The Book of Friendship

by BillyColt

Chapter 17

Chapter 17

A listless and jaded-looking earth pony answered a knock on the door to find two young stallions standing at his doorstep.

“Hello,” said the unicorn. His earth pony companion nodded feebly. “What would you say if we told you the key to happiness was something as simple as companionship?”

“I’m not done with you yet, you bastard!” shrieked a voice from inside.

“I’d tell you that getting married is for saps.” The stallion shut the door.

“That...” White blinked. “That wasn’t exactly what we were getting at.”

“Can’t knock on the next two doors,” said Scroll, counting the houses on the street. “They have guns, and they don’t like us.”

“I think we’re running out of doors...” said White.

The two walked back to the wheelbarrow where Clip was seated next to the stacks of books.

“Maybe we’re being too ‘in-your-face’ about it,” White mused. “Maybe we shouldn’t so much ‘ask’ as ‘invite.’”

“What do you mean?” asked Scroll.

“Maybe just set up someplace public, like the market,” suggested White, “and let ponies come to us. Still visible, but less, well...”

“Gives them less of an excuse to wave a shotgun in our faces?”

“Exactly!”

“Can I knock on a door?” asked Clip. The Brothers looked at him, and then to each other.

“Umm...” said Scroll, rubbing the back of his neck. “Well...”

“I don’t know if that’s a good idea,” mumbled White.

“Please?” begged Clip.

“Oh, alright,” said White, “you can do the next house.”

Clip grabbed a book in his mouth and hopped out of the wheelbarrow. He merrily trotted in front of the two Brothers up to the next house that they’d marked as “safe.”

The two Brothers watched, holding their breaths, as Clip walked up to the door. He raised a hoof and softly knocked. The door opened to reveal a mare. She looked around, taking a moment to realize that Clip wasn’t at her eye level.

“Oh, hello,” she said, looking down at the colt. Clip drew back a bit, looking at the missionaries as if asking for help. White leaned forward, smiling and nodding.

“Go on,” he mouthed.

Clip turned back to the mare. “Hi,” he said, sitting down and lifting the book up. “I have a book for you.”

“A...” she looked behind him. “You’re with that gay group?”

“Uh-huh!”

The mare sighed. “Okay, fine.” She bent down, took the book from the colt, and shut the door. Clip turned around and pranced back to the missionaries with a self-satisfied grin on his face.

“Wow,” said White, “great job.”

“Thanks!” Clip bounced up and down, his face full of glee.

“Hey, look!” called a jeering voice. “It’s the two-way gay!”

“Buzz...” the Brothers groaned in unison.

The brown colt watched them from the other side of the road. “Hey, horny!”

“Just ignore him...” said Scroll.

“Horny!”

Clip and the missionares resumed their walk down the road. Buzz, however, was not about to be deterred by their lack of reaction.

“Hey, horny, you’re gonna die, y’know that?” he asked. “I’m gonna kill you!”

“Go away!” shouted Clip.

“So I was saying,” White piped in a loud voice, “see if we can set up a booth in the market. Maybe a whole lot of ponies don’t stop by the mission house, but if we just seat ourselves...”

“Scroll!” Buzz shouted, desperate to get their attention. “Hey, Scroll! What’s it like to be a virgin?”

“I’m not a virgin...” mumbled Scroll.

“Taking it up the ass doesn’t count!” jeered Buzz.

“Yes it does!” protested Scroll.

“Excuse me,” said a gruff voice. The three turned to see a soldier impatiently tapping his hoof at them.

“Did we do something wrong again?” asked Scroll.

“You’re wanted back at the mission house,” said the soldier. “If you’ll follow me.”

“Wanted,” repeated White. “That’s a nice word to hear.”

“Hey, horner,” mocked Buzz as he followed them. “The soldiers are gonna kill you, y’know that? You’re fucking dead!”

“Did we do something wrong again?” Scroll asked.

“Something like that,” said the soldier. “I don’t think he’s gonna kill you, though.”

