Ornery Poetry Story Time: Lotus Laments

Image copyright Carlo Paulasso

Always believing him out of her reach

There was a subtle trembling in her speech

Whenever she had something to report

As she daydreamed of being his consort

But dreams become nightmares for foolish girls

He stole a treasure more precious than pearls

Never could she believe he was that man

A cur in an alley grabs what he can

She believed him to be a righteous gent

Quickly from her heart was that belief rent

He was a doctor, she minded his kids

She is left with the guilt from what he did

Her innocence died upon that cold night

There is nothing on Earth can make it right

Lotus Lakshmi Martha Clifford

13 March 1963

Sharing with these sites:

http://thesundaymuse.blogspot.com

https://poetsandstorytellersunited.blogspot.com/

http://godoggocafe.com (for Promote Yourself Monday)

Notes

If all you wanna see is the poetry, this is is your stop. If you wanna take note of the notes, stick around!

I am very grateful to the folks at the Sunday Muse blog for providing this photo. It turned out to be the push I needed to get out of my stuck place with my WIP, The Ballad of Gerry Clifford.

Lotus is the older sister of the titular character. She was adopted into the large, loving Clifford family when she was six years old. She wrote this sonnet after being molested at twelve years old by the doctor whose children she babysat for.

If you would like to see more snippets from this and other stories as they develop, please click the following link to check out your options.

http://www.naughtynetherworldpress.com/p/places-to-support-naughty-netherworld.html

The Icky, Sticky, Nit-Picky Legalese, if You Please (Or Don't Please)

Content copyright 2020 by Cara Hartley

Please do not repost

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Cross-posting to the following locations

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https://bitpatron.co/orneryowl.id.blockstack

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Forbidden Love: A Fetch Flash Fiction Haibun

Image by Stefan Keller from Pixabay

Princess Ondina walked along Rsevfha Beach as the larger of Zecor’s twin suns followed its small companion below the horizon. Three of the planet’s seven moons had risen, but they were outshone by the presence of the little man who stood at the monarch’s side.

“Serab, I am selfish,” the Princess confessed. “I am sorry my brother took you prisoner but pleased that he made you my bodyguard. His joke backfired on him. I never felt like this before. You are the best friend I could imagine and more.”

impossible dream

small, strong hands and stalwart heart

my forbidden love

~cie~

notes

This Flash Fiction Haibun features the Princess Ondina, reluctant captive monarch of the fascist regime of East Zecor and her bodyguard and secret love, Serab, a common thief captured by Ondina's cruel brother King Qweh and presented to Ondina as a jest. The joke backfired when Ondina not only accepted Serab as her bodyguard but fell in love with him.

The image I chose to illustrate this piece is nearly perfect except for the size of the people shown in the silhouette. Ondina was six feet tall and Serab stood around five foot four.

The people of Zecor have an elflike appearance. Qweh and Ondina are half-siblings. As Ketil Nagel explains to his friends in Team Netherworld's first published novella, Ketil and Yitzy's Adventures in the Xura Dream House, the dark-complexioned Qweh's mother was of the Wxzca line and the fair Ondina's mother was from the Welryv line. The pair's father is from the Welryv line.

The ruling race of Zecor, regardless of subtype, is tall. King Qweh was seven foot seven while Ondina was six feet tall. Serab, on the other hand, was an Ahprizite hybrid. The Ahprizites were a small, elflike race. At five foot four, Serab would have been very tall for an Ahprizite.

For the sort who would quibble that a Haibun can only be non-fiction:

1. I don't care.

2. Not according to Poetry Soup.

3. See 1.

If you enjoyed this little WIP excerpt and liked reading the background of the people of Zecor, please consider picking up a copy of Team Netherworld's Fetching first novella.

I hope to be back to sharing excerpts from Ketil and Yitzy's adventure next week. I am continuing to make headway on The Ballad of Gerry Clifford despite personal setbacks.

