#i did not expect to finish my 1st draft sitting on the floor of some random building's atrium

[bluberimufim]

GUYS HOLY SHIT I JUST FINISHED MY FIRST DRAFT!!!!!!!!!!

taglist: @little-mouse-gardens , @wildswrites , @cheeto-flavoured-pasta , @fleurtygurl and @joswriting

#i did not expect to finish my 1st draft sitting on the floor of some random building's atrium #but here tf we are #i'm still not ok. hold on. #i'm SCREAMING #THEO WHYYYYY #i still have to put it into the word doc bc i wrote it on paper and i'll update you on the final stats later #nope wait still screaming #OH MY GOD I CANT BELIEVE I FINISHED IT #Seth has existed in my brain for 10 years and she FINALLY got the story she deserves #writeblr #writing #reblog #my wips #devourer of souls wip #finished the 1st draft!!!!! hell yeah!!!!

[aries2887]

Death Starters

1st Rough Draft... Not the Complete story!

03/2005

(THE NAMES IN THIS DRAFT ARE NOT WHAT'S CURRENTLY BEING USED, Though some may have not changed, The Final Edit is different, This is a little teaser and again, there are mistakes that I can even see, So I don't want grammar and punctuation comments lol, just comment on what you think. :)

“Guys they got in! They’re in the house!” Someone screamed from inside the house.

Waking up from a dead sleep, I Jumped up and grabbed the shot gun next to my bed, with Jade following close behind me, she stopped only for a quick second to grab her two hand guns that were sitting on a small night stand next to the door. The House was dark and cold. Throwing my door open, I could immediately tell there was something open, letting the air in… and letting those things inside. Unknowing where the scream came from exactly, I paced myself, slow and steady steps, trying not to make a lot of noise. I stopped at the first door next to my room. Grabbing the knob, I turned it slowly and swung it open. There was Tyler asleep and in his bed, tangled up in his blanket and unturned.

“I can’t believe he didn’t hear that.” Jade said in a stern tone.

I walked through his door, up to his bed and shook him on his shoulder.

“Tyler, Tyler, wake up, they got in.” I whispered.

“Are you fucking kidding!?” Tyler said out loud.

“SHHHHHH!” I snapped back.

“Grab your gun and be quite.” I ordered.

Walking out of his room, there was a huge crash of pot and pans along with something heavy that hit the ground twice in succession. Not Bothering to stop at the next room I ran past and took a left. It was to dark to see what had crashed in the kitchen. A door opened from behind us.

“What the fucks wrong, did they get in?” Skyler asked.

“I think so.” I said

“How?” Asked Kayla.

No-one answered her. I readied my gun and took a step in the kitchen. There was a light switch, to my right. I reached for it. Flicking it on. I stood there in horror, frozen like ice. It was Reighly, but something wasn’t right, his feet weren’t touching the ground and he was bleeding from his chest. There was blood running down the side of his neck and down his arms. There was blood everywhere, the floor was totally shrouded with a red liquid, Reighlys’ blood.

“Get… out… guys… I… tried… to… stop… it… I’m sorry…ack-gulp” Reighly gulped out.

Just as he finished what he could, there was a hand that was planted on is left shoulder. It was glowing with a dark black glow and Reighly Started to scream.

“AAAAAHHHHHHHH… UHH… AAAAAAAAHHHHH!”

“Help him!” Kayla screamed from behind.

But we all knew it was to late.

“EEE-AAAAHHHHHH…!”

With a single motion Reighly was ripped in half, from his left shoulder to his right hip. With a blank stare and some short twitching, Reighly was dead.

All of us, stood frozen in fear and unable to move or think about what to do next til it moved. Snapping us out of the trauma and engulfing us with anger, we all let out a ringing barirage of gun fire. Flash after flash, the bullets entered the ghastly flesh and rotten meat. We kept firing til we all ran out of ammunition in our guns, the demon creature laid there on the floor, lifeless as a stuffed teddy bear. After a few seconds, with me in the lead, I took a couple of steps closer to the phantomed demon. I could here Reighlys’ lost blood splash as I step and walk through it. I could here the others closing in as well, following my steps and staying close behind. As I got closer I could smell this things’ rotten flesh and even see parts of flesh missing all the way to the bone.

“Is it dead?” Asked Tyler.

“I don’t know, but it’s not moving. It could just be unconscious. Lets get it out of here before it wakes up.” I replied.

Slowly inching closer and closer. The smell got so bad I had to forces myself to take breaths of air every so often. Inching my way around the back of it, Tyler and Skyler also do the same thing but stay to that side and inch closer to it’s body. Skyler stopped and looked around for a second, turning his attention to a broom that was laying up against the wall. Reaching for it, he grabbed it.

Clang, clang, wawawa. A boiling pot fell making everyone jump and staring at the thing that just killed Reighly, hoping and even waiting for it to spring back up after all that noise.

“I think it’s dead.” Skyler said.

With the broom in his hands, he reached down with it and poked it in the arm...nothing. He did it a second time… nothing.

“It must be dead.” Tyler said.

I reached down, scrunching my nose, nervous, and wet from fear. I pushed myself to grab it. Going down, my hand goes right through it and hits the floor. Unexpected with what just happened, I fell and I went through the shady demon. It smelled like rotten meat in the sun. Shocked with fear, I stagger to my knees , almost falling again, I caught myself and quickly turned around to see if it had waken up. Still the same position as it was. Unmoved.

“What the fuck? Didn’t you just touch it with that broom?” I screamed in confusion.

“Yeah, I fucking did!” Skyler snapped.

A couple seconds later, there was some movement, with it we heard a scream.

“AAAAAAHHHH!”

It was Kayla. Turning around, struck me with fear, I couldn’t move one inch of my body. It was Reighly, his upper body was dragging himself with one arm. He wasn’t making a noise at all and with every couple of inches he crawled, blood squirted from every place that was open, from his shoulder down to his hip.

“Reighly, can you hear me? You shouldn’t move man.” Skyler said.

“Guys keep me away, I’m not doing this on my own guys. That things controlling my body, it’s not me. I can hear it. It’s saying new soul, KEEP ME AWAY!” Reighly screamed.

Pulling himself closer and closer, he’s now only a foot from the phantom corps.

“WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU GUYS DOING GET THAT OUT OF HERE!” Reighly yelled.

“Look!” yelled Jade.

Everyone turned there attention to the life less phantom. It was moving but towards Reighly.

“Someone grab a broom or something we can touch it with this.” Skyler said.

It took a second but Tyler found a mop and I found a squeegee. We set our self around it to try to lift it. Ty’s and Skylers lift it up but mine just went right through it.

“What the fuck? Why can’t I grab it or even touch it?” I asked myself out loud.

“Skyler, lets just get this out of here!” Tyler shouted.

The two set themselves so each of them balanced the thing on top of both handles. Slowly they raised it. Step by step, They went for the front door. Getting further from Reighly even as he crawled closer, trying to get to his prize. I was in front just making sure they got there and to open the door they could throw that thing out of the house.

I unlatched the door and peeked out. It was cold and windy. I couldn’t see much of nothing past the porch light. It must have been early in the morning or a little later in the night.

“You see anything babe?” Jade asked.

“No.”

“Do you think they’ll come if they see the door open?” Kayla asked from the back somewhere.

“I don’t know but I guess we’ll find out huh.” I replied.

I swung the door open and they threw it out the door. Slamming it behind em. I latched it, leaned on the door and slide down till I was sitting on the floor.

“What about the others?” Jade asked.

“Fuck!” I replied.

I stood up with her helping me up by my arm. Everyone’s just standing there staring at Reighly, that’s still trying to inch his way to the lifeless phantom. After three or four pulls from his right arm he stops.

“I’m sorry guys.”

And his body calaps now lifeless.

Skyler walked up to his old friend and stands there for a minute in silence.

“How many more are going to die to these things? Are we going to ever get out of these houses alive?” He asked out loud.

“I don’t know man but it’s worth trying.” I said.

There a good amount of silence, til footsteps upstairs alerted us. Everyone one of us running to get to the stairs. Two of us, Skyler and I fall on the blood but manage to catch ourselves on the counter top. At the end of the kitchen, the stairs are to the right. We hit those stairs in an ant line. There was blood trailing down em and was probably from Reighly. As we get to the top, we could see the only door open was Reighlys with the blood trailing from in there.

“Lorili was in there with him.” Kayla whispered.

Who was right behind me, with Jade and Tyler trailing close behind.

No one said nothing to what she said.

Skyler was the first one in the room, seeing everything first, he glanced at me. His expression gave me chills down my back. I knew what to expect just because of that just because of the way he looked at me… I was right… When I walked in, all you could see was blood. The whole room was layered in it. Lorili was laying there on the floor, face down. Her arms were missing and she was naked. It looked like they were both sleeping when it got in. Examining the room from where I stood. The boarded up window was clean open, nothing was there but pure outside exposure but I couldn‘t fell no air. Both of there guns laid next to there bed on there night stand.

“They didn’t even get to get to there guns.” I said

“How bout’ everyone stays out, well take care of this. Go Check on the others, see if there alright and let em’ know what happened.” Skyler instructed.

They did as he said each of them going to each room of there own and telling them what happened. All the doors were locked and reinforced. I could hear Brianna scream in agony. Lorili was her best friend and the only one left in her family or close to it.

The closer I got to the window, the harder my heart started to pound. Cause I do know that this one window i boarded up but I kept the window in it… and it still was… there…. Then…

“Skyler! There in the house somewhere else! Didn’t you feel that breeze down stairs? I could and this windows closed. I don’t know how they got into just Reighlys room but they did either it got in in here and killed Reighly and I just was feeling things or something’s open down stairs and that wasn’t the only one in here…”

Boom-Bang. My sentence was pause.

“Did that just come from the closet?” Skyler asked.

“I’m thinking it did.”

“Guys bring the guns you have and Don’t go down stairs, something’s open down there! AND HURRY!” Skyler screamed.

There was a pounding of feet and Ty walk in the room, followed with Eli.

“Holy shit!” Eli said stunned.

“Damn it, he couldn’t save her.” Ty said.

“Don’t go down stairs, something’s open. The other one is locked in that closet right there, you bring the guns?” Skyler explained.

“Dude Courtney’s down there in the shower, I have to go back down there.” Ty snapped back.

“Go down there and get her and bring her back up here til we find what’s open down there k.” Skyler demanded.

“something’s open down there?”

“Ya, but we don’t know where, so be careful take a few guns k.” I replied.

Being careful and hurrying at the same time Ty and Eli walk down the stairs skipping a one every other step. Getting to the bottom, they take a left into the kitchen. Reighly was still in the same spot, lifeless.

“Fucking idiot, why didn’t he yell for help?” Eli asked.

“He did I guess, we were just to late.”

The two didn’t go into the living room where the corrupted slain body of Reighly laid. But they went through the kitchen and took a left to the end of the hall way. They could hear that shower on and gargling from inside.

“Babe, are you alright? We need to get up stairs, something’s open down here…. Babe…”Bang, bang, bang, Ty said knocking on the door.

Ty steps back and kicks the door in. There she was sitting in the bottom of the bathtub naked. But she was looking up at something… They followed her eyes up. It was another one, but he wasn’t fully in side, just his arm. Trying to reach for her through an open window not big enough to even squeeze a cat out.

“Don’t move k. Ty don’t shoot it, I have an idea. Maybe if we teach it a lesson it wont come back, you said the broom stick can touch it right?” Eli said.

He left the room for a second and returned with the broom.

“You fucker, I’ll fuck you up!” Eli told the phantom.

With all his strength, he swung it, hitting the arm multiple times. Each tme the thing made a noise of pain and even though the arm flung around and tried to grab him it couldn’t do nothing. Finally it stop and pulled its arm out. For a second it was pitch black ubtil the this stuck its face in.

“Your one ugly mother fucker!” Eli yelled.

“Get the hell out of here!”

Grabbing the broom with two hands he stabbed as the face out the window. With a scream, the thing was gone. Eli shut the board window.

“You can finish your shower, we have to clean up a little before we let you girls see anything k.” Eli told her.

Getting closer to the closet door, Skyler grabbed the door knob. I was ready to fire when it was swung open. He looked at me and nodded. He swung the door open and sure enough, there was one in there, that came right out. I started firing, Skyler join in and within a couple of seconds I was killed. We opened the window and threw it out side.

3 days later

We were all sitting in the living room, everyone from all four houses, or the survivors of them. The same situation happen over at one of the other house the same night. Three were killed there, til they took control over the situation. It was hard to keep one conversation going. But we did finalize on how Reighly and Lorili was killed at least. Two of them got in through the window. Reighly got the first one in the closet, but as soon as he did that, the other one got in and killed Lorili first, with Reighly already injured pretty bad, he just ran down stairs probably hoping there was someone up and only got to yell what he yelled before that thing grabbed him. But that wasn’t the only thing we discussed. It was the window and how they get in and why we can’t touch em’. We concluded that these things, whatever they are, can go through things, well anything except wood… and certain metals. There’s one more thing we haven’t figured out yet…

Why do the people they kill come back to life just to get to I thing that killed em? We haven’t figured it out yet and we don’t want to…

6 months before

“Hey guys!” A voice echoed through out the house.

