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Asylum Walls » Recent Topics http://darkicon.com/Asylum/ Dark Icon Forum en Thu, 17 May 2012 23:51:06 +0000 Caber on "Diablo III" http://darkicon.com/Asylum/topic/diablo-iii#post-231 Mon, 23 Apr 2012 14:26:19 +0000 Caber 231@http://darkicon.com/Asylum/ If you enjoy mowing down swarms of undead, Diablo III may be the game for you. I played through the Beta which was recently made available and I felt like I was in an episode of the Walking Dead. Just me and endless hordes of undead trying to bring me down. If you played Diablo II, you will be immediately familiar with the feel of the game play. The biggest difference is the noticable improvement in the graphics. The part I played through did a great job conveying the hopeless feeling of being trapped in a world where evil runs wild. One quest you had to help a blacksmith murder his wife who was bitten by zombies. So far the game looks like a winner. The full version is due out in less than a month. DarkIcon on "What to Watch: Evidence" http://darkicon.com/Asylum/topic/what-to-watch-evidence#post-238 Fri, 04 May 2012 21:31:02 +0000 DarkIcon 238@http://darkicon.com/Asylum/ Last weekend I watched a movie called "Evidence" This shit was crazy. No, really... crazy. Literally: It's like the movie ITSELF had split personalities or something, and man that was some good stuff. The basic premise is that this one annoying dude is making an amateur film of his friends as they go camping out in the woods, and then something (possibly supernatural) starts following them. I know, I know. That not only sounds boring as hell, but it's the plot summary for at least ten different films you've probably seen this year already. And yes, this is another one of those "found footage" films with that shaky camera POV bullshit. Ignore that and just watch the damned movie. The first half of this thing is mildly creepy, but it's nothing you haven't seen before. Weird sounds at night. Creepy local guy who shows up for no reason and then disappears. Something messing with the camera when no one is looking. A strange, blurry, bigfoot-like figure seen from a distance. But some of this is actually pretty well done. The messages carved into the trees actually gave me the creeps. A little. But THEN... just when the "something hunting campers in the woods" plot starts to really get going, this movie shifts gears ENTIRELY, going in a totally new and unexpected direction. The remaining campers find themselves in the middle of a military confrontation between at least two special forces teams and a possibly alien force composed of at least three different kinds of WTF. There are the aforementioned "bigfoot" things, some infected human fast-zombies, and some little scorpion things that... hell, whatever. How does this connect to the first part of the movie? I don't even know. They make no attempt to explain anything, and it's not like you can SEE anything all that clearly with all that shaky-camera bullshit going on. But there's no time for explanations anyway. The last 1/3rd of the movie is one long chase scene with machine guns, grenades, zombies, bigfoot(s), exploding heads, a helicopter and a random horse. I shit you not. It's all pretty much: "RUN!! HIDE! ...shhh... horse!? OH SHIT!! RUNNNN!!" Repeated over and over. And I swear, that one girl was indestructible. I wrote her off as dead at least three different times, only to have her pop up a few seconds later, running and screaming her ass off. (Yes, we actually DO see her ass at one point.) At one point, I was thinking "Wait... how did that OTHER movie turn into THIS one?" I tried to play back the sequence of events in my head, but I was missing the good shit so I just decided to watch and enjoy the delicious carnage. If you're looking for a movie with a coherent plot, then this ain't it. But if you're looking for something that uses subtle creepiness AND action all in the same film, then check it out. At the end, you'll have no idea what you just watched, but you'll have enjoyed watching it. Hopefully this review makes more sense than the movie does. If it doesn't then just rent/download the movie "Evidence" and be sure to sit through the end credits. It doesn't explain anything, but more people die so why the hell not? DarkIcon on "What to Watch: The Avengers" http://darkicon.com/Asylum/topic/what-to-watch-the-avengers#post-240 Sat, 05 May 2012 13:56:37 +0000 DarkIcon 240@http://darkicon.com/Asylum/ If you were worried that the Avengers movie wasn't going to be good... stop worrying. This thing is awesome. I'm not going to insult you by telling you what its about. You already know. Is it as good as the trailers? Better. As good as the individual movies that the various characters were in? Better. Haven't you seen all the best scenes just by watching the trailers? Not even close. No, really... Did you see the helicarrier in the trailer? No. Did you see Thor fighting the Hulk or Iron Man in the trailers? No. So shut up about the trailers and go see the movie. Of course Iron Man has all the best lines, but if you liked the first Iron Man movie then you'd be disappointed if he didn't. This film does NOT come off like an "Iron Man" sequel. But more on that later. Did people like Captain America, Black Widow, and Hawkeye manage to look impressive next to Norse gods and rampaging rage-monsters? Yup. Especially Black Widow. What if you hated the Captain America movie? Doesn't matter. Ass-kicking is ass-kicking, I don't care what the guy is wearing. What's the best thing about the movie? Hulk. The Hulk isn't having it. The Hulk isn't having ANY of it. From ANYONE. The Hulk smashes everything from puny Asgardians to giant alien monsters the size of skyscrapers. I thought the 'fight' between Loki and the Hulk was going to get a standing ovation in the theater. What's the worst thing about the movie? Ummm.... I'll let you know when I think of something. Okay, seriously, they didn't really do a good job of making this an independent plotline. If you haven't seen the Thor movie, then you're going to be confused. You can get away with not having seen the Hulk, or Iron Man, or Captain America, as long as you can pick the characters and their powers out of a lineup. You'll just miss out on a few of the jokes that the characters throw around. But if you haven't seen Thor, then you might just get lost in why/how of major conflict. I HAVE seen Thor, so it's kind of hard for me to judge... but this felt a lot like a continuation of the Thor plotline. Not so for the other films. But other than that, my advice is to cancel your plans for the day and check out the next available showing. WizardofOz on "[Crusade] A New Breed (part 6)" http://darkicon.com/Asylum/topic/crusade-a-new-breed-part-6#post-185 Wed, 21 Mar 2012 13:47:42 +0000 WizardofOz 185@http://darkicon.com/Asylum/ “Thanks for coming again officers,” Dr. Brenton said. “No problem,” Jenkins said as he took a seat. Paterno took the other chair. “The information you’re able to get from your pack of loonies here has helped us numerous times.” Dr. Brenton grimaced, “Officer Paterno, I understand that you think that this ward is full of people that are nothing but criminals, but your cracks …” “Yeah,” Jenkins said, “Whatever. What’ve you got for us doc. We’re actually working another case.” Dr. Brenton inhaled, considering his next words. He reached into a drawer, pulled out a think manilla folder, set it on his desk and folded his hands on top of it. “Well get comfortable gents, this is going to take a while. Before I get into what you need to know, Paterno do you remember about six years ago, a teenage black girl named Amunet, supposedly a famous psychic, that goes crazy and kills seven people because she claimed they were demons?” “How could I forget. In fact if memory serves, she’s here doing an insanity sentence. What’s that got to do with anything?” “More than you know, and stick with me this really will have a point. Since she’s been here she has killed 17 orderlies and a doctor, all of whom she claimed were actually demons. We now won’t hire someone unless she says they’re okay. She hasn’t killed anyone since we started doing that a year ago.” “Wait,” Jenkins said shifting in his seat, “You let some nut job of a female have enough freedom that she’s capable of killing people? What kind of a joint are you running here doc?” Brenton grimaced, “You don’t quite understand. She’s got an IQ so high it’s unrecordable. We once let her have a book on plant biology and she poisoned someone with her spinach … and that’s not a joke.” Jenkins held up his hands, “Look doc, I’m sorry, but we really are pressed for time here. What does this have to do with the information you said you had for us?” “Over the last two years I’ve been giving you guys information about crimes, where evidence might be found and all of that. I’ve been telling you that it’s been coming from the lockup next door where you guys know that I do psych evals. That was a lie.” Paterno looked at Dr. Brenton uneasily, “Then where’s the information been coming from doc?” “Three years ago, Amunet starts writing detailed explanations of crimes she couldn’t possibly know anything about. Often, she’d be writing her letters … always addressed to me, at what ended up being the same time the crime was occurring. Understand something, we don’t allow people to watch the news or read newspapers. The reason is that it tends to feed their psychosis. After she’d been doing this for a year straight, I began telling you guys.” “So what you’re saying doc is that some … psychic with paranoid schizophrenia no less … has been actually feeding you all the information?” “That’s exactly what I’m telling you,” he said and pushed the file closer. “That contains every single letter she’s written to me over the last two years. At the top I wrote down when she was writing the letter and the second time and date is when I received it. The letters from about the last month aren’t in that file.” Paterno grabbed the file and began flipping through the pages. “So why is the file short,” Jenkins asked. Dr. Brenton licked his lips and for the first time fear showed on his face, “For the last month she’s been literally ranting about the arrival of people she keeps calling crusaders and that they were going to start some kind of a massive war. Her letters have included things she called signs, which basically are more events that she couldn’t possibly know about. Then last night, she escaped. As of right now, I don't care what you have going on, NOTHING is more important than finding her and bringing her back. She's a 21 year old black woman that is highly intelligent and out of her mind enough to kill anyone with almost anything.” Caber on "Conspiracy of Evil. Part I" http://darkicon.com/Asylum/topic/conspiracy-of-evil-part-i#post-226 Tue, 17 Apr 2012 20:20:13 +0000 Caber 226@http://darkicon.com/Asylum/ Been lazy regarding working on my writing so I thought if I threw something up here I would be inclined to finish it. hahahaha, yes right. Well anyhoooooooo, here's part I to a tale I am working on. ------- The old building shook as the chilling wind outside struck against it. At one time this place served as a retreat for hunters, but now the run down wood building was barely able to stand against the elements. It was not much, but this two-room shack was far preferable to the blizzard raging outside. Roeth cursed the turn of weather that caused this expedition to turn into a disaster. Paid well for a quick excursion into these mountains, he thought it was an easy payday. Unfortunately the weather, and the person who paid him, proved this would be anything but an uneventful journey. He almost turned down the job, something about the client bothered him, but the pay was too good and he owed Berrel Fynn no small amount of gold. The last thing anyone wanted was to be in debt to Fynn. This excursion would pay him enough to relieve his debt and still have a nice amount left over. A smart gambler walks away from the table while they are up, but he felt lucky and Fynn was playing terrible. All that changed in a heart beat, he should have seen it coming. He lost everything he had and then some. He was certain Fynn cheated, but it would be lunacy to accuse him. Gambling against Fynn, how could he have been such a fool? How many times had he gone over that night in his mind? He lost count. His greed had gotten the better of him. Now here he was lost in the unwelcoming wilderness instead of safe in the warm confines of his house. After helping his men secure the room as best they could against the weather, he ventured towards the other room to speak with the person that employed him. He took a deep breath and pulled open the door that led to small room beyond. A flurry of snow washed across his face as he entered the room. The crazy woman had the wooden shutter that barred the window pulled open and the outside weather was coming inside. A light dusting of snow covered the floor as the wind carried more around the room. She was standing in front of the window, letting the outside weather caress her face as it entered. “You mind closing the shutter?” He spoke loud enough so she could hear him over the wind. For a time she did not move, acting as if she had not heard him. Eventually she closed the shutter and the wind blowing about the room stopped. She turned to him, a look of annoyance on her face. “Is something wrong?” Her voice was soft, but cold as the weather outside. Is something wrong? Was she serious? Here they were lost in a blizzard, almost out of supplies and she wants to know if something was wrong? He had already lost half his men; he had no wish to lose the other half. He took a slow breath and composed himself. “You have barely spoken a word to anyone during this entire expedition. I do not believe it would be asking too much for you to tell us why we are here. What are you looking for?” She had been free with her gold, but was reluctant to part with any information. “I seek the only thing worth seeking…knowledge.” “What good is knowledge if you are dead?” A devious smile spread across her face. “The correct knowledge in the hands of the right dead person could prove quite revealing.” Her voice turned condescending. “Something tells me you would not be that person.” Now he remembered why he spent as little time as possible dealing with her. She was sarcastic, overbearing and acted like she was better than everyone else. Haughty little wench, how he would love to teach this beauty a lesson. Throw her on the floor and show her just how rough he could be. She had a perfect face, her light skin framed by long, straight, raven colored hair. Her alluring eyes were the darkest of blue, two deep pools he would not mind becoming lost in. She was a little thin for his tastes, he preferred a woman with thick hips, but that was a minor quibble. She was also a good deal younger than him; he placed her at twenty years of age at most. How a woman that young had so much gold to throw around, he could only guess. It was not a sense of honor that stopped him from taking her, nor was it the uncomfortable cold. He kept his hands to himself due to fear. He was definitely