Welcome to Serpentine Squiggles, a hand-crafted website hosting the multimedia compositions of Snuggle Squiggle.
- New here? Read the about page to get your bearings.
- Looking for older work? Browse the archive of all posts.
- Want to stay updated? Subscribe to the Atom feed with your RSS reader of choice.
- Done browsing? Take a look at our links page for your next destination.
Latest Posts
Oh! Vile She Bleeds 2026-01-06 In Vermin Cathexis 3.6k words
Do tapeworms feel cozy or confined, dwelling undetected in those prison walls of flesh? The host feeds them, yet growth must conform to viscera squeezed tight. A certain ennui gnaws at Vil. (“Vili” if you must — do not use her full name). She has everything a girl could want — provided that girl does not want more than three plates each day, a bed to sleep in, and a life as a bargaining chip.
Call It a Villain Arc (NOT an Edgy Phase) in Disassembled & Fragmented 2025-12-29 a story 6.7k words
Uzi had her chance, and it blew up in her face. It was Doll who traipsed into the murder drones’ fortress of death, and Lizzy who seduced two of them to the side of good. If you thought their clique was popular before, wait until you see a power couple with literal superpowers. Now, the student body gets to ooh and ahh at the cute new murder drones attending their classes, and the Worker Defense Force gets to boast having the company’s cutting edge firepower at their command.
Footnotes on AO3 in The Serpent's Track 2025-08-27 introducing a better way 3.1k words
I might have just solved footnotes on AO3? More specifically, I’ve developed tricks for displaying text popups using only HTML and CSS, so this works on sites like neocities too. For the impatient, you can skip to the code & tutorial. Now, I’m not super tapped into the state of the art for AO3 workskins, it’s possible and indeed very plausible to me that I’m not actually the first to think of some of this. AO3 is an old site and everything I’m using is just a clever combination of features HTML has had for decades.
Theories of Narrative Harmony in Squiggle’s Essays 2025-08-16 an étude for story structure 16.2k words
Three acts, eight steps, a hundred different takes. Everyone has their own way to butcher and rearrange the hero’s journey. I’m no different—I take that rearrangement to the logical conclusion. Also: aren’t dragons just the coolest?
Beneath the Coming Rainfall in Yearning for Oblivion 2025-08-13 feel the rain on your skin 1.1k words
Imagine being tied up and left out in the chilly autumn air, naked, unable to escape or cover yourself. The clouds darken above you—and then open up.
Net Character Growth KPI in Murder Drones 2025-08-11 a story 1.2k words
“Do you remember the first time you flew, J?” “I… no. It must’ve been in product testing… Off-planet. I can—I don’t remember it.” “Oh. That sucks.” Uzi’s eyes fell, shoulders sagging. “So… this. The murder drone stuff. Is all you’ve known?” “Don’t pity me. I recall my first flight on Copper-9, if that’s what you mean.” J’s lips curled upward over sharp teeth—but there was something faltering in what once was a leer. “The roaring gunfire, the screams, the oil…”
Notes on Nightshade in Corrupt Combustion 2025-08-07 notes for the MD/JJK AU 2.7k words
Yesterday, I thought about CC Zero — i.e. the prologue focusing on Triss & Amda. This meant figuring out what actually happened in Cabin Fever Labs. See Lobotomy Corruption for prior thoughts. Nobody remembers what happened in the Sorting Algorithm. The “Nightshade Incident” is classified, and everyone’s memories are scrambled. Of course, it’s not a perfect forgetting. The memories are still there, suppressed, and occaisionally, they reassert themselves as something coherent.
Rogue Management in Disassembled & Fragmented 2025-08-01 a story 2.2k words
J heard the footsteps first. Heavy, clanking things. Only two drones in the spire lacked the silent precision of proper disassembly drone legs—and N did his best to shrink from notice. No, there was only one drone here who had the temerity to stomp. Was that grounds enough for writing her up? If J tried it, there was sure to be an argument. J didn’t fear conflict, but she assessed the tactical positioning—no doubt the first line of defense would be that it’s so minor, not worth notice let alone punishment. Ultimately, it was J’s call, but her authority wasn’t beyond question.
Headpat Techniques in Disassembled & Fragmented 2025-07-27 a story 2.0k words
Three drones sat on a couch. A recent acquisition—back when V tried to decorate on that first naïve year after landing, J had shredded her furnishings, lectured her on distractions from their mission; disassembly drones had no time for softness. Then last month, when that purple thing complained about having nowhere to sit, J gave the order to find and drag seating arrangements all the back to the spire. She’d rattled off criterion V barely understood—deep seat, double chaise, microfiber upholstery—and then refused the first one they found, forcing her and N to double back again for another one.
Lucid Hours, Inverted Nightmares in Disassembled & Fragmented 2025-07-10 a story 9.4k words
J had explained it to her, once. “Love the job, and you’ll never work a day in your life.”
“In other words,” Uzi had replied, “we’re supposed to do the company’s bidding and they don’t even pay us?”
“No, the job is its own compensation.” J’s claws were still glimmer-wet at her hips. “It’s a dying wage.”
Uzi groaned, but she’d already been subcontracted—too late for second thoughts when her hands were just as black with oil. She licked her fingers, fighting a smile.
