randomwritingatrandomtimes-blog

[randomwritingatrandomtimes-blog]

LARP away

Beepbeepbeeeeep Beepbeepbeeeeep Beepbee - Auri slammed the off button on her old alarm. She glanced at the time "Fuuuuuuuuudgee," She was already thirty minutes late for practice. Auri rolled out of bed, ran her hand through her hair and then slipped on casual clothes. She grabbed a bottle of coffee threw it into her satchel of larp equipment and rushed out the door. "I was wondering if you'd ever show up." Will greeted her. "Sorry, sorry, I set my alarm an hour late." Auri apologized "It's cool, we are still just warming up," Lily reassured her. Auri pulled out her sword and got to work with one of the practice dummies. Slice-slash-stab Slice-slash-stab Auri got into a rythem and began to faze out ~ "Does it look okay?" Auri asked Lily, holding out her skeleton of a sword. "It's fine, it's not like we need to be able to take out a hit man with it or anything" "Okay, here hold it for me while I wrap it." They were sitting outside on Lily's front lawn as the sun set turning the Kansas sky purple ~ Of course that was 5 years ago and Auri's swords had gotten a lot better than that old prototype. A lot more was at stake now, it wasn't just staying up late on summer nights and duct taping foam and PVC pipes. This was Auri's collage fund. She certainly didn't have the grades for a scholarship, LARPing away her study time and she didn't have the money either. The jackpot for nationals was enough split between the three of them to cover full rides to any collage in the nation. Not only that but LARPers often got sponsorships and many went pro after winning this championship. Everything hinged on this, her happiness, her life, her future. If she screwed up now, it was game over for all of them. If she screwed up now- "Whoa Auri, I think that dummy has had enough," Will's voice broke through her thoughts. The dummy was almost to shreds, the hay they had stuffed into the burlap bag was all over the ground and what remained was uneven and beatup. "Okay. Yeah, okay." Auri stepped back and took a deep breath Lily and Will exchanged worried glances. "How about some field practice? I think we are all sufficiently warm," Lily suggested, "Auri and I against you, Will, let's attempt with one limb missing each." "Come at me," Will said tucking his left arm behind his back. Will was their tank, and swinging his heavy battle ax, even one handed, was intimidating. It took both Auri, their fighter and Lily, their rouge took take him out and they didn't often even do that. Auri tucked her right arm behind her and took stance for 451A. Lily read the situation and came to the same conclusion, balancing on one leg she pulled her knifes out. Auri rushed Will, with a scream she raised her sword as if to strike. He took his ax to deflect but at last second she ducked and rolled and his ax collided with air. Off balance, Lily took out one of his legs with a knife. But will wasn't to be taken out so easily, he hurled his ax at Lily and struck her in the chest, knocking her to the ground and likely the wind out of her too. But with only two limbs Will was severely incapacitated, Auri took the opportunity to jump on him from behind. Will stabbed her with a spare knife but missed her torso by an inch and got her arm instead. She dropped her sword and rolled off of Will's back since she had no more arms to hold on with. She kicked out underneath Will and knocked him flat. She kicked out the spare blades they had just made last week for her boots using hyperthin pvc that was just released on the market. She had Will in a lethal position and thus the battle ended. She flicked the blades back in. Will got up, "Hey, good job you,-" "No. If it weren't for my clumsy jump that would have been over a full minute sooner and if I reacted faster lily wouldn't have been incapacitated. I need to be better." "Don't beat yourself up Auri, you still knocked me down with no hands at all." "I wouldn't have had to if I was faster." Auri slashed the grass around her in anger and walked off. "Where are you going? " Will called after her. "Gym for more practice!" Auri yelled back grabbing her bag and jogging off. Will walked over to Lily who was starting to get up . "Here let me give you a hand," will helped her to her feet, "Your knifes" "Thanks. I'm starting to worry about her." "Yeah, me too." Author's Note: So clearly I need to brush up on my action scenes, this is almost painful to read but it's the best I got with no edits other than basic grammar and spelling. I haven't written any action based fiction for over a year and it's rather obvious. Not sure where I wanted to go with this one, I just kind of made it up as I went along. Feedback and constructive criticism is greatly appreciated.

[randomwritingatrandomtimes-blog]

Common Cold

I woke up with a horrible headache, from the my temples to the part right above my neck and a scratchy throat. I was sick. The general horribleness of being sick is so common yet we commonly forget how horrible it is until we are actually sick, at least I do. It's like my brain has a memory wipe after every common cold being like " that was horrible, let's forget that, what were we talking about again?" So for future me, being sick is awful. Absolutely awful. You feel bad all day and you can't sleep all night. Simply breathing hurts like nothing else and you can't think straight. You always forget to drink water and dehydration combined with your cold makes you delusional and irrational. So for goodness sake take care of yourself, because until they invent the perfect solution to the common cold, it's going to be awful. Sincerely, sick me

[randomwritingatrandomtimes-blog]

A failed jumpscare

“Shhhhhhhhhhhhh” Jack whispered to Yalow as they crept along the hallway.
 “What?! I’m making no more sound than you are!” Yalow whispered back.
 “Shhhhhhhh.”
 Yalow sighed and rolled his eyes.
They sneaked along, interspersed with random “shhhh"s and Yalow’s sighs of exasperation. 
Finally Yalow and Jack reached their intended target, a girl immersed in a book at the end of the hallway.
 Jack walked up behind her and whispered in her ear, "boo.” Katherine didn’t even flinch, she just sighed and closed her book, “It never works you know, every single time you fail to scare me or surprise me. Freight trains are quieter than you.”
 “Dang it! Yalow this was all your fault!” Jack yelled in frustration.
 “NO it wasn’t, you idiot. It was your idea in the first place!” Yalow countered.
“Well if you weren’t making so much noise, it would have worked!” 
“Actually Jack it was your shhhhhhhs that I noticed first, anyways good try. Want to go grab a bite to eat before the physics final?”
 “Sure, I’m starving” Jack said. 
“You are always starving” 
“By the way, Yalow did you get that problem on page 56?” 
“No I didn’t I was wondering what you thought of it.” 
“Well…. there are two possible routes with the problem you could approach it from a time standpoint as that’s what the graph uses or you could use the velocity equations that the book offers as a standard….

