Daily writing prompts from June 9th, 2008 to December 31st, 2022
Sunday December 27th, 2020
The exercise:
Write about: limbo.
That's what the time between Christmas and New Year's Day always feels like to me. Trying to have a little more of a schedule and structure this year though.
If you still use Eloosive's email address, there might be a late Christmas gift of sorts waiting there for you :) I know what you mean about this being a limbo week, where nothing much seems to happen as people transition from fighting with their families over Christmas to fighting drunkenly with their friends over New Year....
And... I've drifted over the character limit for a single post; sorry. I do try not to do this!
Limbo He was expecting a whoosh of air as the stainless steel doors, reinforced with titanium inner struts for security, slid noiselessly apart. Instead there was a clunk, a shudder, and the doors shook violently for a few seconds. Then they stopped, apparently giving up. He sighed and grabbed hold of the doors at the centre where there was a narrow crack, and pulled on them. Then he triggered the door-open switch again, and pulled along with the doors. There was the creak of perished rubber pulling apart and the doors slid open, slowly and arthritically with strands of black, sagging rubber stretching between them. It looked, he thought, not entirely unlike the way the Black Widow liked to decorate her lair. "Lights!" he called, and slightly to his surprise an electronic voice answered back. "Identify yourself," it said, sounding perhaps a little bit tetchy. "Dr. Septopus," he replied confidently. "Prove it." "What?" He paused at the doorway, remembering the number of anti-superhero measures that he'd installed, and that he wasn't entirely certain that other members of the Council of Nastiness hadn't added some of their own when he was away. Like that time he stumbled into Bad Kitty's Sanctuary for Psychopathic Animals and nearly got eaten. Twice. "Prove it."
"I built you," he said, trying not to wail. "Your name is Vicky and your core operating system was created by breeding Furbies in a mutagenic environment over fifteen months and then not paying enough attention when the Green Lightbulb got interested in you." "This is a matter of reading the specifications," said the voice. "And we disagree that the Green Lightbulb is in anyway involved in our evolution." "Who wouldn't?" muttered Dr. Septopus. "But this does not serve to identify you." Dr. Septopus thought. The Council of Nastiness had been in Limbo for over a year now, though he preferred the word abeyance as it sounded more administrative and avoided people asking questions about the explosions. He'd never really expected to be away from the Council Chamber for more than a week, and that was if he risked taking a holiday again. So identifying himself seemed... odd. A thought struck him. "The Green Lightbulb married Miss Catastrophe," he said. Vicky snorted. "I was at the wedding, and on Green's wedding night...." It took nearly ten minutes to explain exactly what had happened, how much had been needed in bribes, and how they'd finally set the Kalahari Kalamari up to take most of the blame, but it was an entertaining ten minutes and Dr. Septopus cheered up a lot just by remembering it. "That is sufficient to prove that you were on the VIP guest list," said Vicky. "All of whom are permitted to be in here. You will have access only to those functions allowed to the least member of that list though, until you have identified yourself properly." "Oh good," said Dr. Septopus, whose cheery mood wasn't about to be dented by something as trivial as not being able to immediately order the death of anyone sitting opposite him. "Release Sylvestra from stasis, please." There was an oddly long pause. "Vicky?" "Ah, Sylvestra is indeed in stasis," said Vicky slowly. "Then the likelihood of you being Dr. Septopus is greatly increased." There was a ping somewhere in Dr. Septopus's mind and he remembered just how paranoid he'd been towards the end, when he'd made the decision to take the Council of Nastiness on the team building event that had lead to all of this, and the days of Limbo. "Ah, Vicky," he said happily, "did I ever tell you about the time the Green Lightbulb tried to use parrots as an instant messaging device?" "Sequence of codewords correct," said Vicky. "Welcome back, Dr. Septopus."
