Just Something I Thought Was Funny While Writing:

just something i thought was funny while writing:

microsoft word will randomly change my font when i do italics sometimes and i just thought this was so funny, like suffer being in a different font is just hilarious to me for some reason lol

btw my font is High Tower Text if anyone's curious

I will try and get my third weekly post out, (and respond to the stuff you've tagged me in @jev-urisk) even though at this point i'm pretty sure its been more than a week since my last weekly post. fwiw I don't think i'll be able to maintain weekly posts but imma keep calling them that, or maybe i'll rename it to something cool like "Kommodian Archive Day" or something, something unique like that cuz its like we're "walking through the archives (of gods i guess) that somehow have info on the entire world/things that even the denizens of it dont know"

idk just random nonsense, anyway back to writing for me

some random exposition things i deleted from my book #1

This is a bit of a less formal post, but I thought people might want to see some of the lore I ended up deleting because there was no point in having pace-breaking exposition in the middle of a random scene. I had a *lot* of these and for the last few hours i've been working on compressing/removing them because they were just too much imo. Here's a few of them, for anyone who is *really* interested in reading about my world :P

On the import/export process of one of Leln's taverns:

Original page: pg. 142

reason for deletion: not really necessary even if its kinda cool

It should have gone without saying, but as a drink-serving establishment, they had a wide variety of things. From coffee, to tea. Obviously they specialized in alcohol, given that they were a tavern first and foremost, but that didn’t mean the coffee, tea, or food took a backseat in quality. In fact, one might find every item on the menu to be within the same margin of quality, regardless of what they ordered. It wasn’t the most expensive food on the planet, nor was it ridiculously decadent. It was simple and hearty, perfect for adventurers. The beans for the coffee were imported from a small village that specialized in the harvest of coffee cherries. In that same village, those coffee cherries would transform from seed to bean, where they would be sent to the various establishments who had contracts with said village. The tea was a similar affair, a product offered by farmers who held contracts with establishments. They would procure the ingredients, fill the tea bags, and through a long process of trial and error, make truly quality tea flavors, which could then be served at any number of establishments whether high or low end. The ale was, of course, created in-house and kept fresh in taps. Of course, if another establishment wished to share their blend of ale, they’d have to pay a hefty price. Taverns did not tend to share their specific fermentation process or their brewing secrets, and when and if they did they didn’t come cheap. The best tavern in Kommodia had been rumored to have declined an incredibly exorbitant amount of money, simply because they would have had to give up their secrets for it. It would be, of course, prudent to keep in mind that the quality of coffee and tea available to adventurers and commonfolk, and that which was available to nobles was quite different. It was not, of course, to say that the quality of these goods available to those who were not royalty was bad, but it certainly was not the top of the tree, so to say. Nevertheless, Beriyl enjoyed the tea he was served, even if to him, it was a few cuts under what he was used to.

On a certain merchant's business life:

original page: pg. 29

reason for deletion: not necessary for the reader to know any of this, breaks flow

Managing a store was not cheap, and neither was purchasing supplies to stock the store with. Luckily for him, he’d caught a big break recently, signing numerous contracts with several big name merchant companies. Essentially, he’d have a continuous trickle of arms and armour, amidst other things, delivered to him on a semi-regular basis. What he had was good, for where he was, anyway. Technically speaking, it’d be more profitable if he decided to move to the capital, Hamelan, simply for the fact he’d have even more business opportunity. More contracts and more contacts meant better equipment, which meant higher prices, which meant more money. Of course, he’d have to give an agreed-upon portion to the contractor, but that’s how it was already, and he was paying some pretty steep rates with a few of his existing contracts. While the dwarf shopkeeper was willing to negotiate on certain things, “nobility discounts” was not one of them. If he handed out discounts to every fool coming in claiming to be the heir to some renowned family, he’d be bankrupt in a week. Well, at least living in Leln had some benefits. Cheaper tax than Hamelan’s, at least. Perhaps it was obvious, but Beriyl had no way to know any of that. Putting aside the fact that he grew up in the definition of the lap of luxury, he had no window of insight into the man's confidential business affairs.

