Brian Amonette
Bio
From chef to network engineer to shut in writer wanabee. Seems to be a natural progression.
Husband, father, grandfather; the support chain is long and varied with years of diverse experience and gaming knowledge.
Stories (16/0)
Meow Means Meow
Sequel to Hunter Stalks the Darkness, find that story here. Hunter Stalks the Darkness was not stalking right now. The sun was out, the beautiful marigolds were in bloom, their blossoms golden, and other shades or red and yellow reflecting the light and warmth. He was truly content. Ceiling Cat had provided the most wonderful of days to be a cat. Just behind his barn, there was a wide fat fence, tall enough that the dogs could not jump it. The mice and other vermin would never come out in the open, and in fact the humans could not see it from their house, making it the perfect place to enjoy the warmth from Ceiling Cat in total peace. A little-known fact, no creature on earth does contentment as well as a cat. His entire body had formed a sort of puddle, like smooth furry black pudding. He seemed almost boneless, with no movement, besides the gentle rise and fall of the entire puddle, accompanied by a gentle purring snore. Every so often, a gentle swaying of the lustrous brush-like tail went along with the purr. Everyone knows that Ceiling Cat abhors too much contentment however, as before long a voice was heard calling. “Georrrrge, Georgie kitten…”. One eye opened in the lazy puddle of vicious killing machine. While it may be true that cats are not terribly adept at mathematics, a twitching, furry, black ear precisely calculated the vector of his person calling to him. As repeated calls came, it became obvious that his hiding place would soon be compromised.
By Brian Amonette3 years ago in Families
Teeth
It truly was the perfect score; all the way until it all went wrong. The money was exactly where we were told it would be. Sure, there were two guards, but we were told their locations, and it was a simple matter to hit ‘em with tasers, blindfold, and handcuff ‘em, they were no longer any danger to anyone. They never saw our faces, and in less than five minutes the entire score was done. Cardboard boxes, like from those moving places. Each box weighed about 40 pounds, Joey said they were about $400,000 per box, by weight. Can you imagine? So much money you need to weigh it instead of counting it. So, each box was 400k, and we just backed up the van to the door and loaded 100 boxes inside. Easy as you please. We was told they was thirty-two mil’ in the shack, I guess, maybe the boxes were part of the weight or somethin’. Each of us got 5 million, and the rest was to pay bob’s contact. That part went smooth as glass. We just drove over to the storage place, like we was moving house. Entered the combo like we was told, and counted out twenty-two boxes. We closed the door and headed back to my place. We each took fifteen boxes, and went our own separate way. Easy peasy, right? Not so much. What we didn’t understand, was each box had an RFID. I know, you all saw them tags in stores. Pretty useless right? If you can get around the posts by the door, no big deal, right? Wrong. I guess these was special tags, and they had some sort of hand scanner things they pointed out the windows of they cars. I was sleepin’ when they came for me. Heh heh, I had tossed a bunch of the cash in my bed and was rollin’ in it. You ever saw a hunnert thou in one spot? It’s a shitpot of dough let me tell you. I dumped one of them boxes out, it was thousands of twenty-dollar bills. Like half an inch deep in my bed. I might have had a little sumthin’ to help relax after the job was done, and I was passed out hard.
By Brian Amonette3 years ago in Criminal
Undead
He waited patiently. It had been several hours, and he was cold, hungry, and thirsty, but he knew better than to move too early. Shortly after the sun rose, the mother left, in her expensive foreign car. An hour later the three children left as well, walking the short distance to the bus stop. The father left soon afterward. He waited another several minutes to ensure nothing went wrong, and that none of them returned. At last he slipped out of his hiding spot. It was the perfect location, hidden from the front door of the home, but with a clear view to spot the family leaving. In addition, none of the neighbors could see his as he entered the basement window he'd prepared previously. He quietly closed the window behind himself, and began his mission. He gathered all of the things he needed, without touching anything barehanded. He knew where the money was kept, but instead of taking it all, which would immediately be spotted, he left one bill on top and packed the little envelope with paper so it would look untouched. He did this with everything he took. Disturbed as little as possible, and covered up his theft so that in every case it would not be noticed for quite some time, if ever.
