I'm on chapter 21 in my first book, and I so f*cking happy XD
There are like 6-8 pages in a chapter, so that adds up to a lot of pages, plus the fact that I'm talking MS word pages, which are actaully like 2 times the size of actual book pages, so now the book so far is like 300 pages X3
Ohmygosh, thinking back to when I first started this series 5 years ago, the story has evolved so much it's incredible! It went from a one shot kids fantasy book to a set of four huge books, amazingly deeply developed characters, awesome action paired with romance that spans the whole series, ranging from Artemis x Julius, Julius x Rose, Artemis x Myra, Victoria x Artemis, and Chloe x Xaivier. I'd have to say my favorite coupling, as well a my favorite theme of the series, is the strange on again off again desperate relationship that develops between Julius and Artemis, sworn enemies, complete opposites, yet Julius is drawn to Artemis because of Artemis' complete isolation from society, and Artemis, thought he at first doesn't realize it, needs Julius as a source of redemption. The best and only way I could really describe the way their relationship is, would have to be a line from Tatu's Show Me Love: "Like a game of pick up sticks, played by fucking lunatics". This is because when Julius at first befriends Artemis, he really does care for him, but Artemis absolutely hates Julius, or at least thinks he does. And then, after Artemis betrays him, Julius loathes Artemis, but then Artemis realizes he needed Julius, and desperately wishes to reunite with him. When he finally does, (I won't spoil it) Julius still hates him, but years later Julius finds out that Artemis really did love him, and even though he now would give almost anything to see him again, Artemis is not there. Then, when Artemis returns, Julius is no longer in the picture. So, yes, it is most definitely an on again off again relationship, in that everytime one of them loves the other, the other is either not there, or has opposite feelings. Poor bastards, I almost feel bad as an author doing it to them! Oh well. Will they finally reunite in the end? Guess you'll just have to wait to find out~!
I'm really happy with the way it's all turning out. It's no longer an "entertainment story", or a tale woven specifically to cater to the readers need for action or drama or the likes, with no real emotion in it. Now I proudly state that this is a story of redemption, love, and life. I think when people read my books, or at east I hope, they will take something very important out of it. I'm also really happy with how each character ends up at the end of the series. There won't be any readers stressing out about unresolved issues, or what happened to this or that character, or stuff that just plain isn't a satisfying end. I'm hoping for the best with reader's reactions.
I have no idea when I'm getting it published, the first book anyways, but I'm close to finishing it. I'm in Act 3 of a 3 act book, and I'm trying super hard to wrap things up. The most annoying thing is when I have a chapter just the way I want it, and then realize that I need to put a certain scene I forgot in there, and it interrupts the flow of the writing, or what I wanted the theme of each chapter to be. I work through it, but it sure is pissing me off :/
Sorry for not posting in my blog here more often guys, lol, but when I want to write about my books, I usually write my books, not write my blog ABOUT my books. As someone once said, I don't remember her name, "We'd all like to pretend working on our blogs is considered work, but we all know it's really not." Heehee, how true. Which is why updates here are so few and far apart. That, and if I'm in a blogging mood I usually blog about myself, not my books. (I have a different blog for that :] )
So yeah, I'm really happy with everything right now. Writing sure does take a lot out of you, but man is it worth it! I think I started typing up the first book like a year ago, and it's almost done XD yay!!
I know people aren't reading this blog. I know. Although, I suppose you're reading this right now, so it kinda creates a paradox of logic, but hey, you know what I mean :/ Anyways, what I'm getting at is that I know nobody cares about my books, and why should they? They're not even published yet. But one day, I hope that people will care, no matter how few. I'm not trying to get famous off them, although that WOULD be nice :) but I just want to get it out there. I'm not gonna be egotistical and proclaim that I'm the next Stephanie Meyer, or JK Rowling, or Tolken. But I can still hope that people will read my books, without being pompous, right? :]
Sunday, December 13, 2009
Friday, November 6, 2009
Moving, continuing my books, my progress so far
I've been working pretty hard on my first book, and I've been posting a lot on my other blog so this one has kinda been ignored. Sorry! ^_^;; But anyways, things are really shaping up and all my plots for the books are coming together nicely. I have to move to Westpoint New York, so I'm gonna be super busy this month.
I got my first book published-- one I illustrated anyways, I didn't write it--it's a childrens book, lol, I would never ever write those. :P Anyways, so I got a royalties deal with that, and I'm illustrating anothe book on the way. Plus I've got a whole lot of commissions I have to deal with, but hey- money! :D *teehee* Anyways, I also want to get my scanner working so I can selll some of my art on Deviantart.com That place is awesome!
I can't believe I'm moving...
I got my first book published-- one I illustrated anyways, I didn't write it--it's a childrens book, lol, I would never ever write those. :P Anyways, so I got a royalties deal with that, and I'm illustrating anothe book on the way. Plus I've got a whole lot of commissions I have to deal with, but hey- money! :D *teehee* Anyways, I also want to get my scanner working so I can selll some of my art on Deviantart.com That place is awesome!
I can't believe I'm moving...
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Hey everybody, I'm still alive :)
So I haven't posted very often on here as of late, but that's because I've been writing my books and school started up and I created a new blog (on a different account). Anyways, I should probably put some more of the story up... oh, btw I changed the character dialogue to period elizabethan english so it's more beleivable and accurate, even if it doesn't flow as well. It took me FIVE HOURS to redo all of the dialog and that's only in what I've got written down in the first book! DX Oh well. Here ya go.
-CHAPTER 2-
-The province of Veronia, England-September 13th, 1431
Artemis looked up at the ranks of men. There were so little of them… His eyes widened in realization: He’d waited three years for this. Somehow it was just so appropriate to have his revenge now, on the eve of their destruction. If he killed them now, Averleigh would triumph. He could go home a hero.
“Lux lucis nex…” he chanted under his breath. A crackle of electricity formed in his palm and he stopped in his tracks. “Theca!” The blue light enveloped the soldiers and electrocuted them. They writhed in the neon flames for a few moments; screaming in agony. Then, quietly, like a feather drifting to the ground, they fell before him in a shining heap of armored bodies.
Julius turned at the sound of screams to find every single one of his men dead, nothing but lifeless corpses; his best friend looking at him from across the hallway with an air of amusement. Artemis stood with his arm outstretched, energy still glowing in his hand; the sick smile of a madman painted on his face. His eyes burned with excitement and hatred, daring him to fight.
Julius stood aghast for a moment; the fear and surprise plain to read within his shrinking pupils and half-open mouth. In a moment it turned into teeth clenched in anger; his eyes grew fierce and unforgiving; and in that moment he knew. It was true that he did not understand why, but he knew.
“You BASTARD!”
he screamed unsheathing one of his swords.
He knew his best friend was a traitor.
He ran forth at him in a blaze of fury; Artemis turned to dodge his sword by mere inches and took out his staff. He whispered something in Latin and it glowed with a bright intensity, and he swung it at Julius’ head as he turned back around. Julius became afraid for a second- if that touched him surely he would die…! He back flipped to avoid it; sprung on his hands back to his feet and charged at him again. Artemis flipped his staff and shoved the wooden end of it into Julius’ gut. He choked with the pain and staggered back, left hand instinctively moving to his stomach. Artemis took advantage of this momentary weakness and sprung upon him; the jewel atop his staff aimed downward. Julius bent backwards; he touched his hands to the ground and pushed off, catching Artemis’ staff between his legs as he flipped; wrenching it from his grasp and catapulting it across the hall. He landed on his feet and panted; wiping his mouth on his sleeve. He ran back at Artemis; who in turn ran at him. Julius swung his sword in an effort to decapitate him, but Artemis crouched down below it and used the momentum to slide down the corridor. He ground his heel into the floor to stop himself and grabbed his staff off the ground as he rose. Artemis laughed to himself. Such fun! This was even more fun than he’d expected it would be.
They turned around to face each other.
Julius no longer saw the face of his friend. Here was the placid insanity of a madman. A sadistic psychopath.
A stranger.
Artemis too saw something, but it was not Julius. In his’ mind’s eye, before him stood the Late King, Julius’ father; his ghostly visage replacing the pleasant man he once knew.
And that was all Artemis could see.
A sadistic light danced across his eyes.
He was getting his revenge.
They both charged. Artemis brought his staff down upon Julius’ head, but it was stopped mere centimeters away. Julius had pulled out his other sword and crossed them in an X, keeping the deadly tip of the staff from touching him. They put all the energy they had into their action; Artemis pushed the staff towards his head with all his might, and Julius pushed it away from him with all of his, but in was soon apparent to Artemis that it would go nowhere; they were of equal strength and neither would win this way. He; however, had an advantage. He had magick.
He smiled wickedly and there was laughter in his eyes. “Silens nex.” he whispered as his eyes glowed an electric blue.
Julius tried to move away as he recognized the Latin phrase—silent death. An electrical charge went through the victim and created confusion of the heartbeat. It was essentially a magick induced heart-attack, and although it took a few minutes for the victim’s heart to stop beating entirely, it was a practical and relatively humane way of killing, and for that it was highly regarded as the best way to put someone out of their misery.
For a moment the world slowed down; a bright blue light coursed through the staff, conducted by Julius’ two crossed swords through his hands, his arms, his chest, finally reaching his heart, all within mere milliseconds; the hazel of his iris’ mixed with the crackles of electric blue as his mouth opened in a silent scream. He fell back and stumbled down to the floor; ending up in an awkward sprawled out position on his knees. He clutched his heart, his eyes grew wide, and his breathing became short, spastic gasps. His bangs fell over his eyes and a shadow enveloped his face. He knew he was going to die. He looked up at the man before him; the purple-clad figure beginning to blur around the edges.
Artemis face had gone rather blank. A quiet emotionless played across his eyes. Julius looked up at him, and even though Artemis could not see his eyes he could sense a sort of pleading in the expression. Confusion. Fear. Greif. He could see it on his face; it emanated from him.
In under a minute he had taken his entire life away.
He did not know it yet, but that picture would remain in his memory forever. He would dream of it almost every night, that moment where he broke a man’s spirit... the day he killed part of himself. It would haunt him for the rest of his life.
He walked up to the man dying on the ground and his face grew dark. The image of Julius’ father had disappeared when he’d fallen to the ground. Artemis stood quietly watching his friend die; the only sound to be heard was a tiny whimpering, short, small, erratic gasps for air.
He stood there for ages; for all eternity, it seemed.
There was a deafening silence, it blanketed emotions, thoughts, feelings; covering the whole world in a ghostly shell where all meaning was lost and time did not exist. A snowfall, peaceful and quiet. Full of death and destruction, but peaceful and quiet all the same.
Artemis saw what he had done, and he wasn’t sure if he liked it or not. He felt a sensation of tranquility; desolate, and empty. A strange thought began to form in his head, but he dismissed it before it got a chance to be heard.
_____
-CHAPTER 2-
-The province of Veronia, England-September 13th, 1431
Artemis looked up at the ranks of men. There were so little of them… His eyes widened in realization: He’d waited three years for this. Somehow it was just so appropriate to have his revenge now, on the eve of their destruction. If he killed them now, Averleigh would triumph. He could go home a hero.
