ccc #51 Fire

you like short? then youll get short

topic is fire however you chose to interpret that

word count is 50 words max

due end of the month

GO!

OK should be interesting, but I am up for it

50 words?

Congrats on the win but no thanks. I'll pass.

50 words on the nose:

Flambe The Flaming Homosexual is loud and proud about being a gay superhero, wearing dayglow pink spandex with bright orange and yellow flames around his plunging V-neck shirt. After defeating the homophobic killer archer, Straight Arrow, he's the darling of both the Manhattan hero circuit, and the college club scene.

@cbishop: Your fastest entry yet

@blueecho: I would hope so. Definitely my earliest. :)

Fire Girl - A Limerick

There once was a young woman named Miss Myer

Whose power was to mentally control fire

She punished all the villains

After they did some killin's

And caused the other bad guys to perspire.

@spideraidan: You have to manage to create a character with this. Unless your character's name is Fire, in which case nevermind.

The Orc's Pub was blazing on fire.

Orc Chief Grogg, the pubs owner, yelled at his minions. "Who started this?"

A red haired man walked through the fire towards Grogg. "You know what I want."

"Fernus, you damn sorcerer, stop this. I'll serve your damn Fire Ale."

Fernus smiled.

Fire is good. Fire is fun. Fire roast Marshmallows. Fire roast Humans. Fire burns buildings. Fire burns for a lasting time. Fire causes smoke. Smoking is bad. Fire is bad. Fire is not fun.

Don't play with fire.

Fire is a young girl. Fire cries every night.

Fire is also a killer.

@spideraidan: Now you have a character! :)

@spideraidan: *slow clap*

Surrounded by clowns and liars

Too much attitude causing online fires

Not enough do’ers, not enough triers

Want to take to most with a pair of pliers

A lot of crossing, mostly of wires

Knitted together on funeral pyres

Up to the skies higher and higher.

Burn

@batkevin74: And from the man that dislikes poetry! Ha! You should write more poetry. :)

@cbishop: was actually quite hard to do. But I shall merely dabble in the realms of appreciation because whilst doable it's not comfortable

This is a free-verse poem. Note: Nothing states that the word fire should be in the submission. If not, I can revise it.

...

You release

You give yourself away

To the rhythms of evil

The blanket that surrounds your being

The dark covering the sun's rays

What's left to do, is leave all behind

The ending you have awaited for so long

Let it touch you, caress you toward death

As it leads you to the depths of your pitiful nightmares

You're alone now, to die as dust

Nothing lives, you look around

You feel the heat and let it envelop you

Internalize it, and you may live to see another day, another life

Deny its help, and the man with horns

Comes, takes you away

To live another day

...

And that's more than 50 words. I'll revise it

Fire man. Fire man.

Does whatever a fire can.

Sing your eyes. Melt your skin

Look out. It's fire man

@cbishop I forgot to mention this but your entry made me laugh. Proud to be gay over here lmao.

P.S. Not all gay men are flamboyant. Still it's funny.

@kcsshd: No, not all, but some are. I actually came up with Flambe' 15 years ago. I worked in a kitchen, and we had a very "out" waiter who was flamboyant as could be. Someone referred to him as "gay...I mean flaming," and flambe is something you deal with in food service, so bam, Flambe' the Flaming Homosexual. He's kind of my personal challenge character- I have a hard time seeing LGBT characters as anything but a gimmick to draw in readers (because that seems to be how most of them are used) so I wanted to see if I could write one that was just a character that happens to be gay. His flamboyancy is a necessity to go along with his name, but he's a cross between the waiter and an also flamboyant LCS owner I know. :)

@cbishop That's a cool story. I know what you mean by some gay characters being gimmicks rather than advancing or showcasing a part of the world or story. Although, not all homosexual stories are exactly gimmicks. There have been writers of past showcasing or hinting at lesbianism or homosexuality but a lot of those authors had to avoid being banned. (Now with free speech actually applying to literature in most cases, it isn't really a problem.) The Fox by D.H. Lawrence could be an example of early lesbanism back in 1923.

Basically the summary of what I have noticed is that a gay character either exists because of three reasons: 1. As a story/character detail that draws in people and may produce complications in plot. 2. Showcases tolerance or intolerance in a society. 3. The writer has no idea how else to write a relationship because being gay themselves, it's difficult to write a straight one. (I find it almost automatic to make a male character gay because it's basically natural.)

Paraphrasing from the book How to Read Literature like a Professor. Writers put what they have in their conscience and subconscious into the story as well as their imagination. Basically if the writer is already gay, it is easy for them to make a gay character because it is part of their essence as a person imaginatively, subconsciously, and consciously.

@kcsshd: Well, that explains why I have a hard time with it. Lol :)

@cbishop: @kcsshd: I have read a couple of stories (I think one was where DC's Tasmanian Devil came out) where the revelation is treated somewhat flippantly, something like

"I am gay"

"What is that like?"

"It is hard to be gay and be a superhero"

"Oh OK, on to other business"

It seems in these cases that it is the second example listed, though a really poor version of it. I guess some writers are not well suited to handle such developments though.

You have to be able to write them real. My gay friends will zing me with gay inuendo in a second, and I'll make "queen" and Dorothy puns (I must stress that these are friends, not strangers). It's hard to do that in fiction without getting tagged as anti-LGBT in some way. Until you can write fully rounded characters that deal with everything without silly reader backlash, it's hard to do competently.

I'm Jason Luck. Of all the powers I could possibly get, fire was obviously at the top of my list. However I should have been a bit more specific about it, as I figured out shortly that being able to burst into flames means nothing when I'm not fire resistant.

Still had the Killing Joke fresh in my mind. Here's what I came up with.

I gaze forward, seeing the monster I hate. He looks back at me with mutual disdain. A revolver divides us, but our hands connect together. We struggle for control. The fool trapped by his past, and reflections of what he’s becoming. Only one way to stop it. Ready. Aim. Fire!

@dngn4774: Hey DN. Welcome back.

@tommythehitman: :)

@cbishop: could you turn this nto a voting sequene when its all done. i dont have the time nor the skil to make it

@4donkeyjohnson: sure. Might be a day or two after the deadline.

thanks 4 that

@4donkeyjohnson: No problem. I'm assuming they've got until 11:59 pm?

I am interested to see how this one turns out

@kcsshd: You have about 8 minutes to get your entry within the word limit. :/

And time. Been working on the voting thread. Will have it up in a minute.