Eight Cicadas: An Immortal Dynasty (Special Update, 4/1)

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So Eight Cicadas is live again. The blog itself is a bit of a mess, but the chapters are back, in their revised glory!

Refer to the chapter list here.

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"...Just tell me that I made a moral screw-up,” said Annette, in a stern voice.

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But alas, she had a few stories about those she alienated.

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The only person there that morning was Guillaume, still dressed in his pajamas and novelty dog slippers, and reading a book.

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“I mean, sure,” said Shark. “Like, I know it’s right to have a bad opinion of him. Confidence counts as being happy, right?”

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Annette never showed him where the good wine glasses were.

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“That’s all I want to show you, that the world is crazy and chaotic, and not exactly black-and-white.”

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“Look, you twerp.” Annette leaned over the table, waggling her index finger in his face. “This is now my country, and my turf.

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He still continued on a sparse road ahead, where the trees didn’t grow. An old billboard alerted him that he might have wanted to turn back.

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Annette took one of the plush, colorful seats next to her now-former co-worker. “Of all the people to order Maghrebi mint tea here.”

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As for him, he watched his father lose the election in the worst way possible.

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By the afternoon, Franco was having a great, quiet Christmas...And all but one person seemed to have the same.

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“So…he always helped you in bad times?”

Oh, yay! A thread! So can we discuss Eight Cicadas here? I'm really looking forward to talking about this amazing story with readers... and with the writer.

I am at maybe chapter 10 or so--not caught up yet.

But I've got so many ideas and thoughts about this!

One theme that I love is that of bonds between groups of people. @InfraGreen - did you set out to write about that theme, or did it come about as part of the challenge?