If they are currently standing next to you, then I would think it’s in the present.
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The first one is what I originally thought but something was making me second guess myself. Thanks everyonem
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I feel like I really wanted to share this somewhere. I’m working on a serialized fiction story for my Patreon (debating on releasing it each chapter for free a month later from it’s $5 tier release, but I’ll decide that later). It’s a messy WLW romance college town murder-mystery. I wanna get at least the first three chapters of it done before I start releasing anything on Patreon, but I really wanna share it, so here’s a snippet from the first chapter!
Context: Melody and Madeline have been working for a couple of hours in the library on an upcoming presentation.
Love in Stasis
“Uuuugh!” Melody sat back and stared up at the ceiling.
Madeline did the same, only instead of groaning she just rubbed her eyes. “Is it cones or rods that cause sight related headaches?”
Melody shrugged, turning side to side in her seat. “I dunno.”
“Well whichever it is, I’m politely requesting that mine either be replaced or removed.” Madeline sat back forward, looking at Melody who couldn’t help but crack a smile and chuckle at the statement.
They both raised their heads and looked towards the door that was opening, seeing the long-pixie cut, or bixie cut as some would call it, of Luz. “Hey, M n’ M, how goes the studying?”
M n’ M was her nickname for them since… forever. A play on the candy, since their names were Madeline and Melody.
Melody sighed, “Not studying; project. And it’s finished. Finally. But now I have to get into my animal disease homework, which means I’ll be here for a little while longer, unfortunately.”
Luz stepped fully into the doorway, pointing her thumb back towards the direction of the front desk. “My shift’s about to end, but I can wait around if you wanna have somebody to walk you home.”
Melody scrunched her face, holding up a hand in refusal. “No no, you head back to the room. You still have that case to write up a summary on, right? What was it…?” She trails the last word, snapping her fingers a couple of times before pointing towards Luz. “DeShaney v. Winnebago, right?”
Luz grins and nods a little, “Yeah, that’s the one. I’m reviewing my analyses on the mother’s deposition. Shit can get kinda rough.” She lets out a depleted sigh. “But, gotta stay objective. That’s what the law is all about.”
“I never thought I’d see the day where you’d be putting in the work to study law.” Madeline begins gathering her things as she speaks, closing her laptop and shoving it in her backpack.
Luz smiles, leaning against the door frame and crossing her arms. “Oh, I’m sorry, are you saying I don’t put work into things?” The security woman looks down to the front of her body, chuckles, and looks back up. “Cus’ I have a few examples I could give to prove you wrong, cariño.”
Maddie rolls her eyes and shakes her head, but does so with a smile. Luz and Melody just look at each other and laugh a little before Luz pushes herself off of the door frame. “Alright, if you’re sure, Melody, then I’ll see you back at the dorm.”
In response, Melody holds out her hands, as if over exaggeratingly releasing something into the wild. “Be free, my butch stallion. Roam back to the savanna…”
Madeline stops what she’s doing to look and raise her eyebrows at Melody, and Luz just breaks out into a wider smile and shakes her head. “Alright girl, see you at home.” With that, Luz walks away and leaves the other two in the room, letting the door close behind her.
It takes a couple of seconds of Maddie giving the disappointed best friend look for Melody to defend herself. “It was a joke Maddie, I’m tired- leave me alone…” The redhead brings her hands up to her face and leans back in her chair.
“You are so not over her…” Madeline retorts as she finishes putting the rest of her things back in her bookbag and settling back into her seat.
“I know…” Melody sits back up, putting her hands flat on the table, “I’m trying, but like, it’s hard.
Her friend stares back, unimpressed. “Mel-”
“I mean, she talked about putting in work and let me tell you; she put in work.”
Maddie held out her hand and stood up, “Okay, way too much info, girl.” They both laughed a little as Madeline began to gather her things, continuing to attempt to be the voice of reason. “Look, all I’m saying is that nothing good can come from swooning over an ex. Trust me, you saw what happened with me and Ahmed.”
Mel nodded, “Okay, true. I just- it’s hard, y’know?” She slouched forward, leaning her chin on her hand. “We live together, and I see her every night. So not having the space away is just-… It’s difficult to keep my mind focused on other things.”
“You haven’t like…” Maddie lowered her voice, even though she didn’t have to since they were in a literal quiet room. “…benefited with friends’d her, have you?”
Melody smiles, “First off, that’s the weirdest way of asking if we’ve had sex or not. Second, no, we haven’t. At least not since breaking up.”
“Good.”
“But I totally want to.”
“Mel!”
“Maddie!” Melody answered with a smile and a mock tone.
Madeline rolls her eyes and shakes her head, becoming minorly annoyed at this point. Noticing this, Melody follows up her statement with a more sensible, less thirsty take on the situation. “I want to… but I won’t.”
Madeline eases her expression, having empathy for the exhaustion in her best friend’s tone as she continues to speak. “Like I said, living together is hard… but I’ll get over her eventually. I think it’s just harder because we’re still friends, and sometimes…” She shrugs half-heartedly, “…I just see the way she treats me and it’s pretty much the same as when we were together. So I’m left to wonder if her feelings ever changed, or if I was always just… I dunno… a friend?”
