author: Nicole J. LeBoeuf

I have postcards! I wrote my postcard today! (I would like to write more than one a day, but some days less amenable than others.) Many thanks to my league-mate Pink Bang Theory for suggesting I try the Used Book Emporium in downtown Longmont, just across the street from the library as it turned out; they had a plentiful and varied selection of FirstLight postcards featuring Colorado's flora, fauna, and geological features. Thirty cents for one, four postcards for a dollar.

I'm still going to buy some online. I'm partial to the designs at this Etsy store here. But the ones I got today will tide me over until the online purchase comes in.

Meanwhile, there's a lovely mention of our visit with the kids at the library this morning in the Longmont Times Call. Don't miss the photo gallery! On a related note, Strictly No Elephants is now one of my favorite children's picture books ever.

Hey, Boulder County - where the heck do you buy postcards?

Yes, well, "online," I just figured that out, but I need more postcards today. Meaning Wednesday the 4th, because I see it has snuck around to past midnight while my back was turned. Today, I need to send at least one more postcard urging Democrats in Utah to vote for #DrKathie because that's how it works, you pledge to send at least one postcard per day, and I take these things seriously.

Don't look at me like that. I know I've mentioned Postcards to Voters before. To review: You sign up, they send you addresses, you send postcards to those addresses. There are ground rules, of course. Postcard designs must be inclusive. Postcard messages must be legible, handwritten, and stick to the talking points for the associated campaign. Postcards are addressed to "Awesome Voter" or similar; they are signed with first name or initials. Ground rules like that. But it's still utter simplicity and great for folks who love sending old-fashioned physical mail but who maybe get the cold shivers and the hot red hives at the thought of making cold calls.

My postcards to date have been sourced from one of two places:

• A pad of watercolor-friendly postcard blanks I picked up at an arts'n'crafts store while I was still in high school at the latest; and
• A handful of European luggage-tag style postcard blanks I picked up at a stationery store at the east end of Loveland last month.

Those sources have run dry. I can't go back in time, and I'm not going all the way to Loveland every time I need more blanks. Besides, I damn near cleaned the store out of this particular product. And they don't interact with fountain pen ink reliably well, anyway.

I'm guessing maybe Michael's, maybe Office Depot or Staples? Those kind of places?

If anyone local's got suggestions, I'm all ears. Bonus points if it's somewhere in downtown Longmont within skating distance of the library.

OK. OK! We have blog. I repeat: We have blog.

We do not quite have business as usual ("What's usual?" "What's business?" "What's a cow?") but we're getting there.

The problem with getting back to business as usual is, it doesn't happen until the crap-ton of Overdue gets dealt with. I found this out last week. Last week I tried to have Normal Writing Workdays and just peck away at the Overdue Crap in between regular daily writing tasks. I thought, heck, we're in the roller derby off-season now. Plus this is a week culminating in a fifth Friday, so no Fictionette release is due! This should be easy. However, it was not easy. Turns out I have to put the Normal Writing Workday on hold in order to just get the Overdue done in one big heave. Then, that heave having worn me out, I hibernate.

So last week turned into the Week of Catching Up on All the Things and also napping. But now that the Overdue has been successfully reduced to a manageable amount, I can return to the original plan of having Normal Writing Workdays and, between those tasks, continuing to peck away at what remains of the Overdue.

(What is the Overdue? It is so very many things. It is household bills and accounting. It is travel plans and doctor appointments. It is email and league communications and those league committee tasks for which I am responsible. It is housecleaning, random mending and repair jobs, to-do items that have been on the to-do list for so long that I mistake them for part of the stationery design. It is a lot. And each overdue task has not only a time-and-effort cost associated with completing that task but also a non-trivial emotional weight associated with simply knowing that these tasks are due and that each minute not spent doing them is another minute that they are overdue. Why yes, I may indeed have anxiety issues, now that you mention it.)

Signs that we are nearly back to business as usual and that the light at the end of the tunnel is not an oncoming train:

• I made tortillas this morning! I had never made tortillas before. They were easy! I filled them with a yummy chicken-yam-eggplant mixture from yesterday's crock-pot session, and that was breakfast.

