Muse comes in a little plastic bottle, and you can buy it with different levels of caffeine and water mixed in. You can get it really diluted, I usually get it equal parts water, caffeine, an drug; but the really heavy users sometimes buy it pure. I think they're crazy.1
When you get your muse in your little plastic bottle, there's this wax part on the top that you bite off with your teeth like those wax-top candies and you just suck it down. It tastes kind of bitter, but it goes down so quickly you barely notice. Then your head gets kinda buzzy and you just GO. Your brain just wakes up and your thoughts come alive and you start writing and you just can't stop, you know EXACTLY what you wanna say. One time I typed up twenty pages STRAIGHT from my head in a half hour! Twenty pages! Isn't that wild!2
The muse wears off after a while. But don't worry, all you have to do is take more. 3
All of us are writers and all of us live in this remote concrete and brick cul-de-sac in the big city that no one knows about, it's practically all made of winding back alleys, it's great. We all share flats, and it's completely free. Technically though the landlords get their money anyway 'cause they're the ones what sell us the muse in the first place, and even though it's cheap, we all buy SO much of it that they still end up making profit.4
There are deaths. Of course there are deaths. That's the reality of it. It's scary, you never know who's gonna die next, 'cause everyone reacts to muse differently. You can't say, hey, so-and-so has been a heavy user for twenty years, they're prolly gonna die soon, 'cause they might not die from it. I've known kiddies who've been on the stuff six months and died. It just depends on how your body reacts to it. What happens is the muse eats away at the walls of your stomach and eventually everything caves in, and the last drops of muse left in there chemically react to all the mush in you, and you start throwing up your guts as you die of organ failure. The whole process takes about fifteen minutes. 5
So Jimmy goes out to the car to get something but when he doesn't come back you go look for him and oh, no...6
Then you have to call in those guys what clean up the mess.7
“Deadies can't write,” that's the motto around here. Everyone says it every day and for good reason, because at least one person in the cul-de-sac dies every week, and another person always moves in right after them, they're immediately replaced and everyone goes on with their lives. The muse up and kills them, just like it'll kill all of us users someday. 8
It's all a race, see? Who's gonna finish their life's work before they throw up their guts and keel over? Not very many people, that's who. Because to finish your life's work you need to take more muse, and by taking more muse you increase your chances of dying, and by increasing your chances of dying you increase your chances of not finishing your writing. 9
And deadies can't write, so you gotta finish it before you die.10
I believe that is what is called a vicious cycle.11
When I first moved in here with my buddies Jimmy and Maria, I was completely determined to be straight-edge. I knew what kinda stuff Jimmy did and I thought you do it once and you're hooked for life, y'know? That's the thing with muse, it's not actually addicting, but you just can't resist taking it. One night you're sitting there with writer's block and you KNOW that all you have to do is take just a little bit of muse and you'll be able to write, just one drop and it'll be all better... and you do it. I did my best not to, though. But then Jimmy snuck some into my coffee one night and it was just so amazing that I wasn't even mad at him, and that's when I started my book. It's called “Who”, just so you know, and it's gonna be amazing. When I finish it. 12
Sometimes the muse doesn't work, though. Sometimes you just get all sweaty and cold and clammy and nauseous, and you think, oh, jeez, more of my stomach lining, wasted...13
But that's only sometimes. 14
And it'll all be worth it, too. When I finish my book. I didn't finish the last one, that's cause I thought of this one, 'cause the idea is soooooo much better. Only I'm starting to get bored by it. 15
But I'll finish it, I promise. 16
'Cause deadies can't write.17
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Author notes
I told you I would take it too seriously 
CAN DEADIES WRITE?! NO! DEADIES! CAN'T! WRITE!
Comments
1 - 9 of 9
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Oh my god! Muse sounds like Brendon! Oh. Ahem... Brendon is my muse. He's terrifying! *hides*
Well, I suppose I should actually talk about your piece now.
I loved this! I loved the irony, and the subtle metaphors, and the morbid humor and your character! All of it! Basically, my opinion is of all the others combined.
It is kinda scary though to think that the thing you love the most can kill you. And then you think about the fact that your muse is actually the one doing the writer and you're just a puppet and slave to that muse so when it's taking a break, you're gone. And then, if you try to find something to keep it awake, the more you try to wake it, the more it kills you. An intimidating notion, but one that we all must face.
Loved this, thanks for writing it.
Atticus
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Woah, that was so good. It's very well written and the idea is brilliant. I love it. It's extremely lovely.
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Haha, I loved the concept with the muse; it was so original if not a little morbid (in a curiously wonderful way). The voice of the character was portrayed really well and the flow and pace of the piece suited the story a lot, in my opinion. Reading this was like listening to someone ramble on, but I guess that just added to the theme of the story and made it all the more engaging. Sometimes I feel that there is an underlying, cleverly insightful comment in the piece about our society, but I'm not sure if that was just me or not because I couldn't quite grasp it entirely. Did this have a satirical comment or was I just imagining? Anyways, regardless of that I still think that this was a great story.
Keep penning, C.
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Great idea about muse
Some people actually use stuff like this to help their writing. Jack Kerouac used Benzadrine when he wrote, so the idea has a solid platform. You could up with an interesting novel using this idea. Don't tell Stephen King, he'll write 150,000 words on it.
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Interesting idea, with lots of subtle irony worked in. A few suggestions to offer: in p4, the description of the city (first sentence or two) felt like they could use some work. I know you don't really want to dwell much on the city itself, as it's not important to the story as a whole, but I feel like either rewording this part or lengthening it (give us a slightly more palpable idea of what the place is like) would be a good idea. Also, p5, you could toss in a ";" or a "-" instead of the comma after "scary". Apart from that, no errors that I saw - this was a very intriguing concept, and though the story pulled me in from the start, it kept getting better as it went on. Last few paragraphs were especially well done.
I'm glad you decided to feature this, else I don't know how I would've come across it. Thank you for sharing this with SW =) It was worth the read.
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I liked it, I found it very interesting, I think you used great literary elements
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xDDD
I LOVED it! I don't think I can say anything because I LOVED it too much. xDDD. I really liked the metaphor! I think I liked it so much because I guess that IS kinda how it works.
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Oh man how I can relate.
It is hard for me to write my two novels atm and it is annoying.
But your writing was funnily enough inspirational. I love you veiw on muse XD Sometimes mine is like a huge cup of coffee that slowly goes cold and it is frustrating.
Finish it
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HAHAHA!
YES!
I MEAN, NO!
DEADIES CAN'T WRITE!
BUT YES TO THIS STORY!
-Coughs Politely-
Ahem.
I like this quite a bit.
It's not too serious, either.
So no worries.
You're insanely cynical and mocking.
I'm jealous.
Yay.
I like.
:]
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