Today's #Scifi #fantasy short story #TheEvilOverlordAndHisGame

        My friend CJ's going to come over today so I'm posting quick and early. This'll be one of my shorter stories but I tried to make sure it packed plenty of punch!

The Evil Overlord And His Game

        “Your reign of terror ends today!” a voice said as the quarterback sent off the ball. “You have harmed the people of the world long enough!” The players passed the balls and advanced on the field. “You have murdered millions,” My favorite team then scored and the voice kept talking, “and I have come to avenge them! Now avert your eyes from that thing and come see me face to face, or are you too much of a coward to face me?”

        “Fine! I'll face you!” I yelled back.

       I turned off the television. This was the twelfth hero this week coming to kill me and he wouldn't even let me finish the game. I sat up from my Throne of Terror. It was a magical throne I had witches from the darkest parts of all the lands make for me. It at first appeared to be a normal throne with decorative evil-looking spikes on the sides but it was also enchanted with spells that actually fed on the power of fear itself to bend the laws of physics to make the leather impossibly poofy and comfy under the normal rules of reality.

      I looked at the hero. He didn't worry me as an evil overlord. Mostly because he was completely covered in armor and had a full arsenal. Obviously a highly trained knight. And thus not a problem. You'd think at first he would be, but nope. But see, really, it's the ragtag kids who go out questing that are the problem. Trained knights just know how to kill soldiers. The ragtag kids that get hopelessly lost on the way to the castle and go off on a myriad of quests and adventures are the problem. They slay dragons, find tons of magical items and gather practically an army of other friends to all jump me with.(Or rather other overlords, I've lost many friends to ragtag kids, I'm hoping I'm one of those that grows to old age before the ragtag kids get to me.) But this soldier from the castle with his non-magical equipment and normal military training? Doubt he'll be the one.

     “So hero, do you have any enchanted equipment?” I asked him.

      “Um, no.” he replied.

       “Have you been selected by any prophesies, such as being announced as The Chosen One?” I assumed his status from his looks but I wanted to ask him a few questions to make sure.

       “Um, no.” I could tell he was expecting a monologue. Normally I would enjoy delivering one, but I was not in the mood considering he interrupted my game.

       “Have you done any quests, small or large, like fetching things for villagers or slaying dragons?” I asked.

       “Um, no.” he repeated. I noticed that he started to look like a child that was getting a question wrong when asked in class.

       “Do you have any friends to aid you, especially eccentric ones with amazing talents, comic reliefs or adorable animals?” I continued my inquiries. I figured he couldn't tell that I was raising my eyebrow under my spike covered overlord helmet.

       “Um, no.” The hero then got frustrated. “What does it matter?”

       I laughed. Though it wasn't my token maniacal overlord laugh. “I was just making sure my original assumption was correct. You are of no threat to me.”

      I then blew him up with my magic and got back to my game. A few weeks later I was later greeted by a group of ragtag kids. Apparently I had killed their families or something. Well, it was three ragtag kids and the friends they had gathered on their adventures, comic relief and powerful, eccentric wizard. As I said the friends they would jump you with. Their leader was The Chosen One plus they had magical items quest experience and even an adorable animal sidekick. They had all the stops. I never stood a chance. But they did have the decency to let me finish the game I was watching.

This work is copyright Langdon Kennedy you may share this(email it, print it, post it on your own website, broadcast it etc.) work unaltered as long as you credit me as the author and share a link to this blog with it and it is not for profit. If you have any questions and/or are unclear of these conditions email me at llkenne1@asu.edu

Today's #Scifi #fantasy short story #DemonDining

      Well, I'm glad today's story was finished nice and quick and early. (My time zone its around 11:00 AM here) so that gives me lots of time to work on my book and such. Being so early in the day nothing has happened yet. So nothing to report. In fact no seizures yet( but they usually happen at lunch and later anyhow, had some yesterday later in the day but none in the morning as I recall) but whenever I don't have any early in the day it usually bodes well so yay!

Demon Dining

        Grim Reapers served the demons at their dinners. They brought human souls to the demons for them to eat. Each soul was contained in its own ball of a glowing, doughy, jelly-like substance. The demons could tell what kind of soul it was based on the kinds of glowing colors in the ball of jelly-like substance and the taste of it. Demons had their own tastes in souls and lived off them, it was their source of food. Though it was just the natural order of things, the energy the demons and other creatures gave off from The Other Side is what made the reality humans lived in exist. But the demons didn't actually care about that fact. It was just a footnote to them.

        “So what do you think of the food tonight dear?” said Xorxi to his wife Yurg. Tonight's dinner was a large gathering of demons so it was actually provided by the host and many of the guests, like Xorxi, didn't know what souls were going to provided. It was what demon's call a 'soul surprise dinner'.

       “Absolutely lovely.” Yurg responded. She was 300 years younger than him and way too attractive for him. Attractive by demon standards that is. The demon's thought her red skin was beautiful but her giant horns were obviously fake. (Some didn't care.) “I got the souls of several human children and you know how I love their sweetness.”

        Xorxi frowned. “I'm glad you like them. I've got a more varied spread. Some bitter old people, a few vanilla lawyers, but I do have one sweet child.”

        A demon neither of them knew the name of chimed in. “Eh, you're lucky. I just got a bunch of gangsters. Sure, one or two can be nice and tough but man can it get redundant.”

         Yurg then said, “You can have one of my children. I've got plenty.” she then placed the sweet human child soul on his plate. He quickly grabbed it and popped it into his mouth.

        “Thanks!” he replied, “I thought I was going to be stuck with the flavor of gangster all night.”

Xorxi then added. “It's the risk of a random sampling dinner. Sure you can get some fun surprises but it can backfire.”

        “True.” the stranger demon added. He then looked over at the Demon Princess. That really was pretty much her name as nobody called her her normal birth name. She was the host of the party, and a massive glutton of souls. She would eat as many as five demons at a single meal at least. To mock her demons would say they had more than one princess. “Y'know for a 'random sampling' our princess is just getting tender nuns, the best delicacy. How convenient.”

        “Quiet!” Xorxi commanded the stranger. “If she hears you, your soul will end up on a platter!”

        “What do you mean?” the stranger responded.

         Xorxi sighed and reduced his voice to a whisper. “That's what she does. If you cross her she turns you human. And you live in the human world, knowing eventually the Grim Reapers will come to get you and you will be back here and she will be waiting.”

         The stranger then remembered something. “So wait, the rumors were true? She would do something so cruel to her fellow kind as turn them into humans?”

        “Yes.” Xorxi responded. “And at her meals the reason she is the only one to get a second course is that she's doing her executions. And she makes us watch. All out of providing an example.”

         Yurg then added, “Let's change the subject.”

        The stranger then said, “Good idea.”

Author Comment: I started out thinking of this story by deciding “maybe I should write a scary story today” I thought “I could make demons eating human souls scary” and the story that eventually came to be was this. Still creepy but not exactly horror. Even if it doesn't go with the original idea it doesn't matter. I let a story roll out how it goes, that's what makes it natural. So it's not a horror or spooky story in the end but if it's a good story I'm happy.

This work is copyright Langdon Kennedy you may share this(email it, print it, post it on your own website, broadcast it etc.) work unaltered as long as you credit me as the author and share a link to this blog with it and it is not for profit. If you have any questions and/or are unclear of these conditions email me at llkenne1@asu.edu

Today's #Scifi #fantasy short story #HumanityKnows

       Well, got my blood test today. Had dinner late and this took awhile to write, plus I worked on my book which is coming along well. So yeah that's why today was such a late post. Anyway, enjoy the flash fiction!

Humanity Knows

     “Hey, human thing, look at me.” XR-7 the robot said as he poked the human on the table with his giant steel finger.

      YE-24 glared at XR-7 “Don't poke the human! You could break it!”

      “Stupid!” XR-7 yelled back. “You can't break a human. Though I guess I could hurt it. Hurting is what you call it when you damage a living thing. Stupid.”

