--donation bonus (day #7, post 5/5)--
He refueled and then wheeled the bike around the side of the building where no one else was. He sat down on the sidewalk and closed his eyes, letting the sound of cars on the highway bleed into background noise.
He focused on iron shapes. He wasn’t sure what else to think about. Apart from merely coating things, nothing else came to mind, and he found himself wondering to what other degrees his power might develop. He shook the thoughts away and concentrated.
After a while, he opened his eyes again, and Garovel had still not returned, so he tried making iron. A silver lump materialized in his palm. It was almost spherical, surprisingly, but still smaller than he had imagined. He went back to meditating, and when he opened his eyes again, he saw Garovel there.
They set out again, and it wasn’t long before a new topic arrived.
‘There’s something I’d like to know,’ said Hector.
‘Yeah?’
‘Back when, um... when we first met... I know you said that you didn’t know, but... do you believe that an afterlife exists? I mean, like, any kind at all?’
Garovel was slow to answer. ‘No,’ he said, ‘I don’t.’
‘Why not?’
‘I’ve never found anything that convinced me. Do you believe one does?’
‘W-well, uh, not really, uh... I mean, I don’t know. Aren’t you kinda... experiencing an afterlife? You died, right? But you’re still alive, sort of...’
‘Ha. I suppose it depends on your definition of the afterlife, then. I certainly don’t believe in heaven or hell. Reincarnation seems more appealing at least, but I don’t see any reason to believe it’s true.’
‘So then... after we die, you think there’s just... nothingness?’
‘Yeah.’
‘Then why, um... why do you bother reaping? If you think you’re just carrying souls into oblivion, then... why not just leave them alone?’
‘Because that would be a great cruelty.’
‘What do you mean?’
A dark serial novel. Set in a modern fantasy world called Eleg. Mature language. Updates every night at midnight PST by ~400 words.
'He shook the thoughts away ad concentrated. '
ReplyDelete'It was almost a spherical'
Missing a letter in one and i think you can take out a letter in the other.
Aw, man, two in one post. Sorry. Thanks for the catch.
DeleteJust lucky on catching those, and I wasn't to tired to have my brain skip those.
DeleteSince I'm caught up until this point, I've been wondering about some of the rules relating to the powers. We've seen that some undead are able to turn their body parts into another element (sodium bombs), but can they do the opposite and turn the element into a body part?
ReplyDeleteTo be more specific, I'm wondering if you're going to get Hector to the point where he could create hemoglobin with his ability and effectively be able to look like he's coated in blood armor and use weapons made of it.
If he could keep the iron materialized, then things like blood transfusions might be possible to keep a currently living character from dying. Lots of ways to go with iron, I guess.
RD
Hmm. Perhaps I'll make a chart after all the different types of abilities are revealed. That could be a really long time, though.
DeleteBut anyway. For now, I'll just clarify that Hector can't replace his body parts with iron like Desmond can replace his with sodium. Hector's ability is "materialization," whereas Desmond's is "transfiguration." Hector "creates," while Desmond "replaces." Furthermore, Hector can ONLY create iron, so he won't be able to make blood cells and so forth.
This is a bit picky, but I'd recommend replacing the "he" at the very beginning of the post with "Hector." It will orient your reader within this post (since this is a serial work), and even if you read it continuously with the previous page, the previous sentence refers to both Hector and Garovel, making the "he" less clear than it might be.
ReplyDeleteI generally do that, but I didn't think it was needed this time, since readers already know that Garovel can't refuel a bike or wheel it anywhere.
DeleteWait, Garovel doesn't believe in an Afterlife? Then where the Hell is he taking these souls?
ReplyDelete