Drabble Wednesday: Frankie and Joni Continue

In a continuation of last week’s adventures Frankie and Joni return with more strange tales of virtual reality programming...

Aftermath of the Monkeys (Sea Ghouls and Zombies)

“Frankie, I can’t believe the company wants a simulation based on what happened last week.” I sighed, a headache forming. “Monster Combat. Sea ghoul vs. zombies vs. flying monkeys.”

“And don’t forget the puppets.”

Ignoring him, I continued. “At least these creatures won’t be real. I had nightmares until the last of those monkeys went home.”

“Um...”

I didn’t like the sound of that. “Frankie? Did you keep one?”

“A little one. I’m training him to run errands.”

I stared, my headache pounding. Frankie looked at me with sad eyes. I capitulated. “Fine. But I’m not cleaning the monkey poo.”

~*~

Monster Combat?

Stupid Frankie and his stupid monkey.

Grumbling under my breath I tossed a large bag of monkey poo into the incinerator. If the darn thing wasn’t so good at fetching our lunch orders I’d—

“Hey! You’ll miss it!” I turned at Frankie’s shout, and raced back to see the new game boot up on the monitor.

“Let’s get ready to Ruuumble!”

I rolled my eyes. “Stop clowning and watch for glitches.”

“Hmmm. That’s odd. They’re, um, dancing.”

“What?” I started at the screen. Ghouls, monkeys, zombies and puppets danced a jig.

“Maybe I shouldn’t have programmed Riverdance into the soundtrack?”

~*~

Virtual Therapy and Love

“I can still see it. The horror... you can’t imagine the sight of a zombie waltzing with a puppet.”

“Tell me, how did it make you feel? Did— zztzzttzzz”

I looked up at the grating noise. The holographic image of Freud jumped, and then frizzed out. Frankie stood waiting by the VR chamber door.

“Why did you stop my program?!”

“Um, we may have a problem. Zippy’s in love.”

“Zippy? Oh, yeah, your flying monkey. Wait, what? It’s in love?”

“With one of the puppets. I think they’re planning on eloping.”

Shit. I’m going need more therapy after this escapade.

© A. F. Stewart 2017 All Rights Reserved

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: Celebrating Shakespeare

We go Shakespeare again this week on Drabble Wednesday.

The Return of the Shakespeare Pirates

Prithee, tall and proud, stride the deck under the black flag of bones. Raise the cutlass and the rum and give no quarter in the battle. Huzzah, huzzah, we rule the seas. Proclaim to all the rousing cry of Pirate! Hark and give no hail, none to sail before our eyes upon the horizon. ‘Tis plunder, plunder we seek, to all we raise the cry of, Pirate!

Blow winds, fill the sails! Hie the ship forward, ever forward!

Spit cannon fire, and raid the kingdom, ungrateful wretches all!

Swing the cutlass, raise your voice, and shout the cry of, Pirate!

~*~

Another installment of the ongoing tales of Frankie and Joni…

Frankie Does Shakespeare

“Zounds! Forsooth! Is that a pie I see before me, wondrous topped with whipped cream and the reddest of cherries.”

“Huh?” I stared at Frankie, who entered the lunch room wearing tights and a weird shirt. “If you’re talking about dessert, then yes, it’s a pie.”

“Oh, marvels. My kingdom for a slice!”

“Help yourself.” Then it dawns. “Practicing for the virtual Shakespeare Festival, I take it?”

“Verily.”

He eagerly cuts a slice of pie and pops a forkful in his mouth, before spitting it out. “Oh, that’s rhubarb. I hate rhubarb.”

I smile. “Methinks you doth protest, too much.”

~*~

This drabble’s a bit different. Tweets from Shakespeare…

Shakespeare Tweets!

To be a One Direction fan, or not to be: that is the question.

All the world's a stage for the Kardashians.

Now is the Winter is Coming of our discontent. #GameofThrones

Alas, poor Yorick! I knew him, Horatio, on Facebook. #RIPYorick

Is this a #selfie which I see before me? Oh, most egregious selfie.

Something wicked this way comes. #EvilQueen

Seeking the food he eats. Checkth out this wondrous lunch!

Lies told by an idiot, full of sound and fury! Taketh that you troll!

Write till your ink be dry…  write sorrow on the bosom of the earth #amwriting

© A. F. Stewart 2016 All Rights Reserved

with thanks to William Shakespeare

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