Neil Gaiman www.NeilgaimanBoard.com www.NeilgaimanBoard.com Neil's Other Works Anansi Boys The Floating Marketplace
www.NeilgaimanBoard.com www.NeilgaimanBoard.com Neil's Other Works Anansi Boys The Floating MarketplacePage 1 2
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Administrator/Colporteur Member  |
The Idea: We write a little story together. Some of Neil's characters will be in it, along with those of other writers and some original creations. There will be mystery, horror, humour and whatever you and I can come up with.
But there are no dragons, magicians or powerful people, just you. Use another name, if you prefer, but there's just you in here, and that's enough for now. And on to the game. The Setting: You hear it before you can see it. It sounds like a festival, like the stock room floor, like the bazaars of ancient Baghdad and New York's Chinatown. What makes this disconcerting is that you're hiking a relatively remote forest path. You press on, and soon there's scent with the sound. Food of all kinds, and food of all qualities (someone clearly doesn't know how to keep their curry from burning), the pungent odor of offal. And, cresting the rise and breaking free of the trees, you can see it. A marketplace, floating just a few inches above the ground. Your forest path leads right down one of its major thoroughfares. So, where do you go from here? __________ AJGraeme "You see, I have a policy about honesty and ass-kicking: if you ask for it, I have to let you have it." -Taylor Mali "I am a sexy, shoeless god of war." -Belkar |
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Village Elder Member |
*Starts browsing the stalls to see what's available*
*starts singing to self* Rat's tails, broken marbles, a lock of hair floppy diskettes, an old ferris wheel chair Vinyl, lace, rubber masks, clocks with no eyes I've got some money, now what shall I buy? |
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mama love her llama Member  |
::steps up to the market and purchases a falafel sammich from a nice greek man::
::wanders about, munching on her sammich. shares some falafel with a lil monkey on a braided leash:: look at all the pretties.... ::wanders past the jugglers and mimes and other buskers towards the aquarium:: ooh... ::checks her purse:: how much are the green silvered ones...? hmm.. do you take...? ::holds out a small pile of tiny blue plastic hands:: ::notices something shiny and winky out of the corner of her eye:: oooh... lookit me, i'm postin! wheee! |
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is a loose cannon Member  |
I pause briefly beside a stall featuring an elderly woman. She has an enormous silver colored duck seated next to her, and a variety of eggs in front of her. A sign above her reads "Innsureants" in red letters. I move on to past a young man selling time and a display of lost items for sale. I root through a bin containing a newspaper, a few jigsaw puzzle peices, one of which is a corner (!) and a large ball of miss-matched socks. I frown, dissastisfied. However, I cannot remember what I came here for. I move deeper into the market.
"You pass through the places, and the places they pass through you, but you carry 'em with you on the soles of your travelin' shoes." --The Be Good Tanyas, "The Littlest Birds" http://hatchingphoenix.livejournal.com www.xanga.com/hatching_phoenix |
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Administrator/Colporteur Member |
*someone - either a very poor pickpocket or someone who doesn't realize that your jacket has someone in it - is rifling through your jacket pocket, which contains two sticks of gum and a small pebble* __________ AJGraeme "You see, I have a policy about honesty and ass-kicking: if you ask for it, I have to let you have it." -Taylor Mali "I am a sexy, shoeless god of war." -Belkar |
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Administrator/Colporteur Member |
*It's less shiny and more glisteny, you see as you get closer. It is, in fact, a small child. Well, from the waist up, a small child. Waist-down it's all tentacles and mucus. He's crying for his mum* __________ AJGraeme "You see, I have a policy about honesty and ass-kicking: if you ask for it, I have to let you have it." -Taylor Mali "I am a sexy, shoeless god of war." -Belkar |
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Administrator/Colporteur Member |
*As you walk, you see a rather attractive woman who's just thrown away the last bite of a falafel sandwich and is now headed towards a patch of brush, a look of keen interest on her face* __________ AJGraeme "You see, I have a policy about honesty and ass-kicking: if you ask for it, I have to let you have it." -Taylor Mali "I am a sexy, shoeless god of war." -Belkar |
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mama love her llama Member |
awww, poor thing... ::gives the child a peppermint stick to gnaw on:: what's happened to your mummy? shall we go look for her? ...goodness you've got a grip, don't you... ::tries to unwrap a few tentacles, just to get the feeling back in her hand:: lookit me, i'm postin! wheee! |
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Administrator/Colporteur Member |
