Riffing on this week's challenge, and starting to sympathize with one of my villains:

In the Mind of a Villain

Slowly it dawns on George Tracy that he’s a failure. He’s surrounded by competent, brave men, and he tries to imitate them, but he’s like a child trailing after his older siblings, unable to keep up.

He never expected this. In school he excelled, knew just how to please the masters and avoid the bullies. How was he to know winning a place in a regiment took different skills, skills he lacked? But at this rate he’ll be a gentleman volunteer forever, never to earn the prestige—nor the pay—of an officer.

Yet still he has a sickly mother back home, brothers who must be educated, sisters who need portions. Maybe, just maybe, there’s an easier way.

Adult Now (100 words)

She looks older. Her eyes are tired as she plucks at my sleeve, says, "I need to talk to you."

I don't want to know anything more, but I follow her. I have always followed her.

"Look, you're an adult now. I need you to take care of yourself this year, okay? I know I can trust you to do that." A pat on my shoulder and she is gone by the last word.

Most teenagers would be ecstatic, but I am frozen on this chair. It's my senior year. I’m seventeen. My father is gone. My mother is too.

Oh, Kristin, how powerful and how painful.

I'm sorry, Kristin. But it's great writing...hmm, will have to see what comes up through the sackcloth and ashes.

Thanks both. Boy have I gotten a lot of writing out of that year...

I'm still pondering doing a companion piece to AmyLiz's piece about the parent-teacher meeting too.

Also, Deb, thank you so much for the ginger bread! It arrived today and is teh YUM.

I need some plot brainstorming help. It's been pointed out to me that Tracy, the blackmailer in Anna and Jack's story, is a bit too convenient a plot device--I make him threatening for just long enough to unstick the plot, and then all but deus ex machina him off the stage for good. My new critique partner thinks I should bring him back as a continuing threat, but I can't think of a good way to weave him in, and at some point I'd have to find a way to neutralize him. t shrugs

But then, this morning in the shower, that steamy source of all my best insights these days, I had a new thought: What if Anna kills him? Some of y'all may remember a drabble from a few weeks back setting the scene--Tracy sneaks into Anna's room in the dead of night, intent on blackmail and/or rape, in either case to solve his money problems by coercing her to marry him. She points a gun at him. I'd intended that she just use it to keep him at bay, but what if she shoots to kill? He threatens to use his position in the regiment to make sure Jack dies if she doesn't do what he wants, and I can totally see her pulling the trigger the instant the words are out of his mouth.

It would certainly make things interesting. I've been trying to combat my tendency to shirk from high stakes conflict by asking myself "What Would Joss Do?" I'm pretty sure he'd have her pull the trigger. But I'm not sure what all the new wrinkles would be, nor if they'd introduce more conflict than I'm prepared to handle. To wit:

1. Is Anna a murderer, A) in her own eyes, B) in the eyes of the legal system of the day, and/or C) in the eyes of the typical reader?

2. What are the legal ramifications? Would she have to stand trial, or would it be such an open-and-shut self-defense case that they'd let her go, keeping in mind that this is happening in the middle of an army on campaign? I need to get her on the way back to England within a few days of the incident, one way or the other, so this is an important thing to figure out, not that I'm expecting anyone here to be an expert on early 19th century British murder/manslaughter law.

3. What does it do to Anna and Jack? He'll definitely realize this had something to do with him....

Oh, and keep in mind that Tracy is more weak and desperate than mustache-twirling Evil.

I'm pretty sure the legal system would look dimly on such a thing. The scandal alone would be immense--no matter that he intruded in her room, the very fact that such a scandalous incident occurred would mark her as one of "those" sorts of women. Because after all, if Tracy has any kind of public name as a gentleman--whatever his private activities--he must have been lured/"driven to it" to be there in the first place. The social world would only have her word for it, after all, and do they have any reason to believe her?

For Anna's mindset, if she's not familiar with the type of gun, there's very good odds of it going off without her intending to, especially if she's frightened. (Trying to think of the poundage necessary for the trigger of a early 19th century handgun and how likely accidental shooting would be.) Unless you want her to be the type who would pull the trigger deliberately. Even then, the modern case would be manslaughter, not murder. She might not use the word "murderer" in her own mind, but "killer" would be there.

The modern reader would most likely let her off lightly in those circumstances. Buffistas would go "You go, sister!", but more average readers might want her to at least have remorse for being forced to take a life.

He's not especially well-liked. He's a "gentleman volunteer," i.e. a man of fairly good family but without enough money to buy a commission. Such men could get a recommendation to a regiment and essentially fight/train with the soldiers and mess with the officers until such time there was an opening for a lieutenant, and then if they'd proven themselves they'd be given the commission. Anyway, in his case it's become obvious he's basically a washout, hence his desperation and willingness to stoop to blackmail or rape.