stronger than her, his muscular frame dwarfed hers, and having watched her the past week, he was certain she possessed no fighting skills. Unless she was hiding it, she simply did not have the movements of one familiar with combat. He doubted she would know which end of a dagger to hold. He also doubted she had any need for such skills, one look into her beautiful eyes told him all he needed to know about her. Behind the beauty lurked something powerful…something evil. “Is there anything else you wish to say or are we done?” Her voice snapped him from his thoughts. “Our supplies are nearly gone, I doubt we will have enough to reach our destination let alone return to the last village we passed.” “We are close to what I seek.” He frowned. Letting her guide them was a mistake. He should have insisted on the complete details of where they were going. Going blind like this was stupid. How could he be certain she knew where they were? This blizzard had driven them far off course as much as he could tell. Yet here she stood, telling him they were near. She put her hands on her hips. Her sarcastic smile had disappeared and her annoyed attitude re-appeared. “I can see by that stupid look on your face you have more to say.” “I am not even sure we can survive the night, this building offers us little shelter from the cursed cold.” Anger flashed across her face. “Never curse winter in my presence! Insignificant fool, I should let the elements claim you.” He felt the brisk temperature drop further, as if the window had been re-opened and winter once again allowed to pour forth. Yet a quick glance showed the shutter was firmly closed. “I…I mean no disrespect.” He smiled apologetically. “Simpering idiot.” She narrowed her eyes and her anger further surfaced. “I am a little tense at the moment, our supplies are nearly gone, I have no idea where we are, my men are on edge and to top it off, some of us are not immune to the cold, there is a good chance we shall all be dead by morning due to the weather. If I said something that offended you, I again apologize.” She turned away from him, bringing her fingers up to her temple. “The calling of solitude…yet I suffer the company of fools such as you…I require the finer nuances life offers and here I stand in the base wilderness. Unacceptable! These filthy accommodations are not fit for a rat! There will be accountancy!” She finished speaking and stood silent. After a minute or so, she brought her hands down and turned to face him. She looked to have calmed down considerably. “The down payment of gold I gave you, throw me a coin.” He hesitated for a second before fishing in his pocket. He withdrew one and after glancing between the coin and her, tossed it her way. If she lived long enough, he felt sorry for whoever became her husband. That poor man was due a lifetime of agony. She caught it in her right hand and closed her fist around it. “Es baran desall!” Her eyes locked onto her hand and her face grew a determined look. After a moment or two, a slight blue hue was noticeably glimmering around her enclosed hand. She stood unmoving for a few seconds before frowning and throwing the gold coin back to him. He deftly caught it and as he wrapped his fingers around it, he felt soothing warmth begin to caress him. The entire area around the coin was rapidly heating. “That should be sufficient to keep the other room at a suitable temperature. Now if you do not mind, leave me be,” She frowned further. “And take that cursed warmth with you.” “My men have been freezing the better part of a week and you choose now to give me this?” “I have no desire to waste my talents on menials, but your incessant whining is becoming unbearable and I still have use for you and your men.” She gave him a dismissive gesture with her hand as she again turned away from him. “We are done.” He could feel the biting cold closing in on him, driving away the soothing warmth the coin in his hand offered. Whatever magic she had imbued the coin with; it was no match for the uncomfortable weather contained in this room. Weather that seemed to be growing colder than even the outside blizzard offered. After foolishly gambling against Fynn and then in desperation taking on this job and deferring to this woman’s directions, he felt it the right time to do something smart. He turned and quickly left the room, making sure the door was tightly shut behind him. Caber on "The Walking Dead." http://darkicon.com/Asylum/topic/the-walking-dead#post-167 Fri, 16 Mar 2012 14:02:59 +0000 Caber 167@http://darkicon.com/Asylum/ Anyone else watching this show? Season finale is Sunday. Looks like quite a few cast members' characters will not live to see next season. I wish they would kill off Carl, annoying little kids always ruin shows. DarkIcon on "What Not To Watch: Humans Vs. Zombies" http://darkicon.com/Asylum/topic/what-not-to-watch-humans-vs-zombies#post-216 Mon, 02 Apr 2012 22:10:18 +0000 DarkIcon 216@http://darkicon.com/Asylum/ A zombie movie got made without my knowledge, so when I stumbled across it on the internet I decided to give it a chance. I love zombie movies, so this should be... umm... wtf? Why did I even bother? I guess I should make an attempt at an actual review here, so... What it's about: A group of college students and a conspiracy-nutcase security guard try to survive when a zombie-virus hits their college campus. Yeah. That's all you need to know. Okay, I'll give you some more: Both the male main characters have secret crushes on two female main characters, and that drives some of the lack of anything interesting happening at the beginning of the movie. Apparently this movie is a comedy. That's the only POSSIBLE interpretation that makes this film even slightly entertaining. Even with that, it still sucks the life out of an evening like a platoon of vampire hookers on payday. You know what? I'm not gonna turn this into yet another diatribe about why movies like this make me hate low budget independent films. I'll just dive straight in and judge this baby on its own lack of merit. The characters. You have the usual lineup. There's: The Guy. The Nerd Guy. The Crazy Guy, and That Other Guy. Then you have the girls The Slut The Virgin(?) The One that Dies First, and The One You Want To See Naked But Never Do. No one cares about any of these people. Even the zombies don't give a damn. Plot? What plot? There are literally NEWS REPORTS on TV with people seriously discussing a zombie outbreak... and these morons decide to go to a party. What? Oh, it's a comedy... (It HAS to be!)... that makes sense, I guess. There's nothing new here. Toward the end, the conspiracy-guy hints at a secret government plot that would have been interesting if the movie had been ABOUT that. But it wasn't, and this guy was a nutcase who FORGETS TO BRING THE AMMO, so whatever. Special Effects? Poor, poor, poor, pitifully piss-poor. There's nothing special about this garbage. The zombies are people with red paint around their eyes, and they all pop an Alka-Seltzer into their mouths just before the camera starts rolling. Okay, some of the bite wounds look... okay, I guess... but that's it. Acting? -next- Any redeeming features? If you take this movie as a comedy, then there are some moments that are... not exactly funny, but 'cute', I suppose. Using MMORPG tactics to divide the survivors into tanks, DPS, AOE and support in order to fight past the zombies was original. Too bad the implementation was fucking hideous. And that one guy did get to have sex with that one girl, so yeah. Actually, no. Skip this movie. DarkIcon on "Oh look... Email Subscriptions!" http://darkicon.com/Asylum/topic/oh-look-email-subscriptions#post-215 Mon, 02 Apr 2012 21:23:26 +0000 DarkIcon 215@http://darkicon.com/Asylum/ Over there in the sidebar you'll see a box to put your email address. If you do it right, you'll be notified daily via email of any new posts in the forum. If you do it wrong... well... you don't want to do it wrong. DarkIcon on "And now... pictures!" http://darkicon.com/Asylum/topic/and-now-pictures#post-207 Sun, 01 Apr 2012 15:40:27 +0000 DarkIcon 207@http://darkicon.com/Asylum/ I found a way to enable the IMG tag in forum posts, which means you can now add pictures to your posts. This assumes you know how to use an IMG tag, and have somewhere else to host the pictures since you can't upload them here. For those who DO know how to use an IMG tag, I'll further specify that the only attributes you can use are SRC, HEIGHT, WIDTH, and ALT. If none of this makes any sense to you, then forget about it. INB4 some smartass posts porn, gore, or whatever: Don't ruin it for everybody or I'll turn it right -the fuck- off. WizardofOz on "More stuff to build traffic" http://darkicon.com/Asylum/topic/more-stuff-to-build-traffic#post-138 Sun, 04 Mar 2012 10:37:18 +0000 WizardofOz 138@http://darkicon.com/Asylum/ First, the RSS icon is BORING. I know you have a sort of black and white theme going here, but even with it's size it gets lost. RSS is slowly going away (more on that in a minute) but more than a few folks do still use it (like me). Consider an icon like this: <a href="http://0at.org/projects/free_rss_icons/0at_rss_icons/hole_in_wall.png" rel="nofollow">http://0at.org/projects/free_rss_icons/0at_rss_icons/hole_in_wall.png</a> It gives color but keeps with your theme. Second, wordpress has a ton of plugins to make it easy for people to share your content. Social Sharing buttons makes it easy for your fans to tell others about your great stories. Check out: <a href="http://traffikd.com/resources/wordpress-plugins-social-media/" rel="nofollow">http://traffikd.com/resources/wordpress-plugins-social-media/</a> At a bare minimum you REALLY need the "share this" plugin. Third, if werewolf could help you out and post up some art as blog posts, those could be pinned on Pinterest (traffic), as well as posted to Google+ and Facebook where images get shared around a lot ... more traffic, especially Pinterest. Even better, see if he could create images tied to a specific post, that way on Pinterest when people see the image and click on it they get your whole story. This the MOST important to do on a post that begins a new story thread. Your stories are GREAT dude. Make it easy for people to tell others about them and word will spread. WizardofOz on "[Crusade] A New Breed (part 5)" http://darkicon.com/Asylum/topic/crusade-a-new-breed-part-5#post-144 Mon, 05 Mar 2012 16:33:08 +0000 WizardofOz 144@http://darkicon.com/Asylum/ Quick Authors Note: Winamac is a small town, and Rochester is a much larger town, both are actually in Indiana. However they are NOT connected by a dirt road though they are roughly 9 miles apart. I’m deliberately making certain facts “wrong” for the simple matter that this is a fiction story and I can do that if I want for the sake of the story :-) ************* “Okay, what the hell,” Karen said. “We’ve tried every storage place in the township.” “I don’t know,” Travis said. “I wasn’t exactly given a bunch of information.” At that moment the waitress walked up to their table, “What can I get you hons,” she asked. “We’ll just take three of your lunch specials and coke all the way around.” She nodded as she wrote then looked up, “I apologize, but I couldn’t help but overhear your conversation as I was taking care of folks. There is another place that’s only sort of a storage. Caters to a more high end crowd. Maybe you should try there. I’ll put the address on the ticket if you promise to leave a nice tip.” “Absolutely Mary,” John replied noticing her name tag, “Consider it done. Thanks.” The address took them to a place with high walls and manned guard towers. At the gate they were met with a guard with the bearing of a marine sporting an M-4 rifle which he pointed at John in the driver’s seat as he approached. They noticed guards in the towers had swiveled some kind of 50 caliber machine gun down at them also. “Safety’s off gents,” he said putting the barrel into the open window of John’s black Expedition. “What’s the access key? A wrong answer gets you shot, there aren’t two chances here. Trying to pull away gets you shot. Make sure that number you give me is good.” “Is this really necessary,” Travis asked nervously from the back seat. “Afraid it is,” the guard answered without blinking. “338953219,” John said calmly, repeating the number he’d committed to memory before they even left Travis’ apartment. The guard repeated the number on his radio. A few seconds later a female voice said only, “Unit specific.” “Today’s your lucky day boys. That code goes to only a single unit. Once again, you get only one chance to get it right. If you get it wrong, I start shooting.” “219,” John said instantly. Again the guard repeated the number and again a female voice gave a simple reply, “Front desk.” “Looks like you’re good to go. As soon as you get through, park in a space and go in the front door. Do NOT go anywhere else. If you do, the 50 cal machine guns on the towers will open fire. We clear?” John nodded and the guard went into the guard shack and pushed a button and the gate opened. The woman at the front desk could be described only one way … intensely beautiful. Almost inhumanly gorgeous, and the short black dress she wore counterpointed her auburn hair spectacularly. She was also a woman of obviously few words as she said nothing else but, “follow me,” She lead them over to a door that required a key entry, a palm print, and an eye scan. Once through the door, they were in a long hallway with another door that had a small glass window. The woman approached and pushed a button beside the door frame. Someone looked through, nodded, and a buzzing sound indicated that door unlocking. It opened into what appeared largely like any other indoor storage facility except that instead of key locks on a simple latch, each unit sported a keypad. She lead the way through a maze and stopped at a door with the number 32 stenciled in big bold white letters and began typing in a rather long series of numbers. The unit would beep and she’d enter more numbers. Six times that happened until the door pulled itself open. “You have exactly 30 minutes,” she said in a bored and surprisingly normal sounding voice. “The door will close on its own and will not open for another 7 days. Don’t be inside it.” With that the woman walked silently away despite the high heels she was wearing. Inside were weapons of every type, style and shape, cell phones still in packaging, and literally boxes of money for most nations of the world. “What are the odds that we would happen to be served by a waitress that would know about a place like this,” Travis asked as he grabbed a couple different pairs of nun-chucks that caught his attention as well as a collapsible batton and a cane that had a removeable foot cap to reveal a point made out of some kind of silver alloy and a removable handle that revealed a fist sized iron ball. John and Karen both nothing but several thousand each and ammunition for the small arsenal they already had in cases in the back of their SUV. “We’ve grabbed enough money,” John said to Travis had he started to grab a few bundles of cash himself. “A place like this … it’s probably used by a