10 - updated 09/12/10

[Stacy]

Seth Morrigan is a loner. He has his herb garden, his alchemy, his experiments and tinctures. These are enough.

Until he is beaten up by bullies. Until Caitlyn Wilson takes an interest in him. Until cracks begin to show in the perfection of time and space.

10.01

He wanted to be a drop of water. He wanted to fall into the basin and slip down its drain. He wanted to disappear.

10.02

The tiny stars above him grew brighter and wavered and fell one by one until finally, finally, he curled up and slept.

10.03

He brought his fists down again and again. The fire roared around him, white and orange and yellow and red, and his skin cracked and bubbled and turned black and fell away.

10.04

He had started the herb garden last year. Something to keep him busy, keep him out of trouble. That was what his mother said. She watched him sometimes, from the kitchen window.

10.05

The air shimmered above the asphalt. Engines rumbled and roared. Bass thumped from the open window of a nearby car. His sternum thumped along with it as he walked across the parking lot.

10.06

"How about you? Who would you curse?”

“The darkness.”

They skirted a butterfly bush growing near the wall.

“Darkness? How would you curse the absence of light?”

“With a flamethrower.”

10.07

He wanted to say that not all bears were created equal, that some bears had drunk Scandinavian wizards riding on them, that he didn’t want to fight these bears.

[Stacy]

Finally updated.

[dbloveshermac]

Yay! Doing happy dance and going to read. On second thought, let me finish the dance and THEN go read. Can't have myself tripping and falling while trying to get there. :-)

Glad to see you back!

[Stacy]

Jun 2, 2010 23:08:39 GMT -5 dbloveshermac said:

Yay! Doing happy dance and going to read. On second thought, let me finish the dance and THEN go read. Can't have myself tripping and falling while trying to get there. :-)

Glad to see you back!

Yay! I did a happy dance myself, lol.

Yeah - sorry I haven't really been around here lately. I just haven't felt very social and have been very much in my own little hermit cave.

[dbloveshermac]

Hermit caves are helpful sometimes. You certainly produced a very rich and revealing chapter!

[Stacy]

Jun 3, 2010 20:21:04 GMT -5 dbloveshermac said:

Hermit caves are helpful sometimes. You certainly produced a very rich and revealing chapter!

Aww, thanks.

Finished the first section of 10.03 tonight. Shouldn't be too much longer.

[Stacy]

Finally!

It's not that good, but it's done and out in time for Valley's one year anniversary.

I've had terrible writer's block on this and it's brought up some personal issues that I am dealing with and just yeah. But it's here now. So there.

[moondaisy]

Happy Anniversary!

I read it and left a message on your blog. It is seriously good! The two parts link, yet stand apart from each other. The first part took my breath away and the second part made me think. I loved it!

[Stacy]

Jun 26, 2010 10:22:32 GMT -5 moondaisy said:

Happy Anniversary!

I read it and left a message on your blog. It is seriously good! The two parts link, yet stand apart from each other. The first part took my breath away and the second part made me think. I loved it!

Aww, thank you so much. You're awesome.

Hopefully it won't be too long until 10.04, although I do want to get a Farmer Brown story out somewhat soon.

[Stacy]

I has an update!

10.04

[mountainshade1]

I can see why you are chuffed about this update Misty; it's really good! You have a knack for dialogue, it all flows so easily here, so much so I even felt I could hear Caitlyn's voice. And she is really growing as a character in this update. I actually like her a lot and Seth obviously adore her - as any teenage guy would a girl like that.

So she reckons he will be treated like a hero upon his return to school? Hmm, probably not by everyone. Seth himself doesn't seem hugely proud of himself either, but perhaps I am reading him wrong?

Interesting that Seth was not in possession of "proper adventure attire" but I guess that shows that though his mum has specially told him to go out and be outside for a little while, she has never gone to the extent of taking him hiking or make him join a local Boy Scouts.

Woo - is Caitlyn leading Seth astray now? I look forward to see 10.05. Keep up the wonderful work Misty.

[Stacy]

Aug 7, 2010 6:57:48 GMT -5 mountainshade1 said:

I can see why you are chuffed about this update Misty; it's really good! You have a knack for dialogue, it all flows so easily here, so much so I even felt I could hear Caitlyn's voice. And she is really growing as a character in this update. I actually like her a lot and Seth obviously adore her - as any teenage guy would a girl like that.

