College Tennis: Origin Story (WIP) - Updated 7 Nov '24 [621k words]

[JBento]

How you contract, and even if you contract at all, depends a lot on what part of the sentence, if any, you want to emphasize.

Examples using the sentence, but not the situation:

• if the room was highly desirable and people had been arguing over it, you could write “I would’ve taken your room”, emphasizing that the speaker would be the one to get it, or that the room was so desirable even the speaker wanted it.
• if the MC were at risk of losing the room to the speaker, you could write “I would have taken your room”, emphasizing that the speaker would in fact take the room from the MC. Depending on context, this phrasing also suggests some enmity or, at least, rivalry, between the speaker and the MC.

The use (or not) of contractions in narratives isn’t just a way to save characters, it can TELL you things.

[love4tae]

i didn’t know one error could cause a whole english debate

[Valixon]

Lol all it takes is but one syllable

[JBento]

A syllable? Have you heard about the common comma and the difference between “Let’s eat, Grandma” and “Let’s eat Grandma”.

[Valixon]

As they say everything tastes better with ketchup :: snickers ::

[burninglights]

Planned CT:OS Update 8

Hi all!

It’s been a while (see below for personal rambles), but I have some good-ish news for everyone!

Tldr; I’m so sorry for how long this took—I’ve refunded everyone on Ko-fi for the month of November!—but I am ready with the eighth update at long last! Thanks so much also for the continued support and love! <3

Early-release will go out to Ko-fi supporters tomorrow or 5 Dec!
Roughly +72k words, ~13k words in a single playthrough (estimated).

Personal rambles (read: excuses)

Tragedy #1: I ended up with a blank game file on the app/software I use to code/write not once but TWICE!! I managed to recover an older save file thank goodness but it meant that I lost basically about 3 weeks’ worth of work. Unbelievable. The first time it happened, I set up “timeline”/github so that I could recover save files, but for some reason, the second time it happened, the save system only had a file that was 5-days old (i.e. I lost 5 days worth of progress).

Not-exactly-a-tragedy #2, but: As I mentioned before, I was given a new portfolio at work in November, and things started getting really busy—gearing up to a presentation to the Permanent Secretary for National Development on 28 Nov. Thank goodness that’s over now, but it left me with so little time left for writing.

Event #3: I’ll be going for eye surgery on 5 Dec, so… wish me luck!!

Disclaimers:

• It will not include the singles portion (and some kisses/romance scenes) that I’d been hoping to finish up before releasing this, but seeing as this update already stands at +70k words, and because I’m going for surgery on 5 Dec and probably will not be writing for at least 2 weeks or so after that, I decided to release this first!
• I’ve not had time to fully edit the chapter, but will try to do more editing when I have time this month!

Features

• Meet Sam again(if you chose to have them come over for the weekend)—yes, running bear hugs are possible, and you can even choose to wear Sam’s jacket!
• Your hallmates will come watch your game (with a poster!)
• Play your first doubles match [Includes some sneaky tactics like pretending to argue/fight with your partner, to the astonishment of those watching] (achievement up for grabs)
• Seal your win with a kiss! Or go find Tobin, Rayyan, Sam, G, or your hallmates after the doubles match (before the singles match) [kisses for 2 of the 4 are possible regardless of whether you win or lose].

Whether you win or lose the doubles match will also affect whether or not Cargill wins the point for doubles (which will have a big impact on whether Cargill wins overall!)

[batmansrobin]

AHHHHH. My favorite wip I hope all goes well with your surgery Allie!! Thank you for updating us even with things being so tumultuous at home for you right now.

Hopefully the holiday season brings some much deserved rest and quiet time for you.

[burninglights]

Aww thank you!! I hope the surgery goes well too, and if the recovery is quick, fingers crossed that I’ll get some writing done too!

[notapretzel]

Best of luck with your surgery, I hope everything goes well and you get some well deserved rest.

I’m very excited for the update and to see Sam, my beloved, again. This is one of my comfort stories and each update always brings so much joy

[JBento]

Welcome back, Allie! Sorry to hear about the lost progress, glad to hear about the upward career moves, best of luck with having a laser fired into your eyeballs! You won’t feel a thing while it’s happening, and then you’ll be crying for like half a week anytime a photon even comes near your eyeball (still no pain, though).

@burninglights

Your hallmates will come watch your game (with a poster!)

If the poster says “kill them all”, Addie wrote it.

@burninglights

pretending to argue/fight with your partner, to the astonishment of those watching

My doubles partner is Rayyan, is it really that astonishing? Also, bold of you to assume the argument is PRETEND.

@burninglights

Whether you win or lose the doubles match will also affect whether or not Cargill wins the point for doubles (which will have a big impact on whether Cargill wins overall!)

