Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger

It was never inconvenient for Jordan to be barely over 5 feet in height. In M.R.C., powers did the talking and the walking. And the rarer the power, the better. Jordan's power was nearly unheard of. Thus, no one ever picked on her for her height. Age was also not much of a factor here. The younger you came to M.R.C., the better off you were. The age your body recognized your power didn't particularly matter, but the length of time you stayed at M.R.C. did matter. The longer you had stayed the more allies you had. The longer you had stayed in M.R.C. the more training you got. So Jordan never wished that she was taller or older. Instead she wished she was faster and more flexible.

5/26 prompt "When did you wish you were bigger or older?"

Art project approach

The approach I would take to making these games would be to find certain games that people find entertaining but do not require save games/multiple revisits to really enjoy. For instance, color matching games like Bejeweled would be a good type of game to make into a banner game. Games like Farmville, where the user would have to return to their farm multiple times in order to get crops grown would not be a good banner game.

Banner games should be able to be played once and be enjoyable, but they should also draw the user in to play again if they see the game pop up as an ad again. The reason I think these games should not have "save files" is because I don't want the user to necessarily have an attachment to the character/game. I want them to see a game and say "Oh! I've played a game like this before!" or "Hey, I had fun playing this game the last time, and it only takes 5 minutes to play." Also, I'm not really sure how cookies work, so I'm not sure if a player's data could get erased if they clear their cookies. And there's nothing more alienating for a player than losing their save files.

After finding and programming several simple games, I would submit them to google ads or whatever company regularly publishes the flash banner games. Once the ads are up, all that's left to do is make more games or just sit back and hope other people are enjoying my games.

Soap Opera

She settles into the couch with her sister and brothers. Five of them are squished onto the three person couch. She picks up the remote and switches on the show. The Grey's Anatomy logo flashes on and off the screen. The girls feign interest and the boys feign disgust. They watch and pretend to be normal.

For the 5/18 prompt "Why do they watch soap operas?" Oof, I'm a day behind because I spent last night drawing *lame excuses* But! I'm totally drawing a comic tonight >_> I promise?

First sins

Her first sin was undoubtedly anger. Wrath, technically. It's not so much a part of her anymore. No, she needs to stay level-headed now.

But when she was a child and a teenager, she fed that sin (she didn't know it was a sin, in her defense) like it was her pet dog. She had always wanted a pet dog. She would have spoiled a dog. She did spoil Wrath.

To her, Wrath is red. It has many eyes, many mouths and many teeth. Its tongue laps at her belly, stoking the fire of rage there. It has only recently gained a leash (and some chains.)


For the prompt "What was your first sin?" for 5/17

Daily Prompts Rush

Don't Stare

The little girl was excited to be out. It was the first day of summer and it was sweltering. Her mother had allowed her to tie her own hair back. Using mismatching hair elastics, she had made uneven pigtails out of her dark brown hair. Even better than that, her mother had promised her ice cream.

They took the short walk into town and she was enjoying the rock in her sandals. When they arrived at the ice cream store, it was already swarming with older kids. Most of them were too old to acknowledge her existence. She felt comfortable observing them while her and her mother were waiting in line for her double scoop of strawberry ice cream. One of the older kids noticed her staring. He stared back unblinkingly.

"Honey, it's not polite to stare," her mother's hand came down on her shoulder.

She blinked. The older boy was gone.

Ssss

She straddles the bike and spurs it to life. The black bike starts with a slight shudder and a softer than normal purr. She slides the bike from its parking space and into traffic. The bike slices through the parallel cars. The drivers sneer at her as she shoots past them. She sinks into a curve and senses the road close to her leg. She shifts out of out of the curve easily and back to skirting traffic.

Anger

She couldn't believe it. She could not believe it. She pressed her thumb and middle finger on her temples, trying to clear her head.

She breathed in.
And out.

It wasn't helping. She was still seeing red. She began to glare at her computer again, reading the message over, faster than the first time. She slammed the laptop closed, not even caring about the well being of the machine. Who did he think he was? She knew she shouldn't care about something so insignificant as getting blocked on facebook...but wasn't he the one who had broken up with her?! She blew out a breath between her teeth.

Then laughed haltingly. She was done with this.

Nosy Neighbors

Jordan and Max (and Lucien and Matt and Hunter and Caitlin) had to be careful about the neighbors they lived with. They had to be observant (in case they needed to ask if anyone had been looking for them) but not nosy (in case they had a fight break out in their apartments.) The neighbors couldn't be overly outgoing (so the neighbors didn't find out they were mostly nocturnal.) The neighbors had to be deep sleepers (so the neighbors didn't find out they were mostly nocturnal.) The neighbors couldn't leave things out on the fire escapes (in case they needed a quick escape route.) (Also, it was a fire hazard.)


