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WEP December 2019 Challenge: Footprints

Image by Alex Kovalerov from Pixabay
Genre: Paranormal

Word Count: 1000

Full critique okay, so long as you use the Hamburger Method. Medium well with mustard is nice, and I'll have fries and an unsweetened iced tea with that.

I know that Jimmy Buffett likes his burgers medium rare with mustard, but this is a point on which Jimmy and I differ. I like my meat thoroughly cooked.


*************
When Dr. Alberta Wilmarth, the Dean of the Miskatonic Department of Archaeology approached Andre Linden to renovate the old Curran Mansion on behalf of the University, he gladly accepted. The one-time thief hoped that having his name attached to the project would attract clients to his struggling construction company. Andre had served one year of a five-year sentence twelve years previously after being caught robbing an import warehouse off Boston Harbor.

Andre had never committed any violent crimes, but being an ex-convict was still a strike against him. In a town like Arkham, everyone knew everyone else’s business. Nonetheless, Andre felt that his business stood a better chance of thriving in the upstate area of Massachusetts than the bustling anonymity of Boston.

Andre was forty-one years old, tall and lean with a chiseled, angular face and graying brown hair with a receding hairline. He sometimes noticed women glancing at him but was unsure if they were appreciating what they saw or just sizing him up.

Dr. Wilmarth hired Andre on Thanksgiving Eve. She hoped that the Curran Mansion could be pulled together enough for Miskatonic’s anthropology and archaeology departments to have their New Year’s Eve party there. Andre told the professor that he’d see what he could do. She was a nice woman and he was sure that she knew her stuff when it came to archaeology, but like most people outside of the industry, she was unaware of the holdups that red tape could cause when it came to even seemingly simple renovation projects.

Alone on Thanksgiving night and wanting to distract himself, Andre headed to the Curran Mansion to draw up a rough plan for the project. The power had been turned off long ago, but his powerful hand torch illuminated everything. At least on the main floor, although all was covered in a thick layer of dust, the structure seemed intact.

Andre was surprised by the sounds of laughter and celebration. He supposed that local kids might be using the old place to party and hoped that the appearance of a gruff-looking middle-aged man might be enough to scare them off. As he headed for the stairs, he noticed that the backyard was lit up bright as day. Curious, he hurried outside.

Andre found himself in the middle of a wedding reception. A striking blonde woman in a silky white gown approached him, smiling. He was struck by the sadness in her deep blue eyes and reduced to the social aptitude of a stammering adolescent when he attempted to apologize for intruding.

“H…hello, Ma’am. Andre…um…me. Uh…Andre Linden, I am, that is. Construction. Um…sorry. I didn’t know anyone was here. I came to fix a thing—um—things. How could I not have noticed that…”

“It’s all right, Andre,” the woman interrupted, touching his hand. “I’m Hazel Curran. We’re celebrating my twin sister Hattie’s wedding today. Last year my brother Henry got married.”

“And you?” Andre inquired. “Surely such a lovely lady…”

Hazel’s shimmering laughter contrasted with the pain and fear in her eyes, and when she threw back her head in mirth, Andre noticed an angry red scar dotted with bumpy pockmarks marring her porcelain skin. Hazel collected herself and linked her arm in Andre’s.

“My fellow, Torrey, keeps pushing me to marry but I don’t know if I want to so soon,” Hazel confessed. “I’d like to live a bit before becoming a wife. Oh, Andre, I’m so glad you’re here. I hope that you can help me find something.”

“Of course,” Andre agreed, allowing Hazel to lead him into the house. “What are we looking for?”“My pearl necklace,” Hazel explained. “Well, the remnants of it anyway. It was a gift from my old school chum Kenneth for my birthday. It was perfectly innocent—Ken is a man’s man if you take my meaning—but Torrey lost his senses and snatched it off my neck. He made such an ugly scene. Ken is truly a dear, and I felt just awful. I’d love to get the necklace repaired.”

 “Do you remember where you lost the necklace, Hazel?” Andre asked as Hazel led him to the basement.