• I went to the Shuttles Spindles Skeins spin-in tonight for the first time in more than a year. Now my ankles and calves are sore. Treadling a spinning wheel is kind of a work-out, y'all. I'd forgotten, what with how long it's been since I last used my wheel.

• For the first time in almost a month, I got a blog post out that wasn't a weekend YPP blockade report. Here it is! Go me.

So that's the State of the Niki report. Hi. I will try not to be so out of touch going forward.

Real quick: Since I didn't blog all month and thus didn't get to tell you about them at the appropriate time, here's a brief round-up of the Friday Fictionettes released in September, with accompanying links.

• Sept. 1: "Love, Death, and Really Bad Movies" (1,090 words, ebook, audiobook, free HTML excerpt)
• Sept. 8: "Intervention" (1,073 words, ebook, audiobook, free HTML excerpt )
• Sept. 15: "Early Warning System" - Freebie! - (1,111 words, ebook, audiobook, HTML )
• Sept. 22: "That's Entertainment" (902 words, ebook, audiobook, free HTML excerpt )

For those of y'all just tuning in, the Friday Fictionette Project is a flash fiction subscription service powered by Patreon. Subscribers (Patrons) get access to a new "fictionette," which is to a say a short-story-like object, every first through fourth Friday as an ebook ($1/month) and/or audiobook ($3/month) depending on their pledge tier. At the end of every month, one of the four fictionettes released that month becomes available to all and sundry. (If you're thinking, "That sounds kind of cool, and the price is right, but I just don't know if I dig this author's writing style," browsing the archive for the "freebie" tag might help you figure that out.)

I'm late and I'm also at a location with verrrrry sllllowwww internet, so this blockade report is coming at about one third the usual speed. Alas and alack! But while I'm waiting for my login to the Opal Ocean to resolve, I can tell you this much:

• Dark Seas has launched on Steam!
• Steam exclusivity has gone into effect for Dark Seas!
• Blockades on the Obsidian Ocean are coming. Soonish.

So, yes, I have finally consented to download Steam and register a username there. Grumbling the whole while. Also, my username was taken. I ask you, who else in the history of the internet ever uses "vortexae"? Seriously? With an email address ending in @g***.a*? Is that "gmail.au"? Is that a thing? Has someone with an Australian gmail account taken the username I've employed since high school? Well. If you're looking for me on steam and you want to say hi, you can instead find me hiding under the very obscure username "nicolejleboeuf".

All right, I've finally given up and moved to a location with an internet connection that's somewhat faster than the speed of molasses in winter. Keep reading for this weekend's blockade schedule. Good luck, have fun, puzzle hard, shoot cannons, earn PoE!

Standard reminders: Schedule is given in Pirate Time, or U.S. Pacific. Player flags link to Yoweb information pages; Brigand King Flags link to Yppedia Brigand King pages. BK amassed power given in parenthetical numbers, like so: (14). For more info about jobbing contacts, jobber pay, and Event Blockade battle board configuration, check the Blockade tab of your ocean's Notice Board. To get hired, apply under the Voyages tab.

Doubloon Ocean Blockades

*** Saturday, September 30 ***

12:03 p.m. - Dendrite Island, Meridian Ocean
Brigand King attack!
Defender: Infamous
Attacker: Jinx (3)

3:00 p.m. - Windward Vale, Meridian Ocean
Defender: Trap House
Attacker: Puzzleholics Anonymous

3:00 p.m. - Surtsey Island, Meridian Ocean
Defender: Trap House
Attacker: Puzzleholics Anonymous

3:11 p.m. - Cryo Island, Emerald Ocean
Brigand King holds the island!
Defender: The All-Consuming Flame (2)
Attacker: Spoon Republic
Attacker: Unwanted Attention

3:55 p.m. - The Lowland Hundred, Emerald Ocean
Defender: Qlimax
Attacker: Marinha do Brasil

