On the Writing of "Did you Hide, U Low Kene?" · 5:26pm Oct 3rd, 2015
A retrospective of the process in six parts.
On the introduction of new story elements:
"I shouldn't use changelings. As soon as someone can look like anyone in a murder mystery then all bets are off, and I doubt the judges would like that."
ffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff-
On developing the character of Palei Hantu:
"Hantu means 'spirit'... maybe she's not a minotaur? Maybe she's a changeling! Heh, naaah. Changelings couldn't imitate minotaurs."
FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF-
On the internet as a font of all human knowledge:
On the importance of revisions to the source material
"Hmm... Rosetta's chapter wasn't in the original Writeoff version, so it can't be integral to the mystery. I'll ignore it."
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
On the wisdom of last-minute editing
"I forgot to mention the spear... ehh. I guess it won't make a difference."
Judging
We scored every entry out of a possible 100 points.
[...]
Who flung the spear at U Low Kene? (5)
...
...
On thinking, if I was lucky, I might even earn a follower or something:
In conclusion, I suck at predictions.
- Monarch
(Story-form keyboard-mashings coming soon)
Okay, this made me laugh.
A lot.
Congrats on 3rd place / commiserations on not winning!
You mean I could have just googled "Hantu meaning" to find out what it meant this entire time?
3439984 I think "Palei Hantu" means "Gort, please don't destroy Earth."
This made me laugh.
Of course, I knew changelings are always the answer.
Because, you see, Horizon loves
his bretherenchangelings.And has written at least two other mystery stories about changelings (you should read Hearth Swarming Eve, and read The Case of the Cowled Changelings when it comes out).
3439984
Of course you can, dude. Google knows everything.
EXCEPT OBSCURE F***ING PONYFIC WORDS APPARENTLY
To be fair, the hidden seventh element unifying all of these incorrect predictions was: "It's being run by Horizon. Throw common sense out the window."
Unrelatedly, let me add my voice to the "this is hilarious" chorus.
And I'm really glad that at least one prediction failure worked out in your favor!
3445958
¡Muchas gracias! Glad I could entertain.
So what did 'Palei' mean, in the end?
(I figured 'pale' but only because it sounds similar, and I don't think the languages are close enough to cross that easily...)
3446860
Dirty little secret which I will admit semi-publically, i.e. here in this blog post rather than my own write-up: that was the one word where my own research failed me.
I was trying desperately to get some Moken vocabulary for the name, for the appearance of authenticity. Stumbled across "Hantu" for spirit and that was an instant winner. "Palei" actually came from a list of Moken settlement names, in a sense that apparently made it an adjective modifying its linked noun, and the name had an excellent mouthfeel, so in the absence of actual meaning I went with that. I tried to google it and also got nowhere (though you may get closer to an answer by googling 'palei moken'), but from the context of some of the other places it was used, I think it means "pearl", which is anticlimactically irrelevant.
If it does mean "pale", that's probably closer to relevance than I expected to get.
3447299
AAAAAH GODDAMIT
Three lines above the listing I pulled "Palei" from:
THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN SO FSCKING PERFECT
This is the greatest retrospective I've ever seen!
Darn those changelings!
3447299
Palei translates to pale in Javanese and a few other languages, so that was just the translation I rolled with.
Did You Hide was one of my favorite entries (I just read them). I also remember you being in the OC Slamjam. You should write some more stuff! :D