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[ { "from": "system", "value": "Add one sentence to continue story" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Adriel watched the ebb and flow of the battle." }, { "from": "human", "value": "With Michael's absence — Adriel knew he was dead at Uriel's hands, though none of the other Demons had yet learned that fact — the Seraphs were hard pressed to hold the breach." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was only a matter of time before they would be forced to give way." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But none of that mattered to Adriel." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Her weapon was aimed at heaven, the bowstring pulled taut, and she merely waited for the arrow to find its mark and create her opening." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Dawn approaches,\" purred Monadi, a tall Grigori with a face as innocent as a maid's, wrapped in her gray wings." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I am honored to be included in this important task,\" fawned Aramech." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The other two Grigori, Raziel and Keriel, added their praise." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Grigori could no more stop flattering and dissembling than a Mortal could stop breathing." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She saw all their petty treacheries." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Each of the four would try to stab her in the back at the earliest convenience." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "None had the courage to attack Satan when he was their Archdemon, but Adriel rule was untested, and she would be plagued by such attempts until she demonstrated the full extent of her abilities." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Night is dying. Soon the balance shifts into the Angel's favor as the day waxes,\" Raziel whispered, her eyes full of false worry." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Adriel knew it was fear that truly motivated her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "None of the four wanted to be on this mission." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"The moment has not yet arrived.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "But it was close." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Bill was gathering his cohort of women, filling them with Daevia's lust." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They would crash into Heaven, killing the defenders, and opening the way to the Throne for her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She merely had to follow in their wake and never risk herself in combat." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She had power, but Grigori were the weakest of all the Demons in the martial arena." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Even with all her power, the Guardians would easily overcome her in Heaven." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She would be as weak as an Angel walking through Hell." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 2 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The membranes between the worlds parted. Bill entered Heaven.\n\nShe smiled. \"It is time.\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Narrative Extension Protocol:\nQuantity: 2 sentences\nAuthor Emulation: Reed James\nGenre Classification: Erotica" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Juanita fought with the emotions of the Ruby Guardian, trying to suppress the Angel's emotions. But the Ruby Guardian fought with passionate fire." }, { "from": "human", "value": "For the moment, the Guardian was frozen, bending all her will on repelling Juanita's attack." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Juanita emotions probed through the Angel's mind, trying to find a weakness as she barely kept the Angel from driving back her attack.\n\nJuanita tapped down the Guardian's anger." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The Angel flared her duty." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Juanita pushed down the Guardians obedience. The Angel responded with passion." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She pushed down the Angels drive for success, and anger exploded back up, no longer under Juanita's control.\n\nHow can I beat this?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I don't have the strength to suppress all of her emotions." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You can do it,\" Rochelle whispered, touching her wrist. \"Just hold on.\"\n\nShe could feel her wife's confidence bleeding into her, feeding her drive." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was like Juanita fed off her wife, using her increased emotional power to batter harder at the Angel's mind." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She pushed down passion and drive for success, then tamped down the Angel's obedience. Anger still burned hot in the Ruby Guardian, revenge flaring, desiring to enact retribution on the Mortal that dared mess with her mind." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Go for the knees, Hikaru!\" Rochelle yelled beside her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "This isn't working. The Angel's will is just so strong." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Could I use that?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She stopped tamping down the Angel's emotions, and flared them. Depression, fear, terror, bitterness, laziness." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Anything that fought the Angel's drive and will." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Her enemy shivered, taking a step back. Then the Angel's Will fought Juanita, trying to pull her weakening emotions back down, ripping the emotions right out of Juanita's metaphysical grip." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The Angel let out a piercing roar, her ruby wings flaring." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Juanita realized her mistake. While she fought to pull up the Angel's negative emotions, the Angel didn't have to fight against Juanita's pressure on anger, obedience, drive to succeed, and passion." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The fight had shifted and the Angel was regaining her purpose." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The Ruby Guardian took a step forward." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Juanita stopped pulling up the Ruby Guardian's negative emotions, and went back to pushing down the positive ones." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The Angel was ready, pressing her Will against all of them, and Juanita could barely dampen those emotions.\n\nThe Angel took a second step." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Just a moment longer,\" Rochelle whispered, squeezing her wrist. \"Hold on Juanita.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She fed on her wife's confidence, letting out a yell of her own as she forced every ounce of her will against the Angel's, slamming her emotions into the iron wall of the Angel's passion. She hammered at it, forcing it back, pressing down the Angel's emotions." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It wasn't enough." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A third step. The ruby sword raised.\n\nJuanita's confidence slipped. I failed. Her will recoiled." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The broken body of the Topaz Guardian collided with the Ruby's with a resounding crash, both exploding into red and yellow dust. Chunks of shattered gems flew through the air, bouncing on the diamond floor." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When the dust cleared, both Guardian's bodies had disintegrated into gem fragments.\n\n\"Got the bastards!\" Hikaru smiled, her hands on her hips and a big smile on her olive face." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Juanita sighed, rubbing her aching head." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Rochelle slipped under Juanita's arm, and she leaned against Rochelle." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Thanks, Rochelle. You made the difference.\"\n\nRochelle beamed at her, then she froze." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 3 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A vision flooded Juanita's mind. There was no time to rest. She sent out the warning." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Keep going w/ four sentences more" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Bill braced himself for the sword to bite into his side. There was nothing he could do to stop it.\n\nA black chain slammed into the sword, tangling around the blade. Bill was struck, not by the sword's edge, but by the chain wrapped around it." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He was knocked to the side, gasping for breath as he stumbled and caught himself, his side a mass of pain." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The illusion of Daevia stood to the right, letting her chain dissolve into motes of rainbows, and a new weapon appearing in the fake Succubus's hand. Hope surged inside Bill. His wives had found a way to save him. His sword grew stronger." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"A mortal can never give up!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Bill roared, taking a swipe at the Archangel. \"We never know what might happen to change our fortune!\"\n\nUriel parried the Illusion's chain, concern steeling his bronze face. \"How can she see to direct her lies through my barrier?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "he demanded. \"How? This is not how Adriel said it would happen!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Because I have four beautiful women that love me and are smart enough to figure it out!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Bill bellowed, his love growing stronger and stronger, and his sword blazed with pure, white light. \"I cannot fail with them at my side!\"\n\nUriel flinched at the light, and the love shining from his weapon, and Bill understood. For all the Archangel's declarations of loving mankind, he had not shown it." }, { "from": "human", "value": "You cannot love mankind and cut down Juanita in cold blood." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "You cannot love mankind and set forth the scourge of Hell upon them. Those were the acts of a creature bent on power, doing whatever it takes to get what he wants. Even if his intentions were the noblest, Uriel had paved his way to damnation and had Fallen.\n\nBill's attacks flowed, guided by the love pouring from his sword, working in concert with Cynthia's illusion." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Uriel was beset, no longer able to attack, and barely able to defend as chain and sword lashed him from both directions." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Fear sprouted across his bronze face. He faced true passion.\n\n\"Please,\" Uriel called out. \"You need me to stop the Demons.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Mankind doesn't need the help you offer!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Bill batted his sword to the side, then lunged, blade darting for Uriel's throat. The Archangel dodged, the blade missing by inches. Daevia-Illusion's chain soared through Bill's body. The Archangel's sword barely came up." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The chain wrapped around his blade, yanking it from his hands." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I only wanted what was best for mankind!\" Uriel shouted as Bill pivoted around, slashing his blade at the Archangel.\n\n\"All you wanted what was best for you!\" Bill spat.\n\nUriel dived for the ground." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Bill's sword cleaved through the Archangel's right wing, blue-white feathers showering the air." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Uriel screamed in pain, white fire burning his flesh, gray smoke curling up, drawn towards the whirling wall. The look on the Archangel's bronze face was pure terror.\n\nThe roar of the whirlwind ended like a loud television suddenly turned off. Everything went quiet save for the tinkling of sapphire dust raining down from the suddenly still winds." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Uriel ran for the exit, his long legs covering stride after stride.\n\n\"You're not getting away!\" snarled Bill. \"I'll kill you! Bastard!\"\n\n\"Bill!\" Rochelle yelled, the fear in her voice cutting through his rage." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He through a glance over his shoulder and saw his wives, familiars, and concubines around the glowing pillar of light." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Rochelle gestured wildly at the entrance and the fleeing Uriel. And what lay beyond the wounded Archangel.\n\nA host of Angels were landing, charging at the entrance. Far more than the scores that Bill and his concubines had felled at the entrance." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A tide of righteous anger filled their faces, the Angel's surging forward like the rising tide, eager to drown Bill and his family." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Bill ran towards his wives. His concubines, Sophia, and Daevia were engulfed in light, surging upwards to the top of the tower — to the Throne. Rochelle and Hikaru held out their hands as Bill raced towards them.\n\n\"Kill them!\" hissed Uriel." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"They are all tainted by Hell. Spare not a single one! Deliver Heaven's judgment upon their sinful flesh!\"" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 2 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Rochelle and Hikaru grabbed him. Light flared. They flashed upwards." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "CONTINUE STORY. PARAMETERS: eight sentences sentences, Sharon Shinn style, Fantasy, Angels genre." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Peter was worse the next day—or, at least, no better. \"I do think the pills are helping, actually,\" Tamar told the angel, \"because every time I give him one, he grows calmer and sleeps. But he should be much better by now, and you see he's not.\n\nHe's not lucid for more than three minutes at a time.\"\n\n\"I think he needs a doctor's help,\" Jared said.\n\nHe had expected her to protest, but she nodded. \"Yes, but the nearest one must be Stockton, and since I have no carts or horses—\"\n\n\"Do you expect any more of your friends to come here? Or is this the sum total that was supposed to gather in Ileah?\"\n\nShe shot him a wary glance, so he realized she still did not trust him and might not tell him the truth." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Others might still be coming,\" she said cautiously." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"But they might have been warned away, if someone escaped the Jansai attack. In any case, they are not here now, and soon it will be too late for Peter.\"\n\n\"I'll take him to Stockton,\" Jared offered.\n\n\"You? How?\"\n\nHe couldn't help smiling. \"I'll carry him, of course, and I'll fly there. It won't take me more than an hour.\"\n\n\"You can't carry him all that way! It's forty miles or—\"\n\n\"Angels have great strength,\" he told her. \"Didn't they ever teach you that? Much greater strength than mere men. I could carry a big man across Samaria and only have to rest once or twice.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"But—you're not—he's not—he's my friend and he's my responsibility,\" she stammered." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Why would you help him?\"\n\n\"Because I'm a kind man,\" he said gently. \"Because, little though you may believe it, most angels spend their lives helping mortals—answering petitions, solving problems, interceding for them with Jovah. It was why we were put on this world It is why I prayed for the medicine. I will be happy to take him to Stockton. And,\" he added, seeing more trouble gather in her face, \"not mention to anyone that he's a Jacobite.\"\n\n\"I don't have any money,\" was her next protest.\n\n\"The doctor will consider it a favor to Monteverde and be happy to do it. Everyone wants to leave an angel in his debt.\"\n\n\"But—will he be all right? Will he be safe with strang ...\"\n\n\"Safer than he will be here, dying of infection in time. Come! Surely you trust me this far. I will not turn him over to Jansai.\"\n\n\"I could follow you, I suppose,\" she murmured." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I could be in Stockton in a day.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You will wait for me here,\" he said sternly. \"I'll leave this morning and be back this afternoon. And when I return, we'll decide where we want to begin our search for the Alleluia Files.\"\n\nHe could tell by her face that she didn't believe she'd ever agreed to cooperate in this search, but that she didn't want to risk antagonizing him just now. He grinned and, unable to resist, reached out to pat her spiky hair. She jerked her head back but didn't move away.\n\n\"When I return, we'll talk about it,\" he amended. \"Get him ready to travel. I'll leave as soon as I've eaten.\"\n\nAccordingly, less than an hour later, Jared was on his way to the nearest city." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Tamar had spent the intervening time preparing Peter for travel, cleaning him thoroughly, feeding him one more time, dressing him in several layers of warm clothing. She had written a brief note which she tucked into the sick man's pocket, \"explaining to him what's been happening,\" she said when the angel asked. Jared supposed it was composed in some cryptic style that would give no information to any angel or medical official who happened to scan it.\n\n\"When he's ready,\" he said to her gently as she continued fussing around Peter.\n\nShe sighed and stepped aside. \"He's ready. It's just that I—so many of the others are dead, I want him to be safe—and I do thank you for this, I really do.\"\n\n\"I told you, I'm happy to do it,\" Jared said, carrying Peter from the cottage and experimenting with the most comfortable grip. The man had probably never had much mass; now, a few days of illness had made him practically weightless." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He would be no trouble at all for such a short flight." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"In a couple of hours,\" Jared reminded Tamar. \"I'll be back.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She nodded, and he took off." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In deference to his passenger, he flew fairly low to the ground, where the air was warmer, and at a slightly slower speed than he normally would have enjoyed. Once or twice, Peter grunted or stirred in his arms, but for the most part he lay listless and still in the angel's grip.\n\nStockton was quickly arrived at, and it took only one or two inquiries to find a medical man. As Jared had expected, the doctor was extremely willing to take on an angel's patient and waved off Jared's offer of payment.\n\n\"But what happened to him?\" the doctor asked as he stripped away the sweaters and shirts to expose the bony chest, still wrapped in Tamar's inexpert bandages. \"He looks like he was beaten almost to death.\"\n\n\"That would be my guess,\" Jared said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"This is how I found him. and he's never been lucid enough to talk.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Who should I contact when he's well enough to speak?\" Jared spread his hands. \"Maybe he'll be able to tell you. I know nothing about him. But you can certainly get in touch with me at Monteverde to let me know how he's doing or if you've found out anything about him.\"\n\n\"I'll do that,\" the doctor said, shaking the angel's hand. Twenty minutes later Jared left Stockton and headed back toward Ileah. He had paused to buy a few groceries, because he was tired of fish, boiled jerky, and mashed apples, and he was sure Tamar must be, too. Although they obviously had no reason to stay at Ileah any longer, now that the injured man was gone. Although where she would agree to go with Jared remained an interesting question." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He couldn't picture her happily planning to sojourn in Monteverde or the Eyrie, making furtive explorations for the missing files." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 5 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Well, they would think of something.\n\nOr, he thought as he landed in Ileah and looked around for the Jacobite, perhaps not. For, though the sick man's bed was still set up in one hut and the laundry was still hanging on the line, Tamar was nowhere to be seen. And she did not answer his hail when he called her name three times, with a little less hope each time. No, she had made good her escape, and there was no telling where in Samaria she could have fled to now." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "AI writing task: user input -> 3 sentences sentences. genre: Fantasy, Angels." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Life at Cartabella was not nearly as enjoyable as life in Semorrah, but it wasn't bad, either." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Gene was a strict boss when it came to treating the horses properly and keeping the stables clean, but other than that he left his workers to their own devices and had little commentary to offer on their lives or personal habits. The other grooms were an odd assortment of misfits, mostly taciturn older men who dealt with animals much better than with people and were just as happy to be left in solitude. Gregor, the young boy who had first greeted Tamar upon her arrival, was the most tiresome of the lot, always looking for entertainment, conversation, or distraction; but most of the other grooms ignored him, so Tamar found it safe to do so, too." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She ate in the common mess hall, where all the ostlers, gardeners, and field-workers took their meals, and there was a constant stream of visitors into the stables, but it was possible to pass an entire day without having more than a brief exchange of words with anyone. At night, Tamar retired to her tiny room, spent five minutes reveling in the blessed privacy, then read for an hour before falling into a deep, exhausted sleep. Working in the stables was hard, demanding labor, but she welcomed the physical challenge." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The more strength required of her body, the less energy she had left to funnel to her mind." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She was glad to have a couple weeks of simply not thinking." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Although she would have to think again, someday." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She could not spend the rest of her life in seclusion on Isabella Cartera's well-run farm. She would go mad, that was one consideration; but it was a waste of her life, that was another. She must find her friends again, take up the search again, once more have the courage to tell Samaria the truth about Jovah and the Alleluia Files." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The more she thought about it, the more she thought Conran and the others must have gone to Ysral." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It seemed the only safe choice for the long term. So she must join them there, but it was insanity to try to leave from Breven, Kiss or no Kiss. Perhaps there would be ships departing for Ysral from Port Clara or one of the other harbor cities." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She would work here a month or two, save all her wages, then travel in careful stages to one of the other ports and see if she could book a passage out." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "That much she eventually decided, over a fortnight's attempts to avoid thinking at all; she could come up with no other solutions for her life. So for now she would just exist.\n\nThe only really disturbing part of her life these days was the music in her head." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was the oddest thing." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She still had bouts of the strange vertigo that had troubled her since she had had the Kiss installed, but for whatever reason, these had ceased to worry her. Actually, at times, when the day was particularly dull, she welcomed those dizzy sensations of whirling above the earth in giddy, looping patterns. If she closed her eyes (and wrapped her hands around the railing of a corral or some other convenient hold), she truly felt as if she was flying, climbing straight into the cloudless blue sky, plummeting downward in a terrifying free fall, then spinning back upward in a whirling climb of cartwheels." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She wondered where these fantasies came from (some head injury she had suffered in the past, perhaps, though she could not remember any this serious), but somehow the sessions did not seem as alarming as they had at first." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She enjoyed them; she actually looked forward to them." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But the singing, at least at the beginning, did unnerve her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It had begun while she was in Semorrah, but in that bustling city, it was easy to believe the faint, indistinct music was coming from an outside source—someone in the next house practicing a melody, a street vendor trying out a song. But after she had spent a few days in the quiet confines of Cartabella, the music became clearer—and more internal—as if it originated inside her head, somewhere at the back of her skull, and vibrated in the space between her ears.\n\nShe could not shake away the sweet, liquid notes; she could not clap her hands over her ears and shut out the music." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "More than once she stared wrathfully down at the Kiss in her arm, convinced that it was some kind of receptor picking up the music on a frequency tuned only to her brain, and narrowly broadcasting on a band only she could hear. For she had never had this experience before she had been Kissed by the god. Surely that was not a coincidence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Yet mistrusting the Kiss did not stop the music—nothing did—and she had no choice but to listen to it. Eventually it was so clear that she could distinguish every note, every nuance, every catch of the singer's breath. After a while she could sing along." }, { "from": "human", "value": "For her personal muse sang one piece over and over again, an eerie, complex melody that seemed neither sad nor exultant, though it had a peculiar power that made it a hard song to ignore." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And then, for several days in a row, the singer performed what seemed like a different number, though within a few measures Tamer was convinced it was merely the harmony line to the first song. She experimented, humming the melody she knew beneath the descant in her head; yes, they fit exactly.\n\nThereafter, whatever part the singer took, Tamer took the other, whistling or humming along with the disembodied voice; and in this way, over time, she lost her distrust of the music as she had lost her fear of the vertigo." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She knew she should hold on more tightly to her outrage and suspicion, but she could not." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She did not have the strength." }, { "from": "human", "value": "And for some reason, she was not afraid." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was like having a secret companion, here on this friendless farm, a voice to listen to in the dark." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She thought she might actually be sorry if the singer ever abandoned her abruptly and she was left once again in silence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But it was not to be expected that her period of calm would last forever, and inside of three weeks it began to fray. Isabella Cartera was hosting a wedding, a grand event, and dozens of guests began to arrive at the compound.\n\n\"These are the rules,\" Gene told his staff the morning after the carriages began pulling up at the house. \"There's always at least one ostler waiting at the front door." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Most of Isabella's guests will come in some kind of motorized car, but a few of them will arrive by carriage, and some will arrive on horseback." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "We must be ready to take the horses instantly and stable them.\n\n\"Some of the guests will want to ride in the mornings. More will want to ride in the afternoons." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Any guest who wants to borrow a horse may do so. If any guest is riding alone, offer to accompany him. If he declines, note when he leaves and make sure he returns." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "If he has not returned by the time your shift ends, notify me. If he returns, but the horse looks abused or mistreated, notify me. Every time one of our horses is returned to the stable, check it thoroughly for burrs, soreness, lameness—any problem a novice rider might overlook." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"We will not let Isabella's horses out before dawn or after dusk, unless it is a special ride authorized by Isabella. However, guests may take out their own horses at any time, and some of them may wish to ride at odd hours. One of you must sleep in the stables at all times so someone is available to serve the guests at a moment's notice." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "You will take turns sleeping here—we'll make up a schedule.\n\n\"Isabella's guests are to be treated with unfailing politeness. Call them lord, lady, sir, madam, angelo, or angela as the case requires. Some of them may be a little arrogant, but I expect you to overlook that. If someone is actually rude to you, or unkind to the horses, I expect you to report that to me immediately.\"\n\nHe continued talking for a few more minutes, but Tamar's mind had disengaged. Angelo? Angela?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Were angels coming to Isabella Cartera's? That had not previously occurred to her, although she should not be surprised; Isabella's wealth was such that she undoubtedly moved in the highest circles of Samarian society. Which was composed mostly of angels." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Well, but angels never rode horses. They were notoriously inept in the saddle, their great wings creating all sorts of problems for themselves and their beasts. None of them would have any reason to come to the stables. She was safe." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Nonetheless, the days leading up to the wedding at Cartabella were filled with other disagreeable incidents." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "For instance, the visiting nobility were not always as noble as their lineage might suggest. And some of them found it quite curious—and intriguing-that a woman would be employed in the stables.\n\nTamar had her first taste of this only two days after the guests began arriving." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Three young bloods—from southern Jordana, she guessed by their accents—found her alone in the stables and began pressing for her personal history." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Say.! Last time I went to fetch a horse, the groom was old, ugly, smelled of tobacco, and fondled himself with his free hand while he held my bridle in the other,\" said the tallest one, dressed in clothes that were perfumed like money." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I much prefer a pretty girl like you.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She schooled her features into neutral stiffness." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Which are your horses, sirs? I will bring them from the stalls for you.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"And will you ride with us if we ask you nicely?\" said one of the others, a small blond with a handsome face but close-set, narrow eyes. \"We're unfamiliar with the land around Isabella's farm. We might get lost.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I have been instructed only to ride with the ladies,\" she said woodenly. It was not true, of course, but she suspected Gene would back her up.\n\n\"Ah! And were you imported just to service the ladies?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "the tall one said, unmistakably stressing the word \"service.\" \"For I do not recall you being here the last time I visited Isabella.\"\n\n\"No,\" she said baldly." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"And how long have you been a groom?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "he asked. He seemed to be the leader of the group; in any case, he was the one who kept edging closer to her no matter how she attempted to sidestep him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Long enough. Which are your horses, sirs? I will bring them out for you.\"\n\n\"I'm afraid my mare may have pulled her right foreleg,\" her tormentor continued in a soft, silky voice. \"Will you put her through her paces for me so I can see how she handles? I'm sure you've got a gentle touch that she'll respond to, though normally she only allows me to ride her.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Perhaps one of your friends can oblige you,\" Tamar replied." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I have work of my own to attend to.\"\n\nHe was beginning to get testy. \"I assure you, I am asking what I would ask of any groom,\" he said coldly." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His other companion, the one who had not yet spoken, touched him gently on the arm." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Oh, let it be, Devon,\" he said in a calm voice." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Let the girl go to her work, and let's get on with the ride.\"\n\nDevon jerked his arm away and stalked across the stable to where arestive, high-strung palomino pranced nervously in her stall. \"Fine,\" he snapped. \"I'll take care of my mare myself.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Tamar nodded gravely and turned to the other two noblemen, who appeared slightly embarrassed by their friend's fit of temper. \"Sirs?\" she repeated." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"The black is mine,\" said the third man, pointing. \"And Alan's is the bay with the white nose. We'll await you outside.\"\n\nThat was the most chilling of the incidents, but more than one of the other visitors expressed a great deal of interest in her presence, her appearance, and her ability to perform her job." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She treated them all with a noncommittal courtesy, rarely made eye contact, and never allowed herself to come close enough to be touched." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She mentioned none of this to Gene until the skirmish with Devon, and then she felt it best to speak up before one of the noble lords complained to the head groom." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"If I behaved wrong, tell me,\" she finished." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I'll do what you say.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But she had gambled correctly. He frowned, and nodded thoughtfully. \"Hadn't thought about it before,\" he said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You hear stories about how lads like that treat the maids and the upper servants, but as I haven't had too many women working for me in the stables, it didn't occur to me ...\"His voice trailed off." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He studied the pattern of halters hanging on nails in the far wall. \"Well, we'll take you off the night shift. There's one worry done away with. Could make you point person at the front door all day—you might get a few comments still, but there'd be too many people about for anyone to corner you and try a mischief.\"\n\nYes, but at the front door she'd be highly visible to anyone who happened to drop by Cartabella—angels, noblemen, anyone." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You could put me in charge of exercising the estate horses,\" she said. \"That way, I'd mostly be out of the stables but I'd still be working.\"\n\nHe nodded slowly. \"That's fine with me. Still might run into a few hotheads now and then who think any woman is fair prey.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She gave him a quick, demure smile." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"But if I'm exercising the horses,\" she murmured, \"I can just ride away.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He grinned back. \"Fine. Your call. Something else comes up, let me know, and we'll work it out. But don't be afraid to tell me about it. I know the gentlefolk. Not so gentle.\"\n\nSo that comforted her, though she wondered if her coworkers might resent her for getting preferential treatment. If they did, they did not say so." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Gregor did comment on her new duties (\"Better you than me. I'd rather feed them than take them out for exercise\"), but didn't seem to feel she'd received any privileges." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "All in all, she felt she was surviving Isabella Cartera's influx of visitors relatively well.\n\nAlthough, the next day, she was not so sanguine.\n\nShe had risen early to give special attention to Lunacy, a two-year-old filly that Gene had recently acquired." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The horse had picked up some bad habits from her previous trainer and didn't like to be handled by women, though she was small-boned and delicate and clearly destined to be a lady's mount." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Tamar wanted to accustom the filly to a woman's voice and touch before she attempted to take her on a long ride—or turned her over to Isabella Cartera.\n\nLunacy backed from Tamar's hand before she had even opened the stall door, and whickered plaintively as if to call for help. \"You have no idea how this hurts my feelings,\" Tamar told her in a low, steady voice." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She always talked incessant nonsense to the nervous horses; it usually calmed them. \"To have you reject me in this way. I'll have you know I've never abused a horse. Never will. You're completely safe in my hands.\"\n\nThe dainty ears flicked forward, and the big, intelligent eyes watched her warily." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Tamar could not help smiling." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Lunacy was irritating, no question, but Tamar felt a certain kinship with her. Just so she pictured her own reaction—to anyone, male or female—if she was suddenly transmogrified into a horse.\n\n\"Now, I know you've been fed already. Come out with me to the corral. We're going to see how you take the saddle and bridle this time. Don't you want to learn how to behave prettily enough to have Isabella choose you as her favorite mount? She's quite the most important person on the farm, you know. Everyone will admire you if she's your rider.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Eventually, Lunacy allowed herself to be bridled and led from the stall." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Once outside in the golden spring morning, she pranced a little—nerves, maybe, but Tamar thought it might be a small celebration of her delight in the lovely day. She smiled." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"All right. Let's walk once around the corral. I'll just hold the bridle, like this, and you can walk beside me, and you can see how easy it is, just walking, just having a nice little chat.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "They circled the corral twice, Tamar talking all the while, and Lunacy's initial skittishness quickly evaporated." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Tamar considered trying to mount for a brief ride, but thought she'd wait a day or two, till the horse was used to her voice and her presence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Then she'd see how Lunacy reacted to a saddle and a rider.\n\n\"See. Wasn't that easy?\" she said, coming to a halt and patting the filly's nose." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Would you like a little sugar? Would that make you like me better?\"\n\n\"Doesn't take sugar to make me like you better,\" said a smooth voice behind her, and she whirled so suddenly that the horse whinnied and tried to jerk the lead rope from her hand. It was Devon and his blond companion Alan, and they were both smiling at her in a menacing fashion." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"She's a beauty, now, isn't she,\" Devon said, coming closer to run his manicured hand down the horse's nose." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Tamar tried to step away, but she didn't want to let go of the bridle. She kept thinking there must be some way to spin around, leap onto the horse's back, and gallop away. \"Not too well trained, though. Is that your task—to break her in?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"My favorite kind of work,\" the towhead drawled." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Breaking in a new filly.\"\n\nBoth men laughed. Devon was already as close to Tamar as he could get; now the blond stepped forward, crowding her against the horse. Lunacy neighed and backed away, but Devon's hand was on the halter, and his iron grip forced her to a standstill." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I like them spirited,\" the tall man observed, \"but not so stubborn they can't be taught.\"\n\nNo way to get on the horse and ride off. Tamar stood frozen in place for five seconds, then lunged forward and ducked under Devon's arm." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There was a flurry of motion as the horse reared backward, both men yelled, and someone dove after Tamar. She felt hands close on her arm and jerk her back; she whirled around with the motion and lashed out with her free hand, making solid contact with someone's chest. Alan's. She heard his small grunt of surprise, and his clutch on her arm loosened." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But before she could do more than think of running away, Devon's arms snaked around her from behind, and he crushed her to his chest. She could feel his heart pounding, hear his sudden ragged breathing, smell his mixed scent of cologne, leather, and finely starched linen.\n\n\"I think we deserve a little more courtesy than that,\" he murmured in her ear, drawing her even closer." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She felt her ribs protesting the strain, and there was a terrific pain building up in her right arm. Perhaps Alan had bruised her when he grabbed her. \"Alan, show the young lady how we prefer to be treated.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She could not back up but she whipped her head from side to side as the blond leaned closer, clearly intent on kissing her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Feisty,\" he said with a laugh, and placed his hands on either side of her face, holding her still." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She kicked out furiously, missing his groin but connecting with his knee, causing him to howl and hop backward. Devon was laughing; she could feel his chest shake. As soon as Alan regained his balance, he rushed forward and slapped her viciously across the cheek." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Stupid bitch!\" he exclaimed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Would you like to see what we could really do to you if we wanted?\"\n\nShe pursed her mouth to spit at him. But before she could act, before either man could speak again, the air around them suddenly changed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It grew both shadowed and iridescent, as if the sun were filtered suddenly through a vibrant, translucent awning. The air ruffled around them; a rapid, muffled rhythm seemed to offer up the heartbeat of the wind itself. All three of them gaped upward." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "All three of them grew loose and stupid in a moment's quick shock.\n\nIt was an angel hovering barely ten feet above them, looking like Jovah's wrath personified. He blocked the light with his outstretched wings; his arm was extended in an accusatory gesture." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The bracelets on his wrists glittered with baleful emerald light, and just below his shoulder, the Kiss in his arm blazed like a miniature sun.\n\n\"And this is what noblemen consider a fitting pastime for their idle hours! Devon Malpasson and Alan Parlair—I recognize both of you. Who are you troubling now with your ugly faces and your ill-bred desires?\"\n\nNot until the angel spoke their names did Tamar's attackers actually release her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Let's get back to the house,\" she heard Alan mutter. Devon snarled, \"What mix is it of his?\" but she could feel him slinking past her with much less of his usual arrogance." }, { "from": "human", "value": "For herself, she could not." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "move a muscle, not to retrieve the drifted horse, not to run to the stables, not to cover her face in mortification. For the angel could just as well have called out her name—he knew it. She knew his. The angel Jared, leader of the host at Monteverde." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He waited till the other two had stalked away, then canted his wings and came down for a noiseless landing. He looked not at his feet or the terrain beneath him, but straight at her; and while he watched her she could not turn her eyes away.\n\nShe had remembered the tangled brown hair, the shape of his face, even the timbre of his voice." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She had forgotten the color of his eyes, gray and stern as a father's reproach." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She had to force herself not to open the conversation with an apology. He came a step closer, still staring at her, and she stiffened her backbone and stared right back.\n\n\"So. You made it safely from Ileah, I see,\" he said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "the sarcastic edge very faint in his voice." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I did,\" she said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"How was Peter when you left him?\"\n\n\"In good hands. I did not linger to watch his recovery. I wanted to hurry back. In case I was needed.\"\n\nShe winced a little; but she would not be cowed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You did not rush back because you feared for my safety,\" she retorted. \"You wanted information—secrets about my friends. I left before you could try to force that information from me.\"\n\n\"Wrong on all counts,\" he said, and now his voice showed a certain grimness." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I wanted—I still want—to help you, and possibly help your friends. And even if I was after information, I never would have resorted to the tactics those two fellows tried. You were safer with me than you have been at any time since.\"\n\nTamar did not exactly sniff, but the sound she produced was fairly close. \"I have been in no danger.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Well, you will be,\" he said soberly, and reached inside a pocket on his leather vest. It had not escaped Tamar's notice that he was very casually dressed, in tight leather leggings and a sleeveless vest; and he was, by any standard, more appealing than the last two men she had just viewed. Not that it mattered, not that she cared." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"The Archangel—who, as you know, is not fond of Jacobites—has managed somehow to come up with a portrait that resembles you. And this he has passed along to all the Jansai and any other mercenary souls who might be willing to make an easy dollar by bringing you to the Eyrie. Not a great likeness, but a passable one, don't you think?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He handed over a piece of paper." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She looked down at her features, ill-drawn but unmistakable, and felt a chill hand wrap bony fingers around her heart." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You drew this,\" she whispered. \"To frighten me.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"It is not a skill I have,\" Jared replied coldly.\n\nShe looked up at him, blindly now, seeing not his face but her own, chalky and blurred on the much-folded paper. \"But—I don't—why?\" she stammered." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"There is no reason—I am not someone Bael should care about one way or another.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Oh, he has other portraits, which I've got copies of. A man called Conran—I can see by your face you've heard of him—a couple of others. But you and Conran seemed to be the two he was most interested in. Don't ask me why. I wouldn't have pegged you as the dangerous type, myself. Stupid, maybe, but not dangerous.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The epithet cleared her mind and restored her vision instantly. \"Just because I don't trust you is no reason to call me stupid,\" she said fiercely. \"At least I'm alive, which is more than I can say for many of my friends. And who knows if trusting angels isn't what killed them?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A strange, reluctant smile crossed his face. \"I have to give you credit for spirit, if nothing else,\" he said, almost as if he spoke to himself. \"What can I do to make you believe me? For you have to believe me. We need to leave Isabella's the day the wedding is over. I must take you to Ysral. I don't think you'll be safe anywhere else,\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Ysral? Why should I go to Ysral?\" she demanded, though she had decided just a few days ago that was her ultimate destination. But she would not travel anywhere with this man, not a mile, not an inch." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Because it's not Samaria, for one thing. And because I believe the rest of the Jacobites are there, for another.\"\n\n\"How would you know anything about the Jacobites' plans?\" she said suspiciously. \"How do you know about these—these portraits? Where do you get all your information?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I have a friend. Christian Avalone, do you know of him?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She nodded, \"He's a merchant who has no love for Bael. And because Bael has no love for the Jacobites, Christian has decided to help the Jacobites where he can. Also, I suspect that in his heart Christian likes the idea of a mechanical god instead of a real one. Christian has only a very small heart, you know—most businessmen do—and that would simplify his life considerably.\"\n\n\"You talk in riddles,\" she said. \"And nothing I have heard about Christian Avalone makes me trust him any more than I trust you.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Then it appears we are at a standstill,\" he said lightly." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She waited, but he said nothing more, which was very annoying." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She had quite enough anger left to counter everything he said with a good, hard insult, but she felt ridiculous just standing there looking at him when he did nothing but stand there in return." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Did you come here searching for me?\" she asked, just something to say.\n\n\"No, I had another reason for coming to Isabella's. I am as astonished to see you as you are to see me. Though not surprised to find you in trouble.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She scowled at that, but even through her narrowed eyelids she could see the residual opal glow on his arm. \"And why in the world is your Kiss all lit up like that?\" she said irritably.\n\nHe glanced at it, as if he hadn't noticed, and then gave her the most peculiar smile." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"And why is yours?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "he asked in return." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Quickly she checked, but it was true." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The pain she had taken for Alan's mishandling was the result of a pulsing, swirling fire in the depths of her Kiss. She felt both bewildered and very, very wary. She looked back at the angel." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Why does it do that?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "she asked. She remembered the stories she had heard—but Ezra had told her they were fairy tales—surely the angel was not about to tell herHe was still smiling. \"Legends say your Kiss will light when you meet another person with whom you have some—bond,\" he replied. She had the sense that he was editing." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"There appears to be some sort of link between us. For instance, I know you were working at the Berman House in Semorrah.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She could tell that her face showed her astonishment; he nodded." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"The night I had dinner there, my Kiss flared just like this. I didn't figure it out till later, then I returned to Semorrah looking for you. Jasper told me you had gone to visit your sick sister.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He had the story right; he must be telling the truth." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"And now?\" she breathed.\n\n\"Minutes after I arrived on the farm, I felt a kind of pressure in my arm. I couldn't believe it—after all the time I've spent looking for you, could you possibly be here? And then, a few hours later, the pressure became intense. Painful, actually. They say that the angel Gabriel felt fire in his Kiss when his angelica Rachel was in danger. All I know is that the pain in my arm sent me out of the house in a hurry, looking for you.\"\n\nShe stared bleakly down at the Kiss again." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Yet another reason to hate it!" }, { "from": "human", "value": "First dizziness, then music, and now an uncontrollable, undesirable link to the angel Jared." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I should never have had this installed,\" she muttered darkly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"It has caused me no end of grief.\"\n\n\"And will not serve its intended purpose of hiding you from the Jansai,\" he added. \"For they will not be looking at your arm, but your face.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"There are no Jansai at Cartabella.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Do you plan to stay here your whole life?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She did not answer." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"And anyway, I know for a fact that Isabella trades with the Jansai,\" he went on." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Just because you haven't seen any doesn't mean they won't show up. And then how will you defend yourself? Isabella is not the type to ruin a good relationship with a Breven merchant just to save a nameless servant.\"\n\n\"I don't think you need to concern yourself,\" Tamar said evenly. \"I have taken care of myself so far without your help.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"But things are much more risky for you now,\" he said urgently." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Your life has taken a very hazardous turn.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"And what do you know about the hazards of my life till now?\" was her furious reply. \"What do you know about the deaths I have witnessed or the indignities I have suffered? What do you know about my terrors or my dreams? What do you know about me at all?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He was silent a long moment, watching her, this time not responding to her anger with a flare-up of his own. \"Very little,\" he said at last. \"But I would like to know it all.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Which was not the reply she had expected." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She flung her head back, taken by surprise, but there was really no answer to that." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Not saying another word to him, she stomped across the corral to retrieve Lunacy, and led the horse none too steadily to the stable. The angel let her pass in silence.\n\nOnce inside the aromatic dimness of the stable, she paused to catch her breath and marvel over the events of the past half hour." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Menace on all sides; hard to know what to fear most. Oddly enough, she felt as much exhilaration as fear, at least in regard to the angel. She didn't trust him, of course, but somehow she did not hate him as she should." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Something to do with that damned Kiss, no doubt.\n\nOnly after she had stood there a moment or two and her eyes had adjusted to the relative darkness did she realize that Gene was standing there, watching her. The soberness of his expression made her realize that he had witnessed at least some part of her adventures." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"None of my business,\" he said diffidently, \"but if that angel was one of the ones bothering you, I'm not afraid to go to Isabella even so. Some of the angel folk are no better than the gentry.\"\n\n\"No,\" she said quickly. \"He had some advice for me that I didn't want to take, but I'm not afraid of him. I didn't mean to worry you.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He nodded slowly, thinking it over. \"You know him, then? The angel Jared?\"\n\n\"I've met him before. Very briefly.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"They say he's the best of the lot. But I just wanted to let you know that if there was something to complain about, you shouldn't let the fact that he's an angel stop you.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No. No complaints,\" she said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"But thank you anyway.\" And she had stabled Lunacy and led out one of the other estate horses before she realized she had barely exercised the filly at all. So she was not succeeding particularly well even at the specialized job she had been assigned; but somehow she did not think it was entirely her fault." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Jared came out to the corral the next morning to watch her work. She was leading Lunacy around on a halter, talking nonsense words, when out of the corner of her eye she spied the angel approaching. Tamar made no attempt to acknowledge him, but it was a little hard to overlook him when he swung himself up to the top railing of the fence, swept his wings behind him, and hooked his feet over the bottom rung." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The day was hot, and Tamar felt her hair beginning to stick to her forehead as the sweat built up along her scalp." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She was covered with bits of straw and no end of horsehair, so all she needed to look really attractive was to have perspiration malden her face and flatten her short hair.\n\nNot that she cared how the angel viewed her.\n\nJared watched her in silence for perhaps half an hour while Tamar did her best to ignore him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But finally his presence goaded her to such supreme irritation that she wrapped the reins around her hand and hauled the horse over to his perch. \"What?\" she exclaimed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Jared merely raised an eyebrow. \"What what? I'm just sitting here enjoying the fine day.\"\n\n\"You are not. You're trying to distract me.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I didn't say a word.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Well, you're staring at me.\"\n\n\"I will endeavor to turn my eyes elsewhere,\" he said. And suiting action to words, he let his gaze wander past her, to the maze of buildings that housed the granaries, the dairies, and the machinery." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Tamar almost stamped her foot." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Have you come to frighten off Devon or any of his friends? Is that it?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"No, I told you, I'm just enjoying the sunny day.\"\n\nShe pushed her hair back with her free hand. \"Perhaps you'd like to ride? Not Lunacy, of course, because she'd throw you, but one of the other horses?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I don't ride, thank you. But I appreciate your thoughtful offer.\"\n\nThis time she did stamp her foot. Without another word, she stalked off, practically dragging the horse behind her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Once inside the stables, she settled Lunacy in her stall and chose as her next subject a great, spirited bay stallion that Isabella loved to ride. He hadn't been exercised in a day or two, though, so he needed a good hard gallop. Quickly, Tamar saddled him and led him out into the daylight." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She mounted and headed off toward the acres of open parkland that constituted one of the main attractions of Isabella Cartera's land." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There were a number of riding trails here, some more challenging than others, with a few low jumps thrown in for good measure. She would ride as far and as fast as the horse would go.\n\nThey had been out only twenty minutes or so, taking the empty trails at a good clip and clearing the ornamental hedges with room to spare, when once again Tamar realized she had company." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The angel was following them overhead, making lazy loops back and forth over the pathways she had chosen, wings outstretched in an easy, untroubled glide." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It did not take much cogitation to realize that no matter where she took this horse—or any other horse—the angel planned to follow.\n\nEither he was stubbornly desirous of rousing her to fury, or he really did believe she was in danger.\n\nThat night after dinner, Tamar went to Gene." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I heard you telling Gregor that Isabella's new saddle arrived in Shepherd's Pass,\" she said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I could ride to town and fetch it, if you'd like. I know Gregor hates to leave the farm when there's this much excitement going on.\"\n\nGene looked at her long and consideringly. Tamar kept her face empty of any expression except neutral helpfulness." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"That would be fine,\" he said slowly. \"Take Harmony, though. Isabella's planning a hunting party tomorrow and she won't want any of the good horses to be missing.\"\n\nHarmony was a swaybacked old mare with a sweet disposition but very little energy." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The least valuable horse in the stables. So Gene had read her right despite her innocent face. \"I'll leave in the morning.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Should be able to make it there and back in a day, but if something holds you up, you should stable the horse at Gwierson's,\" the head groom went on. \"Saddle's been paid for, but I could give you a little cash in case there's a problem.\"\n\n\"I wouldn't think there'd be a problem,\" Tamar said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Her throat hurt her to speak." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He was being so kind." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He shrugged. \"Suit yourself. Leave as soon as you're ready.\" So that night she packed up as many of her meager belongings as would fit in an inconspicuous bag that might seem appropriate for a day trip into the nearest town. She'd already gotten three weeks' worth of wages, and she counted out the money." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Enough to take her to Port Clam easily; enough, she hoped, to buy passage to Ysral.\n\nShe slept badly and woke with a headache before dawn had really opened its lush eyes. No reason to lie here any longer, fretting, so she rose and dressed and hooked her duffel bag over her shoulder." }, { "from": "human", "value": "When she arrived in the stable that was Harmony's home, she was surprised to find Gene there before her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Just wanted to look her over quickly before you set out,\" was his explanation. \"And I remembered last night. Still a down payment on the saddle. So here's enough money to cover it.\"\n\nImpossible to refuse when phrased that way, so helplessly she accepted the roll of bills he offered her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The outer denomination was almost as much as the small stash she'd managed to accumulate.\n\n\"I can't—what if I lose it?\" she stammered.\n\nHe shrugged. \"It's not much. Don't worry about it. Ride carefully. Remember—Gwierson's is the place.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She nodded. \"Thanks.\" She shrugged, because she wanted to say more and could not think how.\n\nHe gave her one of his rare grins." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"And if any of those boys asks me where you went, I won't tell,\" he said.\n\nShe smiled back. \"I'm sure they'll miss me.\"\n\n\"Won't we all.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She nodded, murmured her thanks again, and freed the horse from the stall. Too much weighted conversation like this and she would be in tears before she could get out the door. Gene followed her outside but had no other comment to make." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Once on horseback, she waved good-bye and he returned the gesture. Then she was off into the sweet, fresh coolness of morning.\n\nOn her own again." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Running again. Would she ever come to rest?\n\nShepherd's Pass was even sleepier than usual, as Tamar discovered after dropping off Harmony at Gwierson's. The clerk at the bigger of the two hotels, which also doubled as the bus terminal, was not sure when the next transport was due in or where it might be headed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Will it come in sometime today?\" Tamar asked impatiently. Oh, yes, there was always at least one bus a day. He just couldn't remember which one it would be." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Can anybody tell me? is there a schedule anywhere I can look at?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Now, he might have a schedule for her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hold on just a minute. She waited in gathering irritation while he rummaged through some old papers and an assortment of maps.\n\n\"Except I don't think this is still the right timetable,\" he told her as he finally handed over a creased and faded slip of paper." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'm pretty sure the schedule changed a year or so ago.\"\n\nSo that was fairly helpful. Tamar glanced at the days and numbers on the chart he'd given her, but it was pointless to try to plot a route based on obsolete information." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'll just hang around for a while, then,\" she said, \"and see what comes in.\"\n\nWhile she waited she bought a little road food and filled her canteen with fresh water. She was resigned to spending the whole day lurking outside the hotel, but she cheered up immensely when, two hours after her arrival, a big, odoriferous bus rumbled through the town's quiet streets." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She waited till the single passenger disembarked, then crowded up to the doorway to address the driver." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Where are you headed?\" she asked.\n\n\"Azolay,\" he replied. It was a river city south of Castelana, not nearly as important as either that city or Semorrah, but a sizable place nonetheless. From there she should be able to find a bus anywhere." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"How much for a seat?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Twenty.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"When do you leave?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Five minutes.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Let me get my bag.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She slept most of the way to Azolay, a trip that took the rest of the day. Whenever the bus stopped for more than ten minutes, she disembarked to walk off the kinks in her legs or refill her canteen. Practically no one, it turned out, wanted to ride from Shepherd's Pass to Azolay, so the bus was almost empty and she had a whole row of seats to herself." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She didn't feel like reading, she was not in the mood to talk to strangers, and she refused to let herself think, so sleep was the only option.\n\nThey arrived in Azolay a little before sunset. Like Semorrah, Azolay derived all its income from commerce." }, { "from": "human", "value": "In the past fifty years it had expanded rapidly, serving as a market for much of southern Bethel." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was not nearly as pretty as Semorrah, however." }, { "from": "human", "value": "For one thing, it had none of Semorrah's graceful, harmonious architecture, but instead was built of a hodgepodge of brick, stone, marble, and granite in a completely unplanned manner." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "For another, it still had a raw, new edge to it, because its wealth and prominence had been so recently achieved. But all its energy and its random structure gave it a certain constant charm. You were never quite sure what you would encounter anytime you turned a corner: a new theater, an old mansion, a freshly paved street leading down to the docks." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Jansai driving through town in one of their big transports, whistling at the girls and throwing fruit rinds into the alleys.\n\nTamar drew back sharply when the first truck passed, melting into the shadow of the nearest building. Damn. That had been so careless." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Because she had seen so few Jansai in Semorrah—and none at all near Shepherd's Pass—she had forgotten how far the gypsies loved to roam." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Of course they would be in Azolay, or even Castelana and the other river cities." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "All that kept them out of Semorrah were those narrow streets that would not accommodate their massive tracks.\n\nShe had best remain invisible tonight and be on her way first thing in the morning.\n\nShe already had her ticket for Port Clara." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She had picked it up before leaving the bus terminal where she had been dropped off, and it had cost her far more than twenty dollars, too. She would be grateful yet for Gene's gift, which she still hadn't had the nerve to count. Would she really have enough money left to pay for passage to Ysral?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "With that in mind, she chose the cheapest hotel she could find that still looked like it had passable standards of cleanliness. Another restless night; seemed like these days she could only fall asleep on a bus. She tossed and turned until the sky had lightened enough to make it reasonable to get up and dress." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She had a quick breakfast at an outdoor cafe right on the river's edge, then strolled along the pier for a while, watching the barges go by." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She had asked Jasper once if you could sail from Semorrah all the way to Ysral and he had laughed at her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Then he had explained the differences between riverboats and oceangoing vessels, although frankly the distinctions weren't all that clear to Tamar." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Too bad, though. It would save her some time and grief if she could board a ship now and close her eyes till she arrived at her destination.\n\nShe had just brushed the crumbs from her lips when she heard running footsteps behind her, and sudden alarm made her whirl around. Too late; hands closed on her arms and harsh shouts called reinforcements over from two streets away." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She was surrounded by three men, though it seemed like thirty." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She lashed out with her feet, with her fists, and the Jansai struck back with what seemed like hundreds of gloves and boots. Someone clouted her on the head, knocking her momentarily blind, and she heard a voice shout out, \"Stupid! He wants her alive!\" Another attacker was trying to bind her wrists, but she snaked her hands away from him and ducked low, butting her head into his stomach." }, { "from": "human", "value": "There were cries and grunts all around her, and voices coming closer." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Panic made her insane. She clawed her way down someone's bare forearm and, for a moment, felt the deathgrip on her arms lessen. She broke free.\n\nShe ran flat out down the cobblestoned street, sobbing breath into her lungs, feeling her legs nearly wrench out of their sockets with each huge, desperate stride." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Behind her, angry shouting; before her, a few early-morning risers, staring and pointing at this amazing sight, a wretched woman fleeing from a horde of Jansai attackers." }, { "from": "human", "value": "If she could reach a shop door, a clump of friendly onlookers, anything that could pass for safety ..." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Eager footsteps pounded up beside her. She felt a hand clutch a fold of her blouse and heard the material rip as she lunged away. Her lungs were on fire; her legs were lead." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Her head was about to burst with pain. Again the hand reached out from behind, this time closing on her arm with a sharp, merciless grip. She cried out and almost tumbled over backward as she was dragged to a halt." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The Jansai slapped her once, hard, and received calls of approval from his companions, racing up a few yards away." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Tamar summoned every last ounce of strength and punched him in the chest as hard as she could." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He struck her again with a blow so vicious it sent her reeling, falling, somersaulting into the river or into the air or into that well of vertigo that was so deep now she did not think she would ever climb out ... But there were arms still wrapped around her from behind, hands gripping her crossed wrists, she could not be falling, she could not be flying, she must only be dreaming the battered, brainsick dreams of the dead. Oddly enough, she felt no fear, now that she was comatose or possibly even killed; she felt relieved, serene, but very, very dizzy." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was pointless to try to open her eyes, so she did not, but she almost started to relax. to enjoy herself, to give up the constant, impossible fight. She probably was dead, then; she could not imagine that mere loss of consciousness would be enough to make her surrender to the Jansai. To anyone." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Are you all right?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "asked a worded voice in her ear. \"He hit you so hard. Have you passed out?\"\n\nIt was Jared's voice." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Astonishment made her open her eyes after all—very widely as she took in the diminutive landscape below her, shrunken river, miniature boats, tiny trees. The vertigo rushed back, and her hands twisted in his hold to clench on his wrists.\n\n\"We're .flying,\" she whispered." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What did you think we were doing? Are you all right?\" All sorts of words rose to her lips, but none of them were answers to his questions. She still could not fathom how he had come to be here, how he had scooped her up and carried her aloft while her senses were too shattered to process the information." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 4 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He had saved her—again—he had found her every single place she had run to. She did not even need to ask where they were going, but her mouth shaped the words anyway. \"Where are you taking me?\"\n\n\"Ysral.\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "user starts, u write ~2 sentences more. copy Sharon Shinn's style" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Life in Ysral was not, Lucinda had found, much different from life on Angel Rock. For one thing, the accommodations in both cases were comfortable but hardly grand; in the small town of Sahala, she lived in a modest six-room, two-story house that she shared with five other people." }, { "from": "human", "value": "For another, the communities were both small and self-contained." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Sahala was bigger, of course—about a thousand souls to Angel Rock's twenty-four—but it had no greater level of activity or commerce. A few traders arrived every day, a few left, but the town's core community of Edori and Jacobites remained basically unchanged." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Lucinda's arrival had created an uproar." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The resident Edori had been the first to greet her with that unselfconscious warmth and directness that, in anyone else, would have seemed rude or overwhelming." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Look, Martha, it's an angel! ... Well, look at you, child. Have you come to live in Sahala with us? I've never spoken to an angel before. I've never been this close to one.\" \"Jonathon, have you said hello to the angel? What's your name, young lady, I didn't catch it.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "So that had been odd enough, though Lucinda had answered as pleasantly and openly as she could, but then there had been the cold, strange greeting of the Jacobites." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They had not come immediately out from their stone houses, but gazed at her from behind shuttered windows and half-opened doors. She could not blame them for feeling a profound hostility toward an unknown angel visitor, but still it made her feel awkward, humble, and lonely as she stood in the center of the small town, stared at by everyone." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But Reuben was still at her side." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He motioned to one of the young Edori boys who had crept close enough to touch Lucinda's wing. She flicked it nervously from his curious fingers." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Go tell Conran I'm here,\" he said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Tell him I've brought a friend who needs shelter. Tell him she is to be trusted.\"\n\nThe boy nodded and darted off." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Lucinda managed to slant a smile at her escort. \"I didn't know you were well enough acquainted with the Jacobites to call them by name and have them trust you,\" she said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He grinned back. He seemed completely at ease, not worried in the slightest that he and his companion might be repulsed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Didn't you say your aunt wanted you to seek out Conran?\" he answered." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Yes, but you spoke just now as if you know him.\"\n\n\"Everyone knows Conran. He's that kind of man.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I'm afraid,\" she said suddenly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Reuben reached out and took her hand in a warm, unbelievably comforting clasp. \"If they won't take you in, we'll put you with the Edori,\" he said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"My family's tribe is traveling just now, but they'd gladly take you in. Neither Bael nor Omar would be able to find you if you were with them.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In a few minutes the little boy returned, scampering in front of a small delegation. These must be the Jacobites, Lucinda thought, for they certainly were not Edori." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They did not have the Edori's unvaried dark coloring and smiling faces; this group, three men and two women, were mostly fair and uniformly suspicious." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The leader appeared to be a stocky older man with grizzled hair and a look of lively intelligence. At any rate, the others let him precede them, and the Edori fell back to admit him through their ranks." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Lucinda could not help herself." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She edged behind Reuben and peered out at the Jacobites from behind his shoulder.\n\n\"Well, Reuben, this had better be good,\" the leader said, coming to a halt a few paces from the new arrivals." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His voice was clear and ringing, but he did not sound angry." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Astonished, maybe, but not at all unprepared. He seemed like the sort of man who was never caught unprepared." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Bringing an angel to Sahala is much like setting a hawk among the rabbits.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Ah, Conran, you were never a frightened rabbit running for your life,\" Reuben drawled in his usual lilting tones, and Conran's face relaxed slightly into a grin. \"Besides, I have a message from a lady who advised me to bring this angel to your very doorstep. And I've never yet known you to scoff at news that came from a woman's mouth.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"A lady? Conran repeated, but his whole face had sharpened into anticipation." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He tried to peer at Lucinda's face, but she drew farther back behind her human shield. \"And where have you just sailed from, my friend?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You've heard of the place, I'm sure,\" the Edori said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Angel Rock,\" Conran said. \"And this particular package came from a lady named Gretchen.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You've guessed it,\" Reuben said. \"So now will you be willing to take her in? For that's the request I'll be making..\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Conran reached out a hand to draw Reuben to one side." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Reuben was tall and well muscled, but the Jacobite had considerable strength, for his push dislodged the Edori." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"And you must be Lucinda,\" Conran said as the angel came into view. \"I have wanted to meet you for a long time. Twenty-eight years, to be exact.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He was strange and intimidating, but he exuded a powerful charisma for all that." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Still nervous, but much more hopeful, Lucinda extended her hand. The Jacobite took it in a crushing grip." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He studied her face with an unnerving intentness that slowly gave way to a sort of incredulous wonder.\n\n\"Yes,\" he said at last." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You look very like her. There would be no mistaking you.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Lucinda remembered suddenly that this man had known Rinalda in her age of wild passion." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"My mother?\" she said shyly. \"I look like my mother?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "For a split second she thought he looked surprised." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Well, who else could he have thought she resembled? \"Yes, that you do,\" he said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Did you know her well?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I did. A long time ago. I had heard that she bore two daughters. ters, and I am pleased to meet this one at last.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Lucinda sighed, inexplicably saddened. \"Yes, two daughters, but my twin sister died.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"She did?\" Conmn asked sharply." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I did not know that.\"\n\n\"Oh, yes. As an infant. The story is very tragic.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Ah.\" Conran looked briefly hopeful, then his face clouded over again." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Yes, I suppose she is dead, at that. A tragedy, indeed. But to have saved one of Rinalda's girls—that is a tri umph in any case. Have you come to join the Jacobites, young lady? Or why are you here?\"\n\n\"She is here because her aunt fears for her safety,\" Reuben interposed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Gretchen is afraid that Lucinda has drawn the attention of Bael and his son Omar. She wanted Lucinda away from Angel Rock.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Well, she can stay here as long as she likes,\" Conran said. \"We are not likely to deny refuge to anyone hunted by the Archangel.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"And I want you to tell me everything,\" Lucinda said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Everything you know about my mother. Everything you know about the Alleluia Files. I want to understand it all.\"\n\n\"I will tell you,\" he said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"And if you become a believer, like your mother, I will count myself a fortunate man.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He turned away to shout to four others who had followed him, waving them forward to meet the angel. Reuben added in a voice only Lucinda could hear, \"He is fortunate anyway, merely to have you near him. That much I could tell him for myself.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "But once she had settled in to Sahala—and once Reuben was gone—her life did not materially change." }, { "from": "human", "value": "There was no mysterious initiation into the Jacobite fraternity." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She felt no sudden access of belief, no zealous devotion to the cause. Conran explained what she did not already know about the Jacobites, and the information intrigued her, but did not wholly win her over." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The most interesting piece of news was what Conran considered verification." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Jacob Fairman, according to Conran, had long believed Jehovah to be a spaceship, not a god, and he claimed that the oracle Deborah had once assured him he was correct.\n\nLucinda frowned at this revelation." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"An oracle also knew that the god was really a spaceship? That seems very unlikely.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Jacob said that Deborah had been charged by Alleluia to guard this secret with her very life and not to impart it until she, too, was on her deathbed. Because it was imperative that someone know the truth about Jehovah, but that the knowledge was too inflammatory for the whole world to learn. So Alleluia told Deborah, and one presumes that Deborah told Jecoliah—although, if that were so, I would have expected Jecoliah to have spoken up before now. Although perhaps she does not see the slaughter of a few hundred Jacobites as significant enough to break a silence of a hundred years.\"\n\n\"Why was it imperative that someone know the truth? If Alleluia found the truth so shocking, why not let it die with her?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Jehovah is a man-made piece of equipment. I don't know how much experience you have with technology, but it always breaks down. I will grant that Jehovah must be more sophisticated than the trucks and radio transmitters our engineers have cobbled together, but no doubt it, too, needs periodic maintenance. So someone needs to know what it is so that someone can make sure the machine gets fixed.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Lucinda was still frowning. \"If I was an oracle who had guarded such a secret for most of my life, I don't know that 1 would be sharing that information with any wild-eyed radical who showed up at my door. And then watch him stir the whole country into bloody controversy and not say a word to anyone else.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"As to why she would have told him—well, Jacob Fairman was a very persuasive man. If anyone could have charmed confidences from an old spinster, it would have been Jacob. If you were to meet him today, I venture to guess you would be telling him your most cherished secrets within ten minutes. It was the effect he had. As to why she told no one else—she died shortly after this conversation took place. She was not in a position to tell anyone anything.\"\n\n\"What made him think to ask her in the first place? Why did he even begin to wonder about the god?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"There had been speculation in the scientific community for years about the true nature of Jehovah. Thirty years before Jacob Fairman began proselytizing, there were two young graduates of the Augustine school who postulated the idea that 'Jovah' was really a machine, based on their largely unproven theories of flight mechanics and weapons systems. Their ideas created quite a stir among the scientists and intellectuals of the time and were violently opposed by the angels. Nothing really came of their speculations, but from time to time, students would come across their papers and start the debate all over again. Jacob Fairman had been a student at the Augustine school, of course. so he'd heard all the theories. He just came to believe in them more devoutly than most.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"And how did you come to believe?\" Lucinda asked.\n\n\"I went to the Augustine school. I heard the whispers. And I had not been a particularly faithful man to begin with. Engineers, as a rule, are not. They look for the logical explanation behind the mystical event. For instance, we have spent some energy trying to determine why angels can fly.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"We have wings,\" Lucinda said with dignity.\n\n\"Ah, but in so many other ways you are completely human. In fact, current biological thinking says you're mutants, but not naturally occurring ones. Someone tampered with your physical makeup some seven hundred and fifty years ago, and you've bred true ever since.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No one tampered with us,\" Lucinda said coldly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Jovah selected a few trusted men and women, and fitted them with wings. Back when the colonists first settled Samaria.\"\n\n\"That's what the Librera says,\" Conran agreed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"But there are very old texts, written in the ancient language, that say otherwise. That talk about how the original angels were created by the scientists and biologists among the settlers. That even describe how clumsy the first angels were as they learned to fly.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"How could you read such texts, even if they exist?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Lucinda demanded. \"Only oracles know the old language.\"\n\nConran grinned again. He radiated energy and confidence, and did not seem at all annoyed by her questions." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Rather, he enjoyed knocking aside her skepticism with feasible answers of his own." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Ah, but one of the courses taught at the Augustine school is linguistics,\" he said. \"Some of the ancient engineering manuals that can be found even today in the archives of the angel holds are written in that tongue. And old Caleb Augustus, he got his hands on these books, and it just killed him that he couldn't read them. So he had his wife the oracle teach him the words. And he set up a class to teach them to others.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"That doesn't seem right,\" Lucinda said. \"That's holy knowledge.\"\n\n\"All knowledge is holy,\" Conran replied." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"And all knowledge should be shared, or it becomes profane.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Lucinda rubbed her temples. She was not entirely convinced, of course." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As an angel, she had some responsibility to her god and to her people; she could not rashly abandon them for a few facile theorems." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And yet Conran was even more plausible than Reuben, although he had not, she realized, given her any more concrete evidence. He just had such a compelling voice that everything he said sounded true." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was hard not to leap to her feet and cry out, \"Yes, I believe!\"\n\n\"It's all interesting,\" she said at last." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"And some of it makes a great deal of sense. But I would need more proof than this before I became a convert.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Fair enough,\" he said amiably. \"But it is good of you to ask—and to listen.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She had not asked her questions of the other Jacobites. She was rather shy of them, for they were a strange, passionate, suspicious, and ill-kept lot." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They looked like they had lived hard, lean lives, managing to survive by the scarcest combination of wits and luck. Despite Conran's welcome, they all mistrusted her; and they had a peculiar habit of staring at her face as if they could not believe the precise arrangement of her features." }, { "from": "human", "value": "There were, in addition to Conran, about fifty Jacobites living in Sahala—the only survivors, he told her, of a band that used to be about four times as strong." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She was shocked to learn of Bael's campaign of extermination, though she found this easier to believe than tales of orbiting spaceships. Gretchen had hated Bael, though she had managed to conceal that violent emotion for most of Lucinda's life, and Reuben also had ascribed terrible crimes to the Archangel." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Lucinda did not doubt that Bael had ferociously hunted down the Jacobites; he would have considered it his duty." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was not surprising that those fifty survivors looked at her askance, and so Lucinda made little effort to get to know them. Oh, once or twice at Conran's invitation, she joined them when the whole group assembled in the evenings, but she was fairly uncomfortable at these events." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They spoke ardently about their beliefs, contemptuously of the complacent Samarians who were too thickheaded to listen to reason, idealistically of how they would bring the truth to every last soul on the mainland." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Lucinda left these meetings even less in sympathy with their cause than she had been before. They were zealots, or possibly madmen; she trusted them very little more than they trusted her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "On the whole, she felt more at ease with the Edori." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The house she lived in was an Edori house, owned by people who were in some remote manner relatives of Reuben." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Then again, from what she could tell, all Edori considered themselves kin, so perhaps they did not in fact have blood ties." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She had not completely figured out how the inmates of the house were related. There were two older women who appeared to be in their sixties; a young woman about Lucinda's age, who had a baby boy; and a young man who did not seem to be brother, son, or lover to any of the others." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They treated each other with great affection mixed with hilarity. They loved nothing so much as a joke at another's expense, though none of the tricks were ever cruel." }, { "from": "human", "value": "None of them were ever in the house if they could help it." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They spent most of their time in the garden, in the town commons visiting their friends, or off on pursuits Lucinda had not yet identified." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Though constructed solidly enough, the house had an impermanent feel, as if at any point its residents might dismantle its stones, cart its components along with them on some impromptu journey, and rebuild the whole thing somewhere else on a more satisfactory site. The furnishings were exotic, colorful, and completely unplanned, so that a red print sofa warred with the blues and grays of a handwoven rug." }, { "from": "human", "value": "No one ever gave a thought to mealtime until someone in the house admitted to hunger, and then two or three of them would throw together a dinner from whatever ingredients happened to be in the cupboard." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But none of this discomposed them or made them add a little foresight to their days. On the contrary, Lucinda had never met such happy, carefree, spontaneous people." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They made her laugh." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They made her feel welcome.\n\nThey reminded her of Reuben." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He would be gone at least two weeks, he had told her the evening before the day he had to depart again." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The Wayward had stayed in port a week while Maurice gathered his next cargo, but that time had gone by wickedly fast." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He hated to leave her among strangers, especially since she had been whisked so abruptly away from home, but he knew she would be cared for here." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He would not worry while she was among his people. And he did not say, but she heard the unspoken words, the warning behind his farewell: I am a sailor." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I am Edori. I will always return to you, but I will always sail away again. If she were to love him, she would have to expect to be left behind over and over again." }, { "from": "human", "value": "And it seemed obvious that she loved him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Nights, when the manic fervor of the Jacobites had left her cold and the cheerful charm of the Edori had failed to warm her, she lay in her bed and dreamed again of the hours she had spent with Reuben. They had been a week on The Wayward, traveling between Angel Rock and Ysral, and during that week Lucinda had learned what it meant to take an Edori lover." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She had not often lain with a man, for it had not been possible to take casual bed mates from the small population of Angel Rock, but she had a little experience gained from likable strangers who had visited the port. But those encounters were nothing like making love to an Edori." }, { "from": "human", "value": "There had not been room enough for both of them on the narrow bunk in the ship's cramped cabin." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "So Reuben had spread layer after layer of blankets on the hard floor, creating a mattress of quilt and cotton. And he had pulled her down beside him and covered himself with her white wings and buried his face in the blond fall of her hair." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She had thought she would be shy or nervous, but she was neither." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She ran her fingers through the black silk of his hair and laughed when he murmured incomprehensible endearments in the Edori language. Then caught her breath as he began to run his hands slowly, intently over the curves and hollows of her body." }, { "from": "human", "value": "No, nothing in her past had prepared her for the utter annihilation and rebirth of making love to an Edori." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Or perhaps, more truly, nothing had prepared her for the ecstasy of being in love.\n\nAnd the complete desolation of seeing the loved one walk away." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When she could think about anything besides how much she missed Reuben and how little she understood the Jacobites, she turned her mind to speculation about what she should do with the rest of her life. Much as she liked the Edori, she did not envision living in this little house forever." }, { "from": "human", "value": "And she had a hard time picturing herself gradually succumbing to the illicit allure of the Jacobite enterprise." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Could she return to Angel Rock?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And when? And if she did, what then? Would she spend the rest of her life mooning over Reuben, violently happy on the few days a year that The Wayward was in port, dreamily depressed every other hour of her life?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "How would she occupy her time?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Running the Manor, cooking and cleaning for mainland guests? Perhaps Reuben and Maurice and the others would allow her to travel with them from city to city, continent to continent—but how would that be any more fulfilling?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It seemed unlikely that she could return to Samaria, at least as long as Bael and Omar were in power. And what would she do in Samaria, anyway?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "What would she do anywhere?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "What was her purpose in life? It was when her thoughts reached this tangled conclusion that she could stand it no longer." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She flung herself into the cerulean sky and flew until she was dizzy." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She thought she could outrun her thoughts, but they inevitably kept pace beside her, until she had exhausted herself so much that she could no longer think.\n\nBut one thing she did have to say for Ysral: It was simply beautiful." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Of course, legend had long described the small continent as rich, warm, and exquisite, and in this case, legend had not lied. It was situated on a slightly more southern plane than Samaria, and so, summer and winter, it was wrapped in idle, sultry breezes." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Its soil was fertile and imaginative, and everything seemed to grow there, from the standard crops that could be found on Samaria to flowers and grains of the most amazing hue and variety. The Edori, of course, were lazy farmers, most of them preferring to live off the largesse of the undomesticated land, but even their haphazard attempts at raising corn and wheat and soybeans were met with fabulous success." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The rivers ran with water so sweet that even the children preferred it, and nowhere was there hunger or need or want." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But there were the marks of man's presence, a thing which, Reuben had told her, had caused bitter dissension among the Edori. For centuries, the credo of the Edori had been to live in harmony with the earth, in harmony with man, and for that reason they had failed to build permanent structures and turned their backs on farming." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But in Ysral, the corelli had built cities-small ones, to be sure, but immobile nonetheless—and altered the landscape to suit them." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And the renegade scientists had moved the Augustine school to Ysral, and evidences of scientific advancement were everywhere.\n\nFor instance, Edori in Sahala could communicate via a mysterious transmitter with their families not only in nearby Covallah but with those traveling throughout the remote sections of the continent." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They could drive mobile vehicles that were quieter, smaller, and faster than anything Lucinda had seen on the mainland." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They had developed remarkable recording equipment that caught her voice one night in an impromptu concert and played it back for her the very next minute.\n\n\"All of this takes energy and creates waste,\" Boyce told her gloomily one evening when she asked about a swift little car she'd seen racing away from the city." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Boyce was the young man who lived in the house with her. He seemed both attracted to and repelled by the new technology, though he had been able to explain to her every single thing she'd asked about." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"We have always prided ourselves on offering no hurt to the people around us—or the land. But to power our vehicles, we use fuel that we dig from the earth, doing who knows what harm to the soil beneath? And everything we manufacture has left behind some residue—some gas, or toxin, or pile of burned waste. There is not much now, but if we continue at this rate, what then? What kind of evil will we have created?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Lucinda nodded soberly, though she was not really clear on the problem. She had asked him to take her to the Augustine school and he had said he would, but not for another week or two." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was, she learned, almost a daylong ride away (and that if they borrowed one of the fast little cars), and Boyce had other projects under way at the moment. But soon, he promised." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Lucinda had sighed. She had learned very quickly that the Edori had no concept of haste." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She supposed she would be older than her aunt Gretchen before Boyce finally escorted her to the university." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A small voice at the back of her head gave her a brief, chiding lecture: You have scarcely been here two weeks, and already you're bored and looking for entertainment, it said. You will have to learn how to amuse yourself better than this." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But then, the very next day, diversion arrived in a form she would never have dreamed possible." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She had been with Boyce and two young Jacobites who were friends of his, helping them go through some old history books Conran had found. Conran had wanted to know if the books had any value, if they should be shipped to the Augustine school, kept here, or thrown away, and he had suggested Lucinda be invited to help catalog them." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She couldn't imagine why, except she supposed her view of history was very different from the Jacobites'." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Obediently, she had spent most of the day with the other three, leafing idly through page after page of rather dry historical renderings, and listening to the other three talk about electronics. It had not been the most exciting afternoon of her life." }, { "from": "human", "value": "And then suddenly a young Jacobite woman burst into the room, flushed with excitement and important news." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Did you hear? They've found Tamar! They've just brought her to Conran's house.\"\n\n\"Who's Tamar?\" Boyce asked a second before Lucinda could voice the words, but the Jacobites were on their feet." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Where did they find her? How did she get here?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "one of them demanded.\n\n\"Tamar! Conran thought she was dead!\" the other said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No, she's here, she's fine. Although she hurt her head a few days ago, Reuben says, and she—\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Reuben/\" Lucinda and Boyce exclaimed in unison." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Now they, too, were on their feet, and all four of them had impatiently pushed aside their books." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Is Reuben back?\" Lucinda asked breathlessly, while Boyce said, \"How did she end up on The Wayward?\"\n\n\"I don't know the details, I just came up to tell you,\" the girl said, turning for the door." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The others came hurrying after her.\n\nThere was a small, agitated crowd outside of Conran's house, growing larger by the minute." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Whoever this Tamar was, she was certainly popular, Lucinda thought." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Not that she cared about missing Jacobite women returned from the grave. But if Reuben was back a whole week early, that was miraculous news indeed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He was there; she could pick out his tall, well-balanced body even from a distance, even in a pack of Edori." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She was so focused on him that for a moment she did not take in an even more astonishing sight: an angel, standing a little to one side of the main knot of people, explaining something to one of Conran's friends.\n\nWhat strange coincidence would bring two angels to the Jacobite stronghold of Sahala within two weeks of each other?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As she drew closer she was able to identify the angel, although she did not know him well: Jared, the leader of the host at Monteverde. She could think of no reason he would be here." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She increased her pace to a run (it was too short a distance to reasonably fly) and made it to the edge of the crowd before Boyce or the others." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Reuben saw her. He looked straight at her and held her eyes with a gaze that might have been speculation and might have been warning. In any case, it was not the expression of joyful welcome she expected, and it stopped her cold." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But then his face softened and he motioned her forward, and she gently pushed her way through the crowd to his side.\n\nBut when she arrived, he was not looking at her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Like everyone else, he was watching a painfully thin young woman who was improbably dressed in an exotic silver outfit and speking in a low voice to Conran. She had her back to the angel and so Lucinda could not see her face, and she looked inquiringly back at Reuben." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Mode:\nCo-writing\n\nLength:\n5 sentences\n\nStyle:\nSharon Shinn" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "If Conran had not taken her arm, Tamar knew, she would have fallen backward onto the hard stone of the walkway. Vertigo again; but this time caused by the shock of an unbelievable vision. That was her face, that angel' sface. That was the outline of her cheek and the color of her eyes. That was her very expression, stupefied and incredulous." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The angel put a hand to her mouth in a mirror image of Tamar's own gesture." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "No one spoke for what seemed like hours. Of all the people who could have stepped forward to offer explanations, it was the angel who first gathered her wits into a coherent sentence. \"So you did not die when our mother did,\" the angel said slowly. \"I wonder who it is, then, that they found in her arms that night.\"\n\nMore madness; the words made utterly no sense." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Perhaps she was dreaming again." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She had had such dark, fantastical dreams ever since that Jansai had struck her on the head at Azolay. They would come over her, waking or sleeping, and sometimes she had a hard time distinguishing nightmare from reality. That must be what was happening now.\n\nBut Conran was speaking. \"She knows nothing about that,\" he said sharply." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"She was never told who her mother was or that someone like you existed.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The angel spoke again in that same slow, marveling tone; she had a voice like liquid copper, molten and glinting. \"Well, I was told that she was dead. And all this time ...\" The angel stepped forward, hands outstretched; Tamar would have flinched backward, but Conran's body held her in place. \"Tamar?\" she asked. \"That's your name?\"\n\nTamar nodded. It was impossible to speak. She had heard this voice before, over and over, singing in her head." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The more the angel said, the more certain she was. \"I'm Lucinda. I'm your twin.\"\n\nEveryone had wanted to speak to Tamar at once, but she was so exhausted she could do no more than pass from figure to figure, submitting to brief, fierce hugs, and whispers of gladness. Tired as she was, she could not keep herself from doing a mental tally, noting who was present and who was not, and guessing from that who had fallen at the Jansai's hands. But maybe not. They must have thought she was dead, and here she was, weary but alive, coming face-to-face with her double in the most bizarre encounter imaginable." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Within minutes, Conran shooed everyone away." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Tomorrow, when she's rested,\" he said in that voice that was never countermanded. \"She'll talk to you all then. For now, let her regain her footing and have a moment or two of privacy.\"\n\nExcept it was not privacy, of course. Conran allowed three others to follow them into his house: the Edori Reuben and both angels. Tamar was so disoriented and dumbstruck that she still felt dizzy, and she was comforted when Jared took her hand as they walked through the narrow hallway." }, { "from": "human", "value": "In a few minutes they were all seated on dilapidated furniture set up in a small living room." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Lucinda, Tamar could not help noting, had gravitated toward the Edori. He had ensconced himself in a wide, battered armchair and she squeezed herself beside him, wrapping her wings around her shoulders so the edges trailed on the floor before her. It did not look at all comfortable, but the angel did not seem to mind.\n\nTamar seated herself at random on the edge of a plaid sofa. Jared at once pulled over a stool and settled beside her, shaking his wings out behind him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He immediately took her hand again." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Conran straddled a straight-backed chair and laid his arms along its top.\n\n\"First, I'd like to hear the story of what happened to you,\" he said, addressing Tamar. \"I went to Ileah. I knew you had gone there. When there was no sign of you or the others—\"\n\n\"I arrived a few days after the others, I suppose,\" she said. She was trying to keep her voice even, but to her own ears it sounded dreary and strained." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"The Jansai had arrived a day or so before me. There were twelve dead and one gravely injured. I buried the dead and nursed the living.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Who?\"\n\n\"Peter. He's still alive, I believe.\" She looked over at Jared, who had his eyes trained on the floor. \"This angel took him to Stockton to seek medical attention.\"\n\nConran, too, glanced at Jared but instantly returned his attention to Tamar. \"And then?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I moved on to Semorrah. And from there to a wealthy farm outside of Shepherd's Pass. Where I found Jared again.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Again she looked at the angel. This time he met her eyes, a faint smile on his lips. Well, at this exact moment she was not ready to go into all her dealings with him, all her fears and suspicions. \"He told me that Jansai were looking for us—you, me, Duncan, a few others—they had portraits that someone had drawn of us.\"\n\n\"Where did they get these portraits?\" Conran asked sharply." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She shrugged. \"From a Jacobite traitor, I suppose. I've been thinking about that. Zeke seems the most likely.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Zeke! What makes you think he's fallen into the Jansai's hands—or the angels'?\"\n\n\"He went with me to Breven,\" she said baldly. \"I watched him try to board an Edori ship. I watched him get taken by Jansai. If he wasn't killed outright, he probably found a way to buy his life. Zeke did not have much stomach for torture, you remember. And he was always a passable artist. He could have rendered our likenesses well enough.\"\n\n\"So Zeke—or someone—gave our pictures to the Archangel,\" Conran said evenly. \"And we all suddenly became much more at risk than we believed.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Tamar nodded tiredly. \"Jared told me I was one of the ones they were particularly looking for. I could not imagine why.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She glanced at Lucinda. \"Till I saw her. Bael must have realized who I was, although even I did not know.\"\n\nThe angel leaned forward. She had not, since they seated themselves, once taken her eyes from Tamar's face. \"What did they tell you, then,\" she asked, \"about your mother and your birth?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Tamar rubbed a hand across her forehead." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"That she and my father had been Jacobites, devoted to the cause. That they had both died in the raid that killed Jacob Fairman. I never learned many details, but somehow I had come to believe that one of them at least was a Manadavvi. I take it that wasn't true. I take it none of the stories were true.\"\n\n\"She was the daughter of an angel, and she lived in Cedar Hills,\" Lucinda said. \"She left the hold to join the Jacobites, but she was captured a few months before the raid that killed Fairman. My father-our father—was an angel at the hold, and he had always adored her. So I was told. While she was kept prisoner there they became lovers. And you and I were born.\"\n\n\"Twins. Angel and mortal,\" Jared said, speaking for the first time. \"It had never happened before. And has not happened since.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"They took me away from her instantly,\" Lucinda continued." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"One night, a few weeks after we were born, she managed to escape with you in her arms. But the night was bitterly cold, and she found no shelter. Two days later they found her dead at the side of the road, a dead baby in her arms.\" Lucinda took a deep breath. \"Apparently, however, the baby was not you.\"\n\nAll eyes in the room turned expectantly toward Conran. He looked astonished. \"What makes you think that I—\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Tell us,\" Tamar said shortly." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You have lied to me for twenty-eight years. I think I deserve to hear the true story of my life.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I told you what your mother wanted you to know,\" Conran replied.\n\n\"My mother is dead. Now tell me what I want to know.\" He nodded and spent a moment looking down at the floor, as if he was organizing his thoughts or remembering an old tragedy he had long since managed to forget. \"It was the coldest winter anyone could remember,\" he began, in the low, emphatic voice of the born storyteller. Everyone fell silent to listen. \"Even in southern Jordana, where the seasons are usually not so harsh, it was colder than a man could stand to be outside for longer than an hour. The Jacobites were still stricken from the loss of Jacob Fairman, and no one was sure what to do next. Most of us had scattered to the homes of friends and family members who were tolerant of our incendiary politics." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Elinor and I were staying in Luminaux in the house of her other brother's son." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"News came about Galena, one of the Jacobites, who was spending the winter at her sister's house near Cedar Hills. Her sister was some sort of domestic who was employed by the angels, and she had only begrudgingly taken Galena in because Galena was about to have a baby. Galena had written to Elinor asking if she could come when the baby was due, and now, during the worst winter of the century, it was her time.\n\n\"So Elinor and I traveled to Cedar Hills. But by the time we arrived on Galena's doorstep, tragedy had already come to visit." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The baby had been born amid much bleeding, strangling on its own cord, and unable to draw more than a single breath." }, { "from": "human", "value": "And this baby had nearly killed Galena in the process." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When we walked in the door, the sister began screaming, blaming us and our heresies for the baby's death and her sister's desperate condition. She ran from the sickroom and locked herself in her own bedchamber, and would not emerge to watch her sister die.\n\n\"Elinor and I turned to tending Galena, but we knew we had come too late. Within an hour Galena died in Elinor's arms. I was still ripping the mortuary cloths to use for wrapping the body when there was a furious clamor outside. Someone pounding at the door, someone crying to be let in. I ran to the door and threw it open, and on a frigid blast of air, in tumbled Rinalda.\"\n\nHe paused a moment, rubbing his hands together; he seemed, even in this close, warm house, to be suffering again from that freezing air and a chilling discovery. \"Elinor and I dragged her to the fire and began stripping her body of wet clothes. She did not have the strength to weep or speak, though we pelted her with questions." }, { "from": "human", "value": "We were stupefied to find, as we pulled back the sweater nearest her skin, an infant girl swaddled in rags and strapped to Rinalda's chest." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"The baby was rosy and warm, kept safe from the bitter air by the heat of the mother's body. We had heard, through Galena and her sister, that Rinalda had given birth to twin girls, one angel, one mortal. Elinor held the child in her arms and exclaimed, \"Rinalda, is this your baby girl?\" And Rinalda gathered up every last bit of strength she had and whispered back, \"Keep her safe. Guard her from all the angels. Never tell her who her father was or who I was. Never let her seek out those who have betrayed me—and will betray her. Never! Promise me this!\" Elinor protested, but I promised for both of us. Only a few hours after this Rinalda died.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Again, Conran paused; again he seemed to shiver from a remembered cold. \"We had other friends in Cedar Hills,\" he said slowly. \"While Elinor watched that baby, I ran out into the awful night to the house of a friend who had use of a horse and cart." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He and I took Rinalda and Galena's baby and threw their bodies into the back of that cart, and we drove as far from the lights of Cedar Hills as we could stand. And then we dumped those corpses on the side of the road, brutally unprotected from the malice of winter, and left them there for anyone to discover. And may I say that I have not, since I was a boy, believed in the existence of the god, but that night for the whole drive back to Cedar Hills, I prayed for those two wretched, abandoned souls.\n\n\"When I returned to Galena's sister's house, Elinor was gone. She had taken the baby to another friend and left Galena for me to prepare for burial." }, { "from": "human", "value": "This I did. It was while I was sorting through Rinalda's clothes one last time that I found a roll fifty gold coins sewn into a pocket." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I put them aside to give to her baby girl at a time that would seem appropriate.\n\n\"The next morning, when Galena's weeping sister finally emerged from her room, I told her that we had wrapped the dead baby in the dead woman's arms. I remember that she nodded and seemed pleased. \"Good. Galena will keep her warm,\" she said to me. I thought of that frozen body out on the Jorda:na highways, and said nothing." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Elinor and I stayed for the funeral and left for Luminaux as soon as we could, the purloined baby in our arms. It was two days before we thought to give the child a name. I wanted to choose something rebellious and wild, for Rinalda would never have given her daughter a traditional name culled from the Librera. But Elinor was adamant. \"We will call her Tamar,\" she said. \"For the Tamar of legend was also a seditious mortal born to angels." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It is a name that will serve her well.\" And Tamar she thereafter became.\"\n\nHe fell silent again, now reviewing a more recent history, and then he sighed. \"We did what we could for that baby,\" he said. He still had not raised his eyes to look at Tamar, or any of them. \"We gave her whatever love we had. We taught her the things we knew. We raised her on what we still believe is the truth. But it has been a hard life for her, as it has been for us, and I have wondered more than once what would have happened to her had Rinalda not stolen her away from her prison in Cedar Hills.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He sighed deeply and finally looked at his audience, glancing from face to face as if gauging how deeply each listener had been struck by the story." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Tamar herself was numb. Her head was pounding, her eyes felt oiled in acid; she could not move, she could scarcely think. She did not want to hear one more word of this terrible story.\n\n\"And I wonder,\" Conran said with a little more passion, \"why she picked that night of all nights to flee from Cedar Hills. Surely there had been other opportunities to run—or would be again. Why the night so cold that no one could survive it?\"\n\nA small voice spoke from the other side of the room." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Or at least the voice seemed small." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Perhaps Tamar's ears had merely shrank down. \"Because that was the night Bael chose to help her.\"\n\n\"What?\" That word was much closer, much louder, leaping from Jared's lips. \"Who told you that?\"\n\n\"My aunt Gretchen. She says she saw Bael sneak into my mother's chamber that night and usher her from the hold. She says Bael wanted her to die in the winter night. She says that's why she took me away from Cedar Hills.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Conran nodded soberly. \"It is about what I would expect of him, to murder a helpless girl in a cruel and clever way. And it makes me glad to think that we have fooled him all these years by keeping Tamar alive and whole. Would that we could have saved a hundred more just like her.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Tamar shut her eyes." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She could not keep the room in focus; Conran spoke awhile longer but none of his words registered. She heard various voices call out her name but she did not have the strength to respond. Her head expanded and contracted with a slow, painful rhythm, and all she wanted to do was sleep.\n\n\"There's a room upstairs,\" Conran said, and suddenly she was swept up in someone's arms—Jared's, she knew, for she had become quite familiar with the feel of his arms around her. He climbed a short stairway and within minutes had laid her on a narrow bed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She had a confused impression of shapes and shadows around her, and she caught fragments of whispered consultations. \"Let me stay with her,\" a woman said, and a man protested. Tamar did not care if all of them camped out on the floor or abandoned this room, this house, this village utterly. She turned to her side, and she slept.\n\nDreaming again. Or perhaps not." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was hard to tell sleep from reality, nightmare from memory." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Light and dark fenced and feinted, gleaming thrust and parry; figures bulged into menace, then melted into sweet brilliance." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "More than once, someone held fiery liquid to her mouth, and she drank, spilling droplets down her cheek and into her collar. When she cried out in her sleep, someone was instantly at her side, cool hand on her forehead, low voice chasing away terror. She never saw this person's face, but she was not sure; it could have been a parade of people, dozens of hands, or it could have been the disembodied spirits of her imagination.\n\nOnce in a while she was sure she woke, fevered but lucid, and then she opened her eyes. Somewhere in the room there was a low, electric light that threw all the shapes into unwavering relief: the tall dresser, the cracked cheval mirror, the straight-backed chair placed a few feet from her bed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Every time she woke, she felt a moment's surge of panic, a desperate sense of desolation, till she looked over at that chair and saw the familiar sight: angel wings draped across a sleeping body, white feathers drifting across the floor." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Only then did the fear subside, only then could she sleep again.\n\nAnd has it come to this? she thought crossly during one of those brief clearheaded periods. That I cannot sleep without an angel by my side? But these past few days she had grown so dependent on Jared's strength that now she could not sleep unless he was there to guard her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She woke; she craned her neck till she could catch a glimpse of those sleek wings; and then she slept again." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was morning before she woke again to the instant sensation of health. Her body felt light, hollowed out but clean, no longer harboring pain or the mysterious clouds of the brain. She shifted position under the bunched sheets, testing the resilience of her muscles, and the bed creaked beneath her weight. She heard the angel in the nearby chair rustle to his feet. She pushed herself to a seated position and turned to smile at him ruefully." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But it was not Jared who stood there watching her, half hopeful and half afraid; it was not Jared whose presence had calmed her in the night and watched over her fretful dreaming." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Tamar stared unsmilingly at Lucinda, and her sister stared back." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The mortal woman was the first to speak. \"Was it you here all night?\" she asked in a neutral voice.\n\nLucinda did not come a step nearer; she appeared to be waiting for an invitation. She twisted an emerald ring on her finger as if she could not check the nervous gesture." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"All night,\" she said, \"though the others came by often to check on you. Jared came to the door almost every hour. He was extremely worried.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Jared. And there was a problem she would have to consider very soon, for how had it happened that he had become so essential to her peace of mind, so necessary to her happiness, that his was the first face she looked for when she woke? \"I think I feel better,\" she said cautiously. \"Someone gave me some medicine.\"\n\n\"Conran. He thought it would help you. Jared says you were hit on the head.\"\n\n\"Well, I've been hit on the head before and it never knocked me senseless for five days,\" Tamar said irritably." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Lucinda smiled, then tried to hide it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Tamar studied the face so like her own, truer than a mirror image. Of course the hair was not a ghastly shade of half-dyed brown, as hers was, and the eyes were not shadowed with a week of delirium, but it was her nose, her chin, her own hesitant, questioning expression. \"I don't like angels, you know,\" she offered. \"None of us do. I have been taught that they are the source of all the wretchedness in the world.\"\n\nLucinda allowed her smile to grow, and she came two steps closer to the bed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Well, I wish I could say that I've heard only dreadful things about the Jacobites, but to tell you the truth, I never heard much about them on Angel Rock. So I have no long-standing prejudice against you.\"\n\n\"I still cannot quite believe it,\" Tamar said. \"No one ever told me I had a sister.\"\n\n\"They told me you were dead,\" Lucinda said earnestly. She had gathered the courage to push her chair closer to the bed, and now she sat beside the invalid." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I used to ask my aunt Gretchen to tell me the story over and over again, till finally she refused to repeat it one more time. I think I was always hoping it would have a different ending. Not until last night did my hopes come true.