Ronnie

Sam Appleton 15 ugly smart-ass city, double-personality, got a tail

Ronald 2 fat, short, rather cute; very, very caring; countryside; obsessed with eating spaghetti; green skin

Little Ronald, or Ronnie, was the most adorable child in the town. His cherubic chubby arms would stretch out, asking for a hug. His smile and laughter delighted anyone who holds him. Ronnie was 2, and was not old enough to understand the worries of the world. He did sense though, how his parents would often sigh at night. Ronnie would crawl to his parents as fast as he can, and would try to bring smiles to their faces in any way he could. Ronnie would sing a tune, or pat his parents. (This took him some effort, because they were too high for him to reach)

Sometimes he would find his ‘treasures’ to give his parents – flowers, small animals, a piece of bark, and all the small things around the town that could only be seen by Ronnie. As the townspeople go farming, they would see Ronnie trying to pull the worm out of the muddy ground. He made them smile all the time. Ronnie still had to drink milk, that was for sure, but he was slowly learning how to eat other ‘adult food’, and was proud of it. His number 1 cuisine was spaghetti. The red sauce would make a contrast with his skin color, a smooth, glowing glimpse of green. On his 2^nd Christmas, people would gather around Ronnie’s house and would laugh jolly at this Christmas-colored boy, who had tomato sauce all over his green face.

His parents would also give him warm smiles, but often they wondered – there was no school in this small countryside town, and he would have to go out of town to attend school when he reaches the age of 7. In this town where people were accustomed to surprises, Ronnie was just a ‘cute green angel’. “There are black people, white people, red people, and even yellow people around the world, so why not green?” They’d say.

Outside? His parents could guess what they’d call him – some kind of monster, probably, like Hulk, or Shrek, depending on whether Ronnie develops muscles or not. If somehow he loses all his fat, then he’d be named some kind of Alien.

So Mr. and Mrs. Appletons again spent the night trying to solve this. Should they do home school? But both of them didn’t even go to universities, and they wanted best education for their son. They dreamed of Ronnie going to college, even graduate school. Perhaps he’d be a doctor, or a cook – he certainly was smart. Mrs. Appleton was secretly dreaming Ronnie being a teacher, whom she considered the hero of the society. But a green teacher? Who’d accept such? Mrs. Appleton softly wiped sauce out of Ronnie, who was sound asleep. Then Ronnie woke up, saw the worried look in his mother and gave her the biggest smile he could give. She laughed.

“Perhaps you are out-of-this-world, Ronnie, you are.”

Ronnie

Sam Appleton 15 ugly smart-ass city, double-personality, got a tail

Ronald 2 fat, short, rather cute; very, very caring; countryside; obsessed with eating spaghetti; green skin

Little Ronald, or Ronnie, was the most adorable child in the town. His cherubic chubby arms would stretch out, asking for a hug. His smile and laughter delighted anyone who holds him. Ronnie was 2, and was not old enough to understand the worries of the world. He did sense though, how his parents would often sigh at night. Ronnie would crawl to his parents as fast as he can, and would try to bring smiles to their faces in any way he could. Ronnie would sing a tune, or pat his parents. (This took him some effort, because they were too high for him to reach)

Sometimes he would find his ‘treasures’ to give his parents – flowers, small animals, a piece of bark, and all the small things around the town that could only be seen by Ronnie. As the townspeople go farming, they would see Ronnie trying to pull the worm out of the muddy ground. He made them smile all the time. Ronnie still had to drink milk, that was for sure, but he was slowly learning how to eat other ‘adult food’, and was proud of it. His number 1 cuisine was spaghetti. The red sauce would make a contrast with his skin color, a smooth, glowing glimpse of green. On his 2^nd Christmas, people would gather around Ronnie’s house and would laugh jolly at this Christmas-colored boy, who had tomato sauce all over his green face.

His parents would also give him warm smiles, but often they wondered – there was no school in this small countryside town, and he would have to go out of town to attend school when he reaches the age of 7. In this town where people were accustomed to surprises, Ronnie was just a ‘cute green angel’. “There are black people, white people, red people, and even yellow people around the world, so why not green?” They’d say.

Outside? His parents could guess what they’d call him – some kind of monster, probably, like Hulk, or Shrek, depending on whether Ronnie develops muscles or not. If somehow he loses all his fat, then he’d be named some kind of Alien.

So Mr. and Mrs. Appletons again spent the night trying to solve this. Should they do home school? But both of them didn’t even go to universities, and they wanted best education for their son. They dreamed of Ronnie going to college, even graduate school. Perhaps he’d be a doctor, or a cook – he certainly was smart. Mrs. Appleton was secretly dreaming Ronnie being a teacher, whom she considered the hero of the society. But a green teacher? Who’d accept such? Mrs. Appleton softly wiped sauce out of Ronnie, who was sound asleep. Then Ronnie woke up, saw the worried look in his mother and gave her the biggest smile he could give. She laughed.