6:14 p.m. - Ashkelon Arch, Emerald Ocean
Defender: Bon Appetit
Attacker: Spoon Republic

6:14 p.m. - Ventress Island, Emerald Ocean
Defender: Bon Appetit
Attacker: Spoon Republic

6:55 p.m. - Sayers Rock, Emerald Ocean
Defender: Knockout
Attacker: Crayon Box

6:55 p.m. - Scrimshaw Island, Emerald Ocean
Defender: Knockout
Attacker: Crayon Box

6:56 p.m. - Admiral Island, Emerald Ocean
Defender: Knockout
Attacker: Crayon Box

7:43 p.m. - Ix Chel, Emerald Ocean
Defender: No Strings Attached
Attacker: Spoon Republic

7:45 p.m. - Blackthorpe Island, Emerald Ocean
Defender: No Strings Attached
Attacker: Spoon Republic

Subscription Ocean Blockades

*** Saturday, September 30 ***

12:03 p.m. - Prolix Purlieu, Cerulean Ocean
Brigand King holds the island!
Defender: Kismet
Defender: Fleet of his Imperial Scaled Highness (2)

5:00 p.m. - Dendrite Island, Cerulean Ocean
Brigand King holds the island!
Defender: Fleet of his Imperial Scaled Highness (1)
Attacker: Midnight Yacht Club

Sometimes Saturday means not only a new Puzzle Pirates blockade schedule, but also a catch-up scramble for writing stuff I didn't get done during the week. Which is to say, the Friday Fictionette for September 8 is a little late. But it is out now for your perusal and delectation/scorn (circle one)! Please enjoy "Intervention" (Patrons may download the full text as an ebook or audiobook), a vignette about sentience in small electronic appliances and Regrets with a capital R.

Awright! Back to the pew-pew-pew. Crayon Box appears to be the target of choice on Emerald; having harassed their way into multiple island grabs last weekend, they are now suffering the subsequent wrath of the rest of the ocean. Knockout, Spoon Republic, and relative newcomer Bon Appetit are their uninvited guests. Even the brigand kings are going after Crayon Box.

On Meridian, ain't nothin' doin'. Not yet, anyway.

Update: Sunday blockade on Moab added!

On Cerulean, Riding High will be attacking Cnossos Island, currently owned by The Phoenix Rises, at noon today. "Why?" Doggbreath asks rhetorically. "For the wrong reason..."

This is not about sportsmanship - good, bad or indifferent, about displaying our amazing prowess on the blockade board, or even because we dislike anybody. It is about economics, pure & simple. Business is slow and we don't want to keep paying an extra 10% in rent to a semi-active flag.

There you go--principles in action.

Meanwhile, Dark Seas is set to launch on Steam real soon now. Early access will begin September 14, if nothing occurs to push the release back. Oceanmaster Cronus has all the info in this thread. (Looks like I'm going to have to cave in and install Steam finally; after the beta test is over, that will be the only way to access the Obsidian Ocean.) To support the final release of Dark Seas, the OMs are looking for to hire a video editor who can produce game trailers. They also invite the community to submit video clips and screenshots to help create the Steam store page.

Standard reminders: Schedule is given in Pirate Time, or U.S. Pacific. Player flags link to Yoweb information pages; Brigand King Flags link to Yppedia Brigand King pages. BK amassed power given in parenthetical numbers, like so: (14). For more info about jobbing contacts, jobber pay, and Event Blockade battle board configuration, check the Blockade tab of your ocean's Notice Board. To get hired, apply under the Voyages tab.