Some how, the yell woke me up. I glance over at the nightstand.

6:00am.

“What the fuck.” I whispered to myself.

I could feel Jades naked body still laying on me the way she had fell asleep last night. I could tell she didn’t seem to hear the yell that woke me up and was still well asleep.

“Was I dreaming?” I whispered to myself again.

I lay there, listening and waiting for the yell to echo throughout the house again, but there were only the sounds of our fans blowing on our bed from either side. I closed my eyes and started to drift back to sleep. Several minutes past, just as I was about to fall back asleep, the door flung open. Sitting up, startled, I forgot Jade was laying on me and she was nearly thrown off the bed, but grabbing my arm, she caught herself.

“What the Fuck!?” I yelled.

It was Eli; he was still in his pajama pants with no shirt on.

“Fucking come and see this shit guys, I’m fucking freaked the fuck out.” Eli demanded.

“Fucking Eli, why did you wake us up, it better fucking be good or I’ll be pissed.” I Said with a yell as he started to walk back through the hall way.

“I’m fucking pissed Eli, I swear to god, if this isn’t important, I’m going to fucking kill you.” Jade yelled.

I swung my feet around til they were both on the floor, it was cold, not only were the fans on, but the windows and screen door to our balcony were wide open. I had left it open last night to cool it down from the summers heat. Which didn’t really help much; it didn’t really cool it down but instead let the hot air inside, til much later. But the floor was cold now, as well as the room. I could feel it on the wood floor, it almost hurt the bottom of my feet, it was so cold.

“God damn! It’s so cold in here; I’m freezing my balls off Babe.” I complained.

“Well put some cloths on, I think it feels good.” Jade stated.

“I’m just going to put my Pajama pants on, I don’t think I ‘m going to need a shirt. Babe hurry, I want to see what’s so important. It’s not everyday something freaks Eli out.” I said in a rush.

Slipping the pjs on while she slipped hers on, I threw one of her random shirts to her that had been lying on the floor. I walked over to the window and peered out for a second. It was a bit cloudy and the sun was no where to be seen, just a gloomy and grey day. I walked over to the open screen door and walked out on the balcony. It was wet and humid; I could smell the morning dew, and the mountain rain. Taking a deep breath of the fresh, wild mountain air, i turned around and stepped back inside. Jade wasn’t in the room and the door was open a little more then had Eli left it.

“Dang it, she left without me. Bad woman.” I mumbled to myself.

I left my room taking a right through the hall way, passing Tylers and Justines room, Skylers and Kaylas shortly after that. Taking a left before I get to the Bathroom, took me into the Master Living room. Almost everyone was in there except for Eli, who was probably hiding from Jade and I. Skyler and Kayla were on the love seat to the right and Cody, Cami, Soyer, and Brianna were all on the corner couch in the middle of the room and Tyler and Justine were on the recliner. I didn’t see Jade, Eli, or Jamie. I could smell food cooking and hear clanging of dishes and pans in the kitchen to the right of me.

“I’m bettin’ that’s Jamie.” I thought to myself.

“What the fuck was Eli yelling for? It better be good cause I’m pissed. “ I swore.

“Dude, we’re all going to die, it’s the end of the world and there will be nothing left.” Cody blurted out.

“Shut the fuck up jerk!” Cami said ending the sentence with a smack on the back of Codys arm that echoed throughout the room.

“Yeah, if you say that again I’m going to do more then a smack Cody.” Kayla added.

“Guys! Listen its back on!” Soyer cut in.

“We still don’t know the whole story, but it is confirmed that there are two asteroids that are in the path of the Earth, one of which being the size of the state of Delaware and the second, trailing it, half the size of that. It is speculated that they’ll both hit about 100 miles west of Florida, simultaneously, The President of the United States has issued a national state of emergency and has ordered the entire west coast to be evacuated, we are urging you to get under ground or find shelter, with plenty of food and water, along with blankets or whatever you can grab that might be of use. There is at least three or four days of time before for they will hit our orbit and another two til impact. We are now transferring you to Dane Loughin, the NASA astrolagist that made the discovery and was in on the calculations of time of impact and where…” The TV Anchor man said.

“Dane, so explain the situation a little more clearly, we know there’s two asteroids on our course, but is there anything we can do? Is there anything that we and the people need to know that hasn’t been said already?” the Anchor man asked.

“Well, there’s a lot to taking into thinking, Yes , there are two asteroids on course for Earth, one being 1,545 square miles and the other 720.5 miles wide. They are expected and has been calculated to impact around 161 kilometers or 100 miles west of Florida. As of right now there has been no change in the situation, other then what other countries are doing. Russia, Japan, and North Korea have already launched there own global defense missiles to try to knock the larger one off course and there has been no further information or news about that. The U.S. Government are getting together and, as we speak, are trying to see what they can do as a country, to stop this catastrophe. Until I have further news, all I can say is what you all have already heard, take shelter, under ground would be the safest and the further under ground u get the safer, and obviously most of you don’t have that kind of place to go to take shelter but there are bomb shelters. Schools and libraries all are made to take shelter from elements like this. Take as much perishable foods and water as you can. Do not take things you will not need or balky things, you will need room. Make sure you bring plenty of blankets with you cause it will get cold. Other then that, I do not have any more advice to give you on that.” Dane explained.

“Dane, you said that Japan, North Korea, and Russia have launched there own defenses separately, what is there goal? Do they think they have the technology to do this and do they? And if they miss does The U.S. have there own plan for this?” The Anchor man asked.

“Umm, to my knowledge, these missiles are to hopefully knock the bigger asteroid off our course, but from what I heard, it’s only a 30% success rate, even with three missiles, it’s just by chance the missiles will do that. As far as the technology to do it, I myself believe we do, but it just haven’t been exposed yet, and if we do, this will be the time to expose it. The United States, undoubtly, has a plan, but I haven’t been informed about it and if I do ill let you know.” Dane Said.

“Kay, thanks Dane, hope to hear from you soon.” The anchor man finished.

“Umm, so what do you guys want to do? Do you want to go home? We are in a pretty safe place here you know.” Soyer suggested.

“Well , I know there’s like 5 days til it even gets here, so if we’re going to stay here then we need to make it livable for all of us and we don’t have enough food or gas to even last 4 months, so I think we need to get a move on.” Skyler Protested.

“Ok, does everyone want to stay here then?” I asked.

There was a short time of silence and I could tell and even see fear and uncertainty on half of there faces, with excitement on the other half. Looking around I notice Jade, Eli, and Jamie joined in the little congregation and for what seemed a long time, everyone just stould there, silent, looking at each other and waiting for someone to speak.

“Well k, then I’m taking that as a yes.” I said, breaking the silence.

“Umm, but I think we should call our families before we finalize our decisions. What if they want us with them?” Brianna added.

“I think we should all just stay here, I mean, it’s not for me to say, but I think this place is one of the best places to at least keep out of the confusion of the towns and city’s, I know we have to go down to town to stock up, but thinking past that. If we went down there, where are we going to go to take shelter? The school, the Library, or what? Those places are limited with space and we even have three more huge houses out here, if we want, our families can all come out here, room here isn’t the an issue.” Jamie pleaded.

“Well, my family’s in a different state so I’m out, and Flints, Jades, Kaylas, Jamies, and Codys families are all out of state or won’t drive all the way out here. I mean we can see if they all will still.” Eli stated.

There was another moment of silence until it was broke by a pop in the kitchen.

“Oh shit, I forgot about the eggs!” Jamie said running into the kitchen.

No-one said another word to each other for a good hour, everyone just went to there own spot and called there families to see what their plans are and to see if they want to come out here. Most of the girls were crying except for Jamie. I can see why though, when she was little, her whole family was killed in a car wreck after dropping her off at a friends house. Since she was too young to even realize what really happened, she went to her aunt and uncles and was abused til they to were killed in car wreck , but this time it was them drunk and it was them that killed another whole family. Luckily she had a steady job and was in school. They even brought up her grades and even down to what she looked like, so the courts ruled her an adult, and able to think and live on her own, ever since then, she lived with Eli, in a month, it’ll be two years since she moved in and three years since they have been together. It’s easy to tell what she’s going to do. But it’s hard to tell about any of the others, even with Jade.

After about an hour or two, everyone started to get back together in the living room.

“Well, me and Kayla’s staying.” Skyler threw out there for everyone one to know.

“So are me and Cami, but Cami wants to spend some time with her grandma though.” Cody added.

“Umm, Jade and I are staying too, but my brothers are on the way, my mom and dad want to spend what time they have left together since he just got out of prison. Jade’s lil bro and two lil sis’s are on there way too, they’ll be here in less then 24 hrs; I have to pick em up at the airport. In 18 hours.” I said.

“We’re here to stay too.” Soyer said.

“My little sis is on her way here too, she’s going to call me when she gets to Sandpoint. But Justine’s going down to her parents cause they want her to but they don’t want me there, so she’s going alone and I’m stayin’.”

I could see hurt in his eyes when he said that. She had tears in her eyes, you could tell she was doing it against her will. After a second of silence, Eli broke in.

“K, well we need to get things going then, we have five days, to get four houses blow-up proof, livable, and comfortable. We Have 2 generators for each house one gas and one electric/gas hybrid for each house and they all need to be wired to the house, my dad did set up a wind mill up there on top of the mountain big enough to power all four houses but he could never get it to work even though it was set up by the book. Good thing about it is once it starts going it wont stop till we stop it ourselves. All my dad does when he is here, is work and add to the houses, he’s crazy but now that he’s gone and Tracey’s not living here anymore, there are things he didn’t get to finish that I don‘t even know about yet, But aside from that, we still need a lot of things. Like gas and alot more water, enough to last a whole year. Our Neighbor has a water truck that he’s been trying to sale and we could use that to fill up all the wells, once filled. I bet we would have enough water for two years with over a hundred people.” Eli Planned out loud.

“After we get the water filled up and shit we could use the truck to fill up barrels and put em’ out back. There has to be at least 200 barrels out at the recycling center. and there plastic to with no wholes.” Soyer added.

“I Guess I’ll use my credit card to get the gas then.” Skyler sighed.

“What about food?” I asked out load for opinions.

Everyone just looked at each other waiting for someone to speak, everyone looked like they just hit a brick wall going a hundred.

“How bout we go down to that deer farm. There’s some huge deer there and enough to feed all of us a long time, I know how to make jerky, and that lasts, and it almost never expires.” Cody blurted out.

“This is fucking crazy! Why didn’t they tell us earlier, they had to of seen it a long time ago with all that technology, don’t you think?” Cami said panicky.

“They probably did know, but didn’t want people to worry to early in case they changed course or something."

#New Story #non fiction #Book #Horror #horror survival #Scary

[klcthebookworm]

2020 My Year In Fic

2020 Fiction Word Count:

86691 / 126531 words. 69% done!

Insights To Not Forget:

So I had a beautiful plan that I was going to reset and hit the ground running for 2021. See Year Zero is Reset Year.

Covid-19 was officially found in my state March 9, 2020, and life found unforeseen territory.

March 24th, I had to adjust to working at home. June 1st, back to working in the office and commuting daily. November 30th, we're back on a modified work from home/office plan (day at home, next day commuting in). I haven't gotten sick and I haven't passed on covid-19 to anyone else. For 2020, that is the biggest win anyone can have. 1.83 million people (to date) didn't get that win.

Would I have forgotten about my buckle down and reset plans without a global pandemic distracting me? Quite likely, I tend to forget all my plans every year. In fact, the writing business plan that I made to cover the year (I use it below for all the goals of the year), the printed version is on my filing cabinet and covered with so many other notes, I can't read the plan. (Removed the notes). This is for 2019. I never printed out 2020's?

And you can see by the total words written, I came under what I wanted to write. Let's see what I accomplished this year.

Stories I Posted:

Star Wars: Sororal Lineality: Aftermath: Word count = 3309. The Fic Whining Circle was getting stories ready for May the Fourth. I decided that this story would be perfectly short to get it up and started writing on May 2nd. I didn't get it finished for May the Fourth, but put it up on Revenge of the Fifth. And then it turned out to be the only story I posted in 2020.

Stories I Finished:

Star Wars: Unexpected Consequences: Word count = 126,607 (31,008 written previously + 49,572 written in 2019 + 46,027). The first draft was finished on July 28th, and it took the rest of the year to get my first edits polished to a second draft for my beta to go over. Now I need to go prod her so I can start posting in 2021.

Star Wars: Sororal Lineality: MJ-0002: Word count = 5664 (387 written in 2019 + 5277). I finished this short story as planned after I finished Unexpected Consequences and before I picked up the next novel. I hope to post it after Unexpected Consequences, but I may need to use it for a May the Fourth story.