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I can hear you, you know,\" Tamar said abruptly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Singing. And I can feel you flying. At first it frightened me, it made me dizzy, and I didn't know what was happening. But after a while I grew to like it even when I didn't know what it was. Then Jared took me into his arms and flew across the river, and I recognized the sensation. Flying. I must have felt it every time you took wing.\"\n\n\"I think I have been having your dreams,\" Lucinda said in a quiet voice. \"Dark and violent, full of despair and bloodshed.\n\nI would wake sad and wondering in the middle of the night.\"\n\n\"Some of them were not dreams,\" Tamar said.\n\nLucinda nodded. \"That's what I was afraid of. That makes it even worse. But how could this be? I never dreamed of you before.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Not until the Gloria,\" Tamar said. \"That's when I had the Kiss installed in my arm. I hoped it would make me invisible to the Jansai, which it did not. All it did was make me dizzy with your flying and put your singing inside my head.\"\n\n\"My singing? Surely you could not hear my voice.\"\n\n\"Oh yes, I could,\" Tamar said. \"Things without words. One song over and over again.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "And she hummed the first few bars of the music she had been hearing for the past two months." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Lucinda grew very still.\n\n\"That's impossible,\" the angel whispered. \"No one knows that melody but me.\"\n\n\"And the descant,\" Tamar added, and hummed a few notes of that for good measure. Lucinda appeared almost stricken." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I believe you,\" she said, still in that low, amazed voice. \"But I do not see how it can be so.\"\n\n\"The first time I heard you was the morning of the Gloria,\" Tamar said. \"I was standing on the streets of Breven and your voice came from some transmitter, broadcast all the way from the Plain of Sharon. I couldn't move. I couldn't think. My Kiss actually ached in my arm. I thought it was because I had only had it installed the night before. But it must have been responding to the sound of your voice.\"\n\nLucinda was shaking her head as if shaking away the doubt, and when she spoke, there was the barest teasing edge to her voice." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"And does that make you more likely to believe in the existence of Jovah, that he could make your Kiss respond to the sound of your sister's singing?\"\n\n\"It makes me more convinced of the existence of the computer Jehovah,\" Tamar retorted, \"for only a machine could track the lives of separated siblings.\"\n\nLucinda laughed aloud, a sound both rare and familiar to Tamar; so, too, did she laugh, on the infrequent occasions when she had cause. \"You Jacobites have an answer for everything, as I have been learning,\" she said gaily. \"But it will take more than a little plausible scientific theory to make me discard my god.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Tamar smiled back. \"I am willing to try to convert you,\" she said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I am willing to tell you all about the life of a Jacobite—and then I suppose I must ask you to tell me all about the life of an angel.\"\n\nLucinda's smile faded, and she grew instantly sober. She gazed at her sister with a serious, intent expression. \"I am afraid of you, a little,\" she said in a quiet voice. \"Because your life has been so hard, and my life has been so easy. Because you have no reason to trust me or Jared or any of us. And because I want you to like us—to like me. I have only known you for one day and already I am afraid to lose you. You have no reason not to walk away from us, from me, and I don't know how to make you stay. I don't know how to tell you how much it means to me to have found you—after all this tragedy, after all this time.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Tamar was not in the habit of adopting strangers; she was not used to making room for newcomers in her heart." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But this woman, this stranger ... All Tamar's habitual wariness deserted her. All her defenses undid themselves of their own accord.\n\ndon't know that I could leave you behind even if I wanted to,\" she replied slowly. \"Even if I crushed this Kiss in my arm, I think I would still hear your voice. I have become attuned to you. Jehovah woke the bond, but I think it is a bond past breaking. I am afraid, too, but not of losing you. I am afraid of what it means to have found you.\"\n\nLucinda flowed to her feet and threw her arms around her sister." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Neither was Tamar used to indiscriminate hugs from chance-met acquaintances, but she did not draw back." }, { "from": "human", "value": "This felt familiar, this felt right." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Even when those delicate wings came curving around her shoulders, wrapping her in a texture that was half lace and half sinew, she did not pull away. It was as if she was embraced by her own soul, insubstantial but indestructible.\n\nShe felt her bones give up their accustomed fight and her blood go dancing backward in her veins.\n\nThe sisters talked without pause for the next two hours. It was not until a voice outside the door offered the enticement of food that they were willing to allow a third party to disturb their long reminiscing." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They had been right to keep the door closed long, Tamar thought with disfavor as the room was suddenly filled with an army of well-wishers: not only Conran and Jared." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "but Reuben and what must be half the Jacobites living in Sahala. Two of them swept her off the bed into energetic embraces, then began to interrogate her about the details of her last three months. Tamar sighed, smiled, and submitted.\n\nShe caught Jared's eyes on her from across the room, but could do no more than nod when he raised his eyebrows at her in a questioning look. Yes; much better. To prove it, she ate more food than she had managed in the past forty-eight hour's, and for the first time in twice as long did not feel nauseated when she had finished her meal." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Some wonder drug in Conran's potion, but that was hardly a surprise." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "If there were such a medicine available, Conran would know about it and have some at his disposal. Conran knew everything.\n\nExcept the location of the Alleluia Files. None of them knew that.\n\nIt was another hour before Tamar was able to convince them all to leave the room so she could bathe and dress herself. Of course, no one left until Conran ordered a general exodus, and even then two or three of the Jacobite women were indignant to learn that he had included them in the general retreat." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The two angels also left the room, both with regretful backward glances, and Tamar luxuriated in the first solitude she had known for what seemed like months." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But she was back among her people, ready to take up the fight again. She cleaned herself and put on fresh clothes and rejoined them, feeling lighthearted and happy as she had not felt since she left Luminaux for Ileah.\n\nThe instant she descended the steps she was caught up in their fervor again. \"Tamar, Duncan says the Edori engineers have found a way to communicate over long distances with a simple transmitter device. It works over a thousand miles, can you imagine? ... Tamar, Horace says there is a merchant in Semorrah who is sympathetic to the cause. Christian Avalone, have you heard of him? They say he is a very powerful ally.\"\n\n\"Tamar, how many were killed at Ileah? Jani wants to record the flames.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "This was the community she remembered, urgent and speculative and knocked about by dreams." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Whatever kindness she had been shown by well-meaning strangers in Jordana, in Semorrah, in Bethel, these were the only friends she could remember." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She answered their rapid-fire questions when she knew the answers and shot back questions of her own when she did not; she laughed when the remarks were outrageous and grew sad when the news was grim. She knew the cadence of every voice and the history of every last soul, and she rejoiced to be among them again.\n\nBut as she talked with one eager group and waved to another, her attention was caught by a still, waiting figure in the back corner of Conran's living room. It was Jared. He watched her without intruding, without reaching out a hand to separate her from her comrades, without questioning their doctrine or railing against their heresy. And she thought, almost at the same time, He has returned me, against his deepest principles, to the circle of my friends and I would leave them all for him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "And the thought made her shudder and turn away from him, because she could no longer withstand his grave and searching look, and she did not want to go to him before all her friends and take his hand in hers." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Not until late that evening did Tamar have a chance to speak to Jared privately." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As she had expected, Conran had turned her homecoming into an occasion for a celebration, and so the whole Jacobite population of the village turned out that evening for a bonfire. Horace had gone hunting with some of the Edori and brought back two deer and the carcass of an unidentified beast whose cooked flesh tasted much like rabbit. These were roasted over the fire (\"specifically,\" Tamar overheard someone say, \"so that half will be burned and half will be raw and the whole will be inedible\"). The meat was supplemented with a marvelous array of fruits, potatoes, breads, and sweets, and Tamar ate to the point of pain. Some of the food was wholly unfamiliar to her—raised, she supposed, in this strange and fertile terrain." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It all tasted wonderful.\n\nAs darkness fell and spirits rose Tamar was able to slip from the close attention of her Jacobite friends. Over on one end of the campground, Conran was telling stories by the magical yellow light of the fire; a few yards away, others were standing in a group, gossiping. It was not hard to spot the angels, their wings making distinctive silhouettes and menacing shadows against the uneven illumination of the fire.\n\n\"So odd,\" Jared was saying to Lucinda as Tamar strolled over." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"At any other gathering I've ever been to, this would be the point at which someone would come up to me and ask for the favor of a song.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Yes! I was just thinking that!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Lucinda exclaimed. \"Even on Angel Rock, everyone considered it such a treat to hear angels sing.\"\n\nJared laughed softly. \"Well,\" he said, \"I think we must concede that we are out of favor here.\"\n\n\"Not entirely true,\" Tamar said, and they both turned to welcome her. \"They are pleased to have me back among them, and they thank you for that. But no one really knows what you want with the Jacobites or how long you plan on staying.\"\n\n\"That's a question I've pondered myself,\" Lucinda said with a sigh." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Not that everyone hasn't been extremely kind to me but I cannot hide in Sahala the rest of my life. And I doubt that the Jacobites would want me.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"They probably don't want me, either, but I'm staying,\" Jared said. \"I came here to learn about the Alleluia Files, and I'm not leaving until I learn where they are and what they say.\"\n\nTamar laughed. \"Nobody knows that,\" she said.\n\n\"Then I suppose I'll be staying for a very long time.\"\n\nTamar laughed again, but Lucinda's attention had wandered." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"There's Reuben,\" she said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'll catch up with you two later.\"\n\n\"Edori angelico,\" Tamar murmured, for they had had time, in that long afternoon discussion, to cover such topics of interest as handsome angels and Edori lovers. Lucinda appeared ~finstered, then she laughed, and then she slipped away.\n\n\"Well, she seems happy,\" Jared said.\n\nTamar looked at him curiously by the shifting light." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"How well do you know her?\" she asked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He shrugged. \"I'd only met her a couple of times till this week. She lived a very sequestered life, as she may have told you—\"\n\n\"Yes, on Angel Rock.\"\n\n\"In fact, until she came to the Gloria, I'd never met her or heard her story. Why?\"\n\n\"I just wondered. If you'd known Lucinda, it seems you should have recognized me immediately. Reuben did.\"\n\n\"Reuben appears to have known Lucinda much better than I did,\" Jared replied dryly." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"And Bael must have memorized her features as well, for he seems to have instantly connected the two of you once he saw your portrait.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"That still makes no sense to me,\" she said, shaking her head." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Even the fact that I am Rinalda's daughter—Lucinda's twin—makes me no more dangerous to Bael than any other Jacobite. I cannot imagine why he would want to hunt me down.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'm sure he has his reasons,\" Jared said with a smile. \"I'll ask him next time I see him.\"\n\nTamar smiled, but quickly grew serious again. She said, with some difficulty, for she was not trained in gratitude, \"I never got a chance to thank you.\"\n\n\"For what?\" Jared said flippantly." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"For hounding you all over Samaria and stealing you from your home?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"For saving me from death at the hands of Jansai,\" she said soberly. \"Or the hands of Bael\"\n\n\"It was self-interest, of course,\" he said. \"I thought the Jacobites would be more pleased to see me if I had you in my arms.\"\n\nShe was irrationally disappointed; she felt all that splendid food turn to spiky granite in her stomach." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Well,\" she said shortly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You did save my life. And I appreciate it.\"\n\nShe turned away, back to the fire, back to her friends, but Jared stopped her with a hand on her arm. \"I was only joking,\" he said quietly. \"Had I arrived a minute later—too late to save you—I don't know what I would have done to those Jansai. Called down lightning bolts, I think, that would have burned all of Azolay to ashes. I don't remember the last time I've been so frightened. I suppose I've never before seen someone I cared about in danger.\"\n\nBut that was worse; now the stone in her stomach had erupted into flames." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She felt heat rise in the unlikeliest places, up her elbows, across her brow." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Well,\" she said, and she could hear that her voice" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "was grooved with panic. \"Well, I don't suppose, I guess the Jansai don't usually go around attacking your friends. You wouldn't have those kinds of friends, I mean.\"\n\nNow he was smiling, and even by this light she could see the mischief in his face. \"Jacobite angelica,\" he murmured. \"You do know that, in some quarters, I am considered the odds-on favorite to be the next Archangel?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I can think of no one more ill-suited,\" she snapped, and he laughed out loud." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"No, neither can I,\" he agreed. \"But the field of candidates is woefully thin.\"\n\nThe dangerous moment seemed to have passed. Tamar was both relieved and sorry. \"Won't your friends miss you if you stay too long in Ysral?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "she asked. \"Won't they wonder where you've gone?\"\n\n\"Some of them know. Most of them wouldn't worry, I have a reputation for being a little irresponsible, you know. A little undependable.\"\n\n\"Oh, yes, an excellent Archangel,\" she murmured.\n\n\"So, anyway, no one guards my whereabouts too closely, and people are quite resigned to doing without my valuable presence. Even at Monteverde, where I am supposed to be in charge of everything, my mother and my sister have accustomed themselves to taking over my tasks. I don't think anyone will miss me.\"\n\nShe tilted her head to one side and regarded him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"So what do you care about?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "she asked. \"You blithely abandon your duties at your own hold, and it's obvious you don't want to be Archangel, and apparently nothing can keep your attention for more than a day or two. Don't you have any passions? Any convictions? Anything you would risk your life for?\"\n\n\"You said that to me once,\" he said suddenly. \"In Ileah.\"\n\n\"Did I? I don't remember.\"\n\n\"I'm not sure I know too many people who would risk their lives—for anything,\" he said.\n\nShe gestured broadly with both hands." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Everyone at this campfire tonight,\" she said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"For their ideals. For the chance to express their beliefs. For their friends. All of us would hazard our lives—all of us have already done so. I don't think you can truly say you've lived until you know what you'd die for,\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You're too young to talk about dying a martyr.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"And you're too old not to have found a cause,\"\n\nHe smiled a little bitterly. \"Why is it that every time I talk to you, I end up feeling like a wastrel and a rogue? Most people like me, you know. I wish you did.\"\n\n\"I do,\" she said quickly, too quickly. She liked him too much, and that was a tendre that would come to no good." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Jacobite angelica, indeed. \"And I did not come here to censure you. I came to thank you for saving my life.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He nodded majestically. \"It was an honor,\" he said, his voice grave. \"I would say that I would gladly do so again, except that I would not gladly see you in danger again. But you worry me. You do not seem like the kind of woman who sees much value in keeping herself safe.\"\n\n\"I am cautious enough most of the time,\" she said. \"You don't need to be anxious on my account.\"\n\nHe smiled again but looked wholly unconvinced." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Something tells me,\" he said, \"that I shall live to see you made a liar.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She laughed. \"Then I hope you will be with me,\" she said, \"so you can rescue me from my folly.\"\n\n\"So do I,\" he said, not laughing at all. She could not hear the words he added under his breath, but she thought they were, \"And I plan to be.\"\n\nEven if she had had an answer to that (which she did not), she had no chance to make it. A group of Jacobites suddenly swirled around her, enveloping both Tamar and Jared in an enthusiastic eddy." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Back to Conran's—he's got some Edori wine!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "someone called out as the crowd swept by, and Tamar allowed herself to be caught up in the general merriment.\n\nThere were too many of them to fit comfortably into Conran's small parlor, but they managed it anyway, women perching on men's laps, children sitting cross-legged on the floor, a few restless souls lurking in the doorway or pacing back and forth between the kitchen and the living room. Tamar found herself wedged into an oversized armchair next to Jani, with Horace balancing himself on the padded arm. He had one hand braced against the wall, one arm wrapped around her shoulders.\n\n\"So when do we go back to Samaria?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "someone asked, and everyone in the room raised their glasses to toast that venture." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Can't stay here the rest of our lives like whining dogs run out of the house,\" someone else called out." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Our place is in Samaria. That's where our mission is.\"\n\n\"Yes, but if we all die trying to accomplish this mission, who's left to tell the truth about Jehovah?\" Conran asked reasonably. \"Everyone in this room has had a narrow escape from death in the past three months. Shouldn't we wait till the furor dies down?\"\n\nThere was a general outcry at that, most of it vehemently opposed. \"I say, let's go right back at them!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Duncan said very loudly, and half a dozen of the other young hotheads cheered." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Head straight to Breven and take out a few Jansai to pay them back for the Jacobites they've murdered.\"\n\n\"I'm on the first boat back!\" Horace cried, jumping to his feet. On the instant ten more followed suit.\n\nConran stood patient and inflexible at the front of the room and waited for the uproar to calm down." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Go to Breven. and most certainly it will not be the Jansai who end up dead,\" he said when the noise had faded enough for him to be heard." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I say again, why not wait? I am not talking forever, you understand, but a few months, less than a year—\"\n\n\"Why wait?\" a woman called out, and a few others echoed her. \"Wait for what?\" someone else asked.\n\n\"Wait till the next Gloria, perhaps,\" Conran said. \"When the new Archangel is chosen.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"The Archangel—\" Twenty voices spoke in stupefied unison." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Why do we care who the Archangel is?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Jani wanted to know." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Because we don't know who the Archangel will be,\" Conran said calmly. \"And it may be someone who is—not favorable toward us, perhaps, but more tolerant. More open-minded. Someone who might rein in the Jansai and allow us to live in peace. Is not that a possibility that merits the wait of a few unimportant months, mikele? Is it not?\"\n\nAs always, his use of an Edori word (this one meaning \"children\" or \"young boys\") brought a rippling laugh from his fellow Jacobites. \"But what shall we do in Ysral for nine months or more?\" someone demanded. \"Farm? Raise cattle? I don't think so!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"And why not?\" Conran said. \"Are you too good to work with your hands, doing honest labor?\"\n\n\"I would rather carry the truth to the unbelievers than dig holes in the ground for corn to grow, yes!\"\n\n\"Well, whether you are preaching or whether you are merely biding your time, you have to eat, so you will work and I will work and everyone in this room will work, and I don't want to hear a single word of complaint from any of you.\"\n\nThat would shut them up for a minute, Tamar thought with a private smile, but of course it didn't." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Duncan flung out a new question almost before the words were out of Conran's mouth." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Tamar let her attention stray as she looked around the room. Again, against her will, she was counting heads and tallying up the losses. She could not entirely sympathize with the fanatics who were so eager to rush back to Samaria and engage in a hand-to-hand struggle with death. She would not mind a few weeks, or a few months, to recover from her own encounters with that dark and powerful warrior.\n\nHer eyes wandered to Jared, who was leaning against one wall with his wings held as compactly to his body as possible." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She wondered what he thought of all this, if he secretly despised the passionate but aimless Jacobites, if he envied them for their conviction—or if, as she had thought long ago, he was really here as a spy and a traitor, and was even now gathering evidence against them.\n\nBut she did not believe that. It could not be true. Even if her own heart could not be trusted, Conran was not a man easily deceived, and Conran seemed to have no quarrel with the angel. It was a small comfort, but she would take whatever portion she was served." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Talk had turned now, as it always did, to the elusive object of their obsessive quest." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"But what of the Alleluia Files?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "a woman asked, and again the crowd was unanimous in its murmuring response. \"Yes, we must keep looking.\"\n\n\"Dawn had no luck breaching Mount Sinai, did she? I thought not.\"\n\n\"But if they are really at the angel holds, as we all believe, how shall we find them? I don't think there is a disguise good enough to get one of us into the Eyrie.\"\n\n\"The Alleluia Files are not in the Eyrie,\" Jared said, speaking for the first time and drawing every eye." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Most of the Jacobites viewed him with mistrust, Tamar saw, and a few watched him with actual dislike.\n\n\"And may I ask how you come by this information?\" Duncan asked with sarcastic politeness.\n\nJared shrugged so slightly that his wings barely shifted. \"I looked for them,\" he said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"In the music rooms and the archives of the hold. I also searched for them at Monteverde. It's possible that I overlooked them somewhere, but the holds seem like unlikely hiding places, anyway.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"And where would you have stored them, if they had been yours to hide?\" Horace asked.\n\nJared regarded him coolly across the room. He might be accustomed only to open-armed welcomes, as he had told Tamar earlier, but he was not in the least cowed by snarling hostility.\n\n\"If I was the oracle, I would most likely have secreted them in Mount Sinai,\" the angel replied. \"I take it you've looked there and been unsuccessful?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"We've never gotten past the outer rooms,\" Conran said briefly. \"Dawn tried to gain admittance to the inner chambers a few months back but was not able to manage it.\"\n\n\"We need a young girl we can offer as an acolyte,\" Jani said. \"Or a young boy. One who can be sent to the oracles to be trained at Mount Sinai or Mount Egypt or Mount Sudan. Then we will have a sympathizer at the very heart of Samarian society. We will learn all the 'holy' secrets—and we will find the Alleluia Files, if they are there.\"\n\n\"Not a bad plan,\" Jared said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"But most of the acolytes are chosen from the gentry. How would you pass off one of your Jacobite children as a Manadavvi daughter or a river merchant's heir?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"We will think of a way,\" Jani said, raising her chin defiantly. \"And without the help of the angels.\"\n\nJared laughed at her. \"Lest you forget,\" he said, \"your precious Alleluia was an angel, too.\"\n\nJani looked angry enough to toss back an unforgivable insult, but Conran intervened before she could speak." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Manners, mikele, manners,\" he said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"If you would be better than the allali, you must start with your behavior. Besides, this angel has been a friend to us. Why would you want to abuse him?\"\n\n\"I'll see his friendship proved,\" Horace muttered, but no one else dared to offer a retort.\n\n\"Back to the files,\" said someone in the back of the room. Tamar thought it was Wyman. \"What if they're not at Mount Sinai or one of the other sanctuaries? What then? We must have an alternate plan. We must look in every possible hiding place.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I agree,\" said Conran, but before he could continue, voices called out from around the room. \"The ruins of the Augustine school! ... Luminaux! ... Hagar's Tooth! ... Semorrah! Well, why not? You can buy anything else you want there.\" \"The Plain of Sharon.\" \"Breven—it's the last place anyone would look.\"\n\nConran held up his hand for order." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Chahiela, my friends! Chahiela! If anyone is to be heard, everyone else should be silent.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Tamar was as startled as everyone else to see Jared practically jump away from the wall. His wings swept back and he looked somehow taller, suddenly imposing. Actually, it was not at all difficult to see why some might want to name him Archangel.\n\n\"What did you just say?\" he demanded of Conran." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The Jacobite leader lifted his eyebrow." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"In the Edori tongue, I called for silence,\" he said. \"I did not mean to be so rude as to exclude you from the conversation.\"\n\nJared shook his head impatiently. \"No, no, not rude ... The word you used—'chahiela'? Isn't that a place, as well as an Edori expression?\"\n\nConran nodded. \"Yes, it is a town on the very southern tip of Bethel. It was founded, oh, a century or so ago, as a school for the blind and the deaf.\" He smiled." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"That is why it was named Chahiela. After the Edori word for silence.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Jared stood with his chin tilted slightly toward the ceiling, in a pose that made the skin tighten across his cheeks. Tamar was sure his stance looked like arrogance to some, but to her it looked like he was merely trying to contain excitement. Mystified as the others, she sat up straighter in her chair.\n\n\"Chahiela is where the oracle Jecoliah was raised,\" the angel said slowly. \"She told me so herself. She is nearly blind and she was sent to that school to receive an education.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Doesn't sound like she was the child of a Manadavvi lord ling,\" Jani said with a little sniff." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Jared nodded absently. \"You're right. She wasn't. And neither was the oracle before her, who was named Deborah—who also came from Chahiela. Or the oracle before her—who was born in Chahiela, at the school her mother founded.\"\n\n\"But the oracle before Deborah—\" someone said, and there was a long, strained silence, as all the untutored Jacobites struggled to recall their sketchy history lessons.\n\nConran was the one who remembered it first. \"Was Alleluia,\" he said.\n\nAfter that, there was not enough chahiela for anyone to speak more than two sentences together before someone else interrupted." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Almost before Jared could finish his next sentence (\"Where better to hide something you wanted no one to find than in a place where no one can see?\") there was a babble of voices raised in speculation and excitement. Tamar felt it, too that curious melting flutter at the center of her abdomen, but it her case it was augmented by equal parts wonder, pride, and fear. The angel is my friend, I brought him here, she wanted to say, shaking her finger in the faces of all those who doubted him; but in fact she did not move a muscle. He might not be correct, of course, though his solution had that seamless ring of rightness that you would sometimes get when you filled together two broken pieces of china after trying for half an hour to get the edges to match." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Right or wrong, in any case, his was a better idea than any they had come up with in the past years, and she felt rosy with his reflected glory." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But she was afraid, too." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Afraid because, before the first person in the room yelled out the words, she knew what the next motion would be for: an immediate visit to Chahiela to look for the hidden files. Back to Samaria, back to the haunts of the angel and the lairs of the Jansai. And there was no way she could stay behind if all of her comrades were going.\n\n\"When can we set sail?\" Duncan was saying. \"Tomorro, Is there a ship in port?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"The Wayward,\" someone replied." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"But it will only hold about ten of us.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Ten is all we need.\"\n\n\"And who will volunteer to stay behind? Not me! We need a ship big enough to carry all of us.\"\n\n\"We need no such thing,\" Conran said firmly enough to get everyone's attention. \"I agree, we must get to Chahiela quickly as possible, but there is no need to be stupid about it. Some of us must be left behind in case this mission somehow goes awry. Ten is plenty. Ten is more than enough.\"\n\n\"Who will go? Shall we have a lottery?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"We shall choose based on need,\" Conran said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You need fighting men,\" Duncan said instantly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"So you must have me.\"\n\n\"And me,\" Horace chimed in.\n\n\"What we must have is a translator,\" Conran said. \"Because the oracles use the old language to communicate with Jehovah. And there's no reason Alleluia would not have made her memoirs hard to decipher if she would make them hard to find.\"\n\n\"Does anyone in your group know the old language?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Jared asked. \"I thought only the oracles were taught it.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Many of the Augustine engineers have learned it so that they can read manuals printed in that text,\" Conran said. \"A few of the Jacobites have also learned it, but most of them are dead. I myself could never master the words. At the moment there is only one linguist among us.\"\n\nSomehow he had guessed, for Jared looked straight at the Jacobite he had rescued from certain death. \"Who is it?\" he asked.\n\n\"Tamar.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She met the angel's eyes as if that was the hardest thing she had ever done, as if his gaze had a weight and a pressure that she could not lift with all the strength in her body. If he only knew how much she wanted to recuperate here in Sahala, give up her place on that Edori boat, frolic here in the forgiving Ysral sunshine and let her mind graze absently over unimportant things. But. She was a Jacobite and this was the grail Jacobites had sought since before she was born. If it was within their grasp and only she had the key to decoding it, there was simply no choice.\n\n\"When do we sail?\" she asked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Jared was shaking his head." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He was still staring at her as if there was no one else in the room, no one else in the world.\n\n\"She can't go,\" he said.\n\nConran looked over at him in mild shock. \"And why not?\"\n\n\"She just barely escaped from Samaria a few days ago! And she was half-dead then! Her picture is in the hands of every Jansai on the continent—\"\n\n\"So is mine, so is Duncan's, so are the faces of half the people in this room,\" Conran said dismissively." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Tamar is in no more danger than the rest of us. And if she is too sick to leave tomorrow, well, then we will wait until she is recovered. A week or more will not hurt us when we have waited decades.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"She can't go,\" Jared said flatly.\n\nConran laughed at him. \"I don't know that you have too much to say about it,\" he said genially.\n\n\"I have a lot to say about it.\"\n\n\"I mean, that will do any good,\" Conran added gently." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Someone laughed, and then everyone was talking at once." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "No one paid attention anymore to the angel or Conran, still arguing over the rising tumult of voices—and they scarcely paid attention to each other, either, so eager were they to share their own opinions and excitement. Chahiela! But of course! They should have thought of that before, but it didn't matter now. The Alleluia Files were within their grasp, they were days away from hearing the words that would validate their lives and change the whole face of Samaria.\n\nTamar remembered similar times, similar epiphanies, when they had thought they had uncovered the miracle and then found that all their speculations were wrong." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But that had not stopped them from trying, from hoping, from believing." }, { "from": "human", "value": "And if they were wrong this time, so be it; that would not end their quest or make them lose their faith." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Till we find the Alleluia Files. That had been their credo for so long that it was their only absolute. Nothing would keep them from Chahiela now—not angels, not Jansai, not Jovah himself, should he manifest himself before them at this very moment and claim to be a deity after all.\n\nBut Tamar was afraid to go. And although nothing—certainly not this furious angel even now engaged in a shouting match with the unyielding Conran—nothing would prevent her from boarding that ship whatever day they decided to sail, she could not shake off a cold sense of prescient dread." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Whatever awaited them in Chahiela, she thought, would change them forever, unless it destroyed them utterly. And though she tried to join in the revelry of her ecstatic friends, she could not shake that conviction from her heart, and she could not truly rejoice.\n\nTamar successfully avoided Jared that night and the next day, but there was one angel she was anxious to say good-bye to before The Wayward sailed. Conran had met with the ship's captain (Mario? Tamar could not quite remember, but then, she had been hallucinating for most of her voyage on that vessel)." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They had determined not only that the Edori captain was willing to make the trip but that he could accommodate eight Jacobites as passengers." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Nine if Reuben agrees to stay behind,\" the captain had said with a smile. \"And something tells me he'll be more than willing.\"\n\nThere was no tree port at Chahiela, but there was a natural harbor not far from the town that smugglers and Edori and most ship captains in dire need knew how to find. The Wayward would drop anchor there, and the Jacobites would be able to find their way to Chahiela in a matter of hours.\n\nConran had chosen the seven Jacobites who would accompany him on this mission and high-handedly refused to listen to the petitions of those who would be left behind." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Besides Tamar, he had selected Duncan, Horace, and Jani, as well as an eighteen-year-old girl named Loa and two young men named Sal and Wyman." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was clear to everyone that, except for himself, chosen for seniority, and Tamar, chosen for special abilities, his criteria had been health, strength, swiftness, and skill." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "If they really were overtaken by the Jansai, he wanted to give his little band a fighting chance.\n\nAs the captain had expected, Reuben had readily agreed to yield his place to a Jacobite passenger, but that ninth slot had been ferociously bespoken by Jared, and Conran had reluctantly ceded him the honor. Tamar's reaction to the news of Jared's inclusion was beginning to feel familiar: a mixture of elation, terror, and dread. In such cramped quarters, it would be hard to avoid the angel entirely, and she did not particularly want to hear what he had to say about the folly of young women who continually exposed themselves to danger.\n\nOn the other hand, it was hard to imagine returning to Samaria without him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Going anywhere without him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Existing with out him. But of course, that day would come.\n\nAnd she was finding it harder than she had imagined to leave another angel behind.\n\n\"But I have only just found you!\" Lucinda wailed when she heard the news." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was the morning after the fateful meeting, and the Jacobites were engaged in a frenzy of packing." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Can't you stay behind? Can't someone else translate these stupid files?\"\n\n\"Maybe. Maybe not. Not if they're in the old tongue.\"\n\n\"I can't bear to have you leave so soon.\"\n\n\"I'll come back as soon as I can. I promise.\"\n\nLucinda sighed and tried to shake away her blues." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I feel like I should give you a talisman for luck,\" she said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I don't have—I know! My necklace. The perfect thing.\"\n\n\"I don't need any good-luck charms,\" Tamar said, but the angel had already leapt up and crossed the room. They were sitting in her bedchamber in the Edori house (Tamar thought Jared was less likely to find her there), so all Lucinda's possessions were close at hand.\n\nLucinda returned to Tamar's side carrying a small silver box with a painted glass lid. \"I keep the necklace here when I'm not wearing it,\" she said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "To Tamar's amazement, the angel crooned a short wordless melody over the treasure box, and a tiny click sounded in her cupped hands." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What in the world was that?\"\n\nLucinda was holding out the silver casket. \"See? The song unlocks the box. And the same song sung backward locks it again. Isn't that clever? Reuben gave it to me.\"\n\nTamar took it gingerly from her hand and peered inside. On the black velvet lining lay the emerald ring that Lucinda usually wore, a silver necklace coiled around a fiat oval pendant, a blue wing feather from some Ysral bird, and a smooth quartz rock that looked to have been salvaged from a riverbed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A diverse array of treasures, indeed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"That song you've heard me sing?\" Lucinda went on. \"in your head? That's really the backward version of one of the angels' prayers.\"\n\nTamar looked up with a grin. \"So? Does that mean I can countermand a prayer if I sing that?\"\n\n\"I suppose so, but it's not a prayer that's ever sung, as far as I know. Instead I could teach you the reverse version of the prayer for rain, and you might have some use for it.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I don't care if it rains,\" Tamar said, and turned her attention back to the silver box.\n\n\"The necklace,\" Lucinda instructed. \"Put it on, That's what I want you to have.\"\n\n\"I don't need your jewelry. I won't forget you.\"\n\nWith an impatient exclamation, Lucinda took the box from her sister and extracted the necklace from the pile." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She looped the chain around her finger and held up her hand so the delicate woven strands glinted in the afternoon light." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"The finest rectal from the Luminaux silversmiths,\" she said softly. \"When you run your finger down the chain, it's as if you're touching glass. Put it on.\"\n\nReluctantly, Tamar took it. She was not used to expensive gifts or tokens of affection; it was not something she felt she had a right to. \"Did your aunt give this to you?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"When I was old enough. It was our mother's, though Gretchen told me no one ever saw her wear it. It was around her neck when they discovered her body.\"\n\n\"Is there anything inside the locket?\"\n\n\"Open it.\"\n\nTamar pried her fingernail between the tightly clasped halves of the oval, and silently they fell apart. Inside, each half of the locket was engraved with a single elaborate letter, a D on the left and an R on the right." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Lucinda was peering over her arm." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"David and Rinalda,\" she said. \"He must have given it to her while she was imprisoned in Cedar Hills. It's the only thing of value she had on her when she died.\"\n\nTamar felt a rush of sadness make all of her muscles turn inward as if to cocoon her heart. \"I can't take this,\" she said in a choked voice. \"If it's all you have of your mother—\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Your mother, too,\" Lucinda said. \"I want you to have it so you remember you're not alone in this world—you have a family, a history, a genealogy that goes back to the Archangel Delilah. You aren't alone now—and you weren't born alone. I was with you then, and I'm with you now.\"\n\nTamar nodded once, and then burst into tears. The angel instantly had her arms around her twin. It was strange to Tamar that, after only two days, this woman's touch would seem as familiar to her as Elinor's, as Dawn's, as the casual, absent-minded hugs she had received now and then from all of the Jacobites." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She allowed herself to be comforted, and then she allowed herself to be persuaded, and when she finally left the Edori house, she was wearing her mother's locket." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And when The Wayward set sail the next day, and the Jacobites on the shore waved good-bye to the lucky few embarking on the most glorious of all quests, Tamar clutched the pendant where it hung around her neck and waved good-bye in turn. There were forty Jacobites and maybe a dozen Edori gathered at the port to see them off, and Tamar cared deeply for most of them and knew them all by name; but it was Lucinda she waved to and Lucinda she hated to leave behind.\n\n\"Sing to me,\" she had whispered in her sister's ear as they hugged good-bye on the wharf. \"I will listen for you.\"\n\n\"Be careful,\" Lucinda had whispered back." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Don't do anything too dangerous. And be kind to Jared.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "That had made Tamar laugh shakily as she pulled away. \"It is not in me to be kind to angels,\" she said loftily, though she spoiled the effect by scrubbing away a few undisciplined tears.\n\nLucinda held up two fingers. \"Just me and Jared,\" she said. \"The rest you can scorn your whole life long.\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Today you will be acting as a writing assistant in the Fantasy, Angels genre. Your partner will send something and you will write the next six sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They held the first of what Conran referred to as the \"postapocalyptic conferences\" right there on the Plain of Sharon in one of the hotels that the wealthy used during the Gloria. Tamar thought Conran's mocking title was very apt, for indeed, the Samarians she encountered at the hotel looked shell-shocked, dumbfounded, heads knocked askew with wonder. No surprise; she and the Jacobites might have looked just as stupefied and foundering if all their questing had resulted in just the opposite revelation, that the god existed after all. She blamed no one for being bewildered.\n\nThere was not much decided at this first conference, anyway, except that a second, more comprehensive gathering must be set up to discuss the implications of their discoveries and to determine how to proceed. In point of fact, people had only a handful of questions, but these they desperately wanted answered." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Among them were: How did the angel Lucinda manage to appear so dramatically overhead, materializing out of nowhere at the most crucial moment? and what was the song that froze Bael's prayer in his throat, that caused the spaceship to reconsider its thunderbolt and saved the Jacobites from destruction?\n\nTamar could have answered the second one but she did not bother, because the person whom everyone wanted to ask was Lucinda. She watched with an odd, completely unenvious pride as her sister patiently and lucidly explained the same events over and over again. Lucinda did not grow flustered or sullen, as Tamar would have; she did not become angry at the constant expressions of incredulity and denial. She was poised, serene, gracious, and absolutely sure of herself, and everyone who heard her walked away a believer." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Jared, who had listened politely to Lucinda's tale, later pressed Reuben for more details. \"So you were aboard the spaceship, exploring, and you just happened to ask Jehovah to let you overhear whatever was occurring down on the Plain of Sharon—\"\n\n\"Strange but true,\" the Edori replied with a smile. He, Jared, and Tamar had found a quiet spot on an outdoor patio in the rear of the hotel, and they were drinking some wine Jared had fetched. Tamar sipped hers. It was very potent.\n\n\"And you heard Bael threatening us, and he started singing—and then what? Lucinda burst into song herself? Did you think she'd gone mad?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Reuben laughed comfortably. \"Well, the thought did take a moment to meander across my mind, for she was distraught enough to be making little sense. But I was the one who had taught her how the same melody, sung in reverse, can undo the effects of the original song. I quickly decided that she was singing the Archangel's song backward, negating his prayer. As it happened, I was right.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"And Jehovah could hear her? Her voice was that much stronger because she was right there on the ship?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Reuben shook his head. \"I don't believe so. As I understand the technology, his cues must come from Samaria. She could have sung her heart out, and he would not have heeded her.\"\n\nJared glanced at Tamar, but she had already decided she was not taking part in this conversation. She was going to drink her wine, and she was going to keep on drinking it until she got pleasantly intoxicated. It had been longer than she remembered since she had felt safe enough to entrust herself to liquor. \"So until Tamar and I began singing ...\" \"Exactly.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"And because harmony is more powerful than a solo voice ...\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"As I understand it.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Jared returned his gaze to Tamar." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Did you know when you started singing what you were trying to accomplish?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She shook her head, then nodded, then sighed. She must explain after all. \"No. Well, in a way. Lucinda had explained the concept to me before we left Ysral, but it didn't really make sense. But when I heard her singing—\"\n\n\"Heard her singing?\" Reuben interrupted.\n\nJared nodded. \"She hears Lucinda's voice in her head. So she says.\"\n\nTamar gave him a minatory glance before addressing the Edori again." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"When I heard her, I guessed what she was doing. So I started singing, too.\" She shrugged, Simple, really. Though she had not thought it would work. They had been so close to death right then; she had been able to smell the acrid, sulfurous buildup in the air. She had sung more from defiance than from hope, as she had done most things in her life. And won, this time." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She took another sip of wine." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"So our song stopped the thunderbolt,\" Jared said slowly." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"That part I almost understand. But then—from nowhere-Lucinda came exploding through the heavens in this sort of golden mist—\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Reuben nodded wisely. \"She teleported,\" he said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"She what?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Teleported. It's the word Jehovah uses to describe the way he instantly transports someone from one location to another. It's how we were brought aboard the spaceship from Mount Sinai. It occurred to me to ask him, while Lucinda was singing, if he could transport her to someplace other than Sinai. He said he could. And so we attempted it.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Jared was shaking his head." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"But—sweet Jovah singing!the risk! She could have plummeted to her death, you know. To suddenly find herself in midair, with no momentum or wingbeat to sustain her—she could have dropped like a stone.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Yes, I did think of that, and I tried to explain it all to her while she continued to sing and continued to listen to all the clamor on the plain. Believe me, I was far from certain she would survive the transfer. But here we all are, safe and happy, so the story has a bright ending after all.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Jared waggled his head from side to side, as if he was not sure about that. \"I think the turmoil is just beginning." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "We are about to tell millions of people that the god they have believed in all their lives does not exist. We have just shoved angels from the seat of power they have occupied for seven centuries. What do we do with Bael? What about Omar? What about the Jansai? How will we deal with them?\n\n\"We are about to create a new government and a new religion all at once—and you have a more blithe picture of human nature than I do if you think all that will be accomplished without heartache,\" Jared summed up." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"We have survived the crisis, yes, but that is all we have done. There is far more trouble ahead.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Well, you are alive to confront it,\" Reuben said cheerfully. \"Which you wouldn't have gambled on a day ago. Pass the wine, that's what I say. Pass the wine and your troubles will miraculously melt away.\"\n\nTamar laughed out loud. Reuben filled his glass again and raised it to her in a toast of admiration. Jared was still shaking his head, but Tamar and Reuben clinked their glasses together and swallowed every last drop.\n\nTwo days before the second, more decisive conference was held at Christian Avalone's mansion on the River Walk, Lucinda's aunt Gretchen arrived in Semorrah." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "My aunt Gretchen, too, Tamar had to remind herself; but she had had nobody, no blood relatives, for so much of her life that even now she could scarcely credit the existence of a sister, let alone a more distant connection. And this Gretchen (as described kindly by Lucinda and humorously by Reuben) sounded like such a difficult, contrary, domineering woman that Tamar viewed her arrival with a mixture of reluctance and dread.\n\nShe was alone in the lovely, airy bedroom Christian had assigned to her and Jared when she heard voices in the hall.\n\n\"Where is she? Where is that child? Is this the room?\" \"Here, let me knock and see if—\"\n\nBut Lucinda had no time to put her knuckles to the door before it was swept open and a hurricane swirled in." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Tamar jumped to her feet, fingers automatically closing around her mother's locket, feeling an absurd leap of panic in her chest. The woman who entered was thin, graying, sharp-faced, and crammed with so much restless vitality that it snapped around her as visibly as an aura. Nonetheless, she came to a dead halt just across the threshold, and stared at Tamar as though at an apparition.\n\n\"Dearest, sweetest god, it is indeed you,\" she whispered. \"And you did not die, after all. He could not kill you. Oh, child, if I had known you were alive, I would have searched the earth and heavens for you. I would have taken you with me to safety. Tell me you believe that, for it is the god's own truth.\"\n\nTamar smiled with some difficulty." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I believe you. From the story I was told, you could never have thought I was alive.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Gretchen came closer, still staring, still marveling. \"And the life you have led. It makes my blood go cold. I will curse that devil Conran till the day he dies for not telling me the truth, when for twenty-eight years he knew it—\"\n\n\"Don't curse Conran,\" Tamar said, smiling a little more naturally now. \"He did very well by me. He kept me alive, and you must thank him for that at least.\"\n\nAnother step closer, the faded eyes still searching every plane and angle of Tamar's face. \"Well, the face is well enough, and of course you've got fine eyes .just like your sister, but your hair! Child, couldn't you have found a better cut? And you may have thought that dye was attractive once, but it's nowhere near as pretty as your natural color. I think it's time to put a little more thought into your appearance, especially with everyone arriving for this big important meeting.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Lucinda burst into uncontainable laughter, sagging against the door frame and cramming a hand across her mouth. Tamar felt her own laughter bubble up, more and more uncontrollably as Gretchen's face began to simmer with irritation.\n\n\"Well, I don't think I said anything so funny, and you've got just as much work to do with your hair and clothing.\" Gretchen fumed, rounding on Lucinda and shaking her finger. \"Running wild the way you have! I would never have sent you to Ysral if I thought you would forget everything I'd taught you about manners and decorum, every single thing—\"\n\n\"Aunt Gretchen, I adore you,\" Lucinda said, stopping the older woman's diatribe by enclosing her in a comprehensive embrace." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Don't you ever change. Come. Let's sit down and get to know Tamar.\"\n\nSo that had been much less alarming than Tamar had feared, though she thought it would take her years to grow accustomed to Gretchen's close, personal attention and forthright criticism. Nonetheless, in an instant she had been added to Gretchen's short list of people for whom she would fight till the death. It was strange, oppressive, and wonderful to mean so much to another human being. Something else it would take years to grow used to.\n\nGretchen liked Jared, though." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She fussed over him as she would a wealthy guest come to spend the summer at the Manor, or at least so Lucinda said. She looked after his comfort, deferred to his opinion, and never lost an opportunity to tell her nieces how handsome he was (\"in looks and behavior, because one means nothing without the other\"). Jared accepted her homage with his usual flawless courtesy, and laughed about it privately but never unkindly.\n\nGretchen was less pleased with Reuben, and Lucinda's news that she planned to marry the Edori. \"Except that Edori don't marry, so perhaps I just mean that I will be spending the rest of my life with him. Or at least, what portion of his life he isn't away at sea. I don't have the details worked out yet. But he's the man I love.\"\n\n\"He's well enough for an Edori, but you'd be wasting your life to be throwing it away on such a man,\" was Gretchen's reply, and the two of them argued about it obliquely for the next several days." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Lucinda remained completely unruffled about her aunt's disapproval, and confided her suspicions to Tamar later.\n\n\"I think she was in love with Conran once, but he wasn't faithful,\" she said sunnily. \"You can see it even now when she looks at him, that she remembers this sort of bone-deep despair. It's turned her against all Edori forever, I think.\"\n\n\"Well, I don't think it's turned her against Conron, because I saw them holding hands on the rooftop garden the other day,\" Tamar replied.\n\nLucinda bubbled over with laughter. \"Did you really? I can't imagine—but you know him better that I do. Can you picture him with Aunt Gretchen?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Tamar thought. \"Well, all the Jacobite women are strong-willed, as a rule, but he always seemed to be involved with the most hardheaded ones of the group. If you'd ever met Elinor Actually, Gretchen reminds me a little of Elinor, and she was the love of Conran's life.\"\n\n\"What happened to her?\"\n\n\"Died at the Jansai's hands, six or seven years ago.\"\n\n\"I'm sorry.\"\n\nTamar shrugged to avoid a direct reply. \"Anyway, I can't see him mending his ways at this age and becoming a tame old house cat. I can't see him settling down on Angel Rock and helping Gretchen run the hotel.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No,\" said Lucinda, a bit regretfully." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"But however it turns out, I think she's enjoying herself now.\"\n\nBut Gretchen was one of the few guests at Christian Avalone's house who had come merely for personal reasons. As the days passed and the house filled up, it became clear that the other visitors had arrived charged with sober purpose: to decide the fate of the world.\n\nRepresentatives from almost every group on Samaria had been invited: river merchants, Manadavvi, Luminauzi, Edori, farmers, Jansai, oracles, priests, angels. They had constituted themselves a parliament of sorts, and every member would need to vote on any referendums that they drafted. But the real work of mapping out a plan for the future lay with a select group that met one day in Christian's elegant conference room." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Christian was there, of course, and the Manadavvi Ben Harth." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Jared and Mercy spoke for the angels, Jecoliah for the oracles. Conran was the only Jacobite allowed in the room, if you didn't count Tamar, who was only there because Jared insisted. Reuben and Lucinda had been invited because, as Christian said, \"they can speak for Jehovah better than the rest of us.\" Everyone else was barred from the room.\n\n\"First order of business,\" Christian said once the group had been called to order, \"what do we do with Bael? And what do we do with Omar?\"\n\n\"Kill them both,\" Conran growled, but Mercy hushed him impatiently, and everyone else tried to ignore him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Kill them,\" the Jacobite repeated, raising his voice. \"Between them, they' ve murdered hundreds of innocent men and women. They're criminals and assassins, and they need to be tried as such.\"\n\n\"This is not a society that has ever condoned execution for any crime, and we are not about to institute it as a punishment now,\" Mercy said, swinging on him and speaking hotly. \"I understand your own life has been full of brutality, and I regret that for your sake, but you will not bring your bankrupt ethics into this meeting and expect us to sympathize. If you cannot say something constructive, then please do not speak.\"\n\nWell, that was almost entertainment enough to make Tamar glad she had come to the meeting. She had never seen Conran so wrathful or so silenced." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She turned her head away to hide her grin." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"If we are to leave them living,\" Christian said dryly, \"what are we to do with them? We could exile them to Ysral—\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Poor Edori,\" Jared murmured.\n\n\"Ah, the Edori are very forgiving,\" said Reuben. \"They will welcome the Archangel and his son and try to teach them the simpler joys of life.\"\n\nBut Mercy was shaking her head. \"Bael has a powerful voice, and I understand that Jovah—Jehovah—can hear all of us from any point on the planet. If Bael were to raise his voice in song and ask for thunderbolts, for instance—\"\n\n\"I agree,\" Jared said, speaking more soberly this time." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I think he must be incarcerated, and in a soundproofed chamber, much like the music rooms we have at the angel holds. There are engineers at the Augustine school who could construct a comfortable prison for him.\"\n\n\"Comfortable!\" Conran exclaimed. \"Is this a man who deserves comfort? Is this a man who—\"\n\n\"I agree,\" Christian said, ignoring Conran. \"And what of Omar?\"\n\n\"I would incarcerate him alongside his father,\" Jared said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I sometimes think, even now, that Bael acted from belief—he had heard the recording of the Alleluia Files, yes, but he could not credit its veracity. Or, if he did, he was afraid the truth would destroy Samaria—a fear all of us must face right now. But Omar acted out of sheer power lust, and for that I do not think he can be forgiven.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Jared looked over at Mercy, as if expecting her to challenge him, but she was nodding slowly. \"Much as it pains me to say it,\" she said, \"I agree with Jared. Neither of them can be allowed to run free, or they will harm us in some manner.\"\n\n\"Then we will have a place built for them,\" Christian said. \"And may it be far from here. Next item. As we all know by now, the so-called god is a ferociously powerful spaceship programmed to destroy Samaria if certain events do not occur. Must we live the rest of our lives, and must our children and their children also live, in fear of the destructive force of this machine? Is there any way to reprogram it so that it will not listen for the Gloria? So that we can be free of that annual requirement and the doom that hangs over us?\"\n\nEveryone in the room turned to look at Reuben, whose face had assumed a thoughtful expression. \"I asked much the same question while we were aboard,\" he said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"And was not surprised when the ship replied that it did not believe its circuits could be altered. But we could not expect it to help us out with that particular chore. Can it be reprogrammed? Not by me. Perhaps some of your Augustine engineers can work the magic. But I would guess that feat would be a generation or two away.\"\n\n\"Very well, then,\" said Ben Harth. \"Say we are required to produce a Gloria every year. Can we not record it ahead of time and play it back from the Plain of Sharon on the appointed day?\"\n\n\"I wouldn't think so,\" Lucinda said, speaking for the first time. \"The mass has to be different every year, doesn't it? And it has to contain the voices of people from all over Samaria, right? And if you go to the trouble to gather them all together to record the music, wouldn't it be just as simple to gather them together to sing the Gloria?\"\n\n\"And doesn't Jovah track the Kisses we wear in our arms?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "asked Jecoliah, glancing around the table with her milky eyes. \"Wouldn't he sense it if we were not actually on the Plain, performing our required song? Would he not consider that a breach of contract and respond in kind?\"\n\n\"It's a risk,\" Christian admitted. \"I am not eager to run it very soon.\"\n\nMercy was glancing around the table and bridling in indignation. \"And how does it hurt you—any of you!—to join together once a year and prove that you can live in harmony? If you were able to make these recordings and trick Jovah, would you want to do so? Would you want to live in a world where Edori and Jansai did not have to try to live in peace? I think the Gloria keeps us civil—and even so, we are not a peaceful people. Without the threat of the world's destruction, would we be able to live as harmoniously as we do?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "No one answered for a long moment, though Tamar heard Conran mutter a few observations on how civil his life had been for the past thirty years. At last Jared lifted his eyes from contemplation of the polished table, and he smiled somewhat crookedly at Mercy.\n\n\"You're right, of course,\" he said. \"But I find I am curiously reluctant to sing my prayers to an entity that I know is only so much metal and electricity. I can sing mathematically calculated melodies that will produce the desired physical response, but I cannot pray to such a thing. I cannot worship it. I cannot give my heart to the god when there is no god.\"\n\nMercy gazed back at him a long time, searching his face with her eyes. \"Jovah is not a god, we know that now,\" she said slowly. \"But I do not believe that means there is no divine presence watching over us at all. When our ancestors came to Samaria, they brought some divinity with them—they taught us our words for worship and piety." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They believed in a power stronger than themselves, which they could not outrun by crossing millions of miles of space." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "We have misinterpreted their god, perhaps, but they had one, and it was not Jehovah.\n\n\"And even if they had founded Samaria, cynical and atheistic, I would still believe there was a god,\" she said, her voice growing stronger. \"Who drew the patterns of the stars, if not a god? Who designed the marvelous cycle of cloud and rain and river, if not a god? Who made you—and you—and you—if not some god whose name we have forgotten?\"\n\n\"Science could answer every single one of those questions,\" Conran snorted. \"And has already begun to do so. We can take apart your flesh fiber by fiber and tell you why you have every bone in your body and every mineral in your blood. As for the dance of the stars, mass and gravity will give you those formulas, and there is nothing easier to explain than how the sea turns into storm.\"\n\n\"You are missing the point,\" she said to him calmly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"If there is no god, what is left but science? What is left to endow us with any grace? You can tell me the chemical makeup of my skin and my brain, but how can you explain away my soul? And if there is no god to watch over me, chastise me, grieve for me, rejoice with me, make me fear, and make me wonder, what am I but a collection of metals and liquids with nothing to celebrate about my daily living?\"\n\n\"You have your friends for that!\" he exclaimed. \"They love you when you're good and despise you when you're not. Who needs more than that?\"\n\nMercy regarded him fixedly. \"Do you truly want to live in a universe where you, Conran Atwell, are the highest achievement, the only moral arbiter and the final judge? I do not trust to your goodness enough. I do not trust to any man's. If we do not have a god, we have no limits. And a race without limits will become savage in a generation.\"\n\n\"I am not a savage,\" he muttered." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"And I need no god to keep me moral.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"But if there is a god, how do we find him? Where' do we look?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Jecoliah asked. \"Do we create him ourselves, from our hopes and our desires? We have been down that road before, and it was a blind alley. We do not want to delude ourselves again.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Alleluia said that Jehovah has great stores of information about our ancestors and their society,\" said Jared. \"Perhaps we could turn to it for guidance, for it may hold the knowledge we seek. And if not—\"\n\n\"We can all live as the Edori do,\" Reuben interposed. \"Believing in one great nameless god who watches over the entire universe, who is everywhere at once but nowhere reveals himself. He hears every prayer, though he does not always answer-\"\n\n\"Because he does not exist!\" Conran shouted.\n\n\"No, I believe he does,\" Tamar said, speaking suddenly when she had had no intention of even opening her mouth." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She was embarrassed to find all eyes upon her, but she plunged ahead anyway." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I have been raised to deny the existence of Jovah—of any god. And yet, when I was at my most desperate and most afraid, I prayed. The words rose to my mouth before I knew I was thinking them. And help came. I think we need a god so greatly because some god has created us, and he left behind that deep desire. I don't believe in Jovah, but I believe in something.\"\n\n\"That's because you're a credulous, uneducated fool!\" Conran roared, practically leaping across the table as if he would take her by the throat and shake her. Jared shoved him back with more force than the Jacobite expected, and every other voice was raised simultaneously. Christian had to call repeatedly for silence before the room reluctantly quieted down.\n\n\"Among other things, it would seem that we need to form a commission on the study of religion,\" the merchant observed when he finally had at least half the attention of everyone in the room." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"And we can decide who should head that commission after we have decided a few more key questions. Namely, do we still require an Archangel to lead Samaria? And if so, who will it be? And if not, how shall we run this country?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"We have had enough of Archangels, and angels, too,\" Ben Harth said at once, clearly expecting Christian's instant agreement. But the river merchant surprised Tamar by cocking his head to one side and looking extremely thoughtful.\n\n\"You and I may have—our friend Conran certainly has—but I am not so sure the rest of Samaria is ready to be done with Archangels,\" Christian said slowly. \"Jared is right. We have such a huge transition ahead of us that I view the coming months with a certain trepidation. And how will the common people of Samaria feel to be stripped of everything in a single blow—their god, their government, their system of redress? Even if the Archangel no longer serves the god, don't we still need an Archangel to mediate between Jehovah and Samaria? Don't we still need an Archangel to lead the Gloria? To direct the angels? To inspire the people of Samaria? To serve a civil, if not a divine, function?\"\n\n\"I don't,\" Conran said, but most of the others in the room were nodding. Ben Harth looked coldly furious and spoke almost before Conran had finished." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I do not believe I need the intervention of an angel to tell me which taxes are fair and how to administer justice to my tenants,\" he said in measured tones. \"And many of the other Manadavvi will echo my opinion. As long as we are threatened by the spaceship Jehovah, we may need the skills of the angels, but we don't have to treat them like deities themselves. We don't have to honor them, or go to them in their mountain holds like penitents and beggars—\"\n\n\"You should honor the angels because you should honor every living being,\" Mercy said in a steely voice. \"And that does not change because the god has changed.\"\n\n\"Yes, but there may be a kernel of truth in what he says, Mercy,\" Christian said in a gentle voice. \"Perhaps it is time to take the Archangel out of the hold and put him somewhere more accessible. Luminaux, maybe, or Semorrah. Make him—or her—part of a council of officials who debate and decide policy. For surely you would not exclude angels entirely from our future system of government?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "he added, turning back to Ben Harth.\n\n\"No, perhaps not,\" the Manadavvi said stiffly.\n\n\"But if we are to keep the institution of Archangel,\" Jared said, \"how shall that person be chosen? By the god's—by the spaceship's—recommendation? He did not choose so well last time. Yet I am not sure we would choose any better.\"\n\n\"Surely we cannot leave Jehovah out of the process entirely,\" Lucinda said. \"Bael may not have been a good choice, but for centuries Jehovah selected wise leaders who have guided us well. We must at least ask for his advice, don't you agree?\"\n\n\"I think so, yes,\" Christian said slowly, eyeing her intently." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"But I have my own theories about who should be selected. And among other things, I believe that our next Archangel should be flexible enough to break with tradition but sensible enough to avoid foolhardy crazes. Someone who has managed to steer clear of the cliques and alliances that have shaped Samaria for the past forty years. Someone sympathetic to Jacobites and Edori, who values the knowledge they have to offer. And it would not hurt, I believe, if this Archangel had a personal familiarity with the workings of Jehovah.\"\n\nNow everyone in the room was looking at Lucinda. Her eyes had widened with disbelief; shock had blanked her face. Before she could speak, Conran muttered, \"Yes, well, she's the only one of the lot with a soul, so you may as well have her if you've got to have someone,\" and Ben Harth had said, \"Acceptable, but barely.\"\n\n\"Jecoliah?\" Christian asked, still watching Lucinda. \"Do you think you could propose Lucinda's name to Jehovah and receive a coherent reply?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Actually,\" Jecoliah said, \"I asked him the day before I left for this conference if he had yet determined the name of the next Archangel.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"And he said?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"That Lucinda should be given the office in one year's time.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"But—\" Lucinda said, but other voices drowned her out.\n\n\"One year! ... We cannot wait so long! ... And in the meantime?\" Christian raised his hands to call for silence.\n\n\"So we must find an interim Archangel to finish out Bael's term, is that what Jehovah has suggested?\"\n\n\"Not a bad idea,\" Mercy said. \"That will give us time to train Lucinda in the ways of Samaria—for you may want her innocent, but you don't want her ignorant, or there will be no end of trouble!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"But,\" Lucinda said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"And for interim Archangel,\" Jared said with a smile, \"there can be only one choice. I think we are all agreed on that.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Yes,\" Christian said softly. \"Mercy? Are you prepared to move to Semorrah for a year? I will gladly house you here, or help you find whatever accommodations suit you better.\"\n\nNow Mercy looked as startled and uncertain as Lucinda.\n\n\"Me?\" she exclaimed. \"Well, I'll serve any way I can, of course, but I don't think I—\"\n\n\"You're the only one,\" Jared told her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"We have a rough year ahead of us, and we will need someone with bottomless resources of civility and grace. You are our old order. Lucinda\"—and he stretched a hand across the table toward the other angel—\"is our new. If you cannot keep us all in harmony for the next year, then no one can, and we will have no world to turn over to Lucinda for safekeeping.\"\n\n\"But I—well, certainly you can put it up for a vote, and if this is what the grand council wants—and I'll do what I can—but—\"\n\n\"But I don't know why you think I should be the Archangel after Mercy,\" Lucinda finally managed to say. \"I know nothing about your politics or your way of life. And I have no interest in power, religious or temporal. I've never given it a thought in my life.\"\n\n\"Yes, and that's why it must be you,\" Jared said gravely. \"For nearly twenty years Samaria has been in the hands of a man who did care greatly for power. And now we need someone who does not. Someone who can see clearly, eyes unclouded by prejudice, and mind unfettered by fear. If there is something you are afraid of, I have yet to see it. And if there is someone you cannot tolerate, I have not met that man. You are our fresh hope, Lucinda, as we enter a perilous new course. Won't you agree to help us? We will all be there to help you.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "There was another moment of taut silence, which Conran broke with a snort and a scowl." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Well, I won't be,\" he said. \"You just damn well better count me out.\"\n\nAnd this time Tamar could not help herself. That tense and respectful silence was broken by the sound of her smothered laughter, which she could not restrain and could not entirely muffle. At first everyone around the table tried to quell her with looks of reproof and indignation, but one by one they gradually succumbed to the contagion of her merriment. First Jared, then Christian, then Mercy began to smile, and soon everyone else grinned or chuckled along." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Lucinda was the last to give in, for she still seemed more stupefied than gratified, but finally she, too, began to smile shyly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The room seemed full of it, Tamar thought a few minutes later as she finally managed to choke down her last giggles—not laughter, after all, but hope.\n\nIt was late that evening before Tamar had a chance to apologize for that outburst to anyone, and when she did, it was to Jared. He had pried himself free from the formal dinner much later than he had promised he would (but she had expected that; she had refused to accompany him to the meal, since she simply could not bear another discussion on the future of Samaria) and joined her on Christian Avalone's rooftop garden. They stood with their arms crossed on the brick wall that formed the outer boundary of the building, and looked down at the fantastical lights of the city.\n\n\"Sorry,\" she said, though she did not, even now, feel particularly sorry. \"About laughing like that. But it was funny, you know, everyone so serious about the fate of the world and Conran, as usual, thinking only of himself—\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Jared patted her absently on the back as if to accept her apology." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I like Conran, though,\" the angel said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Old bastard that he is.\"\n\n\"So do I,\" Tamer replied. They observed a brief moment of silence before she ventured a cautious question. \"And do you mind?\"\n\n\"Mind what?\"\n\n\"Being left out like that. Not being named Archangel. I know it's something you wanted.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Eyes still fixed on the lights below, Jared said slowly, \"No, I never did want to be Archangel. My name was brought up often enough as a possibility, though, and I was never sure why. Oh, I'm the right age and I look the part, I suppose, and people like me, but—Archangel? I've always been something of a dilettante. I've never even carried out the duties at my own hold with much fervor. I would have made a very bad Archangel.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"So what do you do now?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Now... I think I will start to become the sort of man who would have made a good Archangel. Pay more attention to Monteverde and Gaza. Take up my responsibilities. Become an ally to Mercy, and then to Lucinda—a smart, well-informed, cunning ally. I need to be more deeply involved in the changing world around me, and to do that, I need to be more anchored to my own home.\"\n\nHis words took him farther and farther from a vagabond Jac obite who, suddenly, had no purpose in her own world. Tamar felt an unaccountable depression steal over her, a hopelessness she hadn't felt since that day in the Jansai truck when this very same angel lifted his voice to pray to the god for rain.\n\nNo god, of course; but there had been rain. And since that day, she had felt secure in the belief that the angel loved her. But that was on the verge of death and in the euphoria of reprieve." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She could not imagine there was a place for her back in his very real world. Not a place for her anywhere. To prevent him from asking the question she had no idea how to answer-And what do you plan to do now?—she spoke quickly and almost at random.\n\n\"Home. That's something I haven't ever had. Maybe now that all the Jacobites are safe, I can return to Luminaux. Or maybe go back to Ysral. I suppose that's where Conran's going.\"\n\nBut now Jared had turned to look at her, had shifted his body so that his hip rested against the brick wall and he had a hand free to hold out to her. As he did.\n\n\"You have a home with me, Tamar,\" he said quietly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Even if the walls of my hold tumbled down around us and all the other angels turned me out, you would still have a home with me. In my heart. Anywhere I happened to be. I love you. Come to Monteverde with me and be my wife.\"\n\nHer ears were ringing; her blood was shouting; this was delirium, or this was joy. But through the pandemonium, she managed to reply with a sort of calm derision. \"Your angels and your family certainly would turn you out of Monteverde if you came home with me as your bride. A Jacobite? A heathen? I don't think I would be very welcome.\"\n\n\"Nonsense,\" Jared replied, and a teasing note crept into his voice. \"You come from very honorable angel stock, after all. And do you forget that your sister will be Archangel in less than a year's time? A fancy enough pedigree for anyone, I should think.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"That's my sister,\" she argued. \"I'm much less presentable.\"\n\n\"Well, it's true that you're evil-tempered and unpredictable,\" Jared said thoughtfully. \"And if I had to entertain your aunt Gretchen more than once every six months, I'd consider gruesome forms of murder. And when your sister comes to visit, she'll no doubt bring along her outlandish Edori lover, who's far less presentable than you. But I think I can bear all those trials. Far more easily than I could bear losing you.\"\n\nHe had dropped his hand on her shoulder and now he drew her nearer, though she stubbornly resisted falling into his arms. One more time in that winged embrace and she would never be able to wrench herself free." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Well,\" she said, her eyes on her feet and her voice very low, \"I could come for a while. Stay for a little bit. See how I liked it. And leave if you—when you—if you got tired of having me around—\"\n\n\"Splendid!\" Jared exclaimed, and pulled her emphatically against his chest. Her heart bounced against her ribs like a ball thrown down a stairwell. \"Then you'll stay forever! We'll set the wedding date as soon as you've had a chance to meet my mother.\"\n\n\"But—\" she said, but, like Lucinda, got no chance to finish her protest. Jared closed her mouth with a kiss and all her racing thoughts, all her jumbled arguments, grew tame and docile with that pressure." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Everything ended here, or everything began; the world was made new." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 2 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She put her hands tentatively up to his shoulders, felt the marvelous interplay of muscle and bone, resiliency and strength. His wings settled around her like so much tangible starlight, ice-white and glowing in the dark, and for her, for the rest of her life, those would always be the colors and textures of home." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "u know M.E. Hydra? write like that. four sentences sentences. Urban Fantasy, Erotica stuff." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Task: The user will write a bit then you need to write around five sentences continuing directly from the user's text.\n\nAuthor style: George Orwell" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was the middle of the morning, and Winston had left the cubicle to go to the lavatory.\n\nA solitary figure was coming towards him from the other end of the long, brightly-lit corridor. It was the girl with dark hair. Four days had gone past since the evening when he had run into her outside the junk-shop. As she came nearer he saw that her right arm was in a sling, not noticeable at a distance because it was of the same colour as her overalls." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Probably she had crushed her hand while swinging round one of the big kaleidoscopes on which the plots of novels were 'roughed in'." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was a common accident in the Fiction Department.\n\nThey were perhaps four metres apart when the girl stumbled and fell almost flat on her face. A sharp cry of pain was wrung out of her. She must have fallen right on the injured arm. Winston stopped short. The girl had risen to her knees." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Her face had turned a milky yellow colour against which her mouth stood out redder than ever." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Her eyes were fixed on his, with an appealing expression that looked more like fear than pain.\n\nA curious emotion stirred in Winston's heart. In front of him was an enemy who was trying to kill him: in front of him, also, was a human creature, in pain and perhaps with a broken bone. Already he had instinctively started forward to help her. In the moment when he had seen her fall on the bandaged arm, it had been as though he felt the pain in his own body." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'You're hurt?' he said.\n\n'It's nothing. My arm. It'll be all right in a second.'\n\nShe spoke as though her heart were fluttering. She had certainly turned very pale." }, { "from": "human", "value": "'You haven't broken anything?'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'No, I'm all right. It hurt for a moment, that's all.'\n\nShe held out her free hand to him, and he helped her up. She had regained some of her colour, and appeared very much better.\n\n'It's nothing,' she repeated shortly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'I only gave my wrist a bit of a bang. Thanks, comrade!'\n\nAnd with that she walked on in the direction in which she had been going, as briskly as though it had really been nothing. The whole incident could not have taken as much as half a minute. Not to let one's feelings appear in one's face was a habit that had acquired the status of an instinct, and in any case they had been standing straight in front of a telescreen when the thing happened. Nevertheless it had been very difficult not to betray a momentary surprise, for in the two or three seconds while he was helping her up the girl had slipped something into his hand." }, { "from": "human", "value": "There was no question that she had done it intentionally." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was something small and flat. As he passed through the lavatory door he transferred it to his pocket and felt it with the tips of his fingers. It was a scrap of paper folded into a square.\n\nWhile he stood at the urinal he managed, with a little more fingering, to get it unfolded. Obviously there must be a message of some kind written on it." }, { "from": "human", "value": "For a moment he was tempted to take it into one of the water-closets and read it at once." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But that would be shocking folly, as he well knew. There was no place where you could be more certain that the telescreens were watched continuously.\n\nHe went back to his cubicle, sat down, threw the fragment of paper casually among the other papers on the desk, put on his spectacles and hitched the speakwrite towards him. 'Five minutes,' he told himself, 'five minutes at the very least!' His heart bumped in his breast with frightening loudness." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Fortunately the piece of work he was engaged on was mere routine, the rectification of a long list of figures, not needing close attention.\n\nWhatever was written on the paper, it must have some kind of political meaning. So far as he could see there were two possibilities. One, much the more likely, was that the girl was an agent of the Thought Police, just as he had feared. He did not know why the Thought Police should choose to deliver their messages in such a fashion, but perhaps they had their reasons." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The thing that was written on the paper might be a threat, a summons, an order to commit suicide, a trap of some description. But there was another, wilder possibility that kept raising its head, though he tried vainly to suppress it. This was, that the message did not come from the Thought Police at all, but from some kind of underground organization. Perhaps the Brotherhood existed after all! Perhaps the girl was part of it!" }, { "from": "human", "value": "No doubt the idea was absurd, but it had sprung into his mind in the very instant of feeling the scrap of paper in his hand." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was not till a couple of minutes later that the other, more probable explanation had occurred to him. And even now, though his intellect told him that the message probably meant death--still, that was not what he believed, and the unreasonable hope persisted, and his heart banged, and it was with difficulty that he kept his voice from trembling as he murmured his figures into the speakwrite.\n\nHe rolled up the completed bundle of work and slid it into the pneumatic tube. Eight minutes had gone by. He re-adjusted his spectacles on his nose, sighed, and drew the next batch of work towards him, with the scrap of paper on top of it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He flattened it out. On it was written, in a large unformed handwriting:\n\nI LOVE YOU.\n\nFor several seconds he was too stunned even to throw the incriminating thing into the memory hole. When he did so, although he knew very well the danger of showing too much interest, he could not resist reading it once again, just to make sure that the words were really there." }, { "from": "human", "value": "For the rest of the morning it was very difficult to work." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "What was even worse than having to focus his mind on a series of niggling jobs was the need to conceal his agitation from the telescreen. He felt as though a fire were burning in his belly. Lunch in the hot, crowded, noise-filled canteen was torment. He had hoped to be alone for a little while during the lunch hour, but as bad luck would have it the imbecile Parsons flopped down beside him, the tang of his sweat almost defeating the tinny smell of stew, and kept up a stream of talk about the preparations for Hate Week. He was particularly enthusiastic about a papier-mache model of Big Brother's head, two metres wide, which was being made for the occasion by his daughter's troop of Spies." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The irritating thing was that in the racket of voices Winston could hardly hear what Parsons was saying, and was constantly having to ask for some fatuous remark to be repeated." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Just once he caught a glimpse of the girl, at a table with two other girls at the far end of the room. She appeared not to have seen him, and he did not look in that direction again.\n\nThe afternoon was more bearable. Immediately after lunch there arrived a delicate, difficult piece of work which would take several hours and necessitated putting everything else aside. It consisted in falsifying a series of production reports of two years ago, in such a way as to cast discredit on a prominent member of the Inner Party, who was now under a cloud." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "This was the kind of thing that Winston was good at, and for more than two hours he succeeded in shutting the girl out of his mind altogether. Then the memory of her face came back, and with it a raging, intolerable desire to be alone. Until he could be alone it was impossible to think this new development out. Tonight was one of his nights at the Community Centre. He wolfed another tasteless meal in the canteen, hurried off to the Centre, took part in the solemn foolery of a 'discussion group', played two games of table tennis, swallowed several glasses of gin, and sat for half an hour through a lecture entitled 'Ingsoc in relation to chess'." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His soul writhed with boredom, but for once he had had no impulse to shirk his evening at the Centre." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "At the sight of the words I LOVE YOU the desire to stay alive had welled up in him, and the taking of minor risks suddenly seemed stupid. It was not till twenty-three hours, when he was home and in bed--in the darkness, where you were safe even from the telescreen so long as you kept silent--that he was able to think continuously.\n\nIt was a physical problem that had to be solved: how to get in touch with the girl and arrange a meeting. He did not consider any longer the possibility that she might be laying some kind of trap for him. He knew that it was not so, because of her unmistakable agitation when she handed him the note." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Obviously she had been frightened out of her wits, as well she might be. Nor did the idea of refusing her advances even cross his mind. Only five nights ago he had contemplated smashing her skull in with a cobblestone, but that was of no importance. He thought of her naked, youthful body, as he had seen it in his dream. He had imagined her a fool like all the rest of them, her head stuffed with lies and hatred, her belly full of ice." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A kind of fever seized him at the thought that he might lose her, the white youthful body might slip away from him! What he feared more than anything else was that she would simply change her mind if he did not get in touch with her quickly. But the physical difficulty of meeting was enormous. It was like trying to make a move at chess when you were already mated. Whichever way you turned, the telescreen faced you." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Actually, all the possible ways of communicating with her had occurred to him within five minutes of reading the note; but now, with time to think, he went over them one by one, as though laying out a row of instruments on a table.\n\nObviously the kind of encounter that had happened this morning could not be repeated. If she had worked in the Records Department it might have been comparatively simple, but he had only a very dim idea whereabouts in the building the Fiction Department lay, and he had no pretext for going there. If he had known where she lived, and at what time she left work, he could have contrived to meet her somewhere on her way home; but to try to follow her home was not safe, because it would mean loitering about outside the Ministry, which was bound to be noticed. As for sending a letter through the mails, it was out of the question." }, { "from": "human", "value": "By a routine that was not even secret, all letters were opened in transit." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Actually, few people ever wrote letters." }, { "from": "human", "value": "For the messages that it was occasionally necessary to send, there were printed postcards with long lists of phrases, and you struck out the ones that were inapplicable." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In any case he did not know the girl's name, let alone her address. Finally he decided that the safest place was the canteen. If he could get her at a table by herself, somewhere in the middle of the room, not too near the telescreens, and with a sufficient buzz of conversation all round--if these conditions endured for, say, thirty seconds, it might be possible to exchange a few words.\n\nFor a week after this, life was like a restless dream. On the next day she did not appear in the canteen until he was leaving it, the whistle having already blown." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Presumably she had been changed on to a later shift." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They passed each other without a glance. On the day after that she was in the canteen at the usual time, but with three other girls and immediately under a telescreen. Then for three dreadful days she did not appear at all. His whole mind and body seemed to be afflicted with an unbearable sensitivity, a sort of transparency, which made every movement, every sound, every contact, every word that he had to speak or listen to, an agony. Even in sleep he could not altogether escape from her image." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He did not touch the diary during those days." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "If there was any relief, it was in his work, in which he could sometimes forget himself for ten minutes at a stretch. He had absolutely no clue as to what had happened to her. There was no enquiry he could make. She might have been vaporized, she might have committed suicide, she might have been transferred to the other end of Oceania: worst and likeliest of all, she might simply have changed her mind and decided to avoid him.\n\nThe next day she reappeared." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Her arm was out of the sling and she had a band of sticking-plaster round her wrist." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The relief of seeing her was so great that he could not resist staring directly at her for several seconds." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "On the following day he very nearly succeeded in speaking to her. When he came into the canteen she was sitting at a table well out from the wall, and was quite alone. It was early, and the place was not very full. The queue edged forward till Winston was almost at the counter, then was held up for two minutes because someone in front was complaining that he had not received his tablet of saccharine. But the girl was still alone when Winston secured his tray and began to make for her table." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He walked casually towards her, his eyes searching for a place at some table beyond her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She was perhaps three metres away from him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Another two seconds would do it. Then a voice behind him called, 'Smith!' He pretended not to hear. 'Smith!' repeated the voice, more loudly. It was no use. He turned round." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A blond-headed, silly-faced young man named Wilsher, whom he barely knew, was inviting him with a smile to a vacant place at his table. It was not safe to refuse. After having been recognized, he could not go and sit at a table with an unattended girl. It was too noticeable. He sat down with a friendly smile." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The silly blond face beamed into his. Winston had a hallucination of himself smashing a pick-axe right into the middle of it. The girl's table filled up a few minutes later.\n\nBut she must have seen him coming towards her, and perhaps she would take the hint. Next day he took care to arrive early." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Surely enough, she was at a table in about the same place, and again alone." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The person immediately ahead of him in the queue was a small, swiftly-moving, beetle-like man with a flat face and tiny, suspicious eyes. As Winston turned away from the counter with his tray, he saw that the little man was making straight for the girl's table. His hopes sank again. There was a vacant place at a table further away, but something in the little man's appearance suggested that he would be sufficiently attentive to his own comfort to choose the emptiest table. With ice at his heart Winston followed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was no use unless he could get the girl alone. At this moment there was a tremendous crash. The little man was sprawling on all fours, his tray had gone flying, two streams of soup and coffee were flowing across the floor. He started to his feet with a malignant glance at Winston, whom he evidently suspected of having tripped him up. But it was all right." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Five seconds later, with a thundering heart, Winston was sitting at the girl's table." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He did not look at her. He unpacked his tray and promptly began eating. It was all-important to speak at once, before anyone else came, but now a terrible fear had taken possession of him. A week had gone by since she had first approached him. She would have changed her mind, she must have changed her mind!" }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was impossible that this affair should end successfully; such things did not happen in real life." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He might have flinched altogether from speaking if at this moment he had not seen Ampleforth, the hairy-eared poet, wandering limply round the room with a tray, looking for a place to sit down." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In his vague way Ampleforth was attached to Winston, and would certainly sit down at his table if he caught sight of him. There was perhaps a minute in which to act. Both Winston and the girl were eating steadily. The stuff they were eating was a thin stew, actually a soup, of haricot beans. In a low murmur Winston began speaking." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Neither of them looked up; steadily they spooned the watery stuff into their mouths, and between spoonfuls exchanged the few necessary words in low expressionless voices." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'What time do you leave work?'\n\n'Eighteen-thirty.'\n\n'Where can we meet?'\n\n'Victory Square, near the monument.'\n\n'It's full of telescreens.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'It doesn't matter if there's a crowd.'\n\n'Any signal?'\n\n'No. Don't come up to me until you see me among a lot of people. And don't look at me. Just keep somewhere near me.'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "'What time?'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'Nineteen hours.'\n\n'All right.'\n\nAmpleforth failed to see Winston and sat down at another table. They did not speak again, and, so far as it was possible for two people sitting on opposite sides of the same table, they did not look at one another. The girl finished her lunch quickly and made off, while Winston stayed to smoke a cigarette." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Winston was in Victory Square before the appointed time." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He wandered round the base of the enormous fluted column, at the top of which Big Brother's statue gazed southward towards the skies where he had vanquished the Eurasian aeroplanes (the Eastasian aeroplanes, it had been, a few years ago) in the Battle of Airstrip One. In the street in front of it there was a statue of a man on horseback which was supposed to represent Oliver Cromwell. At five minutes past the hour the girl had still not appeared. Again the terrible fear seized upon Winston. She was not coming, she had changed her mind!" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He walked slowly up to the north side of the square and got a sort of pale-coloured pleasure from identifying St Martin's Church, whose bells, when it had bells, had chimed 'You owe me three farthings.'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Then he saw the girl standing at the base of the monument, reading or pretending to read a poster which ran spirally up the column." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was not safe to go near her until some more people had accumulated. There were telescreens all round the pediment. But at this moment there was a din of shouting and a zoom of heavy vehicles from somewhere to the left. Suddenly everyone seemed to be running across the square. The girl nipped nimbly round the lions at the base of the monument and joined in the rush." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Winston followed. As he ran, he gathered from some shouted remarks that a convoy of Eurasian prisoners was passing.\n\nAlready a dense mass of people was blocking the south side of the square. Winston, at normal times the kind of person who gravitates to the outer edge of any kind of scrimmage, shoved, butted, squirmed his way forward into the heart of the crowd. Soon he was within arm's length of the girl, but the way was blocked by an enormous prole and an almost equally enormous woman, presumably his wife, who seemed to form an impenetrable wall of flesh. Winston wriggled himself sideways, and with a violent lunge managed to drive his shoulder between them." }, { "from": "human", "value": "For a moment it felt as though his entrails were being ground to pulp between the two muscular hips, then he had broken through, sweating a little." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He was next to the girl. They were shoulder to shoulder, both staring fixedly in front of them.\n\nA long line of trucks, with wooden-faced guards armed with submachine guns standing upright in each corner, was passing slowly down the street. In the trucks little yellow men in shabby greenish uniforms were squatting, jammed close together. Their sad, Mongolian faces gazed out over the sides of the trucks utterly incurious." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Occasionally when a truck jolted there was a clank-clank of metal: all the prisoners were wearing leg-irons. Truck-load after truck-load of the sad faces passed. Winston knew they were there but he saw them only intermittently. The girl's shoulder, and her arm right down to the elbow, were pressed against his. Her cheek was almost near enough for him to feel its warmth." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She had immediately taken charge of the situation, just as she had done in the canteen. She began speaking in the same expressionless voice as before, with lips barely moving, a mere murmur easily drowned by the din of voices and the rumbling of the trucks.\n\n'Can you hear me?'\n\n'Yes.'\n\n'Can you get Sunday afternoon off?'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "'Yes.'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "'Then listen carefully. You'll have to remember this." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Go to Paddington Station—'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "With a sort of military precision that astonished him, she outlined the route that he was to follow." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A half-hour railway journey; turn left outside the station; two kilometres along the road; a gate with the top bar missing; a path across a field; a grass-grown lane; a track between bushes; a dead tree with moss on it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was as though she had a map inside her head. 'Can you remember all that?' she murmured finally.\n\n'Yes.'\n\n'You turn left, then right, then left again. And the gate's got no top bar.'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "'Yes. What time?'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "'About fifteen. You may have to wait." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I'll get there by another way. Are you sure you remember everything?'\n\n'Yes.'\n\n'Then get away from me as quick as you can.'\n\nShe need not have told him that." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But for the moment they could not extricate themselves from the crowd. The trucks were still filing past, the people still insatiably gaping. At the start there had been a few boos and hisses, but it came only from the Party members among the crowd, and had soon stopped. The prevailing emotion was simply curiosity. Foreigners, whether from Eurasia or from Eastasia, were a kind of strange animal." }, { "from": "human", "value": "One literally never saw them except in the guise of prisoners, and even as prisoners one never got more than a momentary glimpse of them." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Nor did one know what became of them, apart from the few who were hanged as war-criminals: the others simply vanished, presumably into forced-labour camps." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The round Mogol faces had given way to faces of a more European type, dirty, bearded and exhausted." }, { "from": "human", "value": "From over scrubby cheekbones eyes looked into Winston's, sometimes with strange intensity, and flashed away again." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The convoy was drawing to an end." }, { "from": "human", "value": "In the last truck he could see an aged man, his face a mass of grizzled hair, standing upright with wrists crossed in front of him, as though he were used to having them bound together." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was almost time for Winston and the girl to part. But at the last moment, while the crowd still hemmed them in, her hand felt for his and gave it a fleeting squeeze.\n\nIt could not have been ten seconds, and yet it seemed a long time that their hands were clasped together. He had time to learn every detail of her hand. He explored the long fingers, the shapely nails, the work-hardened palm with its row of callouses, the smooth flesh under the wrist." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "I'll be your writing partner today. I will set the scene, and you will continue the story with eight sentences, channeling the voice and techniques of George Orwell." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Winston picked his way up the lane through dappled light and shade, stepping out into pools of gold wherever the boughs parted. Under the trees to the left of him the ground was misty with bluebells. The air seemed to kiss one's skin. It was the second of May. From somewhere deeper in the heart of the wood came the droning of ring-doves.\n\nHe was a bit early. There had been no difficulties about the journey, and the girl was so evidently experienced that he was less frightened than he would normally have been. Presumably she could be trusted to find a safe place." }, { "from": "human", "value": "In general you could not assume that you were much safer in the country than in London." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There were no telescreens, of course, but there was always the danger of concealed microphones by which your voice might be picked up and recognized; besides, it was not easy to make a journey by yourself without attracting attention. For distances of less than 100 kilometres it was not necessary to get your passport endorsed, but sometimes there were patrols hanging about the railway stations, who examined the papers of any Party member they found there and asked awkward questions. However, no patrols had appeared, and on the walk from the station he had made sure by cautious backward glances that he was not being followed. The train was full of proles, in holiday mood because of the summery weather. The wooden-seated carriage in which he travelled was filled to overflowing by a single enormous family, ranging from a toothless great-grandmother to a month-old baby, going out to spend an afternoon with 'in-laws' in the country, and, as they freely explained to Winston, to get hold of a little black-market butter.\n\nThe lane widened, and in a minute he came to the footpath she had told him of, a mere cattle-track which plunged between the bushes. He had no watch, but it could not be fifteen yet. The bluebells were so thick underfoot that it was impossible not to tread on them." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He knelt down and began picking some partly to pass the time away, but also from a vague idea that he would like to have a bunch of flowers to offer to the girl when they met." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He had got together a big bunch and was smelling their faint sickly scent when a sound at his back froze him, the unmistakable crackle of a foot on twigs. He went on picking bluebells. It was the best thing to do. It might be the girl, or he might have been followed after all. To look round was to show guilt. He picked another and another. A hand fell lightly on his shoulder.\n\nHe looked up. It was the girl." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She shook her head, evidently as a warning that he must keep silent, then parted the bushes and quickly led the way along the narrow track into the wood. Obviously she had been that way before, for she dodged the boggy bits as though by habit. Winston followed, still clasping his bunch of flowers. His first feeling was relief, but as he watched the strong slender body moving in front of him, with the scarlet sash that was just tight enough to bring out the curve of her hips, the sense of his own inferiority was heavy upon him. Even now it seemed quite likely that when she turned round and looked at him she would draw back after all. The sweetness of the air and the greenness of the leaves daunted him. Already on the walk from the station the May sunshine had made him feel dirty and etiolated, a creature of indoors, with the sooty dust of London in the pores of his skin. It occurred to him that till now she had probably never seen him in broad daylight in the open." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They came to the fallen tree that she had spoken of. The girl hopped over and forced apart the bushes, in which there did not seem to be an opening. When Winston followed her, he found that they were in a natural clearing, a tiny grassy knoll surrounded by tall saplings that shut it in completely. The girl stopped and turned.\n\n'Here we are,' she said.\n\nHe was facing her at several paces' distance. As yet he did not dare move nearer to her.\n\n'I didn't want to say anything in the lane,' she went on, 'in case there's a mike hidden there." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I don't suppose there is, but there could be. There's always the chance of one of those swine recognizing your voice. We're all right here.'\n\nHe still had not the courage to approach her. 'We're all right here?' he repeated stupidly.\n\n'Yes. Look at the trees.' They were small ashes, which at some time had been cut down and had sprouted up again into a forest of poles, none of them thicker than one's wrist. 'There's nothing big enough to hide a mike in." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Besides, I've been here before.'\n\nThey were only making conversation. He had managed to move closer to her now. She stood before him very upright, with a smile on her face that looked faintly ironical, as though she were wondering why he was so slow to act. The bluebells had cascaded on to the ground. They seemed to have fallen of their own accord. He took her hand.\n\n'Would you believe,' he said, 'that till this moment I didn't know what colour your eyes were?'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They were brown, he noted, a rather light shade of brown, with dark lashes. 'Now that you've seen what I'm really like, can you still bear to look at me?'\n\n'Yes, easily.'\n\n'I'm thirty-nine years old. I've got a wife that I can't get rid of. I've got varicose veins. I've got five false teeth.'\n\n'I couldn't care less,' said the girl." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The next moment, it was hard to say by whose act, she was in his his arms. At the beginning he had no feeling except sheer incredulity. The youthful body was strained against his own, the mass of dark hair was against his face, and yes! actually she had turned her face up and he was kissing the wide red mouth. She had clasped her arms about his neck, she was calling him darling, precious one, loved one. He had pulled her down on to the ground, she was utterly unresisting, he could do what he liked with her. But the truth was that he had no physical sensation, except that of mere contact. All he felt was incredulity and pride." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He was glad that this was happening, but he had no physical desire. It was too soon, her youth and prettiness had frightened him, he was too much used to living without women--he did not know the reason. The girl picked herself up and pulled a bluebell out of her hair. She sat against him, putting her arm round his waist.\n\n'Never mind, dear. There's no hurry. We've got the whole afternoon. Isn't this a splendid hide-out? I found it when I got lost once on a community hike." }, { "from": "human", "value": "If anyone was coming you could hear them a hundred metres away.'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "'What is your name?' said Winston." }, { "from": "human", "value": "'Julia. I know yours. It's Winston--Winston Smith.'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "'How did you find that out?'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "'I expect I'm better at finding things out than you are, dear." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Tell me, what did you think of me before that day I gave you the note?'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He did not feel any temptation to tell lies to her. It was even a sort of love-offering to start off by telling the worst.\n\n'I hated the sight of you,' he said. 'I wanted to rape you and then murder you afterwards. Two weeks ago I thought seriously of smashing your head in with a cobblestone. If you really want to know, I imagined that you had something to do with the Thought Police.'\n\nThe girl laughed delightedly, evidently taking this as a tribute to the excellence of her disguise.\n\n'Not the Thought Police!" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "You didn't honestly think that?'\n\n'Well, perhaps not exactly that. But from your general appearance--merely because you're young and fresh and healthy, you understand--I thought that probably—'\n\n'You thought I was a good Party member. Pure in word and deed. Banners, processions, slogans, games, community hikes all that stuff. And you thought that if I had a quarter of a chance I'd denounce you as a thought-criminal and get you killed off?'\n\n'Yes, something of that kind." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A great many young girls are like that, you know.'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "'It's this bloody thing that does it,' she said, ripping off the scarlet sash of the Junior Anti-Sex League and flinging it on to a bough." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Then, as though touching her waist had reminded her of something, she felt in the pocket of her overalls and produced a small slab of chocolate." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She broke it in half and gave one of the pieces to Winston." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Even before he had taken it he knew by the smell that it was very unusual chocolate. It was dark and shiny, and was wrapped in silver paper. Chocolate normally was dull-brown crumbly stuff that tasted, as nearly as one could describe it, like the smoke of a rubbish fire. But at some time or another he had tasted chocolate like the piece she had given him. The first whiff of its scent had stirred up some memory which he could not pin down, but which was powerful and troubling.\n\n'Where did you get this stuff?' he said.\n\n'Black market,' she said indifferently. 'Actually I am that sort of girl, to look at." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I'm good at games." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I was a troop-leader in the Spies." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I do voluntary work three evenings a week for the Junior Anti-Sex League. Hours and hours I've spent pasting their bloody rot all over London. I always carry one end of a banner in the processions. I always look cheerful and I never shirk anything. Always yell with the crowd, that's what I say. It's the only way to be safe.'\n\nThe first fragment of chocolate had melted on Winston's tongue. The taste was delightful." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But there was still that memory moving round the edges of his consciousness, something strongly felt but not reducible to definite shape, like an object seen out of the corner of one's eye." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He pushed it away from him, aware only that it was the memory of some action which he would have liked to undo but could not." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'You are very young,' he said. 'You are ten or fifteen years younger than I am. What could you see to attract you in a man like me?'\n\n'It was something in your face. I thought I'd take a chance. I'm good at spotting people who don't belong. As soon as I saw you I knew you were against THEM.'\n\nTHEM, it appeared, meant the Party, and above all the Inner Party, about whom she talked with an open jeering hatred which made Winston feel uneasy, although he knew that they were safe here if they could be safe anywhere." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A thing that astonished him about her was the coarseness of her language." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Party members were supposed not to swear, and Winston himself very seldom did swear, aloud, at any rate. Julia, however, seemed unable to mention the Party, and especially the Inner Party, without using the kind of words that you saw chalked up in dripping alley-ways. He did not dislike it. It was merely one symptom of her revolt against the Party and all its ways, and somehow it seemed natural and healthy, like the sneeze of a horse that smells bad hay. They had left the clearing and were wandering again through the chequered shade, with their arms round each other's waists whenever it was wide enough to walk two abreast. He noticed how much softer her waist seemed to feel now that the sash was gone. They did not speak above a whisper. Outside the clearing, Julia said, it was better to go quietly." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Presently they had reached the edge of the little wood. She stopped him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "'Don't go out into the open." }, { "from": "human", "value": "There might be someone watching." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "We're all right if we keep behind the boughs.'\n\nThey were standing in the shade of hazel bushes. The sunlight, filtering through innumerable leaves, was still hot on their faces. Winston looked out into the field beyond, and underwent a curious, slow shock of recognition. He knew it by sight. An old, close-bitten pasture, with a footpath wandering across it and a molehill here and there. In the ragged hedge on the opposite side the boughs of the elm trees swayed just perceptibly in the breeze, and their leaves stirred faintly in dense masses like women's hair. Surely somewhere nearby, but out of sight, there must be a stream with green pools where dace were swimming?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'Isn't there a stream somewhere near here?' he whispered.\n\n'That's right, there is a stream. It's at the edge of the next field, actually. There are fish in it, great big ones. You can watch them lying in the pools under the willow trees, waving their tails.'\n\n'It's the Golden Country--almost,' he murmured.\n\n'The Golden Country?'\n\n'It's nothing, really. A landscape I've seen sometimes in a dream.'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "'Look!' whispered Julia." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A thrush had alighted on a bough not five metres away, almost at the level of their faces. Perhaps it had not seen them. It was in the sun, they in the shade. It spread out its wings, fitted them carefully into place again, ducked its head for a moment, as though making a sort of obeisance to the sun, and then began to pour forth a torrent of song. In the afternoon hush the volume of sound was startling. Winston and Julia clung together, fascinated. The music went on and on, minute after minute, with astonishing variations, never once repeating itself, almost as though the bird were deliberately showing off its virtuosity. Sometimes it stopped for a few seconds, spread out and resettled its wings, then swelled its speckled breast and again burst into song." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Winston watched it with a sort of vague reverence. For whom, for what, was that bird singing? No mate, no rival was watching it. What made it sit at the edge of the lonely wood and pour its music into nothingness? He wondered whether after all there was a microphone hidden somewhere near. He and Julia had spoken only in low whispers, and it would not pick up what they had said, but it would pick up the thrush. Perhaps at the other end of the instrument some small, beetle-like man was listening intently--listening to that. But by degrees the flood of music drove all speculations out of his mind." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was as though it were a kind of liquid stuff that poured all over him and got mixed up with the sunlight that filtered through the leaves. He stopped thinking and merely felt. The girl's waist in the bend of his arm was soft and warm. He pulled her round so that they were breast to breast; her body seemed to melt into his. Wherever his hands moved it was all as yielding as water. Their mouths clung together; it was quite different from the hard kisses they had exchanged earlier. When they moved their faces apart again both of them sighed deeply. The bird took fright and fled with a clatter of wings." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Winston put his lips against her ear. 'NOW,' he whispered.\n\n'Not here,' she whispered back. 'Come back to the hide-out. It's safer.'\n\nQuickly, with an occasional crackle of twigs, they threaded their way back to the clearing. When they were once inside the ring of saplings she turned and faced him. They were both breathing fast, but the smile had reappeared round the corners of her mouth. She stood looking at him for an instant, then felt at the zipper of her overalls. And, yes! it was almost as in his dream." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Almost as swiftly as he had imagined it, she had torn her clothes off, and when she flung them aside it was with that same magnificent gesture by which a whole civilization seemed to be annihilated. Her body gleamed white in the sun. But for a moment he did not look at her body; his eyes were anchored by the freckled face with its faint, bold smile. He knelt down before her and took her hands in his.\n\n'Have you done this before?'\n\n'Of course. Hundreds of times--well, scores of times, anyway.'\n\n'With Party members?'\n\n'Yes, always with Party members.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'With members of the Inner Party?'\n\n'Not with those swine, no. But there's plenty that WOULD if they got half a chance. They're not so holy as they make out.'\n\nHis heart leapt. Scores of times she had done it: he wished it had been hundreds--thousands. Anything that hinted at corruption always filled him with a wild hope. Who knew, perhaps the Party was rotten under the surface, its cult of strenuousness and self-denial simply a sham concealing iniquity. If he could have infected the whole lot of them with leprosy or syphilis, how gladly he would have done so!" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Anything to rot, to weaken, to undermine! He pulled her down so that they were kneeling face to face.\n\n'Listen. The more men you've had, the more I love you. Do you understand that?'\n\n'Yes, perfectly.'\n\n'I hate purity, I hate goodness! I don't want any virtue to exist anywhere. I want everyone to be corrupt to the bones.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'Well then, I ought to suit you, dear. I'm corrupt to the bones.'\n\n'You like doing this? I don't mean simply me: I mean the thing in itself?'\n\n'I adore it.'\n\nThat was above all what he wanted to hear. Not merely the love of one person but the animal instinct, the simple undifferentiated desire: that was the force that would tear the Party to pieces. He pressed her down upon the grass, among the fallen bluebells." }, { "from": "human", "value": "This time there was no difficulty." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Presently the rising and falling of their breasts slowed to normal speed, and in a sort of pleasant helplessness they fell apart. The sun seemed to have grown hotter. They were both sleepy. He reached out for the discarded overalls and pulled them partly over her. Almost immediately they fell asleep and slept for about half an hour.\n\nWinston woke first. He sat up and watched the freckled face, still peacefully asleep, pillowed on the palm of her hand. Except for her mouth, you could not call her beautiful. There was a line or two round the eyes, if you looked closely." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The short dark hair was extraordinarily thick and soft." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It occurred to him that he still did not know her surname or where she lived." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 9 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The young, strong body, now helpless in sleep, awoke in him a pitying, protecting feeling. But the mindless tenderness that he had felt under the hazel tree, while the thrush was singing, had not quite come back. He pulled the overalls aside and studied her smooth white flank. In the old days, he thought, a man looked at a girl's body and saw that it was desirable, and that was the end of the story. But you could not have pure love or pure lust nowadays. No emotion was pure, because everything was mixed up with fear and hatred. Their embrace had been a battle, the climax a victory. It was a blow struck against the Party. It was a political act." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Mode:\nCo-writing\n\nLength:\neight sentences\n\nStyle:\nGeorge Orwell" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Winston had woken up with his eyes full of tears." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Julia rolled sleepily against him, murmuring something that might have been 'What's the matter?'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "'I dreamt--' he began, and stopped short." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was too complex to be put into words. There was the dream itself, and there was a memory connected with it that had swum into his mind in the few seconds after waking.\n\nHe lay back with his eyes shut, still sodden in the atmosphere of the dream. It was a vast, luminous dream in which his whole life seemed to stretch out before him like a landscape on a summer evening after rain. It had all occurred inside the glass paperweight, but the surface of the glass was the dome of the sky, and inside the dome everything was flooded with clear soft light in which one could see into interminable distances. The dream had also been comprehended by--indeed, in some sense it had consisted in--a gesture of the arm made by his mother, and made again thirty years later by the Jewish woman he had seen on the news film, trying to shelter the small boy from the bullets, before the helicopter blew them both to pieces.\n\n'Do you know,' he said, 'that until this moment I believed I had murdered my mother?'