Tamia's Tardy Tale for '10: Bold as Brass (MO)

[Tam]

xD; Sam stroking his goatee is becoming one of those phrases that I keep almost using every few sentences just to fill gaps in the dialogue. It fits him so well.

Shade/Kathleen - I'm going to be in Anaheim. x3 ...Doing Disney stuff. And I imagine that this will probably land me not-particularly-close close to either of you, but still. I'll be able to say, bwa ha ha I'm in their state.

Strife - I can't believe I've never seen that before, but I'm kind of in love with it now. xD

...I should also finally get around to giving all of you a huge hug of the pathetically soppy kind, because quite honestly, you guys and your comments are probably the reason that I've able to keep up the enthusiasm for this story so far. xD Because, I mean, I really like it, but it's the kind of story that isn't actually possible to write unless you're humming with gleeful energy. So. Thank you, guys. <3

Edit: Gah I still need to write 1500 words before I'm allowed to go to bed why am I not writing.

[Tam]

I sort of wanted to post this whole chapter. xD; It went well.

SPOILER: Click to show

"Well-said. Milady," called Sam. The curly-haired girl he was addressing didn't turn around right away, and when she did, she looked somewhat baffled and exactly like no one had ever called her "milady" before. Sam smiled amiably. "Another round for me and my friend, if you would be so kind."

After their new drinks had arrived (this time in much-less-easy-to-drain pewter tankards, Sam realised smugly) and the barmaid had bustled off with a healthy flush on her cheeks as well, Scarecrow shook his head.

"For God's sake, Sam, you're turning this whole room pink."

Sam stretched in his chair languidly, looking quite pleased indeed with this observation. "I can't help it. Gotta do something to keep the evening entertaining, after all."

"Well, if you're so hard-pressed, you might try actually listening to the entertainment. It looks like they're getting ready to do something special."

Sam glanced over his shoulder in the direction that Scarecrow was nodding, and saw that there was indeed a small crowd gathering around the low platform in the front corner where the musicians played.

Most of the players were now making their way off the platform and putting their instruments away, but Gilles remained, settling himself on a stool as close to his audience as he could get. He had abandoned his flute in favour of a painted lute, and he smiled as he began to tune it. His smile seemed to signal everyone to quiet down, and an excited hush fell over those clustered around the stage — most of whom were female, as it happened, although Sam didn't notice it at the time.

Eventually, some part of the common consciousness inside the busy tavern seemed to become aware of the silence emanating from that corner, and the noise level began to die down until most of the room was filled with nothing but a steady murmur of curious voices. Heads swiveled, necks craned to see what had caused the disturbance in the normally buoyant atmosphere of the tavern. Even the tavernkeeper's family behind the bar were leaning back, amused smiles lighting on their faces as they watched Gilles ensnare the clientele.

Expertly sensing that his audience was ready, Gilles finally looked up. "I suppose you want a song, then," he said. There were a few cheers of encouragement, particularly from the people up front. "Hmm," he said, frowning. "Or maybe not. Well then, if no one's inter—"

This time, his words were drowned out by a wave of disappointed cries that extended far beyond the first few rows. Laughing and waving a hand in acknowledgement of the numerous voices now cajoling him to please stay and give them another chance, Gilles said, "Alright, alright! Oy, there's just no pleasing you, is there? I said, who wants a song?"

A thunderous roar of enthusiasm boomed through the tavern.

"Well then, you're a-gonna have to be quiet!" yelled Gilles.

Silence settled on the crowd like a sudden snowfall, and Gilles smiled his biggest smile yet as he crossed his legs comfortably and cradled his lute in the crook of his arm.

Sam turned back to Scarecrow, his shoulders hunched. "I hate when he does that," he murmured under the hum of the crowd. "And look at that, it doesn't look like we're going to be getting fresh drinks anytime soon either. 'Drinks on me,' indeed. That Gilles is one crafty ba—"

"Actually," said Scarecrow, who was still watching the stage. He raised an eyebrow. "You might want to hear this."

"... so they say, he takes the nobles' gold away..."

