o
This really was Wonder’s story, but Wonder
wouldn’t have gotten anywhere without Koro and I wanted to give her some
closure as well. The world ended and they all moved on or ceased to exist
depending on your own beliefs, but in the end Koro felt accepted and at home
which is all she ever wanted.
Thursday, February 28, 2013
Chapter 13: A Failed Conspiracy - NOTES
o
I feel like I presented the Vendors and Street
Spirits as sort of dumb and one dimensional. I don’t think they really are, but
they’re Vendors, they don’t even have their own names so they don’t put that
much effort into shaping the world around them. Uncle Friendly is the only
Vendor with enough ambition to take charge.
o
I considered developing Magic Rock’s plan into a
full blown overthrow, but it wasn’t necessary and I wanted Wonder to knock Uncle Friendly down a peg or two him/herself instead.
o
For a giant slug creature Uncle Friendly is
unnervingly good at sneaking up on people.
Prologue: The End of Ur - NOTES
o
This is pretty much how I saw things happening
when the real “Awakening” was announced. People panicked and cried. I prepared
for the end of the world in the best way that I could think of; I gave away all
of my possessions except for a single bag of odds and ends of little practical
use, but a lot of sentimental value. Then I traveled all over Ur. I had already
gotten most of the exploration badges so I was determined to explore all of the
new regions of Ur as well. I’m glad I did because some of the new regions ended
up being my favorites.
o
I wasn’t around for much of the actual end of
Glitch. We went out with some friends that night and got home about an hour
before the servers reset. Originally I had wanted to spend the last minutes in
Uutiif, but I wasn’t able to log on. I kept trying right up until
the end and somehow I miraculously got on the server after the shutdown. I was
on my home street, where I always left my Glitch when I logged off, and I was
happy to be there with Mr. Trinkets and Magic Rock instead of off somewhere
else for eternity.
o
The idea for this story came from the last
paragraph floating around in my head. I just started wondering, ‘What if some
Glitch woke up just as the world was ending and everything wasn’t really gone?’
Eventually I sort of fleshed out the idea and started writing this story, but
even when I posted this first section I hadn’t completely decided how to end it
so it was a little scary to start something without knowing if I would finish
it. In the end I let my own feelings on the game dictate how it should play out
and a lot of what I wrote--especially the stuff concerning the end of the world
and trying to save it--relates directly to my feelings on the end of the game
and people wanting to restart it or recreate it somewhere else.
Chapter 12: The Forest at Night - NOTES
o
Drifa and Nottis were two of my
absolute favorite regions in Ur. It’s a shame that they weren’t released until
the game was almost over because the scenery and terrain was beautiful.
o
I love the Half-Forgotten Glitchen and wanted to bring one in to help out with the quest. I figured if anyone
would be left behind it would be them.
o
Ur is a very unique place, geographically speaking.
The map of the world suggests that it’s laid out very much like a normal
planet, but the streets connecting one region to the next would suggest
otherwise. I also read on the forums that there was an idea to reimagine the map as a series of nodes floating around a central point. For all of these
reasons it’s difficult to map a route in a way that makes sense. Downhill
seemed the best guess for Wonder’s general direction.
o
The street where Wonder stops to admire the
forest at night is Luminous Night in Drifa. It really is a
wonderful street.
o
Once Wonder woke up a Piggy I had to have
her/him name it. I loved naming animals around Ur as long as they weren’t
already named (unless it was a dumb name that was just a series of random
letters or numbers). I kept four Piggies on my street named after the Ninja
Turtles and a Butterfly named Master Splinter until they all died. Then one day
I returned to my street to find a new piggy named “Plopmaker Gift.” I loved it
so much I kept the name.
Chapter 11: Things Aren't Always What They Seem - NOTES
o
Wonder’s admission to making a huge mistake about
Koro is a thinly veiled Arrested Development reference, just because I thought
it was funny.
o
I’ve presented Uncle Friendly as kind of a
bastard here. I apologize to any Uncle Friendly fans, but I needed a bad guy
and I never particularly liked Uncle Friendly. He gave me a sort of sleazy
feeling. Something you need to keep in mind, though, is I never really wrote
him as a “bad guy.” He’s not evil;
he’s just got a bit of a power trip going. He really is doing what he feels is
right to defend and restore Ur. His goals are noble, but his means and demeanor
leave something to be desired.
Chapter 10: Room 23 - NOTES
o
This chapter is another reason I took some liberties
with the layout of the tower. The Rook Museum and Room 23 are not actually
accessible from the same entrance.
o
I loved Room 23 and the concept of the ghosts
around Ur when I played the game so I really wanted to work them in somehow. In
the very early idea stages I knew Wonder would need some mysterious “guru” to
give him/her guidance on what to do, but I wasn’t sure who. I actually asked on
the forums and got a wide range of answers, but I had already sort of settled
on Gwendolyn. It helps that Room 23 already felt super mysterious.
o
I came to the conclusion very early on about how
I wanted this story to end. This kind of turned into a metaphor for the actual
closing of Glitch, which wasn’t really my intention, but it happens. I spent so
much time on the forums after the shutdown reading posts about “how can we
start Glitch back up?” or “why didn’t this work,” or “I feel like Tiny Speck
didn’t really try everything to make Glitch work,” and it started to bother me.
