This chapter made me slightly depressed when I wrote it.
You’ll notice that this story is unfolding in “real time”. This was a decision taken to make the interactive side of things easier.
The next chapter will be on Monday. It may be posted late in the day.
(johnny07)
It’s been fun, but we’re nearing the end of the summer holidays. Fun fact – “holiday” is a contraction of the phrase “holy day”, so it actually means a religious festival. So this should actually be called “summer break”. But I digress.
On Monday, it will be back to school for another year of unpaid labour. Joy of joys. As you can probably guess, I’m none too happy about the prospect. Where do the holidays go? That was never a full break!
There’s a well known saying: “time flies when you’re having fun”. I’m sure you’ve heard it before. It sounds silly, but it’s so true.
There are three days of freedom left to go. I might as well make the best of them. Me and my friends are going to the bowling alley tomorrow. Should be fun. Everyone’s back now, so hopefully they’ll all be able to make it.
The weirdest thing about this break has been the lack of schoolwork. It really has been total freedom. It’s a strange feeling. Sometimes I haven’t known what to do with myself. But I’m sad that it’s ending.
This is the first time we’ve heard from ianmalcolm, but not the first time he has been mentioned by name.
It’s quite different from previous chapters, I think.
ianmalcom has not allowed comments, unfortunately. But hey, that’s what rant pages are for! 
(ianmalcolm)
Are you there? Hopefully you’ll see this. I think you probably will. Admittedly my method of communication is rather public, but that’s fine by me. I dare say it’s less fine by my old allies, but I can’t be looking out for everyone, can I?
I love the Internet. You can access it from anywhere in the world. The best part is, if you take the right precautions, no-one will even know where in the world you’re writing from. Especially not if you keep moving.
So. It’s me. You probably thought I’d be too ashamed to show my face again. I guess you’re probably right. I’ll be the first to admit I screwed up, but it looks like I wasn’t the only one, which is comforting.
Lately, my heart just hasn’t been in this job. I’ve had my doubts about it for a while. After much deliberation, I’ve decided to hand in my resignation. I don’t want to be a part of this anymore. It’s all fake; there’s no real wisdom to it, and the treatment of employees is frankly noxious. I mean, everyone makes mistakes, right? There’s no need to beat them up over it.
I need a change of pace. I need to take a step back and figure out where I went wrong.
When it all gets too much, I have my mantra: “false wisdom and ruthless blades shall not reign forever.” Sure, it sounds a little pretentious, but it’s a saying I hold close to my heart. The words soothe me when I’m down. I guess it’s because I can’t feel bad when I think about something so positive.
Fact is, I’m smart. I can be cruel, too, when I need to be.
You will hear from me again later, but that will be the last time.
Bradley reminded me of myself a bit in this chapter.
I realise the plot isn’t moving forward very quickly. I wanted to introduce the main characters properly before introducing too many plot elements.
***
It was my poshest friend’s 18th birthday on Saturday (seriously, he has a top hat, a swimming pool and a double-barrelled surname). It was fun. We spent most of the time listening to Led Zeppelin, drinking cider and playing Time Splitters 2, when I wasn’t attempting to socialise and doubtless committing faux pas left, right and centre. There was only one other person from school attending, and like me, I think he felt a bit out of place. It was great fun though. We pushed the birthday boy into the pool, which was a laugh. He wasn’t particularly happy about that, but I passed him his top hat so that he could regain some of his dignity. You can never look undignified in a top hat.
(bizzariarox)
not a lot has been happening lately. dawn is now in steamburg, but i’ve been hanging out with imogen a lot. turns out she’s been just as bored as me lately! it’s funny actually, i never really used to hang out with imogen outside school, even though we’ve got quite a lot in common. we like the same movies, the same sports, the same video games, the same just about everything but clothes, really. it’s really weird how there are some people you only really meet during school hours. different parts of your life are like separate worlds. well, that’s how it is for me, anyway.
i’m still in touch with sakura, naturally. she sounds like she’s having fun in eiriendor, which basically amounts to a really long holiday in california. i’m really jealous.
i think my problem is i have way too much time to spare. sometimes i find myself wishing the holidays would just end, which is a weird thing to wish for, just so that i can be back at school and feel like there’s a purpose to what i’m doing. i probably should think about getting a job. imogen works in the cinema, and reckons it’s alright, so maybe i should see if they have any vacancies or whatever. or i could just not bother, since school’s starting next week anyway, but i could use the cash.
anyways… nothing else to report right now. if anything interesting happens, i’ll let you know.
Ah, the rock concerts of the future. I’d imagine they’d be quite a different experience from the rock concerts of today.
This chapter provides more information regarding the geography of the world where this story takes place. Specifically, it gives a clue as to the location of Hercynia, where Johnny lives.
(johnny07)
Me and a couple of friends went to see Juan Beike live yesterday. We had to get up fairly early, head down to the first bus to the north dock, and catch a boat to London. All in all it was a pretty expensive trip, but we took a cheap tourist boat, which cut down on the expenses a bit.
When we got there, we went and ate at a café. We needed to be quick, because we didn’t want to be late for the concert. We’d all got tickets paid for in advance (thanks to Hans’ dad), but we still had to queue for nearly an hour before we actually got in.
The concert was dramatick. I loved every second of it. I don’t really know that much about Juan Beike; I’ve got his first album but I’d never seen him live before, but now that I have, I realise that he absolutely rocks. The dude is a genius. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone who could play the guitar so fast. And the song where he alternated between three different guitars – woah. Just woah.
We were seated up to the right of the stage, which was quite a long way back, but meant we got a good view. The music was very loud, and combined with the guy in front who wouldn’t stop whistling, it’s probably done permanent damage to my eardrums, but never mind. It was so worth it.
Afterwards we went and got ourselves some fish & chips, before taking another boat back home. It was a memorable day, but I was worn out afterwards!
The lovely sulz has given me another award. Thanks sulz!
I have to name 8 other bloggers to give awards to. Do I read as many as 8 other blogs on a regular basis?
Ahem. In no particular order, I bestow this prestigious award upon:
So yeah. Yay! 
I’m not writing these as fast as I’d like to, unfortunately.
Bradley returns, with a slightly more cheerful post. Bear in mind that this is set in the future, which means there are some linguistic differences. For example, “opti” is slang, similar to “cool” or “great”, derived from “optimum”. “D’Wighta’s” is a café.