Carpe Diem Love Month: Moonlight Moving: A Fetch Story Poem

Image by Syaibatul Hamdi from Pixabay

the moonlight moving

across a traumatized sky

above a dead world

~cie~

notes

I have not been well. My diabetes has decided to behave in a more completely shitty fashion than it had previously done, so not only do I find myself dealing with the frustration of contending with this garbage condition, I find myself mired in self-loathing because I learned at a young age that anything shy of physical perfection was a personal failure. I will say with unflinching honesty that if it weren't for the fact that I still serve a purpose in assisting my son, I would punch my own ticket. I realize that suicide ideation is an uncomfortable subject, but please refrain from the blah blah counseling blah and blah blah medications blah rhetoric. Counseling doesn't help, and psych meds cause me to become manic and psychotic, two things that I, shockingly, don't enjoy being.

This poem describes the dead world of Zetar 6 (Zecor), a key player in the Fetch Universe. Fetch is Team Netherworld's flagship story, which was born in early November of 2014 when I was working at the retirement community where I would work for close to 11 years. The idea was born when I learned that someone who had meant a great deal to me for many years had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. This person was only 55 years old at the time of diagnosis--the same age that I am now. 

In my shock and grief, I walked through the vast retirement community and was prompted with the idea of finally starting a project that I had envisioned taking on for close to forty years. I had always wanted to write a backstory for the Lights of Zetar, a Star Trek episode which has been universally panned by critics and which has its problems, but has, nonetheless, always fascinated (and scared the bejeezus out of ) me.

The inspiration to finally begin this project and to incorporate it with my beloved Cthulhu Mythos came from a mind other than my own. I will not go into detail except to say that this inspirational individual was noncorporeal, and you can think whatever the hell you want about that, I'm not going to argue with you. I refer to this presence as Gem, and I am deeply grateful to him for the gift he gave me. I am saddened by the fact that when I am gone, the door to this world will close. No-one enjoys my work, and I am well aware of that. My writing style is entirely unappealing to most people, and my personality even more so.

I love you, Gem, but sometimes I am not sure if you possess much in the way of good sense. If you did, you surely would have chosen a scribe who was less of a complete and utter train wreck of a human being to be your co-conspirator.

Love,

cie

Carpe Diem Love Month: Rainbow Bridge to the Dreamlands

Image by navallo from Pixabay

in a place beyond

over the storied rainbow

you and I will meet

perhaps in the land of dream

imagined by Lovecraft

~cie~

I will never get over this

I wish he was here with me

notes

I know nobody gives a flying toss about my notes, but since I'm pretty sure no-one will read this post anyway, what do I care?

I am recovering from a mental breakdown and from a TIA. I am trying to move back in the direction of writing what I want to write rather than what I think will make money. My health is precarious and I don't really know how long I have left on this planet. I worry like hell about developing vascular dementia. I'm not too worried about Alzheimer's because there isn't a history of that on either side of my family. My father had vascular dementia. My aunt on my mother's side probably had Lewy body dementia, although nothing was ever really confirmed. Hers seemed to onset more quickly than Alzheimer's tends to, although I have a feeling she was hiding her memory lapses until she couldn't anymore.

The TIAs I have had exacerbate my ADD. I don't have any short-term memory loss, but there is a change in my cognition. I blame this most recent episode on not having adequate insulin (thanks, Medicaid). My P.A. changed up my prescription so hopefully, this won't happen again. It probably could have been changed sooner but she was on maternity leave, and I am reluctant to see another provider. It is critical that I have a provider who treats me with respect and looks at numbers such as A1C, blood glucose, blood pressure and triglycerides (all things I'm taking medications for) as opposed to focusing on the damn number on the scale, which only triggers episodes of self-loathing and restrictive eating. Anyone who thinks that shaming large people (or anyone else) reinforces positive behavior is dead wrong. All that sort of behavior does is makes people avoid seeking medical care for fear of being shamed.

I write a segment called Henry and Henry for the Fetch universe. Henry is my female protagonist Pepper's beloved cat, who passes away suddenly. He is modeled after my Lafayette.

Henry Kalmar is the spirit of a flamboyant, openly gay New Orleans blues musician who commits suicide on the tenth anniversary of his beloved half-sister's death. Henry is modeled after Lafayette Reynolds, my favorite character in the show True Blood. Lafayette was the namesake for my Lafayette. He was played by the very talented Nelsan Ellis, who died on 8 July 2017 at the age of 39 from complications of alcohol withdrawal. Nelsan's sister Alice was murdered by her husband in 2002. This was something that Nelsan never got over.

