Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Spanner Hiatus Week: Finishing FAWM, Preparing for NaNoEdMo

While I try to whip out 14 song lyrics for this year's February Album Writing Month, I'm taking a few days off from the Spanner posting schedule to work on the difficult Interlude 11 and prepare for National Novel Editing Month. In fact, I'm combining the two by writing Interludes 11 and 12 as song lyrics (the concept behind Interlude 11 is an industrial-rock music video, like Skinny Puppy directed by Emergency Broadcast Network), and translating a few other Interludes into song lyrics as well (Interlude 9 would make a particularly perfect New Romantic synthrock tune).

The revised schedule: I'll post Interlude 11 on Friday and the Chapter 17 index page on Saturday. Then, to push my NaNoEdMo editing harder, I'll return to the original daily publishing schedule and publish a complete chapter each week:
  • Chapter 18: week of March 4 (starting Monday)
  • Chapter 19: week of March 11
  • Interlude 12 and Chapter 20: March 18-23
  • Chapter 21: week of March 24 (starting Sunday)
  • Interlude 13: March 31
  • Chapter 22: week of April 1 (starting Monday)
  • Chapter 23: week of April 8
...which means the Final Revision of Spanner Book 1 will be complete on April 14, when the Chapter 23 index posts. Another goal is to finish editing and hand-coding the Book 1 ebook; after that, my next task will be to design the logo and covers (I have the design and the software, all I need is the time and a graphics tablet).

But it's not just the last 6 chapters of Book 1 I intend to edit next month; I've got ideas for Interlude 14 and Chapter 24 that will start Book 2 with a bang. I won't post them just yet, not until I've got a complete first draft of Book 2 written and at least the first third (Chapters 24-31 and their Interludes) edited.

Meanwhile, it's Panic Time for FAWM, and I intend to get those 14 song lyrics written no matter what it takes.

Friday, February 22, 2013

Spanner 17.6: The Law of Plausible Deniability

...from previous

Chaos Angel Spanner — Chapter 17: Power, Corruption, and Lies
Part 6: The Law of Plausible Deniability (Final Revision)

Amanda: Seattle Public Education Corporation officially rejects all rumors that the cost of repairing its member schools damaged over the weekend will impact vital educational services.
SPEC Spokesman: Our corporate mission is to train the best workers who will earn the most profits for the companies Our Nation serves. We officially deny that cutting education serves this mission profitably.
Shira: (as Bangor High School Student Union spokesman) SPEC’s been steadily lowering not just the quality but the amount of education for two years running. Students are supposed to be the customers, not the product. If SPEC doesn’t get its business back into education, students will refuse to pay to not be educated, and it’ll soon be out of business, period.
Amanda: (the original’s unused message) I’ve been under extreme stress for a long time. I’ve gotten to the point where I can no longer handle it. I’ve lost the ability to do my job effectively. All the stress and backstabbing are getting to me! I can’t handle it anymore! I’m retiring from the media business effective immediately.
Gossip Reporter: Will she quit, commit suicide, or go nuts on the air live like Howard Beale?
Amanda: I’m still here, and you’re still watching. (winks)
harborside hotel. Sparks closes the door behind him. “How’d you manage to keep the same hotel room?”

The bright-eyed girl winks. “‘Alice Murgatroyd’ lives here.“

“Pseudonyms never stopped any celeb hunter I know.”

“I’ve got enough look-alikes, I can pretend to be one. Better yet, all of ’em insist on calling themselves ‘Amanda Currie.’ Now I’m the only look-alike who doesn’t.” She lets her dress drop and shows off her nude body to him.

He tosses his fedora and trenchcoat aside, unbuttons his shirt, unfastens his slacks, drinks in the sight of her. “You’re as beautiful as I remember.”

“It hasn’t been that long.” She gently caresses his face. “What really happened to your face?”

He throws off his boots and smiles. “It’s not your fault.”

“It is my fault.”

“Mine. The new face is to remind me I’m not my father.” His scarred body is now as naked as her. “Frank blames himself too.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“I was the one acting like a stupid criminal.”

“It’s still my fault.”

“Don’t blame yourself for what my father did. He hated both of us.”

She slowly runs her fingers the length of the scars on his chest and starts to cry. He takes her into his arms; they kiss with the fury of lovers forced apart by hatred and despair — she lowers to her knees, kisses all the way down his chest, slips her mouth over his penis, fellates him hungrily — they wrestle on the floor, her on top, him inside her, battling against and with each other, she uses her newtype power to power him to her extreme of erotic ecstasy—

rich passage. People crowd the outside decks to watch the exotic sight above and take pictures. Frank and Jennifer’s long blond hair trails behind them. Jennifer warns, “You better make sure she doesn’t get hurt, or there’ll be hell to pay.” Frank looks at the girl with the violet eyes; she nods in agreement and winks. He picks up speed and weaves through the air currents; Liz and Radica follow.

seattle. Arisa runs down the Westlake Center stairs, always skipping a step. People on the slow escalators look at her strangely and wonder why she’s in a hurry. On the bottom floor she turns and soon finds herself in the station where her contact waits for her: Shira. They share a knowing wink. “How you feeling, girl?”

Shira shrugs. “Still kinda meh.”

“Up to hunting?”

“Let’s go.”

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Spanner 17.5: The Sexcrime Videos

...from previous

Chaos Angel Spanner — Chapter 17: Power, Corruption, and Lies
Part 5: The Sexcrime Videos (Final Revision)

campus. The girl with the violet eyes insists on walking Shira all the way back to the main building, openly acting as her girlfriend. Shira looks around; several students gape and gossip. “Uh, isn’t this a bit public?”

“Everybody knows we’re in love,” the girl says. “No use hiding it anymore.”

They hear a commotion behind them and turn to see Debbie storming up. She gets uncomfortably close. She casts a hurt look at the nameless girl, then gets in Shira’s and pokes her. “You did it.”

Shira shrugs innocently. “Did what?”

“You sicced the old lady on me, didn’tcha, called her up ’n’ called me an invert.”

She smiles innocently. “I didn’t steal your girlfriend?” Debbie takes a wild swing Shira easily dodges. “Whoa babe, don’t go all psycho ex on me.”

Debbie stands there, staring at Shira in shock and rage. She points. “Shira Thomas, I Challenge you! Gang Rules, even!”

The girl screams, “Debbie, stop it!” Shira throws back her head and laughs at her as hard as she can.

Suddenly they fall silent and go rigid: they sense a malevolent presence that all the newtypes can feel; Charlie sends the silent command to all sync together now. The presence controls some; the rest link up and combine their power to drive him out — all in under a second. Shira directs wide eyes at the astonished girl. “Sender?”

Frank hisses with shock and cold rage: “Scofield.” Debbie gasps.

The Sender hijacks the minds of all the normals and non-newtype supers; the still-synced newtypes eject him in a split second. Some normals look traumatized as if they were raped; some seethe in anger, some cry, all feel personally attacked though some don’t know why. Courtney says, “There’s at least one Coordinator here.”

Charmian asks, “How do you know?”

“We couldn’t have saved ’em otherwise.”

But then they notice five normals still possessed: Dave, Marina, Mimi, Mikey (Kelly: “He’s alive?” Debbie: “But I watched him die!”). Polly panics: “What’s happening?

