February 2011 Writing Ideas
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There is no way I can write 365+ publishable stories in a year, let alone one publishable story. Last year, I started on 6 stories last year and wrote "the end" on four of them. I submitted one to a magazine and another is being edited to finished quality.
Back on Prodigy Classic, in December 1997, I posted some story ideas I could not use. I soon found the story ideas flowed fast. I posted nearly all the ideas I could come up with, including those I hoped to eventually use.
I follow the belief that if 20 people wrote from the same story idea, we would have 20 different stories. This is why I don't worry about using these stories later, myself. Since then, I've learned that many people enjoy reading these posts, even if they do not write.
The way I work is, I come up with a basic concept which is seldom more than a paragraph long. I then spin a story around the concept, or explain what is behind the concept, so someone can see how to develop the basic concept.
I don't want these ideas to go to waste and hope that others might convert them into published pieces. I hold these ideas to be Public Domain (free to use in any way). They can be used in any form you choose. I hope you can use them profitably, but if not, at least enjoy reading these posts. Let me know if you make use of any of them. That is like a pat on the back and gives me an added incentive to keep this up (Like I really need it....).
I usually post about Four books worth pure drivel each year in these idea posts. This is my Fourteenth year of posting these story ideas. What they say is true. Ideas are a dime a dozen. Developed ideas are like gold. These are not fully developed...
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01 )
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Farfol was a well trained soldier and now an experienced adventurer. He inherited a hat filled with pins that granted him the ability to call all sorts of beings to do his bidding. He was "impressed" by the one he got it from, on the commands and abilities of the minions he can call. He had no say in receiving the hat, and has no say in not using the powers.
His journey is to find some magical objects for the gods. they are well protected and widely disbursed. He has to travel to find each one. The gods gave him the ability to know generally where to look and to recognize it when he sees it.
He finds himself surrounded by hundreds of big powerful warriors. There is no way he can match all of them, let alone a few. He takes his hat off, selects a pin with six creatures on it. He then puts his hat on, holds the pin up and tosses it as hard as he can, calling out the command for the pin. Before the pin lands on the ground, it blinks in a small flash Suddenly a dozen monsters the size of a bear are standing there, wearing armor and weapons. They scream out and charge at the forces surrounding Farfol.
The beings finish the force quite easily. Farfol only has to defend himself against a few who decide to kill him anyway. Once the battle is over, the beings gather together and then are gone. There is a ping, and the pin reappears on his hat.
Another time, Farfol is being chased and is facing a flood. He gives out a call as he throws a pin of a fish. A sea creature appears in the water, forms itself as a bridge so Farfol can run across. As those chasing Farfol cross the bridge, the creature rolls over and suddenly the soldiers fall into the water. A tail swipes across the ground where the soldiers are coming from, a fin sweeps the other side of the river killing those. It eats those that fell into the water. It then is gone. and there is the ping, with the pin reappearing on the hat.
One day, Farfol is struggling along a mountain. He crosses the relatively flat top and finds himself facing a cliff. He takes one of a flying horse. He holds it out, calls out as the tosses the pin. it arcs down to the ground. He can see where it is. He has no idea why it did not work. He crawls down the cliff and eventually finds the pin.
He takes the pin, says the command and tosses it. Again nothing happens. He finds the pin and sticks it on his hat. Since none of the others gives transportation, he has to walk and climb his way along.
The next time he has to draw a pin, he hesitates, wondering if it will fail like the horse pin. he cuts down on the use of the powers, depending on his own skills just because he can no longer trust the pins to always work.

02 )
Sicilia was so beautiful she caused people to become statues. She was not like Medusa who's hair was turned to snakes, She was really beautiful. Of course, some of her beauty was an amplification of mental powers that bordered on magic.
When she walked by, people would become 'mesmerized' and her image was burned into their mind even though she was not there. Her very existence was a danger to all kinds.
She, of course, was extremely lonely, never having anybody to talk to, to interacts with, to be with. The people turned into statues eventually die and start to rot before their bodies finally fall over.
Gantry was blind and when he met Sicilia, she was excited. It took about six months for her to get used to having someone around her all the time. Gantry found her to be a little bit naive but sweet, and he helped her, educating her, giving her more experiences.
Raiders took the space station. Gantry and Sicilia became trapped between the walls among the utilities. they could gain access to everything they needed, but could not get into the main space station with the raiders there.
the raiders were in space suits and they viewed through computer screens, not their own eyes. She still looked beautiful, but none of the freezing magic got through which was why she had to run rather than freeze them in place.
With Sicilia's help, Gantry got in touch with high command. High command taught the two of them how to use the sensory systems and how to search the space station and computers for data. Slowly, they learned where the raiders were not going to be wearing their space suits. It was sort of a safe room for them.
the idea came together that Sicilia would get into that room and get them all to look at her. then they started to work the details of their plans.
They could get a short distance from the room, but there was the question of how to get all of them to look at her when she appeared. They assumed that the raiders knew about her and would avoid looking at her. There were records that they found that data. There was a lot of brainstorming on the subject.
the time came and Sicilia headed out as instructed. Being blind Gantry had to stay behind. He had given Sicilia a communicator which she stuck in her ear. He would watch for her using a screen he navigate by touch.
She had to be very quiet. Slipping through corridors, hiding in less lit cubbies, she finally reached the room. She doubted that the plan was going to work. There was no way she was going to get them to look at her once she entered the room and they knew it was her.
She made it to the door. She breathed deep and entered, being as quiet and careful as she could be. Immediately she tripped and upended a desk to keep from falling. Every pair of eyes turned to her, male and female. She cringed as they were all looking at her, they were going to get her. then she realized they were all frozen. they all had 'that' look on their faces all her victims got. She relaxed. She walked out and six men came running up, one froze while running and fell down. the rest came to a stop.
After a quick walk around the area, she slipped back into the walls and returned to Gantry.
High command sent a ship in and took the station as there was little more than a half dozen raiders still on moving around. Gantry and Sicilia guided the soldiers to find the one raider who was hiding.
Sicilia and Gantry was left alone in the space station when the soldiers left. they figured they were abandoned to the space station. then a ship came. a couple hundred people got off the ship. Sicilia and Gantry met them as they entered, figuring they knew what they were dealing with. To her shock, they were all blind in some way. Two people got light headed after looking at her, but they were taken away and later recovered.
Sicilia and Gantry helped the blind people settle in and get to work at making their lives. Sicilia found herself as the commander as she could see. She was able to interact with anybody she wanted. There were several people she liked better than Gantry, but she accepted him as her husband, though they never did any ceremonies.
Sicilia was able to be so beautiful as to turn men into statues, yet still have a wonderful life. Her personality really shone, which was all anybody could see, and it developed into something nearly as beautiful as she was.
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The whole idea here was how could she get the raiders to look at her. She makes a noise and everybody looks.

03 )
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Caldonia was directly between two super powers. They remained independent and not aligned with either power in any way. They knew that if there was a great war between the super powers, Neither power would capture them out of revenge. they were also lucky that they were not in a strategic location so the great powers had no reason to take their territory on their way to get to each other.
The great powers were constantly posturing, using their followers to do their fighting. the posturing was slowly escalating. Caldonia watched it with a little worry but mostly with smugness about their neutrality in the matter.
Suddenly, the war broke out. Missiles launched. Anti-Missiles launched. anti-anti-Missiles launched.
The barrages met directly over Caldonia and they destroyed each other. Wave after wave, they launched at each other and they were stopped over Caldonia. Lower tech Missiles followed the cutting edge, soon, the counter battles ended as both sides ran out of defenses and their offences kept launching.
The two super powers finally ran out of Missiles and the war ended. Neither nation had anything to fight with, all their power expended. Because nothing stopped what was sent, their populations, cities, infrastructures, supplies were destroyed. they became small pockets of barely surviving peoples scraping a living from a desolate landscape. both super powers knocked each other back to the stone age, as the saying goes.
Caldonia was also rubble. the rain of debris from exploding weaponry devastated everything. Not a building was left standing. fields and forests burned. lakes and rivers were contaminated. An entire mountain slumped into the valley from a dozen direct hits by wayward live debris.
When it was over, Caldonia turned out to have a bit more technology than either super power. since they were more used to living off the land, they were able to recover fairly fast.
The expert who planned out the whole neutrality project was before a crowd. While taking questions, someone raised his hand.
"Yes, You."
"Sir, What now is your opinion about the neutrality giving us protection?"
"It was an absolute brilliant plan." he said.
"I just did not count on their responses to happen directly over us. to the best of our data, it appears like we survived better than most.

