I got it! Well… not got but I pre-ordered Empowered volume 8! One – I like the character. Empowered is not just a pretty face. She’s someone committed to a cause, even to the point of personal embarrassment (you would be too if your suit was described as ‘wearing a soap bubble’) and she’s a lot more honest and forthright about it. Sure – the OEM has its Cinemax moments, but I can look past that and see a story about a courageous woman trying to defy all the odds. If you like comic books, then I highly recommend Empowered (follow the link to get volume one).

OK – that’s out of the way. Back to Tyro and the babbling. I am having a hard time with Nysa’s dialogue when she’s trying to tell the others that she wants them to go and she’ll remain behind. Writing Nysa is a three step process – a fun process at times, but a process nonetheless. Here’s an example: Nysa wants Tyro to share a milkshake with her (no, I am not thinking about McDonald’s chocolate milkshakes. Not at all… move along…). First, I think about what she wants to say:

“Give me some of your milkshake.”

As we can see, Nysa isn’t one for the subtle social niceties. Now, we fit in the code: Nysa refers to other people with a descriptive word. Tyro, in this instance, is always referred to as a body of water: river, ocean, wave… or a puddle is she’s being insulting. Another thing about Nysa’s speech is that she never refers to something by its name; it will be talked about in reference to the subject. The milkshake in this case will be referred to as sweet seafoam. If she was speaking to Mara, there would be a reference to metal. Nysa always refers to herself as fire – whether it’s a reference based on the fact that she’s a redhead (and in my head this woman portrays her), or that out of the group she’s the most volatile or that she has the most magical potential. Now this:

“Give me some of your milkshake.”

Becomes this after rewording:

“The fire wants to boil away the sweet seafoam and drink the steam from the sky.”

Yes – Nysa refers to herself in the third person. Trust me, this is the least irritating part of her personality. Now, Nysa has an odd syntax – and thanks to the Yoda Speak website I can just type in the dialogue and get it back in the right order. Once that’s done, now we have Nysa speaking in all of her babbling glory:

“To boil away the sweet seafoam and drink the steam from the sky the fire wants.”

So now we don’t know if she wants some of Tyro’s milkshake, or she wants to destroy all the water on the planet for a big steam bath. Isn’t Nysa just silly? With the scene I am trying to write, she wants to say this:

“The Master’s soldiers are coming! You have to run right now! I’m going to stay behind because I can lead them away from here if I have to, and I’m in love with the village elder’s boy. Now, go! Go!”

So, this is going to take me a little time to work around, so I might just focus on the other characters and come back to it during break so I can dedicate some hours to it.

I need to get to work. Nysa can’t babble to herself all day…well, she could, but that would be a boring story.

Thanks for reading.

Sincerely,

Seething Apathy