I wrote this today, took it about ten minutes, just playing around with various details for a fictional setting. Apparently, farms in this world harvest some sort of magic energy...stuff from groves of thin metal trees and rely on a metaphysical ocean to make the lights grow so they can be harvested for uses in something or rather.
Oh, and they ride a fantasy variation of a Triceratops. I did like how this turned out, thinking I want to expound upon this setting.
“They look promising,” Darak said, pointing the scanner at the strange, floating spheres of light hovering above the metallic-looking pencil-thin tree. “Sixty-seven percent Ithael - that’s solid.” His father paused, coughing into a handkerchief.
“They’ll fetch a good price at the market,” he agreed. “I daresay we need it. Let’s check the next bunch, shall we?”
“Are you sure?” Darak asked. “You don’t look so good-”
“It’s just a cold. I’ll be fine.” He flicked the reins, with a grunt the Shieldface started to move, slowly turning away from the cluster of lights and onto the next part of the farm. Darak hesitated a moment and then flicked the reins for his own Shieldface and followed him down the neat stone path. More of the same - strange metallic tree-like structures with hovering spheres of light over them, some brighter, some dimmer than others - all spread over rocky hills long since shorn of any actual vegetation.
They walked for a distance before stopping at another tree. His father coughed again. His face was red and he looked tired.
“Forty-seven percent,” Darak read.
“Lower than last year,” his father said. “Very well. I don’t think we’ll get much more growth this year - I was checking the current projections before I left. The Aeurian currents have already started to shift.”
“That’s pretty early,” Darak said. “That’s going to sting.”
Monday, December 21, 2015
Friday, November 6, 2015
NaNo Session 6
Part 2 of today's entry. We've passed the 10k word mark and we're caught up on where we're supposed to be! Hooray! See you tomorrow for another section of plot!
Chapter Eight con.
Immediately, he could see through it, all the way to its chrome core and the diagram over it. He focused, struggling to summon the blueprint again-
And then a burst of ice from the Sentry’s left hand. The burning cold instantly killed his focus. It advanced, as the small robot dinosaur rammed it, sending it sprawling backwards.
“Run, run! Go!” Geleth yelled. “Quickly!” Evan glanced up, just in time to see Derek swinging a heavy metal pipe he’d picked up from somewhere and smashed it on the creature’s back. An explosion, heat and flames burst every which way as the right tank fell to the ground, a twisted slag heap of shrapnel.
The Sentry stood up, now missing an arm and its flamethrower weapon, as the Triceratops ran in for another charge. The creature caught it by the horns and threw it, slamming it against the wall.
“No!” Evan yelled, scrambling to his feet. He focused, summoning the pyramid again in his mind, bringing the schematic to mind, focusing desperately on repairing it. His hand sparked with thin lightening, weakness already creeping up on him.
“Kid…” Geleth yanked him back. “There’s no time! Those mechanical contraptions are tougher than they look! It’ll catch up!”
He pulled him out of the room, just as the Sentry stirred and the Triceratops, thankfully, stirred, climbing to its feet. A horn had snapped off, as had part of its metal ‘skin’ exposing the wiring and computer parts below. Evan focused again, shaky, scared, but determined. The glass and metal stirred, swirling around the creature, as the schematic appeared. Immediately, an analysis appeared in the overlay, suggesting ways to improve upon the design.
“Do it!” he staggered back, letting the energies flow. It glowed with bright electric blue and white light…
He didn’t get a chance to see what happened next. The Sentry charged, they ran down the corridor.
“Where-” he struggled to catch his breath. “How much further?”
“Not too much longer now. The ship is just up ahead - we best pray that the little beast could hold off the Sentry, else we’re going to be in trouble.”
“What - is that thing?” Derek asked. “I mean, where did it come from?”
“One of the first experiments. An attempt to meld two different universe’s understanding of technology - you remember how I said that most of the things down here were left untouched because they were too big to move?”
“Yeah?”
“Well, that was only part of the reason. The other part was that. It was supposed to serve as a guard-dog. It went rogue for some unknown reason - tries to kill anyone who comes down here. All hush hush, of course. It didn’t come back up - mostly just urban legends now.”
The hallway ended abruptly before a massive door, partially torn open. Behind them, they could distantly hear lasers bursts and explosions, sounds of impeding battle. Geleth ducked through, the other two following only reluctantly. Evan felt his jaw drop - an enormous ship stood there, gleaming gold hull and brilliant blue glass.
“The Archelon,” Geleth said. “Our ticket out of here.”
Chapter Nine
“How long has this been here?” Derek asked, awestruck.
“About twenty years. That was going to be the next step before the attack - venture into the realm next door. Take a peek at what the neighbors were doing. For me - well, it was a chance to get back home.”
“Does it work?” Evan asked. “How do we board?”
“Well, that’s where you come in,” Geleth replied. “You have the artifact in your skull - put it to work.”
“How…?”
“How do you think? You’re going to have to summon the artifact and open the boarding ramp. Assuming you didn’t spend all your energy upgrading your robot friend, there. We will have to hurry - I don’t know long till the Sentry returns and potentially MagnaCorp’s old goon squad. I’m not sure which would be worse, honestly. They have to know what we’re attempting here.”
“Okay - I’ll try,” Evan took a deep breath, concentrating for a long moment. The pyramid appeared again, he lifted one hand, shaking and trembling from exhaustion. A hatch on the side opened up, and a stairway slid downwards. His knees buckled, a wave of exhaustion swept over him.
“I gotcha.” Derek caught him, dragging him up the stairs and into the ship. They stepped into a gleaming central room, all blue and gold - curved furniture followed the contours of the room. Holographic displays glowed on the walls, evidently showing the ship’s status. Geleth immediately disappeared, into what was presumably the cockpit.
“I can’t focus,” Evan mumbled, falling back on the couch. And then he was suddenly back in the laboratory, facing the Sentry. He felt stronger, tougher - upgraded. He charged the Sentry, lasers bursting from his horns. It crashed into a wall, its feet scrambling for purchase on the ground. He didn’t give it a chance. He fired again-
And then the creature grabbed him, a surge of ice overwhelming him - he was frozen solid. The Sentry left the room…
He came back to his senses, drawing in huge gulps of air. He was back in the ship.
“It’s coming,” he gulped. “The Sentry. I just…saw…”
“What?” Derek demanded. “How?”
“I…I’m not really sure. I kind of…I think I was seeing through the Triceratops’s eyes for a minute…” he trailed off. Derek was staring at him, concerned.
“You were seeing through its eyes?”
“I know. It’s crazy…”
He stood up, legs trembling with the effort. “I’m going to tell Geleth - I know what I saw…”
At that moment, lights began to come on, screens flickered and then became partly translucent, allowing them to see out into the hangers. The Sentry bounded in, hurling the Triceratops against the ship. It’s appearance had changed - it was slightly larger now and its skin had taken on a softer golden sheen.
Without even realizing it, Evan found himself connecting to it, controlling it remotely. He could see through its eyes. He knew intuitively how to use it - the new blueprint had added a new weapon, a third jolt. But he hadn’t upgraded its programming - it didn’t know how to use it.
He activated it. An electric cannon opened up on its back, a bolt of lightening lanced, smashing into the Sentry and sending it crumpling against the metal wall. It stood once more, now damaged, sparks and wires flickering.
The ship lurched, lifting into the air. Evan scrambled into the cockpit, where Geleth was pushing buttons rapidly.
“Portal system engaged. I dearly hope they finished this…”
“The Triceratops! We can’t leave it!”
“Let’s see. Minimal energy returns. Here we are.” He flipped a switch. Immediately, the Triceratops appeared in the cockpit, falling down on the metal floor.
“The ship can teleport people?”
“Limited capabilities, mostly to send people in and out of hostile environments. Now - one more time…also, when did that dinosaur get a cannon on its back?”
Evan focused, the cannon retracted. “I upgraded him back in that lab.”
He pushed a button. “Barely enough to get out. But it should do it. Better stay here, kid. I might need the artifact again. Either way, we’re going to make a pit stop. I know where to take us - before we really get underway.”
The Sentry climbed to its feet, shaking its mechanical head as the environment outside began to shimmer, swelling and distorting as though being viewed from outside a bubble. It took on a faint greenish tinge and then, suddenly, it was gone, replaced by utter blackness.
Chapter Ten
After a moment, the blackness faded replaced by shimmering blue light.
“I’ve set our cooridnates for Aluar - its the closet place we have for a jump between worlds. We can refuel. The ship’s not in terribly good shape, but it should at least get us there. And then…we’re going to Zenith.”
“Where’s that?”
“It’s a refuge, a place safe from MagnaCorp and all other possible enemies we’ve picked up.”
“But if we’re going to another world, shouldn’t we be safe from them?”
“They will find a way through the worldwalls. It’s only a matter of time. Especially since they have your father in custody.”
Chapter Eight con.
Immediately, he could see through it, all the way to its chrome core and the diagram over it. He focused, struggling to summon the blueprint again-
And then a burst of ice from the Sentry’s left hand. The burning cold instantly killed his focus. It advanced, as the small robot dinosaur rammed it, sending it sprawling backwards.
“Run, run! Go!” Geleth yelled. “Quickly!” Evan glanced up, just in time to see Derek swinging a heavy metal pipe he’d picked up from somewhere and smashed it on the creature’s back. An explosion, heat and flames burst every which way as the right tank fell to the ground, a twisted slag heap of shrapnel.
The Sentry stood up, now missing an arm and its flamethrower weapon, as the Triceratops ran in for another charge. The creature caught it by the horns and threw it, slamming it against the wall.
“No!” Evan yelled, scrambling to his feet. He focused, summoning the pyramid again in his mind, bringing the schematic to mind, focusing desperately on repairing it. His hand sparked with thin lightening, weakness already creeping up on him.
“Kid…” Geleth yanked him back. “There’s no time! Those mechanical contraptions are tougher than they look! It’ll catch up!”
He pulled him out of the room, just as the Sentry stirred and the Triceratops, thankfully, stirred, climbing to its feet. A horn had snapped off, as had part of its metal ‘skin’ exposing the wiring and computer parts below. Evan focused again, shaky, scared, but determined. The glass and metal stirred, swirling around the creature, as the schematic appeared. Immediately, an analysis appeared in the overlay, suggesting ways to improve upon the design.
“Do it!” he staggered back, letting the energies flow. It glowed with bright electric blue and white light…
He didn’t get a chance to see what happened next. The Sentry charged, they ran down the corridor.
“Where-” he struggled to catch his breath. “How much further?”
“Not too much longer now. The ship is just up ahead - we best pray that the little beast could hold off the Sentry, else we’re going to be in trouble.”
“What - is that thing?” Derek asked. “I mean, where did it come from?”
“One of the first experiments. An attempt to meld two different universe’s understanding of technology - you remember how I said that most of the things down here were left untouched because they were too big to move?”
“Yeah?”
“Well, that was only part of the reason. The other part was that. It was supposed to serve as a guard-dog. It went rogue for some unknown reason - tries to kill anyone who comes down here. All hush hush, of course. It didn’t come back up - mostly just urban legends now.”
The hallway ended abruptly before a massive door, partially torn open. Behind them, they could distantly hear lasers bursts and explosions, sounds of impeding battle. Geleth ducked through, the other two following only reluctantly. Evan felt his jaw drop - an enormous ship stood there, gleaming gold hull and brilliant blue glass.
“The Archelon,” Geleth said. “Our ticket out of here.”
Chapter Nine
“How long has this been here?” Derek asked, awestruck.
“About twenty years. That was going to be the next step before the attack - venture into the realm next door. Take a peek at what the neighbors were doing. For me - well, it was a chance to get back home.”
“Does it work?” Evan asked. “How do we board?”
“Well, that’s where you come in,” Geleth replied. “You have the artifact in your skull - put it to work.”
“How…?”
“How do you think? You’re going to have to summon the artifact and open the boarding ramp. Assuming you didn’t spend all your energy upgrading your robot friend, there. We will have to hurry - I don’t know long till the Sentry returns and potentially MagnaCorp’s old goon squad. I’m not sure which would be worse, honestly. They have to know what we’re attempting here.”
“Okay - I’ll try,” Evan took a deep breath, concentrating for a long moment. The pyramid appeared again, he lifted one hand, shaking and trembling from exhaustion. A hatch on the side opened up, and a stairway slid downwards. His knees buckled, a wave of exhaustion swept over him.
“I gotcha.” Derek caught him, dragging him up the stairs and into the ship. They stepped into a gleaming central room, all blue and gold - curved furniture followed the contours of the room. Holographic displays glowed on the walls, evidently showing the ship’s status. Geleth immediately disappeared, into what was presumably the cockpit.
“I can’t focus,” Evan mumbled, falling back on the couch. And then he was suddenly back in the laboratory, facing the Sentry. He felt stronger, tougher - upgraded. He charged the Sentry, lasers bursting from his horns. It crashed into a wall, its feet scrambling for purchase on the ground. He didn’t give it a chance. He fired again-
And then the creature grabbed him, a surge of ice overwhelming him - he was frozen solid. The Sentry left the room…
He came back to his senses, drawing in huge gulps of air. He was back in the ship.
“It’s coming,” he gulped. “The Sentry. I just…saw…”
“What?” Derek demanded. “How?”
“I…I’m not really sure. I kind of…I think I was seeing through the Triceratops’s eyes for a minute…” he trailed off. Derek was staring at him, concerned.
“You were seeing through its eyes?”
“I know. It’s crazy…”
He stood up, legs trembling with the effort. “I’m going to tell Geleth - I know what I saw…”
At that moment, lights began to come on, screens flickered and then became partly translucent, allowing them to see out into the hangers. The Sentry bounded in, hurling the Triceratops against the ship. It’s appearance had changed - it was slightly larger now and its skin had taken on a softer golden sheen.
Without even realizing it, Evan found himself connecting to it, controlling it remotely. He could see through its eyes. He knew intuitively how to use it - the new blueprint had added a new weapon, a third jolt. But he hadn’t upgraded its programming - it didn’t know how to use it.
He activated it. An electric cannon opened up on its back, a bolt of lightening lanced, smashing into the Sentry and sending it crumpling against the metal wall. It stood once more, now damaged, sparks and wires flickering.
The ship lurched, lifting into the air. Evan scrambled into the cockpit, where Geleth was pushing buttons rapidly.
“Portal system engaged. I dearly hope they finished this…”
“The Triceratops! We can’t leave it!”
“Let’s see. Minimal energy returns. Here we are.” He flipped a switch. Immediately, the Triceratops appeared in the cockpit, falling down on the metal floor.
“The ship can teleport people?”
“Limited capabilities, mostly to send people in and out of hostile environments. Now - one more time…also, when did that dinosaur get a cannon on its back?”
Evan focused, the cannon retracted. “I upgraded him back in that lab.”
He pushed a button. “Barely enough to get out. But it should do it. Better stay here, kid. I might need the artifact again. Either way, we’re going to make a pit stop. I know where to take us - before we really get underway.”
The Sentry climbed to its feet, shaking its mechanical head as the environment outside began to shimmer, swelling and distorting as though being viewed from outside a bubble. It took on a faint greenish tinge and then, suddenly, it was gone, replaced by utter blackness.
Chapter Ten
After a moment, the blackness faded replaced by shimmering blue light.
“I’ve set our cooridnates for Aluar - its the closet place we have for a jump between worlds. We can refuel. The ship’s not in terribly good shape, but it should at least get us there. And then…we’re going to Zenith.”
