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February 1
What if a story began?

“I mean, what else can you say about this guy? He over thinks everything, tries to lead everything, and thinks he is good at everything!” exclaimed Ian as he walked down the sidewalk away from the theater with his best friend Maxim. “That’s you!” he said laughing loudly, trying not to fall over and not caring at all about the annoyed face Ian had. “You know, I can think of twenty Russian stereotypes that fit you perfectly right now! You’re the size of gorilla, talk way to much, and drink way more than you should.” Maxim stopped laughing, he immediately replied “Hey! I may be big, but I don’t talk that much. Besides, Coke does not count as drinking.” “Whatever dude, whatever you say.” said Ian in a sarcastic tone. Maxim rolled his eyes and kept walking. Soon he got bored and asked Ian “Yeah, anyways how goes the leveling? You a brigadier general yet?” Ian replied immediately almost too the minute the last word left Maxim’s mouth he started. “Hellz yeah! I’m already past that dude, what about you? Mr. Lieutenant Lenin.” Now Maxim was pissed, he wanted to rub it into Ian’s face that he wasn’t as good as he thought he was. “Whatever dude I could kick your bet no matter what rank I am.” Ian was now excited, so he replied “You wanna bet?” “Ok….I bet you lunch a free lunch at the Italian Store that I can get more kills than you in a regular team death match online.” Maxim punched his open hand as hard as could and yelled in a powerful voice “Deal!” he said “Let’s hurry home so your mom can give me a ride home so I can get my free lunch soon.” Ian knew Maxim was good, so he tried his luck at some insults to psyche Maxim out. “No way! I can already smell that free gyro in my hand and maybe when I am done, I'll take 3 Gyro’s home…” Before he finished Maxim was running away as fast as he could in his big black fur coat and with such large strides that every step he took was at least the size of one small table “Hurry up slow poke!” he yelled while turning his back. He then reared his back laughing with a voice like an old war veteran, but the laughs were so fast that it sounded like someone laughing immaturely at someone else’s fart. Ian chuckled to himself and ran after the buffoon as soon as possible down the road to his house. Stopping several times at crosswalks or just taking time to pet a cool looking dog passing and every time Maxim would yell at him from far away to hurry as fast as he could. It wasn’t long before Ian and Maxim made it back too Ian’s house. Ian’s house looked like every other house, except for its deep blue shutters near the windows and the greenhouse near the roof of the house. Both were his parent’s idea. His Dad, or known as Professor Butterfly, by his students, was a professor at the nearby college and taught about bugs and insects. His specialty of course was butterflies, ever since he was kid; he loved butterflies and therefore loved the outdoors ever since his parents took him on a trip to Mexico. Unfortunately his family ran into financial problems and could not send him overseas to college. So he went to a local college instead, but he studied so hard that he became a genius with butterflies and bought numerous trips to Mexico with his money. In fact it had become a tradition for the Cutler family to take a trip to Mexico every winter break during Christmas to escape the cold climate that the family lived in. Of course, being the butterfly nut he was… he bought his own personal greenhouse, built it extending right out from his bedroom and put his every own butterfly garden in it. Inside the greenhouse is a hundred different species of butterflies people know and some people don’t know yet. Even though he liked butterflies, Ian’s dad was person you just didn’t want to argue with, if he had an idea, all you could do to change it was to either twist its words or improve it. Ian’s mom was the opposite, she doesn’t talk much, but she is the insanely artsy kind of person that you might meet at the Louvre talking about why the sky should be pink. Both mom and dad agreed that if dad got the greenhouse, mom would get to design the inside of the house. The house wasn’t a house anymore. First the shutters were painted a deep blue color, then the interior was entirely wooden, and then almost every wall had some piece of artwork. Whether it was just a replica or the original; every single art piece was unique to the point where every room was named after the biggest art in that room. The living room was the Rainbow Room, the kitchen was the Room of Fruit, and the Basement was The Scream. Maxim got into the house first, bursting through the door but not with enough force to destroy the railing behind it. He then put his hand on the railing to take in deep breaths from running so hard. He looked around and the first thing that came to his head was “I will never get too used to