RAGNAROK

[Tragic Rabbit]

Ever wanted to visit the planet Mars? AD Authors EleCivil and Ryan Miller have a ticket with your name on it...

From RAGNAROK, Chapter One:

An old man stood behind the counter of his caf?, cleaning glasses as his nephew counted the money in the till after a heavy day of business. He kept looking out through the window at a man sitting at one of the round, umbrella-clad tables in front of the caf?. The man had been sitting there since the shop closed, just sitting in his brown trench coat with his feet propped up on the table, reading a tabloid. The old man had thought of going out and telling him he had to leave and that the caf? was closed, but he hadn?t been bothered by the stranger and didn?t have the heart to throw him out into the rain.

The headlights of a taxi appeared down the street from the caf? and the man at the table looked up from his newspaper. The taxi pulled up next to the caf? and a man in a black jacket stepped out and pulled his collar up over his neck to stave off the rain as he leaned over to pay the driver. Fuel cells hummed and the taxi drove off, leaving its former client standing on the edge of the street with the man at the table.

?It?s raining pretty hard,? said the man at the table, putting his feet on the ground. ?You may as well sit here under an umbrella.?

The man in black accepted the stranger?s invitation and sat down next to him, shaking the rain from his jacket.

?You don?t look very experienced, young man,? said the man, putting down his newspaper.

?But time will change people, old man,? said the other, as he had been instructed. Even though he had practiced his line over and over again, the realization that he was passing the point of no return still hit him like a punch in the gut.

CLICK HERE TO READ RAGNAROK

Chapter Two now online!

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[ubik]

i'm definitely going to follow this story, EleCivil is one of my favourite online authors and i'm a huge science fiction geek!

[EleCivil]

Awesome! Glad to hear it, Ubik.

[blue]

Yay! Keep writing, you two!

The style matches the subject here. Also, kudos for recognizing real milk might be rare and expensive on Mars.

This reminds me of other good scifi. I'm glad to see it.

Anyone who's surprised at EleCivil's change of style for this story, please reread his other writing.

Ryan has shown he can write darker fiction well.

We have an anti-hero and a villain with more going on than there seems, and various others.

Red dirt. Lots of it. -- I expect we'll see some.

...Those storage spaces... I hope there weren't any flatcats nearby! ;)

[RMiller]

Yay! Keep writing, you two!

The style matches the subject here. Also, kudos for recognizing real milk might be rare and expensive on Mars.

This reminds me of other good scifi. I'm glad to see it.

Anyone who's surprised at EleCivil's change of style for this story, please reread his other writing.

Ryan has shown he can write darker fiction well.

We have an anti-hero and a villain with more going on than there seems, and various others.

Red dirt. Lots of it. -- I expect we'll see some.

...Those storage spaces... I hope there weren't any flatcats nearby! ;)

Poor Ele' has really bent over backwards to go for a darker style and I am impressed with the creative innovations he has come up with so far. The milk thing was totally him.

And I had been waiting to flex my noir muscles on AD for a while. It my favorite style and comes instinctively.

If you happen to hear "As Time Goes By" playing softly in the background as you read, that's just us doing our job.

[Trab]

I like SciFi too, so I'm going to like reading more of this story. I'm not sure I like the sound of there being a ticket with my name on it though (see story to see why.) :)

[RMiller]

Chapter three is up and ready. We have just started work on chapter four, so it could be a while until the story continues.

This noir stuff is really convoluted, so we want to make sure the plot lines agree with each other. ;)

[JamesSavik]

Hey guys- I'm following this story with great interest.

I'm excited about what I've seen so far.

[blue]

Hey, I'm missing my dose of iron oxide, guys. You know, Mars, red dirt....

The story still reminds me of several good scifi movies and anime.

I'd really like to read more.

What happened, somebody forgot to pay their Air and Water utility bill?

[blue]

Blue wanders through the arid Martian landscape, somehow chilled, despite the EVA suit's heaters and the wan light of the distant sun. He meanders past dry paths that might once have been refreshing riverbeds.

He travels a red dirt-eating pace, determined to make it to the next biodomed colony city, seeking the last known whereabouts of the elusive pair, those punks EleCivil and RMiller.

"Where in this desert are they?" he wonders, "And why aren't they writing the next chapter?"

Just then, a dune buggy roars by, careening on two wheels, with a loud, "Woooooofffff!!" from a Russian cosmonaut dog.

"What on Mars was that?" wonders Blue.

Swoosh, a dune sailboard whips through the thin, chilled air, with a young man in shockingly day-glo tropical patterned board shorts over his EVA suit passes Blue like he wasn't there.

"Cowabunga, brah! Sorry, hope it wasn't too gnarly for ya!" Says the young man in the black-light helmet.

"Consarn those punks!" yells Blue, as he shakes his fist. "They're out dune surfing instead of web surfing!"

"It could be worse," pipes up a small sphere with three stubby legs.

"Willis? Is that you? What do you mean, worse? I probably don't want to know."

"Yeah, it's me. Things have been slow lately. Real, live Martians are frowned upon these days. You should see how they treat John Carter's friends."