04 )
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People have individual cars and they will drive to a central point. A skilled driver will take the lead, and the other cars will connect to each other behind it into a car train. Using the savings of operating as a single unit, they travel to their ending destination where they disassemble and head off in their own directions.
As with real trains here in America, most drivers provide the power from the lead car and the breaking also from the lead car. they would start out slowly so that what little slack in the coupling system between the cars become tight, then they accelerate.
When it comes to stopping, they would slow down so all the slack builds up till all the cars are tight together, then he would apply his brakes full to come to a stop.
with this system, there is a delay in starting and stopping, and in changing speeds. Also, the driver is expending his fuel and car wear and tear to transport the group, so those in the train pay a fee to the driver to help cover expenses.
One thing with the cars is that when connected, there is communications and control between the cars. The driver can control each individual car, setting and releasing brakes, starting engines, applying and reducing power, steering all as needed. Since the control are all electronic "fly by wire" the cabin can be bypassed entirely so the other drivers have no control
Blankenship had gone through advanced driving school and was bragging about it. At the meeting place their normal driver was sick. Someone checked driving ratings. Blankenship ended up being the driver of the car train.
They lined up behind him and connected together. The drivers can disconnect in route and peal off as they go so they chose who would leave first along the way.
Ready, Blankenship went through the system of the cars connected. it was a longer train than normal. there was no way he was going to have the power to handle it in his little car. He linked the controls and told them he was starting out. Their engines started at the same time to the surprise of everybody. He then started out, each car giving a little power at idle. He tested the brakes, the acceleration, the controls. He shifted lanes of the entire pack at one time, then back again, he then took them on a snaking drive with each one following the same tire tracks.
during this time, everybody was complaining like mad. He then entered the highway and accelerated. Every car giving just a little power to the wheels. He made adjustments to settings of each car so their power was equal for the whole train.
During the trip, he had several cases where he had to maneuver around traffic, and the train handled it easily. He drove smoothly except when rapid response was needed.
There were people who dislike the car trains, especially long ones as they block travel across lanes. These people will do things to disrupt a car train's travel, making life difficult.
One of these idiots cut in front of Blankenship and hit his brakes. Blankenship shifted the entire string of cars to the next lane and accelerated hard, trapping the idiot on the inside lane. then there was a slower moving train ahead so the idiot got stuck behind that train and no way to get around it.
Blankenship finally pulled off the road and told the first set of cars to disconnect so they can take their exit. Blankenship then accelerated the train hard and pulled into traffic with no trouble at all. the other cars entered the traffic right behind him and then took their respective exits.
He did this several times along the way and the people were getting to like Blankenship's driving. He was courteous to other drivers and easy on resources. At the drop off area, they broke up and left.
That afternoon, they met up again and quite a few people demanded that Blankenship drive again. A couple people complained, but accepted the decision.
Blankenship stopped to pick up the other cars at their on ramps and they continued on. Some were disappointed at seeing Blankenship driving, but accepted it.
It was a week of Blankenship as the driver that people started getting data on costs of the trips. The next week, their old driver was there, but half the people demanded Blankenship drive. He was cheaper than the other driver. Driving as a train under each of their own power as Blankenship was, they were getting very high fuel efficiencies. Wear and tear was equal to each driver and they did not have to come up with actual funds for the trip. Some did give Blankenship a tip for his driving.
The big thing was he also took a lot less time getting to his destination as he avoided a lot of slower traffic and also avoided idiots. All the cars acted as one car when needed.
The steepest hills were a breeze as every car had a little more power than needed to move it and together they were able to drive at less than maximum power. Going down hill, they coasted and used the engines to hold them back. Each car applied just a bit of the needed braking for the whole train. Their brakes were not over-used. With the lead car as power, three trips could use up the brakes.
More people wanted to travel with Blankenship until it was getting way too long. Blankenship started a school for other drivers from the same training course he took. Once he was satisfied they were ready to handle such a train on their own, he split the car train and had them take a section.
Eventually, he was hired away from the car train and his normal job to train drivers of these car trains. Reputation of car trains started improving once he was teaching them.

05 )
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I heard a soldier's song and it said "if you get this letter, I'm not coming home." I flipped into story idea mind set.
Dalmaar was a military community. They were born and bred for war. They learned everything one needed to survive any condition as a soldier as they grew up. Any youngster, male or female that applied for the military, was automatically accepted in the special forces training or officer's school, as they were that much better than any other soldier after basic training from any place else.
There are times when whole divisions are made up of them and the enemies shake in their boots. The loss of one of their soldiers is quite rare. They usually return to retire, teaching what they learned to the next generation.
When a soldier died, which was actually quite rare, the parents would put a star in their window to show they lost a soldier. Someone who lost a child received a lot of extra respect and sympathy.
Their population was growing and they were running out of room for homes. It was something that the leadership recognized but not yet ready to deal with. they were expecting the empire to take a stand sometime soon. their population would be decimated at that time since they would be losing soldiers fast then.
The federation was winning the war with the empire, freeing up entire star fields as they pushed them back. In the process, they were finding hundreds of planets that were habitable and could easily be colonized.
The federation command considered who should be allowed to colonize the planets. There were planets and space stations that were greatly over populated. The problem with them was that their populations had no ability to hack a life from the wildernesses. Choosing them would really be sending them to their deaths. They considered some young colonies already in existence, as they would be able to start fresh, but their populations were not big enough to take the losses.
The empire then made a mistake and lost a sizable portion of their forces in one big battle. What was left withdrew across a vast expanse of stars well beyond the borders of the federation.
The federation followed them most of the distance away, then cataloged the stars systems to make sure there were no imperial forces hiding. No signs of native civilizations were found and the empire had very few permanent sites and all were abandoned.
With the empire suddenly out of reach, the federation had a new problem. They had a vast military they no longer needed. someone got an idea and command loved it.
The newly selected plants would be colonized by soldiers.
One by one, divisions of soldiers were created based on their skills and knowledge. Some divisions were made up of soldiers from over populated planets and space stations. they were not given the option to go home. Others were asked individually and then put into a division heading to a planet.
The soldiers from Dalmaar were appraised of their population problem at home, their options once they got there and the opportunities of starting a new life. A special deal was made. their colony would only have soldiers from their home planet. they would still be instantly accepted back into the military if they asked. In exchange, they would continue to train their children for war and would create a viable colony based on their life style. Half the soldiers would return back home to train the next generation.
The soldiers were not allowed to tell where they were going. They were able to say that they were alive and going some place else.
Back home, the parents received the letters from their children. the letters basically said that if they received this letter, they were not coming home.
The fact that they had not died, the parents could not put the solid star in their windows showing their children died. Instead, they cut the centers out of the stars and put them into the windows.
It was strange, and the people sympathized with them. The parents told them that their children are not coming home.
"Sorry about her death."
"She did not die,"
"I thought you said..."
"She has gone to found a new colony and therefore not coming home."
The federation knew that the colony would take time to develop into a fighting force equal to the home planet. What they did was with each generation of soldier, they would send some colony children to the home world and some home world children to the colony when their service was over. This caused a cross training, the colony would get trained in the old way and the home planet would learn lessons of living in the colony.
By the time the empire expanded again to mess with the federation, there were five Dalmaar home worlds of nearly equal fighting skills. The Dalmaar were still the bane of the empire, but even more so as there were a lot more of them in the military. Other colonies provided good soldiers that were harder in nature from the start than from populated areas and they were even tougher.

06 )
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They came to the planet and started cataloging the life forms. They saw a fraction of the predator than they expected. There were very few insectivores found.
Different life forms were captured and raised to learn more about them. It was strange, One class of herbivores starved to death each time they were given the lab grown plants. No one could figure it out.
Tests of their digestion system indicated they were omnivores that were heavily toward predator. The weird thing was all they seemed to eat in nature was plants. It did not make sense.
The researchers fed them meat and they did well, but not as good as in nature. that was even more confusing. They did not follow any rules.
The researchers fed the animals insects and they became healthy. some plant material was added to their meals since that was how they were supposed to be eating.
One day, a researcher was out in the field. He cut a tubular plant and gasped. Bugs were coming out like mad. That was a real shock. They looked at the plants and the bugs closer and found that most of the tubular plants were filled with bugs.
They gathered a bunch of the plants and gave them to the captive animals. The animals relished the insect filled plants.
The researchers sent out a notice that some of their classifications are wrong and they are about to reclassify some animals.
They did intense studies of the animals in the field. They figured out that the animals that concentrated on the tubular plants tended to be after the insects inside the tubular plant.
The bugs were in a symbiotic relationship with the plants, and the animals had a symbiotic relationship with the plants and insects.

