The Virtual Experience (Chapter Two)

Chapter Two

Town

"It wasn't that bad!" I assured my cousin as we made our way out of the arena.

LotusStar, however, didn't believe me and let me know that she didn't believe me.

"Yes, it was," she snapped. "I was the last one to finish! And all the other players only lost one or two health points! I lost three-quarters! I've become the laughingstock of the entire town. I just know it!"

"Oh, you're over exaggerating!" I said. "There are plenty of players out there who've done way worse than you!"

"Really?" Lotus said, looking up at me. Even in a virtual world, she was way shorter than me. She turned to the others and asked "Is that true?"

"Yeah," said NovaFlash, flashing a big smile. "Definitely."

To which Lotus said "Hey. Look at me when you say that."

NovaFlash still wouldn't.

With a sigh, Lotus continued and asked: "What do you think, Ja - I mean LOWW?"

"Cutting it a bit close there, aren't you?" LOWW replied. "Make sure you don't let slip any of our real world names. Don't forget, this is the internet, so you never know who's really who here."

"Right, sorry about that," said Lotus.

"But enough about the tutorial," LOWW continued, "if you don't watch out, you're going to miss out on all the sights."

"The sights?" Lotus asked. "What . . . sights . . . ?"

After a slow stroll through the cobblestone chamber, we made it out of the arena and into a bright, cheery marketplace full of stalls and shops with Non-Player Characters (NPCs) vocally advertising their wares. Very fitting of the fantasy setting, the buildings were all made of wood, and the streets were a bunch of stones force-fit together, giving it that old-timey feel of A.D. medieval times. And then, there were the players.

As always, the place was packed with players, coming and going to various places, all wearing their own unique fashion. Some might call some of the players' choices out of place with the overall fantasy theme, such as the space suit or the robot costume, or LOWW's chicken mascot outfit. But there were also costumes that really fit into the environment, like that group of players in shiny, elaborate armor, or the elaborate robes of one grand wizard player. 

A few players looked like they were meeting up with friends while others stared at their menu screens, reading up on the latest news of the game. Those were just the minority of players sticking around the area while everyone else looked like they had somewhere to be.

"Whoa!" Lotus cried out.

If she wasn't wide awake before, she was now. The noise and overall liveliness of the town was enough to wake up a bear in the middle of winter hibernation. And the atmosphere was absolutely magnetic. Most people couldn't help but be drawn in by it and allow themselves to be swept in its currents like Lotus was. All the earlier humiliation and embarrassment seemed to have been wiped clean, and she was just curious and excited as any first-timer in a new world would be.

""Look at all the people here! And so many different kinds of costumes! It's like a comic book convention! What is this place?" she asked. "Where are we? And why is there colorful confetti raining down from the sky?"

You could definitely tell that she had never played a Role-Playing Game (RPG) before by her asking questions like those.

And she was right to compare it to comic book convention. Some players don't even look remotely human. And that was because they probably chose a different species to act like in the game. Other than humans, there were also elves, beastkin (half-animal, half-human), goblins, orcs, vampires, and even zombies running around town. I tried out a few different species myself, but decided that human was the one for me. 

"Technically, this place is called the Federation Capital," explained LOWW. "But most of us players call it the Town. It's pretty much the center place of the game where we all arrive when we log into the game. There are other towns that you can set as your default place to go when you log in, but most just use this place as their default town because it's more convenient. Well, that or they're just too lazy to go through the process of making another town their HQ."

"I-I see," Lotus said. Her eyes were practically spinning from all the information being crammed into her head.

I didn't blame her for being overwhelmed. If you're not used to games, sometimes you could get overloaded with so much information about all the features and how-to gamer stuff that are important to know to survive as a player.

"Basically, all you need to know is that this is where you'll end up every time you log in," I told her. "There's a bulletin board where we can get the latest news about the game, but we can also just check that on our menu screens, so that's not important. Come on. Let's take a look around."

We decided to take a turn left from the town square towards the Artisans' District where player-run shops laid.

"Players can run their own stores here?" Lotus exclaimed in astonishment.

"Yeah," I replied, nodding. We were standing in front of one really fancy-looking store that displayed various bright-colored costumes. It was really no different from any big name store you'd find in a real life mall with bright, almost blinding light shining down over the products worn by faceless, plastic mannequins, while brain-drumming loud music played in the background.

Commercialism. It is absolutely everywhere.

