Starfall: Spellbinder #4

[William Strickland]

Okay, put out a response a few days ago, but it never showed so I'm
going to try again.

On Dec 17, 10:59 am, Andrew Perron <pwer... at gmail.com> wrote:
> Who will be... The Next Pantheon Godhead!?

Athena: "Zeus? You're fired."

> But can she say that three times fast!?

Yes, actually, she can. Tongue-twisters are great practice for spell
incantations, and vice versa.

> Feckless!?

By the standards of a god who used to destroy worlds in piques of
rage, and had an entire empire that would go to war for the soul
purposes of bringing back people so they could feed their hearts to
him? Yeah, you betcha.

> That old trick again!?

Hey, it's worked in DC, Marvel, and Wildstorm - apparently there's
something to it. That said, the heroes of the Starfall verse are a bit
more savvy than those guys...

>> A man walked out of the dark, grim streets and into the grim darkness
>> of a grimly dark alleyway. In the grim dark of night, he was hardly
>> noticed, which suited him just fine. In a grim, dark sort of way.

> I sense a motif.

It's just your imagination.

> I'd do a "Born This Way" parody here, but I'm not that familiar with her
> music.  Anyone else want to step up to bat?

...I just might, if for no other reason than, now that the song's been
mentioned, it will be hours before I can exorcise it from my head.

> I like Bob. <3

Bob is a really swell guy, for a nightmarish hell-demon. There will be
more of him in the future.

> Weird bit of shelteredness.

There's more to it, too, naturally. She won't be able to avoid
bringing up her early childhood forever. The plot demands it! Bwahaha!

> As Saxon would say, costumed heroes going about being ostentatiously
> civic-minded!  Excellent!

Best way to be a good citizen!


> ...see, I'd have included a bit more ridiculous exposition. XD

The full version!
Chelsea: Okay! So y'see, hungry dead, y'know like ghouls and vampires?
They're hungry because they're decomposing and they don't want to,
especially vampires because vampires are all shallow, narcissistic
jerks who want to be pretty forever. But if they eat parts of what
they used to be - human blood for formerly human vampires, human flesh
for formerly human ghouls - they can slow down and even reverse the
rot. However, if they eat something that *isn't* what they used to be,
the process of decomposition actually *speeds up* instead. So if you
feed a ghoul a pastry made out of processed wheat, processed fruit,
and a whole bunch of stuff that doesn't even exist in nature,
decomposition speeds up so much that what you're basically left with
is a balloon full of methane, hydrogen sulphide, and ammonia. More
importantly, the other thing decomposition produces is *heat* - this
combination is the reason silos full of hay or grains can just ignite
for no apparent reason, and when supernaturally sped up as in this
case, it's enough to have a ghoul go up in flames *just like that*. I
LOVE MAGIC SCIENCE!

...Thanks, Chel.

> ...see, it's the word "kill" that's problematic...

I'm glad someone noticed it. >:)
But then, the Knight does comment on the 'jagged edges' in her mind.
Chel does still have some issues to work through. Fortunately, I'm not
the sort to leave issues unresolved, as that's one of my big pet
peeves.

> Interesting!  Has he been mentioned before?

Nope. This is the introduction of the Knight of Cydonia, but he's a
character I plan to use
more in the future. Not necessarily in Spellbinder - he and Chel won't
travel in similar
circles very often - but I do plan to write a series for him. He's a
character with a lot of
untapped potential, and if I'm honest the main reason I even came up
with him is all the
untapped (some might say 'wasted') potential in the characters that
inspired him.