det writes stuff (w00t)


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Detneth106

7:54pm Jun 14 2013 (last edited on 2:09pm Aug 8 2013)

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Posts: 9,641
sometimes I write. sometimes it comes out well. here's the culmination of what I've written so far.
- det

-----

SUPERNOVA

When we kissed, somewhere in the distance, a supernova exploded. It swirled wide and far, planets flinging off into all corners of a great, vast universe. Our lips met, then parted, and movement ceased. These planets hung, glittering like stars, weighted and hung with strings of lead.

We drew closer and one world grew, expanded into something virile and alive. Seas rose and fell, land cracked, animals burst forth from the trees in passionate glory.

Below, two lovers skipped, hand in hand. They were weighed down only by their own troubles--of which, there were none. They frolicked over fields of violet grass, under the blaze of a cochineal sky. Free, free as the birds in the sky.

But our kiss turned to ice. We turned to ice. Our hands, our hearts, our souls--all turned to ice. Mid-leap our lovers halted, tresses and dresses billowing around them.

We parted, as lovers part, and our world began to melt. Viscous fluid dripped sluggishly, the colours running together until only a dead, dusty burnt sienna remained. Trees were felled by a thought, oceans dried with a look. The lovers struggled to hold on, arms wrapped so tightly around each other, as if to anchor themselves to a nonexistant point in time.

They, too, melted.

We left, said our goodbyes. Short, bittersweet. A melancholy affair. Our world hanged between us on lines of lead, cadaverous, with not a single puff of air to say it was alive.

But within, the tenacity of hope remained. A tiny seed, sweet in taste, though poisonous to mind and body, curled and asleep. Hidden.

We left without knowing that this barren world could give fruit again, if only we paused to breathe life onto that one seed.

Alone, we breathed. We huffed, we puffed, we blew our world down.

Nothing.

-----

TICK-TOCK

tick

She had told herself five minutes. Five minutes after the prescribed time, five minutes until she knew for certain if he was coming out of surgery or not. Really, she shouldn't be worrying about this, she berated herself. The doctors knew what they were doing. They had PhDs, Doctorates, all sorts of fancy titles and epithets that assured Will's life.

tick

She looked down at her watch anyway, stared unblinking as the seconds passed. The little hand moved in millimeters, jarring to the next line after every count of sixty. There had been too many seconds now; the little hand had reached the third line. Time was running out. She reached a hand up and brushed sweaty hairs to the side. Her fingers came away damp.

tick

Before, when they had rushed Will into emergency surgery, a nurse had yelled something in her ear. A 92% chance of success. Or was it failure? She would know soon. Maybe.

tick

One minute left. The doors burst open. Brown eyes rose, hand freezing midway as it tucked back her hair again. A nurse came out, trussed up in those sterile looking hospital scrubs. The nurse pulled the mask away from his face, then pulled off his latex gloves. All the while he was on a straight-on course for her seat.

He spoke, and his words came out rushed and slightly disjointed. Had he run all the way here? Or maybe it was her hearing? There was a faint buzzing in her ears, either way.

"M'am, there were complications, things we couldn't help. I am sorry to have to tell you this, but--"

tock

-----

TO TIMBUKTU AND BACK AGAIN

A funny thing happened on my way to my advanced Yiddish lessons yesterday. You don’t really expect this sort of stuff to happen in a sleepy town down south, but it did. I swear. Ma didn’t let me grow up to be a liar.

I was walking down the road, bag in hand and mumbling Yiddish verbs under my breath when, all of a sudden, a big shaggy dog ran across the road in front of me. Knowing me I screamed and almost fell over, but that wasn’t the end of it. A man was chasing after the dog (guess he was the owner?) and tripped right in front of me. He was muttering words Ma would skin me if I repeated under his breath and shaking his fist at the dog. By now, though, it was halfway to Timbuktu. That mister wasn’t getting his dog back. Nooo siree.

“Eh, you best leave off, mistah,” I said while offering a hand. He ignored me and got up all on his lonesome, giving me the evil eye now. “Hey! Ain’t my fault yer dog runned away. Gotta keep a tighter hand on ‘is leash.”

He glanced at the waving golden wheat and shrugged half-heartedly. Poor mister. “Nah, don’ think yer getting that there dog back either way. ‘E’s long gone.”

The man grumbled and brushed off his pants before turning to stare at the direction his ole doggy had run off to. “I don’t suppose there’s a thank you in order here, since you didn’t try to stop Smokey.”

