February 2012
2 posts
10 tags
Modest goals at best
Some day I’m going to play a caster in D&D 3.5 (sorcerer, wizard, etc) whose spells look like cats.
Fireball is a giant cat exploding.
Chain lightning is a kitten stream.
Magic missile is a lap-seeking cat.
I will be empowered by cats! Muwahahaha!
5 tags
Panic
She wheezed and gasped, fighting the urge—for the first time in her life—to take cover. No, that’s not what everyone needed. She could hear the dull, whining roar of propellers in her ears, and she could hear the screams below as if they were screaming beside her. She wasn’t a hero—but she was all they had.
January 2012
1 post
My new writing journal. →
December 2011
6 posts
10 tags
Phantom
“Get out of here,” she snapped at the crow, who was doing his best to try and beg for a piece of her sandwich. Fortescue was having none of it. She was tired, hungry and cold. Not even the meager tea she’d managed to brew was warming her up.
The crow tilted his head at her, as if saying, You don’t really mean it. You’d love to give me a piece of your food.
“Go...
8 tags
Christmas
It wasn’t like Fortescue didn’t have somewhere to be. At least three invitations for Christmas had been extended towards her—four, if you counted one that had been more for politeness than anything else (she didn’t).
But she hated the holiday. Always had. She hated the way it presumed over the other religions, like it was somehow better for pretending that it hadn’t...
7 tags
Black Council
Wearily, she breathed in the smell of her mother’s antique bookstore. Linen covers made everything look like tall ghosts. Closing the door behind her (the bell jangled noisily), Fortescue cleared her throat loudly.
A cat crawled out from behind a bookcase—if it could be called a cat anymore, it was ratty, nearly blind and as thin as a wisp of smoke. She smiled.
“There you...
6 tags
Black Magus
“Daga, you fucking asshole,” she snarled.
“Fortescue.” Assent. “To what do I owe the honor?”
They were standing underneath an awning, under an amber sky, in a village that had once boasted big game hunters and tipsy tourists. Now there were skulking villagers and animals so malnourished that they looked ill.
“I’m here because a little birdie told...
7 tags
Avrid
Wind, fresh from the arctic circle, ruffled at her boots as she stood on the cliff. A spot where, only a year ago, she’d once decided to jump, but her knees had given out at the last moment. Now, Avrid stood on the cliff in a secret fume with the site; her composure set, her mind set.
She was going back to her father’s to stay for the winter. But really, she was going home. She cared...
4 tags
Shore
“Here,” he said, as he dug up the seashell.
“It’s cold!” she objected, holding her coat around herself firmly.
He smiled, pulling the large, spiny shell from the sand and scrutinizing it. It was perfect, just as he’d left it. He offered it to her.
She took it, pricked her finger on a spine, yelped, dropped it.
“Got you,” he said, pretending.
She...
November 2011
7 posts
9 tags
Childhood
It was late, the moon casting a spotlight on the roof of the inn. Nerje, running his thick, black fingernails through his hair, sat down and pulled his stolen treasure out of his pocket—a roll, leftover from dinner. His mother, the owner of the inn, would have been cross if she’d known he was eating this late at night. But Nerje always got hungry right before he went to bed. He was...
10 tags
The Screen x6
They exited the coffee shop, where Quinn’s motorcycle—a fancy, souped-up Harley that looked right out of a steampunk convention—was waiting. Devica clung to Quinn’s back as they rode, Quinn’s cat (Alastair, was it?) curled around the woman’s shoulders. Against the other woman’s objections, Devica made her drive back to her apartment.
“Clarence...
10 tags
The Screen x5
“Do I look like I’ve escaped from an insane asylum?” Quinn’s eyes went to her clothes, and then her hands. She glanced up with a quick smile at Devica. “Maybe it does. I’m missing the strait jacket, though. If they’d thrown me in an insane asylum, long ago, there would be strait jackets involved.”
Her comment was almost the opposite of comforting,...
9 tags
The Screen x4
Two strong cups of coffee—very, very strong—later, and a trip to a local diner that Devica frequented more often in the AM hours, Devica felt more alive and less like a square of sentient cardboard. She sat opposite from her strange benefactor, in a booth upholstered in red velvet. Quinn Riddle was quite easily sucking down a chocolate milkshake, her scrawny and slightly alarming cat...
