Purpose

Moderators: Bookworm, starkruzr, MrFireDragon, PrettyPrincess, Wapsi

Post Reply
User avatar
GlytchMeister
Posts: 3733
Joined: Wed Oct 16, 2013 2:52 pm
Location: Central Illinois
Contact:

Purpose

Post by GlytchMeister »

I awoke mid-shout, covered in cold sweat. The sheets were, yet again, soaked where I had been laying.
I took several moments to calm myself, taking slow, deep breaths and imagining sunset at Hanalei Bay in Hawaii to encourage my heart to slow down and retreat down my throat and back into my chest.
Then, grumbling into the darkness, I changed into dry pajamas and wormed my way into the dry side of my bed.
It was the same thing, every night. I would be dreaming normal, perfectly nonsense dreams, when a voice unlike any other I've heard would intrude. This voice always said the same thing, but I could never remember what it said.
All I did remember was how the voice sounded: deep.
Unfathomably deep. It spoke in a bass tone so low I couldn't comprehend the concept of a sound being so low.
It also sounded... Big. Not just loud, no. Loud doesn't even begin to describe the voice. No, the voice was immense. It was heavy. Massive. Cavernous, yet solid. It echoed within itself, and shunted the world aside like a mote of dust.
And it carried a weight beyond measurement of mass. It bore the immeasurable burden of a massive intellect; enough knowledge to make the collective genius of all humanity, living and dead, look like the blissful, lightweight, innocent ignorance of a small child.
I shuddered, pushing the memory of the voice from my mind in an attempt to stay calm and go back to sleep.
Again, I concentrated on imagining the beach on Kauaii. Waves gently lapping the soft, warm sand, the sky flowing from dark violet to warm yellow, the smell of hibiscus in the air...

Books.
I bolted upright.
Books? Why am I thinking of books? No, damnit! Hawaii... Why am I still imagining books? Shelves and shelves of books... A huge building just full of them... A Library.
The word hit me like the leading edge of an avalanche. Suddenly, every detail of the dream and what the voice said came to memory.
A library. A Library. The Library. The Bibliothiki. An extra-dimensional realm where everything ever written continues to exist even if all copies in the source world are lost or destroyed. A backup of the multiverse's collective store of written words. The correct interpretation of the Hypneratomachia. The translations of the Voynich Manuscript. The lost Gospels.
Words and combinations thereof with the power to move whole generations to tears, whole populations to revolution. Power enough to build a civilization or raze an empire.
And the intelligence that was The Library, the thing that spoke with the incomprehensibly deep voice.

John stared into the darkness, flabbergast. He hadn't remembered a dream in over a decade. He couldn't shake the feeling that this was different. He had never remembered a dream that seemed so important.
"Why's if feel important?" John whispered into the darkness.
He's mister GlytchMeister, he's mister code
He's mister exploiter, he's mister ones and zeros
They call me GlytchMeister, whatever I touch
Starts to glitch in my clutch!
I'm too much!
User avatar
GlytchMeister
Posts: 3733
Joined: Wed Oct 16, 2013 2:52 pm
Location: Central Illinois
Contact:

Re: Purpose

Post by GlytchMeister »

