Author's Note: And, woo hoo, another collection. Just like Picture's Worth, this collection will be chaptered shorts featuring a variety of different characters, crossed with Greek mythology. And, when I say short, I mean short. I'm trying my hand at being less wordy and more succinct. Consider these Stress' Fables, where they are short and sweet and illustrate their purpose in short form. Where PW is a 1,000 word limit in which I challenge myself, Mythos will be even shorter. Woot.
And, just like Picture's Worth, I will need willing characters to play the female roles for the mythologies chosen. For example, the next piece is about Spot; I will need two girls (one who will die) to be in his. So, if you would be so kind to review with the normal info (name, age, looks, personality, guy choice, and squicks – you know, the stuff that isn't cool with you; be prepared that lots of wonky stuff happen in mythology so please be specific with your squicks – death is a major possibility), that would be swell. And, to show you exactly what you are getting yourself into, here's the first chapter of Mythos:
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Mythos
05.29.06
Some men give up their designs when they have almost reached the goal; while others, on the contrary, obtain a victory by exerting, at the last moment, more vigorous efforts than ever before.
– Herodotus
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I. DAVID JACOBS
And thanks to the might of one, David Jacobs, the newsboys triumphed over the Goliath of this tale, the newspaper giants of New York.
With a flourish, I crossed that final "t" and placed a period at the end of the sentence. There, I was done. I finally finished my chronicles of the infamous newsboy strike of 1899. And it had only taken me a week to get it all written down. A satisfied smile came to my lips. It was pretty damn good, too, if I did say so myself.
"Hey, Dave? What you got there, buddy?"
I nearly jumped when I saw Jack standing above, squinting down past me to see what I was working on. When did he sneak out of the window and join me on the fire escape? Just when I thought that no one wondered what exactly it was that I did every night, sitting outside floors above the dirt, Jack Kelly decides to come looking for me. And what does he do but read over my shoulder. Where was Sarah? I thought she was inside occupying him – can't she do anything right?
Before he could catch a glimpse of my own personal masterpiece, I shuffled the papers together and turned them face down. My chronicles were for my own memory; as good as I was at documenting facts, I wasn't ready to show it to anyone yet.
I capped my Waterman fountain pen and slid it into the front pocket of my button-down shirt before glancing up at Jack. He seemed to tower over me as I remained sitting on the fire escape. Trying not to be conspicuous, I moved my leg so that it was covering the pile of papers. "Nothing, Jack."
But Jack wasn't as dumb as he looked. He pointed down. "It ain't nothing. You got some papers hidden underneath your trousers. What are they, hmm?" Then he did something I wasn't expecting. He squatted down and swiped at my leg. I jerked it away – I'm not one who likes pain at all – and he snatched at the papers. I caught onto his, surprisingly, swift plan at once but could only stop him for grabbing the whole stack. He did manage to grab the last page.
"What's this?" he asked again, a smirk coming to his face. Oh, how I hate that smirk. It always makes me feel like crossing my arms and pouting. It was his "victory" smirk. I first saw that annoying expression when he ran into me the day I met him. Genius had been antagonizing the Delancey brothers, as usual. Even then I knew he would get under my skin. The smirk just did that to me.
However I fought the urge to pout; instead, I pulled myself up and tried to take my paper back. Jack laughed and climbed back through the window. Scowling, I grabbed the rest of my chronicles and followed him inside.
Sarah was sitting in the kitchen, talking with my mother. She watched as Jack's brown eyes ran across the page, with me standing behind him trying to take it away. He was too quick for me, and that seemed to amuse my sister.
I ignored her smile and decided to give up. I knew I wouldn't get that last page back until Jack had read it. He may be seventeen but the boy acts like he's seven. They way he plays around with Les is enough proof of that.
I sat down at the edge of Sarah's bed, waiting for him to finish.
When he finally did, he looked over at me, puzzled. He re-read the last line of the page aloud to me. "'And thanks to the might of one, David Jacobs, the newsboys triumphed over the Goliath of this tale, the newspaper giants of New York.' Hey, Dave? That ain't how the strike ended," he said, pointing at the end page of my chronicles. "That ain't how it happened at all."
I smiled and grabbed the paper back from his out-stretched hand. "Oh, isn't it, Jack?"
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End note: I almost decided against adding an end note, but I figured what the hell. In an effort not to confuse anyone who reads this, I feel I should elaborate on the format – or, at least, comment on the quotation given before the short piece. The quotation is not in any way a summary for the paragraphs that follow. I have two purposes with the addition: 1) let the readers know which historical figure/myth is the focus of the drabble. Just in case the reader can't figure that out by reading the paragraphs, I will tell you. In this one, for example, I compare David Jacobs and Herodotus, the famous "Father of History." 2) What I plan on doing, as long as I can find the right quotes, is pick a quote that, hopefully, relates back to the movie itself. For this quote, I imagine that the first part shows Jack's brief time as a scab; the latter portion relates to how David assumed much more responsible for the strike toward the end.
Yeah, I really spend too much time thinking about this stuff. I think I need to go back out and get myself a job :) But, it is my goal before my unemployment spell ends, to get my word count up to 450,000 words – right now I'm at 360,000. So, if you were wondering why it seemed like I update too many different stories, too much – I really do have that much time on my hands. It's sad, really. And, just in case anyone is curious, I'm still working on APW drabbles. Just got a bit of a difficult one at the moment, thanks to Biddy :)
Anywho, review Mythos and offer me up characters for sacrifice.