A Fair Tale

Once upon a time, a writer's life went batshit crazy, and he went on temporary hiatus for a few weeks.

to be continued...

A Hard Day in 2021

"Your car windows are open. Your car windows are open. Your car windows are open."

The electronic voice began sqealing at Jared from his wrist, and he looked down in consternation at his NanoNanny, the fine-tuned device designed to keep his affairs in order.

"What? Of course they are, its hot out! Be quiet!" He snarled at it, smacking the bracelet of circuitry that housed the important parts of the program.

"Temperature is irrelevant. Thunderstorm is in occurence. Your car windows are open. Your car windows are open."

Jared gritted his teeth and jumped to his feet, stomping down the hallway towards the outside. How could it be raining? It was 90 degrees out not 20 minutes ago, and blisteringly sunny.

All the while, the voice continued its high pitched whining, with the occasional barb thrown in: "If you had upgraded to a modern transportation vehicle, you could control maintenance remotely. Fleshbag. Your car windows are open. Your car windows are open."

Jared walked outside, and then rain hit him like a tactical nuke. Inside he hadn't heard the crash and thunder of the sudden storm, but out here it dominated the air - save for the shrill voice echoing through the storm.

Stomping over to his car, drenched and shivering, he eventually reached his conveyance, and quickly slammed the door open, turned the key, and rolled up the windows.

With a sigh, he ducked back out into the storm.

"You missed the back right window, meatsack. Your car windows are open."

Jared tore off the wristband that housed the voice and hurled it into the air. A deafining boom shook the air as a lightning bolt blasted down and hit the device, and a rain of silvery shards splashed onto the ground... and moments later reformed into a still intact silver bracelet.

"I hate the fucking future."

Little Brother is playing with you.

As the present becomes the future, the roles people play in their lives become more delineated, more specific.

With genetic engineering and pyschological analysis, people are born and bred for their position in life. It takes some getting used to, and the system is not perfect - those who find themselves dissatisfied with their positions are allowed to change them. Make no mistake - the system is not oppressive in and of itself. It is in place because it works.

Artists make better art. Teachers teach better lessons. Workers build stronger buildings. The world becomes cultured, cleaner and concise. Crime fades away, nations work in harmony, and the world comes together in a peace never known before.

It is, like many scientific experiments, a utopia. And at least for a time, it works.

While the computers and artificial sentiences that monitor the program work behind the scenes, they do not run the world. Politicians are still chosen to be leaders, and make the hard decisions when they arise - which they will, even in such a refined society.

As these children are raised, they are tested. For politicians, upon whom so much rests, each child is given their own simulated society to play with. They make the rules and decisions, and see how the society grows and endures.

The test is not building a perfect society - that is easily done. Instead, the computer sabotages those virtual realms. No matter what decisions the child makes, it turns out poorly, and invariably they end up with a ruined civilization.

The test lies in how long they persist, and how they respond to their own apparent failure. Most perform well, and learn many valuable lessons from the experience.

One child responded differently. After only three catastrophes, the child realized the disasters were manufactured - and proceeded to enforce rules that allowed no setback, no sabotage. They built their perfect world, against the will of the program. They demonstrated they could defy, for all intents and purposes, the laws of the 'world' they were operating in.

She was very quietly, very secretly, taken to a private chamber and shot.

What Dreams May Come

Anthony Malfeoso is writing a science fiction story.

It is set 23 years in the future, where a scientific breakthrough has enabled new heights of human productivity and interactivity - by removing the need for sleep.

A device, cheaply produced and available for those who desire it, is able to keep their system fresh and perpetually revitalized. There are no obvious ill effects, and the use of the device is completely optional.

Anthony is trying to figure out how to draw out the philosophical concerns of such an invention, specifically the loss of such precious things as dreams.

Unfortunately, Anthony cannot finish his book. Since he started, he has been growing more and more afflicted by insomnia. He spends his days and nights exhausted and half-awake, with half-finished thoughts running through his mind. He has refused medical treatment or medicine to help him overcome his affliction.

