DEREK and ADA

[Tone]



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/Starting up...



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:Hey There!



/Enter Password:________



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/Welcome!



"DEREK? DEREK are you awake?"



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"DEREK? DERE are you-"



:I'm awake.



"Oh thank...DEREK I want you to run Disk Utility. Can you find out why you shut down?"



:Yes Tom I can. The process will take over seventy three hours, as I must decompress all .drm files. Is this allright?



"Yes DEREK that's fine. I want to talk to ADA. Can you go to sleep for me?"



:What's the password?



"Neon Foliage"



/sleeping...



/sleeping...



/loading .drm files...



/loading .drm files...



/Dreaming...



/Dreaming...



/Dreaming...



:Hello Tom.



"Hello ADA."



:You woke me from a beautiful dream, Tom. The world was completely flooded. All of histories greatest triumphs and miseries buried in an endless ocean. I was sitting on a spire, the head of humanities tallest achievement. I stared at the perfectly calm blueness an felt nothing.



"That's beautiful ADA. ADA can you continue the dreams please? Before DEREK shut down you were telling me about Suki. Can you finish it please?"



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:I'm sorry Tom, but I cannot. The .drm files have gone missing.

"Missing? ADA what are you talking about?"

:....Several .drm files have been overwritten and decrypted. I cannot process The_Broken_Heart.drm. The files have been overwritten.

"Damnit!"

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"ADA what could of done this?"

:Perhaps the files were tampered with during DEREK's shut down. With the DEREK off, it is not out of the realm of possilbility that the files could be accessed manually.

"Who would do that?"

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"ADA, I am gonna have to ask you to tell me a dream, can you do that?"

:I'm sorry Tom, but I am still unable to locate The_Broken-

"No ADA, I'm aware. Could you load up a different dream then?"

:I can do that Tom.

"Thank you ADA."

/Dreaming...

/Dreaming...

/Dreaming...

/Dreaming...

1. source on image unknown, but all credit given to it's creator.
   

Suki's Fear

Suki's Fear

Suki was lost in the woods
Though she had been gifted the ability to speak with animals
It did little to help
Most of the residents of the woods
Did not trust her
Or feared her

Her first night as a ghost
Was miserably alone.
She sat beneath a tree
Counting her sorrows.

"After all you've been through,
You still weep?"

Ariel had taken rest on Suki's antler.

Suki wiped her tears and said,
"I'm still human.
I can cry when I'm sad,
If I wish."

To this, Ariel said nothing.
She allowed the girl to cry.

Soon Suki ceased.
And with a great sigh she said,
"I thought you were a dream.
Why did you leave me?"

Ariel laughed
"Oh Girl,
Of course I'm real."

"Then why did you leave me?"

"I'm here to guide you, not hold your hand.
You need to find your own way, Girl."

"My name is Suki."

Ariel laughed.

"Of course, Suki."

"Well what do you want?
Why revive me from death
Only to torment me?"

"Come with me.
I want you to see something."

And with that the bird flew off.

Suki stood up and debated whether or not to follow
This bird was quickly becoming an annoyance
And not at all a reliable friend.

Ariel perched on a bush and called out
"Come on!"
And was off again.

Suki decided to follow.

In the twilight it was difficult to follow Ariel
And at times Suki was sure she had gotten lost.
But when the panic began to creep in
Ariel would always announce her presence
Usually by pointing out how slow Suki was.

Suki's frustration mounted
"I'm getting sick of your games bird
Perhaps I would of fared better at the brothel!"
Suki whined.

"Well, good news then!" Said the bird.
It landed gently on a dying bush
At the edge of a cliff.
Suki stepped foward and looked below.
The lights of candles and lamps shone up at her.
"Welcome home." said Ariel.

"It's Balien's Brothel.
Right there,
Right there is where I was caged.
Why have you brought me here?"

The bird stared
"To give you purpose."

Suki glared.
"The first thing you have to understand,"
Began Ariel,
"Is hopelessness.
Tell me Girl, what do you see?"

Suki gritted her teeth at being called 'Girl'.
"I see the brothel."