About the Adventurers Guilds rules/rankings/other nonsense:

context: i deleted this because this was just completely unnecessary, way too much exposition for something that isn't the biggest part of the story at a certain point, especially because the reader can infer 90% of these rules and a vast majority of them dont need to be shoved into the readers face like this. Ranks are fine imo to have shown and the rest should just be inferred.

original page: pg. 27

As Taka was told, the ranks went something like this, from highest to lowest:

Rank S: Legendary

Rank A: Platinum

Rank B: Gold

Rank C: Silver

Rank D: Copper

Rank E: Bronze

Rank F: Clay

(deleted stuff starts here, just added the stuff above for context)

Apparently, job board requests also followed this structure, although S-Rank missions were never really seen. However, for job board requests there was a special category of missions above S-Rank, known as "Crisis" and "Calamity" class missions. These were reserved for world-ending calamitous threats and other extremely dire situations. For example, in the event of a world-endangering natural disaster, a Crisis-Class, or CC-Rank mission would be placed. In the event of a mad magician rising up from his labyrinthian dungeon to take over a small part of the world, there would be a S-Rank mission placed. If, say, an ancient evil rose to destroy all humanity, that’d be a Calamity-Class, or CC+-Rank mission. However, these two types of requests hadn't been seen in a very long time according to the receptionist. Typically though, they'd be issued by the guild or government itself, as most people lacked the authority to post quests above an A-Rank. In any case, it seemed that the exceedingly high rank of S was more of a social status thing than an actually awarded title.

For adventurers, rank was important. It dictated what type of jobs you could accept, and by extension, how much you would earn for completing them. Dangerous, high ranking quests paid more, but had more risk associated with them than lower ranked, lesser paying quests. Of course, not every adventurer had to take on monster-hunting jobs. There were also crafting and gathering jobs, for those skilled in those fields. There were also rules associated with job-taking. Namely, you were allowed to take jobs ranked one higher and of the same level as you, but not one below. This was supposedly to "push fledglings from the nest" sooner, so that they might start contributing to the realm in larger amounts. It was also to keep a steady influx of low level jobs available for new adventurers, who were always in constant supply. There were also rules for forming parties; you were allowed to create a party with members your rank, or one higher or lower than your rank. This prevented lower ranked adventurers from joining very high ranked adventurers and simply riding their coattails. "You have to work for your rank", seemed to be the message the guild wanted to send with this rule. In essence, the guild was just a medium through which freelancers could band together and find work. In parties, it was common courtesy to split the gold, but different parties did things differently, and the guild did not have any formal regulations on how parties should be run. Most things were left up to the party leader's discretion.

Although it was not said in this exact order, Taka was also told that only the party leader may accept quests, and only one quest may be assigned to any one party at a time, barring a special government exception. He learned of "Clear Tags" which were small tags, much like the adventurer tags he noticed sometimes around people’s necks or wrists, used to verify the completion of a quest. They were given to clients of the guild who posted a job, so there was a clear "verifiable" way to prove that the quest was indeed completed without wasting the time of client and adventurer both, by dragging them both along into the guild and having a lengthy chat to ensure nothing went wrong. This was a recent technology; in the past, adventurers were subjected to long chats after each clear. Essentially, when you completed a quest, you would check in with the client, who would give you the Clear Tag. They'd press their finger on it, and the status depicted on the tag would change to "cleared", thus, the name "Clear Tags". By this point, Taka was beginning to feel sick with how much information was going through his head, and he worried that he would forget it all. He realized he was starting to space out, so he pinched his arm discretely to try and stay focused. Then, he learned that jobs could "expire" if left uncompleted for too long. The time until "expiration" varied from job to job, but mostly depended on the job's rank, although the client could set a "expiration" date themselves, if they so specified. There was a limit on how many quests parties could accept in a day, set at three. A and S-Rank parties however, were given special privileges, and allowed to accept and complete up to five in one day. Reasonably, the risks present and consequences suffered if you faltered in your duty or fell in the field while undergoing a higher ranked mission, could be much more devastating than the consequences of failing a lower ranked mission.

