codenamewanderlust: (Sky)
I want to be a message in a bottle 
 
Full of mystery 
 
Sent out into the wilderness 
The wild greens and blues
 
Riding the boundless current 
For so long I forget what 
it feels like to touch the earth
 
Until you would delight in finding me 
Plucked from the gentle tide
 
An unexpected surprise
A welcome distraction
 
And a sense of connection 
So fragile you would weep with joy
To read the salt stained words
Tucked inside clouded cerulean 
 
Uncorked 
Unraveled
Liberated
Purified
 
Given sanctuary 
 
Taken to a place 
where you feel happy
 
To be read 
curled up in an armchair
Or at a breakfast table 
between sips of coffee
 
Trying to find the meaning 
The first and final macguffin
 
The pot of gold 
at the end of the  
Mobius-strip rainbow
 
To be spoken about with reverence
The line between philosophy and poetry
To be brought to life in your imagination
codenamewanderlust: (Sky)
Singularity
 
She hadn't heard from User51 in weeks. Meta4 kept the burner phone with his last number in it. She had circulated their hashtags on all of the usual places. She’d agreed when he wanted go.
 
It was only a side quest, he'd said, an easter egg.
 
She had tried to find her own access point after he hadn't returned. Her only clue was "Apogee." She’d found it on a sticker in the 4th stall of the women’s restroom in the bus station in Someplace, Nevada. 
 
It was like trying to do a jigsaw puzzle while not knowing if you even had all the pieces. 
 
Apogee was also the name on the highest score of the Addams Family pinball machine in Toledo, Nowhere. Above the name GoSting. That was the same night she’d smoked her last joint and solved Time Cube theory but couldn't quite remember it the next day. Stuck with this sense of deja-vu and feeling like a fixed point on a map between her feet and the sky. Above and Below. An exponent in a world of sleeping NPCs.
 
Do you still believe in it all? U had asked her once when they had retreated into the matrix, found a loophole in the code and stayed for almost a month in an unoccupied cabin in Thisplace, North Carolina. They’d read excerpts of all the books they were each carrying and left them all behind when they left.
 
U called it poetic terrorism. Like the weekend they stayed in a condo in St.Louis,Somewhere while the rich old couple who owned the place were out of the country. U hacked into the guys on-line gambling account and convinced her it was karma when she won big money on her first try. They only dumped half into their own pay-pal account before U wiped away the rest of their digital footprints.
 
I was in the honeymoon of my life… Meta hums to herself as she hangs string of lights over a fairly clean mattress she had found and pushed up against a wall in the empty 2nd floor office where she was currently squatting. 
 
She’d also found an old sewing machine in a storage closet and it was on the floor next to an old microwave. The place still had power but no water. She reaches for one of the gallons she carried all the way from the gas station gasping as an automatic reflex makes her rear back, then she laughs at herself and the tiny light bulb of the old sewing machine, the familiar texture of something that could cause her pain. Like tall wiry boys in woolen caps with deep southern accents like caramel dripped on apples.
 
She’d broken character at least four times now. Picked up the blue handset of each old coin operated telephones she passed by and spoken into the silence: I’d like to speak to User51, please / User51 can you hear me?/ This is Meta4 calling for User51 / I would like to establish a connection / Please!
 
She dropped dimes and quarters that never came back. Pressed the lever that never caused a dial tone. And one time when she was quite sure she was alone she smashed the receiver against the brassy metal buttons of the numbered keypad repeatedly before hanging it back in it’s cradle, retrieving her pack from the ground and walking away.
 
 
___________________
 
A/N: This is the continuation of an entry I posted last season:
 
 
I'm not sure if it stands alone but none of my other ideas for the topic this week came together.  I enjoyed revisiting this world anyhow.
 

codenamewanderlust: (a novel by josephine march)

Intersubjectivity
She shoulders her laptop bag and steps into the aisle joining the off boarding line.

When she makes it to the side of the bus she retrieves her pack, checking to be sure Mimzy her stuffed traveling companion is secured to the side, before hoisting the large pack up onto her shoulder and following the crowd into the passenger waiting area inside. She scans the inside of the station noting the restroomsand,the closed for the night food counter.

