Notes from the Present | In which I finally get to refer to myself in first person. (Alliance Forged, WWIII Begins)

The multilayered meme/joke in this motivational poster was just too good for me to ignore.

A friend of mine made this a few weeks back. I use it with his permission. I should not have to explain why I use it, as it simply oozes with a sheer force of awesome unseen in this world for many an age. It is an awesome that crosses through time and space in such a manner that heads WILL explode on impact. I dare not reproduce it in its original size, as the awesome would surely destroy the unprepared. One can not simply walk into Mordor indeed.

I gave Codename: Student a series of new exercises today. Teaching my business is, as a martial arts Sensei I am honored to know described teaching HIS art, "One step away from death."

This is not a terrible thing, mind you. Being one step away from death can be comforting. You see, a good master of the martial arts OR a master of my art has the duty to render himself obsolete. Some day, if I am a good enough teacher, she will surpass me. That is my goal. I don't want her to face the hell I've encountered. When I'm done, I want to be able to say that I've made her job easy. However, when I'm done I also want to be able to say she could curb-stomp Cthulhu with her bare hands, and make it look easy.

All of this of course, assumes that me and my friends aren't bugnuts insane.

You'll notice that I'm referring to people in my life by their code-names. WHEN this mess blows up in my face, hopefully that will keep them safe. Here's hoping. Against something like Fisk or the PTC, I think all I'll have to do is make sure that my laptop and phone are immediately destroyed, and any avenue of attacking them becomes closed. Still working on a method for dealing with cosmic shenanigans from BlankFace McTallSuit taking the knowledge of them straight out of my head. THAT would be bad.

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The Past:

It was a simple plan: take a 6 week summer program at a private school to see if it would be better suited to finishing out The Boy's high school education, pick up a semester's worth of credits on the side. After the Church Incident, there were continued questions on the nature of reality that the Boy kept quiet.

After arriving at the summer program, The Boy met someone he could talk to. They had begun discussing all manner of things on a ride to the Walmart to get toiletries and other supplies. They talked about bad luck with girlfriends, how you could theoretically track someone using satellite technology and skin cells... what someone might do if the planet earth were under siege by cosmic threats from beyond this plane of existence.

The boy kept blinking, feeling as though some kind of wheel was turning in his head. He didn't understand it, but he was feeling seven kinds of nervous, out of place, and that old "I'm being watched" feeling was creeping up on him.

He blinked, looking at the person he was talking to again. This was Codename: Time Lord. Make your Dr. Who jokes as you see fit.

The boy said, "We're not talking about games, are we? This is actually happening, right now."
Time Lord grinned, "Glad to see you're up to speed."
The boy said, "Not...really. At all."

POP. A whole different world became frighteningly obvious right then and there. He looked up, and he saw something standing on top of the Walmart, laughing down at them. Its armor was like a red set of traditional Japanese Samurai fighting gear. Behind him, something like a million miles away, he felt that comforting presence. She was watching. It was good. All around him, he felt things moving. They were not moving in the world his eyes could see. They were somewhere next to it, across from it, describing where they were was difficult, but they were THERE. He closed his eyes, massaging his forehead. This couldn't be happening. He was going crazy again, wasn't he?

Time Lord said, "You're not going crazy. Everybody makes a choice, now, or soon from now. You can close the opening eye and walk away, and nobody could blame you for it. Or you could fight. Personally, I like fighting."

The eyes stayed closed. The boy knew then and there: these things had been trying to kill him since day one, and they wouldn't stop until he was dead. This madman in front of him was potentially talking about arming him with the weapons to do something about it. Imagine it, knowing full well for the first time that THINGS had been trying to kill you since you could first breathe, and knowing for the first time that you could actually DO something about it. Is it any surprise what his answer was?

I opened my eyes, and said, "Why not? It's not like I've got anything better to do."