It was for this reason that the guild did not simply hand out promotions-- they had to be earned, by doing work for the guild or by proving yourself in battle against a particularly tough foe. Even then they weren't just granted, you had to go through a special interview process with a representative of the guild, as well as a member of the local government who had been trained in such matters. Parties were not forced to accept promotion offers, should they not feel ready for the correspondingly ranked jobs. If a party turned down such an offer, they would be able to request that promotion at any time going forward. Of course, they would still have to go through the interview process. There were no penalties associated with declining an offer and asking for it again at a later time. With this system in place, the guild was able to assure those who issued requests to the guild that their problem would be solved. However, as with anything in adventuring, nothing was certain. A single mistake could spell doom for your party. It was only a small assurance that those who had proven themselves, and not fledglings would be undertaking these quests. Anything could happen during an adventure. Veteran adventurers die to the seemingly simplest of things, and newbies pass through the most seemingly impossible of tasks. All it took was a bit of luck and skill. Those who failed quests but came back alive were reprimanded and punished, sometimes demoted. How close a party came to demotion would be decided on how many "marks" you had on your card. That is to say, failing three quests in a row would result in a demotion. For F-ranking parties, there were no such punishments, as F-Rank quests were usually inconsequential. However, those who came back alive and succeeded were rewarded with the money as per the quests description and were a step closer to a promotion. One last thing Taka learned was that if a party was confirmed to have wiped, or they simply did not return for a certain period of time while away on a mission, that job would be reevaluated by the guild, assigned a higher rank if deemed necessary, or extra addendums would be put in the description. But, that did not happen often. At least, not in Leln. Sometimes, mistakes happened and job posters tried to post jobs without the guilds permission. That's where things got a bit tricky, as that could lead to double job postings if the guild was also paid to post a job, which could lead to two parties going into the same quest, which could, understandably, lead to all sorts of confusion and conflict.

This did not tend to apply to F-Rank quests, as for the most part they were safe, relatively easy, busywork quests that had you assisting people around town. Maybe you'd kill an oversized spider or two, but monster quests for F-ranks were pretty rare. Job difficulty markers did not just denote the rank an adventurer had to be to accept it, it also denoted the job's threat level. An F-rank job possessed barely any threat to your life, whereas a D, or C rank job possessed some. Put simply, the way Taka saw it was like this:

● F and E-Rank, Clay and Bronze: You'll most likely be fine, unless you drop something on your head and break your neck on accident. Barring insane coincidences like a sudden monster attack, these jobs weren't very dangerous and typically consisted of varying degrees of busywork. Sometimes you'd get a small monster elimination based job with E-Ranked duties. ● D and C-Rank, Copper and Silver: You could die. You will almost certainly fight monsters. Be on your guard, come prepared, and you'll be fine. ● B and A-Rank, Gold and Platinum: These are dangerous jobs, with high consequences but higher rewards. You will die if you do not come prepared. Although, from what Taka had been hearing, you'd die if you weren't prepared on a D or C-ranked job.. ● S-Rank, Legendary and above: Exceptionally dangerous. Exercise the utmost of caution.

That's all for now. I have a few more long deleted exposition dumps, about Dane's backstory and about a type of monster crab that a certain restaurant in Hamelan uses as a food source, but I think I'll post them later. Maybe. we'll see :d

I'll leave you with this:

THE DIE IS CAST

i love this song and how he says that, so damn cool, imma watch code geass

responding to multiple tags like i said i would (finally)

i've been busy (read: depressed and lazy) for a while now and decided that, before i start writing today i'd reply to the tags i got a while back :P

might be a bit of a long post due to that but uh...

alright, here we go (srry for stealing your formatting @jev-urisk)

✨️Headcanon Rating Tag✨️

Rules: use this headcanon generator to generate some headcanons for your OCs! How accurate are they?

Using the two main parties from Party of Three

Taka

Taka has an intense fear of people. 3/10: While Taka is a very nervous/anxious person, I wouldn't say he has a fear of people. He has a fear of social situations maybe, lol.

Taka is an extrovert. 0/10: Taka is a introvert. This ties into him not liking social situations where he's near a ton of random people, why he's so nervous wandering around Leln for the first time, and why he has a hard time sleeping on the carriage ride there. He's obviously far calmer/extroverted around his friends, but i'd say around strangers he's 100% a introvert, although if you approach him he might find it easier to open up and talk to you after a little bit.

Taka gets bullied on roblox. 4/10: Taka would be the one doing the bullying on ROBLOX. This is such an incredibly funny one to me, if Taka and Beriyl and Arthur had been born into this world instead, I 100% guarantee a few things. Taka is the kind of kid to play Fortnite and do the dances irl to piss off people. Beriyl would hate it and Taka would find that so funny. Secretly, Beriyl would actually like Fortnite and if Taka found out, he'd make him duo with him. Taka is also the kinda kid to go on TikTok and start repeating all the brainrot terms out of a weird ironic comedy, not actually having brainrot but thinking that pretending to would be funny. (Also because it would piss off Beriyl) Arthur would stop them from fighting like he already does.