Phew. I've been playing too much Gyromancer, hence the title. Also, hence me writing all of these in one day. I've been writing, I've just been neglecting my prompts. So here they are.

French Fries

“I can't decide what to eat,” Jordan complained,

Max trotted out from the kitchen to plop down on the couch near Jordan's feet. Her feet automatically sought out the warmth under his legs.

“Wait until you get a craving or something,” Max advised,

“Pregnant women get cravings,” she replied with a hint of disgust,

“We'd better be careful then,”

Jordan scowled at him.

“Well you'd better decide soon, it's almost time for work,”

Max meant her night shift, she knew. But it made her stomach growl insistently. Jordan actually knew what she wanted to eat. She just knew she couldn't get it tonight. What Jordan wanted were the fries from M.R.C. But that was not something she would freely admit. The fries from M.R.C were the typical frozen, mass packaged ones. Everyone else thought they had too much potato and not enough crunch.

“You know what I would kill for right now?” Max glanced sidelong at her,

No, Jordan eyed him warily,

“Those fries from M.R.C.” Max sighed, “Everyone else hated them,”

Jordan nearly jumped him right there,

“What? You liked them too?!” Max read the gleam in her eyes, “You've been sitting on that secret for how long?”

Shut up, Jordan smiled, “I didn't want to repeat Matt and Lucien's tater tot fiasco from last week,”


Prompt for 5/11 "Would it taste as good now as it did then?" Which I'm pretty sure was given last week...

Batman Camp!

The main gym was set up with multiple risers run out so that there was a sort of stage in the center. The teachers were already giving the mass of students an impatient look. Even though less than half of M.R.C. was coming to this seminar, the mutants still managed to fill the risers.

“Students, welcome to the Stealth and Advanced Combat Seminar,” King announced,

“Batman Camp!” Chase practically squealed to Max,

Max was literally giggling.

Seminar started with a lecture. King went over basic stealth maneuvers that they'd been learning for months. Max and Chase took notes and could barely stay in their seats. The next hour was spent by Knight explaining a worksheet with over 200 ways to silently kill someone.

A short demonstration with Drake and a thick-skinned Special helped them to find pressure points on any humanoid.

“Avoidance is always the easiest way to win a fight. And the easiest thing to avoid is someone who's looking for you. You already know where the person following you is headed, and why they're going there. And that makes them easy to avoid,” King explained as the first day ended.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Today, padiwans, the training truly begins,” Knight teased with a smirk,

They spent the whole day walking on the creaky floorboards of the gym until no one remembered that the floorboards were capable of noise.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The third day, they practiced being silent while various limbs were being broken. Then they spent the rest of the day learning how to walk silently, to stay poised with those broken bones. One arm was cake. Two arms was no different after one. One leg was difficult, but Max saw at least an Airbender and a Waterbender do it. Two legs meant crawling along the floor silently, trying to keep your elbows from contacting the floor in the wrong spot.

The floor squeaked for most of the day, but ceased complaining by the end of the day.

There was a long line to get into the Med Center because the Meds appointed to Batman Camp concluded the younger Mutes needed more practice balancing. They brushed the blood out of their teeth before they went to bed. Max never felt more like a super hero.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On the fourth day, they were condemned to the main gym, accompanied only by the older Mutes. It was unfortunate because those still in Camp had been tasked with trying to avoid those previously graduated.

Max was paired with Lucien. Which was unfair in two ways. First, Chase got to play with Jordan. Second, Lucien played dirty. Max only finished before Chase because Max had gotten so used to getting randomly blinded by Lucien that he just hid in plain sight. Lucien snickered when Max came out of his hiding spot. Chase finally managed to elude Jordan after slipping to the bottom of the pool (she always checked the rafters first).

“Batman would've checked the pool,” Lucien whispered to her later,

Camp continued with an obstacle course only in the rafters. After the first Mute fell, the rest had to battle against sweaty palms and the shakes. At the end, they were tasked with hanging upside down on a wire for as long as possible. The vomiting and fainting weren't any prettier than the broken limbs.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It was day five and there were only two days of seminar left. The Campers were getting antsy at the inevitable return to class. King “treated” them to learning basic parkour moves that would help them on the streets. Wall jumping, leaping across alleys and grappling edges. Max finally figured out how the parkour “club” got started. King was surprised when some of the Mutes caught on a bit too quickly.

Idiots, a telepath scolded all of them,

Everyone else fell at least once after that.

“Good,” King said with a hint of suspicion,

The mutants then unanimously voted that they should move on to combat maneuvers instead of advanced parkour moves.

