"The Rise of Dante the Vinci" Book 1, Chapter 1

"Ashfall"

His clockwork pen fell heavy on the paper as Dante blindly traced his signature onto the Demolition Approval Form. He filled the blanks with a simple "Dante, son of Alexi, Doge of Venucci." Alexi. His father. The Doge. The mass murderer. Alexi. The man who had ensured that his son would be kept safe from the wrath of Giacomo and his Mianian horde bent on the destruction of all that Venucci stood for. The Doge. The man who had slaughtered all of his political enemies, including his own wife. All this eleven years ago. Both Alexi, the father, and The Doge, dictator of Venucci, were each sharing a grave, as they had shared a body eleven years ago. Even Giacomo was dead, sparing Dante from a swift exectution. To think that someone would actually have a bounty for a nine-year old.

As Dante sat and signed approval forms for the construction of this mining station and for the demolition of that boulder which blocked the extraction of the ever needed Timonium, he thought of his name. He no longer wanted to be "Dante, son of Alexi, Doge of Venucci." But he didn't want to be was he was on the road into becoming: "Dante, Head of Outland Vinci Mining Co." He saw himself not in a chair, signing paper, but in a throne, ordering someone else to build a statue with his name on it. He saw the statue. He was giving the order. The name he had was "Dante the..."

"Sir!"

"What is it Lt.?" The master of the guard, Kiel (pronouced the same as Kyle), had come in. The tired old solider convulsed as he tried to shake the ash off his dusty uniform.

"Sir, the miners have uncovered something."

"Hand me a gasmask, I'd like to see this myself." Dante said, rising from his chair. As he stepped outside, the volcanic gases whirled a rounded him, enveloping him like water.

Outside now, his daydreams disappeared like vapor. The statue had been so close, but now was gone. His name, gone with it.

Ok, that's all for chapter 1. There will be three books for this:

1. The Rise of Dante the Vinci
2. The Man in High Glass Castle
3. The Clockwork Lies Heavy

-Sgt. Hydra

See the previous blog for an update on the story. I've got videos now!!!:D

As promised, I will write three fanfictions to beat the AWS out of me. The first is a fanfiction of a video game that I don't think anyone has heard of. So, I must give backstory, Yes?

Prolugue to "The Rise of Dante the Vinci":

The Where:

• A planet called Aio. Nice place to live, if you like giant scorpians duking it out with giant glass spiders (yes, I said GLASS spiders).

The Who:

• The Vinci: Main protagionist nation. Masters of steampunk tech. Like to build giant robots out of clock parts.Recently went through a civil warbetween the Doge of Venucci and Giacomo, the Inventor of Miana. Giacomo, who is a nerd btw, somehow won. Doge dies. Giacomo eventually kills himself in an attempt to defeat an entity known as the Cuotl. Right now, things are... tense...(nobody likes Venucci. think post WW1)
• The Alin: Users of sand magic, fire magic, and glass magic. Arabian. Women are hawt (understatement. using Giacomo's words: "I like it here."). Currently, the only nation to not be affected by civil war. They like to push people around alot.
• The Cuotl: any here watch Stargate SG1? If u do, think the Jaffa after they kick the guo'ld's collective ***es. If you don't watch SG1, then they are a nation who were enslaved by aliens. Who these aliens were is the subject of my fanfiction

If you don't like Rise of Nations, don't worry. Mikiel is already hard at work writing two avatar ones. Ones gonna be in space! I won't have to write a backstory for that one!!! w007!

Song of the blog: "Soliders of the Wasteland" by Dragonforce. Had a typo earlier. Said "warriors" instead of "soliders."

Love that song!!!!

-Sgt. Hydra

Update: You won't beleive my luck! I just found a bunch of the cimimatics on youtube!!! I'm posting them in order, so u can get the backstory better.

Opening:

• Click

Vinci Campain

• First
• Second
• Third
• Fourth

Alin:

• First
• Second

Coutl:

• First
• Secondand ending cinimatic

In case u r confused, the black haired dude is Giacomo, the old mustaced guy is the Doge, the black haired girl is a woman known as Lenora, the old fart is called General Carlini, the really hawt middle eastern girl is Arri, and the big scary grim reaper is our friendly nieghborhood alien god, Czin. Everything else, I'll get to later.

"Of shoes,andships, and suspensions

of moderators and kings

of why I was suspended for seven days,

and whether the TV.com support staff are a bunch of dirty pigs."

I was suspended. For being off topic, allegedly. Unfortunatly for TV.com, I was actually only half off topic. I was also on topic, and for any moderators reading this, I dare you to prove me otherwise.

I even got the whole encounter on tape and posted it on YouTube: click here

For all my deep hatred of TV.com, they aren't bad people. In fact, they are great people. If they weren't here, we'd see white kobbra type people everywhere. They keep the balance. But recently, some have grown... literal... with regards to the TOS rules. How does an off topic thread violate the TOS? Donno. How can a simple message which is critical of TV.com violate the terms of service? Got me. How many licks does it take to get to the toosie roll center of a toosie pop? The world will never know.

Anyway, the suspension was almost timed to coincide with an e-mail I got last week. It was from an old friend of mine, asking if I wanted to sit down and kick his *** at my favorite computer game, "Rise of Legends." After the game, which ended as predicted, I thought about the map we'd just played on. I loved looking around each corner, finding some strange glowing machine. So I decided to write a fanfiction. Three actually.

1. A Rise of Legends Fanfiction, titled "The Rise of Dante the Vinci" I'll post this one first.
2. An avatar the last airbender fanfiction, set in space. Still working the bugs out this one.
3. Another ATLA, but my associates and I are debating on the setting or even what it will be about!

So that is what is new to the Mikiel Hydra blog. I'll try to get back on the philosophy game next week, after I post my Rise of Legends fanfiction.

