Story link: Weakness
Length: 9697 words (thus pretty unpostable on these boards)
Subject: Farrukh is a man of many small jobs at the hotel in Northflow Bay, on the southern reaches of Floseswin. So very used to the war over their heads, how will he and his small town react when the war becomes far more real to them?
Please enjoy the first piece of Eve fiction I have written in well over a year. It’s been quite a bit of work, and a lot of Cyberpunk/Synthwave/Chillwave mixes on youtube have played before I finished this.
Note: This is entirely an OOC post and an OOC piece of fiction. It’s not intended to be an entry in any writing competitions, or something that necessarily happened or can be interacted with in RP. It’s just a piece of fiction, not affecting anything, unless anyone chooses to believe in what may or may not be a reliable narration. It’s about as much as I can contribute to the Floseswin arc at this point.
Have fun, and feel free to tell me what you think of it.
I’d just like to mention my appreciation for Senpai taking notice. I love writing fiction in/about New Eden but it very much is one of those activities that can be hair-pullingly frustrating in terms of effort/time to recognition ratios. You definitely have to do it because you enjoy it, as feedback and ego-stroking can be rare. This makes little things like News Mentions and so on an absolute treat and morale boost. Writing this story was incredibly fun and challenging, trying to world-build, have a compelling arc, and ‘affect the world’ while still riding that knife’s edge of being utterly insignificant in order to avoid asserting power or stepping on toes of both players and devs in terms of their own world-building and storytelling. Reading these latest news - re-reading in fact as my initial skimming made me gloss over it, as someone else pointed it out to me - and realizing Northflow Bay’s existence is now canon and a part of the world of New Eden is downright thrilling to a hobby writer. Granted, it’s a smoldering crater of the world, but it exists.
The story itself is of course still entirely up in the air and the news article is the only solid piece of information we have on the place, but perhaps there was a man named Farrukh living there. Perhaps he experienced something that shattered his world. Perhaps he even yet lives, his life touched by the weak yet so very very far beyond his comprehension.
Thank you CCP, it is with gratitude and joy that I get to see my scribbles noticed by Senpai.
News snipped about the fate of Northflow Bay:
CONCORD Conflict Monitors Gain Access to Devastated Coastal Town in Southern Floseswin as Amarr Forces Retake Littoral Zones
Southern Continent, Floseswin IV – Amarr forces under Colonel General Vikhtor Mazari have escorted a CONCORD conflict monitoring team to the destroyed coastal town of Northflow Bay, following the successful retaking of a broad sweep of the littoral zones connecting the three main Amarr occupation zones. The monitoring team has reported a confirmation of the destruction of the town by antimatter device detonating in an airburst over the settlement.
House Sarum forces were able to push back the Republic Command’s Southern Army Group as Minmatar positions on the coast became untenable under offshore and orbital bombardment. Establishment of space superiority by 24th Imperial Crusade forces has led Valklear General Kanth Filmir to retrench his lines across terrain the Minmatar can more readily defend. The majority of Minmatar gains made in the recent offensive remain secure as both sides reorient and reinforce.
General Mazari asserted that Northflow Bay’s civilian population had “either fled the fighting or been massacred by rebel partisans,” at a recorded briefing of the CONCORD monitoring team on site. “Northflow Bay was an entirely military and valid target at the time of its destruction by our strategic submarine forces. We could not allow a vital supply node to remain in enemy hands. The missile strike was legal under interstellar norms but more importantly entirely justified under our own laws of war,” General Mazari claimed.