few folks. Best not to take more than we need in case someone else is in trouble and needs it.” Travis nodded and they walked out and waited several minutes until the gate to the unit closed on its own. “So, where to in Colorado,” John asked turning around to look at Travis in the back seat who just shrugged. “Okay, so you’re some kind of demon magnet. We should probably avoid heavily populated towns. We can drop south west on highway 24 and pick up 36 from there that will take us into northern Colorado until we get more specific instructions. That’ll keep us off the interstate system and large cities.” “Sounds good to me,” Travis answered. “You’re the tactical expert.” “Don’t know about you guys,” Karen said only an hour later as they were headed south on a small deserted road to get to highway 24, “but I’m getting hungry. We should probably stop at the next town and pick up some food and the like.” “I could go for something to eat myself,” Travis answered. “We’ll be coming up on Winamac in about an hour, we’ll stop in there.” An hour almost on the dot and they were on the outskirts of a smallish town. Their claim to fame was apparently their high school football team because the fact that they’d won the state championship was on signs everywhere. They pulled into a convenience store that backed up to what seemed to be an extremely large park for the size of the town and as they were getting out they heard a child’s blood curdling scream that cut off almost as quickly as it began. Travis took off at a sprint, grabbing the cane from the seat beside him and leaving his other weapons behind. The second his fingers touched them he instantly began moving faster. He vaguely heard John and Karen both calling him to wait, but he couldn’t understand what they should be waiting for. Just inside the treeline Travis caught movement to his left and turned and ran straight at it. A small boy was on the ground bleeding wickedly from his head. An elderly man easily in his sixties held a can of spray paint and was using it to draw symbols on the ground. The man’s aura was like looking at a pool of dirty oil, dark and nasty looking. Travis took in the scene in milliseconds and closed the distance rapidly. Seeing the on rushing attack the man threw the can of spray paint which Travis easily caught and tossed aside and then lashed out at the man’s head with the cane. The man ducked showing a speed well outside the norm for someone in their twenties and jumped in closer to punch at Travis’ face. He sidestepped the blow and shifted the movement of his arm so that the cane would hit at the outstretched elbow joint of the man. But the man proved to be insanely fast and the swing missed. They circled each other for a few seconds when from multiple directions Travis heard people running and he quickly knew that it was John and Karen. The man looked over Travis’ shoulder and that smallest flicker of loss of attention was all Travis needed. Far faster than the blink of an eye Travis hit the man on the side of his head and he collapsed like a rag doll. “FREEZE,” shouted what was obviously a police officer from behind him. “Drop the weapon!” Travis did as he was told and the cane hit the ground. He knew he could use the trees to escape the officer, felt he could probably even handle the gun, but this was a police officer. One of the good guys. “Now put your hands behind your head, your fingers interlaced.” Again Travis did as he was told. “Get down on your knees.” The second Travis’ knees hit the ground Travis heard a movement and the officer stuffed his knee into Travis’ back taking him quickly to the ground. Less than a second later, Travis was firmly cuffed. “I’ll happily shoot you in the head if you move,” the officer said as he got up to check on the old man who was starting to move and began moaning. “You okay Bob,” the officer said gently shaking the man’s shoulder. That seemed to revive the man and he jumped up and pointed his finger at Travis, “YOU! Good god you attacked that boy. What the hell were you doing!” “Me,” Travis exclaimed. “SHUT UP,” The officer shouted at Travis. “What happened here Bob,” the officer shouted. “I head a kid scream, I came running and there was that guy with that can of spray paint drawing some satanic symbols on the ground. When I shouted at him to stop, he attacked me!” “Lets go,” the officer said as he yanked Travis painfully to his feet. “Come with me Bob, we need to get you to the docs. Travis found it disturbing that he couldn’t find his friends. When he got out to the convenience store the Expedition was empty but John and Karen were no where to be found. He noticed it was a county sheriffs car and doubted the town sported its own sheriffs office and that meant a drive somewhere else. Once in the car with the door closed, the sheriff went back to retrieve a very slow moving “Bob” who was placed into the front seat. After Bob was dropped off at a small doctors office Travis was driven east on a small dirt road and booked for a wide range of charges in the town of Rochester. The sheriff’s officer, who’s aura was certainly murky, but nothing like that of Bob, grinned wickedly as he escorted Travis to a holding cell that was really more of a room with a heavy solid door that had a thick glass window in it. “This is supposed to be our solitary confinement cell. However we only have one. So now you get to share. If you decide to run your little satanic ritual on that brat in there, I’m not sure anyone would hear you.” With that, Travis was shoved into the room and the door closed and locked behind him. On the bottom bed was a fairly short kid with brown hair, jeans, and a button up shirt. Travis couldn’t begin to fathom what someone his age could have done. “What are you doing here,” Travis asked. “You’re all of what, 14? Shouldn’t you be in a juvenile facility?” The kid sighed, “I’m 16, name’s Carl by the way. I got into a fight at school and hurt the kid I was fighting pretty good. He deserved it by the way. Turns out he was the son of the same sheriff that threw you in here. Your turn, what’d you do?” “I’m Travis, anyway I tried to stop some maniac old man from hurting a kid, who claimed it was me that was trying to hurt him. He was drawing some symbols or something, some kind of satanic ritual. He claimed it was me that did it all and obviously the sheriff and the old man knew each other.” That was when Carl on the bed sat up and cocked his head and squinted. “Son of a bitch,” he swore. “That would explain some things … wait …” Carl squinted still further and looked around the room. “Where’s your guide and how in the hell did you get caught by a damn small town county sheriff?” “My what? and I was fighting the old man, who was far too fast for a sixty something year old when the officer saw us. He said freeze, so I did.” “This makes no sense,” the kid said getting up and standing on his tiptoes to squint through the window. “How can you not have a guide,” he said almost as much to himself as to Travis. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” “If I said you were a Crusader, would you believe me?” The question shocked Travis into a non answer. Carl nodded, “I see that it does mean something. I can see the Crusader gift in you. That means you should have as a guide the Crusader that came before you.” Travis shook his head, “Still have no idea what you’re talking about.” “This makes no sense,” Carl said again. “What’s your weapon affinity? Tell me you’re at least crazy good with some kind of weapon.” Travs nodded, “Rod weapons. Nunchucks, staves, that sort of thing.” “And my aura, you can see that?” Travis nodded. It was largely a dirty sort of white that almost made it look grey. “Yet you have no guide,” Carl repeated again. “How is this possible? How’d you become a Crusader?” “I’d be interested in knowing how it is that you know so much about this before I answer any more of your questions,” Travis said growing suspicious. “My mother was a Crusader. While it’s not uncommon for women to be a Crusader it’s nearly unheard of for one to have a child. I think I’m only the third child of a Crusader female in all of history. There are children of male Crusaders, but they aren’t out of commission for the next nine months either. Not long after I born, she passed it on to my father. I was born of a Crusader, raised by a Crusader, fought along side a Crusader. So I know just a little more than the passing average Aide about it. So, about my question, how’d you become a Crusader?” Travis looked at Carl and called to his aura, literally reaching for it... Carl crouched in the bushes just under a window outside a small house dressed all in black, a siren blared in the background and was getting closer. In one hand was a large silver knife, and in the other was a pistol with a silencer attached. He raised up a little and peered inside the window where an older man stood over top of a girl wound up by a whip, the handle of which was in his left hand. Carl squinted and he could see that the man was pulling at her aura, seeming to literally suck the evil out of her. Down the street, a car’s wheels shrieked from a high speed turn. The sound of the siren and the flashing lights left little doubt that it was the cop. Carl swore under his breath. The car screeched to a stop outside the house and a cop jumped out of the car. Carl squinted, it was just a person. Carl swore again and turned toward the cop and raised his gun, crouching down a little further. The second the cop approached the door, Carl stood up. “Hey,” Carl said. The cop spun around, his pistol in has hand already aiming in the direction of the voice. There wasn’t even a moment’s hesitation, Carl fired a single shot which found the center of the cops forehead. Two minutes later the older man opened the front door, sweat pouring down his face and a steady stream of blood running down his nose. “Good God Carl,” he said when he saw the dead cop. Carl shrugged, “It was the life of one cop versus your life and your ability to get rid of the demon. You’ll save thousands, he won’t. That one demon alone would have killed God only knows how many and done untold damage.” ******************* Carl walked into the empty classroom through the open door. It was dark outside and a glance at the clock showed it was 9pm. The teacher, who was staring down grading papers noticed Carl out of the corner of her eye and jumped. “Carl,” she said surprised. “What are you doing here?” Carl looked at her and squinted. Her aura popped into view. It was swam with red and black. “There’s more black in your aura already than just during class,” he said with a sigh. “Excuse me,” she said and stood up. “You live alone, your only company two cats. You dress plainly and conservatively. Suddenly, in just the last week, you’ve started dressing more provocatively than even that Juniors Bio teacher. You’ve you been seeing someone lately,” Carl said as he approached. “Who?” “Carl, it’s highly inappropriate for you to be in the school this late at night at all and my personal life is not open to discussion at any rate.” Carl pulled a metal ball from his pocket, “I’m sorry, but I need answers and my dad isn’t here to get them. That leaves it to me.” “Get out of this clasroom right now before I call security.” Carl threw the ball hard and far too fast for the teacher to react. It her in her face, square in her nose, which exploded like a crushed grape. Right behind that was another ball from the other pocket. She fell backward against her chair which topped over and dumped her onto the ground. Carl approached her calmly and pulled a syringe from from his back pocket. He used one hand to put one of her arms in a joint lock and then inserted the syringe in her arm without pushing the plunger and waited, his thumb poised. The second she started to come-to, Carl placed more pressure on the lock. “If you make any noise above a whisper, you’ll regret it. I want the name of the person you’ve been seeing lately.” She was obviously extremely scared, “Carl, I don’t understand,” she said in a frightened whimper.” “Who have you been seeing,” he repeated. “It’s a simply question. I want a name. This needle in your arm contains a drug that effectively shuts down your body. You literally won’t be able to even breathe yet you’ll be completely conscious. I’ve turned some pretty horrible things into blubbering sissies with it. This entire syringe is enough for you to essentially suffocate to death while you just watch it happen. One more time, who have you been seeing?” “Me,” said a calm voice literally at Carl’s shoulder. Carl pushed the plunger all the way down and jumped forward, intending to jump against the wall and spring back. Unfortunately he was hit in the back of the head which messed up his flight and he bounced off the wall. Below him the teacher laid, blood streaming from her nose and her eyes locked open unable to so much as blink. ***** Travis almost physically ripped himself away from the rest. Clearly Carl had survived the encounter. One thing was clear, the guy was a zealot when it came to his work. “If you’re done with my aura I’d appreciate it if you could answer my question.” Travis thought about it and realized that at the end of the day, he could use the obvious expertise the boy possessed. “I was visited in a dream by something claiming to be an angel. He said he was turning me into a Crusader.” Carl cocked his head curiously, “And you didn’t have to accept?” “No, it was really forced on me.” “Doesn’t surprise me. Seriously, I hate those fuckers.” “Angels, why do you hate them? Aren’t they on our side?” Carl barked out a short laugh, “They’re on their own side. Best you remember that. However, the odd circumstances of me being in this room absolutely wreaks of the kind of crap they would pull. And on that note, in the future, please don’t let yourself get arrested. In here you’re kind of at the mercy of any evil thing that comes along. You’re just lucky that this town is fairly clean.” “But what about that thing that attacked that girl?” “Yeah, that. Angel that was setting up the situation for you and me to be in the same place together where we could talk.” “But why?” Carl gave a look of mock insult, “Why? Because you need me that’s why.” Almost as if his words were a cue keys sounded at the lock of the door and it opened. “You’re free to go, no charges are going to be filed” the sheriff said indicating Travis. “You’ll be free to go also,” he said looking at Carl, “just as soon as an adult can pick you up.” “He’s actually my uncle.” The sheriff looked at Travis, “This true?” Travis couldn’t bring himself to lie outright so he just nodded. Thirty minutes later and they were out in a lobby of sorts for the county justice center meeting with a very angry looking John and Karen. “Here’s the deal,” John said talking first. “Do not ever go barrelling into a fight without doing some kind of checking out what you’re dealing with. In fact lets just make it a rule that you don’t fight anything until I say you should.” Carl laughed silently. “And who’s this,” Karen asked looking at Carl strangely. “His dad is … like me,” Travis answered. “So what’s he doing here?” “Can we not talk here,” Carl said jumping