“Gosh, yer stuffy.”

Then he walked off into the field of wheat, probably chasing his dog in a fool’s errand. Sometimes I do wonder about those fancy-talkin’ northerners, but as Ma would say: “It ain’t yer place to judge othas ‘til you’ve lived in them there shoes.”

So that was that strange event. I don’t know why the man was there, or why his dog was running, but I s’pose they’re long gone by now.

Maybe they’re even in Timbuktu.


-----

TEARS BEFORE KISSES

The departure came all too soon. Months turned to weeks, weeks turned to days, days turned to hours until hours were but nanoseconds that gathered in a buzzing cloud around me. It was a feeble attempt by my mind to mask the pain. My eyes flinched closed, I turned my shoulder. Tried not to hear her footsteps resonate against the stone walls.

The door sighed as it opened, then she breathed out, too. It whispered through the air and I felt the perfect 'o' of her lips press against my cheek. I caught it with trembling fingers. I would keep this in a cage of my own devising; keep it like I would never keep her.

"Bye," she said, the word too utterly mundane. 

I shrugged. "Yeah, bye," I echoed.

"You sound fairly heartbroken," she said. Wonderingly. Really, did it require so much thought? So many words? Love gained, love lost. No matter how I looked at it, the equation ended with a negative.

"Can't break what was never…there." I hesitated. "You're just prolonging it. There are things that must be attended to. Can we just—"

The door clicked shut. My eyes flickered, squinted in the harsh light. The door was closed and she was gone. My shoulders dropped. Well, that was that, wasn't it? I lifted my hand, still pressed tightly to my cheek, felt the kiss she'd given me flit away. What was it they said in primary school? Butterfingers, butterfingers! Wasn't that the unholy truth.

A hand smoothed up my neck. It wasn't mine. I flinched and twisted my head. Our eyes met and all I could see were cerulean orbs filled with tears. I thought, just for a moment, that she was crying the ocean.

Her lips touched mine, tentative at first, then gaining momentum. They didn't quite fit right against mine. My lips bowed, smiling, and we fell into place. A jigsaw puzzle completed, one that didn't match the image on the lid, but together nonetheless.

Ah.


-----

I DARE YOU TO WRITE: prompt

"Thank God I'm not you, then, huh?"

You could it see it the moment his lips twitched, responding to the comment in a slow-motion lag. The movement was languid. He took his time. One side of his mouth flattened, the other curling up. You could fairly feel the dry laughter oozing from his ex
pression.

"And, of course, I thank God every day that you are not," he replied, breaking the frozen plateau of his face, letting out a soft laugh. "Identity theft is illegal, after all." One eyebrow cocked and his mouth bowed again. 

I wanted to punch him.





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thornclaw

4:08pm Jul 31 2013

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Posts: 279
You have a nearly proffesional writing style, do you have any books or long stories, because I would be glhonored to read them :3



feel my wrath, feel the bask of my awesomeness, as i take my strides to ruling over the world and all of you with it!
Detneth106

9:33pm Jul 31 2013

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Posts: 9,641
aww, ty Thorn! Also I have a 'book' that I'm 'working' on right now, but 17k words in I decided to change the plot/setting completely and I'm back to square one. I can share the first chapter if you'd like, though. ;o;

I also have some longer flash fiction pieces too, hehe, if you like!




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thornclaw

9:03am Aug 2 2013

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Posts: 279
Yes please!



feel my wrath, feel the bask of my awesomeness, as i take my strides to ruling over the world and all of you with it!
Detneth106

1:58pm Aug 8 2013 (last edited on 9:27am Oct 10 2013)

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Posts: 9,641
CHAPTER 1: INCARNADINE

On the inside, Bangor is a perfectly respectable city. Its citizens pay their taxes on time, are pleased with their fairly elected government and the only crime they tend to commit is that of serial politeness. But an unseen line separates Bangor from its outer districts. This area is known as the Ward.

The outskirts of Bangor are an undignified sprawl. Dilapidated apartment buildings lean dangerously over the corners, threatening to fall on pedestrians with every creak and groan. The streets are filthy, tarmac hidden under layers of refuse, garbage and broken glass.
You could have called it suburb—by definition it was one, but to do so would make a mockery of the word. The houses here were not lined up in rows, and though all the buildings looked more or less the same, it was because they were all so derelict that they had long ago stopped looking like houses and started looking like wooden skeletons.