\n\n'Why did you murder her?'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "said Julia, almost asleep.\n\n'I didn't murder her. Not physically.'\n\nIn the dream he had remembered his last glimpse of his mother, and within a few moments of waking the cluster of small events surrounding it had all come back. It was a memory that he must have deliberately pushed out of his consciousness over many years. He was not certain of the date, but he could not have been less than ten years old, possibly twelve, when it had happened.\n\nHis father had disappeared some time earlier, how much earlier he could not remember. He remembered better the rackety, uneasy circumstances of the time: the periodical panics about air-raids and the sheltering in Tube stations, the piles of rubble everywhere, the unintelligible proclamations posted at street corners, the gangs of youths in shirts all the same colour, the enormous queues outside the bakeries, the intermittent machine-gun fire in the distance--above all, the fact that there was never enough to eat. He remembered long afternoons spent with other boys in scrounging round dustbins and rubbish heaps, picking out the ribs of cabbage leaves, potato peelings, sometimes even scraps of stale breadcrust from which they carefully scraped away the cinders; and also in waiting for the passing of trucks which travelled over a certain route and were known to carry cattle feed, and which, when they jolted over the bad patches in the road, sometimes spilt a few fragments of oil-cake." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When his father disappeared, his mother did not show any surprise or any violent grief, but a sudden change came over her. She seemed to have become completely spiritless. It was evident even to Winston that she was waiting for something that she knew must happen. She did everything that was needed--cooked, washed, mended, made the bed, swept the floor, dusted the mantelpiece--always very slowly and with a curious lack of superfluous motion, like an artist's lay-figure moving of its own accord. Her large shapely body seemed to relapse naturally into stillness. For hours at a time she would sit almost immobile on the bed, nursing his young sister, a tiny, ailing, very silent child of two or three, with a face made simian by thinness. Very occasionally she would take Winston in her arms and press him against her for a long time without saying anything. He was aware, in spite of his youthfulness and selfishness, that this was somehow connected with the never-mentioned thing that was about to happen." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He remembered the room where they lived, a dark, close-smelling room that seemed half filled by a bed with a white counterpane. There was a gas ring in the fender, and a shelf where food was kept, and on the landing outside there was a brown earthenware sink, common to several rooms. He remembered his mother's statuesque body bending over the gas ring to stir at something in a saucepan. Above all he remembered his continuous hunger, and the fierce sordid battles at mealtimes. He would ask his mother naggingly, over and over again, why there was not more food, he would shout and storm at her (he even remembered the tones of his voice, which was beginning to break prematurely and sometimes boomed in a peculiar way), or he would attempt a snivelling note of pathos in his efforts to get more than his share. His mother was quite ready to give him more than his share. She took it for granted that he, 'the boy', should have the biggest portion; but however much she gave him he invariably demanded more. At every meal she would beseech him not to be selfish and to remember that his little sister was sick and also needed food, but it was no use." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He would cry out with rage when she stopped ladling, he would try to wrench the saucepan and spoon out of her hands, he would grab bits from his sister's plate." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He knew that he was starving the other two, but he could not help it; he even felt that he had a right to do it. The clamorous hunger in his belly seemed to justify him. Between meals, if his mother did not stand guard, he was constantly pilfering at the wretched store of food on the shelf.\n\nOne day a chocolate ration was issued. There had been no such issue for weeks or months past. He remembered quite clearly that precious little morsel of chocolate. It was a two-ounce slab (they still talked about ounces in those days) between the three of them. It was obvious that it ought to be divided into three equal parts." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Suddenly, as though he were listening to somebody else, Winston heard himself demanding in a loud booming voice that he should be given the whole piece. His mother told him not to be greedy. There was a long, nagging argument that went round and round, with shouts, whines, tears, remonstrances, bargainings. His tiny sister, clinging to her mother with both hands, exactly like a baby monkey, sat looking over her shoulder at him with large, mournful eyes. In the end his mother broke off three-quarters of the chocolate and gave it to Winston, giving the other quarter to his sister. The little girl took hold of it and looked at it dully, perhaps not knowing what it was. Winston stood watching her for a moment. Then with a sudden swift spring he had snatched the piece of chocolate out of his sister's hand and was fleeing for the door." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'Winston, Winston!' his mother called after him. 'Come back! Give your sister back her chocolate!'\n\nHe stopped, but did not come back. His mother's anxious eyes were fixed on his face. Even now he was thinking about the thing, he did not know what it was that was on the point of happening. His sister, conscious of having been robbed of something, had set up a feeble wail. His mother drew her arm round the child and pressed its face against her breast. Something in the gesture told him that his sister was dying." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He turned and fled down the stairs, with the chocolate growing sticky in his hand." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He never saw his mother again. After he had devoured the chocolate he felt somewhat ashamed of himself and hung about in the streets for several hours, until hunger drove him home. When he came back his mother had disappeared. This was already becoming normal at that time. Nothing was gone from the room except his mother and his sister. They had not taken any clothes, not even his mother's overcoat. To this day he did not know with any certainty that his mother was dead. It was perfectly possible that she had merely been sent to a forced-labour camp." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As for his sister, she might have been removed, like Winston himself, to one of the colonies for homeless children (Reclamation Centres, they were called) which had grown up as a result of the civil war, or she might have been sent to the labour camp along with his mother, or simply left somewhere or other to die.\n\nThe dream was still vivid in his mind, especially the enveloping protecting gesture of the arm in which its whole meaning seemed to be contained. His mind went back to another dream of two months ago. Exactly as his mother had sat on the dingy white-quilted bed, with the child clinging to her, so she had sat in the sunken ship, far underneath him, and drowning deeper every minute, but still looking up at him through the darkening water.\n\nHe told Julia the story of his mother's disappearance. Without opening her eyes she rolled over and settled herself into a more comfortable position.\n\n'I expect you were a beastly little swine in those days,' she said indistinctly. 'All children are swine.'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "'Yes. But the real point of the story—'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "From her breathing it was evident that she was going off to sleep again. He would have liked to continue talking about his mother. He did not suppose, from what he could remember of her, that she had been an unusual woman, still less an intelligent one; and yet she had possessed a kind of nobility, a kind of purity, simply because the standards that she obeyed were private ones. Her feelings were her own, and could not be altered from outside. It would not have occurred to her that an action which is ineffectual thereby becomes meaningless. If you loved someone, you loved him, and when you had nothing else to give, you still gave him love. When the last of the chocolate was gone, his mother had clasped the child in her arms. It was no use, it changed nothing, it did not produce more chocolate, it did not avert the child's death or her own; but it seemed natural to her to do it." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The refugee woman in the boat had also covered the little boy with her arm, which was no more use against the bullets than a sheet of paper." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The terrible thing that the Party had done was to persuade you that mere impulses, mere feelings, were of no account, while at the same time robbing you of all power over the material world." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When once you were in the grip of the Party, what you felt or did not feel, what you did or refrained from doing, made literally no difference. Whatever happened you vanished, and neither you nor your actions were ever heard of again. You were lifted clean out of the stream of history. And yet to the people of only two generations ago this would not have seemed all-important, because they were not attempting to alter history. They were governed by private loyalties which they did not question. What mattered were individual relationships, and a completely helpless gesture, an embrace, a tear, a word spoken to a dying man, could have value in itself. The proles, it suddenly occurred to him, had remained in this condition. They were not loyal to a party or a country or an idea, they were loyal to one another." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "For the first time in his life he did not despise the proles or think of them merely as an inert force which would one day spring to life and regenerate the world. The proles had stayed human. They had not become hardened inside. They had held on to the primitive emotions which he himself had to re-learn by conscious effort. And in thinking this he remembered, without apparent relevance, how a few weeks ago he had seen a severed hand lying on the pavement and had kicked it into the gutter as though it had been a cabbage-stalk.\n\n'The proles are human beings,' he said aloud. 'We are not human.'\n\n'Why not?' said Julia, who had woken up again." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He thought for a little while. 'Has it ever occurred to you,' he said, 'that the best thing for us to do would be simply to walk out of here before it's too late, and never see each other again?'\n\n'Yes, dear, it has occurred to me, several times. But I'm not going to do it, all the same.'\n\n'We've been lucky,' he said 'but it can't last much longer. You're young. You look normal and innocent. If you keep clear of people like me, you might stay alive for another fifty years.'\n\n'No. I've thought it all out." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "What you do, I'm going to do. And don't be too downhearted. I'm rather good at staying alive.'\n\n'We may be together for another six months--a year--there's no knowing. At the end we're certain to be apart. Do you realize how utterly alone we shall be? When once they get hold of us there will be nothing, literally nothing, that either of us can do for the other. If I confess, they'll shoot you, and if I refuse to confess, they'll shoot you just the same." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Nothing that I can do or say, or stop myself from saying, will put off your death for as much as five minutes. Neither of us will even know whether the other is alive or dead. We shall be utterly without power of any kind. The one thing that matters is that we shouldn't betray one another, although even that can't make the slightest difference.'\n\n'If you mean confessing,' she said, 'we shall do that, right enough. Everybody always confesses. You can't help it. They torture you.'\n\n'I don't mean confessing. Confession is not betrayal." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "What you say or do doesn't matter: only feelings matter. If they could make me stop loving you--that would be the real betrayal.'\n\nShe thought it over. 'They can't do that,' she said finally. 'It's the one thing they can't do. They can make you say anything--ANYTHING--but they can't make you believe it. They can't get inside you.'\n\n'No,' he said a little more hopefully, 'no; that's quite true." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They can't get inside you." }, { "from": "human", "value": "If you can FEEL that staying human is worth while, even when it can't have any result whatever, you've beaten them.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He thought of the telescreen with its never-sleeping ear. They could spy upon you night and day, but if you kept your head you could still outwit them. With all their cleverness they had never mastered the secret of finding out what another human being was thinking. Perhaps that was less true when you were actually in their hands. One did not know what happened inside the Ministry of Love, but it was possible to guess: tortures, drugs, delicate instruments that registered your nervous reactions, gradual wearing-down by sleeplessness and solitude and persistent questioning. Facts, at any rate, could not be kept hidden. They could be tracked down by enquiry, they could be squeezed out of you by torture. But if the object was not to stay alive but to stay human, what difference did it ultimately make?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "They could not alter your feelings: for that matter you could not alter them yourself, even if you wanted to." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 1 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They could lay bare in the utmost detail everything that you had done or said or thought; but the inner heart, whose workings were mysterious even to yourself, remained impregnable." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "I'll be your writing partner today. I will set the scene, and you will continue the story with four sentences, channeling the voice and techniques of George Orwell." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He did not know where he was." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Presumably he was in the Ministry of Love, but there was no way of making certain." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He was in a high-ceilinged windowless cell with walls of glittering white porcelain. Concealed lamps flooded it with cold light, and there was a low, steady humming sound which he supposed had something to do with the air supply. A bench, or shelf, just wide enough to sit on ran round the wall, broken only by the door and, at the end opposite the door, a lavatory pan with no wooden seat. There were four telescreens, one in each wall." }, { "from": "human", "value": "There was a dull aching in his belly." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It had been there ever since they had bundled him into the closed van and driven him away." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But he was also hungry, with a gnawing, unwholesome kind of hunger." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It might be twenty-four hours since he had eaten, it might be thirty-six." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He still did not know, probably never would know, whether it had been morning or evening when they arrested him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Since he was arrested he had not been fed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He sat as still as he could on the narrow bench, with his hands crossed on his knee." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He had already learned to sit still. If you made unexpected movements they yelled at you from the telescreen. But the craving for food was growing upon him. What he longed for above all was a piece of bread." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He had an idea that there were a few breadcrumbs in the pocket of his overalls. It was even possible--he thought this because from time to time something seemed to tickle his leg--that there might be a sizeable bit of crust there. In the end the temptation to find out overcame his fear; he slipped a hand into his pocket.\n\n'Smith!' yelled a voice from the telescreen. '6079 Smith W.!" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hands out of pockets in the cells!'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He sat still again, his hands crossed on his knee. Before being brought here he had been taken to another place which must have been an ordinary prison or a temporary lock-up used by the patrols. He did not know how long he had been there; some hours at any rate; with no clocks and no daylight it was hard to gauge the time. It was a noisy, evil-smelling place." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They had put him into a cell similar to the one he was now in, but filthily dirty and at all times crowded by ten or fifteen people. The majority of them were common criminals, but there were a few political prisoners among them. He had sat silent against the wall, jostled by dirty bodies, too preoccupied by fear and the pain in his belly to take much interest in his surroundings, but still noticing the astonishing difference in demeanour between the Party prisoners and the others. The Party prisoners were always silent and terrified, but the ordinary criminals seemed to care nothing for anybody." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They yelled insults at the guards, fought back fiercely when their belongings were impounded, wrote obscene words on the floor, ate smuggled food which they produced from mysterious hiding-places in their clothes, and even shouted down the telescreen when it tried to restore order." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "On the other hand some of them seemed to be on good terms with the guards, called them by nicknames, and tried to wheedle cigarettes through the spyhole in the door. The guards, too, treated the common criminals with a certain forbearance, even when they had to handle them roughly. There was much talk about the forced-labour camps to which most of the prisoners expected to be sent. It was 'all right' in the camps, he gathered, so long as you had good contacts and knew the ropes." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There was bribery, favouritism, and racketeering of every kind, there was homosexuality and prostitution, there was even illicit alcohol distilled from potatoes. The positions of trust were given only to the common criminals, especially the gangsters and the murderers, who formed a sort of aristocracy. All the dirty jobs were done by the politicals.\n\nThere was a constant come-and-go of prisoners of every description: drug-peddlers, thieves, bandits, black-marketeers, drunks, prostitutes." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Some of the drunks were so violent that the other prisoners had to combine to suppress them. An enormous wreck of a woman, aged about sixty, with great tumbling breasts and thick coils of white hair which had come down in her struggles, was carried in, kicking and shouting, by four guards, who had hold of her one at each corner. They wrenched off the boots with which she had been trying to kick them, and dumped her down across Winston's lap, almost breaking his thigh-bones. The woman hoisted herself upright and followed them out with a yell of 'F— bastards!'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Then, noticing that she was sitting on something uneven, she slid off Winston's knees on to the bench.\n\n'Beg pardon, dearie,' she said. 'I wouldn't 'a sat on you, only the buggers put me there. They dono 'ow to treat a lady, do they?'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She paused, patted her breast, and belched. 'Pardon,' she said, 'I ain't meself, quite.'\n\nShe leant forward and vomited copiously on the floor.\n\n'Thass better,' she said, leaning back with closed eyes." }, { "from": "human", "value": "'Never keep it down, thass what I say." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Get it up while it's fresh on your stomach, like.'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She revived, turned to have another look at Winston and seemed immediately to take a fancy to him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She put a vast arm round his shoulder and drew him towards her, breathing beer and vomit into his face." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'Wass your name, dearie?' she said.\n\n'Smith,' said Winston.\n\n'Smith?' said the woman. 'Thass funny. My name's Smith too." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Why,' she added sentimentally, 'I might be your mother!'\n\nShe might, thought Winston, be his mother. She was about the right age and physique, and it was probable that people changed somewhat after twenty years in a forced-labour camp.\n\nNo one else had spoken to him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "To a surprising extent the ordinary criminals ignored the Party prisoners. 'The polITS,' they called them, with a sort of uninterested contempt. The Party prisoners seemed terrified of speaking to anybody, and above all of speaking to one another. Only once, when two Party members, both women, were pressed close together on the bench, he overheard amid the din of voices a few hurriedly-whispered words; and in particular a reference to something called 'room one-oh-one', which he did not understand." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It might be two or three hours ago that they had brought him here. The dull pain in his belly never went away, but sometimes it grew better and sometimes worse, and his thoughts expanded or contracted accordingly. When it grew worse he thought only of the pain itself, and of his desire for food. When it grew better, panic took hold of him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "There were moments when he foresaw the things that would happen to him with such actuality that his heart galloped and his breath stopped." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He felt the smash of truncheons on his elbows and iron-shod boots on his shins; he saw himself grovelling on the floor, screaming for mercy through broken teeth. He hardly thought of Julia. He could not fix his mind on her. He loved her and would not betray her; but that was only a fact, known as he knew the rules of arithmetic." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He felt no love for her, and he hardly even wondered what was happening to her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He thought oftener of O'Brien, with a flickering hope. O'Brien might know that he had been arrested. The Brotherhood, he had said, never tried to save its members. But there was the razor blade; they would send the razor blade if they could." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There would be perhaps five seconds before the guard could rush into the cell. The blade would bite into him with a sort of burning coldness, and even the fingers that held it would be cut to the bone. Everything came back to his sick body, which shrank trembling from the smallest pain. He was not certain that he would use the razor blade even if he got the chance." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was more natural to exist from moment to moment, accepting another ten minutes' life even with the certainty that there was torture at the end of it.\n\nSometimes he tried to calculate the number of porcelain bricks in the walls of the cell. It should have been easy, but he always lost count at some point or another. More often he wondered where he was, and what time of day it was." }, { "from": "human", "value": "At one moment he felt certain that it was broad daylight outside, and at the next equally certain that it was pitch darkness." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In this place, he knew instinctively, the lights would never be turned out. It was the place with no darkness: he saw now why O'Brien had seemed to recognize the allusion. In the Ministry of Love there were no windows. His cell might be at the heart of the building or against its outer wall; it might be ten floors below ground, or thirty above it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He moved himself mentally from place to place, and tried to determine by the feeling of his body whether he was perched high in the air or buried deep underground.\n\nThere was a sound of marching boots outside. The steel door opened with a clang. A young officer, a trim black-uniformed figure who seemed to glitter all over with polished leather, and whose pale, straight-featured face was like a wax mask, stepped smartly through the doorway." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He motioned to the guards outside to bring in the prisoner they were leading." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The poet Ampleforth shambled into the cell." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The door clanged shut again." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Ampleforth made one or two uncertain movements from side to side, as though having some idea that there was another door to go out of, and then began to wander up and down the cell." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He had not yet noticed Winston's presence." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His troubled eyes were gazing at the wall about a metre above the level of Winston's head." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He was shoeless; large, dirty toes were sticking out of the holes in his socks." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He was also several days away from a shave." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A scrubby beard covered his face to the cheekbones, giving him an air of ruffianism that went oddly with his large weak frame and nervous movements.\n\nWinston roused himself a little from his lethargy. He must speak to Ampleforth, and risk the yell from the telescreen. It was even conceivable that Ampleforth was the bearer of the razor blade." }, { "from": "human", "value": "'Ampleforth,' he said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "There was no yell from the telescreen." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Ampleforth paused, mildly startled. His eyes focused themselves slowly on Winston.\n\n'Ah, Smith!' he said. 'You too!'\n\n'What are you in for?'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "'To tell you the truth--' He sat down awkwardly on the bench opposite Winston." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'There is only one offence, is there not?' he said.\n\n'And have you committed it?'\n\n'Apparently I have.'\n\nHe put a hand to his forehead and pressed his temples for a moment, as though trying to remember something." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'These things happen,' he began vaguely. 'I have been able to recall one instance--a possible instance. It was an indiscretion, undoubtedly. We were producing a definitive edition of the poems of Kipling." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I allowed the word \"God\" to remain at the end of a line." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I could not help it!' he added almost indignantly, raising his face to look at Winston. 'It was impossible to change the line. The rhyme was \"rod\"." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Do you realize that there are only twelve rhymes to \"rod\" in the entire language? For days I had racked my brains. There WAS no other rhyme.'\n\nThe expression on his face changed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The annoyance passed out of it and for a moment he looked almost pleased. A sort of intellectual warmth, the joy of the pedant who has found out some useless fact, shone through the dirt and scrubby hair.\n\n'Has it ever occurred to you,' he said, 'that the whole history of English poetry has been determined by the fact that the English language lacks rhymes?'\n\nNo, that particular thought had never occurred to Winston." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Nor, in the circumstances, did it strike him as very important or interesting.\n\n'Do you know what time of day it is?' he said.\n\nAmpleforth looked startled again. 'I had hardly thought about it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They arrested me--it could be two days ago--perhaps three.' His eyes flitted round the walls, as though he half expected to find a window somewhere. 'There is no difference between night and day in this place. I do not see how one can calculate the time.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They talked desultorily for some minutes, then, without apparent reason, a yell from the telescreen bade them be silent. Winston sat quietly, his hands crossed. Ampleforth, too large to sit in comfort on the narrow bench, fidgeted from side to side, clasping his lank hands first round one knee, then round the other. The telescreen barked at him to keep still." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Time passed. Twenty minutes, an hour--it was difficult to judge." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Once more there was a sound of boots outside. Winston's entrails contracted. Soon, very soon, perhaps in five minutes, perhaps now, the tramp of boots would mean that his own turn had come.\n\nThe door opened. The cold-faced young officer stepped into the cell. With a brief movement of the hand he indicated Ampleforth." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'Room 101,' he said.\n\nAmpleforth marched clumsily out between the guards, his face vaguely perturbed, but uncomprehending.\n\nWhat seemed like a long time passed. The pain in Winston's belly had revived." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His mind sagged round and round on the same trick, like a ball falling again and again into the same series of slots." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He had only six thoughts." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The pain in his belly; a piece of bread; the blood and the screaming; O'Brien; Julia; the razor blade. There was another spasm in his entrails, the heavy boots were approaching. As the door opened, the wave of air that it created brought in a powerful smell of cold sweat. Parsons walked into the cell." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He was wearing khaki shorts and a sports-shirt." }, { "from": "human", "value": "This time Winston was startled into self-forgetfulness." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'YOU here!' he said.\n\nParsons gave Winston a glance in which there was neither interest nor surprise, but only misery. He began walking jerkily up and down, evidently unable to keep still. Each time he straightened his pudgy knees it was apparent that they were trembling." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "His eyes had a wide-open, staring look, as though he could not prevent himself from gazing at something in the middle distance.\n\n'What are you in for?' said Winston.\n\n'Thoughtcrime!' said Parsons, almost blubbering. The tone of his voice implied at once a complete admission of his guilt and a sort of incredulous horror that such a word could be applied to himself." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He paused opposite Winston and began eagerly appealing to him: 'You don't think they'll shoot me, do you, old chap? They don't shoot you if you haven't actually done anything--only thoughts, which you can't help? I know they give you a fair hearing. Oh, I trust them for that!" }, { "from": "human", "value": "They'll know my record, won't they?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "YOU know what kind of chap I was. Not a bad chap in my way. Not brainy, of course, but keen. I tried to do my best for the Party, didn't I?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I'll get off with five years, don't you think?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Or even ten years? A chap like me could make himself pretty useful in a labour-camp. They wouldn't shoot me for going off the rails just once?'\n\n'Are you guilty?' said Winston." }, { "from": "human", "value": "'Of course I'm guilty!'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "cried Parsons with a servile glance at the telescreen." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'You don't think the Party would arrest an innocent man, do you?' His frog-like face grew calmer, and even took on a slightly sanctimonious expression. 'Thoughtcrime is a dreadful thing, old man,' he said sententiously. 'It's insidious. It can get hold of you without your even knowing it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Do you know how it got hold of me? In my sleep! Yes, that's a fact. There I was, working away, trying to do my bit--never knew I had any bad stuff in my mind at all. And then I started talking in my sleep." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Do you know what they heard me saying?'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He sank his voice, like someone who is obliged for medical reasons to utter an obscenity." }, { "from": "human", "value": "'\"Down with Big Brother!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Yes, I said that! Said it over and over again, it seems. Between you and me, old man, I'm glad they got me before it went any further. Do you know what I'm going to say to them when I go up before the tribunal?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Thank you,\" I'm going to say, \"thank you for saving me before it was too late.\"'\n\n'Who denounced you?' said Winston.\n\n'It was my little daughter,' said Parsons with a sort of doleful pride. 'She listened at the keyhole." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Heard what I was saying, and nipped off to the patrols the very next day. Pretty smart for a nipper of seven, eh? I don't bear her any grudge for it. In fact I'm proud of her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It shows I brought her up in the right spirit, anyway.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He made a few more jerky movements up and down, several times, casting a longing glance at the lavatory pan. Then he suddenly ripped down his shorts.\n\n'Excuse me, old man,' he said. 'I can't help it. It's the waiting.'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He plumped his large posterior into the lavatory pan. Winston covered his face with his hands.\n\n'Smith!' yelled the voice from the telescreen. '6079 Smith W.! Uncover your face." }, { "from": "human", "value": "No faces covered in the cells.'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Winston uncovered his face." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Parsons used the lavatory, loudly and abundantly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It then turned out that the plug was defective and the cell stank abominably for hours afterwards.\n\nParsons was removed. More prisoners came and went, mysteriously. One, a woman, was consigned to 'Room 101', and, Winston noticed, seemed to shrivel and turn a different colour when she heard the words. A time came when, if it had been morning when he was brought here, it would be afternoon; or if it had been afternoon, then it would be midnight." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There were six prisoners in the cell, men and women. All sat very still. Opposite Winston there sat a man with a chinless, toothy face exactly like that of some large, harmless rodent. His fat, mottled cheeks were so pouched at the bottom that it was difficult not to believe that he had little stores of food tucked away there." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "His pale-grey eyes flitted timorously from face to face and turned quickly away again when he caught anyone's eye.\n\nThe door opened, and another prisoner was brought in whose appearance sent a momentary chill through Winston. He was a commonplace, mean-looking man who might have been an engineer or technician of some kind. But what was startling was the emaciation of his face." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was like a skull. Because of its thinness the mouth and eyes looked disproportionately large, and the eyes seemed filled with a murderous, unappeasable hatred of somebody or something.\n\nThe man sat down on the bench at a little distance from Winston. Winston did not look at him again, but the tormented, skull-like face was as vivid in his mind as though it had been straight in front of his eyes." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Suddenly he realized what was the matter. The man was dying of starvation. The same thought seemed to occur almost simultaneously to everyone in the cell. There was a very faint stirring all the way round the bench." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The eyes of the chinless man kept flitting towards the skull-faced man, then turning guiltily away, then being dragged back by an irresistible attraction. Presently he began to fidget on his seat. At last he stood up, waddled clumsily across the cell, dug down into the pocket of his overalls, and, with an abashed air, held out a grimy piece of bread to the skull-faced man.\n\nThere was a furious, deafening roar from the telescreen." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The chinless man jumped in his tracks. The skull-faced man had quickly thrust his hands behind his back, as though demonstrating to all the world that he refused the gift.\n\n'Bumstead!' roared the voice. '2713 Bumstead J.! Let fall that piece of bread!'" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The chinless man dropped the piece of bread on the floor.\n\n'Remain standing where you are,' said the voice. 'Face the door. Make no movement.'\n\nThe chinless man obeyed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His large pouchy cheeks were quivering uncontrollably." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The door clanged open. As the young officer entered and stepped aside, there emerged from behind him a short stumpy guard with enormous arms and shoulders. He took his stand opposite the chinless man, and then, at a signal from the officer, let free a frightful blow, with all the weight of his body behind it, full in the chinless man's mouth. The force of it seemed almost to knock him clear of the floor." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "His body was flung across the cell and fetched up against the base of the lavatory seat. For a moment he lay as though stunned, with dark blood oozing from his mouth and nose. A very faint whimpering or squeaking, which seemed unconscious, came out of him. Then he rolled over and raised himself unsteadily on hands and knees." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Amid a stream of blood and saliva, the two halves of a dental plate fell out of his mouth." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The prisoners sat very still, their hands crossed on their knees. The chinless man climbed back into his place. Down one side of his face the flesh was darkening. His mouth had swollen into a shapeless cherry-coloured mass with a black hole in the middle of it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "From time to time a little blood dripped on to the breast of his overalls. His grey eyes still flitted from face to face, more guiltily than ever, as though he were trying to discover how much the others despised him for his humiliation.\n\nThe door opened. With a small gesture the officer indicated the skull-faced man.\n\n'Room 101,' he said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "There was a gasp and a flurry at Winston's side." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The man had actually flung himself on his knees on the floor, with his hand clasped together." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'Comrade! Officer!' he cried. 'You don't have to take me to that place! Haven't I told you everything already? What else is it you want to know?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "There's nothing I wouldn't confess, nothing!" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Just tell me what it is and I'll confess straight off." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Write it down and I'll sign it--anything! Not room 101!'\n\n'Room 101,' said the officer.\n\nThe man's face, already very pale, turned a colour Winston would not have believed possible. It was definitely, unmistakably, a shade of green." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'Do anything to me!' he yelled. 'You've been starving me for weeks. Finish it off and let me die. Shoot me. Hang me." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Sentence me to twenty-five years. Is there somebody else you want me to give away? Just say who it is and I'll tell you anything you want. I don't care who it is or what you do to them." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I've got a wife and three children." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The biggest of them isn't six years old. You can take the whole lot of them and cut their throats in front of my eyes, and I'll stand by and watch it. But not Room 101!'\n\n'Room 101,' said the officer." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The man looked frantically round at the other prisoners, as though with some idea that he could put another victim in his own place." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "His eyes settled on the smashed face of the chinless man. He flung out a lean arm.\n\n'That's the one you ought to be taking, not me!' he shouted. 'You didn't hear what he was saying after they bashed his face." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Give me a chance and I'll tell you every word of it. HE'S the one that's against the Party, not me.' The guards stepped forward. The man's voice rose to a shriek." }, { "from": "human", "value": "'You didn't hear him!' he repeated." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'Something went wrong with the telescreen. HE'S the one you want. Take him, not me!'\n\nThe two sturdy guards had stooped to take him by the arms." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But just at this moment he flung himself across the floor of the cell and grabbed one of the iron legs that supported the bench. He had set up a wordless howling, like an animal. The guards took hold of him to wrench him loose, but he clung on with astonishing strength. For perhaps twenty seconds they were hauling at him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The prisoners sat quiet, their hands crossed on their knees, looking straight in front of them." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The howling stopped; the man had no breath left for anything except hanging on. Then there was a different kind of cry. A kick from a guard's boot had broken the fingers of one of his hands. They dragged him to his feet." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'Room 101,' said the officer.\n\nThe man was led out, walking unsteadily, with head sunken, nursing his crushed hand, all the fight had gone out of him.\n\nA long time passed. If it had been midnight when the skull-faced man was taken away, it was morning: if morning, it was afternoon." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Winston was alone, and had been alone for hours. The pain of sitting on the narrow bench was such that often he got up and walked about, unreproved by the telescreen. The piece of bread still lay where the chinless man had dropped it. At the beginning it needed a hard effort not to look at it, but presently hunger gave way to thirst." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His mouth was sticky and evil-tasting." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The humming sound and the unvarying white light induced a sort of faintness, an empty feeling inside his head." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He would get up because the ache in his bones was no longer bearable, and then would sit down again almost at once because he was too dizzy to make sure of staying on his feet." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Whenever his physical sensations were a little under control the terror returned. Sometimes with a fading hope he thought of O'Brien and the razor blade. It was thinkable that the razor blade might arrive concealed in his food, if he were ever fed. More dimly he thought of Julia." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Somewhere or other she was suffering perhaps far worse than he. She might be screaming with pain at this moment. He thought: 'If I could save Julia by doubling my own pain, would I do it? Yes, I would.' But that was merely an intellectual decision, taken because he knew that he ought to take it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He did not feel it. In this place you could not feel anything, except pain and foreknowledge of pain. Besides, was it possible, when you were actually suffering it, to wish for any reason that your own pain should increase? But that question was not answerable yet." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The boots were approaching again. The door opened. O'Brien came in.\n\nWinston started to his feet. The shock of the sight had driven all caution out of him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "For the first time in many years he forgot the presence of the telescreen.\n\n'They've got you too!' he cried.\n\n'They got me a long time ago,' said O'Brien with a mild, almost regretful irony. He stepped aside. From behind him there emerged a broad-chested guard with a long black truncheon in his hand." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'You know this, Winston,' said O'Brien. 'Don't deceive yourself. You did know it--you have always known it.'\n\nYes, he saw now, he had always known it. But there was no time to think of that." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "All he had eyes for was the truncheon in the guard's hand. It might fall anywhere; on the crown, on the tip of the ear, on the upper arm, on the elbow—\n\nThe elbow! He had slumped to his knees, almost paralysed, clasping the stricken elbow with his other hand. Everything had exploded into yellow light." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Inconceivable, inconceivable that one blow could cause such pain! The light cleared and he could see the other two looking down at him. The guard was laughing at his contortions. One question at any rate was answered." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "im ur writing buddy. i set scene, u do 7 sentences like George Orwell" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But then there came a sort of check. His mind, as though shying away from something, seemed unable to concentrate. He knew that he knew what came next, but for the moment he could not recall it. When he did recall it, it was only by consciously reasoning out what it must be: it did not come of its own accord. He wrote:\n\nGOD IS POWER\n\nHe accepted everything. The past was alterable. The past never had been altered." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Oceania was at war with Eastasia." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Oceania had always been at war with Eastasia." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Jones, Aaronson, and Rutherford were guilty of the crimes they were charged with. He had never seen the photograph that disproved their guilt. It had never existed, he had invented it. He remembered remembering contrary things, but those were false memories, products of self-deception. How easy it all was! Only surrender, and everything else followed. It was like swimming against a current that swept you backwards however hard you struggled, and then suddenly deciding to turn round and go with the current instead of opposing it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Nothing had changed except your own attitude: the predestined thing happened in any case. He hardly knew why he had ever rebelled. Everything was easy, except—!\n\nAnything could be true. The so-called laws of Nature were nonsense. The law of gravity was nonsense. 'If I wished,' O'Brien had said, 'I could float off this floor like a soap bubble.'" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Winston worked it out." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'If he THINKS he floats off the floor, and if I simultaneously THINK I see him do it, then the thing happens.' Suddenly, like a lump of submerged wreckage breaking the surface of water, the thought burst into his mind: 'It doesn't really happen. We imagine it. It is hallucination.' He pushed the thought under instantly. The fallacy was obvious. It presupposed that somewhere or other, outside oneself, there was a 'real' world where 'real' things happened. But how could there be such a world?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "What knowledge have we of anything, save through our own minds?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "All happenings are in the mind. Whatever happens in all minds, truly happens.\n\nHe had no difficulty in disposing of the fallacy, and he was in no danger of succumbing to it. He realized, nevertheless, that it ought never to have occurred to him. The mind should develop a blind spot whenever a dangerous thought presented itself. The process should be automatic, instinctive. CRIMESTOP, they called it in Newspeak." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He set to work to exercise himself in crimestop." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He presented himself with propositions--'the Party says the earth is flat', 'the party says that ice is heavier than water'--and trained himself in not seeing or not understanding the arguments that contradicted them." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was not easy. It needed great powers of reasoning and improvisation. The arithmetical problems raised, for instance, by such a statement as 'two and two make five' were beyond his intellectual grasp. It needed also a sort of athleticism of mind, an ability at one moment to make the most delicate use of logic and at the next to be unconscious of the crudest logical errors. Stupidity was as necessary as intelligence, and as difficult to attain.\n\nAll the while, with one part of his mind, he wondered how soon they would shoot him. 'Everything depends on yourself,' O'Brien had said; but he knew that there was no conscious act by which he could bring it nearer." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It might be ten minutes hence, or ten years. They might keep him for years in solitary confinement, they might send him to a labour-camp, they might release him for a while, as they sometimes did. It was perfectly possible that before he was shot the whole drama of his arrest and interrogation would be enacted all over again. The one certain thing was that death never came at an expected moment. The tradition--the unspoken tradition: somehow you knew it, though you never heard it said--was that they shot you from behind; always in the back of the head, without warning, as you walked down a corridor from cell to cell.\n\nOne day--but 'one day' was not the right expression; just as probably it was in the middle of the night: once--he fell into a strange, blissful reverie. He was walking down the corridor, waiting for the bullet." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He knew that it was coming in another moment." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Everything was settled, smoothed out, reconciled. There were no more doubts, no more arguments, no more pain, no more fear. His body was healthy and strong. He walked easily, with a joy of movement and with a feeling of walking in sunlight. He was not any longer in the narrow white corridors in the Ministry of Love, he was in the enormous sunlit passage, a kilometre wide, down which he had seemed to walk in the delirium induced by drugs. He was in the Golden Country, following the foot-track across the old rabbit-cropped pasture. He could feel the short springy turf under his feet and the gentle sunshine on his face." }, { "from": "human", "value": "At the edge of the field were the elm trees, faintly stirring, and somewhere beyond that was the stream where the dace lay in the green pools under the willows." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Suddenly he started up with a shock of horror. The sweat broke out on his backbone. He had heard himself cry aloud:\n\n'Julia! Julia! Julia, my love! Julia!'\n\nFor a moment he had had an overwhelming hallucination of her presence. She had seemed to be not merely with him, but inside him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was as though she had got into the texture of his skin. In that moment he had loved her far more than he had ever done when they were together and free. Also he knew that somewhere or other she was still alive and needed his help.\n\nHe lay back on the bed and tried to compose himself. What had he done? How many years had he added to his servitude by that moment of weakness?\n\nIn another moment he would hear the tramp of boots outside." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They could not let such an outburst go unpunished. They would know now, if they had not known before, that he was breaking the agreement he had made with them. He obeyed the Party, but he still hated the Party. In the old days he had hidden a heretical mind beneath an appearance of conformity. Now he had retreated a step further: in the mind he had surrendered, but he had hoped to keep the inner heart inviolate. He knew that he was in the wrong, but he preferred to be in the wrong. They would understand that--O'Brien would understand it." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was all confessed in that single foolish cry." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He would have to start all over again. It might take years. He ran a hand over his face, trying to familiarize himself with the new shape. There were deep furrows in the cheeks, the cheekbones felt sharp, the nose flattened. Besides, since last seeing himself in the glass he had been given a complete new set of teeth. It was not easy to preserve inscrutability when you did not know what your face looked like. In any case, mere control of the features was not enough." }, { "from": "human", "value": "For the first time he perceived that if you want to keep a secret you must also hide it from yourself." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "You must know all the while that it is there, but until it is needed you must never let it emerge into your consciousness in any shape that could be given a name. From now onwards he must not only think right; he must feel right, dream right. And all the while he must keep his hatred locked up inside him like a ball of matter which was part of himself and yet unconnected with the rest of him, a kind of cyst.\n\nOne day they would decide to shoot him. You could not tell when it would happen, but a few seconds beforehand it should be possible to guess. It was always from behind, walking down a corridor. Ten seconds would be enough." }, { "from": "human", "value": "In that time the world inside him could turn over." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And then suddenly, without a word uttered, without a check in his step, without the changing of a line in his face--suddenly the camouflage would be down and bang! would go the batteries of his hatred. Hatred would fill him like an enormous roaring flame. And almost in the same instant bang! would go the bullet, too late, or too early. They would have blown his brain to pieces before they could reclaim it. The heretical thought would be unpunished, unrepented, out of their reach for ever." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They would have blown a hole in their own perfection." }, { "from": "human", "value": "To die hating them, that was freedom." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He shut his eyes. It was more difficult than accepting an intellectual discipline. It was a question of degrading himself, mutilating himself. He had got to plunge into the filthiest of filth. What was the most horrible, sickening thing of all? He thought of Big Brother. The enormous face (because of constantly seeing it on posters he always thought of it as being a metre wide), with its heavy black moustache and the eyes that followed you to and fro, seemed to float into his mind of its own accord." }, { "from": "human", "value": "What were his true feelings towards Big Brother?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There was a heavy tramp of boots in the passage. The steel door swung open with a clang. O'Brien walked into the cell. Behind him were the waxen-faced officer and the black-uniformed guards.\n\n'Get up,' said O'Brien. 'Come here.'\n\nWinston stood opposite him. O'Brien took Winston's shoulders between his strong hands and looked at him closely." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "'You have had thoughts of deceiving me,' he said. 'That was stupid. Stand up straighter. Look me in the face.'\n\nHe paused, and went on in a gentler tone:\n\n'You are improving. Intellectually there is very little wrong with you. It is only emotionally that you have failed to make progress. Tell me, Winston--and remember, no lies: you know that I am always able to detect a lie--tell me, what are your true feelings towards Big Brother?'" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "seven sentences sentences in Akahige Namban style, continuing user's bit" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The city of Edo stretched out around Goemon and Jiro for what looked like forever. It was the greatest city in the world. The two men, one tall, the other shorter, approached the massive gates of the shogun's castle with trepidation. The massive walls, surrounded by a moat and built in a spiral-enclosed design, loomed massively before them. The gate was set in a large square donjon, topped by a white-walled, tiled guardhouse. They were about to approach one of the low-ranking samurai who, armed with staves, forbade entry to the unbidden, when a figure detached itself from the shadow of the gate. The young samurai, exquisitely dressed, his forehead shaven and shining in the spring sun, bowed to them." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You are the gentlemen from Miyako. Follow me, please.\" Without a word he turned and walked into the castle. As they walked deeper and deeper into the maze, its extent became clear. Far from being a mere castle, it was a veritable city, containing offices and storehouses, barracks, strong points, and still more castles within its nesting walls and moats. They passed men by the hundreds, hurrying to and fro. Many wore the uniforms of low-ranking retainers and samurai of the shogun or of the Tokugawa clan of which he was the head. A few wore the crests of other clans from the great and lesser fiefs across the land." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Still fewer were dressed with the opulence of the young exquisite who led Jiro and Goemon." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was a busy administrative quarter, the seat of government of thirty million souls, and the warrior was making way for the bureaucrat.\n\nAt each gate or postern their guide would motion to them to wait. He would talk quietly with the commander of the gate's guard, and they would be passed without a question. They walked for what seemed like several miles through the labyrinth. At last they came to an inconspicuous gate in one of the numerous guardhouses. Jiro and Goemon were motioned through, and the door shut rapidly behind them. Both men came to a sudden stop." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Four bared swords were aimed at their throats." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The silk-clad young samurai who had led them there bowed slightly and disappeared through a sliding door. Behind the four armed men who faced them stood another. He was elderly, and his topknot was gray and wispy, but his stance, brocade robes, and gold sword furnishings bespoke power, wealth, and authority.\n\nHe bowed slightly to the two men from Miyako. \"A bath is prepared for you.\"\n\nJiro and Goemon looked at one another with surprise. The offer of the bath was perfectly in order, but the reception that came with it was not." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A rack stood ready to receive their swords." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Jiro surrendered his long one but kept the shorter wakizashi, or \"guardian of honor.\" They followed the elderly man, who had omitted giving his name, down a series of polished wood galleries. Their way was lit by paper windows high up in the walls.\n\nThe bathroom was luxurious. The bath full of steaming water was of fragrant cedar. The fittings were of lacquered and gilt brass. They stripped and washed themselves under the eyes of their escort." }, { "from": "human", "value": "When they were to dress, they were supplied with formal wear: white silk underkimono tied with a soft sash, gray loose trousers, and a stiff gray surcoat, the shoulders of which were twice as broad as their own." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Their hair was made up and oiled by a silent servitor." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "At last they were conveyed through another series of rooms and corridors to a small, poorly lit anteroom. The sliding doors before them were guarded by two kneeling samurai in formal wear, both wearing the house crest of the shogun on their breasts. A crack of light shone through the sliding doors, and they could hear a voice, which seemed to be dictating a letter. At last it finished. There was a command.\n\nThe old man who had escorted them announced throatily, \"The Presence!\" They all bowed low, foreheads to the floor." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Genpichi, have them advance,\" a pleasant voice called out." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Genpichi, Jiro, and Goemon advanced, then knelt and bowed deeply again." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You may rise.\"\n\nTheir trunks erect, they faced their sovereign in all but name, dictator of Japan, the Sei-i-tai shogun, their personal liege lord. The shogun was a hard-faced man of middle age. His hair was graying, and there were lines on his face. He was seated on a low dais, a convenient armrest by his side. The alcove behind him held an antique sword in a gold-and-ivory mounting.\n\n\"Miura Jiro.\" the shogun looked long and hard at the giant samurai before him; then his gaze swept to Jiro's companion. \"Goemon.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Each bowed as his name was called. The shogun rose." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I have heard somewhat about you from Hanzo. I am interested in good swordsmen and loyal servants.\" Abruptly he added, \"Follow me!\" and walked to a side door that opened at his approach. \"Genpichi, wait here,\" he threw over his shoulder as he walked out. The other two rose hurriedly and followed him.\n\nThey followed the shogun across a small canal on an arched bridge. Before them loomed a blank white wall topped by tiles with the Tokugawa crest." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Set in the wall was a single heavily riveted door." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Before the door stood two samurai." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As they saw the three men approaching, the two took a step forward. The shogun motioned Goemon and Jiro to wait, and they stood on the arch of the bridge. The shogun approached the two guards. They stepped aside, their eyes on the two on the bridge, hands hovering near their sword hilts.\n\nOne of them knocked his fist against the door. A small spyhole opened at eye level. The shogun whispered at it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The two guards knelt motionless on either side, eyes fixed before them. The iron-studded gate opened. The shogun slipped through and stood on the threshold. He said something in a low voice.\n\nOne of the guards called out, \"You may approach.\"\n\nGoemon and Jiro stepped through the barred gate, and it closed behind them. They were in a small courtyard." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Square paving stones made a path to the side, where a stone lantern overlooked a small washing trough." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A single bamboo clump swayed over them. The shogun stood before another door, riveted as the first had been. Jiro turned his head. The gatekeepers were two elderly women. Their faces were lined, but their carriage was erect. They were dressed in cuirasses and light metal head protectors. Each carried two swords and a halberd." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They stood perfectly motionless, one to either side of the gate, facing each other." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The shogun called out, \"I am here!\" The second gate swung open onto an anteroom. The shogun motioned Jiro and Goemon to follow. They entered the shogun's House of Women. Behind them, the doors closed. The shogun turned and looked at them.\n\n\"These precautions are troublesome but necessary. As you can see, I have guards inside, too.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The two men turned." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The gatekeepers were again women, armored and armed like those outside. But these were distinctly different: they were young girls blooming with youth. The pale pink kimono worn by one, the sleeves and collar of which were visible, contrasted pleasantly with the pale yellow worn by the other. This would be the only opportunity to examine the shogun's women, Jiro decided, and he would do it carefully. He decided that Pink Sleeves was the younger of the two. She had the full, round face and high hairline of the classical Miyako beauty. Her severe expression was belied by the tiny rosebud mouth." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Her hair was held high behind her by a gold band." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Yellow Robe was thinner, darker than the other, with a smooth, longish face and arching eyebrows.\n\nGoemon, more used to upper-class women, examined their surroundings. The room was a small one. The farther half was a platform of polished and lacquered wood. They stood on a floor of inset black and white river pebbles. A scroll depicting a mythical animal—a lion—hung at his left. At his right hung another scroll, of the crescent moon." }, { "from": "human", "value": "At the far end was a sliding fusuma door, lightly painted with images of mountains swathed by clouds in very pale colors." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Behind the door Goemon could faintly hear sounds of activity and women's voices.\n\nThe shogun dropped his lacquered wooden sandals and stepped up onto the platform. Instead of proceeding, he turned and sat dawn. He looked steadily at Goemon and Jiro.\n\n\"I choose only the best, as you know. These women, for instance\"—he indicated the two samurai girls with a wave—\"they are my women but also my samurai. It is good, I think, for all my servants to work harmoniously. I think you should be encouraged to combine your forces. I have heard much of your abilities. I do not want to have my women damaged in any way. So... you may have these women now.\" He indicated the two armed guards with his hand and laughed. Without a change of expression he added to the guards, \"Kill them!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There was no warning, no time to think. Pink Sleeves' halberd, which had stood at her side since the door had been closed, made a whistling arc and flew straight at Jiro's neck. Yellow Robe moved her left hand forward and her right hand back and then stabbed at Goemon with her own pole weapon.\n\nJiro twirled aside to his left. He grasped the wooden shaft of the halberd with his right hand, adding force to the direction the blade was going. He twisted his body to the right and brought the pole forward over his left shoulder and pulled. Rather than fly over with her weapon, the woman samurai let go, and drawing her short sword, she stabbed at Jiro's exposed back." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In a flash he had shifted the direction of his torso. He rammed the butt of the halberd into the woman's exposed midriff. She ooffed and doubled over. Jiro rose to his feet.\n\nThe shogun was laughing. \"Well,\" he said in a rough voice, \"what are you waiting for? I said, 'Have her.'\"\n\nJiro paused for a fraction of a second." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Pink Sleeves was trying to stagger away from him and draw her long sword at the same time. There was a whisper. Jiro's short blade leaped from its scabbard. He took a step forward, and the tip of his blade cut up the length of the girl's body, from buttocks to nape. The shogun's jaws clicked together.\n\nJiro returned his sword to its scabbard in a single movement. The girl struggled to extricate her sword, but suddenly her movements were hampered as the cuirass, its supporting cords cut, fell to the floor with a thud." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The back of her kimono parted in a long cut, and the wide sash and ties of her wide trousers, used to hold the swords, parted." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The white-skinned, perfectly smooth back was unmarred. Her scabbards fell to the floor. The tops of two plump, pale buttocks appeared, the split between them showing to half its length.\n\nJiro pulled at his scabbard and loosened the silk cord that secured it in its sash. With several efficient movements he tied the girl's hands behind her back. Her breath was still coming in harsh grunts, but he knew that if he did not take precautions, she would emasculate, then kill him, with her hands if necessary. The entire fight, from start to finish, had taken less than ten seconds." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He held Pink Sleeves by the neck with his left, while his right pulled his cock free." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "His eyes were held by those of the shogun, who looked on with tolerant amusement.\n\nHe felt the smooth plumpness of the girl's ass for a moment. She tried to struggle, but his enormous hand held her still by the nape. The crack of her ass was a warm crevice. His middle finger felt the tiny clenched dot of her asshole and passed on. Through a grove of incredibly soft curls he finally reached her tight hole. Not surprisingly, it was dry, and his questing finger could find no delighting moisture until it penetrated deep into the narrow channel." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He worked his finger in and out for a moment. The humidity increased imperceptibly, though the girl shuddered as she tried to avoid the questing finger.\n\nJiro took his hand away. He had no wish to hurt the girl. To the contrary: he might possibly be the only man, besides the shogun, who would ever have her, and he wanted the memory to be a good one. He filled his mouth with saliva and spat onto his fingers. An intoxicating smell rose to his nostrils from the digit that had entered her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He moistened it thoroughly, then inserted it again into her orifice." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The welcome this time was perceptibly warmer. His finger slid up her channel easily. It slid out again, leaving a trail of saliva, and moved up to the tiny nub of the clitoris. Impatient now, Jiro spread her legs. Unresisting, they parted, and he pushed forward.\n\nShe gasped for a moment as she felt the size of his cock. Her lower lips spread as he pushed slowly but inexorably in." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Though her channel had been slightly moistened, the penetration caused her some pain." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She gasped again, but the battering pressure did not go away. Slowly he slid his engorged cock up the length of her narrow, rubbery insides. He could feel every fold in the tube. It gripped the length of his member with a firm yet yielding grasp.\n\nAt last the rough curls at the root of his manhood scraped against her soft ass. They remained there, suspended for a moment in time. He soaked luxuriously in her warmth, she enjoying the unexpected shaft." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His fingers remained busy." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Gently he tweaked the nubbin of her clitoris, rubbing the fleshy lips over the sensitive button so as not to irritate it. She responded with approval, and tension left her body. He entwined his fingers in the straight beard that hid the lips of her cunt, then rubbed a tiny pinch of hair against the most sensitive spot. Her body jerked in response, and he increased the pressure.\n\nHe took a chance and removed his other hand from her neck, sliding it down her body. While one hand supported her hips, the other squeezed her hanging tits, cupping them, then flattening each gently against her ribcage. His hand descended, and he stroked her muscular belly gently." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The skin quivered to his touch, and he could hear a slight moan." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He felt her smooth ass, slipping his fingers into the crack, then lingering on each perfect mound.\n\nThen both hands were on her hips, and he pulled back. She protested the withdrawal of the feast between her lower lips. He pushed forward once, and she subsided. He withdrew again, and half the length of his shaft, coated with glistening dew, became visible to the sole spectator. Looking down, Jiro examined his prick with satisfaction for a moment, then shoved it back again with satisfaction.\n\nNow he set to work to fuck her in earnest." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The movements of his hands and hips were coordinated." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He pulled her to him as he shoved his hips forward, withdrawing more slowly. Again and again, at a greater speed, he moved the two of them. The girl was gasping now with expectation and pleasure. Her juices were running freely. A short tremor overcame her, and she came, biting her lip.\n\nBut Jiro was not ready yet. His movements became frenzied." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He pulled her erect and bit her neck and shoulders." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He was too tall for her, and her legs wound around his calves. His hands at her hips supported her body while moving her up and down his slick shaft.\n\n\"Ooh, ooooh!\" she cried, almost senseless with the motion.\n\nJiro buried his mouth in her neck and closed his eyes as the violence of his own pumping orgasm overcame him. He groaned inarticulately as a flood of creamy liquid rushed the length of his furious pole and inundated the girl before him. His hips ground into her ass carelessly, mashing them almost flat into the bones of his pelvis. He felt as if the top of his head were bursting." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Slowly the spasms died down and the movements ceased. Jiro remembered his friend suddenly. He opened his eyes and looked around in time to see the end of Goemon's affair.\n\nGoemon was too busy with his own problems to follow Jiro's activities. Yellow Robe's thrust was aimed at his belly, and the wooden platform, which ran around three sides of the room, did not allow him room to maneuver. He leaped into the air, pulling out a wide purple silk kerchief from the bosom of his robe. The kerchief was part of his disguise as a doctor, and he rarely parted from it." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He had held on to it even when dressed in the clothes supplied after the bath." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The kerchief deflected the blow. In a flash, Yellow Robe withdrew her weapon, raised it above her head, and brought it down in a cut at his head. Holding the kerchief in both hands, he tried to deflect the blow, but it was only a feint. The polearm spun, and she cut at his feet. Again he leaped into the air, and she stabbed at him a second time.\n\nThis time he managed to loop the kerchief around the shaft of the weapon. Hastily he immobilized the thrust, then leaped in and grabbed at the guard." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She dropped her weapon, seized his lapel, turned, and threw him over her head." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He fell heavily against the door." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She hit at him with the hilt of her great sword. Stunned, he fell to the ground. Almost leisurely, she drew and cut at his supine body. His sweeping kick took her off guard. The sword flew from her grasp as she fell.\n\nThey rolled over and over on the ground, neither getting an advantage until Goemon pinned her against the wall. She tried to bite at his neck, but here his knowledge of anatomy was her downfall." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His left hand snaked up between their bodies, and his fingers pressed hard against known nerve centers." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She struggled for a while, almost dislodging him, until he found the points he wanted in her body that were not covered by armor. With a convulsive effort, he struck at those spots in succession. She went limp, paralyzed by the pressure. Goemon breathed heavily and rolled off her. He looked up. The other girl was standing bent over, her kimono dangling on the floor. Jiro's powerful frame was driving his stiff cock steadily into her. Goemon could see the girl's face." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Sweat beaded her forehead, and her eyes were almost closed. Her breath was coming in whimpers, which seemed to be of a rising pleasure. The shogun's eyes now turned to Goemon, and he turned back to his own affairs.\n\nThe girl lay on the pebbled floor at his feet. Effortlessly—she weighed much less than Rosamund—he picked her up and laid her on the wooden floor. He knew he had little time before the paralysis wore off, and he swiftly stripped the girl of her armor and clothing and stripped himself. He spread her unresisting legs and positioned himself on his knees between them." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He considered for a moment, then took the girl's wrists and bent them behind and under her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Plump breasts tipped with dark brown, erect nipples stared at him, forced up by her arched back." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He ran his tongue slowly over one, and then the other, then bit each in turn gently." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He sucked hungrily at them in turn, forcing first one and then the other as deeply as he could into his mouth." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The girl tried feebly to struggle, but the effect of Goemon's blows slowed her movements. Still holding her wrists behind her, he moved backward. His tongue, plentifully moistened by saliva, drew a track down the middle of her chest. He paused a while at the well of her belly button, leaving a moist round pucker. His chin grazed the forest of crisp black hairs, and he took a few in his teeth and tugged at them. His lower lip reached the beginning of her lower lips, and he moved his head right and left, teasing the two rolls of flesh. His mouth moved lower, and he fixed onto the tiny drenched button of her clitoris." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His tongue teased at it for a moment or two, rolling over and under it, moistening it as roughly as he could with his oral digit." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Then he plunged hungrily into her narrow opening. His tongue pushed in as far as it could go, and his lips covered as much of hers as he could.\n\nShe began to react to the treatment. Her ass jerked up, and through the thighs that blocked his ears, Goemon fancied he could hear a muted moaning. He dug furiously into her, trying to be careful but nipping her tender flesh inadvertently with his teeth. The moisture was coming hard and free now, and his lower face was covered. Now she was holding him with her thighs, and her imprisoned hands seemed to be begging to be let loose for other reasons than to kill him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Much as he wanted to, Goemon could not let go, knowing that as a samurai she would obey her master's command even in the throes of her pleasure." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She came in an explosive climax that almost wrenched her hands out of his grip and drenched his face with musky dew. Before the spasms had died down, he was on his knees between her legs. His fleshy sword penetrated her flooded channel easily, gliding up the length of her cunt. Her legs gripped him convulsively. Unable to move her hands, she stroked his strong thighs and buttocks with her feet and calves.\n\nAt first his movements were controlled and regular. Looking down into her sweaty face, he licked her lips, her neck, and her shoulders." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His mouth dipped lower, and by pulling on her arms, he brought her tits to greater prominence and sucked and lightly bit the nipples." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As his own pleasure rose in his balls, his strokes became harder and less controlled. He rammed himself furiously home as his cream erupted the length of his prick and flooded her glowing channel. Her legs clutched at him once again convulsively, and they both collapsed in exhausted satisfaction. Goemon looked up from his companion just in time to see his friend climax too.\n\nThe shogun looked from one couple to the other. \"Very impressive. Dress yourselves and follow me.\" He turned to the two guards." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"These men are now under my protection. You have done well. You will attend me tonight. Tell the majordomo.\"" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 2 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The girls, who had rolled to their knees when he addressed them, bowed in gratitude. Goemon's last look at them as he followed the shogun and Jiro through the door was of two rounded sets of buttocks and sweaty backs poking up in the air." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Hey can you write like Akahige Namban in the Historical Fantasy, Erotica, Japan genre and use whatever I write as a jumping off point?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Well?\" asked Goemon as they walked away from the Chinese quarter." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Superb,\" answered his friend." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"We shall have to teach Okiku and Rosamund some of her tricks.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"They'll kill us if we tell them we had fun without them.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"And had to pay for it as well! We shall have to send an appropriate gift to redeem my tobacco box and your netsuke toggle. They have our crests...\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Well, let's do that quietly once we return to Miyako. I'll have to give some extra writing lessons, I imagine, to earn the sum, and I'll have to hide it from Okiku, but it was worth it.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Goemon poked his giant friend in the ribs." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I introduced you; I'll pay the tab. They'll never know. I'll hide it in official accounts, under Information Received from Agents.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "His voice turned serious." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I hope you were not too besotted to note the information she gave us.\"" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 2 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I didn't want to bring attention to the matter, though I assumed you'd noticed,\" answered Jiro with asperity. \"We're going to have to split up. I will fulfill Saizo's commission with this Rokuro character. You must return to Miyako. I don't know how, but you must find this azalea lover. I feel more and more sure that we are on the track of our man.\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Provide 4 sentences as a continuation in the Historical Fantasy, Erotica, Japan genre." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Satsuki straightened her torso. Obligingly, Rokuro stopped his pumping. His thick cock lay quiescent in her while his hands pinched her erect nipples. He nibbled gently at her ear while she arranged herself on his lap, careful not to disturb the wonderful instrument in her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He was her first client, and she wanted his time with her, short as it was to be, to be perfect. She reached carefully for the biwa and began playing softly. Her body swayed to the rhythm of the music, rubbing her inside tissues against his tumescence. He smiled in delight and closed his eyes." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She switched to a more rollicking tune, a country ballad, and the speed of her motions increased." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Finally she started playing the music of the Awa dance." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His hands beat the cadence on her thighs, her back, her buttocks, while her ass rose and bounced on his prick in ever-increasing tempo." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He oofed every time she came down." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Now the tempo raced. She closed her eyes to slits in pleasure and added a sideways shake to her dancing, just as the dancers did when aroused. She felt her nipples expanding, and her cunt opened, wanting to swallow more and more of the delicious throbbing length that ran up her almost to the full.\n\nAt last they cried out together as the biwa sounded a triumphant chord." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He grasped her hips and shook her as a dog would shake a rag." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She forced herself down on him, grinding every drop of come out of his spouting tube, pushing him down into the springy tatami floor until marks rose on the skin of his shins and knees." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Spurt after spurt inundated her insides, and she felt herself melting onto his lap." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She fell forward, and he let her go. His softening prick slid out of her hole with a barely perceptible plop. Their liquids ran down both their thighs. He was panting but still smiled sadly." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He would have to leave her now, for a short while, at least." }, { "from": "human", "value": "In time, he thought, he might come again—as a victor and lord, not a mere merchant." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The pleasure of anticipation was almost as good as the pleasure he had got from the now shrunken prick that lolled exhausted and sopping on his thigh.\n\nShe turned on her side, then on her back, her legs to either side of him. He could see the length of her warm slit. It oozed moisture, a combination of them both." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The bushy mound was dripping, like a moss forest after the dew. Her dark nipples were flat with satiation, as her eyes half-closed in satisfaction.\n\n\"I must go,\" he mouthed.\n\nHer hands fell to the sides, still holding the lute and the plectrum." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 5 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"On me, once more. To feel again.\"\n\nHe grinned in triumph. To have a professional woman beholden to him would tickle any man's pride. He lunged forward and smacked his torso hard onto her, burying his mouth in her neck. The axhead-shaped plectrum of hard wood came up and drove deep into the back of his neck, severing the spinal cord. He was dead." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "keep the story goin for like three sentences more. make it Historical Fantasy, Erotica, Japan-y" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The four sat in the inner confines of the governor's mansion. The small room, plainly furnished, overlooked a small garden and three blank white-plastered walls. The sliding shoji were open to let in any passing breeze." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Four trays on little legs were arranged in an open rectangle, one at the head and right, two at the left." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The open side of the square allowed them all a view of the garden, lit faintly by a single stone lantern.\n\nThey were formally dressed. Goemon, his back to the tokonoma alcove, wore a short black coat with his family's crest on sleeves and back." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Jiro was similarly attired, though unlike his smaller friend, his pate was unshaven." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Rosamund and Okiku sat facing him, each in a fine silk kimono tied with a broad sash." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Outside the door, a faithful Oko awaited their needs and guarded their privacy.\n\nGoemon raised his cup. \"To us. We have done, I believe, quite well. Bottoms up.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "They raised their cups, echoing, \"Bottoms up.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "From beyond the shoji, which was not opened completely, came a strange voice: \"I second that.\"\n\nJiro swiveled to one foot, his short sword in his hand. Rosamund spun around, and her loaded chain buzzed rapidly from her sleeve." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Only Okiku and Goemon remained unmoved.\n\n\"You are getting careless in your old age, Hanzo,\" said Okiku calmly as she drained her cup. \"I heard you land from the roof.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Please enter and join us in a drink, Master Hanzo.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "A shadow appeared on the shoji as Hattori Hanzo, the shogun's spymaster, moved into the light. He chuckled softly." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No, thank you, Lord Matsudaira. I understand you identified the problem?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"And solved it,\" added Goemon.\n\n\"The Presence will be most pleased. Were there any complications? Loose ends...?\"\n\n\"None. It is finished.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Very well. I will go. Perhaps we may meet again. There is no need for you to trouble yourself. I will carry the news to Edo.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "There was a faint sound from the eaves of the mansion, and the shadow was gone." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "After they had eaten and the sake bottles had added up, Goemon grinned at his friends.\n\n\"Actually I lied to Hanzo. There are two loose ends, I think.\"\n\nJiro raised an eyebrow." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What? We cleaned them all out. I don't think there was anyone we forgot. In any case, with the guns confiscated and destroyed, and the heads of the plot all dead, we can let bygones be bygones.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Not quite,\" said Goemon as he moved his legged tray aside deliberately and leaned to his left. \"No, not quite. We have a small matter of insubordination.\" At the last word his hand flashed out and grabbed Rosamund's collar, pulling her face down ta the floor and spilling her drink." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He pulled her robe down her shoulders to pinion her thrashing arms." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She squealed in surprise and apprehension.\n\n\"Yes, insubordination. You could have been killed, you hellion! I wouldn't have found Matsudaira but for your screams, true, but I wouldn't have had to look so far but for your attempt at playing the spy.\"\n\nShe struggled to loose herself, but Goemon's hand kept her down." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Okiku, help me!\" the blonde called." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Okiku leaned over and, smiling, pulled Rosamund's skirts up, exposing her long perfect legs and ass. \"Not me, my love. I had palpitations when I saw you tied there, and I think we really should punish you.\" She smacked the blonde's bum once, very loudly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A pink flush marred the perfect white half spheres.\n\nRosamund twisted her neck around. \"Jiro, you're on my side. Didn't I do right?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Jiro rose to his full height leisurely." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"No, Rosamund. You were almost lost to us. That is a cardinal sin. I'm afraid you must bear the consequences.\" He slipped off his robe and stood before them naked. His massive member, half-erect, jutted straight forward like the muzzle of a gun." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Goemon laughed. \"Not so quick. We must teach her first.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He straddled her head, clamping it between his knees while divesting himself of his clothing." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His cock was an erect tower, his jewel bag resting on the warm nest of her soft hair." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Beneath him she tried to bite the inside of his thighs, but was frustrated by his strong grip." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Okiku laughed and leaned forward. Her full lips engulfed Goemon's swollen member. She sucked loudly, and it slid tantalizingly into the depths of her cheeks." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She reached out and took Jiro's cock in her hand. Jerking the loose skin back and forth, she made the pole harden and thicken to the quality she desired. With her other hand she tickled him under his swinging bag." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Jiro knelt beside Rosamund and with Goemon's help rapidly divested her of her clothing." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Then, while one held Rosamund down and another administered measured smacks to her flushing behind, they undressed in turn before her.\n\nRosamund was breathing heavily by the time her three lovers were ready for her. The two men, under Okiku's directions, lay on Rosamund's either side." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Goemon, behind her, pinched the flesh of her buttocks viciously. Tiny goose-bumps appeared, and she twitched at each pinch, while still struggling to extricate herself.\n\nJiro, before her, measured out the same medicine to her full breasts." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Okiku squatted before the three on the floor, showing off her perfect delicate cunt, which she teased with her fingers. The opening was clearly visible to Rosamund, who licked her lips hungrily at the sight.\n\n\"Goemon,\" asked Okiku, \"is there anything you wish to say?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Yes.\" Then, emphasizing each word with a pinch that made Rosamund squirm, he said in a measured tone, \"You must... never... scare... us... by... putting... yourself... at... risk... in... that... way!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"But we won!\" she yowled through tears and the beginning of a smile." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The smile deepened as Goemon moved his hips forward and slid himself home into her well-lubricated ass. As soon as he had finished and could rest comfortably, Jiro moved forward. He raised her upper thigh and poised for a moment, then his own massive, stiff prick forced itself into her smooth, slick cunt." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The three rested for a moment without a motion, enjoying the soaking of the men's members.\n\nOkiku rose and walked to the joined end and squatted again. She ran her hand over the joint of the three bodies, and all three twitched." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The tangle of legs met in a colorful swirl of black and gold, the men's bags hiding the woman's flesh entrances. The bright red of the rose tattoo shone like a jewel. Okiku admired the sight for a short while, then rose and cradled Rosamund's face in her crotch." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Rosamund kissed the moist forest, and her tongue darted out hungrily." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 1 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Okiku sighed with pleasure and said, \"Let us begin,\" as the men reached for her." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "expand on the story like Nora Roberts would" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Some thirty-six hours later and at thirty thousand feet, Lina watched two segments on Harry's laptop. She sipped sparkling water—no ice—as the plane soared toward Dallas.\n\n\"Seven of these?\"\n\n\"That's right.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"She should have done six ten-minute segments to make it a clean hour.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Two-disk set, the intro and opening and three segments on the first, four segments on the second. Two clean hours. Fifteen is more of a commitment, and put two together, you've got a thirty-minute workout.\"\n\n\"What was that music in the cardio routine—and that outfit?\"\n\n\"It's hip-hop, Lina. It's a good, fresh, energetic vibe. A fun one, and she outfitted herself to suit it.\"\n\nLina just shook her head, played the next two segments." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Knowing his quarry, Harry said nothing." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You knew nothing about this?\"\n\n\"No. She wanted to do it herself. She was enterprising, creative, work-focused. She found contemporaries at school who had the skills to help her realize it. They're good kids.\"\n\n\"You spent, what, a couple hours with them and know that?\"\n\n\"Yeah. I also spoke with their parents, but yeah, they're clearly good, smart kids. Seriously smart,\" he added." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"She's made friends, Lina, and with them she accomplished something special.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"And now, saying nothing to me, going behind my back to do this when I'm out of town, she expects me to not only approve, but to produce.\"\n\n\"No, she doesn't. I do. You can look at it as her doing it behind your back or you can look at it as her wanting to do something on her own. To prove herself. And you can't look at what she did and claim she hasn't proven herself. You should be proud of her.\"\n\nLina studied her water, then took a slow sip. \"I'm not saying she didn't do a decent job, but—\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Stop there.\" He held up a hand." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Don't qualify it. And we both know it's a damn good job. Let me set aside my personal relationship with you, with Adrian, and talk to you as your publicity director. You help her set up her company, and you produce this two-pack DVD, you're going to help her boost her brand. And you're going to add more shine to your own.\"\n\n\"A bunch of teenagers as producers.\"\n\n\"It's the hook, Lina.\" He grinned, and grinned broadly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You know a shiny gold hook as well as I do. And that story's going to sell a crap ton of DVDs. I can pitch the angles to the moon and back.\"\n\n\"You can pitch dirt to the moon and back.\"\n\n\"That's my skill,\" he said cheerfully. \"But this? This is solid, shiny gold.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Maybe. Maybe. I'll think about it. Watch the rest and consider it.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And he was right, she thought. She knew he was right. She just didn't want to give in too easily.\n\n\"If you hadn't gone home and dropped by... Which irritated the hell out of me,\" she added, \"you taking those two days.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I needed to keep an appointment, which I told you before we left.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Deserted in Denver.\"\n\nHe smiled as she'd meant him to. \"It was important.\"\n\n\"And apparently a deep, dark secret.\"\n\n\"Not anymore.\" He blew out a breath." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Marshall and I have a surrogate.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"A surrogate?\" She'd lifted her water glass and now set it down with a clink. \"For a baby?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Yeah. And before you start, we agreed not to say anything until she hit twelve weeks. It's like the line. We want a family, Lina, so we have a surrogate, and Monday morning, we went with her for that twelve-week check. And we—we heard the heartbeat.\"\n\nHis eyes teared up. \"We heard the heartbeat and...\"\n\nHe pulled up the briefcase at his feet, opened it to take out an ultrasound." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It's our baby. Mine and Marsh's.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Lina leaned over, studied it, blinked at her own tears. \"I can't see a fucking thing in there.\"\n\n\"Me either!\" On a watery laugh, he gripped Lina's hand. \"But that's my son or daughter—somewhere in there. And on or about April sixteenth, I'm going to be a father. Marsh and I are going to be daddies.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You'll be great ones. You'll be great.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She signaled the flight attendant. \"We need champagne.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I want to tell the world, but you're the first.\" He gave her hand a hard squeeze. \"Give me a present, and produce Adrian's DVD. You won't be sorry.\"\n\n\"Tricky of you to get me when I'm emotional.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She let out a sigh. \"All right.\"\n\nThat didn't mean she didn't have things to say to her daughter, advice and demands she expected to be heeded. When she walked back into the apartment, tipped the bellmen for taking her bags into the master, she wanted nothing more than a long shower and the eight hours' sleep she found impossible on tour.\n\nBut first things first." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She couldn't seem to help putting first things first." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She unpacked, separating laundry from dry cleaning, putting away her shoes and the small selection of jewelry she allowed herself on the road.\n\nShe hung up the scarves and jackets she'd needed in the cooler cities.\n\nShe went downstairs, poured herself a sparkling water, added a slice of lemon. And decided she'd timed it very well when she heard the door open." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She walked out to see her daughter in her school uniform with a light jacket, as the weather had cooled enough, a backpack on one shoulder." }, { "from": "human", "value": "And a careful expression." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"George said you were back. Welcome home.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Thanks.\"\n\nThey crossed the room to each other, exchanged light cheek kisses.\n\n\"Let's sit down and talk about this project of yours.\"\n\n\"I spoke with Maddie, and since you approved, she's willing to represent me and my friends. She said the contract should be ready soon.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I'm aware.\" Lina sat, gestured for Adrian to do the same." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You can thank Harry for cheerleading you through this.\"\n\n\"I do thank him.\"\n\n\"Which wouldn't have been necessary if you'd consulted with me.\"\n\n\"If I'd consulted with you, it would have been a collaboration. I wanted to do it myself, and I did. Or I did it with Hector, Teesha, and Loren.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Whom I've never met, and know little to nothing about.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What do you want to know—that you haven't already looked into?\"\n\n\"We'll get to that. If you'd wanted to do a project like this, I could have provided you with some guidance, a studio, professionals.\"\n\n\"Your studio, your professionals. I wanted something else, and I did it." }, { "from": "human", "value": "And it's good. I know it's good." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Maybe it's not as slick and polished as it would have been with your studio, your professionals, but it's good.\n\n\"You started from scratch,\" Adrian continued before Lina could speak again. \"I know I'm not. I know I've got advantages you didn't because you built something important. I know there are people who'll say I have it all easy, breaking in, because you held the door open and boosted me up. Some of that's true, but I'll know I could do this. And I know I can build my own.\"\n\n\"And how? On a rooftop with borrowed equipment and schoolmates?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It's a start. I'm going to get into Columbia, and I'll major in exercise science, minor in business and nutrition. I sure as hell don't intend to get knocked up and—\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She broke off, shocked at herself, as Lina stiffened and sat forward.\n\n\"I'm sorry. I'm sorry, that was ugly and wrong and disrespectful. You make me feel like I have to justify everything I want or don't, everything I do or don't. But I'm sorry.\"\n\nLina set her glass down, then rose to walk to the terrace doors. She opened them to the air." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You're more like me than you realize. That's a tough break for you. The video's good—you have talent, we both know that. The concept and delivery are... interesting. Harry will hype the crap out of it, you'll do whatever publicity he pulls out of his hat, and I'll, naturally, endorse it. We'll see where it goes.\"\n\nShe turned back. \"How long have you been working on this?\"\n\n\"I've been working on the idea, the routines, the timing, the approach for about six months, I guess.\"\n\nWith a nod, Lina walked back for her glass." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Well, we'll see where it goes. I want a shower. We can order in for dinner.\"" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 2 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I planned to make that chickpea curry you like. I thought you'd be tired of room service and restaurant food.\"\n\n\"You're right about that. That would be nice.\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Produce 5 sentences using the prose and structure of Nora Roberts every time it's your turn, using what the user wrote as a seed. Stick to the Romance, Crime genre." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Ten weeks later, Teesha lived on Mountain Laurel Lane, Maya owned a business, and Adrian stood in her new studio with Kayla.\n\n\"It's perfect. It's just exactly right. I was nervous when you talked about doing a light whitewash on the fireplace, but you were right there, too. It softens the brick.\"\n\n\"Do you love it? I love it. I want you to love it.\"\n\n\"I love it. You took what I wanted—or thought I did—and made it better. Refinishing the hardwood, completely worth it. Setting the bar up as a smoothie station, adding that pottery tray of wheatgrass speaks to the nutrition angle of fitness. And it still feels homey, accessible.\"\n\nThe good, natural light had the refinished floors glowing, a big seagrass basket held colorful yoga mats, while an old coatrack served as visible storage for exercise bands." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She'd used floating shelves for stability balls so they looked like wall art. Instead of a standard free weight rack, Kayla had repurposed an old wine rack.\n\n\"I love the way you used some of what was here—my grandparents' things, my great-grandparents'—like that cabinet. Using it for holding towels, sweatbands, yoga blocks. And putting plants and candles on that old bench. It puts the 'home' in home gym.\"\n\n\"So the little sitting area over by the fireplace isn't too much?\"\n\n\"Nope, and I'll use it. The colors work, too. You were right about the soft, sagey green. I thought it would be too gray and dull, but it's just soft and it makes the equipment colors pop. The green of the plants go vibrant against it. Any angle I stream from is going to work.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Absently Adrian lowered her hand to rub Sadie's head as the dog sat by her side." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It was thoughtful of you to find those family pictures, have them framed for the mantel.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You kept saying home, and what's home without family?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Well, Kayla, you just nailed your first professional design job. It won't be your last.\"\n\n\"I'm so happy!\" She bounced in her lavender running shoes. \"You said it was okay if I took pictures and used them in my portfolio.\"\n\n\"Absolutely. And I'll write your first client review.\"\n\n\"Oh God!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"And I know you head back to college soon, but if you can squeeze in another consult, my friends Teesha and Monroe could use a little help on their new house.\"\n\nEyes widened; mouth dropped open. \"You're kidding.\"\n\n\"Not kidding. I told Teesha if you had time you'd stop by after you left here. I'll give you her address. She's right on Mountain Laurel Lane.\"\n\n\"I know the house. I know it. Everybody knows about them moving here. It's such a great house. I'll go right now! Oh my God!\"\n\n\"Thank you, Kayla, for giving me exactly what I needed.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Adrian offered a hand, but Kayla just went in for a hug. \"You're not just my first client. You're going to be my favorite client forever. Bye, Sadie!\" She raced for the glass doors, then stopped, posed. \"I'm an interior designer.\"\n\nLaughing, she jogged away." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Adrian knew how it felt to see a dream realized." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Thinking of just that, she took out her phone to text Hector, Loren, and Teesha.\n\nHi, gang, time to coordinate for our first production in my new home studio. Which looks freaking fantastic. I've got the theme, have the routines nearly nailed down. My schedule's open, so work out when you can fit me in, and we'll go." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Teesha, Kayla's on her way to you now." }, { "from": "human", "value": "And, guys? Wait until you see Teesha's new house." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Not to mention my new studio. Talk soon." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She jogged up two flights of stairs, delighted the house was empty because her grandfather had gone in to work." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Every day now, she thought as she went into her bedroom to change." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Sometimes just for an hour, but often for most of the day.\n\nThe work, she thought, his love of it, brought him both joy and solace.\n\nShe felt the same about her own.\n\nAfter donning workout gear, she went back down to her new space. She opened the glass doors so Sadie could wander out as she pleased or needed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She put on her basic keep-the-beat music, set a timer. And, facing her mirrored wall, got to work.\n\nAs she rehearsed and refined the warm-up, she had a flash of herself as a child, watching her mother rehearse. The house in Georgetown, the sleek room with mirrored walls and her mother's reflection.\n\nHow she'd yearned." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "How, alone again, she'd danced in that room, imagining herself a ballerina, or a Broadway star, or what she'd become. And so good, so exceptional, her mother would watch her with the same yearning she felt.\n\nThen the man had come, bringing fear and blood and pain.\n\nHis face—she remembered every detail of it—blurred everything else from her vision so she had to stop the timer.\n\n\"No point, no point, no point going back there.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Closing her eyes, she breathed through it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Even the media rarely dug that horrid old story up now. Old, old news. No point.\n\nShe reminded herself she rarely had moments like this, when the fear rushed back, turned her cold, then hot, then breathless.\n\nShe'd push through it. She had pushed through it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'm strong,\" she told her reflection. \"And I'm not defined by one horrible day in the whole of my life.\"\n\nShe started to turn the timer back on, then caught a glimpse of Sadie in the mirror, sprawled a few feet back, watching her.\n\nYearning, Adrian thought.\n\nInstead of turning on the timer, she walked back to sit on the floor, nuzzle the big bear of a dog who made love noises in her throat." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Provide 1 sentence as a continuation." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Narrative Extension Protocol:\nQuantity: 1 sentence\nGenre Classification: Romance, Crime" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "While Adrian danced, Rachael sat in the tidy living room of Tracie Potter's sleek townhome in downtown Richmond." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She'd done a background check, and knew Tracie had been a year behind Lina at Georgetown, earned degrees in journalism and communication." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She'd worked her way up to an anchor slot on the local NBC affiliate where she currently led the six and eleven o'clock broadcasts." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A local celebrity, she married in her late twenties, had two kids, divorced in her mid-thirties." }, { "from": "human", "value": "And remarried at forty to a real estate developer." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She had three grandchildren, one from her eldest daughter, and two from her stepson." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She and her husband belonged to the country club, enjoyed golf, and owned a second home in San Simeon." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Even up close Rachael judged the woman could pass for forty, which meant some very excellent work even if she had superior genes going for her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Her hair, a thick and expertly highlighted medium blond, waved around a face of creamy skin with sharp blue eyes and a perfectly tinted mouth of deep rose." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She crossed her legs in snug white jeans and sat back with her Wedgwood cup of coffee." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I can give you about thirty minutes,\" she began." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I wanted to have this discussion here rather than at my office. It's old news, but I'd rather not fuel the gossip tank.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I appreciate you meeting with me.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Curiosity. What does my long-ago, ill-advised, and brief affair with Jon Bennett have to do with anything today?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You're aware Professor Bennett was killed during his attack on Lina Rizzo, her minor child, and her female friend in Georgetown a couple decades ago.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It was all over the news at the time. I'm a reporter. Even if I hadn't slept with him nearly a decade before that, I'd have been aware. I'm also aware the child was his biological daughter. I'm aware he physically assaulted both women and the child. Did I mention ill-advised affair?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You did. Can I ask if you considered it ill-advised prior to that incident?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I considered it ill-advised when I saw Jon physically assaulting Lina Rizzo—though I didn't know at that moment who she was—in his office. I was meeting him there for a quickie.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She sipped more coffee." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It shocked me—shouldn't have, I admit, to see him with a hand around her throat, her back to the wall. Just for an instant, but I saw that rage and violence on his face. I chose not to risk it being turned on me, and ended the relationship. Which wasn't a relationship.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She paused; Rachael waited." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I was nineteen, and foolish, but not that foolish." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Foolish enough to have sex with a married man—in the middle, he claimed, of a complicated divorce, though that was a lie—but not foolish enough to risk getting knocked around for some exciting, illicit sex." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Why did Lina Rizzo give you my name after all this time?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"She didn't. I'd assume she didn't know yours, or didn't remember it. You're on a list, Ms. Potter.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What kind of list?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Of women, like you, who slept with Jonathan Bennett. There are thirty-four names on it. Four of them are dead—victims or near victims of murder. Four I've located and confirmed.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Tracie lowered her cup." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Rachael gave her credit." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She didn't jolt, didn't gasp." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She stared, hard and long." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I want to verify that. Off the record. You've just indicated I'm on some sort of kill list.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'll give you what information I can. Have you had any threats?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No. Oh, you get a few who take potshots over the Internet if they don't like your reporting. But nothing like this, no. When did this happen?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"The deaths? Over the course of the last thirteen years.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Thirteen years? Are you serious? You were a cop—I did my research before this meeting. People die, are murdered. Four people over that amount of time—\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"On the same list. And I still have more to locate.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I assume Lina Rizzo's on that list. I assume she's your client.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"She's on the list. Did you ever meet or have contact with Jonathan Bennett's wife or his children?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No, why would I? I had a fling with him, Ms. McNee, a matter of weeks. Looking back, and I have, I should have reported him. So should've Lina Rizzo.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Why didn't you?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"It scared me, that one moment I saw him, really saw him. And that was a hell of a long time before Me Too. Who do you think would have taken the heat, if any heat came? The tenured professor—and others on the faculty had to know what he was—or the young undergrad who slept with him? Willingly.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Understood. I know this is upsetting. I feel not only an obligation to my client, but to anyone I'm able to contact on that list so they're able to take precautions.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"He's been dead a very long time. Where did the list come from? Give me a break,\" Tracie snapped out." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"How do I take precautions when I don't know what I'm up against?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"He wife compiled the list. She knew.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"So,\" Tracie added, \"not as oblivious as he assumed. You think his wife is, after all this time, killing women he slept with?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"His wife died, an overdose of sleeping pills. About thirteen years ago.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Ah.\" Now she put the cup aside." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Had she remarried? Have family—a brother, sister?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Someone, obviously, connected to his wife given the timing. They had kids? How old were they? If I ever knew, I can't recall.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Old enough. Ms. Potter, I'm sure you have substantial resources considering your profession, but I'm, again, going to caution you. I intend to speak with both Professor Bennett's daughter and his son as soon as possible. Then I intend to turn my findings over to the FBI, and the applicable police departments.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Is your name on the list?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It is not.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Then it's a job for you. It's a little more than that for me.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"If you contact these individuals, or alert them to my line of inquiry, they could bolt. You'd only be worse off. I hope to meet with the daughter, at least, in a matter of days. I'm going to do everything I can to protect my client, and by doing so you, and every other woman on that list.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'm sure you will. You have an excellent reputation. I appreciate you warning me, and I will absolutely take precautions. Now I have to change and get to the studio.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "No help for it, Rachael thought as she got back into her car for the drive home." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The woman would poke around." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 2 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The nature of the beast.\n\nShe could only hope the poking around didn't set off any alarms." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Task: Cooperative storytelling\nMy role: Provide a brief opening\nYour role: Expand upon my opening with five sentences, emulating the writing style of Nora Roberts." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Everything hurt. She couldn't think through the pain, and her body shook from the shock.\n\nTerrible dream, Nikki thought. Wake up. Wake up.\n\nAs she pushed through the ragged, tearing layers, she tasted blood in her mouth.\n\nCould you taste anything in a dream?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But it was copper, and nasty, made her want to cough and spit. But her face, oh God, her face throbbed and banged. Her head pounded, inside and out, as she struggled to open her eyes and come awake.\n\nShe found herself on the floor, lying on the cold tile, and the light too bright. It made her eyes ache and tear." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She tried to sit up, to push herself up, but her right arm was stuck. With her vision still blurry, doubling, she stared at the cuff around her wrist.\n\nFrightened, she saw the chain welded to the cuff, the chain welded to a thick bolt scarring the tile wall.\n\nThe powder room under the stairs, her pretty powder room where she kept pretty guest towels for guests who never came.\n\nIn a panic, she tried to yank her arm free, but the cuff only cut into her wrist and gave her more pain." }, { "from": "human", "value": "So she screamed, despite the explosion it caused in her head, she screamed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She heard the footsteps, tried to cower back. Because she remembered now. Dear God, she remembered.\n\nJJ walked to the door. He carried one of her file boxes, which he set on the floor." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He crouched, grinned at her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Woo, might've broken that snooty nose of yours, Nik. You're sure going to have a pair of shiners.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You hit me. You hit me.\"\n\n\"Not as hard as I could've. You should thank me.\"\n\n\"What are you doing? What are you doing?\"\n\nHe smiled at her, just the way she remembered. Lips spread wide, eyes cold as winter." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Not killing you. You can thank me later. If you'd let that nosy bitch in here, I would've done you both. But you stood up, Nik, so we'll do it this way.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What have you done, JJ?\"\n\nHe wagged a finger in the air. \"You know. If you didn't before, you know now. Just like you know you can scream till your lungs bleed and nobody's going to hear you. Inside room, Sis. Nice thick plaster walls, no window. So.\"\n\nHe rooted in the box, took out a bottle of Advil, a bottle of water. He shoved them both toward her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I'd take four if I were you.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You killed those women. The ones the detective talked about.\"\n\n\"They deserved it. They all do, and I'll get to them all. I've been taking my time there, but I see I have to move things along. Damn lucky break I was here when that bitch came by to grill you. I was just going to hit you up for some more money, a nice hot shower, a couple good meals. Got a big bonus out of it.\"\n\n\"Why? Why? Why?\" Her swollen eyes began to leak again. \"He cheated, he—\"\n\n\"You shut the fuck up about him! They spread their legs for him, didn't they?\" He pounded a fist on the little vanity." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"How many times do I have to tell you they're to blame for it? A man takes what's offered, it's his nature. They're the reason he's dead, why we grew up shamed. They've got no place on this earth, and you should know that! Especially that whelp her whore of a mother didn't kill in the womb. She murdered our father. She's the reason.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She'd heard it all before, countless times, and knew there would be no reasoning with him. Especially since a part of her, a terrible part that shamed her, agreed with him.\n\nWith trembling hands she opened the bottle of water, the bottle of pills. She had to ease the pain and think.\n\n\"You've been sending her poems? The Rizzo girl?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I always had a knack for them, didn't I? Dad always said so. Mom, too, but Dad knew that shit. He was proud of me. More of me than you.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He sat on the floor in the doorway, looked over her head. \"He loved me. Mom, she ragged on me more than half the time, but he loved me. 'Get off his back,' he'd tell her. 'The boy's got spunk. Boys will be boys,' he'd say.\"\n\nHe would, Nikki thought, he'd say those things even when they found out JJ stole something from a store, or started a fight, or snuck out at night.\n\n\"She was just trying to keep you out of trouble.\"\n\n\"She was weak. 'Pop another pill, Catherine.' He'd say that, too, when she started up the nagging. And she didn't give him what he needed or he wouldn't have gotten it from the whores and sluts, would he?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I know she was weak,\" Nikki said carefully." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"She took pills. And I took care of you, JJ. I tried to take care of you, you know that. I made sure you had something to eat after nobody'd work for us anymore. I helped you with your homework, and washed your clothes.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Expected me to toe the line. Expected me to scrub floors and wash dishes.\"\n\n\"I couldn't do it all by myself.\" She tried to smile at him, but God, it hurt. \"I needed your help.\"\n\n\"Went off to college, didn't you? Left me.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I lived at home, but I had to get a degree. I had to get a good job.\"\n\n\"Liar. We had plenty of money.\"\n\n\"We had the family money.\" Again, she thought, go over it all again, stay calm. \"But Mom wasn't stable, JJ. You know she wasn't, and she had control of the money.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "You weren't stable either, she thought. I knew it. I always knew.\n\nI did my best! It's not my fault.\n\nShe had to draw careful breaths as the words pushed up, wanted to spill out." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I lived at home right through college. I lived at home when I got a job. I wanted you to go to college, JJ. To get away, start your life, but—\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"School's for suckers. You went off traveling around in your business suits.\"\n\n\"I took you with me whenever I could. Especially after Mom died.\"\n\n\"Before, plenty of times you left me with her, left me to clean up her messes, to hide the pills, to listen to her bitching. You weren't here to listen to her bitching, to hear her going off on Dad when she had one of her raves. You weren't here when she laughed and laughed and said how she was glad he was dead. How she was glad she helped tell the world what a cheating bastard he was. How she'd laugh and laugh, and cry and cry.\"\n\nShe hadn't dated, Nikki thought. Hadn't gone to clubs, to the movies." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It had been school and home, then work and home." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The traveling? She often thought the travel demands of her job had saved her sanity." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But she had to keep him calm, had to convince him to let her go.\n\n\"I'm sorry, JJ. I'm sorry I wasn't here all the time, but—\"\n\n\"You weren't here when she told me she knew all along, she had a whole list of women he'd fucked around with. How I could stop worshipping at his dead feet if I wanted to be a real man. She kept that list, too." }, { "from": "human", "value": "And she dug it out and tossed it at me." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Said if he'd loved me so much, he'd have kept his vows. She said terrible things, kept saying them. I could've strangled her then and there.\n\n\"But I didn't.\"\n\nShe felt the cold, deep in her belly." }, { "from": "human", "value": "More than fear now." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What did you do?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Gave her what she wanted. Pills. And more pills. Helped her upstairs and into bed, and gave her more pills. Then I watched her die, and went out and had myself a couple beers.\"\n\n\"She was our mother.\"\n\n\"She was a pill-popping bitch who killed our father. Killed him just as much as the rest of them. And you came home, found her, called nine-one-one, called me while I was having those beers. Crying for her, crying like she hadn't been a chain around our necks for years.\"\n\nHe smiled again. \"And we got the money, didn't we?\"\n\nHe reached into the box, took out a package of Frosted Mini-Wheats, and began to snack." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I went traveling with you because I wanted to see some of the country, see if I saw a place that looked like mine. And you nagging me brainless about college or trade school or getting a good job. I was good with my hands, you'd say, and you had that much right. I used them to get myself in and out of houses, take what I wanted if I wanted. But I kept thinking about that list.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He popped cereal into his mouth. \"Sure, stealing was fun, but it didn't have real purpose. A man's got to have real purpose in his life. I thought about killing those who killed my father. And what do I see one day on the TV when I'm bored shitless and you're off trying to make people do what you want them to do? I see that little bitch on some fucking talk show talking herself up." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Talking about a new generation. And that bullshit." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"So I sat down and wrote her a poem. Fuck you, you should be dead. And I'm going to kill you one day. But poetically.\" That struck him as funny, so he laughed and laughed.\n\nToo much like their mother, Nikki thought.\n\n\"I wanted to kill her right off, but I knew something that sweet needs to wait. Not just a dish best served cold, but one you can heat up again when it's going to be the most tasty. So I killed one of the others. Felt so good. That held me awhile. And I liked writing the poems. One a year at first. I figure she'll get to know it's coming and that'll keep her scared.\"\n\n\"JJ, please listen to me.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He wasn't listening, he wasn't hearing her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He only heard his own thoughts.\n\n\"But she just kept on making those goddamn DVDs, kept doing whatever she pleased. Anyway.\" He closed the cereal box again. \"Not for much longer.\"\n\n\"JJ, you need to let me go.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He gave her that smile again, the one that curdled her blood." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"After I went to the trouble of putting that bolt in the wall? And I was going to use this on her when I was ready. Figured we'd have a nice, long conversation before I beat her to death. That's how I want to end her.\"\n\n\"JJ, you know I won't tell anyone any of this. I've always looked out for you.\"\n\n\"Looked out for me when it suited you.\"\n\n\"That's not true, now, you know it's not. I'm afraid for you. You have to stop or you'll get caught. It's not your fault, but you have to stop. They don't know where you are, so you can go back, just say enough. I'd never tell them how to find you. You're the only family I've got left.\"\n\n\"Family, my ass.\" He sneered at the word, and his eyes went bright." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Too bright." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Then again, if you weren't family, I'd've just killed you. Instead I've got you in here. You got a toilet, a sink so you can get water. I got food in this box.\"\n\nHe tapped it, then shoved it across to her.\n\n\"And don't worry about the office. I texted them from your phone. Said you had a family emergency out of town, and you'd need to take your two-week vacation. Oh yeah, texted your cleaning service. They won't come in for the next few weeks.\"\n\nHer breath started coming too fast, short and fast.\n\n\"Please, please, please, don't leave me chained up like this. My vision's blurry, JJ, and I'm queasy. I could have a concussion.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You'll live.\" He pushed up." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'm going to get that nice hot shower now. I've been on the road awhile. Then I'm taking what I want, as what's in this house is as much mine as yours. Since I left the truck I stole in Kansas in a dicey neighborhood, I imagine it's stripped clean by now. So I'll be using your car.