Charles_Rockafellor's Collections
19 Collections
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Summary
Sometimes we all need a Big Brother watching over us, don't we? Well, even if you don't think so, someone else is always bound to make it their business, and themselves their brother's keeper.
(Closed, Moderated)
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Summary
The stories here focus on tabletop dice-RPGs. Some are specific (e.g.: D&D or WH40K), some are only aimed in a game's basic direction without specific target (e.g.: could be D&D, could be PFRPG). All occur within the larger Icewall meta-setting.
The fantasy worlds are mostly in a general region far to the west-northwest of Earth 1 (Orion Earth), though they can occur elsewhere, and that region isn't exclusively fantasy. Similarly, sci-tech game worlds (such as Car Wars) tend to be generally to the south-southeast (Space Opera game worlds are fairly limited to within the TARDIS-like expanse of the Galactic Disc world-pond, to the southeast), and psionics/chi/etc. tend to be vaguely northeasterly.
The Icewall map will give you a better visual feeling for the distances and locations involved.
(Closed, Moderated)
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Summary
When all of the world is Humpty Dumpty, and everyone styles themselves a Don Quixote...
The stories specific to this collection revolve around themes of social breakdown, but it's also worth noting here that the articles in the “Worldbuilding Meta” collection of the Icewall universe cover a broader view of the same sort (I would add this collection to that one, but apparently that's not possible because the Worldbuilding Meta collection is itself already a sub-collection within the Icewall parent collection, and so cannot itself contain a sub-subcollection).
(Closed, Moderated)
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Summary
Family is both a simple and a complicated concept. You know who your family is, but defining that quality isn't so easy. Ultimately it's about the bonds between us all.
(Closed, Moderated)
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Summary
Food can be a metaphor for so many things, or an obsession in itself. It can come from a love of food, insecurity over it or denial of it, one's self-esteem, or being introduced to so many wonderful new foods early or late in life. Me, I just like food. 😉
Most of my stories involve food, descriptions, meal plans, and recipes, but the ones in this collection focus more strongly on these things than do the rest of my works.
Foodies: if you like my meal descriptions (generally), you can find a number of my favorite recipes in “Appendix F: Recipes” of the .pdf of “Seize the Deity” (and some few in the commentary / annotation, as with the rum pears flambé, or URLs for some in the commentary of “Sonic's Redemption” .pdf) at my Google drive.
(Closed, Moderated)
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Summary
Laughter really can be the best medicine, so here are a few things that might put a smile on your face. 😀
(Closed, Moderated)
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Summary
Just as “spaghetti western” and “space opera” each conjure a certain atmosphere, and “space western” folds them together, “ice opera” is meant to capture that same 𝘫𝘦 𝘯𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘪𝘴 𝘱𝘢𝘴 and put it on ice — literally. Whether space opera or spaghetti western (or their often humorous combination), ice opera sets these same themes and tales onto a different background: The Ice of “Icewall”. Events here focus not on worlds somewhere out there, but on the backdrop itself or events therein. Other than that, it's just “Firefly” or “Star Trek” with a change of scenery and a few quirks of local alternative physics.
Here's a local map of Icewall for reference.
(Closed, Moderated)
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Summary
𝐑𝐔𝐋𝐄: Any world (no matter how improbable) in a spatiotemporally infinite rule-based random universe is virtually certain to exist (merely occupying a smaller portion of phase space).
𝐂𝐎𝐑𝐎𝐋𝐋𝐀𝐑𝐘: Any world that someone thinks is “cool,” given sufficiently advanced means of production, is virtually certain to be produced.
Icewall is a meta-setting for RPGs and stories; any book/game/TV mash-up might occur on this surreal infinite plane of ice -- superheroes, superscience, psionics and magic, space opera (there is at least one galactic disc); very unpleasant things, people, organizations, conspiracies, and strange occurrences -- contradictions are legitimate; an alien invasion doesn't need to cross light years of space, just a few thousand miles of Antarctic conditions (imagine Trantor attacked by a horde of cold and hungry cavemen). It all stemmed from asking myself "What if...?" one day.
The map can be viewed in much better detail at
▐► https://drive.google.com/file/d/1kWgi_k1artGUfK8JaA2gpw3CLGNI1DU8/view?usp=sharingIcewall itself isn't an actual story, so not posted here; you can find the "Icewall" .pdf at
▐► https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1BG7P_sVezz8Dn5b8js_34yeAjSBhfN0v(Closed, Moderated)
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Summary
Fabled Jötunheimr, land of frost and ice, deep within Ginnungagap and long after the events of Ragnarök. This is the land of the Jötnar, Trolls, Ettin, and ever-present Nisse.
The thumbnail is a shrunken version of the full-sized [AutoREALM] map of Jötunheimr.
Jötunheimr is part of the greater Icewall cosmography, which has a more detailed map (and includes Jötunheimr).
This collection so far contains only the one story (“Meat pies”). There is another, longer story in the works — “Nyjötnar saga” — but that's currently only some basic outlining and a little narrative, so I can't really include it here as even a draft; if you really wish to read through it though, then you can find it at my Google drive.