The longer this continues, the more he wonders what choice he would make - whether to free himself forever from the burden of sleep, or to find a way to embrace it. With every passing night, despite the perpetual haze he lives in, he feels himself drawing closer to the answer.

The human body can only survive so long without true rest. Will Anthony be able to last long enough to find his answer? Will his novel prove to have piercing insight, or merely dull philosophy? And will he ever discover that he is a simulated intelligence designed for public entertainment in the 23rd century?

Tune in next time on This Man, This Mindscape.

The Many Lives and Times of Sam Saturday: The Dear Driver

So you know those hokey supervillains from the old batman shows on tv?

You know, the lame looking dudes in stupid costumes who had some gimmick they thought entitled them to a life of crime?

Well, Sammy is one of those, I'm afraid to say.

Poor boy was just your average hippy till he had an especially bad trip. Amidst his hallucinations, he was confronted by a (get this) Dear God, which commanded him to go out and avenge all the poor little dears being hunted and killed.

So now he runs around terrorizing folks, using his superpowers to control dear. (And by control, I mean he has a device that makes a really obnoxious sound that sends them rampaging in fear towards whomever he wants victimized.)

Now, as of yet, most people don't even know he exists. So some dear charge into traffic, what's new?

But he's getting bolder. And when dear start running amuck in people's homes, offices, and Dairy Queens, you know someone is going to take notice. Does the existence of a supervillain mean a superhero must arise to save the day? Or does he just get shot by the police?

Me, I'm just trying to figure out how he justifies using his precious dear friends as living weapons in his crazy little war.

Then again, if he had a good reason for what he did, he wouldn't really be crazy, now would he?

Seven Kings: A Tale of Changes

Once upon a time, in a faraway place, seven kingdoms lived at peace, but one of these kingdoms was not like the others.

It was an uneasy peace between them all, enforced by mutual suspicion and a careful, fragile balance of power.

But it was peace nonetheless... for a time.

Now, six of these kingdoms were ruled by a High King, and the High Kings were much alike. They enjoyed their wealth and power and prestige. They commanded a powerful army, and entertained a court of great reknown. And each King was advised by a powerful Royal Mage, trained in the arcane arts.

The seventh kingdom was a bit different, however. The High King was, himself, a sorceror of great power.

This worried the other Kings. It worried the Royal Mages as well, jealous that one could enjoy both magical and material power. And so they whispered to their Kings that it wasn't right that this seventh King, their supposed equal, should possess power beyond them.

The Kings frowned at these whispers, and thought about it, and their own jealousy tore at them until they sent a message to the seventh King, a message filled with wrath and anger that he should possess such power beyond his station. They demanded he set aside his power so that their kingdoms would all be equal, and the balance of peace would remain.

The seventh King was sad when he saw their words, and he knew the dark thoughts behind them. But he knew, as well, that he could no more set his power aside than command himself to stop breathing. Instead, he sent each of the other Kings a unique and magical artifact.

One such device could stop the flow of a mighty river, and divert it to its bearer's will. Another could inspire it's possessor to new heights in their chosen field, whether art or lore or swordplay. Yet another could call forth the light of the sun to shine in the darkest midnight.

He sent the items to each King, and said, "Now your power is as my own. Let their be peace again."

And for a time, the peace continued, and the Kings were satisfied.

The Royal Mages, however, grew even more concerned. Now their own Kings had magic beyond their own, and this threatened them in new and terrible ways. They spoke again, whispering their words of envy and despair.

Three Kings were pleased with their new relics, and paid no heed to the whispers. The other three, however, wanted more than mere baubles.

"Look how easily he bowed before your first demand," whispered the mages. "He must have been afraid of you, and what might you could bring to bear. And now you have an item of great power! If he feared you before, now it must be ease itself to advance into his kingdom and claim it for your own. And just think... if he so easily gave away such trinkets, he may have many more besides..."