“Where’s that?”
“It’s a refuge, a place safe from MagnaCorp and all other possible enemies we’ve picked up.”
“But if we’re going to another world, shouldn’t we be safe from them?”
“They will find a way through the worldwalls. It’s only a matter of time. Especially since they have your father in custody.”
NaNo Session 5
Sorry for the delay - didn't actually do any writing yesterday like I should have. Making it up today with a double entry and double the word count! This is the first! :)
Chapter 6
Evan woke up as the car pulled to a complete stop, the compact Triceratops staring up at him, following his every move. It took him a moment to recall what had happened - his dad, the gas station, the artifact - the fact they were still on the run, fleeing from who-knew-what-enemy…
And he had saved them by creating a metal dinosaur made out of parts of a gas station that had somehow saved their lives. This day couldn’t get any weirder. It was evening now, the sun slowly setting behind a sprawling lake.
“We’re here,” Geleth said grimly. “Everyone out.” He obeyed, numbly undoing his seatbelt and scrambling out the front seat. The dinosaur followed him, marching next to him.
“Where exactly are we, though?” Derek asked. Evan had to agree with the skepticism in Derek’s voice - they were standing in the middle of nowhere. A building stood on the top of a hill - it looked like some sort of office building - the sort of generic glass and steel structure that was pretty much just drive-by scenery in the city.
It was weird, however, to see something like that way out in the middle of nowhere.
“It’s an off-site research facility, a spin-off the main site of Aerego Labs. You do know who they are, right?”
“Uh - weren’t they in an arms race or something against MagnaCorp?”
“Right. This was where some of the most important research happened - its our next stop. The Sentry is likely still alive in there, so stay alert…”
“Can I just say that sounds really, really ominous,” Evan said. “Why are we here again?”
“This is our best bet of getting off-world,” Geleth replied, striding up to the door, Evan struggled to keep up. “We don’t have a lot of time, really, so we will have to make this very quick indeed.” As they got closer, it quickly became evident that the building had been long abandoned - windows were broken, all the lights were off.
Next to him, Derek pulled out his phone and turned on the flashlight. He quickly did the same, as they stepped over broken doors. The lobby was a mess - furniture in disarray, a thick layer of dust on the counter tops. There was some vegetation - a spot for an indoor tree. It had long since withered and died. Above, a broken skylight provided a shaft of sun down into the dungeon.
“Yeah, this looks really a great way to leave the flippin’ world behind,” Evan said sarcastically.
Geleth smacked him lightly on the back of the head.
“Don’t be absurd,” he said. “What we need is further down. There’s nothing of value on the upper floors. The really interesting stuff - what’s left of it, anyway - is down below.”
He marched over to the elevator.
“Uh - this building doesn’t exactly have power anymore,” Derek said. “The elevator’s not going to work.” Geleth paused and frowned.
“They would have prepared for this,” he said. “A reserve energy source.”
“But wouldn’t that be long since dead - I mean, this place has been abandoned for - what, twenty years?”
“Frank Seghill worked here,” Geleth said. “I trust him to have thought of something. Perhaps we do need to check upstairs.”
“My dad worked here?” Evan looked around at the place with renewed interest.
“Yes.” Geleth nodded. “Let’s see - I think I can remember where his office is. It’s been a long, long time though.”
Together, they
climbed the stairwell to the second story, waiting for whatever would come next.
Chapter Seven
The second floor turned out be just as dismal as the first - ratty carpet, darkness and a thick layer of dust. Evan noticed, with some interest, there were no mice, no rats. The place was falling apart but apparently wildlife didn’t want anything to do with it. That alone made him uneasy - but all the same, apprehension built in his chest.
What had his dad been working on here, exactly? Why had he been working on some sort of device to send them completely out of the world entirely? As they walked, he noticed the signs of a battle - black streaks on the walls as it from laser blasts, dark stains on the carpet, like blood and once, what looked like a fragment of bone.
“I’m impressed they didn’t burn this place to the ground,” Derek said. “But its still standing after all this time.”
“Neither side wanted to risk damaging the research. Both wanted it for themselves - in the end, its scattered. Your father ended up with a good piece of it, though. It was all in his labs, where he was trying to continue the work by himself. There are still some important things here, too big to effectively move.”
“…Here it is,” Derek said, tapping a nameplate on the door. “Frank Seghill.” They opened the door and peered inside, eyes adjusting to the gloom. It didn’t look like much - another abandoned office - a beat-up desk with an ancient computer on it, some rusting filing cabinets. An ancient computer stood on the desk.
“What exactly are we looking for?” Derek asked nervously. “And where’s this sentry thing you were talking about?”
“Oh, we won’t have to worry about the Sentry until we’re downstairs,” Geleth replied casually. “Must be something…” he opened a door to the filing cabinet. On a burst of inspiration, Evan knelt to the next to the small metal dinosaur.
“You can scan the room, can’t you?” he asked, feeling stupid. He was, after all, talking to a mechanical dinosaur. It stared at him for a moment, before two lasers burst from its eyes. Wherever it looked, walls faded into shadows. Geleth paused and turned around, obviously somewhat surprised.
“Well done,” he said, patting the creature on the back of the head. “Let’s see…ah.” For right in the middle of the wall was an enormous man-high safe.” He walked over to it.
“Hmph. If this place was still powered, I’d wager that you’d speak a passcode or some-such, which would lower the door. Very fond of faking people out, Frank was.”
“We saw that back at the house,” Derek volunteered. Geleth didn’t answer, his eyes narrowed in thought before he looked back at the Triceratops.
“Evan, see if you can command it to use its laser horns on the wall, firing around the safe we just found.”
“Uh…” Evan leaned down next to it. “You heard him, didn’t you? Can you expose whatever’s behind there?”
Two thin laser beams burst from its head, forming a rectangle. A whole section of the wall fell out, exposing an ancient metal machine, lightening flickering faintly inside a tube. A digital keypad was embedded in the middle.
“And there we are,” Geleth said smugly. “It’s a backup generator - he built it using my people’s technology as a base. I remember when he built it - granted he hadn’t moved it up here yet but all the same, now we can get moving.”
“But do you know the password?” Evan asked.
“I watched him set it myself,” Geleth said smugly. He tapped a few buttons. Moments later, the lightening inside the tube intensified. Lights flickered on, a low humming filled the building.
“There we are. Now perhaps we can get to the lower levels.”
“What happened here anyway?” Derek asked, as they walked, heading back to the lobby.
“A terrible battle,” Geleth said. “The people here were forced to evacuate - there was little time left in the end…”
They reached the elevator in the lobby, which opened silently.
“I worked here with him all those years ago,” he said. “I watched the battle on earth here begin - and now, it shall end.”
They descended.
“Be vigilant,” he advised. “The sentry prowls around. If we’re lucky, we won’t encounter it.”
“But what if we’re not?”
“I suggest you pray that we are.”
With a slight lurch, the elevator began to descend, dropping rapidly down below. Evan felt tense, scared. What was down there? Geleth seemed tense. Their only real protection was, apparently, a small robot Triceratops. Not exactly a comforting thought…
The door hissed open. They stepped out into long metal hallway, dimly lit by emergency lights. Doors to abandoned labs stood open and exposed.
“It’s down this way,” Geleth said. “The hanger is just up ahead.”
They walked down the corridor, tense and nervous for what was to come. And then they heard it - a loud, terrible screeching echoed down the hallway.
“It’s sensed us,” Geleth swore loudly. “Run.”
Chapter Eight
They ran. Evan didn’t even bother stopping to ask what was going. Labs passed by in a blur, when an enormous metal creature stomped down the corridor, crouched over, all turning copper gears and valves and computer chips, a terrible amalgamation of steampunk and modern-day aesthetics. Flames leaked from one claw and cold frost from another, linked to enormous tanks on its back.
“The Sentry,” Geleth said grimly. “He woke up more quickly than I thought he would.”
“What do we do now?” Derek asked, backing up. “We can’t go through…”
“We must,” Geleth said. “There’s no choice.” A burst of flames filled the corridor, they ducked into a lab, looking desperately around for something - anything - that might help contain the creature. Broken beakers and test tubes, leftover filing folders with some random bits of schematics - it seemed desperate.
It’s silhouette filled the room as it stomped in. The Triceratops stood its ground, standing firmly between Evan and the creature. Its horns glowed with light, striking the creature on the chest. It glanced off.
“It can’t be defeated like that,” Geleth said.
“The tanks on its back,” Derek said suddenly. “What if we smash them?”
“Well, that will take its weapons out of operation. But that won’t do much good, considering its still incredibly strong…”
I have to fix this, Evan thought. I have the artifact, don’t I?
He closed his eyes, trying to contain his fear. It appeared in the center of his mind, a glowing, translucent inverted pyramid. A rune peeled off of it - sparking with energy. He could do it - he could dismantle the monster-
“That won’t work!” Geleth cried, scrambling towards him. “It’s completely immune to the Artifact!”
New plan, then.
He focused on the Triceratops, still firing its lasers. The creature swatted it away, obviously irritated.
Wednesday, November 4, 2015
NaNo Session 4
Late post! Bet you'd given up tonight. ;)
This...did not turn out how I thought it would. o_O
“An artifact? Like…what kind? Some kind of weird alien artifact?”
“Undetermined. Much of his research on the subject was encrypted, even from myself.”
“So many secrets,” Evan said, peering out the window. “I’m guessing you have no idea who this Galeth guy is, either?”
“He turns up only occasionally in the research notes on the database. He collaborated at different points on different projects, some of which were connected to the artifact that has now fused with yourself.”
“We’re here,” Derek said, pulling over the car. “Okay. Let’s see what he says.” They climbed out of the car. The station was largely abandoned - old with dirty windows and rusty pumps. A slender man with long-ish blond hair stood there, elbows resting on the counter, flipping idly through a magazine. He glanced up, apparently interested as they approached.
“Yes? Can I help you?”
“Er - well, are you Galeth?” Derek asked tentatively. A long silence. The man for a long moment didn’t move before the man gave a short, unconvincing laugh.
“That’s an outlandish name,” he said. “No, that’s not it.”
“Er - well, thing is - Frank Seghill told us to find you…” the man closed the magazine.
“Frank sent you, did he?” he said. “Prove it. You best leave the past in the past - where it belongs.”
“Please, sir - I’m his son,” Evan stepped up, drawing a deep breath. “His house was attacked by…by I don’t even know.”
“Ex-MagnaCorp Raiders,” Derek said. “He teleported us here, we have a car pre-loaded with Alice.”
“He actually got that AI of his working?” Geleth said incredulously. “I never would have guessed in the slightest. Alright, fine. You all look like you need some help…”
“He said you would have the coordinates,” Derek said. “And that you would help us.”
“It’s come to that at last,” Geleth said. “At last. The war’s back on?”
“War? What war?”
“I’ll explain later,” Galeth said, tapping a button and pulling out what appeared to a heavy duty laser rifle. “Right now? We have company.”
At that moment, a heavy black car rumbled up to the gas station, a dozen members spilling out from inside. They were already inside the car, surrounding the station.
“This doesn’t look good…” Derek said.
“You’re with me now - they’re not even a real challenge.” He smirked, pulled the trigger. A blue burst of light exploded the front of the store. A dozen members - fried and gone. Immediately, faintly electric images appeared, shimmering where they had once stood before coalescing together into a new form, a terrible shimmery ethereal figure identical to the one back at the house.
“What - what is that?”
“Trouble,” Galeth said, tossing the gun over to Derek. “Keep it at bay, if you would please. The gun’s set at the highest settings. It won’t quite kill it - you can’t really kill a Wraith…”
“A wraith?”
“Formed from bits of time debris, final thoughts of dying men, and a pinch of pocket energy stored in an Ingral Incubator. Very challenging materials! Someone is very well connected indeed to have something like that - you said ex-MagnaCorp? That would explain it-”
“And you,” he gestured to Evan. “You’re with me.”
“You can’t just expect to stay out here with that…!”
“Fire and keep it busy! Move, move, move, move!”
At that moment, the front of the station, the figure floated through.
“Your father is in captivity,” it droned. “We know all. You will come with us as well.” Derek fired the bolt, just as Geleth grabbed Evan’s arm and yanked him behind the counter.
“You have the Artifact. I can already sense it. Another one of Frank’s schemes that paid off.”
“Schemes?!”
“Alright. Now - there’s only little time before your friend there dies and is integrated into the wraith - you’re going to access the database and you’re going to use one of the schematics. Reshape whatever you need…”
“You can’t be serious!” A note of hysteria rose in Evan’s voice. “Reshape what?”
“Just concentrate. That artifact was full of blueprints for…well, machines, weapons - infused with your father’s personal touch, of course. You just need to summon the will, or this will all be for naught. Do you understand?”
Evan nodded, sweat dripping off his face. “You owe me an explanation,” he said. Geleth smiled slightly.
“Duly noted. Just concentrate, imagine the pyramid floating in the center of your mind…”
Evan did so. It came remarkably easily, time slipped away even as the gas station trembled and fell apart around them. A letter peeled off of it, presenting itself as a possible option for him to create. It reshaped itself, forming three horns, a crest and a thick tail-
He got up, though he was barely aware of doing it and lifted one hand. A sphere of energy appeared, rapidly forming into a three-dimesional holographic shape of a Triceratops. And then suddenly everything burst in the air, swirling in rapid formation all around the image. Metal from the counter top. Shards of broken glass. Plastic pop battles. Even the laser cannon pulled itself of Derek’s hand, disassembling into the glowing, translucent robotic Triceratops at its core-
A burst of light. Evan crumpled to the ground, a wave of weakness and exhaustion pouring over him. A small Triceratops, all sleek chrome and gold plating stood there facing the wraith. Lasers appeared on each horn, forming a triangle. A burst of light - the Wraith was completely gone.
Chapter Five
Derek stood stunned, at the wreckage of the gas station and the small, compact dinosaur that stood there. He blinked several times, trying to comprehend what had just happened.
“Did…did we just get saved by a robot dinosaur?”
“His father imprinted on the machine. It apparently reshaped its schematics to resemble the mightiest of the creatures that used to roam this world,” Geleth said grimly. “Help me move him - he’s going to be very weak for a while.”
The Triceratops, in the meantime, hadn’t moved.
“What about that?”
“It’ll come to us in due course. Using the artifact is draining - best if its hooked up to a machine instead of a person. We need to get to the coordinates and get off the world - preferably now.”
“Off the world…?”
“You didn’t really think something of that magnitude would be invented on Earth, now did you? I’ll explain as we drive. I assume the car’s still intact.” Miraculously, it was despite the flaming wreckage of the gas station.
As they lifted Evan up, the Triceratops obediently marched behind them, climbing in the car and standing, frozen, next to Evan.
“That creature is linked to him. It’s essentially a guard dog,” Geleth said, as they drove away. “Which is good - he’ll need it. We all will.”
“Now can you explain what’s going on?” Derek demanded. “I mean - Mr. Seghill was always pretty friggin’ weird but I mean - we were just attacked. Twice. You threw a laser cannon at me to fight off a ghost and we were saved by a robot dinosaur that Evan apparently created with his mind or something because he absorbed an alien artifact.”
“An excellent summary. Well put,” Geleth said. “And that artifact is at the center of it. What happened all those years ago, with MagnaCorp and all of that business - well, its merely the latest iteration of a long conflict. Your people were drawn into it - because some of my kind thought that the Artifact would be safe here. We were, obviously, wrong. We spent many years trying to hide it, and they attempted to find it. An arms race resulted.”
