March 16, 2005

Project 8

Ok this is the longer one; and this is the uncut version; I had to add some stuff in to meet the word count for something - so this is with some extra stuff. Some of it I like (the burning flower), some I liked better without (The second flashback) - but I dont have a master copy yet so oh well.

The path was not real. Neither was she who walked upon it.

The path… every grain of dust, every blade of grass, even the gravity that enabled her to walk on it, none of it was real. They were part of a dream world, made up of her thoughts, her emotions, her memories. Yet even now she wondered how much of this world was really hers, and how much was His.

Him, the Master. The one who created her. The one who controlled her. The chooser of her power, her actions, and even her emotions. She called herself Zalmunna Sabrenchei, but to others she existed not at all, or simply as #8. Project #8. She was indeed a project, an experiment in the code of raw magick. She was not born, rather she was created. And she remembered this creation well, as she remembered all things that He deemed she should.

Zal Mu Nna Himn Ra…… fragments of code, the first pieces of the spell that made up her entire existence. The first words she had seen as she took form. That was all she was, just a jumble of words. And the code grew… and she began to be…

The words, seemingly random, arranged themselves in the black space that was her conscious. And then, being of them, she began to understand them, and into the void she watched herself take form. First there was light… in the darkness a faint star that grew into a shining orb. This orb began to change, to morph, into a being. It had arms, and legs, long and slender, a face delicate and perfect, a human form, and yet somehow inhuman. The woman shone like white sand, dazzling and golden beneath the sun. She was a creation, one of measured yet perfect beauty, as she was made to be, yet she was somehow vague as well. Created, she was a free spirit, and this body was simply one form she wore.

With a tone of finality, the figure floated lifelessly, suspended in the cool void, glowing softly. Yet it was not yet complete, there was still one thing left to be added. Even as she hovered there silently, two black shaped cut out suddenly from her shoulder blades and burst into glossy wings of brilliant black. Only now was the dwelling complete. Only then, the dwelling created at last, the soul-less creature looked up. As if from far away, Zalmunna saw her own eyes open, and when they did, she was looking out from them.

She had no emotions then, whether her own or not. She simply was. Yet the programmer, The Master, did not stop. More words he spoke, more spells he wove, until the void was filled with spell letters, glowing and glittering with an eerie green hew. Then at last, he turned to his creation.

Out of unblinking eyes, like oceans of deep blue, she stared back at him. A silence passed, and then she spoke, slowly and deliberately.

“I am Project 8.”

Those had been her first words. She didn’t know then what they meant, nor would she have cared. That was long ago. Her feelings had changed, and then grown. First, she began to know Him. Once The Voice had been able to go directly into her thoughts, she had not even known it was there. She had taken them as her own thoughts, and believed them, every word.

As time went on, slowly, imperceptibly, things began to change. In her inner mind she began to see herself and her master, linked but separate. Knowing him, she could at last begin to know herself. With knowledge came questions. Questioning became resentment, resentment turned to hate. She hated Him, who could always see what she was thinking or even remembered, who could edit or delete these at the slightest whim…

For he was not, at the moment, listening, but he could always hear.

There was no tomorrow for Zalmunna, but today would last forever, an endless and break less eternity filled only with infinite missions and duels.

She didn’t understand her life, she only knew that it was not her own. She knew the master made her, that he controlled her. She knew he was training her, and she knew that the missions he sent her on provided this training. And she knew Cerephino.

Her thoughts, as a project, were orderly, exact. They could take twists and turns, but they well defined. She thought in complete sentences, and when she remembered, it was like being there again. Now, however, her thoughts had jumped to Cerephino…

Zalmunna was Project 8. There were others before her, and not all of them had failed. There was at least one other she knew about. The Master called him #3, but to Zalmunna he was Cerephino. He was her partner, in the cruel system of The Master. They did all their missions together, came to trust each other, think about one another. It was not love… at least under the control of The Master, neither were capable of such a strong emotion. But when it came time to duel, when The Master fought them together, they were as different people, turned against one another as The Master easily altered their emotions to that of total and overwhelming Hate. Time after time, Cerephino was forced to battle her, and she him. As her awareness grew, she dreaded these duels, dreaded the cold hearted betrayal of the only other creature she had ever known.

She remembered meeting him as well, or at least she thought she did. For all she knew, The Master could have simply added that day to her memory, and she would never know. Reminded sharply of the control he had over their lives, Zalmunna reached down to the ground of her dream world. Sitting lazily on a bench, trailing her hand across the dew covered grass, she came upon a flower, lit it on fire, and watched it burn.