Stories I Didn't Finish:

Strix: Forget the Sun: Word count = 31,146 (26,588 written previously + 4279 written in 2019 + 279 written in January) I took a very tiny stab at this novel in January and promptly lost it to work on other things.

Star Wars: Looking For Home Future Timeline: Word count = 7598. So at the end of February, I got stuck on giving the Sequel Trilogy Trio better movie(s) and started writing detailed notes on a future story that will probably never been written. I had already put Rey and Poe Dameron in the sketchy future of the Looking For Home so I needed to figure out how to add Finn. I got stuck with the Third Act, and probably need to declare it has to be a trilogy to get the resolutions I want. Maybe I need a Death Star.

Star Wars: Everybody Lives But Maul: Another plot bunny developed during the year. Mara Jade was given to Darth Vader to annoy him so he would eventually murder her, but he bonds with her instead. So Palpatine orchestrates that Lady Vader's path crosses Maul's on Tatooine. Only Luke Skywalker and Biggs Darklighter ruin the planned outcomes, and Mara remains on Tatooine for her safety. I really don't know if it will be a novel or something else yet.

Star Wars: Everybody Lives But Maul: Prologue: Word count = 1385. So far all I have written in this AU is the scene of the adoption of Lady Vader. I don't know where this scene will end up in the finished work.

Star Wars: Rescue the Farmboy: Mission on Mimban: Word count = 22,882 (8093 written in 2019 + 14,789). After writing "MJ-0002," I came back to Mission on Mimban from the beginning. Still working on it.

What I Think About My Stories:

My favorite story this year: Star Wars: Unexpected Consequence. I can't wait to turn this one lose on the readers.

Story most under-appreciated by the universe, in my opinion: Star Wars: Looking For Home: Future Timeline. I really need to spend some more brain time on this one if just to find a conclusion that makes me happy.

Most fun story: Everybody Lives But Maul. I really wasn't expecting to write it accept the idea would not leave the muse alone and then this happened:

KLCtheBookWorm: I really don't know what to do with Vader and Leia... unless he goes into her cell deactivates the IO droid and "Now Princess can we discuss waging war against Palpatine? Because he orchestrated my first family's death, has tried to kill my daughter, and your rebellion has made her flee her safe haven so he will potential see her again. He will not have her or my grandson." Sithspit, why does the muse want to rewrite OT constantly? JediMordsith: lolol Hmmm.... that could be interesting. Or he could go to Bail. "I will give you your daughter back if you help me get mine back." KLCtheBookWorm: YOU GAVE ME MORE PEOPLE TO HELP LIVE! JediMordsith: Bail convinces the rest of the Rebel leaders to work with Vader to take down the Emperor because he knows what a father's love is. KLCtheBookWorm: I always consider Alderaan's destruction a fixed point in time But the conversation between Bail and Mon Mothma. "You wanna do what now?"

Yeah, at that point I will write it.

Stories I wrote that I never thought I'd write: Star Wars: Everybody Lives But Maul. Technically I haven't really started the narrative, but really, Muse, was not expecting yet another rewrite of the OT. This one is the third, after Rescue the Farmboy and Sororal Lineality.

Hardest story to write: Star Wars: Looking For Home Future Timeline. I have never gotten stuck in which I couldn't finish off an outline. And this is so stuck.

Biggest disappointment: Strix: Forget the Sun. I did not even try for NaNo during the pandemic. (Huge props to everyone who did). I'm considering to do NaNo in April instead in 2021 to finish this novel.

Biggest surprise: I only posted ONE THING! I'm not beating myself up for any of the results of 2020 because it was garbage year, but I honestly didn't plan to leave my readers hanging so hard. On the plus side, they will have at least 30 weeks of new content to read in 2021.

What's your favorite piece of dialogue you wrote this year? From Star Wars: Sororal Lineality: Aftermath.

Luke opened his eyes to Leia’s suspicious face. “She was arguing with Threepio. I went the other way.” “So she couldn���t put you back in the medbunk.” Leia bounced to her feet and helped leverage him out of his seat. “You are going right back to it and staying in it until we reach the Fleet, Commander.” “Aye, aye, Colonel,” Luke replied with less than the banter he normally did. He leaned heavily on Leia, more than he should. Lando finished locking down the controls and followed behind them. “Colonel? Not a General?” “Not a General yet,” Luke responded with a wheezy laugh.

It took a while to figure out what Leia's military actual rank is based of costumes and plot actions in Empire Strikes Back. Major Bren Derlin didn't get a yes from Leia because she loves the two men out in the cold, but because she out ranks him.

What's your favorite piece of description or narration you wrote this year? From Star Wars: Soroal Lineality: MJ-0002.

The last one she dared to open was a recording. Her memory replayed on the screen: a child’s best dress colored green as the recorder tilted down, followed by looking back at the sad adults in the shadows of the shuttle’s lights. She heard the woman’s quavering voice, “Please, don’t take my baby.” Then the gnarled hand extended from the sleeve of the black robe and a tiny hand took it, and the recorder turned to the lit hatch at the top of the ramp. Mara's surroundings registered in waves after that. Her glutes were tingling as she shifted from sitting in a collapsed position on the floor. The floor was cold stone. The recording was playing on a loop above her head. She hadn’t fainted because she wasn’t flat on her back. She climbed up to her feet and shut off the playback. Now the title of the file burned into her retinas, Primary Memory Imprint for Murdering Judges Clone Line.

I can't wait to share this story with readers.

Looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would, less, or about what you predicted? Oh I came in under what I had aimed for, only writing to 69% of my goal that I set from what I wrote in 2019. But 2020 was a garbage year so I'm not beating myself up over word count results. As I went through the year though, I noticed that August and September were totally spent on just editing and no new words. That means I need to watch the schedule in 2021.

Did you take any writing risks this year? What did you learn from them? I have officially started the write a series of short stories and keep them under 7500 words. I need more practice writing short, which is why I plotted Sororal Lineality this way.

Did you meet last year's goals?

That's a no, and boy, how is it a no. 2021 Goal is to not have Leeloo laugh at me.

The goals from my unprinted 2020 one-page business plan are:

Use Ali Luke's Two Year Novel Plan to finish the Strix series

January - May 2020: Finish Strix: Forget the Sun's first draft = Nope, not done yet.

June - October 2020: Finish Strix: Forget the Sun's second draft = Nope.

Writing Star Wars AU fanfics

Finish Unexpected Consequences' first draft = Done

Start writing Sororal Lineality = Two stories done out of 28

Finish Rescue the Farmboy: Mission on Mimban's first draft = Nope, but I am currently writing it.

Send Unexpected Consequences to beta reader = Done

Send Sororal Lineality stories to beta reader = Done

Edit Unexpected Consequences = In Progress

Edit Sororal Lineality stories = Done

Post regularly to Intentionally Left Blank, Dreamwidth, Discipline Under Fire, Tumblr Random Thoughts, Pillowfort = Do once a week on Saturdays = I haven't been doing this at all. Tumblr posts happen when I'm home but usually reposting and not anything I have written.

BookWorm's Library website maintenance = Work on once a week on Sundays = Really need to do this

Make sure the software is up to date once a month

Add any files that need adding

Add Media Center to BookWorm's Library = Work on once a week on Sundays = Hasn't happened yet

Create section

Make artwork

Code section

Upload files

Add more fanfics to AO3

Upload Zackverse in story order = Nope, not yet

Upload Star Wars: Unexpected Consequences when edited on Ao3 = In Progress

Upload Sororal Lineality stories when edited = In Progress

Upload Rescue the Farmboy: Liberation to FF.net and the Library when finished = Oops, forgot about this

Upload Rescue the Farmboy: One More Service to FF.net and the Library when finished = Oops, forgot about this

Post Star Wars: Unexpected Consequences to FF.net = In Progress

Post Star Wars: Unexpected Consequences to Library = In Progress

My daily writing plans to help the above list of goals get done:

Write 600 daily words. Can be split among the projects. I'm making the yearly goal to reach whatever number I actually reach on December 31st.

Write and edit every day.

Schedule website updates and fanmix work on the weekends.

Work in meditation time with Brain FM.

Use my Kanban Flow checklist consistently.

Don't let chores pile up now that you have two jobs plus writing to do.

Reward myself when goals are reached throughout my Reset Year.

Do you have any goals for the coming year? The goals from my 2021 one-page business plan are:

Use Ali Luke's Two Year Novel Plan to finish the Strix series

April - August 2021: Finish Strix: Forget the Sun's first draft (I'm going to push myself to get it done in by treating April as NaNo, but more time is available if I need it)

Sept. - Dec. 2021: Finish Strix: Forget the Sun's second draft

Writing Star Wars AU fanfics

Finish Unexpected Consequences' third draft

Finish Rescue the Farmboy: Mission on Mimban's first draft

Edit Rescue the Farm: Mission on Mimban to second draft

Send Rescue the Farm: Mission on Mimban to beta reader

Finish Rescue the Farm: Mission on Mimban third draft/li>

Finish Sororal Lineality: Miha first draft

Edit Sororal Lineality: Miha to second draft

Send Sororal Lineality: Miha to beta reader

Finish Sororal Lineality: Miha third draft

Writing Zackverse

Work on Hyrueliana's overhaul

Post regularly to Intentionally Left Blank, Dreamwidth, Discipline Under Fire, and Tumblr Random Thoughts = Do once a week

BookWorm's Library website maintenance = Work on once a week on Sundays

Make sure the software is up to date once a month

Add any files that need adding

Add Media Center to BookWorm's Library = Work on once a week on Sundays

Create section

Make artwork

Code section

Upload files

Add more fanfics to AO3

Upload Zackverse in story order

Upload Star Wars: Unexpected Consequences when edited on Ao3

Upload Sororal Lineality: MJ-0002 on Ao3 on May 4th

Reload Sororal Lineality: Aftermath on Ao3

Upload Soroal Lineality: Miha to Ao3

Upload Rescue the Farmboy: Liberation to the Library

Upload Rescue the Farmboy: One More Service to the Library

Post Star Wars: Unexpected Consequences to Library

Upload Looking For Home: My Home Is You to the Library

Upload Looking For Home: Outcast to Library

Upload Sororal Lineality: MJ-0002 to the Library

Upload Sororal Lineality: Aftermath to the Library

Upload Sororal Lineality: Miha

Update FF.net profile of where newer stories are now

My daily writing plans to help the above list of goals get done:

Write 600 daily words. Can be split among the projects. I'm making the yearly goal to reach whatever number I actually reach on December 31st.

Write and edit every day.

Schedule website updates and fanmix work on the weekends.

Work in meditation time with Brain FM.

Use my Kanban Flow checklist consistently.

Don't let chores pile up now that you have two jobs plus writing to do.

Here's to 2021. We'll get through it together.

#fic life #2020 goals #2021 goals #my year in fanfic

[comicgeekscomicgeek]

Their Hero Academia: Chapter 13

Raw and unedited (especially until I get Chapters 14-16 written to upload along with it), but I finished the 1st draft tonight and I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. Especially with switching to some new protagonists. Chapters 0-12 can be found here:

Their Hero Academia – Chapter 13: Takuma Sero Makes a Show of It

If there was one thing Takuma Sero liked about living in the dorms, it was the sense of privacy. Sure, there were fifteen other people living in the dorms, three others on his floor, but compared to his home, that was nothing.  Between his parents, his three younger brothers, and baby sister, there was always somebody trying to butt into whatever he was doing.  At least on his floor, all he had was his best bro Kenta Sato. Daisuke Shoji simply kept his head down and Takiyo Aoyama had made it clear early on he had no interest in “whatever nonsense you two are getting up to.”

As if trying to become the next internet sensations was nonsense.

Which reminded him… he really ought to check their hit counter.  With Kirishima-Bakugo out of the cafeteria yesterday, he’d actually been free to host a new round of “Will Sato Eat It?” without fear of being exploded or having her tear his arms off.  He was actually pretty certain she wouldn’t do the last part.  Their parents had been friends for decades and he was on reasonably good terms with her most of the time.  But yesterday had been pretty impressive as far as the game went. Kenta had eaten a soup bowl, a baseball, a rock, and a tire that someone had somehow managed to get into the cafeteria.

Kenta’s dad had broken it up after that, with a threat to report their antics to Aizawa if they kept doing it.  And Kenta had gotten a talking to from his dad later on about irresponsible Quirk use and making a spectacle of himself.   At least the elder Sato had learned the futility of trying to rat them out to Takuma’s parents.  His mom was one of the most Instagram-famous Pro-Heroes in the business.  She actively encouraged his aspirations.  His dad was just vaguely puzzled by the whole thing and just let his mom take the lead.

Checking the video upload, he found that the hit counter was already in the thousands.  Wisely, he opted not to look at the comments.   It was like his mom always said, “Never read the comments.”   Sure, you got a validation high from some of it, but there were way too many trolls and mudslingers to make it worth it.

Takuma broke into a grin. “Yeah, we’re gonna be famous. Just you see.  Heroes and entertainment sensations.”

