Life Outside PLT1

Fiction!

September 27, 2007 on 10:15 pm | In Fiction | No Comments | The_Gremlin

Welcome to my first tentative installment. It begins…

Fiction: Brush with fate. By Joshua Laus

Pete casually tossed his headset on the Desk. Running his left hand through his coarse and greasy hair, he glanced at the clock on the wall next to him.
Christ! It’s past 3am. He thought to himself. The meeting and subsequent Run had lasted a long time. His stomach was growling and so he stumbled to the kitchen, his legs unwilling to quickly shake off their 8 hour atrophy. Nothing in the fridge looked that appealing, not that there was much in there, so he settled on just a glass of water before he would go to sleep. Work would suck on such little sleep, but he had gotten by on far less before. He briefly wondered how his Guild-mates were going to cope at their jobs, but for all he knew most of them could have just been playing on their day off. He knew at least that Larry would be worse for wear like himself, hopefully they could talk a bit about the Run on their lunch break. Finishing his water, Pete walked from the kitchen to his bedroom, yawning all the way.
”Goodnight Mr. Novsan.” There was a small man, dressed in a smart black business suit, standing in his room, right in front of him.

“Brwha?” Spurted Pete mid yawn. He usually prided himself on being moderately articulate, but finding a stranger in your bedroom in the dead of night can rob the most composed person of his words.

He didn’t get it. Why the fuck was someone in his room? He didn’t have anything worth stealing and certainly wasn’t important to warrant kidnapping. What the hell was going on? Novsan wasn’t even his last name! His last name was Roe; Novsan was the name of his Line in Fiction… Oh Shit.

“Look man…” Pete began, but the man held up his hand commanding silence.

“I can see you have deduced the reason for my visit. Relax, you are not going to be punished, in fact you will be coming with me for a little interview.” Spoke the stranger. Pete’s face hardened and he took a menacing step towards the stranger. “I’m not go…” Pete stopped speaking as he felt a pinprick on his neck, and reached up to find a dart embedded in his flesh. “What the fuc…” Pete began, falling to the floor in a daze.

“Fortunately your cooperation is not necessary.” The sound of the stranger’s voice stretching into oblivion as Pete fell unconscious.

BZZT. BZZT.

Pete’s eyes snapped open and he sat bolt upright in his bed, gasping for breath. The nightmare fled and he was left pondering its structure. It had been a strange one. Abducted and taken to a strange place, he had been subjected to strange and unsettling scenes. Vivid was the only way he could describe it. Vivid and bizarre.
Christ it’s almost 9! He would have to hustle it if he was to get to work on time. Not even bothering to change the clothes he had slept in, Pete hurried out his front door, grabbing a banana on the way, hoping desperately that he could make it on time.

Subject has returned to normal lifecycle.

Good. What were the results of his analysis?

Subject: Pete Roe. Occupation: Network engineer.

Fiction Line: Novsan. Generations: 7; 3 customs.

Play assessment: Obsessive, skilled, hostile.

Life assessment: Loner, Good intelligence, Unmotivated, Harm2.

A normal “geek” type. What was the assessment of their infiltration?

Chance. Only two others of the subject’s guild showed above average skill and resource. The subject himself was also unremarkable.

Can’t always be winners. Please alert if any readjustment anomalies occur, System off.

END