Nelsan attempted to stop using alcohol on his own because he was ashamed to seek help for his addiction. This, unfortunately, created deadly complications. Here we have an example of how shaming people for addiction doesn't work. If shame worked, there would be no addicts, no fat people, and no smokers. I repeat that shaming doesn't work, it only makes people reluctant to seek medical care for fear of being shamed by ignorant health "care" providers.

I adopted my Lafayette's half-sister or cousin Tara at the same time that I adopted Lafayette. I suspect that both of them were very inbred. They came from the same feral colony. Both of them had to have most of their teeth removed because of feline stomatitis. Lafayette had problems with his fur falling out and scabby skin which I attributed to a grain allergy and began feeding him grain-free food which seemed to help somewhat. I later misattributed some of the signs of system failure to a return of the feline stomatitis and assumed that he would need the rest of his teeth removed. I had no idea, and I will go to my grave blaming myself for being so wrapped up in working that I missed critical signs. I will never forgive myself.

Henry the Cat meets Henry Kalmar in the Dreamlands, and together they become part of the team trying to save the Cosmos from an ultimate threat headed by Nyarlathotep, the smartest and trickiest of the Outer Gods. This ragtag group of reluctant heroes also includes a snarky Swedish spectre, a benevolent Yithian, a sweet-natured but foul-mouthed Scotsman who departs his cognitively impaired body at night to join the fight, a terminally ill British prog-rock icon, and a couple of good-natured ghouls. 

I let the story languish for five years in favor of attempting to write stuff that I believed would sell. It didn't, and I'm not going to back-burner my beloved project any longer. Would I like for it to have an audience? Sure, I suppose, but sometimes knowing that other people are watching prevents me from unleashing my creativity. So, whatever. 

Generally speaking, I am not the kind of person that other people gravitate to. I have kind of a prickly, defensive personality from years of having to defend myself, what do you know? I can count on one hand the people who will respond to this post, and I thank you in advance.

Carpe Diem New Beginnings: Snowdrops

you always told me

whenever I saw snowdrops

it means you are near

are you here with me again

or is this wishful thinking?

~cie~

Carpe Diem New Beginnings: First Cry

Image by DatWuschel from Pixabay

first cry of the heart

the wild anticipation

drowning in desire

years ahead lead to regret

saltwater overflowing

~cie~

notes

I have been working on Fetch (Team Netherworld's main WIP) and was inspired to create a Fetch story poem in the voice of Princess Ondina.

November PAD Chapbook Challenge 2019: Day 30: A Fetch Story Poem: The End

Image by Enrique Meseguer from Pixabay

When the end came to her world

She left her body behind

Everything she knew was gone

She walked through poison atmosphere

Watching the city burn

She looked up to the sky

At the small sun gone nova

Having glutted itself on the energies

Of its larger companion

The planet flooded with gamma rays

Could no longer sustain life

She grieved her useless efforts

Wishing she could snuff herself out

Like one of the candles that she burned

In the vain hope of countering

The misguided sorcery

That brought about the end

The end of life

The end of hope

The end of everything

~Cie Channeling Princess Ondina~

Note:

The final prompt in the November PAD Chapbook Challenge was "The End." I was inspired to write a poem for Team Netherworld's long-running WIP, Fetch. 

Princess Ondina was the reluctant captive regent of the tyrannical monarchy of West Zecor. Misusing powerful magic learned from his mystical adviser Yadira, the daughter and High Priestess of Nyarlathotep, Ondina's megalomaniac psychopath brother King Qweh triggered a reaction in the planetary system's smaller sun, Zetar Beta, causing it to begin devouring its larger companion. This ill-advised action brought about the doom of Zecor (Zetar 6). Princess Ondina is the previous incarnation of Fetch's female protagonist, Pepper Baiij. 

The reincarnation sequence of the Fetch story was born because I had long wanted to write a backstory for the third season original Star Trek episode The Lights of Zetar. This episode tends to be pretty much universally panned, and it certainly has its flaws, i.e. if Captain Kirk had referred to a grown-ass woman in her 30s as "the girl" one more time, I swore I was going to jump through the screen and make him wear his 'nads for earrings, but I was fascinated and, frankly, terrified by the malevolent light colony. It provided me many years of nightmares. To this day, even as desensitized as I am to most so-called horror (which generally consists of gore and jump-scares), I still cannot watch this episode in the dark.

