#PennedPossibilities #PennedPossibilities side prompt: Elevator quick pitch of your WIP, only the worst pitch ever.

A daemon and a day angel fly to the moon. The lunatics there believe they're really a demon and an angel. They're as right as they are wrong.

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#WordWeavers 2504.11 — Could your SC do your job?

I'm retired. Pretty much any of them could do that. To the extent that the main series antagonist is also a secondary character, getting to be retired is the WHOLE POINT of her existence from her point of view!

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#WordWeavers 2504.10 — Antagonist POV: How do you feel about the government?

[Rainy Days gives Thorn Rose a big hug for asking such an insightful question! Even after the pressure Rainy Days put the young woman under to test her mettle and the hell she'd force her to deal with (20K words), she had hoped she'd finally ask, but hadn't been holding her breath…]

The government is a work in progress, pretty much like always. These days I keep the central population under tight regulation. Instead, I perform my social experiments in the autonomous regions. It rather irked me, however, when their leaders took their freedom to choose and chose to enslave people by criminalizing them. The dragon lords were unhappy when I told them to knock it off, then outraged when I started this war to assert my authority? In what way is an autonomous region actually sovereign? Come on!

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#PennedPossibilities 639 — Does your MC have any pets?

None of the recent stories have pets. However, dogs and horses are mentioned, the latter for a needed referent. Think satyr. I will resist describing actual horses in a story until I need to shock the reader from their assumptions about what the reluctance world really looks like…

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#ScribesAndMakers 2504.08 — Share a song lyric you've written or heard that resonates with you. (Give credit if it's not your song.)

I'm not religious, but that doesn't mean that allegorical songs can't impress me. Allegory (incidentally as it were) by Murray Attaway is a strangely uplifting and mystical song that never fails to bring pictures to my mind and a sense of awe that brings me chills.

Coincidentally, or perchance not, the lyric snippet below inspired a chapter titled "Allegory" in Reluctant Moon. Thorn Rose takes her friend Streak outside the city to watch a meteor shower, knowing the precise time it will start. Seems the weather service had tracked the trajectory of a piece of the sky struck from the heavens.

I've included a listen link and a lyric link.

Lyrics: https://genius.com/Murray-attaway-allegory-lyrics
Listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYVYSLS04Z0

Sudden move in the stars, whenever I look to the skies
I can get lost, stand in a mirror and know that I
Am a fragment of something greater than I
Specks of dust in a moonbeam gathering shape
And potent of greatness waiting to light

Even the wind in the trees is the allegory
Everything that is and ever will be is the allegory

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#WordWeavers 2504.08 — MC POV: What are the 3 most important things you always take with you when traveling (besides money, ID and keys if applicable)?

I don't care much for things. Oh, I'll use them, and properly value them, earn them when needs be, but only knowledge and people have real value. I wasn't born into wealth, but upon my parent's death, when I was five, the powerful decided I was somehow special. Wealth, training, and responsibility followed. I don't know exactly when I stopped being a kid who nerded out on magic† with her childhood friend, when I morphed into someone else's sharp tool. When I grew old enough to pass as an adult, with great precision, calculation, and planning, I ran away never to be found. My elite life wasn't what I wanted, what I needed.

Since then nothing, no thing, describes what I want or desire, other than simply my freedom to study and learn. When you don't have a place to return to, or a place to live, they call you homeless. I gave my former life up, and when I find a new situation that sours, I can give everything up again. Snap, like that. Being home-free is a freedom from being made to do what I dislike, or what's wrong. I've traveled across the continent on foot. I've lived in homeless encampments. The three things I take with me are a tarp, a bedroll, and my book of magic.

Those are things, of course. I take my skills, my common sense, and a sharp tongue, also. They keep me safe.

————
† Magic is a simplification of a physically quantifiable repeatable phenomenon.

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#WordWeavers 2504.07 — Does your MC have a secret? Can you give us a hint?

