Shrown (story)
I never considered Oddworld fan fiction before. But last night I got an idea in my head so I started writing. Now I have the first three chapters of a story I never planned to make. I suppose it's a bit like AO, only with a Slig for a main charactor. I thought I would put the first chapter on here just to see what people think. If people like it I will add the others, but I will limit the amount I add a week so I don't have to rush the writing. Critisism is welcomed as long as it is constructive. Enjoy!
---------------------- A quick explanation about Slig numbers: A Slig's number is decided depending on when he hatched. So for example, 5-12-3-27. The 5 means he was the fifth to be born. The 12 means he hatched on the twelfth day. The three means he hatched in the third month. And the 27 is the year he hatched. So, our main character was the fifth to hatch on the 12th of the 3rd 3027. I hope that hasn't confused you! SHROWN Chapter 1 I open my eyes. It takes some time for them to adjust to the darkness, but when they do I find that I’m in a small metal room. I’m lying on the ground. When I move my limbs are stiff with the cold that seeps from the floor. A beam of moonlight shines through a single glass window behind me. It falls upon the door of what I presume is my cell. The door is also made from metal, and there is another window in the middle of it, but this one has several bars crisscrossing through it rather than a pane of glass. “Hey, what’s your name?” a voice whispers. I jump alert at the sudden sound. Surprisingly, I still have my mask and my metal legs, which is strange as these are usually taken from Sligs who ‘break the rules’. I grope around in the darkness but I can’t find my gun. I wasn’t expecting it to be here but it was worth looking for anyway. “Can you hear me?” says the voice again. I walk to the door and peer through the window. Opposite my cell is another cell. The two are probably identical. A Slig looks through the window at me. He looks worried. “My number is 5-12-3-27,” I say flatly. The Slig seems happy I have spoken to him. “I’m 14-9-1-27,” he says, “but you can call me Zevenk.” “Zevenk,” I nod. “I’m Shrown.” After a pause, I add, “Where are we?” Zevenk looks as if he is about to speak, but instead he quickly ducks out of sight. I begin to ask him what he is doing, but then a Big Bro Slig stalks past, his mechanical legs clanking on the floor. He looks at me with a mixture of suspicion and disgust on his face. He disappears from sight as he moves past my cell, but I can still hear his legs buzzing and clicking. When the sound has faded, Zevenk reappears. “Sorry,” he says, “but they don’t like us talking. Anyway, you’re telling me you don’t know where we are? No one told you?” I shake my head. “I can’t remember much,” I answer, which is the truth. He sighs. “This is a prison for criminal Sligs. They put us to work here, like Mudokon slaves.” Mudokon slaves, ah, now my memory returns. I know why I am here. I defied orders to kill a Mudokon that had tried to escape from the factory I work in. I just couldn’t find it within myself to pull the trigger. After all, the poor thing was defenceless and scared out of its skin. It would have been slaughter. Besides, I couldn’t blame it for wanting to escape the factory. I hated it there myself. I tell you, ever since I first witnessed two Sligs beating a slave to death my thoughts have been different. “I’m here because I killed a Glukkon,” Zevenk continues. “The idiot was always bossing me around. So I shot him. Why are you here?” I consider telling my story to this guy I have known for less than three minutes. But then I decide to stay with what I said before. “Like I said, I can’t remember anything.” “Too bad,” he replies. “I bet you have a good story to tell.” Yeh right, I think as I sit back down on the floor. It is absolutely freezing but I force myself to put up with it. I close my eyes to try and get some sleep. ---------------------- So tell me what you think please? |
Interesting start. 'Nice slig' theme is as old as the hills, but this could still be interesting. I enjoyed reading it at any rate so I might keep an eye on this.
|
Very good. I like it so far. :)
|
Thanks for the comments. I know its only been a few hours and I said I would limit my posts but I'm really board so I'm just going to give you the next chapter. I know this story is probably a bit cliched but I hope it turns out ok and you all like it.