“It was over there,” Hazel said, pointing to the right corner of the back wall.

Andre felt as if someone had dragged a knife made of ice up his spine. Moisture had eroded the wooden floor and the wet earth bulged through the holes. A fetid odor permeated his nostrils. The light from his torch illuminated pearls dotting the soil.

A rusting shovel lay in the dirt. Andre picked it up and began digging like a man possessed. The shovel struck something hard. Andre continued digging until he had unearthed a skeleton. The remnants of a scarf were wrapped around the neck and pearls dotted the soil surrounding it. Strands of golden hair still attached to mummified skin were revealed as Andre pushed the soil away from the gruesome discovery.

Andre awoke in the hospital to see a worried Dr. Alberta Wilmarth at his bedside writing a note.

“Oh, Mr. Linden, whatever possessed you to go to that place alone at night?” she asked. “When they found you, you were nearly dead from hypothermia. It’s a good thing that woman flagged down the patrol car or you might well have frozen to death.”

“What woman?” Andre inquired, feeling the icy knife run up his spine again.

“Well, it’s a bit of a mystery,” Dr. Wilmarth replied. “Officer Chevalier told me that a glamorous blonde woman in a white party dress flagged him down at the end of the mansion’s driveway. She led him to the basement, and when he turned to speak with her, she’d disappeared.”

“Dr. Wilmarth, I found…”

Dr. Wilmarth gently squeezed Andre’s hand.

“Mr. Linden, you found the remains of Hazel Curran, who went missing on November 28, 1928,” she revealed. “What made you decide to dig there?”

“She did,” Andre revealed. “I followed the pearls from her necklace. They led me right to her grave.”

~Cie~
Miskatonic University is the creation of H.P. Lovecraft. Dr. Alberta Wilmarth is a nod to Albert Wilmarth, the narrator in Lovecraft's 1931 tale, The Whisperer in Darkness. She is Albert's niece.

A Special Request:I would not normally do this, but I need a little help. I am currently running a Battle of the Poems to choose which of my poems will go into the final document for the November PAD Chapbook Challenge. At this point, I only have one voter, the wonderful Elephant's Child. All I need is for people to choose which poem they prefer of the two poems offered in each day's post. No critique is necessary although you can provide one if you want. The battle is running all month on the Horror Harridans Writing Sisterhood blog. Please come vote!

Announcements For the Week of 9 December 2019

Image by Darwin Laganzon from Pixabay
Due to the forthcoming WEP Challenge story on December 10, there will be no Tidbit Tuesday this week. Tidbit Tuesday will resume December 17.
The Battle of the Poems continues. I have only one participant for most of the poems. Come on, People, vote! It will help me to decide which poems to enter in the November PAD Chapbook Challenge final.
Naughty Netherworld Press' first non-erotic novelette or novella (to be determined at final word count) is due to be published at the beginning of 2020! Check the Weekend Writing Warriors tag to enjoy the current snippets from Ketil and Yitzy's Adventures in the Xura Dream House. This twenty-first-century New Cthulhu Mythos buddy tale features a group of outcasts trying to save the Cosmos. Will the unlikely heroes triumph, or will Earth fall to Nyarlathotep as so many worlds have before?
I am preparing to finalize my manuscript for the Waters Edge poetry competition. I honestly never expect to win these things because my mind does not work the way the minds of the judges of such competitions work, and I'm not going to pretend to be something I'm not. If my entry wins, they will publish a chapbook of my manuscript. If it doesn't, I'll publish the chapbook. Either way, look for my Another Autumn poetry collection in 2020.
I hope to get back into participating in the Pegman and Mindlovemisery's Menagerie prompts in 2020. I always enjoy those.
That's all the announcements for now. If I suddenly become insanely wealthy, I will have a butt-ton of lucrative giveaways in 2020! If I do not become insanely wealthy (which, let's face it, is the more realistic possibility) I will still have several literary and craft giveaways in 2020. 

