When I started writing about the Forsonian humanlike creature, Arnitik贸s, back in 2016, my 18-year-old self had set the goal to spend as much time studying this character and learn the ways of perfecting villainy by researching and analyzing well-regarded villains in pop culture media in books, TV shows, films, animation, and even historical figures. The desired goal was a comprehensive villain, a complex and sensible villain that is essential to the way the world(s) operates and how her very existence affects its inhabitants and our heroes. Pure villainy.
But a thought occurred to me two months ago: What if Arnitik贸s was the pettiest and most childish being in a world of sentient animals?
The thought was alarmingly intriguing that it sparked the longest short story I've ever written, The Misfortune of Being Puerile. Now I'm discovering the mundane mediocrity of a world inhabited by animals rebelling against their instincts to live in a pseudo-imitation of the human way of life, inspired mostly by the modern world's history starting from the Fall of Rome up until this day.
Ilia Colossus
25th of August, 2023