[C.W.] [W.P.}The Number Four: Because dreams are weird, and I am lazy

[Yours Truly]

You’re probably either asking me why, or screaming at me to stop cluttering up the Creative writing thread; either way the answer is that I am sorry, and also that I have a million “Good” ideas, and most of them aren’t finished, and so I do hope that you enjoy this; for a given value of enjoying, and that you give me as much criticism as possible… thank you

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Opening

This is an attempt to convert an awesome; if a bit weird; dream to a story; expect weirdness; absurd plot twists; vague names; aliens; violence, and an unsatisfying ending… you have been warned…

Ps: my writing isn’t that great, and English is my second language; so please give me any tips, or comments about the language; spelling, and the story itself.

But anyway this is all based on a dream I had in new years eve 2016; if you were on the pok***n reborn showdown chat room on that day; then you would know what I am referring to, but if you don’t know what that is; then you will soon find out what the book will be about, and yes it will be quite weird, and I do hope that you enjoy what I am giving you here.

We shall open on the hero; who’s name is incomprehensible to humanity as a whole, but for now we shall call him “Tom”; because that is a nice and polite enough sounding name, and it’s not as generic as “Smith”, but anyway he is an alien; their race’s name is also incomprehensible, but let’s call him a “Bukberian”; because that is what they call their planet.

Rather unfortunately I have only have a very vague idea of who he is and where he came from, but I can tell you what he accomplished.

And from now on; for the sake of convenience; Tom shall be referred to as a man; if not as a statement of his gender, but simply as an effort to save time and space.

And so his adventure began in the following scene.

Chapter 1

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Chapter 1: Is this working for you? Perfectly normal title intended

Once upon a time I had a certain dream; it was a weird one, and when I woke up the dream was still fresh in my mind; although certain details were missing it was almost like watching a movie; if the movie was missing several key scenes and every single actor was both perfect at their role, and suspiciously missing from the red carpet, but anyway sit tight, and I do hope that you can enjoy…

Log 001

I only have a very vague idea of how it all happened, and I don’t even know why I was chosen to come here; I was a… well as they say here; a “College student” back where I was from; which made the matter of my election as a crew member aboard the… let’s say “Spaceship” a little weird, but anyway perhaps they needed someone that can think on their… feet and adapt to the situation, or at least that’s how I justify them dragging me off and throwing me into the spaceship; because at the time I didn’t want to throw away my life back on bukberah and go gallivanting off to another planet, but it turned out that it was less of a polite request, and more off an order, and I left my planet screaming and kicking; not like it helped me escape; I distinctively remember getting hit squarely in the… let’s call it “head” region to prevent me from pressing the emergency escape button, but other than that the trip to this planet has been a rather uneventful one; other than several key events that I will tell you about soon enough.

The spaceship we were on was big luxurious, but not very spacious; “Privacy” was at a premium; to you it would have been like moving from a large city like New York; to a small one like Effin; the smaller the population and space; the less privacy you have, and back then you couldn’t make a single footstep without everybody on the ship hearing about it; which was made worse by the surveillance system they installed on every single room in the ship; you couldn’t even sleep without the ship monitoring you; it was like that show that I gather was once popular on earth… “Big Brother” or something; except there was no escape; you couldn’t just open the door and leave, and the escape pods only activate if there was a planet or moon that you can escape to, and even then it would just be a matter of time until the isolation gets to you, but anyway the spaceship’s out ward design was large and boxlike, but it’s interior was cluttered, cramped, and under constant surveillance by the ship’s AI, and oh yes my planet has Ai’s; are you jealous yet?

Now the ship’s AI is someone that I distinctly remember; because she’s still with me; she decided to bug out and enter the escape pod I was on; does that make her a sentient being? I have no idea, and I don’t really care either way, and by the way “her” name was V.I.K.E., but for some reason she prefers to be called “Marie” now, and she likes to taunt me, but at least she’s company, and having her around was easier than jotting things down myself; that and she make’s sure that there are no uninvited guest anywhere near my house.

Then there was the captain and the various crew members; I remember none of their names, and the only thing that I remembered was their rudeness; they were acting all “You *coughs* as in me by the way *coughs* don’t belong here”, and back then I would have agreed with them, but then when you consider the fact that they all died, and I’m still alive; I have a feeling like I shouldn’t listen to the opinion of twenty different dead people; especially if their opinion isn’t at all constructive.

