OK – now that we are out of Act Two and stumbling into Act Three, it is time to tip the frying pan towards the fire below. Our duo links up outside the town limits (poor Black Bart, he had such promise…just kidding – he got what he deserved) and Danny asks if Ronda can find his body. Ronda says yes, but it is going to take some time to search them out. What could speed that along is something personal – cloth, or a favorite thing. Danny asks if they have the time to go back to his village. Ronda says more than likely not, but she can let him step into her, and some that she can get a better sense of him. Danny asks how he is going to do that if she’s warded. She says that she’s warded against unwanted intrusion and holds out her hand. “Don’t worry – I’ll be gentle.” She says and Danny takes her hand. She tells him to close his eyes and think about home. Danny closes his eyes and starts to think about home, calling to mind the parlor and the table with his brother Bruce. His mind wanders out of the home and into the square. Village Cutie comes by, looking a little saucy for Danny/Ronda – which Ronda comments on and says ‘yeah, she’s not into you’ with a bit of a brutal language. Danny asks her how this is going to get her closer to his body. She says that he just needs to walk around for a few more minutes in his head. We get a tour of his life: he goes into the counting house and sits down to work on one of the books. Ronda comments that she’s surprised he’s alive – this sort of boring life would kill a lesser being. She now has enough to get a fix on his body and she breaks contact. As she is breaking contact (which Danny likens to a kiss that is awkwardly ended), Danny gets a quick glimpse of Ronda’s life – a rough and tumble existence with a neglectful and somewhat resenting mother on one side and a father who is trying to mold the daughter into the son he wanted. Danny comments on her life and she says that she has little regrets about it. It made her the person that she is and there’s no use for crying about it – it’s in the pass.

Now that she has a good idea of what to look for, she can start searching. She hops on the horse and Danny asks if he needs to get into the horse. She says yes, at least that way they can travel faster. He’s not as squeamish about stepping into the horse as he was earlier, but he still has some reservations about it – mostly about killing the horse when he steps out. He asks if he can step into something else, like a boot or a pistol. Ronda holds out a knife and says he can step into this – it should be easier than getting into the horse since it’s been around her long enough to pick up a trace of her power. He puts his hand on it and thinks about pushing himself in – he almost falls into the knife it’s so easy. She sheathes the knife and Danny wonders if she can hear him think. She says yes, and that he should try to sleep. He asks if he needs sleep since he doesn’t feel tired. She says it’s not to rest, but to give her some quiet for a change. Danny closes his eyes (or at least thinks about it) and tries to sleep. Danny doesn’t sleep per se, he falls into a meditative state that brings him to a location near the mountains and he is watching his body moving around and getting into a fight with a man-like…thing that seems to have more mouth and very, very sharp teeth than face. Danny-in-the-flesh looks over to Danny-in-the-spirit and says if he’s going to bring help, it would be better to catch up with them here and he points to a weathered, twisted tree. As he raises his hand up to point, the thing with the mouth bites through (through!) his arm, breaking it off in a ragged stump. Danny-in-the-flesh looks down at the stump as it is spurting blood and comments that the help had better hurry. If the Maw gets a hold of the Artifice and clay, then there is no saving the world. Danny comes around with Ronda yelling at him to get up – his distress is causing a couple of wraiths to come sniffing around. The horse skitters as one wraith draws uncomfortably close. Danny is a little freaked out, thinking that they’re going to rip up the horse. Ronda tells him to be calm and let her ride on. Danny can’t be calm – those things almost ripped him apart the last time he got this close. Ronda tells him to close his eyes and count coins – anything else to get his mind off of his fear. Danny flips out and the wraiths attack them and the horse…

… and this is where I am going to end it since I need to make lunch, shower, get gas and try to get along with my day. Thanks for reading and let me know what you think.