I feel like it was extremely obvious that the people behind the game loved it
as much as the players did. If they didn’t why would they still be on the
forums posting things or putting together art books and soundtracks; why would
they have released any of the multitude of updates that they released before
the very end just so we could see what they were working on? People that don’t
care about their work don’t go out of their way to show it off or preserve it.
Sometimes what a few people love isn’t sustainable as a business, and that
sucks, but it’s the reality of the world at large and the gaming industry in
particular. I know everyone grieves in their own way (some of us write lengthy
fan-fics) but Glitch was so loved that it deserves a dignified send-off and the
developers deserve to be praised for their work, not berated for “not trying
hard enough.” I believe if there was something else to be done they would have
done it, and if they did shut down without exploring every option that’s none
of my business. I played for free and I loved it, but things sometimes
end. I don’t want it to start back up
and I don’t want to play a recreation of it somewhere else. It could never be
the same. I would rather remember Glitch as this one amazing game that showed
up for a little while in my life and then was gone before I could really
appreciate it. I realize that the people complaining are not the majority and
for every negative post I read there were a hundred positive ones, but
sometimes those negative ones stick in your mind more clearly. So for everyone
who talked about how much they loved the game and tried to preserve it in your
own way (I loved seeing all of the crafty creations that people made) I thank
you for being an example of how to say goodbye to something you love.
o
The Notice the Unnoticeable quest was one of my
favorite quests in Glitch. I loved it for its abstract parameters and the
underlying sadness in such a happy, silly world. The first time I found a
Phantom Glitch it literally made me jump because I wasn’t expecting
it and I didn’t notice it at first. I made it my mission to find all of them
and receive my Faded Heart. Eventually I did and I wrote a short
horror story around it that I’ll post on this blog as well. The Faded Heart was
one of my favorite mementos and one of the few things I kept with my after the
shutdown announcement. I liked it so much that I sewed a real one out of felt
for myself. Once I decided to use Gwendolyn as Wonder’s guide I got the idea
that if the Phantom Glitchen could give you a Faded Heart, Gwendolyn’s must be
much more powerful so I invented the Crystal Heart to match her.
Chapter 9: Inside the Tower - NOTES
o
I didn’t really interact that much with Uncle Friendly in the game, but I got the impression that he was kind of
pompous and if they Vendors and Street Spirits needed a leader I imagined he
would be the one to do it. It helps that he’s one of the only named Vendors in
Ur.
o
I also assumed the Vendors were much more
organized than the Glitchen and would probably make plans for an emergency
situation like the world only partly ending.
o
The whole Wine of the Dead idea was
another abandoned plot point. I originally wanted to have Wonder purposefully
die and explore Naraka to bring back the Wine of the Dead, but it
felt unnecessary. I also considered bringing Hell’s Bartender into the scene,
but he got axed when I didn’t end up using the Wine of the Dead at all.
o
I took some liberties with the layout of the
tower. The Mezzanine isn’t actually connected to the rooms accessible by the
main entrance at all, but there were several areas marked “Under Construction”
in the actual tower, so I used them to my advantage to make getting around the
tower easier.
o
The Interrogation Room is an actual area that
was under development in the game at one time. According to the devs it was a
room where misbehaving Glitchen would be taken and interrogated and persuaded
to behave or else. Here is a screenshot and a video.
o
All of the rooms in the Mezzanine are real rooms
in the tower. The Hall of Records, as far as I know, was never accessible. The
Hall of Rejected Concepts was a room added shortly before the shutdown to
showcase ideas that were considered for the game, but ultimately were never
implemented for one reason or another.
o
The log with a face and arms lying on the floor
of the Rook Museum is, of course, Greeterbot Sentry G-42.
o
If you never experienced the Rook Museum quest, or
would like to relive it, here is the video I used for most of my research while
writing this chapter. It’s got the entire quest from the beginning, but the
actual museum bit starts around 1:40.
o
I knew from the very beginning that Wonder would
freak out when she/he learned about the Rook and I knew I wanted that to happen
after visiting the Rook Museum. It wasn’t until I was watching the video and
listening to the audio for all of the exhibits that I got the idea to
intersperse their dialogue with the voice over. It was a total last-minute
idea, but I think it worked well to end the chapter.
Chapter 8: An Unexpected Gathering - NOTES
o
The background for this blog is an edited snap
from Semper Valere in Balzare, one of the regions they travel through in this
chapter. The original snap was taken by Chemisie and you can find it
here. I loved these forest regions even though there wasn’t much to
actually do there besides collect quoins. The views were amazing.
o
I spent quite a bit of time in the Firebog
regions during my time in Ur. I went on a crystal making binge for a bit so I
got to know Chakra Phool pretty well. After the shut down announcement my full
Firefly Jar was one of the few personal items I kept with me.
o
Magic Rock is right; fireflies are a bunch of
show-offs.
o
Jethimadh Tower always drew me to it because it
was so different than the rest of the mostly natural world. I know the devs had
a lot of plans for it still, but it will always be mostly a mystery. I always
thought if there were answers about the world to be had, they would be
contained in some locked room in Jethimadh Tower. It was always my plan to
bring Wonder there.