And she remembered. She remembered that day so long ago when she had first seen Cerephino, another of her kind. The joy in her heart, programmed by The Master, but nearly real nonetheless.

It was a remarkably plain dimension, endless blue sky above her and below her, a realm of nothingness. Out of the nothingness, he came. She cried for joy, for she felt somehow she knew him, and she bolted forward suddenly, her human body running as her spirit sought to soar…

She remembered it like it was now, the clouds that were suddenly there, the sun coming out, its golden beams raining down upon his silvery hair. He turned, slowly it seemed, but she also felt she was moving slowly, lost in a warp of time and space. He turned, and he smiled at her….

: Cerephino…..:

With practiced skill, Zalmunna stopped all thoughts as she received a signal from Him, from The Master. He mustn’t know her inner thoughts. In the beginning, she did not understand these signals, or even know she was getting one. She would simply be transported to wherever he had arranged. But now she felt it, a sort of tingling to which true humans have no equivalent.

Imperceptibly she shuddered as she interpreted the signal. It was time for a duel.

Endless blue, just like in that long distant memory, spread out below her feet and high above her. Even as she appeared Cerephino was there, yet somehow she knew that he, too, had only just arrived. For a moment, they looked at each other, expressionless. For just one moment, they knew each other. They spoke no words. They thought no thoughts. At other times, a subtle message might slip through unnoticed, but both were monitored heavily during duels, and neither dared give away any hint of their growing awareness.

He dared not even to think it, but Zalmunna knew he meant it.

: I am sorry…:

The hatred hit them like a wave, the command from Him. She hated Cerephino now, with every fiber of her being, with ever ounce of her power. She urged to reach out to him, tear him apart… His eyes, steely grey, returned the intense hatred. The spirit rose, eyes closed, palms outstretched as he recited as spell in the Magick, one to destroy this black winged one before him. He finished the chant, throwing his arms forward, long grey hair moving with them in a rather mortal way. He was in a rage. He hated her. Hated her with all the power he had. He hated her with such a passion it could not be described by anything or anyone.

He was floating, feet pointed as he rose higher, the lights surrounding him pouring in towards his form. He began chanting another spell, this one quieter, as he began weaving a web of power around himself. It was a weak shield, but it was a shield nonetheless. As he finished he stopped his rise and floated there, facing her, his form wavering as the light pulled and pushed upon it.

“Sabra’sul” Zalmunna said softly, her eyes closed, pronouncing every syllable clearly and coolly, knowing her voice would soon be lost in the vast emptiness that surrounded her and Cerephino. As she spoke, tiny balls of indigo power formed at her right; spinning, dazzling orbs that radiated with energy. Her eyes came open, blue and icy but also very much alive, they matched the orbs perfectly and each was reflected in the other. They were formed by her spell, but they were fueled by her hatred.

The pause was brief. Her hand was up, streaking across the emptiness with a loud cry,

“Telemenos!” Streaking from right to left, the balls followed it. And as they tore through the nothingness of the void, they began to change. From sphere to knife, from knife to creature. Dragons of ice and lightening and hatred were born of the free energy. Sparks flew as they clashed sharp teeth at the end of long noses. The space around them seemed to freeze as they tore through the air at him.

They hit his shield. They did not go through it easily, not breaking it, but seeming to bore through, like acid, wriggling tiny holes in the bubble of protection. They tore, through the nothingness, to get, at him…

The scene reflected in Zalmunna’s emotionless eyes. As they stayed the same, a slow and bitter smile came over her lips. An urge welled up within her, to leap at him herself, to rend him from limb to limb… Why bother with spells when she could tear him, rip him…

Cerephino raised his hands in a counter spell even as the Dragons broke through his shield.

“Ikan’sul!” he shouted, producing a disk of pure red light over his crossed arms for a moment before he finished the spell. “Telemenos!” out from the disk came bolts of red hot energy, snaking and cracking through the air. They met the dragons, full force, around the two inches from his face. For just a moment, suspended there, as time seemed to freeze around the two immortals, locked in a hopeless battle, the two forces fought each other.

Inch by inch, impossibly, each seemed to gain and fail. A moment’s time was all that passed, the space of a human breath, and then with a clang like a brazen gong the energies passed through each other, what was purple separating once again into red and blue, gold and silver.

