Adventure With Words - Week #3 Recap and Start of Week #4
It's been a while... The story has sounded off airborne sand and almost came to a still under newly formed dunes. But somebody somewhere is always putting one leg in front of the other.
Super short recap of weeks #1, #2 and #3
Four participants have taken part so far in this collective fiction experiment that might also somehow resemble a role playing game:
@sarez (who currently has 310 words weekly limit), @improv (304 words weekly but seems to be able to fit in 30 words), @calluna (308 words weekly if I am not mistaken), @veryspider (310 words weekly).
What we have done together can be found under:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Fv8-0YEvSUCGT4gsJz2VmO2s6x-NCWfEQLyskdkDH3k/edit?usp=sharing
Everybody is invited to give it a try and stick with us, of course. Why do I mention 'Words'? Well...
There are some Rules:
https://steemit.com/storytelling/@manoldonchev/introducing-the-words-driven-adventure-a-story-to-build-together
Words are the main resource in the game and they are limited for the week. Since it's the end of a calendar week, almost, I will even say your words limit now is 300 for beginners until next Friday, 7th of December. No more calendar weeks. Let's try from Friday to Friday when I will be able to update more regularly.
In short, apart from the word limit, we use [WA] to mark the beginning of story content and [META] to mark the beginning of out of story discussions.
Week #4
[WA]
The little friendly looking drone seems to be asking for help or at least encouraging the strangers it just met to hurry towards the camp. Which they find abandoned but for a relatively small round clay hut with a small fire burning inside. Where a half-human child stays huddled against the lap of her alien mother who is telling her stories of worlds that were.
[META] Details about her looks and characteristics will be left for the first author to step into action on New Mo'. That probably means @veryspider, @calluna, @improv or somebody new and unexpected who could 'step in from the shadows' ... or subspace at any point in time.
[WA] They both fall silent at the arrival of hooded, shielded, branch-protected creatures at their doorstep. They seem afraid and hopeful at the same time.
...
[META] Your turn.
...
I will be very happy if by this initiative I help a role playing community to grow around her or at least some fiction projects find some inspiration. The #words-adventure is an open call for you to build characters and even worlds and see for yourselves how they can fit in a larger, diverse and flexible universe. But they can be taken out of it at any time of the author's choice and used for something more... concentrated.
You are welcome to test your writing and story development here with us. You may start along with existing content or start at some secluded and seemingly unrelated point in time and space. I will try to answer anybody with some additional hooks and suggestions as to where the story may go.
Just remember to check the google docs link provided at the beginning and respect other people's work.
Peace and prosperity across the Universe!
Yours,
Manol
[WA]
Entering the hut, Olligar unsummoned Argathrax into the shadow realm and eagerly introduced himself to the mother and child figures.
"Hi! Dusty out there, isn't it!"
Looking around the clay hut, he immediately made some assumptions that the drone would not belong to these two out of a subconscious bias of privilege and that high self-regard sometimes you can smell off people that were born in big cities and who were used to attacking problems by attacking the keyboards or some other buttons. Pressing things and texting expertly!
'What simple folk! They live in a hut made out of the earth itself! This is just like in the books I've read at University. So quaint!'
He smiled conceitedly, producing some chocolate bars and candies he had stored in his pouch, that was meant for his shadow spider, but which he deemed to be suitable for this lowly people to offer to.
"Here, try these! They are good! Sweet! Go on!"
[WA] The kid immediately attacks the sweets and nobody is to stop her. The graceful adult seems actually to take advantage of the distraction and takes you aside for a private talk in which she reveals that all other camp dwellers have left to inspect what looked like a crash landing not far to the north but have been there for too long and the storm has only worsened since then. No communication has come back, not a soul to report and it has become late. And there are creatures roaming by night...
[WA]Olligar felt very proud of himself for some obscure reasons and allowed himself to be led outside for the private talk. A rare occasion where he felt as if somehow he was treated like the responsible adult that he was supposed to be, which was something that he hadn't felt very often, since he was a severe sufferer of the impostor syndrome.
After learning that the other camp dwellers were out being also responsible adults, inspecting a crash landing nearby, he could feel the anxiety of the alien person.
"Too long? How long is too long? Maybe they are still out there, being merry. I mean, you never know. Some 'crash landing' could be quite a party, you know. Not that I've been involved in one of those 'fun' ones, but I've heard stories, you know. There was this one story that my friend told me about, and it involved a giant bubble-ship crash landing into a gorgeous lagoon and it had a lot of happy-times-pills on board, and it was like, boom, and the sky was full with raining happy-times and then everyone on the lagoon was having the time of their life."
"What? You never heard of bubble-ships? They are ships made out of giant bubbles!"
"..."
"They ARE very rare, though, I guess. You don't think this crash landing is a party one? Well, I guess, the odds would agree with you, ma'am. Uh. Creatures? What kind of creatures?"
Olligar looked around apprehensively. The thought of having to go out there in the dark was very discomforting to him, no matter how much yelling his Shadow Elf ancestors were pelting his subconscious with. They were, pretty much, wailing in his eternal soul, screaming, "YOU ARE A FREAKING SHADOW ELF, YOU LITTLE TWAT. ACT. LIKE. ONE."
Olligar utterly ignored such internal pressure, peering into the dying light at the horizon and saying, "What time is dinner?"
[META] This was my favorite entry so far, revealing so much about the character and in a fun to read way. So that brings your total weekly word count to 320. However, this week you dropped to negative 167 words ;) Which has not happened before. But now, since you're my only correspondent at this time, I'd only ask you to try and fit your beautiful thoughts and writings in shorter forms next week so we equalize things and make them fair to the original idea. Which means 153 words out of 320 remaining until the end of next week. It is a lot, if you can stick to one or two sentence replies, i.e. actions/reactions.
[WA]
'Pardon my anxiety, dinner will be in a moment.' The graceful being does recover her composure and serves already prepared cold peeled cactus meals on clay dishes right on the floor in front of the fireplace. The child seems to ignore them at the moment.
They prove very tasty and there seems to be an infinite amount of them. At some point you feel they also have the effect of alcohol on your heads. You might call it 'Jolly Cactus Salad' or something in those lines.
So I don't know about people outside, but you do have some merry time. Cares being as remote from you as possible.
[META] hahahah im glad you enjoyed it and sorry i forgot about the word count again ; __ ;
i will keep it short and sweet next week <3
[WA]
Olligar ate contentedly. He marveled at how tasty the food was and tried very hard not to compliment the host with his mouth full. Idly, he wondered what the food was made out of but immediately he told himself not to ask questions he wasn't prepared to hear the answers of.
'Jolly Cactus Salad,' he thought to himself, 'yep. That's what I shall call this!'
Being happy and at ease and with a full belly, he asked his host if maybe she could tell him more about her planet.
"Say, have you ever heard about The Complete Halloween Encyclopedia?"
[WA] 'Sorry, I do not know what Helloween is...'
Now, why did she lose her peaceful smile at the word encyclopedia?
[WA]Olligar considered explaining the concept of Halloween but he was known of confusing others further when he tried to explain complex stuff in the past and so he decided against it. Instead, he noticed she was not as friendly as before. By instinct, he was at once more curious and more guarded.
"Who came here recently with the Encyclopedia? Hmm?"
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