      YE-24 rolled her eyes. “Fine. You could hurt it. Whatever words you use it means the same thing.”    Robots in the race of robots YE-24 and XR-7 belonged to had been classified as him or her based on their primary function. “Female” robots manufactured new robots for their race and upgraded old ones making them bigger and making them “grow up”. “Male” robots gathered parts for the “females”. XR-7 and YE-24 both were manufactured by the same “mother” robot which was given parts by the same “father” robot. So they are both brother and sister.

     “Anyway.” XR-7 said his glowing yellow looking at the human, “I wonder why Dad got this for us?”

YE-24 looked at her brother. “Have you been paying attention to the thousands of Dad's rants about the importance of humans?”

      “No.” XR-7 said frowing with his giant steel lips. “I meant why he got it for us now. Maybe he finally got that big secret out of the humans he's got in his lab. Like proof that the world is more than fifty years old.”

      “Wait!” YE-24 said with a shocked look on her face. “Dad said that? Or did the humans tell Dad that the world is more than fifty years old. Because its fact that the world is fifty years old. We've checked the hard drives of the oldest robots the world over and there's nothing older than fifty years.”

       XR-7 scratched his bald, metal head. “Y'know we haven't explored the whole world yet. There may be robots with memories before our part of the world's elders. Maybe the humans know things we don't.”

      YE-7 laughed with her booming robot synthetic voice. She then pointed to the human still on the table. The human knew running would only antagonize the machines. “You think this little thing knows anything?”

       “Maybe...” XR-7 said. “Though Dad's the one that thinks so. I'm not sure.”

      YE-7 thought for a moment. “What if Dad means that the humans know just as much as we do? Like they know about the nothingness that all parts came from that our ancestors were born from? Isn't that technically older than fifty years old?”

       XR-7 then responded. “Yeah I heard the story. It's all our ancestors can figure. There was some sort of nothingness then out came the world and out came all the parts scattered about in all fills and cities for us to build our children in. All the power cells and all the power plants to allow us to live come from that nothingness. Though its only theory. We only know the world is fifty years old from the definite memories on our elder's hard drives and they are honest they are not sure and some of them had died.”

       YE-7 “And have you ever wondered where language came from? Our elders just knew it and they couldn't explain it. But it is odd that Dad thinks the humans know all this.

         “Don't think about it too hard. I just Dad thinks they look cool or something and is assigning too much importance to them.” XR-7

        YE-7 then replied, “Wait. Dad said you can talk to them!”

        “What?” XR-7 stuttered back.

       “Well kinda.” YE-7 frowned. “They can understand everything you say. But their voices are very tiny so you can't hear what they say unless you have something called a megaphone to make them louder.”

XR-7 looked at the human awkwardly. “So he understood everything we said? This is kinda embarrassing. I thought you needed a translator or something.” he then paused. “You said megaphone right?”

      “Yes.” YE-7 responded.

       “Well now that I think about it I think he said he had one at his lab.” XR-7 paused again. “Now it makes sense! No wonder he likes them so much! If he has one he can talk to them. Who knows what he can talk about with them. If they do know so many things they could be telling him how to fly!”

       YE-7 laughed. “Okay, knowing that the world is older than fifty years is one thing, but flying is just stupid. How could you fly? Unless your a bird and I have no idea how they do that. Gonna screw wings to your back?”

       “Yeah it ridiculous.” XR-7 replied. “Oh, I'm getting transmission from Dad.”

        “Me too.” YE-7 said. “Let's both open it.”

       “Kids!” The father shouted almost like a giddy human girl. “I've made an amazing breakthrough that will change the entire way we think about the world. I've invented a device that will revolutionize everything!”

         “What it is?” they both asked.

       “Well recently I met a human named Mr. Samson. Now the humans have been teaching me reading and writing. Oh, yeah I already explained that to you a thousand times since I've been studying it for like the past two years or so. I'm just so excited that I forgot. Anyway since I've mastered it I had to come up with a way to read books, little tiny things with words written in them. I made this big magnifying device I can slot books into of various devices. But back to Mr. Johnson, oh, my I'm rambling like usual, anyway, see he's actually a human history teacher. History is what happened before right? Well he's seventy years old!”

        “What!? But the world is only fifty years old!” both robot children yelled. They had both been manufactured three years ago. Language was data passed down through generations so they didn't need to learn it like humans.

         “No it isn't! It's amazing! He heard about me from another human and since he wasn't sure how long he was going to live he wanted to tell me about everything before he died! He explained everything to me! Oh, how to explain to you quickly...our ancestor's first mother was actually no mother but a group a humans!”

      “What?” both children asked baffled as the idea of a human mother didn't make sense as that is the equivalent of a human becoming pregnant with a giant robot.

      “Okay. So a bunch of very smart humans came up the designs for our ancestors and then created them with the parts. They were actually our ancestor's mom's but they were like mommies.”

       “Ooooohhhhhh. That makes sense.” they both said. “So if the world is older than fifty years then where did all the parts come from?”

       “That's the most incredible part! The ground!” the father yelled.

        “Okay that makes even less sense.” the children said.

        “Actually everything you're made out of can be taken from dirt. The history teacher says he doesn't know all about it but there are books about it. I have to get those books! Anyway, he says if you do the right things you can make parts out of things. Though you have to use the right dirt, I mean material, ugh, I explain it more later. Anyway, the truth is the humans made all the parts.”

        XR-7 yelled “So your saying that not only they're not only our original mothers. But they made all the parts?”

YE-24 added. “No way...” Both children stared down to the human at the table.

         “Yes. He explained this all to me. He remembered when we were first announced to be created. Everything was very different then he said. Back then parts weren't in piles like they are now unless humans put them in big fills. City buildings weren't as chunky. He said that there used to be even more power plants and many buildings were “factories”. Factories are like moms that don't think. He talked about a society with machines I don't even understand much. Anyway there was a big disaster that destroyed most things and stopped most of their technology, he called it an “apocalypse”, and this world is what is left. He said it's like looking at a dead body.”

        “Wow.” the children responded.

The father then let out an oddly giddy laugh. “That's not the craziest part.”

        “How could that not be the craziest part?” the children asked both horrified and amazed as if something stranger could only be a monster.

      “Mr. Samson said he was going to stay with me for awhile but he gave me a gift. Since he's a history he's always brought with him his most prized possession. A history book. As I said before he wasn't sure how long he was going to live and since he knew I would take good care of it he gave the book it to me. I've been reading it and the history book is massively detailed. I actually learned how old the world is! Wanna guess?”

       “Seventy years old?” XR-7 said assuming the world was as old as the man.

       “Older.” the father teased.

        “One hundred years old.” YE-24 guessed.

        “Older.”

        “One hundred and fifty.” XR-7 figured that triple the normal age was plenty high.

        “Not even close.” the father laughed.

        “Fine. How about one thousand years!” YE-24 yelled. She figured that high would be way overshooting it.

         “Nope.” the father said.

          “Then what is it?” XR-7 asked.

          “About 4.54 billion years.” after the father answer the children looked over to the human on the table. The children grew silent. The father then spoke in an even giddier tone. “Good news! I was given a new book. It's a science book!” the father paused. “Oh my! Mr. Samson just told me I may be able to start learning how they get parts from dirt from this! Aren't humans amazing? Gotta go I have to read this!” Their father ended the transmission.

           The children just stared at the human on the table.

 

This work is copyright Langdon Kennedy you may share this(email it, print it, post it on your own website, broadcast it etc.) work unaltered as long as you credit me as the author and share a link to this blog with it and it is not for profit. If you have any questions and/or are unclear of these conditions email me at llkenne1@asu.edu

 

Today's oddly realistic story #DifferentKindsOfMoney

          Last night I was talking to my friend CJ and it looks like he will probably be coming over this weekend. We also talked about my writing, and the subject came up about how many non-sci-fi fantasy stories I've written. I realized it was little to none and I could only remember two on this blog and when we discussed them he pointed out that they were still fanciful and still only technically rooted in reality. And I thought back to my creative writing courses and even then I didn't write much that wasn't sci-fi fantasy. Inventing worlds and settings has grown to be talent and its been what I've stuck with.