As he lay awake, John's mind began to boot up, not unlike an old computer. Despite his efforts to go back to sleep, his brain was slowly but surely spinning up to full speed, and would not stop for quite some time.
With a supremely exasperated groan, John gave up and rolled out of bed.
This concept of The Library had taken root in his mind, and now he couldn't stop thinking about it... Pondering the idea.
How could something like that even... be? It exists outside the boundaries of all other universes, yet anything written instantaneously manifests within The Library? That's an immense level of information traffic passing through universal walls. It's an immense amount of information being created within the universe that is The Library. It obviously doesn't have any laws regarding the conservation of information at the very least, but there must be some form of conservation of mass, energy and angular momentum... Otherwise basic physics simply wouldn't work...
John's mind continued to race in this manner, all the while gaining speed until he was fully awake. John worked the rusty feeling from his bones, stretched his stiff muscles, and cracked his joints loud enough for the report to rebound off of the walls as faint echoes. Then he looked at his phone. It was 4 in the morning.
"Yuck," John spoke aloud. He was ordinarily a bit of a nocturnal creature. If left to his own devices, he would fall asleep at this time and wake up at 2 in the afternoon. Unfortunately for him, the rest of modern society seemed to insist he was wrong about his own circadian rhythm and how crappy he felt when he played the game their way.
He was pouring milk on top of some powdered chocolate instant breakfast when he finally figured out what was actually bugging him, and the question sent him reeling.
Why am I thinking about The Library as though it were REAL?
John furrowed his brow, concentrating. It was just some dream, right? He massaged his temples and tried to recall what The Library had said.
Like drawn-out thunder within his skull, the voice calmly roared through his mind again:
Unknown being detected on Earth, coordinates 41.878114 by -87.629798. Send operatives Tsilla Thymbrisdaughter, Lilly Pratt, and Suzie McBride to investigate. Retain Bia Styxdaughter for backup and reinforcement as needed.
John opened his eyes. Styxdaughter? He padded across his small apartment to his desk and did a little bit of searching on his iPad before he found the location of the coordinates and who Bia was.
Both were singularly disconcerting discoveries. Bia was the name of an Ancient Greek Titan, the personification of force itself.
The coordinates were his.
Last edited by GlytchMeister on Sat Sep 26, 2015 2:19 am, edited 2 times in total.
He's mister GlytchMeister, he's mister code
He's mister exploiter, he's mister ones and zeros
They call me GlytchMeister, whatever I touch
Starts to glitch in my clutch!
I'm too much!
User avatar
GlytchMeister
Posts: 3733
Joined: Wed Oct 16, 2013 2:52 pm
Location: Central Illinois
Contact:

Re: Purpose

Post by GlytchMeister »

John sat down heavily with his chocolatey sludge, pondering what he had learned.
Somehow, I am either having dreams that are so realistic they use my correct GPS coordinates when I've never even wondered what they are while I am awake... Or I'm having visions in my sleep that are not dreams at all. Premonitions? Is it in the future? Present? Or past? And how? This option is nothing short of magic, so far as I know...
John gulped some of the sludge, uncertain of what to do. Then, an idea came to mind, one that seemed to make at least a little bit of sense.
I know how the coordinate system works. I know where the zero point is, it's off the coast of Africa, southwest of that big curve between the north-south bit and the east-west bit. So maybe, using that info, my mind figured out what my coordinates were? I think I heard that the brain functions differently during dreams. Maybe I'm really good at math when I'm asleep or something.
John was satisfied with this idea long enough to finish his breakfast sludge in peace. He even managed to start making some real breakfast food when he thought of something that could blow a hole in his idea bigger than the meteor crater in Arizona.
I dreamt of four names. At least two if them sounded real.
John cursed. He quickly finished the eggs over easy, sausage, and grilled cheese sandwich and, piling a plate with everything, again went to his desk.
John decided to skip his iPad and booted up his laptop, cracking his knuckles to loosen his fingers.
Then, he prepared to do his level best to discover likely candidates for who Lilly Pratt and Suzy McBride could be. He typed the names into google first, just to see if any big hits jumped out at him.
Of course, there was an old news article detailing how a pair of Twin Cities cops had been part of a manhunt for a particularly nasty serial killer.
John read the article, and his brow furrowed more and more as he read. The story really sounded like a mediocre coverup. John looked at the comments section, and found his thoughts were duplicated by many others. One especially industrious commenter had dug up several other articles and stories about the two cops.
John followed the links and read some more. The stories frequently seemed more than a little fishy. But the pictures... They grabbed John's attention.
Several of the articles had been written years ago. A few were put on the internet not long after the internet had been created. And some were scans of newspaper articles. One of which was from the World War II era.
And in every photo, Suzie McBride looked to be in her later twenties, and Lilly Pratt fluctuated between twenties and thirties. The more emaciated she was, the older she seemed to be.
"What the fuck?" John muttered around a mouthful of egg, and leaned closer to his screen, peering at a scan of an article from twenty years ago. He zoomed in on Lilly Pratt's mouth. She was smiling a very forced smile, bearing more teeth than she should have in a natural smile.
Two of those teeth were canines. And they were big.
"I am officially freaked the hell out now."
He's mister GlytchMeister, he's mister code
He's mister exploiter, he's mister ones and zeros
They call me GlytchMeister, whatever I touch
Starts to glitch in my clutch!
I'm too much!
User avatar
GlytchMeister
Posts: 3733
Joined: Wed Oct 16, 2013 2:52 pm
Location: Central Illinois
Contact:

