My story is of an anti-hero named Ahmnihad, a thief of ill intention. He wishes for nothing but for his own gain and his own desires, which is wealth and power. But he is only an evil street rat that cons people to give him money, and steals when he can. He has no feelings for others, and laughs at people's idiocy for falling for his gags.
Now later on, he finds a lamp, and encounters a genie. He grants him three wishes, with the exception of that he cannot kill, make arrangements of love, or bring back the souls of the dead.
Ahmnihad wishes to be a powerful leader. So his wish is granted, as he gains the wealth that his country lives by. The more wealth you have, the more powerful you are. The clothing also represents the caste system, and his clothing shows that.
He also gains a scepter that represents the snake, which represents wisdom and power.
He goes to the nearest city, and sees the sultan, along with his beautiful and attractive daughter. He allies himself to get closer to the sultan, so in the end, he gets to become sultan, and also gain the hands of the daughter.
However, genie repeats himself, that he cannot interfere with love matters, and upsets Ahmnihad greatly. He storms off to his cave, where he begins his sulking. The genie replies,
"What is your wish master?"
As Ahmnihad replies with,
"You're always so serious! Why can't you just be funny to lift my spirits? I wish you were a lot more funny, at least for me to feel better!"
And so the genie grants his wish, and becomes the hilarious genie we know from Aladdin. So Ahmnihad goes to the kingdom once again, and tries to gain the love of the Sultan's daughter, but she really gives him quite the guilt trip.
She yells at him that his greed serves no one, that his pranks do nothing for anyone, and that his selfish desires do not help the kingdom. She explains that he is a useless bag of skin and bones, that he is more worthless than the slaves of the Sultan.
Ahmnihad freezes with a sad realization that she is right, and if he has no one, then no one will have his treasures.
He goes to his cave, and asks the genie for his final wish.
"I wish for my treasure to be buried deep below the sands of this desert. I want you to be deep within, a cave guarded by the head of Tigris. No one can enter this cave unless they have the two halves of my scarab beetle brooch on my clothes. Only one pure of heart, his worth lying within, may enter my cave, but he may touch nothing but your lamp. If he does, then have the cave collapse, as that would prove that there is no one pure, and that no one deserves you. This cave shall be known, as the Cave of Wonders."
And genie grants his wish.
Now I have been trying to work on my project, which is going to be explained now. What exactly is it? Well, it is concept art, or illustrations, that tell of this story, to give the story beats. This is basically the major important parts of the story, that help develop the style, the representation, the characters, and the beginning of developing storyboards.
However, I have failed the entire project, as reasons I cannot figure out. I have tried organizing my time, and for two weeks, well, I say I have done a shitty ass job.
But what my father has always said,
"Failure is only the beginning. If you fail, but keep going, you have overcome a problem so large, that you have practically passed life's greatest challenge. Failure is a step of learning. Not the end."
I am adapting my father's philosophy, and I am going to keep striving, even if I have failed. Failure sounds like a laughing matter to some people, but what those people don't get, is that failure is the most terrifying moment in anyone's life. It's my greatest fear. It has always been. But I'm not going to stop, no matter what anyone says. So with that, I present what I do have. Story beats for "The Cave of Wonders". Please comment about what story beats I can change, or what parts of my story could be better, as I'm not the perfect story-teller.
So with that, I hope I can learn from this, that time is a very complicated dimension, and that it is always ticking, and to always assume that it will take three times as long to get stuff done as I think it does.
So with that, I bid all ado. Until next time.