“And that spilled into that huge…whatever it was that happened,” Derek said. “But it ended.”
“The enemy was scattered and dispersed - its true. We knew they’d be back someday…highway 83, here we are. It’s a three hour drive, so we might as well be comfortable…”
“What if they come back?” Derek asked anxiously, turning in his seat. “They found us awfully quick…and how did the car survive anyway?”
“Force shields activated the moment you entered the vehicle. They protected against the damage caused by the Wraith and the men with guns.”
“Oh.”
“They won’t find us again?”
“Hypothesis: they tracked the teleporter and then attempted to dispatch another group.”
“And these people don’t have teleporters?” Derek asked. “I mean - if this was some sort of weird arms race and Mr. Seghill had one, they could have just used that.”
“He permanently disabled that teleporter as you left. There can be no going back,” Alice said. “The mansion and the estate are currently in the hands of the resurrected MagnaCorp.”
In the backseat, Evan groaned and sat up, blinking. “Where are we?”
“On our way,” Geleth said. “There’s still the matter of the Sentry to defeat and, of course, we’ll have to hope the ship is in working order. But one problem at a time.”
“We’re just leaving the planet,” Derek said. “Just like that.”
“Just like that.” Geleth nodded gravely. “We can’t stay on Earth - its much too dangerous. So, we’re departing for one of the hidden refuges - Karn’s Hold. It’s where I from.”
“I can’t just leave the planet! My friends - my family!”
“They’ll be in danger if you go back. The people hunting for you will assume they’re valuable and try to capture them too. The war is really just beginning…er - you know, I don’t believe you ever told me your names?”
“Derek.”
“Evan.” Evan sat up, as the tiny metal Triceratops lifted its head, finally unlocking.
“Right. Well - as I was saying. We need to mobilize the forces. The artifact’s here, next step is to reclaim the Forges. We’ll need him for that.”
“The Forges?”
“Yes. Frank had some ridiculous name for them - Quantum Fabricator or something ridiculous. The Artifact contains the schematics and blueprints for an army of machines. Whoever has it and the Forges together…”
“Creates an entire army. Powerful and deadly.”
“You mean that thing already exists?! He was working on trying to create it…”
“Trying to figure out how it works. He was funny like that, back in the old days. Now, look out. This
is going to be a long ride.”
This...did not turn out how I thought it would. o_O
“An artifact? Like…what kind? Some kind of weird alien artifact?”
“Undetermined. Much of his research on the subject was encrypted, even from myself.”
“So many secrets,” Evan said, peering out the window. “I’m guessing you have no idea who this Galeth guy is, either?”
“He turns up only occasionally in the research notes on the database. He collaborated at different points on different projects, some of which were connected to the artifact that has now fused with yourself.”
“We’re here,” Derek said, pulling over the car. “Okay. Let’s see what he says.” They climbed out of the car. The station was largely abandoned - old with dirty windows and rusty pumps. A slender man with long-ish blond hair stood there, elbows resting on the counter, flipping idly through a magazine. He glanced up, apparently interested as they approached.
“Yes? Can I help you?”
“Er - well, are you Galeth?” Derek asked tentatively. A long silence. The man for a long moment didn’t move before the man gave a short, unconvincing laugh.
“That’s an outlandish name,” he said. “No, that’s not it.”
“Er - well, thing is - Frank Seghill told us to find you…” the man closed the magazine.
“Frank sent you, did he?” he said. “Prove it. You best leave the past in the past - where it belongs.”
“Please, sir - I’m his son,” Evan stepped up, drawing a deep breath. “His house was attacked by…by I don’t even know.”
“Ex-MagnaCorp Raiders,” Derek said. “He teleported us here, we have a car pre-loaded with Alice.”
“He actually got that AI of his working?” Geleth said incredulously. “I never would have guessed in the slightest. Alright, fine. You all look like you need some help…”
“He said you would have the coordinates,” Derek said. “And that you would help us.”
“It’s come to that at last,” Geleth said. “At last. The war’s back on?”
“War? What war?”
“I’ll explain later,” Galeth said, tapping a button and pulling out what appeared to a heavy duty laser rifle. “Right now? We have company.”
At that moment, a heavy black car rumbled up to the gas station, a dozen members spilling out from inside. They were already inside the car, surrounding the station.
“This doesn’t look good…” Derek said.
“You’re with me now - they’re not even a real challenge.” He smirked, pulled the trigger. A blue burst of light exploded the front of the store. A dozen members - fried and gone. Immediately, faintly electric images appeared, shimmering where they had once stood before coalescing together into a new form, a terrible shimmery ethereal figure identical to the one back at the house.
“What - what is that?”
“Trouble,” Galeth said, tossing the gun over to Derek. “Keep it at bay, if you would please. The gun’s set at the highest settings. It won’t quite kill it - you can’t really kill a Wraith…”
“A wraith?”
“Formed from bits of time debris, final thoughts of dying men, and a pinch of pocket energy stored in an Ingral Incubator. Very challenging materials! Someone is very well connected indeed to have something like that - you said ex-MagnaCorp? That would explain it-”
“And you,” he gestured to Evan. “You’re with me.”
“You can’t just expect to stay out here with that…!”
“Fire and keep it busy! Move, move, move, move!”
At that moment, the front of the station, the figure floated through.
“Your father is in captivity,” it droned. “We know all. You will come with us as well.” Derek fired the bolt, just as Geleth grabbed Evan’s arm and yanked him behind the counter.
“You have the Artifact. I can already sense it. Another one of Frank’s schemes that paid off.”
“Schemes?!”
“Alright. Now - there’s only little time before your friend there dies and is integrated into the wraith - you’re going to access the database and you’re going to use one of the schematics. Reshape whatever you need…”
“You can’t be serious!” A note of hysteria rose in Evan’s voice. “Reshape what?”
“Just concentrate. That artifact was full of blueprints for…well, machines, weapons - infused with your father’s personal touch, of course. You just need to summon the will, or this will all be for naught. Do you understand?”
Evan nodded, sweat dripping off his face. “You owe me an explanation,” he said. Geleth smiled slightly.
“Duly noted. Just concentrate, imagine the pyramid floating in the center of your mind…”
Evan did so. It came remarkably easily, time slipped away even as the gas station trembled and fell apart around them. A letter peeled off of it, presenting itself as a possible option for him to create. It reshaped itself, forming three horns, a crest and a thick tail-
He got up, though he was barely aware of doing it and lifted one hand. A sphere of energy appeared, rapidly forming into a three-dimesional holographic shape of a Triceratops. And then suddenly everything burst in the air, swirling in rapid formation all around the image. Metal from the counter top. Shards of broken glass. Plastic pop battles. Even the laser cannon pulled itself of Derek’s hand, disassembling into the glowing, translucent robotic Triceratops at its core-
A burst of light. Evan crumpled to the ground, a wave of weakness and exhaustion pouring over him. A small Triceratops, all sleek chrome and gold plating stood there facing the wraith. Lasers appeared on each horn, forming a triangle. A burst of light - the Wraith was completely gone.
Chapter Five
Derek stood stunned, at the wreckage of the gas station and the small, compact dinosaur that stood there. He blinked several times, trying to comprehend what had just happened.
“Did…did we just get saved by a robot dinosaur?”
“His father imprinted on the machine. It apparently reshaped its schematics to resemble the mightiest of the creatures that used to roam this world,” Geleth said grimly. “Help me move him - he’s going to be very weak for a while.”
The Triceratops, in the meantime, hadn’t moved.
“What about that?”
“It’ll come to us in due course. Using the artifact is draining - best if its hooked up to a machine instead of a person. We need to get to the coordinates and get off the world - preferably now.”
“Off the world…?”
“You didn’t really think something of that magnitude would be invented on Earth, now did you? I’ll explain as we drive. I assume the car’s still intact.” Miraculously, it was despite the flaming wreckage of the gas station.
As they lifted Evan up, the Triceratops obediently marched behind them, climbing in the car and standing, frozen, next to Evan.
“That creature is linked to him. It’s essentially a guard dog,” Geleth said, as they drove away. “Which is good - he’ll need it. We all will.”
“Now can you explain what’s going on?” Derek demanded. “I mean - Mr. Seghill was always pretty friggin’ weird but I mean - we were just attacked. Twice. You threw a laser cannon at me to fight off a ghost and we were saved by a robot dinosaur that Evan apparently created with his mind or something because he absorbed an alien artifact.”
“An excellent summary. Well put,” Geleth said. “And that artifact is at the center of it. What happened all those years ago, with MagnaCorp and all of that business - well, its merely the latest iteration of a long conflict. Your people were drawn into it - because some of my kind thought that the Artifact would be safe here. We were, obviously, wrong. We spent many years trying to hide it, and they attempted to find it. An arms race resulted.”
“And that spilled into that huge…whatever it was that happened,” Derek said. “But it ended.”
“The enemy was scattered and dispersed - its true. We knew they’d be back someday…highway 83, here we are. It’s a three hour drive, so we might as well be comfortable…”
“What if they come back?” Derek asked anxiously, turning in his seat. “They found us awfully quick…and how did the car survive anyway?”
“Force shields activated the moment you entered the vehicle. They protected against the damage caused by the Wraith and the men with guns.”
“Oh.”
“They won’t find us again?”
“Hypothesis: they tracked the teleporter and then attempted to dispatch another group.”
“And these people don’t have teleporters?” Derek asked. “I mean - if this was some sort of weird arms race and Mr. Seghill had one, they could have just used that.”
“He permanently disabled that teleporter as you left. There can be no going back,” Alice said. “The mansion and the estate are currently in the hands of the resurrected MagnaCorp.”
In the backseat, Evan groaned and sat up, blinking. “Where are we?”
“On our way,” Geleth said. “There’s still the matter of the Sentry to defeat and, of course, we’ll have to hope the ship is in working order. But one problem at a time.”
“We’re just leaving the planet,” Derek said. “Just like that.”
“Just like that.” Geleth nodded gravely. “We can’t stay on Earth - its much too dangerous. So, we’re departing for one of the hidden refuges - Karn’s Hold. It’s where I from.”
“I can’t just leave the planet! My friends - my family!”
“They’ll be in danger if you go back. The people hunting for you will assume they’re valuable and try to capture them too. The war is really just beginning…er - you know, I don’t believe you ever told me your names?”
“Derek.”
“Evan.” Evan sat up, as the tiny metal Triceratops lifted its head, finally unlocking.
“Right. Well - as I was saying. We need to mobilize the forces. The artifact’s here, next step is to reclaim the Forges. We’ll need him for that.”
“The Forges?”
“Yes. Frank had some ridiculous name for them - Quantum Fabricator or something ridiculous. The Artifact contains the schematics and blueprints for an army of machines. Whoever has it and the Forges together…”
“Creates an entire army. Powerful and deadly.”
“You mean that thing already exists?! He was working on trying to create it…”
“Trying to figure out how it works. He was funny like that, back in the old days. Now, look out. This
is going to be a long ride.”
Tuesday, November 3, 2015
NaNo Session 3: The Plot Is Moving!
We made it to 5000 words! Amazing!
Here's the ending of Chapter Two:
He wasn’t sure why he was poking around the computer - it didn’t have much he found interesting. Sure, there were some games - three-dimensional chess, for instance, or some old RPG from the ‘80s that his dad had re-tooled and created as a protocol for Alice. But most of the computing power went straight to maintaining the house and monitoring all the various projects his dad was working, the majority of which were buried under dozens of security protocols and heavily encrypted.
As a matter of idle curiosity, he typed in ‘Quantum Fabricator’ into the computer.
“Access denied,” Alice said, her voice coming from the computer. “You should have known, Evan.”
“Yeah, I know,” Evan said, getting up off the computer and falling on bed. “Maybe I should take up computer programming or whatever. I’d love to poke around in his lab. Or just know what he’s talking about and follow along…”
“I count twenty-seven thousand possible tutorials on the subjects you have mentioned store in my database,” Alice intoned. “And approximately three times that number available on a general search on the Internet, as well as seventy-three hundred prospective books on the subject, which are intended as general primers for the casual reader and thus suitable for you to pursue if you wish. Shall I display these contents on the screen?”
“Later,” he said, then paused for a moment. He heard a faint, but distinctly audible, rumble fill the room. The ground shook slightly.
“Intruders detected,” Alice said. “Security systems armed. Lockdown initiated.” At that moment, his dad appeared, looking suddenly grim and very determined.
“We need to move,” he said. “Now.”
And the very short Chapter Three. This one I wasn't terribly happy with, but I will roll with for the time being because - well, there's no time for rewrites in NaNo. It needed to be a lot longer but I'm not very good with action scenes on the fly, unfortunately. The original setup was running out steam and the plot doesn't wait! Here it is:
Chapter Three
“What-move…where? What’s going on?” Evan scrambled to his feet. The window immediately shut off, a metal bar appeared.
“Mr. Seghill…you’re looking kind of pale, are you okay?”
“No. I knew they’d be coming here eventually, but…well, I thought I had a couple of years left. The lockdown and defenses won’t hold them for long. Follow me - there’s a tunnel connecting the lab and the house together.”
“But I just got here!” Evan protested.
“And I’m sorry,” his dad said. “But - well, I’m not going to let you meet these people. They’re what’s left of MagnaCorp. Derek - keep him safe. Remember your equations that we just discussed - you’ll need them. Hopefully they don’t try to go after her either.”
“What…who?!” Evan said.
“Later! Come on!” They reached the kitchen, just in time to see a dozen armored vehicles and several soldiers pour out, mixed with a tall ethereal being in dark robes, holding a crackling beam of energy. Metal slammed against the windows, shutting them off.
He’d never seen his father move so fast, hurrying out of the hallway.
“Alice! Initiate your backups at Site B! Open the tunnel entrance to the labs! Now!”
They reached the kitchen, just in time to see the floor open up and the refrigerator slowly sink into it, as the wall itself slowly eased downwards, unfolding into a set of stairs.
“You…had a secret passage this whole time?”
“There’s a lot of things you don’t know about me. No time to explain - we have to go. Stick with me, don’t touch anything. This is not how I wanted to introduce my lab to you - but no choice. Let’s go, let’s go!”
As they descended, Evan heard pounding at the door and the distant splash of laser fire. His heart hammered in his chest, as the door closed.
“That won’t get us far,” he said. “They’re probably already at the lab. Escape is prepared and ready to go. It just needs primed…”
The hallway itself was dimly lit with evenly placed emergency lights, it was all bare-bones concrete, with metal piping attached to the walls. They hurried along, perhaps three hundred feet. Evan could hear footsteps running on the grass and, now and again, the ground rumbled suddenly, apparently from one vehicle or another.
“Download finished, Alice?” he asked, as they reached a wall that unfolded into another set of stairs, and the floor hissed open.
“Data transfer complete. Site B active.”
“Good. You know what to do next - wait until they’re clear. Get the artifact prepared, too. We can’t let them have it.”
“Derek,” he said. “When you get to Site B, you’ll have to leave. There’s a car waiting outside. Find Geleth - he operates a gas station on the outskirts of the town and he’ll have the coordinates. Tell him I sent you. And remember your equations - I think you were on the right track, you might be able to pull it off.”
“Pull what off?” A tinge of fear entered Derek’s voice. “Mr. Seghill - this is crazy!”
“Just trust me.”
“I…” he trailed off and then nodded. “Yeah. I trust you.”