07 )
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Viceroy traveled quite a bit. He was involved, accidentally, in th breakup of a crime ring. The criminals had a monster as a guard animal. Viceroy found that for some reason, the beast liked him, and let him handle it.
The officials figured out that the planet the beast came from no longer existed. It was not trained to live in the wild of the replacement preserves so could not be set free. It needed to be taken care of. Viceroy became it's new owner.
He tested many kinds of food and while it would eat all kinds of meat, it had a strong preference to human flesh. That was a little unsettling. especially when he figured out that there was a nutritional requirement involved where it really needed human flesh.
At one space station, he brought his monster to a morgue and it got the remains of the deceased. When he returned home, he found that the funeral rules precluded that.
Considering the possibilities, he decided to move into a high crime district where the law seldom ventures. It was not the best idea, but he figured it would solve his problem.
Within a week of his moving hin, he came home and found the remains of someone who broke in. he removed the effects and let the monster finish the remains.
He then got a brilliant idea. He had heard someone into private law, suggest it to someone who believed public law was the best. It would solve his problem.
He put a sign outside his home, "THIS IS A GUN FREE HOUSE." He then went about his business. Two days later, two men popped the lock on his door and walked in. They were armed. Viceroy made sure he was seen and dashed past the monster's room, opening the door. He told the monster the command to kill and hid in the closet.
The two men walked right into the monster's room. Viceroy came out five minutes later. the monster was already feeding on one, and the second was knocked out so it would have fresh meat later.
Viceroy had to change the lock, and made the decision to not lock any door or window. Might as well let the criminals in easily. He also put the monster in the living room where it would have full access to the whole house.
Viceroy got some medical stuff and after the monster knocked them out, he would give them intravenous drips and drugs to keep them sedated until the monster was ready to feed. At one point, he had twelve criminals laying in one bedroom.
He would strip them of anything that belonged to them and had a place he would drop it off, a fence, to dispose of the materials without a trace to him. they mentioned a that the recognized some of the identifications as being ones they gave out before. Viceroy told them "Now you know there is no chance of my turning you in."
Several neighbors asked him what happened to the criminals that broke in. Viceroy said that he had no idea what they were talking about. Someone actually would break into his house? He said they would have no reason to. he has no guns.
The criminals breaking in slowed way down. Pretty soon they were coming in just barely fast enough to keep his monster fed. He started bringing in real meat to feed it.
He finally ran out of criminals and their meat, and it had been a couple months since anybody broke in. Crime in the neighborhood had all but stopped. A good percentage of the young people, boys and girls, had disappeared.
The police showed up at his door. He put the monster in the closet and let the police in. The police searched the house, but did not go into any of the closets. They saw that all the meat in the freezers had store labels. They saw no sign of any criminals or the monsters. they left.
One day, Viceroy detected a break in. when he went to the monster, they were older men. He checked their materials over and found evidence that they were cops. That was not something he wanted to know. The monster had not had any human flesh in months and ate both of them completely. He fenced the belongings and acted like nothing happened. The fence was a tiny bit nervous when he saw the police evidence.
Viceroy decided it would be a good time to move out. He cleaned the place completely. He packed up his stuff and was about to pull away in the truck. The police showed up and surrounded him. They cuffed him and took him in.
They charged him on murder. the undercover cops were known to go to his house and their effects appeared among the stuff of a small time fence the police had access to. They put it together.
The truck was taken to the impound yard. Viceroy figured that the monster was going to be killed, either in the truck or when it was hunted down and killed while it rampaged the neighborhoods.
The crew opened the truck and then were called away. Late at night, one worker who was known for taking time off, went into the truck to look around. the monster found him. Viceroy had trained it on how to remove clothing and effects.
A bit later, the crew figured that guy had skipped out. Another guy then disappeared when it found the monster.
The monster finally decided to leave the truck. they found the effects and some blood but no sign of the men.
the monster hunted late at night or real early in the morning. and the only people out at that time were vagabonds and criminals. Personal effects were found here and there, some without any sign they were on someone.
The police could not prove anything on Viceroy. He was let go. He got his truck and drove slowly through the neighborhood late at night. He was driving through a back alley when he saw sign of the monster. He called to it and it showed up. He opened the truck and let it in, and left.
He was off planet by noon. News feeds started appearing about a monster seen feeding on people. Viceroy knew the monster would not be found. he arrived at a space station that was happy to have the monster feed on their deceased. it solved the disposal problems they generally had. Viceroy picked out a new planet to go to where his gun free home concept should work well. it would be a long time before he had to leave, but now that he had a plan, he would be able to live easily. He knew he could take care of his monster for years to come.

08 )
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As a tour guide, Carvelle would take people on adventure tours on many planets. They would visit volcanos, ride rapids, deep sea dive, hunt in rain forests, and so on. He had two dozen planets he usually went to as there was a lot they could be involved in.
One thing with his trips was that when he set up the trips, he was guaranteed a certain number of spaces on the transportation. If he had less people, he had to pay the full price rather than a discounted price for the empty spaces. he made sure he never lost anybody on any of his trips and that made him very popular.
This time, they were going to a newly opened colony. The planet had native life, but the colony area was fairly unstable. It was perfect for his trips.
He ended up with a full ship of tourists. Their destination was right near a ship repair space station so his negotiation was that the ship would deliver him, then go for repairs. The ship would come back for his tourists and take them home. the ship would get paid to go get repaired and he would have a ship all to his people. It was perfect.
They arrived on the planet. The planet was quite unstable. Earth quakes and volcanos were everywhere. Tidal waves were frequent. He took his tourists to see the sights. At one overlook, a young man ignored his calls to come back. the young man got on a slope of loose gravel and slid over the edge of a cliff. Carvelle berated the entire tour about not listening to him.
Later, a serious earthquake hit. A few people panicked and ran into a cave. The cave collapsed.
Here and there, they lost some people. Carvelle was in shock at how stupid this group was. They just would not listen to him.
Back at the colony, they were waiting for the call of the ship. they had a real adventure and were weary and beaten up. Six volcanos erupted at the same time. The quick was so hard that people were lifted into the air and bounced on the ground. buildings collapsed.
Several tidal waves washed away the lowest portion of the colon which was a thousand feet above sea level. balls of fire hit the colony.
When the event was over, they picked through the remains of the structures. The colonists and tourists gathered in one place. Carvelle did a count. There were five more people than he had purchased space for. He was in shock. He then got word that the ship was on its way.
Thinking about it, he told them that anybody who wants to come with him may join him on the return to civilization. He was not sure how to handle the extra people, but there were many wounded, a few serious. He decided not to deal with that now. He had the colonists find documentation among the rubble, anything that will help them in civilization. he even told them to take documentation of someone else they can fake if needed, such as family members, if they could not find their own.
There are more fire balls and quakes. They have to rush to be picked up because of the conditions of the land. The colonists end up carrying tourist gear, some from dead tourists some of their own stuff. They lose several of the seriously injured people as they get to where they will be picked up.
When they finally get on board the ship, Carvelle does a head count. He as the exact same number of people as what he arrived with. He met his contract with the ship.
they are well away from the planet when there is a serious explosion. The captain tells them that the colony area had ceased to exist. the entire section of the continent blew up There is nothing left. the captain wondered about the colonists. That was when Carvelle told him about what happened down there and that he took all the surviving colonists on board.
Carvelle stopped advertizing that he never lost anybody, but people still preferred him as while he had lost a lot of tourists, he had the courage to save the colonists and that was just as good.

09 )
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Grimweld grew up in the wilderness. He never saw anything mechanical his entire life. everything was arm powered or animal power. He never saw a wheel. The animals dragged things, nothing rolled. they hacked at trees with axes, and used knives to shape things. It was a hard life but an enjoyable life.
He was finally located by advanced people and they took his family to civilization by boating down the river, then fly in a helicopter and then took a train to their destination. Grimweld was in awe at how fast they were going and the way the world looked higher than a tree. His parents were born in civilization so while they were impressed by what they saw, they were not surprised.
Grimweld's face was plastered to the windows, almost drooling at what he was seeing. He had nothing in his life to compare what he saw. An official on board was telling him what he was looking at and answering questions.
The home was nothing he was familiar with. An official taught him how to use the facilities and showed them how to operate the entertainment systems. Grimweld walked around opened mouthed. To not have to carry water, to have air move with a button touch. simple wheels on the bottom of the suit case occupied him for nearly an hour. He had nothing to compare this to. He was taken into a new world.
The bed was so soft, he thought he was gong to be swallowed up but got used to it quickly. He had to be in heaven.
Nearly the first year, he never left the building, elevators were confusing, even after his host showed him a model on screen of how it worked. The entertainment screens were totally baffling. How did those little people get in there?
By the end of the year, he was somewhat used to all of it. He was still wide eyed.
They finally had a reason to leave the building. they went outside and were herded to the cross walk and when the lights changed, the host explained them, and lead them across to another building. They crossed several roads, always following the rules.
At a hospital, they were given examinations and all of that caused Grimweld to be wide mouthed. It was all new. how did those little lights change, did they have birds or insects inside the devices to make the chirps, how did you make that branch holding the shelf rise? Again it was all new.
They walked out of the hospital. Grimweld, not paying attention, walked out into traffic. His other screamed. A car skidded and then passed right through him, along with two other cars. His host grabbed him and dragged him back onto the sidewalk. He was taken to the parking garage and he was told to get inside a car. He walked right through it and asked what next. Immediately he was taken back into the hospital.
they found that he could not grab toy cars either. he handled toy cars with loads of scanners surrounding him. He could handle motorcycles, air planes, trucks, boats, but not cars.
It took some study but they finally came up with a name for his syndrom. It was absolutely stupid, but it was the only way to describe it.
He had an auto immune disease. He was immune to autos.

