ATTOLLO 2 YEAR ANNIVERSARY

Heart of Battle is out now!

Battle for love as a gladiator in this epic romance of swords and sandals!

Heart of Battle is a 255,000-word interactive gladiator romance by Fay Ikin, where your choices control the story. It’s entirely text-based—without graphics or sound effects—and fueled by the vast, unstoppable power of your imagination.

As a prisoner of Coritan City, you had two options: rot in a dungeon or battle in the gladiatorial arena. You chose to fight—and as a star gladiator, you have the power to sway public opinion as nobody else does.

The city is divided, ruled by the glittering Illustrious who use their wealth and status to maintain their power over the struggling masses. A lucky few have access to magic as well: it can be used to heal, but it can also be used as a weapon, or to reinforce the bars of prisons.

Below them, rumors of revolution simmer—and nowhere more strongly than among the gladiators. Former soldiers, political prisoners, and prisoners of war now bide their time, plotting to rise up. Some just hope to escape to their own freedom; others want to bring down the entire oppressive system. Yet others seek to work within the hierarchy, currying favor among the Illustrious in the hopes of having their freedom bought by a wealthy patron.

In this treacherous web of alliances that you must navigate, the one certainty is your own heart. Will you find love with a gentle healer, haunted by a tragic past? A wealthy patron who could promise you a life of luxury? Or even one of your fellow gladiators, whose muscles and martial skill you admire through every battle: a fervent ex-revolutionary now condemned to the same servitude as you, or a bold daring warrior who seeks fame and glory.

What skills will you bring to the battlefield: domineering strength, agile cunning or force of personality? Will you accept your fate and build a reputation as a respectable, honorable fighter, relying on the aristocrats to free you? Or will you throw in with the rebels? Victory can mean a better life for you and your beloved—but what will you do if you find yourself on the opposite side of a gladiatorial match from the one you love? Or on the opposite side of a revolution?

Play as male, female, or non-binary; trans or cis; gay, straight, bi, demisexual, asexual, or aromantic.

Romance a gentle healer; a glory-hound gladiator; a wealthy patron; or an ex-revolutionary.

Choose your weapon: fight with sword, mace, bow, daggers, or bladed gauntlet.

Negotiate your way through relationships with your superiors, walk the balance of power between gladiators and guards, and clash with a bitter rival.

Win battles with honor, or scheme and cheat to take down your enemies.

Incite a riot—or even a revolution!

apologies to anyone who ever thought i was cool and reached out to me only to discover i am just a weird little hermit who can't carry on a conversation to save my life

god i love reading about stupid drama in ancient greece. like there was an athlete named theagenes who was so good at every kind of athletic contest that when he died, one of his opponents would go to beat the shit out of a statue of him out of spite, but then one day the statue fell on the guy and killed him so the greeks took the statue to court for murder, convicted it, and threw it into the sea

https://www.instagram.com/p/BvSEeQWJfeT/

I used to think scifi was off limits to me because I can't subtract 15 from 50 without having a minor mental meltdown... but then I remembered my brother has a masters in astrophysics and I'm very good at bullying him into doing what I want.

Coming soon. Written by me but with all the maths and science done by someone smarter than me.

Werewolves in Space!

This post is a joke. Unless...

People love to talk about the immortality of the machine, but I'm a mechanical engineer, so I know they delude themselves. Most machines are far more mortal than flesh.

How long does a machine last? A car is a very solid machine, expensive, precision designed, and you're lucky if you get more than three decades out of them.

Your enemy is not the flesh. It's entropy. It's the death knell of the energy imbalance. If you want to live as a complex machine you will, by necessity, generate a great deal of entropy until your machine breaks irrevocably.

You want to be immortal? Then don't worship the machine, worship the stone, the forest. Seek that which is either simple enough to never know death or diffused enough to accept every death.

Game-Changing Sites for Writers

A recent search for a specific type of site to help me build new characters led me down a rabbit hole. Normally, that would make me much less productive, but I have found a treasure trove of websites for writers.

Bring Characters/Places to Life

There are a few different places you can use to create a picture of something entirely new. I love this site for making character pictures as references, instead of stock photos or whatever pops up on Google Images.

thispersondoesnotexist: every time you reload the page, this site generates a headshot of someone who doesn't exist. This is great if you're thinking about a character's personality or age and don't have specifics for their facial features yet.

Night Cafe: this is an AI art generator that takes your text prompt and generates an image for it. I tried it for various scenery, like "forest" or "cottage." It takes a minute for your requested photo to load, but no more than maybe five for the program to finish the picture.

Art Breeder: this website has endless images of people, places, and general things. Users can blend photos to create something new and curious visitors can browse/download those images without creating an account. (But if you do want to make an account to create your own, it's free!)

Find Random Places on Earth

You might prefer to set a story in a real-life environment so you can reference that place's weather, seasons, small-town vibe, or whatever you like. If that's the case, try:

MapCrunch: the homepage generates a new location each day and gives the location/GPS info in the top left of the screen. To see more images from previous days, hit "Gallery" in the top left.

Atlas Obscura: hover over or tap the "Places" tab, then hit "Random Place." A new page will load with a randomly generated location on the planet, provide a Google Maps link, and tell you a little bit about the place.

