Thanks a lot for giving me a little more time Krunk. Sorry for holding everyone up. I had my story written up but I was forced to stay in for an important collection, and I don't have a working computer here at the moment. Typing it up from my borderline illegible handwriting now.
Edit:
"Wait up, need some more blow." Frederick emptied his pockets in search of the sachet of white powder and, noticing Eurania's intent gaze on it, handed her his butterfly knife with an indulgent smile. As he opened the satchet, turned away and proceeded to rub some of the powder into his gums, Eurania stared fondly at the blade, stroking the handle, tilting it to see all the variations in shade the battleship's harsh, even light could provide. She ran her finger lightly along the edge of the knife, then tapped the flat with her fingertip, then against the iron wall, savouring the sound. She seemed to be raising the blade to her lips when a re-energised Frederick whipped round and plucked the knife out of her hands. He folded it, slipped it back into his pocket and asked "Hold up, where's Carl?"
Having been irritated by the pair's constant sensory indulgences from the start, Carl was embarrassed to realise he'd been caressing the sleeve of his restored cashmere jumper. Fortunately, nobody seemed to have seen it. He stepped away from the pipe he had been leaning on and said "Sorry, force of habit. Didn't mean to hide behind the pipe." Eurania's gaze barely flickered, while Frederick stared at the pipe, which was half the width of Carl, in amazement.
"That's incredible!" Frederick exclaimed "I'd kill to be able to do that! How'd you pick it up? Mary and the other girls back in Ontario would never have taken out that restraining order against me if I could vanish like that!"
Carl's casual shrug at the compliment turned into a wince at the implications of that last comment. He kind of felt that he shouldn't despise him so much, considering that they had similarly problematic backgrounds and nocturnal lifestyles, but his hedonism and erratic personality repulsed him. His habit of revealing unwelcome past activities was becoming more bearable, but his constant, artificially induced energy grated. With characteristic honesty, Frederick had admittedly earlier to having a fairly limited social life, and with traits like those, Carl understood why. Fortunately, this time he had an excuse to redirect the conversation. "I've just always been like this, I suppose. Um, has Eurania wandered off again?"
Frederick tutted. "She's such a kid, isn't she? Dunno how she got caught up in this shit. Bit quiet, bit distant, but you honestly can't leave her alone. Figured she'd be sensible, but y'see her just now? Swear she was gonna put my knife in her mouth! Good thing she has us looking out for her, eh?" They glanced down the long, empty passageway in both directions, silently counting the multiple offshooting paths. "Well, we ain't reached that terraform dome yet, and we ain't run into anyone else here. Reckon we're safe to split up and look for her and meet back here in, say, ten minutes?"
Carl grunted his assent and they split up. As he strolled down the passageway, he felt himself begin to untense. This gigantic, intricate battleship would have been difficult enough to traverse alone, but dealing with those two's oddities made him remember why he resolved to work alone. He didn't even see what they could offer against such a formidable foe, although he struggled to see what he could do against War either. Despite himself, he was tempted to leave Eurania behind for her safety. The girl was a puzzle: clearly unhuman, she still managed to draw the protective side out of Carl and Frederick despite doing nothing that would typically provoke that. He had a nagging suspicion she was manipulating him, after all, there must be more to her than her calm, cautious demeanour suggested. She didn't try to be cute, but the few words she said earlier had a remarkably persuasive timbre and pitch, obeying her few suggestions seemed beyond common sense, it seemed the only option possible. Despite his misgivings, which he credited to previous bad experiences when teamed up with other thieves, he was almost glad to be with someone so seemingly aimless and devoid of hidden agendas.
Five minutes late, Frederick ambled back to the designated meeting point with Eurania. "Found her humming down an air vent" he said, rolling his eyes. While her expression remained placid as always, her posture betrayed her disappointment, her head slumped, feet barely lifting off the ground with each reluctant step. If not for the eerie perfection of her appearance, preternatural grace, and of course, the glowing golden veins shining all over her, she'd appear to be just a normal child at this moment.