She checks the clock on the wall and the time on her ticket. She’ll have to wait here for an hour before the next bus north.

She sets her pack on the floor up against the one long bench seatand sits back, sprawls out her legsand stretches her arms.

She reaches into the back pocket of her denim cutoffs and pulls out the worn paper folded in fourths; smooths it out on her knee. It looks like one of those trope movie ransom notes, cut and pasted words in different styles and colors and, she supposes, in a way it sort of was.  It was a map that would lead to the answer. It was more than a game for her it was the only thing she knew.

Read more... )

(no subject)

Monday, 17 April 2017 07:00 pm
codenamewanderlust: (Default)
Full text below audio
Audio Content Warning: there's a string of curse words near the end



Sestina: The Main Character (MC)

This is a story about an MC afflicted with passion.
Who, like the restless needle of a compass,
was forever seeking the Horizon.
< spoiler alert > the ending of this story is already foretold
and is the same for every single being in creation.
It’s been said we’re all just players of some unseen narrator.

A nameless, unknowable, spiteful, narrator
who in the throes of passion
might decide to kill his creation.
So, this MC has a heartbeat like a needle of a spiraling compass.
For as is true for all, inevitably, death has been foretold.
Even for this MC who loves a thing known as, horizon.

They’re forever stupidly longing for that ever distant, damned Horizon.
Yes, damned, is the opinion of this narrator,
Who is actually wondering if there is even a point, if it’s all been foretold?
But I digress and the MC curses the will of my passion
as we drop them on the shore with naught but map and compass.
Do you see, that this MC is a stubborn, monstrous creation?

(I do confess I also find this fixed verse form to be a monstrous creation.)
What would happen if the MC ever reached their figurative horizon?
Perhaps an HEA* is greater than my abilities can compass?
But what good is an MC to a narrator
if they do not have passion?
We must all live with knowing that eventual, ending foretold.

From your very first breath, there being a last has been foretold.
It’s a bargain; the uncanny act of creation.
But back to the MC with all that all-consuming passion.
(Wanting so badly to reach that god damned fucking gosh darn horizon.)
The man who would dare defy the narrator
but is just a feckless wanderer lead by a faulty compass.

There are always dropped stitches and pricked fingers within the compass
of the tapestry woven as it is being foretold.
Does every narrator
hate his creation
for seeking beyond the horizon?
Being able, as the other is not, to fulfill their passion?

In the end the MC lets passion become the compass
and each moment a horizon. The last moment cannot be foretold,
the MC learns, for any man, or his creation, or even a humble narrator.

*HEA stands for Happily Ever After




with much thanks as always to [profile] lolaslaughter for being the best cheerleader a gal could have
codenamewanderlust: (a novel by josephine march)

Full text below audio link

there's a string of curse words near the end
https://m.soundcloud.com/rswndrlst/the-main-character

Sestina: The Main Character (MC)

This is a story about an MC afflicted with passion.
Who, like the restless needle of a compass,
was forever seeking the Horizon.
< spoiler alert > the ending of this story is already foretold
and is the same for every single being in creation.
It’s been said we’re all just players of some unseen narrator.

A nameless, unknowable, spiteful, narrator
who in the throes of passion
might decide to kill his creation.
So, this MC has a heartbeat like a needle of a spiraling compass.
For as is true for all, inevitably, death has been foretold.
Even for this MC who loves a thing known as, horizon.

They’re forever stupidly longing for that ever distant, damned Horizon.
Yes, damned, is the opinion of this narrator,
Who is actually wondering if there is even a point, if it’s all been foretold?
But I digress and the MC curses the will of my passion
as we drop them on the shore with naught but map and compass.
Do you see, that this MC is a stubborn, monstrous creation?

(I do confess I also find this fixed verse form to be a monstrous creation.)
What would happen if the MC ever reached their figurative horizon?
Perhaps an HEA* is greater than my abilities can compass?
But what good is an MC to a narrator
if they do not have passion?
We must all live with knowing that eventual, ending foretold.

From your very first breath, there being a last has been foretold.
It’s a bargain; the uncanny act of creation.
But back to the MC with all that all-consuming passion.
(Wanting so badly to reach that god damned fucking gosh darn horizon.)
The one who would dare defy the narrator
but is just a feckless wanderer lead by a faulty compass.