Max was partnered up with Chase. They practiced “shadowing” each other. This meant they each tried to stick to the other's blind spot. Chase was more successful, but Max was a quick learner after Chase continually avoided his attacks. Since shadowing was fairly easy to learn the basics of, they moved on to some pressure point work before the day was over.

Max felt a lot more limber after having multiple pressure points abused. Chase said he had a headache.

Jordan grinned at Max that night when he declared that parkour was Batman Camp's version of extra credit.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Day six was disturbing for some and exciting for the serial killers among them. And make no mistake, some at M.R.C. were seriously disturbed. And disturbing. The Mages had created for them anatomically correct constructs. The constructs were killed one by one. It was a test of sorts: making sure that you had done your worksheet on the first day. Each of them were required to kill 5 of the constructs before lunch. Chase seemed to be enjoying himself. Max reminded himself that Jordan probably took pride in it, too.

After lunch (mystery meat sandwiches), they had another parkour lesson. More basics: climbing up buildings, jumping through windows and side-flips. Jumping out of windows wasn't a strictly parkour, but it was fun, so no one argued.

Max was sure that a side-flip was a name that King had made up. Hunter called it a barrel roll.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The seventh day was a doozy. Jordan had refused to tell them what the topic of camp was when they asked.

“You'll find out,” Jordan said before disappearing,

They did, in fact, find out.

The gym was completely dark when they walked in. Max had a feeling it had something to do with darkbenders because the gym's “ceiling” was open to the upper levels of the school.

Max walked into Chase when they stopped.

“Today,” King told them, “you're going to learn to see in the dark. Without your eyes. Without extra equipment or enhancements. Without powers, in some of your cases,”

Chase whistled a curse Max couldn't understand.

King earplugged Chase. (Even Chase couldn't see in the absolute darkness the other darkbenders had created.) Chase still felt people's breath on his skin, the air currents in the room. He couldn't interpret any of it. He could still hear through the earplugs. But not what he normally heard. No heartbeats, breathing, rustling of clothes. He felt vulnerable.

Max felt like he was isolated from everything. He couldn't feel the floor below him because he couldn't see it. Max teetered, almost falling. He couldn't keep his balance all of a sudden.

“Gain your balance,” King said, smooth and calm,

Max realized he could tell almost exactly where King was standing even if he couldn't see him.

“Take a step.” King said again, “Towards me.”

King had moved. Max stepped forward, a bit to the left. Chase had already moved. King listed off a group of names, told them how to correct where they had stepped. Chase wasn't surprised his name wasn't on the list. Max was. They repeated the exercise.

They did an obstacle course. An easy one. Avoiding walls and holes. They learned to feel with his feet before he stepped anywhere. They did a parkour course afterward. They counted the steps from one end of the ledge to the other before jumping. And hoped they landed.

At the end of the day, Max realized he didn't know how to see in the dark at all.


Hmmm...I don't know how well this flows. It could probably use a bit more editing, but I just finished it and wanted to post it :P

Sphere Collecting

A lady with gray hair carefully lifts a crystal sphere off of her mantle. She places it on the coffee table, making sure it won't roll away. She shuffles into her aging kitchen, stopping in front of the tarnishing mirror to fix her short, wispy hair. The lady carefully fills a porcelain kettle with cold water, produces a handful of loose leaf tea from a jar and methodically places it into the kettle. The kettle is placed onto the burner as it clicks to life. She checks the coffee machine which had been started half an hour ago. The machine is still slowly dripping the potent liquid into the pot below. She shuffles back into the living room, surveying the layout there. Her chair is placed perfectly in the sunspot and the loveseat is angled towards her chair. The sphere, thankfully, is still in place in the middle of the table. She frowns at the table, trying to figure out what is missing there. She gasps as she realizes what is missing. The lady returns with a plate of assorted cookies and places it to the side of the cookies.

The doorbell announces that her visitor has arrived. She hurries to the door and pulls it open as fast as her creaking joints allow.

“Come in, come in,” she says to the other woman,

The woman is taller than she expected. The other woman's hair is long and black, her eyes look strange, but they never stay still long enough for the old woman to see.

“Marianne, is it?” the woman has a soothing, confident voice,

She steps inside Marianne's house with a wide smile.

“I'm sorry, I wasn't expecting you so early,” Marianne's voice wavers, “The tea's still on...and I wasn't sure if you like coffee or not,”

“Coffee will be fine,” the mysterious woman answers,

The woman sits in the loveseat. Her attention is immediately on the sphere so carefully laid on the table. The kettle whistles. Marianne starts, but the woman seems unaware.

“The coffee...please?” the woman prompts,

Marianne starts again, this time towards the kitchen.

