short: Chambersburg, Trenton, 1994

Rook rolled a gum wrapper between his right thumb and forefinger, over and again.  The Juicy Fruit had lost its flavor long before.  It was like chewing Silly Putty.  It's keeping me warm though.

He shifted on the bench at the corner of Hamilton and Chestnut.  Columbus Park couldn't be emptier.  A cold Saturday morning like this.  I stick out like a boombots.  He pulled his wool coat over his leg, he continuously shook it off.

From here, Rook could see all points.  But the boss wanted him to keep an eye out on the Pharmacy.  

"This time of morning?"  Mauro answered with a scowl.  He was being questioned dummy.  Rook quickly followed with, "I got it."

He measured the next question, "What am I looking for?"

Mauro opened a drawer and Rook instinctively shifted back, a plastic bag packed full with script bottles.  He sat back and turned his head to Chuck.

"What time does the owner come in?  We know they open at ten on Saturday, but maybe the doctor comes in earlier.  Is it even the owner that opens up?  Does he come alone?"  Chuck gave him a $50.  "Don't get picked up is all.  Don't look like a disgraziat."

I got here way to early.  His watch had 8:23.  I gotta sit here another hour?

Rook had stopped smoking a year ago.  Cold turkey.  He had a rough couple of weeks after that, made it up with fries.  "Time to quit smoking, ah."  It would be perfect now.  Calms the nerves.  It's forty degrees, no wind.  Perfect drag and then get a coffee.

Twenty minutes went by.  Something ain't right.  It was too quiet.  He scanned all points again.  Stood up and walked over to use the trees right on the corner as cover.  Nothing.  But not a good nothing.  A nothing like something was going to go down.

He left the car three blocks over, like he was told.

"You know what he should do?"  Mauro put the bag of bottles away.  "He should sit in the park, the one across the street."

"Yeah, maybe keep your car a few blocks down though."  Mauro snapped his fingers and agreed.

His chewing slowed.  It's a fix.  Rook spit the gum out and scanned the walk back toward his car.

"Shit."  Mauro set him up.  Fifty dollars.  He saw the grill about a block down from the Pharmacy, a cruiser grill shining in the sun.

Rook crossed the street toward the Pharmacy, just as the cruiser pulled out at the same time.  He broke into a run, making a hard turn around the building, jumped over a small fence and through an alley to the other side.

Think.  Can't go back to the car, they'll have another car waiting there.  Maybe.  Chuck had him out in the open, so they wouldn't have thought about the car.  Car.  His run broke wide and he met the street again.  He hadn't run that fast since middle school.

The car was not watched, at least by what he could see.  Stay or take off?  He started the car, did a 'u' and headed south toward Clinton.  If I can get to Broad I can lay low for a while.

Mauro.  He gave him up.  He meandered purposefully down the streets, making his own switchbacks, but each time trying to get to Clinton.  He thought he saw pulotti once, but going cross.

He made Clinton and then Broad, he lined the speed limit but didn't go a mile above.  Can't go back home for a while.  Have to go West or Upstate.  Rook figured to put 20 miles north until he had to get gas.  Mauro.  What do I do about him?

...

caustic homage (draft): 02feb19

A hotel room is a dangerous place
when you are all by your lonesome
Don't it feel like a cell?
esp. when the warmth of a woman has escaped it
The smell of her on the sheets
fades as the night wears on and
you wonder if she were ever there.

Picaresque restaurants close and the last
of the lonely make their way into the night
The servers are eager to hit the club 
So dishes are piled in the sink
to the anger of the breakfast shift.
The crew hold on to one another as they
head off singing a hackneyed 
"Comme d'habitude".

Memories of only the grandest of failure
despite the storied truth
reminesce in the smells of those that came before
and thought the same thing
when they lay in the bed
with a Lark on their lips
and nothing on the TV set
in a town small as this.

The boarders next door stop using the sink
And the entirety of the floor grows quiet
but the frequency hum
of televisions left to keep company

Tomorrow looks to be an unwritten failure
should we meet it
And there's the question again
again as fresh as the first time.

And so it is

Comme d'habitude je vais sourire
Comme d'habitude je vais même rire
Comme d'habitude, enfin je vais vivre

...

Philip Sidney's "Astrophil and Stella" c1580

19.

On Cupid's bow how are my heartstrings bent,
That see my wrack, and yet embrace the same?
When most I glory, then I feel most shame:
I willing run, yet while I run, repent.


My best wits still their own disgrace invent:
My very ink turns straight to Stella's name;
And yet my words, as them my pen doth frame,
Avise themselves that they are vainly spent.

Penelope Devereux c1575

For though she pass all things, yet what is all
That unto me, who fare like him that both
Looks to the skies and in a ditch doth fall?
Oh let me prop my mind, yet in his growth,

And not in Nature, for best fruits unfit:
"Scholar," saith Love, "bend hitherward your wit."

...

A chord strike and I awake
"Penelope!"
Sunlight tendrils drape her face in my dream
My heart has swelled and I'm defeated
Surrendered to her and all to her
The dream ends and the cold answer is given
Realizing in each dream
Her eyes never meet mine
It is my love to own

Unrequited to the last.

