After I got dressed, I realized I was exhausted and famished.
"It'll do that to you," said Teresa, handing me another banana, "These things are real life-savers. I think you've had enough for today. I'll take you home,"
We headed back downstairs. Pat intercepted us in the hallway. I had the strange feeling he'd been waiting for us.
"How'd he do?" he asked excitedly, "He was a natural, wasn't he? Just like his mother,"
"I wouldn't know about his mother," answered Teresa, "She trained me, remember? But he did fine for his first time,"
"I'm sure he did," said Pat. He turned to me, "You're gonna lead us all to victory some day, kid. The day is coming. I can feel it,"
"Pat..." growled Teresa as she led me away.
"Long live the Brimmers!" he yelled, giving a funny sort of salute as we walked off.
"Don't let the loyalists get to your head," said Teresa as we climbed into her car, "The last thing the MLA needs right now is a civil war. You can come to power the way anyone else would - by making a name for yourself and being elected,"
"I'm really not planning on running for office any time soon," I answered, truthfully. Then I decided to change subjects.
"How old are you?" I asked.
"It's not polite to ask a woman her age," she replied with a wan smile, "Besides, I couldn't date you anyway, it'd be a conflict of interest,"
I was somewhat embarrassed she'd taken it that way. "No, " I answered, "Not what I meant at all. I was just thinking if my mother trained you, you must have been a lot younger than me when you started,"
"Not too much younger," she said, "You're, what, fifteen?"
"Sixteen," I corrected her.
"I was twelve," she said, "But then, girls mature faster than boys. I was a bit of a special case, though,"
"What happened," I asked.
"My father was an operative with the NA," Teresa began, "Somehow he let his real name get out and a couple of dragon hunters came into our house one night. That was when I found out. You can imagine how terrified I was, as a twelve year old girl, watching my father turn into a monster and burn two men to death. The third one got him, though. They killed my mother too - she was a civilian, probably with as much idea about dad's day job as me. I hid in the cupboard under the sink - he never found me. The police we had called never showed up - the vamps had the sherriff under their command by then. Quentin's family took me in, and Lisa volunteered to train me. A year into that she was captured on patrol,"
What do you say to something like that? I had no idea that's what her like had been like. There was an akward silence.
"I'm sorry," I said, after a while.
"Why?" she answered, "It all happened before you were born. I'm over it now. It's been a few years,"
The rest of the trip was pretty quiet. I couldn't think of much else to say. Eventually, though, something did come to mind,"
"What was she like?" I asked. "My mother, I mean. I've heard about her from my father, but I'm starting to get the feeling he didn't know the whole story..."
"Oh, Wallace knew far more than he ever let on. He's a smart guy. But don't talk about Lisa like she's dead. I maintain hope we'll rescue her some day. As soon as we figure out where "Camelot" is, we have people in every faction ready to storm the place,"
"Camelot?" I asked
"The secret facility where they hold part humans and other magic users. We've managed to access a number of secret files, but none that help us ascertain it's location. It's one of our major goals,"
"I thought my family wasn't terribly popular right now," I asked, "Why would rescuing my mom be such an important deal?"
"Because Lisa's not the only one being held at Camelot. Our top geneticist and at least twenty-three other operatives are there. The personel boon alone is enough to make it a target. Now that I think about, I probably ought to stop discussing this with you. Your security clearance is about two levels below mine,"
"Ok," I answered. I'd absorbed just about as much as I could that day anyway. As we got out of the car, Teresa handed me a cassette tape and a plastic card.
"Listen to the tape," she said. "You won't understand a word of it now, but it'll help you later. That's your security card. Show it to any one of our people, but only after you've seen theirs. Otherwise, keep it hidden,"
The card had my face in one corner and a purple background with a silver stripe diagnolly across it. It did not appear to have any writing on it.
Teresa drove away and I came inside, prepared to tell my parents about my first day of self-defense classes.
Sunday, April 17, 2005
Saturday, April 09, 2005
Chapter 22: Through Dragon Eyes
Despite the fact that I was in an entirely new body, the first thing I noticed after I stood up was that I was naked. so I bent down and pulled on my boxers. The first time I tried this I missed - my arms were slightly longer than I had expected. About the third time I got them, but for some reason, I couldn't get them to fit. This is when Teresa started laughing.
"You'll never get those on," she said, "There's no hole for the tail,"
She was right. I hadn't yet connected that the thing coming out of my butt was a tail, but having realized this, I was left with a bit of a dilemma. That's when I realized that the thing I normally wear boxers to conceal was not there. This panicked me slightly, but Teresa, seeing where I was looking, reassured me.
"Silver dragon males fertilize the eggs after they're laid, under water," she said, "It doesn't take the same external equipment. Which is why your particular species doesn't have to worry about finding clothing for your new form. You're lucky in that,"
"You mean I can just run around naked?" I tried to ask. Unfortunately, my mouth was a completely different shape than I was used to, so what came out was "Yuor rour rie rang ruj ruh ruh ruh rahruh?"
"You can't speak English in Dragon form," said Teresa, "Because you can't form most of the syllables. Learning Draconic is one of the first things we'll be focusing on. But right now, you need to practice just walking around. Your proportions are slightly different, plus you have the tail and wings providing an unusual counterbalance ou're probably not used to. You're going to be very clumsy for a while,"
She was right about that. Just turning towards the door I nearly fell over. But halfway there, I encountered the mirror.
I was somewhat taller than I'd expected, with Silver scales running the legth of my body, except for the front of my neck and my chest and stomach. My head was bizarrely shaped, elongated with little ears like webbed feet coming out of it. And lots and lots of teeth. Two in particular came up like tusks, which was contributing quite a bit to the difficulties I was having talking.
My wings were beautiful, even folded as they were - big, sparkly things. I wondered if I was going to fit through the door with them.
"Like it?" asked Teresa.
"Yergh," I answered.
She laughed again. "Let's go see what you can do," she said.
Slowly and clumsily, I walked out of the bathroom. As I had predicted, I had to bend down to get my wings through the doorway. And I fell down my share of times on my way around the apartment. But after a while, I thought I was starting to get the hang of it. I was exhausted, so I sat down on the couch. At least, I tried to sit down. Of course I'd again forgotten about my tail, and to make a long story short, the whole couch ended up flipping over.
"Okey," said Teresa,"I think it's time for you to try changing back. It's a lot easier the second time. Focus on something different about your old body - some aspect of it that you prefer. Ok?"
I focused on not having a tail - I thought about sitting down without knocking things over. It didn't seem to have any affect.
"Just close your eyes and focus on what it's like to be a human," she said, "Think about having smooth skin instead of scales, about hair, and no cumbersome wings or tail. Hands without sharp claws, a mouth you can speak from - " she hesitated, "Yes, even the equipment you men are so fond of. Think about it, and imagine you are back in your own body,"
I was imagining as hard as I could. I could almost feel my neck shrinking, my tail receding, my wings folding in - and then I realized I was feeling it, and I was standing in the middle of Teresa's apartment naked. I blushed, and ran to the bathroom to get dressed.
"You'll never get those on," she said, "There's no hole for the tail,"
She was right. I hadn't yet connected that the thing coming out of my butt was a tail, but having realized this, I was left with a bit of a dilemma. That's when I realized that the thing I normally wear boxers to conceal was not there. This panicked me slightly, but Teresa, seeing where I was looking, reassured me.
"Silver dragon males fertilize the eggs after they're laid, under water," she said, "It doesn't take the same external equipment. Which is why your particular species doesn't have to worry about finding clothing for your new form. You're lucky in that,"
"You mean I can just run around naked?" I tried to ask. Unfortunately, my mouth was a completely different shape than I was used to, so what came out was "Yuor rour rie rang ruj ruh ruh ruh rahruh?"
"You can't speak English in Dragon form," said Teresa, "Because you can't form most of the syllables. Learning Draconic is one of the first things we'll be focusing on. But right now, you need to practice just walking around. Your proportions are slightly different, plus you have the tail and wings providing an unusual counterbalance ou're probably not used to. You're going to be very clumsy for a while,"
She was right about that. Just turning towards the door I nearly fell over. But halfway there, I encountered the mirror.
I was somewhat taller than I'd expected, with Silver scales running the legth of my body, except for the front of my neck and my chest and stomach. My head was bizarrely shaped, elongated with little ears like webbed feet coming out of it. And lots and lots of teeth. Two in particular came up like tusks, which was contributing quite a bit to the difficulties I was having talking.
My wings were beautiful, even folded as they were - big, sparkly things. I wondered if I was going to fit through the door with them.
"Like it?" asked Teresa.
"Yergh," I answered.
She laughed again. "Let's go see what you can do," she said.
Slowly and clumsily, I walked out of the bathroom. As I had predicted, I had to bend down to get my wings through the doorway. And I fell down my share of times on my way around the apartment. But after a while, I thought I was starting to get the hang of it. I was exhausted, so I sat down on the couch. At least, I tried to sit down. Of course I'd again forgotten about my tail, and to make a long story short, the whole couch ended up flipping over.
"Okey," said Teresa,"I think it's time for you to try changing back. It's a lot easier the second time. Focus on something different about your old body - some aspect of it that you prefer. Ok?"
I focused on not having a tail - I thought about sitting down without knocking things over. It didn't seem to have any affect.
"Just close your eyes and focus on what it's like to be a human," she said, "Think about having smooth skin instead of scales, about hair, and no cumbersome wings or tail. Hands without sharp claws, a mouth you can speak from - " she hesitated, "Yes, even the equipment you men are so fond of. Think about it, and imagine you are back in your own body,"
I was imagining as hard as I could. I could almost feel my neck shrinking, my tail receding, my wings folding in - and then I realized I was feeling it, and I was standing in the middle of Teresa's apartment naked. I blushed, and ran to the bathroom to get dressed.
Tuesday, April 05, 2005
What will become of the Doom Pixies?
Since I started the dragon story, I've been trying to decide whether or not I was ever going to go back to the Doom Pixies. The problem was, while I loved the Pixies as characters, I did not love the plot of the story, and it takes both good characters and a good plot to make a story fun and exciting. So their it sat, for a long while, until recently, when I was working on a new story idea. Some of you have heard me talk about the story I'm calling "City of Mages". One charcter in COM is an enigmatic, god-like figure named Thurigen. The idea was that Thurigen, though powerful, was not especially precise in excercising his power and needed a right hand man (or woman) for more detail-oriented work. As I was planning this, I decided it should be a sprite or pixie. Then it hit me: why not make it Simile? And she could bring the rest of the doom pixies along for support. I liked it. So I'm doing it. I guess this post can pretty much be summed up like this: the doom pixie story will not continue, but the doom pixies themselves will be incorporated into the supporting cast of City of Mages, an anthology of stories in it's own right. COM will began after the conclusion of part I of the dragon saga and, once it's gotten on it's feet, will run parallel to part II.
Sunday, April 03, 2005
Chapter 21 (for real): On Ice
As we headed into the bathroom, Teresa turned and went into the kitchen.
"Almost forgot," she said. She returned holding a banana. "Eat this,"
I was a bit confused. "Ok..." I answered, peeling it. "Why exactly?"
"We're not sure why," she answered, "But Potassium seems to enhance magical abilities. It's just a small boost, but it's best to be on the safe side. I always eat one before I transform,"
I ate the banana. It was good - a little mushy, but not too much.
"Ok now," said Teresa, "Let's go,"
It looked like a perfectly normal bathroom. It was a little odd that the bathtub was filled up. I walked over to it. Looking closer, I could see it was filled with ice. Also, there was a large piece of metal on the back rim of the tub, leaned up against the wall.
"Strip and get in," said Teresa, "I'll look away if you like,"
"That water's freezing!" I protested.
"Exactly," she answered, "Silver dragons can withstand incredibly low temperatures - and breathe under water. Submerge yourself in there for a little while, and your body will realize it has no choice but to transform,"
"You're certain about this?"I asked
"It's safer than what they made me do," she answered, "At least you can't suffer permanent burns,"
"I could get hypothermia," I argued.
"Look," said Teresa, somewhat frustratedly, "Do you want to do this, or not? It's dangerous, ok? We never said it was safe. But your mother, your grandfather, and five Brimmers before that all went through the same thing. This is probably one of the least dangerous parts of your training. If you want to back out, now's the time. You understand?"
I did. You couldn't do something like this without risking your life. I took off my shirt, then noticed Teresa still standing there.
"Would you mind looking away?" I asked
"Of course not," she said. She turned her back.
I undressed the rest of the way and climbed into the water. Or at least I tried to. As I dipped my toe into the tub a shiver went through my body and I quickly pulled it out again. Then I tried going in hands first. It was worse. I couldn't bring myself to put more than a finger or a toe in - it was just to cold. I stood there, balanced on the edge of the tub, looking down into the icy water, pondering if my mother and grandfather had gone through the same thing. Or was I just too weak to face this? Was this stupid little test going to bring down the Brimmer family? This is what I was thinking about when Teresa pushed me in. Before I could pop out she had slammed the slab of metal over the tub like a lid.
It was frigid. Immediately my whole body was filled with stinging pain, like being poked with lots of little needles. The everything starting to go numb. At the same time, I realized I was drowning. I hadn't had time to get a breath of air before I'd been pushed in. I hadn't even been able to close my mouth to save what oxygen I did have - it had all been exhaled before I thought to.
Suddenly I was in severe pain, and I couldn't quite figure out why. The cold had numbed me already, and drowning didn't cause pain in my neck, shoulders, and butt. Where was that coming from, I wondered. Then something very odd happened. Feeling started returning to my extremities - first my legs, the my arms, then - what was that? Something I'd never felt before - as in, a limb I'd never felt before, almost like a third leg, but with no foot. And two extra... arms? No, too wide to be arms. Very wide. In fact, they were feeling quite cramped in here. They need to....
Wham!
As I extended my wings to their full size, they threw the slab of metal off of the tub. I stood up and looked around. The bathroom looked different somehow.
"Congratulations," said Teresa, "You've taken the first step,"
"Almost forgot," she said. She returned holding a banana. "Eat this,"
I was a bit confused. "Ok..." I answered, peeling it. "Why exactly?"
"We're not sure why," she answered, "But Potassium seems to enhance magical abilities. It's just a small boost, but it's best to be on the safe side. I always eat one before I transform,"
I ate the banana. It was good - a little mushy, but not too much.
"Ok now," said Teresa, "Let's go,"
It looked like a perfectly normal bathroom. It was a little odd that the bathtub was filled up. I walked over to it. Looking closer, I could see it was filled with ice. Also, there was a large piece of metal on the back rim of the tub, leaned up against the wall.
"Strip and get in," said Teresa, "I'll look away if you like,"
"That water's freezing!" I protested.
"Exactly," she answered, "Silver dragons can withstand incredibly low temperatures - and breathe under water. Submerge yourself in there for a little while, and your body will realize it has no choice but to transform,"
"You're certain about this?"I asked
"It's safer than what they made me do," she answered, "At least you can't suffer permanent burns,"
"I could get hypothermia," I argued.
"Look," said Teresa, somewhat frustratedly, "Do you want to do this, or not? It's dangerous, ok? We never said it was safe. But your mother, your grandfather, and five Brimmers before that all went through the same thing. This is probably one of the least dangerous parts of your training. If you want to back out, now's the time. You understand?"
I did. You couldn't do something like this without risking your life. I took off my shirt, then noticed Teresa still standing there.
"Would you mind looking away?" I asked
"Of course not," she said. She turned her back.
I undressed the rest of the way and climbed into the water. Or at least I tried to. As I dipped my toe into the tub a shiver went through my body and I quickly pulled it out again. Then I tried going in hands first. It was worse. I couldn't bring myself to put more than a finger or a toe in - it was just to cold. I stood there, balanced on the edge of the tub, looking down into the icy water, pondering if my mother and grandfather had gone through the same thing. Or was I just too weak to face this? Was this stupid little test going to bring down the Brimmer family? This is what I was thinking about when Teresa pushed me in. Before I could pop out she had slammed the slab of metal over the tub like a lid.
It was frigid. Immediately my whole body was filled with stinging pain, like being poked with lots of little needles. The everything starting to go numb. At the same time, I realized I was drowning. I hadn't had time to get a breath of air before I'd been pushed in. I hadn't even been able to close my mouth to save what oxygen I did have - it had all been exhaled before I thought to.
Suddenly I was in severe pain, and I couldn't quite figure out why. The cold had numbed me already, and drowning didn't cause pain in my neck, shoulders, and butt. Where was that coming from, I wondered. Then something very odd happened. Feeling started returning to my extremities - first my legs, the my arms, then - what was that? Something I'd never felt before - as in, a limb I'd never felt before, almost like a third leg, but with no foot. And two extra... arms? No, too wide to be arms. Very wide. In fact, they were feeling quite cramped in here. They need to....
Wham!
As I extended my wings to their full size, they threw the slab of metal off of the tub. I stood up and looked around. The bathroom looked different somehow.
"Congratulations," said Teresa, "You've taken the first step,"
Saturday, April 02, 2005
April Fools!
As most of you probably guessed from the date, the last post is a joke and not meant to be taken seriously in any way. There will be a new chapter 21 soon which will replace this one. No information revealed in the previous post should have any bearing on the actual story.
What you probably haven't guessed is that I didn't actually write that post. My brother did. To read what I wrote, head over to his blog.
What you probably haven't guessed is that I didn't actually write that post. My brother did. To read what I wrote, head over to his blog.
Friday, April 01, 2005
Chapter 21: An Unexpected Test
After we were both in the bathroom, Teresa locked the door, and turned off the lights. I was confused. Were dragons afraid of the dark or something? Pretty soon though, she lit some candles. It must be some kind of magic thing, I thought.
"Now," she said, with an odd tone in her voice, "You're a virgin, right?"
I certianly hadn't expected that question.