"This street's called the Artisans' District for a reason," NovaFlash cut in. She had just come over after she finished admiring a red military ceremonial-themed outfit for girls from another shop. "Some players just have that creative bug and want to make something, like those clothes. All the clothes you see in these shops are made by players. Some shops are run by NPCs, but a lot of players prefer to sell their stuff, themselves. It can't compare to a real world boutique since you're not actually making a real living off of it, but beggars can't be choosers, especially for artists."

"I see," Lotus said. It was as if that was the only thing she could say. "How does it work, making your own stuff to sell?"

"How?" went LOWW. "There's actually two ways you can do that. One is to use thread and needles just like in the real world. This game actually has that function."

"Why?" asked Lotus. "Isn't that like hard work? And even if some people think that's fun, why do it in a game, when they can do it in real life?"

LOWW stared at her. With that chicken costume of his, he must look downright creepy to Lotus, because she shrank away a little from him and edged a little closer to me. Just going by his posture as he stood, I could easily picture him blinking once or twice beneath that mask of his while staring blankly ahead.

"What are you talking about?" LOWW asked. "You need money to do that sort of stuff in real life. Duh. In here, if it's just a hobby, you can do it for free. You just need to go get the material yourself by stamping out monsters."

"An easier way that most shop owners make their stuff is to upload a picture file of their art and let the game's programming take care of the rest," NovaFlash cut in. "That's how a friend of mine does it."

After looking around some more, we moved on to the regular shop district where all the gear and materials were traded and sold. That district was run by NPCs.

As always, this place was like a madhouse. It was absolutely packed with people, pushing, shoving and outright fighting through one another to get some new weapons or armor.

We all stood just a few feet outside of that district, staring as the chaos unfolded before us.

"This place is like the mall on Black Friday," Lotus said.

"Oh, it's not that bad," I said. That was when a fireball flew up and down in an arch before exploding in someone's face. What followed after that was an intense clash of swords and magic. "Never mind."

"Oh my goodness!" Lotus exclaimed. She was in utter horror and disbelief. "They're even using their weapons!? That can't be okay, can it!?"

"In the real world, definitely not," said LOWW. He cheered at one player pile-driving another. "But this is the game world. No one really dies here, and this game doesn't have some severe death penalty like other games do. Just about ten percent of your experience points get deducted when your avatar resurrects. And since towns are safe zones, our health bars won't go down. In other words, our characters can't die in here."

The two players who had been fighting both cried "Skill On! Lightning Blade!" and tossed bolts of lightning at each other by swinging their swords.

"Then does this mean you can do pretty much anything you want in here?"

"As long as it's not against the rules like outright bullying, saying bad words, or other common-sense no-nos, yeah," LOWW said. "I can even hold a concert right here, right now, if I wanted to."

"Concert?" Lotus blinked, a bit bemused.

I and the others grinned at each other knowingly. Well, I think LOWW was grinning. He was wearing a chicken mascot costume, so I couldn't see his face.

"Show her," I said.

LOWW gave a thumbs up with his right wing, nodded and then cleared his throat.

"Class Change: Bard," he said. "Equipment Change: Microphone of Sonnetra! Equipment Add: Ax of the Music Lord."

White light enveloped his plastic fish and it was instantly replaced by a microphone attached to a stand pole. A red bass guitar appeared over his chest with a strap wrapped around his neck.

He held the microphone to his costume's beak and whispered lowly: "Here's a little something for all you peeps out there, its something I like to call Skill On . . . ROCKSTAAAAAR!"

LOWW let rip a rocking guitar solo that drowned out the noise on the streets. It was loud. It was wild. And . . . it . . . was . . . awesome.

"Rock and roll!" I shrieked, bobbing my head aggressively to the music.

I wasn't the only one.

All the players stopped fighting to listen to LOWW play that guitar. It mesmerized them and got them into a rockin' mood. Soon, everyone was roaring to the music. They jumped and pumped their fists into the air while cheering LOWW on.

And as he played, LOWW literally rose above his audience, lifted up by a wood platform stage that grew from the ground beneath his feet. He didn't miss a step or rhythm as he was elevated four to five feet above ground level.

"Did that stage just sprout out from the floor?" Lotus cried out. Her mouth hung baffled by the stage's appearance.

"Don't question it!" I shouted over the rocking music and cheers. "You'll get less of a headache!"

