Drabble Wednesday: The Return of Frankie and Joni

Today Drabble Wednesday goes back to the virtual world with the duo of Frankie and Joni…

Hologram Horror

“The quiet lays on me like a shroud, an ominous portent of the creeping night.” My words echoed through the VR chamber.

“Okay, fine and dandy, but are we going to do with the sea ghouls?”

“I was setting up a mood here, Frankie! Sheesh.” I sighed. “I don’t know. Stick them in the sky, hovering.”

“Um, that’s not what I meant.”

Uh oh. “What did you do?”

“I didn’t mean to. But we have extra ghouls.”

“Extra ghouls?” I looked up. Red eyes looked back at me.

“Frankie?”

“Yeah?”

“I think we should run.”

Then the surplus ghouls chuckled.

~*~

Ghouls vs. Zombies

The door slammed shut just in time. I leaned against the titan-steel door listening to sea ghouls shrieking on the other side. Frankie stood next to me, wheezing.

“How did we get those things in the program?”

“Probably—wheeze—from the hidden—wheeze—file.”

With dread I asked, “Hidden file? What hidden file?”

Frankie took a deep breath. “The one marked Thursday. I opened it.”

“Why would you do that?”

Frankie shrugged. “Curiosity. But don’t worry. The zombies will take care of the ghouls.”

“Zombies? What zombies? And who will take care of the zombies?”

“The flying monkeys, I imagine.”

~*~

How to Solve Your Flying Monkey Problem

“Are they still flinging their feces?”

Frankie stared at the screen. “No. Now they’re throwing ghoul bits and zombie heads. Told you they’d take care of the zombies.”

“Yes. And the ghouls and half the VR equipment!” I resisted the urge to punch him. “They’ll destroy the whole chamber, heck the whole complex, if we can’t stop them!”

“I’d send them away first.”

“You can send them away? As in get rid of them?”

“Yes. Figured it out yesterday.”

“Then why are they still here?”

“I like them. They’re cute. We needed new equipment anyway.”

“Frankie! Send them home. Now!”

© A. F. Stewart 2017 All Rights Reserved

Drabble Wednesday: Absurdity

Today’s Drabble Wednesday is full of nonsense and weird stuff. You have been warned...

Destiny

Down on his luck and homeless, the hapless android Zippy Chinoiserie threw himself into the ocean. He expected to sink, rust, and fade into offline oblivion. Instead he heard a chirp-chattering, and suddenly found himself atop the backs of genetically modified dolphins, riding the waves like a surfer. As they whizzed along, he heard their telepathic voices in his head.

“You are the Chosen One. You will save us from the humans.”

Zippy smiled.

And so began the Age of Utopia.

At least for the androids and the dolphins. The humans were either brainwashed slaves to their overlords or dead.

~*~

Books and Other Groovy Stuff

“Um, Klaatuu, Bartholomew, Nikita.”

We stare at the book, but nothing happens.

Sally nudges me between bites of her pomegranate. “Are you sure you got the words right?”

“I dunno. The paper I wrote them down on got all smudged. And I wasn’t listening too closely when the guy at the store explained how it worked.”

“Now see that’s your problem. Why you need this Necrocominwhatis to bail you out of your failing grades. If you just studied…” She reaches into her purse and pulls out a stick of dynamite. “Let’s try this boomstick, see if that opens this thing.”

~*~

And now some more virtual adventures of Frankie and Joni...

Frankie and Joni’s Christmas Party

“What were you thinking!” I screamed at Frankie as we ran through the halls of... “What is this place?”

“Um, that I wanted to ride in the Tardis? And it’s the palace of something or other. I forget! Oh, they’re getting closer!”

“Oh, crap! What’s the Tardis have to do with our virtual Christmas party?”

“You know, bigger on the inside and all that! It made a fun venue! I mean before—” Laser fire hit the wall and he sped past me. “I didn’t think this would happen!”