Sincerely,

Seething Apathy

Now – I’m still working on the NanoWrimo novel here and when last I left you, Faithful Reader, Ronda and Danny were about to chase off after Black Bart (and to remind everyone, these are place names – I am going to have much better names for everyone before this goes to press). Danny asks how Ronda knows where Black Bart is and she says that one of her little talents that she got from her mother was that she can leave her body and look around. She uses that to find the people that she’s hunting for. Danny asks why she doesn’t have wraiths trying to get into her when she’s out. She unlaces the top of her shirt and shows another set of scars that trace the top of her chest. To Danny, they sparkle with rainbow light – after he realizes that if his eyes drop down a little lower, he’s going to get the full show, he blushes and looks away. Ronda laughs and says she doesn’t mind the looks – she used to fight in the circuit where all she wore was a bikini top and loin cloth. She tells him that the scars are an old spell that ‘locks’ her body away when she’s not in it. They ride along, with Danny asking some more questions about what he can do when he’s out and about without a body. She says that she can do the obvious and knock other people out of their bodies and take theirs. If he’s willing, he can learn to inhabit other things – making himself into a minor magical relic. The longer he’s out of his body, the more time he is going to have to learn how to do more… but Danny would much rather be back in his body chasing after Village Cutie.

With Danny in the horse, they can run it a lot farther – even through the night, which is what they do. Thanks to Ronda’s being Touched (she’s a lot hardier than the normal person – think of her having 1 dot in Potence and Fortitude for all you V:tM players out there), she doesn’t need sleep often. Thanks to Danny being in the horse he doesn’t need sleep at all. The horse itself? Well, someone had to draw the short end of the straw. They travel at a steady clip for a full day and night until Ronda tells him to slow down. They’re getting close to Black Bart’s camp. She tells Danny to stay in the horse until nightfall – their best time to grab him is when his guard is down. They hatch a plan: at night, Danny will sneak into Black Bart’s body, displacing him (but he’s a bad guy and deserves whatever he gets) and walking back to the nearest town to get the bounty. When all is said and done, Danny can step out of the body and rejoin Ronda out at the town limits. Danny asks why Black Bart should die. He’s a bad guy, sure – but they weren’t hired to be judge, jury and executioner. Ronda says that she’s not here to discuss the merits of rough-and-tumble justice versus the rule of law. She’s there to collect Black Bart and the money he’s going to pull down – he’s there to help get the cash they’re going to need until they can find whoever hijacked his body. He can either be a help or get out of the horse and take his chances. He agrees to help, but wants to give Black Bart a chance to tag along as a spirit so that when Danny pops out, Black Bart can still face the justice he richly deserves. Ronda agrees and tells him to stay in the horse until nightfall. She closes her eyes and falls asleep.

Night falls like and the pair gets ready to assault the camp. Danny makes the horse lie down and he steps out. Ronda (who can still see him) tells him to go to the camp and step inside. If there are any wraiths, give her a whistle and she can fight them off until he can get in. Danny runs for the camp – thankfully there are no wraiths nearby. He gets ready to jump into Black Bart… and skips off of him like a stone skipping off a pond. He shouts to Ronda that he can’t get in. Black Bart stirs and stands up – looking around for Danny who dove into a rock – yelling for whatever ghost is trying to take him on to show himself. Ronda approaches Black Bart and tells him that he’s now bound by the King’s justice. Black Bart refutes her claim by shooting. Ronda takes cover and Danny pops his head up to ask why he couldn’t step into him as easily as a horse. Ronda (in between blasts from her pistol) tells him that he must have some sort of ward on him – look for something sparkling on him like her scars. Danny rushes him, thinking that Black Bart can’t see him. Black Bart sees him and swats at him…and he makes contact, sending Danny sprawling to one side. Ronda curses and tells Danny to look at his wrists – he must have some clay on him. Danny looks at him and spies a pair of white bracelets on him. Ronda curses again and tells Danny that they have to get the bracelets off of him in order for their plan to work. Danny asks how he’s supposed to do that if Black Bart can see him and touch him. Ronda says for him to figure it out on his own – she’s busy dodging bullets. Danny looks around for something to use. He finds a rock and reaches for it. His hand passes through it – then he remembers that he can inhabit or affect inanimate objects. On a hunch, he waits until Black Bart is focused on Ronda. When that happens, he rushes at Black Bart from his flank and grabs one gun. He mentally makes a wish – I just wish you’d break.

