ed note: Outtake chapters, like outtakes in a movie, may or may not be included in the final version. The conversation below is currently in outtake status. Enjoy.
The Hood: Bring her in.
Servitor: (opens door and Kyra is escorted in surrounded by armed servitors)
The Hood: Leave us.
Kyra: (looks around)
The Hood: Welcome. Please accept my apologies for the unpleasantness.
Kyra: You really should employ better help.
The Hood: (smiles) You know, you really didn't have to spare them. Would have saved me the trouble.
Kyra: The misguided should be educated, not punished.
The Hood: Yes, indeed, education. I agree wholeheartedly. You and I, my friend, not so different.
Kyra: Really? And what of me do you know?
The Hood: I could say the same.
Kyra: You could have killed me. Why not?
The Hood: (laughs out loud) You really don't know, do you?
Kyra: What?
The Hood: (walks closer, circles) I could no longer kill you than kill the rising sun.
Kyra: You didn't answer my question.
The Hood: Pleasure. And. Pain.
Kyra: Your pleasure. At my pain? Surely--
The Hood: Surely you think more of me than that. I need change. This world begs for it. Demands it. There is a hunger in the tide. You can't see it, just below the surface. Waiting. Needing.
Kyra: Needing what?
The Hood: A catalyst.
Kyra: Are you saying . . .
The Hood: I'm saying change only happens at the apex of pain or pleasure.
27 comments:
Wow, that could be so huge. That kind of transformation, the possibilities for it.
Not just in the story you have here of Kyra and The Hood, Tree, but it immediately brings to mind people who love could transform - like Trash Bin Laden, who could then be educated as to kidness and goodness rather than destruction and hate.
Powerful post.
Thank you Annie. Always nice to see you stopping by. :-)
Ooooh, I like this, voting keep it in. Though it isn't that simple, I'm sure, for if it is in then you must also move forward from there. Smiles brought forth at the dialogue, easily able to picture this one on the big screen, even if it does end up in outtakes - those can sometimes be the most fun to watch. :-) Smooth, flowing writing as per always, regardless of subject matter and you do do dialogue so very well, whomever the characters involved and whatever the topic of discussion so to speak. Quick comment tonight, and I still have that other comment to write, don't let me forget, for I really want to do that one...but to be short, really enjoyed this chapter, good stuff, Poppet, so it is.
You are very kind, as always. The first 3/4s of this chapter was written about a month ago and I just let it sit. Pulled it out today, added the last bit and posted it as an outtake. Hard to put my finger on why I held back outside of the 'just don't like it' bit. :-D
Glad to hear the move has happened. Very happy for you and M. :-)
An outtake? Sounds interesting to me. What could The Hood be up to.
Deb, I'm not completely sure.
Ohhhhh....so very, very true, Hoodie....
And none of the Hood should end-up on the cutting room floor.
None.
I relish every moment I am able to be in his presence.
Strumper, do you like honey on your walnuts? I'm thinking you do. :-D
I like this chapter but I trust your judgement. Your Story, your brilliance.....it will be interesting to see if you keep it or cut it.
I found it interesting that the Hood said "Pleasure. And. Pain."
as well as "....change only happens at the apex of pain OR pleasure." Sounds like he could utilize both to cause his 'change'. Is it arrogance or benevolence that causes people in power to want to effect change? Is the Hood Arrogant/bad or benevolent/good? I can't wait to see how his character develops!
And I had to smile at this sentence -
Hood: (laughs out loud) you really don't know, do you?
Funny how current culture influences our thoughts - I automatically thought - "LOL! U rly dnt no do u?"
I hope that you have a great weekend!
Jen
Jen, I'm as anxious as you to see this story moving again, to see where we go, who we met, what we learn, and experience through the characters. I think I will keep this chapter. I just need to figure out where I go from here based on what has been said. So, are you in the mood for pleasure or pain tonight? And do you know where the line is between the two? :-D
It's mostly mental for me, so I choose pleasure. I would rather have a broken bone than a broken heart.
I don't understand the 'fine line' between the two. The concept of pleasure and pain linked closely is beyond my experience, I think. With the exception of childbirth. So as you continue with this part of the story, I am sure that I will be enlightened.
Jen
that is a very profound statement in the end!
You have to touch the rock bottom to be able to rise
Ranj se jab ho pareshaan dil to mit jaataa hai ranj/ Muskilein mujh par padeein itnee ki aasaan ho gayyein
( When one reaches the acme of pain, it tends to disappear/ I faced such hardships that it all became easy for me..soon )
*shivers* It will be really interesting to see where you go from here. The "and pain" is enlightening. For the masochist, flip side of the same coin but how about the rest of us? I'm betting the "and pain" wins out with Hood.
"Let it Die" by the Foo just came on the radio and I thought of you.
Have you heard this song yet?
They play it here non-stop.
But, they only just started to, so it hasn't warn out its welcome yet.
It's great.
Such a build-up.
xo, Mr. Tree, and hope you are well.
Strumper, I heard that one in concert and I have it on my iPod. And I do love the way it builds and builds and builds, the way Dave bends over when he starts singing it and slowly rises up, the way the audience gets sucked in, seduced into the wave of musical magic. Its good to listen to with walnuts too. Candy-coated. :-D
Do you mean 'no longer kill you', or 'no more kill you'? I know you sometimes use words out of familiar context for effect (and I like it), but that seems wrong.