9 tags
The Screen x3
Her vision swam in front of her eyes, as the room in front of her materialized; her eyelids felt so heavy, it was like they were stapled down; her fingers and arms ached and refused to do much, like hard rubber.
“Oh, good,” a conversational voice broke through the fog, “you’re awake. I was afraid you were dead. That was a lot of alcohol in your system. Clarence says...
6 tags
The Screen x2
Inside of the Sphere, it was as noisy and offensive as she remembered. She’d spent years drowning in its glamour, drugs and alcohol. Not so much the illicit activities in back rooms, though, which she was now walking past on her way to the owner’s office—tucked deep inside the building. Devica tried not to look, only gaining a few glimpses on accident as she rounded corners, just...
7 tags
The Screen
“Is that really what you’re going to tell me? A thing with a lot of eyes and legs and hair is following you around? That’s how you’re choosing to begin this conversation at three in the morning?”
“It was the first thing that popped into my“—pant, pant—”head, Devica, yeah. Can you help me or not?”
Devica Baines, her eyes patchy...
October 2011
2 posts
9 tags
The Monk
Dara’s eyes snap open, half-way through her meditation, as the face of something — which isn’t something’s face, at the same time — looms into her inner eye. Startled, she takes a deep breath. Nothing in the forest clearing has changed. Her companions, bickering at their ‘home base’ nearby, haven’t come to bother her.
So what was that… thing?
...
9 tags
Loss
“I’ve never seen it before,” the stranger murmured, her eyes unfocused on the gleaming surface of the Earth just behind the glass.
He turned to stare. “What? You mean, the Earth?”
Slowly, as though she were trying to memorize every detail behind the viewing glass and it was taking up all of her mental power, she nodded.
“How is that possible?” he...
September 2011
3 posts
7 tags
Let's go
Her eyes narrowed; the opposite side of the room seemed farther away than before, and the creature had seemingly put himself between her and the door.
That showed more mental acuity than the others.
This one was special.
Fantastic. He’d splatter well, then.
“Get up,” she muttered at herself. Her arms, legs and feet—well, pretty much everything else—ached. She...
7 tags
Nightmares
She frowns, rubbing under her eyes—exhaustion has climbed into her wrists, and even the small movement is a struggle. If only I could sleep, she thinks. I could face this head-on and not worry about constantly drifting away. The wall behind her feels like a cheese grater even through her coat, but even so, she feels like collapsing against it and closing her eyes.
And, because it’s so...
5 tags
Accident
Though he coughs, the dust in the surrounding air so thick it could be heavy fog, it’s mostly for show as he buys time. The forms around him, disarmingly humanoid, are armed with what look like rifles; they surround him quickly and efficiently. One of them, slightly taller than the others, steps forward. A female, wearing unusually thick glasses that stretch all the way to her ears. Instead...
8 tags
Alpha
An hour into the session, his eyes start to water. The oppressive feeling of the room—well, it did used to be an interrogation room—is beginning to sneak up on him. He can feel Krothe’s eyes on him, like twin lasers, and instead of reacting just turns the page of his newspaper. Daniel’s sure that she has no idea how close he is to cracking. And if he does, he intends to...
August 2011
8 posts
5 tags
Binge
“Hey? Are you there?”
He scrambles for the phone; it’s under a weight of magazines, books and scrap paper. In the desperate moment, he almost spills his coffee over the meager beginnings of his research paper.
“Hi,” he says, picking up the phone. His voice is scratchy and strange. “Yeah, I’m here, what’s going on?”
Her voice changes...
6 tags
Flesh and bone
The thing rushes her like a force of nature; it moves forward with grace and speed that are very inhuman, and yet most of its shape is extremely human. It’s a potentially unnerving observation that she completely ignores, dodging to the side very quickly to avoid the charge. Her shoulder collides painfully with the wall but she pays it little mind, raising the massive crowbar in her hands...