He checked the time and found he still had nearly an hour before class.  Plenty of time to finish getting ready.  There was also the matter of homework he hadn’t quite completed, but he could probably copy the answers from somebody, at least enough to squeak by. Math was going to be the death of him. He understood numbers well enough, but once you started getting letters involved with numbers, his brain just refused to track any of it.  It had nearly sunk his entrance exam score, but he’d managed to just barely pass that. A good practical exam score had done wonders for making up the difference.

Twenty minutes later, he was out of his room and ready to go.  He did not have the world’s most developed fashion sense (much to the regret of Kimiko Ojiro, his other best friend, who had declared him “the worst gay best friend ever”), but he had an entertainer’s sense for showmanship in his appearance.  He spotted Kenta coming out of his room and gave him a double finger guns.

“Sixty-five hundred hits in less than twenty-four hours, my man!”

“All right!” Kenta said, giving him a fist bump.  “That’s twice as many as the last video!”   He let out a burp and clutched his stomach.

“You okay, man?” Takuma asked.

Kenta shook his head and burped again.  “Heartburn and indigestion.  Dad says just because I can get anything doesn’t mean I should.”  He grinned, thick lips pulling back to reveal his perfectly white teeth.  “But I say it’s a small price to pay for being famous.”

“More famous in your case,” Takuma told him.  Kenta was already a good bit famous from all the times he appeared in pictures and his stories on his father’s “Food and Family” blog. According to his mom, it was crazy popular with single moms.

Kenta waved it off. “That’s really Dad’s thing.  This is ours!”

Takuma was about to begin discussions of the plans for their next video when he was distracted by the sight of Daisuke Shoji walking back to his rooms, clearly having come from the showers.  The six-armed boy was only wearing a towel wrapped around his waist, his silver hair still damp, and a small about of moisture still visible on the muscles of his arms and abs.  He nodded politely to Takuma and Kenta on his way back to his room.  Takuma kept watching until Shoji’s door closed.

His trace was broken by Kenta giving him a small shove.  “You okay there, bud?  Kind of went away for a little while?”

He sighed.  “Why are the hot ones always straight?”

Kenta gave him a reassuring pat on the shoulder.  “Hey, there’s lots of other guys at U.A.  You’ll find somebody.  Or you could always try online dating?”

Takuma made a face. “I’m not that desperate.”

Anything further was interrupted by his and Kenta’s phones buzzing.  Both checked and he saw they had identical texts from the school’s emergency alert system.

Homeroom has been cancelled.  All first-year students should report to the Gran Torino Memorial Auditorium at 0800.

Kenta gave him a curious look.

“Don’t look at me, man,” he said quickly.  “I haven’t broken any rules that would cause a grade level assembly.”

“This school year,” Kenta said.  “I still can’t believe the time you…”

“Don’t remind me.  I’m still barely out of being grounded for that.”

“I think that was the first time I ever actually saw your parents punish you.”

“Oh, would you look at the time, we should really be getting to the Auditorium!”

***

“Any idea what this is about, Takuma?” Kimiko asked. He assumed she was looking at him, but honestly, even after having known her all his life, it was hard to tell.

He shook his head. “Beats the heck out of me.”

All around, the other seats in the Auditorium were filling up with the first year students.  There were the three Heroics classes, three General Ed classes, three Support classes, and three Business and Management classes.   Sixteen students each in the Heroics, twenty in each of the others, for one hundred eight students total left the auditorium about half full.  

Down on the stage, he could see the majority of the teaching staff.  There were the three Heroics Homeroom teachers, Aizawa, Super Ball, and Battle Fist.  There was Power Loader, the aging director of the Support courses.  Word around campus was that he was considering retirement after experiencing the Iida Twins.  And there was FireFox, their math teacher; Hawkeye, their English teacher; Figure Sk8, the dark-haired daughter of the Twins and Izumi’s uncle and aunt, who taught their Science classes; Palette, the paint-themed Art History teacher; and Hopper, Tokoyami’s uncle and their Literature teacher.  There Hound Dog, the school counselor, Vice-Principal Midnight, and even Kenta’s dad.   He also spotted Doctor Izumi sitting with her husband, Kota, the Rescue Hero and Rescue Instructor called Water Spout (or, at his mom embarrassingly always referred to him, “the first man to see me naked”) There was also All Might, and several teachers he didn’t know, who he presumed taught some of the classes taken by the other courses.  Whatever this was about, they were taking it very seriously.

And slowly approaching the podium, leaning heavily on his cane, was Principal Nezu.  Takuma wasn’t sure if he was a rat or a bear or possibly some kind of creature from Australia (or was it Austria?  Whichever one had the kangaroos.  Those were real, right?), but he understood that the old animal was crazy smart.  He’d guided U.A. through some of its roughest years and managed to still come out on top.

“I am sorry to interrupt your usual class schedule,” Nezu began.  “I know your studies are of great importance to you all.  But after the events of the last few days, both here at our school and elsewhere, we have been made aware of events which you all deserve to know.  The Center for Quirk Research is expected to make a statement later this morning, but we thought it might be best if comes from us.”

He took in a breath and continued.  “The CQR has discovered, working in conjunction with several Pro-Heroes, the existence of a virus which causes the victim to lose control of their Quirk.  It appears the Quirk is… man made.”

Any side conversations that had been going on were immediately silenced.

Nezu went on.  “After an as yet unknown incubation period, it causes a power-flare up during which time the user’s Quirk will activate out of their control.  This lack of control appears to last an indefinite amount of time, but appears to be a onetime flare up.  Unfortunately, even as the number of cases are growing, information is scarce.  There appear to be no obvious early symptoms and we are unsure how the virus is being transmitted. At this time, it appears that only Emitter and Transformation type Quirks are effected.”

A ripple went through the crowd as the full impact of the Principal’s statement took effect. Anything that could do that is dangerous indeed.  From the time they were young, they’d always been taught about the importance of controlling their Quirks.  And now something could just take that away…

“That’s…   that’s not good,” Takuma said.  Absently, he rubbed the patches on his right hand where his Acid Tape came from.  His Quirk was technically a Mutation type, since he had slightly different physical structures to allow for it.  But his mom was an Emitter type, so were many of his friends.  So were a lot of people out there in the world.  And there were lots of people out there with really powerful Quirks.   What if somebody like Ground Zero or Deku caught this thing?

“We’re… we’re okay,” he heard Kimiko say.  “Not… not like I can get more invisible.”

“Hey,” Kenta said, “it’s gonna be okay.  People’re smart.  They’ll get this figured out.”  Kenta’s dad was an Emitter type too, he recalled, even if Kenta’s own Quirk was a very minor Mutant type.

Nezu continued, “We are able to run tests for the virus and will be doing screening following this assembly.  However, as there are no tell-tale symptoms prior to manifestation, we urge you to talk to your teachers or Doctor Izumi should you have any concerns.  We will be doing everything we can to protect you, which includes providing you as with much of your usual structure as possible. Classes, including Heroics courses, will continue as normal.  Rest assured, everyone is doing everything they can to get to the bottom of this. But at this point, cases are isolated and sporadic.  We advise caution, but there is no need to panic.”

Takuma made it a point to never take life seriously.  But for once, that didn’t seem like such a good idea.

***

“You heard what the Principal said,” Aizawa said, after they had returned to the classroom.  “The moment you feel anything out of the ordinary or even suspect that something might be wrong, I expect you to tell me or another teacher.  Is that understood?”

“Yes, Mister Aizawa,” the class said, nearly as one.

“Good,” Aizawa said. “Now, we are going to proceed as normally as possible.  Which means we have a little bit of business to settle.  Choose a class representative.  I don’t care how.”   He zipped himself into his sleeping bag and disappeared behind his desk.

“Well,” Midoriya said, “I think we should probably vote on it?”

“I vote Toshi!” Shota Shinso cried out.

“Toshi,” Asuka Tokoyami agreed.

“I’ve got to go with Midoriya too,” Isamu Haimawari said.

“Toshi has my vote as well,” Izumi Todoroki added.

“Guys… Shouldn’t this be a secret ballot?” Midoriya asked quickly.

“Too late now,” Takuma said. “Besides, I think we all know you’re gonna win it.”

As much as he loved the spotlight, he loathed responsibility.  Better Midoriya than him any day.  Besides, it would take away from his own pursuits.  And Midoriya really was good at taking charge and helping people who needed it.  Guy wanted to help the whole world, even more than the average Hero-in-Training.

“Personally, I think moi would be best,” Takiyo Aoyama said.

“Oh, give it up, Frenchie,” Mika Mineta told him.  “Midoriya’s definitely the best shot at this.”

“I fear I must agree with the rest,” Akaya Koda told Aoyama.  She really seemed to be one of the few people who could stand the arrogant blond for more than a few minutes.  She must have had the patience of a saint.

“Going with Midoriya here too,” Kenta said.

“Yep, me too,” Chihiro Kaminari added.  “And Tokoyami for vice-rep while we’re at it.”

“I like those ideas!” Kimiko said.  “Both of them!”

“Makes sense to me,” Shoji said.

“This is highly against protocol,” Tensei Iida said.  “But I cannot argue with the consensus either.”

“My younger brother is correct,” Sora Iida said.  “I agree with the conclusions drawn.”

“You really must stop using that qualifier!  I am only younger by three minutes!”

“It is scientifically accurate!  Do you dispute this?”

“It is needlessly semantic, and yet I cannot argue with the precision!”

“If I agree, will it shut them up?” Katsumi Kirishima-Bakugo asked.

Motion was carried. Midoriya and Tokoyami were their class reps.

Takuma belatedly realized that probably gave them some kind of power of his and Kenta’s antics, but that was their problem, not his.  Besides, it was worth it to see Aoyama pout.

***

“Hua-whah!” Even though Takuma had practiced swinging from building to building by using his Acid Tape many times with his dad, doing it always made him feel like his stomach was going to flop out of his mouth.  It didn’t help that his Quirk was more complicated than his dad’s.   The elder Sero only had to think about shooting out his Tape until it hit something.  Takuma’s Acid Tape meant that he had to be continually concentrating both on dispensing more tape and on maintaining the properties.  Since he could make it anything from slick to sticky to acidic, that meant he had to do a lot more concentrating.  And doing that while ten stories up made it all the more problematic.

Even if it was supposed to be a simple Heroics exercise in cityscape navigation.  All they had to do was make it from one end of the faux-cityscape as quickly as they could.  For quite a few, like Kimiko, Kenta, or Koda, there wasn’t much more they could do than run as fast as they could.  Others were doing a much more impressive job.  Midoriya was bouncing with leaps that were easily carrying him, the Iida Twins were blasting through the air, and Haimawari was zipping through the streets. And somehow, Kirishima-Bakugo had gotten herself up on the rooftops and was parkouring herself through the course.

Takuma let himself go flying through the air for a moment, before shooting out another strand of Acid Tape.  It stuck to the fire escape and as he began to swing, he could feel something go wrong. With a sickening sound of tearing metal, the piece of the fire escape he had snagged with his tape snapped and broke, sending him falling!

He shot out another strand of Acid Tape, trying to save himself, but instead of snagging a lower portion of the fire escape, it melted right through it.  He’d made it too acidic!  He was gonna die!  He was never gonna reach a million followers!  Involuntarily, he felt his eyes close.

And just as suddenly, powerful arms caught him and he was rising.  So he was dead then, and the angels were carrying him away.  Good-bye world, he only regretted that he not let more of you gaze upon his awesomeness…

“Are you all right, Sero?” a voice asked.  “I was afraid I would not be able to match your falling speed without causing you injury, but I believe I was able to calculate something close enough…”

An angel who apparently sounded just like Tensei Iida.  He chanced opening his eyes and the first thing he saw was himself, reflected in the chest plate of Iida’s costume.  Looking up, he saw a silver helmet.  Definitely Iida.  Which meant he wasn’t dead?  He was alive! He could still get that million followers!

“Sero?” Iida repeated. “Are you all right?”  He slowly started reducing power in his jets, letting them drift downward.

Oh, right.  He needed to answer his rescuing angel’s questions. “Oh, ah, yeah, I’m fine,” he said, finding himself stumbling over his words.  “You really saved my ass, there, Iida.  Thanks.”

“Of course,” Iida said. “As your friend and classmate, not to mention as an aspiring Hero, it is my duty.”

“Well, right now, you’re my hero, Iida.”

Inwardly, he groaned. Was he really saying something that stupid?   Apparently, he was.  At least Kimiko and Kenta weren’t there to hear it.  They’d never let him hear the end of it.

***

The Iida Twins could be found in the Common Room, pouring over blueprints.  Usually, the Twins spent whatever free time they had in the Support Workshop, but according to Sora, Power Loader had kicked them out under out under threat of unspecified punishment, all because they had “accidentally used too much power and caused a few small explosions and fires.”  So the two had returned to the dorms instead to work on what they could.

Takuma, Kenta, and Kimiko peered from around the corner at them.

“This is a really dumb idea,” Takuma said.  “And I know all about dumb ideas.”

