Fiction

WP 2: Something Wicked

~ The McKraken ~ 2 Comments

Not my typical prompt. I asked some friends for ideas and this is one from Jay.  It is still super long but I care not.  I also misread the original prompt so I’m crossing out the part I skipped. It was Facebook messenger and there was a lot going on.  Not re doing it.  Don’t care.  I’ll probably Ninja Edit a  few times to fix errors.  Prompts are meant to be done quick and dirty.

The Writing Prompt

“Write about fluffy dragons becoming the worlds cutest pets… or so we thought”  

My Response

“Mom…Why can’t I have one? Everyone else has one. Even that kid down the block has one and he doesn’t even have parents.”

Michelle sighed, utterly exhausted from Nathaniel’s constant begging. Weeks and weeks of Dragini this and Dragini that. The newest fantasy pet to come out Genamco labs. “I’m sorry bug, don’t you remember what happened to Jeffy the mini Giraffe?”

The horror that crossed his sweet face made her rethink taking him out of his PTSD therapy. To say Genamco had a history of releasing pets before fully debugging the process would be quite the understatement. Glow Rabbits developed sudden, massive, and extraordinarily fatal tumors; Miniphants surprisingly kept shrinking; Tiny Ts went feral, but at least the meat was tasty; Turtleducks frequently rejected their wings with their teeth; Talk to Me Gold Fish drowned; PandaPal had a tendency to spontaneously combust; SlinkySnake exploded when fed more than twice a month; and Jeffy…well let’s just say thank God for the National Guard. However this new one did seem promising. A whole year with no incidents.

Genamco had been out of headlines for the past couple years hiding from the press after….well, you know. Even now they weren’t splashing their smug faces all over the TV in nauseating ads. In fact short of a few phoned in statements they had stayed out of the press completely. Perhaps they did learn their lesson and spent more than two seconds checking their product before selling it. This new product had all the bells and whistles too. Affectionate, a good enough sense of location to act as a carrier pigeon, strong enough to grab bags of groceries at the store and fly them home to you, played fetch, liked to nuzzle, big anime eyes, pooped in the woods, and as long as you paid a fee to keep the local lake restocked the little guys just ate fish from their whenever hungry. Pretty much no maintenance. They sky had been buzzing with bright colors and sleek figures for months now. Maybe…..No, absolutely not. “How about a nice dog?”

Nathaniel crossed his arms and sneered. “Dogs are stupid. Nobody has those anymore.”

Before Michelle could even stick up for the memory of her old friend Dogo the front door swung open. “Honey I’m home, and I got a surprise for us.”

Us? Oh God No. She tried to cut Nathaniel off. If she could stop him from seeing maybe just maybe, but the kid slid under the kitchen table and beat her to the hall. She didn’t even have to see to know, the guttural purr followed by that piercing chirp said it all. To her dread she got to the door just in time to see Nathaniel wrap his arms around his new friend.   Metallic purple. Of course that dear husband of her’s would go out and buy the newest, most expensive model.

Nathaniel released an unearthly squee, “I will name him Flappers.”

She tried to stifle a sigh. No way could she win now. “Welcome to the family Flappers.” Her fake smile almost faltered at the thought of calling that out in public. Kids should never name animals. Once Nate went to run to find toys Michelle got her first good look at the newest abomination of nature. Not really what she expected. From a distance the silhouettes in the sky definitely looked like tiny dragons. Long bodies, quadrupedal, legs that tucked in close while their ethereally sheer four foot wing span glistened a rainbow of colors onto the ground below. Up close however all the details seemed off. The head came to a slight point at the mouth, not round and chibi like in the movies. The scales, all though wonderfully plated were long and narrow. Oh well, it’s not like they had real dragon DNA to go off of. The next generation would probably be a little sleeker. Flappers curled around her ankles with a deep growl purr, although is body seemed to flow like liquid she couldn’t help but laugh at the barely more than a stub of a tail. Daniel wrapped his arms around her trying to shake a smile out of her. “I thought the same thing too, but apparently that’s all it needs to maintain flight. I expected some long thing with spikes on the end, but considering Genamco’s track record this is probably for the best.” Melting into his warm arms she finally relented. Perhaps this would be ok. “Come on Nate. Let’s take Flappers for a walk.” Nate’s voice echoed off the walls and Michelle smiled when his nose scrunched up at the name. At least she wouldn’t be alone in the embarrassment.