Yes. I wrote May Ri's story in 3rd person so her last few chapters present a mysterious secret. Hint: It's a high tech version of very low tech.

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#PennedPossibilities 634 — MC POV: How much do you value companionship? Do you always keep people around, or do you prefer to be alone?

[Devil-girl] An odd question. I've never really thought about it. Companionship is good, and I enjoy it when people are around, like when I train at the gym or am at work. What I do is all about teamwork, so I'm good with people. Yet, I don't always keep people around. I really do like to throw open all the windows and study a good book. I live in a converted dance studio, so two walls open to the outside and the other two are mirrored. Laying on a mat, with the breezes, and the quiet you get living in a university town. Hmm. I guess I'm finding more use for what people call friends. I've certainly found a lot of use for men…

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#PennedPossibilities 632 — What originally inspired your WIP’s plot?

I just finished the WIP less than 20 hours ago, so I'm going with it.

1. The #writever prompts for March. Thirty-one one word prompts with the theme Women's Rights. Remember, I'm a feminist writer. One of the prompts was "abortion." Challenging, as were others. I learned a lot by researching why the prompts were chosen.
2. The prompts originally come out in Français. The word in Français for March is "Mars." As a SF writer at heart, do you think I originally misread that? Ya Betcha!
3. Who is associated with Mars who is also the most misogynistic creep ever, who seems to be destroying a century of civil, women's, and LGBTQIA rights single handedly? Oh, noes! Did RS have ideas about writing thinly veiled satire? Ya Betcha!

Wanna read it? Mars Needed Women: https://eldritch.cafe/@sfwrtr/114261812977623863

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#PennedPossibilities 630 — Is your MC receptive to warnings and advice given by others?

It's not that Thorn Rose doesn't listen, it's that she gets SO excited with all the possibilities! If she THINKS she can impress her mentor, she's there. If that makes Streak start hitting his head against the wall due to her lack of common sense, or worse her seeming lack of fear of death and dismemberment… oh well!

She keeps her friend on his toes.

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#PennedPossibilities 631 — What does your antagonist / villain do to relax?

Tea parties. Sex. Not at the same time! (She likes men.)

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#WordWeavers 2503.27 — What small precious memento does a character keep on their person? What makes it precious?

When the devil-girl ran away, she had the choice of taking a picture of her dead mother. She instead took a paperback-sized grimoire, which she sleeps with, the cover stained with sweat and drool. It smells of her. Her mother's voice she can hear from time to time in restaurants in the background. She was an international musical theatre star. She leaves because she doesn't like to cry. Nothing will bring her back. With the 500 year old priceless grimoire, the margins of which is filled with her notes in teeny-tiny colored pen, she can learn to warp reality. She's happy with her choice because it helps her remember a big goal. Revenging her mother's death.

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#WordWeavers 2503.25 — Is the way your MC presents themselves their true self, or are they hiding a lot?

The devil-girl is autistic, though people haven't the word for it in her future time. Since the story is in 1st person, the word "autism" never gets mentioned. Teachers simply compensate for her type of normalcy. She's a very textured character. Since she's aware she's speaking to a reader, her narration, dialogue, and actions don't match-up, and she might be lying about certain embarrassing things, even as she seems confessional. She's the first to admit she's acting all the time, which is important on many levels beyond her autism. She simulates being adult, but isn't. She's inventing herself but doesn't know it. She has uniquely fungible ethics and considers herself evil, but people around her disagree. She gets used a lot (her autism makes learning her superpower), but she doesn't realize she's being used until it's intolerable. She's a runaway who's delighted to be free and considered a nobody, but she isn't a nobody. If her elite identity is found she's certain her life will be ruined. Again.

Answer: The MC presents their true self and is hiding a lot.

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#PennedPossibilities 625 — How physically fit are your characters? Does it factor into your WIP in any way?