Black Bart squeezes the trigger and the hammer makes a breaking sound and the gun fails to go off. Danny grins…and gets a fistful of Bart in his teeth. Ronda takes advantage of his distracted state to come in and hit him hard enough to knock him to the ground. Black Bart tries to swing his good gun up to shoot her, but Ronda breaks his arm with absolutely no mercy. While he’s writhing in pain, Ronda breaks both bracelets with stomps of her booted feet, and then gives him a kick in the stomach just out of principle. Ronda asks if Danny is OK. He says yes, and now he’s ready to take over Black Bart – and he steps into him. The Black Bart spirit popping out of him tries to get back in, but is stopped by Ronda, who tells Danny to pick up one of the larger clay shards and keep it on his person as it will keep him in Black Bart’s body if attacked. Black Bart says that he’s going to follow them and they’d better make sure that he isn’t anywhere around when Danny steps out because he knows how to hurt the both of them badly – and making an insinuation of rape. Danny says that they should get going, as they want to strike out of the town after sundown so that Black Bart has a chance to ‘ripen’ before the judge finds them. Ronda and Danny hop on Black Bart’s horse. They say their farewells and head off to the town to turn in Black Bart, get the money and let him expire with nary a twinge on their conscience.

With the pair riding off into the distance ends the second act. How is it so far? Let me know with a comment.

Thanks for reading.

Sincerely,

Seething Apathy

Where were we? Oh, yeah – Danny and Ronda riding off into the distance to chase down Black Bart (reminder: placeholder names). While they’re off bounding towards their payday, this is a good time for our characters to learn a little more about each other, don’t you think? We find out (through a glance at fortunately exposed skin) that Ronda was a pit fighter – we see the scar for one of the cities on her shoulder. Danny asks about that and she says that she did the circuit for a few years, got all the way to the top and quit – there was nothing left to prove. Danny asks why didn’t she retire with the money she earned? “What money? After paying for the managers, the ring-geld and the apothecary, I had enough to either get myself a few days in a wayhouse or a really good meal.” “Which did you take?” “It was a good meal.” It wasn’t that Ronda was a bad manager of money; it’s just that a lot of people got ahead of her and her money. Now she’s here, but she’s not upset about it. She likes what she does for a living – she’s bringing in the worst of the worse and getting paid pretty good for the effort. Danny asks about her parents – surely they could put her up for a few days, or at least let her borrow some money when times get lean. Ronda shakes her head – Dad’s barely getting by on his own as a teamster and her mother was Rahsaya-ridden, which is why she is one of the Touched and didn’t really hang around all that much – Ronda pretty much raised herself until she was put in one of the fight houses. Ronda is doing well for herself – she doesn’t go hungry, she can get a decent room or pay for a good lay when she wants it. Life isn’t all that bad.

Danny says his life was quiet – his brother is a Warden (that’s Bruce for all you home-gamers) and he works in a counting house – and he just tries to get by. Ronda looks at him with a little bit of contempt and pity. “Getting by and living are two different things, and one is definitely not the way to live.” As they ride it starts getting dark and Ronda says that they’ll have to camp out and try to get the jump on Black Bart. She gets out her sleeping roll and ties the horse off to a tree. Danny asks what he can do. Ronda points to the horse and tells him to get in – he’ll be safe from any roaming wraiths and can keep an eye on her while she sleeps. Danny asks what will happen when he falls asleep – he’s not going to sleep since he’s a spirit and the horse will be safe. What if a wraith gets a hold of the horse’s spirit? Well, it’s a horse and easily replaced so long as a certain someone stays in the horse until she has ridden away on the good one. “Sorry, but I saw my body.” Ronda settled down for sleep. Danny settles down for watching everything from the inside of a horse. The night creeps along and while Danny doesn’t get sleepy, he does get bored and he lets his attention wander around. He can’t go anywhere since the horse is tied to the tree. He could slip out of the horse, but that would leave him vulnerable to the wraiths. So, he looks around, and out of the corner of his (or rather, the horse’s) eye, he sees a rainbow flash.

