[Writing] Black_angel's Notebook: Update - Pyrophobia (May 15)

[Angel]

Well, I'd been wanting to do one of these for a while, and a conversation convinced me now was the right time to start.

This may soon expand to include art, because I've had a fantasy/anthro story in the works for a few years and I'm finally drawing up some of the comics (none are scanned yet, or even inked, so don't harass me about them just yet). As I hope is apparent, I'm a college student who's on a scholarship and doesn't get enough sleep, and my imagination doesn't like schedules. So updates in this may be sporadic.

The two universes are my own (entitled "Door of Diamonds" after the eventual comic") and occasionally, the universes of the RPs I used to be in (all called "New Wind" by the friend who made them up). The two universes don't really mix in my mind except for humorous purposes.

And now, without further ado, my offering for a first story!

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(Author's Notes: Readers of "The Honor Circle Returns" will recognize my characters, Sylvie Dahl and Dani Sanders. For those who don't know, go check out their bios in the OOC thread in the Haunted Ballroom and all will be clear. While the characters are mine, their races come from the New Wind tabletop RP designed by my friend, who goes by Malone on this board and doesn't log on. He will not sue me, I think.)

New Wind Offshoot Story: How Dani and Sylvie First Met

"Hey! HEY! STOP IT, NOW!"
  At the sound of her voice, the whole room went quiet. At the sight of her blazing red eyes and the glint of her glaive, even those who loved to challenge her authority stayed that way.The only two people who didn't immediately focus on her were the two now-restrained prisoners who'd been fighting - if such a one-sided beating could be called a fight.

Officer Dani Sanders, the prison guard for the violent criminals ward, approached and watched the two inmates carefully. Each was being held back by another officer, and only one of them looked happy about the fight being over. That one - a dark-haired human who looked exactly like the locked-up criminal he was supposed to be - was looking at the woman who attacked him with a "now you're in for it" expression. Dani knew him as an instigator of fights and a scumbag, so she shifted her focus to the woman. She had a hardened look in her eyes that looked out-of-place when compared to her regal elven features, and served more to make her look unintentionally indignant than uncaring and cold. She had deemed her "victim" unworthy of her focus and was giving Dani a look that said she didn't care what happened, it couldn't be worse than being here. The Red guessed that the elf-girl had never committed a violent crime other than the one that got her in here, and like this fight, she didn't regret it; all she regretted was getting caught. Even with her quietly aggressive attitude, the red-headed guard might have forgotten the elf if not for her appearance.

The girl's skin was green as the stem of a flower, and her hair looked just like long blades of grass.

Dani finally reached the scene and stopped, folding her glaive in angrily-crossed arms and glaring at the two fighters. "Now, anyone mind telling me what the hell happened here?" Predictably, the dark-haired human who'd been attacked spoke up first.

"That freak bitch just attacked me for no reason! All I did was ask her a question and-"

"Johansen, right?" Dani interrupted the man. "What was it again... eight counts of armed robbery, two counts of rape, one count of assaulting an officer?" The human gaped. Reds were supposed to have short attention spans. But apparently, that didn't mean they didn't have good memories.

"I think an outsider's opinion is needed here," the guard finished, turning to the officer restraining the elf. "Andrews, did you see what happened?"

"Yes, ma'am," the brunet, clean-cut officer answered. "Johansen was harassing the lady, and she was giving him the cold shoulder. He started to get more and more aggressive, but she kept ignoring him." At this rehashing, quite a few of the inmates watching smiled. It wasn't uncommon for such things to happen when a new-ish prisoner was in the recreation area. For a female one - and such an interesting one at that - to react so calmly to something like this was a rare treat. Dani smirked herself before continuing her search for facts.

"So then what happened?"

Andrews's face darkened. "Well, he started to get really angry when she ignored him for such a long time, so finally he threatened her."

"Threatened her how?" Dani asked, her face growng more serious as well. Johansen looked like he wasn't sure whether to be proud of himself or be worried about backlash from the prisoners who were clearly supporting the elf.

"Well, he said if she didn't look at him, he was going to....well, uh..."

"Cut her open and count her rings," finished a blonde human woman from the elf's side of the room. Andrews pulled an awkward face and nodded his affirmation. Except for one or two drow inmates, most of those present were now glaring at Johansen, who had chosen to look worried.

