Pure darkness. Most people would think it’s scarey. I don’t, it is blissful to me, why you ask? At this point of time I can still feel that chocolatey feeling in the back of my throat. That lovely feeling that warms you up inside the heart. I love that feeling of the the high cocoa butter content on the back of your tongue. It’s like that greasy feeling when you eat fried chicken, only it’s not sickly and it’s quite pleasant. I love myself, I am the food god who manufactured the flavour profile of Kitty Kibbles. My ingenuity of reprogramming food flavours is beyond great. I am ever so grateful for this darkness of flavours I am currently inhibiting, it’s heaven.
However, my peaceful darkness was broken by this annoying rhythmic beating. It sounds like the apartment next door with its paper thin walls is repeatedly whacked with the same monotonous beat.
It’s so annoying. I pushed my consciousness out to hit back at them. He, he, he I kind of imagine myself with a broom stick hitting the wall while I am fixated on the television (chocolate flavours) in front of me. It doesn't really do anything to tell that beating to stop, so I only do this occasionally. It’s like the neighbor's yappy dog that barks all the time while you are sleeping during the day.. you just have to zone out and and ignore it .
For the past few eons I have been feeling kinda of strange. I feel like I have a lot of water sloshing in my ears. It’s bearable but only because I can concentrate on chocolate. I wish this watery feeling would go away.
I don’t know there is something wrong with this darkness… It feel like it’s pushing me away. No. I want to stay here. Its nice, warm dark. I sense this heavy feeling of dread. Like the peace and quiet I am experiencing will disappear. So I force my consciences to hold on. Then I feel like some net has grabbed me. I am struggling against it. Stupid net. I have the power of Kitty Kibbles. Nothing will make me leave this place. I will stay here forever. I feel like the net is trying to talk to me. Saying words like ‘Come into the Light’. Screw you. I am staying in the dark. I ignore it. I feel a sudden yank. I feel like this net is examining my mind. Do you mind? What part of privacy don’t you understand?
And then like butter, cut with a hot knife… It’s gone. WHAT IT’S GONE. I can’t believe it. Empty, nada, zilch. I panic, I rage, I cry. I’d always assumed it would be there. Once you have experience something and then it suddenly disappears. That empty feeling like my heart has been holed out with blunt rusty dagger. It hurts so much. Is this what it is like to die? Kitty Kibbles, how can you leave me? I roll in fetal position and the net drags my limp body out of the darkness and into the light.
I blink and open my eyes slowly. I have eyes? I feel so tiny. I wanna curl up and go back to the darkness. I close my eyes. The light is just too bright.
“Wham”
A sudden force hits my arse. I am silent. Just let me die.
“Wham”
I open my eyes to look at where this force is coming from. A young lady is slapping my butt. Hit me again so I can die.
Then some old man with a beard appears in my view. In his hands he is conjuring a fire. Dude… fire inside a house is not good. He’s spitting out some kind of gibberish I don’t understand. Wait, that ball of flame is coming closer to me. Dude… take that away from me.
A golden flame wraps around me.
Ahhh it hurts. It hurts. I sucked in the air for the first time in a long while. The empty taste of air. I cry out in rage.
“He Breathes!”
Previous Chapter Overview A Compendium of Useless Powers
{HueHueHue, Next chapters hidden in one page lol }
Chapter 3 - Comparison
I am a prehistoric goop…. I am a leach... A parasite…I am the worst human ever… I am a baby. I fart, I eat, I poop and I try and look cute. However,the people around me always look worried, like I am a fragile piece of glass. This lady with a small pretty hawk like face looks upset with me. She been trying to breastfeed me for the past hour. I've been refusing to eat. She sighs and rubs my back. I know a lot of guys from my previous world would kill for this opportunity drinking milk, however, it is not the flavour I am looking for right now. I am full already I don’t need to eat any more.