Ecstatic to their core, the players drawn by LOWW's music chanted "Chicken! Chicken! Chicken!" over and over again. It went on for another ten minutes until after we slipped through and bought Lotus some new gear.

<== Previous                                                                                                                            ==> Next

An Unsatisfied Writer

Yo.

If you've been following this blog for a while, you might remember me expressing some dissatisfaction with some of the novels that I've published. Lately, I started thinking about one of those works, which I had planned to turn into a series, which I call The Dandy Monsters. I meant for The Dandy Monsters to be a fantasy detective story for kids, which has a werewolf detective and a vampire gentleman thief, set in a world where magic is hidden from humans.

So, what's so unsatisfying about the novel I published? I can't put my finger on it, nor would I be good at describing it. It just felt like the whole thing had taken a wrong turn. So, I decided that I want to redo the whole thing. It wouldn't be the first time I did something like that. I redid the whole Paladin Academy Chronicles just a couple of years ago. And I had way more books out in that series than I did The Dandy Monsters at the time.

But even though I want to go right ahead and do that, I think I've already piled up enough on my plate at the moment. I have like three different books I'm working on, and two online series I've decided to start on, (with a third one on my To Do List). I still haven't finished the Paladin Academy Chronicles, which I plan to get back to soon after the others.

I do have another book that I'm pretty unsatisfied with, but I don't see any way I could make it better, even if I did a complete overhaul. For now, it stays as it is.

Well, that's all I've got to vent. 

Stay safe out there. Keep social distancing. And happy reading!

The Virtual Experience (Chapter One)

Hey everyone! As promised from my previous post, here's the first chapter of my story that I'll be posting exclusively on this blog!

I hope you enjoy it! Happy reading!

**********

The Virtual Experience by Victor Kwok

Introductions

The year is 20XX U2. (short for Universe 2). Humanity had survived past the end of the universe using interdimensional ships called Arks. By escaping into another dimension, humanity was able to avoid the fiery expiration of the universe, and returned once the heat literally died down and a new universe took the place of the old one.

And then, after a few hundred years of exploration, humanity once again found a planet with a perfect ecosystem to call their home. According to scientists, the planet was like an exact replica of the one called Earth where humanity was said to originate from. 

Thanks to the advanced technologies humanity had developed in the trillions of years of their existence, their colonization and subsequent development was swift. In as little as a few decades, entire cities flourished all across the planet's surface and humanity's new home was complete.

This has nothing to do with the game. That's not the sort of setting the game had. These are all historical, real life facts that I was taught in school.

The natural end of the universe took much from humankind, causing our technological development to regress. Even after a few thousands of years, our kind still hasn't caught up to the miraculous power our ancestors held prior to the new era.

But that was fine with me. I'm just an ordinary guy, living an ordinary life. I go to school. I hang out with friends. I watch TV. And, of course, I play games.

Speaking of games, during the A.D. era, in the years close in number to our present year of the U2 calendar, game platforms were a lot different from what we have now. For one thing, they didn't have virtual reality. To them, such a thing could only exist in fiction.

Wow. When I think about how kids back then couldn't experience the worlds of fantasy like I could, I couldn't help but feel pity. How could they live without virtual reality? I sometimes shudder at the thought of living life without a V-pod. But I suppose they just had to make do with what they got. That's life, for you.

When I think about virtual reality games, there's really only one game that comes to mind for me: Heroes' Realm, a VRMMO (Virtual Reality Massively Multiplayer Online) game that mixes together science fiction and fantasy. Every week, I go on my V-pod to hang with friends and try out the latest events. It's one of the best games around. I've played it long enough to say confidently that I'm a decent player.

Man, the stories I could tell. Well, the story now is my own, but it ain't got nothing to do with my origins in the game or anything like that. That'd be too embarrassing for me. But I got no problem telling about someone else's beginnings, embarrassing moments and all.

Our story begins . . .

Chapter One

Tutorial

Area: The Arena of Trainees

"Yo!" I called out to the pair of newcomers who just walked into the audience stand. I was just a few levels above, sitting all in my lonesome dressed in my usual costume: a gray waistcoat, red straight tie and a heavy-looking brownish overcoat. I also had on a gray Fedora hat whose front brim I pushed up as I looked down to my friends.