\"\n\n\"Don't do this. Don't. I'm your sister.\"\n\n\"You can reach the sink, the toilet. I'll be back when I'm finished in this part of the world.\"\n\n\"JJ, please. Don't leave me like this.\"\n\nHe just closed the door behind him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She had to slap a hand over her mouth to hold back the scream. He might come back, hit her again. Or worse.\n\nAnd he would do worse eventually, she knew that now. Because she'd seen, she'd accepted what she'd always known.\n\nNeither of their parents had been stable." }, { "from": "human", "value": "And her brother was insane." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "For a while she wept, and tried to chase away the voices in her head telling her she'd known, she'd always known her brother wasn't right.\n\nShe hadn't known he'd killed their mother—she hadn't. But she'd wondered. His voice on the phone when she'd called to tell him, so cool and easy. And his eyes when he came home, pretending to care, so empty.\n\nBut she hadn't known." }, { "from": "human", "value": "And it wasn't her fault." }, { "from": "human", "value": "If her mother had ranted and raved to her sometimes, about how faithless men were, how never to trust one, she hadn't known for certain." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "If her mother had thrown out a number, had even spewed out names, she hadn't known her mother had talked to a reporter. She hadn't known. So it wasn't her fault.\n\nShe shouldn't have to pay. She shouldn't be hurt. She shouldn't have to be afraid." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She'd done her best. She'd worked hard to solve other people's problems.\n\nShe'd covered for JJ countless times, and this is what he did to her.\n\nShe wept and wept, bitter, self-pitying tears, until the sobbing, the ringing in her ears had her heaving in the toilet.\n\nExhausted, she dozed, then shot awake again when she heard the front door slam." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Giving in to hysteria, she dragged at the chain until her wrist bled." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 2 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She screamed until she had no voice.\n\nNo one heard. No one came." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Produce 2 sentences using the user's text as a seed. Stick to the Romance, Crime genre." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "From his perch in the woods, he watched her. It thrilled.\n\nThere she was! Not on a screen, not in a crowd as she'd been when, years before, he'd traveled to New York after he'd learned she'd appear on the Today show." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But in person, and alone." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "What a way to start the day!\n\nHe hadn't expected her to come out so early." }, { "from": "human", "value": "And she'd left the door open." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He'd almost shouted with joy when she'd stepped out on the second-floor porch, just stood there, looked right over where he hid.\n\nMaybe the dog was bigger than he'd thought, but he'd take care of that." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Sadie, he remembered from the blog." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Bitch dog for a bitch.\n\nHe liked dogs. Couldn't stand cats, and had plugged his share of strays in his time, but he liked dogs." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Maybe he'd get himself a dog one of these days, he considered as he loaded the rifle.\n\nNot a bitch though, and he'd be damned if he'd have his dog's balls cut off." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A man had to be a man, didn't he?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As the dog wandered closer to the woods, JJ shouldered the rifle. A little closer, big girl, he thought." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But when her head came up, when she sniffed the air—maybe scenting him—he fired.\n\nThe sound, no more than a muffled pop, didn't reach Adrian on her mat as she lowered into Chaturanga." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "I've got a bit of writer's block. I'm gonna send you something then keep it going two sentences at a time, also I'm going for a Romance, Crime genre." }, { "from": "human", "value": "In the bedroom, JJ held the gun steady." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Damn big house for one skinny woman.\"\n\n\"It's my family home.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"The grandparents croaked, didn't they?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Grandmother all smashed up in a car, and the grandfather just died of old." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Fucking pizza, right? Maybe I'll grab some when we're done here. You think you're special." }, { "from": "human", "value": "You think you're important, with all your DVDs and the streaming and the blog, telling people how to live, what to eat, getting them to jump around and buy your overpriced bullshit." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"My father was important. Dr. Jonathan Bennett. My father. You got that?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Yes. He was a teacher. That's very important.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"He was smart, smarter than you. Smarter than anyone. He only stayed with our pill-popping mother because of me. He loved me.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I know he did.\"\n\n\"He protected me.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Of course. You're his son.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"And he's dead because of you. Because your whore of a mother got herself pregnant and tried to trick him. I don't see any of him in you, never have, so that was probably a lie. Doesn't change what happened. She came on to him like all the others. A man who doesn't take what's offered is a fool, and my father wasn't a fool.\"\n\nLet him tell his story, she thought as she sat with her hands quietly in her lap." }, { "from": "human", "value": "And considered the weapons in the room." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Her grandmother's candlestands—heavy, easy to grab and swing." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The copper bowl she'd bought at Maya's shop." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Decent weight, throwable. The letter opener on her writing desk, the scissors in the middle drawer. Sharp." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Keep him talking." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"None of the others had a child from that, or... pretended to. Why have you killed them?\"\n\n\"That nosy bitch you hired got to that asshole reporter, didn't she? He'll be sorry about that. She already is.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Cold washed over her, brought popping chills to her skin." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A terrible twist inside her belly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What do you mean?\"\n\n\"She thought she was smart, too, but not as smart as me. I'm my father's son. I killed her last night, left her bleeding in the street.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Oh God.\" Adrian gripped her elbows, rocked.\n\n\"Got what she asked for, coming around to my house, trying to get my sister to blab on me. Well, Nikki won't be blabbing.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He smiled, so wide." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You—you killed your sister?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Not yet.\" He snickered and grinned again. \"But when I do, that's on you, too. You hired the nosy, you brought Nikki into it. So, you killed them both, just like you killed my father. You ruined my fucking life, you whore, you took away the only person in this world who loved me. You should never have drawn a breath.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"None of this will bring your father back.\"\n\n\"I know that!\" He pounded his fist against the arm of the chair." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Do you think I don't fucking know that? Do you think I'm stupid?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Her heart beat in her throat now, wild as the rage in his eyes." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"No, but I don't understand what you're trying to do by killing. I'm trying to understand.\"\n\n\"I'm avenging him, you idiot. That's what a son, a true son, does when his father's been murdered.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "No, no reasoning with him, she realized." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But she could stall.\n\n\"Do you think he'd want you to do this? To spend your life doing this? You said he protected you. He wanted the best for you. You could have been a teacher, like him. Or a poet. Your poems are so compelling.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"He taught me to stand up for myself.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He jerked his left thumb at his own chest." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I'm standing up for myself, and for him. My poems are an homage to him. And I saved the best for last.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "With his left hand, he unzipped the top compartment of the backpack, drew out a carefully folded sheet of paper." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"How about I read it to you?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She said nothing, but she braced." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She'd charge him, she decided. If he was going to shoot her, it wouldn't be while she sat like a helpless weakling." }, { "from": "human", "value": "JJ cleared his throat." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"At last, long last when you and I meet, true justice, my justice will be complete. And when you breathe your last gasping breath, I will smile upon you in death. For when your blood drips from my hands, I'll sing and shout to beat the band.\"\n\nHe let out a hoot of laughter as he set the paper aside." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Beat the band! I added a couple more lines to this one because I wanted to end with a little levity. It's a happy day for me, a goddamn red-letter day! And I wanted some irony, because I'm going to beat you to fucking death.\"\n\nHe got to his feet; Adrian drew in a breath as she prepared to rush him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And with an explosion of barks, snarls, Sadie charged the glass doors.\n\nDistraction, she thought. Terrified as much for the dog as herself, Adrian kicked his gun hand." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She managed one punch, connecting with his shoulder instead of his face, as the gun clattered across the room." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Then she ran. \"Run,\" she shouted at Sadie. \"Run, Sadie. Go run!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She hoped to make it to the stairs, but she could already hear him coming." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Instead, she ducked into one of the bedrooms." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Places to hide, she reminded herself. Ways to fight back." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 3 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Going to hurt you worse now. It's just going to be worse now.\"\n\nShe grabbed an antique letter opener from the desk in the guest room, slipped into the Jack and Jill bath and silently into the next.\n\nThey'd see about that." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "writing buddy needed! gimme 8 sentences more. stick to Romance, Crime pls" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In under twenty-four hours, Adrian had a houseful again. Her mother, Mimi, Harry, Hector, and Loren all came to join what she thought of as the Traveler's Creek brigade.\n\nThe youth center crew sent flowers, as did the staff of Rizzo's. Others called or came by to see her. The dogs received many gifts of chew bones, balls, and boxes of biscuits.\n\nFriends, and family, she thought. Friends who were family.\n\nShe felt lucky; she felt blessed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She felt finally and completely safe." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She had a long phone conversation with Rachael, and cried more than a little.\n\nJonathan Bennett Junior would recover from his injuries. The stab wound between his shoulder blades, the black eye, bruised throat she'd inflicted. The broken nose delivered by Raylan, the multiple dog bites. And the concussion, broken leg, shattered elbow, and internal injuries sustained in the fall.\n\nShe'd been assured he'd live to spend the rest of that life in prison.\n\nHis sister broke under questioning, and provided a long, detailed statement from her hospital bed, including his confession to her that he'd killed their mother.\n\nConsidering the circumstances, no charges would be brought against Nikki Bennett." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And considering the circumstances, Adrian thought herself lucky and blessed to have survived the encounter with only some bruises, some bumps and scrapes.\n\nShe'd talked and talked and talked some more with the police, with the FBI, and for now, at least, refused any reach-outs from the media.\n\nAll she wanted was to set everything aside and just live.\n\nShe sat on the opposite side of the house from where the crew rebuilt the railing on the top porch and replaced bloodstained boards on the lower. More gratitude, she thought, as they'd simply come, unasked, as soon as the police cleared it.\n\nSo now she sat with her two oldest girlfriends, drinking lemonade. Jan and Mimi lorded over the kitchen making who knew what for what Monroe decreed would be the world's fiercest cookout.\n\nMonroe, she thought, her sweet friend she'd never heard raise his voice except in song, had literally run over broken glass to help her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She looked out over the slope of the lawn, over to the mountains, down to the rooftops, the covered bridges of Traveler's Creek." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I think this must be the most beautiful spot in the world.\"\n\n\"It ranks,\" Teesha agreed. \"And I want to say, again, that Hector and Loren can bunk at my place, give you some space and quiet tonight.\"\n\n\"I like having them here. I love how they just showed up, knew they could. That they just needed to see me for themselves.\" She glanced at Maya, shook her head. \"And I can't believe Joe talked them into going fishing.\"\n\n\"It shocked him to the core of his being when he heard neither of them had ever sunk a line before. He swears we'll be grilling up some fresh trout tonight.\"\n\n\"And bless his heart for taking Phin, Collin, and Bradley along with them,\" Teesha added." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"He'd have taken Mo, too, but she just said\"—Maya put on her best incredulous face—\"'Why would I want to do that, Joe? Worms are slimy.' God, I love that girl.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Me, too.\" Adrian sighed. \"And I love our world.\" She glanced over to where Sadie and Jasper lay snuggled together snoozing. \"Every bit of it.\"\n\nLina stepped out, a glass of ice in her hand. She came to the table, poured from the pitcher. \"I've been evicted from the kitchen,\" she said as she sat. \"Deemed woefully inept and inadequate. Mariah's accepted, and helping make cookies shaped like hearts. I'm rejected.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Good thing you don't like to cook.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Lina nodded at Adrian. \"Good thing. Your Monroe's also accepted and, after some serious discussion, is in charge of deviled eggs.\"\n\n\"He makes the best deviled eggs in the history of deviled eggs.\"\n\n\"He and Jan and Mimi debated the various ways to boil them to ensure easy peeling.\" Now Lina laughed. \"I'm so glad they kicked me out.\"\n\nMaya and Teesha exchanged a look.\n\n\"Better check on the babies,\" Maya said as they rose together, and Teesha picked up the baby monitor.\n\nLina looked after them as they went inside." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"They're good friends. I know what it's like to have good friends. I've had Mimi most of my life. Harry and Marshall, too, but Mimi? Lifetime girlfriend.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She looked at Adrian then, touched a hand to her bruised cheek. \"I'm not going to bring it all up again. I know you've had to go over and over it—like we did after Georgetown. I need to say I'm so grateful for your strength, your courage, your smarts.\"\n\n\"A lot came from you.\"\n\n\"You made your own. That day in Georgetown, I thought: This isn't going to define her. Or me. But not her—I won't allow it. It didn't, but it never really went away. I hope it can now.\"\n\n\"Can and will.\"\n\n\"All those women, Adrian, all those others, and nearly you. I've asked myself again and again, what could I have done differently to stop any of it from happening?\"\n\n\"Nothing. Mom.\" She laid a hand over Lina's. \"Nothing. He doesn't just look like his father. He has that same lack, that same twist inside him. I saw it, in both of them. It was the fact I existed that enraged them. He said something to me, JJ. He said he didn't see any of his father in me. Neither do I. I'm Rizzo, through and through.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Yes, you are.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Sadie's head came up, and Jasper's an instant later.\n\n\"That's Raylan's car. He said he had a couple of things to do. I guess he's done them.\"\n\nWhen the car crested the hill, Lina rose, walked out across the lawn. She went to Raylan, put her arms around him. She kissed both his cheeks, then walked away.\n\nRaylan stood a moment, touched and bemused, before he continued up to the porch.\n\n\"She's not a hugger, so that was a moment,\" Adrian told him.\n\n\"It felt like one.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Gently, he took her chin in his hand, studied her face." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Cobalt Flame, you took a hit.\"\n\n\"You, too, Midway Man.\"\n\n\"But we kicked the bad guy's ass. With a little help from our friends. So this is for them.\" He sat and took two dog collars out of the bag he carried, one bold red, one bold blue. He handed them to Adrian.\n\nShe read the engraving. \"Ms. Sadie Wells. Mr. Jasper Rizzo.\"\n\n\"I thought we'd make it official, a sharing of the last names.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I think it's the sweetest thing ever. Here you go, Sadie, let's put on your new bling.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Now you and me,\" Raylan continued as Adrian started switching collars. \"I think we need to make it official.\"\n\n\"What?\" She glanced up with a smile, then blinked when he just looked in her eyes. \"What?\" she repeated.\n\n\"I planned to give you more time. Plenty of it. But, can't. Moments matter, and moments change things. I don't want to waste any more of them. I love you. I love everything about you. I want everything about you. I need everything about you. So marry me. Let me marry you. Let's be a family.\"\n\n\"Oh, Raylan, we're just getting used to...\"\n\n\"You never get used to being in love. Not really. I'm a family man, Adrian. I'm good at being married.\"\n\n\"You are, yes, you are. Were. Are. I don't know if I'd be.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You're a quick learner. I know I come as a package, just like I know the package is crazy about you. We can add to the package, if that's something you want.\"\n\n\"More children?\"\n\n\"If it's something you want. We're both good with kids, but you have to want them.\"\n\n\"I just need to...\" She rose, walked to the rail, looked out.\n\nA houseful, she thought. A house built for family, for children, given to her. Her legacy.\n\n\"I've always wanted children,\" she murmured.\n\n\"Share mine. Have more with me. Be Ms. Adrian Wells, and I'll be Mr. Raylan Rizzo.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Trust you to make me laugh at such a moment.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She closed her eyes. \"When Sadie couldn't get to me, she knew where to go. To you and Jasper. She needed help, and knew where to get it. I know where to go when I need.\"\n\nShe turned to him. \"It's always going to be you.\"\n\nRising, he stepped to her, took her hands. \"We can get married tomorrow or a year from tomorrow. You can plan whatever kind of wedding you want.\"\n\nHe reached in his pocket, took out a box, flipped it open. And took out a ring." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Not flashy, she thought." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He knew she wouldn't want flashy. A simple channel-set diamond in a white-gold band.\n\n\"But I'm really hoping for a yes now. The rest is details. We're both good at those, too.\"\n\n\"You have to go and pick out the perfect ring for someone like me. Someone who does what I do, who is what I am.\"\n\n\"I know who you are. I love who you are. Say yes.\"\n\n\"I love who you are, too.\" She looked at those wonderful green eyes, laid a hand on his cheek, bruised like hers. \"You told me you hadn't believed you could feel this way again. I didn't believe I could ever feel this way.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Is that a yes?\"\n\n\"I have a question first.\"\n\n\"Ask it.\"\n\n\"How soon can you and the kids and Jasper move in?\"\n\nSmiling, he framed her face. \"How about tomorrow?\"\n\n\"You need to ask them first.\"\n\n\"I already did, while you were working out this morning.\" He pressed his lips to her forehead, pressed them to her hands." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 9 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"They love you. I love you. Say yes, Adrian. Just yes.\"\n\nSo simple really, she realized. So right.\n\nBecause it would always be him. Maybe it always had been him.\n\n\"I love them. I love you. Yes, Raylan. Just yes.\"\n\nWhen he kissed her, slow and strong, when he put the ring on her finger, she felt her life click into place.\n\nWhen she wrapped around him, she thought again:\n\nThis is the most beautiful spot in the world.\n\nAnd now it's ours." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "I've got a bit of writer's block. I'm gonna send you something then keep it going 6 sentences at a time, also I'm going for a Gene Wolfe sorta thing in the Science Fiction, Generation Ship genre." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As unruffled by the disturbances shaking the city as by the furious thunderstorm that threatened with every gust to throw down its shiprock and return its mud brick to the parent mud, His Cognizance Patera Quetzal, Prolocutor of the Chapter of This Our Holy City of Viron, studied his present sere and sallow features in the polished belly of the silver teapot.\n\nAs at this hour each day, he swung his head to the right and contemplated his nearly noseless profile, made a similar inspection of its obverse, and elevated his chin to display a lengthy and notably wrinkled neck. He had shaped and colored face and neck with care upon arising, as he did every morning; nevertheless, there remained the possibility (however remote) that something had gone awry by ten: thus the present amused but painstaking self-examination.\n\n\"For I am a careful man,\" he muttered, pretending to smooth one thin white eyebrow.\n\nA crash of thunder shook the Prolocutor's Palace to its foundations at the final word, brightening every light in the room to a glare; rain and hail drummed the windowpanes.\n\nPatera Remora, Coadjutor of the Chapter, nodded solemnly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Yes indeed, Your Cognizance. You are indeed a most—ah—advertent man.\"\n\nYet there was always that possibility. \"I'm growing old, Patera. Even we careful men grow old.\"\n\nRemora nodded again, his long bony face expressive of regret. \"Alas, Your Cognizance.\"\n\n\"As do many other things, Patera. Our city... The Whorl itself grows old. When we're young, we notice things that are young, like ourselves. New grass on old graves. New leaves on old trees.\" Quetzal lifted his chin again to study his bulging reflection through hooded eyes." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"The golden season of beauty and—um—elegiacs, Your Cognizance.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Remora's fingers toyed with a dainty sandwich.\n\n\"As we notice the signs of advancing age in ourselves, we see them in the Whorl. Just a few chems today who ever saw a man who saw a man who remembered the day Pas made the Whorl.\"\n\nA little bewildered by the rapid riffle through so many generations, Remora nodded again. \"Indeed, Your Cognizance. Indeed not.\" Surreptitiously, he wiped jam from one finger.\n\n\"You become conscious of recurrences, the cyclical nature of myth. When first I received the bacculus, I had occasion to survey many old documents. I read each with care. It was my custom to devote three Hieraxdays a month to that. To that alone, and to inescapable obsequies. I gave my prothonotary the straitest instructions to make no appointments for that day. It's a practice I recommend, Patera.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Thunder rattled the room again, lightning a dragon beyond the windows.\n\n\"I will, um, reinstitute this wise usage at once, Your Cognizance.\"\n\n\"At once, you say?\" Quetzal looked up from the silver pot, resolved to repowder his chin at the first opportunity. \"You may go to young Incus and so instruct him, if you want. Tell him now, Patera. Tell him now.\"\n\n\"That is—ah—unfeasible, I fear, Your Cognizance. I sent Patera Incus upon a—um—errand Molpsday. He has not—um—rejoined us.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I see. I see.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "With a trembling hand, Quetzal raised his cup until its gilt rim touched his lips, then lowered it, though not so far as to expose his chin. \"I want beef tea, Patera. There's no strength in this. I want beef tea. See to it, please.\"\n\nLong accustomed to the request, his coadjutor rose. \"I shall prepare it with my own hands, Your Cognizance. It will—ah—occupy only an, um, trice. Boiling water, an, um, roiling boil. Your Cognizance may rely upon me.\"\n\nSlowly, Quetzal replaced the delicate cup in its saucer as he watched Remora's retreating back; he even spilled a few drops there, for he was, as he had said, careful. The measured closing of the door." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Good. The clank of the latchbar. Good again. No one could intrude now without noise and a slight delay; he had designed the latching mechanism himself.\n\nWithout leaving his chair, he extracted the puff from a drawer on the other side of the room and applied fleshtoned powder delicately to the small, sharp chin he had shaped with such care upon arising. Swinging his head from side to side as before, frowning and smiling by turns, he studied the effect in the teapot. Good, good!\n\nRain beat against the windows with such force as to drive trickles of chill water through crevices in the casements; it pooled invitingly on the milkstone windowsills and fell in cataracts to soak the carpet. That, too, was good." }, { "from": "human", "value": "At three, he would preside at the private sacrifice of twenty-one dappled horses, the now-posthumous offering of Councillor Lemur—one to all the gods for each week since rain more substantial than a shower had blessed Viron's fields." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They could be converted to a thank offering, and he would so convert them.\n\nWould the congregation know by then of Lemur's demise? Quetzal debated the advisability of announcing the fact if they did not. It was a question of some consequence; and at length, for the temporary relief the act afforded him, he pivoted his hinged fangs from their snug grooves in the roof of his mouth, snapping each gratefully into its socket and grinning gleefully at his distorted image.\n\nThe rattle of the latch was nearly lost in another crash of thunder, but he had kept an eye on the latchbar. There was a second and louder rattle as Remora, on the other side of the door, contended with the inconveniently shaped iron handle that would, when its balky rotation had been completed, laboriously lift the clumsy bar clear of its cradle." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Quetzal touched his lips almost absently with his napkin; when he spread it upon his lap again, his fangs had vanished. \"Yes, Patera?\" he inquired querulously. \"What is it now? Is it time already?\"\n\n\"Your beef tea, Your Cognizance.\" Remora set his small tray on the table. \"Shall I—um—decant a cup for you? I have, er, obtained a clean cup for the purpose.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Do, Patera. Please do.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Quetzal smiled. \"While you were gone, I was contemplating the nature of humor. Have you ever considered it?\"\n\nRemora resumed his seat. \"I fear not, Your Cognizance.\"\n\n\"What's become of young Incus? You hadn't expected him to be gone so long?\"\n\n\"No, Your Cognizance. I dispatched him to Limna.\" Remora spooned beef salts into the clean cup and added water from the small copper kettle he had brought, producing a fine plume of steam." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I am—ah—moderately concerned. An, um, modicum of civil unrest last night, eh?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He stirred vigorously. \"This—ah—stripling Silk. Patera Silk, alas. I know him.\"\n\n\"My prothonotary told me.\" With the slightest of nods, Quetzal accepted the steaming cup. \"I'd have thought Limna would be safer.\"\n\n\"As would I, Your Cognizance. As did I.\"\n\nA cautious sip. Quetzal held the hot, salty fluid in his mouth, drawing it deliciously through folded fangs." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I sent him in search of a—ah, um—individual, Your Cognizance. A, er, acquaintance of this Patera Silk's. The Civil Guard is searching for Patera himself, hey? As are, er, certain others. Other—ah—parties. So I am told. This morning, Your Cognizance, I dispatched still others to look for young Incus. The rain, however, ah, necessitous, will hamper them all, hum?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Do you swim, Patera?\"\n\n\"I, Your Cognizance? At the—um—lakeside, you mean? No. Or at least, not for many years.\"\n\n\"Nor I.\"\n\nRemora groped toward a point he had yet to discern. \"A healthful exercise, however. For those of, um, unaugmented years, eh? A hot bath before sacrifice, Your Cognizance? Or—I have it!—springs. There are, er, reborant springs at Urbs. Healing springs, most healthful. Possibly, while—ah—affairs are so—ah—unsettled here, eh?\"\n\nQuetzal shook himself. He had a way of quivering like a fat man when he did that, although on the few occasions when Remora had been obliged to lift him into bed, his body had in fact been light and sinuous." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"The gods...\" He smiled." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Must be served, to be sure, Your Cognizance. I would be on the spot—ah—ensuring that the Chapter's interests were vigilantly safeguarded, hey?\" Remora tossed lank black hair away from his eyes. \"Each rite carried out with—um—\"\n\n\"You must recall the story, Patera.\" Quetzal swayed from side to side, perhaps with silent mirth. \"A-man and Wo-man like rabbits in a garden. The—what do you call them?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He held up a thin, blue-veined hand, palm cupped." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"A cobra, Your Cognizance?\"\n\n\"The cobra persuaded Wo-man to eat fruit from his tree, miraculous fruit whose taste conferred wisdom.\"\n\nRemora nodded, wondering how he might reintroduce the springs. \"I recollect the—um—allegory.\"\n\nQuetzal nodded more vigorously, a wise teacher proffering praise to a small boy. \"It's all in the Writings. Or nearly all. A god called Ah Lah barred Wo-man and her husband from the garden.\" He ceased to speak, apparently wandering among thoughts." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"We seem to have lost sight of Ah Lah, by the way. I can't recall a single sacrifice to him. No one ever asks why the cobra wanted Wo-man to eat his fruit.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"From sheer, er, wickedness, Your Cognizance? That is what I had always supposed.\"\n\nQuetzal swayed faster, his face solemn. \"In order that she would climb his tree, Patera. The man likewise. Their story's not over because they haven't climbed down. That's why I asked if you had considered the nature of humor. Is Patera Incus a strong swimmer?\"\n\n\"Why, I've—ah—no notion, Your Cognizance.\"\n\n\"Because you think you know why the woman you sent him to look for visited the lake with our scamp Silk, whose name I see on walls.\"\n\n\"Why, er, Your Cognizance is—ah—great penetration, as always.\" Remora fidgeted." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I saw it scratched on one five floors up, yesterday,\" Quetzal continued as though he had not heard, \"and went wide.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Disgraceful, Your Cognizance!\"\n\n\"Respect for our cloth, Patera. I myself swim well. Not so well as a fish, but very well indeed. Or I did.\"\n\n\"I'm pleased to hear it, Your Cognizance.\"\n\n\"The jokes of gods are long in telling. That's why you ought to sift the records of the past on Hieraxdays, Patera. Today's Hieraxday. You'll learn to think in new and better ways. Thank you for my beef tea. Now go.\"\n\nRemora rose and bowed. \"As Your Cognizance desires.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "His Cognizance stared past him, lost in speculation.\n\nGreatly daring, Remora ventured, \"I have often observed that your own way of thinking is somewhat—ah—unlike, as well as much more, um, select than that of most men.\"\n\nThere was no reply. Remora took a step backward. \"Upon every—ah—topic whatsoever, Your Cognizance's information is quite, um, marvelous.\"\n\n\"Wait.\" Quetzal had made his decision." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"The riots. Has the Alambrera fallen?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What's that? The Alambrera? Why—ah—no. Not to my knowledge, Your Cognizance.\"\n\n\"Tonight.\" Quetzal reached for his beef tea. \"Sit down, Patera. You're always jumping about. You make me nervous. It can't be good for you. Lemur's dead. Did you know it?\"\n\nRemora's mouth gaped, then snapped shut. He sat.\n\n\"You weren't. It's your responsibility to learn things.\"\n\nRemora acknowledged his responsibility with a shamefaced nod." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"May I inquire, Your Cognizance—?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"How I know? In the same way I knew the woman you sent Incus after had gone to Lake Limna with Patera Caldé Silk.\"\n\n\"Your Cognizance!\"\n\nOnce again, Quetzal favored Remora with his lipless smile. \"Are you afraid I'll be arrested, Patera? Cast into the pits? You'd be Prolocutor, presumably. I've no fear of the pits.\" Quetzal's long-skulled, completely hairless head bobbed above his cup. \"Not at my age. None.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"None the less, I implore Your Cognizance to be more—ah—circumspect.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Why isn't the city burning, patera?\"\n\nCaught by surprise, Remora glanced at the closest window.\n\n\"Mud brick and shiprock walls. Timbers supporting upper floors. Thatch or shingles. Five blocks of shops burned last night. Why isn't the whole city burning today?\"\n\n\"It's raining, Your Cognizance,\" Remora summoned all his courage. \"It's been raining—ah—forcibly since early this morning.\"\n\n\"Exactly so. Patera Caldé Silk went to Limna on Molpsday with a woman. That same day, you sent Incus there to look for an acquaintance of his. A woman, since you were reluctant to speak of it. Councillor Loris spoke through the glass an hour before lunch.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Remora tensed. \"He told you Councillor Lemur was no longer among us, Your Cognizance?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Quetzal swung his head back and forth. \"That Lemur was still alive, Patera. There are rumors. So it would appear. He wanted me to denounce them this afternoon.\"\n\n\"But if Councillor Loris—ah—assures—\"\n\n\"Clearly Lemur's dead. If he weren't, he'd speak to me in person. Or show himself at the Juzgado. Or both.\"\n\n\"Even so, Your Cognizance—\"\n\nAnother crash of thunder made common cause with Quetzal's thin hand to interrupt." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Can the Ayuntamiento prevail without him? That's the question, Patera. I want your opinion.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "To give himself time to consider, Remora sipped his now-tepid tea." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Munitions, the—ah—thews of contention, are stored in the Alambrera, as well as in the, um, cantonment of the Civil Guard, east of the city.\"\n\n\"I know that.\"\n\n\"It is an, er, complex of great—um—redoubtability, Your Cognizance. I am informed that the outer wall is twelve cubits in—ah—laterality. Yet Your Cognizance anticipates its surrender tonight? Before venturing an opinion, may I enquire as to the source of Your Cognizance's information?\"\n\n\"I haven't any,\" Quetzal told him. \"I was thinking out loud. If the Alambrera doesn't fall in a day or so, Patera Caldé Silk will fail. That's my opinion. Now I want yours.\"\n\n\"Your Cognizance does me honor. There is also the—um—dormant army to consider. Councillor Lemur—ah—Loris will undoubtedly issue an—ah—call to arms, should the, um, situation, in his view, become serious.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Your opinion, Patera.\"\n\nRemora's cup rattled in its saucer. \"As long as the—ah—fidelity of the Civil Guard remains—um—unblemished, Your Cognizance,\" he drew a deep breath, \"it would appear to me, though I am assuredly no—um—master hand at matters military, that—ah, um—Patera Caldé cannot prevail.\"\n\nQuetzal appeared to be listening only to the storm; for perhaps fifteen tickings of the coffin-shaped clock that stood beside the door, the howling of the wind and the lash of rain filled the room. At last he asked, \"Suppose that you were to learn that part of the Guard's gone over to Silk already?\"\n\nRemora's eyes widened. \"Your Cognizance has—?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No reason to think so. My question's hypothetical.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Remora, who had much experience of Quetzal's hypothetical questions, filled his lungs again." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I should then say, Your Cognizance, that should any such unhappy circumstance—ah—circumstances eventuate, the city would find itself amongst—ah—perilous waters.\"\n\n\"And the Chapter?\"\n\nRemora looked doleful. \"Equally so, Your Cognizance, if not worse. As an augur, Silk could well, ah, proclaim himself Prolocutor, as well as caldé.\"\n\n\"Really. He lacks reverence for you, my coadjutor?\"\n\n\"No, Your Cognizance. Quite the, um, contrary.\"\n\nQuetzal sipped beef tea in silence." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Your Cognizance—ah—intends the Chapter to support the—um—host of, er, Patera Caldé?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I want you to compose a circular letter, Patera. You have nearly six hours. It should be more than enough. I'll sign it when we're through in the Grand Manteion.\" Quetzal stared down at the stagnant brown liquid in his cup.\n\n\"To all the clergy, Your Cognizance?\"\n\n\"Emphasize our holy duty to bring comfort to the wounded and the Final Formula to the dying. Imply, but don't say—\" Quetzal paused, inspired.\n\n\"Yes, Your Cognizance?\"\n\n\"That Lemur's death ends the claim to rule the councillors had in the past. You say you know Patera Caldé Silk?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Remora nodded. \"I conversed with him at some—ah—extensively Scylsday evening, Your Cognizance. We discussed the financial—um—trials of his manteion, and—ah—various other matters.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I don't, Patera. But I've read every report in his file, those of his instructors and those of his predecessor. Thus my recommendation. Diligent, sensitive, intelligent, and pious. Impatient, as is to be expected at his age. Respectful, which you now confirm. A tireless worker, a point his instructor in theonomy was at pains to emphasize. Pliable. During the past few days, he's become immensely popular. Should he succeed in subjugating the Ayuntamiento, he's apt to remain so for a year or more. Perhaps much longer. Charteral government by a young augur who'll need seasoned advisors to remain in office...\"\n\n\"Indeed, Your Cognizance.\" Remora nodded energetically. \"The same—ah—intuition had occurred to me.\"\n\nWith his cup, Quetzal gestured toward the nearest window. \"We suffer a change in weather, Patera.\"\n\n\"An, um, profound one, Your Cognizance.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"We must acclimate ourselves to it. That's why I asked if young Incus swam. If you can reach him, tell him to strike out boldly. Have I made myself clear?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Remora nodded again. \"I will, um, strive to render the Chapter's wholehearted endorsement of an—ah—lawful and holy government apparent, Your Cognizance.\"\n\n\"Then go. Compose that letter.\"\n\n\"If the Alambrera doesn't—ah—bey?\"\n\nThere was no indication that Quetzal had heard. Remora left his chair and backed away, at length closing the door behind him.\n\nQuetzal rose, and an observer (had there been one) might have been more than a little surprised to see that shrunken figure grown so tall." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Expand on the story like Gene Wolfe would, staying true to the Science Fiction, Generation Ship genre." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hearing Silk's approach, Maytera Marble turned away from the Window and tried to cover herself with her new hands. With averted eyes, he passed her the habit he had taken from a nail in the wall of her room, saying, \"It doesn't matter, Maytera. Not really.\"\n\n\"I know, Patera. Yet I feel... There, it's on.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He faced her and held out his hand." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Can you stand up?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I don't know, Patera. I—I was about to try when you came. Where is everyone?\" Harder than flesh, her fingers took his. He heaved with all his strength, reawakening the half-healed wounds left by the beak of the white-headed one." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Maytera Marble stood, almost steadily, and endeavored to shake the dust from her long, black skirt, murmuring, \"Thank you, Patera. Did you get—? Thank you very much.\"\n\nHe took a deep breath. \"I'm afraid you must think I've acted improperly. I should explain that His Cognizance the Prolocutor personally authorized me to enter your cenoby to bring you that. His Cognizance is here; he's in the manse at the moment, I believe.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He waited for her to speak, but she did not." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Perhaps if you got out of the sun.\"\n\nShe leaned heavily on his arm as he led her through the arched gateway and the garden to her accustomed seat in the arbor.\n\nIn a voice not quite like her own, she said, \"There's something I should tell you. Something I should have told you long ago.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Silk nodded. \"There's something I should have told you long ago, too, Maytera—and something new that I must tell you now. Please let me go first; I think that will be best.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It seemed she had not heard him. \"I bore a child once, Patera. A son, a baby boy. It was... Oh, very long ago.\"\n\n\"Built a son, you mean. You and your husband.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She shook her head. \"Bore him in blood and pain, Patera. Great Echidna had blinded me to the gods, but it wasn't enough. So I suffered, and no doubt he suffered, too, poor little mite, though he had done nothing. We nearly died, both of us.\"\n\nSilk could only stare at her smooth, metal face." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"And now somebody's dead, upstairs. I can't remember who. It will come to me in a moment. I dreamt of snakes last night, and I hate snakes. If I tell you now, I think perhaps I won't have that dream again.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I hope not, Maytera,\" he told her. And then, \"Think of something else, if you can.\"\n\n\"It was... Was not an easy confinement. I was forty, and had never borne a child. Maytera Betel was our senior then, an excellent woman. But fat, one of those people who lose nothing when they fast. She became horribly tired when she fasted, but never thinner.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He nodded, increasingly certain that Maytera Marble was possessed again, and that he knew who possessed her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"We pretended I was becoming fat, too. She used to tease me about it, and our sibs believed her. I'd been such a small woman before.\"\n\nWatching carefully for her reaction, Silk said, \"I would have carried you, Maytera, if I could; but I knew you'd be too heavy for me to lift.\"\n\nShe ignored it. \"A few bad people gossiped, but that was all. Then my time came. The pains were awful. Maytera had arranged for a woman in the Orilla to care for me. Not a good woman, Maytera said, but a better friend in time of need than many good women. She told me she'd delivered children often, and washed her hands, and washed me, and told me what to do, but it would not come forth. My son. He wouldn't come into this world, though I pressed and pressed until I was so tired I thought I must die.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Her hand—he recognized it now as Maytera Rose's—found his." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hoping it would reassure her, he squeezed it as hard as he could.\n\n\"She cut me with a knife from her kitchen that she dipped in boiling water, and there was blood everywhere. Horrible! Horrible! A doctor came and cut me again, and there he was, covered with my blood and dripping. My son. They wanted me to nurse him, but I wouldn't. I knew that she'd blinded me, Ophidian Echidna had blinded me to the gods for what I'd done, but I thought that if I didn't nurse it she might relent and let me see her after all. She never has.\"\n\nSilk said, \"You don't have to tell me this, Maytera.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"They asked me to name him, and I did. They said they'd find a family that wanted a child and would take him, and he'd never find out, but he did, though it must have taken him a long while. He spoke to Marble, said she must tell me he'd bought it, and his name. When I heard his name, I knew.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Silk said gently, \"It doesn't matter any more, Maytera. That was long ago, and now the whole city's in revolt, and it no longer matters. You must rest. Find peace.\"\n\n\"And that is why,\" Maytera Marble concluded. \"Why my son Bloody bought our manteion and made all this trouble.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The wind wafted smoke from the fig tree to Silk's nose, and he sneezed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"May every god bless you, Patera.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Her voice sounded normal again.\n\n\"Thank you,\" he said, and accepted the handkerchief she offered.\n\n\"Could you bring me water, do you think? Cool water?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "As sympathetically as he could, he told her, \"You can't drink water, Maytera.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Please? Just a cup of cool water?\"\n\nHe hurried to the manse. Today was Hieraxday, after all; no doubt she wished him to bless the water for her in Hierax's name." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Later she would sprinkle it upon Maytera Rose's coffin and in the corners of her bedroom to prevent Maytera's spirit from troubling her again." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Cassava was sitting in the kitchen, in the chair Patera Pike had used at meals. Silk said, \"Shouldn't you lie down, my daughter? It would make you feel better, I'm sure, and there's a divan in the sellaria.\"\n\nShe stared at him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"That was a needler, wasn't it? I gave you a needler. Why'd I have a thing like that?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Because someone gave it to you to give me.\" He smiled at her. I'm going to the Alambrera, you see, and I'll need it.\" He worked the pump-handle vigorously, letting the first rusty half-bucketful drain away, catching the clear, cold flood that followed in a tumbler, and presenting it to Cassava. \"Drink this, please, my daughter. It should make you feel better.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You called me Mucor,\" she said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Mucor.\" She set the untasted tumbler on the kitchen table and rubbed her forehead. \"Didn't you call me Mucor, Patera?\"\n\n\"I mentioned Mucor, certainly; she was the person who gave you the needler to give to me.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Studying her puzzled frown, Silk decided it would be wise to change the subject." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Can you tell me what has become of His Cognizance and little Villus, my daughter?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"He carried him upstairs, Patera. He wanted him to lie down, like you wanted me.\"\n\n\"Doubtless he'll be down shortly.\" Silk reflected that the Prolocutor had probably intended to bandage Villus's leg, and lost some time searching for medical supplies." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Drink that water, please. I'm sure it will make you feel better.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He filled a second tumbler and carried it outside.\n\nMaytera Marble was sitting in the arbor just as he had left her. Pushing aside the vines, he handed her the tumbler, saying, \"Would you like me to bless this for you, Maytera?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It won't be necessary, Patera.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Water spilled from the lip; rills laced her fingers, and rain pattered upon the black cloth covering her metal thighs. She smiled.\n\n\"Does that make you feel better?\" he asked.\n\n\"Yes, much better. Much cooler, Patera. Thank you.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'll be happy to bring you another, if you require it.\"\n\nShe stood. \"No. No, thank you, Patera. I'll be all right now, I think.\"\n\n\"Sit down again, Maytera, please. I'm still worried about you, and I have to talk to you.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Reluctantly, she did. \"Aren't there others hurt? I seem to remember others—and Maytera Rose, her coffin.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Silk nodded. \"That's a part of what I must talk to you about. Fighting has broken out all over the city.\"\n\nShe nodded hesitantly. \"Riots.\"\n\n\"Rebellion, Maytera. The people—some at least—are rising against the Ayuntamiento. There won't be any burials for several days, I'm afraid; so when you're feeling better, you and I must carry Maytera's coffin into the manteion. Is it very heavy?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I don't think so, Patera.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Then we should be able to manage it. But before we go, I ought to tell you that Villus and an old woman named Cassava are in the manse with His Cognizance. I can't stay here, nor will he be able to, I'm sure; so I intend to ask him to allow you to enter to care for them.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Maytera Marble nodded.\n\n\"And our altar and Window are still out in the street. I doubt that it will be possible for you to get enough help to move them back inside until the city is at peace. But if you can, please do.\"\n\n\"I certainly will, Patera.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I want you to stay and look after our manteion, Maytera. Maytera Mint's gone; she felt it her duty to lead the fighting, and she answered duty's call with exemplary courage. I'll have to go soon as well. People are dying—and killing others—to make me caldé, and I must put a stop to that if I can.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Please be careful, Patera. For all our sakes.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Yet this manteion is still important, Maytera. Terribly important.\" (Doctor Crane's ghost laughed aloud in a corner of Silk's mind.) \"The Outsider told me so, remember? Someone must care for it, and there's no one left but you.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Maytera Marble's sleek metal head bobbed humbly, oddly mechanical without her coif." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'll do my best, Patera.\"\n\n\"I know you will.\" He filled his lungs." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I said there were two things I had to tell you. You may not recall it, but I did. When you began to speak, I found there were a great many more. Now I must tell you those two, and then we'll carry Maytera into the manteion, if we can. The first is something I should have said months ago. Perhaps I did; I know I've tried. Now I believe—I believe it's quite likely I may be killed, and I must say it now, or be silent forever.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'm anxious to hear it, Patera.\" Her voice was soft, her metal mask expressionless and compassionate; her hands clasped his, hard and wet and warm.\n\n\"I want to say—this is the old thing—that I could never have stood it here if it hadn't been for you. Maytera Rose and Maytera Mint tried to help, I know they did. But you have been my right arm, Maytera. I want you know that.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Maytera Marble was staring at the ground." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You're too kind, Patera.\"\n\n\"I've loved three women. My mother was the first. The third...\" He shrugged. \"It doesn't matter. You don't know her, and I doubt that I'll ever see her again.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "A pillar of swirling dust rose above the top of the garden wall, to be swept away in a moment." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"The second thing, the new one, is that I can't remain the sort of augur I've been. Pas—Great Pas, who ruled the whole Whorl like a father—is dead, Maytera. Echidna herself told us. Do you remember that?\"\n\nMaytera Marble said nothing.\n\n\"Pas built our whorl, as we learn from the Writings. He built it, I believe, to endure for a long, long time, but not to endure indefinitely in his absence. Now he's dead, and the sun has no master. I believe that the Fliers have been trying to tame it, or perhaps only trying to heal it. A man in the market told me once that his grandfather had spoken of them, saying their appearance presaged rain; so all my life, and my mother's, and her parents', too, have been lived under their protection, while they wrestled the sun.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Silk peered through the wilting foliage overhead at the dwindling golden line, already narrowed by the shade." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"But they've failed, Maytera. A Flier told me yesterday, with what was almost his final breath. I didn't understand then; but I do now, or at least I believe I may. Something happened in the street that made it unmistakable. Our city, and every other, must help if it can, and prepare for worse times than we've ever known.\"\n\nQuetzal's tremulous old voice came from outside the arbor. \"Excuse me, Patera. Maytera.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The wilting vines parted, and he stepped inside." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I overheard what you said. I couldn't help it, it's so quiet. You'll pardon me, I hope?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Of course, Your Cognizance.\" Both rose." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Sit down, my daughter. Sit, please. May I sit beside you, Patera? Thank you. Everyone's hiding indoors, I imagine, or gone off to join the fighting. I've been upstairs in your manse, Patera, and I looked out your window. There isn't a cart in the street, and you can hear shooting.\"\n\nSilk nodded. \"A terrible thing, Your Cognizance.\"\n\n\"It is, as I overheard you say earlier, Patera. Maytera, you are, from all I've heard and read in our files, a woman of sound sense. A woman outstanding for that valuable quality, in fact. Viron's at war with itself. Men and women, and even children, are dying as we speak. They call us butchers for offering animal blood to the gods, though they're only animals and die quickly for the highest of purposes. Now the gutters are running with wasted human blood. If we're butchers, what will they call themselves when it's over?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He shook his head." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Heroes, I suppose. Do you agree?\"\n\nMaytera Marble nodded mutely.\n\n\"Then I ask you, how can it be ended? Tell me, Maytera. Tell us both. My coadjutor fears my humor, and I myself fear at times that I overindulge it. But I was never more serious.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She muttered something inaudible." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Louder, Maytera.\"\n\n\"Patera Silk must become our caldé.\"\n\nQuetzal leaned back in the little rustic seat." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"There you have it. Her reputation for good sense is entirely justified, Patera Caldé.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Your Cognizance!\"\n\nMaytera Marble made Quetzal a seated bow. \"You're too kind, Your Cognizance.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Maytera. Suppose I maintain that yours isn't the only solution. Suppose I say that the Ayuntamiento has governed us before and can govern us again. We need only submit. What's wrong with that?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"There'd be another rebellion, Your Cognizance, and more riots.\" Maytera Marble would not meet Silk's eyes. \"More fighting, new rebellions every few years until the Ayuntamiento was overthrown. I've watched discontent grow for twenty years, Your Cognizance, and now they're killing, Patera says. They'll be quicker to fight next time, and quicker again until it never really stops. And—and...\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Yes?\" Quetzal motioned urgently. \"Tell us.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"The soldiers will die, Your Cognizance, one by one. Each time the people rise, there will be fewer soldiers.\"\n\n\"So you see.\" His head swung about on its wrinkled neck as he spoke to Silk. \"Your supporters must win, Patera Caldé. Stop wincing when I call you that, you've got to get used to it. They must, because only their victory will bring Viron peace:. Tell Loris and the rest they can save their lives by surrendering now. Lemur's dead, did you know that?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Swallowing, Silk nodded." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"With Lemur gone, a few smacks of your quirt will make the rest trot anywhere you want. But you must be caldé, and the people must see you are.\"\n\n\"If I may speak, Your Cognizance?\"\n\n\"Not to tell me that you, an anointed augur, will not do what I, your Prolocutor, ask you to, I trust.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You've been Prolocutor for many years, Your Cognizance. Since long before I was born. You were Prolocutor in the days of the last caldé.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Quetzal nodded. \"I knew him well. I intend to know you better, Patera Caldé.\"\n\n\"I was a child when he died, Your Cognizance, a child just learning to walk. A great many things must have happened then that I've never heard of. I mention it to emphasize that I'm asking out of ignorance. If you would prefer not to answer, no more will be said about the matter.\"\n\nQuetzal nodded. \"If it were Maytera here inquiring, or your acolyte, let's say, or even my coadjutor, I might refuse exactly as you suggest. I can't imagine a question asked by our caldé that I wouldn't feel it was my duty to answer fully and clearly, however. What's troubling you?\"" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 4 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Silk ran his fingers through his hair. \"When the caldé died, Your Cognizance, did you—did anyone—protest the Ayuntamiento's decision not to hold an election?\"\n\nQuetzal nodded, as if to himself, and passed a trembling hand across his hairless scalp, a gesture similar to Silk's yet markedly different. \"The short answer, if I intended nothing more than a short answer, would be yes. I did. So did various others. You deserve more than a short answer, though. You deserve a complete explanation. In the meantime, that lucky young man's body lies half consumed on the altar. I saw it from your window. You indicate that you're not inclined to plead your office to excuse disobedience. Will you follow me into the street and help me do what can be done there? When we're finished, I'll answer you fully.\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "I'll be your writing partner today. I will set the scene, and you will continue the story with 7 sentences, channeling the voice and techniques of Gene Wolfe in the Science Fiction, Generation Ship genre." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I shocked you, Patera Caldé. I know I did. I could see it in your face. My eyes aren't what they were, I'm afraid. I'm no longer good at reading expressions. But I read yours.\"\n\n\"Somewhat, Your Cognizance.\" Together, they were walking up a deserted Sun Street, a tall young augur and a stooped old one side-by-side. Silk taking a slow step for two of Quetzal's lame and unsteady ones.\n\n\"Since you left the schola, Patera Caldé, since you came to this quarter, you've prayed that a god would come to your Window, haven't you? I feel sure you have. All of you do, or nearly all. Who did you hope for? Pas or Scylla?\"\n\n\"Scylla chiefly, Your Cognizance. To tell the truth, I scarcely thought about the minor gods then. I mean the gods outside the Nine—no god is truly minor, I suppose. Scylla seemed the most probable. It was only on Scylsdays that we had a victim, for one thing; and she's the patroness of the city, after all.\"\n\n\"She'd tell you what to do, which was what you wanted.\" Quetzal squinted up at Silk with a toothless smile he found disconcerting." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"She'd fill your cash box, too. You could fix up those old buildings, buy books for your palaestra, and sacrifice in the grand style every day.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Reluctantly, Silk nodded.\n\n\"I understand. Oh, I understand. It's perfectly normal, Patera Caldé. Even commendable. But what about me? What about me, not wanting gods to come at all? That isn't, is it? It isn't, and it's bothering you.\"\n\nSilk shook his head. \"It's not my place to judge your acts or your words, Your Cognizance.\"\n\n\"Yet you will.\" Quetzal paused to peer along Lamp Street, and seemed to listen. \"You will, Patera Caldé. You can't help it. That's why I've got to tell you. After that, we're going to talk about something you probably think that you learned all about when you were a baby. I mean the Plan of Pas. Then you can go off to Maytera what'shername.\"\n\n\"Mint, Your Cognizance.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You can go off to help her overthrow the Ayuntamiento for Echidna, and I'll be going off to find you more people to do it with, and better weapons. To begin—\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Your Cognizance?\" Silk ran nervous fingers through his haystack hair, unable to restrain himself any longer. \"Your Cognizance, did you know Great Pas was dead? Did you know it already, before she told us today?\"\n\n\"Certainly. We can start there, Patera Caldé, if that's troubling you. Would you have talked about it from the ambion of the Grand Manteion if you'd been in my place? Made a public announcement? Conducted ceremonies of mourning and so forth?\"\n\n\"Yes,\" Silk said firmly. \"Yes, I would.\"\n\n\"I see. What do you suppose killed him, Patera Caldé? You're an intelligent young fellow. You studied hard at the schola, I know. Your instructors' reports are very favorable. How could the Father of the Gods die?\"\n\nFaintly, Silk could hear the booming of slug guns, then a long, concerted roar that might almost have been thunder.\n\n\"Building falling,\" Quetzal told him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Don't worry about that now. Answer my question.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I can't conceive of such a thing, Your Cognizance. The gods are immortal, ageless. It's their immortality that makes them gods, really, more than anything else.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"A fever,\" Quetzal suggested. \"We mortals die of fevers every day. Perhaps he caught a fever?\"\n\n\"The gods are spiritual beings, Your Cognizance. They're not subject to disease.\"\n\n\"Kicked in the head by a horse. Don't you think that could have been it?\"\n\nSilk did not reply.\n\n\"I'm mocking you, Patera Caldé, of course I am. But not idly. My question's perfectly serious. Echidna told you Pas is dead, and you can't help believing her. I've known it for thirty years, since shortly after his death, in fact. How did he die? How could he?\"\n\nSilk combed his disorderly yellow hair with his fingers again." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"When I was made Prolocutor, Patera Caldé, we had a vase at the Palace that had been thrown on the Short Sun Whorl, a beautiful thing. They told me it was five hundred years old. Almost inconceivable. Do you agree?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"And priceless, I would say, Your Cognizance.\"\n\n\"Lemur wanted to frighten me, to show me how ruthless he could be. I already knew, but he didn't know I did. I think he thought that if I did I'd never dare oppose him. He took that vase from its stand and smashed it at my feet.\"\n\nSilk stared down at Quetzal. \"You—you're serious, Your Cognizance? He actually did that?\"\n\n\"He did. Look, now. That vase was immortal. It didn't age. It was proof against disease. But it could be destroyed, as it was. So could Pas. He couldn't age, or even fall sick. But he could be destroyed, and he was. He was murdered by his family. Many men die like that, Patera Caldé. When you're half my age, you'll know it. Now a god has, too.\"\n\n\"But, Your Cognizance...\"\n\n\"Viron's isolated, Patera Caldé. All the cities are. He gave us floaters and animals. No big machines that could carry heavy loads. He thought that would be best for us, and I dare say he was right. But the Ayuntamiento's not isolated. The caldé wasn't either, when we had one. Did you think he was?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Silk said, \"I realize we have diplomats, Your Cognizance, and there are traveling traders and so forth—boats on the rivers, and even spies.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"That's right. As Prolocutor, I'm no more isolated than he was. Less, but I won't try to prove that. I'm in contact with religious leaders in Urbs, Wick, and other cities, cities where his children have boasted of killing Pas.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"It was the Seven, then, Your Cognizance? Not Echidna? Was Scylla involved?\"\n\nQuetzal had found prayer beads in a pocket of Gulo's robe; he ran them through his fingers. \"Echidna was at the center. You've seen her, can you doubt it? Scylla, Molpe, and Hierax were in it. They've said so at various times.\"\n\n\"But not Tartaros, Thelxiepeia, Phaea, or Sphigx, Your Cognizance?\" Silk felt an irrational surge of hope.\n\n\"I don't know about Tartaros and the younger gods, Patera Caldé. But do you see why I didn't announce it? There would have been panic. There will be, if it becomes widely known. The Chapter will be destroyed and the basis of morality gone. Imagine Viron with neither. As for public observances, how do you think Pas's murderers would react to our mourning him?\"\n\n\"We—\" Something tightened in Silk's throat." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"We, you and I, Your Cognizance. Villus and Maytera Marble, all of us are—were his children too. That is to say, he built the whorl for us. Ruled us like a father. I...\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What is it, Patera Calde?\"\n\n\"I just remembered something, Your Cognizance. Kypris—you must know there was a theophany of Kypris at our manteion on Scylsday.\"\n\n\"I've had a dozen reports. It's the talk of the city.\"\n\n\"She said she was hunted, and I didn't understand. Now I believe I may.\"\n\nQuetzal nodded. \"I imagine she is. The wonder is that they haven't been able to corner her in thirty years. She can't be a tenth as strong as Pas was. But it can't be easy to kill even a minor goddess who knows you're trying to. Not like killing a husband and father who trusts you. Now you see why I've tried to prevent theophanies, don't you, Patera Caldé? If you don't, I'll never be able to make it clear.\"\n\n\"Yes, Your Cognizance. Of course. It's—horrible. Unspeakable. But you were right. You are right.\"\n\n\"I'm glad you realize it. You understand why we go on sacrificing to Pas? We must. I've tried to downgrade him somewhat. Make him seem more remote than he used to. I've emphasized Scylla at his expense, but you're too young to have realized that. Older people complain, sometimes.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Silk said nothing, but stroked his cheek as he walked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You have questions, Patera Caldé. Or you will have when you've digested all this. Don't fear you may offend me. I'm at your disposal whenever you want to question me.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I have two,\" Silk told him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I hesitate to pose the first, which verges upon blasphemy.\"\n\n\"Many necessary questions do.\" Quetzal cocked his head. \"This isn't one, but do you hear horses?\"\n\n\"Horses, Your Cognizance? No.\"\n\n\"I must be imagining it. What are your questions?\"\n\nSilk walked on in silence for a few seconds to collect his thoughts." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "At length he said, \"My original two questions have become three, Your Cognizance. The first, for which I apologize in advance, is, isn't it true that Echidna and the Seven love us just as Pas did? I've always felt, somehow, that Pas loved them, while they love us; and if that is so, will his death—terrible though it is—make a great deal of difference to us?\"\n\n\"You have a pet bird, Patera Caldé. I've never seen it, but so I've been told.\"\n\n\"I had one, Your Cognizance, a night chough. I've lost him, I'm afraid, although it may be that he's with a friend. I'm hoping he'll return to me eventually.\"\n\n\"You should have caged him, Patera Caldé. Then you'd still have him.\"\n\n\"I liked him too much for that, Your Cognizance.\"\n\nQuetzal's small head bobbed upon its long neck. \"Just so. There are people who love birds so much they free them. There are others who love them so much they cage them. Pas's love of us was of the first kind. Echidna's and the Seven's is of the other. Were you going to ask why they killed Pas? Is that one of your questions?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Silk nodded, \"My second, Your Cognizance.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I've answered it. What's the third?\"\n\n\"You indicated that you wished to discuss the Plan of Pas with me, Your Cognizance. If Pas is dead, what's the point of discussing his plan?\"\n\nHoofbeats sounded faintly behind them.\n\n\"A god's plans do not die with him, Patera Caldé. He is dead, as Serpentine Echidna told us. We are not. We were to carry Pas's plan out. You said he ruled us as a father. Do a father's plans benefit him? Or his children?\"\n\n\"Your Cognizance, I just remembered something! Another god, the Outsider—\"\n\n\"Pateras!\" The horseman, a lieutenant of the Civil Guard in mottled green conflict armor, pushed up his visor. \"Are you—you there, Patera. The young one. Aren't you Patera Silk?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Yes, my son,\" Silk said. \"I am.\"" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 3 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The lieutenant dropped the reins. His hand appeared slow as it jerked his needler from the holster, yet it was much too quick to permit Silk to draw Musk's needler. The flat crack of the shot sounded an instant after the needle's stinging blow." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "CONTINUE STORY. PARAMETERS: one sentence sentences, Science Fiction, Generation Ship genre." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I am Colonel Oosik, Caldé,\" Silk's visitor informed him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He was a big man, so tall and broad that Shell was hidden by his green-uniformed bulk." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"The officer who directs this brigade,\" Silk offered his hand." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"In command. Is that what you say? I'm Patera Silk.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You have familiarized yourself with our organization.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Oosik sat down in the chair Shell had carried in earlier." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Not really. Are those my clothes you have?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Yes.\" Oosik held them up, an untidy black bundle." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"We will speak of them presently, Calde. If you have made no study of our organization charts, how is it you know my position?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I saw a poster.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Silk paused, remembering. \"I was going to the lake with a woman named Chenille. The poster announced the formation of a reserve brigade. It was signed by you, and it told anyone who wanted to join it to apply to Third Brigade Headquarters. Patera Shell was kind enough to look in on me a few minutes ago, and he happened to mention that this was the Third Brigade. After he had gone, I recalled your poster.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Shell said hurriedly, \"The colonel was in the captain's room when I got there, Patera. I told them I'd wait, but he made me come in and asked what I wanted, so I told him.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Thank you,\" Silk said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Please return to your manteion at once, Patera. You've done everything that you can do here tonight.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Trying to freight the words with significance, he added, \"It's already late. Very late.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I thought, Patera—\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Go,\" Oosik tugged his drooping mustache." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Your caldé and I have delicate matters to discuss. He understands that. So should you.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I thought—\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Go!\" Oosik had scarcely raised his voice, yet the word was like the crack of a whip. Shell hurried out." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Sentry! Shut the door.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The mustache was tipped with white, Silk observed; Oosik wound it about his index finger as he spoke." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Since you have not studied our organization, Caldé, you will not know that a brigade is the command of a general, called a brigadier.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"No.\" Silk admitted." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I've never given it any thought.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"In that case no explanation is necessary. I had planned to tell you, so that each of us would know where we stand, that though I am a mere colonel, an officer of field grade,\" Oosik released his mustache to touch the silver osprey on his collar, \"I command my brigade exactly as a brigadier would. I have for four years. Do you want your clothes?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Yes. I'd like to get dressed, if you'll let me.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Oosik nodded, though it was not clear whether his nod was meant to express permission or understanding." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You are nearly dead, Caldé. A needle passed through your lung.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Nevertheless, I'd feel better if I were up and dressed.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was a lie, although he wished fervently that it were true." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'd be sitting on this bed then, instead of lying in it; but I've got nothing on.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Oosik chuckled. \"You wish your shoes as well?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"My shoes and my stockings. My underwear, my trousers, my tunic, and my robe. Please, Colonel.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The corners of the mustache tilted upward." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Dressed, you might easily escape, Caldé. Isn't that so?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You say I'm near death, Colonel. A man near death might escape, I suppose; but not easily.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"We have handled you roughly here in the Third, Caldé. You have been beaten. Tortured.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Silk shook his head." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You shot me. At least, I suppose that it was one of your officers who shot me. But I've been treated by a doctor and installed in this comfortable room. No one has beaten me.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"With your leave.\" Oosik peered at him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Your face is bruised. I assumed that we had beaten you.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Silk shook his head, pushing back the memory of hours of interrogation by Councillor Potto and Sergeant Sand." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You do not wish to explain the source of your bruises. You have been fighting, Caldé, a shameful thing for an augur. Or boxing. Boxing would be permissible, I suppose.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Through my own carelessness and stupidity, I fell down a flight of stairs,\" Silk said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "To his surprise, Oosik roared with laughter, slapping his knee." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"That is what our troopers say, Caldé,\" he wiped his eyes, still chuckling, \"when one has been beaten by the rest. He says he fell down the barracks stairs, almost always. They don't want to confess that they've cheated their comrades, you see, or stolen from them.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"In my case it's the truth.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Silk considered. \"I had been trying to steal, though not to cheat, two days earlier. But I really did fall down steps and bruise my face.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I am happy to hear you haven't been beaten. Our men do it sometimes without orders. I have known them to do it when it was contrary to their orders, as well. I punish them for that severely, you may be sure. In your case, Caldé,\" Oosik shrugged." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I sent out an officer because I required better information concerning the progress of the battle before the Alambrera than my glass could give me. I had made provisions for wounded and for prisoners. I needed to learn whether they would be sufficient.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I understand.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"He came back with you.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Oosik sighed. \"Now he expects a medal and a promotion for putting me in this very difficult position. You understand my problem, Caldé?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I'm not sure I do.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"We are fighting, you and I. Your followers, a hundred thousand or more, against the Civil Guard, of which I am a senior officer, and a few thousand soldiers. Either side may win. Do you agree?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I suppose so,\" Silk said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Let us say, for the moment, that it is mine. I do not intend to be unfair to you, Caldé. We will discuss the other possibility in a moment. Say that the victory is ours, and I report to the Ayuntamiento that you are my prisoner. I will be asked why I did not report it earlier, and I may be court-martialed for not having reported it. If I am fortunate, my career will be destroyed. If I am not, I may be shot.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Then report it,\" Silk told him, \"by all means.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Oosik shook his head again, his big face gloomier than ever." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"There is no right course for me in this, Caldé. No right course at all. But there is one that is clearly wrong, that can lead only to disaster, and you have advised it. The Ayuntamiento has ordered that you be killed on sight. Do you know that?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I had anticipated it.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Silk discovered that his hands were clenched beneath the quilt." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He made himself relax." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"No doubt. Lieutenant Tiger should have killed you at once. He didn't. May I be frank? I don't think he had the stomach for it. He denies it, but I don't think he had the stomach. He shot you. There you lay, an augur in an augur's robe, gasping like a fish and bleeding from the mouth. One more shot would be the end.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Oosik shrugged. \"No doubt he thought you would die while he was bringing you in. Most men would have.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I see,\" Silk said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"He'll be in trouble now if you tell the Ayuntamiento that you have me, alive.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I will be in trouble.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Oosik tapped his chest with a thick forefinger." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I will be ordered to kill you, Calde, and I will have to do it. If we lose after that, your woman Mint will have me shot, if she doesn't light upon something worse. If we win, I will be marked for life. I will be the man who killed Silk, the augur who was, as the city firmly believes, chosen by Pas to be caldé. If it is wise, the Ayuntamiento will disavow my actions, court-martial me, and have me shot. No, Caldé, I will not report that I hold you. That is the last thing that I will do.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You said that the Guard and the Army—I've been told there are seven thousand soldiers—are fighting the people. What is the strength of the Guard, Colonel?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Silk strove to recall his conversation with Hammerstone. \"Thirty thousand, approximately?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Less.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Some Guardsmen have deserted the Ayuntamiento. I know that for a fact.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Oosik nodded gloomily." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"May I ask how many?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"A few hundred, perhaps, Caldé.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Would you say a thousand?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "For half a minute or more, Oosik did not speak; at last he said, \"I am told five hundred. If that is correct, almost all have come from my own brigade.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I have something to show you,\" Silk said, \"but I have to ask you for a promise first. It's something that Patera Shell brought me, and I want you to give me your word that you won't harm him or the augur of his manteion, or any of their sibyls. Will you promise?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Oosik shook his head." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I cannot disobey if I am ordered to arrest them, Patera.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"If you're not ordered to.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "It should give them ample time to leave, Silk thought." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Promise me that you won't do anything to them on your own initiative.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Oosik studied him. \"You are offering your information very cheaply, Caldé. We don't bother you religious, except under the most severe provocation.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Then I have your word as an officer?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Oosik nodded, and Silk took the Prolocutor's letter from under his quilt and handed it to him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He unbuttoned a shirt pocket and got out a pair of silver-rimmed glasses, shifting his position slightly so that the light fell upon the letter." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In the silence that followed, Silk reviewed everything Oosik had said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Had he made the right decision?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Oosik was ambitious—had probably volunteered to take charge of the reserve brigade as well as his own in the hope of gaining the rank and pay to which his position entitled him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He might be, in fact he almost certainly was, underestimating the fighting capabilities of soldiers like Sand and Hammerstone; but he was sure to know a great deal about those of the Civil Guard, in which he had spent his adult life; and he was considering the possibility that the Ayuntamiento would lose." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The Prolocutor's letter, with its implications of increased support for Maytera Mint, might tilt the balance." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Or so Silk hoped." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Oosik looked up. \"This says Lemur's dead.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Silk nodded." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"There have been rumors all day. What if your Prolocutor is simply repeating them?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"He's dead.\" Silk made the statement as forceful as he could, fortified by the knowledge that for once there was no need to hedge the truth." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You've got a glass, Colonel. You must. Ask it to find Lemur for you.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You saw him die?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Silk shook his head, saying, \"I saw his body, however,\" and Oosik returned to the letter." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Too much boldness could ruin everything; it would be worse than useless to try to make Oosik say or do anything that could be brought up against him later." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Oosik put down the letter." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"The Chapter is behind you, Caldé. I suspected as much, and this makes it very plain.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It is now, apparently.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Here was a chance for Oosik to declare himself." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"If you suspected it before you read that letter, Colonel, it was doubly kind of you to let Patera Shell in to see me.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I didn't, Caldé. Captain Gecko did.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I see. But you'll keep your promise?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I am a man of honor, Caldé.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Oosik refolded the letter and put it in his pocket with his glasses." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I will also keep this. Neither of us would want anyone else to read it. One of my officers, particularly.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Silk nodded. \"You're welcome to.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You want your clothes back. No doubt you would like to have the contents of your pockets as well. Your beads are in there, I think. I imagine you would like to tell them as you lie here.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I would, yes. Very much.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"There are needlers, too. One is like the one with which you were shot. There is also a smaller one that seems to have belonged to a woman named Hyacinth.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Yes,\" Silk said again." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I see. I know her, if she is the Hyacinth I'm thinking of. An amiable girl, as well as a very beautiful one. I lay with her on Phaesday.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Silk shut his eyes." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I did not set out to give you pain, Caldé. Look at me. I'm old enough to be your father, or hers. Do you imagine she sends me love letters?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Is that...?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What one of the letters in your pocket is?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Oosik nodded solemnly. \"Captain Gecko told me the seals had not been broken when he found them. Quite frankly, I doubted him. I see that I should not have. You have not read them.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"No,\" Silk said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Captain Gecko has, and I. No one else. Gecko can be discreet if I order it, and a man of honor must be a man of discretion, also. Otherwise he is worse than useless. You did not recognize her seal?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Silk shook his head." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I've never gotten a letter from her before.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Caldé, I have never gotten one at all.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Oosik tugged his mustache." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You would be well advised to keep that before you. Many letters from women over the years, but never one from her. I say again, I envy you.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Thank you,\" Silk said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You love her.\" Oosik leaned back in his chair." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"That is not a question. You may not know it, but you do.\" His voice softened." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I was your age once, Caldé. Do you realize that in a month it may be over?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"In a day it may be over,\" Silk admitted." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Sometimes I hope it will be.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You fear it, too. You need not say so. I understand. I told you I knew her and it gave you pain, but I do not want you to think, later, that I have been less than honest. I am being equally honest now. Brutally honest with myself. My pride. I am nothing to her.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Thank you again,\" Silk said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You are welcome. I do not say that she is nothing to me. I am not a man of stone. But there are others, several who are much more. To explain would be offensive.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Certainly you don't have to go into details unless you want me to shrive you. May I see her letter?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"In a moment, Caldé. Soon I will give it to you to keep. I think so, at least. There is one further matter to be dealt with. You chanced to mention a woman called Chenille. I know a woman of that name, too. She lives in a yellow house.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Silk smiled and shook his head." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"That does not pain you at all. She is not the Chenille you took to the lake?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I was amused at myself—at my stupidity. She told me she had entertained colonels; but until you said you knew her, it had never entered my mind that you were almost certain to be one of them. There can't be a great many.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Seven besides myself.\" Oosik rummaged in the bundle of clothing and produced Musk's big needler and Hyacinth's small, gold-plated one." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "After holding them up so that Silk could see them, he laid them on the windowsill." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"The little one is hers,\" Silk said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Hyacinth's. Could you see that it's returned to her?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Oosik nodded. \"I shall send it by a mutual acquaintance. What about the large one?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"The owner's dead. I suppose it's mine now.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I am too well mannered to ask if you killed him, but I hope he was not one of our officers.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No,\" Silk said, \"and no. I confess I was tempted to kill him several times—as he was undoubtedly tempted to kill me—but I didn't. I've only killed once, in selfdefense. May I read Hyacinth's letter now?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"If I can find it.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Oosik fumbled through Silk's clothes again, then held up both the letters Silk had taken from the mantel in the manse that morning." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"This other is from another augur. You have no interest in it?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Not as much, I'm afraid. Who is it?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I have forgotten.\" Oosik extracted the letter from its envelope and unfolded it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"'Patera Remora, Coadjutor.' He wishes to see you, or he did. You were to come to his suite in the Prolocutor's Palace yesterday at three. You are more than a day late already, Caldé. Do you want it?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I suppose so,\" Silk said; and Oosik tossed it on the bed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Oosik rose, holding out Hyacinth's letter." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"This one you will not wish to read while I watch, and I have urgent matters to attend to. I may look in on you again, later this evening. Much later. If I am too busy, I will see you in the morning, perhaps.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He tugged his mustache." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Will you think me a fool if I say I wish you well, Caldé? That if we were no longer opponents I should consider your friendship an honor?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I'd think you were an estimable, honorable man,\" Silk told him, \"which you are.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Thank you, Caldé!\" Oosik bowed, with a click of his booted heels." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Colonel?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Your beads. I had forgotten. You will find them in a pocket of the robe, I feel sure.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Oosik turned to go, but turned back." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"A matter of curiosity. Are you familiar with the Palatine, Caldé?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Silk's right hand, holding Hyacinth's letter, had begun to tremble; he pressed it against his knee so that Oosik would not see it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I've been there.\" By an effort of will, he kept his voice almost steady." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Why do you ask?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Often, Caldé?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Three times, I believe.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was impossible to think of anything but Hyacinth; he could as easily have said fifty, or never." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Yes, three times—once to the Palace, and twice to attend sacrifice at the Grand Manteion.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Nowhere else?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Silk shook his head." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"There is a place having a wooden figure of Thelxiepeia. As an augur, you may know where it is.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"There's an onyx image in the Grand Manteion—\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Oosik shook his head." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"In Ermine's, to the right as one enters the sellaria. One sees an arch with greenery beyond it. At the rear, there is a pool with goldfish. She stands by it holding a mirror. The lighting is arranged so that the pool is reflected in her mirror, and her mirror in the pool. It is mentioned in that letter.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Oosik turned upon his heel." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Colonel, these needlers—\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He paused at the door." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Do you intend to shoot your way to freedom, Caldé?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Without waiting for Silk's reply he went out, leaving the door ajar behind him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Silk heard the sentry come to attention, and Oosik say, \"You are dismissed. Return to the guardroom immediately.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Silk's hands were still shaking as he unfolded Hyacinth's letter; it was on stationery the color of heavy cream, scrawled in violet ink, with many flourishes." }, { "from": "human", "value": "O My Darling Wee Flea:" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I call you so not only because of the way you sprang from my window, but because of the way you hopped into my bed!" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 2 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "How your lonely bloss has longed for a note from you!!! You might have sent one by the kind friend who brought you my gift, you know!" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "hey can u write 2 sentences more sentences? in Erotica, Paranormal Romance style" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hikaru stared at the man she had killed with Sophia's corrupted sword — Kevin. The Head of Security for Parkland Lutheran University." }, { "from": "human", "value": "When she had killed him, he had been under Daevia's control." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It had been self-defense. He had been choking her, and she had used her telepathic powers to pick up the corrupted sword and stabbed him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When she had killed Kevin, for the briefest instance, she had seen him and his wife's souls, united in death and smiling with freedom. Keven had killed his wife on Daevia's order to corrupt Sophia's sword." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hikaru gave Kevin a wary glance, fear spiking through her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Would he try to kill her again? Would he want revenge for his death?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"We mean you no harm,\" the woman smiled." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You saved us, Hikaru.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I killed him.\"\n\n\"We were bound to the sword,\" Kevin answered." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Shelly and I were chained to it through murder and betrayal.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A tear ran down his cheek and he tightened his arm around the naked woman. \"Daevia... made me kill her.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Shelly leaned her head against his shoulder." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"She made me beg.\" She shuddered. \"I had to kneel, looking up at my husband, and beg him to kill me. To set me free of our love.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hikaru shifted, not sure what to say. \"Well... I'm glad I could help.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"And now we can repay you,\" Shelly smiled, her hand roaming her husband's body." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "For a moment, white cords bound their necks, linking the pair together, shining with love.\n\n\"Yes, we can.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Lust burned suddenly inside Hikaru, and she let out a sigh." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Bill was fucking someone, his lust invading her. Cassie gasped and a stifled moaned escaped Rosa's lips." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "So they felt it, too. Hikaru sighed, pushing down the fire, trying to concentrate on other things." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"So you can help us?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Yes,\" groaned Kevin. Hikaru blinked. His wife had his cock in her hand, stroking him with practiced jerks." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Um, is this the right time?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Sorry,\" Shelly smiled, falling to her knees. \"We're soul mates. It's kinda intense here. If one of us gets even a tiniest aroused, so does the other. We're kind of feeding each other and, well, my husband couldn't help admiring you three pretty women.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She opened her mouth, sucking Kevin's cock into her lips, bobbing her head." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Is that why I'm feeling Bill's lust?\" she moaned. \"Are we soul mates?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Yeah,\" groaned Kevin. \"Somehow, the five of you are all bound like that. Very rare. But you also are linked far more deeply than soul mates.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hikaru found the idea that she was soul mates with four amazing people pleasant, but Shelly's loud, sloppy blowjob knocked the Japanese woman out of her thoughts. Shelly bobbed her head, moaning as she pleasured her husband." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"So, um, how can you help us?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hikaru asked, trying to ignore the growing warmth between her thighs." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Between Bill's lust flooding her and the live porno playing out before her, it was growing hard to think.\n\n\"Huh?\" moaned Kevin." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Oh, Shelly. I love that mouth.\" He glanced at Hikaru." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Could you give her a hand?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What?\"\n\n\"Give my wife a finger. Her pussy's on fire.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A muffled yes came from the wife.\n\nHikaru sighed. \"You're not going to be much help until you get your rocks off, right?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Kevin just moaned as his eyes squeezed shut, his hand running through her dark-brown hair. Hikaru fell to her knees, sliding her hand down Shelly's taut, tan rear." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She was pretty — Hikaru had come to appreciate the female form the last few days.\n\n\"I can do it, Mistress,\" Rosa whispered." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You don't need to.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It's fine,\" Hikaru sighed, her fingers reaching between Shelly's groin and feeling how wet Shelly was." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And hot. Her fingers penetrated the woman's pussy and Shelly let out a wonderful moan around her husband's cock.\n\n\"Mmm, she loves it,\" groaned Kevin. \"Don't you, honey?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Shelly moaned, her pussy squeezing about Hikaru's fingers." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Color burned in Hikaru's cheeks, and she squeezed her thighs together to relieve the ache forming in her own pussy as she worked her fingers in and out of Shelly's silky passage. Sweat broke out on her forehead as lust burned inside of her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And then a new heat burned.\n\nJuanita was being fucked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hikaru moaned.\n\n\"Do you need some relief as well, Mistress?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "purred Rosa in her musical accent." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The Hispanic concubine knelt down, her mouth inches from Hikaru's ear. \"Do you need to be pleasured?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Yes,\" Hikaru hissed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Soft hands slid inside the sweatpants she wore, pushing the loose garments down her slim hips, squeezing her flesh. Hikaru sighed as her concubine's fingers explored and teased, brushing her labia and clit, then she gasped as the fingers wiggled inside of her, mimicking the very same movements Hikaru was performing on Shelly's cunt." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She pumped faster in Shelly, leaning her head on the tan woman's shoulder and watching Shelly's mouth bob and suck on her husband's cock." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Kevin thrust his cock, his balls slapping Shelly's face as he thrust into her lips. Rosa's fingers worked their magic inside her, squirming and pressing on every bit of pussy they could find." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Then they withdrew." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"No, don't stop!\" she moaned.\n\nWarm breath caressed Hikaru's pussy then a wet tongue swiped through her slit." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She shuddered, groaning as Rosa explored her cunt with a vigorous tongue." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Pleasure whirled in her, driving her to search for Shelly's G-spot, to give the woman she was fingering as much pleasure as Rosa's tongue gave to her. Shelly moaned around Kevin's cock as Hikaru brushed and searched inside Shelly's pussy, rubbing her fingers through Shelly's spongy flesh." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Make her cum!\" groaned Kevin. \"She's so close.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hikaru moaned, and a depraved idea flooded her. She searched out with her mind, finding Shelly's asshole." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She teased the puckered opening with her telekinesis, Shelly's cunt tightening about her fingers and a moan issuing from the woman's lips." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She pushed in with her mind, fucking into the woman's bowels with her telekinesis, forming her thoughts into a thick dick.\n\n\"Do you like that,\" groaned Hikaru into her ears." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Do you like my telekinetic cock?\"\n\n\"She does!\" grunted Kevin." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Oh, honey! Let's cum together. Suck me harder.\"\n\nHikaru rammed her thoughts in and out of Shelly's tight ass as her fingers found that right spot inside Shelly's pussy, massaging the nerve endings." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Shelly's moans, even muffled by her husband's cock, were loud." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Her pussy clamped down on Hikaru's fingers and her ass convulsed around Hikaru's probing thoughts.\n\nKevin let out a bellow, holding his wife's head on his cock as his balls twitched." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Shelly swallowed his cum, still shuddering in Hikaru's arms." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He let out another low groan, and then his cock slid out, a dollop of white cum on the tip. Hikaru, her pussy still being churned by Rosa's tongue, leaned over and licked up the salty cum, savoring the flavor." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Slut,\" laughed Shelly." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hikaru's pussy exploded. She gasped and moaned, pressing into Shelly's back as her juices rushed out, Rosa slurping them down." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Wonderful trembles passed through her, bliss flooding her mind. She rubbed her climaxing pussy about her concubine's face until the pleasure receded and she could think again." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Did I please you, Mistress?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Rosa asked, crawling out." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hikaru cupped her face. \"You did.\" Then gave her a sweet kiss." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Stop that,\" gasped Shelly. \"We'll never get anything done if Kevin watches you two make out.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Oh, right,\" Hikaru pouted, her lips thick with her own tart flavor." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 3 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"So, you said you could help.\"\n\n\"Right,\" Kevin nodded. \"The oracle sent us. We're here to guide you to her.\"\n\n\"Oracle?\" Hikaru asked, and Kevin and Shelly began to explain." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "lets do a Erotica, Paranormal Romance thing. u write eight sentences bits" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Chapter Eighteen" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Sophia heard the scream and turned to see Daevia covered in Beelzebub's flies." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The tiny insects were devouring the Demon's body as she sheltered Bill from them. Sophia watched her die, consumed by the swarm.\n\n\"No,\" moaned Sophia. She can't be dead. In the last few hours, the Angel had somehow grown so close to the Demon. Ever since they made love in Purgatory, Sophia couldn't get the Demon out of her mind. She just wanted to be near her.\n\nHer heart broke, tears ran down her cheek.\n\nThe First Seal broke." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Light exploded from Daevia's corpse, burning the swarm of insects that had consumed her body." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 5 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The power of the Scroll coursed through Sophia's body, given to her by Daevia's selfless act as the Demon sought to find forgiveness for all the terrible things she had done, to unburden her soul from all the guilt Bill's love had awakened in her.\n\nTears ran down Sophia's cheek. \"I love you, Daevia,\" she whispered. \"You were not a Demon. You were an Angel at the end. You earned your forgiveness.\"\n\nThe Second Seal broke inside Sophia's soul and the Scroll of Forgiveness was open." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "I'll kick things off by writing a bit, then you'll take over and write the next seven sentences, keeping within the Erotica, Paranormal Romance genre." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Do you think they're all right?\" Mariel asked as they stood on the porch of Our Lady of Angels, wrapped in the church's protective prayers. She peered back at the Darkness they had just flown through. Mariel and her Seraphim had been forced to carry the concubines to safety to escape the tide.\n\n\"Yes,\" Sister Mariam answered her.\n\n\"How do you know?\"\n\n\"I have faith,\" she smiled." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Bill and his wives have managed to overcome so much. I have no fear so long as our fates rest in their hands.\"\n\n\"You are just saying that because you're chained to him.\" Mariel reached out, brushing the black collar that she could just make out, the metaphysical representation of the nun's enslavement to Bill.\n\n\"Chains I willingly assumed,\" the nun countered. \"So trust me when I say that I have complete faith in them.\"\n\n\"We all do,\" Reggie answered, cradling her broken arm. \"That's why we agreed to serve them. We're their concubines. So he better come back!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A tear glistened on the fierce woman's face. \"You better come back, Master!\" she howled into the darkness. \"Your concubines are waiting for you!\"\n\n\"Kick that bitch's ass to next Tuesday!\" roared Stephanie.\n\n\"Let's pray for them,\" Sister Mariam said. \"Let's send all our positive thoughts and help our Masters overcome that foul Demon.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Mariel took the nun's hand." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 2 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Reggie took her other. A circle formed and love was spoken." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "I'll be your writing partner today. I will set the scene, and you will continue the story with seven sentences, channeling the voice and techniques of Reed James." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The lance of light burst out of Sophia's back, driving towards Bill. Sophia's wings shot straight out, gray feathers falling about her. The lance of light pierced Bill's shoulder. The pain was nothing he had ever experienced. His collar bone snapped and the heat of the weapon burned into his flesh.\n\n\"Dream!\" his Fallen Angel shouted. Her gray wings went limp." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Their Familiar bond snapped." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "His Fallen Angel died.\n\nAdriel leered over Sophia's corpse impaled on her lance, the Seraph's body sliding down it. She was so light as she sprawled across his chest. Limp. Dead. Victory shown in Adriel's gray eyes. The heat increased as the Demon's lance grew brighter.\n\nDream. My power.\n\nBill closed his eyes, drew on his powers." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The pain fell away." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 3 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The world grew dark. Silence fell on Bill.\n\nHe dreamed..." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Narrative Extension Protocol:\nQuantity: four sentences\nAuthor Emulation: CJ Cherryh\nGenre Classification: Science Fiction, First Contact, Alien, Space Opera" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "... and spat them up again, a dizzying percept of elsewhere. A shimmer before her eyes, that was the screen, and the automated instruments were searching. Keep conscious, don't go out, not now, keep the hand on controls...\n\n\"Working,\" Haral's low voice drifted to her out of infinity." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"O gods.\" That was someone else. Hilfy?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A star came into brackets on the screen and wobbled out again. \"Check referent,\" Pyanfar said. Her blurring eyes sought instruments. A red light was on." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Got a problem,\" Haral said, sending cold chills along her back." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"No positive ID on referent.\"\n\n\"Brace.\" She started aborting the proposed second jump, dumping speed sufficient for the scanning sensors to make their fix. There was a moan near her when the shift slammed in. Her hand shook like palsy over the controls, hovering over the button." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Gods, we've missed,\" Haral moaned; and then Tirun: \"Abort! we're vectored massward!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Dark mass was ahead of them, the mass which had pulled them in from jump, coming up in their faces." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Sensors realized it: alarms went off, dinning through the ship. Pyanfar dumped again, hard, flinched as screens went static and one went dead. Something had given way.\n\n\"Turning,\" she warned the crew." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The Pride veered in her next skip, and blood started in Pyanfar's nose, internal organs and joints and flesh hauled in independent motion." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She spat and struggled with the muscles of her eyes to keep focused, fought a strained muscle to keep her hand at the controls. Scan showed hairbreadth miss now and she trimmed ship and let it ride, hurtling for a virtual skim of the obstacle.\n\nA kif voice came in over com. \"Identify: urgent.\" Someone was waiting in this place, stationed to guard, another of Akukkakk's long arms." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Aunt,\" Hilfy's voice came weakly, bubbling liquid. \"Kif...\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Got it.\" Pyanfar sniffed blood or sweat, licked salt from her mouth, staring at the screens which showed the dark mass hoving up at them... tight skim, incredibly tight. Their own output was still knnn-song, wailing up and down the scale, tickings and whines... that had to put the kif off. Haral and Tirun talked frantically to each other, searching with the sensors for their way out.\n\n\"Got it!\" Haral exclaimed suddenly; a star showed up in the bracket." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Can't do it,\" Pyanfar said: the mass was too close." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They had no choice now but to skim past and hope." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Identify,\" the kif voice insisted.\n\nInstruments flared of a sudden, screens going static. \"That was fire,\" Pyanfar said to Hilfy, \"onto our former vector, thank the gods.\"\n\nA second flaring: The Pride had returned a shot, automatic response." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Of a sudden the alarms went again, crescendo of mechanical panic." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Mass proximity,\" Pyanfar said into allship, for those riding it out below. \"We're going to miss it.\"\n\nThe solidity was there, a sudden jump in every mass/drive instrument on the bridge, lights flaring red, a static washout on the number four screen: Kita Point mass, a chunk of rock, a cinder radiating only the dimmest warmth into the dark, lightless, lonely, and far, far too big for The Pride to drag with her into jump...\n\nVid picked up flares of light, massive spots like the glow of a sun in that dark, illumining the surface of Kita mass." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Rock boosted in their field out of Urtur had not changed vector." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It hit the dark mass at near c, pyrotechnics which flowered the dark.\n\nThey passed in that flare of impact, slingshotted with a wrench which brought a new flood of blood to Pyanfar's throat... grayout...\n\n... back again. \"Haral!\"\n\nA frantic moment. \"There!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Their referent was back in bracket." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A kif voice clicked and chattered out of phase with what they should be getting: that was then a second ship, lying off Kita zenith.\n\nFire hit them.\n\nPyanfar slammed the drive back in, with the howl of the kif in her ears, the static spit of instruments trained on the chaos in their wake. She tried with all her wits to keep oriented, a slow reach of a sore arm while matter came undone about them, while they were naked to the between and time played games with the senses." }, { "from": "human", "value": "No way that the kif could have followed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They had run the gauntlet. They were through the worst. After Kita it was one of three destinations and after the next, one of two more; and the choices multiplied, and the kif had harder and harder shift to bring numbers to bear against them...\n\n\"We're fading,\" Haral said, words which stretched through infinity, emotion-dulled, nowhere: this was the way it went when ships lost themselves, when they jumped and failed to come out again... perhaps some mathematical limbo... or straight into mahendo'sat hell, where four-armed demons invented horrors... Pyanfar dragged her wits together, watched for another such wobble." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Damage they had taken under fire could have done something to the vanes, robbed them of capacity, might lose them permanently..." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "... ssecond arrival, a blurring downdrop of the senses into here and when again. Pyanfar reached for the panel and ordered scan search. Differential com was already getting signal: it was the marker of Kirdu System, wondrous, beautiful mahendo'sat voice, the buoy of the jump range.\n\n\"We're in!\" Hilfy cried. \"We're in.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Clear and in the range,\" Pyanfar said, smug." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She hit the jump pulse to throw off velocity and the smugness evaporated somewhat: the pulse was queasy, less powerful than it ought to be.\n\n\"Captain?\" Haral's voice.\n\n\"I feel it.\"\n\n\"Maintain knnn output?\" Hilfy asked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Yes.\" Pyanfar kept her eyes on the readout, hit the pulse again." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Plot entry vector,\" she ordered Tirun. \"We might have trailed some debris with us.\"\n\n\"Reckon we dumped most of the rocks on Kita,\" Tirun muttered. She started sending the schematic over, fired off a comp-signal warning for what good it would do a slow ship in the path of their debris-attended entry." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The dump went on, sickly pulses which finally began to count." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"That's better,\" Pyanfar said, swallowing against the stress. \"Hilfy, got a lag estimate?\"\n\n\"Approximate,\" Hilfy said in a thin voice. \"Thirty-minute roundtrip to station, estimate.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Close, by the gods, too close." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Pyanfar kept the dump pulses going at the closest possible intervals, kept her eyes nowhere but the center screen now, the relayed scan from the station buoy which plotted the location of ships and planets and large objects in the system. Automation had added in the warning The Pride had sent out, a hazard zone in a cone headed transzenith of system.\n\n\"Getting refinement on course,\" Haral said as a schematic came up on number two screen. It took only a little bending: check velocity, the warning kept flashing." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Pyanfar coaxed another dump out of The Pride and made the slight correction, her senses swimming now with the prolonged strain of high-velocity reckonings, with stringing her mind along those distances and speeds which the ship's own comp handled in special conflict-dumping mode." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Down the slot!\" Tirun cried as the lines matched.\n\nThey were dead on at last, free and safe and headed down the approach path station had preassigned the next incomer in that area of the range. Pyanfar afforded herself a lighter breath, still with her eyes fixed on the scan, trying to figure how much more they could dump and how fast. Let one miner be where he ought not to be, let one skimmer have gone off for some private reason without advising station in advance, some idiot crossing the entry lanes, some mad knnn or chi, with whom there was never any reasoning, navigation hazards wherever they operated..." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Sweat ran, or blood." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She sniffed and wiped at her nose, eyes still fixed and hand on the button. They rode the odds; they came in like a shot, counting on statistics and blind luck and traffic being exactly where it ought: one could do that a few times in a lifetime and not run out of luck.\n\n\"Acquiring station signal,\" Hilfy said. \"That's tc'a talking now, I think. It's this knnn signal of ours...\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Cut the signal. Give station our proper ID. Relay pirate attack; damage and emergency, and probable accompanying debris.\"\n\n\"Got it,\" Hilfy said.\n\nPyanfar hit the dump again, forced them a little more toward a sane speed, and a board redlighted. She cycled in a backup." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Haral unbelted and leaned into the pit beside her console, frantic readjustments.\n\nThere might be kif in dock at Kirdu... gods, would be kif here, by all the odds, and just possibly one of them had come through from Urtur. But this was Kirdu: mahendo'sat here, in their own territory, had teeth, and took no arguments from visitors. They would demand explanations for such an entry." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Gods grant whatever remaining debris they had boosted through with them from Urtur found no mahendo'sat targets, or there would be more than an explanation due.\n\n\"Something's left station,\" Tirun said. The image showed up on the number two screen. Ships were outbound, four of them, one after the other, moving on intercept, dopplering into their path." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Hilfy,\" Pyanfar said, \"signal general alert, all hani ships insystem.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Done,\" Hilfy said, moving to do it. Haral slid back into place, set to work in haste at the comp. The number one screen started acquiring estimates, locational shifts on the oncomers and everything else in the system. That was station guard which had just put out, more than likely: The Pride had broken regulations from entry to this moment, heaps and piles of regulations." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Some mangy mahe station official was likely elbow deep in the rule books this moment hunting penalties. Pyanfar's nose wrinkled at the thought of the fines, the levies, the arguments.\n\n\"Getting signal on the ships outcoming,\" Hilfy said. \"They're mahendo'sat, all right.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Huh.\" Pyanfar blew a sigh of relief." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Worse had been possible, worse indeed. \"Geran,\" she said over allship. \"Chur. Are you getting this down there? We're all right; station's sending us an escort.\"\n\n\"Coming in clear, captain.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Is everything secure down there? How's Tully? Have you got a monitor on him?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"He's here in op with us,\" Geran said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Drugs are wearing off. He's muzzy but following what's going on.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"No more risks, rot you; who cleared that? Take scan on number four for approach; give us some relief up here; and get him secure.\"\n\n\"I friend.\" Tully's voice came back to her, hani words. And others, his own tongue, a flood of words. \"Shut him down,\" Pyanfar hissed; and there was silence." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Working,\" Chur's voice reported, and Tirun paused in her frantic pace, dropped her head into hands and wiped them back over her mane." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She took the chance for a drink, from a plastic bottle from undercounter, passed it to Hilfy and then to Tirun and then to Haral and Haral to Pyanfar. The remnant went down, a welcome cooling draught. Pyanfar took the chance to call up comp to locate the damage, gnawed her upper lip as the information came through incomplete. She looked right, at the others, at Hilfy, who was listening to something, with a bruised, exhausted look on her face." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Shunt that below when they get the Outsider settled,\" Pyanfar said to her, and looked at Haral, who was still doing updates." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Damage indeterminate,\" she said to Haral privately." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I don't feel any lag in the insystem responses, at least. It should be a normal dock, but we're going to have to get a hurryup on that repair and I don't know how to the gods we're going to finance the bribe.\"\n\n\"Aunt,\" Hilfy said, \"station is on, wants to talk to you personally. I told them—\"\n\n\"Captain.\" Lowerdeck overrode, sent up an image on scan.\n\nShip in the jump range, incoming, on their tail." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Gods,\" Pyanfar hissed. \"Gods rot all kif—Hilfy: ID, fast.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hilfy hesitated half a breath: Tirun was already overreaching a long arm onto her territory." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Wailing came through, and Pyanfar grimaced at the high-pitched squeal." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Knnn,\" Tirun said. \"Captain, it's that rotted knnn.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"We don't know it's that knnn,\" Pyanfar spat back, snatching the mike—waved an angry gesture with it at Hilfy. \"Station. Station, and get your wits working, niece.\"\n\nThe ready light came on. \"Go,\" Hilfy said, distraught and wild-eyed, and subdued the knnn pickup." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"This is Kirdu Station,\" the machine-translated voice came through." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"We make urgent severe protest this entry. Go slow, hani captain incoming.\"\n\n\"This is The Pride of Chanur, Pyanfar Chanur speaking. We're incoming with an unidentified on our tail and with damage, but we have maneuverability. The ship behind us may pose a threat to station; I suggest your escort direct its attention to what's following us.\"\n\nCom stayed dead, longer than lagtime dictated.\n\n\"Escort is passing turnover point,\" Geran's quiet voice came from the other op center." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Captain, they're going to pass us, going to go out and look that bastard over.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Pyanfar looked, saw, returned her attention to comp, where new estimate was coming up on the position of the incoming ship. It was close, moving hard, no dump of speed.\n\n\"Got a hani contact,\" said Hilfy. \"Tahar.\"\n\n\"Gods and thunders.\" This was not a friendly house to Chanur." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Pyanfar picked up the contact on her board." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Tahar ship, this is Pyanfar Chanur. Stand ready for trouble. Don't be caught at dock.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Chanur, this is Dur Tahar. Is this your trouble?\"\n\n\"It has no patent, Tahar, not so far. Stand out from station, I warn you. In case.\"\n\n\"Chanur,\" the translated voice of station broke in on them. \"Tahar Captain. Against regulation, this. Use station channel. And this station order stay. No moving out.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"We're coming in, station. We advise you ships are destroyed and lives lost. If that ship back there is knnn, well; but if it isn't, Kirdu has trouble.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Another voice, clicking and harsh. Kif.\n\n\"That's from a docked ship,\" Hilfy said quickly. \"Got it on station directional.\"\n\n\"Captain.\" That from Tirun." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Incomer's just begun dump; they're checking speed.\"\n\nPyanfar blinked, the suspicion of good news hitting dully on a dazed brain. She drew a whole breath. \"Gods grant it is knnn,\" she muttered." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Station, you should be getting that now: we'll make a full explanation as soon as we get in and get our mechanical problems in order. We strongly urge you take full precautions and get a positive visual on that so-named knnn arrival. We have serious charges to lodge.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Silence from station. They were not, most likely, overjoyed.\n\nPyanfar broke the contact. \"Bastards.\" She wiped her mouth, straightened her beard with her fingers. \"Cowards.\" The escort passed and headed out to the incoming ship behind them." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She settled back in her cushion and listened to the reports." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Aunt,\" Hilfy said finally, \"mahendo'sat report visual confirmation: it is a knnn ship.\"\n\n\"Thank the gods,\" Pyanfar muttered, and threw open the restraint on her cushion, leaned forward more comfortably. Station was coming up. A flurry of docking instructions was arriving on the number three screen." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Not kif behind them, only a vastly confused knnn." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She gave a wry pursing of the mouth, imagining the chagrin of the odd creatures, who had arrived to far more commotion than knnn were wont to stir under any circumstances. Coincidence, perhaps; ships came and went from everywhere—gods, rare to have two ships come into a jump range that close, but not that rare. Kirdu had a great deal more traffic than that generated by The Pride. This was civilization, here at Kirdu, civilization, after all." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She drew a series of quieter breaths." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Watched the schematic which showed them the way toward docking. Tired. Indeed she was tired. She ached in her bones. It took a moral effort to settle in for docking maneuvers, to do it by manual because she wanted the feel of it, not to be surprised by some further malfunction under automatic." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She was already mentally sorting through possible arguments with the Tahar, a loan, anything to get The Pride's repairs made and paid, to get out of this place: they needed no more damages than they had, and most of all they did not need prolonged residence here." }, { "from": "human", "value": "If they were very, very fortunate, the kif were sorting matters out with a certain knnn who had picked up a bit of salvage at Urtur; and that knnn might not be amused by a hani joke." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The great hakkikt Akukkakk would be even less amused... but he would have a hard time negotiating with the knnn for a look at its prize; and a harder time with his fellow kif... indeed he would." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She felt, in all, satisfied.\n\nBut a knnn had happened through jump with them; had happened to crowd them. Gods... did they have apparatus which made tracking possible?\n\nIts voice was back, distant and eerie, like that which she had duplicated at Urtur, to use a knnn voice as shield and disguise." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Gods knew what message they had been transmitting to knnn hearing: follow me?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Help me? Something far less friendly?\n\nTc'a might know; but there was no querying that side of Kirdu Station.\n\nThey came up on dock, moving in next to the Tahar ship: Kurdu wanted its hani problems collected, apparently, giving them berths next each other. In some part that was good, because it gave them private access to talk without witnesses; and in another part it was not, because it made them one single target." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Where are the kif?\"" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 5 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "she asked station bluntly, stalling on the approach. \"I'm not putting my nose into station until I know what berths they have.\"\n\n\"Number twenty and twenty-one,\" station informed her. \"Mahe and stsho in the between numbers, no trouble, no trouble, hani captain. You make easy dock, please.\"\n\nShe wrinkled her nose and committed them, not without contrary thoughts." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Hey can you write like CJ Cherryh in the Science Fiction, First Contact, Alien, Space Opera genre and use whatever I write as a jumping off point?" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Aunt.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was not com; it was Hilfy in person, leaning over her bed, shaking at her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Aunt.\" Pyanfar came out of sleep with a wild reach to get her elbow under her, shook herself, stared into Hilfy's dilated eyes." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"It's Starchaser,\" Hilfy said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"They've come through. They're in trouble. They can't get dumped. The word just came in—\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"O gods.\" Pyanfar kicked the coverlet off, scrambled out dressed as she was and seized Hilfy by the arm on her way out of the room." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Talk, imp: has anyone scrambled?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Station's called miners in the path... some mention of an outbound freighter being able to change course...\" Hilfy let herself be pulled through the doorway into the corridor and loped along keeping up with her on the way to the bridge." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"They're twenty minutes lag out, crossing Lijahan track zenith.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Twenty now?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"About.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Haral was on the bridge, standing by scan, with the area-light on her face, and her expression was grim when she looked around at their arrival." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"They've got to get to the pod,\" Haral said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"No way anyone can get to her in time. No way any rescue can haul that mass down, even if she's stripped.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What's our status?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"We can't get there,\" Hilfy objected, plain logic." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Not for rescue,\" Pyanfar said quietly." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Repairs underway,\" Haral said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Vane's unsecured. If they're running ahead of company—we're in trouble.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Tirun came limping in, loping haste, and there was a query from lowerdeck." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You're getting all we've got,\" Haral relayed to Geran and Chur below." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Can't tell anything yet.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Come on,\" Pyanfar muttered to the blip on systemic image." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Do it, Faha. Get out of there.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She sank down into the com cushion, an eye still toward the screen, and punched through the station op code." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"This is The Pride of Chanur. Urgent relay the stationmaster, Pyanfar Chanur speaking: warn you of possible hostile pursuit on tail of incoming emergency. Repeat: warn you of possible hostile pursuit of incoming emergency.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"This message receive clear, Pride of Chanur. Mahen ships answer emergency. Please stand by.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She watched scan, rested a knuckle against her teeth and hissed a breath." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Ships showed in the schematic, traffic at dead standstill compared to the incoming streak that was Starchaser, motion slowed enough to see only because of systemwide scale." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Everything was history, the images on the scope, the voices from the zone of emergency." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Unable to dump velocity, Starchaser would streak helplessly across the system and lose herself on an unaimed voyage to infinity." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was a long way to die." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Lost the transmission,\" Haral said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hilfy edged in, looking desperate, tried the switches herself past Haral's side." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Pyanfar gnawed the underside of a claw and shook her head." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The business of getting a jump-mazed crew on their feet and headed to the escape pod—in Starchaser's type, high up on the frame—and get it away, all this within the minutes they had left..." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Then they could only hope, if they could make it that far, that the pod's engines could hammer down the velocity, give some jumpship the chance to match velocities and lock onto the pod's small, manageable mass, so that they could be dumped down." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "That freighter out there was the best chance the crew had, if only they could get loose." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Pod's away!\" Haral exclaimed, and Tirun and Hilfy were pounding each other on the back." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Pyanfar clenched her two hands together in front of her mouth and stared flateared at the scan, where a new schematic indicated the probable course of the pod which had now parted company with doomed Starchaser." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Both dots advanced along the track, but a gap developed, the pod's deceleration far from sufficient to rid itself of a jumpship's velocity before it gave out, but doing what it could." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The crew would likely black out in the stress: that was a mercy." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Now it was a race to see if the freighter could overhaul the pod or whether the pod would leave the system." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Mahe freighter?\" Pyanfar asked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Haral nodded." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The Pride was on station-fed transmission; and station had to be using the feed from ships farther out, the Lijahan mines, whatever was in a position to have data, and relative time was hard to calculate now." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The freighter came up by major increments while the minutes passed, boosting itself on its jump field." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The gap still narrowed with agonizing sluggishness, as scan shifted, keeping up with events which were now long decided." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Com sputtered, a wailing transmission." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Knnn. \"Gods,\" Tirun said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"A knnn's out there in it.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Station command responded, a tc'a voice." }, { "from": "human", "value": "There were other transmissions, knnn voices, more than one, a dissonance of wails." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Chanur,\" said a hani voice, clear and close at hand." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Is this also your doing?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Pyanfar reached for it, punched in the contact, retracted the claw with a moral effort." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Tahar, is that a question or a complaint?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"This is Dur Tahar. It's a question, Chanur. What do you know about this?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I told you. Let's keep it off com, Tahar.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Silence. The Tahar were no allies of the Faha crew." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was a Chanur partisan in trouble, but if any ship at station could have moved in time, Moon Rising would have tried: she did not doubt it." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was a painful thing to watch, what was happening on scan." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Close to her, Tirun had settled, and Hilfy, simply watching the screen while her Faha kinswomen and the wreckage that had been a Faha ship hurtled closer and closer to the boundaries of the pickup." }, { "from": "human", "value": "After such a point insystem scan could not follow them." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Station was getting transmission now from a different source, from the merchanter Hasatso, the freighter tracking Starchaser, the only ship in range." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The blip that was Starchaser itself finally went off the screen." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Chanur ship,\" station sent." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Tahar ship. Advise you merchanter Hasatso have make cargo dump; do all possible.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Chanur and Faha will compensate,\" Pyanfar replied, and hard upon that Moon Rising sent thanks to Hasatso via station." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Gods look on them,\" Haral muttered—a cargo dumped, to close the gap, to close on an emergency not of their species." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Knnn wailed. Elsewhere there was silence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "For a long while there seemed only one rhythm of breaths on The Pride, above and below." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"They're nearly on it,\" Hilfy breathed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"They've got them,\" said Tirun." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No way they can miss now.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It went slowly. The transmissions from Hasatso became more and more encouraging; and at long last they reported capture." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Hani signal,\" Hasatso told Kirdu Station, \"in pod. Live.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Pyanfar breathed out the breath she had been holding." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Grinned, reached and squeezed Hilfy's arm." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hilfy looked drained. \"Tahar,\" Pyanfar sent then, \"did you receive that report?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Received,\" Tahar said curtly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Pyanfar broke it off, sat a moment with hands clasped on the board in front of her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A ship lost; a tradition; that deserved its own mourning." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Home and life to the Faha crew, and that was gone." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Station,\" she sent after a moment, \"advise the Faha crew that Chanur sends its profound sorrow, and that ker Hilfy Chanur par Faha will offer the resources of The Pride of Chanur, such as they are.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Advise them,\" another voice sent directly, \"that Dur Tahar of Tahar's Moon Rising also offers her assistance.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "That was courtesy. Pyanfar leaned back in the cushion, finally turned and rose with a stretch of her shoulders." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What can be done's done. Go fetch something to drink, Hilfy; if I'm roused out, someone owes me that. Drink for all that want it. Breakfast. I'll hear reports less urgent during. Haral, who's supposed to be on duty?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I am.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"So. Then close down lowerdeck. Tirun, back you go.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Aye,\" Tirun muttered, and levered herself up stiffly and limped off in Hilfy's wake." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Pyanfar settled against the com post counter and looked at Haral, seated at the number two spot." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"That knnn's fallen into pattern about Lijahan,\" Haral said, paying attention to the screens." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Still making commotion. A wonder they don't try for the cargo salvage out there.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Huh. Only grant they all stay put.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Skimmer's still working out there at our tail. They've got a crew outside working the connectors. The cable's ready to secure. But fourteen panels were missing and six loose, and they estimate another twenty hours working shift on shift to get the new ones hooked up.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Gods.\" Pyanfar ran a hand over her brow and into her mane, thinking of kif—of attack which had chewed Starchaser to scrap." }, { "from": "human", "value": "There were others besides the knnn who might be expected to rush to that salvage out there; there were the onstation kif... who showed no sign of moving. That was unnatural." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "No one was moving, except maybe a few miners out there with ambition." }, { "from": "human", "value": "No one from station." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Word was out; rumor had a wind up everyone's back." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"The Tahar,\" Haral said further, after a moment, \"appealed that order to put out with an appeal to finish cargo operations. It was allowed.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Helpful. At least they're here.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Helpful as the Tahar in general. Begging your pardon.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I'll talk to them.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You think Tahar'd move to guard our tail?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No,\" she said. \"I don't. Not unless they see profit in it. What are they doing? Not taking cargo.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Offloading. Stripping to run. Canisters pouring out like maggots.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Pyanfar nodded. \"Station wants that cargo safe then; and Tahar's going to dump that out fast down to the bit she uses to stall with. The Personage has backed down, that's what; got a few of his onstation companies wailing about losses, and Tahar'll stay here as long as she likes. That'll give me time.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Gods, the bill on this.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Expensive, our Outsider. In all senses.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She looked about as Hilfy came through the archway with a large tray, two cups and two breakfasts." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Thanks,\" Pyanfar said, taking plate and cup... paused to look at Hilfy, who had stopped to look at the situation on the screen." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They were still getting transmission relayed from Hasatso, with occasional breakup which indicated velocity dump." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Going to be a while,\" Pyanfar said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Unless they've got a medical emergency I doubt they'll boost up again after turnover, just ride it slow in. Hours from now. Go on back to quarters. I mean it.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "A few ports ago Hilfy might have argued, might have laid her ears back and sulked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She nodded now and went." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Pyanfar slid a glance at Haral, who stared after the retreating youngster and then nodded once, thoughtfully." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Huh,\" Pyanfar said, digging into the breakfast, and for some little time she and Haral sat and watched the scan and ate." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Tell you, cousin,\" Pyanfar said finally, \"you go off-watch and I'll take it.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Not needful, captain.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Don't be noble. I've got some things to do. One thing you can do for me. When you go down, look in on Tully. Make sure he's all right.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Right,\" Haral said. She stood up and gathered the dishes onto the tray." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"But he's all right, captain. Chur's bedded down to keep an eye on him.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Pyanfar had been finishing her last sip of gfi, to surrender the cup." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She banged it down on the tray." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Gods blast—did I or did I not order him separate?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Haral's ears dropped in dismay." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Chur said he was upset, captain; made herself a pallet in the washroom so's he wouldn't wake up by himself. She said—your pardon, captain—sedated, he looked so bad—you were in bed, captain. It was my discretion.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Pyanfar exhaled shortly. \"So. Well. Depressed, Chur says.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Haral nodded. \"We'd take him,\" Haral said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Chur said.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Um.\" Haral figured that train of things of a sudden and her mustache-hairs drew down. \"Sorry, captain.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Him, for the gods' sake.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Not as if he was hani, captain.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Not as if,\" Pyanfar said after a moment." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"All right. Put him where you want; that's crew business, none of mine. Work him. He claims to be a scan tech. Let him sit watch. Who's on next?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Ker Hilfy.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"With someone of the experienced crew. Someone who's made their mistakes.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Haral grinned and rubbed the black scar which crossed her nose." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Aye. One of us will sort him out.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Off with you.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Haral went. Pyanfar slid down off the counter and transferred the activity to her own board, sat down in her own deeply padded cushion and ran the incoming messages of hours past." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There was nothing there but what Haral had said, Tahar's argument about staying and the beginnings of Starchaser's crisis." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Sporadic information still came in: Hasatso sent word of four survivors..." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Four. A cold depression settled over her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Four out of seven crew on that ship." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was more than the physical body of Starchaser lost out there, more even than a life or two in a crew kin-close." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Four out of seven was too heavy casualties for a group to recover itself—not the way it had once been." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Gods, to start over, having lost that heavily—" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Station,\" she sent, \"this is Pyanfar Chanur: confirm that transmission from Hasatso. Names of survivors.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Pride of Chanur,\" station sent back to her, \"Hasatso transmit four survivors good condition. No more information. We relay query.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She thanked station absently, sat staring at the screen a moment." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There was lagtime to contend with on that request, nothing to do but wait." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She bestirred herself to run checks with the ships at repair on their own damages, to contact station market and to arrange a few purchases and deliveries via dockside courier services." }, { "from": "human", "value": "There was delay on the communications: everyone at station seemed muddle-witted in the confusion, down to the jobbers in commodities." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Station, what's keeping that answer?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "she sent main op." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Crew refuse reply,\" the answer came back." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Communication failure there too." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Nerves. Possibly shaken-up hani and mahe rescuers were at odds." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Ship lost, cargoes lost, lives lost. An ugly business." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And one of the knnn had put out from station, putting out wailing transmission and wallowing uncertainly about station's peripheries like a globe of marshfire, touching off ticking objections/accusations/pleas?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "from the tc'a control." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Gods. The oxygen-breather command went silent for the moment." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Tc'a chattered and hissed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Pyanfar reached for translation output, but it failed: tc'a translated best when it was simple docking instruction or operations which were common to all ships." }, { "from": "human", "value": "This was something else, gods rot them." }, { "from": "human", "value": "There was silence finally, even from the tc'a." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The knnn moved out farther and stayed there." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hasatso continued its slow inward progress." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "At last the mahendo'sat side of station came on again, quiet operational directions for the incoming freighter, nothing informational." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Pyanfar sent them no questions. No one did." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The news came when Hasatso entered final approach: four survivors, a fifth dead in the stress of the pod eject, of wounds, and allowed to go with the pod when Hasatso released it, not a hani choice, but mahe honor." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Two went with Starchaser, dead in the attack or unable to get to the pod—the information was not clear." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There was a name: first officer Hilan Faha, survivor; and another: Lihan Faha—the captain, the third casualty." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Aunt,\" Hilfy said, when Pyanfar called her to the bridge and told her, \"I'd like to go down to the dock where they are. I know it's dangerous. But I'd like to go. By your leave.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Pyanfar set her hand on Hilfy's shoulder." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Nodded. \"I'll go with you,\" she said, at which Hilfy looked both relieved and pleased." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Geran,\" she said, turning to lean over the com board, putting it through on allship. \"Geran.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The acknowledgment came back." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Geran, take watch again, lowerdeck op. New word's come in. Starchaser captain is lost, and two of the crew. Hiify and I are going to meet the rescue ship; we'll bring the Faha back aboard if they're so inclined. No sense them having to put up with mahe questions and forms.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "There was a moment's delay, a sorrowful acknowledgment." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Come,\" Pyanfar said to Hilfy then, and they walked out toward the lift." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hilfy's bearing was straight enough, her face composed... not good news, when she had gone to sleep thinking that things were better than they were; but they had something, at least, of the Faha crew, something saved; and that was still more than they had once hoped." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Another matter to the kif account, when it came to reckonings." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But if there were kif out there now—and there might be, hovering at the system's edges, the same game that they themselves had played at Urtur—then they were waiting some moment of advantage, some moment when there were not five armed mahendo'sat patrol ships cruising a pattern out there." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Allship had waked more than Geran." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Tirun was up, sitting in op when they came down toward the lock; and Geran, who had been assigned the duty; and Chur was standing about with Tully, who looked vaguely distressed in this disturbance he likely failed to comprehend." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Haral showed up in haste from farther down the corridor." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Going with you, by your leave,\" Haral said, and Pyanfar nodded, not sorry of it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Kif out there,\" Pyanfar said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I'm not getting caught twice the same way.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Take care,\" Tirun wished them as they went, and in the airlock, while Haral opened the outer hatch, Pyanfar delayed to take the pistol from its secure place in the locker by com and to slip it into her pocket." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No detectors to pass,\" Pyanfar said. \"Come on.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The hatchway stayed open behind them; they walked out the ribbed rampway and down onto the dockside." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Engines whined on their left: Moon Rising was still about her offloading, and canisters were coming off into the hands of mahendo'sat dockworkers, not hani crew." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"They may have gone to meet the Faha too,\" Pyanfar judged, marking the total absence of a hani supervisor outside." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was a courtesy to be expected, politics aside in a hani-ship's misfortune." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Not much stirring,\" Haral said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "That was so. Where normally the vast docks would have had a busy pedestrian traffic up and down the vast curve, there was a dearth of casual strollers, and the activity about Moon Rising was the only activity of any measure in sight." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Dockworkers, service workers, mahe with specific business underway paused to stare at them and after them as they walked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Stsho huddled near their accesses and whispered together." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The kif were out about, predictably, clustered together near the accessway of one of the ships, a mass of black robes, seven, eight of them, who lounged near their canisters and clicked insults after them." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And at one of those insults Pyanfar's ears flicked, and she stopped the impulse in mid-twitch, trying to make believe she had not heard or understood." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He knows, hani thief." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "How many more hani ships will you kill?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Captain—\" Haral murmured, and Hilfy started to turn around." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Front, gods—\" Pyanfar hissed and seized Hilfy by the arm." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What do you want to start, at what odds?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What do we do?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hilfy asked, walking obediently between them." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"How can he know?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Because one of those kif ships is his, imp; came in here from Kita; and now Akukkakk's enlisted other ships to help him. They'll scatter out of here like spores when we go, and gods help us, we're stuck till we get that repair done.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"They as good as hit Starchaser themselves. I'd like to—\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"We'd all like to, but we have better sense. Come on.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"If they catch us on the dock—\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"All the more reason we get the survivors aboard and get off the docks. Afraid you're not going to get that station liberty here either, imp.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Think I can do without,\" Hilfy muttered." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They kept walking, down among the gantries, past idle crews, as far as number fifty-two berth, where a surplus of bystanders gathered, a dark crowd of mahendo'sat, sleek-furred, tall bodies which made it difficult to see anything." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Medical personnel were among them; and station officials, conspicuous by their collars and kilts." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And hani, to be sure." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Elbowing through the gathering, Pyanfar caught sight of bronze manes and a glitter of jewels on a hani ear, and she made for that group with Haral and Hilfy behind her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"It's high time you showed up,\" Dur Tahar said when she arrived." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Mind yourself,\" Pyanfar said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"My niece behind me is Faha.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Dur Tahar slid a glance in that direction without comment." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Hasatso's due to touch any moment,\" she said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"We've got some kif getting together down the dock. I'd watch that if I were you.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Your problem.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"A warning, that's all.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"If you start something, Chanur, don't look for our help.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Gods rot you, you give me no encouragement to be civil.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I don't need your civility.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"A mutual hazard, Tahar.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What, are you asking favors?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The claws twitched. \"Asking sense, rot you.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I'll think on it.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hasatso touched, a crashing of locks and grapples." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Gantries slid up and crews opened station ports one after another in response to the ship, connected lines, started the rampway out to meet the lock." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was an agonizingly slow process from the spectator ranks, and only the mahendo'sat found occasion to chatter." }, { "from": "human", "value": "And finally a distant whine and thump announced the breaching of the freighter's hatch, first in procedure: station reciprocated, and the mahe crew escorted off four hani, exhausted hani, one with an arm bandaged and bound to her chest, all of them looking as if they were doing well to be walking at all." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Necessarily the mahendo'sat officials moved in: there was signing of papers, mahe and hani; and Pyanfar took Hilfy by the shoulder, worked forward with her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hilfy went the last on her own and offered an embrace to the refugees, an embrace wearily returned by the Faha, one after the other." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"My captain,\" Hilfy said then, \"my aunt Pyanfar Chanur; my crewmate Haral Araun par Chanur.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There were embraces down the line." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Our ship is open to you,\" Pyanfar told the first officer, whose haggard face and dazed eyes took her in and seemed at the moment to have too much to take in, with the mahe offering medical assistance, station wanting immediate statements." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Pyanfar left the Faha momentarily to Hilfy and to the Tahar who had moved up to offer their own condolences, and herself took the hands of the mahe rescue crew one after the other, and those of the apparent captain, a tall hulking fellow who looked as bruised and bewildered as the Faha, who was probably at the moment reckoning his lost cargo and the wrath of companies and what comfort all this gratitude was going to win him when the shouting died down and the bills came in." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You're captain, mahe?\" Pyanfar asked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A sign of the head." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'm Pyanfar Chanur; Chanur has filed a report in your behalf at Kirdu; Chanur company will give you hani status at Anuurn: you come there, understand? Make runs to Anuurn. No tax.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Dark mahe eyes brightened somewhat." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Good,\" he said, \"good,\" and squeezed both her hands in a crushing grip, turned and chattered at his own folk—likely one of those mahe who could scarcely understand the pidgin, and good might be about half his speaking vocabulary." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He seemed to make it clear to the others, who broke out in grins, and Pyanfar escaped through the crush toward Hilfy and the others, got her arm about Hilfy and got the whole hani group moving through the pressure of tall mahendo'sat bodies." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The Tahar made a wedge with them, and they broke into the clear." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"This way,\" Pyanfar said, and first officer Hilan Faha took the other elbow of her injured companion and made sure of the other two, and they started walking, escaping the officials who called after them about forms—Chanur, Faha and Tahar in one group up the dock, toward the upcurved horizon where The Pride and Moon Rising were docked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"How far?\" the Faha officer asked in a shaking voice." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Close enough,\" Hilfy assured her. \"Take your time.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The way back seemed far longer, slower with the Faha's pace; Pyanfar scanned the dark places along their route, not the only one watching, she was sure." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Inevitably there were the kif ships; and the kif were there, ten of them now... calling out in mocking clicks their insults and their invitation to come and ship with them." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"We take you to your port,\" they howled." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"We see you get your reward, hani thieves.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A wild look came into Hilan Faha's eyes." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She stopped dead and turned that stare on them." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"No,\" Pyanfar said at once." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"We're here on station's tolerance. This isn't our territory. Not on the docks.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The kif howled and chirred their abuse." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But the Faha moved, and they made their way farther with the kif voices fading in the distance, past the stsho, who stared with large, pale eyes, up past a comforting number of mahendo'sat vessels, and virtual silence, dock crews and passers-by standing quietly and watching and respectful sympathy." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Not so much farther,\" Pyanfar said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The Faha had not the breath to answer, only kept walking beside them, and finally, at long last, they had reached the area of The Pride's berth." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Faha,\" Dur Tahar said then, \"Moon Rising has no damage, and The Pride does. We offer you passage that's assuredly more direct and quicker home.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"We'll accept,\" Hilan Faha said, to Pyanfar's consternation." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Cousin,\" Hilfy said in a voice carefully modulated." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Cousin, The Pride will put out quickly enough; and we need the help. We need you, cousins. You might find common cause in the company.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Tamun's had all she can stand,\" Hilan Faha said, with a protective move of her hand on her injured comrade's shoulder." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She looked toward the Tahar." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"We'll board, by your leave.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Come,\" Dur Tahar said, and the Tahar fell about the four and escorted them across to their own access." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hilfy took a couple of steps forward, ears flat, stood there, hands fallen to her sides, and took a good long moment before she turned about again, with her kinswomen disappearing upward into the rampway of Moon Rising." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Mortification was in every line of her stance, a youngster's humiliation, that set her down as well as set her aside, and Pyanfar thrust hands into her waistband to keep them from awkwardness—no reaching out to the imp as if she were a child, no comfort to be offered." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was Hilfy's affair, to take it how she would." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"They've had a shock,\" Hilfy said after a moment. \"I'm sorry, aunt.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Come on,\" Pyanfar said, nodding toward their rampway." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There was a red wash about her own vision, a slow seething." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She was bound to take the matter as it fell for Hilfy's sake, but it rankled, all the same." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She walked up first and Haral last, leaving Hilfy her silence and her dignity." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Cowards, Pyanfar thought, and swallowed that thought too for Hilfy's sake." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They desperately needed the added hands: that thought also gnawed at her, less worthy." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They needed the Faha." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But the Faha had had enough of kif." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And there were kif ships out there, waiting." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She was increasingly certain of it—if not actually on the fringes of Kirdu System, which they might be, at least scattered all about, waiting the moment." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "More and more kif ships, a gathering swarm of them, unprecedented in their cooperation with each other." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She passed the airlock into the corridor, and Chur and Tirun who had turned out with the evident intention of welcoming their Faha guests—stopped in their exit from the op room, simply stopped." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Our friends changed their minds,\" Pyanfar said curtly." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"They decided to take passage with Tahar. Something about an injury one of them suffered, and the Tahar promised them a more direct route home.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "That put at least an acceptable face on matters for Hilfy's sake." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They retreated as Pyanfar walked into the op room, looked at Geran and Tully who sat there, Geran having well understood and Tully looking disturbed, catching the temper in the air, no doubt, but not understanding it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Nothing to do with you.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Pyanfar said absently, settling into a chair at the far counter, looking at the system-image which Geran had been monitoring." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hilfy and Haral came in together, and there was a strained silence in the op room, all of them gathered there and Hilfy trying to keep a good face on." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Well, good luck to them,\" Tirun muttered." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Gods know they've seen enough.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"There are kif out there on the dock,\" Pyanfar said, \"who know too much. Getting cheeky about it. They've come in from Kita ahead of us, part of the bunch from Meetpoint or Urtur—Urtur, I'll reckon, since I checked names and they weren't the same as there. Just passing the message from one kif to the next. It's getting tight here.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"There'll be more soon,\" Haral said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I'll bet there's some outsystem. Captain, think we can talk the mahe to run us escort to our jumppoint? Surely we've got leverage enough for that.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"That story will go from station to station,\" Pyanfar said bitterly, \"Gods, but I don't think we've got much choice. Get them to shepherd us out of here.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"When we can get our tail put together again,\" Tirun said glumly." }, { "from": "human", "value": "There was a noise from down the hall, a footstep in the airlock." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Every head turned for the doorway and Pyanfar reached for the gun in her pocket and thrust her way past Tirun getting to the op room door and the corridor, clicking the safety off the gun." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was hani—Hilan Faha, who flung up a startled hand and stopped at the sight of her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Pyanfar punched the safety back on with a clawtip and thrust the weapon back into her pocket, aware of others of her crew now behind her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Changed your mind of a sudden?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "she asked the Faha." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Need to talk to you. To my young cousin.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"To your cousin, rot you; and to me. Come on inside. Neither she nor I'll talk out here like dockside peddlers.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Ker Pyanfar,\" the Faha murmured, manners which in no wise mollified her temper." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Pyanfar waved the lot of them back into ops—only then recalled Tully, who was trapped there in the corner, but there was nothing of secret in his presence on the ship, and no cause to send him slinking out past them all." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Let the Faha talk in front of him; let her deliver her excuses under an Outsider's stare—served her right." }, { "from": "human", "value": "And Hilan Faha stopped in the doorway at the sight of Tully, this naked-skinned creature hani-styled and hani-dressed sitting at the counter among the crew; and Hilan's ears went flat." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"This,\" she said, rounding on Pyanfar, \"this is that item the kif wanted—isn't it?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"His name is Tully.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hilan's mouth tightened, an ominous furrowing of the nose." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"A live item. By the greater gods, where have you been, Chanur, and what's going on with this business?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"If you were traveling on this ship you might ask and I might answer. As things are, you can learn when the Tahar do.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Rot you, Starchaser died in your cause, for this—\" She spat, swallowed down a surplus of words when Pyanfar stared at her sullenly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"It was the captain's decision; we off-loaded everything at Urtur and tried to run to give you a break for it. But where were you then? Where was our help?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Blind, Hilan Faha—off in the dust and stark blind. We tried, believe that; but at the last we had to jump for it or risk collision; we hoped you could get off in what confusion we created.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hilan drew a quieter breath." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"The captain's decision, not mine. I'd not have budged out of dock: know that. I'd have sat there and let you sort it out with the kif, this so-named theft of yours...\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You take kif word above mine?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"If you have an explanation I'll be glad to hear it. My cousins are dead. We're broken. We'll not get another ship, not so likely. Great Chanur makes plans, but the likes of us—we'll go on other Faha ships, wherever we can get a berth. I'll reckon you know where the profit's to be found, and, gods rot your conniving hide, you've stirred up what a lot of ships are going to bleed for. What a lot of small companies are going to go under for. They gave me a message to give you, Pyanfar Chanur—the kif gave me this to tell you: that what you've done is too much to ignore and too great to let pass. That they'll come after you wherever you are in whatever numbers it takes—even to Anuurn. That they'll make it clear to all hani that this prize of yours is no profit to you. This from their hakkikt. Akukkakk. Him from Urtur. His words.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Kif threats. I'd thought you had more nerve.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"No empty threats,\" Hilan said, eyes dilated, her nostrils flared and sweat-glistening." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Tell all hani, this Akukkakk says—desert this Pyanfar Chanur or see desolation... even to Anuurn space.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"And where did you hear all this? From a scattering of ships and a kif who never caught us—who failed to catch you. Hilan Faha; and if we'd gotten together at Urtur—\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"No. No. You don't understand. They did catch us, Chanur. Did overhaul us. Killed two of my cousins doing it. At Kita. And they let us go... but we broke down in the jump. They let us go to deliver that message.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The Faha's shame was intense." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There was a silence in the room, no one seeming to breathe." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"So,\" said Pyanfar, \"do you believe all your enemies say?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I see this,\" Hilan said, gesturing at Tully." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"And all of a sudden the game looks a lot larger than before. All of a sudden I see reason that the kif might gather, and why they might not stop. Chanur's ambition—has gone too far this time. Whatever you're into, I don't want part of it. My sister's alive; and two of my cousins; and we're going home. Cousin,\" she said, looking at Hilfy, \"to you—I apologize.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hilfy said nothing, only stared with hurt in her eyes." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Hilfy can leave with you if she likes,\" Pyanfar said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Without my blame. It might be a prudent thing to do... as you point out.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I'd be pleased to take her,\" Hilan said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I stay with my ship,\" Hilfy said, and Pyanfar folded her arms over a stomach moiling with wishes one way and the other at once. And pride—that too." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"So,\" Pyanfar said, \"I wish you safe journey. Best we should travel together, but I'm sure that's not in the Tahar's mind now.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"No. It's not.\" The Faha looked down, and up again, in Tully's direction, a darkening of the eyes." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"If you considered your relations to others, you wouldn't have done this thing. You've taken on too much this time. And others will think so.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What I took on myself, arrived on our ship without a by your leave or my knowledge it existed. What would you do with a refugee who ran onto your ship? Hand him over to the kif at their asking? I don't sell lives.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"But you don't mind losing them.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You throw away what they did,\" Hilfy said suddenly, \"with your smallness.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The Faha's ears flattened." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What are you to judge? Talk to me when you've got some years on you, cousin. This—\" She came dangerously near Tully, and Chur who had been sitting on a counter slid down to plant both feet, barring the way." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Tully got out of his chair and stood as far back in the bend of the counter as he could get." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The Faha shrugged, a careless gesture throwing away her intent." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I've another word,\" the Faha said, looking straight at Pyanfar." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Whether or not you intended what you've involved yourself in—it just may be the finish. Your allies might have stood by you, but it's all gotten too tangled. It's gotten too risky. How long since you've been home?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Some few months.\" Pyanfar drew in a breath and thrust her hands into her belt, with the taste of something bad coming—that ill feeling of a house at its height, in which any breath of change was trouble; and of a sudden she misliked that look on the Faha's face, that truculence which melted into something of discomfort, a decent shame." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Maybe more than that,\" Pyanfar said, \"if you count that I didn't go downworld last call. What is it, Faha? What is it you're bursting to tell me?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"A son of yours—has taken Mahn from Khym Mahn. He's neighbor to Chanur now. He has ambitions. The old Mahn is in exile, and Kohan Chanur is finding sudden need of all his allies.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hilan Faha shrugged, down-eared and white about the nose and looking altogether as if she would wish to be elsewhere at the moment, instead of bringing such news to a Chanur ship." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"My captain would have backed you; but what are we now, with one of our ships gone, one out of the three Faha owns; and what do we think when you take on something like this when you already have as much as Chanur can handle? You've lost your cargo; you've gotten yourself a feud with the kif, and kif threatening to go into Anuurn zones, for the gods' sake—how can Chanur hold onto its other allies when that starts? I've lost my ship, my captain, some of my cousins—and I have to think of my family. I can't involve myself with you, not now: I can't make Faha part of this and get our ships into a feud with the kif. You're about to lose everything. Others will decide the same, and Chanur won't be there even if you get back. I'm going home, ker Pyanfar, on the Tahar ship because I have to, because I'm not tangling what's left of us in Chanur fortunes.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You're young,\" Pyanfar said, looking down her nose." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"The young always worry. You're right, your captain would have backed me. She had the nerve for it. But go your way, Hilan Faha. I'll pay your debts because I promised; Chanur will reward the mahe who pulled you out. And when I've settled with that whelp Kara I'll be in better humor, so I may even forget this. So you won't worry how to meet me in future—don't fear too much. I'll not regard you too badly... the young do grow; but by the gods I'll never regard you the way I did your captain. You're not Lihan, Hilan Faha, and maybe you never will be.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The Faha fairly shook with anger." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"To be paid the way you paid her—\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"She'd curse me to a mahen hell if she were here, but she'd not do what you've done. She'd not run out on a friend. Go on, Hilan Faha, leave my deck. A safe voyage to you and a quick one.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "For a moment the Faha might have struck out; but she was worn thin and hopeless and the moment and the courage went." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Her curse on you then,\" she said, and turned and stalked out, not so straight in the shoulders, not so high of head as she had come in." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Pyanfar scowled and looked at Hilfy, and Hilfy herself was virtually shaking." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Kohan never said anything about this Mahn business in his letter,\" Pyanfar said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What do you know, niece?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I don't,\" Hilfy said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I won't believe it. I think the Faha's been listening to rumors.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"How much did you know about the estates when you were at home? Where was your head then, but on The Pride? Is it possible something was brewing and you didn't hear?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"There was always talk; Kara Mahn was always hanging about the district. He and Tahy. There—was some calling back and forth; I think na Khym talked to father direct.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Rot his hide, Kohan could have said something in that letter.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"He sent me,\" Hilfy said in a small, stricken voice." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"When The Pride turned up in system I asked to go, and he said he'd never permit it; and then—the next night he gave me the letter and put me in the plane and, gods, I was off to the port like that. Hardly a chance to pack. Said I had to hurry or The Pride would leave port and I'd miss my chance. Like that, at night; but I thought—I thought it was because ships don't calculate day and night, and that shuttle was going up anyway.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"O gods,\" Pyanfar groaned, and sat down against the counter, looked up at all the ring of anxious faces." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Not yet, that son of mine doesn't. Gods blight the kif; we'll settle them, but we're going to take care of that small business at home; that's first.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Ears pricked. \"We're with you,\" Haral said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Gods, yes, home. Going to shake me some scruffs when I get there.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Hai!\" Geran agreed, and Tirun; and Tully visibly flinched, calmed again as Chur patted his shoulder." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He settled and Hilfy sat down beside him, put her hand on his other shoulder, two disconsolate souls who shared not much at all but their misery." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"We'll straighten it out,\" Pyanfar said to Hilfy." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"We'll do it on our terms. Agreed, niece?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"He got me out of there,\" Hilfy said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I could have helped, and he saw it coming and he moved me out.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Huh. You're not old enough to know your father from my view, with all respect for your own. He thinks, some time before a problem comes on him—not much meditation during, gods know, but he sets things up like pieces on a board. Too rotted proud to call me downworld, ah, yes; too rotted smart to have young Hilfy Chanur at hand to get herself in a tangle with her Mahn cousins and to pitchfork that temper of Kohan's into it... don't get your ears down at me, imp; we're family here. The sun rises and sets on your shoulders so far as your father's concerned, and that blasted son of mine would go right for the greatest irritance he could give your father if he wanted to take on Chanur—your precious inexperienced self. No, Kohan just cleared the deck, that's all. Chances are he was wrong; he's not immune to that either. I'd sooner have had you there; I think you'd have handled young Kara right enough; and Tahy with him. But if Moon Rising's going home, it's to carry the kind of news the Tahar have gotten here; it's going to make trouble, no thanks to the Faha: and there's a time past which Kohan's going to be hard put. He's got—what mates in residence? Your mother and who?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Akify and Lilun.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Hope your mother stands by him,\" Pyanfar said heavily: the Kihan and the Garas were ornaments." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She walked over to the counter and stared at the scan a moment." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No matter. Whatever's going on, we'll put it in order.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Pyanfar—\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Tully's strange voice. She turned about and looked at him, recalled the pager and turned it on broadcast, not bothering with the plug." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Question,\" Tully said, and made a vague gesture toward the door where the Faha had left. \"He fight.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"She,\" Pyanfar said impatiently." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"All she.\" Tully bit his lip and looked confused." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"It's nothing to do with you,\" Pyanfar said. \"Nothing you'd understand.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I go.\" he offered, starting to slide from his place on the counter, but Chur held his shoulder. \"No,\" Chur said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"It's all right, Tully. No one's angry at you.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You're not the cause,\" Pyanfar said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Not of this.\" She walked to the door, looked back at the crew." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"We'll settle it,\" she said to the crew, and turned and walked out, down the corridor and alone toward the lift." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Khym overthrown. Dead, maybe." }, { "from": "human", "value": "At the least in exile." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The loss of her mate oppressed her to a surprising degree." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Mahn in young Kara's hands would not be what it had been in Khym's." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Khym's style had been easygoing and gracious and admittedly lazy: he was a comfortable sort of fellow to come back to, who liked fine things and loved to sit in the shade of his garden and listen to the tales she could spin of far ports he would never see." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Boundless curiosity, gentle curiosity." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "That was Khym Mahn." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And the son he had indulged and pardoned had come back and taken his garden and his house and his name, while poor Khym—gods knew where he was, or in what misery." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She rode the lift up to main level and entered her own quarters, shut the door and sat down at the desk... forbore for a long time to pull out the few mementoes she bothered to keep, keeping home more in her mind than in objects." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Finally she looked at what she had, a picture, a smooth gray stone—odd how pleasant a bit of stone felt, and how alien in this steel world; stone that conjured the Kahin Hills, the look and the sound of grass in the wind, and the warmth of the sun and the slick cold of the rain on the rocks which thrust up out of the grassy hillsides." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Her son... cast Khym out: moved in next to Chanur to threaten Kohan himself, to break apart all that she had done and built and all that Kohan held." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Small wonder Kohan had wanted Hilfy out of harm's way—out of a situation in which tempers could be triggered and reason lost." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Put some experience on her, Kohan had asked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And: Take care of her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She put the things away, and sat thinking, because while repairs proceeded, there was little else she could do." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They sat here locked into station's embrace and hoping that the kif stayed off their vulnerable backside." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Sat here while their enemies had time to do what they liked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Strike at Anuurn itself—Akukkakk could not be so rash." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He had not that many ships, that he could do such a thing." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was bluster, of the sort the kif always used, hyperbole... of the sort they always flung out, hoping for more gains from an enemy's panic than force could win." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Unless the hakkikt was mad... a definition which, between species, lacked precision." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Unless the hakkikt commanded followers more interested in damage than in gain." }, { "from": "human", "value": "No hakkikt on record had ever stirred as wide a distance, involving so many ships." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "No one had ever done what this one had done, attacking a stsho station, harassing and threatening an entire starsystem and all its traffic as he had done at Urtur." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She sat and gnawed at her lip and reckoned that the threat might have substance to it after all." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She checked scan finally, on her own terminal." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Nothing showed but the expected." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The knnn still hovered off from station: when she searched audio the singing came back, placid now and wavering over three discordant tones." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The tc'a were silent, but one, which babbled static in tones as slow as the knnn's." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The prisoner? she wondered. Lamenting its fate?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Beyond those voices there was only normal station noise, and the close-in chatter of the skimmer crews who had never ceased their work on The Pride's damage." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Normally some of these jump freighters would have put out: Hasatso's venture out only to meet emergency had frozen everything." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Not even the miners were stirring out from their berths with the orehaulers and those were snugged into orbit about Mala or Kilaunan." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She patched a call through to station services, complained about the late delivery on ordered goods: the courier service issued promises after the time-honored fashion, and she took them, reckoning on the usual carrier arriving about the time the rampway was about to close down." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Stasteburana-to used sense, at least; and the patrols stayed out, shuttling the system, alert against trouble." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 2 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The mahe kept faith.\n\nShe expected less of the Tahar." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "CREATIVE WRITING ASSIST:\nfive sentences sentences\nMimic: Mr Creator\nGenre: Fiction, BDSM, NSFW" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In the days that followed that fateful night, I slowly began implementing some new rules and changing some things about my wife to suit my purposes. The first order of business was the way in which my wife attempted to dress herself. I immediately went through her belongings and threw anything out that was even remotely baggy or unrevealing. This didn't leave much for her to wear, so we went shopping for some new clothing.\n\nMuch to her chagrin, I began choosing clothing that was a size too small, or a tad too short, or a bit too see-through for her liking." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She had a great body and I wanted to show it off, and I also knew it would embarrass Sally as well." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "For tops I would only choose things like transparent blouses, tank tops or halter tops that were all a size too small, to accentuate her beautiful breasts and show off her large nipples when they got erect. For the bottoms, I would not buy anything other than skirts, and all were too tight and too short. Sally had great legs and a perfect ass and these all showed them off to great effect. Of course, Sally didn't think so and found it very humiliating knowing that certain movements caused her private areas to become exposed.\n\nWe also made a trip to the lingerie store as I had thrown out my wife's entire collection." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They were all too plain and again, unrevealing. Small lace items, g-strings and garter belts and stocking were the order of the day with matching lace bras. For footwear, we only purchased shoes with heels on them that were no less than 3 inches in height. What one might call \"fuck-me shoes\".\n\nThe first few times we went out in public with my wife dressed this way was a real thrill for me, and for Sally as well." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As we would walk through the mall, I'd observe the looks the men, and sometimes women, gave my wife. She was utterly humiliated being made to parade through the busy mall dressed this way. Wearing a small see-through blouse with a dark lacy bra on underneath, and a black skirt which was skin-tight and barely went below the bottoms of her ass cheeks. This was topped off with 4 inch heels, which caused my wife's hips to sway almost obscenely.\n\nI know she saw the looks of pure lust on the men, and the looks of hatred and contempt from the women." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Her face was a constant red and her nipples were rock hard, which, of course, made the whole picture even more obscene.\n\nAfter these episodes, I could hardly wait to get my wife home and fuck the shit out of her. She was always very wet and horny as well. The sex after these times was always intense and ended up with both of us having very satisfying orgasms.\n\nI also began instituting some new rules at home." }, { "from": "human", "value": "One of the first was, while we were in a role playing situation, that she was not to speak unless she was spoken to first." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "If she had to ask a question, she was to get my attention and wait for me to give her permission to speak. Several days after that rule was introduced, I returned home from work and informed Sally that, \"From now on Slut, you will no longer be allowed to wear clothing in the house unless I give you permission. Upon entering the home, you will immediately remove all of your clothing and remain that way until you are required to go out again. Is that clear?\"\n\nA quick nod of the head.\n\n\"Well, what are you waiting for? Or do you need to have your ass and pussy beaten again?\" I demanded.\n\nQuickly realizing what I meant, she immediately began removing all of her clothing until she stood naked in front of me." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The sight of that beautiful naked body was starting to have an effect on me." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I figured now was as good a time as any to introduce another rule to Sally." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Also, whenever I enter the home I will expect you to present yourself in an appropriate manner. You will wait for me in the living room and will be on your knees facing the door. You will be sitting upright on your heels with your hands clasped behind your back and your knees spread as wide apart as they will go. You will not move from this position unless I tell you too. Understood?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A nod of her head.\n\n\"Assume the position, Slut,\" I ordered.\n\nShe quickly dropped to her knees in front of me and clasped her hands behind her back as she sat back on her heels.\n\n\"Spread those legs further than that, Cunt. I want everything to be on display. Wider than that. Do I need to beat that pussy again to get you to obey?\" I quickly barked as she tried to comply with my demands." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Still not feeling that she was as wide apart as she could go, and believing that a lesson was probably in order, I ordered her to stay put and not to move." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I went into the kitchen and began rummaging through several of the drawers until I found what I was looking for." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I took out a long handled wooden spoon which I thought would be perfect for what I had in mind.\n\nReturning to my wife, I informed her that she was going to be punished for not complying with my demand right away and for not doing it correctly. She immediately began to plead with me that she was sorry and that she would never do it again and that I should give her a second chance. I cut off her pleas sharply by saying, \"Enough, Slut. Your punishment is going to be worse now for speaking without permission. Or have you forgotten that rule too, Cunt?\" I sneered.\n\nShe quickly shook her head no, but remained silent." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I could see the pained look on her face as she realized that she had screwed up and was now going to get a worse punishment than she would have if she had only remained silent." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Her shoulders visibly slumped as she resolved herself to take whatever punishment I dished out and do it in a manner which wouldn't disappoint me any further.\n\nI then stood beside Sally and ordered her to start playing with her tits and nipples. Her face flushed a deep red as she began to fondle her breast and roll her nipples in her fingertips. Soon those bullets were rock hard and sticking out at least 3/4 of an inch.\n\n\"Pinch your nipples. Hard.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She began to squeeze the nipples between her thumbs and index fingers bringing a grimace of pain to her face." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Harder than that, Slut.\" She increased the pressure and I could see the tips beginning to turn a dark color. After several more seconds, I allowed her to release her now sore nipples. I then ordered, \"Place your hands under your tits and hold them up for me like you wanted them inspected.\" She quickly complied.\n\nWithout any warning, I brought the wooden spoon down hard upon her distended right nipple." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A howl of pain erupted from my wife as she doubled over in agony." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I immediately grabbed a handful of her hair and jerked hard on it bringing her head back up." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You will remain in place, or the punishment is going to get worse. This is your last warning. Do not disappoint me again,\" I chided.\n\nI could see the crestfallen look on her face as she realized that she had disappointed me again. With shaking hands she bravely assumed the position and again held her breasts out to me. This time I brought the spoon down hard upon her left nipple. Again the same howl of pain, but this time, to her credit, Sally managed to stay in position." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I began randomly applying strokes to both breasts evenly reddening the entire surface including the nipples." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "After several minutes of this I stopped and inspected my handiwork. My wife was silently crying, but she did not move from the position I had placed her in. Her tits were a deep red with several spots showing early signs of bruising. I informed her that her punishment was not yet over. The beating of her tits was for speaking without permission and what was to come next was for not complying with my original demand quickly enough." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Looking at her exposed pussy I could see it was already soaked. Despite the intense pain I had just put my wife through, her pussy and legs were soaked and there was a wet spot on the carpet under her cunt. Again, confirmation that my wife got off on the pain.\n\nI cautioned her again, \"If you move again, your punishment will be doubled. Now get your hands behind your back and keep them there.\" Once they were in place, I moved the spoon down to her exposed cunt and began rubbing it around, getting the spoon wet with her juices." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I could see the pleading look in her eyes and see that she wanted to beg me not to do it, but remembering her lessons, she remained silent." }, { "from": "human", "value": "At first, I just lightly tapped it, not wanting her to know when it would strike." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Tap, tap, tap, tap, tap, WHACK. Immediately following that strike, my wife's eyes nearly bugged right out of her head, as she reeled from the pain. \"AAAAAAHHHHHHHHH\" her back arching as she fought to stay in position. She began panting, almost as a dog would.\n\nTap, tap, tap, tap, tap, WHACK." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A second time on her exposed pussy lips." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Again her back arched and mouth opened in a pitiful wail. Despite the intense pain, her pussy was flowing with juices and her clit was so hard that it was poking out like a little penis. Her breathing began picking up in pace as the pain pulsed from her cunt throughout her body.\n\nWHACK, WHACK. Two blows back to back. It was almost too much for my wife." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Her mouth opened to scream, but no sound came out." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Her hips began moving as if they had a mind of their own. A slow rocking back and forth which quickly began to pick up speed.\n\nTap, tap, WHACK, WHACK, WHACK. Three in quick succession. The stimulation to her erect clit and swollen pussy lips was too much for Sally." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Her back arched once again and her body went rigid as she began to orgasm." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Her hands were clasped so tightly behind her back that her knuckles were bone white as she fought to stay in position while having an intense orgasm. As the orgasm pulsed through my wife's body, I continued the assault on her now swollen and thoroughly drenched cunt.\n\nWHACK, WHACK, WHACK, WHACK. Each new smack pushed her farther over the edge. Her eyes had rolled so far into the back of her head that all you could see was white." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Her body was arched back almost to the point that she was lying down on her feet and yet she somehow managed to maintain her position with her legs spread wide open and her hands clasped tightly behind her back." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Her breathing was ragged, to the point of sounding like she was hyperventilating. Shocks appeared to ripple throughout her body and it was evident that she had lost control. I began to worry that she might actually lose consciousness or worse.\n\nOnce I stopped beating her pussy, she slowly began to come down from the heights she'd been on. Her breathing began to slow, her body relax and she began to focus again on her immediate surroundings." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She looked an absolute mess." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Her hair was soaked from sweat, and was plastered to her head." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Her skin was blotchy and flushed, her breasts a dark red with purple welts forming, her cunt was swollen and red, and there was a giant wet spot on the carpet under her. And yet, in my eyes, my wife never looked lovelier than she did at this moment.\n\nThat had to be the most intense orgasm my wife had ever experienced. I stepped back for a few minutes to inspect my handiwork. I liked the way her body looked after taking the punishment and specially the way it responded to the pain." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I knew it certainly wouldn't be the last time I did that." }, { "from": "human", "value": "There was just one thing that seemed to be off about her appearance." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "After several more seconds of thought I realized what it was. She had too much cunt hair. It obstructed the view of my handiwork. \"From now on, Slut, you will shave that cunt of yours and keep it bare. Failure to do so will of course result in punishment. I will conduct spot inspections, so be sure to be vigilant.\"\n\nA quick nod of her head." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I'm sure punishment was the last thing she wanted right now." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "This whole scene certainly had an effect on me as well. My cock was rock hard and painfully trying to poke a hole through my pants. I quickly undressed, grabbed a handful of my wife's hair and began walking towards the dining room table. My wife had to quickly scramble to her feet to avoid being dragged by her hair. Once there, I pushed her head down until she was bent over the edge of the table with her ass sticking out and her bruised tits mashed into the table top." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Spread your legs wide whore. Now reach back and pull your ass cheeks apart.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In this position her ass was beautifully on display and her newly beaten pussy was now clearly visible. Her swollen pussy lips and legs glistened with the moisture from her cunt. Without another word I placed the tip of my cock at her cunt and buried it to the hilt on the first thrust.\n\n\"Unngghh,\" my wife grunted as my balls slapped against her badly beaten pussy. Knowing I wouldn't be able to hold out for long, I began jack-hammering into her cunt as hard as I could." }, { "from": "human", "value": "For each thrust I would pull all the way out and then bury it to the hilt, until my cock bumped painfully against her cervix, and my balls would slap her poor abused pussy lips and clit." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Each time I buried my cock in Sally, her body would be pushed forward on the table causing her bruised and beaten tits to rub back and forth on the table's surface.\n\nA steady rhythm built up with my wife grunting in pain with each thrust. Soon I could feel the pressure beginning to build in my balls and just before the first spurt, I whipped my cock out of her pussy, grabbed her hair and pulled her head to my cock. She remained, however, in the position I had left her. She was still bent over at the waist clasping the cheeks of her ass and spreading them apart." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Remembering her training, the moment I grabbed a handful of her hair, she opened her mouth and obediently awaited my next move." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The first spurt hit her on the right cheek, causing her to flinch, but she dutifully remained in position. Then it seemed as if the floodgates had opened. As stream after stream of cum erupted from my cock and began coating her face in a thick coat of white semen. When my cock finally finished spasming, I reluctantly released my hold on my wife's hair and took a step back to admire my handiwork.\n\nWhat a sight she was!!!" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She was still bent over at the waist with her hands behind her holding her ass-cheeks apart, and her face and hair was covered in a thick coat of sperm." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "After letting her stand like that for several more moments, I calmly ordered, \"On your knees, Slut, and clean that cum off your face.\"\n\nShe quickly released her hold on her ass and dropped to her knees in front of me and began scooping the gobs of cum off her face and licking her fingers clean.\n\n\"What a cum-hungry slut you've become. Look at you. You can't get enough of my cum. That's it, Slut, don't miss a drop.\" I continued to verbally humiliate her until she had it all cleaned up. \"Alright Slut, get up and go get a shower. And shave that cunt while you're in there.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She quickly stood and scampered off towards the bathroom." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 1 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "My mind continued to fill with thoughts and ideas of things I could do with my submissive wife." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "CREATIVE WRITING ASSIST:\n6 sentences sentences\nGenre: Fiction, BDSM, NSFW" }, { "from": "human", "value": "My wife quickly learned and adapted to the new rules of the house." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The moment she entered the house, she immediately undressed and always made sure her pussy was smoothly shaven. It only took a couple of spot inspections those first few days, in which stubble had been discovered, to quickly hammer home the lesson. After receiving a very painful spanking on her ass, pussy and tits, my wife never made that mistake again.\n\nEvery day when I returned home from work, I found my wife kneeling at the entrance to the living room, in the position I had described. Her hands were clasped behind her back, and her knees were spread as wide as they could go. I tell you, after a hard day of work, there's no sight better than your beautiful submissive wife kneeling naked in front of you displaying all of her charms for your inspection." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was then, after we began to settle into a routine, that I decided it was time to spice things up a little, and add some variety to the mix. I didn't want to let my wife become complacent so I devised a plan to add some more humiliation to her life.\n\nOne evening after work, I informed my wife that we were going out. She assumed it would be another trip to the mall where I would show off her body by parading her up and down the main hall. When I didn't take the usual turnoff towards the mall, I could see my wife's face begin to cloud with uncertainty and, I think, a little fear.\n\nShe definitely knew something was wrong when I continued driving until we entered a seedier part of town, and I eventually pulled the car up in front of a XXX sex shop." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Getting out of the car I could see Sally was very hesitant and was definitely afraid of what I might have planned for her.\n\nAs we entered the deserted shop, I could almost hear my wife breath a sigh of relief. She had never been in one of these stores before, and I know it made her very uncomfortable being here, worrying if someone we know might see her. At first I just casually strolled around the store looking at all the merchandise for sale, silently planning my next move. After several minutes, the bored looking clerk, a young man in his early twenties, strolled over towards us and asked, \"Is there anything I can help you with, folks?\"\n\nI smiled a broad smile, and replied \"Well actually there is. You see, my wife here,\" gesturing towards Sally, \"is sometimes a very bad girl and needs to be punished.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The moment I said that, I could hear my wife behind me gasp and knew she was turning several shades of red." }, { "from": "human", "value": "That comment woke our drowsy clerk up." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He eyed my wife with a new appreciation." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Licking his lips he replied, \"Certainly sir, what can I get for you?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Well to start with, my wife has really sensitive nipples and when they get aroused, they stick out at least 3/4 of an inch.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Sally turned a darker shade of red, but her nipples betrayed her. As I continued to humiliate her, her arousal became obvious as those tell-tale nipples hardened and threatened to poke a hole in her sheer, nearly transparent blouse. \"I'm looking for a set of nipple clamps that can handle nipples her size. I want them to be adjustable, so if she's really being a naughty slut, I can tighten them, and I also want them linked by a chain, so she can be led around like a little doggie.\" Sally could only look at the floor now, she was so embarrassed. But her breathing had quickened and her nipples were as hard as I've seen them.\n\n\"Certainly sir. Right this way we have an excellent variety of clamps available.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The man led the way to a display case on the back wall. \"Might I suggest this pair?\" he inquired, holding up a gold set that looked like two miniature vises with a screw in each for tightening, and they were attached together by an elegant gold chain.\n\n\"Hmmmm\" I pretended to think about it for a few seconds. \"I'm just not sure. Could you hold them up to my wife's tits so I can see what they look like?\" I asked.\n\n\"Uhhh...sssssure\", the clerk stuttered." }, { "from": "human", "value": "With obvious shaking hands, the young man lifted the clamps up and held them in front of my wife's now hard nipples." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I took a step back and appeared to study the picture for a bit, before I replied, \"I'm still not sure if they'll look right. Slut, undo your blouse and pull your tits out of your bra for me.\" I purposefully emphasized the word 'slut', and looked at her very pointedly. Her head snapped up and she looked at me with a shocked look on her face. She was about to say something in protest, when she saw the look I was giving her, and realized that if she didn't comply, the punishment she'd receive would only be worse for her.\n\nWith a resigned look on her face, Sally hesitantly raised her hands and began undoing the buttons on her blouse. When it came time to removing her tits from her bra, she again looked at me with a pleading look in her eyes, but she was only met with a stony gaze." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Realizing that I would not accept anything else, her shoulders slumped, and with visibly shaking hands reached into her bra and removed both of her breasts." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There my wife stood, in the middle of a public store, in front of a complete stranger, with both of her beautiful tits hanging out for him to see. It was obvious to him, as well, how aroused my wife was, as her nipples were very hard and were jutting well out from her tits.\n\n\"OK, can you hold them up against my wife's tits again? I should be able to tell if they'll look good or not\", I asked the clerk.\n\nHe again held the clamps up, but got a little more bold this time and actually held them against my wife's bare breasts. After a few more moments, I asked \"Can you please put them on her? I want to make sure they'll fit and won't fall off.\"\n\nNot only did my wife have a shocked look on her face, but so did the clerk." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But not wanting to miss the opportunity, he hesitantly reached for my wife's left nipple, and gently attached the clamp. Once secured in place, he did the same for the right nipple and then stepped back. I have to say my wife looked stunning at that moment. Displaying her tits to a perfect stranger and then allowing that stranger to attach a set of nipple clamps to them, made her absolutely glow. She was still a deep shade of red and obviously found this humiliating, but was also getting intensely turned on by all of this, and it was showing. She was absolutely radiant in her beauty." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Enjoying the moment and not yet ready to have it end, I then asked the clerk, \"Could you please tighten the clamps for me. I want to make sure they can go tight enough for my purposes, and I'd like to see if they have the right effect on my wife's nipples.\" The man again stepped forward and with obvious signs of nervousness but also arousal, which was evident by the tent threatening to poke through his pants, reached for my wife's tits.\n\nGrabbing both clamps at the same time, he began turning the screws equally. After several turns, I could see it was beginning to have an effect on Sally. Her face was showing signs of strain and soon became a mask of pain. I could see it was taking all of her control to not pull away or yell stop." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Her whole body began to flinch with each new rotation of the screw, and she began to tremble and make some low mewling sounds. \"Uunngghhhh, mmmmmm, aaahhhhhh.\" Her nipples were being horribly compressed and were now a very dark shade of purple. When it was obvious she was in intense pain, I asked the man to stop. He quickly stepped back and surveyed his handiwork.\n\nWhat a site she was. Her entire upper body was a dark shade of red, she was breathing rapidly, her face in a constant grimace of pain and her tortured nipples a dark shade of purple as they proudly stood out from my wife's tits, held together by a delicate gold chain." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I want to make sure the clamps will stay on so would you mind grabbing the chain and follow me?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I asked the clerk. Without waiting for a response I began walking away to another section of the store. He quickly grabbed the chain hanging between my wife's breasts and pulled on it as he endeavored to follow after me. Of course, with each yank of the chain, a new wave of pain would course out of her nipples and throughout her body. My wife scrambled to keep up with the young man, like an obedient puppy dog, not wanting there to be any distance between them so there would be no tension on the chain. After being led around the store like a dog by the clerk, I finally came to a stop in front of another display case." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Releasing the chain, the young man walked over and asked, \"Is there anything else I can help you with sir?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Well, my wife has never had anything in her ass before, so I'd like to acquire some butt plugs for her to wear.\" Turning to my wife I ordered, \"Slut, I want you to turn around and bend over at the waist.\" When she had done so, much to the delight of our young clerk, I then ordered, \"reach back and lift up your skirt and then pull down your panties.\" With obvious distress my wife reached back and lifted up the tiny skirt until it was on her back and her entire ass was displayed to this stranger. Since she was only wearing a tiny little g-string, both globes were proudly on display. Again with shaking hands she grabbed the sides of her underwear and began rolling them down her legs until they reached her ankles." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And as a final touch, I ordered \"Reach back and spread your ass-cheeks apart. I want this man to get a good look at your asshole so he'll be able to tell me what sizes I need.\" With utter humiliation, Sally reached back and spread her ass-cheeks apart.\n\nNow my wife's parts were completely on display for this total stranger. Her asshole and cleanly shaven pussy were completely exposed and again it was very obvious that this treatment was turning my wife on. Her cunt glistened with moisture and several rivulets of juice were running down her leg as we watched.\n\n\"So, what size do you think would be a good starter size?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I asked the clerk." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He reluctantly looked away from my wife's exposed charms and peered into the display case we were standing next to." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He reached in and pulled out a plug, which at its thickest point, was roughly 2 inches in diameter.\n\n\"Excellent choice. Don't you think so, Slut?\" I asked my wife. Remaining in position, she craned her head around and tried to see what the clerk was holding.\n\nShe quietly replied, \"Yes sir.\"\n\n\"Great, we'll take it, and I'll also take this one and this one.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I pulled two more plugs out of the case, each a little bigger than the last." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The middle sized one was roughly two and 3/4 inches in diameter and the largest one was fully 3½ inches wide." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"OK, Slut, you can stand up now and get dressed. But I want you to leave your tits out of your bra, and just fasten the blouse over top. And don't take those clamps off.\" I could see the look of dismay on my wife's face as she had been sincerely hoping she could have removed the clamps which were causing her excruciating pain.\n\nI quickly grabbed several more items from around the store and then paid for the lot of them, before returning to my wife. \"Let's head back to the car now, Slut\", I ordered. She quickly followed after me, anxious to get out of that store before I made her do more humiliating things. With each step she took, her raw, clamped exposed nipples would rub against the fabric of her tight blouse, causing more sensations of pain." }, { "from": "human", "value": "By the time we reached the car, she was a wreck." }, { "from": "human", "value": "After seating ourselves, I ordered Sally to undo her blouse." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Once done, I took a good look at the effect the clamps had on my wife' poor nipples. Deciding that she had probably had enough, and since she had been very obedient in the store, I reached up, loosened the screws in the clamps, and pulled them off of her tortured tits.\n\n\"Aaaaahhhhhhhh\" my wife shrieked as the blood rushed back to her abused nipples in a flood of pain. When the waves of pain had passed, I informed my wife, as we pulled away from the curb, that she was to leave her tits out for the remainder of the drive home.\n\nIt was dark by the time we pulled into our driveway, so there was little fear that anyone would see my wife's naked breasts, as she ran to the door, waiting to be let in. Once inside, she quickly stripped off her clothes and ran to the living room to get in the position now very familiar to her for every time I return home." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I walked over to her, and reaching into the bag I carried, pulled out one of the extra things I had purchased while at the store. It was a studded collar designed to be worn about the neck. It looked almost identical to a dog's collar. I informed Sally \"you will be expected to put this collar on the moment you return home and will keep it on, unless I tell you otherwise. This will be the only piece of clothing you will be allowed to wear while in this house.\" I reached down and fastened the collar in place. What a beautiful contrast it was to her milky white skin." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"We had a chance to try out one of our new toys tonight, I think it only fair that we try out the other one\", I informed her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Grabbing a handful of hair, I again pulled her to her feet and dragged her over to the dining room table. Pushing her face down on the table I ordered, \"reach back and spread your ass-cheeks apart, Slut. Spread those legs apart further. You'd better relax or this is really going to hurt.\"\n\nOpening a jar of Vaseline, which was also purchased from the store, I put a dollop on the tip of the smallest plug. I took a moment to admire the view before me. My lovely wife holding her ass-cheeks apart for me, exposing that virgin ass and her very wet cunt. Already juice was beginning to flow down her legs in anticipation of what was to come." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Now tell me Slut, have you ever had anything in your asshole before?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No sir.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Are you scared?\"\n\n\"Yes sir.\"\n\n\"You don't want me to ram this plug up your ass, do you?\"\n\n\"No sir.\"\n\n\"Well like it or not, you'd better get used to it, because you're going to be wearing one a lot from now on in,\" I informed her.\n\nA pitiful \"yes sir.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Placing the tip of the plug against her sphincter, I began to slowly push and rotate it, inching it in slowly. I could tell Sally was worried by how tense she was, which unfortunately made it very difficult to insert the plug. \"You'd better relax your ass slut, or I'm going to stop being gentle, and ram this thing up there as hard as I can,\" I warned her.\n\nI could see my wife was trying to relax by taking some deep breaths to control her breathing. As I pushed on the plug I could feel the difference in her sphincter, as she began to relax. Inch by inch I worked that plug into her ass." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The deeper I went, the wider her asshole was stretched as I neared the thickest part of the plug.\n\nI continued to rotate the plug and would pull it out a bit before pushing it back in again, a little further each time. \"Unngghhh, ooowww, ooohhhhh.\" My wife was grunting now with each thrust into her ass as she desperately tried to relax enough to allow passage for the plug. I knew my wife was in a lot of pain by now from the sounds she was making and also by the fact that her knuckles were bone white from gripping her ass-cheeks so hard.\n\nThe sounds she was making and the sight of her asshole being spread so wide for the first time ever were having a positive effect on me as well. My cock was rock hard and was desperately straining to get out of my pants." }, { "from": "human", "value": "With only another 2 inches to go, I began to push harder on the plug forcing it in with greater force." }, { "from": "human", "value": "My wife was now crying out in pain with each thrust, but dutifully held her position." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "At this point I didn't care anymore. I just wanted to get the plug into her fast so I could have some release of my own. The pain from the final inch was excruciating for Sally as I savagely thrust it in with all my might, finally getting the fattest part of the plug past her sphincter. A pitiful wail of pain exploded from my wife as her asshole was stretched the farthest it had ever been stretched in her entire life. Despite the awful pain, my wife was also getting turned on by all this. Her cunt was soaking wet and streams of juice were coating her entire upper legs." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Without wasting another second, I quickly shucked my pants and underwear, grabbed my cock, and buried it deep inside her in one thrust. At that, Sally's head came up off the table, with her mouth forming a silent 'O'. The stimulation in her ass and cunt were causing an overload for Sally's senses. I was being none to gentle, and savagely thrust into her cunt with wild abandon. Each time I thrust into her, my body would also push the plug deeper into her ass so it felt like she was getting fucked in both holes at the same time.\n\nSoon I began to feel that familiar tingling in my balls signaling that I was close to cumming." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I could tell Sally was also close to cumming by the sounds she was making - little grunting sounds, and she was pushing back against me with each thrust so that I would go deeper and push harder against the plug in her ass." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Grabbing a thick handful of her hair, I pulled her head back causing her to arch her back painfully, and used her hair to pull Sally's body back against me with each thrust. Pulling on her hair, I was now slamming into her cunt with all my might, until I could hold out no longer. Just before the first spurt, I quickly pulled out, yanked her head around and buried my cock deep into her mouth, forcing it down her throat. She instantly began to gag, and that sensation was enough to push me over the edge. Holding her head firmly in place with my cock lodged deeply in her throat, I let go a torrent of cum. Not even giving her a chance to breathe I began shooting spurt after spurt of cum down her throat." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 7 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The sensation was awesome as she gagged and coughed on my sperm, some of it leaking out of her nose and mouth.\n\nWhen I had finally finished cumming in my wife's throat, I reluctantly removed my cock from her mouth. She was practically in tears by now, as she hadn't been able to breathe for a while, and as a result, was nearly in a panic. With deep breaths she tried to calm down and swallow the remains of my sperm in her mouth. Releasing my hold on her hair, I informed her that she could stand up now and sent her off to the shower to clean up. I informed her, however, that she would not be allowed to remove the plug for a while yet. With a crestfallen look on her face, she awkwardly made her way to the bathroom to get cleaned up." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "writing buddy needed! gimme 8 sentences more in Reed James's voice. stick to Erotica, Paranormal Fantasy pls" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Chapter Two\n\n\"Holy shit!\" Bill cursed, flinching in fear.\n\n\"Shh,\" the woman hissed. \"They'll hear you.\"\n\nHe could just make out her form moving in the darkness next to him. She was shorter than he was. A whiff of spicy perfume filled his nose. He was frozen, his hand gripping his cock, staring at the woman's dark shape. His heart raced. I'm in so much trouble." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I...\" he struggled to speak, mind searching for some lie he could tell." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The figure peered into one of the peepholes." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Mmm, nice. She's Cynthia?\"\n\n\"I...\"\n\n\"Hmm, I see why you're spanking it to her,\" the strange woman purred.\n\n\"Where did you...? How...?\"\n\n\"You were spanking it so hard you didn't notice me slip in.\" He could make out a hint of red lips smirking. \"I take it you like my peepholes?\"\n\n\"Your... what? You drilled these?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Yep.\" She moved next to him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Don't stop wanking it. She's not going to be showering long. Keep peeping. Don't waste this opportunity.\"\n\nShe smelled so wonderful as she stood just inches away. Her hair was a light red, maybe a strawberry-blonde, and fell in curls about her shoulders. A spot of light fell on her freckled cleavage. Her hand touched his hip, sliding down to find his groin, her fingers soft.\n\n\"I guess I should help you out, since I did spoil all of your fun.\"\n\nHer hand touched his cock. He groaned as she grazed his tip. \"Who are you?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Wouldn't you like to know?\" She knelt down. \"Just keep watching your little girlfriend.\"\n\n\"She's not my...\"\n\n\"No, but you want her to be.\" Her tongue licked his cock; it twitched. \"I can hear it in your voice.\"\n\nHis thoughts whirled. A redhead was sucking his cock while he watched Cynthia. Déjà vu punched him in the gut; pleasure exploded in his cock." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He leaned forward against the wall, staring through the peephole and wondering if the dominatrix would show up." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Cynthia was soaping her stomach, facing away from the spray of warm water, her breasts and hard nipples pointing straight at the peephole. She was humming to herself, some hymn from church that was vaguely familiar. She lifted an arm up, soaping up her pale side, across her small breast and dusky nipple, then washed her shaved armpit.\n\n\"Wash your dirty body,\" he muttered.\n\nThe redhead giggled about his cock, sucking harder. Her head bobbed, and he shuddered, loving his first blowjob. I have to be dreaming, Bill mused. He'd be waking up at any moment." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He never made it to the good parts of his dreams." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Hello, Cynthia,\" a woman purred, her voice echoing through the locker room.\n\nCynthia jumped, looking off to the left beyond where Bill could see. \"Can I help you?\" the blonde asked.\n\nBill heard the click of healed footsteps. The dominatrix walked into view. \"I must be dreaming,\" he muttered. She was standing there, dressed exactly like in his dreams, wearing the black bustier that left her breasts bare; a silver chain pierced through both nipples, linking them together.\n\n\"You're not,\" whispered the redhead, popping her mouth off his cock." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"But you'll dream about this tonight.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "If you don't stop her, she'll transform Cynthia into a wanton woman hungry for any cunt or cock her cute, little lips can taste." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A strange fear gripped Bill. The dominatrix meant some harm for Cynthia, but he couldn't tear his eyes away. They were both so beautiful, and a perverted part of him wanted to see the dominatrix make Cynthia pleasure her.\n\nIt would be so hot.\n\nCynthia covered her breasts, backing away from the woman. \"Who are you?\"\n\n\"Daevia,\" purred the dominatrix. \"You are just perfect. So innocent.\"\n\n\"How did you get in here?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Lust summoned me.\" For a moment, the woman's eyes flickered to the wall. Bill almost believed she could see the peepholes. But that was impossible. The holes were carefully drilled to be hidden. \"And now you're going to be mine.\"\n\n\"I dreamed this,\" Bill hissed to the redhead. \"You sucking my cock while watching the dominatrix and Cynthia together.\" Is she going to change Cynthia into a whore?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "How can my dreams be coming true?\n\n\"Dominatrix?\" the redhead asked.\n\n\"Yeah, in the locker room.\"\n\n\"Hmm, that's your fantasy, huh? You want to watch your cute girlfriend get dominated by a hot woman. Well, give me the play-by-play, stud. I want to hear every part of your filthy imagination.\"\n\nShe sucked his cock back into her lips.\n\n\"Cynthia's backed against the wall,\" he muttered, eyes fixed through the peephole. He couldn't believe this was actually happening. The dominatrix was just a few inches away from Cynthia." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"She's trembling. The dominatrix is stroking her arm, sliding her hand, clad in a leather glove, across Cynthia's collar bone.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The redhead sucked harder.\n\n\"Cynthia just dropped her arms. There's a look of... rapture on her face.\" Bill frowned; there was something so wrong about this. Cynthia always portrayed herself as pure and innocent, not someone who fooled around, and yet she was sighing like a lusty maid as the dominatrix pinched her dusky nipple.\n\nYou need to make Cynthia yours before the Succuba claims her.\n\nCynthia's blue eyes looked glazed, almost drugged. Her mouth moved, whispering something. A single word. No." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Then the blonde dropped to her knees." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The dominatrix grabbed Cynthia's hair and roughly pulled the girl face between her thighs.\n\n\"Shit! Cynthia's licking the dominatrix's pussy.\"\n\nThe dominatrix threw back her head, blood-red hair cascading down her back, and moaned, \"Defile yourself. Feast on my wickedness. Give yourself to me, slave.\"\n\n\"Yes, Mistress,\" moaned Cynthia.\n\nCynthia seemed so practiced, so dedicated. Questions whirled inside his head. Was she really a lesbian that just liked to playfully flirt with him? How could his dreams be coming to life?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Who was this dominatrix? His balls were boiling. He had never seen something so erotic in his life. It made all the porn he had ever watch seem so tame. Innocent Cynthia was devouring the dominatrix's pussy, working her face as deep between the woman's thighs as she could.\n\n\"Eat me, slut! Devour my filthy pussy!\"\n\n\"Yeah, eat her pussy,\" Bill muttered, growing more bold as his lust mounted. \"And suck my cock, slut!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The redhead moaned around his dick." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He gripped her strawberry-blonde curls, and fucked her, using her like a real man, taking his pleasure from her sweet mouth." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The dominatrix was treating Cynthia similarly, writhing her cunt all over the blonde's face." }, { "from": "human", "value": "And Cynthia loved it; both her hands were buried between her thighs, frigging her pussy like she was possessed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She's scared, so you need to overcome her fear and show Cynthia how much you truly love her. Then she'll be yours and safe.\n\n\"Dirty slut,\" Bill groaned, not sure if he meant the redhead sucking his cock, or Cynthia. \"Dirty whore! Take it!\"\n\n\"Eat my cunt! You're nothing but my pussy-licking bitch!\" the dominatrix groaned. \"Drink my cum!\"\n\n\"Make her cum, Cynthia!\" His balls slapped into the redhead's chin; he fucked her face harder. \"Make her cum!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Yes, yes, yes!\" moaned the dominatrix. \"You delightful hussy!\" Her large, pierced breasts heaved as an orgasm exploded through her body. A trick of the light made it seem like black wings stretched out behind the dominatrix. He blinked, saw no wings. Cynthia was spasming, cumming with her mistress, moaning into the woman's pussy.\n\n\"Shit!\" Bill's balls tightened. His body tensed. He came. The redhead swallowed noisily." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He squeezed his eyes shut, savoring the pleasure, his breath coming in ragged pants. \"Holy fuck, that was amazing.\"\n\n\"Glad you liked it,\" the redhead giggled.\n\nHe glanced through the peephole; the dominatrix must have slipped out. Cynthia was alone, standing up dazed while licking her sticky lips.\n\nThe redhead popped up and peeked through a different hole. \"Was there really a dominatrix?\"\n\n\"Yeah,\" he panted." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His lust cooled, allowing his mind began to work." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Everything about this situation was so bizarre. Cynthia had seemed so sweet and innocent. He had thought she liked him. But now he wasn't sure. Had it all been an act? A tear beaded. He wiped his eye. Confusion and hurt filled him now that his lusts had been satiated.\n\nWhy? We were never dating." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Why should I feel betrayed?\n\nCynthia pulled on her dress. She didn't bother with a bra or panties, or even buttoning it up all the way. That was strange. Bill had watched her through the peepholes a dozen times, and she always wore a plain bra and panties, and never left her dresses or blouses unbuttoned.\n\n\"Guess the shows over,\" the redhead sighed.\n\nWhat had I just watched?\n\nThe door closed. The redhead was gone.\n\n\"Fuck,\" he muttered, buttoning up his pants." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He turned and tripped over a ball, falling into a shelf." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Something hard and wooden, maybe a bat, fell on his head." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 9 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He cursed again, rubbing at his head, and managed to stumble to the door without breaking his neck. The redhead was gone.\n\nHe heard a door slam, the push bar rattling. Bill frowned; it sounded like the door to his left. He headed that way, pushing the bar and throwing the door open. Sunlight flooded through the doorway, hurting his eyes. He winced, blinking away the pain. He saw a flash of strawberry-blonde hair disappearing around the gym.\n\nBill followed." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Write seven sentences sentences in the style of Reed James spawning from what the user wrote." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Chapter Fifteen" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Bill dreamed...\n\nHe was still in the jail cell, and Hikaru was still proffering her bushy twat for his use, rubbing her ass against the bars. Wrapped around her neck was a black chain, making her nothing more than a slave to Daevia. And Daevia herself lounged on his cot, her heavy breasts impossibly defying gravity. Not a hint of sag. Both nipples were pierced and connected by a silver chain. Her blood-red hair fell in a curtain around her sultry face." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Hello, Bill,\" she purred, uncrossing her legs and recrossing them, flashing her beaver at him. He had seen basic instinct, and his cock responded to her blatant sensuality.\n\n\"Daevia,\" he flatly said, moving back, and leaning against the locked door of his cell. A newspaper rustled. Bobby the security guard sat at his desk, a black chain about his neck — another slave.\n\n\"Why are you resisting poor Hikaru?\" she purred. \"Look at her. She needs your cock.\"\n\n\"I do,\" panted Hikaru." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Your big, American dick!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Daevia stood up, the silver chain clinking and swaying as her breasts bounced, and walked over to the Japanese coed. She caressed Hikaru's creamy ass with her leather gloves, spreading her pussy open through the bars, revealing beautiful, wet pink. \"Look at this lovely pussy.\"\n\n\"Very lovely,\" Bill nodded, his heart beating.\n\n\"Thank you,\" moaned the Japanese coed. \"I want you so bad, Bill!\"\n\n\"Why don't you want to fuck her?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "asked Daevia. \"You dream about her enough.\"\n\n\"I'm not an idiot. I know it's a trap.\"\n\nShe laughed, rich and sensual. \"Why do you think that?\"\n\n\"It's pretty obvious.\" Bill pointed over his shoulder at Bobby. \"You're tying to set me up, and having some physical evidence against me would go a long way in convicting me. The moment I'm fucking her, she'll cry out and I'll be in real trouble. So, no, I think I'll just ride this out.\" Bill prayed he sounded more confident then he felt." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Even without physical evidence, everyone would believe Cynthia." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She was a good girl, great grades, star athlete, and a devout Christian.\n\n\"Pretty Hikaru's not a trap. She's a gift. A down payment.\" Daevia's voice was smooth and husky, sweet as honey.\n\nBill's eyes narrowed and he wondered how it was poisoned. \"On what?\"\n\n\"Cynthia.\" As if her words conjured the blonde, she appeared in his cell, naked, her small breasts topped with hard nipples, a flush crimsoning her cheeks as her blue eyes burned with passion.\n\nHis breath caught. He wanted to speak, but his mouth seemed unable to form any words.\n\n\"Once I'm through with her, she'll be all yours,\" Daevia purred." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You can use her, love her even, in any way you want.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She shoved two leather-clad fingers into Hikaru's twat; the Japanese coed gasp. \"All you have to do is serve me, and all the women you fantasize about will be yours.\"\n\nRochelle popped into the dream, cuddled up to Cynthia. Juanita appeared on the other side of Cynthia, kissing the blonde on the lips. All three were naked and lovely. Ms. Katsaros lounged on his cot; Mrs. Allard, his graphic design teacher, leaned against the bars; Eyana posed next to Hikaru; and the entirety of Cynthia's lacrosse team preened in the empty cell to his right.\n\n\"All of them will be yours, if you serve me,\" Daevia purred, sliding up alongside him, her lush breast pressing against his arm." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Her gloved hands grasped his shoulder. \"Look at them, so lovely, so tempting. Serve me, and I will give you delights that man has only dreamed of.\"\n\n\"You can have all of us,\" purred Cynthia. \"I want to serve you. I always have. Take us. Be a man and take your desires.\"\n\n\"Master them like you mastered me,\" Rochelle cooed, her hand sliding up to grope Cynthia's small breast. The blonde shuddered.\n\n\"Let me worship you,\" moaned Juanita, licking her plump lips, her small glasses perched on her nose — so sexy. \"With my mouth, my cunt, my ass.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "His cock had never been harder. He wanted Cynthia and Juanita and Hikaru and Rochelle. It was his dream. He could have what he wanted. But they all had black chains around them, digging into their flesh. It seemed painful. Their faces should be twisted in agony, but none of them showed it. They all seemed happy, lustful, beautiful." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And he would have them all, and more. He could see all his filthy desires played out before him. A harem of women devoted to pleasuring him, little more than slaves to his lust.\n\nA part of him wanted that desperately. Burned for it. Would swear to Daevia to possess all the girls of his dreams and commit whatever act she wanted. He couldn't fight the lust roaring through his veins, that itching need in his cock to know their flesh as intimately as possible. To love them with all his heart." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Love them... that seemed... right. Not this lust." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The Succuba's lips touched his cheek. The fires grew so intense. Who needs love when I can have a bevy of sexy women? A part of him tried to fight against that thought, but he couldn't hear it over the thud of his racing heart.\n\nDaevia's hands pressed on his shoulders. He didn't resist, hypnotized by the beauty of the girls of his dreams, and fell to his knees. She turned his head, her pussy mere inches from his mouth, a landing strip of blood-red hair leading down to her pink clit and tight lips dewy with her passion." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She smelled spicy and tart and tangy and wonderful. Just breathing in her scent left him light-headed, like he had just downed three shots of rum.\n\n\"Pleasure me,\" purred Daevia, \"and they'll all be yours.\"\n\nHis lips inched closer. His lust drowned out his conscience. He wanted Cynthia so bad. And Hikaru. And Juanita." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He already had Rochelle, but he wanted all four. Bill hadn't noticed when they had taken root so deep inside his heart, but they had found fertile soil and sprouted inside him, and he wanted to nurture and grow their love and —\n\nShe's cheating. She's circumventing love.\n\nThe fires died, banished by something warmer. Something far purer. He froze, his tongue half-extend to her pussy lips.\n\n\"Just one lick, and I will make all your dreams come true, Bill.\"\n\nHelp! You're the only one that can save me!" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He pulled his face away, fighting his lust, aided by his love, and looked at Cynthia." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She looked so beautiful, writhing between Rochelle and Juanita, enjoying herself. Her very demeanor proved that there was nowhere she'd rather be than right there, and her blue eyes shone with eager desire, ready to please him. But that wasn't the truth. Bill had felt the truth when he had touched her. She was screaming inside, her soul chained and forced to do things that she didn't want to do. He wouldn't have her love, only her obedience. It would all be a sham." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A cheat." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Fuck you!\" he snarled at Daevia. \"I'll pry Cynthia from your grasp and save her. And I'll save Hikaru, too! I'll save everyone you've enslaved and bewitched. You won't get away with twisting men and women to your filthy plans.\"\n\nDaevia hissed, her face twisting into a visage of predatory rage, teeth bare, red eyes wild. Her gloved hand seized his throat, lifting him up like he weighed nothing and slammed him back against the bars, the metal digging into his flesh. He struggled, and Hikaru's hands seized his wrists through the bars, pinning his hands behind his back. Pain burned in his throat and panic filled him as he gasped for breath, vainly trying to suck in sweet air to soothe the fire in his lungs.\n\n\"You will serve me, or I will force you too!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"If you could...\" he coughed, spitting the words out, \"... force me, you would have! You don't — \"\n\nPain flared; her fingers tightened like iron. \"I could force you to do whatever depraved acts I wished. You are merely flesh. Weak. A slave to the hormones screaming through your veins. Merely a rutting beast with delusions that he is more, tricked by that feeble consciousness you possess.\"\n\nHe spat in her face, kicking his legs, slamming his feet into her shins. She licked his spit and smiled.\n\n\"I can make any man do what I want!\" Her fingers relaxed just enough." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He gasped in a lungful of air. \"Serve me, and you will be rewarded. Or I will force you to be my slave. I will torment you with what you desire. Cynthia, Rochelle, all of them will be my playthings, and you shall never touch them or dream about them. I'll chain you like a dog and force you to watch as man after man fucks them and listen as they praise their cocks and disparage yours!\"\n\n\"Then why strike bargains with me?\" he demanded. \"If you can just force me. Why waste your time?\"\n\n\"Because I want to see you happy,\" she cooed. \"I want to see your lusts burn through the world.\"\n\n\"Bullshit! You don't care about anything.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She'll kill love. \"All you care about is yourself, so why do you want me to serve you? Why not take me like you took Cynthia?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I will!\" she hissed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Then do it! If you can!\" He grinned at Daevia as her face twisted. He laughed at her. \"You can't take me. It's because of her! The woman with the bronze skin. She claimed me in the dream. I'm her instrument, aren't I? Like Cynthia's yours.\"\n\nThe Succuba spat, \"So you won't seize your desires?\"\n\n\"I'll earn their love and have them all. I don't need your foul help. You can go back to fucking Hell, bitch!\"\n\n\"Then die!\" Daevia squeezed. His throat collapsed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He struggled, panic setting in. He tried to suck in air, but he couldn't. His lungs began to burn. He kicked. His foot struck her body. She didn't even flinch. Her blood-red eyes burned with hunger. Her free hand grasped his hard cock, stroking it with cool leather." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He was impossibly hard." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Pleasure surged into him, even as pain pumped through his veins." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There has to be something I can do!\n\nDaevia's hand stroked faster. His balls tightened even as his vision fuzzed. The pleasure seemed to grow more and more intense, his suffocation enhancing the sensations, fueling it. He was on the verge of death, and that made life even sweeter. He heaved his arms, trying to break Hikaru's grips, but her hands were like manacles, cutting into his wrists. It was hopeless. He was going to die cumming on a Demon's hand." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was like a bad joke.\n\nThere has to be something I can do! He struggled, thinking, using the last of the oxygen pumping through his veins to try and find the way out. The bronze woman's words bubbled from the depths of his oxygen-starved mind: It's your dream. Shape it to what you want.\n\nMy dream...\n\nHe willed Daevia to release him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Her hand snapped back, and he slumped down the bars, gasping for air." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The Demon stared at her hand, then at him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She hissed like an angry cat, and black wings flashed into being behind her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She grasped her silver chain connecting her nipples and ripped it, moaning in painful pleasure." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It sprouted into a long chain, silver stained black, and raised it up to strike him.\n\n\"No,\" Bill gasped, coughing. \"This is my dream. You have no power here!\"\n\nThe chain vanished as she slashed down at him. She froze in mid-swing, snarling at him, and then her face suddenly became calm, beautiful, lusty. \"It's no matter. This is your dream, but when you wake up, you'll still be in my power. You'll beg to serve me when I'm through with you. You'll be groveling on your knees, desperate to kiss my foot and end your torment." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"But it will not end, Bill! You and your loved ones shall endure torment for eternity. I do not take rejection well!\"\n\nShe vanished, along with Cynthia, Rochelle, Juanita, and all the other women. They were her projections, not Bill's, invading his dream. None of them had been the souls of the real women, not like when Bill dreamed of them. He was sure of that. When he dreamed them, he was touching their souls somehow, reaching through the physical to the spiritual and becoming one with them, if only briefly.\n\nOnly a pair of hands still clutched him through the bars." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hikaru's hands. \"You were amazing,\" she purred, letting him go." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He turned, staring at her warily. She was naked, the collar of the black chain still tight about her neck, but the predatory hunger was gone. Her face had a large smile, her slanted eyes sparkled with mirth. Her hands were clasped before her, almost hiding her round tits. She blushed, then moved her hands away, almost shy.\n\n\"You were the real one the entire time?\" he asked her.\n\n\"While she was here, I was her slave,\" she answered then sighed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I still am her slave, in the real world.\"\n\n\"I'm sorry,\" he said as she wistfully stared at the ground.\n\n\"You didn't enslave me.\" She stepped through the bars into his cell like they didn't exist and stood on her tip-toes to wrap her arms around his neck. Her breasts pressed against his chest, her nipples two hard points, and her lips brushed his with a brief, almost chaste kiss. \"It's good to hold you.\"\n\n\"So you love me, too?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Not yet,\" she admitted." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Not in the present. Well, I love you a little. It's a crush, but one day, if you shape the world right, I will.\"\n\n\"You sound like Cynthia. Accepting my slavery.\"\n\n\"It's not slavery, it's love.\" She pressed her cheek against his chest. \"The foundation has already been laid.\"\n\n\"What do you mean?\"\n\n\"I watched you every time you came into the library. You never noticed?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He shook his head in astonishment." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You were watching me? Why?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Because you're handsome and scruffy and there's this wildness about you.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Bill blinked. He knew he was scruffy, but handsome and wild?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He had never thought of himself as either." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Maybe you need to get your eyes checked. I'm not handsome, and I'm definitely not wild.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Maybe wild isn't the right word. Independent, perhaps?\" She shrugged. \"You are just so... American. You dress how you want, talk how you want, wear your hair the way you want.\" She reached up and ran it through his unkempt, blond nest.\n\n\"I'm just lazy, it's not a statement or anything.\"\n\n\"See, that's what I mean. You don't care. You're just you.\" She squeezed him tight. \"I wished I had the courage to approach you and just say hi. But I was afraid you wouldn't want a timid, Japanese girl when there were all these wild, American women around you.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He laughed at that. \"So much missed opportunities.\"\n\n\"Yeah,\" she giggled. \"That's life. Your dreams are so much simpler.\"\n\n\"So how does this work? Why is it that only possible, future versions speak to me?\"\n\n\"How should I know? Ask her.\"\n\n\"Who.\"\n\nA warm body pressed against his back and bronze arms encircled his waist." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Me, Bill,\" the mysterious woman whispered." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You two talk, I'll attend to other matters,\" Hikaru purred." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Other matters?\"\n\n\"I'm going to need cum, Bill,\" she answered. \"That's how it works. I'll need your cum to free you in the morning. Once you set me free from Daevia, of course.\"\n\nBefore he could ask what that meant, she dropped to her knees and her lips engulfed his cock. It felt as great as the last dream. Her mouth was hungry, and she sucked hard, bobbing her head. He ran his hand through her straight, blue-black hair." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She looked up at him, so cute and submissive with her round face and slanted eyes. Like a geisha.\n\n\"They are future versions, Bill, because time doesn't matter in the spiritual realm,\" the bronze-skinned answered. \"It's a vast sea of possibilities, and some are able to see the true future and make their choices and others can find the future they wish to exist and shape the world to it. But in the physical world, once a choice is made, they cannot be unmade, locking out some futures, opening up others.