Broccli_Head
Explorer
Lamprolign said:
Apology accepted and better late than never. I'd rather have more time inbetween posts so that they come out really good, like the one above.
Maybe that ginkoba stuff can help stimulate your brain?
First Sight: A d20 Modern Story Hour (Updated 01-03-2008)
Apology accepted and better late than never. I'd rather have more time inbetween posts so that they come out really good, like the one above.
Maybe that ginkoba stuff can help stimulate your brain?
Lamprolign
First Post
hmmm, I might try that stuff, a good cup of chai will go a long way also.
hanasays
First Post
Sorta got my own apology to make now...
Lamprolign sent me #030 for the website, which I uploaded. But I forgot to change the current story link, or add it to the archives page. So it was THERE, just... nobody could find it... yeah... my brain no worky right lately, I guess it's Finals n' all...
So that has been fixed, my apologies to people who checked the website... actually, nobody really checks the website, so not a lot of harm was done (whew). I will continue updating it anyway.
Lamprolign sent me #030 for the website, which I uploaded. But I forgot to change the current story link, or add it to the archives page. So it was THERE, just... nobody could find it... yeah... my brain no worky right lately, I guess it's Finals n' all...
So that has been fixed, my apologies to people who checked the website... actually, nobody really checks the website, so not a lot of harm was done (whew). I will continue updating it anyway.
hanasays
First Post
Ok, the comic's updated. It only took me all day. I fell asleep, what can I say... not that I'd been watching Jin Roh all night the night before, of course not...
Anyway, this is the "new" style that Lamp requested. It took a lot of false attempts, half-drawn pages, and tweaking to reach something he was satisfied with, so I hope everyone likes it. Hopefully there will not be any more huge stylistic changes in the comic.
Anyway, this is the "new" style that Lamp requested. It took a lot of false attempts, half-drawn pages, and tweaking to reach something he was satisfied with, so I hope everyone likes it. Hopefully there will not be any more huge stylistic changes in the comic.
Lamprolign
First Post
Well folks it has been far too long since I posted anything, and I've gotten a few e-mails from folks wondering if I'm still alive. Contrary to rumors, I'm not dead yet. I've been pulled away from working on the story by that awful intrusion of work and stress. Things are starting to come around though; there will be some new stuff on the way soon. This is in no small part to Hana churning out some fresh art for me to look at while I'm writing. Here is a sample…
Anyway I'm working right now on getting some new installments up…
Anyway I'm working right now on getting some new installments up…
hanasays
First Post
Lamprolign said:
Always happy to be of service.
Also, for those of you who cannot get the image to load (for whatever reason), you may also see it here: http://www.deviantart.com/view/8166638/
Lamprolign
First Post
031
"See ya'round Gavin!" Erica called out as he stepped out into the chill northwest wind. Damn, he shivered when the cold sliced through his heavy down-filled coat. I gotta start going home earlier, it's too late to catch the L. He pulled his coat collar tighter around his neck. This is gonna be a long ass walk. By the time he was a block down South Canal Street his pace quickened to a jog. The job with Caliper, a laboratory instrumentation company, had brought him to the Windy City just over a year ago. Since then he enjoyed a comfortable salary and downtown loft, not too bad for someone fresh out of university.
He made good time, and found himself actually enjoying the crisp night air after the exertion heated him sufficiently. Like almost any path through Chicago, the trip from Triskelions' to his loft led through run-down neighborhoods, areas that city leaders only talked about during election years. They would grandstand about how much they would do for the residents there, all the while highlighting how little their opponent would do. In the end nothing changed. Grimacing as these thoughts ran through his mind he remembered his childhood in a Brooklyn tenement.
The day's melt, now refrozen, crunched under his feet. Feeble yellow light flickered from alleys huddled between decaying low-rise buildings, cast by small fires. Rag garbed shapes huddled around each, seeking what meager warmth they afforded. None gave notice of his transient gaze. He turned the corner onto West 29th, heading toward the Norfolk Southern railway tracks. Prickling on the back of his neck made him look over his shoulder. The street was empty, the alleys silent and dark. He shivered and jogged a little faster. Behind him a sliver of shadow detached itself from the caliginous mass filling the alleyways.
