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124. All at Sea
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2021-09-13 17:13:32Related chapters
How to Avoid Death on a Daily Basis 125. A Drop in the Ocean
Jenny’s hand slipped out of mine as the wind sent everyone spinning.There was some screaming, which you might expect, but not from me, which you might not. I was too busy scanning the ocean for signs of my other self.I wasn’t sure what form of time travel this was, but possibly the me that saw us fall was down there watching. Or this could be a completely separate reality.What would happen if we met up? Would the universe implode?Or did the fact we didn’t meet last time mean we wouldn’t meet this time either?Time travel is nothing but a big headache if you try to figure it out from a scientific point of view. This, however, was a world where magic existed. That didn’t make it any easier to understand.In any case, I was unable to see a tiny head bobbing in the water. Within a few seconds I was unable to see much of anything. The wind had picked up and the air had turned into a blurred wall that couldn’t be seen past.We were flung i
Last Updated : 2021-09-13How to Avoid Death on a Daily Basis 126. One Up
In a game, you die, you res, you go again. Whether you go all the way back to the beginning or respawn at a save point, it’s a huge advantage to know what’s coming and to get several chances at beating it.If real life were like that, we would probably have a very different view of death.But consider if you were the character in the game. Not some pixels, actually you, a living person. Every time you died, you would come back, but you’d have to experience death over and over again.Would you become used to it? Treat it as no big deal?I had experienced death once. Not a near-death experience, an actual-death experience. It didn’t matter to me how advantageous it might be to get killed, I had no intention of experiencing that despair and desolation again.The axe the boy had dropped lay at my feet. I bent down and picked it up.“Listen to me,” I said to the woman sitting on the floor, “I’m going to ask you some questions and I want you to answe
Last Updated : 2021-09-13How to Avoid Death on a Daily Basis 127. Jester of your Dreams
Uncle Stan tasted delicious. Terry didn’t look too happy as we scarfed down the meat, even though we did share it with her and the boys. Not my idea — the girls had undergone some kind of reverse Stockholm Syndrome.They served our prisoners first, made sure the children got the best cuts and generally undermined any attempt to intimidate the captives.You will answer my questions or suffer my wrath. More gravy?“That was supposed to last us for the rest of the month,” said Terry as she munched through a large mouthful of succulent, albeit stringy goat.“Where do you get your food from?” asked Maurice as he picked his plate clean. “I didn’t see any other animals. Is there a town nearby?”“Yes.” She stared at the white bone which was all that was left of her Uncle. “It’s about an hour’s walk from here. But we don’t buy our food from there. Uncle Stan was the last of our goats. He was the boys’ favourite.” She looked over at her boys stuffing their face
Last Updated : 2021-09-13How to Avoid Death on a Daily Basis 128. Lay of the Land
“What were you dreaming about?” Jenny asked me. Her mocking grin slipped aside to reveal a degree of concern. “It didn’t sound very pleasant.”I shook my head to clear it, but still felt quite groggy. I rolled off the bed and went over to the window. Outside, the sky was a light pink. Morning?“No, it wasn’t pleasant,” I said. “Did I say anything in my sleep?”She shook her head. “You just screamed and then grabbed hold of my tit like you were trying to stop yourself falling off the world.” She rubbed her breast again.“Sorry.” Squeezing her breast had been comforting, but my dream-self forgot to consider there might be someone on the other end of my groping hand. “The Jester spoke to me. Offered me whatever I wanted if I came to the palace to serve the Masters. It was a tempting offer, you know, if it hadn’t involved being eaten by demons.”I wiped the side of my face which was sticky with dried drool. When you sleep with someone, they get to see you
Last Updated : 2021-09-13How to Avoid Death on a Daily Basis 129. Death from Above
The box flying towards us was very high and bobbed through the air as the wings flapped up and down.“What is it?” I asked Loran.He shook his head sorrowfully. “A palace transport. They usually send them out to gather the summoned. It is considered a great honour to be sent for in such a manner.”“Should we make a run for it?” asked Maurice. “If it’s just a big box, maybe we can give it the slip.”I wasn’t sure there was much chance of that. The surrounding area was mostly flat grassland. There wasn’t really any cover and we wouldn’t be moving very fast.I hooded my eyes with a hand and tried to figure how it worked. Perhaps it was being carried by a large bird we couldn’t see because of the angle.“There’s got to be some troops or something inside, right?” I said.“Most likely the Palace Guard,” said Loran. “ They are vicious beasts with low intelligence and large teeth. I wouldn’t recommend fighting them.”“What should we do?”