“Perhaps you are out-of-this-world, Ronnie, you are.”

Hero

I was sitting on a rock, music banging into my ear. Nicole was trying to figure out how to find the road inside the snowing, cold mountain.

‘This sucks,’ I thought. How did I end up being stuck in the middle of a snowing mountain with that genius? If our parents weren’t so obsessed with the idea of us being together, I would be at downtown with my friends now.

Nicole was the hero of our neighborhood. She won the grand prize for the national competition of science when she was in middle school (I won the second place), and she pretty much solved most of the town’s problem. She figured out how to fix the water tank when it broke without no reason (I tried, but all my hypothesis turned out to be false); she helped Ms.Gerald writing the law suit against her ex-husband (I tried, but the cases I found were outdated); she was the captain of the school’s cheer leading crew and he tennis team (I was the co-captain). We won the national last year. Worst of all, she was my father’s best friend’s only daughter. We grew together – we went to same school, did same after-school activities. My parents were always proud that I had a friend like her – they were proud that I was having the opportunity to be with her! When the reporting card comes, they didn’t give much thought about what I did – they would immediately go on to ask about Nicole. I would answer, giving meaningless effort to minimize her achievement. Dad would beam with pride; Mom would sulk at both dad and me.

“She’s not your daughter, Paul.”

She’d say, and then the usual argument between ‘Mike-is-more-than-a-brother’ and ‘What-about-Heather’ would begin, ending with the usual conclusion that “Heather-is-an-ordinary-girl.”

So it’s pretty much explainable that I didn’t talk to her that much except this annual event of hiking with Uncle Mike’s family. It was OK until now, except that Nicole and I rarely talked. Until this year. Somehow we were lost; somehow it started to snow too early than usual, and Nicole and I was stuck in the middle of snowing valley.

“Well, the Wonder Woman still isn’t done with furnishing her cape, I suppose?”

I snickered, tired of waiting. It was getting dark, and I couldn’t understand that the born-genius was still struggling with such a simple task. To my surprised, she jumped at me.

“What have you been doing, Heather? Sitting there all the time, and now you are ordering me around!”

I sprang up.
“What the..? Now the Super Girl has gone mad?”

“Don’t call me that! You always call me that!”

“Well you are! You are to my dad, at least! If you are complaining about getting the admiration of the whole nation, you can stop whining and get us outta here!”

“Ha, I’ve always realized that you try to act smart in front of your dad – doesn’t suit you very well, Heather.”

Then I jumped at her. We rolled down the road, and when Heather got up, she stumbled back, and before I was able to call her name, she disappeared – she fell under the stiff. It wasn’t high, so she didn’t break her leg, but it was clear that she couldn’t walk.

“Nicole!” I yelled. I stretched my arm to reach her, but it was too far. I looked around  - not many people pass by here, but there might be a chance. I ran until I found a group of hikers at the very far side of the valley. I yelled for help, but people wouldn’t listen. They were gone. Nicole was moaning, saying something about a rope.

“I will get one, Nicole. I will be back.” I yelled, and I ran – I didn’t know where to find the rope, and the snow was getting deeper, but I had to try. Then I saw it. A rope tied around a tree to make a sign for hikers. I tried to pull the rope out of the sign, but it was too tight. I took off my gloves, and kicked the sign as hard as I could while pulling the rope. It popped out of the ground, and I fell back. I stumbled, ran, and almost rolled down to Nicole.

I throw the rope to her, and started to pull her up. Pulling up an 18 year old girl by myself was not an easy task, especially after my hand was frozen. I could feel my skin being ripped out, and as I started to see Nicole’s face, the face of my father started to float through the air, with his laughter at the pride of Nicole. The unsatisfied sigh of mother, the moments when she was always over me, in the spotlight. I felt I was losing it, and without knowing it, had let the rope go.

Nicole yelled, and then I realized what I did and pulled her up again, blood dripping from my hands. I yelled and cried both to erase the hallucinations and to erase the pain.

I finally got her up. Sweating all over, I dropped myself to the ground. Nicole took a look at my hands, which had scratches all over from pulling the rope with bared hands. She frowned. I could see tears rolling from her eyes, perhaps out of relaxation or sudden realization of pain. Then she whispered.

“I thought you’d never come.”

I chuckled. Both of our voices were cracked.

“Hey, It’s hell living without a hero, Super Girl.”

“..But you are one, Heather. You are the only one.”

Found Poetry - A Diary of a First-Time Lover

original website

I don't think it's too bad a spoiler, for God's sake

at a fundamental level.

