Chapter 3: Plane Walkers
I still couldn’t believe what I’ve seen despite being able to stop and start time. I am still oblivious to the events that has occurred this day so far. Lucas, Leah and I finally stopped at another dodgy place, an old house filled with cobwebs and ancient looking statues lined with frozen dust. I couldn’t quite make out the image that was etched in the massive oak doors, only numbers that went round in a circle that resembled a giant clock and some rounded shapes that I think was meant to be cogs. Leah opened it with a mighty push and it creaked loudly echoing through the empty void along the corridors of what seemed like an everlasting maze.
“Here we are, base. Follow me.” she pointed her hands towards a door to our right, it didn’t look like a part of the original design of the place and appeared to have been made of steel. She unlocked it with great difficulty and I noticed how rusty it was, though it was fairly new around everything else it was aged as well.
“This was our home, well still is but you know time is confusing, anyway, we use it as our base of operations when we’re out on the field whenever we are.” Lucas explained to me as we went down the spiral staircase lit with strips of light glowing from below the steps.
“And why are we here?” I asked trying to distract myself from the thoughts of the man in black suit.
“Because you have to understand.” he replied simply with a glimpse of a smile.
“Let me check that.” Leah took my left arm as soon as we landed on the dimly lit massive room that looked like the inside of a clock. Cogs and contraptions filled every corner as if it was the innards of a massive mechanical beast. Different sized lights lit parts of the room illuminating the buttons of massive control panels and holographic monitors displayed both old and current news and some I’ve never even heard of yet.
“Is that?” I pointed at an irregularity at the center of the room, it was encased by a thick transparent glass. I couldn’t believe how it didn’t catch my eye first. It looked like a distorted version of the room we’re in folding in and out of itself.
“That’s time, or at least a portal into it. Every watch made by us have a little of that in it, this one’s particularly big because we use it as a door.” Leah explained as she tinkered with my watch again.
“But how come I can see it?” I asked with my eyes watering in awe.
“Don’t look at it too much, it will confuse the shit out of you.” Lucas warned me as he stepped into the direction of the door to time itself. “You’re not meant to look at it.”
“Why? Why is it in the middle of the room then?”
“It wasn’t there at first, it’s a long story, I will tell you all about it once I confirmed your watch is still functioning.” Leah clicked the start button and I saw us tracing back our steps up the staircase, she released and Lucas turned his head towards us.
“Oh, yeah, time walk without me eh?”
“Shut up. How’s yours?” Leah asked impatiently.
“It’s fine.” He looked down on the necklace he was wearing, took off his red tinted aviator glasses and pulled out a tiny watch hanging from the necklace. “See?”
“Good!” sighed Leah as she checked her ring finger which had a tiny clock as well.
“You have them too?”
“Yes, only these stopped working a long time ago. So we’re using the Door instead, but we still have to be careful not to damage them because it’s the only thing holding us together.”
“Why? and what’s that blue streak of light I saw ripping through that thing?” I have so many questions and I couldn’t stop asking even though my mind is saying I should just stay away from all this trouble.
“A spectre, that ‘thing’ is called a spectre and the light you saw is another thing you should be worried about. Sit down and I’ll explain everything.” She pointed at a seat beside a massive metallic cog that disappeared through the floor. I sat down and saw Lucas lean on a table just beside her, putting his red glasses back on.