Fun Trivia: The Lights of Zetar was co-written by the late Shari Lewis of Lamb Chop fame and her husband Jeremy Tarcher. Lovable Miss Shari definitely had a dark side to her imagination!

November PAD Chapbook Challenge 2019: Day 19: Another Antonymic Bomb: Loved and Despised

Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay

Admirable - Awful

Beautiful - Boorish

Compassionate - Cruel

Darling - Deplorable

Enlightened - Egocentric

Fantastic - Foul

Genuine - Gruesome

Heavenly - Hellish

Innocent - Irredeemable

Just - Jealous

Keen - Kinky

Lovable - Loathsome

Marvelous - Malevolent

Noble - Nasty

Obliging - Oligarch

Pure - Pretentious

Quaint - Quarrelsome

Resourceful - Ruthless

Sagacious - Sadistic

Tender - Terrible

Unaffected - Unjust

Valiant - Vile

Warm - Wicked

Xenial - Xenophobic

Yielding - Yellowblooded

Zany - Zealot

Princess Ondina

Notes:

Today's November PAD Chapbook Challenge prompt asked for a protagonist or antagonist poem, or one that incorporates both. I was inspired to do a character study through the eyes of Princess Ondina, a long-ago incarnation of Pepper Baiij.

Princess Ondina was the reluctant captive regent of West Zecor on the doomed world of Zetar 6. She was held in the thrall of her brutal half-brother, King Qweh. One night, Qweh slew Ondina's bodyguard in a drunken rage. The next day, he brought the princess a diminutive thief whom he'd captured as a replacement bodyguard, thinking himself terribly witty. Ondina, however, stated that the little man would make a fine bodyguard and asked Qweh to leave her laboratory. 

Ondina and the thief, whose name was Serab, established an immediate rapport that quickly turned to love. There was little time for amorous moments, however. The world's binary suns were engaged in a battle with one another that would soon turn deadly, and there was no way that the cruel and jealous King Qweh was about to allow his oppressed sister to find joy with a common thief.

In this character study, Ondina compares the attributes of her beloved and her brother.

Zecor or Zetar 6 is the planet from which the malevolent Lights of Zetar of the original Star Trek series originated. I always wanted to write a backstory for this episode and, nearly 40 years later, I finally pulled the trigger on the project. 

The Lights of Zetar are the creation of the late Jeremy Tarcher and the late Shari Lewis. 

All the characters mentioned in this post are the creations of Team Netherworld.

Fetch is the flagship story in Team Netherworld's Yadira Chronicles.

Tidbit Tuesday: November PAD Chapbook Challenge 2019: Day 13: A Fetch Story Poem: The Ballad of Gerry Clifford: One So Small

Targeted version 7

Pixlr manipulation by The Real Cie

how can one so small

make a difference at all?

I fear all is lost

Gerry Clifford

Notes:

Fair warning that the explanation for the tidbit is longer than the tidbit. If you are the sort of nerd who enjoys reading about creative processes and what was going on in the author's fucked-up brain, you may enjoy this. If you prefer it when authors shut up and just tell the story, you'll probably want to give this mess a miss.

It may seem a massive--nay, an outlandish and well-nigh unforgivable exercise in utter laziness for me to repackage this poem which I published just yesterday and publish it again for Tidbit Tuesday. However, I have my reasons beyond laziness for duplicating and re-routing this little gem. You see, my muse has returned and I am inspired! The many wild, free-roaming chapters of Fetch are finally being corralled and structured into novelettes or novellas. I don't rightly know which yet. That will be determined when the manuscript is complete.

Each novelette or novella begins with a poem, and this is the poem that kicks off Book One. The artwork, which may or may not end up serving as the cover for the book, was created by Yours Truly using Pixlr. No credit is due to Photoshop, which I used to use exclusively, but Adobe is scummy and is making it so people like me, who have older versions of Photoshop, are not able to access those versions because they want to strong-arm everyone into paying monthly blood money for Creative Cloud. As our hero, Gerry Clifford would say, "fuck that shit." Although it would sound more like "fook that shite."

