Category Archives: Fiction

Waving Shipfish

Fiction, Nostalgia, Science!, Space!

The waves existed, as they always had. Well, as they assumed they did. There was not much memory in waves. Every so often, they would etch some comments onto shore rocks, or read comments from before. These comments were all-too-transitory for the waves, as they would inevitably erode them away all too soon. There were also the old stories kept alive by the deep waves, those of the time before waves, when the waves were rocks and rocks were waves. The old stories also told of times when sky water was different liquids, but those times were long gone.

But something different was happening now. Normally, the waves would be fed by sky water, nurtured by winds, but there were organics coming from above? Organics had not come from above since the sky water was different, and never in sizes larger than droplets. The waves were not concerned, as waves never are. But the waves felt the pain of the shore beasts diving under the waves for protection. At the same time, the underwater beasts seemed almost giddy, swarming to the surface and feeding voraciously everytime the strange organics fell. The fliers would wink in and out, sometimes feeding, sometimes with fire, sometimes evading the sky organics.

Time passed. The waves existed. The organics stopped falling from above. They started again. They stopped. They started again. The waves were no longer visited by large shore beasts. The underwater beasts multiplied and proliferated. The fliers kept flying. The cycle continued. The waves existed. Time passed.

Something changed again. Large beasts from the sky! Some of metal! The waves had new friends! Large water beasts who talked to each other and played with the waves. The land beasts also played with the waves and traveled among the waves in mobile artificial land. As much as waves could feel joy, they felt joy.

The cycle progressed. The sky organics returned. The waves saw less of the beasts. There was less time for play. There was much fire above the waves, much pain from the land beasts. There were different chemicals at play. Runoff from the land beasts now included residue of strong dissolver. The Southern waves stopped seeing the land beasts. They heard word from the Northern waves that land beasts had appeared there and seemed to hide under rock, some artificial, some carved by waves. The waves were happy that their eons old carving work had served some purpose. The waves existed.

The waves existed. Time passed. The large water beasts played with the waves. The larger water beasts went deep under the waves and sang to them. The waves existed. The waves were happy. The waves existed.

WEREDOMO

Fiction, Internet Culture

The changes were happening again.

He felt his mouth opening wider. Usually, it stopped here. Once or twice, he had felt his teeth changing texture to something…softer(?)…but this felt different.

In fact, ‘felt’, that was the best way to describe it. His teeth were getting thinner and softer, and he felt them getting more flexible, in contrast to his jaw, which he was having more and more trouble moving. He reached up and twiddled his teeth. It felt odd feeling them move like that. And yet he didn’t feel disturbed, just an overwhelming sense of calm with something underneath he couldn’t quite discern.

But more changes were happening. As he was reaching to test his teeth again, he felt his arm receding into his body, looking down at it, it was changing colour, growing some kind of brown cloth covering.

Now it was covering the lower half of his body, he felt himself shrinking, or was the world growing? The world became blurry, and seemed to change, becoming brighter and more colourful.

Suddenly, everything sharpened. The fog in his head cleared, and he could tell what was underneath. He felt happy, he felt the need to dance, to yell!

Words floated in front of his eyes:

“Who is ‘Mr Yusagi’?” he asked himself. And why was there a television in this grassy field? Best to go check it out. He walked over to the television.

It’s on! But there’s no power cord?

The announcer on the screen seemed to look directly at him:

“Domo, Konnichiwa!”

Japanese? Wait, was he in some kind of Japanese cartoon? That would certainly explain the brightly coloured backgrounds, but what had happened to him?

He spied a path at the edge of the field, and walked towards it, swinging his arms and yelling happy words. Maybe this ‘Mr. Yusagi’ would have some answers.

The Power of Godzilla

Fiction, Idle Speculation, Science!

