A Dishonest Misunderstanding by TheSkaBoss, literature
Literature
A Dishonest Misunderstanding
"It's here, it's here!" I shouted excitedly, running back to the living room with my parcel clutched tightly in my hands to search frantically for a pair of scissors. My parents had promised me a smartphone for my birthday if I was good, after years of wanting one, and years of being the only kid without one, and I'd been as good as gold all year. Better than I'd ever been. My birthday had come and gone two weeks ago with nothing, but they'd promised it was in the mail, and sure enough here was a phone-sized parcel with my name on it!
Finding the scissors, I tore into the packaging with fervour and swiftly uncovered...a fisher-price smartpho
Up until she stabbed me, I had thought our date was going well. I had showed up on time and well-dressed, better-dressed than she I might add, and taken her to the finest establishment I knew despite her own attire. I had told her at length of my accomplishments, spun tales of my exploits quite beauteously for her entertainment. I had showered her in compliments and advice, and tactfully steered the conversation away from distasteful subjects. I had, in short, done everything expected of a gentleman. I even ordered the most expensive things on the menu for her--champagne included--and booked the most expensive hotel room in the place, just in
"Hey, shhh, wake up! It's just a bad dream you're having." The small, whispering voice filtered hazily through the fog of my night terrors and I opened my eyes a crack to see Rowan's face peering into mine from not more than a foot away. I would have jumped if I wasn't already scared out of my wits. But frankly it didn't even register on the scale at the moment. I was just pleased to see the boy.
"Mornin'," I croaked gruffly. Or at least I tried to. I didn't get the word even halfway out before Rowan clamped his hand over my mouth in earnest panic.
"Shhh!" The boy repeated rather unnecessarily, given that his hand was already preventing me
Sonia dug through the trash heap doggedly, ignoring both the hot sun beating down on her and the sweat that was simultaneously soaking through her shirt and dripping down her long nose. She'd been at this exhausting and tedious work for hours already, just trying to find a particular goddamned hubcap for her brother, but she wasn't about to give up yet. Not after she'd finally tracked one down to this junkyard, and not when she wasn't likely to get another day off to come search before his birthday. Surprising him on his birthday was the whole damned point of all this, and it wasn't like they saw each other all that often. She probably wouldn
Everything fades with time. Decay and entropy are the very nature of our universe. Creatures, species, planets, all are born merely to die. Buildings crumble, towers fall, flowers wither, machines rust. Stone or bone, it all turns to dust. Fires, lives, even stars burn out. Everything dies, eventually.
...so why won't my love for you?
"...it's nonsense." I'd been staring at the sculpture for an entire thirty minutes now and that was it. I was done. I was giving up. There was absolutely no meaning whatsoever to be found within the contents of this man's trash can or in the significance of it being spread across the floor, and anybody who tried to tell me otherwise again was going to get an earful.
"No no no no no," a woman behind me tutted, and I turned to find her shaking her head at me reproachfully. I gritted my teeth as she continued, "You fail to see the simple elegance of its complexity."
I squinted at her. "That's contradictory nonsense."
"No no no no no," she sai
There's something utterly discomforting about that guy in bright yellow pants over there. It's nothing that I can exactly put my finger on - his smile is maybe a tad too wide; his eyes a touch darker than they need to be; his clothes a little brighter; his limbs maybe a little longer than usual? I'm not sure what it is, but I refuse to take my eyes off him, just in case. You have to keep an eye on them, you know. The glitches. It keeps them under control. The feel of people's eyes on them. Keeps them from shedding their human forms and feeding. They don't ever want any witnesses.
You can't always tell them apart from humans just by looking.
Ogg sat by the smallest fire, dejectedly stirring the dirt in front of him with a stick. Ugg watched him for a while with interest before going over. Ogg wasn't usually like this.
"What wrong?" Ugg said as she sat next to him. "Ogg used go have fun with other cavemen. Why Ogg not now?"
Ogg sighed and stopped stirring the dirt to look at her instead. "Ogg was first make stick with rock. Other cavemen make fun, say will never work. Now all cavemen have rock-sticks! Ogg had rock-stick FIRST." Ogg thumped his chest for emphasis on the last word.