7 tags
A real friend
She snaps awake, neck contorting upward. A rush of air leaves her lungs and then she coughs harshly, against a background of a tiny scream. Looking wildly at her side, she finally notices the young girl. So fine and delicate-looking that she almost seems more doll than human. The girl seems familiar, somehow. She can’t place her. A nasty voice in her head whispers that she’s put her...
9 tags
Death
He can’t even fathom it.
Death. It should be simple. A loss of energy, a decaying of the body. But he can’t get it out of his mind. It hunts him, keeps inside his head; it makes him wish he could obsess about anything else. Where does the spirit go? Is there even a soul to the human body? Do you become a cow or woodchuck or beaver? If it’s true, is reincarnation instant or does...
7 tags
Vee
If she’s honest with herself, it’s not the cadet at all that bothers her. In fact, the young man’s work is better than most cadets in his position; were he still at the Academy, Starfleet would give him a pat on the back and a smile.
But no. It’s his smile that bothers her. Vee knows what that shaking, wiggling smile means. It’s a “please don’t eat...
9 tags
Do you like yourself
She turned to Forrest, her eyes wide and hurt; an incredulous pain behind them, like windows, the light shining through. “What the hell are you talking about?” she demanded.
“…kid.” She broke out of her snide mirth for just a moment. It seemed to pale in front of the hurt fury now radiating out of the younger woman. “I didn’t mean to offend you. I...
8 tags
Dreams
When I dream, and I’m lucky enough to avoid a nightmare, I dream of the blue sky. I dream of seagulls at the beach, swooping on the wind and calling to each other. Clouds against the blue, like an exotic kind of glass tile, gleaming over my head. I smell sea air and feel the wind rustle through my hair.
Sometimes I dream of laying on the sand, or grass, staring up and watching the clouds...
July 2011
6 posts
5 tags
Secrets
“Rubbish,” he sighed. “There’s no such thing as a secret agency. Not anywhere on Gynt. What would the point of that be?”
“To go back to the old ways! You know. Kings, queens, rulers, tyrants. Countries. None of our unity, all of our chaos.”
“I think this has all gone to your head. What did you say the name was?”
“The Old Order....
5 tags
The Little Boy Who Waited
As though the window held the secret for his happiness, Mr. and Mrs. Schmidt would always find their son sitting in it late at night. He would never go to sleep until he was absolutely exhausted, preferring instead to look at the stars through his telescope.
“He’ll be an astronomer,” Mr. Schmidt later boasted at work. “My son, learning the stars as one learns a...
6 tags
Niklas and Embra
“They’re like us!” Embra murmured enthusiastically.
Niklas, his hands buried in his tool belt, shook his head. The goggles strapped to his forehead wiggled unsteadily. “Not exactly. Close. They have a different method. Did you see the lightning plume? They use a more—volatile—method.”
“Okay.” The ghost-boy-in-a-robotic-shell was visibly...
6 tags
She Who Fights Monsters
“Does this happen often for you?”
“Which?” Eri asked dryly. “The slavering monsters, or the surprise attack?”
“Both.”
The young elf seemed considerably spooked. As they were being circled by growing beasts who couldn’t be classified by science, and barely by magic, Eri didn’t feel the need to tease him about it.
“This happened...
6 tags
The Knick Knack Store
Tabitha had always run a tight ship.
She’d always kept within her budget, had never needed to take out a loan, and had made a tidy little niche for herself within the community. Even the dark turns that the Cliff District sometimes took couldn’t keep her down. Everyone needed a distraction now and then, no matter how desperate—and that was why her knick knacks had always sold....
6 tags
Ghost elves.
She narrows her eyes at the screen. The numbers stare back, unwavering, as though daring her to push further. So Surdi does, pushing security protocols out of the way.
Nara, bless her soul, stands next to her and taps her foot impatiently.
“Are you almost done yet?” she asks, clearing her throat. “We’re going to get discovered here pretty soon.”
“Just a...
June 2011
9 posts
7 tags
Kiran.
“I must escape,” she told them. “I must find the light.”
The guards, fixed in their automatic minds, blinked heavy lenses at her. Copper-plated, bulky arms reached for her. She stumbled back.
“I must escape.”