Ornery Literary Services Beta reading, proofreading, editing, book reviewsWill work for tips and links

Weekend Writing Warriors 8 December 2019 (FA, PA, SF)

Weekend Writing Warriors
Also sharing with:
“For a brilliant scientist from an advanced race, you are certainly the most naïve of creatures,” the man retorted. “However, I am quite eager to remove us from this cloying atmosphere of poisons both physical and psychic. The Dream House could not be much worse, so long as we stick together. Very well, then, let’s have at it. Through the corridor we shall go, the pair of us together as one. And Yitzy, we trust no-one but ourselves.”
Click here for last week's snippet.
~Cie for Naughty Netherworld Press~
Notes:
This was originally published on December 1, but I didn't have a chance to share it because the power was out over the weekend. So I'm republishing it and will hopefully be able to share it for December 8!
This snippet is only six sentences long. It is the last paragraph in the first chapter of Ketil and Yitzy's Adventures in the House of Lost Dreams. The speaker is Ketil Nagel, the spirit of a Swedish extreme metal musician who sacrificed himself to the Elder Gods in the 1990s. Ketil is speaking to Yitzy Yithian, a renegade member of the Great Race of Yith, exiled by his fellows for exhibiting too much compassion, a trait most Yithians consider a weakness.
Earth's Dreamlands, the Elder Gods, and the Great Race of Yith are the creations of H.P. Lovecraft.
The Xura Dream House is the creation of Chaosium for the Call of Cthulhu role-playing game.
Ketil Nagel and Yitzy Yithian are original characters created by Team Netherworld.
Image Source