Ronda’s spirit – a multicolored strobe of lights – is rising out of her own body. It hovers over her for a second before shooting up into the air. Danny is dumbstruck by the sight, Danny barely notices the wraith as it creeps up to Ronda’s body. When he does see it, he rushes right out of the horse’s body and kicks him hard in the chin. Danny has about a second to realize that he did something brave, and then he remembers that he also did something stupid, as in getting out from under the cover of the horse. As he turns to run back, the wraith jumps on him and starts to eat him. Danny tries his best to get back inside the safety of the beast, but the wraith is not letting him go for anything. It clamps down on his arm and tries to pull him off balance. Danny hits it, but it is ineffective – remember, the wraiths or anything in the spirit world don’t feel pain – so he now just tries to get out from under it.

The multi-colored ball swoops back down, surrounding the wraith and dragging it off him. The wraith crumples and dissolves away into a pile of ash and wraith-flakes (just add milk!). The multicolored gas goes back into Ronda and she sits up. Danny asks what that was. Ronda says it’s one of her talents from being Touched – the Raysaya part of her can leave her body for extended periods of time and she was scouting out where Black Bart was holing up. She spotted him and was on her way back down to rest when she saw Danny doing his impression of a wraith chew-toy. She lies back down – she doesn’t do it that often, since it is fatiguing. She rolls over onto her side and thanks him for watching over her. Danny steps back into the horse and continues his vigil until the morning, but every now and then he steals a glance at her. In spite of the numerous scars, both trophies and occupational hazard-types, there is something pleasingly rough about her. She’s friendly, if a little uncouth for his tastes. Maybe it’s the circumstances he finds himself in…who knows?

OK – we’re still up to our hips in Act 2, but we’re at least getting to the halfway point of capturing Black Bart. If you have any questions, suggestions or cash – feel free to leave a comment.

Thank you for reading.

Sincerely,

Seething Apathy

When last we left off (or when last I left off. I don’t know if you, Good and Gentle Reader, are still reading this), Ronda (reminder: all names here are place names. You know I am better than this for names) and Danny had met while Danny’s body had been hijacked by Auntie. Ronda strikes a deal with the discorporate Danny: she’ll help him get his body back if he helps her track down and grab Black Bart – notorious highwayman menacing the Trade Roads between two major cities. Danny agrees to it and the pair head off in the direction that Black Bart was last seen. Ronda tells Danny to get inside the horse for the trip, stating that she can get another one in town. Danny approaches the horse and puts his hand on it. The horse rears and Danny backs off. Ronda tells him not to be gentle – he’s stepping into an animal, not try to get between a woman’s legs (we’re trying to paint Ronda as someone who has little time for the trappings of society). Danny pushes harder, getting his hand inside the beast and he’s pulled in.

Now inside the animal, he sees the horse’s soul looking around rather confused. Ronda tells Danny to get moving; otherwise the horse will wise up and try to nudge him out. Danny starts walking and Ronda nudges him in the ribs: he needs to get moving if he’s going to both get away from the horse that’s seen him and get her to Black Bart. Danny starts jogging and comments that there is something odd about her voice – there’s some sort of echo to it that he didn’t notice before. She mentions that’s it part of her Touched heritage, in the other world (what Ronda calls ‘over there’) she has a presence that marks her as being different. The upside is that the other Rahsaya can recognize her and a majority of them are at least kind enough to not try to take over her body (she also knows how to defend herself from the minority that aren’t). Some of them are even considered friends – one of them might be able to help Danny out. They travel to a small town and Ronda tells Danny to stay inside the horse while she gets a new one. While Danny waits for the pair to haggle over what’s going to soon be a major part of the dinner menu, Danny sees several wraiths prowling about… and he sees his body buying a horse. He tries to move to knock his body off of the horse, but he’s tied to the hitching post. So, Danny leaps out of the horse and chases down his body just seconds before Ronda and the man shake on the deal… and the horse falls over dead and the deal is cancelled. Danny attracts the attention of the wraiths as he’s yelling at that thing to get out of his body. Ronda curses and tries to get Danny to calm down (keep in mind she’s the only one who can see Danny). She gets a horse (a little miffed that she is going to have to pay out of the pocket for this one) and chases after Danny who is chasing after the horse with his body on it… who is in turn being chased by the wraiths.