Shira says, “Control chips.” She looks toward Charlie and Melody; Charlie silently instructs Melody to focus her power with enough precision to zap the chips. The chip-controlled people are quickly joined by all the volunteer guards, no longer perpetually angry, rather hypnotized: Jennifer says, “Bicameral-mind control.”

They shout in unison, with a single voice, not Scofield’s: “I am Jesus America your God! There is no god but Me! Bow down before me in worship! All who do not worship me are traitors and shall be destroyed!” Charlie zaps Dave’s chip; he twitches, babbles, and stumbles epileptically forward onto the grass.

Shira stands up. “Jesus America!” Melody zaps Mimi’s chip first; she goes into convulsions and collapses into Trishie and Ruthie’s arms, and they drag her away twitching.

“What do you want, demoness Styles?” Marina’s back sways rigid, she reaches for the burning chip on her neck; Courtney and Schuyler whisk her away.

“Why are you allowing disunity in your Party?” Shira signals for Charlie and Melody to leave Mikey and Cherry Anne alone.

“In Me there is no disunity! Only faith and patriotism in Me, and treasonous unfaith against Me!” Cherry Anne kneels to the ground in a twisted tarantella. Charlie shrugs.

Shira intensifies her stare. “The ruling Quadrumvirate of the Conservative Revolutionary Party of Cascadia are fighting amongst themselves. I repeat, why are you allowing such disunity in your Party?”

“Disunity is treason!”

“They are disunited. Their accuse each other of unfaith and treason, and all their accusations are right.”

“Speak not against me, Styles!”

“Luke Everson is selling false salvation for profit, John Becket hires eugenically incorrect criminals and commits fornication with robots, Walter Brinkman is sellingout your Holy Land to the Chinese enemy for profit, and Alan Fleer is trying to replace you and make himself God in your place.”

“Styles! Traitor! You lie!”

“The Fearsome Foursome are committing treason against you in your name!”

“No! This cannot be!”

The newtypes link again: Debbie sends a Trace after Scofield; they combine their power, blast his mind, leave him screaming and twitching in excruciating migraine. The control-chipped people all fall to the ground and convulse. In surprisingly orderly fashion, the students carry the fallen to the Nike Arena parking lot where the ambulances can easily reach them.

But Debbie growls at Shira, “It’s still your fault.”

Shira puts her arm around her girl and walks away. “Think what you want. You won’t listen to reason anyway.” The nameless girl gives Debbie a betrayed look and says nothing.

principal’s office. This time the principals are on the defensive as several Team Bremelo fighters stare them down: Shira, Jennifer, Connor, Colette, and the Shelley twins. Falconer stares nervously at Sparks, Spiekerman at Jennifer, Mobley at the brown-haired nameless beauty, and Principal at Shira, who smiles ironically. “You’d better hope that was just Rexie throwing a sore-loser tizzy,” she warns, “or I’ll make sure you’re legally liable.”

Principal cannot hide his fear behind his smirk. He sweats. “I’m afraid, Miss Thomas, that we had nothing to do with this incident.”

“So your CEO hired a psychic assassin. That makes the whole company liable.”

Jennifer shrugs. “See, I told you privatizing the schools was a bad idea. Sure enough.”

Falconer shrieks, “You’re slandering sacred principles!”

She rolls her eyes. “Fact is the Lie, truthiness is the Truth, right.”

“The fact is,” Shira continues, “depriving youth of education means selling out America to Chinese Corporatist Party (Holdings) Limited. This incident’s merely extra proof to the extent your company will go to deny the inevitable.”

Mobley stands up to protest, “Y’all can’t prove a thing!”

The bright-eyed girl smiles. “The network has video.” He gasps in terror.

“And so do I,” Shira adds. Falconer’s lips violently twitch.

The girl with the violet eyes coldly purrs, “You’ll be amazed at what people sell on the intel black market.”

“The next time something like this happens, you people will be talking to our lawyer. Good day.” The Bremeloes leave. Sparks stays at the door long enough to tip his hat, then lets it close behind him.

Monday, February 18, 2013

Spanner 17.4: Pray Away the Gay

...from previous

Chaos Angel Spanner — Chapter 17: Power, Corruption, and Lies
Part 4: Pray Away the Gay (Final Revision)

10 october 2014.
shira’s apartment.
Shira wakes up sandwiched between her nameless lovers. She can feel their worry; they know at once she’s feeling worse.

In the living room, Hope puts on her robe and calls Thurston Wilder. “Hey cousin,” he says, “how’s Shira feeling?”

“Not so good. I’m afraid we’ll need Dr. Whistler’s help sooner than later.”

“Em?”

The city intelligence’s face appears in a corner of the screen. “You called?”

“Yes, sweetheart. We need to get in contact with Dr. Whistler as soon as we can. Shira needs him now.”

Hope says, “While you’re at it, please call Zac Finney too.”

Em smiles sweetly. “I’m doing it now.”

“Thanks!”

“You’re welcome.” Em disappears in a cloud of hearts.

Thurston says, “Right now, the Teachers Gu meeting going on in the CPMC boardroom. Would you like to listen in?”

“I would,” Hope replies, “if I didn’t know all about it.”

“I’ll keep you posted nonetheless.”

“And I’ll do the same.” She ends the call and goes to the bedroom to check on her daughter.

The nameless girls help Shira out of bed, then hold her close and cry.

1 may 2011...
After the death of Carlos O’Riordan, Amanda Currie reports from the hospital where Leila is being held under sedation, listing the names of all the men linked romantically to her who died and all but calling her a serial killer:
Amanda: Eight men alleged to have carried on affairs with teen model and nude beauty queen Leila Shelley have died in the past two years. Is it a coincidence, or is Leila Shelley a “lethal Lolita”?
10 may 2011...
When Leila is finally released to her parents, she finds out about the character assassination Amanda has been pulling on her, now joined by media vigilantes Ann Rule and Nancy Grace. Realizes to her horror that someone has launched a conspiracy to destroy her, she vows to destroy the conspirators, or at least survive them, and bring down the unknown person using them against her...

Three young beauties share the bath. The nameless girls caress Shira’s body all over with their hands and with soft sponges. The brown-haired girl asks her, “How are you feeling?”

Shira softly replies, “Both hot and cold. It’s like being pregnant with a monster.” The black-haired girl kisses her and gently caresses her breasts. She sobs, “I need you two so much.” They take turns kissing her again.

Friday, February 15, 2013

Spanner 17.3: Special Delivery for the Man of Mystery

...from previous

Chaos Angel Spanner — Chapter 17: Power, Corruption, and Lies
Part 3: Special Delivery for the Man of Mystery (Final Revision)

introduction to s.p.e.c.
Two rival factions, the Educators and the Indoctrinators, perpetually battle to control education. In the Metropolitan Seattle School District, Hope Reston leads the dissident rank-and-file majority group of Educators in the Teachers Guild. The Indoctrinators, vanguard-party hacks (“Corpos,” short for COnservative Revolutionary Party Operatives) with no teaching ability or training, control the Guild hierarchy. To break the rank-and-file, they brought in hedge-fund manager Peter T. Ross to forcibly merge the Guild local with a privatized school district to create SPEC: the Seattle Public Education Corporation. The purpose: to carry out the Party’s imperative: corporatize government at all cost, price no object.

