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Swing Shift

   "Mornin' Sam." Ralph always greeted me with "Morning," no matter what time it was. I had taken to responding with random words and phrases.
   "Toaster," I said, waving as I walked past the lobby security desk. Ralph laughed and buzzed me in, opening the electronic lock on the gate to the elevators. I checked my watch against the time on the giant wall clock on the opposite wall. The wall read 3:45PM, ten minutes faster than my watch. I muttered...
One of those dreams

"You ever have one of those dreams," Ike began.
"One of what dreams?" asked Warren.
"The ones where ... shit, I dunno. It's hard to explain. It's like you dream you're falling, right."
"Right."
"But you're not falling, you know. But you dream you are, so you think you are, 'cause you're not really asleep, you know?"
"Not really ... " Warren scratched his head. "Let me get this straight. You have dreams where you're falling. But you're still in bed ... barely...
Character Origin: Doctor Amanda Winnen

Unlike the After the Collapse character origins posted so far, this origin is not a transcript of a role playing session. Doctor Winnen is a character I created as a pre-made crew for a space adventure, set in Ex Machina Future. She's been played once, but as part of generating the characters I wrote short backgrounds. And I mean short. Maybe fifteen sentences.

This story is Amanda's background blurb, expanded in to almost 2500 words. In the course of writing I decided...
Murhpy's Day Part One

   "You told him we charge more for a no-kill job, right?"
   "Of course, Roland. The client was very insistent that no one be harmed."
   "Figures." He sighed a heavy sigh and let his cigarette. "When and where?"

   Things had not gone right for Roland Murphy today, starting with a hangover when he woke up. That had been his fault, admittedly, but a hangover is never a good start to the day. He had to try...
Murphy's Day Part Two

   "Excellent. Well done." Gennson clapped slowly, looking at Anna. "Explosives are your specialty, you say? I, for one, could not be more impressed."
   "Can it." Roland silenced Gennon's commentary before Anna did more than glare menacingly at the doctor. "Let's just get this over with quickly and get this day behind us." The smoke and dust settled and the team stalked through the open door, pointedly ignoring the scorched dent in the concrete...
One Minute (At A time)

   Some people say breaking in to a computer is an art form, that it takes years of dedication and experience to accrue the necessary skill for a righteous hack. Some will spend months planning a single hack. Those are usually the bigger jobs, high paying, high profile, higher risk. Some Luddite wants something specific but knows enough to know he can't get it himself, so he asks you to break in to a megacorp and steal these certain bytes, and you say "Okay, sure" because...