Friday, April 8, 2011

Forsaken Scarlet

Scarlet was a young and cheerful girl, about 8 years old with shining long reddish brown hair and blue eyes that sparkle like clear water on a summer day. Her parents were wonderful spellcasters, and she always loved to learn spellcasting from them in a dense forest by the village they live in. They spent most of their days in that forest where they can use their magic whenever they want since the village only has sword wielders and archers, and they fear any magic users that set foot in their village and anyone that uses magic would be sentenced to death. This wasn’t a problem for Scarlet and her family, however, since with the help of their magic, they were able to conceal their aura of magic and their identities and live a normal life like the rest of the villagers. A couple months before her ninth birthday, Scarlet managed to successfully use fire magic like her parents, and to celebrate, they decided to make a feast in the forest out of the many fruits and berries they could find, and they cooked it all with Scarlet’s new fire magic. When they finished eating, they saw a hunter that stood in shock and anger at the magic they possess. “DAMN WITCHES!! YOU PLAN ON DESTROYING OUR VILLAGE, DON’T YOU?! I’LL SHOW YOU!!” the hunter yelled out with fiery eyes and he began to charge at them with a large knife. Before the hunter could slam the knife down at her dad, he burned his hand and made him let go of the knife. “You’ll all pay for this, you hear me?!” he yelled out as he ran back to the village, screaming in agony and attempting to cover his burn. “Don’t worry, sweetie.” Her sad softly said to her “Your mother and I will be alright. Hide somewhere in the forest for now, right now, all that matters is your safety.” Scarlet’s eyes began to fill up with tears as she yelled out “I don’t want to leave you! Why won’t you run away and hide as well?!” Her mom picked her up and held her in her arms with tears running down her eyes as well. “This whole thing was our fault, not yours, and we also don’t want to leave our home or kill any innocent people. We love you, sweetie, all we want is for you to be safe.” Despite their talk to her, Scarlet was still persistent on staying by her parents’ side no matter what bad things will happen. Shortly after their talk, all the villagers surrounded them wielding anything they could find, from swords to pitchforks and sickles. Before any of the villagers could say anything to them, Scarlet’s father walked up a few steps towards them and calmly said “We will freely go with all of you, but on one condition. Please, please leave my daughter out of this, she’s innocent and had nothing to do with the incident.” Many of the villagers stared at her like they were expecting an innocent 8 year old girl to trick them and burn all of them. But out of the crowd, the elder of the village appeared. He was a short man with a little fat on his belly and very skinny arms and legs, and with a sincere look on his face, he said to the villagers “Don’t get hasty, all of you, I’m sure they had a good reason towards their action. Magic users aren’t very different from us, so why do you want to kill them so much?” One of the villagers came out from the crowd and yelled “Don’t you remember when a single spellcaster nearly destroyed our entire village?! That’s why we can’t trust these magic using bastards anymore!” “Not all of them are evil, and we live in an amazing world full of spellcasters, humans with powers of dragons, and valkyries” the village elder responded “I say they should be left unpunished, so we should all head back to the village.” All of the villagers were furious and they charged in and grabbed Scarlet’s parents and took them back into the village to be executed, completely ignoring what the elder said. When the villagers dragged her parent’s out of the forest, the elder noticed that the villagers actually accepted their plea and left Scarlet untouched. Scarlet on her knees, bawling, knowing that there was nothing she can do to save her parents, not even the use of her new fire magic that was still weak and using it would cost her her own life as well. The elder slowly walked up to her, and he felt like he could hardly walk from his melancholy at the sight of Scarlet’s sadness. With the last bit of energy he could find, he bent down to Scarlet and whispered in her ear “Don’t worry, my child, the executions won’t start until morning, so I can possibly set up a way for them to be safe, but who knows if it’ll work.” Scarlet began to hold onto the elder’s arm and didn’t want to let go of him until she fell asleep several minutes later with tears still slowly coming down her face. The next day was bright and beautiful, but the day’s beauty would soon be gone by the shadows of the execution. All the villagers were at the center of the village, roaring anxiously for the executions to start. The village elder stood on a high platform with Scarlet standing beside him holding his hand very tightly. With a depressed look on his face, he slowly began his speech. “Even if I let them go, your rage will take over your judgments and you’ll want to kill them even more, and that will get you all possibly killed. So by the majority of the village and for the safety of every one of you, I have no choice but to sentence them to death.” All of the villagers hollered in excitement, cheering as if they just won the war against spellcasters. Then the executioner slowly came up to the platform and stood by the elder. He was a behemoth with a dark hood, wearing a thick, black coat covered in dry blood and wielding a distorted scythe with a shining, clean blade and a handle still covered in dry blood. “However” the elder began to talk again. “For your safety in case they attack any of us again, they will be executed in the forest and we will all stay here and wait until the executioner returns.” Many of the villagers got furious again, but