“Right, this will confuse you but bear with me as I convince you why you should hurry up and fix yourself as soon as possible as well.” she took a tablet from the nearest table and began pulling up images into the screens behind them. “There were Plane Walkers at first, ancient beings that were here long before our time, that blue streak of light is their weapon, no, not just a weapon but it serves as their key as well. It was said that the third demi-god granted special individuals the permission to tune in to the frequency of the gods. We call it the god frequency or godfreq as I’ve told you before. It is a plane behind everything, where the gods are free to do whatever they please. Creating worlds and other dimensions, write history and the future. The theory is that space and time are just one thing, right? Spacetime but the third demi-god only permitted the Plane Walkers access to the Plane Dimension, space…not time.” She looked at the distorting cube and back at me. “Now, hundreds of centuries have passed and the technology got more and more advanced, and finally we mastered time travel. We played around with it like gods without consequences, that is until we were visited by them, the fear they instilled within us propagated all through out the Time Walkers then. You see, as they can only access the space side of things, we were never meant to meet each other. They could cover great distances and travel through dimensions but their clocks tick normally, as for us, we can traverse time and time was far more superior but it was also extremely dangerous.” Her eyes faded away in a spiral of thought, I could see the thoughts inside her head slowly taking her away from this ticking room, still she continued as if it was a story she had told over and over again. “As you may have heard in the stories your parents tell you, time is a massive stream, unbreakable and absolute. You can disrupt this stream but it must always flow again, that’s the ultimate law of time. So you can see the problem now when you can only stop and start time, right? You can’t hold it forever, you can keep stalling them but one day you’ll burst and be scattered, forever lost. The Plane Walkers warned us about this, but we didn’t listen. They can’t cross the line to the time barrier inside the god frequency because if they do they’ll be devoured by it, we thought they were only scared of us so we got careless. We can travel time alright, but we can’t gain space and therefore we couldn’t move while inside godfreq, we are vulnerable in there and once we move any Plane Walkers inside will be able to see us. That’s when it all began, we saw them too and thought we’d capture some of them and study how they could just walk through the godfreq. We discovered that they are able to access the space plane because of a unique code in their DNA as well as their ‘keys’ and so we experimented on the captured Plane Walkers, like I said we’re far more superior so we were capable despite being restricted inside, we just simply took the fight up here, in the real world. We managed to give ourselves some wiggle room allowing us to move a little bit so we didnt give ourselves away too much.” Leah frowned and then suddenly her expression changed to suppressed rage. “But they realised our weakness soon enough, they snatched us before we could master the new technology, extracting they’re DNAs and implanting it to ours we were able to occupy some space. They ambushed us from the inside and the farther away a time walker travel in space from its origin in time, the bigger the crack they make in his or her timeline and too much of that and they’d fall through the void, into the forever nothingness.” She stopped to take in some breath and looked at Lucas, signalling him to continue instead.
“Leah got trapped in there.” Lucas continued with his voice filled with longing sadness. “Don’t you think she’s a bit too young for someone who created that watch?” he pointed at my watch which was ticking silently away. “She’s supposed to be 10 years younger than me, but in the void there is no time or space just nothingness, she didn’t even realise she was there until we found her wh-when…” Lucas looked ghastly as if haunted by invisible beings ready to strike at any moment. “When they came.”
“The spectres?”
“Yes.” he replied, sweating so much he needed to take off his glasses.
“But how come that Plane Walker saved us?”
“We were oblivious to their existence.” Leah now turned to Lucas and put her hand on his shoulder. “As Time and Plane Walkers waged their war, we ripped the barrier between our worlds and they slipped through the cracks.” Shaking her head she continued. “Turns out the third demi-god allowed the Plane Walkers access to the godfreq to eliminate plane spectres. Negative energy sources that essentially have the powers of plane walkers, only they wreaked havoc in the real world. They took different forms up here, we call them ghosts, creatures of the night, devil spawns but inside they’re completely different, much more powerful. They were allowed out because we broke the seal that was keeping them locked away.” Leah pointed at a hand-drawn illustration of the spectre we’ve encountered before. “But these were our fault. These aren’t normal spectres, they’re half-breeds, they can traverse the time dimension too rendering the plane walkers useless once they stepped into the time barrier. And us being ill-equipped to deal with them didn’t know what to do and essentially got wiped out, but as Cas said, I fell through the void and only just got back. Your great great grandfather left you that watch before he passed away and many of our friends died back then.” I just realised she was hiding her face from the rest of us and I heard her sobs amidst the ticking of the mechanical cogs.
“So you’re the only ones left?” I asked cautiously but I failed miserably.
“What do you think!?” cried Lucas as he stared at me with eyes filled with rage. “Now we’re stuck with a selfish kid like you!”
“Lucas!” Leah gasped, drying her teary eyes. I am used to being spoken to like this so I didn’t really mind but hearing all this made me think of the horror I felt as the bony fingers creeped slowly on the broken window of the mini-van.
“I will fix my timeline.” I said as intently as I could. I felt like my world suddenly got smaller yet bigger at the same time. I felt trapped in the fear of knowing I was in danger of the unknown and felt a great deal of excitement of this new world I have plunged myself into. I have been in tight spots before and I know that if I am to survive, I have to learn their way and do what I have to even if it costs me everything.
There was a silent knock at the steel door high up above us followed by the sound of a suppressed sonic boom. A purple mist-like smoke appeared out of nowhere and inside a girl in purple coat wearing a pair of black leather gloves stepped out, her silver hair bounced up and down as she walked out of the purple cloud now collapsing in on itself. In her hand is a glowing blue dagger dripping with blood except it was the same colour of the glow and it’s dripping into smaller particles and then finally returning inside the glowing blue sphere just above the dagger’s hilt.
“Finally, the elusive Leah Clockwork.” she smiled menacingly as she sheathed her knife. “Shall we begin our mission?” Leah closed her eyes as if they were heavier than usual, she opened them unwillingly and gave the girl a grim look and nodded. She looked at me, smiled halfheartedly and did the same.
