Fight!! Neon City

Picture it. You’re walking down a back street in a cross between Blade Runner 2049 and Shinjuku, Tokyo. Neon signs blare so bright you can’t look at them, shadows loom so dark you can’t see what hides in them. That’s when they emerge: three large men, decked out in tattoos, carrying vicious-looking weaponry, grinning. You want to scream but the noise dies in your throat. You just about manage to turn around, only to find two more of the same, blocking off your path. They raise their weapons…

…and then the menu appears. ’FIGHT MAGIC ITEM RUN’

That’s what inspired my latest composition, a real departure from my usual fare and quite dance musicky in tone. It’s simultaneously the videogame-esque piece I’m proudest of, and a real drag to write: I’m not a fan of editing percussion. Give it a listen and justify my boredom.

(NB Because it’s videogame-inspired it’s designed to loop. If you want to skip the loop to the end, the second loop lasts from 3:48 to 7:23.)

So It Is Writ Ten: Contents Page

Hey! If you’re a later arrival to my 2022 Semi-Live NaNoWriMo project, So It Is Writ Ten, this is probably the best place to start! It has links to all the material in order of writing/reading.

16-2: ???

While all this was going on, Miriam was in a small room off to the side of the basement. The room was only accessible through a spiral staircase, which in turn was only accessible through a hidden panel directly above a normal staircase, which itself could only be reached if you could extend a platform to just below the panel, brace against it, and slide the panel upwards.

Miriam, of course, could extend such a platform. It was pink and fleshy and it dripped a bit onto the stairs below.

16-1: Rob

On Tuesday 1st December, at 2pm after lectures and with the sky looking apocalyptic, Rob Nevel paused outside the Dragon’s Nook Bakery and Coffee Shop. He knew it was the right place this time, and it was raining again; but he paused anyway, letting the drops drip down his fringe.

The first time he’d come here, he hadn’t been able to appreciate it properly. He’d been far too nervous. Now he drank it all in. Miriam’s calligraphy describing the baked goods. Their sheer range. The artistry of the dragons, which he now knew Charlie was responsible for. The apparently chaotic yet precise arrangement of the tables, designed for optimal wheelchair and larger person negotiation. And was it… yes, it was the man from the PDA couple, now with a different woman, being equally nauseating.

It was nice to see that some things didn’t change, even when so much did. It had only been a month, of course.

15-2: Alex

Alex took a deep, shuddering breath. Then they took another one.

‘That was very good dear,’ said Miriam.

‘Thank you, I’d been rehearsing it for… oh God Miriam!’

15-1: Various

‘You did spend an awfully long time chattering out there, I wondered when you’d trouble me. Works well enough from my point of view of course. In nineteen minutes everybody in this building will gain new powers from…’ Ash snapped his finger at the metal podium-looking thing behind him. ‘…this Brytech-constructed Wordstone amplifier.’

Sapphire took a deep breath. Let him monologue. Let him draw himself into a false sense of security. She just hoped Daz could stop themself from trying to rip his throat out before that moment came.

14-3: Daz

‘So did you two get together in the end?’

Daz tried to stifle their sniggers, not very hard. It was an innocently asked question (was Rob capable of any other kind?), but they could picture the looks. Looks of, “How did even Rob work this out?” Bless Kat’s cotton yet oblivious socks.

‘…no,’ said she, from behind them.

‘Sort of,’ said Caitlyn at the same time.

‘Huh?’ said Rob.

‘Sorry Rob,’ said Sapphire, walking beside Daz. ‘You missed out on the massive orgy we all had.’

14-2: Alex

Only Miriam grabbing Oli’s foot with one of her unmentionable growths saved Alex from being cleaved into four pieces. As it was they had some surface-level cuts to their arms, which they could barely feel. Nerve damage had its perks.

‘What the fuck is wrong with you?’ screeched Miriam.

14-1: Caitlyn

The bipedal ones went first. Whatever complex programming they had was apparently not designed for tilted surfaces. They fell over almost immediately, laser fire littering the ceiling.

The small round ones gripped to the surfaces, but apparently they only had enough power to grip or attack. They stayed there like metal barnacles. So did the spiders, which Caitlyn thought were harmless if you didn’t get close? She couldn’t quite be sure.

The aerial ones were fine, of course – except without their support they were being picked off by Sapphire and Charles, Charlie, whatever, whose shadowy blobs moved slowly but when half the corridor was filled with them that wasn’t a problem. Slowly, they were winning.

Except the floor was continuing to tilt away from them, and Kat wasn’t getting up.

13-3: Charles

Charlie clung desperately to the rails of the secret lift as it did its best to separate him from his stomach. Meanwhile, beside him:

‘…number three, if they try asking you anything about politics, economics, or the moon, those are all fucking huge red flags. You’re all too young to have worthwhile opinions on politics, so what they’re actually doing is sounding you out for… oh, here we go.’

There was a brief and glorious moment of peace as Charlie and his stomach reunited. Then the doors opened, and a twitching metal tentacle leg thing flew past his shoulder and embedded itself in the lift wall.