She leaves me in the cot. As she moves about reorganising the room, a few new faces walk into the room. They are wearing official robes. They talk with my mother and then they surround me. Ohh what? showing off the baby day already? The old man who put me near a fireball is here. I don’t like him.He picks me up. I retaliate the best way I can: I poop and I fart. He wrinkles his nose. Yes revenge is sweet. I get this sinking feeling that the old man will get the last laugh. I think I am pretty intuitive in this new body. The people surrounding me confirm it. They all start glowing. One by one they start holding up fireballs at me.
From absorbing subsequent warmth from a multitude of flames
You have learned warmth.
GHAAAAhhhhhh. I blinked in confusion. This is where you see one of those strange windows when you accomplish something in the Virtual world right? I am still dreaming, I hope.
You received a fireball heat increase to heat resistance raised
Total resistance to fire is 0.01%
Another hour of fireballs… I would say about ten fireballs has hit me. It’s not pleasant, it hurts and it is painful and I feel very thirsty and dehydrated, my head throbs. While these strange people conjure the flames they summon the fires of hell right next to me. STOP PLAYING WITH FIRE!
You received a fireball heat increase to heat resistance raised
Total resistance to fire is 0.02%
I manager to resist another hour of fireballs…
You received a fireball heat increase to heat resistance raised
Total resistance to fire is 0.03%
Mind you, the same message pops up a multitude of times. I cringe every time I see it. It’s going to be another painful fireball. My eyes are swarmed with all these stupid message. I flail my arms so I don't have to see it no more. The menu’s stack up and I feel hot and claustrophobic. I close one pop up window and another appears. Isn’t there some way to make these windows stop? Ahh, I just tick the box on the side to remove all pop up menus for now. It’s getting scary I smell something like roast pork being cooked. I think it’s me. My voice is hoarse and panicky. It’s getting harder to breathe in the hot air.
Hawk face lady interrupts them from throwing the next fireball thank goodness for compassion. I want to crawl away… I am only just a newborn, how evil are these people?
She is conversing with the old man and all I manage to comprehend is.
“He’s a baby, he won't remember.”
She nods and reluctantly she passes me back to him.
Babies won't even remember ... I bloody remember!
Evil man! I have you know that is docking a tail off a dog. If Animal Welfare League were watching, you are going to rot in jail for abuse of animals. Regardless of my thoughts and feelings, the fireballs continued.
The flames unabated continued..I think I hallucinated at some point.
You have learned candle flame.
To access more information you will have to open all pop up menu via the main menu.
I hate pop up menus. Pop up menus be gone. The box for all future pop menus to not pop up is closed.
I wake up. I am lying in a cot. There are no more flames. I relax and close my eyes and dose off. There are footsteps near the door.
It’s my mother and another lady, she is carrying something. She puts in the cot with me… Its another baby. The cot shakes.
“Aww look at them… this is your older half brother.”
“It’s a pity they were born only five days apart.”
My brain turns into marshmallows… MORE like 5 years apart.
And you wanna know the weird thing? I have this sudden feeling this person is going to be like the friend you take on camping trips. You know, the one you give the responsibility to toast the marshmallows and all you end up with a black mass of charcoal. Somehow, I think I am the marshmallow. The other kid in the cot is twice the size of me. In his fist is a fire ball. Dude, I struggle and manage to roll away.
“Oooh it’s so cute they’re sharing flames.”
Nuuuu don’t torture me with the the burning… it urrts !
“Thank you so for letting your son rest with mine. you are so kind”
No, No you are not take it out from here. One baby, one cot!
I turn to face my elder brother. He’s drooling and looking like a normal kid for now. Good no fire. The cot becomes warmer… What? What is he doing? The other kid’s eyes flash and metallic like a cat’s eye’s being shone with a torch. Smoke is oozing from his nose. His whole body is glowing. Its akin to those fireballs I was subjected to after birth. Yet this baby is glower much much brighter. So bright that it hurts my eyes when closed. then it stops. I turn to stare to make sure nothing bad will happen. I should have looked... Why is he breathing out small bits of flame? Hey… It looks like he is gonna choke … Hey don't face me!
ERREHEAAHAHWWWAHAHAHAHSHDSA
Flames envelope me.