Ugg frowned, not understanding. "Is good that other cavemen have rock-sticks. Rock-sticks brought d
Emma swung her legs, kicking at the already-chipped bricks of the wall they were sitting on. "Well I heard that they will attack humans, if hungry or provoked enough," she said.
"Really?" said Rob, sitting next to her on the wall, adding in a very concerned voice, "But there aren't any left around here anymore, are there?"
"Well there weren't, but they're bringing them back!" Emma replied, sounding very cheerful about it.
"Oh." Rob turned very quiet while he digested this. "I hope they don't."
Emma scowled at him. "I hope they do!" she retorted. "I know a lot of people I'd want them to eat, starting with you!"
She'd meant it as a joke bu
A Dishonest Misunderstanding by TheSkaBoss, literature
Literature
A Dishonest Misunderstanding
"It's here, it's here!" I shouted excitedly, running back to the living room with my parcel clutched tightly in my hands to search frantically for a pair of scissors. My parents had promised me a smartphone for my birthday if I was good, after years of wanting one, and years of being the only kid without one, and I'd been as good as gold all year. Better than I'd ever been. My birthday had come and gone two weeks ago with nothing, but they'd promised it was in the mail, and sure enough here was a phone-sized parcel with my name on it!
Finding the scissors, I tore into the packaging with fervour and swiftly uncovered...a fisher-price smartpho
Up until she stabbed me, I had thought our date was going well. I had showed up on time and well-dressed, better-dressed than she I might add, and taken her to the finest establishment I knew despite her own attire. I had told her at length of my accomplishments, spun tales of my exploits quite beauteously for her entertainment. I had showered her in compliments and advice, and tactfully steered the conversation away from distasteful subjects. I had, in short, done everything expected of a gentleman. I even ordered the most expensive things on the menu for her--champagne included--and booked the most expensive hotel room in the place, just in
"Hey, shhh, wake up! It's just a bad dream you're having." The small, whispering voice filtered hazily through the fog of my night terrors and I opened my eyes a crack to see Rowan's face peering into mine from not more than a foot away. I would have jumped if I wasn't already scared out of my wits. But frankly it didn't even register on the scale at the moment. I was just pleased to see the boy.
"Mornin'," I croaked gruffly. Or at least I tried to. I didn't get the word even halfway out before Rowan clamped his hand over my mouth in earnest panic.
"Shhh!" The boy repeated rather unnecessarily, given that his hand was already preventing me
Sonia dug through the trash heap doggedly, ignoring both the hot sun beating down on her and the sweat that was simultaneously soaking through her shirt and dripping down her long nose. She'd been at this exhausting and tedious work for hours already, just trying to find a particular goddamned hubcap for her brother, but she wasn't about to give up yet. Not after she'd finally tracked one down to this junkyard, and not when she wasn't likely to get another day off to come search before his birthday. Surprising him on his birthday was the whole damned point of all this, and it wasn't like they saw each other all that often. She probably wouldn
Everything fades with time. Decay and entropy are the very nature of our universe. Creatures, species, planets, all are born merely to die. Buildings crumble, towers fall, flowers wither, machines rust. Stone or bone, it all turns to dust. Fires, lives, even stars burn out. Everything dies, eventually.
...so why won't my love for you?
"...it's nonsense." I'd been staring at the sculpture for an entire thirty minutes now and that was it. I was done. I was giving up. There was absolutely no meaning whatsoever to be found within the contents of this man's trash can or in the significance of it being spread across the floor, and anybody who tried to tell me otherwise again was going to get an earful.
"No no no no no," a woman behind me tutted, and I turned to find her shaking her head at me reproachfully. I gritted my teeth as she continued, "You fail to see the simple elegance of its complexity."
I squinted at her. "That's contradictory nonsense."
"No no no no no," she sai
There's something utterly discomforting about that guy in bright yellow pants over there. It's nothing that I can exactly put my finger on - his smile is maybe a tad too wide; his eyes a touch darker than they need to be; his clothes a little brighter; his limbs maybe a little longer than usual? I'm not sure what it is, but I refuse to take my eyes off him, just in case. You have to keep an eye on them, you know. The glitches. It keeps them under control. The feel of people's eyes on them. Keeps them from shedding their human forms and feeding. They don't ever want any witnesses.
