For this week’s Wild Card Friday, we will venture into Copia, the world where my story The Master’s Chronicles takes place. What is The Master’s Chronicles about?  To give you an idea, imagine what would happen if you mixed Final Fantasy and J.R.R. Tolkien together.

The result is a rich and intricate world steeped in history and wonder. The Master’s Chronicles is only the first part in The Master’s Chronicles series.  Each new one will take place in a different world, with different characters. As I mentioned in the beginning,  The Master’s Chronicles takes place on Copia, a planet copious with life.

A key element in The Master’s Chronicles is relics.  The Master has forged four relics.  One for each of the four finders to rule a corner of Copia.  The seed relic, the knowledge relic, the time relic, and the power relic. The story focuses on a character named Nicolas, a young man from the town of Tulin.  To set the scene, here is one of Nicolas, as he makes his way to Tulin Square.

Nicolas left the house and walked down the stone road.The road was lined with rows of houses on either side.Each house had a large garden, as this was not uncommon to this class in Tulin.

Nicolas kept walking down the road.In the distance, he saw some children playing tag.The young boy with ruffled hazelnut hair and a round cap ran after the young girl, who had her gold locks tied in a flowery wreath.The young girl’s bonnet wafted in the breeze, as she kept her distance from the young boy.

“You can’t catch me!” the girl tattled.

The girl ran past Nicolas, with the boy in close pursuit.

“Yes I can…” the boy huffed.

Nicolas kept walking, and suddenly noticed a mounted soldier that about to hit him.

The Tulin soldier grabbed the reins and abruptly changed the direction of his horse, missing Nicolas by just inches.“Out of my way, peasant!” the soldier shouted.

Nicolas kept walking.He began to smell fresh bread, spices, and several cooked dishes.He saw the sign prominently displayed in the center: Tulin Square.

Tulin Square was a bustling marketplace.Residents from all over the town sold the fruits of their labor.Many Tulinites saw this place as a land of opportunity.“It’s the only way to prosper”, some say.

Nicolas understood the hierarchy in Tulin Square.In Tulin, you’re either a noble, a merchant, or a peasant.In regarding the hierarchy, each Tulinite kept their distance, and didn’t associate with the other hierarchy.Merchants were the exception to the rule and associated with both nobles and peasants together.They benefited from both hierarchies so it didn’t matter to them.

Nicolas walked toward the center of Tulin Square, which displayed various bulletin boards for the Tulinites to view.There were bulletin boards that displayed announcements, bounties, job offerings, and listed miscellaneous items for sale.The common Tulin peasant shrugs when they pass the bulletins.It doesn’t make much sense to them. When they see the bulletins, they often look away to avoid ridicule from the Tulin nobles.

As Nicolas approached the bulletin boards, he heard a shout.It came from a nearby bread vendor.

“Stop, thief!” The vendor shouted.

A fairly tall boy ran, holding a couple loaves of bread.

“Stop that thief!” The vendor shouted.

A nearby fruit vendor saw the boy and tripped him, sending him and the two loaves to the ground.The fruit vendor grabbed the boy by the wrist.The boy kicked and shook his wrists but was unable to get free.He almost shook free from the vendor when a vegetable vendor grabbed his other wrist.

“We got him,” the vegetable vendor said.

The bread vendor walked right up to the boy and stood over him.“That will be two gold coins,” he demanded.

The boy shook his head and trembled. “I don’t have two gold coins…”

“You don’t, huh?I oughta fetch the Tulin cavalry on you.Soldier!”

A nearby mounted soldier came over to the vendor.“What seems to be the problem?”

“This peasant stole two loaves of bread and he will not pay for them!”

The soldier shook his head and sighed.He reached in his pouch and flung two gold coins at the merchant.“Let that peasant go.I have much more important matters to deal with.”

The vendor gathered his coins and stared at the boy.“Lucky you,” he scowled, releasing his grip.“You got off lucky this time.Don’t steal from my stand again!”

“I-I won’t…” he gasped.

The boy grabbed the two loaves and ran out of the town square.

Nicolas shook his head and turned to the bulletin board.There were scads of jobs listed.He glanced though the listings…

That’s about it for our journey to Copia.  As always,  leave your thoughts and let me know what you think.  Who knows?  I may make a return journey to Copia on another Wild Card Friday in the future. I am currently wrapping up chapter 2.  I am almost finished.  To everyone out there, have an awesome Friday!

This week for Wild Card Friday,  I will talk about a pastime that a lot of video game fanatics can identify with.  Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

For those of you that are unfamiliar with this game, you basically fight, playing as popular characters throughout Nintendo history.  Snake and Sonic, who are not Nintendo characters,  however, are a couple of exceptions.

Why am I talking about Brawl? The sole purpose is that I’m only one sticker away to collecting all 700 stickers.

What are stickers?  Well, they are some of the different items you can collect, along with CD’s and trophies. So far, I have had no luck getting the last sticker.

I have played matches ad infinitum, collecting every sticker, and none of them was the last sticker.  They were all repeats.   Sooner or later, I will get that sticker.

To leave it open for everyone, what is your favorite video game?  If you don’t play video games, what do you like to do in your spare time?  Fire your thoughts and let me know.

Bottom line.  If the last sticker is a playable character,  it’s on.  They’re going to get the living crap beat out of them.  I just hope it isn’t Mario.

With Friday here again, I decided to try something new with this blog.

Every Friday, I will take a detour from the traditional “Politics as Usual”, and will post basically whatever I want.  I call it “Wild Card Friday”.

This week, we are headed to the final frontier,  and we will talk about the Star Trek movie. So far, the movie’s doing stellar, with a worldwide gross of $141.7 million.  With it grossing over $100 million domestically, will it stay number 1?

If you know me, I’m not a big Star Trek fan.  It’s not that I don’t like the franchise.  It’s just that I never actually got into it when I was growing up.  But with Star Trek being this popular right now, I can’t help but talk about it, right?

I am, however, a fan of Star Wars.  Having seen the original movies as a kid and seeing the other 3 movies in the more recent years,  I am way more familiar with the franchise than I am with Star Trek.

Sure, I know a little bit about Captain Kirk,  Scotty, Spock, and Klingons, but that’s about it.

What are your thoughts on this movie?  Do you plan on seeing it, or if you saw it, how was it?  I don’t know if I plan on seeing it, but beam me up your thoughts and let me know.

Can Star Trek XI keep it up in the box office? Only time will tell…