Avery Olive

Welcome to Day 5 of the 15 Days of Christmas Giveaways and boy, do we have a good post for you courtesy of todays Author, Clare C. Marshall. This is fun! I love it and I hope you do too!!

As with any of the 15 Days of Christmas Giveaways, there are prizes to be won!


But before we get to the super fun part, let me introduce you to The Violet Fox!

You-Choose Adventure: Avery Olive Edition

Page 1. You're walking down a dirt road on a sunny day in the middle of a field. There's a wilderness before you. Looking up, you see clouds. It's going to snow soon, and the temperature is quickly dropping.
There's someone coming towards you. Oh look, it's Avery! What do you do?
Page (2) Wish her a happy holiday.
Page (3) Throw candy canes at her head.


***

Page 2: You wish Avery a happy holiday.
"Thank you!" she says.
You are a nice person.
"Do you want a Christmas card?" she asks. For some reason she has like 20 in her coat pocket. She pulls one out before you can answer, and it's magically addressed to you.
"Oh...how convenient. Thanks," you say.
"INITIATE THANK-YOU SEQUENCE NUMBER 2947," Avery says in a robotic voice. You laugh a little because you think she's just being silly, but her eyes grow wide and she stares blankly past you.
"Uh...Avery?" You wave a hand in front of her face.
She opens her mouth and makes a lot of beeping and booping sounds, and the sound that a computer makes when it's connecting to the internet on a dial-up connection.
Oh no. Avery is a robot!! What do you do?
Page (4) Ask her to compute pi to the last digit.
Page (6) Take her home with you so she can become your personal get-things-done-at-Christmas lackey.


***

Page 3: You throw candy canes at her head.
"Ouch!" Avery says as the red-and-white peppermint candies hit her face. "What did you do that for?" You shrug. You can't control your impulses. You want to do something, you just do it. That's just how you roll. Fortunately Avery's a lot nicer than you. She tries to see the positive in the situation. "Thanks for the candy canes, I guess." She picks one up off the ground, peels off the plastic wrapper, and starts eating it.
Further down the road, behind Avery, there's a rumbling sound. Something large and dark is heading for the both of you! What do you do?
Page (5) Who cares about danger? Tell Avery that the candy canes are poisonous.
Page (7) Run towards the dangerous force and try to fight it!


***

Page 4: You ask her to compute pi to the last digit.
...and you're there for a while.
I mean, she just keeps going. In her robotic voice, forever and ever, amen, she dictates every digit of pi! You're so long that you even grow a big white Gandalf-Santa Claus beard. Even if you're a girl. Especially if you're a girl. Menopause is a faraway memory.
Just when you think she's going to stop, nope, she keeps going. People come to watch the amazing Avery Robot and the person who set her going. You don't want to leave now, you've invested so much in this, and Avery was your friend. You want to see this to the end.
Eventually people settle down and an entire town blosoms around you. The town becomes a city, and the people see your devotion as inspirational. Soon, when your heart and mind and other body parts start failing you, the townspeople take you apart, fitting you with biotech replacements, until you're more machine than human. They even decorate you with Christmas lights for the holidays.
Together, you and Avery will live until the end of time, or at least until the end of pi. So you might as well get comfy.
THE END

***

Page 5: The candy canes are poisonous.
"Oh no!" Avery exclaims, spitting it out. "Why didn't you tell me before..."
You're about to tell her that you were only joking when her face turns green, and she clutches her throat, and collaspes. She may or may not be breathing.
The dark, rumbling threat is almost upon you! It has yellow eyes and a large mouth full of teeth, and when it opens its mouth, it breathes fire!
What do you do?
Page (8) Move Avery out of danger!
Page (9) Leave Avery, save yourself.