*The child is currently too occupied with its peppermint stick to notice your offer of help, but it's now following you, gurgling happily around a mouthful of sweets. Now, is the mother a tentacled beast or a human? Hrm. This will take some time to look. There's an information booth across the way, manned by what could charitably be described as the ugliest man you've ever laid eyes on. To the right are some stalls selling a variety of seafood items, to the left is the textile district*
__________ AJGraeme "You see, I have a policy about honesty and ass-kicking: if you ask for it, I have to let you have it." -Taylor Mali "I am a sexy, shoeless god of war." -Belkar |
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From out of the cloven pine Member  |
:mooches round the stalls looking at the various wares. Wanders into the textile district. Casually examines a few rolls of brightly coloured cloth. A serious looking teenager in dilapidated harlequine pants is haggling with the stallholder over a bag of off-cuts, presumably to repair the pants. After a minute or so the customer throws up their hands and walks off. I follow. Upon reaching a crossroads of sorts the teenager produces a pair of pan pipes and begins to play. I drop a few coins on the cloth at their feet. Walking on a bit further I pass a rather naff pavement artist trying in vain to sell his paintings. What he lacks in talent he makes up for in volume, you could probably hear him on the otherside of the market:
Oriko Cheerful cynic Just feeding the birds |
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Administrator/Colporteur Member |
*Bemused, you rifle through his work and are startled to see that one of the man's paintings is of someone who looks identical to one of your ex-lover's. The style is similar to the rest of the paintings, haphazard and amateurish, but the eyes in the painting seem frightfully real* __________ AJGraeme "You see, I have a policy about honesty and ass-kicking: if you ask for it, I have to let you have it." -Taylor Mali "I am a sexy, shoeless god of war." -Belkar |
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From out of the cloven pine Member |
:I put the painting back and walk on, feeling slightly freaked. Now I'm surrounded by stalls selling leather goods. I need a new belt so I have a close look. Most of the leather looks pretty normal but some of it looks like the hide of nothing on earth. I stay well away from those. In the end I buy a dark red belt that as far as I can tell seems to be made out of normal cowhide:
Oriko Cheerful cynic Just feeding the birds |
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From out of the cloven pine Member |
:continues wandering around the stalls. starts to feel hungary. detects curry on the breeze. weaves through the crowd curry-wards:
"Is this chicken curry?" "Yes." :buys a bowlfull with rice. from another stall I procure a large glass of apple juice and sit on a barrel to eat my lunch and watch the comings and goings. A short blue guy argues with a man that looks human until you see two tiny horns poking through his hair. I look around and finally notice that over half of the people are not exactly human. spend the next ten minutes playing spot the species: Oriko Cheerful cynic Just feeding the birds |
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is a loose cannon Member |
I look right and left, shrug, and follow her discreetly. "You pass through the places, and the places they pass through you, but you carry 'em with you on the soles of your travelin' shoes." --The Be Good Tanyas, "The Littlest Birds" http://hatchingphoenix.livejournal.com www.xanga.com/hatching_phoenix |
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mama love her llama Member |
::approaches the information booth, and asks vaguely about lost children while carefully not looking the man in the face:: the man takes out a scrap of paper and starts sketching a map. "buying or selling?" he asks, peering behind me at the tentacled young thing. "um, well, i've found one and i really just wanted to return it to it's mother i guess. a reward wouldn't be refused tho, heh." "hmmph. well," he pushes the map sketch towards me, "the child markets is over there," he pushes one corner forward. "if you wish to buy a mother you go over here," he pushes the opposite corner forward. "and a course the fresh seafood is over there." he nods to his left towards the fish market. :: peering at the 4 lines and 2 circles which supposedly resemble a map of the floating market:: "...and where am i now?" "at the information booth." "right. well," ::taking the scrap of map:: "hey now who said y'could have that!" the horribly ugly man snatches it back. "ingrate," he mutters, unwilling to talk further.... ::gives the little monster another peppermint stick:: what an unhelpful man. let's go see if anyone at the fish market knows what's what. ::we wander off to the right, towards the smell of fresh fish:: lookit me, i'm postin! wheee! |
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Fractal demiurge Member  |
I have a migraine. I have been meandering through the market place for hours. My futile mission was to find something beaded and feminine and not see-through, but it seems that such things have already been claimed by the leggy market-brats who inhabit such places, snuffing out anything desireable, snatching things in their greedy laquered claws, and leaving behind the remaindered carcasses of cheap things that will no doubt be featured in a clearance sale.