o
I’m not sure if a Glitch could really hold a
Rook in a bag, but again, I took some artistic license.
o
There’s another Purple reference in Uncle
Friendly’s speech.
o
I had also thought about expanding Helga’s part
beyond this brief mention, but I decided not to try to throw too many
characters into the mix.
o
If Magic Rock and Uncle Friendly’s exchange
seems a little cold it’s because I imagined they had some mutual dislike of
each other from dealings in the past, but they knew they needed to put that
aside, at least for the moment.
o
In the first version of this part the party
actually came upon the gathering of Vendors and Uncle Friendly in a dead end
street in Chakra Phool and then convinced them to follow the party to the
tower. I decided to change it, because frankly that made no sense. If the
Vendors were going to get together they would probably choose a landmark, not
some random side street.
Chapter 7: A Quest! - NOTES
o
I’m a fan of fantasy books and RPG games so one
of my main goals was to get this rag-tag party together. Of course this party
is unlike any party I’ve ever read about or played in a game.
o
I had a deep fascination with the Ancestral
Lands in the game. Even though they turned out to be mostly featureless and
barren criss-crossing streets I still wondered what it was about them that
caused such a strong reaction in Glitchen. Having Wonder visit the Ancestral
Lands was another discarded plot point. At first I wanted to put the object of
a quest somewhere out there, but then
later the idea evolved into having Wonder seek out Juju Grandma for
guidance or some other reason. In the end I decided against it. The Ancestral
Lands have their own story about the end of their world; it wasn’t necessary to
tie it into this one.
o
I expect Magic Rock would be the most upset at
the thought of the rocks losing their voices.
o
So, this exchange takes place on Maaku Mills in
Tahli. I know there are no Paper Trees there; I don’t believe there are any
paper trees anywhere in Tahli, but having Wonder sit under a Paper Tree paints
a much nicer picture than having Wonder sit under a Bean Tree or an Egg Plant.
Plus I loved the Paper Trees, so I took some artistic license.
o
I’m pretty sure I had another Purple reference
ready for this section, but it felt out of place so it got cut.
o
Every party needs a quest or else it’s just a
group of friends hanging out, which rarely makes for a compelling story.
Chapter 6: Rook Attack - NOTES
o
I figured if anyone besides the inexperienced
Wonder would give a good Rook a chance it would be Magic Rock. He’s a smart guy
and he knows that if Koro hadn’t pecked the imagination out of the last Glitch
in Ur yet then there must be more to her story.
o
I knew early on how I wanted Wonder to find out
about the Rook, and it wasn’t from Magic Rock or Mr. Trinkets outing Koro, so
this was a little trickier to write. How do you introduce sworn enemies and
convince one that the other’s not a threat without actually discussing the
age-long conflict? I guess this chapter is how I did it, but I’m sure it could
have been handled better.
o
I had to work in a brief reference to Tiny
Speck, the company behind Glitch. It’s not super subtle, but it wasn’t meant to
be.
Chapter 5: Inventory - NOTES
o
It always struck me as funny that your butler
was never in your house. Generally butlers tidy up inside, but in Glitch they
wait forever outside. That’s why, even when the house was his, I never had Mr.
Trinkets go inside.
o
I always wondered about Magic Rock’s
instantaneous teleportation abilities. He’s always there. You can’t escape him.
o
Unlike the fictitious Sebastian my house was
incredibly messy. The “dreadfully cluttered with no sense of style line” is
directed at myself entirely. I loved the idea of creating this awesome house
with multiple floors and great decorations, but in the end I just wasn’t suited
to it. I was always out in the world and really used my house as a glorified
storage closet. Up until the announcement that Glitch was closing my house was
a single level with only the starting furniture and stuff left EVERYWHERE. I
had crap all over my table and floor and when I couldn’t fit anything else I
just piled it outside. I’m a bit of a video game hoarder, I guess. I did keep a
chicken named Alohomora in the back yard just to mix things up. Once the shutdown
was announced I got rid of it all, either by donating it or just dropping it
somewhere in Ur. Even my furniture got put away. In the end I left a bare,
one-room house with starry wallpaper and a few trees in the backyard.
o
I liked fitting the wardrobe into the house in a
way that Glitchen might have actually experienced it, rather than as just an
interface on the website. Again, I purposely avoided describing what Wonder is
wearing (if anything).
o
The collecting of bags and equipment is just a
technicality. I didn’t want a lack of items to be a plot point later on, so I
figured it would be better to explain how Wonder gained an expanded inventory
and lots of foodstuffs ahead of time. Mostly just me being nitpicky about the
realities of carrying supplies.
o
The specific mention of bringing along a toolbox was another side bit that got left out. I was planning to
actually have Magic Rock teach Wonder how to use some of the tools later on,
but it just kind of got lost in the story.
o
Firedog was my first ever Cubimal. He was a
Firebog Street Spirit Cubimal. He was one of the few items I kept
with me after the shutdown was announced.
o
The second Purple reference. Mr. Trinkets turned
into a bit of a pusher in this story.