Frederick ruffled Eurania's impossibly fine hair, which sparkled as it fell across her face before coiling back into its original, impeccably demure style. "Least it wasn't a complete waste of time" he said with a grin as he dug into his tattered jean's pocket. Carl expected him to produce something of use in the upcoming battle, but his amazement almost matched his irritation when Frederick triumphantly unfurled a $20 bill. "Luck 'o the Irish. This shit happens to me all the time. Never had to work a day in my life cos of it. Ain't reliable though, been through some lean times. Couldn't find anything for nearly a month once! Had to go without coke for a few days. Course, I found that case with 10k in it outside that massage parlour soon after. Fun night, wish I remembered more of it." Carl, who had to work hard for every shred of comfort he relieved others of, fumed, although he relented somewhat ten minutes later when Frederick shared the picnic hamper he found.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
They really hadn't been prepared for this. They trudged through the sand barefoot, having removed their shoes when entering the desert within the terraform dome. Eurania piggy-backed on Carl's back, as she had struggled to walk through the sand. Her head rested against his shoulder, a peculiarly invasive act, it seemed her chin was exploring all the contours of it as he walked, despite the fact it was motionless. "This War must be a real son of a *****" complained Frederick while swiping at the sand with his aluminium baseball bat, which fell straight back to the ground, there being no wind in this peculiarly sterile, lifeless environment. "If he's so powerful and always up for a fight, how come he's so hard to get too? Spent an hour just in the elevator to get to the top of that damn battleship, and now we have to walk to the middle of this fu-damn sandpit. He glanced at Eurania, who appeared to have ignored the almost f-bomb. Carl privately felt that perhaps this opponent was so secure in his strength, he needed to root out weaker adversaries through an ardous task to test their dedication to fighting him. He kept that thought to himself though, remembering the hysteria he accidentally prompted when he suggested that the light security around a Monet painting was indicative of the presence of pit bulls rather than budget cuts.
One hour, and a short break for hard drugs and some soft drinks Frederick had tripped up on, later, they finally reached the foot of the pyramid in the centre of the dome and looked up to the top. A distant, spiky black figure seemed to recline on a throne there. Carl was about to suggest a tactical discussion, more to delay the long climb than for genuine utility, but an increasingly deranged Frederick had already started climbing, muttering incoherent obscenities. Carl placed Eurania down, and was about to start climbing up too when there was a rising hum and the sand behind him burst upwards. He looked behind him, and Eurania was gone.
He'd expected outlandish weaponry but that was beyond anything he'd expected. An feeling of extreme sadness turned to momentary terror, then rage, a response shared by Frederick judging by his pained yelp and increased swearing.
They both looked up and noticed the black figure had vanished, there was a crash behind them, and they turned to see a ludicrously heavily armoured figure drag itself out from the sand and readjust its armour.
There was another thud, and to their mutual joy and surprise they saw Eurania had landed between them, raised just off the ground, emitting a low humming noise. War snarled, destroying their sense of relief, and started sprinting towards them. Eurania's eyes glinted and the pitch of her humming noise dipped a little, then rose higher. Nothing appeared to happen, then Carl and Frederick realised that despite the furious movement of War's legs, he wasn't actually coming any nearer.
War was too angry to even notice his lack of movement. How could a mere child humiliate him like that? How could sound, quivering air molecules, of all things, knock him down? He'd levelled cities, annihilated empires and slaughtered heroes without ever even being bruised by combined force of arms, technology, or the impractically long swords those proud, swaggering, long haired buffoons wielded, yet this girl knocked him to the ground with her first attack? He finally noticed the movement of the sand beneath his boots, drifting in his direction, he realised he'd been running on a vast treadmill. He knew he could keep running until the desert ran out of sand, but he had no inclination to delay such a potentially enticing fight. He had gone for aeons without such a promising contest of martial prowess, and he didn't want to wait any longer. Grinning under his helmet, his visor's HUD revealed her companions to both be regular humans. He'd enjoy toying with them once this was over.
