November 25, 2017 :: Today's Words: 3,158 :: Total Words: 28,727

Your character has a sudden craving for peppermint chocolate ice-cream.

The women were sitting in a pub, eating dinner and checking out the locals, when Robin looked at Paula and sighed.

“Again?”

She nodded. “Again.”

Paula stood up. “I’ll go to the bar. What do you need?”

“Peppermint chocolate ice cream.”

Paula nodded and headed off to place the order.

“You’re eating a lot of ice cream,” said Alaina.

“I know.” Robin looked down at her stomach. “Too bad I don’t know why. I hope it doesn’t go to my waistline.”

“It won’t. You’re getting plenty of exercise, and I’ve noticed you aren’t eating much of anything else.”

Robin poked at the food on her plate with her fork. “You noticed.”

“Sure I noticed. What’s going on?”

“I just…” Robin set down her fork and looked at Alaina. “I really liked my job, you know? I didn’t want to go back to this.”

Alaina sat back in her seat. “I know what you mean. I was perfectly happy in my cabin in the woods.”

Paula returned. “I ordered some for each of us,” she said, “and added it to our tab. What are you talking about?”

“Our lives before we got called back into service,” said Alaina.

“Oh, that.” Paula shrugged. “I like being a housewife and all, but it’s not very exciting, you know?”

“You were a housewife?” asked Robin.

“Yup. Married well. Independently wealthy. Have house staff back home. Two kids, two cars.” Paula shrugged.

“Don’t you miss them?”

She nodded. “Of course. My family. My cats, my dogs, all of that. But my country needed me, so here I am.”

“And here I am,” replied Alaina.

“Here we all are,” said Robin.

They sat in silence until the server brought their ice cream.

Your character enters Syria. There see Numenor. How do they react?

Florian followed Sesuna out of their hotel in Naypyidaw and down the street. Every time he tried to catch up with her, she somehow put more distance between them without ever changing her pace.

The flight from Eritrea to Burma had been uneventful, though Florian had been relegated to Coach while Sesuna had been seated in First Class.

“Where are we going?” he asked, trying to keep up.

“To find the women,” she replied curtly.

Florian sighed and focused on maintaining his pace.

After a few blocks, Sesuna turned the corner. Halfway down that street, there was a small nightclub with a lit up sign that said “Syria.”

“Syria?” Florian asked. “Why is there a nightclub called Syria?”

Sesuna shrugged. “It is our destination. Come.”

Florian tagged along as she went inside.

She nodded at the bouncer when he stepped forward to block Florian’s entry. “He’s with me,” she said, and the bouncer stepped aside.

They found a table and sat down, and Florian looked around the club inquiringly. It did look like pretty much every other club he’d ever been to, with tables around the outer ring and a large dance floor in the centre. The lighting was dim but not so dark that you couldn’t see very well, and the music was loud enough to dance to but quiet enough to talk normally and still be heard.

A tall man approached the table. “Sesuna,” he said in a deep voice. “Thanatos told me to expect you.”

Sesuna extended her open hand toward an empty seat. “Numenor. We seek the women.”

He sat down and nodded. “I am aware.” He glanced at Florian. “Must he be here for this?”

“Thanatos has ordained his participation.”

Numenor inclined his head. “I understand.”

Florian was entranced by Numenor. He had shaved his head and wore his facial hair in a long, thin moustache that hung past his shoulders and a short, thick beard that covered only the point of his chin and was trimmed and styled into a point. Florian reached up and touched his own chin, which was beginning to show stubble. Maybe he should grow some facial hair or something.

Sesuna drew a long box out of her jacket. Florian squinted at her, trying to figure out where she had been keeping it. The jacket fit too tight; he was certain he would have seen sign of it earlier.

She set the box down on the table and slowly lifted the lid. “I require your expertise to use this,” she said.

Numenor reached out a hand and paused. He looked up at Sesuna. “May I?” he asked.