The November PAD Chapbook Challenge prompt for the day requested a Persona poem, and I was stuck. Then I thought of Team Netherworld's beloved protagonist, Gerry Clifford, and decided to let him take over and write a poem that sums up his personality and motivation in just a few words.

Fetch is an Irish term for an apparition of a person who is still living. Gerry's body is alive, but his brain is severely compromised, and so his spirit is starting to make more frequent astral excursions.

Fetch is the flagship story in Team Netherworld's Yadira Chronicles, and Gerry Clifford is its male protagonist. When Gerry's cognitive abilities became too deteriorated for him to remain at home, his wife, Anne, had him placed in London's Candlelight Ridge Care Center for Memory Loss. On his first day in the center, Gerry encountered Yadira Root, who presented herself as a kindly older woman volunteering her heartfelt help but who was, in fact, a daughter and high priestess of Nyarlathotep.

To Gerry's horror, he discovered that the residents of Candlelight Ridge were being targeted by a malevolent hive entity which appears as flashes of brilliant multicolored light. It quickly became apparent that the entity had a particular interest in Gerry and was biding its time for reasons he couldn't understand. 

Upon fleeing the entity, Gerry found himself in the presence of Pepper Baiij, a troubled caregiver working with memory-impaired patients in an assisted living facility thousands of miles from England in Ransom, Kansas. Pepper had strong psychic abilities. She had been devastated to hear of Gerry Clifford’s diagnosis. His band, Mainline, was a longstanding favorite act of hers.

We have enough Fetchy material for several books. We doubt anyone else is excited as we are, or, in fact, gives one single fuck. We don't care, we give a fuck and are going to unleash our words on the world regardless.

Nyarlathotep is the creation of H.P. Lovecraft. Everything else in this post can be blamed on Team Netherworld.

November PAD Chapbook Challenge 2019: Day 14: A Fetch Story Poem: Man Becomes Myth

Image by vishnu vijayan from Pixabay

he thinks that

he's a simple man

but he is

a legend

he is a million deep dreams

I a silent sigh

A Shadorma for Gerry from Pepper

Note:

Today's November PAD Chapbook Challenge was to write a myth poem. It didn't have to be about an established myth. I wrote another Fetch story poem. 

Gerry Clifford, the story's male protagonist, came from a working-class background and became a successful and well-paid musician. He never thought of himself as a rock star and made a point not to indulge in "rock star" attitudes. 

Pepper Baiij, the story's female protagonist, is a troubled woman whose family always wanted to be wealthy and instilled the belief in her that if you are anything but a member of high society, you are nothing. Pepper believes herself to be fatally flawed and can't understand how Gerry could feel anything but disdain for her.

Gerry sees himself as a very simple person and can't imagine why anyone would take the least bit of interest in him outside of his skill set. To Pepper, Gerry is a legend and impossibly high above her.

The image references another part of the story. Pepper and Gerry met previously in an ill-fated lifetime on a dying planet where she was a powerless princess of a ruthless dictatorship ruled over by her brutal older half-brother and Gerry was a lowly thief captured by said half-brother and presented to the princess as a replacement for the bodyguard her brother killed in a fit of rage. This gesture was intended as a jest on the part of the king, but the princess accepted the diminutive, elven thief as her new bodyguard and the pair formed a powerful though ultimately ill-fated bond.

Heeding Haiku With Chèvrefeuille, November 6th 2019, Halloween (Senryu)

Image Source

I miss the lost days

when I believed in magic

I miss Halloween

~Cie~

Carpe Diem Weekend Meditation #108 + OctPoWriMo 2019: Day 26: What Is Unspoken (Choka)

Image Source

what is unspoken

in the silence of autumn

is what I'm feeling

"speak your truth," the leaves whisper

but what can I say?

I'm biting my tongue

because what I want to say

is I still love you

wish you hadn't gone away

please come back to me

walk alongside me again

the crunching of leaves

sweeter walking together

For Team Netherworld's sadly ignored WIP, Fetch

From Pepper to Gerry

Carpe Diem Weekend Meditation #100: Indian Summer

I

after a warm day

a thin layer of fresh fallen snow

covers the garden

after a warm day

sweat slick on the back of neck

I dream of autumn

a thin layer of fresh fallen snow

on some faraway mountains

elsewhere but not here

covers the garden

there are not that many trees

a few fallen leaves

II

Indian Summer

inbetween seasons

roses bloom again

Indian summer

this was never his color

he was always pale

inbetween seasons

he exists between the worlds

observing sorrow

roses bloom again

another life lies ahead

the thought is tiresome

For Gem from Cie 

and 

Gerry from Pepper

Notes:

The "sleighs" of these Troiku were created by Chèvrefeuille. The horses of the apocalypse were wrangled into a story poem or collective of disjointed and depressive thoughts by me. Happy Pumpkin Spice Senryu to you.