Mutants populate the Ward. Most are young—it is a rare mutant that manages to go through a midlife crisis—and all are brought up vicious and unforgiving. They form gangs, alliances, start wars and wreak havoc, eking out an existence in a worn-down suburban paradise.

And just a few kilometres outside Bangor, our story starts with a little thrill, an invisible girl and a broken ankle.

♦ ♦ ♦

I was hardly a stranger to violence, so when a scream shattered the silence, I barely flinched. My body simply faded ever so slightly, skin going transparent until the roof tiles were visible behind me. I guessed that the noise had come from a couple dozen metres to the southwest, to my left. I shaded my eyes against the sun, leaning over the edge of the roof just in time to see some figures streak past. A slight figure in white. A long ash-blonde queue of hair streamed out behind her. There was another yell, but this time the source was one of the three people behind the victim. One of them was waving a black weapon in his hand. It went off with a thunderous bang. Involuntarily, I jumped. I stuck my head out further and saw the bullet hit a drainage pipe with a pinging noise. A sudden barrage of gunshots. Bang, bang, bang. The figure in white ignored the shots and kept running. It looked like a typical Chase—an unprotected mutant stuck out on her own was easy pickings. And if she hadn’t fought back yet, she probably wouldn’t anytime soon.

Another shot lit up the air.

Sigh.

The only course of action was to ignore the scene, which I did without much encouragement. It was a live and let live kind of world, or if you were the other kind of person, live and let die. I swung my legs over the side of the roof, feet bumping against the edge. Hard to be afraid of being seen when you’re able to turn invisible, right? I watched the chase head down the street. It would be a while until they were out of sight—this was one of the main roads and went on forever.

Perhaps you’re thinking, “Hey, isn’t it like, horribly cruel to just let her die or whatever? Can’t you stop them?” But what do you expect me to say? I had a crew of my own, a crew I had to feed and protect. I refused to call them a gang, but that was close enough to the truth. We kept to ourselves, defended our territory and tried not to antagonize any of the top dogs in the area. The Chasers were familiar enough, all fancied up in black uniforms. It meant the Fishermen gang, led by Catfish Dixon, who had a bad sense of humour but was depraved enough to make up for it.

Eyes still on the scene, I noticed the girl in white take a sharp turn to the left. There were shouts and then a loud crash, the sound of something heavy falling over. Seconds later a small blonde head popped up, followed by an equally tiny body. The now determined girl heaved herself over the edge of the roof and seemed to gather herself for a moment. There was another yell and she was off like a shot, heading…heading straight toward me. Aw heck.

I disappeared completely, the translucence spreading out from my centre of gravity, sliding over my arms, legs, and head. It was just a moment before I was completely invisible, the only signs that I was there my beating heart and expanding lungs.

The lead she had on those men was extraordinary. She bounded over the rooftops with little effort, taking jumps I would never have dared. I wondered if that was her mutation, being one with the antelope or something like that.

I was painfully, utterly wrong.

She tripped on the last jump, her ankle bending strangely as she pushed off the edge of the roof. There was a noise halfway between a cry and a shriek when she landed just a few feet from where I was sitting. I froze. She couldn’t see me, not with my invisibility wholly turned on, but I felt almost like a deer caught in the headlights. She can’t see me, she can’t see me, she can’t see me, I repeated in my head. It was a tired mantra.

“Hey, canna get some 'elp o'er 'ere?” The voice was eerily calm. I glanced around and saw no one but her and myself. Which meant…

“Excuse me, Ah said—”

“I’m not ‘ere,” I whispered, a tad shaken. So she could see me. Could see me, was talking to me and clearly demanding help. I looked up, heard the frenetic thudding of boots on asphalt that signalled the arrival of the girl’s Chasers.

“Clearly y'are,” she hissed back. “I can bloody well see y'.Wat dom.” I looked down at her prone body. She was moving now, trying to prop herself up on thin arms.

 “Well, I shouldn’t be ‘ere. I mean, y’ shouldn’t be able to—” I paused, eyes trailing down her body to pause at her ankle. It looked broken, all bruised and bumpy where bumps ought not to be. I winced. “I can help y’ to your feet, but I won’t do anythin’ else. This is no business of mine.”

More bellows from down below. The girl looked behind her and frowned. "Whoeva they are, their leada is a fool for sendin' out Chasers tha’ can't free-run. Wot they gonna to do? Shout us down fro’ the rooftops?"

