Descend, Darkness, Surfacing
Renna, Rikai and Xeke are three of my favorite characters. Apocrypha isn't likely to be published, but it is a lot of fun to work on.
In 1997, when my Macintosh computer crashed (the computer crash is discussed more in length on the Forests page), I lost only one story: Renegade, which told the history of a character who had briefly appeared in a couple books, and would continue to make cameos for... well, I'm not sure how long, since she is still doing it. I lost about fifty pages of Renegade, and never had the heart to begin again.
"She is one of three who, among a certain group, are commonly called the Wild Cards," Lexi confided. “They take the stories no one wants known, and put them into the spotlight. Fiction, fact, illusion, whatever."
Renna (short for "Renegade," her nickname; other names she goes by include Lexi Strate, Elizabeth Charcoal, and Elizabeth Arun), however, is the type of character to show up unexpectedly, and that she did. At the beginning of a story that was going to be about ghosts and Rikai, Renna suddenly sauntered across the room and introduced herself to my main character.
Rikai speaks over two dozen languages fluently. She is a historian and a mythologist primarily, though she also has extensive knowledge in biological and psychological sciences. She can and has conversed with all kinds of people from all levels of society and positions on the globe- and I mean all kinds. There is evil in this world, and that is Rikai’s specialty: Evil. Documenting it, examining it, and exposing it to the light.
Not to be outdone, Rikai and Xeke quickly joined the party. Neither of them had any interest in narrating their own stories, but they were each willing to intrude on someone else's. Poor, innocent characters just going about their lives were suddenly twisted about, at the whims of some of my most whimsical- and powerful- characters.
Xeke is the second. He is a chimera... absolutely beautiful, absolutely brilliant, and absolutely fearless. If Rikai’s specialty is evil, than Xeke’s specialty is passion. He is an artist, and his medium is humanity. Rikai looks at a serpent and sees its teeth. She’s aware of its poison, of the mouse it killed earlier, and of the dead skin it shed. Xeke looks at the serpent and sees the way it dances when it moves. He’s aware of the ripple of its body, of the sway before it strikes, and of the silky feel of its new scales.
At about this time, the three of them informed me of a game they had going: See what happens when you turn someone's world upside-down. These characters are not innately cruel (with the possible exception of some of Rikai's, but they do like to play, and like a cat with a mouse their play can sometimes be a little dangerous.
The third Wild Card is a writer. She is known to have few loyalties and few ties- but what connections she has are powerful enough to keep her safe almost anywhere. Her expertise is legend and myth, language, poetry and stories. She collects stories, picking them up like pebbles in a river, no matter who they may offend. That’s where she really got the name Renegade. Just from pissing enough people off.
Apocrypha is divided into three sections: Descend, Darkness and Surfacing. Tim Descan, Jenna Marie Smith, and Ellen Caritas- all human, and blissfully unaware of Nyeusigrube- narrate, but the Wild Cards are the ones really directing the stories. Their histories come out through a variety of means. Renna's is told through her autobiographical novel, Renegade, which she tosses at Tim knowing he will assume it is fiction. Rikai's is told through a series of sculptures, paintings, and blunt personal narrative as she begins training Jenna as her apprentice. Xeke's is told through the eyes of a camera, after he spontaneously invites Ellen onto the set of the (also biographical) movie that his company is filming.
Imagine the freedom of having the lens of a camera be your eyes,
The quill of a pen be your ears,
And the stroke of a brush be your hands.
Life becomes safe-
Detached, and always open to interpretation-
And capable of being edited when you will it.
Now imagine the innocent, who watches the movie unfold,
Reads the pages in leisure,
And views the canvas only in passing.
Life becomes safe-
Detached, and always open to interpretation-
A fiction.
Apocrypha.