Carpe Diem Field of Flowers: Cornflower

Image Source

cornflower blue eyes

yellow sun surrounding black

pretty rainbow eyes

where have you gone dreaming now

have you become the music

For Gem and Gerry

Notes:

If you prefer poetry without trivia, the bus stops here.

If you enjoy Cie's various ramblings, stick around.

This little trivia blurb was created by me for a trivia post regarding eyes which appear to change color. This is the result of a harmless condition called central heterochromia. This person's eyes were primarily blue, but there was a circle of yellow pigment close to the pupil which caused the eye to appear green or hazel depending on the light. I just thought this was a really interesting phenomenon. 

The person whose eyes were used as an example of this condition is no longer among the land of the living, and I kind of don't feel like talking about that.

Gerry Clifford, the male protagonist in Team Netherworld's longest-running WIP, Fetch, is described by the smitten Pepper Baiij as having rainbow eyes.

Rainbow Eyes is one of my favorite songs. It was written by Ritchie Blackmore and the late Ronnie James Dio.

Fetch: I Just Wanted You to Know

A Lost World Version 4

Photoshop Art by The Real Cie

I just wanted you to know

You seemed eternal, you know

And part of my mind which doesn't work quite right believes

That this is still what's going on

And you aren't dead and gone

Taken from the world 

By a disease that destroyed your mind

I'm sorry I got angry with you

For something which was in no way your fault

I believed in you

I wanted to meet you

I wanted to be your friend

I knew no-one like you could ever love me

I know for a fact that no-one can

But I hoped that maybe you would like me just a little

I still love you 

But I fuck everything up

I wish that we could reconnect

I wish that we could try again

Image copyright Skeeze

I'm so hungry for something I haven't a recipe for

I want to believe in magic

I want to believe in dreams

I want gentle ghosts to haunt my graveyard

And my house and my carousel

I want you to come visit me across time

I would give you a place to hide

In my heart or my pocket

I keep your picture in my broken locket

Beautiful little fractured spirit

You are so much more than you know

I wish that I could hold you to my breast

And soothe the sorrow from your soul

The feeling does go both ways, you know

I still love you

I would try again a million times

Sweet thief of hearts

Come steal my heart

Again

And again

And again

For Gerry from Pepper

Notes:

This poem was created for Team Netherworld's long-running WIP, Fetch. 

The backstory for Fetch (and the stanza just below the carousel image) can be found here.

Five Line Fetchy Fragment: Hunger

Image copyright Skeeze

I'm so hungry for something I haven't a recipe for

I want to believe in magic

I want to believe in dreams

I want gentle ghosts to haunt my graveyard

And my house and my carousel

Cie for Gem

Ondina for Serab

Pepper for Gerry

Prompt Used:

You can stop right there and just read the poem, or you can continue on and read the long and rambling notes.

Notes:

This story poem was created for Team Netherworld's longest-running WIP, Fetch, which is a Lovecraftian paranormal romance.