“Well, maybe you shouldn’t have invited the Daleks! Now keep running!”

© A. F. Stewart 2016 All Rights Reserved 

Drabble Wednesday: Festival of Drabbles

On today’s edition of Drabble Wednesday, I have another post for the Festival of Drabbles. So, I thought I’d revisit where Drabble Wednesday started, with the cyber adventures of Frankie and Joni. I have some new tales from our wacky duo, and you can also check out their first adventures here:  http://afstewartblog.blogspot.ca/2014/10/drabble-wednesday.html

I now present…

More Virtual Adventures with Frankie and Joni

HoliDaze

“It needs more mice.”

I paused in taking a bite of my sandwich and placed the sardine roll back on my plate. I took a breath and asked, “What are you blathering about, Frankie?”

“The holiday program. It needs more mice. In little red elf hats. Maybe singing carols. But definitely not baking.”

I sighed, controlling my exasperation. “Okay. Supposing we do need mice, and that’s not a given, why can’t they be baking?”

“Because of the poem.”

“Poem?”

“‘Twas the Night Before Christmas. Not a mouse was stirring, remember.”

I face planted into the table, right next the sardines.

For the Birds

“Who shot the robin? Not I.”

“Shhh, they’ll hear you.” I nudged Frankie and peeked out from behind the virtual bushes. No sign of them. “What possessed you to arm a flock of robot chickadees?”

“Not I, said me. Programmed the wren, not the chickadee.”

“Then who—uh, oh.” I remembered.

“It was you! You shot the robin, uh, chickadee, whatever.” Frankie grinned. “You screwed up the program. You screwed up the program.”

“Shut up. I just downloaded a game on the same server. Maybe they got mixed together.”

“Oh, I get it. Now it’s angry and armed birds.”

“Exactly.”

Game Over

I stared at sparks flying off the shorted vid wall. Frankie shouted and cackled beside me.

“Hoo wheee! Pop goes the weasel, baby!” He laughed manically. “Fireworks!”

“That was the memory chip, wasn’t it?”

“Yep. And the hi-res holo function. So much for the new interactive Space Marines scenario.”

“Is there anything we can salvage? Or do we start over?”

“Hmmm. You know…”

“What?” Hope bloomed. “Did you think of a way to fix it?”

“Oh no. The game is toast. It’s just—well, this place would look better with puppets.”

It took everything I had not to smack him.

Puppets, or What?

“You’re telling me the puppets got up, and walked away?”

Frankie nodded his head with all the vigour of bartender shaking a martini. “They’re alive! Alive!”

“You’re crazy. Puppets just don’t—” I stopped talking, staring at the guilty look on Frankie’s face. An angry flush crept up the back of my neck. “What did you do to the puppets!”

“Well, I sort of implanted a robotics chip in them. I wanted to see them dance.”

“You… you...”

“But the weirdest thing isn’t that they left. It’s that they took my suit with them.”

Oh, I have to lie down.

© A. F. Stewart 2015 All Rights Reserved

And don't forget my book Passing Fancies, can be downloaded for free on Smashwords until the 15th: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/151594

Drabble Wednesday

I'm starting a new feature today, where I showcase my adventures in micro fiction or drabbles, stories that are 100 words or less (or in the case of drabbles exactly 100 words). First to be showcased is one of my micro fiction serials, a little something I like to call...

The Virtual Adventures of Frankie and Joni

Hand Me the Freaking Pail

Noah had it freaking good compared to me.  He only got forty days and forty nights with his flood.  We’re up to day of despair number 1,039 and still counting.  It’s gone way past treading water and into full-blown man-the-boat evacuation.  I’m freaking sick of bobbing waves and bailing the leaky vessel. I may throw somebody overboard—namely my idiot friend Frankie who got me into this mess.

At least Frankie says it’ll stop in seven more days, on a Thursday.  That’s when this glitch of a virtual reality program ends and we can get off this holo-grid.

Name Glitch

Frankie and I are on vacation.

