Friday Flash - The Dead Calm

Tweet Today's Fiction Friday prompt from the Write Anything website was;

Use this lyric from Shore Leave  to flavour your story: “Hong Kong drizzle on Cuban heels”

I decided to use it to tell the story of how Captain Scarlight got his ship. For more stories about Captain Scarlight, click here.

* * *

The rain pattered on the roof of the makeshift bar. Four men sat around a table. They clutched cards, and glared at each other. Nobody in the bar dared speak; all eyes were fixed on the card game in the corner.

“Whaddya got?” asked one man. Captain Jacob Gnarley. Thick blond hair curled down his back. Scars criss-crossed his face and arms. He kept stroking his goatee beard, and tapping the table. Sam Scarlight suspected it was his ‘lucky’ nervous tic.

“Two pair,” replied another man. Barnabas Welmsley. A bald man who hadn’t so much fallen out of the ugly tree, as chosen to live in an orchard of them.

“You, whaddya got?” asked Captain Gnarley.

He stared at Scarlight. The other man refused to look at him, his sullen face expressing his annoyance at losing so much. Scarlight recognised Sullen-Face as Swein, Captain Gnarley’s First Mate.

“Um…er…um…it looks like I have a Royal Flush. That’s good, isn’t it?” asked Scarlight.

He laid the cards out on the pitted wooden table. Welmsley inspected them, and nodded his agreement. Scarlight did indeed have a Royal Flush. Captain Gnarley roared, and slammed his fist on the table.

“How can ye, a young pup, keep beating me so, eh?”

“Um…er…I suppose you might call it beginner’s luck?”

“Another game!”

Captain Gnarley pounded the table again to emphasise his point. Scarlight hesitated before gathering the money from the centre. Even after 'losing' every third hand, he’d more than tripled the amount he brought with him. It didn’t surprise him. Being the best poker player in London grew boring after a while, and now he hussled card games in Hong Kong. His tender age sucked in the old, grizzly players.

“Captain, you haven’t got much left,” said Swein.

“Nonsense! I am winning! Aren’t I winning?”

The mugs of beer jumped on the table when he slammed his fist down again. Scarlight affected an expression of fear at the captain’s temper, but also respect for his reputation.

It’s just a pity his poker isn’t as good as his sailing, he thought.

Swein dealt the cards. Scarlight paid no attention to his. He chose to watch the reaction of the others to their own cards. None of them understood the concept of bluffing. Swein grimaced at his cards, and Welmsley looked hopeful. The Captain looked confused.

The players swapped cards with those in the central pile. Swein almost twisted his face inside out in an effort to gain extra mileage from his grimace. Scarlight guessed his hands was worse. Welmsley’s hope turned to annoyance, while the Captain remained baffled. Scarlight looked down at his cards. His face fell.

“Are ye all in?” asked the Captain.

“No. I fold,” said Swein.

“Oh what’s the point? I fold as well,” said Welmsley.

He threw his cards across the table. Before they landed face down, Scarlight saw a three of clubs, a nine of diamonds and a six of hearts.

“Looks like it’s just you and me, sonny,” said the Captain. ”What do ye put in?”

“Another forty, I think,” said Scarlight. “Gosh, I hope I’m doing the right thing.”

He glanced from his cards to the Captain, and back to his cards. He pushed his money into the centre of the table.

“I see yer forty, and raise ye sixty,” said the Captain.

“Captain, that’s all you have!” said Swein.

“Argh, quiet, Swein. Look at his face, his hand must be terrible,” said the Captain.

“I don’t know if it’s bad or not...tell you what, I need to go soon so I’ll see your sixty, and raise you the rest of my money,” said Scarlight.

“Fine. My ship is more than equal to yer winnin’s, boy.”

“You can’t bet the Dead Calm!” exclaimed Swein.

“I can, and I am. Do ye doubt me?”

“No, Captain.”

“Show my yer hand, boy,” said the Captain. “I’ll wager ye can’t beat my Three of a Kind!”

He laid out his hand. A two of clubs, a three of hearts and three Knaves fanned out on the table.

“Looks like I’ll be going home in the Dead Calm after all!”

“Um…er….no you won’t,” said Scarlight.

He laid out his Full House. The Captain’s face fell. Swein fought a smirk, and Welmsley spluttered in amazement.

“My Full House beats your Three of a Kind, so I’ll be taking the Dead Calm, thank you very much.”

Scarlight stood up. Swein stood up with him.

“Swein! Ye would leave me here, and go with this young pup?”