“Of course,” she said.

The item in the box was about 12 inches long. It was an opaque piece of glass or plastic that was a deep royal blue mottled with violet. Or perhaps it was violet mottled with royal blue. It was difficult to know for certain. One end of the item was wide and egg-shaped, with designs that looked a lot like the script he’d seen in Eritrea on the street signs carved into it. The end of the egg was pointed, and it swirled so that it appeared to imitate fire. The length of the item was shaped like a long triangular prism, and at the egg-end of the prism were more symbols. The rest of the prism was smooth and level, and it sparkled from inside. The tip of the item looked like a butterfly about to take off.

Florian reached out a hand to touch it. “What is that?” he breathed.

Sesuna slapped his hand away. “It is the sacred sceptre of Thanatos. You are not to touch it. Only true believers may touch it and live, and only those with knowledge and experience may put it to use.”

“What does it do?” asked Florian, settling his hands in his lap.

“Sit and watch, and you will see.”

Numenor settled the sceptre in his hands so that the butterfly was in his left hand and the egg/fire was in his right. He held his hands up so that the sceptre was level with his nose, closed his eyes, and rested his forehead on one plane of the prism.

“Thanatos, god of death,” he intoned, “pray hear your servants Sesuna and Numenor. We are seeking those whom you have sent us after. Show us where to go.”

Numenor lifted his forehead and opened his eyes. He looked directly at Florian. His eyes were flaming purple and blue, just like the sceptre. The pupils were gold.

“Florian,” he said in a voice that echoed through Florian’s skull, “you are worthy of Sesuna’s confidence in you?”

Florian nodded. “I—I think so. I mean—that is, I will do my best.”

“Someone is looking for you, Florian,” the voice said.

“There is someone after me, yes.” Florian thought of Chuck Norris and touched his eye, which was still slightly swollen.

“You will need to face your fears in order to deal with that situation.”

Florian nodded. “I understand.” He didn’t really understand, but it seemed like the right thing to say.

Numenor turned to Sesuna. “You have done well, Sesuna,” he said. “Continue your search. Those whom you seek are nearby. If you climb the mountain, you will find the snow.”

Sesuna inclined her head slightly and nodded. “I understand, master.”

Numenor lifted the egg/fire end of the sceptre and slid his left hand up to grasp the prism just above the butterfly. He turned his left hand so that the prism was resting on his index finger and hand, with his thumb curled up around the prism, and moved his right hand so that it was bracing the prism just below the egg/fire. He put the butterfly up to his left eye and pointed the other end of the sceptre at the nearest wall. He blew air out softly between his lips, whistling quietly.

A beam of golden light shot across the aisle and hit the wall. A puddle of gold formed on the wall and expanded slowly across the entire plane.

When the entire wall was covered in gold, Numenor clamped his mouth shut and lowered the sceptre. He held it with the butterfly in his right hand and the egg/fire in his left. He lowered his forehead to touch one plane of the prism and closed his eyes. He began to hum, a tuneless hum in that same voice that echoed through Florian’s head. After a few seconds the voice changed and became a normal human voice.

Numenor raised his head and looked at Sesuna. “Powerful,” he said, smiling. He laid the sceptre gently back into its box.

Sesuna replaced the lid and picked up the box. “Stay here and rest,” she said quietly. She stood up and took hold of Florian’s shirt. “Come with me.”

Florian stood up and went with Sesuna, smiling apologetically at Numenor, who looked kind of dazed. “Are you sure he’s all right?” he asked.

Sesuna nodded once. “He is well. Channeling the god always leaves one tired.”

Florian looked at the wall. “So what’s with this, anyway?” he asked. The gold that had covered the wall was fading, but some of it was staying put. It looked like the same kind of script that was on the sceptre.

“It is a message from Thanatos,” said Sesuna. “I will decipher it. You tell me what he meant by someone being after you.” She pulled out a notebook and began copying down symbols.