"Well, yeah," I replied, too shocked to say anything more
As I watched in shock, she began slowly removing her top as she went on. "The morphic gene is almost always triggered the first time, provided it's hot enough." She winked. I was too amazed to say anything. Getting her shirt off, she grabbed my face and...
Yelled "PSYCH!!" She put her shirt back on and turned on the lights.
"Sorry," she went on in her normal tone, "I just saw the opportunity to mess with you and, it being April Fool's day and all I thought it would be fun. Let me show you the real test."
We walked out of the bathroom, and Teresa ran off, returning a moment later with two large rubber mallets.
"Being hit over the head with a mallet 85 times works a lot of times on people your age," she said, "So I thought we'd try that first. We'll take turns."
I was pretty sure she was yanking my chain again, and I wasn't gonna fall for it twice.
"Hold on now, I know you're kidding."
"Fine then," she replied, "Don't be a dragon. It's all the same to me."
Sighing, I decided to play her game. 85 whacks and a nasty headache later, I was still human.
"Mmk," she said, "There are still two things we haven't tried."
Next she took me down to the basement where several shady looking characters were playing poker.
"Two more for this round," she said, and we sat down. We played poker (at this point I'd given up on questioning her) for about three hours, at which point I'd lost all of my money and property and the shirt off my back. And I'd lost it to Teresa.
"Well," she said, getting up, "I guess that's not gonna work either."
"So, can I have my stuff back?" I asked.
"No."
Next she took me out to the street in front of the building.
"The last thing to try," she said, "Is outright danger. Just run out in front of a car. "
I was terrified. Everything else hadn't worked, why should this? And if this didn't work, I was dead. Nonetheless, I ran out in front of a big SUV. Lying broken and mangled in the street, I heard Teresa say "You know, maybe he's not a Draconic after all..."
"Now," she said, with an odd tone in her voice, "You're a virgin, right?"
I certianly hadn't expected that question.
"Well, yeah," I replied, too shocked to say anything more
As I watched in shock, she began slowly removing her top as she went on. "The morphic gene is almost always triggered the first time, provided it's hot enough." She winked. I was too amazed to say anything. Getting her shirt off, she grabbed my face and...
Yelled "PSYCH!!" She put her shirt back on and turned on the lights.
"Sorry," she went on in her normal tone, "I just saw the opportunity to mess with you and, it being April Fool's day and all I thought it would be fun. Let me show you the real test."
We walked out of the bathroom, and Teresa ran off, returning a moment later with two large rubber mallets.
"Being hit over the head with a mallet 85 times works a lot of times on people your age," she said, "So I thought we'd try that first. We'll take turns."
I was pretty sure she was yanking my chain again, and I wasn't gonna fall for it twice.
"Hold on now, I know you're kidding."
"Fine then," she replied, "Don't be a dragon. It's all the same to me."
Sighing, I decided to play her game. 85 whacks and a nasty headache later, I was still human.
"Mmk," she said, "There are still two things we haven't tried."
Next she took me down to the basement where several shady looking characters were playing poker.
"Two more for this round," she said, and we sat down. We played poker (at this point I'd given up on questioning her) for about three hours, at which point I'd lost all of my money and property and the shirt off my back. And I'd lost it to Teresa.
"Well," she said, getting up, "I guess that's not gonna work either."
"So, can I have my stuff back?" I asked.
"No."
Next she took me out to the street in front of the building.
"The last thing to try," she said, "Is outright danger. Just run out in front of a car. "
I was terrified. Everything else hadn't worked, why should this? And if this didn't work, I was dead. Nonetheless, I ran out in front of a big SUV. Lying broken and mangled in the street, I heard Teresa say "You know, maybe he's not a Draconic after all..."
Wednesday, March 16, 2005
Chapter 20: Magic 101
The whole week I found it hard to concentrate. It was partly excitement, but I think a lot of it was also anxiety. I was looking forward to Thursday, and I was also scared to death. But I think mostly I was just curios. I was wondering the same thing most of you are probably wondering: how do I do it? It seemed to me that transforming my body into an entirely new form was something that would have to come naturally. Why would I have to learn how? And more importantly, how would I go about it?
So by the time Thursday afternoon rolled around, I was more than ready to get started. Teresa's car was outside the school. I looked around to make sure no one was watching, then got in.
"Where's Quentin?" I asked her. I'd had kinda hoped he'd be there too; it sort of made me feel more comfortable.
"He's not a Draconic," she said, "So he wouldn't be a terribly large amount of help. Meanwhile, he has his own recruit to train,"
"Really?" I asked.
"Yeah, Vampire hunting has always been taught by apprenticeship," she answered, "And if every hunter trained as many as Quentin, they'd increase by a factor of ten every generation,"
I didn't have a lot else to say about that, so I didn't say anything for a while.
"So," I asked, a few minutes later," Where are we going?"
"My apartment," she said, then added, "Well, not technically mine, but the one I've been using since I was first assigned to you're case. The Alliance thought owning a property equidistant from your house and your school would come in handy some day,"
"How long have they had it?" I asked.
"Since Lisa and Wallace bought the house," she answered, "Although most of that time it's been abandoned. One of our agents owns and operates the whole building, though,"
"A Draconic?" I asked.
"No," she answered, "Just a human agent. Believe it or not, they still make up the bulk of the MLF. They'll be time for you to learn about that later, though. Today, we have other things to focus on,"
Finally, we were getting around to what I wanted to talk about.
"Like what, exactly?" I asked.
"In a few minutes," she answered. We turned into that parking lot of a rather run-down looking apartment building.
"This is it," said Teresa, parking the car.
We walked in the building and climbed up the stairs. There was nothing unusual about the place really - just your typical inner-city apartment building. Even had the same smell. As we walked through the hallway, however, a large Hispanic man in a blue jumpsuit hailed us.
"Hey Teresa," he cried, "This him?"
"Yes, Pat," she answered, "This is him,"
'Pat' immediately bent down, grabbed me in a large bear hug, and whirled me around. He was quite sweaty, and smelled like a much more intense version of the musty spell that pervaded the building.
"Master Brimmer!" he exclaimed as he put me down, "I have not seen you since you were this big," he bent down and put one arm about a foot and a half off the ground. "I can not tell you how wonderful it makes me feel to know a Brimmer will be back on the council soon,"
"Now you know that's not a done deal," said Teresa, "Thadius likely won't even step down as leader of the NA,"
"Then he will have to be shown his place," he answered. He turned to me, "Is Skyler Woods Brimmer really going to take a back seat to a Blue with no family name?"
I didn't know what to say. Luckily, Teresa stepped in.
"He'll never take the throne if he doesn't get trained," she said, frustratedly.
"Oh, my apologies," said Pat, "Wouldn't want to keep you from that," He stepped aside and we walked into Teresa's room.
"You're gonna find a lot of those," she answered. "Now that word has gotten out the Brimmers are back on the scene, everyone thinks you'll be wanting to take back the council. Especially regular humans - Fintan's never been especially popular with them,"
"Do you want me to retake the council?" I asked her.
"It's unnecessary," she answered, "As soon as we rescue Lisa, she'll be returned to leadership of the council,"
"You know she's alive?" I asked hopefully.
"I have faith," she said. "Now, enough politics. Let's get started on things you'll actually need to know. Get comfortable, this may take a while,"
I sat down on a couch and she began.
"Anything specific you'd like to know?" She asked, "You're a smart boy, I'm sure by now you've figured out at least five or six reasons why this is impossible, try them on me,"
That was not what I'd been expecting to be asked. But just the same, I figured, I'd try one out.
"Ok," I answered after a while, "All the dragon in my family comes from my Great, Great, Great, Great, Great, Great, Great grandfather or something, right?"
"One too many greats," she answered, "But go on,"
"So I'm what, 1/512 dragon? If that. How do I have any power at all?"
"Good one," said Teresa, "Actually that leads pretty well into our first lesson. You know your draconic ancestor started your whole bloodline while in human form, right?"
"Yeah..."
"Well, he didn't have any human DNA. What he had was a magical ability inherent in dragons known as polymorphing. Now we know about as much about polymorphing as we do about most kinds of magic, which is almost nothing. It was likely very hard to study magic even in the days when it was abundant - now that it's virtually vanished from the earth, we know even less about it. And now that magic related research is illegal in the U.S. and most of Europe, I think it's safe to say that's where we'll stay for a while.
What we do know is this - Polymorphing, like all magic, changes the fundamental nature of the universe at a molecular level. In this case, it alters the user from the building blocks of it's cells - including it's DNA. That's why a human doesn't need the dragon genes that would let him or her sprout wings or breathe fire - all we need is the one gene that lets us Polymorph, and somehow, it seems, that one is always passed on,"
"How does that even work?" I asked, "How do you contain magic in a gene?"
"Oh, that's easy," answered Teresa, "Why do you think elves were so much better at sorcery than humans? Why do you think the only decent spellcasters left are of Asian descent? It's all in the blood. What we don't understand is how the trait is invariably passed on to all offspring even though only one parent has it. But that's not really important,"
"So if we have an inherint ability to Polymorph, why just dragons? Couldn't we turn into birds, or dogs, or -"
'You don't get it," said Teresa. "The only thing we can polymorph into is humans. We're polymorphing right now. You've been using this ability without realizing it your entire life. All you have to do is figure out how to turn it off,"
By this point I was thoroughly confused.
"Wait a minute," I said, "If the DNA was polymorphed into human DNA, why was any dragon DNA passed on at all?"
"Because," said Teresa, "The transformation wasn't complete. Look at it this way: If turning into a human gave a dragon a complete human genome, that dragon would lack the gene that allowed it to change back, effectively trapping it in that form. So, obviously, the dragon retains the polymorph gene - and only the polymorph gene while in human form. Only while in human form, instead of letting dragons turn into humans-"
"it let's humans turn into dragons," I said, finally realizing it.
"Exactly," answered Teresa. "So now all you have to do is figure out how to activate that polymorph ability. What we like to do is force it to activate - it'll do it instinctivly when exposed to a certain kind of danger. So that, if you're willing, is what we're going to do. Follow me."
She got up and walked towards the bathroom. I followed her, still somewhat confused and rather unsure as to how this was gonna turn out.
So by the time Thursday afternoon rolled around, I was more than ready to get started. Teresa's car was outside the school. I looked around to make sure no one was watching, then got in.
"Where's Quentin?" I asked her. I'd had kinda hoped he'd be there too; it sort of made me feel more comfortable.
"He's not a Draconic," she said, "So he wouldn't be a terribly large amount of help. Meanwhile, he has his own recruit to train,"
"Really?" I asked.
"Yeah, Vampire hunting has always been taught by apprenticeship," she answered, "And if every hunter trained as many as Quentin, they'd increase by a factor of ten every generation,"
I didn't have a lot else to say about that, so I didn't say anything for a while.
"So," I asked, a few minutes later," Where are we going?"
"My apartment," she said, then added, "Well, not technically mine, but the one I've been using since I was first assigned to you're case. The Alliance thought owning a property equidistant from your house and your school would come in handy some day,"
"How long have they had it?" I asked.
"Since Lisa and Wallace bought the house," she answered, "Although most of that time it's been abandoned. One of our agents owns and operates the whole building, though,"
"A Draconic?" I asked.
"No," she answered, "Just a human agent. Believe it or not, they still make up the bulk of the MLF. They'll be time for you to learn about that later, though. Today, we have other things to focus on,"
Finally, we were getting around to what I wanted to talk about.
"Like what, exactly?" I asked.
"In a few minutes," she answered. We turned into that parking lot of a rather run-down looking apartment building.
"This is it," said Teresa, parking the car.
We walked in the building and climbed up the stairs. There was nothing unusual about the place really - just your typical inner-city apartment building. Even had the same smell. As we walked through the hallway, however, a large Hispanic man in a blue jumpsuit hailed us.
"Hey Teresa," he cried, "This him?"
"Yes, Pat," she answered, "This is him,"
'Pat' immediately bent down, grabbed me in a large bear hug, and whirled me around. He was quite sweaty, and smelled like a much more intense version of the musty spell that pervaded the building.
"Master Brimmer!" he exclaimed as he put me down, "I have not seen you since you were this big," he bent down and put one arm about a foot and a half off the ground. "I can not tell you how wonderful it makes me feel to know a Brimmer will be back on the council soon,"
"Now you know that's not a done deal," said Teresa, "Thadius likely won't even step down as leader of the NA,"
"Then he will have to be shown his place," he answered. He turned to me, "Is Skyler Woods Brimmer really going to take a back seat to a Blue with no family name?"
I didn't know what to say. Luckily, Teresa stepped in.
"He'll never take the throne if he doesn't get trained," she said, frustratedly.
"Oh, my apologies," said Pat, "Wouldn't want to keep you from that," He stepped aside and we walked into Teresa's room.
"You're gonna find a lot of those," she answered. "Now that word has gotten out the Brimmers are back on the scene, everyone thinks you'll be wanting to take back the council. Especially regular humans - Fintan's never been especially popular with them,"
"Do you want me to retake the council?" I asked her.
"It's unnecessary," she answered, "As soon as we rescue Lisa, she'll be returned to leadership of the council,"
"You know she's alive?" I asked hopefully.
"I have faith," she said. "Now, enough politics. Let's get started on things you'll actually need to know. Get comfortable, this may take a while,"
I sat down on a couch and she began.
"Anything specific you'd like to know?" She asked, "You're a smart boy, I'm sure by now you've figured out at least five or six reasons why this is impossible, try them on me,"
That was not what I'd been expecting to be asked. But just the same, I figured, I'd try one out.
"Ok," I answered after a while, "All the dragon in my family comes from my Great, Great, Great, Great, Great, Great, Great grandfather or something, right?"
"One too many greats," she answered, "But go on,"
"So I'm what, 1/512 dragon? If that. How do I have any power at all?"
"Good one," said Teresa, "Actually that leads pretty well into our first lesson. You know your draconic ancestor started your whole bloodline while in human form, right?"
"Yeah..."
"Well, he didn't have any human DNA. What he had was a magical ability inherent in dragons known as polymorphing. Now we know about as much about polymorphing as we do about most kinds of magic, which is almost nothing. It was likely very hard to study magic even in the days when it was abundant - now that it's virtually vanished from the earth, we know even less about it. And now that magic related research is illegal in the U.S. and most of Europe, I think it's safe to say that's where we'll stay for a while.
What we do know is this - Polymorphing, like all magic, changes the fundamental nature of the universe at a molecular level. In this case, it alters the user from the building blocks of it's cells - including it's DNA. That's why a human doesn't need the dragon genes that would let him or her sprout wings or breathe fire - all we need is the one gene that lets us Polymorph, and somehow, it seems, that one is always passed on,"
"How does that even work?" I asked, "How do you contain magic in a gene?"
"Oh, that's easy," answered Teresa, "Why do you think elves were so much better at sorcery than humans? Why do you think the only decent spellcasters left are of Asian descent? It's all in the blood. What we don't understand is how the trait is invariably passed on to all offspring even though only one parent has it. But that's not really important,"
"So if we have an inherint ability to Polymorph, why just dragons? Couldn't we turn into birds, or dogs, or -"
'You don't get it," said Teresa. "The only thing we can polymorph into is humans. We're polymorphing right now. You've been using this ability without realizing it your entire life. All you have to do is figure out how to turn it off,"
By this point I was thoroughly confused.
"Wait a minute," I said, "If the DNA was polymorphed into human DNA, why was any dragon DNA passed on at all?"
"Because," said Teresa, "The transformation wasn't complete. Look at it this way: If turning into a human gave a dragon a complete human genome, that dragon would lack the gene that allowed it to change back, effectively trapping it in that form. So, obviously, the dragon retains the polymorph gene - and only the polymorph gene while in human form. Only while in human form, instead of letting dragons turn into humans-"
"it let's humans turn into dragons," I said, finally realizing it.
"Exactly," answered Teresa. "So now all you have to do is figure out how to activate that polymorph ability. What we like to do is force it to activate - it'll do it instinctivly when exposed to a certain kind of danger. So that, if you're willing, is what we're going to do. Follow me."
She got up and walked towards the bathroom. I followed her, still somewhat confused and rather unsure as to how this was gonna turn out.
Thursday, March 10, 2005
New Names
A few people now have new names. The list so far:
Marten - Wind Hedgehog
Ashley - Fire Rat
Thomas - Water Rhino
Kaylee - Water Llama
Courtney - Fire Octopus
Amanda - Ether Raccoon
My Dad - Fire Porcupine
I am Earth Ferret. Others will be added as the list grows.
Update # 1:
Sarah Mo - Water Panda
My Mom - Fire Penguin
Sasha - Water Horse
Amy - Fire Dragon
Update #2:
Josh - Fire Siberian Tiger
Marcus - Fire Antelope
Amanda G - Wind Eagle
Update #3:
Jonah - Earth Duck (woot! another earth)
Daniel - Wind White Rhino
Alice - Water Lark
Sarah Mc- Water Tiger
Final update of the night:
My Grandma is Earth Bear
Marten - Wind Hedgehog
Ashley - Fire Rat
Thomas - Water Rhino
Kaylee - Water Llama
Courtney - Fire Octopus
Amanda - Ether Raccoon
My Dad - Fire Porcupine
I am Earth Ferret. Others will be added as the list grows.
Update # 1:
Sarah Mo - Water Panda
My Mom - Fire Penguin
Sasha - Water Horse
Amy - Fire Dragon
Update #2:
Josh - Fire Siberian Tiger
Marcus - Fire Antelope
Amanda G - Wind Eagle
Update #3:
Jonah - Earth Duck (woot! another earth)
Daniel - Wind White Rhino
Alice - Water Lark
Sarah Mc- Water Tiger
Final update of the night:
My Grandma is Earth Bear
Wednesday, March 09, 2005
Chapter 19: Secrets in the Mountain Dew
Study hall was fourth period. On the way to the bus I ran into Fay.
