astroguy

Layers upon layers ...

Thank you! Comments like this help my motivation. The basement AI is going to tie in very soon. These "Mystery Time and Mystery Place" interludes are going to all be brought together ... soon.

Yup, been another month. Sorry. It wasn't work this time, it was re-examining my "free time" writing structure, expanding it, partitioning it out in a few accounts in a few different places. And, as I mentioned in ch. 73, some complete re-writing of the first several chapters. I have completely re-written chapters 1–8. First person point-of-view. Fully backstory and world building continuity and further development behind the scenes (I have almost as much back-end stuff written now as what you see here). I've always known where this story is going, but now I know better how it's getting there. If it's been awhile since you read ch. 1–8, I recommend re-reading them. Honestly: they are significantly improved. If I do say so myself. I've been giving myself a re-crash-course through AP English (which I took, getting a solid B). Focusing on exactly how those authors who are taught in that course write their prose and the literary density. I'm not the new Lewd Bronte Brother, but the prose is much better than it was, and the story is richer. The next several chapters and arcs are sketched out, so keep the Follow so you know when new stuff is posted, and I'll let you know in the comments of those new posts if I've updated more of the back-chapters.

"Ing" "what" "on?" "go" "is" Distorted. Sync out … out of … out of sync, out of order. Focus. Shut eyes. Breathe. Wind through palm trees. Sandy beach. Waves … Eyes open. What light through yonder window? Fuck. ("You told me no Shakespeare, now you're quoting it?" —gAI) Fuck. The window, there was nothing to see but a mirror. A mirror that shone with darkness and reflected nothing. I couldn't comprehend it, I stared. And it was gone. Stars, nebulae.

It was very loosely stolen from Doctor Who: "Rule One: The Doctor lies."

Hey guys, it's me ... me. I know it's been – what? – two months? Yeah, something like that. Sorry. A couple reasons for that. I'm not looking for sympathy 'r anything, but I feel like I owe y'all a bit of an explanation. Okay, a fucking long explanation (or, skip if you don't care!). I discovered AI. Okay, not like Gary in the "Mystery Place and Mystery Time" in the story, but what it can do with respect to computer coding. I ended up putting in an average of about 10.4 hrs of work per day, 7 days a week, for >30 days straight (gay?). Because I was using AI to update and bug-fix and optimize about 5 different completely different code sets I use for work to do work stuff. I got – easily – a year's worth of coding done in a month. But, it was incredibly draining and I had no free time. Almost no free time. My Patreon account got banned. I do some other more erotica-focused writing (I don't post that here) and apparently it was too much for Patreon. It wasn't incest or anything like that, but apparently my use of Krampus as a transformation mechanism tripped their bestiality filter (even though he's more a demon and their rules explicitly allow that) and it probably also raised their filter on consent (even though my protagonist expresses clear consent, it could read as coercion). So, I got shut down with no warning, and my appeal was not approved. That was a fairly big emotional bummer, so I've also been exploring other avenues. It honestly wasn't a lot of subscribers (20?) nor money in there (they're not even paying me out what was in there), but it was a blow that put a big dent in my writing motivation. This chapter (and the next) landed really flat to me and I didn't know how to fix them. Chapter 72 has a huge amount of weight: Steven going from bully to someone you almost feel sorry for, Durand's sociopathy, Dir. Green learning more about Shawn, the three faculty all starting to wonder if they can contain Shawn for their own purposes, and Shawn realizing he fucked up with Prof. Hamilton basically telling him he started an internal war that he might not survive. The way I originally wrote chapter 73 felt like a massive disservice to that arc's conclusion, like it wasn't living up to the promise. But, honestly, no chapter could. Chapter 73 needed / needs to be an emotional reset/recalibration, but it was too much of a reset and it just wasn't fair to the story I have been writing. So, I needed to get some distance from it and come back and re-read ch. 69–72, and then do a major rework of ch. 73 and 74. I've done 73, and that's what you're seeing above. Now, on to 74.

Over the weekend, I moped. I stayed in the dorm, only leaving to eat, and only when someone asked me to join them. I couldn't get Prof. Hamilton's words out of my head. If I were to confront Dir. Green – really confront him in some way – he could kill me before I realized what was happening. And I might have set that in motion. Part of me wished I hadn't confronted Steven. That I'd listened. But, I couldn't change the past. Fuck. I couldn't even get up the energy to go train in the VR m

Totally agree.

I am avoiding making political statements on current events, but ... yes. And, read chapter 72.

We're nearly 148k words in. The Fellowship of the Ring is 187k. Phase 1 really shouldn't be longer than that. So ... stakes are escalating. Phase 1 should be <~100 chapters.

We shall see. Everyone has motivations. Meantime, those questions and others will not be answered in the next chapter. Which will likely not be posted today; draft 1 is done, it needs to stew a day before I post it. Regarding the first interlude / coda / aside with Sebastien and Steven: I left it purposely vague for reasons.

Still feeling high from the encounter, I hurriedly made my way back to the dorm. When I entered, Jake, Peng, and Eitan were all there. Jake and Peng didn't react when I came in, while Eitan quickly closed something on his computer. I raised an eyebrow, announced, "Hi, guys," and after materializing a chair, I sat down at my desk. In my head, gAI told me, "I saw it. It was there long enough for me to read it. You're not going to like it." "Uh, hey, Shawn!" Eitan had swiveled ar

From ch. 43, "I also monitor computer traffic at random." So, he might have. But, there's something different from "blocking instantaneous communication signal" and "faking biometrics in a hospital bed." I'm trying very hard not to have omnipotent characters/features despite the various X-Men-like abilities and advanced technology. As to your last sentence, I'll answer in two ways: (1) "Layers," and (2) it's impressive what a sociopath can do when left unchecked. (Hopefully by now it was pretty obvious I wrote Sebastien Durand as a sociopath.)

Time and text will tell ... 'cause I won't.

It was late by the time we were done. I went directly to dinner, and while eating in a corner of the hall, I asked gAI: "You said that the system here tracks all the students' locations, right?" "Yes …" he replied, his tone warily. "Good. I want to know where Steven is. I want you to let me know when he's alone and not in his dorm." "Shawn, I don't like where this is headed. You heard what they said." "gAI, I'm not asking you. I'm telling you this is what I want. Do it