Amanuensis

Used in a sentence:

• Her official title was Amanuensis to the High Grand Poobah, which was as glamorous as it sounded but also just as useful.

Source: Wiktionary

Commentary:

This is a word I can’t pronounce. I mean I can but I had to have a friend explain it to me first. That being said this is a great word to use for a fantasy title. Especially for say a foreign character who sets themselves up to be the amazing awesome person, only for your people to learn that they were really just middle management or something similar. Gives your wordy people a sense of fulfillment that they have something over the characters, perhaps. Either way the difficulty pronouncing the word earns it a weird word mention.

Character Windows: Short little pieces of flash fiction that have characters from your novel doing everyday things. I’ll be doing this for my free writing for the foreseeable future. The goal is to help create highly distinct characters  for my current ongoing draft of Everlasting.

Today’s piece is Sylvia buying a theater ticket.

~~~

Everlasting Window – Buying a theater ticket – Sylvia
By Nojh Livic 

“Oh really? We could just send Robert around-” Sylvia’s mother chided quietly as Sylvia drew her towards the line of the ticket counter. It was a short line composed mostly of servants, by her estimation. It wouldn’t take a fourth to buy some tickets.

“Mother. This is the Operreta. By Leons Swalari. You think by the time you are done shopping and we find a carriage home, there will be any seats of sufficient quality to appease Father?” Sylvia chided back quietly. She understood her mother well. The advertisement board Sylvia had spied earlier, while her mother attempted to talk her into purchasing a completely impractical black and silver dress, had said it was a single engagement. Since it hadn’t made the Qual Times, the paper her parents scoured religiously for social events of sufficient quality, the event would be exclusive enough for her parent’s taste. Claiming that her father might refuse their attendance were they forced to purchase seats that did not sufficiently communicate their status as family of a brother of a Count Johnson would appeal to her mother, who despite being a social climber knew her daughter disapproved how overly concerned her family was with status.

“You might have a point there…” Sylvia’s mother admitted. She made a show of thinking about it, although Sylvia suspected she was actually covertly looking for any peerage who might recognize her.

“If you prefer, mother, you could go on ahead to the next shop and I will purchase the tickets myself,” Sylvia suggested. She was showing plainly how much she wished to go, not that being this upfront would persuade her mother. She had heard some patients talking about the Operreta several weeks ago and it had sounded like an excellent piece of modern entertainment that she would very much enjoy. After the last few family outings to the theater, she had grown tired of the small variations of the flight from The Old World to Salvation or the poetic renditions of the Commoner Clash. Something completely new and original sounded exactly like what she was looking for. And after her last week dealing with a new chief medical offer, she needed something relaxing and entertaining.

“I wouldn’t want to leave you here unescorted…” Her mother replied. Of course it would be unthinkable to leave Susilla, the maid they had brought along to carry packages, with her as a chaperon, not that Sylvia needed or wanted one. She was a grown woman and she could purchase tickets to an event and walk down Roal Street unescorted. She was Sylvia nel Johnson Pulmer after-all. It would hardly cause a scandal.

“I’ll be fine mother. I’ll catch you up. Go on.” Sylvia waved with her hand but her mother hardly needed encouragement. She wandered off to the next boutique, leaving Sylvia to face the line and ticketmaster. It wasn’t particularly arduous. The line moved quickly and while she made no conversation with the men and women in line, neither was she made to feel uncomfortable. She spent her time waiting thinking over some of the medical journals she had recently read on new techniques for increasing the survival rate of full limb replacement patients.

“Yes, Miss?” the ticketmaster asked, breaking Sylvia out of her thoughts. She blinked in surprised, then smiled at the man. “Good day. Sylvia nel Johnson Pulmer. I would like to request five tickets for tonight’s performance, please.” The man offered a faint smile back and glanced at a sheet, made a note on it with one hand while he absently flicked several knobs on the ticket machine.

“Yes, Ma’am,” the ticket master said finally, taking five pieces of paper from the machine. “Would you like to take them now or have them delivered?”

Sylvia considered for a moment, then idly waved at the tickets. “Please deliver them, if you would. With a small note informing Mister Pulmer as to the time and place of the event. Also please mention that it is a special engagement.”

The ticketmaster’s pleasant smile didn’t falter. He simply nodded. “Very good, Ma’am,” he said.

“Excellent. Thank you very much.” Sylvia said brightly, then made her way from the line back towards the street. The crowds were thinning thanks to the late afternoon heat. She made her way quickly towards the boutique she was sure her mother was patronizing. It was the one with several people making their escape from it.

