New Product - I, Fenris

A new poem.  I, Fenris. 

A first person perspective from the other side of the Norse pantheon. One night, a dog is about to be put to sleep by a corrupt worker, and the dog prays for relief. Fenris hears the dog's plea, and corners the worker, telling him his true tale before he slaughters the human.

[Seventh Seal] Page 71 - Chapter 5

Row 1 Box 1 Jesra seems to think about this for a bit.

Row 1 Box 2 Jesra nods as if this makes perfect sense to her.

Jesra: Of course. Listen, I was wondering if you could do me a huge favor?

Row 1 Box 3 Klery smiles warmly again.

Klery: Of course. What can I do for you?

Row 2 Wide shot of Sluice and Vesuvius laughing outrageously on the horse, leaping over a line of outraged trolls.

Row 3 Box 1 Jesra looks at Klery.

Jesra: Well you see there is someone...who needs ...praying for...very much. And I was wondering if you would come and help me pray for him?

Row 3 Box 2 Vesuvius and Sluice ride in.

Klery (off panel): I'd be happy to.

Row 3 Box 3 Jesra smiles.

Jesra: Great. Let's just – eep!

Precyber Chapter 28

Clark is about at the bottom of the barrel...not quite yet, but certainly circling the drain.

Check out this episode!

[Seventh Seal] Page 70 - Chapter 5

Row 1 Box 1There is a rumbling sound outside of the church. The trolls look up. Klery doesn't seem to notice.

Row 1 Box 2 The rumbling grows louder. The trolls grab their weapons and look at the door.

Row 2 Box 1 Sluice and Vesuivus ride in on a horse with a bunch of tin cans on a string behind Sluice (tied to his neck) as they ride like madmen through the middle of the church.

Row 2 Box 2 The trolls just stand their shocked for a moment.

Row 2 Box 3 Sluice rides up, and slams into one troll, knocking him over backward into the other trolls.

Klery: Aztects, Aphoridite (Bless her)

Row 3 Box 1 Sluice and Vesuvius begin to ride off, smiling and waving.

Klery: Boats, Beverly (Bless her), Ben (Bless Him)

Row 3 Box 2 The trolls howl with rage and give chase. Klery blithely ignores them all.

Klery: Bongos, Bananas...

Row 4 Box 1 The side door opens and Jesra peeks in.

Klery (off panel): Balloons, Baboons

Row 4 Box 2 Jesra comes all of the way in.

Klery: Basoons, Barnacles

Row 4 Box 3 Jesra looks confused.

Jesra: Pardon me miss...what are you doing?

Row 4 Box 4 Klery looks up and smiles warmly.

Klery: I'm praying for everything.

[Seventh Seal] Page 69 - Chapter 5

Row 1 Box 1 Jesra looks at Sluice.

Jesra: Why don't you just talk to her?

Row 1 Box 2 Vesuvius smiles a little sheepishly.

Vesuvius: Because we can't talk to her. I can whisper in her ear and make suggestions, but they don't always work. Sometimes they do dumb things.

Row 1 Box 3 Jesra nods resolutely.

Jesra: Then let me talk to her. You get the trolls out of there and I'll get her to follow me.

Row 2 Wide shot of Trolls standing around looking bored while Klery prays.

Klery: And thank you for Apricots, Apples, Angels, Azelias, America, Apple Pie, Aunt Judy (bless her soul), Aunt Peggy (bless her soul), Amy (bless her soul), Angela (bless her soul)

Row 3 Box 1 Troll whispers to other troll.

Troll: How long will she keep this up?!

Row 3 Box 2 Troll #2 points.

Row 3 Box 3 Close up of Klery's hands. It's an alphabetized list that is very long. She's only on the A's so far.

Row 3 Box 4 Troll #1 groans.

Precyber - Chapter 27

Things go from worse....to much worse.

Check out this episode!

[Seventh Seal] Page 68 - Chapter 5

Row 1 Box 1 Vesuvius looks at Sluice.

