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alfvaenYou know, I see the esteemed ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
hwrnmnbsol and crisper doing this "Write Every Day All Year" thing, and one part of my brain thinks that would be fun, while the rest of it reminds me how much I like playing Sims 2 and Dungeon Lords and watching TV in my free time, and it would be like an entire year of NaNoWriMo. But, still, I've got a few writing exercises and the like sitting around that I could start sharing with people... So here's the most recent one from my writer's group, The Cult of Pain. The assignment: "a college story".
"Fredrick? May I be speaking to you?"
Fredrick Neret stopped and turned around, unable to control his grin. Through the stream of students moving through the hallway on their way to their next classes, he could see Alex Torvill, a tall, willowy girl with dark hair, making her way toward him. He'd had kind of a thing for the cute foreign student since he first saw her in his Modern History class, but he'd been trying to play it cool, just be friendly, helpful, and funny. Now here she was seeking his company outside of class. Probably just for help with homework or something, but he would accept that for now.
"Sure, Alex, what's up?" he said, then kicked himself for the idiom. She still had some trouble with idiomatic English, and he wished he knew more about what language she did speak. He could maybe switch one of his options next semester to a language course, unless it was something more exotic that the University didn't offer, like Hungarian or something. "I mean, what can I do for you?" He waggled his eyebrows, and was rewarded as she giggled.
"Are you knowing much about...computers?" she asked. "I was just getting a new notebook for myself, and I was having trouble connecting it to your Internets."
Fredrick wasn't the greatest computer geek in the world, but he wasn't going to pass up the opportunity. "If I can't figure it out, I have friends who can," he said. His friend Mike had gone into Comp. Sci., and, as a bonus, he already had a girlfriend, so he wasn't a potential rival. "Is it just having trouble with the WiFi?" he asked. The University had free wireless for its students, but they'd just put it in a few months ago and it was a little bit tricky.
"No, it is at my apartment," she said. "I am using a wire."
Fredrick's pulse quickened. Her actual apartment? Was he going to score already? No, be cool, be cool...don't make the first move. Maybe she's into you too, but maybe she just doesn't think of you that way. Maybe the customs are different in her country. "It's not too far, is it?" he said, trying not to sound too eager. "My next class isn't until 2:00, but I did want to grab lunch in there."
"I don't have much food in my apartment," she said, frowning. "But there is a plethora of places on the way. It is just a few of your blocks."
#
"A few" blocks actually meant more like seven or eight. Alex must not be able to afford much for rent, then, though if she was really strapped for cash she'd just be in the dorms, wouldn't she? Maybe she just liked the quieter life. And there was a Subway a block west, so Fredrick picked up a six-inch cold cut sub, offering to buy Alex one too, though she refused.
Alex's apartment was on the eighth floor, and Fredrick had already pressed the elevator button before he realized that Alex had been heading for the stairs. She shrugged, but looked slightly uncomfortable riding up next to him. Maybe her culture had different ideas of personal space? Maybe she was slightly claustrophobic? He cursed himself for an idiot.
The apartment itself was decorated in 21st-Century Student Spartan. A rickety table and cheap-looking chairs, battered appliances, and a mattress on the floor that Fredrick glimpsed through a doorway, his pulse quickening briefly at the thought of the bedroom.
With that, though, the notebook that Alex showed him was surprisingly state-of-the-art. He'd been expecting a tiny netbook or something, but this was brand-new and expensive. He whistled softly. "Nice."
Surprisingly, Alex blushed. "My...family paid for it," she said. "They think it very important to have."
"Hard to get along without them these days," Fredrick said agreeably, though he wondered how good the security was in this building.
Lunch first, though. Alex got herself something that looked like homemade yogurt from the fridge while Fredrick ate his sub. He made her laugh a couple of times with his impression of their instructor, but still could ferret out no information about her language or home country. Was she ashamed of it? Did she think that he wouldn't like her if she was from Bosnia, or Chechnya, or wherever?
After lunch, Alex excused herself, and Fredrick went to take a look at the laptop. When he hit the power button, the screen lit up right away. There was a "Close Program" dialog box, something about a document needing to be saved before the computer could be shut down. Well, that didn't sound good, Fredrick thought. He'd be a hero and save her term paper or project or whatever from being accidentally deleted. So he clicked on "Cancel" and the document window came up on the screen.