 ~~~

The character actually bought a ticket this time! Yes I’m making fun of my prior window with Marla not actually buying a theater ticket. I thought about writing an actual window for her but I decided to go with a new character this time. This window seemed to focus less on her buying the ticket and more on her family background and how she might go about purchasing at ticket or what she wanted to go to the theater. I think this was productive none the less. Nothing was particularly surprising or new, other than I learned Sylvia likes to talk with her hands. This makes sense, since she is a surgeon. I also need to come up with a good name for replacing people’s limbs with mechanical versions. A name for the procedure or something. Perhaps based off a dead language from The Old World? Preferably a formulaic language like Latin, Arabic, or Esperanto.

So the following two music videos are both awesome in music and connected in narrative.

Do Not Push – A Gotye Call Me Maybe Mashup by Pomplamoose

Batman Theme – Pomplamoose

Floret

Used in a sentence:

• As the plant slowly turned to aim itself at the rising sun, the florets attached to the stem adjusted minutely and opened their petals in order to soak in the energy they would later unleashed upon unsuspecting invaders.

Source: Wiktionary

Commentary:

So the definition is something left to be desired. Florets are the name of the individual flowers that might be attached to a single stem. Roses do not have florets but chrysanthemums and lettuce do. I think the term is also used as a naming convention so one might say that a rose is not a floret but is a flower, where as chrysanthemums are flowers but also florets. Confusing huh? Definitely a weird word.

Character Windows: Short little pieces of flash fiction that have characters from your novel doing everyday things. I’ll be doing this for my free writing for the foreseeable future. The goal is to help create highly distinct characters  for my current ongoing draft of Everlasting.