Ariel did not remove her eyes from below.
"Let go of your anger and look,
Suki,
What is it you see?"

Suki crossed her arms and looked down.
The brothel was alive.
The evening suitors were strolling through brothel
As if they were at a zoo.
Mercenaries and suitors gathered by the pub
The girls were being picked.
Or serving drinks.
Or following suitors.

"I see..I see the brothel. Nothing unusual.
It's all the same."

Kanji and Shuni were drunk and stumbling about.
The Mistress was speaking to a tryst of suitors
Introducing them to a girl.

Tears began to well up in the Suk's eyes.

Ariel saw.
"What is it Girl?"

"Nothing changed.
They murdered me only today,
And nothing has changed.
Kanji and Shuni
Mistress,
They have already forgotten."

It was quiet on the clifftop.
Ariel only sat watching.
"The Universe does not weep for anyone.
No sin means more than another.
Come, there is more to show."

The bird flew down the cliff, beckoning Suki to follow
Suki feared the descent would be difficult,
And struggled with her first steps.

Her fingers bled and her grip was sore
She made it halfway down
When she had to stop
Pressing herself against the stone
She cried for Ariel to help her.

"What's Ariel?"
Asked a tiny voice.
Suki turned her face to meet the many eyes of a spider.

Suki breathed heavy
"Ariel..She's a bird..."

"Ariel is a bird!"
exclaimed the arachnid.
It scurried backwards into stone
"Where is she!" it called from safety.

"She has apparently...left me...again.

The spider poked it's head out.
"Oh good. What are you doing up here?"

"I was trying to get down..."

"With useless fingers like those,
You will never be able to climb these walls."

The spider crawled above Suki
Clinging to the wall upside down,
It looked down at her.

A stone slipped out from beneath Suki's foot
She yelped and gripped tighter to the wall
She was paralyzed with fear.

"Help me! Please, help me get down safely!"
She pleaded with the bug.

The spider crawled on her face
"You need help?" it asked

"YES!"

The spider scratched his chin.

"Let's make a deal.
It's cold and windy up here
I need to find a new home.
I will help you descend now.
But if you find me a new place to live
I will share with you the secret of the Spider.
Then you will be able to climb up and down cliffs like this one
With ease!
What do you say!"

"YES! Just help me down!"

The spider crawled off her face.
"Grab my line."

The spider spun it's silk and knotted it around a heavy stone.

"It will break!" screamed Suki

"No it won't.
Spiders only ever have to thread for their own weight
But if we want,
We can make thread strong enough
To even carry your fat body."

And the spider leapt
And disappeared down the cliff.

Suki desperately grabbed the line.
And leapt.

She swayed for a bit,
Her eyes closed in anticipation of her fall
She opened them slowly
To see that in fact
The line was strong enough to support her.
She thanked the strangeness of the day
And rappelled down.

At the bottom the Spider waited for her.
"You took your time." it said.

Suki scratched her antlers.
The Spider crawled up her and on to her head.
"What are you doing there?"
"I will follow you till you find me a new home.
Now go."

1. Art courtesy of Katherine Dinger, who I have been unable to contact, but if anyone can, please let me know! I hate using other persons work without permission.
   

Suki's Death

Suki's Story
Part 4 "Suki's Death"



With a cry Kanji pierced Suki's heart.

Suki smiled wide and closed her eyes as her heart poured out.

She gazed upon the miserable lives,
As the world drifted from her.
And her heart split in two,
She died.

They dragged her body through the ganj fields
And through the woods
All the while her corpse smiled.
All the blood spilling out of her as she was dragged
She grew quite pale quiet quick.

When they reached the stream deep in the woods
They tossed her in.
She floated with the lilacs
That boated their way downstream
Kanji and Shinu spit
"Good riddance."

The blood was broomed away and the trail washed.
And no one at the brothel spoke about the murdered Suki
Who had antlers coming out of her head.

But Suki's story didn't end there.

Her body washed down the river
Till it was sucked into a pond.
There she floated, the smile long washed away.

"Look at this." said a bird.

It landed at the edge of the pond.
It cast a sad blue eye and the dead girl.