Doubloon Ocean Blockades

*** Saturday, September 9 ***

1:35 p.m. - Sayers Rock, Emerald Ocean
Defender: Crayon Box
Attacker: Knockout

2:09 p.m. - Albatross Island, Emerald Ocean
Defender: Crayon Box
Attacker: Spoon Republic

2:10 p.m. - Ambush Island, Emerald Ocean
Defender: Crayon Box
Attacker: Spoon Republic

5:27 p.m. - Alkaid Island, Emerald Ocean
Defender: Crayon Box
Attacker: Bon Appetit

9:24 p.m. - Kakraphoon Island, Emerald Ocean
Brigand King holds the island!
Defender: Ice Wyrm's Brood (2)
Attacker: Spoon Republic

*** Sunday, September 10 ***

11:58 a.m. - Moab Island, Meridian Ocean
Defender: Trap House
Defender: Infierno De los Diablos

Subscription Ocean Blockades

*** Saturday, September 9 ***

12:01 p.m. - Cnossos Island, Cerulean Ocean
Defender: The Phoenix Rises
Attacker: Riding High

*** Sunday, September 10 ***

10:00 a.m. - Prolix Purlieu, Cerulean Ocean
Brigand King attack!
Defender: The Stumbling Solo
Attacker: Fleet of his Imperial Scaled Highness (3)

So, today got unexpectedly political. I mean, the political component of the day was expected, but my participation was unexpectedly high and early in the day. There were multiple faxes to send, some through Resistbot and some from a physical fax machine, and also postcards to write. So between that and some more routine household chores, my writing got a little crowded out and whittled down to just the daily gottas.

They were good solid daily gottas, though. And good solid household chores, too. I'm not displeased with how my day went. But I do wish the political crises obliging good citizens to action could pace themselves a little rather than piling up all on the same day. Well. One does what one must, given the crises one has.

I did want to talk about those postcards a little. I've started volunteering with Postcards to Voters, which is exactly what it sounds like: get-out-the-vote postcard-writing campaigns for specific key elections. (The current campaign is in support of Annette Taddeo's bid for Florida State Senate District 40 on September 26.) You get started by sending an email to "join" at "tonythedemocrat.org." Then they send you an email telling you how it works and what's expected of you and your postcards. Then you reply with a photo of your first postcard so they can make sure you understand the rules of the road. If you do and your postcard shows it, they send you addresses and you start sending people your postcards.

So that's a thing I'm doing with postage stamps and fountain pens and markers and watercolors and stuff. Activism is fun!

Real quick: Last week's fictionette--which was out on time I'll have you know only I wasn't able to get to the blog to say so that evening--was a bit of a romp called "Love, Death, and Really Bad Movies" (ebook, audiobook). It's about a disastrous first date and also a frustrated serial killer.

And that's it!

It's a weekend for multi-drop blockades, when Trap House will attack Barely Dressed in five places at once on the Meridian Ocean, Knockout and Lit and Crayon Box will attack each other all over the Emerald Ocean, and, on Cerulean, Admiral Finius is pretty much moving in on everyone. Saturday is just packed.

(Then there's a BK attack tomorrow on Meridian's Napi Peak.)

With September comes a new Seal o' Piracy to strive for. This month's requires you to perform 4 different crafting sessions. No need for a subscription or a labor badge if you're patient; just wait for each of your four favorite labor puzzles to come around on the freeplay schedule. Saturday's free labor puzzle is Shipwrightery. Friday's was Distilling. (Friday's free game in real life was Bingo. Turns out, Bingo multitasks with Distilling quite well.)

While I was distilling around on all my pirates on all the oceans, I spotted a rare sight: Doubloons offered for sale at 5000 PoE on the Meridian Ocean. It went 16,000, then 15,000, then 5,050, 5,025, 5,000. Alas, the reasonably priced doubloons got crowded off the market again by the time I checked this morning. But at least the top offer was "only" 17,000 rather than 21,000. Maybe the market-jacking yahoos are getting bored, or, more likely, discovering their get-rich-quick scheme has limits. We can only hope.

Standard reminders: Schedule is given in Pirate Time, or U.S. Pacific. Player flags link to Yoweb information pages; Brigand King Flags link to Yppedia Brigand King pages. BK amassed power given in parenthetical numbers, like so: (14). For more info about jobbing contacts, jobber pay, and Event Blockade battle board configuration, check the Blockade tab of your ocean's Notice Board. To get hired, apply under the Voyages tab.