The dragons hit Cerephino, knocking him heavily to the ground, but the snakes of fire continued towards Zalmunna, rending air and whatever else stood in its path.

She raised her arms, creating the strongest shield she could summon, as she prepared to launch her attack. And then, suddenly, she stopped. Some piece of her inner mind, her heart, maybe, came back to her.

And then she was tired of it. Tired of being a number. Tired of being a project. And tired of the betrayal. She wouldn’t do it.

: I won’t. You can’t make me:

A cold rush swept through her, like the spirit of an eagle, flying swiftly as wind icy cold, knocking down the remains of her shield at its faintest breath. A force surrounded her, like a cold hand, pushing her.

: I won’t. You can’t make me:

The cold hand encircled her, closing in on her. It was impossibly strong. She fell to her knees.

:I WON’T! YOU CANT MAKE ME!:

She screamed aloud, pushing with all the strength she had, rising desperately to her need, lashing out at all near her, trying to get at Him, The Master. The cold hand left. Then suddenly she whimpered and collapsed again. Even as she thought he left her, a dart of pain smote her breast.

The Master had made her feel many things. Hatred, Sorrow, Fear. But never before had he made her feel pain. Never before had he hurt her. The sensation, new to her, tore through her as she fell to the ground.

: leave me alone. I won’t hurt him…you… can’t…:

She whispered feebly, though she knew it was no use. It was over. She was broken…

Far away and very near, the programmer leaned back and sighed. The project had been weak, of course, easy enough to defeat. Still, the rebellion was unexpected.

New thoughts and feelings, even turning against me… She wasn’t created to have those… it must be a glitch in the programming. I’ll have to rewrite her, and Project 3 as well. They seemed to know each other all too well, and there no use taking chances….

Blood Lust

This is the shorter, sillier story; I wrote these sort of for a school project for which the sole requirement was a flashback. And yes, i kill of Elindomiel, but shes a smelly whiny-ass in here anyway. :P


Blood Lust

It was a beautiful day. The sun was shining over the meadow and through the trees, causing the forest to glow a vibrant green. Elindomiel leaned back onto the trunk of a tall, full Atora tree. Just feet above her head its silver grey stem exploded into a mass of ivy green leaves that shaded the elven girl as she listened to the world around her.

She felt as if she could sing, but after a moment’s consideration decided it was not a good idea. She didn’t want to interrupt the singing of the birds or the swish of the wind, and with her voice, she would likely scare off any other creature within miles. Singing was not one of her strengths. The sky was a deep blue, with only a scattering of snow white clouds. Several birds flew across as they soared into the horizon. Everything seemed so peaceful, yet even as Elindomiel watched the birds another shape came into view. She sat up straight as she tried to identify it. It was far too large to be a bird, too small and dark to be a cloud… She froze as she realized what it was. A Gryphon.

Her mind raced back to the first, and last, time she had seen one of these powerful creatures. The experience had not been a pleasant one.

Elindomiel was beginning to get tired. Not physically, for as an elf she had quite a bit of endurance and required hardly any sleep, but emotionally. She had been traveling for over a year now, and she loved it. To climb tall mountains and venture into peaceful valleys, to watch a sunset from a hilltop, to watch tall grass stretch out endlessly before her… But there were no hills here, no river valleys, and certainly no mountains. In fact, there didn’t seem to be much of anything, except the path.

The Old Forest Road, they called it. Elves do not take the term ‘old’ lightly. It was over 8,000 years old. Not that it was much of a road anymore, or that it had ever been. A worn down path through the prairie, it could go on for miles without changing in the least. This was not the kind of traveling Ellie was accustomed to, and she was tired of it. She felt that she would give anything for a change of pace.

What happened next did two things. The first was that it made Ellie a believer in the proverb ‘be careful what you wish for’. The other was that it installed in her a mortal fear of Gryphons.

Elindomiels ears twitched as she heard a sound behind her. It was an odd sound, one like something sweeping through the sky. Diving almost, moving, incredibly fast, and right behind her. She wheeled around, but it was too late. Something hit her, with the force of a boulder except that it was furry, sweaty, and… feathery?

She was too shocked to be scared that first moment, both at her sudden attack and by the attacker. What kind of creature had feathers and fur? She couldn’t tell at the moment, her head was squeezed between the rocky path and sharp gleaming talons. A moment went by. Ellie could hear nothing but the creature’s deep, hot breath as it hit her face. As the creature held her down, she winced in pain as she was pressed against sharp rocks. Already she was bleeding in several places from hitting them, and this wasn’t exactly improving the situation.

