The Chimeric Offspring of Wes Anderson and The Wizard of Oz - BYO2023

Story begin:

Our settlement was a work of art in a lush tropical forest. The shear walls of a cliff rose up through the eerie and obscuring mist that hugged the forest floor. The sounds of strange animals set the ambiance.

In this cliff, hollowed out of the wall itself, was our home. A serpentine of wood-sided passages with ornate decorations, lit by oil lamps. You would have thought you were in a unnecessarily long Victorian corridor.

Off this twisting corridor were precisely furnished rooms. Amber and gold leaf, with jewels like ostentatious Prussian royalty. The living chambers were plush with silks and fine woven cloth.

In the main chamber, the others gathered for the daily meeting.

Our leader was an austere man named Hendrick Lord Vaustacur. He wore a monocle and dressed like a Whig politician. He spoke in a peculiar half Swedish, half Indian voice.

"The dimensional waterfall," he said, "our metaphysical liason has revealed to us information on our existence, ya."

What our benevolent patriarch was alluding to was the nature of "The Water Realm."

In our world, a picturesque and serene waterfall dotted our forest landscape. The portal. To walk into this waterfall transported you to another, higher plain. To an even more immaculate city that existed beyond dimension.

Our leader continued.

"We intend to send a team in to alter the meta function, ya. They have a mainframe which is said to control our world. We intend to manipulate it to give ourself more jewels and mechanized gears for our contraptions, ya"

And the was the plan. We assembled the team and headed for the portal.

I was second in command, the leader was Sydney Le Fluer-Dentante IV. A man of 5 foot 8 inches, weighing 64.4 kilograms. He wore a yellow sedge hat and dressed like a Gilbert and Sullivan character.

He led us admirably.

The Infiltration:

The Waterfall City existed in seemingly every dimension. A long marble path, lined with a bamboo fence and tiki torches, interspersed with coy ponds and Japanese gardens guided the way to the front entrance.

Off in the distance I could see several floating islands. All looking like their own unique habitat. Some had forbidding mountains, others shrouded in haze. Between the islands were neon tracks. Twisting, looping, and cutting through the sky. On there tracks rolled giant marbles lighting up and changing colors from within.

As we approached the front entrance you could hear the sounds of the etheral port. A multidimensional fog horn rang out. The muffled voices of extradimensional workers are barely heard.

At that point our leader told us to keep our wits about us. We were entering the city gates.

He said, "Technology unit, you will break off in section 14 as we tour as visitors. Your job is hack their mainframe as we distract them as visitors."

I was not on the technology team. My job was to act like a tourist. What an amazing city to behold.

The floor was a black and white checkerboard pattern. The walls were cream covered with a purplish translucent film. There were video displays everywhere. All with strange phrases like, "Cosmic frequency for main type override protocol" or "Know that you are but a cone radius", I didn't understand it, but it was weird in the water realm.

When we entered section 14 the decor was brightly colored. Lavender vines with canary and light blue flowers lines the walls. The floor was a magenta and bright orange swirling 70s pattern. So much to flood the eye. Neon lights with words like "courage", "porter", and "linear," provided accent to the bright foliage.

Our team split up..

The leader said. "Let's go have some Boba Tea and croissants at the Cafe, shall we?"

As we talked of proper amusements, we received word, the Infiltration had succeeded. We had reprogrammed the mainframe to spontaneously spawn jewels and gears for our contraptions.

Success:

"Shall we return, go team?"
"Quite!"

We walked back to our waterfall portal point of origin. We spoke of our plans for our steady supply or randomly spawning jewels and gears.

I was building the "flintoosalum", a fantabulous contraption encrusted with the finest platinum, sapphires, and emeralds. With an aqua-tech bubble drive.

We couldn't wait.

We walked through the waterfall and back to our homestead in the cliff.

Lord Vaustacur was pleased. "Ya, these jewel are great. Some are really big. The gears are all sizes for our contraptions. Rubies for the eating table chamber."

But not all was to go smoothly.

A few days later, one of the younger kids came in screaming. She was unable to speak. She just cried and gestured someone to follow her.

She lead us to her Mother, who lay crushed by 4 foot diameter chunk of aquamarine. She was most assuredly dead.

As we consoled the little girl, our situation turned to a nightmare. The sky opened up. It started hailing gears as large as 11 inches in diameter weighing up to a 12 kilograms. Deadly storm of unfortunate proportions.

Everyone that couldn't find sufficient cover was killed. What good were our contraptions now?

Those of us that made it back to the Planning Chamber knew we had to reverse it.

Our leader was resolute.