Nathaniel blasted around the corner and out the door leaving Michelle to fumble with the lock on the door. Once outside Flappers took immediately to the air. Neighbors beamed with envy at the purple beast, easily the biggest on the block by a foot. He swooped and dove chirping and honking. Soon even the other Dragini’s stopped to look on him in awe. Funny? That had never happened before. Maybe they were just as amused by this new model as the rest of us. Flappers flapped furiously to slow his speed and hover maybe a few feet above the tallest house on the block. The others gathered around chattering with their chirps and growls. At first the town laughed. It seemed like he was telling a story like the new kid standing in front of the class on the first day of school. Soon the other draginis went silent leaving only Flappers chirping away. No, not chirping. It was more of a honk, a noot noot sound. Draginis don’t gaw do they? Slowly the smiles dropped from the neighbors faces.

Finally the murmurings started, “No it can’t be?” Clyde grabbed his wife Martha and tried to run to the house, but their path was cut off by their Dragini Spalcor.

As the poor couple back peddled back to the street cries could be heard through the crowd.

“No, No we destroyed them.”

“This is just a joke. Right? The Dragini’s are just playing. Tell me you’re just playing Groofus.” 16 year old Grant tried to reach out to his, but in a horrifying second Groffus opened his mouth and the boy’s right hand was gone. Screams erupted as everyone tried to run. The Dragini’s took flight glistening their deadly rainbow onto the street. One by one the Dragini swooped down to tear at their owner or lift them to the sky. Flappers stayed firm though. He just started at Michelle with soulless eyes from the perch across the street as if to say the bringers of their champion would be last.

Michelle grinned right back. He was adopted by the wrong mother fucking family. Swinging the door to the house back open she ushered Nate and the lucky few screaming neighbors inside. It all made sense. Genamcos disappearance, the long narrow scales. Not guitar picks but feathers. Glossy sleeked back feathers. Sure they looked different, but it had been two decades since the war against them. How long had they had access to this type of genetic technology? Did they take over Genamco after? Had Genamco been experimenting on the survivors all along? Are there even any humans working there anymore? It didn’t matter how they did it. Not anymore. They returned and now they could fly. “Honey, get your shotgun. The penguins are back.”

 

 

Overcoming Fear Pt. 1

~ The McKraken ~ Leave a comment

Once again sorry for the delay but this is the post I have been dreading. Like I said in the first blog my biggest fear is getting my ideas out there. I fret over if they are rejected or taken, but the point of this page is to get over that so here goes nothing. What’s the point of creating something if you hide it? I have three projects in the works right now: my main, my mini-story, and my micro-story. (I have never tried to sum this up before so be gentle in your judgments good strangers.)

Whenever something is tough I’m always told to go in head first, balls to the wall so to speak. For my first trick let’s go straight to the main project, Blood and Whiskey, the very project this page is named for. It is the working title for the first book in the series I started actually writing down a bit over a year and a half ago. It took severe insanity and boredom to actually do that but that is a rant for another day. I say write down because the world and characters have been dogging me since I was but a young lass in high school. To put things bluntly I got sick of supernatural and fantasy creatures essentially being written as if every single creature has been stuck in stasis for the past century or two. One lonely afternoon I started to rewrite creatures as I would have actually seen them evolve through history. Every single historical path and goal designed around one rule, one truth: Assimilate, Hide, or Die. Once I finished that I created a few new ones, because…why not?

Gone are the days of vamps “From another time.” Orcs have broken off into tribes after a disagreement of which path to take leading to completely different modern results. Some species have flourished in the shadows; others have been hunted into non-existence.  An entirely new species emerged through fear and experimentation. No matter where they pull their energy from no species is inherently good or evil. In this world a demon could be your hero, an elf your nightmare, a gargoyle your neighbor, and a gremlin your tech support.

Book 1, which I finished the first draft in April :-D, centers around a small, local gang that goes by the Fenians of Erin. They have enjoyed a few years of peace in their little underworld, but run into a snag when a rival gang gets new management. Strangers start to arrive offering their services to the highest bidder forcing the already tenuous treaty to crumble.

In a town a few states away a species only know as hunter tries to reign in a war brewing under the surface as tensions rise in the increasingly frustrated meta* community only to be distracted by a serial killer targeting Meta sapiens*.