Forehead cuts were, at the moment, far from the focus of her mind. This wild beast had knocked her to the ground, and UrĂ¹sau-Maat only knew what it planned to do now.

To her surprise, the creature stepped off, and with a groan, Elindomiel pulled herself into a sitting position. She sat there for a moment, forgetting her fear, as she stood transfixed by this creature. It had a beautiful beak, wickedly sharp like a raptors and gleaming ebony black. Behind it were two distinctively intelligent eyes, amber colored, and behind those were ears, of all things. And not just any ears, long, extremely flexible ones that seemed to be appendages in of themselves.

It had an extremely muscular body, with paws on its hind legs and talons on his front and a tail somewhat like a lions, but several feet long. Most impressively, it had wings. Ellie could not imagine how something so huge would ever get off the ground, but if there ever was a pair of wings up to the job, they were these. Feathered, but tipped with hooks, they seemed a far cry from both a doves snow white wings and those of the gigantic True-Dragons.

Elindomiel was amazed enough by its looks, but when it began to speak, she was completely blown away.

“I am sssorrry” He began, quite formally and politely. He spoke with a very strong accent, rolling his r’s and his sibilants. “I wassss in a blood lussst. I attacked the firrrssst thing I sssaw.” It bowed its magnificent head slightly, as if ashamed of itself. It seemed to be quite uncomfortable with the emotion, because before Elindomiel could recover from the shock of this creature and ability to speak, it plucked out one of its feathers, put it in her hand, and flew hastily off.

Elindomiel didn’t know what to think about the attack. The creature had seemed sorry enough, and it really didn’t seem to have had any control over its actions… ‘Blood Lust’, he had called it. She didn’t know if this was a good thing or a bad thing. At least it hadn’t attacked her outright, but to think that there were beings that could be completely taken over by a moment’s lust… She shuddered, realizing her people and that of the creature weren’t really so different after all.

She had forgiven the creature quickly, but she had never really forgiven the race. And as this one came towards her, she fought the urge to flee.

It will be alright, she thought, that gryphon was on blood lust, this one won’t knock you down and attempt to eat you. It’s probably very friendly, and it will almost undoubtedly at least be civil.

This is what everyone else had tried to tell her about Gryphons. Her heart leaped within her, but she knew she had to face her fears. Her stream of thoughts continued, repeating itself. This Gryphon is probably friendly. After all, it’s not on a blood lust… It’s not going to hurt you…

Her heart beat faster as she eyed the gryphon coming towards her. Its muscles were tense; it didn’t seem to be focused…. She tried to convince herself that her mind was just playing tricks on her. She held her ground. Too late she heard the death scr’ee, and too late she saw Gryphonic eyes burning red with mad passion……. The Gryphon was far too close. And it was moving far to fast.

Lightening flashed in the sky, a storm had moved in. A low and menacing thunder rumbled across the clouds, matching the deep growl of a satisfied gryphon. A bloody piece of meat hung out of his beak as he savored every bite of his meal. He threw his head back and swallowed this as well, leaving a sticky patch of blood covered grass the only testimony to the young elves existence. Even this would soon disappear, lost to the storm that threatened to break at any moment.

The gryphon sauntered off with a stomach filled with fresh meat and the slowly fading remains of a blood lust. It began to rain.

Typical Writing

Im going to post two stories here that I wrote last year; just to give you an idea of how I write. Their not exactly typical of course; the first ones a little more crude and bloody than usual. :P. (% wise), and the second one is a little more sci fi than I usually swing, but hey.

March 12, 2005

Borders Teaser

I know you all are SOOO excited about my next trip to Borders, and thanks to my birthday party I should be ready for it! When you ask people for Borders Gift Certificates and Books, thats what you get.

All in all, the night yeilded a new Terry Pratchett (The Small Gods?), A new Tolkien (The Treason of Isengard, from Layla), two by some other author that my friend Kelling likes, not all fantasy I think, a collection of fantasy stories from Gwen, some bookmarks, journals, and candy; and over 50$ in Gift Cards.

Adelante! ^^

March 10, 2005

.Hack// is more fun when played Correctly

.Hack/infection is more fun when played correctly, I have discovered. Last time I played it, I mostly ran around from event to event, waiting for a storyline event to happen. This resulted in many things:

1. Me being bored and no story events happening
2. Me not leveling up at all
3. Since I didnt level up, it took about 6 hours to get through any events.