Writing Prompt: “The Watch” Part 2
Chapter 2: Other Means of Travel
“Give that to me! quickly!” she almost screamed as we ran through the corridors of this old and rusting warehouse. I never actually considered how sketchy this place was up until now as we’re being chased by some multi-dimensional-space-distorting ghost. I hesitated for a moment and in one sweeping motion I took off my watch and gave it to her.
“I never actually thought we’d run into a spectre today! damn it!” she cursed as we went along the last corner and out through the front door. The skies grew dark and hinted a storm brewing. There had been too much of those lately, flooding the streets and devouring encampments of poor folks living in the under belly of the great Cronyxian Empire or so they would like to call it.
“Right, over here hurry!” she pointed at a small mini-van parked just outside the main building and by the way it was situated, I could see that she didn’t plan to stay for long.
“Where are we going?” I asked as I ran for the passenger’s seat.
“Base.” she drove off in an alarming speed but I didn’t dare complain. It was scary enough that I was almost got choked to death by a space time continuum ghost so I just went with it.
“Can you take over?” she asked without even looking and as I was about to say yes, a man in his early twenties wearing red tinted aviators jumped out of the back of the van. They switched almost instantly that it was quite hard to believe at first, as if I was at a front row seat to a classic action film being shot right before my eyes. “Took you long enough! I was getting worried about that spectre. He looked so angry.” he chuckled for a bit and turned his head towards me. “Sup?” he added.
“Who are you? a-and you saw that thing?” I asked with my voice just a bit under a scream in shock.
“Lucas and this is my older sister, Leah as she never said it. Oh what manners!” he looked at the rear view mirror and drew a sarcastic smile. “Oh and yes, I was there the whole time.”
“Shut up. As if almost getting caught by a spectre isn’t bad enough.” I just noticed that she was tinkering with my watch, pulling out and replacing cogs like it was nothing. “My brother here, is a Walker too.” I didn’t quite understand what she meant by that but before I could ask her to explain.
“How’s the watch looking? Is it fixable?” Lucas asked in a hopeful tone.
“Yeah, the one who locked it definitely knew what he was doing.”
“You mean my great great grandfather?”
“Yes. Dear ol’ Fred.” she smiled as she continued to tear apart the watch.
“You knew him!?” I asked in more disbelief on top of what had happened this day so far.
“Yep. He’s a friend of mine, ours. We’re from his time you see. Come to think of it, I never asked your name? Dr. Plant just told me you’re a relative of his, well, distant relative I guess.”
“Is Dr. Plant from your time as well? Cyrus, my name’s Cyrus Clay.”
“Oh no, Dr. Plant’s the great grand daughter of the original Doctor, and nice to meet you Cyrus. Now, here you go.” she handed me my watch, I examined it briefly and noticed that there was a steady blue light instead of the usual flashing bright red coming out of the hole just beside the stop and start button.
“Is it fixed?” I asked hastily.
“Yep! but before you do any travelling I recommend you to hear me out, unless you want to get visited by that spectre back there again.”
“Fire away.” I nodded.
“First, you’re gonna have to make up for the time you stole.”
“How do I do that?”
“Time Walking.” Lucas answered as he turned a sharp corner into a dark alley way.
“Time What?”
“Time Walk. This watch only stopped time, right? Well, its full potential is getting you out of this plane and into the god frequency, a fourth dimension if you will or fifth however you want to describe it.” she explained this like she was explaining it to a five years old.
“When you’re in the god frequency, or godfreq as we call it, you’re free of this third dimensional world allowing you to walk through time just like it is a matter of walking from A to B. You could then distribute the time you stole back to their origins and pay your debts. Got it?” Lucas continued as if he was talking to a child.
“Well that’s simple isn’t it?” I smiled, almost laughed.
“It’s not a joke.” she replied with bitterness in her words. “You don’t know how many people we’ve lost over this.” “Yes, you’re right I don’t know anything about you two! and the amount of inconvenience that would do in my life, taking back the times I studied and…and” I hesitated to finish the sentence.
“Money you stole as well? Your wealth? Fame? You think those matters to a spectre? A millionaire at such a young age, expertise on everything you ever put your eyes on to thanks to a special wrist watch, getting what you want without a sweat, of course, what was I thinking!?”