Last Updated : 2021-09-13How to Avoid Death on a Daily Basis 130. Head in the Clouds
“Keep going,” I said to Maurice who had the controller. “They don’t have gun turrets or missiles to shoot us down. Probably.”The four boxes flying towards us looked the same as ours — red and blue with large wings. And ours didn’t have any weapons attached, so it seemed reasonable to assume theirs didn’t either.They were still a fair way off, so we had plenty of time to work ourselves up into our preferred mindset of panic, self-incrimination and rampant bewilderment.“Maybe they won’t see us,” Flossie suggested. Sure, because we were cunningly disguised as a giant box with wings.Maurice’s fingers worked the knobs constantly correcting and adjusting. The wings flapped in smooth strokes, hardly causing any jarring. I’ve had tube rides that were rockier.“Bibler did say he stole this from them,” said Maurice, “so we might look like one of their transports going about official business. It’s not like they have radios to check.”It would be conv
Last Updated : 2021-09-13How to Avoid Death on a Daily Basis 131. Sorcerers Vs Warlocks
“Aren’t sorcerers and warlocks the same thing?” I said. “They both do magic, right?”“To some extent,” said Bibler. “It’s how they do it that separates them. But I am a mere amateur when it comes to these matters. I just fiddle with knobs.” He waved the box in his hands at me. “There are other people who can explain the intricacies of the dark arts far better than I.”“Like this guy from our world?” asked Maurice. “What’s his name?”“We call him First,” said Bibler, “because he always acts before anyone else — it’s very impressive. As for his real name, I should probably leave that to him. He’s very sensitive about such matters. Doesn’t like people talking behind his back. And always seems to know when you’ve been doing it. The power of a warlock.” He rolled his eyes dramatically.It was all very mysterious. And possibly a bunch of lies.“Shall we go?” said Bibler, like we were the best of friends. Mind you, he did have the only ride in town (or just
Last Updated : 2021-09-13How to Avoid Death on a Daily Basis 132. Time of Your Life
The assassin from the skies (or some rafter in the dingy ceiling) appeared to be a young man, small and wiry, and now dead. He lay in a crumpled heap at the feet of a number of very surprised guards.“What’s the point of killing someone when he’ll just come back to life?” Jenny asked in a hushed voice.I shrugged. “I know. Kind of defeats the whole concept of assassination, so why was he even bothering in the first place? Mind you, we could just ask him when he comes back to life.”Claire unfolded her wad of papers and wrote something down. She tugged on Bibler’s sleeve. “Doesn’t the fact General Dorma was targeted mean the Masters know he’s working against them?”Bibler’s attention, like the rest of the tavern, was on the body on the floor. Even the men standing around it were transfixed by its sudden appearance from above. Bibler slowly rotated his head away from the scene. “I don’t think this has anything to do with the Masters. This establishment is a br
Last Updated : 2021-09-13
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How to Avoid Death on a Daily Basis 244. Don’t Forget to Breathe
Claire stabbed me. She didn’t know I was in here, but would that have made a difference?The moment the blade entered my chest, I felt a rush of cold go through me like smoke through a keyhole. Everything began shaking. I was falling apart.“What are yo’ doing?” screamed Flossie.“It’s not him,” said Maurice. “Colin’s safe. This is just his body. We have to stop them now, or we’ll never get another chance.”It had never been a great body, but ‘just his body’ seemed a little harsh.Was this part of some big plan? Maurice had always been good at seeing patterns and drawing conclusions. He wasn’t always right, but he was starting to have faith in himself. They all were. Dangerous times.If you joined up the dots and they formed a picture, it would make sense to assume that’s the picture you were meant to find. Maurice had decided this was the picture he had seen. Kill Peter, kill Wesley. Leave no one powerful enough to threaten the rest of us.
How to Avoid Death on a Daily Basis 243. The Older Woman
By this point, I considered darkness to be an old friend. Considering how my friends had been treating me of late, my buddy darkness was probably hiding monsters that would eat my face.The voice I’d heard had sounded feminine, although I wasn’t about to assume gender. These days, that sort of thinking can get you in all sorts of trouble. If it was a woman, my track record with females in dark places wasn’t good, but I wasn’t about to generalise about that either.Yes, women had treated me poorly, often trying to kill me, torture me and nag me to death. I didn’t hold a grudge. Women aren’t all the same. I never think, Oh, yes, she’s just like all the others. They’re all individuals. They each have their own preferred method for ruining your life. Some of them even do it by ignoring you. They’re my favourite.I listened for any follow-up threats. There were always follow-up threats. Everyone had too much fun arranging my demise to not announce their plans.No
How to Avoid Death on a Daily Basis 242. Further Beyond
It wasn’t like Claire suddenly transforming was a bad thing. When the Fire Nation attacks, you want someone to change into their Avatar state. She was more Korra than Aang, but who knew what she was capable of now?I suddenly felt a sense of loss at not having Maurice around to swap pop culture analogies with. It’s all very well having people standing beside you in times of trouble, but it leaves an unsatisfactory feeling when they don’t understand your references.We had a giant Elf with a handful of twats coming at us, so Claire going blue-eyes white dragon was a good thing, even if she had no idea what a blue-eyes white dragon was. Whatever had been behind the wall in the crypt, it had presumably exited via Claire and taken up residence.Normally, that would be a cause for concern. How often has the thing bricked up inside a church been a chill dude who got trapped by accident? No, it was always some abused child whose vengeful spirit was now going to wreak havo