Now, you might be wondering why we all appear to be anime cartoon characters. Well, this is an anime cartoon themed game, so of course we'd look like that. Even though I modeled my avatar after my real self, a black haired, brown eyed Chinese boy, no one would recognize me unless I already told them my username in real life, which I did to the duo who came up to sit next to me on the wood-top benches.

"Hey," said the pink-haired girl in the orange t-shirt, pink armor and red skirt. Her in-game name's NovaFlash, and she started playing the game around the same time I did. We also go to the same school and are in the same grade. "She here yet?"

I shook my head and said "Not yet. She's probably still steeling herself for the experience."

"Can't say I blame her," said LOWW, the guy in the yellow chicken suit, holding the large, plastic fish. The suit was like a sports mascot costume so there was no seeing what his actual face looked like. "I remember my first time logging into a VRMMO. Gotta say, it had a really weird feeling to it."

In case you were wondering, his full username's Liker Of Weird Weapons. We call him LOWW for short. As you could tell, from the name and his appearance, LOWW really liked weird stuff. Last time, he was dressed in a bear suit while wearing a clown head and wielded a spatula. I know that he has some more awesome-looking stuff in his inventory, but he never brings any of them out unless he had to.

"You're telling me," I said, thinking back to my own first experience as I propped by chin on my hand. "I nearly put off playing permanently."

"Glad you didn't," said NovaFlash, flashing a smile, a wink, and a thumbs up.

"Me too," I said, grinning back at her. "I can't imagine life without this game anymore."

"Oh, hey!" went LOWW. "I think that's her."

"Where?" asked NovaFlash. "Oh, you mean the girl that looks like a trembling bunny rabbit?"

She and I turned to the back area of the dirt arena below where he was pointing. Standing there was a small girl with black hair like mine, but longer and worn in low twin tails. She was dressed in the standard white robes of the healer class and shaking like a child hit with stage fright while hugging her standard bronze staff with the crystal ball top. Just like NovaFlash described, her appearance reminded my of the image of a trembling bunny rabbit.

There was no mistaking that fidgeting, I thought. The girl who just appeared in the arena for beginner players was my ever shy, younger cousin who just started middle school.

As cousins, you could say we were unusually close. That was because we grew up together in the same house more like brother and sister rather than like cousins. Because her parents were always busy with work overseas, it fell on my own folks to look after her three-quarters of the year.

Her shyness had become a source of worry for all the grown-ups, so it was decided that she'd be allowed to play VRMMO as a way of trying to get over it since MMOs involve interacting with other players, but anonymously. I'm no shrink so I don't know if that would work or not, but I supposed it was worth a shot.

Just to be absolutely sure I and LOWW had the right person, I swiped my finger up to bring out the menu screen which was a free floating board with information on it. Displayed was my name, WeiLongDragon, and my statuses, stats for short, and a selection of other stuff for me to look through. I pressed on the "Search Player" option, and then on "Players in Area."

A map appeared, replacing my menu that matched the layout of the arena before me, which was circle-shaped with an elevated audience stand ringed around the ground field where players in the most basic uniforms of their selected first classes stood. Names appeared to match where the players stood on the map. Where the girl stood on the map was labeled "LotusStar", the username that my cousin said that she would be using for her new avatar.

A fanfare of trumpets played a dramatic score from the sky.

"Oh! Looks like it's starting," said NovaFlash.

All the players in the arena looked up from the holo-screens that played the intro to the game. Their eyes were on the lone figure standing on the wood stage platform, a blonde woman who looked like she belonged high up in the military, wearing a bright ceremonial uniform. Strapped to her belt was a sword with an ornate, gold hilt.

"Welcome trainees to your final session!" she shouted, reciting the same script she used when I stood among new players in that field. Although synthetic, her voice was powerful. Combined with the theme music playing in the background, it sent ripples through my heart. "Today we will determine if you all have what it takes to go out into the real world as full-fledged heroes of the Adventurer's Federation. The trials you will face in this session may all just be practice, but I expect ever last one of you to treat them like it's the real thing. In other words, you maggots better fight like your lives depend on it!"

I could see Lotus's face make an expression like she was softly going "Eeeeeh?" She was probably regretting signing up for this game.

"First, we'll start with the basic attack!" the trainer lady shouted.  "Now, this shouldn't need explaining, but I'll remind you all anyway. All you have to do is take up your weapon or raise your fist and hit the thing in front of you! Go on! Attack the dummy!"

