The Revenge Fic
Mar. 25th, 2004 03:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tanithryudoThis story is in revenge of my computer which has been conspiring against me the whole week. *stab* Coincidentally, it also meets the writing challenge ![[insanejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/ij-userinfo.gif)
cashew made last Friday. The icon associated with the fic is "Computer Illiterate".
Amber Chen was nine years old when the creature landed in the backyard. It took place in the early evening, when her parents - engineers both - weren't yet home from work, and her older sister was no doubt ensconced in the basement den, stressing over her SAT's and whether she could get into CalTech. Precocious and blase of the world, the young Amber barely batted an eye as the alien creature slithered out of the birdbath, crossed the badly manicured lawn, and promptly ate the toy control car that she had been playing with. She never liked that pink Barbie-brand remote control car anyways.
Years of watching TV and overhearing conversations on her parents' knees taught Amber exactly what to do. She leaned down and spoke slowly to the thing, "if you want to be taken to my leader, you should try the White House."
The alien stared up at her. Or at least, she thought it did. "Urgle."
That wasn't in the script. Maybe she should call someone so the government can send some secret agent to stop some other rogue agent from kidnapping her, which would eventually wind up in a high-speed car chase over a few highway bridges. "Do you want to phone home?" Amber tried again.
It considered her question. "Eat."
The thing had eaten her toy car, but had not attacked her. Maybe it liked eating electronic things, and was asking for more? Amber grinned, pleased at her brilliant deductions.
But what to feed it? She didn't like the car, so good riddance to that. But she couldn't very well feed it the TV or the VCR. She needed those. But maybe...
"Come on," she told the thing as she ran upstairs to the room that she shared with her older sister Suzie. She rummaged through her small backpack and pulled out a small scientific calculator. Her parents were always buying stuff like that. They automatically assumed that she'll become a techie. Amber herself was too young to care one way or the other, and American public education being what it was, was breezing through her math classes without it. She wondered if she could convince the alien to eat some of the "extracurricular textbooks" her parents kept making her read.
"Here you go!" she called as she turned to find the alien. "Oh!"
But it seemed the alien had spotted a much tastier treat. The casing of her sister's computer had been pried off, and it was currently munching on the hard drives. Halfway through, it seemed to sigh and curl up on itself, becoming still, as if settling down for a nap after a full meal.
There was a thump somewhere downstairs. "Girls?" Amber's mother's voice drifted up. Amber could also hear another car pulling into the garage, which meant that her dad was home too. That meant Suzie would be coming up soon... and she couldn't very well leave her alien (when did it become hers?) here to be found...
Her mind made up, Amber rushed forward, grabbed the amorphous body, and shoved it into the machine case. Then she pushed and knocked at the casing until everything looked normal. She listened. It was silent and still. So she slipped off downstairs.
Some time later, Suzie breezed into the room, dropping her books on the bed and turning on the power button of her PC with her foot. She then turned around and pondered her calendar on the wall. However, something at the back of her mind tickled. There was something off about...
Meanwhile, behind her, a thin stream of smoke rose from Suzie's computer. Along with something akin to a very muffled burp.
At dinner time, Amber was helping herself to the egg-'n-tomatoes when her sister stomped downstairs and dropped huffily into her seat.
"I need a new computer," Suzie announced to the world.
"What's wrong with yours?" their father asked.
Remembering all the hassle the last time her computer broke, Suzie shuddered at the thought of being offline for a week while her dad took apart the machine and reinstalled it with random software that only he found useful, and half of which were invariably in Chinese.
"Daaaaaaad," she whined and tried to put on her best pleading-eyed look. "It's old! I need more memory! And speed!"
Amber, at that moment, made another brilliant deduction. "Daaaaaad!" she whined also, mimicing her sister, "I wanna computer too!"
Their father gave her a dubious look. On the one hand, he thought she was too young to be trusted with a complicated machine. On the other hand, if she was to grow up and be an engineer, she'll have to start somewhere.
Suzie, though, jumped on the opportunity. "She can have mine, Dad. She won't need a lot of memory or processing. I do. Pleeaaaaase?"
"Pleeeeaaaase?" Amber echoed. That fit her plans perfectly.
Their father didn't stand a chance. And so it was done.
After dinner, Amber slipped up to her room. Suzie had immediately dragged their father off to buy a new computer. That left her alone with the alien. Amber knocked lightly on the computer casing.
"Hey, are you in there?" she asked.
A faint and slurring voice replied, "nice eats."
"Are you going to stay here?"
"Nice place. Stay."
I hope it doesn't make any waste, Amber thought. Aloud, she idly asked the next thing that came to mind. "Tell about where you come from."
It did. In great detail. Amber discovered that the alien could be quite loquacious when it wants to be. She also found out that maybe the universe wasn't so plain and boring after all.
So it came to be that Suzie got a new computer and Amber got to keep her alien-in-a-box. She thought it would be a waste if the alien's stories were kept to herself, but she certainly didn't want to share her alien. So it was rather natural, despite the consternation of her family, that she eventually became a writer. Plus, she even got paid for it too!
