Too Defensive

The celebration was in full swing when she climbed up the ladder and slowly stepped out onto the lookout tower.

"Everyone else is partying, why don't you join us?"

I shook my head, keeping my eyes on the horizon.

"Just because we've won this war, doesn't mean we're safe. This would be the exact time to attack us."

She stepped closer.

"You need to relax. What use is being so defensive all the time, if you can't enjoy things?"

"Better defensive than dead."

She sighed.

"Well, a hope is dead now."

She left me alone.

No idea who Hope was.

Stop Describing Yourself

A few moments into the fight, and there was a lull in the action. I tried to stay upright, without leaning on my sword, while he swayed slightly on the spot, blood pouring in a slow but steady stream down the axe in his hand.

I took the chance to try and stop this, one last time.

"I really don't want to do this."

"Few people want to die."

"That's not what I meant!"

He swung the axe, and we fought for a few moments.

At the end, I looked down at him.

"I guess you were one who did." 

Face Cards

I don't subscribe to all that micro-expression garbage, but I do pay attention to people's faces when I can when I'm at the poker table.

You get some people who have tells, certainly, always useful to work out. However, there are some things that just can't be hidden. People's irises widening at bad hands, glances at chip stacks at good hands, etc. I get a lot of info from people's faces.

I always thought professional players were the worst, until I played Blind Joe.

His total lack of info didn't make up for his occasional mistake on feeling his cards.

Beef

Every weekday I caught the same morning bus into work, and he caught the bus just after me, going the other way. So we'd end up staring at each other across the road.

One day, I wore one of my Anti-Meat League t-shirts to work. He seemed bemused but didn't do anything on that day.

But starting the next day, every day, he was eating a meat product, a different type one, every damn day.

I got more and more frustrated, until one day, I finally crossed the road to yell at him.

And he showed me his faux-meat product.

Pneumatic Lined Automatic 'Yer'

The steam-powered golem slowly powered up, and looked around slowly as its programming loaded.

Once its visual sensors were powered up, it took in the two figures on either side of it, both sitting on chairs similar to the platform the golem was placed on.

It absorbed that one looked Demonic, while the other looked Angelic, and then after its full databanks were loaded it understood both were chained in place.

It began to try and comprehend why, before its subroutines were suddenly dedicated to the rules of Kings and Staves, just as the smiling human began to deal cards.

Heart Crushed

I wasn't about to admit to anyone that I had a crush on the girl who ran the juice stand, least of all her. She was clearly out of my league, and I knew it.

So I kept my distance, sadly. It hurt, every day, until the day that I saw her out in the city. I crossed the street so as to avoid her, but didn't see the truck.

After I died, I was told I could find out any fact I wanted.

I asked what she thought about me.

She thought I was a creep, so, mission accomplished?

Switched Off

"Wait, what was that? What's not going on?"

"I don't recall saying...

Never mind, ok, look, I've built a time machine here."

"No you haven't."

"Yes I have! It's here on the table!"

"How can you see anything in this gloom?"

"Well, I'll admit that I can't read this note I wrote myself here. Something about... Looking? Looping?"

"Well look, let me just turn on a light, this is the lamp switch, right?"

"What? No, that's not-"

The room filled with smoke, as the time machine did its job, and it moved everything back a moment.

"Wait, what was that?"

How To Motivate Someone

I sat looking at the sunset, the hours passing slowly, before the spirit manifested beside me.

"You need to go...." it said, with a voice of wind blowing through graveyards at midnight.

"No, no I don't. I need to stay right here."

The spirit stared at me, before it began to grow and look more demonic.

"And that ain't gonna work, so don't bother."

After another long moment, it shrunk back down.

"Your destiny-"

"I am well aware of what my destiny is supposed to be. But I've decided that I don't care!"

"But what about your daughter?"

"My... daughter?" 

Looting The Dragon's Lair

Once the dragon was defeated, the five heroes who had gathered together to defeat it stood over the body, and then they divided the spoils.

The Knight took the captured Princess, to return her and gain prestige from his liege.

The Assassin claimed the items strewn around from previous heroes who had fallen.

The Acolyte quickly gathered the library up, many holy texts among them.

The Technomancer took the gold, because gold.

