Drunken Owls and Other Delights

From the dining hall in Hearst Castle, in front of the very large fireplace:


Most people's reaction: Oh, how cute/whimsical/funny/interesting/etc.

My reaction: Oh, I should use these two characters in a story somewhere.

Ever the writing geek, I am.

I didn't take too many pictures, as most of the inside shots came out a bit dark and blurry, but I'll try to post a few this weekend when I get back and have the time to sit down and post them all. :)

So here I am last night, sitting at the edge of the bed and staring at Chapter 3 of Gabriel & Cassandra and wondering how I'm going to finish this chapter. I was doing pretty good, up to the point where I suddenly realized that I was unfolding all these actions and immediately paying them off without quite explaining why they were happening...

So here's the set-up: Gabriel, who just got off the phone with Daez (who's down in NYC and explaining to Gabriel about the finer points of the Goth underworld--thanks, daevinanoctem!-- and warning him about the more evil members of the so-called "Enclave". He doesn't remember much since he passed out at work in the previous chapter (which I will explain later), and now he's walking through Copley Square in Boston (the story takes place there) at 3 in the morning, wondering just what the hell is going on. He sits on the library steps and looks out across the square and sees someone sitting on the steps of Trinity Church, staring back at him. After a bit of weirdness and dialogue, he suddenly realizes who that man is--Leroy X, a member of the band Asterisk and the vampire who Cassandra had staked just the other night.

And this is where I was at last night.

After a few minutes of thinking, I started to flesh out (pun not intended) Leroy's character a bit to explain why he's there. That's all fine and dandy, but I couldn't think of how to do it. So I'm thinking...what would the X in his name stand for?

Xavier. Pretty much the only name I can think of that starts with X that isn't Xerxes. ;)

Which makes me think of "Xavier" by Dead Can Dance.

*DING!* Suddenly the lightbulb over my head goes off. If I remember correctly, Xavier in the song is a man who tries in vain to set things right for his love but utterly fails to do so because all he's doing is praying that things change without actually physically DOING anything.

Xavier, my character, is a seriously powerful vampire who can physically change things--even what time of day it is--because he's pretty much the spawn of Lucifer. He's been given powers to set up an apocalyptic change in the world...and the only thing standing in his way is a man who just happens to share the same name as an important angel: Gabriel.

I'm currently at the point where Xavier is about scare the living bejeesus out of poor Gabe before trying to do away with him. I haven't written it yet...but I can't wait to write it this weekend!!!

All this just because of a song. Damn, I love it when things fall into place like this. :D