------------------------ Chapter 2 “Slig 5-12-3-27, you are charged with defying orders given to you by a commanding officer and for helping aid a possible escape. Do you understand the charges?" I look up at the Glukkon talking to me. He looks and speaks like he’s only got half a brain. Surprising, since he’s the one who runs this prison and organises everything. “I understand,” I say. What else can I say? “In two days you will board a train that will take you, as well as some others, to see Queen Skillya. You will tell her everything, and she will decide what will happen to you. Do you understand?” Again, grimly, I answer yes. “Good. You may go back to your cell until farther notice.” Relieved, I stand from my chair and walk towards the door. I’m in this Glukkon’s office and he was telling me what I did wrong. A pointless speech, but they like it when they think they are doing something important. Anyway, I make my way towards the door. Outside there is a Shrink waiting for me (yes, they actually have Shrinks in this place!). It has the face of a Slig rather than that of a Mudokon. It extends its arms when it sees me, as if it wants a hug. (Can you imagine hugging a Shrink?) “Slig 5-12-3-27, I am to escort you back to –” “Yeh, yeh, I know. But I’ve been here four days. I think I know my way back to my own cell.” The Shrink folds its arms slightly and comes closer to me, clenching its metal hands into fists. “Yes, but I have to escort you anyway. Let’s just call it a lack of trust. Are you ready to go back to your cell, Slig 5-12-3-27?” “Whatever.” I push past the Shrink and stomp away, leaving it to follow closely behind. God, those things are annoying! Security cameras can be seen wherever you turn. They fly around checking that no one is making trouble. One flies up to me, takes a quick look at what I am doing, then zooms away. I ignore them mostly, but they do get on your nerves when they are constantly following you around, as they do with me sometimes. I can see Sligs cleaning floors and walls and bits of machinery. There are great big machines that we have to operate. They don’t do much, mainly melt down metal, but they are complex and difficult to use. I was told a Slig fell into one once and burned to death. Makes me shudder to think of it. The Shrink comes up next to me. “So what is your sentence?” I can’t believe what I am hearing! It’s actually trying to make conversation? Must be some new programming or something. “I’m to see Queen Skillya in two days,” I say. Best to be polite, I suppose. “Ahh, I see. She will know what to do.” I role my eyes. What is it trying to do, be friends with me? It’s torture enough having it follow me. At least I will be outta’ here soon, I tell myself silently. After ten minutes of walking and putting up with attempted conversations from the Shrink, I finally reach my cell. I walk in and close the door behind me. The Shrink locks it, then looks through the window. “Good luck with everything,” it says happily, then folds its arms, twirls around and disappears through a hole in the ceiling. I slump to the floor in relief. “That new programming is a real nightmare,” Zevenk says from his cell. We’ve become good friends since I arrived, but I still haven’t told him why I am here. What would he say if he learned I was a big softy who couldn’t even shoot a slave? “Tell me about it. It even asked me what my sentence was. I mean come on!” “I know,” he laughed. “The other day one asked me how I liked this place. When I said I hated it here, it replied ‘we are trying to make it pleasanter’. Made me laugh.” I think of something to say. I have a feeling he is about to ask me something. I also have an idea of what it is going to be. “What is your sentence anyway?” Yep, I was right! “In two days I’m getting on a train and going to see Queen Skillya.” “That’s a coincidence. I’m going to see her in two days as well. Guess we’ll be travelling together?” “I guess.” Part of me is happy that he is coming because it means I wont be on my own (I haven’t really got to know any other Sligs here), but part of me hates it because he can be really annoying sometimes. Firstly, when he starts talking sometimes he doesn’t stop. Secondly, he snores. And thirdly, he’s always moaning at the quality of the food (personally, I think it’s the best gruel I’ve ever had). But I suppose it will be good to have the company. There’s no work for me to do and it’s really boring so I go to sleep for a couple of hours. ---------------------------------- Comments Please! |
OH NOEZ! GREY TEXTS!
This looks like it's going to be a fantastic fanfic! |
Still enjoying this; your main character is slightly banal, but that's good; it's unusual. I look forward to learning more about him; will they reach Skillya's place or will thier journey be hindered? And if they make it there, what will happen to them?
Even if a plot is slightly cliched, unusual and interesting characters can make it a worthy read. |
A very good chapter. :)
|
Yay people like it! I'm on chapter 9 at the moment, so I'll post chapter 3 later today (I'm at school at the moment). It refers to a different character and happens before the first two chapters but it should be ok. And Splat, I'm afraid you will have to wait to find the answers to those questions!
|
Here's chapter 3, as I promised earlyer! ------------------------ Chapter 3 3 days before Shrown woke up in prison… “Will you SHUT UP?!” Vechk shrieked in his high-pitched voice. He had put up with its complaining ever since it woke up, four hours earlier. He had decided to keep it in his lab rather than the animal pens because he didn’t want anyone to steal it. But if he had known it would be this bad he would have happily put it in the pens. Vechk’s sudden words only made things worse. The creature cried out even louder, and it began to hurl its body against the bars of the cage. Its wings flapped wildly, unable to open to their full extent due to the lack of space. It head-butted the bars with such force that the cage rattled loudly, and Vechk was suddenly worried that it wouldn't hold. “You’re going to hurt yourself if you keep doing that. And if you are hurt I can’t operate on you. Just be thankful you weren’t turned into food,” Vechk said to the creature. He knew it wouldn’t understand him. All it did was howl, growl and snarl. He put his head in his hands and went to the opposite wall of his lab where he kept the tranquilizers. Picking up a syringe, he filled it halfway with the green liquid. “You’re going to be injected with this. At least that way I can get to sleep.” Vechk abruptly stopped. How was he going to inject it? It would tare off his arm as soon as he reached into the cage. He would need an Intern to shoot the thing instead. Putting down the syringe, he left his lab to search for one. As he was walking, a familiar voice sounded from behind him. “Hey Vechk, you still got that thing in your lab? Or was that you making all that noise?” Vechk stopped in his tracks. He turned around to face who was talking. This was the last thing he needed. “If you want my opinion you should kill it now. The experiment won’t work. All it’s going to do is make you seem more pathetic, if that’s even possible.” “I don’t want your opinion, Crelet,” he answered. Crelet was always picking out his faults and teasing him about his work. “The experiment will work, and when it does you will be the pathetic one, not me.” Crelet shrugged. “Eh, whatever. I’m going for a break. I suggest you do something about that noise because, well, people are beginning to complain.” And with that, he turned on the spot and disappeared down the corridor. “When my experiment is complete he’s the first one I’m sending it after,” Vechk promised himself. He hated Crelet even more than he hated niceness to animals. He would get his revenge. But first he had to find an Intern. |
Hooray for multi-dimentional plots!