Beriyl:

Beriyl gets into Twitter discourse. 10/10: 100% 100% ONE-HUNDRED-PERCENT, he is the exact type of person to be easily anger-able by pretty much anything, ESPECIALLY if he's already in a bad mood, he would one HUNDRED percent have fruitless, long arguments with random internet strangers on youtube or something lol

Beriyl voted sans in the tumblr sexyman poll. 0/10: Beriyl probably would play Undertale but I don't think he'd find sans attractive. He'd probably draw some connections from sans to Taka's sense of humor (i bet Taka would vote sans cuz he'd think it'd be funny) but idk if he'd vote sans. maybe if Taka hijacked his account and voted for sans (which i could see happening, and then them fighting about it)

Beriyl is tumblr famous. 5/10: Either Beriyl would be very popular or very unpopular, but believe he deserves to be popular. He's a very vain person for a good part of the story, so his reaction to either way sorta depends on how much growth he's undergone personality-wise. Let's say that early Beriyl would believe he deserves popularity and not have it, and if he DID have it it would massively go to his head and result in a big ego trip, and if he didn't, he'd be really mad about it. Late-stage (i hesitate to say lategame but not sure how else to describe the end of book 1 chargrowth wise... latebook? XD) Beriyl probably wouldn't care either way.

Arthur:

Arthur can't spell resturaunt. 0/10: The headcanon website misspelled restaurant. Arthur's parents were merchants and educated him as best they could. I kinda doubt he wouldn't be able to spell restaurant. Beriyl can spell it. Taka maybe. Sometimes he has trouble writing long/"big" words. Qlul and Ecirr probably could write it. Eirairr would probably scribble all over the page and start laughing when you tell him that he didn't even write anything.

Arthur has fallen asleep at their desk while working in the middle of the night. 0/10: For the most part, i'm assuming this is an AU where they were born on Earth and not in Tamalnh, but Arthur has such a crazy work ethic I imagine he'd stay up all night to the point where this would happen. I mean, for the most part, if he has something he needs to do, he will just not sleep, to the detriment of his overall health. So for that reason, I was going to say 10/10, but Arthur is the kind of person to just refuse to sleep if he feels like he has something he needs to do (i.e protect someone) so, 0/10. Maybe 1/10, but... ok, moving on

Arthur has been canceled on Twitter. 0/10 Arthur would either not use Twitter, not understand Twitter, or have an account cuz Taka told him to sign up and barely use it. I can see him maybe having a cooking twitter or looking at Gordon Ramsay or smth, but he wouldn't be cancelled.

Qlul:

Qlul is oblivous to any and all romantic interest someone may show them. 4/10: The site misspelled oblivious. Anyway... I mean, he's dating Ecirr. But I can see this going two ways, him being oblivious or him knowing more than he lets on. so due to my indecisiveness, 4/10

If Qlul was presented with an intergalactic portal, they would enter it without question. 1/10: Most likely not, it depends how it "feels" to him. Is Ecirr there? What does Ecirr say about it? What are the stakes-- what does he stand to gain/lose? He's not the impulsive type-- I can't say I can see him jumping into a portal, especially not in a world where, yaknow, orbs of destruction exist. Eirairr probably would, if he "sensed" that it wouldn't kill him. Maybe. It depends lol (i doubt i'll end up calling them that, but i imagine that in dungeons things like that do exist. yes im talking about the destruction orbs from 5e)

Qlul is very willing to eat inedible things. 0/10 No. Kaardan cuisine is sorta weird, they probably use a lot of bugs, monsters and make lots of soup/stew, but... no, Qlul isn't gonna eat rocks.

Ecirr:

Ecirr has a stuffed animal under their bed. 3/10 If he did, it'd be of the messenger ravens he and Qlul communicated with back in school, or of Qlul himself. But he'd never let anyone know-- so i'd say this is a fifty-fifty :p

Ecirr is a sleepwalker. 0/10 He's not.

Ecirr set a public school on fire and got away with it. 0/10 Ecirr would not do something like that lol, none of them would. I'm not sure "public school" even exists in my world... but anywaaayyy, on to Eirairr!

Eirairr:

Eirairr does not know what sleep is. 10/10: This is absolutely hilarious. Eirairr has never slept before in his life. Eirairr is a full-blooded elf, and does not need to sleep. While i'm sure he knows what the concept of "sleep" is, he has never personally experienced it. With that logic, you could say he does not know sleep.

Eirairr is a cry baby. (I got the sleepwalker one again and i was like....i dont wanna do duplicates, that's boring. also he can't sleep, so no. although i can see him pretending to sleepwalk to be funny, definitely in his personality to do something like that.) 0/10: No, but Taka certainly cries a lot. Just like me.... that means i'm a crybaby D:

Eirairr is great with kids. 8/10: Honestly, if Eirairr maintained his calm personality for a extended period of time, I could see him being a great babysitter. He definitely has that childish energy. So maybe he'd destroy the house with the kid. But on the off hand he controls himself, then yeah, he'd be great for both the kid and the parent. But if he doesn't... well, let's say the parent won't be very happy when they get home and both of them are climbing all over the place.

