Inner Monologue

Artemis has one at this point in the story, of course when she gets it she makes the remark that she wants to keep it for the sheer fact that having it makes her feel closer to Kamen.

"If you kill him, this will be all I have. Just like the mark you gave him."

Throughout the story up to this point, Kamen’s been the only one with a really distinguishing mark, the scar that Van Dean gives him as a child is the biggest giveaway that he is the archetype of the classical tragic hero. Noble birth, a disfiguration (his scar), character flaw (he definitely has hubris, but jealousy and arrogance are also big ones), and tragic demise (Samm hates Part 3 for a reason).

The issue is this, Kamen is not the true hero of the story, and so by Artemis having this scar and keeping it throughout the entire Part 1 and into Part 2, she’s slowly becoming the archetype of the classical hero as well. There’s also the idea that she could have an ulterior motive to keeping the scar; Artemis is shown several times feeling almost guilty over Kamen’s scar and she could perhaps be keeping her own scar to provoke a similar guilt from Van Dean?

At this point my characters are in so deep that their actions are no longer determined by their personalities alone, but the circumstances and events that put them in their current predicament. As much as I would like to think that Nancy pulls Artemis out of her insanity in Part 2, I’m really thinking that Nancy is just as nuts as Artemis, they just happen to be the right kind of nuts for each other?

All things considered, Artemis needs Nancy psychologically to become her own Prince. Somehow this story got a lot more complicated than it was originally. It makes me want to pull out my big silver book for some simple reading.

Tons of excerpts in here, stuff that won't be posted on DA, but I think I may have posted a bit of one of the excerpts on a previous entry. I'm having a hard time making headway at this point, mostly because of the content, I can't seem to write one of the scenes without feeling sick, and although I do plan on omitting it from the final project (the chapters will jump from 49 to 51seamlessly and only someone paying close attention will notice), I do need to know what is said in order to make things work after March 0.

That being said, this is completely out of context, but heart-wrenching nonetheless:

"I’ll believe anything you tell me.”

“The sky is red.”

“And a beautiful shade.”

Playing around with the idea of Ambrosia, I've decided to push up Kamen finding the jar, and decided to actually show the discovery. Including a few bittersweet memories of Lillaine, and actually eating some of the poison himself (it isn't like it would effect him anyways.)

“It’s sweet, but not too sweet.” Artemis said with two fingers to her mouth, her eyes still searching the black waves. “It’s delicious, but disgusting at the same time. First it was stuck in my mouth, but then it moved down my throat, and I can feel it in my chest now. I feel heavy, like I’m stuck in a nightmare.” She looked at him, easily meeting his curious eyes, “What is that?”

Van Dean slowly shook his head, “I’ve never felt anything like that, I couldn’t say.”

Arrogant Kamen is someone I want to strangle a little, and I've been told others feel the same way, but it still feels good to give Van Dean a rival that he can't touch, especially with how things seem to be spiraling downwards. Artemis really seems to have become a pawn at this point in the story, and for all practical purposes she's not really doing anything except for going insane. To me this only seems to make the final action in book 1 more inevitable.

( "I'll eat your heart." )

Somehow it seems like the roles of Kamen and Rei have become a little jumbled, once Kamen's got no reason to play nice with Van Dean he reverts to the Kamen from the original story, the guy playing hello kitty island adventure on a stake-out and panicking while sliding through Gorgosa on a rope into a death-march (jesus, were the original shenanigans really this wacky?). It works though, he melds perfectly with his Victor Covington persona, and becomes a little more gritty than the oath-bound tragic hero.

( "You guys are stalkers." )

Apparently I've been using words that microsoft doesn't recognize as being english. Worse, apparently they're swear words that I've been using properly without realizing it.

I chose a really, really crappy era to set part one in, 1863 was right before anything big happened in the world. Alice in Wonderland was after (can't make any cracks on mirrors), the first department store would have just opened up in Britian (but Kamen wouldn't have gone), and full out plumming was after (this does make it rather humorous to explain running water to Kamen).

( He's so mean to Pandomé. )

There seem to be a number of tricks that Van Dean's thumbprints are pretty engraved in, the first is of course the entire ordeal of eating hearts, which is a symbol of envy. Its a slightly different way of looking at his rivalry with Kamen, but it still works out perfectly with the story.

The second is the mural trick. Best way to lock someone in a room is to take away the doors, but it ends up being a little more sinister than just that,the doors are still present, however they're merely pictures on the wall. The victim ends up loosing all energy trying to get them to work as doors. Later on in the book he uses this trick when he is present in the room, more like a tactic to keep people from running away.

( Kamen and Celeste )

It wasn't meant when the bit was written, but it is interesting food for thought, Celeste and the ancients could have been human originally. Who is to say that the gods that she chased out weren't our gods? Technically she herself isn't a god, but is hailed as one due to creating the buenans. I get awful images of Kamen held up in the tree by Celeste, almost like the manga pictures of Hotaru being held up by Professor Tomoe's machines.