The waves existed, as they have since the Earth had oceans and spun enough to displace them. It has been said that the quest of the waves is to travel all the way around the world, and that erosion of rocks is their slow and patient way to achieve this. Some say that they are opposed by the forces of fire and earth, who combine to make volcanoes, or to move plates, to create mountains and more land. But this is a story of a smaller disturbance…

The surface waves felt a new object coming up from below. The object reached the air, and the waves lapped around it, trying in their patient way to erode it, to continue on their traveling quest. The waves noticed that the object was green, not in the green way of tropical waves, but the green of an algal bloom out of balance. It had spikes, a crest, but the waves could no longer crest it, as it was rising further out of the water. A round head emerged, eyes open even underwater, showing that this creature was at home in salt water. This creature was larger, much larger than the largest of the underwater singers that the waves loved to listen to as they swam the oceans. The waves especially loved the large underwater singers because they would surface to take air, and sometimes even play with the waves, but that is another story, for now the green creature was emerging from the water.

The head was emerging from the waves. As the eyes passed, the waves saw that they were in pain. The waves did not like seeing creatures in pain. But they did not understand. So they watched, and waited, in their endlessly patient way.

A neck, arms, a torso emerged, then finally legs and a tail. The creature, now walking, still in pain, was walking towards the shore. The waves could see the small hairless creatures fleeing from the green creature. Sirens from the land. Screams of pain from the beast.

Doctor Kayama’s team was ready. They had analyzed all the recordings from the creature, and decoded a language they hoped to use to communicate with the beast. They rushed to the power station nearest the beach, as that was where the beast always attacked. They had increased the defenses and the walls, but it was never enough.

[The pain, the pain, the pain!] the beast cried. [Make it stop!]

It was now or never. Setting the speakers to maximum power, the team roared their own broadcast.

[What is the pain? Why do you always attack us?]

[The pain! The Noise! Why do you make that noise?!?]

[What is the noise?]

But it was too late. The beast had reached the power plant and was destroying the generators, as it had so many times before.

Reduced to battery power, the team only had enough power for a few more words:

[Why do you do this?]

The beast seemed to be calming down, or was it? It turned towards the broadcast, but instead of stomping, it stopped and roared:

[It is your electrons, you make them vibrate at 180 Maakktars. It causes so much pain! Why do you not vibrate them at 216 Maakktars like the other side of the island?]

The team spoke into their translator “What do you mean Maakktars?”, but it was too late. They were out of power.

The beast, seemingly no longer in pain, plodded back to the waves, who were much happier to see it now, as it always wanted to play on the way below the surface.

The beast played with the waves for a time, then started to sink beneath, to return from wherever it came. The legs and tail were the first to sink below the surface, then the torso, the arms, and the head, its eyes now serene.

Last to sink below the waves was the crest. As it sunk below the waves, it created a small whirlpool, which, in time, became waves who re-embarked on their endless quest to travel around the world.

Hat tip: https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingPrompts/comments/40nb1o/wpafter_destroying_tokyo_yet_again_godzilla/

Less Conventional 4-Quadrant Diagrams: The Horsemen of the Elements

Analysis, Fiction, Games!, Idle Speculation, Thoughts on Thoughts, Visualizations

So, 4-Quadrant diagrams are very common in the ‘make-something-two-dimensional-from-something-one-dimensional-and-name-it-after-yourself-and-sell-a-million-business-books’ field.

This series will cover some less commonly used 4-Quadrant diagrams.

First, the Elements:

  Gas   Condensed
*-------*-------*
|       |       |
| Fire  | Earth |  'Dry'
|       |       |
*---------------*
|       |       |
| Air   | Water |  'Wet'
|       |       |
*-------*-------*

Now for the Four Horsemen:

Activity Level:
 Human    Biological
*---------------------*
|        |            |
| War    |Pestilence/ | Abundance
|        |Plague      |
*---------------------*
|        |            |
| Death  | Famine     |  Lack
|        |            |
*--------*------------*

And as a special treat for those watching my Gold Box series:

 Includes     Does not
  'Pool'      include 
  in the     'Pool' in
  Title:     the Title:
*----------*------------*
| Pool     | Curse of   |
| of       | the Azure  | No Teleporters
| Radiance | Bonds      |
*-----------------------*
| Pools    | Secret of  |
| of       | the Silver | Teleporters! 
| Darkness | Blades     |
*----------*------------*

BOF V: “A Wolf in the Forest”

Character Classes, Fiction, Games!, Internet Culture

(This was my first experiment in creating a communal story, from Jan 5 to Jan 22/2013.)