Sam's expression froze in mid-gulp. Abandoning his drink for the time being, he swivelled clean around on his stool. Gilles was strumming the lute and singing a particularly catchy song that Sam had never heard before. He sang in his rich baritone, a powerful sound that soon had feet tapping and chins bobbing throughout the room.

"He's fighting our fight everyday,
To good ol' Sam let's shout hooray!"

There was a riotous cheer as this last word fell. Slowly, Sam turned back to exchange a glance with Scarecrow.

"Well Samuel Brass was born and raised
Dirt poor like you and me.
He learned to shoot an arrow true
When he was only three.

When he was nine, a fighter fine
Our Samuel had became.
He felled the giant Dominus,
So fearful was his aim..."

"Someone really ought to confiscate that man's creative licence," said the voice of Scarecrow, which sounded mildly stunned.

"Bite your tongue," said Sam, without looking away from the stage. "Honestly, no one appreciates true artistry these days." Half the tavern now seemed to be singing or at least humming along to Gilles's music, and Sam had to strain his ears until they ached just to hear the next words.

"And rich folk in their golden halls,
They always raise a fuss,
'Cause Samuel Brass steals all their brights
And gives them back to us.

So let's all raise a glass to Sam,
So sharp and strong and fleet,
There ain't a lass that Samuel Brass
Ain't swept off of her feet."

At this point, Sam became dimly aware of the gaggle of young women who were hovering near the corner of his vision, pointing surreptitiously in his direction and giggling from behind their hands. He decided not to do them the disservice of calling them out on this and thus ruining their moment of triumph, but he allowed a silent grin to spread across his face as he mentally chalked up another handful of points to his own ever-growing tally of victories.

"He's bold as brass, or so they say,
He takes the nobles' gold away.
He's fighting our fight everyday,
To good ol' Sam let's shout hooray!"

The final rendition of the chorus was belted out by nearly everyone in the tavern, and if there had, at any point, possibly been anyone around who had shown up hoping for a quiet evening at the bar, they were gone after this.

Sam grinned at Scarecrow, a faint aura of awe radiating from his expression.

"I know what you're going to say," said Scarecrow, "and no, this does not qualify as good news."

Edit: 8k. *collapses* We meet at last. (Now let's see how well I do reaching 10k tomorrow, with a night class and probably not enough sleep in me. >.>)

...NaNo! =D

[Rikku]

Listening to 'The Hero of Canton' made the perfect ambience for this. xD Which makes sense.

And ha! =D The line which the song starts on is given in full later on! *is oddly pleased to have noticed this* For some reason this equates as 'yay more song' in my head. No idea why.

I love the feel of that song! xD 'Cause Samuel Brass steals all their brights/And gives them back to us - it is so easy to picture this happening, a happy roaring tavern and the dashing rogue grinning smugly off at the side somewhere with his friend giving him an unamused look.

This scene in general is win. <3 Went well indeed! I was oddly gleeful over the 'bold as brass' line and ... and, huh, I can actually easily imagine belting out this song with enthusiasm. xD Which is, y'know, always a plus.

And well done on 8k! =D And you can so meet 10k tomorrow! <3 You can do it easy!

... *hums happily*

[Strife]

Nov 3, 2010 21:47:08 GMT -5 Rikku said:

Yes! xD The goatee bit was awesome.

Yes, the almighty power of the goatee triumphs once again. x3 *has one in RL*

[insanepurpleone]

((California! Although I also live nowhere near Anaheim. xP))

Also I think your story is EPIC. And I love Sam. And it is too early and I have not caffeinated myself enough to say something more eloquent, but suffice to say that I like your story very much and I am looking forward to reading more of it.

[Kathleen]

Well, as distances go, you'll actually be impressively close to me. =D ... although, two-ish hours by driving is also relatively far away when you don't drive.

Anyway. I was quite possibly laughing the whole way through that last excerpt. Or at least grinning foolishly. I really like Scarecrow as a name, too. Every time I read it I like it more. And the lines of the song are ridiculously catchy. =D

You can make 10k! ^_^ *cheer*

[Tam]

Rikku - xD ...I watched that scene right before I started writing this, just to put me in the right sort of mood. As is probably obvious. And thank you for the poemsong-praise! =D I am very pleased indeed that you liked it, because generally poetry and I have this sort of passive-aggressive power struggle going on and I very rarely venture into this domain.

