Tiger's Short Stories

Oct 8 2015: The Poet and the Muse

The Poet and the Muse

"Oh Azaiah, where are you? It's been a while."

That's strange, he should be somewhere in here. There's that cat sitting on the counter, so I know I didn't just knock the door down of the wrong apartment this time. Maybe he's upstairs, but I still think he'd be able to hear me. Unless he was sleeping or something, but it's noon so that wouldn't make sense. Well, then again he's a teenager and if he's anything like my anime obsessed sister...Oh well, time for a fun wake up call!

*BOOM*

Ah, yep, there he is sleeping soundly in bed. At noon. On a Thursday. "Azaiah."

"I don't want to fight any more bad guys trying to blow up the Golden Gate Bridge, I'm tried."

"Azaiah, there aren't any bad guys trying to blow up the Golden Gate Bridge. Well, not today anyway."

"Huh...what who?"

Good, he's waking up.

"Did you miss me?"

"What are you doing here!"

Out of the bed, pointing the nearest thing he can at me as a weapon (which his shoe)...yep, he's awake!

"Oh, I'm glad you asked that!"

"The fact that you're pacing makes me worry. And wait...what happened to my door!"

"Oh, just C-4, the usual. Though it was less fun then the battering ram I took to the door to your apartment."

"Mom's going to kill me if you don't fix that."

"And just think how much fun that will be for all of our fans to read!" I wonder if now would be a good time to pull out the pink hair dye.

"All right," he said crossing his arms. "What do you want?"

"Well, I've been thinking, and wanted to let you know about this wonderful plan that I have."

"You have a plan? Don't you normally just make things up as you go and hope that things make sense by the end of the story?"

"Hey, I'll have you know there were no unplanned character deaths in the last story I wrote about you!"

"..."

"Okay, yeah, that joke probably wasn't the best joke to make considering....yeah, I'll just not mention anything more about that." Azaiah may not be someone who would normally be very intimidating but that glare tells anyone not to mess with him

"...So, you're doing another one of those this time. A story in a day where there are lots of exciting battles and mystery and all that."

"Oh but of course. Cicada's Claws, all about finally revealing Cicada's plans, getting into what they're truly after, having epic showdowns between people inspired by my siblings, and having a young superhero throw their leader out of a window a great deal off the ground!"

"That...actually sounds like I'll have fun. But something tells me there's more to it."

"Oh, and what would ever give you that completely correct idea young Azaiah?"

"Well, three things. One, it's you Tiger, all your stories have something more to see with them. Second, you have that evil grin, and third, you're starting to laugh maniacally.

"Fine fine, I have evil plans, but those are so normal I wouldn't come bust down multiple doors just to tell you that. No, in fact today I was at work and started thinking."

"You were thinking about stories you could write when you were supposed to be working?"

"Maybe. Okay, actually that's exactly what I was doing. Well, we had the country station playing, and those songs have given me lots of ideas. I still want to do one to that old song, 'Should Have Seen It In Color' but that's going to have to wait."

"Okay, country music, I suppose there are worse genres. Like power metal."

"..."

"I'm going to regret that, aren't I?"

"Probably. But anyway, I was listening to some romance song on the country station, and it made me think. Every year for NaNo I do a story, and this is my fifth year doing it. So far I've always either done a fantasy, or some religious one, and that made me wonder, what if I did something else."

"By something else you mean?"

"Everything!"

"Everything?"

"Everything."

"Huh?"

"Think about it Azaiah, there are 22 genres recognized by Wattpad, and I only scratch the surface with my stories. Sure, I have action, and comedy, and character torture, and heart-warming moments, and character torture, and sometimes romance, and death, and character torture."

"You said character torture 3 times, Tiger."

"Do you think that's not fitting?"

"Good point."

"Anyway I was thinking, what if instead of just writing one of the genres, I write about all of them, force the character to face the challenges they all offer, each one getting their own chapter"

"And you came here to tell me this why?"

"I wonder what size dress would fit you..."

"Tiger, you've been watching too much summer anime haven't you."

"Yes, I have. And now where did that shovel go?"

"Don't worry about that. Besides, even if you do kind of steal the idea in a way from your sister, weren't you also wanting to go back to that fanfiction from several years ago?"

"Oh yeah, that was a fun story. I had all those other plot twists and stuff planned, and I thought NaNo might be a good time to get back into it, especially since that certain person kept asking me about it. And I even had that one shot idea with Drew and the bike to get me back into the mood for writing those characters."

"See, why don't you just go do that one, and not write anything that would require me to wear strange clothes or get pink hair again."

"Oh, thanks for the idea!"

"Well November is going to be a fun month for one of us anyway," Azaiah said, deciding now would be a good time for a walk while certain authors started plotting started scribbling furiously on a whiteboard that had appeared out of nowhere. Though Azaiah couldn't figure out if it was story ideas, or something resembling tic-tac-toe.

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