Barbaric Treatment

[lytrigian]

As promised, here's Barbaric Treatment. It's just a silly short. The time setting is a week or so following The Shadow Duke.

The humor is more evident if you're familiar with the overwrought prose of Howard's original Conan stories.

Comments

[shayna611]

That was hysterical.

[lytrigian]

Thank you! I thought it was risky opening with a grammar joke, but I felt that other writers, at least, would get it.

[shayna611]

I just about died at the grammar joke (I/me is one of my BIG pet peeves)

[qui_te]

Yeah, that was pretty darn funny. And I haven't even read the Conan stuff.

What's the next tasty bit we get?

[lytrigian]

Thanks! The Conan stuff is actually worth reading. I'm being just a little unkind to them here.

The trouble with the next bit is that 1) I'd being distracted by Mabinogi; and 2) I have a series of events, but am having trouble pulling a plot together. It'll be nowhere near as long as, say, Along the Forest Road, so once it's in draft it shouldn't take as long to knock into shape, but it needs something more than "stuff happens" and I can't seem to find it.

I can't just skip it either, because it sets up the story that follows.

[qui_te]

I'm sure you'll be able to pull through.

And sometimes we just need to take breaks from games. I know, I know, but _sometimes_...

I wish I could offer some cheap advise, but I tend to do plots intuitively, so I can't really help. You do seem to be quite good at coming through in the end, so I good luck and I'll hope to see the next bit soon.

[lytrigian]

I do plots the same way, but this one has been a struggle for some reason.

Mabinogi sucks you in by aging your character. Every week, a year passes in game time. If you take too long a break, you miss your entire adolescence.

OMG too true

[picco_mabi]

Mega-LOL!! As an avid reader of Howard and a few other "gritty barbarian adventure" authors I thought this was great!!

Your opening paragraphs where so true to the genre, too true, thus the humor.

And yet as a fan of the books this parodies, I cant help but with you'd write a "serious" barbarian adventure in this style. It is difficult to find well written tales in this style of epic/overdramatic prose. All too often those that do attempt to write this way are attemting to use the style to mask their inexperience at writing. (hmm.. wonder if you'd take a commission ;) )

Well enough rambling I suppose, thanks for the laugh!

Re: OMG too true

[lytrigian]

Hee! In that opening paragraph I even directly ripped of a common descriptive phrase or two from the early stories. Nothing like the original to give it the right flavor

[greymagpie]

I laughed at the grammar joke, but I laughed harder at the sword names. Probably because I complained about Kit's sword not having a name in Along the Forest Road.

Very Conan-esque. Awesome. Also looks like Tam's getting the hang of his battle-madness...

[lytrigian]

It's about time he did, after Kit fucked it out of him in the last story...

[twistedhilarity]

Well goodness, Seen you at y-gal, I never knew you had an LJ account! Man, I haven't thought of Conan in forever. This just made me grin like a loon, thinking of those old stories.

Great Barbarian, LOL.

[lytrigian]

Thank you! And for my part, I didn't know YOU had an LJ.

He's really more movie-Conan than story-Conan, even if I was spoofing the stories' style.

I recently read some of them again -- they've collected Howard's stories without all the edits and pastiches added on after he died. Turns out my memory deceived me -- I could have been a lot more florid and STILL not come close to how Howard chewed up the scenery.

[twistedhilarity]

I know! Man, that man was florid to the nth degree, LOL.
XD