Vesuvius: Its her. It can't be the trolls.

Row 1 Box 2 Close up of Sluice's face, frowning.

Row 1 Box 3 Vesuvius laughs.

Vesuvius: Silly. There are no trolls in this world. Its not because Trolls can't be lynchpin's.

Row 2 Box 1 Jesra rolls her eyes. Sluice gets an 'oh yeah' look on his face.

Box 2: Jesra looks into the window at Klery.

Jesra: So what now?

Box 3

Vesuvius looks thoughtful.

Vesuvius: Huh.

Row 3 Box 1

Vesuvius snaps his fingers.

Vesuvius: I have it. We need to distract the trolls so we can get her out of there. I think she's supposed to go somewhere that the second lynchpin is, so we bring her there.

Row 3 Box 2

Jesra looks doubtful and crosses her arms.

Jesra: And what if she doesn't want to go?

Row 3 Box 3

Sluice and Vesuvius look at each other.

Row 3 Box 4

Sluice smiles and makes a lifting motion.

[Seventh Seal] Page 67 - Chapter 5

Row 1

Box 1 Pete walks down a cobble stone street in one of the older areas of town. The light of the sun is slowly setting in the distance. All of the light clearly looks wrong and in this case the sun is a white circle in a black back ground with edges of black against the horizon.

Box 2 Pete spots some trolls in the distance, unseen by nearby cops. He smiles. There is a municipal park in the background with some shops on the far side out of focus.

Pete: Ah! Some of Sluice’s people. Maybe they can help me.

Box 3 Pete walks up totally unseen to the trolls who have begun talking to each other.

Row 2

Box 1 Pete waves to one of the trolls. The trolls do not see him. Meanwhile, a pigeon lands unseen on one of the shoulders of the trolls.

Pete: Hello? I say hello there?!

Box 2 Same scene from the cops perspective. There is a pigeon sitting in the middle of the air, just hovering there.

Cop #1: Any sign of them?

Cop #2: None.

Cop #1: Damn it.

Cop #2: Er…George?

Box #3 Close up of George’s face. Looking annoyed.

George: What?

Box #4: Cop points to the bird hovering in mid air.

Row 3 Box 1

Both cops star at the pigeon hovering there.

Row 3 Box 2 We see things again from Pete’s perspective. Troll #1 spots the pigeon and points it out to Troll #2.

Pete: Hello? Can you hear me?

Row 3 Box 3 Close up of Troll #2’s face as it gets a wicked grin.

Row 4

Box #1: Troll #2 reaches over and pops the pigeon into a bloody pulp like it might have been a zit.

The cops look utterly shocked. Pete is reaching back to kick one of the two trolls to get its attention.

Box #2: The two trolls laugh. Pete is standing rather still. In the background George is sick off panel but obviously doing so with a “RETCH” or some such thing indicating such.

Pete: Er….never mind then. Maybe it’s a good thing you can’t see me.

Precyber - Chapter 26

Things go from bad to worse for Clarke.

Check out this episode!

[Seventh Seal] Page 66 - Chapter 5

Page 2

Row 1 Box1 1 Horus sits on his throne watching the scene in the church through the scrying pool.

Horus: We saw who you really were in the beginning.

Box 2 One of the dispossessed souls in the pool in chains looks back up through the water at Horus.

Horus: We value the strength of the individual. The natural order of nature and the freedom to take its course. You still seek to impose your will upon it.

Row 2 Box 1 Klery sits in front of the alter, kneeling.

Narration: You cannot stop a Hurricane, or an Earth Quake…

Box 2 The soul looks away from Horus’s gaze looking down at it, dejected.

Narration: And you cannot stop us.

Row 3 Box 1 Jesra, Vesuvius and Sluice run down a narrow alleyway.

Box 2 Sluice follows Vesuvius vague pointing and they run toward the church.

Box 3 As they enter the doors, they see Klery and twenty trolls behind her watching her.