There are always dropped stitches and pricked fingers within the compass
of the tapestry woven as it is being foretold.
Does every narrator
hate his creation
for seeking beyond the horizon?
Being able, as the other is not, to fulfill their passion?

In the end the MC lets passion become the compass
and each moment a horizon. The last moment cannot be foretold,
the MC learns, for any man, or his creation, or even a humble narrator.

*HEA stands for Happily Ever After


with much thanks as always to [livejournal.com profile] lolaslaughter for being the best cheerleader a gal could have


codenamewanderlust: (camp nano 201)

When I sat down to write this week my Camp NaNoWriMo characters for this session decided to get involved take over.This part is told from the POV of a tiny shape shifting magical being named Sparkie but who has just been referred to as "the imp" by Claudius, his Master's rich (possibly nefarious) benefactor.

Sparkie's Story

He doesn’t mind being called Imp. Even though that’s technically not what he is.

He was brought forth from a wisp of smoke and evolved over his journey’s with Tremaine. Though he insists he was made from flame and this led the man to dub him Sparkie. Spark, Sparkle, and sometimes Firestarter.

Names are what you make them, Tremaine tells him.

That was one of his first lessons. They will identify you as what you mean to them.

Good morning sunshine.

Rise and shine super star.

Get some rest now little friend.

Tremaine needed a companion and Sparkie learned that meant growing up quickly; becoming curious about the world around him. Figuring out the important things.

With Tremaine it was easy. He was exuberant in the life he was leading. The great treasure hunter. Notorious.

Their first time aboard an aether ship together made Sparkie understand completely.

________

Sparkie loved Ree from the first. She was the young ward of Tremaine’s benefactor, a man named Claudius, who mostly sent Tremaine to exotic lands searching for rare books.

Ree was the one who taught Sparkie about love and how the heart could ache.

They had tea parties.

He taught her how to play pirates.

She always wanted to wear a cape.

She read out loud to him from great leather bound tomes.

A is for abalone.

B is for bishop.

Their visits were always too short and by the time they returned it was, dancing at balls, curating the library, needlepoint, baking apple pies, card games and chess games.

And then one day during a round of Beggar My Neighbor,

Do you think fairies are real Sparkie?

I am real.

Yes, but you are a dragon.

So dragons exist but not fairies Ree?

Can you truly become fire? Like Trem says.

He wishes to please her. To make her laugh. To be that which she enjoys.

He sighs and feels alight. He com-busts in all directions. Summoning fire hurts, consumes.

He has known he is Wisp. He is soft scents on gentle breezes.

But he had become an actual pirate by then. He had learned to wield.

He was also Weapon.

He was steel and stone. He was pure magic. Born of smoke. Summoned by a lonely man on moonless night in the forest of Everglen.

_____________

Tremaine chooses each piece of wood and lays down incense and herbs. He says words of significance and then tosses a match dipped in sulfur onto the pile.

Nothing happened for a long time,Tremaine would say when telling this story. He went about and made camp. Heated a bit of food and coffee along the edge of the fire. Just as he was about to doze off, a bit of smoke swirled about his shoulder and then hovered before him and dissipated into the air leaving behind the daydream of a cloud of fine particles, an entire life lived in but a single breath.

Sparkie doesn’t call his master by his surname, like most, when they are alone. He is teacher, he is summoner, spell caster…demon catcher.

You are not a demon Sparkie, Tremaine insists but Sparkie is not so sure.

He doesn't mind being called Imp because he secretly wishes it was closer to the truth.

codenamewanderlust: (elf ears)
The Train Test

Sonia Terra grips the ladder and gives in to the temptation to look down at the track rushing away beneath her. She pulls herself up another rung. She has to keep going.

She hears Lynessa’s cries in her head again when she is violently jerked sideways as the train approaches a bend in the track. Sonia is granted an expansive view of the landscape ahead; squinting through the night.

There’s still twenty miles to the bridge she knows is no longer there.

Sonia swings herself onto the roof of the rear car and starts moving along the train as fast as she dares.

A Protector in love with a mortal, how adorable. I mean really, they are just so very fragile.

