Sunday Snippet: Victory is Hollow

It's been a wild and busy week! I'm buried with work projects, which I'm thrilled to have—even if I could use about four more hours in each day. Good problems to have.

Had a slower than normal television viewing week, but I kind of expect that when I'm trying to keep plates spinning with work and only have a small wobble here and there.

I caught two episodes of Hawkeye and I'm kind of bummed there's only one left. I'm loving this show a lot.

Caught the season three premiere of Harrow and I already intensely dislike the new boss. That said, I kind of love the shifting dynamics of the character relationships. Fern could grow up just a little, but I like where everyone else is for the most part.

Watched another episode of Blue Heelers and liked the way everything played out. Really good case of the week on this one.

Enjoyed another MasterClass lesson with Neil de Grasse Tyson. Learned about cognitive bias and have a much better understanding of how that works.

Caught another episode of Young Wallander: Killer's Shadow. Poor Kurt gets his ass kicked on a regular basis. Glad to see Reza get bumped up to detective. Poor Rusk has a lot going on at the moment.

Got two more episodes of Classic Rugrats in and thoroughly enjoyed. I love the call outs to stuff from my younger years. That's why the original show is genius. Enjoyable for parents and kids.

Watched another episode of Chicago Med and things got interesting at the end. Not sure I'm down with Will possibly hooking up with Agent Lee. Really kind of squicked out by Nat's involvement with the dad of her former patient. But I love the whole saga of Daniel's ex and everything that's going on with that.

Enjoyed another episode of The Snoopy Show. I like how the short vignettes are themed around a topic. This one had Halloween stuff and it was a lot of fun.

Caught another episode of Loch Ness and I'm kind of amazed how things are moving forward but at what seems like a maddeningly slow pace. A couple of big reveals in this episode.

Finished up season seventeen of Silent Witness and should start eighteen this week. Have to say I quite liked how this one ended. Glad Jack will be sticking around.

Watched another episode of Classic Who. Poor Seven just doesn't have a lot to work with. That said, I'm kind of enjoying this arc.

Enjoyed another episode of The Laundry Guy. I think I could honestly watch multiple seasons of this show. Patric needs his own YouTube channel. I'd totally subscribe.

Also watched another episode of The Hardy Boys and have a lot of love for this show. It's so much fun to talk to my brother about the episodes after we see them. Brings back a lot of eighties memories.

That's it for the life update this week. Tonight's post is from Victory is Hollow, a novella that got a start with a writing community prompt.

Here's the mini-blurb:

Patience Clew and Del Mindhapel are elite arms instructors for their training academy and have a lot of tension bouncing back and forth. When two of their cadets go head to head in an illegal duel and one ends up with an almost mortal wound, the top teachers are confined to quarters and that's when the tension really goes out of control.

And a sneaky peek…

Del paced the length of their quarters, pissed off and ready to rumble.

He stopped and faced his counterpart. "I told you a duel was a stupid idea." More like colossally insane.

Patience shrugged. "How should I know one of the weapons had live rounds?" She flipped the latest issue of the Cutting Edge, a newsletter dedicated to promising advances in military technology.

Her lack of giving a shit kicked his anger up a notch.

Del flung out a hand. "Not you, Patience. We." He waved his hand between them. "Neither of us bothered to check." A rookie mistake when neither of them had seen newb status in a long while.

Her shoulders slumped. "Yeah. You're right." She shoved the publication aside. "Basic stuff and we miss it." Her gaze met his. "Not our best moment."

Nope. Not by a long shot.

He pulled out a chair and settled across from her. "Understatement. We have a cadet who's lucky they pulled through the surgery. And we're responsible." The weight of that wouldn't leave him.

And he needed to wrap his head around the reason Patience always did the opposite of the smart thing. Maybe if he understood they could get past constantly butting heads and never make the mistake they made earlier. At the very least, his blood pressure might not rise and fall on her whim.

He leaned forward a little. "Why do you always push boundaries and bump up against the regs? And I'm not judging here. I really want to understand where you're coming from."

She actually took a moment to answer. "To garner change. The status quo should always be tested." She listed a bunch of discoveries and new technology found when someone pushed hard at normal. "This newsletter is filled with great ideas, but genius isn't always foolproof."

Del couldn't argue. "Gotta admit, I'm impressed with your knowledge on the subject." She knew her stuff.

She rolled a shoulder. "Yeah, well, better to discover potential problems in a controlled environment like the academy than out in this field where a whole platoon could be lost." Her voice dropped and wobbled a little.

A light bulb went off for Del and any residual anger drained away. "Sounds like you're speaking from experience." Maybe he'd get a handle on what made her tick after all.

I'm having a lot of fun with this story. Del and Patience are pretty much polar opposites and getting them to see the advantage of that is making me happy.

 

That's it for this week. Catch everyone on the flipside.

ML Skye