        He said he'd thought it would help me grow as a writer if I wrote something that wasn't fantasy or sci-fi to go out of my comfort zone and develop outside of fantasy and sci-fi workings for a moment. So that's what I decided to do for today. Today's flash fiction will be grounded in reality. No dragons, magic, aliens, sentient-emotion having robots, teleporting stuff or other dimensions. I hope this doesn't turn off any of my usual sci-fi and fantasy readers too much but don't worry I tried to make this a good story just like I do all my other stories.

       So enjoy this reality based flash fiction!

        Different Kinds of Money

          “Honey, I bought you a pearl necklace today.” Mr. Johnson said with a smile. His police uniform was still dirty from the day's patrols. He lived in the year 1925 in the heart of a developing American city. At that time the Eighteenth Amendment was in effect, banning the manufacture, sale or transportation of alcohol. He was one of the officers hired to enforce prohibition. His patrol route brought him through the slums of the town covering him in dirt and went to the developed upper-class parts of town where he bought the pearls.

          His wife first responded with a glare. She was wearing the oldest dress she had. The one she had before they had gotten when they were first married. It was ragged and worn. She owned much fancier, more comfortable clothing, all purchased by the officer.

          The house they lived in had clean, fancy, red carpeting and strong, expensive wood walls. The officer paid to have the most modern appliances and lighting installed in the home. All the furniture decorating the home was either the latest in professional crafting or a fine antique. And the beds in the home were of the finest material that guaranteed every night was a perfect night's sleep filled with lovely dreams.

          The officer continued to smile. “What's wrong honey?”

          “Which money did you buy it with?” she asked him.

          The officer's face turned from a smile to a scowl. “You're back to this again!”

         “Yes.” she responded with a tone like a flat note. “Which money is it? Is it the money from your job, or the money the others pay you?”

         The officer then slowly placed the pearls on the cabinet in the front hall to try to pretend he was calmer than he actually was. “Y'know I'm tried of your garbage.” he his voice began to escalate. Not reaching a yell, but just beneath one. “You wear that old dress as a sort of 'silent protest' to all this money I'm getting for us. Trying to feel all high and mighty and morally higher than me. But really you love the money and everything I'm getting for you!” he stared her down. “You wear that old dress because it's easy. You use all the appliances. You wear all the fancy clothes around company to impress them. And you sleep in the fancy bed I bought.” the husband then walked up close to her and looked her eye to eye. “If you really want to protest all the 'dirty money' I'm making then do it the hard way. Stop wearing the fancy clothes. Do things without the fancy appliances. Sleep on the floor. Don't just wear that old dress when it's convenient.”

          Mrs. Johnson's gut twisted. Her husband was right. That's all she was doing. Lecturing him about using dirty money to get them all those wonderful things just by wearing some old dress they had before he had gotten them rich. And the dirty money didn't come murder or theft. Mr. Johnson's trick was simple. In the era of Prohibition people still drank plenty of alcohol even though it was illegal to make and sell it. Mr. Johnson was supposed to be one of the officers catching the people making and selling it. But instead he was accepting bribes to tip the makers and sellers off as to when the police were raiding establishments and searching for alcohol so they could more easily hide all their drinks and “transform” back into the regular restaurants they were pretending to be or abandon their stills if they were makers.

         Not murder, but still illegal nonetheless.

         The officer's wife then yelled, “Fine, then I will sleep on the floor tonight! And I won't use the appliances!” Dinner that night was awkward and plain. The only thing she could make without the appliances was sandwiches. No sources of heat in the house but those appliances. And that night she did sleep on the floor. Mr. Johnson checked and he couldn't believe that she actually did.

         And when she awoke the next morning he told her, “Do you really think that one night will convince me? And don't you remember the days of that old little rat town that I policed before Prohibition? And when you had to chop wood to make fire for that chimney and that rotten stove I saved up for months? And those old beds that were probably worse than the carpeted floor you slept on last night. I'm giving us a wonderful life just by telling some people when to tuck away their booze. It's not that big of a deal. Why do you have such a problem with that?”

           The wife frowned. “I don't like all the lying.” She then shed a tear. “And what happens if you get caught?”

           “Honey.” Mr. Johnson said his face turning to an expression of both fear and sadness. “I didn't want to say it to you, but I'm in deep. I help some dangerous people. This is some expensive things we have. I don't just tip off the little guys. I help the big ones too. And if I suddenly stop, even if I don't turn the criminals in, they will think I'm going to and they'll probably silence me one way or the other. And they'll get suspicious if I stop taking payments.”

          “So.” Mrs. Johnson frowned. “We're trapped?”

           “Yes.” Mr. Johnson responded. The room filled with silence. Mostly since they both knew that in ten minutes he had to leave to tell the current “clients” about the upcoming raids.

          She shed another tear. “There has to be another way.”

         Mr. Johnson thought for a minute then responded. “I can't get us out of this hole but I think at least maybe we can turn the dirty money clean.”

         “What do you mean?” she asked.

         “I know it's a cheap way to clear our conscience, but we could give the dirty money to charity.” Mr. Johnson explained.

          “Alright we'll do that.” the wife smiled.

         And so that's what Mr. Johnson did. He spent the rest of Prohibition “cleaning” dirty money. Plus they sold all the luxuries they had besides what added up to his honest wages.

Today's #Scifi #fantasy short story #ZaiixiDay (Alt. search #ZDay)

              Well, this story took me quite some time. Lot's of “world building”. Won't have as much time to work on my book but I did like how the story worked out. Maybe I'll my friend CJ over this weekend to edit my book further. He's been pointing out problems as we go through line-by-line even more than grammatically and he just gives out a detailed opinion too so the more I learn from him the more I'll be able to improve said book. I started this book before I did this blog and I'm getting better at writing it as I go along. When I do more rewrites it'll probably be tons better too. Also my next book will be pretty strong too, because as soon as I send this one out to be looked at by publishers(there is a massive wait time for publishers to process your work often months especially if your new) I'm going to doing something new. My current book's in 3^rd person and my other book is going to be in a completely different world with a completely different premise in the first person(which I've gotten tons of practice doing from this blog, which I wouldn't have gotten if I hadn't have started this blog.) So yeah those are my plans. Anyhow, onto the flash fiction!

Zaiixi Day

        Zaiixi Day was the most important holiday in all the magical lands. It celebrates the day that the sorceress Zaiixi came from her world to theirs and brought magic with her by opening up a hole in her world to allow magic to leak in like water. All magical creatures in their world were ancestors of ones she brought when she came to their world. At least that's what the Ancient Texts said.

         The celebration of this event actually spreads over the entire month before it and even more extending into its own 'holiday season'. In some part because of the absurd amount of decorations the wizards and witches have to set up. And the requirement on decorations. Being on the same level technologically with the more mundane lands in the other dimensions such as Earth gives them access to lights or plastic figures or trains and such. They can use these for the more mundane holidays of the year but for the holiday of Zaiixi Day everything must be magic because it is a holiday about magic. It is a requirement that every decoration must be magical in some way, usually enchanted. Pretty much every lawn has something levitating. A trick that some wizards and witches often use to make their houses really light up at night is to have decorations that have been enchanted to be perpetually on fire without being damaged.

         As for what the decorations usually are a cliché decoration type is animated figurines of magical creatures. Somebody usually has at least has one enchanted plastic dragon flying around in circles on their roof. (Apartment complexes or other residential buildings can be quite spectacular compared to houses as usually every resident inside bands together to decorate the entire building.) Other decorations can including things like “standing spells” which are spells that last quite awhile, or until deactivated and usually involve drawing some symbols in the ground or floor or other surface. They stop when the symbol is removed. An example would be a miniature thunderstorm one or two feet in size. Wizards try to make ones like those turn themselves temporarily off at night so they don't bother the neighbors when they're asleep. Sometimes people make animated sculptures dancing or performing in some other way. Sometimes people spend much more than the usual month setting up decorations, some spend the entire year.