Mother’s eyes glazed with tears. and she makes a praying action
“From one flame to another. Family always sticks together.”
Chapter 4 - I am useless to the family
It has been another five days since and I am still experience the flames of hell. It is all comes forth from that monstrous ball of flesh that should be calling my brother. Besides I really should have a gold star for enduring my older brother’s antics. Everytime he moves flames of random colours surround him and then consequently hits me. None of the adults do anything about it. They think its normal. I say that are all dysfunctional. Who in the blazes burns a friggin baby?
I thought, at first, when I was reborn in the world that plays like a Virtual Reality game. Anytime now … A pop up window should appear. …I tried clicking my fingers in front of my head. Right, I said any time now … I repeatedly click my fingers. Now? … Now?
Ahhhh Crap, perhaps this world is real? Nothing makes sense. Everyone appears human, I don’t see any hidden tails or ears or any other monster appendage. The only thing I have realised I am born into a group of fire monsters. And I am a throw back who fell from the frying pan into the deep fryer.
The sad thing about being a baby is that I can't really do much. The worst thing about it is that I am a baby that has a mind of a 38 year old food scientist. I am not the kind of scientist that burns stuff to figure out how many calories your are receiving. Laughably, the very idea of burning stuff rankles on my mind. I am a flavorist, I enhance existing flavours and colour your subconscious without you knowing. From scratch I can make the flavours of the rainbow dance upon your tongue. I highly doubt that this place has any use for a biological chemical engineer.
Right now I have to say, I am bored. I dont have my laboratory to make or do calculations or anything. When I am not working in the lab, I generally like to reverse engineer recipes of foods I like eating. Looking for new ways to recreate them and make them better. I miss being able to make my own things. Since I can’t do that I just wiggle all day long. Once I become stronger I will get away from here.
My memory from my past life is still fresh. I recall my previous workplace, the love of my life. Flavourings plus science. Flavourists are scientist in the best practical field of science you might not ever take notice of. Remember that brand of chip you are nibbling on and how it has that cheesy flavour. Most likely it would have been designed by the company I was working in. That mint that smells minty and and that soap you use on your body. That company again. Since the initiation of Virtual Reality flavorist around the world have been working hard so you can get the same simulations in the VR world.
As a 7th generation flavorist I did my eight year apprenticeship finishing during primary school. My great, great, great, great grandfather made artificial tomato sauce, with no tomato. He’s famous for being humiliated from asking for testers to try it out without him even touching it. Its because he wanted to see everyone else reactions to the flavours made from scratch.
It’s a science thing we like to make people suffer from our evil science experiments.
I know how to use gas and liquid chromatography. Food I just love it. If it’s a dead animal on the road side and it smells interesting. I will scoop it up and take to the lab to duplicate. Have a fetish for over ripe watermelon flavour. Bring that melon to the lab and let me dissect it.I can flavour water to taste like over ripe water melon. I’ll even offer to sneak over to the opposing baseball team’s water supply and share your fetish. If the people at the local cafe call themselves sandwich artisans. To the flavourists they are only the ants that create and ant mound for we are known as the gods of food. We have an obsession for quality and detail. We don’t even deal with the public, we sell our secrets to the manufacturing companies. As we are scientists we are very logical and like to take things in a step by step approach. It would be great it science could be applied to any situation in life...
Except for this life, none of my previous skill apply here. There ain’t no lab or no Chromatography machines, Litmus paper or computers here.
Father comes into the room. This is the first time I see father.
He swings my brother in the air with glee
He looks at me slightly disappointed ..
“Damn I was hoping for a girl”
Is this because I am not warrior material…. Brother runs around him waving a toy metal sword for attention. its a basically a replica, blunted ? Well I would like to assume its blunted but knowing how weird these people are its probably sharp enough to slice an apple with ease.
Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.