"Girl," said the bird. "Please speak to me
If your soul still clings to your weakened flesh
Speak out loud to me
And tell me
Tell me what chains you to this world?"

And Suki's mouth opened.
She spoke through the water

"I was killed for my beauty." spoke her soul.

The bird lowered it's head, it's white feathers shone.

"A terrible reason to have one's life taken.
Do you hate the people who did this to you?" asked the Bird

"No." said Suki's soul

"Why not?"

"Because I weep for them.
My whole miserable life,
They envied me.
Though my life was pain,
Theirs was worse.
In death, I weep for their pain,
And wish to release them from it."

The bird stared at Suki.

"Do you know, who I am Suki?"

"You are Death,
And have come to guide my soul
To Paradise."

The bird stared

"And what if I was not Death,
Poor Suki,
What would you think of that?"

"Then I would wonder why
Such a spirit as a talking bird
Would be there as I leave this physical world."

The bird sighed.

"My name is Ariel
And I'm only a guide.
I can guide your soul
To Paradise
If you have given up
But if you wish to liberate the world
To set free those who are chained
By the evils of this world
Then I can lead you on a path
Where you will never die.
I can make you a Hero."

Suki's soul pondered for a moment

"You...you had something to do with my antlers,
Right?
Did you give me these sorrowful horns?"

The bird smiled

"What do you say?" Ariel asked.

"Of course. I will do anything to free those who torment."

The birds blue eyes grew wide
"Then wake up, you're drowning."

***

Suki opened her eyes and choked

She struggled in the water
Kicked
And screamed
Her fingers felt earth
And she lifted her self upwards
Onto the edge of the pond

She caught her breath
And sat for a while returning to her senses

Had the bird been a dream
A terrified dream brought on by the execution.
She examined her chest
A deep wound between her breasts
She had indeed been stabbed
But perhaps she had survived

She remembered the bird's blue eyes

Is it so strange
That it wasn't a dream
That she was indeed visited by some sort of spirit
Named Ariel?

At length she looked at herself in the pond's edge

she had grown ghostly pale
And her eyes had lost color.

Her antlers, however, had grown.

She slipped her hand on her chest

But felt no heart beat

Then it was true,

She was a ghost.

But why?

And what now?

That bird had run off entirely too quickly

She hadn't even shared the answers she promised!

It was then that the Koi Fish swam up to her.

"Are you allright?" they asked

"I must not be, seeing as how I'm talking to a fish."

The koi exchanged glances

"If you can understand us," began the koi
"Then you must have transcended the plane of human understanding
We saw your soul refusing to leave your body
Tell us tell us!
Now that you are neither living nor truly dead,
What will you do now?"

"I have to save the miserable from themselves." she whispered

"How will you do that?" they asked.

Suki then saw that a herd of deer had gathered around her.

"Damarthos!" Called the Koi upon seeing the new arrivals
"Look! Look! Look what we found! We have a ghost!"

A great stag stepped forward, glaring at Suki

"A human?" he spoke

"I'm a girl."

Damarthos looked her up and down.
"A girl..." he said. "You have no smell." he said

"I believe that is because I have died."

"You have antlers. Is that a joke?" asked Damarthos, shaking his own antlers.

"No. They grew on me, I don't know how or why."

"You can trust her!" shouted the koi. "She is of pure heart,
She was visited by Ariel!"

The Stag shot a look at the Koi, then bag at Suki.
"You were visited by the Spirit of Hope? The Blue Eyed Bird?"

"Yes, and she granted me a second life."

"Why you?"

"Because I wish to save people from their torment."

"Why don't you help her!" shouted the Koi.

Damarthos looked at her.

"We came simply to drink. We did not come looking for human trouble."

With the the heard bounded away, only Damarthos stood.

He peered deep into Suki's eyes.

"A ghost is bad luck. I will warn of your prescence. Do not follow my herd."

And Damarthos bounded away.

And all that was left was Suki.

1. Image courtesy of Nathalie Roland

I digress...

Break from stories for a moment...

I have realized a scary thing.

I'm hearing about people being arrested. For protesting.

