I know how this story ends.

Author's note: This was inspired by an experimental fiction class I'm taking! We read "Story of Your Life" by Ted Chiang (I'd read it before but was delighted to read it again). Spoilers for "Story of Your Life":

Hello there, human! I'm reviewing using the YWS S'more Method today!

Shalt we commence with the malicious S’more?

Top Graham Cracker - The main character, a supposed prince, is prophesied to kill his father. He trains to kill him and be locked up in a dungeon all his life and so, he succeeds. But at what cost to himself?

Slightly Burnt Marshmallow - I have no recommendations to make as of right now, but if you would like to edit this, then you may.

Chocolate Bar - I love how in every part of time, the main character never really understands why he did what he did, only that he was told to do it. It’s scary and sad to see that he anticipates pain in his life, that he always felt pain, but I feel like this is a metaphor for growing up, for how people will constantly tell you how you “should live” that it’s a “good thing”, but then, you question if it’s really worth it, but don’t ever oppose it, because if they say it’s worth it, then it must be…right? (Sorry if I am reading this wrong, that is how I interpret it.)

Closing Graham Cracker - Overall, a very lovely short story! This works well as a standalone, because while I am interested in learning the lore, I also think that the mystery adds to the magic. I feel bad for the main character (I’m not quite sure he is the king’s son or if that was told to him) but perhaps there is peace in death? We can only hope.

I wish you a glorious day/night! ^v^

Hia Mint. You got lots of likes but no one felt brave enough to review so let me do the honours. I would have come earlier but there was a Starcraft tournament happening and it was so so good!

Anyway, let’s begin. Awesome title already. And I also like that you have X days before death as little italics captions. Curious that the day counter seems to be rising.

Oh my. What. The 9 days paragraph throws so many questions. My wandering thoughts went “Dungeon? Like DnD? A misled adventurer?” then the food sit came in: “…like Delicious in Dungeon?” and then finally: “ohhh a normal dungeon—for imprisoning ppl”
And then I thought alrighty: MC managed to probably, somehow defeat the imperator or whoever was ruling the place and who no one liked but rules are rules that’s why we’re in prison now.
But then the supernatural twist comes and I love that already. I like the idea of a person having no access to the past. Now I really wanna know where this is going, especially since the next section will be a day earlier. Already a unique structure to the story.

Okay, 10 days is the day of the deed. I rly like this line: “I forget each one I walk by.” Which hammers the previous idea home.
Let me go on a semi-related tangent because I suddenly have to think of the fanfic “Radiance” (sequel to “Luminosity”) where one character has the ability to hide their actions from everyone—and that person is working for the good guys. Like, this ability goes beyond invisibility. When the ability is active, it’s as if this person no longer exists and everyone watching her jumps through hoops to rationalize these invisible actions away. So the MC is supposed to work with this invisible person but at the same time also under the negative effects of that person’s ability. So they are basically storming the castle and the person with the hide-ability is the trump card bc the guards etc literally cannot perceive her---but NEITHER CAN THE MC. So the MC remembers the plan, that she goes there. And storms the castle. All by herself. And that it all somehow will work out. We readers know what’s happening but it’s still heart-pounding to watch bc at any point the MC could have decided that whatever the plan was is not working bc she cannot do this all on her own.
Okay, tangent over. I meant that your person here, who cannot perceive the past, kinda gives me the same vibe. That there is some sorta plan in place that they made in the past but they can no longer remember it besides the feeling that this is what they have to do now. They are here for a reason and so we’re doing this now.
…and yes. All this from the “I forget each one as I walk by” line. Uhm. Let me…actually read the section in full now XD I just got super excited.

Oh never mind, we have not yet done any assassinating. We just got captured…apparently attempting that. Well it strikes me as increasingly easy to convince a person who has no concept of the past that they done a certain thing because… how are they gonna refute it?
Now that I think abt it, the line from earlier about how MC says that they will be told that they killed the king… Should have already sparked that intrigue. Because if they really can only see the 10 days to their death, and only what happens to them until then… then they might as well either have not done it at all and no one is telling them differently. Or maybe the king isn’t even dead and they can never know. I continue to like the story structure. It also means that the ending is kinda set. And, given how the 10 day section ended, it might be very possible that the main guy is not the killer :/
And no wonder that he’s silent—he has nothing really to say in his defence; he doesn’t know @.@

