forums.rs

Forums

Shafts of Imagination

Quick find code: 49-50-608-60677877

of 34
Logan Shafts
Dec Member 2023

Logan Shafts

Posts: 3,211 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
As I got closer another figure stood out in the crowd, a dark skinned man with spiked red hair and a nose ring. He seemed the kind of person that caught eyes easily. He grinned at me, with an awkward twitch in his arm. He was playing with his lighter, turning it on and off conspicuously.

I attempted to stand in on the crowd, in the manner that one usually takes when trying to slowly form into a group of people whom one doesn't know. I hadn't waited long when a young woman, probably in her mid 30's, approached me. She seemed to be interested in conversation, but her son was glaring at me. As she got closer he leaped at her, and growled.

She was startled and distracted, and my eyes were drawn away before I could note what happened next. I was being beckoned back to the car.

A sensation of some unplaced emotion washed over me. It was like a mix of deja-vu and the creeps.

I quickly reached the car, and a cop woman wearing the standard black uniform of a highway patrol officer promptly approached me. "Hello sir, I'd like to ask you a few questions." She looked down at me.
I nodded, not exactly knowing how to respond to that effectively.

"Now, I understand that you're underage and not exactly liable, so just to put you at ease I'd like to point out that you're not in trouble, it's just that some weird things have been happening up and down this stretch of highway for a while, and I was wondering if you had noticed
anything strange. It's just protocol to ask."
Her wording struck me as abnormally defensive.

"Oh, well yes, actually I had noticed some things. People around here are all acting kind of...uh, extremist."

She looked surprised. "What exactly do you mean by extremist?"

24-Jun-2010 00:10:18 - Last edited on 24-Jun-2010 00:14:27 by Logan Shafts

Logan Shafts
Dec Member 2023

Logan Shafts

Posts: 3,211 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
I had expected that kind of question, so I started before she even finished. "I mean that people seem to embrace whatever emotion they portray beyond the usual amount. I feel like I'm trapped in a bad drama film. Some people are overly happy, others overly curious, others overly angry...the list goes on. I've tried to correlate these findings, attempting to put them together into a pattern of some kind. But the results seem..skewed."

She stared at me blankly for a moment, then chuckled. "Are you playing detective or something?"
I stared back, hard set. "That's rather condescending. Just because I have the form of a child doesn't mean you should treat me like I'm incapable. I also noticed people over there are acting like zombies or something." I pointed at the group of people.

She started to laugh more, but stifled herself. "You ask me to treat you less like a child, then go on to point out that people are acting like zombies?" She made a fake growling noise and widened her eyes, sticking her hands out in front of her, in a mocking form, mimicking a zombie.

I backed up a ways, noticing her gun. "Okay, so maybe that's a miscalculation." I stated, but I don't think she believed I believed myself.

"Okay well have a nice day, and thanks for the..calculations and pattern finding." She almost giggled as she limped back to her car.

Of course, the most ironic things in the world are the ones you expect most, which are also the least likely to happen.
A fireball flew over my head with a blazing shine. I was young enough at that time to vividly imagine the shooter. I could name him almost immediately out of the crowd of people I had seen earlier.

It never seemed to cross my mind that people can't shoot fireballs.

24-Jun-2010 00:10:30 - Last edited on 24-Jun-2010 00:18:12 by Logan Shafts

Logan Shafts
Dec Member 2023

Logan Shafts

Posts: 3,211 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
Suddenly things erupted in a startling sequence of unstartling events. The cops lights turned on, they stepped out of their cars one by one and aimed their guns at the fireball-shooting maniac.

The crowds parted, each person seeming to crouch in symmetrical positions near the trench at the side of the road. I saw a few unrecognizable movements out of the corner of my eye.

Suddenly there was a man in front of me with a sword, it eminated a soft glow and a high pitched humming noise.
"Why are you carrying a sword, in the middle of nowhere?" I asked, it seemed like the first reasonable thought I'd had all day. The man was tall, dark and handsome, he had pitch black hair and olive-colored skin, and a slightly crooked goatee under his wiley grin.

"Ah, you ask this as your family gets blown up by a fireball?" His voice was unusually stable and resounding, not to mention youthful.