Box 4 Vesuvius, Jesra and Sluice lay on either side, with their backs to the wall, and a clear view of the trolls in front of them, heads turned toward the middle, with a clear expression of fear on their faces, more so in the case of Vesuvius and Sluice.

New Story - Snail Summer and Long Time Passing

Available here and here.

Snail Summer is a coming of age story of the classic variety, but set in a far future where Opsa's Cousin Kili comes from a distant start to visit her family's farm. There are strange snails that mimic the faces of screaming children when frightened and the two of them want to find out why. 

Long Time Passing is a love story in a future in which immortality is a curse for those without funds. The only way to gain a fortune to marry the woman he loves is to banish himself to a remote outpost deep in space for a thousand years.

[Naked City Atlanta] Hate

Snu Snu the hate bear was having a hard time with all of the negativity in her life.  She got none of the most excellent merchandising that her more positive cousins did.  You could sell a stare, but the Hate Bear 357 Magnum didn't really do well outside of the Sunday gun and knife show crowds.  And do you want to know what a person does to a stuffed snarling bear right after they buy a knife or a gun?

It isn't hugging, that's for fraggling sure.  And seriously? What was the point of being the natural enemy of positive reinforcing ursine when you couldn't even mother trucking sod ram swear properly due to the decision about what was or was not age appropriate for young impressionable mind?  So hate speech was OK.  So teaching kids to group the world into categories of good or bad, that was OK.  To exploit thousands of children who made the little dolls that were sold so the brother lucking executive at the company could have his corporate jet was OK

But Rod forbid little Timmy might have his ears profaned with a single word not on the For the Children's Special Purity Associations list of words that was aok.  There was magic in children's toys.  Everyone knew that.  What they didn't know was just how much the Other Mucking company executives knew about it and Cull Mucked the toys as soon as they made them.

Made to be bad.  That was Snu Snu.  Made to be an eternal second banana to bears that sucked and weren't really cute.  They couldn't even make matching foes...instead of things like Greed Bear and Fear Bear, it was nono the hate dolphin...really?  A hate dolphin?  Had the idiot who thought this up ever even MET a dolphin?  Hoho the hate chicken was amusing.

Chickens just sucked.

But Frothy the hate Pangolin? Wrackles the Hate Elepahnt?  No wonder they weren't selling.  And when you weren't selling, your spirit just faded away, but never quite death.  No, not death, just a lingering awareness of how much you sucked and how much it hurt when Bubba and Billy got drunk on a sunday afternoon and did unspeakable things to Snu Snu with a knife.

Of course, Snu Snu might not be able to swear, but Snu Snu did have the Hate 357 Magnum...and the home address of a certain executive.  And Snu Snu knew love for the first time in her life as the Dog Lambed Blood splattered all over the wall with said executives lack of brains....

And they all lived happily ever after.

Precyber - Chapter 25

The bad news keeps piling up on Clark.

Check out this episode!

[Seventh Seal] Chapter 5 - Page 65

Row 1 Klery walks amidst a row of marching trolls, not seeing them.

Narration: It is the unseen that makes us powerful.

Row 2 Klery walks past several cops while the trolls surround her. The cops are pushed out of the way.

Narration: They do not understand the stakes or the magic of the seals. They have fought a war half brain dead, and now somehow through luck they have managed to give themselves a chance.

Row 3 Klery walks into a church, and the trolls hesitate at the edge, held back by an invisible barrier.

Narration: I cannot allow ignorance to triumph. It was their ignorance that nearly destroyed everything the first time. It is the symbols that matter.

Row 4

Box 1 The troll takes an axe and cuts into the barrier.

Narration: It is the symbols pertinent to the world itself.

Box 2 The troll steps inside and the others follow behind.

Narration: Not the brand of good and evil that they want to impose upon it.

Chapters 5 and 6 will continue soon

But I haven't had time to lay out the preposts yet.  Look here again Thursday for the finish.