"Sky!" she yelled excitedly, trying to get my attention.
"Hey," I said. She caught up to me.
"I was looking over Grandpa's postcards for some reference to the armor," she said.
"Did you find any?" I asked her.
"No," she answered, "Well, sort of. This is gonna sound kind of weird. I was drinking Mountain Dew, and I spilled some on one of the postcards,"
"That sucks," I answered, wondering why she'd told me this.
"It did this," she said, elbowing me. I stopped and turn to look at me, as she handed me a postcard.
It was from St. Louis, with a picture of the Gateway Arch on it. It was damp, from where something had spilled on it.
"Look at the back," she said.
I looked. In the margin, by the place where you put your address, was a paragraph of writing. At least I think it was writing. It was very tiny, in a script I had no idea how to read. It looked kind of like Arabic, but not quite. It really didn't look like any language I'd seen before. It had a lot of triangles.
"After we found this," said Faye, "I decided to try dipping the same part of another one in Mountain Dew. They all have it, in about the same spot. Some have more, some have less. And no one seems to know what kind of writing it is,"
"Weird," I said.
"I know," she answered, "Isn't it cool though? I mean, secret writing, a suit of armor, all this cool, like Lord of the Rings kind of stuff happening to us?"
To be honest, this was was one of the more boring things I that had happened to me that week. But I didn't want to spoil her mood.
"Yeah, it's really something," I told her, "I have to go catch the bus now,"
""Oh, sorry," she said, "Bye! "
I tried to give the post card back to her.
"Oh, keep it!" she said, turning the opposite way, "Try and figure out what the writing is,"
"K!" I yelled back at her as she vanished into the throng of people.
"Sky!" she yelled excitedly, trying to get my attention.
"Hey," I said. She caught up to me.
"I was looking over Grandpa's postcards for some reference to the armor," she said.
"Did you find any?" I asked her.
"No," she answered, "Well, sort of. This is gonna sound kind of weird. I was drinking Mountain Dew, and I spilled some on one of the postcards,"
"That sucks," I answered, wondering why she'd told me this.
"It did this," she said, elbowing me. I stopped and turn to look at me, as she handed me a postcard.
It was from St. Louis, with a picture of the Gateway Arch on it. It was damp, from where something had spilled on it.
"Look at the back," she said.
I looked. In the margin, by the place where you put your address, was a paragraph of writing. At least I think it was writing. It was very tiny, in a script I had no idea how to read. It looked kind of like Arabic, but not quite. It really didn't look like any language I'd seen before. It had a lot of triangles.
"After we found this," said Faye, "I decided to try dipping the same part of another one in Mountain Dew. They all have it, in about the same spot. Some have more, some have less. And no one seems to know what kind of writing it is,"
"Weird," I said.
"I know," she answered, "Isn't it cool though? I mean, secret writing, a suit of armor, all this cool, like Lord of the Rings kind of stuff happening to us?"
To be honest, this was was one of the more boring things I that had happened to me that week. But I didn't want to spoil her mood.
"Yeah, it's really something," I told her, "I have to go catch the bus now,"
""Oh, sorry," she said, "Bye! "
I tried to give the post card back to her.
"Oh, keep it!" she said, turning the opposite way, "Try and figure out what the writing is,"
"K!" I yelled back at her as she vanished into the throng of people.
Thursday, March 03, 2005
The Everlasting Game of Uberspielen
This is for my campaign. Yes, you may all read it -there's nothing here I particularly care if you know before hand.
It is the ultimate entertainment.
It is the most exciting challenge.
It is the game that will never end.
Uberspielen is a country-sized Arena for the largest game of capture the flag ever played. All of the planes inhabitants are either players or spectators. There are two teams, the red team and the blue team. Although they have no real ideological differences, they have been taught to hate each other with a passion.
The landscape of Uberspielen is wrapped around an enormous cylinder. The sides of this cylinder are mini arenas, where players go to challenge other players or face “penalties” for breaking the rules – often in the form of dangerous creatures summoned from other dimensions. Out of the seams rise the stands, where spectators abide. Two rings around the cylinder divide it into three sections – red territory, blue territory, and no man’s land, where the play is hottest. A small moon orbits Uberspielen, serving as front row seating reserved for deities, who often stay for as long as a century.
The rules of the game are very complicated, but the basics are fairly simple – each team is trying to acquire all the balls (there are 5,000). Anyone hit by a ball while in the opposing teams territory Is immediately teleported to a prison. They can be broken out by their teammates. In no man’s land, anyone hit by a ball is teleported back to their own home base. The game has been going on for thousands of years, and the most balls ever acquired by one team was 3, 904 – and that was over two hundred years ago. The Game is presided over by a lesser deity known only as the Referee.
Killing someone is technically a foul, and the punishment for fouling is far worse than just sitting out for a game. But still, the game can get ugly, and swordplay breaking out on the field is not uncommon. Violence is also fairly common in the stands – especially if the referee makes what some spectators consider a bad call. Travelers to Uberspielen are encouraged to join in the play if they wish, though many are content to watch from the stands.
Uberspielen Traits:
Uberspielen has the following traits:
Objective directional Gravity/ Partial Light Gravity – Gravity aligns itself to whichever object you stand on. No man’s land has the light gravity trait.
Normal Time
Finite Size – Leave the cylinder and you fall into the abyss, eventually ending up on the astral plane.
Limited Divinely Morphic – The Referee alone is capable of modifying the landscape of Uberspielen.
No Elemental Traits
No Energy Traits
Mildly Law Aligned – Because the rules are so strictly enforced, Chaotic creatures are frowned upon and receive a –2 penalty on Charisma based checks. Red/Blue Aligned – Any character who decides to play the game is randomly assigned a new alignment trait – either red or blue. This effectively replaces the good-evil axis for the duration of the characters play time. For all spells that effect alignment, act as if they now say the new alignment instead of the old. Clerics, for instance, would gain the ability to “smite red” if assigned to the blue team. Treat each team’s side as strongly aligned to that team’s color.
Varying Magic – For a spellcaster on his own turf – a red player on the red side or a blue player on the blue side – all spells are Enhanced (they act as they would under the maximize spell feat). For a spellcaster on the opposing teams side, magic is impeded. In No Man’s Land, Wild Magic applies. Certain spells, however, are against the rules – greater invisibility, for instance, is considered cheating, and can result in a penalty. Spells that allow travel to other planes are impeded on the field, but work in the stands. Normal magic applies in the stands.
Uberspielen Links: Four portals surrounding the stands are the main method of entrance to Uberspielen. Each one has end points on all adjacent planes and the Astral plane. It is impossible to plane shift directly to or from the field – you must enter and exit through the stands.
Uberspielen Inhabitants: There are no natives to Uberspielen – members of all sentient races are found on both teams and among the spectators, and creatures from many other planes roam the wilderness areas as “terrain hazards”. A number of high level Divine Agents known as Attendants are servants of the Referee, and have a way of showing up when most (or least) needed.
Uberspielen Petitioners – Uberspielen has almost no petitioners, mostly former players or enthusiasts who haunt the stands. They are virtually indistinguishable from other spectators, but are prohibited from joing a team.
Movement and Combat:
Movement on Uberspielen is much like movement on the material plane – accept in a few places. To cross from the stands onto the field or from the stand to the stands of the challenge arena, you must contact an one of the Attendants (there’s usually one around when you need one), who will transport you there (and assign you a team). Getting back to the stands from the field can be accomplished only from your team’s home base.
Uberspielen Combat – Combat on uberspielen is similar to combat on the material plane, but again, you must be careful not to commit fouls. Killing an opponent and using certain spells will cause you to be summoned immediately to the challenge Arena, where you will have to face a penalty – a creature decided on by the Referee based on your power level and the seriousness of your transgression. The Ref may also choose to give you a handicap, such as making you fight blind or removing your weapons. Terrain in the Arena is alterable however the Referee wants.
Features of Uberspielen: Uberspielen is mostly divided into three areas we’ll treat as layers – The stands, The Field, and the Challenge Arena.
The Stands – The Stands are made up of steps, each nearly a mile long and a long way down, though staircases and latters hewn out of stone make coming down and up fairly simple. The landscape on the steps looks like plains. Many people have houses here, but dotting the landscape are dome-shaped viewing stations. Though the field is visible from anywhere in the stands, the view is usually to far away to see any of the action. From the viewing stations, observers can get a closer view of whatever they want, and also buy food and interact with fellow observers. Viewing stations look like cities, with most of the houses being made of metal. Each viewing station is run by an Attendant.
The Field – The field appears basically like a normal country. In the sides controlled by one team or another, there are various towns and cities. Right by the stands is a mountainous region. Closer to the border you find woods and two large lakes – the terrain features are almost entirely symmetrical. A number of important sites are located on the field:
Home Base: The home bases are enormous Castles where team members go to plan, coordinate, and prepare for battle. New Players always start from her. The Team captains preside here – they are mortal humans born into a Monarchy, but they are only figure-heads. The MVP – determined by various running game statistics and rechosen every two years, plans team strategy, although he or she has no power to enforce it.
Prison: Captured players are immediately transported to this underground facility. All weapons are confiscated from them, and the prison is surrounded by an anti-magic field. There is only one entrance, and it is not an exit – a prisoner can only leave through it if accompanied by a free teammate who entered through the gate. A prisoner can also escape by challenging a guard for his freedom. The prison is dark and cavernous, but has no cells – all prisoners can roam freely in it. It is incredibly well-guarded, and the chances of a single person successfully mounting a rescue are minimal.
No Man’s Land: This is a dangerous wilderness country. Both sides are evenly matched here, and wild beasts from every plane roam as “hazards”. The terrain is mostly woods, but there are also some desert areas.
The Challenge Arena: This is where the Referee takes those who commit a foul, or where a challenge can take place. The terrain changes based on what it’s being used for, as does the size of the playing field. In the case of a penalty, bizarre and extremely ridiculous handicaps are often put in place – challenges are usually fought on even footing.
Uberspielen Encounters: Coming soon. Encounter Tables take forever to make.
It is the ultimate entertainment.
It is the most exciting challenge.
It is the game that will never end.
Uberspielen is a country-sized Arena for the largest game of capture the flag ever played. All of the planes inhabitants are either players or spectators. There are two teams, the red team and the blue team. Although they have no real ideological differences, they have been taught to hate each other with a passion.
The landscape of Uberspielen is wrapped around an enormous cylinder. The sides of this cylinder are mini arenas, where players go to challenge other players or face “penalties” for breaking the rules – often in the form of dangerous creatures summoned from other dimensions. Out of the seams rise the stands, where spectators abide. Two rings around the cylinder divide it into three sections – red territory, blue territory, and no man’s land, where the play is hottest. A small moon orbits Uberspielen, serving as front row seating reserved for deities, who often stay for as long as a century.
The rules of the game are very complicated, but the basics are fairly simple – each team is trying to acquire all the balls (there are 5,000). Anyone hit by a ball while in the opposing teams territory Is immediately teleported to a prison. They can be broken out by their teammates. In no man’s land, anyone hit by a ball is teleported back to their own home base. The game has been going on for thousands of years, and the most balls ever acquired by one team was 3, 904 – and that was over two hundred years ago. The Game is presided over by a lesser deity known only as the Referee.
Killing someone is technically a foul, and the punishment for fouling is far worse than just sitting out for a game. But still, the game can get ugly, and swordplay breaking out on the field is not uncommon. Violence is also fairly common in the stands – especially if the referee makes what some spectators consider a bad call. Travelers to Uberspielen are encouraged to join in the play if they wish, though many are content to watch from the stands.
Uberspielen Traits:
Uberspielen has the following traits:
Objective directional Gravity/ Partial Light Gravity – Gravity aligns itself to whichever object you stand on. No man’s land has the light gravity trait.
Normal Time
Finite Size – Leave the cylinder and you fall into the abyss, eventually ending up on the astral plane.
Limited Divinely Morphic – The Referee alone is capable of modifying the landscape of Uberspielen.
No Elemental Traits
No Energy Traits
Mildly Law Aligned – Because the rules are so strictly enforced, Chaotic creatures are frowned upon and receive a –2 penalty on Charisma based checks. Red/Blue Aligned – Any character who decides to play the game is randomly assigned a new alignment trait – either red or blue. This effectively replaces the good-evil axis for the duration of the characters play time. For all spells that effect alignment, act as if they now say the new alignment instead of the old. Clerics, for instance, would gain the ability to “smite red” if assigned to the blue team. Treat each team’s side as strongly aligned to that team’s color.
Varying Magic – For a spellcaster on his own turf – a red player on the red side or a blue player on the blue side – all spells are Enhanced (they act as they would under the maximize spell feat). For a spellcaster on the opposing teams side, magic is impeded. In No Man’s Land, Wild Magic applies. Certain spells, however, are against the rules – greater invisibility, for instance, is considered cheating, and can result in a penalty. Spells that allow travel to other planes are impeded on the field, but work in the stands. Normal magic applies in the stands.
Uberspielen Links: Four portals surrounding the stands are the main method of entrance to Uberspielen. Each one has end points on all adjacent planes and the Astral plane. It is impossible to plane shift directly to or from the field – you must enter and exit through the stands.
Uberspielen Inhabitants: There are no natives to Uberspielen – members of all sentient races are found on both teams and among the spectators, and creatures from many other planes roam the wilderness areas as “terrain hazards”. A number of high level Divine Agents known as Attendants are servants of the Referee, and have a way of showing up when most (or least) needed.
Uberspielen Petitioners – Uberspielen has almost no petitioners, mostly former players or enthusiasts who haunt the stands. They are virtually indistinguishable from other spectators, but are prohibited from joing a team.
Movement and Combat:
Movement on Uberspielen is much like movement on the material plane – accept in a few places. To cross from the stands onto the field or from the stand to the stands of the challenge arena, you must contact an one of the Attendants (there’s usually one around when you need one), who will transport you there (and assign you a team). Getting back to the stands from the field can be accomplished only from your team’s home base.
Uberspielen Combat – Combat on uberspielen is similar to combat on the material plane, but again, you must be careful not to commit fouls. Killing an opponent and using certain spells will cause you to be summoned immediately to the challenge Arena, where you will have to face a penalty – a creature decided on by the Referee based on your power level and the seriousness of your transgression. The Ref may also choose to give you a handicap, such as making you fight blind or removing your weapons. Terrain in the Arena is alterable however the Referee wants.
Features of Uberspielen: Uberspielen is mostly divided into three areas we’ll treat as layers – The stands, The Field, and the Challenge Arena.
The Stands – The Stands are made up of steps, each nearly a mile long and a long way down, though staircases and latters hewn out of stone make coming down and up fairly simple. The landscape on the steps looks like plains. Many people have houses here, but dotting the landscape are dome-shaped viewing stations. Though the field is visible from anywhere in the stands, the view is usually to far away to see any of the action. From the viewing stations, observers can get a closer view of whatever they want, and also buy food and interact with fellow observers. Viewing stations look like cities, with most of the houses being made of metal. Each viewing station is run by an Attendant.
The Field – The field appears basically like a normal country. In the sides controlled by one team or another, there are various towns and cities. Right by the stands is a mountainous region. Closer to the border you find woods and two large lakes – the terrain features are almost entirely symmetrical. A number of important sites are located on the field:
Home Base: The home bases are enormous Castles where team members go to plan, coordinate, and prepare for battle. New Players always start from her. The Team captains preside here – they are mortal humans born into a Monarchy, but they are only figure-heads. The MVP – determined by various running game statistics and rechosen every two years, plans team strategy, although he or she has no power to enforce it.
Prison: Captured players are immediately transported to this underground facility. All weapons are confiscated from them, and the prison is surrounded by an anti-magic field. There is only one entrance, and it is not an exit – a prisoner can only leave through it if accompanied by a free teammate who entered through the gate. A prisoner can also escape by challenging a guard for his freedom. The prison is dark and cavernous, but has no cells – all prisoners can roam freely in it. It is incredibly well-guarded, and the chances of a single person successfully mounting a rescue are minimal.
No Man’s Land: This is a dangerous wilderness country. Both sides are evenly matched here, and wild beasts from every plane roam as “hazards”. The terrain is mostly woods, but there are also some desert areas.
The Challenge Arena: This is where the Referee takes those who commit a foul, or where a challenge can take place. The terrain changes based on what it’s being used for, as does the size of the playing field. In the case of a penalty, bizarre and extremely ridiculous handicaps are often put in place – challenges are usually fought on even footing.
Uberspielen Encounters: Coming soon. Encounter Tables take forever to make.
Wednesday, March 02, 2005
Tuesday, March 01, 2005
Chapter 18: Of Vampires and Jesus
After that we discussed how we were gonna hide this from everyone. I told them my parents really didn't care where I was, but Quentin argued otherwise. When he did I was surprised to hear hime refer to my father by his first name.
"Wallace isn't stupid," he said, "Or Lisa would never have married him. I don't think he ever figured out exactly what was going on, but he always knew there was something,"
At long last, we decided I would tell everyone I had signed up for some activity that it was very difficult to disprove. At Quentin's suggestion, we decided it would be "self -defense classes" - technically accurate, since self defense was my main reason for turning Draconic. So that decided, I got out of the car, with the agreement that they'd pick me up after school on Thursday and to not go out at night anymore than I had to.
The next day in study hall, I took my customary place next to Mora. That was when I had a thought. It still wasn't safe, apparently, for me to look things up on the internet. But there were other resources I could use. One in particular who'd been sitting right by me for weeks.
"So," I asked her, as casually as I could, "What do you know about Vampires?"
"Quite a bit" she answered, "What do you want to know?"
"I'm working on a research paper," I lied, "And I need to know about them. Any information you could give me would be helpful,"
"Well, let's see," she said, pensively, "Give me a place to start. What do you know already?"