Chapter 5 - Us toddlers, We Can Run 30th Dec 2014
Well it has been ten days since I have been born into this world and already my body has grown to that of a five year old. Mother looks at me and then to my half brother and sighs, I fear she is sighing at our size difference. Throwing more dark slop onto the plate in front of me, my pile is proportionally larger. This dark slop is an abomination to all, it is something that should never grace a person’s tongue, however, as children this is all we seem to have for food, it comes in large copious amounts.
In protest to this, I try to speak out to my mother.
“Ghuagbal!” Stabbing the spoon into the oozing goo, then watching it bounce off to the floor.
Mother rolls her eyes at me, picking up the spoon and polishing it she passes it back to me “Eat it, you need it to grow big and strong, it’s what every child loves.” I swear there is some sarcasm here, unfortunately it is hard to tell as I see my brother leaning his chest over the food and eyeing the whole place for would be food thieves and wolfing it down like there is no tomorrow.
“Gahhloobal!” My translation for that is: leave me alone, I don’t want to eat this bland goop.
It irritates me to no end, why can’t I speak? I understand what they are saying,perfectly, so technically my lungs are developed so, I should be able to respond back and tell them how crappy this food tastes.
My thoughts are interrupted by my older half brother, he looks at me with wide eyes, his plate is perfectly licked clean, it sparkles as if it has never been used. As we are both sitting on a shared chair, I can feel him inching closer to me, using his glute muscles, I start rocking as he inches closer to me. His eyes are focused on my mother then to my plate and the back at my mother, and as soon as she turns her head he wobbles the chair to move closer to me. It is almost mesmerising and disturbing to see him move using his bottom. He learns over and reaches with his bare hands for my plate.
Wack.
Despite the fact that her face is facing the opposite direction. My mother whacks him with the metal spoon. She frowns at him and then loads more goop to his plate. This is his third helping of the stuff, so gross. While mother is not paying attention I make an attempt to leave the table, only to feel her hands clawing into my shoulders. My mother takes my spoon and makes an eating action with it. Like a little kid, I take full advantage of my status, I start gagging at the sight of that stuff. I already know I cannot leave the table until I have taken a few bites of the stuff, despite this fact, I will protest no matter what barbarian law is placed on me.
The clinking sound of a two people in full leather armour interrupts dinner, thankgoodness.
“Ignis, you are back? ” My mother responds to the shape at the doorway.
“There are reports of Sword Ki people invading our territory, Unica, there is also news that the Aquestdium tribe is may use this as a distraction and invade on our territory.
There also other reports of sightings of sword ki blades of iron near the outposts. Village elder Ferveo has decided to fortify our current villages, thus I have returned. ”
Using this distraction I look at my brother who is longingly looking at me, well the plate to be exact. I willingly oblige him by giving him fist fulls of the goop off my plate.
“Adustum stop feeding Scorch your food! ” Damn, caught red handed.
Father peers into the room we are eating in. “Ooh the kids are here.” Scorch, my brother goes all goo goo gah. He ruffles his hair, Scorch is the size of a ten year old, with a five year old face. I Roll my eyes at this, seeing me act colder, Dad runs in an bear hugs me.
“I love my little girl!”
“...”
That’s it I start kicking him in a rage. The last time I checked I definitely peed, peed with a hose. The old man starts rambling I show him my fists of furry. Of course the body of a midget five year old can do nothing against this man of solid muscle mass.
“...It’s kind of cute, but you’re so small we could marry you off the the <> family… or the <> family or the <> family,” he sighs, “if only you were a girl.”
Wack.
This time it is my father rubbing his head wincing with pain.
“Yeah but it’s just not right, our child is our son, a cute son but nonetheless… Don’t marry him off… and you Adustrum don't feed your brother food, you’re a boy, remember boys accept food.”
“Oh wells,” Father shrugs rubbing his head still.
Father pats my head, Mother pats my head and my brother looks at me sadly as well. He pats my head too. Hang on is everyone pitying me because I am tiny? My dad is pulling my hair as if to make it grow longer… Either he wishes I was a girl or I grow bigger; and hopefully not just in the chest area.
In this society, I have figured out two things, short girls are great, short boys are useless.
“If you don't grow any further in the next few days, I guess we have a shorty in the family.”