Now you’re probably wondering how, and why they all died, and to put it simply; it’s because you’re government is composed of…. Well; as you would say; *coughs* douchebags, and they shot us down; which was a huge surprise to us since we didn’t think that they wouldn’t have missiles with that big of a payload, but considering the fact that you have nuclear weapons… I’d say that we probably should have packed some flares with us.

Now back then we were nearing the earth; the captain popped open some… well you would probably call it raspberry flavored rum, and everyone else partied and gotten very drunk indeed; which is a bit of a shock considering how we’re usually quite resistant to alcohol, but this time… well I was the only person onboard that was lucid enough to make my way to the escape pods; which was very well stocked by the way.

Now the ship had entered the earth’s atmosphere, and the AI was busy making sure we don’t crash and burn while everyone else other than me was knockout drunk, and where was I when all of this happened? I was busy loading some of my belongings onto one of the escape pods; it was just a hunch, and besides when everyone on the ship is drunk; the chances of us landing safely was low enough to justify my actions.

Now while that was going on someone back on your planet realized that something is falling onto your earth at high speeds, and sent an order for several of your planes to check it out, and after they realized what they were dealing with; someone on the ground decided to order the plane’s to blow us up; which I shall recount in as full detail as possible:

The spaceship had metallic blue walls, and flooring, and the lighting was also blue; someone down in engineering decided that would be funny, and I was gingerly placing my bags on the circular; steel colored escape pod; when the lights flashed a bright orange, and the sirens started up; I took that as my cue and tossed everything into the escape pod, and I escaped just as the lights flashed red, and the ship went down.

At the time I had neglected to check to see if there was a non drunk pilot anywhere on board, and so I crash landed in a forest somewhere; it was very painful as I didn’t have time to tie any of my belongings down, but anyway before I could figure out which button was marked “Land” one of my bags hit me in the back of my head and I passed out.

I woke up four earth hours later with the worst headache that I have had the displeasure of experiencing, but like I said before I discovered that I had a stowaway on board, but “she” was less of a problem, and more of a… let’s call it “blessing”; she made sure that I didn’t go down in flames, but I’m sure that she just wanted to survive herself, but anyway while I was asleep she “helped me out” by making sure that the air outside was breathable; Read: Opened the hatch and checked to see if I didn’t die, and she sent out several drones to capture some images of the planet’s inhabitants; which helped when I needed to escape into the city.

But anyway the point is I woke up, and the AI told me something that vaguely translates into “Ah good you’re still alive”; I was quite surprised as I thought I was alone, and I said “What? Who’s there?”; Marie played an approximation of a human woman’s laugh; which was quite disturbing to me, and she said “Oh don’t worry; I’m just the ships; AI, but this isn’t the time to have a round of questions and answers; as I am afraid that the inhabitants of this planet will figure out our location soon enough; so it might be wise to leave”, and then I replied with “Wait… what? I just woke up, and now you’re telling me to get out?”; the AI played a recording of an old woman’s sigh, and she said “Well if you want to burn with the rest of the escape pod; then be my guest, but otherwise I suggest that you pick up the device I’m sending out to you now; *The suspiciously well prepared console sends out a small box like device and a pair of… well I now know that it’s called “glasses”, and I place them in one of my bags*; I recommend that you use your shape shifting ability to turn into this creature”; the screen that was to my right the entire time I was here shows me an earth creature; with a notation on its approximate height and weight; it’s hair color; skin color; possible name; country of origin; facial markers; hair length; size of ears; an explanation on what ears are for; eye color; exact detail on the structure of the planet inhabitant’s eyes; appropriate covering, and it probably would have included a primer for behavior and language, but she didn’t have enough time for that.

There are two things I can tell you about how we shape shift; first of all it requires as much detail as possible; it makes it easier; I don’t want to accidentally have three eyes when I only needed two or something like that, and second of all; it is very painful, and well I probably need to add a third thing; it will add some fresh perspective as to your current situation; it is usually temporary, but if say one takes a certain form for several earth weeks at a time; which I might add is longer than the weeks where I come from; without even temporary changes to my usual form; then my body will start to forget my original form; which is what happened to me, and please refrain from asking any questions until I am finished with telling my story… thank you.

Now after changing my form into that of a small; blond haired; human child; I picked up the bags, and Marie told me that I was supposed to wear the glasses; which I fumbled with and accidentally poked my eyes with a few times, and then I placed an “ear plug” in my… right ear; picked up my bags, and exited into your world; I would later find out that Marie would use the plug to relay advice to me.