When Marianne returns, the woman is holding the antique sphere in her hand. She opens her mouth to admonish, but realizes that the woman's sphere is discolored in the middle, a sort of swirling pattern that makes it seem like it has motion. Marianne finds herself compelled to sit on the loveseat with the woman, if only to get a closer look at the intriguing pattern. The woman takes the coffee from Marianne's hands and holds the sphere in her hands a bit closer to herself.

“Do you mind?” the woman asks after taking a gulp or two,

The woman gestures towards the sphere on the table. But she's reaching for it before Marianne answers. The woman's finger no more than caresses the surface of the sphere before it begins to change. The sphere in her hand and Marianne's sphere now look identical. Both spheres contain the same swirling pattern in their cores.

“Oh, excellent,” the woman smiles,

“I don't understand...that ball has been in my family for generations...it's a priceless, one of a kind...!” Marianne cries, feeling on the verge of fainting, “It's never done that before!”

“Ooh,” the woman coos at her, sounding disappointed, “This is a sphere, not a ball. And it is just what I've been looking for!”

“How...how did you get a copy? How did you get it to do that?” Marianne sinks further into the chair,

“These spheres require a certain...touch...to work,” the woman regards her own sphere with pride, “I can't be sure which is the copy, actually. I was worried that mine was the fake. But with two...! With two I have twice the power. This...this is amazing!”

The woman's odd eyes began to take on a manic gleam that was unsettling Marianne. She sinks further into the loveseat. Suddenly, the woman stands, holding both spheres,

“I'm going to need this. Terribly sorry,”

And the woman is gone, leaving only the faint smell of coffee.

Pchoooo! For the 5/10 prompt "What if someone had the same exact one-of-a-kind object as you?"

Monster Hunters

“I'm not sure we're cut out for this,” Chase worried his lower lip,

“You'd be bored otherwise,” Jordan replied from the branch above him,

Jordan had binoculars pressed to her eyes with one hand and was balancing on the branch with her other. Chase had his eyes trained on the same spot in the distance. Trees bent and rustled angrily. It was on the move.

Chase hissed in a breath,

“Don't get nervous,” Jordan advised, “We've seen worse,”

“It's the waiting,” Chase half-whined,

Wuss, Jordan rolled her eyes.

They could feel vibrations through the tree. Jordan stored the binoculars in her skin and leaned forward on her branch.

It had teeth. And fur. Six legs, two tails, one ear and no eyes. Chase nearly choked on the smell.

“Oh god, I think it's in heat,” Chase complained,

The monster lunged at their tree. It was easily twenty feet standing. Chase had to hop onto another branch. The tree bent and snapped back. Chase and Jordan remained unimpressed. The monster lunged at them and the tree twice more before giving up. It propped itself up on the tree and began to study them.

Don't move, Jordan signaled,

Yeah, boss, Chase whistled back,

The monster flinched off the tree at the sound, bounding away into the tree cover.

Sorry, Chase glanced sheepishly at Jordan,

Don't worry about it, Jordan shrugged imperceptibly, It'll be back.

The monster came back, ear back and head low to the ground. It sniffed around the tree, circling it several times. It propped itself back up against the tree to sniff at Jordan and Chase.

After a half hour of more investigation of Jordan and Chase, the monster sat back from the tree and made a strange bird-like noise. Chase made the noise back. The monster was up against the tree again, sniffing at Chase. Chase repeated the noise. The beast made a whining noise back. Tried to paw at Chase's feet.

Get down, Jordan leaned forward a bit,

Off the branch? Chase looked at her incredulously,

Yesss, Jordan artificially hissed at him with a nod and a glare,

I'm gonna hate you if I get eaten, Chase sighed.

Chase hopped down, branch by branch. The beast heard him coming to it and backed off to wait for him on the ground. When Chase got his feet on ground again, the beast sniffed around him while Chase tried not to breathe. Finally, it laid down in front of him. Chase, on impulse, reached out to scratch the beast behind the ear. It relaxed even further into the ground, so Chase continued.

Jordan landed behind Chase without much noise.

Cool, Jordan stood confidently, as if this what she had expected from the start,

There's no way you could've known this would happen, Chase furrowed his eyebrows,

I tamed a dragon, remember? Jordan rolled her eyes at him,

Jump on, Jordan instructed with a wave,

I wish you would stop trying to kill me so Max will be your partner, Chase looked at her as he sat between the beast's shoulder blades.

Jordan giggled at this.

After running the creature into a few trees, Chase steers with his knees back towards where he and Jordan had come from.

“I guess I'm safe from monster movies with you around,” Chase comments on their way back,

“I hope so,” Jordan grins at him.