Tidbit Tuesday: At the End of Everything

Image by Jennifer Nichole WellsAlpha and Omega:At the End of EverythingOriginal Publication Date:Friday, January 8, 2016
Prompt Used:Jennifer Nichole Wells Blog: Color Your World Prompt: Beaver
Background notes and credits follow the story
All things are interconnected, and yet sometimes it is impossible to find the connection between one thing and the other, particularly where humanity is concerned. Those who are no longer living are able to see the connections better than those still bound to corporeal form. 
Those of us who looked deeper into certain connections became deeply unsettled by what we found. Certain forces of evil thought to be long extinct are quite active behind the walls of sleep. I and five other appointed agents were dispatched by King Kuranes of Celephais to explore the Cosmos and discover how we may yet save ourselves from annihilation or, worse, enslavement to these malevolent tyrants.
I followed my research to the dead world of Zecor 6 in the year 3121. Scientists of various races were exploring the planet. The more physically vulnerable among them were wearing protective gear. Being in spirit, there was no need for me to take such precautions.
One fellow clad in such a safety suit was happily humming a zany little tune from my time. This nasty earworm proceeded to give me fits for the remainder of my journey to this foul orb.
Wynona's got herself a big brown beaver and she shows it off to all her friends.One day, you know, that beaver tried to leave her, so she caged him up with cyclone fence.
"Curse you and your damn zany tune!" I snapped at the scientist. I took my leave of him, for he would not stop muttering those blasted words. I think it was the only part of the song which he knew.I sensed a strong neural wave, which I followed to what I believed to be a royal palace. There were multiple energies emanating from this structure, some of which were exceedingly malevolent. I tuned out the extraneous spectral static and concentrated on the quixotic emanations which had led me to this place.
Image Source
It was here that I saw the creature whose psychic transmission I had been following. I recognized its kind from books studied in both the waking world during my lifetime and in the various libraries of the Dreamlands. It was a Yithian. I was somewhat surprised, for individuals from this race are notorious for their lack of empathy. This particular Yithian, however, was quite empathetic.
"Greetings, fellow explorer," the Yithian scientist addressed me. "I believe that we are here united in a common cause."
"What cause would that be, in your opinion?" I asked.
"You are here to save your kind from destruction, much though a part of you maintains that some of them actually deserve it. I too am here in an attempt to ameliorate the damage that the worshipers of certain baleful forces have wrought. Perhaps your mission has a more personal focus than mine, however, the goal remains the same. As we attend to our mission, perhaps we can share more of our own particulars. I would enjoy that."
"As would I," I said. "You may be able to help me a great deal. My people are far more primitive than yours. However, I sense that you are working alone."
"I am a renegade, different from others of my kind," the Yithian confirmed. "I perceive something from you. There is an emotion in your being which I would like to understand. To compassion I can relate, but this is different from simple charitable compassion. My friend, you are here because of love, and in spite of the terrible trauma you have endured, you still believe that love can save us. Can you tell me of love? For if it can indeed save us, I should like to understand."
"I don't know if I can make you understand exactly what love is," I said. "But I can try. I will tell you of my mission. I will try to impart to you how the love between two souls who needed each other very much may indeed save the entire Cosmos, and this is why certain powerful denizens among the Outer Gods and other malevolent factions wish for them to be kept apart."
"I am intrigued, Human, very much so. If you do not mind, I would like to record your tale."
"Yes, that would be fine. During all of my lives, I have always been a storyteller."
"Then I would be very pleased to help you tell your story. Allow me to make a note. Reference imparted by...what are you called?"
"My name is Ketil Arvid Nagel. I was also known in this most recent lifetime by my stage name, Lord Morbid."
"Then I shall make note of both. Place of origin, the Dreamlands of Sol 3 or Terra. Classification, spectre of homo sapien male in early adulthood. This informational exchange is taking place on planet Zetar 6, also known as Zecor."
"The eye of the hurricane, it would seem. Or one of them, for it occurs to me that this hurricane has many eyes."
"This place was one of the power centers for the worship of the Great Old Ones and Outer Gods," the Yithian said. 
"Not a great surprise there. Would you mind if I were to give you a name that I could call you? It seems a bit rude to keep calling you Yithian."
"I am unsure why, for that is what I am. However, I am amenable to whatever makes you comfortable."
"May I call you Yitzy? Perhaps it is silly, but it seems a bit more personal."
"Certainly. Yitzy it is. Yitzy is here to hear Ketil impart a tale of love, and, it would seem, of Wynona and her big brown beaver, whom she loved and wished she had a pair of."
"Forget Wynona and her big brown beaver. This is simply an earworm imparted to me by a scientist who could not cease from repeating that irritating rhyme. My story has nothing to do with beavers. Make yourself comfortable. This may take a while."
The Real CieGem MoondreamerKai RikardRose LeMortTempest LeTrope
Credits:Earth's Dreamlands, King Kuranes, and the Great Race of Yith are the creations of H.P. Lovecraft.
The Zetar star system is referenced in the Star Trek episode "The Lights of Zetar." Star Trek is the creation of Gene Roddenberry
Notes: Illsa's wonderful piece inspired us to create a helpful new segment for our adventure. We thought that given the number of subplots, it would be helpful to have a narrator to tie things together. Thus, we are pleased to introduce Ketil Nagel, aka Lord Morbid, as our narrator.
Ketil has previously appeared in other chapters on this blog, including Illsa's piece. His back story includes the fact that he committed suicide at a young age after a difficult life. He was the vocalist and chief lyricist for the Scandinavian death metal band Deadly Night.
Song for the chapter:Wynona’s Big Brown Beaver

Wynona's Big Brown BeaverBy PrimusWynona's got herself a big brown beaver and she shows it off to all her friends.One day, you know, that beaver tried to leave her, so she caged him up with cyclone fence.Along came Lou with the old baboon and said "I recognize that smell, Smells like seven layers, That beaver eatin' Taco Bell!".Now Rex he was a Texan out of New Orleans and he travelled with the carnival shows.He ran bumper cars, sucked cheap cigars and he candied up his nose.He got wind of the big brown beaver So he thought he'd take himself a peek, but the beaver was quick and he grabbed him by the kiwis,and he ain't pissed for a week. (And a half!)Wynona took her big brown beaver and she stuck him up in the air, said "I sure do love this big brown beaver and I wish I did have a pair."Now the beaver once slept for seven days And it gave us all an awful fright,So I tickled his chin and I gave him a pinch and the bastard tried to bite me. Wynona loved her big brown beaver And she stroked him all the time.She pricked her finger one day and it occurred to her she might have a porcupine.
Songwriters: CLAYPOOL, LES / LALONDE, REID L. III / ALEXANDER, TIMOTHY W.
© Warner/Chappell Music, Inc.For non-commercial use only.

