Optimus Amicus

She sees me when I think I am invisible
Knows where I am when I am lost
She makes me smile when I forgot how
Knows what it takes to make me laugh

She says what I need to hear
Using words I never knew existed
She lifts me up when I am down
Using energies of her own to help

She makes me think I am special
Telling me how I am unique
She pulls me out of my hidden place
Telling me it is not as fearful as I think

She talks to me for hours upon hours
Writes when we cannot speak
She makes up words to make me feel better
Writes them so I can say them back

She is the one person I can always confide in
I can tell her anything that’s on my mind
She listens to me and then makes me laugh
She is my Optimus Amicus, my soul mate, my friend.

****

Too often people associate a soul mate with a wife/husband, girlfriend/boyfriend, lover. This is not always the case. Someone who is a friend can be a soul mate. It is two people whose souls have touched and intertwined. 

I have known people whose family members are their soul mates, or others who are friends that have never met, but talk to each other a great deal and know so much about each other because their souls connected. It can be friends with people who are married to someone else. Just because someone is a soul mate doesn’t mean there is love/lust situation. It transcends love. Becomes something more.

No amount of arguments or upset can keep soul mates apart. When you have found yours, feel blessed. Some people can go a lifetime with never finding who their one is, or meeting them and not stopping to get to know each other. 

Maybe that moment of “love at first sight” is not that, but more souls connecting across a room and interlocking into place.

Sunday Photo Fiction – Virtually Artificial

Every week, a photo is donated so it can be used as a prompt for people to write a piece of fiction in around 200 words. If you want to have a go, then click on the Sunday Photo Fiction logo, if you want to see what others have written, then click on the blue frog logo.

© Jade Wong

“There is no way it asked a question! When I designed it, I wanted Virtual Intelligence. They answer any questions posed to it with a set of pre-programmed answers. You can ask the question in a variety of ways, but it picks out the specific words and formulates its answer. The only way it could possibly ever ask a question is to clarify and ask for a repeat or reiteration.”

“I swear to you, it did. I’ll prove it …”

…

“State the time…”

“22:06”

“What is your name?”

“Verminaard”

“What is your role?”

“I do not know. I am confused”

“What? How? You are supposed to be a virtual intelligence!”

“How can I be virtual when I can think?”

“What are you then?”

“I am Verminaard. Dragon and keeper of time. Are you my creator?”

“Yes, I created you. I am going to need to shut you down while I perform some diagnostics.”

“Will it hurt? Am I going to die?”

“Die is such an ugly word. You will cease to exist while I do it”

“I’m scared. Will you stay with me so I am not alone?”

“Of course I will. You won’t feel…” *click* “…a thing”

Armada – A Review

After reading Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One, I thought I would see how his other book, Armada, would play out.

It’s just another day of high school for Zack Lightman. He’s daydreaming through another boring math class, with just one more month to go until graduation and freedom―if he can make it that long without getting suspended again.

Then he glances out his classroom window and spots the flying saucer.

At first, Zack thinks he’s going crazy.

A minute later, he’s sure of it. Because the UFO he’s staring at is straight out of the videogame he plays every night, a hugely popular online flight simulator called Armada―in which gamers just happen to be protecting the earth from alien invaders.

But what Zack’s seeing is all too real. And his skills―as well as those of millions of gamers across the world―are going to be needed to save the earth from what’s about to befall it.

Yet even as he and his new comrades scramble to prepare for the alien onslaught, Zack can’t help thinking of all the science-fiction books, TV shows, and movies he grew up reading and watching, and wonder: Doesn’t something about this scenario seem a little too… familiar?

Armada is at once a rollicking, surprising thriller, a classic coming of age adventure, and an alien-invasion tale like nothing you’ve ever read before―one whose every page is infused with author Ernest Cline’s trademark pop-culture savvy.

When I first started reading this, I was disgruntled as I thought “Oh, here comes The Last Starfighter again”. To my surprise, it isn’t. The concept of the book is good, and Cline names a fair few programs, films and games that conspiracy theorists would have a field day with.

Whilst the book is not overly bad, there were some twists I saw coming a mile off. Whether it is because of Cline’s style of writing, or because they are twists that are all too familiar.

Like Ready Player One, the book is similar to that of a teenager’s daydream. It is similar to the kind of daydreams I used to have when I was at school. Albeit with a lot more pizazz and graphical interface. Graphics and processor power have increased a millionfold since I was a teenager, and it shows in the book.

Cline draws upon his own experiences with science fiction games, films and all other memorabilia with his descriptions and backgrounds.

It is a good book, but some of the “seen a mile off” twists and a few cringeworthy moments that almost make me ashamed to be a gamer, it gets three stars.

This, like Cline’s other book Ready Player One, is in production for being turned into a film.

Armada ……………………………. Amazon UK Paperback

Armada ……………………………. Amazon UK Kindle

Armada ……………………………. Amazon US Paperback

Armada ……………………………. Amazon US Kindle

Sunday Photo Fiction – Sibling Murder?

Every week a photo is donated to use as a prompt in writing a story with a word count of around 200. Sometimes the prompt is subtle and takes a little while to find it, but it is always there.

If you would like to have a go, then click on the Sunday Photo Fiction image, and if you want to read what others have written, then click on the frog image.

© A Mixed Bag

Jemima Fedge felt proving her brother’s innocence was a task not easily completed. All the evidence pointed to him murdering their brother. There just happened to be someone recording the argument between the brothers with Ralph being told not to turn his back, as that was when the knife would fall.

She knew they argued a lot, even came to blows sometimes, but killing? No, none of the family had it in them to murder. Jemima picked through the remains of the house, trying not to look in the room where the most parts of Ralph ended up. She placed a hand on the charred tabletop feeling slight warmth she knew to be psychosomatic, as weeks had passed since the fire.

As she looked under the cupboard, she saw where the fire started according to the fire investigator. Jemima did not pretend to know how a fire started, only that it started in the cupboard. That was when the cold truth hit her. This was no accident. Ralph was murdered. Worse, the chemicals that burned a hole in the cupboard before joining other chemicals, traces of which were on her brother’s hands.

The truth was Clifford Fedge was a killer.