I immediately turned around and looked back at the car, which was sitting on the side of the road with the doors open. It wasn't damaged, and nobody looked hurt. The fireball had cleared them and landed in a field somewhere off beyond them quite a ways. I turned about around just in time to duck a sword-swipe. It never occurred to me that this man had no real reason to want to harm me.

I guess I'm too well acquainted with the sadism of the world.

He brought the sword around in an arc for another swing which I stepped forward past, then smacked both my palms down on his temples as hard as I could while I brought my knee forward in a gut-stroke that he blocked by turning sideways. He stepped back a few feet, waiting for the blood
to return to his brain. I stood waiting for his next attack.

Two cops strode up behind him. "That is an illegal blade, you know." They seemed to not notice that he was a maniac trying to kill a little boy. But I don't think they noticed me at all, to be honest.

24-Jun-2010 00:10:43 - Last edited on 24-Jun-2010 00:16:48 by Logan Shafts

Logan Shafts
Dec Member 2023

Logan Shafts

Posts: 3,211 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
He turned around and dropped the sword, then walked off slowly into a crowd of running people and disappeared. I picked up the sword, the cops ran off after the crowd. For some reason I didn't ask myself why people were running.

I glanced after them, then looked around. As my eyes rested on thirty or more sets of feet, my mind clicked on again and I looked up. Then my mind clicked back off, I guess shock does that to you.

On strode an army of green, bloody molding creatures, disgustingly featured. Part of me in the very darkest corner of the deepest torture-dungeon of my crazed mind shouted "Zombies?". I didn't quite hear it and thought it said "some pies". My stomach growled.

I held up my newfound sword and ran at the zombies, they didn't seem to notice, until I cut off the leg of a taller, white haired man whose jaw was hanging loose. Then they all turned on me, he fell and I quickly cut off his head. I turned and ran a ways.

Bullets flew past me, and I looked over my shoulder to see the cop lady I had talked to earlier, her eyes sticking out and her shoulder molding off, shooting with dull accuracy in my general direction.

This was going to be getting rather gory, and I found myself wanting a more clean fight.

I hid behind a van. Why were there suddenly zombies chasing me? Why was I wielding a sword like I actually knew how to use it? Why didn't any of these questions come to mind?
Two small rotting feet came running along the side of the van.

A boy rounded the bend and looked at me, licking his bloody lips. I had seen him earlier, growling at people. He leapt at me and I put my sword through his neck, then slid it to the side and brought it back around to finish the blow. I kicked his limp body over onto the ground and then rushed away from the oncoming horde.

24-Jun-2010 00:10:54 - Last edited on 24-Jun-2010 00:18:00 by Logan Shafts

Logan Shafts
Dec Member 2023

Logan Shafts

Posts: 3,211 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
I had an overwhelming desire to save the day. Kill all the zombies, and get all the still healthy people out of here. I had noticed people playing zombie earlier, now I could see many of those people as real zombies now.

Maybe this all had something to do with our imaginations. Maybe this stretch of highway was enhancing our imaginations, making us into whatever we pretended to be. I would have to fight it, I wouldn't let myself become a 'hero' and save the day. I would just be myself, and if a heroic moment approached, I would ignore it.

I gazed at all the zombies coming at me, a blinding bright light appeared, and they all fell down, and apart. I stooped behind the open door of a pickup truck, unexpectedly unsurprised. A figure walked, lonely along the street with a evil grin and a surprisingly familiar, deceitful shine in his eyes. He sneered at me through the window of the door.

I stepped out and held up my sword. He held up another sword. One of his hands came out from behind his back, holding a gun, he aimed it at a beautiful lady who had been trying to find a place to hide, but was failing and now stood dead still, looking at him pleadingly. "Drop your sword or I shoot her" He said. His voice still youthful.

I shrugged. For some reason it didn't bother me that she might die. "No thanks, come fight me like a man."

He grinned. "I guess that trick doesn't work on you, perhaps you're too young for hormones? Yet, you want to fight like a man. Ironic, to hear that from a little boy."