Yeah it does it in way tracks with the continuum,

and as robust as its core mechanism is,

these games must make themselves available

Even so, it's rare.

 

It's a rare game that has the pluck to question its own thesis

even while it is actively enslaving you with same.

by the time that fucker turns on you,

Ken Levine can be heard laughing halfway around the world.

 

On Friday, after almost two full weeks,

I am still shaking my head at the solution,

which was beyond stupid and may even be dumb.

You know what it was?

The insurmountable issue that made it impossible to record statistics from any round?

My clock was fast.

 

My system thought that it was May, and not March.

This time was wrong, but I didn't care,

because Apparently this was all too much to handle a time traveler

Failed, I flirted with references to magic doors from Aladdin

and The Lord Of The Rings.

it was a perfectly formed nibble of alpha with no numerics or grammatic sigils.

Anyway, he got me in.

I went immediately to bed.

Story in a Story - THE REAL WORLD

“What are you doing, Josh? Playing games again?”

“Hey Mike. Check this out – it’s basically a virtual world that I created – this guy here is one I created, and I am now sending him to college.”

“What’s all the fun if the game’s exactly same as the real world, Josh? I don’t know if this is that much fun…”

“Well, this isn’t same as the real world, friend. This is far better…Oh shit! What’s happening here?”

Maybe it was because I was wearing wrong socks – I looked down, and no, they were right pairs. Perhaps the law changed overnight and we weren’t supposed to walk around in jean anymore. Or is it my hair? Being stared at by hundreds of eyes in subway isn’t pleasing at all, especially when the sense of hostility from the strangers silently fills the air and I still have 13 stations to go. ‘Perhaps I should just get off at the next station and ride taxi.’

I thought about calling up someone for comfort, but they would call me ‘sissy’ or think that I got too drunk last night and still is not sober. I decided to simply ignore everything and go on. Then a man bumped into me. He murmured something about hair and hurriedly walked away.” 

“What was wrong with these people?”

Now they were beginning to edge away. A circle, with me at the center, formed. There was something definitely wrong with me. Only I couldn’t make out what it was. I wasn’t wearing any strange clothes. I wasn’t doing anything awkward, either.

“Maybe you got virus or something, Josh. I guess you gotta turn it off and turn it on again.”

“Oh God. I was working so hard on this one! I gotta destroy this guy, though. I downloaded his body parts from torrent and I guess that’s where the virus came from.”

That was when I heard a little clicking noise from back. I turned around sharply, but there was nothing there. The clicking noise came again – again from my back. Perplexed, I turned around again. Again, nothing. Feeling dumb, I was about to simply walk on, when the noise came again – again from the back. Was somebody making fun of me? I turned around again, and at that precise moment felt a sharp stab on my back.

The noise wasn’t only coming from my back. It was ON my back! Completely freaked out, I started running around like a madman. The stab came again. The crowd scattered, away from me. Then I felt some kind of liquid being injected through my spine…

“WTF? What’s going on?” I thought. Then I saw a dark figure standing over me. He called himself Morpheus. By then, I was really pissed. “What is this, the Matrix?” I thought.

“Now what’s happening? Is the character gone?”

“Gosh, I dunno. It’s supposed to disappear since I pushed the delete button but I am not sure – wasn’t there a black guy or something?”

“I think I saw him… but I am not sure. Maybe it’s another virus?”

“What’s with the F***ing liquid injection?” I yelled. The only response he gave me was that I was safe now. I was going back to the real world.

The “real world”, or so they would call it, was nothing like the one I was living in before. The buildings were damp and clingy, with a weird smell in the air. Something…something like blood.

“Hey, make yourself comfortable.”

I looked at her with a raised eyebrow. Morpheus called her Trinity – like the trinity of Holy Spirit, father, and son. What a strange name, I thought.

“It would take a lot more than a couch to feel comfortable here.”

It was true. The skeletal frames exposed from age and walls covered in slime were definitely not a good place to sit down, let alone feel relaxed. Trinity smiled a knowing smile. I had a feeling that these people hadn’t abducted me to the “real world” just for fun. My left thigh twitched as if it was worried it was going to get shot.

“Well, Josh, just turn off the com. Let’s just get out and buy some fresh air. I heard that they got this air from Rocky Mountain that has more Oxygen in them – I will get your protection suit.”

Trinity pointed to the screen. I was shocked – there I was, trying to get myself into a stupid looking suit. I yelled, and Trinity smiled.

“Well Josh, what do you think of this new simulator of the world? This stuff is much better than the one you were in.” I went close to the computer, and then I frowned.

“There’s no need for any more simulator.”

Josh turned off the computer. The screen blacked out. Josh was gone.