Jen, I am with you on the broken bone over a broken heart. The former heals much quicker than the latter with a whole lot less pain.
Think of pleasure and pain as part of a circle, each starting as opposite ends but when those ends are bent to form a circle, touch. Sometimes the example of love and hate are used, that the opposite of love is not hate but apathy, therefore leading one to believe that love and hate are much closer than we would normal think. Sometimes I think the same could be said for life and death, but it is way too early in the morning to go down that road.
As always, thank you for your wonderful comments. Blogging is interacting and you provide that engaged opportunity. :-)
Happy weekend to you and your brood. :-)
Tom, you have stumbled upon a quirk in my use of language which is clear to me but not to others. In other words, I meant 'no more kill you.' For whatever reason, literary or not, the phrase 'no longer' rolls off my tongue in a way that 'no more' doesn't. So I chose the lyrical, at least to me, over the clear. Then again, since it was clear to me, it didn't occur to me, until you pointed it out, that it would not be clear to everyone else too. :-D
Here is what The Hood knows. He could kill Kyra in body, but her essence, her spirit, her connection to 'The Unknowns' is something he can't touch; and, perhaps, this is part of his desire to see her, to meet her, to converse with this 'special one' and perhaps is why he sent his men to capture her and not John and now that he has tasted his pleasure is ready to move on. Then again, what do I know. :-D
Tom, thanks for helping me see I needed to clarify that phrase.
W, part of what I'm trying to do with The Hood, at least in my mind, is to avoid the one dimensional bad guy construct. The Hood has as much good as evil, has as much compassion as hate. He is beyond a simple label. I think part of his desire to meet Kyra is a need to be understood, a need to let her see that he is more than just what he knows she has been told, that the two of them are more alike than she thinks and I wouldn't be surprised to see him remind of her of the 'Kyra Incident' and the blood that will forever be on her hands. The Hood is perhaps the most complex character in the story to date, although that complexity, right now, only exists in my head since we have seen very little of this in the story to date. Stay tuned. :-)
Mona, the greatest insights I have ever had, the significant turning points in my life where I could say there was a before and an after have come only from the soil of intense and enduring pain. I am thankful in equal measure for the pain and the fact that those times have been few. In other words, I like my pain intense but brief and not to frequent. :-D
Reminds me of my own efforts in my Triangles novel. The first time my readers meet my villain, he is a poorly treated little boy who, when he accidentally kills a baby chick breaking open an egg to suck, his first impulse is to give it a proper burial. I still don't really know but I think that at the very end of the story, Tick will redeem himself with his own death. I want my readers to be sympathetic to him. Still, he is a scoundrel, living outside the law as his second chapter will begin to show. I can see him so clear in my mind. I just hope my readers will also be able to see him clearly.
W, have you read any William Trevor? He takes indeterminacy and subtlety to levels I've seldom seen. If you blink, you miss the world in a story of his and everything is grey or shades of grey in the most delicious and delightful ways--and I mean in a literary sense, not subject matter, since most of his stories are either depressing or melancholy at best. He may be the best living short story writer and he continues to publish.
I'll have to add him to my "to read" list. Thanks for pointing me his direction.
Back again! You already know I love to read the comments ALMOST as much as the Story. And there is so much insight about the Story here too. Where else can you read the work AND fellowship with the writer as well?
As I read your return comments to myself and Wamblings (love her!), it made me think of a conversation that I had with 12 yr old daughter today in which I called someone EVIL. She asked if I really thought that they were evil. WOW what a conversation. The answer was YES but that we ALL have the capacity for great good or great evil, and it is our choice to make as to which it will be.
In reading your comments and reflecting on this conversation, I think that the Hood has that human quality as well, the ability to choose good or evil.
These past few posts have been like a Gobstopper; flavor layered upon flavor, temptation to bite down and not see what is next, worth waiting for the core! I have enjoyed reading SO MUCH the last few days! Good clean Fun.
:^D
Jen
Jen, glad to have you along for the ride. Not sure I would blog without interaction and I do love engaged comments, comments that tell me a reader is reading the post and reading it to read it, which is different than reading it to comment or reading it to elicit a return visit. You read for the right reasons and I love you to pieces for the comments that you leave. Thank you Jen.
The Story, in someways, exists on two levels or in two places. First is the chapter or post and second is what is said or revealed or shared or expanded or speculated or illuminated in the comments. I've said it often, readers and their comments have enriched the story for me more than I can say. I've learned that the story is not mine. A chapter, once posted, takes on a life of its own and lives within each reader, within their heart and their imagination and the sharing of that thrills me to no end, to know how others see a chapter, feel a thought.
So again Jen, I say thank you. I am honored to have you along. :-)
I have some serious homework to do..I need to get up to speed...
found you via Snowelf!!!
~waves~
Superstar, welcome to The Story. Best place to start is reviewing the "Who's Who," which you can find under Story Stuff on my sidebar. Don't try to go back to the beginning, this is not that kinda of story. I'll pass my thanks to Snow. She is wonderful. :-)
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