10 )
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Someone on another board mentioned about soul searching about a project. someone else mentioned losing one's soul and searching for it. He suggested having a pet shop for people's souls. My mind came up with three story ideas from the concept of soul searching and just now I got a different take on it than what I started with.
Argyle was a man who felt he knew the best way to do anything. He was efficient, strong, imaginative, and ingenious. He always knew the best way things needed to be done. He also was very good at manipulating people to get his way. He quickly became the mayor of his village. Under his guidance, his village was doing well.
He caught the attention of the local lord and convinced the lord to do more business with him rather than another village. His village started to thrive. There were those who did not like the changes and refused to work with him. Argyle did his best to isolate their effect on his plans.
The king came by to visit and Argyle caught his attention. The king came to visit about six times, then offered Argyle to work directly for him. Argyle took the chance.
Within a few years, he placed himself as second in command. He applied his powers of influence to guide the kingdom into a mold he had in mind. There was a lot of resistance, even from the king. It was really bothersome as the king was not all that bright in running the kingdom.
One night, Argyle was traveling between towns with a small force. He got up and went into the bushes to relieve himself. A figure faced him. he sensed the evil of the character, but recognized that it was not the devil himself. It had to be a demon.
The demon offered him a deal. Argyle would get the power to influence everybody that was resistant to his plans in exchange for his soul. Argyle got really greedy and accepted the deal. He felt something rip from his chest and the demon was gone.
A bit later, Argyle found he had been cheated. He had less influence than he had before. He then realized that his soul was why he was so effective. He had become a less likeable person. His research showed him that the demons cannot go back to hell before a given amount of time. That meant he could get his soul back if he got to the demon in time.
Considering the options, he came to the king in the presence of the bishop. "I made a really bad decision in the past and present conditions says that I cannot let that bad decision go. I am going out into the country alone and do some soul searching."
Something in the bishop's eyes said that he suspected the deal he made. the king was a little disappointed, but felt it was something that needed to be done. The king insisted that six soldiers would travel with him. Argyle tried to insist going alone, then insisted that they are six soldiers that would never be missed. He figured that if they died in the process, they would not be missed too much.
Argyle left the worst of his wealth with the king. He and his team loaded up and headed out. The first night in the wilderness, Argyle sat and contemplated his soul. He decided that his soul was in a different direction. At the first crossroads heading the right direction, he changed course. Instead of going directly to the soul, he chose to go past it then come in from the side and rear.
Each time after they made camp, Argyle practiced fighting with his team, armed and unarmed. After a week, he was handling two at a time with ease. He taught them how to fight better. He educated them each night, lead them to be stronger, better people.
Like he suspected, the demon detected that he was following and was moving to lead him in a wild chase, except that Argyle had outsmarted the demon.
One night, Argyle stepped out away from camp. alone in the deep dark, he concentrated, and then called a name. The demon was forced to appear before him. Argyle grabbed the demon. The demon was stronger, but not as skilled. Argyle pinned it and was hurting it bad. The demon was forced to give up his soul and install it properly. Argyle knew his soul was where it belonged. He then banished the demon to hell as he saw in his studies.
The demon gone, Argyle returned to camp. The next day, the team saw a big difference in Argyle's demeanor. They forced him to confess what had happened.
They headed back home by the long route, returning from the opposite side of the kingdom.

11 )
.
This is based on idea # 10.
Argyle spent some time back in his job as the king's manager of the kingdom. He had seen more of the world so he realized his old ideas did have some flaws. He saw that the man who replaced him during his years of searching was competent, so he let that man make all the decisions while he mostly studied.
He was alone with a man and saw something about him. He looked empty. "You sold your soul, didn't you? The man looked at him in shock, then broke down and admitted it between sobs.
He was sad for the man. He knew the feeling. He then saw two other men and a woman with the same looks. Something had to be done. He did some research on demons. He found secrets of binding demons and controlling them. he memorized the information, verified it by other sources, and then told the king he needed to go do some more soul searching. The king accepted it. The men he traveled with before, were now too good to let go, so he was given six more men who would not be missed.
Again he trained them, educated them, changed them. This time he was searching for souls of other men. He was searching for demons. One by one, he out-smarted them and captured them. some with the help of his men, sometimes alone. he returned to the kingdom with nearly a dozen demons. he searched out people who had given up their souls and mated most of them back with their souls. He sent them to the bishop to be blessed and to change their ways. He then searched other areas as to where their souls were taken and to find the people.
When he could not find the people some of the demons had, He brought the demons to the bishop and the bishop blessed the souls, releasing them to heaven. Once the demons were emptied of the souls they carried, Argyle banished them to hell. Of course more demons would be sent to earth and try to trick people of their souls.
Argyle never returned to serve the king. He continued his soul searching. Each time he returned, his well trained soldiers were taken from him and he left with soldiers who would not be missed.
By keeping the demons at bay, and training small groups of solders to be really good, he did a great service to his king.

12 )
.
There is the joke about where the toughest line backer of a football team runs into the kicker of the other team and bounces off and is hurt. The joke is about how incompetent the team is.
Technology developed to the point where robotics could be made from anything. While real football still was played, a new game was gaining popularity. The game used inflated robots as the football players. Being inflated, a normal person can knock them around easily.
Every team had one human and the rest of the players were inflated. The human usually was the coach, though a quarter back could well be the human too. The machinery inside the inflated players was hard and do hurt when you hit them wrong.
When there was a human player in the game, there were strategies and tactics to deal with them. If inflated players had the balls, they would pass the ball around quite often and wear out the human. If the human had the ball, there were ways to trip them up or hurt them, though it was hard on the inflated players and not really proper.
For the most part, the inflated players were far more effective in the game than most people, so the people are generally the coaches.
A new season start and there are several new teams. One team has someone who actually played real football. They figure he is gong to be really good. they just don't know who he is. As the season starts, each of the new teams win. That does not tell who the player was.
The season wore on and slowly, teams started getting losses. One team stood undefeated. The play selection was imaginative and the overall strategy was better than most. One thing they did was instead of having a place kicker and a punter as separate players, they had just one and he was good. He must have been programmed and balanced well. All the other players were considered average, but the play selection and strategy made up for it.
It came to the playoffs and the team was still undefeated. all the other teams in there had one loss, usually to this team.
players from other teams were swapped around so the top inflated players were on the playoff teams. That one team had no player swapping other than to replace some rather battered players. He made no changes two games before the playoffs started.
finally it is the big game. The very best of the inflated players with the best coach of the season, against the other team. The game was rough, the teams not getting much advancement.
The team is stopped and the kicker comes out. The ball is hiked and the kicker bobbles the ball, The other team is in on him. He twists and then runs, dodging a bunch of players He then leans in and plows into a "wall" of opposing players and comes out the other side. He runs for a touch down. he is now a touchdown down. They are now only two scores down.
The stadium is silent in shock. The human was not the coach?
The kicker then kicks and it bounces hard up the field. The ball bounces off a player of the other side and his team recovers the ball.
They march up the field until the are close enough for a field goal. The kicker comes out. He gets the ball and has to scramble to avoid a player, he runs past the line, does a shuttle pass to one of his men and then turns off to disrupt, not block, a player of the other side. Touch down. They are only one score down.
The other coach now fully understands what he is up against and prepares for it. The ball is kicked low, a line drive to bounce off an opposing player. Again his team gets the ball. he is off the field. It is an all out battle out there. the opposing coach is using every cheat in the book. One by one, players on both sides start to deflate, injured and taken off the field.
The coach starts to notice something. The kicker's players are about the same, no stars, while he is losing his stars in the game. His second line players, though they were the best of the other teams, are not as good.
The kicker finally has to come out. The ball is hiked and the kicker is plowed under. He gets up slowly. He lines up again to kick and again he is plowed under. everybody can tell he is shaken.
He lines up again. He gets the ball and runs to the side, then he changes direction. He drops down and plows through the space between the lines. The opposing players are knocked into the air. When he gets to the other side, he comes back again, hitting, kicking and stepping on the enemy players. He makes one more pass through them The game clock clicks to zero. He then goes for the touch down. They are tied.
The stadium is silent. A little man like a kicker did that to the best inflated players. They change sides for the fourth quarter. There is extra time for the players to be carried off and checked over.
The coach is now playing second and third string players. The kicker kicks it long and into the end zone so the team gets the ball on the twenty. It is a slow, long march down the field. The kicker's team stops them. Instead of letting the kicker get the ball, the coach goes for a fourth down. the kicker's team stops him. Then the kicker's team marches the ball up the field. The team is stopped when a ball is stripped. Again no kicker.
finally the kicker comes out. The ball is hiked and he runs up past the place kicker and catches the ball. He dashes right, and uses the blocking of his team to get around the opponents. he then dodges around other players until he is in the open. two players are all between him and as score. he comes right at them. They come right at him. They make the move to hurt him bad. He hits them in his way. He is then past them, score.
he kicks the ball and his defense simply wears down the clock until there is nothing left and the opponents are beyond kicking range.
In later interviews, he said that he decided the inflated coach was better than he was, so he did what he did best, kick. He could kick farther than an inflated kicker.
When asked how he made it through the last two players when they blocked to stop him, He told them that this really only works if done early in the game. When there are no other plays, the attempt never matters.

