Liz On Occasion

@danzierlea

Writer of fiction. Radio board operator. The two are not always separate. She/her. No AI.

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Liz On Occasion@danzierlea· 25d

#WIPSnips #WriteSky #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompts #CourtroomGhost Using *calm* instead of unfazed.

"Thanks. I got your CT results back. It's not as bad as it could have been—I don't see any broken bones—but you do have some deep tissue burns that are going to take time to heal. That's probably why you can't move your legs—it's those muscles that are damaged. Now, you don't appear to have any organ damage at the moment, but we'll keep watch on your kidney function to make sure they don't get overwhelmed. The bad news is, you're probably going home in a wheelchair, and you'll have some physical therapy to go through before you can safely walk again. I don't have time frames for that; it depends on your recovery speed."
I took a deep breath and forced myself to be calm. "That is a heavy sentence, doc. Would you mind repeating it when Ravi and Krissy get back? They're going to need to know."

Liz On Occasion@danzierlea· 25d

@jeffvandermeer.bsky.social @meganefreeman.bsky.social Because Jeff posted about Wonderbook on here, my aunt and I had a book conversation, and she sent me the books in question, and they are beautiful!

A picture of my hand holding up the book "ALONE" in front of my computer; the book has a pinkish cover with a girl with a backpack and a red hat standing next to a dog in front of a bit of forest.

A pic of my hand holding up the book "WONDERBOOK" in front of my computer. It's a hefty book! The cover has a picture of a sort of fish with a city growing out of its back on it.

Liz On Occasion@danzierlea· 26d

I REALLY wanna do one of those "The cover -> the first page" posts BUT I don't have a cover yet the book's not done and I dunno if this is going to stay the first page but have at it. #CourtroomGhost

Dismantling the old king's cloning program was a bitch and a half.
Ravi protested that giving King Riley the information was my job, as leader of the squad, and I couldn't argue that point. So I tossed the cell keys back to the guard and set off for the king's chambers. Ravi and Orion could meet me back in our rooms after I talked to the king.
The ghost followed me.
He was a real ghost, the disembodied spirit of my progenitor, Kai. Kai, who'd died installing Riley as king two years ago, whose DNA had been used to create my body, and whose memories were downloaded into my brain. Science said I was supposed to be Kai, come back from the dead.
The ghost said otherwise.
It hadn't been a full day since I was decanted, and already I'd been the target of a bombing, the target of a sniper's attack, and been sent on a mission to find out what the trouble brewing in the palace was. I hadn't had the time to stop and think about who I was.
But the walk to the king's quarters from the jail cells was a good ten minutes. I had some time to think while my boots beat a steady rhythm on the floor.
Kai's ghost was probably the most real iteration of Kai that there was, the only remaining part of Kai that hadn't been harvested for making me. He'd interfered in the download process and separated his memories from my consciousness, creating a version of Kai in my head that wasn't me or him. And then there was me – physically Kai, but mentally someone else. Someone new. A good person, so the ghost hoped. So I hoped, too. And so far I'd proven to be. Kai in my--it breaks off abruptly at the end of the page.

Liz On Occasion@danzierlea· 26d

@charliedeltawrites.bsky.social #AwesomeCharacters #CourtroomGhost This one gets you a snippet of MC being happy to be alive.

Like having a jellyfish in my brain, I thought. The morning breeze picked up, and the tree began quaking, the leaves making that swishing sound. "You hear that?" I asked, watching the guard come back toward us.
"No," Ravi said. "Just the birds."
"Listen for the tree leaves rustling," I directed him, and he fell into a concentrating pose.
"I can just catch it," Orion said. "Sounds like rain."
"Yeah, water of some sort," Ravi agreed. "What's so important about a tree that sounds like water?"
"*It's pretty*," I said quietly. "It's not like home. It's amazing. And I can hear it without trying." I took a deep breath, glanced at the passing guard, and said, "So put me through my paces today. See what I can do. That'll be fun. But for now, just please watch the sunrise with me, okay? Just take a few minutes and appreciate being *alive*."
Ravi turned back towards the tree, and Orion leaned on the bench. The sky began to bleach blue as the sun rose.

