Loops truly are god's great gift. Go python! ; )
When the sun finally set and the forest started to become blanketed in shadow, Sunny and Robert stopped to make camp. Sunny used the sleeping bag that Eniac had given her, and she slept soundly through the night. She'd been trying to train herself to sleep lightly, just in case she was attacked by monsters and had to fend them off, but the day's travels had exhausted her and she slept like a rock.
In the morning, Sunny and Robert had breakfast– or, more accurately, Sunny had breakfast while Robert tried to pretend like he was still sleeping. Soon enough, Sunny shook Robert out of his pretend-sleep. "Come on, Robert! I bet we only have a couple more hours of walking before we get to the Loop Factories."
The robot groaned with a sound like creaking metal. "Oh, joy."
Sunny slung her backpack onto her shoulders again, then tried to drag Robert back to the river path. Reluctantly, the robot went, dragging his non-existent feet.
Once they were back on the trail, Sunny consulted the guide. "If it is morning, choose the right branch. Else, choose the left branch."
if (it is morning) {
Choose the right branch;
} else {
Choose the left branch;
}
She wasn't quite sure what the time of day had to do with taking which fork of the river, but she shrugged and sloshed across the now-shallow river to the right fork.
Sunny and Robert continued like this until the sun was nearly directly over their heads. As she ate a quick lunch, Sunny realized that she could make out some box-like shapes upstream, by the foot of the mountains that now looked a lot larger. "Those must be the factories!"
Robert grunted an affirmative.
Sunny scarfed down her lunch and resumed following the guide with renewed energy. As she and Robert walked by the river, the factories slowly grew larger until Sunny could make out some more details. It looked like there was a cluster of buildings, each colored a different shade of blue. Smoke was belching out of some smokestacks, and Sunny frowned. "Are there pollution and climate change here, too?"
"Oh, definitely. You wouldn't believe that extraneous code, always clogging up the air. Thankfully, all that useless code can be recycled, although it is pricier. And as for climate change… well, our whole geography changes as the popularity of coding languages changes in your world." Robert shrugged.
Sunny looked alarmed. "How quickly does the geography change? Does that mean the Conditional River could just change course as we're walking beside it?" She eyed the water nervously.
"Well, changes usually happen over months, not seconds," Robert said matter-of-factly. "So they don't generally catch people off-guard."
Sunny breathed a small sigh of relief at that. "Phew. So tell me, Robert, is there anything else I need to know about this world? Because the whole geography changing seems like some pretty important information, and I'm just wondering what else you've neglected to tell me…"
The robot pondered that for a moment. "There's nothing else world-changing that I can think of. But if you do run into something unexpected, I'm sure you'll be able to adapt, being the self-proclaimed hero you are."
Somehow Sunny didn't think that was a compliment. Brushing it off, though, she kept navigating as the Loop Factories drew nearer.
Finally, in the late afternoon, Sunny could start to make out some more details. There seemed to be a fence around the factories, although one of the river's branches flowed right between two buildings and through a trough under the fence. There was also a bright orange smudge by the fence that Sunny couldn't quite identify…
Anyhow, Sunny walked onwards with renewed enthusiasm. "Come on, Robert, we're almost there!"
A couple minutes later, the two of them arrived at the fence.
"Halt!" A person wearing a neon orange suit of armor held up a hand. "State your names and purpose." Their helmet muffled their voice.
Sunny's eyes widened. "Is that a real suit of armor? Do you have a weapon, too? Can I try it on?"
The person shifted from foot to foot with a clanking sound. After a brief pause, they responded, "Uhh, I mean, we manufactured the armor here? And no, protocol says not to let strangers try on your armor."
Sunny pouted. "Fine. Well, my name's Sunny, and this is Robert. We're here on a quest!"
The armored person seemed at a loss as to what to say.
Robert sighed and stepped in. "We're just looking for passage through to the Array Train. And Sunny could probably use a lesson or two on loops, seeing as they're a fundamental part of programming."
"Ah! Now loops are something I can handle. Please, follow me." The person muttered, "Now, what was the code for the gate again? Oh, right. For int i equals zero semicolon i less than five semicolon i plus sign plus sign open curly brace move gate to the right semicolon close curly brace."
for (int i = 0; i < 5; i++) {
move gate to the right;
}
A section of the fence slid aside in five jerky motions. With another clanking sound, the armored person bowed stiffly to Sunny and Robert and led them through the gate.
Sunny thought that seemed like a pretty lax security protocol, but what was she supposed to do? Argue with the person not to let her in? Yeahh, no.
Speaking of the person, they kept muttering bits and pieces of code to themself as they walked, almost like they were trying to remember a recipe, or directions.
while (!blocked) {
move forward;
}
turn left;
As the person mumbled, Sunny and Robert followed them through the maze of buildings. After a couple more turns, they reached a cube-shaped, sky-blue building, and the person stopped. "Here we are. Lucky you! You get a free tour of the Loop Factories."
"Sweet!" Sunny exclaimed. "Also, do you have a name?"
"No."
Sunny blinked. "Huh?"