Mother and father both make a praying hand gesture lighting a flame in the hand they solemnly exchange flame, I am glad they are are good distance away from me.
“Ehem.” A giant warrior covered in full leather armour pops its head through the door.
as if suddenly remembering dress code etiquette removes the helmet.
“Ahh this is Susanna we are assigning her to .. ”
Stuffing a whole spoonful of goop into father’s mouth instead of mine, Unica frowns
“Another female? Another!? ...”
Using the distraction here, I tip the entire contents of breakfast down my brother throat. He happily grins at me. I then pretend to scrape my empty plate as if I was eating from it the whole time.
“... does Singe know about this? ”
Mother walks past me, phew I am safe..
Wack.
A blinding pain is on the back of my head, seems like I spoke too soon. This is the wacky family. The next thing I know, my nose is being held and she is shovelling gloop into my mouth. Oh please, god no, why does it not tastes like chocolate. Oh where is the salt and pepper, is there no justice in this world?
There is an awkward silence in the room as Susanna, Unica and Ignis look at each other, only the partial sounds of me choking on goop could be heard. Susanna who is looking for a way to escape the room looks at both my brother and I. Ahh my savior.
“You know when I was a kid, a good walk always made me feel hungry, how about I take the kids out for a walk while the two of you discuss.”
“Soon the kids will be of trainable age, it is best to give them a head start. ”
Holy macaroons,savior my arse, did she say go for a walk? Did she say training? If playing involves swords, sharing involves fireballs and , eating involves torture. I do not want to know what walking entails. I attempt to scramble from my chair, to no avail. The new lady picks me up. My brother is tall enough that he is being comfortably walking on the ground beside her, while myself has at least a foot separating me for the earth. Hey at least slouch while holding me by the hand.
We “go” for a walk, which I estimate to be basically a fifty kilometre marathon run. The land is sparse hot and dry and there is hardly any vegetation in the surrounding lands. Older brother runs ahead and Susanna laughs, she takes great lunges, moving further ahead of my brother and myself. I do not like this world and I would very much go back home right now. There are some small weird creatures at stare at me, covered in spikes and scales, and then they scuttle back into the desert. I worry as I can only see the top of my brother’s head in the distant hills.
As much as I try to push myself I cannot keep up to the superior size of my brother.
Huffing and puffing I relieve my stomach of breakfast behind a tree. Farewell gloop we were only friends short while but I am afraid you must depart from your free carriage. I hope we do not meet again. There is a rustling sound and I glance towards the source of the sound.
“Hiss!”
A giant lizard appears, with scales the same as the desert sand. How can a five year old body of a boy facing a giant lizard,flames ooze from its nostrils. Fire is really scarey, I feel my heart erratically beat only to notice that my legs are wet and warm. I attempt to sneak away yet fear catches into my heart I slowly start to take a step backwards, I slip over making audible noise as I fall rear end first into rubble, note to self, never walk backwards.
The lizard’s head turns towards the noise. Time to sneak away.
It swipes its spiky hammer like tail at me and I stumble forward into the sand. The tail is raised in the air again, it swings at me like a hammer intending to smash me to smithereens. I roll into the sand cloud caused by the forced of its tail, to avoid its head and mouth searching the ground for my body with its toothy jaw. The beast roars in rage and belches out fire causing the sand to turn like molten glass. The land is covered in a sea of smoke and red I jump back hopping over mini pools of newly made glass. The heat from the molten patches feel hotter than the sun. The beast has enough energy to turn sand into glass? If I recall correctly it is about 1500 degrees celsius minimum to melt glass. The beast roars out loudly and a gentle breeze blows away the smoke cover. I try to make as much progress as I can to get away from the lizard, however my path has no clear pathway out as I have to avoid the molten pools of fire.
My foot squelches into a wet mess, hello again breakfast I did not think we would meet again, this is so gross. The ground starts shaking and I try to hide behind some rubble. The tail swipes again at me and I roll into the ground and the beast blows out fire. I find myself rolling into my previous stomach mess. Cornered. The giant lizard knows this. Its sharp tail glints in the fires the illuminate the ground. It intends to skewer me. I cry out loudly hiding behind the only thing I can hide behind. Breakfast, as much as I hate you please last me until lunch time at least.