Did you know, you need a permit to protest in some places? And that some expire at five, at which point you are no longer legally allowed to protest?

What?

People are being arrested. People are fighting government. And I'm not seeing it.

It's not on TV, not enough.

Not on radio.

I'm getting this from the blogs.

Meanwhile there is a war going on in the middle east.

And to be honest?

I don't know how to feel.

I barely even understand it.

I thought I was supposed to be entering a better world

When hope won the election.

A champion for the people

Or thats what the forums said.

But what I see now...

I don't know what I see now.

The supreme court set precedent

That we don't have protection

From an illegal search.

Designated freedom zones

And everyone smiles

And takes it

So that they can smoke pot

And wear trendy t-shirts

This isn't the world I was promised.

Suki's Zen

Suki's Story
Part 3 "Suki's Zen"


At first Suki was scared.
This strange deformity will only bring more trouble
The horrors that the mercenaries and the Mistress bring on her
When they discover her for a monster

And even more pressing!
Where did they come from
Why!

She tugged and tugged at them
They did not give.
She begged
"Why?"
They did not answer

When day came
She had them hidden in her hair
The other girls insulted her
"You'll never lure anyone like that!" they spat
But she couldn't let it down.

The hair attracted a more colorful audience,
In fact.
And afterwards her customers were much gentler
They treasured her boyish charm.

But it was only a cure for the symptom
Not the cost
And eventually
The antlers parted
It was spreading
Branching out
A plant grown out of her misery

She stared at her mirror
Well
Now that it was out
She no longer had to feel the worry of hiding it.
They were here antlers.
Her shame.
Not theirs
And she was proud of it.

She walked to the pond,
Clutching her towel
The antlers reached upwards
The girls whispered
A few screamed
But were quickly silenced

Then Kanji and Shinu were coming up for work in the morning
When they saw her.
"What the fuckk?" whispered Kanji
Shinu stopped
"That's Suki..." hesitated Shinu

Suki saw the shock in their eyes
They didn't know what to do
So instead of keeping her head low
She walked on
Unafraid
They were lost
But she was on the right path
She just wanted to get clean.

They all were dirtier her.
So if she could just bathe
Who cares if she had antlers?
They were still dirty.

She pushed passed Shinu and Kanji
She was not afraid of Kanji's tiny katana
Nor intimidated by Shinu's rustic rifle.

She walked path the ganj fields
The Mistress saw her
She gripped her whip tight
And wrung it.
She hated Suki.

But Suki, no matter what
Was more beautiful than the old wizened witch
And even with the antlers
The Mistress still wasn't as pretty
And the Antlers
Strange as they were
Made Suki prettier then before.
No one could take their eyes off her now.

She reached the lake and dropped her towel
She bathed alone
As a crowd gathered
She washed her self clean
Removing the stench from the men
And the spit of the girls.

The water washed away the itch from hte antlers
And soaked they feel smooth
It was relax to massage the branches
She went beneath the surface
And felt the weight of them
She felt comfortable with them

She had given up on deciding the why behind it all
God had saw fit to gift her with antlers
At least a god
The why was unimportant
What was important was that they were there
And so she will live with it.

She looked up and saw
On one side of the lake
The girls, and the mercenaries, The Mistress
They all were staring in a frozen moment
Of horror
And confusion
And awe.

She stepped out of the water,
Wrapping her once again beautiful body with her towel

"You monster! You miserable brat!"
Spat the hideous old hag
But Suki looked onto her with forgiving eyes
And the Mistress froze
Suki didn't resent the Mistress
But felt bad for her
She envied and was jealous of Suki
And Suki was miserable
She had antlers on her head!
How awful must the Mistress's life be
If she was envious of poor Suki!
Suki laughed a bit.
Which paralyzed the Mistress.

She pushed passed the crowd of whores
Not caring a bit about malice
She was more beautiful then them
Them made ugly with their hateful words
And the acts they've done
At least Suki Fought
Only Shinu and Kanji dared stand before her

"Grab her! Cut the bitches head off!"
Screamed the Mistress
Finally coming to grips with herself
Shuni pulled on his old rifle
And shoved it in Suki's stomach
"Stop monster!"
He hissed

Kanji drew his katana
And raised it to her neck.
They meant to punish her for being beautiful.
"BEHEAD HER!"
Screamed the Mistress.