in. “Police stations make me uneasy. The sooner we’re on the road the better.” John and Karen looked at Travis in shock, “He’s not coming with us?” “Yes,” Carl said before Travis could say anything. “He’s a new Crusader, you’re his Aides, none of you knows the first damn thing about what you’re doing. Without some kind of a guide you’ll all be dead inside the week.” John and Karen both laughed. “John here is some kind of ex special forces, and Karen … well,” Travis didn’t want to say what he thought because it sounded nutty, even with everything that was going on. “She’s your psychic,” Carl said plainly. “and John’s your strat guy. Like I said, Aides. And you Travis are a Crusader and you need someone to teach you what that actually means. You don’t have an actual Guide, you got fucked with a Angel who will only tell you what it feels like telling you when it feels like doing it. You need something of a guide. Looks like that’s me. You really think it’s a coincidence that me, a sixteen year old kid, ended up alone in a jail cell with you?” “What I think,” said John, “Is that there’s no way I’m taking you with us without your father’s so much as knowing.” “Great,” Carl answered with a smile, “Lets get to my place and talk to him.” DarkIcon on "Avatars" http://darkicon.com/Asylum/topic/avatars#post-145 Mon, 05 Mar 2012 22:22:47 +0000 DarkIcon 145@http://darkicon.com/Asylum/ There are several ways to have customizable avatars on this platform... and none of them work. I know, I just wasted an evening trying them. There is a plugin that USED to work, but apparently it doesn't any more. Then there's another one that NEVER worked. And blah, blah, blah... So... it doesn't make sense to have spaces for avatars and not be able to upload any. One of the things I CAN do is disable them entirely until bbpress is more mature. A second option is to leave it on, and people who want avatars can create a global one (associated with their email address) at <a href="http://en.gravatar.com/" rel="nofollow">http://en.gravatar.com/</a> I think those DO display on the forum. As I look at the list of users, there are a few that have pictures next to their name, and they are all coming from gravatar.com. Just to be clear, I think having to create an account on a third-party site just to have an avatar is a HORRIBLE idea. Avatar support should have been built into the bbpress product from the alpha version, but it isn't, so our options are to not have them at all or manage them through gravatar. For now, I'm leaving the avatars turned on, but if there is overwhelming outrage over having to use gravatar (I don't blame you) then I'll turn them off entirely. Discuss below. nate on "Movies" http://darkicon.com/Asylum/topic/movies#post-50 Fri, 21 Oct 2011 05:58:33 +0000 nate 50@http://darkicon.com/Asylum/ Ok, I haven’t gone through the list yet, but I figure it’s probably still worth posting here. The 50 scariest movies of all time: <a href="http://movies.msn.com/paralleluniverse/50-scariest-movies/photo-gallery/feature/" rel="nofollow">http://movies.msn.com/paralleluniverse/50-scariest-movies/photo-gallery/feature/</a> WizardofOz on "[Crusade] A New Breed (part 4)" http://darkicon.com/Asylum/topic/crusade-a-new-breed-part-4#post-137 Sat, 03 Mar 2012 22:06:12 +0000 WizardofOz 137@http://darkicon.com/Asylum/ He was a little short for a high school sophomore; and given that this was a senior level AP physics class he seemed downright puny. “Class” the teacher said in a bored monotone, “this is Carl. Carl, you just take any seat.” Carl made his way to a spare seat near the back of the room, not coincidentally beside another smaller kid. He had thick glasses and ears too big for his head, the kind of kid that would get picked on. Behind him was a leather jacket wearing jock with a high and tight redneck haircut. The kind that made the worst sort of bully. He was tall, good looking, athletic, and obviously very smart. Carl knew that often these kids felt like freaks. Throw in a rough family life and these kids could easily end up preying on other kids that were smaller and weaker. Carl would wager almost anything that his girlfriend was a stereotypical blond cheerleader struggling just to pass high school further allowing him to express his superiority. In the short time Carl was introduced and he made his way back to the chair he saw the kid get flicked in the ear three times and the short kid not look back once. As Carl pulled off his backpack he “accidentally” dropped it in the small aisle. He looked the big bully in the eyes as he leaned down to retrieve it. “Touch him one more time you fucking asshole and I’ll kick the shit out of you right out in the hallway where everyone can watch you get your ass handed to you by a short sophomore.” It was said quietly enough that his voice would have only been distinguishable to the bully and the kid in front of him, but it was also said quickly enough to not arouse the suspicion of the teacher. Carl snatched up his backpack and in flash was seated with both the little kid and the bully staring at him jaws open. The words seemed to have worked their intended effect, at least Carl thought. Just as the class ended, Carl saw the bully flick the ear of the kid in front of him again just as everyone went to get up. Carl sighed and made his way out into the hallway. The second he reached the middle he stopped and waited. The bully had an odd grin on his face as he exited the classroom. “You couldn’t leave it alone could you,” Carl challenged. “You just had to mess with him again.” “What’re you going to do about it short shit,” he said as he exited the classroom and shoved Carl hard. With the sixth sense born into nearly every kid the minute they go to high school, a typical “fight ring” formed with Carl and the bully in the center. Carl slung his backpack around and launched it at the kids legs. He looked down to idly kick it out of the way as his smile grew broader. The bully didn’t realize that the backpack was just a diversion. Carl had already launched himself at the kid. His open hand smashed the bully in the nose, kicking his head back. Carl hit the ground in a crouch and kicked at the back of the bully’s knees. As the bully fell, Carl grabbed a hold of one of his hands and twisted it around into a joint lock. “You listen to me you sorry, worthless piece of shit,” Carl said in an oddly conversational tone of voice. “If you ever, and I do mean ever touch him again, I’m going to break this arm I’m holding right now in at least five places. And before you go thinking I can’t do it...” Carl placed a little extra pressure on the joint lock, not enough to break the arm, but enough for permanent ligament damage. Then school security burst through. “Let. Him. Go” The guard demanded unsure of what to do. Carl nodded and let go, “You’re going to need to go to the doctors office, it isn’t broken but you probable felt the tearing.” That was all he got out when the roar of people talking filled the hallway and the security guard grabbed hold of his arm to head to the principals office. “So Mr. Henderson, your first day here, only made it through a single period, and already sitting in my office with charges being filed for assault as we speak,” Mrs. Bently said in that annoyingly dissapproving tone all high school administrators quickly perfect. “Don’t you want to know why I fought the kid,” Carl asked already knowing what her answer would be. “This is a zero tolerance school Mr. Henderson,” She said right on cue and using the exact same words he’d heard dozens of times before. “I don’t care why. I only care that I will not, under any circumstances, permit violence on this school’s property.” “Really, that’s strange, because you’re already allowing violence by your idiotic policy that permits certain kids to bully others with no real repercussions.” The extreme amounts of venom in Carl’s words caused the principal to sit back in her chair. “Really Mr. Henderson, and how is that,” she said genuinely confused. “This policy of yours means that no one can really come to you and report bullying because then they’ll be ostracized for it. Worse, the kids that are being bullied are already socially challenged,” he said miming quotes with his fingers. “So their choices are to put up with the bullying and hopefully maintain some sort of pride, or tell and spend the rest of their time here in high school even more alone than they already are. Put another way, your idiotic policy means that the kids being bullied can do nothing except put up with it. YOU are allowing the bullying Mrs. Bentley, you, the teachers, and the school district.” “That’s quite an indictment Mr. Henderson. Also completely irrelevant. This is a society of laws. Hitting someone else is a crime.” “So it’s a crime to defend yourself? When did that happen?” “It is a crime to commit any sort of violence on school property. I’ve seen your file Mr. Hernderson, you’re smart enough to know that.” “Only it’s not a crime. If I walked into school with a gun and starting shooting kids, wouldn’t the police use their weapons to stop me? Aren’t they using violence against my violence?” “Those are law enforcement personel.” “So there’s an exception to the no violence policy, glad we agree. The truth is that you aren’t opposed at all to violence. The truth is that you’re simply parroting a policy that’s been spoon fed to you without considering the consequences of what that policy does. So let me ask you a slightly different question. Is defending myself against an attack somehow wrong?” “Mr. Henderson, you had other options besides fighting that bully. You could have run away.” “How exactly was I going to do that? I saw the cameras in the hallway, why don’t you check the video. I was surrounded by students with no where to go. Running wasn’t an option.” “You were what … five feet from a classroom? If you would have shouted Mrs. Conners would have come running. You had options Mr. Henderson and you chose not to use them.” “First, we’re back to the situation of being ostracized again. I’m new to this school without a single friend. I don’t know anyone. You think telling, or running away was going to make my time any better? And I suppose the bully that pushed me is in trouble also?” “He pushed you, so yes he’ll be punished.” Carl shook his head. “And what about the other kid? Will he be punished too?” The principal looked genuinely confused, “Other kid? What other kid?” Carl sighed, “You see what your stupid policy does? You don’t even know. The kid that pushed me and I defended myself against, which as an aside means your stupid assault charges won’t stick with video evidence to back me up, but I digress. When I showed up at the classroom, there was a kid in the seat in front of the one I defended myself against. He was having his ears repeatedly flicked, over and over again when the teacher wasn’t looking. I told the bully to leave the kid alone. He didn’t. Before the class ended he flicked the kids ear again. So out in the hallway I asked the bully why he couldn’t leave that kid alone and he pushed me. It was my belief that he intended to hit me. Defending myself against bodily harm is a right in this country, especially for children and I stopped hitting him the minute I had him secured enough to stop hitting me.” Mrs. Bentley got up and walked to her door and leaned out, “Have Mrs. Conners brought to my office right away please.” She returned to her seat and sat down, “That was a rather long way of telling me about someone being bullied.” Carl shrugged, “I’m not going to be here very long. I don’t need to worry about your stupid rules. I wasn’t really telling you about someone being bullied. Instead, I can focus on doing the right thing when ever I can, and the right thing at that point was teaching a bully a lesson. The right thing to do Mrs. Bentley was to ignore your idiotic policy and rules.” “Fighting is never the right thing to do Mr. Henderson.” Carl laughed openly. “Really? We covered this already. I’m an extremely skilled fighter. I’m not saying that to brag, it’s a fact. As small as I am I beat the crap out of that other guy.” Mrs. Bentley waved her hand dismissively, “It’s readily established that you can fight well Mr. Henderson, get to your point.” Carl nodded, “What I’m about to say isn’t a threat, it’s simply a hypothetical, okay.” “Get on with your point Mr. Henderson.” “What would you do if I calmly got up and locked your door and then began hitting you? Would you fight back? or would you simply cover up and shout for help?” “Again, the school rules--” “DON’T,” Carl said loudly cutting her off, “Talk to me about the rules. I asked you if it would be the right thing to do to defend yourself.” Mrs. Bentley glared at him, “Don’t you ever interrupt me in that manner again Mr. Henderson, are we clear?” Carl smirked, “That’s your way of admitting that you’d physically defend yourself isn’t it.” “It’s my way of saying that what you did was disrespectful.” “Okay, my apologies. If I attached you, right here, right now on school grounds would you defend yourself?” Mrs. Bentley sighed, “Mr. Henderson, this conversation is pointless.” “It’s only pointless because you know you would defend yourself. You know that at times the only thing you can do is meet violence with violence. You know it’s true and you just can’t admit it.” The door to the office opened and Mrs. Conners walked in. Carl found it interesting that there was no knock at the door. “You asked for me,” she said. Mrs. Bentley looked up with obvious disapproval. “Do you know who Mr. Henderson had a fight with?” “Of course.” “Do you know who was sitting in front of him?” “Of course.” “Are you aware of any bullying going on between those two boys?” Mrs. Conners rolled her eyes, “If there was anything specific I’d have to report it. All I can say is that Jeff Haskel was known for being a class A jackass and as captain of the football team everyone put up with it, so if you have any information of something specific it wouldn’t surprise me in the slightest.” “Thank you Mrs. Conners, you can go now. Tell Nancy I’m still waiting on the suspension paperwork.” Mrs. Conners sighed, “I didn’t need to come down here to the office Betty. We have phones.” Mrs. Benley clenched her teeth, “Mrs. Conners that at this school we use proper names, especially in front of students. I’ll expect you back at my office within fifteen minutes of closing bell today to sign a counseling statement.” Mrs. Conners turned and closed the door with some force. When Better Bentley looked down she saw the face of a smirking Carl. “Wipe that smile off your face Mr. Henderson.” “Mrs. Bentley, perhaps you don’t understand the situation as fully as you should.” She raised her eyebrows, “Oh, and what situation is that?” “Several things really. First, the kid that was being bullied will admit to nothing. If he was going to do that he’d have done it by now. Two, suspending me isn’t a punishment, it’s a reward.” “Mr. Henderson we need some kind of corroboration of your story.” “Then ask other kids in the class, preferably one of the girls. They’re much more likely to tell you the truth.” Mrs. Bentley nodded, “I can see why you’re in the classes you are. As for