It Began in a Tavern (OOC Thread) (Part 2)

[ps102]

so I'm going to make a point to get better about that going forward.

The big benefit of all of us making a point to post faster is how we will also get to reach the finish line much faster. If we could do something like eight posts a month (so, sizable two posts per player a month), we'd probably finish before 2026 kicks in.

I appreciate all of the patience and grave y'all have afforded me thus far.

It'd be a lie to say that I didn't wish for faster updates, but like I said, I very much appreciate that we all have lives. That's why I'm not going to immediately skip someone's turn just because they are two, three or even five days late. At the end of the day, the story needs all of us to finish it, so it's important that we all write without turns being skipped.

That's why I am so lenient on delays. And everyone is here on a volunteer basis as well. It feels really wrong to act 'bossy' if that makes sense.

All of that is to say, don't worry, I get it. We're all friends here writing a story we care about. But also, if we can have faster updates, that would be spectacular! This goes to me too, of course. I'm not exactly fast either.

I will try to get mine in today. I am currently studying some annoying academic literature on circle packing algorithms. I'll have to see if I can finish early. I'm going to try really hard to. But academic literature really sucks. It's condensed down to hell and you have to carefully unpack every sentence, which often has strange word choices.

 

[ps102]

I made great progress with it today. I've written 1036 words, so I'll probably have it ready tomorrow. It's a really pivotal and important post, so would you all be okay if I took an extra 500 words this time? I don't think 2000 words is quite enough.

 

[Louanne Learning]

I sure don't mind! I am already excited to read it!!

 

[IgnitedxSoul]

I'm all on board for a longer post!

 

[ps102]

Post made. It was a long one (1k words over the limit). I promise that this was a one-off. I'm only likely to do this kind of thing again at the climax.

A lot happens. And we're now officially past the midpoint. If you have are unhappy with anything, please let me know and I'll work with you to fix it. I think that's important for such a long and pivotal post.

Spoilers exist under this tag. Read it after you read the post.

Spoiler: Post Spoilers

Olive is dead. But also not dead. Her real name was also revealed. I'm so excited to write the next part of her arc. So I ask that you please don't revive her. I will handle that one.

The sun blew up. Now the world is in shambles. This is meant to emulate the catastrophe phase that typically happens at these sorts of stories after the protagonist fails miserably. But things can still be fixed. The point is to make everything even more exciting and challenging.

I also wanted to set a goal for Ravenna—a motivation for her to keep going. I hope it makes sense. @Luxuria is very much welcome to give feedback here if she so wishes.

I should also mention that Pria isn't dead, but she is pretty badly beat up. What happens next to her is up to @IgnitedxSoul.

 

[IgnitedxSoul]

I loved this section! Very well done @ps102 !

Here are a few thoughts I have about the upcoming scenes that people are welcome to take into consideration or ignore at their own volition:

Spoiler

The queen made a point to mention that Pria/Yunna will not be able to heal without light. We *did* very recently send Olten out to serach for Pria, so presumably he would arrive and find Pria/Olive collapsed and alone on the ridge. Because he's able to produce fire he presumably would be able to heal her (if only to keep her alive, but not to "revive" her).

But given there isn't anyone else around, he may not know enough about the situation to give that treatment intentionally. Yet, because the world is now cast in total darkness, he will certainly be building/maintaining a fire of some sort. So it's inevitable she will be around light of some form very soon.

Another point of interest, it's been established that light also moves slower in the city of Cliff Cross, so even though the world is cast in darkness, it would still be releasing light. Like a beacon or a promise.


As an aside, we lost Nalki and Charin along the way, they were supposed to be traveling with Barnabas and Dusca but stopped being mentioned. I don't know if we want to bring them back into the story at all or just let that thread be.


Also, since Arespeth and Dusca are both going to the same location currently, I'd like to just mention the last words they spoke to eachother as a reminder. They'll likely have initial animosity, particularly because Arespeth has felt thwarted at every possible opportunity.

Araspeth placed her hands shoulder width apart on the table and leaned down to be eye level with the barmaid. “What’s your name?” She asked.

“Dusca,” the woman said.

“When we find Olive—and I do mean when, not if—I’ll come for you next, Dusca. You’ll have the honor of seeing the girl’s head on a pike as I drag you to a cell.”

There was a muffled rush of steps coming back down the stairs. One guard, out of breath, stuttered out. “High Priestess, there are three young women fleeing on horseback. One of them matches the description of our fugitive.”

Araspeth cursed and slammed her fist on the bartop which cracked and splintered. “Go, after them!”

The guards set off immediately. Araspeth hesitated a moment, her eyes piercing into Dusca. “Expect to see me again.” Then Araspeth followed suite out of the tavern.

 

[ps102]

Thanks for your thoughts, @IgnitedxSoul. I guess we need to talk in spoilers until everyone has read, lol.

Spoiler: Spoiler-filled reply!!

The queen made a point to mention that Pria/Yunna will not be able to heal without light. We *did* very recently send Olten out to serach for Pria, so presumably he would arrive and find Pria/Olive collapsed and alone on the ridge.

The idea (which I hinted more than I explicitly mentioned) is that Yuuna's power of light kept Olive from harm. This was shown in her first fight with Pria. She kept attacking her but nothing came out of it. It was because Yuuna was actively healing her.

Yuuna could, in theory, keep Olive forever healed as long as light existed. This mostly came out of the question that kept cycling in my head: Why would Olive be sent to Cliffcross if she wasn't ready? I answered that by essentially having Yuuna take control (who is capable) and by having a power of infinity healing.

That's overpowered so I balanced it with the condition of the presence of light, which Kurai and Melina took away from the world. Now Yuuna is much less powerful as a result. She is no longer a problem in their plans.

So, basically, light healing is just a thing Yuuna does. And to make it a balanced power, I'd say that it needs a lot of light to work at the rate it previously did.

However, general healing magic is a thing (as shown by Nari), so if you want to give Olten that sort of ability so he can help Pria, you are of course free to do that.

(if only to keep her alive, but not to "revive" her)

Olive is dead. Another thing that I hinted a lot (but yet again decided not to make explicit for some reason) is that what Yuuna was doing took great toll on the host. This was shown with the fluctations, and the random body jerks. They meant to suggest that Olive's body was failing rapidly because of what Yuuna was doing. But Kurai had the same problem.

So, she is both really worn out, badly injured, and as mentioned at the end, dead. But like I said, it's not over for her yet. I have a really exciting plan.

As an aside, we lost Nalki and Charin along the way, they were supposed to be traveling with Barnabas and Dusca but stopped being mentioned. I don't know if we want to bring them back into the story at all or just let that thread be.

We have many characters so stuff like that tends to happen. I'm still re-reading the story from beginning to end to catch inconstencies like this so we can hopefully resolve them by the end.

Thanks for mentioning it! I'll look into it. But my guess is, they were lost when Hemios and Araspeth started to quarrel. Everyone split up at that point and Dusca went her own way with Barnabas.

 

[Louanne Learning]

I had my first read-through, and it is utterly fantastic! I'm going to take some time, hopefully this weekend, to read it again and make notes, and then I will take it from there. But it seems we have really got to an important part of the plot!!!

 

[ps102]

But it seems we have really got to an important part of the plot!!!

Indeed. It's downhill from here, and then at some point after, uphill!