travu2
The Fly
I was originally going to post this in U2girl's thread about signatures. It was going to be my signature, but I went off on a tangent (again) and decided to post it here. It is very very (VERY) rough.
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He engaged the letter jets, preparing to drop his tiny round shadow onto the alien landscape for the first time. The small bubble slowly emerged from the side of the large square craft, and glided silently out over those shifting blue meadows and feathered white trees lazily waving in the thin atmosphere. Several times, as he sat there in the confines of his climate-controlled space, scrolling through his array of optical sensors, he thought he saw little faces here and there in the uniform vegetation far below, like poisonous beetles boldly advertising their toxicity; every time he advanced on their apparent position, no matter how stealthy, they had disappeared.. dissolved into the hazy blue.
Some evenings he would hear a low rumbling, and after switching his cockpit to heat sensing mode, was able to witness a distant valley expelling its deadly gas; nothing had ever scared him as much as watching those brooding thermals bloom.
He passed under delicate archways of solemn gray, sometimes pausing to hover beside vast white cliffs where he could use his black lasers to carve out valuable samples for later testing. Through every habitat he passed, taking detailed notes, carefully but efficiently collecting pieces of that cubist pixosphere.
At the end of his expedition, he packed all of the samples away into the proper storage compartments and readied himself for lift-off. As he manned the controls of his giant square and pulled away from that placid surface, he took one last look back.. and noticed a trail of darker blue etched there in the atmosphere. It ended at the landing site, where he had been preparing for launch only minutes ago. It suddenly dawned on him that this was the winding path he had taken in his scouting bubble over the last several days. As he climbed higher, he thought he could begin to see the shapes of letters imposed over the contours of the landscape. A familiar curve here and.. yes! He could almost make out entire words now. Now, after days of methodical exploration, after beginning his final ascent, he had finally discovered the greatest mystery this planet had to offer, and it was a message to himself. All of the analyzing.. all of those nights crying himself to sleep.. if he had only taken the time...
This last thought was cut short as the craft slammed into the planet's orbiting shroud of silicon and ice, instantly pulverizing the block into an expanding halo of dust.
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This post was really just an excuse to use the word "pulverize."
My god... pulverize. That's such a cool word. My thoughts were suddenly pulverized by a remembered encounter with a person who lovingly squeezed my shoulder..
[This message has been edited by travu2 (edited 10-23-2001).]
-------------------
He engaged the letter jets, preparing to drop his tiny round shadow onto the alien landscape for the first time. The small bubble slowly emerged from the side of the large square craft, and glided silently out over those shifting blue meadows and feathered white trees lazily waving in the thin atmosphere. Several times, as he sat there in the confines of his climate-controlled space, scrolling through his array of optical sensors, he thought he saw little faces here and there in the uniform vegetation far below, like poisonous beetles boldly advertising their toxicity; every time he advanced on their apparent position, no matter how stealthy, they had disappeared.. dissolved into the hazy blue.
Some evenings he would hear a low rumbling, and after switching his cockpit to heat sensing mode, was able to witness a distant valley expelling its deadly gas; nothing had ever scared him as much as watching those brooding thermals bloom.
He passed under delicate archways of solemn gray, sometimes pausing to hover beside vast white cliffs where he could use his black lasers to carve out valuable samples for later testing. Through every habitat he passed, taking detailed notes, carefully but efficiently collecting pieces of that cubist pixosphere.
At the end of his expedition, he packed all of the samples away into the proper storage compartments and readied himself for lift-off. As he manned the controls of his giant square and pulled away from that placid surface, he took one last look back.. and noticed a trail of darker blue etched there in the atmosphere. It ended at the landing site, where he had been preparing for launch only minutes ago. It suddenly dawned on him that this was the winding path he had taken in his scouting bubble over the last several days. As he climbed higher, he thought he could begin to see the shapes of letters imposed over the contours of the landscape. A familiar curve here and.. yes! He could almost make out entire words now. Now, after days of methodical exploration, after beginning his final ascent, he had finally discovered the greatest mystery this planet had to offer, and it was a message to himself. All of the analyzing.. all of those nights crying himself to sleep.. if he had only taken the time...
This last thought was cut short as the craft slammed into the planet's orbiting shroud of silicon and ice, instantly pulverizing the block into an expanding halo of dust.
-------------------
This post was really just an excuse to use the word "pulverize."
My god... pulverize. That's such a cool word. My thoughts were suddenly pulverized by a remembered encounter with a person who lovingly squeezed my shoulder..
[This message has been edited by travu2 (edited 10-23-2001).]
