( The backstory: )

A one-time engagement, Darius said: one performance, a huge audience, recorded for posterity. Thirty thousand dollars for a hour long show, half right now and half after. It was of utmost importance, he assured me, and my participation would make all the difference.

It had all the hallmarks of an offer too good to be true. What sort of a person - ( Read more... )

For Siyi

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( Read more... )

It’s studied in school nowadays, you know. They make the psych students sign a release, informing them that they know the images will be highly disturbing, and then they show them everything.

The projector flashes through a timeline, showing the students the cell phone and DSLR pictures from shortly before it happened, the three videos that recorded ( Read more... )

The family called me Paul and I accepted the name easily, even though it came from my description - Personal Automaton, Utility and Labor. Sure, there were those of us named with more wit - Jeeves and Lurch, for example - but there were also ones that were referred to as Scrap, Dumbbot, and, other, less polite words. In light of the possible ( Read more... )

They had followed the dirt road for many miles, believing that it would lead them to civilization, or at least  what remained. It was just the two of them now, after the drama, the battles, the brief but sad services for those who had fallen.

The two of them had forged an uneasy alliance in the weeks after meeting, and even started to trust each ( Read more... )

For Rachel

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The shop’s sign was so old that she couldn’t make out what it actually said on it. Perhaps it was ‘Treasures of Men’ or ‘Dragons Den’; all she knew was that she had been here for years and had never seen it - surprising, because it clearly looked to be older than she was. She walked up to the door and tried to peer inside, but couldn’t ( Read more... )