Welcome back to. Shockwaves The official stellar
shock after show. Breakdown podcast.
I'm Jess and I'm joined today by the man.
Himself Arthur. Arthur, you ready to dig into?
Chapter 1. Demise.
Always. This is where.
All the the dirt under the nails gets real.
We're finally out in a. Fear it.
The work is just. Relentless and Sir Seraphine's
Day kicks everyone's ass, including his own.
Yeah, let's start there. I was.
Sweating and picking splinters out of my palm just reading the
opener. Sir, with that rusted hoe,
Barely. Holding together blisters,
piling. Up you really.
Wanted us. To feel how old that tool was,
or maybe how old all the work feels.
That's it. These.
People aren't playing at farming, they're not in a
settler fantasy, they're scraping a living out with what
they've got and what they can steal from the wild.
Sir's not a romantic, he's not talking about loving the earth
or finding meaning in a clean row.
It's survival, and it's routine to Atoma is built on barely
enough. There's this moment where Sir is
just standing there, breathing dust, watching grit stain his
shirt, and he thinks the farm is watching him.
Not like the land. Provides but like this patch,
will eat. You if you stop moving.
Why set it up like that? Where Sir is from, the land
outlasts you. It doesn't.
Reward you the. Tension is.
You do the. Job you don't always win.
I grew up with. People who spent their lives
working jobs that just gave out blisters and not much else.
I wanted readers hearing that Kerchunk to.
Feel every pass. You don't get medals, you don't
get recognition. There's just work.
And it doesn't care if you like it or not.
We get the other. Boys showing.
Up Lavu Viti Baluti's guys. They're supposed to.
Be Sarah's friends, but honestly they're more like wolves
circling the last ham bone at first.
There's ribbing. There's.
The old joke. How close are they really?
It's a rough friendship. These aren't sitcom buddies.
They're a. Group held together by years of
shared. Boredom, rivalry and scraping
by. Lavu's got charm and a family
name. Vt is a troublemaker, Balu's
muscle and more sensitive than he'll.
Ever let slip? Sir is the odd man out even with
them? He works because.
No one else. Stays.
But they show up and help out with magic.
VD gets. Water pouring through.
The ditch balu. 'S tossing logs.
With earth power, Lavu basically shows off.
And Sir, no spark, no magic at. All.
I love how totally practical he is about that.
He's not making a tragedy. Out of it.
Yeah, Sir is not chasing magic, he's just constantly reminded.
Of what he. Doesn't have that's.
Classic rule. Kid jealousy, everyone else.
Gets a leg up. You get the job by default
'cause you stick. Around, there's not a single
line where he feels sorry for himself.
He just figures out how to keep up.
Or get around it. And then there's Roland.
This little guy. Running in with his janky
invention. Out of.
Breath so much heart. Audience favorite already?
Roland's big energy for a kid who doesn't get a lot of wins.
He sees Sir and wants to help. Brings that home grown carrot
catcher. Which of course, busts.
Apart instead of laughing him out the room.
Sir squats. Down in the dirt with him,
that's all the mentorship. You get out.
Here, no speeches, just fixing what breaks.
That scene is so not sentimental and it works.
Roland's hurt. Sarah just says.
You'll get it next time. I'll use it every day.
That's encouragement, but it isn't pumped full.
Of hope or. You can do anything, just try
again. If you've ever busted your ass.
On a farm or a job like this, you know you live in the Maybe
try again. Praise is rare, but.
People remember who didn't kick them when something broke.
The reality you set for. Tuitoma.
It's all detail, all work. You get the smells.
The sweat, the. Squabbling the misery, but you
don't dwell. How do you?
Decide when to push a sensory detail and when to move on.
Real life's and moments. You don't stand and reflect when
you're hungry and tired, but you notice things.
The smell of wood. Pitch the rot.
The sound of water running. Right or wrong, you remember.
Because it sticks. I write like that.
Every sense is a beat, sent touch, sound when Sarah's eyes
sting from sweat. You don't need a paragraph, one
sentence. Keep moving.
Tama, how do? You build out this village.
There are these tiny rules. Where people sit.
What chores get value? Which rumor makes people's hands
shake? Feels lived in.
I took pieces from my granddad's stories and places I lived in as
a kid. Small town stuff, You know who?
The gossips are. You know who fixes things and
who waits. To get called the politics, the
rules. They're all a mess unless you're
inside the game. I needed the reader to.
Feel like sir's? World doesn't pause so he can
figure things out. He's not the center.
He fights to stay on the edge. There's a moment when Sarah and
Roland are back at Sarah's Tiny Hut.
Ward hasn't come home yet. The whole scene is grounded.
If you set this in a modern city, it'd be kitchen table
realism, right? Instead, it's scraped floors 1
lamp river stones in a bowl. You get.
Enough, not more. Yeah, nothing wasted.
These people don't have the. Luxury of clutter.
Everything is a tool or a memory.
Wards, boots lined up, old pelt, walking sticks.
That's not set dressing. That's.
Life the table. Squats because someone.
Fixed it badly last week. That's a real.
House, you want to know what kind of person lives there you
look. At what they.
Fix and what they tolerate broken.
The beam Speaking of Ward, we finally meet him in the.
Flesh first. Line to.
Sir, is. You finished that irrigation or
did your magic friends fake it again?
Great intro. Ward is every.
Hard ass who measures love and chores never out of.
Words just out of. Patience.
He's not unkind, he just doesn't believe feelings fix a damn
thing. If you want kindness, you get it
in the form of a new hoe handle, not a hug.
