Managing two threads has become tiresome. Consider this a collision of the two - Alt's Assorted Authorings and Pwetty Fractals!
Fractals first.
To be continued. . .I don't want to blast you with too many images.
Storypoemtiem!
Deepening
It was a strange sensation, drowning. Once could not call it unpleasant - though it by no means was a joy ride, it brought about a morbid calmness. Even though he could have grabbed on to one of the scraps of metal from the blasted-apart boat he was passenger on, he didn't. He would never know why. Of course, the few waterlogged minutes he had to contemplate this decision as his lungs filled with saltwater were not suitable for mulling over such an issue - quite to the contrary, actually. Perhaps it was some sort of requiem he had been searching for. . .? An elegant ending to the trainwreck that his life had been, a way to add some flair to an otherwise gray experience? Of course, this led onto another tangent of thought - why is gray always considered boring? Is it a stereotype? A general walk of thought? A trail of thinking paved over and 4-laned for it to become a highway of synchronized human thought? A widely accepted epoch of relation?
He would never get the chance to finish thinking through this tangent. One's brain can only function for so long with no oxygen, after all. I guess it's time to return to the water. . . .
He had always found sanctuary in some aspects of Hindu and Buddhist thought - the reassurance was something comforting to him.
Of course, this was not a common circumstance - a idiosyncratic death sequence, to say the least. He had, all his life, lived on a British island. It was during WWII - U-boats were patrolling the water, shooting down any ship that left port. Vultures, willing to kill for an evil man and an evil cause. . .even civilians were the enemy, of course. . . . He, however, wanted to leave. The attacks had come to a lull, and he was confident his ship would be spared from the salvos of torpedos customary for the ships attacked before, especially since they appeared to be departing to some other mission.
He wasn't sure that his family would beg him to stay if he had one. He had always viewed them as a burden. People who live with you? Talk to you all the time? Depend on you? what a waste of molecules, families are. . . . He prided himself on his lack of a family to a point. Whether it was genuine or a psychological filter put up by his subconscious to feel less self-pity was not something he could determine - nor did he want to. So he didn't, and he never would.
He took his money and his ticket to the port, presenting them to the manager of the place. He waved him through - appearing more concerned with his lack of hair then the chance of his passengers dying painful deaths - and the rest of the passengers as well, snatching the money and stashing it.
He gripped the rail as he got on the boat. He could move to London, write a book or two, and sit on what he had - easy enough. Of course, for him, the boat ride itself would be the hardest part of the path to success for him.
He hated riding on that boat. It never stopped rocking enough to give him a rest (he was a light sleeper) and the food was platry in flavor when applied to his (according to him) impeccable palate.
Then, he was shocked out of his half-asleep state on his bed. The captain had ordered the passengers awake. They were to prepare to be sunk, just in case. He didn't deem this necessary. He sneaked back into his room and did his best to re-enter that state of dazed resting.
Then, he heard a crunch of metal. A visceral tearing of the ship's hull, the inside exposed to the ocean. The water seemed eager to pervade the interior - to soak the decor, waterlog the halls, and lap against every door. So it did. Ocean water is not easily denied entry into a boat - not least when the entrance is so large. So, the humans yielded to the saltwater.
Then, another hit - the ship couldn't stand being hit twice at all. It was torn apart. Shrapnel flying every which way, scraps of metal and wood relaxing on the waves. The passengers were not so buoyant. Not being proficient swimmers, most of them drowned.
He had the clout to resist the water by treading it - an audacious act that couldn't go on forever. So it didn't.
The water seemed never to lose it's energy - it was always hyperactive, splashing around, coaxing his head under the water. He conceded. Such battles of force are not like debates. Oh, how I wish they were. . . .
His mind wasn't racing - it was taking a walk in the park, really. It sped up to a jog, before breaking into a run the deeper he sunk. It was short-lived. As aforementioned, you can only think do long when waterlogged and deprived of oxygen.