Gavin turned three-sixty without stopping. He saw nothing. "I'm getting paranoid," he muttered and trudged on. Only the report of his steps reached his ears, pervasive silence gripped the street. One foot in front of the other, he watched each step land on the rime. Just a few more blocks... He felt something brush against his shoulder and spun around. No one was visible in the street behind. He turned back toward his destination. Before him stood a slender woman. A part of his brain registered the curves of her body silhouetted by streetlight glare, her shroud of white hair flowing out to an irregular terminus with the surrounding night. The rest of his brain screamed with admonitions to run, yet, he remained stuck fast. She smiled and his gaze was riveted on that Cheshire grin, on the delicate and impossibly long canine teeth. His heart hammered against his ribs.
The woman spoke. " Sanguis cor vanire ex corpus."
His eyes bulged from their sockets and his knees gave way beneath him. Pressure filled his chest, crushing his lungs. The world before him closed in, his last sight was the woman's gleaming smile.
****
"There was a time," Gabe said as he paced the confines of the Sister's study, "that I would have been down at the coroner's office trying to pry a rational explanation out of the facts. I don't know what rational is anymore."
"So, you have encountered something outside your former perception of 'rational'?"
"You could say that." Gabe paused to stare into the fire before continuing. "I've got the bodies of three young men, all with a hole the size of my foot blown in their chest. The hearts are gone along with every ounce of blood. There's no blood or any of the missing tissue at the crime scene either. I'm out of ideas." Gabe sat heavily in one of the overstuffed chairs around the hearth.
"What you describe is unusual, even from my perspective." Traveler tapped the end of her nose with her right index finger. "A werewolf kill is anything but bloodless, vampires can really only extract blood until the heart stops pumping..."
"Unless they retire for a private dinner," Poe said as she slipped into the room, "to a nice cozy place with a high ceiling."
"So, is that experience talking?"
"Gabe!"
"Maybe, a woman has to eat."
"Poe!"
"Das ist ganug!" The Sister's voice cut the two verbal pugilists short. "I do grow weary of this childish squabbling."
Gabe had the words; she started it, almost spoken before clamping his jaw shut.
"Poe does have a point," Traveler said, "given time at a discreet location I would imagine there may be a more mundane explanation to your mystery."
"That's the thorn. Even the coroners say the wounds look like the exit of a hollow-point bullet. The only problem with that theory is that there isn't an entrance wound."
****
Well that wasn't much help. Gabe thought as he crunched through the dirty glazing on the sidewalk.
"You are a real grouch lately," Mary sounded miffed. "You're not going to be able to just get an instant answer every time you encounter something paranormal. Knowing what you do has just opened up that many more possible explanations. It's not going to make your job any easier."
"Hmph," Gabe hated to admit the truth in Mary's words. He was hoping that the Sister would be able to pull an answer out of thin air. He knew he'd still have to find where the perpetrator was, but he hoped to learn what it was. His reverie was broken by the tinny electronic fugue of his cell phone ringing. "Ansgar," he answered. "On my way."
"Sounds like number four."
****
"Do we have a name for this one?" Gabe stood in the predawn gloom looking down at another body lacking a heart and most of its chest.
"Gavin Barnes, age 26, worked for some kind of lab company," Jake Brewer took a long drag his ever present cigar. "A science geek like you Ansgar."
"Thanks Brewer, what would we do without you, and would you mind not sprinkling ashes all over my crime scene?"
"Bah! It's pretty obvious what we got here, some kind of cult ritualistic killing. Sick
s, that's for sure." Brewer looked at Gabe through narrowed eyes. "Maybe that freak you've been hanging out with knows something?"
Maybe she does Gabe thought. "If you've no more pearls of wisdom, maybe you'd like to get out of my way and let me process this scene?"
"Be my guest."
The scene was almost identical, another alley, another dumpster, and not a drop of blood. How the hell does Brewer know about Poe? Gabe answered himself immediately. The bastard's been tailing me. Your friend is going to have to stop tagging along.
"You afraid of your little friends talking about your freaky girlfriend, fingerprint boy?" Mary's words carried an edge as they floated through his mind.