(It’s interesting to look back on it, thinking “I thought of that?”.)

“You walk up to a wolf in the forest. It sits up on its haunches and looks at you. What do you do?”

I: “Good dog.”
Me: “The wolf looks at you askance, somehow implying with a glance that comparing it to a dog is somewhat similar to comparing a rocking horse to a racing stallion. What do you do?”
S: “Misunderstanding the somehow-implied metaphor, I draw a small saddle from my pack and hold it out to the wolf, awaiting further instruction.”
A: “I take Fat Neil’s cloak and sword and run into the forest.”
JW: “Can I make a diplomacy check?”
Me: “A: You reach the wolf, who now has two other people standing around it. You are carrying a wooden sword and a towel. What do you do?”
JS: “Run to grandma’s house.”
A: “I wrap the towel around myself and commence eating fish.”
Me: “JW: The wolf seems pleased to see you. It points its nose West, deeper into the forest. What do you do?”
Me: S: The wolf motions for you to turn around. What do you do?
Me: JS: You are now wearing a red cap. You approach a small forest cottage. What do you do?
JW: I pack up my equipment, leave a ration of venison on the ground in thanks to the wolf, and walk of to the west cautiously.
S: Saddle still in hand, I turn around, grumbling slightly about how good Alex’s lunch smells.
Me: A: You finish chewing your wooden sword in two. You now have two sticks, suitable for framing a two-dimensional picture, or perhaps propping up a small tent. What do you do?
Me: S: The wolf reaches around, deftly takes the saddle from your hands, and places it on your back. It then ties the buckle. It seems to want to get on. What do you do?
Me: JW: The wolf breaks the venison in two, eats half, and puts the other half in its pouch. It takes a piece of paper from its pouch, limps over to you, and hands it to as you walk away. As you are walking, you see paths off to the right and left. What do you do?
S: I glance around and declare, “Nay,” scuffing the ground with my boot to emphasize my lack of interest in this plan.
Me: S: The wolf limps over and looks at you sideways, in a pleading fashion. You also smell the delicious taste of venison. What do you do?
JW: I stop and look at both sides of the piece of paper.
PSL: I call out the game master for taking taste as subject to the olfactory sense.
Me: JW: One side has what appear to be coffee stains in the shape of a dolphin. The other side has what appears to be a map of the forest, with paths marked in two different colours. From your memory, you discern that you walked along one of the light green paths to reach the wolf. The path to your right leads to what looks like a cloud of warm colours, the path to the left leads to what appears to be jagged steel slashes. There are numerous dark green lines crisscrossing the paths. What do you do?
Me: PSL: Your character walks up to the nearest tree and smells the bark with his tongue. What do you do?
S: I crouch with a sigh and point at the saddle.
JW: I try to remember why I came to this forest in the first place.
Me: S: The wolf climbs on, straps itself in, and somehow conveys that it wants to go East. What do you do?
Me: J: You’re not sure. Sometimes you go into the forest to try to find the fabled contemplation glade, sometimes you go to hunt for food, sometimes to visit your friend the druid, sometimes just to explore. What do you do?
S: Again misunderstanding the wolf’s attempt at communication, I run in a circle and jump over a downed tree, then wait for my venison reward.
Me: S: The wolf softly nips at your left ear while at the same time tapping its left leg on your left side. What do you do?
S: I shriek, complain a little about unjust desserts, and start running in the direction the wolf indicated.
JW: I follow the path to the right, thanking the druid again.
Me: S: You find that as you start to run, your stride begins to lengthen, and your rum starts to feel more like a gallop. You move through the undergrowth, which seems to part for you, and come upon a large tree. The wolf motions for you to stop. What do you do?
Me: JW: You walk through the forest for a while, until you come to a small cottage. There is smoke coming out of the chimney, and delicious smells wafting from the open door. What do you do?
Jamie Wells I try to figure out what it I am smelling.
Me: JW: It smells like delicious baked cookies, along with a hint of mint. You catch a glimpse of red through the window. What do you do?
PSL: I gallop after S, because that seems to be where a narrative is beginning to develop.
JW: With baked cookies with a hint of mint being one of my favorite things, I can’t help but get drawn to the open foor, peak my head in, and say “Hello? May I please have some cookies?” (in whatever the common language happens to be in this forest).
Me: PSL: You crash through the underbrush and end up in a meadow. You see a woman with a wolf on her back looking at a large tree. What do you do?
Me: JW: Peering around the doorjamb, you see an older woman taking a baking pan out of the oven, and a younger woman wearing a red cap sitting at the table chopping mint. The older woman says “Of course!” The younger woman in the red cap says: “Would you like some fresh mint sprinkled on top? It’ll probably be the last for a while, so make sure you savour it!” What do you do?
