--donation bonus (day #28, post 2/5)--
“No,” said Roman. “I didn’t meet Gina until about a year later.”
“H-how long have you two been... um...?”
“How long have we been, what?”
“Been, um...? Er, what is your relationship, exactly? I-if that’s not too personal, I mean.”
“She’s my second-in-command. My right-hand woman. My babysitter.”
“One of those things doesn’t--”
“She’s the glue that keeps my boat in the air.”
“That’s definitely not a thing people say...”
“She’s the golden goose that makes sure I don’t count my chickens before they hatch.”
“...I don’t even know what that’s supposed to mean.”
“She’s the giraffe to my peanut butter--”
“If you don’t want to tell me, you can just say so.”
“I don’t want to tell you.”
“Ah...”
Roman gave a sideways nod. “Honestly, though, I’m not entirely sure, myself. Gina is a curious one. I’ve met a lot of people who make their living off of keeping secrets, but Gina is more difficult to read than most of them.”
“You think so? She seemed pretty, um... straightforward... uh, to me.”
“Yes, well. She would. And I did tell her to help you, as well.”
“Hmm...”
“When I first met her, she was borderline agoraphobic.”
“Agora...?”
“She was extremely reluctant to go outside. I don’t think she’d left her apartment in months.”
“Oh... and you helped her get over that?”
“You could say that.”
Hector just looked at him, waiting for elaboration.
“I kind of burnt down her apartment,” said Roman.
“Aha...”
“Accidentally.”
“Right.”
“The details aren’t important.”
“Uh-huh...”
“Long story short, I helped her get back on her feet. Was only meant to be a temporary situation, but she ended up sticking around.”
“And you don’t know anything else about her?”
“I never said that.”
“But you said... all that stuff about her being difficult to read.”
“Yep.”
“Then...?”
“If you want to know more about her, then ask her yourself. Not my place to tell.”
Hector gave a small nod.
“You never answered my question,” said Roman. “How did you originally die? Told you mine.”
Hector nearly cringed. He was better prepared to answer now, but he certainly would’ve preferred Roman to have forgotten.
A dark serial novel. Set in a modern fantasy world called Eleg. Mature language. Updates every night at midnight PST by ~400 words.
15% of that was jibber-jabber
ReplyDeleteBut it was a good page
Delving into the secrets
Hahaha, oh jeez, this page made me laugh. Right up until those last two lines. Good luck Hector~!
ReplyDeleteOh my god, I can't express the amount of fangirlism I'm feeling right now. This makes Roman/Gina borderline-canon (though maybe one-sided).
ReplyDeleteAlso, a question about style. I have never noticed that before, but in this scene, Roman seems to have a distinct speech pattern. He seems to leave out the subject at the beginning of sentences sometimes ("Was only meant to be temporary" for example). Not quite sure what it's called (I think it's ellipsis, but I couldn't find out if this applies to omitting the subject). Did you do this on purpose? And going further, do you have a different voice for all characters? I think the King and Queen tend to not use contractions as much as the other characters. I had meant to ask this a while back. It's usually quite noticable when the perspective changes between scenes.
And a little typo:
"I-if that’s not to[o] personal"
Fixed, thank you.
ReplyDeleteAnd yeah. I do have different voices for pretty much all the characters. Some are pretty minor, though, so I don't expect all of them to be noticeable, but some of them are quite distinct, yeah. Not the King and Queen--all of the royals use contractions quite sparingly, with the exception of David. Voreese swears the most. And so on so forth.
Hehe, I'd say he does. If anything, he could just pull his silence thing. He's good at that.
ReplyDeleteThanks for clarifying.
ReplyDeleteI was going to write a long comment about how weird Voreese's swearing is, but I suppose no-one is actually interested in discussing this. It's just that, assuming languages in Eleg evolve in the same way as here, the current language would amount to a foreign language to old reapers since their native tongue died out. Garovel even mentioned in an early chapter that he's a slow reader because of this. And swearing in a foreign language is really, really difficult. All the connotations and regional differences and stuff.
How old is Voreese, anyway?
Becoming fluent in a new language is all about getting exposure to it, and reapers have ample time to learn.
ReplyDeleteI AIN'T TELLIN'.
That's true. I'm just suprised that Garovel would have trouble reading that language then. Personally, I think reading in a foreign language is way easier than writing/speaking. Then again, maybe he's dyslexic. Or he was born before the invention of writing and had to learn how to read late in life (or death). Or something.
ReplyDeleteI suppose you can't tell what their language is called because that would be spoiler-ish? It's awkward to say "that language" all the time.
I think he mentioned something about being unable to turn pages. And since most ways to learn reading involve books, it might just have been impossible to practice consistently.
DeleteThat sounds really funny, a 3,000 year-old being like "Hey servant, what does that word say?" "Can't you read?" "...no...." *montage of him going to college and getting a bachelor's degree*
ReplyDeleteThis page was awesome! Hilarious!
ReplyDelete<3
ReplyDeleteGASP! You never ask bout a woman's age!!!
ReplyDeleteThis...is in the running for the funniest page yet
ReplyDeleteBut being old would be a good thing for a reaper, wouldn't it? It means they have managed to stay alive for a long time, and probably have a lot of knowledge.
ReplyDeleteWould you really like to be the one to ask Voreese her age...?
ReplyDeleteI wonder--does Hector even realize that he, no less than Roman, has the right to say "I don't want to tell you?"
ReplyDelete