Phantasam114

So as you may well know, I took a bit of a break to refresh and work out how I want to carry on here. I came back recently for the fun contest RenderPretender has been running, which if you haven’t checked out, you really should. The key feature of the contest was they were flash fiction, 1,000 words or less. 

This has gotten me thinking.

I’ve always tried to keep my stories around 3,000 words, this seems a good length to me to tell a story in a single sitting, with more complex tales getting a cliffhanger at 3,000 words and then carrying on in part two. But it might be nice not to rely on a single sitting for the reading, and to strip that down to even less words. Down to 1,000 words.

Having just written a piece that long, I know the difficult that goes with it, it’s hard to tell more than a couple of plot points in that space of time, certainly you can’t get the development in there that you can get in three times that length, but maybe there’s another way round that.

I mention the cliffhanger, which is a device I love, I grew up watching the classic Doctor Who and in that, at the end of every 22 minutes of action we’d get a cliffhanger to draw you in for next week. This is the staple of the serial, a tried and true formula perfected in the early days of cinema, but even before that when a story is split into sections in a magazine. As I love the cliffhanger, it stands to reason that I love the serials too.

So why not write my own? 

This is what I’m proposing to do. To start writing serials made up of multiple pieces each around 1,000 words. Building to cliffhangers, dramatic points to get you excited to find out what will happen in the next exciting installment. I was just wondering what people would think to this, if it would make them read my stories more, or maybe less. I will be trying it out with the first of my mythological crossovers to test the waters, but feedback on the concept now would be helpful too.

So what do people think?

TLDR: I’m looking to start writing serials, splitting my stories up into 3 or more parts of 1,000 words a time, is this something you’d enjoy? Would you read them more, less or the same? And I’m testing it with a story mixing in elements of mythology, so watch this space for that.

I’m not good at this sort of thing, rewrote this intro four times already. I don’t know if it’s pride, old fashioned teachings or my paranoia leanings, probably a combination of all three, but saying things like this don’t come naturally to me. I guess the best thing to do is come out and say it.

This last weekend I hit a low point with this site, to the point I was thinking of just deleting everything on my page. As such I think I need a creative break from this place and what I do here.

A lot of things have brought this on, some to do with this site, some that really don’t. Partially it’s a simple malaise based on how out of step I feel with this world at the moment. Aside from with a few special people, who know who they are, or at least I hope they do, I am feeling like I don’t really belong not just here, but anywhere. Now don’t misunderstand this, this isn’t exactly a new feeling to me, it’s something I’ve dealt with on and off my entire life and it’s not like I’m close to the edge because of it. As I say, I still have some very special people who still link me to the world, it’s not like I’m closing myself off totally like I used to. Hell you can see that by the fact I’m putting all this down in a journal right now.

Some of it is that frustration a lot of people on here have expressed. The feeling that no one is particularly taking notice of my work and that it’s a pointless endeavor to even put pen to paper, metaphorically speaking. What’s the point in pouring my blood, sweat and tears into the stuff here if no one is going to care, especially when it seems the stuff that takes twenty minutes to write and post gets as much or more attention.

What I think I need to do is take a break; refresh myself; work out what I want and why; figure out the way I can make the impact I need to make, whether on here or beyond the confines of this place; and maybe even find the time to read some of the stuff on here I have meant to get to for a long time. I’ll still be around, if you want to reach out and chat you know where I am, but the Phantasamverse, the photo manips and the renders will be stopping for a while.

Those of you who have read this, thank you for letting me vent like this. It’s not something I’m used to doing, not comfortable with it yet, but it’s the only way I’ll get better at sharing and getting this stuff out there and not just held inside me. And those of you who actually follow my work and care about what I put out, thank you for your time, I really do appreciate it, and know this is not the end of my story.

Have fun!

1.- Hello, and welcome to 20 Questions with Fourth Wall Magazine!

What is your real name and nickname?

Should I be telling you that? Well I guess it’s fine, it’s a multidimensional thing right? Folks in my world won’t be reading it. So I’m Lily Lyon, as for a nickname, I’m the fastest girl in the world, generally though, in costume, I go by Rush!

2.- Very Nice to meet you, what is your current age?

I’m 18, nearly 19, though when you factor in extra dimensional time scales and time travel, it gets a little harder to be sure.

3.- What is your alignment in the great never-ending battle of good and evil?

What like chaotic, lawful and stuff like in that game Billy plays? I guess I’d have to be chaotic good, which I admit seems an odd statement for a heroine with ties to a secret government organisation, but them’s the breaks, I work with what I’ve got.

4.- What is the origin of your powers?

When I was little I accidentally drank some of the science goo that had given my granddad super speed. A few months back it kicked in during a basketball game and suddenly I’m a superhero. Well thanks to my training from Billy and a few supervillain attacks anyway. I may be over simplifying the origin story a little.