“Lux lucis nex…” he chanted under his breath. A crackle of electricity formed in his palm and he stopped in his tracks. “Theca!” The blue light enveloped the soldiers and electrocuted them. They writhed in the neon flames for a few moments; screaming in agony. Then, quietly, like a feather drifting to the ground, they fell before him in a shining heap of armored bodies.
Julius turned at the sound of screams to find every single one of his men dead, nothing but lifeless corpses; his best friend looking at him from across the hallway with an air of amusement. Artemis stood with his arm outstretched, energy still glowing in his hand; the sick smile of a madman painted on his face. His eyes burned with excitement and hatred, daring him to fight.
Julius stood aghast for a moment; the fear and surprise plain to read within his shrinking pupils and half-open mouth. In a moment it turned into teeth clenched in anger; his eyes grew fierce and unforgiving; and in that moment he knew. It was true that he did not understand why, but he knew.
“You BASTARD!”
he screamed unsheathing one of his swords.
He knew his best friend was a traitor.
He ran forth at him in a blaze of fury; Artemis turned to dodge his sword by mere inches and took out his staff. He whispered something in Latin and it glowed with a bright intensity, and he swung it at Julius’ head as he turned back around. Julius became afraid for a second- if that touched him surely he would die…! He back flipped to avoid it; sprung on his hands back to his feet and charged at him again. Artemis flipped his staff and shoved the wooden end of it into Julius’ gut. He choked with the pain and staggered back, left hand instinctively moving to his stomach. Artemis took advantage of this momentary weakness and sprung upon him; the jewel atop his staff aimed downward. Julius bent backwards; he touched his hands to the ground and pushed off, catching Artemis’ staff between his legs as he flipped; wrenching it from his grasp and catapulting it across the hall. He landed on his feet and panted; wiping his mouth on his sleeve. He ran back at Artemis; who in turn ran at him. Julius swung his sword in an effort to decapitate him, but Artemis crouched down below it and used the momentum to slide down the corridor. He ground his heel into the floor to stop himself and grabbed his staff off the ground as he rose. Artemis laughed to himself. Such fun! This was even more fun than he’d expected it would be.
They turned around to face each other.
Julius no longer saw the face of his friend. Here was the placid insanity of a madman. A sadistic psychopath.
A stranger.
Artemis too saw something, but it was not Julius. In his’ mind’s eye, before him stood the Late King, Julius’ father; his ghostly visage replacing the pleasant man he once knew.
And that was all Artemis could see.
A sadistic light danced across his eyes.
He was getting his revenge.
They both charged. Artemis brought his staff down upon Julius’ head, but it was stopped mere centimeters away. Julius had pulled out his other sword and crossed them in an X, keeping the deadly tip of the staff from touching him. They put all the energy they had into their action; Artemis pushed the staff towards his head with all his might, and Julius pushed it away from him with all of his, but in was soon apparent to Artemis that it would go nowhere; they were of equal strength and neither would win this way. He; however, had an advantage. He had magick.
He smiled wickedly and there was laughter in his eyes. “Silens nex.” he whispered as his eyes glowed an electric blue.
Julius tried to move away as he recognized the Latin phrase—silent death. An electrical charge went through the victim and created confusion of the heartbeat. It was essentially a magick induced heart-attack, and although it took a few minutes for the victim’s heart to stop beating entirely, it was a practical and relatively humane way of killing, and for that it was highly regarded as the best way to put someone out of their misery.
For a moment the world slowed down; a bright blue light coursed through the staff, conducted by Julius’ two crossed swords through his hands, his arms, his chest, finally reaching his heart, all within mere milliseconds; the hazel of his iris’ mixed with the crackles of electric blue as his mouth opened in a silent scream. He fell back and stumbled down to the floor; ending up in an awkward sprawled out position on his knees. He clutched his heart, his eyes grew wide, and his breathing became short, spastic gasps. His bangs fell over his eyes and a shadow enveloped his face. He knew he was going to die. He looked up at the man before him; the purple-clad figure beginning to blur around the edges.
Artemis face had gone rather blank. A quiet emotionless played across his eyes. Julius looked up at him, and even though Artemis could not see his eyes he could sense a sort of pleading in the expression. Confusion. Fear. Greif. He could see it on his face; it emanated from him.
In under a minute he had taken his entire life away.
He did not know it yet, but that picture would remain in his memory forever. He would dream of it almost every night, that moment where he broke a man’s spirit... the day he killed part of himself. It would haunt him for the rest of his life.
He walked up to the man dying on the ground and his face grew dark. The image of Julius’ father had disappeared when he’d fallen to the ground. Artemis stood quietly watching his friend die; the only sound to be heard was a tiny whimpering, short, small, erratic gasps for air.
He stood there for ages; for all eternity, it seemed.
There was a deafening silence, it blanketed emotions, thoughts, feelings; covering the whole world in a ghostly shell where all meaning was lost and time did not exist. A snowfall, peaceful and quiet. Full of death and destruction, but peaceful and quiet all the same.
Artemis saw what he had done, and he wasn’t sure if he liked it or not. He felt a sensation of tranquility; desolate, and empty. A strange thought began to form in his head, but he dismissed it before it got a chance to be heard.
_____
Monday, July 20, 2009
Love philosophy?
By the way, if you love talking about the meaning of life, dreams, thoeries, philosophy or that sort of thing you should definitely go see Waking Life. It is by far the best movie ever made. Even the animation is thought provoking...! It will redefine the now.
Watch it for free, legally, and all at once, no download required or anything, instantly, here:
http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=waking+life&hl=en&emb=0&aq=f#
If the link does not work just go to Google.com and choose "videos" in the upper left hand corner then type in "Waking Life" in the search box and Viola! The movie should be in a box to your right.
Watch it for free, legally, and all at once, no download required or anything, instantly, here:
http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=waking+life&hl=en&emb=0&aq=f#
If the link does not work just go to Google.com and choose "videos" in the upper left hand corner then type in "Waking Life" in the search box and Viola! The movie should be in a box to your right.
Just some things I found on the web...
I was websurfing and I found a lot of interesting articles that I'd like to share with the world. (Or reshare, considering they are already on the internet) Here we go:
DEATH
The end point of your life after which there is complete darkness, you don't know where you are, with whom you are and how you are? We feel pain till we live, after which we don't have the sense to feel. It's a fact that death is the cycle of life, where life ends, death takes over and we don't know the phase of this stage. We feel fear to accept the fact of death, but death never feels anything while meeting you and taking you along with her.
You have to believe this, who has taken birth has to go one day and your fear to accept this fact, will make you die before your death. If you believe in this fact, you will accept your death happily and that makes you more competent to understand the meaning of it.
Life is temporary but death is permanent. You do, or try to do, every style of malpractices with your work, for you and for the betterment of your life, irrespective of thinking that for which you are thinking most, by every mean, has a very temporary standing, that is your life.
You don't know about your tomorrow, what could happen with you, with your life, it's totally unclear to everyone about his tomorrow. Life is definitely going to ditch you, either today or tomorrow but death will never ditch you, because it does not have a reversible phase from death to life again. Once dead you have to be in death mode always and even if you try or think to come out of it, you cannot. If this is a fact and it is being clear to you then try to live your life, in total.
A meaningful life has a fragrance of love, faith and trust and you will never think of wasting, even a minute of your precious life. It is better to discuss and think more of life because we don't have much to discuss about death. In life, we have sense, feeling of pain, love and everything, if we think, we are living otherwise you can feel that without these your life has no meaning.
Before death, I want to think only about my life so that; my life gives me lots of love and care, to make me feel that I have lived a full and meaningful life till my end. It takes years to make a person stand on his feet's but a killer mind makes him dead, in a minute, this is called the premature death and the person having no sense or pain while killing others is considered to be living with a retarded mind, a dead without emotions.
You can do anything or everything, when you are living, you can change yourself for the sake of others, you can try to make them change, for yourself, so try with your every effort, in your living mode otherwise you will feel regret at the time of death. You can have a desire that you want to live every minute of your life, till your end and feel alive at the time of death.
I post more later. Night!
DEATH
The end point of your life after which there is complete darkness, you don't know where you are, with whom you are and how you are? We feel pain till we live, after which we don't have the sense to feel. It's a fact that death is the cycle of life, where life ends, death takes over and we don't know the phase of this stage. We feel fear to accept the fact of death, but death never feels anything while meeting you and taking you along with her.
You have to believe this, who has taken birth has to go one day and your fear to accept this fact, will make you die before your death. If you believe in this fact, you will accept your death happily and that makes you more competent to understand the meaning of it.
Life is temporary but death is permanent. You do, or try to do, every style of malpractices with your work, for you and for the betterment of your life, irrespective of thinking that for which you are thinking most, by every mean, has a very temporary standing, that is your life.
You don't know about your tomorrow, what could happen with you, with your life, it's totally unclear to everyone about his tomorrow. Life is definitely going to ditch you, either today or tomorrow but death will never ditch you, because it does not have a reversible phase from death to life again. Once dead you have to be in death mode always and even if you try or think to come out of it, you cannot. If this is a fact and it is being clear to you then try to live your life, in total.
A meaningful life has a fragrance of love, faith and trust and you will never think of wasting, even a minute of your precious life. It is better to discuss and think more of life because we don't have much to discuss about death. In life, we have sense, feeling of pain, love and everything, if we think, we are living otherwise you can feel that without these your life has no meaning.
Before death, I want to think only about my life so that; my life gives me lots of love and care, to make me feel that I have lived a full and meaningful life till my end. It takes years to make a person stand on his feet's but a killer mind makes him dead, in a minute, this is called the premature death and the person having no sense or pain while killing others is considered to be living with a retarded mind, a dead without emotions.
You can do anything or everything, when you are living, you can change yourself for the sake of others, you can try to make them change, for yourself, so try with your every effort, in your living mode otherwise you will feel regret at the time of death. You can have a desire that you want to live every minute of your life, till your end and feel alive at the time of death.
I post more later. Night!
Saturday, June 27, 2009
Hey guys! :D Wewt new installment <3
I know I haven't posted in like 2 months but that's because al my spare time I've been putting into my book. Okay, maybe I was on Gaiaonline for awhile too, but hey! -_-;; Anyways, so I'm up to about chapter ten in my book...each chapter is about 8 MSword pages, with translated to about 16 in book form. I'm very excited. :3 Now that summer is here I have a ton of time to finish up writing the first book. It's like my lifeblood. I pretty much sleep, eat and breathe my books. Every spare second I have is translated into coming up with new plots of story lines and writing it all down...which is rather tedious considering what a perfectionist I am D: lol, anyways, here ya go, a little more of the book to satiate your appetites. :3
But really, I know pretty much nobody views this blog...I just don't care :D
Okay, so this is the actual beginning of the book, but it's a little bit boring compared to the epicness of the battle I just wrote about in the intro because it's just about Allen... oh well. ^_^ Enjoy!
-SCENE 1 (Birth)-
-CHAPTER 1-
Allen Collins sat at his desk in Virginia High school, half awake and barely taking in what his AP European teacher was saying. Something something…monarchy project…something…due Monday…something…blah. How had he even gotten into this class? Oh… right. His mom had pushed his last Global teacher until he’d finally recommended him for it. Yeah—thanks mom. It wasn’t like he wanted to be in this stupid class anyways… Besides, who cared that it was Advanced Placement instead of regular European history? I mean, Come on. It’s was just two little letters anyways! An A and a P. Why did having those on his report card really matter all that much? Eh. Whatever. It’s not like he was planning on going to Harvard or anything. His light blue eyes drifted out the window to the trees rustling in the warm breeze and the heat waves rising off the cars baking in the sun. Why are people so interested in history anyways…? It’s dead; gone. People shouldn’t worry so much about the past. The present is what it is; they should just live for the future.
Oops, that was the bell.
Huh. Wonder how long Teach has been talking for?
He shrugged. Oh well. He’d just catch up on the project with Conner tonight. Hey- that what friends are for, right? Swapping agendas and copying homework. He chuckled to himself as he grabbed his books and headed to algebra.
Back at home though, Allen found there was more than one flaw in that plan. Conner apparently had to leave school early to get to the airport in time to catch a plane to Manhattan. Turned out his Aunt just found out she had stomach cancer and Conner’s mom wanted the whole family to go visit her before chemo started. So, right now, Conner was somewhere over Pennsylvania, probably trying desperately to ignore the screaming baby in the row behind him while simultaneously attempting to hold a subliminally provocative conversation with the pretty girl in the window seat. LoL…he could totally picture that happening. It would be so like Conner too. Ignoring what was wrong in his life and replacing it with big dreams and impossible, eccentric plans. Oh God, Conner. He thought. Don’t go getting yourself mugged in New York, dude.
But, getting back to reality here, he really did have to find out what was up with that freaking Euro report. Cause, if he didn’t get his priorities straight for the night, he knew he’d end up playing Half-life tm or something on his computer till two in the morning. Like last Tuesday. Man, he’d learned never to do that again. Three hours sleep just did NOT cut it for school. Anyways, he had to call somebody or something. Otherwise he was gonna have absolutely no idea what they were supposed to do. Problem was, he really didn’t remember the names of anybody else in his Euro class. Usually that was the period he just zoned out in. It was two periods after his lunch, so he had a bad habit of dozing off. Basically, he was in a jam. He didn’t know who to call and for God’s sake he was NOT calling his teacher. Nope, he was just gonna chill till tomorrow and ask for, like, maybe a project grading sheet or something… Wait a second-- teach definitely passed something out in class today. Maybe-? He opened up his history binder and rifled through the contents. Yup, there it is. He thought pulling out a crinkled piece of paper. Coolio. He could totally do this now. Okay, where to start? Monarch project…120 points…blah blah blah…wait—what!? What the hell?? 120 points!? That’s like…two test grades put together! WTF!? he thought reading on. Crap. Well…okay, maybe this isn’t THAT bad… he decided. All he needed to do was type up a five hundred word essay on…Let’s see…the structure of an absolutist monarchy and the most famous examples of it. Alright, he could do that. He just needed to go to Google real quick and find some good articles to glean facts off of.
Unfortunately, as he booted up his computer-- the pride of his possessions which he had spent hundreds on turning into a lean, mean, gaming machine—he found out that it wouldn’t load Microsoft. Great. Well, now his only choice was to go to the library or something. Sheesh, that was, like, WAY too old-school for his tastes. He had other things to do for God’s sake! But…he really did need to do this project on time; his AP European grade was slipping farther than he would’ve liked. It seemed he really didn’t have a choice. It was May now, and he only had a few precious weeks to get his grades up before they were set in stone. He supposed that explained why the assignment was worth so much. He was only 15 and couldn’t drive yet, and nobody was home right now, so he took his bike instead. His light brown hair disappeared as he shoved on a crimson baseball hat. He put up the kickstand and sped down the driveway headed north.
He glanced at the houses as he passed them by; the sky blue house with the white trimming, with the swing set in the backyard and a beer cooler in the garage… The cookie-cutter housing complex that boasted it’s eco-friendly designs, that people flocked to get closer to nature; the one that they’d cut down most of the forest to build. The park where the little children played in the sandboxes and the homeless men slept at night. The sign that proclaimed in large, bold letters,
“Welcome to West Virginia, the greatest place on Earth!”.
He really had no idea why he knew how to get to the library; it wasn’t like he actually went there or anything. He was a jock through and through; he wore his favorite sky blue jersey— lucky number forty-eight—almost every day, and had a thing for twisting his cap backwards. Well, okay, maybe his obsession with sci-fi computer gaming didn’t exactly fit the stereotype, but still. Pedaling at light speed, he reached his destination in no time. He sighed with relief as he opened the door and was met by a rush of cool air. Man that felt good. Walking around a little he found a section on historical novels, but he didn’t really see anything that could help him. It was a small library anyways, just one of the little dusty buildings so typical of small towns. He rolled his eyes and went up to the front desk.
“Hey, do you, like…have some really old books? No—I mean, like, about the Middle Ages ‘n stuff.”
The librarian looked him in square in the eyes and cocked her head. She was a pretty girl, and looked to be a few years older than him. He got lost in her big brown eyes and they stood quietly regarding each other for a moment.
“Oh—you mean around the 1400’s?”
“Uh...yeah. Research project.” He explained.
“I see…” she answered digging around in a drawer. “Here’s a key to the back room—it’s where they—we--keep the public records, but I think there are some shelves with out of date books there too. If you couldn’t find what you were looking for out front then it might be in there.” She said pleasantly, handing him a big old-fashioned key that looked like it could be a hundred years old or so. Knowing this town, that was quite possible. Sometimes it felt like you could get lost in this place, turn the wrong corner and end up in the 17th century. He grabbed it out of her outstretched palm, which was unusually cold.
Allen walked to the back of the library and found a doorknob that looked to be in the same disrepair as the key. Turning it in the lock, the door swung open and he nearly coughed up a lung from the dust. Jeez—did they ever come back here and clean since this place got bought!? It was actually pretty creepy… the only light was one of those really crappy old single bulb fixtures with a rusty pull chain in the middle of the room. He practically tripped over the piles of books trying to get to it. Pulling the string, the light flickered on and off a few times before it finally stayed lit. After taking a good look around he found a bookcase with ‘out of print’ scrawled on a yellowed piece of ratty masking tape stuck sideways on the topmost shelf. Scanning the titles with his fingers, he picked out a few that might help him. After a few minutes of him flipping the pages, the librarian came in again; long orange hair bouncing and the ruffles on her light blue dress rippling, and she asked politely if he had found anything of use. Yes; possibly, he replied. “That’s good.” She smiled warmly. He blushed. She was kinda cute… she turned to leave, but part of him secretly wanted her to stay. “Um—“he said, fumbling around for a topic of conversation; anything to keep her here a little longer. His eyes darted around the room trying to find something interesting to talk about. His gaze rested upon a big glass case in the corner; inside lay a gigantic old book with tattered edges and a leather binding. “…What’s in that case over there?” he asked her. “That? Oh. That used to be on display in the front a long time ago, but the woman who worked here lost the key to the case, so they--we decided to keep it back here. The book in there used to be the pride of the library because it was so old…but nobody really has any idea what it’s about because nobody’s ever tried to get it open since the locks really old too. I guess it’s just gonna sit there until somebody finds a way to get it open.” She shrugged. “But hey; if you can find the key I bet… my employer… will let you take a look at it.”
“Oh. Huh.” He said. “That’s kind of…creepy, but sure, I could totally help you look for it sometime.” Any excuse to spend time with her was a good excuse. “You know what?” she said laughing, “That sounds like fun. We should get together sometime.” He couldn’t tell if she was just egging him on or if she was being totally serious, but her voice was so sweet it melted any doubts he had. He sat there in a trance until she walked away giggling and twirling one of the strange of her hair; her foot kicking up the edge of the dirty green carpet. The sound of the door shutting brought him back to the present. He walked over to the corner and brushed away the dust. It looked like the book had been through Hell and back; the cover was dirty and it seemed as though if you touched it the thing would just disintegrate. He bent down and examined the case. It was really weird looking, part wood and part glass, with a sturdy but rusted metal frame holding it together. He ran his finger across the little golden plaque—‘The Lost Tome’ it read. Oh wow. That was certainly informative he thought laughing to himself.
As he stepped back to leave, he tripped on the edge of the carpeting and knocked into a bookcase. One of the larger books fell from the shelf and hit him on the head as he stumbled forward.
He awoke in a daze a few minutes later, unsure of what had just happened. He’d fallen down underneath the podium shaped case when he had been knocked unconscious. He looked up wondering if he’d gotten a concussion from this, and suddenly noticed a little cut out hole on the underneath the case. The bottom part of the case was made of wood, and it looked like somebody had cut a big chunk out of it for no reason. Huh. That’s weird he thought getting to his feet. He brushed some of the dust off his clothes and peered under the case. He cocked his head and stuck his finger up underneath it, feeling around beneath the velvet cloth inside the display case. His finger touched something cold and metallic, and he grasped it and worked it out of the hole. In his hand he held a rusty little key. Attached to it on a string was a little tag with a nothing but a simple pentagram. He raised his eyebrows. Okaaaay… that’s a little…odd… he thought. Wait-
He stuck it into the little key hole on the case. It went in all the way; he turned it to the left. It didn’t get far in that direction. He turned it to the right.
Click.
The top swung open.
Whoever worked there before had hidden the key themselves.
Totally forgetting about the project he was supposed to be researching for, Allen grabbed the book and raced out to show the librarian.
She was nowhere to be found.
He called out for her a few times but she did not answer. He looked down at the book in his arms. At first he was just using the excuse of finding it to get closer to her; she was a pretty little thing, but now he was genuinely curious. He really did want to see what was written in there. Well...she had said he could take a look at it if he found the key so…
Shrugging, he walked out of the building with it and pedaled back home.
_____
But really, I know pretty much nobody views this blog...I just don't care :D
Okay, so this is the actual beginning of the book, but it's a little bit boring compared to the epicness of the battle I just wrote about in the intro because it's just about Allen... oh well. ^_^ Enjoy!
-SCENE 1 (Birth)-
-CHAPTER 1-
Allen Collins sat at his desk in Virginia High school, half awake and barely taking in what his AP European teacher was saying. Something something…monarchy project…something…due Monday…something…blah. How had he even gotten into this class? Oh… right. His mom had pushed his last Global teacher until he’d finally recommended him for it. Yeah—thanks mom. It wasn’t like he wanted to be in this stupid class anyways… Besides, who cared that it was Advanced Placement instead of regular European history? I mean, Come on. It’s was just two little letters anyways! An A and a P. Why did having those on his report card really matter all that much? Eh. Whatever. It’s not like he was planning on going to Harvard or anything. His light blue eyes drifted out the window to the trees rustling in the warm breeze and the heat waves rising off the cars baking in the sun. Why are people so interested in history anyways…? It’s dead; gone. People shouldn’t worry so much about the past. The present is what it is; they should just live for the future.
Oops, that was the bell.
Huh. Wonder how long Teach has been talking for?
He shrugged. Oh well. He’d just catch up on the project with Conner tonight. Hey- that what friends are for, right? Swapping agendas and copying homework. He chuckled to himself as he grabbed his books and headed to algebra.
Back at home though, Allen found there was more than one flaw in that plan. Conner apparently had to leave school early to get to the airport in time to catch a plane to Manhattan. Turned out his Aunt just found out she had stomach cancer and Conner’s mom wanted the whole family to go visit her before chemo started. So, right now, Conner was somewhere over Pennsylvania, probably trying desperately to ignore the screaming baby in the row behind him while simultaneously attempting to hold a subliminally provocative conversation with the pretty girl in the window seat. LoL…he could totally picture that happening. It would be so like Conner too. Ignoring what was wrong in his life and replacing it with big dreams and impossible, eccentric plans. Oh God, Conner. He thought. Don’t go getting yourself mugged in New York, dude.
But, getting back to reality here, he really did have to find out what was up with that freaking Euro report. Cause, if he didn’t get his priorities straight for the night, he knew he’d end up playing Half-life tm or something on his computer till two in the morning. Like last Tuesday. Man, he’d learned never to do that again. Three hours sleep just did NOT cut it for school. Anyways, he had to call somebody or something. Otherwise he was gonna have absolutely no idea what they were supposed to do. Problem was, he really didn’t remember the names of anybody else in his Euro class. Usually that was the period he just zoned out in. It was two periods after his lunch, so he had a bad habit of dozing off. Basically, he was in a jam. He didn’t know who to call and for God’s sake he was NOT calling his teacher. Nope, he was just gonna chill till tomorrow and ask for, like, maybe a project grading sheet or something… Wait a second-- teach definitely passed something out in class today. Maybe-? He opened up his history binder and rifled through the contents. Yup, there it is. He thought pulling out a crinkled piece of paper. Coolio. He could totally do this now. Okay, where to start? Monarch project…120 points…blah blah blah…wait—what!? What the hell?? 120 points!? That’s like…two test grades put together! WTF!? he thought reading on. Crap. Well…okay, maybe this isn’t THAT bad… he decided. All he needed to do was type up a five hundred word essay on…Let’s see…the structure of an absolutist monarchy and the most famous examples of it. Alright, he could do that. He just needed to go to Google real quick and find some good articles to glean facts off of.
Unfortunately, as he booted up his computer-- the pride of his possessions which he had spent hundreds on turning into a lean, mean, gaming machine—he found out that it wouldn’t load Microsoft. Great. Well, now his only choice was to go to the library or something. Sheesh, that was, like, WAY too old-school for his tastes. He had other things to do for God’s sake! But…he really did need to do this project on time; his AP European grade was slipping farther than he would’ve liked. It seemed he really didn’t have a choice. It was May now, and he only had a few precious weeks to get his grades up before they were set in stone. He supposed that explained why the assignment was worth so much. He was only 15 and couldn’t drive yet, and nobody was home right now, so he took his bike instead. His light brown hair disappeared as he shoved on a crimson baseball hat. He put up the kickstand and sped down the driveway headed north.
He glanced at the houses as he passed them by; the sky blue house with the white trimming, with the swing set in the backyard and a beer cooler in the garage… The cookie-cutter housing complex that boasted it’s eco-friendly designs, that people flocked to get closer to nature; the one that they’d cut down most of the forest to build. The park where the little children played in the sandboxes and the homeless men slept at night. The sign that proclaimed in large, bold letters,
“Welcome to West Virginia, the greatest place on Earth!”.
He really had no idea why he knew how to get to the library; it wasn’t like he actually went there or anything. He was a jock through and through; he wore his favorite sky blue jersey— lucky number forty-eight—almost every day, and had a thing for twisting his cap backwards. Well, okay, maybe his obsession with sci-fi computer gaming didn’t exactly fit the stereotype, but still. Pedaling at light speed, he reached his destination in no time. He sighed with relief as he opened the door and was met by a rush of cool air. Man that felt good. Walking around a little he found a section on historical novels, but he didn’t really see anything that could help him. It was a small library anyways, just one of the little dusty buildings so typical of small towns. He rolled his eyes and went up to the front desk.
“Hey, do you, like…have some really old books? No—I mean, like, about the Middle Ages ‘n stuff.”
The librarian looked him in square in the eyes and cocked her head. She was a pretty girl, and looked to be a few years older than him. He got lost in her big brown eyes and they stood quietly regarding each other for a moment.
“Oh—you mean around the 1400’s?”
“Uh...yeah. Research project.” He explained.
“I see…” she answered digging around in a drawer. “Here’s a key to the back room—it’s where they—we--keep the public records, but I think there are some shelves with out of date books there too. If you couldn’t find what you were looking for out front then it might be in there.” She said pleasantly, handing him a big old-fashioned key that looked like it could be a hundred years old or so. Knowing this town, that was quite possible. Sometimes it felt like you could get lost in this place, turn the wrong corner and end up in the 17th century. He grabbed it out of her outstretched palm, which was unusually cold.
Allen walked to the back of the library and found a doorknob that looked to be in the same disrepair as the key. Turning it in the lock, the door swung open and he nearly coughed up a lung from the dust. Jeez—did they ever come back here and clean since this place got bought!? It was actually pretty creepy… the only light was one of those really crappy old single bulb fixtures with a rusty pull chain in the middle of the room. He practically tripped over the piles of books trying to get to it. Pulling the string, the light flickered on and off a few times before it finally stayed lit. After taking a good look around he found a bookcase with ‘out of print’ scrawled on a yellowed piece of ratty masking tape stuck sideways on the topmost shelf. Scanning the titles with his fingers, he picked out a few that might help him. After a few minutes of him flipping the pages, the librarian came in again; long orange hair bouncing and the ruffles on her light blue dress rippling, and she asked politely if he had found anything of use. Yes; possibly, he replied. “That’s good.” She smiled warmly. He blushed. She was kinda cute… she turned to leave, but part of him secretly wanted her to stay. “Um—“he said, fumbling around for a topic of conversation; anything to keep her here a little longer. His eyes darted around the room trying to find something interesting to talk about. His gaze rested upon a big glass case in the corner; inside lay a gigantic old book with tattered edges and a leather binding. “…What’s in that case over there?” he asked her. “That? Oh. That used to be on display in the front a long time ago, but the woman who worked here lost the key to the case, so they--we decided to keep it back here. The book in there used to be the pride of the library because it was so old…but nobody really has any idea what it’s about because nobody’s ever tried to get it open since the locks really old too. I guess it’s just gonna sit there until somebody finds a way to get it open.” She shrugged. “But hey; if you can find the key I bet… my employer… will let you take a look at it.”
“Oh. Huh.” He said. “That’s kind of…creepy, but sure, I could totally help you look for it sometime.” Any excuse to spend time with her was a good excuse. “You know what?” she said laughing, “That sounds like fun. We should get together sometime.” He couldn’t tell if she was just egging him on or if she was being totally serious, but her voice was so sweet it melted any doubts he had. He sat there in a trance until she walked away giggling and twirling one of the strange of her hair; her foot kicking up the edge of the dirty green carpet. The sound of the door shutting brought him back to the present. He walked over to the corner and brushed away the dust. It looked like the book had been through Hell and back; the cover was dirty and it seemed as though if you touched it the thing would just disintegrate. He bent down and examined the case. It was really weird looking, part wood and part glass, with a sturdy but rusted metal frame holding it together. He ran his finger across the little golden plaque—‘The Lost Tome’ it read. Oh wow. That was certainly informative he thought laughing to himself.
As he stepped back to leave, he tripped on the edge of the carpeting and knocked into a bookcase. One of the larger books fell from the shelf and hit him on the head as he stumbled forward.
He awoke in a daze a few minutes later, unsure of what had just happened. He’d fallen down underneath the podium shaped case when he had been knocked unconscious. He looked up wondering if he’d gotten a concussion from this, and suddenly noticed a little cut out hole on the underneath the case. The bottom part of the case was made of wood, and it looked like somebody had cut a big chunk out of it for no reason. Huh. That’s weird he thought getting to his feet. He brushed some of the dust off his clothes and peered under the case. He cocked his head and stuck his finger up underneath it, feeling around beneath the velvet cloth inside the display case. His finger touched something cold and metallic, and he grasped it and worked it out of the hole. In his hand he held a rusty little key. Attached to it on a string was a little tag with a nothing but a simple pentagram. He raised his eyebrows. Okaaaay… that’s a little…odd… he thought. Wait-
He stuck it into the little key hole on the case. It went in all the way; he turned it to the left. It didn’t get far in that direction. He turned it to the right.
Click.
The top swung open.
Whoever worked there before had hidden the key themselves.
Totally forgetting about the project he was supposed to be researching for, Allen grabbed the book and raced out to show the librarian.
She was nowhere to be found.
He called out for her a few times but she did not answer. He looked down at the book in his arms. At first he was just using the excuse of finding it to get closer to her; she was a pretty little thing, but now he was genuinely curious. He really did want to see what was written in there. Well...she had said he could take a look at it if he found the key so…
Shrugging, he walked out of the building with it and pedaled back home.
_____
Thursday, May 7, 2009
You know what's hilarious?
The acronym I use for my book series is TPK, short for, of coure, The Paper King. I just found out, however; that TPK is also an acronym for "Total Party Kill" used in role-playing games like Dungeons and Dragons (which I love by the way :3). "Put simpler, everybody is dead" -Urbandictionary.com
lol <3
The ironic thing is that so many of my characters die that it's completely fitting! XD
lol <3
The ironic thing is that so many of my characters die that it's completely fitting! XD
A new back cover? Yes, I think so :3
“Can you honestly look me in the eyes and tell me this is what you want?? If you truly hated this life so, fake as you claim it to be, wouldn’t you have just killed me!?”
Artemis stopped in his tracks, and his eyes grew wide, and then narrowed with hatred. His hand twitched a little, and made a clenched fist. Julius stared at his back from across the room, fire in his eyes, determined; yet terrified.
“You’re already dead.”
Artemis said emotionlessly.
“I killed you five minutes ago.”
Artemis stopped in his tracks, and his eyes grew wide, and then narrowed with hatred. His hand twitched a little, and made a clenched fist. Julius stared at his back from across the room, fire in his eyes, determined; yet terrified.
“You’re already dead.”
Artemis said emotionlessly.
“I killed you five minutes ago.”
Monday, April 20, 2009
Great Scott! I've been way too lazy D: + TPK intro <3
So I looked at the last time I posted on here and my eyes nearly bugged out of my head. More than a month! I could slap myself for being so lazy! Oh well, I'm pretty sure that's physically impossible anyways.
So things are going smoothly with my books...I got down quite a few pages over break, although not as many as I'd hoped, but I still am happy with the quality. I might post some, even; although only a few short segmants because I don't want anybody stealing my work and claiming it's theirs. Although, I'd like to see somebody try and win a lawsuit with me, considering I have all the early scripts and such anyways XD
So, without further adeau...I present to you --The Paper King!
-The province of Veronia, England-
September 13th, 1431
Metallic boots clamored on solid oak floor planks, propelling their armor clad occupants as fast as they could run. Twelve men raced down a torch-lit corridor, ten of them in shining suits of armor; the last of the royal guards of the castle, abandoning their posts in a last ditch effort to win the battle that raged outside the stone walls. Their men were being slaughtered out there—an hour earlier forces led by Tybalt Valentian, the general and military advisor to the king, had gone to fight the approaching Averleigh army. Word from a mortally wounded messenger had confirmed the Kings worst fears; their forces had been pushed back much too far, and soon enough the enemy would be upon them.
Veronia had been at war with the Averleins for over twenty years now; long ago the funds of the Veronian kingdom had run dry and the king had called upon its neighboring kingdom for aid. They racked up a hefty debt, 20 million pounds in all, and, fifteen years later had repaid them. Or so they thought. Three days after the sum had been sent by armed caravan to Averleigh, the Averlein King Sent word to Veronia that the money had never reached their kingdom. They claimed that the Veronians still owed them, however the Veronians knew very well that they had paid their dues already. They determined that the Averlein King had gotten the money and killed the deliverers, then told Veronia they had never been paid in order to get twice as much as they were owed. An inflated interest that the Veronians had no means to pay and were certainly not willing to pay. The Veronians would not give into this corrupt monarchy to the west, and the Averleins would not give into the treacherous liars to the east. And so, they went to war.
Leading the last battalion of men to the castle doors was the young King, Julius Benedict Pembrooke, himself only being the age of nineteen. His Father, the late King Theodore Leonitus Pembrooke had died three years ago of the plague, his adopted daughter Victoria Marie dying shortly after, leaving only his son to carry on the crown. This was his father’s war, and he was determined to win it.
Julius and his sister, six years younger than he, had been in part raised by Tybalt; their father was often very busy, being what he was. Tybalt had taught Julius everything he knew about sword fighting ever since Julius could remember. His happiest days were spent with Tybalt in the barracks, relentlessly going at each other for hours on end. Tybalt was a father figure, mentor, and a friend. A strange relationship at best, but they were basically inseparable. They drank together, ate together, trained together, and even visited the royal cemetery together. They could not possibly be closer.
Julius ran as fast as he could go down the hall, which was quite fast actually, because he really was the opposite of the royal stereotype; he trained regularly and even led his troops in battle from the front lines. His golden hair streamed in its usual ponytail style as he ran, a determined fire burning in his amber eyes. He had a slight figure, but was very muscular underneath his scarlet blouse and flying green cape. This was his father’s war; his war; his people’s war. He would fight it out till the very end even if it killed him; never give in; his morals were far greater than most men twice his age—watching your family die before your very eyes did that sort of thing to you. That and he had been raised quite well by both Tybalt and his father. He would be ever the gentleman, sweet to the ladies, friend to the men, and upholder of justice to the criminals.
Behind the brigade of soldiers ran a man in regal finery; flowing purple cape and a green tunic accented with gold embroidery. A purple gem hung around his neck and glistened in the torch-light as he went. A mop of short dark brown hair flew in his haste. His name was Artemis Valentene; he was a prepice: a witch employed by royalty to be a weapon of war; he had been himself unsure of this battle--that is, not quite sure which side he was fighting for anymore. This war was the war that had torn him away from his true love, his home, his life… this whole time he had been wearing a mask, hiding himself from them, hiding what he was… an angel of revenge…he had promised himself that long ago, not just for him but for her as well.
Myra…
Looking ahead at the soldiers it dawned on him how pointless this was. They were all going to die, even Julius. The Julius who had been his friend for three years now, who bought him drinks every Friday at the Boars Head…who’d set him free and even given him a job, yes… but Julius’ father…oh God, how he loathed his father. So many cold nights… pointed threats…Damn that man. Damn them all. Artemis was antagonized day after day that his tormentor had not died by his hands…he’d so wanted to crush the life out of him…But he’d died of the Black plague before Artemis been released from imprisonment by the King’s newly crowned son. He could remember when he’d been captured in the midst of battle; knocked unconscious by blows to the back of the head by the blunt end of the Veronian soldiers swords… he’d woken up bound and gagged in the bowels of the very castle he was now pretending to protect. He’d seen his face then…that was the only time he could remember…that he’d taken off the blindfold…
-Veronia, the dungeons-
-1423 (the past)-
He’d woken up with the taste of blood in his mouth; evidently he’d bit his tongue when he’d been bludgeoned from behind…He couldn’t see anything, and for a moment he feared that the hit had rendered him blind, but when he found that his hands were tied behind him he realized what must’ve happened. He couldn’t speak either; a cloth soaked with his blood filled his mouth preventing him from saying anything. He wasn’t able to move at all, really.
He felt like a wild horse that had suddenly been caught; saddle thrown over its back, bit forced into its mouth and blinders placed around it’s head.
Artemis waited for what seemed like hours for something to happen, and, eventually something did. He heard a door open and close; the sound of footsteps drew closer and closer to him; then abruptly stopped. There was a tiny click and then the man was upon him. He was dragged to his feet and shoved up against the stone cold wall. He could sense what was coming; he knew that he was an infallible resource of information regarding the Averlein military… It was a good assumption that he was going to be interrogated. After all, why else would they keep him alive?
The man lifted the blindfold off his face. From what Artemis could see, he was quite obviously an important individual; he wore maroon regalia that spoke well of his finances. He looked gruff enough to be an interrogator; neat brown hair and a stern, strong face. The ends of his sideburns turned to stubble and ran down his face, forming a trim goatee on his lightly pronounced chin.
“Do you know who I am?” he asked.
Artemis still had the gag in his mouth, so he could only nervously shake his head in silent answer.
“I am Theodore Pembrooke.” He said.
“…and you are going to tell me everything you know.”
So things are going smoothly with my books...I got down quite a few pages over break, although not as many as I'd hoped, but I still am happy with the quality. I might post some, even; although only a few short segmants because I don't want anybody stealing my work and claiming it's theirs. Although, I'd like to see somebody try and win a lawsuit with me, considering I have all the early scripts and such anyways XD
So, without further adeau...I present to you --The Paper King!
-The province of Veronia, England-
September 13th, 1431
Metallic boots clamored on solid oak floor planks, propelling their armor clad occupants as fast as they could run. Twelve men raced down a torch-lit corridor, ten of them in shining suits of armor; the last of the royal guards of the castle, abandoning their posts in a last ditch effort to win the battle that raged outside the stone walls. Their men were being slaughtered out there—an hour earlier forces led by Tybalt Valentian, the general and military advisor to the king, had gone to fight the approaching Averleigh army. Word from a mortally wounded messenger had confirmed the Kings worst fears; their forces had been pushed back much too far, and soon enough the enemy would be upon them.
Veronia had been at war with the Averleins for over twenty years now; long ago the funds of the Veronian kingdom had run dry and the king had called upon its neighboring kingdom for aid. They racked up a hefty debt, 20 million pounds in all, and, fifteen years later had repaid them. Or so they thought. Three days after the sum had been sent by armed caravan to Averleigh, the Averlein King Sent word to Veronia that the money had never reached their kingdom. They claimed that the Veronians still owed them, however the Veronians knew very well that they had paid their dues already. They determined that the Averlein King had gotten the money and killed the deliverers, then told Veronia they had never been paid in order to get twice as much as they were owed. An inflated interest that the Veronians had no means to pay and were certainly not willing to pay. The Veronians would not give into this corrupt monarchy to the west, and the Averleins would not give into the treacherous liars to the east. And so, they went to war.
Leading the last battalion of men to the castle doors was the young King, Julius Benedict Pembrooke, himself only being the age of nineteen. His Father, the late King Theodore Leonitus Pembrooke had died three years ago of the plague, his adopted daughter Victoria Marie dying shortly after, leaving only his son to carry on the crown. This was his father’s war, and he was determined to win it.
Julius and his sister, six years younger than he, had been in part raised by Tybalt; their father was often very busy, being what he was. Tybalt had taught Julius everything he knew about sword fighting ever since Julius could remember. His happiest days were spent with Tybalt in the barracks, relentlessly going at each other for hours on end. Tybalt was a father figure, mentor, and a friend. A strange relationship at best, but they were basically inseparable. They drank together, ate together, trained together, and even visited the royal cemetery together. They could not possibly be closer.
Julius ran as fast as he could go down the hall, which was quite fast actually, because he really was the opposite of the royal stereotype; he trained regularly and even led his troops in battle from the front lines. His golden hair streamed in its usual ponytail style as he ran, a determined fire burning in his amber eyes. He had a slight figure, but was very muscular underneath his scarlet blouse and flying green cape. This was his father’s war; his war; his people’s war. He would fight it out till the very end even if it killed him; never give in; his morals were far greater than most men twice his age—watching your family die before your very eyes did that sort of thing to you. That and he had been raised quite well by both Tybalt and his father. He would be ever the gentleman, sweet to the ladies, friend to the men, and upholder of justice to the criminals.
Behind the brigade of soldiers ran a man in regal finery; flowing purple cape and a green tunic accented with gold embroidery. A purple gem hung around his neck and glistened in the torch-light as he went. A mop of short dark brown hair flew in his haste. His name was Artemis Valentene; he was a prepice: a witch employed by royalty to be a weapon of war; he had been himself unsure of this battle--that is, not quite sure which side he was fighting for anymore. This war was the war that had torn him away from his true love, his home, his life… this whole time he had been wearing a mask, hiding himself from them, hiding what he was… an angel of revenge…he had promised himself that long ago, not just for him but for her as well.
Myra…
Looking ahead at the soldiers it dawned on him how pointless this was. They were all going to die, even Julius. The Julius who had been his friend for three years now, who bought him drinks every Friday at the Boars Head…who’d set him free and even given him a job, yes… but Julius’ father…oh God, how he loathed his father. So many cold nights… pointed threats…Damn that man. Damn them all. Artemis was antagonized day after day that his tormentor had not died by his hands…he’d so wanted to crush the life out of him…But he’d died of the Black plague before Artemis been released from imprisonment by the King’s newly crowned son. He could remember when he’d been captured in the midst of battle; knocked unconscious by blows to the back of the head by the blunt end of the Veronian soldiers swords… he’d woken up bound and gagged in the bowels of the very castle he was now pretending to protect. He’d seen his face then…that was the only time he could remember…that he’d taken off the blindfold…
-Veronia, the dungeons-
-1423 (the past)-
He’d woken up with the taste of blood in his mouth; evidently he’d bit his tongue when he’d been bludgeoned from behind…He couldn’t see anything, and for a moment he feared that the hit had rendered him blind, but when he found that his hands were tied behind him he realized what must’ve happened. He couldn’t speak either; a cloth soaked with his blood filled his mouth preventing him from saying anything. He wasn’t able to move at all, really.
He felt like a wild horse that had suddenly been caught; saddle thrown over its back, bit forced into its mouth and blinders placed around it’s head.
Artemis waited for what seemed like hours for something to happen, and, eventually something did. He heard a door open and close; the sound of footsteps drew closer and closer to him; then abruptly stopped. There was a tiny click and then the man was upon him. He was dragged to his feet and shoved up against the stone cold wall. He could sense what was coming; he knew that he was an infallible resource of information regarding the Averlein military… It was a good assumption that he was going to be interrogated. After all, why else would they keep him alive?
The man lifted the blindfold off his face. From what Artemis could see, he was quite obviously an important individual; he wore maroon regalia that spoke well of his finances. He looked gruff enough to be an interrogator; neat brown hair and a stern, strong face. The ends of his sideburns turned to stubble and ran down his face, forming a trim goatee on his lightly pronounced chin.
“Do you know who I am?” he asked.
Artemis still had the gag in his mouth, so he could only nervously shake his head in silent answer.
“I am Theodore Pembrooke.” He said.
“…and you are going to tell me everything you know.”
Monday, March 9, 2009
Shakespeare would either be flattered or pissed at me for this...
Oh goodness gracious, I have been busy as of late. Or lazy, you pick :3 Yet it still stands that I haven't updated in quite some time. Before I address this problem (actually, in writing this I AM addressing the problem...), if you're wondering why I'm talking in such a dead state of English it's because my english class is reading Julius Ceasar...
Speaking of which...I've noticed some...creepy...simalarites between the plots of Julius Ceasar and The Paper King (for those of you just joining this, that is my book saga).
Let me see... The triumvarate, with Ceasar, Antony, and Brutus... Well, JULIUS Ceasar quite obviously has the same name as my character Julius Pembrooke; although in reality Ceasar actual name was Gieus, he just went by his middle name. Julius has his own little "Triumvarate" as well...Tybalt matches up with Antony, and Artemis matches up with Brutus. I only now see this connection as I have not actaully read Shakespeares play until just now.
So Tybalt Valencian is just like Antony, because he has a loyal relationship with Julius (Pembrooke), and is his General just as Antony served under Ceasar in the military.
Artemis Valentene...Oh goodness, the simalarity between him and Brutus is astounding. Brutus is Ceasars best friend, but ends up betraying him and killing him because he thinks it needs to be done, although he doesn't in reality truly want to. Artemis ends up betraying Julius, his best friend and King, because he thinks it needs to be done as well. He craves revenge for what happened to him, but in reality it had absolutely nothing to do with Julius himself. However, since Julius father died, he is the only one left to blame for Artemis' troubles. Artemis realizes only too late that he actually didn't hate Julius, that in reality he truly loved him, and he was really the only friend Artemis ever had. For both Brutus and Artemis, they try so hard to do what they think is right that they end up destroying all that is precious to them.
Ah, Tragedy!
It seems so strange that the plots are so similar, but I had no idea of this until I read Julius Ceasar.
Got to go...
TTFN!
Speaking of which...I've noticed some...creepy...simalarites between the plots of Julius Ceasar and The Paper King (for those of you just joining this, that is my book saga).
Let me see... The triumvarate, with Ceasar, Antony, and Brutus... Well, JULIUS Ceasar quite obviously has the same name as my character Julius Pembrooke; although in reality Ceasar actual name was Gieus, he just went by his middle name. Julius has his own little "Triumvarate" as well...Tybalt matches up with Antony, and Artemis matches up with Brutus. I only now see this connection as I have not actaully read Shakespeares play until just now.
So Tybalt Valencian is just like Antony, because he has a loyal relationship with Julius (Pembrooke), and is his General just as Antony served under Ceasar in the military.
Artemis Valentene...Oh goodness, the simalarity between him and Brutus is astounding. Brutus is Ceasars best friend, but ends up betraying him and killing him because he thinks it needs to be done, although he doesn't in reality truly want to. Artemis ends up betraying Julius, his best friend and King, because he thinks it needs to be done as well. He craves revenge for what happened to him, but in reality it had absolutely nothing to do with Julius himself. However, since Julius father died, he is the only one left to blame for Artemis' troubles. Artemis realizes only too late that he actually didn't hate Julius, that in reality he truly loved him, and he was really the only friend Artemis ever had. For both Brutus and Artemis, they try so hard to do what they think is right that they end up destroying all that is precious to them.
Ah, Tragedy!
It seems so strange that the plots are so similar, but I had no idea of this until I read Julius Ceasar.
Got to go...
TTFN!
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
What's up people of Blogspot? It's almost midnight and I'm totally high on caffeine, so I thought I'd drop in and post some some random hyperactive attention deficit disorder type stuff which I will probably regret later! Yay! So...so far 8 people have voted that they are interested in my books which is wonderful :D Only one person voted anything different so I'm ecstatic. I'm on break right now so I have a lot of free time (aside from chores and projects and working on illustrations, that is). Anyways, so I've been thinking up some more plot material for book four (Hostage!) and it's going smashingly (no, I'm not British. I'm just strange :D). It's mostly to do with Artemis (I suppose I've been playing favorites these days...) and it's pretty action packed. I've had to introduce more new characters for this book! Too many to count! (Okay, well maybe I'm just a tad lazy, that's all) They're fun characters, though.
Col. Uminzski, the WWII vet who was in command of Artemis' platoon
Lt. Fischer, the soldier whom Artemis saved the life of in Iraq
Debby Stoneford, the woman Artemis helped to escape her abusive father in the early 90's
Annette Cavelfield, the peasant girl who ends up saving Julius from certain death
Enrique Dominici, the long lost half cousin and heir to the Pembrooke throne, who hatches a plot to kidnap Julius and take over
...and let's not forget all of Enrique's ill-fated conspirators... (who I'm too lazy to list the names of XD)
PLUS all the lovely FBI or(I haven't decided yet) CIA agents who Kidnap/Arrest Artemis
AND the lovely reporter girl who falls madly in love with Artemis <3>
...and who can blame her? He is rather smexy :3
Also Ricky the talent Agent reappers for like half a second, lol XD
I'm also considering putting in this girl Kat who Allen falls for while he's still in high-school. I figured he needed a little more action, you know, since he does practically nothing for the whole second book! I thought maybe a nice goth girl could spice up the character list.
Signing off for now,
-Enoki-chan
Col. Uminzski, the WWII vet who was in command of Artemis' platoon
Lt. Fischer, the soldier whom Artemis saved the life of in Iraq
Debby Stoneford, the woman Artemis helped to escape her abusive father in the early 90's
Annette Cavelfield, the peasant girl who ends up saving Julius from certain death
Enrique Dominici, the long lost half cousin and heir to the Pembrooke throne, who hatches a plot to kidnap Julius and take over
...and let's not forget all of Enrique's ill-fated conspirators... (who I'm too lazy to list the names of XD)
PLUS all the lovely FBI or(I haven't decided yet) CIA agents who Kidnap/Arrest Artemis
AND the lovely reporter girl who falls madly in love with Artemis <3>
...and who can blame her? He is rather smexy :3
Also Ricky the talent Agent reappers for like half a second, lol XD
I'm also considering putting in this girl Kat who Allen falls for while he's still in high-school. I figured he needed a little more action, you know, since he does practically nothing for the whole second book! I thought maybe a nice goth girl could spice up the character list.
Signing off for now,
-Enoki-chan
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
My favorite quotes from (all four of) my books...
Some of my favorite conversations and quotes from my books (so far).
Allen: "Okay guys, I have to ask... I've known you for a crazy long time now and I kinda noticed you're like...really, um...overly friendly with each other? So I just wanna know...are you guys, like, gay?"
Julius: "What's wrong with being happy?"
Artemis: "I don't think he mea-"
Allen: "No, I mean like, homosexual for each other."
Julius: "What the Hell!? --Oh God! No! I... I think I need a drink..."
Artemis: "You do realize that we're both married, yes?"
Allen: "Hey, it could be a cover...!"
Artemis: "My Gods, you're annoying..."
-conversation from Hostage! (book #4)
I love how Artemis never actually answered the question... XD
------
Heather: "You know you're the most mysterious man I've ever had the pleasure of knowing...?"
Artemis: "Well I wouldn't be so mysterious if you would just stop asking questions I can't answer!"
-random conversation from one of Artemis' lives (1974)
Somehow this just makes him seem like Edward from Twilight...
------
Tybalt: "Give me back by God damned shirt!"
Julius: *laughing* "Not until you agree to wear some normal clothes! You can't just go prancing around in your uniform all the time, you know!"
Tybalt: "You do that all the time! You even have a bloody crown for Christ's sake!"
Julius: "...And yet here I am dressed like a normal person! Your logic fails you."
Tybalt: *making a threat* "I will eat your unborn children!"
Julius: "...W-What...?! Um--"
Tybalt: "Oh God, I didn't mean--"
Julius: "I think I'm going to go throw up now..." *walks away*
Tybalt: "...What a coincidence, so do I." *begins to walk in opposite direction*
Allen: *bursts out of the bathroom* "Pfft--THAT'S WHAT SHE SAID!!" *dies laughing*
Tybalt: "When the Hell did you get here!?"
-conversation from Escape (book #3)
I told this to my friends once and they couldn't breath they laughed so hard X3
------
Artemis: "Are you willing to throw away your life for this...?"
Allen: "I'll stop you if it's the last thing I do!"
-confrontation from The Paper King (book #1)
------
Rose: "Nice to meet your acquaintance! I've heard so many wonderful things about you! My name is Sarah Rosalia Winchester, but you may call me Rose."
Julius: "She's the only girl I've ever met who goes by her middle name..."
Allen: "Wait- Rose and Julius? Seriously!? It's just like Romeo and Juliet!"
Julius: "Who now?"
Rose: "What's so odd about the coupling of our names...?"
Allen: "It's like someone is blatantly trying to make a copyright infringement! What the Hell..!!! Does NO ONE ELSE see this!?"
-Allen meets Rose, from Blood Rose (book #2)
*smirk* Allen hints to my presence :3 I honestly didn't realize that their names were so oddly reversed and Shakespearean until long after I gave Rose her name XD
------
Julius: "I may die, but know that I will drag your soul to Hell with me!"
Artemis: *quietly turning around* "I don't think you're the type of man who could go to Hell..."
-Julius snaps, from The Paper King (book #1)
Kat: *picks up Allens fallen books for him*
Allen: *blushing* "T-Thanks.."
Kat: "Sure...but don't think this means I like you or anything."
Allen: "...Then why did you pick my books up for me?"
Kat: "Well I couldn't just leave them on the ground now could I...? I mean, think of the poor books!"
-Conversation from Escape (book #3)
Oh Kitty Kat you silly little bitch :D
------
Debby: "So those people you said you were looking for--You mean...you lived all these years looking for them...and you're no closer to death?"
Artemis: "Whatever do you mean...? I taste death every day I live without them."
-Random Conversation Artemis had with a girl in Jamestown (1628)
A little bit of chaste prose for you all. <3
------
* conversation translated from the iroqouis language
[Raven Claw]: "[Gods save us...!]" *draws longbow and shoots at Artemis*
[Chief Bear heart]: *grabs arrow out of mid-air* "[Do not harm those who have not harmed you.]" *breaks arrow*
[Raven Claw]: "[...But Grandfather, he's a monster!]"
[Cheif Bear Heart]: "[What do you think that makes you if you kill him?]"
-Artemis visits an Iroquois camp and accidentally lets his identity slip
I always liked this scene...
------
More later...
Allen: "Okay guys, I have to ask... I've known you for a crazy long time now and I kinda noticed you're like...really, um...overly friendly with each other? So I just wanna know...are you guys, like, gay?"
Julius: "What's wrong with being happy?"
Artemis: "I don't think he mea-"
Allen: "No, I mean like, homosexual for each other."
Julius: "What the Hell!? --Oh God! No! I... I think I need a drink..."
Artemis: "You do realize that we're both married, yes?"
Allen: "Hey, it could be a cover...!"
Artemis: "My Gods, you're annoying..."
-conversation from Hostage! (book #4)
I love how Artemis never actually answered the question... XD
------
Heather: "You know you're the most mysterious man I've ever had the pleasure of knowing...?"
Artemis: "Well I wouldn't be so mysterious if you would just stop asking questions I can't answer!"
-random conversation from one of Artemis' lives (1974)
Somehow this just makes him seem like Edward from Twilight...
------
Tybalt: "Give me back by God damned shirt!"
Julius: *laughing* "Not until you agree to wear some normal clothes! You can't just go prancing around in your uniform all the time, you know!"
Tybalt: "You do that all the time! You even have a bloody crown for Christ's sake!"
Julius: "...And yet here I am dressed like a normal person! Your logic fails you."
Tybalt: *making a threat* "I will eat your unborn children!"
Julius: "...W-What...?! Um--"
Tybalt: "Oh God, I didn't mean--"
Julius: "I think I'm going to go throw up now..." *walks away*
Tybalt: "...What a coincidence, so do I." *begins to walk in opposite direction*
Allen: *bursts out of the bathroom* "Pfft--THAT'S WHAT SHE SAID!!" *dies laughing*
Tybalt: "When the Hell did you get here!?"
-conversation from Escape (book #3)
I told this to my friends once and they couldn't breath they laughed so hard X3
------
Artemis: "Are you willing to throw away your life for this...?"
Allen: "I'll stop you if it's the last thing I do!"
-confrontation from The Paper King (book #1)
------
Rose: "Nice to meet your acquaintance! I've heard so many wonderful things about you! My name is Sarah Rosalia Winchester, but you may call me Rose."
Julius: "She's the only girl I've ever met who goes by her middle name..."
Allen: "Wait- Rose and Julius? Seriously!? It's just like Romeo and Juliet!"
Julius: "Who now?"
Rose: "What's so odd about the coupling of our names...?"
Allen: "It's like someone is blatantly trying to make a copyright infringement! What the Hell..!!! Does NO ONE ELSE see this!?"
-Allen meets Rose, from Blood Rose (book #2)
*smirk* Allen hints to my presence :3 I honestly didn't realize that their names were so oddly reversed and Shakespearean until long after I gave Rose her name XD
------
Julius: "I may die, but know that I will drag your soul to Hell with me!"
Artemis: *quietly turning around* "I don't think you're the type of man who could go to Hell..."
-Julius snaps, from The Paper King (book #1)
Kat: *picks up Allens fallen books for him*
Allen: *blushing* "T-Thanks.."
Kat: "Sure...but don't think this means I like you or anything."
Allen: "...Then why did you pick my books up for me?"
Kat: "Well I couldn't just leave them on the ground now could I...? I mean, think of the poor books!"
-Conversation from Escape (book #3)
Oh Kitty Kat you silly little bitch :D
------
Debby: "So those people you said you were looking for--You mean...you lived all these years looking for them...and you're no closer to death?"
Artemis: "Whatever do you mean...? I taste death every day I live without them."
-Random Conversation Artemis had with a girl in Jamestown (1628)
A little bit of chaste prose for you all. <3
------
* conversation translated from the iroqouis language
[Raven Claw]: "[Gods save us...!]" *draws longbow and shoots at Artemis*
[Chief Bear heart]: *grabs arrow out of mid-air* "[Do not harm those who have not harmed you.]" *breaks arrow*
[Raven Claw]: "[...But Grandfather, he's a monster!]"
[Cheif Bear Heart]: "[What do you think that makes you if you kill him?]"
-Artemis visits an Iroquois camp and accidentally lets his identity slip
I always liked this scene...
------
More later...
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Artemis, the F.B.I., and Me Rewriting the Course of History...
Well, over the past few weeks I've been thinking about Artemis' past and this one encounter with the F.B.I. he once had...I realized I could expand much more upon that premise and besides it's only logical that the F.B.I. would keep looking for somebody with that kind of power.
I'm going to try not to spoil anything that happens in the first book in this post. This new plot is in the fourth book, so it might confuse people a bit, but I'll keep it simple.
Artemis led a lot of different lives...and it's finally caught up with him <3
Over the 600 years he's been alive, he's had to dissapear every time someone's come close to discovering that he's not exactly normal. Especially when they look exactly the same no matter how old they get! So, about every 10 years or less (deppending on the circumstances) he's had to either leave town, fake his own death, or just vanish into thin air.
He was involved in every war that America has ever been in, and that includes even the revolutionary war. Now, nobody would realise this with all the changes in command all the time, yes? Of course. He signed up under different alias' anyways.
Once the age of technology encorached upon his ability to remain unknown, he had to be a lot more careful with where he went and how he handled people. For example...
He was at the Twin towers on 9/11, and actually was right near the impact of the first plane. The explosion shock wave broke all the windows and sent multiple people flying out through them- including Artemis. As they fell, he teleported them all safelyto the ground. Amatuer footage captured him doing this. He knew he was exposed, and he subsequently didn't try to hide his powers anymore. He teleported in and out of the collapsed buildings helping survivors to get out for over an hour. He never said anything. The public was in panic, and many of them thought he could be responsible for the attacks. He dissapeared after that hour. He became known as the infamous "9/11 Man", and nobody knew whether he was a hero or a villian. Many beleived him to be the product of a mass hallucenation due to lack of oxygen or perhaps a chemical used by terrorists. The F.B.I. got ahold of the footage and immediatley stopped all broadcasting of any footage or information about him. Soon people began to forget about the man and many simply labeled it as a hoax.
The F.B.I. had matched the footage from the 9/11 incedent to Artemis, but...
When they attempted to match the face to anyone in their records... They came up with at least 20 exact facial matches on thier computer system alone, spanning at least 50 years. AND THEY WERE QUITE CLEARLY THE SAME PERSON. Dumbfounded and realising that they were on to something insanely important, they searched though even more records from much longer ago, including all the military records they could get their hands on. He was an exact match to over a hundred different people.
They arrested him at his home as he was making preparations to dissapear again, and brought him into an interrogation cell. When his interrogater asked him what he was, he responded with a simple "I'm a witch.". Teleporting behind the examiners chair, he smoothly asked, "...And what are you going to do about that?" and vanished into thin air.
Four years later.
After dissapearing to avoid the mass hysteria of 9/11, Artemis moved to Denver, Colorado.
He found himself drunk one night, and used the alleyways to get home, not wanting to accidentilly expose himself due to his temporary lack of judgement. He had been drinking with a woman named Shelly Desmoine, and walking down the alleyways he heard what he thought was her screaming. He ran to where it came from and found her struggling against a man who was trying to rape her. Artemis fought him off, but he was so drunk that he thought he was back in medeival England, and to him Shelly was Myra, his true love. A neighbor had called the police, but when they arrived they though Artemis was the man assaulting her, because he was the only man at the scene of the crime. They handcuffed him, and, hallucenating that he was being dragged away from Myra by Veronian soldiers (yeah, he was just THAT drunk) He turned around and sliced all three of them completely in half with bolt of magick. The girl screamed and ran; and as the blood sprayed on his face, he was brought back to the present. Realising what he'd justdone, he sat in shock in the pool of blood until back up forces arrived and arrested him.
The cop car dash camera had caught it all.
He was brought to court, and explained everything. I mean, EVERYTHING; of course nobody beleived him and thought he was crazy, but the footage from the dash cam was enough to make them at least listen to and consider what he had to say. The F.B.I. realised who he was as the trial aired live on TV. Artemis was probably the first man in the history of the current judicial system to choose to represent himself. After the last of the opposing evidence was presented, he stood up and addressed the whole court on his own behalf. "I killed those men. I admit to that. But it was an accident." he turned to the deaseaced's families. "I am so very sorry for what's happened, and I wish there were a way to reverse it, but there's not. And I deserve to die for it, whether an accident or not. I know that. ...And I have no doubt in my mind that every one of you in this courtroom today will vote guilty. And I deserve it, I know...but you see, I promised something to someone once, and I cannot permit myself to leave this earth without fufilling it. And so, I cannot allow myself to die." Suddenly there was a flash of bright light where he had been, and he was gone. On the tv in the corner the funeral for the policemen killed was being broadcasted live. The moment he dissapeared from the courtroom, a man in an orange prisoners uniform appeared at the very end of the line of servicemen, who, unnoticing, gave the ceremonial final solute. The man saluted along with them, a quiet tear running down his cheek.
And every single person in that courtroom voted innnocent.
I'm going to try not to spoil anything that happens in the first book in this post. This new plot is in the fourth book, so it might confuse people a bit, but I'll keep it simple.
Artemis led a lot of different lives...and it's finally caught up with him <3
Over the 600 years he's been alive, he's had to dissapear every time someone's come close to discovering that he's not exactly normal. Especially when they look exactly the same no matter how old they get! So, about every 10 years or less (deppending on the circumstances) he's had to either leave town, fake his own death, or just vanish into thin air.
He was involved in every war that America has ever been in, and that includes even the revolutionary war. Now, nobody would realise this with all the changes in command all the time, yes? Of course. He signed up under different alias' anyways.
Once the age of technology encorached upon his ability to remain unknown, he had to be a lot more careful with where he went and how he handled people. For example...
He was at the Twin towers on 9/11, and actually was right near the impact of the first plane. The explosion shock wave broke all the windows and sent multiple people flying out through them- including Artemis. As they fell, he teleported them all safelyto the ground. Amatuer footage captured him doing this. He knew he was exposed, and he subsequently didn't try to hide his powers anymore. He teleported in and out of the collapsed buildings helping survivors to get out for over an hour. He never said anything. The public was in panic, and many of them thought he could be responsible for the attacks. He dissapeared after that hour. He became known as the infamous "9/11 Man", and nobody knew whether he was a hero or a villian. Many beleived him to be the product of a mass hallucenation due to lack of oxygen or perhaps a chemical used by terrorists. The F.B.I. got ahold of the footage and immediatley stopped all broadcasting of any footage or information about him. Soon people began to forget about the man and many simply labeled it as a hoax.
The F.B.I. had matched the footage from the 9/11 incedent to Artemis, but...
When they attempted to match the face to anyone in their records... They came up with at least 20 exact facial matches on thier computer system alone, spanning at least 50 years. AND THEY WERE QUITE CLEARLY THE SAME PERSON. Dumbfounded and realising that they were on to something insanely important, they searched though even more records from much longer ago, including all the military records they could get their hands on. He was an exact match to over a hundred different people.
They arrested him at his home as he was making preparations to dissapear again, and brought him into an interrogation cell. When his interrogater asked him what he was, he responded with a simple "I'm a witch.". Teleporting behind the examiners chair, he smoothly asked, "...And what are you going to do about that?" and vanished into thin air.
Four years later.
After dissapearing to avoid the mass hysteria of 9/11, Artemis moved to Denver, Colorado.
He found himself drunk one night, and used the alleyways to get home, not wanting to accidentilly expose himself due to his temporary lack of judgement. He had been drinking with a woman named Shelly Desmoine, and walking down the alleyways he heard what he thought was her screaming. He ran to where it came from and found her struggling against a man who was trying to rape her. Artemis fought him off, but he was so drunk that he thought he was back in medeival England, and to him Shelly was Myra, his true love. A neighbor had called the police, but when they arrived they though Artemis was the man assaulting her, because he was the only man at the scene of the crime. They handcuffed him, and, hallucenating that he was being dragged away from Myra by Veronian soldiers (yeah, he was just THAT drunk) He turned around and sliced all three of them completely in half with bolt of magick. The girl screamed and ran; and as the blood sprayed on his face, he was brought back to the present. Realising what he'd justdone, he sat in shock in the pool of blood until back up forces arrived and arrested him.
The cop car dash camera had caught it all.
He was brought to court, and explained everything. I mean, EVERYTHING; of course nobody beleived him and thought he was crazy, but the footage from the dash cam was enough to make them at least listen to and consider what he had to say. The F.B.I. realised who he was as the trial aired live on TV. Artemis was probably the first man in the history of the current judicial system to choose to represent himself. After the last of the opposing evidence was presented, he stood up and addressed the whole court on his own behalf. "I killed those men. I admit to that. But it was an accident." he turned to the deaseaced's families. "I am so very sorry for what's happened, and I wish there were a way to reverse it, but there's not. And I deserve to die for it, whether an accident or not. I know that. ...And I have no doubt in my mind that every one of you in this courtroom today will vote guilty. And I deserve it, I know...but you see, I promised something to someone once, and I cannot permit myself to leave this earth without fufilling it. And so, I cannot allow myself to die." Suddenly there was a flash of bright light where he had been, and he was gone. On the tv in the corner the funeral for the policemen killed was being broadcasted live. The moment he dissapeared from the courtroom, a man in an orange prisoners uniform appeared at the very end of the line of servicemen, who, unnoticing, gave the ceremonial final solute. The man saluted along with them, a quiet tear running down his cheek.
And every single person in that courtroom voted innnocent.
Thursday, January 29, 2009
So sorry!
I know I haven't been on in a forever, but there was a *cough* series of unfortunate events that led to my innability to acces the internet recently...
First my computer got a super virus and died.
Then I had, like, 3 AP European projects due in a row (Yeah-thanks SO much Mrs. Earnst).
I then had two exams to study for (both in my worst/least favorite subjects)
On top of that I also had to keep trying to make the end-of-the-month deadline for my illustrations for my, er...employer...
See why I couldn't put new posts up? I was totally swamped XC But now I have the rest of the week off and I intend to party-hardy! WOO!
OH- I ALSO made a Facebook account *jumps for joy* today, so huzzah, and go look me up and say hi <3>
Well, it's about 2 am right now, so I should go hit the sack. See you all tomorrow!
First my computer got a super virus and died.
Then I had, like, 3 AP European projects due in a row (Yeah-thanks SO much Mrs. Earnst).
I then had two exams to study for (both in my worst/least favorite subjects)
On top of that I also had to keep trying to make the end-of-the-month deadline for my illustrations for my, er...employer...
See why I couldn't put new posts up? I was totally swamped XC But now I have the rest of the week off and I intend to party-hardy! WOO!
OH- I ALSO made a Facebook account *jumps for joy* today, so huzzah, and go look me up and say hi <3>
Well, it's about 2 am right now, so I should go hit the sack. See you all tomorrow!
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Who again? What the characters LOOK like...
Well, as my good friend Amanda-Lyn made me remember, I haven't actually told you what the cast of The Paper King look like...(so sorry, lol!) Once again, from top to bottom: most important to least important characters. I hope this clears things up for you...! Oh, and since they're mostly all English, they're all Caucasians (I don't mean to offend, that's just the way it worked out!)
Julius Pembrooke- Age: 15. Hair: long blond hair tied back and wrapped in a white silk ribbon wound around the ponytail. The only time he lets his hair down would be at night. Eyes: Light hazel. Defining features: He has kind eyes... He's also pretty muscular from sword-fighting...If you went to the dictionary and looked up "gentleman" Julius would probably be in it's definition. Apparel: Julius wears a red satin tunic with gold embroidery, and a forest green cape always hangs around his neck; pinned together with a brooch bearing the Pembrooke royal family insignia. He has khaki trousers and black leather riding boots that go up to his calves; they too are embroidered with golden thread around the front and gold buttons up the side. He also always carries his twin swords in their sheaths, attached to his belt and hidden under his cape so as to not arouse suspicion. Julius also wears one of those white neck ruffles that the English court so commonly wore.
Julius Pembrooke- Age: 15. Hair: long blond hair tied back and wrapped in a white silk ribbon wound around the ponytail. The only time he lets his hair down would be at night. Eyes: Light hazel. Defining features: He has kind eyes... He's also pretty muscular from sword-fighting...If you went to the dictionary and looked up "gentleman" Julius would probably be in it's definition. Apparel: Julius wears a red satin tunic with gold embroidery, and a forest green cape always hangs around his neck; pinned together with a brooch bearing the Pembrooke royal family insignia. He has khaki trousers and black leather riding boots that go up to his calves; they too are embroidered with golden thread around the front and gold buttons up the side. He also always carries his twin swords in their sheaths, attached to his belt and hidden under his cape so as to not arouse suspicion. Julius also wears one of those white neck ruffles that the English court so commonly wore.
Allen Collins- Age: 15. Hair: Light brown, short. Eyes: Light blue (aquamarine). Defining features: He almost always wears his lucky jersey, number 48...He also bears a striking resemble to Artemis, save for being a bit younger looking- So much so, in fact, that Julius mistakes him for Artemis when they meet for the first time. Apparel: He always wear bluejeans, sneakers, his teal-blue lucky jersey, and, sometimes, a red Bearcats cap.
Artemis Valentene- Age: 25, however at age 25 he curses himself with immortality, and is now about 600 years old, but he still looks 25. Hair: Dark brown, short and windswept; he always has a small beard no longer than has chin is. Eyes: Dark Grey. Defining features: Before his 600 years worth of escapades there isn't really anything interesting about him except for his piercing grey eyes and the act that he's extremely handsome...after 600 years; however, he has upwards of 30 major scars... mostly on his torso though, so they are unnoticeable with a shirt on (save for the scars on his wrists)...Artemis always seems out of place, but he has this odd aura, like nothing ever affects him the way it used to...people have a tendency to pass right by him without even noticing he's there...it very strange, honestly... Apparel: Artemis wears a forest green shirt with gold around the neckline, a long flowing purple cape fastened around his shoulders in the military fashion, and a large purple gem hangs around his neck. He also has sea blue pants, and boots quite similar to Julius'.
Tybalt Valencian- Age: 42. Hair: Dark Brown, crew cut with widows peak; he has a neatly trimmed beard as well. Eyes: Dark Brown, almost black. Defining features: His left eye is gone, so he wears a tan eye-patch over it; his right eye has a long scar running over it, earning him the nickname "Scar"...He has a very commanding presence, and he's probably the strongest person among the cast... I've never seen him cry, and he never shows his sadness, instead turning it to vengeful anger...Possibly the strangest thing about Tybalt is when he becomes "The Demon": when his anger overtakes him such that nothing can get in his way, he can't even feel pain when he gets like that...He just all of a sudden snaps, and this is characterised by him "crying" blood, as he did when he first got his scar and lost his eye. He's a very dynamic character indeed...Apparel: Apart from his attention drawing eye patch, he always wears his dark green generals military uniform; it has a billion and one little medals and pins stuck to it. He too wears a neck ruffle, and a cape that a bit darker of a green tint than his uniform. His pants are dark brown, and he wears a bigger brown version of Julius' boots.
Emily Collins- Age: 6. Hair: Dark Brown, short (about an inch above her shoulders) in French braided pigtails. Eyes: Dark Blue with hints of green. Defining features: She's innocent, and that carefree happiness emanates from her; she can be obsessive over random things, like how she draws certain things over and over again, without having a reason for doing so...She doesn't understand people that well, but somehow connects with them in strange ways all the same...She views Julius as her "knight in shining armor". Apparel: Emily always wears her denim jumper over a t-shirt, although the color of the shirt changes with her mood. It's usually a shade of green, pink or yellow though. She pretty much wears sneakers too.
Xavier Xzailius-
Hair: Short, black, usually untidy.Eyes: Dark Brown. Defining features: He's quite clumsy, and always seems to have an embarrassed tone to his voice...He's a comedian, and makes light of whatever situation he's in no matter how bad it may be. Xavier is pretty strong, and, yes, he's rather hot too; he acts just like Allen, actually...Apparel: When he's not in his shining silver armor, he usually just wears a simple white undershirt, a cross around his neck, and muddy trousers (he works with horses a lot). He can be dressy if he wants to be, though. His dress uniform is a light sky blue, with a white neck ruffle, matching blue pants, and polished black dress shoes.Cloe Demitria- Age: 16. Hair: Light orange (strawberry blond) Worn in different styles, but usually in curled pigtails. Eyes: Dark Green. Defining features: She's pretty innocent as well, and very compassionate-which I suppose is why she wanted to be a nurse...she's clumsy and easily embarrassed just like Xavier, which is why they make such a good match... Apparel: She always wears her clean white nurses uniform with one of those silly little paper hats with a red cross on it. Even though it was highly inappropriate then, her skirt ends just above her knees.
Theodore Pembrooke- Age: 54 Hair: Dark Brown, about the same as Tybalts; he has a neatly trimmed beard like Tybalt as well. Eyes: Hazel. Defining features: Theo is and looks extremely strong, and not just physically. He was a revolutionary when it came to the way he treated his subjects, and it anybody has ever read To Kill a Mockingbird he is almost exactly like Atticus... He loved his children dearly, and was always a very rough yet gentle person. Apparel: Theo always wore a white neck ruffle, a maroon tunic similar to Julius', matching pants and cape, and boots like Tybalts'.
Victoria Pembrooke- Age: 7 Hair: Blond (almost white), worn in a long braid. Eyes: Aquamarine. Defining features: Victoria is the most intriguing character in the whole series... She has this odd quality of understanding everything about the world, and is quite possibly the wisest person out of everybody, which is so amazingly strange considering her age. She connects with everybody no matter who they are or what they've done, and never apologizes for her actions-there's never any need to... She comes up with revolutionary ideas just like her father; however, she comes up with things no one else could have thought of...she seems like some being from another plane, like she doesn't quite exist on the earth, and if you met her on the right day you'd think she was some sort of ghost... Everything she says has meaning...and she has this odd way of falling in love with anybody...the only thing that seems to ever take her out of her element is pity-she gets fascinated with the sad things of the world, amazed at them and always curious. I adore her character the most out of the cast of girls, and she just amazes me some times with the things she says... Apparel: Victoria wore a pastel pink coat and ruffled skirt, along with a fur-trimmed pink shawl that attached to the coat. She also wore little pink doe-skin boots that went up to her calves.
Myra Angelus- Age: 16. Hair: Dark orange. Eyes: Hazel. Defining features: With the face of an angel and a golden heart, it's easy to see why Artemis falls so completely in love with her...she always has a knowing look in her eyes, and is easygoing with just about everything. Apparel: Myra always changed her look, but was always in a simple dress or skirt; although they were usually bright colored. What I can tell you is her favorite color was orange.
Well, that's it for the first book of TPK, but there are others you'll meet later in the series...
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