I told her everything i knew about Vampires - just basics really. How they were a failed attempt to extend the human lifespan through magic thousands of years ago, how they fed on human blood and, by releasing a special enzyme into a victim, could sometimes turn their him or her into a subservient vampire. Then, so as not to look like i knew more than I was letting on, I told her how the last vampire had supposedly been betrayed and staked by Nazis as Germany was being invaded at the end of World War II. She smiled up at me as if to say, "are you done yet?"
"Well," she said finally, "You have the propaganda version down. Most of that is right, except they're not dead, but I suspect you already knew that,"
I was caught somewhat of gaurd by her last statement, and I don't think I recovered well.
"You need to learn how to be a better liar," she said, "I knew from the moment you started talking that this was never about a research paper. You ran into one didn't you?"
I knew continuing to lie to her was pointless, but for some reason I didn't feel safe telling the truth either. So I avoided the question.
"What would make you think that?" I asked.
"Well, I've never seen you wearing a cross necklace before. By the way, you should know that probably won't repel any vampires for you. And you smell like garlic,"
"Wait a minute," I replied, "What?"
"A Holy Symbol of a religion other than your own is useless in repelling the undead. If you don't believe in Jesus, that cross is just a piece of jewlerly,"
"I go to church," I answered, adamantly.
"I went to mass for ten years," she responded, "But I was never really a Catholic. Religion doesn't repel the undead, belief does - the symbol just acts as a focus for that belief. So for me, a Tarot card would work. Atheists and agnostics are kind of screwed over though - belief in the vague concept of a supreme being might work on a Zombie, but not for long, and it certainly wouldn't work against a Vampire,"
"I believe in Jesus," I told her, firmly.
"Conceptually, maybe," she answered, "But I wouldn't count on him to help you if you run into another vamp,"
To be honest, I'd never been especially religious, but my parents were devout Presbyterians, and I'd never really thought much about it. It still upset me to see my faith being questioned by someone else - especially someone like Mora, who seemed to change religions or pick up some new form of mysticism every week. I was too upset to finish the conversation, so I took out some homework to try and get done.
"Wallace isn't stupid," he said, "Or Lisa would never have married him. I don't think he ever figured out exactly what was going on, but he always knew there was something,"
At long last, we decided I would tell everyone I had signed up for some activity that it was very difficult to disprove. At Quentin's suggestion, we decided it would be "self -defense classes" - technically accurate, since self defense was my main reason for turning Draconic. So that decided, I got out of the car, with the agreement that they'd pick me up after school on Thursday and to not go out at night anymore than I had to.
The next day in study hall, I took my customary place next to Mora. That was when I had a thought. It still wasn't safe, apparently, for me to look things up on the internet. But there were other resources I could use. One in particular who'd been sitting right by me for weeks.
"So," I asked her, as casually as I could, "What do you know about Vampires?"
"Quite a bit" she answered, "What do you want to know?"
"I'm working on a research paper," I lied, "And I need to know about them. Any information you could give me would be helpful,"
"Well, let's see," she said, pensively, "Give me a place to start. What do you know already?"
I told her everything i knew about Vampires - just basics really. How they were a failed attempt to extend the human lifespan through magic thousands of years ago, how they fed on human blood and, by releasing a special enzyme into a victim, could sometimes turn their him or her into a subservient vampire. Then, so as not to look like i knew more than I was letting on, I told her how the last vampire had supposedly been betrayed and staked by Nazis as Germany was being invaded at the end of World War II. She smiled up at me as if to say, "are you done yet?"
"Well," she said finally, "You have the propaganda version down. Most of that is right, except they're not dead, but I suspect you already knew that,"
I was caught somewhat of gaurd by her last statement, and I don't think I recovered well.
"You need to learn how to be a better liar," she said, "I knew from the moment you started talking that this was never about a research paper. You ran into one didn't you?"
I knew continuing to lie to her was pointless, but for some reason I didn't feel safe telling the truth either. So I avoided the question.
"What would make you think that?" I asked.
"Well, I've never seen you wearing a cross necklace before. By the way, you should know that probably won't repel any vampires for you. And you smell like garlic,"
"Wait a minute," I replied, "What?"
"A Holy Symbol of a religion other than your own is useless in repelling the undead. If you don't believe in Jesus, that cross is just a piece of jewlerly,"
"I go to church," I answered, adamantly.
"I went to mass for ten years," she responded, "But I was never really a Catholic. Religion doesn't repel the undead, belief does - the symbol just acts as a focus for that belief. So for me, a Tarot card would work. Atheists and agnostics are kind of screwed over though - belief in the vague concept of a supreme being might work on a Zombie, but not for long, and it certainly wouldn't work against a Vampire,"
"I believe in Jesus," I told her, firmly.
"Conceptually, maybe," she answered, "But I wouldn't count on him to help you if you run into another vamp,"
To be honest, I'd never been especially religious, but my parents were devout Presbyterians, and I'd never really thought much about it. It still upset me to see my faith being questioned by someone else - especially someone like Mora, who seemed to change religions or pick up some new form of mysticism every week. I was too upset to finish the conversation, so I took out some homework to try and get done.
Thursday, February 24, 2005
Update
Just to let you know, the now unamed dragon story has reach 24 pages long in the word file backup, and at 11,000 odd words is just over a fifth of the way to being classified as a short novel. It's quite firmly out of "short story" and into "Novella" though. I'm considering it's future, but like most novels originally published serially, that most likely looks like so much revision it will be hard to recognize (see the magazine version of "Ender's game").
In the mean time, I've been catching up on some much needed backstory, some of which required cursory amounts of actual research. I'm as amazed as you are.
In other news, I'm considering a career as a professional Dramaterg.
In the mean time, I've been catching up on some much needed backstory, some of which required cursory amounts of actual research. I'm as amazed as you are.
In other news, I'm considering a career as a professional Dramaterg.
Tuesday, February 22, 2005
Chapter 17: The Big Decision
I looked blankly at Quentin, then at Teresa. I guess I was sort of in shock; I was still getting around being part of the MLF, and now I was supposed to be their leader or something? It was a lot to take in.
Teresa didn't seem to get this; in fact it seemed like she was in a bit of a hurry to bring me up to speed. She started talking, though I wasn't really tuned in completely.
"After your mother was captured," she said, "Thadius took control of the NA and her place as president of the council was taken by the leader of the New England faction, a man named Fintan O'Connell. Fintan doesn't think very highly of the Brimmers, and he's trying to have the charter modified to keep you from coming back into power. He has some support, but not enough - too many of the council members have personal ties to the Brimmers. But the O'Connells are the second most powerful family in the order, and -"
Quentin cut in again. "Basically," he said, "All thou needst to know is that thou art probably the rightful leader of the MLF, but thou art not likely to be reinstated anytime soon. Just the same, even Fintan can't deny that we need people - especially Draconics. So Thadius cut a deal with him - we'll continue to extend protection to thee, in the form of at least one operative at all times, until thou completest thy training. Since no other silvers are available, Teresa, being a gold and the closest available, will serve as thy mentor,"
"Wait a minute," I answered, still somewhat lost, "Training for what?"
"To go Draconic, of course," answered Teresa. She seemed surprised I'd had to ask the question.
"Hold on," I said. I was taken aback by all this. "Who said anything about me turning Draconic?"
They were both silent for a moment.
"Well," began Teresa, "We'd just assumed, I mean, the heir to the Brimmer dynasty and all, who wouldn't want -"
I stopped her.
"Look," I said, "I don't want to be heir to anything! Until a week ago, I didn't even know I was Draconic, much less their king or something. All I want is to live a normal life not being attacked by vampires. Now, as it is, I haven't done anything illegal. I feel for you guys, but I don't want to subject myself to that sort of thing,"
Another stunned silence. This time it was Quentin who jumped in.
"I can't believe mine ears," he began, indignantly. "Skyler Woods Brimmer, not wanting to fight for the disenfranchised? Not wanting to stand up for those with no voice? That doesn't sound like a Silver Dragon at all. Perhaps a red or a green could show such cowardice, but not a Silver. Thy Grandfather must be rolling over in his grave with shame,"
"I'm sorry," I said, "Really, I am, but you'll just have to find a new savior. At least until I'm out of high school. What about my sister? She's got to have the same genes I do"
"Catherine has already agreed to join the NA in a few years," answered Teresa, matter-of-factly.
This surprised me. Probably more than anything else I'd heard that night. Catherine was a pacifist. Not declared or anything, but she just a generally peaceful, level-headed manner. She'd never agree to go fight anyone.
"Look," continued Teresa, "You don't really have much of a choice. The Vampires are after you, and their sphere of influence extends over most of the world. If you don't agree to be trained, we can't have someone keep protecting you, which means we leave you to fend for yourself. So if you don't fancy moving to the Netherlands or Southern Asia, I'd accept. Since you're going to have the bad parts of being a Draconic anyway, you might as well take the good. Besides," she added, "Don't you want to help us rescue your mother?"
I thought about this for a few minutes, and realized it was true. There was no escaping it now. I could learn how to defend myself, or be killed. And getting to meet my mother would be good too. I had so much to ask her...
"Alright," I said. "I'm in. When do we start?"
Teresa didn't seem to get this; in fact it seemed like she was in a bit of a hurry to bring me up to speed. She started talking, though I wasn't really tuned in completely.
"After your mother was captured," she said, "Thadius took control of the NA and her place as president of the council was taken by the leader of the New England faction, a man named Fintan O'Connell. Fintan doesn't think very highly of the Brimmers, and he's trying to have the charter modified to keep you from coming back into power. He has some support, but not enough - too many of the council members have personal ties to the Brimmers. But the O'Connells are the second most powerful family in the order, and -"
Quentin cut in again. "Basically," he said, "All thou needst to know is that thou art probably the rightful leader of the MLF, but thou art not likely to be reinstated anytime soon. Just the same, even Fintan can't deny that we need people - especially Draconics. So Thadius cut a deal with him - we'll continue to extend protection to thee, in the form of at least one operative at all times, until thou completest thy training. Since no other silvers are available, Teresa, being a gold and the closest available, will serve as thy mentor,"
"Wait a minute," I answered, still somewhat lost, "Training for what?"
"To go Draconic, of course," answered Teresa. She seemed surprised I'd had to ask the question.
"Hold on," I said. I was taken aback by all this. "Who said anything about me turning Draconic?"
They were both silent for a moment.
"Well," began Teresa, "We'd just assumed, I mean, the heir to the Brimmer dynasty and all, who wouldn't want -"
I stopped her.
"Look," I said, "I don't want to be heir to anything! Until a week ago, I didn't even know I was Draconic, much less their king or something. All I want is to live a normal life not being attacked by vampires. Now, as it is, I haven't done anything illegal. I feel for you guys, but I don't want to subject myself to that sort of thing,"
Another stunned silence. This time it was Quentin who jumped in.
"I can't believe mine ears," he began, indignantly. "Skyler Woods Brimmer, not wanting to fight for the disenfranchised? Not wanting to stand up for those with no voice? That doesn't sound like a Silver Dragon at all. Perhaps a red or a green could show such cowardice, but not a Silver. Thy Grandfather must be rolling over in his grave with shame,"
"I'm sorry," I said, "Really, I am, but you'll just have to find a new savior. At least until I'm out of high school. What about my sister? She's got to have the same genes I do"
"Catherine has already agreed to join the NA in a few years," answered Teresa, matter-of-factly.
This surprised me. Probably more than anything else I'd heard that night. Catherine was a pacifist. Not declared or anything, but she just a generally peaceful, level-headed manner. She'd never agree to go fight anyone.
"Look," continued Teresa, "You don't really have much of a choice. The Vampires are after you, and their sphere of influence extends over most of the world. If you don't agree to be trained, we can't have someone keep protecting you, which means we leave you to fend for yourself. So if you don't fancy moving to the Netherlands or Southern Asia, I'd accept. Since you're going to have the bad parts of being a Draconic anyway, you might as well take the good. Besides," she added, "Don't you want to help us rescue your mother?"
I thought about this for a few minutes, and realized it was true. There was no escaping it now. I could learn how to defend myself, or be killed. And getting to meet my mother would be good too. I had so much to ask her...
"Alright," I said. "I'm in. When do we start?"
A note about titles
You may have noticed the latest chapters have not said "Revival" - this is because it is no longer the title. It may become the title of part two. Part one, as of now, is title-less.
Wednesday, February 16, 2005
Chapter 16: Once Upon a Time
"As thou knowest," Quentin began, "Thousands of years ago the Necromancer and his forces of darkness wiped the elves from the earth. Towards the end of this purge, some of the remaining elves sought refuge across the sea. Piling into hastily put together ships with almost no means of navigation, they set off for the New World. Almost none of these elvish explorers made it across the sea, and those who did had perished long before humans started crossing the ocean. But at least one passenger did survive - a silver dragon egg, quite possibly the last of it's kind.
Of course, there were no dragons native to North America, so this one was quite alone. He eventually settled in the Appalatian mountains. As European settlers began to arrive, he was at first quite friendly to him, as they reminded him of the elves he had known as a wyrmling. But the humans didn't return his kindness. They had heard stories of the dragons of the old world eating young maidens and burning villages. So they feared him and avoided him where possible.'
"On one side of the mountain lived a tribe of natives. They lived far enough away they had little contact with the dragon, but they often saw him flying above them. They began to call him the Skylord.
"The trees on the other side of the mountain were prone to occasional forest fires - these were neccesary to help the trees grow and they were a natural part of the ecosystem. But the settlers immediately assumed they were caused by the dragon, and began to call him the Woods-Burner.
"The dragon grew and developed, living a life of solitude, cut off from his kin. Then the dragon hunters came. Dragons were nearly extinct in the old world by then, and thousands of disenfranchised dragon hunters, having no quarry, came to America, hearing rumors of new bounties there. One of them nearly caught the dragon, and he decided he needed to hide. He took human form and chose as a human name a clever permutation of the only two names he'd ever been known by - Skyler Woods Brimmer.
"Eventually Skyler had a son. some time later he went off to war, where he apparenlty died. His son, however, Skyler Woods Brimmer Jr. , survived. He moved to the city of St. Louis, at the time one of the largest in the nation, and it was there that he began developing his powers. Being fully half dragon, it took him a lot less work to develop them than it does draconics these days. As he got older it became apparent to him that half-dragons were not the most popular people, and he soon learned to keep his powers secret. He still used them though - whenever he saw someone being oppressed or taken advantage of, he would transform, save them, and turn back into that harmless street man. Slowly, stories of this urban reptilian superhero started to circulate. Other Americans with dragon blood, rare at the time, began to flock to St. Louis in hopes of learning more about this man. It was there, in 1891, that the MLF, or Magical Liberation Front, was founded, by a collection of disgruntled draconics, elvishes, and other arcane relics, supported by quite a few nonmagical workers, mostly Chinese immigrants. The Chinese, as you know, revere dragons, and were somewhat upset at how draconics were being treated by the government, especially after the Draconic Registration Act of 1901.
Skyler Woods Brimmer was installed as its first president. And, until the eighties, a Skyler Woods Brimmer headed the organization for it's entire existence, accept for a brief period between III and IV. About that time the MLF absorbed HOUND - the Holy Order of UNdead Defenders. A group of Vampire hunters, HOUND had become aware that the chief Justice of the supreme court had been bitten by a vampire,and feared they would use this to gain control of the government. During World War II, the employment of dark magic by the Japanese inspired Americans to even greater anti-magic sentiment. The order was driven completely underground by ensuing legislation. Since then we've kept a low profile, focusing mainly on keeping the undead in check, but also trying to fight further anti-magic legislation.
Lisa Brimmer rather controversially accepted the presidency in '84. When she was captured a few years later, you were only a baby - we resolved to keep an eye on you and let you live a normal life, then ask you to accept the post when you came of age. Unfortunately, there's been some dissention on that point lately - which is what we came to discuss with thee,"
Of course, there were no dragons native to North America, so this one was quite alone. He eventually settled in the Appalatian mountains. As European settlers began to arrive, he was at first quite friendly to him, as they reminded him of the elves he had known as a wyrmling. But the humans didn't return his kindness. They had heard stories of the dragons of the old world eating young maidens and burning villages. So they feared him and avoided him where possible.'
"On one side of the mountain lived a tribe of natives. They lived far enough away they had little contact with the dragon, but they often saw him flying above them. They began to call him the Skylord.
"The trees on the other side of the mountain were prone to occasional forest fires - these were neccesary to help the trees grow and they were a natural part of the ecosystem. But the settlers immediately assumed they were caused by the dragon, and began to call him the Woods-Burner.
"The dragon grew and developed, living a life of solitude, cut off from his kin. Then the dragon hunters came. Dragons were nearly extinct in the old world by then, and thousands of disenfranchised dragon hunters, having no quarry, came to America, hearing rumors of new bounties there. One of them nearly caught the dragon, and he decided he needed to hide. He took human form and chose as a human name a clever permutation of the only two names he'd ever been known by - Skyler Woods Brimmer.
"Eventually Skyler had a son. some time later he went off to war, where he apparenlty died. His son, however, Skyler Woods Brimmer Jr. , survived. He moved to the city of St. Louis, at the time one of the largest in the nation, and it was there that he began developing his powers. Being fully half dragon, it took him a lot less work to develop them than it does draconics these days. As he got older it became apparent to him that half-dragons were not the most popular people, and he soon learned to keep his powers secret. He still used them though - whenever he saw someone being oppressed or taken advantage of, he would transform, save them, and turn back into that harmless street man. Slowly, stories of this urban reptilian superhero started to circulate. Other Americans with dragon blood, rare at the time, began to flock to St. Louis in hopes of learning more about this man. It was there, in 1891, that the MLF, or Magical Liberation Front, was founded, by a collection of disgruntled draconics, elvishes, and other arcane relics, supported by quite a few nonmagical workers, mostly Chinese immigrants. The Chinese, as you know, revere dragons, and were somewhat upset at how draconics were being treated by the government, especially after the Draconic Registration Act of 1901.