Strife - Clearly goatees make up the facial hair of Greatness. *nods*

Purple - *glees* Caffeinated or not, this made me feel all giddyhappy to hear. ^____^

Kath - Really? =D It's too bad I'm only there for a few days and those days are already pretty much booked, or else I could go on an epic quest to find you, and then the two of us could go on another epic quest to find... erm... something else.

It was supposed to be laugh/foolish-grinworthy! =D ...In fact, most of what I've written so far is. But any sort of indication that it is indeed working is most welcome by me. ^___^

...And you just reminded me that I keep forgetting to actually explain in my novel why he's called Scarecrow, or anything at all about his history. Erm. And now I'm not really sure where that would fit. I guess that's why editting is a post-NaNo thing. xD;

---

...In other news, I reached 10K! ^___^ ...By staying up until 4, but all the same!

I don't think I'm going to post an excerpt tonight. xD; Today's two thousand words were pretty much an uninterrupted brawl scene, and while I do think it was amusing enough in its own right, it's a bit choppy and I don't want to make you guys read a 2000-word excerpt when you have your own stories to focus on. But if I get something shorter and sweeter tomorrow, I'll be sure to post it. =D

[Rikku]

... *is really extremely curious about Scarecrow, now*

[Tam]

There aren't really that many surprises. xD; It's mostly just that I haven't found a place in the story to put all the information about him that I told you guys in the character list.

Anyway, I'm really behind on my wordcount today and if I do miraculously manage to hit 12000 tonight I'll probably be too tired to clean it up for an excerpt, and Trilly tells me I should post something from the last chapter after all, so I shall. Because I can. It's a bit over a thousand words. Hope it's not too long. =D

For a bit of context, Sam and Scarecrow have just met a peasant rebel who had been sent to hopefully convince Sam to take up their cause and lead the training of their quickly-growing but underprepared army. Sam had, at this point, enough drink in him to tell the rebel exactly what he thought of this idea, which wasn't much. The rebel is... erm... disappointed with Sam's response.

SPOILER: Click to show

"They say you should never meet your idols," reflected Sam.

Jacob shook his head in disdain. Then, he seemed to remember that Sam had not come alone, and for the first time he turned to Scarecrow.

"What about you?" he demanded. "Aren't you gonna say anything?"

"No."

Jacob boggled. "What d'you mean, 'no'! Right now, at this very moment, the people of this godforsaken wasteland of a Kingdom are starving in their homes! And those are the ones that have homes! Meanwhile the rich get richer and the nobles think of even more ways to sap money out of us so that they can build a new library, or more white walls, or their next gorram fountain!" he fairly yelled. The tavern was loud, but not quite loud enough to mask Jacob's voice. Fellow merrymakers who sensed the sparks coming off of Sam and Scarecrow's table began to casually vacate the area as if they saw this every evening (and most of them did). Scarecrow, on the other hand, just looked back placidly at the scarred man, who snapped, "Do you have any idea what those nobles have done to us?"

"Yes." Scarecrow continued to watch him, his face a perfect juxtaposition to the now belligerent Jacob. "I have a fairly good idea."

"You're talking to someone from the inside," said Sam with a grin, "Scarecrow here turned his back on the poncey ways of the nobility ages ago."

A dark look came over the scarred face of the man. "You're a noble?"

"I was, yes," said Scarecrow levelly. "A long time ago. We can't choose the life we're born into, but we can always choose to leave it later on."

"He even talks like them!" Jacob gestured wildly at thin air. "I was wrong about you, Samuel Brass. You're no hero. You're not fighting nobles. You're on their side."

"Of course," said Sam, dryly, "why else would I steal their gold if not out of a feeling of kin?"

"You can say you're reformed all you want," snarled Jacob, pointing a finger at Scarecrow. "But you can't change what you are. And what you are is a pile of scum."

He spat on the table in front of Scarecrow. Or at least, he tried to. The spittle got about halfway out of his mouth before there was a loud crack, and Jacob Wright's entire face went flying away from the table, taking his body ungracefully with it.