Re: Purpose

Post by GlytchMeister »

John's reality was crumbling. His whole life ever since he realized he had the choice, he had been a staunch atheist. A firm believer that logic, science and math could, with enough genius, ingenuity, and effort, explain everything. And now all of a sudden he was having visions of sapient Library artificial intelligences, vampires, and possibly even figures of Ancient Greek mythology.
Fear clenched on John's heart with an icy, vice-like grip. The sensation spurred him into a mode of thought he hadn't used since his vigilante days down south. "Alright. Two vampires and this 'Tsilla' woman are coming for me. Nothing the Library said indicated hostility. But I'll be damned if I'm going to be unprepared. Let's see what the internet has to say about killing undead or immortal things..."
Several hours of research went by fruitlessly. The only thing John found was a weapon dipped in the river Styx could hurt a God. Seeing as John hadn't the faintest idea where the Styx could be, he focused instead on vampires. This was far more successful. Vampire mythology frequently details how to kill or ward off vampires.
John smiled. If things got bad, he would at least have a chance at wounding one of them.
The sun was rising when John had compiled a list of things to buy or make and where to go. John dressed as nondescriptly as he could. A plain tshirt, jeans, sneakers, sunglasses, and a faded Cub's hat. He wore his watch on his left wrist, to throw off anyone trying to follow him. He packed his backpack with a different shirt, shorts, and sandals, in case he needed to swap outfits to shake someone tracking him.
He also tucked an old military knife into a side pocket and a steel pipe with one end wrapped in duct tape into the backpack where he could easily reach them in an emergency.
Thus prepared, John took a deep breath and left his apartment to go shopping.
He's mister GlytchMeister, he's mister code
He's mister exploiter, he's mister ones and zeros
They call me GlytchMeister, whatever I touch
Starts to glitch in my clutch!
I'm too much!
User avatar
GlytchMeister
Posts: 3733
Joined: Wed Oct 16, 2013 2:52 pm
Location: Central Illinois
Contact:

Re: Purpose

Post by GlytchMeister »