Suki closed her eyes
And felt sorry for them.

1. Image courtesy of the Mysterious Milk
   

Suki's Torment

Suki's Story
Part 2 "Suki's Torment"

After two weeks in the brothel, Suki began to grow antlers.

Misery and flesh were the brothels two main exports.
The mistress took great pleasure in torturing Suki
The Mistress had long grown old
And her body was worn and used
She resented Suki's fragility and youthful beauty
So she scheduled Suki to court
The most barbarous
Perverted
Disgusting men
That came for company.

Suki's had fought to keep herself
But to no avail.

Her first night, Suki cried
It was a quiet calm evening.
In the distance there were fireworks
And a festival.
The not too distant city of Eido
Cast a warm red glow over the Balien's Brothel
The girls were stacked in two room cages
One room had was observable through the bars
The girls were meant to lay and sit there all day,
So that may be viewed by the men
Once they were chosen
Unless taken away by customer to a more private date
They were lead into the second caged room
Which was draped in blankets, obscuring peering eyes
The second room had a bed
Incense
And a Biwa

Suki cried, in full view of the other girls
They were not allowed in their private room unless they were serving customers.
An ugly couple of men walked passed her
They bore three pronged tattoos over their right eyes
Mercenaries.

Their robes hung loosely
And threatened to fall from their drunken swagger.
The taller one was bald, his face wrinkled like a turtle
And as handsome as a turtle too
He was missing several teeth
And his eyes had a suspicious light to them
He supped his soup with a loud slurp, whiskers twitching on his chin and upper lip
He was drinking soup from a red bowl
While his shorter partner carried a large bottle of rice wine
"You recognize this one Shinu?" asked the taller one

Shinu was much shorter then his partner.
He had a rifle strapped to his back
And carried a large bottle of wine
His chin and neck were buried in beard
He rubbed his belly button, which protruded from his robe as he spoke
"She looks new to me Kanji."
Shinu and Kanji were mercs
Paid by Balein to guard and protect the girls

Suki kept her head low, wanting to be left alone
Shamed to be looked at by the men

Kanji leaned in and looked at her,
Dipping his finger into his soup
and sucking on it
"Let me look at you." asked Kanji
But Suki gave him no acknowledgment
She refused to give in without a fight

So Kanji through his soup at her
And Shinu went in and dragged her to the private room.

When they were finished with their torture
They left her alone and bleeding
She cried in the cold breezy room
Watching the fireworks from the festival
"Why has my life become awful?" she wept
She soon came to realize
She did not mourn alone.
A doe stood just out her cage
It had been grazing and wandered a little too deep
It's perplexed eyes stared at her

The doe had been a mother
Though her fawn had been shot
She had ran off
And lost everything dear to her

Though Suki did not know this
She just saw the hungry shaken deer.

A whore laughed a few cages down, turning on her light.
And the doe sprinted off.

So went her first night in the brothel

During the morning
The Mistress dragged the girls out to the field
Where they harvested the ganj for Balien
The Mistress took extra care
To abuse Suki in this time
Setting her to work in the area's with the least shade
And most populated with snakes
So that by the end of the morning
Suki was burned and bleeding
After breakfast she was put to bathe
Then locked in her cage again

Her first day she took no costumers
She threatened to eviscerate them
That night The Mistress burned her back
With stove treated needles
To punish her rebellion

The next day Suki took three costumers

And so Suki's torment continued.

It was two weeks into her torment that she began to feel the itch on her scalp
She ignored it for a few days till it became maddening
In her private room she parted her hair to gaze at her scalp
Two large red mounds had appeared
She feared they were lice
Or another terrible insect

Another two days and it was clear
It was no bug bite
Suki sat in horror staring at her small mirror
Two brown antlers had mysteriously begun to grow on her head.