I just want to say, FMA's music video "Soilders of the Wasteland" is the best AMV I have ever seen.

May God save the Mods. Good day to you all.

-Sgt. Hydra

Last Monday, April 16, 2007, was the day the worst school shooting in our great nation's history occured. I was watching live when they came on with "this just in." I heard the name Virgina Tech and I collapsed. You expect these things to happen in other countries. Not here. These things don't happen in America. They happen in Madrid or London or Bagdad. A shooter doesn't just walk into a school and kill 33 people in America.

But it happened. When most people hear news like that, they cry. But what does the media do? They report live from the school and the shooter's home and the shooter's dorm and so on. They are unemotional. We report you decide is their slogon, but do they report with feelings? Are they truely sadden by this or,as their expression tells the audiance, is this just another big payday? another anna nicole? They bring commentators who blame the violence on things like gun control  or video games or how few times the shooter was taken to the circus by his father. They place blame but offer nothing to extingish our sorrow as a nation. The prez and a few other politicians gives some comfort, but it barely makes through the noise of the media. Is the cause gun control, or an out of control society, lifting up a precious few who have the right clothes, listen to the right music, go to the right parties, have the right friends, and watch the right tv shows. I watched a few moments of Cho's rage filled rant and I wondered: no one cared about how disturbed and angry he was. He never said anything. He was just another face, another hard to pronnounce name, another funny accent. Another loner, another loser. He shut himself from the world and drifted into a hell. He is as much a victim as anyone. Cho died a long time ago. Something else shot and killed 33 students in VA. Something else.

I pray daily for the families of the victims of the VA Shootings. God Bless them.

-SgtHydra

Hello my friends. It has been... a time since we have last met. Well, for everything there is a season, or so a book I've been reading alot recently says. A pressing matter which has kept many up at night recently is a subject which is ever constant, even in this age of enlightenment and virtue. To those who were borne after the 70's, civil rights is a subject that only comes up during African American History Month and Dr. Martin Luther King Day. But now more than ever we should be in the streets fighting for our rights. No longer is it just the rights for one group or minority, but everyone's rights.

Racism is a topic which recently made the headlines with the firing of Don Imus, host of the former radio talk show "Imus in the Morning." He made a series of comments which, to make a long story short, called a group of women of African descent, hores. The flip side to this is the black rappers, who for a long time have been calling just about everyone a hoe. Its not ok for a white man to call a black woman a hoe, but its ok for a black man to call a black woman a hoe? My friends, it is unacceptable to call any woman, regardless of ethnicity, a name which is degrading and hurtful.

Another issue of racism is the so called "affirmative action." Conceived when white males dominated universities, affirmative action seemed like a great way to end centuries of white domination in the fields of Science, Politics, and other higher echelon jobs. Now, minorities are filling up universities in such a way that affirmative action only prevents students from entering prestigious universities simply because of the color of their skin!

The only way to resolve this is to, as the title might suggest, listen to the cookie. Think of the Oreo. Black cookie with a creamy white filling. With just the cookie, or just the filling, the Oreo sucks. But with the filling and the cookie working side by side, you get a wonderful dessert. Excuse me... I'm hungry now and am about to share a cookie with a dear friend of mine. Goodbye. And until next time.

-Sgt. Hydra

Well, my friends, you have chosen not to follow my warnings previously posted last blog, so here I am, there you are.

Today's topic: evil. Yes evil. I have been browsing the tv.com and have found numerous threads devoted to deciding exactly how evil a character is. It doesn't matter what show your watching, somebody is portrayed as "evil." But, my friends, what is evil? Is the universe really locked in a titanic struggle between two forces? Yin and Yang. Black and White. Heaven and Hell. Good and Evil. Such battles are the topics of novels and stories and movies and plays and you get the idea. Does evil exist in reality, a reality which invents stories for its own entertaintment and pleasure?

Well, my dear and faithful friends, I am here to tell you that evil doesn't exist! Are there people who are mean and cruel? Yep, cause I'm one of em! But are they evil? Remember, even Hitler had a mother who loved him and raised him, whom little Adolf loved and was raised by. Hitler of course, slaugtered millions of people. Does that make him evil? Or was he just not following predetermined moral codes and ethics? I'm am in no ways defending Hitler but I am questioning the brand struke upon many tyrants and murderers over the untold expanse of human history. I firmly believe that everyone you think of as evil is just a person with different bielfs and opinions. I used to think many democrats were evil (and, my friends, some of you may think our president is evil.). But I talked to one, got to know one, became friends with a demcrat. I realized only his opinions differed from mine, nothing more. If some of you were to actually talk with "evil people," you might discover the same thing. No one is evil, no one is good. We are all simply creatures of varying opinion and belief. If there is no evil, then does God exist? Good questions for another day. Oh, and stop writing threads about evil characters, its drivin me nuts!

-SgtHydra

Hmmmm... a place to vent some steam... nice... very nice...

Hello my friends, and welcome to my blog. If you are reading this, you really need to do something else. I'm boring, just an average joe. Hmmm... ur still here? Go run outside, play with your dog, talk to ur kids. Life is too meaningful to be wasted here, reading the opinions of some ranting nobody. trust me, I'm uninteresting. If it is night, like it always is here in depressing portland, then sit down and read a book, friend.

Well my friends, I tried to be modest and truthful, but I came back from this rant angrier than when I began. So that is how bloggers can type their keys so effortlessly, forming words of anger and disgust and well placed outrage over threats to our free nation, real and imagined. I am a philshophical being, here to ask the big questions and make lots of spelling errors in the process. I hope that my bog will become more relevant to recent times and issues and purposes, but practice never makes perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect. good night and good bye my dear and trusted friends.