Which is what sur gets a. Promise of repairs in exchange
for more work the next day. And Ward's bringing news there
is trouble on the. River trash that shouldn't be.
There unfamiliar boats going the wrong way.
It's all tension, no monsters, just a growing sense that the
fence isn't holding anymore. It's a warning sign, sometimes
trouble. Floats up river.
Sometimes it rides in on legs. The.
People of Tuatoma. Have lived through Raiders
drought. Sickness when Ward points out
those. Scraps.
It's. Not a call to panic, it's a call
to tighten every routine. You don't talk fear, but you
notice things and check your extra padlock at night.
The whole first chapter is this. Grinding cycle Field Home.
Field Council home. Always with the.
Threat circling. But you get these pockets of.
Humor and play. The.
Boys banter the. Botched carrot puller.
Roland's hope was that balance hard.
It has to be there if it's. Just misery.
Nobody comes to dinner. Real people joke while.
Hauling bodies out of. A flood or.
Scraping for the last cup of beans.
Jokes, bets, dumb fights, small moments.
The world can take everything except that impulse in the.
Worst patches? Someone will make a game out of
losing. Let's talk about.
The council and the elders, old men barking, old women counting.
Who's doing the work? Young people shuffled along the.
Outside, there's this. Undertone.
You're not asked what you want into Itoma.
You get handed a job and you do. It What's the appeal for a
character like Sir? For say, it's stability, not
comfort. He knows his job.
He knows no one sees the tomasi, the background kid.
That's the arrangement. You get overlooked, but you get.
Space to think, to watch. He doesn't have magic, but that
means no one expects him to lead.
To be the hero, he fits the shape of his work.
Do you see him growing into something bigger?
Or is he? Always going to.
Orbit the edge. Can't spoil that it's a push and
pull. Even in this chapter there's
there's hints he he wants more. Maybe he resents being.
Overlooked, but it. Keeps him safe, we'll.
We'll see which. Side wins.
There are all these chores the. Fixing the counting, the
planning where the wall needs mud, checking the rows for teeth
marks, deciding who needs feeding and who's stealing
seconds. Why so much?
Most stories would boil this down and get to the.
Plot. Yeah, and then they they'd.
Lose the plot. In a place like Teutoma, the
routine keeps you alive. When the crisis comes, your
first reaction is to finish your row, then run.
There's no time. Skip to the meeting.
If you skip the small work, you might as well set the tail on
Mars. With laser cows I want.
Readers to strain under that routine to.
Get that? The world's.
Doesn't pause for. Your character arc.
But then when those Council meetings do happen, we get.
A burst. Rumors come in.
Travellers possible war? Farther north, burned banners
vanished farms. For the villagers, is this just?
More noise or? Do they really feel fear?
I think. Fear is always there.
They don't say. It out loud.
They manage it with gossip, prepping the fence, arguing
chores. Only kids like.
Roll and ask. Straight out.
For everyone else. Trouble is a word.
You only use when it's knocking right at the gate.
And Ryland's always. Watching, He's the first to ask,
Do you? Think the world will want what?
We grow. That song about the stranded?
Guy. Did he ever get rescued?
He's the youngest, but also the one who.
Carries the biggest. Questions.
That's why he matters. Kids see the shape of stuff
before adults call it real. Roland's always coming at it.
Sideways. Can his invention?
Help, Sir. Can the world make space?
For their fields. Their version of home.
He's the curiosity that the rest have to bury.
Just to keep moving. I noticed there aren't any
explanations dropped in. No, as you know, Bob, no, the
Keepers are the magical. Rulers who blah blah blah.
It's all implied, hinted. Why?
Because nobody in Tuitoma needs explanations they know.
Who the keepers are, because they.
Worry about them after dark, not because someone.
Wrote a treatise. If I give the info, it's in
dialogue, in rumors, in what? Kids over here.
Or in what old women mutter about while baking bread.
If you want exposition, go watch the parade in the capital.
Here you get one chance to catch.
Up. And then there's the.
Traveller's Chorus. And Jill Barden, coming with
nothing, fleeing from trouble, knowing more than they'll say
Titomo welcomes them, but with. A wary eye.
You don't let your guard down for anyone.
It's self. Preservation.
There's a. Generosity to offer you a job,
but you sleep. Outside the fence.
Until people figure you out, the village is equal.
Part suspicion and. Practicality.
If you eat, you work. If you cause trouble, you're
trouble the kid. Chorus is young, but he learns
quick. That safety's.
Earned, not promised. And the chapter.
Closes just as loaded as it started.
Only now the sense of. Trouble is everywhere.
The newcomers with rumors, The kids realizing their games might
turn. Serious, Sir.
Holding on to Roland's luck charm like it might be more than
a. Pebble the whole.
Place bracing for some pressure they can't define.
That's all you. Get in a Goodyear, maybe a
charm, a new. Field a patch.
On the wall and the promise that if things go bad, you notice
just fast enough to dig in or run.
No heroics, just doing enough to make tomorrow.
Daylight. Not going to lie, I read this in
my. Back ached.
For an hour. The best possible way?
Next. Week we get chapter 2, Where the
world. Outside the fence comes calling.
If people. Thought chapter 1 was gritty.
Wait till they find out what happens when.
Trouble actually walks. Up the lane.
You're not giving anything else up.
Are you not? A word come back ready.
All right, listeners, that's our time for shock.
Waves go wash your. Hands.
Drink some water, patch your fences.
We'll be. Back.
After the next earthquake with more dirt and more stories from
Stellar. Shock.
Thanks, Arthur. See you out in the field.
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