\"\n\n\"So, what, I'm just choosing the version of them I want to have in my dream?\"\n\nHikaru's hands cupped his balls, her tongue swirled about his head. He shuddered. The mysterious woman squirmed against his back, rubbing her breasts and hard nipples against his skin. Her mouth licked at his neck and ear, her fingers toyed with his nipples." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Exactly,\" she purred. \"You want a future where you can love all four women. It exists, and because of your ability, your dreams, your shaping the future to achieve that, touching and molding their souls, as they touch and mold yours.\"\n\n\"So they're affecting me?\"\n\nThe mysterious woman laughed. \"Of course. Your souls are touching, rubbing together, slowly shaping around each other. That's how humans work. You are changed by those you make connections with. Sometimes for the good, and sometimes for the bad. And that's what is so amazing about you, Bill. You're connected to the spiritual plane in your dreams, and you can reach past the limits of time and space to touch those you want. And if you're touching them, then they can touch you back.\"\n\nIt kind of made sense to him.\n\n\"Can I dream myself out of this jail then?\"\n\n\"You can influence people, but not affect objects.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Bill thought about it." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Bobby was still sitting at his desk." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"So I could make him free me?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"He's enslaved to Daevia. You'd have to break the chain first.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"How do I do that?\"\n\n\"You know how.\"\n\nHe glanced down at Hikaru and the black chain around her neck. He reached out and tried to grasp it. His hands passed right through it. He concentrated next, willing the chain to vanish. It didn't. He tried to concentrate harder, but it was nearly impossible with Hikaru's mouth sucking at his cock." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"That's not the way, Bill, but it's close.\"\n\n\"I have to do it in the physical world. I have to fuck her and make her mine.\"\n\n\"Yes,\" the woman purred.\n\n\"That's not going to help,\" Bill muttered.\n\n\"It will,\" Hikaru answered, then swallowed his cock again.\n\nBill didn't see how. \"Okay, if I get free, there's still the guard. He'll be waiting for me to start fucking Hikaru. I'd need to distract him.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Bill tried to think but Hikaru's wonderful mouth made that hard." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It would have to be a person, someone I could dream and influence.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Someone you've made yours fully,\" the woman informed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"If you want any chance of it sticking.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Well, there's only one person I've...\"\n\n\"Master,\" purred Rochelle. She was perched on the desk next to the security guard, naked and lovely, a gray ribbon tied around her throat. She glanced at the guard and grinned. \"He's very handsome. Is he for me?\"\n\n\"I guess so,\" Bill frowned. \"I need you to help free me.\"\n\n\"Oh, gladly, Master.\" She beamed at him. \"He is handsome.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Rochelle slipped into the guard's lap and started kissing him. The Black man fondled her breasts, his back to them. His slave moaned and writhed on his lap, her green eyes flashing over the guard's shoulder with mirth. In a moment she was gasping and moaning, bouncing up and down on his cock.\n\n\"Why does she have a gray ribbon?\"\n\n\"Why do you?\" the mysterious woman answered, touching his neck.\n\nHe reached up and felt a thin, silk ribbon tied about him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Because I made her mine?\"\n\n\"You don't own her. Well, you two play at it, but you don't actually own her soul like Daevia owns Cynthia's, Hikaru's, and that guard's. You both forged a link with each other's souls. You have each tied a cord about the other's necks linking your souls together. Because of that, you've awakened her powers, feeding them with your essence. Her soul will be easier for you to mold now, and you'll be easier for her to mold in return. I'd expect you to really enjoy some of her games now.\"\n\nThe mysterious woman slid down his bodies, her nipples hard points dragging down his back. Rochelle smiled at him over the Black guard's shoulder, moaning and tossing her fiery red hair. Hikaru worked his cock deep down her throat. And the mysterious woman spread his butt-cheeks and her tongue licked his asshole.\n\n\"Oh, fuck!\" he groaned." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He had never quite felt anything like this. The woman's tongue wiggled into his asshole, adding to the pleasure Hikaru's sucking mouth gave him. \"Holy shit!\"\n\n\"Ohh, that looks like fun,\" moaned Rochelle. \"You have to make me lick your asshole, Master! Please!\"\n\n\"God, yeah!\" Bill grunted. He loved the sensation of the woman's tongue rimming his asshole. \"Shit, that's amazing! You are definitely licking my ass, slave!\"" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 8 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Oh, yes!\" gasped Rochelle. \"Mmm, make me do that! It's so dirty! Only a bitch would do it! Like me!\"\n\nHis balls were boiling over. He grabbed Hikaru's head, holding her still, as the mysterious woman's tongue brushed something inside him. Pleasure exploded through him and his cock unleashed a flood of cum into Hikaru's mouth.\n\n\"Fuck, yeah!\" he panted, smiling down at Hikaru, his cum leaking out of her lips.\n\nShe swallowed. \"Thank you. But I need your cum in the real world or I won't be able to free us.\"\n\nBill nodded and woke up." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "expand on the story like Laura Joh Rowland would" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Up a curve in the road, another watcher peered out a different window, this one in a half-timbered mansion with a tile roof and high earthen wall. From his position in the lamplit second-floor parlor, Chamberlain Yanagisawa had a perfect view of Tobacco Lane, the Good Fortune Noodle Restaurant, and the shop where Sano and his comrades hid. Over silk robes he wore an armor tunic; a golden-horned helmet framed his handsome face. Inhaling on a long silver pipe, he savored the rise of anticipation." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He turned to his chief retainer, Aisu, who squatted on the tatami floor nearby.\n\n\"Are you sure they're in there?\" Yanagisawa asked.\n\n\"Oh, yes, Honorable Chamberlain.\" A slender man several years older than Yanagisawa's own age of thirty-three, Aisu had tensely coiled grace and hooded eyes that gave him a deceptive look of perpetual drowsiness." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His voice was a sibilant drawl." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I climbed on the roof and saw Sano, his wife, and Hirata through the skylight. Six detectives are in the shop below. The side window is open.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Aisu grinned. \"Oh, yes, it's the perfect setup. A brilliant plan, Honorable Chamberlain.\"\n\n\"Any sign of the Lion yet?\"\n\nAisu shook his head.\n\n\"Is everything ready?\" Yanagisawa asked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Oh, yes.\" Aisu patted the lumpy cloth sack that lay on a table beside him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Timing is critical,\" Yanagisawa reminded him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Have you given the men their orders?\"\n\n\"Oh, yes. Everyone's in place.\"\n\n\"How fortunate that I managed to learn about Sano's plans in time to prepare.\" A smug smile curved Yanagisawa's mouth." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Today he'd received a message from his spy in Sano's household, describing the ambush." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Yanagisawa had quickly organized his own scheme, commandeering the mansion of a rich tobacco merchant for a lookout station. If he succeeded, he would soon see his rival destroyed. The misfortunes of the past would end.\n\nSince his youth, Yanagisawa had been the shogun's lover, influencing the weak Tokugawa Tsunayoshi and winning his post as second-in-command." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As the ruler of Japan in all but name, Yanagisawa had virtually absolute power." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Then Sano, the upstart scholar, martial arts teacher, son of a rōnin—masterless samurai—and former police commander, had been promoted to the position of sōsakan-sama. The shogun had developed a high regard for Sano, who now commanded a staff of one hundred detectives and had gained influence over the bakufu, Japan's military government. Yanagisawa faced opposition from Sano whenever he proposed policies to Tokugawa Tsunayoshi and the Council of Elders; they sometimes took Sano's advice instead of his own. Sano's daring exploits overshadowed Yanagisawa's own importance, making him crave the adventure of detective work." }, { "from": "human", "value": "And those exploits often meant serious trouble for him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A case of double murder had led to Sano's discovery of a plot against the Tokugawa regime; he'd saved the shogun's life and won a post at Edo Castle. During his investigation of the Bundori Murders, when a madman had terrorized Edo with a series of grisly killings, Yanagisawa had been taken hostage by the murderer and nearly killed. Last year he'd exiled Sano to Nagasaki, but Sano had returned a hero. The final outrage had come when Sano, while investigating the poisoning of the shogun's concubine, had caused the death of Yanagisawa's lover." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Now Yanagisawa couldn't stand the sight of Sano and Reiko's happiness together." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Tonight he would be rid of them." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There'd be no more competition for the shogun's favor; no more humiliation. And as a bonus, he would steal Sano's reputation as a great detective.\n\nA movement in the street outside caught Yanagisawa's eye. The foreshortened figure of an old man with a cane passed beneath the window." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 5 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Yanagisawa beckoned Aisu, who glided swiftly to his side. They watched as the old man approached the noodle restaurant.\n\n\"Go!\" Yanagisawa ordered.\n\n\"Oh, yes, Honorable Chamberlain.\" Aisu snatched up the cloth bundle and vanished without a sound." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Expand the story by adding four sentences in the Historical Fiction, Mystery, Japan genre." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Lady Asagao has been called away, but she told me to have you try on your new costume for the play,\" said the lady-in-waiting who greeted Reiko outside the imperial consorts' residence.\n\nA gust of wind ruffled the trees and wisteria vines in the courtyard where they stood. Thunder shuddered the overcast sky, and raindrops hissed onto the gravel-covered ground. The lady-in-waiting said, \"It's going to storm. Let's hurry inside.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She ushered Reiko into the low building." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Here, Reiko knew, no men except the emperor were allowed. As she and her escort walked through the corridors, maids lowered the wooden rain doors along the exterior wall. Mullioned paper partitions defined a series of chambers. Through their open doors Reiko saw young women sipping tea and grooming themselves." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They smiled at her and bowed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The emperor apparently had many consorts besides Lady Asagao, with many attendants to serve them. Chatter and laughter filled the air.\n\nLady Asagao had a suite at the center of the residence. Entering this, Reiko saw rain doors and sliding paper panels standing open to a garden landscaped with willows and lawn." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Painted landscapes decorated folding screens that divided the suite into three sections, each crammed with furniture and personal articles." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In the dressing area, an alcove held built-in cabinets whose drawers and shelves spilled colorful clothing. Lamps burned on a low table littered with combs, brushes, jars, and a mirror. Shoes lay scattered on the floor. The lady-in-waiting pointed to a wooden stand that displayed a lavish emerald silk kimono embroidered with pink lilies." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"This is your costume,\" she said to Reiko." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"May I help you change?\"\n\n\"Oh, no, thank you, that's not necessary,\" Reiko said. \"Don't trouble yourself.\"\n\n\"It's no trouble,\" the lady-in-waiting said with a smile. \"I'm honored to serve you.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Oh, but I'm sure you're very busy. And really, I can manage alone.\"\n\nThe young woman hesitated.\n\n\"It's all right,\" Reiko said. \"I won't disturb Her Highness's things, and I'll call you if I need help.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "After the woman left, Reiko waited a moment to make sure she was gone, then hastily closed the doors to the corridor and the exterior wall panels." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Her heart raced in panic because she didn't know how much time she had to search the chamber before Lady Asagao returned. Nor did she know exactly what she hoped to find, except proof that Asagao was someone other than who she seemed.\n\nReason told her to look for letters or other personal papers. Reiko sped around the folding screen into the central area of the suite, which appeared to be a parlor." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A samisen, musical scores, and playing cards lay on the tatami. Furnishings consisted of low tables, lanterns, floor cushions, an iron chest, and a writing desk. The desk was a flat, square red lacquer box. On the slanted lid lay four small, clothbound books." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Reiko opened one. She scanned the pages and recognized lines from the play she'd performed in yesterday." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She tossed the scripts aside and lifted the desk's lid." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Inside, empty jars, frayed writing brushes, and an inkstone covered with dried, flaking pigment lay amid piles of crumpled papers. Reiko snatched up the papers and riffled through them. Some were theater programs. Others were copies of classic poems—probably childhood calligraphy lessons." }, { "from": "human", "value": "If Asagao had written anything later or more revealing, Reiko didn't find it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Rain clattered on the tile roof; the wind rustled through the garden. Reiko flung up the lid of the iron chest. Inside were dolls and other toys apparently saved from Asagao's youth. Hearing female voices nearby, Reiko froze, holding her breath." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Then came a series of thumps as maids lowered the rain doors outside the suite. Darkness shadowed the parlor. The maids moved on. Reiko exhaled in relief." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Closing the chest, she hurried around the folding screen into a sleeping area." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There a futon and light summer blanket lay beside discarded night robes. Reiko yanked open drawers and doors in the wall cabinet and found bedding, charcoal braziers, lamps, and candles. Chests contained winter quilts. The only unusual discovery was a stash of wine jars in a cupboard." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Reiko rushed back to the dressing area." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She rummaged through the clothes in the cabinets. The scent of lily perfume issued from silk robes and sashes. Touching these personal things made Reiko guiltily aware that detective work often violated courtesy. As she examined drawers of fans and hair ornaments, she wondered whether she'd breached Asagao's privacy for no good reason, because she found nothing she wouldn't expect of a rich, pleasure-loving, and harmless young woman." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But then she pulled open the door of a compartment level with her face..." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A sour metallic smell billowed out, familiar and disturbing. Reiko's breath caught. As her heart began pounding, she peered into the compartment. Its contents lay far back in the shadowy recesses. Slowly she reached inside." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Her fingers touched fabric that had an odd texture—smooth and soft, with stiff patches." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She drew out a bundle of heavy mauve silk and thinner white cloth, both blotched with reddish-brown stains.\n\nDried blood.\n\nShocked, Reiko separated the bundle into two garments—a noblewoman's court robe and an under-robe. The blood had darkened the front hems of the garments." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Into Reiko's mind came a picture of Asagao, wearing the robes, standing in the midnight Pond Garden. At her feet lay Konoe's corpse, oozing blood. Reiko envisioned the blood spreading across the ground, seeping into Asagao's long robes. Asagao panted, recovering the breath expended in the spirit cry, a look of evil triumph on her pretty face..." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Reiko shook her head in confusion." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Wind lashed torrents of rain against the building; water dripped and splattered outside; a crack of thunder provoked excited cries from the palace women. The air in the room was hot and still, the atmosphere suffocating.\n\n\"Merciful gods,\" Reiko whispered.\n\nHere was a clue that implicated Lady Asagao in the crime." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Yet the discovery was less gratifying than disturbing, because Reiko couldn't believe Asagao was the killer." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Holding the robes at arm's length, she gazed at the bloodstains and sought another explanation for them.\n\nMaybe they weren't Left Minister Konoe's blood. Maybe Lady Asagao had accidentally soiled her clothes during her monthly bleeding. However, this looked like too much blood for that, and why only on the hems?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Maybe Asagao or someone else had gotten injured and bled on the floor, then Asagao had stepped in the blood." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But why hide the garments instead of cleaning them?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Then again, if she was guilty of murder, why hadn't she destroyed the evidence?\n\nThe quiet sound of a door sliding open jolted Reiko out of her contemplation. With a gasp of surprise, she clutched the robes against her chest, turned, and saw Asagao entering the room. Guilty shame leapt in Reiko." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Oh, hello, Your Highness,\" she said brightly. \"I was, uh, just about to try on my costume for the play.\"\n\nAsagao made no reply. All her vivacity had vanished; she seemed a forlorn ghost of her usual self, and her bright makeup a mask painted onto her expressionless face." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 5 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She looked at Reiko, and confusion wrinkled her brow, as if she couldn't quite remember who Reiko was.\n\n\"Your Highness?\" Reiko said, puzzled.\n\nAsagao's gaze shifted to the robes that Reiko held, then moved downward to the bloodstained hems. A strange mixture of disbelief, terror, and resignation filled her eyes. With a tiny whimper, she sank to the floor, buying her face in her hands." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Literary Collaboration Request:\n- Sentence Count: 1 sentence\n- Stylistic Inspiration: Laura Joh Rowland\n- Genre Adherence: Historical Fiction, Mystery, Japan" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Reiko took a bath that rinsed away tears and restored strength; heavy makeup covered her puffy eyelids and mottled complexion." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She pinned up her hair, which she would later cut off and put in Sano's coffin as a token of her fidelity, and dressed in a pale gray silk kimono with a pattern of summer grasses because she hadn't had time to buy drab mourning robes." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Then she ordered her palanquin bearers to take her to the Imperial Palace." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Out in the city, however, sorrow nearly defeated Reiko." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As she rode through Miyako in her palanquin, the bright sunshine, colorful shops, and busy crowds seemed unreal." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was as if the death of the man she loved had left no mark upon the world." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Worse, Reiko couldn't shake the feeling that Sano was still alive." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Whenever she spied a samurai of his age and build, her heart leapt." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Then, after she saw it wasn't Sano, fresh despair crushed her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Tears stung her eyes; she dabbed them dry to avoid ruining her makeup, and closed the palanquin's windows." }, { "from": "human", "value": "At last Reiko arrived in the quadrangle of the Palace of the Abdicated Emperor." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As she disembarked from her palanquin, Lady Jokyōden came to meet her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Greetings, Lady Sano,\" Jokyōden said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Her face was impassive, her posture regal." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She bowed in a cool, formal manner." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Please accept my sincere condolences on your loss.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"A thousand thanks.\" Reiko fought to steady her trembling voice, because a display of emotion would shame her and offend this woman who obviously didn't want her here." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I did not expect to see you again,\" Jokyōden said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You asked me to come,\" Reiko reminded her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Mild surprise lifted Jokyōden's painted brows. \"So I did." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But that was before yesterday's events proved that you were no friend to me and a danger to the Imperial Court." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When we talked before, I guessed that you wanted to help your husband by questioning me about Left Minister Konoe's murder." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I was intrigued by you, and decided that it wouldn't hurt to further our acquaintance because you seemed capable of little harm." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"But you had the gall to search for evidence in private quarters. Your discovery led to the arrest of the emperor's consort by your husband, who chose to make a quick end to his work by persecuting an innocent woman.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Jokyōden's tone was hard, unforgiving." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"How you can presume to come here now is beyond my comprehension.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I want to apologize,\" Reiko said humbly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I did take advantage of Lady Asagao's trust. It turned out to be a terrible mistake.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Yet Reiko also wanted to counter Jokyōden's criticism." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"But a murder investigation often requires devious means to serve justice. My husband arrested Lady Asagao instead of immediately looking elsewhere for the killer because it was his duty to charge her with murder after she confessed.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Reiko couldn't keep the bitterness out of her voice." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"He paid for my mistake and his actions with his life.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Pity softened Jokyōden's expression, though she remained aloof." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I regret that you've suffered,\" she said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"However, I presume you have some other purpose for coming here besides discussing past events. What do you want from me?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I want you to help me find out who killed my husband,\" Reiko said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I see.\" The noncommittal reply carried a strange inflection, as though Jokyōden had half expected Reiko's request, but couldn't quite believe she'd actually heard it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Then she brought her hands together in front of her, fingertips pointed outward and touching." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Don't you think the bakufu will assign someone to investigate the matter?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Yes. But I want to finish my husband's work and learn the truth about his death.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Reiko forbore to mention that she intended to execute Sano's killer with her own hands." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"While I sympathize with your wishes,\" Jokyōden said, \"investigating crimes is hardly within your purview anymore. Your husband's status gave you freedom and power that you no longer have.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She said gently, \"May I offer my advice? You are young; time will heal your pain. Your family will eventually arrange another marriage for you; with luck, you'll find love and happiness again. Accept reality, go on with your life, and let the authorities handle official business.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Wild desperation filled Reiko as she realized Jokyōden wasn't going to help her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The suggestion that she would forget Sano and should abandon her quest for justice infuriated her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She retorted, \"I doubt that you've ever accepted fate or left any business you care about to others. Shall I do as you say, not as you do?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Jokyōden stared, affronted by Reiko's blunt speech." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Then she shook her head and smiled in self-mockery." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Her rueful gaze conveyed a new respect for Reiko." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I see that hypocrisy cannot persuade you,\" she said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Reiko took this response as a sign that Jokyōden might relent." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She pressed on: \"I realize I'm powerless without my husband. But you command much authority in the Imperial Court. You can take me where I need to go in the palace. You can introduce me to witnesses and ask them to cooperate with me. You can provide information I need.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Belatedly, Reiko feared that she sounded too presumptuous." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"If you choose to grant my request,\" she added." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Frowning, Jokyōden interlaced her fingers and looked down at them for a moment." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What you do not seem to realize is that my interests run opposite to yours. You are asking me to open the palace to you, for your purpose of incriminating someone here. Since Lady Asagao has been proven innocent, the array of suspects has narrowed to those who were in the palace last night. That includes the emperor. Do you expect me to betray my own son for your sake?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Incredulity edged Jokyōden's calm voice." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"And I am still a suspect. Would you expect me to lead you to evidence of my own guilt?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Reiko had known that Jokyōden was still a suspect." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She also knew the danger of involving a suspect in her investigation, especially one as intelligent as Jokyōden." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "To protect herself, her son, and the court, Jokyōden could destroy clues, plant false evidence, and order witnesses to lie." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Reiko would never be sure whether she was helping or sabotaging." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And there was a possibility of more extreme treachery if Reiko enlisted Jokyōden's aid." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Maybe the killer had feared that Sano wouldn't believe Asagao was guilty and had halted his investigation by slaying him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "If Jokyōden was the killer, she might do the same to Reiko." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Working with Reiko would give her plenty of opportunity." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "However, Reiko had no choice except to take the risk." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Before my husband died, he said he had a feeling there was more to the murder case than was obvious. He thought there might be other suspects nobody knew about, and that one of them was more likely the killer than His Majesty the Emperor, Prince Momozono, or you. By helping me discover the truth, you could clear yourself and your son.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Jokyōden regarded her skeptically." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She unlaced her hands and folded her arms." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I have no one else to turn to,\" Reiko said, abandoning logic in favor of an emotional appeal." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She knelt before Jokyōden." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"If you won't help me, I'll have to go back to Edo without knowing who killed my husband, and depend on the bakufu to obtain justice for him. And I—I can't bear—\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "An upheaval of suppressed grief shattered Reiko's artificial poise." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She thought of Sano, his voice, his smile, the scent and feel of him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She imagined the long years ahead without him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Desolation swept over her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She pressed a hand against her mouth to stifle a sob and tried to compose herself by focusing on her surroundings: the morning sunlight casting the shadows of buildings across the quadrangle; the bearers standing by her palanquin; the floral pattern woven into Jokyōden's azure silk robe." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Jokyōden watched her in silent speculation." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Was she weighing sympathy for a bereaved widow against her loyalty to the Imperial Court?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Was she thinking of what she and Reiko shared as women unique in society and how she could honor their comradeship while protecting her kin?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Or was she a murderess considering how to exploit the situation to her own advantage?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Then Jokyōden said, \"My authority does not entitle me to let you roam around the palace or interrogate members of the court, but perhaps there is another way I can be of assistance, if you will accompany me on a short trip.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She spoke as though leery of committing herself, and her shrewd gaze held no warmth, but Reiko was too overjoyed to mind her manner." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"A million thanks,\" Reiko exclaimed, fighting tears of gratitude." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You won't regret your decision.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Jokyōden gave her an enigmatic smile." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I sincerely hope that neither of us will,\" she said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Reiko chose to ignore the implicit warning in the words." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 2 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She didn't know what had finally swayed Jokyōden in her favor. She could not afford to care." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "STORY CONTINUATION REQUIRED:\nLength: 2 sentences sentences\nStyle: Laura Joh Rowland\nGenre: Historical Fiction, Mystery, Japan" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When Reiko rode up to Nijō Manor in her palanquin, Detective Fukida was waiting for her outside the gate. \"Where have you been?\" he cried." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I've been investigating my husband's murder,\" Reiko said, climbing out of the palanquin." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Afire with excitement, she explained how she and Lady Jokyōden had gone to Left Minister Konoe's secret house in the textile district, then showed Fukida the scrap of notes she'd found in the charcoal brazier. \"Look. I'm sure this means the left minister was spying on Lord Ibe, who might be connected to the murders.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Fukida frowned. \"You went to the palace?\" he said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"On your own?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Yes. Lady Jokyōden told me that Lord Ibe has a house in the cloth dyers' district where he stays when he visits Miyako. We must go there right now!\"\n\n\"I don't think that's such a good idea,\" Fukida said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Perhaps we should wait.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"For what?\" Reiko said, perplexed, then incredulous." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Do you intend to sit idle while your master's killer goes free?\"\n\nInstead of meeting Reiko's eyes, Fukida gazed around the bright, bustling street." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"The sōsakan-sama told me to watch over you. I must obey his orders. I can't take you to Lord Ibe's house or anywhere else that might be dangerous.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Then go yourself,\" Reiko said.\n\n\"I can't leave you.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Where is Detective Marume? He could go.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Fukida looked so miserable that Reiko pitied him, but she was angry at his refusal to help her avenge Sano's death. \"All right,\" she said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"If you won't take me, then I'll go alone.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'm sorry, but I can't allow that.\" Fukida turned to Reiko's palanquin bearers and guards and said, \"You're not to take her on any more trips without my permission.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The bearers and guards bowed, chorusing, \"Yes, Fukida-san.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You can't do this!\" Reiko cried, infuriated.\n\n\"Please go inside, Honorable Lady Reiko,\" said Fukida." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She glared at him in helpless rage. Tears rushed to her eyes as the grief she'd suppressed all morning resurfaced." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Head high, she entered the inn, walked into her room, and shut the door so hard that the frame rattled. Alone, she fought the impulse to lie down and weep." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She changed her silk kimono for a simple blue cotton one, and her high-soled shoes for comfortable straw sandals. She strapped a dagger to her arm under her sleeve." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Then she peered out the windows and door to look for Fukida." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He was nowhere in sight; he'd underestimated her determination. Reiko slipped out of Nijō Manor and began walking." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The hot sun beat down on her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Soon she was drenched in sweat and longing for a cool drink, but ladies didn't carry money, and as a stranger in town, Reiko had no credit with Miyako vendors. Samurai on horseback and peasants carrying loads of supplies jostled past her through narrow streets lined with shops." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Dust, horse manure, and filthy water from open drains soiled her shoes and hem." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She avoided looking other pedestrians in the eye, praying that no one would accost her. Something in her expression must have warned off predators, because although some men leered, they left her alone." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Perhaps they thought she was a madwoman." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Exhausted and footsore, she finally reached the cloth dyers' district northeast of Sanjo Bridge." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In workshops, craftsmen stirred steaming dye vats and painted designs on silk. Reiko followed a path beside the Kamo River, seeking Lord Ibe's house." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She knew that while the feudal lords occupied grand estates in Edo and their provinces, Tokugawa law forbade them to maintain residences in Miyako. Therefore, a daimyo who desired a home here would avoid the authorities' notice by keeping a modest, discreet establishment." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Reiko hadn't asked how Lady Jokyōden knew where Lord Ibe's illegal residence was." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She would not allow herself to consider the possibility that the notes she'd pinned her hopes on were irrelevant to the murders and she'd come all this way for nothing." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Along the path on Reiko's right, textile shops crowned the embankment; drying cloth flapped on roofs and balconies." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "On her left, dyers rinsed long, brilliantly colored fabrics in the river, turning clear water into a sea of painted flowers, landscapes, and geometric designs. Reiko followed Jokyōden's directions up a path leading inland to a neighborhood of narrow, two-story houses behind high fences." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Maids and porters hurried down the streets; bearers carried passengers in palanquins." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Lord Ibe's house was the second to last on its block, behind a double gate suspended between two square pillars capped with a gabled roof.\n\nReiko circled the block, covertly inspecting the area." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Other houses showed signs of life—maids shaking brooms out windows, children playing in front—but bamboo blinds covered the balconies of Lord Ibe's place." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "During an hour of watching, Reiko didn't see anyone enter or leave. Nervously, she walked up to the gates and knocked on the wooden planks." }, { "from": "human", "value": "No answer came. Reiko knocked again, louder." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She heard the rasp of a sliding door, and footsteps. Then came the metallic scrape of a bar drawing back; the gates parted to reveal a man dressed in a short brown cotton kimono." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He had the thick build and close-cropped hair of a laborer." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Suspicion darkened his pockmarked features as he looked Reiko up and down." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Yes?\" he growled.\n\nHis unfriendly manner and disreputable appearance intimidated Reiko." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I—I'm looking for Lord Ibe,\" she said.\n\n\"Nobody by that name here.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The man started to close the gates." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Wait,\" Reiko said, pushing against them. \"I know this house belongs to Lord Ibe. I must speak to him.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "A lascivious smile came over the man's face." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You're wrong,\" he said, \"but maybe you should come in anyway. We could have fun with a pretty girl like you.\" He reached over and chucked Reiko under the chin." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She recoiled at the liberty." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Who are you?\" she asked, trying to sound stern.\n\n\"None of your business. Who do you think you are?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The man scowled, obviously displeased that a woman should dare to question him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Who's in there?\" Reiko persisted. \"What's going on?\"\n\n\"Get lost, girl.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The man slammed the gates shut." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Reiko heard the bar slide into place. She looked up at the house in desperation." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The man had acted as if he had something to hide." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She had to know what Left Minister Konoe had discovered here, because this represented her only chance to solve Sano's murder. But how could she, a woman alone, find out the secrets of the house?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Reiko hurried to the gate of the house behind Lord Ibe's and knocked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A maid answered. \"Yes, madam?\"\n\n\"Excuse me,\" Reiko said, arranging her face in an apologetic smile, \"but I wonder if I could use your place of relief?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "This was the polite term for the privy." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I'm sorry to bother you, but it's an emergency...\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Yes, of course.\" The maid smiled back, eager to help a lady in need. \"Come this way.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She led Reiko around the house, into a narrow backyard that contained a fireproof storehouse and a privy shed.\n\n\"Thank you, you're so kind.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Feigning casual interest, Reiko pointed at the daimyo's house and said, \"Who lives over there?\"\n\n\"Some men... I don't know who they are.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"How many?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Puzzled, the maid shook her head." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"They keep to themselves.\" She opened the privy door." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"If you need anything, just call.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Many thanks.\" Reiko went into the privy, waited until the maid was gone, then came out again. She surveyed the yard." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Along the fence lay rakes, baskets, urns, a wooden barrel." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Quietly Reiko overturned the barrel, stood on it, and peered over the fence." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She saw a yard similar to the one she was in, with a storehouse and privy." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Wooden bars shielded the back windows of Lord Ibe's house. As Reiko watched, the door opened, and a muscular man dressed in a loincloth emerged." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "His body was covered with tattoos, a mark of the gangster class. Leaving the door ajar, he went into the privy." }, { "from": "human", "value": "That open door exerted a powerful, tempting pull on Reiko." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Spurning caution, she started to climb the fence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When her long, full robe hindered her, she impatiently tied the skirts around her hips. She eased herself down on the other side, then tiptoed across Lord Ibe's yard." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The presence of a gangster and a peasant ruffian in a daimyo's house signaled trouble, and Reiko had no doubt that the left minister's notes referred to their activities." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Peeking in the back door, she saw a dim, vacant corridor with rooms opening off it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She glanced toward the privy. Grunts issued from the man inside." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Reiko slipped through the door of the house and stood with her back pressed against the wall. Hearing male voices, she tensed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Footsteps creaked above the ceiling: The men were upstairs." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Even armed with a dagger, Reiko had no desire to confront them alone. She'd thought that grief had put her beyond caring what happened to her, but now she regretted her impulsiveness; it was all too clear what men would do to a young female trespasser." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She wanted to leave, but then she heard footsteps behind her, outside: The gangster was coming." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Reiko darted down the corridor and through the nearest door, into a storeroom crammed with boxes. Holding her breath, she waited until the man walked past." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Planks squeaked as the gangster mounted the stairs." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A bitter odor caught Reiko's attention. She looked around, and when her eyes adjusted to the dimness, she saw wall racks full of spears, swords, and bows." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Stacked wooden chests almost covered the floor." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Curious now, Reiko lifted a lid. She found a suit of armor." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Uneasiness stirred within her. The odor grew stronger as she moved toward the door leading into the adjacent room." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It held more chests." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Reiko opened one, and her heart lurched. Inside lay a cache of arquebuses—long, tubular steel guns." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Barrels, round wooden boxes, and square wicker baskets stood nearby. When Reiko pried the lid off a barrel, the smell billowed up into her face, smoky and acrid." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She dipped a finger into fine black granules." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Though she'd never seen gunpowder before, she knew this must be it. In the boxes she found spherical iron bullets." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The baskets contained arrows." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Reiko wouldn't have been surprised to find swords and spears in a daimyo's house, though not in such huge quantity. And guns were reserved for the sole use of the Tokugawa, but she'd just discovered enough weapons and ammunition to equip a small army." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The implications of the discovery stunned and enlightened Reiko." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Left Minister Konoe must have watched men gathering at the house, bringing the arsenal." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Surely this activity was the object of the surveillance mentioned in his notes. If Reiko was correct about the purpose of the weapons, then here was a secret that constituted the true motive for Konoe's murder." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Reiko hastened to the door, looked cautiously, and saw no one." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Even though the temptation to flee was overpowering, she forced herself to move down the corridor, toward a flight of stairs that led to the second story. The voices sounded louder; Reiko discerned at least three different men speaking." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Slowly she ascended the stairs, easing her weight down on the creaky planks." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Fear nauseated her, and the sweat on her skin turned cold; she held herself rigid, fighting the sickness." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Telling herself she must be strong for Sano, she climbed higher and saw another empty corridor that extended past more doors. The voices came from the second room on the right." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Tiptoeing up the last steps, Reiko emerged into hot, stuffy air thick with tobacco smoke." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Muddy daylight filtered through the balcony blinds and the paper walls of the corridor. Reiko crept to the doorway of the second room and listened." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You shouldn't have been so rude,\" said a young man's worried voice." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You made her suspicious.\"\n\nThere were murmurs of agreement." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Then another man spoke with defensive belligerence: \"Who cares what some stupid woman thinks?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Reiko recognized the voice of the fellow at the gate. \"She's probably just some whore that Lord Ibe uses when he's in town, and that's how she knows this is his house. Anyway, she's gone.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You should never open the gate without looking to see who's there, Gorobei-san,\" another man said in cultured Miyako speech." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I thought it was Ikeda, with another load of weapons,\" Gorobei said sullenly. \"I already said I was sorry.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I am afraid that this matter is far from done. You know how whores gossip. What if that one has clients in the bakufu and tells them there's something funny going on here? They could send troops to raid us.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"They won't bother,\" said a different voice. \"Even if they believe her, those bakufu bureaucrats are lazy.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It was a mistake to use our master's place, even though he won't be back until winter,\" fretted the first man." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Well, where else could we go that's big enough, private enough, and right in town?\"\n\nThese two must be Lord Ibe's retainers, assigned to guard the property, Reiko realized." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Instead, they'd taken advantage of his absence by turning the house into an armed fort." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"We shouldn't be doing this, it's too dangerous.\"\n\n\"I'm sick of your whining. Shut up!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The man with the cultured voice said, \"We've no more time for argument. We must figure out what to do so that Gorobei's carelessness won't jeopardize our mission.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The nature of that mission seemed obvious to Reiko." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The conspirators were planning a military assault. She didn't think it involved feuding peasant gangs; that wouldn't have required illegal weapons, or interested the metsuke." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The mission could be nothing less than a revolt against the Tokugawa." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "This threat was the reason for the law that prevented daimyo from gathering troops and arms in Miyako—so they couldn't seize the old capital as the first step toward taking over Japan. Horror and elation filled Reiko as she realized that the conspiracy must include many people besides the ones here, at least one of whom was likely to be involved in Sano's murder." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A sudden, ominous silence in the room alerted her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Then the man with the cultured voice said, \"There is someone else in the house.\"\n\nReiko froze, aghast." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"How do you know?\" Gorobei asked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I can feel it.\"\n\n\"You're just nervous,\" said one of the guards." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It's all in your imagination.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"After the unfortunate incident that just occurred, I refuse to take any chances. Come. We shall check downstairs.\"\n\nReiko darted into the adjacent room, hid behind a cabinet, and watched the men file past the door." }, { "from": "human", "value": "First came a priest with a shaved head and athletic build, dressed in a saffron robe and carrying a spear." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Then came three samurai, swords drawn, wearing the square Ibe crest on their robes: the guards. Gorobei, the gangster, and three more tough-looking peasants, all bearing stout clubs, and two shabbily attired samurai who appeared to be rōnin, followed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Their grim expressions told Reiko that they would kill her if they caught her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Heart pounding in panic, she rushed onto the balcony. She pushed aside the bamboo blinds and looked outside." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The balcony overhung the side fence. Directly opposite stretched the balcony of the house next door." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As Reiko climbed onto the rail, she heard the men moving about downstairs. She perched for a moment, then sprang with all her strength." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She sailed through the air like a large, awkward bird and landed on the other balcony, taking the impact on her knees and forearms to protect her womb. Huddling there for a moment, she sobbed in relief." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Today you will be acting as a writing assistant, your partner will send something and you will write the next 6 sentences." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The battering ram struck the gate of Lord Ibe's house with a thunderous crash, splintering wood and breaking hinges. Soldiers rushed through the portals. More troops climbed the fences around the house and swarmed the property. Brandishing swords and spears, they shouted, \"In the name of the shogun, come out and surrender!\"\n\nChamberlain Yanagisawa charged into the front yard after his men. He welcomed action that would take his mind off the pain of Hoshina's betrayal." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He wanted to forget that he still loved Hoshina and mourned the yoriki's impending death, even though he'd ordered it himself." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He must avert the possible threat to the regime, and the capture of the outlaws represented a new chance to solve the murders.\n\nThe troops were inside the house now. As Yanagisawa entered, they stormed the corridor and rooms. Above him pounded the footsteps of the men who'd invaded the second story. Shouts echoed in the dim, musty space. Yanagisawa gripped his sword." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "His desire to be a great detective persisted; he discovered in himself a need to prove he was capable of more than just sabotaging Sano. The thrill of the raid stirred the place deep inside him where his samurai spirit lay dormant. With a strange, heady anticipation, Yanagisawa hungered for battle.\n\nThen Detective Marume came running from the back of the house. \"Nobody in here, Honorable Chamberlain,\" he said.\n\nDetective Fukida clattered down the stairs." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Second floor's empty, too. They've all cleared out.\"\n\nYanagisawa's spirits plunged. \"What about the weapons?\"\n\nFukida shook his head. Marume said, \"We didn't find any.\"\n\nThe soldiers gathered in the corridor, sheathing their swords. Yanagisawa cursed, using temper to hide the despair that filled him as his suspicions about Hoshina grew." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Had the yoriki somehow managed to send orders for the outlaws to move the arsenal after Sano imprisoned him?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Yanagisawa didn't wish to acknowledge the worst sins of his lover, or admit defeat. He wanted to torture Hoshina into revealing the outlaws' whereabouts; he wanted to vent his fury while slaking his desire.\n\n\"Search the place again,\" he said. \"Look for anything that might tell us where the outlaws are or what they're planning.\"\n\nWhile the men obeyed, Yanagisawa inspected the storerooms. They were empty, although the air still reeked of gunpowder." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A single round bullet lay under the window." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Yanagisawa picked up the bullet and cupped it despondently in his palm." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "His mood grew bleaker when the troops came to report an unsuccessful search.\n\n\"Ask the neighbors if they know where the occupants went,\" Yanagisawa said. \"If not, I want the city and surrounding areas searched for the arsenal. The outlaws may have gone to join their confederates. Find them before we have a war on our hands.\"\n\nHe lingered in the empty arsenal. Tracing the outlaws would probably require a long, tedious search that would keep him in Miyako for ages. Yanagisawa hated the thought of reporting the bad news to his bakufu subordinates, who would spread the tale of his unsuccessful raid, setting him up to take the blame if a revolt did materialize." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He dreaded spending the night alone at Nijō Castle, knowing that Hoshina would soon be dead." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 1 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Crouching on the floor, he laid his head on his knees and succumbed to misery." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "hey can u write 1 sentence more sentences? in Historical Fiction, Mystery, Japan style" }, { "from": "human", "value": "After leaving Lady Jokyōden, Sano went to the imperial consorts' residence." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Lady Asagao was no longer a suspect, but he needed to resolve some unfinished business concerning her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He found Asagao reclining on cushions on the shady veranda of the residence." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Ladies-in-waiting plied large fans to create a cooling breeze around her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Clad in layered pastel robes, Asagao wore her hair in a limp plait." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A physician dressed in a long dark blue coat fed her potions from ceramic bowls." }, { "from": "human", "value": "When Sano climbed the veranda steps, she turned toward him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Apprehension pinched her round face, which looked sallow and plain in the absence of her usual makeup." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Her attendants eyed Sano with distrust. The physician glowered." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Lady Asagao must not be disturbed,\" he said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"The ordeal of imprisonment has weakened her health. To recover, she needs rest and quiet.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Sano knelt by Asagao, bowed, and said, \"Your Highness, I apologize for your ordeal. It was an abominable mistake, and I beg your forgiveness.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "That Chamberlain Yanagisawa had manipulated them both into the false arrest hardly diminished the guilt he felt toward Asagao." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"However, I must request your assistance. Will you be so kind as to answer a few questions?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The emperor's consort pouted." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Why should I?\" she said sullenly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Why indeed, thought Sano." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She didn't need to defend herself against further accusations, and she had no reason to voluntarily help someone who'd torn her away from her home and imprisoned her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The law permitted intimidation and torture to extort information from witnesses, but Sano didn't want to inflict more suffering on Lady Asagao or further antagonize the Imperial Court, so he must give her a different incentive to cooperate." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I've discovered a plot to overthrow the Tokugawa regime,\" Sano said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"The plot is almost certainly connected with the murders. It's imperative that I catch the killer before he or she can kill again or bring war upon Japan. His Majesty the Emperor and your father are still under investigation.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Sano paused to let Asagao absorb his words, then said, \"More mistakes could occur. Another innocent person might be subjected to the same treatment as yourself. Wouldn't you like to prevent that?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Asagao squirmed on the cushions; her eyes darted like minnows trying to escape a fishing net." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She might not possess great intelligence, but Sano perceived in her a natural cunning." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She'd understood his implied threat to punish her kin unless she cooperated." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Now she cast a pleading glance at her companions and made a weak attempt to sit up." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I don't feel well,\" she whined. \"Take me inside.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The physician and ladies-in-waiting moved to help her, but Sano steeled himself against letting Asagao use her illness to escape him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Leave us,\" he told her attendants." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They reluctantly obeyed. Asagao cowered on the cushions, fearful yet defiant." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Sano said, \"Let's talk about the night Left Minister Konoe died. You told my wife that you were with your ladies-in-waiting. Later they admitted that you'd sneaked out to meet someone. Which is the truth?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Although he didn't really believe that determining Asagao's whereabouts would solve the case, unanswered questions bothered Sano. \"Where were you?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Asagao said, \"I was in the tea ceremony cottage. With my father.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Sano recognized the story that Right Minister Ichijo had told Chamberlain Yanagisawa." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He also knew that Yoriki Hoshina had established that the cottage had been occupied by a pair of lovers, and therefore not by Ichijo and Asagao." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Obviously, Ichijo had instructed his daughter to corroborate his lie." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She'd provided her father with the alibi she no longer needed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The probable reason behind her deception gave Sano an idea how to turn Asagao's motives to his advantage." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Were you ever present when your father counseled the emperor?\" Sano asked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Sometimes.\" A puzzled frown wrinkled the consort's brow." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What did they talk about?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I don't remember. Court business, I suppose. I didn't pay much attention.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Asagao spoke with eager nervousness, as if hoping that ignorance would safeguard her until she could figure out where the conversation was heading." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Did His Majesty talk about past emperors who had tried to overthrow military regimes?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Sano said. \"Did he ever express the desire to do the same?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Shocked comprehension dawned in Asagao's eyes." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She sat up and blurted, \"No. Never.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"His Majesty wants to rule Japan, doesn't he?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Sano said. \"He not only fights make-believe battles; he's planning a real one. Did he tell you that he's been bringing weapons into Miyako and recruiting soldiers for a war against the Tokugawa?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"He wouldn't do that!\" Asagao cried." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Wouldn't he?\" Sano said, wondering if Asagao was really surprised, or if she'd already known about the conspiracy." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"His Majesty is bored by his sheltered life. He's puffed up with conceit and dreams of glory. But plotting a coup is treason. For such a serious crime, not even an emperor can escape death.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I don't know what you're talking about.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Panic shone in Asagao's eyes." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Tomo-chan would never try to overthrow the bakufu!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Whether she was lying didn't matter; it wasn't Sano's intention to gain evidence against Tomohito right now." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The emperor was just bait for a trap." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Yesterday the soldiers and weapons were in a house belonging to Lord Ibe of Echizen Province. Did His Majesty ever mention it?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"No!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Did Left Minister Konoe discover His Majesty's plans?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Sano said. \"Did His Majesty know that Konoe was a spy, and fear that Konoe would report his crime?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Now came the time to spring the trap." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Where was His Majesty on the night of Konoe's murder?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Tomo-chan wasn't in the garden. He didn't kill the left minister!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Asagao's desperate gaze sought help, but the courtyard was empty and still in the hot sunshine, and the building behind her as silent as if everyone had deserted it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In the trees, insects shrilled; a bird shrieked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"How could you know where His Majesty was, when you were in the tea cottage with your father?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Sano rose and stood over Asagao." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"That same story can't provide alibis for both men. It looks as though I'll be charging one or the other with treason and murder. You can help me decide which.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No!\" Asagao tried to rise, but her legs tangled in her robes, and she fell against the cushions, helpless." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Of course you want to save your father,\" Sano said, hating what he must do to the consort." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"He gave you life; he fed and sheltered you during your childhood. You wouldn't like to see him hurt, and it's your duty to protect him. But what about your duty to the emperor? His alibis for both murders are weak. He needs you to point my suspicion away from him... toward somebody else.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Please leave me alone,\" Asagao implored." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Sweat beaded her face; her pale lips trembled." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Don't make me do this!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Suppressing his pity for her, Sano said, \"If His Majesty is found to have committed treason, a new emperor will take the throne and select a new chief consort. You'll lose your status and special privileges. You could become a lady-in-waiting to your replacement, or marry a noble who's willing to accept a cast-off consort as a wife. Or you could enter a nunnery.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "These options represented utter humiliation to a woman of Asagao's rank." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"If that's what you want, then by all means cast your lot with your father. If not, then perhaps you should reconsider the wisdom of protecting him at the emperor's expense.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Sano let the echo of his harsh words die." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He waited for Asagao to choose which of the two most important men in her life she would betray." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Loath to incur the consequences of implicating Japan's sacred sovereign in the crimes, Sano didn't want it to be Emperor Tomohito." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Asagao whimpered, hugging herself." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Where were you when Left Minister Konoe died?\" Sano asked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "For a long while he thought Asagao's loyalty to her father would prevail." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Then defeat drained the tension from her body; she began to weep." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I was in the tea cottage,\" she said, \"but my father wasn't. I was with my friend Lord Gojo. We didn't want anyone to know about us, so when the policeman came around asking everybody where they'd been that night, Gojo said he was with a friend he bribed to lie for him.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A connection clicked in Sano's mind." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Lord Gojo was the man whom Reiko had watched flirting with Asagao in the Kabuki play." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She'd been having an affair with him, not Left Minister Konoe." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Asagao and Lord Gojo had been the two lovers in the tea cottage." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She'd had an alibi she hadn't wanted to use because it would have exposed her infidelity to Emperor Tomohito." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I only said my father was with me because he asked me to.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Tears streamed down Asagao's face; she wiped them on her sleeve." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I never saw him that night.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She'd rejected the ties of blood for those of sex and power, sacrificing her father to protect Tomohito." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Yet Sano felt no pleasure at breaking Right Minister Ichijo's alibi." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He hated himself for manipulating Asagao." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The pursuit of justice too often required the basest means." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Thank you, Lady Asagao,\" Sano said, adding, \"I'm sorry.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Her bitter glare burned him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Shamed and depressed, he went to the door and called Asagao's attendants." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As they led her into the building, she turned to Sano." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Between ragged sobs, she said, \"My father wasn't in the Pond Garden when the left minister died, but I know who was.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "A desperate guile shone in her reddened eyes." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Sano had half-expected her to shield Ichijo by accusing someone else." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Now, as she gasped for breath, he waited to see whom she would incriminate." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"It was the left minister's former wife.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What?\" Shock resonated through Sano." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Kozeri, in the palace on the night of Konoe's death?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "But Kozeri had an alibi—or did she?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She hadn't been at the scene of Aisu's murder—or had she?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Now Sano realized that this was the vital information he'd forgotten to obtain from Kozeri." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Had his attraction to her rendered him so negligent?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Sano unhappily acknowledged the possibility, but a kernel of doubt formed in his mind." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It burgeoned into suspicion, then anger as he realized what Kozeri had done." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Asagao laughed, an ugly chortle." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Kozeri fooled you, didn't she? Before the left minister died, I overheard him giving orders to his assistants. Ask Kozeri why he wanted the Pond Garden to himself that night. Ask her why she was there.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Sano grabbed Asagao's shoulders." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You tell me!\" he commanded." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She looked disdainfully up at him." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 2 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Ask Kozeri how her first husband died. Ask her if she killed the left minister. Then ask her where she was when that other man died.\" As the attendants bore Lady Asagao away, her mocking laughter drifted back to Sano." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "ur a writing helper. partner writes, u do next eight sentences." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Words evolve, perhaps more rapidly and tellingly than do their users, and the change in meanings reflects a society often more accurately than do the works of many historians. In the years preceding the first collapse of NorAm, the change in the meaning of one word predicted the failure of that society more immediately and accurately than did all the analysts, social scientists, and historians. That critical word? \"Discrimination.\" We know it now as a term meaning \"unfounded bias against a person, group, or culture on the basis of racial, gender, or ethnic background.\" Prejudice, if you will.\n\nThe previous meaning of the word was: \"to draw a clear distinction between good and evil, to differentiate, to recognize as different.\" Moreover, the connotations once associated with discrimination were favorable. A person of discrimination was one of taste and good judgment." }, { "from": "human", "value": "With the change of the meaning into a negative term of bias, the English language was left without a single-word term for the act of choosing between alternatives wisely, and more importantly, left with a subterranean negative connotation for those who attempted to make such choices." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In hindsight, the change in meaning clearly reflected and foreshadowed the disaster to come. Individuals and institutions abhorred making real choices. At one point more than three-quarters of the youthful population entered institutions of higher level learning. Credentials, often paper ones, replaced meaningful judgment and choices... Popularity replaced excellence... The list of disastrous cultural and political decisions foreshadowed by the change in meaning of one word is truly endless...\n\nWas that merely an aberration of history? Hardly, for the same changes in language today reflect our own future. Take the word \"filch,\" now applied to the wealthiest of the wealthy." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The original meaning was \"to steal slyly in small amounts, to pilfer.\"" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 3 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When the longer term (\"filthy rich\") previously used was resurrected after the second collapse, the contraction and the theft \"overtones\" of the original meaning of \"filch\" fit admirably the social needs of the time. The growing application of this term to those who are more than moderately successful clearly reflects a widespread social unrest and dissatisfaction with those who control the wealth and power of our present-day society...\n\n-T. Eliot Stearns" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Write 3 sentences sentences spawning from what the user wrote, within the Science Fiction genre." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I had to take Wednesday morning for my annual DPS physical." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Physical and tests took less than an hour. Waiting between tests took the morning and lunch. Did give me nanomeds against the ebol." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Saw about thirty other DPS types getting them as well. Got to my office at thirteen-thirty.\n\nSarao looked up from the consoles." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Her short brown hair was shorter than usual." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Captain called. I told her you were getting your annual. She said not to bother you.\"\n\n\"She say what she wanted?\"\n\nSarao shook her head. \"Very polite. Calm.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What's new?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Backstreet bodyshop ops are up. Couple more disappearances from northside.\" She offered a cynical smile.\n\nWe both knew the two were related." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What else?\" I looked at her. \"We got ebol4 jumping from continent to continent. Filch don't get hit unless they're careless. Those that do, they get full nanetic therapy and self-clone replacements. Poor sariman, if he gets hit with ebol4, choice to watch himself die or get a hacksmith washjob organs, and has to live from saldrop to saldrop paying for isup. Servies and permies just die.\" I glanced toward the consoles. \"Death rates?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Not a trend yet. Up five percent from the beginning of the week. Disappearances will rise, mostly in permies from northside, some from westside.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Sarao's voice was flat." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Stats like that have a terrible and inevitable beauty." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You put out an allpers on bodyshops?\"\n\n\"It's ready to go. Wanted your approval. It's in your pending links.\"\n\n\"Good. What else?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"More ODs last night.\"\n\n\"On what?\"\n\nSarao shrugged. \"Soop in their systems, but how can anyone OD on soop?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Winced at that. Soop was an exhilarant, but the docs claimed no long-term effects. Except too much could set a heart racing. Not fatally. \"Overdosing on soop? Can't be done.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Some alkie there, at least in one, but doesn't make for an OD,\" Sarao confirmed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You might see something I didn't.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Alcohol mixed with soop? Kids used soop, mostly. Most adults used alkie." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Some crossover. \"That it?\"\n\n\"Besides the usual? I didn't see anything else.\"\n\n\"Thanks. I'll check the allpers first.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I walked into the office, glanced out at another sunny and cold early spring afternoon, and then pushed a link to the captain. Got her simmie." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Captain, Lieutenant Chiang, returning your link. She wasn't in.\n\nThen I went to the daily trend report. Sarao was right. Showed ODs up again." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Went through them case by case." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "All young, all under thirty chronological, most under twenty-five, and three underage. All had the kind of heart stoppage associated with pharmacological effects. Only two drugs identified were soop and alkie, and no trace of anything else foreign." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Soop had no known toxic effects, and the alkie levels weren't that high. The death certs all gave heart failure, cause unknown.\n\nPut in a search request on the effects of combining alkie and soop." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Got an answer almost immediately." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Negative. Twenty years of studies said no cross-toxic or negative health effects existed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Went back and studied the blood tests on the three that had in-depth studies. Not one had any other foreign substance in the blood. Still bothered me. Went back through all the reports for the day, but couldn't find anything." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Sat there for a time, then sent a search through the files, checking all suicides." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Found five like Elcado, starting four months earlier." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The earliest one caught my attention." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Erneld Cewrigh. Drove parents' electral into the CeCe Reservoir." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Even redirected the air-cushion feature to boost it over the restraining field at the boat ramp. Very ingenious." }, { "from": "human", "value": "No drugs except alkie, and not much of that. None before that." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The link pulsed, and I acknowledged.\n\nChiang... Kirchner here. Kirchner was the lieutenant heading homicide.\n\nYes." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Thought you ought to know... McCall committed suicide.\n\nWhy should Kirchner care if I knew? How did that happen? When?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Half hour ago. He was under nanite home restraint, surveillance, everything." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He turned off all the safeties in the house and jumped onto a flagstone courtyard." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I thought you'd be interested." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A fall killed him, with a filch's internal nanites?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "From a six-story tower?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "A tall six-story tower." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Even on link, Kirchner's irony came through.\n\nThe McCall thing was really beginning to stink. Anyone else around? Recsat surveillance?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Funny thing. Area went blank just before he jumped, maybe five minutes. Got the jump. No one near. We're waiting on an autopsy." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Let you know if anything turns up." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Thanks.\n\nJust sat there, wondering. How had Kirchner known?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Only ones I'd talked to were Darcy and Sarao." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I pushed the link. Sarao?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Yes, Lieutenant?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "You talk to Lieutenant Kirchner about the McCall case?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "No, ser. Not to anyone." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Thanks. Meant Kirchner hadn't known, but had wanted me to know. As much as saying that the case stunk, and that someone had restraint loops all over him... and over homicide.\n\nStood, walked to the window." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I looked out. McCall had known something." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Something deadly to someone. But he was a privacy specialist, the last guy about to spill anything. Meant that his trial for his wife's death would reveal whatever it was." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Revelation needed McCall alive, and it had to be less likely to be revealed with him dead. Have to think about that. And talk to someone." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Finally walked out front.\n\n\"I thought you'd be leaving soon,\" Sarao said.\n\n\"You know me too well.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She shrugged. \"I know you don't like loose ends. Neither does Captain Cannizaro. That's why you're in charge of trendside.\"\n\n\"Maybe. Be going out to westside first. Don't know where after that. Be on link if the captain wants me.\"\n\n\"We'll find you.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Didn't want to be found. Not yet." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Got the green electral from transport and headed west. First stop was Westside Physical Systems. Kama might know something." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Same permie as last time was at the console behind the spotless maroon counter.\n\nHe looked up at me. \"He's not here, Lieutenant.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Know where he is?\"\n\n\"He's on a job, ser.\"\n\n\"Suppose it's an important one?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"He says all jobs are important.\"\n\n\"Do you know where I could find him?\"\n\n\"He didn't say, ser.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "That had to be true. Nanite permie treatment forbade lies. Kama knew that. Meant he didn't want it known where he was." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Could have been lots of reasons." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Is he on link?\"\n\n\"No, ser. Not now.\"\n\n\"Tell him I was looking for him.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Yes, ser.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Walked back out to the green electrocar." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Never cared much for green in vehicles. Fine for grass and trees. I linked to Sarao." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Need a trace on an electrovan." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Aldus four-six. Probably in southside. Registered to either Kamehameha O'Doull or Westside Physical Systems.\n\nReasons?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Need to find the driver." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Possible witness, but not material. Make it look good.\n\nYou don't ask for much, Lieutenant." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I never do. See what you can do.\n\nDetrus owes me. We'll see.\n\nThanks." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Decided against dropping in on Morss." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Instead, I decided to find Luke Elcado." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Again, couldn't have proved a thing, but had the feeling Al's death and the other suicides were somehow tied into... something. Hoped I could find out what before Cannizaro asked me.\n\nLuke ran what some called a portable uniquery." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Provided and delivered stuff that couldn't be nanite-formulated—mostly exotic foods. Most customers were sariman, with enough creds for small luxuries, not enough creds to have staff to provide them all the time the way the filch did. Except some filch still used Elcado's Specialties and had stuff home-delivered." }, { "from": "human", "value": "That's how good Luke was." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "His business was at the east end of westside, not three hundred meters from the Platte Greenway. Close to the tubes and bridges so his electrolorries could get to eastside or southside quickly.\n\nLuke never believed in unnecessaries." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Customer area was gray-walled, five meters by five, half of it behind a counter. Counter held defense screens. Behind that was where Danyse usually sat." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She was his daughter, doubled as bookkeeper, order-taker, and receptionist. She wasn't there.\n\nBlack-haired, hard-faced older woman looked at me. \"Yes, ser?\"\n\n\"Lieutenant Chiang to see Luke.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Looked like she thought about asking for ID, then her face blanked as she linked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A moment later, her eyes refocused." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"He'll be right here, Lieutenant.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Thank you.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Her face blanked again as she took an inlink from somewhere, possibly an order.\n\nI walked to the end of the counter, then back. Always been hard for me to stand still." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The door at the end of the counter opened, and Luke looked out. He motioned.\n\nI followed him through the door, down a short hall, and into his office. It was gray. No decorations." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Besides the chairs, console, and flat table desk, the only other item was a fullphase holo projector.\n\n\"Gene—I mean, Lieutenant. Ah... what...\"\n\n\"Sorry to hear about Al. He was a good kid.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Luke looked down. \"Thanks for the flowers. And the note. Katya thought they were nice.\" He didn't meet my eyes. \"What do you want?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"To talk. No trouble. Information. Had a couple of cases like Al's, just in the last few weeks. Wanted to talk to you about Al because he was a good kid.\"\n\nLuke frowned.\n\n\"It's simple. Some of these kids... they've been in so much trouble it would take weeks to unscramble everything involved.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Lieutenant... he... he killed himself. Why he did, that's a DPS matter?\"\n\n\"It might be. Can't say more. Not yet. But there's no trouble for you or Al. Won't be.\"\n\n\"With ebol4 and nuclear terrorists, you worry about why my son—\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Luke.\" Made my voice hard and very cold." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"DPS can't stop the Talibanate or Russe terrorists. And we're not CDC. When a good kid delinks a lorry and drives it into a river for no reason, and when he's not the first... maybe we can do something.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Tasha... did she put you up to this?\"\n\n\"No one at DPS has talked to her. You don't care for her, do you?\"\n\n\"I don't care one way or another... now.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I sighed. Don't usually. Sometimes it helps. \"We all need help one day. Today, I need help. You might need it tomorrow.\"\n\nHe was the one to sigh." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"All right. What do you want to know?\"\n\n\"What Al did the night before. Anything you can remember.\"\n\n\"He asked to get off work early. An hour early so he could take her to dinner. At a uniquery.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Must have cost him a lot.\"\n\nLuke smiled, a faint sad smile. Shook his head. \"We supply about four places. We get dinner passes. Gilda and I never use them all. Al wanted one for The Right Bank—Wilm Bruff's place. He wanted to impress her.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Bruff's place was where the young filch and the high sariman went." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Cost a bundle of creds. \"I'm sure he did.\"\n\n\"He always wanted to impress her.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Then what?\"\n\n\"He said they were going to a FlameTop concert. The rezpopper. He's local, sings at the Moulin Noir.\"\n\n\"Anything special about the concert?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Al said FlameTop had a new reztwist. She told him that. Something that would make him a big rez star before long.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Luke shook his head again. \"Never did understand that rez stuff. Then, I couldn't keep time if I had a pro dancer on each elbow.\"\n\n\"Do you know what this twist was?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I don't know what it was. Al didn't say.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Asked him a few more questions, but it was clear he'd told me what he knew." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Know where I could find Tasha? She still live at home?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"No. Al said she had her own place, with another girl. It's not listed. She works for one of those comm outfits—the ones that you call up when there's an ad on the net. AnswerQuik, I think.\"\n\n\"Thanks, Luke.\" I stood up.\n\n\"You think this will help someone?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Hope so. Really do.\"\n\nHe nodded, and I left. Poor bastard.\n\nOnce I got in the electral, I considered, then linked to the office." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Sarao? Any luck with the trace?\n\nDetrus is out on some assignment. She'll be back in a half hour." }, { "from": "human", "value": "So they say. You want me to try Sansky?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "No. Sansky went by the screen, and then some. Going to track down another mystery of sorts.\n\nOh?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The suicides. Till later. I broke the link. AnswerQuik was in eastside." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A link pulse got me a simmie. I asked for Tasha Lei.\n\nShe's on duty. Might I take a message?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "No. I'll try her later." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "If she was on a standard shift, she'd still be there. Wished I knew what I chased.\n\nTook me nearly an hour." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Two medvans blocked the ramp to the Elletch Bridge." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Checked the DPS net, discovered a driver with ebol4 had passed out." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Electral stopped safely, but when DPS patroller saw the blood everywhere, called in meds and decontamination. Snarled things for a time. Shuttle would have been faster, but I couldn't abandon the DPS electral." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Might need it later, too.\n\nDetrus hadn't come back, either. Nothing was going well." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "AnswerQuik was in a long building in the complex just barely in eastside, four klicks north of OldTech. Had a real guard, behind a double screen. Good two meters of muscle." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Some of it between the ears." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Looking for Tasha Lei.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"No visitors, ser.\"\n\n\"Lieutenant Chiang, DPS. I just need to talk to her for a few minutes.\" Pulsed the official ID and backed it with the DPS/GIL counter." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Ah... just a moment, ser. I'll have to check with the supervisor.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I stood there, waiting.\n\nIn less than two minutes, a thin-faced woman—dark-haired, Korean gene-back—appeared behind the screen. Didn't look at me, studied the ID and codes." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Finally, she looked up." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I smiled. Couldn't hurt.\n\n\"Lieutenant... might I ask what interest you have in Tasha?\"\n\nShe could ask. I didn't have to answer, but there was no reason not to." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"She's in no trouble.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Not yet, anyway. \"She might have been a witness to something. DPS wants to know if what she saw... if she saw anything.\"\n\n\"That's what you all say.\"\n\nI smiled again. \"I'd still like to talk to her.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"We can't stop you, Lieutenant. I hope you'll be kind. It's been hard on her.\"\n\n\"Understand.\"\n\n\"I hope so. You can use the job interview room. It's the door on the left there. She'll be out in a moment.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Walked over and opened the door." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The room wasn't more than three meters square with three chairs and a side table next to the wall. Didn't sit down.\n\nA woman walked in—black hair, piercing green eyes with the slightest tilt to them, a touch of dark bronze to her skin. Small, but very alive." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Could see why young Al had been hooked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Couldn't see why Luke didn't like her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Lieutenant? I'm Tasha Lei.\"\n\n\"I know your father.\" Gestured to the chairs." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I am certain you do.\" She sat down. \"Genyse said you needed to talk to me.\"\n\n\"About Al Elcado.\" I paused." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Why he died... there's a mystery there.\"\n\n\"He drove an electrolorry into Clear Creek. He didn't have the high-level nanomeds that would have saved him.\" She swallowed.\n\n\"It happened to several others in the past few months. Records don't show a pattern of deaths like that before. Hoped you could answer a few questions.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Could you just ask them... please?\" Tears hovered in her eyes.\n\n\"You went out with him the night before.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Yes.\"\n\n\"Understand he took you to The Right Bank.\"\n\n\"Oh, Lieutenant. He wanted to impress me. I wouldn't have even agreed to that if it had come out of his pocket, but his family gets passes. It was important to Al that he could take me someplace like that.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You went to dinner alone, the two of you?\"\n\n\"Yes.\"\n\n\"Did he eat anything strange? Different?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She frowned, trying to remember." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No. He had tournedos with bearnaise salsa.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Drink?\"\n\n\"No, not at dinner.\"\n\n\"Did anyone approach you two?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"No one except Wilm. He just offered his regards to Al and asked him to give his greetings to Al's father.\"\n\n\"You went from dinner to the concert? Where was it?\"\n\n\"Yes. At the Moulin Noir.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Tell me about the concert.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Just a concert at the Moulin Noir. We had seats halfway back, near the middle.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"How many people were there?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Five hundred, maybe. It was full, but it's not that big.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Who was singing?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"FlameTop. He's on the way.\"\n\n\"You been to hear him before?\"\n\n\"I'd heard him once before in February, with Elyna.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Elyna?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"My roommate. We rent a conapt not far from here.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Was it the same concert?\"\n\nShe shook her head. \"He's better now. He'll be doing the big houses and tours before long. The first time I heard him, he was still... he wasn't as good.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What was the difference?\"\n\n\"The rez—he's really got it integrated into the song and the music now.\"\n\n\"You told Al that FlameTop had a new twist. What was that?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She tilted her head, impatiently. \"I just told you—the way he integrated the rez.\"\n\n\"Does anyone else do it that way?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I don't know—what does this have to do with Al?\"\n\n\"I'm trying to find out.\" I offered a smile." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hoped it was sympathetic." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Just a question or two more. Did you have drinks—alkie—at the concert?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Al had a few drinks, alkie, I mean, but only two or three. He didn't have any at dinner. He said three was his limit.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"After the concert?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"He took me home. He didn't stay long. I never saw him again.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Her eyes were bright. Tears would come.\n\n\"Did you have anything to drink?\"\n\n\"I'm old-fashioned, Lieutenant.\" A crooked smile crossed her face." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A tear oozed from the corner of her left eye. \" 'Sides, I can't drink.\"\n\n\"Can't?\" Wondered at that response.\n\n\"I'm allergic to alkie. Could be fixed with heavy nanomeds, but... where would I get the creds for those? And why?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I nodded." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"If you think of anything else that might be strange, please let me know.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She nodded. Wasn't agreeing.\n\n\"Thank you. I can't think of any other questions. I might have to get back to you, but it would only be for one or two questions.\" I stood, then bowed slightly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She nodded and slipped out the back door.\n\nThe big servie guard didn't even look at me as I left.\n\nStill couldn't see why Luke disliked her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Needed to talk to FlameTop—if I could run him down." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 4 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And his band, whatever the instrumentalists were called. Also needed to talk to Kama, to find out more about the ODs, and what else had happened while I'd been out. Hoped that the DPS medics had a handle on the ebol4. Feared that they didn't." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "u know L. E. Modesitt Jr? write like that. 4 sentences sentences. Science Fiction stuff." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "After I stopped by the KC MedCenter for the nanomeds to deal with the ebol4 outbreak, my first appointment on Thursday was with Heber Smith. The meeting would be short. After I met with Heber, I had to talk to O'Bannon about the impact of the orbiter attack. The attack hadn't helped anything." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Because of the new fusion tug technology, it might attract attention to the upcoming corporate meeting of MMSystems." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It would increase tensions between the Martian Republic and Earth. Increased tensions sometimes led to bad government decisions and greater scrutiny. KC didn't need any of those.\n\nThe ebol4 outbreak was going to make matters bad enough." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I'd already made sure Marissa, the children, and the rest of the family got their upgrades right after I did. If I didn't take care of family, who would?\n\nI put those thoughts aside and went out to greet Heber Smith. He'd taken the company flitter from St. George the night before." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He looked rested when he walked in." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Somehow, the office fits you, Chris.\" He grinned. \"It's good to see you.\"\n\n\"It's good to see you. It looks like you slept well.\"\n\n\"I did. I had dinner with my daughter and her family last night. We've got another grandson.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Family's important.\" I gestured to the conference table." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "We both sat down, our backs to the view. There wasn't much, since it was cloudy, and even Mount Evans was obscured.\n\n\"You've got a problem with District Coordinator Dewey,\" Heber began.\n\n\"We've always had problems with Dewey. Everyone thinks he's so clean, and that we're so crooked. We're honest. We've told the world that we oppose him. He runs on the idea that we're corrupt thugs.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I snorted. \"His cousins run GSY. He gets Cannon to put through that divestiture legislation. They benefit, and he's honest? We built the new shuttle system, but because we built it, we can't maintain it. We can do it better and cheaper, but we're not allowed to. They get most of the profits, but it's clean? The Justiciary bought that crap, too. So we can build systems, but we can't get the maintenance contracts. Or we can let someone else build crap, and take a loss for two years upgrading it through maintenance. That's good government?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"It's good politics,\" Heber pointed out.\n\nI had to laugh. \"You're right. We'll have to do something.\"\n\n\"You still have another problem with Dewey.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What?\"\n\n\"He's working with the NorAm Economics and Commerce Committee to draft another piece of legislation.\" After a moment, Heber went on, \"He wants to limit the royalty markup on proprietary technology to one hundred percent of production costs. That's for public works projects. It wouldn't apply to contracts between private parties. Our counts show that it might pass.\"\n\n\"What else?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"He's talking about hiring a forensic accounting team. It won't be called that, but that's what it amounts to. He wants to show that—\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"GSY can do a cheaper job on major projects once they can steal our technology. Politicians like Dewey need to be shot. Or drawn and quartered. They have no idea of the years we've spent in upgrading Brazelton's operations, the engineers we've supported, the design and development costs. All they look at is the markup over the direct production costs. So we need to make sure Alredd wins the election.\"\n\n\"We can't. It's not possible, Chris. Dewey's got such a base among the servies, close to seventy percent. He's got sixty percent of the sariman, and forty percent of the filch.\"\n\nI understood the numbers. What I didn't understand was the forty percent of the filch." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Dewey was a populist demagogue." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He'd drain every filch he could. And forty percent would vote for him. \"You're sure of that?\"\n\n\"Absolutely.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"How much more can we give to Alredd?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Even through all the avenues you've got, less than three million.\"\n\n\"Find out how much. Talk to O'Bannon, and make sure every single credit is absolutely legal. Then tell me what checks to write.\"\n\n\"You're throwing the credits away.\"\n\n\"No. I want every single credit we send from now on targeted against Dewey's support of whatever Alredd can call filch projects. The guideway legislation, the Southern Diversion, and anything else. Talk to O'Bannon. See if there's a way those ads can be run into Deseret District. If not, have Hansen use the same stuff, pointing out that the Dewey-Cannon conspiracy—call it that—is designed to take Deseret credits and pour them into the Capitol District.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Cannon will still win. Hansen's facing more than an uphill battle.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"This time. We have to think more for the long term, my friend. Senators come and go. We'll help Cannon go.\"\n\n\"Cannon's one you don't want to tangle with, Chris. He'll let a lot slide, but if you attack him, or threaten him, he gets his back up.\"\n\n\"Then we don't apply force to him. We apply it to the things and people he cares about.\"\n\n\"You don't want to make an enemy of the man, Chris.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Heber... he's already an enemy. The question is what we do about it. And about Dewey.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I don't know that you can do much about Dewey.\"\n\n\"I'll have my mother pray for a miracle,\" I suggested. \"We could use it.\"\n\n\"I hope she prays well.\" Heber smiled." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Some of her prayers have been answered.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Then, we both knew that we couldn't count on divine intervention." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Not without help. \"You're staying for the weekend?\"\n\n\"No. I'll leave tomorrow. Ruth's sister is hosting a family get-together tomorrow night.\"\n\n\"Have a good time.\"\n\nAfter Heber left, I had some thinking to do." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Dewey would ruin KC, just on principle, because he didn't understand economics or business." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Some of what he had in mind would undermine the arrangement with the Republic. I had some ideas, but, again, I didn't get far.\n\nMr. O'Bannon is waiting, Mr. Kemal.\n\nSend him in." }, { "from": "human", "value": "O'Bannon slid into the office and eased into the chair he always took at the conference table." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He was like a black tiger.\n\nI sat down across from him. \"What's the word?\"\n\n\"Your friends are upset. As you instructed me, I told them that the attack was carried out with obsolete technology. I also pointed out that NorAm orbiter wouldn't have been as vulnerable—\"\n\n\"The vulnerability was mostly because the Russeans don't like to cross anyone else's airspace. The Agkhanate had to know that. The Russeans also couldn't track the attackers. They can't retaliate.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Can you?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Why would I want to, James? The attack just shows the problems of dealing with the Russeans.\"\n\n\"The Republic might want to.\"\n\n\"They'd get better terms on paper. Not in practice. They know that. Their hands are tied. They have to deal with EurCom or NorAm, and they have to let this attack pass. Oh, they could line up a metallic asteroid and accelerate it at Earth. They could build up enough velocity to make its deflection impossible, but they couldn't aim it well enough to hit Kabul. They could destroy civilization and possibly humanity on Earth. That destroys the source of their technology and all their markets. So it's an empty threat. That's why they're helping us. A direct takeover would be viewed as far too unfriendly, but they want MMSystems in more friendly hands.\"\n\n\"Hands they can control by threatening exposure,\" O'Bannon said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"It's not in their interests to expose me, and it's not in mine. Besides, what we're doing is perfectly legal.\"\n\n\"Until the NorAm Senate finds out.\"\n\n\"Even in cases of continental emergency, ex post facto legislation is banned. That's what my distinguished solicitors told me. Now... what else did they say?\"\n\n\"They understand that you are not in a position to do anything about the disaster, but they would like to make the point that once can be accepted, as a necessary evil. Twice will require action.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I snorted. \"What action? Any direct action hurts the Republic more. They're not stupid.\"\n\n\"I agree. That is, however, what they said.\" O'Bannon smiled. \"What do you want me to tell them?\"\n\n\"Everything is under control. They'll have more favorable directors in a month, and a completely favorable board and executive officer in fourteen months. Suggest to them that they take a more aggrieved position and a less combative one. Something along the lines of how they're risking their talented people to supply Earth's raw materials needs and that they shouldn't also have their diplomats being killed as well.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You have a rationale for that? They'll want to know.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"They can't keep their plans secret forever. Everyone knows that they could devastate Earth. The only reason they don't is that it would also destroy them. That will change. The more they build a reputation for forbearance, the less the continental legislatures will be forced to posture and threaten.\"\n\n\"Makes sense to me. You think they'll buy into it?\"\n\n\"They should.\"\n\n\"You want me to tell them that?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I shook my head. \"Suggestions are one thing. Demands are another. Always suggest.\"\n\n\"And if they don't buy it?\"\n\nI laughed. \"What have we lost? They're the ones who lose. I can always sell back what we've bought—over time. Or I can offer it to the highest bidder.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You plan to make a profit, I assume?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Don't I always?\" I paused. \"What about the MagSys takeover?\"\n\n\"You have to go slow there, Chris. It's going to take another year to get a plurality, and that's a small minority plurality. It might be worth two seats on the board, if that.\"\n\n\"Keep at it.\" I hadn't expected any more." }, { "from": "human", "value": "O'Bannon cleared his throat. \"What about McCall?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What about him? He's been charged with murder. We've talked about it. What can I add? I don't believe he did it, but you never know about people. That's why I try never to push people into a corner. Cornered cats, rats, dogs, and people all bite.\" I didn't corner people when I could avoid it. I dealt with them before they felt cornered. At least, when I could." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I'd waited too long with McCall. That was because I had needed him to finish matters.\n\n\"You think he'll reveal anything?\"\n\n\"You never know, but I don't think so.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "After O'Bannon left, I had a few minutes before lunch to go over the Dewey problem." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "That was one I'd have to resolve quickly. There's nothing more dangerous than a public crook who thinks he's honest. I had some of the details worked out. In my head. Plans were safer there." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Then Paulina linked in." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Ashtay Massin is here." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He says he doesn't have an appointment, but he won't take long.\n\nSend him in. I pulsed the door open. Ashtay never wasted my time.\n\nAshtay Massin walked into the office." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He was the trustee of the KCF trusts. He was built like an ancient weight lifter. He had wavy brown hair and green eyes. He didn't look like an accountant or a solicitor. He was both." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What's the problem?\" I closed the door, then motioned to the conference table." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He sat down first, knowing that was my preference." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You know me too well, Mr. Kemal.\" Ashtay would never call me Chris. I liked that.\n\n\"Your nephew Stefan. He came to see me early this morning. He's already pledged his interest in his trust as collateral for a loan from Mountain Asset Management. He gave me the papers, so that I'd know.\"\n\nI forced a smile, then shook my head." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You know the young ones. I'll have to talk to him. How much is the loan?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Ten million credits.\"\n\n\"He can't pay that. They have to know that. He'll be in default in three months.\"\n\nAshtay nodded. \"If he defaults, we'll have to pay it. If they contend the application was fraudulent, then we may have to divulge the assets.\"\n\n\"Unless we pay it off before that happens.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "What Stefan had done was blackmail, pure and simple." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He knew I didn't like publicity, and a Kemal defaulting on a secured loan was the last thing that needed to be news.\n\n\"I don't have that authority,\" he pointed out. \"All I can do is obligate the interest and income, and put out a credit block on Stefan. That's why I thought you should know.\"\n\n\"I'll have to talk to him. We'll make sure it doesn't go to default.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I sighed. \"The young ones. Some of them take a while to understand.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Ashtay nodded sympathetically." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Since you're here,\" I went on, \"are we set for the MMSystems annual meeting?\"\n\n\"I'll have the slate of officers for you to look at by the end of next week. We'll leave young Martini as president for a year. We'll also leave Bunanev, St. Pierre, and Emin on the board. That's what you wanted, wasn't it?\"\n\n\"We'll have to handle it that way. The board's terms are staggered. You're sure Martini will propose the slate?\"\n\n\"Does he have any choice?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Ashtay's smile was grim." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He didn't approve of how I'd set Rafael Martini up.\n\n\"No. That was his choice.\" Business was business, and the young fool should have known better than to try to play around. His wife's family was old-line, very wealthy and very powerful, with their controlling interest in InterCred." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The Fontaines had their own ways of expressing disapproval, and Rafael needed the credit they could provide. Badly.\n\nAshtay waited before asking, \"Is there anything else, Mr. Kemal?\"\n\n\"Not right now.\" I smiled. \"Thank you for letting me know about Stefan. I'll be talking to him this afternoon. We'll work something out.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "After Ashtay left, I headed down to Poul Therault's office to have a luncheon meeting." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "We discussed the financial picture for the coming year, and all the contingencies that we needed to consider. I didn't eat that much.\n\nBy one, I was back in my office, working out the details of the Dewey plan.\n\nMr. O'Bannon for you, on holo, Mr. Kemal." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I'll take it.\n\nO'Bannon's image was as big as he was. He had a somber look. \"Have you heard, Chris?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Have I heard what?\"\n\n\"About Evan McCall.\"\n\n\"I haven't heard anything new. Not since the indictment.\"\n\n\"He just committed suicide.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What?\" I shook my head." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"That's hard to believe.\" That certainly was true enough, and a measure of Emile's ability. \"How? Why? Does anyone know?\"\n\n\"The DPS isn't saying anything. The orbiter mess and the ebol4 outbreak have kept it quieter than it could have been.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Poor bastard.\" I felt sorry for McCall. He'd never quite understood—except the law. His wife had been the practical one, until the Cewrigh woman had gotten to her, and that hadn't left me much choice. \"Let me know if anything else turns up.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I will.\" O'Bannon paused. \"What are you going to do about privacy matters?\"\n\n\"I don't know.\" I gave a rueful smile. \"You're my oldest solicitor. If you have a suggestion, let me know.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"We might be able to work out something with Caron Hildeo. She understands.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "O'Bannon was telling me that Marc Oler didn't. \"See what you can do.\"\n\nHe nodded. \"Until later, Chris.\"\n\nI looked out the window." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Nothing was simple. It never was.\n\nPaulina... would you please see if you can find my nephew Stefan?\n\nYes. Mr. Kemal.\n\nI leaned back in the ergorecliner, thinking." }, { "from": "human", "value": "There might be a way to solve several of my problems at once." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I have Stefan for you. Mr. Kemal.\n\nThank you, Paulina. I called up the holo display. Stefan was back into a beige singlesuit, with the gold chains.\n\n\"Stefan, you're concerned about money?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I told you I was.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You did.\" I nodded understandingly. \"Do you have the morning free on Monday? I'm playing golf with Emile Brazelton, but let me stop by before that. We can take a drive. Maybe you can join us. We can work out something. I've thought about it. It could be you're right. Houses and electrals are more expensive than when I was your age. Thirty percent more expensive, Poul tells me.\"\n\nHe looked dubious.\n\n\"Look, Stefan. When you collateralized that loan, Ashtay notified me. There are better ways to handle that. If you feel that desperate, we need to talk, and to work out something. You can't handle that kind of repayment for very long. The trust is a lifetime trust. There's nothing either of us can do about that. I hope you know what that means.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He tried to hide a look of defiance." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Think about it. This is going to cause your mother a great deal of concern. I'd rather work with you to find a way to work this out.\" I smiled. \"Have I ever not done what was best for the family?\"\n\n\"No.\"\n\n\"I'll pick you up at quarter to nine on Monday morning.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He looked like he might refuse, but thought the better of it. \"All right.\"" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 5 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Quarter to nine on Monday,\" I said it again. \"We'll figure out something.\" I broke the connection.\n\nNow, all I had to do was work out the details with Brazelton. I also had to make sure that the Smythers business was under control." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "CONTINUE STORY. PARAMETERS: six sentences sentences, Science Fiction genre." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "By Tuesday noon, right after lunch, I still hadn't gotten anything back from the feelers I'd put out about MMSystems. I had the committee staff asking all the space contractors for information on PDF-related contracts funded by the Legislature, and I'd had a few friends making inquiries. The fact that I hadn't heard anything was unsettling. People always wanted to hand over dirt about competitors or big government contracts—unless someone had a laser focused at their head.\n\nOther matters were going far more smoothly. The appropriations bills were moving, and there'd only been token opposition to my immigrant repayment amendment." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A few of the more is-olationistic types were shocked, but I'd just smiled. Once the precedent was set, later, a year or two, we could see about ratcheting up the repayment rates for future immigrants. We'd get there, just a bit more slowly. That was another beautiful aspect of politics—there was always another way to get there.\n\nCiella linked in. Senator, Mr. Christensen is here. He says he doesn't have an appointment, but he'll only be a minute." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Tell him that's about what he'll get." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I've got to go to committee." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But send him in." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Yes, sir.\n\nI was glad Ciella was back. I'd been worried that she might have been one of those affected by the ebol4 virus, but she'd said it had been a reaction to the nanomeds she'd gotten. It would have been a shame to have lost her. She was a truly beautiful girl.\n\nEric walked into the office, and I pulsed the door shut behind him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His face was tight." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He'd never have made it in politics. I could read him like a blown-up holo screen, and so could any good politician.\n\n\"I see you've got more good news.\" I offered a smile, the ironic one.\n\nEric looked around. I understood what he wanted, and punched the hidden stud for the privacy cone projector. We were surrounded by a cone of silence, and a gray misty field." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Nothing short of military equipment mounted just outside it could have made out what we said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There were some aspects of technology where I kept very current.\n\nHe sat down in the black leather chair across the desk from me. \"Have you heard? Dewey died in an accident. It wasn't an accident.\"\n\nI hadn't heard, but I'd been in committee meetings all morning. \"How? Where?\"\n\nEric snorted. \"On the Elletch Bridge. His electral swerved through the guideway and rail. That's impossible, and we both know it. The electral hit one of the retaining walls below, and the fuel cells ignited. Not much left. Especially of the control systems.\"\n\n\"Those district cars have restraint systems and redundant safety systems. That does lend some credence to your observation.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Eric nodded. \"By tomorrow, KC Constructors will be complaining that you killed him. The charge will be that you used politics to take the maintenance away from the company that built the system, and poor Coordinator Dewey died.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"An investigation will be inconclusive, I'm sure.\" I could hear the dryness in my voice. I doubted that it would be as direct as Eric predicted. Directness contains the danger of backfiring. Subtlety doesn't.\n\n\"No. It will show that the maintenance on the electral was poor. That won't be laid to you, but used in Alredd's campaign to point out the need for change in the coordinator's office. Also, someone high in the DPS might be in on this. Or at least the commissioner.\"\n\n\"Why do you think that?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"The DPS apologized for the handling of the McCall case, and some of the nets are suggesting now that McCall committed suicide because of his wife's accident and because he was distraught over the unfounded charges.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I thought about that. \"Someone doesn't want McCall's death investigated too closely.\"\n\n\"Has to be Kemal,\" Eric suggested.\n\n\"Kemal's too smart for that. There won't be a track to him.\"\n\n\"No,\" Eric agreed, \"but there might be to someone who knew, someone like Brazelton or Sandoval.\"\n\n\"Two or three steps removed. It's suggestive, and you're probably right, but if anyone made the charge without proof, and there won't be any, Kemal would gut their assets under the protections of the privacy laws, and any DPS officer who pushed it would be suspended or involuntarily retired.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I found myself pulling at my chin." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Have you found out any more about the MMSystems takeover?\"\n\n\"You think it's related?\"\n\n\"It could be. Or it could be coincidence.\" I frowned. \"I've got some inquiries out, but no answers. I don't like it when I don't get answers.\"\n\n\"Most senators don't,\" Eric pointed out.\n\n\"That's not what I meant. When I don't get answers, it's trouble. If they don't want to tell me, I get well-formulated nonsense and placating platitudes. If it's a pain in the ass, but not a real problem, I get more detail than anyone could ever want. If it's something I have the right to know, but is classified for security reasons, I get an invitation to a briefing and more cautions about the sensitive nature of the information than you could imagine. Here... there's nothing.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Eric looked skeptical." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I know. You have your doubts. But I'm getting answers on all my other inquiries. If I'd lost my office or my authority, I'd be stonewalled on everything. Everyone would decide I'm not a player. What all this means is something is about to happen, and no one wants to jump off the fence in either direction until they know which side to jump to.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You think it's the MMSystems business?\"\n\n\"It has to be, but you have to know something to ask the right questions or look for the right signs. Or bluff.\" It was still too early to bluff. That I could sense, and I've always been good at knowing that.\n\n\"Why don't you just call Rafael Martini and feel him out?\" suggested Eric.\n\nI laughed. There was no point in telling Eric I'd already decided to do that." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Let him think it was his idea. \"There is a certain beauty to the direct approach. He won't tell me anything, not directly.\" When I did call Martini, I'd have to handle it right, so that he'd reveal something by any reaction, or at least that he was hiding something.\n\n\"You'll find out,\" Eric said.\n\n\"If he'll talk to me.\"\n\n\"He will, if only to find out why you're calling.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Could be. I'll think about it. In the meantime, I've got a committee meeting.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I stood and flicked off the privacy screen.\n\nWith the smile of a man who knew something others didn't, Eric inclined his head, then turned and left.\n\nOnce the door shut, I linked. Ciella... put through a call to a Mr. Rafael Martini, the chairman and president of MMSystems. Tell Mr. Martini—or his simmie or secretary—that Senator Cannon will be calling shortly on a secure connection. Then tell me what the response is." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Yes, sir." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Then I pushed a link through to Steven Pagel, my committee counsel. Senator Cannon here. I'm going to be a little late. Would you give my office a link if a vote or an amendment I'm interested in is coming up?\n\nI'd be happy to do that, Senator.\n\nIn the past people had speculated that legislative voting would be done remotely, with VR conferencing or multi-holo projections. It didn't work out that way because the projections were too good and any remote access system could be counterfeited or overridden." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The only way to be certain someone was really that person was to have that person show up and pass a GIL scan on the way into the committee room or the Senate floor. Anything else could be and had been feited.\n\nSenator. Ciella linked through, Mr. Martini will be available for your call in fifteen minutes. He's in transit.\n\nThank you.\n\nTransit? I had my doubts. He probably wanted to record every word and gesture. That was fine." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I was more than used to that.\n\nSince there was little sense in leaving the office—it would take nearly five minutes to get to the committee room—I spent the time going through some of the briefing backgrounders Ted had prepared.\n\nExactly sixteen minutes later, I pushed through the holo call to MMSystems.\n\nThe holo image of Martini showed a dark-haired man with deep blue eyes and fair skin, who still looked in first youth, as opposed to nanite-prolonged youth. He smiled, but didn't speak.\n\n\"Mr. Martini,\" I offered." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Senator Cannon. What can I do for you?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Perhaps I can do something for you, Mr. Martini.\" I smiled warmly, paternally. \"You may know, or perhaps you don't, that I was a great admirer of your father, and what he had managed to accomplish with MMSystems.\"\n\n\"He did a great deal, but I have my doubts that admiration prompted your call.\"\n\n\"Oh, but it does, Mr. Martini. It does. I was distressed at the reports about the dealings with the Martian Republic.\" Another smile, this one understanding." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"But even in the best of organizations, especially in transition, such things can occur. We all understand that.\" I could tell he knew I was about to drop something on him, and that meant there was something to drop.\n\n\"As I recall, the Executory's investigation cleared the company of any illegality.\" Martini tried his own smile. It wasn't bad. \"But I do appreciate your concerns.\"\n\n\"Part of that might well be attributed to, shall we say, good will? And to your father's reputation. If anything else were to occur, not that I'm suggesting it will in any way, it might well be handled with...\" I paused just briefly, \"less delicacy.