***

Page 6: You take Avery home with you to be your Christmas robot slave.
Oh, did I say lackey? Yeah, I basically meant slave. It's not hard to lead her back home, you're only about 20 minutes from your house. You just take her by the hand and command her to walk, and she does.
Your house is a mess, but Avery-bot fixes that in no time. When you commanded her to make your house ready for Christmas, you really didn't know how far she'd go. She finds some lights in your attic and strings them outside. She goes into the woods and cuts down a tree to stick outside...and other one for your living room. Because she's a robot she's super strong, but also very gentle, because most of your ornaments are old and she carefully hangs them on the tree limbs.
Over the next few days, it snows, and she adds more decorations outside and in. Nothing flashy or in bad taste. But you start to feel like you're living in a dream home. Everything is super clean, the air is filled with the smell of freshly baked cookies, and you generally feel more relaxed. You have many dinner parties, and word gets around about your tasteful Christmas decorations.
A lady from the Best Christmas Homes Eva! magazine hears about your spectacular display and swings by to interview you. You feel like taking the credit, but then you see Avery-bot, slaving away over some elaborate gingerbread city taking up most of your kitchen counter space, and you say that she did most of it.
Avery-bot is hailed as a Christmas hero among home holiday decorators everywhere. She even gets her own reality TV shows, but she's not one of those robots that hams it up for the camera. Everyone worldwide falls in love with her and she becomes the richest robot alive.
And of course, being her agent, you get a percentage as well, and you never have to worry about money again.
THE END!

***

Page 7: Run towards the dangerous force & fight!
Forget Avery and whatever she's doing. That monster coming towards you, that's where the action's at!
Yelling and screaming at the top of your lungs, you charge towards the creature. But you have no weapons. No armour. But you don't care. Danger, you live for danger!
The creature roars at you. It towers eight feet in the air, its lower half obsured by a black ball of dust and smoke, its top half ripe with raw muscular strength. Its eyes burn yellow. Ladies, this is not the kind of demon you fall in love with. This is the kind of demon that needs to be SMITED RIGHT AWAY or else it will smite your puny human self first.
But...how are you supposed to fight a demon?
Then, you have an idea. "I challenge you to a game of riddles!"
Go to Page 10.

***

Page 8: Move Avery out of Danger
With a strength you never knew you had, you pick up Avery's unconscious form and throw her out of the way. As gently as one can throw an unconscious person.
Unfortunately, while you're able to save Avery, you don't have enough time to save yourself! The demon is upon you. It halts before you, arms crossed, glaring down at you with its glowing yellow eyes.
For a long time, it doesn't speak. But you hold the creature's gaze. The fear churning inside you morphs into curiosity as you study the demon's face. How old is he? What battles has he seen?
"You have shown an act of bravery," the demon says finally. "Saving your friend, and putting yourself at risk. For that, you will be rewarded!"
Rewarded?
There's a flash of blinding light and you feel a hot burning sensation in your hands. Eep! They're on fire! But...your flesh isn't melting off. And the fire isn't spreading. The flames remain in your palms.
"Use your new gift wisely," the demon says.
The cloud of smoke obsuring the lower half of his body rises up to consume the rest of him, and then he's gone.
Off to the side of the road, Avery sits up, groaning. "What just happened...?"
You can't wait to explain to her how you now have an awesome superpower. TIME TO SAVE THE WORLD! With fire.
THE END


***

Page 9: Leave Avery and Save Yourself!
The demon charges towards Avery and you do a Captain Kirk roll out of the way! Just as the demon is about to overtake Avery's form, he stops. He's hovering over her unconscious body, his muscular arms resting on his hips, which descend into a cloud of black smoke. "You have left this innocent here to die!" he says in a thunderous voice. Huh? There's a blinding flash of light and your skull hits the ground. You try to get up, but you're paralyzed. You can't even blink. Your gaze is fixed on Avery, and the demon. The demon kneels beside her and whispers something in a demonic language. She stirs, looking around in a dazed state, and then sits up. "Poison your enemy? Your friend? That is the work of a COWARD!" the demon shouts. "C'mon, Avery. Let's go get ice cream." Ice cream?!?! You want ice cream! Since when are Avery and the demon friends? They walk away together down the road. So they're just going to leave you there, alone? Paralyzed? Fine. The more you're alone, the more time you have to think up an elaborate revenge plot that you'll never get to carry out.
THE END

***

Page 10: You face the demon.
You're feeling awfully proud of yourself. That demon looks really muscular and he'd probably beat you to a pulp if you tried to fight him physically.
"What is white and black and red all over?" you ask.
The fearsome demon, once confident, now wears a confused expression. "Uh..."
"Yeah! Not so smart now, are you demon? The answer is NEWSPAPER, obviously!"
The demon doesn't really like that you've outsmarted him. While you do a little victory dance, he swings a mighty fist and smushes you to smitherens. Yeah. You really shouldn't mess with demons unless you know what you're getting into. On the plus side...your remains look like some sort of Christmas pudding?
THE END Did you like this? If so, subscribe to the Faery Ink Press newsletter. I'll be writing longer ones in the future, for free or for cheap as free!