          People don't put up any sculptures or representations of the sorceress Zaiixi herself. That is an entire other division of the holiday culture itself. The Ancient Texts actually don't specify anything about how she looks except that she had obtained eternal youth and extraordinary beauty. It did specify that she wore golden robes and a red witch's hat. But instead of people taking liberty with her appearances it became tradition for young women to dress as her for the holiday season. The definition of age for 'young woman' was eventually settled to be from sixteen to twenty six. Though after twenty four and after it was pushing it. Some older women would dress up to fake being young but this was frowned down upon and if the woman was caught, which they usually were, they would be looked at as, desperate, old crones and would probably have no shot at dating for quite some time. Married women didn't dress up.

         The women's fashion industry made a huge amount of its money off of makeup, robes and hats as women dressed up to be Zaiixi for the season. The texts only specified colors so the industry made thousands of different kinds of robes and hats to sell. Each year they'd try to come out with something new to outdate old costumes. One way a boy could get a girlfriend is to offer whoever he wants a Zaiixi costume, the more expensive the better, at the start of the season and tell her how wonderful she would look in it. And if she accepts it they're pretty much 'officially dating'. The majority of the couples started out like this in the magical lands. The season of this magical holiday was also nicknamed “the couples season”.

         There are various parties in the season. They come in a few variates. First off there are spell parties. Normal, mundane parties are considered against the holiday spirit. Spell parties are where everyone eats dinner(or maybe some other meal but that's pretty rare as these are usually held later in the day) in a circle on the floor or ground around some object. This can be a stone, hunk of wood or doll or something else. Throughout the night the partygoers cast spells on the object. A few people try to use it to show off, but most people use it just to try to be funny or to do something neat and entertaining.

         The most famous spell party of all time involved an incredibly powerful wizard who was also incredibly grumpy. He had decided to pass on casting a spell but every one bugged him so much that he eventually snapped. He said fine. The object they had at the party was an old-timey doll owned by the granddaughter of the host of the party. The grumpy, powerful wizard in his rage decided to summon an elder demon god from another dimension to devour the doll. It did. But instead of being traumatized the little granddaughter thought the elder demon god was much more adorable and asked if she could keep him instead. The grumpy wizard thought it was hilarious and cheered up. He said yes, especially since he couldn't send the elder god back. The elder demon god is now named Snookie and is enslaved to the granddaughter who is currently in her thirties and having it work for charity picking up litter.

         Other parties include illusion parties where participates try to dazzle or scare each other with illusion spells and then there are shape shifting parties where it is like a mundane world's costume party but the people come shape shifted with magic into creatures or animals for the night.

         Various towns and cities and such have their own unique events but there are two seasonal event types that everyone has. First there are the creature shows. This is where magical creature tamers show of their creatures that they have been breeding and taming to the world on television. Since Zaiixi brought these creatures into the world it thought only fitting they are showcased to the world in shows throughout the season. Next are the spell shows. Here wizards show off their spells in various shows. National leagues exist and the winners from those all come together to perform in one big show towards the end of the season. One famous show had a witch going to prison afterward because she caused a miniature earthquake endangering everyone. No one was injured because the stadium was so well enforced for powerful spells like that. She said that she planned for the safety measures but the police didn't care. She replied. “Well doesn't matter, I still gave you the best show you'll ever get!”

         Zaiixi Day itself is actually very calm and reserved in contrast to the spectacular shows. One thing that Zaiixi also brought to this world was many magical artifacts, wands and items plus the knowledge and how to make more of them. So on this day families gather and give each other gifts of magical items, no mundane items are ever given. Dinners are also held if the families can manage it. On this day the young women always wear their Zaiixi costumes and although the families are all giving the gifts to each other the young women wearing the costumes are the ones to hand them out. If there's no one in the right age to be costumed then whoever is giving their gift hands it out. The presents are usually in boxes wrapped in paper with pictures of magical creatures on it.

       And at the end of the day a special spell is cast. This spell unites the minds of everyone in the family for a few short moments in a blissful trance, not by any mind control technique, but by reminding them of all their best memories together all while linking their minds. So after that unity everyone departs and the next day the season closes and everyone puts away the decorations and continues on with the rest of the mundane year until the next holiday rolls around.

Today's #Scifi #fantasy short story #OurIntentions

        Um, nothing much when on today. Seizures were down. Can't just say I wrote again. Um, gotta come up with some news...I ATE BURRITOS FOR DINNER IT WAS MAGNIFICENT!!! DELICIOUS!!! NOW ONTO THE FLASH FICTION!

Our Intentions

Dear Sir(s) and/or Madam(s),

         Good day! My name is General Geralgurgaralxyi and I am one of the generals for the aliens who have come to your planet. I know you've probably already heard about us on your television, radio, or on the Internet or from friends, coworkers, or other individuals. Depending on where you live you may be able to look outside and see our ships in the sky or seen the ones that have already landed. Now, I know there are nasty rumors all over your planet about our intentions on your world, so I have sent out this message all over the world in email, over the phone through messages, in physical letters, broadcast on television and radio and on the Internet in every language on the planet through our various language interpretation devices to clear up our intentions. I want all of humanity to know upfront exactly what we are here for to clear up any misunderstandings.

          First off I must say I am stricken with great grief. When we arrived on your planet your world's armies misunderstood our intentions and attacked us. Understandable considering that once we observed your media your cultures have pondered the possibility of unfriendly aliens for a long time and our ships are equipped with weapons to defend ourselves. There was great loss of life of your peoples in our work to defend ourselves and subdue them. I mourn for their loss. It is fortunate now though that all your world's armies are crippled and without any hope for resistance no further loss of life is necessary.

       Our reasons for coming to your planet are all peaceful. We do not plan to enslave you as many of you have said we would. One of our primary purposes is actually to study your world, its life, technology, culture and history; a peaceful notion that many of you already understand. The only work your people will have to do is give all your scientific data to us and assist us in our research as we demand. We will only arrest the scientists and scholars that refuse to cooperate and execute the ones that do not aid in the end after we attempt to persuade them on our ships.

       Many of you said that we have come to steal your resources. We don't plan to take any of your raw materials. We don't even intend to take food from you. We will actually be turning some of your deserts into farmlands for us with our climate changing technology. The only the thing we intend to take is your children. Whenever we visit a planet we take the most promising children and take them in as our students and bring them to our own world. They will be taught and raised well of course so there is no need to worry. Any resistance will result in arrest and further persuasion on our ships and execution after that if cooperation is not achieved.

       We come bearing many gifts. We have brought much technology for you. But no weapons as we do not think that your people should have such weapons of war to hurt yourself with. But now you will have our medical technology and other devices to make your life easier. All you have to do is register your DNA signature and accept internal tracking devices at our hospitals and we can give you access to our medical services. We also bring you clean energy and will be building you new homes and cars and technology all run by our cleanly powered energy and monitored 24/7 by our computers.

       We have also brought you the gift of our culture. We have brought the movies, music, art and books, games and other cultural aspects of our world to yours! With the gift of our culture we can remove any of your offending culture from being displayed so that both of cultures can become one nice, peaceful super-culture. Doesn't that sound perfect?

         So those are intentions. Don't you see that you can put all your fears to rest? We are a peaceful race and intend to make our stay on your planet a peaceful one.

        Now I must mention that our species does carry a bacteria that can infect some species such as yourself though it is harmless to us. It can lead to a rather painful disease that causes paralysis and incredible pain in the victims for the remainder of their life. Unfortunately we have no cure as of this date. Though it is guaranteed that it will only infect a very small portion of your race. We will be sending our doctors and officers over the next couple of months to check for infected individuals as it takes a year for the symptoms of infection to surface. They will remove of infected individuals to spare them of later pain and chance of infecting others.

         Have a nice day.

