Thank you for the read! Was hoping for a happy ending, though. :(
By the way, speaking of narrative devices like time loops, have you seen the comic series "Trixie Slaughteraxe for President" (https://trixie.thecomicseries.com/) ? There is a particularly interesting version of a certain type of such a device in it. The characters recover a magic artifact called "The Sceptre of Death", which, when used, shows the user how he will die. You might think that the story would be based on the trope that's literally thousands of years old, about characters doing all the wrong things to avoid predicted deaths, but you would be completely wrong. I'll spoil it just a little and say that the story is written to give nightmares to consequentialists, as one of the characters ends up having to make the most complicated choice I've ever seen anyone have to make in fiction (no comparison to anything in real life).
Thank you for reading, and for the comment! I've never heard of Slaughterhouse for PResident but will give it a go :)
Spoilers for: Mistborn, Mother of Learning, Worm, Worth the Candle below:
Writing the ending of the story was really tough for me. When I started, I thought that perhaps the characters could obtain various items from different fictional worlds as solutions for various timeloops. For example, using unicorn bones from Worth the Candle to jump to Harry Potter and destroy Time Turners, and then using Ollivander's wands to kill off Atium users in Mistborn (generously classifying those as time-loopers), then using Hemalurgy to steal Contessa's Path-to-Victory powers from Worm in order to jump to Mother of Learning to collect all the keys and truncate the month-long time loop. This has been semi-explored in books like the Jane Eyre Affair.
While I think a whirlwind tour of all of the different time loop stories above would be interesting from a technical standpoint, I do think you lose some of the human element in it. The story becomes about the puzzle rather than the emotional consequences of the puzzle. Both have their merits! And if I had more time, I'd simply make this piece longer in order to do both. Alas, life and work have busy, and so I felt like I had to pick and choose one narrative option to go with.
After that decision, it felt difficult to create a plausible mechanism for victory for the characters. So I decided to go the meta-fiction route, and imply that the characters would get a happy ending and leave it intentionally vague. I'm satisfied with that decision, but if I revise or lengthen this in the future, I'd change the ending to something mechanistically more elegant.
You're welcome - glad you enjoyed that. That has to be one of the most underrated stories ever, probably due to its format as a comics series.
Just so you know - none of that author's previous comics come anywhere near that one. There are some interesting devices and characters and some enjoyable moments, but nothing that would compare storywise.
I'm glad you liked it. It blew my mind, and since hardly anyone had heard of it, I thought this was worth adding to your catalog of narrative devices.
I keep meaning to say a huge "Thank you" for your stories. You've made so many of my days lately - it's always such a pleasure to get your new story! Almost all the latest ones have been exceptionally satisfying. Loved "Laughing in the Wind", "Jailbreak", "A Haunting", "The Gunslinger". Liked "Algae on the Shore" too, but felt it didn't quite have an ending.
Thank you for the read! Was hoping for a happy ending, though. :(
By the way, speaking of narrative devices like time loops, have you seen the comic series "Trixie Slaughteraxe for President" (https://trixie.thecomicseries.com/) ? There is a particularly interesting version of a certain type of such a device in it. The characters recover a magic artifact called "The Sceptre of Death", which, when used, shows the user how he will die. You might think that the story would be based on the trope that's literally thousands of years old, about characters doing all the wrong things to avoid predicted deaths, but you would be completely wrong. I'll spoil it just a little and say that the story is written to give nightmares to consequentialists, as one of the characters ends up having to make the most complicated choice I've ever seen anyone have to make in fiction (no comparison to anything in real life).
Thank you again for the stories!
Thank you for reading, and for the comment! I've never heard of Slaughterhouse for PResident but will give it a go :)
Spoilers for: Mistborn, Mother of Learning, Worm, Worth the Candle below:
Writing the ending of the story was really tough for me. When I started, I thought that perhaps the characters could obtain various items from different fictional worlds as solutions for various timeloops. For example, using unicorn bones from Worth the Candle to jump to Harry Potter and destroy Time Turners, and then using Ollivander's wands to kill off Atium users in Mistborn (generously classifying those as time-loopers), then using Hemalurgy to steal Contessa's Path-to-Victory powers from Worm in order to jump to Mother of Learning to collect all the keys and truncate the month-long time loop. This has been semi-explored in books like the Jane Eyre Affair.
While I think a whirlwind tour of all of the different time loop stories above would be interesting from a technical standpoint, I do think you lose some of the human element in it. The story becomes about the puzzle rather than the emotional consequences of the puzzle. Both have their merits! And if I had more time, I'd simply make this piece longer in order to do both. Alas, life and work have busy, and so I felt like I had to pick and choose one narrative option to go with.
After that decision, it felt difficult to create a plausible mechanism for victory for the characters. So I decided to go the meta-fiction route, and imply that the characters would get a happy ending and leave it intentionally vague. I'm satisfied with that decision, but if I revise or lengthen this in the future, I'd change the ending to something mechanistically more elegant.
Thanks again for reading, and see you around!
Thank you very much! Really enjoyed the hypnotism story - didn't see any of that coming.
I've read the whole thing today, thanks for the suggestion!
You're welcome - glad you enjoyed that. That has to be one of the most underrated stories ever, probably due to its format as a comics series.
Just so you know - none of that author's previous comics come anywhere near that one. There are some interesting devices and characters and some enjoyable moments, but nothing that would compare storywise.
FYI: I wound up reading this, and really enjoyed it. Thanks for the suggestion!
I'm glad you liked it. It blew my mind, and since hardly anyone had heard of it, I thought this was worth adding to your catalog of narrative devices.
I keep meaning to say a huge "Thank you" for your stories. You've made so many of my days lately - it's always such a pleasure to get your new story! Almost all the latest ones have been exceptionally satisfying. Loved "Laughing in the Wind", "Jailbreak", "A Haunting", "The Gunslinger". Liked "Algae on the Shore" too, but felt it didn't quite have an ending.
Thank you so much!
That means a lot! I started off writing for myself but it’s been really nice to have readers. Really appreciate you :)