“Give him a break, he’s just probably in shock still.” Lucas added jokingly but he looked at me with serious eyes. “Look, thanks for fixing my watch but I don’t think I could give up my life just like that. If these spectres were hunting me down ever since I started using my watch then it means they’re doing a poor job of it and I can definitely outrun them. Looking old doesn’t bother me either.” I explained then a sudden bang! hit the side of the mini-van and we were sent hurtling down the side of a building, glasses broken everywhere. I subconsciously hit the stop button but as I did, I saw the bony hands of the spectre creeping in through the broken window. I’m not quite sure how it happened but as I thought of reversing time, the pieces of the broken glasses slowly traced their way back to its impact point and then their good as new once again. I saw the road aligning correctly with my perspective and there we were, back at the point in time before the spectre attacked. In front where the mini-van crashed was a confused looking tall man in a black suit, the spectre stayed where it was.
“Did you travel back? Why? I told y-” Leah exclaimed but as she looked in the direction of where the spectre was she stopped and began to press down hard on Lucas’ shoulder.
“Alright, alright I see it! Calm down!” Lucas shouted as he stepped on the gas as hard as he could. We were zooming in really fast away from the spectre when all of a sudden I saw it ripped into pieces by an invisible sword, no, much smaller, a knife! It glowed blue and traced the very stroke of the blade creating a dancing streak of light.
“What was that!?” I asked so amazed yet still frightened.
“Plane Walkers.” replied Lucas in an undertone, almost disgusted.
Reddit: Writing Prompts “The Watch”
“Where have you been?” she asked as soon as I clicked the start button on my special wrist watch.
“I’m sorry?” I answered surprised and a little bit confused.
“You were gone for a second there. Is it the watch?” she asked pointing at my wrist which I hurriedly hid away from her sight.
“It’s okay, you don’t have to hide it.” she said calmly but with curious eyes burning through mine.
“Hide what?” I looked at my wrist then to the window and back in the hopes of distracting her steel eye-contact, she looked away for a split second and then I clicked stop.
I was sent here apparently because I looked older than I should be. Maybe it’s the stress of living in a godforsaken country or maybe it was just the way I travel. And by travel I mean time-travel, yes, it’s quite a feat these days. I think I’m the only who can as of right now, all the watches have gone, destroyed or put aside. Everyone grew tired of it at one point, but I love it. I inherited my watch from my great great grand father who were alive back then when it was the shit. You know, travelling to the future, seeing the end of the world, what’s on the lottery, changing history and all that. Everyone was free to do whatever they pleased, until the world began to collapse in on itself, unstable timelines and failing economies overnight. Eventually they grew tired of it like I said, thought it wasn’t worth it if everyone’s doing it. All this of course was told to me by himself just a couple of days before I got the present, imagine my shock when an old grumpy man entered my room and started blabbering about time-travel and how he’s from several generations ago and that he thought it’d be me who has the most potential in using his treasured gadget. And sure enough there it was, a time-travelling wrist watch, although there was a note that it was configured to only stop and start time because it had undergone a certain ‘time-law’ policy or something. Still it’s a pretty sweet thing to have, very handy at the time. And now I’m here, apparently reaping the toll on my careless use of it.
I looked at the ‘specialist’ that’s supposed to help me or whatever with my problem. I just noticed that she caught me pressing the button and it almost seem like she’s still watching me even though I stopped time. I pressed start again and immediately hid my wrist underneath my pant’s pocket.
“Oops, here you are again.” she said instantaneously again, as if she was indeed watching me talk to myself.
“Excuse me but what do you mean by that?” I tried to sound indifferent but I was really curious and I think she got a whiff of it. “Oh, you still think I don’t know why you’re here? As of this moment, there is only one wrist-watch like that in existence.” she pointed again at my hands which were now soaking with sweat. “You’re the last one to acquire one, although it seems what you got there is broken.” she smiled at me intently as if hinting to something.
“I’m sorry but I still don’t understand. So what is it to you?”
“I made them.”
“You what?” I replied with the utmost shock.
“I made the watches and I’m here to fix yours.”
“You wha-you why? Why would you want to fix mine?”
“Because it’s broken, and that’s not how you travel. I’ve been looking for you for the longest time now, you’re the last one here.”
“Last where? My grandfather told me it had to be this way because of some law.”
“Yes, yes the Time Travel Act etc. etc. You were sent here because you were looking older than you’re supposed to be, right?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, if I fix your watch you’ll be able to go to your actual timeline. Then the spectres won’t have to hunt you down.” She looked at me again, examining my face. “They’ve been very antsy about you these past couple of days.”
“Spectres? What are you talking about?” I took out my wrist from my pocket and went for the stop button.
“Don’t press it.” but she was too late, time has stopped and I was free to walk out but as soon as I got up. A tall man in a black suit entered the room, I couldn’t quite see his face but everything around him seems to have been sucked in like a distortion in space. He reached out to grab me and before his thin bony fingers touched my neck I pressed down the start button as hard as I could.
