VEN ASKED FOR A STORY

[Ridder]

By the by, there's an incredible and well written story by LF done recently that you should probably check out. It's like, a srsly written story.

PLEASE NOTE: This story will be written on the fly, no guidelines, no brainstorming, it will be shaped as I think. ONWARDS WITH MY BAD SELF
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Nighttime, the period where half the world sleeps, and the other half wakes up. It is where the nocturnal creatures escape their little nooks and crannies, ready to take their place and do what they do best: flooding the empty streets, lurking in the dark corners, working in the shadows. They stalk the night in search of what they desire most, and when all is said and done, find what they need.
There are, of course, exceptions to every circumstance, where there are those who sit outside the norm and create rules of their own, they live by their own creeds, and seek not acceptance, but acknowledgement. After all, some folks just don't like the thought of sleeping very often.


"Whatcha workin' on here science boy?" a series of hard metallic knocks accompanied the voice that came from atop the large contraption the lone man had been working on.
He looked up and saw a pale woman, dressed up in a cloak red as the night air and a set of piercing amber eyes look down upon him as if evaluating his worth. He noted this in the back of his mind and continued to work, taking his eyes off the new observer.
"A device meant to contact others, a beacon, you might say." The man explained in monotone fashion.
"Really? Any reason you decided to work on it atop the tallest building at the center of the city, in the middle of the night with no one to help or protect you from danger?"
"No particular reason, I do as I please."
The girl started to giggle uncontrollably, paused for a breath, and spoke,
"Ha. You seem really chill about a random stranger suddenly appearing on top of your machine here. What if I were a spirit that came here to steal your soul?"
"I used to worry everyday about things like that, but I've learned to stop worrying about things I cannot know, there are better things to do with my time and money." The man responded.
The girl turned her head and laughed silently.
"Oh, good one. I'm glad to have met someone who didn't panic when I told them that." the girl took on a sinister looking grin and continued. "So you'd be alright if I just went ahead and took it right now?"
The scientist slowly stopped fiddling with the circuit panel, took a look at the bag of tools besides him and pulled out a screwdriver as he replaced the cover on the panel.
"Just so you know, at this point, my soul is worth nothing, unless you find a tired old college dropout from Canada to have something of worth in him."
He then dropped the screwdriver back into the bag, zipped the bag up, and slung it over his shoulder.
"It doesn't really matter whether you want to claim it or not, after I activate the cannon, I'll be more than willing to hand over my soul over to you." the man said as he nonchalantly walked around the his large construct towards the control panels.

In a single, graceful leap, the girl quickly descended from the tip of the cannon and walked besides the man, looking up to his tired and ragged face.
They stood at the platform which bore a set of controls, the man set about performing checks and calculations on the functions of the machine before he would activate it.
"Alright, the fusion cells are running at full capacity, the coolants are operational, the object is loaded......okay....." his eyes flew over all the display screens that sprawled all over the panels.
He twisted a knob and flicked several switches, a series of small bulbs flashed on, and the machine began to hum with energy.
"Mind if I do the honours, captain?" The scientist looked to see the girl looming over the big red button marked "Launch"
"Sure, since your taking me anyways, you may as well." The man shrugged.
The girl stuck out a single, delicate finger out and gently pressed it against the button.
The machine then started to growl louder than before, several individual noises began to sound off as the canon prepared to fire.

The girl looked to her side one final time at the strange man. She smiled, this time, with less malice behind her expression.
"You know, I never quite caught your name. What was it?" The girl inquired over the sound of the machine whirring to life.
"That's funny. A soul snatcher asking for the name of her victim. Don't you learn it after you steal someone's soul?" The man threw back a question of his own. The control panels emitted loud beeps to signal the last few moments before firing.
"Well, yes, we do, but it's always nice to know the proper name of person before you...more or less kill them."
The man sighed as the time grew closer and looked back at the girl.
"Alright, I guess you could call me..."

Just then, a brilliant flash of light exploded from the cannon as the sound of two thousand pounds of metal was lifted by a wave of kinetic energy upwards, towards the sky.
The discharged signal flew far into the night leaving behind a blazing blue streak of pure energy behind that tore through the cool red air of the night, far above the two strange outcasts atop the the tallest building in the region, until it was out of sight, and with it, silence followed. The cannon, permanently damaged beyond repair from the intensity of the firing, stood in the center of the rooftop, empty of any signs of life.


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This is the part where I collapse from writing for two hours up until three in the morning. God my body feels limp.