Bonus: Villain Round!!! Vitsmunir!!!

Vitsmunir:

Vitsmunir likes to eat straight coffee beans. 7/10: maybe. I could see Vitsmunir being a dark chocolate, licorice, and black coffee sort of guy... if he let himself relax and wasn't on the verge of a psychotic, murderous-rage-filled mental breakdown + panic attack every second of his life.

Vitsmunir bullies kids on roblox. 10/10: I know I said I wouldn't do duplicates but this is very funny. Yes, yes, he would. He 100% would bully people and try and feel better about himself through this. And then he'd wonder why he doesn't have any friends. :(

Vitsmunir is a simp. 0/10: I kind of feel like if he were in our world, he'd be asexual/a-romantic. And probably in prison for murder.

Okay... that was a really long one, i'm tempted to just do two posts but eh, whatever, here's the second tag thingy (again, ty jev, im stealing ur formatting XD)

✨️OC Questionnaire Tag✨️

My questions:

So you're one of those people?

Is this really where you wanted to end up?

Why can't you just.. stop?

Your questions:

Where do you see yourself in ten years?

If you could change just one thing about your current life, what would it be?

What is your favorite thing in the whole world?

I'll be answering as Beriyl Edmund Ciphre von Aschwaz from Party of Three.

For the purposes of this one, Beriyl will be his early book self. Cocky, self-indulged, and worst of all, bri'ish.

Imagine him speaking as a posh British noble, with a hint of uh... flamboyance? He's a very dramatic person. Anyway, on with the questions...

1. So you're one of those people?

What the hells do you mean by that? One of those people? If you mean, beautiful, wonderful, and much better than you, then yes! I am Beriyl Edmund Ciphre von Aschwaz, after all! So glad you noticed. Of course I'm better than a worthless commoner like yourself! Hmph.

2. Is this really where you wanted to end up?

Wh- I must say, what is it with you and all these rude questions?! What does that even mean?! I- *he pauses* ... Crossing his arms, he peers outwardly at you. Are you speaking of Taka? No, I must say... I did not wish to end up stuck in a party with a commoner like him, nor a brute like Arthur. Gods, they're so unrefined. They're so imbecilic! Hmph... yes, that is quite the apt descriptor for them. Well, I suppose, put any of lowly birth next to one of such high status like myself and they'd appear a fool next to a saint, or some such... Saint Beriyl, I do like the ring of that! Are you-?! Why are you scoffing at me?! How dare you!! I am Beriyl Edmund Ciphre von Aschwaz, and I-

3. Why can't you just.. stop?

Stop, stop what?! This entire conversation has been one of the most unpleasant I've had since I met that damnable fool, Taka! Are you as stupid as he is, or are you just trying to get on my nerves?! Hah! If anything, you should stop! Stop breathing, that is! Yes, hmm! Stop breathing near me, commoner! I, Beriyl Edmund Ciphre von Aschwaz, refuse to breathe in your disgusting commoner air! Away, away from me! Thank you!

welp, there ya go jev. told you you'd piss off Beriyl with questions like that :sob: Hope you had fun reading all that :D I certainly had fun writing it. Feel free to tag me in more of your stuff, I love answering them. It's a lot of fun, and a nice writing exercise/warm up.

Have a good day everyone :)

(For those who enjoy reading the weekly posts, i will try and have the third... or was it the fourth, out soonish.... soonTM, okay? :p)

random excerpts - #1

It occurred to me that if getting exposure for my book is my goal, then posting some excerpts from it might be beneficial. With that said, here is a bit of the very first chapter.

Chapter One

Taka screamed in terror, and shot up in his bed. His heart drummed in his chest at a rapid pace for what felt like an eternity before it finally settled down. Beads of sweat formed upon his forehead as his eyes flitted around the dim room. Everything was as he’d left it—door closed, his things atop a medium-sized, rectangular storage chest in the corner...

“Hah..”

Breathing a sigh of relief, he reluctantly slid out of bed, recoiling slightly at the cold touch of the floor on the bottoms of his feet. It was moments like these that made him wish he knew even a few spells. The entire room seemed to creak loudly as it lurched to one side, the ship rocked by the violent waves. Steadying himself, he rubbed his eyes and yawned.