You’re probably wondering who our main character is narrating to; so let me set the scene for you; the room we are in is a bit dark, and the floor is made of plain concrete, and so is the walls; which are rather tastefully decorated with what I assume; is deep red paint, and there are several machinery that seem to exist for no other purpose but to have a lot of led lit buttons and dials which are colored differently; from a bright glowing red; to a deep and vaguely oceanic blue, and in what I can safely say is the center of the room; is a chair that would have been very comfortable; if it wasn’t for the various straps placing it’s occupant; a young man who I presume has been a little too inquisitive for his own health.

His black hair is quite thick and untrimmed; his skin is tanned; he is wearing a black T shirt with the words “Quiet, but not quiet enough” written in white, and khaki jeans; his shoes are your bog standard blue and black sneakers, and his face suggests one that is more bored than scared; his eyes are colored a bright green, and elsewhere in the room; the narrator; who is a “man” named “Tom Collins”; his appearance is of a white haired twenty year old man; with a thin build, and he is currently wearing a pair of glasses; a white lab coat over what I presume is a red shirt, and pair of black pants, and black loafers; his iris’s are colored a light brown, but the rest of his eyes have a reddish tint to it; it seems he hasn’t been sleeping much lately.

Oh! And I almost forgot to tell you; there is a Tesla coil in the far right of the room; it serves no other purpose than to add an ominous… buzzing sound? And to look cool I guess... but anyway you probably want to get back to your story… so… bye

The young man who is strapped to the chair says with a curious and slightly deep tone “So… is it over now?”; Tom replies with a slightly light tone “Well… at least for now anyway; I am afraid that we have run out of time for now, and you must get going”; the young man asks with a suspicious tone “You’re just going to let me go?”; Tom shakes his head, and he says “Well of course not! But don’t worry; what will happen next; should be quick, and painless”; the young man makes a nervous laugh, and he says equally nervously “You know; when someone says that to another person in a movie or even a book; it’s usually means that someone’s going to die”; Tom laughs; it’s *long drawn out s sound* not a very comforting sound, and he says “Well in this case; you probably should have listened to the “old saying”; curiosity killed the cat you know?”; the young man’s right arm strap shakes a bit as he tries to do his best to make a “waving it off movement”, and he says “You know; every single time someone says that to me; I always have to wonder exactly who*drawn out o sound* killed the cat; I’m just that type of guy I guess *shrugs shoulder*”; Tom replies with a light hearted tone “Well then I guess I’m going to see you again”; the young man asks warily “So… does that mean that you’re not going to kill me?”.

Tom walks towards the end of the room; where a lever is rather conveniently placed; his walk is slow and theatrical; as if he is purposely taking as much time as possible, and as soon as he reaches the lever; he slowly turns to face the young man; places his right hand on the lever; smiles at the man, and he says “We’ll see, but either way; know that it’s going to help me a lot”; the young man frowns a bit, and he says with a hint of disapproval in his voice “Well that’s not very comfortIIIIII” his sentence was interrupted by Tom pushing the lever and activating the machine; it seems that he lied about the painless bit, and for the young man’s sake; let’s hope that he hadn’t lied about the bit about it being quick as well.

[Yours Truly]

So it seems that I have been procrastinating on this for two to three months now; it seems like every single time I finish writing an entire chapter; the next day when I read it again; a part of me thinks that it’s crap, and tells me to start over, and so I started over, and over, and over; and after a while this started to have it’s already vague and confusing story elements mixed with an idea for what would have been the original D1SC0NN3C7; which would have been a lot different than the crumpled up piece that I left on the proverbial table, but anyway I decided to embrace the change; especially since it means that I can combine smaller; uninteresting, and more than slightly clichéd characters; into more interesting, and hopefully slightly less clichéd one’s (Except possibly for COLLINS, but that’s mostly because it is just one big cliché); so…. Enjoy?

Any and all resemblance to any real life objects; persons; organizations, or websites are entirely coincidental, and life should probably stop copying me.

Chapter 1 V2: Distant memories from eon’s past (Yes that is clichéd, but its poetic)

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Part 1: As good as any

This is technically an apocalyptic log, but the apocalypse; which in this case is my death; hasn’t happened yet, but unlike most apocalyptic logs; I probably won’t die before I complete it; mostly because the subject matter isn’t as broad as the entirety of my life, and in this case the subject are my accomplishments, and what I managed to learn in my... ten or so years living on earth.