He leapt into the air, intending to close the distance between them with a single bound, but a discordant quavering sound emanated from Eurania and he was engulfed in a maelstrom of sand which spun him around. He landed back in his original position. Annoyed but unconcerned, he resolved to try his long range weaponry. Sand can't deflect a missile. The missile had barely loaded when a wry smirk crossed Eurania's face and a noise like a screeching violin sounded and the missile exploded. Mortally wounded, War cried out, not in anguish, but at the realisation of what he'd been defeated by. Self destruction? Lack of progress? Misdirection? Entrapment? This wasn't combat - this was politics.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As they walked back out of the dome, Carl and Fredrick were very grateful not to have been pitted against Eurania after seeing what she was capable of. Watching a small child easily contain one of humanity's worst traits deeply unnerved them, although they knew, judging by her almost prescient prediction of War's actions she was far more intelligent than the both of them. Carl initially felt manipulated, and certainly felt foolish having piggy-backed a being capable of flight, but she looked so drained after the fight he agreed to carry her back out. While she hummed Brahms' lullaby to herself, she seemed to recover slightly. With her seeming so vulnerable, Carl wondered if breaking her neck now wouldn't be the most sensible means of securing his own survival. He wondered if Fredrick, who walked beside him in awed silence (or possibly just savouring the buzz of his last line) had considered the same thing. He came to the conclusion that if he would be a threat to Eurania, she would have realised and planned accordingly. Moving against her would achieve nothing other than his own death. He decided to put that out of his mind and just think of her as a strange kid in need of protection again, it was easier that way.
At least I'm not the only one submitting a self professed wall of text, although I should try and use more dialogue to make it at least seem more briskly paced. I made a semi-meaningful attempt at writing dialogue this time, perhaps the next time I try writing something there may actually be a plausible conversation somewhere!
I ended up having an long build up again with this entry, mainly as a novice storywriter I'm still extremely weak at conveying character through actions. The actual fight was even shorter this time too unfortunately. I'm not gonna list all the flaws and inconsistencies in this piece (although I will use the excuse of my frantic sleepless writing frenzy to deflect criticism to my circumstances and poor timekeeping, as opposed to my actual writing ability
) but if anyone who happens to read this entry has any thoughts on the build up, I'd be delighted to hear them. I'm aware that I really need to be able to describe places better (i.e at all) but that's the only main issue I've been able to clearly identify.
Looking forward to reading everyone else's entries when my mind is working normally again.
Edit:
"Wait up, need some more blow." Frederick emptied his pockets in search of the sachet of white powder and, noticing Eurania's intent gaze on it, handed her his butterfly knife with an indulgent smile. As he opened the satchet, turned away and proceeded to rub some of the powder into his gums, Eurania stared fondly at the blade, stroking the handle, tilting it to see all the variations in shade the battleship's harsh, even light could provide. She ran her finger lightly along the edge of the knife, then tapped the flat with her fingertip, then against the iron wall, savouring the sound. She seemed to be raising the blade to her lips when a re-energised Frederick whipped round and plucked the knife out of her hands. He folded it, slipped it back into his pocket and asked "Hold up, where's Carl?"
Having been irritated by the pair's constant sensory indulgences from the start, Carl was embarrassed to realise he'd been caressing the sleeve of his restored cashmere jumper. Fortunately, nobody seemed to have seen it. He stepped away from the pipe he had been leaning on and said "Sorry, force of habit. Didn't mean to hide behind the pipe." Eurania's gaze barely flickered, while Frederick stared at the pipe, which was half the width of Carl, in amazement.
"That's incredible!" Frederick exclaimed "I'd kill to be able to do that! How'd you pick it up? Mary and the other girls back in Ontario would never have taken out that restraining order against me if I could vanish like that!"
Carl's casual shrug at the compliment turned into a wince at the implications of that last comment. He kind of felt that he shouldn't despise him so much, considering that they had similarly problematic backgrounds and nocturnal lifestyles, but his hedonism and erratic personality repulsed him. His habit of revealing unwelcome past activities was becoming more bearable, but his constant, artificially induced energy grated. With characteristic honesty, Frederick had admittedly earlier to having a fairly limited social life, and with traits like those, Carl understood why. Fortunately, this time he had an excuse to redirect the conversation. "I've just always been like this, I suppose. Um, has Eurania wandered off again?"