Skyler Woods Brimmer was installed as its first president. And, until the eighties, a Skyler Woods Brimmer headed the organization for it's entire existence, accept for a brief period between III and IV. About that time the MLF absorbed HOUND - the Holy Order of UNdead Defenders. A group of Vampire hunters, HOUND had become aware that the chief Justice of the supreme court had been bitten by a vampire,and feared they would use this to gain control of the government. During World War II, the employment of dark magic by the Japanese inspired Americans to even greater anti-magic sentiment. The order was driven completely underground by ensuing legislation. Since then we've kept a low profile, focusing mainly on keeping the undead in check, but also trying to fight further anti-magic legislation.
Lisa Brimmer rather controversially accepted the presidency in '84. When she was captured a few years later, you were only a baby - we resolved to keep an eye on you and let you live a normal life, then ask you to accept the post when you came of age. Unfortunately, there's been some dissention on that point lately - which is what we came to discuss with thee,"
Chapter 15: Finally Some Answers
I'd been alone at my house for nearly an hour when I got the phone call. It was Teresa.
"Come outside, Skyler," she said.
"You sure?" I asked, "I thought I wasn't supposed to be out after dark,"
"We've swept the area," she answered, "You're safe. Besides, it's only a few meters,"
Outside the house was a large, rather broken down-looking black and brown Corvair van. As I approached, the door opened. Teresa was sitting in the middle seat farthest from the door.
"Skyler," she said as she saw me coming out, "Get in. We have much to discuss,"
I climbed into the vehicle and sat down next to her. I tried to close the door, but it stuck badly.
"Thou has to push in at the same time," said an unfamiliar voice from the seat in front of me. It was gruff, but friendly, and I couldn't help but notice his word choice.
"Uh, thanks," I muttered. After a few more embarrassing seconds, I finally got the door shut. I looked around. I couldn't see the man in the front seat especially well, but the shotgun seat appeared to be occupied by a bulky looking piece of equipment. The back seats were full of garbage bags. Teresa had a laptop computer on her lab, which appeared to be displaying a back view of my house. The van smelled heavily of garlic.
The man in the front seat turned around. He was old, but not decrepid - his face was showed a determination that said he didn't plan on leaving any time soon. He was wearing thick-rimmed, round glasses and a wide-brimmed black hat, and had a short, white beard over most of his face. From what I could see of his clothing, his seemed to simply be wearing a black liturgical robe, the kind you often see on Catholic priests.
"Skyler," said Teresa, "This is Quentin. Quentin, Skyler Woods Brimmer VI,"
"A pleasure," said the old man, "I've lived through three Brimmers, and none has disappointed me yet. I'm sure thou wilt be no different,"
"Is he the increased protection you offered?" I asked, wondering exactly how much good this guy would actually be in a combat situation.
"Actually," answered Teresa, "The Council declined my request. Quentin decided to come anyway,"
"Skyler Woods Brimmer V saved my life three times," said Quentin, "And Lisa has once as well. I still owe thy family a great debt,"
I really wasn't sure what to say. Luckily, Teresa cut in again.
"Pretty much everyone in the Northern Alliance still supports you and your mother," She began, "But in the Council as a whole, a lot of people are saying it's about time the Brimmer dynasty ended, and that it's backwards to be clinging to a hundred and fifty year old monarchy when we're in the state we're in. They very nearly pulled me off of watching you entirely. You can thank Quentin and Thadius for pulling some strings and getting you the deal you did get,"
This was way over my head. I understood a tiny fraction of what she was saying, and I got the feeling they expected me to know a lot more. That would explain some things.
"Teresa!" said the old man, "Slow down. The boy's barely absorbed that there is a Northern Alliance, he hardly needs to be struggling to understand their internal politics. Now Skyler," He said, turning to me, "How much dost thou know about thy great, great, great, great, grandfather?"
"Come outside, Skyler," she said.
"You sure?" I asked, "I thought I wasn't supposed to be out after dark,"
"We've swept the area," she answered, "You're safe. Besides, it's only a few meters,"
Outside the house was a large, rather broken down-looking black and brown Corvair van. As I approached, the door opened. Teresa was sitting in the middle seat farthest from the door.
"Skyler," she said as she saw me coming out, "Get in. We have much to discuss,"
I climbed into the vehicle and sat down next to her. I tried to close the door, but it stuck badly.
"Thou has to push in at the same time," said an unfamiliar voice from the seat in front of me. It was gruff, but friendly, and I couldn't help but notice his word choice.
"Uh, thanks," I muttered. After a few more embarrassing seconds, I finally got the door shut. I looked around. I couldn't see the man in the front seat especially well, but the shotgun seat appeared to be occupied by a bulky looking piece of equipment. The back seats were full of garbage bags. Teresa had a laptop computer on her lab, which appeared to be displaying a back view of my house. The van smelled heavily of garlic.
The man in the front seat turned around. He was old, but not decrepid - his face was showed a determination that said he didn't plan on leaving any time soon. He was wearing thick-rimmed, round glasses and a wide-brimmed black hat, and had a short, white beard over most of his face. From what I could see of his clothing, his seemed to simply be wearing a black liturgical robe, the kind you often see on Catholic priests.
"Skyler," said Teresa, "This is Quentin. Quentin, Skyler Woods Brimmer VI,"
"A pleasure," said the old man, "I've lived through three Brimmers, and none has disappointed me yet. I'm sure thou wilt be no different,"
"Is he the increased protection you offered?" I asked, wondering exactly how much good this guy would actually be in a combat situation.
"Actually," answered Teresa, "The Council declined my request. Quentin decided to come anyway,"
"Skyler Woods Brimmer V saved my life three times," said Quentin, "And Lisa has once as well. I still owe thy family a great debt,"
I really wasn't sure what to say. Luckily, Teresa cut in again.
"Pretty much everyone in the Northern Alliance still supports you and your mother," She began, "But in the Council as a whole, a lot of people are saying it's about time the Brimmer dynasty ended, and that it's backwards to be clinging to a hundred and fifty year old monarchy when we're in the state we're in. They very nearly pulled me off of watching you entirely. You can thank Quentin and Thadius for pulling some strings and getting you the deal you did get,"
This was way over my head. I understood a tiny fraction of what she was saying, and I got the feeling they expected me to know a lot more. That would explain some things.
"Teresa!" said the old man, "Slow down. The boy's barely absorbed that there is a Northern Alliance, he hardly needs to be struggling to understand their internal politics. Now Skyler," He said, turning to me, "How much dost thou know about thy great, great, great, great, grandfather?"
Monday, February 14, 2005
Chapter 14: Sparring partners
Jason and Faye came over later that afternoon. Jason was bursting with energy. I soon found myself involved in a three way sword fight using dowel rods of varying length.
Faye was using the longer, thicker rod like a quarter staff, and effectively holding us both at bay. She was fast and acrobatic, and it was harder to get in a hit on her. She also obviously knew how distracting she was - she was used to using it to get the upper hand when she fought guys. She picked out her outfits to take your eyes away from her weapon, so you'd forget to defend yourself.
Her brother, her constant sparring partner, was obviously immune to this tactic, so their fights tended to last longer. As Faye ducked to avoid one of Jason's swings, she very nearly broke a vase. We stopped to take a breather.
"We should go outside," said Jason, "We don't want to endanger any more of your stuff,"
It was already starting to get dark. I remembered what Teresa had said last night, and I didn't want to take any chances.
"I'd rather not," I answered, "Hey, did you ever find out about that armor?" I asked, wanting to change the subject.
"Yeah, it's from my Grandpa," he answered, "but I don't know anything else about it,"
"Weird," I said, "He never mentioned it in his letters?"
"Not that I remember," Faye cut in, "But I was gonna look over them again to check,"
"Well, keep me posted," I said, "I'm very curios,"
"Me too," she answered, "You're sure you don't want to go outside?"
"I can't," I replied.
She looked somewhat downcast. I wished I could tell them why I was held to this new restriction. I wished, in fact that I did noty have it. But somehow I doubted even Faye's skills with the dowel rod could stand up to a couple of those vampires.
We went to play some video games, but my heart wasn't in it. Somehow, when you've been dealing with real vampires and dragons, computer-animated ones just don't seem as threatening. In a little while it was time for the Andersons to go home. As she was leaving, Faye asked me if everything was ok.
"You seemed kinda distant today," she said.
I felt distant. Until a few days, I'd felt like I could tell Jason and Faye anything and they'd understand. Now it felt like I was in a different world than them. BUt things were just getting started; it was going to get worse before it got better.
Faye was using the longer, thicker rod like a quarter staff, and effectively holding us both at bay. She was fast and acrobatic, and it was harder to get in a hit on her. She also obviously knew how distracting she was - she was used to using it to get the upper hand when she fought guys. She picked out her outfits to take your eyes away from her weapon, so you'd forget to defend yourself.
Her brother, her constant sparring partner, was obviously immune to this tactic, so their fights tended to last longer. As Faye ducked to avoid one of Jason's swings, she very nearly broke a vase. We stopped to take a breather.
"We should go outside," said Jason, "We don't want to endanger any more of your stuff,"
It was already starting to get dark. I remembered what Teresa had said last night, and I didn't want to take any chances.
"I'd rather not," I answered, "Hey, did you ever find out about that armor?" I asked, wanting to change the subject.
"Yeah, it's from my Grandpa," he answered, "but I don't know anything else about it,"
"Weird," I said, "He never mentioned it in his letters?"
"Not that I remember," Faye cut in, "But I was gonna look over them again to check,"
"Well, keep me posted," I said, "I'm very curios,"
"Me too," she answered, "You're sure you don't want to go outside?"
"I can't," I replied.
She looked somewhat downcast. I wished I could tell them why I was held to this new restriction. I wished, in fact that I did noty have it. But somehow I doubted even Faye's skills with the dowel rod could stand up to a couple of those vampires.
We went to play some video games, but my heart wasn't in it. Somehow, when you've been dealing with real vampires and dragons, computer-animated ones just don't seem as threatening. In a little while it was time for the Andersons to go home. As she was leaving, Faye asked me if everything was ok.
"You seemed kinda distant today," she said.
I felt distant. Until a few days, I'd felt like I could tell Jason and Faye anything and they'd understand. Now it felt like I was in a different world than them. BUt things were just getting started; it was going to get worse before it got better.
Wednesday, February 09, 2005
Wednesday, February 02, 2005
Revival - Chapter 13: Plans and Phone Calls
The next day was Saturday, so I slept until noon. It felt good, one of those deep, dreamless sleeps that you wake up from feeling like it never happened at all. I came down stairs and mom was sitting at the table, eating lunch. I guess technically she's my step mom, but she's the only mother I knew as a child, so that's what I'm gonna call her.
"You're finally up," she commented. "Jason called you several times. Seemed excited,"
After I had some breakfast, I called him back.
"Hey," he said, "Where you been? I've called like, five times,"
"I had a long night," I answered, "So I slept in,"
"Oh," he said, "Well, Harvey worked spectacularly,"
"Good to hear," I answered, "Would have been quite a waste if he'd stalled or you couldn't get him to start,"
"No," said my friend irritably, "I mean on Marissa. She totally changed her attitude towards me,"
"Umm.. not to burst your bubble or anything," I replied, "But is a girl who changes her opinion of you because of simple material things really such a great find?"
There was a longish pause.
"I don't think that was it," said Jason after a while. "I think it's more about the ritual than the actual motorcycle. Sort of the twentieth century equivolent of riding up on a white stallion, you know?"
"Or maybe you just look really good in leather," I suggested.
He laughed. "You know I do. So look, I want to tell you guys all about it. Can we hang at your place tonight?"
"Probably," I answered, "I'll ask. Hey, did you ever find out about that armor?"
"Nope," he said, "Haven't even thought about it. I'll tell you tonight though, ok?"
"Ok," I answered.
I asked my mother, who said it was ok. I told Jason and hung up.
So much had happened in the last few days. It felt like I was on the verge of something; like I could feel how my life was about to change. I needed someone to unload all this on. I wished I knew if it was safe to say this kind of thing over the phone. Catherine always knew what to do about stuff like this. Plus I was wondering if she'd figured any of this out. Doubtless whoever was so intent on either killing me or keeping me alive had a similar interest in her. I hoped I hadn't somehow helped them find her with my carelessness.
I needed to know more. For one thing, I needed to know how far away Teresa's superiors were and how long it would take her to contact them; she had promised me answers as soon as she'd cleared them through them. I decided to try and call her.
I dialed the number. There was a beep.
"Hello," said the familiar voice, somewhat peppier than he'd heard it last night. "It's Teresa. I'm not here. If you'd like to leave a message, press two. If you'd like to die painfully, press one. Bye!"
There was another beep. I hung up. I hadn't really expected it to work. I needed to talk to someone about this though. And there was only one person who I thought I could trust; or if I couldn't it wouldn't matter, since she already knew. I decided to take Zhong up on her offer. I called her up next.
"Hello," said her mother's heavily accented voice.
"Can I speak to Zhong?" I asked.
"Ohyes," she answered, as if they were the same word, "Onemomentplease,"
At least I think that's what she said. I've never been very good at interpreting Mrs. Hua.
"Hello?" asked Zhong, now on the other end.
"Hey," I answered, "It's Skyler,"
"Oh, what's up?" she asked.
"We're getting together at my house tonight," I started, "I was wondering if you'd like to come,"
"Oh, I can't," she answered, "Lot's of work to do. Sorry,"
"It's ok. I just..."
I'd known Zhong for more than a year - I'd never had trouble talking to her before. Somehow it felt wierd though- I mean, I only wanted to talk to someone who knew what I was going through, but at that moment the request seemed so much heavier. I decided to let it drop.
"Yes?" she asked, expectantly.
"Never mind," I told her,"I'll see you Monday,"
I hung up the phone, and went to find something to do for the next hour or so.
"You're finally up," she commented. "Jason called you several times. Seemed excited,"
After I had some breakfast, I called him back.
"Hey," he said, "Where you been? I've called like, five times,"
"I had a long night," I answered, "So I slept in,"
"Oh," he said, "Well, Harvey worked spectacularly,"
"Good to hear," I answered, "Would have been quite a waste if he'd stalled or you couldn't get him to start,"
"No," said my friend irritably, "I mean on Marissa. She totally changed her attitude towards me,"
"Umm.. not to burst your bubble or anything," I replied, "But is a girl who changes her opinion of you because of simple material things really such a great find?"
There was a longish pause.
"I don't think that was it," said Jason after a while. "I think it's more about the ritual than the actual motorcycle. Sort of the twentieth century equivolent of riding up on a white stallion, you know?"
"Or maybe you just look really good in leather," I suggested.
He laughed. "You know I do. So look, I want to tell you guys all about it. Can we hang at your place tonight?"
"Probably," I answered, "I'll ask. Hey, did you ever find out about that armor?"
"Nope," he said, "Haven't even thought about it. I'll tell you tonight though, ok?"
"Ok," I answered.
I asked my mother, who said it was ok. I told Jason and hung up.
So much had happened in the last few days. It felt like I was on the verge of something; like I could feel how my life was about to change. I needed someone to unload all this on. I wished I knew if it was safe to say this kind of thing over the phone. Catherine always knew what to do about stuff like this. Plus I was wondering if she'd figured any of this out. Doubtless whoever was so intent on either killing me or keeping me alive had a similar interest in her. I hoped I hadn't somehow helped them find her with my carelessness.
I needed to know more. For one thing, I needed to know how far away Teresa's superiors were and how long it would take her to contact them; she had promised me answers as soon as she'd cleared them through them. I decided to try and call her.
I dialed the number. There was a beep.
"Hello," said the familiar voice, somewhat peppier than he'd heard it last night. "It's Teresa. I'm not here. If you'd like to leave a message, press two. If you'd like to die painfully, press one. Bye!"
There was another beep. I hung up. I hadn't really expected it to work. I needed to talk to someone about this though. And there was only one person who I thought I could trust; or if I couldn't it wouldn't matter, since she already knew. I decided to take Zhong up on her offer. I called her up next.
"Hello," said her mother's heavily accented voice.
"Can I speak to Zhong?" I asked.
"Ohyes," she answered, as if they were the same word, "Onemomentplease,"
At least I think that's what she said. I've never been very good at interpreting Mrs. Hua.
"Hello?" asked Zhong, now on the other end.
"Hey," I answered, "It's Skyler,"
"Oh, what's up?" she asked.
"We're getting together at my house tonight," I started, "I was wondering if you'd like to come,"
"Oh, I can't," she answered, "Lot's of work to do. Sorry,"
"It's ok. I just..."
I'd known Zhong for more than a year - I'd never had trouble talking to her before. Somehow it felt wierd though- I mean, I only wanted to talk to someone who knew what I was going through, but at that moment the request seemed so much heavier. I decided to let it drop.
"Yes?" she asked, expectantly.
"Never mind," I told her,"I'll see you Monday,"
I hung up the phone, and went to find something to do for the next hour or so.
Chapter 12 - version 2
It wasn't a fair fight. The guy was bigger, stronger, and had the element of surprise. I ducked out of the way just in time to avoid being bitten, then sort of spun out of his grip. Whatever I did, it worked. I managed to get away for a moment. I ran towards the house. I wasn't sure what I'd do when I got there, but I figured I'd decide that later. Unfortunately, it didn't come to that. I got maybe five feet before he grabbed me again. He didn't have to chase me; he just sort of glided over to me. I wrestled with him as best I could, moving my neck around as he tried to bite it, but there was no way I could last very long like that. I thought I was done for.