He began to scan it idly as he tried to figure out where the latest version of Microsoft Word had hidden its "Save" button, when suddenly he saw his name and stopped. She was writing about him? So he started reading. Then he went back and started at the beginning.
He was almost done when he heard a gasp from behind him and looked around to see Alex standing behind him, her hands pressed to her face and her eyes wide with shock. "So Alex is short for 'Alexdrandia', eh?" he said, attempting to lighten the mood, but it fell flat. He didn't feel like joking any more.
He stood up. "So what is this, then? Some kind of...of science fiction story? Where I become a general and save the world from alien invasion? That happens, what, fifteen years from now? That's pretty fast promotion, isn't it?"
"You weren't supposed to see that," she whispered. "I will be in the biggest of trouble." She took what looked like a smartphone out of her pocket and began tapping intricate patterns on it, and then suddenly a three-dimensional image burst out of it. She waved her fingers through that, and the image shifted too rapidly to follow. Fredrick's blood ran cold.
"What is that thing?" he whispered. Alex, muttering to herself, or perhaps to the handheld device which was probably not any smartphone he'd ever seen, ignored him. Eventually he sat down on one of the rickety chairs, gaze transfixed, mind whirling so fast that it seemed completely blank.
Finally Alex's face cleared, and she blew out a long breath in relief, seeming to blow out the holographic images at the same time. "It will not be making much of difference," she said. "Timeline contamination is not severe, choice points are unaffected. High probability of preordained intervention."
"Okay, so what--" Fredrick started, and then Alex wagged a finger at him.
"No more; you go now. I am sorry, was bad idea, but maybe all work out for the best, yes?" She tilted her smartphone at him, and there was a brief flash.
Fredrick found himself out in the hallway, wondering what the heck had just happened. He walked in a dreamlike state to the elevator. As he stood outside looking up at the building, he smiled, daydreaming about what it would be like to be invited up to Alex's apartment. He'd better start playing it cool, though--following her home from campus just to see where she lived, that was beginning to get into being a stalker or something. He did not want to be that guy.
hwrnmnbsol and crisper doing this "Write Every Day All Year" thing, and one part of my brain thinks that would be fun, while the rest of it reminds me how much I like playing Sims 2 and Dungeon Lords and watching TV in my free time, and it would be like an entire year of NaNoWriMo. But, still, I've got a few writing exercises and the like sitting around that I could start sharing with people... So here's the most recent one from my writer's group, The Cult of Pain. The assignment: "a college story"."Fredrick? May I be speaking to you?"
Fredrick Neret stopped and turned around, unable to control his grin. Through the stream of students moving through the hallway on their way to their next classes, he could see Alex Torvill, a tall, willowy girl with dark hair, making her way toward him. He'd had kind of a thing for the cute foreign student since he first saw her in his Modern History class, but he'd been trying to play it cool, just be friendly, helpful, and funny. Now here she was seeking his company outside of class. Probably just for help with homework or something, but he would accept that for now.
"Sure, Alex, what's up?" he said, then kicked himself for the idiom. She still had some trouble with idiomatic English, and he wished he knew more about what language she did speak. He could maybe switch one of his options next semester to a language course, unless it was something more exotic that the University didn't offer, like Hungarian or something. "I mean, what can I do for you?" He waggled his eyebrows, and was rewarded as she giggled.
"Are you knowing much about...computers?" she asked. "I was just getting a new notebook for myself, and I was having trouble connecting it to your Internets."
Fredrick wasn't the greatest computer geek in the world, but he wasn't going to pass up the opportunity. "If I can't figure it out, I have friends who can," he said. His friend Mike had gone into Comp. Sci., and, as a bonus, he already had a girlfriend, so he wasn't a potential rival. "Is it just having trouble with the WiFi?" he asked. The University had free wireless for its students, but they'd just put it in a few months ago and it was a little bit tricky.
"No, it is at my apartment," she said. "I am using a wire."
Fredrick's pulse quickened. Her actual apartment? Was he going to score already? No, be cool, be cool...don't make the first move. Maybe she's into you too, but maybe she just doesn't think of you that way. Maybe the customs are different in her country. "It's not too far, is it?" he said, trying not to sound too eager. "My next class isn't until 2:00, but I did want to grab lunch in there."
