Mettle - Issue 01

METTLE

"What do you fear, young man? What makes the scariest man in the world afraid?"

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002 - Violence For Christmas

I'm not particularly fond of nuts. Walnuts, pecans, cashews, etc - just never had any taste for them whatsoever.  It's a crazed world where one can smell the burnt taste of nuts upon the air. God, I hate Christmas carols.

Lemmings and cyanide, right? Talk about a misuse of resources. The poison could go to a much better use than that.

"Terrible, isn't it?" she said, a gloved finger circling around the edge of her wine glass, and a sardonic smile on her lips. "Such an unfortunate fate for one of such prestige. I dare say we'll be looking "

I raised an eyebrow, looking back at her with a suspicious gaze. "What's terrible about it, the death or the fact that it was somebody important that died?"

She raised an eyebrow, and her smile turned to disdain. "You have to ask?"

Day 113: Testing

The contents of this post will change once I actually figure out the results of posting with this program. It's an interesting looking whatsit, but it's yet to be seen whether or not the end results are sufficient for my needs.

My extremely exacting standards are hard to satisfy, after all. Never mind, I'm a fan of this program.  The end result of my efforts is sufficient to forever earn my respect and disregard for the proper rules of gravity. One day I will wake up, and look beyond these earthy bonds.

You wake up, and realize you're a tremendous dork. A villain without any particular reason for his dislike of the world around him. Looking up at the sky at the end of the day and thinking you'd want to see it curled with smoke and a bloodstain filter. Red clouds, puff pieces swimming in the sky wrapped in diamond dust.

Grinning, he spun in place, raising his arms above him as he moved. "I'm just a pretty little princess!" he shrieked, grabbing a pie off the marble countertop and flinging it erratically at my face. After dodging the flaky menace, I found myself under a deluge of baked goods.

"This is ridiculous!" he yelled as I ducked behind the door to the living room to avoid a platter of flans. "Absolutely bonkers!"

I don't think that it's a good idea to wear striped pants. I could wear a suit everywhere, but then I'd just look like a tosser. It wouldn't be appropriate for baking, I can tell you that much.

Writing's like a muscle, and it must be exercised often. I don't get much exercise, even though I've bought plenty of memberships to this gym.

I guess the problem lies in that I can't make myself do things easily. Still, that's hardly a mystery, and this is not revelation theatre.

Yay, A Beginning

Currently Writing: TBA Chapter Two - An Unsigned Note
Currently Reading: Prince Caspian - C. S. Lewis

Hm. Screw keeping track of my word count. I'll do it for my individual stories, I suppose, but it seems kinda pointless to keep a running total on my bloog. Seems a bit too much like looking for praise.

Anyway, I've actually written something now. I've gotten a first draft out for the first chapter of The Broken Arrow, or TBA. What a fitting acronym, I suppose, considering my past history of false starts on this sort of thing.

So here's a sample of the first draft. Nothing too major, but it already raises a couple questions, and I honestly like how this turned out.

'There's nothing like this.' Cornelius Fudge cheerfully thought, leaning back in his plush green chair and swinging his feet up to rest on the lacquered mahogany surface of his desk. His purple pointed boots wiggled as he hummed tunelessly, and he leaned forward slightly to pick up a teapot and one of the teacups that had been awaiting his arrival in his office this morning along with a pile of baked goods.

'No, there's nothing like being the Minister.' Fudge thought with satisfaction. He blinked when he looked down at the teacup in his hand, surprised to see that the inside of the cup was caked with brown grime. After a cautious sniff yielded no conclusions, he carefully put down the cup, brought his feet to the ground, pulled out his wand, and cast a cleaning charm. Most of the mess vanished, leaving only a barely visible brownish ring around the edge of the cup.

After glancing dubiously at the cup for a moment, Fudge shrugged and poured the tea into the cup. He rested back in his seat, and brought his tea to his mouth. Taking a sip, his eyes bulged comically for a moment before he spat the tea back into the cup. “What in the hell...?” Fudge asked the air, staring down at the reddish liquid. “It's cold as ice!”

Fudge shook his head in irritation, glaring at the door to his office for a moment. He had already been seriously considering firing his assistant as her conduct had been abysmal ever since he resumed his post two months ago, and this tea was the shoddiest he'd seen yet. Fudge had tolerated her rudeness thus far – a slight blush rising on his face as he considered why he had allowed such mistreatment from the attractive witch – but she seemed to have absolutely no respect for his position, and barely seemed to be able to stand being in the same room as him.

It didn't make any sense to him, Fudge pondered, as he leaned back in his seat after casting a heating charm on his tea. After taking another cautious sip, he leaned back further in his chair and spun to face the enchanted window behind his desk.

So that's your little preview. No, the entire story does not focus on Fudge, although that's an interesting idea as I don't know if I've ever seen a story like that. Hm. Interesting.

Anyway, this chapter was originally supposed to just be a prologue, but it got to the point where it seemed a bit ridiculous. If the prologue is 4500 words long, which is certainly a respectable chapter length, it seemed to be asking a lot of the actual chapters. Perhaps I could cut down the pre-story chatter a bit, but it's certainly not the worst I've ever seen.

Not to be a snobby ass, but I'm afraid that honor goes to those who put one of those atrocious interviews before their stories where the author pretends to converse with the characters. I'm sorry, I'm sure you're a delightful person, but those things just irritate me and as a result I tend to be irritated with your story.

That's just me, though, and what do I know? Maybe I'm wrong. I certainly have been many times in the past.


I'm out.

Introduction

Hello, there. Xeric here with yet another blog. Perhaps I'm expanding too quickly with all of these blogs, considering I've yet to make a habit out of updating the ones I already have. However, writing is something I think about on a daily basis, so perhaps I'll manage to stick to this one.

Welcome to Inscription. This is my writing and reading blog, where I discuss the books I've been reading and the stories I've been writing. It's a topic that takes up a consistently large area of my mind, and it'd be good for me to get my thoughts out in the open rather than having them circle about in my brain and ferment. Brain rot is not exactly an appealing prospect.

Anyway, I plan on noting my efforts at fan fiction, original fiction, and responses to things I read in my day-to-day life. I don't know what kind of updating schedule I'll have for this place, but I'll throw something up every time I come up with something worth updating.

Alright. That's about it for now. Except for this...

Currently Reading: The Chronicles of Narnia - Prince Caspian
Currently Writing: The Broken Arrow - Planning Sheet
Word Count: Negligible.

I'm out.