this house…” Ian came through the door, breathing heavily as well. Ian wheezed out “I let you win dude.” Maxim wasn’t paying attention and kept staring at the giant picture of a woman near the front hall closet. Ian laughed and said “Wow are you still trying to figure out that replica of the Mona Lisa?” “Of course, dude” Maxim replied “I still can’t tell whether she is sad, happy, or just sexually frustrated.” Ian only shook his head and said “I didn’t need to hear that, and now I’m going to need brain band aids.” “Whatever, where is your Mom?” Maxim replied still staring at the Mona Lisa “I don’t know, lets find her so you can get out of here.” “Come on dude, can I see the Butterfly Garden again? I think you of them will finally land on me on purpose this time.” Maxim replied. “No dude, you need to go home, so I can kick your butt at a videogame, to go get free Italian, so no butterflies for you.” Maxim and Ian then ran up to Ian’s room or the Beatles Bunk since the only artistic thing besides the mountains of books and videogame cases was a giant Beatles poster of all the Beatles members in different colors. Maxim jumped on to Ian’s bed which creaked and sagged before Ian yelled him to get off it. “Geez dude I was just sitting on your bed.” “Yeah right, with your weight my bunk bed is just going to be a regular bed soon with a lot of wood around it.” “Ian, what was that noise I heard!’ Ian’s mom yelled. “Don’t worry about it! By the way Maxim is here and he needs to be dropped back at his house as soon as possible.” Ian’s mom yelled back “Ok, hey, why don’t you come with me to take your friend back.” Ian yelled back “No thanks Mom, I’m good.” “Ok hun! just don’t burn down the house while I’m gone ok?” Maxim suddenly said “Dude why aren’t you coming?” Ian replied “Because, I want some practice before I kick your butt, and remember that bet still stands.” “What ever dude, later.” Ian started to head to his computer and with his head slowly turning to the monitor he said “Later.” Soon the sound of faded into the distance and Ian was all alone. He turned on his computer and started up the game. Ian just sat there for a few hours, he had no sense of what time it was, or even where his Mom went. All that he cared for at the moment was finding the perfect combinations to win and get a free lunch. Ian stretched after a while and checked the time; it was already 8:00pm, only 1 hour away before the scheduled match. Ian sighed and then immersed himself again into the game. Suddenly the monitor started to move slowly upward. From Ian’s sight everything is fine, but slowly Ian had to look more upward every time he looked at something else. Ian snapped back into reality and began panicking. He was sinking into his floor, chair and all. Ian struggled violently trying to grasp for something to hold on. The floor had turned into a liquidly paste, but it wasn’t just the wooden floor itself, everything on the floor in that area from the carpet, to the nails, to the sock that was near his chair had turned become one and he was sinking it. It was as if the specific space was devouring him. Soon everything from his waist down gone and Ian was now panicking like he never had before “Oh my god, what is happening? Somebody help! Am I going to die? What If I die? Dear god, help me.” Soon everything from his neck down submerged in the pasty glop, but for some reason Ian could still feel his arms moving around underneath the liquid. Soon his mouth was submerged and with all his power he tried to scream as loud as could, but he couldn’t hear anything, even though he oddly became tired from screaming. He closed his ideas as his head slowly submerged. Ian opened his eyes seconds later, only to realize he was upside down still sitting in his chair. He flopped onto a mirrored floor and was in a jumbled mess hurting all over. The first thought that came to Ian’s head was “ow…” the second thought was “where the heck am I?” Ian slowly got up and looked around. He couldn’t believe what his eyes were showing him. The entire floor was a giant mirror, and every step Ian took as he slowly walked forward, the mirror would ripple on the spots where he stepped. He looked up and was more amazed by what was above him. The ceiling wasn’t a ceiling anymore, but a huge stream of bright and colorful lights that looked almost like the Aurora Borealis he had seen in a movie once. The streams of colors though were much brighter and so many more in number that you couldn’t see the top and yet they all flowed in a compact, orderly manner. As if it was natural. Ian then heard a whoosh, and he turned his head, then he saw something that was even more amazing then the colorful ceiling. Multiple shadows, millions of them different forms and sizes raced past him on the large white walls of the long hallway. Some shadows looked like people, others like animals he recognized, and some looked like things that should never have been