Note: Been busy all week writing assignment for Professional Writing 2: Writing Across Fields. Pro Writing 1 entry can be found here. Apart from writing things like press release and such, the last part of the assignment is a freeform 1000-word write-whatever-the-hell-you-want deal. So I did a short story. Not really happy with it because to keep it to around 1000 words, I had to edit out a lot of elements that flesh out these characters’ online relationship with each other. Friends to the End Drained and bone-weary, Abu fell onto a large, dusty rock in the middle of the near-empty city. Several heartbeats later Chong came upon him. It took Chong only two seconds to identify him. “Abu?” he said. Panicked, Abu sat up quickly, his arm reaching for his backpack. Chong interjected quickly with his arms in front of him and palms outwards, “Hey! It’s me. It’s Chong!” […]
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Moment of Faith
Note: This short story is slightly edited from a 1500 word assignment for Professional Writing 1: Core Competency submitted on July 14. I thought it would be prudent not to throw around too many (or too funky) posthuman science fiction concepts in this story, just in case the tutor would be unable grok it. Faith Jinnouchi drew her Ruger-Miroku Egocapture pistol from her overcoat pocket. She casted her Ego Enforcement Department ID across the local network to all the other patrons of the café. Her words rang like a bell across the café. “Somerville Olafsson. Your Ego ID has been confirmed to be false. You are under arrest for being an Altered Ego under New Amsterdam’s EED Regulations Ten-Seventy.” The Egocapture pistol’s smartlink had confirmed this criminal act. So Faith fired at the distressed Olafsson. Transferring an Ego from one shell to another takes hours of scanning a neural scanning, […]
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My Pet Cthulhu
It was show and tell time at school, so little Ayumu Kasuga brought her pet that she found washed ashore along Osaka bay. She could not really recall how she came to have it, or how she brought it home… or even how she got it to school for show and tell, but there it was like a shadow upon a shadow deep from a lingering nightmare. When it was her turn she began to speak. She was somewhat aware that she spoke in a tongue both beautiful and ugly to hear but she thought nothing of it. Some of the sounds she made did not seem possible to have vocalised by a human but she also thought nothing of this. But her voice carried, and everyone who heard it came – even ones who were too far away to listen. Soon her class was filled with students from other […]
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A Robot Rescue – Bad Example, Episode 4
Last Sunday, the GOKL gang continued the role-playing adventures of Star Wars: A Bad Example in the Spacelanes. Two new players, Nigel of Singapore who played Bob the Wookiee, and Razzman who played Reelo Jackson the Rodian bounty hunter, joined the party as they embarked on a mission to retrieve their kidnapped crewmates, beginning with Weapon X the HK-78 assassin droid. The previous episode can be found here. Episode 4: Our Droid Is Not Open-Sourced Long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away… Upon exposing a traitor Starson O’Kreem in the mobile asteroid pirate stronghold Irontooth Station, pirate lord Slaughter Maelstrom has confirmed a truce with the crew of the Bad Example. After returning to Sriluur to pick up Tickley, the crew sets off to recovered their captured droid companion Weapon X. Using the data taken from O’Kreem’s datapad, they attempt to discover Weapon X’s location and soon track […]
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Pirate Politics – Bad Example, Episode 3
About six months ago, I ran the third Star Wars D6 game with the GOKL crew, which continued from Episode 2. But I was a bad GM then and did not take notes (mentally and on paper) of what occurred. Here is a run-down of the lost Episode 3 of Star Wars: A Bad Example in the Spacelanes. Details such as combat and NPC names were lost. New NPC names are fabricated for the purpose of continuity in the adventure and will be considered official for upcoming games. Episode 3: Piracy, Treachery and Kidnappings The crew of the Bad Example, Hunter Maelstrom the freighter captain, Nek’Koh’Moo’Su’May a.k.a Annie the Trianii, Ssssawar the Trandoshan chef and the clone Aden uneasily enjoyed the dinner set out for them by The Five Skulls Brigands. Weapon X, the HK-57 droid, just sat and made small talk. The pirate leader Lord Irontooth had earlier revealed […]
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Hunting Pirates – Bad Example, Episode 2 Part 2
Episode 2: Crab Meat Beach Party IV Continued from Part 1 Ever the diplomat and unable to shoot from the back of the column, Hunter Maelstrom climbed up the nearest tree to get a clear shot as well and yelled, “Don’t shoot! It might be friendly.” Annie the Trianii brandished her talons and attempted to perform an acrobatic leap over the droid Weapon-X and the Trandoshan chef Ssssawar to get to Aden. Unfortunately, she slipped and fell face down in the dirt. Weapon-X was still trying to bear his blaster rifle on the creature, but Aden’s military skills prevailed. His DC-15 rifle was up and he fired, but the bolt slightly grazed the side of the creature’s head. Sharp, slimy teeth centimetres away from the clone’s throat, Ssssawar stepped in and swiftly punched the beast hard at the side of its head. It fell into a heap on the carpet […]
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Shooting Zebras – Bad Example, Episode 2 Part 1
I ran the second episode of Star Wars: A Bad Example In The Spacelanes last weekend with the GOKL crew. Without Adrian, Tickley the Jawa Jedi would be relegated to behind-the-scenes NPC while the rest of the crew did their thing. In Bad Example In The Spacelanes Episode 1: Pilot, Or Lack Thereof, some stuff happened which you can read here. Here follows the story of the game that was ran: Episode 2: Crab Meat Beach Party Long time ago in a galaxy far, far away… The shipping line to the mining community of Port Barrow on the planet Sriluur was under constant raid from pirates. Because Port Barrow was being developed and industrialized by the outlander human Tam Gromer, it was relatively shunned by the rest of the planet. However, after the arrival of the crew of the yacht Bad Example, three pirate YT-1760 freighters had been taken out […]