Sam was standing, his stool overturned, rubbing his still-clenched fist with a grin and a fierce glint in his eye.

"I've been waiting for the perfect excuse to do that for the last twenty minutes," he said lightly.

But then, from somewhere in the now-silent crowd around their table came a warlike cry, and Jacob appeared out of nowhere to spring at Scarecrow again. Sam was ready, and hurled himself at the scarred man before he could reach his intended target, knocking them both onto the rickety table.

Sam caught the first punch that Jacob threw at him and was soon struggling to hold onto both of the furious man's wrists as they attempted to flail at Sam, who was very nearly pinned under the more muscular man's frame.

"If you even think of telling me that this was uncalled for," yelled Sam to Scarecrow, "I'll personally make sure you eat nothing but potatoes for the rest of the month!"

Scarecrow, still perched on his stool beside them, watched the two men wrestle on the table with a sort of mild interest written on his features. "Actually, for once I think it was pretty well called for."

"That's the spirit!" roared Sam, succeeding in kicking Jacob off of him. He leapt to his feet. "Surely you're not beat already, Lord of the Tanglewood," he taunted as Jacob recovered his stance.

"What's that?" shouted a beautiful baritone voice from somewhere in the tavern. "My good people, it's Samuel Brass! He's being attacked by an unscrupulous savage!"

Immediately, a swarm of taverngoers descended upon the scene as if they had just been waiting for the call to arms, all having adopted their favourite brawling faces at a moment's notice. Sam and Scarecrow's table was soon engulfed by the crowd, and then everything was chaos. There was screaming and yelling and there were bodies flying all around; glass shattered, chair legs cracked; the floorboards became slick with spilled drink. Sam was hitting someone, and he only hoped that it was the same person who was hitting him.

Suddenly the violence against him stopped, and Sam found himself on the outside edge of the throng of brawling drunkards. He spotted Scarecrow hovering curiously a short distance away and made up his mind that, as much fun as a good fight was, one hundred against one were not exactly the fairest odds. But before he was able slip by the crowd, a hand grabbed him by the shoulder and suddenly Jacob was in front of him, all rage now, his scars stretching sinuously over his distorted face.

Sam was stunned and somewhat ashamed to find that, possibly because of the ale, he wasn't fast enough to prevent the other man from forcing his arms behind him. Before he knew it, there was a small switchblade knife at his throat and he was backed up against the wall.

"Now," hissed Jacob, but he didn't get any farther, because a wooden stool had just been brought down rather forcefully on his head. He dropped like a fly, the knife falling from his limp hand.

Scarecrow looked almost surprised at himself. "D'you know," he said, putting down the stool, "I don't think that man actually knows what it is he wants."

"It's quite simple, really," said Sam, wincing as he massaged his bruised shoulder. "He wants me dead and he wants me to lead his peasant army." He crouched down to look at the man's face, which looked quite a good deal more pleasant now that it wasn't twisted up in rage. He noticed that the knife was actually rather well-crafted, so he plucked it off the floor and pocketed it. "Anyway, as admirable as your sudden inclination to go knockin' folk over the head with bar stools is, you needn't have bothered. I had it under control."

"The knife was a nice touch, in that case. I suppose you let him put it on your neck out of pity."

"Indeed I did."

"Truly, Sam, your solicitude knows no bounds."

Sam turned to look back at the rest of the tavern, which was still embroiled in whatever feud the taverngoers thought they were fighting. "Well, our work here is done," he declared. Struck by a sudden thought, he fished his mask out of his vest pocket and put it on. He grinned. "My dear Scarecrow. Shall we take our leave?"

Scarecrow looked up suddenly and neatly sidestepped an airborne bottle, which smashed on the wall next to him. Then, somewhat alarmingly, he grinned. "I'd say that's a fine idea, Sam."

[Avery]

*randomly pops in* Tamia is going to be in Anaheim? SMALL WORLD. Kath and I should come and stalk you. XD *lives about an hour or hour and a half from Anaheim, depending on traffic*

[Tam]

I have to write 3000 words today to stay on track with my buffer-building goal. 1000 down already, but it's not coming easily. =/ And I'm at home, so there are so many distractions.

...why am I not writing now.