Frederick tutted. "She's such a kid, isn't she? Dunno how she got caught up in this shit. Bit quiet, bit distant, but you honestly can't leave her alone. Figured she'd be sensible, but y'see her just now? Swear she was gonna put my knife in her mouth! Good thing she has us looking out for her, eh?" They glanced down the long, empty passageway in both directions, silently counting the multiple offshooting paths. "Well, we ain't reached that terraform dome yet, and we ain't run into anyone else here. Reckon we're safe to split up and look for her and meet back here in, say, ten minutes?"
Carl grunted his assent and they split up. As he strolled down the passageway, he felt himself begin to untense. This gigantic, intricate battleship would have been difficult enough to traverse alone, but dealing with those two's oddities made him remember why he resolved to work alone. He didn't even see what they could offer against such a formidable foe, although he struggled to see what he could do against War either. Despite himself, he was tempted to leave Eurania behind for her safety. The girl was a puzzle: clearly unhuman, she still managed to draw the protective side out of Carl and Frederick despite doing nothing that would typically provoke that. He had a nagging suspicion she was manipulating him, after all, there must be more to her than her calm, cautious demeanour suggested. She didn't try to be cute, but the few words she said earlier had a remarkably persuasive timbre and pitch, obeying her few suggestions seemed beyond common sense, it seemed the only option possible. Despite his misgivings, which he credited to previous bad experiences when teamed up with other thieves, he was almost glad to be with someone so seemingly aimless and devoid of hidden agendas.
Five minutes late, Frederick ambled back to the designated meeting point with Eurania. "Found her humming down an air vent" he said, rolling his eyes. While her expression remained placid as always, her posture betrayed her disappointment, her head slumped, feet barely lifting off the ground with each reluctant step. If not for the eerie perfection of her appearance, preternatural grace, and of course, the glowing golden veins shining all over her, she'd appear to be just a normal child at this moment.
Frederick ruffled Eurania's impossibly fine hair, which sparkled as it fell across her face before coiling back into its original, impeccably demure style. "Least it wasn't a complete waste of time" he said with a grin as he dug into his tattered jean's pocket. Carl expected him to produce something of use in the upcoming battle, but his amazement almost matched his irritation when Frederick triumphantly unfurled a $20 bill. "Luck 'o the Irish. This shit happens to me all the time. Never had to work a day in my life cos of it. Ain't reliable though, been through some lean times. Couldn't find anything for nearly a month once! Had to go without coke for a few days. Course, I found that case with 10k in it outside that massage parlour soon after. Fun night, wish I remembered more of it." Carl, who had to work hard for every shred of comfort he relieved others of, fumed, although he relented somewhat ten minutes later when Frederick shared the picnic hamper he found.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
They really hadn't been prepared for this. They trudged through the sand barefoot, having removed their shoes when entering the desert within the terraform dome. Eurania piggy-backed on Carl's back, as she had struggled to walk through the sand. Her head rested against his shoulder, a peculiarly invasive act, it seemed her chin was exploring all the contours of it as he walked, despite the fact it was motionless. "This War must be a real son of a *****" complained Frederick while swiping at the sand with his aluminium baseball bat, which fell straight back to the ground, there being no wind in this peculiarly sterile, lifeless environment. "If he's so powerful and always up for a fight, how come he's so hard to get too? Spent an hour just in the elevator to get to the top of that damn battleship, and now we have to walk to the middle of this fu-damn sandpit. He glanced at Eurania, who appeared to have ignored the almost f-bomb. Carl privately felt that perhaps this opponent was so secure in his strength, he needed to root out weaker adversaries through an ardous task to test their dedication to fighting him. He kept that thought to himself though, remembering the hysteria he accidentally prompted when he suggested that the light security around a Monet painting was indicative of the presence of pit bulls rather than budget cuts.
One hour, and a short break for hard drugs and some soft drinks Frederick had tripped up on, later, they finally reached the foot of the pyramid in the centre of the dome and looked up to the top. A distant, spiky black figure seemed to recline on a throne there. Carl was about to suggest a tactical discussion, more to delay the long climb than for genuine utility, but an increasingly deranged Frederick had already started climbing, muttering incoherent obscenities. Carl placed Eurania down, and was about to start climbing up too when there was a rising hum and the sand behind him burst upwards. He looked behind him, and Eurania was gone.
