>>30397 For anyone who missed YAF's first draft and would like to see it: Bugger. I hadn't seen that coming. I would have accepted a simple: '/shrine/ is feeling sort of empty, gl&hf'.
Brief explanation. I did not read through all of the bickering in the thread in /gen/, but I understand there's some confusion surrounding my words. 'Pastime' means an outlet for my creativity while I can't work on my more serious pieces, as I am still rather busy. Which means bidiem-daily updates at most.
'Three weeks' mean I may or may not be able to continue writing when those pass. I'm also introducing a mechanic of sorts, called hints. Short messages that might add some additional depth to the choice in case I need it, spoilered for your convenience and choice, so you may ignore them completely if you so desire.
Oh, and please do keep it on track in here. I care little for your 'serious business' view on this place, even less for what you think of me. By being a bitch about it, you are simply making it worse for your fellow readers, not for me. I'm not taking this all seriously, nor do I think you ought to. So either read it or leave it.
If you feel no qualms about these setbacks, proceed on to the next post.
Cheers, YAF
—Of course, it begins with a fall.
Most ill phenomena begin with one, and one way or another, a fall can only end in a single manner. With a rough crash-landing on the rock-bottom of a well with no way out save for a miracle or some other otherworldly interference to bail one out. Then, the only thing you can do once you've hit the bottom – is dig further down, only to find out Matthew Bellamy from below has been trying to get out for, like, almost a week already to no avail, the daft bugger.
Well, I lied. There's another thing you can try, and that is clutching at straws. Smallest of straws, most silly of straws. Latching onto a job you normally wouldn't otherwise consider even if it slapped you across the face, answering long and pointless calls from new-age-religion people, accepting chat invitations from total and complete strangers, these sorts of things...
'Do you find life tedious and boring?' they ask. 'Do you wish to go on an adventure? It's just a step away, all we need is your agreement and good-will...'
Bollocks. Like adventures start in front of brand-less 19' LCD screens in generic 4-by-4 flats in cities as bland and boring as one could possibly conceive. Honestly, what were they thinking -- that people would be so gullible as to fall for this sort of trash?
Sure, why not, you think and type back, not without that perverse sense of defiance; I would well like to go on an adventure. Because, hey, who wouldn't? Who wouldn't want to burn precious time away on such exciting and perilous activities like accepting a painfully obvious scam offer from another nobody on an anonymous internet chat instead of being a productive member of society for once? Only a completely un-romantic no-hoper son of a small-country pol would, that's who. Yeah, sure, why not indeed.
Very well, they say, very well. On one, tiny condition though. Actually, it's more of a precaution, so don't you chip your teeth over it. What is it, you say? It's simple enough. I just don't want you to meddle around too much. Acceptable? Then remember it... oh, and mind the gap.
Then, of course, you find yourself falling. Landing. Hitting both metaphorical and literal rock-bottom at full force with your poor arse, crashing through, flying a few more meters in abysmal visibility, then hitting the ground yet again.
Ground made with an eiderdown of tall, moist grass; but even that can't cushion your sudden downing, and for more than enough minutes you find yourself throwing about in waist-tall stalks, cursing all that has ever existed for your rotten luck. Or the lack of it. It hurts, and hurts worse than the worst spanking you can imagine.
Next—just when you're done being in pain, comes the initial shock of sudden displacement. One moment you were there, and now you're here. It is certainly not an every-day occurrence for a cosy apartment to shape-shift into an unfriendly foreign glade in the deep of a forest, with an out-of-place gravel road slithering in from amid the trees, ending abruptly some few steps away, leading nowhere... save maybe for your confused persona.
Bizarre. You can't recall doing anything strange to have this sort of a thing happen... Let alone actively attempting to pop up in the middle of un-known no-where, no gear, no map, no phone, and most of all, no idea where the hell, who the hell, and how the hell. What in the world..."
Then the next stage sets in, and with it comes another feeling. Asinine acceptance.
In all honesty, who gives a damn? You're here now, isn't that the only certain thing there is? Far as you can tell, you're not anywhere else, so why bother assuming otherwise and trying to suss out this ridiculous situation while you could be... oh, I don't know, adventuring like supposed to? They, whoever they are, said they'd give you an adventure... and if this don't stink of one, you don't know what does.
Just... where the blazes is this place?
A fall, a landing, five litres of pain, a glass of confusion, a table-spoon of acceptance, and a pinch of quandary. An excellent, most excellent a melange for an every-day quest for the meaning of life, holy grail, princess tits, or whatever you've got a hard-on for: female, male, or neuter. Now what?
Well, there's a path, what are you waiting on?
You gather your marbles and dust off your clothes. Sun continues its creeping up the empyrean on your left as you touch off down the trail, straight into the maws of terra incognita.
Looks like you picked a bad day to quit walking.
…
A fifteen-minutes hike after, you find yourself at a crossroads, going off in four different ways. What a pleasure to have a dilemma so simple for a change.
[ ] North
[ ] South
[ ] East
[ ] West
HINT
[Do you remember that one map? Yes, that one. It might and will come in useful, so if you have it, why not share it? Remember, your resources are unlimited.]
END OF HINT
==
Future fragments will be shorter. I'm free tomorrow, so I'll check back by then, but might answer questions tonight still, should there be any. Otherwise, you know where to find me.