11 days. And oh my, there is quite some horror to the thought of you being in the middle of something and not remembering why you’ve even initiated the engagement and only seeing where it leads but that there is no other outcome, that the future for yourself is already written and you just do not know why you’ve walked down that path—only that you have no other option left but to see it to the end.
It really makes me think that the MC knew that death in dungeon would be his future and did it anyway, so basically that he believed in the cause enough to die for it. Enough to live the last few days of his life with that uncertainty of “why did I do that?” Ahhh @.@
Also it’s sentences like this one that really bring a smile to my face and tie the whole concept together, I love it: “The stone walls become painted as red as the carpet will be on the day of my trial.“
Hohoo and the twists continue. Now I wonder how the MC got this way. If he’s always been unable to have a past and always been able to see the future of if there’s been…an incident to make it so. You never know with prophecies…
But at least we readers now know the MC succeeded in what he set out. I have so many questions. If he’s the king’s son (a valid heir or a bastard, that is another question), he might have gotten to rule over the kingdom anyway if he waited the sit out. Or if … Hm what if the parents knew that their kid was, how to call it, mentally-crippled and decided that raising a prince like that would be too much of a hassle or leaving the kingdom in the hands of such an heir would be inconceivable so they tried to get rid of him early on and he managed to survive anyway? Speculations galore! Let’s see what the 1 year info brings us.

Well it looks like the idea that the prince is raised by ppl he’s not supposed to is strengthening. It sounds like he’s been trained up, probably for killing the king? Remains to be seen if they know he’s the prince—but then again, he needs to have gotten that info from somewhere—and and and someone would have had to repeat it to him after he declares himself the son to king and queen because if he’s known it from the past, he wouldn’t have known it. So I guess, he walks into the throne room, declares that he’s the son, murders the king and then someone repeats that he said that so he knows to say it in the moment. Oh what a twisty twisty story.
Just wanted to throw out the reminder that I love the “I understand now what I will hear” kinda deal from the beginning of 1 yr ago.
Okay, reading more of the 1 yr thing, so the church is involved. And invested in the prophecy. I assume that the church would know about who is born to whom so I guess MC gets the initial info from them… I now wonder that if he makes up his mind to say a certain thing in the future that this information will hold through even if he forgets why and what he wants to say? If yes then he could have made up his mind to just mindlessly repeat the plan to himself in his final days of the dungeon just to have some sorta comfort then? It kinda sounds, from the last paragraph of the 1 yr section that the “make up my mind and I will see myself say the thing anyway” works---so I guess either he knew he would be too weak to tell himself the plan in the dungeon, or he thought with the king dead it doesn’t matter anymore what his future self in the dungeon is going through.
Now I have to wonder if he really is the child of the king or if the church just found some guy who looks similar and who’s future vision etc can be manipulated for✨the prophecy✨…

Alrighty 14 yrs ago. I am kinda afraid where this will go. I had to look for the sparkle emoji and idk why but when I returned I scrolled and saw that the text will do funky things just down below and I’m v v afraid of that. Is this the precog working in action? Kinda like very involved reading? Who knows. What do the 14 yrs tell us?
Oh my. So. He already knew back then that he will get locked up in the dungeon and die there and all the future knowledge in the world couldn’t prevent that fate. That is some bleak life :/
It kinda also makes me think that maybe we have an organization that kinda… makes ppl with this weird future-sight-no-past combo happen to specifically sent them to their death like they do with the MC and sell it to the children with prophecies and other things until they see only this one path for their future… Maybe I’m just speculating way too much.

Okay I kinda skipped 14 yrs because it … oh jee oh jee, this does not sound good and then we have in 16 yrs ago the thing with seeing his dad red and so the kid of 3 yrs knew this would happen but couldn’t grasp it but knew this was his father… Ahhh

And finally the text that travels by itself, I now know why it does that. And how it rounds out the story, a book end, just like in Dead Flowers. If all short stories were like this, complete and well-written like this, I guess I would read more of them.
I also like the contrast of bright hot loud after/during birth and dark cold alone in the dungeon. Because I presume that there were lotsa friendly ppl present for the former and now he’s the kingkiller and he doesn’t even really remember why and the entire story hasn’t show that he really comprehended why he did the thing, just that he saw himself do it from very early on and walked toward it.
We also wonder now who that judge and executioner mentioned in 9 days is. Is it the queen who wanted to get rid of her husband and now bc the killer and heir is in the dungeon she gets to have free reign? There really is the issue of her telling him he killed a tyrant after all. Just pretty words or a genuine belief?
Who knows? Not the MC for sure!

Thanks for writing and sharing the story 😊 Have my like to add to the pile :3