I don’t really know why I wrote this down here; somewhere in my train of thought; I decided to save several records of this log in various places on the internet which a contact of mine said would probably last a very long time; which isn’t why I posted this here; because let’s face it; in twenty to thirty years; all of you are going to become bored and the steady trickle of new users will eventually shut off, and at the very end of it all; a few extremely loyal users might cry, and moan, and some might even try to do something about it, but other than one or two “Prevent the closure of the forum” threads; nothing will change and the forum will close; bringing down everything that was on it; which isn’t really great when you think of my 100 to 200 year plan.

But in the end of the day; I put this here so that somebody; somewhere could at least try to enjoy it in those twenty to thirty years, but wait a minute; that could have happened anyway in the other places I put this on…. let’s just start.

Part 2: Another time; Another place; Another dimension….

He could have lived, and of course by him I mean the captain; the poor poor captain; I mean he was a terrible captain; a coward; unfortunately very self centered, but he was good natured; he could laugh at pretty much anything; even his own impending death, but that might have just been the apparently quite long amount of time he spent locked in the command room.

When I first met him; I was being dragged kicking and screaming by the rest of the crew members into the ship; he was just staring at the scene; not really knowing what do or say; which in hindsight was a really stupid thing for him to do, and in fact I don’t know how he became the captain in the first place, but he was probably the only person who actually volunteered for the mission; although I heard some rumors that all of the other candidates very suddenly and mysteriously had a series of “Unfortunate events” that led to their death, dismissal, or near fatal injury.

I don’t really know what happened to the rest of the crew; all I heard was hearsay and conjuncture from the captain, and scratchy; unreliable video’s from the AI.

Now I know that some people (The one’s who haven’t fallen asleep) right now are wondering where the hell I was when all of this happened, and the answer would be in one of the ship’s cryogenic pods; where I was spending a long period of time being a popsicle.

Although the ship’s AI mentioned something about the rest of the crewmembers starving to death; or falling in battle during an extremely unsuccessful mutiny attempt; I don’t know if that is true; the AI never gave me any evidence that would confirm that statement.

The last time I saw the captain was under extremely different circumstances; it was ten years later; I woke up inside the cryogenics room; the door wouldn’t open, but there was a plate filled with some delicious smelling food like objects with a small note with the most perfect handwriting I have ever seen; I think it said something along the lines of “Eat; meet you in command room; stop at the galley first”, and underneath it there were the words “Your new best friend; Collins”.

And of course upon taking in the scent of the food in question; I immediately felt ten years worth of hunger, and I stuffed everything on the plate into my mouth; I didn’t know who “Collins” was; or why the person in question hadn’t stayed to see me off, but I decided to follow the person’s suggestion and head towards the galley; ‘perhaps there would be more food there’ thought I as I walked slowly towards the galley.

The hall lights flickered on and off, the walls sometimes had a burnt quality to them, and the double doors of the galley seemed to have been blown apart by some piece of heavy weaponry; it seems quite obvious that at some point in the past a skirmish was conducted here, but I pressed onwards anyway.

The galley was dark for a moment, and just like a bad horror movie; the entire room was illuminated in the classic red of the emergency lights; bones were strewn all over; some of them looked gnawed on; the room smelled exactly the way you’d expect it to be; it did wonders for my appetite; that is in the sense that I didn’t want to eat anything.

But the entire sordid scene made me think of what the food I had consumed was made of; I decided that the best course of action would be to run out of the room as fast as possible; which is exactly what I did.

I ran towards the command room; perhaps to demand answers from my benefactor; perhaps to run towards the relative safety of its walls, but when I arrived; the door was locked; the password had been changed, and the formerly active security turrets looked badly beaten up, but funnily enough; as I typed in another wrong password; the door slid open; revealing the disturbingly smiling visage of the captain beyond it.