Doubloon Ocean Blockades

*** Saturday, September 2 ***

12:00 p.m. - Admiral Island, Emerald Ocean
Defender: Knockout
Attacker: Crayon Box

12:00 p.m. - Kakraphoon Island, Emerald Ocean
Brigand King attack!
Defender: Shadows of Sage
Attacker: Ice Wyrm's Brood (2)

12:38 p.m. - Scrimshaw Island, Emerald Ocean
Defender: Crayon Box
Attacker: Lit
Attacker: Knockout

12:39 p.m. - Alkaid Island, Emerald Ocean
Defender: Crayon Box
Attacker: Lit

12:40 p.m. - Albatross Island, Emerald Ocean
Defender: Knockout
Attacker: Crayon Box

12:40 p.m. - Sayers Rock, Emerald Ocean
Defender: Lit
Attacker: Crayon Box

12:41 p.m. - Ambush Island, Emerald Ocean
Defender: Knockout
Attacker: Crayon Box

12:42 p.m. - Marlowe Island, Emerald Ocean
Defender: Lit
Attacker: Crayon Box

12:43 p.m. - Anegada Island, Emerald Ocean
Defender: Lit
Attacker: Crayon Box

5:00 p.m. - Viridis Island, Meridian Ocean
Defender: Dragon Lords
Attacker: Vanguard

6:29 p.m. - Raven's Roost, Meridian Ocean
Defender: Barely Dressed
Attacker: Trap House

6:30 p.m. - Windward Vale, Meridian Ocean
Defender: Barely Dressed
Attacker: Trap House

6:30 p.m. - Duat Island, Meridian Ocean
Defender: Barely Dressed
Attacker: Trap House

6:30 p.m. - Hadrian Island, Meridian Ocean
Defender: Barely Dressed
Attacker: Trap House

6:30 p.m. - Stormy Fell, Meridian Ocean
Defender: Barely Dressed
Attacker: Trap House

9:30 p.m. - Ventress Island, Emerald Ocean
Defender: Crayon Box
Attacker: Lit

*** Sunday, September 3 ***

12:00 p.m. - Napi Peak, Meridian Ocean
Brigand King attack!
Defender: Trap House
Attacker: The Enlightened (4)

Subscription Ocean Blockades

*** Saturday, September 2 ***

12:00 p.m. - Iris Island, Cerulean Ocean
Brigand King attack!
Defender: The Stumbling Solo
Attacker: Fleet of his Imperial Scaled Highness (2)

12:00 p.m. - Dendrite Island, Cerulean Ocean
Brigand King attack!
Defender: Undertow
Attacker: Fleet of his Imperial Scaled Highness (2)

12:00 p.m. - Emperor Island, Cerulean Ocean
Brigand King attack!
Defender: Tequila Sunrise
Attacker: Fleet of his Imperial Scaled Highness (4)

12:00 p.m. - Harmattan Island, Cerulean Ocean
Brigand King attack!
Defender: Undertow
Attacker: Fleet of his Imperial Scaled Highness (4)

6:18 p.m. - Conglin Island, Cerulean Ocean
Defender: The Stumbling Solo
Attacker: Secrets of the Deep

The long blog silence is testimony to the truth of the adage "After derby is too late." Not a universal adage, admittedly, but a fairly reliable one in my little universe. So today I'm blogging before derby. Just before. Instantaneously before. I'm in fact sitting at the folding table in the Officials' Corner at our practice location, and I have until they arrive and need to actually use this table to get this blog post done. Go me!

(I think I will be able to manage posting it after derby. There is no wifi at our practice location unless I beg use of someone's smartphone uplink. And smartphones notoriously fail to get signal in our practice location.)

I found a little time earlier this week to play around with interactive fiction. In Melissa Ford's book Writing Interactive Fiction, I had just got to the Designing Agency section--it's pretty early on in the book, I'm not moving through it particularly quickly--and worked through the Beanstalk exercise. The exercise has, to my thinking, two purposes: It gives you more practice using Twine to give the reader/protagonist choices, and it focuses your attention on whether those choices are meaningful. If they aren't, the interactive fiction isn't.