I stuggled as hard as I could to get out of his grip. I used one of my legs to kick his leg out from under him, trying to knock him off balance. He didn't seem to notice. I was out of tricks. I could feel his cold hands on my shoulder and arm, as he pulled me in towards his mouth. I had all but stopped fighting it.
Then suddenly I heard a roar coming from behind him. Two golden, scaly claws grabbed him and pulled him rather forcefully off of me. I broke free, and ran the opposite direction as fast as I could. I turned to look and saw the battle.
My rescuer was about the size and shape of a human, but the resemblance ended there. It was covered in bright, golden scales, with a reptilian head and rows of sharp teeth. Oddly enough, it was wearing human clothing - a blue halter top and jean shorts. It had a lizard-like head with a mane like a lion, except made of very thick strands of hair - almost like tentacles. Two large, leathery wings were folded on its back, and a long tail trailed behind it.
The guy who had attacked me turned to try and escape, but it was too late. The creature opened it's mouth and unleashed a stream of fire on my attacker. The flaming man took off and drifted very quickly away towards the moon.
The creature walked towards me. It moved very gracefully, in a feline sort of way. As it moved, it transformed. The wings sunk into the back, the leather scales flattened themselves into the skin, and the head seemed to morph itself inward. Standing before me, by the time she arrived, was a perfectly normal looking human woman, probably in her mid-twenties. Well, not perfectly normal. Exceptionally beautiful. Her ethnicity was hard to pinpoint - there was definately some Asian, but also hints of Hispanic. She had shoulder-length brown hair, round, full cheeks and a very well-formed body. She was not smiling- in fact, she looked rather upset - but I was so happy to be dealing with an attractive young woman instead of a scaly monster that it didn't seem to matter.
"Umm... thanks?" I offered.
"I warned you not to do any exploring, Skyler," she said contemptuosly. "The enemy doesn't waste time. Now that he knows you're under protection, he'll be sending a more powerful force soon. And I might not be there to help,"
Suddenly it dawned on me to whom I was speaking. "So you're Dragon girl," I said, "It fits,"
"The name's Teresa Willard," she said, holding out her hand, "No 'H'"
"Skyler Woods Brimmer the sixth," I said, then added after a moment, "Although I suspect you already know that,"
"Yes," said Teresa, "I've had my share of dealings with the Brimmer family. Believe me, this was not my first choice of assignment,"
"Who assigned you here?" I asked.
"All in good time," said the woman, "You'll find out soon enough. Right now I have to figure out what to do about you,"
She started walking through the woods. I followed.
"What do you mean?" I asked, when I caught up with her.
"The enemy now knows your location, and probably suspects you're trying to develop your powers," she answered. "Furthermore, he knows you have a fully trained draconic protecting you. Next time it's not gonna be single vampire. It's probably going to be a dragon humter to deal with me and four or five tougher vampires or just general thugs, to make sure you get taken out of the picture. You may have to get away for a while. Is that managable?"
I thought about it. Leaving right now would be darn inconvenient; it was the beginning of a new semester, I'd probably have to make up a bunch of school, and if I didn't take the test soon, my driver's ed credit would expire. In retrospect all that seems pretty insignificant, but at the time, It mattered a lot more.
"I'd rather not," I answered.
"Well, It may prove unavoidable," said Teresa, "But I'll see if I can get you increased protection. Stay on your guard, and try not to be out after dark. And I'd start carrying a wooden stake. A cross necklace wouldn't be a bad idea, either. You go to church?"
This might seem really slow of me, but it wasn't until that moment that I realized I'd been dealing with a vampire. You have to remember, though, that back then we still thought they were extinct - the last vampire was supposed to have perished sixty years ago in the war.
"Usually," I said, "But my dad owns a funeral parlor. There's religious stuff all over the place,"
We came out of the woods by a road. A small blue Mazda was parked on the shoulder.
"Need a ride home?" she asked.
I told her it would be nice, and I climbed in. Teresa reached over, picked up a large trash bag, and threw it in the back. The cars interior smelled heavily of garlic.
"There's some extra stakes in the back," she told me, "I'll get you one before I go. Not that I'm going far,"
"How long have you been following me?" I asked her.
"Since you typed 'Lisa Brimmer' into a search engine and set off our alarms," she answered.
"Why am I important enough to assign someone to watch me?" I asked. "For that matter, why am I important enough to send someone to kill me?"
"Your name makes you important enough," she answered, "There has never been a 'Skyler Woods Brimmer' who didn't cause they enemy major problems. I suspect the thought of getting the next one before he could defend himself would be quite tempting,"
"So my grandfather -" I began, but she cut me off.
"No more questions," she said, "I've already told you more than I'm authorized to. I'll answer your questions once I've cleared them through my superiors,"
"Okay," I said. There was a long silence.
"So what are you allowed to tell me?" I asked.
"Strictly speaking," she answered, "I've already told you too much. You like Journey?"
"What?" I asked, thinking I'd be going on some mystical trip.
"The band," she answered, "Journey. Most of what I have in here is either either techno-punk or Broadway, but you seem like more of an eighties music type to me,"
So there was no more talk of draconics or vampires. The rest of the trip was spent listening to "Don't Stop Believing," and, on Teresa's part, singing along. I got out of the car holding a wooden tent stake and a small bag of garlic, along with a small piece of paper containing her cell phone number. I had had enough excitement for one night, so I crawled into my bed, and went to sleep.
I stuggled as hard as I could to get out of his grip. I used one of my legs to kick his leg out from under him, trying to knock him off balance. He didn't seem to notice. I was out of tricks. I could feel his cold hands on my shoulder and arm, as he pulled me in towards his mouth. I had all but stopped fighting it.
Then suddenly I heard a roar coming from behind him. Two golden, scaly claws grabbed him and pulled him rather forcefully off of me. I broke free, and ran the opposite direction as fast as I could. I turned to look and saw the battle.
My rescuer was about the size and shape of a human, but the resemblance ended there. It was covered in bright, golden scales, with a reptilian head and rows of sharp teeth. Oddly enough, it was wearing human clothing - a blue halter top and jean shorts. It had a lizard-like head with a mane like a lion, except made of very thick strands of hair - almost like tentacles. Two large, leathery wings were folded on its back, and a long tail trailed behind it.
The guy who had attacked me turned to try and escape, but it was too late. The creature opened it's mouth and unleashed a stream of fire on my attacker. The flaming man took off and drifted very quickly away towards the moon.
The creature walked towards me. It moved very gracefully, in a feline sort of way. As it moved, it transformed. The wings sunk into the back, the leather scales flattened themselves into the skin, and the head seemed to morph itself inward. Standing before me, by the time she arrived, was a perfectly normal looking human woman, probably in her mid-twenties. Well, not perfectly normal. Exceptionally beautiful. Her ethnicity was hard to pinpoint - there was definately some Asian, but also hints of Hispanic. She had shoulder-length brown hair, round, full cheeks and a very well-formed body. She was not smiling- in fact, she looked rather upset - but I was so happy to be dealing with an attractive young woman instead of a scaly monster that it didn't seem to matter.
"Umm... thanks?" I offered.
"I warned you not to do any exploring, Skyler," she said contemptuosly. "The enemy doesn't waste time. Now that he knows you're under protection, he'll be sending a more powerful force soon. And I might not be there to help,"
Suddenly it dawned on me to whom I was speaking. "So you're Dragon girl," I said, "It fits,"
"The name's Teresa Willard," she said, holding out her hand, "No 'H'"
"Skyler Woods Brimmer the sixth," I said, then added after a moment, "Although I suspect you already know that,"
"Yes," said Teresa, "I've had my share of dealings with the Brimmer family. Believe me, this was not my first choice of assignment,"
"Who assigned you here?" I asked.
"All in good time," said the woman, "You'll find out soon enough. Right now I have to figure out what to do about you,"
She started walking through the woods. I followed.
"What do you mean?" I asked, when I caught up with her.
"The enemy now knows your location, and probably suspects you're trying to develop your powers," she answered. "Furthermore, he knows you have a fully trained draconic protecting you. Next time it's not gonna be single vampire. It's probably going to be a dragon humter to deal with me and four or five tougher vampires or just general thugs, to make sure you get taken out of the picture. You may have to get away for a while. Is that managable?"
I thought about it. Leaving right now would be darn inconvenient; it was the beginning of a new semester, I'd probably have to make up a bunch of school, and if I didn't take the test soon, my driver's ed credit would expire. In retrospect all that seems pretty insignificant, but at the time, It mattered a lot more.
"I'd rather not," I answered.
"Well, It may prove unavoidable," said Teresa, "But I'll see if I can get you increased protection. Stay on your guard, and try not to be out after dark. And I'd start carrying a wooden stake. A cross necklace wouldn't be a bad idea, either. You go to church?"
This might seem really slow of me, but it wasn't until that moment that I realized I'd been dealing with a vampire. You have to remember, though, that back then we still thought they were extinct - the last vampire was supposed to have perished sixty years ago in the war.
"Usually," I said, "But my dad owns a funeral parlor. There's religious stuff all over the place,"
We came out of the woods by a road. A small blue Mazda was parked on the shoulder.
"Need a ride home?" she asked.
I told her it would be nice, and I climbed in. Teresa reached over, picked up a large trash bag, and threw it in the back. The cars interior smelled heavily of garlic.
"There's some extra stakes in the back," she told me, "I'll get you one before I go. Not that I'm going far,"
"How long have you been following me?" I asked her.
"Since you typed 'Lisa Brimmer' into a search engine and set off our alarms," she answered.
"Why am I important enough to assign someone to watch me?" I asked. "For that matter, why am I important enough to send someone to kill me?"
"Your name makes you important enough," she answered, "There has never been a 'Skyler Woods Brimmer' who didn't cause they enemy major problems. I suspect the thought of getting the next one before he could defend himself would be quite tempting,"
"So my grandfather -" I began, but she cut me off.
"No more questions," she said, "I've already told you more than I'm authorized to. I'll answer your questions once I've cleared them through my superiors,"
"Okay," I said. There was a long silence.
"So what are you allowed to tell me?" I asked.
"Strictly speaking," she answered, "I've already told you too much. You like Journey?"
"What?" I asked, thinking I'd be going on some mystical trip.
"The band," she answered, "Journey. Most of what I have in here is either either techno-punk or Broadway, but you seem like more of an eighties music type to me,"
So there was no more talk of draconics or vampires. The rest of the trip was spent listening to "Don't Stop Believing," and, on Teresa's part, singing along. I got out of the car holding a wooden tent stake and a small bag of garlic, along with a small piece of paper containing her cell phone number. I had had enough excitement for one night, so I crawled into my bed, and went to sleep.
Thursday, January 27, 2005
Question
Question for everyone: should I just keep writing and revise everything when I'm done, or should I revise chapter twelve now and post a hopefully more exciting version? Please give me feedback on this.
Now I will attempt to hone my skills with an irrelevant practice action sequence:
Mortimer looked down from his flying gazelle at the herd of attack Guinea pigs who were pursuing the Queen's 1967 Ford Turino. He knew she would not last very long if they caught up with her. He had to act. He urged the Gazelle forward. He could feel the wind on his back as he closed in on the guinea pigs. Suddenly, one of them caught sight of him. It squealed a blood-curtling squeal and jumped into the air. The other oversized rodents turned to face him, hunger burning in their eyes.
They all began to jump into the air. One of them grabbed the gazelle's hoof. His mount furiosly beat it's wings, trying to escape, but it was caught fast. Mortimer looked down at the ground moving below him. I wasn't that high up. He could probably survive the fall. Another guinea pig gabbed the gazelle's hoof. Under the combined weight it plummeted to the ground.
Mortimer jumped off it's back, drawing his peanut-butter-covered mace as he hit the ground. The sticky bludgeon felt heavy in his hand, and the smell of Jiffy (tm) mixed with the smell of blood in the air. Mort looked around. The gazelle was struggling to free it's legs while trying it's hardest to impale one of it's assailants. But the rest of the creatures were fast closing on the queen - and getting away from him. With one last glance at his embattled companion, he hoisted his peanut-buttery weapon into the air and ran towards the herd of guinea pigs.
He was running faster than he had ever run before. He could barely breathe now, but all he could think about was keeping those monsters from getting to the queen. Finally he closed on the guinea pig at the back of the pack. With a final burst of strength, he threw himself onto it's back.
The confused animal looked around, trying to identify it's attacker. At the same time the peanut butter was doing it's job - it's enticing smell had begun to lure the guinea pigs away from the queen. Turning away from their pursuit, they approached him, slowly, letting off low, menacing purrs. Seeing himself hopelessly out-numbered, Mortimer realized he had only one option. He removed the small, avacado shaped projectile from the top pocket of his vest and hurled it with all his might into the air.
As the avacado flew up, time seemed to slow. He could see each guinea pig breathing in and out. He could see exhaust slowly emerging from Her Majesty's tail pipe. And as the avacado reached the apex of it's flight, time stopped. The fruit opened up, and out stepped Franklin Pierce.
"Hello, Mr. Lima Bean," said the former president, with a snicker, "I see you've finally taken me up on my offer. I just hope your prepared to pay the price!"
So, give me specific feedback on that, and I will improve it accordingly. Then I will try to apply that knowledge to my story. Since it will entail many major action sequences in the near future, I felt this was a neccesary step.
Now I will attempt to hone my skills with an irrelevant practice action sequence:
Mortimer looked down from his flying gazelle at the herd of attack Guinea pigs who were pursuing the Queen's 1967 Ford Turino. He knew she would not last very long if they caught up with her. He had to act. He urged the Gazelle forward. He could feel the wind on his back as he closed in on the guinea pigs. Suddenly, one of them caught sight of him. It squealed a blood-curtling squeal and jumped into the air. The other oversized rodents turned to face him, hunger burning in their eyes.
They all began to jump into the air. One of them grabbed the gazelle's hoof. His mount furiosly beat it's wings, trying to escape, but it was caught fast. Mortimer looked down at the ground moving below him. I wasn't that high up. He could probably survive the fall. Another guinea pig gabbed the gazelle's hoof. Under the combined weight it plummeted to the ground.
Mortimer jumped off it's back, drawing his peanut-butter-covered mace as he hit the ground. The sticky bludgeon felt heavy in his hand, and the smell of Jiffy (tm) mixed with the smell of blood in the air. Mort looked around. The gazelle was struggling to free it's legs while trying it's hardest to impale one of it's assailants. But the rest of the creatures were fast closing on the queen - and getting away from him. With one last glance at his embattled companion, he hoisted his peanut-buttery weapon into the air and ran towards the herd of guinea pigs.
He was running faster than he had ever run before. He could barely breathe now, but all he could think about was keeping those monsters from getting to the queen. Finally he closed on the guinea pig at the back of the pack. With a final burst of strength, he threw himself onto it's back.
The confused animal looked around, trying to identify it's attacker. At the same time the peanut butter was doing it's job - it's enticing smell had begun to lure the guinea pigs away from the queen. Turning away from their pursuit, they approached him, slowly, letting off low, menacing purrs. Seeing himself hopelessly out-numbered, Mortimer realized he had only one option. He removed the small, avacado shaped projectile from the top pocket of his vest and hurled it with all his might into the air.
As the avacado flew up, time seemed to slow. He could see each guinea pig breathing in and out. He could see exhaust slowly emerging from Her Majesty's tail pipe. And as the avacado reached the apex of it's flight, time stopped. The fruit opened up, and out stepped Franklin Pierce.
"Hello, Mr. Lima Bean," said the former president, with a snicker, "I see you've finally taken me up on my offer. I just hope your prepared to pay the price!"
So, give me specific feedback on that, and I will improve it accordingly. Then I will try to apply that knowledge to my story. Since it will entail many major action sequences in the near future, I felt this was a neccesary step.
Saturday, January 22, 2005
Revival - Chapter 12: Teresa's assignment
It wasn't a fair fight. The guy was bigger, stronger, and had the element of surprise. I ducked out of the way just in time to avoid being bitten, then sort of spun out of his grip. Whatever I did, it worked. I managed to get away for a moment. I ran towards the house. I wasn't sure what I'd do when I got there, but I figured I'd decide that later. Unfortunately, it didn't come to that. I got maybe five feet before he grabbed me again. He didn't chase me, he just sort of glided over to me. I wrestled with him as best I could, moved my neck around as he tried to bite it, but there was no way I could last very long like that. I thought I was done for.
Interestingly enough, it was about then that it occured to me that the guy was probably a vampire. This might seem really slow of me, but you have to remember, back then we still thought they were extinct - the last vampire was supposed to have perished sixty years ago in the war. I remember realizing that if a vampire bites you, it starts a chemical reaction in your blood that turns you into a vampire within a week - I'd done a report on it for my biology class last year. The knowledge that a fate worse than death awaited me was enough to inspire me to one final attack. I used one of my legs to kick his leg out from under him, trying to knock him off balance. He didn't seem to notice.
I was out of tricks. I could feel his cold hands on my shoulder and arm, as he pulled me in towards his mouth. Then suddenly I heard roar coming from behind him. Two golden, scaly claws grabbed him and pulled him rather forcefully off of me. As soon as I was free, I ran the opposite direction as fast as I could. I turned to look and saw the battle.
My rescuer was about the size and shape of a human, but the resemblance ended there. It was covered in bright, golden scales on it's arms, legs, and head. It's body probably was too, but it was covered up. Oddly enough, it was wearing a blue halter top and jean shorts. It had a lizard-like head with a mane like a lion, except made of very thick strands of hair - almost like tentacles. Two large, leathery wings were folded on its back. It was breathing a stream of fire onto my assailant. The flaming vampire took off and drifted away towards the moon.
The creature walked towards me. It moved very gracefully, in a feline sort of way. As it moved, it transformed. The wings sunk into the back, the leather scales flattened themselves into the skin, and the head seemed to morph itself inward. Standing before me, by the time she arrived, was a perfectly normal looking human woman, probably in her mid-twenties.