"Charming," Dani said in a flat tone. "Now, what exactly did she do in response? I mean, before I got here." Andrews perked up a bit at the chance to describe this.

"She got this look in her eyes, this angry glare. Then she looked over at the aloe plant, reached for it and muttered some spell, and it started to grow and it wrapped around Johansen's waist and neck and he started to scream - "

" - And that's when I came in," Dani finished. The memory of that spectacle was quite fresh in her mind: the fire in the elf-girl's eyes, the strangled screams of the human she was attacking, and the soft-material pot the plant was in breaking as it grew under her command. She gave the chlorophyll-skinned girl an impressed nod, and looked back to the guard holding Johansen.

"Take him to time-out for an hour, or until he's decided not to bother female prisoners." She never called it solitary; de-glorifying it worked better when it came to keeping inmates from coming back. Then she looked at Andrews and the elf. "Let her go and leave her with me. I want to talk to her before anyone decides to do anything." The newer guard looked confused, but did as the Red asked.

The crowd dispersed once Johansen was taken away, and left the elf sitting in front of the Red with that glare right back in place. Dani looked back at her with a neutral expression and spoke seriously.

"You just almost killed a man with a medicinal plant," she said. "If you're wondering why you're not being taken to time-out... it's because what I saw you do was the coolest thing EVER."

At this admission, the elf got a surprised expression, and with the glare gone, her face looked much less like a prisoner and more like the quiet, normal girl she was before her arrest. Dani was now able to drop her prison guard face and let her Red-natured smirk shine through - not the most welcoming face, but much less threatening. She reached down to shake the girl's hand. "I'm Dani Sanders. What's your real name, 91073?" she said, reading the number off the elf's gray uniform.

The green girl hesitated a moment, then took the proffered hand and softly answered. "Sylvie. Sylvie Dahl."

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There we go. I don't doubt I'm gonna edit this a lot before I'm satisfied, but it's up, and I'm happy. So, offer any criticism you like, I'm doing it in my mind already.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

I do wonder...

... what Sylvie did to get in there, and whether it was a bum rap.

There's also the question of fraternisation with the prisoners, and some query about mixed-gender incarceration, but not enough to object to the story as a whole. Let me think on it a bit, and I'll see if I can come up with something more specific than a vague "it doesn't feel quite right".

[Angel]

Well, I know that the mixed-gender prison thing doesn't make a lot of sense, but in the continuity Sylvie came from, she first appeared in a cell with both men and women locked up and being guarded heavily. As for fraternisation, I figured since most prisons have a recreation area, it made sense.

As for why she's in prison, I suppose I could add that to the end, if enough people get curious. Thanks for the analysis.

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MAY 15: UPDATE

Because I don't want myself to forget about this thread, i'm putting up another short story. I wrote this one a WHILE ago - August of last year. Just a short piece I made up because I wanted to analyze what exactly fear feels like. Third-person perspective, centers around Sylvie Dahl, blah-dy blah blah. Here we go.

*****

PYROPHOBIA

Every time she saw it, the feeling was the same. It could be small enough to be suppressed at times. She had yet to scream at a little thing like a lit match, or the sparks from two rocks banging together. The time varied too; if it was, say, a short burst of flame from an easily-amused pyromancer, or the flare of a gas fireplace being lit, the feeling lasted for only a second. It was not so crippling a weakness that she couldn't leave her precious forest out of nothing but fear.

But when it was unavoidable... if someone smoked in bed and she watched a house light up in the elven city, or, Albell forbid, if a freak lightning storm started a huge forest fire, she felt it so powerfully she could barely move.

Her eyes would grow, as if forcing her to take in the horrid sight. Her skin turned into a mass of cold little bumps, and she could feel everything – drops of sweat rolling down her neck, the flexing of her own muscles, the heat of the terrible blaze. Every muscle became rigid as stone, and for a few seconds, she was a verdant, petrified statue.

Then her lungs would take in a gulp of hot air, as if seeking any cold or moisture left, and a long, piercing scream would leap unbidden from her throat. As soon as the scream started, her body came alive again and obeyed the command her brain seemed unable to jettison:

RUN. RUN AND DON'T LOOK BACK.

[Angel]

(just posting to put it on the front page. this can be deleted. sorry.)