6Blood, death, and violence.
Now that I've gotten your attention…
(The scene is the main room of an inn with a bar, think middle-ages or so. It's full of people (people! Ack!), dim lights, and shadowy corners. The people are mostly minding their own attention, but some of them have their attentions fixed on the scene unfolding at the bar:
Innkeep - big bald guy. Give me back my timepiece, y' pointy-eared thief! I know it's you who stole it!
Rhea - pointy-eared girl with a weird necklace and even weirder headband. Purple dress, brown curly hair. (giggles annoyingly)
Innkeep. Think it's funny, don't you?
Rhea. Actually, now that you mention it… hee hee hee—
Innkeep. Oh, shut up, or I'll wipe that stupid grin right off your face. Now where is it?
Rhea. Where is what?
Innkeep. My timepiece!
Rhea. …oh, that. Fine, fine, I'll tell you, I'll tell you. But you won't believe me.
Innkeep. (eyes narrow) Try me.
Rhea. Okay. …I forgot.
The Innkeep chooses this moment to begin eye-spasming.
(In one of the conveniently dark corners a figure crosses its arms and snickers quietly. It shifts, and is revealed to appear to be a young man in a long black coat and pants, with hair so spiky it could probably decapitate a person. One spike hangs down over a headband, which keeps the rest out of his eyes.)
Figure In Corner. Heh heh heh. Amateur. (Takes something out of pocket, looks up at scene in front of him.) Like the cat and the chestnuts. She steals from him, I find her loot and steal it from her. Good deal, you ask me. (Slight creak to the side and guy looks quickly to the door, hiding the watch at the same moment.) Hm. Newcomers.
(And, indeed, there are newcomers. One is a big guy, resembles a blonde bear but without the brainpower, name of Amory. The other is a girl dressed in such shocking pinks that the light in the room goes up about twenty watts. The dress has sparkles that…don't really go with the girl's blue hair, and a pair of gold manacles with strange symbols, one on each wrist.)
Random Person in the Room. The shiny! It burns! (Claps hands to eyes and passes out.)
(Newcomers walk over to the bar, and the girl begins to speak, the high-pitched squeaky hyper voice of a cheerleader. This, too, burns.)
New Girl. Excuse me.
(This because the Innkeep and Rhea are looking daggers/lightning bolts/WMDs at each other. The new girl doesn't seem to notice; small wonder.)
New Girl. Can we, like, totally have a room? Cuz my boyfriend here he like thought you could, like, borrow a room, and I was like, no way, really? Dude, that is like SO TOTALLY kewl! OMG JK LOL ROFL LMAO BTW WTF! !
Innkeep. Umm…suuuuure…..
Rhea. (thinks: she's wearing pink!)
Rhea. I must ATTACK THE PINK!
(And Rhea…proceeds to attack the pink. Unfortunately, this involves attacking the girl at the same time. Amory and the Innkeep and the Figure in the Corner stare, along with everyone else in the bar.)
Innkeep. …
Amory. …
Figure in Corner. …idiots.
(The fight continues, pink-girl taking the brunt of it, until Rhea spots a manacle, shouts SHINY! MINE! and steals it.)
Rhea. (holding the manacle triumphantly aloft.) Haha! I stole your bracelet! What're you gonna do about it, pink-girl? (Then proceeds to mutter: Hoo-hah! Go me! I rox!)
New Girl. (back turned to Rhea) I'm not sure you wanna know. Wearing pink, am I? Ugh, hate pink. Let's see if I can fix this…
(Dustcloud. New Girl appears suddenly.)
Innkeep. Gasp!
Rhea. Gasp!
Amory. ?
Figure in Corner. Interesting.
(Why this? Because the New Girl has changed not only clothing, but manner: she has somehow procured a cape, torn the bottom and sleeves off her dress, and let her hair down. She stands, arms akimbo, smirking.)
New Girl. Allow me to introduce myself. I am Skitsophie, and for the first time in 15 minutes, I'm FREE!
Figure In corner. (thinking: personality change…probably something to do with the manacle…. (and continues watching))
(Nobody really knows what to do. Suddenly Amory speaks.)
Amory. I'm leaving.
(Amory leaves.)
Room. (stare after him.)
Skits. Okay, and what just happened?
Rhea. Umm… I think I just lost you your boyfriend.
Skits. (Rounds on her.) What? That chump, my boyfriend? Hah! I always wondered why he was following me around. Maybe he liked Merin. Anyway, was I fighting you?
Rhea. No, I was fighting you. And I took your bracelet. Umm… sorry, I think.
Skits. (brushes this away.) No prob.
Rhea. (thinks: No prob?) Anyway, here, let me put it back on. (put manacle back on Skitsophie's wrist.)
Skits/Merin: NOOOOOoooooooh! What a cute dress it's like so totally kewl! I am not, like, totally sure your like hairstyle, like, goes with it. Maybe I can, like, give you a new 'do. New do! That like totally rhymes! OMG LOlz!111
(No one really knows how to respond to this. A short silence reigns.)
Innkeep. Well. That's quite enough weird stuff for one night. Bar's closing. Everyone go to bed. Now.
(The room slowly empties. Innkeep goes around, pushing in chairs, dousing torches, only leaving one on. He leaves, not noticing that one person is still left in the room.)
Figure in the Corner. Well. This presents….possibilities… (Stops suddenly, and holds hand to bandaged side. When he takes it away it is bloody.) Ah, shit. It's bleeding again. I thought I'd be safe here. (considers hand.) Apparently not.
(Disappears.)
PTG: In case anyone actually got this far and is vaguely curious…
This is a manga that my friends and I at school began writing/drawing my junior year. Each of us created a character, and the three were put together into one story, which simply continued to grow. We took it in turns to draw chapters, except that, as it turned out, I drew the first chapter, D the second, J was to draw the third but never got around to it, so then I drew chapters four, five and six, and then forgot the whole damn thing over the summer. Now I've been elected official manga-drawer, but if I had that much time and inspiration, I'd be working on my novel. Which I'm doing anyway.
This section is actually only the first four pages of the chapter. I'm breaking it off where the natural cut-off points occur, and will post those as chapter-sections. Everything in here was in the manga, speech-bubbles became script-bubbles, etcetera. Don't worry, plot points and the whole Skitsophie thing get explained soon. Anyone who can guess my character by next chapter wins a cookie. A COOKIE WITH FRIGGIN LASER BEAMS.