Well, not perfectly normal. Exceptionally beautiful. Her ethnicity was hard to pinpoint - there was definately some Asian, but also hints of Hispanic. She had shoulder-length brown hair, round, full cheeks and a very well-formed body. She was not smiling- in fact, she looked rather upset - but I was so happy to be dealing with an attractive young woman instead of a scaly monster that it didn't seem to matter.
"Umm... thanks?" I offered.
"I warned you not to do any exploring, Skyler," she said contemptuosly. "The enemy doesn't waste time. Now that he knows you're under protection, he'll be sending a more powerful force soon. And I might not be there to help,"
Suddenly it dawned on me to whom I was speaking. "So you're Dragon girl," I said, "It fits,"
"The name's Teresa Willard," she said, holding out her hand, "No 'H'"
"Skyler Woods Brimmer the sixth," I said, then added after a moment, "Although I suspect you already know that,"
"Yes," said Teresa, "I've had my share of dealings with the Brimmer family. Believe me, this was not my first choice of assignment,"
"Who assigned you here?" I asked.
"All in good time," said the woman, "You'll find out soon enough. Right now I have to figure out what to do about you,"
She started walking through the woods. I followed.
"What do you mean?" I asked, when I caught up with her.
"The enemy now knows your location, and probably suspects you're trying to develop your powers," she answered. "Furthermore, he knows you have a fully trained draconic protecting you. Next time it's not gonna be single vampire. It's probably going to be a dragon humter to deal ith me and four or five tougher vampires or just general thugs, to make sure you get taken out of the picture. You may have to get away for a while. Is that managable?"
I thought about it. Leaving right now would be darn inconvenient; it was the beginning of a new semester, I'd probably have to make up a bunch of school, and if I didn't take the test soon, my driver's ed credit would expire. In retrospect all that seems pretty insignificant, but at the time, It mattered a lot more.
"I'd rather not," I answered.
"Well, It may prove unavoidable," said Teresa, "But I'll see if I can get you increased protection. Stay on your guard, and try not to be out after dark. And I'd start carrying a wooden stake. A cross necklace wouldn't be a bad idea, either. YOu go to church?"
"Usually," I said, "But my dad owns a funeral parlor. There's religious stuff all over the place,"
We came out of the woods by a road. A small blue Mazda was parked on the shoulder.
"Need a ride home?" she asked.
I told her it would be nice, and I climbed in. Teresa reached over, picked up a large trash bag, and threw it in the back. The cars interior smelled heavily of garlic.
"There's some extra stakes in the back," she told me, "I'll get you one before I go. Not that I'm going far,"
"How long have you been following me?" I asked her.
"Since you typed 'Lisa Brimmer' into a search engine and set off our alarms," she answered.
"Why am I important enough to assign someone to watch me?" I asked. "For that matter, why am I important enough to send someone to kill me?"
"You're name makes you important enough," she answered, "There has never been a 'Skyler Woods Brimmer' who didn't cause they enemy major problems. I suspect the thought of getting the next one before he could defend himself would be quite tempting,"
"So my grandfather -" I began, but she cut me off.
"No more questions," she said, "I've already told you more than I'm authorized to. I'll answer your questions once I've cleared them through my superiors,"
"Okay," I said. There was a long silence.
"So what are you allowed to tell me?" I asked.
"Strictly speaking," she answered, "I've already told you too much. You like Journey?"
"What?" I asked
"The band," she answered, "Journey. Most of what I have in here is either either techno-punk or Broadway, but you seem like more of an eighties music type to me,"
So there was no more talk of draconics or vampires. The rest of the trip was spent listening to "Don't Stop Believing," and singing along. I got out of the car holding a wooden tent stake and a small bag of garlic, along with a small piece of paper containing her cell phone number. I had had enough excitement for one night, so I crawled into my bed, and went to sleep.
Interestingly enough, it was about then that it occured to me that the guy was probably a vampire. This might seem really slow of me, but you have to remember, back then we still thought they were extinct - the last vampire was supposed to have perished sixty years ago in the war. I remember realizing that if a vampire bites you, it starts a chemical reaction in your blood that turns you into a vampire within a week - I'd done a report on it for my biology class last year. The knowledge that a fate worse than death awaited me was enough to inspire me to one final attack. I used one of my legs to kick his leg out from under him, trying to knock him off balance. He didn't seem to notice.
I was out of tricks. I could feel his cold hands on my shoulder and arm, as he pulled me in towards his mouth. Then suddenly I heard roar coming from behind him. Two golden, scaly claws grabbed him and pulled him rather forcefully off of me. As soon as I was free, I ran the opposite direction as fast as I could. I turned to look and saw the battle.
My rescuer was about the size and shape of a human, but the resemblance ended there. It was covered in bright, golden scales on it's arms, legs, and head. It's body probably was too, but it was covered up. Oddly enough, it was wearing a blue halter top and jean shorts. It had a lizard-like head with a mane like a lion, except made of very thick strands of hair - almost like tentacles. Two large, leathery wings were folded on its back. It was breathing a stream of fire onto my assailant. The flaming vampire took off and drifted away towards the moon.
The creature walked towards me. It moved very gracefully, in a feline sort of way. As it moved, it transformed. The wings sunk into the back, the leather scales flattened themselves into the skin, and the head seemed to morph itself inward. Standing before me, by the time she arrived, was a perfectly normal looking human woman, probably in her mid-twenties.
Well, not perfectly normal. Exceptionally beautiful. Her ethnicity was hard to pinpoint - there was definately some Asian, but also hints of Hispanic. She had shoulder-length brown hair, round, full cheeks and a very well-formed body. She was not smiling- in fact, she looked rather upset - but I was so happy to be dealing with an attractive young woman instead of a scaly monster that it didn't seem to matter.
"Umm... thanks?" I offered.
"I warned you not to do any exploring, Skyler," she said contemptuosly. "The enemy doesn't waste time. Now that he knows you're under protection, he'll be sending a more powerful force soon. And I might not be there to help,"
Suddenly it dawned on me to whom I was speaking. "So you're Dragon girl," I said, "It fits,"
"The name's Teresa Willard," she said, holding out her hand, "No 'H'"
"Skyler Woods Brimmer the sixth," I said, then added after a moment, "Although I suspect you already know that,"
"Yes," said Teresa, "I've had my share of dealings with the Brimmer family. Believe me, this was not my first choice of assignment,"
"Who assigned you here?" I asked.
"All in good time," said the woman, "You'll find out soon enough. Right now I have to figure out what to do about you,"
She started walking through the woods. I followed.
"What do you mean?" I asked, when I caught up with her.
"The enemy now knows your location, and probably suspects you're trying to develop your powers," she answered. "Furthermore, he knows you have a fully trained draconic protecting you. Next time it's not gonna be single vampire. It's probably going to be a dragon humter to deal ith me and four or five tougher vampires or just general thugs, to make sure you get taken out of the picture. You may have to get away for a while. Is that managable?"
I thought about it. Leaving right now would be darn inconvenient; it was the beginning of a new semester, I'd probably have to make up a bunch of school, and if I didn't take the test soon, my driver's ed credit would expire. In retrospect all that seems pretty insignificant, but at the time, It mattered a lot more.
"I'd rather not," I answered.
"Well, It may prove unavoidable," said Teresa, "But I'll see if I can get you increased protection. Stay on your guard, and try not to be out after dark. And I'd start carrying a wooden stake. A cross necklace wouldn't be a bad idea, either. YOu go to church?"
"Usually," I said, "But my dad owns a funeral parlor. There's religious stuff all over the place,"
We came out of the woods by a road. A small blue Mazda was parked on the shoulder.
"Need a ride home?" she asked.
I told her it would be nice, and I climbed in. Teresa reached over, picked up a large trash bag, and threw it in the back. The cars interior smelled heavily of garlic.
"There's some extra stakes in the back," she told me, "I'll get you one before I go. Not that I'm going far,"
"How long have you been following me?" I asked her.
"Since you typed 'Lisa Brimmer' into a search engine and set off our alarms," she answered.
"Why am I important enough to assign someone to watch me?" I asked. "For that matter, why am I important enough to send someone to kill me?"
"You're name makes you important enough," she answered, "There has never been a 'Skyler Woods Brimmer' who didn't cause they enemy major problems. I suspect the thought of getting the next one before he could defend himself would be quite tempting,"
"So my grandfather -" I began, but she cut me off.
"No more questions," she said, "I've already told you more than I'm authorized to. I'll answer your questions once I've cleared them through my superiors,"
"Okay," I said. There was a long silence.
"So what are you allowed to tell me?" I asked.
"Strictly speaking," she answered, "I've already told you too much. You like Journey?"
"What?" I asked
"The band," she answered, "Journey. Most of what I have in here is either either techno-punk or Broadway, but you seem like more of an eighties music type to me,"
So there was no more talk of draconics or vampires. The rest of the trip was spent listening to "Don't Stop Believing," and singing along. I got out of the car holding a wooden tent stake and a small bag of garlic, along with a small piece of paper containing her cell phone number. I had had enough excitement for one night, so I crawled into my bed, and went to sleep.
Thursday, January 20, 2005
Revival - Chapter 11: The Heist
The next day was Friday, and it was time to get the plan underway. Jason had made sure Marissa would be waiting for hime around 7:30 - quite how he'd accomplished this, I wasn't sure. Regardless, this gave us about an hour and a half, after the Anderson's had finally left with Fay and Zhong, to find the keys. Jason and Fay had told me what they knew about their parents' standard hiding places, from similar experiences over the years. Jason had then gone to search their room. I felt a little uneasy searching someone else's house, but on the other hand it was kind of exciting. Plus, we were just trying to get back something that rightfully belonged to Jason and Fay. It's not like we were trying to steal anything.
I was in the basement, digging through various boxes and things. Not actually opening them- apparently the Andersons would never hide anything small in a large place, because of when Mr. Anderson lost his Social Security card. But apparently, there was precedent for them hiding a fairly flat object by taping it to the bottom of a box, although Fay doubted they'd try something like that twice. Still, I figured I'd check all the boxes.
As I removed one box from the side of the wall, I was given a bit of a scare by what appeared to be a full suit of medievil armor. I resolved to ask Jason about it. I finished the rest of the boxes and went upstairs for my next assignment.
"Hey" said Jason, as he rummaged through a kitchen drawer. He looked up and hald up a small, but normal-looking key. "I think this is the key to the shed. Go check it while I look for the other one,"
"Sure," I answered. he handed me the key and went back to his work. I turned to go, then stopped and asked him, "Why do you have a suit of armor in your basement?"
"A suit of what?" he asked, somewhat startled.
"Armor," I responded, "Like, old medievil stuff,"
"You're kidding," he answered, "Where?"
"Behind some boxes, I'll show you later," I turned to leave.
"Great," he said as I walked out.
The key fit the lock on the old shed perfectly, and, after a little coaxing, I managed to get it to turn. Actually opening the door was harder still, but eventually it slid open without major incident. Inside was Harvey, and a helmet, along with some tools and a few cans of gasoline. I walked over to to Harvey. It - he? - seemed like so much more than a common vehicle. Noble, somehow, like a trusty steed. I could see why it had such a pull on Jason. In fact, I was having trouble pulling my eyes off of it myself. I was still standing there when Jason came in behind me.
"Hey," he said. It startled me - I hadn't noticed him coming in. He was wearing a leather Javket and looked pretty much ready to go.
"I found the key," he said. "I'm gonna go. Lock the shed behind me and leave the key in my mother's left bathroom drawer. Thanks for your help,"
He puled the helmet on and jumped on Harvey's back. Maybe it's just my mind jumbling it with the armor I'd just seen, but something about Jason on that motorcycle seemed very knightly.
"How you getting home?" he asked
"Bus," I said, "I've got faire,"
"Sure you don't want a ride?" he asked.
"No," I answered, "I'm good. Good luck tonight,"
"Thanks man," he said. He zoomed off.
I locked up the shed, put back the key, and I was about to start off on my walk to the bus stop when I noticed the track left by the motorcycle tires on the snow. It was getting dark, but I didn't want to risk leaving such an obvious sign. Besides, I'd always had an especially high tolerance for cold. I selected a large branch from the wooded area behind the house and tried to do that thing people do in the movies, where they cover their tracks with large branches. It didn't go especially well, but it did look better than it had before. It was quite dark by the time I'd finished. I took the branch back to the woods, and had just set it down when I fet something. Two cold hands had set themelves on my shoulders. I turned around just in time. The guy was trying to bite me. He was freakishly strong, to - I could barely turn around. The man had pale white skin and dark hair, and glowing red eyes. His mouth was open, revealing two large fangs. And he was pulling me towards him.
I was in the basement, digging through various boxes and things. Not actually opening them- apparently the Andersons would never hide anything small in a large place, because of when Mr. Anderson lost his Social Security card. But apparently, there was precedent for them hiding a fairly flat object by taping it to the bottom of a box, although Fay doubted they'd try something like that twice. Still, I figured I'd check all the boxes.
As I removed one box from the side of the wall, I was given a bit of a scare by what appeared to be a full suit of medievil armor. I resolved to ask Jason about it. I finished the rest of the boxes and went upstairs for my next assignment.
"Hey" said Jason, as he rummaged through a kitchen drawer. He looked up and hald up a small, but normal-looking key. "I think this is the key to the shed. Go check it while I look for the other one,"
"Sure," I answered. he handed me the key and went back to his work. I turned to go, then stopped and asked him, "Why do you have a suit of armor in your basement?"
"A suit of what?" he asked, somewhat startled.
"Armor," I responded, "Like, old medievil stuff,"
"You're kidding," he answered, "Where?"
"Behind some boxes, I'll show you later," I turned to leave.
"Great," he said as I walked out.
The key fit the lock on the old shed perfectly, and, after a little coaxing, I managed to get it to turn. Actually opening the door was harder still, but eventually it slid open without major incident. Inside was Harvey, and a helmet, along with some tools and a few cans of gasoline. I walked over to to Harvey. It - he? - seemed like so much more than a common vehicle. Noble, somehow, like a trusty steed. I could see why it had such a pull on Jason. In fact, I was having trouble pulling my eyes off of it myself. I was still standing there when Jason came in behind me.
"Hey," he said. It startled me - I hadn't noticed him coming in. He was wearing a leather Javket and looked pretty much ready to go.
"I found the key," he said. "I'm gonna go. Lock the shed behind me and leave the key in my mother's left bathroom drawer. Thanks for your help,"
He puled the helmet on and jumped on Harvey's back. Maybe it's just my mind jumbling it with the armor I'd just seen, but something about Jason on that motorcycle seemed very knightly.
"How you getting home?" he asked
"Bus," I said, "I've got faire,"
"Sure you don't want a ride?" he asked.
"No," I answered, "I'm good. Good luck tonight,"
"Thanks man," he said. He zoomed off.
I locked up the shed, put back the key, and I was about to start off on my walk to the bus stop when I noticed the track left by the motorcycle tires on the snow. It was getting dark, but I didn't want to risk leaving such an obvious sign. Besides, I'd always had an especially high tolerance for cold. I selected a large branch from the wooded area behind the house and tried to do that thing people do in the movies, where they cover their tracks with large branches. It didn't go especially well, but it did look better than it had before. It was quite dark by the time I'd finished. I took the branch back to the woods, and had just set it down when I fet something. Two cold hands had set themelves on my shoulders. I turned around just in time. The guy was trying to bite me. He was freakishly strong, to - I could barely turn around. The man had pale white skin and dark hair, and glowing red eyes. His mouth was open, revealing two large fangs. And he was pulling me towards him.
Tuesday, January 18, 2005
Revival - Chapter 10: My first mistake
For the next few days, it looked like I might have a normal life. No startling revelations, no mysterious IMs telling me what not to do, no unidentified voices - I was actually starting to forget about things.
Thursday afternoon, as I was thinking over all this, it occured to me that I really knew very little about draconics, the MFA, or any of this bussiness. I decided to just do some basic research. I had barely typed "Draconic" into Google when I recieved an IM.
dragon_gurl'01: Skyler, what are you doing?
It was her again. I was sick of this. I wasn't going to let her stop me. I ignored her and clicked on the first link.
dragon_gurl'01: Get off that site right now, Skyler
dragon_gurl'01: We talked about this
We hadn't talked about anything. In our last conversation she'd done nothing but repeatedly tell me to stop looking up my mother. I typed my reply:
The6th: No we didn't
The6th: I still don't know who you are
dragon_gurl'01: I'm a friend, ok?
dragon_gurl'01: The enemy isn't tracking you nearly as closely as we are, but he might have filters for some keywords
dragon_gurl'01: We can't take any chances with you
The6th: who is this enemy you keep talking about?
The6th: and why are you tracking me so closely?
dragon_gurl'01: I'll explain that all eventually, but for now you have to trust us
dragon_gurl'01: Get off that website, ok?
No one likes being kept in the dark. I was fed up with this. I decided to use the only card I had.
The6th: Tell me who you are and what's going on, or I'll type "I am Skyler Woods Brimmer and a powerful draconic" into Google!
dragon_gurl'01: Don't be an idiot, Skyler
dragon_gurl'01: He has eyes everywhere, and he'd like nothing better than to catch the heir to the Brimmer family unawares and with no powers
dragon_gurl'01: Now you have two options: Do as we say and live a relatively normal life, or keep looking for answers, and some morning very soon you'll wake up dead
She was right; I'm not stupid. And I wasn't going to risk that she might be telling the truth. I signed off of the internet and, just to be safe, deleted my history files. Before I signed off of IM, though, I sent a final message.
The6th: You sure there's nothing else you can tell me?
dragon_gurl'01: All in good time. For now the less you know, the better. Trust us, Skyler. We'll keep you safe.
I was still a little uneasy about the whole thing, but there wasn't really much I could do. I signed off and went to do some homework.
