but it should still help folks who actually read this stuff limp along until Spring 2012 when the series returns to HBO. I will also work on making the Guide posts easier to navigate one to the other. Tomorrow Cadmon writes about leaving Storm's End, Wednesday is your regular Art of Thor feature, Thursday is a post on Magic the Gathering's Commander variant and Friday is the return of IT CAME FROM NETFLIX! with Killers, starring Ashton Kutcher. Please to enjoy.

---

Blue Ink Alchemy

The Game's Just Begun

The Game's Just Begun — Blue Ink Alchemy

So the Game of Thrones season finale was last night. I'll be seeing it myself tomorrow night, but in the meantime I know a lot of people are hungry for more. I'll just have to do my best to help. I've added a new page, simply entitled 'Westeros', where I've indexed the Beginner's Guide posts and will be adding the snippets I write about Cadmon Storm. Those are non-canonical, as I've mentioned, but it should still help folks who actually read this stuff limp along until Spring 2012 when the series returns to HBO. Please to enjoy.

---

Blue Ink Alchemy

A Writerly Rant

A Writerly Rant — Blue Ink Alchemy

"[A] writing career is about putting a bucket on your head and trying to knock down a brick wall. It's either you or the wall."

~Chuck Wendig

Reality's a stone-cold bitch. That's why I mostly write fiction. I identify first and foremost as a writer, not necessarily a programmer or a social media guru or mediocre gamer. As such I've come to accept several truths about myself.

• Any emotional problems from which I actually suffer will be exacerbated by the short-sighted stubborn sociopathy inherent of being a writer.
• If I take up writing as a full-time profession I am going to dodge debt collectors and utility bills even more than I do now. (Don't panic, family members, my knees are unbroken and will remain so. I'm just not dining on steak and drinking cognac. More like dining on pasta and drinking cheap pop.)
• The longer I do not write full time and cram writing in whenever I can into the nooks and crannies of a packed schedule, fueled by whatever energy I can spare, the more my writing is going to suffer for it and the less likely I am to get published before I'm facing off against Gandalf and Dumbledore in a long white beard growing competition. Which I'll win because they're fictional.
• While writing is an evolutionary process that requires several drafts, torrents of trial and error, and accepting that one's final effort might still be a flaming pile of poo, processes in the professional world are very different, and being writerly will rarely be tolerated long in the face of clients who want what they want yesterday for less than they want to pay. If you don't get something right the first time, there's the door, don't let it hit you on those fancy pants you thought you were wearing.
• I am never, ever, for as long as I keep breathing, going to give up writing.

Sure, I'll be miserable more often than not. Who isn't? I've learned to seize and capitalize on my joy when I find it. My wife's smile. Pulling off a win in StarCraft. Meeting fellow geeks in person instead of just over the Tweetsphere. The open road on a sunny day. Poutine. The Union scoring a goal. A decent movie or video game with a coherent story and three-dimensional characters. My mom's cooking and my dad's laughter. And finishing a story. That's the hidden beauty of writing. If you do it right, you get to finish it multiple times. After your first draft, you go back and edit it. And when you get through the edit? Guess what, you finished it. Awesome! Now go do it again. Work, edit, revise, cross out, swear, drink, work, write, grind, swear, edit, DING. In my experience it's not a case of diminishing returns. The next round of edits might not be as heady in its completion as the last, but it'll be different and it'll still be good. And let me tell you, it's a long hard road to get there. Even if you do write for a living, you still have to produce. Instead of the aforementioned clients you have looming deadlines, a constant and gnawing doubt that your writing just won't be good enough and the cold knowledge that at least a dozen younger, hungrier and more talented penjockeys are just waiting for you to fuck up so they can take your place, and your paycheck. Pressure from clients or deadlines or those lean and hungry wolves becomes pressure on you, pound after pound after pound of it, and when you go home at night with even more words unwritten, you're going to feel every ounce of that pressure on your foolish head, and every word you haven't written will pile on top, each one an additional gram of concentrated dark-matter suck. It's a love affair with someone who never returns you calls when you need them but always calls just when you think you can't take another day of this tedious, soul-eroding bullshit. I said earlier I mostly write fiction. This, for example, isn't ficton. I wouldn't mind writing more recollections like this, but guess what, I'm not getting paid for it (I could be if somehting hadn't gone wrong with my ad block, thank you SO much for that, Google Ads). My movie & game reviews, short stories, commentary on geek minutae, Art of Thor series, IT CAME FROM NETFLIX!, the Beginner's Guide to Westeros? Not a dime. I don't write any of that because I get paid for it. I do it to entertain those couple dozen of you who cruise by here every day. I do it because I feel I've got something to say that hasn't quite been said this way before. And yes, I do it because I love it. It's in my blood and my bones. It keeps me awake at night more than bills or code or politics or Protoss cheese or ruminations on the Holy Ghost. And since I doubt I'm going to be getting rid of it at this point in my life, I might as well embrace it and make the most of it. I'm going to suffer more hardship. I might have to move, or change jobs again, or go through some embarassing procedure because I tried to hock my words at passers-by on the train and had made one of the first drafts of my manuscript into what I felt was a fetching kilt (nae trews Jimmy) and a matching hat that may or may not have been styled after those conical straw numbers you see atop badass samurai in Kurosawa movies. So be it. Say it with me, writers.