I watched The Host last night. Apparently it has some sort of social commentary...but I'm not sure what that commentary is besides "Don't dump chemicals into rivers because bad shit is gonna happen," Which they blatantly state at the beginning of the movie. Anyways. Chase made a friend :)

A Series of Prompts

A Recipe for Disaster

“What're you cooking up in here?” Tristan trotted into the lab,

“Reverse engineering Mark's DNA based on a sample I took for Morganna,” Vivian replied,

“Hasn't he inhibited cloning on his genetic materials?”

Tristan looked over Vivian's shoulder as she manipulated a few alleles at a time.

“Yes. Which is why I need to make some,” Vivian answered,

“So have you told Mark you're cloning him yet?” Tristan asked, frowning a bit,

“Of course not,” Vivian grinned as if she had fangs, “If I told him what I was doing, I'd be dead,”

“Where'd you learn genetics from?”

“Drakes are famous geneticists, I figured I was too,” Vivian said, using Tristan's previous logic against him,

Tristan threw up his arms and groaned in frustration.

“I figure I'm gonna combine Nyx and Boba Fett. Mark's sex chromosome is going to be damaged because I say so. And I'm going to have a normally aging clone to raise for myself,” Vivian ignored Tristan, “Not really planning on mass producing clones, though,”

“Thank god,” Tristan agreed, “Done?”
“Done,”

Vivian dipped a ladle into the glowing, soupy mixture. She transferred the alleged genetic material into a test tube, then inserted the test tube into a hulking piece of machinery which was more or less shaped like a cryogenics chamber. Vivian stared at the machine as if she was puzzling through how to work it, then poked at a few buttons. The machine made a sound like an elephant falling down a staircase. A moment or two later, the door popped open and Vivian pulled out a toddler by the wrist. The girl looked exactly like Mark: dark hair, dark eyes and pale skin.

“Damn,” Vivian said.

For the 5/8 prompt "What are you cooking up in your head?" Loosely interpreted :P

Tater Tots

“You know what I miss?” Matt asked Lucien,

Lucien grinned and tossed one of Matt's dead inventions from hand to hand.

“I miss tater tots,” Matt answered, taking the intelligence core from Lucien,

“No way,” Lucien sat forward in his chair, “M.R.C?”

Matt nodded, feeling wary,

I can't believe you, Lucien snickered,

Oh come on, Matt sighed,

“They were good!” Matt insisted,

“No! We didn't even have ketchup!” Lucien laughed, “What you should miss is Open Gym,”

“Me?” Matt asked incredulously, “You're saying I should miss Open Gym. You know who you're talking to, right?”

“Yes. A man who misses crappy tater tots,”

“Missing tater tots isn't normal, but missing getting set on fire during capture the flag is?”

“Tater tots without ketchup,”

“Getting set on fire during a children's game,”

Lucien and Matt frowned at each other. Lucien broke down laughing first,

“All right,” Lucien stood up, “Let's go,”

“Go?”

Lucien hauled Matt up and started poking around the mess of gadgets in Matt's desk,

“M.R.C., obviously,” Lucien waved at Matt,

“Tater tots?” Matt asked giddily,

Lucien grinned, wrapped his arms around Matt and activated the teleporter.

For the 5/7 prompt "Would it taste as good now as it did then?" More loose interpretations.

Holidays

“Does Valentine's Day have any real historical significance?” Max asked,
“I don't know,” Matt answered, “Why?”

“Well, back at school, everyone always said that Valentine's Day was just a Hallmark holiday. But St. Valentine was a real person right? So isn't that historical significance?” Max rested his head on the end of Matt's bed,

“Not really my area of expertise,” suddenly Matt's face was serious, “But never tell the Gossips that,”

“That I hate Valentine's Day?”

“Yes. They think that its a good prank to make other Mutes 'fall in love' on Valentine's Day,”

“Its February isn't it,” Max paled,

“Yuuuup,”

5/6 "What's your least favorite holiday?"

Forgiveness

Vivian is a big fan of forgiveness.

Vivian forgives her mother for using her as Vivian strikes the final blow and her astral form disperses.

Vivian forgives 26 for trying to skin her by throwing the goblin off the asteroid they shared and watching him fall.

Vivian forgives Wraith for trying to ruin her plan to take over the universe by skinning his lemon form (not Vivian's fault).

She forgives Epitome for trying to reality-shape her away by severing the other woman's spine.

Vivian forgives M.E.A.T. by turning them into chili.

Vivian forgives the piranha children, the robot wolves, the minotaurs, the imps, the Light Runners, the dwarves, the synthetics.

Of all of the people who hurt her, she forgives them all.

For the 5/5 prompt: "Who hurt you and should be forgiven?"