His first stop was a specialty carpentry shop. John walked in and studied the various looks and feels of the different woods before going out back to the dumpster and obtaining several cuttings of oak, ash, maple, juniper, and yew, the five types of wood he had seen specifically mentioned in association with killing vampires.
He then walked to a nearby alleyway and whittled two of each type of wood into one fifth of a stake, then used strips of duct tape to bind them together. He tucked one next to his knife and put the second one into the main compartment of his backpack.
Next was a visit to a jeweler, where John bought a tiny, thin ring of silver. It was barely more than a wire, but it would have to be enough. John could barely afford it, nonetheless.
The last leg of John's trip to the grocery store, where he bought a rope of garlic, fresh garlic bread, and spaghetti ingredients, including a jar of very garlicky sauce and garlic powder.
John hurried home, eager to finish his preparations. First, he got a ceramic mug and put it in the oven before setting the oven to bake at the highest temperature it could, 550° Farenheit. He passed the time waiting for the oven to fully heat up by continuing his search for who Tsillah was, to no avail.
Once the mug was hot, John turned on his stove and preheated the metal until water boiled away instantly when he flicked a few drops at it.
Finally, he took the mug and placed it upside-down over the stove flame. The bottom of the mug formed a shallow bowl into which John carefully placed the silver ring.
Nothing happened.
John put his hands on his hips, frustrated, and glowered at the ring. It didn't respond and stubbornly remained solid.
John cast his gaze around his small apartment before alighting upon a large terra cotta pot, containing a long-dead plant of some sort. John shrugged and decided he might as well kill two birds with one stone, and emptied the pot into a garbage bag, brushing as much of the dry soil out, before overturning the pot and placing it over the stove.
John then went back to researching ways to kill or at least severely annoy titans and gods.
He waited until noon before he checked on the ring. The moment he saw it had melted into a little puddle of silver, John quickly grabbed his knife and carefully dipped the edges and tip of the blade into the tiny bead of silver. The molten metal quickly cooled, clinging to the surface of the old blade. Hardly any was left when John had finished coating the edges.
Satisfied with his new weapons, John moved on to his second layer of defense: garlic.
John cooked and ate a hearty lunch of extremely garlicky spaghetti, having mixed garlic powder into the hamburger and smashed a whole bulb of extra garlic into the sauce, and ate three slices of garlic bread.
John's eyes watered from the strong flavor, but he didn't mind too much. His mother often cooked with a lot of garlic, this meal didn't have much more than that.
John's final project was simple by comparison. All he did was take a clove of garlic and wrap it in a rag and taped it shut, taking care to not seal the garlic completely in tape, so the smell could still escape. From then on, John kept the garlic in his pocket.
Last edited by GlytchMeister on Tue Nov 03, 2015 4:02 am, edited 2 times in total.
He's mister GlytchMeister, he's mister code
He's mister exploiter, he's mister ones and zeros
They call me GlytchMeister, whatever I touch
Starts to glitch in my clutch!
I'm too much!
User avatar
GlytchMeister
Posts: 3733
Joined: Wed Oct 16, 2013 2:52 pm
Location: Central Illinois
Contact:

Re: Purpose

Post by GlytchMeister »

:?
Um...
Y'know, comments and nitpicks and criticism and critiques are welcome.
(Compliments, too, if they're warranted)
Kinda like with Sarge's stories, right?
He's mister GlytchMeister, he's mister code
He's mister exploiter, he's mister ones and zeros
They call me GlytchMeister, whatever I touch
Starts to glitch in my clutch!
I'm too much!
User avatar
jwhouk
Posts: 6053
Joined: Wed Aug 01, 2012 7:58 am
Location: The Valley of the Sun, Arizona
Contact:

Re: Purpose

Post by jwhouk »

---

"Hey, Suze! You gonna finish this last piece of Garlic Bread? That A-negative Smoothie didn't fill me up."

"Yeah, sure. Hey, you wanna wash up the silverware in the sink after you're done?"

"Mmph," Lily said, face full of garlic bread.
"Character is what you are in the dark." - D.L. Moody
"You should never run from the voices in your head. That's how you give them power." - Jin
User avatar
GlytchMeister
Posts: 3733
Joined: Wed Oct 16, 2013 2:52 pm
Location: Central Illinois
Contact:

Re: Purpose

Post by GlytchMeister »

^This! :lol:

I've already got a bit planned that addresses this, but YES. So much win.
That's a perfect Gilligan Cut.
He's mister GlytchMeister, he's mister code
He's mister exploiter, he's mister ones and zeros
They call me GlytchMeister, whatever I touch
Starts to glitch in my clutch!
I'm too much!
User avatar
GlytchMeister
Posts: 3733
Joined: Wed Oct 16, 2013 2:52 pm
Location: Central Illinois
Contact:

Re: Purpose

Post by GlytchMeister »

Lilly's phone rang, and she swallowed hurriedly before answering. "Hello?"
Suzie glanced over at Lilly, an eyebrow raised.
"The hell is wrong with you! We just had the night of our afterlives at Phix's wedding, were declared Peers by Monica, and are still getting over the hangover and you decide to pull our weekend out from underneath us?"
Suzie rolled her eyes in a silent "UGH!"
"Whaddaya MEAN, we gotta go to fuckin CHICAGO?"
Now Suzie raised both of her eyebrows.
"The Library is giving the order? And you're coming with? BIA TOO? Who the hell are we going to bring in, a goddamn eldrich abomination?"
Now Suzie stood very still, her face turning pale.
"An... Unknown? And they have the Library running scared?"
Silence.
"Fine, but we're getting paid triple-time, and you owe us both a big damn favor. Each. Got it? Yeah, whatever. See you in a couple hours." Lilly hung up and glowered at Suzie. "Pack yer bag."
He's mister GlytchMeister, he's mister code
He's mister exploiter, he's mister ones and zeros
They call me GlytchMeister, whatever I touch
Starts to glitch in my clutch!
I'm too much!
Jharris16-17
Posts: 90
Joined: Sun May 17, 2015 9:51 pm