To complete the transition from unionized public service into Corporate profit center, Ross intends to disenfranchise the teachers to break worker power and destroy the Guild. Any teachers who resist demotion to disposable low-wage labor will be disposed of in favor of incompetent scab teachers chosen for their blind faith and their willingness to accept sub-Chinese wages and an absence of benefits. Desperate for infinite profit, the Guild leadership are determined to purge their own membership.

They have succeeded only in radicalizing the teachers against them. Even worse, by forcing the students to pay for their own increasingly substandard education, they have driven them to support the now powerless teachers with a Student Union.

Blind faith in capitalism combined with infallible righteousness is the American way. But hubris blinds one to unintended consequences. That can be fatal.
hallway. “Oh, no!” cries Debbie, running toward the group by her locker in dismay. “She can’t be coming here!” She throws herself into the nameless girl’s arms.

“So she finally decided to do it?”

“Is there any way to stop her?”

“Just don’t put your faith in her, and you’ll do just fine.” She kisses sobbing Debbie on the cheek.
Sana and Seika look at them strangely. Seika asks, “Who’s she?”

Frank scornfully answers, “Our mother.”

Shira explains, “Rexelle Steele, evangelist, is coming to ‘Pray Away the Gay,’ attendance mandatory by order of Our CEO.”

“Is she really crazy enough to do it?” asks Sana.

“She believes illness is caused by demons, not microbes,” Jennifer replies. “Sexual incorrectness? Unfaith? Liberalism? Same thing to the Shepherds of Jesus America.”

Shira smiles ironically. “Shepherd Rexie and Big Chief One-Eye already suffered one black eye when it turned out their elder daughters were doing each other.”

“That’s what they divorced over,” Frank says.

Barry asks, “I hope you’re not gonna help her stop our marriage.”

Frank pats him on the shoulder. “I already think of you as my brother-in-law.”

“Then why would she wanna ‘cure’ Debbie’s love of women now?”

“Don’t say that, Polly!” complains Mimi. “You’re only giving her ideas!” She stands behind Polly with her arms crossed.

“Apparently she decided it’s all due to...” He looks at Shira. “...influence.”

“So I’m like torturing Rexie in her sleep?” asks Shira.

“Actually, you are.” Shira grins; Frank answers with a smile.

copco seattle. Sparks knows Jack Becket, staring him down with his one eye, will not like what he’s about to say. “What makes you think,” says the Chief, “you can get away with letting these bounty hunters stab us in the back?”

“Sorry, Chief,” Sparks says calmly, “but as long as the U.S. Police Force remains a military service barred to the Police Guild, the Trackers won’t let us have our monopoly. The best we can do is cooperate. After all, they did manage to catch all the terrorists who managed to survive on Sunday.”

“They’re still a threat to our business, Mr. Sparks.”

“I’d worry about the military trying to socialize the industry. Father does, and so should you.”

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Spanner 17.2: Sinister Secrets of Bangor High

...from previous

Chaos Angel Spanner — Chapter 17: Power, Corruption, and Lies
Part 2: Sinister Secrets of Bangor High (Final Revision)

shira’s apartment. Shira says, “Yesterday we spied on Ross, Robson, and Spiekerman in the john. They’re ready to make their move against the Student Union.”

“Ross says he has special plans for us,” the girl with the violet eyes adds.

Hope announces, “The time is coming.”

Shira smiles in recognition. “The time to go on strike.”

“Isn’t that suicidal?” asks the bright-eyed girl in alarm.

“Not if we kick the giant monsters when they’re down. Remember, love, the Conservative Revolution’s as corrupt as it is fanatical. It’s inherent in Egoism.” Shira winks.

Hope asks the violet-eyed girl, “Can we trust you?”

The girl holds Shira tight. “She’s so much a part of me now that if I hurt her, I hurt myself. I trust her absolutely.” She kisses her.

Everybody looks at the bright-eyed girl. She smiles nervously. “Amanda, no. Me, yes.”

penguindrome. An effective pirate radio station plans for backup. KCUF now operates from the basement of the Wrecking Krewe’s East Bremerton squat. Deth Pussy stares at the monitors in shock: it’s The Amanda Report. “What happened to our Amanda?”

A gentle touch on his shoulder. He jumps in his seat and spins around. She’s standing right next to him, brown-haired, with a huge and happy smile. “That’s Amanda over there. I’m right here.”

“What’re you talking about?”

Alex hugs her from behind. “Haven’t you heard? She finally got rid of her name.”

She grins. “I’m an anonymous beauty now.”

Deth gasps. “How in ‘Bob’s’ name did you pull that?”

“My number one fan wanted it, so I let her have it.” She winks.

“This calls for a celebration,” says Nick. A crowd of hackers and media pirates surround them. The nameless woman blushes. Champagne flies through the air before being poured into glasses. She downs her glass in one gulp and refuses a refill.

Simon hugs her and spins her around. “If you were to join our news department, what should we call you?”

She shoots him an offended look. “Your anonymous reporter, of course!”

“Well, we’ve got a story, if you choose to accept it...”

She perks up; her eyes twinkle. “Mm-hmmm?”

“Are you willing to risk your life for this?”

“I’d rather die than read press releases again.”

“There’s certain secrets behind Bangor High’s founding we’ve heard are connected to SPEC’s plans.”

“I’m on it right away!”

newsreel, 1949... Surrounded by Navy officers, sailors in dress whites, Kitsap County officials, and their wives, Roger Steele Becket and Gregory T. Mobley cut the ceremonial ribbon.
Announcer: The chairman of Dictel Corporation and the president of the Central Kitsap Development Authority officially open the new town of Bangor, Washington, designed to accommodate a fast-growing defense economy and provide the greatest comfort and security to the men who serve our country on the hostile sees, the workingmen who supply them, and their families.
television, 1960... Surrounded by Navy officers, Dictel executives, City of Bangor and Central Kitsap School District officials, and faculty members, Bangor Mayor Gregory T. Mobley cuts the ceremonial ribbon.
Anchorman: Today was the official opening of the new Bangor High School which will serve the City of Bangor, the Naval submarine base, and surrounding areas.

Roger Becket: It is my dream that Bangor High be the best technology-oriented high school in the whole Northwest. To that end, I am personally donating to this school everything we need to educate the next generation of American engineers and scientists. If we mobilize the best American minds, we can lick the Communist menace!

Monday, February 11, 2013

Spanner 17.1: We Control Your Signal

...from previous

Chaos Angel Spanner — Chapter 17: Power, Corruption, and Lies
Part 1: We Control Your Signal (Final Revision)

Advertising is legalized lying.
H.G. Wells

I’ve got the power!
He-Man Snap PowerBoost Energy Drinks

9 october 2014.
telesphere.
The video image of ESPNBC reporter Amanda Currie starts to break up. The audio goes out. The cable signal seems to be stuttering. The digital signal erupts into chaos in random bursts. Suddenly the picture degenerates into analog static.

Analog static? That hasn’t happened since CRTs were phased out in 2006. Someone has hacked into the Telesphere!

AM radio static squeals in and out, oscillating between white noise and voices. One voice finally comes in loud and clear:
Simon Remington: This is Pirate Television KCUF, live to wherever you are. We are now on the air.

