forsyth | Nano Update

Okay, I'm still behind where I should be, two and a half days of not writing will do that. But I'm up to 8052, as has been repeated at least three times in this entry so far. Which is just over 2.5K words today which helps me catch up a little bit. And I'll probably do some more, but I just finished a chapter, so I figured I'd take a break. And my hands hurt. Ah, yes. I'll give you a quote. Not from something I wrote today, this is from yesterday, actually, but hey.

Two streets down, there was a beep from a trash can as she passed. There was a sudden sound of crunching and clicking and mechanical whirring. She turned and dropped Twink in shock. The garbage can had unfolded into a spindly mass seeming to consist entirely of armor plating, missiles, and gun barrels. Then she heard more of the same noises from behind her. "PREPARE TO DIE, RAVEN MCCLOUD," the heavily armed garbage can said.

Jayridge glanced over he shoulder, to where a mailbox had done the same kind of transformation. Sprouting blades and launchers for what looked like sharpened metal postcards. "YOUR TRAIL ENDS HERE, ROBOT SLAYER," the second said.

Twink let out a piercing electronic whistle. "HOLD IT!"

The two disguised destructor droids looked down at the little personal assistant. "WHAT IS IT, PUNY ELECTRONIC DEVICE?"

Twink rolled in a circle around Jayridge. "Look at her, does she look ANYTHING like a robot slayer?"

"IT COULD BE A CUNNING DISGUISE," said the mailbox.

"Are your logic circuits broken? She's not this Raven person! Do you even know what this person looks like?" Twink went on.

"WELL, NO. HE'S A VERY GOOD ROBOT SLAYER, NONE HAVE EVER SEEN HIS FACE."

"HEY! Do I LOOK like a he?" Jayridge demanded.

"SCANNING. DECISION UNCLEAR. CLOTHING OBSCURES PRIMARY SEXUAL CHARACTERISTICS. SUBJECT SEEMS TO LACK SECONDARY SEXUAL CHARACTERISTICS OF BOTH MALES AND FEMALES. MUSCLE STRUCTURE DELICATE. PROBABILITY OF FEMALE GENDER 50%."

"HEY!" Jayridge shouted, as Twink poked her leg.

"SUBJECT KNOWN AS RAVEN MCCLOUD WAS TO ARRIVE VIA BUS. SUBJECT ARRIVED VIA BUS."

"Boy, they don't leave much room for logic circuits in with all that armor and guns, do they? Many people take buses. She's not the puny flesh-thing you're looking for," Twink said.

The garbage can looked over Jayridge's head at the mailbox, the two conferring in what sounded essentially like a loud electronic squeal. "LACK OF WEAPONS AND OF THIS UNIT'S DEMISE LENDS CREDENCE TO YOUR CLAIMS. OUR APOLOGY FOR THE INCONVIENCE, PUNY FLESH-THING."

"Uh, that's okay, really. Thanks." Jayridge said, standing rooted to the spot.

One little part of her brain noticed the garbage and letters the two had scattered around by their transformation and wondered who'd clean that up. "We should go now," Twink said, quietly.

The two of them edged slowly out from between the assassin bots, who were scuttling back to their original positions, picking up the dropped garbage and letters. Well, that answers that,that little portion of Jayridge's brain said. "We'll just be going now," her mouth said, on auto-polite autopilot, the gear that kicks in when dealing with people much larger than you and with big sharp pointy and explode things.

The assassin bots ignored her, and settled down and started to change back. Jayridge and Twink scooted away down the road. Then there was a loud crack from further up the road, and one of the many guns on the trash can. They all froze and stared up the empty road, where the Mysterious and Creepy Guy from the bus was standing, outrageously large gun still smoking. "PREPARE TO DIE, RAVEN MCCLOUD!" the garbage can bellowed, going back to armored NRA hedgehog in less than a second, and turning to fire all its guns up at him.

But he wasn't there any more, leaping high into the air and firing the huge gun with one hand, other drawing a sword. A sword. Against armored metallic death-machines, that picky part of Jayridge's brain noted. "We should leave about now," Twink said.

The non-pedant portions of Jayridge's brain and body didn't need any urging, she grabbed up Twink and ran for the first alley she could see. Explosions, gunfire, and metal on metal faded slowly behind them as they crossed three other streets and two alleys and ended up hopelessly lost. Jayridge ran out of breath and stopped, panting. "This is insane," Twink said.

Comet poked his head out of Jayridge's pocket, looked around, and seeing nothing that resembled sunflower seeds, yawned and went back to sleep. "It seemed like a good idea a the time," Jayridge said.