A repository of writing by Lachlan Marnoch - short stories, fantasy, science fiction, science fact, and adjacent opinions.
Hey all! Here's a thing I made for an Intro to Video Games unit at uni a while back, and it's actually not completely terrible? It's a Metroidvania-style game built in the Kodu game engine. It probably takes around five to ten minutes to finish.
You can download Kodu, which you'll need if you want to play the game, here. It's a pretty good way to get started making games, especially for kids (but adults too).
File below. My proposal for the game is also included.
The last boxes are taped up, the rooms are empty, and the walls are bare. The sharp, stale smell of a decade and a half’s worth of accumulated dust hangs in the air.
“Jason?” Mum calls. “Can you take Daisy for a walk before the truck gets here?”
The ambiguous fish mocked me from the rock. A forgotten skeleton, not bones anymore, but stones, taunted me with intermediate features. The empty eye socket stared smugly into mine: “You don’t know what I am.”
Read MoreFar below, Prometheus faced his brother Atlas across the mountain path. The battle raged around them. Smoke and ozone stung the air, carried against the two siblings by the whipping wind. Shock and anger burned in Atlas's eyes. And there was something else there.
Ah, right, Prometheus thought glumly. Betrayal.
It's been ages since I posted last. I've been thinking a bit (a lot) lately about writing, and what it means to me and what I want to do with it. I've said this before... but I'm hoping to post a lot more in the near future. I've got plans, man, big plans1, you just wait.
So anyway, I thought I'd post this to get the ball rolling. This is a story and a universe I've been working on in bits and pieces since the Planck epoch. The Richell Prize, a novel-writing competition, prompted me in 2015 to go ahead and get the first few chapters done. I didn't make the shortlist, and I wasn't expecting to, but it did succeed in getting me to put some actual stuff down. Two years later and I haven't added much - you know how it is - but I thought I'd put it up here anyway. It's a bit rough in retrospect, and it could definitely use some work. One day, man. One day.
Legacy: The God of Night (a sample)
1 Plans are at most mild to medium in size.
Elya continued to fly the Supernought as they fled back to the bridge, which was not an easy journey given that his suit's jets, and several of Delton's bones, were broken. The ship was accelerating at full power now, away from the nucleus-forsaken rock behind them. Without the ship's inertial muffling, they would have been no more than red stains on the rear walls; even with it they were struggling to move against the acceleration.
Read MoreThe dead ship hung in space, spinning slowly. With active surfaces disabled, its hull mirrored the distant stars perfectly. Even without stealth measures it was visible only by the constellations it altered as it passed before them, blotting out stars and replacing them with new ones. As it turned, however, the craft’s interior became visible, exposed by jagged sections of missing hull. There were no sparking cables, no vapours leaking from smashed pipes. Just a broken eggshell.
From the launch bay of the SDU Dubious Honour, Delton watched the incongruous opening draw closer as the Semartus ship matched the Supernought’s velocity. She floated in the airlock with a dozen other crewmembers, both Darax and Semartus, vacuum suits ready and sealed.
My war started a long time before the Tulisan. I was getting old before they were even a blip on SDU deep space radar. I'm a veteran, you know, from the Storm border conflicts. I enlisted right out of school, as soon as I could. I was stationed on Bulwark, my homeworld, actually, which has the happy distinction of playing host to no less than three Storm invasions. And one Tulisan invasion.
Read MoreThe Planet Eater swung around the yellow star and closed in on his prey. The blue planet swelled into his view, emerging from the milky strew of stars. He could feel the radio waves emanating from it; see the spectral lines of molecular oxygen in its atmosphere, its swarm of tiny satellites. This was a planet at the peak of its lifespan. His mouth started to water.
Read MoreGosh, I wrote some dark stuff in high school. This was another thing I wrote while we were studying The Road by Cormac McCarthy.
Final Lover
I hang above her and I stand beside her, silent and patient.
When the world burned there was no shortage of companions for me. But where now is the sport? I drift above everything, everyone, and every minute I take a new lover into sweet oblivion with me. They think to resist me, mostly, but they all come eventually.
Read MoreHey guys! The next chapter in the History of the Universe is taking a little longer than the others, so I thought I'd put it on hold to post this screenplay.
I wrote this as the major assignment for my Introduction to Screenwriting unit last semester. It's a little rough and I'm not sure that I like a lot of things about it, but it somehow earned me an unexpected Distinction! It follows a university physics student who is struggling through his third year at university and dealing with his philosophical realisations about determinism. (Yes, there is a somewhat autobiographical bent to the script, which is one of the reasons I'm not totally keen on it)
Enjoy!
Uncertainty (2015)
Hey, everybody. I thought I'd share my Major Work from Extension 2 English, which I did in 2012. It actually made it into the Young Writers Showcase 12, which is a collection of the best major works from the year. I'm not saying mine was one of the best, but... Would the Board of Studies lie to you?
Anyway, my full major work is here:
It's a collection of short stories set in a dystopian future in which copyright law has become a controlling factor in the world. I think it's kind of neat.
Morning, all! I thought I'd post another short story to my short story blog. This is a piece I wrote in 2011 for Extension English, when we were studying Cormac McCarthy's The Road.
Read More