The Temple of Lore, Works of the Schola Options

[Black Hand]

This thread is for the stories of the members of Order of the Schola, for any questions you may have please click on the following link.

http://chorrol.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=3495

ANYTHING that is not a story or poem or whatever should be posted on the link that was just provided. Thank you, not trying to be mean, just trying to keep our sacred temple clean. Now then, an explanation.

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The Temple of Lore is a sacred sanctum of tomes, dreams, thoughts, abstracts, histories, stories, poems, and the written word.

It exists in the twilight, between reality and fantasy, it embraces all forms and images that attempt to define it. It is perception, and the perciever.

There exists an order of men, commonly known to the masses as the Writers Guild, more accurately called the Order of the Schola who have mastered this twilight abstract in the form of storytelling, they alone have the power to transcend to the Temple of Lore, and contibute and take from its threads of knowledge.

They exist amongst us as Journalists, Bards, Old Men sitting on a porch with a glass of lemonade recanting old experiences. If you ask nicely, and your lucky to find the chosen few, a Schola can breathe life into any illusion, any thought.

[jack cloudy]

Here's another short story of mine. Like the earlier one, science-fiction. Only it's a little more lighthearted. I wanted to make it clear that a computer was talking through the means of text, and I think I've got a good result like this. Well, enjoy.


Pyromaniac.

The man yawned loudly. He rubbed his eyes and vaguely stared at the part of the wall where the clock was supposed to be, only he looked two metres too far to the right. ,,What time is it?” He asked numbly, now turning his attention to the small display mounted on his desk.
[Current time is 03.14 AM.] The familiar letters flashed on the screen. He couldn’t see more than a green blur.
,,I knew I should have installed some proper audio output.” He mumbled, his eyes closing. Seconds later, the sound of heavy snoring echoed through the room.
[Professor Aldon is currently unavailable. If you wish to leave a message, that option is available.]

Professor Aldon opened his eyes. He squinted a few times in an effort to get a clear view.
[Good morning, professor. Or should I say, afternoon? I hope you now realize the proper benefits of coffee. Namely, it gets you hyped up for a while till it dumps you like a lead brick.] The display flashed at him. The man frowned.
,,I don’t remember programming sarcasm for you. Where did you get that software?” He demanded to know.
[Christmas, six years ago. You claimed it would make me more realistic. Further software installed at that date are files for humour, swearing and foul language, creative language and emotion imitation. Allow me to remind you that most of this software is highly illegal and worth twenty years of prison as well as a hefty fine up to 200.000 bucks. Cheap change compared to your hobby.] The computer replied.

The professor grumbled a few inventive curses, all of which were available in his computer’s extensive database.
,,It’s not a hobby. Miniaturization is the future! The future just happens to be expensive. Surely progress is worth a few hundred billion. Where were we when I dozed off?” He complained.
[Your idea of miniaturization is a bit extreme though. Cramming every single gadget of a state-of-the-art 125 metres tall robot into one under ten metres is a bit absurd. That was me ranting in the morning, now we return to your scheduled programme: Biggest and most expensive explosions in history. LRU-43 has been fully prepared. Everyone within a two lightsecond radius has been evacuated. All your bills have been signed and the request for a larger budget has been processed.] The computer reported.
,,Remind me to delete your sarcasm. I don’t like it. And I didn’t ask for a larger budget. Evacuating everyone within two lightseconds? What is all that good for?” He wished to know, sounding very annoyed.
[LRU-43 is just going to blow up like LRU-08 to LRU-42 did. That means we’ll need a larger budget to fund the development and construction of LRU-44. Unless you finally give me permission to conduct a few low power tests first before ramping the reactor up to 100% output. That isn’t bad though. I just love those fancy planetsized explosions.]
,,Oh, I really have to get rid of the sarcasm. Just what was I thinking?”
[You weren’t thinking. You were drunk, quite a bit I might say.]