"What on Earth-- I mean, whatchoo talkin' 'bout, Willis? Get to the point!"

"Dune surfing's nothing. There was this guy in a stillsuit riding around on some big worm...."

"Nevermind, Willis, it sounds entirely too Freudian."

"Yeah, you're right."

"Uh-huh, and I'm talking to a talking, three-legged ball. Tell me that isn't Freudian."

"Whatever. I think you've got iron oxide in your brain again."

"Nah, it's just the wait between chapters. It has me inventing off-the-wall dialogue and Martian scenery for no apparent reason."

"Everybody needs a hobby."

"Yup. And I just figured out what you represent, Willis!"

"What's that?"

"Goal! Beach ball! Woo-hoo!" And with that, Blue found soccer practice much more satisfying with a beach ball that could dodge and run away on its own!

[RMiller]

This is an official update letting you all know that another chapter of Ragnarok is on its way. There was a hefty lag as both EleCivil and I started working on other projects, school work and whatnot, but I am free to continue now.

Unfortunately my writing partner has opted out of the project. He, as well as I, could see that getting EleCivil to write good noir was like getting Justin Berfield to not be gorgeous: no chance in hell. We were both tired of pushing our cart sideways and the story is now under my command, but not without the lingering overtones of our weird little buddy and his dancing mandolin. Chapter four will be his last direct contribution to the story, and I think you all will enjoy it.

And I may be looking for another partner to complete the project, because a genre as convoluted as noir works best when you have another writer to screw with.

[EleCivil]

He, as well as I, could see that getting EleCivil to write good noir was like getting Justin Berfield to not be gorgeous: no chance in hell.

Hahaha. It's true, though I'm glad you're the one to announce it first, because otherwise, the board wouldn't have been able to see your astounding ability to work Justin Berfield into ANY analogy.

the story is now under my command, but not without the lingering overtones of our weird little buddy and his dancing mandolin.

Scrub as hard as you like, but my fingerprints are indelible.

Anyway, just to clarify, I decided to leave the Ragnarok project because I'm really not into sci-fi/noir. It's just not my thing. That, and because my current schedule barely leaves me very little time to write, and I don't want to hold back production on a team effort with my take-forever-between-chapters-ish tendencies. No, this wasn't because of "creative differences" or a pirate/ninja blood feud (though there is such a blood feud, it is completely unrelated to this decision).

So it goes.

[blue]

Alas, this Justin Berfield, I know not.

Oops, wrong century. :: pushes shiny buttons and blinky lights ::

Bummer, who's this Justin Berfield, dunno him, dudes.

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I love scifi, but I haven't gotten my own writing done.

Guys, at least you both knew it wasn't working the way you wanted it.

I'm looking forward to new chapters, stories, and/or poems from both of you, on Ragnarok, Laika, and whatever else you guys have hidden up your sleeves.

-----

...Just think if Percival Lowell had been really hungry and misunderstood. People would've been looking at Mars for canelloni!

[RMiller]

Alas, this Justin Berfield, I know not.

Oops, wrong century. :: pushes shiny buttons and blinky lights ::

Bummer, who's this Justin Berfield, dunno him, dudes.

Behold, the boyish charm of the most ambitious little Jew in Hollywood. Most notable as Reese on Malcolm in the Middle, he now spends his days as a movie producer, real estate investor and total hottie.

And now you know.

[blue]

Ahh, enlightenment. OK, sorry, didn't watch much Malcolm in the Middle. (Obviously.) Much nicer to be informed...and hey, not bad lookin', either.

[RMiller]

THough months in the making, chapter five is finally posted. Sorry to keep all you sci-fi fans waiting, but I had to make sure it was up to publication standards.

Ryan

[Graeme]

Thanks, Ryan, and (unless I'm very much mistaken).... HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

[blue]

Hey, happy birthday, Ryan! :claps:

Congrats on chapter 5 of Ragnarok too.

[RMiller]

While I love getting free celebratory sundaies at Red Robin as much as the next man, reports of my birth are premature and exaggerated. I've got to wait nine months for my next b-day.

[Trab]

It's that Graeme fellow that started that rumour. I suspect seasonal affective disorder (SAD) since he's in the middle of winter.

[Graeme]

Okay, it was obviously another Ryan Miller who was having a birthday on that day...

[EleCivil]

Cool new chapter! Can't wait to see where this story goes, now that I'm not writing any of it.

Also, happy belated fake birthday, Ryan!

[blue]

Great chapter, Ryan. I'm looking forward to more.

[RMiller]

No sweat, Graeme. The name Ryan is anything but uncommon. I once had a health class with three Ryans total, including myself.

But I don't think I could survive as a child with a summer birthday. The inability to bring cupcakes to class and show off would've killed the 10-year-old me.

[EleCivil]

But I don't think I could survive as a child with a summer birthday. The inability to bring cupcakes to class and show off would've killed the 10-year-old me.

You guys didn't do half-birthdays for the summer kids? They always let us bring in cupcakes six months early if we were outside of the school year. Sure, it wasn't our real birthday...but then again, we didn't have to spend our real birthdays in school, so we were happy.