Yeah, right. That'd be a cold day in hell, me and Poe.
"Yes, it would."
"Would you mind too terribly letting me concentrate?"
"Hey jerk-off, I haven't said a word." Brewer's thick brows converged to form a single thick ledge over his eyes. "ing prick. You're still on my list Ansgar, I still smell something on you. I think it's your story on the night Jack died. I don't buy your bullcrap."
Thanks Mary, remind me to see an exorcist on the way home. Gabe locked eyes with Brewer, matador and bull staring across the arena. A tableau reinforced by the difference in size between the two men. Gabe's jaw tightened. He shifted his weight to the balls of his feet, preparing to evade a charge. Sudden, intense, light blinded both men.
"Say cheese!" Chris Ebbings' overly cheerful voice filled the sensory vacuum left by his camera's flash. He stepped closer to Gabe and whispered, "you do realize he could probably squish you like a spider?"
"Thanks for the vote of confidence," Gabe mumbled, followed by a relieved sigh.
"Your temper and your smart mouth are going to get us in trouble one day, fingerprint boy."
My smart mouth! His jaw clenched to the point of pain. My smart mouth, you little...
"Okay boss, where we going to start? The gang's all here." Chris gestured to the crime scene van pulling into the alley.
"Right." Gabe pulled out his notebook and started scribbling. "You know the drill, junior."
© 2004 Austin Hale
"See ya'round Gavin!" Erica called out as he stepped out into the chill northwest wind. Damn, he shivered when the cold sliced through his heavy down-filled coat. I gotta start going home earlier, it's too late to catch the L. He pulled his coat collar tighter around his neck. This is gonna be a long ass walk. By the time he was a block down South Canal Street his pace quickened to a jog. The job with Caliper, a laboratory instrumentation company, had brought him to the Windy City just over a year ago. Since then he enjoyed a comfortable salary and downtown loft, not too bad for someone fresh out of university.
He made good time, and found himself actually enjoying the crisp night air after the exertion heated him sufficiently. Like almost any path through Chicago, the trip from Triskelions' to his loft led through run-down neighborhoods, areas that city leaders only talked about during election years. They would grandstand about how much they would do for the residents there, all the while highlighting how little their opponent would do. In the end nothing changed. Grimacing as these thoughts ran through his mind he remembered his childhood in a Brooklyn tenement.
The day's melt, now refrozen, crunched under his feet. Feeble yellow light flickered from alleys huddled between decaying low-rise buildings, cast by small fires. Rag garbed shapes huddled around each, seeking what meager warmth they afforded. None gave notice of his transient gaze. He turned the corner onto West 29th, heading toward the Norfolk Southern railway tracks. Prickling on the back of his neck made him look over his shoulder. The street was empty, the alleys silent and dark. He shivered and jogged a little faster. Behind him a sliver of shadow detached itself from the caliginous mass filling the alleyways.
Gavin turned three-sixty without stopping. He saw nothing. "I'm getting paranoid," he muttered and trudged on. Only the report of his steps reached his ears, pervasive silence gripped the street. One foot in front of the other, he watched each step land on the rime. Just a few more blocks... He felt something brush against his shoulder and spun around. No one was visible in the street behind. He turned back toward his destination. Before him stood a slender woman. A part of his brain registered the curves of her body silhouetted by streetlight glare, her shroud of white hair flowing out to an irregular terminus with the surrounding night. The rest of his brain screamed with admonitions to run, yet, he remained stuck fast. She smiled and his gaze was riveted on that Cheshire grin, on the delicate and impossibly long canine teeth. His heart hammered against his ribs.
The woman spoke. " Sanguis cor vanire ex corpus."
His eyes bulged from their sockets and his knees gave way beneath him. Pressure filled his chest, crushing his lungs. The world before him closed in, his last sight was the woman's gleaming smile.
****
"There was a time," Gabe said as he paced the confines of the Sister's study, "that I would have been down at the coroner's office trying to pry a rational explanation out of the facts. I don't know what rational is anymore."
"So, you have encountered something outside your former perception of 'rational'?"
