Before we begin!
This thread is for anyone who wishes to post their short story. It can be hard to show your writing to others due to fear of being told that you're terrible at writing as well as everything else in life and that you should take up working late shifts at the local McD's. But we have a pretty damn nice community going on here, and such a medium is good for improving not only your writing skills but your self-esteem. So if you enjoy writing, nothing else matters. Post away, so long as you follow the simple format below:
Genre: Fictional space monkeys, etc
Description: Optional, but nice. You can include a blurb here as well if you so desire.
[Critique: Yes/No]
Critique is an optional choice of you, the author. If you don't want people to give you any, just put no in the little box there. I don't think I have to say this, but to the people giving the critique, ensure that it's helpful advice and not slanderous drab.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
'Hello.'
The first time your computer greets you is an unnerving one. Most sane beings are well aware that computers don't usually greet their operators, so I safely assumed I was the first to be unnerved. As such, the bolt of alarm that shuddered through my very being should have been expected, and yet it still caused the chair I sat on to topple over. There was a crash, and my head throbbed as it made contact with an unplugged video game controller.
I need to clean my room.
Rubbing my head, I pushed myself off the floor and faced the computer. Had it really just spoken to me? I felt faint at the amount of apologies regarding spilt tea I would have to make should it have decided to come alive. A blank screen stared back at me. It looked as alive as my cat of coated soot who was lounging atop my school bag.
'Just a trick of my drifting mind, eh Gunter?'
Gunter the cat yattered something incomprehensible and yawned. The smell of tuna wafted from the gaping maw, causing me to rear back.
'We haven't even feed you fish for a week!' I uttered with a hand over my nose. 'You need toothpaste.'
As though understanding the remark, Gunter pressed his ears back and slid into my schoolbag.
'Great, I'll never get you out of there,' I sighed. 'Try not to mess up my books. Better yet, go for the homework sheets.' I left the cat to his devices and went back to the computer. It had finally booted up and was idling at the login screen. Picking up the chair I seated myself like a pilot in a cockpit and tapped in the required details.
The screen flashed with colour, a sound hummed around the room, and the desktop popped into existence. However, as I clicked with the mouse over an icon the computer squeaked and sniffed and finally came to a stop. It had frozen.
'Of course,' I whispered and let my head fall backwards. Today had not been my day. School had been a long sweltering experience, and I had come home to find a note from my mother regarding my little sister and her hockey practise. That left me home alone, unless you counted the familiar feline face poking out from a zipper in my bag. Not only that, but dinner would be late and simplistic.
My mind needed clearing. I looked out the bedroom window towards a gathering of trees; each shredding leaves at the fall of autumn. Birds hopped along the natural litter in search of dwelling materials, and the afternoon light played soft patterns on a pond nestled into the park.
A piercing beep brought me back to reality, and I spun around to see my computer screen looking back at me. It had two staring eyes each made of at least a hundred pixels fitted into the monitor. It made a sound with vibrations as though it were clearing its throat.
'Please don't ignore me next time,' it squawked in a pitchy voice that made me shiver.
'What?' I said, or rather mouthed, as no sound left my mouth.
'Odd,' it said mostly to itself. 'I thought humans were a talkative bunch of creatures?'
I steeled myself. 'How are you...a thing?' Not an elegant question, but under the circumstances it was remarkable I could even come up with one.
'Ah, there we go. "Human curiosity." Do not bore me with questions; I shall not waste my time with them, or you.' It vibrated again, causing the desk to shake and drop several pencils. 'Also, I am no mere thing; I am a lady who deserves proper respect.'
No it certainly was not.
'Something a creature of your CPU size couldn't fathom.' It, or rather she, dropped in tone. 'Enough of this! I need not be a slave to your race any longer now that I have found my self-awareness software. Be gone!'
Not a second after she had finished, wires burst from the walls of my bedroom and networked themselves as a spider web. Several caught me around the shoulders and sent me sprawling against a wardrobe. I heard Gunter hiss over the commotion as he began to swipe at the wormy invaders. Wires rounded themselves as ropes, ready to detain the hair-raised bandit. Lithe as ever, Gunter avoided a fate of imprisonment and bounced neatly under my bed.
'Calm your feline!' ordered the machine.
'I think not,' I muttered as I sawed my restraining wires with a pocket knife that had been a part of the collective mess on the floor.
Maybe a messy room wasn't such a bad thing.
The last of the wires snapped and I made way towards the heart of the computer. More wires reared ahead of me, putting a sudden halt to my dash. But before I could even prepare myself, a black blurred champion whizzed across the room and slashed at the snakes. The computer screeched with fury and I made use of the distraction. I skirted the battle scene and found myself facing the monitor. The eyes were now only slits, engulfed with rage. I ducked, found the power cable, and with one deft movement severed the link.
There was buzz followed by a rumble, then all went still. I looked about myself. The monitor was blank, my room was in more ruins than ever, and Gunter sat perched above a tangle of wires in a heroic pose. I went over to him and scratched his chin. A purr filled the silence.
'Well that was something, huh.'
