Wilderness Writer
Wolf Sokka
Zutarian Propaganda Writer
~Weaver of Words~
Posts: 2,802
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Post by Wilderness Writer on Nov 4, 2006 21:26:10 GMT -5
Well, Godhunter, I finally got around to doing it, lol.
A few months ago I started playing on the 'name game' thread, writing short, avatar-world-related drabbles to go with peoples' screen names. Godhunter suggested I make a thread just for it, but I got busy and forgot all about it.
Now that winter is here (and I'm approaching the one-year anniversary since I started DG) I want to get the writing juices flowing again so I can start a new fanfiction. Mods, if this thread is dumb or in the wrong place, please trash it with my sincerest apologies.
Anyway, if you want to participate, just say 'hi!' or something and I'll try to do a little drabble with your screen name. Since it's been a long time since Dangerous Ground was finished, most people probably don't know me and are going 'pfft. who is this and why should I give her my screen name?' so here's a little example of my writing style in case you're interested in participating.
Using the name "Hayla"
"Good bye." Hayla's voice seemed to hang in the air for a moment, a frail and broken-winged butterfly, before it was crushed by the tempestuous wind that whipped of the sea. She knew it never reached the ears of the warriors that lined the ship's railing, but then, it wasn't really meant for them. It was meant for herself.
Hayla watched the ship depart into the orange-red of coming dawn, the sky streaked with a smattering of blood-red color, an ominous and terrible foreshadowing of what was to come. The ship carried her father and her brothers away, along with the village chief and the boys who had once been her childhood friends, back when mothers still scolded about dirt on their clothes and the village elders sat in pools of sunlight and the smell of hot tapai drifted out of the doors from the cookfires.
It had been a long time since the days she would race those boys to the old tree and back. Maturity and work had hardened their muscles and war had hardened their faces. Hayla turned before the ship could dissapear entirely into the horizon. A part of her longed to go with it, to escape into battle and lose herself in the blood and mindless savagery of war. Because then she could do something.
Because then she could escape the waiting, and with it the daily worry of what would happen if they didn't win... about the consequences of Ozai's final and complete rule. About what would happen to her younger sisters, her home, and the frail but treasured pieces of what was left of her nation if her father and brothers came back defeated... or didn't come back at all.
But she could not escape. She remained a fixed point between sea and sky, standing on the furthest rock of her homeland. As her final goodbye slipped from her lips, she acknowledged the end of her childhood innocence and shouldered the heavy burden of silent bravery, knowing that she faced the task of keeping what was left of her village together, and surviving whatever was to come.
So, there it is. Drop me a line if you want a drabble.
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Post by The Blank Magician on Nov 4, 2006 21:31:38 GMT -5
YES! I would like to know if you could teach me to write like that? I've never read much else that can compare.
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Post by godhunter on Nov 4, 2006 22:54:44 GMT -5
*pops in before anyone can do so besides omni*
WW *glomps* glad to see that this is here
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Wilderness Writer
Wolf Sokka
Zutarian Propaganda Writer
~Weaver of Words~
Posts: 2,802
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Post by Wilderness Writer on Nov 5, 2006 22:30:10 GMT -5
Here's the drabble:
The tall meadowgrass parted around her with a silky hiss as she she crawled along the ground, nearing her destination as the moon reached its zenith in the midnight sky. Its pale light turned the small encampent of tents and spent campfires into a dusty smudge on the valley floor. A guard leaned against his rucksack at the edge of the camp, but as she neared she could discern the slow, heavy breath of sleep coming from his lips.
His arrogance would cost him dearly tonight. He was one of the many Firenation bounty hunters and raiders who walked unchallenged and unafraid across earthnation borders, taking children as slaves and spilling the blood of the elderly for the few treasurs saved from a time before the war.
Her poisoned blade slipped just beneath the skin of the guard. He had time for nothing more than a puzzled gasp before he slipped back into unconsciousness. He would wake again, but when he did he would be stripped down to his shorts and left with nothing but a bad headache and a raw taste in his throat. A fitting justice for a life of greed.
Three steps and she was past the blackened ground of the first campfire, three more and she had penetrated the tent of the second bounty hunter. He lay in a druken sleep, his right hand firmly clutching a bottle of earthnation's finest saki while his sword lay abandoned on the floor. She was sure he wished for it when he awoke to her blade pressed against his throat.
The third raider was just as easy to dispatch, his eyes and reflexes blurry with alchohol and sleep. Her poisoned blade sent him back into his blissful slumber with a whisper of torn cloth and a hiss of metal against air.
With no longer any need for stealth, she ran to the last tent, where four children lay in a protective heap. She touched the shoulder of the eldest child and he jerked into wakefulness, blinking eyes dark with fear and despair.
"It's okay, I'm here to take you back home." ____________________________________________________
They were halfway back to the small village when she heard footsteps.
"Go on ahead." She instructed the eldest child, linking his hands with the two younger children. "Take them back." She waited for them to dissapear into the protective embrace of the forest before she turned to face the figure lurking in the ashy darkness of the meadow.