13 )
.
The religious group kept gardens, worked with tools, made things. The city around them had robots doing everything, The people mainly entertained themselves.
Charley, One of the religious group was working with the utilities and found himself lost. He ended up some place he was not supposed to be, a silo with a missile. Having studied about such things in his studies, he checked the thing over and found it operational. He also found out how to get in and out easily.
He worked his way back to his team and he acted like he never saw anything. They only knew he was gone a while.
Years later, the robots take over. they don't need the people. The people are kept as pets, having no say in anything. The robot society pick out various people and make examples of them.
Charley realizes the robots will make examples of his people. He slips into the utilities and works his way back to the silo. There, he gets into the computers. He finds there are hundreds of these around the world. He programs them to go off in the atmosphere, setting off an electronic pulse effect, frying all electronics.
The robots had followed him,. He hits the launch command and goes out to battle them. He leads them to the door to the base of the rocket and gets the door open. The blast of the rocket goes deep into the utility systems, clearing them out of any robots hiding in there.
The rockets enter the atmosphere and detonate just before defensive rockets reach them.
In the cities, robots are marching some victims along then suddenly the lights go out. Air systems go out, entertainment, robots collapse, all of society stops.
The people in the city cannot get the elevators to work or the doors to open. They are trapped.
The religious group found themselves with problems. They had to get tools to pry the doors open. They had no lights so they had to leave doors open to the air. They had to dig out the candles they made. Their stoves did not work so they had to use their grills and such to cook their foods. None of the machines worked so they had to do their work by hand, which was difficult.
They struggled. they had vegetables and food animals, but now they were learning how to do a lot of things on their own.
The people in the city died quickly after they ran out of supplies in their homes. Those in the halls felt along the corners searching for anything at all. After two months, the city was silent.
The religious group expanded their gardens since they had time to plant more. They built more tools, taking sheet metal and conduit to make axes. big pipes and attaching bottoms to make buckets. someone who had made a simple pump for a science project, made a big pump to draw water out of the plumbing to give them some running water.
Slowly they expanded areas of the buildings they had access to. Once they had access to robots, they were able to convert parts to useful things. They found food in storage rooms that could not be accessed because the doors closed tight.
They slowly expanded through the city, the death and destruction was horrifying but they ordered Charley to set off the missiles because there would be no people left when the robots were done.
It took time, but their population grew and they developed ways to occupy the city
A couple centuries later, the populations of the world had developed to expand to occupy all the cities and start world trade again. Many nations did better than the city did as they were not as dependant.
The world did develop robot technology, but never to the level to be effective servants. No one ever wanted that again.

14 )
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There is a County song where the singer (woman in this case) goes back home to see if they can find herself. Someone else lives there. I had used this song before for a story idea where a magician goes back to regain energies found only there. While listening to the song, I got a different idea.
In the process of becoming a magician, one becomes a different person. There is a slight emptiness but the power one gains makes up for that. There is suggested rumor that said that one loses oneself in the process, find your other self and one can become ultimately powerful. Of course, no one ever bothered trying such a search. There is more important things to do.
The cost to become a magician is high and one has to make a small fortune to break even. One does not do charity work unless it will bring one more money. Because of this, most magicians prefer not to be bothered by the common folk. No money there.
Reindolf had reached the limits of his ability. He had bid on and just lost three lucrative projects to better magicians. That proved to him that he would never get that kind of customer. He also realized he would never pay off his debt without such customers.
Reindolf decided he needed to do something. Frustrated, he gathered a pack together and went hiking. He only planned to be out for at most a week. He just wanted to be away from his problems, to figure out what to do.
A month later, he found himself at his birth home. He sat on a log across the path, just looking around. He remembered the fun times he had playing with animals and talking to spirits, a sign he was naturally talented for magic. He then remembered when an old magician showed up. That was when he learned how to focus his skills and learned spells. He then remembered the ceremony where he became a magician. He recalled how he felt like something left him and he had changed. He had lost himself.
Reindolf got up and walked to the building and knocked. a burly man showed up, his wife stood in the background with several children. Strangers knocking was usually not good and to see a magician was really bad news.
"I was born in this house and grew up in this yard. I wish permission to hang around, and recall my child hood."
The man hesitated. "You have the right to say no. I will understand and leave."
The man got a little smile on his face, To say no to a magician was something everybody would love to say. Instead the man said, "Go ahead, but do no damage."
Reindolf bowed deeply. "You have my word."
Reindolf walked out back and entered the trees. He sat down and relaxed. He watched and listened as he did as a child. A spirit peeked out from behind a tree. it was curious. Reindolf did not move other than to look around, to watch. soon, all sorts of creatures and entities came out of the trees.
One then addressed him, asking what he was doing there. Magicians always ordered such spirits around and commanded them. He forced all that to go away and he was like a child. He spoke softly, carefully, answering questions. He recognized several of he entities and soon they recognized him.
He bade them goodbye and he left the property, going out into the forest on the other side of the road to make camp.
Early morning, before dawn, he returned and communed with the animals and spirits. There were games they played and he played the games with them. There was dancing and just having fun. He was like a child. He understood what he was dealing with. these entities could be very dangerous. He now understood the whole meaning of the games and songs he sang with them. Some were designed to entice one, eventually into their lair. Of course, with his powers, they would not like the results, but acted a child anyway.
He finally saw, hiding behind a rock, what he was here for, Myself. He ignored it, concentrating on the fun with the spirits. It was not as easy now that he was a full grown adult who had seen better days.
A week later, he actually met Myself. It was sort of a spirit with some physical content. It was like a soul, but was more than that. He treated it like another spirit, with respect and yet acted like he was not absolutely interested in it.
Myself was shy, not trusting. Himself finally asked, "Why are you here?"
"I am here to find Myself. Now that I have done so, I can leave, satisfied."
"Please don't go."
"Why? You are happy and free."
"I am missing something, I felt a little more whole when I saw you.
"I don't know how to join us, if that is what you are after. I don't know the effect of such a joining. I promised the man in the house that I would do no damage."
Myself looked thoughtful. "There will be no damage. I know how to bind us together."
"I don't want to simply be bound together. If we do this, we must become one again, as we were before we separated."
Myself turned and was gone.
Reindolf continued to play with the animals and spirits, letting them draw them closer to their desires. He picked up on a couple new tricks within what they were doing. He saw that the timing of what was said effected the magic around them. something detrimental to him, he changed the timing ever so slightly and reduce the effect, while other things he said them exactly right. He saw they did not recognize what he was doing.
Two days later, Myself showed up while he sat alone, no animals and spirits around him. Myself touched him and it felt good. Myself whispered in his ear. He did not hear anything, but knew what he was told, a command to make them one. Myself said say this exactly the same time I do and we will become one.
It dawned on Reindolf that this could be quite a bad idea. He decided to do it anyway. If he could not get out of debt, his life would not be much anyway.
They say the command together. Myself was suddenly gone. Reindolf relaxed, suddenly feeling whole. He sat, and feasted on the sensations. It was as if the world became alive again. The spirits and animals came out of hiding. one by one, they all came forward to touch him. The spirits seemed brighter.
With each touch, he gained knowledge about the spirit world. The animals touched him and he gained knowledge of the animal world.
When it all finally stopped, a voice within him spoke. "We are one, It is right. We must leave now, there is nothing more for us here."
Reindolf bade the owner good bye, and asked if the man wanted anything in payment for his being here. He healed a sick calf and shooed a couple entities off the property that was causing problems with the crops, and enticed an entity into the property to act as a guardian. He then left.
When he got back to his house, he found he could do magic that was impossible for him before. He soon was getting work where each spell paid off his debt. He never said why he suddenly became so powerful. all he ever told anybody was he was satisfied with himself.
(I am tempted to having him talk to himself all the time, but won't go there.) Being complete, he had access to skills, knowledge and powers few magicians would ever gain. He also learned that the reason none of the other magicians ever found themselves was they would go in and try to force themselves to show, rather than letting themselves finding them.

15 )
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Circuses of the olden days are much different than the ones today. The entertainments were of a different nature. skills and technologies are learned and lost over time, then new technologies and skills are developed.
He came to town and a small circus was on. He went in and watched their performances, then talked to the people. He learned that the circus was going to shut down soon.
He goes to the owner and makes a deal. He would buy it if he could improve it over the next season. If he could not improve on it, he would shut it down. The owner would keep the money either way.
Back at their home base, he started working with the artists. He had little things he could do to improve the show. By the time they were ready to go out, the acrobats had increased in skills, the animal shows were more entertaining, the clowns were funnier, the side shows were more an attraction, the midway was more fun.
They headed out on the road and quickly, the shows were packed to the limit. They actually purchased a bigger set of tents mid season and doubled the seating and that was not enough. At the end of the season in one big city, he got them in a stadium. That really did the show well.
At the end of the season, he split the profits with the owner. The owner made him a partner.
He decided to expand the show. He brought in more talent. He also brought in people to teach the artists. Many of the teachers had strange accents and did not use the newest technologies. the artists found the techniques interesting. When the show was about to hit the road, the teachers went another way.
The show was that much better than before. The audience loved the "old style" acts going on.
Over the next few years, different groups of teachers would show up and teach the artists new acts. No one knew where he got the teachers but they were very good and the acts really showed off what the artists could do.
Eventually, He sold his share of the circus to his partner. the partner asked him where he was getting the teachers.
"You are not going to believe me, but they are from the past. these are masters of their art in their time. Their crafts are later forgotten. I bring them forward in time so they can teach our artists. the artists can then take it from there."
"You are right, I don't believe it. I will say, though, that it makes more sense than any other answer you could have given.
"I will take some time off, then find a circus about to fade out and start teaching them again."
"Good luck."

