Monday, February 9, 2015

Page 979 -- CXI.

Chapter One Hundred Eleven: ‘Thy respite, embrace...’
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The Waress Tunnels were longer than Hector could have imagined. Much of the journey was spent in darkness. The headlights of all the limousines in their party often weren’t enough to reach the walls or ceiling, which gave the illusion of a pitch black night all around them. Exceptions came via the brightly lit intersections where the Tunnels crossed paths with one another, usually accompanied by some kind of refueling station or resting point. They didn’t stop at any of them, but Hector wondered what it would be like to work in such a place. He didn’t think he’d be able to handle something this isolated. More than that, though, he wondered about any poor folks who’d had their vehicles break down in here. He supposed that problem was one of the main reasons for all the rest stops, but even still. That’d suck pretty hard, he figured.

At length, they finally made it out, and even the limousine’s tinted windows were not enough to stop everyone from having to shield their eyes from the daylight. It had only been a few hours, according to Hector’s phone, but it felt like an entire night had passed.

Chergoa and Garovel never seemed to run out of things to talk about. On and on and on, they spoke, exchanging information, talking about new and old friends, discussing politics and science and history and something about a dog smoking a cigar. Hector had kind of stopped listening by that point--and so had the Elroys, by the look of it.

After a while longer, Hector managed to get a bit more sleep. When he awoke, he saw that Dimas was still awake if the dark circles under his eyes were any indication.

“...You should really get some sleep,” said Hector.

Dimas’s gaze was even more potent than usual. “I did,” he said. “For about ten minutes.”

Hector just frowned at him.

“I am not staying awake because I want to,” Dimas added. “I cannot usually sleep unless Iziol knocks me unconscious.”

“Oh,” Hector said. “What about sleeping pills?”

“...I cannot swallow pills.”

“Ah... er, don’t they make stuff you can drink?”

“...It tastes funny.”

Hector opened his mouth and then closed it again.

Don’t bother,’ came Iziol’s groggy voice. He stirred on Dimas’ shoulder but didn’t detach himself. ‘I told him there are different flavors, but he never listens.

27 comments:

  1. Poor Dimas, super powered and sleepy :( also, Frost, glad you're alive :) thought you'd been kidnapped or something :p

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  2. Apologies for the slowness, folks. I've missed couple pages in the last two or three weeks, so I'll throw a couple extra ones into this upcoming week. And probably do some donation bonuses, too. PROBABLY, I SAID. DON'T YELL AT ME, MOMMY.


    The reason for my slowness, for anyone interested, is because I've been trying to build a new PC in order to make my life easier. Unfortunately, it's been a dogshit nightmare 'cuz of defective components, and I still haven't sorted it out yet. BUT WHATEVER. I ONLY DIED A LITTLE BIT ON THE INSIDE. IT'S NOT LIKE I WAS SUPER EXCITED ABOUT IT OR ANYTHING.

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  3. I was. But my captors let me go after I explained how much they were inconveniencing me.

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  4. Ah, which sites did you ordered of the components or was it in store brought?

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  5. "limousine's tinted [windows] were"
    You're missing the word windows.


    Glad to see a post I was getting worried something actually had happened to you.

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  6. Oh, It was Newegg. Don't worry about. It was really only one defective component. I was just exaggerating 'cuz of how long I spent learning how to put everything together properly ONLY FOR THE GODDAMN MOTHERBOARD TO NOT FUCKING WORK.

    I'm not upset about it, though.

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  7. The headlights of all the limousine[s]. Good to have you back.

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  8. I don't get why this is a problem. For someone without a reaper to knock them out, insomnia that bad would be a nightmare, except that they wouldn't even be able to have nightmares if they wanted them. However, unfortunately for Dimas, Iziol's company isn't exactly a limited resource. What would really suck would be if a reaper had insomnia that bad. That would be the kind of thing that would prompt someone to act like Voreese around Abolishers without a servant to protect them.

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  9. Dimas never said it was a problem...

    And I believe it's been shown that reapers don't need to sleep unless they've been injured or exhausted from a fight. I could be wrong though

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  10. Clearly its a problem, given that he has rings around his eyes. Also, I don't think Iziol was injured or used Pan-moc so I think his being asleep shows that they do still need it. I think I recall it mentioning somewhere that they need less, though, and I might have just remembered wrong about that or Iziol/Dimas using hyperstates.

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  11. Incorrect. Iziol and Dimas did use pan-moc.

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  12. I though you got a car problem in those tunnels like Hector though :D

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  13. Thank you. Good thing, I checked if anyone had corrected Steve before I commented.

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  14. Frosty, you give us this fantastic novel for free (or for optional donation); you don't need to apologise for being slightly less prolific than usual! You're already doing us a good deed by sharing The Zombie Knight.

    Good luck with the computer!

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  15. I hope kidnappers gave you some money for new motherboard.

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  16. No, not upset at all. No need to repair walls, or anything. Nope. *hugs*

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  17. Ah, I did think it was a little bit odd that you had only posted as much as all of the other serials I keep up with other than Wildbow's, as opposed to three times as much. I just assumed that I'd checked twice in one day a couple of times and kept going.
    But yeah, what CK said.

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  18. D:
    What madness is this!? I'm the one who's supposed to say something like that! You're even using fancy words and proper grammar! Don't you dare try to steal my job! Unless... Frost, have... Have you REPLACED ME? Is it because I haven't been commenting as much as I used to!? It's not my fault! I am starting university soon! I NEED THIS JOB/DUTY!

    That aside, I totally agree. (But I'll be watching you. o_o)

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  19. As someone who actually worked on and repaired computers for a living (well, semi-living) the best advice I can give you is this:

    Don't put a computer together while on carpet. Electrostatic Discharge, or ESD kills components very quickly. If you don't have an Anti-Static wrist wrap, work on your kitchen table, and touch a metal part of your case on the inside (or your power supply) to safely discharge any static you may have.

    Seriously, ESD is bad. 3 volts. That's all it takes to kill anything inside. For scale, a shock you would get from touching a doorknob after walking across the carpet is 3000 volts.

    Also, if you don't want to buy a graphics card, make sure you're getting a motherboard that has integrated video.

    You don't have to tell me, but what are your new PC specs? Hope they're as good as your story is!

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  20. Have you considered holding back on bonus pages until you have a buffer of a week or two written? This will help with professional timing.
    Next time for this* related items, try posting a "please" with the components/items you are after.
    Rather than a cash donation for more pages you might get what you need.
    Selfish people will prefer giving to help along their TZK fix than something trivial like vital food for you.
    Just my two cents.

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  21. I stand corrected. As I said, I knew I might have been wrong about both of those things.

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  22. Darn cheap encouragement. Its putting more than just you out of work.
    Good to know our writer is staying Frosty.

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  23. Lmao! Rereading this page made me think of TFS Goku's reason for not taking the heart medicine.

    TFS Gohan *incredulous*: "You mean you stopped? Why did you STOP?!"

    TFS Goku *in agony*: "Cause it was GRAPE-FLAVORED!!!

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