Finished Stories: The Archangel Legacy (TAL)
Currently Posted Stories: Reality's Fangs (RF)

• 6Nov 09

  Torment -- Prologue

  "I've seen a lot of horrible things, and imagined many more. Every time, I'm the guilty party. Is it coincidence, or is there a reason? What don't I know?"

  Cyrus woke up with a start, every sense on alert, just like many other mornings. He glanced at his clock, and decided it was time to get up. With the grace of a tiger, Cyrus slid out of bed, eyes darting around. Nothing. Why do I keep feeling this way? He took a step towards his dresser, only to trip over his own feet, clutching his head in pain. Cyrus gripped his face, sliding it though his blue hair, slick with sweat. What a way to wake up from a nightmare...

  Cyrus laid on the floor a few minutes, waiting out the pain. Quickly, it subsided, and Cyrus focused on getting dressed: nothing fancy, only a black t-shirt and black pants. Dressed and calm of mind, Cyrus walked into the adjoining room, the kitchen-dining room, and started making toast, his favourite breakfast.

  Ten minutes later, Cyrus was seated on the living room couch, staring at the ceiling. It was early Sunday morning, so Cyrus' father was out grocery shopping, and his little brother wouldn't be home from a sleepover. He has the house all to himself—and he hated it. He hated being alone, or rather, he hated the silence. Silence meant his mind was free to wander, and it always drew to two things: his failures, and the nightmares.

  "No, please!" A woman's scream echoed. In her eyes, reflected those of another: cold, red, and cursed with the devil. The eyes of a killer. The woman watched her attacker hesitate. Their eyes darted to the side and back, as if indecisive. Only a second passed, before they levelled their weapon with the woman's frightened sapphire orbs.

  "Shut up." The single gunshot was all that followed.

  The cacophony reverbed inside Cyrus' head several times, breaking his reflective state of mind. This nightmare was a first-person experience, unlike the others, which were third-person. Whose eyes were he using to see the dream? Cyrus walked to the large, wall-mounted mirror in the living room, staring hard into his eyes. He had seen the assailant's eyes in the woman's, and they were harbingers of death. Cyrus stared into his own crimson eyes, wondering. Do my eyes really look so demonic? As he stared into them, his eyes were soft-featured, innocent. The mask of identity? He shook his head to free himself from such thoughts, sighing. I need some noise. No use dwelling on things.

  The day came and went without anything out of the ordinary. Cyrus spent his time with homework. His eleventh-grade homework kept him very occupied. Before too long, Cyrus was finished, and looked out of his window.

  "Wow. It's night time." He said to himself. "Time for bed, I guess." He went to brush his teeth, before he flicked off the lights, and crawled into bed. Already, he could feel his consciousness drifting, headed for the darkness he sealed away in a corner of his mind. Sleep... He commanded himself. Hurry... Mercifully, Cyrus fell asleep quickly, drifting into blissful unconsciousness. Tonight, there were no nightmares to haunt him, just peaceful darkness. That was, until the spell was broken.

  "Cyrus!" Being a light sleeper, Cyrus' eyes flew open immediately. "Cyrus, wake up!" The blue-headed boy sat up, once again alert. He peered into the inky black that pervaded his room. It was still night, meaning the voice wasn't his father's, and Cyrus' brother, Aaron, never woke up at night. Besides, he thought They don't have the voice of a girl... Cyrus didn't live with his mother, meaning it couldn't be her.

  "Wake up!" The voice shouted. Cyrus couldn't tell where it was coming from. Left? Right? In front, behind, above, or below?

  "I am awake." Cyrus growled under his breath. He pinched himself, secretly unsure. It hurt, just as if he was awake.

  "Heed my call..." Cyrus was getting increasingly annoyed.

  "Answer mine!" He hissed, reaching for his mp3 player. "Good night." Cyrus closed his eyes, listening to the soothing sound of a piano. Inward, though, he was worried. Who was this? Nearly asleep, Cyrus' eyes opened one more time, pale-faced.