So on the second play (I just completely erased the previous file), Ive discovered that what you do is level up until a story event occurs on its own account.

The game is much more fun now. ^^

There are many charectors in the game because its a simulated mmorpg. Some of the ones I have in my party so far are:

Kite - Main Charector. Twin Blade.
Blackrose - Sidekick. Mildly bossy. Heavy Blade.
Mistral - Cheerfull rare item hunter. Wavemaster.
Piros - Obsessed geeky guy. Axeman.
Mia - Cold, self obsessed thing. Dunno.
Elk - Has a hopeless crush on Mia. Serves no purpose. Wavemaster.
Natsume - Cute and cheerfull but somewhat pathetic. Twinblade.
Gardenia - Stuck up, but not as bad as Mia. Has a female fan club. Long arm.
Sanjuro - Dont know much yet. Thinks hes really cool and strong.

I mostly use Kite, Blackrose, Mistral, and Natsume. I like Natsume better than Blackrose, but Blackrose is THE sidekick. I like how unlike pokemon and stuff the people can level up without you.

However it annoys me that someone will act like their SOOO cool and then be like level 5. When you first meet Mia and Elk, they act like the masters of the world, and say you have to prove yourself to them, but your already a good 2x their level. But whatever. :P

Math and Taxes

Whenever you ask someone why an ordinary person would need to know math, they always say "Taxes". As you get to higher level math classes, this begins to lose its credibility.

Yeah, right. My gas companies going to send me a bill saying:

Find the variable X in the right triangle below with a two column proof to discover how much you owe us. Right. ><

Shiny Nice Asoiaf Editions

Alright, two great things today; I finished Clash, and went to Borders.
Yes, I know I went their two days ago, but oh well. ;P

And at Bordors, I planned to replace my Asoiaf books, cause their looking pretty rough. Then I saw these huge full sized paperback forms! They were beautiful and I couldnt resist! When I brought them home though, my family eyed the big versions next to the small versions and were like "Why? Just Why?"

I had no answer.

March 09, 2005

Tolkiens Price

The other day I was looking at the largest section of my book collection, the Tolkien section. Now, it should be mentioned that my Tolkien section ALONE is almost ten times bigger than my entire Manga collection, putting things nicely in perspective.

I started doing a rough estimate on how much Tolkien has cost me over the years. I got worried when I hit 250$ and stopped counting. I was about halfway, and had only done the smaller, paperback books that far.

Then I realised; that was only the books. The dvds cost me another 150$ by their lonesomes. Then you take into account soundtracks, board games, bookmarks, and other propaganda including the ill-advised present of fellowship figurines a confused Ellie recieved for christmas a couple years ago... Your quickly going over 500$

Now I realise that some collectors of rare crap spend that much on a single item, but Ill remind you that Im a high school student who makes all her own freespending money, and thinks in terms of:

Small Purchase: Pocky 3$
Purchase: Paperback Book 7$
Large Purchase: Hardback Book 30$
Very Large Purchase: Playstation2 Game 50$
Mega-purchase: Console, Dvd Player, Portable Keyboard 200$

So 500$ for a single intrest is a lot; plus when tax, movie snacks, bandwithe, etc is figured in it probably cost more. O.o Not to mention that I wouldnt even have started collecting books w/o tolkien, nor would I be in to rpg video games...

Ai Elbereth! What I do for Tolkien!

March 08, 2005

Manga Collection Grows

Yay my Manga Collection grows to an impressive 4.... ^^

Chobits 1
Chobits 2
Chobits 3
Fruits Basket 1

Ill get there, I will...

Ellies Trip to the Bookstore

I bought Four Books:

A Storm of Swords
Fruits Basket 1
and Two Terry Pratchetts:
Monstrous Regiment
and something weird like Eric or something....

^^ Im excited, as its all new stuff and mostly very light reading. And of course the third part of the best series ever written, pardoning Tolkien till I figure out where to place him. :P

Birthday

Its my birthday!
^^ I am Fifteen.
I went out to eat and ate some weird lobster ravioli things. But it had shrimp with it so I ate pretty well. Lots of people said happy birthday. Like; my orthodontist, my grandparents, my rpg, my website, and my instant messenger. Oh yeah, and my friends. But those are just automatic. ;).

Gaynor even made me a cute little banner and put it on his board. Im so honored. :')