Poor Excuse
Nothing but a poor excuse a pale barrier of protection a neon sign would be of better use a weak tool of attraction, reflection
you don't need glasses to rob someone blind or a crutch to be crippled divinity to be kind or a pond to make a ripple
don't need fire to make a spark don't need dynamite to light a fuse don't need to be naked to be stark and you don't need a reason when you have a poor excuse
Threadus Revivus wasn't the title. That was my entry for the poetry contest this week.
The one I really like now is where a PaleoIndian man is born and can't age past 30 years old or be killed as long as some of his cells survive, due to an extra step in his cell division. I have some others, though.
Another one is where 6 people plot to make a deal with Satan and then try to double-cross him.
As a boy, he was respected by the elders in his tribe. He was hard-working â" quick to help with making spears and such, and fearless of injury. The other children didn't like to play with him when they could, though â" he was too strong, and never got hurt like they did. It was unfair to them, that there was a child who was stronger then they were, and who never got wounded even after taking many punches and kicks. He was precocious, too â" growing up large and fast, reaching about 7 feet tall in his early teens.
He went hunting often, throwing his spears fast and true, with great accuracy, not minding the biting cold Beringia assaulted the tribe with. Fearless in the face of even the most colossal creatures, his bravery would be likened in modern-day society to stupidity or overconfidence â" or both. Definitely both. But no matter how much he stuck his face in the fire, he never got burned. He would scoff at the most muscular punches or the sharpest tools, the most aggressive mammoths and the most soul-chilling temperature. What was life-threatening to others amounted to perhaps an ephemeral scrape that didn't pierce the first layer of his skin, if he was unlucky. And even if his injury was of frightening size, it was gone in days, maybe hours. He was a mystery to the ignorant tribesmen and tribeswomen of the frozen strait, and to himself.
This man had nothing to prove, at least consciously. Of course, the others disagreed. He didn't know pain, so he didn't fear it. He didn't know risk, so he didn't fear it. The other people thought of him as a braggart, who demanded and received unwarranted respect. Perhaps it was a morbid fascination with what appeared to be his luck, but the tribe both hated him for his theatrical survival and respected him for bringing food and prosperity â" he commanded a different type of feeling, one of awe, envy and respect all mixed together into an intoxicatingly repulsive cordial drunk by the barrel of all of the others. He just thought he knew how to survive.
As the years pressed on, he was immune to their moblike beatings. He saw his friends and family wither and die as he remained youthful and strong. Their life was like weeds, and his was a Sequoia. He had been the leader of the tribe for years now, a figure that was the one constant element in their lives â" the animals, the food, the living quality, and the ice were all changing, reappearing and disappearing. But he remained, the one standard to judge other things upon. The silver emblem that never tarnished.
He was hunting with his great-great-grandchild and some other tribesmen. They had hit across a mammoth, which they were wearing down. It took spear after spear with no falter, looking like it was on the road to furry pincushiondom â" and a moving one at that. But then, he decided to finish it. The battle had dragged on too long. He was hungry.
He relaxed his grip on the spear, its stone tip peaking out from the corner of his eye. Practice makes perfect, and he had practice. He let out a yell, stepped forward, and launched the spear into the Mammoth, piercing its heart. The beast struggled on, but lost to death's attack. Its legs crumpled, its eyes closed, and it let out one dying groan before settling down permanently. His tribe would eat well, and be clothed for years. Yet another reason to celebrate him.
He dispatched other men to cut the beast and take its fur and meat for later uses. He would have none of that underling work â" he had to save his energy for important things.
It had been a century, and he was still going strong. He hadn't aged a day for seventy years, and unlike the other elders, bore no scars of those years. Of course, the term 'elder' would be a bit misleading â" he had just been stuck on the same age for decades, and it appeared as though he would stay stuck.
Wow that was excellent, I believe it's the first story I've ever read that takes place in the ice age. I't seems to me almost as if he were a god, yet doesn't know he is one.
Wow. That was really, most truly, absolutly indescribable. I cant wait for more m8. Keep it up Alt. Heres a cookie... oh wait, I gave it to Dudeguy/Alex
Actually, I gave the cookile to dudeguy/alex, left, went back to his desk, grabbed the cookie, ate it, thought I still had it, tried to give it to you, but its really in my tummy