"They're still assembling my name in Building N," the person explained. "I'm told it's going to be fifteen characters long, but for some reason, it's taking a while to add each character on."
Sunny nodded slowly. "That… sounds like a pain. I'm sorry."
Robert hummed. "Could it have something to do with an error, perhaps?"
"Perhaps. I'm new here, but I've heard that names used to be assembled a lot faster." The person shrugged noisily. "At least they were able to give me some armor. This one's from the leftovers that no one bought during the Great War, and I don't blame them, considering the color. But it's armor!"
"Right!" Sunny beamed. "Would you happen to have a sword to go along with that armor?" She desperately wanted to learn to wield a sword, the classic fantasy weapon.
"Unfortunately, no. My supervisor told me my greatest weapon would be my brain, and loops."
"Oh. Bummer."
"Eh, it's alright!" Suddenly, the unnamed person seemed to startle to attention. "Anyways, you're here for the tour, so I won't keep you waiting any longer!" The person pulled open the doors to the factory and waved Sunny and Robert inside.
"Oh, definitely. You wouldn't believe that extraneous code, always clogging up the air. Thankfully, all that useless code can be recycled, although it is pricier. And as for climate change… well, our whole geography changes as the popularity of coding languages changes in your world." Robert shrugged.
"Well, changes usually happen over months, not seconds," Robert said matter-of-factly. "So they don't generally catch people off-guard."
Sunny breathed a small sigh of relief at that.
The robot pondered that for a moment. "There's nothing else world-changing that I can think of. But if you do run into something unexpected, I'm sure you'll be able to adapt, being the self-proclaimed hero you are."
(Or... at least the hero's journey involves lots of suffering, haha.) "Halt!" A person wearing a neon orange suit of armor held up a hand. "State your names and purpose." Their helmet muffled their voice.
Sunny's eyes widened. "Is that a real suit of armor? Do you have a weapon, too? Can I try it on?"
The person shifted from foot to foot with a clanking sound. After a brief pause, they responded, "Uhh, I mean, we manufactured the armor here? And no, protocol says not to let strangers try on your armor."
Sunny pouted. "Fine. Well, my name's Sunny, and this is Robert. We're here on a quest!"
The armored person seemed at a loss as to what to say.
Robert sighed and stepped in. "We're just looking for passage through to the Array Train. And Sunny could probably use a lesson or two on loops, seeing as they're a fundamental part of programming."
"Ah! Now loops are something I can handle. Please, follow me."
The person muttered, "Now, what was the code for the gate again? Oh, right. For int i equals zero semicolon i less than five semicolon i plus sign plus sign open curly brace move gate to the right semicolon close curly brace."
for (int i = 0; i < 5; i++) {
move gate to the right;
}
Robert sighed and stepped in. "We're just looking for passage through to the Array Train. And Sunny could probably use a lesson or two on loops, seeing as they're a fundamental part of programming."
"Ah! Now loops are something I can handle. Please, follow me." The person muttered, "Now, what was the code for the gate again? Oh, right:
- Code: Select all
for (int i = 0; i < 5; i++) {
move gate to the right;
}
Also, I am starting to think that the first guy who came here might have somehow unified the code somehow or made the logic flow so that everyone decided to live in peace. Or something like that?? This is my theory.
And perhaps the reason why heroes come from Sunny's world is because they are the creators of the code. So like... maybe Sunny is more like a god-hero in this world??? This thought amuses me.
Like, even in the Phantom Tollbooth (which this book very much reminds me of) they go through the doldrums, they meet a variety of interesting monsters which they have to face in some way, occasionally Milo makes a mistake and makes a mess of things (never any BIG mistake... just little mistakes!). And there's little conflicts that happen.
Anyways, more thoughts on that issue later ->She just seems... a little perfect right now. Too perfect, perhaps. And I realize that she has her guide book that is helping her and everything, but I... um... kind of want to see her fall at this point.
Honestly, this is a terrible way to write out dialogue. Like, I get that when you are writing the dialogue of what Sunny hears, but it would far better for you to do something like this:
%u201CFairy tales do not tell children the dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed.%u201D
Hi again mint!
First Impressions
I really like the new places Sunny and Robert are exploring in this chapter. The atmosphere definitely feels livelier now that they’ve encountered another person- and are about to tour a new location. Robert seems a little grumpier this chapter than before, especially with this line:
"There's nothing else world-changing that I can think of. But if you do run into something unexpected, I'm sure you'll be able to adapt, being the self-proclaimed hero you are."
"They're still assembling my name in Building N," the person explained. "I'm told it's going to be fifteen characters long, but for some reason, it's taking a while to add each character on."
Robert seems a little grumpier this chapter than before, especially with this line:
The Loop Factories sound almost surreal, kind of like a 3D model or rigging with their different shades of blue, which seems perfect for a land based on code.
I find myself liking the different bits of interactions, worldbuilding and plot points, but at times it feels like they blend together, because I%u2019m not sure what the %u2018big moments%u2019 or %u2018turning points%u2019 are supposed to be, if that makes sense.