The missionaries exchanged nervous glances as the soldier led them back to the mission house, while Buzz followed them and continued to throw taunts. Clip stuck his tongue out at the bully.

“Maybe he got here after we left and wanted breakfast...” Scroll murmured as they approached the door.

The soldier pushed the doors open, and they walked into the main room of the mission house. Clip’s eyes went wide as he saw the inside, which was packed with boxes and crates. And there, standing in the middle of the room, was the general. As soon as he saw them, he started railing.

“I saw three ships come sailing in, with three pine trees, hundreds of boxes of food, clothes, and blankets, four dozen cakes, more toys than I can even begin to count, cookie cutters, and...” He walked over to a large, brightly-colored wheel, which was evenly divided into six sections: a lavender one with a magenta star, a white one with blue diamonds, an orange one with red apples, a yellow one with pink butterflies, a pink one with balloons, and a blue one with a rainbow-colored lightning bolt. “...This fucking thing.”

“Ooh!” said Brother Scroll. “A lesson wheel!”

“A what?” the general asked.

“Oh, man, I love these things!” said White. “You spin it, and then you have to answer a question based on the Element of Harmony it lands on!"

“You ever make your own question cards?” asked an excited Scroll.

“You bet I did!”

“FUCK, SHUT UP!”

The missionaries looked at the general, who was snorting. Clip, meanwhile, walked around the room, looking at the boxes.

“Now, you explain to me just what the fuck is going on?” asked the general.

“Oh!” said Scroll, “I think I know what it is!” He rushed over to the wall and checked the calendar. “The Fraternity sent them.”

“Is this what I think it is?” White asked.

“Yep!” Scroll said. “They sent it here for Hearth’s Warming Eve!”

General Quake stared at him. “What the fuck is that?”

“Well,” said Brother White, “it’s when we celebrate the founding of Equestria and the bonds of friendship that break the cold of winter.”

General Quake continued to stare.

“Oh, yeah...” said Scroll. “You guys don’t, uh, you don’t have winter...”

“You get five more words to make yourself look less retarded before I beat the shit out of you.”

Scroll and White exchanged another nervous glance. Scroll looked at the general and took a deep breath.

“It means presents and food,” said Scroll.

“You see,” added White, “this is a very special time of year, so the Fraternity receives a lot more in donations and they send more food and toys and things out to the missions for us to give to the ponies.”

“I said five words.”

“Sorry.”

“So, what the fuck is going on, then?”

“Well,” said Scroll, “on Hearth’s Warming Eve, we’re going to give this stuff away.”

“Yeah,” said White, “we’ll have a... we’ll have a party! We’ll give toys to all the fillies and colts, and give out free food and warm clothes-”

“Well, they don’t really need warm clothes if there’s no winter...”

“It’s a time to be happy, general. You know, it’s funny, before Equestria was founded, we were all very much like you-”

“Do you just enjoy hearing yourself talk?” asked General Quake.

“Sorry.”

Quake nodded to the soldier, who promptly hit White on the head.

“Ow!”

___________

It was early afternoon: the part of the day when the tavern hit a lull in business, with a workload so light that even Barrel couldn’t mess it up.

Barrel worked alone, cleaning the counter. The only other pony in the tavern was a bum who had passed out in the corner again. Barrel was trying to clean the counter as quickly as he could. The sooner he finished with his chores, the sooner he could slack off. That, however, would have to wait, as the door had just opened. Brother Scroll walked in, with Clip perched on his back.

“Heya,” greeted Scroll. He let himself in, looking around as Clip hopped off of his back. “So, uh, where’s Tap?”

“She went upstairs.” Barrel shrugged. “Can I do anything for ya?”

“Well,” said Scroll, “White and I’d like your help. Y’see, we got this massive shipment from the Fraternity- it’s for Hearth’s Warming Eve.”

“What do you want me for?”

“Well, we have a lot of stuff we’ll be handing out,” explained Scroll. “You see, we plan to have a party on Hearth’s Warming Eve. We’ll be at the mission house for the whole day, and we’ll be giving away food and gifts - toys for the foals, too.”