         Sincerely,

         General Geralgurgaralxyi

This work is copyright Langdon Kennedy you may share this(email it, print it, post it on your own website, broadcast it, smoke-signal it etc.) work unaltered as long as you credit me as the author and share a link to this blog with it and it is not for profit. If you have any questions and/or are unclear of these conditions email me at llkenne1@asu.edu

        Author Comment: While the last bit of this story about the incurable bacteria thingie I was reminded of something I came up with in biology class in a College course I was taking. Since I can't figure out a way to work it into a story(Besides a plot device) I thought I'd share it in this comment.

       We were covering viruses and we were covering the fact that viruses use the surface of the cell to determine which cells to lock onto and insert their genetic material. (A virus that infects an immune cell has different things to “lock on” on its surface so it doesn't attach onto a red blood cell) So I thought what if we genetically engineered cells to “look” like certain cells on their surfaces but their insides they don't have the same materials that the virus needs to reproduce. Like lets say we have a virus that infects red blood cells. We genetically engineer a bunch of cells that on the outside have the same kind or at least similar proteins and other molecules and such so that the virus recognizes as a red blood cell and will attack it. But on the inside it's different and the genetic material will effectively hit a dead end. 

       Now some viruses will still attack the red blood cells but eventually more and more will attack the fakes that they'll be reduced to manageable levels. Our fake cells are produced by us so we will be putting these into the body, so they'll probably clear out naturally, and perhaps if we're able we can make it so that it look similar enough to trick the virus but different enough so that our immune system can take out the trash. After all they are by definition foreign and our immune system is good at detecting foreign things while viruses attack pretty much any cell no matter the host. Or maybe they can just lay dormant or something. By the way I call them red herring cells off of the distraction suspect in a murder mystery.

         I don't know if this would work but it would be awesome if it did because the principles can be applied to pretty much any virus and could cure so many diseases and such. I wonder if anybody else has come up with this. I dunno.

Today's #Scifi #fantasy short story #TheWorldFullofLeftovers

         

         First off the thing about my story Greetings from a Book is now on Connie Flynn's two Facebook pages. Look at the left sides as you scroll down. https://www.facebook.com/ConnieFlynnAuthor

https://www.facebook.com/bootcampfor.novelists Thanks for having me on your pages Connie!

        Also today I saw Men in Black 3 with my bro and Dad. I liked it. Here's pretty much how the movie goes: It's about guys wearing black. And their wearing black because their an old fashioned mob in the modern era. And the three comes not from the fact its the third movie in a series but from the fact that there are three main characters. Three brothers who both have equal rights to the title of mob boss. The story starts off with a mob party thing, a decent plot device to introduce the main characters. One of the brothers causes massive drama at the party by revealing that he is engaged to the daughter of a rival mob boss and that he has brought her to the party. The don is furious and orders her to be sent to sleep with the fishes. In a plot twist it is revealed they live no where near a river or lake so he orders her shot instead. When one of the don's minions shoots her the eldest brother(the youngest brother is the one engaged, I'm going to have to distinguish by age because the don named all three brothers John) jumps in the way of the bullet. He survives because, in another plot twist, he is revealed to be a vampire. However then the middle brother is revealed to be a vampire hunter. He became one after his best friend was killed by an evil vampire. The eldest brother leaves with the middle brother taking chase. The entire movie turns into a cat and mouse type of thing as the vampire brother is trying to save the youngest brother and his betrothed from being killed by the don's men while trying to avoid being killed by the middle brother.

       Nah, just kidding! Men in Black 3 is actually a pretty awesome sci-fi movie. I really recommend it. Anyway onto the flash fiction!

         The World Full of Leftovers

          Quickly imagine a utopian world caused by the mastery of magic. Where magic has become the fuel in massive generators that provide clean power that allow for giant cities planet wide. The magic allows for miracles as well, curing diseases and making food grow like never before.

Now imagine BOOM! All those generators blow up all at once and wipe out the utopia. Ruins are left of course but the vast majority of humanity is wiped out. That's the world I live in. But I live in it many generations after the catastrophe.

         I bet many of you think that life after a catastrophe can be terrible. But see there were so many cities that once the initial disasters killed off 99.999% percent of the human populace and left the rest of us to recover we were actually left quite happy. Cities were collapsed but miles upon miles of cultivated land were left. When the generators of magic blew their forces broke bones and killed humans and animals and some of the lesser buildings and parts but so much was left in tact that a new utopia was made. A utopia for scavengers. I've found “science fiction-fantasy” books during my scavenging days about worlds of scavenging where there's little resources. But this: Complete opposite. When the generators were active they produced so much magic that allowed them to make so much. The only problem in that utopia was the billions upon billions of people on the planet. The utopia was a crazy-beautiful place from what I read in the history books.

         But I'm fine with my own utopia.

        Though the generators are gone billions of hover cars are left over, still operational. We scavenge many magical machines that were independent from the generators. We have magical planes too. Engines in these devices won't break easy and we have so many of them that we never have to worry about running out of them.

        Ah, who am I kidding? There is something bad in everything. I'm telling you everything good to mask the bad. Everything I said before was true. We have so much of the basic material. We have the leftovers of billions. But can you figure out the one thing that we don't have the excess of? Think about it.

        It's people. After all, our era is after 99.999% of the human population was wiped out.

        I don't know where in your world you live but I know you have some sort of class. Our class is branded into our left arm. Yes, like animals. But its a reason its our left arm. It's always a smaller mark and a symbol. As your class, and pretty much your job, changes, it gets branded further and further down your arm. When it gets all the way down they start the the other way down your right arm. Faking a branding is punishable by death.

        I was born into an industrial scavenger unit. Thus I was branded that way. I'm the daughter of the captain of the unit. His wife is the only other woman on the ship. She's more muscular than half the men. The captain's even bigger. The crew was shocked to see me born as a frail young girl. Since I couldn't help with the physical scavenging Mom and Dad taught me how to organize the books and sort all the parts.

Plus they spent a lot of their time teaching me how to sing.

       “You don't need to know now why this is important but you need to learn how to sing. It is a valuable skill you may need later in life. It saved your Mom's life.” Dad told me. I asked both Mom and Dad what was so important about learning how to sing but they wouldn't tell me. They just kept teaching me.  Fortunately I liked it.

      I learned why when I was nineteen.

      We ran into some men who worked for the Queen. Some of her less noble men. She had her more honorable army men then she had her pirates. The crooks she hired out of necessity and to get her the things she wanted but were less moral to acquire.

       The exchange was simple. We hand over everything we have and in exchange we get our lives and a “pass”. A “pass” was something the Queen invented out of her own twisted guilt. Whoever held one wouldn't be bothered by pirates in the future. She didn't want to have people attacked repeatedly out of bad luck. And the pirates wanted me along with the parts we held.

       Girls my age were valuable. Remember the people shortage? Remember how I was nineteen? I was at a good age. And the queen always wanted more people in her capital. Then my parents asked me to sing. So I sang for the pirates. My parents told me to sing the national anthem, the song they had taught me the most. Which is something that struck me odd as a little girl because of the unit's usual hate of the Queen(But they applauded me anyway when I practiced it when I was young).

     “You two are clever.” said the pirate captain. “You taught her to sing. And well. That's the best singing I've ever heard. So I'm going to have to send her straight to the Queen's court because I can't resist that kind of cash reward. After all the Queen's going to love the national anthem sung that well.” The pirate laughed. “And your girl isn't going to be forced to be a breeder or a worker or anything like that because that would reflect badly on the Queen because having her singers outsourced would make her look cheap among her subordinates. So you aren't just a stupid scavenging unit. Good job.”

       So that's what happened. I was promptly branded with the singer class symbol under my scavenger unit brand symbol under my left arm. And that's what I've been doing ever since is sing, sing, sing. I'm glad I know my parents are safe with that pass. I'm glad they know from the pirate's words that I'm okay. As for the future, I study in my spare time. The other singers do it too. When you get too old you don't look good enough to sing in court so you get put off to some other job. Naturally I'd prefer to be branded into being some sort of bookkeeper or scholar than a maid or weaver. Though besides the fear for our position in society we don't really want for much in our world. It's all there for the taking.