The exercise was to write a sort of Jack and the Beanstalk... sequel? Alternate plot? Basically, the giant is threatening to come down the beanstalk and STEAL YOUR SISTER. Oh noes! The first scene must end with two options, and each of two ensuing scenes must end with two options, which means there will be four possible endings.

I was not enthusiastic about this.

(Oh, crap, it's 6:30 already. I have to go put my skates on. I will finish this after derby! I will!)

(And now it is 10:00 PM. I'm a little more bruised and a lot more tired than I was when I left off. Now... where did I leave off? Oh. Right.)

I was not enthusiastic about this. I had absolutely no desire to rewrite Jack and the Beanstalk, much less in four permutations. But that was my assignment, so, darn it, I was doing it.

Forty-five minutes and 1,500 words later, I had done it and it wasn't so bad. Having no love for damsel in distress storylines, I had worked every branch toward the revelation that Jack's little sister had become a soldier competent to lead an army. The reader's choices would determine where she and Jack stood as siblings. In one, they were teammates working together to defeat the giant. In another, they were enemies, traitor and betrayed, and Jack wound up exiled for his sins.

It was all very silly, but it still managed to capture my interest by the end of it. That night, on my way to sleep, I couldn't stop thinking about ways to expand the story into something actually worth reading. I could foreshadow the little sister's development into a warrior princess, for instance. I could tell how she'd practiced swordfighting and climbed every tree in sight so she could grow up as fierce and strong and brave as her adored big brother. I could note the foolishness of Jack treating the giant like a personal problem when in fact his little farm was part of a great big nation which the giant might rightfully be seen as invading. And what about the harp? Did she resent Jack for having stolen her during his earlier foray? Did she miss living up in the clouds? Was she the medium by which the giant delivered his threat?

And so on, and so forth. And what's ridiculous about it is, it's probably not going to be commercially viable no matter how well I revise and expand it. The entire premise is from an exercise in a well-known (I think?) book on the subject, which other aspiring interactive fiction authors have no doubt already worked through themselves, and there aren't that many markets for interactive fiction at this time. So I really shouldn't let myself obsess over it, at least not until I've got a bunch of other projects out of my hair. Like, say, the short-short I want to expand into an interactive piece that actually is commercially viable. Hey, brain, maybe we should obsess on that story, and not on this one, what do you say?

Darn it, Muse! You are so inconvenient!

*Sigh.*

Lastly, some quick fictionette news: The freebie for August 2017 has been released. It's "Tina, Destroyer of Worlds," and you can now read/download it as an ebook, an audiobook, or as a webpage via Patreon regardless of your patron status. Also I finally put the Fictionette Artifacts for April in the mail. I hope not to take so long with the ones for May. If I take a whole month to do each one, I'll always be three months behind, and that would be depressing.

So I'm late with the Friday Fictionette again, but that's no reason this blockade schedule can't be right on time. And this weekend it actually matters because there's no fewer than four blockades kicking off right at noon today. All of them are on Emerald. (So, yeah, I may have to take a few hours to earn a little PoE before I jump into the overdue writing project. Sorry kinda sorta.) Aren't you glad I'm posting this now and not several hours later?

The Cerulean Ocean also has a healthy itinerary for the weekend. That'll kick off later this afternoon and will be continued Sunday around a quarter past eleven. The YPP Forum highlights Tequila Sunrise's defense of Lagniappe Island and Blackstar's defense of Olive. Both flags promise a raffle to help incentivize your joining up and sticking around.

That's it for now! I'll post again when I've finally gotten yesterday's fictionette offering up and available. Hopefully that will be later today, but realistically it may take until Monday again. Argh. Sorry (and not kinda sorta either).

Standard reminders: Schedule is given in Pirate Time, or U.S. Pacific. Player flags link to Yoweb information pages; Brigand King Flags link to Yppedia Brigand King pages. BK amassed power given in parenthetical numbers, like so: (14). For more info about jobbing contacts, jobber pay, and Event Blockade battle board configuration, check the Blockade tab of your ocean's Notice Board. To get hired, apply under the Voyages tab.