Liz On Occasion@danzierlea· 27d

#WIPSnips #WriteSky #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompts #CourtroomGhost In which MC discovers the gods.

I searched Kai's memories for the right words to say, but found only general knowledge of the gods. There were four good ones—Jenisar, Moregar, Edobidar, and Hesinar—and one bad one, Rausaon. Rausaon had an inverse aspect that dealt with destruction and decay as a path to growth and creation. That aspect was the one prayed to for the dead.
*Noasuar give them peace,* I prayed generally over the remains.

Liz On Occasion@danzierlea· 27d

#WIPSnips #WriteSky #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompts #CourtroomGhost The beginning of the scene I wrote most recently.

The next day was Sunday, so we waited a day to set our plan into action. But I couldn't take a day off when I'd only had a day and a half of existence under my belt, so I went to Shimenko's lab by myself and searched it top to bottom.
There weren't any clones processing in the tanks, for which I was grateful. But the doctor had a whole room of cold storage with DNA samples in little tubes that corresponded to larger memory units in cryocomputer storage. There were no DNA samples of clones already returned to life. Each of the twenty-seven tubes was labeled with a name, date of death, date of preservation, and date of sample expiration. I shivered just looking at them, and not from the dry, cold air.
Those were people.
At some point, one of them had been me.

Liz On Occasion@danzierlea· 29d

Okay, I got it figured out and after replacing the tab by hand in four chapters I figured out how to replace it en masse. Voila!

$The find and replace box in LibreOffice. In the Search For box it says \t. There is nothing in the Replace with box. At the bottom are more options, the Regular Expressions box is checked. In the center of the screen is a popup box. It says OpenOffice 4.1.16 Search key replaced 1201 times.$

Liz On Occasion@danzierlea· Jul 15

#WriteSky #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompts #WIPSnips #CourtroomGhost A tiny snippet of MC talking to Ravi. Using "command chain" in place of "coach" because it was that or the vans driving off and I liked this one better. TW for language.

"Quiet times are hard."
"Bet your ass they are. Do you know how hard it is to be back in your command chain?"
"No," I admitted.
"You're a stranger who looks like my best friend. Who I buried. It's hard as fuck."

Liz On Occasion@danzierlea· Jul 15

Here's the receipt for the brakes.

An invoice from Tires Plus Oshkosh WI for brakes totaling $746.54

Liz On Occasion@danzierlea· Jul 15

Well, this happened.

In need of Repair/Replacement
Left front pad (picture of brake pad)
Left front rotor (picture of rotor)

Liz On Occasion@danzierlea· Jul 14

#WriteSky #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompts #WIPSnips #CourtroomGhost In which the Pirate Ghosts show up, and I can't spell existence properly. If you read the alt text, the * marks words in italics.

*It be good ye talked to me, Rhubarb. See, I don't be the only ghost here. You're with Swabbie Krissy, and that means you're protected. But we don't like soldiers in our tunnels. Soldiers killed most of us, ye see. Accidents happen to soldiers who stray too deep in our tunnels.*
As he spoke, more ghosts began to phase into existance behind him. When he fell silent, a whole ship's crew of the dead stood behind him.
Shit.
"Stop bein' scary," Krissy said. "I told Ryan I'd help rescue his soldiers and the lawyers and everybody. They're the *good guys*. The lawyers have every right to go through the tunnels."

Liz On Occasion@danzierlea· Jul 14

Liz On Occasion@danzierlea· Jul 13

#WriteSky #WIPSnips #CourtroomGhost Twofer today - I missed yesterday's, which was "extra." So here's a snip with both "almost" and "extra."