I will not whine. I will not blubber. I will not make mewling whimpering cryface pissypants boo-hoo noises. I will not sing lamentations to my weakness. I am the Commander of these words. I am the King of this story. I am the God of this place. I am a writer, and I will finish the shit that I started. Amen.

---

Blue Ink Alchemy

The Art of Thor: The Tortoise and the Hare

The Art of Thor: The Tortoise and the Hare — Blue Ink Alchemy

The Viking: Fast, smashing anti-air missiles, wide vision area. Great for both offense & defense.

The Art of War teaches us to rely not on the likelihood of our enemy's not coming, but on our own readiness to recieve our enemy; not on the chance of our enemy's not attacking, but rather on the fact that we have made our position unassailable.

I've mentioned in the past that attacks on your base are inevitable. It's only a matter of time before some measure of nastiness is going to roll up on all your expensive buildings and high-tech units. Sooner or later you do need to look to your defenses. Some would say that defenses must take the form of static buildings and choke point formations, while others maintain that the best defense is a good offense. For the sake of argument, we'll call these two standpoints those of the Tortoise and the Hare. The Tortoise is appropriate for more static defensive tactics. It's appropriate that this method is called "turtling". Like the Night's Watch in Game of Thrones or the ancient Emperors of China, imposing and immobile defenses can deter or slow down enemy aggression with their mere presence. It also is worth noting that maintaining a strong defensive line can provide a measure of breathing room for you to build esoteric, air-based strategies centered around drops, mineral line harassment or top-tier airborne sieges. The drawbacks to this defensive methodology is that it's entirely reactionary. You have to scramble if your opponent comes up with a way around your defenses or attacks a weaker side of your position. It also allows ample time for your opponent to build tactics & counters of their own. Finally, even turtle tactics require resources to maintain their lines and expand, and since defenses are so static and getting caught out of position can be lethal for said defenses, you will be susceptible to strangulation if you aren't careful. The Hare takes the fight to the enemy. Rather than waiting behind walls and automated defenses, this methodology pushes out as quickly as possible. It's a fast and aggressive style of play that relies upon repeated thrusts against the enemy position to throw off their timing. The reason why I would consider this a method of defense is that as long as you're throwing dudes at the enemy, you're less likely to get dudes thrown at you. This means you can keep building behind each push, and if you aren't, you should be. That's one of the major problems with relying upon offense. If you become focused on the battles and explosions, you might miss a chance to expand or build. If you look at a replay and see your buildings are idle and you're flush with minerals or gas, you're doing something wrong. Attacking quickly and repeatedly can also be fragile in the early game, and if an enemy's defenses continuously repel your pushes and you don't adapt quickly enough, your next push might be the opening they'll exploit to ruin you. Constant attacks can deprive mineral line of defenders, which is just another way of saying counter-attacks can be deadly if your macro is not maintained. Which way do you tend to lean? How do you make your position unassailable?

---

Blue Ink Alchemy

The Art of Thor: The Tortoise and the Hare

The Art of Thor: The Tortoise and the Hare — Blue Ink Alchemy

The Viking: Fast, smashing anti-air missiles, wide vision area. Great for both offense & defense.

The Art of War teaches us to rely not on the likelihood of our enemy's not coming, but on our own readiness to recieve our enemy; not on the chance of our enemy's not attacking, but rather on the fact that we have made our position unassailable.