...waiting to hibernate...06jan19

intermittent rain

followed by the sun some
grey puddles
wet grass
deep pockets at Boisseranc
cut the turf
a layer of ready mud


neath yellow scrag
missing it
'A long while sick, supposed.'
he didn't look from the shadowed lap
his wiry face
his eyes closed
guilty I say


mine come in cotton shirts
and the smell of Canoe
never tugging on attention
but if I look they are
unencumbered
reminiscent

breathing deep

always there

other spirits come as lighted orbs

their chests raise and fall

but they mock 

the action

mindless

rote

lost

...

National Novel Writing Month 2018: Ashes of Parnassus

Synopsis

The decadence of the Chrome Age collapsed upon its own hubris, leaving the Worlds in ruins.  The Central government relinquished control to the state-worlds in the chaos.  Then on the verge of stability, the Ubiquity ravaged all.  Anything made with metal, all tech, broke their molecular bonds.  Humankind plunged into a pre-Bronze Age.

Space craft were saved from Ubiquity, but scattered to the edges of the galaxy, lest they succumb to the same ravages of destruction.  Worlds were abandoned, overcome by the nature that technology pushed away.  The humans left behind became animals.

On the science vessel Proust, the crew studying Ubiquity from afar believes they have found a way to process metal and overcome its destructiveness.  If they are correct, they have built the bridge that will save millions of lives across a dozen planets.

Excerpt

"The nominal level of debris surrounding any one of our dozen systems is impactful across 1.2 billion kilometers, orbital."  Teft flashed the monitors so that the historical citations firmly rooted themselves next to his data.  There were hundreds of governmental studies that cropped up on Ubiquity, effectively feeding into a single institute.  Teft was one of the last adherents to the Metallic Sciences Foundation, before it unceremoniously lapsed after the dispersion of all shifts beyond the orbital affected zone.

"There are known deviations to this.  Gravity wells.  Star corona.  These form paths, however, until three years ago, we could not 'see' these safety zones.  We were excited of course, but quickly found that they did not allow egress to most of the worlds, except one."  The image of the planet Arcārius came into view.  There was a path that brought most craft within hundreds of thousands of miles closest than any other planet.

Teft straightened his posture as he was to evoke the paper's name.  "In 2637-MSF-300837-WRIT-14-V-H, Metalurgical Stability of Transpurposed Composite, I must...we must traverse the space carved by Arcārius' star to come within 370,000 kilometers of the planet."

A well constructed animation visually walked through the effort that Teft described.  He loosened up and walked the stage, "I will need the following crew, fuel and craft to break through the effective area, assume descruction of the origin craft, land on the planet using composites as described before.  Once on the planet, I can build a fully operational facility to produce enough composite and prove out our working theory."

A hand was raised.  Dr. Philomea.  "And if it doesn't work?  We assume you are saying this is a one-way mission should you fail?"

"Correct.  The crew and myself will assume, if the collective theories do not hold true, that Arcārius would be our final home.  However, there is a bit of an out."  A new graphic showing an elliptical from the point of insertion.  "If we can prove out Ubiquity on the composite in the effective area, we have several minutes to shoot ourselves back toward the Proust.  Of course, using the correct protocols of sanitation.  If not, we would simply fly out into space."

Not even a chuckle.  Teft didn't expect one, but he half wanted to chuckle himself.

"I'll remind Senior Engineer Teft that suicide is not permissible.  You will have to prove the data to ensure us that your risk profile is low.  Lower than the mean."  Dr. Archer.  She shifted in her seat and her lips were pulled into a tight line.

Teft nodded.  "I can assure you by data my intention is purely risk adverse.  The reward however will outweigh the cost should we lose any of the two dozen lives that I ask committed to this task.  This is our best shot to save worlds and save ourselves."

He understood as he said that he had planet bias.  He did and he would doubt denying it.  The survival of the human and animal species depended on what the collect crafts could commit.

....

[short] Mega Force Ultra Imaginauts 8

Makoto's wrist communicator alarmed.  Tweee-eeep, tweee-eeep.  He leapt from his seat at school, which alarmed all the students and Mr. Tetsu.  Heads swung around to look.

"Forgive me, Tetsu-san!  I have urgent matters to attend to.  As you can hear, my communicator has alarmed.  It must be a city-wide emergency.  Professor Uri is asking for all Mecha R's to report at once!"

Mr. Tetsu likewise rose to his feet, as did the class, "Go Makoto!  Proceed at once and may the kami be with you!"

Makoto bowed and ran from the room, as he leapt from the doors of the school he quickly noticed the eerie calm that fell over his city, Yokohama.  The clouds were grey, but mottled oddly.  The ever present breeze was stilled.  What monster are we dealing with today?  His eyes narrowed as he saw that no one was watching.

"Mega Force Ultra 8!"  He shouted as he made the kanji of 'power' and 'wind' with his hands and arms.  The Mecha R super robot armor appeared on his body, protecting him from harm.  His wrist communicator made a victorious noise and Makoto knew he had successfully transformed into one of eight powerful robots that protected the metropolis of Tokyo.  He could hear Professor Uri in his headset.