"We're not going to get much testing done with His Nobs watching," Ravi said. "Not unless you want to clue him in."
I wasn't sure I wanted to; after all, I had only found out about the upgrades this morning. But I considered Sir Horace a friend, and he probably needed to know. Sir Horace opened the door to the gym and let us in. I checked the room over almost habitually, and then turned to him. "I don't see any cameras in here."
"Not in the lower house, no," he replied. "Something on your mind?"
"Yes. I found out this morning that the doctor who did my cloning process did some, uh, extra work on me. The guys want to put me through some endurance tests to see how much damage the doctor did."
He looked me over. "I doubt it'll be damage," he said. I grinned and headed for a treadmill.

Liz On Occasion@danzierlea· Jul 12

Zoom in on the center. There's a falcon on the light pole. Yesterday's radio station wildlife shenanigans.

A parking lot with a tall blue power pole at the end, and a short dark light pole near it. There's a falcon sitting on the light pole being harassed by blackbirds.

Liz On Occasion@danzierlea· Jul 12

This is what I do at work while waiting for cues.

A pen standing unsupported on its tip, in front of a radio station control board.

Liz On Occasion@danzierlea· Jul 12

#CourtroomGhost proof of not AI

A notebook with handwritten notes saying "I feel like I've forgotten how to structure a story." "I think I need an antagonist POV" and then a list of possible antagonists, "Diedre?/Someone from the attacking side?/Multiple antagonist POVs?" Then an arrow and "Have to know who the antagonists are" and the shadow of my phone over it all.

Liz On Occasion@danzierlea· Jul 11

#WriteSky #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompts #WIPSnips #CourtroomGhost "Attack" comes up fairly often in my work. Here's a fun bit.

I thought that over. It's a multinational group working together. They don't want us; they want the cloning technology Shimenko developed. They'll let the hostages go once they get him.
No. They definitely want us. There's a list of names. The whole unit is on it.
Shit. Well, either we take out the guards or the Barago mercenary forces are going to attack the hotel. One way or another we're gonna lose civs. I looked around at the crowd. My people were scattered throughout it, generally placed near guards. Smart kids. They were just waiting for a signal. You wanna be a signal?
The ghost grinned. Then he swooped away into the pool.

Liz On Occasion@danzierlea· Jul 9

#WriteSky #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompts #WIPSnips #CourtroomGhost "Keep"

The ferry owner didn't want to go out on the water after a bridge collapse. "It's too dangerous," he said. "My insurance won't cover sinking due to debris."
I pointed to the row of inflatable motorcraft docked along the river. "You sell boats?"
"Yeah."
"How much for two?"
"Eighteen fifty."
I pulled a wad of cash out of my wallet and handed it to him. He counted it while we went to the boats, split into teams, and climbed in. "You've got change here," he called.
"Keep it," I called back. "King's bonus." The man grinned, completely missing the insult. I'd only given him about fifty over the asking price. A king's bonus was free money for helping the king in some way, but a bonus that small was really nothing but insulting.

The word "Keep" is highlighted in blue.

Liz On Occasion@danzierlea· Jul 8

I'm pretty sure I have MC nailed down. The snippet is him at current. The trouble I'm running into is how to resolve the problems I've thrown at him instead of throwing new problems at him.

I was a god-damned, disabled, haunted, super-soldier, clone, assassin. Whose very personhood was in question, trying to right my own ghost's wrongs before someone took me out permanently, shaking up the status quo in the World Court, hoping for justice that seemed almost impossible to get, and I was probably the last one to know anything that was happening on my own mission. I'd argued with King Riley to pull this off—not that anyone needed to know that. He'd agreed in the end, given me full authority. And here I was, stuck in a hospital bed. Couldn't move. Couldn't see. God, I couldn't even pee by myself.

Liz On Occasion@danzierlea· Jul 8

I haven't received any help on this and I'd dearly appreciate some. Here's a snip of the receipt.

Summary: (Line underneath) Parts - 182.76 Labor - 44.22 Shop Supplies - 3.60 Discount - 0.00 (Not a typo, there's no discount) Sub-total 230.58 Tax (5.00%) - 11.53 Total - $242.11

Liz On Occasion@danzierlea· Jul 8

#WIPSnips #WriteSky #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompts #CourtroomGhost I've shared this bit before, but it's the closest thing to humidity I've got: a rainy day in summer.