Lynchpin player, y’all.

[sertrude]

Good luck with your surgery!!! Thank you for blessing us with an update!!!

[idonotlikeusernames]

Best of luck with the surgery.

But, yay!! Sammy is back!!!

[burninglights]

Early-release is live on dashingdon!

As promised, Update #8 is live for ko-fi supporters!** link here

It’s very much still a work-in-progress (more than usual), because I haven’t had the chance to get it out to beta-testers, but I hope you guys enjoy it!

Feel free to let me know if you spot any big bugs, though I probably won’t be able to get to it till end of the week earliest!

I’ll keep everyone posted on the public release date when I’m ready with the edits!

[Eiwynn]

Thank you and well wishes for your surgery.

The early-release is Update 8, the same that is on ko-fi?

[burninglights]

Thank you!!

Yup! Cross-posted the annoucement to tumblr and the forums! Edited my post with the right link too!

[swilson50125]

I am so happy to see another update coming out. Can’t wait for the public release, this is my favorite WIP in a looong time. Sorry for your file hassles and i hope your eye surgery goes well. Thank you for sharing with us.

[batmansrobin]

Stayed up till 5am to finish the update and it was worth every bit of missed sleep.

You do such an amazing job capturing heavy emotions in tiny snippets of time. Seriously, these characters make my heart ache in the best of ways.

Tobin’s queer scene in the locker room was everything to me. And, ugh, how surprised and happy they were if you picked them over Rayyan. They’re so damn endearing. Impossible not to fall for them.

The short reunion we had with Sam was delicious. Sam+MC are maybe the most adorable little pair ever. I, of course, had to choose Frodo for the Sam nickname. It had to be done.

The hallmates were so cute and funny and supportive, which was amazing because the doubles match was a genuine nail biter so their support was really felt by the time it came down to that 8th game lmao.

10/10. Amazing. Loved every word. Can’t wait to reread it a million more times.

OH, also I loved the edits and additions to previous chapters. The team and hall nicknames are going to be so fun.

[Akky42]

This is so sad, why am I such a scumbag

[burninglights]

@VelvetDivine

think my MC (intense, reserved, workaholic) would be super terrified of recreating with Sam what happened with her own parents. I think Sam’s kind of flighty attitude and lack of consistency in sticking with one thing/interest reminds her of her mother.

Ah! This makes a lot of sense. In some ways I think MC could possibly also be fearful of doing the same to Sam, after all in a long distance relationship, especially when both parties are going through so much change (college is a whole different universe!)

@kckolbe

Even the contractions have to double bunk.

HAHAHA!

And, re: the double contraction and the surprisingly hilarious conversation it sparked: well. To me it felt like real life speech although I know it’s grammaticallt sus (just as I think “should of” has a place in some dialogues…) i think my priority is flavor over correctness, but of course too much of it can be over the top.

@JBento

then you’ll be crying for like half a week anytime a photon even comes near your eyeball

bahaha not that bad, though I really probably shouldnt be using my phone.

@JBento

If the poster says “kill them all”, Addie wrote it.

Actually added this, it’s hilarious, thank you HAHAHA.

@JBento

bold of you to assume the argument is PRETEND.

Bwahahaha damn, I forgot how toxic your MC-Rayyan pairing is.

Lynchpin player indeed! Wait till the singles

@sertrude, @idonotlikeusernames and @swilson50125 thank you!! <3

@batmansrobin

You do such an amazing job capturing heavy emotions in tiny snippets of time. Seriously, these characters make my heart ache in the best of ways.

AHH+!! THANK YOU! Honestly means so much to me hope you’ve gotten more sleep since then and so honored that you were so pumped about the update!! <3

I am so so happy you enjoyed the Tobin scene (and discovered it)! It was honestly one of my fave scenes to write in this update and is something I had planned to write very early on…so it was so awesome to finally release it!

Frodo being Sam’s nickname for MC is utterly adorable and so fitting!!!

@batmansrobin

The hallmates were so cute and funny and supportive, which was amazing because the doubles match was a genuine nail biter

Glad to hear it!! I think having them take the time to come watch the first game of the season definitely meant a lot to MC!

Really so pleased that you liked the update and the edits to earlier chapters (including the new nickname feature! That was something that had been in the works for some time too!)

@Akky42 ah… you took that path… love it. Poor sam though, damn.

[kckolbe]

@burninglights

And, re: the double contraction and the surprisingly hilarious conversation it sparked: well. To me it felt like real life speech although I know it’s grammaticallt sus (just as I think “should of” has a place in some dialogues…) i think my priority is flavor over correctness, but of course too much of it can be over the top.

Completely understood what you were going for, and I don’t see it as any different than spelling words phonetically to convey an accent. But instead of that, I went with the joke. I stand by the choice.