" ’Smooth ride’, huh?”

When the ship finally leveled out and Taka felt he could move about safely again, he did so, heading over to the lockbox in the corner and kneeling down by it. He pulled his comfortably worn dark leather boots off the box and onto the floor, then slid them on one by one. Then, he attached his pouches to his belt, and stretched the remaining dredges of sleep from his body.

Afterward, he headed over to the small mirror that sat atop a dresser alongside the leftmost wall.

In the mirror now, was himself. In this lightless room, he could just make out his defining features; a sharp nose, and roughly chin-length deep brown hair complimented by his hazel eyes and pale skin.

It cornered his face which gave him an almost wolf-like, mischievous appearance.

“My hair's a mess…”

Grumbling, he spent a few minutes combing through it with his fingers and wishing he’d brought a comb.

When his hair had been made somewhat acceptable, he adjusted his scarf, then nodded.

“That seems good enough. Okay… Already dressed, so…”

He had on a black long-sleeved top and pants which both had dark-brown accents. His top had no left sleeve, and the remaining sleeve was a slightly lighter shade of brown than his hair was. Making his final adjustments, Taka turned from the mirror, and returned to the lockbox.

“Almost forgot.”

He muttered, bending down to grab his short bow and quiver from atop it. Slinging the bow around his shoulder and tying the quiver to his waist just above his pouches, he gave a final nod.

“Right.”

One last time, Taka scanned the dimly lit room. He didn’t want to leave anything behind. When he was content, secure in the fact that he had indeed not forgotten anything, he left the room behind and found himself in the bottom halls of the ship. Yet, this was not his destination, so he headed quietly through the bottom levels, guided under the gentle, orange light of the lanterns affixed to the walls, until he reached a door. Beyond this door was the ship’s kitchen. At the moment, there was no designated ship chef, as the vessel captain, Dane, tended to come down here himself to make meals. But, all of their food was stored in this room, and Taka had been given permission to eat whatever, whenever he liked. He entered, quickly grabbed an apple, then quietly left. Taking a deep breath to calm his rising nerves, he traversed through the halls as slowly as he could, until he finally came to a wooden staircase. Heading up it, wincing with every creak, he found himself on the upper deck. The sky was still dark, but it felt as if he could see better. There was a slight chill in the air, tinged with the scent of the sea. Taka breathed a sigh of relief, which turned into a massive yawn. As far as he knew, he hadn’t woken anyone up.

“Sun should be rising soon,” He murmured to himself, leaning against the taffrail and looking out across the vast blue ocean as he took a bite of the apple he’d procured. He’d always liked apples, and fruit in general.

‘One of nature’s best things,’ if he said so himself.

Idly, he tossed the apple into the air, and then felt himself jolted to the side – “Aah!” -- as the ship rocked against a massive wave that sent seafoam and seawater spraying everywhere. The wave crashed and broke, finally rescinding back into the sea, its anger having passed.

 “Great.”

Taka sighed. He’d lost the apple.

Normally, he would have just gone and grabbed another one, but he didn’t want to risk waking anyone up, nor did he want to overstep, and take too much.

'Then Dane might make me give him some of the money he gave me back, and I don’t really want that to happen.’

Looking out across the great blue, its color becoming more vivid as the sun slowly rose, Taka turned to his thoughts for a while. He was no stranger to sea travel and the whims of the sea and of ships, thanks to Dane who’d taken him on countless trips over the years. Yet, he still felt a tinge of annoyance.

“It’ll likely be a gentle ride.” Those words rolled over in his head several times.

‘Yeah, right. ‘Gentle’, huh?’

Suddenly, another thought struck Taka, and distracted him.

“Hmm,” He hummed.

“How long have we been at sea?”

He had no earthly idea. Weeks? Definitely less than a month. Perhaps this one had taken longer since Dane had opted to visit all the major ports that ran along the Advent Route this time around. Normally, he wouldn’t have been allowed to do that, but due to several unforeseen issues, the other ships running the Advent Route this time had been severely delayed. So, Dane was being allowed to pick up their slack. Despite being an independent contractor who ran his own business, even Dane had people he answered to. He couldn’t just do whatever he wanted.

Taka could guess what the problem had been, anyway. As Summer reached its end, the sea itself would, independent to the temperature of the world around it, begin to get colder and colder, until it became so cold that everything living in it would enter a state of hibernation to protect themselves. It would reach it’s “peak” when Winter rolled around, and then sea-travel would be at its annual safest. Traveling by sea during the Advent month and onward was safe, but you could still definitely run into trouble if you were unlucky. Summer was ending and ushering in Winter, slowly but surely, but the rain had not yet turned to snow, and the monsters living in the sea had not yet begun their long sleep.

