saveourearth | Warm stories will carry us through the coldest times [Mingle]

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Warm stories will carry us through the coldest times [Mingle]

Date: 21st of November 2018, 5pm to 10pm
Characters: Open!
Note: Like all welcome mingles, this is a SoL free-for-all mingle meant to get new characters involved by centering around something relevant to them. Without further ado, please welcome Jimmy!

In their ongoing efforts to engage the community and make them support the town museum through its current hardships, and to keep things rolling, the town museum has organised a literary open stage at the historic entertainment hall at the pier.

A stage has been set up at the centre of the room, complete with two comfortable armchairs, a table with water for parched throats, and excellent microphones so nobody has to yell and everyone can hear. Food is being served, but staff and patrons are requested to be as quiet as possible to let the young talents shine. And young talents there are, indeed.

Young authors of all genres - poetry, prose, theatre, anything that can be read to an audience - are invited to claim the stage for up to thirty minutes and present their work to the public. There are almost no rules - it could be a chapter from a book, a couple of poems, a short story, a scene from a play, or anything else that fits into the allotted time frame, breaks no laws, and doesn't exceed the equivalent of 12A content. Each author will be called to the stage when their timeslot begins, and be warned via a large sign five minutes before it ends. Before or after, they can enjoy a free meal sponsored by the pub.

The entry to the event is free, but there is a table at the entrance with a donation box and a big sign "Please help us repair our town museum!", various leaflets, and a sign explaining the current situation. The tl;dr version of the explanations is that the town museum will remain closed until January or February (or that is the currently projected date at which the repairs should be finished, anyway), though the library will remain open as the damage from the emergency detonation of the bomb back in September didn't affect the structural integrity of that part of the building.

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A. Jimmy arrives at the entertainment hall early, and paces around it restlessly as he waits. He was confident about his work. Really, he was. But this was the first time he's revealed any part of this story to someone else, and he had no idea how it would be received. Jimmy sits and waits nervously as a couple of poets have their turn.

B. When his name is finally called Jimmy climbs on the stage and takes a moment to look out at the audience nervously.He needed to be cool and calm right now, just like the literary detectives he idolized. Taking a breath to settle his nerves, he quickly loses himself in the delivery of a dramatic reading of his most recent short story. He finishes with the scene where his detective confronts the criminal with the truth and corners him into a confession.

And then he closes his notebook and waits for the reaction.

C. After his reading Jimmy finds his way back to a table and finally starts eating his dinner. He pauses a few times to inspect some of the food on his plate. British food was just different enough from American food that he was sometimes caught by surprise.

Just because he wasn't 'officially' working as a volunteer tour guide for the museum until January, didn't mean Walter was going to avoid the place until the latest possible moment. That just wasn't how he went about things.

He'd stayed mostly in the back of the room, applauding each entrant but otherwise not trying to draw attention to himself.

"That's not where the book ends, though, is it?" he'll ask, after having checked that they are, in fact, sitting at the same table.

"It'd be a solid conclusion if it was, true, but what could happen next?"

Jimmy glances over to make sure that the comment was directed at him, and sets down his fork.

"It isn't really finished yet," he admits. "I think I have an idea of where I want to go next, but something about the story just doesn't feel complete yet."

Edited 2018-11-22 00:20 (UTC)

Walter, not having touched his food yet, simply nods.

"Is there something you could work into a 'bookends' sequence, perhaps? Character motivations, someone who hasn't spoken yet in the story but probably should?"

He's genuinely interested.

"I think there is," he says earnestly. "It feels like there is more to say in this and I just haven't found the right way to explore it yet."

"And that's the good thing about getting something out there; if it stays in your head, you can't really do anything about it."

Which... applied to the Number as much as to making drafts and revisions, if he was being honest.

"Also the good thing about drafts. Nothing's set in stone."

"You can think about it," Jimmy points out. "Maybe that's the point of it, really. There's something more permanent about putting something down on paper."

"And then you get into the editing..."

He makes a wry face, though his smile quickly resumes.

"So, how long have you been here? In Mossgate, to be specific."

"Not long. I'm starting at one of the schools here for spring term." Jimmy grins a little. " I got talked into moving over here early so I could get used to everything before classes start."

"Good plan, that."

Moving in and of itself had a habit of completely uprooting one's view of the world.

"Don't let anyone start quizzing you on your accent, though - that qualifies as overkill."

He picks up his fork and pokes emphatically with it.

"You will get sick of rain, though, just warning you."

"There's rain in New York too, you know. It isn't like I was living in a desert."

