Ex's Box within a Sub-forum

[Expendable]

My very industrial art and writing.

[Expendable]

Default skin for a Tardis stolen from the repair shop. Dr. Who.

[Expendable]

Home sweet home. Well, almost. The shower wall is actually transparent.

[Expendable]

Braincell

Movement.

A fist, pounding on glass, the sound booming. Someone is hammering on a glass wall in front of me and yelling something but it’s so hard to hear. I draw breath, dimly aware of the cold fluid filling my lungs and yet I can still breathe. It had frightened me before…

…the voices in my head clamor, demanding my attention. So many voices, so many things to do. Calculations fill my head, bits of conversation all around me, droning on….

Movement again. Two people arguing and waving at me…. Voices calling me back…. Numbers flash in front of me, line after line and it’s my voice as part of the rest, chanting numbers into the darkness….

Breaking glass and pressure that had been a part of me for so long falling away while the voices in my head scream shrilly as I sag limply, held in something. A hand slaps me but there’s still fluid in my lungs and there’s no more air… I can feel the liquid in the back of my throat but only a little spills out and my lungs are so heavy and there’s no more air….

..and suddenly I’m free, gravity pulling me to the ground and I convulse, spewing liquid from my lungs in sudden silence onto the cold tile floor. I manage to gasp and a little air gets inside me, I can breathe…!

“Is she ok?”
“I don’t know,” someone snaps, “I’ve never ripped anyone out of something like that before!”

Things are being pulled off of me, out of me – and then someone rolls me over onto my back, leaving me staring up at a blurry light. A shadowy figure leans over me as I cough and shiver.
“What’s wrong? Is she dying?”
“She’s cold! You do your job and let me do mine, alright?”

“Tara? Can you understand me?” Fingers pry open my eyelids and I stare back at the blurry. “We’re here to rescue you – do you understand?”

Rescue? Tara?

My left cheek stings hotly again. “DO YOU UNDERSTAND?” he says again, loudly. I manage to nod, drawing my arms across my chest. Hands pull me up, then wraps me in something dry and warm before hoisting up and over a shoulder, giving me a strange view of the floor.

“Do you think you should carry her like that…”
“We don’t have time for this! She’ll survive. We won’t if we don’t get going!”

Someone opened a door, letting in the acrid smell of smoke and the sound of alarm and scared people.

“This way,” someone said, as I bounced on my rescuer’s shoulder and stared vacantly at the dense beige carpet and a pair of heels in motion. Another doorway slammed open and carpet gave way to dim light glinting off of concrete stairs – and then there was grass.

“I got a serious trauma, I got to get to my rig!” my rescuer yelled, twisting the grass dizzingly, then hands lifted me off his shoulder and onto a soft bed. Faces half-familiar leaned over me as they tightened straps over my body and I was lifted into the back of a waiting ambulance. Doors slammed and someone next to me said, “Let’s get going before they realize!”

“What… going on?” I managed as we lurched into motion.
“It’s ok Tara, you’re out of there.”
“Out of where?”

“Is something wrong with her?”

“Naw,” my rescuer snorted from somewhere up front. “She’s just confused. Sorry little lady, but we just pulled you out of the Internet. Your employer was using your brain for a server.”

[Expendable]

Unexpected Company

The general and I were just talking on my back porch when the gold and silver saucer appeared, hovering for a brief moment before landing, legs coming out in a smooth ballet of motion that told me that the operator was using the very expensive auto-park feature as it settled onto the ground. It then shimmered and turned glassy as tiny cameras on one side displayed a pixel on the opposite side. Anyone looking straight down would see a circular shadow and not what was casting it.

“And,” the general drawled, putting down his coffee, “I suppose you have a reasonable explanation for all of this?”
“Ah,” I managed, as a hatch opened up, looking like a hole into some strange factory, and a tiny figure bolted from inside, heading directly for me.

“Ig!” it cried, just before it flung itself at me, landing on my chest.

Oh god, it was Reg.

“Uh, Reg, now is not…”
“You gotta hide me! Please! Just for a few days!”

“Hide you?” the General and I chorused. For a brief moment, I wondered if I should call jinx on him, but he didn’t look like he was in the mood.
“Who’s that?” Reg demanded, leaning away to stare at my other visitor. His eyes narrowed. “It’s a native… did you get a butler?”

Oh god, I almost lost it as the general turned red, looking ready to throw a fit.

“Reg, that is General [REDACTED]. He came to see me about some technical issues his satellites have when they fly over…”
“Does he want a bribe?” Reg asked out of the side of his mouth in the worse stage whisper ever. I wanted to bury my face in my hands, if they weren’t immediately occupied with holding onto a small alien in a space suit.
“Reg…!” I whined, but he’d already had pulled out several diamond discs which he tossed towards the general. [REDACTED] had great reflexes for a man of his age, he caught a few of them.

“What is this?” he demanded, puffing up again.
“Money,” I shrugged. “It lasts a really long time.”

“And it’s shiny!” Reg smiled, nodding his head. “Natives like shiny coins, yes? Ooooh, shiny!”
“Reg, you are not helping! What are you doing here?”
“Ah, I need a place to crash for a few days. I can take the couch if he’s got the guest room….”
“He does not have the guest room!”
“So I can have it?” Reg asked, looking up at me hopefully with those oversize eyes of his.
“WHAT,” I yelled, then caught hold of myself, “are you doing here, Reg?”
“Bell’s angry at me again.”

I froze, staring down at the tiny alien, who hung his head. I began swearing.

“Who is this ‘Bell’,” General [REDACTED] demanded, as a sudden shadow enveloped the house and the yard. Overhead was a much larger purple and gold saucer, flanked by red security ships with very nasty weapons, some of which were pointed directly at us.
“Ah,” I managed, swallowing. “General, may I introduce his Majesty, Prince Reginald, consort of Empress Bellaflorina De La Prefacia Dolsea Fra?”

“Ah,” General [REDACTED] said, looking up as the purple and gold saucer began to descend. “Is… is this an invasion?”
“No,” I winced as one of the saucer feet crashed through the roof of my detached garage. “This is where a friend of the family is being imposed on to hear both sides of an argument and tell the both of them that the other is completely wrong and they are completely right.”

“Oh. So, it’s a delicate domestic issue,” the general said slowly. “Does this happen a lot?”
“Often enough.”
“Do you do appointments?”

[Expendable]

Dia, in her demon humanoid form and as a cat.

[Expendable]

Ilyana's head


Siri's head


Dia's head

As you can see, the fuzzy select tool left behind a lot of dandruff.

[Expendable]

Remember

Remember, my demon says, and so I do
Each and every face
The horror and the pain
While the others watch
Until I scream and scream again

Poor baby, my demon coos
Stroking the scars,
Picking at the bandages
It's the ones you can't see
That hurt the most

It's not your fault,
My demon smiles
While the possibilities parade on by
All the choices I didn't make
All the paths I didn't take

Let's wash these hands,
As she shows me the blood
Only she and I can see
No matter how many times
I scrub them raw

There are pills for those who can get them
And booze for those who can't
Or something sharp to spill the blood
All so we can forget
But only for a while

Our demons wait patiently
For their toy to be ready
Once more to remember
Once more to regret
Once more to drink the pain

Don't listen to the demons
No power in their whispers
No pain for them to inflict
No need for them to strike
When we're willing to play their game.