  "Let your soul wake, Cyrus." Cyrus' music was loud, and in a crescendo. There was no way that he could hear someone speaking. He couldn't even hear himself think.

  "Can you hear me?"

  "I can hear you just fine." Cyrus hissed, removing his headphones.

  "...Or can you just not speak it?" The voice's words echoed in Cyrus' heart, silencing him, but he didn't know why. Or can I just not speak?

  "...I'm sorry, Scramble..." The voice, after apologizing, quieted for the rest of the night.

  Groaning, Cyrus rolled out of bed, much like the morning before. The only difference now, was the pervasive fog clouding Cyrus' mind, instead of the piercing alertness that he usually had. Something had happened last night, he was sure. All he had, though, was ghostly images and a woman's voice, in a language he couldn't understand. An Asian language, maybe? Cyrus strained to remember, the fact he couldn't was eating away at him. He felt like he should know.

  "Cyrus? Time to get up!" Cyrus' father called. "School today!" I'll figure it out later... Cyrus decided, getting dressed. However, he was slowly piecing it together. Slowly.

  Despite trying not to, the now clear memories of last night were all that he could think of, as Cyrus readied himself for school. He suggested to himself, and quickly dismissed, many languages that the voice could have been speaking in. He was missing something, it had to be! It finally came to him, as Cyrus was about to leave his house.

  "Bye Dad!" He called over his shoulder. His father's muffled answer fell on deaf ears, lost to Cyrus' thoughts. German! It was German, how could I not notice?! Instantly, something became clear, something he had missed, even when he had originally listened to the woman talk. Cyrus' concentration was focused on two phrases: "I'm sorry, Scramble." and "Or can you just not speak it?". The question, Cyrus decided Must be the woman asking if I could speak German. He wasn't entirely sure, but the idea satisfied him for now. His reason for thinking so, was the apology. The phrase, he realized, has been recalled wrong. What he missed, was the phrase actually being "I'm sorry, Herr Scramble". That one...I'm sure of. Cyrus, standing in the middle of the street, laughed out loud, earning him a few stares from onlookers. One mystery solved. That wasn't so hard. Cyrus still had a couple questions, but it was best to let the issue sit for a while. Only a few moments passed, though, before a single question popped into his head, and it was arguably the most obvious: Why did she call me "Scramble"?

  Speech can be interpreted many different ways, much like music, literature, or art. Is that why there isn't but a single language? What's the reason?

  I know, I know, I said I'd get this posted on Halloween, but a series of unfortuneate circumstances led to me not being able to. For example, a couple weeks ago, my laptop's moniter suddenly stopped being backlit, meaning the screen was almost completely opaque. I had it hooked up to a desktop moniter, but that died too. So, for a few days, I've been in the dark, as far as computer-access goes, until my dad and I bought a cheap moniter to hook up to the laptop. Appearently, repairing it will cost about $100, so we're holding off for a little bit.

  Anyways, read and review, as always. I'm a little rusty, and I was never good at writing prologues, so hopefully the writing isn't too stiff. I've got another chapter on paper, so I'm gonna go type that up. Laters.

  P.S. Can anyone guess what religious tale/icon I'm attaching to this story? The last line should help you.

  • Posted Nov 6, 2009 3:35 pm PT
  • Category: Writing
  • 0 Comments
  • Tag
  • Print
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Digg
  • Tweet
• 28Oct 09

  Thinking of Getting a Twitter Account...

  Then you guys could hear from me more often, seeing as I find myself being less and less able to sit down at the computer for any length of time. When I am, I'm usually watching Giantbomb videos, or writing. Speaking of which, I've started writing something, and the prologue is geared up and ready for Hallows Eve. Friend and fellow user RPG_Hacker is helping me out with it a bit (or will be, when I finally get around to typing out the parts I need him for).