Chapter 4: New Friends - NOTES
o
Teleportation in Glitch always seemed painful to
me. There were little jokes about not reappearing in the right order or winding
up somewhere completely different than you meant to, but I know there was never
any real danger. I kind of wish there was some inherent risk to teleporting,
like in the Harry Potter universe. Transporting your molecules across vast
distances and then rebuilding yourself is a tricky business with lots of ways
it might go wrong. Plus, have you considered that if you break yourself apart
into individual particles and then rebuild them somewhere else are you even
still the same person? Think about it. None of this every stopped me from
teleporting, mind you, but it’s something to consider.
o
This home street was completely invented for
this story. There are a million home streets in this style, but I didn’t base
the one Wonder visits on any particular person’s home street.
o
I also considered putting a tower on this home
street and letting Wonder explore that, but I had to decide whether I wanted to
write a story about a Glitch and their quest using references from the game, or I wanted to cram as many game references in as possible and then
try to fit a story around that. I chose to focus on the story and leave out the
extras. We all remember towers anyway.
o
From the beginning when I was piecing together
the parts of this story I knew that I wanted to include Magic Rock and my
butler, Mr. Trinkets, in Wonder’s party. Everyone needs a Magic Rock, he knows
just about everything! The problem was that opinion on Magic Rock was split.
Despite being incredibly helpful he is still a bit of a mystery so I invented
some aspects of his history to fit the story.
o
Honestly I couldn’t tell you where I got the
name Maurice. I just thought it would be funny to give Magic Rock a normal
name, and while “Maurice” isn’t an especially normal name it is a lot more
normal than “Magic Rock.” As soon as I wrote it I decided I would never refer
to him as Maurice again in the story.
o
I loved the idea of the butlers being these
weird golem-like creatures made from bits and pieces of things. Mr. Trinkets is
100% based on my butler from the game. Fun Fact: The name Mr. Trinkets comes
from an expansive D&D campaign my wife and I played with some friends. It
was the first time we had ever played and Mr. Trinkets was our pack-mule and
party mascot. He even killed a goblin once when he got startled in a cave. We
all still remember him fondly.
o
One of the saddest things about Glitch closing
was all of the players describing saying goodbye to their butlers. A lot of
players became incredibly attached to these things that were basically just
there to make managing the social aspects easier. It’s a testament to the
amount of emotional investment opportunities Tiny Speck created when they
designed different aspects of the game. It’s one of the reasons people were so
attached in the first place. I’m glad in the end I stayed on my home street
with the real Mr. Trinkets to keep him company.
o
The whole Purple Flower thing was a
running joke that kind of got left by the way-side. I just loved the subtle
(and not-so subtle) drug and alcohol references in Glitch. It looked and felt
at most times like a family friendly game, but there was such an undercurrent
of degenerate behavior that it always made me laugh when it popped up in-game.
I never messed around with No-No Powder, but I was well acquainted
with Purple. I kept several plots of it on my own home street. Incidentally, if
you want to relive your wild days of Purple use without the consequences just
click this link to give your web browser a little Purple flavor. I
bookmarked the URL and keep it as its own button on my browser. Now you can
always feel like you’re high on Purple wherever you go on the web!
o
The use of “ma’amsir” was suggested by
Kshandra during the whole “gender neutral” discussion on the
forums. It’s a funny word that stuck in my mind so I worked it in.
o
I sort of loved the idea of an “Odd Couple”-like
pairing of Magic Rock and Mr. Trinkets. You might even consider it a bromance,
if there were such a thing in Ur.
o
I heard about people leaving notes similar to
this one for their own butlers. It broke my heart a little bit so I wanted to
include the same sentiment in my story.
o
The Glitch, Sebastian, was also entirely made up
by me. I pulled the name out of thin air and I didn’t find a single actual
Glitch named Sebastian so I made him the owner of the house Wonder was
visiting.
Chapter 3: Alone Again - NOTES
o
I didn’t name any of the chapters when I wrote
them, I just have a Word doc divided by horizontal divider lines. It wasn’t
until I put them into the blog that I titled them. I sort of hated this chapter
title when I wrote it, but I didn’t really have any better ideas. Now that
Koro’s story is more fleshed out in my mind and in the rest of the story it
feels like a better title to me.
o
Speaking of titles, none of these are supposed
to be copied from or referencing any other work. I did, more than once, have to
talk myself out of using a Lord of the
Rings or The Hobbit chapter
title, though.
o
This is a very dramatic scene for Koro, and
she’s a very dramatic bird. One might even say overly dramatic. Her declaration
that she’ll wait there for Wonder until she dies seems ridiculous, but that’s
exactly the kind of thing that could happen in Ur. In fact it did happen all
the time. People would go AFK and come back to find themselves in Hell constantly. Of course death for a Rook might not just mean a quick
trip to Hell.
Chapter 1: First Steps - NOTES
o
Before I started posting this story I got on the
Glitch forums and asked people’s opinions on doing a single gender version of
the story vs. doing two different versions or trying some gender neutral alternative.