it didn’t last too long and they accepted his words knowing what happened to the hunter. The executioner escorted Scarlet’s parents into the forest, and none of the villagers decided to run up and kill her parents themselves, fearing not only them, but fearing the deathly look of the executioner. As they were walking into the forest, the elder bent down to quietly talk to Scarlet again “Your parents will be fine, I told the executioner to let your parents go somewhere and he’d say that he got threatened by them and that they got away. I just hope he doesn’t actually kill them.” An hour past since they walked off into the forest, and Scarlet was still crying and tightly holding onto the elder’s hand. Right before one of the villagers would go into the forest to check things out, the executioner finally returned. As soon as he came out of the shadows in the forest, everyone noticed the fresh blood dripping from the tip of his scythe and the new blood stains on his dark coat. “The deed is done…” the executioner said in a very low and ominous voice. At that moment, all the villagers began to cheer and celebrate in the middle of the town. However, the village elder began to shed some tears as he looked at Scarlet, bawling on the ground and cry at the top of her lungs. Scarlet then began to throw out waves of fire towards the sky, and everyone became quiet as soon as they saw the flames began to listen to her cries. “WHY DID YOU HAVE TO TAKE MY PARENTS AWAY FROM ME, I LOVED THEM WITH ALL MY HEART!! THEY DIDN’T DO ANYTHING WRONG!! WE MAY BE ABLE TO USE MAGIC, BUT THAT DOESN’T MAKE US LESS HUMAN LIKE ALL OF YOU!!” As she continued to bawl, everyone began to feel sad and felt so sorry on what they took away from her. The village elder suddenly spoke with sadness in his voice to everyone. “I hope you all learned today that no matter what gifts we have as a human being, we are still no different from everyone else. Unfortunately, we had to sacrifice the lives of two innocent people trying to raise a family. All I pray for now is a better future and humanity to everyone.” After everyone applauded from his speech, the elder turned his head towards the forest, and he noticed the executioner still standing by the shadows of the forest and he noticed that the blood from the executioner’s scythe was gone and that the fresh blood stains from his dark coat were gone as well. The elder bent down to Scarlet, her face full of tears, and began to calmly talk to her with an excited look on his face. “Knowing your parents, they’re probably still alive and perfectly safe somewhere. However, I don’t know where they could be now or where they’re planning to go. I think it’s best if you stay in the village for now, you can stay at my home for the time being; you can learn more about your fire magic and other amazing spells.” A small smile began to appear on her face and began to hug his body, as if she just saw her parents walking towards the village. As the years slowly pass, Scarlet taught herself on mastering her fire spells and was also learning a few healing spells as well. She became friends with several villagers and became so friendly and happy towards everyone. Scarlet managed to live a normal life while the elder took good care of her, but she would oftentimes have a melancholy thinking about her parents that she misses so much. When she was 13, she perfected many fire spells and can use all of them expertly; however, at that same time, the village elder died from old age, and she was left with the entire home herself and no one to lead the village. It was soon after the elder’s death that all the villagers began to neglect and hate her again like they did to all the other spellcasters in the past. She tried to be friendly and kind to them again, but they were completely ignoring her and shoving her out of their way. When she first saw everyone hating her again as she was walking around the village, she thought to herself “What the hell’s going on here? Why does everyone hate me again so much now? I guess they truly didn’t change forever in the end…” A few years past, and she began to feel very lonely again and would isolate herself in her home most of her days learning more fire and healing spells. Then one day, a few young warriors came to the village and asked Scarlet if she’d like to go with them on a journey to fight the dark monsters in the land and find the people they miss so much. Scarlet was adamant about her thought on every normal human being selfish and non-accepting, but she knew they weren’t normal people; they had normal weapons of swords and a hammer, but they each had unique spells and wondrous powers with them; and in a way, they were like her with feelings of loneliness and the need to do something great with their gifts in their lives. After letting her sad emotions out about her past and wanting to find her parents, she decided to go with them and leave the village for something even greater, and before leaving, she decided to become friendly to all the villagers despite everyone still ignoring and hating her existence. While the sun was setting as she was leaving the village with her new friends, she put her hands on her breasts, felling a painful strain going on in her heart. “Dammit! What’s this feeling I’m having now? It’s making me feel like I want revenge on everyone in the village for what they did to my parents 8 years ago. To kill every last one of those bastards and destroy their homes, like what they did to me. I guess I’m glad I’m leaving that hellish village for their safety and for me to have a better life. Besides, I have a new family now, and I’m sure they’ll help me through thick and thin.” She thought to herself, and with one last look at the village, she shouted out to her friends “I won’t be forsaken anymore!!” and started slowly walking away with them as her long reddish hair waved smoothly and majestically with the gentle and cool evening wind.