Share a tidbit of your own at Horror Harridans Writing Sisterhood!

Battle of the Poems 2019: Day 1

Image by Andrew Martin from Pixabay
The rules are simple! Leave a comment telling me which poem you like best.
Poem 1:Once Upon a Time
Once upon a timeI dreamedonce upon a timehe wasbut now there's nothing leftexcept the miseryas summer disappearsand the barkers burst the colorful balloonsand take down the faireplayers only love youwhen you bring them moneygas, grass, or assno-one rides for freelittle boys grow upbecome corruptuse and throw awaystupid girlsonce upon a timeI believed in somethingonce upon a timeI thought someone waited for menow I know the truththe only one waiting 'round the cornerto put his arms around meis deaththat no matter where I amI'm just two steps ahead of that mansome days I'm philosophicalsome days I'm scared out of my fucking mindand some days I'd welcome the bastardwith open armsonce upon a timeyou were mineyou loved this wretched, broken thingbut like a leaf on the breeze you blew awaysome things are too corrupted to love I thought I saw you coming back to mebut then I woke from my dreamthe fairytale disappearedin a puff of smokelike Little Jackie Paperyou snuffed out your dreams of Puffdragons aren't realmagic only exists in fairy talesand love is nothing but a lieonce upon a timeI believed in happy ever afternow I only believethat dreams vanishand hearts breakandeverythingdies
~
Poem 2Alpha to Omega
all alone adriftboiling bad blood brewchewing cyanide capsulesdrinking death's draughtexhaling exotic excitotoxinsfeeling fancy-freegladly grabbing greenhoarding hazy hemlockincinerating incriminating imagesjaded joy juxtaposedkicking kaleidoscopic kingslove long lostmakes me madnothing nice nevermoreonly old offeringsplacate pagan poltergeistsquietly quaffing quincerebellious rogues repelsweetly singing satyrsthrilling tap-dancing troubadoursunique undines undulatevanquishing vicious villainswhile winsome warblersxor xanthic xenophobesyesterday's yearning youthzap zingy Zambonis
Which one do you choose? One or two? You can leave an explanation, or just say which one you like.
Remember, whoever participates the most often will receive a $5 Amazon gift card. In the event of a tie, I will invoke the mighty coin, dice, or what have you.
~Cie~

We're back!

What Lunch Looked Like
How y'all am are? I was not expecting to be back so soon, but, as fate would have it, I'm here and so are you! So, let's do this!
After spending a freezing night without power in the old Grover Hotel, the Ornery Old Lady (that's me) and Sonny Boy headed to Greeley to gather up some supplies in case we were looking at another night to a week or more of this. We stopped at Taco John's, a place I haven't been to in some 35 years. In fact, that's where I made my last post from!
I was glad to find that Taco John's still tastes the same, but the price about knocked me out of the ballpark. Twenty bucks for a chicken quesadilla, a stuffed taco, Potato Ole's, drinks, and some guacamole, queso, and sour cream. Honestly, it's not that bad for today's prices, but I can remember when I was in high school and would go to Taco John's instead of eating the cafeteria swill. I'd have five bucks on me and get a whole meal and still get change back. Well, so it goes.
We went to Home Depot and bought a propane-powered space heater and looked into getting a backup generator. We picked up a snow shovel, which I thought was steel. It was aluminum and it bent easily. Not a winner there. We got a flashlight and a mini lantern. Then we headed to visit my son's second cousins on his father's side. They said that if the power was going to be out for a while, we could bring the cats and stay with them.
We hit the King Soopers to get some nonperishables like crackers and tinned kippers and then headed for home.
My son was reading the instructions for the space heater and I was getting the snow shovel out of the car when he came running out in an excited mood. The power was back on! I looked down the street to see the blinking red light just beyond the general store, and it never looked so beautiful!
It's still colder than a well-digger's ass in the old Hotel, but the furnace is back on and the temperature is rising. I've got salmon, potatoes, and corn in the oven. I also have (I hope) a fun opportunity.
I am going to need help deciding which poems to put in my manuscript for the November PAD Chapbook Challenge. So, for the next month, I will be having a Battle of the Poems. I will put up two poems, and I would like readers to decide which of the two they prefer. You can give me a reason, or just say "I like number (one or two) best." 
There will be a prize as an incentive for helping me. 
The person who comments on the most poems will receive a $5 Amazon gift card in their email. In the event that there is a tie, I will use a coin, dice, or Random Number Generator to help me choose.
I think this will be fun, and I hope I can get a few people to play along.
The first Battle of the Poems will appear tomorrow!
~Cie~

