Previous Post Yes, since nobody is posting anything, it's time for the traditional cleaning out of my hard drive of story snippets left unfinished long past their relevancy. This one comes features Vizh's and Hallie's adventures in the Mythlands in the quest to retrieve Naari (aka Magweed). It follows various chapters of Untold Tales, as well as the posted story where Vizh has a conversation with Dancer (complete with tutu and strap-on fairy wings) in a dream thanks to a feather supplied by Quoth. I believe I scrapped this work in progress because the mood was quite subdued and the narrative wasn't really leading anywhere... it was mostly all recap. Plus it wasn't funny at all. But there's a sweetness to it that's kind of... well, sweet, I guess. In the end, I started over and we got the "Hallie as a centaur" story instead. I don't *think* this ever got folded into another story, but it might have, or it might have been posted in a previous cleaning of the hard drive. If so, I apologize for the repost. And remember... it doesn't go anywhere. It'll just end abruptly. But hey, it's free... “Why don’t you get some sleep…” Visionary suggested as he came up on the nodding woman, curled up against a tree trunk. “I’ll take over the watch.” She blinked to rouse herself with some embarrassment. “Oh! I was just… um… sorry.” He smiled wearily as he eased down to the ground next to her. “Don’t be. It’s been a long… week? Month?” he scratched his head. “I have very little idea of how long we’ve been in Faerie any more. I try to keep track… to count the days Naari’s been gone, but…” “Time keeps slipping away from you” she surmised. “Fleabot thinks it’s in the nature of the land… His theory is that it’s such a primeval place of story that time here is relative to the significance of the narrative. Large passages of unimportant story drift by quickly, while key moments linger and are stretched out. Plays havoc on our mundane perceptions.” Visionary nodded. “Fleabot’s a clever one.” “Mmmm” Hallie answered noncommittally. “For real entertainment, ask him how this might relate to the way the Shoggoth perceives time. He popped a spring just thinking about it.” She glanced over at him. “So… any luck with Quoth’s feather?” The Regular sighed. “No. I’m beginning to think I imagined that meeting with Dancer altogether.” He had been placing the black raven quill under his head every night he had slept in the mythlands, but he had been unable to reconnect in dream with his adoptive sister back in Parodiopolis. “It’s better than thinking about the alternatives.” She laid a hand on his arm. “I’m sure they’re fine… Maybe you both have to be sleeping at the same time for it to work? That right there would narrow the odds of a connection…” “She’s supposed to be good at working the odds” Visionary pointed out. Hallie sighed and rested her head on his shoulder. “I’m afraid she probably has more pressing matters demanding her powers.” She stared out into the darkened woods as they listened to the crickets. “I’m sure they’re all fine” she repeated, more to herself this time. “They’ll be waiting for us when we come back.” Visionary fished into one of the pouches on his belt, careful not to jostle the emerald-topped head that rested so comfortingly on his shoulder or disturb the jade skinned arm that draped warmly across his chest. He withdrew a bundle of wrapped cloth, and unwound it to produce a shard of glass mirror. Hallie watched as he held it this way and that, until it suddenly caught a bright green light, bouncing it back into the woods and illuminating a path through the trees. “No matter where you go in reality, no matter how far away, or how much may stand between you and it, these shards are part of the Lighthouse and will always reflect back the light of the tower” Quoth had explained the night they had all left for Faerie. “Home is never too far away… Don’t you go forgetting that.” Hallie reached her hand into the beam, catching the light in her palm. “Hello you” she said to it fondly. The effect was subtle enough (and Visionary tired enough,) that he didn’t notice it immediately. Nor was it something his mind would normally register as odd. But as the woods grew slightly brighter around him, he blinked in surprise. “Hallie… are you glowing?” The former AI looked down at her legs through heavy eyelids to see that she did indeed cast a slight green glow onto the bed of autumn leaves beneath her. “Huh” she noted sleepily. She waved her hand back out of then into the mirror light, and the glow to her skin faded and returned. “That’s pretty neat” she noted as she rolled towards him, wrapping an arm about his sweatshirt covered chest to use as a pillow. “I guess it knows its own” Visionary suggested to the sleepy woman. The lighthouse was lit with one of Hallie’s own holograms after all… It was, in essence, a part of her that shone back at them through the glass. She sighed. “I… miss glowing” she admitted hesitantly. “I hate needing to sleep, and to eat. I hate smelling like… like a human that hasn’t had a decent bath since who knows when…” “That pool in the river at the foothills of those mountains, remember? The assembled brownies gave you a standing ovation when you emerged.” She leaned back to look at him with a raised eyebrow. "Um... so I heard" he hastily added.

This one I started, but then got stuck and never finished.

Adventures in Parodyverse:  Artificiality Part 1


    Anna hopped into the passenger seat of a white and red painted ambulance, wearing a dark blue jump suit that made her blue hair look light, white sneakers, white gloves, and wraparound sunglasses.  The name tag hanging from her suit had her photo, the name Anna in capital letters, and ‘Trainee’ in larger letters.

