Further trials
These are, technically, the continuation of this experiment, but I'm not sure there's any data left to gather. So really I'm just having fun.
Mortal
His parents lie to him his entire life; he is grateful to them for teaching him how.
Broken
He creates a vision of his first home from those few artifacts that he knows survived: a tiny vehicle outfitted in garish, primary-coloured fabric; strange rocks that make him sick to be near; a cracked data disk in a language he doesn't understand; himself.
Closet
The young photographer looks at him quizzically when he steps out of the supply room for the seventh time that day; in answer, he holds up a single paper-clip, and he feels safe and disappointed when the young man smirks and tosses him an entire box of paperclips and doesn't question.
Burn
His hand jerks open when he touches the small green stone and he doesn't understand why; it takes him a long time to learn the vocabulary of pain.
Token
They buy his symbol at souvenir shops - as keychains, as beer mats, as lunch boxes, as fetish wear - and sometimes he wonders if it’s a form of fealty and sometimes he wonders if it's he that belongs to them all.
Irony
His partner hefts a plank and steps between him and the lizard-men, shouting at them to get away, keeping him in the corner of her eye in case he decides to rescue them instead.
Fair
The machine was a beautiful work of craft and skill, and the bald man before him despairs over the 3 months of effort it took to build such a perfect thing, curses him as if he didn't appreciate the artistry, as if he wouldn't have kept it whole and impressive had he been given a choice.
Wait
"And then the Prince saves them, and they all live happily ever after," the girl finishes the story for him, and he nods and sits with her until the paramedics finish dragging the bodies of her parents from the car.
Real
He runs his fingers over the words cut into the solid brass of his nameplate and, distracted, accidentally smoothes them away; he carves them back, exactly as they had always been, and no one ever notices the difference.
Fast
At time equals zero, a gun fires 20 miles to the east and a car loses control 20 miles to the west; he turns left or he turns right.
Mortal
His parents lie to him his entire life; he is grateful to them for teaching him how.
Broken
He creates a vision of his first home from those few artifacts that he knows survived: a tiny vehicle outfitted in garish, primary-coloured fabric; strange rocks that make him sick to be near; a cracked data disk in a language he doesn't understand; himself.
Closet
The young photographer looks at him quizzically when he steps out of the supply room for the seventh time that day; in answer, he holds up a single paper-clip, and he feels safe and disappointed when the young man smirks and tosses him an entire box of paperclips and doesn't question.
Burn
His hand jerks open when he touches the small green stone and he doesn't understand why; it takes him a long time to learn the vocabulary of pain.
Token
They buy his symbol at souvenir shops - as keychains, as beer mats, as lunch boxes, as fetish wear - and sometimes he wonders if it’s a form of fealty and sometimes he wonders if it's he that belongs to them all.
Irony
His partner hefts a plank and steps between him and the lizard-men, shouting at them to get away, keeping him in the corner of her eye in case he decides to rescue them instead.
Fair
The machine was a beautiful work of craft and skill, and the bald man before him despairs over the 3 months of effort it took to build such a perfect thing, curses him as if he didn't appreciate the artistry, as if he wouldn't have kept it whole and impressive had he been given a choice.
Wait
"And then the Prince saves them, and they all live happily ever after," the girl finishes the story for him, and he nods and sits with her until the paramedics finish dragging the bodies of her parents from the car.
Real
He runs his fingers over the words cut into the solid brass of his nameplate and, distracted, accidentally smoothes them away; he carves them back, exactly as they had always been, and no one ever notices the difference.
Fast
At time equals zero, a gun fires 20 miles to the east and a car loses control 20 miles to the west; he turns left or he turns right.