A short beat of silence lingers in the room, then Maddie walks over to Melody’s side of the table. “Mel, why don’t I get a dorm room senior year?”
Melody’s brow furrows, a small amount of guilt already lacing it. “What? Maddie, no-”
“I can live here and you can request a transfer to my room. We wouldn’t have to meet at the library, and you’d be able to get some space away from Luz.”
Melody leaned against the back of the chair. “I appreciate it- really, I do. And I know I have to put more space between her and I. But I would just feel… bad, y’know? She’s my friend, and we’ve been sharing a room for three years.”
“You’ve been sharing a room for three years… while dating.” Maddie adds in the important detail.
“I know, I know. But you know what her home life was like. She finally has something stable, and I don’t wanna make her feel like shit because I can’t get over my feelings.”
“I get that. I do.” Madeline puts a hand on her friend’s shoulder. “But just remember… You have to take care of yourself, too. You’re gonna be applying for vet schools next year and taking your capstone. You don’t wanna be bogged down by this stuff.”
Melody looks up with an appreciative smile, putting her own hand over her friend’s. “I know. I promise, I won’t let it stop me.”
“Good.” Maddie says, then makes her way towards the door. “I’ll see you tomorrow for the presentation. Don’t stay here all night, alright?”
As the door starts closing behind her, Melody shouts back, “No promises!”
Then… the door shuts. Melody is left in the room alone. She thinks about pulling up her animal disease homework, but it’s like there’s a force stopping her. Some urge that she has to just… get up and go home. To talk to Luz before she loses her nerve. Because Maddie was right; they had to talk about it. She couldn’t keep going and just pining over her ex. Even if Luz wasn’t doing anything to antagonize those feelings, maybe there was something they could work out by just talking to each other. It was worth a shot.
So, she gathered up her things and left shortly after her friend did, hopefully heading home in time to have the conversation over dinner. She was starving.
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My fav line from my jam entry (which I hit a roadblock with, and as such am not sure if I manage to finish it after all, but anyway)
Behind the heavy rain clouds the moon was full, but all that was visible of it for the people of Lindwurm was a bright splotch in the sky and the swarm of snarky wolf-shifting crime scene technicians scouring the No Truce.
Today’s problem: I’m unsure of whether or not I need to explain to readers that my characters are using landlines instead of mobile phones.
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You could potentially explain it via a descriptor. “Emerson takes the phone from its base, hearing the dial tone before beginning to punch in the numbers to call the coroners office.”
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As of yesterday, I’m thoroughly in planning mode, and unlike something else secret that I’m planning, I’m in more of a position to share stuff about the planning process.
I wouldn’t share much about the actual content of the game I’m planning, because it’s not at all set in stone, but would it be useful if I shared how I’m going about it and how long each stage takes? And the order I’m doing things? Basically showing how I’m going from “primarily vibes” to “there is an actual plot and setting”. I feel like I see people wondering about this kind of thing a lot and I always enjoy seeing it from other writers.
(I wrote a diary for Honor Bound which I’m going to share at some point, but this would be a bit more immediate/informal.)
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You’re starting on a new project a month before your last one even releases?
That’s impressive. I don’t think I could go from one major CS project to another without at least some downtime.
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Can you share the really important things, though? Like is there a cat, and can we pet it?
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I’d find how you map out your plots very interesting, at least.
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Weeell, I sent it off for copyedit on 30th September so I have had a bit of a writing break! (I spent a lot of it playing Pathologic 2 and going for walks, heh. Though not as many walks as I’d have liked because I’ve had two separate colds, which is tedious.) It kind of feels like Honor Bound is a long way in the past now, so it’s funny writing up promotional posts for it 
There will probably be cats, and if they’re present they will be pettable! It depends, though… it’s a perilous sort of game and I would not want to put pets in peril, so I’ll see how it feels when I get there.
Yeah, that’s the sort of thing I’m thinking. Sort of “here’s where I start, then this is what I do next to flesh it out”. I tend to try and do that in retrospectives but I often forget the details so thought it might be fun to share it in the moment.
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You’re not worried about the release-day wave of bug reports? I always get those, and take a few days to sort them out.
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Very true! But I’ve got November to not worry about that for a bit 
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Yes; I’d share my version of this alongside yours, but I fear that I’d be unable to do a good job at presenting everything.
I think chronicling each step of your writing process would help a lot of us 
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They’ve got nine lives, they’ll be fine, always add cats imo.
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seconding this!!! i love hearing other writers’ processes so much it’s so exciting and inspiring.
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I’d love to hear more about your process, Harris! For me, the vibes-to-plot translation never manages to go the same way twice, and I always end up a little unsure of the result, so learning how you do it would be great.
I know no one’s process is the same, but it can certainly help. 
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Well so far this month, I have started on making my 1st game, alot of it has been plotting stuff out!
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Quick question: is it possible to use a multireplace inside another multireplace?
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I don’t think so.
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It is not. I’ve tried it before, and it definitely doesn’t parse. This is one case where nested *if clauses are the way to go.
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