thought of. Each and every shadow was carrying with him what seemed to be regular glass ball of dust. Ian hurried to the wall, each step rippling below, and reached towards the shadows. All of sudden Ian stopped, he peered down to take a closer look at what he seeing. Was his mind playing tricks on him? The balls of glass, holding the dust, were now part of the wall and yet were still being held or carried by the shadows. They looked part of this world and yet they were, moving on the wall. It was almost as if the balls of glass had become shadows and yet they had retained their color somehow. Ian swiftly turned his head and looked behind to see if the same thing was going on the other side. It was, but to his surprise the mirrored floor did not reflect the colorful ceiling, only a pure white ceiling, it still had though the shadows on the white walls holding the balls of glass. Ian turned back to look at the wall right near him, and the shadows were still moving past him. Ian was curious and in disbelief, he calmly told himself “This is some dream, not like my other ones, and yet here I am.” He tried to calm down, but he was still in disbelief. He said to himself “What the heck is this place? I mean, what if this wall isn’t really a wall? He reached out for the wall to touch, but he was stopped by a white hand that grabbed his wrist. He jumped and looked behind him. Behind him was a teenage girl wearing white shoes, blue jeans, and a pink shirt with a picture of Einstein sitting on a bench twiddling his thumbs near a gorgeous lady sitting on the same bench. Under the picture was the quote “Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. That's relativity.” Ian was amazed not only by the sudden appearance of this girl with black hair, but by the shirt. She let go of his wrist, put her hands on her hips and, cocked her head to right and replied in strangely normal voice “You like the shirt? I personally like the little touch on the back.” She turned around and on the back of the shirt was an oven with a black handprint on the burners. Ian was amused, but their was so much going on that he didn’t know what to do or say. He just stood there. “You’re a curious one aren’t you? First the wall and now the shirt, what’s next?” She laughed and then stopped and got into a position that looked like she was thinking about something. “I feel like I’m forgetting something… oh whatever! Since you already have seen the shirt why don’t I show the wall?” Ian was confused “I can see the wall right here. It’s just a wall, right? Ian said. The shadows that were once there were now long gone. “Of course it is just a wall silly! Just wait until my shadows come back.” the girl said. Ian turned his head to wall and then realized something, he asked “Wait a second... what you mean by your shado….” Before he could finish what he said, Ian had looked back behind him, but the girl was no where to be seen, instead in her place was a beautiful women. She had brownish hair with a motherly face that had a smile to make anyone feel warm inside. She wasn’t wearing anything fancy, except for a long white dress with a black flower design pattern all over. In a seemingly nice voice she said “Oh sorry, now I remember what I was supposed to do, but hear let me show the wall” She whistled and the shadows carrying the glass balls came back, racing again past Ian on the walls. She grabbed his wrist and started to pull his hand to the wall. Ian was feeling a little dizzy right now, but he moved his hand without commotion. As soon as his fingertips touched the wall, they melded into the wall and started stretching towards the end of the hall after the shadows. Ian felt no pain, but he reclaimed his normal senses and pulled back his hand swiftly. He stood before the woman in a defensive stance still holding his hand and asked. “Who are you?” Again the person before was no longer there, but in its place wasn’t the teenager before, but an old woman. The old woman was wrinkly and had snow white hair that looked just like the white on the walls. She wore a nice red dress with a purple kerchief covering the top of her head. She replied in a powerful voice “Who am I? I am the new lover girl, the wife, the grandma, but so you don’t get confused, I will tell you everything that you only could ever know from talking to me today. You can call me Mrs. Missus and I live here with my man and my child. My official work name and title is The Bringer.” Ian just stood their with his mouth slightly open. “Now before I forget yet again, my man wanted me to bring you to him. After all, I am The Bringer.” She winked at Ian and Ian just stood their “Now come along we don’t want to be late.” Ian nodded his head and started to move forward down the hallway with Mrs. Missus. In what seemed like an hour they soon came to the corner of the long hallway. Mrs. Missus walked around the corner and as soon as Ian saw her again, she had turned