November PAD Chapbook Challenge 2019: Day 30: A Fetch Story Poem: The End

Image by Enrique Meseguer from Pixabay
When the end came to her worldShe left her body behindEverything she knew was goneShe walked through poison atmosphereWatching the city burnShe looked up to the skyAt the small sun gone novaHaving glutted itself on the energiesOf its larger companionThe planet flooded with gamma raysCould no longer sustain lifeShe grieved her useless effortsWishing she could snuff herself outLike one of the candles that she burnedIn the vain hope of counteringThe misguided sorceryThat brought about the endThe end of lifeThe end of hopeThe end of everything
~Cie Channeling Princess Ondina~
Note:The final prompt in the November PAD Chapbook Challenge was "The End." I was inspired to write a poem for Team Netherworld's long-running WIP, Fetch. 
Princess Ondina was the reluctant captive regent of the tyrannical monarchy of West Zecor. Misusing powerful magic learned from his mystical adviser Yadira, the daughter and High Priestess of Nyarlathotep, Ondina's megalomaniac psychopath brother King Qweh triggered a reaction in the planetary system's smaller sun, Zetar Beta, causing it to begin devouring its larger companion. This ill-advised action brought about the doom of Zecor (Zetar 6). Princess Ondina is the previous incarnation of Fetch's female protagonist, Pepper Baiij. 
The reincarnation sequence of the Fetch story was born because I had long wanted to write a backstory for the third season original Star Trek episode The Lights of Zetar. This episode tends to be pretty much universally panned, and it certainly has its flaws, i.e. if Captain Kirk had referred to a grown-ass woman in her 30s as "the girl" one more time, I swore I was going to jump through the screen and make him wear his 'nads for earrings, but I was fascinated and, frankly, terrified by the malevolent light colony. It provided me many years of nightmares. To this day, even as desensitized as I am to most so-called horror (which generally consists of gore and jump-scares), I still cannot watch this episode in the dark.
Fun Trivia: The Lights of Zetar was co-written by the late Shari Lewis of Lamb Chop fame and her husband Jeremy Tarcher. Lovable Miss Shari definitely had a dark side to her imagination!

Weekend Writing Warriors 1 December 2019 (FA, PA, SF)

Weekend Writing Warriors
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“For a brilliant scientist from an advanced race, you are certainly the most naïve of creatures,” the man retorted. “However, I am quite eager to remove us from this cloying atmosphere of poisons both physical and psychic. The Dream House could not be much worse, so long as we stick together. Very well, then, let’s have at it. Through the corridor we shall go, the pair of us together as one. And Yitzy, we trust no-one but ourselves.”
Click here for last week's snippet.
~Cie for Naughty Netherworld Press~
Notes:This snippet is only six sentences long. It is the last paragraph in the first chapter of Ketil and Yitzy's Adventures in the House of Lost Dreams. The speaker is Ketil Nagel, the spirit of a Swedish extreme metal musician who sacrificed himself to the Elder Gods in the 1990s. Ketil is speaking to Yitzy Yithian, a renegade member of the Great Race of Yith, exiled by his fellows for exhibiting too much compassion, a trait most Yithians consider a weakness.
Earth's Dreamlands, the Elder Gods, and the Great Race of Yith are the creations of H.P. Lovecraft.
The Xura Dream House is the creation of Chaosium for the Call of Cthulhu role-playing game.
Ketil Nagel and Yitzy Yithian are original characters created by Team Netherworld.
Image Source