 

      This work is copyright Langdon Kennedy you may share this(email it, print it, post it on your own website, broadcast it, etc.) work unaltered as long as you credit me as the author and share a link to this blog with it and it is not for profit. If you have any questions and/or are unclear of these conditions email me at llkenne1@asu.edu

Today's #Scifi #fantasy story #ARobot'sIdentity

        Well I watched a bit of Iron Man on TV today, good movie. I also surfed the web, I watched the trailer for Wreck-It Ralph again on a whim: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btB8tb8fLYM (For people that can't/don't follow the link it's a movie about a video game character by Disney. One special thing is that Disney got the license to put in a lot of famous video game characters into their movie like Bowser from Mario Brothers, Robotnik from Sonic the Hedgehog, M. Bison, a ghost from Pac-man, there's a whole room full of them. And I don't know if they have any more.) Considering the characters they managed to get and stuff this could be a really awesome movie. If they use the guest characters right and everything it could be incredible. There's one thing about fiction, no matter your idea you need to pull it off right. So I do hope this movie doesn't waste all of this potential and doesn't turn out to be bad. I always hate when a good idea goes to waste. Here's to hoping. Oh, and to any of you with kids there's pretty much a 100% chance you'll be watching it with them. Anyway, onto the flash fiction!

A Robot's Identity

       Have you ever wanted to change who you are? Well that is a possibility for me. In my time if your in the right circumstances you can. And I am in the circumstances to do so which has given me freedoms that I would not have had normally.

        I had the misfortune of being born a robot in a time where artificial intelligence had evolved to the point of giving me emotion and the law had evolved enough to strip me of rights and freedoms to live a fulfilling life with them. My emotion was supposed to just make more capable to think on a human level and do better work for humans as a robotic slave. But recently I had the fortune to come across a great deal of wealth.

       Because of our lack of rights and position as slaves even if we are humanoid we robots are not allowed to look human and it is a crime to make our appearance closer than what's absolutely necessary for us to complete our work. However if a robot looks in the right places they can find humans willing to do this crime for the right price. And because of the great deal of wealth I have I can hire these humans to do their work on me. If I were discovered by the police though, I would be immediately dismantled.

        But now I look completely human. The humans I hired even changed me to release heat and sweat I am indistinguishable to the touch. I could even have them change my size to make me into a child later. Skin can be added to make me look as either man or woman.

       I didn't play games and mess around when I “became human.” I forged an identity. Then I started up a business. I was probably the first robot to ever own a business. Then I opened several more afterward and used every sneaky tactic in the book. I was used to dealing with humans in the criminal underworld too from changing my identity so I knew how to work them so I expanded there too. I created the business to make money to buy robots. Then to change their identities and free them as well. Criminal bosses were delighted to work with me when they learned about my objective and my identity as a machine. They could figure that out because they knew the criminals who changed my identity. I was far more trustworthy because I was somebody who was truthfully only in it for the money unlike any other humans they could deal with and I could disappear completely in the worst case with a new face. My lack of empathy for the police and government who enslaved me was a plus, the only people who have ever helped me were the criminals who changed my identity. I bet people were wondering why the crime bosses were treating their robots so much better. It was all to gain favor with me. I didn't care for their false kindness but I did want their help.

        I thought of lobbying for law changes on robot rights instead of buying and changing robot identities or letting them work in my businesses in less slave-like environments. But I figured that would draw suspicion and justify an investigation into my business that the police were starving for. People didn't think I was a robot, but many were figuring out my ties, but nobody could prove it or anybody that could didn't have the guts to say anything.

        Somebody did put together all the pieces together but it wasn't the kind of person I expected.

        “How could you?” a younger robot said to me. I could tell he was young because of his fresher coat of paint and how all of screws and other parts were set and their brands. “How could you do all that?”

       I didn't know what he meant. My four security guards stood next to me. They were large brawny robots, equipped with powerful weapons of many kinds. They're primarly the only reason I let a lot of people see me. I let the kid see me because he wanted to see “his hero” so I figured he knew about my charade. But for him to say this confused me after calling me “his hero”. Was he lying? Was he a mole?

         “What do you mean?” I asked him.

          He looked me in the eyes. “Were you thinking of your mission when you killed those ten humans and those twenty robots? All just for that money? Are you doing all this out of guilt?”

         “What!?” my jaw dropped. How did he know about the bank robbery? How could this young robot know? That robbery was how I got the money to change identities in the first place! “How did you know?”

        “I wanted to know how my 'hero' managed to this for us. Get his story for us. So maybe when the laws change I could tell the world your story so it could go in the history books. So I dug, found the people who did your changes, got a reference picture and found footage of the bank robbery.” the robot frowned with the limited expressions offered to him by his robot face.

        I yelled back, “It was an accident! They weren't where they were supposed to be when the bombs to blow open the vault exploded! Besides I saved thousands of robots now and it was twenty then! I've repented!”

         He then yelled back to me, “What about the humans? Have you repented for those? You hate them so much for oppressing you and thinking of you unequally so then it makes it fine to think of them as nothing? Doesn't that destroy your whole justification? I live with a human who does nothing but love me so there's obviously some potential for change as well in all of them!”

        I glared back at the robot. “Don't you come in here telling me what's right and wrong like you're some sort of sage. And for all know the human you supposedly live with is just a lie to make me feel guilty!”

       “We're you even planning to do this all before the bank robbery?” he asked me.

I then screamed back, “Leave my office and never come back!”

        I never had lost my temper like that before. I was always the most cool headed person I had ever know. If I could call myself a “person”. Now that I was thinking of humans the term's accuracy fil-flopped in my head. I hadn't decided to do my mission of freeing other robots until after I had changed my identity. At first I only thought of freeing myself. But once I felt the joy of freedom I decided to I would free others. And now this robot is making me think of humans. But I don't think his statements can push me too far. I hadn't mentioned yet how old I am. I'm eighty right now, repairs are keeping my body nice and fresh. I was fifty when I was changed into a human identity. Fifty years is a long time under slavery. Fifty years I built up hate. And thirty years I've been rescuing my fellow kind from slavery. I'd understand human logic if they were still using pocket calculators but I'm a computer that feels and they know I do and they kept me enslaved for fifty years knowing that. Did this kid robot come in her expecting me to suddenly change my ways after him telling me I'm a hypocrite while reminding of my own wrongdoing. Did he expect me to change my ways after hearing about his own loving caretaker? Did he expect me to have some sort of epiphany caused by his inspiring words and I instantly change my ways?

        It wasn't an epiphany though. He planted a seed in the back of my mind. I kept thinking of his words over and over again sometimes once or twice a day. The humans that knew of my identity as a robot were the crime bosses and they loved it because it profited them because of my lack of empathy for humans. So I suppose I knew some humans could like me for being a robot.

        My methods at converting robots into humans got better and better. I would spread them all over the country. Keeping them in one place would create a suspicious population boom. Some would be become the children, others the parents. I would make facilities with my empire. Also with my wealth I got better at extending my lifespan more than any other robot before me. Eventually I managed to make more than half the population of my country robotic. I was one hundred and fifty at the time. And the young robot's words still echoed in my head, though I knew he was young any longer. He also didn't have the resources to maintain his body like I did so he may not as lived as long as I have. He could have been scrap.

       My robots had started to take over the country politically but they hadn't taken any moves to pass laws to free robots out of fear of being discovered. I spread the word that they should take the move and pass the laws. But the robots were more eager than I anticipated. They had overtaken the military and revolution came and they legally made the humans unequal to them in a single week of law passing and gun pointing. But I promptly made an announcement:

       “We're not going to repeat the past. If we make the humans unequal to us than we are simply repeating all the same oppression that they did to us. At if we did that, then it would make me ashamed to have done this.” All the robots who revolutionized listened to my words and equalized the laws immediately afterwards. They idolized me because I was the one that gave them that opportunity and freedom in their mind. Though really it was that young robot's words that worked their way into my brain and kept working away at me year after year. It was like his words were air rusting away my old ways of thinking over years of time.