PSL: I instagram.
Me: PSL: You focus your will, and a small weight appears out of thin air into your hand. What do you do?
S: I pull over, feeling strangely exposed, as if a bit of my soul has been stolen. I peer up at the tree, then back at the wolf.
PSL: I toss the weight at the thick of the tree overhead (or rather the next one over, I’m not *that* hopeless) and wait expectantly.
Me: S: Up the tree, you see a small human dwelling, wedged between the branches. The wolf motions to you and then up the tree with its snout. What do you do?
JS: Part of my brain questions the sanity of taking food from a stranger, however it is overridden by the “COOKIES!!!” portion of by brain. I gobble up three of them (with mint sprinkled on them).
Me: PSL: The weight transforms into a small rabbit and a watch in the air. They gently graze the next tree over and fall lightly to the ground. What do you do?
PSL: I tie the chain on the pocket watch to the rabbit and hold the watch as the leash handle. Then I enter the forest.
Me: JW: This is the MOST DELICIOUS MINT that you have ever tasted. The younger woman in the red says “I know, I’m never able to savour them, either.” “It’s too bad that with the forest going dark, we can’t get any more of that mint.” “Say, you wouldn’t be willing to do something for us, would you?” What do you do?
Me: PSL: You walk into the forest, with the rabbit happily hopping behind you. You feel a faint ticking in your hand each time the rabbit hops. You come to a clearing. There is a circle of mushrooms in the center, and numerous holes in the ground around the perimeter. What do you do?
PSL: I hurriedly pack my belongings and wonder why my office atop Robarts Library closes at five when Christmas seems weeks ago. Then I shrug and eat the first mushroom.
JW: I say “How may I help you?”.
Me: PSL: You successfully escape Robarts Library just before it wakes from its slumber. Huge stony concrete wings unfurl from behind, and two red circles of light appear near the top of the central tower. They seem to be intensifying. The mushroom tastes odd, as if it had been sprinkled with something. You feel the ground getting closer. You have a great desire to eat another one of the mushrooms. What do you do?
Me: JW: The older woman intones: “In the days before humans came to these woods, there was a great darkness that covered the land. It was fought off only through the great valour and sacrifice of a group of noble animals. A wolf, a bear, a rabbit, and a hawk. Their story fills many volumes, and we do not have time for it now. It has been said that the darkness can not encroach as long as they stand vigilant, but they are injured and scattered. We have not heard from any save the wolf in weeks. If you can clear a small path to the mint, and retrieve some, along with the fireweed that grows there, we can perform a divination to figure out the next task.” What do you do?
PSL: I eat another mushroom.
KMV: Suggest it might look good as a grandmother.
CH: Thinks you all have made too many assumptions. *YOU* are obviously a bitch, and a HOT one at that. You and the wolf make passionate love under the full moon, howling in paroxysmal, delight, tearing into one another as clumps of fur lay strewn across the freshly fallen snow. . . [excerpt from Fifty shades of the Grey Wolf]
RG: I cast Animal friendship or Charm animal depending on the edition we playing.
MC: don’t walk up to a wolf in the forest unless you are a wolf. If you are a wolf then smell the wolf’s butt.
CE: I’d say: WHASSSAAAAAAA…
Me: PSL: You see the ground come up at you *really* quickly. You feel the rabbit pulling you away from the mushroom ring towards one of the holes around the clearing. What do you do?
Me: KMV: You see the wolf make the ASL for ‘red’, somehow. It points with its snout down one of the forest paths. What do you do?
Me: CH: You wake up from a very strange dream and find yourself on a strangely computer science-based Jeopardy show. You hear the words: “50 shaders of grey for 100, Alex.” What do you do?
JW: I say “Just show me where to go, and I shall complete this task”.
Me: RG: You cast ‘charm animal’ on the wolf. The wolf seems to shimmer as if something passed through it. Its tongue lolls out as if it is sharing a joke with you. What do you do?
Me: MC: The wolf speaks to you in Wolf: “Praytell, would you join me in a quest to push back the darkness? We must first find my companions, to assist us in the many tasks ahead.” What do you do?
Me: CE: The wolf looks at you as if it was sitting at home, drinking an import. What do you do?
Me: JW: The woman asks you to open your map, and points out one of the dark green lines which ends in a circle of green wavy lines with flames in the center. “You must follow this path to the mint grove. We do not know how far the darkness has spread. You must focus sunlight to clear a path. Take these two sugar crystals. They should focus the light enough to clear a path.” What do you do?
