Thursday 21 April 2011

Flash Fearstaken over - Nochrono




Lunching at Lamias is a little behind with this week's Flash Fearsday. Inspiration..?
It's flash fiction of course, with 140 characters and line breaks counting one...

"He's not quick..."

"No, just out of time. Everywhen and nowhen. A nochrono."

"Then we do as we wish."

"No! Don't cross - ... the deadline."

Update: Cometh the hour - this week's is up in time. Got a minute? Have a go.

How about some rules for the nochrono? They ought to be good for any game, and if we keep it simple, making them an alternative form of deployment, maybe they can be.

Nochrono

The tombs of the great Dienasties on Hogintu are protected by lifeless yet living statues, the nochronos, relics of a rare and powerful technology which before the Bluing of the Cerulean Sphere was exported throughout known space for a high price. Mighty figures in a form of stasis, they stand watch and, when their deadlines are crossed, trap intruders in Overtime. Only their destruction can bring freedom from chronothingness.

Any living creature may be made a nochrono, and nochronos are encountered in numbers appropriate to the architecture of a location. Each will appear to be a statue, but to approach within touching distance will cause an individual to become locked in single combat with the creature - suddenly in motion - with no chance of assistance.

For onlookers, if the creature is killed, the statue will suddenly vanish, the position of the approaching individual unchanged, with only the individual aware of what has happened; if the individual is killed, he or she appears simply to vanish, with the statue unmoved.
_

2 comments:

Jessica Thompson said...

Nochronos? As in like... no time? Haha followed and supporting, alphabetalife.blogspot.com

Porky said...

That's it. I was being silly of course, but it fits the mood so far, which is to make the influences obvious, even excessive, but to try to keep the terminology just on this side of possible, as a 'translation' of a future understanding. Also, when we create we put a lot of who we are into the work, whether we know it or not, and we may as well be clear about this where it doesn't matter so much, in pulp for example. I was going to go with 'chronull', but thought that might be a harder idea to work with. 'Nochhrono' is simple enough to cover a lot of bases.