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Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Woods Random Legacy: Chapter 26 - Day Zero

(This chapter has a soundtrack.  Enjoy it!)

Leisure Day was bright and sunny.  While there was no breeze, the heat and humidity were low enough that the townsfolk flocked to the park to participate in the various festivities.
Unknown to those at the festival, things were about to go very wrong at four locations spread across the town.
10:37:36 AM
10:37:37 AM
Heads turned at the sound of the explosion, even as the cell phones and pagers of the fire fighters began going off, summoning them to the fire department.  Luckily nobody was at the gym on the holiday!
10:38:07 AM
As the second explosion echoed across the town center, words like "terrorist" were on the lips of every sim at the park.  Some stayed put, feeling that if a strike was going to be made on the festival it would have already, while others quickly moved away from the crowd, fearing for their safety.  But where to go?
10:41:27 AM
As the third explosion in under four minutes rang out, panic was taking hold at the festival.  Nearby, the fire fighters were facing a crisis.  How were they supposed to fight so many fires at once with only one engine?  What was priority?  And how many more explosions would there be?
10:42:07 AM
The fourth and final explosion was further away than the others, and as nobody was home to report it - the fire alarm having been disconnected, the investigation would later reveal - it burned for several hours before the fire department finally dealt with the other explosions and arrived to put it out.
Luckily, the conditions of the day were such that the neighboring houses were undamaged.  Not so luckily, the Woods' family home had been destroyed beyond repair.  The Sunset Valley police department vowed not to rest until they'd captured whoever was behind this horrifying act of vandalism.

In a dark, windowless room, the Trifectum met.
The Magician sat at one end, the fingers of his long hands laced together as he considered the Lone Wolf, seated at the opposite end of the table.  Next to a table covered with various potions, the Seer slumped motionless onto the meeting table, draped with a coarse robe of plain cloth.
Magician: "Must you bring that device here?"
Lone Wolf: "Not everybody is as stuck in the past as you are.  Modern technology can be useful, for example the incident in Sunset Val-"
The Magician cut him off, waving a hand dismissively.
Magician: "I don't need your machine to tell me that.  As I recall, all members of the family had airtight alibis, as there was no evidence to suggest that the explosions were set on a delay of any kind.  The police department ended up arresting somebody named Tyrone Kimura-Campbell, who was found with the necessary equipment in his possession."
Lone Wolf: "Yes, the one who'd had a fight during high school with the Woods boy."
Magician: "It strikes me as odd that such an old argument could be the motive for this crime, what do you think?"
He addressed the Seer, but it was the Lone Wolf who answered him.
Lone Wolf: "I think we all know who actually set the explosions.  But there's one thing I don't understand.  How could he set them for a time delay, without evidence being left behind?  Surely he didn't use all the-"
The Magician interrupted again, snapping at the Lone Wolf.
Magician: "Of course he didn't!  We're still alive, aren't we?  An explosion of that size would have wiped the entire country off the map.  Perhaps a tiny bit, but not the entire thing.  All isn't lost."
The Seer murmured, her eyelids fluttering.
 Magician: "What's that?"
He leaned close to catch her whisper, then shook his head, giving her shoulder a tender pat; she trembled under his touch.
Magician: "No, not yet.  Just a little bit longer, I promise, mei delicata."
The Lone Wolf looked down to his laptop screen, too uncomfortable to watch the display.
Magician: "Lone Wolf."
The Lone Wolf looked up.  The Magician had resumed his previous posture, hands clasped in front of him with his elbows on the table.
Magician: "Keep an eye on young master Woods."
Line Wolf: "I'll try, he's slippery like an eel though."
Magician: "You will succeed.  You are my eyes, and my ears.  Do not fail me."

~ * ~

Sorry for the long wait, got smacked over the head with homework.  Updates might be spotty for the next while, because I've got even more homework that needs done(seriously, the professor wants our essay topics set by this weekend, even before the add/drop deadline for the course, when they won't be due until the end of march!), but I haven't abandoned the story!

Does anyone have any tips on shooting scenes in dark rooms?  I can't get the ambient lighting as low as I'd like, and when I inserted a light in between VJ and his laptop to simulate it lighting his face it also lit the back of the laptop, which was just stupid.

5 comments:

  1. I don't know about lighting, other than possibly editing it (but I'm awful at that, so don't ask for help :|) but I thought the light made it look like he was under a spot light. I liked it :)

    Anyway, well, wow! I wish I'd gone and blown up half my town haha! Must've been fun to shoot for.
    I'm assuming this has something to do with James' master plan to lose his parents, but I don't understand why he's bombed other places too. He really is one crazy boy... :|

    Can't wait to see what happens now! (Well, I'll have to wait, good luck with your essay! I always failed at essays. If I had been allowed to write essays on the sims then I think I'd have got an A, but unfortunately not.)

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    1. It was actually really tedious to shoot for(part of why it took so long to get this post out) because the fire kept not doing what I wanted it to do. I'd been hoping to get a shot of the whole house up in flames, but I couldn't get fires to break out with the right timing so that they wouldn't burn themselves out.

      I guess I didn't explain the plan well enough. The other explosions were carefully timed distractions for the fire department, so that they'd respond late to the house fire. Don't ask me why the kid wanted to burn down his house, but he got the idea in his head way back when he was a toddler(I foreshadowed it).

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  2. Whoa, didn't see that coming! Look forward to the next update!

    As to lighting, you really just have to play with it. Try setting different lights at custom intensities, and also using different lights. A candle, for instance, wouldn't give as much of a glare as would an overhead light. I often use tiki torces off to the sides for brighter light, and small candles too.

    ~Margaret

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    1. Part of my problem was that I couldn't get any lights to turn on apart from that first light I placed, which was one of those small table lights set to low brightness. But even without any lights in the room, it was extremely bright. The skin of the magician(which is pretty pale) was almost glowing, so I couldn't shoot anything that was at an angle that faced him and still keep him shrouded in mystery, because you could see everything despite the room being dark.

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  3. Well, that took you less than a day! You should go read the overlord random legacy now, while you wait for me to make more chapters. It's hilariously awesome and linked in my sidebar.

    I'm loving VJ, especially how he headbutted his way into my story. I tried to ignore the weird man with the hot pink sunglasses that kept showing up, but I really couldn't, so I just rolled with it.

    Something hilarious that I just noticed today is that VJ moved in across the street from the Woods' new home. o_o

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