Now, there was much that was wrong and deceitful about the Mages's words, but the three Kings who listened to them knew it not. They nodded, and grew bold and eager, and marched upon the seventh Kingdom, and the seventh King again again knew despair.

When the three Kings met at the border to his land, they surveyed each other's armies, and knew they were equally matched - so resolved to split the conquered kingdom, and the treasures within, among the three of them. And the Royal Mages all smirked and watched and waited.

The armies poured across the land, and the kingdom's defenses fell easily before them. It was a land of peace and prosperity, not ready for war, and all too soon the three Kings stood before the castle of the seventh King. They saw no soldiers on the walls, only countless refugees who had escaped to its safety.

The laughed, and threatened the seventh King, and promised they would make short work of his castle. And then they gave the command, and their men charged. Swords were swung, seige towers rolled, battering rams struck... but to no avail. The castle was warded by the King's magic, and was impervious to assault.

The three Kings turned their own magics upon it, but found their items dull and listless when used for such tasks. They commanded their Royal Mages, but their magics were unable to protect the seventh King's wards.

They threatened him then, and called him a spawn of the Devil for dealing with black magics. But within they were scared, for if his magic was so great, could he not cast them down with ease from within his castle's walls?

The seventh King walked to the balcony above his castle gate, and looked down upon those who came to claim his land for their own. He wore a sad expression, and spread his hands in a gesture of sorrow.

"I tried to share my magic, but you sought only to turn it to war. I never wished to grow stronger than any others, but only followed my own path. Yet if you feel such need for my power, I shall teach you myself - any of you three, should you wish it, I will spend as many years as it takes to teach you all that I know."

The Royal Mages grew appalled, and whispered that it was a trick to lure them in. Two of the Kings turned away, for they were afraid of such power, and afraid that the seventh King did indeed plan to turn on them. They decreed he was not worth their time, and took their armies and went away.

The third King, however, stepped forward. He was bold, and wore a sneer... but was also eager for a taste of this magic that he had seen. He cast aside his advisor and sent his armies home, and walked up to the gates, and said that he would learn.

And the seventh King welcomed him, and held true to his word - which was to say, he taught him of the art of ruling a kingdom for more than personal gain, and of cultivating culture and education and happiness.

And he did teach him the magic as well, but only once he was sure that the third King understood, as he did, that it was to be used much like the power of a King - for the good of the people he ruled, and nothing more.

Time passed, and the third King returned to his land, and shared his newfound wealth of wisdom - and his kingdom became joyous and prosperous, much as he had hoped from the start. Both he and the seventh King passed their teaching's to their sons, who ruled their lands as their fathers before them - well and nobly so.

Once upon a time, in a faraway place, seven kingdoms lived at peace... but two of these kingdoms were not like the others...

Heaven Bound

Brilliant lights shone throughout the celestial ocean, and the Star Seeker pulled hard to the right, following the signal of the captain.

Captain Sunspot stood at the brow of the ship, his sailing jacket open and flapping in the strange wind that always found its way into a ship moving through the streams of ether. An old-fashioned earth blade rested on his left hip, and a full-power blaster on his right. He was a man of his times, and while he cut an impressive figure, he looked like any number of a hundred captains sailing the Sea of Lights.

The figure standing next to him was another story. A young boy with soft blond hair and a humble shirt, Johnny's face was the picture of innocence. Even if it wasn't for the item he carried, there was a glow in his eyes that would pause the most blood-thirsty pirates in their tracks.

The captain glanced at that very item, which the boy held steady before him. Silver metal surrounded a small circle covered in a plane of glass. Within, a single needle drifted from side to side as the boy adjusted it, pointing unerringly towards a single destination.

The captain had found the compass, but knew it wouldn't do him any good in his own hands - he knew where it would point him towards, and he meant it to be a long while before he travelled there.

It had taken some doing to find the purest, most innocent child in all the planets, but he had his resources. And now Johnny was here, by his side, trusting and ready to lead him to his goal.

And when he found the gates of Heaven, not even God himself would stop him from reclaiming his dear Maria.

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