Fetch's protagonist is Gerry Clifford, a Scottish musician raised in London's seedy Crouch End borough from the time he was twelve years old. (As inspired by Stephen King's Lovecraftian short story, Crouch End, which can be found in the 1980 anthology, New Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos.) As Gerry's cognitive and physical abilities deteriorate, he is placed in London's Candlelight Ridge Care Home. Gerry's spirit begins to go AWOL from a body which no longer works properly, and he discovers that the unfortunate residents at Candlelight Ridge are not simply succumbing to the ravages of age and infirmity, their souls are being harvested by Yadira Root, an ancient high priestess of the notorious Cthulhu Cult and the daughter of Nyarlathotep himself. Pursued by a hostile hive entity, Gerry turns to troubled American medium Pepper Baiij for help.
Many millennia previously in another star system and possibly another dimension, Gerry was a thief named Serab. Serab was a member of a race persecuted by West Zecor's tyrannical King Qweh, who captured the hapless thief one day and presented him to his sister Princess Ondina, an empath whose primary function was attempting to ameliorate the destruction and chaos caused by Qweh.
Qweh hoped for Ondina to be irritated when he gave her the tiny, elfin Serab as a replacement for her slain bodyguard, but Ondina did not react as Qweh hoped. She treated Serab respectfully. There was an immediate attraction between Ondina and Serab, although Ondina was statuesque, stately, and a member of the ruling class while Serab was small, rough, and a member of an oppressed race.
When Serab was brutally murdered by Qweh at the end of the doomed planet Zecor's existence, Ondina sent his soul to "the realm of the yellow sun" with the admonition that the pair must never meet again. Ondina hoped to protect her beloved from Qweh's threat that he would destroy Serab in any lifetime where he and Ondina reunited.
Serab eventually reincarnated as Gerry Clifford while Ondina reincarnated as Pepper Baiij. The star-crossed lovers were finally reunited when Gerry's spirit or Fetch began leaving his body in search of help.
It's doubtful that Fetch will ever be published in any kind of cohesive form. It remains Team Netherworld's favorite WIP.

Disclosure: If you purchase the book through this link, I earn a small commission.

Heeding Haiku: Shadows on the Wall

Image Source

shadows on the wall

hope to see you hiding there

haunter of my heart

A story-poem for Fetch

By Cie for Gem and Pepper for Gerry

Fetch is Team Netherworld's longest-running WIP

Carpe Diem Summer Challenge 2019 + The Tuesday Platform: Beachcomber

Image Source

missing the malls

on the ocean beach

she gathers shells

what is there to miss in malls?

beaches are so much better

high tide

the beach leaves a mark

in her book

she will always remember

this new home away from home

afternoon wind

all the beachcomber's words

blown out to sea

words written on the shoreline

she hopes that he could see them

cold beach walk

on sun-warmed car seats

two sweatshirts

one for her, one for her son

the one who means everything

a special beach

I put a pebble in my mouth

before leaving

wishing to taste the ocean

one last time before going

smelling the light

on her tanned shoulder

home from the beach

this home away from her home

in her memory always

~Jane & Cie~

Notes:

The Hokku of these Renga were written by Jane Reichhold (1937 - 2016). The Ageku were created by me.

The sum total is a story poem about Pepper Baiij, the protagonist in Team Netherworld's long-running WIP, Fetch. These story poems help keep the WIPs we aren't able to work on as much alive.

Carpe Diem Summer Love 2019: Day 5: Beach Love

Image by Reimund Bertrams from Pixabay

Walking on the beach

Lonely ghost of a lost world

Remembers a day

He walked with his princess

Beside the now toxic sea

For Serab, the Thief of Hearts

Notes:

This poem is part of the Fetch universe, which is part of the Yadira Chronicles.

Serab was a thief who was a member of a persecuted race in the totalitarian kingdom of West Holpry on the planet Zecor (Zetar) 6. The diminutive Serab was brought to the long-suffering Princess Ondina to replace her slain bodyguard as a joke by Ondina's churlish and cruel brother, King Qweh. Ondina, however, did not treat Serab as a joke. In truth, she fell in love with him from the moment of their first meeting. Their story ended tragically as Qweh's ill-advised magic prompted the small sun of the binary Zetar star system to begin consuming energy from its larger companion, eventually causing itself to go nova and flooding the entire system with deadly gamma radiation.

Serab later reincarnated as Gerry Clifford, the primary male protagonist in the Fetch stories, and Ondina reincarnated as Pepper Baiij, a troubled medium and Gerry's love interest. Star-crossed as always, Pepper and Gerry don't meet until the point when Gerry's body is failing and Pepper encounters him astrally.

The story was inspired by several factors, one of them being my decades-long desire to create a back-story for the unfortunately almost universally panned Star Trek episode, The Lights of Zetar, which fascinated and, frankly, scared the living hell out of me. Like the majority of my works, Fetch is primarily a Cthulhu Mythos-based story.

Like the Legend of Seacliffe, Fetch is one of those stories which doesn't get nearly the amount of attention that I'd like to devote to it.