Welcome!

Last year I invented a genre of storytelling I call the Adventure Hunt, which casts the reader as the protagonist of a National Treasure-style treasure hunt where you have to solve puzzles to access the next part of the story. The first one was well enough received that I ran a Kickstarter project for a sequel, called The Tidings Of Minos. That campaign did so well that I'm already working on a third one. If you are interested in reading and solving it but missed the campaign, you can still get on board at the Adventure Hunt website with the same reward tiers for your support.

I'm a Writer!

My name is Chris Marks, and this is my website. I'm a writer, and sometimes I do an exercise where I write a cohesive, intelligible story without narration; I can only include dialogue. I call it "Speech Only," and it is inspired by the story "They're Made Out of Meat" by Terry Bisson. They were posted here on a weekly basis, on Monday mornings, stopping at 99. Number 100 is planned, but the time for writing it has not yet come. I hope you enjoy them.

Boss Music Intensifies

"I'm fighting Glats."

"That sentence makes no sense."

"In Life Crawler."

"Still nothing."

"Are you aware of a thing called video games?"

"I am."

"Life Crawler is a video game."

"Is it good?"

"Yes. Glats is a boss in it."

"Okay."

"He's very difficult."

"If you say so."

"I do."

"And you're telling me that you're fighting him because...?"

"Because I'm playing blind, and I don't want any spoilers."

"You're not blind."

"No, I mean I'm playing without already knowing anything about it."

"So you're playing ignorant?"

"No, look; it's called a blind run."

"Why?"

"Because you haven't seen it before. So if you were to play it, for instance, since you haven't heard of it before and have no prior experience with it, your first playthrough would be blind."

"If you say so. But also, how would I give you spoilers on a game I haven't heard of before?"

"I didn't know that you didn't know anything about it."

"But wouldn't telling me where you are just be more likely to elicit spoilers from me if I knew any?"

"I was saying it as a caution so that you wouldn't talk about the fight openly, which could contain spoilers."

"Have you ever heard me talk about that game before?"

"No."

"Then why would you think I'd be talking about a specific fight from it? Unprompted, no less?"

"I was just covering my bases. You never know who's around or what they're talking about."

"That sounds like you're paranoid."

"I think a reasonable dose of paranoia is good for you."

"That's just what they want you to think."

"Stop that."

"I have a shiny hat for you."

"Quiet."

"Have you checked yourself for microchips?"

"I'm going to hurt you."

"Like you're hurting Glats?"

"Actually I haven't hit him yet."

"Doesn't sound like much of a fight. How long have you been going?"

"Five hours."

"Five hours and you haven't even attacked him yet? Are you sure you're good at this game?"

"I didn't say I haven't attacked, I said I haven't hit him. He keeps dodging."

"Which is to be expected from an opponent."

"Not in this game. Everyone else just stands there and takes it."

"Doesn't sound like much of a challenge."

"Almost every RPG is like that."

"Life Crawler is an RPG then?"

"Well I don't want to say too much about it now, in case you decide to play it."

"Because you've done such a stellar job of selling me on it so far."

"Look, Life Crawler... is like the Matrix."

"You never know what you're gonna get?"

"No, that's Forest Gump."

"You can't look directly at it or your face melts?"

"That's Raiders of the Lost Ark."

"Are you my father?"

"Please stop quoting random movies. You can't really be told what Life Crawler is - you have to see it for yourself."

"So you want me to watch you fight glass for hours on end?"

"First of all, it's not glass, it's Glats. And secondly, no, I want you to play it without knowing anything about it."

"Can we just acknowledge that Glats is a weird name?"

"All names are weird."

"Well I can't argue with that. What name do you suppose the government calls you by?"

"Shush."

"You're right, that's a weird name too."

"Look, are you going to try it or not?"

"Sure, I'll give it a go."

"Great. Now, leave me alone and let me get back to this."

"Dude, you called me."

"Right. In that case, I'm gonna go."

"Have fun getting mind controlled by your computer screen."

"I hate you so much."

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