We’ve got a new VIP story! We’ve got a new VIP story! We’ve got a oh just go and look. Not linking right to it since its’ in the VIP-only section, better to click der linken on der homepagen.
This is the second of the VIP Club stories. You can read it by joining the VIP club, or by purchasing the inevitable City of Angles book (although that’s quite a few months away). Want a teaser? Okay, how about this — it’s a story about Picassos, by Picassos. Oh boy! Won’t that be fun and horrible and fun?
Feel free to discuss the story below; it’ll be SPOILERIFFIC, I’ll warn, so if you aren’t in the club yet don’t click through unless you enjoy only getting a vague idea of what you’re missing. Personally? I say it’s better to not miss it by signing up. No muss, no fuss.
Next week, coa//004 starts. I’m glad I had a buffer of writing pending; my health is pretty lackluster lately and I’m distracted by Guild Wars 2. I’ll need to write s’more this week to keep that buffer going.
Lirazel says
So — negativity and despair == Picasso, but just despair gets you a visit from Echo?
Stefan "Twoflower" Gagne says
They’re competing for similar folks, but the division is largely “Bleak sorrow and despair” is Echo, while “Terror and fear and despair” is Bedlam. One is falling into a quiet nothingness, the other is collapsing catastrophically.
loopychew says
not an arguement,
argument
Seth Dougall, O-1 of the Department of Safety
Dougal
Aside from that I didn’t see any typos. You’ve even started capitalizing Mother and Father, which gets a giant thumbs-up from me.
The story itself is fairly good stream-of-consciousness, but I always thought Picassos occurred from an excess of emotion–such is what we’ve been led to believe so far. I suppose repressed emotion also works, but I wonder how anyone manages to not Picasso in that case.
Stefan "Twoflower" Gagne says
It’s not just excess emotion — it’s excess despair, fear, hopelessness, etc. Things which make you give up on living and go batty. Negative energy, maaaan. That’s what happened here, as her living situation just got worse and worse and she started withdrawing into herself out of terror and sorrow.
One thing I couldn’t depict very well is the choppy way in which Picassos view time and the events around them, living halfway inside memories (good and bad but mostly bad) and halfway inside what’s actually going on. They’re lost in more ways than one.
loopychew says
Well, at this point, I think it’s okay, but you’ve been able to write disorientation and “lost” well–one specific chapter of SN comes to mind pretty quickly.
Stefan "Twoflower" Gagne says
I was taking direct inspiration from that chapter, actually — but when I sat down to write it, I found that approaching it completely non-linearly didn’t suit the story I needed to write. Himei’s confusion stemming from her nonlinear experience was a way of obfuscating what happened. I did SIMILAR here, as it wraps from end to beginning to end, but it felt more appropriate to tell what led up to that moment in order.