Advent Month. Advent Sea Route. Things established to make the “advent of new adventurers” as easy, organized, and accessible as possible. The month was a sort of holiday organized by the Kommodian Government, the only difference between it and a “normal” holiday was that participation was not an option. Whether you liked it or not, swarms of adventurers would sign up at guilds. Like it or not, Leln would be very busy. And like it or not, you’d have a lot of work if you agreed to run the Advent Route, as a captain. Of course, lots of work meant lots of rest after, but come to think of it, Taka had never seen Dane take so much as a day off. Maybe a half day. He was quite the workaholic, now that he thought about it. The Advent Route itself was a route stemming from every major Kommodian port, trailing down the neighboring oceans, along a carefully curated path the result of years of research and trial and error. Depending on the port, you’d typically be taken to either the leftmost meeting point, which was rather mountainous and hilly, or the rightmost one, alongside the Leln coast.

‘Adventurers, huh..’ Taka had just turned fifteen himself, not too long ago. That was the age the Kommodian government formally recognized an individual as an adult—and the earliest age the Guild would accept you as one of their own. Over the course of the last month, they’d picked up countless adventurers and merchants alike, all seeking passage to the bustling town of Leln. A full circle around the Kommodian continent should have, by rights, taken them months to complete, but this ship – which the captain had modified himself – was special. Voyages that should have taken months could take weeks, ones that should take years only months. With this ship, Dane had made quite a sizable amount of coin, being able to complete more than double the amount of work a normal captain would normally within the timeframe of a year. Due to Dane’s intense work ethic, he quickly found himself one of the most sought-after ship captains in the world. Indeed, there were many who’d in this world who would pay lavish amounts of gold just to have him captain their ship, and some would pay even more for him to simply be part of their crew. To put it bluntly, he was something of a celebrity in the seafaring world.

“Oh!” Taka exclaimed. “I can see it!”

Finally, the coastline had come into view. It was a far away sight, and by his wager they wouldn’t be there until the sun had peaked in the sky, but he could finally see it! Land! Their destination was inching closer before his eyes!

When they finally laid anchor and docked on the Central Coastline, they’d be halfway there! There, the merchants and adventurers would part ways and take carriages the remainder of the way to Leln, which would take about a day and a half if things went smoothly.

Not every ship combined merchant and adventurer both. Dane’s was certainly unique in that regard. The reason most ships didn’t mix merchants and adventurers, was simply for the fact that most ship captains had never been adventurers themselves. Dane was an ex-adventurer, and so he knew the commonly held “merchant stigma” of: “Adventurers are all savage beasts who’ll rob and rape at any opportunity!” was entirely false. Sure, there were some adventurers who weren’t really good people, and there were certainly adventurers who used their job to do bad things, but they were a minority. The majority of adventurers were good people. So, Dane reasoned, mixing merchant and adventurer is no problem. Because in reality, there was no problem. The chance you, as a merchant, got attacked by an adventurer on a ship, was about the same as your chance of being randomly attacked by an adventurer in a town. Very, very low. Exceedingly so. Sure, you’d occasionally hear the disheartening case of some awful crime occurring, orchestrated by some nutcase who happened to be registered as an adventurer, but those were far and few between.

Taka shook his head to clear his thoughts. He was a bit nervous, so his thoughts were running wild. Taking a deep breath, he shifted his pose and re-laid his hands over the railing before him. He’d been staring into empty space, but now he found himself gazing beyond the sea, towards his destination. The sun had finally begun to clear the horizon, casting a beautiful orange glow on the waters ahead. The sky was like a painting, a myriad of colors composed of purples and blacks, oranges, and dark reds. As the sun rose higher and higher still, the last remnants of the stars overhead began to fade in the presence of the dawn of a new day. With this wondrous sight before him, he was truly thankful he’d woken up so early. There were a few other people on the deck now, an older-looking man and a younger one who was currently vomiting over the siderail, but nobody so far had engaged him in conversation. With a subtle smile, Taka took a small comfort in that solitude. But even still, he considered going over to him and doing something. Like asking if he was okay. But he quickly decided against it; the thought alone made him extremely nervous.