Time Travel

I hate it.

More This is Going Nowhere snippets

This is Going Nowhere

This is going nowhere. I just needed somewhere to write down all of my random, small, unimportant epiphanies. I figure that the bigger ones don't need to be written down. So here you'll find all of my psychotic, sociopathic and strange thoughts down on paper.

Love

Love, in my opinion, isn't something that happens overnight. It's something that needs to be nursed-- subconsciously or not-- so that it can grow. Love for someone else, or for yourself, is something that just becomes a part of you. I don't believe in fate. I don't believe in love at first sight. I barely believe in love at all.

Bees

Bees and I have an agreement. I don't fuck with them, they don't fuck with me.

Wasps

Unlike bees, wasps and I are not on speaking terms. Especially Japanese Wasps. Those are scary as shit and I would not even want to talk to them because I think if I tried they would fly into my mouth and eat me.


First, I think I made up the word "sociopathic". Second, I don't understand where all of this writing is coming from. I feel like I've sprung a leak.

Death, death, die, kill, death, die....

I believe the saying is “have your life flash before your eyes”. I've almost died three times. Never once have I seen my uneventful life flash before my eyes.

My near-death experiences haven't been sudden. I've always seen (felt?) them coming.

The first time I almost died, I tried to stave it off for as long as possible. Apparently one of the symptoms of anaphylaxic shock is a feeling of impending doom. And that's a phrase you'll find in any medical book. All I felt was complete clarity and understanding of the situation I was in. There was no uncertainty. No panic. No feeling of impending doom. I asked my mom for my allergy medicine, more afraid of what she would do than what was happening to me. (What was happening to me, for those who don't want to Wikipedia it, was my body perceiving a protein as a threat and, in a misguided attempt to protect me, began to swell my throat closed).

The second time I was even more calm. I had my injection handy and I used it without hesitation. My only mistake was moving around the (large) needle in my leg and getting blood on my jeans. Not that it bothered me. Still no sense of doom, impending or otherwise.

The third time is barely worth mentioning. The only difference from the second time was that I didn't move the needle, and I could walk afterward.

The third time taught me that the only thing that happens when you almost die is you briefly remembering the same few regrets. In any sort of fan fiction, this would result in me resolving said conflicts the very next day. Of course, my life resembles no sort of fan fiction. So, it's always the same three major regrets: I'm sorry I never reconciled my relationship with Max. I'm sorry I didn't get to talk to my parents one last time. I'm sorry I didn't get to see the world. I should also mention that these things usually run through my head while I'm in the hospital after all the excitement is over with.

Finally, from all this near-death-ness, I've learned a lot about my fight or flight reflex. It results in fight.


Sudden rush of productivity, GO!

This is Going Nowhere snippets

“I'm going to bed now”

When I tell myself I'm going to bed I usually stay up for another hour or two. I'm not sure if it's because I'm a pathological liar, an insomniac, or a procrastinator.

TARP

T.A.R.P., otherwise known as the Troubled Asset Relief Program. “OH NO! It's a tarp!!!”

Villains

I think I'm the only person who knows what a real villain should be doing. Maybe Mark. I swear to God, sending endless waves of minions after a miniscule party of heroes is a waste of time. I'll give you the first time. For example: “Hey, I'm trying to take over Russia and there are 3 shmucks fucking with me. Lemme send, um, 10 people to take them out.” And then the 10 people fail. I mean, if you're the big bad boss man, go fuck them up yourself, right? Before they level up or get really good equipment or something. I know you have puppies to threaten or whatever, but if you don't want to get defeated, just get off your ass and go kill them. I would also suggest taking their “dead” bodies along with you, just to make sure no one's playing dead.


From This is Going Nowhere which is my random ramblings all gathered in one place. The last one sort of has to do with Adventures...

Turning Back II

Max blinked at the white door that looked so familiar. It should. He grew up there. Not in the door. He grew up in the house that contained the door. He glanced around the porch. Everything was the same. The same creaky step leading up to the porch, the same peeling paint, the same dingy flag hanging (not fluttering). It was eerie.

Max knocked.

His mother opened the door, looking tired and pale. Her hair was longer than he remembered, and threaded with gray and white. She looked at him and Max saw confusion, pain, sadness and anger go through her,

“You're not my son,” she whispered,

Max didn't say anything,

“You can't be my son,” she said, voice shaking but loud,

Max realized he didn't even know what to say to her. He had waited so long to come back here. Too long, it seemed. But after the news about Alex he had to come back.

“Is Alex here?” Max hesitated, “Is dad here?”

His mother just looked furious now. Even with the tears.

