So, for a while, I have had this nagging sensation, that this is the worst crap I've ever written. A little worse than even my first story, in fact. And turns out, that's because it is. I went back to look at the early chapters, and realized that the pacing is weird, there are strange patches of over-flowery wording because I was reading the kingkiller chronicles and emulating them without actually committing to the bit, the basic grammar is atrocious, and I am NOT suited as a writer to writing in a system apocalypse setting.
I am confident enough to say that I went in with a couple of fun ideas, which is what made most of you stick around, I think, and a couple fun characters which I saw, and was like. 'How could I hamstring these characters the most?' And did that by writing in a style I did not like, because this was my 'serious' writing piece, and as such, it should be written 'seriously'.
So yeah, I will be back with another story that is NOT a system apocalypse because to write that you need quantity, something I am incapable of, lots of meaningless fights, something I have no interest in, and no established worldbuilding, which I am also not that much of a fan of.
But, that doesn't really matter right now. What matters is thanking the people who've bothered to read the stylted mess my writing was at this point. I know you probably aren't happy with this decision, but while I understand that some of you might be attached, I just can't keep forcing out these chapters when I know I could be better. So, Thank you, to anyone who reads this, and I hope you have it great from now on, and maybe decide to come back for my next story. I still have fun ideas, hopefully, and I want to tell those ideas in a much better format then the system apocalypse one, which I really more liked as an idea.
Best regards, A.
”Remind me again why you punched him?” Emma grumbled as she tried to poke him again.
“Because, he deserved it. Even you cannot possibly think he didn’t after dragging us into this place,” Aelin said stubbornly, “And I think you should rather be commending me on not punching him before now.”
“First of all, Oliver often deserves to be punched. You’re never going to get anywhere in life if you take every chance to do so. Secondly, It’s also a question of timing. Punch him when he’s just about to drag us in here? Sure! That might force him to slow down a bit and explain things like giant fires to us. Punch him while were stuck in a great big death pit with his magic really being the only solution available? Not so great.”
Aelin was pacing in the hall, regularly going to look over the tilted hall outside their little balcony as if some solution would magically present itself. Well, it could for all they knew about these places, but it seemed unlikely.
Aelin eventually came to a stop above where she sat with Oliver next to her. She preferred to keep busy by braiding Oliver’s hair. It was quite pretty with the random braid’s strewn throughout.
“Weren’t you supposed to be incredibly loyal to the point of stupidity? Why are you suddenly advocating for me to punch Oliver?” Aelin asked his eyebrow raised as he settled down across from them. If the pattern held, he’d be up again in about three exchanges.
“Eh, you’re my friend too, and Oliver really did deserve it this time. Besides, I’ve seen how fast you can punch. You were barely trying and he still crumbled like a leaf. We’re all getting used to being able to do that,” She shrugged, “But, in the future, I would prefer a ‘you’re being stupid’ smack than a ‘we’re going to stuff you in this van and you’ll never see the light of day again’ punch. You can do the first one pretty often if you need to, as long as you avoid the second one.”
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
“What a wonderful friend you are.”
“Says the guy who punched his friend.”
“He’s less a friend and more akin to a stubborn mule who keeps dragging me around like a puppy” Aelin said.
Emma paused for a moment, considering. What was the likelihood of either puppies or equines evolving on a craggy savanna? “How many animals did you mention?”
“One. How many did you hear?”
“Two.”
It was pretty interesting how mouth movements were somehow right, even though the words heard and said were completely different. They’d started to figure it out about a week ago.
Emma was soon proved right, as Aelin stood up and started to pace. Again. She shrugged. She wasn’t one to judge, she was already unbraiding his hair again. Besides, it wasn’t like they could do much else in there.
Ten more minutes passed before Oliver finally woke up, startling awake on the floor. Thankfully she was close to his head at the time, and a little over twice as fast as him, so she managed to get her hands underneath his jerking head.
“I HAVE A PLAN!” Oliver yelled the moment he awoke, smiling brightly.
Emma felt a jolt of satisfaction run through her as she turned to Aelin. “See, Aelin? See? If you’d just smacked him a couple of times throughout the day, we’d have been out an hour ago!”
“Well, if the Madman just said, ‘I think I am close to a solution’ instead of wandering off, we wouldn’t be here either.” Aelin said.
“Oh, that’s like saying that we wouldn’t have fallen off that cliff if gravity just hadn’t been a thing at the time”
“How, exactly, are those equivalent. Gravity is a permanent force of nature.”
“The exact same could be said for Oliver not communicating. He wanders off to do his thing and hopes for the best for the rest of us.”
“So it is somehow my respon-”
Aelin was interrupted as Oliver cut him off, “Could we return to my supposed solution? I am rather excited to attempt this, as I have been craving it for quite some time. Although I suppose there will perhaps be a less than pleasant learning period.”
They immediately turned to give Oliver their full attention as he animatedly explained his horrible plan while gesturing to the bucket and them as though they were soulmates. You know, rather than the tools he intended to torture himself with. She guessed she could see the logic behind it, but still. There had to be another way.
“So… you want us to waterboard you until you figure out breathing underwater. Is that about it?”
“well, there is more thought to it than you present, however, if we wish to explain in the simplest terms, then yes. In the actual description of the process, it orbits around the central idea that parts of my brain would be deprived of oxygen more swiftly than others. This would allow me to attempt to simply apply a new form of sustenance to my brain with mana, rather than the presumably more complicated affair which exchanging the form of nourishment while another is already available,” Oliver said, and Emma was almost convinced of his plan because of the sheer confidence he explained it with. You know, if his plan hadn't been ‘let’s see if waterboarding me is the solution to crossing canyons!’.
Emma crossed her arms, glaring at Oliver with her best older sister expression. “No. It’s stupid, and dangerous, and we won’t be a part of it. Besides, what about the brain damage? We’re already pretty sure something’s wrong with the risk-assessment part, so you really can’t afford to damage more of it. Right Aelin?”
Oliver seemed to have shrugged off the dangers of waterboarding just as easily as he did the dangers of everything, even when she pointed it out to him. As such, Aelin was her only hope for discouraging him, because if neither if them would do it, then he couldn’t do it alone. Her stomach dropped at the considering expression he bore.
“As fun as drowning the Madman sounds in and of itself, I don’t know how useful it could be. My knowledge of how the body functions is on a far larger scale than the ‘cells’ you have described. Do you think there is merit to the idea?”
“NO.”
“Yes!”
Emma glared at both Oliver and Aelin, wanting Oliver to shut up and stop trying to get waterboarded, and Aelin to stop even considering waterboarding their friend. She almost felt her heart skitter to a stop at his next question, although that may have only been the feeling of the world drawing to a halt around her, as she felt the creeping dread well up inside of her.
“And which of you have attained a greater skill level in biology