 

*Subject to change as soon as I redo my research. I lost my cheat sheet of each species’ genus and epithet (>_<)   Meta was the working name; I’m not a fan of it. On the other hand I wasn’t a fan of the name Max being one of the narrator’s names but that grew on me.

WP 1: Perfect Kid

~ The McKraken ~ Leave a comment

I decided to start doing some Reddit writing prompts to help streamline my writing. I tend to be a bit verbose. This was and is my first attempt at it. I forced myself to write it quickly and tried to limit my length to match the attention span of the average Redditer. It still a bit long but I’m getting better. For a sleepless 3 AM story it turned out ok.

The Writing Prompt

“Far in the future, parents now purchase the traits of their perfect child. They decide everything from intelligence to looks. Better qualities cost significantly more money. Tell me about the imperfect life of the most expensive child ever born”

My Response

I glanced down at my doodle in progress while professor Gaul prattled on about one number or another. Every circle perfect, not a single smudge marred the penciled shading, and every flaw perfectly calculated. Da Vinci himself would envy it. Surely someone would buy it for a few bucks at lunch. Three more just like it and mom could stay home from work for a night…maybe.

“EDWIN.”

With an annoyed sigh I raised my head to face the front of the class. Professor Gaul had always been a problem. In English I flashed my winning smile, in ethics my BS prose could sway any debate, in science I just had to spend one lunch a month helping out in the lab, but Gaul wanted my attention. Something I simply refused to give. I knew more than he ever would, why should I waste my time with him? Another needlessly complicated problem awaited. “Glad that you’re still with us Edwin. Now would you mind solving the problem on the board since you obviously already know it seeing as you’re not paying attention.”

“Obviously.” The kids close enough to hear snickered and Gaul glared. I had mumbled too quietly for him to be sure, but he knew all the same. He just couldn’t do anything about it. For the first time this month I scanned the board. Chapter 4! How had he only taught to chapter 4? He wanted me to do his job. Not this time. In my mind I built the problem, saw the models and graphs, and bit by bit I whittled down to the answer. Not even complicated. “3 plus or minus 2i.”

Gaul’s nose crinkled and his brow creased, but you can’t punish a kid for being right. Even if he thought I cheated he couldn’t prove it. “Well smart ass why don’t you show the rest of the class how you came up with that.” He extended the chalk and waited, impatiently tapping his foot.

I knew what he wanted. He wanted me to show a step by step method that would get you to the answer, but completely miss the point. Why parrot the cold methods of the old and dead when the answer held so much perfection and beauty? I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction. Instead of the line by line step ladder expected I started to draw the concept from my head. Not half way through the first curve he pushed me away from the board. The cloyingly sweet scent of his cologne filled my senses. No man should ever wear that scent.

“I’m sick of you cocky attitude. I want you out of this classroom. I don’t care what the Dean says I’m failing you.”

I stood in shock and anger. It didn’t really matter. I could test out of this class, the next class, and the next class. The doctors gave me the ability to memorize entire textbooks in mere days and the artistic mind to visualize concepts with ease. That perfect memory allowed me to speak six languages, to debate politics with senators, to handle complex problems and their solutions in my mind, it allowed me to remember the first argument my parents had when their fixed loan rate hadn’t been so fixed, to recall the faces of every agent that dragged my father away to work off his debt, the exact brand of whiskey on my mother’s breath before her first night in her new job, the ability to match each scent on her the next morning to those that called themselves my mentors, and the sense to know it was all my fault. Tonight marked the second Tuesday of the month; the day before that cloying sweet scent would linger in the kitchen while mom made my breakfast with her head hung in shame. She shouldn’t feel that way; she did what she could, what she had to. She just wanted me to be happy and to bring my father home.

Chalk dust began to fall from my clenched fist. Not tonight. With a quick flick of my wrist I turned that line on the board into a middle finger before mirroring the image with my own hands. Professor Gaul turned a new shade of red and charged me; just like I planned. With ease I side stepped before burying my knee into his groin. I couldn’t hide my sneer when he slumped to the ground. At least he would be icing it instead of using it tonight.

The class cheered as I walked out the door. Why wouldn’t they? I helped them cheat, I made them laugh, and I got them in and out of all sorts of mischief. They loved me. Everyone loved me. Everyone except myself.