They climbed the staircase, where a large open tube sat, crackling with power. In front of it stood a display case with an odd looking device on it - a curious inverted pyramid with strange markings that swirled and changed, making Evan dizzy and tired.
“Evan…” his father sighed, touching a button. “I didn’t want to force this on you. Or any of this. This is not the way I wanted to go out on.”
“Dad…what? You’re…?”
“Touch the pyramid. It should accept you as a host.”
“As a what?”
“Just do it.”
He stared at his dad for a long moment, and slowly, hesitantly touched it. Almost immediately, the pyramid vanished. The writing crawled up in his arms. He suddenly felt an enormous sense of vertigo, as though an abyss had just opened underneath his feet. Images - blueprints, schematics - filled into his head, flickering by faster than he knew what to do with.
“Well, congratulations. You’re now probably the most important thing in the universe.”
“Dad, please, what is going on?”
The lab shook. He could hear muffled voices trying to break in.
“Whatever else happens, you’re my son. You’re resourceful and smart and I know you’ll figure out how to save the world. Now - get in the teleporter. I need to send you on your way…”
“Dad - no. Don’t do this. You don’t have to-”
“I do have to,” he said. “There’s no time. No choice.” He punched several buttons. It began to glow.
“Derek - remember. Geleth. Coordinates. Evan won’t be able to do it alone - put the math from the Quantum Fabricator to work…”
Evan allowed himself to be led to the fabricator, confused and numb and terrified. His dad punched a few buttons in, the light began to glow, just as the door flew open. The strange ethereal man from earlier slowly floated in, an ugly sneer on his face.
“And now, my friends, we can pick up where we left off.”
His father pushed the button. With a crackle of light, the lab vanished. They were somewhere else.
And the first two hundred words of Ch. 4. You'll have to wait till tomorrow to see how that turned out. ;)
Chapter Four
“What…?” Evan quickly got his bearings, heart racing in his chest. “Where are we?”
“Why would I know that?” Derek snapped, then paused. “Sorry. Didn’t mean for it to come out like that - but seriously. I have no idea what’s going on.”
They were standing in a dusty concrete bunker in front of an ancient-looking device - a teleporter, except an older, more primitive model than what his dad had used. The computer looked new, flashing with soft light.
“So - you have any idea what’s going on?”
“Uh -no,” Derek said. “You’re his son, I thought you might. What was that thing he had you touch?”
“I don’t know,” Evan admitted. “He didn’t tell me much either…but my head hurts.”
“They are already tracing these coordinates,” Alice announced, her voice emerging, somewhat distorted, over an old sound system. “The car is waiting out front.”
“Uh - right,” Derek said. “C’mon. They said those people will be here soon…”
“The remains of MagnaCorp or whatever,” Evan said, following him out of the room, mind filling with questions. He’d never quite dared to ask his dad about whatever it was - an interesting trivia question - now, of course, he needed to know everything.
What did he put in my head?
He attempted to focus, summoning the information - whatever it was - up. Nothing happened. He hadn’t expected it, but still felt vaguely disappointed - he had secretly been hoping for superpowers.
The bunker turned out to be located underneath an old cabin, located in the woods. Unlike the bizarre house, this looked…ordinary, an already jarring change.
Here's the ending of Chapter Two:
He wasn’t sure why he was poking around the computer - it didn’t have much he found interesting. Sure, there were some games - three-dimensional chess, for instance, or some old RPG from the ‘80s that his dad had re-tooled and created as a protocol for Alice. But most of the computing power went straight to maintaining the house and monitoring all the various projects his dad was working, the majority of which were buried under dozens of security protocols and heavily encrypted.
As a matter of idle curiosity, he typed in ‘Quantum Fabricator’ into the computer.
“Access denied,” Alice said, her voice coming from the computer. “You should have known, Evan.”
“Yeah, I know,” Evan said, getting up off the computer and falling on bed. “Maybe I should take up computer programming or whatever. I’d love to poke around in his lab. Or just know what he’s talking about and follow along…”
“I count twenty-seven thousand possible tutorials on the subjects you have mentioned store in my database,” Alice intoned. “And approximately three times that number available on a general search on the Internet, as well as seventy-three hundred prospective books on the subject, which are intended as general primers for the casual reader and thus suitable for you to pursue if you wish. Shall I display these contents on the screen?”
“Later,” he said, then paused for a moment. He heard a faint, but distinctly audible, rumble fill the room. The ground shook slightly.
“Intruders detected,” Alice said. “Security systems armed. Lockdown initiated.” At that moment, his dad appeared, looking suddenly grim and very determined.
“We need to move,” he said. “Now.”
And the very short Chapter Three. This one I wasn't terribly happy with, but I will roll with for the time being because - well, there's no time for rewrites in NaNo. It needed to be a lot longer but I'm not very good with action scenes on the fly, unfortunately. The original setup was running out steam and the plot doesn't wait! Here it is:
Chapter Three
“What-move…where? What’s going on?” Evan scrambled to his feet. The window immediately shut off, a metal bar appeared.
“Mr. Seghill…you’re looking kind of pale, are you okay?”
“No. I knew they’d be coming here eventually, but…well, I thought I had a couple of years left. The lockdown and defenses won’t hold them for long. Follow me - there’s a tunnel connecting the lab and the house together.”
“But I just got here!” Evan protested.
“And I’m sorry,” his dad said. “But - well, I’m not going to let you meet these people. They’re what’s left of MagnaCorp. Derek - keep him safe. Remember your equations that we just discussed - you’ll need them. Hopefully they don’t try to go after her either.”
“What…who?!” Evan said.
“Later! Come on!” They reached the kitchen, just in time to see a dozen armored vehicles and several soldiers pour out, mixed with a tall ethereal being in dark robes, holding a crackling beam of energy. Metal slammed against the windows, shutting them off.
He’d never seen his father move so fast, hurrying out of the hallway.
“Alice! Initiate your backups at Site B! Open the tunnel entrance to the labs! Now!”
They reached the kitchen, just in time to see the floor open up and the refrigerator slowly sink into it, as the wall itself slowly eased downwards, unfolding into a set of stairs.
“You…had a secret passage this whole time?”
“There’s a lot of things you don’t know about me. No time to explain - we have to go. Stick with me, don’t touch anything. This is not how I wanted to introduce my lab to you - but no choice. Let’s go, let’s go!”
As they descended, Evan heard pounding at the door and the distant splash of laser fire. His heart hammered in his chest, as the door closed.
“That won’t get us far,” he said. “They’re probably already at the lab. Escape is prepared and ready to go. It just needs primed…”
The hallway itself was dimly lit with evenly placed emergency lights, it was all bare-bones concrete, with metal piping attached to the walls. They hurried along, perhaps three hundred feet. Evan could hear footsteps running on the grass and, now and again, the ground rumbled suddenly, apparently from one vehicle or another.
“Download finished, Alice?” he asked, as they reached a wall that unfolded into another set of stairs, and the floor hissed open.
“Data transfer complete. Site B active.”
“Good. You know what to do next - wait until they’re clear. Get the artifact prepared, too. We can’t let them have it.”
“Derek,” he said. “When you get to Site B, you’ll have to leave. There’s a car waiting outside. Find Geleth - he operates a gas station on the outskirts of the town and he’ll have the coordinates. Tell him I sent you. And remember your equations - I think you were on the right track, you might be able to pull it off.”
“Pull what off?” A tinge of fear entered Derek’s voice. “Mr. Seghill - this is crazy!”
“Just trust me.”
“I…” he trailed off and then nodded. “Yeah. I trust you.”
They climbed the staircase, where a large open tube sat, crackling with power. In front of it stood a display case with an odd looking device on it - a curious inverted pyramid with strange markings that swirled and changed, making Evan dizzy and tired.
“Evan…” his father sighed, touching a button. “I didn’t want to force this on you. Or any of this. This is not the way I wanted to go out on.”
“Dad…what? You’re…?”
“Touch the pyramid. It should accept you as a host.”
“As a what?”
“Just do it.”
He stared at his dad for a long moment, and slowly, hesitantly touched it. Almost immediately, the pyramid vanished. The writing crawled up in his arms. He suddenly felt an enormous sense of vertigo, as though an abyss had just opened underneath his feet. Images - blueprints, schematics - filled into his head, flickering by faster than he knew what to do with.
“Well, congratulations. You’re now probably the most important thing in the universe.”
“Dad, please, what is going on?”
The lab shook. He could hear muffled voices trying to break in.
“Whatever else happens, you’re my son. You’re resourceful and smart and I know you’ll figure out how to save the world. Now - get in the teleporter. I need to send you on your way…”
“Dad - no. Don’t do this. You don’t have to-”
“I do have to,” he said. “There’s no time. No choice.” He punched several buttons. It began to glow.
“Derek - remember. Geleth. Coordinates. Evan won’t be able to do it alone - put the math from the Quantum Fabricator to work…”
Evan allowed himself to be led to the fabricator, confused and numb and terrified. His dad punched a few buttons in, the light began to glow, just as the door flew open. The strange ethereal man from earlier slowly floated in, an ugly sneer on his face.
“And now, my friends, we can pick up where we left off.”
His father pushed the button. With a crackle of light, the lab vanished. They were somewhere else.
And the first two hundred words of Ch. 4. You'll have to wait till tomorrow to see how that turned out. ;)
Chapter Four
“What…?” Evan quickly got his bearings, heart racing in his chest. “Where are we?”
“Why would I know that?” Derek snapped, then paused. “Sorry. Didn’t mean for it to come out like that - but seriously. I have no idea what’s going on.”
They were standing in a dusty concrete bunker in front of an ancient-looking device - a teleporter, except an older, more primitive model than what his dad had used. The computer looked new, flashing with soft light.
“So - you have any idea what’s going on?”
“Uh -no,” Derek said. “You’re his son, I thought you might. What was that thing he had you touch?”
“I don’t know,” Evan admitted. “He didn’t tell me much either…but my head hurts.”
“They are already tracing these coordinates,” Alice announced, her voice emerging, somewhat distorted, over an old sound system. “The car is waiting out front.”
“Uh - right,” Derek said. “C’mon. They said those people will be here soon…”
“The remains of MagnaCorp or whatever,” Evan said, following him out of the room, mind filling with questions. He’d never quite dared to ask his dad about whatever it was - an interesting trivia question - now, of course, he needed to know everything.
What did he put in my head?
He attempted to focus, summoning the information - whatever it was - up. Nothing happened. He hadn’t expected it, but still felt vaguely disappointed - he had secretly been hoping for superpowers.
The bunker turned out to be located underneath an old cabin, located in the woods. Unlike the bizarre house, this looked…ordinary, an already jarring change.
Monday, November 2, 2015
NaNo Session 2
(This by the way is not the whole of Ch. 2. That will probably be finished tomorrow.).
Chapter Two
“Well, that’s out of the way,” his father said. “Thank goodness. I love your mother, but she’s never really understood the important work I do.”
“Um,” Evan said, as they left the aquarium room, and headed back towards the front room. “What kind of projects are you doing now?”
“I could tell you, but then I would have to invent a device to erase your memory,” his father said with a broad wink. Evan opened his mouth and closed, knowing full well that his dad was probably perfectly capable of doing just that if he put his mind to it.
“Kidding!” his father said. “I wouldn’t do that to you. Though an amnesia gun wouldn’t be a bad idea…Alice, where did I put my paper?”
“It’s in the kitchen, next to the printer, along with your pens.”
“Fantastic, fantastic,” he muttered, walking away. “Amnesia gun. I think I even know how to get properly started. If we apply a burst of energized Bell particles… Yes…I like where this is heading…”
And he left Evan standing in the middle of the front room.
“That was - what - a minute better than last year?” Evan said.
“Thirty-seven seconds,” Alice replied. “Current analysis suggests that he will be writing for fifteen minutes.”
“Oh boy,” Evan said, just as his father emerged from the front room, paper, pen and calculator in hand.
“The idea needs some time to ferment,” he said, folding a clean piece of paper already half covered in equations. “It’s not bad per se - but there’s something missing. My assistant should be over shortly -”
“You hired an assistant? I thought you didn’t want the help.”
“Even someone such as me finally needs to outsource,” his father said. “He’s quite good. Local, intelligent and anxious to prove himself. I only get him for the summer before he’s off to college - so I best make the most of it.”
“Ah,” Evan said.
“This is something we do every few days,” his father said. “He works at home and shows up to give me a progress report. You just happened to arrive on one of those days is all.”
“You didn’t tell Mom?”
“Why would I? She would get mad at me for not putting every single thing I do on hold,” he said, waving a hand around. “That’s a large portion of genius, Evan - multitasking. Plus, the project I have him working on is very exciting. It’s an external quantum fabricator.”
“A - what now?”
“It taps into pockets of energy in universes beyond our own and creates matter from it! Something from nothing! Finally! Of course, its still largely in the preliminary phases - mostly theoretical right now, but I have a few notes for a working prototype.”
“He’s a senior in high school and you have him working on…on some sort of reality-bending machine.”
“Just the math and theory.” His dad said. “He’s a bright kid. But I haven’t forgotten about our family time! I’ve also taken the liberty of ordering a pizza!”
“Okay, that’s more promising,” Evan said. “I haven’t had pizza all year.”
“I never did understand your mother’s culinary tastes,” his father said, shaking his head. “It’s customary for a normal growing boy to have pizza.”
“I’m totally down with that.”
“Well, in any case - the pizza is ordered. Derek should be showing up it soon. Now - is school going alright? You did take plenty of science classes, didn’t you?”
“Well, I mean…” Evan trailed off. “I’m not as big into it as you are. I mean…um, Chemistry? I just finished a year of that.”
“Oh. Chemistry,” his father repeated, a faint air of disappointment in his voice. “That’s not a terrible choice, I suppose. I thought that maybe after last summer, I might have piqued your interest in computer science, hacking, cryptography, you know…”
“Actually, you scared me away,” Evan said. “I mean - that was some pretty intimdating stuff you threw at me…”
“And I am sorry about that. I should have known. Your mother has different priorities, which unfortunately, do not include the secrets of the universe or improving the lives of all mankind. I just attended a really excellent lecture just a couple of weeks ago- this is funny-” he went on talking about the lecture, until Evan felt like he was drowning in jargon and had absolutely no idea what his father was talking about.
“…And that’s why I said that I thought computational matrices in the spinform vertices were actually a full sixteen-twentieth! I told the woman that after the lecture was finished - good conversation, good dinner afterward…”
“…I, uh, absolutely agree,” Evan said, finally trying to put himself in the conversation. “Sixteen-twentieth. Also, you went on a date…?”
His father paused. “You’re humoring me, aren’t you? It wasn’t a date, really. Were you not listening to anything I was saying?”
“Well, I mean…” Evan shifted in his seat. “Yeah.”
“I thought so,” he said, nodding thoughtfully. “You did have a bit of a glazed look in your eyes. Did you get my birthday present last April?”
“Yeah - that cool history book about all that crazy stuff that happened with MagnaCorp and all those people with those abilities?”
“That was Derek’s idea,” his father said. “Credit where credit is due. I wanted to send you my old Calculus textbook - he seemed to think that wasn’t such a good gift. Wouldn’t have been my first thought - I generally try not to think about all that nonsense that happened…” he winced, slightly, barely enough to be noticed.
“It’s a solid enough read,” his father said. “Does its job. Some inaccuracies, though. I’ll fill you in when you’re older.” Evan knew, vaguely, that his dad had somehow been involved in some high level stuff all those years ago - though he never was sure what. His dad generally didn’t talk about it - this was as close he’d ever come to mentioning it.
