I found a cache of old school work, and I've since been tweaking them into stories. The things I post here will be parts that I've pulled out of their original context and have since worked them as passages for random stories.


For this one, the ending is weak and not as engaging as I wanted it to be, so I'll be needing help in editing that part. Essentially, this is a glimpse of an event in the middle of the story.

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"The iconic image of a peacock is that of its tail feathers arched into a wide fan that reaches across the bird's back and touches the ground on either side. For peacocks, the large train of feathers is used in mating rituals and courtship displays. When placed in its latent state, the tail train is lowered onto the ground and left to drag. This subsequently unsettles the dust beneath the peacock’s feet, and leaves a fainter impression of its tracks behind. "

Marthi shifted his weight on the other foot, making it clear to his companion that he could care less of some fowl's feathers. However, this either went unnoticed or ignored. Probably ignored, he thought to himself, as the impromptu lecture kept going.

"In humans, the waist is one of the focal points of gauging a person’s attractiveness. In a female, the measurement of her waist-to-hip-to-bust ratio determines her fertility while the male’s waist denotes fitness. Likewise, peacocks correlate attractiveness to the condition of tail feathers. Peahens are believed to choose their partners according to the size, color, and quality of their feather trains. Thus, the waist is a good analogy to the peacock’s tail feathers as a symbol of attention."

A groan of exasperation only served as encouragement to continue.

"It is part of human nature to crave attention due to being in a perpetual competition for it. Attempting to surpass everyone else in sight is a sort of ritual for social standing and mating rights with the most attractive member of the opposite sex. However, once that attention has been garnered, it can and often does become overwhelming; as the efforts to attain the attention were never meant to be maintained, but rather, only in short bursts to gain and reap the rewards. Afterwards, most people often want to shed the coils of fame so as to relax and recover. As the world gets more connected, it gets harder to leave the limelight entirely, since people can easily look online and find a record of your history..."

"I don't care if my porn history gets plastered all over the city's playgrounds and retirement homes. Can you get to the point?"

"On the other hand, the peacock naturally replaces his feathers annually. Thus, just as a peacock can manipulate his feathers to gain attention, he can easily cast it off, replace them with new feathers, and then sweep his tracks awa--"

"KIEL! Humans, peacocks, what's the point of this sermon!?"

The bespectacled man finally paused. Marthi sighed, knowing that Kiel only droned on if he were stalling.

"What I'm trying to get to, Marthius, is that because of your sudden rise to... infamy, you are now a primary target for USE. I think it's time for you to stop fanning your tail feathers and get a new identity before things get beyond repair."

USE. Unmodifiable Scheduled Elimination. He immediately regretted cutting short his time in ignorance.

Jump cut to another portion of the story. I'm a bad writer.

--

By the time he was halfway through the files, his vision had blurred. Marthi kept telling himself it was because Kiel’s notes were too detailed for him to take all in, that it was exhaustion finally catching up. The delusion made it easier for him to ignore the tear stains on the keyboard. He lingered on every illustration, hungrily taking in anything that was directly created by Kiel. Suddenly, a file caught his attention. Made in some notepad program, it was small, probably another one of his friend’s half-done drabbles before he worked on a thesis. It was however, edited recently. Marthi quickly wiped his eyes and strained them more so, reading it in Kiel’s familiar drone.

“In making the feather train, I wanted to address the human frailty of desiring anonymity after attaining infamy. The irony is further expanded by utilizing the very same article (feathers) to dispel the attention it had originally sought and garnered.”

Marthi’s breathe hitched. It was a rushed explanation for the designs, another one of his stupid peacocks lecture. Kiel’s final sermon.

“The peacock is known for its lurid tail and thus, is often associated with pride. I instead decided to explore its other symbolisms, such as the peacock’s status as a symbol of renewal due to its annually replacing its feathers. This is reflected by the train’s structure—individual feathers that can be renewed by attaching more onto the belt. With its numerous long coverts, the train can drag on the floor and sweep off any footprints made, thus concealing one’s path to prevent others from following. I wanted to focus on the latent part of the renewal cycle, instead of the more active and typical attention-seeking portion. Peacock feathers were also considered to be all seeing, much a likve the evil eye, in the mythology of many ancient civilizations.”

He paused once more, chuckling at the misspelling. Even Kiel made mistakes, it seems.

“This is mirrored in the individual feathers’ eye-like ovoid pattern. The pattern is a type of camouflage that fools predators into believing that they have been found out, thus frightening them away. In order to help stave off unwanted attention, the train’s wearer uses visual mimicry to show awareness that they are being observedmarthusiahlelapmdddd”

In his mind, Kiel’s impassive voice broke into a shriek. It caught him unaware, and a chill ran down Marthi’s spine. He stared at the screen, the last bit taking over his entire vision.

“observedmarthusiahlelapmdddd”

“marthusiahlelapmdddd”

“marthius help meeee”

Then, another thought. The typo.

“a likve the evil eye”

“alikve”

“alive”