He leapt at her before she could draw her blade, but she was smaller and faster than him and evaded his grasp. He let out a feral snarl before lunging at her with his sword, barely missing her shoulder as she arced and spun to the left.
The stars were the only wittnesses to the small battle of sinew and sword that played out in the meadow that night, and were the only ones to see the small girl triumph over the bounty hunter at last, pinning him to the ground with one knee in his back.
"Who are you?" He rasped through a mouthful of dirt.
Bending down until her mouth was inches from his ear, she spoke in a voice just above a whisper.
"In the ancient tongue, there was once a word that meant 'all and every." That word is "Omni" and that is who I am. I am everywhere you go. I will avenge everyone you kill. I will follow your every step. The firenation will not go unchallenged in this land."
These were the last words the raider heard as the poisoned blade nicked his wrist and sent him into sleep.
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End. Sure, I'd love to talk with you about writing anytime, Omni. Ask me anything about writing you want and I'll do my best to be helpful.
Godhunter! Yay! You found the thread!
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Post by avatarspirit on Nov 5, 2006 22:57:48 GMT -5
That is so cool!
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Post by godhunter on Nov 6, 2006 9:58:14 GMT -5
Yup, I found it alright, and wow, that is teh awsomeness!!!!
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Wilderness Writer
Wolf Sokka
Zutarian Propaganda Writer
~Weaver of Words~
Posts: 2,802
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Post by Wilderness Writer on Nov 6, 2006 22:55:52 GMT -5
Avatarspirit....
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Aya sat in the stillness at the tip of the craggy peak, her eyes closed and her hands resting lightly on her lap. The only sound was the soft stirrings of the breeze in the canyons below, the gentle air currents sometimes reaching up to brush playfully against her clothes, beckoning her to join them in play. It was a strong temptation for the heart of an airbender to bear, but Aya had long ago reserved the dawn for one dire purpose, and to that she held.
When finally the light of morning fell against her eyelids and began to warm her cold-pricked skin, Aya looked up from her meditation and breathed a heavy sigh.
"Why do you do such foolishness? The Avatar has been gone for many long years! Before you were even born! You think the silly prayers of a little girl will move the fleets of the Fire Nation?" Her aunt's bitter words hovered in the air around her like relentless little sparrows. Aya ignored them, just as she ignored the solicitous call of her warm blankets in the early morning hours when she slipped from their embrace to begin her journey to the mountain top.
She stood wearily, her body stiff with the cold of morning and the long stillness of her prayer. But the hopeful sense of peace that flooded her soul was more than recompense for the sacrefice of sleep and warmth. Her family might think it was foolishness to pray for the Avatar's return each day. She'd heard the whispers behind her back in the village. "She must think she has the spirit of the Avatar within her, to believe her prayers will turn back the engines of the Fire Nation. Perhaps we should just begin calling her the Avatarspirit."
Aya never took offence. She knew that the scoffing words came from people who were bone-weary from running from the firenation and terrified of the coming genocide that had been unleashed on their people. Many idle words were said in fear and anguish, and she left them all behind her each morning that she climbed up the mountain to sit alone, with only the hope that a small girl's prayers could perhaps bend the fate of the world, if only by just a little.
She could not see into the vast depths of the ocean where the small, still hope of the world lying quiety encased in ice. She could not see through the snow-packed tundra villages of the water tribe, where a strong-willed waterbender girl would be born to break that ice. She could not see, but she hoped, and that was what really mattered.
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end. Hope it was okay. Any more takers?
Glad you like the thread, Godhunter ;D ;D ;D
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Post by catalyst283 on Nov 7, 2006 0:22:49 GMT -5
Loving the idea, WW; as well as your drabbles. Care to write one care of "Catalyst"?
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Ardor
Fire Nation Soldier
Captain of the Blue Spirits
*drok* *punk* *highfive*
Posts: 5,243
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Post by Ardor on Nov 7, 2006 0:45:46 GMT -5
Aww, this brings back so many memories... I remember my story *sniffle* Such an amazing story it was *wipes tear away*
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Angel Eyes
Koh
Okay. Who ate the cookies?
Posts: 5,111
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Post by Angel Eyes on Nov 7, 2006 1:01:18 GMT -5
Oooh, can I have one of my name?
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Post by Spiral on Nov 7, 2006 1:28:11 GMT -5
Neat idea Wilderness. DG was the first Avatar fanfic I read, so it brings back some memories for me, too. I'm looking forward to your new work.
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Alleluia
Kyoshi Mai
Earthbending General of the Zutarian Army
Icon by Youkaislayer
Posts: 2,384
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Post by Alleluia on Nov 7, 2006 13:09:27 GMT -5
WW, this is so great! ^^ You write beautifully as always. (Seriously, if I could bottle you and sell it, I'd be a millionaire. People would line up for some of this writing talent. I'd like a drabble, please. (*cough*IstillwantthatonedrabbleinvolvingacertainOmashanyoupromisedme*cough*) lol But anything from you would do so nicely. ;D Keep up the great work!