“Derek is arriving,” Alice announced.
“That was fast,” Evan said.
“Well, I had him go pick up the pizza and bring it over here,” his dad explained, obviously relieved to get away from the subject of MagnaCorp. “I ordered it before you arrived and told him to bring it over. It’s our usual meeting…”
“You eat pizza and talk science every week?” Evan said.
“Well, yes,” his father replied. “He shows me what sort of work he’s done, I critique it and there’s excellent discussion. You could pick up a thing or two!”
At that moment, the door slid open, a guy walked in, carrying a pizza box, along with a notebook and a laptop. He was about seventeen or eighteen, African American, dressed plainly in an old flannel shirt unbuttoned over a T-shirt with a faded softball logo, jeans and a pair of sneakers.
“Mushroom, sauerkraut, pepperoni, pineapple and half green pepper - mostly for me,” he sat the pizza down on the table, pausing. “Oh, you’re his son, right? I think I heard Alice mention you were supposed to be show up soon.”
“Uh - yeah,” Evan said, shifting his shoulders uncomfortably. “You’re Derek, I guess?”
“Yep,” he said. “And you’re Evan. Good to meet you. You liked that book, right?”
“Yeah, it was great,” Evan said. “Thanks.” He opened the box of pizza and helped himself.
“His mother’s off to Berlin for a few days,” his father said. “Plus, you know - summer time! Favorite time of year.”
“You guys probably have lots to catch up on,” Derek said.
“There’s time, there’s time. I was telling Evan a little bit about the research - but its always good to get the details!” he smiled, taking a bite of pizza.
“Another part of genius, Evan. It’s all in the details. Here, Derek, why don’t you pull up your research! Impress us.”
“I…don’t really think I’m going to be able to follow-” Evan said.
“Yeah, this is pretty tough math,” Derek agreed. “Half the time, I’m not sure I know what I’m doing! He told you the idea, right? Sucking energy out of other universes to form into matter in ours, right?”
“Something like that…”
“Well, to do that you have to generate a localized wormhole able to pull the energy through - just a small tear able to collect pockets of energy from pocket universes. It’s a specialized rift - it can only accept energy and only types of energy that we specify. What I was working on was figuring out the math beyond the rift and how it would actually function.”
“As I recall, you had suggested stabilized Holme’s particles,” his father said. “An interesting, if unorthodox notion-”
“I expanded on that actually,” he said. “I was assuming that there needed to be a constant, but if you account for the minute fluctuations of the tempero-spatial environment in the subspace layer separating us from one of pocket dimensions - that is the easier option to siphon the necessary energy from…”
“Uh - yeah, I’m out,” Evan said. “I’ll just, um, be in my room I guess? I’m going to unpack…”
He quietly slipped away, heading back to his bedroom. The door slid silently open, and he slid silently on the floor, breath coming out in a slow hiss, memories coming back. His dad’s house was over-the-top-cool but as far as his father went…they had settled right back into that sort of uncomfortable relationship he’d had for years - his dad loved him, but didn’t seem to quite know what to do with him - they didn’t quite click like they should have….
“So, Alice,” he said, tossing clothes from the suitcase into the drawer. “What big thing has been working on? Apart from the whole lets tear holes in the fabric of reality thing, I mean.”
“The aquarium was a side project,” Alice said. “And the mail teleporter now works mostly. He successfully upgraded me to sort the important things from the junk.”
“Useful,” Evan said, sitting down and pulling up the directory of projects.
Chapter Two
“Well, that’s out of the way,” his father said. “Thank goodness. I love your mother, but she’s never really understood the important work I do.”
“Um,” Evan said, as they left the aquarium room, and headed back towards the front room. “What kind of projects are you doing now?”
“I could tell you, but then I would have to invent a device to erase your memory,” his father said with a broad wink. Evan opened his mouth and closed, knowing full well that his dad was probably perfectly capable of doing just that if he put his mind to it.
“Kidding!” his father said. “I wouldn’t do that to you. Though an amnesia gun wouldn’t be a bad idea…Alice, where did I put my paper?”
“It’s in the kitchen, next to the printer, along with your pens.”
“Fantastic, fantastic,” he muttered, walking away. “Amnesia gun. I think I even know how to get properly started. If we apply a burst of energized Bell particles… Yes…I like where this is heading…”
And he left Evan standing in the middle of the front room.
“That was - what - a minute better than last year?” Evan said.
“Thirty-seven seconds,” Alice replied. “Current analysis suggests that he will be writing for fifteen minutes.”
“Oh boy,” Evan said, just as his father emerged from the front room, paper, pen and calculator in hand.
“The idea needs some time to ferment,” he said, folding a clean piece of paper already half covered in equations. “It’s not bad per se - but there’s something missing. My assistant should be over shortly -”
“You hired an assistant? I thought you didn’t want the help.”
“Even someone such as me finally needs to outsource,” his father said. “He’s quite good. Local, intelligent and anxious to prove himself. I only get him for the summer before he’s off to college - so I best make the most of it.”
“Ah,” Evan said.
“This is something we do every few days,” his father said. “He works at home and shows up to give me a progress report. You just happened to arrive on one of those days is all.”
“You didn’t tell Mom?”
“Why would I? She would get mad at me for not putting every single thing I do on hold,” he said, waving a hand around. “That’s a large portion of genius, Evan - multitasking. Plus, the project I have him working on is very exciting. It’s an external quantum fabricator.”
“A - what now?”
“It taps into pockets of energy in universes beyond our own and creates matter from it! Something from nothing! Finally! Of course, its still largely in the preliminary phases - mostly theoretical right now, but I have a few notes for a working prototype.”
“He’s a senior in high school and you have him working on…on some sort of reality-bending machine.”
“Just the math and theory.” His dad said. “He’s a bright kid. But I haven’t forgotten about our family time! I’ve also taken the liberty of ordering a pizza!”
“Okay, that’s more promising,” Evan said. “I haven’t had pizza all year.”
“I never did understand your mother’s culinary tastes,” his father said, shaking his head. “It’s customary for a normal growing boy to have pizza.”
“I’m totally down with that.”
“Well, in any case - the pizza is ordered. Derek should be showing up it soon. Now - is school going alright? You did take plenty of science classes, didn’t you?”
“Well, I mean…” Evan trailed off. “I’m not as big into it as you are. I mean…um, Chemistry? I just finished a year of that.”
“Oh. Chemistry,” his father repeated, a faint air of disappointment in his voice. “That’s not a terrible choice, I suppose. I thought that maybe after last summer, I might have piqued your interest in computer science, hacking, cryptography, you know…”
“Actually, you scared me away,” Evan said. “I mean - that was some pretty intimdating stuff you threw at me…”
“And I am sorry about that. I should have known. Your mother has different priorities, which unfortunately, do not include the secrets of the universe or improving the lives of all mankind. I just attended a really excellent lecture just a couple of weeks ago- this is funny-” he went on talking about the lecture, until Evan felt like he was drowning in jargon and had absolutely no idea what his father was talking about.
“…And that’s why I said that I thought computational matrices in the spinform vertices were actually a full sixteen-twentieth! I told the woman that after the lecture was finished - good conversation, good dinner afterward…”
“…I, uh, absolutely agree,” Evan said, finally trying to put himself in the conversation. “Sixteen-twentieth. Also, you went on a date…?”
His father paused. “You’re humoring me, aren’t you? It wasn’t a date, really. Were you not listening to anything I was saying?”
“Well, I mean…” Evan shifted in his seat. “Yeah.”
“I thought so,” he said, nodding thoughtfully. “You did have a bit of a glazed look in your eyes. Did you get my birthday present last April?”
“Yeah - that cool history book about all that crazy stuff that happened with MagnaCorp and all those people with those abilities?”
“That was Derek’s idea,” his father said. “Credit where credit is due. I wanted to send you my old Calculus textbook - he seemed to think that wasn’t such a good gift. Wouldn’t have been my first thought - I generally try not to think about all that nonsense that happened…” he winced, slightly, barely enough to be noticed.
“It’s a solid enough read,” his father said. “Does its job. Some inaccuracies, though. I’ll fill you in when you’re older.” Evan knew, vaguely, that his dad had somehow been involved in some high level stuff all those years ago - though he never was sure what. His dad generally didn’t talk about it - this was as close he’d ever come to mentioning it.
“Derek is arriving,” Alice announced.
“That was fast,” Evan said.
“Well, I had him go pick up the pizza and bring it over here,” his dad explained, obviously relieved to get away from the subject of MagnaCorp. “I ordered it before you arrived and told him to bring it over. It’s our usual meeting…”
“You eat pizza and talk science every week?” Evan said.
“Well, yes,” his father replied. “He shows me what sort of work he’s done, I critique it and there’s excellent discussion. You could pick up a thing or two!”
At that moment, the door slid open, a guy walked in, carrying a pizza box, along with a notebook and a laptop. He was about seventeen or eighteen, African American, dressed plainly in an old flannel shirt unbuttoned over a T-shirt with a faded softball logo, jeans and a pair of sneakers.
“Mushroom, sauerkraut, pepperoni, pineapple and half green pepper - mostly for me,” he sat the pizza down on the table, pausing. “Oh, you’re his son, right? I think I heard Alice mention you were supposed to be show up soon.”
“Uh - yeah,” Evan said, shifting his shoulders uncomfortably. “You’re Derek, I guess?”
“Yep,” he said. “And you’re Evan. Good to meet you. You liked that book, right?”
“Yeah, it was great,” Evan said. “Thanks.” He opened the box of pizza and helped himself.
“His mother’s off to Berlin for a few days,” his father said. “Plus, you know - summer time! Favorite time of year.”
“You guys probably have lots to catch up on,” Derek said.
“There’s time, there’s time. I was telling Evan a little bit about the research - but its always good to get the details!” he smiled, taking a bite of pizza.
“Another part of genius, Evan. It’s all in the details. Here, Derek, why don’t you pull up your research! Impress us.”
“I…don’t really think I’m going to be able to follow-” Evan said.
“Yeah, this is pretty tough math,” Derek agreed. “Half the time, I’m not sure I know what I’m doing! He told you the idea, right? Sucking energy out of other universes to form into matter in ours, right?”
“Something like that…”
“Well, to do that you have to generate a localized wormhole able to pull the energy through - just a small tear able to collect pockets of energy from pocket universes. It’s a specialized rift - it can only accept energy and only types of energy that we specify. What I was working on was figuring out the math beyond the rift and how it would actually function.”
“As I recall, you had suggested stabilized Holme’s particles,” his father said. “An interesting, if unorthodox notion-”
“I expanded on that actually,” he said. “I was assuming that there needed to be a constant, but if you account for the minute fluctuations of the tempero-spatial environment in the subspace layer separating us from one of pocket dimensions - that is the easier option to siphon the necessary energy from…”
“Uh - yeah, I’m out,” Evan said. “I’ll just, um, be in my room I guess? I’m going to unpack…”
He quietly slipped away, heading back to his bedroom. The door slid silently open, and he slid silently on the floor, breath coming out in a slow hiss, memories coming back. His dad’s house was over-the-top-cool but as far as his father went…they had settled right back into that sort of uncomfortable relationship he’d had for years - his dad loved him, but didn’t seem to quite know what to do with him - they didn’t quite click like they should have….
“So, Alice,” he said, tossing clothes from the suitcase into the drawer. “What big thing has been working on? Apart from the whole lets tear holes in the fabric of reality thing, I mean.”
“The aquarium was a side project,” Alice said. “And the mail teleporter now works mostly. He successfully upgraded me to sort the important things from the junk.”
“Useful,” Evan said, sitting down and pulling up the directory of projects.
Sunday, November 1, 2015
NaNo Session 1
Chapter One
“Mom. It’s not too late to turn back.” Evan said, staring forlornly at the passing countryside. “You sure I can’t come with you?”
“Don’t be ridiculous, Evan. It’s only for a few days. I know your father can be a…difficult man, but you’ve managed okay, before haven’t you?”
“Barely,” Evan said gloomily, as the car turned into the winding half-mile long driveway. Almost immediately, the oddness was apparent. A battered old mailbox sat on the end of the driveway - that was normal. What was not was the bizarre apparatus attached to it - all wires and blinking lights. His mom stared at it for a long minute then turned and looked at Evan.
“What in heaven’s name is that?”
“Mail teleporter,” Evan said. “He was working on that last summer. He got tired of stopping what he was doing and collecting the mail.”
“Well, that’s fun,” his mom said, in a cheerful unconvincing voice. “This is lucky for you. All that fun science stuff to play with!”
He rolled his eyes. “You mean that same fun science stuff that caused you guys to split up in the first place?”
“No,” she said, suddenly sounding more severe. “It’s more complicated than that. Here we are.”
She stopped the car and they got out.
“Looks just like how we left it last summer,” she said. The house was an architectural nightmare - a clash between a high tech submarine and a starship, all sleek round windows and curved edges that gave it a futuristic feel, painted a royal blue. Satellite dishes poked out of the roof, turning to and fro. A greenhouse, full of bizarre plant species that shouldn’t exist, sat off to one side. That, Evan knew, had been his grandfather’s thing.
He’d been more of a biologist as opposed to his father who seemed to specialize in…everything. Beyond the house stood the labs proper, sitting on the site where a barn used to be. It was an enormous concrete structure, built more like a bunker than anything else. He knew it extended deep underground but had never actually been inside. Mostly because his father wouldn’t let him in.
“Get your suitcase,” his mom said. “Let’s see…”
“He’ll have changed the code,” Evan called. “He changes it every six months. Just hit the button and see if you can get Alice’s attention.”
“That’s that crazy computer he has to run the house, isn’t it?”
“Yeah.”
He didn’t mention that his father had, at one point, decided to not tell him the code and let him figure it out himself - sort of an intellectual challenge that he thought should have been a complete snap. He’d left a laptop on the porch, apparently thinking that it would only take an afternoon. He’d relented after he learned that his only son didn’t know anything about advanced computing algorithms, multi-computational matrices or hacking or, for that matter, any sort of computer programming at all.
That had resulted in him installing the button that would summon Alice - the house AI - who would determine if whoever was knocking was someone who could be ignored or someone whose presence required acknowledgment. It was a sign of defeat, that his son wasn’t who he hoped he would be.
Lugging his suitcase up to the front door, he found his mother standing there waiting, as the door hissed open.
“Welcome back, Valerie Seghill. Welcome back, Evan.” A soft female voice intoned from a speaker mounted on the automatic door.
“Yeah, great,” Evan muttered, dragging his suitcase over the threshold. His mom was right behind him, looking around.
“Alice,” she said. “Where is Frank?”
“He is currently engaged in an important project that couldn’t be disrupted. I have notified him of your arrival.”
“Typical,” she muttered. “Can’t pull himself away from his research for ten minutes. What’s so important, anyway?”
“Subject: Classified,” Alice said. “Suffice it to say, he can’t afford to stop what he’s doing, or important data would be lost. The experiment is at a critical stage.”
“Typical,” his mom muttered. “Can’t pull himself away for ten minutes to talk to his own family.”
“Um, Alice? Can I put my suitcase anyway?”
“Affirmative. Retinal and fingerprint scans have been re-authorized. You have access to the house once more.”
“Great. I’ll be right back, Mom.”
“Go ahead,” his mom waved her hand. “I’ll see if I can get Alice to page Frank again, until we can actually talk to him.”