“No. No. No one's here! You're not my son! They said he was dead! You're not my son!” she yelled at him,

Max flinched. He wasn't used to getting yelled at by his mom. He wasn't used to his mom looking mad at all.

Max bit his lip and nodded solemnly. He stepped backwards away from his mother, knowing he could never think of her as that again. Knowing that she hated him for not being the son she remembered. He stepped off the porch, heard the door being quietly shut behind him.


This is the second part of the 5/4 prompt...it took me forever to finish even though it's super short >.<

Tony Stark is...

DEAR GOD, THERE ARE SPOILERS FOR IRON MAN 2 HERE DON'T READ IT IF YOU DON'T WANT TO BE SPOILED

They're really minor spoilers, though.



Tony Stark is a nerd. Well, technically a geek because nerds are experts on things that aren't real (yet). Geeks are experts on things that already exist. Math, engineering, archaeology, psychology, forensic accounting... lasers.

Since Tony Stark is a geek, he builds an "advanced prosthesis device" using a technology that only a handful of people in the world even know about.

Since Tony Stark is a nerd, he integrates particle beam weapons into the palms of his suit. Sure, repulsors were awfully useful for flying, but what nerd doesn't want to be able to shoot energy out of their hands?

Since Tony Stark is a geek and a nerd, he adds lasers to the suit. He isn't even sure if they'll ever be useful. They certainly aren't practical, having one use and all. But they're fucking lasers.

He simply cannot resist.


*happy sigh* I loved Iron Man 2. There were a few...anti-climactic moments...but I was too busy nerdgasming about hacking/AIs/robots/exo-suits/plasma whips/lasers to even care.

Turning Back I

Vivian never goes back. There's no need, really. All of her “relatives” from the Prime Material Plane are non-existent, or not her relatives. There's nothing for here back there, either.

This thought doesn't depress her. It's simply a fact of her life. Which, admittedly, has gotten exponentially crazier as time has gone on. Fake memories or not.


I really liked today's prompt: "Why didn't you go back?" So I have another one written for Clockwork :) Posted here

Vivian's Origin Story

Vivian lorded over spoons. And sporks. The forks had long ago been banished for not being able to hold enough liquid. Soup was no longer being served in the cafeteria. Mostly mystery meat and evil corn. Do not eat evil corn. It is evil.

Chili had mystery meat. It is best eaten with sporks. Vivian is chili's favorite. Wait. Chili is vivian's favourite.

When she is evicted from spoon-spork-under-chair-land, she is in her square room. She has a circle room, too. It's outside. The candy man comes by with brightly colored, bad tasting pills. Vivian turns the pill into her cheek and smiles beguilingly at the candy man. She ruffles Vivian's hair and closes the heavy door.

Vivian spits out the candy into the toilet and rinses her mouth in the sink. Vivian gaze sharply at the three bars over her window. She jerks the bars and they slide free, one by one. The window isn't locked. She squeezes through the small, rectangular window and tip-toes on the lip there. The roof is just within reach. Vivian pulls herself up with practiced ease. She slips out of the bright white hospital clothes and into the black polyester bodysuit. She slips on the night vision goggles and leather gloves. Checks the knives on her calves, wrists, waist and back.

Vivian grins catty at the night and slides off the roof.


Again, from the Adventure-verse. Adventures is a long-time-running role-playing game/universe owned and created by Richard Palmgren. Its rules have never been published so only a few people from my home town know the system and the story. Vivian is my character's name. And my name. Most long time players end up having their real name as their character's name. So, that's why my character has my name. I've been wanting to write stuff based on my experiences with Adventures for a while...sooo here goes >.<

PS: This is my character's origin story based on my character's history, which was written when I was like 12 or 11.

Drakes

Drakes are the most terrible, backstabbing, clever, sinister, power-grabbing, destructive, insane, over-complicated-plot-making Family you will ever have the (mis)fortune of meeting. A Drake will stab you in the back whether you're friends or enemies. They will especially stab you in the back if you are at all related to them. The more closely you are related to a Drake, the more dead you are. Don't even try to turn off their machines. That's not the real off switch. Don't interfere with their conquest plans, you'll be killed in an embarrassing manor.

Should you ever meet a Drake, do not approach. Do not run. They have a strong prey instinct. Do not associate with Drakes. Do not try to befriend them.


Short piece on one of the Families from Adventures-verse. Not my universe, just my interpretation of the characters that live there.

Risky business

Max eyed the ledge with suspicion.

“Come on,” Lucien urged, hanging over the edge,

Max raised his eyebrow at Matt. Matt was studiously ignoring the ledge and shrugged at Max's eyebrow.

