Saturday, January 4, 2014

Page 471

She rang the doorbell. It was a rather long wait, but just when she was about to ring it again, the door opened, and a burly man stood before her.

Her eyes widened.

He was easily twice her size, if not three times, and though he had a large belly on him, his arms were certainly not lacking in muscle, easily filling out his pale blue sweater. A broad, clean-shaven face looked down at her with big, hazel eyes. “May I help you?” he said.

And Gina had to stop and blink, because the man’s voice did not match his face or stature at all. It was actually quite airy and soft, not the least bit intimidating.

The man waited patiently for her to answer, though he did turn his head slightly to show his concern.

“Ah!” she said. “Are you Mr. Edith?”

“Yes, I am.”

“I have news about Lynnette.”

And the man gasped, rather lacking in composure. “Is she okay?!”

“I believe so, yes, but--um. Well, it’s difficult to explain. Is the rest of your family home? I’d like to tell all of you at once. I know this is very sudden, but it’s something of an emergency, you see.”

“Yes, please come in!”

She entered, frankly surprised at how smoothly that had gone.

“What’s your name?” he asked.

“Gina,” she said, following him into the den.

The mother and sister were watching television together, both fixated upon the news. Gina might have liked to join them if matters weren’t already so pressing. Hector hadn’t bothered to explain exactly what happened at the castle, but it was obviously big enough to get him on television again. Twice in one day was a new record for him.

“Honey, this is Gina,” said the man. “She’s come to tell us about Lynnette. She says it’s an emergency.”

And immediately, Gina could tell where Lynnette had gotten that penetrating gaze from. The mother’s hair was darker, but she had the same sharp cheekbones.

“First of all,” Gina started, “allow me to tell you that Lynnette is safe.”

15 comments:

  1. I have a bad feeling about this

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  2. Snowtail the KhajiitJanuary 4, 2014 at 12:36 PM

    "clean-shave face" You forgot the 'n' on 'clean-shaven'.

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  3. "She entered, frankly surprised at smoothly that had gone. "

    Should have "how" in there.

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  4. You guys. Always with the bad feelings. MAYBE SOMETHING GOOD IS ABOUT TO HAPPEN. EVER THINK ABOUT THAT? MAYBE SANTA CLAUS WILL SHOW UP AND GIVE GINA A SHINY NEW BICYCLE.

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  5. So, Mr. Frost, I have a few questions...


    How long has it been since Hector had to leave Brighton? How long was Lynnette gone? How long has Hector been a servant now?


    And, you know. If you're very, very bored sometime, maybe you could write up a little timeline? Pretty please? Just, I don't know, maybe the duration of the Oaths or something?

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  6. 1) Only about two-and-a-half weeks.
    2) Will be answered on the next page.
    3) About three months.
    4) MAYBE. Probably. Eventually.

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  7. WHAT?! Well, thanks for clearing that up. Maybe it's just me, but the way you publish the story kind of makes it feel like it's happening in real-time. I mean, it's obvious that it's not the case, especially in battle scenes when you have to wait for days for the conclusion, but... well.

    If I had to guess, I would have estimated something like 1) two months, 2) three weeks, 3) longer than six months. Wow.

    Yeah, I'd really appreciate a timeline...

    Mh, while we're on that topic... what kind of calendar do they use? Do they measure time differently? I thought you could add seasonal hints to the story to convey the passage of time, but who knows what climate zone Atreya is in. And going a step further... I assumed that their days have 24 hours, but that's not necessarily true. Their planet might be revolving a little slower or faster than earth, or has a different size... any notion of time is basically meaningless as long as these things aren't established.

    Or maybe I'm overthinking this again. There's a trope called "Like reality unless noted" (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/LikeRealityUnlessNoted) which the laconic version helpfully explains as "The fictional world is exactly like the real world except where noted otherwise." So because you haven't said otherwise, I'm going to assume that their days have 24 hours. Which still means I overestimated the passage of time like crazy.

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  8. Snowtail the KhajiitJanuary 5, 2014 at 11:20 PM

    But it's your story.
    If that did happen, Santa would probably then proceed to murder them all brutally with the bike, save for one lone survivor who would then seek vengeance on the fat bastard who murdered their family.
    Because that's how it goes. And you know it, Frosty. XD

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  9. Don't be silly. Santa would be hit by an evil ray that turns him into some kind of horrible eldritch abomination, but he'd still have a heart of gold and continue delivering presents anyway.

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  10. We shall call him: Cthulhu Claus

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  11. Dad seems cool enough. Let's see how if that lasts when he meets the tall, dark, and handsome stranger who's a danger to his precious daughter's purity

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  12. Yeah, it's just a normal calendar.



    It's funny you should bring that up, though. I have an older story (which I may revamp and serialize one day), and it has a constructed world with its own calendar system. So when I was creating TZK, I did actually consider doing that, but I chose not to, due to the more modern setting. I felt it would've been more confusing than cool, considering the story already has references to real world stuff like Gutenberg, Porsche, and freaking Skeletor.

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