And if, many years later, her family thought it strange that someone as computer illiterate as her would stubbornly cling to a long obsolete PC, or her readers thought it strange that she would often dedicate her books to "the creature in my computer"... Well, they would just chalk it up another eccentric sci-fi author, and not wonder further.
cashew made last Friday. The icon associated with the fic is "Computer Illiterate".Amber Chen was nine years old when the creature landed in the backyard. It took place in the early evening, when her parents - engineers both - weren't yet home from work, and her older sister was no doubt ensconced in the basement den, stressing over her SAT's and whether she could get into CalTech. Precocious and blase of the world, the young Amber barely batted an eye as the alien creature slithered out of the birdbath, crossed the badly manicured lawn, and promptly ate the toy control car that she had been playing with. She never liked that pink Barbie-brand remote control car anyways.
Years of watching TV and overhearing conversations on her parents' knees taught Amber exactly what to do. She leaned down and spoke slowly to the thing, "if you want to be taken to my leader, you should try the White House."
The alien stared up at her. Or at least, she thought it did. "Urgle."
That wasn't in the script. Maybe she should call someone so the government can send some secret agent to stop some other rogue agent from kidnapping her, which would eventually wind up in a high-speed car chase over a few highway bridges. "Do you want to phone home?" Amber tried again.
It considered her question. "Eat."
The thing had eaten her toy car, but had not attacked her. Maybe it liked eating electronic things, and was asking for more? Amber grinned, pleased at her brilliant deductions.
But what to feed it? She didn't like the car, so good riddance to that. But she couldn't very well feed it the TV or the VCR. She needed those. But maybe...
"Come on," she told the thing as she ran upstairs to the room that she shared with her older sister Suzie. She rummaged through her small backpack and pulled out a small scientific calculator. Her parents were always buying stuff like that. They automatically assumed that she'll become a techie. Amber herself was too young to care one way or the other, and American public education being what it was, was breezing through her math classes without it. She wondered if she could convince the alien to eat some of the "extracurricular textbooks" her parents kept making her read.
"Here you go!" she called as she turned to find the alien. "Oh!"
But it seemed the alien had spotted a much tastier treat. The casing of her sister's computer had been pried off, and it was currently munching on the hard drives. Halfway through, it seemed to sigh and curl up on itself, becoming still, as if settling down for a nap after a full meal.
There was a thump somewhere downstairs. "Girls?" Amber's mother's voice drifted up. Amber could also hear another car pulling into the garage, which meant that her dad was home too. That meant Suzie would be coming up soon... and she couldn't very well leave her alien (when did it become hers?) here to be found...
Her mind made up, Amber rushed forward, grabbed the amorphous body, and shoved it into the machine case. Then she pushed and knocked at the casing until everything looked normal. She listened. It was silent and still. So she slipped off downstairs.
Some time later, Suzie breezed into the room, dropping her books on the bed and turning on the power button of her PC with her foot. She then turned around and pondered her calendar on the wall. However, something at the back of her mind tickled. There was something off about...
Meanwhile, behind her, a thin stream of smoke rose from Suzie's computer. Along with something akin to a very muffled burp.
At dinner time, Amber was helping herself to the egg-'n-tomatoes when her sister stomped downstairs and dropped huffily into her seat.
"I need a new computer," Suzie announced to the world.
"What's wrong with yours?" their father asked.
Remembering all the hassle the last time her computer broke, Suzie shuddered at the thought of being offline for a week while her dad took apart the machine and reinstalled it with random software that only he found useful, and half of which were invariably in Chinese.
"Daaaaaaad," she whined and tried to put on her best pleading-eyed look. "It's old! I need more memory! And speed!"
Amber, at that moment, made another brilliant deduction. "Daaaaaad!" she whined also, mimicing her sister, "I wanna computer too!"
Their father gave her a dubious look. On the one hand, he thought she was too young to be trusted with a complicated machine. On the other hand, if she was to grow up and be an engineer, she'll have to start somewhere.
Suzie, though, jumped on the opportunity. "She can have mine, Dad. She won't need a lot of memory or processing. I do. Pleeaaaaase?"
"Pleeeeaaaase?" Amber echoed. That fit her plans perfectly.
Their father didn't stand a chance. And so it was done.
After dinner, Amber slipped up to her room. Suzie had immediately dragged their father off to buy a new computer. That left her alone with the alien. Amber knocked lightly on the computer casing.
"Hey, are you in there?" she asked.
A faint and slurring voice replied, "nice eats."
"Are you going to stay here?"
"Nice place. Stay."
I hope it doesn't make any waste, Amber thought. Aloud, she idly asked the next thing that came to mind. "Tell about where you come from."
It did. In great detail. Amber discovered that the alien could be quite loquacious when it wants to be. She also found out that maybe the universe wasn't so plain and boring after all.
So it came to be that Suzie got a new computer and Amber got to keep her alien-in-a-box. She thought it would be a waste if the alien's stories were kept to herself, but she certainly didn't want to share her alien. So it was rather natural, despite the consternation of her family, that she eventually became a writer. Plus, she even got paid for it too!
And if, many years later, her family thought it strange that someone as computer illiterate as her would stubbornly cling to a long obsolete PC, or her readers thought it strange that she would often dedicate her books to "the creature in my computer"... Well, they would just chalk it up another eccentric sci-fi author, and not wonder further.