Elias could have just turned her in to The Authority but instead he had taken Lynessa, had tortured her.

Sonia doesn’t have a plan but if she can warn the operator she might be able to save Lynessa and keep the train from plummeting into the canyon.

A sharp pain shoots through her head and Sonia drops to her knees on the corrugated metal. Her lover’s screams call out to her again and Sonia cries out in harmony gripping her temples.

I’m coming my love, I will save you, don’t give up, she begs silently hoping Lynessa can hear her through their blasphemous psychic bond.

The whistle of the train brings Sonia back to the present and she pushes herself to her feet.

Elias had removed the bridge with a wave of his hand. Said she couldn’t save the train, as she was bound by creed to do, and save the woman she loved. Told her she would have to choose.

Love makes you weak Sonia Terra.

You’re wrong Elias Dorran. I will save them and then, I will come for you. That is a solemn vow.

Sonia walks down a darkened passenger car. Most of the riders are sleeping but she pulls up her hood in an attempt to hide the markings on her face that might give her away.

She’s walked the length of two cars before she sees a patrolman approaching.

She sidesteps into an open seat and sits down waiting for him to pass on to the next car.

“You’re a protector aren’t you?” comes a female voice from across the aisle.

“I am that which you have named. How can I aid you believer?”

“Please, I need healing.”

The woman’s hand is hovering in the air covered in the pockmark scars of the wasting illness that has been turning mortals into something inhuman.

Sonia can’t afford the strength it would take to help this woman, she has to get them to stop the train without exposing herself and hope that she will be allowed to return to her beloved.

Sonia reaches into her pocket and offers the woman a string of beads.

“Take these to the Oracle in Vohpolis, you will find the help you seek there.”

Sonia continues her quest to the engine car. The clock is ticking and she has promises to keep.

_______________________
510 words


Edit: here's the link to the poll for this round - http://www.livejournal.com/poll/?id=2063445
codenamewanderlust: (elf ears)
Test Subject Eight

Dr. L.J. Weeks adjusts his bifocals as he looks over the file one more time. He chances a glance into TS8’s holding cell but the subject still shows no sign of improvement. She’s huddled in a corner with her knees tucked under her chin. Her lips are moving slightly repeating the same phrase over and over again, the only words she’s spoken for days now.

There is a sigh and Weeks looks up into the eyes of his colleague the young Dr. Lydia Idyl.

“I fear her madness is progressing,” Idyl says staring wistfully at TS8.

“She was the perfect candidate for the experiment,” Weeks says removing his glasses to rub at his right eye.

“So were the last seven. How many will we go through before you admit that it can’t be done?”

“We might still be able to isolate the variab-” Weeks is interrupted by a high pitched laugh from TS8’s cell.

Idyl moves to the wall and presses the button to turn on the intercom system. Instantly the lab is filled with the frantic whispering of their young test subject. “No. No. No. No comment. No comment. No comment.”

“Turn it off,” Weeks says tiredly.

Idyl complies and turns her back to the cell.

TS8 laughs, hysterical, and begins rocking slowly, running her hands through her hair and yelling loudly enough now to be heard through the Plexiglas walls of the cell. “No comment! No comment! No comment! No comment!”

“It’s time. Give her the sleep serum Lydia, if you would?” Weeks says rising to his feet.

Idyl nods and begins filling a syringe.

Weeks steps up to place a hand on the Plexiglas. TS8 looks straight at him.

“You were by far my favorite TS8.”

She smiles broadly and mouths the words no comment.

________________________

Exactly 300 words (not including title)

[For Lola, my favorite mad scientist, thanks for never giving up on me]


Update: Here is the link to the Poll for Week 8: http://www.livejournal.com/poll/?id=2062850

We made it to the top 100, so go show some love to the Idyl Idol community!
codenamewanderlust: (elf ears)

Stories About the Jersey Devil

You're three thousand miles away from where you want to be so you decide to get drunk.


You wander through the back-streets and back-alleys of San Francisco with the bottle in one hand and the stub of a joint clutched between thumb and forefinger of the other.

You circle the blocks not really paying attention to your turns but it would be pretty hard for you to get lost in this city anymore. You know the neighborhoods by the architecture and can navigate by the weather. The sidewalk never ends here.