In front of each of the newbie players was a straw-hat wearing scarecrow hanging on a t-shaped hold with its arms spread apart. LotusStar looked at the scarecrow and then at her staff. She turned to one of the other staff-wielding players and then mimicked him, bringing the staff high above her shoulder before swinging it down as hard as she could against the scarecrow's head, yelling a soft and weak "Yah!"

"Good!" the instructor yelled. "You'll notice that the green bar above your opponents has shrunk a little bit. That bar measures your opponent's health. Once the number on that bar reaches zero, your opponent's kaput! If your own health bar reaches zero, you're kaput! Remember that, maggots! The red numbers that flashed above your opponent when you hit them shows how much damage you did to them. How much damage you dish out on your opponent depends on your strength, STR for short, or if you use a spell, INT which is how much magic power you spell casters got.

"Speaking of spells . . . Let's move on to special moves and spell casting. Now open your menus and select 'Skills'. You will fine a list of special moves and spells that you can do. As you level up, you will receive more skills. Skills and spells depend on your class. Warriors have fighting skills. Mages and healers have spell skills. You can also add skills by buying them in shops, or gain skills from special quests. Remember that, maggots! A skill can make the difference between life and death!

"Let's get started with the offense spell Fireball! Alright, maggots. When I give the order, I want you to shout "Skill On" and the name of the spell or skill. Now go!"

My cousin glanced at one of her fellow spell casters. Like the boy in the mage robes, she pointed her staff towards the scarecrow. Her lips moved, but her voice was so feebly soft, her shout was drowned out by the collective roar of the other newbies.

"There are a lot of more gung-ho newbies this time around, huh?" LOWW whispered.

My eyes stayed focused on my cousin as I nodded in response. I've been to the Arena of Trainees a few times to watch newbies go through the tutorial, but the batch of new players I was watching now definitely shouted with more spirit than all the previous batches. Minus my cousin, of course.

A fireball flew from her staff and exploded in the dummy's face with a loud bang. The noise must have started her because she jumped, going "Eep!" and fell on her behind.

There was laughter around the stadium that I'm sure Lotus heard. With a bright red face, she looked down, hunching her shoulders like she was about to cry.

I made note of all the names and faces who dared to laugh at my cousin, along with a mental reminder to hunt them down and teach them how PvP (Player versus Player) worked.

"Easy there, hotshot," NovaFlash said after noticing me drum my fingers on the handle of the magic laser blaster holstered to my side.

I stopped drumming my fingers and clasped my hands together on my lap while the tutorial continued.

"Okay, maggots!" the instructor shouted. "That's enough reviewing. Now's the time for the real thing!"

The scarecrows broke themselves free of their posts and assumed boxer stances, hopping lightly left and right while raising their fists close to their chins. As Lotus stared at her scarecrow, her face turned blue. She probably wasn't expecting the scarecrow to come to life. I understood because it was the same for me when I took the tutorial. 

"No complaining, maggots!" the instructor barked, even though no one even said anything. "It wouldn't be much of a test if your practice buddy doesn't fight back. What? No need to worry. They won't hurt you . . . too badly."

"Oh boy," I muttered. LotusStar looked like she was close to fainting now.

"Now, here's some last minute tips before you maggots duke it out!" went the instructor. "First, keep your eyes on your opponents. Except for heroes, most enemies you'll face make it obvious when they're going to hit back. When you see the signs, be ready to dodge, block or parry! Like so!"

To the instructor's right, another scarecrow appeared in a boxer's stance. It pulled its fist back and after a short pause, attacked with a jab. The instructor jumped back before its fist could reach her. The scarecrow pulled his right fist back again, but twisted its body along too, before throwing a right hook. But the instructor just jumped back again, avoiding the attack.

"Make sure to time it right," she continued. "And when you see a chance, strike back!"

After dodging a left hook from the scarecrow, the instructor drew her sword and cut it down. Its health bar reached null and it disappeared in a flash of light.

"Now that's enough pampering from me," she said, sheathing the blade. "Alright, you maggots! Begin!"

I gripped the seat of my pants with anxiety as I watched. This was it. Her very first battle after about half an hour of introductions and tutorial advise from a robot character reading off a script. The worry in my heart made it beat so fast that it could be felt from my skull squeezing my brain.

And it was just terrible. She missed her timing multiple times and was sent flying back. The impact shouldn't hurt at all. Instead, whenever a player took damage, they just feel some buzzing vibration down their back. But the humiliation was another thing entirely.