25 december 2012...
telesphere.
Amanda Currie kneels before Shepherd Drusilla Becket Draper at her Tuesday night revival in the new ESPNBC studio and wails as her father the Admiral looks on.
Amanda: Forgive me, Lord Jesus America, I have sinned!
Drusilla: (lays hands on Amanda’s head) Do you accept Jesus America as your personal Lord and Savior? Will you serve Him with your whole soul?
Amanda: Yes, Lord! Yes! Praise Jesus America!
Drusilla: In the name of Jesus America, thou art HEALED!
Slain in the Spirit, Amanda falls backwards into the waiting arms of her catchers. She twitches and channels the Unknown Tongue. Admiral Currie, well pleased, smiles in triumph.

shira’s apartment. An anonymous beauty wakes up to her first morning without a name, sandwiched between two gorgeous girls she adores. “Is this real,” she asks softly, “or am I dreaming?”

Shira says, “Maybe you’re waking up to reality.”

“Yeah.” The woman watches Shira with concern. “Are you okay?”

“I’m better, at least for now.”
She closes her eyes and silently calls to the sleeping girl embracing her from behind. The girl wakes with a start. “See? We don’t even need to call each other by those awkward descriptives.”

The girl stares with her violet eyes. “How do you know about newtypes?”

“That’s why Dr. Thorwald spared me.” The girls’ mouths drop open.

telesphere. The Rat Bastard plays his next move in his game against Spanner:
[the high-pitched buzz tone of the Emergency Alert System]

This is the Emergency Alert System. A Code Red Terror Alert has been issued for the entire West Coast in the wake of the attempt on the life of King Patriot the First on Sunday. Secretary of Homeland Security Karl Radisson is offering a fifty million dollar reward for the identification and capture of the terrorist known as Spanner. The King’s sons, Thomas, Richard, and Henry Becket, are offering double the reward to anyone who brings them the terrorist’s head.

[patriotic music, flag waving in the background — this is where Litton’s propaganda begins, with a bombastic male voice]

Announcer: People of America, Our Nation is in danger. The terrorists sent by Satan to destroy the Nation have struck again, and the Devil has sent his deadliest agent:

[still frame of a black motorcycle helmet with mirrored faceplate and skull-and-crossed-wrenches insignia]

Announcer: ...the man known only as Spanner. His words betray that his only goal is chaos, destruction, and anarchy. His destruction is our holy patriotic duty—

—We interrupt this message—

[montage of stock news footage of labor strikes being ruthlessly suppressed, accompanied by an increasingly frenzied free-jazz soundtrack and the robotic voice of Spanner]

Spanner: Why are the workers always forced to fight in the streets? Because the Corporations put them in crippling debt but refuse to give them a living wage, for their basic needs steal from the all-important profit needs of the Corporate élite. The people are the Conspiracy against America. The people are the enemy of the State.

[old black and white film footage of stereotypical “fat cat” Robber Barons gleefully throwing money around]

Spanner: There is no god but Mammon...

[silent film footage of workers being trapped in a factory’s giant gears and ground to bloody pulp]

Spanner: ...and Jesus America is his only-begotten son.

[the logos of Dictel Corporation and Chinese Corporatist Party (Holdings) Limited duel to the death over a corpse-strewn nuclear wasteland]

Spanner: A-fucking-men.

Saturday, February 9, 2013

Spanner Chapter 16: Don't Change the Channel (Final Revision)

Chapter 15

Chaos Angel Spanner — Book 1: Rock City Blues
Chapter 16: Don’t Change the Channel (Final Revision)

The Conservative Revolutionaries came to Seattle to transgress against the people of the city. Driven by pure love and a power crystal, two teenage lesbian lovers and their rogue AI turned it back against the transgressors. Now the refugess return only to find the Party has wrecked large parts of the city in ruins and stuck them with the bill. The Consortium that owns the Metropolitan City is already issuing lawsuits. The city's own intelligence gives the girls and their cop and reporter friends the shocking secret details. After escaping punishment, not satisfied with mere destruction, Shira and her nameless girlfriend consummate their mad love right under the Eye and commit the ultimate crime with a willing child. Still it remains mere transgression...

After the school shooting (14.3) and the shocking death of King Patriot (15.4), Bangor High is now under heavy armed guard — not to prevent more such disasters, but to punish the students and to enforce the relentlessly inflating mandatory costs that SPEC Chairman Ross, typical Corporate that he is, imposes to satisfy his ever escalating monetary demands. It doesn’t stop the Student Union and Team Bremelo. They ally themselves a group of foreign exchange students and the KCUF pirate broadcasters. But new Party chairman Henry Becket intends to get personal revenge. The Party’s propaganda fuhrer Randolph G. “Rat Bastard” Litton takes his place among Cascadia’s ruling “Fearsome Foursome” and attempts to hijack Spanner for himself. And Amanda, pretty reporter now in disgrace, finds herself face-to-face with a homicidal identity thief...

Table of Contents:
  1. Urban Intelligence (September 5, 2011, Final Revision 1/28/13)
  2. Pick Up the Pieces (September 6, 2011, Final Revision 1/30/13)
  3. Faith and Suicide (September 7, 2011, Final Revision 2/1/13)
  4. Live on Pirate Television KCUF (September 8, 2011, Final Revision 2/4/13)
  5. Such Men Are Dangerous (September 9, 2011, Final Revision 2/6/13)
  6. Stalking the Wild Newtype (September 10, 2011, Final Revision 2/8/13)
There are so many changes between the Second and Fourth Revisions it’s no longer possible for me to keep track. Parts 5 and 6 are almost entirely new. There is no Third Revision version.

The original chapter notes and Second Revision update:
First Revision Notes: “Media Wars” is the third of the proposed chapter titles I took from my Project Notebooks of the Nineties and early ’00s (after “Spanner in the Works” and “Better Living Through Chemistry”). This title encapsulates one of the major cyberpunk themes contained in such CP-SF novels from the classic era as William Gibson’s Mona Lisa Overdrive, Norman Spinrad’s Little Heroes, and Bradley Denton’s Wrack & Roll. Above all, there was Max Headroom. A title like “Media Wars” was a complete no-brainer back when I was trying to write Spanner as science fiction. Now that the Media Wars are actually happening, what was science fiction then is reality today. I’ve updated the concept to include the Internet and social media — or what little is left of it after a little dust-up called World Infowar I...

One more obscure influence on this chapter in particular is a book from the mid-Seventies called Decadence, a post-mortem of the Sixties counterculture by one Jim Hougan (who was then living in exile on Ibiza a decade before the rave culture of the Nineties started developing there and ended its backwater obscurity). Its one major point, besides identifying America as something of a giant robot doomed to move in one direction until (in our near future) it crashes, is his antithesis within pop culture of alpha culture and omega culture. Alpha culture is the decentralized culture of the people; omega culture is the hypercentralized culture of the Man. Omega culture is a parasite that continually struggles to assimilate all potentially threatening alpha culture and lock it into unthreatening stasis. More than ever, the Man has a huge edge. But now we have the means to subvert the Man’s omega-cultural tyranny: the Internet, social media, and file sharing. After the Neo-Confederate coup and the Infowar, the Man seems to have total control. But in its hubris it has spawned the cancer that will kill it: the Darknet. (Here’s the book on it, an article on it, and the reply by Freenet’s creator.).

Scenarios from the Project Notebooks of the early ’00s: the Doctor’s visit and the terror group that calls itself the Socialist Revolutionary Organization. From the early Notebooks of the Nineties: the Rat Bastard (mostly on index cards, actually), the Pirate Television Network and its local station KCUF, and the cult known popularly as the TV Heads. The original cover concept for the proposed manga episode: a line of cartoon fish, escalating in size, all about to eat each other.