“Uh-huh...” Barrel said, nodding.

“Well...” Scroll said, nervously rubbing the back of his neck. “We were wondering if it’d be okay if you and Tap could lend us the tavern for the party.” Barrel opened his mouth to respond, but Scroll hastily added, “I mean, I understand if you don’t, but if you could, well...”

“Well, you’ll have to ask her. I mean, I’d probably get in trouble if I...”

“Right, right,” Scroll nodded. He looked around. “Hey, where’d Clip go?”

Clip had gone outside. He decided that he wanted to see Tap, and he knew just how to do that. He walked over to a nearby building and quickly climbed up the wall, taking advantage of any protrusions, ledges, windows, or other depressions to do so. Once he made it to the top of the building, it was simple to take a running leap to get to the tavern. He was much more careful this time, so as to not slip and fall and accidentally piss off a pedestrian below. Slowly, he let himself hang from the edge of the roof, before dropping down to the window below.

He managed to land on the windowsill with his hind legs, rather than hanging from it like he had last time. He peered inside. There was Tap alright, and-

Clip’s eyes went wide.

Tap was lying on the bed, but she wasn’t alone. There was a stallion lying next to her, sniffing her neck. Tap was smiling, and her eyes were closed. Clip just gaped at the sight, unsure of what it was he was looking at.

Then the stallion saw him.

“What the fuck?”

“Huh?” asked Tap, her eyes opening as well.

“There’s a fucking kid at the window!” the stallion said, getting up. “There goes my fucking boner.”

“Wait, what about-”

“Forget it,” the stallion said, “I’m out of here.”

The stallion marched out the door, leaving Tap alone. Clip watched, confused as to what had just happened. She sighed and shook her head, before looking at him.

“Knew I should’ve closed the curtains,” she said. She walked over to him. “What, do I have a regular peeping tom now?”

“I don’t know what that means...”

Tap opened the window, letting the colt inside.

“What’re you doing here?”

“Scroll is downstairs. Barrel said you were up here, so...” Clip shuffled his feat. “Did I do something wrong?”

“No, it’s alright,” said Tap. “Just, you had to come up to my window?”

“I just wanted to see you,” Clip said, feebly pawing at the floor.

Tap had to chuckle at that. “Well, c’mon. Let’s go downstairs before Scroll starts getting worried about you.”

___________

By evening, White had finally finished counting everything that the Fraternity had sent. Not counting the boxes General Quake had commandeered, the shipment included seven different kinds of cookies, dozens of loaves of bread, sixteen crates of apples, three pine trees and accompanying ornaments, several gingerbread house kits, and five “X-Treme Action”-brand scooters, and other various holiday goodies.

The door swung open, and White turned to see three ponies walk in.

“You Brother White?” asked the one in the center. He was a brown earth pony with a block of wood as his cutie mark.

“Yessir I am.” White beamed. “And you are...”

“Carpenter.”

“Well, Mr. Carpenter,” said White, “I’m sorry, but I’m afraid we’re not having Trivia Night this week.” He turned around. “But if you like, I could fix you someth-”

Something hit him in the back of the head. White felt a dull pain before passing out.

___________

“Wake up, horner, we’ve waited long enough.”

White lifted his head, his eyes flickering open. He moaned a little and tried to shake himself awake.

“Okay,” he slurred, “we’ll play, but I get to pick the category.”

This was met with a hoof to the jaw.

“Ow!”

“Shut up,” growled the brown earth pony in front of him.

As White’s senses returned, he saw that they were in an alleyway. White could also see that there was a decent-sized crowd around them, as though everypony was waiting for a show. The lead earth pony, the brown one who’d met him at the mission house before he’d been knocked out, was standing in front of him. White tried to get out of his seat, but he found himself tied to it. There was also a rope tied around his neck that ran up, draped over a pole, and ran back down. The other end of the rope was in the mouth of another earth pony.