5.- Fascinating! Now, superpowers and such aside, what do you feel is your greatest strength as a character?

My sparkling wit and charming personality. I’d like to say my friends I’ve got backing me up, but I think I might be the worst thing to happen to them rather than them being the best thing to happen to me.

6.- Here's what may be a bizarre question: What kind of Universe do you exist in? Is it serious? Comical? Sexy? Noir? Horror?

Tough question, I guess it’s a pretty average superhero world, we have bad stuff, we have fun stuff, we have stuff that involves us undressing down to our underwear and we have eldritch horrors from beyond the universe. So a mixed bag all in all, if I had to compare it to something I’d say it was a soap opera, but one with a lot of action.

7.- A lot of super-people have certain recurring elements of tragedy in their background. The readers would like to know if you do as well. For instance, are your parents still alive and/or did you come from a destroyed planet? Stuff like that.

Oh, now there’s a question. Not long ago I’d say no, the worst thing to happen to me before I got these powers was my grandmother died, but she’d been ill a long time and I was only seven, I don’t really remember much of it.

Since I got these powers… well let’s see, my best friend and crime fighting partner got kidnapped and forced to marry a demon from the void between universes, which meant she became the shell for the spirit of corruption. Basically it stole her body, filled her with dark power and overwrote everything she once was. All because I wasn’t fast enough to save her.

This would have been bad enough, but then she tried to destroy the universe. My boyfriend, the first boy I have ever really cared for in that way, sacrificed himself to stop her. All I could do was watch as he did it.

Most recently, my grandfather, the former hero the Hare, something of a mentor figure to most of the girls in MI13b, passed away after a short illness as they say. I was there when it happened, I watched him go, totally helpless. *She wipes a tear from her eye, trying to hold many more back. Blinking a few times she buries the pain and puts on a smile again* Next question.

8.- Who made your costume?

I started as an off the peg kind of girl. There was a sports shop in the City of Peka mall, I grabbed a skisuit from in there when a giant robotic spider attacked, it was looking for me to get vengeance on my grandfather. I made a couple of light modifications to personalise it, mostly adding an R insignia over the left breast.

These days most of them are provided by MI13b, where they get them from is more a question for Billy, I just let him know when I need a new costume. Actually, he tends to wash them too, can’t just stick them in the hamper or my mother would start asking awkward questions. You know, like when am I going to start washing my own clothes, where the board money is, stuff like that.

9.- Do you have siblings?

Nope, I’m an only child, at least in this dimension, I have seen one where I have a sister, but I was only passing through there. Glad I don’t, she seemed rather bratty. Oh and I saw a dimension where I was the adopted sister of Wisp, my best superheroine friend and teammate in Team Superfriendship, that was interesting. It seemed like a Robin Hood style world. Travelling sideways in time is a really odd thing sometimes.

10.- What is your biggest fear/ worst nightmare?

I’ve got two really big ones, losing anymore people I care about to the life I lead, it’s one of the reasons I’m trying not to team up with others any more. Especially after the beating Ani-Gal took when she was covering for me. I just seem to put people in the line of fire and then I can’t save them.

The other concerns my powers. I worry that, if I don’t keep forcing myself to slow down, I’ll start to be in hyper mode the whole time and the world around me will seem like it’s standing still. I already have to make a massive effort just to watch a movie, I don’t want to lose the people I care about to my powers as much as I don’t want to lose them to the villains I’m fighting. Billy sometimes tells me I’m holding back, this is why, I don’t want to get lost in my powers.

11.- Are you a solo act, or part of a team?

Now that’s a complicated question, can I say all of the above? I mean I work with Billy Smith, he’s a lad at my school who had been sent to watch over me, he works for MI13b as what they call a handler, he basically looks out for me, trains me, reports back about me to the government, that usual stuff. He’s not out in the field with me though, which is why I haven’t got rid of him yet.

Then there’s MI13b itself. I work for them, kind of, I’m on the low level, next to no funding, but next to no regulation either, but they have resources I get to tap into, well, mostly Billy does the tapping into them. It also means I often work alongside the other girls of MI13b. It’s not a regular team or anything, we just help each other from time to time, usually on a very informal level. I’ve tried to limit my team ups with them since the stuff with Omega and Shadow Arrow, but they do keep trying to dump someone new with me.

And there’s Team Superfriendship, again it’s nothing formal, it’s me and my best friend teaming together to protect the world. We mostly call ourselves Team Superfriendship because it annoys Billy. Or at least that was the idea at the start. We still chat everyday, but, well she’s got others she teams up with, and we’re not exactly local, so it’s not as regular as it used to be. Probably for the best given the troubles I’m going through. Still good to know I’ve got a friend I can talk to about this stuff.

More often than not though, I work alone, and right now that’s how I like it, no one else getting hurt when I’m not fast enough.