I also wonder if there%u2019s a reason the security is so lax, as Sunny pointed out. Was her arrival prophesied? Did Professor Polly or Eniac send a message? Or are they just used to visitors?
I might revise this so that he's grumpier on low battery? So his mood swings make more sense?
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: Okayy, well it looks like we're going to be getting into these Loop factories after all and with a guided tour no less. Although I am wondering if this guided tour here is going to end up avoiding any potential suspicious spots.
Anyway let's get right to it,
When the sun finally set and the forest started to become blanketed in shadow, Sunny and Robert stopped to make camp. Sunny used the sleeping bag that Eniac had given her, and she slept soundly through the night. She'd been trying to train herself to sleep lightly, just in case she was attacked by monsters and had to fend them off, but the day's travels had exhausted her and she slept like a rock.
In the morning, Sunny and Robert had breakfast– or, more accurately, Sunny had breakfast while Robert tried to pretend like he was still sleeping. Soon enough, Sunny shook Robert out of his pretend-sleep. "Come on, Robert! I bet we only have a couple more hours of walking before we get to the Loop Factories."
The robot groaned with a sound like creaking metal. "Oh, joy."
She wasn't quite sure what the time of day had to do with taking which fork of the river, but she shrugged and sloshed across the now-shallow river to the right fork.
Sunny and Robert continued like this until the sun was nearly directly over their heads. As she ate a quick lunch, Sunny realized that she could make out some box-like shapes upstream, by the foot of the mountains that now looked a lot larger. "Those must be the factories!"
Robert grunted an affirmative.
"Oh, definitely. You wouldn't believe that extraneous code, always clogging up the air. Thankfully, all that useless code can be recycled, although it is pricier. And as for climate change… well, our whole geography changes as the popularity of coding languages changes in your world." Robert shrugged.
Sunny looked alarmed. "How quickly does the geography change? Does that mean the Conditional River could just change course as we're walking beside it?" She eyed the water nervously.
"Well, changes usually happen over months, not seconds," Robert said matter-of-factly. "So they don't generally catch people off-guard."
The robot pondered that for a moment. "There's nothing else world-changing that I can think of. But if you do run into something unexpected, I'm sure you'll be able to adapt, being the self-proclaimed hero you are."
Somehow Sunny didn't think that was a compliment. Brushing it off, though, she kept navigating as the Loop Factories drew nearer.
Finally, in the late afternoon, Sunny could start to make out some more details. There seemed to be a fence around the factories, although one of the river's branches flowed right between two buildings and through a trough under the fence. There was also a bright orange smudge by the fence that Sunny couldn't quite identify…
Anyhow, Sunny walked onwards with renewed enthusiasm. "Come on, Robert, we're almost there!"
A couple minutes later, the two of them arrived at the fence.
"Halt!" A person wearing a neon orange suit of armor held up a hand. "State your names and purpose." Their helmet muffled their voice.
Sunny's eyes widened. "Is that a real suit of armor? Do you have a weapon, too? Can I try it on?"
The person shifted from foot to foot with a clanking sound. After a brief pause, they responded, "Uhh, I mean, we manufactured the armor here? And no, protocol says not to let strangers try on your armor."
Robert sighed and stepped in. "We're just looking for passage through to the Array Train. And Sunny could probably use a lesson or two on loops, seeing as they're a fundamental part of programming."
A section of the fence slid aside in five jerky motions. With another clanking sound, the armored person bowed stiffly to Sunny and Robert and led them through the gate.
Sunny thought that seemed like a pretty lax security protocol, but what was she supposed to do? Argue with the person not to let her in? Yeahh, no.
As the person mumbled, Sunny and Robert followed them through the maze of buildings. After a couple more turns, they reached a cube-shaped, sky-blue building, and the person stopped. "Here we are. Lucky you! You get a free tour of the Loop Factories."
"Sweet!" Sunny exclaimed. "Also, do you have a name?"
"No."
Sunny blinked. "Huh?"
"They're still assembling my name in Building N," the person explained. "I'm told it's going to be fifteen characters long, but for some reason, it's taking a while to add each character on."
Sunny nodded slowly. "That… sounds like a pain. I'm sorry."
Robert hummed. "Could it have something to do with an error, perhaps?"
"Perhaps. I'm new here, but I've heard that names used to be assembled a lot faster." The person shrugged noisily. "At least they were able to give me some armor. This one's from the leftovers that no one bought during the Great War, and I don't blame them, considering the color. But it's armor!"
"Right!" Sunny beamed. "Would you happen to have a sword to go along with that armor?" She desperately wanted to learn to wield a sword, the classic fantasy weapon.
"Unfortunately, no. My supervisor told me my greatest weapon would be my brain, and loops."
"Oh. Bummer."
"Eh, it's alright!" Suddenly, the unnamed person seemed to startle to attention. "Anyways, you're here for the tour, so I won't keep you waiting any longer!" The person pulled open the doors to the factory and waved Sunny and Robert inside.
I also maybe just want to see Sunny wielding a sword made of code.
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