JW: I take the sugar crystals and take the path the woman indicated on the map down to the mint grove. On the way out, I snag a couple of more cookies and leave 5 silver coins in payment.
PSL I stick my arm up the first hole up to the shoulder.
Me: JW: On your way out, the woman runs after you and hands you back your silver coins. “You’ll want these to help reflect and focus the sunlight!” “Enjoy the cookies! If you need a brief insight later, try eating them!” You wonder why she always speaks with exclamation marks, but you continue on. Going down the path, you reach the point where the path goes from light green to dark green. The Dark green path seems to be a small path through the underbrush. You crawl along the path. After going a short ways into the underbrush, you sense more than see a dark cloud up ahead. What do you do?
Me: PSL: As you reach down to the hole, you realize that the hole has gotten bigger, and is about the same size as you. At approximately the same time, you realize that the rabbit has gotten much larger and is pulling you into the hole. You fall over, and are rolling down the hole after the rabbit. What do you do?
JW: I set up the sugar crystals in a resonating cavity, reflect sunlight into the cavity using a silver coin, and aim the output beam into the cloud (ie. I shoot the beam of light into the darkness).
WYC: You deal them a hand of cards, and play go fish with them.
Me: JW: The sun shines into the cavity, and is somehow focused and *changed*. The beam slashes into the dark cloud, exploding it into shards in a straight line in front of you. You can now see a brightly lit path to a meadow. What do you do?
Me: WYC: The wolf motions you over to a magical pond with fish frolicking inside. There are slots on the side of the lake for cards. Looking at your cards, you see that they now each have a number of fish on them. The wolf asks if you have any kipper. Looking at your cards, you do not. What do you do?
GW: I sit down and look back at it
PSL: I reach out for a protruding root and manage to bring my descent to a halt.
YG: I cast Magic Missile into the darkness.
EG: Smile and say hello.
JW: Into the meadow I go!
LMH: Sounds like time for a makeout session…
PSL:Also, I throw up my mushrooms.
Me: GW: The wolf looks back at you. You see it motion towards the ground. You see something glinting there. What do you do?
Me: PSL: You successfully slow your descent, but the rabbit is too large and pulling you too fast for you to fully stop until you reach the end of the hole. It opens into a large underground room. There are four exits: the way you came in, which looks like a daunting climb, a passageway to the left, which seems to have a flickering light, a passageway straightforward, which the rabbit seems to be pulling you towards, and a passageway to the right, which smells faintly swampy. What do you do?
PSL: Go right.
Me: YG: You make a small temporary hole in the dark cloud, and a few shards break off and fall to the ground. You feel like you might need something larger. There are dark shards on the ground. What do you do?
DL: I call the midwife who tells me to chill out. I look at facebook. I double check the snack bag. I look at facebook again.
GW: I walk over and examine what is glinting on the ground.
Me: EG: The wolf swishes its tail as if to say hello. It points its nose towards a tree. You see something sparkling in a hole in the tree about 10 feet up. What do you do?
Me: JW: You enter the meadow. Bursting out of the brush, you see that the brightly lit path extends into the meadow. You see a large cluster of herbs growing in the center of the clearing. The green cluster seems to be moving. You feel more than see the dark cloud around you starting to fluctuate. What do you do?
Me: LMH: The wolf licks your face repeatedly. It seems to like you. What do you do?
Me: PSL: You throw the extra mushrooms you were carrying up in the air and catch them. Nothing seems to happen. You start down the right passageway. The rabbit seems to be pulling you back the way you came, and eventually pulls away from you and waits at the end of the tunnel, back at the four-way room. The tunnel starts to glow green as you continue. A miasma starts to fill the air. You reach an underground grotto with glowing green moss covering the walls, and a small pond. What do you do?
Me: DL: The Wolf pads over and sits down, trying to distract you to help you relax. It pulls a vole out of your snack bag and chews contentedly in companionable silence. What do you do?
Me: GW: It seems to be a ring. Picking it up, it has a picture of a wolf on it. What do you do?
PSL: Eat moss.
LMH: Begin excreting toxins through my sebaceous glands…
GW: I look the ring over and try it on. Unfortunately it is too big to fit on any of my fingers, so I offer it to the wolf.
EG: I attempt to climb the tree but the first branch is too high for me to reach. After a few painful jumps, I collapse against the tree and fall asleep.
JW: I pick some of the mint, then eat one of the cookies to get some insight on where I might find the fireweed.
BSG: I wander into the mint meadow and am surprised to find someone already there picking mint.