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A Bad Example In The Spacelanes, Part 2
Continuing the adventures of the crew of the Bad Example on Sriluur… III Meanwhile, Aden, Ssssawar and Annie crossed a bridge over the river that led to the waterfall only several metres due west. Their destination, Spacer’s Bistro, was on the other side of the river. Port Barrow had the expected large percentage of Weequay population in the streets, they saw. But there were also other species, including humans, several Rodians here, a few Duros over there. The Bistro was a domed building overlooking the cliff. There was a large window pane which allowed for spectacular view of the canyon and other mountains in the range. It was still early, so there were not many patrons in the Bistro. A green and black clad human was drinking alone in a table. There was a Weequay passed out, presumably drunk at another table. A Rodian was at a table near the […]
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A Bad Example In The Spacelanes, Part 1
Last Sunday I ran my first face-to-face, over-the-table Star Wars RPG game since 1999, with the GoKL crew. It was a tramp freighter campaign, set in the Rebellion Era, using classic D6 rules. I was quite anxious about it seeing it’s been a while since I was in practice – discounting the IRC chat-based Sabredart and Chronicles of the Wild Gundark campaigns I had several years ago. There were seven of us. I was gamemaster and there were six players. We rolled 6-sided dice to determine the outcome of our actions, and the players decided what to do based on the scenarios and encounters I described to them over the game. It was fantastic collaborative storytelling. Ultimately, this was the story that came out at the end of the game: Episode 1: Pilot, or Lack Thereof Long time ago in a galaxy far, far away… the galaxy is in turmoil. […]
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Only You Can Save The World
I was tagged with a meme by Lil at iFantabulous some time ago and I finally got around to writing (and illustrating) it today. What I have to do is to fill out the form with 5 lines below to reveal my secret superhero identity and come up with an image of my alter ego. So, a superhero, eh? Here goes nothing. I’m called : Sink I will save the world by : looking for and beating up crooks, and sending them to jail whenever and wherever I find them. However, it’s not this crimefighting act which will directly save the world. I have to do this because if I don’t my real superpower will activate, and would be disastrous to put it mildly. (See item 5) My mode of transport is : walking around, or maybe the train, because I can’t afford anything more than that. My archnemesis is […]
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Chronicles of the Wild Gundark Part III
Concluding the saga of the Wild Gundark crew: Quickly, the person on the other side of the comm told Nisa to meet them in Landing Bay 239 back at Medeus. “We’ll be waiting there at noon local time tomorrow.” Then the Fifth House woman cut off the transmission abruptly. The confused N4 remarked, “Could someone please explain the situation to me? Who is this ‘Duke’ and who was that organic who ceased functioning outside the ship just now?” Ignoring the newcomer droid, the worried Groo asked, “You think that communiqué was really bad for our health?” A grinning Similiv replied, “Probably, Greenskin… but we wouldn’t want our lives to be boring now would we?” Finally after much contemplation, Nisa grimly said, “OK! We have a meet, but get ready for anything this time. We have about 12 hours till the meet, and I want to be alive for it.” And […]
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Chronicles of the Wild Gundark Part II
Continuing the saga of the Wild Gundark crew: Nisa pulled on her control yoke and told her passenger (and her wary crew), “Let’s get to work.” Similiv turned to the comm board as the ship’s nose turned the way Nisa directed it. And she discovered that a colossal object blocked her entire forward viewport. Something grey. Something wedged shaped. Something over a kilometre and a half in length. Something ominous. It seemed to them that the ship’s cabin temperature dropped several dozen degrees. “An Imperial Star Destroyer!” And now the continuation of the story based on the Star Wars RPG campaign: The Star Destroyer, Nisa Dyaton noticed, had deactivated running lights. And most of its hull viewport were dark. Tell Sabarin finally commented, “The ship is brand new, probably fresh off the manufacturing drydock, with minimal security and maintenance crew. It’s awaiting inspection before a crew is assigned to it.” […]
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Chronicles of the Wild Gundark Part I
A Star Wars fiction, based on the Chronicles of Wild Gundark RPG campaign. It all began when the crew of the Wild Gundark was commissioned to deliver twenty tons of bantha milk to the backwater town of Prosperity on the cold tundra of the planet Dellalt. The job went without a hitch, apart from the little tussle with the crew of an Imperial customs corvette (the two-pronged, sleek affair that many tramp freighter captains love to hate) in the Vaxal system. Unfortunately, the result of the little encounter was the spillage of approximately half of the delicious blue milk because of gravity plate failure. Things could have turned out real bad for them, but instead their contact, a imposing and tattooed Herglic named Dapp only paid them fairly in half and left peacefully. There was only one thing known to them as they left Dellalt: They had taken on a […]
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