"You could say that." Gabe paused to stare into the fire before continuing. "I've got the bodies of three young men, all with a hole the size of my foot blown in their chest. The hearts are gone along with every ounce of blood. There's no blood or any of the missing tissue at the crime scene either. I'm out of ideas." Gabe sat heavily in one of the overstuffed chairs around the hearth.
"What you describe is unusual, even from my perspective." Traveler tapped the end of her nose with her right index finger. "A werewolf kill is anything but bloodless, vampires can really only extract blood until the heart stops pumping..."
"Unless they retire for a private dinner," Poe said as she slipped into the room, "to a nice cozy place with a high ceiling."
"So, is that experience talking?"
"Gabe!"
"Maybe, a woman has to eat."
"Poe!"
"Das ist ganug!" The Sister's voice cut the two verbal pugilists short. "I do grow weary of this childish squabbling."
Gabe had the words; she started it, almost spoken before clamping his jaw shut.
"Poe does have a point," Traveler said, "given time at a discreet location I would imagine there may be a more mundane explanation to your mystery."
"That's the thorn. Even the coroners say the wounds look like the exit of a hollow-point bullet. The only problem with that theory is that there isn't an entrance wound."
****
Well that wasn't much help. Gabe thought as he crunched through the dirty glazing on the sidewalk.
"You are a real grouch lately," Mary sounded miffed. "You're not going to be able to just get an instant answer every time you encounter something paranormal. Knowing what you do has just opened up that many more possible explanations. It's not going to make your job any easier."
"Hmph," Gabe hated to admit the truth in Mary's words. He was hoping that the Sister would be able to pull an answer out of thin air. He knew he'd still have to find where the perpetrator was, but he hoped to learn what it was. His reverie was broken by the tinny electronic fugue of his cell phone ringing. "Ansgar," he answered. "On my way."
"Sounds like number four."
****
"Do we have a name for this one?" Gabe stood in the predawn gloom looking down at another body lacking a heart and most of its chest.
"Gavin Barnes, age 26, worked for some kind of lab company," Jake Brewer took a long drag his ever present cigar. "A science geek like you Ansgar."
"Thanks Brewer, what would we do without you, and would you mind not sprinkling ashes all over my crime scene?"
"Bah! It's pretty obvious what we got here, some kind of cult ritualistic killing. Sick
s, that's for sure." Brewer looked at Gabe through narrowed eyes. "Maybe that freak you've been hanging out with knows something?"Maybe she does Gabe thought. "If you've no more pearls of wisdom, maybe you'd like to get out of my way and let me process this scene?"
"Be my guest."
The scene was almost identical, another alley, another dumpster, and not a drop of blood. How the hell does Brewer know about Poe? Gabe answered himself immediately. The bastard's been tailing me. Your friend is going to have to stop tagging along.
"You afraid of your little friends talking about your freaky girlfriend, fingerprint boy?" Mary's words carried an edge as they floated through his mind.
Yeah, right. That'd be a cold day in hell, me and Poe.
"Yes, it would."
"Would you mind too terribly letting me concentrate?"
"Hey jerk-off, I haven't said a word." Brewer's thick brows converged to form a single thick ledge over his eyes. "
ing prick. You're still on my list Ansgar, I still smell something on you. I think it's your story on the night Jack died. I don't buy your bullcrap."Thanks Mary, remind me to see an exorcist on the way home. Gabe locked eyes with Brewer, matador and bull staring across the arena. A tableau reinforced by the difference in size between the two men. Gabe's jaw tightened. He shifted his weight to the balls of his feet, preparing to evade a charge. Sudden, intense, light blinded both men.
"Say cheese!" Chris Ebbings' overly cheerful voice filled the sensory vacuum left by his camera's flash. He stepped closer to Gabe and whispered, "you do realize he could probably squish you like a spider?"
"Thanks for the vote of confidence," Gabe mumbled, followed by a relieved sigh.
"Your temper and your smart mouth are going to get us in trouble one day, fingerprint boy."
My smart mouth! His jaw clenched to the point of pain. My smart mouth, you little...
"Okay boss, where we going to start? The gang's all here." Chris gestured to the crime scene van pulling into the alley.
"Right." Gabe pulled out his notebook and started scribbling. "You know the drill, junior."
© 2004 Austin Hale
Last edited:
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