Ronda rides down a couple of wraiths and picks up Danny, putting him on the saddle. She slows down while Danny complains that his body is getting away. She turns around and smacks him a couple of times – telling him that chasing after him like some dog is not going to get him his body back any sooner. If they’re going to do this and do it right – they need to take him when he’s not looking or being chased. Now – she puts an ultimatum to him: either follow with her, help her and when all is said and done, she’ll help out with getting his body back, or he can hop off the horse and become wraith chow. Danny looks over his options and goes with the former. Ronda says good and now they head off to catch Black Bart.

At this point we’re about halfway through the second act, I am going to keep spitballing this thing here until it’s done, or someone says enough.

Thanks for reading.

Sincerely,

Seething Apathy

OK – I have quit the outline for the new novel. I’m sorry, but it’s just not working now. I can’t explain it but the story is just petering out as I am trying to write it. Actually, I can explain it – there was no sense of personal danger for the main character. So, I wrote in nice big, red letters – Do It Again From The Second Act.

I am just going to work this out here on the blog. I figure y’all should get what you pay for – wait, this is free? Dammit…

Anyway, what I’m not changing is everything up to Danny (all names here are place names) getting tossed out of the village ten miles away from his body. I am still going to introduce the wraiths – people who got tossed out of their bodies and never got back to them in time, so they’re just roaming around the world. Danny is immediately set upon by these wraiths and is almost torn apart, but one wraith fights them back and tosses him into a horse (yes, you read that right) where he can hide until the worst has passed. When he gets the all clear from the friendly wraith, he steps out of the horse and it falls over. The wraith explains what happens – when Danny steps into a body, he displaces the soul…just like what the Rahsaya do. When he steps out of that creature and the soul is nearby, it goes back into the body. If it’s not, the body falls over dead. Danny asks what happened to the horse’s soul. The friendly wraith says that the horse’s soul was consumed by the other wraiths to keep from fading away into oblivion. Danny is naturally horrified over what he did – he’s not a murderer. The wraith tells him to either get over it, or offer himself up to the nearest wraith (him) and get consumed. Danny gets the first big lesson of life outside the village – you’re either predator or prey. Danny asks why the wraith is helping him. The wraith says that he (Danny) feels new to all of this, and he’s doing this as a good favor for whatever is on the other side. Danny asks what he should do now. The wraith says do whatever, just remember that the best way to hide is jump into a body and possess it; also to never try to possess a dead body, if you do that you will never get out of it until it rots away completely. Danny asks where he is, and the wraith says he’s about 20 miles from his home village. Danny asks for some more advice and the wraith says run and hide.

Now, this is different because we have the main character in immediate peril. He has to find his way back and avoid becoming wraith chow – to top it off; he has the clock to worry about as well. Right now, his body is getting further and further away to do who-knows-what. This is the second act: the introduction of the conflict. He’s got to get his body or face something far worse than death. So, he starts running.

He discovers two things: one, he doesn’t suffer from any physical sense of fatigue. Two, those wraths are everywhere. Danny manages to duck around several packs, and finds that he can pick up natural objects (this is the realm of Plato’s Ideals) and has to defend himself every now and then. We’re seeing that Danny is actually a better fighter than we were led to believe in the confrontation with Brock. As he fights his way towards the village, he comes across Ronda. Up to this point, he’s been ignored by the people but seen by the wraiths. Ronda acknowledges him as a person and asks how threw him out. He just says that something bumped into him last night and ever since then, he’s been on the outside looking in as it were. Ronda tells him about the Rasayah and what they do – they inhabit people the same way people would get dressed. They don’t really care about the ones they displace…well, a majority of them don’t. Some try to be ‘stand-up people’ as it were. She knows about them because she was ‘touched’ by one – born to one and shares some of their lesser powers. She can sense them, can speak to them directly and can’t be taken over by them. Danny asks for help in this matter. Ronda says that she can help him, but there it isn’t going to be a free ride. She’s trying to bring someone in and could use the help – in return, she is going to try to help him at least to hide better in an object or a person – so long as he agrees to return the body to the owner when he’s done with it.

So – what do you think? I am going to add more to it tomorrow and build the story. Feedback is always appreciated.

Sincerely

Seething Apathy