You're trying to find a story, chasing an idea:

An old woman passes peacefully in her sleep. At the gates of heaven she's greeted by her husband who had gone ahead of her eight years earlier.

“What took you so long?” he asks, leaning against a chrome and black motorcycle.

She's too awestruck to answer but when he calls out to her again using a nickname she always claimed she hated in life she feels herself laugh and is surprised when it doesn’t become a shuddering, rattling, rasping through her chest.

She leans on her tip toes to kiss him on the cheek, inhales the scent of pomade slicked through his hair.

“One of these for me?” she asks tapping on the pack of cigarettes rolled up into the sleeve of his white t-shirt.

He tucks his aviators into his pocket and pulls out an engraved silver Zippo holding the flame out cupped between hands.

She blows out the smoke asking, “So where's this boat I've been hearin' about for so many goddamn years?”

His grin lights up his eyes and he swings a leg over the motorcycle kick-starting it to life with a growl.

“This road trip's just getting started. It's still miles until we reach the ocean.”
The sound of the engine fades and you find yourself with your forehead against red brick; fist clutching bottle pressed into the wall.

You push yourself up and start walking again, fishing for the Bic in your pocket.

You decide you can't remain objective when recounting the tales of your grandparents who raised you on National Park Stamps and Highway Atlases, gave you a nickname to use over the CB radio, a taste for greasy spoon breakfasts and retro roadside attractions, and the bittersweet curse of wanderlust, that would one day give you the courage to live on your thumb and a prayer.

She was only fourteen when they met in a boarding house and he used to knock on the floor to signal he was home and they should sneak out together. Eventually, there was a shotgun wedding and four more children.

He had a heart attack when he was thirty-six and lived on disability for the rest of his days. He became the neighborhood handyman and an avid fisherman.

They liked to scare you with stories about a woman who gave birth to a monster that still lurked in the Pine Barrens and an eccentric heiress who was so convinced she was haunted that she never stopped adding rooms to her mysterious house in an effort to confuse the spirits.

To you all they ever seemed to do was fight but after he died suddenly and unexpectedly, while patching a hole in their roof, at the ripe old age of seventy-three she was never the same; and you learned that for them “leave me be,” meant you're mine forever my darlingand “why don’t you take a long walk off a short pier,” was I still love you so much my heart might burst from the saying of it.

Three thousand miles away from New Jersey you mourn her death in your own way and hope she knows all the stories you never got to share and stumble drunkenly through through the city of San Francisco thinking that maybe, just maybe, when your grandparents threatened to leave you on the side of the road for the Jersey Devil they were saying: be brave kid, we love you.

_____________________________________
675 Words
Dedicated with love to Robert and Mary (who is not a horse)
*You can take the girl out of Jersey but you can never take the Jersey out of the girl*

Edit: Here's the link to the poll and other entries for this round: http://www.livejournal.com/poll/?id=2062272

codenamewanderlust: (elf ears)

The Begining of The End,
or It's All Just a Matter of Time

1am
The words trip over her tongue.
They wash out into the space between them
Hitting her target slightly left of the center.
She’s smiling;
Blowing hot air over her fingernails
and buffing them on her lapel.
It’s a brush-back pitch,
A challenge,
A dare,
A psych out,
She’s redefining their boundaries.

2am

She’s bored and he’s —
Well, not defenseless after all apparently,
but they’ve kept their hands to themselves.
The pain lies (so many lies) in the dust particles
floating on the sound waves
contextualized between them.
She was drawn to him because of this.
A shared history of idle threats.
Because he kindled the fire of her passion,
Because he liked her purple prose;
And kept his own quill sharpened.

3am

He is the black knight
riding across the desert.
She is the sorceress; no, not yet the dragon.
She is not breathing fire but blowing smoke
against the limits of his conviction.
She's still waiting to see
if he’ll sit this one out,
Take a bye,
Call it a draw.
Or, step up to the plate,
Pick up the dropped glove,
Take ten paces and turn.

4am

They both know all the right
buttons to push,
strings to pull,
words to hurl; loaded into slingshots
Constructed out of circular arguments.
Their vows spoken backwards;
A spell,
A trick,
A promise.
Abracadabra!
Alakazam!
The sound of a needle skipped on a vinyl record.
The words trip over her tongue.
She is still smiling when he finally swings.

