Hatrack River Writers Workshop: kardina stellan

This is topic kardina stellan in forum Character Interviews at Hatrack River Writers Workshop.

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Posted by btharvey (Member # 9497) on :

I don't know why you guys stuck me here, so let's get on with it.

My name is kardina. Small 'k!' If you can't tell I'm enjoying every minute of this, you don't know squat. My age is none of your business. My reason for being here is you won't let me go. My next job is gone, now, thanks to you.

Get on with it.

Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :

Not capitalizing the first letter of your name is terribly, terribly, terribly affected. (Or is it capitolizing?)

Posted by LDWriter2 (Member # 9148) on :

I thought that name was interesting...any reason for it?

And what is your job?

Posted by btharvey (Member # 9497) on :

You're affected! My name's my name. I like it that way. First name's given to me. Picked the last name 'cause I hated the one I was given. You got my papers so I can't sign on to any starships, they leave me here. Who wants trouble from an Able-Bodied? What do I care you got some theft you got to look after -- that's nothing on me. Just let me go. I'm not doing nothing.

Posted by Matt.Simpson01 (Member # 8937) on :

What makes you think you're the normal one? And how to you expect to get a job if you always are popping off at the mouth?

Posted by LDWriter2 (Member # 9148) on :

Someone has your papers, they don't always show them to us as they should.

So why are you here again? What crime did you do?

I need to get through this case so I can go home. So tell me what I need to know and we both can leave...at least I can.

Posted by btharvey (Member # 9497) on :

You got my papers! I don't know why I'm here! I didn't do, period!

I don't give a good righteous you gotta go home. So it's ok I stay for no reason and you don't have to? You stopped me. You took my papers! You say I jumped the greaseman! You say I took his card and his credits and this thing called the Auger! You say I got reason!

I got no reason! I never saw the griddler before, ever! If I got his card and his credits, where are they? Where's this Auger thing? You got all my stuff. What am I supposed to have done with them? I gotta fly! I gotta trade or I get behind. You keep me and I got a mark against me. I got enough marks, you put me down for good!

[This message has been edited by btharvey (edited May 09, 2011).]

Posted by LDWriter2 (Member # 9148) on :

Okay, now we are getting somewhere.

Remember I work under someone, and with others who don't always do what they are suppose to, so I'm in the dark here too.

Now, do you have any family, friends, bartenders, etc. who can vouch for you?

Posted by btharvey (Member # 9497) on :

Got no family. Got no friends -- they on my ship that took. Don't got enough scratch to hang in bars, got a hard enough time getting food don't need to be loopy.

All I know is we're walking to the ship 'cause we got the Go-call, and someone skanks me. I wake up, Jed's not there, this griddler's skanked on the ground next to me, and you Keepers are runnin' down the passage at me! Then he's screaming I took his card and credits, and he starts shaking me yelling he wants his Auger back what did I do with it!

You P-boys take my papers, shove me in the room, and leave me there, [tears start streaming down her face] my ship goes, I got no Jed, no creds, no papers, nowhere!

Why?

Posted by LDWriter2 (Member # 9148) on :

quote:

Got no family. Got no friends -- they on my ship that took. Don't got enough scratch to hang in bars, got a hard enough time getting food don't need to be loopy.
All I know is we're walking to the ship 'cause we got the Go-call, and someone skanks me. I wake up, Jed's not there, this griddler's skanked on the ground next to me, and you Keepers are runnin' down the passage at me! Then he's screaming I took his card and credits, and he starts shaking me yelling he wants his Auger back what did I do with it!
You P-boys take my papers, shove me in the room, and leave me there, [tears start streaming down her face] my ship goes, I got no Jed, no creds, no papers, nowhere!
Why?

Now we are getting some where. But first any record? And who is Jed? How long you have you known him?

(A long thoughtful pause)
You wouldn't be the first one, no family, no connections, to be served up on platter for a replacement

(another thoughtful pause)
but than again it wouldn't be the first time a..."P-boy" was played either.

Posted by btharvey (Member # 9497) on :

Jed. Jedder. He's my boy, my man. We together Least, we were! You Peace Keeper Protector-boys probably got him locked up like me.

What am I gonna do? [crying, burrowing her head in her arms] Don't got nothing! Nobody miss me! Nowhere to be! No papers! No creds!

Please!

*** Author's Note: I've personally tried to do this in the past, but I think that nothing is as good as an interactive session with different people to refine the character and the situation a character is in. We can stop this one here, as I have a really good picture of who she is, was, what's she's doing, where she belongs, doesn't, etc. Many thanks to all! This may be the best way for me to start stories yet!

Of course, no one can beat Isaac Asimov's "Silly Asses," which he wrote up while sitting outside his editor's office, waiting for an appointment.

Thanks all! Look for more characters to come! Same and different universes.

Posted by LDWriter2 (Member # 9148) on :

I kinda found it fun, even though frustrating because I didn't know the slang.

But was she faking it? She sure went from smart aleck to crying real fast. But either way that could be an interesting story plot. As long as she doesn't cry too much.

Posted by btharvey (Member # 9497) on :

No, she wasn't faking it. She had a real crappy childhood, I figure her to be about 17, 18, 19 thereabouts, looking for protection (she'd been abused). Her reaction to her life was to try to find someone to protect her, who treated her ok and who she could be really sweet to and to run to when times got tough. The first guy who fit the bill was a ... well, "seaman" would be the term, but in starships (starman?). So she shipped out too. When that ended, she snagged another starman and even got her own certification as able-bodied.

She really was crying because she can't take care of herself -- not emotionally, anyway. If you ever saw an NCIS episode where Tony and his girlfriend doctor are in the basement of her hospital, and the man and woman are looking for her brother who swallowed the cocaine ... this helplessnes is a lot like the girl's helplessness, only not based on being a junkie.

I really like the idea of playing out the characters ... it creates a situation, which helps create the environment and the universe. The slang I just threw out, 'cause she wouldn't use the regular words in her experience, though she knew them. P-boy --- protector. cop. Able-bodied starman. Griddler/greaseman ... short-order cook. Etc.

The 'Auger' was the 'great big thing that everyone's after.' Like the Maltese Falcon. Haven't decided what it does yet, but I will. Anyway, thanks! I'll try to do the same for you!

Posted by LDWriter2 (Member # 9148) on :

I thought it might make an interesting story with her and P-man working together. The set up and the Auger, whatever it turns out to be, could get the interest of one of them.