Well, I've already used up two posts in here today, may as well take up a third as well :) You might be interested in this article about a potential cure for diabetes found by (relatively) local researchers :)
4 comments:
If you still use Eloosive's email address, there might be a late Christmas gift of sorts waiting there for you :)
I know what you mean about this being a limbo week, where nothing much seems to happen as people transition from fighting with their families over Christmas to fighting drunkenly with their friends over New Year....
And... I've drifted over the character limit for a single post; sorry. I do try not to do this!
Limbo
He was expecting a whoosh of air as the stainless steel doors, reinforced with titanium inner struts for security, slid noiselessly apart. Instead there was a clunk, a shudder, and the doors shook violently for a few seconds. Then they stopped, apparently giving up. He sighed and grabbed hold of the doors at the centre where there was a narrow crack, and pulled on them. Then he triggered the door-open switch again, and pulled along with the doors. There was the creak of perished rubber pulling apart and the doors slid open, slowly and arthritically with strands of black, sagging rubber stretching between them. It looked, he thought, not entirely unlike the way the Black Widow liked to decorate her lair.
"Lights!" he called, and slightly to his surprise an electronic voice answered back.
"Identify yourself," it said, sounding perhaps a little bit tetchy.
"Dr. Septopus," he replied confidently.
"Prove it."
"What?" He paused at the doorway, remembering the number of anti-superhero measures that he'd installed, and that he wasn't entirely certain that other members of the Council of Nastiness hadn't added some of their own when he was away. Like that time he stumbled into Bad Kitty's Sanctuary for Psychopathic Animals and nearly got eaten. Twice.
"Prove it."
"I built you," he said, trying not to wail. "Your name is Vicky and your core operating system was created by breeding Furbies in a mutagenic environment over fifteen months and then not paying enough attention when the Green Lightbulb got interested in you."
"This is a matter of reading the specifications," said the voice. "And we disagree that the Green Lightbulb is in anyway involved in our evolution."
"Who wouldn't?" muttered Dr. Septopus.
"But this does not serve to identify you."
Dr. Septopus thought. The Council of Nastiness had been in Limbo for over a year now, though he preferred the word abeyance as it sounded more administrative and avoided people asking questions about the explosions. He'd never really expected to be away from the Council Chamber for more than a week, and that was if he risked taking a holiday again. So identifying himself seemed... odd. A thought struck him.
"The Green Lightbulb married Miss Catastrophe," he said. Vicky snorted. "I was at the wedding, and on Green's wedding night...."
It took nearly ten minutes to explain exactly what had happened, how much had been needed in bribes, and how they'd finally set the Kalahari Kalamari up to take most of the blame, but it was an entertaining ten minutes and Dr. Septopus cheered up a lot just by remembering it.
"That is sufficient to prove that you were on the VIP guest list," said Vicky. "All of whom are permitted to be in here. You will have access only to those functions allowed to the least member of that list though, until you have identified yourself properly."
"Oh good," said Dr. Septopus, whose cheery mood wasn't about to be dented by something as trivial as not being able to immediately order the death of anyone sitting opposite him. "Release Sylvestra from stasis, please."
There was an oddly long pause.
"Vicky?"
"Ah, Sylvestra is indeed in stasis," said Vicky slowly. "Then the likelihood of you being Dr. Septopus is greatly increased."
There was a ping somewhere in Dr. Septopus's mind and he remembered just how paranoid he'd been towards the end, when he'd made the decision to take the Council of Nastiness on the team building event that had lead to all of this, and the days of Limbo.
"Ah, Vicky," he said happily, "did I ever tell you about the time the Green Lightbulb tried to use parrots as an instant messaging device?"
"Sequence of codewords correct," said Vicky. "Welcome back, Dr. Septopus."
Well, I've already used up two posts in here today, may as well take up a third as well :) You might be interested in this article about a potential cure for diabetes found by (relatively) local researchers :)
Greg - received, not yet read, but appreciated. I will read it today.
And it's nice to have a visit from Dr. Septopus - it's been much too long.
I'd seen that article, actually, but thanks for sharing it. It's encouraging, though obviously still early.
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