Doubloon Ocean Blockades

*** Saturday, August 26 ***

12:00 p.m. - Admiral Island, Emerald Ocean
Brigand King attack!
Defender: Knockout
Attacker: The Jade Empire (6)

12:00 p.m. - Alkaid Island, Emerald Ocean
Defender: Knockout
Attacker: Crayon Box

12:00 p.m. - Scrimshaw Island, Emerald Ocean
Defender: Knockout
Attacker: Crayon Box

12:00 p.m. - Anegada Island, Emerald Ocean
Brigand King holds the island!
Defender: Fleet of his Imperial Scaled Highness (2)
Attacker: Lit

9:00 p.m. - Isle of Kent, Emerald Ocean
Defender: Black Flag
Attacker: Keeping The Peace

Subscription Ocean Blockades

*** Saturday, August 26 ***

5:46 p.m. - Dendrite Island, Cerulean Ocean
Defender: The Stumbling Solo
Attacker: Undertow

6:00 p.m. - Lagniappe Island, Cerulean Ocean
Brigand King attack!
Defender: Tequila Sunrise
Attacker: Fleet of his Imperial Scaled Highness (2)

8:57 p.m. - Diastrophe Island, Cerulean Ocean
Defender: Blackstar
Attacker: LeanBoys

*** Sunday, August 27 ***

11:18 a.m. - Cleopatra's Pearls, Cerulean Ocean
Defender: Family Ties
Attacker: LeanBoys

11:19 a.m. - Olive Island, Cerulean Ocean
Defender: Blackstar
Attacker: LeanBoys

11:28 a.m. - Jubilee Island, Cerulean Ocean
Defender: Blackstar
Attacker: The Stumbling Solo

11:33 a.m. - Eta Island, Cerulean Ocean
Defender: Blackstar
Attacker: The Stumbling Solo

Saturday! Blockades! See below. Not a heck of a lot of them, to be sure, but on the Cerulean Ocean we appear to have a brand new flag making its first moves, so that's a thing.

And speaking of brand new, an event has been announced for this afternoon on the Obsidian Ocean. The flag Versus Terminus is offering everyone a leg up, regardless of their faction, in memorizing the ocean--or at least the island league points:

Never again will you have to look blank when someone mentions staring in to the Ember Eye or miss out on a skeleton fray merely because you have no way of whisking there. We will have a ship ported at every island for you to jump on and explore.

Between the hours of 2 and 3 PM Pirate Time, send Ush a /tell or apply on the Notice Board for a job with "The Midnight Society." Then you'll be free to whisk aboard their ships and visit the islands they're porting at. Soon "Yer Known World" will be complete, with every island open to you for the price of a whisking potion!

So I'm off to hop up and down on a few islands today. How 'bout you?

Standard reminders: Schedule is given in Pirate Time, or U.S. Pacific. Player flags link to Yoweb information pages; Brigand King Flags link to Yppedia Brigand King pages. BK amassed power given in parenthetical numbers, like so: (14). For more info about jobbing contacts, jobber pay, and Event Blockade battle board configuration, check the Blockade tab of your ocean's Notice Board. To get hired, apply under the Voyages tab.

Doubloon Ocean Blockades

*** Sunday, August 20 ***

10:04 a.m. - Acanthaster Spits, Meridian Ocean
Brigand King holds the island!
Defender: Trap House
Defender: The All-Consuming Flame (1)

12:00 p.m. - Anegada Island, Emerald Ocean
Brigand King attack!
Defender: Spoon Republic
Attacker: Fleet of his Imperial Scaled Highness (3)

Subscription Ocean Blockades

*** Saturday, August 19 ***

8:22 p.m. - Harmattan Island, Cerulean Ocean
Defender: Eggocentric Eggcentrics
Attacker: LeanBoys

8:36 p.m. - Olive Island, Cerulean Ocean
Defender: Blackstar
Attacker: LeanBoys