2020-09-01 00:59
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description
<p>This is not the story of Justin, the mild mannered, well-meaning human who found himself suddenly reliving his teen years inside a popular installment of the video game series called The Halcyon Call. He might be aware of the events of the game that unfold, but has found the universe has filled in the gaps between the static coding. The world is more vibrant, the people no longer two dimensional, and the consequences much more personal.</p> <p>This is, instead, the story of Scaleen Fortuna, a Raptoran (read: 'Kobold', but don't call her that to her face), a scribe and city guard who is put in the position of interrogating Justin Stormhallow, who was caught breaking into the palace days before the coronation of the Crown Princess. His story is unbelievable, but verifiable. Scaleen doesn't want to believe Justin, but she can't afford to let his future come true. Gambling her safety to verify his story, she realizes quickly that Justin is as earnest as he is exceptionally over-powered for his level.</p> <p>Scaleen doesn't know what to think of her world being just a game come true for Justin, but she's canny enough to realize that Justin needs help to figure out how best to leverage his knowledge to stop the worst of the future. Justin certainly needs her understanding of social morays and working the system to keep himself from getting into trouble in a world without guardrails or invisible walls.</p> <p>And perhaps, as long as she remains in his good graces, she can use his intimate understanding of the universe to unwind the systemic abuses that make her own and others lives so difficult.</p>
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