About Tower Curator
Stories
6
Chapters
1,021
Words
3.6 M
Comments
5,253
Reading
12 d, 13 h
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Department stores had too many things in them. Too many useless things. Dyna wasn’t sure who bought half the crap lining the shelves. Everything caught her eye; she kept watch for even the smallest thing that could help. They had bath robes, bath towels, bath rugs, bathtubs, bath sponges, bath soap, bath bombs, bath— Dyna stopped and glanced back. Bath bombs? That had bomb in the name, but… No. She doubted that would work. Despite the name, the thematics weren’t there. Not unless she wanted…-
402.5 K • Completed
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Dyna’s gun barked three times as she fired down one of the long aisles of the department store. She didn’t stand still after firing, immediately ducking down and moving, keeping a close eye on her mirror to know if she should dive for cover or swap directions. Someone returned fire in her direction. The mirror didn’t change, so they didn’t have eyes on her, but she heard a nearby display case shatter and the bright muzzle flashes momentarily flashed the store with white-orange light. Distant…
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402.5 K • Completed
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“If we exit to the street side, will we run into the threat?” Dyna asked. Beatrice wasn’t giving them an exit. She had to do it herself. The planchette shuddered. Why? Was the question not specific enough? Was ‘run into’ too vague? Dyna obviously didn’t mean physically sprint into someone, but did the board know that? How did it decide how to parse her questions? Some obviously had been less than specific, but she still got answers. “Will the threat—” “This is taking too…
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402.5 K • Completed
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Dyna had a problem. Lots of problems, actually, including several that she probably didn’t even know about. But this particular problem was obvious and cumbersome. Encumbering, one might say. Artifacts came in all shapes and sizes, as long as the artifact could be considered a single object. A pocket watch was made of many parts, but all those parts made just a watch in the end. Dyna’s mirror consisted of a case, two reflective lenses, and a camera lens, yet it was still just a spy mirror. Ruby’s…
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402.5 K • Completed
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“Where is Hematite going to die? How is Hematite going to die? When is Hematite going to die?” Each question brought with it a scratching noise as the rough felt under the planchette slid across the larger board. Some questions Dyna asked got definite answers. Where was Hematite going to die? Central Park. Presumably a park in or near Idaho Falls and not the famed park in New York. The latter was a bit too far away to fit within the time scale of when Hematite was going to die. Two…
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402.5 K • Completed
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Two weeks following Mel’s successful use of the fog machine, Dyna found herself seated on the floor of her insulated apartment room. The Ouija board sat in front of her, the wolf statue loomed over the ‘No’ corner, and the voodoo doll was slumped over near the ‘Yes’ corner with its crochet hands touching the planchette. The planchette wasn’t moving. Dyna didn’t really expect it to. In fact, despite that being something she was trying to change, it felt like it would be a bit spooky…
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402.5 K • Completed
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“So,” Dyna said, handing over a pen that hadn’t existed an hour ago. “What do you think?” “You get me out of isolation just to show me this?” Ruby asked, looking distinctly unimpressed. “It isn’t even a nice pen.” “I am sorry about that, Ruby,” Walter said, arms crossed over his vest. “Things have been… hectic.” “Oh, I understand. You get a fancy new artificer and forget about me,” Ruby huffed, glaring through the shielded glass. Mel sat on the other side,…
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402.5 K • Completed
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Doctor Phillip Cross stepped away from the terminal screen with a sad shake of his head. They were getting nowhere. The small fog-emitting machine demonstrated exactly one anomalous effect and it was nowhere near the level of proper artifacts. The only unusual property of the fog machine was that it didn’t need to be refilled or charged. It could run perpetually and indefinitely—or at least for seven days, the longest they had tried thus far—and would emit the same level of white clouds of fog, never…
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402.5 K • Completed
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Dyna took therapy. Doctor Bellows, a psychiatrist who formerly worked for NASA. A nice man, if a bit formal. Dyna had one session a week, barring certain events, mandated by the Carroll Institute. She was supposed to deal with self-esteem issues and paranoia. Watching an old woman standing on the sidewalk across the street from her apartment, taking photographs of everything around, had her paranoia acting up. She looked like an old woman. She had a walker with tennis balls on the ends. Her camera…
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402.5 K • Completed
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Artifacts produced a wide variety of effects, but not too many of those effects were fully confirmed. Some were obvious. The Red Feather, said to be a feather from the mythological phoenix, caused spontaneous combustion to flammable objects in its immediate vicinity. Others were more subtle. The Writer’s Journal was a leatherbound notebook that, on its first page, had a small animated window looking into a small island that had yet to be located out in the real world. Aside from the animated window, no…
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402.5 K • Completed
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