Carpenter had a shotgun leaning against his shoulder. He glared at Brother White, who was at a complete loss as to why he was tied up outside with a noose around his neck.

“What’s going on?” White asked.

“You take your sweet fucking time waking up, y’know that?”

“Well...” White tried to get himself into a more comfortable position, which was a futile effort. “I think you hit me on the head.”

“Wasn’t that hard,” said Carpenter. “But I guess I forgot you’re a horner. We gotta be a whole lot gentler than that.”

The crowd laughed. White was reminded of what Scroll had said about laughter a while ago - something about different kinds. White got the feeling that the crowd’s laughter was not one of the good kinds. “So,” he continued. “You’re Brother White.”

“Uh-huh,” replied the missionary, nodding. He looked at the crowd, beaming. “Brother White of the Fraternity of the Joyous Friends of Princess Celestia.”

“Fuck, you talk too much,” said Carpenter.

“What,” added the pony with the rope, “do you horners like hearing the sound of your own voice?”

“Funny, the general asked me that just earlier today...” White mused. This was met with a blow across his face from Carpenter. Clearly, his host was not amused by the coincidence.

“Ah!” White cried. “What was that for?”

“Well!” Carpenter turned to the crowd. “Bright shining faggot here wants to know what this is for!”

“Why’s there an audience?” White looked around at the crowd. “What’s going...” His eyes went wide as he realized why there was a pony there holding a rope around his neck, why there was a crowd, and why one of the ponies was hitting him. He remembered something very, very ugly from the first day of the mission.

“Oh, no...” He laughed in a nervous, high-pitched voice. “This, this is ridiculous.”

“What’s so fucking funny?”

“Well, this, this, this thing with the rope and the thing and the stuff and...” He stopped talking. He closed his eyes and inhaled. He opened his eyes and looked at Carpenter, who was leaning on his shotgun. “You’re trying to lynch me.”

“And you know why?”

“Not really,” White said nervously, his eyes flicking around the crowd. “Listen, I get that you don’t like unicorns, but come on... there’s no reason to do this.”

“Heh,” chuckled Carpenter. “No reason, he says. Faggot horner comes here, prances around acting like he’s better than all of us, and he says there’s ‘no reason.’”

“Well, just because you don’t like me-” Carpenter pointed the barrel of the gun in White’s face, prompting the unicorn to shut up.

“Let me tell you some things I’ve learned about you unicorns,” he said. His voice was softer this time. “I’ve had to deal with ponies like you my whole life. You come here in your flying castle, you rain fire on us, steal our food, and kill us. But that’s not all.” He turned around and faced the crowd. “The unicorns are cowards. Dirty, stinking cowards. Every last one one of them. Horner, you know how many of you I’ve killed?”

“I didn’t know there were other mes...”

“Lots,” he continued. “It’s funny, a lot of the soldiers have those little things that glow and make them disappear in the blink of an eye. I’ve always laughed when I saw them try to use them to get away. They almost always do. They come here, ready to fight, but the moment you start shooting at them they start to shit themselves. But I guess that makes sense. Us earth ponies, we don’t get to pick and choose our fights. Horners do. Wingers do. They come, and then they run.” He finally turned back to White.

“It makes me sick to think that a scummy horner like you is able to just dance around here with that faggy grin of yours. You and that other spineless pussy you’ve got with you. Y’know how many times you horners have destroyed my home?”

White didn’t answer.

“I asked you a question,” said Carpenter. “Fucking answer me!”

“I-I-I don’t know!” White stammered.

“Nine times,” he said. “Nine times your horners have destroyed my home. Every time, I’ve had to rebuild. Some things couldn’t be rebuilt, though. Sometimes you can’t just pick up the pieces and get a new home. Sometimes ponies die. Good ponies. Ponies we care about.” His voice dropped to a menacing growl. “Like my wife.”

He turned to the crowd. “How many of you have lost friends or family to an attack?”

Every single pony in the crowd raised a hoof.

“See that?” he asked, turning back to White. “See that, right there? That’s what you’ve done.”