Unlike her casual reaction, I flinched at the noise, disliking how close her Chasers were. Nonetheless, my decision was quick, though it went against every rule that was ingrained into my very being. I had learnt the hard way not to care for those who weren’t a part of my family. And this girl was certainly no relative of mine. But I leaned over and grabbed her wrist, feeling my invisibility slide down my arm and sink into her body. I rationed that there was no point in getting spotted before I could sort the situation out.

"Naw, they'll likely get reinforcements. They're goin’a to leave soon, but they'll be back." 
Still, the strain was a lead weight as I fought to keep the both of us covered. I was frayed at the edges, quite literally, and keeping our two bodies closer to ‘mostly invisible’ rather than ‘vaguely invisible’ was starting to tax my mind. So what came next was utterly unexpected.
The girl got up, shook out her leg and squeezed her ankle once or twice with her free hand, face impassive. Her eyes met mine and she smiled, though it didn't quite reach her eyes. “I really ‘ate pain,” she said in way of explanation.
I just stared.

“Is it such a surprise tha’ I can heal mah-self? 'onestly? I know yev got the gift as well, InvisaGirl.”

I didn’t know what to say, so I opted for staying silent. She just laughed, the throaty sound antipodal to her naive appearance.

Twirling a lock of hair around her finger, she spoke again. “Lis'en, y' could use me, and leavin' mah pride for a mo', I could use y', too. I can’t fight, and I’m guessin' y' can’t eitha. Least, not capably. So Ah've decided, we’re gonna stick togetha. Yore gonna get us t' safety and Ah’ll offa y' mah healing and whateva else y' need for as long as y' want it.”

All this talk made me nervous and though I was tempted by her offer, it made my stomach twist. It could be some sort of plot—Catfish and I never did see eye-to-eye. And I had more than just a crew to protect, I had a family. Iris and Dren and all of the younger children, too. I couldn't allow her to penetrate that protective bubble I'd conjured for my family. And hell, she unnerved me.

To buy time, I leaned back over the edge of the roof, narrowing my eyes against the sunlight and looking around. No one was nearby as far as I could see and the air was quiet. My muscles relaxed. Safe.

And there was my answer. I cleared my throat, tugging on her wrist. “Listen up; I’m not taking you anywhere, kid. Your Chasers are elsewhere now and there’s no way in hell I’m jeopardizing myself for your sake. Look, the streets are quiet now."

I let go of her wrist, pushing it away from me. I let go of my powers then, too, leaving both of us visible. “Leave. This is my land and yev—you’ve no business here anymore.”

Leave?” You could see her cornflower blue eyes widen at this, mouth dropping. “Y' know nuthin' if tha's yore decision.” She spat on the roof tiles. "Leavin' ain't likely, not by a long shot. Ah need 'elp, protection, an' Ah'm offerin' an arm an' a leg fo' it. Y' know nuthin', livin' all cushy-like wi' yore family an' all."

I was about to respond snappily, let her know that she was getting out of line and that it was a long way to the ground from up here, but I never got the chance. Her fist lashed out and caught me in the temple. It was a weak punch, thrown from the shoulder, but it caught me squarely. I staggered back. I wheezed, looked back up at her. My eyes narrowed.

I moved. A blow to her shoulder, the force of my weight put behind it. She lurched backward. Taking advantage, I closed in. My hand arced up in a swift rabbit punch to the face, hips swinging. It caught her squarely in the nose. She crumpled, clearly unused to the whole ordeal of being knocked in the face.

I should have left then; just turned around and run off while she was still recovering. Of course, things didn't work that way. I hesitated, kneeling down to check if her dress had pockets, and if that were the case, if they had anything in them. Nada. Definitely pockets, but nothing of worth. A length of string that looked too weak to hold any sort of weight, some bottle caps and a dried up bread heel. The latter looked like it could break a tooth.

Brittle fingers grabbed my wrist, closing around them like a snare. I almost jumped right out of my skin. Blue eyes narrowed on mine, the look on her face nearing bestial. "Yore takin' me with y'," she hissed. I shook myself free and backed off, watching her with wary eyes. I wondered if she had noticed the blood dripping from her nose.

"What kind of crazy are y’? I trust you as far as…as you could throw me." My hand closed around the knife I kept in my belt, comforted by the feel of its smooth wooden grasp.