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Post by godhunter on Nov 8, 2006 0:19:37 GMT -5
Hey, WW, look what I found ;D ******************** Taela doesn't question the cloaked figure that has just seated himself at the bar. She never does. He leans forward, resting his elbows wearily on the polished mahogany and raises his hand to signal her. The tavern is busy tonight, roiling with the explosive laughter and thunderous shouts of the men who have come in to blow off a bit of steam. Each voice fights to be heard above the rest, each chest puffs as the men vie to tell the most boastful story of their exploits and adventures. He is quiet, and that's what makes her notice him above the rest. "What will it be?" She asks, standing in front of him and trying to see into the shadows of the cloak that hides his face. "Water." It is the first and only word he has spoken, or will speak, tonight. She'd expected it, for that is what he always orders when he comes to the dusty little tavern on the edge of the world. A strange request, when the rest of the men demand ale and wine. They say it is so that he can keep a clear head. She returns a moment later with a chipped and slightly-dirty tavern mug filled with water. She grimaces at the impurities that float in the water. The other men are usualy too drunk to care about the condition of the mugs, but this strange man.... this man known as 'Godhunter' is far from drunk. In fact, there is a light of strange intellegence in his eye that startles her as he looks at her for the first time that night. She lowers her head and pretends to busy herself with wiping the counter down, but he has seen her blush. She is too old to have a childish crush over the masked hero! She has long ago learned about the darkness and despair brought on by Ozai's war, and her girlish innocence has all but vanished in the face of many deaths. But... there is something about this strange, silent man that keeps her asking questions about him... "They say he is searching for the one who can end of the war." "The Avatar?" "A foolish man's goal! Haven't the Fire Princes searched, and to no avial?" "What makes him think he will have any success?" She hears them talk in hushed, scornful tones over their ale as they give him sidelong glances. "Foolish, to hunt a god." Taela gives the cloaked figure a searching gaze, and it is impossible to deny the tugging she feels in her mind. It could just be her infatuation talking, but she wonders.... Could he be the one to find the Avatar? Yea!
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Wilderness Writer
Wolf Sokka
Zutarian Propaganda Writer
~Weaver of Words~
Posts: 2,802
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Post by Wilderness Writer on Nov 13, 2006 22:36:15 GMT -5
Wow, I was hoping that I might get a reply. I got four. Catalyst, Angel Eyes, Spiral, and Alle's Love Story To End All Love Stories Like I Promised will be answered in order of their posting.
My name is now Catalyst. You don’t need to know my birth name, for that was buried along with what was left of my city
The air tastes like acid. The smoke makes my eyes sting and burns the back of my throat, but I welcome it because it sears the image of this night into my mind. I close my eyes and breathe deep, letting the lingering smell of oil and fire and hot metal poison my lungs and seep toxically into my blood.
It is the smell of death, and I want to remember it. I want to remember the way the ash covers my boots and stains my clothes as dark as sin. I want to remember the way the air feels somehow colder after bearing so great an inferno, how the ash-dusted bricks crunch like splintered bones beneath my feet, the shattered skeletons of homes that once sheltered the city’s families. I want to remember this night.
Because this night is the beginning of a dark and desperate thing. It is an energy that crackles in the ash-choked air and flickers in the eyes of the small band of survivors gathered around the bonfire. It stirs in the ash around our feet and snaps viciously from the fire.
“We are ghosts now.” I say into the gathering of fire-scorched survivors. My declaration is met with quiet approval, as if they have already accepted their new role and remain as silent as death.
Their faces are pale in the hazy moonlight, but their eyes burn with an intensity of purpose that makes the fire feel cold. They are tired and dirty with sweat and soil, their hands bearing witness to the two hundred that were buried between sunrise and sunset, but they stand with straight backs and squared shoulders.
“The Earth Kingdom has slumbered for too long as Ozai has been allowed to gain more and more power. We have been content to watch inside our secure walls as they have attacked the Air and Water Nations, but our walls are no longer safe.” I saw a few eyes wander around the burnt city, taking in the evidence of Ozai’s destruction.
“He thinks that he can extinguish us just as he has destroyed the Air Nomads.” A murmur of anger rose from the small group and I felt the earth reverberate slightly beneath my feet.
“What he does not know is that he has put in motion a catalyst that will wake the Earth Kingdom from its sleep. Shall we sit by as he burns our sister cities?” Horse and throaty growls rose from the group.
“Shall we bow to Ozai? Shall the Earth Kingdom fall? Shall we remain defeated?” The shouts of the survivors caused the earth to split and shake beneath us, rattling the dusty bones of the burned city.
“If Ozai thinks he has killed us, then let us walk as ghosts in this land, finding no rest or home until his army has been hurled back into the sea.”
My name is now Catalyst. You don’t need to know my birth name, for that was buried along with what was left of my city. We move as ghosts among the camps of the Fire Nation, never seen and rarely heard. We are driving them back to the sea.
_____________________________________________________________________ Feeling angsty tonight. Hence theme.
Angel Eyes is next. Thanks, everyone, for participating! Next update will hopefully be sooner.
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Post by mikael on Nov 13, 2006 22:38:53 GMT -5
Because I CAN.
That, and I like pie.
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