White lowered his head, not saying a word. For the first time in a long while, he felt a sinking pit in his stomach: a feeling of shame. Shame about the fact that he could be associated with the ponies that had done so much damage to the island.

“Well? Why don’t you say anything?” He walked up to the missionary.

“I’m sorry.” White looked back up. “I don’t know what to say.”

“Oh, you don’t? Well, let me give you a few suggestions. First, why don’t you admit that you’re a faggy little horner?”

White stared at his captor, then at the crowd, then at the pony with the rope. The pony at the rope bit down, his eyes narrowed in a threatening display.

“I’m a...” White whispered. “I’m a faggy little horner.”

“Louder!”

“I’m a...” White shuddered. “I’m a faggy little horner!”

The crowd laughed again.

“Good,” said Carpenter. “Now tell me you’re a coward and a pussy.”

“I’m a coward and a...” White paused. He didn’t like using this kind of language. “...And a pussy.”

“Just like all other horners,” his captor nodded.

“Now tell us you have a small penis!” jeered a pony from the crowd. Carpenter ignored this.

“And now, one last thing...” he continued. White looked up at him. “Tell us that you’re worthless, that your entire race is nothing but a band of cowards and thieves. Tell us that you’re a sick faggot and a disgusting wretch. Tell us that you think we’d be doing the world a favor by killing you.”

White looked down again.

“I’m waiting.”

“I...” White began. He looked up at his captor, and then at the crowd. Then a thought occurred to him, and that thought seemed to drive away the shame. “No, I won’t.”

“What?”

“I’m sorry.” He looked at the crowd. “I’m sorry about all of you, really. I know you have your pride. But I have mine, too. I’m not going to say that I’m sorry for being a unicorn, or for, or for anything else you call me, because I’m not sorry. I’m happy with who and what I am, and I... I don’t understand it, how you can hate me because I have a horn on my head. I know that you’ve all suffered, that you’ve lost loved ones in this war. But I didn’t do any of those things. I’ve never killed a pony in my life. I never would kill a pony. Whatever it is you’ve suffered, I didn’t do it.”

“Lie!” snarled the leader. “What about my son?”

“Your son?”

“Buzz.”

White’s ears pricked up. “Oh! Buzz. You’re his father?” he asked, as the earth pony slowly walked up to him. “That’s good to hear. Y’see, I’ve been wanted to talk to you about him. Buzz has some real behavior prob-”

Carpenter swung the butt of his gun, striking White on the side of his face. The force of the blow caused the chair to rock, teetering on two legs. White tried to shift his weight to keep the chair upright, but he was still dizzy from the blow. He was going to fall. Or, he would have fallen, save for the rope around his neck, which caught him and held the chair up, teetering on two legs.

The noose tightened around White’s neck. He struggled, desperately trying to breathe, but he was only able to make sickly rattling sounds. Carpenter coldly stared at him, before looking at the pony holding the rope.

“Drop him.”

He released the rope, leaving White to crash to the ground with a thud. White loudly choked as his gasped for air. This wasn’t the first time somepony had tried to kill him. Once a couple of ponies had shot at him as he was walking out the door. Once, during an attack, a couple of soldiers seemed like they were ready to kill him after accusing him of being a spy.

This was different, though. This time it wasn’t a soldier or a drunk or anything. It was a mob of completely ordinary earth ponies that all wanted him dead. For the first time since he’d arrived on the island, a horrifying realization had come to him: these ponies hated him. They didn’t hate him in the way that a pony hates a rude or annoying peer. They hated him so much they wanted to see him die horribly.

“I... I don’t understand...”

“Yes you fucking do.”

“No, I don’t,” White moaned. “Why? What did I do?”

“Buzz told me what you did.” Carpenter hurled the butt of his gun again, striking White in the stomach. “About how you molested him.”

White looked up, his eyes wide with shock. “W...” he started. “What?”

“He told me what you did, you faggy little pervert.”

“What? No!” White squirmed. “This, this is ridiculous. This has to be a joke!”