(Closed, Moderated)
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Summary
Light World, a place out of time, a jigsaw of pieces from different puzzles. The setting is mostly the lands found in Zelda and Super Mario (along with some material from Necroscope, Dune, Wizardry, and several other fandoms), written with the gritty real-world ugliness of a Dungeons & Dragons world.
Here's a full-sized map of Light World (made with AutoREALM), for those so inclined.
Light World is part of the larger meta-setting of Icewall (map is linked there).
(Closed, Moderated)
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Summary
Romance can take so many shapes, but the core of it all is that connection between us, caring and empathizing, being together even when we're apart. ❤️
(Sorry, but no smut in here: you can find that in “When Hermione met Harry”.)
(Closed, Moderated)
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Summary
Sci-fi can be pulpy or high-brow, deeply entrenched with philosophizing and morals or simply farcical. What makes it sci-fi depends on who's asked, but to me it's about some interesting facet of physics or chemistry (real or not), or how some cool new gadget affects sociodynamics, or some odd setting that explorers never expected (e.g.: Hollow Earth, galactic energy barrier, fuzzy sapiens). It just has a certain feeling to it; as the U.S. Supreme Court once said of art vs. porn: “I know it when I see it”.
N.B.: If you're looking at the sci-fi collection, then the chances are that you're a math and physics geek, or at least a fan thereof. If so, then you might want to also check the Worldbuilding Meta collection for some related math / physics / logic essays (meta to writing in general, hence fanfic in particular, but extremely meaty on the details).
(Closed, Moderated)
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Summary
Not everything in the Icewall universe fits neatly into Icewall. Some things stand as contradictions to its underlying nature, which is counterintuitively part of its nature. This is where you'll find the things that can't happen there, yet do anyway. This is the set of all things that aren't already part of the set of all things.
(Closed, Moderated)
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Summary
In the Icewall setting, there's a TARDIS-like spiral galaxy. This galaxy is perhaps 100,000 miles across from without, but holds all of the outer space one could ask for within. This is where you'll find Tie Fighters, Red Dwarf, and so forth. The stories here occur within and nearby to the Galactic Disc world-pond.
The Icewall neighborhood map should give you a feeling of what's where in the stories.
(Closed, Moderated)
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Summary
This is where I polish draft material before the final release, and test CSS and HTML vs. AO3's specs. It being an Unrevealed Collection means that I can finish a draft without having to worry about accidentally hitting “Post” instead of “Save As Draft” (and bonus: I can place these fics into this collection and their appropriate collection simultaneously without having revealed them 'til they're ready).
Try my Collections instead, and you'll find all of my fics arranged thematically for ease of reference! 🙂
*** If you've stumbled into this collection from a fic that you can't see: don't worry, it's not a glitch and it should be available soon; I tend to post them to public visibility on Sundays at ~10:30 AM Central (~15:30 UTC summer, ~16:30 UTC winter). ***
(Closed, Moderated, Unrevealed)
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Summary
They say that necessity is the mother of invention; I think that the cousin to this aphorism is that toxicity is the goad of discernment. The stories in this collection aren't very nice ones, looking at the actions and thoughts of people who would see themselves as gods, evil rulers of the world, comic book supervillains, etc., or at the least the callous behavior of those who are thoughtless of others' needs. 😲
(Closed, Moderated)
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Summary
War happens. Sometimes there are peaceful moments, other times it's a shit-show. The stories here present different facets of life pertaining to war, windows into what could be and often shouldn't.
“𝑆𝑝𝑜𝑟𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑤𝑎𝑟, 𝑤𝑎𝑟 𝑠𝑢𝑝𝑝𝑜𝑟𝑡!
𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑝𝑜𝑟𝑡 𝑖𝑠 𝑤𝑎𝑟, 𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑤𝑎𝑟.
𝑊ℎ𝑒𝑛 𝑣𝑖𝑐𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑦'𝑠 𝑎 𝑚𝑎𝑠𝑠𝑎𝑐𝑟𝑒,
𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑓𝑖𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑠𝑤𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑖𝑠 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑎 𝑑𝑟𝑖𝑙𝑙,
𝑖𝑡'𝑠 ℎ𝑜𝑤 𝑚𝑎𝑛𝑦 𝑝𝑒𝑜𝑝𝑙𝑒 𝐼 𝑐𝑎𝑛 𝑘𝑖𝑙𝑙!”
-- “War ensemble”, Slayer (“Seasons in the Abyss”, 1990)(Closed, Moderated)
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Summary
What underlies the recipe to Icewall? Which ingredients are picked fresh for the simmer, or stored away to age like a fine Madeira?
The articles specific to this collection are meta to the Icewall universe, but it's also worth noting here that the “Falling Down” collection strikes at the heart that sparked and drives Icewall's nature (I would add that collection to this one, but apparently that's not possible because the Worldbuilding Meta collection is itself already a sub-collection within the “Icewall” parent collection, and so cannot itself contain a sub-subcollection).
(Closed, Moderated)
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Summary
Self-explanatory: these are my zombie-specific stories. They might not necessarily all be undead shamblers (à la Romero), but they'll be close variants at most (e.g.: Z-nation, 28 days later). No “zombie-like” metaphors (e.g.: iPhone “zombies”).
(Closed, Moderated)