back into the first teenage girl skipping along. “Hurry up slowpoke!” she said. By this time Ian was still feeling weird, but he felt sane enough that he yelled back “Wait for me.” As Ian ran he tried to tell him himself that this was not as strange as before, but he just couldn’t shake this weird feeling he had. Another hour passed and soon another corner came up. This time Ian yelled to her “Stop!” She stopped skipping and looked behind her. “This time I want to be ahead ok?” he said. “Sure, what ever floats your boat.” she replied. Ian walked around the corner and swiftly turned to look around the corner. In the middle of starting to skip she stopped and looked him. “Ok, now that’s creepy.” she said with an angry look on her face. Ian pulled his head back and just waited for her to come past the corner. She came past the corner, but now as the same woman she was before. “That was very rude, and we have little time to waste before my man gets angry.” Ian was now worried and thought aloud. “What if he is angry?” Mrs. Missus eye’s looked at him directly and she said “Be careful my little receiver or he just might create it.” Ian was now perplexed, but he continued on his journey. After another hour, the pair finally came to a large double door. Probably the most mysterious Ian had ever sensed in this place behinds his sudden ability to become tired, was the double door in front oh him. The door itself was the shape of a door, but it was only an outline. The walls and floor ended abruptly at little black lines, but the ceiling with the colors continued onward into a living landscape ahead of him. Ian could feel the air from the landscape and the sunlight from the sun setting into the mountain range, but he could still see the black outlines of a large double door in front of them. It was as if the door was painted on top of the landscape itself to look real. Mrs. Missus by now was an old woman again and she reached for the door, as if everything was normal and put her hand on the outline of the doorknob. The landscape itself swung open. Mrs. Missus said “Well deary, what are you waiting for? Don’t worry you wont fall.” Ian walked past the now cackling woman and into the now open door. Inside it was all black, but Ian’s legs just kept walking. He tried to look back, but his head wouldn’t budge an inch. Ian heard a click behind him and in a blink of the eye he was in a large room, standing on water. He looked below and all around him was what seemed like one large endless ocean, he looked up, but there was no sky. No clouds, no sunlight, only infinite empty space. Nobody was here and Ian was just starring at this place in disbelieve. The water did not touch his feet, but it did ripple like something was floating on top of it. Ian was pissed now, this time we wanted to test something to see if this was all real. He jumped up and as he came down, to his amazement his fell through the water. Luckily Ian could swim, but he couldn’t swim forever in nowhere. Ian put his hand above the water flailing it about until he suddenly got hold of something. He had put his palm directly on the water he was swimming in. The water was still a liquid, but it felt solid enough to lift him out. The now completely wet Ian picked himself out of the water and crawled his body on to now solid surface of the water slowly bobbing up and down. Ian felt a mixture of emotions now, but mostly the feeling that he was going insane. “Maybe I played that game a little too long.” he told himself. Ian was now alarmed, what if he had become crazy? What if he died? “There are always questions from answers, but not always answers from questions.” Ian heard the voice of a man above him. “That specific answer is for another time though.” Ian looked up and saw a man chuckling, looking right at him. Before Ian could see who it was, the man walked away out of Ian’s sight. Ian immediately got up and looked at where the man had walked too. The man was standing on the water a little ways away; in front of him were floating square globules of water. On each globule were words in a language Ian didn’t understand at all no matter how hard he tried to compare to other languages. Ian turned his attention back to the person in front of him. He had a simple face except his blonde hair and his blonde mustache. He wore blue jeans with an old England Rugby team jersey from 2002. Ian walked slowly towards the guy and asked “Ok let me ask this for the last time. Who are you? And now since this I know this isn’t a dream anymore, since I am soaking wet. Why am I here?” The man pressed one of the water globules and all of them turned back into a liquid which fell into the water below. “Good questions my boy, let me answer all of them” the man said in a powerful yet calm voice. “Like my woman you met before, I live here. I am the new lover boy, the husband, the grandpa. My name is Mr. Mister and my job title here is The Starter.” Ian was about