Young Writers Society

With Jasper helping, the process of debugging Jessica went much faster, and Sunny's hopes started to rise. If this was a sign of character growth for Jasper, then maybe once they finished debugging, the portal would appear. And then they could both go home! And she could go to college, and start her company, and write a book about her questing experience and do everything else in her plan…

Robert interjected occasionally with tips or snarky comments, or both combined in one.

Sunny beamed at him too. "I'm sure it will! You've shown incredible growth and persistence. Now, the universe must reward your efforts, by the laws of questing."

"Don't get your hopes up," Robert said skeptically. "The only laws here are the ones of code."

Jasper cut her off, shaking his head. He gave her a bitter smile. "I'll admit you made me hope for a while there, but if pulling an all-nighter and debugging for this so-called growth doesn't get me home, I'm afraid none of your other plans will. Good night. Or, well, morning." He started walking towards the back of the restaurant. "I'll bring you some blankets for today. But after that, I'd suggest you find yourself a place to stay for the next, oh, forever years."

Sunny stared after him. "But…"

"Fine, then. If Jasper can't get his portal to work, maybe I can do mine. My quest objective was to solve the missing errors, right? So if I debug all the errors, I can get a portal?" Ah, yes. It was clear now. Sunny would debug the rest of the errors and thus return their descriptions to their rightful places in Javaland. Then the land would rejoice, Sunny would be a certified hero, and a portal to Earth would appear.

The ambassador floated over to her. Sunlight reflected off his shiny white form as he said, "Do you want to congratulate you? Well then, congratulations." Robert frowned slightly. "But I told you. It could've waited until later. You pushing yourself like this is like me running until I'm at 2% battery. Completely discharging my battery isn't healthy, and I'm sure the equivalent isn't good for humans either."

She dreamed of dancing semicolons and red squiggly lines forming fish that leaped in and out of bowls made of brackets and parentheses. Oh, and there were so many parentheses… Parentheses forming eyebrows, parentheses like the roofs of houses, parentheses becoming sentient and living comfortable lives in Parentheses Town, U.S.A….

Robert was silent for a moment, and then he said, "Sometimes things don't go the way you want or expect them to. It may be cliché, but it's true."

"Not for heroes!" Sunny blurted. She pulled out her notebook and flipped through it, jabbing at the pages. "Here. Rule 15. There will be a happy ending! What about this whole thing seems like a happy ending to you?"

Good Morning/Afternoon/Evening/Night(whichever one it is in your part of the world),

Hi! I'm here to leave a quick review!!

First Impression: Well having finally got around to this, this part went pretty much exactly as I thought it would. It seems poor Sunny really isn't going to be able to catch a break quite so quickly and she definitely put in the most work.

Anyway let's get right to it,

Sunny took another bite of the Earth-style burger, then pointed at Jessica's screen. "So here's the error we were working on. Looks like it has something to do with starting the quest… except the printStartingObjectives() method call doesn't lead anywhere. Did you delete the method, or comment it out, or…?"

An error brought Jasper another burger, and he munched on it as he stared at the screen. "I think I was going to write a printStartingObjectives() method, but I must've given up on it or forgotten about it…" He highlighted the line and deleted it.

"What about this other part?" Sunny scrolled down. "I fixed the ArrayIndexOutOfBounds error, but there's some more unfinished code."

Jasper frowned in concentration, then took over the keyboard and edited the lines of code. Next to him, Robert took possession of the battery pack again.

With Jasper helping, the process of debugging Jessica went much faster, and Sunny's hopes started to rise. If this was a sign of character growth for Jasper, then maybe once they finished debugging, the portal would appear. And then they could both go home! And she could go to college, and start her company, and write a book about her questing experience and do everything else in her plan…

The two summoned heroes alternated on the keyboard, getting rid of the red underlines. Robert interjected occasionally with tips or snarky comments, or both combined in one.

Sometime while they were working, night descended, and the moon rose and fell. Finally, as the first rays of dawn were starting to peek through the windows of the In-n-Out, they had gotten Jessica to working condition again.

The ambassador chirped and said, "Thank you! I feel like there are fewer gaps in me." She floated around experimentally. "I think some parts of my memory are still missing, but I can function much better now. Would you like to know the result of the square root of 10348234? Or perhaps I could look up the best recipes for at-symbol apple pie?"

Sunny smiled proudly at Jessica. "No need. I'm just glad to see you feeling better!"

Jasper yawned and stretched his arms over his head. "Yep. Now, unless the portal appears in the next five minutes, I'm going to sleep."

Sunny beamed at him too. "I'm sure it will! You've shown incredible growth and persistence. Now, the universe must reward your efforts, by the laws of questing."

"Don't get your hopes up," Robert said skeptically. "The only laws here are the ones of code."

Jasper sighed. "Yeah. I know this was a long shot, but…" He stared at the space above an empty patch of tiled floor wistfully, as if imagining a portal there.

Sunny stared at the same spot. Maybe if both of them visualized it enough and sent out positive vibes to the universe, one would really materialize.

Alas, after a few minutes of staring and wishing, nothing happened.