By Brian Amonette3 years ago in Fiction
Sweet Summoning
Each line hand drawn with painstaking precision; it had taken hours to complete the entire form. Each line connected to exactly three other lines, The pentagram in the center surrounded by a true circle, and another larger pentagram surrounding everything. The form drawn in two different bloods, and demonic ichor as well. It was the most complex summoning form he had ever attempted. The grating voice of his familiar prattled on about the theory, and the needed perfection for this most puissant summoning of his career, nay his entire existence. He began to apply energy to the spell form within the summoning circle. The red, brown, and green, lines began to glow as his power touched them; one line touching three more lines in an ever-widening crescendo. After three minutes of concentration, sweat began to form on his forehead. By five minutes, he started to become fatigued, hands began to shake. After fifteen minutes, his subvocal chanting naturally rose to audible levels gaining in strength; after twenty, his throat began to burn and his voice grew raspy. At thirty minutes in, his nose began to drip, but his will was iron, and he persevered, maintaining his concentration until the end. Finally, after 45 minutes, as the very last of his innate strength was funneled into the construct. All of the blood lines burnt away, save one lonely spot that somehow was disconnected. One small, tiny detail was missed. For a moment he feared that this one mistake might cause his summoning to fail. His familiar continued berating him now that a flaw was seen. To fail after all this time, effort, and expense was unthinkable. His nose bleed became a steady drip, and pain centered in the front of his skull was nearly enough to cause him to fall. He refused. His will was adamant, and he would die before he would succumb. Pushing through the pain, with one more convulsive effort of will, he screamed the final words of power and emptied his pool of magical energy. It was enough.
By Brian Amonette3 years ago in Fiction
Ch03DoF
The greatest effect from the fall happened in the midwestern region of the former United States, around the former great lakes. The cascade of failures started there, and hit the local residents hard. An estimated Fifty-Five percent of the population in the region died, even more fled the region hoping to find some other part of the country which could provide stability and security. This brought a rise of violence, local tyranny, and in some places a slave economy. Chicago in particular suffered from both the die off due to starvation and collapse of infrastructure, and a massive influx of refugees looking for stability that was only found after heavily armed gangs rose to prominence as local warlords.
By Brian Amonette3 years ago in Fiction
Green Light in the Undercity
A successful thief always has a plan. Plan A in this case being so completely successful, came almost as a surprise. The perfect crime is of course one that is never discovered. Rather than a fearful run for her life, of a desperate running battle with security forces trying to surround and isolate her, it turned into a walk of shame. The mark gave her a kiss on her cheek, and called her a cab. She intentionally avoided touching her locket, containing more wealth than she had ever held before. She played the energetic, club-hopping, party girl, and was never suspected. The cab was given the address of her hotel, along with her false name, a series of dead ends that would lead nowhere if someone came looking for her after tomorrow. Of course, she stayed in character for the duration of the trip. Everyone knew that the council recorded from the cameras in cabs, as well as throughout the city.
By Brian Amonette3 years ago in Fiction
Hunter Stalks the Darkness
The shadows filling the barn were his natural habitat; all feared to enter his domain. His dark fur blending perfectly as he stalked his prey between bales of hay. His green eyes shining with malevolent intelligence, the only visual clue that he was on the prowl. Even his silent padding, each measured step placed optimally to prevent his prey from realizing, that today was its final moment. His tail began a rhythmic twitching, sign enough for any that witnessed, that he had spotted his prey. Sure enough, just a short leap away from his cleverly concealed vantage, the twitching pink nose and the sound of chittering teeth munching on grain. A large female mouse had the nerve to steal from his people. His long dark tail twitched ever slower, in shorter and shorter lengths as his rear legs bunched in preparation for his patented “Death From Above (TM pending)” leap”. When the moment had finally reached its breaking point, he pounced. Wiry, cable-like muscles released their tension in one convulsive burst, like thick rubber bands. His aim near perfect, he sailed directly toward the vile interloper defiling his domain. His razor-sharp claws, talons of death reaching for the thief’s life. Somehow, despite his perfection in motion, the villainous rodent felt the approaching death, and did what she did best; scamper like her life depended on it.