    It was part of a ride-along program, and Anna was the first test of it.  Mac Fleetwood got Jay Boaz interested in getting the Lair Legion and its guests more familiar with the community.  So once or twice a month, one of them would ride along with paramedics, fire fighters, or police.

    She chose paramedics because she had some minor medical training, and it was the best way to keep a low profile.  With police, she would be too tempted to use extreme force, and she had no talent whatsoever related to fighting fires.

    Her two male companion paramedics introduced themselves as Gabriel and Val.  The former was tall and slim, and in charge.  The latter, older and heavier, but more seasoned.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“What’s with the hair?”  Val asked.  “Some kind of hero disguise?”

    Anna smiled when she answered, “No, it’s my real hair.  I chose this color.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Oh.”  Val sounded embarrassed, as Gabriel took the driver’s seat.  “It’s...cute, I guess.”

    As he went through his checklist, Gabriel said, “I kinda like a girl with some style.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Thank you.”  Anna replied.  She watched Gabriel working his way down his checklist, and Val working his way through a supply checklist in the back.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“So what do we do until a call comes in?”  she asked.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“We have a patrol route.”  Gabriel explained.  “But in this city we rarely make it there from the garage before we get a call.”

    Almost as if on cue, the radio lit up and began loudly relaying an announcement of a Lair Legion encounter with casualties in east central downtown.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“That’s us,”  Gabriel said, starting the engine.  “Buckle up.”

    Val stopped his checklist, took a seat, and buckled in quickly as red and white lights bounced off the walls of the garage, and the metal door slid upward.  The siren chirped once as they pulled out, and then began wailing as the ambulance merged with traffic and began rushing to the scene.

    Only a few minutes passed before the ambulance arrived at its destination.  Gabriel had to do some complicated driving to get those last few hundred yards, as the street was littered with debris.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Special rules with a super hero battle.”  he quickly told Anna, “Usually we try to stabilize at the scene, but here it’s get in, get out as quick as we can.  We don’t want to be casualties.  Leave the doors open in case we have to get out quickly.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“We have two gurneys.”  Val pointed out.  “We can take two if we have to.”

    Anna nodded and stepped out of the ambulance, following Gabriel’s lead of leaving open the door.  She watched as he moved past him with his supply bag, and tried to quickly check a fallen and burned man’s vital signs - not to waste time, but to triage at the scene and see who needed to go to the hospital first.

    Finally, he made the call just as another ambulance arrived, and just as Val dragged out the two gurneys.  “These two.  Anna, help Val load one in, I’ll take the other.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“I can load in one on my own.”  Anna suggested.  “Heavy has a different meaning to me.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Oh.  Well go for it, then.”  Gabriel said.  “I’ll be close by if you have trouble.  You’re going to need help getting him on that thing.”

    Anna patiently waited for Gabriel to lift the downed man’s feet so she could get him on the gurney.  She felt thankful that she didn’t recognize him at all, as she buckled him down for safety and wheeled him to the ambulance.

    As strong as she was, she wasn’t as practiced as the team of Val and Gabriel.  By the time she got to the ambulance, they already had the other female victim loaded in, and the gurney locked down.  She did the same as they did - those two victims weren’t going anywhere no matter how aggressively they drove to the hospital.

    Gabriel and Val ducked suddenly as a there was a loud explosion.  Glass flew everywhere around them, and the pressure wave tossed them into the middle of the street.

    Anna stood up first, and watched to make sure her two companions did as well.  They seemed stunned, but uninjured.  She asked anyway, “Are you two okay?”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Yeah.”  Gabriel said.  Val nodded calmly.  

    Then Gabriel looked up, and said, “Awww, crap.”

    The ambulance had been turned on its side.  The two patients were still well locked down in there, but they were stuck, too.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“I’ll call in--”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“No, wait.”  Anna stopped him.  She walked over to the ambulance, dug into the top corner that was now lying on the street, and pulled it upward.  She kept pulling until it started to get taller than she was, then she inched forward to slow its descent until it settled on its wheels.

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Holy--”  Val whispered.  “You’re a super hero?”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“No, artificial human.”  she replied.  “We should get these two to the hospital.”

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Yeah.  Definitely.”  Gabriel said.  He climbed into the driver’s seat, and looked across at Anna.  She had her window open, and was trying to see if she could put the broken off side mirror back.  

    Ã¢â‚¬Å“Don’t bother.”  he said as he waited for Val to buckle in, and then he pulled away quickly.


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TO BE CONTINUED?
    

-- Story written and copyrighted (C) 2009 by Jason Froikin, and may not be 
--    reprinted without permission.  
-- Yuki Shiro designed by Jason Froikin, based on designs by Masamune Shirow
--  Liu Xi Xian and the Psychic Samurai are original design by Jason Froikin
--  Lara Night is an original creation by Jason Froikin