《How to get lost: a wanderers guide》Seeking friendship
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Hello again. Today I started looking for my companions.
I didn't find them.
Well, I didn't think I would be so lucky as to find them on the very first day, but I did kind of hope I would.
Realistic expectations are something I like to avoid where possible.
While I did not locate my friends I did search through the three closest islands in my chosen direction.
I have my scrap of tinglewood wrapped around my chest like some kind of fluid wooden vest. It looks kind of dumb, but if for some reason I fall in the water the buoyant wood should pull me to the surface.
Better safe than becoming a drowned and bloated corpse. Thats what I always say.
One thing that is kind of bugging me though, is where did I come from to get here? I flew really freaking high, but there was no sign of any kind of mainland.
So either I as unconcious and adrift for way longer than I thought. Or something.
I have no idea what that or something could be.
It is a little frustrating.
But that frustration melted away in the glorious sensation of wandering new places and seeing new things. In my journeys today I have come to a conclusion.
It is really beautiful here.
The islands are rich with plants and animals.
Strange fish swim through sharp reefs that protect the rare sandy beachs.
Vibrant plumaged birds dart through humid and dark jungles.
Flowers in all manner of colors and forms festoon the rare sunny patch beneath the trees.
Giant hairy spiders scuttle busily after food or away from being food.
Some of the plants have teeth, and acid, and strangling vines.
Great sharks cruise the waves, chasing after unseen morsels.
Tattooed and pierced primitive tribes fight, kill, and eat one another.
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All in all. Life and death are so layered and mixed amongst the beauty its hard to tell them apart.
I saw a pretty and delicate flower, beautiful soft pink-purple petals shaped like a star. Shoot pollen into the face of a passing rodent. The little fuzzy thing started sneezing and choking before finally expiring. Tiny delicate green shoots started rising from its nose and eyes.
Life here is vicious, it hits hard, grows fast, and dies young.
I like it!
Still, every time I see something to marvel at I turn to look over my shoulder and share it with my friends.
And every time I get hit with a hammer of melancoly right in the feelings.
Really kind of takes the fun out of wandering when there is nobody to share it with.
Tonight I am camping on a peak. The ocean breezes are cool, so I have a bonfire going, courtesy of a foolish carnivorous tree who got grabby when I was napping under it.
The beacon for tonight is a flock of firey birds, based off of a very loud and annoying flock that woke me up this morning. The sight of thousands of white wings fleeing my wrath filled me with a feeling of wonder. So I am mimicking that spectacle as best I can.
Thousands of bright crimson and yellow birds of fire swirl and dip in the sky overhead. Lighting up the night and hopefully catching the eye of my friends.
It is nice, occasionally something comes out of the brush to try to make a snack of me. Hundreds of dive bombing fire birds make short work of my would be predators.
They are much quieter than their inspiration too.
So overall just better than the originals. They don't poop either.
Tomorrow is another day. Best get to sleep so I can make the most of it.
Goodnight.
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- In Serial20 Chapters
Sword System Academia
2/17 NOTICE: I'm putting this on hiatus, possibly permanently. I didn't want to spam with an "update chapter", so hopefully here and in the story blurb will get enough eyeballs. There are a couple reasons for ending SSA for now. 1) I wrote the next chapter but wasn't happy with it. I've been less and less satisfied with SSA's quality the more I thought about it. Part of the reason is... 2) I am seriously thinking about trying to publish some novels to help pay the bills, since I don't have my other source of income anymore. I have never asked for anything from SSA readers, no money, not even a review or rating. SSA is written for fun to amuse myself, primarily, and I would kind of feel bad actually charging someone money for something as unserious as that. I don't think it is good enough to ask anything in return. To use an analogy from music, SSA is more like a jam session with a bunch of friends. You're just chiling and having fun playing some music. I mean, if you are Mozart or even Eminem, your jam session is good enough to sell, but for an amateur beginner like myself, haha, no. If I want to publish something, I feel like I need to go the proper route of practice and rehearsals, which might be more similar to a classical concert performance. With SSA, I work from worldbuilding notes and a loose outline, but what you are essentially getting is the first draft with lots of so-called pantsing. Pushing out a web novel like this also means it is very difficult to go back and improve things without breaking everything else downstream. I wanted to try this "jamming" approach, as it was a good way to teach me about another aspect of writing, but to move forward, I think I need to hone my "classical" techniques, which emphasize rewriting, or at least, revising outlines. 