Florian shrugged. “It’s nothing,” he said, “just, I got on Chuck Norris’s bad side a few years back, and now he’s always wherever I am.”

Sesuna paused in her work with the wall and made eye contact with him. “Chuck Norris is after you?”

Florian nodded.

Sesuna went back to work. “Good luck with that. Why is he after you?”

Florian kicked at the floor. “We were in line for a movie and I butted in front of him.”

“That doesn’t sound bad.”

“Yeah, but then I hit on his wife in the concession lineup.”

Sesuna paused and raised an eyebrow.

“In my defense, I didn’t know she was with him.” Florian sighed. “And then during the movie, I wound up sitting right in front of him, and I kept standing up.”

“You kept standing up.” Sesuna moved along the wall and began working on the next section.

“Yeah, my leg was bugging me. And someone had put something on my seat, so it wasn’t comfortable.”

“You could have moved to a different seat.”

“There weren’t any available.”

“That doesn’t explain why he’s after you. Does he hold a grudge this long?”

“No, but then the next day I got hired to rob a bank, and Chuck Norris was there when I arrived.”

“You robbed a bank?”

“Well, not with Chuck Norris there, I didn’t.”

Sesuna moved down to the next section of the wall. “Tell me more. This is not all there is to it.”

Florian sighed. “Okay, look, the real reason he’s after me is that his family was at risk during a mission I did for someone two years ago. He found out that I was involved, and I guess I’m the last person from that team who’s still alive and kicking.”

“And the other things you said?”

“None of them is true.”

Sesuna nodded. She finished copying down the symbols and closed her notebook. “We will return to the table now and discuss with Numenor. He may know something that will help with Chuck Norris.”

Your character has a sudden craving for mashed porkchops ice-cream.

On their way out of the pub, Robin suddenly stopped and turned back toward the bar. “You go ahead,” she said to Paula and Alaina. “I’ll catch up.”

“What is it this time?” asked Paula.

“You don’t want to know,” said Robin. “I’ll just go get directions to a grocery store and save you the disgust factor.”

Paula shrugged and Robin went over to the bar. The bartender came over. “I thought you ladies were leaving,” he said.

“Oh, we are. I was just wondering if you could tell me where the nearest grocery store is? I need to pick up some things.”

The man nodded and gave her directions, then moved on to the next customer. Robin returned to the others. “Okay, let’s go get what I need,” she said.

“Not until you tell us what you need,” said Paula.

Robin sighed and looked around, then leaned in. “Ice cream and pork chops.”

“What’s weird about that?”

“I’m going to cook the meat, then put it through a blender and mix it with the ice cream.

Paula frowned. “That sounds horrible.”

“Yeah, well, it’s what I need, so let’s go.”

Paula and Alaina followed Robin as she headed towards the grocery store.

Your character dreams about a pile of kittens and a bowl of Oreos.

That night, Alaina dreamed that she was, again, in her cabin. She was lying in bed. It was dark, but there was moonlight coming in through the window. She could hear an odd sound coming from under her bed, so she got up and looked underneath.

It was too dark to really see what was there, so she padded across the cabin to get a flashlight. On the way, she nearly tripped over a large blue bowl. She picked it up and realized that it was full of Oreos. She set the bowl on the table and took one of the cookies back to the bed with her.

She knelt down beside the bed and shone the flashlight underneath.

The sound was a lot of scrabbling and scratching, and some odd mewling sounds that she recognized but couldn’t quite place.

She located the source of the sounds: a cardboard box. She pulled out the box and looked inside.

It was full of tiny kittens, who were crawling over each other and trying to climb out of the box. The sides were too high, so they weren’t making any progress.

She reached into the box and lifted out one of the kittens. She held it up and touched its nose to hers. Suddenly the kitten bit her nose and dug its claws into her palm. She dropped it back into the box.

And then she woke up.

