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The first part of the Killswitch story, in prose form because . . . because I don't have enough to write already, I suppose. Part one: in which we meet Killswitch, alias Darcy Moore, and discover what happens when ~2138 tries to write something that doesn't have fantasy in it. (I'm not sure if you could call this sci-fi, by the way. I labeled it as science fiction because there didn't seem to be a category for Original Superhero Prose, which to be honest seems like an overlooked possibility.)
This is also darker in tone than my usual stuff--I suppose because death is treated so lightly in Killswitch's life. I'm not trying to be Gothy or angsty, but rather approach 'Switch's bizarre existence from her perspective, and her perspective would necessarily not be as overwrought about her own deaths as other people might be. Please let me know if it's Sueish, tasteless, and so on.
Blue Streak and Hound (Bloodhound, technically, but he doesn't like that name) are part of the larger world I've developed for Killswitch to reside in. I'm playing sort of a latter-day X-Men angle here--assuming that if metahumans did come into existence, there would simply by virtue of lousy luck be some that had horrible or just useless powers. Killswitch unfortunately falls into the category of "sort of useful, but oh Jesus, couldn't I just have gotten energy beams like everyone else?" Blue Streak and the Light Brigade cover a more sort of conventional heroism, though I have some fun plans for them . . . if the rest ever gets written.
The chapter title is from Emily Dickinson's poem of the same name. She imagines Death as a gentleman stopping by in his fine carriage to carry her off to Eternity, but I chose it because the lines rather fit Killswitch's version of life too:
Because I could not stop for Death—
He kindly stopped for me—
The Carriage held but just Ourselves—
And Immortality.
Chapter two: [link]
Killswitch (c) ~2138
This is also darker in tone than my usual stuff--I suppose because death is treated so lightly in Killswitch's life. I'm not trying to be Gothy or angsty, but rather approach 'Switch's bizarre existence from her perspective, and her perspective would necessarily not be as overwrought about her own deaths as other people might be. Please let me know if it's Sueish, tasteless, and so on.
Blue Streak and Hound (Bloodhound, technically, but he doesn't like that name) are part of the larger world I've developed for Killswitch to reside in. I'm playing sort of a latter-day X-Men angle here--assuming that if metahumans did come into existence, there would simply by virtue of lousy luck be some that had horrible or just useless powers. Killswitch unfortunately falls into the category of "sort of useful, but oh Jesus, couldn't I just have gotten energy beams like everyone else?" Blue Streak and the Light Brigade cover a more sort of conventional heroism, though I have some fun plans for them . . . if the rest ever gets written.
The chapter title is from Emily Dickinson's poem of the same name. She imagines Death as a gentleman stopping by in his fine carriage to carry her off to Eternity, but I chose it because the lines rather fit Killswitch's version of life too:
Because I could not stop for Death—
He kindly stopped for me—
The Carriage held but just Ourselves—
And Immortality.
Chapter two: [link]
Killswitch (c) ~2138
Mature
© 2012 - 2024 2138
Comments11
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Excellent! I love this because it's a superhero story that doesn't have all the grand-standing over-the-topness that you usually see in comics. Killswitch is an extremely interesting character. I love how her power not only requires major abuse before she can start pulling out super-theatrics, but also that it imposes a time limit on the heroics. A million times more interesting than Superman!
Other than that, I just love how urban this feels. Killswitch isn't fighting against aliens or cackling supervillains or what-have-you; she's just helping the local cops deal with drug dealers and other standard criminals. The lack of supervillains is rather intriguing, too. It would seem logical that if people started developing superpowers, some of those people with superpowers would be bad people. Then again, this Light Brigade is striking me as a little on the shady side . . .
If I may be so bold as to point out a couple of errors!
"If they'd hadn't known who they were killing, the charge could legally be attempted murder."
and
"All right, she'd never made a huge secret of it, but it wasn't as (missing if) she'd run a coming-out-of-the-costume-closet announcement in the Viaduct Veteran either."
Other than that, I just love how urban this feels. Killswitch isn't fighting against aliens or cackling supervillains or what-have-you; she's just helping the local cops deal with drug dealers and other standard criminals. The lack of supervillains is rather intriguing, too. It would seem logical that if people started developing superpowers, some of those people with superpowers would be bad people. Then again, this Light Brigade is striking me as a little on the shady side . . .
If I may be so bold as to point out a couple of errors!
"If they'd hadn't known who they were killing, the charge could legally be attempted murder."
and
"All right, she'd never made a huge secret of it, but it wasn't as (missing if) she'd run a coming-out-of-the-costume-closet announcement in the Viaduct Veteran either."