My thinking was that gender and sex don’t play a role in Glitch at all so I wanted this character to embody that and for
readers to be able to put themselves in Wonder’s shoes. The debate got a little
bigger than I intended but there were a lot of good points made. In the end I
realized there were no perfect solutions so I decided to do two different
versions because it seemed less confusing than using completely unfamiliar
gender neutral pronouns.
o
I also purposely left Wonder’s physical
description as vague as possible for the same reason. I never actually say what
Wonder looks like or what clothes he/she is wearing so that readers would fill
in the blanks on their own. Incidentally Wonder is intended to be naked in the
beginning until she/he finds clothes later in the story.
o
I had a lot of fun writing this part of the
story. Probably the most fun because it was entirely light and comical and I
knew things would get serious later on. I tried to channel some of the
ridiculousness that Tiny Speck was so good at including in the game. Mostly I
just tried to imagine what it would be like to find yourself fully formed with
some idea of what life was about, but without the benefit of Magic Rock’s
guidance in the early stages of our lives. Wonder didn’t get a tutorial before
he/she woke up.
o
If you look at the tags at the bottom of the
posts I tried to include the prominent regions and streets included in each
chapter, even if they’re not named in the text. I never stated it, but Wonder
woke up in Middle Valley Clearing, in Groddle Forest.
I chose this because I’m fairly certain it’s where my Glitch woke up. I know
for a fact it was Groddle Forest, but it may have been another street near
Middle Valley Clearing, like Groddle Forest Junction or Pasha’sPlace.
o
There would certainly be plenty of things for
Wonder to be curious about upon waking up. I chose to have Wonder focus on a
Musicblock first because it seems to me like such an iconic item from Glitch
that it’s instantly recognizable to any player, even noobs like me. Which
Musicblock is it? I don’t know, umm… how about BB-4?
o
As soon as I started this story I knew I wanted
to build a company around Wonder and I knew it would include a Rook. I love the
look of ravens, crows and other black birds, and I was always intrigued by the
idea of the Rook. I figured a Glitch who didn’t know anything about the world
would have no reason not to befriend a Rook as long as it wasn’t trying to kill
him.
o
Koro mentions that her name is not really a
name, but more of a rank. This was a concept of the Rook social structure that
I never fleshed out in the story because it didn’t really matter. “Koro,” as
you probably realized, is an anagram of “Rook.” Almost nothing is known about
the Rook so I started thinking about how their society might develop. They seem
like a very single-minded, militaristic society so I thought maybe they
wouldn’t have names because individuality is shunned (which is why they hate
the Glitchen), so I imagined they would be identified solely by their ranks.
Again, not being very creative, each rank would be an anagram of “Rook” with
“Koro” being the lowest rank and “Rook” being the highest. Koro-the-character’s
values didn’t align with the rest of the Rook so they cast her out and she
remained at the lowest level her entire life and was never given another name.
o
So I know the bit with Koro naming Wonder is
maybe a little cheesey, but I got stuck on the name Wonder really early on and
I wanted to work it in. Cheesey as it is it also fits the character. It also
put me in mind of Wander from Shadow of the Colossus, another hero
traveling a strangely empty world looking for answers. Also, by some miraculous coincidence, there wasn’t an actual Glitch avatar named Wonder. There were
several that used the word “wonder” in some form in their name, but none just
named “Wonder.” That was a big plus because I didn’t want there to be any
confusion on whether this was an original character or someone else’s avatar.
o
Every Glitch knows that jumping is an essential
and enjoyable part of life. I used to jump endlessly for no reason. It’s so
much more fun that just walking from place to place.
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Chapter 11: Things Aren't Always What They Seem
Koro was still in shock several
minutes after Wonder left her in the Rook Museum. This was exactly what she was
afraid of happening. She should have explained things as soon as they met, but
she was afraid of how Wonder might react. She definitely should have broached
the subject when Magic Rock and Mr. Trinkets joined them. They seemed to come
to an understanding and maybe they could have helped explain things to Wonder.
Koro knew she could sit in the
dark for hours thinking about all the ways she had messed up, but there wasn’t
time for that now. She needed to get to Magic Rock somehow and tell him what
had happened. She quickly came up against her first problem when she realized
the door was shut and door knobs were not designed with Rook feet in mind. No
matter how hard she tried Koro could get the door open. She was stuck in the
Rook Museum.
“This is no time to panic,” she
told herself, though she suspected this might actually be the perfect time to
panic. She sat perfectly still trying to force an answer into her brain. She
was concentrating with all her might when her feathers were ruffled by a slight
breeze.
“A breeze?” She looked around
the room but couldn’t see much in the dark. “If there’s a breeze then there
must be a way out.”
She took to the air to search
the room and find the source of the draft. She was flooded with relief when she
found several small windows set into the wall near the ceiling and one of them
was open just enough for her to squeeze through.
It wasn’t a perfect solution
because she still couldn’t get back in the tower to search for Wonder, but it
was better than being stuck in that awful museum for the rest of her life. From
way up here at least she could easily keep an eye on what was happening on the
ground without alerting any suspicion. She desperately wanted to talk to Magic
Rock, but she found him on the steps of the tower talking to several Vendors and she didn’t dare risk exposing herself to them.
She flew a few laps around the
tower and made a note of the exits and then perched on a ledge above a side
door to think about what to do.
***
Inside the tower Wonder was still
turning the Crystal Heart over in her hand and sifting through everything
Gwendolyn had said. She knew Gwendolyn was telling her truth about not being
able to put the world back together, but it wasn’t easy to think about.