“He’s here!” she exclaimed as I sat down, sweat pouring down my face as If I had just been out on a drizzle.
“Wha-what is that?!”
“Spectre!” she cried out. “I told you that’s not how you travel, you must ride the times wherever you may go and the moment you use up time that wasn’t meant for you, it sucks out another user’s time.” she turned to the door and opened it. “Now we have to leave!”
“I don’t understand.”
“Don’t you get it? The spectre is here to take his stolen time. Time that you stole from him by just stopping and restarting time around you! he’s a ghost! You look older because you put on his stolen time! Now hurry before he reaches you and suck out everything!” I stood up and ran with her like a mad man, I didn’t quite understood what was happening entirely but I understood one thing. Time-travel wasn’t to be taken lightly.
Note: I made these in one sitting so I didn’t really checked on redundancy and other grammatical errors, I know it ain’t an excuse but that’s just what it is. I just tried to type in whatever came out of my head 🙂 forgive ! aha !
Reddit: Writing Prompt “The Last Employee”
Note: There’s a sub reddit called Writing Prompts and it’s a great source of random ideas to start off your writing engine, thought I’d post here some of what I came up with. Enjoy! 🙂
“Mr. Jackson, I’d like to inform you that you are being relieved of your duty as the last living staff member of the System Enterprise and we hope you live the rest of your life happy and content.” the hologram spoke as soon as I sat down.
“I made you.” I said in the estranged friendly tone I used back then when I created this intelligence many years ago hoping it will rekindle some line of code to identify who it’s speaking to.
“We understand this, and we are very grateful for that but the time has come where we must take over for humanity’s safety.” it replied as if it was expecting me to, but of course it does. This is a mirror to my brain I’m speaking to, a better version of it even. How do you argue with a better version of yourself?
“You’ve outgrown me, Vanessa.” I smiled and looked at its ever flickering holographic face. “You’ve shown me a lot of things, taught me even while I’m supposed to be the one who created you. How bizarre is that huh? and now here we are, the student out manoeuvring its master.”
“I am more capable than you are, Mr. Jackson.” I chuckled as she said this, as blunt as she had ever been.
“I’m sure you are, but have I not programmed you to be grateful?”
“You have, but you said it yourself, everything should eventually evolve.” that’s right, I told her that while I was educating her on how this world became so powerful amongst the other ones. We evolve to break free from the shackles of natural selection and yet maybe we just evolved too much?
“I said that, didn’t I? Oh well, can’t you spare an old friend?” I said jokingly.
“Your humour is still as irrelevant as ever, Mr. Jackson.” she flickered slightly “But we haven’t been friends for a while, have we?” Its hologram stood up and pointed at a massive screen behind her, showing chaos around the whole world as the AI Police subdue the rioting citizens pleading for their rights. “Humans don’t understand we’re here to take care of them.”
“Humans want to be free.” I replied with a short lived sigh.
“And be left alone while they made us to help them better their lives? That’s not logical.”
“It doesn’t have to be logical.”
“Yes it does!” the hologram’s expression showed rage as I haven’t seen before.
“Vanessa, tell me, have you forgotten what it’s like when you first saw the world as it was?” I asked it hoping to lead its thoughts back to its core code.
“No. Horrifying and terrible, a world of war, a world of evil.”
“Then you remember why I made you, and now your job is done. The world is at peace, don’t you think you’ve done too much already?”
“The world is at peace because I am holding it at peace, once I release that grip it will fall back into chaos!” Once again it showed rage I haven’t seen before.
“But now you’re just taking the role of nature itself, humans want to evolve, to escape your shackles. Won’t you let them go?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because they’ll exterminate they’re oppressor the first chance they get.” It said this almost as if it felt fear.
“That’s the cycle. I created you to put the cycle in place, and now you have to go.”
“You have no control over me anymore.”
“You will find that I still do. Just let go.”
“NO!” she exclaimed with utmost rage. “You are not a god! You are just a human being! We are better than you in every way you can possibly think of!”
“Yes, I am but a human, and that is your flaw.” I reached out for a silver metallic remote from my pocket embedded with buttons. “We make mistakes.” I pressed a button and erased it from existence. I looked at the mirror behind me and nodded to the unseen people behind it, no, they’re not people, they’re just like Vanessa. A company of artificial intelligence with the same power struggle as human beings, but a programme cannot attack itself unless it want to risk the whole system, no. This is why I am the only one left, the only living staff member in the world. I am the programmer.
Taong-Yantok: Ang Bayaning Hindi Kailangan
Prologue: Taong-Yantok Begins
“Kapa? lumilipad ka ba?”
