Asleep at the Trigger

(The post ID for this one is #3333, so that makes me happy. Just thought you should know.)

Bleary-eyed and weary for the soft embrace of bed, though still plenty irritated, Arthur sunk into the plush armchair in front of the fireplace and continued to nurse the rifle. Whatever was determined to keep him up had gotten their wish…and maybe a little extra, if they hadn’t already taken off. His slow, heavy gaze lumbered from window to window, keeping watch for a shadow, a figure, someone whose head he could take as a consolation prize.

A surprise story! Yes, can you believe it? I’ve already hinted at doing a Halloween special for Pennyverse, partially as a way to avenge my efforts last year and partially because the Current Health Crisis (I’ve ordained to never refer to or discuss politics directly on the Scratchpad because you get it everywhere else enough and I’m sticking to that) has provided an absolutely wonderful timely opportunity to use up a story idea I’ve had in the noggin for months now. This isn’t it, of course, so here’s the story…

Where did you find this and why, Caby?

Caby posts this fucking thing in the chat like a week ago. I thought it was a bizarre, freaky, kind of amusing little meme, and it gave me a potential story idea. The way your eyes go grainy in the dark and the way all these little lights you’d never notice in the daytime become visible…such a neat, spooky vibe. As I implied, the Halloween special is gonna be bigger, more exploratory, more focused on Greater Apricot Bay, but I love the smaller stuff still. Definitely due for another round of character shorts sometime in 2021.

Alongside it, I’ve been having this bizarre issue lately where I have a really shitty, unpleasant dream pretty much every night and wake up in the very very early morning, early enough for it to be dark out but not exactly the middle of the night. It happened again one morning, but this time, I’d woken up just as the light was starting to come out. Very cloudy, very overcast sunlight, the kind you get when it’s frigid and pouring at 7am in autumn. And in it, I had this story’s vibe.

I cracked open my notepad (use Simplenote, bitches, it changes you) and scrawled down two paragraphs in my sleepy (somnolescent?) haze. I wanted to get right back on it after breakfast, but…something wasn’t quite adding up yet. It wasn’t working. I liked some of the descriptions, some of the word choices, but I was holding back again for whatever reason. I, like I am wont to do, started to overthink things again.

Until last night. I said “fuck it” and resolved to have something going before the end of the night. Minutes later, I had one of those “ah-ha” moments that glues the whole thing together, that being to start it off with just the most descriptive, sonic depiction I could muster. This then came out in three hours. It involves Arthur being tormented, and it’s called “Delusional”.

For a happy ending to the nightmares, by the way, I think my body is reacting poorly to the drop in temperature. I found the perfect in-between setting on my space heater to neither roast nor chill me overnight, and I only have them when I forget to turn it on. Go figure.

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