Fun Stuff > MAKE
Writing club
Thrillho:
Those who have yet to submit their piece - are you particularly worried if we proceed onwards and you play catchup, or would you rather we wait?
ChaoSera:
Well, I plan on writing my piece either later today or tomorrow in the train, so I'm fine with both.
Either way, I'd like to present my idea for the next exercise before we move on. I think it's gonna be fun. :)
Game and Watch Forever:
I'd have a bigger issue with slowing us down, so catchup is fine! Go too slow and interest might fade.
Thrillho:
Okay people with ideas, want to PM me your ideas?
J:
em, er, yeah. of course when i said 'tomorrow' what i really meant was in 3 or 4 days. sorry guys
(click to show/hide)The darkness of the hypogeum is cool and quiet; restful. This is my time to relax before the show. Then the hot sunlight washes over me.
I step into the arena with my eyes closed, taking a moment to listen to the crowd, feel the hot sand between my toes, smell the leather and metal and sweat and blood and shit of the Colosseum. The building looks new; imperial masons keep it that way, replacing stone and concrete as centuries wear it away, but the structure of the thing is ancient. Three-thousand years of history holding up the sweating, farting asses of Rome.
"Ave, Imperator, morituri te salutant!" I salute to Caesar in unison with my opponent. Then we acknowledge the audience.
My opponent is Staberius; the dumb, grandstanding, glass-jawed bastard. He's been pissed at me lately and out for blood, gods know why. He raises his rocket-caestuum for all to see; titanium fists the size of his head, with armored forearms and spools of cable extending behind the elbows. Stupid crowd pleasing gimmick weapons, but who am I to judge? I ignite my plasma-siccae and hold them skyward. The short, curved plasma-blades are not very impressive in the noon day light, but the crowd responds nonetheless.
And now it's time.
I want to strafe and circle; size my opponent up and approach cautiously. But fuck that, I’m gonna put on a show.
So instead I charge full speed, blades blazing. Staberius barely gets his guard up in time; my right sword glances off his left forearm. Before I can attack again, his other caestus comes up hard enough to buckle my ribcage and send me sprawling.
He could finish me right now. But instead he backs off, playing to the crowd, giving me a chance to stand. The grin he flashes when I do tells me he's ready to end this; he's shown how good and honorable he is, so he has nothing to gain by dragging it out any further.
This time nobody charges; we circle each other, neither wanting to make the first move. But I know Staberius. I know that if I just wait, he'll get anxious, and worry about the audience getting bored. And that's exactly what happens.
He brings up his right caestus and fires; I deflect the rocket-fist with both swords, sprinting now to close the distance between us. He swings it around and I jump high to avoid getting tripped up in the cable. He thinks he has me; sets his feet and fires the left straight at my face. But Staberius is nothing if not predictable; I tuck my head down and it glances off my shoulders, only ripping some skin away.
I hit the ground at full speed and roll; Staberius is not quick enough to get out of the way, and we both end up in a heap on the sand. He can't effectively wrestle me with both hands off somewhere on the other side of the arena. So before he gets them retracted I’m above him, and drive both my swords deep into his chest.
The crowd is cheering, and Caesar looks pleased. My owner's gonna be pissed at having to pay for a dead gladiator, but that's his problem. I’m just here to put on a show.
(click to show/hide)
--- Quote from: Gareth on 10 Oct 2013, 03:51 ---'My least favourite things to write are action scenes. To make it more specific, a one on one combat scene. Hope that's workable.'
--- End quote ---
i actually lucked out here, as i love writing action pieces. not having anything specific for the subject matter made it a bit challenging, but the real hard part was doing anything worth while in 550 words. i tend to favor a somewhat decompressed style.
i don't think the thing came out too badly in the end, but i'm not entirely happy with it either. my rough draft clocked in at 869 words, so i had to do a lot of cutting, and i think it shows.
then again the editing process always makes me hate my own work. so who knows, maybe i'll re-read it in a few weeks or months or years & it'll be awesome.
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