So she reckons he will be treated like a hero upon his return to school? Hmm, probably not by everyone. Seth himself doesn't seem hugely proud of himself either, but perhaps I am reading him wrong?

Interesting that Seth was not in possession of "proper adventure attire" but I guess that shows that though his mum has specially told him to go out and be outside for a little while, she has never gone to the extent of taking him hiking or make him join a local Boy Scouts.

Woo - is Caitlyn leading Seth astray now? I look forward to see 10.05. Keep up the wonderful work Misty.

Yay thanks!

Yeah - I knew she hadn't had a whole lot of face time yet, so I was looking forward to writing this and getting to know her better and you guys getting to know her better. Through Seth getting to know her better.

I deleted some of her dialogue from 10.01 because I felt it was too tell-y and not show-y enough. But what she said is still part of the story - her mother is still ill and she still feels like she's stuck in their hometown and that's still part of her motivation for what she does. I'm just going to show it more later.

She's definitely not anything like Lilith or Sarah or Bella or Emma, the other ladies of Valleyverse. Didn't really get to know Shannon much before I killed her off, but I do still think about Shannon sometimes and fill in her background and personality. Caitlyn isn't a whole lot like her, but I do think she'd have more in common with Shannon than with any of the other females.

Plus, omg, it's so nice that she is who she is and that I don't have to worry about some insidious patriarchial theme coming through in my work. I mean, Lilith can be pretty passive and weak and that bothered me sometimes. But see, Caitlyn proves that Lilith is just who she is, that a character can be just a character and not a sociopolitical statement.

Seth - Seth is all conflicted, lol. He's not sure what to think or feel. He is very much at the mercy of his hormones and neurochemicals. The other night I stopped at Caitlyn's apology and gave myself a day to think about how he would respond.

Last night I started writing again and I was like three paragraphs past his agreeing with her and smiling before I realized I'd written his response without thinking about it. And I went back and read it and realized that it was his actual true response. The dude's lived in my head for over a year. At this point slipping into his mind is easy and natural and instinctive.

And it makes sense - like in 10.01 he's alone with Caitlyn and it's just them talking and he doesn't think overly much about things and it doesn't bother him that she knows about the bathroom incident. Not until she brings it up around other people. So here, they're alone again and he's all omg crazy about her and so he's totally focused on that and not really thinking about anything else.

I did consider him getting a little upset and then consciously deciding to turn it off, to stay happy. I mean, he is still fairly sane here. But yeah -even when he is still somewhat sane I don't see him ever having that much real control over his thoughts and feelings. Pretend control, yeah. He's all about that, thinking that he has control over chaos, both his inner chaos and an outer world that appears very scary and messed up to him on a subconscious level. But really he doesn't.

The thing that Sarah liked about cooking was that it was controlled fire. Maybe that's what attracted her to Seth - the surface appearance of controlled fire. Really though, his fire is chaotic and dangerous and completely out of control. As Sarah found out, rather too late.

I think his mother would be supportive of him joining Boy Scouts or going hiking, but she wouldn't force it on him. And he wouldn't be very interested in those activities on his own, I don't think.

John laughed a lot when I told him about the tincture and how Seth, at 15, couldn't very well go out and buy strong alcohol. But the recipe I found said vodka could work if the other stuff wasn't available and that I thought that his mother would have vodka. Because come on, Seth is her kid. Of course she drinks.

As for his actual reception when he goes back to school - I have no idea. Got a lot of ground to cover before then, and as always my stories are very organic and I write them by the seat of my pants.

And Caitlyn is leading him somewhere, lol.

And again, thank you. I do intend to keep up the work.

[Stacy]

And so, with less than an hour to go before my self-imposed deadline, I present 10.05.

It comes in at a hefty 1100 words. Which, by the way, around 900 of them were written today.

[adele]

Aug 14, 2010 22:51:11 GMT -5 Stacy said:

And so, with less than an hour to go before my self-imposed deadline, I present 10.05.

It comes in at a hefty 1100 words. Which, by the way, around 900 of them were written today.

Wow Stacy!! You made the deadline AND made another spectacular update.
My favorite part is when Seth is noticing all the imperfections on the displays. When you're about to do something bad that's exactly how things happen. It's like sensory overload, which you captured perfectly.