‘I guess it’s probably better if we all leave each other alone. I mean, I hope that vomiting guy is ok. But I don’t know. Should I talk to him? Should I not? It’s obviously easier to sit here and… It doesn’t really matter, why don’t you just chill out? Obviously, I’m nervous. Today’s a really big day, lots of stuff happening, so I’m obviously nervous. But chill out, alright Taka? Chill out. No worries. No problem. It doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things if I talk to that guy or not. Here’s a question. Do you want to talk to him? Do you? If so, why don’t you? If you don’t, then don’t. But it’s okay, don’t worry about the right or wrong answer. As far as I know, there isn’t one here. I mean, yeah, I hope he’s okay. But also, I’m nervous to talk to him. He’s a random guy. How would I react if, well I guess it depends. Right? If they were nice or mean. If I was vomiting and…’

Silence punctuated by his rambling thoughts and the sickening sounds of vomiting filled the air. Taka looked away and turned his eyes back to the seemingly endless ocean before him. Eventually, the sun reached its peak in the sky, and by that time the coast was more than just a distant sight—it was directly before them. They had arrived! Pulling into the dock, the ship creaked and cried as the anchor dropped, rocking unsteadily for a few moments before gradually smoothing out. Now that he could see it up close, it was almost unremarkable. A vast clearing spread outward, marred by the coastline sand, several pieces of foliage, and a well-trodden dirt path which split out in several directions. Cornering the clearing was a massive forest that Taka couldn’t even begin to see the end of. Lastly, in the center of this plain were a few small buildings, and several carriages awaiting their cargo—the adventurers.

Then, as if it were being projected directly into his head, he heard a familiar voice say:  "Attention, all travelerssssss. Thisss is your captain ssspeaking. We have reached the Eassst Leln Coassstline. I repeat, we have reached the Eassst Leln Coassstline. All passsssengers, please prepare to disssembark. Thank you for ssssailing on the Marvelad."

END OF EXCERPT

thanks for reading if you did :) comments are more than welcome. i'll post more if i can think of any more that im happy with.

also, please remember that my book isn't entirely finished-- some of this may change when its fully complete! :D

random rant about music

I really, really love music. Music is super important to me, same as how writing is really important to me.

I hate english music and literally only listen to japanese music, because english music is really grating to me for some reason and it all sounds the same. It's all very soulless imo. Here is a playlist of basically my favorite songs:

Anyway, at a future point i will talk about songs i feel represent the people in my book best and why :D

Find The Word Tag✨️

Thank you for tagging me @jev-urisk :D

My Words: Snarl, Hope, Tension, Sink (and Drown, and Gape added which i stole from your marked off words) Your Words: Friend, love, hate, exhaustive, rancor, raucous, echo

Colored for fun (and def not stealing the idea from Jev)

I will find one paragraph featuring each individual and that word. Since I only have four I'll do a couple repeats..... or i'll just steal a couple words that jev didn't use :p

I found that most of these words I didn't really use in dialogue, and finding specific ones for each person is actually rather difficult, so instead here are some assorted paragraphs that use the word.

(keeping the coloring cuz it looks nice, although it doesnt necessarily mean anything now.)

Taka, Beriyl, Arthur, Ecirr, Qlul, Eirairr

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Hope

She nodded enthusiastically. “Yes,” Then she paused. “But don’t turn me in.” She met Taka’s gaze one for one, never breaking it. He hoped this meant that she was telling the truth.

Tension

While Taka and Beriyl shrunk backward, Arthur crossed his arms, totally unfazed. “Give us the Clear Tag.” He demanded. Consumed by a sudden state of mania, the old woman lurched backward as a cackling laugh filled the air. Taka and Beriyl shared worried glances, and Arthur’s hand slowly inched toward the hilt of his longsword. Just in case. In the face of her worrying behavior, a thick air of tension had built up and hung thick above the heads of everyone present. “Okay!” She tearfully conceded, coming down from her laugh, finally.

Snarl

What the hell.

I was certain I'd used it at least once, in one of Arthur's fights....

Huh.

Sink

Suddenly, he felt his heart sink into his stomach. “Oh, fuck me.” He mumbled to himself, his voice betraying his sheer panic. In the background, the sound of a sword being sharpened played itself to the tune of true fear.

His coinpurse was missing.

Drown

The rhythmic pittering of rain hitting the floor was a raucous clamor that sought to drown out all but itself.

Gape

“Wh-“ He started, his mouth hung slightly agape. “What- what are you doing up there?” He managed, with a slight laugh.

“I am reading a book.”

“But if you were up there this whole time, why didn’t you respond sooner?”

“I apologize for that. I wanted to wait until I finished the page I was on.”

“Er, alright…”