Happy May 15th everyone!
For this month’s excerpt, I am going to share the alternative opening of Patchwerks: River Styx (part two of Patchwerks).
Which opening you get depends on where you choose to stay in part one.
06/15/24 Snippet
“Tsk.” Rif executes a half bow, half shrug while hefting the chest towards the wall that Rif is pointing at with her chin. “Your wish is my command, sister dearest.”
“Here, $!{name}.” Raf carefully lets her side of the chest down, then fishes for a key in her pocket. “Open your chest, so we can verify everything and then get going.”
“Heh.” Nonchalantly, you bend down to slide the key into the lock and undo the clasp holding the lid shut. “Rif… Raf… Wha —?”
A pallid face of a corpse is staring up at you from inside the trunk. The petite woman had attempted to claw her way out of the chest, but the solid lid barely shows the scratches made by the broken nails on her hands. The woman must have been in the chest a long time undisturbed because she has mummified.
“$!{name}…” Rif places a hand on your shoulder and pivots you away from staring at the corpse and towards your bed. “Why don’t you come over here for now?”
“Damn, Rif.” Raf brushes her palms together before waving her hands at the now half-opened chest and glaring at her brother. “I thought you double checked …”
“Bah!” Rif removes his hand from your shoulder and places it and his other hand on his hips while leaning towards Raf. “You’re the one who got the chest out of storage.”
“Ugh!” Raf breaks eye contact with Rif and looks down at the chest. “We’ll get her to the Parlor House, get your clothes and other items as soon as we can, $!{name}.”
“Wh —?” Your eyes remain unfocused and your thoughts are still scattered. You have been carrying a dead woman all morning through the Under City. “who is she?”
“Er.” Raf shuffles over to the bed and nudges Rif to the side, so she can sit on the mattress by your side. Sympathetically, she pats your knee. “Just a forgotten girl.”
“Yea.” Rif pivots to your other side and sits on the bed as well. Leaning back on his elbows, Rif shakes his head. “She died trying smuggle herself into the Under City.”
“Alright…” You acknowledge what the twins say, but you still do not see why Dove would have a dead woman in her storage. “But … why did Dove have her?”
“Dove wants to…” Raf stares at you and a hitch forms in her voice as she attempts to answer your question. “Well, Dove wants to try to find the forgotten girl’s family someday.”
How do you feel about this?
*choice
#Nobody will miss her. What is one dead woman, more or less?
*set merciful %- 10
*gosub_scene dock_arc_1_and_2_shared shared_8
Death has grown to be a familiar companion to the people living in the Under City, and to protect themselves from the constant pain and distress of loosing loved ones, people here no longer make the deep connections they once did in the Forbidden City or even the Upper City. Is such denial a blessing for those so familiar with death, or is it a tragic mistake that familiarity has created such numbness among the population in the Under City?
How can you miss a person you hardly know?
Today, my pre-beta testing officially ends. Now I start working with the feeedback I have received.
I hope everyone has a good weekend. For those in the US, remember June 19th is a Federal holiday.
. 
I just finished editing my biggest scene yet, the second chapter of my WIP. Honestly I thought it would be a walk in a park to edit a 121k-word scene and take me just three days, but I stand corrected. It took a week and then some.
There is some code but I am trying out leaving notes and not formatting everything right away until code is being implemented.
), does that count? 