"We will write better coding for the mainframe, make sure there's a size limit. This is still workable. We need to go back the city."

We were willing to go fix it, but no longer on board with him. 5 had died so far... 5 too many.

It was at that point, the coup began to be planned...

The End?

a reply to: Degradation33

Great, Degradation33.

Love the peculiarity of the characters. I'm glad that even in a fantastical world, some constants remain, like: "Boba Tea and croissants".

Lesson: check and double check coding!

a reply to: Degradation33

I really love the whimsy and the fantastic descriptions of this little tale, but also where it suddenly turns dark and the unsettled ending.

Very well done!

a reply to: Degradation33

This reads like a moral story:
If it ain't broke don't fix it.

a reply to: Degradation33

There are several facets to your story which I absolutely love:

1) Hendrick Lord Vaustacur, not Lord Hendrick.

2) Your story draws us in; we are helpless to abandon reading, once started. That is the mark of a great writer, Degradation.

3) Your story left me wanting more. What's not to love?

4) I really enjoy writing in which the author creates their own universe. Your story didn't require us to be tethered to conventional reality. Really creative and well written. (unless thumbs up is an insult in your culture) ;o)

ETA: Really like your new avatar ......... deliciously dark

a reply to: Encia22, Zosimov, pthena, argentus

Thank you all.

This one was a focus on completely doing something different... it may have succeeded.

It started out as a slight 10th Kingdom homage (FAVORITE TV MINISERIES OF ALL TIME), but 2 Kingdoms was enough. And then it drifted into this:



With weird fantasy cyber punk settings and peculiar characters. It named itself upon completion.

And on that note, 10th Kingdom...

a reply to: Degradation33

I've only seen the 10th Kingdom three times. The last time was quite a while ago though.

Stardust is pretty good too.

a reply to: pthena

It's one of my zen binge watch brain shutoff movies. It honestly works like an antidepressant or a weird autism spectrum comfort movie. Firefly/Serenity too, the show purposely killed by Fox and shown out of order. Morena Baccarin couldn't even get enough nerds to watch to keep it on the air.

She was okay, but Summer Glau is freaking amazing.



But I have overdone the science fiction, so unnecessarily weird fantasy it was.

a reply to: argentus

More direct response.

As it turns out, this is a hard mindset to get into. It's a goofy voice to write from. Attempting the coup follow-up now..

Because it's a hard writing voice to recapture, I may switch to Christopher Nolan, which is much easier than recapturing the whimsical voice.

I have the multiple reality set up, I'll think I'll just write something contrived and over-convoluted with ridiculous devices to piece together the plot.

The weird names will remain though. And the Flintoosalum will have to make an appearance.

And thanks about the avatar. It kinda pretentious.

Turning your back on the viral and fashionable society (the symbolism of the formal dress) and not fearing the discomfort of standing alone and staring into nothing. Gothic Noir filter mandatory.

a reply to: Degradation33

Awesome! S/F

a reply to: Degradation33

If I understand you, you find direct response to be a tad off-putting. If so, please do me the courtesy of directly acknowledging that idea, and I will always in the future respect your wishes. No worries ;o)

I believe that writers should talk to each other. I think we hone our craft better with the input of our peers. I enjoy input and that input often gives me ideas toward future works. Your mind may not work that way. I often give direct and real input to writers on ATS, because I believe in the process. The "process" isn't that which makes us better writers (as measured by those who read our works); no, the "process" is that which makes us understand ourselves, and in doing so to gain acceptance with that which settles us, that which satisfies our spirits. That's all there is for me. That, and the love of my Darlin'.

a reply to: argentus

Please don't read into that. I'm borderline autistic, even in text.

I actually just felt bad to lump all my responses into one tab after rereading the responses, and thinking it deserved a greater response because I was given a compliment i missed the first time. Nothing more significant.

I appreciate the feedback and compliments and welcome even negative feedback. All feedback. Ego never tied up in art.

I don't really get too wrapped up in processes because it's all too spontaneous. Between by work and my other's, I get days at a time to myself, I kill it writing and posting here. And lately getting into outspoken pissing matches.

I really am glad the stories I write are enjoyed. They will continue to be submitted for input.

a reply to: Degradation33

Much peace, Degradation, if that is your desire. ;o) We talk to each other here, yeah? We also define the parameters of our discourse. I am glad you trust us enough to show yourself. You are an amazing ATS member. Be well.

Amazing. There's a lot going on in this story. I almost feel you're a famous writer doing this content for fun. I mean, it's polished and professional.

a reply to: ArcAngel

Thank you for the compliments. I am far from a famous writer. In all reality, I can barely punctuate.