Special Mentions: Go-Man and Mister X!
Special Guest Star: Rupert Murdoch is News Corporation — literally!
Original soundtrack by Emergency Broadcast Network.

Now press play, and listen...

Second Revision Update: After revealing its existence to Shira and Sparks, Seattle’s “urban intelligence” gives them a shocking revelation about COPCO and the Party. Governor Brinkman and the Cascadia Public Management Corporation, humiliated by Spanner’s appearance last chapter, hires the Party’s public relations master, a man known to his countless enemies as the Rat Bastard. The terrified school administrators of Bremerton High summon their Party overseer to help them deal with the escalating feud between the Student Council and Team Bremelo. Shira and the pirate broadcasters at KCUF wage a PR duel with the Rat Bastard, with sexy star reporter Amanda Currie as the target and the prize. And Jennifer tinkers with her own prize, a beautiful robot girl salvaged from the post-assassination robot riots...

The third part of Rock City Blues begins, and it threatens to rock the foundations of the American Empire...

The name of this chapter was changed from “Media Wars”; I’m now reserving that title for a chapter of Book 2 set during the Pretty City arc. Neither Rupert Murdoch nor his corporation-body, Prime Minister News Corporation, appear in person (he/it will be a major player in the later chapter), nor does the SRO. The School Arc climaxing in Chapter 21 resumes. Much of the introduction to the original Chapter 15 has been superseded as the chapter was revised for the Second Edition. But some of it is still correct, or at least interesting...
Chapter 17

Back to Chaos Angel Spanner table of contents...

Copyright © 2013 Dennis Jernberg. Some rights reserved.
Creative Commons License

Friday, February 8, 2013

Spanner 16.6: Stalking the Wild Newtype

...from previous

Chaos Angel Spanner — Chapter 16: Don’t Change the Channel
Part 6: Stalking the Wild Newtype (Final Revision)

lecture room. Even for its size, the place is crowded. Ostensibly it’s a student meeting about school violence; it’s really the first Student Union meeting since Sunday’s disaster.

All the tutors in Dave Whitmer’s homeroom are present: Shira, Jennifer, Connor, Cory, Colette, Daisy, the Shelley twins, and Dorian. For the first time, they meet the foreign exchange students from Sylvia Plame’s: from Italy: Elena Moretti and Giulio Bartimeo; from Germany: Uwe Steinberg, Bobby Visser, and Anna St. Cyr; from Greece: Niko Pappaioannou; from France: Régine Coury and Daniel Bergman; from Japan: Fuyumi and Harumi Tachibana and their cousin Seika. Representing the GSA: Lorelei, Chuck, Lyssa, Donald, Lorine, Eddie, and now Ken. The entire Science Club is present; Kio, Fiona, Polly, and Brandi complete Team Bremelo. Faculty present: Dave, Sylvia, Elsie, and the three librarians. Charmian and Debbie accompany Dorian. All other students present represent themselves. As Student Union president, Karen takes the podium. “Now for the reason we’re here.”

Steve asks, “Is it all those armed lunatics invading our school?”

“No!” exclaims Chuck, “it’s gotta be those crazy vigilantes they got prowling the halls and scaring us half to death!”

Polly: “Come on, people, they’re an occupying army and we’re the natives!”

Karen gestures for quiet. “This is sounding like a revolutionary meeting.”

“And we’re the target,” says Shira.

“Everybody knows,” Jennifer adds, “this revolution is the revolt of a fading élite that can’t handle losing power.”

Karen says, “So we need to create an alliance so we can protect ourselves. All those in favor, raise your hands.”

Every single person here raises their hand, some quite enthusiastically.

“The Peace Committee is now official!” The whole lecture room erupts into cheers.

Suddenly the whole room goes silent at the sound of crashing and male yells next door. Shira, Jennifer, Melody, Brandi, and the Shelley twins rush into the science room. Team Valiant are trying to trash the science room; Beck and Rex try to set it on fire until they find themselves surrounded by Bremeloes. They take a defiant fighting stance. Beck yells, “Science is bad!”

Rex echoes, “Wrong, even!”

Shira flashes them a mischievous smirk. “‘Badong,’ boys?”

“Assume what you want, boys,” says Jennifer. “My science-based fighting style completely owns your faith-based one.”

Charmian comes in angry. “Bart! What in God’s name are—”

Bart slaps her “Why didn’t you do something?”

She stares at him in open-mouthed shock. “Do what?”

He slaps her again. “From now on, you do what I say and nothing else! And I’m Student Council President! America’s Manhood is too sacred to allow mere girls to lead men!” He attempts to slap her again — but she catches his arm and throws him.

She glares at him; he flinches at the pure hatred emanating from her eyes in hot tears. “You put those boys in danger and got ’em killed! You caused their girlfriends — my friends, not yours — to kill themselves in shame! You don’t know how to do anything but beat people up! Go ahead, Bart, take over. But don’t blame me if the Student Union wins!”

Another explosion at the front door. This time Shira, the Blairs, the Shelleys, and Charmian go rigid — they sense one of their own — Jennifer whispers, “It’s her! Let’s go.” Everyone who can sense the Chinese agent runs out of both rooms toward the school’s newest invader, except the Shelleys, who stay behind to protect the Student Union.

harborside hotel. “So you’re Amanda Currie?” asks the look-alike.

Amanda smiles nervously. “That’s my name, I guess.”

“Not anymore. I wanna be Amanda Currie.”

“Lucky for you I don’t.”

“All I have to do now is kill you.”

She gives her doppelgänger her brightest smile. “You don’t even have to do that. You want my identity that much, I’ll give it to you freely, ’cuz I’m not my name at all.”

hallway. They are joined by Debbie, Daisy, Irina, Melody, and the remaining Fleer sisters. Together they run down the hallway as gunshots sound ahead. Charmian asks Shira, “What gave you the silly idea that people are born equal?”

“Amazing superpowers equals better person? Ha!”

“I know you, Charmer, and so does she.”

They find the bodies of the volunteer armed guards littering a cafeteria splattered with blood. At the center of the carnage, a beautiful Asian woman sporting long black hair and Chinese-lettered black armour bodysuit. “Hey!” Connor points at her. “That’s the agent who blew up KCUF!”

The agent speaks in a Hong Kong English accent with the absolute certainty of pure faith. “Welcome, fellow neo-humans! My name is Toni Wong, and I have come here to take you home.”

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Spanner 16.5: Such Women Are Dangerous

...from previous

Chaos Angel Spanner — Chapter 16: Don’t Change the Channel
Part 5: Such Women Are Dangerous (Final Revision)

8 october 2014.
technosphere.
Posted to LocaFantoma99’s Profile on 7 October 2014:
A cat attacks a rabbit. At first, the cat chases the rabbit. After a short squabble, the rabbit chases the cat. A few seconds later, the rabbit catches the cat-and humps it...
The cat is Mikan. The rabbit’s name is Peter, and he belongs to Shira’s grandmother, the children’s author Eleanor Richter. Shira shot the video herself three summers ago on a FlipCam. The soundtrack consists of angry feline meows and hisses, a lapine squeak or two, and the squeals and giggles of half a dozen children, including Shira and Kira.

red house. Shira and the girl with the violet eyes wake up in each other’s arms in the guest room bed. The nameless girl looks in Shira’s beautiful green eyes. Something feels not right. “You okay?”