And of course the nerds part. ;D I laughed so hard.

[Stacy]

Awww, thanks.

Yeah - I tried to think about what it's like when I have a little burst of adrenaline at work when I have to slam on the brakes. Or, you know, the time someone decided to do a U-turn in the middle of the road right in front of me and we hit.

And the Nerds joke is an in-joke with my husband. Back when we started dating there was an ad before movies for M&Ms that had the line "It's unnatural to eat your own kind." One day at the campus store we were looking at the candy and talking about Nerds and I said "It's not natural to eat your own kind."

[Stacy]

Update timez finally!

10.06

[mountainshade1]

Comment for 10.05:

The thing that strikes me the most about this chapter is your use of the torch that keeps bumping Seth's foot. It was just such brilliant imagery.

He didn't count the telephone poles because he felt good. He even took note of the fact he didn't count them, that he didn't need to count them.

It was really nice to see him have fun and crack jokes with Caitlyn, it didn't take him long to catch her level of humor, which is strange in a way because I haven't previously noticed Seth as a joking-about kinda guy. I think it's because he is very intelligent that he is able to read social situations and to find the level of people around him.

"Seth, come on. We went over this already. Do you do everything you’re supposed to?"

Those words; I think Seth will keep hearing them forever after, and keep listening to them.

10.06

Counting the blades of grass because he is nervous, but wants to keep his cool, wants to stay collected. He is making an effort, but he isn't happy.

It's like Caitlyn knows he isn't keen to go there, even if she doesn't know exactly why, but I think she is trying to push him, perhaps to try to bring out the Seth inside him? It's like she knows there is more to him than what she has seen so far and she is trying to make it come out.

"yellow condom road" Eww - but that one actually made me laugh.

I have noticed that when Seth is with Caitlyn it is much easier to see the contrasts between them. She is so open and ... wholesome (for want of a better word). She is solid. Seth is like a butterfly. Though he is trying to restrain himself he has to count the blades of grass to keep himself in check.

Great chapters Misty. You have such a wonderful writing talent and I feel lucky to count myself as one of the (relatively) select few who get to read your stuff. "Select few" because I'm guessing that few non-simmers read this, which is a crying shame. I knew, I knew that this story would work well without sims.

[meowzbark]

Great chapters Misty. You have such a wonderful writing talent and I feel lucky to count myself as one of the (relatively) select few who get to read your stuff. "Select few" because I'm guessing that few non-simmers read this, which is a crying shame. I knew, I knew that this story would work well without sims.

I agree. When...not if...you get discovered, send us a link to you new book on Amazon.

[Stacy]

Aug 31, 2010 18:23:12 GMT -5 meowzbark said:

Great chapters Misty. You have such a wonderful writing talent and I feel lucky to count myself as one of the (relatively) select few who get to read your stuff. "Select few" because I'm guessing that few non-simmers read this, which is a crying shame. I knew, I knew that this story would work well without sims.

I agree. When...not if...you get discovered, send us a link to you new book on Amazon.

Awww, thank you. *blushes* *hugs*

[Stacy]

Reply for 10.05:

Awww, thanks for the bit about the flashlight/torch thingy. It definitely is a symbol of something, which makes events in 10.07....interesting.

Oh yes, he does sometimes feel happy and normal around Caitlyn. And I think they do have similar senses of humor. Obviously, since she chose hanging out with Seth, Caitlyn leans a bit toward the dark herself.

And yeah - she did make quite the impression there.

Reply to 10.06:

Very interesting observations there. Also made me think about a bit of 10.07 that worried me - but reading what you said here, I think it works. He does want to be okay and sane around her. He can't always fight the maelstrom, but he tries.

Heh. There is more room for jokes in 10 than there was in Valley. I like that.

Ooh, I like the line about the solid and the butterfly - it actually reflects a line I deleted from 10.07 about Seth being empty and Caitlyn being full.

Great chapters Misty. You have such a wonderful writing talent and I feel lucky to count myself as one of the (relatively) select few who get to read your stuff. "Select few" because I'm guessing that few non-simmers read this, which is a crying shame. I knew, I knew that this story would work well without sims.

*hugs*

That really means a lot - like you don't even know.

And tonight 10 finally got approved at Web Fiction Guide, so we will see what happens with that.