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Daily Journal 4/7 My Thoughts on Creative Writing Class

Creative Writitng class overall was really fun and I liked so many things that we worked on during it, mostly the poems and the stories. The song lyrics part of the class was fun as well, letting people choose songs that actually stand out to them and I'm suprised a lot of people didn't choose that annoying modern day rap/hip hop crap. I like thinking up and writing poems, and I like the variety of poems that we had to do; sure some of those poem concepts were hard to think up of at first, but it becomes really enjoyable to write it up when you finally have an idea. Doing all those daily journals was interesting and fun as well; there were some stupid concepts that hardly anyone would care about, but most of them were just so fun with the fact that we could make up whatever story we want for it or share good memories from our past. What I liked about the class mostly was that I got to use my imagination to think of every journal, poem, and story I made, and having them on an internet blog made it even more fun where people from all over the world could possibly see them. Something I would like to add to this class would be a time for everyone to share their poems to everyone, not like standing in front of the class and saying it, but going from computer to computer or blog to blog on their own computer. I'd also like to add a few more journal parts where students can use their imagination to create a story for the blog and a bit less memory writings.

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Daily Journal 4/6

I've never had any truly bad experiences at restaurants before, but I did have some annoying and pretty awkward experiences. A fairly common annoying thing for me are the obnoxious screaming kids that don't know when to be quiet or stop crying, probably because the parents don't actually try; and I had these experiences in plenty of sit-down restaurants. I guess what I consider a pretty bad experience I had at a restaurant that happened occured while I was eating at Lee An Chin; I was outside with my mom, and as I was eating, a hornet got onto a piece of my chicken. The hornet completely scared me and I had to throw out that piece of chicken (damn bugs). An awkward restaurant moment that happened to me was when I was with a few guys in my group during my Japan trip and we saw this button on the table that we didn't know what it did; so we pressed it, and the most convinient thing happens, a waitress comes over almost instantly, but we weren't ready to order and we were trying to word out in Japanese about that we didn't know what the button did.

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Daily Journal 4/5 My Imaginary Restaurant

I recently just opened up an awesome Japanese-style noodle bar/restaurant called Sasuke Sake Soba Bar. The restaurant isn't extremely big since it mostly looks like a traditional Japanese Ramen Bar that's pretty long and not that wide, but it has a nice traditional Japanese atmosphere that looks incredibly calm and soothing. The restaurant serves all kinds of Japanese-style noodles, from Japan's traditional udon and ramen noodle soups to yakisoba and stir fry. Not only are there noodles, but we also serve Curry and steamed rice, many kinds of sushi and fish, okonomiyaki, gyudon, different kinds of katsu, and sake. We don't have many chefs or workers here, but all our chefs know how to make the most traditional Japanese cuisine without making it seem Americanized. We also have something pretty unique for an American restaurant that's fairly common in Japanese noddle bars: a machine by the enterance where you pay for a ticket of the foods and drinks you want. You hand that ticket to the bartender, and they'll serve your food pretty quickly and with no bills required.