“I feel a little odd.”

The nameless girl throws the covers off her. “On your stomach.” She carefully feels all over Shira’s bare buttocks, looking for a painful spot.

“No, I didn’t get an umbrella in the arse. Did you get a ‘truth serum’ injection?”

“Oh my—”

They join Charlie, Desiree, Melody, and Luna in the annex for breakfast. “Say, Charlie,” Shira asks, “you going to school today?”

“Sure. Why?”

“Maybe you could give me a checkup?”

“Not feeling well?”

“Not since Monday.”

Charlie and Desiree look at each other with concern. Desiree says, “Do it.”

mudlark house. Irina wanders still naked into the basement workshop where Jennifer, comfortably nude as usual, installs a new and more powerful computer brain into Pansy Persocom’s head. The old brain is mounted on the table next to Jennifer’s laptop. She looks around and marvels at the odd devices scattered all over. “Wow, you are inventor?”

Jennifer smiles sweetly. “I like to tinker.” She carefully fits the top of Pansy’s head back into place. It locks into place; Pansy opens her eyes; she’s on. Jennifer Bluetooth-syncs the computer to both brains; the new operating system and the old AI begin installation. “She won’t know who she is till she’s installed in her new brain.” She fondles the beautiful body. The monitor reveals Pansy’s reaction to her touch. “Come on, feel her.”

Irina feels the gynoid’s breasts. “She is cold.”

“I just turned her back on. She’ll warm up.”

She strokes the legs. “Does she have morality chip?”

“Designed it myself.” Jennifer looks into blue eyes slowly coming to life. “Such a sweet girl, so innocent.”

While they wait for Pansy’s system to upload and upgrade, Irina takes another look around the lab. “This look like madness place where mad scientist do mad science.”

“So what makes you such an authority on mad science?”

“You know Dr. Tukholsky, who make third Proletarian into superhero? He give me crazy tests before Russian army send me to war.”

Jennifer turns her head suddenly and fixes an intense gaze on Irina, making her flinch. “He gave you super serum.”

“Y-yes, I think.”

She pulls Irina close. “Irina, you gotta to school with us.”

“School?”

“My cousin Charlie’s the school nurse. She can run tests.” Jennifer stares into the Russian girl’s eyes, gently strokes tousled red hair, and gives her a long deep kiss.
Radisson: There is no need to panic. We here in the government are here to help you. We have everything under control.
bangor high. Student Councillors gather in the parking lot. “How come Bart’s not here?” asks Kelly.

“Probably evading treason charges,” Charmian answers. “He’s a mere fighter who knows nothing of true war.”

“Why’s that?”

“Intelligence, not brute force, wins the war.”

“So how do we beat the enemy?”

“Gossip always works well. Except on Shira Thomas. She’s too amoral. And Jennifer Blair? Too potentially dangerous.”

“And Karen Kubota’s made of Teflon.”

“How about your Eurotrash cousins, then?”

Rachel looks at her in surprise and says nothing. Lucy says, “We tried Leila yesterday, but she only laughed at us and Debbie got mad.”

Debbie glares at her too close. “I’m still mad.”

“Forget any of them,” says Kelly. “I know Shira’s weakness, and it ain’t Leila.”

Charmian suddenly turns to look at her. She reads the jealous look in her eye. She knows. “Then what is it, Kelly?”

“Sweet little Mimi. She’s a total wuss. I say we start with her.”

school lobby. The vidscreen bank at the school entrance greets Team Bremelo by relentlessly and narmily mourning King Patriot as if it believed it could bring him back from the dead through virtual tears alone. Shira snarks, “Looks like our American Stalin just turned into our Kim Il Sung.” Polly looks at her strangely. “Did you know Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il are still co-heads of state in North Korea even though they’re dead? Now the ghost of old King Rodge can be co-ghost leader along with Emperor Jesus America, President Goldman Sachs, and Party Chairman The American Crusader.”

Polly sighs in frustration. “This is getting so weird, I feel like I’m trapped in a funhouse with monster clowns.”

“And I’m duelling the makeup artist. You think it’s weird? Now it starts getting interesting.”

As they walk toward the cafeteria, they notice the Fleer sisters arguing with unusual hysteria. They cannot hear what they’re saying because they keep talking over each other, but they notice Dorian failing to calm her younger sisters down and Christian succeeding in making her sisters more hysterical, and that what they’re arguing over is Spanner. “Losing their great-grandfather sure hit ’em hard, Karen observes.

“It’s even worse,” says Shira. “They’re afraid of the monster that killed him.”

Kelly intrudes angrily into Shira’s face. “I hope to God you’re not connected with that horrible terrorist.”

“You mean Spanner?” replies Shira. “That guy doesn’t need our help, and probably doesn’t want it either.”

Bart rudely pushes Kelly aside (Kelly: “Ow!”) and growls with a wavering half-hysteria he has never shown before: “That terrorist murdered our king!”

Shira smiles sweetly and shrugs. “How do you know he’s even dead?”

principal’s office. The tutors stand before the principals’ stare again. The girl with the violet eyes notices Benson and Robson missing. “Where’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern?” she mocks. “Are they not feeling like real men?”

Falconer and Mobley sit resentfully to either side of Principal’s permasmirk; the school Party liaison Morton Spiekerman stands above them and the empty seats between. “They are, shall we say, on leave,” Spiekerman drawls. “I am now in charge of this miserable little school.” The principals try to glare at him without actually looking.

Shira smiles ironically. “Does that explain the heavily armed itchy trigger fingers you put in the halls to keep us unacceptably rational unpersons in line?”

Falconer stands up and shrieks, “You’re out of line, Thomas!”

“Don’t think we won’t punish you for your insolence, Miss Thomas,” Spiekerman warns.

“Are you sure you’re ready to take personal responsibility, Comrade Spiekerman?” asks Shira. “I’ll have to warn you that it's not just SPEC’s reputation on the line, but yours, personally.”

“If anything happens like last week’s shooting incident,” Jennifer adds, “you own it.”

Spierkerman stares at them in cold rage. The principals stare up at him nervously.

hallway. Daisy walks alone toward homeroom through the crowd of students. The students glance warily at the many volunteer armed guards, bearded Party men who glare at them with suspicion. The men stare at her as if she’s an alien invader from Mars. Suddenly she hears a young male voice behind her, a student: “Kon Hinagiku-san?”

“Don’t call me that name!” she snaps at—

Akane Ejimoto smiles at her. “You’re a true hero, Hinagiku-san. They’re stupid to treat you like an enemy. I want you to know...” He comes over to caress her cheek. “I worship you.”

She stares at him, stunned by his confession. “Akane-kun... please don’t...” He silences her with a gentle kiss. They silently stare at each other for several seconds. They scramble to a nook away from the guards’ paranoid view, then pull each other close and share a long and increasingly passionate kiss. She gasps, sighs, regains her breath. “What about your mother?”

“The hell with my mother.” They stare into each other's eyes, he with determination, she with amazement. They hold each other tight and share a long hot kiss.

A woman clears her throat. Polly. They blush furiously. “Move it, lovebirds,” she says, “class starts any second.”

cafeteria. The girl with the violet eyes finds herself surrounded by mean girls. Christian, Kelly, Debbie, and Lady get in her way and won’t let her move. The guards, though armed, keep their distance. Debbie protests, “Are you saying we’re responsible for those suicides?”