Wonder also thought about the
advice Gwendolyn had given her about trusting her friends. She thought about
Koro and if she was really her friend. Wonder just wasn’t sure after what she
had seen. The voice in the museum said that the Rook are evil, and Koro hadn’t
tried to deny it. Even Magic Rock and Mr. Trinkets were terrified when they saw
Koro, and they had talked about how terrible the Rook were. Of course, they had
also traveled together after Wonder introduced them and even seemed to get
along. They never did tell Wonder the truth about the Rook, which made her
question what the truth was.
Maybe Koro was different. She
certainly didn’t act like she wanted to destroy everything. And she had
mentioned several times that she never really fit in with her family. Maybe she
really did just want a friend.
“I’ve made a huge mistake.” Wonder
admitted to herself. She resolved to find her way back to the Rook Museum and
talk to Koro. She still wasn’t sure what was true, but she would decide for
herself and not base her feelings on some voice in the wall.
Wonder climbed back down the
vines and walked out the door into the familiar hallway. She tried to retrace
her steps as best she could. The run down to Room 23 had been a bit of a blur,
but she made her way back to the Mezzanine with relatively little trouble. She
opened the door to the Rook Museum and cautiously poked her head inside.
“Koro?” She asked the dark room.
“Koro, are you still here?”
No reply.
“Come out, Koro, please. I need to
talk to you.”
Still nothing.
Wonder stepped all the way into
the room and pulled out her Firefly Jar. She checked the museum, avoiding
looking at the other Rook-related artifacts as much as possible. Koro was
nowhere to be found and Wonder was at a loss until she looked up and noticed
the open window. Her spirits fell. “I’ve probably frightened her off and she’s
flown away to where I’ll never find her again.” She stepped back outside and
sat down in the hallway to think about her next move.
“Koro’s gone, maybe for good.
Everyone else is waiting for me outside to tell them how I’m going to save them
and fix Ur, but now I know I can’t do that.” She let out an exasperated sigh
and leaned back against the wall. “This is a fine mess.” Further down the hall
she noticed a set of stairs leading down and got an idea. She thought up her
new plan while she was walking down the stairs.
‘Maybe there’s another exit I
can try. If I can sneak out a side entrance I might be able to get Magic Rock’s
attention and talk to him alone. He always has good advice.’
This set of stairs ran straight
and long right down to the ground floor. She inched open the door at the bottom
and found it opened directly onto a street adjacent to the one the Vendors were
waiting on. She stepped silently out and closed the door behind her. Now she
just needed to figure out how to get Magic Rock’s attention without alerting
anyone else.
Wonder had only been considering
what to do for a moment or two when she heard a rustling noise in a tree
nearby. She looked up into the branches but didn’t see anything.
“Koro? Is that you?”
The street was silent for a
second before she heard Koro’s voice from the tree. “Please don’t run away
again.”
“I’m not going anywhere.” Wonder
was so relieved to hear Koro’s voice she almost shouted, but then she
remembered the feeling of betrayal and it cooled her excitement. “Why did you
lie to me, Koro?”
Koro’s large, black bird head
peeked from around the trunk of the tree. “I’m sorry. I really am. I just thought
if you knew what I was you would run me off like everyone else.” She sounded
sincere and Wonder’s anger lost some of its edge.
“I didn’t even know what a Rook
was, why would I have cared?”
“Because everyone hates the
Rook! If I had told you what my people did what would you have thought of me?”
Wonder considered that. “I don’t
know, but it would have been nice to have gotten the chance to make up my mind.
You were my only friend; I’m sure I would have taken your word over some old
stories about what happened in the past.”
“You’re probably right, I was
just so afraid of being left alone again. You were my only chance at having a
real friend. The Rook kicked me out because I didn’t want to attack the Glitchen,
but the Glitchen only ran or tried to attack me because I’m a Rook. I spent
most of my life on my own, hiding and watching. I thought the Giants waking up
would be the best thing that could happen. I would disappear and nothing would
matter anymore, but then I was still here and everyone else was gone. I was
more alone than ever! When I saw you just waking up I thought, ‘Here’s my chance.
Maybe this is the start of something better.’”
Wonder was dumbfounded. Koro had
always changed the subject when Wonder asked about her family. She just assumed
Koro missed them and it was too sad to talk about. She had never considered
that anyone might be happier in this new version of Ur. “Oh… wow. I don’t know
what to say. I’m really sorry, Koro. I didn’t know.”
Koro dismissed it with a flap of
her wing. “I know, I know. It’s not your fault. I should have told you. When
you’re forced to live your life as an outcast I guess it makes you paranoid,
but that’s no excuse. I just wish—“ but Koro never finished her sentence.
“Well, what do we have here?” Uncle
Friendly stepped out from behind a large root near the end of the street
looking very pleased with himself. “I heard voices and thought I would come
investigate. I’m glad I did. Conspiring with the Rook? I expected more of you,
Wonder.”
“No, Uncle Friendly, you don’t understand!”
Wonder protested, but Uncle Friendly cut her off.
“I understand enough! The Rook
are the enemies of this world and if you’re conspiring with them then that
makes you the enemy as well.”