The entrance hall door hissed open, leading into the living room. It looked roughly as Evan remembered it from last year’s visit - a comfortable room that had been hit with a whirlwind of papers - most of them with hastily written scribbles on him - numbers, equations, the start of some idea he’d began jotting down and then abandoned, pictures of his family on the wall, along with a skull of a Triceratops, scaled down to a quarter of its actual size, and a screen - actually built into the wall - that displayed the status of the house, its various functions, and some of the projects that he was a bit more upfront with.
“He never did get around with that digitization project, did he?”
“That is somewhat low on his list of priorities,” Alice replied, a female face appearing on the screen. “I believe he considers looking back at past work dull and would prefer to keep moving forward.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Evan said. “Still gets his best ideas on paper, right?”
“That is what he says.”
His mom entered the living room, a scowl on her face. “Well, I actually got him to respond this time. He says he’s about done.”
“That’s great,” Evan said. “Be right back…”
He stepped out of the front room and into the corridor, following it until he found his room, locked of course. A scanner descended from the ceiling, he put his eye up to it and, moments later, the door hissed open.
Much like the front room, it looked pretty much like how he remembered - all sleek chrome and white, clean with a bed, a dresser and a desk with a holographic keyboard and screen built into the wall. A window provided a look into sprawling yellow-green grassland, and a long winding dirt trail. Grass rustled in the breeze, while he could see an enormous wind turbine slowly moving in the breeze.
This, he knew, wasn’t the actual view of the window - it was some sort of high tech visual technology his father had been working on - a serene video landscape of a place that didn’t actually exist, not even as a set piece.
He set down the suitcase and returned to the living room, where he found his mother had seated herself on the sofa and was flicking through the new listing of inventions.
“Holographic aquarium,” she read. “Full three-dimensional. Alice…what exactly is this?”
“It’s a new room he recently constructed for the house,” Alice replied. “I believe he decided there were times when he wanted to be underwater, theorizing that it would help him think. He, thus, decided to improve the visual field array technology he employed on a window to create a fully three dimensional effect.”
“…What?” she said. “You’re saying that he spent god only knows how much money on a…a pretend aquarium.”
“It wasn’t that much,” a deep voice said. “Most of the tech was in place - it was just some expanding on the same visual technology I employed on the windows. Plus, you know, I’m quite well off…”
Evan spun around, to see his dad standing there, hands thrust deep into his lab coat, a vaguely reproachful look on his face. “Hi, dad.”
“Yes. Hello, Evan. Been another year, has it?”
“Yes, well,” his mom cleared her throat. “You’re going to get him for a bit longer this time.I told you I was going to Berlin-”
“You did,” he said. “But I forgot. Alice didn’t, though! That’s why I invented her - keep up with things I’m too busy to track.” He thrust his hands in his labcoat, fiddling with something.
“I would like to show you the aquarium. I’m quite proud of it, myself.”
“Well - I…” his mom paused, obviously harried. “I think I can spare a few minutes.”
“It’s just down this way. Follow me. Alice, if you would monitor the Kerator Construct. Let me know if it looks like its about to explode.”
“W-what?!” his mom said. “You can’t be serious.” She didn’t even ask what a ‘Kerator Construct’ was.
“It’s fine. It’s mostly stable. The explosion should be reasonably well contained. That’s why I have Alice - she can cover that small percent chance where it would kill us all.” He reached the end of the corridor, which opened up into a new, circular room. This, Evan saw, was completely new from last summer. His dad, evidently, had already been busy.
“Activate,” he called. Immediately, the grayed out panes vanished, replaced by flickering blue light. They were standing underwater, in a clear dome. Fish flickered in multi colored darts, in and out of bright reefs. A shark cruised silently overhead.
“That’s, um, impressive,” his mom said.
“It keeps me busy. I have dozens of projects that I’m quite happy with, all in all. He gestured and a bench rose silently out of the ground. He sat down.
“I like to come here to think,” he said. “Best place in the house.”
“You developed whole new technology and spent I don’t even what to know how much money…on a room so you could sit down and think.”
“Yep. Pretty much,” he said. “It is good seeing you again, Valerie. I think about you a lot.” She smiled, a strained, slightly bitter sort of grin.
“I don’t doubt it,” she said. She turned to Evan.
“You going to be okay, sweetheart?”
“I’ll be fine. I got this under control,” Evan said dutifully. “I managed last summer, didn’t I?"
“We had a great time last summer,” his dad said, looking at the reef and the rays of sunlight lancing through the windows. “This will be even better.”
“Yes, well, I’ll be back as soon as I can. I have to go. Berlin’s waiting. I love you…” she turned to his dad, face suddenly stern.
“Don’t lock yourself in the lab, got it?” she said. “He’s your son, he comes first.”
“Oh, absolutely,” his dad nodded gravely. “I’ll take good care of him, don’t you worry. Go to your conference. Enjoy Berlin. Bring me back a bratwurst. And a beer.”
“I’ll see if I can remember,” she said with an obvious forced smile. “Okay. I’m leaving. Take care and I’ll see you as soon as I’m able. I’ll call you as soon as I land, okay?”
“Okay, mom.”
“Okay. Bye.” She left the room, leaving him alone with his father.
“Mom. It’s not too late to turn back.” Evan said, staring forlornly at the passing countryside. “You sure I can’t come with you?”
“Don’t be ridiculous, Evan. It’s only for a few days. I know your father can be a…difficult man, but you’ve managed okay, before haven’t you?”
“Barely,” Evan said gloomily, as the car turned into the winding half-mile long driveway. Almost immediately, the oddness was apparent. A battered old mailbox sat on the end of the driveway - that was normal. What was not was the bizarre apparatus attached to it - all wires and blinking lights. His mom stared at it for a long minute then turned and looked at Evan.
“What in heaven’s name is that?”
“Mail teleporter,” Evan said. “He was working on that last summer. He got tired of stopping what he was doing and collecting the mail.”
“Well, that’s fun,” his mom said, in a cheerful unconvincing voice. “This is lucky for you. All that fun science stuff to play with!”
He rolled his eyes. “You mean that same fun science stuff that caused you guys to split up in the first place?”
“No,” she said, suddenly sounding more severe. “It’s more complicated than that. Here we are.”
She stopped the car and they got out.
“Looks just like how we left it last summer,” she said. The house was an architectural nightmare - a clash between a high tech submarine and a starship, all sleek round windows and curved edges that gave it a futuristic feel, painted a royal blue. Satellite dishes poked out of the roof, turning to and fro. A greenhouse, full of bizarre plant species that shouldn’t exist, sat off to one side. That, Evan knew, had been his grandfather’s thing.
He’d been more of a biologist as opposed to his father who seemed to specialize in…everything. Beyond the house stood the labs proper, sitting on the site where a barn used to be. It was an enormous concrete structure, built more like a bunker than anything else. He knew it extended deep underground but had never actually been inside. Mostly because his father wouldn’t let him in.
“Get your suitcase,” his mom said. “Let’s see…”
“He’ll have changed the code,” Evan called. “He changes it every six months. Just hit the button and see if you can get Alice’s attention.”
“That’s that crazy computer he has to run the house, isn’t it?”
“Yeah.”
He didn’t mention that his father had, at one point, decided to not tell him the code and let him figure it out himself - sort of an intellectual challenge that he thought should have been a complete snap. He’d left a laptop on the porch, apparently thinking that it would only take an afternoon. He’d relented after he learned that his only son didn’t know anything about advanced computing algorithms, multi-computational matrices or hacking or, for that matter, any sort of computer programming at all.
That had resulted in him installing the button that would summon Alice - the house AI - who would determine if whoever was knocking was someone who could be ignored or someone whose presence required acknowledgment. It was a sign of defeat, that his son wasn’t who he hoped he would be.
Lugging his suitcase up to the front door, he found his mother standing there waiting, as the door hissed open.
“Welcome back, Valerie Seghill. Welcome back, Evan.” A soft female voice intoned from a speaker mounted on the automatic door.
“Yeah, great,” Evan muttered, dragging his suitcase over the threshold. His mom was right behind him, looking around.
“Alice,” she said. “Where is Frank?”
“He is currently engaged in an important project that couldn’t be disrupted. I have notified him of your arrival.”
“Typical,” she muttered. “Can’t pull himself away from his research for ten minutes. What’s so important, anyway?”
“Subject: Classified,” Alice said. “Suffice it to say, he can’t afford to stop what he’s doing, or important data would be lost. The experiment is at a critical stage.”
“Typical,” his mom muttered. “Can’t pull himself away for ten minutes to talk to his own family.”
“Um, Alice? Can I put my suitcase anyway?”
“Affirmative. Retinal and fingerprint scans have been re-authorized. You have access to the house once more.”
“Great. I’ll be right back, Mom.”
“Go ahead,” his mom waved her hand. “I’ll see if I can get Alice to page Frank again, until we can actually talk to him.”
The entrance hall door hissed open, leading into the living room. It looked roughly as Evan remembered it from last year’s visit - a comfortable room that had been hit with a whirlwind of papers - most of them with hastily written scribbles on him - numbers, equations, the start of some idea he’d began jotting down and then abandoned, pictures of his family on the wall, along with a skull of a Triceratops, scaled down to a quarter of its actual size, and a screen - actually built into the wall - that displayed the status of the house, its various functions, and some of the projects that he was a bit more upfront with.
“He never did get around with that digitization project, did he?”
“That is somewhat low on his list of priorities,” Alice replied, a female face appearing on the screen. “I believe he considers looking back at past work dull and would prefer to keep moving forward.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Evan said. “Still gets his best ideas on paper, right?”
“That is what he says.”
His mom entered the living room, a scowl on her face. “Well, I actually got him to respond this time. He says he’s about done.”
“That’s great,” Evan said. “Be right back…”
He stepped out of the front room and into the corridor, following it until he found his room, locked of course. A scanner descended from the ceiling, he put his eye up to it and, moments later, the door hissed open.
Much like the front room, it looked pretty much like how he remembered - all sleek chrome and white, clean with a bed, a dresser and a desk with a holographic keyboard and screen built into the wall. A window provided a look into sprawling yellow-green grassland, and a long winding dirt trail. Grass rustled in the breeze, while he could see an enormous wind turbine slowly moving in the breeze.
This, he knew, wasn’t the actual view of the window - it was some sort of high tech visual technology his father had been working on - a serene video landscape of a place that didn’t actually exist, not even as a set piece.
He set down the suitcase and returned to the living room, where he found his mother had seated herself on the sofa and was flicking through the new listing of inventions.
“Holographic aquarium,” she read. “Full three-dimensional. Alice…what exactly is this?”
“It’s a new room he recently constructed for the house,” Alice replied. “I believe he decided there were times when he wanted to be underwater, theorizing that it would help him think. He, thus, decided to improve the visual field array technology he employed on a window to create a fully three dimensional effect.”
“…What?” she said. “You’re saying that he spent god only knows how much money on a…a pretend aquarium.”
“It wasn’t that much,” a deep voice said. “Most of the tech was in place - it was just some expanding on the same visual technology I employed on the windows. Plus, you know, I’m quite well off…”
Evan spun around, to see his dad standing there, hands thrust deep into his lab coat, a vaguely reproachful look on his face. “Hi, dad.”
“Yes. Hello, Evan. Been another year, has it?”
“Yes, well,” his mom cleared her throat. “You’re going to get him for a bit longer this time.I told you I was going to Berlin-”
“You did,” he said. “But I forgot. Alice didn’t, though! That’s why I invented her - keep up with things I’m too busy to track.” He thrust his hands in his labcoat, fiddling with something.
“I would like to show you the aquarium. I’m quite proud of it, myself.”
“Well - I…” his mom paused, obviously harried. “I think I can spare a few minutes.”
“It’s just down this way. Follow me. Alice, if you would monitor the Kerator Construct. Let me know if it looks like its about to explode.”
“W-what?!” his mom said. “You can’t be serious.” She didn’t even ask what a ‘Kerator Construct’ was.
“It’s fine. It’s mostly stable. The explosion should be reasonably well contained. That’s why I have Alice - she can cover that small percent chance where it would kill us all.” He reached the end of the corridor, which opened up into a new, circular room. This, Evan saw, was completely new from last summer. His dad, evidently, had already been busy.
“Activate,” he called. Immediately, the grayed out panes vanished, replaced by flickering blue light. They were standing underwater, in a clear dome. Fish flickered in multi colored darts, in and out of bright reefs. A shark cruised silently overhead.
“That’s, um, impressive,” his mom said.
“It keeps me busy. I have dozens of projects that I’m quite happy with, all in all. He gestured and a bench rose silently out of the ground. He sat down.
“I like to come here to think,” he said. “Best place in the house.”
“You developed whole new technology and spent I don’t even what to know how much money…on a room so you could sit down and think.”
“Yep. Pretty much,” he said. “It is good seeing you again, Valerie. I think about you a lot.” She smiled, a strained, slightly bitter sort of grin.
“I don’t doubt it,” she said. She turned to Evan.
“You going to be okay, sweetheart?”
“I’ll be fine. I got this under control,” Evan said dutifully. “I managed last summer, didn’t I?"
“We had a great time last summer,” his dad said, looking at the reef and the rays of sunlight lancing through the windows. “This will be even better.”
“Yes, well, I’ll be back as soon as I can. I have to go. Berlin’s waiting. I love you…” she turned to his dad, face suddenly stern.
“Don’t lock yourself in the lab, got it?” she said. “He’s your son, he comes first.”
“Oh, absolutely,” his dad nodded gravely. “I’ll take good care of him, don’t you worry. Go to your conference. Enjoy Berlin. Bring me back a bratwurst. And a beer.”
“I’ll see if I can remember,” she said with an obvious forced smile. “Okay. I’m leaving. Take care and I’ll see you as soon as I’m able. I’ll call you as soon as I land, okay?”
“Okay, mom.”
“Okay. Bye.” She left the room, leaving him alone with his father.
Tuesday, October 13, 2015
Musing and Philosophising.
I think I'm going to try and commit to updating this little blog more often - I kind of did that when I said I would be posting my NaNo project on here but I meant more on a regular basis. I need to get back in the habit of writing again - whether it be the large scale writing projects I (attempt to) tackle to something shorter to write - something to help me get in the right frame of mind to tackle those other things. Warm ups basically.
I've ranted and complained and constantly griped on this blog about how I struggle to write every day and how to get motivated and how I never get anything done anymore. I open up Scrivner - stare at it for a moment and then I am claimed by lethargy or - just when I think the muse is about to strike and I feel close to picking up the pen, something else crops up: someone wants to chat on Skype or something, just when I think: "this is it. Today's the day I really get going.".
I am not even going to say "But this time I really mean it" because that phrase has, in and of itself, lost all meaning.
I don't want to say 'make myself do it', or 'force myself to sit down and write' - that's entirely the wrong frame of mind. Writing is something I want to do - a chance to explore new horizons, gaze upon grand vistas and worlds, observe the turmoils of people far more interesting than myself - but those phrases about 'forcing' and 'making' sound more like its a chore, a tedious task that has to be tackled every day.
Writing fantasy is not that - I need to stay positive and approach this from a new angle. I have to want to do it, I have to get invested in the story. Planning, as I mentioned briefly in the last post with the overly complicated story, is really not something I do. I've tried outlines and I've tried figuring out the plot in advance so I can have notes to refer to...but that's not my style. That doesn't work for me.
My style is to sit down, open up my word processor and then to start plugging along on chapter one and make something interesting happen. Then chapter two builds on chapter one. Then chapter three...you see where I'm going with this. That's pretty much how I plan - write the first draft then start editing.