“If you were doing this for me,” Kenta said, “you’d be making your “good idea” face.  The one that always means it’s something that’s going to get us in trouble.”

“Besides,” Kimiko said, “this is for romance!  We’ve got to! You’re cute, he’s hot, you’re pink, he’s got pink hair, I’m gonna call you Pinky-Squared!”

“We don’t even know if he likes guys!  He could be into girls!  Or machines! I’m gonna make a fool of myself!”

Kimiko slapped him upside the head.  “That’s loser talk!”

“You want us to film it?” Kenta asked.  “You’re good in front of a camera.”

Takuma went a paler shade of pink.  “…No. Definitely not.  I do not need this preserved for posterity if it all goes south.”

“Look, this is the most romantic thing to happen since school started,” Kimiko told him.  “So you are not chickening out now!  Kenta and I are going to get Sora out of the room and you are going to ask Tensei out! Do you understand!?”

How someone whose face he couldn’t see could have such an intense glare, he didn’t know, but her tone suggested that there was no arguing with her.

“Yes,” he said. “Let’s do this!”

***

I can’t do this!

With Sora out of the room (he was so stressed he literally could not remember what excuse Kenta and Kimiko had used to get her out of there and he had seen it literally seconds ago), Takuma was free to make his move.  His smooth move.  His ever so smooth move.  He was the king of smooth.

He was not smooth.

As casually as he could, he approached the table where Tensei was still working.  “Oh, ah, hey, Iida,” he said.   “Ah, thanks again for saving me like that.  Pretty sure I was on my way to being a pile of pink goo.”

“The fall was not nearly enough to reduce you to goo,” Iida said, looking up from his blueprints.  “But it would have been very messy all the same. I am happy I was able to prevent that.”

He rubbed the back of his head.  “Yeah, well, either way, I appreciate it.”   He frowned, trying to think of how best to proceed.  “So, uh, what are you working on?”

A very crazed (and very attractive) grin spread its way across Tensei’s face.  “Modifications to Sora’s and my Hero costumes.  After training yesterday, we came up with several potential ideas to improve performance and work with our Quirks, such as a more adjustable wing system and potential storage for emergency supplies of apple and grape juice.”

“And that exploded?”

“Oh, no,” Iida said.  “That was the idea for a capture-weapon to add as an additional support item.  We may have made the propulsion element a little too strong.  Power Loader apparently believed that we would benefit from some time away.  But I do not see how we can improve our designs to their fullest without practical, hands on work.  And we cannot do that if we are banned from the workshop for a week.”

“That sucks, man,” Takuma agreed.  It’d be like someone telling him he couldn’t upload stuff to the ‘net.  A guy had to have a passion, after all.  “But, ah, I guess that means you’re gonna have some free time?”

Iida frowned.  “Unfortunately, yes.  There is only so much we can do without the space to put theory into practice.”

Okay, it was now or never.   He could be brave!  He had this!

…He didn’t have this!

He had this!

He didn’t have this!

He had this!

“So, um…,” he said, “if you’re gonna have the free time…  maybe you’dlikespendingsomeofitwithmesomewhere?”

Iida blinked.  “I… don’t think I caught that, Sero.”

He took a deep breath. “I was thinking, if you were gonna have free time anyway… maybe you’d want to spend some of it with me? Somewhere?  Like a date?”

Iida’s eyes widened in surprise and for once, it looked like he was at a loss for words.  “I… I would like that very much, Sero.”

He had this!

#their hero academia #my hero academia #fan fic #My writing #fan fiction

[btsinspirationtakesme]

Warning: Unfinished prompt (+ unedited). 

I don’t want to leave this over the holidays, and didn’t have time to finish it fully so here’s an unfinished holiday prompt that’s been sitting around in my drafts for the past two weeks!

Prompt (unfinished): You have to plan the work Christmas party with the resident grinch, Min Yoongi. 

“No.” You said clearly to Namjoon, your boss. Whilst you were happy to plan this years festive celebration to end the year at work, you couldn’t imagine planning it with Mr. Grinch Mc Grinch Min Yoongi. Min Yoongi, you didn’t even know how he managed to end up being a lawyer. He only spoke to his stream of pretty secretaries and Hoseok from the Intellectual property team who was the complete opposite of him. 

“Y/N, I’m planning on putting the both of you on a major case and this type of team building is really important for success on this case.” Namjoon pinched the bridge of his nose, already tired of your defiance. 

“Can’t Taehyung help? He’s just as festive as me!” You protested. 

“Taehyung’s an overgrown child, you know I can’t put two people like you to plan this.” 

“What do you mean, 2 people like you?!” 

Namjoon raised his eyebrows, gesturing to your Christmas jumper that was under your blazer. 

“It’s December 1st.” He said, closing the case and getting up. You made a sour expression muttering how he was just as grinch as Yoongi under his breath. It’s not like you were wearing Christmas jumpers in June...but did Christmas jumpers even need a season? 

“I’m late for lunch, start planning ASAP. I’m bringing my girlfriend to the party this year, so don’t mess it up.” He said, not taking another word as he sped out of his spacious office. 

This was a nightmare. You loved everything Christmas and from what you knew, Min Yoongi was the anti-thesis of holiday cheer. You remembered how he rolled his eyes at the kids from the schools initiative that came in to sing Jingle Bells. Whilst everyone else on the office complex cheered the little kids on, Yoongi was sat in his office with headphones in. It didn’t stop there, he even rejected the sugar cookies that you baked and brought into work last year. No one, could resist your sugar cookies. 

Planning the work christmas party was supposed to be a great honour, only reserved for the most trusted employees. You knew Yoongi was a good lawyer, but couldn’t Namjoon pick someone who would actually help you pull off the best Christmas party ever? Clearly Namjoon trusted you a little too much. 

No, there had to be a way around this. Determined, you took it on yourself to march into Yoongi’s office, ignoring the look of disapproval that was shot your way by his new secretary. 

“Y/N. To what joy do I owe the pleasure?” Yoongi said, never looking up from his paper work as you barged in with your arms crossed. 

“The joy of being partnered with me for this years festive party.” You said. 

“Is that supposed to make me feel happy?” He raised his eyebrows.

“Yes.” 

“It’s Christmas.” You added. 

“And?”

“People want to remember how I pulled off the most amazing christmas party that Park and Jeon Co have ever seen.” 

Yoongi scoffed, going back to signing his documents. After the third page of constant signing you had enough. 

“Yoongi!” You protested. 

“Hmm?” He drawled, never taking his eyes off his papers. 

“Quit your deal for a second and listen to me!” 

“You think a multi billion dollar deal is going to stop and wait for your little commercialised office party?’ He asked, a sign of irritation on his face as he looked up at you from his work pausing. You had all of his attention. 

You were annoyed. Yoongi had evidently decided to take a page from law school at you, and you weren’t going to let it slide. 

“The duty of care in this case would fall on your personal too, considering the entire office wants a break at the end of this month.” You shot back, without flinching. 

Yoongi bluffed again. “Well, technically the client in question would”. You sighed internally, you weren’t about to make a mock legal case out of this situation. 

“Just meet me at Lombard’s next Thursday, 3.”  You sighed, Lombard’s was an infamous venue that you were planning to test out for the office party. Whilst you would have loved nothing better to do than to sit there and plan the most spectacular festive do yourself, you also had cases to plough through and couldn’t afford to put so much pressure on yourself.  

“Of course.” Yoongi said absentmindedly. That was code for a ‘sorry, I had cases to file’ or ‘I had court’ as an excuse. Too bad you were good at reading people, you’d send him reminders every day until he would turn up in explicit writing. No one was going to step on your party throwing parade. 

“Excellent.” You said smiling brightly. Yoongi, almost reacting to the unnatural situation to him, where he expected another whine or scream from you raised his eyes up at you suspiciously. There had to be something up, but Yoongi really didn’t have time for that, or you now. From what he knew of you, you were roughly in the same league as him when it came to years in practice, favourites of Namjoon from what he had heard but also complete polar opposites. He knew you from when you first interviewed at Park and Jeon Co, because he had been in the same interview. He knew you were one of the ones that left the office at 9 smiling, and he found that weird. He also knew you were an avid baker, bringing in all sorts of delicacies to work bake sales which were always mysteriously gone by mid morning because of an anonymous donor who bought all the pastries you bought in, Yoongi knew because he was the donor. 

He knew, well...everyone knew that you loved Christmas. Everything about the season, from the displays in store windows to the carols sung by kids had you starry eyed. Christmas lovers made Yoongi feel nauseous. He saw it as the most vile, commercialised holiday to exist on earth. People ended up fighting for no good reason, over money. Yoongi knew his job involved settling disputes over money, but to use a holiday as an opportunity to fight- over money? That was something he didn’t understand. 

You finally left him in peace and Yoongi went back to his work, thinking it was the end of you at least until next week. He knew very well how much office Christmas parties were a thing, around here but he was going to try his best to avoid it. You were Y/N, still his competition. He needed Namjoon to believe that he was the best junior lawyer in the office, and the more work he could do the better. 

_______________________________________________________________________

“Send these to Mr. Min’s Office please.” You said kindly to your office assistant, Brenda pointing to the wrapped up box on your desk. 

“Are you...two a thing or something?” She asked taking the box, probably curious about the third and last delivery of the week from your office to Yoongi’s. 

You nearly spit out your coffee. 

“Me, and Yoongi? Please.” Whilst Yoongi could certainly catch eyes, with his cool exterior and witted brain, he was the anti-thesis of your type. No emotions. 

“Namjoon’s got the both of us planning the Christmas party this year. I’m sending him festive reminders about the spirit of Christmas.” You said, and the latest gift to go his way was a set of baked mince pies straight from your grandmothers recipe book. Usually you only reserved baking those for special events, but you were calling out all stops in getting Yoongi on board. You also wrote a handwritten note, reminding him about the importance of loving others.

Brenda smiled, reading the handwritten note before saying she’d deliver it to Yoongi. 

__________________________________________________________________

“These are very good, spicy and sweet. She’s got some serious talent, should have been a baker really.” Jimin, Yoongi’s partner for a asset transfer case said in between bites from Y/N’s mini mince pies. 

“Who said you could have any?” Yoongi asked without looking away from his laptop screen. 

Jimin’s mouth hung open. 

“Um, well they were just placed there and-”. 

“Let’s just work on this file.” Yoongi cut him off. His eyes were trying to focus on the important file in front of him, but they kept flitting back to the note in front of the pies. He had read the others, and was mildly amused and was curious about this one. Seeing Jimin immersed in the file, he lost resolve and took the note opening it. In elegant script that belonged to you, he read the note. 

“Christmas will always be as long as we stand heart to heart and hand in hand”. 

Yoongi smiled. Dr Seuss, his favourite childhood author. He was taken back to earlier, more innocent memories with his parents. Playing in the backyard with his brother, waiting for the snow to settle, racing with the neighbours kids. Waiting for the food to be cooked and sneaking bites in. 

“What’s got you smiling?” Jimin asked, looking up to see a faint smile on Yoongi’s face. Yoongi quickly broke off the smile, scrunching the note in his hand and telling Jimin to read the third page of the file again, because he knew it had some curious facts and Yoongi needed to snap out of the trip down memory lane you had caused. 

Safe to say though, Yoongi was reminded of Lombard’s and he wasn’t going to give it a miss. 

______________________________________________________________________

Strangely enough when Thursday rolled around, it was Yoongi who was the first to arrive at the high end event venue. Dressed impeccably well in a tan coat, he attracted attention the moment he stepped in. Whilst he told the receptionist about meeting someone here, he was offered a seat waiting. The view from Lombard’s was breathtaking, even from the first floor which gave him a wide view of the cities cars zooming by against the backdrop of aesthetic buildings. 

Yoongi was about to call you to see where you were, considering you were 10 minutes late for the meeting. Seeing as you weren’t answering, Yoongi stared out the complex in frustration. That’s when he saw you. Of course, he thought. 

Of course you would be the type to stop and listen to Christmas carols. Scoffing at how ridiculous you were, a hot shot lawyer being the only one who stopped to listen to Christmas carols. Yoongi, curious decided to go out and catch a better picture. 

Upon walking to you across the road, he could see how happy you were. You were encouraging the children, cheering them on like you were their mother. Yoongi felt in unfamiliar territory. 

“Sing with us, sing with us!” He heard coming right up next to you, before the children took one look at Yoongi and piped down. Yeah, he knew he had that kind of effect. 

You looked at him. 

“I don’t have all day, I’ve already given up 10 minutes of my day. ” Yoongi said, impatiently. 

The children were looking at you with doe eyes, and they had insisted on you singing a christmas carol. You weren’t about to say no, their precious little cherub faces were staring at you. But you also had to plan an event. 

“Oppa here will sing with you! Noona just needs to sort some things out.” You said, pushing Yoongi to the crowd of children. Yoongi, usually composed looked at you were horror. 

“W-where are you going?” He asked, afraid of the little humans now gathering around him. 