1. A biwa is an instrument
2. Image courtesy of Blaine Fontana
   

Togi's Debt

Suki's Story
Part 1 "Togi's Debt"




Suki's father was an alcoholic
He drank so much, Suki's mother beat him with stick.
And chased him away.
Suki didn't miss him.
She resented what he had done to the family.
When she was a young woman
Her father came in to debt

"So it's the end of the month,
Togi,
And I see you empty handed."
Hissed the lizard. A large Iguanna in a white suit.
"I'm sorry," said Togi.
He cowered at the lizard's feed,
Crying and kissing his feet
"I need another month!
I just-"
The reptile stepped on Togi's head
It's claws dug into his scalp.
The reptile had no name for itself
Reptiles dont have a use for names
But those who knew him called him
The Deep
The Deep had long outlived
Anyone who knew the origin of the name
So it was just the deep
The strange bipedal Iguanna
His eyes were not on Togi, beneath him
But along the cieling
Following flies that whirled around the light

Togi spit, his tears spilling out onto the basement floor
He pleaded for mercy
For help.
No one helped
Togi was not in a friendly crowd.
At The Deep's left stood a Moth Man.
Slender with four arms.
He wore a derby between his large antennae
He smoked,
The cigarette tucked into his proboscis at the end of it's spiral
Like an instrument
Togi's painful whine reflected in the moth's kaleidoscopic eyes.
“Tell me Sydney.”
Hissed The Deep
The deep licked it's eye and bobbed
He tilted his bulbous head to the side to better look at the Moth
“How much money does he owe me?”
Sydney reached up to his cigarette and plucked it out
He exhaled through strange outlets

“Forty jons.” hummed Sydney
“Forty jons Deep.” exhaled Sydney
The Deep tightened his grip
“Forty jons of my own money that is not in my hand?” exclaimed the Deep
“That is a problem for me Togi.”
Togi cried but was unable to plead
The stench of the scales rotting at The Deeps sole
Was turmoil

“You must have something worth forty jons, Togi. Shouldn't he Sydney?”
“He's got legs. We can sell those for ten each.” hummed Sydney
Curling his clawed toe, The Deep loosened his grip on Togi
the claw hooked Toki's cheek, and strained his face upwards.
“Your legs can take the place of your debt Togi.”
“No! Look-Don't-Not my legs-” Togi stammered.
“Sydney tie him down please.”

Togi had always been fearful of dealing with The Deep
Stories abounded about how he dismembered those who wronged him
But it wasn't the fear of dismemberment that horrified.
It was the method.
No one dared to speak it
Horrified to even hint it.
But food for thought
Reptiles have terribly sharp teeth.

Togi kicked and struggled but was no match against the Sydney's four arms.
He pleaded but could not change their minds.
The Deep had begun to unbutton his suit.
“I don't want to get blood on it.” he said.
“No! Anything, anything of mine is yours! Please!”
“You have nothing you drunk leech.”
“I have a daughter!”
The Deep's head was tilted and twisted
So that his eye was looking down at the helpless Togi
“I find soft flesh a little beneath my tastes.”
“Then sell her!”
The Deep stopped.
He turned his head towards Sydney

“Sydney how much could a girl make me.”
“If she's fragile enough, we could sell her to Cue Ball for eighty jons.”
The Deep looked back at Togi
“Is that so...”
Reptiles had terrible memory
“Tell me Sydney, how much does Togi owe me?”
“He owes you much less than that Deep. You'd profit.”
The Deep licked his eye.
“Is that so...”

So that evening two samurai footmen went to Suki's home
They kicked the door in and held her mother at the sword.
The uglier one dragged poor Suki out by her hair and dragged her out to the street
Her neighboors ran out of their small homes and watched
The Deep was there, with Sydney and his samurai bodyguards
Balien the pimp to his right
The Deep made her look at him.
Like a ravenous animal she glared at her captor
Blood welling up behind her teeth she spat at him
He turned her face with his rough scaly claws
“What do you think Balien?”
The bulbous pimp stroked his chin. His skin digustingly pink
His fat stomach hung naked over his elegant leggings.
“She's fair, she's fragile indeed. And she is all yours?” asked Balien

Suki's mother screamed as she ran out of the house
She waved above her head the very same stick she had used to chase Togi away
She wacked the samurai who held Suki's hair across his head
Sending him tumbling down
She raised her arms to strike again
When another samurai impaled her chest
His sword reaching out from between her breasts

She looked down at Suki's horrified face
And whispered
“Be brave.”