“But—“
“Now, I know you’re young. You’re
still learning about this place, but you need to understand: the Rook are evil
and they want nothing more than to see this world destroyed. Now, I’ll give you
a chance to redeem yourself.” Uncle Friendly was towering over Wonder staring
into her with his gigantic eye. “What did you find in the tower? Did you learn
how to call the Giants back?”
Wonder didn’t know what to do. She
was feeling panicked and her brain wasn’t working. All she could squeak out
was, “No, not exactly.”
“Not exactly? Well, what does
that mean?”
And then it was over. Wonder was
too scared to think straight and started recounting everything that had
happened in Room 23 including Gwendolyn’s plan to wake the Giants. Luckily she
was so frightened she jumbled most of it and forgot some key parts, like the
Crystal Heart, but Uncle Friendly got enough to understand that she wasn’t
going to put the Giants back to sleep, she was going to wake them up and end
this world for good.
He stared down at Wonder for a
long time in shock until his surprise turned into a self-satisfied smirk. He
pulled something from his pocket. “I don’t blame you, Wonder. You’re
too young to understand what’s going on and the Rook have twisted your mind.
But I can’t let you destroy this world. I have to do what I can to protect it.”
He pressed something into Wonder’s hand.
Wonder looked down and saw what
looked like a piece of paper. “What is—“
Uncle Friendly squeezed Wonder's hand
around the paper and with a pop she disappeared.
Koro squawked and flapped her
wings in the tree, but Uncle Friendly just looked up at her and smiled. “Go
back to your friends and let them know your plan failed. Uncle Friendly is
defending Ur now, and he won’t go down without a fight.” With that he turned
and walked back toward the front of the tower.
Chapter 11: Things Aren't Always What They Seem
Koro was still in shock several
minutes after Wonder left her in the Rook Museum. This was exactly what she was
afraid of happening. She should have explained things as soon as they met, but
she was afraid of how Wonder might react. She definitely should have broached
the subject when Magic Rock and Mr. Trinkets joined them. They seemed to come
to an understanding and maybe they could have helped explain things to Wonder.
Koro knew she could sit in the
dark for hours thinking about all the ways she had messed up, but there wasn’t
time for that now. She needed to get to Magic Rock somehow and tell him what
had happened. She quickly came up against her first problem when she realized
the door was shut and door knobs were not designed with Rook feet in mind. No
matter how hard she tried Koro could get the door open. She was stuck in the
Rook Museum.
“This is no time to panic,” she
told herself, though she suspected this might actually be the perfect time to
panic. She sat perfectly still trying to force an answer into her brain. She
was concentrating with all her might when her feathers were ruffled by a slight
breeze.
“A breeze?” She looked around
the room but couldn’t see much in the dark. “If there’s a breeze then there
must be a way out.”
She took to the air to search
the room and find the source of the draft. She was flooded with relief when she
found several small windows set into the wall near the ceiling and one of them
was open just enough for her to squeeze through.
It wasn’t a perfect solution
because she still couldn’t get back in the tower to search for Wonder, but it
was better than being stuck in that awful museum for the rest of her life. From
way up here at least she could easily keep an eye on what was happening on the
ground without alerting any suspicion. She desperately wanted to talk to Magic
Rock, but she found him on the steps of the tower talking to several Vendors and she didn’t dare risk exposing herself to them.
She flew a few laps around the
tower and made a note of the exits and then perched on a ledge above a side
door to think about what to do.
***
Inside the tower Wonder was
still turning the Crystal Heart over in his hand and sifting through everything
Gwendolyn had said. She knew Gwendolyn was telling the truth about not being
able to put the world back together, but it wasn’t easy to think about.
Wonder also thought about the
advice Gwendolyn had given him about trusting his friends. He thought about
Koro and if she was really his friend. Wonder just wasn’t sure after what he
had seen. The voice in the museum said that the Rook are evil, and Koro hadn’t
tried to deny it. Even Magic Rock and Mr. Trinkets were terrified when they saw
Koro, and they had talked about how terrible the Rook were. Of course, they had
also traveled together after Wonder introduced them and even seemed to get
along. They never did tell Wonder the truth about the Rook, which made him
question what the truth was.
Maybe Koro was different. She
certainly didn’t act like she wanted to destroy everything. And she had
mentioned several times that she never really fit in with her family. Maybe she
really did just want a friend.
“I’ve made a huge mistake.” Wonder
admitted to himself. He resolved to find his way back to the Rook Museum and
talk to Koro. He still wasn’t sure what was true, but he would decide for himself
and not base his feelings on some voice in the wall.
Wonder climbed back down the
vines and walked out the door into the familiar hallway. He tried to retrace
his steps as best he could. The run down to Room 23 had been a bit of a blur,
but he made his way back to the Mezzanine with relatively little trouble. He
opened the door to the Rook Museum and cautiously poked his head inside.
“Koro?” He asked the dark room. “Koro,
are you still here?”
No reply.
“Come out, Koro, please. I need to
talk to you.”
Still nothing.
Wonder stepped all the way into
the room and pulled out his Firefly Jar. He checked the museum, avoiding
looking at the other Rook-related artifacts as much as possible. Koro was
nowhere to be found and Wonder was at a loss until he looked up and noticed the
open window. His spirits fell. “I’ve probably frightened her off and she’s
flown away to where I’ll never find her again.” He stepped back outside and sat
down in the hallway to think about his next move.
