Also, the current story so far has been turned into a downloadable PDF. Firefox 4 users may be unable to open it within their browsers (I'm one of them) but if you right-click the link and save it to your computer, it will open just fine from there.
And now...
She was flat on her back, staring at the ceiling. She didn't remember falling. She didn't remember much of anything prior to coming out of the toilet. It was as if the movie of her life was a reel of celluloid and, having jammed in the projector, simply melted where it had stopped.
Remove reel.
Excise burnt section like a cancer.
Splice together healthy frames.
Life continues.
Teresa, she realized as her thoughts rearranged themselves into cohesion. My name is Teresa. I'm on the floor of a hotel room. I used to be in prison.
She took a long, shuddering breath as the memories came crashing back. The screaming had been rusty nails clawing at the inside of her mind. The suckling that ate at her soul. The constant, maddening demands. And then it had started talking, less than a year old and it was talking and pawing at her and killing other children whenever she left it alone.
It. The demon seed. The one good thing in her life, and it had become corrupt and possessed. Teresa had ruined everything she touched, just as her mother said she would.
I was in prison because I set my baby boy on fire.
So no comments after you begged me for a flame war? WTF Erin? :)
ReplyDeleteI like to watch.... ;)
ReplyDeleteOkay, seriously, I never wanted a flamewar. What I wanted was spirited discussion between the two sides because I fall squarely in the middle and was rather hoping someone would convince me.
As it stands right now, you (Greg) are taking the position that RPGs are a commercial product, and as such are not only beholden to certain standards, but also that bucking these standards can result in repercussions throughout the hobby.
On the other side of it, Zak/Raggi/et al have taken the contrary position that what they are making is art, albeit of an interactive sort, and that art is meant to challenge and provoke as often as it soothes and uplifts, and that censorship of art is reprehensible.
From what I can see of it, you're BOTH right: it's art made for commercial purposes. But that doesn't change the fact that both sides are essentially arguing about what is and isn't art, which is a debate that will never ever have a clear victor, or even end.
I find it absurd and more than a bit silly, really.
GAH ... you end it there? There had best be more, yes.
ReplyDeleteAlways good to see more from Theresa, though. Thank you!
Intersting thought and more about the motivation behind Teresa, and maybe more about why cancer is her focus of power. ( Self-Flagellation perhaps? ) On the note about flames, this is a documented example from the late 1500's. - Two men, best of friends, got into an argument about the merits of two authors, which became so heated a duel was arranged. During the duel, one man was killed outright, and the other mortally wounded. the wounded man asked for last rites and confessed to the father that he'd never read either author....
ReplyDeleteWoah. I'd assumed the earlier scene when we were introduced to Teresa's 'demon baby' was a weird nightmare, her mind/memory torturing her for what she'd done.
ReplyDeleteBut if that scene was something that actually occurred it puts a whole different slant on why Teresa did what she did, and also casts a strange and worrying light over why she would chose to/risk bringing her baby back :-/