In Which a Story Starts to Become more Bearable. Patreaon reward for A.P.O.N.I. · 5:50am May 31st, 2018

Heya blog readers! Today we’re doing another chapter of Threadbare and finally catching up with A.P.O.N.I.’s patreon rewards! If you haven’t been following these, I’ve been reading a chapter here and there from the first book of a series.

It’s been mostly torture for me!

I feel like this, but with a beard… and 30% less cyberpunk.

Last one I did is here. Also, feel free to check out my Lobo post and my Princess Bubblegum post!

If you read my post on the last chapter, you might remember I was treading water with just how often the character stat and other level up options where smashing me in the face. Well, I’m happy to report that after something of a brief time skip, these have eased up considerably. They’re still more frequent and more intrusive then I would like, but not so overwhelming that I can mostly just scan over them unless they’re actually important.

There are a few instances of these BOLD messages being important. Dare I say this story is setting up with some delicious foreshadowing? I do dare say.

Outside of that this chapter starts out pretty much just slice of life and serves as a world-building exposition dump. Normally I cry foul at excessive world-building, but it’s the father explaining how the world went from typical high fantasy to words and numbers suddenly poping up with all this character generation and level up stuff. So, we also have something of a mystery here as apparently the people of the world where totally taken aback by the fact that everything they are and do is mostly measurable via numbers and a few labels. Also, monsters that do monster stuff, e.g. eat people.

Of course, some must have figured that out long ago…

There’s also a short reference to the old, dark days and THAC0, which got a chuckle out of me. Though, docking this chapter a little for the generic reminder that humans are the REAL monsters.

The interactions with the dad and his daughter feel a lot more natural as well. Also! New family friend, a wilderness survivalist or ranger type it seems who is introduced with some well-structured character description.

And then some playtime outside with Threadbare and a buncha animated stuffed animals outside!

Yay!

But then Threadbare falls into a river and is almost swept away!

Oh no!

But then he’s saved!

Yay!

By the murder witch!

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU…

She has a short talk with the girl about working for a former employer of the dad and how they didn’t see eye to eye. Clearly, she’s after the dad’s scrolls… and…

Okay, she doesn’t do anything, but as a dad this scene filled me with a profound sense of dread, though there’s some foreshadowing where Threadbare accepts the witches quest to get the scrolls without meaning to (he still can’t read the words that float in front of his face and just knows to say “yes” to everything). The quest rewards 500 XP, though Threadbare seemingly as a free-willed creature has no compulsion to actually act on the quest.

I predict he’s forced to do it at some point, levels up a bunch and goes Super Bearyan then kicks some shapely, sexy Witch ass… assuming he can get past all the belts. Here’s hoping.

Yeah, this is the first chapter I actually enjoyed as a whole and found myself more invested in the world and characters. I still don’t agree with the sheer amount of BOLDED PLUS WHATEVER STAT UPS and JOB/CLASSDESCRIPTIONS thrown in my face the first three chapters, but hopefully with far less of those the work will continue to shine on its own with the odd structure of this world serving in the background to the story and not the focal point of the story.

I mean, the chapter ended with the witch taking off and Threadbare being attacked by some animal or another in the woods, so he might just die.

It’s probably an owl… Apparently, they’re not a known giver of effs, or elks for that matter.

And that’s it for this chapter! Next month, more Threadbare unless [https://www.fimfiction.net/user/52916/A.P.O.N.I.]A.P.O.N.I. says otherwise! As always, get on the fun here and catch you in the comments.