Feedback Loop

[distainfulCatalyst]

Shit.


Shit! Shit! Shit!


...and this is all that remains of barn you were sleeping in. And, apparently, the farmhouse. And most of the farm.
The farmer said he'd invoke the wrath of the Gods on you if he caught you on his property again. This strikes you as kind of ironic. Heh. Heh heh.
Oh fuck, what are you going to do now?

[Stickmeister]

Get out of there before you get hurt! Find someone. Tell them!

[Krytikal Masz]

Investigate the source of light in the middle of the crater, unless it's too hot to go in. In that case, wait for it to cool down.

[Snowmanne]

Investigate the source of light in the middle of the crater, unless it's too hot to go in. In that case, stuff it up your mouth.

FTFY

[distainfulCatalyst]

Get out of there before you get hurt! Find someone. Tell them!

Yeah, no. A freaking meteor impact isn't exactly subtle, there's a reason you were in such a hurry to get here, everyone else is probably behind you.
Besides, the smoke's not that thick now. At a guess, you'd say that most of that smoke plume was undergrowth and leaves. Now it's just got wet tree trunks.


And some nice dry farm buildings, of course.
You've dealt with worse. At least this time you're not inside one.
And concern for the farm is only a small part of the reason you came here so fast...

Investigate the source of light in the middle of the crater, unless it's too hot to go in. In that case, wait for it to cool down.

A wise suggestion, child.


We'll be her again in time. But let us travel forward, days into the future and miles to the north, where the story truly begins, if a beginning is to have any meaning within this colossal loop of causality.


A young lady sits at her desk, awakened at some ungodly hour by her TUTOR. She is not quite awake, so is hard-pressed to remember anything about her LESSONS. Heck, even her NAME can't come to mind. Let's help her out, shall we?

[Alec Trevelyan]

Voldemort-Nose daughter of Mom Jeans

[simon.clarkstone]

((Sburb but no computers? Sounds fun. Subscribed.))

nalnteV itsa'agH<

((Ok, it seems that the forum censors U+202E (A character that can make English text RTL). Imagine that I produced that effect properly.))

[distainfulCatalyst]

Voldemort-Nose daughter of Mom Jeans

She doesn't understand the thought that just entered her mind. Frankly, neither do we. Nonetheless, it appears she doesn't approve of this name much. Let's try something else.

nalnteV itsa'agH<

This would appear to be her name. Its flow off the human tongue is tenuous at best, we wouldn't blame the audience for taking liberties with its pronounciation.


Of course, she probably could have settled for her name remaining forgotten, had she remembered her lessons instead...

You are Hga'asti Vetnlan.
You have the questionable honour of being the adopted daughter of quite possibly the world's most wealthy man, a fact that basically sums up all you know about your FATHER. You've seen him about three times in the past year, none of them were exactly intimate. Nonetheless, he seems to expect great things from you. Absurdly great, even. Which brings you to this essay you're writing, in which you must praise the importance of the material you're made to learn. Which you're basically writing because your TUTOR thinks you're an idiot. You're trying not to make it sound too sarcastic.

Courtesy of your FATHER'S demands, you study advanced sciences and engineering and some weird mathematics involving only the numbers one and zero, which you don't particularly understand. Courtesy of your church TUTOR, although also probably because of dear Papa, you study excruciatingly boring religious texts. Then there's that “Til Death” book, which defies categorization completely, and the mere possibility that someone actually can make sense of the thing fills you with a kind of terror. Freaking monks...

Your INTERESTS, of course, have nothing to do with your studies. You a self-proclaimed expert on LITERATURE both high and low, and can quote the ancient War Song of Kos'lien to the word, argue for hours on the character dynamics of more recent ROMANCE NOVELS, and know the works of the great Shikis'spere by heart. You try writing as well, but you wind up burning most of what you write. You're just not that good yet. Maybe in time. Maybe after these stupid monks stop pestering you to learn absurd crap you don't care about and which cannot possibly be important to your future.

What should you do now?

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I'm pronouncing that 'Ghast-ie Vet-Nlan' in my head, hope that's alright. Also, can't you tell I'm still trying to figure out how to draw a face, human or not, that looks consistent from panel to panel?

[simon.clarkstone]

I intended that the "hg" be a velar fricative, and the apostrophe be a glottal stop. I don't know how a glottal stop would work in "Kos'lien" and "Shikis'spere".

> Go to bed and have dreams about essay.

[Alec Trevelyan]

Images are 403'ing.

>Images: Work.

[SonicLover]

Images are 403'ing.

>Images: Work.

Eh? I can see them just fine.

[OnBackorder]

Goblin:

Your studies are on old gods and world history and how they have absolutely no relation to each other.

This work is boring so you pull out a journal and start filling it with ones and zeros, zeros and ones, zeros and zeros and any other combination. Now this is fun.

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Images are fine, you might have an ad-blocker on.

[simon.clarkstone]

> Go to bed and have dreams about essay.

> Or frogs.
> Or the Matrix.

[distainfulCatalyst]

> Go to bed and have dreams about essay.

Yeah, that's not happening. Not that you know it, but coffee is as universal a constant as Shakespeare, and you were on your fifth cup. Good luck with the sleep business.

And even if you weren't, in about two minutes, if you've estimated the time right, which you probably haven't...


...you're doomed.

[OnBackorder]

> Who's this douchebag?

[Shadow Phoenix]

Her father.

Just to say I'm not that much into sburbventures but wanted to say I like what you're doing here, especially graphically, and that needed to be said.

>Tell him sleeping is the best way to have fresh newpoint on something that you can't figure out to do.

[OnBackorder]

Old Goblin: Unveil a horde of amphetamines. Sleep is for the weak.

[distainfulCatalyst]

> Who's this douchebag?

That is your Tutor, a monk supplied by the Church of Divine Ascension. You wonder if there's any way his oppinion of you could sink any lower.

>Tell him sleeping is the best way to have fresh new viewpoint on something that you can't figure out how to do.

...and off he goes to inform your Father of what a failure you are. Again.

Well, sleep and work are pretty much right out, now-




-what?

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Just to say I'm not that much into sburbventures but wanted to say I like what you're doing here, especially graphically, and that needed to be said.

Thanks, that really means a lot. I'm trying to do as good a job as I can with the art in this, although you've probably noticed I have a tendency to cut corners and say 'screw it, it's done' when things are at 90% completion. I'm working on that.
As for it being a SburbVenture, what can I say? An idea entered my head and I felt compelled to follow through on it. I hope to prove the exception in the whole 'SburbVentures never wind up being completed' trend.

[OnBackorder]

Tell the giant anemone to stop shaking your house. People are trying to sleep study darn it!

The thing on the windowsill can go suck brick as well.

[Kenny Strife]

> Go find out why everything is shaking.

[MultiversalInk]

> Look out of the window.

[distainfulCatalyst]

>Go find out why everything is shaking.

Yeah, you should do that. It's not usually shaking here.

>Look out the window.

Wow, it's... high up here.


Okay, you have no idea what was causing that, but it's stopped now, your tower is probably not going to collapse, you're probably not going to fall to your death, so you guess that's good?

[MultiversalInk]

> Fly out and explore the city.

> Of course you can fly.

> Have you dreamed about this place before?

[Shadow Phoenix]

Check up these books on the shelf.

[OnBackorder]

> Relax. Take some deep breaths, and look at the calming cloud-forms.