Half an hour later, professor Aldon was sitting in the large mess hall together with everyone else who happened to be working on the project. There was a clear distinction in duties. The professor designed everything with the help of his sarcastic computer while everyone else was cursed with the job of actually finding a way to build it.
,,Alright everyone, I’d like to make a toast! We’re about to see a great event in history!” The professor shouted as he had done with all the earlier tests. By now, everyone had seen it before and he was completely ignored. There were a few chuckles when the computer took control of the giant screen built into the far wall.
[We’re going to break the record for biggest explosion ever. Again.]
,,Could you stop it?! We don’t all need to be as pessimistic as you are!” The professor argued.
[I’m not pessimistic, just realistic. Look daddy, I know how to rhyme. Want to remove my humour functions as well?]

The giant green letters vanished to be replaced with the blackness of empty space. While the professor watched in silent excitement, everyone else continued his or her lunch break. They only looked up when the counter reached zero, meaning that the test had both been completed and the light had travelled across the vast distance. Sure enough, a small pinprick of light soon grew to titanic proportions. Now everyone focussed on the screen. Overall, the behaviour was surprisingly similar to that of people standing on the airport, checking to see which flights had been cancelled. They only had to wait a few seconds for the results.
[Critical overload, contact with LRU-43 has been lost. No surprises there. Explosion radius: 35,640 kilometres. Less than last time. You’re losing your touch, professor.]

A glass broke on the floor. The professor had been infuriated by the particular low blow. He wasn’t trying to make explosions, he was trying to prevent them. He sighed as he already knew what was going to come. It happened after every test.
[Incoming call. H.I. Industries’ president of the development department. He doesn’t sound too happy.]
,,Alright, put him through.”

An older and largely bald man now took up the screen. The effect was quite intimidating, just the man’s nose had been supersized to two metres high.
,,Aldon, you’ve done it again.” The president noted dryly.
,,We are making progress, the explosion was smaller this time.” Professor Aldon replied with false enthusiasm.
,,Your assistant already put in the request for a bigger budget this morning. I honestly don’t know what the boss is thinking to achieve in letting you go on with this endless disaster. Do you know the damage you’ve caused already?” The man on the screen spoke, angrier this time.

,,Oh, just a little. All in the name of progress.” The professor countered, giving his fingers a close inspection.
,,Did you forget what happened with LRU-33? Stop looking at you fingers, Aldon!”
[Reminder: 46% of the moon was vaporised in an interdimensional transfer cascade. Not vaporised, sorry. Just flashed to another dimension.]
Aldon began to sweat. He had completely forgotten. Thinking back, he didn’t want to remember it really. No man had ever done this much damage by himself, especially in peace time.
,,Umm, oops? Hey, I wasn’t the one in control. The Princess pilots all the LRU prototypes during the test through a remote connection.” He laughed weakly.
[Go ahead, blame me. You were the one who forgot to install some output regulators.]

,,You can definitely tell that it’s oops! If it was up to me, I’d have you strapped to one of your fancy robots. Maybe then you would design them so that they don’t explode.” The president stopped, a sadistic smile creeping onto his face.
,,I have an idea. You will pilot the LRU-44 during the test, from the inside of a cockpit. A cockpit inside the robot itself. Have a nice day.” After those words, the screen went black. When everyone started laughing, the professor glared at the crew.
,,What?!”
[I believe you needed to go to the toilet. Not anymore.]
The professor looked down at his pants and swore loudly.
,,Oh, not only am I death, I lost the respect of my men.” He whispered.
[Don’t worry about it. It’s not that they’ll haunt you about it after the test. I’ll help design the LRU-44. Do you want leather interior? No need to save any money.] The computer joked.

Professor Aldon pointed at the giant screen with the green letters. A sadistic smile eerily familiar to the one the president had worn crossed his face.
,,I’ve got a great idea. I’ll have your core installed into the LRU-44. Now how’s that? At least I won’t die alone, my sarcastic computer will go with me!” He shouted and then laughed, looking completely as if he’d lost his sanity. Which he probably had.
[Oh, man. I’m so totally in trouble. Looks like remaking the complete design if I want to live. What’s needed is a way to vent the excess energy into a safe direction. Preferably out of this dimension. That should take care of the explosion problem.]
,,Why didn’t you ever tell me it was that easy?”
[You never asked. Now, about that leather interior. Do you want that? I know that I’m going to beg for some glow-in-the-dark electrical wires. That’s just so cool.]
The professor rolled his eyes and walked out of the door. He needed to find something with which to clean his pants.