As I write the reluctance version of the devil-girl's prizefighter days (about ½ done), fitness becomes super important and nutrition is a fun topic. Like her people, she's vegetarian but gets introduced to seafood for the protein. Mind you, she gets to use "magic" when she fights, also. However, her potential opponents could fly or move incredibly quickly. A punch or kick, even if she's the physically weaker opponent, can make the difference. (Usually she wins through cunning.)

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#PennedPossibilities 619 — What type of “accent” does your MC have? Tell us about their voice. Discuss speech patterns, vocabulary, slang, or their way of speaking, if you like.

As per her backstory, the daughter of an immigrant, she must have an accent. But she's been schooled "here" her whole life, so it would be faint. In our terms, it would be equivalent to meeting a white girl but she has a faintly Cuban accent. There is no cognate to Earthly accents to play off of, and if I mention it, it will be that her mother has the accent or someone will startle, or will suddenly be prejudiced against her when they weren't before she opened her mouth.

As per his backstory, he might have an accent but it would evidence itself as less precise English: lots of contractions, mild burrs, bad (simplified) grammar, that type of thing. A flavor of Street Talk. I think I'll skip describing it in the story because most of the story takes place at least seven years after he meets her. She's so precise about things she's almost obsessive, and she'd correct any and all lazy speech. Indeed, he's what he is, going to university instead of accepting a blue collar job, and eventually becoming an astronaut because of her attention to detail in his life. He loves pleasing her, however (and in our terms loves her), so it's his choice to change, always. Some will assert he's easily manipulated, of course, but that's another topic.

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#WordWeavers 2503.14 — Antagonist POV: Do you want to be perceived as “good?”

Want? As in feeding my ego? I'm mature enough that I don't need that. It depends on the task and what happens if I fail. Do people die if I fail? Usually, I don't care then if people perceive me as good or bad, only that I keep people from dying. If being perceived as good helps me in my goals, I work at it. I'll literally charm the clothes off them and [NSFW] if it helps. Regardless, it's human nature to not like other people getting in the way of their need for power. There's always someone who doesn't like the way I run things, the peace I maintain. Bear in mind, I didn't want to be perceived as good when I invaded the dragon lands and occupied their northern prefecture, simply effective.

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#PennedPossibilities 609 — Can you tell us about a secret that your antagonist / villain is willing to take to the grave?

She's the type who confesses things to those she loves, or students she becomes familiar with. It has served her well, if for nothing else as to test people's trustworthiness, or to see what it makes of them. One day, she might find someone to replace herself, so she can retire. What she hasn't confessed is the mortal wounds she's inflicted on the planet. The original cuts weren't her fault, mind you. Nobody trained her in applied climatology, which was before anybody realized such a science could be necessary.

It was. She failed a few times. Learning curves can be as sharp as the curve of a saber.

Maybe if she admitted it, she might find more people who could help her keep humanity from going extinct. To the extent that she hinted heavily, they nearly killed her regardless of her holding her finger in the dike, staving off destruction.

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#WordWeavers 2503.08 — Which one of your characters is in the least safe situation?

I left off Reluctant Accomplice with the devil-girl massaging the back of a dragon at a hot springs-like spa built inside a gravity fold. She's crawling on him while he's considering whether he really needs to go through with working with her for the sake of all of dragon kind, or whether it would be safer to splat her against a wall.

I rewrote a snippet of that chapter from her POV for a sample story in his POV here: Ms George and the Dragon

https://eldritch.cafe/@sfwrtr/110603595653290409

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#PennedPossibilities 608 — Does your MC have any nicknames?

Since people name themselves, nicknames are pretty rare. Most people faced with friends or colleagues that give them an adorable or inspiring name, would often simply use that one instead. When a set of triplets (Cloud Dancer, Meadow Dancer, and Dusk Dancer) discovered they had a half-sister by the same father, and they became good friends, they started calling her Fire Dancer. That's the name she goes by now. ("Dancer" looks like a surname, but isn't.)

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