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Senator, I do appreciate your courtesy, but someone must have misinformed you, and I would hate to have you spend your valuable time in an election year with concerns over such misinformation.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Well... if that's the case, I certainly won't give it another thought.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I smiled again, this time falsely, falsely enough that he could see it. \"And I wish you the very best in continuing the family traditions. I'm most sorry to have bothered you.\"\n\n\"Senator, we all appreciate your concern for both NorAm and your constituents, and no one would ever consider a call from you a bother.\"\n\n\"Thank you very much, Mr. Martini.\" Still smiling, I broke the connection.\n\nI couldn't prove it in the conventional way, but Martini was up to something, and I had the feeling that Eric had been right and that Martini was selling." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The odds were that, somehow, either Kemal, or someone like him, was doing the buying, because MMSystems' capitalization was so large that it had to be someone who could marshal the credits without selling stock or other assets, and there were only a handful of people in NorAm who could do that." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It wouldn't hurt to check, if I could figure out a way that wouldn't break the privacy restrictions.\n\nTed?\n\nYes, sir?\n\nHave Alicia do some research. We need to know if anyone has been selling large positions in any equities over the past three months. Just have her run a search program on bloc equity volumes, say one percent or more of any major cap issues." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "keep the story goin for like six sentences more. make it Science Fiction-y" }, { "from": "human", "value": "By Thursday, I wasn't sure where the week had gone." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "ODs had gone down again during the week. Nothing from CDC. Nothing more that I could tie to the McCall case. Could feel that things were happening, but no signs showed up in DPS.\n\nTook the white electral. Made another sweep of westside. Came up with nothing." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Came back and found Parsfal's message. Worried about returning the call. Wondered if he was going to blow the story. Called him back anyway. He told me about Smythers's death and the McCall connection. He had good instincts." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Wished we'd known about the connection earlier." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Sometimes luck doesn't come to you.\n\nFinished with Parsfal, and linked to the system. Searched for Smythers. Only a routine report on the fire. Wondered how much else Parsfal knew. Probably not a lot. Newsies would cast it if they knew anything that a solicitor would back." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Neither he nor Kerras were blabbing. Meant they might suspect, but knew less than I did. None of us could prove squat.\n\nTook a deep breath and linked to Kirchner. Kirchner... Chiang here. Hoped he'd answer. Be easier that way." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "What do you need, Chiang?\n\nQuarantine and complete workup on a fire site. Smythers... this morning.\n\nThere was a moment of silence. Mind if I ask why?\n\nJust appreciate if you'd do it. Once we get the results... let you know." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Also, I'll be sending some techs as well, specialized.\n\nYou really think this is linked to McCall?\n\nI didn't answer.\n\nCouldn't be anything else, could it?\n\nCould be... might not be.\n\nYour ass, Chiang." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Better mine than yours.\n\nKirchner laughed.\n\nI didn't bother with a link on the next. Just rushed out past Sarao.\n\n\"On my way to tech. Probably to the captain's office after that.\" I took the ramps fast." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Not a run, but a stiff walk all the way to the tech side." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Duty tech sergeant was Sorgio, not Darcy." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Would be a little easier.\n\n\"Is Tech Specialist Moorty available for a rush job, Sergeant?\"\n\nShe frowned, but her face blanked, checking the link. \"He's just coming up from the garage, Lieutenant.\"\n\n\"Good. I'll be needing him.\"\n\n\"He's scheduled to—\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Unless it's the Smythers case, this is priority. You can check with the captain if you want.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"That won't be necessary, ser. We're not that tight now. Will he need a partner?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Yes. I'd prefer Alfonso, if you can spare him.\"\n\nSorgio smiled. \"They're together anyway.\"\n\nMoorty saw me as he walked in. He grinned. \"More of the same, Lieutenant?\"\n\nAlfonso frowned.\n\n\"Could be,\" I answered." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"There was a fire of suspicious origin this morning. Except it wasn't caught as suspicious until a few minutes ago. Smythers. It's on the system.\"\n\nMoorty's face blanked as he linked. Then he refocused on me. \"Yes, ser. Same drill?\"\n\nAlfonso came off the link a few seconds after Moorty, but he didn't say anything.\n\nWaited until they both were looking at me." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I want every aspect of that system checked, even the subnodes. I'd bet that most of the main controls are so much slag or melted rubbish. Lieutenant Kirchner is also sending a team.\"\n\nSorgio's eyes flashed between Moorty and me.\n\n\"You want everything?\" Moorty asked.\n\n\"Everything that will show whether there was something strange about the systems. Need to know if they were straight or if they were gimmicked. Anything that would show who built the systems, if they were changed, and who changed them. If you can.\"\n\nMoorty looked at Alfonso. \"Seems clear enough. Better get a new kit.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He looked at me.\n\n\"Trendside will pay,\" I conceded.\n\nBoth techs and Sorgio smiled.\n\nAfter Alfonso and Moorty left, I went back upstairs. The captain had left while I was sending out Moorty, and she wasn't expected back that afternoon.\n\nLeft a link message." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Captain, Lieutenant Chiang here." }, { "from": "human", "value": "We may have more developments on the McCall case." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Won't know until tomorrow morning, when the lab and tech analyses are done." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I'll let you know." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Then I went down to my office. Sat and looked at the Park for a few minutes. Then linked Sarao. Can you see if CDC has anything on that rez stuff we sent them?\n\nI already checked. They've got something.\n\nThey do?\n\nSarao's laugh came across both the net and through the door." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They aren't saying anything. They're looking into it. I asked them when they started, and they said they've been working on it for a while. They'll let us know.\n\nThanks.\n\nI could figure out most of the murders." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Couldn't prove it. Couldn't figure out why, either." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Key was what McCall had known. Kemal was into securities manipulation, but CerraCraft was too small, and he owned it already. He didn't need to manipulate all the stuff KC controlled, like CerraCraft or Brazelton. It looked legit, as legitimate as anything Kemal was into. Why the securities manipulation, whatever it was? Kemal had more than enough credits to ease into most businesses." }, { "from": "human", "value": "So it had to be bigger. A lot bigger." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The question was still why. And what." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Somehow the Cewrigh angle fit, too." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Just didn't know how.\n\nSpent the next hours reviewing everything. Didn't learn anything new.\n\nIt was sixteen-ten when Sarao linked in. Lieutenant, Moorty says you hit it. They're on their way back." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Estimate they'll be below in ten minutes.\n\nI'm heading down.\n\nKirchner came down the ramp right behind me. We both stopped in the garage foyer.\n\nLooked at him.\n\n\"You were right. How did you know?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"It had to be. McCall was always talking to Smythers, but I didn't find that out until this afternoon.\"\n\nMoorty and Alfonso were the first in. Moorty grinned at me, then shook his head. I understood. I'd been right. Smythers wasn't an unfortunate death. Another murder.\n\nThe two homicide types followed them." }, { "from": "human", "value": "For a moment, everyone just stood there." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "So I spoke. \"Let's go to the level-one conference room.\"\n\nWe all walked up. Techs carried their kits.\n\nRoom wasn't that big, not with the two techs and the two from homicide and Kirchner and me. Six of us at a round table for four. Kits against the wall." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Had to pull in two chairs from against the wall." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Techs smelled of fire." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "All of them had charcoal and smudges on their singlesuits.\n\n\"Why don't you start?\" I looked at the pair from homicide—Petry and Weems. Petry was a tall and square blonde woman. Weems was new, dark-haired, sallow, shy. Didn't look directly at either Kirchner or me." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Petry glanced at Weems, cleared her throat." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It didn't look like arson to begin with, more like a malfunctioning fuel cell. The fire started around the fuel cell and spread from there. Weems caught it. He found a section of the casing, and it was melted between the inner and outer casings.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Someone had filled the casings with something?\"\n\nWeems nodded, then spoke. Voice was so low I had to jack up my nanite enhancers. \"The laboratory should be able to tell us what it was. Something tailor-made to look like insulation, I would guess, ser, and probably corrosive. I'd guess it was designed to eat through inner jacket, and then react.\"\n\n\"The other cells were tailored, too, but more to react to heat,\" Petry added. \"At least, that's what the combustion patterns looked like.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"They'd explode only when the one caught fire?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Both Kirchner's techs nodded.\n\nLooked to Moorty. \"What did you find?\"\n\n\"The nanite systems were gimmicked, ser. The main box was destroyed, but the last command was frozen in the subsidiary nodes. The defense screens were at full.\"\n\n\"Smythers couldn't get out?\"\n\n\"The emergency overrides were disabled. You couldn't have gotten through those screens with an orbiter—until the cells powering the screens went. By then, temperature was close to five hundred, even in the coolest places.\"\n\n\"So his house was designed with a separate system for the defense screens?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Moorty shook his head." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"An auxiliary system. A lot of filch places have it. Main system goes down, then a hidden backup system takes over. Usually only lasts for an hour or so. That's to prevent someone from gimmicking the main power system and looting the place.\"\n\n\"Anything else?\"\n\n\"It was very professional. No hack and splice job.\"\n\nI nodded slowly. \"I'll need a report. First thing in the morning. Trendside will pay the overtime. I want to know everything you found out about the systems. Who built and installed them, if possible, and when they were last serviced, and by whom. That's in addition to the normal arson requirements.\" Turned to Kirchner. \"Can your people do the same sort of thing?\"\n\nHe grinned. \"With you footing the overtime, you'll have it. More data than you ever wanted.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He might have been right about that." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Just hoped we could get something solid out of all the lab reports. One other thing bothered me. Someone had gone to extremes to avoid the appearance of murder. Almost as if they expected each one would be hushed up so long as it didn't happen to be an obvious killing.\n\nKirchner didn't say a word until we were walking up the ramp. \"This could get tough, Chiang.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It could.\"" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 2 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "We both knew it might get worse than that. There were too many bodies and too much technology involved for it to be simple." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "lets do a Science Fiction thing. u write three sentences bits like L. E. Modesitt Jr would" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "By Friday morning, I was stewing. Almost a week had passed, and I'd gotten nothing from Chiang. Bimstein had been on me all week about one thing and another, and I was about ready to break the McCall-related stuff, regardless of my promise to Chiang." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I hadn't more than walked in the office when Istancya was standing there." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Her face was frozen, as if she'd had bad news of some sort.\n\n\"What is it?\"\n\n\"Les Kerras died last night.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"They think he had a heart attack.\"\n\n\"People don't have heart attacks anymore. Not many do,\" I added. \"Where?\"\n\n\"In his office.\" She looked down." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Bimstein just linked. He said Paula Lopes would be taking over for him for now.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Parsfal!\n\nI winced. I'm here.\n\nWe need an analysis of the impact of the economic sanctions the Martian Republic just proposed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I'm sending over the draft they sent to the NorAm Executive." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Need something within the hour. Feed it to Metesta.\n\n\"Bimstein?\" Istancya whispered." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I nodded." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I'll do what I can.\n\nDo better than that. With that, he was off-link." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Bimstein,\" I said slowly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"He wants an economic and tech analysis of the economic sanctions being threatened by the Martian Republic. He wants it now. He didn't say anything about Kerras.\"\n\n\"Les doesn't matter, now.\" Istancya gave a small sad smile." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"He was a disposable T-head. The news must go on.\"\n\nI nodded. Then, I walked slowly into my cubicle and sat down in front of the console. Les Kerras... dead? A heart attack in his office?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I had my doubts." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Bimstein hadn't said a word about Kerras, as if he were already forgotten and cremated.\n\nThere was a set of lines in my mind... not mine... but those of the Irish bard.\n\nThe years to come seemed waste of breath," }, { "from": "human", "value": "A waste of breath the years behind" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "To balance with this life, this death...\n\nNo one even had a moment to spare to consider Les Kerras. Or what his life meant." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I sat there in front of my console, taking a moment before calling up whatever it was that Bimstein had sent." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I looked at the console. It had been moved. Not a lot, but just a little." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I frowned and started to sit down." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Then I looked again." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There was an envelope wedged under my console. I eased it out.\n\nMy name was written on it—Jude." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Finally, I opened it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Jude—\n\nIf I'm still here, just keep this for reference. If I'm not, you know what to do." }, { "from": "human", "value": "KCF Management = Asset and control dump for trusts held by the children and grandchildren of Arturo Kemal." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Irrevocable life trusts to each child. Each trust holds 4.5% of the stock in MMSystems. It's not that simple." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Each trust owns 55% of the stock in another holding company, and in some cases, two. There are ten trusts in KCF. Sketched out the pattern on the next sheet." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Chris Kemal holds 5.5% percent of the MMSystems stock outright... also is the executive officer of KCF (aka Kemal Children's Fund) and of his own personal holding company (ChrisCo)." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "All the secondary holding companies are operated by Kemal family members or by trusted subordinates.\n\nIrrevocable trusts not considered \"controlled\" by the giver or trustee under NorAm law. Privacy law prevails.\n\nMcCall was the one to set this up, before he left O'Bannon and Reyes." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Also... found sizable transfers from the Nauruan National Bank to one of Kemal's holding companies—ChrisCo." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Sizable means nearly a billion credits over a year." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "NNB is the bank that handles the Earthside funding for the Martian Republic. Couldn't confirm. That's because NNB is the only large financial institution that has refused transparency in the case of suspected criminal activities.\n\nNASR is hiding things." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Don't know what. No one there will talk. Not officially. Cannon knows some of this, but I don't know what he'll do. If anything happens, let Chiang know. In person." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I couldn't reach him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Clearly, Les had set out what he'd known in a hurry. But why me?\n\nI looked at the two thin sheets behind the scrawled letter. Then, I looked again." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Istancya!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She darted into the room." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I need a favor. A big favor. Les left me something, and I have to go to DPS. Bimstein wants an economic analysis of the economic sanctions threatened by the Martian Republic. I told you that—\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'm not an economist,\" she protested.\n\n\"I know. I can rough out the numbers, and the salient points in a few minutes. Could I beg you to polish them and send them to Metesta?\"\n\n\"You beg so well, Jude.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She laughed ruefully. \"I'll do what I can.\" She paused." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Is what Les left you important?\"\n\n\"He thought it was. But I can't take it to Bimstein without DPS clearance.\"\n\n\"You'd better get busy on the numbers. I'll watch and ask questions.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She stood behind me as I worked and tried to explain what I'd done and why. The numbers weren't my best, but they were in the right district, so to speak. The threatened sanctions would hit Afrique the hardest, then EastAsia, and the SudAm." }, { "from": "human", "value": "That made sense, because those continents has less advanced formulator technology." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I threw together two charts and a colored map, and then gave Istancya a hug. \"Thank you!\"\n\n\"You owe me.\" She said it warmly.\n\nAfter that, I went down the hall." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Kerras's office was open." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Rehm was standing there. He looked at me. \"All his files are gone. Bimstein wanted me to check. There's nothing there. Someone wiped them. Or maybe Bimstein transferred them.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"That's strange.\" It wasn't, but it was better to say that it was." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You'd better tell Bimstein.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Rehm frowned. \"Would you want to tell him?\"\n\n\"No. But he asked you to look.\" I offered a sympathetic laugh." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Better you than me.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "As I went back to my cubicle, I had to laugh again, if quietly and ruefully." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Kerras's console and files had been carefully erased, of everything. No one even thought that there might be something else left.\n\n\"I thought you were going,\" Istancya said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Loose ends. I'll be on my way in a minute.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Then I scanned the sheets Les had left into the system and set it to fire off copies under certain circumstances. The addressees included a number of people, including a couple of senators.\n\nI did take an electrocab to get to DPS." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I got stopped in the DPS foyer by the automatic gates and a simmie that declared I wasn't cleared." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "So I put through a call from there to Chiang.\n\nOf course, all I got was his simmie.\n\n\"It's urgent.\" That must have been a code word because a brown-haired sergeant appeared." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Yes? May I help you?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"This is Jude Parsfal, and I'm stopped down in the lobby. I need to see Lieutenant Chiang, and it's very urgent.\"\n\n\"I'm sorry, Mr. Parsfal, but he's tied up right now.\"\n\n\"The last time I had to wait to get to him he was not happy, Sergeant. Tell him I have some information that he needs urgently. I do mean urgently. About the McCall case.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I'll see what I can do.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I stood there and watched the empty space where the holo projection had been.\n\nThe sergeant's image reappeared.\n\n\"He'll link with you. He says to keep it short.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Is he here in the building? This shouldn't go too many places.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Another pause and blankness before the sergeant reappeared. \"Come up to the third level.\"\n\nI had barely reached the third level, where the sergeant whose image had instructed me sat behind an arc of consoles." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Chiang appeared. He looked disgruntled." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What do you have, Parsfal?\"\n\n\"Some more information on why—\"\n\n\"This way.\" He turned." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I followed him back into his small office." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Before he could say anything, I handed him the hard copy. \"Kerras died last night. He left this hidden for me. I don't think his death was as natural as Bimstein does. All of Kerras's files were wiped. McCall set up the holding companies that are buying MMSystems. That's hard. Kerras also got far enough to think that Kemal was fronting for the Martian Republic in buying MMSystems.\"\n\nChiang scanned the hard copy." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A cold smile crossed his face. \"This is good. Do you know where Kerras got this?\"\n\n\"Someone at NASR I'd guess, but I can't confirm that.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"We're getting close.\" He looked hard at me." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Not a word. You say one word, have you cited for every minor offense you make for the rest of your life.\"\n\nI glared back at him. \"Senator Cannon already knows some of this. If he goes public, we have to. You can't make my life much worse than Bimstein can if someone else gets this. I've played square with you longer than any other researcher or T-head would. I can't sit on all this much longer. Hours at the most.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The lieutenant actually sighed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Figured as much. Hold off three hours, and I'll give you what we have. It's more than you have.\"\n\nI thought. Three hours. It would take me an hour to put what I had in usable form." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I'll try for three. I can give you two for sure.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Try hard, Parsfal.\"\n\n\"I'll try, but that depends on Senator Cannon and the other nets, Lieutenant.\"\n\n\"The longer you can hold, the more I'll be able to give you.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He folded the two sheets." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"If you want that story, I need to be moving.\" He just stood there looking at me.\n\n\"Thanks, Lieutenant. I'll give you as much time as I can.\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Hey can you write like L. E. Modesitt Jr and use whatever i write as a jumping off point?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "From \"The Importance of Irrationality\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Etymology Quarterly" }, { "from": "human", "value": "June, A.D. 2364" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Kemal" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Marissa and I woke around nine." }, { "from": "human", "value": "We decided to eat breakfast on the enclosed sun porch." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The morning sun there warmed the room." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The miniature lemon trees along the east wall gave the room a moist and fragrant feel." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Marissa set down her coffee." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You didn't sleep that well. Are you sure you're all right?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"There are some loose ends...\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I heard about Emile Brazelton's arrest. It's on all the news nets. Some of them are saying that it's tied to your takeover of MMSystems.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I'm sure it is. They don't want me to have the company.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I laughed. \"That's clear enough. They'd charge me with anything from child abuse to murder if they thought it would keep me from taking over. That's why O'Bannon called last night. I told him to get ready for the worst.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I thought it might be something like that.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Her hand reached across the table and squeezed mine." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It's going to be bad, isn't it?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Yes. I didn't want to bother you with it. I just wanted to enjoy the weekend.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I had wanted that, and I'd enjoyed the evening with Marissa." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "We hadn't had too many evenings like that in the past months." }, { "from": "human", "value": "There would be few ahead either, I feared." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Marissa turned. Fred had knocked on the door frame." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Mr. Kemal? There's a Mr. Massin for you. He said it was important.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Marissa raised her eyebrows." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'll try to make this quick.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I'd said that the night before, but nothing was likely to be quick in the days and weeks ahead." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I nodded to Fred." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Show him to the study.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Ashtay probably had bad news as well, especially if he'd traveled from Denv to find me." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I took a last sip of coffee, then rose from the small table." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I smiled at Marissa." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Don't leave. I'll be back.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I'll be here, dear.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I'd been so lucky with her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She was beauty itself, and I'd never forgotten that, not over all the years." }, { "from": "human", "value": "With a smile, I walked to the study." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Ashtay was standing beside the bookcase that held the leather-bound pre-Collapse books that few knew my father had collected over his lifetime." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Good morning, Mr. Kemal.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "I closed the door, and then eased behind the desk, where the screens there would protect me from anything short of ultra-ex." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Good morning, Ashtay. I imagine it must be important for you to come all this way on a weekend. What is it?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Ashtay turned. \"You should know. I'm not Ashtay. I talk like him. I look like him. I'll register as him.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I studied the man who said he wasn't Ashtay." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He registered as human, but he could have been a clone." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The scanners didn't show any weapons." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What do you want?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"To tell you that the game is over. The risk has become too high for the Republic. The agreement is terminated. Your family will be safe.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What—\"" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 2 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Blinding white flared from Ashtay. I tried to drop behind the desk, but the whiteness flared through the screens. Then... blackness..." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Expand on the story, staying true to the Science Fiction, Space Opera genre." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Night was approaching on the planet of Juxhi." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The dim orange sun was setting on the horizon and Yando, the smaller of the world's two moons, was already approaching its zenith. For the next twenty minutes darkness would reign. Then Budmi, Yando's larger twin, would begin to rise, and the darkness would give way to an eerie twilight.\n\nSaren Arterius, a turian Spectre, waited patiently for the sun to disappear. For several hours Saren had been perched atop a rock outcropping, staking out a small, isolated warehouse in the desert on the outskirts of Phend, Juxhi's capital city." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Built in the sheltering stones of a small canyon, the run-down building was completely unremarkable, except for the fact that an illegal weapons deal was about to go down there." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The buyers were already inside: a group of guntoting thugs with basic military training known as the Grim Skulls, one of the many private security organizations active in the Verge. The Skulls were small, a few dozen criminal mercenaries who had never been worth Saren's attention before tonight. Then they'd made the mistake of thinking they could purchase a stolen shipment of military-grade weapons that had disappeared from a turian transport freighter.\n\nHis ears caught the sound of an engine in the distance, and a few minutes later a six-wheeled ATV rolled up and came to a stop beside the shed. A half-dozen men got out; two were turian, the others human." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Even in the dim light, Saren recognized one of the turians immediately: a dockworker from the Camala ports.\n\nHe'd been following the dockworker for days, ever since he checked the duty logs to see who was on shift when the shipment went missing. Only one worker hadn't shown up for work the next day; figuring out who the thief was had been embarrassingly easy.\n\nTracking him down wasn't much harder. This entire operation reeked of amateurs in over their heads, from the theft to the buyers." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Normally Saren would've turned the matter over to local authorities and moved on to something bigger." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But turians selling weapons to humans was something he took personally." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The door to the shed opened, and four of the figures, including both turians, unloaded a crate from the back of the ATV and carried it inside." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The other two took up sentry positions beside the door." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Saren shook his head in disbelief as he snapped his night-vision goggles into place." }, { "from": "human", "value": "What possible use was there in leaving two men to stand guard outside a warehouse in the middle of nowhere?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They had no cover; they were completely exposed.\n\nRaising his Izaali Combine–manufactured sniper rifle to his eye, he fired two shots and both sentries slumped to the ground. Moving with an almost casual efficiency, he collapsed the sniper rifle and slid it back into the designated slot on his backpack. A more professional operation would have someone on the inside periodically checking on the sentries... or wouldn't have left them out there in the first place.\n\nIt took him ten minutes to clamber down from his perch on the rock face." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "By then the twin moons were both visible, giving enough illumination for him to stash his goggles back into his pack.\n\nWhipping out the Haliat Arms semiautomatic assault rifle from where it clicked into place on his thigh, he approached the building's entrance. He'd scouted the warehouse earlier; he knew there were no windows and no other doors. Everyone inside was trapped—further proof he was dealing with idiots.\n\nHe pressed himself against the door, listening carefully." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Inside he could hear angry bickering. Apparently nobody had the foresight to spell out the terms of the exchange before the meeting; either that or somebody was trying to renegotiate the deal. Professionals didn't make that mistake: get to the meeting, make the exchange, and get out. The longer you're there, the more chance something's going to go wrong.\n\nSaren pulled three incendiary grenades from his belt, primed them, and began to count silently to himself." }, { "from": "human", "value": "When he reached five he yanked open the door, tossed all three grenades in, slammed the door shut, and ran for cover behind the ATV." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The explosion blew the door off its hinges, sending smoke, flame, and debris shooting out the opening. Inside he heard screams and the sound of gunfire as the terrified men inside panicked. Burned and blinded, they started shooting wildly, each side convinced they'd been betrayed by the other. For a full twenty seconds the echo of gunfire reverberating off the warehouse's metal walls drowned out every other sound.\n\nThen everything went still." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Saren aimed his weapon at the door, and was rewarded a few seconds later when two men came charging out, guns blazing." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He took the first square in the chest with a short burst from his assault rifle, then ducked behind the tail end of the ATV for cover as the surviving merc returned fire. A quick roll brought Saren to the front of the vehicle, and when he popped up his enemy still had his weapon aimed at the back end, waiting for Saren to reemerge. At point-blank range the rounds from Saren's assault rifle sheared off half of the guy's head.\n\nFor good measure, Saren lobbed two more grenades into the open door. Instead of a fiery explosion, these released a noxious cloud when they detonated." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He heard more shouts and screams, followed by choking coughs. Three more mercs stumbled out of the shed one by one, each blind and gagging from the poison gas. Not one of them even returned fire as Saren mowed them down.\n\nHe waited a few more minutes, letting the deadly fog clear, then sprinted from his position behind the truck to the edge of the door. He poked his head inside for an instant, then ducked back out of the way." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The warehouse was littered with a dozen bodies." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Some had been shot, several were burned, and the rest were twisted into horrific contortions from the gas causing their muscles to seize and spasm as they died." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Several weapons were scattered about, dropped by their owners in their death throes." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The crate they had carried inside on their arrival sat in the middle of the floor, unopened." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Aside from that, the warehouse was empty.\n\nAssault rifle in hand, Saren made his way from body to body, slowly working his way from the door toward the back of the warehouse as he checked for signs of life. With the toe of his shoe, he rolled over a charred turian who had fallen near the crate. One half of his face was burned, the carapace crispy and brittle. The flesh beneath it had melted, fusing the eyelids on the left side together." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A small moan escaped his lips, and his good eye fluttered open." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Who... who are you?\" he croaked.\n\n\"A Spectre,\" Saren replied, standing over him.\n\nHe coughed, spewing up dark phlegm that was mostly a mix of blood and poison.\n\n\"Please... help me.\"\n\n\"You are in violation of interstellar law,\" Saren recited in a cold, passionless voice." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You are a thief, a smuggler, and a traitor to our species.\"\n\nThe dying man tried to say something, but only coughed again. His breath was labored: the acrid smoke from the incendiary grenades had seared his lungs, damaging them so badly he hadn't been able to breathe in enough of the poison gas to kill him. If he received immediate medical attention there was still a small chance he might survive... but Saren had no intention of taking him to a hospital.\n\nSnapping his assault rifle back into the slot on his thigh, Saren dropped down on one knee and leaned in close to the other turian's flame-ravaged features." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You steal weapons from your own people, and then you sell them to humans?\" he demanded in a fierce whisper. \"Do you know how many turians I saw die by human hands?\"\n\nIt took a tremendous effort, but somehow the burned man managed to mutter four faint words in feeble protest through his scorched lips. \"That... war... is... over.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Saren stood up and pulled his pistol in one smooth motion. \"Tell that to our dead brothers.\" He fired two shots into the turian's head, ending the conversation.\n\nPistol still in hand, he resumed his inspection of the bodies. He noticed two human corpses near the back wall of the warehouse, noticeably less gruesome than the others." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The grenades had detonated up near the front of the building and these mercs had taken less damage. Even the poison would have dissipated by the time it reached all the way back here, explaining why the bodies weren't twisted and contorted like the others. They must have been killed by friendly fire.\n\nHe approached the first one carefully, then relaxed when he saw clear evidence that the man was truly dead: six finger-sized holes in a tight pattern showed where the close-range blast of a scatter gun had torn through the front of his protective vest, creating a single fist-sized hole as the rounds exited his back.\n\nThe final corpse had fallen facedown in a pool of his own blood." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The scatter-gun that must have inadvertently killed the man beside him lay on the ground... a hair's breadth away from the body's limp, lifeless hand." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Saren froze, suddenly wary. Something wasn't right. His eyes scanned the motionless figure, seeking out the lethal wound. There was a gaping hole in the side of his upper thigh, the likely source of all the blood, but because of how he'd landed, no other injuries were visible.\n\nHis eyes snapped back to the thigh: blood still should have been dripping from the wound, but the flow was staunched. As if someone had sealed it with a quick application of medigel." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Move your hand away from your weapon and roll over,\" Saren called out, raising his pistol and holding it in both hands as he aimed it at the corpse, \"or I'll shoot you right now.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "After a second, the hand slowly drew back from the scatter-gun." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The man rolled onto his back, gasping loudly for air: he'd been holding his breath as Saren approached, trying to play dead.\n\n\"Please don't kill me,\" he begged as Saren took a step toward him, the pistol trained on the spot right between his eyes. \"I didn't even fight in the First Contact War!\"\n\n\"Some Spectres arrest people,\" Saren said, his tone casual. \"I don't.\"\n\n\"Wait!\" the man screamed, scrambling back until he was pressed up against the wall." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Wait! I have information!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Saren didn't say anything. Instead, he lowered the gun and gave a short nod.\n\n\"It's another group of mercs. The Blue Suns.\"\n\nEvery Spectre working in the Verge knew the Blue Suns were a force to be reckoned with. A small but well-known group, their members were both experienced and professional." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The exact opposite of this crew.\n\n\"Go on.\"\n\n\"They're up to something. Something big.\"\n\n\"What?\"\n\n\"I... I don't know,\" the man stammered, wincing as if he expected to be shot for the admission." }, { "from": "human", "value": "After the second it took him to realize he was still alive, he plowed forward, speaking quickly." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"That's how we got in on this buy. The Blue Suns were supposed to take the shipment, but they pulled out. I heard they got a major job in the works. Something they didn't want to risk by drawing the attention of a Spectre with a weapons buy.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Saren was intrigued. Whatever they were up to had to be big: the Blue Suns almost never turned their backs on a deal they'd already negotiated." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "If they were trying that hard to keep Spectres out of the picture, it meant he damn well better find out what was going on.\n\n\"What else?\"\n\n\"That's all I know,\" the man said. \"I swear! If you want more you need to look at the Blue Suns.\n\n\"So... do we have a deal?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Saren gave a derisive snort. \"Deal?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You know... I give you information about the Blue Suns and you let me live.\"\n\nThe Spectre raised his pistol again. \"You should've negotiated before you spilled your guts. You've got nothing left to bargain with.\"\n\n\"What? No, please! Don't—\"\n\nThe pistol put an end to his protests, and Saren turned and walked calmly back outside, leaving the carnage of the warehouse behind." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He'd alert the local authorities once he got back to Phend so they could retrieve the stolen weapons... and clean up the mess.\n\nSaren's mind was already on his next job. Initially he'd dismissed the news of Sidon's destruction. He figured it would eventually lead back to some radical splinter group of batarian rebels, a retaliation against humanity's efforts to push their main rivals out of the Verge. But if the attack wasn't the work of political terrorists, then the Blue Suns were one of the few private security organizations with the capability to pull it off." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Saren had every intention of finding out who had hired them and why. And he knew just where to start his investigation.\n\nAnderson had spent the better part of two days reviewing Kahlee Sanders's personnel file, trying to make sense of it.\n\nThe physical data was straightforward: age, 26; height, 5 feet 5 inches; weight, 120 pounds. The ID picture in her file showed she had predominantly Caucasian features: complexion, fair; eyes, light brown; hair, dark blond." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She was attractive, but Anderson doubted anyone would ever have called her cute." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There was a hard edge to her expression, as if she were looking for a fight.\n\nThat wasn't surprising, given her personal background. According to the file she had grown up in the Texan megapolis formed by the union of Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio; one of the poorer regions on Earth. She was raised by a single mother, a factory worker making minimum wage. Enlisting with the Alliance had probably been her only chance to get a better life, though she hadn't signed up until the age of twenty-two, shortly after her mother's death." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Most recruits signed up before they were twenty." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Anderson had joined the day he turned eighteen. But despite her late start, or maybe because of it, Kahlee Sanders had excelled at basic training. She was competent in hand-to-hand combat and weapons training, but her true aptitude had been in the technology fields.\n\nAccording to her file she'd taken entry-level computing courses in the years leading up to her enlistment, and once she joined she threw herself into the study of advanced programming, data communication networks, and prototype systems architectures. She finished at the top of her class, completing a three-year program in only two." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Personality tests and psych evaluations showed she was intelligent, with a strong sense of personal identity and self-worth. Evaluations from peers and superior officers showed she was cooperative, popular, and an asset to any team she worked with. It was no wonder she'd been assigned to the Sidon project.\n\nAnd that's why none of this felt right. Anderson knew the difference between a good soldier and a bad one." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Kahlee Sanders was definitely a good soldier. She may have initially joined the Alliance as an escape, seeking a better life than the one she had on Earth. But she had found exactly what she was looking for. She'd experienced nothing but success, accolades, and rewards since joining the military. Plus, with her mother gone, she had no other family and no real friends outside her fellow soldiers." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Anderson couldn't come up with a single reason she would turn against the Alliance." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Even greed didn't make sense: everyone at Sidon was pulling down a top salary." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Besides, Anderson knew enough about human nature to understand that it took more than simple greed to convince a person to aid in the slaughter of the people they lived and worked with every day.\n\nOne more thing bothered him about this. If Sanders was the traitor, why had she disappeared the day before the attack and drawn attention to herself? All she had to do was show up for her regular shift and it would have been assumed that she was one of the bodies vaporized in the explosion. It felt like someone was setting her up." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But he couldn't deny that her sudden disappearance was too suspicious to be dismissed as mere coincidence. He needed to figure out what was going on, and so far his only possible clue was what wasn't in her file. Kahlee Sanders's father was officially listed as \"unknown.\" In this day and age of universal birth control to deal with rising populations, as well as massive DNA data banks, it was virtually impossible not to know the identity of a child's parents... unless it was being specifically hidden.\n\nDigging deeper into official files had shown all references to Kahlee Sanders's father had been purged: hospital records, immunization reports... everything." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was as if someone had actively tried to cut him out of her life. Someone with enough importance to falsify government documents.\n\nKahlee and her mother both had to be part of the cover-up. If her mother had wanted the father's identity exposed, there would have been no way to stop her. And Kahlee could easily have gotten a DNA test anytime she wanted." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They had to know, but for some reason they didn't want anyone else knowing." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "However, neither one of them had the kind of financial resources or political clout it would take to pull something like that off. Which meant someone else—probably the father—had also been involved. If Anderson could figure out who the father was, and why he'd been expunged from all official records, it might help him figure out how Kahlee Sanders was tied up in the attack on Sidon.\n\nUnfortunately, he'd exhausted all official channels. Fortunately, there were other ways to dig up buried secrets." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Which was why he was now standing in a dark alley in the wards, waiting to meet with an information broker." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He had shown up a few minutes early, eager to see what the broker's search would turn up. Not surprisingly, his contact wasn't here yet. He spent the next few minutes waiting, occasionally pacing back and forth as the seconds dragged by.\n\nA figure stepped into view just as his watch beeped on the hour, materializing from the shadows. As she approached, it quickly became clear that she was a salarian." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Shorter and thinner than humans, salarians resembled a cross between some kind of lizard or chameleon and the \"grays\" described by alleged victims during the rash of fictitious alien abductions reported back on Earth in the late twentieth century. Anderson wondered if she'd been there the whole time, observing him as she waited patiently for the moment of their appointed meeting to arrive.\n\n\"Did you find anything?\" he asked the woman he had hired to scour the extranet for any clues as to the identity of Kahlee Sanders's father.\n\nTrillions of tetragigs of data were transmitted in bursts across the extranet every day; there had to be something useful buried in there." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But searching a functionally infinite amount of data for a specific piece of information could be an exercise in pointless frustration." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It would take days to collect, process, and scan every burst... and even then the output might be millions and millions of pages of hard copy." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "That's where information brokers came in—specialists who used complex algorithms and custom-designed search engines to limit and sort the data. Mastering the extranet was as much an art as a science, and salarians excelled at the art of gathering confidential information.\n\nThe salarian blinked her large eyes. \"I warned you there might not be much to find,\" she said, speaking quickly. Salarians always spoke quickly." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Records from before your species linked to the extranet are sporadic.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Anderson had expected as much. Archives from the days predating the First Contact War were slowly being added to the extranet by various government agencies, but the input of old records was a minor priority for every administration. Given Sanders's age, it was likely her father disappeared from her life long before humanity ever came into contact with the greater galactic community.\n\n\"So you've got nothing?\"\n\nThe salarian smiled. \"That's not what I said. It was difficult to track down, but there was something. It seems the left hand of the Alliance is unaware of what the right is doing.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She handed him a small optical storage disk.\n\n\"Make my life easier,\" Anderson said, taking it from her and stuffing it into his pocket. \"Just tell me what I'm going to find when I scan this thing.\"\n\n\"The day Kahlee Sanders graduated from your military training academy at Arcturus, an encrypted message was forwarded through classified Alliance channels to an individual on one of your colonies in the Skyllian Verge. It was subsequently purged seconds after it was received.\"\n\n\"How'd you get access to classified Alliance channels?\" Anderson demanded." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The salarian laughed. \"Your species has been transmitting data across the extranet for less than a decade. My species has been directing the primary espionage and intelligence operations for the Citadel Council for two thousand years.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Point taken. You said the message was purged?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"True. Deleted and scrubbed from the records. But nothing is ever truly gone once it hits the extranet. There are always echoes and remnants for people like me to track down. The extranet works on a—\"\n\n\"I don't need the details,\" Anderson interrupted, holding up a hand to cut her off. \"What did the message say?\"\n\n\"It was brief. A single text file comprised of Kahlee Sanders's name, final grades, and her class standing. Very impressive. She could have a bright future in my field if she wanted to come work for—\"\n\nAnderson cut her off again, growing impatient." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"This was all in her personnel file. I didn't pay you to get me her marks.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You didn't pay me at all,\" she pointed out." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"This is being billed directly to your superiors at the Alliance, remember? I doubt you could afford to hire me. That's why you came to me in the first place.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Anderson's hands involuntarily went up and rubbed his temples. \"Right. That's not what I meant.\" Salarians tended to talk in circles, changing topics with every breath. It gave him a headache, and it always seemed to take twice as long as it should to get what you needed out of them. \"I hope to God you have something more than this.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"The sender of the message was one of the instructors at the Academy." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A man long since retired." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Preliminary follow-up indicates he is not germane to the investigation—he was likely only acting on orders of the recipient, and likely knew nothing about why the information was being sent." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 6 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Though I have no proof, I suspect the recipient is Kahlee Sanders's father. As a high-ranking Alliance officer, he would have had the means to systematically cover up their relationship, and do so in a way that would make it difficult to track. However, I was not able to determine why the father and daughter chose to alienate themselves from each—\"\n\n\"Please,\" he begged, cutting her off one more time. \"All I want is a name. Don't say anything else. Just tell me who received the message, and where I can find him.\"\n\nShe blinked again, and from the change in her expression Anderson thought he might have hurt her feelings. Mercifully, though, she did as he had asked.\n\n\"The message was sent to Rear Admiral Jon Grissom. He's on Elysium.\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Provide two sentences as a continuation in the Science Fiction, Space Opera genre." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "For the second time in as many weeks, Ambassador Goyle was making her way across the lush fields of the Presidium to meet with the Citadel Council. Last time she embarked upon this journey she had been summoned by the Council so they could chastise her for humanity's violations of the Citadel Code." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "This time, however, she was the one who had requested the audience.\n\nAs before, she passed the sparkling lake that was the centerpiece of the pastoral scene." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Once again she passed the replica of the mass relay. But this time as she rode the elevator to the top of the Citadel Tower, she actually allowed herself to enjoy the view." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She had won a victory on her last visit here by defying the Council." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But in her long career as a diplomat she knew shows of strength weren't the only way to get what you wanted. Throughout the known galaxy, the Alliance was developing a reputation for being aggressive and confrontational." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Her actions last time had no doubt cemented that opinion in the minds of the councillors. Today, however, she intended to show them another side of humanity." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Reaching the top of the Tower, she stepped from the elevator, passed the ceremonial honor guards, and ascended the staircase to the Petitioner's Stage." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A moment later the councillors emerged from somewhere behind the raised platform at the other end of the chamber and took their seats, moving with a staid and solemn precision.\n\nReading the body language of other species was difficult, but it was a skill the ambassador had worked hard to develop." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She could tell from their stiff and formal manner that they expected this meeting to be as unpleasant as the last one. Inwardly she smiled. They wouldn't be expecting this." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Catching them off guard would give her an advantage in the negotiations." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Welcome, Ambasssador Goyle,\" the asari councillor greeted her once they were all seated and the holographic projections and audio amplifiers had been switched on." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Thank you for agreeing to see me, Councillor,\" she answered.\n\n\"Despite some of the disagreements at our last audience, you are still a member of the Citadel,\" the turian said pointedly." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"We would never consider denying your right to an audience, Ambassador.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Goyle understood the subtle implications in his words and tone. They held no grudges; they were above petty feuds." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Completely fair and impartial." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Agreeing to see her only proved the Council races were morally superior to humans, more civilized.\n\n\"What is the purpose of this audience?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "the asari asked, in a much more neutral tone." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Although she might feel as superior as the turian, Goyle felt she did a much better job of masking her true feelings." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"At our last meeting you said humanity needed to learn to embrace the concept of mutually beneficial coexistence,\" she said. \"I am here today to demonstrate that your words did not fall on deaf ears.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"And how do you propose to do that, exactly?\" the salarian asked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I have come with a gift for the Council.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Do you think you can buy our favor, Ambassador?\" the turian snapped.\n\nHis reaction was exactly what Goyle was hoping for." }, { "from": "human", "value": "If she could make it appear as if they were the ones being difficult here, it was more likely they'd give in to her demands before all this was through." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I meant no offense,\" she humbly apologized while secretly smiling inside. \"This is not a bribe, but rather an offer freely given.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Please continue,\" the asari invited. Of the three, she was the one Goyle found the hardest to read." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Not coincidentally, she was also the one the ambassador was the least confident in manipulating." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I realize humanity made a mistake at Sidon. One we deeply regret. In an effort to make amends, I'm here to offer the Council copies of all the classified research files from the base.\"\n\n\"This... is a very generous offer,\" the salarian said after a moment's hesitation." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"May I ask why you are willing to share this information with us?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Perhaps our research will prove useful to the rest of the galaxy. Maybe it will bring us closer to peaceful relations with the geth.\"\n\n\"I thought all the files at the base were destroyed in the attack,\" the turian said suspiciously." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Goyle had anticipated this." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They probably thought the files were fake, or at least purged of sensitive data or censored in some way. But they'd be able to tell if they were doctored, so after reviewing them the ambassador had decided to release them in full to the Council." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There was nothing incriminating beyond what they already knew; if anything, the files clearly showed Qian had been operating outside the scope of his official mandate, removing some of the Alliance's culpability.\n\n\"Lieutenant Kahlee Sanders, a survivor of the raid, made copies of the files before Sidon was destroyed.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Now that Qian was working with the batarians, it only made sense to make his research available to leading experts of allied species. They would likely reciprocate by helping defend the Alliance if the batarians tried to use Qian's work to develop AI technology to use against humanity." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Besides, the Alliance experts who had reviewed the files had assured her that virtually all of the research was still theoretical." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It would be years, maybe decades, before any of it would lead to any practical applications.\n\nAnd there was one more significant consideration." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"The files make mention of an unknown piece of alien technology discovered out beyond the borders of Citadel Space,\" Goyle informed them." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What kind of technology?\" the salarian wanted to know." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"We don't know,\" she admitted." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Obviously it has some connection to synthetic intelligence, but beyond that Qian was intentionally vague about the details. From his notes, it is clear he believes it was far more advanced than anything developed by any current species.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Is it Prothean?\" the asari asked.\n\n\"Not according to Qian's notes. Again, we don't have many details. But there is some indication the doctor thought it could be used in connection with the geth.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"The geth?\" the salarian asked quickly. \"In what way?\"\n\n\"It's not clear. Maybe he thinks it will enable him to communicate with them somehow. Maybe even control them. We just don't have enough information to know for sure. But we believe this technology poses a legitimate threat. Not just to the Alliance, but to the entire galaxy.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"And you believe whoever attacked Sidon now possesses this technology?\" the salarian asked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Possibly,\" she said, somewhat hesitantly. \"It doesn't appear it was ever actually at Sidon. Qian's notes are a bit... erratic.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Are you saying he was mentally unbalanced?\" the asari asked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"There is some evidence of that, yes.\"\n\n\"Are we certain this technology even exists?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "the salarian wanted to know." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Or are we chasing the delusions of a madman?\"\n\n\"If it does exist,\" she warned them, \"we can't take the risk of ignoring this.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"We need to find the people responsible for the attack,\" the turian agreed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Before they unleash this on the galaxy!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You should begin with Edan Had'dah. A batarian from Camala. Lieutenant David Anderson, the man we sent to investigate this matter, believes he was behind the attacks. Your own people can confirm this when we send you the files.\"\n\nThere was a brief pause and the holographs momentarily shut down as the councillors held a brief conference." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"We will forward this information to the Spectre investigating this matter,\" the salarian informed her once they were done." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"The Council is grateful to you for bringing this to our attention,\" the asari said.\n\n\"The Alliance has no wish to be at odds with the Council,\" Goyle explained." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"We are still new to the galactic scene, but we are eager to show our willingness to cooperate and coexist with the other species of the Citadel.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She could see from their expressions that she had won them over to her side. Now it was time to strike." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Kahlee Sanders, the researcher who escaped Sidon, is in hiding on Camala right now,\" she continued, moving without pausing from supplication to an appeal she knew they would grant. \"We have reason to believe her life is in danger as long as she remains on that world." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"The Alliance would like to arrange for one of our ships to touch down on Camala somewhere outside the spaceports to pick her up and bring her to safety.\"\n\n\"That is a reasonable request,\" the turian said after a moment's consideration." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"The Council can make arrangements with batarian authorities to permit this.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"There is one more request I would make of the Council,\" Ambassador Goyle added, employing one of the most basic, yet most effective, tactics of negotiation: little yes, big yes. Getting someone to agree to a minor concession established a tone of agreement and cooperation." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It made it more likely they would be receptive to larger issues." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Lieutenant Anderson, the Alliance operative who brought Edan's involvement to light, is also on Camala.\"\n\n\"You wish to have him evacuated as well?\" the salarian guessed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Actually, we would like him to accompany your Spectre when he goes after Edan Had'dah.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Why?\" the asari asked. Goyle couldn't tell if she was suspicious or merely curious." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Several reasons,\" the ambassador admitted. \"We think Dr. Qian may still be alive." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "If he is captured, we would like him to be extradited to the Alliance to stand trial for his role in the murder of our people at Sidon.\n\n\"And we see this as a learning opportunity for Lieutenant Anderson. The reputation of the Spectres is well known; they are representatives of the Council, the guardians of Citadel Space. Working with your agent will help the lieutenant better understand the methods Spectres employ to defend interstellar peace and stability.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She hesitated briefly before continuing, taking a moment to precisely form her next argument." }, { "from": "human", "value": "This request had the potential to backfire, but it was the whole purpose of this audience." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And it was likely the councillors were thinking it themselves already.\n\n\"We are also hoping your agent can evaluate Lieutenant Anderson's performance on the mission. If he does well, perhaps he can be considered as a candidate for the Spectres himself.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Admitting someone to the Spectres is a long and involved process,\" the turian protested." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Individuals must prove themselves through years of exemplary military or law enforcement service before they can even be considered for the honor.\"\n\n\"Lieutenant Anderson has served in the Alliance military for nearly a decade,\" the ambassador assured them." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"He has completed our N7 elite special operations program, and won numerous citations, medals, and honors of distinction in the line of duty. I can easily make his records available to the Council.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Candidates must undergo a rigorous screening process,\" the salarian explained, raising another objection. \"Background checks, psychological evaluations, and a prolonged period of mentorship and field training are typically involved.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I am not asking that you admit him to the Spectres,\" the ambassador clarified." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Only that you allow him to accompany Saren on his mission, and judge him based on his performance to see if he has the potential.\"\n\n\"Your species is still new to the galaxy,\" the asari told her, finally addressing the issue they were all dancing around." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Officially, Spectres could come from any species. But almost invariably they were only chosen from the Council races." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The bias was perfectly understandable: giving individuals of a species direct access to the Council, along with the authority to act outside the bounds of galactic law when necessary, attached a perceived importance to that individual's species." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Allowing a human into the Spectres would send a message to the rest of the galaxy that the Council considered humans on a par with the turians, salarians, and asari. That wasn't far removed from the truth, which was exactly why Ambassador Goyle was pushing for this now." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Many species have been part of the Citadel for centuries, yet have never had a Spectre drawn from their ranks,\" the asari continued. \"Granting this request may cause resentment among them.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Just as I'm sure there was resentment among them when the turians were added to the Council,\" Ambassador Goyle countered." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Those were exceptional circumstances,\" the salarian interjected, offering up a defense on behalf of the turian councillor. \"The turians were instrumental in ending the Krogan Rebellions. Billions of lives were saved.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "And they had a fleet almost as large as the asari and salarians put together, Goyle silently added." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Out loud she said, \"At our last meeting you told me humanity had to be willing to sacrifice for the sake of others." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I could have bargained for this concession with the information from Sidon, but I chose to give that to you freely for the greater good." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Now I am offering you the aid of one of the Alliance's top soldiers to end a threat we may have unwittingly helped create.\n\n\"All I ask in return is that you consider the lieutenant as a possible candidate for the Spectres.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "There was no immediate response from the Council." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The ambassador realized they were still leery of her because of her actions at the last meeting. But there was a time for brinksmanship and a time for acquiescence." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She had to show them the Alliance was willing to work both sides of that fence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I make no demands here. I'm not asking you to promise or commit to anything." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I believe this experience will benefit Lieutenant Anderson and the Alliance." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I believe it will strengthen humanity's bond with the rest of the Citadel." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And I truly believe it will give us a better understanding of the duties and responsibilities we owe to the greater galactic community.\n\n\"However, if you refuse this request I will willingly accept the wisdom of your decision.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She expected the Council to confer once again to discuss her proposal." }, { "from": "human", "value": "However, to her surprise, the asari simply gave her a warm smile." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You have made your point, Ambassador. We will grant your request.\"\n\n\"Thank you, Councillor,\" Goyle replied." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She was caught off guard by the sudden acceptance, but she did her best not to reveal how much she had been taken aback.\n\n\"This meeting of the Council is adjourned,\" the asari said, and the Council rose from their seats and disappeared down the stairs of their platform." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Goyle turned and made the long walk down from the top of the Petitioner's Stage, frowning." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She had studied every decision made by the Council in the last five centuries in detail." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In every case they had acted unilaterally. If there was ever any dissension, they would debate the issue until a mutual accord could be reached." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "So how was it possible for the asari councillor to decide on her own to grant this request?\n\nAs she reached the elevator and stepped inside, the explanation finally popped into her head." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Somehow they had anticipated her request before she'd even broached the subject." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They must have known where she was leading them, and discussed it during the brief conference after she had mentioned Edan Had'dah. They had already decided how they would respond long before she ever brought the subject up." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Ambassador Goyle had thought she was in control, driving the negotiations to manipulate the Council to her best advantage, like she had at the previous meeting. She'd caught them off guard last time, but this time they'd been ready for her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They were the ones who'd been in control, walking her through the script like actors in a play, knowing the final outcome all along." }, { "from": "human", "value": "And only in the final moment of the scene had they tipped their hand, a subtle revelation of the truth they must have known she would pick up on." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Riding down in the elevator, Ambassador Goyle tried to take solace in the knowledge that she had gotten exactly what she'd wanted out of the meeting." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But she wasn't used to being outmaneuvered, and she couldn't help wondering if she had made a mistake.\n\nWhy had the Council been so eager to grant her request?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Did they really think humanity was ready for this?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Or were they expecting Anderson to fail, then hoping to use that failure as an excuse to hold the Alliance back?\n\nIf nothing else, the experience had given her a whole new respect for the Council and their understanding of negotiations and diplomacy." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She considered herself a student of politics, and now she was very aware she had just been schooled at the feet of the masters." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They'd sent her an unmistakable message: they knew how to play this game as well as she. Whatever advantage the Alliance might have had in dealing with the Council, it was gone." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 3 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The next time she had to face them, the ambassador realized, she'd be constantly second-guessing herself. No matter how prepared or careful she was, in the back of her mind there'd be that lingering uncertainty: was she leading the negotiations, or being led?\n\nAnd she had no doubt that this was exactly what the Council wanted." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "NarrativeBot: Extend text by three sentences sentences. Maintain Historical Fiction, Mystery genre." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The sun stood almost overhead by the time Hiro and Father Mateo returned to the church." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As the priest stepped into the entry, an elderly female voice called, \"Oi, Father Mateo, you're back. I have your meal waiting.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro followed the Jesuit inside as the woman rose from her bow. She had steel-gray hair and a dried-plum face that showed every one of her sixty-two years, along with a few that she hadn't even lived yet. Her wrinkled cheeks creased in a smile that set her black eyes twinkling." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Anyone could tell she adored the priest.\n\n\"Have you had a nice morning?\" she asked.\n\n\"Very nice, thank you, Ana,\" Father Mateo replied as he bowed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The elderly housekeeper had served as the previous owners' nanny and maid and had stayed on when Father Mateo acquired the property. Her name was Ane, but she changed the pronunciation the moment she learned that Ana was a name in Portuguese.\n\nHer smile faded when she saw the shinobi." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Hiro,\" she said. \"I suppose you want rice?\"\n\nShe spoke like a parent addressing a child who spilled his food and asked for more, only to spill that too.\n\n\"Thank you, Ana.\" Hiro nodded respectfully." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Samurai did not bend to servants, but the housekeeper inspired respect that transcended her station." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Hm.\" She pointed to the hearth as she shuffled toward the kitchen. \"Sit down.\"\n\nHiro and Father Mateo crossed to the hearth that dominated the oe, the large central room that functioned as a combination parlor and dining room. The sunken hearth sat six inches below the surrounding floor." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It held a bed of dark sand upon which a small fire burned. A kettle hung over the fire, suspended on a chain that hung from a ceiling beam. Steam rose from the kettle and mingled with the tendrils of woodsmoke that curled toward the ceiling." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The hearth fire could have cooked a meal, and did in smaller homes, but the priest's house had a separate kitchen beyond the oe, where Ana did the cooking." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Father Mateo initially tried to help, but the elderly woman resented any intrusion or assistance, particularly from a man whose efforts she viewed as a fire hazard." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The priest knelt before the hearth, in the position facing the door. He knelt directly on the tatami, like a Japanese would, without any cushion or chair. Hiro took the place to Father Mateo's left, on the side of the hearth normally used by the other members of a family." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The seat of honor to Father Mateo's right was already occupied by the final member of the Jesuit's household." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Luis Álvares was a portly man with skin the color of wilted primroses and an unusually large, red nose that looked to Hiro like a cross between a berry and a gourd." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He had long dark hair pulled back in a greasy ponytail and piggish brown eyes that missed only what their owner chose not to see. He wore a short-waisted, high-necked doublet and fitted hose that did no courtesies to his ample figure. Slashes in the doublet sleeves revealed a cream-colored blouse beneath." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Good morning, Mateo,\" Luis said in Portuguese. He wiped his sweaty forehead with the hand that held his chopsticks.\n\n\"And to you, Luis,\" Father Mateo said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I'm surprised you're still here at this hour.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Been to the warehouse and back already,\" Luis said between mouthfuls." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"One of the rice merchants made a major purchase.\"\n\n\"Curious,\" Hiro said. \"I wouldn't think rice dealers had much use for firearms.\"\n\nLuis looked down his nose at Hiro." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I sell more than weapons, you know.\"\n\n\"How are those textiles selling for you?\" Hiro asked. \"Wool, I believe you called them?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Luis made an exasperated noise. A grain of rice flew from his mouth and sizzled in the fire. \"The Japanese refuse to buy it. Yesterday a woman had the nerve to tell me it smelled bad!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro couldn't agree more. Wool smelled like a three-day-old corpse. He couldn't believe anyone wore it willingly, though the bolts in Luis's warehouse suggested that someone considered it worth the trouble to produce and sell." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Silk kimonos are comfortable in this climate.\" Father Mateo sounded almost apologetic.\n\n\"I still can't believe you wear that ridiculous native costume,\" Luis said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You look like a woman.\"\n\n\"You should try it,\" Father Mateo replied. \"It's cooler than doublets and hose.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"And more difficult to rip,\" Hiro added, with a pointed look at the merchant's tunic.\n\n\"My sleeves are made this way,\" Luis said indignantly. \"The style is very fashionable, though I suppose I shouldn't expect a Japanese to understand.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I'm afraid not.\" Hiro smiled." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"We ignorant natives prefer to buy new clothes instead of calling damaged ones 'fashionable.'\"\n\nFather Mateo changed the subject. \"What did the merchant buy this morning?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Before Luis could reply Ana scurried in and set a tray on the floor in front of Father Mateo. It held a bowl of miso soup with tofu, a teapot, and a pair of chopsticks balanced on an ivory rest.\n\nShe frowned at the men around the hearth." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Who brought that cat in?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The tortoiseshell kitten had followed her into the room. As she pointed in its direction, it turned around and streaked into Hiro's room.\n\nHiro and Father Mateo exchanged a look." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I did,\" Hiro admitted, \"as a present for Father Mateo.\"\n\nHe hoped Ana's love for the Jesuit would prevent a scolding, but didn't count on it.\n\n\"Hm,\" she said. \"Is it staying?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Yes?\" Father Mateo asked.\n\nShe nodded. \"Good. When it grows up it will keep the mice away. It's already started on the spiders.\"\n\n\"It eats spiders?\" Hiro asked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Plucks them right off the wall.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Ana gave Hiro a rare nod of approval as she turned back toward the kitchen." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Three dozen arquebuses.\" Luis continued the conversation as though Ana had not spoken. The merchant acknowledged servants only when he had no other choice. \"The man has been having trouble with thieves and wanted to arm his guards.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"They want muskets instead of swords?\" Father Mateo asked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro thought the idea made good sense." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A firearm beat a sword for stopping thieves." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You don't have to sound so disappointed,\" Luis said. He set down his bowl and chopsticks and poured himself a cup of tea. \"Francis Xavier approved this trade to finance mission work in Japan, and if the former head of the Jesuit order didn't mind you have no reason to object.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Even you must see the irony in taking lives with one hand while the other tries to save them,\" the priest replied.\n\n\"The Japanese are quite capable of taking lives without my assistance,\" Luis snorted. \"They were hacking each other apart with swords long before we landed.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Father Mateo did not respond." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was an old argument, and not one he would win.\n\nThe maid returned with a tray for Hiro. She set it down and disappeared without a word." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As Father Mateo blessed the food, Hiro noted his own soup contained seven cubes of tofu—three more than usual—doubtless a reward for bringing the cat.\n\n\"Where have you been this morning?\" Luis asked.\n\nFather Mateo set down his bowl." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"One of my converts was accused of killing a samurai.\"\n\nLuis sipped his tea. \"Did he?\"\n\n\"She,\" Father Mateo corrected, \"and no, she didn't.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Pity,\" Luis said without feeling." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I take it you went to perform last rites? The murderous bastards doubtless killed her anyway.\"\n\n\"Actually, no. She has been granted two days to prove her innocence, and I'm going to help her do it.\"\n\n\"Why would you want to do that?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Because if he doesn't,\" Hiro said, \"the dead man's son will kill him too.\"\n\nLuis sputtered in surprise and lost his grip on the egg-shaped teacup. Hot liquid spilled down his doublet and onto his hose." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Pestilence!\" Luis swore as he brushed at the stain. \"I'll have to change! Hiro, that isn't funny.\"\n\nLuis realized no one was laughing." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Mateo, please tell me he's joking.\"\n\n\"It's no joke,\" Father Mateo said, \"but we'll find the killer in time.\"\n\n\"Blind faith won't save you from swords.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Luis turned a sweaty glare on Hiro." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"How could you let this happen? Why did you translate things that would get him killed!\"\n\n\"It's not his fault,\" Father Mateo said.\n\n\"Get the magistrate to intervene,\" Luis continued." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"They're always bragging about their powerful judges.\"\n\n\"The law allows a nobleman's son to avenge his father's death,\" Father Mateo said. \"If I don't help, the girl is as good as dead.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Then let her die,\" Luis said. \"What is she, anyway, some kind of prostitute?\"\n\n\"Entertainer,\" Father Mateo corrected." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Prostitute,\" Luis repeated as he hoisted himself to his feet." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Let her die. Leave town if you must. She's not worth jeopardizing your work, or my profits.\"\n\nHiro watched in silence as Luis disappeared into his room. For the first time ever, he found himself agreeing with the merchant." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He swallowed the last of his soup." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As he set the empty bowl on the tray the scrap of paper from the teahouse scratched his arm inside his sleeve." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He pulled it out to toss it in the fire, but at the last moment he snatched it back from the flames.\n\nThe palm-sized fragment of parchment contained columns of names and figures written in a feminine hand. The lower edge was dark and smudged with dirt or ash but not actually burned." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Teahouses kept careful records and never destroyed their ledgers. Hiro wondered why this one had been torn, and whether its destruction was intentional or merely coincidence.\n\nGiven the ash, and Mayuri's burned hand, he decided against coincidence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What's that?\" Father Mateo asked.\n\n\"A scrap I retrieved from Mayuri's kimono. It seems to be part of a ledger.\"\n\n\"From her kimono?\" The priest leaned forward for a better look. \"That's strange.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"More than you know,\" Hiro said. \"We need to go back to the teahouse. Immediately.\"\n\n\"Why?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro offered the paper. \"To find out why Mayuri destroyed her ledger this morning.\"\n\n\"Destroyed it? Are you sure?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Father Mateo examined the paper." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 4 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Maybe it was an old one?\"\n\n\"The date at the side indicates this year,\" Hiro said, \"and the smudge on the corner looks like ash. Curious, since Mayuri burned her hand in a fire this morning.\"\n\n\"Why would she burn a ledger?\"\n\n\"More importantly,\" Hiro said, \"why would she burn it today?\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "I'll be your writing partner today. I will set the scene, and you will continue the story with one sentence, channeling the voice and techniques of Susan Spann in the Historical Fiction, Mystery genre." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"How did you meet Akechi Mitsuhide?\" Hiro asked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I never actually met him in person. He wanted to buy some goods from the foreign trader, Luis. Hideyoshi knew that I make clothes for the Portuguese and asked me to make the introduction.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro raised an eyebrow at the lie." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Yaso blushed. \"Well, I do make kimonos for the priest, and I might have let a few people think I make Luis's clothes too. I repair them when they tear, you know.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro doubted Luis had ever worn a patched garment but had the manners not to say so." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"So you made the introduction?\" Hiro asked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I set up a meeting,\" Yaso said, \"but I swear I thought the firearms were for the shogun's service. I didn't know Mitsuhide would take them to Lord Oda. I swear it.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I believe you,\" Hiro said, and meant it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The tailor looked him in the eye and didn't fidget." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His movements didn't indicate dishonesty, and Hiro doubted the tailor had the training or constitution to lie well." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Did you hear from Hideyoshi's cousin again? Or anyone else in Lord Oda's service?\" Hiro asked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No,\" Yaso said slowly, \"but two days ago a stranger came to the shop and asked me to introduce him to the Portuguese merchant." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He said he was a rice merchant from outside Kyoto and that bandits were raiding his shipments and his warehouses." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He wanted firearms to protect the rice." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"At first I refused. I didn't know him, and had no reason to make the introduction. But then he said he was a friend of Akechi Hideyoshi's. He claimed they were meeting at a teahouse later that night, and that Hideyoshi told him I could introduce him to the Portuguese trader.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"So you did,\" Hiro said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Yaso nodded. \"I arranged a meeting.\" He paused." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Did I help one of Lord Oda's spies?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"It's possible,\" Hiro said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Did you tell Nobuhide about this?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Yaso looked at the ground." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I was frightened. He might have held me responsible.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You are not responsible,\" Hiro said, \"but I understand your concern, and I will keep our conversation to myself.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro left the relieved tailor and retraced his steps as far as Higashioji Dori, where he turned south and followed the road toward Tofuku-ji." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The temple lay almost an hour's walk away, at the very southern edge of Kyoto, but Hiro didn't mind the exercise." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He walked briskly down the empty street and considered the possibility that the merchant from Nagoya had killed Hideyoshi, either on orders from Lord Oda or for some other unknown reason." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In some ways it made sense and in other ways none at all." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "If Lord Oda sent a spy to Kyoto expecting Hideyoshi's cooperation, but the retired general refused, the \"rice merchant\" might have killed him to keep him silent." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "On the other hand, a daimyo like Lord Oda should know whose assistance he could count on." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A man didn't seize whole provinces by acting on unverified assumptions." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro wished he had learned about the stranger before the man left Kyoto, but put the thought out of his mind." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A man who dwelled on past problems often missed the ones that stood ahead in the path." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When Hiro reached the entrance to the Tofuku-ji grounds, he found Kazu standing in the middle of the road." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The young samurai wore a robe of jet-black silk emblazoned with the shogun's mon, a circle with five horizontal black and white bars, and he scowled at Hiro like a tengu demon from a children's tale." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He bowed as the shinobi approached, and the moment Hiro returned the bow Kazu drew his katana and leaped forward with a yell that sent birds flying from a nearby pine." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro's katana left its scabbard with a hiss and met Kazu's blade with a crash of steel on steel." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "For ten full minutes they fought, advancing and retreating along the road as the blades rang like cymbals in the silent morning air." }, { "from": "human", "value": "From the moment Kazu struck, Hiro thought of nothing but the swords, and he barely thought of those." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He fought by instinct as much as will, his world consisting only of a tiny sphere of ground and air and steel." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Slowly, Hiro backed his opponent toward the river that bordered the northern edge of the temple grounds." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Kazu shifted sideways to avoid falling off the bank, but failed to see a fist-sized rock behind his foot." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His geta slipped and he fell." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro pounced for the kill, but Kazu rolled away and jumped to his feet." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His sword deflected Hiro's blade with a clang, but Hiro reversed his momentum without slowing and whirled around with the speed of a striking snake." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His blade stopped less than an inch from Kazu's side." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Kazu's face fell. He shook his head and raised his blade to his opponent, then lowered it and bowed—a deep and respectful bow that admitted defeat." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro answered with a lesser bow of his own and resheathed his sword." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The fight was over." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As always, Hiro won." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A group of monks stood on a nearby bridge, where they had gathered to watch the fight." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro glanced in their direction." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The older ones nodded respectfully." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The youngest one even bowed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Then, one at a time, they turned and shuffled off toward various buildings on the expansive temple grounds." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro and Kazu walked south along one of the many gravel paths that connected the various buildings and twenty-four subtemples in the compound." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Here and there monks walked around or knelt in meditation." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A small group stood by the river practicing katas with wooden swords." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The Rinzai sect of Buddhism had no objection to martial pursuits." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro led Kazu across the Tsuten-kyo, a covered wooden bridge that spanned a deep, natural ravine between the northern temple entrance and the abbot's quarters to the south." }, { "from": "human", "value": "In the middle of the bridge Hiro looked out over the tops of the myriad maple trees that covered the defile." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A sea of feathery leaves spread out beneath the walkway as far as he could see." }, { "from": "human", "value": "In autumn, when the leaves changed color, the bridge would look out on a sea of maple fire." }, { "from": "human", "value": "At the south end of the bridge, Kazu slowed his pace and said, \"I looked through the records and found no sign that the shogun wanted Akechi Hideyoshi dead. He didn't blame Hideyoshi for his cousin's defection. In fact, there's a note in Hideyoshi's file specifically stating that the shogun does not hold him responsible.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I think Nobunaga did send a spy.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro related his conversation with Yaso." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Kazu frowned. \"You have to get the priest to leave Kyoto. This morning, if you can.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I don't think he will go,\" Hiro said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Persuade him,\" Kazu insisted." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro narrowed his eyes at the younger man." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I apologize.\" Kazu blushed, remembering how substantially Hiro outranked him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"But many lives are at stake if the foreigner dies.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Did you learn anything else of interest?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro changed the subject to let Kazu know he forgave the breach." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Did you know Hideyoshi had a brother?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Hidetaro?\" Hiro stopped and looked around." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There was no one else in sight." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He stood with his back to the abbot's house, facing Kazu and the bridge." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Does he have a record with the shogunate?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Kazu stopped too. \"He was a high-ranking courier. He delivered secret messages for the shogun.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"A spy?\" Hiro remembered Hidetaro's faded robe and minor limp." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Not shinobi,\" Kazu said, \"just a trusted courier with a little training in disguise and sleight of hand to help him pass through enemy territory safely. He retired—\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"After an injury,\" Hiro finished." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Kazu's nose wrinkled. \"He was never injured. He retired after his father died.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "A flicker of movement behind Kazu caught Hiro's eye." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Someone had turned onto the bridge, and, despite the distance that separated them, Hiro thought he recognized the approaching samurai's face." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro grabbed the shoulder of Kazu's tunic and dragged the young samurai into a cluster of pine and maple trees by the side of the road." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Hey!\" Kazu began, but fell silent at the look on Hiro's face." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro crouched behind the wide trunk of an ancient pine." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Kazu did the same." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A screen of low-hanging maple branches between the pines and the path completed their camouflage." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A moment later they heard footsteps on the bridge." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A samurai in a faded blue kimono emerged from the covered passage and walked south toward the abbot's residence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "His muddy geta crunched on the gravel path." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The even footsteps made Hiro wonder if he had mistaken the man for someone else." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He glanced around the tree as the samurai passed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was Akechi Hidetaro, and he wasn't limping." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro waited until the samurai passed the near end of the abbot's house and then whispered, \"That's Hidetaro. I'm going to follow him.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Why?\" Kazu asked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It's clear the merchant killed Hideyoshi.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Never rely on assumptions,\" Hiro said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"The last one always kills you.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Follow him if you want to,\" Kazu said, \"but please try to get the priest to leave. Nobuhide isn't reasonable, and he will kill the Jesuit if he can.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro had started toward the path, but he turned back at Kazu's comment." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I thought you didn't know Hideyoshi's son?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Kazu straightened. \"The shogun has a record on Nobuhide too. He tried to join the shogunate but the reviewing general called him too stupid and shortsighted for command.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"The record says that?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro's right eyebrow crept up just enough to show disbelief." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"The official report reads 'best suited for duty as a yoriki.' Read between the lines. No competent man is appointed to the police. It's a service of last resort. The explanatory comments say Nobuhide refuses to accept direction or admit mistakes. If he decides the priest should die, you won't dissuade him.\"" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 2 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro started after Hidetaro. \"Then I'll just have to persuade him that someone else deserves it more.\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Write four sentences sentences in the style of Susan Spann spawning from what the user wrote, within the Historical Fiction, Mystery genre." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What now?\" Father Mateo asked as they left the teahouse. \"Every time we try to eliminate a potential murderer, we add someone else to the list.\"\n\n\"Two more,\" Hiro said. \"I spoke with Mayuri also.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "When they reached the bridge, Hiro started across the river. Father Mateo followed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"We're not going home?\" the Jesuit asked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"No. We're going to find out why Hidetaro lied about staying home the night his brother died.\"\n\nFather Mateo looked confused.\n\n\"He claimed he was home alone all night, but Yoshiko says he visited with her father in the evening and the mud on his sandals says he was out in the rain.\"\n\n\"He could have walked in mud the following morning,\" the priest said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"It rained hard at midnight, but not for long. The ground had absorbed the water by morning and most of the puddles had dried. Hidetaro might have found a deep one that left some mud on his sandals, but the hem of his robe was soaked with dirty water too. That had to happen at night when the streets were wet.\"\n\n\"Why didn't you mention that to him before?\"\n\n\"Several reasons. Until a short time ago, I thought the assassin was a spy for Lord Oda. Now I wonder if that spy exists at all.\"\n\n\"Several people saw him,\" Father Mateo said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Including the entertainers, who would have known Hidetaro on sight.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Unless he wore a disguise,\" Hiro pointed out." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Hidetaro served as a courier for the shogun. His training would have included the use of disguises.\"\n\n\"But the spy bought weapons from Luis. Where did Hidetaro get the money?\"\n\n\"I haven't worked that piece out yet,\" Hiro admitted.\n\n\"Besides, murdering his brother would make Hidetaro a pauper.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Would it? Yoshiko intends to obey her father's will, which instructs her to continue her uncle's support.\"\n\n\"But he loved Sayuri,\" Father Mateo insisted. \"Even if you're correct about the rest, why would Hidetaro murder his brother under circumstances that made the girl a suspect?\"\n\n\"What if he didn't?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro asked. \"What if we have the timing wrong?\"" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 2 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I don't understand.\" Father Mateo shook his head and shrugged.\n\n\"I believe Hideyoshi was dead when Sayuri returned from the latrine.\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "AI writing task: user input -> eight sentences sentences. genre: Historical Fiction, Mystery." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Tell us how you killed Hideyoshi,\" Hiro said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Father Mateo glared. \"Can't you tell he only confessed to save Sayuri's life?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"If he wants to take the blame he can explain how he committed the crime.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro looked at Hidetaro. \"Or, if he wants us to find the real murderer, he can explain what really happened the night his brother died.\"\n\nHidetaro breathed in and out at a measured pace that Hiro recognized as a Zen technique for reducing stress and clearing a cluttered mind. The samurai did not fidget, or even move, but the breathing revealed his internal conflict.\n\nHiro gave him time to make up his mind.\n\nAt last Hidetaro nodded. \"I will help you for the remainder of today. Tomorrow, if you have not found the killer, I will confess in order to save Sayuri's life.\"\n\n\"You love her enough to die for her?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro wondered what that felt like.\n\n\"All men die,\" Hidetaro said, \"most, for no valid reason. At least this death will not be meaningless.\"\n\n\"But you may not need to die at all,\" Father Mateo said. \"Tell us what happened the night your brother died.\"\n\n\"That story begins earlier in the day,\" Hidetaro said. \"The day before yesterday, in the morning, I visited the Sakura Teahouse to make a payment on Sayuri's contract. It was the middle day of the month, and I always made my payments on the middle day and the last day.\"\n\nHe gave an embarrassed smile, like a little boy caught in a lie. \"I originally told you that I made that payment the morning my brother died, which wasn't true, though I did go to the teahouse that morning. Mayuri told me about the murder—though it wasn't Mayuri I expected to see.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He paused. \"It's better if I continue in proper order." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"On the morning before Hideyoshi died I went to the teahouse to make a payment. Mayuri would not accept my silver. She said another man had offered a much larger sum for patronage alone. Mayuri intended to keep the girl in the teahouse after all.\n\n\"I demanded to know the patron's identity and the amount he had offered to pay. She named an astronomical sum—a thousand gold koban.\"\n\nHiro's eyes widened in surprise. Father Mateo looked confused, so Hiro explained. \"One koban is the equivalent of three koku of rice. A thousand koban would feed an army for a year.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Mayuri had to be lying,\" Hidetaro said. \"No man would pay so much for a woman's favors.\"\n\n\"I agree,\" Hiro said, \"but why would Mayuri lie?\"\n\n\"I think she needed to make the sum so high that I couldn't match it. Even so, I decided I had to try. I spent the day meditating in order to crush my pride, and in the evening I went to see Yoshi. We spoke in private, in his personal armory. I knelt before him and asked him to buy Sayuri's contract for me. I swore that if he granted this request I would never ask him for anything again, not even a grain of rice.\"\n\n\"But Hideyoshi didn't have that kind of wealth,\" Father Mateo said.\n\nHidetaro drew back in surprise. \"He must have had it. He was the patron whose name Mayuri wouldn't mention.\"\n\n\"How did you learn that?\" Hiro asked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Yoshi didn't just deny my request for help." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He laughed in my face and called me a fool for falling in love with a prostitute.\n\n\"That was his word,\" Hidetaro added quickly, \"not ever mine.\"\n\nFather Mateo nodded in understanding as the samurai continued. \"Yoshi told me he had bought Sayuri's favors for himself. He said he would think of me when he deflowered her.\"\n\nHidetaro's fists clenched at his sides. He closed his eyes and slowed his breathing again. He did not speak until his demeanor and voice were calm.\n\n\"When Yoshi finished laughing he handed me a dagger from his collection. He suggested I use it to commit seppuku, since it was the last thing I would ever receive from his hand.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Did you find a better use for it than ritual suicide?\" Hiro asked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I wanted to, and if Yoshi were not my brother I would have killed him on the spot, but I didn't. I threw the knife away as hard as I could.\n\n\"It struck the tokonoma and knocked over the display.\" Hidetaro gave a bitter laugh at the memory. \"The neko-te flew everywhere and the tessen fell to the floor. Yoshi started cursing and I heard Nobuhide laugh, but I left the room and didn't look back.\"\n\n\"Nobuhide saw you throw the knife?\" Hiro asked.\n\nHidetaro nodded. \"He came into the room to ridicule me about my choice of wife. He must have overheard.\"\n\nThe conversation lagged for a moment." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro waited for the samurai to continue, but decided not to prompt. He wanted to know where Hidetaro would pick up the tale.\n\n\"On the way home I thought about killing Yoshi. I wanted to, and almost decided to, but then I had a better idea, one that would give me Sayuri and revenge on Yoshi too.\" He smiled. \"I would persuade Sayuri to run away with me.\"\n\n\"With no money?\" Hiro asked.\n\nHidetaro shrugged. \"I have a shogunate travel pass, a permanent one from my courier days. There are plenty of daimyo in need of retainers, and I suspect you already know how easily a ronin can find work if his pride doesn't get in the way.\n\n\"No offense intended.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hiro nodded. \"None taken. Please continue.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I waited at home until dark and went to the teahouse. I sneaked around the veranda to Sayuri's room, but Hideyoshi had already arrived. I listened to them from the shadows and waited for an opportunity.\n\n\"Twice I had to hide around the corner while Hideyoshi went to the latrine. I considered approaching Sayuri then, but I couldn't risk Yoshi catching us before we could get away.\n\n\"As the evening grew late, Hideyoshi got drunk and tried to persuade Sayuri to undress. It didn't take her long to understand what he had in mind. She sounded frightened—I almost ran into the room and killed him after all." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"If he had forced himself on her I would have.\"\n\nHidetaro fell silent. Father Mateo opened his mouth to speak but caught himself and said nothing.\n\nA moment later Hidetaro continued. \"I heard Sayuri mention the latrine, so I ran into the yard and hid behind the latrine to wait, but she didn't come outside for several minutes.\"\n\nThat matched Hiro's understanding of the events. Sayuri spoke with Mayuri before visiting the latrine.\n\n\"When she finally arrived, I revealed myself and asked her to run away with me.\"\n\n\"But she refused to go,\" Hiro said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Actually, she said she would, but she was afraid of Yoshi. She was terrified that he would follow us and kill us. She also said that Yoshi claimed to own her contract already. I told her that wasn't true, and a magistrate would uphold my claim because I had been making payments for several months. I told her I would see Mayuri immediately and force her to accept my claim.\"\n\n\"You knew she wouldn't,\" Hiro said.\n\n\"It was late. Sayuri was crying. I had to do something. Sayuri wouldn't let me talk with Mayuri. She said she had already tried, to no avail. But then she said something very strange. She said that Yoshi claimed he could have any girl in the Sakura, any time, and as often as he wanted.\"\n\n\"If Sayuri was so scared, why didn't she leave with you?\" Hiro asked.\n\n\"She was afraid Yoshi would sound the alarm and catch us. Also, her kimono belonged to the teahouse, and Mayuri could have her arrested as a thief if she ran away wearing it.\n\n\"We decided Sayuri would hide in the latrine until Yoshi fell asleep and then run away with me in the morning, after he left.\"\n\n\"Where did you go after that?\" Hiro asked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I walked home. It took over an hour. The rainstorm started shortly after I left the Sakura, so I took shelter under a tree and waited it out.\"\n\n\"Can anyone confirm your story?\" Hiro asked.\n\n\"Actually, yes,\" Hidetaro said. \"Just before the rain started I noticed a samurai following me. The figure stayed in the shadows, trying to avoid notice, which of course made his efforts that much more obvious. I pretended to turn a corner and ducked behind a wall. When the figure passed, I jumped out and grabbed him. Or, more properly, her—it was Yoshiko.\"\n\n\"Yoshiko?\" Hiro asked.\n\n\"She overheard me arguing with her father and followed me to ensure I didn't harm him.\"\n\n\"Did she hear you talking with Sayuri?\" Hiro asked.\n\n\"I worried about that at first,\" Hidetaro admitted, \"but she said she didn't. She apparently hid just inside the garden wall. She saw me waiting outside the room and going to the latrine, but she didn't even know I had talked with Sayuri.\"" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 9 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"How can that be?\" Hiro asked.\n\nHidetaro thought aloud. \"The latrine is partly hidden behind the teahouse, and Sayuri approached it from that side—she left the teahouse through the back door, not the veranda door that led directly to her room. I was hiding behind the latrine, and Sayuri joined me there for our conversation, so a person standing at the garden gate would not have seen us.\"\n\n\"But that person would have seen any shadows on the wall of Sayuri's room, or a killer on the veranda after the murder,\" Father Mateo offered.\n\nHidetaro shook his head. \"Only if the murder occurred while Sayuri and I were talking. I left as soon as Sayuri entered the latrine, and Yoshiko followed.\"\n\nHiro stood up and bowed. \"Thank you for your time and your honesty.\"\n\n\"When I thought Sayuri and I might escape together, I was prepared to say anything to convince you of our innocence,\" Hidetaro said as he walked them to the door. \"If we cannot both escape Nobuhide's anger, I will say what I must to save her.\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "writing buddy needed! gimme three sentences more in Susan Spann's voice. stick to Historical Fiction, Mystery pls" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hiro woke up the moment Father Mateo stepped through the door of the room.\n\nThe shinobi sat up, immediately alert. \"Time?\"\n\n\"An hour past midnight.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Excellent. Thank you.\"\n\n\"I still think I should go with you.\"\n\n\"Impossible,\" Hiro said. \"This is something I need to do alone.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Are you going to assassinate Nobuhide?\"\n\nHiro raised his eyebrows in mock surprise. \"That's not a bad idea. Do you mind?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Of course I mind! You don't solve a murder by committing another one.\"" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 4 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I don't know,\" Hiro mused. \"Eliminating Nobuhide would solve a lot of problems.\"\n\nFather Mateo frowned. \"Are you joking? I thought you were but suddenly I can't tell. I forbid you to kill Nobuhide.\"\n\n\"Calm down. I'm not planning to kill anyone tonight, though if my errand goes as planned, by noon tomorrow Nobuhide won't be a problem for us—or for Sayuri—anymore.\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "I've got a bit of writer's block. I'm gonna send you something then keep it going one sentence at a time, also I'm going for a Western Romance genre." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The leather satchel John Hayes had given Degan resembled a small, thin valise without a handle, but it had a lock and key." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Degan didn't open it when he got to his hotel room after bidding John good-bye." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He merely dropped it on the floor with his saddlebags and his own valise." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Sleep was his first order of business." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But when he lay down on the bed, he didn't drift off right away." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The words lawman and bounty hunter kept running through his mind." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Neither occupation suited his temperament, yet he'd still agreed to the job." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Because a friend had asked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "No, because while he'd never admit it to anyone, he actually liked helping people." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It gave a sense of purpose to his wandering." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And John Hayes was good people." }, { "from": "human", "value": "When Degan woke it was midafternoon, too early for dinner, too late for lunch, but he was hungry." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He continued to ignore John's leather satchel and went downstairs and found the hotel dining room closed just as he'd expected." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The same clerk in the lobby who had checked Degan in gave him the names of restaurants nearby, although he wasn't sure if they were open either." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Degan's scowl had the clerk quickly adding, \"But if you will wait in the dining room, I will have something brought to you.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"To my room instead?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Certainly, sir. Immediately.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Degan went back upstairs." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His room was nicely appointed, finer than any of the other hotel rooms he'd stayed in since coming West, so he wouldn't mind spending a few days here if he had to." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Being able to eat in his room was a nice bonus." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The less time he spent in public, the better." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He hoped the barkeep he'd met that morning wasn't a gossip." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "If he was, the sheriff would know by now that Degan was in town." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Even though the sheriff wouldn't know his name, that wouldn't necessarily stop him from seeking Degan out." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He stood at the window for a few minutes." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It provided a panoramic view of Helena, which was spread out over the low hills that circled the downtown area." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The streets, and there were many of them, reminded him of home because they were so crowded in the late afternoon." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The West had always been a place where people could start fresh." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But much of the region still wasn't safe for settlers." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Soon it would be." }, { "from": "human", "value": "John's mission to round up the outlaws who preyed on settlers was important." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Progress, real progress, was coming to the West with the railroads." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Still waiting for his food, Degan opened John's satchel and spread out the papers on his bed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He counted twenty wanted posters." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Each of them had a page or two of John's scrawled notes attached to it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "One poster featured Big Jim Mosley." }, { "from": "human", "value": "That was convenient. Degan only had to capture two outlaws now." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He could cross Mosley off John's list since Degan had killed the man last year in Wyoming." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He hadn't known Mosley was wanted for murder, but since the man had tried to shoot him in the back, he wasn't surprised." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Apparently the sheriff of that town hadn't been able to confirm his identity either, which was why Mosley was still wanted by the law." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It made Degan wonder how many others on John's list of twenty names might already be dead." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Men who broke the law couldn't count on growing old." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Baby-faced Max Dawson wasn't dead and would be an easy find, considering Degan had seen him at the brothel this morning." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Kid Cade, another on the list, Degan had also crossed paths with in Wyoming." }, { "from": "human", "value": "In his late thirties, the kid was no kid any longer and had steered clear of him, so Degan didn't figure him to be a gunfighter, just a thief." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "John's notes mentioned Cade had tried claim jumping unsuccessfully, stage robbing successfully, and a bank robbery that nearly got him killed when he tried to pull it off alone." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He'd avoided getting caught for that, as well as numerous other robberies in which he'd been identified as the thief." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He had last been seen in the area of Butte, to the southwest, a few months ago." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Degan didn't need to read any further." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He had intentionally avoided Butte and ridden north to Helena thanks to the miners in Butte who had let it be known that Degan was in the area." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He wasn't partial to backtracking, but Cade and Dawson were likely the two wanted men John had said were in the area, and the two Degan could apprehend most quickly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He might just be back on his way to California in a week or two." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But then another poster caught his eye, the only other one besides Max Dawson's that offered a $1,000 reward." }, { "from": "human", "value": "John's notes explained why." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Charles Bixford, alias Red Charley, was known to have killed three women, two children, and fifteen men when he blew up a town hall in Nebraska because his wife was in it." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She was one of the women he'd killed, and the two children had been his." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But that was only the start of his killing spree, which continued across Nebraska, into Colorado, and ended in Utah, where he'd last been seen." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Bixford wasn't known to be crazy, yet he'd murdered innocents for no apparent reason." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He'd also killed a US marshal along the way who'd tried to apprehend him and had wounded the next one who'd tried." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And John needed to catch this killer?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "John, who was married with kids of his own?" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 2 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "What sort of favor would Degan be doing for John if he only captured the less dangerous outlaws on the list? He decided to grab the two who were nearby and throw in Bixford as a bonus before going on to California." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "keep going for four sentences more. add these things: Vorkosigan Saga, scifi, space opera, romance" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Vorkosigan woke about three hours before dawn, and made her lie down to snatch a couple hours sleep. In the gray before sunup he roused her again. He had evidently bathed in the stream, and used the single-application packet of depilitory he had been saving in his belt to wipe away the itchy four-day growth on his face.\n\n\"I need some help with this leg. I want to open and drain it and cover it back up. That will hold until this afternoon, and after that it won't matter.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Right.\"\n\nVorkosigan stripped off boot and sock, and Cordelia had him hold his leg under a rushing spout at the edge of the waterfall. She rinsed his combat knife, then laid open the grossly swollen wound in a deep, quick stroke. Vorkosigan went white around the lips, but said nothing." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was Cordelia who winced. The cut squirted blood and pus and odd-smelling clotted matter which the stream washed away. She tried not to think about what new microbes they might be introducing by the procedure. It only needed to be a temporary palliative." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She packed the wound with the last of the tube of his rather ineffective antibiotic, and stripped out the tube of plastic bandage to cover it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"It feels better.\" But Vorkosigan stumbled and almost fell when he attempted to walk normally. \"Right,\" he muttered. \"The time has come.\" Ceremoniously, he removed the last painkiller and a small blue pill from his first-aid kit, swallowed them, and threw the empty case away. Cordelia somewhat absently picked it up, found herself with no place to put it, and surreptitiously dropped it again." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"These things work great,\" he told her, \"until they give out, when you fall down like a marionette with the strings cut. I'm good for about sixteen hours now.\"\n\nIndeed, by the time they'd finished the field rations and readied Dubauer for the day's march, he looked not merely normal, but fresh and rested and full of energy. Neither referred to the previous night's conversation.\n\nHe led them in a wide arc around the mountain's base, so that by noon they were approaching the cratered side from nearly due west." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They made their way through woods and glades to a spur opposite a great bowl that was all that remained of the lower mountainside from the days before an ancient volcanic cataclysm." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Vorkosigan crawled out on a treeless promontory, taking care not to show himself above the tall grass. Dubauer, wan and exhausted, curled up on his side in their place of concealment and fell asleep. Cordelia watched him until his breathing was slow and steady, then crept out beside Vorkosigan. The Barrayaran captain had his field scope out, sweeping over the hazy green amphitheater." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"There's the shuttle. They're camped in the cache caves. See that dark streak beside the long waterfall? That's the entrance.\" He lent her the scope for a closer look.\n\n\"Oh, there's somebody coming out. You can see their faces on high magnification.\"\n\nVorkosigan took back the scope." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Koudelka. He's all right. But the thin man with him is Darobey, one of Radnov's spies in my communications section. Remember his face—you'll need to know when to keep your head down.\"\n\nCordelia wondered if Vorkosigan's air of enjoyment was an artifact of the stimulant, or a primitive anticipation of the clash to come. His eyes seemed to gleam as he watched, counted, and calculated.\n\nHe hissed through his teeth, sounding a bit like one of the local carnivores himself." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"There's Radnov, by God! Wouldn't I like to get my hands on him. But this time I can take the Ministry men to trial. I'd like to see them try to get one of their pets out from under a bona fide charge of mutiny. The high command and the Council of Counts will be with me this time. No, Radnov, you're going to live—and regret it.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He settled on stomach and elbows and devoured the scene.\n\nHe stiffened suddenly, and grinned. \"It's time my luck changed. There's Gottyan, armed, so he must be in charge. We're nearly home. Come on.