16 )
.
This idea came from the soul searching concepts mentioned in Idea 10 and 11, but a different take.
Particle physics found that there was something to the spiritual magical beliefs. it was found because energies were not matching expectations and little bits of strange effects were seen outside the experiments.
Once that was found, other scientific fields started exploring and finding evidence for magic everywhere. Soon, examining religious practices scientifically based on the newest research pointed to the way to a "higher authority," but not beyond that.
It took some time, but they found that there was really a soul. There was no evidence of heaven or hell, or that the souls went to the higher authority, but the automatic assumption was that souls likely went there. An accident with mind experiments allowed some patients to look into their souls. The researchers were stunned at the descriptions.
Soon, the accident was replicated and perfected. the churches, who were masters of religion anyway, took over the systems.
A group of ten people came to a temple. they knew this was supposed to be a cleansing, a gauge of how close to heaven they wee. they laid down on the tables and the equipment was hooked up. Each one had spent a month studying what they would be seeing and how to deal with it.
A woman was a pillar of the church and she joked that her test would be boring. A beggar off the street, who had just cleaned himself up, was also part of the tests. He was not comfortable and said he had not lived the best life. Others had various comments in between.
The equipment came on. the beggar sort of dozed off, then woke up in a cave. he did not walk, but sort of moved through. He recognized that the shape of the place he was in, was that of a pre-born baby. There were places where the surface was deformed, encrusted masses here and there, but generally clean. He saw the start of the umbilical cord and it was shiny and clean.
After moving all the way through all places in the form, he examined closely where the messes were. he somehow knew the causes of them, a slow anger that could be brought to high violence, several addictions, some bad habits. He decided since he was cleaning himself up already, he would work hard on those items. He came out of the experience with a smile. He told the priest that he had some work to do.
The woman entered the form. She found she had to pick her way through crud and encrusting debris that nearly went all the way across the form. She went through the whole form. She somehow recognized the form as that of a unborn baby, but there was really no clue that she could see. There were no large spaces anywhere. She turned and passed into a space she missed. She could see an umbilical cord passing beyond the clear bubble, but there was no hole. The cord looked shriveled and deformed.
She stared at it a long time, then she realized what she was seeing. Her soul was so corrupted by the way she acted, the things she did when no one was looking, her entire past as an outwardly wonderful person but pure evil behind the scenes. She realized that her soul was pinched off from the path it would take when she died.
Horror flowed over her, She hit the hard deposits and nothing happened. She felt trapped, she could was not sure how she got to this point. She slowly picked her way along the mess and somehow reached the point she started at.
When she woke, she broke into screaming sobs and they could not stop her. An ambulance took her to the hospital.
None of the other people had as extreme reactions, but none were satisfied with what they saw.
They had finished their session of soul searching, searching their souls to see how clean and pure they were and find out what they needed to do to purify themselves. Few people did not change from the experience.
The beggar eventually entered the priesthood and was good at it. The woman was finally released from the hospital and she was almost a different woman. She lost her drive and almost stepped completely out of society. She was prone to sobbing fits. There were rumors that she was going to the poor people and asking for their help. The few that were willing to talk said that she would find motherly like women and become like a little girl around them.
It took a while for everybody to link the soul searching she had done to the way she was acting. Even then no one was quite willing to say that was unquestionably the cause.
Nearly a decade later, she did the soul searching again. There was a lot of debris everywhere, but the umbilical cord was clear and looked healthy. She changed a little more after that until her death half a decade later.

17 )
.
Someone mentioned about a knife fight. My mind shifted into story idea mode.
There were a lot of sprits, entities and creatures that could be captured and forced into objects to serve the holder of the object. Their nature dictated what kind of object they went into. Entities bound to an material or object, such as a tree nymph, stayed with the material to which they were bond such as wood.
The more difficult an entity was to control, the more violent they tended to be. Nymphs and plant spirits went into healing or household items as they were easy to control. Demons tend to be almost deadly, so they went into blades and other weapons.
There was a way where the souls of people could be captured and used in objects. This was frowned on and not totally effective, and they tended to be ones who spoke wisdom rather than do things.
Bonded blades, as they were referred, tended to be impervious to damage so they last longer than their warriors. Every magic user tries their hand at binding dangerous entities into blades, even if it is a way to get rid of the entity. Bonded blades abounded, it was rare to have someone merely a sharpened piece of metal.
One penalty of using bonded blades is that the user never really gets good. The sword does their fighting for them. They just hold it. They do learn ways to help the blade, but the blade does all the work.
A great hobby, and something that is frowned on, is knife or sword fighting. This is where one attaches the blades to a special fitting and set them in a circle. the blades will use the magic of the fitting to allow them to fight each other without the user interfering with the fights. the audience will place bets on the blades. The blade that hits the fitting first wins as it shorts out the magic and the blade drops to the ground.
Many swordsmen will use the sword fight to decide whether they wish to actually match each other in a fight. If it goes a given amount of time, they will fight each other as the holder will make a big difference. If one blade wins big, there is no way they are going to fight each other. Of course, there is the search for the best blades in existence and the sword fights show which is better.
Kadlow wandered with his sword on his hip and a pack on is back. He commonly traveled alone and when he reached town, only dealt with people to get what he needed.
He came out of the store and set his pack on the ground to add his newest purchase to it. A man with a big sword walks up. "I challenge your blade to a sword fight."
"Kadlow glanced at him. "Not interested."
"I demand a sword fight.
"Not interested."
"You are a coward and your sword has the soul of a nymph (a serious insult)."
"You are dumb and your sword does your thinking (an even bigger insult).
The man screamed out in anger, and drew his sword. Kadlow drew his sword up to misdirect the strike. the two fought for a whole minute before Kadlow disarmed his opponent, which is something that never happens. The man screamed out and held his hand. He dropped to his knees and was shaking. "Please?" he begged.
"Get your carrot slicer and get out of my sight." A serious insult to the knife and the man. the fact that the man was able to get his blade back was a slight compensation as most lost their blades when they lost.
Kadlow finished his business. He was challenged by a man as he was walking out of town. the man said his blade had never lost in a knife fight and demanded to knife fight Kadlow's blade.
Kadlow declined, saying that if there is going to be any fighting, it will be with the man behind them. the man attacked. Kadlow disarmed him too. He kicked the man in the face just to let him know he was not happy about having to fight. the man got his blade back.
Between towns he was set upon by some bandits. Kadlow never missed a step as he slashed his way through them with no wasted motions. The bandit members who were not in the fight were stunned at how good Kadlow blade was. He killed several with named blades.
As Kadlow traveled, he was challenged, set upon and constantly bothered. He never came close to losing and he never just had the blades fight. He traveled to new territories on a route that by the time he got back to some place he visited before, they had forgotten about him.
One day while passing an area he had been just a year before, a lord surrounded him with an army. The lord had the only undefeated blade anywhere. It was the very best blade in existence. they took Kadlow blade away from him and was going to have a sword fight. The named sword was set on the fitting and it was ready to fight. they put Kadlow to the fitting and it fell to the ground. they tried it half a dozen times and it would not stick to the fitting. A magician was brought in to find out what was going on. He gasped. the blade is only a piece of steel.
The lord demanded that Kadlow give the real blade he used. He said that was it. The lord refused to accept that.
Kadlow said "give me the blade." the lord's assistant handed him the blade. In a sudden move, he cut his bounds and disarmed a number of the guards.
"Shall we die together" Kadlow said as he held his blade up. The lord said a command to give the blade absolute power, then attacked.
It was a long battle and Kadlow had a few cuts in his clothing and a couple scratches. When he backed off, the lord was on his knees and the blade was at his feet.
"How, How could this be? the lord asked. "Your blade is just a piece of metal!"
"I know how to fight and am the best swordsman in existence. I am much better than any blade."
He took the lord's cloak to cover his torn cloak, and strolled out of the knot of men and back onto the trail. He smiled inwardly that he now proved he was the very best swordsman ever.
It would be a very long time before he passed that area again. In the distance he saw young men learning to fight with a blade by their own muscles. He was pleased by the effect he had, but could see they would never be good by the way they worked. he was not going to help them.