“I have all the registration details in my purse, so I’ll just sign us in with the host today! I’ll come back for you in a few minutes, just do this Yoongi!” You said, pleading him with doe eyes yourself- a tactic you only reserved for desparate situations. 

“Yah!” Yoongi yelled, but it was no use. You were gone, and he had a bunch of little humans around him. 

“Ajusshi please sing!” They yelled at him. 

Yoongi did a double take. “Ajusshi will tell your mother you cheat on your maths tests, if you call Oppa Ajusshi one more time.” He said bluntly. 

They gasped. 

“Please sing with us, we’re raising money for children’s services throughout the holidays.” A little boy said in a weak voice, where any other adult would have melted. 

“I don’t sing.” Yoongi replied. 

“Aj- Oppa! Everyone can sing, just say AHHHH.” A little girl, who Yoongi figured was some sort of ring leader took control. 

“Ah.” Yoongi said bluntly. 

“Oppa!” The little girl protested, stomping her foot down. 

“Learn some respect, squeak.” Yoongi said, staring the little kid up and down. 

“Sing, please Oppa it’s for a good cause!” 

“Or just give money.” A boy, gleefully smiling said. 

“No. You’re all annoying.” Yoongi replied back. 

It was surprising how much Yoongi could bicker with a group of 9 year olds, but he could. Even more surprising was how he despite being a lawyer, couldn’t fight battles with kids. 

“I’m back! How was your sing along?” You asked cheerfully, coming back from signing in at Lombard’s. 

“Aju- Oppa won’t even sing! We really wanted to raise money with adults singing with us.” The little girl who took control confessed. You looked at Yoongi and sighed. 

“Can’t you even do this little thing, Yoongi?” You asked. 

“Why? This cash doesn’t even go to the children who really need it.” He said, blunt as ever. 

The children gasped. You were shocked. 

“I’m sorry kids, some people have no Christmas spirit inside of them.” You said, apologising for you ass hole of a co-worker. 

“Learn about capitalism while you can kids, it’ll save you a whole lot of stress.” He said, a final comment to the group of innocent caroling children. 

Whilst the children said their goodbyes and moved on, you decided to keep as much distance with Yoongi as possible. He couldn’t do a little favour for some kids, instead accusing the money they were raising of going into their own pockets. 

“Why are you so quiet?” He asked, after you both had finished going through the financial details of the venue inside Lombard’s with a host representative. 

“I’m just thinking...how could someone be such a Grinch? To little children at that?” You said, blunt as Yoongi for once. 

“Me? What’s so  bad about what I said?” He asked, like it was so casual.

“What isn’t bad? Yoongi they were just trying to raise some money to give to sick kids. 

“Do I look like I have the time to sing with them?”

“No, and that’s the point! That’s the point of Christmas, you do things for other people because it’s the right thing to do.” 

“Then why is it most people start a competition about who can out-do each other?” Yoongi retorted.

“That’s not really what Christmas is supposed to be about. The people who do that aren’t really in it for the spirit.” You said. “Most people, most families don’t.” 

#bts reactions #bts scenarios #yoongi #yoongi fic

[shervonfakhimi]

The Coronavirus 2020 NBA Draft Prospect Binge Report

Remember when people looked forward to 2020 with actual optimism? That was fun while it lasted. Instead of joy and relief, this year has brought us tragedy after tragedy and now utter chaos. That is not typically how one would start an article about NBA Draft prospects, but I have managed to accomplish absolutely nothing but watch replays of college basketball games of NBA Draft prospects amidst this COVID-19 pandemic. There are much more serious things going on right now, but maybe you could use a distraction. So here goes nothing! Here are some takeaways from prospects I’ve watched during the season and now after the season got shut down.

Lottery:

Anthony Edwards SG Georgia: I don’t know if blame needs to be put on Edwards, the construction of his Georgia team or Tom Crean, but Edwards tended to float through games and settle for tough shots he shouldn’t need to rely upon given his athleticism and superhero frame for a college freshman. And then, all of a sudden, you’ll see him flip the switch and embark on ballistic streaks like this where he explodes and decides not to miss. He’s an elite shotmaker, whether it is contested or on the move or both. It felt like he had too much of a green light to shoot these and Edwards relied on these shots a bit too much, and that put a damper on his efficiency. He did get to the free-throw line 5.3 times per game, but with his ability to drive, that probably could improve as well. A nearly identical assist/turnover ratio needs improvement as well. However, while I did not see a frequent number of passes manipulating scrambling defenses, I did see Edwards make the correct pass at times when swarmed by help defense, both in transition and in the halfcourt. When engaged, Edwards can be a staunch defender as well, but that wasn’t always the case. Again, it didn’t help playing on a young team that was often, at best, a disorganized mess (seriously, that’s me being nice). But, ideally, you’d like to see a player of Edwards’ caliber carry his team to more wins than what Georgia accumulated this season. But the talent is overwhelming and *clearly* there. He should be the number one pick (at least among the crop of college basketball prospects), but both he and the team that drafts him has work to do to get the most out of that talent.

Isaac Okoro SF Auburn: Isaac Okoro just might be the best defensive player in the draft, certainly on the wing. I watched Mason Jones give Auburn fits en route to a 40 point performance, but when Bruce Pearl (finally) placed Okoro to take him out, he obliged as if he was Jason Bourne on the loose, shutting Jones down and allowing Auburn to escape Bud Walton Arena with a win. He’s big, long, tough, and athletic to stay in front of just about anybody. Offensively, he’s more of a work-in-progress but is a good slasher who can pass or finish off a straight-line drive and can play a little bit of pick and roll. He’s got to improve as a shooter (29% from the three-point line, 67% from the free-throw line) and as a ballhandler, but will be able to defend in the NBA from day one. At the very least, he’s Josh Okogie of the Minnesota Timberwolves. The floor for him as a player is very high because of his defense. If his offensive game improves, however, he can be much more though.

Tyrese Maxey PG/SG Kentucky: A more in-depth look at the Kentucky guard is coming soon. Spoiler alert: I like him. A LOT.

Onyeka Okongwu C USC: A deeper dive into the Trojan big man will arrive shortly.

Obi Toppin SF/PF Dayton: An in-depth look at Mr. Toppin is dropping soon.

Devin Vassell SF Florida State: A deeper dive on the Florida State wing will drop shortly.

Cole Anthony PG North Carolina: If Anthony Edwards played in a mess, then I don’t know what the hell you’re supposed to describe what this season’s North Carolina team was. Anthony got hurt, his team completely fell apart without him and had little to zero help on his team outside of Garrison Brooks. So yeah, not great by any means! As a result, he’d often dribble into waves of defenders and/or hoist up forced shots which took a sledgehammer to his efficiency. He showed a little bit of a post and midrange game, did his best to control the tempo of the game and run pick and roll when he actually had room to do so, but that was not the norm. He should be better with NBA caliber teammates and spacing surrounding him next season. He should still go in the mid-to-late lottery, but this wasn’t the season many had hoped to get from him this season.

1st Round:

Saddiq Bey SF Villanova: You want a 3-and-D guy? Enter Saddiq Bey. Bey shot 41.8% from three during his two years at Villanova. Bey can hit them on the move as well as standing still, off the dribble or catch-and-shoot. He can defend multiple positions, staying in front of quicker guards or guys his size as well. I wouldn’t recommend a steady diet of Bey putting on the ball on the deck as a primary option, but he can definitely go create his own shot as well, as he did here against Georgetown, piling up 33 points in the process. Bey won’t overwhelm with his athleticism, but he can get the job done well enough to be a threat. Villanova’s a program that routinely churns out quality NBA players, and I wouldn’t expect anything less when it comes to Saddiq Bey.

Kira Lewis Jr. PG Alabama: Kira Lewis Jr. could be one of the better values out of the guard spot this season. He’s arguably the fastest player in the draft, and likely has that distinction amongst guards. He’d use that to his advantage to get to the rim, and when defenders try to cut him off or go under screens he’s a good enough shooter to make defenses pay. It felt like his first instinct was to find open teammates before going for his own. Lewis would flash finesse finishes in the paint, another nifty counter to balance his speed, but felt like he’d more often struggle to finish those plays than not. He needs to improve on that and his turnovers, but if he can, there is a lot to work with here. As an 18-year-old sophomore, Lewis is young for his age too and already has two years of experience under his belt. He needs to develop though and go to a place with a track record of developing young talent. If that’s the case, he can be a big-time steal. I’m a fan.

Jaden McDaniels SF/PF Washington: Perhaps no player in this draft is more perplexing, enigmatic, or boom-bust than McDaniels. There are days like his game against UCLA where once he is dialed in, he’s a scoring menace and guards 1-5 defensively. There are other days where you don’t even notice he’s on the floor. He still is raw and needs some fine-tuning to his game, but the flashes of brilliance are so tantalizing. He has the tools to become the versatile positionless wing to wreak havoc across the floor, but he’s going to need to go to a spot who can get the most out of him. The situation is key in the NBA, and there might not be a player more dependent upon it than McDaniels. If he gets to the right spot, he could be the steal of the draft.

Isaiah Stewart C Washington: While there are some concerns about Jaden McDaniels’ motor, there shouldn’t be much regarding his teammate, Isaiah Stewart. Stewart came to play all season long, routinely gobbling up rebounds and bending the rim. He racked up a double-double in nearly half of his games (14 out of 32) during his freshman season in Seattle. Stewart is a brute force at 6’9” 250 pounds yet runs like a gazelle in transition nearly every chance he gets to do so. What I also like about Stewart is he has very good touch around the rim and can go to the post and finish in case of an emergency. He fits the mold of the Clint Capela-archetype of today’s bigs. Sitting in the middle of Washington’s 2-3 zone didn’t allow for much to see how Stewart defends on the perimeter, but more and more NBA teams have elected to trot out zone defenses in stretches anyway in an attempt to throw off their opponent by giving them a different puzzle to solve. There is some question as to how much these types of bigs can actually produce in playoff series, but Stewart has skill in his own right to not be solely dependent on others throwing lobs to him like Clint Capela or Jarrett Allen, who both were played off the floor for stretches in the postseason last year. He’ll help whoever drafts him.

Nico Mannion PG Arizona: I was a little disappointed watching Mannion. He’s a floor general who looks to pass and make his teammates better, things I value out of my point guards for sure but was expecting a little more given the hype before the season, and he didn’t seem to live up to it. To be fair, he did finish the season well, but he was inconsistent. He also did not have an open court to play under in the halfcourt (a Sean Miller special) and thrived in that type of environment, mostly in transition. He’s a fantastic passer who looks to throw the ball up the floor in transition and is unafraid to let it fly before the defense is set. Creating his own shot proved to be too daunting a task at times, however, and that led to both he and Arizona’s inconsistency (again, coaching didn’t do him many favors though). Mannion is and can be a good player in the league, but I’m not sure we’ll see the star he was hyped to be before heading to Tuscon.

Cassius Winston PG Michigan State: More on the Spartan floor general will come soon.

Patrick Williams SF/PF Florida State: A deeper dive on the other wing from Florida State will arrive soon.

Tre Jones PG Duke: The problem with Tre Jones during his freshman year at Durham was his shooting ability. He shot 26.2% from deep that year, but things changed fairly drastically this go-around. He bumped his three-point percentage up to 36.1% while holding his water from the free-throw line. It’s easy to compare him to his brother Tyus, but it also holds weight with Tre’s ability to defend. If his shooting holds true, I don’t see how he couldn’t produce and follow the same trajectory as his brother in the NBA.

Jahm’ius Ramsey SG Texas Tech: Youth is the rage when it comes to the NBA draft, and Ramsey has a lot of it, as he won’t turn 19 until June. When it comes to youth, Ramsey showed it for stretches at Texas Tech, sometimes losing track of his man defensively or driving with reckless abandon into traffic (an unfinished handle to blame for some of that). Working in Ramsey’s favor, however, is the fact he hit 60 of 141 threes, not all of the catch-and-shoot variety, with some tough contested looks like this one sprinkled in between. However, I’m not sure his shot is as potent as his three-point percentage suggests, as his line-drive release and free-throw percentage (64.1%) strays from his percentage from deep, but shooting well from deep surely can’t hurt Ramsey’s chances. I wouldn’t count on Ramsey becoming a plus creator with the ball in his hands as his handle needs more polish to tap more into that area of his game, but he has given glimpses he can do so in spurts. Maybe Ramsey could step into a rotation with his effort level, but his best-case situation would be going to a team touted for its development prowess in the first round to give some reps and experience before throwing him to the NBA fire.

Sleepers:

Immanuel Quickley SG Kentucky: More on the Kentucky guard will arrive shortly.

Mason Jones SG/SF Arkansas: More about the Arkansas guard will come soon.