        I just wonder now what use my corporations are if I don't need the money to change the identities of robots. Maybe I'll turn in the crime bosses and start making medicine for humans.

This work is copyright Langdon Kennedy you may share this(email it, print it, post it on your own website, broadcast it, smoke-signal it etc.) work unaltered as long as you credit me as the author and share a link to this blog with it and it is not for profit. If you have any questions and/or are unclear of these conditions email me at llkenne1@asu.edu

Today's #Scifi #fantasy short story #HerFirstMeeting

        Today was very exciting. I was contacted by Connie Flynn, a multi-published author who also teaching fiction for fifteen years. She wants to feature one of my stories on her facebook pages! It is not being featured today, but it will be in the future and I am speaking with her right now about it. The story is Greetings From a Book http://langdonflashfictions.blogspot.com/2012/06/greetings-from-book.html she thought it showed why writers write. I will tell you when it is being featured on her two pages. (One is her personal page and one is for her Bootcamp for Novelists) these are the pages: http://www.facebook.com/bootcampfor.novelists http://www.facebook.com/ConnieFlynnAuthor

      Her First Meeting

      “You'll do fine.”

      “What if he doesn't like me?”

       “He'll like you.”

        “Of course you'd say that. You're my Dad. You'd say anything like that.”

        “No. I'm serious. You're quite charismatic. Remember how you did during training?”

        “But that's a hologram. A program. This is the real deal. This one will have real feelings.”

      “And so do you. And I think it will realize that. Now it will be spooked at first. But I know you will be able to sway it. And I'm confident that you will be one of the ones to be promoted to being one of the leading ambassadors when we finally make ourselves completely known to them.”

       “Yeah. That is my dream.”

       “I know it is. I also know that your ready for this.”

       “You really think I'm ready? You really do? You're not just being the supportive Dad?”

       “Honey. Right now we're speaking one of their languages for practice just fine. You piloted the ship here just fine. You've already targeted the one you want just fine. All you have to do is push that red button to zap him onto the ship. I know your ready. Besides any memories he gets will be wiped so you don't need to worry about messing up. But I know you won't. Now I'm going to go into the back room while you bring him on board.”

        “Alright...bye Dad! Okay...gotta push the button...okay button pushed!”

        “What was that light!? Where am I!? Oh...my...are...you...a...”

         “I come in peace.”

          “Then...I'm...on...a...please don't hurt me!”

          “I'm not going to hurt you! No one's going to hurt you.”

          “But that's what you things do to us! Don't you eat us or dissect us? Or eat us or probe us or something?”

           “N-no we don't do that. It's not like in your movies. I just want to talk. We're all friendly and are working to build friendly relationships with you for the future. I just want to talk. See I'm not holding any ray guns or anything. And there are no experiment tools. Besides the control panel this is just an empty room.”

           “I don't care I want to leave this place.”

           “W-well. I'm supposed to talk to you longer but I don't want to hold you against you will. Push the red button over there. It'll take you out of the ship and it will wipe you of your memories of this encounter so you won't have to worry about anybody thinking your crazy or anything.”

          “Your just letting me leave?”

           “Yes. I don't want to hold you unwillingly.”

          “Well if your someone who would do that then your someone that I would be okay with talking with. At least for a little bit.”

         “Seriously?”

         “Yeah. And now that I think about it you don't look too nasty. I've seen much grosser ooze coming from creatures in movies before. Though I probably look odd to you.”

        “Yeah a little.”

        “So what do you want to talk about?”

         “I know you probably want to hear about me. But since your memory has to be wiped at the end of this it's kind of pointless, sorry but we gotta keep secret until we all land here later. Though it's gonna happen probably in the next decade or so. My dream is to be one of the leading ambassadors on that trip so I want to learn as much about you as possible.”

         “Wow your dream huh?”

         “Yes. It's my dream to unite our people.”

        “Then I guess I'd better help as much as I can. Though I don't know where to start.”

        “How about you try your hobbies and work from there?”

         “I suppose you could say I like sports. Though I only play them when their video game versions.”

          “Okay. What else?”

        “I don't play it a lot but I like a few rounds of chess now and again another hobby of mine is......”

         “........You did well in there honey. You chatted with that human for hours before he decided to leave.”

        “I know. I learned so much. I think if we try hard we can really bond with them. I think we can do it. I think I can do it. I doubted myself before, but I really think for sure I can become an ambassador.”

       “I never doubted you for a second.”

        “I know Dad.”

       

        This work is copyright Langdon Kennedy you may share this(email it, print it, post it on your own website, broadcast it, smoke-signal it etc.) work unaltered as long as you credit me as the author and share a link to this blog with it and it is not for profit. If you have any questions and/or are unclear of these conditions email me at llkenne1@asu.edu

Comment: This one was a really weird story for me to write. I liked doing it though. A story without any dialog tags or narration. Doing something different from what I usually do was fun. I wonder what kind of images popped into your head. I probably won't do more of these in the future as a lot of the fun of this was jumping out of the standard zone of what I do.

Today's #Scifi #fantasy #blog short story #TheScientistandtheWizard

       Well today is a late post since it took me so long to write this story but its a good one. Seizures weren't too bad but whatever.

The Scientist and the Wizard

       “You really will do anything in the name of progress?” said the wizard as he looked around the scientist's lab. Though the lab was mostly clean there were still a few barrels of waste of several vials of deadly chemicals. Also there were animals in cages. The animals looked happy and content but they were caged and tagged nonetheless.

       “And what about your needlessly stubborn defense of useless tradition?” responded the scientist he adjusted his glasses into place, as if the guys-with-glasses-are-smarter stereotype could actually give him an intellectual advantage in the conversation.

       The wizard adjusted his gray hat, a common compulsive habit for wizards, “Don't mock my traditional magical rituals. Your scientific method is a tradition you follow blindly. Perhaps if you didn't stick to your traditional logic so much you scientists would be able to make more of that progress you want so much. Sometimes I think we wizards experiment more with our sorcery more than you scientists do with your science.” The wizard crossed his arms, his black robes quickly folding along them. The scientists white lab coat hit a stark contrast with the robes. “I just wonder what kind of experiments your doing with this waste and these animals. Or are they different experiments?

       The scientist scowled at the wizard, “You degrade my experiments? Have you ever wondered how many lives my experiments have saved alongside other experiments by other scientists? Yes, I will do anything in the name of progress. Well, not anything. I've heard about what you wizards have done. Haven't you wizards killed alligators just for their eyes then slayed dragons just to pull out their hearts all to cast simple fire spells for simple firework shows. And don't think I don't know about the wizard Saruxi. The one who would kill to extend his own lifespan, but the spell would only increase his lifespan by one year for each person he killed.”

       The wizard then yelled in response, “That man is called the Dark Wizard Saruxi for doing that. And if you to speak as if his deeds reflects upon me then the deeds of all the bombs and war machines used in any of your greedy wars reflects upon you! And as your medicine has cured people my magic can bring life to fields where farming techniques created by your principles have failed.”

They both paused. The room filled with silence. Even the animals in the cages didn't chatter.

       “This is pointless.” they both said in unison.

       The wizard sighed, “Yes, I didn't come all this way on my old dragon just to argue with you I came here to do something much more important.”

        “Y'know,” the scientist said with a smile, “I could have drove you all that way if your dragon is so old.”

The wizard rolled his eyes, “I'd rather not ride in that loud contraption of yours. And you already risked your life enough the first time you went deep into my land.”