Random World Cities: this site makes randomly selected lists of global cities. Six appear for each search, although you'll have to look them up to find more information about each place. You can also use the site to have it select countries, US cities or US states too.

Vary Your Wording

Thesauruses are great, but these websites have some pretty cool perspectives on finding just the right words for stories.

Describing Words: tell this website which word you want to stop repeating and it will give you tons of alternative words that mean the same thing. It typically has way more options than other sites I use.

Reverse Dictionary: type what you need a word for in Reverse Dictionary's search box and it will give you tons of words that closely match what you want. It also lists the words in order of relevancy, starting with a word that most accurately describes what you typed. (There's also an option to get definitions for search results!)

Tip of My Tongue: this website is phenomenal. It lets you search for that word you can't quite place by a letter in it, the definition, what it sounds like, or even its scrambled letters. A long list of potential options will appear on the right side of the screen for every search.

---

Hope this helps when you need a hand during your next writing session 💛

CHAPTER 2 HAS BEEN UPDATED!

This includes:

A nightmare scene with some variations involved

For MCs with Wits as their main skill, an exclusive optional nightmare route (Hint: Follow the voice)

More conversations with Alex, and with Vincent.

Assassins

Some overview on the police department and the Ripper’s relationship with their colleagues. (which is, not very good)

A flashback scene

Nickname option added on Chapter 1, as well the choice to use the Ripper’s mother’s maiden name (Note: The mother canonically has a Filipino heritage).

Mental health stats such as stress and cynicism amongst others are implemented, though they remain hidden from the stats page for now.

Additional 58,475 words excluding codes!

Old saves will not properly work, so apologies for that! I also advise you to keep a save for the start of Chapter 2, since I’ll be putting the next part on the same file, and dashingdon always reverts its saves to the beginning of the chapters whenever an update is made.

DEMO | INTRO POST | KO-FI | DISCORD | FORUM

Do consider donating to my ko-fi if you liked the game and stay tuned to future announcements with regards to a probable Patreon launch soon. Anyway, feedback and reblogs will be deeply appreciated! Let me know about your thoughts and/or theories through asks, on the forum, or on discord.

Premise and additional notes below the cut.

Keep reading

SOMEONE WILL REMEMBER US, I SAY, EVEN IN ANOTHER TIME

kelsey beachum, outer wilds // david mitchell, cloud atlas // ian dallas, what remains of edith finch // robert kurvitz, disco elysium // lin-manuel miranda, in the heights // william safire, the safire memo // kelsey beachum, outer wilds: echoes of the eye // louis l’amour, lonely on the mountain // david gregory, from generation to generation

transcript below the cut

Image 1: A screenshot of an space traveler from the game Outer Wilds. The caption reads: "The past is past, now, but that's... you know, that's okay! It's never really gone completely. The future is always built on the past, even if we won't get to see it."

Image 2: A screenshot of text reading: "These forces that often remake time and space, that can shape and alter who we imagine ourselves to be, begin long before we are born and continue after we perish. Our lives and our choices, like quantum trajectories, are understood moment to moment. That each point of intersection, each encounter, suggest a new potential direction."

Image 3: A screenshot of a journal page from the game What Remains of Edith Finch. It reads: "This is where your story begins. I'm sorry I won't be there to see it. It's a lot to ask, but I don't want you to be sad that I'm gone. I want you to be amazed that any of us ever had a chance to be here at all."

Image 4: A screenshot of two men standing next to a run-down building from the game Disco Elysium. A text box in the center reads: "'Glory,' says the graffito, 'to the ghosts of us!'"

Image 5: A screenshot of song lyrics reading: "But who's gonna notice we're gone? / When our job's done, as the evening winds / Down to a crawl, son, can I ease my mind / When we're all done? When we've resigned / In the long run, what do we leave behind?"

Image 6: A screenshot of text reading: "In their exploration, they stirred the people of the world to feel as one; in their sacrifice, they bind more tightly the brotherhood of man. Others will follow, and surely find their way home. Man's search will not be denied. But these men were first, and they will remain foremost in our hearts."

Image 7: Two screenshots of an alien creature from the game Outer Wilds. The captions read, "My kind weren't always like this. We weren't always so afraid. I did what I could to set things right, yet I am still of my kind, and you know now what they did. I cannot promise our fear won't stain your mind. And so, a choice: Are you certain you want to remember me?"

Image 7: A screenshot of text reading: "There will come a time when you believe everything is finished; that will be the beginning."

Image 8: A screenshot of text reading: "It means that we learn from the past in order to create a future. We are merely temporary characters in the huge story of life. Our loved ones teach us and set an example for us and we carry it forward as best we can."

Honor Amongst Thieves (WIP) — UPDATED 4/10/2023

Finally an update! Play it HERE!

It's been awhile, but it feels good to get back writing again and to get the wheels of this story back in motion!!

This update is laying the groundwork for some stuff, but I hope y'all still enjoy it!

In this update y'all have a guild to check on and a Papa Duck to listen to, not to mention some thieving to plan...

Once again, thank y'all for your patience and I hope you enjoy!

(Let me know what breaks and Happy Easter!!)

FORUM ~ KOFI ~ PATREON