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One-Shot

#1
A quick one-shot piece of writing inspired by my excitement of Limit Theory. Comments encouraged.



Tendrils of blue smoke reached out in the form of small tentacles towards the chrome roof. A bigger, still blue, cloud enveloped them all, before being sucked up through ventilation shafts, sent to be scrubbed back into breathable air. Nitrogen, oxygen, argon and a touch of carbon dioxide - the perfect recipe for a human set on living. Another puff and lazy eyes followed the smoke once again. The results didn't differ, they never did. It went as the old saying; same old, same old.

Old. A word he knew only too well. The old, cracked vinyl seat that he sat upon, on the bridge of his old (some would say decrepit), ship. The old pistol strapped to his waist. The five day old stubble, dusting his jaw. The stale smell of old cigars smoked long ago. Indeed, even the hand-rolled cigar currently being puffed on was the last of a set purchased long ago. When the gun and ship had been newly purchased, when his face had been young and bright with enthusiasm, and when his bank account was more black than red.

A melancholic sigh, and the remnants of the cigar were put out. There was work to be done, and the deadline was nearing.

He was nearing on old himself. Hair was beginning to turn from black to grey, albeit prematurely. Wrinkles surrounded dark blue eyes - but due to stress, not mirth. And loath he may be to admit it, his step was not as spry as it once had been and he felt shorter than his six foot height. Combat boots were strapped tightly about his feet, the ends of an old pair of cargo pants were tucked into shoes, tied about his waist with an older style leather holster. It was a matter of principal rather than style or money that the spacer used the holster over the new 'magnetic' holsters that most slingers swore by. The hotheads loudly proclaimed that they could draw much faster than any other kind of holster, but the spacer had never seen a draw from one that impressed him. Age may have been catching him, but his hands were still quick, and his eye was good.

The pistol was another statement of the same kind. He had heard of too many instances where a laser pistol malfunctioned and the wielder suffered for it, for him to invest in one for himself. Not that he could afford it, anyway. No, his pistol worked on a mixture of sulfur, charcoal and potassium nitrate. The fact that the spacer was merely still sitting in the seat was proof enough that his confidence was well-placed.

Apart from the scrappy end of the cigar lying on the cold floor, there was nothing out of place on his ship. It was especially clean, well ordered, and ran as smoothly as he could make it. Her name was Jasmyn. After his mother or the first girl he had loved, nobody rightly knew. Some, well out of earshot, joked that it was both.

The dark blue eyes stared out into the vast emptiness of space. It was a constant source of wonder, for him, how something filled with so much, could still be so empty. There was a particular ship he was looking for. Waiting for. And when she arrived, he would take off from his little crater on the asteroid, and the work would begin.

It had been a long time since he had any real work. Ever since that one fateful job had gone wrong, he'd been blacklisted in the universe. All the hard work he had put in building up a reputation as a good, honest and reliable man to hire was shot to hell. Men would laugh at him if he applied for a job. It didn't matter that he had his own ship, paid for outright with no finance, and a dozen successful missions under his belt. The one failure had seen to it to wreck him.

But no longer. The cargo ship was in sight and nearing closer every second. What the Jasmyn lacked for in shine and gloss, she made up for with speed and firepower. The cargo ship was there. First their guns, then their engines. He had no choice now.

A pirate's life for me.



Edit: added an 'of'. Haha
Last edited by jawdan on Thu Dec 27, 2012 2:24 am, edited 2 times in total.
“The impact of space activities is nothing less than the galvanizing of hope and imagination for human life continuum into a future of infinite possibility.”
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Re: Oneshot

#3
DWMagus wrote:Nice! I like. Great atmospheric piece. :)
Thank you! :)
“The impact of space activities is nothing less than the galvanizing of hope and imagination for human life continuum into a future of infinite possibility.”
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Re: Oneshot

#4
DWMagus wrote:Nice! I like. Great atmospheric piece. :)
ill second that. can we expect more like it XD turn it into a running series.
If I've rambled and gone off topic im sorry but i tend to be long winded as you might notice if you stumble across my other post XD. thanks for reading.
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Re: Oneshot

#6
Dadalos wrote:
DWMagus wrote:Nice! I like. Great atmospheric piece. :)
ill second that. can we expect more like it XD turn it into a running series.
Haha, okay! I guess I could do that.

viewtopic.php?f=16&t=337



No problem, Josh!
“The impact of space activities is nothing less than the galvanizing of hope and imagination for human life continuum into a future of infinite possibility.”
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Re: One-Shot

#7
Another option that I have seen before is that you add a
Previous Chapter │ Next Chapter

to the beginning + end of such a post.
This way just the thread number needs to be edited, the rest is cut / copy. No need to do any other bookkeeping. Just one piece at a time as inspiration strikes.
There is no "I" in Tea. That would be gross.
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Re: One-Shot

#11
Talvieno wrote:*is unsure why I was summoned here*
You are a good writer, and one of your specialties is atmosphere. They want your help creating a series of EVE chronicle-esque stories. :ghost:
Image The results of logic, of natural progression? Boring! An expected result? Dull! An obvious next step? Pfui! Where is the fun in that? A dream may soothe, but our nightmares make us run!
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Re: One-Shot

#12
Idunno wrote:
Talvieno wrote:*is unsure why I was summoned here*
You are a good writer, and one of your specialties is atmosphere. They want your help creating a series of EVE chronicle-esque stories. :ghost:
Aw, well then, I'm flattered... I never read the EVE stories, though. Are you saying they want me to make one of my own, or assist in a joint venture? :P I'm still just a bit confused.

edit: Funny you say my specialty is atmosphere... I always felt that was one of my weak points.
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Re: One-Shot

#13
Talvieno wrote:
Idunno wrote:
Talvieno wrote:*is unsure why I was summoned here*
You are a good writer, and one of your specialties is atmosphere. They want your help creating a series of EVE chronicle-esque stories. :ghost:
Aw, well then, I'm flattered... I never read the EVE stories, though. Are you saying they want me to make one of my own, or assist in a joint venture? :P I'm still just a bit confused.

edit: Funny you say my specialty is atmosphere... I always felt that was one of my weak points.
Trust me, it isn't. And you really should read the EVE Online chronicles. Most of them are ridiculously good. :ghost:
Image The results of logic, of natural progression? Boring! An expected result? Dull! An obvious next step? Pfui! Where is the fun in that? A dream may soothe, but our nightmares make us run!
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Re: One-Shot

#15
Heh, all right. :P Get one more person in here and I'll start work on it before too long. :) (no sense in writing for just two people right? Need to have at least three for a full audience.) (okaaayyyy, this is just me stalling for lack of confidence, but really, I'll hold true to my promise if somebody else speaks up.)
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