And the Mage was happy with the lair, because they were actually a Necromancer, and they were actually after the body, so this would happen all over again. 

Emergency Room 6

I paced back and forth outside the emergency operating room, debating what I was going to do.

I could run, sure, but that would prove my guilt, and I'd have to keep running, so that was out of the question.

Instead, I'd need to explain why she was mistaken about what had happened. The blood loss, the head injury, all of it would explain why she suddenly thought I'd attacked her.

Yeah, that would be the ticket. I-

The doctor came out.

"I'm so sorry, she didn't make it. But her last words were your name, repeatedly, if that helps." 

RIP Cortana

So I had to put the family pet down today.

She was old and had a variety of things wrong with her, due to being old, so this was the right thing to do, everyone agreed. And I didn't do it myself, don't get me wrong, i paid a professional who did it painlessly and such.

Now, yes. It was the right thing to do, that we all agree on.

And there are lots of problems in the world, and I cannot begin to pretend this is anything like being in a war zone.

But it still fucking hurts, yeah?

The Talk

She asked me to sit down, and I mentally prepared for the talk.

I'd gone through it several times by now. It's not you It's me, I'm just needing to find out who I am, I want to see other people, all the cliches.

At least the time she told me I was a jerk and boring, I respected her honesty.

But in any case, I was so lost in reviewing the last few times that I didn't really pay attention to what she said.

"Well, if you think that's best, I-"

I then noticed the ring in her hand.

Review

Not that I'm trying to be a spoilsport, but I do need to be honest here.

I didn't enjoy the performance.

Look, even grading on a curve, the performances were wooden and non-emotive, the costumes were clearly trying to be genuine reproductions and instead were just sad, and the lighting and sound, I mean, I'd argue that not having a director would only help things!

So no, I didn't like the performance, in any way. Not even my daughter's performance, she already knows my opinion, she may be in first grade but she understands that honesty is the best policy.

Some Etiquette For Proper Young Ladies

When strolling along the promenade, a proper young lady should take care not to be followed by any man with untoward intentions.

If one finds oneself being followed by a man with untoward intentions, a proper young lady must never leave a populated area and amble into any area describable as isolated.

If a proper young lady does find herself in a location away from normal society and a man chooses to be untoward in a forward manner, she should not scream, that is unbecoming.

However, in such situations, it is time to show how unproper young 'ladies' can be.

Suddenly Close Pressure

The visiting politican stepped into the elevator with the director of the site, before it began to lower into the ground.

"So let me see if I have it right. There are several types of creatures and beings that are similar to vampires and ghosts and such, and these secret bases are where they are kept once they're captured?"

The director shook their head.

"No no, that's the story humans tell themselves, they need to feel there's order and control."

The politican turned, finding the director had vanished before he was consumed by the creature disguised as a hidden base. 

Blind Love

I had been fighting the invaders fairly well, until one of them got lucky with fire and blinded me.

It didn't slow down my fighting, although it did impact my accuracy.

But then I heard a familar whimper, before it was muffled.

I'd have respected them if they'd told me and threatened her to stop me. But no, they clearly wanted me to accidentally kill her in my blindness.

She whimpered twice, as I spun around and stabbed forward, finding a stomach.

Her three whimpers spun me to the left, before they realised the code, just as my eyesight returned.

Toyed With

I kicked the sauce off my fingers before picking up the phone. Before I could speak, she was already yelling.

"YOU SOLD THE TOYBOX???"

I blinked and adjusted the phone.

"Well yes, it was my box."

"It was OUR toybox, I wanted to give it to my children one day!"

"It's a dollar store plywood piece of junk, it's not that big a deal!"

"You stupid...

Well I deserve half of what you got for it, at least!"

"Uh... Yeah, ok, come over then."

She wasn't impressed with the half plate of now cold buffalo sauce chicken wings I offered. 

Computing Language Enterprise

We needed to find his new will, and we finally worked out it was in his briefcase. The probably was that we couldn't cut it open without risking damaging it.

8 digits, 8 options on each one. I'd have worked out the number of possible combinations but that would delay my starting on going through the combinations. She began to search around for a clue.

Several hours later, she rushed back in.

"12481107! It's binary followed by a Star Trek-"

I had already unlocked the case, but that did tell me the password for his laptop I found inside it.

