Part 3: The Theeds

Separating the lively from the ancient was crucial to keeping Meridian upright. Without the young, none lived long enough to grow old. Without the antiques, there was no mystery to life's promised luxury.

Without the theeds, the ancients nesting atop the Inner Spires in their amber voxels were only human.

A theed separated the Weeping Desert's old world relics from their expressed design, however mysterious. A theed kept the antiques from killing their owners just long enough for them to grow old. 

The road elevated. The Inner Spires rose into view, gold slathered over light. At a distance, from the city perimeter, they were towers. Drawing nearer, they appeared uglier to the eye—stubby, inglorious volcanos, long cold.

The truck drew them nearer. The rain was still stiff as a snare line. The corroding tires swept away the gathered acid wash.

"Feel that?" Rahz asked. Orry set his fingertips to the door.

"Wheels are vibrating on the axel," Orry said.

Rahz kept her hand on the wheel. "There are only ten pinches of calliban connecting the drivetrain to the axel, but there are two hundred and sixteen ferrum rivets holding the truck together. The calliban can survive in this climate. The ferrum—" she held the thought, clenching the wheel.

"Can we make the return trip?" Orry asked.

"No," Rahz answered. "Not on these wheels. Not with our skins."

According to the Silversmiths, any antiquities brought in from the Weeping Desert were entirely harmless. This was a decree founded on logic, rather than confidence. The logic was simple enough: if any antiquity truly was dangerous, it'd kill the man holding it well before he made it back into the city limits.

Who could say? Well, the dead, for one. The haunted, for another. They didn't keep a good command over language if the deserving circumstance struck them.

According to a recent interview in "GQ" (Gentlemen's Quarterly) Magazine, Aziz Ansari revealed he recently quit the internet. Heh, yeah, dude, that owns. That owns, like, big time.

Look, there are worse role models in the world than Aziz Ansari. The guy crafted a non-genre masterclass in tasteful television with "Master of None" over on Netflix and taught a generation of men in their 30s that being a cock to women isn't fashionable.

But quitting the internet? Aziz, that is a confident move. That is game atop game, man. It's like the most punk rock thing you can do in 2017. Not many could pull it off, because the world is full of psychos and we need to talk to each other to maintain the panicked high that gets us from sunrise to sunset. Rumor has it, Christopher Nolan doesn't use or email or even own a cell phone (or let people sit in chairs on his movie sets). But I believe that's only a symptom of Nolan being a British person and is not a deliberate choice.

Nevertheless, it got me thinking: how can a normal person purge their internet addiction?

Whether fresh out of college, five years out of college, or gathering that spoiled-fruit funk near the ten year-mark, it's a sure thing you've had your head kicked by some stubborn mule in corporate middle-management. Look, it wasn't entirely your fault an individual misunderstood what motivated you. You were probably missing the skills to communicate your more passionate, creative aspects, and they were probably tossed into a jackal-cackling rush to avoid something costly about you they didn't get.

That's the key ingredient to personal motivation in all generations of workers: people and businesses who NEED content aren't competent judges of content.

There's no better time than now to slam a bridle on what you're passionate about and ride that animal till it collapses, especially if it's creative- or content-focused. Here's what you need to know about making money off what jerks begrudgingly admit is important...

I've been systematically informing the YouTube recommendation algorithm that I never want to watch any video posted by anyone with the word "angry" in their username. You can imagine how neckbeards have fallen to my sword of disinterest. You can imagine a little harder, and figure there's not a drill-bit sharp enough to bore through all that toxic content. Sunlight will never find these deserving motherfuckers.

Too much content is created out of a desire to be heard, instead of a desire to know and be known. Too much content is about other content, this very post of mine included (which is why I write free books to read online during my nights and weekends).

To be blunt, the internet's content, the perpetual doggo chasing its tail, has now deep-throated the thing and is molars-deep into its own ass, ignorant to the ashy flavor. The dominant moods on the most popular content platforms are psychosis, shrieking, and self-preservation.

But with a little class, we can push beyond the slick, post-content Netflix alternative environment into something more honest and weird. So, how did Blomkamp do...?

Most villains are aware of the world's status quo. They either love it or hate it.

Open your mind to the fearful, hateful creatures that will do anything to keep themselves comfortable.

In Suns Go Dark, I wanted to explore the older generation's fear of losing their palatial comfort, and passing that fear down to the young workers laboring on the sun-farms as their predecessors once did.

A reader sits alone. They usually read alone. The simplest way to enter a story, particularly a work of fiction, is alongside a protagonist: a heroic guide character.

Stories with more than one lead protagonist are less common. The reader might not be sure which to align with and the writer will struggle to favor one over the other.

I welcomed this challenge for Suns Go Dark. Science fiction is about perspective and two leads means twice as much perspective. Most of Ghost Little's free books to read online have multiple protagonists, but that's a matter of narrative structure zig-zagging later in the story for a look into how the other half lives. Suns Go Dark favors two protagonists from the very beginning.

How do we write that into the sci-fi world? Check this out...

After debating character motivations for our free books to read online in the prior series installment, I want to shift attention to the novel's potential character interaction tropes.

We know our primary protagonist is tasked with co-existing alongside what is in most regards the protagonist of a young-adult dystopian novel, complete with caste-system rules and high school allegories. But we're faced with a question: is the "experienced person has to transport important other person" trope played out? What's the gender balance in that? If the protagonist is a man and the invincible, shouldn't-be-possible recruit is a woman, is that bad?

It depends on context and character motivations within the environment...

Now that we have a plot outlined, let's examine the best type of protagonist for the story's environment.

A simple way to start: what is exceptional about our protagonist if he / she is not a Chosen-One or a Messiah? If we're writing a free book to read online, does the audience demand a certain gravitas from their protagonist? Don't we all want to manipulate the world's very axis?

Well, if not, why is it important that our protagonist is even involved with the story's shifting world...?