3 new stories, 3 worlds to explore
Your chance to vote!
Editor’s Note: This week, we are taking a break from a new chapter of Guild of Magic to bring you something slightly different.
Also, in case you missed it, the giveaway for issue #1 of David Pepose’s phenomenal The O.Z. (The Hurt Locker meets The Wizard of Oz) is still open! All you have to do is leave a comment on my interview with David with the comic or graphic novel you’re currently reading! (Or if you’re not currently reading one, the last comic you enjoyed). Open to U.S. residents only.
One of the best things about following a lot of artists on Instagram is that you get a window into their process, including seeing all the awesome warm-up sketches they draw, like this one:
Or this one:
It amazes me that artists can create such awesome artwork as a warm-up before even getting started on their actual work for the day. There must be something about this exercise that gets the creative juices going, and so I thought, “if artists can do warm-up sketches, maybe I should try a warm-up story!”
So, last week, before getting into my morning writing session for Guild of Magic, I opened my mind and my heart to the universe so as to summon forth a bolt of inspiration and creativity.
Nothing happened.
But then I took a sip of my coffee, opened a blank email, set my fingers to my keyboard, and began to write.
What resulted were three fun, short, and incomplete tales from three different genres, each having nothing to do with Guild of Magic.
I would say the exercise for its own sake was a success, as it was very freeing to write with no constraints and to not have to wrestle with several hundred thousand words of already existing canon to make sure everything was consistent. And it was very fun to write in different genres that I don’t see myself writing long-form stories in any time soon.
But after finishing up the week, it seemed a shame to let these stories just wither on the electronic vine, particularly when they were incomplete objects. And so an idea formed in my head.
One of my favorite things that the webcomic Penny Arcade has done in its storied 25-year were its three one-page comic “treatments”1. These were three different stories presented in lieu of the regular M-W-F comics.
At the end of the week, everyone voted and then the treatment with the most votes got expanded into a longer webcomic story (although they eventually expanded almost all of them). This in turned spawned more treatment showdowns, more webcomics, a six-issue comic book series, a board game RPG, and even a TV series!
So, today, we’re going to do something similar here on ARC Worlds. Below you’ll find each of the three warm-ups and at the bottom, a poll for you to vote on which warm-up you want to see expanded into a full short story!
“I don’t want to be here!” said the little elf to her mother, as she waded into the cold tributary.
“And yet, we are here, just the same,” said Thala, high priestess of the Yaggskhj Clan.
“It’s c-c-c-cold!”
Mirabelle kicked the water away with her bare feet, as if doing so would allow her to empty the small river she found herself trapped in.
“It must be so,” said her mother, “otherwise the spell will not work.”
“Then it’s a stupid spell! Water is water. I could practice in my bathtub at home.”
“You could,” said Thala. “Surrounded by green and pink bubbles, and perhaps Yeany at the lip of the tub to make sure your hair didn’t get too wet. And then you would have closed your eyes, said the incantation, and nothing would have happened.
You would have run crying into my chamber, dripping and covered in suds, and complained that you had failed. I would have given you a hug and explained that we must practice out here, in the Atalain Wilds, in the raw of the world, and not in the comforts of the manor.
You would have protested greatly and refused. Much yelling would have transpired. And in the end, you would have arrived at the same place, but perhaps a bit more receptive to what I have to say.”
“Fine,” said Mirabelle. “I wanna try.”
Thala nodded at her headstrong daughter and stepped into the flowing waters.
“At its core, magic is a transfer of energy. You draw from one source and channel it to your target. The words themselves are your instructions to the source. But it won’t hear you simply by speaking.”
“What do you mean?” asked Mirabelle. “You can hear me when I talk and I can hear you.”
“Yes, but we have the ears of elves, of which there are no better. Tell me, my daughter, where are the water’s ears?”
“Ummm,” said Mirabelle, who tried to work through the answer but immediately gave up and kicked the water. “I don’t know!”
“Then I will teach you. Together, we will make the stream a little warmer.”
99 times out of 100 Steve’s nightly patrol was a complete waste of time and this evening was turning out to be as expected. Nevertheless, he stalked the rooftops like a cat, leaping from walk-up to walk-up with ease, until he was almost done with the neighborhood circuit.
A bar tussle? Not worth the time or effort. A chorus of shouting coming out of the subway? Just a bunch of drunk fans coming back from the game. As far as he knew, it wasn't a crime to root for a team with an incredibly oversized payroll that just bought the title each season.
A sobbing woman up on the 30th floor of Palace Towers? A second glance confirmed the presence of a kneeling man next to her. Maybe he would send the happy couple a gift.
He slid down his usual fire escape, pulling off his mask in the process, and began the walk home. The cacophony of the city still echoed around him and he wondered whether his enhanced hearing was a gift or an annoyance. Sometimes he wondered why he bothered with all of this.
Why he couldn’t just spend every night asleep next to his wife, instead of out here, hoping to luck into a dire situation? It’s not that he rooted for crime, but what was the point of being gifted if you couldn't help someone with your gifts
He was about to cross the street to his building when something real finally caught his ear. Yelling, shouting, and a click. Coming from the bodega one block south. He resisted the urge to smile.
It was a 1 in a 100 night.
And he was going to stop a robbery.
His mask back on, he sprinted down the avenue as fast as he could. It would have been nice to have been blessed with super speed, but he imagined that the caloric intake would be catastrophic to his bank account and to his general enjoyment of eating.
Random sounds emanated from the shop, and he worried that he was too late. But when he pushed open the door, the scene was not the one he was expecting.
For the two gun-toting robbers were already tied up on the ground, their weapons way out of reach.
And the sweating shopkeeper was counting the money that had almost been stolen but had instead been returned.
And finally, instead of Steve Lanesmith AKA The Neighborhood Watch (TM) being the one to have stopped this crime-in-progress, it was a striking redhead in a much-more-professional looking bright yellow spandex suit with an emerald green mask covering the top half of her face.
She turned toward him and gave him a cocky smile, as if her true aim of her heroics had not been to foil the robbery.
“Was wondering when you were going to show up, tiger,” she said with a chuckle, before blinking out of existence.
“That was a nice fight back there,” said the sword. “I especially liked when that idiot charged at you and you sliced off his pants instead of his legs.”
“That’s the part you liked?” I said. “You were screaming at me to run him through. And you burned my hand when I didn’t!”
"Yes, well, sometimes in the moment, you don’t appreciate the humor in things. I am, after all, a life force-draining blade casted in the Hellforge by your grandfather. I usually-”
Jonas sheathed the demon sword in its scabbard and walked up the hill away from the carnage he had wrought.
I hope you enjoyed reading the warm-ups as much as I enjoyed writing them. Stay tuned next week for the results!
In the meantime, if you are looking for more new stories to read, be sure to check out the Magical March Fantasy Book Fair below!
Apparently all the way back in 2009, I am so old.