  As for games, I've been going back to the Golden Sun series. I'm playing The Lost Age now, with Persona 3 on the side. I can't wait for P3P to come out in English! I just have to finish FES, so I can start on the Female route (because that's different?). Also, I dropped into my second full playthrough of Mana Khemia 2. I'm so happy about that, considering the last one took 70 hours...

  Can't remember if I mentioned this or not, but my 360 RRoD'd (laugh it up >_>), so I've been going to my PS3 for console-time. My friend is letting me borow his copy of Uncharted 2 so I'll finally be able to sink my teeth into that game. I loved the first Uncharted, and I played the hell out of the Multiplayer Beta for UC2. Can't wait.

  That's all I got for this quick blog, so leave a comment convincing me not to join Twitter (or convince me to join, doesn't really matter). I've got kung-fu soon, so...adios!

  P.S. Just recalled that I don't have a title for that Halloween-premiering story. Damn...

  • Posted Oct 28, 2009 4:41 pm PT
  • 1 Comment
  • Tag
  • Print
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Digg
  • Tweet
• 8Sep 09

  While I'm waiting for the new Bombcast to be posted...

  How're y'all doing? School's back in for me, but today was just a 1 hour "welcome back" sort of thing. Tomorrow is pretty much going to be intros to my classes also (English, Spanish, Socials, Math 1st semester; Chemistry, Acting, Biology, and PE 2nd). My first semester isn't going to be fun. At least I have the status of a legend in Spanish class (literally, people use my name with reverence)...

  In the games world, I've almost exclusively been playing Mana Khemia 2. It's an RPG set around an alchemy school, with an extremely heavy emphasis on item creation. The story is mostly there to keep the game going forward, but the characters are some of my favorites. Plus, my two favorite VA's, Yuri Lowenthal and Vic Mig-something-or-other, voice two of my four or so favorite characters (Razeluxe Mietzen and Peppercino (yes, they nicknamed him Pepperoni)).

  The combat's tight, and the exploration is fun. Best part: no grinding. All leveling is handled through the Grow Book; a sort of encyclopedia of stuff you've made. You make something,and an entry is filled out in the Grow Book,which unlocks stat increases for you to purchase with AP. You get AP by fighting battles, and rarely do you need more than you get from fighting what attacks you.

  The story is broken into two halfs: Raze's story and Ulrika's story. Thus far, I've finished Ulrika's story (at an impressive 30 hours), and started Raze's. When you finish both, you get an epilogue chapter that is supposed to tie up a couple threads, and generally be awesome. Also, the true last boss.

  Finally, the OST is pretty good. It doesn't have my all-time favorite video game song ever (tied with Backside of the TV from P4, and maybe one or two other tracks...maybe), Wind Festival (which happens to be in Mana Khemia 1).

  When not drooling over that game, I've been indifferent to my 360 bricking. RROD this time. Wierd this is, my first 360 came back from the dead...for a about a week. I've called up MS, but they're incompetant idiots who insist the problem lies in the power brick (in both consoles, brilliantly. The first one doesn't have video). Instead of being disappointed, I went out and rented MGS4 and Street Fighter 4 (Dan ftw). MGS4 is crazy, but I'll have to save that for another time [spoilers]why the crap does the game turn into street fighter at one point near the end? [/spoilers]

  That's all that's been going on with me the past month. What's up?

  P.S. I may get back to writing (from my on-and-off hiatus) but I need to find my old keyboard first. My laptop keyboard is so screwed up. People eat over it so there's crumbs under some keys (like my f-ing space bar), that makes it really hard to push them down enough to register. Plus, still missing the "g" key.

  P.P.S. Probably getting back into making videos. That was a good, and productive, time waster. Probably putting Mario and Luigi 1, Yoshi's Island on the back burner. All of a sudden, they don't like being recorded. Thinking about Megaman Legends or Boktai 3 (english patch exists).

  • Posted Sep 8, 2009 8:59 pm PT
  • 5 Comments
  • Tag
  • Print
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Digg
  • Tweet

See Previous Blog Posts »