It IS, however a situation where I'll go ahead and tell you that these stories are adding up to a larger plot. While stand alone, they stand on each other's shoulders.

Well, the problem with that view is that the way I would recommend them is: Small Magic > A Bet on Kindness > To Walk Across Fire > Reclamation
OR perhaps:
A Bet on Kindness > To Walk Across Fire > Small Magic > Reclamation

But, as Raven already points out, the way in which my Map graphically connects stories is without a reading order, just which works reference what; in which case the two stories in question are already only a single bubble apart (that being Beryl herself).

Pre-emptive edit:
@ Barinellos: I can already see that, and am shaping the map to easily connect up to Fisco when the story that does so directly comes out (or whenever I read it).

Hehehehehe... oh, you have only an inkling of what is to come my good man.
HehehahahHAHAHAHAH!

*wipes BBQ sauce off of his face with the hem of his "I'm With Stupid" t-shirt*

Uh-oh...

Re: Beryl stories, I would say that the most important through line so far is the chronological one, which goes "Small Magic" > "A Bet on Kindness" > "To Walk Across Fire" > "Reclamation" > "Friends and Killers" (not in the archive) > future stories.

FWIW, "A Bet on Kindness" and "Reclamation" and "Friends and Killers" do form a very significant cluster (in my mind, anyway) around Beryl-Aloise encounters, and if there's a clean way to represent that, then so much the better. But I am not a graphical designer, and I'll defer to people with better design sense that I.

One possible thing would be to provide little labels for stories which form part of a longer chain and where there is a clear "best" order for reading them in. Like "Small Magic" could get a little "B1" annotation, since I'd put it first in the Beryl list, and so forth. But that may introduce more clutter than is desirable.

EDIT: "Reclamation" is also currently not in the archive. Gun un-jumped.

Some scattered musings from out here in The Land Of Weak Signals.

I.

There is a picture hanging on the wall in here which, for reasons I cannot fathom, has started a kind of resonant vibration with the air conditioner or the ceiling fan or something and is making an awful, high-pitched whine. This picture has been on the wall for at least twenty years - I have no idea why it is only now doing this.

Every couple of minutes, I have been getting up out of bed, walking over to the picture, and just giving it a tap on the frame, which stops the noise. Then, after about 90 seconds of peace, it starts to build up again. In a Lovecraft story, this is the sort of thing which will slowly drive the protagonist mad.

Instead, I am just going to take the darn thing off of the wall. Hold on for a second...

II.

Even just from reading the work which has gone up in the past two weeks, I have really been struck not just by the uniformly high quality of it all, but also by the distinctiveness of the different authorial voices. A Barinellos piece is very different from a Raven piece, which is very different from a Ruwin piece, which is very different from a Keeper piece, which is very different from a Tevish piece, and so on and so on. And this extends down to feedback and commentary as well. Luna's take on a story may be very different from Raven's or Keeper's or mine, and each perspective teaches me something new.

The diversity of talent and style and perspective is wonderful. Magical, even, if I may be excused the pun. This is a genuinely wonderful group we have here. It's a precious thing and ought to be treasured.

III.

One of the things I like most about life in The Land Of Weak Signals is that it includes quiet time which I can just use to read. One of the things I have read this trip is Super Flat Times, a collection of short stories by a very talented co-worker of mine, Matthew Derby. Derby is a true gentleman and a wonderful guy, so I'm going to just plug his book for a moment, even though I'm about ten years behind the curve (I think it was released in 2003).

Now, I will be the first person to say that this is a strange book, and it is probably not for everyone. There are stories in it which, frankly, aren't really for me. It's a kind of absurdist sci-fi collection about a dystopian future which makes other dystopian futures look like Disneyland; a term which gets thrown around a lot on the back cover blurbs is "Orwellian," but I'd amend that to "Orwellian if Orwell had been about three times as cynical and had just taken a huge hit of acid."

But Derby has a way with concise, vivid language which I envy, and there are moments in this book which are just special. For example, I am deeply jealous of this beginning to one of the stories:


So, if that sounds like your jam, then I believe Super Flat Times is available on various e-reading devices.

IV.

I found the binder full of my stories and poems from my college creative writing class. It is... interesting. To say the least.

Most of the stories are pretty awful, as are most of the poems. But there is one story and about 1.5 poems which still spoke to me when I re-read them today. The one thing they have in common: they're all about people who I really care about.

Turns out that, when you write about what you care about, it shows. (Hopefully.)

V.

Ceiling fans are wonderful. When they aren't causing the pictures on your wall to emit a high-pitched whining vibration, anyway.

Yeah, we're awesome.

Actually, this gives me an interesting idea. We should each write a story based on the same prompt. Canon, non-canon, card-based, M:EM character based, whatever. But rather than post it, we should send them to an impartial observer, who will then post them without the author attached. Then we guess who wrote which one, and see how well we can pick out people's style. Could be fun.

I'd be sorely tempted to write a poem just to screw with people

I kind of like that plan though! That could be interesting. Time consuming though.

Hahaha we could even use a prompt from the Random Prompt Generator. (That's probably a bad idea though honestly)

That's a great idea! I'll totally be the guy you send them to, if you want!

It doesn't need to be anything long or complicated. It could be a relatively simple thing. And we'd agree to the prompt before we began, so we could use your RPG if we wanted to, as long as we got to a usable one. Or like I said, a card or anything else.

[PRE-EDIT]:@DisGo: I'd be fine with that, although you could participate, as well!

I think I'll sit this one out, but thanks!

I just realized that the voting for what story is who's would also need to be secret, or else omitted guesses, or the ones we "guess" for ourselves would sort of give the thing away.

Even without the voting game, I think something like this would be a ton of fun. I'd love to see multiple people attack the same prompt and see where they all take it.

But the guessing game would also be fun, too.

Another question for the masses, though this one aimed a bit more specifically at Raven: Should Kahr-ret-Taris have a dotted-line connection to Helkavin considering how much of an impact he supposedly had on the plane, or leave the connection at [Kahr-ret-Taris | The Fallen Pharaoh | Helkavin]?

Oh, also, I fixed my stupidity at not linking Kahr to Arbagoth now that the latter has a bubble.

Yeah, I suppose he should. As you say, he was a pretty important historical presence there, ultimately.

Done.

Also I just added Lukas Harran (which I keep trying to spell Harann for some reason) from The Fallen Pharaoh to the map because I am an idiot.

For the record? We just exceeded the total post count of Forum Posting Games. Looks like the next one to beat is Constructed.

....Not that this is a competition. >_> <_< >_> Nope. Definitely not a competition.

Flay it alive!!!

Um, I mean, uh...say it in jive?

We'll take Constructed to the bank. To the blood bank.

All I can think is this:

Great scene from a great movie. Airplane! remains one of the best comedies I've ever seen, and I've seen many.