Agnes

She was born exactly nine months and a day after the starship left Earth.

She grew up on the starship, every day spent seeing the stars drifting past the heavy windows, learning why the ship left Earth, and where they were going.

When she turned 16, she received her designation, and joined the workers in Resource Management.

For 80 years, every day, she watched the screens, checking waste tubes, running analysis on reclamation processes, and helped keep the ship running.

She died nine months and a day before the ship encountered the planet.

At terminal velocity, so she was lucky.

Toe The Line

My foot began to hurt one day.

I was used to getting minor injuries and pains, from bumping into things or picking up stuff that was too heavy. But this was different, as I had no idea where this one came from. I just put it down to sleeping badly on it.

But then, every day, it got worse and worse. I wasn't a doctor avoider, but it took me some time before I made an appointment.

When I turned up, they took one look, made a cut, drained it, and it felt much better.

Until the infection took hold.

Combo Distraction

It had been a few years since I got caught in this time loop, and I was still in the initial fun having phase, if that movie was any indication.

Although I'll admit my having fun was a bit different from the guy in the movie. Because each day I went to the Chinese restaurant and ordered the next combination.

"Hello, I'll have..."

I got distracted by a stunning woman walk past the window.

"Uh, sorry, I'll have a 6, a 17, and a 19."

"You had that yesterday."

"Oh, right, sorry, 18, not... Wait, what?"

The waitress went pale. 

Got To Know You

MI didn't quite understand all the rules of the game, but I understood enough to realise it was a getting to know you party game. The Hostess' Brother's Indoor Soccer teammate picked up a card.

"Ok, so, how many times have you done the walk of shame?"

I stared in confusion.

"Zero I bet!" said the Host's former roommate's de facto partner.

"What's a walk of shame?"

"It's when you have to walk home in the morning after a one night stand."

"Oh.

Well, yeah, zero."

"Told you!"

"Because I'm not ashamed."

"Oh."

"And I'm always at my place."

"Ah."

Loveless

I was the only blood relative he had, while she was his long-suffering personal assistant.

On his deathbed, he dictated a new will, surprising us both. We were both entitled to half of his billions, but if, and only if, in his words, we 'avoided dying alone' and were married.

Yes, like that movie, shut up.

Anyway, neither of us was, and thus I went to her and proposed a loveless marriage of convenience.

She agreed, and for 25 years we remained married and unloving.

And then she got sick, and died, and this, I got all her money too.

Data Points

Every day, a new instruction came down from above, while data came in from below.

I'd take the data, integrate it into the existing dataset, then rerun all the analysis using the new instructions. There was always another new idea. Focus on the mean survival time, categorise the deaths via methodology, ignore all those who died before processes had been completed.

The rare times I had a chance to discuss things with my direct supervisor, I'd asked when this might be all over. She shook her head and explained there was always going to be one more.

Upstairs were indecisive.

Telling Scary Stories

Most of the tales of horror and fright we tell the children in our care are, we believe, metaphors for things we want them to learn and absorb.

Boogiemen under the bed aren't real, but we use the concept to discourage the child walking around in the dark and night. Trolls were about racial groups in the past, now about strangers. The Tooth Fairy is about capitalism, and so on.

But actually, we've forgotten the real reason, it's to ensure generations are prepared of those creatures might one day return.

Except trolls, that's just been racism from the get go.

Stress Less

I had arranged for my life to be as simple and unthinking as possible. I'd seen the way trying to keep things together had eventually made my Mother's heart give up. I swore I'd never let the same thing happen to me.

I chose my home to be near my job, I did meal preparation every weekend, I used clippers to shave my head myself, everything was designed to not have to think or stress, just drift through my life, relaxed and calm.

And then, just as things had gotten just right, and I was finally happy, I met her.

A Common Story

It started as just my fooling around with a game making program, just for fun.

But I quickly got into it, as I found a gameplay loop I really liked, and I just kept building on it, adding new levels and aspects, until it became clear to me that this was potentially a thing.

While I could I just shove some text screens together for a story and call it a day, but I felt, after some reflection, that the game deserved better.

So I worked on a story, wrote out some cutscenes, recorded them, hated them, and abandoned everything.