One of them, who happened to be dirtier and older than the other, laughed. It was a harsh and static-filled laugh from a speaker which needed fixing....
6 tags
Homesick.
“Do you think we’ll ever go back to Germany?”
Niklas had not slept well the night before, the silence of The Solarium particularly crushing on his ears for some reason. Embra’s question jarred him out of a particularly long-winded book about quantum physics and how it could pertain to food production. He blinked, dropping the book onto his lap, having curled up in his...
5 tags
Cold feet.
It wasn’t the screaming or the killing which made her feel weak and stupid. It was the way that her colleagues reacted. Like they were filling out paperwork, or eating breakfast. Killing, in inhumane and terrible ways, was so normal that they looked at Moraine Shifra strangely for not being able to watch.
“Buck up, love,” Riddle told her. The others seemed amused, like it was an...
7 tags
Cosmic Treadway, 3/3 →
Some Multiverse travelers are like tourists — they like to sample the new cultures, see new sights, learn new things. But some embark on the simple idea of causing havoc and gaining glory and power. This is a story about the latter type of travelers, a particularly nasty band.
7 tags
Cosmic Treadway, 2/3 →
Some Multiverse travelers are like tourists — they like to sample the new cultures, see new sights, learn new things. But some embark on the simple idea of causing havoc and gaining glory and power. This is a story about the latter type of travelers, a particularly nasty band.
6 tags
“You started a war because you were bored?”
She smiled. “You should have trusted your power to someone greater than I.”
6 tags
Cosmic Treadway →
Some Multiverse travelers are like tourists — they like to sample the new cultures, see new sights, learn new things. But some embark on the simple idea of causing havoc and gaining glory and power. This is a story about the latter type of travelers, a particularly nasty band.
7 tags
Worm
She can tell he’s not from around here. He has an accent—but it’s off, somehow. Faded, distant. Like its original language doesn’t get any use. She’s heard it before; spies who have cut their own throats before betraying their benefactors.
Aephir doesn’t get a chance to muse on it any further—a great shadow passes over the both of them, from outside the...
5 tags
Home
It was a long time before he could stop curling into a ball and not-crying, usually whenever he woke up, still bathed in light. The lack of darkness at “night” was the most jarring aspect of his new home. The first thing he did was make light switches in each of the common rooms. Why there hadn’t been any before—well, that was a mystery.
He was able to crawl out of the...
May 2011
19 posts
2 tags
“History is the lives of drug fiends and drunks that we remember fondly.”
– Joss Alexander
7 tags
Breaking
It was one of those times where the world has the audacity to keep on turning, when everything inside of you is dissolving. Everything felt numb as she heard the impact of a small body on the wall behind her. Heard the last, shocked breath expelled from small lungs. Someone was yelling—but she could barely process it. Her eyes burned and her own lungs ached. Her gaze was focused on the gun...
7 tags
Hunter
“I think I’m a little old for the ‘go to your room’ act, aren’t I, Colonel?”
But there she sat, cross-legged on her bed, a half-cocked smirk on her lips—the only indicator of merriment on her sullen face. She was still in her combat uniform. Colonel Elena Rios could tell that it hadn’t been cleaned since her last mission—there was still an...
7 tags
The Tower
It rose before her, like a leviathan breaching its head above the ocean, black steel scraping its way up through red desert sand. After a few moments she could no longer see the top. It screeched to a halt not long after, a new, giant structure only a mile away. The hot, desert wind continued to ravage what skin of hers was exposed.
“That’s impossible,” she murmured, squinting...
7 tags
What Came Next
It was “one of those things,” you know? Where were you when it happened?
I remember so well. I was with my mother, we were out getting ice cream; it had been a long day and we both needed the distraction. We were sitting on flimsy metal chairs outside the ice cream parlor when the first sound came, like a sonic scream. A scream from the heavens.
We sat there, unable to believe our...
7 tags
The Beginning
They’ve come here before. We’ve ignored them, covered it up, made it sound ludicrous. Men in black suits and dark glasses. Stories make us sound so helpless, so desperately animalistic—unable to fend them off in any way. But that’s not the truth of it. Space travel is perilous, and delicate. Guns are nothing like that.
We never captured all of them—we killed most of...