Re: Purpose

Post by Jharris16-17 »

Very well done, I think that this will go far and so as many others have stated. Lead on McDuff
User avatar
GlytchMeister
Posts: 3733
Joined: Wed Oct 16, 2013 2:52 pm
Location: Central Illinois
Contact:

Re: Purpose

Post by GlytchMeister »

Lilly and Suzie met Tsillah at the nearest portal to the Library, which would act as the shortcut between the Twin Cities, the Unknown kid, and the Hole.
Suzie didn't seem to comfortable with whatever "The Hole" was, a fact Tsillah was quick to catch on when she laid out the plan for their assignment.
"It's actually not that bad. It's really just a realm of reality that it really hard to screw up... Mainly because it's an offshoot of Tatarus."
"Hold up." Lilly took out her cigarette and regarded Tsillah cooly. "We're going to track down some fresh college graduate, who may or may not have power enough to fuck up The Library of all things, and drag him to the land of the Dead, next door to where Chronos is imprisoned? Otherwise known as the deepest pits of Hades, one of many inspirations of the Abrahamic idea of Hell?" Lilly's eyes bored into Tsillah.
"Well, hopefully, we won't have to drag him there, per se. If it comes to that, we'll call in Bia." Tsillah shifted her weight. "Besides, it's not like the three of us are all that weak, right?"
"We aren't concerned about our ability to handle ourselves or Bia's ability to not die." Suzie interceded before Lilly lost her cool. "We're irritated that The Library is sending some kid, who has never done anything worse than drive too fast, next door to Greek Hell, simply because it doesn't know what the poor kid is. And we're bothered that you are going along with it... Especially after what happened with Atsali."
Tsillah gave an exasperated sigh. "Look, the Hole may be next door to Tatarus, but it's nothing like it at all. I mean, yeah, it's a bit bleak, but it's not like he's going to be tortured or anything. It's just... Durable. Even more durable than the Library. You know how the Library is self-reconstructing? That's caused by twisting the fabric of time so damage literally never happened. It's some kind of wacked-out wormhole stuff. But the Hole uses twists in Space. It can't break in the first place. Don't even try to make me explain how it works, it's even crazier than that damn Calendar Machine."
Lilly calmed down enough to not try to strangle Tsillah Homer-Simpson-Style. "What's it like in the Hole?"
Tsillah smiled dreamily. "It's dark... Completely dark. Energy is absorbed instantaneously and conducted straight into the heatsinks below the fires of Tatarus. We keep several infinite energy sources down there... Even a few White Holes. They are what keep Tatarus so hot."
Suzie furrowed her brow. "So... Whatever the kid tries to do or accidentally lets loose down there won't have a chance of messing anything up?"
Tsillah nodded. "Exactly. We just have to get him down there so we can figure out what to do with him. He's obviously beginning to release some kind of energy, otherwise the Library wouldn't have picked him out and told us to take him to the Hole in the first place."
He's mister GlytchMeister, he's mister code
He's mister exploiter, he's mister ones and zeros
They call me GlytchMeister, whatever I touch
Starts to glitch in my clutch!
I'm too much!
User avatar
GlytchMeister
Posts: 3733
Joined: Wed Oct 16, 2013 2:52 pm
Location: Central Illinois
Contact:

Re: Purpose

Post by GlytchMeister »

AUTHOR'S NOTES:

Yeah, so first off: I suck at making up names. Real bad. The main character is based on me, and as we already know from my activity in the Wapsiholics Anonymous meeting over in the daily discussions section, I'm not comfortable giving my real name out on the internet.
So the main character is named John Smith.
He is cursed with unimaginative parents and being stopped and questioned at airports about whether his name is real. Among other things. ;)
On that line of thinking — I might have to ask for help with making a good name. I'm seriously rubbish at it. Besides you guys, my main resource for making names is a random number generator and a baby names website. Seriously. So that might come up at some point. Not really sure. I'm kinda writing somewhere between the processes of using a fully-planned-outline and stream-of-consciousness.
Dunno what that's called. I call it Flow writing. *shrug*
...hmm.
Oh, that reminds me. Thanks, jwhouk for the Gilligan Cut. I was getting stuck in a rut there. Had to do a bit of on-the-fly adjustments, but that gave me the proper kick in the pants I needed to keep the story moving.
I don't know if that's what you were trying to do, but there ya have it.

Crap, I entered edit mode and I forgot what I was gonna add. Ugh.

OOH! I remember! I was gonna ask you (jwhouk) and Sarge how you two coordinate your stories? Do you just improv or "Flow" around each other or is there Behind-the-scenes communication happening? Because the way you two write, it seems to me like there's loads of opportunities to step on each other's toes, figuratively speaking.

Oh, yeah, one more note: I'm starting to hit my writing groove. I'm past that initial spark of inspiration. I got a good feeling about this one, guys and gals.
He's mister GlytchMeister, he's mister code
He's mister exploiter, he's mister ones and zeros
They call me GlytchMeister, whatever I touch
Starts to glitch in my clutch!
I'm too much!
User avatar
Dave
Posts: 7584
Joined: Tue Jul 31, 2012 5:58 pm
Location: Mountain View, CA, USA

Re: Purpose

Post by Dave »

GlytchMeister wrote:Oh, yeah, one more note: I'm starting to hit my writing groove. I'm past that initial spark of inspiration. I got a good feeling about this one, guys and gals.
There's a good current flowing in the river here, Glytch. Please do continue! (darned, no thumbs-up emoticon :( )
User avatar
GlytchMeister
Posts: 3733
Joined: Wed Oct 16, 2013 2:52 pm
Location: Central Illinois
Contact:

Re: Purpose

Post by GlytchMeister »

:D
Squee!

...unfortunately, I gotta pack for a surprise trip (much like our vamp girls) and sleep, so no more tonight. I'll be back at it soon!
He's mister GlytchMeister, he's mister code
He's mister exploiter, he's mister ones and zeros
They call me GlytchMeister, whatever I touch
Starts to glitch in my clutch!
I'm too much!
User avatar
GlytchMeister
Posts: 3733
Joined: Wed Oct 16, 2013 2:52 pm
Location: Central Illinois
Contact:

Re: Purpose

Post by GlytchMeister »

Bia approached the table the other three were standing around and gave each a small earpiece. They were tiny, about the size of a Tylenol, with a nearly invisible antenna spiraling out from one end. "These will record your surroundings and gather whatever data the Library wants. You'll also be able to communicate with me through them. I'll be working with a few minion librarians when you don't need me to interfere. We'll be trying to figure out what this Unknown is with the data these will be providing."
Tsillah took one and showed the two vampires how to insert them, winding the antenna around the back of the outer ear to secure them in place.
"Damn things are itchy as hell," Lilly grumbled, fiddling with her earpiece.
"Get used to it. Judging by how the Library is acting, I wouldn't be surprised if this takes quite some time." Bia looked up at the ceiling when she referenced the Library.
Tsillah nodded. "I've seen it miffed about not knowing something. But I've never even heard of it being... Worried? Suspicious? I don't even know what's up with it."
"So if it's got it's panties in such a twist over this, uh..." Suzie looked down at the files and papers scattered across the table, searching for a name. "John Smith? Really? Anyway, why is it sending us instead of a couple Chicago natives?"
"Because, after your involvement with the first Mapimi Incedent, you're the MIB's top field agents who aren't basically gods. The Library won't send someone like Bia or Monica into something unless it is ok with glassing half the continent. You two are slightly less likely to pull that off." Tsillah smirked.
"So what your saying is we are the other choice besides you nuking everything?" Lilly glared at Bia.
The Titan shrugged. "Pretty much. And I really don't want to get back into that habit, so..."
Lilly and Suzie both brought their hands to their faces.
"Didn't you say something about never getting in over our heads again?" Suzie's voice was muffled by her hand.
Lilly massaged her temples, taking deep breaths. "I think we're the only people around here who care about that sort of thing."
Suzie sighed, resigning herself to her fate. "Ugh... Fine. Let's go. But this is making me think about retiring, you know?"
"Honey, I've been thinking about retiring for over a millennia."
"Great!" Tsillah beamed at the both of them with entirely too much enthusiasm. "Maybe if things go well we can visit the SkyBox thing on the Willis Tower!"
He's mister GlytchMeister, he's mister code
He's mister exploiter, he's mister ones and zeros
They call me GlytchMeister, whatever I touch
Starts to glitch in my clutch!
I'm too much!
User avatar
GlytchMeister
Posts: 3733
Joined: Wed Oct 16, 2013 2:52 pm
Location: Central Illinois
Contact:

Re: Purpose

Post by GlytchMeister »

John felt a sudden urge to grumble about the Sears Tower. "Can't believe those idiots changed the name. How would New Yorkers feel if the Empire State Building was renamed to the 'Bob Owns This Big Phallus' Building? Huh?"
A woman gave John an funny look as he walked back from his mailbox. Blushing slightly, John shut his yap and hurried back to his apartment.
He's mister GlytchMeister, he's mister code
He's mister exploiter, he's mister ones and zeros
They call me GlytchMeister, whatever I touch
Starts to glitch in my clutch!
I'm too much!
User avatar
GlytchMeister
Posts: 3733
Joined: Wed Oct 16, 2013 2:52 pm
Location: Central Illinois
Contact:

Re: Purpose

Post by GlytchMeister »

Dinner was a delivery pizza. John requested a garlic glaze on the crust, and wasn't disappointed. He savored the sausage, bacon, and hamburger, and was very happy and very full after having consumed half of the stuffed crust pizza.
John had decided to load up on carbs and protein to ensure he had plenty of energy waiting to be used should the Library's operatives open with hostility.
Of course, this meant he had a lot of calories... And seeing as he rather liked having a fit figure, John had to double his workout routine to compensate.
John was in the middle of a dagger kata of his own making when someone knocked on his door.
John picked up his steel pipe and covered the peephole, standing off to one side of the door, and waited three seconds. Then he looked through it to see who was paying him a visit.
He saw three women. Two were the vampires he had discovered; one blond, with a full, healthy looking hourglass figure and glasses.
The other looked far more vampiric. Her cheeks and eyes were sunken, her skin was dark with melanin but also sickly pale, and her figure was emaciated. Her dark hair was in dreadlocks. However, she didn't look like the long-time anorexic John was expecting. She seemed to be... Recovering?
The third woman was shorter, and looked far younger and more cheerful. She appeared to be John's age, something he wasn't expecting. Her features still looked a bit... Strange, though. She seemed a little too sharp.
"Hello?" The strange young girl called. "Is this John Smith's residence?"
"It is. With whom am I speaking?" John spoke carefully.
"We are a research team, and we need to ask John some questions. Is-"
John interrupted before the girl (he guessed she was Tsillah) could ask his name. "I don't really want to take part in some survey, but what are you three researching?"
Lilly scowled. "Look, kid, we need to talk to John. Is that you?"
Damnit. John took a breath. "...Yeah, I'm John."
"Then would you please let us talk to you in person instead of shouting through a door?"
"...Why?"
John saw Lilly mouth a curse, and then saw a spark in her eyes. "Come on, John, we really don't want to have to do this the hard way. Tsillah here can get inside your place whether you like it or not. Don't make things more difficult than they have to be."
"Shit," John whispered. Well, I guess that plan is shot.
"John, speak up, please." Suzie looked directly at the peephole.
"Uh, I said 'sure!' Hold on," John undid the deadbolt, the doorknob lock, and the chain before opening the door. "Come on in."
Lilly smiled. The effect was disconcerting, to say the least. "Thanks. I was afraid you were gonna be weird."
John kept his silver-edged dagger palmed, hidden from view. "Heh, uh, don't get too comfortable. Everyone's a little strange in their own way."
Suzie looked at John. "Some more than others," she spoke very pointedly.
He's mister GlytchMeister, he's mister code
He's mister exploiter, he's mister ones and zeros
They call me GlytchMeister, whatever I touch
Starts to glitch in my clutch!
I'm too much!
User avatar
GlytchMeister
Posts: 3733
Joined: Wed Oct 16, 2013 2:52 pm
Location: Central Illinois
Contact:

Re: Purpose

Post by GlytchMeister »

John was acutely aware of his sweat.
Lilly and Suzie were prowling around his apartment, looking out windows, examining every inch of his abode, their eyes lingering on potential weapons.
Tsillah, in stark contrast, had plopped down onto his futon and pulled a clipboard out of her messenger bag.
"Ok! So, your name is John with-an-H Smith, correct?"
"Yeah," John answered, eying Lilly uneasily behind her back.
"And this is your residence?"
"Yeah...?" John was beginning to wonder what this visit was all about.
"And have you been experiencing anything strange or out of the ordinary lately? Especially any unexplained releases of energy?"
"No. But I had a dream about you three. The Library said it was going to send you three to my coordinates. Bia is backup."
Lilly and Suzie stared at John, brows furrowed with a heady mix of amazement, confusion, concern, and suspicion.
Tsillah's cheery demeanor faltered almost imperceptibly, and she recovered far quicker than the two vampires. "And what was this dream, exactly?"
John described the dream, what the Library said, and how he had figured out what Lilly and Suzie were.
Tsillah scribbled a few notes on a new piece of paper. "Gonna have to get rid of those..." She mumbled. "And this was a recurring event?"
John scratched his chin. "Kind of. I didn't manage to remember it until last night. Before then, I kept forgetting the details when I woke up." John furrowed his brow. "Come to think of it, I didn't start remembering anything about it until more recently. At first I was just waking up covered in cold sweat."
Tsillah nodded. "Sounds like a form of premonition, influenced by the collapse of the waveform possibilities into reality. The Library detected you last night. Once the event actually occurred, your vision solidified and you could remember it, because it was now something that was real."
John blinked a few times, a little taken aback by the sudden vocabulary shift. "So before, I was having a premonition of just one of many possible future realities. As the probability of my vision approached one hundred percent, it became easier to remember?"
"More or less." Tsillah shrugged.
"Great. I'm getting into quantum mechanics. That class was so much goddamn fun."
He's mister GlytchMeister, he's mister code
He's mister exploiter, he's mister ones and zeros
They call me GlytchMeister, whatever I touch
Starts to glitch in my clutch!
I'm too much!
User avatar
GlytchMeister
Posts: 3733
Joined: Wed Oct 16, 2013 2:52 pm
Location: Central Illinois
Contact:

Re: Purpose

Post by GlytchMeister »

AUTHOR'S QUIP:

The benches here in the Great Hall of Union Station are really freakin uncomfortable. Would it be too hard to glue some damn cushions or something on them?
He's mister GlytchMeister, he's mister code
He's mister exploiter, he's mister ones and zeros
They call me GlytchMeister, whatever I touch
Starts to glitch in my clutch!
I'm too much!
User avatar
Dave
Posts: 7584
Joined: Tue Jul 31, 2012 5:58 pm
Location: Mountain View, CA, USA

Re: Purpose

Post by Dave »

GlytchMeister wrote:AUTHOR'S QUIP:

The benches here in the Great Hall of Union Station are really freakin uncomfortable. Would it be too hard to glue some damn cushions or something on them?
I rather suspect that's deliberate. It's Rule 19.735(a)6 in the Bureaucrat's Handbook. "Thall shalt not have comfortable seats or benches in any area generally open to the public after 9 P.M. People might want to sleep on them. This isn't a hotel."
Post Reply