Monday, April 4, 2011

Science Fiction Story Project

I wake up on the cold hard floor, my body absolutely freezing and my head feeling completely dizzy. I wake up in a dark and freezing room with many wires and electrical gadgets spread out throughout the entire room. Once I stood up, I noticed that the floor was slightly damp and cold; and when I turned around to see what it could be, I noticed that there was a row of gigantic cybernetic capsules that were empty and cold as the one behind me, and a few of them were still closed, but the bodies in there turned out to be frozen carcasses with hardly any flesh left on them. “What…… is this place…?” I moan out, still feeling pretty dizzy and cold. A few minutes later, a door slides open and steam start to flow out of it. When the steam cleared up, a man in a thick, dark lab coat and two men in cybernetic protective gear show up in front of me. The man in the lab coat smiles, removes his glasses and says to the men next to him “The last man finally came out, gentlemen. And with only three casualties out of the ten people total, our capsules were an overall success.” “Ok, what’s going on? Where am I, what are you guys doing, and what do you want from me?” I say in confusion and slight anger. “So you are awake” the man replied “You were a part of a test of a new scientific breakthrough; to be able to literally be frozen in time with nine other lucky people. The experiment began in the year 2011 with the help of the United States government, and now it’s been exactly 100 years since the experiment started. The other six people got out of their capsules between one and five years ago, and living their own basic way of life. I should say that you’re a lucky young man for being able to see the world truly rise in your time, and then see what the world looks like now and how advanced things are compared to your time. Welcome to 2111, my friend!” “……100 years….?” I murmured “Let me get this straight, I have been frozen for 100 years, with all of my family and loved ones dead as I missed out on all of the important things in their life, from the marriage of my brother to seeing my friends graduate in college and getting the jobs they dreamed about their entire lives?! Why the hell did you guys choose me to be a part of this corrupt government experiment?! Why me of all people, I was having a good life with a great family, fun friends, I was looking forward to heading to college, and now you guys took all that away from me all for that damn experiment of yours!” I managed to yell out. “We knew there would be something unique about the ten of you. We weren’t so sure what, but we knew it could change things when you woke up in the future.” The man said feeling quite sad about what I said. “I sincerely apologize that we took everything you held so dear away from you, even though I know you’ll never forgive me. Come on, we’ll take you outside of the lab.” He grabbed my arm, taking me outside of the lab; and as we were walking, he happily said to me “I almost forgot, you can call me is Professor West, and don’t worry, we already know who you are, Alex.” After about five minutes of walking up many sets of stairs, we finally made it outside. The city area was very technological and cybernetic, with many slick, cybernetic cars driving by the streets with tons of people walking by. Many of the buildings were taller and much more technologically advanced than any building during my time, and everything looked so magnificent, well done and very lively. In a way, it looked like a technological part of my modern day Tokyo that finally made it to America. I stared at amazement of the cybernetic metropolis for a few minutes, then Professor West grabbed my attention and said “There is still more to show you, like the other great technological advances in this period of time.” We didn’t have to travel very far, just about a few buildings over to a very unusual looking hospital. We walked by a window where doctors were performing surgery for a man that has very severe bruises and gashes on his body. The doctors covered the man in a plasma-like substance, and all the painful marks on his body suddenly healed up from his body. “In this time frame, we can heal up almost anything life threatening disease or injuries with the help of plasma. It can even be used to help put destroyed organs back to normal.” said Professor West. “They use more than just plasma to heal up injuries; many interesting elements and chemicals have been discovered and mixed together to cure people, and there are times where technology is used to heal up any kind of disease as well. There are still a couple more places I’d like to show you.” This time, we had to travel mach farther from the city, right at the edge of the city’s border, and as we were traveling, we went past a very rural and decimated part of town with hardly anyone around and a few futuristic looking soldiers guarding the area. We came across an extremely long electrical force field-like fence with hundreds of soldiers training with an amazing militia. Professor West continued his talk “As you can see, our army force has a much stronger arsenal in their hands. Not only do they have the ability to fire their guns normally at enemy soldiers, but with more help from our plasma technology, they can even blow up a whole vehicle or a base just by firing a single bullet. Soldiers can even take refuge in the cyber robotic tanks and armored vehicles that drive and take out enemies by themselves. Oftentimes these soldiers guard the dangerous parts of the city that have high crime and murder rates.” I noticed that he didn’t look that happy at all when he was talking about the army, almost like he was forced to take me there and tell me about them. As we left the area, many more soldiers left the camp area, probably to guard the rural of the city. We went back to the building where the lab was and they showed me the main room in the lab complex. “We always experiment and try out many new technological advances that can help to help make our lives safer and easier, and we work on those experiments almost nonstop every day. So, do you have any questions now?” he finally concludes. After being silent for a few hours, I finally yell put “Now that I’m here, do you guys plan on making me you guinea pig for your freakin’ experiments?” “Nope. Now that you’re here, you can choose to live the life you want to