Desmond Bane PG/SG TCU: Desmond Bane should be getting more love than he’s getting. He can reliably play both guard spots with his ability to cut and move without the ball and space the floor (he’s a career 43% shooter from distance from well over 500 attempts throughout his four seasons at TCU) and create offense for himself or for others with the ball in his hands. Not only does he have the game to toggle between either guard spot, but at 6’6” 215 pounds, he possesses the size to switch across the floor and make difficult for anybody he’s guarding. He isn’t quite the conductor that fellow senior draft-eligible prospect Cassius Winston is, but the difference between the two is negligible. Bane could end up being an absolute steal if he were to fall in the second round, which, quite frankly, shouldn’t happen.

Elijah Hughes SF Syracuse: For those eager to read more on the Syracuse wing, it will drop shortly.

Isaiah Joe SG Arkansas: Isaiah Joe is a bit of an enigma. A knee injury really bothered him over the second half of the season and the construction of his team forced him to almost exclusively shoot threes, hurting his percentage from the field (36.7%). His form is still splendid, however, and the release is quick enough to get shots off when others can’t. He can get his own shot off the bounce with a step-back and is a nice passer in space, but struggled to finish through contact. He did embrace on the defensive side, however, routinely stepping up to take charges. I think it would do Joe good to come back and get stronger, but his shooting should keep him in the NBA for a long time in a time where everyone is looking for guys who can shoot from beyond the three-point line.

Payton Pritchard PG/SG Oregon: Pritchard reminds me a lot of Fred Vanvleet. He’s tough, tenacious, will get after it defensively, and will not go down without a fight. Both possess handles good enough to get them where they want to go along with their strength to bruise through defenders. Get a big man on a switch and Pritchard can handle them no problem and bury shots from distance. Teams need reliable guards off the bench, and Pritchard has proven he can be that for whoever drafts him, whether through his stellar play in the Pac-12 tournament last season or stepping his game up again this season, averaging over 20 points a night with 46.8/41.5/82.1 shooting splits. He won’t go high, but I feel fairly certain he’s going to stick in the NBA for a long time. 

Nick Richards C Kentucky: John Calipari doesn’t do a whole lot of three-and-dones, but the payoff for Richards finally came through this season. Even at the beginning of the year against Michigan State and Evansville, he sort of got pushed around, but that changed during the course of the season. He’s athletic, can move up and down the floor, is a lob threat, can operate out of the post, and showed good verticality in the paint defensively. He has glue for hands, catching nearly every pass that came to his direction, even in tight corridors. As the center position continues to be an area where value is found, Richards can be a value for teams in the second round. 

Jalen Smith C Maryland and Xavier Tillman C Michigan State: I’m lumping these two together because both Smith and Tillman seem like good archetypes for the modern big man. Defend the rim, switch on the perimeter, roll to the rim, hit the occasional three (Smith shot 36.8% on 2.8 attempts this season), and rebound. Smith likes to slip screens and is a threat to score both rolling to the rim or hit catch-and-shoot threes. Smith showed flashes of making the right reads on the move as well when rolling to the rim but would force passes that weren’t there, in part leading to his paltry near 0.5 assist/turnover ratio, but that can improve. Tillman can make the same passes when rolling to the rim as well and is a solid, but not as explosive compared to Smith, finisher in his own right. While he isn’t quite the shooter Smith is, his 3 assists per game are more than quadruple Smith’s on about the same number of turnovers. For a team that needs help in its frontcourt defensively, Smith or Tillman would make for a more than fine selection in the late first or early second round.

Markus Howard PG Marquette: I watched his game against USC and was quickly reminded: this guy can get buckets. Now, I’m not sure what else he does, but he can score and is one of the better shooters in the draft. If you need a Quinn Cook on your bench who can come in and flip a game or two with three quick threes, then this is the guy for you late in the draft.

Ashton Hagans PG Kentucky: Hagans is the polar opposite of what Howard is. He’s not as renowned a shooter, but he is a hound defensively and is a physical finisher at the rim. He’s quick and really fast with the ball in his hands and knows how to run a team. The league is falling out of favor for guys who aren’t shooters, but his defense and savvy should be enough to, at the very least, get Hagans on an NBA bench somewhere, especially if there are teams out there who believe they can develop that jumper.

Kaleb Wesson C Ohio State & Vernon Carey Jr. C Duke: Wesson and Carey are the archetype centers that are falling out of favor in the NBA. While they have defensive limitations on the perimeter, both Wesson and Carey are skilled passers who can match both low-post brute force with three-point prowess (Wesson shot 38% on threes during his career at Ohio State. Carey hit the same percentage, albeit on a much smaller sample size of just 21 threes). Unfortunately, their time of conception was off a few years in terms of how the NBA values big men like them, diminishing their draft stock, but both have a shot of sticking in a rotation somewhere with their abilities to generate offense.

Skylar Mays PG/SG LSU: If you value versatility at your guard spot, Skylar Mays can be a very nice value in the draft. He boosted his efficiency up big time this year, shooting a career-high 49.1% from the field and 39.4% from three, allowing him to switch up and shift roles depending on what his team needed. He can affect the game and create offense both with and without the ball in his hands at the start of possessions. I could see him stick in the NBA for a long time.

Yves Pons SF/PF Tennessee: Pons is a monster athlete. He looks like a tight end out there. The man can actually fly. Seriously. Granted, that is against air, but that still doesn’t seem normal at all. He can get in a stance and defend guards and use his 6’6” 215-pound frame and athleticism to hang against bigger players. He even shot about 35% from three this season. It didn’t feel like Tennessee tapped into his athleticism enough, but an NBA team would be smart to and give him a chance to be a role player off the bench in the mold of a Derrick Jones Jr.

Cassius Stanley SF Duke: I’ll be honest, I didn’t think much of Stanley as an NBA prospect outside of his insane hops and wasn’t sure I’d sway off of that line of thinking. I was wrong. Going back to the hops though, the man literally has pogo-sticks for legs to fly across the hardwood, and no I’m not kidding. Get him running on the wing in transition and odds are he’ll bring the house down. Also, how’s this for an inbounds play? But, while Stanley is very much still a raw prospect, there is more than meets the eye than just aerial acrobatics. I was surprised to see he ended the season shooting 36% from deep and it bore out on the tape as he made defenses pay *enough* for making him beat them from distance. He’d use his freaky athleticism to slash to the rim and get to the free-throw line (3.6 free throw attempts per game). He’d benefit from a tighter handle and could use a better feel for the game (he nearly doubled his assist numbers with turnovers), but think he showed he *can be* more than just a dunker. He’s more than worth the shot in the second round.

Jordan Nwora SF Louisville: I wish Nwora was a little more consistent. I also wish he had more avenues towards production other than scoring. Nwora came on the scene last season with his scoring prowess and has coupled that with efficiency from deep (he shot 39% on over 450 threes during his three seasons at Louisville). Nwora’s defense and playmaking do not inspire a ton of confidence, but Nwora can serve as an instant offense energizer off the bench.

Aamir Simms PF/C Clemson: Simms’ name has not entered many NBA Draft discussions that I have heard/read, but that seems like a mistake to me. With requisite size (6’8” 240 pounds) and ample athleticism, Simms’ build suggests he is capable of handling the pounding of an NBA big man. His game does so as well. Passing is a strong suit of his game, as Simms can deliver nifty passes from all types of angles and areas along the floor. He can either finish or playmake a little in the dribble hand-off game and can also elevate in the open floor in the pick-and-roll. He’s a career 35% three-point shooter and owns essentially a neutral assist/turnover ratio (better than many other bigs in this class). He isn’t the biggest brute out there but uses every ounce of his frame to take the punishment from his opponent and hold his ground. Is Simms a star? Not exactly, but I could see him be a positive contributor off the bench and possibly work his way into being a starter a la Maxi Kleber has done with the Dallas Mavericks. Simms should not be ignored.

Kristian Doolittle SF Oklahoma: Kristian Doolittle deserves some more love, in my opinion. He’s 6’7”, 232 pounds, ideal size for the modern wing, with the versatility to guard multiple positions. Doolittle shot 37% from three during his four seasons at Norman, albeit on only 131 attempts, but still (he was solid from the free-throw line too, hitting at least 77.5% of his free-throws in three of four seasons). I see quite a bit of Dorian Finney-Smith, who has turned into quite the role player for the Dallas Mavericks, in Doolittle’s game. I could easily see Doolittle becoming a role player like Finney-Smith and becoming a very nice steal for whoever gives him a sh

#Anthony Edwards #Isaac Okoro #Cole Anthony #Saddiq Bey #Kira Lewis Jr. #Jaden McDaniels #Isaiah Stewart #Nico Mannion #Tre Jones #Jahm'ius Ramsey #Desmond Bane #Isaiah Joe #Payton Pritchard #Nick Richards #Jalen Smith #Xavier Tillman Sr. #Markus Howard #Ashton Hagans #Kaleb Wesson #Vernon Carey Jr. #Skylar Mays #Yves Pons #Cassius Stanley #Jordan Nwora #Aamir Simms #Kristian Doolittle

[buergergeld]

Texas Tech’s new quarterback can restore your furniture, but can he restore Red Raiders?

This Story is About… Tom Fox/Staff Photographer Texas Tech quarterback Nic Shimonek throws during passing drills with the team in Lubbock, Texas, Wednesday, August 2, 2017. (Tom Fox/The Dallas Morning News)

LUBBOCK — To be sure, small-town Texas kid Nic Shimonek didn’t find his field of dreams in Iowa.

After starting at quarterback all four seasons at tiny Mildred High School, just southeast of Corsicana, he was forced to sit out what was supposed to be his freshman season at the University of Iowa in 2013 because the Hawkeyes already had their fill of experienced quarterbacks more familiar with their offensive system.

No big deal. Happens all the time in college football.

But when Shimonek saw no way out of his non-playing predicament before the next season, he decided to transfer during the summer of 2014.

His timing could have been better.

Few schools had scholarships available so close to the start of a season. The few that did, he had no interest in attending.

And so Shimonek gave up free tuition, room and board at Iowa to walk-on and pay for the privilege of trying to impress the coaching staff at Texas Tech.

When his parents learned that the youngest of their two sons was going to pay to try to play they were "shocked" and "nervous," Shimonek’s mother, Tresa, said.

Turns out, by the way, that Nic was so intent on getting a free ride in college, he decided to attend Iowa because it was the first school to offer a scholarship. He couldn’t pass up on the opportunity of an all-expense paid college education, he said. What if no other school came along with a similar offer?

Of course, NCAA transfer rules meant he would have to follow his idle 2013 season by sitting out the 2014 season as well. And, as Tresa Shimonek pointed out, there was no guarantee Tech would offer him a scholarship for 2015 and beyond.

Waiting game

Then there was the matter of another aspiring Tech quarterback, Patrick Mahomes. Mahomes would prove a nightmare for opposing defenses as well as any teammate who thought he might play quarterback in Lubbock.

Mahomes became a starter nine games into his true freshman season after Davis Webb suffered an ankle injury in 2014. Meanwhile, Shimonek sat and watched. Mahomes was destined to start at Tech as a sophomore in 2015 and then again in 2016. Shimonek suited up and then he sat and watched some more.

Instead of being boxed out by two young, but slightly more advanced quarterbacks as he had been at Iowa, Shimonek’s roadblock on the High Plains was an immovable do-it-all future No. 1 pick by the NFL’s Kansas City Chiefs in the 2017 draft.

But Shimonek was determined to make Tech his college football home. It was close enough to Mildred. Kayla Wilkie, his high school girlfriend, was already enrolled. And there was the added incentive of learning from Tech coach Kliff Kingsbury, whose reputation as a quarterback whisperer seemed to be gaining momentum by the snap.

Now at long last, Shimonek’s road to starting as a college quarterback appears to be on the verge of a happy ending. There is still the matter of the fifth-year senior producing once the Red Raiders’ season begins.

After two seasons in which he didn’t suit up and two more riding the Tech bench, Kingsbury’s pass-happy offense is in his hands.

Shiminek’s college football eligibility expires at season’s end.

There’s nothing like waiting for its last 720 minutes.

"I have one season to do this," Shimonek said in the wake of an early morning team meeting earlier this month. "I want to win games here. I want to play well enough to get drafted and go to the NFL.

"I’ve waited for this chance longer than most," he said. "I know I can do it. I ask myself everyday, ‘Why not me?’"

Furniture fixer

While still playing at Class 2A Mildred, Nic Shimonek worked to help make ends meet. He had to, he said. Money was tight.

His father, Kenny, worked in an auto paint and body shop. His mother, Tresa, started her own small business out of a design studio in Corsicana. She sold flooring, wallpaper and furniture.

"We are a blue-collar family all the way," Shimonek said. "There were no handouts."

Rather than earn his keep by joining his father in inhaling intense fumes and contorting his body every which way to get paint jobs and bodywork done, Nick chose to help at his mother’s business. Kenny has since moved to less strenuous work at an iron foundry and supplements his income with a landscaping business. He starts most workdays before sunrise and ends them after sunset.

To alleviate the pressing issue of dollars and cents in Lubbock, Shimonek and Wilkie called on the skills they both learned while working for Tresa. They started a furniture restoration business.

"I had to earn enough money to take some stress off of my parents," Shimonek said.