[Strife]

Nov 6, 2010 20:05:36 GMT -5 Tam said:

I have to write 3000 words today to stay on track with my buffer-building goal. 1000 down already, but it's not coming easily. =/ And I'm at home, so there are so many distractions.

...why am I not writing now.

Oh, I hear you there. xD; I'm also trying to get a few days' worth of buffering down, but I'm at a slow point in the story.

If all else fails, maybe you can have one of your characters get conked out and experience a weird dream sequence consisting on things that come off the top of your head. :3 Nothing says you can't remove it later once you go beyond the 50k mark.

[Tam]

Nov 7, 2010 13:18:11 GMT -5 Strife said:

Nov 6, 2010 20:05:36 GMT -5 Tam said:

I have to write 3000 words today to stay on track with my buffer-building goal. 1000 down already, but it's not coming easily. =/ And I'm at home, so there are so many distractions.

...why am I not writing now.

Oh, I hear you there. xD; I'm also trying to get a few days' worth of buffering down, but I'm at a slow point in the story.

If all else fails, maybe you can have one of your characters get conked out and experience a weird dream sequence consisting on things that come off the top of your head. :3 Nothing says you can't remove it later once you go beyond the 50k mark.

I think the thing that's really frustrating me is that I shouldn't have to write a buffer that ginormous right now. xD; I've been trying to write 2000 words every day in an effort to very gradually build my buffer, but I almost completely skipped writing on Friday due to family-type-things. So I lost most of the lead I'd earned and I'm a bit annoyed at myself.

...Heh. I did that a lot last year. xD Which... is probably one of the reasons that I'm not so inclined to do it this year. *is not particularly fond of last year's NaNo* But yes. I'm not really so concerned that I won't hit 50 000 as I am that I won't finish my story, so I think I'm going to hold off on the weirdness montages until I'm desperate. x3

Anyway, I did manage to hit 12000 yesterday, which is something, at least. I'll just have to make up for Friday's lost words another day. >.>

Thanks for the advice, Strife. ^^ *glomps*

[Strife]

Nov 7, 2010 14:09:32 GMT -5 Tam said:

Nov 7, 2010 13:18:11 GMT -5 Strife said:

Oh, I hear you there. xD; I'm also trying to get a few days' worth of buffering down, but I'm at a slow point in the story.

If all else fails, maybe you can have one of your characters get conked out and experience a weird dream sequence consisting on things that come off the top of your head. :3 Nothing says you can't remove it later once you go beyond the 50k mark.

I think the thing that's really frustrating me is that I shouldn't have to write a buffer that ginormous right now. xD; I've been trying to write 2000 words every day in an effort to very gradually build my buffer, but I almost completely skipped writing on Friday due to family-type-things. So I lost most of the lead I'd earned and I'm a bit annoyed at myself.

...Heh. I did that a lot last year. xD Which... is probably one of the reasons that I'm not so inclined to do it this year. *is not particularly fond of last year's NaNo* But yes. I'm not really so concerned that I won't hit 50 000 as I am that I won't finish my story, so I think I'm going to hold off on the weirdness montages until I'm desperate. x3

Anyway, I did manage to hit 12000 yesterday, which is something, at least. I'll just have to make up for Friday's lost words another day. >.>

Thanks for the advice, Strife. ^^ *glomps*

Ah, yeah, that's got to be a bummer to miss out on an entire day's worth of writing. But hey, that's what the buffer is for, right? I like to think of it as racking up bonus points for an Extra Life. ^_^

Aha, so you have tried it in previous NaNos. xD; This is only my second NaNo, and my first wholeheartedly serious attempt at reaching 50k, so I'm being a little more lenient with Big Lipped Alligator Moments. (Although there's really only been one of those in my whole story so far, and it only consisted of about 600 words.)

As for your story, it's awesometastical that you're challenging yourself to not use those cheap shortcuts and come up with something coherent and fun. ^_^ You're very much welcome. *glomps*

[Rikku]

*is late* Awesome excerpt of awesome! =D Have I mentioned I love Sam and Scarecrow? 'cos I love Sam and Scarecrow. They are awesome and I love them and they're awesome.

... Yep.