Thursday afternoon, as I was thinking over all this, it occured to me that I really knew very little about draconics, the MFA, or any of this bussiness. I decided to just do some basic research. I had barely typed "Draconic" into Google when I recieved an IM.
dragon_gurl'01: Skyler, what are you doing?
It was her again. I was sick of this. I wasn't going to let her stop me. I ignored her and clicked on the first link.
dragon_gurl'01: Get off that site right now, Skyler
dragon_gurl'01: We talked about this
We hadn't talked about anything. In our last conversation she'd done nothing but repeatedly tell me to stop looking up my mother. I typed my reply:
The6th: No we didn't
The6th: I still don't know who you are
dragon_gurl'01: I'm a friend, ok?
dragon_gurl'01: The enemy isn't tracking you nearly as closely as we are, but he might have filters for some keywords
dragon_gurl'01: We can't take any chances with you
The6th: who is this enemy you keep talking about?
The6th: and why are you tracking me so closely?
dragon_gurl'01: I'll explain that all eventually, but for now you have to trust us
dragon_gurl'01: Get off that website, ok?
No one likes being kept in the dark. I was fed up with this. I decided to use the only card I had.
The6th: Tell me who you are and what's going on, or I'll type "I am Skyler Woods Brimmer and a powerful draconic" into Google!
dragon_gurl'01: Don't be an idiot, Skyler
dragon_gurl'01: He has eyes everywhere, and he'd like nothing better than to catch the heir to the Brimmer family unawares and with no powers
dragon_gurl'01: Now you have two options: Do as we say and live a relatively normal life, or keep looking for answers, and some morning very soon you'll wake up dead
She was right; I'm not stupid. And I wasn't going to risk that she might be telling the truth. I signed off of the internet and, just to be safe, deleted my history files. Before I signed off of IM, though, I sent a final message.
The6th: You sure there's nothing else you can tell me?
dragon_gurl'01: All in good time. For now the less you know, the better. Trust us, Skyler. We'll keep you safe.
I was still a little uneasy about the whole thing, but there wasn't really much I could do. I signed off and went to do some homework.
Sunday, January 16, 2005
Revival - Chapter 9: Plotting
The next day I couldn't focus on anything. There was just so much weird stuff going on - PreCalculus just didn't seem important. After school Jason gave me a lift over to Zhong's house to figure out how -and possibly if and why - we were going to steal Harvey. Zhong's mother opened the door, welcomed us in, and said something that was clearly meant to be in English but I couldn't for the life of me understand. I asked her to repeat it, but I was just as lost, so I decided to just let it slip. Zhong was apparently not home yet, and none of us spoke any Mandarin, so further attempts at communication seemed rather pointless. It was rather akward.
We were all rather glad when Zhong and her father showed up. Mr. Hua had about as much English as his wife. He muttered a few friendly, yet incomprehensible words to us then headed up stairs. It suddenly occured to me something Zhong had mentioned last night.
"You're dad gives presentations about his work, doesn't he?" I asked her.
"Yeah, he was giving one last night," she answered.
"Doesn't he need better English for that?" I asked.
"You'd think so," she answered, "Here's the thing. He can write in English just fine - it's speaking and understanding he has trouble with. So he memorizes the presentation, then when it comes time for questions, I translate. That's what I was helping with,"
"Ah," I said. It seemed to make enough sense.
"Well," said Jason, "Let's get started, shall we?"
There was a murmer of agreement.
"Ok," he continued, "Here's the plan so far: Faye is going to create some sort of diversion and lure the parents away from the house. Zhong, you can help with that if you like, it would keep you from being implicated if things went wrong. Sound good?"
"Umm.. sure," she answered, seeming a bit perplexed.
"Skyler, you and I need to spread out around my house and find two keys - one to the shed where Harvey is being held, and the key to Harvey himself. Since nothing else is kept in that shed, we should be able to remove Harvey to a new location and have use of him for sometime before the parents suspect anything. I take him, you lock the shed, then hand me the key and I'll go to a locksmith's and have copy's made. That way, I'll be able to get in and out whenever I need to. Any questions?"
"Umm," I raised my hand, "Just one. Why are we doing all this again?"
"Marissa," Jason answered, "She swoons over guys with motorcycles. Trust me on this, okay? Her friend Haley's single. I could set you two up if this goes well," He winked.
"No thanks," I answered. Haley was clearly out of m league and I didn't really care. I had more pressing matters to think about.
"When are we doing this?" asked Faye, who had been unusually silent up until this point.
"That depends on two things," answered her brother, "When we're all free, and when Marissa is free. I trust your diversion is flexible?"
"Oh definately," said Faye, "You know how good I am at sweet-talking people. I can keep mom and dad driving around for hours. You just leave that to me,"
"Ok then," he said "Anyone have plans Friday afternoon?"
"Are you kidding me?" I asked. I hadn't had a date since sophmore year - hadn't really wanted one, to be honest.
"It's settled then," he stated, with finality, "Friday after school, the heist begins,"
Since we still had some time before had to go home, we hung around for a while. We played doubles Ping-Pong in the garage, but Jason and I kept losing- Zhong is freakishly good at that game. A while later I had to go to the bathroom - the downstairs one was in use, so I headed upstairs. As I walked past an office, I heard an unfamiliar voice.
It wasn't saying anything unusual. Just a lot of yes's and no's - the boring half of a phone conversation. The voice was strong, male, and unnaccented. It sounded vaguely familiar, but I couldn't pinpoint from where. I asked Zhong about it when I got downstairs.
"Hey," I asked, "Is there anybody else staying with you?"
"No," she answered, in her frequently perplexed manner, "Why?"
"I just heard a voice, that's all," I said
"Must have been the ghost," Faye joked, "This house is built on an old Dakota burial ground,"
"Maybe it was just the radio?" Zhong suggested.
"Probably," I answered. I might have been the radio. It was possible, I supposed. I decided just to let it slide. In an hour or so, it was time to go home. I severely hoped I wouldn't find things too much stranger than when I left.
We were all rather glad when Zhong and her father showed up. Mr. Hua had about as much English as his wife. He muttered a few friendly, yet incomprehensible words to us then headed up stairs. It suddenly occured to me something Zhong had mentioned last night.
"You're dad gives presentations about his work, doesn't he?" I asked her.
"Yeah, he was giving one last night," she answered.
"Doesn't he need better English for that?" I asked.
"You'd think so," she answered, "Here's the thing. He can write in English just fine - it's speaking and understanding he has trouble with. So he memorizes the presentation, then when it comes time for questions, I translate. That's what I was helping with,"
"Ah," I said. It seemed to make enough sense.
"Well," said Jason, "Let's get started, shall we?"
There was a murmer of agreement.
"Ok," he continued, "Here's the plan so far: Faye is going to create some sort of diversion and lure the parents away from the house. Zhong, you can help with that if you like, it would keep you from being implicated if things went wrong. Sound good?"
"Umm.. sure," she answered, seeming a bit perplexed.
"Skyler, you and I need to spread out around my house and find two keys - one to the shed where Harvey is being held, and the key to Harvey himself. Since nothing else is kept in that shed, we should be able to remove Harvey to a new location and have use of him for sometime before the parents suspect anything. I take him, you lock the shed, then hand me the key and I'll go to a locksmith's and have copy's made. That way, I'll be able to get in and out whenever I need to. Any questions?"
"Umm," I raised my hand, "Just one. Why are we doing all this again?"
"Marissa," Jason answered, "She swoons over guys with motorcycles. Trust me on this, okay? Her friend Haley's single. I could set you two up if this goes well," He winked.
"No thanks," I answered. Haley was clearly out of m league and I didn't really care. I had more pressing matters to think about.
"When are we doing this?" asked Faye, who had been unusually silent up until this point.
"That depends on two things," answered her brother, "When we're all free, and when Marissa is free. I trust your diversion is flexible?"
"Oh definately," said Faye, "You know how good I am at sweet-talking people. I can keep mom and dad driving around for hours. You just leave that to me,"
"Ok then," he said "Anyone have plans Friday afternoon?"
"Are you kidding me?" I asked. I hadn't had a date since sophmore year - hadn't really wanted one, to be honest.
"It's settled then," he stated, with finality, "Friday after school, the heist begins,"
Since we still had some time before had to go home, we hung around for a while. We played doubles Ping-Pong in the garage, but Jason and I kept losing- Zhong is freakishly good at that game. A while later I had to go to the bathroom - the downstairs one was in use, so I headed upstairs. As I walked past an office, I heard an unfamiliar voice.
It wasn't saying anything unusual. Just a lot of yes's and no's - the boring half of a phone conversation. The voice was strong, male, and unnaccented. It sounded vaguely familiar, but I couldn't pinpoint from where. I asked Zhong about it when I got downstairs.
"Hey," I asked, "Is there anybody else staying with you?"
"No," she answered, in her frequently perplexed manner, "Why?"
"I just heard a voice, that's all," I said
"Must have been the ghost," Faye joked, "This house is built on an old Dakota burial ground,"
"Maybe it was just the radio?" Zhong suggested.
"Probably," I answered. I might have been the radio. It was possible, I supposed. I decided just to let it slide. In an hour or so, it was time to go home. I severely hoped I wouldn't find things too much stranger than when I left.
Saturday, January 15, 2005
Arrghh!
Ok. So I decided to go see Amy's concert instead of going to my Grandma's birthday dinner at Olive Garden. It was unfortunate, but it was a decision I was ok with - missing my Grandma's birthday for my girlfriend's concert. Accept, it didn't go that way. Instead, spent my evening standing out in the cold waiting to be picked up for that concert, while my family was all enjoying there meal at olive garden.The concert's been going on for twenty minutes now. Amy's gonna be upset I wasn't there, and I feel like I've wasted my day.
Saturday, January 08, 2005
I want to apologize to everyone I've been an ass to over the last few days. I don't have any excuses, but you wouldn't want to hear them anyway. I apologize and I admit that I was wrong about a lot of stuff.
And Sarah: Thanks for talking some sense into me.
If you're not one of the people I'm talking to, ignore this.
And Sarah: Thanks for talking some sense into me.
If you're not one of the people I'm talking to, ignore this.
Monday, January 03, 2005
Revival - Chapter 8: magicasian89
The6th: Hey
magicasian89: Oh, hey.
magicasian89: what's the thing tomorrow about?
The6th: We're gonna steal a motorcycle
magicasian89: Harvey?
The6th: yup.
magicasian89: I think I might sit this one out.
The6th: understandable
magicasian89: he doing this for Marissa?
The6th: Who knows? His mind works in strange ways
magicasian89: you could say that about any of us
The6th: lol true.
magicasian89: brb.
The6th: k
magicasian89 is away at 7:15 PM
magicasian89 returned at 7:35 PM
magicasian89: Sorry that took so long
The6th: 's ok
magicasian89: My father needed help with one of his demonstrations
The6th: You run the projector or something?
magicasian89: something like that
The6th: Something weird happened while you were gone
magicasian89: really
The6th: This girl just randomly started IMing me
The6th: At least I think it was a girl
magicasian89: You know her?
The6th: no
The6th: but she seemed to know a lot about me
The6th: wouldn't tell me who she was
The6th: it was kinda creepy
magicasian89: sure it's not just your sister playing as joke on you?
The6th: I really don't think so
The6th: her sn bothered me too
magicasian89: what was it?
The6th: dragon_gurl'01
magicasian89: what was she talking to you abuot?
magicasian89: *about
The6th: stuff she had no way of knowing
magicasian89: like what?
The6th: I can't say
magicasian89: ah
magicasian89: listen
magicasian89: If you ever need someone to talk to
magicasian89: I know what it's like having something like this going on and not be able to tell anyone.
The6th: Why's that?
magicasian89: I can't say
magicasian89: I wish I could tell you Sky, I really do
magicasian89: I have to go
The6th: see you tomorow
magicasian89: bye
magicasian89 signed off at 7:51 PM
magicasian89: Oh, hey.
magicasian89: what's the thing tomorrow about?
The6th: We're gonna steal a motorcycle
magicasian89: Harvey?
The6th: yup.
magicasian89: I think I might sit this one out.
The6th: understandable
magicasian89: he doing this for Marissa?
The6th: Who knows? His mind works in strange ways
magicasian89: you could say that about any of us
The6th: lol true.
magicasian89: brb.
The6th: k
magicasian89 is away at 7:15 PM
magicasian89 returned at 7:35 PM
magicasian89: Sorry that took so long
The6th: 's ok
magicasian89: My father needed help with one of his demonstrations
The6th: You run the projector or something?
magicasian89: something like that
The6th: Something weird happened while you were gone
magicasian89: really
The6th: This girl just randomly started IMing me
The6th: At least I think it was a girl
magicasian89: You know her?
The6th: no
The6th: but she seemed to know a lot about me
The6th: wouldn't tell me who she was
The6th: it was kinda creepy
magicasian89: sure it's not just your sister playing as joke on you?
The6th: I really don't think so
The6th: her sn bothered me too
magicasian89: what was it?
The6th: dragon_gurl'01
magicasian89: what was she talking to you abuot?
magicasian89: *about
The6th: stuff she had no way of knowing
magicasian89: like what?
The6th: I can't say
magicasian89: ah
magicasian89: listen
magicasian89: If you ever need someone to talk to
magicasian89: I know what it's like having something like this going on and not be able to tell anyone.
The6th: Why's that?
magicasian89: I can't say
magicasian89: I wish I could tell you Sky, I really do
magicasian89: I have to go
The6th: see you tomorow
magicasian89: bye
magicasian89 signed off at 7:51 PM
Revival - Chapter 7: A Plea for Help
I tried not to think about it. The whole bus ride home I tried to purge my mind of all of this - my mother, my genes, what would happen when someone found out - all the questions. When I got home I tried to focus on homework, but my curiosity got the better of me. I got on the computer and googled "Lisa Brimmer".
After sifting through several sites devoted to an Olympic tennis player and cast and crew lists for community theatre shows in the Chicago area (Choreographed by Lisa Brimmer), I finally found a link that might have applied my mother. Unfortunately, the link was broken. I found the imdb profile of a rather unsuccessful actress (possibly the same woman as the choreographer, I mused) and tried several other dead ends before giving up in frustration. I was going to need outside help. Fortunately, I knew just where to get it.
I had opened my e-mail box and was about to start composing my plea when I got a phone call from Jason. He was just calling to confirm that we were meeting at Zhong's house tomorrow night around four. I said I'd be there as soon as I could. The distraction would be a welcome one.
I sat down and began composing the e-mail, telling everything I'd discovered, and then...
I deleted the whole thing. Some information is just to sensitive to trust the internet. Maybe I was starting to give a little too much credence to Mora's "The government screens your e-mails" theory, but something was telling me not to commit any of this to writing. It would be like having a written confession - irrefutable proof. Unfortunately, I didn't really have a more reliable method for sending messages. Phone lines could easily be tapped, especially long-distance. I could write a letter in code, but I got the feeling that was the sort of thing that worked far better in novels than in real life. Still I figured I'd try. The worst that could happen was that Catherine would recieve a horribly confusing letter, which she'd probably ignore anyway. The code had to be subtle, yet obvious enough that she'd see it. I puzzled over it for a while then started writing.
Dear Catherine,
How are you? Really good, or just minorly good? I'm great here! Is everything alright with Vince? We are anxious to hear from you. Send me an e-mail sometime, you rarely do these days. Could you not write or call more often? Seeing as we -
I stopped and looked at I was writing. Far to obvious. Minorly good? It didn't flow naturally at all, and once you realized some letters were bolded you found the code immediately. Plus she'd broken up with Vince a month ago. There was no point in this. I didn't know why I was being so paranoid. It didn't matter. I was going to have to either wait until my sister came home for break to ask her about this or risk traditional methods of communication, neither of which I liked. At the moment though, there was nothing I could do about it.
After sifting through several sites devoted to an Olympic tennis player and cast and crew lists for community theatre shows in the Chicago area (Choreographed by Lisa Brimmer), I finally found a link that might have applied my mother. Unfortunately, the link was broken. I found the imdb profile of a rather unsuccessful actress (possibly the same woman as the choreographer, I mused) and tried several other dead ends before giving up in frustration. I was going to need outside help. Fortunately, I knew just where to get it.
I had opened my e-mail box and was about to start composing my plea when I got a phone call from Jason. He was just calling to confirm that we were meeting at Zhong's house tomorrow night around four. I said I'd be there as soon as I could. The distraction would be a welcome one.
I sat down and began composing the e-mail, telling everything I'd discovered, and then...
I deleted the whole thing. Some information is just to sensitive to trust the internet. Maybe I was starting to give a little too much credence to Mora's "The government screens your e-mails" theory, but something was telling me not to commit any of this to writing. It would be like having a written confession - irrefutable proof. Unfortunately, I didn't really have a more reliable method for sending messages. Phone lines could easily be tapped, especially long-distance. I could write a letter in code, but I got the feeling that was the sort of thing that worked far better in novels than in real life. Still I figured I'd try. The worst that could happen was that Catherine would recieve a horribly confusing letter, which she'd probably ignore anyway. The code had to be subtle, yet obvious enough that she'd see it. I puzzled over it for a while then started writing.
Dear Catherine,
How are you? Really good, or just minorly good? I'm great here! Is everything alright with Vince? We are anxious to hear from you. Send me an e-mail sometime, you rarely do these days. Could you not write or call more often? Seeing as we -
I stopped and looked at I was writing. Far to obvious. Minorly good? It didn't flow naturally at all, and once you realized some letters were bolded you found the code immediately. Plus she'd broken up with Vince a month ago. There was no point in this. I didn't know why I was being so paranoid. It didn't matter. I was going to have to either wait until my sister came home for break to ask her about this or risk traditional methods of communication, neither of which I liked. At the moment though, there was nothing I could do about it.
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