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Story / Animal related (non-anthro)
Species Tiger
Size 50 x 50
File Size 1.71 MB
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This is one of the longest pieces I am going to post here, and one of the oldest. I may go through it and try to pair it down, but for now, I'm going to post the full thing.
It was a bit of experimental writing for me, and, in fact, was written from a small one-room apartment in Hawaii, some 30 floors up in a high-rise. The area I lived (not technically the Makiki Jungle) was known for insane firecracker use on New Years. Elderly chinese immigrants would buy massive quantities of firecrackers, and the entire street would be a flood of sound, flashes, and smoke for a few hours, reaching a peak right at midnight. It was a sensory overload, and one of the things I'll remember all my life from Hawaii. They did it twice every year: our new year, then a month or so later for the Chinese new year.
I always had weird dreams on the nights after the fireworks...
It was a bit of experimental writing for me, and, in fact, was written from a small one-room apartment in Hawaii, some 30 floors up in a high-rise. The area I lived (not technically the Makiki Jungle) was known for insane firecracker use on New Years. Elderly chinese immigrants would buy massive quantities of firecrackers, and the entire street would be a flood of sound, flashes, and smoke for a few hours, reaching a peak right at midnight. It was a sensory overload, and one of the things I'll remember all my life from Hawaii. They did it twice every year: our new year, then a month or so later for the Chinese new year.
I always had weird dreams on the nights after the fireworks...
Category Story / Animal related (non-anthro)
Species Tiger
Size 50 x 50px
File Size 1.71 MB
I haven't actually read the story, but I did download it to see how long it was, and in scrolling to the bottom, I noticed that it stopped in the middle of a sentence, in the middle of a word.
"Tuesday Evening, January 27, 2009, Chinese New Year's Eve
As I prepare for sleep tonight, listening to the firecrackers go off around me as they did nearly a month ago, when this all started, I realize I face a difficult deci"
Just like that. Is it supposed to stop there? I can think of some reasons why you'd do that, as though someone stopped writing in their journal at some point when something happened to them, suddenly, but I have to ask if there wasn't a problem with the file uploaded or something else.
"Tuesday Evening, January 27, 2009, Chinese New Year's Eve
As I prepare for sleep tonight, listening to the firecrackers go off around me as they did nearly a month ago, when this all started, I realize I face a difficult deci"
Just like that. Is it supposed to stop there? I can think of some reasons why you'd do that, as though someone stopped writing in their journal at some point when something happened to them, suddenly, but I have to ask if there wasn't a problem with the file uploaded or something else.
Interesting... When I download it, I get the full text. Don't know why that might happen. That IS near the end, though; it's the final "diary entry." There was some weirdness when I generated the RTF for this one, though...
Here's what it should say:
Tuesday Evening, January 27, 1998, Chinese New Year's Eve
As I prepare for sleep tonight, listening to the firecrackers go off around me as they did nearly a month ago, when this all started, I realize I face a difficult decision, and yet I am not sure I fully understand what I am deciding. I've been thinking about it all day, and if my guess is right, I am frightened at the prospect of having to choose: I face a choice between nature and civilization, and if these dreams are as real as I think they may be, I fear that once the decision is made, there is no going back. As I reflect on what my instincts are telling me, I believe I have but one dream left, and I must now either turn my back on all I have seen and done over the past month, or turn my back on the life I have been living for the past 24 years.
The life I have built for myself as a human is easy, comparatively. When I get hungry, I need but go to the nearest store and buy food, with little risk to myself in doing so. The city is relatively safe from violent crime, and if it becomes a hazard, I can simply lock myself safely away in my apartment. I have food, shelter, and everything I could ask for, but am I truly fulfilled?
The tiger as none of that, though. When hungry, the tiger has to go find his own food, usually at the risk of his own life. There's the ever-present danger of attack, either by competitors in the wild or by someone else looking for a meal. There's no guarantee of food, shelter, safety, or anything else, yet somehow I don't miss it.
So now, as I head to sleep, I face a decision that may well shape the rest of my life. Do I head down the path to safety, security, and shelter, or do I take the dangerous path, which starts me on a life I have only but begun to understand, but which, for a while at least, I have a companion and guide?
As I think back to my experiences as a tiger, I think, just perhaps, I may be good at it. I've proven my own abilities to myself, under conditions far from natural for any living creature. Furthermore, from the look on my companion's face, I think I may have proven my abilities to her as well. She's accepted me not as some strange misfit who barely keeps from getting himself killed, but rather as an equal.
Perhaps more frightening is that I can see myself living out the tiger's life, raising cubs, growing old, and dying, not in a bed in a rest home somewhere, but out in the wild, still hunting as my reflexes slow until one day I make a fatal mistake.
And so it begins again, as I listen to the firecrackers reach a crescendo 30 floors below me, ringing in the start of the Year of the Tiger. With the sudden silence as the last of the firecrackers goes quiet, it's time for sleep, and I can't put off the decision any longer. One way or the other, my companion is waiting for me to decide.
###
Here's what it should say:
Tuesday Evening, January 27, 1998, Chinese New Year's Eve
As I prepare for sleep tonight, listening to the firecrackers go off around me as they did nearly a month ago, when this all started, I realize I face a difficult decision, and yet I am not sure I fully understand what I am deciding. I've been thinking about it all day, and if my guess is right, I am frightened at the prospect of having to choose: I face a choice between nature and civilization, and if these dreams are as real as I think they may be, I fear that once the decision is made, there is no going back. As I reflect on what my instincts are telling me, I believe I have but one dream left, and I must now either turn my back on all I have seen and done over the past month, or turn my back on the life I have been living for the past 24 years.
The life I have built for myself as a human is easy, comparatively. When I get hungry, I need but go to the nearest store and buy food, with little risk to myself in doing so. The city is relatively safe from violent crime, and if it becomes a hazard, I can simply lock myself safely away in my apartment. I have food, shelter, and everything I could ask for, but am I truly fulfilled?
The tiger as none of that, though. When hungry, the tiger has to go find his own food, usually at the risk of his own life. There's the ever-present danger of attack, either by competitors in the wild or by someone else looking for a meal. There's no guarantee of food, shelter, safety, or anything else, yet somehow I don't miss it.
So now, as I head to sleep, I face a decision that may well shape the rest of my life. Do I head down the path to safety, security, and shelter, or do I take the dangerous path, which starts me on a life I have only but begun to understand, but which, for a while at least, I have a companion and guide?
As I think back to my experiences as a tiger, I think, just perhaps, I may be good at it. I've proven my own abilities to myself, under conditions far from natural for any living creature. Furthermore, from the look on my companion's face, I think I may have proven my abilities to her as well. She's accepted me not as some strange misfit who barely keeps from getting himself killed, but rather as an equal.
Perhaps more frightening is that I can see myself living out the tiger's life, raising cubs, growing old, and dying, not in a bed in a rest home somewhere, but out in the wild, still hunting as my reflexes slow until one day I make a fatal mistake.
And so it begins again, as I listen to the firecrackers reach a crescendo 30 floors below me, ringing in the start of the Year of the Tiger. With the sudden silence as the last of the firecrackers goes quiet, it's time for sleep, and I can't put off the decision any longer. One way or the other, my companion is waiting for me to decide.
###
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