3) While I intend to try to make $$$, my actual current goal is to "get gud". I've spent a lot of time recently trying to understand the self-publishing industry, and I'm pretty sure I can make some money by using short-term strategies with my current amateur skill level. But I've seen too many authors come and go/burnout, and really, the only way that I think I can enjoy writing and still make money on a long-term basis is to become a better writer. And the next step for me, which I haven't done much before, is to spend more time on rewriting and outlines. That is pretty much antithetical to the way SSA is developing. I've always been kind of 20/80 plotting/pantsing, but I want to spend a lot more time outlining before I even start writing. SSA jam sessions don't really fit my goal anymore. If you're curious about what's next, read on... Among other regrets, I regret not finishing SSA. It's the first story I've dropped, but then again, it's the first web novel I've attempted, so I suppose that's not a surprise. I don't think traditional web novel formats suit me that well. The whole SSA story I had loosely planned (beyond a first book or major arc) is way too large as well. Big story = good for neverending webnovel with Patreons, bad for penniless and fickle writer like me. I am currently outlining a complete trilogy to another story in great detail. I want the story to end concisely, and I also want the chance to really spend a lot of time on the full outline to spot pacing problems, character issues, lost themes, and so on. I'll still share this story on RR. What I intend to do is finish book 1, flash-publish the whole thing here for a few weeks, then publish on the big Zon. Repeat for books 2 and 3. The upcoming story will be about crafting heroes. The backdrop is an isekai-like setting, where elves will summon humans to their world as heroes, but the whole hero crafting business is still in its infancy. The elven mage researchers are figuring out how to imbue heroes with power, while the heroes are trying to figure out how to use the powers that they gain. Humans are the best hero templates because they are blank and have no intrinsic magic. Or at least that what the elves thought. The human MC has his own secrets... There will be some similarities with litrpgs, but I would call it more a progression fantasy or gamelit story. For example, the stats are very low, at least initially. Say we have a stat called Str. Going from Str = 1 to Str = 2 is a huge deal. Also, going from Dex = 0 to Dex = 1 is an even bigger deal. I guess you could call it a "low-stat litrpg", haha. Also, the heroes won't be gaining stats simply by killing things or leveling up. You can't increase stats arbitrarily, either. There will be rules to how stats can increase, and how they work with each other. The elven mages will be figuring out these rules in order to craft stronger and stronger heroes. Some inspiration will be from cultivation magic systems, but there won't be overt cultivation, at least for now. A theme I really want to explore is the idea of interactions. That includes things like hero crafter vs hero, tactics vs strategy, skill synergies, racial interactions (dwarves, elves, etc), and son. Yeah, so hero crafting. I'm super excited about this project and venturing into publishing. If you want to check out the upcoming story, you can follow my RR author profile to see when it drops here. Finally... THANK YOU TO EVERYONE! I'm very sorry that SSA is stopping, but I hope at least some of you will find the next story at least as enjoyable, if not more. Thanks to all the readers who gave SSA a shot. Big hug or solid fistbump to all of you, whichever you prefer! I hope this message is not a downer but an upper, because I am psyched!! -purlcray -------------- BLURB: Talen, youngest Master of the Koroi, makes his way to the Empire's capital to salvage his clan's fate. But the bustling city has few opportunities for the traditionalist. For the old sword clans are fading. With the rise of alchemy, gold can purchase strength that ordinarily took years of training to cultivate. Sword artists, once rare and accomplished, are quickly growing in number, especially among the wealthy noble class. Even with such alchemy, though, no one has advanced to the rank of Grandmaster in countless years. Talen's true dream is to walk the path of a sword artist to the very end while fulfilling his clan duties. And then the Swordgeists return, fabled founders of all sword arts, gods who had touched the world long ago and vanished. These myths turned into reality warn of a coming threat. Alongside this warning, they issue an invitation to the Sword System Academy, a path to power beyond the mortal realm. But first, they will hold an entrance exam... Story notes:Sword System Academia blends elements of western and asian fantasy such as xianxia and litrpg. I took parts from different genres I enjoyed and twisted them into my own creation. There will be an explicit system, both of the litrpg kind and the hard(ish) magic kind, but it is embedded within an academic structure that will develop over the course of the story. This is my attempt to design a unique type of system, the System Academia.
8 153 - In Serial26 Chapters
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A utopia endangered. A follow-up to Sheer Heart Attack. Now united, the group of heroes takes a train to travel to their destination in peace. But alas, it is not meant to be. Danger is inevitable, but it is not just contained in this new world of Eden.
8 133 - In Serial9 Chapters
[✔] Sides (a merthur soulmate au fanfiction)
COMPLETED. Merlin thought his Soulpoetry, a "two sides" inscription on his sternum, was about his life, trying to hide his magic all the time. Arthur thought that his Soulpoetry, an "of the same coin" scrawl on the base of his fingers, referred to the fact that he led a very dull Pendragon life. Merthur, reveal fic, soulmate au where Soulmates complete each other's Soulpoetries.
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While messing around on the computer with Meggy and friends, Mario's stupidity leads to a mistake, and creates a brand new adventure which is one they will not forget...Along making friends with the creator, the evil SMG3 and his girlfriend Desti cause havoc, and our heroes must put a stop to their evil plans.Welcome... To the real world.(Image on cover belongs to WOR64 on Deviantart.)
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writer in the dark - neil perry
bet you rue the dayyou kissed a writer in the dark.in which the dead poets have an alluring, quiet girl from their sister school join their club and neil perry takes an interest in her and her writing.-dead poets societyneil perry x fem!oc@lovrsrck 2022
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iconic c . danvers
i don't wash dishes, i rule planets ⎉in which the killer queen of valyriate meets the noble warrior hero ⎉⏤ book two of the valyriate series ⏤ cover @ animositi⏤ oc x carol danvers / vers / captain marvel⏤ all dialogue and actions from the mcu belong to the mcu and respective owners animositi ©
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