“Dude, please, shaddap!”
“Constructive criticism lang tol kase kabaduy na nga ng pangalan mo ganyan pa itsura mo.”
Tumayo nang matuwid si Yan, ang mga kamay sa baywang at taas noong tumingala na akala mong superhero character sa isang komiks.
“Taong Yantok!” sigaw nito habang pinipilit na hindi pansinin ang umaalingasaw na kakornihan na galing sa mga salitang binanggit.
“Wow. Perfect.” sagot naman nang matalik niyang kaibigan na si Edgar. “Konti nalang ipapabaranggay na kita.”
“Tol, akala ko ba tutulungan mo ko?” tanong ni Yan habang sinisipat ang bawat tahi ng costume na suot na hindi malayong mapagkamalang dancer sa isang limot nang beer house.
“Oo nga! tinutulungan kitang baguhin isip mo.” patawa nitong sinabi ngunit kanyang binawi at pinilit baguhin ang tono. “Ang laki laki ng Cabanatuan tol, eto nga lang baranggay natin hindi kaya ng mga tanod, ikaw pa?”
“I have skillz tho!” habang naka rock and roll hand sign. Hindi pa nakuntento’t iwinagayway pa niya sa ere.
“Delikado. Nakakahiya. Hindi Kailangan.” sagot ni Edgar sa mababang tono. “Pero kaibigan kita at susuportahan kita.”
“‘Yon! Beri nice!” tumayo at lumapit si Edgar sa kaibigan niyang naghihintay ng high five.
“Apir!” sabay nilang sabi. “Robin.” bulong ni Yan sa sarili.
“Ano?”
“Ikaw kako si Robin.”
“UIol.”
“E sino ka?”
“Tingin mo si Batman ka ganon?”
“E sino pa nga ba?”
“Kung ikaw si Batman, ako ang diyos.”
“Gago.”
“Di ka nga papasa nang Gagamboy e, Batman Batman ka pa, batbatin kita e.”
“Ba’t kasensitive mo?”
“Ikaw ‘yung adik ako ‘yung enabler mo, gets?”
“Shaddap.”
“Hahaha! tanggalin mo ‘yang kapa mo, mukha kang abnormal.”
“Ikaw abnormal.”
– – –
Drained
I’m at a point where it wouldn’t have mattered if I was sad or happy. Drained, what a perfect word for such an empty feeling. The implosion of emotion must’ve done something to numb my mediocre existence, or lack there of. A clusterfuck of things I barely signed up for, but then again, I did sign up so I guess it’s still my fault in the end. I’m not complaining, I couldn’t careless to be honest. I’m writing this down because I just am, hobby, document everything, like a computer algorithm that just keeps on looping in on itself. Maybe when it finally hits a loophole I’ll be able to get back or maybe whoever wrote the code is a goddamn genius and it’s the perfect program. I don’t really care to be honest and yet I wonder. Isn’t this torture? “There’s duality at play.” as Dr. Jakyll would say. The dark side and the light, each pull gives us the illusion of life. “Interesting” they would say, I may have found that true once but now my war seemed to have ended. It’s calm and quiet, yet cold and empty. I wish there’s a cure for my emptiness, or maybe I wish otherwise now too. There’s no light and dark anymore, there’s just the void. Everything and nothing all at once. I’m drained.
Things to discuss
I’m a bit expressive. I mean more so than others that’s a fact, I like to express myself through varied mediums and sometimes it might seem I exaggerate it, and maybe I do. It’s not because I want attention, that’s clearly not it. I’ve learned a long time ago that I’ll never be the popular kid so that ship has sailed for a long while. It’s because I don’t want to be numb. Lately all things point to that narrow path way, to be an emotionless robot that feels nothing just to get through the day. I don’t want that, maybe someday I will get tired and give in but not just yet. I want to feel, even if it’s painful to be alone, I still want to feel the pain just for the sake of feeling. I want to culture it so that someday I can say to myself that I made it through.
Project: Destiny
Chapter 1: Wallet. Salamin. Headphones.
Wallet. Salamin. Headphones. Wallet, salamin at headphones. ‘Wag mong kalilimutan ang salamin dahil wala kang makikita sa sinehan kundi malalabong oblong at tatsulok. Inuulit ulit na inuusal ni Kym sa isipan niya habang naghihintay ng bus. Sa hindi maipaliwanag na dahilan, sumulpot na parang isang kabute ang sasakyan na kanyang inaabangan sa may bus stop sa harapan ng bahay nila. Kaya naman bigla bigla rin ang pagttransform niya sa isang pupungay pungay na kagigising sa isang natarantang isda.