I curse those cool bands of teen-hyenas as I arrive apathetically at what I vow will be the last clothier's tent I will visit. The flimsy creations of the clothier lay scattered over racks and shelves, unfolded, unhung, like a cortesan's stockings on her cotillion night. I sigh and rummage through the piles of rumpled garments. My hand brushes something cold and hard at the bottom of one pile. Something that my fingertips recoil from, not because it is unpleasant, but because its texture reminds me of all of the forbidden herilooms of my grandmother's that I longed to run my fingers upon as a child, and would instead touch with my imagination.  **** "Chives?" "Yes, m'lud?" "Is that Ms Ephemera hovering over the croquet lawn?" "Indeed m'lud. She's marshalled all the haggle-dans. Missy-twigs and vale-nymphs from Claypole Woods. Apparently she intends to tear this house down and dance on the ruins." "Well, Chives, you'd better start the car, what? And pack my tennis things too" --- Joe 3Heads |
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Administrator/Colporteur Member |
(Don't think you guys need a narrator. Should you happen to need one, I'll join back in. Phoenix, the girl you're following is fluffy.)
__________ AJGraeme "You see, I have a policy about honesty and ass-kicking: if you ask for it, I have to let you have it." -Taylor Mali "I am a sexy, shoeless god of war." -Belkar |
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is part of the international oatmeal conspiracy Member  |
*runs in frantically to the market, brandishing a very sharp and shiney sword*
I'm looking for the man in black. Has anyone seen the man in black? *vague disinterest is returned by most of the marketplace vendors* Well dammit. Anyone? *sheaths sword in the scabbard on her back and wanders around looking for some choice tofu* High Ranking Official of the Realm of Unproductivity and Procrastination, Dean of the UUP, First Class member of the order of the Pineapple. scruffy ambulating reanimated hypothetical vegetarian leigonairre of the undead. ~ Cav Look, I've got a cape and a tendency towards violence. It does not make me a superhero! ~ Domitella |
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Administrator/Colporteur Member |
(Keep in mind that this is you, sillypunk. If you have a sword in your personal things, you can have one here, otherwise it's a prop sword or something. I have a sword you can borrow if you like, though.)
__________ AJGraeme "You see, I have a policy about honesty and ass-kicking: if you ask for it, I have to let you have it." -Taylor Mali "I am a sexy, shoeless god of war." -Belkar |
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is part of the international oatmeal conspiracy Member |
i have a shiney, sharp sword at my disposal yes *grin*
High Ranking Official of the Realm of Unproductivity and Procrastination, Dean of the UUP, First Class member of the order of the Pineapple. scruffy ambulating reanimated hypothetical vegetarian leigonairre of the undead. ~ Cav Look, I've got a cape and a tendency towards violence. It does not make me a superhero! ~ Domitella |
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Neil Gaiman www.NeilgaimanBoard.com www.NeilgaimanBoard.com Neil's Other Works Anansi Boys The Floating Marketplace
www.NeilgaimanBoard.com www.NeilgaimanBoard.com Neil's Other Works Anansi Boys The Floating Marketplace© YourCopy 2001