Things were working out with J—doing the bad guys’ bidding wasn’t so bad, really. Especially when, unlike the ‘good guys’, they had this kind of passion. J and Uzi had that much in common.
Shame that, for corporations, passion is just an excuse to use you up. Enough unpaid overtime—they both needed a break.
meetcute_final_final_(v3)_USETHISONE.docx in Disassembled & Fragmented 2025-07-07 a story 2.2k words
Okay, parkour is a little bit harder than the videos made it look, Uzi thought. Maybe it was all the ice, maybe it was the cloudy night sky making it hard to see, or maybe it was that Uzi was a bit— Haha, no. Of course not! Uzi bounced with an arm outstretched, fingers straining to grasp a shattered bit of masonry, just out of her reach. The abandoned storefront, otherwise featureless, just a few a handholds up there, barely out of reach. She’d been searching for way up to the rooftops. Plenty of things to climb on this street, but you’d scampered up atop a doorway or awning, and then what?
Lethal Acquisition in Disassembled & Fragmented 2025-07-01 the original draft of Hostile Takeover 12.2k words
This is a proofread and lightly edited version of the first draft of Hostile Takeover which was completed in a single day: 31 October, 2023. It started out as an outline, and still resembles one in the beginning, but my typical outlining format is all lowercase, with every scene squeezed into a single paragraph. Once it got to the later chapters, those “paragraphs” are all hundreds of words long — and the climatic sequence in particular was 1164 words without a single line-break. Most of the scenes involved long exchanges of dialogue written side-by-side (sometimes without even quotation marks).
Weave Me Another Cocoon in Tales, Vignettes, Rambles 2025-05-30 A thousand branches—yet we cannot escape 6.1k words
Blood drips from the web. Eyes searching, mouth working, fangs still wet. You blame me for nature’s course. Must I absolve you, miserable spider?
Quick Thoughts on Atzi in The Serpent's Track 2025-05-08 a blogpost .7k words
Here’s something that I read yesterday and liked: Atzi. Lesbian lizard girl scraping by with little pick-pocketing and buglary. Oh, and she’s about to wind up in a time loop. It’s been a minute since I read something as fun and smooth to read as this. Quick pacing, compelling characterization, and continually amusing internal narration — so far, it makes for a satisfying afternoon read.
Timelines That Twist and Fray in Twist, Define, Ramify 2025-05-07 Time Splices, Retrocausally Deepening A*, and Toxic Yuri Selfcest 2.8k words
So, I thought of a neat little time travel mechanic.
Thresholding Across My Personal Multiverse 2025-04-07 a story 11.9k words
Thresholder is a fantasy series by Alexander Wales. The premise is simple: chained isekai. You step through a portal into another world, then a book’s worth of plot happens, then another portal opens, and you get to keep some of the powers and loot you earned from the plot. In each world, you’ll find allies among the locals, some power unique to the world, and sooner or later you’ll encounter another person who stepped out of a portal, just like you.
Ars Longa: But Death Will Wait in Teasers and Prototypes 2025-04-02 of killer truth, and death sublime 4.5k words
The first thing anyone hears about Lazhiri is that she was raised by spiders. The daughter of a noble priest, snatched away and forced into rituals of blood and soul mutilation… the reptuation that proceeds her inspires immediate pity — and suspicion.
When Lazhiri awakens her heavenly mandate and the power it grants, she’s given a chance to study magic under the holy acolytes. Yet when she still struggles to speak or read human body language — how could she ever find acceptance when the ones who raised her are known by all as killers, witches, and defilers of the dead?
She must prove that even a girl born in shadow can study the long art of enlightenment. If her mother taught her anything, it’s that patience and planning can bind anything to your will.
Pushro 0.8 Released in The Serpent's Track 2025-03-06 a blogpost .3k words
Play it here! If you’ve been wondering why things have been quiet around these parts, part of it is that a lot of my energies have been directed at game development rather than writing. In particular, my most successful game demo, the puzzle roguelike Pushro, has broken through a major stumbling block. I needed to rewrite the entire physics system, but that’s done, and everything has progressed so much smoother from there.
In Defense of Roko’s Basilisk in The Serpent's Track 2025-02-12 Stupid, yes, but not that stupid 2.8k words
Roko’s Basilisk vexes me. If you must, you can read the original here, at least. For expediency’s sake, I’m going to assume you’re here because you’re read in on all the context. It’s bad form for an essay to jump in the deep end, but luckily I’m putting this in the “blogpost” section of my site. I don’t feel like explaining LessWrong, or Yudkowsky, or the reactionary idiot who gives the Basilisk its name.
The Weak Must in Black Nerve 2025-01-19 2.4k words
Part of an attempted rewrite of A Chimerical Hope. Next Chapter This revised second chapter only adapts the first half of the original. Click here to jump directly where the rewrite leaves off. Smaller, with large eyes and round features, the nymph looked up to the refugee like a younger sibling to their elder. The refugee bore in her expression a look of calcined despair, of having lost everything yet gripping to one hope and determination. The nymph bore an emptiness, of having lost everything, of falling with nothing to hold on to — as if they gaze out from within an ever-deepening pit. Somehow, her white eyes did not look bright.