your position that the suspension won’t affect you, if you miss too many day you will automatically have to repeat...” Mrs. Bentley trailed off when Carl started laughing. “What’s so funny Mr. Henderson?” “Mrs. Bentley, I’m a sophomore in senior level classes. I have college credit already. I’ve taken enough CLEP tests to be nearly complete with the general ed requirements for most universities. What grade exactly do you think I’ll have to repeat?” “I see,” she said quietly fully understanding that there really was little she could do. “If you wish to consider your suspension a reward, then that’s your prerogative. I shall be speaking to your parents and we’ll see if they consider it a reward.” “You won’t be reaching my father and my mother’s been dead since I was a baby.” “Why can’t I reach your father?” There was a slight pause that Mrs. Bentley found odd before he answered, “He’s on a business trip and won’t be back until the end of next week.” “And what about emergency contacts?” “My emergency contacts aren’t in this state. I get moved around a lot Mrs. Bentley. I thought you said you’d reviewed my file. You should know this already.” Mrs. Bentley thought about it for a minute. “Then how about this. You injured one of our football players. Perhaps I should give you detention … being a water boy for the football team.” Carl sighed, “Surely you aren’t that foolish Mrs. Bentley.” “Oh,” she said raising her eyebrows at the cloaked insult, “Explain please.” “You don’t think that those members of the football team won’t want revenge against me? If you put me in that situation there’ll only be more fights … many more injured football players.” “I don’t think I like you very much Mr. Henderson. I think that putting you in that situation is exactly what I’m going to do. The second you’ve been in three fights I’ll be within my rights to simply expell you. You can consider that a reward if you like.” Carl shook his head and leaned forward in his chair and stared intently into Mrs. Bentley’s eyes, “Then let me be clear Mrs. Bentley. I won’t be showing up for that detention and you’ll be left with no choice but to suspend me. Further, once my father gets back from his trip, I’ll be leaving this school. I’m only going to be here two weeks Mrs. Bentley. You simply don’t have enough time to do anything, in any way that could possibly matter to me.” Mrs. Bentley looked enraged, “Get out of my office Mr. Henderson. Your suspension is effective immediately and shall run the remaining five days of this week.” “I’ll want a copy of the paperwork. I don’t want you to simply tell me that the suspension is five days, fill out paperwork for only three, and then I’m getting a knock on my door from a truancy officer.” “Get. Out. Of. My. Office.” Carl nodded, grabbed his backpack, and left to find the security waiting for him with a sheriff’s officer. “You’re being placed under arrest for assault,” the officer said. “Turn around.” Carl sighed, dropped his backpack, and turned around, putting his hands behind his back. The officer put the cuffs around his wrists so tight he knew the flow of blood to his fingers would be cut off. “When I get to the station I’m going to ask for my hands to be photographed. They’ll be blue, and I’ll win be able to win a lawsuit against the police department using a lawyer from the mall.” “Give it your best shot you fuckin punk,” the officer said. “That was my son you attacked you little shit,” the officer said. “You tore the ligaments on his throwing arm and he’s the starting quarterback. He’s out for the season and we had scouts coming out to watch him play. If you cost him his chance at college I swear that blue hands will be the least of your worries.” “Tell your son not to pick on kids at school and perhaps this won’t happen.” The officer grabbed at Carl’s arms and yanked him out of the office to the car. Once in the back, Carl simply reached into his backpocket, and pulled on the tread purposely left there. The pocket unravelled and picks fell out purposely designed by him and his father. Within seconds he was out of the cuffs. As the car turned off the main road and onto the small dirt road that cut straight to the sherrif’s department nine miles away in the next town, Carl lifted the cuffs up and showed the officer what he’d done. The car skidded to a stop and the officer threw his door open, jumped out and ripped the door next to Carl open. “Get out and put your hands on the trunk of the fuckin car,” he said putting his hands on his taser and unsnapping the hold strap with a practiced motion. “Officer,” Carl said in a calm voice. “I’ll just do it again. I have no complaints if you want the cuffs on me, but if you put them on me too tight again they won’t stay on and the next time I won’t tell you I did it. I’ll wait until we get to the station and then I’ll make you look like an incompetent idiot.” The officer smiled broadly, “Go ahead, I dare you.” He reached in and hauled Carl from the car and once again the cuffs were put on too tightly. As Carl promised, he was out of the cuffs when they reached the station. There they were met by an officer and an assistant DA who informed him that slipping cuffs placed by an officer was a violation of county law and meant no bail was now possible and he’d be confined to solitary. Carl just shook his head. “When will I be transferred to a juvenile facility, and when can I call my father?” “You’re being charged as an adult fucker,” the officer said. “We can hold you for forty eight hours before filing charges and another forty eight hours after that before we have to allow a phone call. We’ll be using every second of that time.” A very confused Carl was then hauled away. WizardofOz on "A Fan Fic Contest!" http://darkicon.com/Asylum/topic/a-fan-fic-contest#post-89 Sun, 19 Feb 2012 19:50:48 +0000 WizardofOz 89@http://darkicon.com/Asylum/ I just had a KILLER idea. I'd be willing to "sponsor" a fan fic contest to help get more people posting stuff. What do you think? WizardofOz on "[Crusade] A New Breed (part 3)" http://darkicon.com/Asylum/topic/crusade-a-new-breed-part-3#post-131 Fri, 02 Mar 2012 00:34:58 +0000 WizardofOz 131@http://darkicon.com/Asylum/ What little furniture Travis had was pulled out of the way and a single dining room chair was in the middle of the small living room with Travis seated in it while Karen slowly walked around. “And,” John said expectantly. “It’s strange,” she said thoughtfully. “His aura is definitely stronger yet also oddly very much the same. This large of a change in the strength of his aura should have brought other changes as well but I can’t find any.” “The change was sudden,” Travis said. “Seriously only a couple of days.” “Are you opposed to me hypnotizing you,” Karen asked. “Nope.” *** “Hey there fucktard,” the angelic John said with a grin. Travis looked around, Karen was gone, in fact his entire apartment was empty. There was only him, the chair, and “John”. “Listen up dickweed because I don’t have time. I’ve got more important things to be doing and that fuckin hotty John has for a wife is no slouch. John brought a bunch of stuff with him … weapons. I want you to go through them. You’ll know the right one.” *** Travis shook his head and the room came into view. Karen, who was standing in front of him looked confused, even a little fearful. “You okay,” John said moving up beside her and putting his hand on her shoulder. Karen nodded, “No one has ever come out of a trance that I put them in John. Ever. I’m fine, but this is … scary.” Travis looked at John, “I was told that you had weapons or something and that I’m supposed to go through them?” Karen took a step backward as she sucked in a breath. “How’d you know that?” “I was told.” “By whom? Do you have a name? Travis, spirits are dangerous if you don’t know who you’re dealing with.” “All I know is that he’s the one that made the changes.” “You didn’t get a name! Jesus Travis, you could literally be talking to anything. Anything it has been telling you could be a lie!” “Yet everything he’s told me has been the truth.” Karen took a calming breath. “If it’s raining outside, I could say that the sky was blue and that would be partially true. I have a car in storage, an antique with many missing parts. I could tell you that I have the car and try and sell it to you making you believe that it’s a whole functioning car. Travis, you have no idea how deceptive spirits can be.” “Let me ask you this, what are you supposed to do with the weapons?” Travis shrugged, “Just go through them and I would know the right one when I saw it.” “He said simply that I would know the right one. Didn’t say anything else.” Karen nodded, “Okay, John go get them. We’ll put them across the room from him and go from there. I want us both to have our sidearms in our hands. I’m not liking this one bit but you’ve told me to trust him and I’m trying … God help me but I’m scared.” John nodded and said nothing. He pecked his wife on the cheek and ran out the door, returning a few minutes later with several bags. Travis was moved back into the small dining room while John laid out the weapons. Karen stood there, her back to her husband, a pistol in her hand, and her gaze on Travis. She was scared and her fear was beginning to seep into both John and Travis. That didn’t change the fact that Travis found it difficult to keep his eyes off the bow staff and nunchucks. He literally felt drawn to them. “It’s the bowstaff and nunchucks,” Travis said licking his lips. “I’m guessing it has something to do with rod based weapons or something.” Karen let out a visible sigh of relief. “Well, at least we don’t have to worry about him hurting us with something like nunchucks now do we,” she said looking at her husband. John smiled, “That we do not. It’s probably safe to at least let him try them out.” Karen nodded and John turned, grabbed them, and tossed them. Travis found himself moving almost instantly. John and Karen both seemed to be frozen in time as he jumped what he knew had to be an impossible angle to catch one of sides of the nunchucks out of the air. It felt like a part of him, an extension of himself that had been missing … nirvana. The chucks flowed around his body almost as if it were a living thing but completely under his control. With the barest flicker of a thought, they were tucked into his belt. “Mother of God,” Karen and John swore. “Don’t play around with me,” John said. “You’ve used them before haven’t you.” Travis shook his head, “Never a day in my life. I was a farm boy and I thought I’d been called to be a pastor.” John walked up to Travis and quicker than a snake smacked him upside the head, then again from the other side. The blows were with his open hand but still landed softly, however they didn’t stop. “Try and block me,” John said after a second, but Travis felt like a school kid trying to fight an olympic boxer. “STOP,” Travis said with growing frustration after a few minutes. “What do you make of that,” John said turning to look at Karen. “I don’t know, and the thing is, he was trying.” “So how does someone who moves as fast as he was, as smoothly as he did, suddenly lose that skill?” Karen shrugged, “I don’t know. His aura went absolutely nuclear when he was touching the chucks. Maybe you two should try a little something, but you keep the staff.” John shrugged, “Go ahead and grab the chucks Travis,” he said as he spun around the bow staff seeming to just be in his hands. the staff cut the air going after Travis’ ribs. Travis however blocked the bow and quickly went on the attack. Remembering what John had done with his open hand, he altered his swings so that the chucks would barely touch his head. Every single swing found a mark on John’s body, nothing John did in way of counter attack even came close. “Good Lord Travis,” John said out of breath. “This is just … it’s nothing I’ve ever seen!” “Well, this is a problem,” Karen said thoughtfully. “If what you said was true, he’s a sitting duck without those things in his hands.” “I think that’s why we’re supposed to work with him, why he needs our help,” John answered. “Basically honey, we need to train him.” “What about your promise to God,” Karen said with obvious concern. “Travis already answered that. What if God put us here exactly so we can help him. God didn’t turn me into the Crusader so I won’t have to break my promise. I just need to teach him.” Karen nodded, “but there isn’t enough room in here for that and you said he can’t leave.” John shrugged, “We’ll do the best we can and from there God will provide.” “And what about your job? I’m not sure the Church will just let you stop teaching.” “You work with him during the day and I’ll pick up at night.” “Wait,” Travis said holding up his hands, “What’s she going to teach me?” John looked over to his wife and smirked, “Oh, I don’t think I’m going to spoil her fun. Trust me, she’s got more than a few tricks up her sleeve.” *** “Oh you have got to be fuckin kidding me with this bullshit,” the angelic version of John swore. Travis was so tired from working with the real John all day that even his dream self felt wore out. “What’s the problem,” Travis asked. “Do you know how many demons will be hurt with something like a staff you dumb fuckin idiot,” John said throwing up his hands. “NONE,” John said not waiting for Travis to answer. “Not a single fuckin one. You can’t kill so much as a lower cerebrite with something like that! Fuckin’ shit on a damn stick. It’s a joke, it has to be. I swear I’m going to kick your fuckin ass.” “Do you think God makes mistakes,” Travis asked, the idea hitting him like a ton of bricks. “What the fuck did you just ask me,” John demanded obviously pissed. “I’m going to take it your answer is a no. So if God doesn’t make mistakes, then somehow or another the talents given to me by God will be sufficient to do the task set to me.” John looked like a balloon that the air was being slowly let out of. “Son of a bitch and hack my wings from my back. Maybe you are so fuckin stupid after all. Fine then genius, here’s the thing. Pretty much everything is going to need a blade of some kind to kill. More than a few things will need some kind of enchanted blade. You’ll have to cut into the fuckin thing, or penetrate it somehow, to kill it. Some fuckin damnable cowboy wannabe out in Georgia is currently making a big old stink. His Affinity is with guns. That’s the penetration I was talking about. Even things that need to be decaptiated he can simply sling enough lead to do the job. How the fuck are you going to decaptiate something with a damnable pair of nunchucks?” Travis shrugged, “I don’t know yet. But if what you’re saying is true then we’ll figure something out.” John rolled his eyes, “I’ve known well trained Crusaders fuckin get their eyes gouged out of their heads because they thought they were going to be able to figure it out. Maybe you didn’t get the fuckin picture the first time maggot, but your gifts are only meant to give you some kind of slim chance. If you’re going to be a stupid fuck, your gifts won’t help one single fuckin bit.” “Give me some time--” “Nope, sorry. Can’t. You, John, and Karen need to get out to Colorado pronto. That Jason jackass out in fuckin Georgia is making enough damn noise that we’re pretty sure we can move you to better quarters. You need to leave with first light.” “I’m not sure Karen--” “Oh fuck Karen, you let me worry about that fuck brain. Now listen up, my time’s running short. I’ve got more important things to do that fuckin waste jackjawing with your dumb ass. You know where Lake Charter Township is a few miles from here right?” Travis nodded. “Good, there’s a storage joint there. Access code for the gate is 338954. The unit number is 219. You’ll want what’s in there for the trip.” DarkIcon on "Uh-Oh. Awww Shit!" http://darkicon.com/Asylum/topic/uh-oh-awww-shit#post-123 Mon, 27 Feb 2012 22:44:53 +0000 DarkIcon 123@http://darkicon.com/Asylum/ Imagine my shock and concern when I came across THIS little news item: <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-25/brazil-antarctica-base-fire-injures-one-leaves-two-missing.