I Am A Heathen · 1:40am Mar 28th, 2015
Hello friends,
I recently hit a speedbump where writing Grey Arbiter is concerned. I am at the middle point in terms of plot, which means I'm at the point where the most shit is going on, and I'm having a little trouble tying it all together in a way that would make sense to a reader. Therefore, I apologise for what promises to be a fairly large gap between chapters 5 and 6.
While I try to get my head on straight, I had a crack at one of my other story ideas, featuring younger Luna, Celestia, Starswirl, as well as an ancient, blind, amnesiac dragon. Here's an extract from that:
Unsurprisingly, Archineighdes's study blended into the rest of the museum such that you might count his personal belongings in with the artifacts from the glass boxes. It spoke of a pony that replaced equipment only when its predecessor broke. If there was an iota of floor space, he was doing his best to hide it with archaeological tools, books, dyes and just about every other tiny, useful thing you could think of. An ink pot stood on his ink-stained desk, in which a mostly featherless quill rested. The rest of the desk was occupied by a metal tub, which contained a soil-covered bone. As in the rest of the place, the floorboards moaned at the slightest weight.
"Pardon the mess, if you will, your highness." he said, struggling to move the clutter from off his desk. "I don't usually have visitors, except for Starswirl coming down every week asking if I've got any new magical artifacts-" he dropped the bone in the corner of the room, swept the dirt from his hooves and stood behind his desk. "-which I never do. Gods forbid I should find something interesting to study now and again without that meddling mage taking it away."
"It's quite alright. A change of scenery was long overdue, I feel." I said. Anything left on the desk was soon on the floor as Archineighdes brought his arm across it.
"Tired of the upstairs, are we?" he said, leaning forward on the table. "I don't work down here because I was told to, if you understand my meaning."
"Do you live down here as well?" I asked.
He pointed a hoof upwards. "I have my own room upstairs, like all the other scholars, but it rarely sees use. Most of the time, I sleep and eat down here." he said, waving a hoof around his head. "I feel like I would lose far too many hours if I had to travel between here and my room each day."
He went to a cupboard on his left and opened it. "There's already so much work to be done-" he said, bringing some plates back to the table before returning to the cupboard. "-and one lifetime doesn't provide nearly enough hours in which to do it.".
While he rummaged, I found a stack of chairs in the corner of the room, removed two, and set them on either sides of the desk. He came back from the cupboard with a basket of bread and put it on the table.
"Still. I enjoy every minute of it." he said, and smiled. "Thank you for setting the chairs. Please, do sit."