[randomwritingatrandomtimes-blog]

Socks at One AM

“I like socks,” said Jane

“I like silence,” replied Kate

“They are just so sock-like, you know? And they are such strange shapes too. All funny like a rectangle gone wrong…. Hey, why are socks such odd shapes? And why is sock such an odd syllable too?” Jane asked.

“If you don’t shut up and let me sleep I will stuff a sock in your mouth,” Kate grumbled.

Jane was silent for a few minutes.

“But seriously, why are socks the only things of such a sock like shape? Everyone in the world knows exactly what a sock is when they see that shape, a human shape. Not a circle or a triangle or something average but a sock shape.”

“Are we seriously having a conversation about socks at one in the morning?”

“Well, of course. What else could we be doing? I can’t sleep.”

“That doesn’t mean I can’t sleep either.”

“Wellllllllllllllllllll……………… ‘for better or for worse’?”

“They should say for socks or for socks with sandals.”

Jane laughed.

“What is up with socks and sandals anyways? Clearly socks are for shoes and feet are for sandals!”

“I know right? To answer your question about sock shapes, it’s because socks are feet shaped and feet are weirddd.”

“Huh I never thought of that. But everyone recognizes sock shapes, not necessarily feet shapes.”

“They certainly can’t recognize your feet shapes.”

“HeY!” Jane whacked Kate in the head with a pillow.

“I’m kidding, I’m kidding, but really we should be asking why did nature favor feet shapes instead of circles or triangles in the game of survival of the fittest?”

“Maybe the universe got sick of perfect shapes.”

“Or maybe the universe just wanted to mess with us all.”

“Or maybe just maybe circles and triangles aren’t good shapes at all but were meant to be sock shaped and turned out wrong, like they put whites with colors in the wash.”

“This is getting too complex for me, I’m going to sleep.”

“FINe, go to sleep. I’ll stay up wondering about socks.”

“Socks… Why of all things must you contemplate socks at one in the morning?”

“Go to sleep, I contemplate the socks and you make me coffee in the morning.”

“It is the morning.”

“Soooocksssss”

“Ah whatever,” Kate rolled over and pulled the blanket closer to her.

[randomwritingatrandomtimes-blog]

A few minutes in the Rain

It is raining out on East Harrington Street.

It is raining and a young woman named Margret is sitting in a window seat looking outside. She takes a sip of her tea and snuggles underneath her fleece blanket.

A cat jumps onto her lap; Margret flinches and nearly spills her tea.

The cat settles down and they both look out on the wet streets of London.

There is a man on the street walking very quickly with a briefcase, in a brown or grey trench coat [Margret cannot tell which in the heavy rain]. He looks very angry and in a rush, stomping in puddles and splashing water everywhere. He does not have an umbrella. Perhaps he forgot his umbrella.

There is a pack of schoolboys coming the other way, ranging in age from nine to eleven. They laugh and joke, jeer, and splash in the puddles though not like the serious businessman. They are soaked through.

One of the boys splashes the businessman. He turns around angry. He yells something at the one who splashed him. He looks like he is going to hit the boy. One of the older boys steps forward and mocks the man. The rest of the boys join in. The businessman looks as if he is going to yell some more. The older boy crosses his arms as if asking for a fight. The man glares, spits out some words and stomps away, turning on the corner.

The boys laugh and head on their way, mocking the serious man, but secretly wondering if they will someday be like him.

A car pulls up to the edge of the sidewalk, a small girl in red rain boots gets out with her mother, who is holding a black umbrella. The car speeds away, causing waves of water to rise up and splash the pedestrians on the sidewalk. The little girl will not stop jumping in the puddles, oblivious of how wet she is getting and how wet she is getting her mother. She grips onto her mother’s hand, a tiny little hand grasping onto a tough calloused hand, so very tightly.

A delicate lady and gentleman walk out of a shop, hurrying to stay as dry as possible despite how impossible it is. She is wearing a fancy hat with a feather and many flowers that are bright orange. The gentleman has draped his drab jacket over her shoulders in reminiscence of chivalry and old world manners. They run to the curb and attempt to hail a taxi.

The little girl lets go of her mother’s hand. The little girl runs up to a puddle nearby and jumps in it splashing all of the surrounding pedestrians including the rich couple and her mother.

The gentleman turns around to reprimand the girl, but the lady is all smiles laughing at her childish antics. The mother embarrassed, profusely apologizes. The gentleman crosses his arms, already very wet   without his jacket. The lady consoles him and assures the mother that it is all okay. A taxi pulls up. They get inside, the little girl waves to the lady, and she waves back. The taxi speeds away

The mother admonishes the girl for splashing and tells her to stick with her. The little girl nods along, not listening. They head into their apartment next to the store not pausing to shake off their umbrella.

The cat gets up, stretches and then leaps off Margret’s blanket.

She takes a sip of her tea and readjusts.

It is raining on East Harrington Street.