By Brian Amonette3 years ago in Fiction
Chap02DoF
The rapid draining of Lake Michigan had a synergistic effect coupled with the effects of climate change currently occurring. The aquifer that covered the entire great lakes region, and portions following the Mississippi River basin nearly to its delta, was soon shrunken to a weak image of its former glory. The positive pressure it had exuded upon the Gulf of Mexico all that kept the waters pure, the sudden lack caused salt water to leech into the watershed. Coupled with attacks upon the infrastructure from domestic terrorist supplied by the countries many international enemies, soon left the largest economy in the world in great difficulty. When the largest exporter of food and farming equipment in the world stops shipping almost overnight, the problem rapidly grew to encompass the entire world. Before long the enemies soon suffered a similar crash of their own economies as they discovered how entwined the extremely complex trade structure was. The true death toll from the many causes of The Fall were impossible to measure, as most governments throughout the world collapsed or were overthrown over the next several years.
By Brian Amonette3 years ago in Fiction
CH01DoF
Once upon a time, there was a race of beings so brilliant, that they were able to develop miracles of science so great, that they could cross their world in minutes, double or even triple their natural lifespans, and even flee from the restraint of their planet's gravity well. Some how these savants were able to send some representatives of their race beyond the constraints of their sun as well. These same miraculous beings were so debased that they regularly murdered their own people, forced some of their young to starve to death, and had invented the most prosaic words to explain their actions, with things like "capitalism" or "manslaughter".
By Brian Amonette3 years ago in Fiction
Biscuit Perfection
In my professional cooking career, I've worked in fast food, fine dining, casual dining, and even a small sandwich and ice cream shop. I cooked cuisine from all over the world (or at least bastardized American versions of it). Probably my favorite things to cook, are the staples from my child hood. One of those foods, and probably the most requested by my family and friends is fresh biscuits (savory scones to any of our friends from the UK). Every culture on earth has some sort of traditional bread that they make, some are very time consuming or difficult to make, but biscuits are among the simplest and easiest to do. The basic recipe comes to about $.25 per biscuit (depending on the size of the cutter you can make more small biscuits to make them cheaper per unit), and take only about thirty minutes including cooking time. I was recently, discussing love language with family and friends. Love language is the non-verbal ways that you show love to those you care about, and also it is what makes you feel loved when you receive it from loved ones. Most people have cues from their childhood that take them back to their earliest days of comfort and well-being. For me this is making food. I love to cook for family and friends. There is something about the smell of biscuits cooking that takes me to a special place, and bringing that joy to those I love makes me just as happy.
By Brian Amonette3 years ago in Feast
Zen of Painting
I love painting miniatures. I have been playing various games that use miniatures for many years. There is a satisfaction that comes from having other people admire your handiwork. At root though, there is something even more satisfying, when you see yourself improving in a skill that is simple to begin, but increasingly more difficult as your skill improves. In the beginning, having a miniature that is partially painted is a big leap from using unpainted minis. A solid leap from there is when you start to become neat and skilled, and people start to admire your work. The next stage, is competition. I started entering my work in painting contests at some of the gaming conventions. Gencon, is one of the largest gaming conventions in the world. Over 100,000 people descend upon Indianapolis for four days of gaming and socializing. Some of the best painters in the world also attend, as there are numerous painting contests. As an example, speed painting, is an event where several artists are given miniatures, and are graded on the quality of their work, with only limited time, one hour in this case, to complete it. Here is video of this event, one of my favorites.
By Brian Amonette3 years ago in Gamers
Justin
Kayla didn’t like going to Mama June’s. Mama was a bit creepy, and there were always some men at the outpost. She was tempted to stay in her home, safe with her friends, but she’d recently made a good haul, that she knew would earn her some nice things. Mama June paid really well for glass or mirrors, and things like that. Kayla had found a house with several whole sheets in the doors and windows. Not only that, but she also found some fresh fruits and vegetables. She knew Mama couldn’t pass those up. She packed a wagon full of goodies scavenged from the old farm, including the pieces of glass, wrapped in blankets to keep them from breaking. While most of the canning jars she’d come across, were filled with preserved food, she did include several empty jars, with perfect lids, those would fetch a good price too.
By Brian Amonette3 years ago in Fiction
