December Spotlight Series – Christmas Karaoke – part 1

Welcome to part 1 of my Christmas Karaoke adventure! In this scenelette, you’ll meet a couple of brand new characters from the book I’m currently editing. Let’s see how these folks handle the news that they’ll be singing…

Swipe Right

Role Call: Deveron, Serian, Galien, and Kalinin
Scenelette Type: Meta

“Christmas Karaoke Party,” Serian said, yet again, looking around to the infuriatingly blank faces of his family. “Guys! It’s a Christmas. Karaoke. Party.”

“Yeah, we heard you,” Deveron said. “We heard the first eight times, too.”

“And we also got the text from Hannah,” Kalinin added, with the typical teenage sulkiness she insisted on adding to anything that sounded even remotely fun.

Serian gave them another moment to come to their senses and, when they didn’t, flung his long arms wide in exasperation. “How are you not excited about this?!”

“I’m just… not that into Karaoke,” Deveron said.

“Or parties,” Galien added with an apologetic shrug.

“Or Christmas,” Kalinin chimed in.

“But you can still go,” Galien offered in a hopeful tone. “I’m sure you’ll have fun.”

Serian sent a pouty glare over to his brother. “We,” he said, gesturing to the room’s inhabitants, “are all going to go. And we are all going to have a good time.” Galien slumped a little into the couch, but he wisely gave up arguing.

“Now, did you guys read the briefing packet?” Serian asked, holding up the squat little envelope with festive stickers adorning the outside.

“Not yet,” Deveron said. “Wait… you did? Since when do you read briefing packets?”

“Since they’re about Christmas Karaoke Parties!” Serian said, bonking Deveron over the head with the padded envelope before spilling the contents onto the table. “Besides, look – it came with a phone,” he said, holding it up for inspection.

Phones were, of course, completely non-existent in Serian’s fantasy world. But outside of the story – here in the MetaVerse where characters were self-aware as characters and able to mingle with other stories – they all had one. But it was a very basic flip phone.

But it seemed that today’s activity required technology far superior to what they usually carried, so they got a smartphone along with the written instructions. When he powered up the screen, there were only two apps. The background was a picture of Hannah, positioned so she was pointing at the apps with the comical speech bubbles – ‘do this first’ and ‘do this second.’

Some fantasy characters (like himself) picked up on MetaSpace technology easily, but others (like his brother, Galien) thought that technology was suspicious and not to be trusted. “See, it’s like a dating app,” Serian explained, even though he knew that wouldn’t mean anything to Galien. “Except it’ll help find the right people to sing with.”

“Wait, I thought the three of us would just sing together.” Deveron asked, gesturing between himself, Serian, and Galien. He’d switched from being unexcited by the idea to straight-up fearing it.

“No,” Serian said. “Because the whole point is to meet other people, and it’ll be fun, Dev. Really. You’ll have a good time.”

Deveron grumbled something into his fist that sounded decidedly un-Christmasy.

“Look, it’s easy,” he said, opening the first app. “You just type here what you’re looking for in a karaoke partner. See, I said ‘Costumes, dance routines, and all things ridiculous.’”

“Yeah, that sounds like you,” Deveron consented.

“And then once you enter that you open the other app,” Serian went on, demonstrating, “And you get to see what all the other people wrote – just the comments, not their names. If you want to do a routine with them you swipe right, if not you swipe left. Get it? Fun, right?”

After a few more tireless minutes of talking them around to the idea (and explaining to Galien what was meant by ‘swiping’) Serian finally got them to admit that it was an interesting set up. At the very least, it was less intimidating than milling around in a traditional ‘speed date’ setting trying to find a partner who wasn’t in your own story.

Galien’s set his status as ‘Please don’t make me sing’ – which Serian thought was very sad, but also not surprising. However, as he assisted his older brother with the whole swiping concept, he saw that there were actually a few people who had entered a very similar message, so maybe they could all be happy little introverts together.

Deveron didn’t need help with the technology, but he was still sitting in the room long after Galien and Kalinin had returned to their usual activities. Serian flopped down on the couch next to him.

“What’s the matter, buddy?”

“I have no idea what to write,” Deveron admitted, turning the screen so Serian could see that it was still on the first app.

“You could write that,” Serian suggested. “‘I have no idea what to write.’ Could be funny.”

But Deveron wasn’t in the mood to be funny. The poor guy looked absolutely exhausted. (Being the main character of a project going through intensive editing will do that to you…)

“What?” Serian asked. “Is it really the singing thing? Because you know the author will give us temporary ‘being on key’ skills for the party.”

“Yeah, I know that. I know,” he sighed, leaning his head back at looking up at the ceiling. “I just… don’t make new friends easily.” As soon as the words were out he winced and said, “Ugh, that makes me sound like a toddler…”

“Nah it doesn’t,” Serian said, shoving Deveron in the shoulder. He reached down and plucked the phone from Deveron’s hands, typing something out and holding it up for approval, “How about this?”

Roses are red
Coffee keeps me awake
Parties are stressful
I’m here for the cake.

Deveron squinted at the words for a moment. “Well, that’s not even a little bit what I’m looking for in a karaoke partner.”

“Yeah, but it’s funny, though. Right?”

“Not… really,” Deveron said, but when he looked up to find Serian’s beyond-hopeful expression, he smiled anyway. “Whatever, just post it,” he said.

“Done!” he chirped, returning the phone going back to his own to swipe through the new messages.

Thanks for reading! Next up: Song Friends – Willow and Jasper show up to see the cast list for the songs. But in MetaSpace, things are always needlessly complicated. (but also very cute.)

December Giveaway!

At the end of December, I’ll be giving these three bookish ornaments to one lucky person! I made these beauties out of upcycled novels (Left – Pride and Prejudice, Middle and Right – Sherlock Holmes)

To enter, just comment on any of my blog posts for the month of December! And, if you really want to increase your chances, you can also comment on the pinned post on my Facebook Page.

Last day to enter is December 30th. Winner will be announced on December 31st. Good Luck!