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-25/brazil-antarctica-base-fire-injures-one-leaves-two-missing.html</a> <blockquote> A fire on a Brazilian research facility in Antarctica left one member of the military injured while other two are missing, the country’s navy said today. The Comandante Ferraz Brazilian Antarctic Base was evacuated, according to an e-mailed statement. The fire, which has yet to be contained, was reported at 2 a.m. Brazil time and started in the area where power generators are located, according to the statement. </blockquote> There's no mention of the wreckage of an alien spacecraft being found nearby, but they probably hushed that up. It looks like the scientists at the research station blew the generators before IT could steal them to rebuild its spaceship. I do hope the survivors (and the corpses) have been properly dealt with. And by "properly dealt with", I mean shot, doused with gasoline, burned, burned again, and buried in the ice. And for fuck's sake, NO AUTOPSIES! Who am I kidding... we should probably nuke the whole continent from orbit. It's the only way to be sure. And we should probably take out the bottom half of South America just for good measure. WizardofOz on "[Crusade] A New Breed (part 2)" http://darkicon.com/Asylum/topic/crusade-a-new-breed-part-2#post-130 Thu, 01 Mar 2012 23:30:04 +0000 WizardofOz 130@http://darkicon.com/Asylum/ Travis jerked awake from his fetal position on the floor, his head pounding right along with a pounding at his door. He got up slowly and felt his face … no blood. His head hurt like he’d been beaten but the many cuts he’d received from being repeatedly hit were gone. “Travis,” John’s panicked voice sounded from the other side of the door. “I’ll break it down if you don’t answer!” This time the voice sounded … right. Travis eased himself to his feet, unlocked the door, and pulled it open. John shoved his way in, despite pushing 40 the man was strong and fast. He surveyed the room in a flash and quickly saw what happened then turned to look at Travis for several long moments. It was more than a little unsettling to see him standing there wearing the exact same thing from his drug induced dream, but Travis brushed it off. He’s seen John in the same clothes a million times. The seminary teacher and Pastor didn’t have many clothes. What was very different about John was the strange white … light that surrounded him. Mixed in, floating around, were a few little dots of blackness and a fairly large area of mottled grey that hung around his shoulders like some kind of granite weight. All of it started moving toward him, reaching out, but John moved into the room so quickly that none of it touched him. “I don’t think you actually got much of the drug, but we should probably take you to the hospital just to be sure.” The echo of the dream Pastor John sounded in his head. A warning not to leave the apartment. “I’m okay,” Travis answered. “I just need to clean myself up and this mess.” “You just tried to kill yourself. I’m taking you to the hospital.” Again Travis shook his head. “I know this is going to sound strange, but I feel better.” John’s eyes narrowed, “You just tried to kill yourself only 30 minutes ago, but now you’re … better?” Travis chuckled, “I had this dream where you stormed in here, swearing in ways that would make a sailor blush, you beat the snot out of me and asked me some down right bizarre questions, then hit me again. I know this sounds strange but … I just don’t feel as grief stricken.” John’s eyes narrowed still further. “Then you wouldn’t mind if I stayed here with you tonight. After all, if you’re not going to try and kill yourself...” “Actually, I’d be glad to have you here as long as you don’t mind if I go take a shower and change first.” John motioned for Travis to go ahead. When Travis came out of the shower feeling clean he saw that John had already cleaned up and was cooking something. “Stir Fry,” Travis asked. John nodded, “I got rid of all the booze and pills,” he said calmly. Travis shrugged as John turned to look at him. “You certainly do seem better, but I would be much happier if we went to the hospital.” Travis waved the words off, “I’m fine, really.” John looked at him for a few seconds before reaching for some plates. He dumped a heaping helping of vegetables onto each plate and handed one to Travis. “Water only for the both of us.” Travis nodded and grabbed a couple of water bottles from the fridge and they sat down on the table opposite each other. He noticed that the motes of blackness, and the grey “granite” both tried to reach out to him, but he was too far away across the table. Travis had the uneasy sense that if he mentally reached out to it, it would easily close the distance and he wouldn’t like what happened when it touched him. “I’ve already made arrangements with my wife to stay the night. I’ll take your bed, you get the couch. This isn’t negotiable. If I’m going to have to stay to make sure you didn’t OD or try anything stupid then at least I get to be comfortable.” Travis cooughed and tried to blink away the image that he was slowly trying to convince himself was simply the viocodin, “I’m good with that.” “Glad to hear it, lets pray...” It had to be the fourth time in as many hours that Travis heard John get out of bed. “Go back to bed John. Geez, I’m fine.” “I damn well know you’re fine you dumb motherfucker,” John said, his voice once again all wrong. Travis jumped up into a sitting position to see John impossibly standing over him. “You … you’re a dream.” The “dream” John slapped Travis so hard across the face it knocked him back down onto the couch. “I can still fuck you up though. Some fuckin dream this is huh. You ready to listen you piece of shit?” Travis sat back up and nodded. “Good, consider what you’re going through right now to be like a soldier going through boot camp. The difference is that this isn’t the stupid, fucked up, mamby-pamby, sissyfied shit your military is doing. This is a real fucking boot camp. If I want to hit your ass I will. If I say something, you do it right when I fucking say it. You got what I’m telling you here maggot?” Travis nodded. “Good. I asked you about demons and you said you believe in them. Most of you stupid fucks though think of demons in the sense of evil spirits or something that only indirectly affect people. That sound about right? That about what you believe?” Travis looked at John unsure of what to say. He actually did think of demons as a sort of evil that tried to seduce people into doing wrong but could not themselves actually-- John smacked Travis again, this time harder than the previous. “When I ask a motherfucking question you answer it! Did I just describe what you believe and you better not fucking lie to me either.” Travis nodded. “Yeah, I thought so. You’re a stupid shit. You were born stupid and all you’ve done is get even more stupid as you’ve gotten older.” John turned and paced away. “Demons are real you dumb fuck. Real as I am... even more real in some ways. Some can posses a human, most don’t need to be that fucking weak but they do it anyway for the kicks or some shit. Bottom line, Demons are real flesh and blood. Damn near impossible to kill. When they do choose to posses someone, if you exercise the demon, you haven’t killed it or even banished it. It is simply pushed a good long distance out of the body. Just know that an exercised demon is going to be pissed and want to hunt your sorry worthless ass down. Often they’ll even take back the same poor motherfucker you exercised just to piss you off. You with me?” Travis nodded. John grinned, “There’s a reason I told you to stay here in the apartment. When we last met I touched you. Being touched, in that way, by one of my kind, even in a dream, does certain things. You maggot are officially one of God’s Chosen. A Crusader. That means you’re going to be able to do certain things. For starters, you’re a downright no fucking shit, evil magnet. I was able to shield that this had happened enough to at least stop any of those fuckers from finding you. They’ll know, or at least the more powerful ones will, that a new Crusader has been born, but they won’t know where. If you’d have left this apartment it would have been like putting up a big fucking neon sign saying where you were. Anyway, you’ll also be able to sense things about people, see the auras, that kind of shit. You’ll be able to tell every little nasty thing they’ve ever done. We have allowed your mentor Pastor John to find you because he is a good man … better than you know, and we’re recruiting him to be more than just your mentor as you and I speak exactly because we want him to help you.” “I don’t understand,” John rolled his eyes, “This is a dream you dumb fucking idiot. I’m not the real John. I am simply assuming his form because it’s familiar and did what I hoped it would and that’s knock your sorry fucked up ass out of the depression you were in. Now I’m using it out of convenience.” “Got it,” Travis said. “Only sort of. You see my true form, what I really am would literally burn the eyes out of your tiny little fucking head. Some people’s heads have been known to pop like fucking ballons. My true voice … lets just say the shit a demon will do to you if they ever fucking catch you will be a little love kiss by comparison if I ever spoke to you.” “Wait a minute,” Travis said holding up his hand. “Are you telling me you’re an angel?” “Ding-ding-ding, give this motherfucker a gold star, he isn’t such a stupid shit after all!” “You don’t seem very … angelic.” John regarded Travis oddly, “really, and how would you expect a soldier to act exactly?” Travis shrugged, “I don’t know, I figured you’d be … nicer.” John’s shoulders slumped in obvious disappointment. “No sooner do I think maybe you’re not a dumb motherfucker you have to go and open your mouth and show just how fucking stupid you are. I’m a soldier you idiot. A warrior. I’ve been fighting and killing shit before any ancestor you can recollect was born. Would you be surprised to hear some motherfuckin special forces army jackass swearing?” “No, I guess not.” “Then why the fuck should it be surprising that I might?” Travis shrugged. “Because you’re a dumb, stupid, motherfuckin maggot that’s why. You don’t have the sense God gave dirt! Now shut your fuckin mouth and listen to me. You’ve been given certain … talents. They are Attraction, Discernment, and Affinity. Other things will be given to you as well, such as occassional visits from my smiling fuckin visage along with Pastor John to help you out. Those other things will come to you as needed. Now before I explain your gifts, let me explain something to you. Do not be a brain dead fuckin moron and think that just because you have these gifts that you will be able to automatically defeat any demon you come across. They can kill you. Things that are little more than rats in hell can kill you. There are demons that will turn your fuckin guts inside out if you just look at them. Your talents are meant only to give you a fighting fuckin chance and often only the slimmest of chances at that. If you’re going to survive more than five fuckin seconds after you leave this apartment, you have to be smart!” Travis gulped, not liking what he heard even a little. John glanced down at his watch, “Well, it’s about time this little chat ended. Here’s the upshot of all this. You are being asked to be a warrior yourself. To go out, find, hunt, and kill the evil shit in this world. You don’t have to do this. You do have free will. However keep in mind that if you don’t, the evil shit will find you thanks to the Attraction. You’ll either have to kill or be killed. If you let them come to you, they’ll be able to fight you at a time and place of their choosing and their liking. If you go out and hunt them then maybe you get to pick.” “Wait! I’d like to have some other kind of name for you besides John … especially since you’re not him.” “And I’d like peace on fuckin earth, but I’m not going to get that. Besides, I tell you that you’re going to be a demon hunter and your response is to ask me for my fuckin name? You really are a fuckin idiot--” Travis jerked awake to the real John shaking his shoulder who quickly moved back. “You were starting to scare me a little.” Travis sat up and rubbed his eyes. “Sorry, how’d you sleep?” John shrugged, “Okay … strange dream though.” Travis looked up at John intently and leaned forward, “What if I told you it wasn’t exactly a dream.” John took a step backwards and looked down at Travis in confusion, “What do you mean? You don’t even know what my dream was about.” “I have an idea, but only a vague idea. You were somehow asked to help me correct?” “I was asked to teach you something, yeah. But how did you know?” “It wasn’t really a dream. I’ve been called to a different … ministry.” John took another step back. His face looked decidedly uneasy. “This … isn’t real. Travis, it was just a dream, nothing more.” “Then how did I know what the context was?” “You fell asleep with a healthy dose of viocodin in your system and probably had all kinds of strange dreams most of which you don’t even remember. It’s just a coincidence, that’s all.” “Fine, then humor me, what were you asked to do?” John shook his head and took another step back, this one putting him up against the TV of the small room. He was starting to look like a cornered animal. “John, relax. This really is important.” “Just a dream Travis,” John said obviously trying to convince himself more than Travis. “Maybe we should take you to the hospital.” “What are you so afraid of,” Travis asked John shook his head, “Doesn’t matter. We’re not going to sit here and talk about dreams as if they’re reality.” Travis looked at John … and called to the grey that swirled around his old friend. John was in his characteristic jeans and t-shirt, but his hair was cut short, military short. He was pressed against the wall beside a stack of 50 gallon drums. From the small of his back he pulled a firearm and with a practiced move hit the button and ejected the magazine … it was empty and that meant there was only one round in the chamber left. He swore under his breath and put the pistol back where it was and crept out from his hiding spot and began to quickly but silently move down