Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)
We made it!
The Doctrine tends toward an every-other week schedule here at the ‘corn’, joining jenne and ceayr and the others here at the Unicorn Challenge.
Do yerself a favor, head over to the ‘corn. Plenty good reading. And, if you got the hankering to take the keyboard out for a stroll, go ahead and link your story (in Comments). The simplest of rules: a) Hey! look at this photo and 2) no more than 250 words, if you please. Tell ’em the Doctrine sent ya.
For her it was the light, an actinic slap of welcome to a newborn. Chloë responded with a most human of strategies, extending her hand across the table.
For him, it was an assault of odor, of such potency, his body wrongly interpreted it as immersion in a noxious ether. Montgomery was assailed by an overwhelming desire to stand up. Instead, he grasped the hand that appeared opposite his own.
In the shadows, a man laughed a guttural cough of merriment and aimed his phone towards the young couple. Bathed in the cold palette of technology, he basked in the approval of the woman in the display; her face an aurora of hues as she watched the man watching the young people.
“Sinè, my love, it’s time to reel in our little fishies.” Donning an waiter’s apron, the man picked up a tray holding two glasses. He sprinkled a shower of crystals into each. The motion caused his sleeve to rise, exposing a tattoo of a symbol combining an asterix and an angular ‘B’, superimposed on a heart.
“I don’t remember anything after that odd woman stopped us on the street.” Confidence returning with the shared strength of their touching hands, Chloë rose.
“Yeah, lets get out of here,” Montgomery threw a £50 note on the drink tray proffered by the waiter and left without a backward glance. Unseen, the man threw the tray against the curved-stone wall, cringing at the tiny voice of the woman raging from his phone.
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About clarkscottroger
Well, Clark, I liked that a lot, even if I had the feeling I’d missed the start.
Lots of clues, as though it’s part of something bigger.
But expertly crafted, as always, although £50 for a couple of drinks seems a wee bit pricey!
well the ‘waiter’*
*Spoiler Alert!! you and jenne are in the story… damn word limit err insufficient skills on my part made me leave out a lot of clues that would have made that inference, at least to those of us at ‘the ‘corn
(I was proud of using the name Sine)
Okay, my wee Clarkster, you’ve left me even more baffled than usual now!
Jenne and I are in the story?
This story here, the one you’ve just posted?
I guess I’m either the profligate Montgomery or the drug-administering waiter, but why or how escapes me entirely!
ah! just introducing my Readers to two new characters who appear, at first blush, intriguing enough to want to see again.
Not so much jenne and you, but, in the way that stories develop, (at least for me), this week’s demanded two characters that, while intent on schemes of a nefarious nature, are still engaging/interesting/intriguing. (I’ve been told that my ‘bad guys’ (in other stories) often are more enjoyable than my good guys. I could cite examples, but I should try to keep this in the novella* class of Reply.)
And seeing how this week’s story called for someone to trick the young people into being exposed to peril and someone else to manifest that danger, I got to thinking about the hosts of the Unicorn Challenge, of course. (lol)
Not sure if there will be occasion to call on the two (un-named rapscallions) again, but I’d totally like to write them into a future story. (This would allow me the opportunity to flesh-out the characters. My skill as a writer is still not to the level of the others. Physical description, backstory etc ended up on the cutting room floor this week.)
Inspired by might be a more accurate term for the connection between you and our hostess and my story this week.
short answer: I touched on my writing process in my Reply to jenne, but it comes down to: you two are an interesting couple** So I was inspired.
Not to let you off any easier than I did jenne, I will say, in the lexicon of the Wakefield Doctrine, I am a clark with a strong secondary scottian aspect. This inclines me to doing things, every now and then, just to stir things up, ya know? (I mean, there is no other explanation for my mentioning to Mimi the thing about the characters.)
All in the spirit of fun.
But, of course, if the concept is not amusing to you or jenne, I will stop and find some other Muse for these two character,
* in terms of word-count
** no, not couple couple, but two people working on a common project with that rare quality of bringing out the best in each other
‘The room was humming harder
As the ceiling flew away
When we called out for another drink
The waiter brought a tray’
So that cellar was the inspiration for that song. Who would’ve thunk it. :-)
hey, ‘cellent riff off the story. (funny how many connections are lurking until someone spots ’em)
A very timely getaway.
this is true
jenne and ceayr will have to be patient for the next innocents to succumb to their little trap*
* no! not that jenne and ceayr, she is nothing at all like the fortune-teller on the almost-daylit streets and we’re sure that he doesn’t have a tattoo of an asterix superimposed on a angular letter ‘B’ we know because the people own the copyright on the bluetooth symbol would never stand for it!
‘The best laid schemes o’ Mice an’ Men
Gang aft agley,’
Probably just as well in this case, because that woman on the phone sounds a nasty piece of work – oh wait… (She made me smile!)
I like the build-up of mystery through the interaction between the different couples.
It works really well.
Still wondering what that pair are up to – can’t be anything good!
I’d tend to agree!*
*elsewhere in the Doctrine storyworld, I have of late* been wanting to see if I can get to know more about my characters. You know, the thing about good characters is that they tend to ‘write themselves’. Fine, I love that and am totally grateful for that quality.
…except they write what they want**
so what does that half to do with that woman fortune-teller and her …
familiar. Her companion (with the bluetooth tattoo)? Well, sometimes it’s just too tempting to resist taking people we know and deciding, ‘Damn they’re interesting in the real/virtual world, what would they be like in the fictional realm?(By the way, this is a glimpse into the world of clarks, as in the Wakefield Doctrine’s three predominant worldview of personality types. Deliberately accessing emotional connections is often simpler for (some of) us by way of the people we know. (You know how that is, at least they’re ‘real’ people. lol sorry, little Doctrine joke.)
Anyway with the implied permission and assurance of good intent, this may not be the last we see of these two.
*
and know not…** no! wait…come back! I mean, confortzone-istically speaking It’s all too easy (for me) to not push them.
Excellently done!
thank you, Chris
Skulduggery afoot & foiled, accompanied by early FM & one of their best albums. Who could ask for more?
yes ’em
An evil duo planning something dastardly. Shame they couldn’t get their timing right. But I’m very glad the innocent ‘fishies’ got out of there when they did. Intriguing.
TY Margaret. But what of the next semi-innocents to cross paths with…. (still working on names for our two.)