Today’s piece is Carlos buying a theater ticket.

~~~

Everlasting Window – Buying a theater ticket – Marla*

Marla drew a few more stares than usual. In a metropolis like Qual her kind were less uncommon than the countryside but, ironically, the people of the country side were less likely the gawk. It helped that Lee was escorting her although it likely did not help that he was escorting her by the arm, or that she was wearing her finest travel dress, hat, and shoes. Not that she was out of sorts with her companion’s clothing. She had made a point of telling Lee to wear his nicer clothing. They were visiting Qual and meeting his very first patron. Looking presentable was expected.

The train that had brought them was several pops early allowing them time to walk the city. The pair were walking down one of the busiest streets of Qual, the main street between Qual Plaza and Qual Castle. This was not a mistake. Lee had led them there, knowing Marla would like to window shop the vendors and boutiques, and she appreciated it because she knew Lee disliked the public attention.

“Oh, Lee. Look!” Marla said quickly, tugging on his arm. Lee was not very swift to glance in the direction she pointed. It was not the first time she had uttered the phrase and the prior subjects had mostly been displays of clothing or accessories that she felt would have been an excellent purchase for him. This time, however, she was pointing at an advertisement board.

Leons Swalari’s The Operetta. A special engagement this evening only! Come here the play everybody will be singing tomorrow! Don’t miss this chance! The advertisement board was painted garishly to attract the eye but not without skill, the man and woman who were no doubt the leading cast members were well drawn even if their attempt to stare into each others eyes lacked the passion she assumed the advertisement was going for. The man’s eyes needed to be smaller and the woman’s mouth parted slightly. That might have improved it. Not that she faulted the artist. The advert had done it’s work.

“Tonight only. Three-seventy five by the candle. That is pretty late…” Lee started to say then looked at Marla. She decided to go for humor, adopting the somewhat vacant expression the woman on the advertisement was making, although Marla made a point of parting her lips. She enjoyed facial expressions. It was one of her unique qualities. Lee almost laughed immediately but managed to hold it in, pressing his lips together and breathing out of his nose. “Fine. I suppose I shall go get the tickets then?”

Marla smiled brightly and gently gripped Lee’s arm before letting go. “I’ll be up the drive aways. Perhaps near Rudy’s?” Lee smiled faintly at that and nodded.

“I’m sure I’ll catch you up,” Lee said and gave a little wave before briskly walking down the road. It was too crowded a street. The mid-afternoon sun was still something to avoid even in the city and most shoppers had retired to home or a cafe. Still Marla lost sight of Lee almost immediately. Unlike her, he didn’t shine slightly in direct sunlight. Marla continued her window shopping, splitting her attention between the dress shops and the inventor shops. Fashion had changed, as it always does, since she last visited Qual and she found herself appreciating some of the latest patterns, even if they favored exposing more back and arm than she appreciated. The subtle form-fitting nature of the dresses intrigued Marla and she stopped in front of one window to study a silver and black colored one through a window for several moments.

“You are a wonder, if I might say,” said a woman from behind Marla. Marla turned, offering a smile to the stranger. She was an old woman standing a few feet away next to a stall that held various jewelry and accessories. She was obviously tending it.

“Why thank you,” Marla said. She quickly scanned the woman’s wares. They were of excellent quality on first impression, although she would have to look closer to be sure. “Is this your stand?”

“Yup. Make half the items with my own two hands,” the woman said proudly, sitting up straighter and motioning to the jewelry section of her cart.

“They are very beautiful.” Marla said, still smiling. She stepped away from the window to the cart. Other shoppers were taking notice of their conversation but, as usual, Marla ignored them. The stall tender did not, however, giving a few pointed side glances and then even an outright glare at one man who had simply stopped to stare. Once traffic had resumed somewhat, the woman sat back down on her stool and smiled at Marla.

“Thank you very much, ma’am,” she said, then leaned forward, peering at Marla’s hair under her hat. “This might be too personal a question but, is that a wig?”

Marla shook her head slightly. “Yes and no. It is obviously not my hair but it is indeed hair. Not is it hair that simply sits atop my head. It is attached to my head and takes time to replace.” She lifted her hand and carefully pulled some of the locks of her blond hair forward over her shoulder and leaned forward, offering to let the old woman examine it. The woman nodded appreciatively then as if caught with an idea, slipped to her feet from her stool and walked around her cart.

Marla peered at the old woman. She had a slight odd gate to her walk. She listened intently and heard the faint sound of hydraulics. The woman had a limb replaced, likely her leg. That helped explain why she was being so friendly. Veterans with mechanical limbs were more accepting of her type. Marla waited patiently until the woman returned. She held a decorative hair clip in her hand which she offered out. Marla smiled at it. Was it beautifully crafted of stained wood with metal of various colors, cut into the form of a flower. It was dominantly blue and black, which contrasted nicely with the colors of her outfit.

“I’m afraid I’m simply a window shopper today-” Marla began to explain before she was cut off.

“A gift. You’re obviously a person of taste. Were I several decades younger, I would have been eying that outfit in the window myself, especially if I had your skin tone.” The stall tender said without a hint of insincerity and a fair amount of grandmotherly affection. “Here. Turn around.”

Marla found herself turning around as instructed without really thinking about it. The older woman gathered up Marla’s hair, separated a lock, then clipped the piece of jewelry to half way up the lock so that is rested near the nape of her neck. She then fanned out of the rest of her hair. “There. Give them something else to stare as you walk away besides your skin, eh?”

Marla might have been offended except that the old woman had her rather pegged there. No other women on the street were wearing a long-sleeved dress and gloves. That had been out of fashion for cycles. Instead she smiled and turned back around. “Thank you. May I asked your name?” she said, wanting to know who this kind shopkeeper was.

“Olivia Wicker of Jewelry and Stuffed Animals, at your service.” Olivia said brightly.

“Well it was nice to meet you, Mrs. Wicker. My name is Marla. Thank you again for the gift but I should be going. I’ll be sure to tell of your generosity, however.”

Olivia smiled and waved her hand dismissively once, then turned it into a small wave and Marla began to walk away. She wasn’t far before she spotted Lee waiting in front of Rudy’s. She strolled up to him, smiling brightly.

“Had a nice time shopping?” Lee asked. “Got those tickets. We should probably start heading over to the count’s now if we want to wrap up the meeting in time to go see it.”

“An excellent time.” Marla said happily and took Lee’s offered arm. “And Lee? Thank you for buying the tickets.” Lee just shook his head and began leading her towards a coach parked not too far away. She caught the slight smile on his lips, however.

~~~

Okay I cheated here, hence the asterisk.  Marla didn’t actually buy a theater ticket. I did another window one that was actually Marla handling the purchase of a ticket, sorta. You can read it here. This just fit in well with Lee’s buying of a ticket because well, it was mentioned in his story that he was buying a ticket for her. Plus we got to meet Olivia, who is a side character in Everlasting and one of my favorite side characters. I think this helped flesh out Marla’s character some more but I mostly tread over familiar ground. If you’re curious what is so odd about Marla’s skin or who she is, you might read this previous Free Writing: A Fateful Meeting. If your curious, yes, this is the same Marla and the same Lee. Just… later. :) I’m not sure if these are cannon to the Everlasting story or not but I may try to work them in.

Here is the draft of an untitled and unfinished comic that is still a great read.

Untitled [StrangelyKatie Tumblr]

Settee

Used in a sentence:

• The settee was situated under the window to allow comfortable viewing of the entire nautical collection while sitting but was also decorated with pillows that had images of settee sea-craft embroidered upon them, for that extra bit of pun.