the makeshift hallway between the drums on either side. He’d only just reached the end when two soldiers, both black men with very dark skin walked around the corner not even a step in front of him. Everyone paused in shock, but it was John that recovered the fastest. He hit the man to the right in the throat. The other started to raise his M16 rifle but John grabbed it with one hand while grabbing his pistol with the other. The man started to back up to regain control of the rifle but that’s exactly what John seemed to be waiting for, he pulled on the rifle and used that to launch himself at the man, the pistol swinging around far faster than the man could react. As fast as it started, both men were down … but one would soon be dead. The scene ended … and just as quickly another began John was wearing a military camoflage uniform along with four other men. One of them gave a command and a third person kicked the door in. Simultaneously, John moved through the open door and saw five men, all of latin decent, grabbing for their weapons. On the table was piles of american cash. John quickly shot two of them as he moved into the room with double taps to the chest. The other three were killed by his team mates. The scene ended … John was once again in a simple jeans and plain white tshirt. He was panting and out of breath and bleeding from multiple shallow cuts. Facing him was another man, tall and blond and muscular with a knife in his hand. “I’ve had fun commrade, but it’s time for you to die now.” The man lunged and John lunged at him, going under the knife he brought his forearm up and at the wrist, knocking the arm harmlessly up and over his shoulder as his right hand went up striking at the base of the nose. The man’s head kicked back and he was dead before he hit the floor.” Travis mentally jerked away and the room came swimming back into view. “John, for the love of God, you never told me you were in the military.” John blinked several times his face showing fear. “I’ve never told you that. No one here knows.” “And you were what … special forces or something?” John swallowed hard and nodded. “That doesn’t explain how you knew.” “It has to do with that ministry that I’ve been called to. John, I really am going to need your help.” “You don’t understand Travis. I swore to God that I would never go back to that life. It was a promise that I made to Him.” “Obviously God has other plans. Plans that put you here, in this room with me today, so that you could help me.” “Look Travis, I don’t know. This is all so … strange. You’re asking me to believe something from a dream as if it’s real. Do you know how crazy that sounds?” “Trust me, I get it. But if you don’t help me, I was told to expect a fast, ugly, painful death at the hands of only God knows what.” “So tell me about this … Crusader thing you supposedly are.” Travis shrugged, “I don’t know much yet. I have been given certain gifts and I only know their names. I was told to expect help from you, but not what kind of help though I have a pretty good idea now. I was told that genuinely evil things … demons … would be able to find me. Would literally be drawn to me like a magnet. Unless I wanted them to kill me, I had to go out and kill them first. That’s about all I know. Understand that this has been told to me by some kind of angelic soldier that in my dreams looks like you but certainly doesn’t talk anything like you.” John nodded, “So you need to learn how to defend yourself.” Travis nodded, “The better I am, the better … I guess.” “I’m going to go get some things. In my dream I was told not to let you leave this apartment and that you’d understand why.” Travis nodded, “I get it.” “I’ll be back as soon as I can and I’m going to bring my wife with me. We’ll want her help too.” AUTHORS NOTE: If you notice the "angel" in this is a bit "gruffy". It's an idea that I got from the idiotic show Supernatural that my older three kids like to watch. Despite the show being stupid, I liked how angels were portrayed. You'll see some of that in this story. However, notice that I'm trying to stay true to the basic concept of what Crusade is. WizardofOz on "[Crusade] A New Breed (part 1)" http://darkicon.com/Asylum/topic/crusade-a-new-breed-part-1#post-129 Thu, 01 Mar 2012 19:32:24 +0000 WizardofOz 129@http://darkicon.com/Asylum/ “Pastor John,” Travis said sobbing into the phone, “I … I can’t live … without her. I just can’t. I’m sorry.” Travis hung up the phone to what he was sure was going to be the beginning of the pastor’s plea to not do anything stupid; tears streaming down his eyes as he contemplated the bottles of viocodin and whiskey that sat on the table in front of him. He took a deep shuddering breath, “I’m coming Lace, I’m coming and we can be together.” He grabbed the viocodin, opened it, and dumped it out on the table, then grabbed a few pills and the bottle of whiskey … and proceeded to swallow the pills with a whiskey chaser. Ten minutes later however and Travis was heaving the undigested pills and copious amounts of whiskey all over Lacey’s favorite dining room rug. Knowing that he couldn’t do even that much right, he gave into the grief, fell onto the floor and curled into the fetal position literally on top of the contents of his stomach just as the door he could have swore he’d locked opened to reveal a very pissed off looking Pastor John wearing his typical jeans and 38th Parallel t-shirt. Travis didn’t care. He laid there sobbing and hoping enough had stayed with him to do the job. “For the love of all that is fucking holy in this world,” Pastor john swore with an obviously rising anger, “will you SHUT THE FUCK UP!” Pastor John never swore, never. Not for any reason. He claimed that not even as a child did he even pretend to swear even in his head. The shock of it jerked Travis out of his grief induced stupor. He jumped up and back into the chair, staring at the pastor. “That got your attention you piece of shit?” Travis continued to stare at the pastor as he approached, something with his voice was … wrong. “Can you even fucking fathom how long I have been trying to break into that thick fucking head of yours and have a simple conversation?” The pastor now towered over him, “But noooo … you have to go on a damnable drinking binge the likes of which would kill a fucking russian!” Pastor John looked at Travis shaking with rage and then smacked the bible college junior so hard it sent him tumbling from his chair. Travis was so shocked that he just looked up at the pastor from the floor, his hand on his jaw. “John! What’s gotten into you?” John’s only answer was a tennis shoe to the ribs, and then another, and another … When John came to he was sitting in the chair again, face down on his dining room table, and he hurt everywhere. He could feel blood still trickling from his nose. “So the stupid fuck finally wakes up. Do you think you can spare a second of you damnable whining and fucking moaning to spare me a fucking second? Or do I need to kick your fucking face in some more?” “John, I don’t understan--” John brought his hand down on the table with a smack that cut off anything further and caused Travis to jerk backward in reflexive fear of being hit. “I’m going to ask you questions, which you will answer without a single tear or a single whimper. If I get either from you I swear to God above that I will resume my earlier beating. Do you understand?” The sense of wrong with the Pastor was almost like a physical blow, instead of answering Travis said, “John, what the he--” John sprang over the table at Travis. Again Travis jerked backward, this time so hard that his chair fell backward. Before he’d even hit the ground, John was on him, fists pounding on him seemingly from all directions at once … This time when Travis woke up he was tied to the chair and gagged and instead of sitting across the table, sat in the chair next to him. “I’m going to ask you questions,” John said with contempt dripping from his voice, “you will answer them without a single tear or whimper. If I get either from you, I swear to God above that I will resume my earlier beatings. I will also resume my earlier beatings if you do anything except listen to what the fuck I have to say or answer a direct question. Did I get through your thick fucking skull this time?” Travis looked at John and for the second time in his life experienced a fear that went down to his soul. An icy grip that threatened to cause his bladder to let go. Again John smacked the table. “Do you fucking understand?” Travis jerked his head up and down. “Good,” John said getting up and removing the gag. “How did Lacey Cunningham die?” Travis looked at John unable to contain the flood of utter confusion. “You’re the one that found her car. You know how she died. John, what--” John slammed his fist down onto the table causing Travis to clamp his mouth shut. “My next question is a yes or no so just nod or shake your head. You believe she died in a car crash correct?” Travis nodded his head, the combination of fear and confusion not allowing any room for grief over the discussion of his dead fiance. “What would you think if I told you that she didn’t die from a car crash or from the subsequent fire that engulfed her car?” Travis narrowed his eyes and shrugged his shoulders. “Do you believe in God Travis?” “I’m going to school here at Andrews for a reason John. You know that. I don’t--” Again Travis’ words were silenced with a fist slamming down onto the table. “I can’t even tell you the number of worthless motherfuckers, and I mean literal motherfuckers I know wearing some kind of religious vestments that don’t believe. Now answer my fucking question Travis. Do you believe in God or not?” “Of course I do.” “And what about angels. Believe in them?” “Of course.” “How about demons, devils, or Satan. Do you believe in them?” Again fear drove like a knife into Travis, this time it successfully penetrated his bowels. “Are you pissing yourself? Son of a fucking bitch,” John jumped out of his chair and stormed over to the small living area clenching his nose. “You really are a worthless motherfucker. I can’t stand that fucking smell and I’m running out of time. Damn you people, I have more important fucking things to be doing right now!” “John, what’s going on?” John spun around and glared at Travis. “You want to know what’s going on, I’ll you you pice of human filth. You’ve been selected. Those higher up the chain than me decided in their infinitely fucked up and so-called wisdom that you should be made a Crusader, one of God’s own chosen. You a fucking warrior for God. Answer me this you spinless shitball, how is it that someone that can’t even control his bladder is supposed to be some kind of warrior?” The following silence and expectant stare from John told Travis that there had better be some kind of answer. “I … don’t know?” “I don’t fucking know either! How in the name of all that’s holy am I supposed to turn your piece of shit ass into a warrior!” “What are you talking about!” John glanced down at his watch, “Fuck!” John glared at Travis then stormed over to him, grabbed him by the hair, and yanked his head back. John leaned down and stared into Travis’ eyes. “You listen to me, and you listen to me good. You are going to keep your worthless hide in this apartment. You will not go anywhere for any reason. If there’s a fire you’d damn well better burn with it. If you get hungry eat what you have here. You eat, you shit, you fucking better shower, you put on some clean fucking clothes, and when you get tired you go to bed. Under not fucking circumstances what so fucking ever do you walk out the front door. Do you understand me?” Travis nodded his head as best he could. John gave a malicious smile … and hit him again. WizardofOz on "Getting the forum moving again (how we can do it easily)" http://darkicon.com/Asylum/topic/getting-the-forum-moving-again-how-we-can-do-it-easily#post-87 Sun, 19 Feb 2012 19:47:21 +0000 WizardofOz 87@http://darkicon.com/Asylum/ Obviously I haven't been back here to DI in quite a while, but I noticed that there was some effort 5 and 6 months ago to get the forum going again ... and it's died off unfortunately. That's because if you do things the pre-year-2000 way and try to remember to check back with the forum ... you won't remember. Instead, consider grabbing "RSS feed" and have that emailed to you. Feedburner can get that done for you quite easily. DI ... you may want to put the RSS feed for the forum into feedburner. They'll give you an easy bit of code you can slap onto the forum so that people can just put in their email addy, hit the submit button, and every single new post they'll be told about. No more needing to remember to check. When something new happens, you'll be told in an email. That should go quite a long ways to getting things going again. I'm also going to put this into the suggestion box also. WizardofOz on "An idea to make it easy to get the forum moving again" http://darkicon.com/Asylum/topic/an-idea-to-make-it-easy-to-get-the-forum-moving-again#post-88 Sun, 19 Feb 2012 19:47:59 +0000 WizardofOz 88@http://darkicon.com/Asylum/ DI ... you may want to put the RSS feed for the forum into feedburner. They'll give you an easy bit of code you can slap onto the forum so that people can just put in their email addy, hit the submit button, and every single new post they'll be told about. No more needing to remember to check. When something new happens, you'll be told in an email. That should go quite a long ways to getting things going again. Caber on "Feeding Time" http://darkicon.com/Asylum/topic/feeding-time#post-45 Tue, 27 Sep 2011 14:03:02 +0000 Caber 45@http://darkicon.com/Asylum/ Guess I will Christian this forum. This is something I've had sitting on my hard drive. A small piece of a larger plan. -- One thing Marthas could never accustom his senses to was the foul air found within the confines of most stables. The stench of animals and their excretions sent him for the door in a hurry. Unfortunately the job of guarding his employer’s trade wagon put him in contact with stables on an almost daily basis. He reached the outside air and took in a deep breath hoping to expel the lingering stench that filled his lungs. Hasting emerged from the stables shortly after, a wide smile playing on his face. He was the wagon driver and he was a few years older than Marthas. From their frequent conversations, Marthas had found out the man was married, though it wasn’t an overly happy union. Hasting was also a man who loved his drink, claimed it helped him forget, but at the rate he drank, he should have forgotten everything years ago. “This is the best part of the day.” Hasting’s smile never left his face. “The work is done and the inn is open.” Without bothering for a reply, he plunged down the street towards the inn they had spotted during the ride through town. Marthas took one last glance at the stables. One of the hands was already locking the doors. They had already dropped off the cargo, but he never felt safe leaving the wagon in the hands of local stable hands. Of course the alternative was to remain in the stables to watch it, which meant enduring the smell of the place for an entire night. No, he’d