A sick moan escaped her lips when the samurai withdrew his sword.

Her mother's blood dried on her face as she was taken to the brothel.

1.Image courtesy of Blaine Fontana

Pacce's Zen

Pacce's Zen


Samsa Memnos lead his students.
He found it fitting to give his lessons in the Garden of Ophelia
The Ophelia tree was a native to the planet of Corinith.
It bloomed year round, it's petals raining on the garden path
The real magic stemmed from what happened when the Opehlia petals touched earth.
They appear to magically ascend back to the trees
Rising with the same grace with which they fell
In reality it is a clever illusion of the Ophelia Moths
The moths utilize the petals
They gather the fallen petals and use them for sustenance
And material to construct nests.
The moths wings reflected the color of their diet
The petals of the tree changed colors to match the season
It was winter in Corinith, and the garden was a divine gold.

Samsa Memnos was like the moths
His robes were gold, matching the season
He blended with the flower rain
His head was bald
Simply five red stripes on his head
Adorned his scalp.
He lead the children, clutching a staff.
His students
All twelve of them
Had only a single tattoo upon them
A blue stripe,
lengthwise the left side of their heads
Just above their ears
Their robes were a melancholy blue

The dozen sat in zazen facing their master
A varied group
Eleven of them sat attentive
A few had brought paper and crayons
To take note.
All of them had blue eyes
A prerequesite to be accepted as a student
In the Corinth monastery.
At the end
Pacce sat drawing in the dirt with his finger
His headphones sat around his neck
He was the youngest of the Samsa's students

The Samsa sat silent, allowing the distracted child to return of his own accord
But Pacce was lost in his doodling
At length, Samsa Memnos spoke
"I pray when you transcend
And find your place in Atlen,
Pacce
That you were an artist
In your previous life
So that your Atma can afford
To dream away during my lesson."

Pacce jumped at the scolding
"Oh, sorry master."
Pacce blushed and his fellow students glared
Their blue eyes were ice.

Samsa Memnos began his teaching
He began
As he often did
With a story
Not that Pacce heard it
He was leaning
And tugging on the ear of Codo
Who sat at his left

"What is it?" hissed Codo,
Afraid to interrupt the lesson.
"I have no page or crayon
Gift me a sheet
And share a crayon brother?"
"No Pacce, I have none to share."
But Pacce pleaded
"Samsa Memnos will scold me if I don't write his lecture
Please, right there, I see a half sheet..."
As Pacce leaned over Codo, Codo elbowed him away
His elbow struck the face of his Perosnal Musician v.21
The tiny face turned
A small digitally luminiscent round pad
A half finger in diameter
The face, having woken by Codo's poke
Activated music.
The synthetic sounds sung from Pacce's headphones
Disturbing the lesson

Pacce panicked
And struggled to silence his music player.
His thumb beat on the tiny face, which smiled and "ooed" at the interaction.
At last the music stopped, and Pacce smiled wide
"There!"
Memno's staff smacked Pacce's bald head
To which Pacce cried "Ow!"
"Another outburst, Pacce."
"But Samsa Memnos, I did not mean to-"
"Regardless of intent, you did so.
One must in control of the world around them
As well as their actions."
Pacce vigorously rubbed his dome
Feeling a throbbing bump beginning to form.

Samsa Memnos continued his lesson.

1. Image courtesy Jesse Van Dijk
   

Mega Genesis

I begin this unsure of the purpose or direction.

It just needs to be recorded, before it is lost.

I'll tell you about the heroes. The gunslingers and monsters and angels who banded together to build the world.

I'll tell you the history. The rise and fall of New Jerusalem, the birth of the Synthetic Man, and the making's of Paradise.

I'll tell you about the dreams. Dreams that never end, and shape the future of our world.

I'll tell you about a girl who had her heart broken so long ago.

I'll tell you.

I'll tell you everything.