“Don't even tell me,” Lucien groaned at Max,

“The most dangerous thing I've ever done is skip a class...” Max said to the ledge,

Jordan scaled up the wall using the corner of the adjoining wall and walked along the ledge until she was standing next to Lucien's hands,

“What now?” she asked with a sharp look at Matt,

I didn't say anything, Matt buried his face further into the book,

“Ugh,” Jordan sighed, “We keep getting stuck with prudes don't we,”

Lucien nodded,

“Look, if the biggest risk you take is jumping off this ledge into that pool,” Jordan fixed Max and Matt with a look, “then you'd still be one of the most cautious people here. Chris alone brings at least a hundred Mutes back from the dead each week. If you can't die, what's a risk?”

Max blushed. Jordan sighed again and disappeared off of the ledge. Lucien fixed Matt with an accusatory look before following her down into the dark pool.


Notes: Written for a prompt of "What's the riskiest thing you've done all week?" on 4/21 and not posted until now >.<

Speaking of armor....

House
"Its cancer," Tony said,

Pepper paused at the edge of the room. She frowned at the back of Tony's head.

"Its obviously a blood clot," Pepper replied dryly,

Tony tilted his head over the back of his chair to grin at Pepper. Pepper skillfully avoided the attempt to charm her by staring at the large screen in front of them. House was harassing the patient, so they must be close to a diagnosis. House announced that their patient had a blood clot near his brain stem.

"Next time you'll be guessing lupus," Pepper smirked down at Tony.


Rescue
When Pepper found the suit (the suit) he had made for her, she felt a bit like Alicia Silverstone in that Batman movie. Panicky and a bit creeped out.

When exactly had Tony measured her to build it? Had he measured her in her sleep or something? Or worse, while she was awake?

She turned the idea over in her head while sizing up the suit. At least there was no giant Tony Stark face hovering above her. And at least he wasn't her uncle.



Notes: I made 2 Iron Man fics/drabbles whatever they're called...Apparently Pepper doesn't know very much about Batman comics continuity. Also posted to my FF account here.

Armor 3

Matt found out back in M.R.C. that Max had programming experience in a rather round about way. One of the Fates had caught a whiff of a memory. When the Gossips did their weekly mind-tapping of the Fates, they collected that same memory. The memory then got lost in the shuffle of many minds. For a while. When Rebecca went into the Gossips' collective to look for information on Max all hat time ago, she got a hold of that same memory. Since the Gossips were not above gossiping about their own, they gossiped. So Matt heard from one of the wanna-be Gossips about Rebecca's taking of information on Max. Matt tracked down Rebecca and had to convince her that he wasn't spying for Jordan. Luckily, Rebecca was an empath, so that went quickly. Matt picked Rebecca's brain(s) (remotely, of course) and found that brilliant glimpse of java syntax hidden in the memories.

And, being a fan of efficiency, there was one last detour for Matt to make. Matt bought a book on C syntax and code optimization.

Matt stole Max's extra time for the next month. They both learned a new language. Max went too slow for Matt. In return, Matt went to fast for Max. In some ways, this was the equilibrium they always had. Another month and they could effectively pair program in C.

Max resisted counting how many hours they spent programming the heads-up display (Max refused to call it anything but a HUD), then the muscle-to-motor translation, then a basic data management and storage component. There were a few null pointer exceptions. Then came the seg-faults. Both were accompanied by headaches and extra eye strain.

When Matt returned Max to his free time, he realized the suit had no native A.I. He decided he didn't care. Matt strapped in and immediately got cuts in places he would never mention. He got into the store of Jordan's costume material and learned how to sew. Matt avoided cuts this time. Then he jumped through a wall by accident. Luckily, it wasn't a load bearing wall. Unluckily, Lucien was home and Matt thought he was going to be permanently blind as punishment. Matt fixed the wall, then the exo's calibrations. The next time he broke a wall, it was on purpose. He could save installing a compact jet pack for later.

Max went with Matt the first time he took the exo outside of the lab. They left (late) after nightfall. Matt was awkward jumping across gaps between buildings. For once he wished he had practiced parkour with the rest of his class.

Max echolocated some kids beating up a younger kid with a crowbar. Max stayed perched on the roof overlooking the wide alley as Matt crashed down. The kids started at the large, angry looking exo-suit which had suddenly appeared in the alley with them. The young kid had enough sense to take off. The kid with the crowbar threw it at Matt's helmet. Matt giggled a little, but no sound escaped the exo. The kids stared in horror as Matt advanced on them, his motions seeming almost human. At the last second, they scatter. Matt stared after them but can't decide which to pursue. Max dropped down and informed Matt that he needed to be more decisive. Matt decided that the exo still needed work.


Note: Sooo that's the last in the armor series! I have a feeling there's terrible tense shifting in there...