I've mentioned in the past that attacks on your base are inevitable. It's only a matter of time before some measure of nastiness is going to roll up on all your expensive buildings and high-tech units. Sooner or later you do need to look to your defenses. Some would say that defenses must take the form of static buildings and choke point formations, while others maintain that the best defense is a good offense. For the sake of argument, we'll call these two standpoints those of the Tortoise and the Hare. The Tortoise is appropriate for more static defensive tactics. It's appropriate that this method is called "turtling". Like the Night's Watch in Game of Thrones or the ancient Emperors of China, imposing and immobile defenses can deter or slow down enemy aggression with their mere presence. It also is worth noting that maintaining a strong defensive line can provide a measure of breathing room for you to build esoteric, air-based strategies centered around drops, mineral line harassment or top-tier airborne sieges. The drawbacks to this defensive methodology is that it's entirely reactionary. You have to scramble if your opponent comes up with a way around your defenses or attacks a weaker side of your position. It also allows ample time for your opponent to build tactics & counters of their own. Finally, even turtle tactics require resources to maintain their lines and expand, and since defenses are so static and getting caught out of position can be lethal for said defenses, you will be susceptible to strangulation if you aren't careful. The Hare takes the fight to the enemy. Rather than waiting behind walls and automated defenses, this methodology pushes out as quickly as possible. It's a fast and aggressive style of play that relies upon repeated thrusts against the enemy position to throw off their timing. The reason why I would consider this a method of defense is that as long as you're throwing dudes at the enemy, you're less likely to get dudes thrown at you. This means you can keep building behind each push, and if you aren't, you should be. That's one of the major problems with relying upon offense. If you become focused on the battles and explosions, you might miss a chance to expand or build. If you look at a replay and see your buildings are idle and you're flush with minerals or gas, you're doing something wrong. Attacking quickly and repeatedly can also be fragile in the early game, and if an enemy's defenses continuously repel your pushes and you don't adapt quickly enough, your next push might be the opening they'll exploit to ruin you. Constant attacks can deprive mineral line of defenders, which is just another way of saying counter-attacks can be deadly if your macro is not maintained. Which way do you tend to lean? How do you make your position unassailable?

---

Blue Ink Alchemy

The Art of Thor: The Tortoise and the Hare

The Art of Thor: The Tortoise and the Hare — Blue Ink Alchemy

The Viking: Fast, smashing anti-air missiles, wide vision area. Great for both offense & defense.

The Art of War teaches us to rely not on the likelihood of our enemy's not coming, but on our own readiness to recieve our enemy; not on the chance of our enemy's not attacking, but rather on the fact that we have made our position unassailable.

I've mentioned in the past that attacks on your base are inevitable. It's only a matter of time before some measure of nastiness is going to roll up on all your expensive buildings and high-tech units. Sooner or later you do need to look to your defenses. Some would say that defenses must take the form of static buildings and choke point formations, while others maintain that the best defense is a good offense. For the sake of argument, we'll call these two standpoints those of the Tortoise and the Hare. The Tortoise is appropriate for more static defensive tactics. It's appropriate that this method is called "turtling". Like the Night's Watch in Game of Thrones or the ancient Emperors of China, imposing and immobile defenses can deter or slow down enemy aggression with their mere presence. It also is worth noting that maintaining a strong defensive line can provide a measure of breathing room for you to build esoteric, air-based strategies centered around drops, mineral line harassment or top-tier airborne sieges. The drawbacks to this defensive methodology is that it's entirely reactionary. You have to scramble if your opponent comes up with a way around your defenses or attacks a weaker side of your position. It also allows ample time for your opponent to build tactics & counters of their own. Finally, even turtle tactics require resources to maintain their lines and expand, and since defenses are so static and getting caught out of position can be lethal for said defenses, you will be susceptible to strangulation if you aren't careful. The Hare takes the fight to the enemy. Rather than waiting behind walls and automated defenses, this methodology pushes out as quickly as possible. It's a fast and aggressive style of play that relies upon repeated thrusts against the enemy position to throw off their timing. The reason why I would consider this a method of defense is that as long as you're throwing dudes at the enemy, you're less likely to get dudes thrown at you. This means you can keep building behind each push, and if you aren't, you should be. That's one of the major problems with relying upon offense. If you become focused on the battles and explosions, you might miss a chance to expand or build. If you look at a replay and see your buildings are idle and you're flush with minerals or gas, you're doing something wrong. Attacking quickly and repeatedly can also be fragile in the early game, and if an enemy's defenses continuously repel your pushes and you don't adapt quickly enough, your next push might be the opening they'll exploit to ruin you. Constant attacks can deprive mineral line of defenders, which is just another way of saying counter-attacks can be deadly if your macro is not maintained. Which way do you tend to lean? How do you make your position unassailable?

---

Blue Ink Alchemy