It was an overcast, drizzly day. The raindrops were cool on my face, which was a somewhat unpleasant sensation. I blinked rain out of my eyes and wiped my face as the policeman took me to a car and helped me into the back seat. There were no seatbelts, and the seat itself was hard plastic. He drove silently through the city until we came to a large building with a grand staircase and columns on the front of it. He drove around the building and into a garage under it, where he parked near a line of police cars that were unloading my men. We were ushered into a large elevator, and emerged on the seventh floor of the court building.

Liz On Occasion@danzierlea· Jul 8

A brown comfy chair sits alone on a wooden floor, surrounded by bookshelves laden with books, under four large windows curving gently around the back of the chair, showing warm sunlight reaching into the library and green bushes laden with pink flowers outside. It gives a feeling of warmth and serenity.

Liz On Occasion@danzierlea· Jul 7

#WriteSky #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompts #WIPSnips #CourtroomGhost The only use of "quarter" in the whole story so far.

The sun crested the horizon. The birds chirped merrily. "Thanks, guys," I said.
"You're welcome," Ravi said. "You're right. It is pretty."
I checked my watch. Quarter after six. "Well, the kitchen won't be open for forty-five minutes. You guys wanna catch some sleep?"
"Would not go amiss," Ravi admitted with a yawn.
We went back inside, up to our rooms. "Four hours," Ravi said to me. "We can work on that much sleep." He and Orion split off into their rooms and left me alone in the sitting room.
I sat on the claw-footed couch, put my feet up, and picked up a coffee table book full of pictures of—I checked the title, but it was in Krieve and I couldn't read it—country kitchen gardens, apparently. I flipped through it slowly, mechanically, using it as a cover while I did some heavy thinking.

Liz On Occasion@danzierlea· Jul 7

#WriteSky #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompts #WIPSnips #CourtroomGhost I have nothing even resembling a stadium here. So here's a snip from Ocean's Curse (previous book) using "amphitheater" which I suddenly don't know if I spelled right. Oy, Webster's!

When Justin was out of earshot, Argus asked, "What's your role in this, then, my dear? Are you a lover seeking your mate?"
Olivia blushed but shook her head. "Kestren is a family friend, and knows how to fight the dead people," she said. "The king's daughter sent me to fetch him."
"So it is a rescue, of a sort. Well, never fear. The only person on this island that boy has to answer to is me. And answer he shall, in the broad light of day. If he came back two days ago, he'll be on trial tomorrow, and if the rumor has spread the way rumors do, the whole town will be out to see it. The rest of the mages will have anticipated that, and they'll either have made the trial private or set it to be held in the amphitheater. The second option is more likely, I think. "
"You aren't planning to interrupt the proceedings?" said Dominic.
"I most certainly am," the mage said. He rose and began pacing behind his chair. "People will be coming at daybreak, but they won't start until dawn." He saw Olivia's face crumple in a frown. "What?"
"I think daybreak and dawn are the same time," she said.

Liz On Occasion@danzierlea· Jul 7

@charliedeltawrites.bsky.social In which we learn that I don't know diddly squat about clothing I've never personally worn. 😅 (CG/Ocean's Curse role-swapping story, continued.)

Justin nodded and turned back to the door. "We'll let you get changed."
I looked down at – well, Kestren's body – and said, "What the hell am I wearing?"
"Clothes," Justin said. "Blood-covered clothes."
"I get that. What I don't get is..." I waved a hand, generally indicating the ruined outfit. "Is this a waistcoat? How the hell are these pants fastened? Hasn't anyone introduced you to zippers?"
"No," Justin said, coming away from the door. "I suppose the clothes where you're from are different. Look, I'll help you. What's a zipars?"
I laced my fingers together. "Metal that does this."
"Like watch cogs? Why would anyone use watch cogs on clothing?"
"Never mind," I sighed, and started unlacing Kestren's boots.