18 )
.
That was a hunting preserve. Hunting there was very dangerous, but extremely popular. Most considered it a place to prove themselves.
There were common rules for how, where and when to hunt in there. Many went well below the rules to make the hunt more challenging. The prey they brought back was not as good as domestic meats, but was something different which was always good.
The rules were that one were after males, unless a female was trying to kill you. Female offspring were not to be taken unless they were trying to take you out. Male offspring open season and a real delicacy. You can protect those within your party from attack and instant revenge, within a sort time after one of your party is killed is acceptable, but one is not to hunt the killer.
Weapons had to be primitive, slings, cross bows, bows, arrows, muzzle loaded non-rifled guns, any hand weapon like knives and swords, blow guns, no poison of any kind.
One thing was to not leave any advanced technology there of any kind. The hunters were stripped down and everything examined before they entered the hunting area.
In the hunting area, one wore minimal clothing, cloaks and footwear similar to what would be found in the area. Again, no one was to leave advanced technologies. Half went without clothing other than a cloak as the weather there was that nice.
In the hunting preserve, one set up camp at the base line. Supplies, tents, cookware was provided so all one needed to bring was weaponry, and one could obtain additional weaponry there. Again one was checked over before one left the baseline. Some weapon combinations were forbidden as they could be combined into something not allowed.
They enter the preserve and spread out. It is a long distance to travel to get to where one can actually hunt. Once in the right area, one searches for prey slipping through the landscape. The prey is very intelligent and is also looking for you and will kill you if they see you first within range.
Some will camp out in the preserve so they can go deeper in where better hunting can be found. There are those of the prey also staying out at night and it is common for them to use the opportunity to attack you after you have settled down. Night hunting is allowed and can be quite profitable. Killing a prime makes it easier for your people to hunt safely and profitably.
Some hunters find the long distance weapons a bore, so they will hone their tracking abilities and their silent motion skills to the point where they will not kill until they are closer, some using hand held blades or even their hands to make the kills. It is the thrill of being in danger they are after.
One rule that is bored into the minds of the hunters that if the prey makes a kill, one must leave the dead and not carry it out. Officials will take offenders out into the preserve with the body and leave them tied to a tree. One leaves the dead and nearly dead. That sound barbaric but it is a rule that makes the hunting preserve work.
Officials prefer when you bring children. They should experience the thrill of the hunt, the time in the wilderness, the sense of danger. They will be better adults if they are taken to hunt often.
The instructions are word for word the same for the other side who are hunting you...
The two species used to war against each other. they came to this agreement, binding off their territories except for this common area. Since they can eat each other, the rules were developed and enforced to keep their populations under control yet in their prime.
Both sides have the beginnings of energy weapons, but the weaponry allowed in the hunting preserves keeps things even and fair. It gives both sides a chance.
The population have no clue what they are up against and what is going on in the preserve, they just think they are hunting prey.

19 )
The Luxury car came to a stop outside the tall stone wall of the military base. An open side gate was just a few yards away. The district's head spy and his driver got out. the driver opened the back door and a young lady comes out. She looks around in awe, as if she had never seen it before.
"Britney, this is the place we told you about." She walked away from the car until she could see inside the gate.
"There are men in there!" she said as if it was a new concept.
"Yes dear, they are all yours."
"Mine?" she said as if she received a diamond ring."
"Yes dear, all yours."
Within moments, she was wearing just her panties. It was as if her clothing just dropped off. "Really mine?"
"Yes dear. All yours."
She just stepped out of her shoes and was on her toes, bouncing across the ground with high steps. As she passed through the gate, she leaned back for one last look at her boss before the gate columns blocked her view and squealed and excited, "Weeee!"
The two men turned back to their car. "I really feel guilty about doing this." the driver said as he opened the door for his boss.
"In our business, we sometimes have to shut off our conscience to get the job done."
The headquarters was buzzing with activity. Men with phones to their ears writing on pads of papers, shuffling maps, calling out information. Enemy positions were being captured in rapid succession and it was hard to keep track of what was happening.
The commander watched the map as division locations were updated. There were dozens of enemy bases not yet neutralized. The commander asked about what divisions were dealing with each fortification, "Reichnel?"
"17th armored is there."
"Columbinde?"
"154th infantry is approaching."
"Bellingdale?"
"Britney," The man snickered. "Neutralized them."
The commander gave him a double take, his jaw opened slightly. After a long pause he then continued. "Ginglingham?"
The projector stopped and the overhead lights came on in the theater. "I hope you know we lost our family rating in this version." The executive said with disappointment.
"That is true, but you do admit that this is far better than how it was originally filmed." The film producer said.
"I know. It's just I was hoping for a larger audience."
"With Crystal's name on the credits and with her on screen, you are going to get the biggest audience you will ever get."
"It is just cheating. Why can't we do a film without her?"
"You will have to ask your people why they are not that skilled." The producer repeated an often asked question. "She saved the film by re-shooting only two scenes with no special effects. You cannot get cheaper save." The two men climbed out of their seats and walked to the exit.
"It is just not right. It bothers me to have to depend on a porn goddess to save our films all the time."
"Like they said in the film, In our business, we sometimes have to shut off our conscience to get the job done." They walked outside. "Keep in mind, she saved our industry."
"I can still not like it. She is, so," he paused, "Alien to our way of thinking."
"Sir, she is an alien. That is why she can get away with what she does."

20 )
.
The drink was healthy and had most of what the body needed. The formula was secret, the process took a long time, but there was never a shortage of the drink. The company itself always advertized it as a healthful brew, but it did not have alcohol in it.
What the company did was they took the filtered sewer water, grey water as it is called, and mixed in some six hundred microbes into the water and they bottled the solution. they did not even bother washing the bottles, the bottles went into storage. Six years later, they flipped the bottles upside down, shaking the bottles periodically to cause the sediment to settle in the cap. After another two years, the cap was frozen and removed which removed the sediment, and a new cap put on. The bottles were finally washed with soap and water (returned to the grey water going into new bottles) and a label was added.
What was happening with the process was that the microbes fed on different materials within the grey water, and then fed on the wastes of the different microbes, and then fed on each other. At the end of eight years, the water was cleaned of dangerous pollutants and the microbes themselves. Once the new cap was on, the brew would last for decades.
The reason the company never ran out was they used all the grey water the city created. They always could draw on another year's brew to handle heavy demand. Lighter years allowed them to rebuild the stockpile.
Just the idea that they were using grey water to make the drink would have killed the company if anybody knew. The company did have random bottles tested as they were shipped out by independent labs to check for anything that might cause a health problem. None were ever found. The secret formula was such a guarded secret, it was never found.

21 )
.
The sandwich shop was busy. Customers lined up and called out their orders.
"ham and cheese on rye."
"Chicken sub."
"Philly steak,"
"Meatball sub."
the customers would then pay for the finished sandwich at the other end of the counter. there were dozens of people working behind the counter making sandwiches so there were dozens of people lined up after they had given their orders.
This happened every day, sandwiches were born, set near the cash register, paid for, and taken away to be eaten. Some were bitten into as the customers were walking out, some customers would stop at a side counter, open the wrapping to add something else.
The sandwiches saw what happened to the other sandwiches and could do nothing about it. they would be born and lay on the counter to watch what happened to those before them, talk among themselves as to what can be done and realize there is nothing to do. they are then taken away to suffer their fate.
One day the sandwich makers were working extra fast and the cash register was running slow. A customer asks for a hero sandwich. A woman behind the counter starts assembling it.
The cash register then jams up and they have to shut it down to reset it. The order taker stops taking orders, waiting.
The hero sandwich is finished and set on the counter behind a long line of sandwiches. The hero sandwich hears the talk of the others. He is appalled at what happens to others. He gets angry.
He suddenly rolls over and leaps up into the air, his wrapper is a cape. The bun splits into two, becoming powerful arms. "Here I come to save the day!"
He soars over to the wall, then charges back. The people behind the counter are all looking at him in shock. He flies between them with his powerful arms hooked and with a slight zig-zag flight, he knocks every one of them in the jaw, knocking them out.
He then flies over the counter and sets upon the customers. some customers run for the door, a few grab something to swat at him. He grabs one man by the jacket and swings him around several times in the air and throws him at the door. He knocks all the escaping customers down. He then pummels a man who is trying hard to knock him out of the air.
The last man in the line was the one who ordered him. the man is swinging a cane at him. Hero is almost hit several times, this guy is good, he knew what he was dealing with when he ordered a hero sandwich. The man had to be pure evil.
Hero moved as if he was rising, then dove hard, the man swung his cane right where he was going to fly. Hero skimmed the floor, grabbed the man's foot and lifted. The man happened to have his weight on that foot so he rose into the air.
Hero shoved up hard, then dropped back to the ground as the man swatted his own foot to get him. the ceiling and the man's head connected with a loud bang. Hero caught one foot as he was coming down and shoved hard to the side. Both feet met. Hero flew in an arc up.
The became upside down as he came to the ground. The battle was over.
Hero landed among the sandwiches and the cheered him for saving them. A cute salad sandwich came up to him, batting her eyes and taking hold of his powerful arms with her delicate hands, "My hero!" she swooned.
"That is what I was born for." He said.

22 )
.
The box was a curse. Yitag could not give it away nor could he throw it away, and the box demanded to be with him often.
The box was really a demon and it would not leave unless someone stole it from Yitag. Yitag had to be robbed for him to lose the box permanently.
The box changed appearances and sizes as the day went on. It might be a small box at one point, and a big box later. It might be beat up cardboard or become a flashy candy box or a brass jewelry box. It fit the situation. Usually it could fit into his pocket on another bag if there was no chance of Yitag being robbed, but will become more interesting when things got worse.
The demon often allowed Yitag to place objects inside to carry them and would fit the size needed. It would even make the load lighter somehow at times. It could also make itself heavy so it looked like Yitag was carrying a heavy load that might be worth stealing.
One day, Yitag was carrying the demon under his arm. It looked like it was filled with packing material.
A couple thugs appeared around him. "Let us see what is in the box."
"I don't think you are interested in what I have." Yitag said.
"Come on, give it here."
"There is nothing in this box for you."
"That box is now mine!" The thug grabbed the box and walked away. Yitag turned and walked past two of the thugs the other way.
The thugs ran off with the box to their hide out when the leader said "This looks valuable."
Yitag went home the back way and started packing up his belongings. He knew the gang would get revenge against him so he wanted to get out of the neighborhood quickly. In spite all the boxes he appeared to bring home, he had little in the way of belongings and few real boxes.
He made several trips to a long term storage for his stuff until he could make arrangements to move it. He was on his last trip, mainly removing trash.
The thug who stole the box appeared. He held a small jewelry case. "I ought to kill you." The youth said.
"I told you that you did not want what was in the box." Yitag hefted his last box into his car. "The only way to get rid of it is to be robbed, the box taken forcefully and it cannot happen by anybody who knows about the rule."
"I wish you luck. I was your age when I stole the box from another man. It took me this long to find someone who was willing to steal it from me."
He got into his car and drove away. The thug shook his head and watched him go.
.
My original idea was for the youth to be swallowed up by the box, but that did not work to have him owning the box so I just had him steal it and get stuck with it.