to say something but Mr. Mister said before he could talk “metaphorically this is the post office of ideas. Here take ideas we have created and before you even know it we place the right idea into your noggin for you to use. Whether they be good or bad ideas they want is up to the person though.” He stopped for a moment and said “You know I have a lot to say why don’t you take a seat?” I looked behind me and a chair made of liquid formed behind me. I sat in it still in disbelieve to what I was hearing. When I turned back to look at him, the man was gone and in his place was a wrinkly old man with white hair wearing khaki’s and a green shirt that had the design of a forest. “You like our hallways? Those hallways and that door you saw were just ideas we liked and decided to use. If you are wondering who you are, you are Ian, an ordinary Homo Sapien and an idea receiver.” Ian was understood to the point where he could say confidently. “So why am I here?” The old man stood up in a powerful looking pose. “What if you weren’t here?” Ian was confused “huh?” Ian said. What if you just sat on the computer all your life playing games and kept your life the same way it is today? What your life became boring and dull?” Ian was now nervous and replied “That would stink.” With a booming voice that echoed through the halls Mr. Mister replied “Exactly! What if’s are powerful ideas that make life interesting and yet your what if’s are boring, dull, and unmotivated. You could wish for a more interesting life, but wishes are deceptive, greedy, never change anything, and only come in packets of 3 A what if is entirely different from a wish my boy. What ifs are powerful wills, suggestions, and ideas that change the universe. What if man could step on the moon? What if we rub these two sticks together? What if we just shake hands and forget this silly war? He then lowered his voice to that of a regular conversation tone, where I could hear every word of it, down to his strange accent. “It is with what ifs that you are here today even. What if I hold her hand? What if we have the wedding at my home town?” What if we had a child and what if we named her something like Eliza, but if it was a boy he would be named…Ian”. I called you here Ian because I want to change your what ifs and your life for the better so I am offering you a deal. Ian’s mind could barely wrap around this, so all he said in a slight whisper was “What is the deal?” Mr. Mister by now was African American teenager with a red shirt and torn jeans. “In exchange for the improvement, I will give you this pocket watch.” Mr. Mister handed him a solid gold but oddly plain pocket watch. ”The pocket watch only tells time in hours and has a 24 limit. Every 24 hours at exactly midnight, the pocket watch will change the previous universe to fit the exact answer for the what if question that will be engraved on the back of the pocket watch. Every day, a new what if question will appear on the back of that watch and you must survive the universe it creates from midnight to midnight for a month. From today, which is February 1st to February 28th. If you survive, everything from now on will improve. Do you accept? By the way you only have 5 minutes to answer. By this time Ian was sweating rapidly, he couldn’t think straight, and what ever he said faded into breath. Ian then suddenly said without thinking. “Agreed!” Mr. Mister smiled “Awesome dude” he said “And with only 10 seconds to spare! Good luck.” Ian didn’t move at all, he only turned his head down to look at the watch. The question engraved on the back of watch read “What if a story began?” The hand on the watch then ticked forward and it became February 2nd.

I don't think it's paragraphed properly, which makes it difficult and seemingly impossible to read...

Moving to Dakka fiction.

Please paragraph it so it is easier to read.

TL;DR

Impossible to read since its not paragraphed.

I read it, and it still doesn't make sense.

It's not wargaming related, folks, so I wouldn't bother. TL;Don'tR.

Really tough to get into hard to read it all, paragraphing would be much easier and much more engaging,

Um if I may ask, are you a follower of the changer of ways because this was impossibel to read. Try to have few paragraphs makes it much miore easier to read

* Deleted

Generalian wrote: seemed like one large endless ocean

QFT!

yeah, i'm going to have to agree with everyone else, put it into paragraphs.

Errrrrr.... yeah, I've gotta, for once, agree with everyone else and say this absolutely, extremely, and quite nearly sucked as bad as, say, that drunk space elf last weekend. So yeah, put it in paragraphs so I can read more than just the first coupla lines before saying "Screw this, we're too cool to go back" and just go down the page to post this comment. Next time make me go "Woowww" like Flavor Flav.

LK2

It's a decent story, but honestly, it needs to be touched up in a couple spots.