Tag: writing

  • Notes of everdying and ghosts

    Death is an anchor, a nail driven into the fabric of reality, and the difference between ghosts and the everdying is how how deep the nail was driven

    The former, formerly living folks, come back without their flesh, and with some degree of their memory and existence intact. To what degree determines how they interact with the world. Deeper driven, they can be reasoned with, to some degree. Forces play against them over time, wiggling the nail until it breaks or comes loose entirely; removing their minds or even any manifestation.

    The everdying on the other hand, come back intact, and mostly unchanging. They are in many ways fixed by their moment of death, and it takes a great will to reshape them past it. Truly they require a great will to remain, as the same forces pull at them, wiggling them out of their intrusion into the fabric.

    While we refer to them as the everdying, they exist in a state that most would consider to be immortal; not strictly true, but true enough over the lifetime of most mortals. Everdying will recover from any injury, as they will leap back to that state they were pinned to, whole and remade, only slightly frayed at the edges. Where they return depends on the nature of the destruction and their awareness of it. A simple stab wound, they’ll shrug it off without much notice beyond the pain. A gunshot somewhere fatal, they’ll pop back up a few minutes later, often exclaiming how lucky they were to have simply been knocked unconscious. Something more devastating, something that destroys the flesh, and they’ll recover in the place they died, as they died; Same clothing, same flesh. That’s when most realize that they are everdying. Prior to that first significant death, they think themselves merely lucky, or in some cases unlucky; denial is a powerful thing, in it’s own way.

  • fibrous bridges

    “History is a bridge, stretching across a vast chasm, made a fibrous joints, wrapping around each other as the lives of those they represent are intertwined.”

    “Poetic today, aren’t we?” a laugh. “But what does this have to do with that thing the other night?”

    “That thing was one of the creatures that crawls along the surfaces of the bridge.”

    “I’m not sure your metaphor is working here.”

    “I assure you, it’s accurate, and that is why it isn’t working for you. For you, history is just a book, but as I have said, it’s a bridge. With the right skills, one can leave the structure and go for a stroll down it. Though most who do so are promptly eaten, by things like that.”

    “Let’s say I accept your explanation, despite my expression, how does that explain why it was here?”

    “Something wounded history, it dug into the wound and emerged here. Beyond that, it’s hard to say. Especially post mortem.”

    “How so?”

    “If we’d studied it, we might have been able to determine how smart it was and what it’s intent was. It could have simply been acting on instinct, cleaning the wound so it would heal.”

    “So it could have been the good guy, if a bit indescriminate in the killing? That’s a bit hard to swallow.”

    “There are other possibilities. But with it dead, we can guess.”

    “You perhaps, I’m still wrapping my head around this whole bridge.”

  • Spectrapharmacology

    “Wait, what’s their specialty?”

    “Spectrapharmacology. Ghosts and drugs.”

    “How does that work? Are they drugging the ghosts? Are the drugs for us so we can see the ghosts easier? Are the drugs to hide the ghosts?” A sigh and a roll of the eyes.

    “They had a letter from the Society of Cassandra. I didn’t ask too many questions, just how much space they’d need in the van.”

    “Right, smart call. I’m guessing the letter included an address?”

    A quick nod. “Residential this time. And no extra envelopes inside for a change.”

    “Yeah, not a fan of those. I mean, don’t get me wrong, contingency plans are good, but those just take it a little too far.”