But I'm pretty pumped for NaNo this year. Got some great ideas, some of which I will steal from the really long thing that I wrote down below. There will be an epic journey, larger than life characters, the forces of darkness, superheroes, supervillains and - most importantly - cybernetic dinosaurs.
How could I not be excited about that?!
Something from a While Back
Okay, so let me preface this by saying what you're about to read is kind of old - its something I was cooking up last year and ultimately collapsed under its own weight - there was way too much going on and, in any case, I've realized that I don't really function by planning stuff out. I just sort of write a rough draft - which is really how I plan - just jump in feet first.
I thought it was interesting to read all this though, and there are elements of this really confusing cosmology I want to adapt for my upcoming NaNo project. Which brings me to my next point: I shall post every chapter of that project on this blog for people to read if they so choose. It'll update as I write it - its an experiment to see if feedback motivates me more to get stuff done.
This is basically a lead in to that project, which will start next month.
I’m going to try some stuff here, and see where it goes.
I’ve been doing some (more) thinking and what I really want is to do something
with the horrors from the abyss of the ocean floor (giant eldritch sea monsters
a la Lovecraft), a trip to another world and a world, a story that opens with
our teenage lead meeting an old man, who informs him that the world is about to
end (in a few days) and then dies shortly after, the Renegade scientists (a
concept I revived, because I think there’s something I can do with them),
various exotic islands, an evil cult and a battle at the end, which closely
depends upon the fates of our protagonists.
In which case: our central protagonist is Mark Stephens, a
teenage guy (around 16-17 years old, with a genius, slightly insane father. His
mom is either dead or divorced from his dad (or maybe he lives with her normally and
part of the character development is them coming to understand one another?
That seems simple enough, I don’t know.). Mark’s best friend is Daniel, who goes
with him to his dad’s (without or without the mother, I think the story is
going to open with him asking Daniel to come with him.).
They arrive in town via public transportation…only to his
dad isn’t waiting there. Instead, they meet an old man who begins talking to
them and tells them that the world is going to end in three day’s time, before
he collapses into a coma and, of course, his dad arrives (his hair slightly
singed and his hands greasy), and sees this happen. So, of course, his trip to
his dad’s begins with a trip to the hospital. The old man tells the father that
he’ll have ‘just enough time’ to get the team together, before the fell
monsters arise and destroy everything. Later on, we’ll learn that he dies.
Then he dies. So, early chapters: we’re introduced to Mark,
Daniel, the father and (maybe) the mother if she’s divorced and not dead.
Character relationships are established to expand upon later on and allow for
character development.
Moving on, we finally get to see the house – and what a house.
I’ve written about it before. It’s a farmhouse (originally, kind of) that’s
been renovated into a proper mad scientist’s dwelling: a large satellite in the
back, with a telescope, observatory with incredibly bizarre plants that are
really sins against nature (the mad scientist streak goes back in his family
for years), an AI named Alice, a Triceratops skull replica hanging mounted on
the wall (I love that touch), assorted inventions, lots and lots of papers with
calculations, computers.
The father is VERY scatterbrained, with a lot of stuff on
his plate and a lot of things that keep him occupied that he wants to tackle.
But the real draw to this former farm turned mad scientist’s house is the barn,
now revamped into true and proper laboratories, which house a vessel that’s
capable (or will be capable) of travelling to another world, and which they
will use very soon, once the world starts to end – we’re not actually going to
see the ship, though, until it's time for it to take off. See, the father is also
quite secretive of his work.
Now, here’s where things get a bit more complicated. At this
stage, I want the father to call in the other three scientists (who are also a
touch mad, but have since hung up their lab coats and are doing far more
mundane things now…unless. Unless, one of them is Mark’s mother, maybe, who now
teaches for a living and thinks his father is a lunatic who let life pass him
by? I kind of like that, I’ll file it away. So far, we have family drama: Mark
and his quarreling parents. His best friend gets roped into the journey.
And there’s a fair amount of reports, about odd seismic
activity on the ocean floor, maybe anomalies picked up on the telescope etc.
Which brings me to another question: why do they need to go to this other island
world to save our world? Or is this an attempt to escape before it falls apart?
The old man told them the world will end. Let’s come back to that problem later
and review what we have.
Early chapters: Character stuff. Mark’s mom and dad are
divorced, mom works as a teacher, dad works out on this ridiculous ranch, now
turned into a mad scientist’s lair, which he keeps funded through assorted
invention patents. Mark is fairly average, lives with his mom and goes to his
dad as part of the usual trip and brings his best friend with him, so he won’t
have to be alone with his crazy father (or, more accurately, just left alone in
the house, while his dad tinkers with various inventions).
They arrive, meet an elderly man, who informs them that the
world is going to end and then collapses. The dad arrives and sees this; they
take the man to a hospital. He tells them that his father has the right idea
and they’ll have just enough time to get the team together again, before it
comes crashing down all around them. They go home, have pizza, and are informed
that the old man died that night – depressing start to the vacation.
But now, with the world on the edge, he begins calling up
the others. Now, here is where things start to fall apart. These people
probably have lives now and families. With the world about to end, they’re
likely not going to want to just leave their families behind, or they’ll stay
and wait it out with them. I could have the families come with the main
characters, but that really starts cluttering the cast with all of these extra
people.
The ship is (relatively) small – I’d say it’s designed to
hold maybe six people in comfortable (though close) quarters, and then all of
the supplies and gear needed to fix the ship. I’m also wondering if maybe they’re
distractions to the plot and to the character growth shaping up amongst this
family? I mean – so far, we have Mark, his parents, and his friend, Daniel.
Then my impulse is to add two other people to the crew, who probably have
families that they’re not exactly going to want to leave behind.
I could justify it by saying that A) the ship is too small
and taxed as it is and B) they’re going into an even more hazardous situation.
Maybe their families tell him to go and are understanding that this is something
they have to do. Or maybe the world actually simply ends.
I just had this idea to invoke Narnia time – a second
outside, a thousand years inside. They depart a second before the world ends,
go through what they need to do, and come back after re-sealing the evil in a
can. That would work. So, the main cast: Mark, his parents, the other
Renegades, Daniel and then probably a character (a love interest, maybe) in the
other world.
Okay, I’ve gone through the early chapters now and worked
through a lot of my issues that were circulating around in my head. Let’s see
what we’ve got.
The story begins with Mark asking his best friend, Daniel,
to come over and spend the weekend at his dad’s, who lives out in the country.
He agrees and they leave; only to meet an old man give them a warning about the
world’s imminent destruction. He collapses just as Mark’s dad arrives to pick
them up (he was running late). They go to the hospital and drop him off. He
tells the father he’ll have ‘just enough time’ to get the team together before
the world ends.
There’s not much else they can do, so they go home and have
pizza. The father begins making calls from his office, and we learn some of the
backstory (seen via photographs) – that during his college days in the ‘80s, he
had a small tight knit group of friends, who had some really weird and wild
adventures – many of which were started by him, doing some sort of mad
scientist thing.
Over video games and pizza, we probe into the relationships
of our lead, seeing how he feels about both parents (he knows something about
their past, though his mother doesn’t often talk about it) and mentions his
grandfather (dad’s father, who was also something of a mad scientist and his
great-grandmother before him, a contemporary of big 19th century
inventors – Tesla, Edison etc.) and how his father used to lull him to sleep…by
reading from his college physics and chemistry textbooks. Oh, and we also see
that the father has been working on a robot body for the AI that runs the house
(which is why his hair was singed – there was a small explosion).
Daniel needs some development too; right now he seems to be
there so that our hero will have someone to emote to. (Will work on this later
– maybe jealousy that Mark has such a cool and interesting family?) In the
study, his father calls up the old colleagues – his former roommate and best
friend, Joe, and the fourth member of this group, Eddie. Mark’s mom is the
second member
Joe has since become some guy stuck in a boring dead end
white collar job, with a loving wife, 2.5 kids, a dog and white picket fence.
He declines going with the father (Frank, I will call him until I think of
something better). while Eddie lives by himself and works for a science
magazine. He immediately agrees to help out and plans on flying in to the town
on the next available flight. That leaves the matter of the mother (Ellen), but
Frank chickens out on calling her for the moment, instead going out to barn to
make last minute adjustments on the ship.
Okay. I’m not really sure where that puts us chapter-wise,
now: I get the feeling there’s two or three chapters in all of that summary,
but I’m not to the point where I’m dividing yet. We haven’t even gotten to the
world ending stuff yet!).
So, what next? That ought to cover the introductions, set up
the character relationships and get the ball rolling on the basic premise of
the plot. Where do we take the story from here? I have some ideas: firstly,
some news reports about anomalies seen from space, maybe something weird happening
on the ocean floor. Next, Eddie’s arrival that Saturday.
Our weekend is nearly used up and it’s time for Mark to
start heading back. Frank finally makes the call and explains what’s going on
and tells his mom that she’ll be needed, as much as any of them. That doesn’t
exactly make her happy, even less so that he’s planning on taking Mark along to
this other realm, dimension or whatever. There’s drama and whatnot.
Next up: the world starts to end. I’m a little hazy on how
I’m going to have this work, but basically I think it’ll start with the sky
turning red (‘cause if we’re ending the world, we need red skies), and a comet
falling to earth, except this is no ordinary comet: this is the Key that
awakens the Evil – bridging the half lying in the waters of the Atlantic, and
its other half trapped in a star – though we don’t know this yet.
The ship is revealed in all of its glory. The group
(currently standing at four currently – Mark, Daniel, Frank and Eddie). A great
void begins opening, like a whirlpool into complete oblivion and the earth
begins to implode, all of the waters, fish, land everything on it quickly being
absorbed into a gargantuan maw. It’s slow at first: they have, maybe, a few
precious days, at the end of which there will be no more planet.
The team is finally all reunited together – including a
touching seen, in which Joe’s wife gives him permission to go and save them all
and a rather more amusing scene, where they pick up Ellen, who is very unhappy
to be there. They take off and wink out of the universe/world, a second before
it ends.
I was on a roll here and now I need to figure out what’s
going on next and get the ball rolling. As part of the earlier chapters, I’m
wondering if Mark and Daniel maybe should put to work loading up the ship with
various supplies before it takes off? I have mixed feelings about it – on one
hand, it’s a logical scene to have, on the other – I was kind of hoping to wait
and reveal the ship until it actually takes off. I’ll think on it.
Now. At this stage, we’ve ended the world (though that’s on
pause, we’re at a second before it collapses back into the void) and we’ve made
all the way to this otherworldly dimension or something. My kneejerk reaction
was (as can be seen in the original outlines of ‘things I want to include in
this story’ to set this in a tropical setting: lush, tropical islands, clear
blue seas and coral reefs and, of course, giant sea monsters.
Now, however, I’m leaning towards something along the lines
of the Twilit Lands from the Psionic Adventures story…but with a twist. It’s
been shattered and bits of the world are scattered here and there – part of an
ocean surrounded by nothingness (which resembles a giant aquarium miles deep,
across and wide), a bit of forest over here, a domed city in a desert over here
– little islands of reality that used to form one coherent world, but have been
ripped to shreds and the pieces are scattered all over.
We have our sea monsters swimming in the oblivion sea
between these broken bits and islands (creatures from the oceans that adapted
to the environment). This leads us into several new and important questions I
need to chew on: what happens next? How are the characters going to develop?
How is this going to contribute to the defeat of whatever monstrosity ate our
world? Well, maybe we can tease out some answers.
I think our heroes are going to land on a random bit of land
surrounded by oblivion. We need a quiet moment for the impact of what just
happened to sink in, and we need to introduce the complete weirdness of the
surroundings, and start establishing the rules for how those work – we have the
characters respond in kind, showing a bit of their characters (irritation and
dismay on Ellen’s part, complete fascination on Frank’s part etc.).
I’m also thinking that jumping through to this place damaged
the ship, maybe forcing repairs. Or maybe not – we have: the bizarre sea-life
and giant monsters running around and they need to be introduced as well.
Perhaps one attacks the ship and forces them to flee? Or maybe it attacks, and
the bit of land they were on falls into the void, leaving to rampant
speculation on Frank’s part. But we need to introduce some new characters from
this side of the world, who will bring in new relationships to the table (this
is already seems to be a very crowded cast – 6 people so far), but they’re
necessary to get explanations for what’s going on.
Also: another mystery that needs to be probed is the old
man, who kick-started the plot by warning our heroes of the world’s end. I’m
thinking that he and Frank have met before (in different circumstances) and
that he’s the one who put the idea of the ship in Frank’s head in the first
place. But that’s something for another time. This story’s picking up a ton of
subplots! (Sidenote: I’m thinking there’s a fifth member of the adult’s little
clique, another woman, who ended up here somehow, and there will be some
dialogue later to set this all up).
Moving on from that tangent, we introduce a warrior princess
type character, who demands to know what they’re doing. She has guards behind
her and very interesting looking ships (think more fantasy type sailing
vessels, except the fly) – the void is crossable, much like the sea or space,
with proper vehicles and equipment. They’re all captured and are taken to the
great city of Zenith, with its glittering waterfalls and canals and its tall
mountains, with palaces and temples on the slopes.
I’m thinking that before we get there, we should have a sea
monster attack, just to showcase the monsters and show this as a mechanic and
rule of this setting.
We’ll get some additional backstory about just what happened
to the world, how it was torn into bits and pieces and how this connects to the
world-eating thing that just ate our world basically. I’m still ruminating on
what that is, so we’ll just say that backstory will go here. They’re basically
given comfortable quarters and given run of the upper slopes of the city. We
can have some character development at this stage, possibly for Daniel. I think
his character arc is going to have him fall in love with the princess and
starts going native. Mark doesn’t really notice the princess (I’m wondering if
he might be asexual? I doubt it’ll come up) and he has a lot on his plate, what
with worry about his whole family life.
Joe and Eddie…hmm. I think Eddie’s going to likely be a
static character, just made of pure awesome from the first moment he comes on
the screen – he has traits and a personality but as far as an actual character
arc goes, not too much. I want all of the characters to get their chance to
shine, but at the same time, I really don’t want to clutter the narrative.
The focus is twofold: the relationships of the admittedly
somewhat dysfunctional cast, and said cast having to learn to work together if
they’re going to save the world.
I’m getting off on a tangent again. So, our first two tasks
for their arrival in the Other-World (for lack of a better term): allow a quiet
breathing moment, for the impact of the world’s end to sink in and establish
the rules and mechanisms of this other place our brave adventurers have
reached. Been there, done that.
We’ve introduced a proud warrior-princess (or maybe she’s a
Queen, that’d be a good touch) figure, who does have a handle on how the world
works and is also incredibly awesome and good at fighting. Our heroes are all
now in Zenith, confined to the upper parts of the city, until its decided
what’s going to happen with them. What are they going to do as of now?
I don’t know. I think I need to build the backstory a bit,
so the Princess can explain the situation. The world used to be complete and
whole, split into three segments – the Noontide Realm, the Twilit Lands and the
Country of Night. Then, abruptly, the ancient ruins across the land activated
and blew it up into many bits and pieces (this was many years ago in this land,
but since we’re using Narnia Time here, it happened at the same time the comet
landed on earth and awoke the great Evil.).
Okay, so the next step is for a ruling to take place. This
needs to be something that will move the plot along, yet also be in this
Princess’s character. My writing session is almost up for the day and I need to
recharge anyway.