Source: Wiktionary

Commentary:

How can a word mean both a couch and a type of sail boat? The two are nothing alike! Still the word is provocative in how it looks, and surly using it to describe a furnished room or a collection of sea-craft will add some style to your descriptions. I am personally looking for a settee for my office at the moment.

Character Windows: Short little pieces of flash fiction that have characters from your novel doing everyday things. I’ll be doing this for my free writing for the foreseeable future. The goal is to help create highly distinct characters  for my current ongoing draft of Everlasting.

Today’s piece is Carlos buying a theater ticket.

~~~

Everlasting Window – Buying a theater ticket – Carlos

“Let me assure you that you’ll highly enjoy it, sir.” Sergeant Tricks, that was to say Ellen, said as she pulled on Carlos’ arm towards a line. There were two lines to purchase tickets for the evening’s theater. One was considerably longer than the other but Tricks was pulling him towards that one.

“Why are we not just standing in the shorter line?” Carlos asked attempting to hide the indignation. He had allowed himself a slight indulgence, playing cards with his squad. As knight he was welcome at the officer table but rarely partook because he had found his earnings disappeared far quicker than he liked when playing with them. His squad, on the other hand, played for on a tally system rather actual money and he also happened to know most of their tells better than they did. Except, it seemed, for Sergeant Tricks. He would have sworn in front of the king himself that she was bluffing her hand until the reveal of the cards. So a week later Sergeant Tricks collected her tally. She wanted the evening off and an escort to a theater showing. Carlos had been confused by the second request, since he knew full well the Sergeant could not only protect herself against any unsavory elements of Qual City’s nightlife but could throughly punish them for the idea as well.

She had to explain to him that she wanted a date.

Honor bound to accept, Carlos found himself in line for an operetta by someone named Leons Swalari, obviously someone from the northern provinces.

“Because that is the line for the nobility and while I’m sure you qualify, Sir, tally won’t cover the kind of cash that window requires,” Tricks said. Carlos glanced at the line and only then noticed that the majority of those in line appeared to be servants of some kind, likely fetching tickets for their employers. Carlos grunted in response and settled in to wait. Tricks was also content to simply wait for the line to move, rather than make small talk.

The line moved slowly and others in the line spoke infrequently as well. Carlos kept his attention more on the street than the line itself. It was a little past mid afternoon but there was plenty of cloud cover. The theater was located centrally in Qual City, on the main drive just east of Qual Plaza. Shoppers mixed with vendors, messengers, and even a few tourists. After while his mind wandered to the reports he would need to file by next week regarding their last mission…

“How many tickets?” the ticketmaster asked, startling Carlos back to the present. The last of the people in front of him in line had vacated and Tricks had moved up to the woman behind the counter but was looking back at Carlos expectantly. Carlos nodded and stepped forward.

“Two please for-” Carlos began.

“That’ll be ninety-three in Qual script,” the girl interrupted, already pressing several knobs on the ticket machine next to her. Carlos hesitated before reaching into his pockets and pulling out a wallet. He was glad they had just recently been paid. He did not normally carry that much money around on him. He counted out the script to himself before he passed it to the ticketmaster. Looked at him pointedly as he did so and all but snatched the money, feeding it into a slot in the ticket machine before she pushed the final button and out printed two tickets. Tricks snatched them up and began walking away immediately.

“Thank you.” Carlos said but was met with an impatience glance. He turned away, shrugging, to follow after Tricks.

~~~

So I am thinking 250 words is far too short to make an effective window. It seems somewhere near 700 is a good number. This one was shorter than the last. I think I’ve learned a few things about Carlos but not as much as I did about Lee. I didn’t focus on as many mannerisms this time so I might revisit this one later. We’ll see. I think I learned more about Sergeant Tricks, the sniper of Carlos’ squad, than I did Carlos! BUt then I’ve been writing Carlos fora while now. I think he might be my second most established character.

Happle Tea: 2012-08-03: Second Place

Introducing a new comic to A Singularity’s comic links: Happle Tea! I haven’t really read through the archives fully but I likely will be. In the mean time, feel happier for the second place winners of the Olympics.

Questionable Content: #2250: Color Gamut

Best use of an animates gif ever!

Extra Ordinary: #243

I wonder what I would summon…

Happle Tea: 2009-07-13: Perfectly Reasonable

Remember kids. You’re only crazy if you realize you aren’t.

Hummock

Used in a sentence:

• The penguin provided an excellent sled, allowing them glide gracefully above the newly fallen snow laying the hummock.

Source: Wiktionary

Commentary:

I keep thinking hammock whenever I see this word, which is why I had to post it. I need of strange scenery for your character to romp around on? Add a hummock!