“Aye, Jacob, I will. I am the First Mate, I go where the ship goes,” replied Swein. A smile hovered around his thin lips.

“So sorry about this, Gnarley, but all’s fair in love and gambling,” said Scarlight.

He headed towards the door, ignoring Gnarley’s pleas for another hand. Swein held open the door for him.

“Where are we going, Captain Scarlight?”

“The Caribbean!”

The Second Tale arrives

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Honestly, Vertigo City is beginning to take over my life! After the release of The First Tale as an e-book last week, I've begun work on the follow-up, called City Alchemy. The story sees Liss go in search of her missing little sister, Teva, before going freelance as an adventurer-for-hire! There will be lots more of Two, for all those fans of the obedient automaton with a heart of copper.

Still, the focus this week is on the start of The Second Tale. An altogether different beast from its steampunk predecessor, The Second Tale is a more noir-ish yarn about a jaded superhero called, originally enough, The Hero.

This incarnation of Vertigo City is more in keeping with Metropolis or Gotham City, populated by dames and hoods, as well as citizens just trying to get through the day. The Hero will have to fight a battle on two fronts, as he seeks to better his superhero competition in Vertigo, all while trying to track down Le Chat Mystérieux, a mysterious and dangerous thief...

Part One is live now.

Friday Flash - Time Stop

Tweet This flash was inspired by the very lovely Eric J. Krause's prompt over on his blog. This week, his prompt was "Time stands still for everyone but you". Also, the impossibly brilliant Carrie Clevenger of Mindspeak requested more steampunk, so what better than to revisit the first incarnation of Vertigo City? Enjoy a new story featuring Liss and Caleb. I've written this in such a way that you don't need to have read The First Tale, but if you want to, the ebook is available now from Smashwords for just 99c!

* * *

The workshop smelled of grease and rust. Liss paced among the trestle tables. She picked through the cogs and battered machinery heaped in dull copper piles. Dusty sunlight streamed through the casement window onto Caleb's workbench. He sat at the table, soldering rudimentary circuitry.

"Liss, if you're bored, feel free to pester someone else. I won't be offended," he called.

"I'm not bored. I'm just curious about what all this stuff is. What's it for?" Liss examined a glass tube topped with brass studs.

"I never know what something is for when I get it, I work that out later," he replied. "I don't exactly use things in the most conventional fashion."

An automaton rumbled into the workshop. The antenna at the base of its torso wagged when it saw Liss. It plunged across the room towards her. Its heavy tread made the tables shake and the junk piles wobble. Screws pattered to the floor like metal raindrops.

"Why don't you take Two for a walk?" asked Caleb. He took off his goggles and looked at her. The automaton thudded across the room to the staircase in anticipation. It pointed up to the hatch leading into the street.

"I've already taken it out today," said Liss.

The automaton lowered its arm with an audible hiss. Its round shoulders sagged. Liss looked at it. She noticed a drop of oil running down the smooth polished copper that served as a face.

"Caleb, Two's eye is leaking again," she said.

"I'll sort it out later. I want to get this soldering done first," said Caleb.

Liss turned her attention back to the table. She recognised some of the parts, like pistons or camshafts, but others were baffling in their design. She picked up a thin rectangular metal box. Glass took up a whole side, with a single round button mounted near the bottom edge. She pressed it, though nothing happened. Her finger traced the small square engraved on the button.

"Where did you get this stuff?" asked Liss. She dumped the thin box on the table.

"The Antiques Quarter. It's amazing the stuff you can find down there. Very little of it is actually antique but it's a good source of spare parts for the automatons," replied Caleb. "I get most of it in job lots. They don't know what it is any more than I do."

A flash of light on bright metal caught Liss' eye. She raked through the grimy machine parts in front of her. Her hand closed around a polished brass cog. About a handspan across, strange symbols ran alongside the teeth. An hourglass filled with red sand was suspended in the large hole in the middle of the cog.

"This is different. Any idea what it is?" she asked.

Caleb looked up.

"No. I got that in a job lot last week. I want to catalogue all this at some point, but that means sifting through the junk to get at the good bits. Right now, I don't have time."

"You mean you can't be bothered."

Liss flicked the hourglass. It flipped in a smooth arc, tipping upright. The red sand filtered down through the small neck. Liss stared at it for a moment. The movement of the grains proved hypnotic.

"What does it do?" she asked after a minute.

Caleb didn't reply. A quiet ticking filled the silence of the workshop. Liss looked around, unable to see a clock.

"Hey Caleb, what does it do?"