Your character finds the only remaining example of a polyester pantsuit on the entire planet. What do they do with it?

Mark Masterson woke up early and went to his closet, which he lovingly called “Clothing Planet.” He had a desire to wear something truly audacious to the office, but he couldn’t decide just what it should be.

Finally, he found it.

A bright pink polyester pantsuit, the last item of polyester in his closet, paired with a fluorescent purple frilly shirt, a pair of brown and white saddle shoes, and a neon green velvet trilby with an orange feather tucked into its turquoise band.

The perfect outfit for the office.

He couldn’t wait to see Fred’s face when he turned up at the lab.

A new character arrives, wearing a synthetic ultramarine piece of clothing, and carrying softdrink.

Travis and Apollo mostly stayed at the hotel in Burma. They weren’t really field agents, after all, and Travis reasoned that this way they were close enough to the airport to be able to ready the plane in a flash if the ladies needed to hightail it out of the country suddenly.

While Apollo spent a lot of time noodling around on the internet, Travis hung out a lot at the pool. On the second afternoon, a man entered the pool area wearing an ultramarine bathing costume that was the full-body style popular in the early 1900s and carrying a soft-sided cooler. He came over to where Travis was sitting, watching the swimmers, and sat down in an empty chair. He opened the cooler and pulled out a can.

Travis looked over at the hiss of the can being opened. “You know you aren’t supposed to have that here,” he said.

The man shrugged. “They won’t care.” He leaned down and pulled out another can. “Want one?” he asked, holding it out.

Travis shrugged and took it. “Sure, why not?”

He opened the can and took a sip. It was pretty decent pop. Orange Fanta, if he wasn’t mistaken.

Travis leaned back in his chair and set the can on the little table next to him. He closed his eyes. He suddenly felt sleepy.

Nobody noticed the two men walking out of the pool area together, though the cleaning staff were rather put out when they found the can of orange Fanta spilled all over the deck later that night.

Introduce a character who worships Geong Si.

Numenor brought Florian to the basement of the club while Sesuna went and checked them out of the hotel.

There were tunnels that led out of the basement, and Numenor showed Florian the way through the underground maze. “This space is sacred,” he told Florian. “It is not to be defaced in any way. It was built to allow us to move about unseen, in safety.”

Florian nodded and followed the larger man in silence. He didn’t dare speak in the dank depths of the city.

Eventually they emerged into the basement area of another building. The room was quite large and had a red carpet.

Numenor pointed at a red door. “You must enter there.”

Florian looked at the door and looked up at Numenor. “By myself?”

Numenor raised one eyebrow and pointed again at the door. Florian sighed and walked over to the door. He opened it slowly, half-expecting Chuck Norris to be waiting for him.

Instead, he found an elderly Asian man sitting in a large, overstuffed, navy blue chair.

The man looked up at Florian and nodded. “I knew you would come,” he said.

Florian stepped into the room and closed the door behind him. “I’ve been getting that a lot lately,” he said.

“Come, sit,” the old man said, gesturing to a similar chair directly across from him. “We will talk.”

Florian took his seat and looked around the room. It was bare except for a single book case on one wall, the two chairs they were sitting in, and a bedroll below the window. “What will we talk about?”

The man shrugged. “What do you wish to talk about?”

“I don’t know. Thanatos said something about my fears? Sesuna seemed to think I needed to deal with Chuck Norris. Numenor doesn’t seem to care.”

“And what about you?”

Florian sighed. “Me? I don’t know, I mean, I’m not exactly valued for my brains, you know? I’m muscle. People hire me to get other people out of their way.”

The man nodded but didn’t say anything.

“I guess… I’m mostly just confused about what’s going on here. I mean, what are we doing in Burma? I know we’re looking for the CSIS operatives, and I’m all for that, but I don’t even know why any of this is happening.”

“Things sometimes happen that we cannot understand,” said the old man.