12.- Who is your worst enemy and why?

I’d say there’s probably three of them. Kommandant Fuchs, Broken Arrow and Terminal Velocity.

Kommandant Fuchs was a nazi scientist who had a feud against my grandfather. When I came on the scene he became active again. That giant spider robot I mentioned earlier, that was him. He seems to have a thing for giant mechanical bugs. Recently I thought he died, but no, he’s already back. Why is it the bad guys never stay dead?

Broken Arrow was once my best friend and partner, Shadow Arrow, until I failed to save her and she became possessed by a spirit of evil that rewrote her. She then killed my boyfriend as she tried to destroy the multiverse. Yeah, I think I’ve got good reasons not to get along with her.

Terminal Velocity is the latest of the three, she’s my current big bad I guess. She’s not much more than a thief, though she has been known to brutalise people in fights. Thing is she’s a speedster and so far she’s so fast I’ve not even been able to lay a finger on her. Maybe I’m not the fastest girl in the world.

13.- Huh, okay. interesting. Then, who is your best friend?

Other than Billy, who I don’t think technically counts, I’ll give you three of them an’ all. Jazz, Caitlin and Wisp.

Jazz and Caitlin are my best civilian friends, I’ve known them since I started school. Jazz went to a different high school, but we’ve kept in touch, having girls nights out, going to movies, you know friend stuff. Caitlin got me through most of the horrors of high school, though I wish she’d told me sooner she was gay, it’s not like I’m going to judge. They don’t know I’m Rush though, it’s been hard keeping them in the dark and keeping in touch, I really need to make more time for them.

Wisp is my best heroine friend, though I think we’ve mostly covered her in the bit about Team Superfriendship. Don’t want to go over the same ground again, right?

14.- Confession time; Who is your lover?

Yeah, since the death of Omega, my one and only boyfriend and the man I lost my virginity to I’ve not exactly been putting myself out there. Now don’t get me wrong, there’s a couple of people interested, I’m just not ready yet.

Matty is an actor, though not really been in much yet, he’s just starting out, I’m not sure Peka is the place for that. Still he’s a really sweet guy, he can make me smile. He’s said he’ll wait for me to be ready, hope I don’t break his heart.

Jack is another handler in MI13b, or at least he will be, he’s training to look after his sister, she’s making her first steps as a heroine too, I think Billy might like her. I really don’t like the idea of us four on a double date, but he is cute.

Jack, not Billy, gods, I’m really not interested in him. Leaving him for Wisp

15.- Existential question: What would you do if you could ever meet your creator?

Ha, if we’re talking about gaia, or a creator goddess figure, I’d be very respectful and probably apologise for all the pricks we’ve got in this world.

If you’re talking about the theory that this is just a story and some bloke is sat in a conservatory somewhere writing out my life between episodes of Doctor Who, I’d probably punch him in the nose for all the crap he puts me through.

16.- What is your lifelong dream?

It sounds kind of cheesy, but as a kid I dreamt of changing the world. I guess I kind of do that as Rush, but it’s why I study science, can you imagine a cure named after you? Or an institute? That would be epic. For Lily Lyon to have made as much of a mark as Rush.

17.- What would you do if your dream came true?

I’d be very happy and I’d go out and try to be worthy of it I guess. Hard to say really.

18.- As a character, do you have any personal demons or overarching regrets that haunt you?

You did hear the answer I gave about not being able to save my best friend and partner, and the fact that she recently killed the man I love. I think it’s safe to say I have at least my share of personal demons and regrets, yes. I’ve tried to run from them, even I’m not fast enough for that.

19.- What does your "secret identity" do for work?

I’m a student, well, technically. I’m actually between schools at the moment, waiting on my A Level results, heading off to uni after that. Thinking I’ll stay in Peka though. That is unless I take a year out, do some travelling or something, but I don’t think that’s very likely.

20.- Last question, and it's a DOOZY for a super: What is the WEIRDEST thing that has happened to you?

Wow, yeah, that’s certainly a doozy. I’ll be honest I’ve had to reassess what counts as weird so many times. I’ve been attacked by giant robotic spiders; I’ve travelled to the future and met myself in my 40s; I was dating a boy from a parallel universe; hell I’ve even sang Santa Baby outside a department store. Please don’t look that up on Facetube. And yet, and yet, probably the weirdest thing I ever did was travelling to a different reality to meet Old Man Winter, kind of the pagan version of Santa Claus and saving him from a snow monster who wanted to ruin Christmas. It didn’t help that I did that in the middle of July.

Gods, I do live a weird double life.

Done! Now tag some people!
Make it extra fun and suggest specific OCs of theirs that you want to know more about!

Sorry if any of these have been called, I know I'm late to the party

FairyPrincessJess 's Willow
OmegaCataclysm 's Omega
SvettaK92 's Alpha Girl
DestroXXIV 's Opal