"Don' touch tha’," she said, voice hard. She wasn't even looking at my hand. Her cornflower eyes were fixed unerringly on mine. She swiped a hand over her face, leaving streaks of blood against her cheek. "An' like Ah said, yore takin' me with y'. Ah'm worth it."

I fought the urge to punch her again, but nonetheless I released my grip on the knife. Grudgingly. "No, I don’t think so. Your worth was compromised the moment you attacked me."

She took a step toward me, folding one hand over her heart and grinning at me mockingly. "Ah jus' reacted," she said. Her voice was airy. "'Sides, Ah was angry. Ah asked for safety an' nuthin' more. Y' turned me away without e'en thinkin' 'bout it.”

“My territory, my rules. You want to call the shots? You have to prove you're my better, and so far you’ve just showed me you’re better at losing.”

“Betta at healin', too. An’ runnin', jumpin', gettin' 'round. Ah'm not useless, y'know.” There was a pleading note in her voice, but also something else. Steel.

My mouth twitched. I was still angry at her (hard not to be after she took a swing at my face) but her obstinance was refreshing. People tended to come in two sorts out in the Ward: the mighty and the meek. Not too many considered being both.

Yet I could understand the desperation that drove her to this—this point of grovelling. She needed protection in numbers and I had that. I could keep away the Chasers and perhaps even make her disappear, let whatever problems she'd caused wash over and vanish.
So there was a strange duality to this girl that made me pause. She was blindingly adorable with her cherubic face and flaxen hair and huge Maya blue eyes that could have put a doe to shame. It didn't take a person long to realise this about her. But, then there was her other side. Hard, acerbic and bitingly mean. A temper on a hair trigger. This was the sinew and muscle that held her together. Hate was her fuel.
I made my decision that moment. I held out my hand and she took it, albeit warily.

“You come with me, you learn to follow orders. But I think I can find a use for you in my crew.”

She smiled and tucked her brittle fingers into mine, squeezing lightly. “Ah think Ah can keep mah mou' shut fo' a while,” she responded and a faint smile touched her lips, as if she knew something I didn’t.


Message has been edited to remove curse words - Staff




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Detneth106

2:04pm Aug 8 2013 (last edited on 2:09pm Aug 8 2013)

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Posts: 9,641
HE CALLED ME SANDY

He called me Sandy. I never knew why. Sometimes I asked, trying to keep a smile off my face as he answered, "Oh, it's the colour of your hair. The day we met, at a beach in North Carolina, the waves towering blue and black above us. It suits you," he'd add, reaching out and tangling his hands in the windswept strands on my head.

I always laughed. "My hair is red," I'd say, removing his limbs from mine. "We met on the boardwalk in Paris, beneath the Eiffel Tower, backpacks in one hand and tour guides in the other. There's no sand in me. I am as smooth as velvet."

"Sandy," he said. "Sandy, Sandy, what else would I call you?"

"Denise, or Petra. What of Daisy? I could be as sweet as a flower for you." I leaned over, kissed him on the cheek, my lips brushing his rough five-o'clock shadow. It tickled like crushed glass beneath my mouth.

Teeth bared white, my wistful lover replied, "Daisy is too faint, and Denise too old. You are not Cleopatra, so why be Petra? You are queen of only me, my love. There is no Egypt for you, if you cannot concede to be my Sandy. What use would Petra have for dunes and deserts?"

If only he knew that I dreamed of Egypt; of far flung wastes and a blazing sun that would burn my sins to ash. Those sins of flesh and sins of thought—I was certainly guilty of both.

I thought, Robin, then. Sweet Caroline and Delilah all the way in New York City. Strum your fingers along your guitar and serenade me with your angel's smile. Break my heart all over again, and again, Casanova. Do it because you can.

And he would, given the chance.

"No." Lips pursed, one slim finger pressed against a jutting chin, cornflower eyes so wide and watchful. He said, "You are Sandy, because you slip through my fingers in grains. You're running away, my queen. Running, even now."

How could he tell? See that my ribs curved toward the door, that my eyes could never quite meet his (just above, just below, his nose the most interesting thing I'd seen today), how my fingers tapped the covers in a frantic staccato in tune with my heart.

And like a tiny cage my heart opened up. The breath of my soul fluttered, beat against the open air, rising above the two of us like a glorious angel before it struck the window and—

—with a whisper hit the ground, not running, but falling.





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