live now; find a job, join the army, do whatever you want.” he replied. “So where the heck am I suppose to live now that my original home and family are gone, and how am I gonna get a job with no college education, an expired driver’s license, and pretty much no record left of my existence?” I retaliated. After a few seconds of silence, he slowly replied “Don’t worry, with funds from the government, we can help set you up with the home and life you need, no government problems to deal with. We also have some of your personal information saved as well so you can get your job and to help you for anything else in life.” I was silent for a few minutes, even though it felt like hours, just wondering what I’m going to do now, what career choices there are and what am I going to do about college. “I just don’t know where to go now. I need a college education, and I don’t know what kind of career choices there are now.” “Well, if you don’t know or care what you do,” Professor West softly said “One option is that you can join the Army, or that you can stay here and train and become a scientist.” Almost immediately, I said “No way in heck I want to join the Army, and I’m not good at science at all, and I fear you guys possibly using me as your test subject.” Things became silent again, but the silence only lasted a few seconds before Professor West said “……Very well. Since you were about to leave for college before this incident happened, we will apply you to a nearby college that will provide the education you need and has the possible majors you want. You’ll start your college life next week, but for now, you’ll stay in a nice hotel by the lab with the help of government funding.” He grabbed something from a hidden compartment in one of the machines and hands it to me. “The crime rates have increased over time, so you might as well take the newest high tech rifle with you for now until you’re at college where your safety is almost guaranteed.” “But I’ve never used a gun before.” I quietly said. “Don’t worry, the ammo’s already provided in it and the safety is on, so you just switch the safety, point and fire, that’s it.” He said confidently. After a few hours of waiting, they set me up in an amazing looking hotel with robotic room cleaning machines and a big screen TV, and the people at the lab provided me with clothes and other basic necessities I need. They even provided a ton of money for me to have to spend on almost anything I want, so I decided to do some shopping at the many towering stores that were around. After shopping around until nighttime, I decided to head back to my room, with the newest gaming handheld, a phone that can play music a whole lot better than an Ipod, and can successfully do anything and much more than my modern day computer, reading material, and plenty of food and beverages on hand. There was really nothing to do the next few days, just some more exploring around the city and a little bit more shopping. On the day before I left for the college, there was a stand-off going on the road by the lab between a couple soldiers and a robotic tank and many gang members with a couple hostages as I watched from the window of my hotel room. The stand-off had been going on for a few minutes, and then suddenly, Professor West started to walk by, ignoring the demands from the soldiers. He took out a pistol from his coat and pointed it right at the gang. He fired his first shot right by the gang members’ feet, causing lots of debris and dust to fly at their faces and making them let go of the hostages. He then fired a second shot right at the gang themselves and made an explosion that killed off all of the gang members. The two soldiers lowered their guns momentarily and one of them said to him “Thank you for your help, but it seemed too dangerous for you to take them on yourself.” The soldiers then raised their guns back up and aiming them right at him. “However, you will be charged for interfering in the line of duty of a soldier and possible murder charges. Please come with us.” He slowly began to move away from them, then after one of the soldiers ordered him to stop, he redrew his pistol again at super-human speed and fired two normal shots at both of the soldiers and killed them before either one could react. And at the moment the robotic tank targeted at him and ready to fire, he fired a plasma shot and blew up the entire tank, with shrapnel flying about as high as the room I was at, some of it almost slashing my face off. A minute after the smoke cleared from the tank’s explosion, ten more soldiers stood guard with electrical shields in front of them as they stood right in front of him with three tanks behind them targeting on to him. When they gave him a warning to surrender, Professor West opened up his right hand from his coat and a missile the size of his arm suddenly slid down to his hand and was holding it on his arm like it was a small rock. When the soldiers began to fire at him, he suddenly vanished right above them, and he hurled the missile right down at them and incinerated them entirely as even more shrapnel from the tanks and the road began flying into the air. When the smoke cleared, Professor West slowly walked away, and as he was walking, one last gang member appeared, and he seemed to be the leader of the gang since he had the biggest muscles and was completely armed to the teeth. He was slowly moving up towards Professor West, and as soon as I saw him point his gun towards him, I shuffled towards the Professor West gave me, aimed it for about ten seconds, then obliterated that last gang member in one shot. I left for college the next day, and after a two hour cyber limo drive, the driver gave me a note from Professor West that said “Thanks for your help on taking out that last man. I knew he was behind me, but I wanted to see what you would do. The soldiers these days are almost willing to kill nearly anyone that threatens them, even if you try to help. Get that education you need, and I can guarantee you that we’ll meet again.” I wondered what Professor West’s new scientific plans are now and if he plans on rebelling against a strong, brave looking army as his own army. The cybernetic gates into the college campus opened, and all I could think about now was what my new life would be like and what else could possibly happen now in this new time period. I wonder what college life is like here in the future?

