LJIdol S11 - Week 21 - The Way Back

[hwango]

Oh, hello children. I see that once again you're out and about, having fun with nary a care in the world. I can only assume that means that you've already finished all of your chores and have permission to be roaming around town engaging in unsupervised frivolity. Hmm, that reminds me of a story

Comments

[marlawentmad]

I adore this story framing. It works so well with the voice you created. This tale left me giddy. I felt this line deeply, "but nearly all of his power had been stamped out of him by the unrelenting mundanity of everyday human existence." Spectacularly done!

[hwango]

Thanks! I really enjoy writing these, but they are also stressful - I worry about writing one that doesn't really work, and somehow bringing the others down with it in some way. I'm glad this one worked for you!

[halfshellvenus]

I get such a kick out of these. This is the first time I've noticed the "old man" tag, which is interesting-- I'd envisioned the narrator as female all this time, somehow, but also as not necessarily being human. :O

Eldergnarl
I love your disturbed knack for strange and slightly disgusting names for so many creatures. ;)

and awakened the security ghosts.
Hahahahaha!

The crocodile formerly known as Calistophan was so enraged that it devoured the squirrel formerly known as Bertold, Bertold's entire family, and an enchanted goat that it found in the back yard.
So much more excellent than just eating Bertold, and the enchanted goat was the 'icing' on the absurd weirdness.

This explains quite a bit about crocodiles, actually...

[hwango]

Thanks! Feel free to continue to imagine out storyteller however you like. I try to leave it vague, but I think they might once have referred to themselves as an old man in an early one...something I suppose I could go back and edit. After about the fourth or fifth of these I went back and tagged them all so I could find them all again easily to make sure didn't repeat myself, or reuse a name, or whatever. I wish I'd come up with a more interesting tag at the time, but here we are. = )

As to the storyteller's humanity, I have dropped hints in a few of these that might put his humanity in doubt, so you're definitely not wrong to suspect that.

I think it really says something about me that I was concerned that the ending was unrealistic, because surely a single crocodile couldn't consume at least three people and goat in such a short span of time. Yeah, that is the unrealistic detail. But it seemed very important to me that the crocodile eat everyone, so I'm glad to hear you approve. = )

[halfshellvenus]

Yeah, that is the unrealistic detail.
Hahaha!

Well, let me just say that as a writer of a LOT of crackfic... I fret over those kinds of details myself, because the crack has to make sense in its own context for me. If THAT makes sense. ;)

[kittenboo]

How imaginative!

[hwango]

Thanks!

[tonithegreat]

Here is another vote of approval for the croc devouring everyone! Man, I hope the storyteller got those books back on time. Sounds like a harsh and labyrinthine library he’s dealing with.

[hwango]

But just imagine how safe the books are after they get returned! = )

I've never been able to convince my local library to install security ghosts. I keep telling them it would be cheaper in the long run than food for the rhinoceros, but no one ever listens to me.

[roina_arwen]

This is just adorable! I love the idea of “security ghosts!”

[hwango]

Thanks! And I'm glad you like the security ghosts. As far as I'm concerned, if the building is already haunted anyway, then you may as well put the ghosts to good use. = )