“Does it look like I’m fucking laughing?” He leaned down. “He told me about how you invited him to the mission house, how you were all alone, and how you approached him...”

“No, no, no!” White stammered. “I never- he’s wrong!”

“SHUT UP!” the earth pony roared. He drove his hooves into White’s stomach. “Are you calling my son a liar?!”

“I...” White wheezed. “I’m telling you that I never touched your son. I’m telling you I’d never touch your son.” He looked up. “Buzz hates me. I don’t understand... I swear I don’t. I don’t understand anything at all here...”

He lay his head back down on the ground.

“I just wanted to be your friend...”

“Well, now you can fucking die.” He nodded to the pony with the rope, who nodded in turn. He gripped the rope and abruptly yanked backwards, jerking White’s head up and slowly lifting him off the ground. White desperately gasped for air against the rope, but he was completely helpless...

Then he realized that he could see the pony with the rope out of the corner of his eye. He had one shot. He put all of his concentration into his magic, fixating on the earth pony’s mouth. The pony’s mouth opened, releasing the rope and allowing Brother White to crash to the ground again, but barely on the edge of consciousness.

The crowd gasped as Carpenter looked around.

“Why, you little piece of shit!” he spat. He rushed up to White and started wailing on him, hitting him in the face and stomach with his hooves. White, tired, choked, and tied up, was unable to do anything to stop Carpenter as he landed blow after blow after blow.

“Think you’re clever, huh?!” Carpenter snarled. “Magic your way out of this, why doncha?”

He stopped his assault and stood over the battered unicorn. What little fight White had was gone.

“Yeah...” he panted, walking over to his gun. He lifted it and raised the barrel, aiming it squarely at White’s head. “Suck on this, you faggy little-”

“STAR HORSE TO THE RESCUE!” cried a voice. The crowd looked up and saw a little pink colt jump from the roof. Carpenter looked up in alarm as Clip landed on his face, making him stumble backwards.

There was a piercing BANG!, and the crowd looked around wildly.

“Alright, sons of bitches,” said Tap’s voice. The crowd parted, and White could faintly see Tap, Barrel, and Scroll, Tap with a smoking revolver in her mouth.

“White!” cried Scroll.

“Ugh!” shouted Carpenter, throwing Clip off of his face. “What the...”

“Alright, everypony, clear out,” said Tap.

“Just what the fuck do you think you’re doing?”

“Not a clue,” said Tap.

“We’re not letting you kill him,” said Barrel, trying to make himself look taller than he actually was. Scroll, meanwhile, ran over to where White was lying tied to the chair, and frantically pulled the noose off from around his neck.

“White, are you okay?”

“Well?” Tap asked. “Everypony clear out.”

“Stay out of this, whore,” snarled Carpenter. “This is my business.”

“What, did he look at your ass or something? You should take that as a compliment.”

Carpenter raised his shotgun, pointing it at Tap, who likewise aimed her revolver at him.

Clip had recovered from the flight and was back on his feet, ready to have another go.

“Dude...” said the hangstallion, “it’s not worth it.”

Carpenter snorted. “The hell it’s not! He molested my kid!”

Scroll, Clip, Tap, and Barrel stared at him.

“I didn’t do it...” said White. “I swear to Celestia it’s a lie...”

“What’s that mean?” Clip asked with a quizzical tilt of his head.

Tap, however, seemed to have found this outrageously funny, as she burst into such laughter that she dropped the gun.

“Really?” she asked. “That’s a good one. A really, really good one. How’d you come up with that?”

Scroll turned and looked at the crowd, Carpenter, Tap, and the hangstallion.

“What the...” Scroll mumbled. “What the fuck is wrong with you ponies?”

“Am I missing something?” asked a low voice. Every single pony in the alley looked back and saw General Quake standing there. “Did I miss another lynching?”

“Just in time,” spat Carpenter. “We were just about to off the horner.”

General Quake slowly walked up to Carpenter. “Why the fuck,” he started, “do you have a shotgun pointed at my mare?”