He greeted me with “Welcome it’s nice to finally meet someone who’s main priority isn’t to kill and eat me for once”; I nodded to that, and he said “Well anyways; I don’t know who you were before all of this went down, but I’m pretty sure that you know about our imminent landing”, and again I nodded to that; I still don’t know why I hadn’t said anything; the captain must have felt like he was hallucinating or something, but despite that possibility; he said “Well the point is; you’re going to have to take an escape pod; because this thing is going down”; I finally said “Why?”, and he said “Because someone down there fired a missile at us? And unlike you who is just another crew member; I am the captain, and when the ship goes down; I go down, or at least that’s what the AI keep’s telling me anyway; I don’t think it will let me get off the ship if I tried anyway”; ‘well that explained nothing’ was a thought that occurred during the time, and I replied with “So; before I go; I have to ask you something”; “Yes?; what is it?” replied the captain, and I said “Who is Collins?”.

The captain just laughed and laughed at my question, and he said “Ohoho; well isn’t that amusing; if everything goes as well as it planned; then you’ll meet ‘him’ very soon; very soon indeed”; I was quite bothered by this; which is why I walked backwards towards the escape pod; with my eyes never leaving the captain; I was quite certain that he would try and pull some last minute trick; yet he didn’t, and as my back bumped into the escape pod’s door; he walked slowly towards me, and handed me his gun; while saying “You might need this; it’s your standard issue laser thingy; pretty crappy in an actual fight if you ask me; it is about as accurate as well… a very inaccurate thing, and it won’t do jack against pretty much anything wearing…. Just take the damn thing won’t you? It’s not like you have a choice anyway”; I replied by saying “Uh; thanks; I guess?”.

It would probably be quite wise to tell you that I was wearing the standard uniform; which made me look like some sort of futuristic pilot; especially with the white buttoned shirt with it’s single dark blue stripe on the shoulder, black nondescript long pants, and a belt with a holster pretty much formed the uniform, but a garish purple tie made for quite an odd addition.

I put the apparently quite crappy gun in my holster, and I took the captain’s hat as a souvenir; I turned to enter the escape pod, but before I could the captain tapped me on the shoulder; just to get my attention so that he could say “I almost forgot; I’m supposed to give you this”; he hands me a pair of slim framed glasses; they seemed perfectly normal at the time; I pocketed my new acquisition, and the captain saluted me as the escape pod door’s closed.

I sat down on the control seat of the pod, and strapped myself in; as I realized my complete lack of understanding of the pod’s controls; the entire thing shuddered as it very suddenly lurched forward; down into the planet I would later be forced to call home.

Part 3: Some last things I would say about the first chapter

It’s incomplete, and it will continue to be; everyone on the ship that knew exactly what happened is either dead, or withholding information from me, and as long as that situation continues; this will never fully be complete; as I can only write down the experiences of a single person; who wasn’t around when it all started.

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Part 4: Not enough dialogue

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“Did he believe it?”; said a vaguely electronic voice, and a far more… “human” voice replied with “Hook, line and sinker”; “I’m assuming that that means yes”; said the electronic one, and the possibly human one said “Well either way he’s going down there; just like you wanted”; “Oh of course I am not doubting that statement; he isn’t smart enough to mess with his locator beacon, but I was asking you whether or not he believed it?”; said the electronic one, and the possibly human voice said “To be honest; he seemed like he did, but you never know; you know?”.

An odd sound that seemed like a disappointed sigh reverberated throughout the room, and right after that the electronic one said “That was a riddle; wasn’t it? The kind that you think a computer wouldn’t understand?”; the possibly human one replied with a slightly worried tone with “No that was just me expressing my doubts over this operation’s success; I mean I don’t know how it works where ever you came from”.

The electronic one said “Well either way I’m going to have to leave you here to die”; “Wait what?”; said the human voice; the electronic one replied with “Oh I’m sorry; as you humans say it; that was a little blunt wasn’t it? What I meant to say was that you were so good; so believable when you said that you had to go down with ship; that I couldn’t possibly let you live”; the human voice simply said “That… doesn’t make any sense”.

“It doesn’t; doesn’t it?; well I would love to stay here and chat, but to put it simply; I won’t; because you see I am quite a busy entity; I have people to meet; experiments to run, pawns to move across the board, and worlds to conquer; so if you’ll excuse me”.

A frustrated scream was heard; the ship shook slightly as the remaining escape pods exploded; the scream was replaced by the loud beeping of warning lights; a screen counted down the time it would take for the ship to run out of oxygen, and yet despite everything; the ship’s thrusters jolted back to life; pushing the ship further and further away from earth.

Any thoughts? Comments? Then don’t hesitate to send them to me; I promise that I won’t be offended; I mean; it’s not like there’s anything that you can say about it; that my inner critic hasn’t used as an excuse for me to delete absolutely everything.