Post 43
Happy COVID Friday, everyone.
Blessings upon your house. May whatever god you believe in shield you from the insistent footstep of death for another week. Or, you know, whatever other salutation you prefer.
In this week’s installment of how Ossie is entertaining itself, we are learning about facial and neck injuries. I have a new cervical collar, a brand new CPR dummy, and a collection of airways to practice with. In the case of facial and neck injuries, did you know that if your throat is cut 1) you can actually survive 2) it can allow air to infiltrate underneath your skin in what’s called subcutaneous emphysema and 3) even if you do survive, air can move through your blood vessels and create an obstruction called an air embolism that seems to be a back up death option in case the original exsanguination doesn’t go smoothly.
So everyone will be glad to know that there are options.
I’m afraid I don’t have too much to report, but I did start a new long story called, “Sanctuary.” This will probably end up being a book. I rolled a Drow, druid, urban fantasy, torture chamber set of prompts this week and just liked them so much, I figured I’d stick with it for a while.
The main character is a human with a tremendous sun allergy. Her skin is black, she’s blind in sunlight. Her mother seems to have hid her mutations from the deeply invasive centralized government for a while, but she died tragically and our heroine is currently an indentured City servant for the Utility Company. She’s only about 13 years old when we meet her, but strange and unusual things happen around her often, suddenly intensifying after another runaway attempt gone bad. These strange events lead to a lot of social rejection and assault at first, but then start to have some real upsides. She discovers she can talk to spiders. She makes a friend. She goes for an adventure in the great Wasteland surrounding the City. It’s a post-apocalyptic view of modern-day Arizona’s desert, after climate change and a nuclear explosion get done with it and it’s not exactly the most life-affirming place.
But our heroine discovers that it’s actually kind of her jam. There will be lots of talking animals, a little ecoterrorism and, more interestingly, the Principe of the City (and his trusted bodyguard) end up falling into her lap after their own escape attempt goes awry. Those two will be lead by a Forest Ranger who was a former hook-up buddy of the bodyguard and there will be some delightful romantic tension between those two because I like romantic crap, dammit. Especially the comedic kind.
There will be water wars and a long journey to Albuquerque and a Spider-Friend named Anasazi.
First couple pages are here and will be updated weekly: