Somebody told me

I've been working on a young adult novel in my head for many years. Why young adult? Because I was in high school when I came up with the concept. Which is why this scene was a little awkward to write.  See the book exists in my head in a jumble of scenes that were once little daydreams for me. I have very elaborate daydreams so a whole story exists. The point is these scenes were originally all from "my" point of view. Or rather the point of view of a sort of Mary Sue-ish character that happened to look like me. As I got older the characters didn't and I started revisiting the fantasies but with the focus on the male protagonist. The problem is this was one of my most vivid scenes and I never really thought of it from his point of view.  This scene actually had almost no dialog in it in my head. It in fact was originally a crowded Matrix style club scene that took place to the tune of "Somebody Told Me" by The Killers.  Hence it is odd that the first piece of my novel that gets written is the part that had no words and was told from the wrong perspective in my head. It is the most played out scene I have though next to the scene that will probably be the next one I write and almost got merged into this one.  Anyway there is my little author rant. Please let me know what you think of this chapter to a story you don't know. the chapter is tentatively titled Somebody Told Me. 

Jason watched as Rebeka walked in the door.  He had never seen someone look so much in her element.  She closed her eyes and he could tell she was beginning to feed off the crowd.  He had always imagined her in a place like this like a starving person at an all you could eat buffet.  It wasn't like that it was more like a fish falling into water.  Like for the first time in hours she was able to breathe but no gasping. She just flowed into the crowd as if it was her natural place.

It wasn't Jason's place, or at least not right now.  He preferred smaller crowds where he could talk with a few people. The party was loud, especially out here in the main room. Close conversation was held with mouths to ears. Anything less intimate was not conveyed through speech. He could feel the music pulse around him. He looked down at the Coke in his hand, he had all but forgotten it.  He set it on one of the nearby tables and walked to find a quieter room.

Tara popped up at his elbow. "Are you still going to tell her?" She nearly shouted to be heard. Jason shook his head, not in negation but to show he didn't want to have this conversation here. Tara nodded and they walked to what appeared to be someone's home office.

"I still can't believe I'm here." He said as they walked into the room.  "I don't do keggers."

Tara gave him one of her looks. "You didn't answer my question. Are you going to tell Rebeka what you told me?" She sat down on an expensive looking leather chair. "I know you want to tell Rebeka that you want to go out with her. I can feel the anxiety pooling off of you, it tastes a little sour. So why not just ask her and get it over with."

Jason looked at Tara a little exasperated. "If you are so perceptive of my feelings, why can't you tell me what she will say." He was once again growing a little tired of psychics. He was tired of a lot of things. Tired of keeping secrets, tired of watching over his back and especially tired of people telling him what he was feeling.

Tara screwed up her mouth and narrowed her eyes. Her bright green glasses made the look especially pointed. "Beka is the strongest pathovore and the one with the most to hide.  She sleeps with a shield on her thoughts. Besides" she had to add in the last bit "even if I could tell you what would you learn if you don't take the risk?"

Jason sighed and leaned on the desk. He could feel the thump of the bass from the next room. Tara loved to think in terms of social lessons without thinking in terms of social outcomes.  What a risk he would be taking.  What if he offended Rebeka?  They were working together to find out their own origin stories. If things got awkward it would cause a rift in the group that could make them weak and could make them easier to find.  Besides, Jason didn't want to lose her.  He hadn't admitted it until now but as long as he didn't say anything to her there was always the potential she would go out with him. If he just asked that potential would be dashed. He couldn't bear the thought of losing that hope.

"No, I'm not going to tell her tonight." He felt the weight that had been on his chest ease a bit. It didn't have to be over tonight.  With that easing he realized everything holding him at this party was gone. "I'm not feeling well, and this isn't my scene. I think I'll just find her, say hi and let her know I'm going home."

Tara rolled her eyes and scooted off the chair. "Whatever, it's your choice. I'm going to go get something to eat." She walked over to the door and just before opening it said. "I don't know how you can be as strong as you are physically and have absolutely no balls."  She walked out the door.

Jason simply rolled his eyes and walked back across the room. He sighed and opened the door stepping out into the music and chaos. Someone immediately went past him nearly knocking him down. He heard a mumbled "sorry man."  Looking around he wondered where to start looking.  The living room had filled even more since he had gone into the den. The "dance floor" was absolutely packed. He thought he spotted Rebeka over near the speakers and started heading that way.

He began to work his way through the party. A girl started trying to dance with him and then seemed to get huffy when he wasn't interested. As he got to the speakers he realized the girl he had seen was someone else. He leaned over and and shouted "Have you seen Beka?" The girl didn't stop dancing but nodded and pointed towards the makeshift bar.  He nodded and began walking that way.

Near the keg were all guys, he should have known. Beka wouldn't be drinking she would be getting high enough off the crowd.  He decided to start moving towards the middle of the crowd but was stopped.

"Hey, Jason." it was Ben. He was in the advanced French class with Jason. "Have you seen the new guy?"

Jason looked at Ben, impatient. "New guy? Its a party. I don't know half the people here." He began to go but then caught what Ben was saying.

"No man, no one knows him. He just sort of showed up. I heard he was askin' 'bout Beka." That stopped him. Someone asking about Rebeka. Who no one knew. The party would be the perfect place to gather intelligence on any of them. But if anyone from the organization was looking for them they wouldn't fit in at a high school party. Still...

"What do you mean he was asking about Rebeka?" Jason looked at his classmate. Ben was obviously not holding his first beer. He could be wrong.

"I just heard him asking who the girl with the starry top was. I know Beka was wearing that black starscape shirt." Ben took another drink "I just thought you might want to know I know she's like a sister to you or something"

Jason rolled his eyes "Thanks, I guess." He started moving into the crowd again.  Beka would be losing herself in the middle of the crowd. She never gave most guys a second look.  Closing herself off from flirting was one of her ways of keeping up her mental shield.

As he made his way through the crowd, carefully avoiding touching other people more than was necessary, the music slowed a bit. He started hearing some of the conversations around him.

"I don't know who he is but he looks like he could be in college." "He's so hot those boots just make his outfit." "Did you see his hair, there is no gel in it it looks like it fell that way."

Whoever this new guy was he was getting a lot of attention from the other girls.  Well enough, Jason was sure one of them would draw whoever it was away from Rebeka. He leaned over and asked one of the gossiping girls where Beka was. The girl giggled and pointed over to the speakers.  He looked over and saw.

There was Beka dancing. Not by herself but with a handsome, tall boy. A guy with perfectly tousled black hair who looked like he could be in college. A guy who Jason had never seen before in his life.

The Srewn

Ok This one takes a little bit of explanation. To start with a Sloon is a lizard creature from the D&D campaign Land of Ruin, created by Josh Sterns. They were a super advanced society with magic and psionics to rival the most advanced races. I thought it would be fun to have a call forward to Persephone's adventures in Ya. 

This is one of my favorite stories I've written I would mostly write it by hand before class it took a while to finish it.

“Give it back!” Persephone lunged at her sister grabbing at the small doll that she had carried with her since it was given to her by a soothsayer in sigil.

            “You don’t even know what it is” replied Florentine, jumping lithely away from her sister’s grasp. She looked at the strange lizard creature. It didn’t look like anything she had seen in the plains.

            “Yes I do! It’s a Srewn and it’s mine. Give it back!” Persephone jumped at ther sister and the two rolled back and forth trying to grab the doll. Persephone was bigger but Florentine was better at dodging out of the way and quicker with her hands.

            After about five minutes of this Cyrus, their father, stepped in. “You two stop now!” he grabbed both his daughters and lifted them from the ground. “You are going to give away our position.” He grabbed the doll and handed it to Persephone. Then he turned a reproachful eye on Florentine. “There isn’t much point in taking something if they can tell you took it right away. I expect better of you.”

            “Cyrus get back here,” Shir’tha, the girls’ mother, hissed. “There is a cave down that way I think that looks like a good place. I need you to look for me.”

            Cyrus rolled his eyes but quickly set to work almost entirely disappearing before their eyes. Florentine watched in awe as her father moved out of sight, completely silent. He could still always catch her when she tried it.

            “What is a srewn then?” She asked her sister as if they had not been interrupted by either the fight or the scolding.

            Persephone looked at her sister warily as she clutched the doll to her chest. She didn’t answer but squeezed up closer to the rock at her back and just stared suspiciously at her sister.

            “I bet you don’t know.” Florentine said teasing. “You say you know all these things but you don’t.” She crawled a little closer, whispering in order to avoid being told off again. “You don’t know anything. I bet you made up the word. Srewn doesn’t even sound like a real thing. I bet the magic lady didn’t even give it to you it looks like something you found in the dirt.”

            Persephone threw her precious toy to the ground and launched at her sister. This time the fight lasted barely a minute as Cyrus deftly picked them both up. Holding the two struggling girls by the waist one in each hand he looked at his wife. “The cave is clear and I found a good path that is hidden in shadows.”

            Shir’tha looked at the two squirming masses her husband was holding. “Then we better get going soon before the sparks start flying.” She grabbed her older daughter and said to her “if you are going to start fights you are going to have to learn to do it properly.”

            Persephone calmed down enough to walk on her own. “Can I have a sword momma?” a gleam entered her eye at the thought of a big beautiful sword like her mother’s.

            “Well you obviously can’t have one right now. Now be quiet until we get to the cave.” Shir’tha took her daughter’s hand as they walked down the path following Cyrus.

********

“Daddy my Srewn!” Persephone was inconsolable. It had been a good three hours since they had arrived in the cave and she had discovered her most treasured possession was missing. Cyrus looked outside worriedly. The path they had taken had become much better lit since they had travelled it.

            “Dearest I would gladly go and get your doll but I can’t hide in shadows that aren’t there.” Cyrus tried to calm his daughter.

            “No daddy now!” Persephone stamped her foot and Cyrus nervously looked around for any fires that could be amplified by her abilities.

            Shir’tha looked at her husband. “How long until you can?”

            Cyrus looked at the entrance trying to judge the strange sun. “Three hours, maybe four.” He looked at his daughter who was on the verge of another fit then said quietly to his wife “are you sure we must? She has to learn about loss sometime.”

            Shir’tha looked at her husband. They normally were in accord on how to raise the children despite different upbringings but sometimes he just didn’t understand. “It’s all she has. She can’t steal whatever she wants like you and Florentine. She has no hoard of trinkets like you two.  No wonder she clings to it. With as much as you speak of wealth she thinks she is the poorest of all of us.”

            Cyrus pondered for a moment. “Well I suppose if our pursuers had seen her with it it may lead them here.” He knelt down and looked his eldest daughter in the eye. “I can’t go now but as soon as I am able I will fetch your doll. For now you two should have supper and try to sleep.”

            Persephone sniffed and nodded. As her father went to take watch her mother unpacked rations for dinner. Within an hour both of the girls were fast asleep.

********

            Later that night the menacing form of Cyrus made his way back into the cave. Checking to make sure the girls were asleep he looked at his wife and shook his head. “It wasn’t there” he said with a look of apprehension.

            Shir’tha looked at her husband quizzically. “Someone took it? Even if we are still being followed why take a ragged childs doll?”

            “No one took it.” Cyrus shook his head. “No one had been there.” He looked at his wife. “You never sensed any magics about it did you?”

            “No I’d have said.” Shir’tha matched her husband’s confused look. “Why?”

            Cyrus sat down next to the entrance looking out. “Well the gods know I haven’t your expertise in spell types. But when I looked where it should have been I could sense something. It felt like it had just disappeared.” He looked over where the bedrolls were laid out. “If you can cast a guardian perhaps we can both get some sleep. It’s been a long day.”

********

            Sometime later Florentine woke to hear quiet crying from her sister. She turned over and saw Persephone was awake trying to hide her tears. “What’s wrong Pers?” she asked with genuine concern.

            “It’s gone. Daddy came back but he didn’t give it to me.” She spoke with the voice of a child trying to be brave.

            “Maybe he just didn’t want to wake you.” Florentine tried to reassure her sister.

            Persephone shook her head. “I can feel it. It’s not here. It’s not anywhere.” Her mournful tone struck through Florentine.

            They lay in silence for some time though Florentine knew her sister didn’t sleep. Florentine stared at the ceiling. She knew the desire to posses things but there was nothing she owned that meant so much to her. She rolled over onto her side. “Persephone, what’s a srewn?” All mocking had left her voice.

            Persephone looked at her sister suspiciously then smiled. “They were lizard men but they were more like dragons. But instead of breathing acid or fire or lightning they were so powerful they could breathe magic…”

Selena of Riverfork

After Persephone died I made a bard. She was OK. My GM is particularly adverse to sonic, song, and music attacks so I made a poet bard. She actually isn't dead I lost the character sheet and then found it again so I may play her again sometime.

This story refers to the game world that was created by our GM, Josh Sterns of Winter's Riddle. The Opallus was a macguffin that we were looking for and boy when we found it did we find it.
 
Selena of Riverfork
Selena crouched down next to a rare desert flower in the ruinous landscape.  She attempted a quick sketch and then gave up and plucked the flower, squashing it between two pages of her book.  It would not be the source of an epic poem but it may make an interesting piece for her group to listen to.  That is if she ever found a group. Bards did not do well travelling alone, especially in this wasteland.

“The Last Survivor,” that was the epic she was working on.  The title was deceptive, the story was not her own but that of her group and the search for the Opallus. Selena had been working on the piece one member at a time ending each section with their tragic end in this horrid land. Checking her notes Selena carefully put her book away and recited the last section she had written to herself.  “The brave Paladin Shola, had taken up her mighty spear/ and with her mighty battle cry drove it straight into the heart of Feyr.” It would be a living testament to their glorious battles.

The slight framed girl climbed over a rock and gazed into the distance. She had seen the tower from far away and was sure it must hold some secrets of the ancient Sloon.  Selena couldn’t wait to write all she found within the tower. The Opallus was the quest she had started on but the Chronicles of Ya were her true goal.  Looking up at the sky, Selena judged that she had at least a few hours before she needed to make camp.  She wasn’t sure if she could make it to the tower before then but she would definitely be there before nightfall tomorrow.  With that thought to push her on, Selena stepped off her rock and walked onward.

Enasan

This was the first wizard I ever played in D and D this story refers a lot to the setting as this character came from the native people of the prime world we were on. So again lots of thanks to Josh Sterns (author of Winter's Riddle)

I also just remembered this was the other character that saved the evil priest. 
Enasan
They would bring back books. Those braves who came back at all. They would take them to the treasure pile as offerings to Collu'qan. Later, Enasan would sneak out and take the books one at a time. The dragon and his hero never seemed to mind.

She spent months, sometimes years on a work, deciphering the tomes little by little from the time she was young. She hid her studies from everyone, her parents, her elders, the chief, until the day she practiced her first spell. She didn’t realize just how loud the shout would be.

She spent the next three days in the isolation lodge. Finally the decision was made that if Enasan gave up her pursuit of forbidden knowledge from the Time of Nightmares she would be allowed to stay. Yet knowledge was the only joy she had, so she left to make her way through the mysteries.

She spent her first days sneaking into the ruins across the lake. Managing to barely survive she amassed enough knowledge to learn more spells and there she also found even more texts had on healing arts unknown to her people. When she had found as many spells as she could she studied the medical texts until she was an expert in the art.

After learning all she could from the ghostly ruins she turned to the forest and studied the creatures there. One day while watching some giant beetles a group of strange people attacked them. The group fought bravely but Enasan felt she had to step in. Using the first spell she learned she made the sound of the Rocs which hunted across the valley. Hearing the cry the beetles ran off.
Finding that the outsiders wished to meet the Strange One in the tower, she decided to follow them. The chance to learn was always the driving force in her life.

Florentine Ov'Cyrus

Florentine was my next character. Her life was so short that her history wasn't written until after she had died. But there was one aspect that made some in the party groan and others loved, she was Persephone's sister. A funny aspect of this story is that some people, who didn't know me well, noticed I was upset. They thought that Florentine (who everyone called Persephone Junior) was the cause. I can't remember what I was upset about but I was all about making new characters especially when my characters died in weird ways so yeah, that wasn't the deal.

Also this refers to another character who was played by someone who has now become a great friend (cause he is such a cool guy.) Since our characters entered at the same time we decided we were pulling the same scheme in Sigil, cannot for the life of me remember what the scheme was.

Florentine Ov’Cyrus
“There are never enough Berks in sigil,” Florentine remembered her father’s favorite phrase. “Fresh meat abounds there but you aren’t ready to tell the difference.”

The memory flashed before her eyes. Cyrus grabbing a purse off the elderly woman walking past. Florentine watched in awe. She had been training in masteries of 12 chimes with her father. She could pull something out of almost any pocket in almost any normal garment but she had not even begun to master the casual way her father could walk past an unsuspecting mark. He said having a seven year old with him helped, though she doubted her father’s appearance could ever be looked at without suspicions. He still had both his wings and an eight foot tall tiefling even in Sigil was an intimidating sight.

As her life bled from her Florentine remembered a later point. “The lawful plains have easier marks but the punishments for getting caught are worse. Remember Persephone?”

Florentine laughed “well primes are easy marks too right?”

“If your sister was interested in profit she may have a chance there. Though it was probably some barren place full of barbarians. Those poor barbarians.”

Now as Florentine was being dragged away from those very barbarians her last flash of memory was sitting around the fire with her dad before running off to start her own adventures that brought her to her partnership with Nuqyryn and led her to this place. She remembered her father’s last piece of advice.

“My daughter you are most like me and therefore my favorite so I will give you my most important advice.” As her consciousness fully left her she could hear in her head the last words from her father.
“Never get killed and dragged off by skeletons to their master.”

The Death of Persephone

This is an add on to the Persephone story Persephone died trying to save another party member from a fiery death. This character would be saved by other characters of mine and he was an ass. It became a theme for me to the point of the other player getting mad at me for saving him. I really liked this description of Persephone's parents.

A small demon ran against the winds of Pandemonium.  Cyrus the Liar should not be hard to find.  Soon the young servant of darkness saw the characteristic single green batlike wing of his mistresses first husband.  The tiefling thief turned around quickly, knife in hand.  The demon shrank miserably at the sight, Cyrus was not known for waiting for explanations before he started killing.

“I bring a message from my mistress Shir’tha of Hgrath.” He spat it out as quickly as he could. Bdus did not like his mistress, he had reason to suspect she had been cheating when she won him and took him away from his home in the Abyss. He would follow her orders though since she always knew when he did not and, though her wrath was sporadic it was often cruel and strange even to a native of the pits of hell.

Cyrus looked down at the small figure holding up a scroll defensively.  He laughed his signature laugh that caused the demon to shrink even further, this only caused more terrible mirth from the scarred and ragged figure. He took the scroll in one sharp movement. “You better scamper off to your mistress I hear she has developed a habit of feeding bad little demons to her newest husband.” Bdus did not disbelieve this at all even coming from the mouth of a liar. He quickly scampered off to find a portal back to Limbo.

Chuckling to himself, Cyrus unrolled the scroll and read its contents.

“Cyrus, I write to inform you of an amusing story that one of my contacts recently told me.  You should remember that our first daughter Persephone recently got herself banished to some prime plane after her attempts to teach the trees of arcadia to rebel against their Lawful masters. Well my friend who is a great source of information on the movement of souls has given me his word that she managed to get herself killed while trying to find a way back to some less friendly climate.
           
Apparently a companion of hers managed to light a cursed object that caused a denizen of the Plane of Fire to leap forth.  While many of her companions (mostly primes) left her and her friend to play with the object she stayed in some silly attempt to defend him from whatever came forth from it. At least this is what my contact managed to glean from her he is a master of speaking with souls in transition.  I personally suspect she stayed in hopes of speaking with the elemental, you remember her obsession with that particular inner plane.
           
Anyway apparently she did not even die at the hands of her attacker but was left to bleed and according to her was almost saved by her travelling companions. Knowing our daughter I’m not sure how hard they were trying she often was a little hard on Primes.
           
I do not know if anyone is interested in resurrecting her at this time but I certainly hope she has learned something about the worlds if she is.

Your favorite wife
Shir’tha”

Cyrus’ acid tears burned his face as his howls of laughter caused several nearby rodents to flee in terror.  Oh, Persephone, he thought. He was sure Shir’tha was in fact proud of her daughter, her side of the family tended to have a bit of a noble streak in them.  He was sure his younger daughter Florentine would not have been so foolish.  Then again he had not heard anything of her in a while, she was probably in prison somewhere like Sigil, she always had lacked his finesse though she tried to follow in his footsteps.  Ah well, he skewered a nearby rat to stupid to run away.  Thus was the nature of the Planes.

Persephone

In order to keep regular content occurring I thought I would put up some things that I have already written.  Starting with stories and characters that were written for experience in a friend's Dungeons and Dragon campaign.  This is my first character for that campaign her name is Persephone. She was a Tiefling priestess of Chaos. The story behind the story is that we were talking about making characters for this campaign and my good friend said he wanted to make a priest of law. Well me being contrary me I said, "hey you know what would be great to have in that party as well, a priest of chaos." This campaign is still ongoing and starts out as an introduction to Planescape while still being on a prime world. I believe both Persephone and the law priest (Lex) were from the Outlands, the area beneath Sigil where the outer plains have gateways. So this is the first of Persephone's stories, I had so much fun with her and her history I just sort of kept on writing. So watch out for more about her.

Persephone Holysword
Persephone was born to a conman and a priest of chaos .  Some would consider the middle of the outlands, far from any town, an inconvenient place for a birth.  It was but in her parents defence she was a little early.

Persephone had a blast travelling the planes with her parents.  Some of the walkers in sigil would have a hard time racking up the number of adventures that Persephone had before she was ten.   There was the time her sister was born on the first ring of the Abyss, there was some sort of strange forshadowing in the way her sisters were born.  Unfortunately by the time her second sister was born Persephone’s  parents were beginning to feel the strain of travelling the planes with too many children.  So in a spur of the moment decision like most of the ones her parents made they found places for all three of the girls.  Persephone, who was old enough to decide, chose to follow in her mother’s footsteps and so she and her baby sister went to the aBby OF divIne Chaos.

Persephone received her Chaotic orders and decided to spread the message throughout the planes. At some point she managed a stint on the Plane of Acheron where she learned much in the ways of battle and sword play.  However, even with the constant threat of crushing, Persephone found the cubes and overall lawful nature of Acheron boring and soon moved on.

Despite being overall of Neutral leanings on the idea of good and evil, Persephone has found herself entangled in the blood wars from time to time.  She looks on the entire prospect with amusement and claims she has only acted in the effort of continuing the wars for the sake of maintaining the balance of good and evil on the planes.

Now Persephone has found herself on a prime world.  The number of explanations she has given for why she is there is equal to the number of questioners.  Her haste to leave the world and return to the Planes suggests that she is not there by choice, though it is possible she has simply become bored with it.