“Koro’s gone, maybe for good.
Everyone else is waiting for me outside to tell them how I’m going to save them
and fix Ur, but now I know I can’t do that.” He let out an exasperated sigh and
leaned back against the wall. “This is a fine mess.” Further down the hall he
noticed a set of stairs leading down and got an idea. He thought up his new plan
while he was walking down the stairs.
‘Maybe there’s another exit I
can try. If I can sneak out a side entrance I might be able to get Magic Rock’s
attention and talk to him alone. He always has good advice.’
This set of stairs ran straight
and long right down to the ground floor. He inched open the door at the bottom
and found it opened directly onto a street adjacent to the one the Vendors were
waiting on. He stepped silently out and closed the door behind him. Now he just
needed to figure out how to get Magic Rock’s attention without alerting anyone
else.
Wonder had only been considering
what to do for a moment or two when he heard a rustling noise in a tree nearby.
He looked up into the branches but didn’t see anything.
“Koro? Is that you?”
The street was silent for a
second before he heard Koro’s voice from the tree. “Please don’t run away again.”
“I’m not going anywhere.” Wonder
was so relieved to hear Koro’s voice he almost shouted, but then he remembered
the feeling of betrayal and it cooled his excitement. “Why did you lie to me,
Koro?”
Koro’s large, black bird head
peeked from around the trunk of the tree. “I’m sorry. I really am. I just thought
if you knew what I was you would run me off like everyone else.” She sounded
sincere and Wonder’s anger lost some of its edge.
“I didn’t even know what a Rook
was, why would I have cared?”
“Because everyone hates the
Rook! If I had told you what my people did what would you have thought of me?”
Wonder considered that. “I don’t
know, but it would have been nice to have gotten the chance to make up my mind.
You were my only friend; I’m sure I would have taken your word over some old
stories about what happened in the past.”
“You’re probably right, I was
just so afraid of being left alone again. You were my only chance at having a
real friend. The Rook kicked me out because I didn’t want to attack the Glitchen,
but the Glitchen only ran or tried to attack me because I’m a Rook. I spent
most of my life on my own, hiding and watching. I thought the Giants waking up
would be the best thing that could happen. I would disappear and nothing would
matter anymore, but then I was still here and everyone else was gone. I was
more alone than ever! When I saw you just waking up I thought, ‘Here’s my chance.
Maybe this is the start of something better.’”
Wonder was dumbfounded. Koro had
always changed the subject when Wonder asked about her family. He just assumed
Koro missed them and it was too sad to talk about. He had never considered that
anyone might be happier in this new version of Ur. “Oh… wow. I don’t know what
to say. I’m really sorry, Koro. I didn’t know.”
Koro dismissed it with a flap of
her wing. “I know, I know. It’s not your fault. I should have told you. When
you’re forced to live your life as an outcast I guess it makes you paranoid,
but that’s no excuse. I just wish—“ but Koro never finished her sentence.
“Well, what do we have here?” Uncle
Friendly stepped out from behind a large root near the end of the street
looking very pleased with himself. “I heard voices and thought I would come
investigate. I’m glad I did. Conspiring with the Rook? I expected more of you,
Wonder.”
“No, Uncle Friendly, you don’t understand!”
Wonder protested, but Uncle Friendly cut him off.
“I understand enough! The Rook
are the enemies of this world and if you’re conspiring with them then that
makes you the enemy as well.”
“But—“
“Now, I know you’re young. You’re
still learning about this place, but you need to understand: the Rook are evil
and they want nothing more than to see this world destroyed. Now, I’ll give you
a chance to redeem yourself.” Uncle Friendly was towering over Wonder staring
into him with his gigantic eye. “What did you find in the tower? Did you learn
how to call the Giants back?”
Wonder didn’t know what to do. He
was feeling panicked and his brain wasn’t working. All he could squeak out was,
“No, not exactly.”
“Not exactly? Well, what does
that mean?”
And then it was over. Wonder was
too scared to think straight and started recounting everything that had
happened in Room 23 including Gwendolyn’s plan to wake the Giants. Luckily he
was so frightened he jumbled most of it and forgot some key parts, like the
Crystal Heart, but Uncle Friendly got enough to understand that he wasn’t going
to put the Giants back to sleep; he was going to wake them up and end this
world for good.
He stared down at Wonder for a
long time in shock until his surprise turned into a self-satisfied smirk. He
pulled something from his pocket. “I don’t blame you, Wonder. You’re
too young to understand what’s going on and the Rook have twisted your mind.
But I can’t let you destroy this world. I have to do what I can to protect it.”
He pressed something into Wonder’s hand.
Wonder looked down and saw what
looked like a piece of paper. “What is—“
Uncle Friendly squeezed Wonder's hand
around the paper and with a pop he disappeared.
Koro squawked and flapped her
wings in the tree, but Uncle Friendly just looked up at her and smiled. “Go
back to your friends and let them know your plan failed. Uncle Friendly is
defending Ur now, and he won’t go down without a fight.” With that he turned
and walked back toward the front of the tower.
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