"Wow," went NovaFlash. "Just wow."

"Yeah," said LOWW. "This is probably the first time I've ever seen someone lose half their health over a tutorial monster."

"Hey, have those things ever managed to hit anyone before?" I heard a girl wearing a samurai costume whisper just a few feet away to her friend.

The ebony-skinned boy she was talking to replied: "I've been here five years, and I've never seen anyone have that much trouble over them scarecrows."

"Maybe she's just AFK?"

AFK is short for Away From Keyboard. Even though VR isn't a keyboard kind of game, it's a trillions of years old archaic term for being away from the game while still logged in.

I glanced at my friends who just shrugged sheepishly before bringing my attention back to the field.

Finally, LotusStar decided to retreat as far from the scarecrow as she could before launching fireball after fireball at it until its health bar dwindled to zero. Once it disappeared, more fanfare played and colorful confetti fell down from the sky.

"Alright, maggots!" the instructor shouted for the second time this session. Although she said "maggots" as in plural, Lotus was the only one there. She stood alone with her face really red, and her cheeks puffed out as if she was going to cry from embarrassment. All the other newbies had finished and had gone off to some other zone. "Congratulations. You've passed the test. From here on out, you're adventurers of the Adventurers' Federation. Your legend begins now! Now get out there and do this country proud!"

Although the adventurous music was set to make the experience touching and mark the beginnings of a hero's story, Lotus didn't look like a hero about to set off on her first journey. With a gloomy expression, she slowly trudged out of the arena towards the gateway marked "Exit."

==> Next

Online Stories

Hi everyone!

Been a while huh? Well, as you can all tell by the title, I've decided to try and bring back online stories. I used to write all my stories on Hubpages.com, including most of the novels you'll find HERE. But I had decided to quit after a couple of years of that due to my own fading participation in the community. Back when I was a member of the Hubpages community, I tried posting at least one chapter a week. That became harder and harder for reasons you can find in my previous posts.

So why am I getting back to posting online stories instead of focusing only on my novels, as I had. Well, because I have a few projects that I've put on hold that I'd like to see come back, but don't see being published as books anymore. One such project is my detective short stories series,
The Paranormal Debunker. I already compiled the stories I wrote into a book which you can find HERE, but I still had plenty more ideas for future chapters that I haven't got around to writing. Going forward, those chapters will be exclusive to this blog.

The Paranormal Debunker is, like I said, a series of detective stories, starring a ghost hunter named Tai-Long Keung, narrated by his son, Tony, who go around investigating haunted houses only to find something else instead most of the time.

I was also working on a sci-fi story that looks into the lives of kids in the future playing a virtual reality game. I put that aside for some of my other projects, but I'd like to get back to that one as well.

But although I plan to get back to posting stories online, I don't expect to do it often or regularly because of my other priorities. However, if you're interested, go ahead and give those stories a shot. I'll have them all archived in a link called "Online Stories" which you can find in the menu bar.

Oh! And also, I just published my latest fantasy novel, which is a sequel to Quest for the Witch. Titled, Journey with a Witch, it follows the adventures of three kids from our world who somehow end up in a world of magic. In order to get back, they'll have to travel with a witch named Gwendolyn as she continues her own journey, fighting evil wizards and helping people.

Starting tomorrow, the ebook version of the story will be FREE for a limited time. So hurry and get your copy before it's too late!

Find the eBook here: >>LINK<<

Recycling Characters II

Hi everyone.

It's me again, your favorite, lazy and easily distracted writer. So, if you've been following me on Twitter, you probably know by now that I've finished writing one of my novels, which will be the sequel of Quest for the Witch, which will be called Journey With A Witch. I'll be publishing it on Amazon Kindle eventually, but when is another matter. The brushing up and editing are easy enough, but I also have to think about and make the cover art, which is not an easy thing to do when you only have a really outdated computer with a faulty mouse and the art skills of a toddler. I do have a smartphone, but drawing on it probably won't get me what I'm looking for. But I'll have to make do with what I got and come up with something.

Anyway, that's not really what I wanted to talk about in this post. What I really wanted to talk about are my writing plans going forward. When I finished Journey With A Witch, I was planning to go back to my other fantasy series, the Paladin Academy Chronicles, while also focusing on the final installment of my Ben and Co. novel series. But I couldn't fight this urge to start on the next book in the Eternal Witch Saga.