Daily Journal 4/4

An old man was enjoying a nice game of Solitare on his computer that took him a few hours to turn on. As he was playing it, he noticed that he couldn't win that match and said "Oh, fiddlesticks, I need to reset the game again." As soon as he restarted the game, there was a loud knock on the door, and when he opened it up, he noticed a short mole with a helmet and a pick ax, and after a couple seconds of silence, the mole went on a rampage yelling out "NO MORE RESETTIN'!! DON'T YOU GET IT, OLD TIMER?!?!" The old man got annoyed and said "Not you again! Nobody cares about what you say about resettin'! You don't seem to have any respect for your elders. You know, back in my day....." and before he could begin his story, the mole yelled out "I'M THE ONE THAT'S SUPPOSE TO HAVE THE ANNOYINGLLY LONG STORIES!!" Then at that moment, the old man was furious. He grabbed out his chair, put it over is head and yelled "You kids gets off my lawn!" and he began to chase the mole inside his house. The old man tried to hit the mole with his chair as the mole was digging under his floor and avoiding every attack from the old man. When the old man was about to give up, Digglet and Dugtrio began to come up under his home, singing "Diggli Di Diggli Di! Trio Trio Trio!" as they lift up the mole from the ground and carry the mole, the old man and his home off into the mountains.

Friday, April 1, 2011

Daily Journal 4/1

Behind her, the noise escalated, full of screaming, shouting, and loud footsteps heading towards her as she was walking down the school hall. When she looked behind her, she noticed a group of her friends running towards her with excited looks on their faces. One of her friends went up to her full of excitement and joy, and feeling like she had to tell her or else her excitement would make her mind explode. With anxiousness and joy, her friend shouted out "Guess what?! There's a new male transfer student, and OMG, he's freakin' hot!" The girl was creeped out by the way her friends were freaking out about it directly at her. "Why were you all so anxious to tell me about it?" she said awkwardly. Another friend popped out from the crowd and shouted "He's gonna be in YOUR homeroom, We're absolutely jelous!" "Ok, cool...." the girl replied with a creeped out look on her face. When her homeroom class started, the new student introduced himself in front of the class, and as he was talking, the girl thought to herself "Damn, he is pretty cute. I'm going to have a ton of fun rubbing it in to my friends during lunch."