Robert coughed impatiently, and Sunny sighed. "Well. I've still got a list of more possible solutions to try–"

Jasper cut her off, shaking his head. He gave her a bitter smile. "I'll admit you made me hope for a while there, but if pulling an all-nighter and debugging for this so-called growth doesn't get me home, I'm afraid none of your other plans will. Good night. Or, well, morning." He started walking towards the back of the restaurant. "I'll bring you some blankets for today. But after that, I'd suggest you find yourself a place to stay for the next, oh, forever years."

Sunny stared after him. "But…"

"Give it up," Robert muttered. "He doesn't want to hear it."

"I– I can't just give up!" Sunny rounded on Robert. "Fine, then. If Jasper can't get his portal to work, maybe I can do mine. My quest objective was to solve the missing errors, right? So if I debug all the errors, I can get a portal?" Ah, yes. It was clear now. Sunny would debug the rest of the errors and thus return their descriptions to their rightful places in Javaland. Then the land would rejoice, Sunny would be a certified hero, and a portal to Earth would appear.

Sunny stalked determinedly past Robert to the kitchen, then started debugging with a passion. One by one, the errors unraveled and red text flew to Sunny's reference book, as well as out of the In-n-Out and down the mountain.

Robert floated to her and suggested getting rest for now and planning again the next day, but Sunny ignored him. Her plan would work this time. She shoved any doubts to the side and threw herself into the code.

Finally, the kitchen was clear of errors. Sunny checked the storage room and the main area of the In-n-Out, but they were free of red text. She wiped an arm across her forehead and let out an exhausted sigh. "Robert? Robert, I'm done." With bleary eyes, Sunny collapsed onto a seat. Late-afternoon sunlight streamed over her and Sunny had to fight the urge to fall asleep.

The ambassador floated over to her. Sunlight reflected off his shiny white form as he said, "Do you want to congratulate you? Well then, congratulations." Robert frowned slightly. "But I told you. It could've waited until later. You pushing yourself like this is like me running until I'm at 2% battery. Completely discharging my battery isn't healthy, and I'm sure the equivalent isn't good for humans either."

"Oh, so you care about my health now?" Sunny would've chuckled, but she was too tired.

Robert said something else, but Sunny had finally drifted off into sleep. She dreamed of dancing semicolons and red squiggly lines forming fish that leaped in and out of bowls made of brackets and parentheses. Oh, and there were so many parentheses… Parentheses forming eyebrows, parentheses like the roofs of houses, parentheses becoming sentient and living comfortable lives in Parentheses Town, U.S.A….

Sunny awoke with a start. She rubbed her eyes and shook off the remnants of her dream– something about punctuation?– and looked around. She was still at a table in the In-n-Out, but it looked like morning now. Had she slept since last afternoon?

She jolted upright. The errors! She'd finished debugging the errors. "The portal," she started. Sunny had meant to stay awake until the portal appeared… Surely it hadn't come and gone.

Robert floated over. "Feel rested?"

Sunny nodded and opened her mouth.

"Before you ask about the portal, no, it hasn't appeared." Robert angled one of his arms to the back of the In-n-Out. "Jasper's still back there. I don't think he appreciates that you dissolved all his chefs and assistants, but he hasn't complained too much."

Sunny frowned. She could've sworn… Her plan… "It was foolproof," she blurted. "Discover the source of the missing errors– check. Solve the problem and restore order to Javaland– check. Learn about debugging– check. Grow in some way– well, I've learned to communicate with you and Jasper, so that must count for something– check." She dropped her head into her hands. "No matter which way you slice it, I've completed my quest!"

Robert was silent for a moment, and then he said, "Sometimes things don't go the way you want or expect them to. It may be cliché, but it's true."

"Not for heroes!" Sunny blurted. She pulled out her notebook and flipped through it, jabbing at the pages. "Here. Rule 15. There will be a happy ending! What about this whole thing seems like a happy ending to you?"

Hi again mint!

General Impressions

This chapter went from tentatively hopeful to a state where the characters are stuck at a dead end again. I thought the code collaboration dialogue at the beginning was pretty believable – reminds me of conversations I’ve had with my lecturer over some code xD I felt bad for Sunny when she kept dissolving the errors and yet the portal wouldn’t appear, even though I kind of predicted that was coming.

Glows – What I liked

I liked the first scene of this part where Sunny and Jasper are coding. The character descriptions of them just eating burgers and looking over code has a mundane atmosphere that contrasts the more dramatic previous parts. Whereas the previous part focused on Sunny’s differences from Jasper, this one shows their common ground: coding and burgers

Besides that, I like how you’ve shown Sunny’s optimism in a more negative light here. I thought it was neat that after Jasper’s ‘fatal flaw’ is considered, Sunny’s problem receives the focus as well, namely that she is insistently optimistic and thinks the world ‘should’ play out like it does in certain stories. The way Sunny’s thoughts return to what she plans to do after returning to Earth and also how she controls the topic of conversation shows this really well:

Sunny beamed at him too. "I'm sure it will! You've shown incredible growth and persistence. Now, the universe must reward your efforts, by the laws of questing."

Hey, Mint! Seems I'm popping up all over the place, heh. You're probably getting pretty tired of me by now...
Anyway, great post! I love the Earth-style burgers
Coding worlds are always really cool, although I've never explored them much on my own. I like how you combined that with this whole fairy-tale happily-ever-after thing. I've never seen anything like it, and it's a really fascinating idea. I look forward to the next installment!