《Notes in My Locker》XXXVI. On Thin Ice
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My favorite song lyric from 4 Morant 'but in my eyes, I can fly, sigh. Better luck next time.
I woke up to rain drops hitting my bare skin, I sat up slowly and took a deep breath.
Taking in the nature scent as I slowly got up, my mind drifted away.
I began to leave the beach, walking back to the Martins.
My heart rate increased, everything I've been through with Veronica, everytime I promised myself, I'd never go back.
I found myself entering the house, Veronica ran downstairs and hugged me, she looked like she's been crying but it was just fake tears.
Dinner was made, I changed into a baggy shirt and shorts.
I had eaten dinner, I went upstairs and laid in bed when Veronica barged into the room.
She held up a figure skating outfit and skates, I didn't want to do it but I forced myself to.
We walked to the ice rink, I put my skates on.
I was fixing my hair when I was harshly shoved to the ground, I grunted as I looked up.
"Stop wasting time, get to work."
Veronica said as she rolled her eyes and skated away, I scoffed and got up from the ground.
I began to skate around, doing the best I can to make her happy.
"Skate faster!"
I was out of breath, my legs were starting to cramp but I continued going faster.
My eyes watered but I continued, it was like I was stuck in hell but this was only the beginning and I know it.
After a couple of hours, she was satisfied.
It's been a week since I've left home, I sent letters but never read them.
As we went home, there was a stabbing pain in my stomach.
I brushed it off and took a warm shower, I laid in bed and took a deep breath.
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Everything inside of me felt like it was on fire, I closed my eyes and tried drifting off to bed.
Veronica walked into my room and began shaking me vigorously, I groaned and woke up.
She threw my ice skating outfit at me, too tired to argue, I put it on.
We walked back to the rink, I skated harder than ever.
I ignored the pain, the sleepiness and everything inside of me.
I wanted to forget about everything that I have ever experienced, I needed to forget.
My mind ran wild as I was skating faster, I didn't see where I was going.
I accidentally crashed into someone, making me fall but the person stumble forward.
I felt such a sharp pain but I could care less, I got up fast and watched as the person turned around.
"I'm so sorry!"
I apologized, I moved my hair back from my face and put it in a ponytail.
"Natalie?"
The familiar voice I heard a week ago, the one that screamed for me to turn back around.
The very same one that used its lips to collide with mine, Jaden.
I didn't even say anything, I skated out of the rink and removed my skates.
He did the same and chased after to me, I ran faster as my lungs screamed and begged for air I didn't stop.
I cut through the forest and continued running as I heard him scream for me, I wanted to turn around and jump into his arms as he told me everything will be alright but I couldn't.
I wish I did, everything he did for me was just to make me happy.
I didn't stop running until I got into the house, I was hyperventilating.
Tears streamed down my face as I shook with adrenaline.
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Veronica had a smirk on her face, she didn't bother helping me up at all and instead she walked past me.
Locking the door and walking back to the living room, it felt like I was transparent to her but I didn't bother arguing with her.
Instead, I ran upstairs and took another shower.
I hadn't noticed the blood dripping down my thigh, I looked down and saw a cut.
I must've did that when I ran into the forest, I finished my shower and grabbed the rubbing alcohol.
I cleaned my wound up and wrapped it with a bandage before dressing myself with a baggy shirt and shorts.
I laid in bed, giving myself up to the sleepiness I've held onto all day.
But it didn't stay that way when I heard a notification from my phone, I took a deep breath and looked at it.
@ Onwardjdub Posted!
Tears fell down my face, I cried harder than I ever had.
My family and friends were out looking for me, I'll admit.
I lied about everything, I never did send the letter nor received any.
After I wrote the note, I went outside and ripped it up.
I didn't want anyone seeing me, the rush I felt when I saw Jaden was amazing.
But I couldn't stay and go back home with him, my mind was running wild and I was beginning to get a headache.
Everything I ate started coming back up, I ran to the bathroom and soon threw up.
I was over working myself, my body couldn't keep up.
I brushed my teeth and lied in bed, I grabbed my airpods and played '4 Morant' by Doja Cat.
My favorite song lyric from 4 Morant 'but in my eyes, I can fly, sigh. Better luck next time.'
I muttered to myself as I drifted off to sleep, if I didn't die in my sleep then it must mean I'm getting out of here.
But it feels like I won't.
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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.
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