Everything right is wrong again. And then it’s right again. More or less.
With this, //003 winds to a close. We’ll be seeing Marcy and Vivi again in //006, which will likely be told from Vivi’s point of view. Which is nice, since she’s barely IN this story and someone else commandeers it by the end. But hey, the story goes where it has to go.
Let’s run down the latest news and haps in the City of Angles.
WALLPAPER: I’m offering desktop wallpaper! You can claim your free reward just for posting feedback about the stories in this blog. If you post in any three threads now and into the future (this one included) drop me an email and it’s yours.
MEET HOLLISTER: New official artwork, for everybody’s favorite bro, Hollister Avenue. Thanks to Allison for the great art! This wraps the “main cast” for the first book of City of Angles, but odds are we’ll have more art as new characters show up.
NEXT WEEK: coa//00b, our second VIP story! Are you a member of our VIP Club? If not, you’re missing out on some great short stories which delve deep into the lore of the city, showing things you won’t see anywhere else. Sign up today! The stories will also be available in the paperback books, which will be out much later on.
SEPTEMBER: We’ll see the start of coa//004, which introduces Cass, beat poet and taxi driver. A simultaneously surreal and real story, where the edges of the city blur and blend while people seek to hang onto the mundane with ten fingers. Should be a blast.
The reason I’m able to plan so far into the future is because I have a good buffer of writing built up now. That doesn’t mean your feedback is less effective; I’m constantly adjusting and tweaking material, even unreleased material, in response. Never too late to have your voice heard. Come back every Monday and we’ll have something new for you to enjoy!
chaosite2 says
I was just about to say something about that. Also:
…I don’t like it when folks who don’t “get” my sister and I immediately reach for nasty little labels to stick all over us. They’re foul things that ruin our mood.
The second “I” seems out of place here, doesn’t parse.
In the beginning of this chapter you had Hollister explain what YOLO means. Seems a bit heavy-handed… Having him say it in dialogue like that felt out of place to me, but I guess it had to be done.
Stefan "Twoflower" Gagne says
I’ll see if I can rejigger it, but consider the YOLO thing may be a fad which burns out fast — meaning future readers would be headscratching. I should define it somewhere.
LoopyChew says
It should be “‘get’ my sister and me,” that’s probably why.
Jeremy Jinkerson says
So… My reading is that Penelope altered reality due to her altered emotional state. (Maybe there’s something to how emotions interact with reality.) After turning her father’s fatal neckwound into a graze, not to mention pouring cars on the Picasso, she shows not only her father’s existence, but her own. Hence, “Exist.” Sound fair?
Stefan "Twoflower" Gagne says
Sounds fair! Can’t say if it’s RIGHT or not, but sounds fair.
LoopyChew says
Couple other ones I missed in the last scene:
you got the peice done
piece
Ground to ceiling windows
floor-to-ceiling, unless it’s a much, much larger version of the tag.
LoopyChew says
Took him awhile
a while
// you are tresspassing //
trespassing
“No… daddy, please…”
Daddy (capitalized)
cacophany
cacophony
Ugly looking, but just ugly looking.
ugly-looking; also, I’d suggest italicizing “just.”
a little girl sized growth
girl-sized
the nogging of a murderous Picasso
noggin
I didn’t have to wait for the Yates
I the plural here would be “Yateses.”
“No one night stands, huh?” he asked.
one-night stands
Really liked this piece. Considering all the other insanity that happens in the City, I don’t think the reappearance of previously destroyed graffiti is too much of a stretch. Kind of an echo, but of a thing, not a person.
Out of curiosity, have you decided on whether or not it’s possible for someone to re-echo and/or the mechanics of such a thing? Should I even ask that question?
Stefan "Twoflower" Gagne says
There are hints placed in there as to how the graffiti reappeared. It happened the very night it was erased, the coloring was now red, etc. I even had to shoehorn in how the person who did it found out about it…
As for re-echoing… wait for //005.
Benabik (@Benabik) says
I gotta say: that graffiti is the creepiest thing so far. Picassos, sure, scary monster. The revelation: real screw with your brain stuff. But the graffiti is real “someone stepped on my grave” stuff.
Stefan "Twoflower" Gagne says
Really? You mean because it reappeared for no reason, or the color, or the word, or…?