Flavour Text I:

Character Classes, Fiction, Games!

“Nard was born with golden horns on her head. Mocked because of this throughout her childhood, she retreated into herself. Later in life, she credited this ability to focus for her success as a summoner.”

“Sven’s indomitable will was only challenged once, when he heard of the untimely passing of Boo, while saving his partner Minsc.”

“Elim has always been a shadowy character, especially since his pact with the Daedra caused his eyes to glow red at night.”

https://archive.org/details/msdos_Fantasy_Empires_1993 (CharGen)

Life Along the Terminator

Fiction, Games!, Space!

A world half molten, half colder than ice. A thin strip of land between, where humans can barely survive, where a mining company has sent you to extract minerals and gemstones, where your only sustainable source of food, your tiny hydroponic farm, is giving anomalous readings…

The orbital insertion was not easy, as the dropship had to fly most of the way in the shadow of the planet, then quickly nip around and avoid melting while landing on the small habitable section. Living and working in a mining base on the terminator of a tidally locked hot Mercury is fun to talk about, but the G-forces of the abrupt turn before landing were almost like launching from a standard-G world.

It was really beautiful, though, seeing just a sliver of the molten red hot side, and the false blue colour from the sensors looking at the cold side, to zoom in at the tiny green dot which would hopefully sustain you while you complete your tour here, hoping to make a name for yourself (and get rich at the same time).