How to Avoid Death on a Daily Basis 241. Sister of No Mercy
“But why?” asked Claire, her hands shaking by her side.Maurice had a ferocious grin on his face, the kind only severe embarrassment can produce. Despite any reasons and justifications he might have, when you get caught doing something you know you shouldn’t do — because all the Pixar movies you’ve ever seen have clearly identified it for you — there’s no way to stop your body from producing all the ‘oh fuck’ hormones it contains, and sending them to your face.“You went inside my mind and took my memories from me.” This was what Claire was really upset about. Not that Maurice had betrayed us and aligned himself with the enemy, but that he had crossed her personal boundaries.“It wasn’t like that,” whispered Maurice. He was keeping his words quiet as though they would hurt less that way, but they filled the silent crypt we were standing in. “I did what I thought was best.”“Best?! You thought lying to me was best?” The surprise of it was wearing off now, and
How to Avoid Death on a Daily Basis 240. Cockblocula
It might have seemed a bit risky to call out Joshaya. He was the person I’d been trying to avoid, after all. If him catching up with me unravelled Maurice’s power, meeting him could kill me. But that was also why it was safe to do so.If this version of Arthur was really Joshaya, then I’d already been in his presence, even told him I was dead, and was still alive.If I was wrong, it wouldn’t change anything, and if I was right, I should already be dead. Unless there was more to this whole being dead business than first appeared.I didn’t need to understand exactly how all this mumbo jumbo worked to realise whoever was holding death over my head as a threat, was also making sure I didn’t die.Not to blow my own horn (every boy’s dream), but I was important enough to keep alive. They needed me. Which gave me some leverage. Until I became so irritating that they gave up on their plans and killed me anyway.Joshaya rose to a vertical position like some un
How to Avoid Death on a Daily Basis 239. Planning for the Future
We headed out of the temple with two of our members in wheelbarrows. Normally this would require some explaining. People don’t just push around unconscious bodies in gardening equipment, unless it’s a stag do that’s going very well.In this case, however, we were aided by the presence of druids, the local religious weirdos who everyone did their best to ignore.Coupled with the fact we were coming out of the temple everyone believed could do no wrong (never fails to amaze me how ready the faithful are to confuse turn the other cheek with turn a blind eye) and they assumed we must have had a good reason to use this particular form of public transportation.The crowds in the square simply parted for us as they went about their business. My own thoughts were preoccupied with the strong suspicion that Arthur, the one in the crypt, was another manifestation of Joshaya. The roleplaying was of a very high standard, and the cosmetic touches were really well done, but there
How to Avoid Death on a Daily Basis 238. Lead Me Not into Temptation
“Destroy? You mean as in kill? You want to kill Peter.” The voice, for all its unsettling menace — hard to come across as anything else when you’re emanating from a stone coffin — had a tinge of genuine shock to it. He was horrified by the prospect of what I’d suggested. “Oh, I couldn’t do that. Absolutely not.”Disappointing.“You don’t control dead people, then? You aren’t a necromancer?”“I told you, I’m a vivimancer.”“I’m sorry, I’ve never heard of that before. What does it mean?”“It means I can heal, I can prolong life. Other people’s and my own. It’s the reason I’m in here. My body was starved of food and air, but my life force abides.”“You aren’t dead?”“I am and I am not.”“And Peter put you here, but you still don’t want to get him back?”“Not by robbing him of life. I mean, I wouldn’t like it if someone did that to me, so why would I do it to someone else?”Someone had done it to him. I didn’t point this
How to Avoid Death on a Daily Basis 237. Hold the Moan
There were four lights in all. Three smaller one, and the big one that seemed to do all the talking. The red balls hanging in the air suggested eyes, but not in a Sauron ‘I see everything’ kind of way, more a HAL ‘Hello, Dave’ kind of way. A harmonised version of Daisy, Daisy could break out at any moment.There’s a rumour, strongly denied, that HAL, in the movie 2001, was meant to represent the firm IBM. If you take a letter away from each of the letters in I-B-M you get H-A-L.But it was never the hardware that was going to be the problem for the future of mankind. If you made the same kind of movie today, the insane AI watching your every move would be something more like Facebook, but you’d face the same problem. You couldn’t use the name without getting sued. You’d have to take a letter away from each of its initials to make up a completely fictitious evil company. FB would become... Oh, wait.“You have returned to set us free,” said the big light. There was a
How to Avoid Death on a Daily Basis 236. Freedom for All
Jenny was not happy. She was the sort of person who prided herself on not being a nag. She presented herself as a supportive partner willing to back me up in whatever retarded idea I came up with. She’d tell me it was retarded, but that wouldn’t stop her having my back.Which is cool. People should only tell you not to do something if they have a better option. One they know works due to experience and wisdom, not because they think it will help them whore karma on Reddit.Under those conditions, hardly anyone would get to tell anyone else what to do. People would make mistakes, of course, but they would be valuable mistakes that would help the person grow and improve.This time, however, Jenny was not in the mood to stand by and allow me to go skipping off into the jaws of danger. Not without her mooring line firmly attached.“If he disconnects himself from me,” said Jenny, “won’t he die? I thought I was the only thing keeping him alive.”“Yes. Techn