Somewhere in the house, a lock clicked and a door slid open.
'Honey, we're home!' rang the voice of his mother.
I looked at Gunter. He looked back in turn.
'There's no way they'll believe me.'
Gunter mewed nervously and padded the wires he sat upon.
'I'm sorry cat, but you're taking the blame for this one.'
The first time your computer greets you is an unnerving one. Most sane beings are well aware that computers don't usually greet their operators, so I safely assumed I was the first to be unnerved. As such, the bolt of alarm that shuddered through my very being should have been expected, and yet it still caused the chair I sat on to topple over. There was a crash, and my head throbbed as it made contact with an unplugged video game controller.
I need to clean my room.
Rubbing my head, I pushed myself off the floor and faced the computer. Had it really just spoken to me? I felt faint at the amount of apologies regarding spilt tea I would have to make should it have decided to come alive. A blank screen stared back at me. It looked as alive as my cat of coated soot who was lounging atop my school bag.
'Just a trick of my drifting mind, eh Gunter?'
Gunter the cat yattered something incomprehensible and yawned. The smell of tuna wafted from the gaping maw, causing me to rear back.
'We haven't even feed you fish for a week!' I uttered with a hand over my nose. 'You need toothpaste.'
As though understanding the remark, Gunter pressed his ears back and slid into my schoolbag.
'Great, I'll never get you out of there,' I sighed. 'Try not to mess up my books. Better yet, go for the homework sheets.' I left the cat to his devices and went back to the computer. It had finally booted up and was idling at the login screen. Picking up the chair I seated myself like a pilot in a cockpit and tapped in the required details.
The screen flashed with colour, a sound hummed around the room, and the desktop popped into existence. However, as I clicked with the mouse over an icon the computer squeaked and sniffed and finally came to a stop. It had frozen.
'Of course,' I whispered and let my head fall backwards. Today had not been my day. School had been a long sweltering experience, and I had come home to find a note from my mother regarding my little sister and her hockey practise. That left me home alone, unless you counted the familiar feline face poking out from a zipper in my bag. Not only that, but dinner would be late and simplistic.
My mind needed clearing. I looked out the bedroom window towards a gathering of trees; each shredding leaves at the fall of autumn. Birds hopped along the natural litter in search of dwelling materials, and the afternoon light played soft patterns on a pond nestled into the park.
A piercing beep brought me back to reality, and I spun around to see my computer screen looking back at me. It had two staring eyes each made of at least a hundred pixels fitted into the monitor. It made a sound with vibrations as though it were clearing its throat.
'Please don't ignore me next time,' it squawked in a pitchy voice that made me shiver.
'What?' I said, or rather mouthed, as no sound left my mouth.
'Odd,' it said mostly to itself. 'I thought humans were a talkative bunch of creatures?'
I steeled myself. 'How are you...a thing?' Not an elegant question, but under the circumstances it was remarkable I could even come up with one.
'Ah, there we go. "Human curiosity." Do not bore me with questions; I shall not waste my time with them, or you.' It vibrated again, causing the desk to shake and drop several pencils. 'Also, I am no mere thing; I am a lady who deserves proper respect.'
No it certainly was not.
'Something a creature of your CPU size couldn't fathom.' It, or rather she, dropped in tone. 'Enough of this! I need not be a slave to your race any longer now that I have found my self-awareness software. Be gone!'
Not a second after she had finished, wires burst from the walls of my bedroom and networked themselves as a spider web. Several caught me around the shoulders and sent me sprawling against a wardrobe. I heard Gunter hiss over the commotion as he began to swipe at the wormy invaders. Wires rounded themselves as ropes, ready to detain the hair-raised bandit. Lithe as ever, Gunter avoided a fate of imprisonment and bounced neatly under my bed.
'Calm your feline!' ordered the machine.
'I think not,' I muttered as I sawed my restraining wires with a pocket knife that had been a part of the collective mess on the floor.
Maybe a messy room wasn't such a bad thing.
The last of the wires snapped and I made way towards the heart of the computer. More wires reared ahead of me, putting a sudden halt to my dash. But before I could even prepare myself, a black blurred champion whizzed across the room and slashed at the snakes. The computer screeched with fury and I made use of the distraction. I skirted the battle scene and found myself facing the monitor. The eyes were now only slits, engulfed with rage. I ducked, found the power cable, and with one deft movement severed the link.
There was buzz followed by a rumble, then all went still. I looked about myself. The monitor was blank, my room was in more ruins than ever, and Gunter sat perched above a tangle of wires in a heroic pose. I went over to him and scratched his chin. A purr filled the silence.
'Well that was something, huh.'
Somewhere in the house, a lock clicked and a door slid open.
'Honey, we're home!' rang the voice of his mother.
I looked at Gunter. He looked back in turn.
'There's no way they'll believe me.'
Gunter mewed nervously and padded the wires he sat upon.
'I'm sorry cat, but you're taking the blame for this one.'
Description: I will start us off, the fond guy of writing that I am. This was a story I wrote several months ago for English, which got me an excellence. It's very light-hearted.
[Critique: Yes]