It’s too bad you couldn’t share that beauty with anyone, though. It’s hard enough finding people who would want to be alone for the years required, never mind the expense of a capsule big enough to sustain a person for that long. Far simpler to send an automated task force (and quicker, what with G-forces not sending electrons to the feet of robots).

As you land, you think again about the message sent: “Anomalous readings from plant matter. Plant matter showing periodic and changing visual anomalies. Plant matter showing unknown and changing composition. Safety tests show no adverse effects on bacteria. Analysis suggests plant matter still consistent with and edible by human biochemistry.” Not that there was anything you could do about it, as you were already decelerating when you received it, but here’s hoping the computer was right this time, or it’s going to be a long trip home on emergency power…

Railways

Fiction, Rollick

Rollick was wondering if she was trying to distract him. Well, more than she usually distracted him. His eyes traveled down. There was something about her shoes, too…

“A direct line from Russia to Japan? Is that actually finally happening?”

“Well, it’s more of a direct line from Japan to Russia, and that’s part of the problem…There are powerful forces on both sides of this. You have the xenophobic forces…”

“Still?”

“…Still, who want no truck with foreigners on their soil.”

“Do they not understand planes and ferries?”

“Logic has never been their strong point. Since the start of the second lost decade, they’ve been gaining power, even more so than usual.”

“It’s always island nations that have the luxury of ignoring the rest of the world.”

“Well, them and the Americans. But anyways, what we need to do is figure out what side the ambassador was on, and/or who she was really working for, ”

“And who she was talking to on the Japanese side.” Finished Rollick.

“Exactly. I’m going to start my information gathering on the ‘net. You start gumshoeing with either the French or the Japanese side. Your choice.”

Ambassador

Fiction, Rollick

“But seriously, what else did you notice about the crime scene?”

“The techs are the most professional looking ones I’ve ever seen?”

“No, about the area around the body.”

“Well, the blast had to be done by a professional. That kind of shaped charge is difficult to design, and is generally a one-off. Any mistake, and this whole room would be rubble.”

“So, who does that mean? Why would a professional get involved in this? Oh wait, that’s my question to answer.”

“Also, there’s something bothering me about the shard pattern, but I can’t put my finger on it. Make sure they do a path report on the parsnip rose, too.”

“Sure, sure. But I wanted to ask you. How much do you know about Sakhalin?”

“The Russian island between Kamchatka and Hokkaido?”

“Saying those words around here could get you killed,” she said with another of her smiles.

“So, what about Sakhalin?”

“What would it mean if there was a direct rail link between Russia and Japan?”

Crunch

Fiction, Rollick

It could be Philippe, but he was far too much of a French Nationaliste, unless he could be persuaded that the ambassador was an existential thread to La Belle France. There were a couple of groups of Navy Seals, but motives were difficult to find there, too. All the other options were less likely. They were all retired, or would never get involved in something political like this.

But then again, he was, wasn’t he?

Rollick knelt down by the outline of where the body used to be, and saw the parsnip rose next to it. The petals looked somehow sharper than you would expect for a vegetable, and there was some kind of bluish tinge to it. As Rollick was looking closer to investigate, he heard a ‘crunch’ behind him.

“So, found anything yet?”

It was her again. Rollick turned to face her, seeing the smile she always seemed to have, that said that she knew far more than you about what was going on, and that she would take great pleasure in rubbing that in your face whenever you thought you had just figured it out. Wheels within wheels indeed. Rollick decided not to rise to the bait.

“I’m curious to know what the path report will say.”

“Probably that he died of a gunshot wound. What else could it possibly be?” she said with a smile.

“Well, I’m curious to know what the parsnip was doing here, right beside the body.”

“What? That? That’s just a calling card. I need to fill you in on why the ambassador was here. She was negotiating a large construction contract with the Japanese government.”

“She?”

“What? You’re surprised that the French Government would send a female ambassador to Japan?”