So (new session),
let’s just recap the plot so far: Mark Stephens is a fairly typical teenage
boy, who persuades his best friend Daniel to come with him to his father’s, so
he won’t have to be alone with our mad scientist Frank. Daniel agrees (I’m
thinking he has a really messed up home life, maybe?), and they take off via
bus to the country. They meet an old man, who tells them that the world is
going to end and then collapses, just as Frank (Mark’s dad) arrives.
They take him to the hospital and he comes to one last time,
telling Frank that he’ll have ‘just enough time’ to get a team together and get
out before the world is destroyed. They go to the very eccentric Stephens home,
and Frank retires to the office to make some calls (to his old college buddies
and True Companions). Meanwhile, Mark and Daniel play video games, eat pizza
and we get some backstory about the True Companions (they were all friends in
the mid-1980s) – Frank, his mom (Ellen), Joe, Eddie (note: thinking of renaming
him Paul?) and Rachel, the fifth member of the group who disappeared.
Mark knows a little about them, but not a whole lot as
neither parents about the old days much anymore. Familial relationships are
further explored here as well. Meanwhile, Frank makes his calls. Eddie, now a
reporter for a science magazine (or maybe a science teacher) immediately agrees
to come and promises to be there the next day. Joe, now holder of a dull
corporate job (but with a loving trophy wife, 2.5 children and a dog). He wants
to go, but feels that it would be better if he stays behind, feeling that the
old glory days are behind them now and he needs to focus on his family. Frank
chickens out on calling Ellen, who really doesn’t want much to do with the old
group (something from their past).
The next day is spent packing and preparing, with Eddie
showing up sometime that evening – he is simply inexplicably awesome and will
essentially serve as the group’s navigator and maybe weapon’s guy. (As an
aside, I think he and Frank are the closest of the four initially – old
roommates?). Frank finally is browbeaten into calling Ellen, who (of course)
yells at him when he tries to explain the situation.
Sunday dawns bright and clear, but a comet falls to earth
and the sky turns red. A hole into oblivion opens in the Atlantic, sending
ships, fish and everything else into waiting nothingness. It quickly begins to
spread, consuming the entire world. Order breaks down. The ship finally takes
off, and collects the other two members of the group – they land amidst
panicking rioters and police struggling to keep calm (people are evacuating to
a bomb shelter maybe – not rational, but there’s not much to do).
His wife gives him her blessing to go help save them all,
and looks a little sad – a short, touching scene. Frank explains the whole idea
that this other dimension, this other place has a different time flow and
according to his calculations (and past experiments with the phase portal), a
second is equal to a not insignificant number of years.
After that, they go and pick up Ellen, who is very
displeased to be part of this but ends up going with them anyway, after being
talked into it by the other three (and to keep an eye on her son). The ship
takes off, various cities start sliding into the void – like the ground had
become a rug and they were simply glued to it. They ship departs, the
technology pushing apart the fabric of space-time. And they leave the world, a
single second before it ends.
Afterwards, they land on a spit of land surrounding by
(literally) nothing. This is our quiet moment to let the previous very huge events
sink in the group and the audience. However, they’re forced to flee whenever it
dissolves into the void (I think originally I had a sea serpent attack them –
but I think it would a lot stronger if this is just a natural process of this
dimension/world. Hazardous, yes, but not actively malicious or out to get
them).
They are then captured by a warrior-queen, and her fleet of
ships and escorted back to Zenith (a great city), but they come under attack by
giant sea serpents, that have mutated to ‘swim’ in the oblivion surrounding the
land fragments, where they’re treated well, but nonetheless confined to the
upper parts of the city, until they decide what to do with them.
And that’s where I’m at in terms of plot. I think a trial
scene and explanation for just how the world got like this is in order now –
judgment is now passed on the six of them and they learn something of the
backstory (Note: I might work this in somewhere else, I don’t know): various
temples of the land began glowing with power, linking to each other and
literally ripping the world apart into the various bits and pieces.
We have more character growth at this stage – Daniel falls
in love with the Princess, and starts going native (trying to impress her as
well as to start distancing himself from his old thoroughly messed up home
life.).Frank and Ellen bicker back and forth. There’s also some key information
revealed – according to calculations Frank made, the comet landed at the same
time as the myriad temples blew this world apart – there’s a definite link
there.
Anyway, back to the whole judgment thing. I’m in two minds on
it. The Queen lets them go to investigate the ruins (and figure out what
happened and if it’s at all possible to reverse), figuring she has nothing to
lose at this stage. The other part of my mind suggests that they could maybe
have cyborgs – and the eldritch cult – turn up at this stage (note: sudden idea
on the old man’s backstory. He’s a reformed cultist.) and demand that the
little group be handed over to them. The Queen will refuse (another note: the
cultists need to be brought up before this), saying that Zenith does not bow
knee to the Country of Night, which sets in motion still another subplot, and a
battle for later on. They have no intention of letting our heroes get away so
easily and retreat to the void.
The Queen ends up helping them escape, sending them on a
secret mission to investigate the ruins and find out what happened to cause the
world to fracture like it did. Both options are solid choices, I think, but the
second one sets up still more conflict in this world and there’s still a long,
long way to go before this thing winds down.
I’m also wondering if I should have Daniel stay behind for
whatever reason, still trying to get in good with the Queen, maybe he’s forced
to stay (or maybe he volunteers? We’ll leave it out for now, but I would like
to have a character here to build more on this subplot…
Now we have a quest underway: visit the various ruins,
discover whatever cause made them explode. That’s the framework nested within
the larger framework. This narrative keeps growing, and it’s important, I
think, to remember our twin focus: the relationships of the characters, and
these characters overcoming quirks and flaws to prevent the end of the world as
we know it.
I also had a sudden idea for the villain – initially it was
an eldritch creature, but now maybe a god collecting worlds? Nah, that’s kind
of silly. I have to figure out how they’re linked, how the character
development will progress etc. etc. More later on.
Okay, I am back. I’ve now recharged my brain and hopefully
we can continue pushing the plot forward. I’m not sure where this going – we
have a definite framework for this arc, though. So that’s something. I think
the part I just rolled through – starting with the heroes leaving our world and
jumping into the new one – was a segment of the plot all by itself, a sort of a
transition zone, so to speak. It needed to provide a set up the rules of this
other-world, and set up the framework for the stuff that’s about to happen, as
well as finally provide a villain (we saw the world end, now can put a face on
who did it.). There are also mysteries and backstories that need to be more
fully realized – namely, the old man from the beginning and Rachel, the fifth
member of this little group. I’m also thinking that this trip is going to eventually
land our crew in the Country of Night.
I really do think Daniel is supposed to stay behind, but I
can’t find a good enough reason to justify it – they’re not going to want him
to stick around. Though maybe he persuades them that he’ll be safer there in
the city? In which case, they’d probably want to leave Mark there, as well.
Hmm. That sounds promising. A simple enough reason, yet plausible enough and
gives our two teenage characters a chance to grow. Mark, so far, doesn’t have
much development outside of his relationship to his parents. This gives a
chance to change that.
We then have two arcs that we’re following: Mark, Daniel and
the Warrior-Queen, and then our adult heroes, who are in pursuit of these
different ruins. There’s three pieces of our plot then: the beginning, right up
to the departure, the short transition period that explains the ground rules of
the other-world and then this new arc – probably longer and which is going to
start probing into questions earlier posed – what happened to Rachel? What
about the old man?
The cult is the villain here; they’re all cyborgs from the
Country of Night. We also have the looming mystery of the ancient ruins: what
they are, who built them etc. (and all of this will tie back into the imminent
destruction of Earth and how they restore it). Okay, enough throwing around
general ideas and concepts for what we’re doing, let’s get right down to we’re
going to kick this off.
I’m thinking that it’ll be with the adult heroes, leaving
Zenith behind. Ellen and Frank bickering, Eddie being generally silent and Joe,
who seems to be becoming the fifth wheel here – what is his deal, what’s he
going to contribute to the group and how am I going to handle his development?
Questions to chew on. For now, let’s concentrate on the basic events.
They travel for a long time and then land in a forest (or
rather, an isolated bit of forest in surrounded by oblivion, though this land
is a good bit larger than the land they
arrived on initially) somewhere – the Queen has provided them with supplies and
weaponry and whatnot and they set up camp for the evening, reminiscing about
the old days, in which there were a bunch of really weird adventures – I had
this idea that these people are basically the college age protagonists out of
some comic or really odd YA novel. Jury’s still out, but they definitely had
some wild times in college, mostly thanks to Frank and his mad science (I’ll
have to come up with stuff later on for them to laugh about – something only
vaguely grounded in reality).
A point of development for all four goes all around, and we
get to learn something more about them – maybe now is when Frank mentions that
he’s met the old man before now and what he told them. They’re attacked by
monsters, they fight them off – I need to think of something creative to do
with that, something relating to their development or just some really creative
monster designs. I’ll think of something.
It’s a bit premature to focus on how many chapters this has
or where I’m going to break them off at, but I’m thinking this arc is going to
be a bit like the 4Ms and alternate every chapter (or maybe every two
chapters). Now, we have this evil cult that we’ve brought into the picture.
They need to be used – following their introductions in our little transition
bit, they retreat into the void and a dark fortress, riding on the back of the
giant oblivion beasts.
Their Master – the great Silence – tells them to pursue,
saying that he knows where these people are from. From there…all bets are off and
I don’t know what to do with the plot now. There are a lot of questions raised
here: why can’t this Silence destroy them itself? Why does he rely on servants
so much? Who are these people?
Let’s jot down some answers (or possible answers): the
Silence is indeed the Evil that ate the world (or, is about to eat the world.
Different time flows and all that), it can’t act because it’s still bound in
this particular world and is already so huge, so unfathomable that it’s
imprisoned across two worlds. It relies on its servants, because it has no
choice in the matter. These servants – a man and a woman – are the two
remaining members of a trio, which originally included the old man from the
beginning. I don’t know how satisfied I am with these answers, but I’ll run
with them for now, maybe change things up later on.
These are basically the leaders of the cult and two
operations begin, which will add a monkey wrench to these character’s plans:
destroy Zenith, capture the four Renegades (calling them that because that was
their original name and I don’t have something better).
Anyway…we left the Renegades fighting monsters in the woods,
now let’s look at our teenage protagonists. In Zenith, Daniel continues his
(completely unnoticed) attempts to impress the Warrior-Queen – this has an
unintended side effect of giving him a level in badass. Mark, in the meantime,
spends most of his time thinking about his parents, and spending quite a bit of
time in the library, reading about the old histories and what-not. Like it or
not, he’s starting to show signs after taking after his father (though maybe
mitigated somewhat by his mother). Daniel will be the warrior guy; Mark is
going to get the psychic abilities.
Alright, another idea. Daniel turns out to be basically the
rogue character, while Mark ends up as the spellcaster and our proud
Warrior-Queen is, well, the Warrior, giving us our basic trinity – Warrior,
Mage, Rogue. But back to the plot, I’m a little hazy on where it’s going. We
ended with a monster attack that will somehow be creative with our main leads
here, then we set up the villains, who are going to basically put a monkey
wrench in the hero’s plans while they search for these ruins and then there’s
our two teenage protagonists, both of whom take a level in badass. There’s a
lot of plot machinery that I have to chew through.
We left our Renegades fighting monsters in the woods. As I
said before, Mark’s moping and his wandering about lead him to a lost tomb/ruin
or whatever of one of the Zariam, the eight figures (re: angels) who created
the Noontide Realm, he gets psionic abilities after a visit there – he kind of
finds it by accident, maybe, or he’s actively looking for it.
He’ll keep in touch with his parents for sure, the
Noontiders will have ways to keep in touch, despite the infinite void that
splits them apart now. Anyway, he gets his psionic powers, just as news comes
in of one of the oblivion-beasts emerging to attack a village that’s not too
far from Zenith, though drifting further away every year. (Oooh, that’s an
interesting touch. Some/all of the islands aren’t actually fixed. They’re
actually drifting around.). They go off to investigate, and the oblivion-beast
and it is routed. How this (and the monster attack in the forest) tie into our
main story, I’m not really sure.
It feels a little premature to reveal what sort of scheme
the villains are planning to achieve their goals. And maybe this is just me,
but this is starting to take on elements of a comic book, almost, and is
feeling like the narrative is drifting that direction with how big it’s
getting, as well as this series of side adventures for the two sides, with
recurring villains and so forth.
I’m going to keep going for now, and try to put that thought
of my mind while I continue to build the story.
Back with the Renegades, they find the first ruin, an old
crumbled pyramid, with lots of ruins in the shallow waters of a lagoon, with
plenty of greenery, tropical fish and coral reefs. It resembles the world’s
largest and deepest aquarium when viewed from outside.
They land, and begin exploring the ruins, encountering a
variety of rooms – a courtyard, laboratories, an ancient computer console (a
command post type thing, complete with robots), and evidence of recent activity,
and a room at the top, with a large beacon (now cracked, this was the
super-weapon that wrecked the land – characters figure this out pretty quickly).
They figure out a way to download Alice – yeah, the AI – into the computer
systems, where she discovers holograms and various records (written, of course,
in ancient language they can’t read).
At this stage, our villains dispatch a couple of cyborgs,
emblazoned with the crest of the Country of Night. (note: It might be better to
remove the villains from the picture, at least until the very end, whatever
threat they’re facing is much more menacing if it remains faceless and
voiceless, just with all of its servants at its disposal. (Note: there’s two
chapters here, one with their arrival in the ruins, ending with the cyborg
arriving, and the other with the actual fight and retreat.
They retreat and make it out, but Joe is wounded. The cyborg
watches them go, so that’s our plot development: they get attacked – again –
and they get ancient writings out. Now, with our teenage protagonists: Mark
experiments with his power, while the Warrior Queen rebuffs Daniel’s unwanted
advances, she’s finally had enough. Yay, character development. Our plot
focuses on refugees arriving from other villages: while the Warrior-Queen was
busy saving the single village, two more fell to the Country of Night and are
now overrun with cyborgs.
Mark communicates with his parents and starts using the
extensive libraries of Zenith to attempt to decipher the mysterious language of
the ruins. I’m not sure if these events are going to be exactly in that order
(I may combine some of them and rearrange as I think it suits the story), but
that’s the overall idea here.
I think we’re getting off focus here on the main story,
which started as a simple attempt to save Earth from its imminent destruction,
and now we’re off on this other quest and we’ve gotten pretty far from that.
Let me just go through our story, just real quick.
We’re up to three parts now: the first is the beginning up
to the destruction of earth, then a transition period to set up the rules of
this surreal other-world, and then this latest arc, which I think is where
things started getting messy: two separate, but connected arcs, one following
the adults and the other following the teenagers, along with the Warrior-Queen,
now dealing with all of these other threats, and an established status quo, but
this isn’t a comic or a TV show. It’s intended to be a novel.
Well, let’s press on with our story anyway, though I wonder
if it has gotten too complicated, with way too many characters, arcs and
situations. In any case, let’s move on. We’ll have some character development –
Ellen and Frank begin to reconcile, though they’re still snarky with each
other, while Joe recovers from his wounds and feels generally miserable about
it all.
At this stage, I really have no idea where to go with the
story or what to do with the characters. I think I’ve lost sight of what was
supposed to be happening somewhere in the session and shifted genres,
basically. And I think my mistake was leaving Mark and Daniel in Zenith,
because after that the plot just becomes one large mess. I had to justify it to
myself for why that particular development would happen, as I recall.
That should have been a warning sign.
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