Nice chapter, amusing. |
Woaw!! Your story is amazing. I love the description in the first chapter.
|
This is a really fun read. Vechk made me laugh. :D
Keep it up! |
Interesting first person on Shrown. And a real interesting way to put in two plots. I bet they'll become one big problem in the end. I'll be checking back on this.
|
I'm going to post the next chapter now because there's a chance that I'm going to be disconected from the internet due to the people sending us the wrong bills and then not doing anything about the problem. So if I don't post any more chapters for a while you know why. Anyway, this one goes back to Shrown and adds a couple of new charactors to the story. ----------------------- Chapter 4
A Flying Slig was killed yesterday. The fool thought he could escape through an open window. He didn’t realise there were motion detectors outside. He was killed by a collision with a flying mine. ---------------------------- I really hope my internet doesn't get cut off :fuzsad: |
Interesting idea with the six sligs escape. This prison reminds me about Alcatraz. The four mudokons I find a little bit unbeleivable but then again you do get odd fellows once in a while. I hope you don't lose internet either.
|
Good luck with the internet troubles! Always nasty when it looks like you're going to loose access for a while.
Nice chapter, the characters of these new sligs are interesting. The surly, miserable, angry guy who frees slaves in his spare time... :p I hope to hear more from him, why he chose to help them for example, but we shall see. It certainly stops Shrown from looking so bad anyway. I liked what you did with Shrown, still keeping his secret even after the toher slig admitted to freeing slaves. It shows weakness in his character, which is a good thing cus it makes it more interesting! I'm sure it'll come out sooner or later anyway, but I'm enjoying this so keep writing! |
This is awesome. And I really like Shrown's personality. Very belivable. I hope your internet stays, cuz' I want to hear more from you. :D
|
Well it's been roughly a week and I've kept my internet! But the people havn't done anything about the over-charging so there's still a chance I could be cut off any day. But apart from that, I do believe it's time for another chapter... ---------------------- Chapter 5 The train hasn’t stopped yet. We’re still handcuffed and we’re locked in the same room. The sun’s high up so I guess it’s about midday. The Sligs told us their names. The RuptureFarms-escapee is Blege and the Mud-hugger is Creck. Creck doesn’t say much, unlike Blege who keeps trying to get a conversation going. He doesn’t ramble on like Zevenk though. No one’s given us any food, so we’re all hungry. “I’m the one who runs from threats? Look at you then, proposing that we all escape from this train!” ------------------------ Oooh, what's going to happen? Will Shrown be cooked? (I didn't make that up, OWI said it themselves.) Will he be sent back to prison?? Why was Zevenk so happy??? Unfortuantly the next chapter talks about Vechk so you'll have to wait until chapter 7 to find out! Really sorry about that. |
Grr, what happens to him? I want to know! Post soon!
|
Your methods of paragraphing give me nightmares! D=
But srsly :D I like it, the first person approach is fresh and theres enough in to keep me interested. |
Well hurry up and update! The wait is killing my brain!
:C |
:
And I'm sorry everyone but you will all have to wait! I'm writing really slowly lately and I need time to get ahead. |
Yeah, you can't indent paragraphs in the forums so you have to double space them or its unclear for the reader.
|
I know that...it's just the thought of all those jeering faces! :eek:
|
Oh my... I wasn't expecting that Zevenk would somehow be happy. Vechk is going to be in the next chapter... Plotline becomes thicker.
|
Nice job so far, keep up the good work.
|
I present: Chapter 6! Sorry for the extreme shortness. -------------------- Chapter 6 The day before Shrown woke up in prison… |
to make a guess based entirely upon your signature... Scrab with wings/additional limbs?
|
You'll find out in Chapter 8...
|
It might be so Splat... But I personally think it won't be. Scrabs don't shreik... Unless that's a variation of howling.
|