Reviews for Our Last Conversations
Yours The Author chapter 6 . 6/12
Action! Bloodshed! More bloodshed! What an end!
I like the change at the end from quatrains to couplets; it creates a different rhythm from the rest of the poems, since the situation is different. Instead of someone planning to kill/hurt others, they're hurting themselves to right a wrong. For lack of a better word, that was very poetic. Excellent collection of poems!
Yours The Author chapter 5 . 6/11
Man, you're really raising the bar for yourself! Looks like I /could/ be right about the extent of Shawn and Wally's relationship; but that last corrupted line makes me wonder if the voices want the speaker to kill the murderer /and/ the mechanic; or the murderer who /is/ the mechanic. Perhaps the speaker thinks only the mechanic is to blame? There's no reference to "the traitor", so the voices may not be telling all they know.
Absolutely fascinating stuff!
Yours The Author chapter 4 . 6/11
Yee! Oh, the action, the action! You almost escaped, Tom. So close.
Joey calling him "Tommy" is also very in character, since he seems to think of everyone who's beneath him but useful as his "child", as Betrum Piedmont put it.
So much Wally! I love seeing this affection side a lot of the characters in this poem chapbook have for the guy, not just "that dumb ol' janitor who goofs around and messes up and says 'I'm outta here!'" Like, even someone gruff like Tom treats him like family, and I just think that's really sweet. What will become of the Wally man? The poor Wally man doesn't deserve this.
Susie or Allison? Based on the previous two poems, it's probably Susie, but Tom in particular seems very worried about the angel experiment; could it be Allison? Oh, wait; but in the game, Tom and Allison escape the studio before the game based on the letter in Joey's house. Probably Susie, then, but it's fun to speculate!
Yours The Author chapter 3 . 6/11
...
AAAAAAAA-
THIS! IS GOOD! GOOD STUFF RIGHT HERE!
The corrupted words throughout (apparently it's Vietnamese, or at least my phone thinks it is and wants to translate it), especially in reference to Susie, is an excellent visual, and leads back to my previous theory of Susie's existence being erased by the ink machine!
And Wally and Shawn's implied friendship (or maybe more? Maybe I've been reading too many romance fics as of late) is really cool! Now that I think about it, I don't remember if Wally and Shawn ever really interacted, so this direction is a lot of fun to speculate and think about!
And who is that letter from at the end, I wonder? I want to say it's Shawn to Wally, but there's room for even more speculation! Also, how'd you change the font? I didn't know you could do that on this site.
Overall, definitely cool! Jumping right into the next one, see you in a bit!
Yours The Author chapter 2 . 6/10
Ah, I see, I see. Not bad, not bad at all.
The punctuation at the ends of some the lines felt a bit off, like a period where a question mark should have been, single sentence lines when it might have been better to leave a few periods out. Also, it was a cool idea, and I like the implication that going through the ink machine basically erased her existence, even in a pre-recorded tape, but it was fairly obvious who the Name Not Found was.
This isn't to say this isn't a good poem; like I said, the implication of Susie being erased is fascinating, and I hope it might get explored more in the future. I guess since this poem is based on a pre-existing log that came at a point where we could tell what Joey was getting at, the ending wasn't as much of a surprise as Grant's log.
Still, I like your idea of "lost logs", and am looking forward to your next installment!
Yours The Author chapter 1 . 6/10
Ooh, golly goshums! I love the story here! The rising tension, the vagueness of what Joey's doing at the end, Grant's palpable fear!
I've got to wonder: is there a particular significance to the amount of debt the studio is in? I looked it up, but since we don't have a date for this audio log, we can't tell how much that debt would be worth today. Inflation jumped between 1929 and 1930 (of course), so it could be higher than 630,000 or over 730,000, and that's only if it's during that timeframe. I also tried looking up the code you included in the summary, but nothing came up. I'm sure it wasn't random, so I'm wondering what kind of code it was. Also also, it's interesting that an audio log from the 1930s would have a 404 error, since I don't think they had that kind of naming system then. UNLESS...! The codes and errors in the summary are suggesting that /you/ yourself uploaded the audio log, and the code and error are a part of the results you uploaded! Very fascinating! I'd love to learn more!
Anyway, back to the actual poem: I love this format of a conversation that /just so happens/ to rhyme, and though the phrasing was a little odd sometimes (you /did/ use the wrong "your" near the beginning), but it didn't detract from the experience, so I say you did really well! Very proud of what you've got here! Looking forward to the next one!