Author’s Note: Soso

Around Mar 27, 2023, I wrote Soso in response to a Reedsy prompt to write a story about someone who says, “I feel alive.” The larger writing contest was related to spring in Japan. And happily, Soso was shortlisted! Yay!

In this story, Soso is a 400-year-old tortle, an anthropomorphized tortoise. He’s an artificer - an inventor - who makes astoundingly perfect automatons in the shape of toys. Soso is a toymaker who loves his toys and the spirit of childhood.

Soso is growing old, and I elude that he must leave for the places where tortles go to die - to the south, I wrote, beyond Shae Tahrane - because it’s warmer there. Shae Tahrane is to the south of the Aevalorn setting, and I picture it as closer to the equator. Mountains. Deserts. Savanahs. I mentioned Shae Tahrane before in The Magnificent Maron Maloney.

If Soso leaves, he’s concerned a mysterious organization known as The League will come and snatch his toys and learn how to improve upon their own automatons and craft better war machines.

Therefore, Soso sent the crow, Thomas, to fetch a halfling artificer, Artemis Teafellow. I actually pictured Soso dispatching Thomas before he started his hibernation in the fall, and Thomas had to fly out to the Parishes to track down Artemis. Eventually, Thomas found him, and Thomas had been hanging around Artemis in Ehrendvale for months. And when the time approached to leave, Thomas convinced Artemis to make a month-long trek into the mountains.

Soso’s plan is to gift all of his toys to Artemis before he leaves so that the League can’t find them.

There are some elements of this story that attempt to address the prompt:

• The cherry blossom trees are a direct reference to spring in Japan.

• The Zen-like koans offered by Thomas.

The origin of Soso comes from an artificer non-player character (NPC) that I created for a D&D campaign that I ran in 2022. This version of Soso is much older and varied a bit from my NPC, but the spirit is there.

At the end of the story, I reveal that Thomas the Crow is actually an extremely sophisticated toy. I pictured the automaton so perfect that its consciousness ascended to a higher understanding. Thus, Thomas speaks in Zen-like koans.

Unfortunately, as traveling with a Zen Master seemed uncomfortable, Soso erased his memory engrams to make Thomas a better traveling companion, resetting its hundreds of years of existence in a flash. I was accused of “killing” Thomas by a reader, but I perceived it as “resetting” Thomas. It’s just a toy, right? Meh, I’ll leave that one up to the reader. :)

What I loved hearing from readers is how much Soso reminded them of being a kid or playing with toys. Yay - it totally makes my day - that’s exactly what I want to hear! That’s the whole concept for Artemis.

Soso is Artemis’ origin story and attempts to explain why he has so many completed automatons and his fascination with toys. Artemis will gather up all of Soso’s toys and notes and take them to Ehrendvale in the Aevalorn Parishes. Foiled, the League will show up at Soso’s place to find nothing of value and eventually learn where the toys went, putting a target on his back! Uh-oh.

If you’re curious, I’ve drafted an outline of Artemis’ first novella, and we’ll see him again maybe eight months after Soso. I hope to have that project finished before fall 2023! Woot!