Ingredients 5 - "Dust"

As I'm sure you picked up when you (hopefully) read Remnants 12 before "Dust," one of the main goals I had in mind when writing "Dust" was keeping it short. I even went through the painstakingly painstaking trouble of typing it up in Word so I could keep a word count. As I'd hoped, I was able to write it in exactly one hundred words.

Ingredients 4 - More Short Story Drafting

q|o O|p
\D/

**WARNING**

What I have here will be disturbing. Please note that the fact that I know it is disturbing is a clear indication that I am not disturbing.

In case you want to spare yourself from having to read disturbing things now, I've put all the disturbing things after the break. I will, however, write this post with some level of effort to make you want to read it, just so I can laugh internally at your disturbance.

Anyway, last time I wrote about my short story, I introduced Jonathan. I'll tell you now that Jonathan is not the kind of person you think he is, unless I've already told you in person what kind of person he is. When you read the excerpt later in this post, you will clearly see what I mean. Even if you do read the excerpt, though, you will still be mistaken.

See, my reason for writing this story (besides it being required) is not to subtly share some kind of deep, emotional, soppy experience in my life. I'm not trying to let you in on issues with my family or my love life. Even if I had one of those kinds of stories to tell, frankly, I'd think it's somewhat silly to have to use the mask of a "fiction" piece to pour my heart out. You know why fact is stranger than fiction? It's because people are too weak to write fact as it is, so instead they think they can get by by writing some "fiction" thing that dumbs it down enough so that others can experience the "same" feelings that the authors did. In the world of fact, there is no feeling that can be expressed exactly through words, so don't even try. Different people feel different about different things, and the more you try to cater to those differences, the more unclear your story becomes, and then it loses its original intent.

...Sorry, that was me just ranting about how I feel like what I've been reading is so generic. Somewhere, deep down, I do enjoy reading stories like that, so keep writing them, people.

I digress. For some reason or another, I've decided to build my story upon a premise that no one has any true experience with, something unreal. Try as you might to understand Jonathan by imposing your realities on his actions and descriptions, you will not understand fully until I tell you. Maybe I wanted to feel somehow superior to all of you by keeping you in the dark. Maybe I was just tired of reading the same thing over and over, so I thought I'd be the one to MIX it up. Maybe I actually am trying to share my true, inner feelings with the world (although I certainly hope not). Maybe...

Read it, criticize it, analyze it, do whatever you want to it. Just keep in mind that even I am not completely sure what my intents are in writing this story.

Ingredients 3 - in the name of love

Alright! A new MIX!!!

Again, multiple exclamation points were necessary.

Ingredients 2 - Short Story Drafting

! ! !

A second INGREDIENTS post, and it's on something that isn't a post!

New Challenger Approaching: INGREDIENTS 1 - SAGASHIMONO

Made a joint decision with inx to create a new kind of post.

• Ingredients - Small explanations on what kinds of things went into the making of a MIX. They will be sort of similar to REMNANTS, only they'll be focused solely on what inspired a certain MIX. There may be spoilers, but hopefully I can make those available upon button-click.

Anyway, as I said in REMNANTS 1, MIX 2 was originally written to go with the prompt "looking for something lost." The first thing I thought of when I heard that prompt was a very short girl wearing a large coat and a backpack with tiny wings, running around a city in the afternoon, holding a paper bag filled with red-bean-paste-filled pastries that she accidentally didn't pay for, and attacking hugging childhood friends that she hasn't seen in seven years.