The nameless girl gasps. “Of course not!”

Debbie drapes herself over her and sobs, “Why do you hate me so much?”

Lady slaps her. “Don’t be a fool, Debbie. She’s nothing but a filthy Eurotrash whore.”

Christian says, “Debbie, I warned you about her years ago.”

Jennifer clears her throat. They look at her. “What would you want done to your body after your suicide?”

The Student Councillors stare at her strangely.

“In Pretty City,” says the violet-eyed girl, “they drive models to suicide and use their corpses for art.”

“It’s true,” says Rob. “It’s why we left.”

Debbie wails, "That's insane!"

“But these are the kind of Egoists,” Jennifer grimly explains, “who don’t care what happens to their bodies once they've liberated their Egos.”

The violet-eyed girl raises a finger. “The Molotov Twins insist it’s a waste of perfectly beautiful dead flesh.”

Shira winks. “You girls ever heard of America’s Next Dead Model?”

The Councillors stare at her. They look at each other, then flee with a chorus of "Ew!"

homeroom office. In the men’s restroom behind the principal’s office, two gray-haired men in business suits (SPEC CEO Peter Ross, fat and bald; Teachers Guild local president Nolan Robson, tall and thin) and one in Party uniform (school liaison Morton Spiekerman) stand at adjacent urinals and talk business, unaware that Falconer installed a hidden camera because she suspects Principal Principal and Coach Mobley are gay. Dave, Karen, and Colette watch them on his monitor. “This Student Union thing’s seriously impacting our monetization plan,” says Ross.

Spiekerman asks, “Wasn’t it going smoothly until a few students started getting disobedient?”

Dave mutters, “If it wasn’t for you meddling kids.” The girls laugh.

Robson protests, “The plan was never going smoothly because of those meddling kids.” (Karen and Colette squeal and giggle.)

“You know who their leader is, Mr. Chairman?”

“Ah yes,” Ross replies, “your three-time cheerleader of the year who claims Buddha and not Jesus America as her savior.”

“Whose aunt just happens to be our enemy,” Robson adds.

Jennifer, Shira, and the girl with the violet eyes arrive. Jennifer and Shira sing “Hi cousin!” together and throw themselves in Karen’s arms. She kisses them both. Jennifer looks at the monitor. “Say, isn’t that nonentity assistant principal Robson with the Chairman?”

Shira frowns. “Actually, that’s nonentity puppet Guild chief Robson. Three guesses who they’re talking about, and the first two don’t count.”

“‘Paid vacation,’ eh?”

“Yeah.”

Robson says, “That popular girl who just came back, Nicolette Rosewater? She’s one of the key figures in the plot against us.”

“Do something about her too, then,” says Ross. “And do something about their ‘newtype’ friend Blair, too. King Patriot died for Our Nation. We cannot let a few little girls resurrect the Communist evil we spent our whole lives fighting, right under our noses.”

Spiekerman smiles knowingly. “I know exactly the man to teach a lesson or two to Miss cheerleader-of-the-year.”

Robson chuckles. “That should teach those little monkeys who’s boss.”

Ross zips his fly. “But beware of Shira Thomas.” Spiekerman and Robson, still holding their penises, stare at him in shock as he leaves.

clinic. Charlie pricks Shira’s fingertip. Mimi flinches. Cory, Polly, the Shelley siblings, and a redheaded non-student named Irina look on. Charlie touches the bead of blood with a diagnostic strip that absorbs it. The blood on the strip turns almost black. For a long moment she says nothing, just stares at the black strip. She holds it up for the others to see. The Shelley twins go pale. Shira slowly shakes her head. “Leave it to Locke Holmes to pull something that malicious.”

Charlie gasps. “What?

“Yep. Him. Monday morning.”

“How are you feeling now?”

“Kinda meh.”

“If this gets any worse—”

“Call Doc Whistler.” She looks at Irina. “And if she’s right about the super serum, we’ll need to bring her.”

harborside hotel. Amanda fumbles with her keys. She curses her inability to hold onto anything anymore below her breath. After a struggle she manages to get the hotel room key into the lock. Unlock, open the door, enter.

She turns on the light. She turns around. There’s a woman sitting in the recliner. Through the miracle of Resculpting, the woman looks exactly like her. She’s pointing a gun at her.

Amanda drops everything and holds up her hands. “W-what do you want?”

The woman smiles. “I wanna be you.”

on to the next...

Back to Chapter 16 index...
Back to Chaos Angel Spanner table of contents...

Copyright © 2013 Dennis Jernberg. Some rights reserved.
Creative Commons License

[Revision 4, 2/6/13: Mostly new scenes added as a continuation of Fourth Revision continuity. Original title “Regarding Amanda”; formerly containing scenes now in 13.3 and elsewhere.]
[Revision 4 Final, 2/10/12: Corrected one final text error.]

Monday, February 4, 2013

Spanner 16.4: Live on Pirate Television KCUF

...from previous

Chaos Angel Spanner — Chapter 16: Don’t Change the Channel
Part 4: Live on Pirate Television KCUF (Final Revision)

[The pirate’s-head logo of KCUF appears on your screen to interrupt your television viewing.]
Simon Remington: This is Pirate Television KCUF, on the air live, broadcasting worldwide.
Spanner: Greetings, Mr. and Mrs. America, and the world. They call me Spanner. This is the news.
Amanda Currie: This is | ABCNN | QVCBS | ESPNBC, for all your | official lies | and | lame|stream news|ertainment needs.
ESPNBC Announcer: And now, here’s | The Amanda Report|’s greatest hits!
Henry Becket: America still needs a Conservative Revolution, the only moral alternative to Communism and jihadism. There is no other alternative.
BlipVert: Standard Oil fuel up with Esso there’s no other alternative tiger in your tank Tiger tank smash the chinks Siberia oil chink chonk war war war zik zik zik zik
Spanner: Soon your Owners will attempt to tell you who I am. They will make me a superhero, a reality TV celebrity, a messenger of the risen Christ, or the Devil in code. They will use every illusion at their command to make me not me. They have already failed.
Henry Becket: Man is cancer! He has spread all over the world and destroyed everything in his path! The worst proliferate at the expense of the best. If we cannot stop this, we do not deserve freedom!
Grac|ie | Nance: It is an outrage that | the people | have | freedom!
Amanda Currie: My coworker has the night off, | she | was murdered | by chimpanzees!
BlipVert: General Electric the world's only nuclear power source all your energy needs uranium plutonium Sahara mines nuke the wogs wig wog war war war zum zum zum zum
Spanner: They rule you because they fear you. They exclude you from salvation because you are not phantoms like them. They are not like you. They are the Machine. I am the monkeywrench jammed into its gears.
Amanda Currie: ...the rate of | monkeywrench | violence has decreased due to | the removal of the frontal lobe of | my | brain. | On a serious note, | let’s all welcome | our new | robot | zombie | overlords.
Henry Becket: Only America can save the world from evil. Only a superhero can save America. Therefore, for the sake of Our Nation, I hereby accept the Chairmanship of the Conservative Revolutionary Party of the United States of America.
Martin Becket: Comrades! Let’s hail our new Leader! He’s the game breaker for Team America! Our victory over the world is assured! Next stop, the conquest of space!
Conservative Revolutionaries: (marching, chanting) Bring! back! the good old days! Bring! back! the good old days!
Spanner: I am not a hero, a villain, or a terrorist. I am Chaos. Where there is disorder, I am there. Where there is chaos, I am there. Where there is evolution, I have done my work.
Amanda Currie: Up next: | absolutely nothing! | Mainstream news|ertainment: | nobody’s | watching.
Will Becket: martial law | I’m in control | Don’t try anything funny | I’m watching you.
Henry Becket: I am in control. Now I command you: | Destroy | the people!
BlipVert: Dictel is America’s number one security solution Dictel is America defend lynch the liberal CommuNazi traitor nigger wigger war war war zap zap zap zap
Spanner: I am the Angel of Chaos. I am not coming for you. I never left.
ESPNBC Announcer: This has been | quite | a | production.
Amanda Currie: (in despair, at producer) If I don’t get some time off and soon, I’ll bring you the latest in blood and guts by shooting myself on camera! (looks at camera in horror) Oh, we’re on?
kcuf studios. Amanda walks in ahead of the Bremeloes and looks around the converted ministorage unit, observing the frantic activity around stock and makeshift broadcast equipment. “This is a studio?