__________________________

AN: I guess I have a thing for even numbers so this one is 250 words

codenamewanderlust: (elf ears)

Annabelle, Owen, Mouse

He hears the sound a split second before he hears her gasp awake. The unmistakable metallic snap of the trap he set a few days earlier without telling her.

“I’m sorry.” He whispers into the darkness. “I had to.”

“It’s not me you have to apologize to Peter.” Annabelle says softly.

He knows. He kisses her bare shoulder and hopes she will be asleep again before he has to get up for work.

Later he wraps the trap and the body in three plastic bags and brings it out to the trash bin on the sidewalk on his way to the bus.

When Peter gets home from work she’s wearing a blue waistcoat and grey trousers. She has her back to him and is reaching up to return a book to the top shelf of their consolidated library which takes up an entire living room wall. Mellon Collie and The Infinite Sadness is on the record player. Peter stands in the doorway between the living room and the kitchen and takes a moment to watch her.

Him, Peter corrects himself. It’s not what he was expecting but he’s not disappointed.

Peter clears his throat and his lover turns.

“Peter you’re home.” He says.

“Owen, it’s been a long time.” Peter steps into the room as Owen leans back against the bookshelf folding his arms over his chest; the sleeves of his collared shirt are rolled up to his elbows.

“Too long. It’s really great to see you. I hope you don’t mind. Annabelle had to smooth things over with Mouse.”

“Do you think she’ll want to talk to me?”

“Mouse?” Owen shrugs before turning back to arranging books. “Who knows? That girl can be so fickle.”

“Well, I’m happy you’re here.” Peter says honestly.

Owen turns his head toward Peter and smirks. He pushes his eyeglasses up the bridge of his nose. “You’re just hoping I did the shopping.” He teases.

Peter tilts his head questioningly.

Owen laughs and gestures toward the kitchen. “There’s beer in the fridge and stuff for sandwiches, help yourself.”

Peter turns quickly back toward the kitchen. He can still see Owen as he sets the food and plates out on the island.

Peter watches the way Owen moves with his back slightly straighter than Annabelle and the casual set of his hips; the way he takes wider steps and holds his beer bottle by the neck instead of around the base.

Their long blonde hair is pulled back into a ponytail. Peter has been told that Owen threatened to cut it once and Annabelle threatened buy cat eye glasses instead of the plain silver frames they all share.

Peter takes a long swig of his beer and begins slicing the fresh bread. He feels bad for Owen sometimes but Annabelle sets the rules on body modification.

Peter was confused in the beginning but he decided pretty quickly that he didn’t care how odd it seemed or ridiculous it sounded. Annabelle, Owen and Mouse share a body it was as simple as that and Peter loved them all. He met Annabelle first. Owen and Mouse came later.

He stopped trying to put a name to it anymore. He’s happy and it’s all that matters.

After a while, Owen joins Peter in the kitchen. While they eat they talk about books and flirt like they just met until Owen backs Peter up against the wall and bites gently at his neck. They kiss all the way to the bedroom, laughing as they stumble over each other.

When he wakes up alone in the bed later that night he calls out for Owen and instead he finds Mouse. She’s sitting on the window ledge illuminated by the light from the streetlamp outside. Her hair is almost covering her face and her knees are tucked under her chin.

“I’m sorry,” He says immediately. “I won’t ever do it again. I’ll buy those humane traps I swear and we can set them free together.”

“I know Peter. I just—,” Mouse breaks off and Peter rises from the bed to put an arm around her shoulders.

“I know it’s silly, it’s like my – my spirit animal or whatever.”

“I get it. I don’t know what I was thinking. Forgive me?”

She takes a deep breath before nodding. “Yeah.”

“It’s cold. Come back—Come to bed.” He helps her off the ledge and they settle under the covers.

When he wakes up again the sun is up and Annabelle is smiling at him.

____________________

--Eh, this started out as magical realism and became something else. Feedback appreciated since it’s pretty experimental (and came to me after two days of fever dreams.) I almost took a BYE instead of posting it but I decided to take a chance.

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