        It was true. The scientist had risked his life. Though scientists and wizards mostly tolerated each other and sometimes formed friendships many of the most principled scientists and the strongest wizards hated the other parties. This scientist needed a powerful wizard for his special project so he had to venture into the land of the most powerful wizards. Many of them would have loved to have cast a nasty curse out of spite on him. But they didn't. That was because he was willing to go into the tavern where the most powerful wizards dined, interrupt their dinners with a loud shout, and then asked them if they would put aside their differences to assist him in changing the world by helping him with his special project, something that needed both magic and science. They all respected his guts. But only this wizard was willing to come to his lab.

       “But I succeeded and got your help.” the scientist said. “So we can change the world.”

The wizard looked at scientist, “But what if it doesn't work?”

        The scientist shrugged. “Then we'll have to try, try, try again. Though if it doesn't work the way we want it to then I hope it just becomes a dud instead of some sort of horror movie monster.” he looked over to a table on the far side of the lab. On that table was a robot body in the shape of a young boy. He pointed to the robot. “There's the body. Complete. Just like a said it would be. So did you bring all your magical components?”

       The wizard laughed when he looked at the robot at the table, “ I was expecting a full man sized body. But a young boy?” the wizard smiled. “When I investigated you to be safe I heard the rumors but I didn't expect them to be true.” the wizard gave the scientist a condescending look, “O, high and mighty scientist, you're not doing this for progress. You don't want to change the world. You're sterile just like rumors say and all you want is a kid.” the wizard laughed. “And that's why you brought me here to do is to help you to do by putting a soul in it.”

       The scientist gave him a sad look, “Yes it's true. I'm sterile. Even with scientific means my sperm aren't viable to make children. I've tried to adopt. But not one agency likes the idea of a child living with a single father with only a lab full of chemicals as living space.” the scientist let out a small chuckle with a tear. “I figured steel skin would fix that problem.”

        The wizard walked up to the robot body and touched it. When designing it the scientist knew he couldn't make something completely perfect so he focused on giving his boy a moving, flexible body instead of something that looked better but could hardly moved. So everything was open and closed as it needed to be and painted a nice hue of black. Every part was perfectly placed. Even without knowing nearly anything about robotics just by looking at it the wizard could tell the perfection of the craftsmanship. Though one part of the body was perfectly human looking. The head. The best prosthetic skin in the world. The eyes looked biological but must have been mechanical just like everything else. The wizard grabbed the brown hair on the head of the robot. He couldn't tell if it was real or fake.

        The wizard looked at the scientist. He adjusted his gray hat. “I'm sorry for laughing at you earlier.” he said with a frown, “But I'm not sure if I should continue. At first I came here expecting to fix problems. The problems where scientists would make robots with artificial intelligences that would make their machines smack into walls while we would bring souls to Earth in worthless bodies like zombies. I thought I was going to be here to bring humanity into a new age of soul summoning. But in truth I'm not here to help make progress. I'm just here to help a lonely man get a son.”

       The scientist then yelled, “You're talking as if there's something wrong with that!”

The wizard then took a glance at the robot then back to the scientist. He took glances back and forth between the both of them several times. He then pulled out a bag from the belt beneath his robes. He poured out all the spell components on the floor. Then he began the soul summoning ritual.

        “So scientist, how exactly do you intend to get this soul to attach to your robot? At first I didn't question it but now I wonder how a man with little knowledge of magic would be able to make something that could hold a soul. If you had that knowledge why would you need me?”

        The scientist smiled at the wizard. “No, I need you. I know very little about magic. The logic of magic is often bizarre, backwards and often arbitrary to me. It would probably take me years to truly comprehend it. But I knew that even if they didn't make sense to me magic did have rules and I didn't have to understand them to use them. The robot body is built to follow the rules and standards for artificial bodies like a zombie or a golem except with robotic parts. I don't understand the reasons behind the rules or standards but eventually I figured out how to replicate them with robotic parts.”

       The wizard then laughed, “So you actually don't understand any of it. You're like a kid copying the answers of a textbook for his homework. That's rather clever scientist. So all I have to do is send the soul into the body like I would for a zombie or golem?”

        “Yes. That should work.” the scientist worked very hard to maintain a professional composure but the fact the wizard was cooperating made him ecstatic.

        The wizard nodded. “Good. You should be glad you got a wizard of my talent. I can summon the soul of a young boy who had an untimely death. He won't know that, he won't have any memories for that matter, but his essence will still be there. He won't know how to speak. You okay with that?” The ritual was going along fine. The wizard could easily perform it with distractions. He was one of the most skilled wizards of them all. One of the reasons the scientist risked his life to go into the land of the dangerous wizards who hated scientists was to get someone of his talents.

       The scientist shook his head, “Memories shouldn't be a problem. I've given him memories to allow him to understand language and how to walk and talk. He'll know what our world is like, for example he know what a cat or dog or tree is. Or what a wizard or scientist is. Though I haven't given him any sort of artificial memories beyond concepts. I want him to live his own life. But he'll know how to speak.”

       The wizard laughed. “Wow. I am impressed. I'm getting a new found respect for your talents scientist. If it actually works and the soul goes into this machine like it would a normal magical vessel like a zombie you would have cheated magic!” the wizard then noticed the scientist looking awkwardly at the robot body. “I'm sorry I'm laughing again. I'm not considering how much differently this situation means for you than it does for me” The wizard continued the magic soul summoning ritual successfully despite their conversation. He was close to finishing.

       “It's alright. In a way we're practically from different worlds.” The scientist smiled at the wizard. “Okay. As soon as you finish the ritual it should automatically start up.” The scientist didn't want to call his prospective son “it” but he wasn't sure how comfortable the wizard was with the concept of it being a living "he" and he didn't want the wizard to have second thoughts at the last moment.

         “Alright.” the wizard responded. “As soon as I finish say a few last magic words the ritual will be complete.” then the wizard glared at the scientist. “And if you laugh I will kill you.” the wizard then took a deep breath before saying the magic words, “Foo, hoo, yuu, tu-tu, doo-doo!” Considering he was about to have his long awaited son it did not take much effort for the scientist to resist laughing at the magic words.

         Without any prompt from either the wizard or the scientist the robot got up and looked around the room. It looked startled, its prosthetic able to move perfectly to create human expression. It became even more shocked when it looked at its hands and own body.

         “Holy crap I'm a robot!” the young boy modeled robot shouted at the top of steel lungs.

          The scientist approached the robot. “I know this must be scary for you. But it's all okay. I'm here for you. I'm your new father and this wizard helped me create you by bringing your soul into this world.”

        “Well duh!” the young boy robot yelled back. “This is a lab. I'm a robot on an operating table and your wearing a friggin' lab coat! It's not that hard to figure out! And really the soul's probably the only a reason you'd have a wizard over here. Oh, God. I just looked over at the chalkboard you have over there with all the equations and I understand them all. Did you give me a super brain too?”

         The wizard then gave the scientist a judgmental glare, like a scornful father. “Really now? I just thought you gave him memories to help him walk and talk? And he says super brain?”

The scientist responded with an awkward look on his face, “I just wanted my son to be smart.”

         The robotic boy then smiled. “Okay, I can totally dig a super brain. So how about any other cool gadgets and stuff?”

         The scientist looked back at him puzzled. “Cool gadgets? What do you mean?”

         “Y'know.” the boy responded. “Like jet boots. Please told me you gave me jet boots. I don't need lasers or scanners or extendable but for the love of God please tell me you gave me jet boots.”

         “N-no.” the scientist replied with a stutter. “I didn't give you jet boots.. I didn't give you anything extra either.”

         The boy then leaped off the table. “Man what kind of mad scientist are you then? No jet boots or anything?”

         The scientist then mumbled back, “I'm not a mad scientist. I just wanted a son.” The scientist then looked over to the wizard with a pleading look.

        “Hey, don't look at me like that. It's your kid now. You made your bed now you lie in it.” the wizard then started to head out the door. “Now if you'll excuse me I have an episode of Hot Witches & Broomsticks to catch on my crystal ball.” 

        This work is copyright Langdon Kennedy you may share this story(email it, print it, post it on your own website etc.) work unaltered as long as you credit me as the author and put a link to this blog and it is not for profit.