You can't always tell them apart from humans just by looking.
Ogg sat by the smallest fire, dejectedly stirring the dirt in front of him with a stick. Ugg watched him for a while with interest before going over. Ogg wasn't usually like this.
"What wrong?" Ugg said as she sat next to him. "Ogg used go have fun with other cavemen. Why Ogg not now?"
Ogg sighed and stopped stirring the dirt to look at her instead. "Ogg was first make stick with rock. Other cavemen make fun, say will never work. Now all cavemen have rock-sticks! Ogg had rock-stick FIRST." Ogg thumped his chest for emphasis on the last word.
Ugg frowned, not understanding. "Is good that other cavemen have rock-sticks. Rock-sticks brought d
Emma swung her legs, kicking at the already-chipped bricks of the wall they were sitting on. "Well I heard that they will attack humans, if hungry or provoked enough," she said.
"Really?" said Rob, sitting next to her on the wall, adding in a very concerned voice, "But there aren't any left around here anymore, are there?"
"Well there weren't, but they're bringing them back!" Emma replied, sounding very cheerful about it.
"Oh." Rob turned very quiet while he digested this. "I hope they don't."
Emma scowled at him. "I hope they do!" she retorted. "I know a lot of people I'd want them to eat, starting with you!"
She'd meant it as a joke bu
An unfamiliar starscape filled the main viewport. The ship had passed out of charted space many cycles ago, but it pressed ever onward. N.O.A.H. sat in the pilot’s seat and readied to send another report. It had been many cycles since it had heard from its creators. Perhaps no one was left to listen. It did not matter. N.O.A.H.’s programming was clear. Regular reports. The cargo was too important to neglect the reports.
The recording device flickered on, and one thin laser connected N.O.A.H.’s dataport to the device. In a flash, all relevant statistics were recorded for use back on Earth. Temperatures, fuel levels
Eron stared down at the holodisplay on his lap and waggled his index finger at it. The image on display shook with his movements. He thrust a finger forward, and the screen advanced.
“Give it up, man. There’s nothing here.”
“The whole point of this sport was patience, Ziek. Sometimes ancient anglers would be out all day and not see anything. But they didn’t give up. That’s why they were successful and you’re struggling to pass Basic Particle Physics.”
“Whatever. You’re just jealous.”
Eron didn’t look up from his careful scans of the water.
“Excuse me, but what do you have there?” Brixton asked his servant.
Analee held the plain box close to her with well-trimmed claws. “It's something I got for myself from the market, sir.”
“But, can I see?” Brixton impatiently huffed a little bit of smoke through his scaly nostrils.
Analee sighed and opened the package. “Well, it's clothing. It's an old Earth style called a 'dress.' I had to get it specially-made, because usually they don't make them big enough for species like us.”
Without asking, Brixton snatched up the dress. “Oh my,” he said with a sense of awe. “And it
Ten kilometers out we dropped to below a hundred meters, sea-skimming and churning the water behind us as we split the night. We made landfall and proceeded to fly nap-of-the-earth inland down the mouth of what once would have been a raging river, now a dry dusty wound in the landscape.
Outside the cockpit the canyon walls loomed above us, leaning in as if to try to block out the sky, to swallow us. If there were any threats, they'd come from up there. In this chasm cut into the surface, our presence would only be known by the thundering rush of the air we displaced. Unless we slipped, caught a wall or misjudged a change in elevation, then t
Senna’s magic flickers and pops, the last of it dying as Caridin pulls it from the air. The only things left to bar his way are the ancient, failing wards, etched in the worn stone tiles.
For the longest time, she feels nothing. There is no echo of power when she reaches for it, no heat, no ethereal flame. Part of herself is just gone. She is empty. Cold.
“Come now, you’ve had your fun,” Caridin says, “Time to end this. Keep the last of your dignity, little one.”
Wax drips down the sides of the candles, seeping into the shallow grooves carved by the ancient wizards and druids. There is no magic left in t