Boyfriend and girlfriend rented space in a boutique mall and christened their burgeoning endeavor, "Southern Pearl."

Turned out they did quality work. Business was brisk.

"We earned enough money to help with bills," Shimonek said. "We earned enough to have to pay taxes. But the best part was, I learned so much more about myself. I learned how to negotiate, how to interact with people and I learned the importance of time management."

But it was for a good reason that Shimonek and Wilkie closed down their business in May 2016. There was no time for a major college quarterback, albeit a backup, to prepare to play and run a business.

"I had to start preparing last season like I was a starter," Shimonek said. "Football is a violent sport and anything can happen at any time. And as tough as Pat was, and as invincible as he seemed, I had to be prepared."

Last season, a prepared Shimonek played in four games for the Red Raiders. Most of his action came in blowout victories over Stephen F. Austin and Kansas. He finished with 38 completions in 58 passing attempts for 464 yards. He threw for six touchdowns and suffered one interception.

In 2017, he will be the engineer in the Tech offense.

Tough acts to follow

The last four quarterbacks to start in a Kliff Kingsbury offense have been:

Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel, when Kingsbury was the offensive coordinator at Texas A&M.

Baker Mayfield, who ultimately found success after transferring to Oklahoma where he was a Heisman Trophy finalist last season and is a strong candidate to win the award this season.

Davis Webb, who transferred out from under Mahomes at Tech and found a home at Cal-Berkley, where he earned his way to the NFL as a third-round draft pick of the New York Jets in 2017.

And the aforementioned Mahomes, who passed for 11,252 yards and 93 touchdowns while rushing for 22 more. He was the 10th overall pick in that 2017 draft.

Which brings the eyes of the Tech faithful to the man who will be Kingsbury’s fifth.

In Shimonek, they have a 6-3, 210-pound quarterback who is 22 years old and still has no college skins on the wall. He is not quite as sexy as the dual threat Mahomes proved to be. He is expected to have to rely more on his arm.

Kingsbury reiterated at Big 12 Media Day that he believes Shimonek is a worthy successor in his assembly line of successful quarterbacks.

"He’s a tough young man, hardest worker on our team, studies the game inside and out," Kingsbury said. "He’s a bright kid. I expect him to play at a very high level. I expect him to be competitive."

While Shimonek understands he is not the second coming of Mahomes, that is the standard by which he will be judged.

"I’m more of a blue-collar guy who has to work hard for everything I have accomplished on the field," he said. "I’m playing this season with a chip on my shoulder for having to sit so long. I know other people want my job here. But I’ve worked so hard to get where I finally am. I’m not going to let anyone take it away."

Passing fancy

Texas Tech has had one of the nation’s top passing attacks in all four seasons of the Kliff Kingsbury era. Can it continue with former walk-on Nic Shimonek in 2017?

Season Passing yards per game National rank 2016 463.0 1st 2015 388.2 2nd 2014 351.1 5th 2013 392.8 2nd More Texas Tech preseason coverage

Source Article

The post Texas Tech’s new quarterback can restore your furniture, but can he restore Red Raiders? appeared first on BUERGERGELD.

Read full post at: http://www.buergergeld.net/texas-techs-new-quarterback-can-restore-your-furniture-but-can-he-restore-red-raiders/

[69tell-blog]

Windowpane [EXCERPT]

1st Chapter, Villa Vance.

         I hear footsteps coming down the hallway, probably Julia, my brother’s girlfriend. The three of us just started living in this apartment about a month ago. I still haven’t unpacked all my things and boxes crowd my room. I’m happy that Terrence isn’t selfish and that Julia can stand me. If not for those two I don’t know where I’d be. It’s been rough for me since graduation; my degree seems not to have made finding a job easy at all, and I’d settle for fast-food or retail, but I hate dealing with people. It’s awkward and sometimes embarrassing for me. In a perfect world, I’d have a desk at a prominent magazine or newspaper company. Alas, The freelance gigs I’ve been so loyal to are paying less & less now. Money is tight.          Her footsteps get louder; she pauses briefly before turning the doorknob, without a knock.          She walks in; her face is flushed. I can tell she’s upset about something, or someone.          “My God Vill, do you ever plan on cleaning up around here? I mean seriously, it’s like you haven’t unpacked a single thing. Are you living out of a box? She asks. “And another thing, when are you going to start working? Me and Terrence can’t pay for this place alone you know!”          “Well, I’m trying my best & that’s all I can tell you. I know money is tight, I know I’m not working. I’m sure I’ll find a job soon, I’ve been applying to a lot of publications. Don’t let my junky room distract you; I’m getting everything straightened out, believe it.”          I say that I’ve been trying, but the truth is, I haven’t applied myself at all. I haven’t filled any applications out. This white lie is all I need to buy some time until I can find something I can bear. To me, it seems selfish to be so choosy when I know Terrence and Julia are handling most of the bills. I’m optimistic that I’ll come across something soon and if not… there can’t be an “if not.” I’d never let them know the truth; they couldn’t understand. I just need a little while longer.          “I’ve got an interview with Express tomorrow morning.” I lie.          “Well, that’s a start I guess.” Her tone softens, and she becomes a concerned mother, worried that her scolding has hurt her child’s feelings.          “You know I don’t mean to get so worked up, but Me and Terrence can’t afford to keep splitting these bills alone. We have other places we need to spend our money Vill, and we’re counting on you for relief.”          “I know Julia, I know. I’m trying my hardest to pull it together.”          “Okay.”          She walks out, closing the door behind her. I’m relieved she didn’t ask what Express was, I wouldn’t have had an answer. It’s just some company I saw in a magazine before. Julia’s concern is a sign that I need to make a move soon. I figure that as long as Express is a part of my lie, I may as well look into it. I pull the magazine out from one of the boxes I rummaged through last night and flip to the last page. It reads “Express — Highway to life, now hiring. Call 1 333 999 9966.”          I grab the house phone, but before I can lift a finger to dial, I hear a knock, an entrance more subtle than the last.          “Come in,” I answer. No response.          “Come in!” I shout. Still, no answer.          I get up to check and see who’s knocking and why they didn’t they just walk in. I crack the door a little and peep through the opening; no one is there. Probably Terrence is playing a joke on me, though it isn't very funny. I shrug it off and get ready to redial the number.          Then, another knock on the door.          “Terrence I’m in the middle of something, stop kidding around!” I shout.          He didn’t respond. I quickly get up to answer the door once again, this time more furious and agitated. I fling the door open and out pops Terrence from behind a corner. He’s wearing a Ghostface mask.          “Am I supposed to be scared?”          “Haha, you fell for it last time.”          “Which is why it didn’t work this time. I was right in the middle of an important call, so I’m not going for any of your shenanigans. Julia just got on my case about not having a job, so this is serious. I think she’ll be less flustered once I land something; I'll pull my weight around here too.”          “Well, guess what Villy. You don’t have to worry anymore! You can keep all your money buddy. I’ve got everything covered. I thought my shenanigans might brighten your day since you’re always moping around here looking depressed and shit.”           “What are you talking about? How can you have everything covered? Do you know what you're saying? The rent here is way too much for one person to handle, and I know that call center isn’t paying that much.”          He begins to explain his luck at being offered a position with a new organization called Express. The same company I was about to call and apply. He's ecstatic to tell me the salary and how much fun the job is. Oddly, he never sheds light on what the job entails. When I ask, he changes the subject, over and over, every time I ask. There’s nothing I want to know more than the type of work involved. Every ad I saw was bereft of anything more than a cheesy slogan.          I had heard enough of Terrence's stories. It’s good that he found a high paying job but if he covers everything I’ll feel like a freeloader. I hurried to end the conversation. When he finished talking, I praised him and continued my phone call with Express.          "Hello—Express Career Services, my name is Jenny. How may I help you?"          "Yes, Ms. Jenny, I'd like information about any job openings you have."          "Okay sir, may I please have your name and SSN?"          Social security? That’s peculiar. I’m not inclined to divulge the information, but since Terrence got the job, he must have gone through the same process.          "Oh… yes ma'am, of course. My name is Villa Vance and my So—"          “Villa Vance!” She exclaims. Sir, please meet me at my office, tomorrow at 5:00 p.m. sharp. Thank you. Click!          "But where is your office? Where do I need to go?" I was talking to myself; she had already hung up the phone.          It seemed promising, in fact, I almost had a little hope that things would turn around. Now, I'm back at square one. Why couldn't the lady just tell me where her office was before she hung up. How could she expect me to know where to go or how to get there.          The phone began to make a dial tone. I had forgotten to dismiss the call. I click end and flop onto my bed. The plan was to go to college, get a bachelor’s degree in English, then snag a job writing for a company or teaching. The plan failed. In reality, I’m sitting in a room full of boxes with no clue what to do next. In a moment, every depressive thought of my future begins to creep into my consciousness, so the walls close in and my brain feels too big for my head with every analysis fighting the other for a space to occupy. From college, life has never seemed this volatile. I’m used to a set routine with predictable outcomes. Now, I truly don’t know what’s to come next or how well I can handle it. I’m already unstable. Tonight will be cold I know. I should get to bed.          Writing is the only thing that ever helped me relieve stress. Before I go to sleep, I have to write in my journal. It’s something I’ve done since I was a little boy. By documenting what happens in the past, I can remember it easier than a mere memory. My memory is frail. I write in detail, lest I forget a single instance.          I grab my notebook and a pen to jot down everything that took place today. When I woke up this morning, I found that my cell phone had stopped working. For some reason, it wouldn’t cut on. Next, I couldn’t find the remote to the TV, even though I distinctly remember putting it on my nightstand before going to bed last night. Which was right after I looked through a box of magazines, where I found the Express ad.          I continue to write about my day until the ink in my pen runs out. Of course, the ink would run out. With everything going wrong, why would anything decide to go in the right direction? I don’t remember having another pen in my drawer, but I check anyway. I open it up to behold a bright red pen I never knew existed, Express is printed in small white words on the side. Before I reach to pick the pen up, I hear a voice. It shouts in my ear, “Express!.”          I jolt back and quickly check my surroundings. Maybe I had been awake too long. My clock says 1 a.m. as if I’d been writing that long. At any rate, How did this pen get in the drawer?          “Walk toward the window.” The voice calls. And like a fool I follow. I walk to my window and peek through the blinds to see no one.          This better not be another one of Terrence’s tricks. No, it couldn’t be.          “Open it!” The voice shouts.          But I won’t move, I’m not willing to open a window for a voice alone. I don’t know who or where the speaker is. I’m reviewing every concept of reality introduced to me, trying to disprove them all to explain how and why this is happening.          “This is for your own good.” It whispers.          Suddenly, My hand moves to the window without my permission. I slide the lock to the left and slowly raise the glass. My body is no longer under my control. It has a will of its own. Terror and confusion have replaced any sense of security and common sense I had. The chilling wind from the draft of the open window bites my lip with a gust that is much more bitter than it should be. The calling voice spirals from a whisper to a mumble. Finally, an obnoxious shout breaks my thought.         “You are no longer a part of this world. Listen to my voice to uncover great wisdom. You must understand before you walk blindly. I am here to lead you, accept my presence and follow my will. Let your body do the work. Put your mind to rest.” It claims.          Before I knew it, I climbed out of the window. The wind whipped so rapidly that it hurt to hold my eyes open, so I kept them closed. I'm now dangling from the third floor of an apartment building without a hint as to what will happen next. My body is frozen, I can't see, and a seemingly benevolent, but eerie voice is dictating my actions. It told me to let my mind rest. It feels like this voice knows me. Does this entity have control of my body? Something I thought was a joke at first has changed into a phenomenon I can’t fathom, let alone explain. If I am no longer a part of this world, then what world have I entered?          I've been dangling for at least ten minutes now, and the voice hasn’t yielded another command since. My arms have yet to tire out, and despite a severe, arctic wind, I’ve resisted hypothermic shock.          Then, all motion of the wind stopped, and something began to counteract the bitter cold. It was dark outside, but now I feel rays of light surround me. My eyes remain closed; I begin to imagine the environment around me. It feels like I’ve arrived in a place where sunshine and light are persistent and dazzling. What is this world?          I'm no longer dangling from the window of an apartment building, but now standing straight up with little space between my feet. My back is erect, and my head is tilted slightly up. My eyes are still closed, but this is by choice. I'm not ready to see.          The voice calls me by my first name. I'm not willing to answer this soon. I don't feel like I should have to speak, I’m the one expecting answers. After a long pause, the voice seems to fade away, while murmuring what sounded like a rant. I stand here, quietly and patiently, as my life whirls around in my noggin. I think about Terrence and Julia; the debt and trouble I'm in. I question the possibility of all this being a dream. I convince myself that it is indeed an odd dream, which gives a good reason as to why I have not yet opened my eyes. Perhaps, once I open them, I'll be in my room lying on the bed.          That's it; it's time to stop this dream. I'll count to three and open my eyes. One... Two... Th— “Are you ready Villa?” The voice interrupts.

#short story #prose #novel #story #writing