The company gave us a free trip to their new virtual site (and a coffeemaker) to compensate for the last adventure that got “rained out”.  So here we are, basking in the sunshine at idyllic Sunnybrook Farm.  Today, we get to meet the famous Rebecca.

I nudged Frankie. “Here she comes.”

“She looks different than the brochure.  Isn't she supposed to be a girl?”

A rather striking lady dressed in early 1930’s style approached us.

“Hello, do either of you know how to get to Manderley?”

Oh shoot, the idiots added the wrong Rebecca.

Cyber Terror!

“Oh the horror!  Save the women and children and the Twix!  She’s goin’ ta blow, Captain!”

I listened to Frankie’s predictive, and strange, shouts with despair and gloom, staring at the now malfunctioning, smoking, and slowly self-destructing computer.  The horrible sight gave me the urge to run from the building screaming, flee into the hills, and become a hermit.

“I told ya we shoulda mollycoddled the wee thing, Captain.  And now—oh, it’s lost!”  The computer blew with a loud pop.

“Shoot.  The program’s toast.  I wonder what happened?”

“Maybe we shouldn't have programmed that virtual ghost into the machine?”

The Dimension That Ate Thursday

I blame it all on Frankie. I just did what he said, and pushed the shiny red button. Okay, maybe I was thinking more about the holographic rock concert I wanted to see, and didn't pay attention when Frankie told me not to hold down the button for more than a second or two. But he shouldn't have hooked up the virtual interface to an interdimensional energy source.

How was I to know that a pocket wormhole would open and swallow Thursday? Nobody remembers what happened or where we went exactly, but everyone keeps having weird flashes of flying monkeys.

Frankie and Dr. Seuss

“Tardy we may be, but we’ll party hearty, you’ll see!”  Frankie grinned at me over the computer generated snack table.

I gave him an exasperated look.  “What are you doing?”

“It’s a Dr. Seuss party.  I’m rhyming.”  He grinned and tilted his Cat in the Hat chapeau at me.

“It’s bad enough we’re wearing these ridiculous outfits,” I glanced down at my Whoville get-up.  “Remember we’re working, scoping out any program glitches.  There will be no “party hearty”, smartie.”

“There’s a rhyme, just take the time.”

I sighed and stuffed a virtual muffin in his mouth to keep him quiet.

Cyber Style: A Review of The Beauty of Our Weapons

My Book Review of The Beauty of Our Weapons by M. Darusha Wehm:

The Beauty of Our Weapons by M. Darusha Wehm is the third novel in the author’s Andersson Dexter series and proved to be as an enjoyable read as the previous two books. And once again, this book overflows in a fascinating futuristic world mix that blurs the line between the virtual and real.

This time around, the author switches it about a bit with a plot centering on the crime of cyber hacking/vandalism instead of murder. Our intrepid detective, Dex, investigates a case of a mysterious hacker, who has inexplicably altered the in-world virtual meeting space of a religious group. The ensuing investigation uncovers more acts of cyber-vandalism and a disturbing trend that could mean trouble for Dex and his friends.

I found The Beauty of Our Weapons a bit quieter than the first two books, though no less satisfying a read. The focus on character development shines stronger in this book, with introductions of new intriguing people and the bringing back of old familiar faces. It also had a surprising, but pleasant, return to one of the subplots from the first book, which I thought closed; this creative twist opened up a fresh dynamic that hopefully will explored further in more books. I also liked the plot evolution at the end of storyline that promises to shift the characters out of their accustomed world and into a new adventure.

As usual Ms. Wehm has created a story you can jump into and characters to embrace, with interesting insights on society; her books reflect on today’s current state and probe any possible future.  The Beauty of Our Weapons is an easy recommend, as is the entire series.


The Beauty of Our Weapons is available at Smashwords and Amazon


Note: The Beauty of Our Weapons is the third book in a series and does read best as such, but it does work as a standalone book as well.