23 )
Bilbow was a bit strange. He was often found to be totally absorbed by whatever project he was involved in. That would not be bad, except he was enthusiastic over whatever project he was doing. He had tried collecting a few things and was found to be a hoarder, obtaining all the item even if it was not collectable. Most people kept their distance from him.
Thom tended to be around him periodically and always asked what Bilbow was involved in. One day, Bilbow said he was collecting Bees. He is a Beekeeper now. Thom said "interesting," and walked away. He thought about that meeting several times during the rest of he day. How was Bilbow keeping his Bees alive? Where was he keeping them. Where was he getting them.
About a month later, a young secretary was chewed out over a badly misspelled document she typed. She went to her computer and typed the missing letter both caps and with a few fonts. It worked. She looked away and then back and several of the letters were gone. the boss who chewed her out, saw what she had created and then saw the missing letters. The spaces the letters were from were the same size. a while later, a few more of the decorative letters were gone. "See! I did not make all those mistakes in the document!!!" the secretary said.
"We have a virus somewhere here!" the boss called to the tech people. They searched and scanned and could not find any bugs. they did find two files that was not supposed to be there. they did not know what they were, but they sent out a warning about the files, sending them for examination.
Soon everybody knew there was something going on. A single letter was disappearing from documents everywhere. A couple painted signs were missing the letter. The electronic library became unreadable.
A few people solved the problem by using two symbols that were seldom used int heir work. An & (ampersand) for the capital letter and @ (at symbol) for the small letter. They were able to get their messages around without losing meaning. A few people used other symbols not found on the keyboard instead, doing a replace through all their documents so what was left was not damaged more.
One day, Thom happened to see Bilbow and asked about his Bee keeping. It was doing great. Bilbow was so proud he brought Thom in to show him. Banks upon banks of computers, all scrolling screens of the letter B of all kind. They were mixed up so there was no question they were scrolling. Along the wall were portions of signs that were removed from public and private areas It was all the letter B.
Thom looked around. "Had you considered what would happen if someone found out about you acquiring all this without permission? They might be very angry."
Bilbow looked innocent. "I am saving them. they needed to be saved."
"I am not going to mention anything, but if I am asked, I will tell what I saw." Thom left.
Bilbow must have thought about it as documents were being changed. he had somehow had a way to track down where the letters came from and was able to return them for the most part. The things he removed from the public areas were found near where they were taken.
It was nearly a year later when Thom asked Bilbow what he was up to. "I'm collecting pitchers." He said.
"Well don't steal any, get them legally." Thom said as he walked very quickly away. He did not want to know how he translated that hobby into something. He figured his warning was about all that could be done.
Beekeeper indeed.

24 )
.
I heard a commentator make the mistake of saying "flying buildings into planes" rather than saying "Fly planes into buildings. Of course I just had to make use of that.
The land was all gardens and farming. there were landing pads, roads between them, but there were no cities, no urban wastelands. It was farming, parks, and forests.
The population was a hundred billion people, but less than a million lived on land. Twenty billion lived under the oceans, five billion lived in orbit in space. The rest floated in the air.
As small as houses, to thousand story sky scrapers, buildings floated on the air due to power systems found during particle physics experiments. They all had guidance, but most used prevailing air currents to carry them all around the world.
Airplanes flew from building to building, either as shuttles, or as trucks delivering supplies. People for the most part never leave their buildings their whole life.
Computers in the buildings talked to each other and the computer network predicted where each building would likely go and correct for each other's motions in the air. There was actually very little maneuvering. The floating, sort of an anti gravity effect, used limited amounts of energy, but maneuvering used lots of energy. It was common for buildings to make adjustments days ahead of time where a little bit of power had big effects.
Among the transport planes was the Behemoth. It was a small skyscraper with wings. It carried supplies and passengers between super skyscrapers and the ground. It was used where massive loads were needed.
It was designed to fly slowly. It would land on the airport roof on top most buildings and then unload the containers to the elevator for the building. New containers would arrive as soon as room was made.
The owners loved it when the Behemoth was used with the load to one destination. That was where their biggest money was. Such trips were mostly for going between continents. The main purpose was to go between hemispheres that most buildings never cross and mostly with perishables that would not survive transportation other ways. Even transporting perishables around the globe is a common use for the plane as some perishables would not last the time it takes for buildings to make it around the world.
The only real nations are the southern continents and the northern continents. The Equator acts like a barrier between them so the floating cities don't exchange often, if at all.
There are a few radical groups who want to force all floating skyscrapers to land and stay there, so the land is not shaded or the heavens defiled by the "building magic."
Floating around the world and the interchange between hemispheres is the main reason that the population can be as big as it was. It is cheaper to bring the buildings to the supplies than to bring the supplies to the buildings.
One day, one of the radical groups learned that the Behemoth was going to be making a hemisphere transfer on a route that would pass one of their buildings. They thought that if they killed the Behemoth, they could destroy the system that supported the floating buildings.
They star sneaking their people out of the selected building, taking their belongings with them. they don't care about the population inside the building that are not theirs. They will be numbers to improve their notoriety.
A few of them get into the control room and wipe the dust from the controls. they make slight changes in the route, overriding the computer system to get to where they want to be.
The day comes and they are in place, right on schedule. Behemoth approaches. As it flies by, the radicals, hit the maximum thrusters in the building. the pilot of the Behemoth looks at the computer and cannot believe the building is not where the computer was supposed to be. The building, on full thrusters, is quite fast. The Behemoth's wings clear the building, by inches, but the building follows the trailing edge of the wing right to the body of the plane.
the fire ball is seen for hundreds of miles. The death toll is high. Several storage complexes on the ground are laid waste.
The radicals then proudly announce they had flown the building into the plane. Within a week, every member of any radical group is rounded up. The evidence against all of them are their communications.
Within two weeks, thousands of planes are flying in the air, filling in the work that the Behemoth did. They can go directly to their customers rather than to some central location.

25 )
.
There is the old joke, "Help, I'm trying to find myself. Have you seen me anywhere?" and there is a newer joke that adds to it, "If you see me before I get back, hold me until I return."
The time machine was just invented. They figured out that once through the portal it created, one could go anywhere in time and place. The area of the portal was the site to change direction. They had first sent a mouse through and it was coming and going like mad. It eventually got caught in a trap and after checking the identity tag, they found it to be a very old mouse when it was caught, ten minutes after it had left.
It was time to send a person through. Harvey knew he would be there all the time. He got a brilliant idea. He said that since the time traveler can come and go as often as they wanted to, they should have some way to track when they arrived and how many times they arrived. They inserted several chips Garrett's arms. They would record time, record visits by reading a sensor in the building, and Harvey could put a count in another chip to verify the counts.
He had a manual log where he would write down the information. He made sure that Garrett knew to log in, no matter what. Nothing else mattered.
Garrett enters the time machine. He is standing there a couple minutes later. The others ask why he had not gone. Harvey gets an idea and demands that Garrett log in. The log shows up that he had been there a dozen times already. Harvey makes Garrett recount where he was and what he did to date.
Over the next months, Garrett keeps showing up to disappear again. Harvey records every visit, late night, early morning, during the day. Each time, Harvey makes Garrett recount what he has done so far. A recognizably older Garrett recounts about how he just missed being captured because he was warned of danger. Harvey got quite a bit of information on the incident. He looks over his records and sees some interesting clues of things to watch out for that he was not aware of. He starts giving hints to Garrett each time he returns. Early counts get early information, late counts get late information. He later interrogates Garrets about certain things now, getting more detailed stories.
One day, Garrett shows up, puffing. "I am trying to find myself. If you see me before I get back, detain me until I arrive!"
Not knowing why, Harvey grabs the next Garrett that shows up. Which is a young Garrett. He then grabs three more Garrets that arrive and make them sit and wait too. It is weird listening to a person talk to themselves and there are four of them. Harvey can see that they really don't like each other.
The older Garrett shows up. He takes his other selves into a separate room. A while later, only the older Garrett shows up. He says he passed on the information he needed when he was younger to avoid problems.
At the end of two years, the portal itself powers up and a Very old Garrett shows up. He has a pack and Harvey later learns it is filled with valuables. Garrett is retiring. He says that by passing through the portal, he undoes the time travel ability.
They sit down and go through the record in detail, filling in where the information is thin.
Garrett gave Harvey a lot of information about time travel. It was decided not to pass on the information on how to do it. It causes more problems than it is worth.