Liz On Occasion@danzierlea· Jul 5

Okay, you get a snippet now. I'm gonna keep you updated on how this goes. :D The Drowned Folk are undead semi-zombies who despise anyone who sails above their waters. They attack mercilessly and have to be beheaded to be stopped. They're from my previous book. "He" at the beginning is Justin.

He nodded and headed out the door. I followed him out, onto the deck of a ship that looked like the Mayflower. Small, cramped, and covered with people, all of them fighting. About two thirds of the people had that pallid look that Nekeshi had. More of them were climbing onto the deck, apparently just out of the water itself.
Well, I had a sword. I went to town.
The red glass held up surprisingly well. I wielded the sword like a long knife, cutting and slicing and stabbing the undead. Where the sword met their sodden flesh, it steamed and dried them out, making it easy to cut them limb from limb.
I didn't stay to torture them; I slashed at limbs that got in the way and went for their necks. The sword wasn't effortless in cutting them, but it was a good weapon. I got into the swing of it, fighting undead off of crew members who had their own red blades. It was the kind of fun Kai would have enjoyed immensely.
After a good ten minutes, I didn't immediately see any new enemies, and looked down the deck. The crew didn't seem to have realized their captain was acting strangely, and were busy throwing the butchered undead bodies off the ship. I walked back to the door of the cabin where Justin waited, looking shocked. He opened the door for me, followed me in, shut it, and then said, "What the hell was that? Even Kestren doesn't fight that well. You clearly can't use a sword, but you tore through them like a damned hurricane."
I grinned. "Didn't I mention? I'm an assassin."

Liz On Occasion@danzierlea· Jul 5

#WriteSky #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompts #WIPSnips #CourtroomGhost The titular scene. There is more, but this is all you get for this one. (There damn well better be more in the future.)

The judge shuffled papers again. "Were you aware that you and your men were specifically named by the instigators of the hostage situation today as requested political prisoners, in exchange for the rest of the hostages?"
My breath caught and I coughed, clearing my throat. I had half a second to decide: lie to the court or put the ghost on record. I decided on the ghost. "Yes, your honor."
The judge peered over the bench at me. "Is that so? How did you find out?"
I took a deep breath, but just as I started to speak the ghost appeared in front of the judge's bench. I told him, he said in flawless Alement.
There was a general outbreak of surprised chatter. The judge waited for the room to settle back down without reaching for his gavel. "What is this?" he asked me at last.
"Your honor, getting into the details would mean trying our whole case today, and I don't think the court is prepared for that. Suffice to say he's my ghost, and please may we leave it at that?"
The judge nodded. "All right. So you found out you were targets because your ghost told you, is that correct?"
"Yes, your honor."

Black text on white background. The word bench is highlighted in blue. There is a grey bar separating pages through the middle, and the number 63 halfway down the right side.

Liz On Occasion@danzierlea· Jul 4

#WriteSky #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompts #WIPSnips #CourtroomGhost I have three instances of "round" in the story. Here's the second one. In which MC feels guilty.

Rachael hadn't been an agent. She'd been a diplomat, a translator, a lawyer. There was no reason for her to be dead—no reason except a block of explosive wrapped in a napkin. Her death was unquestionably my fault. Sorry, Ghost.
I picked up the phone and called Ravi. "Rav. Rachael's dead."
"Shit."
"I'm in 614. Can you round up Orion and Martin and Throm?"
"Absolutely. See you in ten." He hung up.

Liz On Occasion@danzierlea· Jul 4

3/3

"You're haunted?" asked one after a pause. "You got anything else you're holding out on us?"
I walked back to the little group. "Listen here, you shit," I said. "I told you, I'm a goddamn assassin. My clearance level is higher than the King's. Of course I have secrets. This isn't some girly tell-all sleepover. Now get your asses moving before we find out the hard way if whoever's after you has snipers watching us." I turned and walked away, and this time I didn't look back. I heard them following.

Liz On Occasion@danzierlea· Jul 4

2/3