His words were obviously just as empty as my heart had been moments before, he threw his gun down and the woman ran off to hide.

He ran at me with his sword in a double-thrust-low position, which was interesting to see coming from a man holding only one weapon.

24-Jun-2010 00:11:11 - Last edited on 24-Jun-2010 00:19:39 by Logan Shafts

Logan Shafts
Dec Member 2023

Logan Shafts

Posts: 3,211 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
I brought my sword down in the standard blocking pattern, then spun around and flung my elbow at his face from the side, he dashed to the opposite side and avoided it, then did a little dancing spin and came around facing me with a stab attack already headed for my stomach.

I thrusted sideways, pushing his sword out wide with a riposte, and brought my own around underneath and up in an arc to slash at his chest. He blocked and slid his sword along the bank of mine, stabbing its tip towards my neck. I didn't have the strength or leverage to move forward even the inch it would take to block.

I leapt backwards, my heels landing on the forgiving firmness of tire tread. I brought my empty hand back behind me and flipped backwards onto the bed of the truck which had offered me a little solace earlier. My blade was before me defensively.

My opponent, as yet unnamed, quickly jumped onto the bed as well, bringing his sword down in an open arc slice towards me. As I moved to block, he made a right angle turn with the tip of his blade and slid it up under mine, pushing it up towards the sky, then brought it up towards my chest.

I stomped on his foot and turned to the side, kicking him off the bed of the truck. I heard his leg crack all the way down and his skull hit the ground hard.

His foot was still pinned under mine. I stabbed through his ankle and then jumped off the truck.

He had blood pouring from his skull and his neck was at an awkward angle. I walked over to my car, my family had returned to it. I stepped in and took a seat. "Lets get out of here."

24-Jun-2010 00:11:20 - Last edited on 24-Jun-2010 00:22:55 by Logan Shafts

Logan Shafts
Dec Member 2023

Logan Shafts

Posts: 3,211 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
We drove off into the sunset. Which was strange, because last I remembered, the sun had already

set.

I woke moments later, leaning against the side of the car, drool built up in my cheek. I looked

at my sister, swallowing hard. "Was I asleep?" I asked.

"Yup, for quite a while. Twitching, too. I almost woke you but I figured you were dreaming."

"Yeah, I must have been. That was a strange one too. Might make a good story some day. Although

it was kind of insane." My voice was cracky. She smiled.

I looked back into the trunk behind me, looking for a drink I had left there earlier. A glimmer

caught my eye.
There was a long blade sitting across the back end of the trunk, humming in a high pitch, and

glowing softly.

Oh well, these things happen.

-=[End]=-


And there it is - one of my earliest stories of any decent length.

It may not be particularly clear in this story, but the idea is that they entered an area where every persons imagination took ahold of them and began producing real-life results.

This is a theme I've carried over a few different stories that I'm still trying to edit - and most of them aren't worth posting, but you might see another here some day, if I work them up to the point of decency. This story barely made it, and only because of the theme.

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed it.

24-Jun-2010 00:25:16

Chuk

Chuk

Posts: 14,177 Opal Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
"I usually steer clear of gore unless it's necessary to get my point across. For instance, in "The Future" and "The Happiness Principle", if I was to neglect the darker side of those stories, the purpose and plot would be meaninglessly hidden in idealistic nonesense."

-- -- -- --

Why the hell am I supposedly your mentor when you can put together explanations like this? O.o

Anyway, I have yet to actually read your newest (to the forums) story. I did read the explanation, though, and it sounds quite intriguing. Imaginings coming to life. That'd be crazy nutso. What would the world be like if that had worked for Tolkien? Balrogs? Sauron? Oh dear. :O

11-Jul-2010 22:49:00

Logan Shafts
Dec Member 2023

Logan Shafts

Posts: 3,211 Adamant Posts by user Forum Profile RuneMetrics Profile
Well Chuk its not quite that extravagent, its more the musings of children.

Also, the average person tends to live their life with little imagination (at least from my observations). Many live dull lives that they aren't satisfied with, and simply work to live to work like zombies...

I wont say much more. =p

11-Jul-2010 22:58:56

Quick find code: 49-50-608-60677877 Back to Top