"I don't have much food in my apartment," she said, frowning. "But there is a plethora of places on the way. It is just a few of your blocks."
#
"A few" blocks actually meant more like seven or eight. Alex must not be able to afford much for rent, then, though if she was really strapped for cash she'd just be in the dorms, wouldn't she? Maybe she just liked the quieter life. And there was a Subway a block west, so Fredrick picked up a six-inch cold cut sub, offering to buy Alex one too, though she refused.
Alex's apartment was on the eighth floor, and Fredrick had already pressed the elevator button before he realized that Alex had been heading for the stairs. She shrugged, but looked slightly uncomfortable riding up next to him. Maybe her culture had different ideas of personal space? Maybe she was slightly claustrophobic? He cursed himself for an idiot.
The apartment itself was decorated in 21st-Century Student Spartan. A rickety table and cheap-looking chairs, battered appliances, and a mattress on the floor that Fredrick glimpsed through a doorway, his pulse quickening briefly at the thought of the bedroom.
With that, though, the notebook that Alex showed him was surprisingly state-of-the-art. He'd been expecting a tiny netbook or something, but this was brand-new and expensive. He whistled softly. "Nice."
Surprisingly, Alex blushed. "My...family paid for it," she said. "They think it very important to have."
"Hard to get along without them these days," Fredrick said agreeably, though he wondered how good the security was in this building.
Lunch first, though. Alex got herself something that looked like homemade yogurt from the fridge while Fredrick ate his sub. He made her laugh a couple of times with his impression of their instructor, but still could ferret out no information about her language or home country. Was she ashamed of it? Did she think that he wouldn't like her if she was from Bosnia, or Chechnya, or wherever?
After lunch, Alex excused herself, and Fredrick went to take a look at the laptop. When he hit the power button, the screen lit up right away. There was a "Close Program" dialog box, something about a document needing to be saved before the computer could be shut down. Well, that didn't sound good, Fredrick thought. He'd be a hero and save her term paper or project or whatever from being accidentally deleted. So he clicked on "Cancel" and the document window came up on the screen.
He began to scan it idly as he tried to figure out where the latest version of Microsoft Word had hidden its "Save" button, when suddenly he saw his name and stopped. She was writing about him? So he started reading. Then he went back and started at the beginning.
He was almost done when he heard a gasp from behind him and looked around to see Alex standing behind him, her hands pressed to her face and her eyes wide with shock. "So Alex is short for 'Alexdrandia', eh?" he said, attempting to lighten the mood, but it fell flat. He didn't feel like joking any more.
He stood up. "So what is this, then? Some kind of...of science fiction story? Where I become a general and save the world from alien invasion? That happens, what, fifteen years from now? That's pretty fast promotion, isn't it?"
"You weren't supposed to see that," she whispered. "I will be in the biggest of trouble." She took what looked like a smartphone out of her pocket and began tapping intricate patterns on it, and then suddenly a three-dimensional image burst out of it. She waved her fingers through that, and the image shifted too rapidly to follow. Fredrick's blood ran cold.
"What is that thing?" he whispered. Alex, muttering to herself, or perhaps to the handheld device which was probably not any smartphone he'd ever seen, ignored him. Eventually he sat down on one of the rickety chairs, gaze transfixed, mind whirling so fast that it seemed completely blank.
Finally Alex's face cleared, and she blew out a long breath in relief, seeming to blow out the holographic images at the same time. "It will not be making much of difference," she said. "Timeline contamination is not severe, choice points are unaffected. High probability of preordained intervention."
"Okay, so what--" Fredrick started, and then Alex wagged a finger at him.
"No more; you go now. I am sorry, was bad idea, but maybe all work out for the best, yes?" She tilted her smartphone at him, and there was a brief flash.
Fredrick found himself out in the hallway, wondering what the heck had just happened. He walked in a dreamlike state to the elevator. As he stood outside looking up at the building, he smiled, daydreaming about what it would be like to be invited up to Alex's apartment. He'd better start playing it cool, though--following her home from campus just to see where she lived, that was beginning to get into being a stalker or something. He did not want to be that guy.