"Makoto we have a profound emergency!  Mecha R 3 and 7 are already fighting in Saitama - there are three sea creatures there.  We need you, Mecha R 8 to get to the port as we see at least one creature there, overturning fishing boats.  Mecha R 2 will be joining you shortly!"

"Yes sir!  I am on my way!"  With that Makoto triggered power jets in his back and feet to launch into the air, and toward the port, which was just south-east of his school.  While he made the leap, he bent his arms to turn the jump into flight.  He checked his munitions and noted that he was at full strength.  He nodded the validation and made a call to his teammate, Hex.

"Hex!  Please report on the situation at the harbor..."

Hex had a wheeled chair that helped him move through-out the cavernous control center of the Imaginauts HQ.  He had to be able to turn the right dials and start the right mechanics if they were going to win the fight.  "Makoto!  Good to hear from you!  There is a Class B creature from the sea.  It has overturned several fishing boats and threatens to make it to the city.  You must stop it from extending beyond the port.  Lives are in the balance!"

"Thank you Hex.  I see the creature now!"

Below Mecha R 8's scanners, a large creature, made from seawood and oil, was writhing its long tentacles all over the harbor, crushing some fishing boats, while overturning others.  People were swimming to pier and scrambling up the netting.  Luckily, the creature doesn't appear to be concerned with people, just the boats.  Then, the creature dismantled key sections of the ships and made itself make-shift armor.  Makoto gasped.  He is making himself more powerful with the addition of the steel from those ships!  He noticed that the creature could also use the oil and gas from the harbor as a powerful weapon.  I must be careful!

Makoto turned on Mecha R 8's amplified speakers, "Creature, I do not know if you understand me, but you must stop this unprovoked attack.  Do you hear!?"  The creature only returned a barrage of oil and fire at him, which singed his armor.  If Makoto had not made an unparalleled movement at the last second, he would have been destroyed.  So that's the way it will be...

Mecha R 8's chest opened to reveal a series of missles, "Let's open with fire for fire!"  Makoto released the missles at the creature.  The explosion was fantastic and lit the bay for a short period of time in red light.  The creature screamed.

Makoto drew Mecha R 8 from the port, hopefully to lead the creature away...the plan worked!

The Class B creature then used all of the ships it had captured to create a body.  It stood on three legs and shielded its body.  It didn't work!  This time, it was the creatures time to attack - it was able to produce small bombs, launching them all at Mecha R 8.

Makoto was barely able to survive the attack, but did sustain damage.  He did have wrist guns.  He fired them at the beast while slowly receding toward the ocean.  I must get him away from the city.

The guns didn't do damage, Makoto could tell, but it did keep the attention of the beast.  It was then he heard his teammate on his headset, "Mecha R 8 this is Mecha R 2.  Do you need assistance?"

"I do, thank you Mecha R 2.  Missles don't seem to work, do you have any ideas?"

"Hm.  You've done an excellent job leading him from sure.  Perhaps we need to figure out a way to put this seaweed creature on ice?"

"Excellent!  What do you propose?"

Mecha R 2 flew across the path of the creature to keep its attention toward the ocean, "We can do this, we just need to think!"

The creature enveloped more boats and was making its way to a container frigate.

"Whatever the plan is, we must find it quickly!"

[end of section]

[rough] "Daughter Vengence"

"I sat with my father only once.  I agonized over it.  After it was over, I understood all I wanted to do was overcome that feeling.  That stupid feeling of completing something because it had stuck in the brain, like a shopping list."  She twirled the mug around.  Only a little coffee was left, smearing the bottom like ink.

She leveled her eyes on me.  Grey.  Not the slightest glint of tears in them.

"I've tried not to become hard.  But it caught up with me.  Tried not to be like him, and I couldn't escape it."  She stopped twirling the mug on its edge.  "Here we are."

I measured my voice.  I didn't want to come off the wrong way.  "Why does it have to be like that?  We asked for something different..."

"Doesn't matter."  I wanted to argue the point, but now was not the time.  I picked up my mug even though it was mostly empty and acted a sip.

She pulled a tendril of hair back.  Her sleeve dropped with it, revealing a portion of her markings.  She was not shy showing them, to the contrary.  But she didn't advertise either.  "I've told you more than I've told anyone else.  I suppose that is why you are good at what you do."

"I've seen you dance.  You are good at what you do."

She didn't smile.  I didn't expect her too.  I would have in others.

Quickly, "Did the song come before the dance?"

A slight shudder in her shoulders.  I hit a nerve.  You are not so hard then.  No one is.

"The song came first.  Years before.  I was just a little girl and didn't even know of it for some time.  The dance...that drifted in my mind for just as long.  So, yeah, I think they evolved together."  Chuckle.  Not light or sharp.  "I sometimes think it's more than me.  Or him.  I guess it had to be."

"That's profound."

She didn't shrug.  I did expect her to.

"What am I then?  If this is more than me?"  She stared at me for an answer.  I asked the waitress for a refill.