take his chances that the wagon would be there come morning. He took off after Hastings and the two soon found themselves at the inn. Before entering, Marthas took a quick look around. Nothing struck him as out of the ordinary, but an older woman, with grey streaks in her dark hair, was giving the two of them a strange look. There was something to her slight grin that did not sit well with him. He put a re-assuring hand on the grip of his weapon and turned to enter the inn. He was not worried about being robbed, the gold they secured from the sale of their goods would be collected in the morning, but a bad feeling began to build inside him. His instincts did not always prove right, but one could never be too cautious when in a strange town. They found an empty table and soon were enjoying local brewed ale. They ordered food and drank while they waited for it. “Piss.” Hasting said with a frown. “Excuse me?” “My wife says all ale tastes like animal piss.” Hastings emptied his first glass and motioned the barmaid for another. “I always wondered how she knew what animal piss tasted like.” Oh great, Hasting was going to complain about his wife the entire evening. The nearer they drew to the end of another delivery, the more vocal the man’s distaste for his wife became. And once he became intoxicated…Gods in Darvess… “Stupid overweight frigid cow…” Hasting was growing impatient at the time it was taking the waitress to deliver his next drink. Did he mean his wife or the barmaid? He never met the man’s wife, but the bar maid wasn’t that fat…well, nothing a few drinks couldn’t fix. Marthas sighed, it wasn’t even dark outside, it was far too early in the evening to have to listen to Hasting’s rants. The barmaid came over with another ale and Hasting’s smile returned. He seemed to settle down some as he dove into his second glass. The door opened and Marthas glanced over, he had a habit of checking out newcomers to the room he was in. This time he was in for a shock; it was someone familiar to him. Jannus McCarson, the prettiest girl in Brooksville. What could she possibly be doing here? She looked around the room and her eyes locked on him. A smile formed on her face as she made her way over. “Marthas! Am I glad to run into someone I know!” “Hello Jannus.” He motioned to an empty chair. “Have a seat.” She sat down and after smiling to Hasting she turned her attention back to Marthas. “So what brings you here?” “My father has business in these parts and he had to take care of a few problems. I felt like traveling with him, sometimes Brooksville can be so boring…” Marthas nodded in agreement. “Where is Mr. McCarson?” Her father was wealthy, but he was a fair man, Marthas had much respect for him. When a terrible drought had hit the town a few years back, Mr. McCarson delved into his personal finances to help everyone out and never asked for any of it back. “He retired early; the long trip has worn him out.” “A long trip can do that…” Traveling could be a chore, but it could also be exciting and visiting new places was never dull. “Shame, I would have liked to have said hello.” “Perhaps you’ll run into him in the morning.” “Maybe.” Hasting put his glass down and stretched his arms before standing. “I have had enough for tonight.” He winked at Marthas. “I’ll see you in the morning.” He walked out of the inn, no doubt heading for another. The man could complain, but he had the forthwith of thought to excuse himself so Marthas could deal with his newfound female companion without interruption. They enjoyed a few drinks and Marthas regaled her with his tales of life on the road. She did not speak much and seemed hesitant to mention any of her recent exploits. This seemed rather strange to him for she was usually a talkative person. He attributed it to her strange surroundings. As the night wore on it was obvious she was growing tired as she began to yawn frequently. She made no mention of it, so he realized he should broach the subject. “It is late and I should get some sleep, I do have an early morning.” She looked disappointed. “Would you mind escorting me to where I am staying? I have a place at an inn a few blocks away.” “Of course.” He stood up and after throwing some coins on the table to cover the tip; he helped her to her feet and led her out of the inn. It did not take them long to reach the place she was staying and she invited him to see her to her room. He obliged with little hesitation. When they made it to her door, she suddenly jumped into his arms and kissed him on the mouth. He was somewhat taken aback by her aggressive demeanor, back home she shied away from any sort of physical contact. He wasn’t going to complain however; this was a moment he long dreamt about. “Would you like to come inside?” She said after finally breaking away from the kiss. “Sure…” He was able to say after the moment sunk in. She led him into the room and closed the door. With a wide smile on her face she unfastened her blouse and let it drop to the floor. Her exposed breasts were a sight to behold; he could not wait until he was fondling them. She loosened her skirt and it fluttered to the floor. She had sensational legs and as his eyes roamed upwards, his brain locked as he was witness to something quite unnatural. Did this woman really have a… He couldn’t finish the thought as she came in and struck him hard in the jaw. The force sent him backwards and he collapsed in a heap. Despite her diminutive size it felt like he had been kicked by a mule. Everything began to grow blurry as he tried unsuccessfully to stand. She stood over him, something quite unmentionable dangling between her legs. Just moments ago she was exploring his mouth with her tongue…he felt nauseous. Her face had changed; it was no longer that of Jannus. He tried to place it and after a moment it came to him, she was the woman who had been watching him outside the inn. He could not understand what was going on. “Your intelligence is limited…but I must have something to sustain myself.” She leaned down and placed her hands on his shoulders pinning him to the floor. He struggled with all his might, but he was unable to break free. She…he…whatever it was…it possessed incredible strength. “Such a primitive species…” She smiled. “I am going to have such fun. Oh, if only you saw the look on the men who freed me. They thought they had stumbled onto a long forgotten treasure, instead they found me.” She laughed. “I am still weak…and this town provides little sustenance. Your wagon will take me to a greater city, with powerful people…power I will consume…” “What…are…you?” Her smile elongated as her mouth twisted into an impossibly large shape. Her jaws opened exposing a row of sharp teeth. She lowered her face and the mouth continued to expand until it was nearly as large as Marthas’ head. The last thing he saw was darkness as she slurped his entire head inside her mouth. There was a loud snap and then nothing. -- Hasting drummed his fingers on the side of the wagon. He checked the reigns on the horse for the fifth time. He sighed and shook his head when he saw someone come around the side of the stables. “What took you so long?” A sly smile was Marthas only reply. Hasting returned his grin. “You better tell me how last night went.” “Oh believe me; I plan to tell you all about it.” Caber on "Fellow Travelers." http://darkicon.com/Asylum/topic/fellow-travelers#post-43 Tue, 27 Sep 2011 13:56:42 +0000 Caber 43@http://darkicon.com/Asylum/ Just letting you know the link to Rapina's site no longer exists. *moment of silence* Might want to update that. nate on "The Forgotten" http://darkicon.com/Asylum/topic/the-forgotten#post-39 Thu, 22 Sep 2011 10:40:24 +0000 nate 39@http://darkicon.com/Asylum/ I'm re-reading this story, having stitched it all together into a single file. 170 pages of good writing! Anyway, I just got to this part and was wondering if this was a nod to Blazing Saddles? If not intended as such, it could've been. "MOVE AND THE FAT MAN GETS IT!" said the stranger. "NO! NO, NOT THE FAT MAN!!" Derris squealed. "NOT THE FAT MAN, PLEASE NOT THE FAT MAN!" wickofacandle21 on "Viewing all pages of COTA" http://darkicon.com/Asylum/topic/viewing-all-pages-of-cota#post-35 Sun, 11 Sep 2011 06:03:21 +0000 wickofacandle21 35@http://darkicon.com/Asylum/ DI, how do I see all pages of COTA in the same window? I'm gonna download the entire document to my ipod. Im going on a long trip and i need a good read... Thanks wickofacandle21 on "More on October Falls" http://darkicon.com/Asylum/topic/more-on-october-falls#post-24 Tue, 30 Aug 2011 07:07:46 +0000 wickofacandle21 24@http://darkicon.com/Asylum/ DI, would you consider writing about October Falls again? I really love that series. Especially the Inquisitors. nicoleshanlee on "Unspeakable horrors from the depths of time" http://darkicon.com/Asylum/topic/unspeakable-horrors-from-the-depths-of-time#post-33 Fri, 09 Sep 2011 01:46:15 +0000 nicoleshanlee 33@http://darkicon.com/Asylum/ Unspeakable horrors from the depths of time Low temperature night, feeling the pressure of the wind push through my body, experience them chills which I thought was normal. Then it came to me. I think back the most disturbing moment of my existence, yet. A child at the age of 3 constantly desired to frolic while having supper. She was with her mother in their car parked in front of their house. Mom was close, with her a meal for her young. Child with an innocent mind witnessed distressing persona of a supernatural brute. The child was weeping because the toy she adored, she cannot find. Not long after that a human form appeared at their front door. The child saw it from the outside not knowing it was out of the ordinary, which was why the child remained completely discreet about it. Mother didn’t seem to notice, which was pretty odd. The human form appeared to be skinned, muscles are seen vividly, no hair, eyebrow or eyelash. It had no apparent clothing on it and seemed to be at wait for someone. The child was excessively untested to have knowledge about what her eyes saw. However she had it in her that it was paranormal, but unsure what she’ll tell. Unspeakable I presume. As I drop a line about this experience in the same house from 4,680 days, 112,320 hours and 3, 369,600 seconds ago. I now feel scared and panic struck me. Although I am sure that I will not reckon what came before me back then, I don’t have the innocent mind “they” will take advantage of anymore. What I realized is that things are not always what they seem, there is more to what meets the eye deceased souls are walking everywhere. How sure are you who you came in contact with in malls or ANYWHERE are still alive? Chill, they were just like us once, only dead. We have to respect them like we respect our neighbors because we might not like it when they get completely messy with us. DarkIcon on "Lookout Point" http://darkicon.com/Asylum/topic/lookout-point#post-26 Mon, 05 Sep 2011 13:35:38 +0000 DarkIcon 26@http://darkicon.com/Asylum/ Yeah, we was out there. We was parked on the ridge; lights off; clothes same. "Did you hear something?" she asked. "Nope," I replied. But I thought about it, and a few seconds later we was on the road back to town. Beds are a lot more comfortable, and besides, mama didn't raise no fools. epm on "Ghosts" http://darkicon.com/Asylum/topic/ghosts#post-30 Wed, 07 Sep 2011 08:48:13 +0000 epm 30@http://darkicon.com/Asylum/ Diary Introduction I am copying this trying to be faithful to the original, but when I couldn’t resist I added comments under [ ]. It is interesting to translate something that I wrote when I was 16 (13 years ago), sometimes it is as if the boy that wrote this was another person. This ghost history listed here was not the first one in my life, it was just the first time that I realised what was happening and that it was not my imagination. Vitória is the capital city of the state of Espirito Santo, in Brasil, the things listed here happened 20 Km from Vitória ( 1 mile is about 1.5 Km) in a small district where part of the medium class of the city use to spend their vacations, the place was by that time a bit isolated (the city grew latter) and since it was out of the regular vacation time it was a bit deserted also. Well, let that 16 years old boy talk: Date: 31/06/89, Vitória. Experiment I and a friend were alone in a house in Manguinhos playing pool, I started to talk about my theories (about occultism). Since I explain badly and must admit that what I write seems absurd for who doesn’t understand [here I must add, most of it was at least weird, sanity was never one of mystrengths] my friend started to laugh and, weirdly, to “cry” [tears where getting out of his eyes, but NOT due to the laughing], his eyes started to get red. He got unbalanced, obviously, and decided to test my theories giving me 3 chances to make each of three balls come into a pocket ( 3 chances for each ball), I didn’t take it seriously, didn’t try it well and didn’t make it [weird that I thought that I could do it if I tried hard], but his eyes started to drop more tears . Than he decided to take things more seriously, took one ball of billiard and started to try to make it move, I thought, at first, that he was making a joke on me [a clear signal that I was not that stupid, I already could mistrust people sometimes] and only when I saw that he was really putting “energy” on the ball is that I started to contribute with some of my “energy” in the experiment, it was enough, he started to feel the presence of a ghost [ here I will make a difference between ghost and spirit, a difference that I didn’t make in the original] (I had talked to him about thepossibility of this happening) I started to feel the “energy” around us [… forget it, even after so many ghosts I still can’t describe the sensation], the billiard ball was hot due to the amount of “energy” put on it (to feel this kind of heat put your hand over the ball, without touching it) I talked to my friend about the history (real?) of this ghost after he divined that the spirit came from a curve in the beach and after he gave me all informations about the ghost’s physical shape and age [the amazing here is that we were both seeing the same thing] (these informations were latter checked to be true), apparently it was the ghost of a drowned man who died 1 Km from that house and whose body was taken by the sea to that curve of the beach. I took the bible, opened in a random page and only sentences speaking about curses to the lazy and bad appeared. I told my friend that it was an unquiet and damned soul that was trying since a long time to talk to me ( I said only the truth) [weird, I don’t recall the first attempts ofcommunication of this particular soul] and my friend wanted, perhaps by influence of the ghost, to give his body to him [ I think that this friend ofmine was being tempted much before we felt the presence of the ghost]. [next: possessed? How do you survive in an isolated house with a possessed man as company? ] Caber on "Apollo 18" http://darkicon.com/Asylum/topic/apollo-18#post-27 Tue, 06 Sep 2011 14:30:54 +0000 Caber 27@http://darkicon.com/Asylum/ Anyone else get an "In Deed" vibe from watching the trailer? Or is it just me?