Recently I got the idea for a supernatural story that explores the social constructs of “love” and “love at first sight” and that’s not a pretty thing. I’ve also been working on this cursed clan idea for a couple of years and then when I wrote this fanfiction and decided to play around and develop it outside of its usual parameters.
Wonderful things happened with the magic. I was able to develop a the magical theory and style I wanted to go with. I also expanded on the idea of the curse and what I wanted it to stand for. I never wrote this clan seriously before because the nature the curse is so controversial and I didn’t have a way to create a truly strong female character when they’re so overtly subjugated. And then in November the Title came to me, The Many Perils of Love at First Sight.
The curse itself is something of a debate. Their archives and family history were lost and the family scattered during the Salem Witch Trials. All we know about the curse is what the main character knows…and she’s gotten her ideas from on love and the curse from the some pretty unreliable sources. From the media, from her family, from some not so good influences, and from painful experiences.
The Curse is the social construct and in the beginning its viewed bitterly, through the eyes of someone who raised by a very narrow set of standards. I want to tell a story about the perils and adventures of love at first sight, while providing good examples of loving relationships.
The main character is Sarai. She has a dark and sort of youthful attitude. She’s a 26 year old woman who comes from a clan of people who don’t view a woman as an adult until their curse has been activated. She is, of course, an adult, and an incredibly analytic and self reflective one at that, but she is used to being treated and viewed as someone who hasn’t yet reached their peak.
I sort of like how she waffles between jaded and hopeful as a byproduct of the curse. I also thought it mirrored something we can empathize over the mixed messages of relationships and romantic love. We’re force fed all this fairy tale stuff and views on love from a young age and it shapes us. Some of us have this existential crises over it. This is the story of a girl who lives in a world that shouts “YOUR LOVE WILL LOOK LIKE THIS!” and she just rolls her eyes, points at divorce statistics and knows, with her entire soul, that she is going to be forced into an unhappy, sick cycle unless she proactively takes things into her own hands and avoids it.
But enough of that, here’s an excerpt from Chapter 5. In this scene two individuals are being forced to fight in the darkness while the other’s watch on. Its supposed to test ones psychic awareness. Sarai is uniquely suited to this exercise because she doesn’t see with her eyes in the first place. Unfortunately, she’s not really a fighter: (Oh yeah, Daisuke is a creepy fuck. Just thought I’d throw that warning out there…)
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“Well, well, that is no trinket, little girl. A relic like that has enough power to eat you alive,” he caressed his words strangely with his tongue, as if the leer in his eyes has taken a new form and he sought to touch her with his voice. Excitement sparkled and fizzled through his energy, a coinciding rumble of warning lit down the woman’s spine. Her calm, polite facade didn’t waver in her silence.
It seemed a few seconds of her empty smile was enough to prod him onward “The gems alone are worth a fortune, but I bet its the knowledge inside that’s priceless.” The longing and greed in his voice couldn’t be restrained.
Sarai could feel a thrum of threat and indignation from her connection with Takara. “Something tells me that you wouldn’t make that cut. She’s rather picky about what touches her.” The woman walked slowly into the darkness, not really wanting to let him draw out the conversation, but also not wanting to provoke the impatience she could see setting into Genkai’s eyes.
“How about a wager,” he walked into the darkness as well, but at a different angle so there would be about thirty feet of space between them. “You lose, I get that very interesting book and your bag of tricks. I lose, and you get my own toys…”
Takara’s angry buzz crackled within Sarai’s mind. She was not a toy. The woman’s answer was easy and still polite. “Sorry, but I doubt you have anything of comparable value.” It was a baited response, one she hoped would provoke him into giving his secrets so that she could plan better.
“Haha, clever. If you wanted a test drive, all you had to do was ask sweetheart…” With that, Daisuke whipped open his trench coat and reached into one of the inner pockets.
Sarai used that single moment of inattention to mask her energy and completely disappear. When he looked back up, she could sense him searching around with his useless eyes. She very quietly grabbed the pocket knife from her backpack and tucked it into her sock. The bag and the rest of it’s contents were tossed about twenty feet away, colliding with a pillar and making a bit of a clatter.
“You didn’t answer little girl…” his voice echoed off the walls, but Daisuke’s attention was focused in the direction she’d thrown her bag. There was a coiled length of rope in his hands that gave off dangerous vibrations, pulling at the ambient energy of the room and devouring it.
In her partial fugue state Sarai felt echos of intense emotion coming from it. It was similar to the tang a spirit would leave in the atmosphere. Something that tasted of fear and torture and unholy things. She couldn’t suppress the instinctive shudder that rolled through her and raised goosebumps on her skin.
“Well then, I suppose I can take the book from your cold dead body,” he chuckled, and then his tone turned soft and dark, for her alone, “But not before I have some fun.” He started walking slowly towards the pillar, uncoiling the rope.
- The character’s you read about were original, but the story it sits in is a Yu Yu Hakusho fanfiction. If you want to read more, I’m currently accepting reviewers/beta readers so send me a message. I’d love to hear from you. You don’t really need to be familiar with the series to enjoy the show. Hope you found it to be entertaining. :3
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