I am The Wordsmith
Airilymusing made their way through the doors.
“And it’s, sparks a’ flying!”
Clang!
“Passion strong!”
Clang!
“I am the-” Writersblock looked up from the anvil where they were clearly forging…something that looked like a story. Still smoking, they tossed it into a pile that Morrigan was picking through, obviously looking for something usable.
Aer shook their head, rubbing at their temples. “What are you doing?”
“Working.” Block replied, grabbing the story that Morrigan had been giving a couple of test swings. The now empty-handed woman shot the wordsmith a glare that didn’t do much.
“Where’s Jeneralissima?” Aer asked, ignoring the way Morrigan had begun swinging a different story with considerably more force. “If I know her, she wouldn’t leave the two of you alone with access to fire.”
Block pouted, but motioned to where their beta was cleaning multiple stories, surrounded by several five-gallon buckets full of commas. Occasionally she would grab one of them and stick them in, but the knife in her hand was dripping ink. It was clear that more commas were coming out than going back in.
“Aldus Manutius is rolling over in his grave.” Jenerilissima said in lieu of a greeting, not looking up from her task. Airilymusing nodded, as Morrigan snickered. Block just looked put-out
“So what’s all this?” Aer finally asked, motioning to the forge where several of the stories were clearly heating up. “It looks like you’re getting ready to put them together.”
WB just nodded. “Part of spring cleaning. Getting these things off of my to-do list.”
Morrigan tossed the story she’d been playing with back on the pile. “You’d think that finishing the stories would be the end result, rather than mashing them all together.”
“You’re welcome to grab a knife and help me clean these stories.” Jeneralissima replied, still not looking up. “I’ve got a few more that need to be gutted of commas.”
“Yeah, you look like you’ve got it covered.” Morrigan replied, going back to her self-appointed task of digging through the cooling works.
Aer rolled their eyes at their friends’ antics. “I get the feeling, Block, that the world does not need a crossover of this…scale.” Their eyes ran along the half-finished projects still in the fire. “There are how many fandoms in here?”
“More than I’d like to admit.” Writersblock replied, picking up their hammer, and beginning to turn what looked like a Mass Effect fanfiction into a more defined shape. “I’m not going to be putting them into a single story, just a single story.”
Morrigan nodded, tossing one of the pieces from hand to hand. “Some of these would never see the light of day otherwise.”
“That might be a good thing,” Jeneralissima muttered, flicking a comma off of her knife. Louder, she added, “and it’s not like these stories are going to be beta’d so,” She finally glanced up as she wiped the knife off on a towel, “Anything that gets more things published, without making me work harder, is something I’ll support.”
“They might eventually get finished.” Block whined petulantly. “You never know!”
“Right.” Aer just nodded, mostly to keep Block from stomping their foot. “So…what’s the disclaimer today?”
“No disclaimer.” Writersblock replied. “Just letting everyone know what we’re up to. Telling them to check the top of each chapter for Ratings, Triggers, etc.”
“Odds are that they’ll just skip this chapter.” Morrigan pointed out. “Get into the ‘good stuff’ as quickly as they can.”
“Wait.” Jeneralissima looked up sharply. “You’re actually putting out good fics here? And you’re making me beta this?” She motioned to the stories she was still cleaning.
Writersblock shrugged. “They're as good as ever, just without your eye they could probably be improved. Oh, that reminds me,” setting down their hammer, they walked over and grabbed the closest bucket, “You aren’t using these, right? Great!” Ignoring their poor beta’s whimpers, they walked back to the forge, grabbed a handful of commas, and added them to the story.
“And it’s, sparks a’ flying.”
Clang!
“Passion strong!”
Clang!
“I am the wordsmith, singin’ the hammer and the anvil song!”
Clang! Clang! Clang!