The tail smashes into me and the used goop and it bounces like the spoon I used at breakfast. The tail thumps again like it is beating a drum. The force causes me to sink deeper into the sand. I have no idea what this goop stuff is made from yet is has properties of hardness, elastic modulus, ductility and wear resistance I have never seen before. Breakfast, you are the most important meal of the day. The lizard, annoyed at not being able to skewer me starts boiling smoke in its nostrils. This is it, I will finally die by fire. Will I die with goop being the last thing to grace my tongue, life is so sad.
“Gaaaaarrrrhhhhh!”
This time the roar is not coming from the lizard. The sound is coming from the East. A blur
speeds past my eyes, torpedoing into the lizard’s side causing it to spew fire in the distant hills. It’s my brother and he headbutts the lizard, I audibly hear its rib’s cracking. Be proud brother, you have a thick head.
“Gaaahooooo!”
Susanna come running with a feisty smile on the face. The lizard is shocked at being harassed by a small creature and seeing a giant Susanna run in with a dagger in hand. The lizard attempts to escape. With a child gnawing at its tail, it is unable to use the spiky tail to retaliate. Susanna goes all kung fu on the lizards arms moving with several after images of hand sliding this way and that way. With each slide and twist of the wrist the scaley skin of the lizard is marked with bright red lines, and soon you can hear the blood sizzling on the molten rock below. Susanna and Scorch are not affected by the burning ground below. The lizard finally collapses to the ground.
Scrotch straddles the tail of the lizard his mouth still biting on the back of lizard. Susanna sits near the dead body of the lizard cross legged. She ignores the burning on molten sand on the ground, she is practically relaxing in molten lava. Does the flames not affect her all?
She beckons me to come closer and I gingerly step around the burning ground. She frowns at my evasive walking action.
She holds in her hands a slab of the lizard’s side. I don’t make any action to move towards the contents in her hands. She surprises me by leaning forward reaching over to grab me by the scruff of the neck.
“You’re a strange one for not wanting meat”
She starts stuffing the slab of raw lizard meat into my mouth. It is raw rank and it does not taste like chicken at all. I glance at my brother, he is already ripping into the hind leg of the lizard. All of the tail has been eaten to the bone. His silver eyes flash at me, even with his belly extended, he eyes the comparatively small piece of meat that Susanna is stuffing down my throat. He looks sick as if he has never filled his stomach up before, he tries to eat more of the lizard carcase. I point at him to try distract Susanna’s feeding intentions. She smiles and nods and points back at my brother.
Glows white and the light becomes brighter and brighter. Eventually it stings my eyes and as I reopen them my brother looks slightly older, a little wiser perhaps? He saved me from the horrible lizard and am grateful we are family.. His eyes perk up with vitality of a child wanting his favourite toy. He point towards me, awww this is the first time I feel the heart wrenching with sibling love.
“Meat!”
This is the first words of my brother. Wait, what? It is then that I notice that rest of the carcass is behind Susanna.
Spoiler :
Shout out to Gigafist - yes I made walking as part of my character’s training regime. Cos I can't do one finger push ups
Other references:
http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Glass your glass mixture may melt at a range of temperatures between 1,500 and 2,500 degrees Celsius
http://ceramics.org/learn-about-ceramics/structure-and-properties-of-ceramics
General Comparison of Materials
Property
Ceramic
Metal
Polymer
Hardness
Very High
Low
Very Low
Elastic modulus
Very High
High
Low
High temperature strength
Thermal expansion
High
Low
Very Low
Ductility
Low
High
High
Corrosion resistance
High
Low
Low
Wear resistance
High
Low
Low
Electrical conductivity
Depends on material
High
Low
Density
Low
High
Very Low
Thermal conductivity
Depends on material
High
Low
Magnetic
Depends on material
High
Very Low
.
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