She looked at Caleb's back. He hunched over his bench, soldering iron and circuit board in hand. He didn't move. He didn't even twitch the way he did when he concentrated on his work. Liss turned to look at the automaton. Two stood motionless at the bottom of the stairs. The drop of oil froze on its face. She couldn't hear the hum of its motor.

"OK, this is weird," she said. Her voice sounded strange in the workshop. It echoed slightly, as if she stood at the mouth of a cave. She picked up a spanner and dropped it. It hung in the air. It only moved when she forced it to the ground with her hand.

Liss crossed the workshop and climbed onto Caleb's bench. She peered out of the casement window, at eye level with the street. She gawked at the tableaux before her. Passers-by stood frozen mid-stride. A gentleman looked furtive as he addressed a red-haired woman in a gaudy blue dress standing on the corner. Two children played hopscotch in the gutter. One of them hung in mid-hop above the squares. Three women in faded dresses clutched their shawls about them, heads thrown back in silent laughter.

Liss looked down at the cog in her hand. The sand poured through the hourglass with a faint hiss. She watched the last few grains drop through the narrow neck.

"How on earth did you cross the room so fast?" asked Caleb.

"I didn't, you were just so engrossed in what you were doing," said Liss.

Caleb shrugged and returned to his soldering. Liss stashed the cog in her pocket. It might come in very handy one day.

The Launch of The First Tale ebook

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It's finally here! The First Tale e-book is now available for 99c from Smashwords. Click here to buy! The e-book collects all thirty episodes of the serial that ran over on my Tales from Vertigo City blog, although naturally it's been edited and tweaked to improve the flow, even out the tone and in a couple of places, even add a little extra action.

So now you can read the whole story of the Vertigo City Resistance and the Weimar Corporation in one go, if you so choose! It's available in all the usual Smashwords formats, including MOBI, EPUB and PDF.

As a special bonus, if you buy the e-book, there's a link on the back page to the extras I bundled together, which will hopefully add a little to the experience of Vertigo. I'm talking newspaper clippings, propaganda posters...and of course, another copy of the wonderful cover illustration of Commander Liss Hunt by the exceptionally talented Jimmy Misanthrope.

Of course, if you like it, feel free to leave me a review!

Friday Flash - The Sought After Smile

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Parrots and Piracy

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Friday marked the fourth flash adventure of Captain Scarlight and his telepathic parrot, Methuselah. A couple of people have asked me if I intend to turn their tales into a serial, and in a word, the answer is no.

I already have my serial project in the form of my (occasionally "too-big-for-me") project, Tales from Vertigo City. Each of the nine tales is delivered in serial format, with each instalment appearing on a weekly basis. I try to write it in such a way that each instalment both answers earlier questions, while asking new ones, and I try to write it in a way that readers will come back the following week to find out what happens. A serial follows the 'story arc' format, with regular readers rewarded with references to earlier episodes, while new episodes move the plot along. It would be difficult to drop into the serial at any point and know what was going on, because it's intended to be read from the first episode.

I've never intended to write a Scarlight/Methuselah serial. That's not to say there won't be more adventures - no, there will be. The difference occurs in that I want their adventures to be more self-contained. I'm hoping that you could read any of their stories and still enjoy it, without having to read the others. Obviously, I hope that you enjoy the tale enough to want to read the others, but the idea is still that of the adventure "in isolation". There's not much that anyone needs to know about the pair other than the fact that the Captain likes to "drink and be merry" and Methuselah is telepathic, so in theory, the project should work. To illustrate, think of The X Files. My serial is like their 'story arc' episodes, as Mulder runs around investigating the alien abduction conspiracy theories, and they make little sense without viewing the episodes earlier in the story arc. The Scarlight/Methuselah flashes are more like their 'monster of the week' episodes, such as the one where Mulder and Scully spend Christmas Eve in a haunted house. These episodes can be viewed on their own merit.

However, for those people who have taken a liking to the characters, I can confirm that I am planning an e-book for their adventures! Parrots and Piracy will bundle together the seven flashes I plan to publish on my blog, along with four exclusive adventures. But THIS is where you come in. I'd love it for people to send me writing prompts for these four adventures. Leave your prompt in the comments section and I will choose four at random. Those lucky four contributors will win a signed Scarlight/Methuselah sketch! I'll also send you a free PDF of the e-book, because I'm nice like that.

If you'd like to check out the links to the previous adventures, I've made a page for the pair on my site. Have fun exploring here!

Spoken Sunday - Not For Sale

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This is Not for Sale, which was also my Friday Flash for this week, which you can read here! Apologies for the dreadful Jamaican accent...