New Tales

[talon]

When I become repetitive and derivative, that's when I will be old.

They found Briony in the gloaming, clad only in thick streamers of steam. Her hair was the color of coked smoke, and her golden eyes sometimes glowed with the red heat of a banked fire. Lest you think her beautiful, remark the scorch marks on her hands and arms, the thick brows shading those remarkable eyes, and the powerful muscles bulging her upper body.

They named her Briony for her hair, and wondered if they should have named her Pandora for her ways with metal and fire.

and

They wanted to do something special for Mary's birthday, she who loved both prestidigitators and science. Prestidigitators were common. Abigail and Jane each had at their birthday celebrations, and Ruth had two! So, nothing less than a real live scientist would do to come in and share the mysteries of the universe.

and

Picking through the rubble of the formerly quaint little village, we were forced to lay the blame on Mary's birthday party. Her parents insisted on a real live scientist performing at the party, to reveal a few mysteries of the universe, and instead, he'd shown them Things Man Was Never Meant to Know. The Maplethorpe's daughter killed herself a month later, and no one has seen the Staplewood's daughter since that fateful party. Abigail herself was never the same, with her insatiable demands for flux capacitors, equalizing levers, poppet valves, and flywheels. How foolish of us, to be so proud of her lesser creations, so complacent.