Weekend Writing Warriors 24 November 2019 (FA, PA, SF)

I made a new WWW banner using Pixlr, and everyone is welcome to use it if they like.Click the banner to go to this week's Weekend Writing Warriors blog hop.
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“Ketil, my friend, I find you a most humorous companion,” the creature stated. “What have we to fear from Nyarlathotep? We are but two lonely souls, one the shade of a once-unhappy Earthman who ended his own life, the other a creature outcast from his kind for possessing too much empathy to allow him to conduct potentially life-threatening experiments on those creatures my fellows deemed inferior. We are not power-hungry, we have no armies of fawning sycophants prostrating themselves at our feet, we have no money at all, let alone monetary excess. To the likes of Nyarlathotep, we are worthless. I do like it that way. Do you concur?”
Click here for last week's snippet.
~Cie for Naughty Netherworld Press~
Notes:Yitzy Yithian is a member of the Great Race of Yith who has been exiled by his fellow Yithians for displaying too much empathy. 
Ketil Nagel is the spirit of a Swedish metal musician who sacrificed himself to the Elder Gods.
The Great Race of Yith and Nyarlathotep are the creations of H.P. Lovecraft. Ketil Nagel and Yitzy Yithian are the creations of Team Netherworld.
Image copyright Scythemantis on Deviantart

November PAD Chapbook Challenge 2019: Day 19: Another Antonymic Bomb: Loved and Despised

Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay
Admirable - AwfulBeautiful - BoorishCompassionate - CruelDarling - DeplorableEnlightened - EgocentricFantastic - FoulGenuine - GruesomeHeavenly - HellishInnocent - IrredeemableJust - JealousKeen - KinkyLovable - LoathsomeMarvelous - MalevolentNoble - NastyObliging - OligarchPure - PretentiousQuaint - QuarrelsomeResourceful - RuthlessSagacious - SadisticTender - TerribleUnaffected - UnjustValiant - VileWarm - WickedXenial - XenophobicYielding - YellowbloodedZany - Zealot
Princess Ondina
Notes:Today's November PAD Chapbook Challenge prompt asked for a protagonist or antagonist poem, or one that incorporates both. I was inspired to do a character study through the eyes of Princess Ondina, a long-ago incarnation of Pepper Baiij.
Princess Ondina was the reluctant captive regent of West Zecor on the doomed world of Zetar 6. She was held in the thrall of her brutal half-brother, King Qweh. One night, Qweh slew Ondina's bodyguard in a drunken rage. The next day, he brought the princess a diminutive thief whom he'd captured as a replacement bodyguard, thinking himself terribly witty. Ondina, however, stated that the little man would make a fine bodyguard and asked Qweh to leave her laboratory. 
Ondina and the thief, whose name was Serab, established an immediate rapport that quickly turned to love. There was little time for amorous moments, however. The world's binary suns were engaged in a battle with one another that would soon turn deadly, and there was no way that the cruel and jealous King Qweh was about to allow his oppressed sister to find joy with a common thief.
In this character study, Ondina compares the attributes of her beloved and her brother.
Zecor or Zetar 6 is the planet from which the malevolent Lights of Zetar of the original Star Trek series originated. I always wanted to write a backstory for this episode and, nearly 40 years later, I finally pulled the trigger on the project. 
The Lights of Zetar are the creation of the late Jeremy Tarcher and the late Shari Lewis. 
All the characters mentioned in this post are the creations of Team Netherworld.
Fetch is the flagship story in Team Netherworld's Yadira Chronicles.