Just going by the title of this blog, you can probably guess what I've got planned for it. That's right! It's finally time for me to RECYCLE CHARACTERS!! This means that characters from my other series will be showing up in the Eternal Witch Saga. I had actually planned to expand the world that one of my series was set in, but decided to put that on the world of the Eternal Witch instead. As for who'll be getting recycled, you'll just have to find that out when the book gets out.

That's all I got to say for now, so this is where I bring the blog post to a close.

But before that, with news that Covid-19 is resurging, I would like to remind everyone to remember to be careful. A disease like the coronavirus should never be underestimated. And it's likely to be even more devastating than ever before.

So stay safe, keep up the social distancing and hopefully, happy reading.

Poem: How Could You Do This?

Presenting another poem I was spurred to write by current events.

How could you do this?

How did this happen?

Not "who"

Too many people

Not "where"

Too many places

Not "when"

Too many times

Not "why"

Too obvious, the reason

How could you do this?

Kids grow up to look up to you.

You're the heroes we're supposed to trust

The Guardians we could rely on

We're all a part of the Land of the Free

Proud to live here

Proud to pledge to the Flag

For "Liberty and Justice For All"

But you've trampled that pledge

Gave no Justice for all

Shattered Liberty with your guns, batons and shields

When Rights are being stifled

Americans rise to rebel

But you chose to play Oppressors

To not punish Those Who Did Wrong

You shame your fellow Men in Blue

You smear mud on your own faces and on your Names

And you fail to live up to your Roles

You fail to uphold the Law

To uphold Justice

We all grew up watching the same shows

We all grew up, making the same pledge

Reading the same books

Hearing the same stories

With tales of Justice, Fairness, Equality

To respect Free Speech

To love for Peace

So how could you?

How could you do this?

How could you let this happen?

How could you applaud for this?

Seriously, how could you do this?

Poem: Growing Up

Hi.

It's me again, Victor the Writer and Blogger.

So, there is still a lot going on in the world, with a lot of news that . . . to put it mildly, deeply, deeply, deeply disappointed me. This is nothing new. Since I've become more aware of the greater world outside my community and current events, around post-high school, I've seen news that both frustrated me and severely shook my beliefs as an American that had been shaped since I was a very little boy.

With what's happened in the past week, I felt a need to write a poem. It was a need that I never felt so strongly before. I am very well aware that I have no talent for the written word, and that this poem is riddled with my personal views and beliefs, so please bear with me.

Thus, I present to you, Growing Up.

Growing up

Growing up, a Boy goes to School

Growing up, a boy watches TV

Growing up, a Boy reads Books

Growing up, a Boy goes to School

He pledges allegiance to the Flag

Every morning, Monday to Friday

Speaking and hearing "Liberty and Justice for All"

He is taught that judging books by their covers is wrong

He is taught that being different is not bad

But that Racism and Discrimination are

He is taught that no matter one's Skin or Heritage, 

All are Equal

All should be treated Fair 

Growing up, a Boy watches TV

He sees on TV that Police are Heroes

He sees on TV, Heroes preaching never to bully the Weak

He sees on TV that Killing is Wrong

He sees on TV, Friends with Different Color Skin

He sees on TV, Corruption feel Justice Served

Growing up, a Boy reads books

He reads of a man named Abraham, a hero for ending Slavery

He reads of a man named Martin, a hero for Equality

He reads of a Wizard preaching Love

He reads of Villains touting False Superiority ultimately Fall

"So why?"

The boy asks.

"Why has it come to this?"

The Boy grown watches in Horror

He listens in Horror

"Is this not the Land of the Free?"

"Do we not have Freedom of Speech?"

"Do we not have Freedom of Press?"

"And are we not all Equal?"

"Are Police not for the People?"

"Are Police not for Law and Justice?"

"Then why?"

"Why commit such horrible sins?"

"Why defend such horrible Criminals?"

"Why bully the Weak?"

"Why cheer for Bullies?"

They do not deserve cheers

They do not deserve the Badge

They do not deserve to be called Police

They are not Keepers of the Peace

They are not Defenders of the Weak

They are not the Police the Boy was taught to Love and Respect

They are only Bullies and Oppressors

True Villains

Disappointed.

Growing up no more, the Boy is Disappointed

He shakes his head

He rubs his temples

He breaths in air but sighs Dark Clouds

And then, a Boy no more, He Writes