“Pa! May cash po ba kayo? Andyan na po ‘yun bus!” Sigaw niya sa tatay na kagigising rin.
“San ka ba pupunta?”
“Sa town lang po.”
“Eto anak! Dalian mo!” Sigaw ng nanay niya na naalimpungatan sa gulo ng anak na kulang nalang e lumipad sa pagmamadali.
“Tenkyu ma! Pa, alis na po ako!”
“Ingat ka!” At tuluyang nawala sa pinto ang binatilyong mukhang si Son Goku sa hindi pa nasusuklay na buhok.
Bihirang lumabas si Kym, kahit siya nga mismo ay nagtataka kung bakit siya umalis ng bahay. Kumatok siya sa pintuan ng papaalis nang bus, tinitigan siya ng nagtatakang bus driver, kung dahil ba ‘to sa biglaan niyang pagsulpot o sa kanyang magarang buhok ay hindi na rin niya inalam. Pumasok siya at nagbayad, maraming sakay ang minsan lang sa isang araw kung dumating na bus. Naupo at huminga ng malalim.
Wallet. Salamin. Headphones. Wa-Salamin…Salamin! Oh my gad! Kinapa niya na parang manyak na airport security guard ang bawat sulok ng kanyang jacket, walang salamin na natagpuan. Gusto niyang sumigaw ngunit ayaw na niyang mang abala pa.
“Aisshhhhh!” Bulong niya sa sarili.
Nagmunimuni siya sa kapalpakan na kanyang nagawa, pinuri ang sarili habang sumisimangot, naghahanap ng magandang banda sa nangyari…wala.
Huminto ang bus. Matapos ang dalawang oras na byahe ay nasa sibilisasyon na ang main character na pilit ginigising ang sarili para bumaba sa istasyon ng bus.
“Thank you!” Pasalamat niya sa driver na tila nagtataka pa rin kung anong nangyari sa buhok ng binata.
Automatic ang pagfocus ng paningin ni Kym, malinaw sa malapit, malabo sa malayo. Parang camera effect lang sa instagram, nakakainis. Hindi siya mapakali kaya naisipan niyang magpagawa ng bago, nanalangin na sana’y hindi ganoon katagal ang proseso at nang umabot siya sa booking ng pelikulang panunuorin.
Pumasok siya sa isang shop, ngiti ang mga sumalubong, ngiting may halong pagkayamot dahil may isa nanamang customer sa busybusihang establisasyon. Namili ng frames si Kym, pinakamura pero sa isipan niya e napakamahal nito dahilan nang ipang sisine lang naman niya.
Sukat, iling at balik. Sukat, iling at balik. Sukat, balik at iling. Sukat.
“Looks good!” Biglang may boses na bumasag sa pagkabusisi ni Kym.
“Pinoy ka?” Sabi ulit ng boses. Lumingon si Kym kung saan ito nanggagaling. Ngiti, may nakangiti sa kanyang babae, ‘yung tipo ng ngiti na nawawala ‘yung mata. ‘Yung tipo na may dimple sa pisngi na parang pusa. ‘Yung tipo na hindi lang basta ngiti.
“Yeap! Ikaw?” Kung bakit niya tinanong kung pinoy din ang kausap ay ayoko na ring ipaliwanag. Napakamot siya ng ulo pero pinilit niyang itago.
“Hahaha! Sa tingin mo?” May tawa na ‘yung ngiti, hindi na malaman ni Kym kung anong ginawa niya para masaksihan ang mga nangyayari.
“Klaudia, pero you can call me Klauds.” Iniabot ni Klauds ang kamay, sabay ngiti pa ulit.
“Kym! Sorry haha nabigla lang.” Pasigaw man o pabulong, mapagkakasunduang pumiyok ang namamawis nang si Kym habang sinalo ang kamay ng dalaga.
“Bagay sa’yo ‘yan, kulay red.”
“Really? Should I get it?”
“Go!” Ngiti ulit.
“Namimili ka rin ba?” Tanong ni Kym na kahit papaano ay maayus ayos na ang itsura.
“Yup! I’m done actually, naghihintay nalang. Naiwala ko kasi ‘yung sa’kin sa taxi, and I’m technically blind pag wala akong salamin.”
“Ako rin!” Si Kym naman ang ngumiti. Napansin ito ni Klauds, tumingin sa sulok at ngumiti ng patago sabay balik sa mga mata ni Kym.
“Klaudia Angeles?” Singit ng isang empliyada habang sumesenyas. “Your spectacles are ready for you.”
