Of God, Cousteau, Signs, and Nunnery

...in reverse order!


Maria (Part II, written for June fourteenth) was only written because I didn't want to write something difficult. She seemed easy.  She was. I wrote a relatively short, transitory tale and called it good. It was. The story was little more than a snapshot, but I don't think that's a problem. There's something powerful about a nun speeding to the Yucatán on a motorcycle, habit flapping in the wind.

Th response I received was mixed. Elphaba gave only encouragement, mirroring my feelings for the nun. I received a different response from an anonymous source I'm sure you all know. The source expressed dislike for our favorite nun (also for our favorite mariner, but that's neither here nor here. It will be there, though). However, I am inclined to completely disregard this response, and instead focus on the most powerful. My mother never, to my knowledge, reads rps. Yet, one day I checked my email, and found a note from her. It explained she liked my story about "The nun". I was shocked and then happy. Then I told her it was a sequel to an earlier part. I sent her a link.


Crow. I almost named her Wren, but I preferred Crow. It's a good name. What happened to her? I'm not sure. Where is she going? I hope we one day find out. But I think she might already be done, and for that I weep.


Jacques Cousteau lives again. His third story takes place before the Necromaster's death, and quite possibly before Jacques descended into the deepening darkness of the dark depths of Darkdeep. The entire story struck me as both less mad, and more. I don't know if I prefer it (do you?), but I have a feeling that further stories will be written more like this.


Ryan was given the last Gift of a dying God. Is it sacrilege to kill off God (I'm looking at you Philip Pullman)? If so, it is sacrilege of a delicious sort. I have vaguely formed plans for Ryan, but he might easily fail to return. I don't know. He is a much a character as Maria was at her conception, but less than jacques may have been. Yet so much more. How do you like him?

Descent Into the Void

Void came to me in a dream. It was odd. I found myself in a large, foggy cavern without entrance nor exit. About me were hundreds, maybe thousands, of redead. The redead did not move to harm me. I found an old man, also undead, but not redead. I spoke with him, and he flew into a rage. His eyes flashed with dark powers and suddenly every fiend in the room came to kill me. I ran across the cavern to where a heart - as in Super Mario 64 - sat/floated on the ground. I positioned myself so it was between me and my opponents. The mindless horrors came at me, but upon touching the heart they were destroyed. Soon, most were destroyed. Those that remained were smarter and stronger, but I foolishly abandoned the heart (which never again appeared in the dream) to fight them. Now it must be understood that the cavern was different than before. The ground had become carpeted with short grass, and a perfectly rectangular pool had been cleanly cut in the center. At one end of the pool was a tree. It was around the pool I ran, clutching my bow and shooting the undead I could. By the time I ran out of arrows, two were left. I recognized them. They wore the faces of classmates from my youth. At the moment, though, I saw only one of them. He stood under the tree, walking leisurely towards me, perfectly human by all appearances, though I knew he was not. I turned to run to the other end of the pool, and I saw the other a mere foot from me. I screamed and threw - yes, threw - my sword at him. I missed, of course. I ran from him, and was almost caught in his claws (though perfectly human in appearance at all other times, he lashed at me then with the withered claws of the Damned). I reached the end opposite the tree (I was running clockwise) and continued until I reached the opposite bank from where I first spotted the two. There was a small cavern in the wall, and within were two pots. I smashed them in a vain attempt to find arrows. Running back out, I saw they were almost upon me and I leapt into the pool. I knew, somehow, that they couldn't reach me there. I allowed my momentum to carry me into the depths. I began to rise again as my oxygen supply depleted, and one of them extended a hand over the waters. Flames blossomed from it, and silently poured across the water. A white shroud fell over everything and I was undone.