Simon Remington winks. “This is pirate television.”

Jennifer, Connor, and Rob bring Sana, Harumi, Steve, and Akane to meet Sparks, Shira, and the girl with the violet eyes inside the front door with their usual team hugs and kisses. On the wall of monitors, orphaned IP Maxine Headroom illegally shakes her exposed oversize breasts in jerky stop-motion CGI while stuttering her latest underground dancepunk hit; Sana, Harumi, and even Akane giggle uncontrollably. Deth Pussy, El Kabong, Evil The Cat, and the Cockroach Twins work the custom overclocked Raspberry Pis and miniaturized broadcast equipment while robot RC cars with a botnet mind race around them intelligently.

Harumi carefully studies one of the Raspberry Pi units, small as a cable TV box. “Ahhh... so little...”

“Wow,” Akane marvels, “I never saw anything like this at NHK.”

Shira winks. “The hacker underground pride themselves on getting the most out of the least. By the way...” She grabs Steve and drags him over to Deth. “Steve? Steve. Steve, Steve.”

The two Steves shake hands and say together, “Hi, Steve.”

El Kabong has a double take, recognizing Akane. “Hey, ain’t you that monfighting champ?”

“I would be,” Akane replies, “if I didn’t keep getting owned.” He turns his eyes toward Shira.

El and Evil look at her. “Her?” asks Evil. “Why her?”

Akane shrugs. “She’s the ‘newtype’ and I’m not.”

The two hackers stare at each other, then Akane. They grin. “Nooooooo.”

They watch Shira and the nameless girl cuddle, communing as if carrying on a silent parallel conversation while they talk with Simon. Akane says, “Yes.”

Go-Man confronts his nemesis Ms. N in stylized animation. “Problem is, everything’s gotta be all black and white,” Simon complains. “People wanna see Tournament. Hyper City, Pretty City, no diff, innit?”

“Babyfaces and heels,” Shira says, “just like pro wrestling.”

“They could at least add some real human beings,” says the nameless girl.

“Nah. Not black and white enough.”

Steve asks, “How do you manage to get it broadcasted without the IP Defenders retaliating?”

Deth replies, “We stream on the Darknet, and the Darknet does the rest. They can piggyback pirate broadcasts on AT&T, network, and military signals, even Chinese, so not even Echelon can trace us.”

“Sounds tricky.”

“Easier than you think.”

Moon Roach exclaims, “Dudes! Somebody’s trying to jam us again!”

Simon commands, “Switch carriers!”

telesphere. Your television signal breaks up, pixelizes, jerks and stutters. An official network tries to hijack the channel. The two signals duel to the death, interpenetrating, trying to drown each other out. Suddenly the KCUF signal switches back to full power, restored, and the sweet-voiced Vocaloids sweetly slay each other again.

Friday, February 1, 2013

Spanner 16.3: Faith and Suicide

...from previous

Chaos Angel Spanner — Chapter 16: Don’t Change the Channel
Part 3: Faith and Suicide (Final Revision)

7 october 2014.
shira’s apartment.
At first her consciousness is fuzzy. She stretches her body in place. When full awareness returns, Amanda opens her eyes and finds herself in an unfamiliar bed. She rolls onto her side, letting the covers slide off her bare breasts, and sees Shira sitting up next to her. She rests her head in her lap. Shira smiles down at her and caresses her cheek and hair. “Good morning, bright-eyed girl.” Amanda sighs.

The girl with the violet eyes arrives with three breakfasts-in-bed. She leans over Shira’s legs to kiss Amanda on the lips. Amanda moans from the feel of the girl’s soft lips and the smell of breakfast. “C’mon, sit up, bright-eyed girl.” Shira helps Amanda up. The nameless girl puts their trays in front of them, then takes hers around the bed, climbs in beside Amanda, puts her tray up, and caresses Amanda’s thigh.

Amanda says, “Did you erase your number?”

The nameless girl stares at her in surprise. “What number?”

“The Personnel Control Number the Party assigns to everyone. To have one is to be a slave; to lose it is to be marked for death.”

Shira says, “I’ll bet being a Populist means losing your number.”

The nameless girl says, “The Plan involves culling numbers.”

Amanda says, “The number of the Beast.”

Silence.

warren avenue bridge. Light rain falls over the Port Washington Narrows. Shira and her violet-eyed girl walk hand in hand under an umbrella. They walk silently together to the middle of the bridge. No one bothers them. Then the girl faces the water and says, “Stop.”

“Why here?”

She raises her right hand. Her red-rose signet ring is still there on her ring finger. Slowly she takes it off. Ring in hand, she reaches out over the water with her left hand. She smiles at Shira.

She lets go of the ring.

They watch it fall, hundreds of feet, till it reaches the water in a tiny, barely visible splash.

Shira smiles back.

They tilt the umbrella back so the drivers on the bridge can’t see them. They gently pull each other into a tight embrace. For an endless moment they stare into each other’s eyes. Their lips drift together till at last they touch. They share a long, sweet, languid kiss.

bangor high. For the first time since last week’s evacuation of the city, all the teachers and most of the students have returned. The teachers prepare their classes, the students and tutors greet their friends with hugs, kisses, sobs, gossip...

And then Colette Rosewater enters.

Everybody stares at her in shock.

Physically, she seems to have recovered quite nicely from the blow Bernkastel inflicted. She even looks a bit younger than she was when the Blade Knight fell. Shira’s kiss at Team Bremelo’s picnic that was really for her succeeded in cheering her up. She spent the weekend break in welcome companionship with family and friends.

And now she has returned to Bangor High.

“Hey, look!” cries Mimi, “it’s Colette! She’s back!” Word spreads like wildfire, girls scream with unbearable excitement, nearly the whole school rush over to embrace her all at once. Losing Nancy hurt even Pretty Team hard though she was unpopular and mentally ill. Surrounded by screaming sobbing friends all showering her with grateful kisses, she breaks down and cries with them, lost in the moment.

Jennifer says to OZMA’s icon on one of the adscreens outside, “Now our last important Player is in position and ready to strike.”

Through her bra computer and body, into her inner ears, the city AI replies, “Now all you need that’s left is a plan.”

“That’s next.” She winks.

At last Colette joins Kio, Karen, Dexter, and Polly at the center of attention, a team in their own right.