Carpenter’s expression was priceless. “No, I-I-I-I...” He dropped the shotgun.

“Better,” said Quake. He walked over to Brother White, who was lying on the ground, still tied to the chair. “So what’s this?”

“Hi, Quake...” White moaned.

“I was about to do something that should’ve been done a while ago,” said Carpenter.

“Oh, really?” Quake turned to face Carpenter. “Should’ve been done a while ago, huh? That’s what you think? Are you saying I didn’t do what I was supposed to do?”

Carpenter backed up.

“If there’s a horner here on the island who isn’t dead, and he continues to not be dead, then I usually have a pretty fucking good reason for it. Do you know what happens if this guy dies?”

The mob shifted uneasily.

“If he dies, then I have to make sure that his pals back home don’t figure out. I have to forge letters, and it isn’t fucking easy. I mean, have you read this guy’s shit? I don’t think there’s anyone on this entire fucking island who’s fruity enough to make it convincing. Worse yet, he writes every fucking week. And then what am I gonna do about this fucking pussy?” He waved a hoof in Brother Scroll’s direction.

Carpenter glared silently at the missionaries.

“They have a certain amount of ‘protection,’” continued Quake. “That’s why they’re still alive. If one of them dies, and word gets out that one of them dies, then we risk having an incident. We already cut it too close when these dipshits spilt the fact that the last pair of missionaries skipped town. And y’know something? I don’t want a fucking incident.”

Barrel and Clip went over to Brother White and began untying him from the chair. The crowd, no longer having a show, began to disperse. Scroll looked at Quake, but Quake was already beginning to walk away.

“This isn’t over, you little fag,” said Carpenter, before he, too, departed.

Scroll didn’t pay any attention to Carpenter. He looked back at White. The unicorn’s face was bleeding and bruised, and he was shivering.

“White, oh Celestia, are you okay?” Scroll asked. White sat up, still shaking a little.

“I-I’m fine,” said White. He forced a laugh. “I-I’m still smiling. See? I’m smiling.”

Comments

[Your Antagonist]

As usual good ass chapter., I'm just waiting to see how they turn the island to their side

[Several Alpacas]

[Midnightshadow]

This is the best chapter yet in a series which is, actually, getting better. there are problems with the narrative, problems with the setup, but the story is pulling me in. It doesn't know whether it wants to be comedy, grim, grimdark or slice of life and that is hampering the suspension of disbelief, but you have an interesting story building here.

I'll be tracking it.

[Happy Thoughts]

79313 I could not agree more! EXCELLENT WORK!!! Dark enough to be entertaining yet not grimdark enough to be too hard on the reader. I just cannot wait for the next chapter.

[Removal requested]

I still think you need more detail, Billy! (Although, when I check, I suddenly realise this chapter is 5k words, which is about 3k words more than it feels like, which is probably a good thing). But still, I can't help but feel like we could spend more time in the moment for some scenes (e.g. White's actually being hanged here took up a grand total of half a paragraph).

Things I am liking: the unstable equilibrium - the setup between Quake, White & Scroll, and the village; individual agendas coming to light. Which play into a believable status quo for the missionaries to act in.

[B_pone]

nice one billy! this was definitely a suspenseful chapter. can't wait for the next one!

[Chip Unicorn]

Your writing keeps improving.

This doesn't have the wildly swinging moods that the earlier chapters had. It is a much more nuanced, more realistic shift among different viewpoints. And that's a very good thing.

You've created a deep, interesting world. Thank you for creating it.

Quake would do well to remember the words of a certain human author:
"When you push people down far enough, they bounce."

[Thunderbug80]

I have none of the issues with "story identity" that some others seem to have.

It's a dark comedy with the inclusion of some dramatic themes and philosophical queries. Pretty straight-forward.

If Scroll doesn't end up making an honest 'woman' out of Tap, I will be disappointed.

[Shellybox]

Sorry, have to clock in at 2.

I planned on reading untill scroll and white kissed, but I see it happening nowhere fast.