He'd expected outlandish weaponry but that was beyond anything he'd expected. An feeling of extreme sadness turned to momentary terror, then rage, a response shared by Frederick judging by his pained yelp and increased swearing.
They both looked up and noticed the black figure had vanished, there was a crash behind them, and they turned to see a ludicrously heavily armoured figure drag itself out from the sand and readjust its armour.
There was another thud, and to their mutual joy and surprise they saw Eurania had landed between them, raised just off the ground, emitting a low humming noise. War snarled, destroying their sense of relief, and started sprinting towards them. Eurania's eyes glinted and the pitch of her humming noise dipped a little, then rose higher. Nothing appeared to happen, then Carl and Frederick realised that despite the furious movement of War's legs, he wasn't actually coming any nearer.
War was too angry to even notice his lack of movement. How could a mere child humiliate him like that? How could sound, quivering air molecules, of all things, knock him down? He'd levelled cities, annihilated empires and slaughtered heroes without ever even being bruised by combined force of arms, technology, or the impractically long swords those proud, swaggering, long haired buffoons wielded, yet this girl knocked him to the ground with her first attack? He finally noticed the movement of the sand beneath his boots, drifting in his direction, he realised he'd been running on a vast treadmill. He knew he could keep running until the desert ran out of sand, but he had no inclination to delay such a potentially enticing fight. He had gone for aeons without such a promising contest of martial prowess, and he didn't want to wait any longer. Grinning under his helmet, his visor's HUD revealed her companions to both be regular humans. He'd enjoy toying with them once this was over.
He leapt into the air, intending to close the distance between them with a single bound, but a discordant quavering sound emanated from Eurania and he was engulfed in a maelstrom of sand which spun him around. He landed back in his original position. Annoyed but unconcerned, he resolved to try his long range weaponry. Sand can't deflect a missile. The missile had barely loaded when a wry smirk crossed Eurania's face and a noise like a screeching violin sounded and the missile exploded. Mortally wounded, War cried out, not in anguish, but at the realisation of what he'd been defeated by. Self destruction? Lack of progress? Misdirection? Entrapment? This wasn't combat - this was politics.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As they walked back out of the dome, Carl and Fredrick were very grateful not to have been pitted against Eurania after seeing what she was capable of. Watching a small child easily contain one of humanity's worst traits deeply unnerved them, although they knew, judging by her almost prescient prediction of War's actions she was far more intelligent than the both of them. Carl initially felt manipulated, and certainly felt foolish having piggy-backed a being capable of flight, but she looked so drained after the fight he agreed to carry her back out. While she hummed Brahms' lullaby to herself, she seemed to recover slightly. With her seeming so vulnerable, Carl wondered if breaking her neck now wouldn't be the most sensible means of securing his own survival. He wondered if Fredrick, who walked beside him in awed silence (or possibly just savouring the buzz of his last line) had considered the same thing. He came to the conclusion that if he would be a threat to Eurania, she would have realised and planned accordingly. Moving against her would achieve nothing other than his own death. He decided to put that out of his mind and just think of her as a strange kid in need of protection again, it was easier that way.
At least I'm not the only one submitting a self professed wall of text, although I should try and use more dialogue to make it at least seem more briskly paced. I made a semi-meaningful attempt at writing dialogue this time, perhaps the next time I try writing something there may actually be a plausible conversation somewhere!
I ended up having an long build up again with this entry, mainly as a novice storywriter I'm still extremely weak at conveying character through actions. The actual fight was even shorter this time too unfortunately. I'm not gonna list all the flaws and inconsistencies in this piece (although I will use the excuse of my frantic sleepless writing frenzy to deflect criticism to my circumstances and poor timekeeping, as opposed to my actual writing ability
) but if anyone who happens to read this entry has any thoughts on the build up, I'd be delighted to hear them. I'm aware that I really need to be able to describe places better (i.e at all) but that's the only main issue I've been able to clearly identify.Looking forward to reading everyone else's entries when my mind is working normally again.
