《A Perfect Pair(F.A.C.E Family)》17
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It turns out that every time I tried to talk to Francis about her, he would change the subject. This happened for nearly a month until I kind of just gave up. I know Matthew and Alfred urged me to do it, but I don't want them to stress out. They are about to start school, and I just need them to focus on passing their classes. I'll figure out when to talk to Francis and how I should go about it. Bella comes around once a week, and she was coming by a day when Alfred and Matthew will be gone.
Every Friday, they go to their support group for foster kids, and they never miss it. Francis always drops them off, but I feel like lately, there has been a strain on their relationship. It needs to be fixed immediately, I can't bare to keep watching this. No matter what, Francis takes them to their group meeting. I know exactly what he will be asking me today.
"Can you keep Bella company while I drop the boys off? I'll be back."
"Of course, when is she coming by?" I asked. I was going to confront the source. Does this woman think she can fool me? She's been fooling Francis for the past month, and I'm going to confront her. "Literally the same time I have to take them, just let her in and keep her company," he smiled. I nodded and smiled at him, giving him a thumbs up. They were going to leave soon, and I was very excited about this, to finally get the truth out from her. I'm no idiot!!!!
Soon enough, as if on schedule, everything went into motion. Francis left with the boys, and there was a sudden knock on the door. I quickly walked over and opened the door to see Bella. "Come in" I spoke nicely. "It's always nice to see you, Arthur, you always have such a lovely charm to you," she began to say.
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"Do you want anything to drink? Francis told me to keep you company, so I'm here for your entertainment," I smiled. I'll catch her boys!!! "Oh really?!!! I've never seen your room before, shall we take a look?" She asked. My smile dropped, and I looked at her seriously. "What? No," I said. She soon began to giggle and run up the stairs. The next instinct I had was to start sprinting to stop her.
She suddenly opened my room door, and I immediately ran in after her. However, she wasn't in my sight. I looked around and saw her behind me... she was locking the door. "You know I can still unlock it, right?" I asked, annoyed. "Oh, but it will be so much more fun if you try and get through me," she spoke. The boys were right; she is weird.
"What are you planning?" I asked
"Nothing, I just want you to come and unlock the door. Don't tell me you are afraid of a girl?"
"What?! That's not it at all! You locked us in the room. Francis will get the wrong idea," I said annoyed.
"The wrong idea? Like what? That you were trying to make a pass at me? Or maybe have sex?" She laughed. My eyes widened, and I began to glare at her.
I knew Francis would be back any moment, and I didn't have time for this. "I knew you were crazy because that's what the boys told me. But I didn't think you were this insane. Francis knows me better than that," I pointed out. I was starting to get pissed off. "You are so cute when you get angry. I guess those little brats told you everything. No fun!" She laughed. If she weren't a woman, I would have hit her for saying that about the boys.
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I clenched my fists and took a huge breath. "Yes, I know everything, so are you going to tell Francis the truth, or do I have to?" I asked. She gave me a sinister look and started to come my way. "So what if you did? He wouldn't believe you. You waited too long, and it will look like you are obsessed with him."
My eyes widened, and I started to back up as she came my way. "What are you doing?" I asked, confused. I backed into the edge of my bed and looked at her. She was actually kind of terrifying, but I knew I couldn't give in.
She pushed me down on the bed, and it really shocked me. I looked at her, confused, and began to try to get up. "Why would you do that?" I asked, annoyed. "I like you, you are so feisty.... let's have some fun," she smiled. She began to sit on my lap, and I felt extremely uncomfortable. "What are you doing? Get off!" I shouted. I nudged her slightly, but it was enough to get her off me. "Just stop already; you are crazy," I spoke.
She looked at me, annoyed and serious, and walked over. "Trust me, Francis will never love you. You are too much of a cruel person for him too. I know deep down he doesn't feel for you like you think he does. So just leave already, and don't talk to us again," I started.
I stood and looked down at her, and she stepped back from me. "Leave this house right now, tell him whatever you want, but as long as I know the truth, he will never believe you," I spoke. She looked almost scared, and she finally faced her back at me. "Fine, this was no fun anyway," she snapped. Bella quickly left the room, and I nearly fell to my knees from how nervous I was. I could hear the front door open and close from her running out, and I just knew Francis would have a lot of questions.
I quickly stood up, and my heart nearly dropped as I saw Francis standing on the threshold of my bedroom. "Oh fuck..." I spoke. I knew I was screwed.
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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 153Owlnother World
In a hospital bed somewhere on Earth, I breathed my last breath. Or at least I thought I did. Then suddenly, I was flying through a void of nothing. As I landed in a new world, my life as an owl had started. Follow this girl on her journey in a new world, with a new life as she explores cultures, peoples, magic and herself. What mysteries does the world hold? Where does the magic come from? And what does she want to do with her new lease on life? This is my first story and I want to use it to explore writing people, character development, environments, relationships and all the other things a good story should have. I would be happy if you give it a chance and for me, feedback as well as criticism.
8 504Requiem of the Sea
Maya is going to kill gods and rule the seas with an iron fist. She doesn't know that yet. Outcasted her entire life, she has had to fight for every scrap of food she's eaten. Her only escape is to get enough Essence, a powerful resource that awakens the innate magic within humans, to make something of herself. And just when she managed to defeat an entire dungeon on her own, her tormenters arrive to steal it from her. Cast into an abyss, Maya meets a man who the world has long thought to be dead. He's willing to train her, and Maya has grand plans of becoming a pirate captain. Maya is going to gather a crew, grow in strength, and carve her legacy into the world with blood. Requiem of the Sea is a vast seafaring story. The world is very large, and I enjoy trickling information in about it slowly as opposed to dumping it all at once. The story is updated once every two days. Thanks for reading!
8 193Terra Nostra
His life wasn't pleasant. He keep trying but it wasn't enough. Nobody was there to rely on. He give up. A God give him another chance. A test for himself to try seeing what he really worth. Would he shine? Would he find his way? In a world where there's no hope, where injustice lay in every corner, he will make a place for those in despair. Join the journey of our MC, in a world of magic and swords.
8 64Jeremy Finds A Dragon
Jeremy, a teenage boy with a freakish talent for the clarinet, is less than thrilled when his mom announces that they’re up and moving to a tiny village on a tiny Scottish island the summer before his senior year of high school. But Dunsegall turns out to be an okay sort of place, if you like cliffs, sheep, and small-batch ice cream made by a family obsessed with Ray Charles. Two teenage locals — Colin and Aggie — quickly pull Jeremy under their wing and decide to give him a summer he’ll never forget. Everything is mostly fine until one day, in the depths of the woods, they stumble across a two hundred year-old monk and a living, breathing — or, rather, snoring — dragon who need their help. Together, Jer, Col, and Aggie delve into the hidden history of the island, getting up to their elbows in heresy, Highland Games, and, somehow, romance.
8 116Borderlines
Eighteen year old Fawn Simmons is living in post apocalyptic America. She is the overseer of Section 2, a portion of the US that she is governing over under orders of the King Marcus and Queen Lily. America is divided in half, the East and the West. When the King and Queen are tragically killed in a fire, Fawn is thrown into a competition with the other 15 overseers. A two week period is given to the overseers. They must fall in love with someone during this time and prepare themselves for the throne. With danger of Western rebellion on the rise, everyone is desperate for a new king and queen. Does Fawn have the peoples vote for the next queen or can she even survive the next sunrise? She has two weeks to fall in love. Two weeks to change her life forever.
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