Surely the weather wasn't going to be that different here.

"True, true," he replies.

"But it's not going to stop on anything like a regular basis. Least the cold won't shock you, though," he amends, and starts tucking in to the food.

Why is she here? Well, you see, her grandmother wanted to come, and they could find a driver but nobody to stay with her.

And thus Kitty has ended up as company/contact this number if something happens, and mostly sits with her grandmother. But sometimes, she just can't sit still anymore, and then she starts wandering.

Eventually, this brings her to the place where Jimmy is seated. She wanders over towards him pretty much the moment she spotted him.

"Are you going to read from the thing you wouldn't show me?"

It was that kid again. Jimmy recognizes her from that time on the beach.

"A different one. The one I was working on then still isn't finished." He frowns slightly as he looks around the room. "Are you here alone? This doesn't really seem like the kind of event kids would like."

"I'm here with my grandmother. She wanted to come, and someone needs to come with her because she's old and can't walk and carry things at the same time any more." Well, technically that's what the walker has a seat area for, but it's the face-saving explanation for why the care home doesn't allow her to go out alone any more. "And she said I'd get ice cream.

Why is the one you were working on not finished yet?"

"Because it isn't done yet," he points out. "I'm still trying to figure out how the alibi trick will work. It usually takes me a while to finish a story, because all the different parts of the case have to work together. It's like creating a puzzle."

That sounds like it has all the makings of being boring. "How long does it usually take you?"

"A few months. It doesn't take long to come up with an idea, but actually writing everything out can take a while. It will probably be a lot longer when I start my novel. I've only done short stories so far."

In Jimmy's opinion this was the most interesting kind of work there was. How could it possibly be boring?

But you have to sit down and stare at pen and paper, or a writing program, for ages!

"So you can't let anyone look at your stuff for ages?"

"Not if I want the solution to be a surprise," he points out. "Even if I had an editor, if they saw the story before it was finished it wouldn't be a surprise for them either.

"...What's an editor?" And why would they see the story before it is finished?

"An editor is someone who reads over what someone else has written, and points out any mistakes or improvements that could be made," Jimmy tells her. "It's an important job, because it's easy to miss seeing mistakes in your own writing."

"...So an editor is a teacher." That doesn't sound terribly impressive to her, really. She's generally not very impressed by teachers and teacher-y types.

...Okay. Unless they do cool stuff. But that aside.

"What? They're not anything like a teacher." Jimmy had no idea where that assumption had come from.

She rolls her eyes.

"They read over what you wrote and then correct what they think is wrong." Sounds like a teacher to her.

"They're completely different things," Jimmy points out. "A teacher's job is to teach you how to write, an editor's job is just to help you improve what you've already written."

"Teachers teach you how to write by making you write stuff and then criticising it, too." She still doesn't see a significant difference.

Edited 2018-12-14 20:15 (UTC)

Sky applauds with enthusiasm, smiling. His gloved prosthetic makes a muffled sound and just doesn't bend at the wrist the way an intact hand would; this may be the five-fingered prosthetic he uses for relatively formal occasions and times when he doesn't want people staring, but it's still not completely convincing.

He likes this kind of event, though it's been decades since he himself could be counted as either young or a new author. Yes, there are more polished storytellers, poets, so on, but there's such a charm to first works.

Jimmy takes a bow and steps off the stage to make way for the next author. He moves around the room a little, talking to some of the other audience members, before finally stopping by Sky's table.

"Is anyone sitting here?" he asks. "I think I lost my chair from earlier."

Sky was nursing his fries - yes, they're called chips here, he's still calling them fries in his head - and looks up with a smile. "The new detective author! Go right ahead. Have you been writing for very long?"

He drops down into one of the empty seats at the table.

"Since I was a kid." He was ignoring the fact that sixteen years old wasn't that much older than a kid, really. "I decided that I was going to write mysteries when I was in elementary."

This is definitely a kid still, at least from the perspective of someone in his late sixties. Sky nods gravely. "That's impressive! Any favorites? I'm afraid my knowledge base doesn't go much further than Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, but I'm always open to a new book."

"Arthur Conan Doyle? That's Sherlock Holmes, right? I've never been interested in reading that. Agatha Christie is my favorite. But I also like Dorothy Sayers and Edgar Allan Poe."

Sky reacts to that astonishing statement with just a slight raise of his eyebrows. Imagine, a mystery writer with no interest in Doyle.

"Christie's all about the subverted expectations, from what I've read. Everyone's guilty, the narrator's guilty, the victim's not dead, the obvious red herring did it. How do you think that affects your work?"