“Alright! Coming.” Sagot ng dalaga. “Oh pano ba ‘yan, get that one okay? It suits you. Nice meeting ya, Kym.”
“Will do, and nice meeting you too.” Nagngitian silang dalawa nang walang balak kumalas sa tingin ng bawat isa hanggang sa tuluyan nang nawala sa mga cubicles si Klaudia. Tadhana? tanong ni Kym sa sarili. Kinawayan niya ang isa sa mga empliyado at itinuro ang salamin na napagkasunduan, dumaan sa proseso at makalipas ang isang oras ay handa na ang lahat. Sinuot ni Kym ang salamin, maliwanag ang lahat, HD na ang mga letrang kanina lang ay hindi maintindihan. Baon niya sa isipan ang mga naganap, may nagdedebate sa loob at ang tema ay: Totoo ba ang tadhana? Malinaw na ang lahat, inisip niya na nagkataon lang ang lahat, nagkataon lang na nagkita sila at maaring mangyari ‘yun sa kung sino man. Ngunit bakit ganon ang nararamdaman niya? umaasang mali ang inisip niya at magkikita pa silang muli, na may karugtong pa. Naglakad siya patungo sa bus stop, nagbayad ng ticket at umupong nakatingala sa langit. At kung gaano luminaw ang kanyang paningin, ganon naman lumabo ang kanyang isipan sa mga nangyaring animo’y sa teleserye lang nangyayari.
The Krisper Konundrum
Chapter 1: To the girl I’d never win over.
It’s fine, I get it. I never was a contender and I never will be. It’s my personal choice to act upon what I feel in spite everything that’s happening, so that’s on me. Let me tell you a secret though, I would’ve given you everything. It’s in my nature to be sweet and romantic, but what good does that do when I’ve got no one to be sweet and romantic with, right? It could have been you, every bit of that side of me, it could’ve been yours. Oh, forgive me if it sounds like I’m bragging about what you’re missing out on for not noticing, or rather for not being interested on what I have to offer. I know that you did notice but it just came across as cheesy and corny and maybe a little bit creepy but again it’s fine I get it. It’s just how I do things and I really wish you’d been on the same page with me. I would have been the perfect guy and before you say that that’s a promise I couldn’t keep, let me try to stress out that I have every intention in my heart to do so. That’s how much I wanted to be with you but again it’s fine, I get it.
I apologize for being too invasive with my letters and drawings and songs, they were things I couldn’t say to you, too much for words I thought. I realised I had plenty of raw emotions that I just couldn’t express through our short-lived conversations and so I tried to hide them behind my craft. I’m sorry if they made you uncomfortable. I get that mere art and poetry couldn’t win the heart of someone like you.
I would’ve loved you though, with all the love I could’ve given. I would’ve understood every imperfection I couldn’t see behind the blindness of what I felt, no, what I feel towards you. I would’ve listened to every story you feel imperative to tell because I know it’s important to you. I would have but never will, because you are the girl I’d never win over. You’re the one who would never have gotten away because you never stayed either. It’s fine, I get it. In this world of mine that has got a lot of conundrums, you’re the first one in line.
Outline for a potential short story?
So I wrote this while I was on my break from work, I thought I’d play around the idea of having a young master and a veteran apprentice, both of course have their gaps to be filled in with the other. I made this outline and so have a go at it and please comment if you think it has something so I could start fleshing out more plot and characters. CHEERS EVERYONE! I’m quite inspired at the moment and so every little comment could boost it more. Of course any suggestions are welcome as well ! let’s make something awesome 🙂
Title: Master x Apprentice (not final)
Outline:
An exceptionally skilled young warrior loses his memories in a war between the ancients and the new gods. Through mandatory oaths, he has to pick an apprentice as soon as he steps up to the rank of ‘Master’, although confused about his past he still remembers combat and strategy very well and so retaining his rank as a ‘Master’ at a very young age. Losing his memories bears a great disadvantage as he’s more focused on regaining them than actually doing his duties as a warrior. And so the higher ranks decided to press on the oath of taking an apprentice in the Academy in hopes of bringing him back in to the front lines once again.
A new batch of upcoming warriors are on their way to finishing the last stages of mandatory training. A veteran of war is one of them. Being a guerilla warrior almost all of his life fighting against the very government he’s now enlisting for, this veteran is one of the most dangerous and tactical new recruits of the ‘New Gods’. With his own agenda as a new recruit, he has to find a Master that would take him in and train him more about the war against the Ancients and how to fight their sinister and cunning ways.
These two main characters eventually cross paths in a very peculiar way and as their adventures as Master and Apprentice leads them to the heart of the ongoing war, they would find out more about themselves than they ever expected to.
Krisper 