He'd seen some of the American Holmes movies as a child, and promptly decided he wasn't interested.

Jimmy frowns in thought."It has affected my writing. I'm quite sure of that. I like to write stories with unexpected endings. Something that could surprise even a real detective reading my stories."

Mary is on a date.

Well, something like that - all kids are at relatives or friends or are doing their own things, and when Janice came home, they suddenly realised that they had a few hours to themselves.

Too bad that nothing good is on in the theatre, and there are no films in the cinema that they want to see.

So they end up here, listening to young people bringing sometimes excellent works and sometimes works that can at best be said to have potential onto the stage. It's a dinner out, it's some form of cultural entertainment, but most importantly, it is a few minutes together in which nothing has to be done and worked on.

Now if they could just have gone to London, because really, what are the chances of neither of them being approached by someone who knows them?

Sky's not here to interrupt the date, not even planning to come sit at their table, but he likes to say hello to his daughter and her wife when they're at the same event, unless Janice sees him coming and waves him off. Which does hurt a bit, but he knows about giving people space, especially children who've lived well away from parents for several years.

She doesn't this time, so Sky plants a kiss on her temple and goes to clasp Mary's hand or squeeze her shoulder. He lowers his voice. "I can't be sure, but I feel like that young miss with the story about the handsome gryphon-prince is a fan. I could swear there was some careful replacement of terms going on."

One of Sky's few secrets is that he writes very pulpy science fiction and fantasy on the side, under the penname Blake Farstrider. And that he likes to keep an eye on fanworks. It's not really a secret so much as something he doesn't just tell people, but much of his family knows that Day of the Dragons, Riders in the Void, and other series are his fault.

Edited 2018-11-25 18:42 (UTC)

It's a fairly open secret even with the in-laws, and thus it isn't hard to guess what Sky is alluding to.

"Well, one way to find out?" Mary responds in the same lowered voice, a grin playing on her lips. "You could just ask her. Maybe she'll even gush about your writing." A bit of teasing might be mean, but it's fun.

Sky doesn't even blink. His daughter looks away, possibly wishing she'd waved him off after all. "I'm afraid that isn't possible. No one would ever confuse this doddering old man with the daring, rakish Blake Farstrider. It would be catfishing." He may not entirely be certain what 'catfishing' means in this context.

The author's photo in those of his books which have one was taken in 1984, and he'd worn a mustache and an eyepatch and been carefully far from the camera, all in all it's difficult to recognize him in it. Despite plenty of chances he's never had it updated. He's seen theories that Blake is actually several people.

"But imagine if it was possible to arrange for one of those books to be signed by the author and find its way to her, somehow. Mary my dear, do you suppose that would be more sweet, or creepy?"

Edited 2018-11-25 21:10 (UTC)

...She blinks at that, and exchanges a look with Janice, hoping for some form of support from her wife. What is she supposed to answer to that? Any of that, really.

"I think it would be better if you would not. We can't know what she would assume happened.

Plus she might worry that you will sue her for having stolen your ideas, and then in the end she would be more worried than happy having received that book."

"He just thinks talking like that is funny," Janice tells her, as Sky sighs, "Yes, I suspected as much," and their voices are almost identical in resignation. It hadn't really been any more ridiculous a suggestion than hers of introducing himself as his pen name, but sometimes people just can't tell if he's kidding.

"Will you be staying until the close? One of my congregants is going to come on towards the end and he's terrified of public speaking, poor kid." The teen is caught between the fear of going on that stage and speaking his peace and the sense that it needs to be shared. "I've been talking to him, I think he'll be fine, but if you see a kid looking sick, that's why." A glance back at the stage. "Though, I suppose he wouldn't be the only one."

It's almost adorable how similar they are at times. A similarity that, she thinks, their youngest also seems to be picking up. Well, there's probably someone in every generation...

"We'll be staying for a good while longer, assuming that nobody needs to be emergency-picked-up." They have children. You never know. And then she adds teasingly: "Though your kid might be thankful for a smaller audience."

"That's what he was hoping for! I did not tell him to picture everyone in their underwear. As I recall, that doesn't help at all." Sky loves weird dramatic throwaways but he sympathizes with people too easily to pile on when someone's worked themselves up so much.

He straightens up and gives both women another nod. "Well, I should leave you be. Give my love to everyone when you see them. Even if they do interrupt the night."

"We will. You have a good night as well."

They both smile at him, but won't stop him from leaving. They did kind of come as a couple. As much as it is good to check in on their respective fathers every so often.

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Warm stories will carry us through the coldest times [Mingle]

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