\"\n\nThey crept back to the cloaking shelter of the trees." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Dubauer was not where they'd left him.\n\n\"Oh, lord,\" breathed Cordelia, turning and peering into the brush in all directions. \"Which way did he go?\"\n\n\"He can't have gone far,\" reassured Vorkosigan, although he too looked worried." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They each made a circle of a hundred meters or so through the woods. Idiot! Cordelia castigated herself furiously in her panic. You just had to go peek... They met back at the original spot without seeing any mark made by the wandering ensign." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Look, we haven't the time to search for him now,\" said Vorkosigan. \"As soon as I've regained command, I'll send a patrol out to look for him. With proper search-scopes, they could find him faster than we can.\"\n\nCordelia thought of carnivores, cliffs, deep pools, Barrayaran patrols with twitchy trigger fingers. \"We've come so far,\" she began." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"And if I don't regain command soon, neither of you will survive anyway.\"\n\nTorn, but obedient to reason, she allowed Vorkosigan to take her by the arm. Only leaning on her slightly, he picked a way down through the woods. As they neared the Barrayaran camp, he put a thick finger to his lips." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Go as quietly as you can. I haven't come this far to be shot by one of my own pickets. Ah. Lie down here.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He placed her in a spot behind some fallen logs and knee-high vegetation overlooking a faint new path beaten through the brush.\n\n\"You're not just going to knock on the front door?\"\n\n\"No.\"\n\n\"Why not, if your Gottyan is all right?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Because there's something else wrong. I don't know why this landing party is here.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He meditated a moment, then handed her back the stunner. \"If you have to use a weapon, it had better be one you can handle. It still has a bit of charge—one or two shots. This path runs between sentry points, and sooner or later someone's going to come down it. Keep your head down until I call you.\"\n\nHe loosed his knife in its sheath and took a concealed position on the other side of the path. They waited a quarter of an hour, then another." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The woodland drowsed in the warm, soft, white air.\n\nThen down the path came the sound of boots scuffing through the leaf litter. Cordelia went rigidly still, trying to peer through the weeds without raising her head. A tall form in the wonderfully effective Barrayaran camouflage fatigues resolved itself as a gray-haired officer." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As he passed Vorkosigan rose from his hiding place as if resurrected.\n\n\"Korabik,\" he said softly, but with genuine warmth in his voice. He stood grinning, arms folded, waiting.\n\nGottyan spun about, one hand drawing the nerve disruptor at his hip." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "After a beat, a look of surprise came over his face. \"Aral! The landing party reported the Betans had killed you,\" and he stepped, not forward as Cordelia had expected from the tone of Vorkosigan's voice, but back. The disruptor was still in his hand as if he had forgotten to put it away, but gripped firmly, not dangling. Cordelia's stomach sank.\n\nVorkosigan looked faintly puzzled, as if disappointed by the cool, controlled reception." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'm glad to know you're not superstitious,\" he joked.\n\n\"I should have known better than to think you dead until I'd seen you buried with a stake through your heart,\" said Gottyan, sadly ironic.\n\n\"What's wrong, Korabik?\" asked Vorkosigan quietly. \"You're no Minister's lickspittle.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "At these words Gottyan brought the disruptor up to undisguised aim. Vorkosigan stood very still.\n\n\"No,\" he answered frankly. \"I thought the story Radnov told about you and the Betans smelled. And I was going to make damned sure it went through a board of inquiry when we got home.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He paused. \"But then—I would have been in command. After being acting captain for six months, I'd be sure to be confirmed. What do you think the chances of command are at my age? Five percent? Two? Zero?\"\n\n\"They're not as bad as you think,\" said Vorkosigan, still quietly. \"There are some things coming up that very few people have heard about. More ships, more openings.\"\n\n\"The usual rumors,\" Gottyan dismissed this." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"So you didn't believe I was dead?\" probed Vorkosigan." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I was sure you were. I took over—where did you put the sealed orders, by the way? We turned your cabin inside out looking for them.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Vorkosigan smiled dryly and shook his head. \"I shall not increase your temptations.\"\n\n\"No matter.\" Gottyan's aim did not waver. \"Then day before yesterday that psychopathic idiot Bothari came to see me in my cabin. He gave me the real story of what happened at the Betans' camp. Surprised the hell out of me—I'd have thought he'd be delighted at a chance to slit your throat. So we came back here to practice ground training. I was sure you'd turn up sooner or later—I expected you before this.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I was delayed.\" Vorkosigan shifted position slightly, away from Cordelia's line of fire toward Gottyan. \"Where's Bothari now?\"\n\n\"Solitary confinement.\"\n\nVorkosigan winced. \"That's very bad for him. I take it you didn't spread the news of my narrow escape?\"\n\n\"Not even Radnov knows. He still thinks Bothari gutted you.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Smug, is he?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Smug as a cat. I'd have taken great pleasure in wiping his face at the board, if only you'd had the good grace to meet with an accident on your hike.\"\n\nVorkosigan grimaced wryly. \"It seems to me you haven't quite made up your mind what you really want to do. May I suggest it is not too late, even now, to change course?\"\n\n\"You could never overlook this,\" stated Gottyan uncertainly.\n\n\"In my younger and more stiff-necked days, perhaps not. But to tell you the truth, I'm getting a little tired of slaying my enemies to teach them a lesson.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Vorkosigan raised his chin and held Gottyan's eyes. \"If you like, you can have my word. You know the worth of it.\"\n\nThe disruptor trembled slightly in Gottyan's hand, as he wavered on the edge of his decision. Cordelia, barely breathing, saw water standing in his eyes." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "One does not weep for the living, she thought, but for the dead; in that moment, while Vorkosigan still doubted, she knew he intended to fire.\n\nShe brought her stunner up, took careful aim, and squeezed off a burst. It buzzed weakly, but it was enough to bring Gottyan, head turning at the sudden movement, to his knees. Vorkosigan pounced on the disruptor, then relieved him of his plasma arc and knocked him to the ground." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Damn you,\" croaked Gottyan, half-paralyzed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Haven't you ever been outmaneuvered?\"\n\n\"If I had I wouldn't be here,\" shrugged Vorkosigan. He subjected Gottyan to a rapid search, confiscating his knife and a number of other objects. \"Who do you have posted as pickets?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Sens to the north, Koudelka to the south.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Vorkosigan removed Gottyan's belt and bound his hands behind his back." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You really did have trouble making up your mind, didn't you?\" In an aside to Cordelia he explained, \"Sens is one of Radnov's. Koudelka's mine. Rather like flipping a coin.\"\n\n\"And this was your friend?\" Cordelia raised her eyebrows." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Seems to me the only difference between your friends and your enemies is how long they stand around chatting before they shoot you.\"\n\n\"Yes,\" Vorkosigan agreed, \"I could take over the universe with this army if I could ever get all their weapons pointed in the same direction. Since your pants will stay up without it, Commander Naismith, may I please borrow your belt?\" He finished securing Gottyan's legs with it, gagged him, then stood a moment looking up, then down the path.\n\n\"All Cretans are liars,\" murmured Cordelia, then more loudly, \"North or south?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"An interesting question. How would you answer it?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I had a teacher who used to reflect back my questions that way. I thought it was the Socratic method, and it impressed me immensely, until I found out he used it whenever he didn't know the answer.\" Cordelia stared at Gottyan, whom they had placed in the spot that had so effectively concealed her, wondering whether his directions marked a return to loyalty or a last-ditch effort to complete Vorkosigan's botched assassination. He stared back in puzzlement and hostility.\n\n\"North,\" she said reluctantly at last." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She and Vorkosigan exchanged a look of understanding, and he nodded briefly.\n\n\"Come on then.\"\n\nThey started quietly up the path, over a rise and through a hollow dense with gray-green thickets. \"Have you known Gottyan long?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"We served together for the last four years, since my demotion. He was a good career officer, I thought. Apolitical, thorough. He has a family.\"\n\n\"Do you think you could—get him back, later?\"\n\n\"Forgive and forget? I gave him a chance at that. He turned me down. Twice, if you're right in your choice of directions.\" They were climbing another slope." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"The sentry post is at the top. Whoever's there will be able to scope us in a moment. Drop back here and cover me. If you hear firing\"—he paused—\"use your initiative.\"\n\nCordelia smothered a short laugh. Vorkosigan loosened his disruptor in its holster and walked openly up the path, making plenty of noise.\n\n\"Sentry, report,\" she heard his voice call firmly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Nothing new since—good God, it's the Captain!\" followed by the most honestly delighted laugh she felt she'd heard in centuries. She leaned against a tree, suddenly weak. And just when was it that you stopped being afraid of him, and started being afraid for him?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "And why is this new fear so much more gut-wrenching than the first?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "You don't seem to have come out ahead on the trade, have you?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You can come out now, Commander Naismith,\" Vorkosigan's voice carried back to her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She rounded the last stand of underbrush and climbed a grassy knoll. Camped upon it were two young men looking very neat and military in their clean fatigues. One, taller than Vorkosigan by a head, with a boy's face on a man's body, she recognized from her view through the scope as Koudelka. He was shaking his captain's hand with unabashed enthusiasm, assuring himself of its unghostly reality." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The other man's hand went to his disruptor when he saw her uniform." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"We were told the Betans killed you, sir,\" he said suspiciously.\n\n\"Yes, it's a rumor I've had difficulty living down,\" said Vorkosigan. \"As you can see, it's not true.\"\n\n\"Your funeral was splendid,\" said Koudelka." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You should have been there.\"\n\n\"Next time, perhaps.\" Vorkosigan grinned.\n\n\"Oh. You know I didn't mean it that way, sir. Lieutenant Radnov made the best speech.\"\n\n\"I'm sure. He'd probably been working on it for months.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Koudelka, a little quicker on the uptake than his companion, said \"Oh.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "His fellow merely looked puzzled." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Vorkosigan went on, \"Permit me to introduce Commander Cordelia Naismith, of the Betan Astronomical Survey. She is ...\" He paused, and Cordelia waited interestedly to hear what status she was to be assigned. \"Ah ...\"\n\n\"Sounds like?\" she murmured helpfully.\n\nVorkosigan closed his lips firmly, pressing a smile out straight. \"My prisoner,\" he chose finally." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"On parole. Except for access to classified areas, she is to be extended every courtesy.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The two young men looked impressed, and wildly curious." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"She's armed,\" Koudelka's companion pointed out." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"And a good thing, too.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Vorkosigan did not enlarge on this, but went on to more urgent affairs. \"Who is in the landing party?\"\n\nKoudelka rattled off a list of names, his memory jogged occasionally by his cohort.\n\n\"All right,\" Vorkosigan sighed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Radnov, Darobey, Sens, and Tafas are to be disarmed, as quietly and cleanly as possible, and placed under arrest on a charge of mutiny. There will be some others later. I don't want any communication with the General Vorkraft until they're under lock and key. Do you know where Lieutenant Buffa is?\"\n\n\"In the caverns. Sir?\" Koudelka was starting to look a little miserable, as he began to deduce what was happening.\n\n\"Yes?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Are you sure about Tafas?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Nearly.\" Vorkosigan gentled his voice. \"They'll be tried. That's the purpose of a trial, to separate the guilty from the innocent.\"\n\n\"Yes, sir.\" Koudelka accepted this limited guarantee for the welfare of a man Cordelia guessed must be his friend with a little bow of his head.\n\n\"Do you begin to see why I said the statistics about civil war conceal the most reality?\" said Vorkosigan." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Yes, sir.\" Koudelka met his eye squarely, and Vorkosigan nodded, sure of his man." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"All right. You two come with me.\"\n\nThey started off, Vorkosigan taking her arm again and scarcely limping, neatly concealing how much weight he was putting on her. They followed another path through the woodlands, up and down uneven ground, coming out within sight of the camouflaged door to the cache caverns.\n\nThe waterfall that spun down beside it ended in a little pool, spilling over into a pretty stream which ran off into the woods." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A strange group was assembled beside it. Cordelia could not at first make out what they were doing. Two Barrayarans stood watching while two more knelt by the water. As they approached the two kneelers stood, hauling a dripping, tan-clad figure, hands tied behind his back, from a prone position to his feet." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He coughed, struggling for breath in sobbing gasps.\n\n\"It's Dubauer!\" cried Cordelia. \"What are they doing to him?\"\n\nVorkosigan, who seemed to know instantly just what they were doing to him, muttered, \"Oh, hell,\" and started forward at a jerky jog." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"That's my prisoner!\" he roared out as they neared the group. \"Hands off him!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The Barrayarans braced so fast it looked like a spinal reflex. Dubauer, released, fell to his knees, still drawing breath in long sobs. Cordelia, running past them to Dubauer, thought she had never seen a more astonished-looking array of men. Dubauer's hair, swollen face, scanty new beard, and collar were soaking wet, his eyes were red, and he continued to cough and sneeze." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Horrified, she finally realized the Barrayarans had been holding his head underwater by way of torture.\n\n\"What is this, Lieutenant Buffa?\" Vorkosigan pinned the senior of the group with a thunderous frown.\n\n\"I thought the Betans killed you, sir!\" said Buffa." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"They didn't,\" Vorkosigan said shortly." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What are you doing with this Betan?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Tafas captured him in the woods, sir. We've been trying to question him—find out if there's any more around\"—he glanced at Cordelia—\"but he refuses to talk. Hasn't said a word. And I always thought Betans were soft.\"\n\nVorkosigan rubbed his hand over his face for a moment, as if praying for strength.\n\n\"Buffa,\" he said patiently, \"this man was hit by disruptor fire five days ago. He can't talk, and if he could he wouldn't know anything anyway.\"\n\n\"Barbarians!\" cried Cordelia, kneeling on the ground." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Dubauer had recognized her, and was clutching her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You Barrayarans are nothing but barbarians, scoundrels, and assassins!\"\n\n\"And fools. Don't leave out fools.\" Vorkosigan withered Buffa with a glare. A couple of the men had the good grace to look rather ill, as well as ill at ease." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Vorkosigan let out his breath with a sigh. \"Is he all right?\"\n\n\"Seems to be,\" she admitted reluctantly. \"But he's pretty shaken up.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She was shaking herself in her outrage." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Commander Naismith, I apologize for my men,\" said Vorkosigan formally, and loudly, so that no one there could mistake that their captain humbled himself before his prisoner because of them.\n\n\"Don't click your heels at me,\" muttered Cordelia savagely, for his ear alone. At his bleak look she relented a little, and said more loudly, \"It was an error in interpretation.\" Her eye fell on Lieutenant Buffa, attempting to make his considerable height appear to melt into the ground." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Any blind man could have made it. Oh, hell,\" she added, for Dubauer's terror and distress were triggering another convulsion." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Most of the Barrayarans looked away, variously embarrassed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Vorkosigan, who was getting practiced, knelt to give her what aid she needed. When the seizure subsided he stood.\n\n\"Tafas, give your weapons to Koudelka,\" he ordered. Tafas hesitated, glancing around, then slowly complied." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I didn't want any part of it, sir,\" he said desperately. \"But Lieutenant Radnov said it was too late.\"\n\n\"You'll get a chance to speak for yourself later on,\" said Vorkosigan wearily.\n\n\"What's going on?\" asked the bewildered Buffa." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Have you seen Commander Gottyan, sir?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I've given Commander Gottyan—separate orders. Buffa, you are now in charge of the landing party.\" Vorkosigan repeated his orders for the arrest of his short list, and detached a group to carry out the task.\n\n\"Ensign Koudelka, take my prisoners to the cave, and see that they're given proper food, and whatever else Commander Naismith requires. Then see that the shuttle is ready to go. We'll be leaving for the ship as soon as the—other prisoners are secured.\" He avoided the word 'mutineers', as though it were too strong, like blasphemy." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Where are you going?\" asked Cordelia." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 5 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'm going to have a talk with Commander Gottyan. Alone.\"\n\n\"Hm. Well, don't make me regret my own advice.\" Which was as close as she could come at the moment to saying, Be careful.\n\nVorkosigan acknowledged all her meanings with a wave of his hand, and turned back for the woods. He was limping more noticeably now." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "I'll be your writing partner today. I will set the scene, and you will continue the story with one sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They found yet one more bit of mechanical debris, so agreed to run another cycle of the search spiral, to be sure that all possible trajectories had been outdistanced." }, { "from": "human", "value": "And yes, they found another; a nasty one, spinning fiercely, guts split open from some great blow and hanging out in a frozen cascade." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The acolyte of death did her dirty work without once so much as wrinkling her nose." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When it came to the washing, the least technical of the tasks, Ferrell said suddenly, \"May I help?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Certainly,\" said the medtech, moving aside." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"An honor is not diminished for being shared.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And so he did, as shy as an apprentice saint washing his first leper." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Don't be afraid,\" she said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"The dead cannot hurt you. They give you no pain, except that of seeing your own death in their faces. And one can face that, I find.\"" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 2 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Yes, he thought, the good face pain. But the great—they embrace it." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Provide two sentences as a continuation in the Science Fiction, Space Opera, Aztec, Japan genre." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Talk to me about the transmitter.\"\n\nSpace aboard an Imperial warship was at a minimum, so Gretchen was doing sit-ups hanging from a bar set into the ceiling." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Working in the field was good exercise, but sitting in a three- by four-meter cabin for weeks on end during transit did nothing for her girlish figure. Magdalena was perched on her bunk, surrounded by data pads and printouts on quick-cycle sheets." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The Hesht looked up, yellow eyes narrowed to slits over the top of amped-up sunglasses. The cat had an earbug as well, letting her hear the soft invisible voices of the processors riding in the pads." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Gretchen had used field goggles before, with v-feeds and a sound interface, but they had been big, bulky units. Maggie's sunglasses were as sleek and dark as she was." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It's an experimental unit, sister. A commercial version of the old military-grade Wayfarer ship-based transmitter. The Company is field testing it for Tera-Wave—according to the logs, it's a one-oh release. That means light encryption, no redundant power supplies or emitters, about a six to seven light-year range.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Maggie made a chuckling sound like a hydrogen-powered chainsaw starting up. \"Thirty or forty predefined channels—very primitive.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"But... grunt... not hand mirrors and smoke... grunt... from the mountaintop.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No.\" Maggie clawed a pad and let some schematics drift past." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"A little better than that. Each channel is identified by headers tacked onto the message packets, then thrown out in a single emitter stream. Sort of a faster-than-light telegraph. But it works and it's as cheap as you can build a tachyon unit. I've tested the connection myself by patching through Ctesiphon comm—they have a big industrial emitter and router—the unit on the Palenque does respond to a 'hello', but refused to open a conversation. I think the unit is actually in maintenance mode, on standby, waiting for the shipboard operator to reset the system.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The Hesht paused, then held up a pad." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Gretchen jerked her head and Maggie flipped the device upside down." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"That... grunt... still makes no sense to me. Plain Náhuatl, sister.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Maggie laughed again, rolling on her back and lolling her head off the edge of the bunk." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Now she seemed upright to Gretchen, though her ears were pointing off at a strange angle." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"The Wayfarer has a manual mode, where the operator can pick and choose which channels are live. This is also used for maintenance, where you don't have to shut down the whole system. Specific components can be turned on or off, even removed from the chassis. When I send a 'hello' across the t-link, the refused connection message comes back with an error code. Of course, the code isn't documented yet, not on a test system, but it matches the older military code for 'standby'.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"So... grunt... there was a problem, they turned it off. The problem got worse... grunt... no one came back to push the 'on' button.\"\n\n\"That's what the momma cat said.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Gretchen finished her count of two hundred and eight, then swung down off the bar. The Cornuelle was accelerating out from the station on normal-space drive, chewing up antimatter pellets and spitting plasma, which gave them one g inside the habitat areas of the ship." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A bigger ship, a commercial liner or an Imperial battlewagon, would have g-decking everywhere. The Cornuelle was not a big ship." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Gretchen stepped carefully over the duffels and equipment boxes strapped to the floor. The Marine gunso they had bumped back to hot-bunking with the rankers already had their cargo allotments aboard, so there was very little room for the Company people." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A two meter–high polyfoam crate holding spare transmitter parts occupied the space where a little table and seats were usually pulled down.\n\nShe frowned at the clothing spread out on her bunk." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Playing in the dirt, as her father would say, did not require dress-up clothes. Unfortunately, this was an Imperial ship of war, which meant chu-sa Hadeishi would have a dress evening mess." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Gretchen sighed, turning over her \"good\" shirt." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It had stains. Ruin bugs had eaten a hole in one sleeve.\n\n\"A citizen is humble, simply-dressed, respectful, pious... \" she mumbled to herself, fingers twitching her trousers straight." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Maggie laughed again, her tail twitching. \"You're the kit who always has dirt on her nose and looks so surprised! Will this clan-lord Hadeshee nip your ears for a dirty pelt?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Yes. Miss Sho-sa Koshō has been very polite and accommodating, but we need the commander's good will. He is Nisei, too, which means he will be very proper and traditional. He may have guests—I can't embarrass him too much. Time for the ol' enzymatic cleaner.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Gretchen squeezed into the end of her bunk, found a clean cloth, then picked up her boots." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They were good boots—her mother had had them fitted and built for her by hand, of realcow leather, with shock-soles and brass fittings—but the dust of Ugarit fouled everything it touched. She sighed, seeing the soles were beginning to separate from the uppers." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Narrative Extension Protocol:\nQuantity: 8 sentences\nGenre Classification: Science Fiction, Space Opera, Aztec, Japan" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Two Imperial Marines in sharply creased black dress uniforms with crimson piping stiffened to attention as Gretchen approached a hatchway outlined in pale blue. Each Marine had his hands behind his back, but heavy flat pistols were slung on their belts and they had visors as sharp and sleek as Maggie's. The Navy rating escorting her bowed politely and thumbed a comm pad set into the bulkhead next to the hatch.\n\n\"Doctor Gretchen Anderssen, Commander,\" he announced in a stiffly formal voice.\n\nThe pad chimed and the hatch recessed with a slight chuff and then slid up into the bulkhead. Her mouth suddenly dry, Gretchen nodded to the young man, then stepped inside. The room was small, like everything on the Cornuelle, but managed to hold a low traditional table for six, dressed with crisp white linen and thin porcelain cups. A very short man, barely reaching Gretchen's shoulder, bowed in greeting from the head of the table." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The five other officers—ranging from the petite executive officer, Sho-sa Koshō, down to a midshipman, or sho'i ko-hosei, with pale red hair—also bowed in place, their hands flat on the tatami mat floor. Their incline was slightly deeper than Hadeishi's. Gretchen kept her face composed, hands together in front of her, and managed a bow halfway between those that had greeted her.\n\n\"Welcome, Doctor Anderssen,\" Hadeishi said. Gretchen blinked in surprise—the Nisei's Norman was flawless. \"Please, join us.\"\n\nGretchen slipped off her deck shoes before entering the room, turning the motion into a second bow.\n\nThe midshipman scooted a little to one side. Gretchen knelt, smiling politely at the boy." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He couldn't have been more than sixteen. Like the other officers, he wore a perfectly white dress uniform, with the fire-snake emblem of the Imperial Navy worked in copper at his collar. Above his heart rode the sunburst symbol of the Cornuelle and a square glyph holding a running man.\n\nThe other officers remained still, heads lowered. The captain smiled down the table at Gretchen, and raised a thin porcelain teacup in polite greeting.\n\n\"Doctor Anderssen, welcome to the Cornuelle. I am Mitsuharu Hadeishi, her captain.\"\n\n\"Konichiwa, Mitsuharu-san. Thank you for making me so welcome.\"\n\n\"Your Japanese is excellent,\" Hadeishi said, smiling, eyes crinkling up." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Gretchen felt an odd sense of dislocation. She had worked with many Nisei; at the university, on Old Mars, even on Ugarit. They were unfailingly polite but she had never encountered a Japanese man, particularly one her social superior, that had genuinely smiled at her.\n\n\"Thank you. Your Norman is perfect.\"\n\n\"No, please, I have a slight accent.\" Hadeishi set down his cup. \"You have already met Lieutenant Koshō, my executive officer and pilot. This fellow next to her is Lieutenant Second Hayes, our weapons officer.\" Hayes nodded, somehow appearing deferential to Koshō, though the XO was a tiny woman, even slighter of build than the captain." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Lieutenant Hayes was nearly six feet tall and powerfully built. Gretchen smiled politely.\n\n\"The young ensign is Smith-tzin, who runs communications, and this last is Lieutenant Second Isoroku, master of our engineers.\" Smith managed to nod politely and Isoroku, a bull-headed bald Nisei, had no reaction at all. Obscurely, Gretchen found this cold behavior comforting—his reaction was what she had expected, not the genial, almost cheerful tone expressed by the commander. Hadeishi stood and straightened his dress jacket. His uniform was very simple, expressing the best attributes of the Empire—humility, modest dress, quiet unassuming power—though his collar tabs were gold and the eagle glyph of an Imperial war commander sat next to the sunburst. An elderly man in a simple dark gray kimono appeared with a tiny green jade cup and a slim sake flask. Hadeishi bowed to him, took the cup and turned, facing his right." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There, on a bulkhead covered with inset wooden screens painted with mountains in cloud, were two portraits. They were not holo images, but traditional paintings on cream-colored rice paper, in a delicate ink-brush with faint washes of color. On the left, looking very young, was the Lord of the World, Ahuizotl, the sixth of that name, huey tlatoani of the Méxica and all other peoples under the domain of the Empire. The artist had captured his pensive nature well, looking off to one side, slim hand pressed against his chest.\n\nHadeishi bowed deeply to the image of the Emperor, then raised the jade cup.\n\n\"So, meditate on this, eagles and jaguars,\" he began, his Náhuatl slow and measured, as flawless as his Norman. \"Although you may be jade, although you may be gold, you too will journey to the fleshless land. We all must disappear, no one will remain.\"\n\nThe room became very still, each man and woman at the table looking down." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The servant had disappeared." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Gretchen saw the captain's face was composed and calm." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She recognized the words, written nearly a thousand years before by a man who had opposed the policies of the Empire when it was still young." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Her eyes drifted to one side, watching the faces of the other officers. The poetry of Nezahualcóyotl, the doomed prince of Tetzcoco, was banned throughout the Empire. The poet's philosophy did not express the ascetic martial spirit deemed fitting by the great powers of the Méxica.\n\nHadeishi lowered the jade cup, pressing it against his lips, then raised it again, to the second portrait. This was a grumpy old man, his face pinched in a scowl, his hair bound up in the traditional samurai knot at the back of his head. He frowned, irritation alive in the smooth brushstrokes. He was Juntoku, the one hundred and thirty-sixth Tenno no Nihon, Emperor of Japan and all the Nisei people. Hadeishi smiled faintly, saying; \"Mere green herbs they are, grown in the mountain soil; yet if I pluck them with grace, how joyful is the toil!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Then he placed the jade cup into the hands of the little old man and turned to face the table again." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 6 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The welcoming ritual complete, two ratings slipped out of the tiny galley behind the officer's mess and began serving the first course. Gretchen felt her stomach grumble, smelling sweet onions and broth. For a moment, she was frozen, watching everyone else pick up their spoons.\n\nThen the captain somberly tasted the miso and nodded to the two cooks. They grinned and everyone was eating. Gretchen forgot about her worries for a moment, listening to the quiet cheerful banter among the officers and enjoying the excellent meal." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Continue with the same vibes as Thomas Harlan in the Science Fiction, Space Opera, Aztec, Japan genre." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Nothing here either,\" Parker said in a dead voice. He was standing on the bridge of the Palenque, one hand pushing the commander's chair back and forth. There was only a bare metal frame, lacking any plastic, leather or fiberfill. \"Everything's just... gone. This is creepy.\"\n\nBandao's camera shifted, looking across the display panels of the command station." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Like everything else, they were dark and mottled by heat." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The gunner rapped the knuckles of his z-suit on the glassy plate. \"Aren't these touch-panels plastic? What about the corridor walls, the doors—aren't they plastic of some kind? Why were they just melted a little, and not destroyed completely?\"\n\nGretchen and Magdalena looked up. They had been poring over the shipyard diagrams and materials lists used in the construction documents on file for the Palenque. Gretchen rubbed her face." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The maze of ship documents was giving her a headache. \"I—\"\n\n\"Command panels are made with an electrically active composite, which is not a long chain polymer, Mister Bandao.\" Lieutenant Koshō's cool, correct voice intruded on the circuit. \"The range of materials removed from the ship is rather distinct.\"\n\nGretchen's glasses flickered and Hadeishi's private channel glyph was winking again." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Yes?\" she said, turning away from Magdalena." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She was starting to feel sick.\n\n\"We think the ship was attacked by a 'cleaner' agent of some kind.\" Mitsuharu's voice was very calm and steadying. \"Only certain molecules and sets of longer-chain compounds were affected. Particularly, those which form organic life. Paper, glue, bedsheets... all those things were swept up in the general criteria.\"\n\n\"A weapon.\" Gretchen felt a band of tension release from her chest." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Vague fears crystallized and she felt relieved." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "See, she thought, the universe is filled with reason. \"Something from the planet?\"\n\n\"Perhaps.\" Hadeishi sounded thoughtful. \"There have been reports of illegal activity in this region, but no human miners would have access to this kind of a nanoweapon. You should continue searching the ship. Perhaps something survived in one of the lab habitats.\"\n\n\"Of course,\" Gretchen turned back to Magdalena." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The Hesht was talking Bandao and Parker through the removal of an access panel under the command display. \"Maggie?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Just a moment. Yes, Mister Parker, use some muscle. You won't break anything. There! Now look inside.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Parker hesitated, heart rate spiking on the monitor, and his pistol and a detached lamp went first. In the dark cavity, ranks of crystalline system modules sat quietly, without showing any sign of activity.\n\n\"Still no power,\" Maggie grumbled to herself. \"Yausheer Bandao, please take out a v-pad, if you have one. I will send a detailed ship schematic to you. I want you to go down to engineering and start checking the power-runs out from the batteries and fusion plant.\"\n\nParker muttered something obscene and crawled out of the access panel." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "I'll kick things off by writing a bit, then you'll take over and write the next 1 sentence in the distinctive voice of Thomas Harlan, keeping within the Science Fiction, Space Opera, Aztec, Japan genre." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"We don't really know what happened. They just fell over, you know, and we couldn't raise anyone on the ship-to-ship comm channel.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Gretchen suppressed a sigh, staring at two grimy faces framed by the shuttle's v-cam." }, { "from": "human", "value": "On her left, security team crewman Carlos Fuentes' bearded visage stared out at her with sick desperation." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Beside him, nose screwed up in a grimace, her entire body turned away from Fuentes, crewwoman Delores Flores seemed equally despondent." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Tell me what you saw,\" Gretchen said, again. \"From the beginning.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Well, ah... \" Carlos groped for the proper words." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Shut up, idiot,\" Delores said, pushing him out of the field of view." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I'll tell you, ma'am. We've been having problems with the shuttle engines since we arrived,\" the crewwoman began." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"After five or six trips down to the base camp, they started showing warning lights in the afterburner and air intake ducts. Finally, shuttle two refused to power up groundside—claimed the engine would overheat. So we took number one down to base camp and pulled the entire engine assembly out of number two.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She jerked her thumb over one shoulder." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Something large and bulky, wrapped with shockfoam and cables, filled most of the cargo space on the shuttle." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"We brought up Doc Clarkson at the same time—he was in a big hurry! And Doctor McCue—she wasn't in such a hurry. They went upstairs, but we were working down here to prep this bastard to unload.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Did anyone else ride up with you? Did you close the airlock after Clarkson and McCue left the shuttle?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Gretchen was chewing on the stub end of a pointing stylus." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Always!\" Delores nodded sharply, waving her hand off to one side." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Standard procedure. The bay doors are airtight, but the boat bay is considered an unsecured environment. You lock in and out of the bay, or the shuttles when they're aboard. And it was just those two. No one else wanted to ride up with them, not when they were in such a mood!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"When did you notice something was wrong on the ship?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"An alarm went off shipside,\" Delores said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"We heard the horn go off and I ran into the cockpit. Carlos—\" The crewwoman's lip twisted slightly \"—called the bridge. We heard some noise, some shouting for maybe thirty seconds, and then nothing.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She pointed off toward the front of the shuttle." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Then the lock cycled and engineer Pâtecatl and two others ran into the bay. I called on the comm, and she said something was attacking the ship. Then she made sort of a choking noise, we saw a hot glow inside their helmets—and all three of them fell over.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"And then?\" Gretchen frowned at the ragged plastic end of her stylus." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"They didn't move. We couldn't get anyone on the ship-to-ship channel.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Delores shrugged. \"The bay doors were closed, and we couldn't get them open by remote. We didn't dare go outside, not with three people dead in suits right in front of our eyes. With the shuttle parked inside the bay, we couldn't even raise groundside on the comm. So we've been waiting for weeks, hoping something would happen. Something good, I mean.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She ventured a smile." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Can we get out of this tin can now and get a shower?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You can have a bath when we get you out,\" Gretchen promised with a smile." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"But right now we have to figure out how to get you out of there safely. I'll call you back in a moment.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She shut down the channel, then turned to face Hadeishi." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The captain and Lieutenant Koshō were talking, heads close together, at the exec's display board. \"Captain Hadeishi?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Yes, Anderssen-tzin?\" He seemed tense, and she knew he was bracing for another argument about the quarantine." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I would like to transfer my crew and supplies—and the loan of a fuel cell, if you will—to the Palenque.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "For a moment, Hadeishi said nothing, staring at her with narrowed eyes." }, { "from": "human", "value": "At his side, the lieutenant allowed herself the ghost of a smile." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Then the captain visibly shook himself and nodded." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You're sure of your analysis? Sure enough to risk yourself and your team?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Yes,\" Gretchen said in a firm voice." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Oh lord, I hope so!" }, { "from": "human", "value": "But we can't just sit here for weeks." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Every day burns away at our nonexistent budget and our tiny little bonuses." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Very well.\" Hadeishi glanced at his exec, who had stepped down to her own board, attention already focused on her lading schedules, thin rose-colored lips moving silently." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Koshō-sana, we will leave Sergeant Fitzsimmons and Corporal Deckard aboard as a, ah, loan to Anderssen-tzin and her group. For the moment. After the quarantine period has passed, we will want them back.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The captain raised an eyebrow at Gretchen, who smiled in relief." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Thank you,\" she said, making a heartfelt bow." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Please don't damage my crewmen,\" Hadeishi responded on his private channel. \"Good luck.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"There is one more thing... \" Gretchen felt her stomach clench, knowing she was probably overstepping the bounds of hospitality." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"If you could loan us an engineer's mate, I think we could get the power plant on the Palenque working again.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hadeishi frowned. Gretchen kept her face impassive." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The captain looked sideways, listening." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He frowned again and said something into his throat mike." }, { "from": "human", "value": "While Anderssen watched, the captain argued momentarily with someone, then gave up." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Sho-sa Isoroku will be joining you on the Palenque,\" Hadeishi said in a tight voice." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Gretchen must have shown some of her astonishment openly. \"I see.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"He,\" Hadeishi continued in a colorless tone, \"wishes to see the damage caused by this weapon for himself. I believe he desires to submit a technical paper to the Fleet Engineering College on Mars. You should get ready to move your equipment.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Gretchen nodded again, in thanks, then began gathering up the v-pads, writing styluses and other bric-a-brac which had accumulated around the secondary weapons station." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Magdalena was still hunched over her board, watching the feeds from the various suit cameras." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'll see you downstairs,\" Gretchen said, thumping the Hesht on one furry shoulder." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 2 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Ya-ha,\" Maggie answered absently. \"Be there in a bit.\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Mode:\nCo-writing\n\nLength:\nfour sentences\n\nStyle:\nThomas Harlan\nGenre:\nScience Fiction, Space Opera, Aztec, Japan" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Gretchen followed the battery pack—guided by Isoroku with a clever little handheld gas-jet unit—down two main decks, then swung out of the access shaft to let her boots adhere to the doorframe of a large, doublewide portal labeled XA LAB ONE. The pressure hatch was closed, and she swore silently to herself. Of course it's closed. Everything is.\n\nFeeling foolish, she found the manual locking bar and—straining to keep her feet wedged against the bulkhead for leverage—managed to crank the hatch open enough to get her suit through." }, { "from": "human", "value": "On the other side, she paused, staring at the opening." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Her arms were sore, but part of her brain was making a frightened sound. I might have to flee back this way...\n\n\"No,\" she said aloud, though her throat mike was muted. \"No I won't.\"\n\nDialing her suit lamps to a more diffuse illumination, Gretchen pushed off gently and made her way forward through the ring." }, { "from": "human", "value": "After a few minutes, she pulled herself up short, staring through a thick oval window into the next lab." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The hatch was closed tight, the chamber dark, but the fragmentary light of her suit lamps picked out the shape of a clean-box with something bulky inside. Some kind of debris was scattered on the deck, and there was a subtle sense of disorder among the white and steel surfaces.\n\nSomeone working on something when the disaster overcame them?\n\n\"Damn.\" The hatch was sealed, the pressure seals closed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The chamber had no manual lock—indeed, a heat-distorted label declared the space beyond a \"secured environment.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Gretchen clicked her mike on. \"Maggie? How long until we have power?\"\n\nThere was no answer. Gretchen froze, listening to the warble of static and an intermittent, distant pinging sound." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Suppressing a cold shiver of fear, she changed channel again." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Anderssen to the Cornuelle, come in please.\"\n\nThere was still no answer, but—obscurely—Gretchen was a little relieved. Something's blocking my suit comm, she thought. Of course.\n\nOnly slightly less apprehensive, she made her way back to the access shaft, pushing away from the handholds set into the ceiling and floor." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Squeezing through the hatchway, she breathed a sigh of relief to hear channel four wake to life with Maggie and Delores chatting amiably while they worked.\n\n\"Magdalena? How long until we have power?\"\n\nThe Hesht made a coughing sound—laughter—then said: \"We haven't opened the door to Engineering yet, but we're close. One of the hatch motors burned out and Isoroku is replacing the mechanism. So I'd say another hour, at least.\"\n\n\"Thank you.\" Gretchen muted the channel, staring around at the cold darkness filling the ship." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The main accessway seemed bottomless, even with a receding line of glowbeans shining in the dimness." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Somehow the faint little pools of light only made the gloom seem more encompassing and complete. Disheartened, she sat down, swinging her boots over the shaft. \"I guess I'll just wait, then.\"\n\nAfter an endless minute, she pulled a v-pad from the cargo pocket of her suit and thumbed it awake." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Might as well get some work done, she thought glumly." }, { "from": "human", "value": "So something got loose in the ship, something which must have propagated through the air, a gas or vapor—how else could it move so fast and be unseen?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Air is easy to penetrate, permeates most everything. An aerosol of some kind... She called up the ship schematics Magdalena had been using to follow the power and utility conduits. Her pad still held the modeling and time-regression software she'd used on Ugarit, which could understand the volume of the ship, the rooms and chambers, even the lack of organic artifacts.\n\nJust like a site abandoned so long all the organics have decayed away, she thought after thirty minutes." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hmm... that's a good lab exercise for first-years." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Steadily brightening light broke her concentration, and she looked up to see the pilot scooting up the shaft toward her. A little embarrassed, she tucked the v-pad away. \"How goes, Mister Parker?\"\n\n\"Good,\" he answered, cheerful humor returned." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Engineering is open, and Isoroku's got his battery hooked up. Looks like the ship's fuel cells still have some juice, though Environmental was still working for awhile after the accident. Magdalena's starting up the comp from local power. I'm heading for the bridge to check the relays and get the main comm array running.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Gretchen smiled. \"Good. What about main power?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Parker waggled his hand ambivalently, inducing a slow spin." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No promises there. Isoroku wants to check every centimeter of the reactor to make sure nothing got eaten away by our little friend. Can't say I blame him.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"No, I suppose not.\" Gretchen rose, one hand clinging to a railing surrounding the hatchway. \"If power comes back up, I'll want you to unlock the hatches in the lab habitat for me. Don't open them, though. I'll take care of that.\"\n\nParker nodded, then kicked off, flying up into the darkness, his helmet haloed by the flare of his lamps." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 5 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Gretchen watched him go, feeling the darkness close around her again. Her suit was starting to smell, even with only a couple hours inside. Just like on Ugarit. Maybe the showers will work, she thought hopefully. Then she realized all the towels on board would have been disintegrated and she was depressed again." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Continue with the same vibes as Thomas Harlan in the Science Fiction, Space Opera, Aztec, Japan genre." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Her ears covered with a thick cap of New Aberdeen cashmere, z-suit helmet parked on the display panel, Gretchen leaned back in a chair reduced to metal strips in the lab ring control cube. Curving hallways lined with hatches stretched up to her left and right. Light from the lab holding the broken cylinder spilled out into the hall. It was still very cold—the heaters in the lab spaces had failed to turn on with the rest—and Gretchen's breath puffed white as she hummed to herself." }, { "from": "human", "value": "On the display—only half of which was working—v-panes were running, speeding through the day of the accident." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A crewman wandered through one feed, eating pine nuts from a bag, then out of one frame and into another. Mostly she watched empty rooms and quiet machinery idling in standby. All of the scientists were down on the planet, working at the main camp. Gretchen sighed, bored, and speeded up the replay." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Almost immediately, blurred figures appeared and she dialed back ten minutes. \"Finally!\"\n\nA tall, lean man with a neat beard and field jacket swung down from the hab access tube, landing heavily in the partial gravity. His hair was silvered, with a few streaks of black remaining, and he was wearing a heavy pair of sunglasses. A battered, grimy fieldpack, bulging with a heavy weight burdened narrow shoulders." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Doctor Clarkson—coming home with his prize,\" Gretchen murmured, keenly interested, watching the man hurry into the number one isolation lab." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A moment later, a woman entered the lab ring by the same tube. Her tied-back hair was long, orange-red and very curly. She was also dressed in field kit, with a pocket-covered vest, sunglasses perched on her forehead and linen pants tucked into her boots. \"And our mathematician in residence, Doctor McCue.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Gretchen felt a pang, seeing such familiar-looking people." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She'd never met either of them, though the faces matched the briefing materials provided by the Company." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But they felt so much like her friends on Ugarit, or the other graduate students and professors at the university. And now they're gone, rendered down for Parker's nondairy creamer.\n\nShe ignored Clarkson in his lab, following McCue from camera to camera as the woman wound her way through the maze of cubicles and rooms. The mathematician was pushing a g-box in front of her, a dented steel case with a built-in anti-grav, controlled by a hand unit." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "On the far side of the lab ring from the main control station, she stopped in front of a heavy reinforced hatchway.\n\nGretchen sat up, puzzled. She'd walked through the whole ring... she hadn't noticed a security door. But McCue's image punched in a keycode and the heavy blast door swung up and away, revealing a specimen vault and a bit of a room filled with racks of bins and cargo crates stacked on the floor." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Then the door closed, and she was left with a nice picture of the hatchway." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Well. What does Doctor McCue have in her box, which was so valuable it went straight to the vault?\"\n\nShe advanced the recording, flipping ahead ten minutes. No change. Then she blinked—a smoky haze swept down the corridor, flames leaping from empty air. The flooring blackened and warning lights began to flash." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Lighting in the hallway flickered, then failed. Gretchen tasted bile, knowing what had to happen next.\n\nThe hatchway cycled up, and Doctor McCue stepped out, alarm clear in her round, freckled face. She started to call out, raising her left arm—the shining band of a comm winked in the remaining light." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Gretchen bit her lip, teeth clenched tight." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A cloud of gray coalesced out of the air and McCue staggered, throwing up her hand uselessly. Her clothing vanished in sudden flame, burning away with frightening speed, then her flesh sloughed away into nothing, and there was a flash of bone and red meat.\n\nThe gray-and-black cloud lingered for a moment, then dispersed in a drifting cloud of white dust and bits and pieces of metal scattered on the floor. The hatchway remained open for a moment, and Gretchen could see the edge of the g-box, then the door rumbled closed, cutting off the vault lights, plunging the hallway into darkness." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Video replay ended with a ping and a motion-ceasing glyph." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"That's a hard thing to watch,\" rumbled a voice at Gretchen's shoulder. Sergeant Fitzsimmons was standing beside her, his black Marine z-suit blending into the dimness of the room. He had a bundle in his hands. \"Sorry to bother you, ma'am, but I thought you might need something for the cold.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He grinned. \"But that's a prettier hat than I had in my ruck. I like the... ah... reindeer?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Oh.\" Gretchen touched the thick, felty plush of the cap on her head. \"My mum makes them for all the kids,\" she said, tugging at the brightly-colored, shapeless mass. \"Thank you for the thought, Sergeant. But Ugarit had its own bad weather, and Mars was bitterly cold. I've plenty of warm things.\"\n\nGretchen managed a smile, thinking of trudging across the brittle, rocky permafrost to the Polaris site, stiff in a triply-insulated z-suit and respirator." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The Marine had a gray-green service wool cap and a pair of gloves, also a foul olive color, in his hands. Good enough for our slowly heating ship, she thought with a hidden frown, but not good enough to keep your hands and ears attached on Mars.\n\n\"Good,\" he said, stuffing the cap and gloves into a cargo pouch on the front of his suit. \"Do you need help getting that vault door open?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Gretchen started to shake her head—she had a video of McCue's keycode—but then realized refusing the offer might be rude." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Might need a big, brawny Marine sometime." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She stood up, snugging the sherpa cap under her ears. \"Thanks,\" she said, \"I don't think there'll be any trouble, but you never know... \"\n\nThe vault door proved to be hidden behind a standard wall panel. Gretchen supposed the panel had slid down automatically during the power failure." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Fitzsimmons's combat bar made a suitable lever to pop the panel free from the floor, and then he rolled it up with one hand." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The vault hatch was closed, and Gretchen stepped in—lips pursed in concern—to find the keypad in ruins. All of the pressure surfaces had eroded away, leaving only a contact panel and some pitlike holes where wires, perhaps, had once run.\n\n\"This is just fine!\" Gretchen rapped the panel without result." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Ma'am, let me try,\" the Marine waited politely until Gretchen stepped away, then drew a v-pad from his belt, unfolded a set of waxy-looking stems from the back and—humming softly to himself—matched them up with the holes." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "After a moment the v-pad beeped and the schematic of a keypad appeared on its glassy face. \"Try this,\" Fizsimmons said, suppressing a pleased grin.\n\nGretchen tapped in the code recorded by the surveillance cameras. The vault door made a chuff sound, then rolled silently away into the overhead." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The vault room was entirely dark. \"Very handy,\" she said, handing the device back to the sergeant.\n\n\"We try,\" he said in a particularly dry tone, flicking a glowbean against the far wall. \"Sister bless, do they make such a mess all the time?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Gretchen stepped into a crowded room, now lit by a pervasive blue glow." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Doctor McCue's g-box was sitting on the deck amid a wild jumble of straw-shaped mineral core samples. She stepped carefully around the striated tubes—most had broken apart, leaving a wash of grit and sand on the floor—and picked up the controller for the g-box. It hummed to life, and the box lifted up and drifted to an empty section of deck.\n\n\"No,\" Gretchen said absently, \"the core samples will have been in packing material and a cargo crate—they're just stiffened cellulose and a sealant—very tasty, I imagine.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She keyed the box to open, and the top latch released with a clank." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Kneeling, she lifted the lid and shone her hand lamp inside." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Oh, now... \" She let out a long, low whistle of surprise. \"That is beautiful.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Warily, Fitzsimmons leaned over. Inside the box was a chunk of stone—perhaps half a meter long and ten centimeters thick—a deep sandy red streaked with cream, glowing in the light of Anderssen's lamp. Gretchen brushed a fine layer of sandstone dust away, revealing a handsbreadth-wide whorl. A tapered tail of ribbed shell curled around the impression of stalklike legs." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"See, Sergeant? The fruit of some ancient Ephesian sea, preserved by chance in sandy mud, along with our... friend.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Most of the fossil was buried in the stone, and lying alongside the ancient cephalopod was the unmistakable shape of a machined metal cylinder. Like the artifact in the isolation lab, the cylinder was crusted with limestone aggregate.\n\nGretchen bit her lip gently, tracing the outline of the device with a gloved finger. \"Russovsky's geological survey found wonders.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Fitzsimmons stood up, his face pale." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Ma'am—I know you won't like to hear this—but we should jettison this thing right away. What if it goes off like the other one?\"\n\nGretchen looked up, face pinched with distaste. In that moment, she suddenly knew exactly how Clarkson had felt, clutching the prize close to his chest, rushing to make the first analysis. He would see what no one had seen in three million years—he alone would look upon mystery revealed and he alone would learn truth..." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But the open fear on the Marine's big, bluff face was too real to ignore." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She looked back at the cylinder, at the marvelous piece of shale, at the delicate beauty of the shell and its ancient inhabitant, all trapped together by circumstance. The most beautiful, most striking, most wonderful thing I've ever seen. How did McCue keep from taking this to her laboratory, subjecting it to her experiments? Russovsky had the very luck to find this." }, { "from": "human", "value": "If the cylinder is a First Sun device... my god." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Ma'am?\" Fitzsimmons touched her shoulder, gently, shaking her out of the reverie. His voice was soft and insistent. \"Doctor Anderssen, we have to isolate this weapon. Right now.\"\n\n\"You're right,\" Gretchen stood up, shaking her head." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She felt a little shaky. \"Let's close up the g-box and put it in an airlock we're not using. That should hold the eaters if they escape, and we can vent the lock to space if necessary.\"\n\n\"Doc, listen to me.\" Fitz stood as well, towering over her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His dark brown eyes were filled with worry." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"There's no way to know if this cylinder holds the same kind of nanomechs as the other one—this one could be an explosive, a nuke, an antimatter bomb, anything. Poking something like this, even with a really, really tiny stick, is bad, bad business. Procedure says put the whole box on a carryall and have the Cornuelle boost it into the sun.\"\n\n\"No, I don't think so!\" Gretchen stepped between the Marine and the box. \"This artifact is worth my entire career, Sergeant. Worse, it's worth an enormous amount of money for the Company and for the Company's primary contractor—which is the Imperial Navy.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She stopped, searching his face." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He looked back, so plainly worried for his own safety, for her life and the others on the ship, her anger drained away as quickly as it had flared.\n\n\"I'm sorry, Sergeant, I've no business shouting at you.\" Gretchen put her hand on his arm. \"Like you, I'm under pretty strict orders—and my first order is to make sure things like this are brought back intact and well documented. So even if we talk to Captain Hadeishi, the answer is going to be the same—the cylinder stays and comes back to Imperial space with us.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Fitzsimmons's eyes narrowed, and one hand made an abortive movement to his comm pad, but then he nodded, taking a long look at the battered, rusted box on the floor." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Are you going to try and study it on the ship?\"\n\n\"I... \" Gretchen paused. Why lie? He'll know, and you'll look like an idiot. \"Yes, I have to try. But—I'm not going to try anything invasive, or high energy, and I'm going to run passive scans on this thing for a day or two first.\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Hey can you write like Thomas Harlan in the Science Fiction, Space Opera, Aztec, Japan genre and use whatever I write as a jumping off point?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "An orange spark swelled in the sky, the thin, attenuated roar of airbreathing engines piercing gathering twilight. The number one shuttle swept over the base camp, wings glowing with the heat of reentry. Dust swirled up from the landing strip—no more than a long rectangle of glowlights and flattened earth. Against the blue-black heavens, the long coiling contrail burned golden with the last light of day. The Ephesian atmosphere was thin, and even with the copper disk of the sun still hanging at the horizon, a wash of stars filled the east." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The shuttle set down, engines thrust-vectored to airbrake. More dust billowed up, burning red with jet exhaust, and the aircraft bounced and shivered down a thousand meters of flattened desert. The runway was a crude outline at best, scratched from the dry soil. At the far end, engines idling down to a rumbling shriek, the shuttle turned and began rolling back to the camp.\n\nFrom a forward window, Gretchen peered out at a sprawling compound of brown huts and tall metal poles strung with swinging glowlights." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Under fitful spots of illumination, she saw beaten paths winding between the buildings, a handful of figures shrouded in z-suits trudging toward the landing strip and the bulky shapes of crawlers parked under metal sheds. Everything was brown and tan or hidden in shadow.\n\nJust another camp on another world, far from home. She felt a keen disappointment. There was nothing grand here, only the same prefab huts and camp buildings." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Another brown, desolate world filled with dust and chokingly thin air. Even the diamond brilliance of the night sky was familiar—she was no astronomer to pick out differences in the constellations—this place seemed no different than Mars or Ugarit or Zhendai.\n\nThe shuttle rattled to a halt and pressure lights came on. Cabin lights flared awake and Parker called back from the cockpit in a cheerful voice. \"Please have your customs and immigration forms ready. Welcome to Ephesus Three. Please enjoy your stay.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Gretchen gathered up a heavy courier-style bag and checked the seals on her suit." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Fitzsimmons had stitched her boot back together with some kind of adhesive goo and fishing line. Which was very nice of him, she thought wryly. He'll be glad to have me out of his hair for a day. Her goggles slipped into their long-accustomed grooves beside her nose and around her ears. Sealing the breather mask and checking the tubes and respirator were second nature—quickly and efficiently done—then she turned and checked the seals on Bandao's suit as well." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The gunner waited patiently, calm brown eyes watching the figures crossing the field toward them through the window." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When she was done, he returned the favor and signed she was tight. Gretchen smiled in thanks and wove her way forward past Delores to the main hatch.\n\n\"Mister Parker, cycle the lock please.\"\n\nThe pilot nodded over his shoulder, flipped a series of switches and the inner door recessed with a dull clang. Two minutes later, Gretchen was standing on the landing strip, feeling a chill, cutting wind tug at her legs." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She'd left a little of her face mask open and the smell of the planet flooded her nostrils." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Ephesus at twilight was sharp and cold, tart dust and crushed rock, the methane-stink of a recycler in the camp, a faint aroma of something metallic tickling the back of Gretchen's throat." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She was glad she'd put on field pants and a shirt and jacket over the z-suit. The thermal heaters in her leg pads were already starting to run and her fingers were cold even with two layers of gloves.\n\nBandao rattled down the landing stairs and took up a position to the left and behind, while Parker and Delores went around to the cargo doors to start unloading the repaired engine. The gunner had a hand on the butt of his rifle—a stocky, evil-looking thing with a shining dark finish and a stubby, rubberized scope—and his attention moved in careful, measured sweeps, watching the distant, flat horizon and the buildings.\n\n\"Mister Parker,\" Gretchen called, her voice buzzing on the comm, nearly drowned by the keening wind." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Don't forget to put those seals in our engine intakes.\"\n\n\"Crap!\" Both the pilot and Fuentes turned around and jogged back to the shuttle. Isoroku had machined up a set of shockfoam plugs to close the air intakes and—hopefully—keep the Ephesian spores out of the engines. They were unwieldy, and Gretchen watched in amusement as Parker staggered down the stairs with a pair of multispec worklamps around his neck, arms filled with the fat round shape of an intake plug.\n\n\"Doctor Anderssen?\" A bluff, accented voice called through the darkness and Gretchen turned." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Three shrouded figures approached, bent into the wind. She walked forward, hand raised.\n\n\"Doctor Lennox.\" Gretchen clasped the thin woman's hand firmly and nodded. \"Smalls-tzin. Doctor Tukhachevsky.\"\n\n\"Welcome to Ephesus,\" the Rossiyan answered, dark eyes sparkling over the green snout of his respirator. Neither Lennox nor Smalls said anything." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Come, let's get to the main hall and you can meet the rest of the crew.\"\n\nEveryone began walking back toward camp, save for Smalls, who paused—indecisively, it seemed to Gretchen—and stared at Fuentes and Parker working on sealing the engine intakes. Then the meteorologist shook his head and hurried to catch up with the rest of the group. Gretchen watched him as they followed the path through the buildings—even in the poor light of the hanging lamps she could see he was a little pale. Hmm... can't be Parker, no one here knows him... must be Delores." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The main hall was a two-story building framed with hexacarbon beams, the walls and roof formed by extruded slabs of local gravel and sand run through a reprocessor." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Gretchen passed into the airlock in the middle of the group—a line of dust-streaked backs, shining respirator tanks, the local equipment pitted and gray." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She paused at the outer door, fingertips brushing across the metal frame of the door. The hexacarbon was scored and dark, riddled with tiny pits, as if acid had splashed on the exposed surfaces.\n\nInside, she pulled back the cap of her skinsuit and tugged the respirator mask aside. She was in the building atrium—a close, crowded room filled with work-suits, boots, stained jackets and dirt—with Bandao close at hand. Smalls was already gone, leaving a tired-looking Lennox and a beaming Tukhachevsky behind." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"How is everyone doing?\" Gretchen slipped her nose tube free and tucked it into the collar of her suit. \"I guess you'll be glad to get upstairs and hit the showers.\"\n\n\"Yes, our water supplies have always been minimal. There's no local source of water, though we'd hoped... \" Lennox sounded even more exhausted than her haggard face suggested. \"I'm sorry, Doctor Anderssen, I'm very tired. Do you know when we'll be able to return to the ship?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Gretchen spared a quick glance for Tukhachevsky, who was watching Lennox with concern, and Bandao, who was waiting patiently at the inner door of the atrium. She could see the acid glare of overhead lights and the tinny sound of someone's music box playing year-old tunes. The smell was entirely familiar and for an instant—setting aside the pale, worn face of the woman in front of her—she could have been standing in Dome Six at Polaris again.\n\n\"I think,\" Gretchen said gently, \"we'll send you up to the ship tomorrow. Do you have your things together?\"\n\n\"Oh.\" Lennox seemed to come awake, blinking." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"No—I've been busy. I suppose I should—\"\n\n\"Mister Bandao? Would you help Doctor Lennox pack her things up, and take them to the shuttle? Tell Mister Parker we'll be wanting to ferry up most of the crew tomorrow morning—early, I suppose, before the air gets too thin to fly.\"\n\nBandao nodded and shifted his rifle behind him, out of the way and out of sight.\n\n\"Doctor? Bandao-tzin will help you get ready and carry your things.\" Gretchen took Lennox by the hand and turned her around." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Bandao nodded politely and introduced himself. While he did, Gretchen motioned to Tukhachevsky and they stood aside near the main lock.\n\n\"Is everyone still in camp?\" She asked, quietly. The Rossiyan nodded, fingering his beard. The sore beside his nose was beginning to suppurate—Gretchen recognized the sign of an ill-fitting respirator mask—and he smelled of alcohol." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Have you heard anything from Russovsky?\"\n\n\"Nyet,\" he said dolefully. \"Not so much as a peep. I don't know—she seemed preoccupied when she was here last—maybe the desolation is telling on her. This is a bleak world.\"\n\n\"Did she talk to you, when she was here? Did she talk to anyone—say where she'd been, where she was going?\"\n\nTukhachevsky shook his head again, beard wagging slowly in counterpoint." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"No, Doctor Anderssen. She landed while we sat at breakfast and immediately went to see McCue in the main lab. Then Clarkson... \" The Rossiyan paused, nose twitching, and Gretchen could see him weighing dirty laundry in his mind. After a moment, he shook his head slightly and continued. \"Doctor Clarkson went out to the main lab as well. An hour later—I would guess—I was packing a crawler to go reset the sensors at the edge of the White Plain and I saw Russovsky's Midge taking off.\" He scratched his beard. \"A little odd, that. By then it was full sun, but she took off anyway and headed north.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"When did the shuttle leave?\"\n\n\"Later,\" Tukhachevsky said, a slow grin peeking out from his beard. \"I heard Clarkson on the comm, shouting at Blake—he's the head of the security team—to get a shuttle ready. But number two was already sidelined on the field with some mechanical problem. So they had to wait for a shuttle to come down from the ship to pick him up.\"\n\n\"Him and the damaged engine, right?\" Gretchen tucked a wayward tendril of hair behind her ear." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Carlos flew the shuttle down to pick them up?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Tukhachevsky nodded. \"Yes, Flores had been down for several days, working on the grounded shuttle. By the time the other shuttle arrived, Clarkson was about wetting his pants.\" The Rossiyan grinned again. \"He was in a rare state—almost happy, if such a dour man could ever be happy—and he was even civil to Molly.\"\n\n\"You saw them while they were waiting for the shuttle? Were they waiting together?\"\n\n\"No! They couldn't abide being in the same room.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Tukhachevsky waved a hand dismissively. \"I didn't see—I'd already taken the crawler out—but Frenchy told me Doctor McCue decided to go aboard at the last moment. Clarkson was already aboard, the engine already stowed. They had to delay departure a couple minutes for her.\" The physicist shrugged.\n\nSo, Gretchen thought to herself, Russovsky and McCue didn't show Clarkson the limestone fragment, only the free-standing cylinder. That was enough to get him off their backs... but why did McCue suddenly go aboard the shuttle? What made her hurry?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Or was she just trying to keep Clarkson from seeing what she'd put in the cargo hold?\n\nThe Company dossier on McCue implied she was a careful, thorough woman. A mathematician from the Arkham Institute on Anáhuac, the dig coordinator and chief bottlewasher. Meticulous, detail-oriented... not the kind of person to rush a sample somewhere, even one so precious. Huh. But if things between her and Clarkson were as cold as everyone is hinting, maybe she wanted to make him look bad." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What happened then?\" Gretchen returned her attention to the Rossiyan, who was looking mournful, his memories of the past stirred up." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Did you hear anything more from the ship, from Clarkson or McCue?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No.\" Tukhachevsky laughed hollowly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Blake received a call from Sho-sa Cardenas, saying the shuttle had docked on the Palenque, then nothing. For weeks and weeks, nothing. We made a telescope—we could see the ship—but... \"\n\n\"I'm sorry.\" Gretchen squeezed his shoulder. \"I'm sorry about what happened, and sorry it took so long to get here.\"\n\n\"But you did come,\" Tukhachevsky sighed, and shook himself. A weight seemed to lift from his broad old shoulders and he stood up straighter." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Please, we can't stand here talking all night—come and meet everyone else and—please!—have a drink, on me.\" His eyes twinkled. \"You will find men and women's interests are reduced to their base constituents when faced with a slow, lingering death abandoned on an alien world, far from home, without hope of survival.\"\n\nGretchen made a show of sniffing the air. \"I can tell,\" she said with a laugh. \"It smells like a distillery in here! What are you making?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Vodka, of course. You can make vodka out of anything.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Tukhachevsky pushed open the door to the common room and Gretchen stepped in." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A dozen people rose to meet her, some young, some old, and a stained plastic cup was pressed into her hand, sloshing with jet fuel of some kind." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The Rossiyan's meaty hand was on her shoulder, guiding her to a chair at the long table and Gretchen caught a swift montage of tired, haggard faces—men and women seamed by the elements, burned dark by the sun—and everyone was smiling, relief plain on their faces, babbling their names, questions, rude jokes." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Hello,\" she said, when things had quieted down a little and she'd taken a suitably long drink of the \"vodka\" in the cup." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'm Gretchen Anderssen, and I thought you'd like to know the water cyclers on the ship are working just fine.\"\n\nEveryone smiled and the last of the heckling died down. Gretchen swung a heavy bag from her hip onto the tabletop. No one made any particular movement, but a sense of expectation pricked the air, like ozone spilling away from an oncoming thunderstorm.\n\n\"And our Magdalena has the t-relay working back to Imperial space, so there was some mail waiting for you.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hhhhuhhh... The simultaneous exhalation of a dozen breaths stirred the air. Gretchen didn't look up—it would be rude to grin at these men and women, who'd thought they were lost at the edge of known space, with no way home—and concentrated instead on dumping the bundles of printed messages onto the table. She'd sorted them on the flight down and tied up each set with string. Some events, she knew, were venerable enough to become rituals. This was one. Mail call, particularly when a new crewmember arrived on site." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Blake.\" She called out, holding up the first set of letters." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 6 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A stocky man, his pockmarked face twisted halfway from a grim snarl to disbelieving joy, scraped back his chair and leaned over the table.\n\n\"Thanks,\" he muttered, sitting down, almost-trembling fingers picking at the twine. \"Thanks.\"\n\nGretchen nodded, then looked down. She'd already removed all the letters for the dead crewmen, for Clarkson and McCue. Strangely, there hadn't been any letters in the inbound queue for Russovsky, though her company file said she had an entire clutch of cousins and sisters at home on Anáhuac. Better have Maggie check on that, she thought while she held up the next bundle. \"Fuentes, Antonio?\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "I'll kick things off by writing a bit, then you'll take over and write the next 3 sentences, keeping within the Science Fiction, Space Opera, Aztec, Japan genre." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hadeishi sat back, letting his steward remove the small dinner bowls from the table." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The momentary burst of activity this afternoon had broken an almost imperceptible weight of boredom, though now—with nothing new to engage his attention—he felt the deadening effect of routine stealing up on him again." }, { "from": "human", "value": "This pricked his mind to something like angry motion, and he'd spent the period between end of watch and dinner devising a series of sudden training alerts, each one timed to come at the most inappropriate or difficult time." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Standing on station like this—waiting, with nothing in the offing—was particularly trying. Hadeishi prided himself on being a calm man—particularly in the face of tumult or crisis—but amid this stultifying sameness he found himself reaching for something, anything, to enliven the day. Today, particularly after sensing Sho-sa Koshō's quiet pride in the crew's reaction time to the alert, he was tempted to press her until her imperturbable calm broke." }, { "from": "human", "value": "That is entirely unworthy, he reminded himself." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Your boredom is not an excuse to torment a fellow officer. Still, the prospect intrigued—Hadeishi was beginning to wonder if the lieutenant had ever truly lost her temper.\n\nThe steward set down small pale green plates, each one containing a single orange wedge." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hadeishi speared his with a single hashi and popped the sweet fruit into his mouth. Around the low table, his officers did the same—each in their own way—and then the stewards finished clearing the last of the dishes. Mugs of tea appeared, each steaming, filling the air with the turned-earth aroma of a high-grade sencha." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Very well, then,\" he said, after a decent interval." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What have you found?\"\n\nKoshō bowed politely. Like the others, she was officially off-duty, so she tied back the sleeves of her kimono with a deft motion and turned her head toward the captain with a very proper air. Beside her, Hayes moved aside, leaving a section of otherwise blank wall unobstructed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"As Hummingbird-san reported, a Valkyrie-class mining shuttle was observed in the northern hemisphere of Ephesus Three. The aircraft was banking over an extensive lava field at north sixty, west ninety-eight degrees.\" Koshō indicated the blank wall with a control stylus and a rectangular image appeared—an enhanced version of the shuttle in flight. \"Due to space limitations on the peapods, Smalls-tzin had set them to record one image every half hour at moderate visual density. As a result, this snapshot of the shuttle is only a very small section of a very large image area. We do not have enough data to extract a ship name or identification number from the visible surfaces of the shuttle.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The lieutenant commander motioned with the wand again. \"We have scanned the snapshots for two-hour periods on either side of the sighting, and there is no evidence of the shuttle in flight. Given the altitude and location of the mining shuttle, we believe it was descending from orbit and then landed before the next set of pictures could be taken.\"\n\n\"And was hidden,\" Hadeishi commented. \"Within thirty minutes.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"We believe so,\" Koshō said, inclining her head." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"The Valkyrie-class is usually attached to a Tyr-class mobile refinery.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Another image appeared, this of a huge, ungainly and entirely ugly collection of massive spheres, exposed girders and bulbous fuel tanks all arranged around an extended hexagonal core. \"A Tyr can carry as many as fifteen shuttles, each with a nominal operating range of about eight hundred million k, with an operational duration of twenty days. They are designed for light exploration, survey and ore sample recovery.\"\n\n\"I see. Any pirate or wildcatter would be entirely pleased to have one under his control. Was the shuttle's descent within line-of-sight of the Palenque?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No, Hadeishi-san. At the time of descent, the civilian ship was on the opposite side of the planet.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Then our friends knew of the expedition ship and its detection envelope.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Koshō nodded, though the stylus raised to indicate a point. \"The miners may not have been aware of the weather satellites. Peapods are small and innocuous, with a relatively tiny aspect. If the refinery ship was somewhere else in the system—in the asteroid belt, for example—the shuttle might have made a scouting trip in, unaware of being observed.\"\n\nHadeishi frowned. \"How did they hide the shuttle, then? Their first trip should have included a great deal of loitering in atmosphere, looking for someplace suitable to set down. They would have shown up on subsequent satellite images.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"This is true, sir. But what if they already knew where to land?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Koshō's eyes narrowed the tiniest fraction." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What if someone had already found a place for them to set down, had left a beacon, one leading them to something of interest?\"\n\nHadeishi's boredom—ephemeral as it was—dropped away like silk crumpling to a courtesan's tatami. \"Doctor Russovsky.\"\n\n\"She is the most likely candidate,\" the lieutenant commander said, slowly." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The Fleet had avoided a great deal of trouble by promulgating a policy assuming all citizens, regardless of national affiliation or descent, were innocent as lambs." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Treachery and rebellion, of course, were instantly and brutally repressed. Making racial distinctions about reliability... Hadeishi was only too aware of his own failing in this regard. Even Anderssen's name set his teeth on edge." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A Russian... who could really trust a Russian?\n\n\"On the other hand,\" Koshō continued in a careful tone, \"the other scientists have also made expeditions into the hinterlands. Russovsky's use of an ultralight, however, has allowed her to range far and wide across the northern hemisphere.\"\n\n\"Did the Valkyrie make this flight before or after Russovsky returned to base camp with the cylinders?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Before,\" Koshō said, cueing up a timeline. \"But only by a few days.\"\n\n\"So—she could have found the cylinders, informed her compatriots and then headed back to base with some samples, while leaving the rest for these 'miners' to secure.\"" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 4 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The lieutenant commander nodded, dark eyes glittering in the light of the overheads. \"Yes, Chu-sa, but the real question is: Did Russovsky realize what the cylinder would do, if it were disturbed?\"\n\nHadeishi grunted and a sardonic smile creased his face. \"You mean, Sho-sa, did she murder the crew of the Palenque to ensure no one noticed a shuttle lifting off with a hold full of First Sun artifacts? That is an excellent question.\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Task: The user will write a bit then you need to write around 2 sentences continuing directly from the user's text.\n\nAuthor style: Thomas Harlan\nGenre: Science Fiction, Space Opera, Aztec, Japan" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A sleepbag muffled the sound of snoring, but Gretchen's work goggles were dialed up into light-amp mode and she pushed away from the door frame of Parker's cabin without a pause. She caught the far wall and bumped softly to a halt." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "With her free hand, she ran the sharp edge of her thumbnail down the sealer strip and a flap fell away, revealing the pilot's sleeping face.\n\n\"Breakfast time,\" she whispered, pinching his earlobe." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Parker's eyes flickered open and he blinked in the darkness." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Straining against her own exhaustion, Gretchen laid a finger across his lips before he made too much noise." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Quietly, Parker-tzin, quietly. Get dressed and bring your tools.\"\n\nThe pilot swallowed a curse, fumbled for his work shades, then hissed in disbelief at the hour. \"Where—\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I'll show you,\" Gretchen said, closing her eyes for a moment." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I am so tired.\n\nParker eeled out of his bag with admirable skill, then started to gather up his work vest, toolbelt and clothing." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The fingertips of Gretchen's left hand crept to the medband on her right wrist, and then a blessedly cool sensation began to prick up her arm. Ahhh... nothing like a jolt of eightgoodhours." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Fifteen minutes later, Parker had a very sour look on his face as they followed a guideline into the rear cargo deck of the number one shuttle. The docking bay was dark, lit only by the faint glow of lights around the airlock." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Gretchen drew herself to a halt at the loading master's station, one foot hooked into a step-up to hold her steady. The hold was filled from side to side by the inelegant shape of a cargo pallet squatting atop the shuttle's deployment rack." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Stand clear,\" Gretchen said, keying the loading master's panel awake." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Frowning, Parker stood aside, keeping feet, hands and head behind a wedge of cross-hatched yellow lines on the deck. Anderssen ran her forefinger down a control ribbon, her thumb plastered against an override." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A deep hum filled the air and Parker jerked back from the cargo rails. The enormous pallet slid forward smoothly, tiny winking lights marking the outline of the pod." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As the pilot watched in growing alarm, the pallet rumbled past him, then out of the back of the shuttle." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Wha... \" Parker turned to Gretchen, but she was watching the pod with a grim, fixed expression. \"Please say Maggie has subverted the surveillance cam—\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"She has,\" Gretchen muttered, her fingers dancing on the panel." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"And Bandao is watching outside, just in case.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Parker felt the air tremble and looked back. A cargo lading arm descended from the roof of the bay, entirely ominous in the darkness, only a suggestion of movement, of long reaching steel claws." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Two massive lading braces appeared out of the gloom and slid into matching grooves on either side of the cargo pod. The pilot inched back—he'd seen more than one spaceport worker crushed between a pod and the side of a shuttle or the maneuvering arms." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The pallet clanked away from the shuttle deck, then swung away into darkness.\n\n\"Here we go,\" Gretchen said in a strained, tight voice." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Better get behind me.\"\n\nParker slid past her, then flinched as a second pod—just as large as the first—emerged from the darkness." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His hand tightened on a hold-on bar. \"That's not—\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"—on the loading track?\" Gretchen's busy fingers had slowed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Now they drifted gently across the control panel." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No. No, it's not.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The new pallet was held by a second pair of loading arms, and Parker knew—as he felt a cold curl of sweat slithering down the back of his neck—the new pod was approaching at a strange angle. He dialed up his work goggles and saw the lading arms from the adjoining number two shuttle cradle were holding the new pallet." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Sister! Boss... there's too much stress on that armature.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It'll be fine,\" Gretchen whispered, featherlight fingertips inching the arms towards the bay doors." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Just fine. There's just enough... \"\n\nMetal squealed against metal, and the entire shuttle trembled." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Parker bit back a shout of fear." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Gretchen hissed, then stabbed a forefinger at a \"backup\" glyph. The pod shivered, there was another grinding sound and the huge rectangular bulk popped back." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Parker was immediately into the gap, catching the upper edge of the shuttle cargo door." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"There's no clearance,\" he said in a strangled voice. \"You've torn a sixty centimeter strip right off the edge of the seal.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The pilot's upper half was invisible above the four-ton cargo door." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I don't know if it'll close properly now.\"\n\nGretchen blinked, then called up a schematic of the shuttle bay on the panel." }, { "from": "human", "value": "When she looked up, she was startled to see Parker staring at her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "For a moment, she'd forgotten he was there. \"We have to get that second pod into this shuttle in no more than... \" Gretchen's eyes slid sideways to her chrono, then back to fix on the pilot, \"... two hours.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What happens in two hours?\"\n\n\"Hummingbird and his Marines will be down here,\" Anderssen said in a flat voice." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"And they'll strap him into the Midge in that first pod.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She tried to grin, failed, and went on. \"You'll be with them, of course, as pilot. And you are going to adjust for carrying two pods rather than one in the shuttle cargo bay.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What's in the new pod?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Parker asked in a suspicious tone." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Me.\" Gretchen's face twisted into a tight simulacra of a smile. \"And Russovsky's Gagarin.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Oh, boss, now wait a minute! That's—\"\n\n\"What we're going to do.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A sharp hand movement cut him off. \"Right now. Maggie's not going to be able to fool the surveillance system for much longer, not without leaving tracks all over the onboard environmental system logs.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Parker swallowed, wished he had a tabac, then wiped his mouth. \"Okay. Okay. We've got to load up differently—having the number two arm reach across is all crazy. These shuttles are designed to load straight on, right from the back. So... \" He stared at the schematic, then shook his head, long thin fingers stabbing tentatively at the display, \"... we're gonna hope the Palenque doesn't suffer an inertial event in the next twenty-six minutes.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "In the darkness of the bay, the number two arm shifted, servomotors whining, and rose up." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "At the same time, the number one arm slid aside, stabilized and detached from the pod. While Parker sweated below, both sets of arms retracted with a rattling scrape." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Both cargo pallets hung suspended in z-g, unsupported and unsecured. The massive lading assemblies swung up and away, changing places in an ill-seen dance, then gently drifted forward to switch pods." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The pilot was sweating rivers, hoping he didn't bump one of the two-ton pods and send it careening across the shuttle bay." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "With infinite delicacy, the number one arm approached Hummingbird's pallet. The steel tongues caressed the locking grooves, and Parker held his breath, feeling each second drag endlessly as the lading arm's attractor field locked with the magnetic striping along the groove." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Gretchen leaned up against the wall, eyes closed, both arms wrapped around a hold-on. Her mind was whirling with frantic, useless details." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Parker's constant stream of muttered commentary seemed to echo in a vast distance, supplemented by soft clangs and squeaks." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The number two cargo pod—gripped securely in the shuttle one lading arm—advanced into the black mouth of the shuttle hold. The rectangular shape clanked to the deck and a series of telltales lit, indicating an acceptable lock with the cargo deck." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Shuttle-side motors kicked in with a whine and the pod slid smoothly to the back of the bay.\n\nFifteen minutes later, the number one pod completed the same maneuver and Parker shut down the cargo lading system with a heartfelt sigh." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "writing buddy needed! gimme 1 sentence more. stick to Science Fiction, Space Opera, Aztec, Japan pls" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The bulk of the mountain had already cast the ledge into steadily-deepening shadow, so the onset of full dark caught Gretchen by surprise." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The relay tower had been wedged into a flutelike wind-carved channel." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Expansion bolts were driven into the rock on either side to pin the antenna in place." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "With some tricky climbing—more difficult for the heavy tools and gear slung on her harness—Gretchen had managed to get halfway up the relay." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Now, with one boot braced against a lower bolt and a lightwand tight between her teeth, Gretchen was picking away at a thick cementlike layer coating the bottom half of the antenna." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"How did this get here?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Anderssen was puzzled by the encrustation covering the lower section of the relay." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The material was suspiciously even in coverage and included both bolts and the pole." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A hand tool splintered the surface, revealing shell-like layers." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"This looks like lime concrete slurry.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Gretchen stopped and tucked the pick away." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 2 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Wedging her shoulder into the space between the antenna and the rock, she wiggled a materials analysis pack out of her belt and—holding the cup in one hand—picked broken bits of cement from the antenna with the other. The stinging wind was beginning to die down but the relay was particularly exposed on the cliff, so Gretchen pressed herself into the rock and shivered while the cup woke up, detected a sample to compare against an internal database and went to work." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Literary Collaboration Request:\n- Sentence Count: one sentence\n- Genre Adherence: Science Fiction, Space Opera, Aztec, Japan" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Magdalena leaned forward on one paw, yellow eyes intent on the main v-pane." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What is he doing? Where's Doctor Anderssen?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Parker slouched against the control panel, his thin body enveloped in a big, bulky field jacket." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He looked cold and a little ill, though the bridge was really very warm from the ring of heaters around the command station." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"She must be inside the cave,\" Maggie replied, adjusting the light levels of the feed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The dawn line had just passed over the eastern side of the Escarpment and everything was terribly washed-out." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The figure of Hummingbird could be seen moving around the tied-down ultralights." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The Méxica knelt momentarily beside both of the Midges." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"He's checking the sand anchors.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Even in the jerky, disrupted image on the panel, Magdalena could tell there was a fierce wind lashing against the cliffs." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Less than two kilometers away, a boiling cloud of yellow-red dust raged against the Escarpment." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Sheets of sand roared across the valley floor and funneled down into a terrifying-looking standing cone at the mouth of the canyon." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hummingbird turned and scuttled back beneath the overhang, the tail of his cloak snapping in the violent air." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Looks rough,\" Parker said, chewing on his fingernails." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Those anchors had better hold... \"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"He's checked them twice already since the sun rose.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Magdalena adjusted the camera view again, trying to get a low enough angle to look beneath the overhang." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The image changed, but not enough." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Ssssh! Curse warband leader Hadeishi for trying to crash our satellites!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Parker tapped on one of the secondary panels and grimaced at the resulting screen." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Almost no propellant left.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No.\" Maggie let out a steam-kettle hiss of disgust." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I managed to stop them from degrading too much, but all I can do now is reorient their point of view. Some of the others are already deep in the atmosphere—they'll burn up soon. We'll go blind, eyes gouged out one at a time.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Still no comm?\" Parker started to chew on his other hand." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Magdalena stared at him in disgust—his weak claws were already worn down to repulsive pink nubs." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No—I was talking to Gretchen several days ago and we were cut off. I think the old crow is trying to impose comm silence... Will you stop doing that?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What?\" The pilot stared at her in surprise." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Maggie's paw blurred in the air and seized his hand, turning over the ruined fingernails." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Oh... I just need a tabac, you know. Makes me nervous to... not have any.\" He grimaced." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Magdalena let go of his hand, then wiped her paw on one of the blankets surrounding her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Bitter smoke means so much to you?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Yeah.\" Parker looked a little queasy and rubbed his wrist. \"I'll stop.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He put both hands in the pockets of his jacket." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"So—hey—don't Midge-class ultralights act as a local comm relay? We could tap in and listen to what they're saying.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Yes,\" Maggie growled, curling up in her nest again." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Which is all shut down. I suppose they have suit-to-suit comm working, but I've tried opening a long-range link through the peapods and there's no response. Feather-brain has everything locked up tight.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What about accessing a backup system?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Parker looked painfully earnest." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Both of his hands, flat-looking fingers and all, were out of the jacket pockets and being rubbed together as if he were cold." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You used the standard long-range highband, right? Isn't there a secondary system on these aircraft?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Sometimes.\" Maggie gave the pilot an inscrutable look." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"But the peapods do not mount microwave emitters. There's no way to punch an area transmission through the atmosphere.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Really?\" Parker started to smirk." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He pointed at the main display." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"How are you getting a transmission back from your satellites?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Maggie showed him a full set of teeth, which did not properly impress the pilot." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "After a moment she relented, saying \"To reduce emissions I am using a point-to-point laser link.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You mean,\" Parker said, grinning, \"to get around the main array lockout. And keep engineer stoneface from noticing your violation of the judge's orders.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Maybe.\" Maggie stirred in her blankets and bone-white claws make a sharp, skittering tik-tik-tik on the panel as she queried the peapods." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"A highband query failed to draw a response from the Midge onboard comm. So if we try a laser we'll have to drop a whisker right on the comm port, which seems very unlikely if we're firing from orbit and trying to hit a port which is probably underneath the wing.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Not at all!\" Parker seemed to have forgotten his tabac sticks and slid over the panel to stand beside Magdalena." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 2 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Look, let's bring up the mechanical schematic from the repair bay—not the standard manual, mind—but Pâtecatl's record of modifications she'd made herself.\"\n\nThe Hesht and the human both began looking through the dead engineer's records, searching for maintenance records concerning the expedition ultralights." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "ur a writing helper. partner writes, u do next eight sentences." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Pale rose and gold streaked the eastern rim of the world, heralding an ear-searing dawn.\n\nA faint white illumination filled the sky, lighting scattered rocks, the tie-downs of the ultralights and then Hummingbird, still kneeling in the sand, palms on his knees. The stout figure of the Méxica moved minutely and the man's eyes opened. His breather mask was caked with frost, the z-suit diagnostics on his wrist gleaming red. Stiffly, the man rose to his feet, ice flaking from the joints of his matte-black suit. Moving very slowly, Hummingbird made his way to the cargo door of his Midge.\n\nHummingbird rummaged through the cargo compartment and found a bag containing power cells. Fumbling with chilled, nearly nerveless fingers he managed to swap out the cells in his belt and let out a long, tired hiss as the suit heaters woke to life again." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "ur a writing helper. partner writes, u do next 7 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "By mid-afternoon, the storm dwindled away into a herd of dusty whirlwinds dancing on the plains east of the Escarpment. A singular hour arrived, wherein the eastern sky was fully light and the air had fallen still. Gretchen and Hummingbird emerged from the overhang to find the ultralights partially buried in blown sand. The east steadily darkened as they worked, clearing a coating of dark cadmium-colored dust from the wings and making sure the air intakes and engines were free of microflora.\n\nThe sun passed behind the peaks of the Escarpment and shadow swallowed the camp. Hummingbird and Gretchen were both busy inside the overhang, packing the last of their gear into rucksacks or carrybags, so they did not notice the upper wing of the Gagarin suddenly glow with a soft, diffuse light. The forward edge grew dark for a moment, then pulsed once, then twice." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A brief interval of darkness followed, before the phosphor array resumed flickering in a series of bright, sharp pulses." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 4 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "After a moment, the light dimmed down to nothing, though close examination would show the phosphor array shifting state with dizzying speed. Inside the aircraft, the main panel flickered awake and a number of gauges and dials registered commands passing through the control system. The in-flight data recorder switched on and, after a flicker of conversation between the appropriate subsystems, went into \"quiet\" mode.\n\nThen everything went dark again, save for the local comm relay, which was now awake and listening for suit traffic." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Expand on the story, staying true to the Science Fiction, Space Opera, Aztec, Japan genre." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"This just isn't the same,\" Gretchen said, late in the afternoon, as she and Hummingbird were eating again, waiting for the sun to set and the air to chill enough to fly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"There's no campfire to sit around. No flickering light on the cave walls, no darkness beyond the firelight, filled with strange sounds... the gleam of eyes as hunting cats prowl by.\"\n\nHummingbird grunted, sucking the last of a puce-colored threesquare from its tube. Gretchen had not offered to share any of her tabasco, drawing an aggrieved look from the old man." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Our common ancestors,\" he said, wiping his lips, \"would not have considered such a scene 'homey' or 'nostalgic'. The cough of a jaguar in the night was a cause for terror, not comfort.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I suppose.\" Gretchen was kneeling in the knocked-down tent, rolling up her sleepbag." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"So—I didn't find an improper stone this morning—should I look again?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hummingbird raised an eyebrow at her and then laid a finger on his temple. \"Really?\"\n\nGretchen rubbed her brow, then winced to feel the bump from running into the boulder. \"Well, I guess... say, how long will it take me to learn the good stuff?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She started to grin. \"Like flying or throwing lightning from my hands or changing into an animal, like in the old tales?\"\n\n\"I do not teach such things!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hummingbird snapped, suddenly angry." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His face compressed into a tight frown and Gretchen moved back involuntarily." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"The way of the tlamatinime is subtle, balanced. We follow the line of the earth, we do not break balance or distort what is.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Oh.\" Anderssen eyed him warily, seeing an unexpected, fulminating anger shining in his lean, wrinkled old countenance. \"Not a problem. I understand.\"\n\n\"I doubt that,\" the Méxica growled, rising abruptly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You've plighted troth to a science which barely acknowledges balance at all—much less attempts to move in accord with that which is.\"\n\n\"Wait a minute,\" Gretchen said, her own anger nettled by the fury in his voice. \"Science seeks to understand, not to destroy. I was joking, old crow, joking.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She paused, a flicker of doubt crossing her face." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Are there... there aren't judges who can fly, are there?\"\n\nHummingbird looked away, attention fixed on the horizon, where the sun was sliding down toward night, a huge red-gold disk with wavering purple edges.\n\n\"No,\" he said after a moment." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A hand waved negligently at the Midges parked in the shade. \"Though we fly ourselves, with some help. But your science... \" He sighed.\n\n\"I don't understand,\" Gretchen said, trying to keep from sounding antagonistic." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"The more we learn, the fuller our understanding grows, the better mankind can exist in this universe. We learn, old crow, our science learns.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No. No, it does not.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hummingbird rubbed the edge of his jaw, lips pursed, staring at her in an appraising way. \"Your science... your science is about control, Anderssen-tzin, not about understanding. Now, listen to me before you raise your voice in defense of the beast which whelped you! I have met many of your colleagues; on Anáhuac, in the orbital colonies, on the frontier worlds. There are men and women among their number I admire. Many of them mean well. My quarrel is not with these people, but with the doctrine they serve.\"\n\n\"What?\" Gretchen fell silent as Hummingbird raised a hand sharply, though her eyes narrowed in irritation." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"The basis—the seed, the root, the wellspring—of your science, Anderssen-tzin,\" he said, settling down to the ground, legs crossed, \"is to make things happen the same way not just once, not twice, but a thousand times. It is to learn enough, discover enough, to allow a human being to control the processes of the universe. From sparking fire to forging a bronze knife to making a reliable breather mask.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hummingbird tilted his head a little to one side, amusement glinting in his dark eyes." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Isn't that the heart of your science? The evolution of a hypothesis into a theory? The definition of fact? Of scientific truth?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"No,\" Gretchen said, feeling like she'd stumbled into a first-term philosophy class. \"You're confusing the goal of engineering with the process of science. And not the first person to do so, either.\" She sniffed, tilting up her nose." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Engineering is about reliability and process control—but science... science is about learning why things work, not just how. Science... \" She paused, failing to wrestle her words into something succinct and pithy." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Our science is just like your seeing, but born from the mind, from logic, not from an organic alkaloid.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hummingbird grunted dismissively. \"Logic is the construct of a human mind and prey to every failing thereof. The universe around us is not logical, not at its heart.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Gretchen's nose twitched, as at a foul smell. \"There is always accident, chaos, uncertainty.\"\n\n\"Yes,\" Hummingbird said, starting to smile." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"There is. The bane of your mechanistic technology—the enemy of order, the devil which must always be pursued, always driven out. Consider, Anderssen-tzin, if you turn in a dig report which is incomplete, which leaves data unaccounted for, analysis undone—is your supervisor pleased? Does he laud your efforts?\"\n\n\"No.\" Grimacing, she made a so-what motion with her hand. \"So we chase something unattainable—is that bad? Is that something to deride or disparage? You're pleased enough to ride in an aircraft which will work reliably! Disorder is no friend of humanity.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hummingbird's head rose at her words and a calculating, weighing expression came into his lean old face." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Do you think so?\"\n\nGretchen nodded, tapping her recycler. \"Yes, I'd rather be able to see another sunset than choke to death on my own waste.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"There is a difference,\" Hummingbird said quietly, \"between the individual and the race.\" He paused and the hiss-hiss of his air tube being idly bitten filled the comm circuit. \"Are you familiar with the mortality rate among infants on planets newly colonized by the Empire? The so-called Lysenko effect?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Yes.\" Gretchen could not keep a dubious tone from her voice. Though the scientists on Novoya Rossiya were good Swedes, she did not agree with all of the work being done there. \"Death rates among the first generation of colonists are high, but not unduly so for a new world being opened. First Settlement is dangerous work. But the second and third and fourth generations suffer from an incredibly high death rate among the young—sometimes as high as eighty percent. After the fifth generation, if the colony has managed to survive, the mortality rate begins to drop, eventually approaching, but never matching the Anáhuac baseline.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hummingbird nodded. \"This has been the focus of great debate. Many scientists have urged genetic modification of the colonists to better fit the parameters of their new worlds, so more children would survive.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Yes, I have heard of this.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Gretchen watched him carefully. As a rule, the Great Families did not colonize other worlds themselves, though they financed many settlements. The landless were sent out in their stead." }, { "from": "human", "value": "There was great social and economic pressure on the macehualli to gain a landholding, even at great risk." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She had reviewed the literature herself, in grad school. Millions had died. \"The Empire has steadfastly refused.\"\n\nHummingbird smiled at the bitterness in her voice." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The flat, golden light of the setting sun gleamed on his high cheekbones." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I will tell you a small secret, Anderssen-tzin. Nearly a hundred years ago, when this trend had repeated for the fourth time, the Emperor decreed that this thing, this genetic modification, would be attempted. A world called Tecumozin was selected and a generation of humans was pre-adapted for life thereupon.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"And?\"\n\n\"They thrived for a time—two, three generations. Then a plague brewed up among them, something attacked the modifications which had been made to their core DNA. The entire colony was lost. The Emperor was perturbed and listened to us, the naualli, for a change.\" A brief flicker of irony colored his words." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"A judge was sent and he went among the ruins, watching quietly and listening. What he found can—could—be best expressed as the planet being angry with the colony. No accord had been reached between the men who settled there and the fabric of the world around them. They had tried to gain power over it, recklessly. Very foolish.\"\n\n\"What do you mean?\" Gretchen was disturbed. Every planet she had visited had held a particular, unique feeling or atmosphere." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Ugarit was clearly different from Old Mars, but she had never thought of it as being \"angry.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What I mean is this; the race of man may come to thrive on an alien world, but he must reach a balance, he must pay a price for life within its shelter, and the price is blood. This is old, old knowledge among the Méxica: All human life is sustained by the sacrifice of a few. In your terms, in the context of your science, the colonists needed to adapt in subtle ways to their new home. This is a delicate process and many die, unable to exist in the new environment. But a few live and prosper. And their children have found a balance with the new world. Your science is not subtle enough to rush the process, but we are a hardy race and teoatl, the fluid of life, is the opener of the way.\"\n\nHummingbird fell silent, watching her.\n\nGretchen stiffened, his words triggering a flowering of thought in her mind." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Bits and pieces of studies she had read, personal experiences, stories heard around dig campfires, even the echoes of the old Church coalesced. \"The Emperor sleeps soundly at night, does he, knowing the Empire is built on the bones of children?\"\n\n\"This is the way it has always been. I hope it will always be so.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Gretchen felt sick, but there was a certain, cold sense to his viewpoint." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "To think progress could be gained free of cost, without struggle, was a child's daydream. She put down her tea, a sort of lost, distraught expression creeping into her face.\n\n\"You would let a station die—even if there were thousands of people aboard—to stop some kind of... infection... from entering the Empire. You'd just let them die. You'd let me die.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hummingbird nodded. Gretchen felt his calm gaze like an iron band tightening around her heart." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I would trade many lives to save our race,\" he said with a perfectly grim certainty. \"A hand, any eye, a limb—as long as mankind survives, my work is done. An old man said this, long ago: 'It is not true we come to this earth to live. We come only to sleep, only to dream. Our body a flower, as grass becomes green in spring. Our hearts open, give forth buds, then wither.' So did Tochihuitzin say, and his words are as true today as they were then.\"\n\nGretchen's mouth twisted into an expression of complete disgust." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You're... you're not interested in justice at all. You're no more than an antibody!\"\n\n\"Hah!\" A sharp laugh escaped the old man. He grinned, teeth very white in the dim light beneath the overhang." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I am. A good word to describe what must be done for our tribe to survive. An antibody.\"" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 1 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He laid back down, chuckling to himself." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Task: Cooperative storytelling\nMy role: Provide a brief opening\nYour role: Expand upon my opening with 3 sentences, emulating the writing style of Thomas Harlan in the Science Fiction, Space Opera, Aztec, Japan genre." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hadeishi swung out of the platform, tucking in his legs to clear the ragged edge of the now-missing frame. Felix and her men had unloaded all of the gear, anchoring the crates to the refinery hull in a semicircle around the airlock door. Corporal Felix and Tonuac were crouched at the lock access panel, having removed the faceplate, with a cluster of cables snaking from the blocky comm relay into the opening." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They were watching a hand-held spin through millions of control code combinations." }, { "from": "human", "value": "At the far end of their hardwire, the Cornuelle's main comp was prying at the commercial-grade control circuits in the lock mechanism." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Almost through... \" Felix motioned to the chu-sa. \"Thirty-five seconds, kyo. Please stand out of the line of fire. Maratay and Clavigero will enter first.\"\n\nObediently, Hadeishi touched down beyond the ring of equipment, letting his boots adhere to the scarred, blackened hull." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He found it wryly amusing that the EVA platform now seemed to be hanging in the air overhead." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The two Marine privates shifted themselves to include him inside the immediate fire perimeter. Both men were crouched and braced against the hull, shipguns out and armed.\n\n\"Sho-i Asale,\" Hadeishi clicked open the comm." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You should back off, out of this confined space. Take station a hundred or so meters from the exterior ring of ore tanks and stand by.\"\n\nThe pilot frowned—Mitsu could see her worried expression through the glassite of her faceplate. \"Kyo—what if you need extraction? I should stay close.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"We might not need pickup from this particular airlock,\" he replied, keeping an eye on the darkness among the gantries and space framing joining the ore tanks to the refinery hull." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Take your time and stay clear of the hardwire.\"\n\nAsale nodded dubiously, but ran through her flight check and then—in a faint cloud of vapor—began to back the platform away from the airlock. At the same time, Felix stood and took up position to cover the airlock opening." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"We're in,\" she said, thumbing the safety on the Whipsaw to live fire, single-shot." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hadeishi crouched down as the two privates swung round and took hold of the locking bars on the face of the lock. He did not bother to check his own sidearm. If things degenerated to a firefight, his own nominal skill with a pistol or assault rifle would not make much of a difference." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The airlock unbolting vibrated through the hull. Hadeishi could see the seal outgassing and then a brighter light flooded out as the heavy pressure door recessed and slid aside, leaving a half-moon–shaped section exposed. Maratay ducked inside, crabbing around the corner, gun first." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Clavigero followed a heartbeat later and their voices—low and clipped—filled the comm channel.\n\n\"Clear. No hostiles.\"\n\n\"Clear. Inner door seal intact. No warning lights.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Felix signed for him to enter and Hadeishi swung 'round and inside in a single motion." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He felt the tug of a differential gravity interface inside the white-painted chamber and oriented himself by the g-deck logo stenciled on the wall." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Clavigero was already at the inner hatch, peering this way and that, watching for opposition.\n\n\"Chu-sa? We could use a hand here?\" Felix was standing above him, boots still adhered to the outer hull, looking down impatiently." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Tonuac was releasing the first of the equipment cases from its anchor." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Of course,\" Hadeishi flashed a reassuring smile. Some officers would have been content to stand aside, but he did not believe in shirking and speed was of the essence. He braced himself and took hold of the lanyard attached to the first case." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A blocky gray container marked with the ownership glyph of the Engineering department drifted solidly into his hands." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hadeishi swung it aside to the wall of the airlock and thumbed the adhesion patches 'live'." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The case attached itself to the wall with a solid thump.\n\nAs Hadeishi hauled the equipment inside, Felix angled through their midst with the octopuslike assembly of the comp interface. There was a second access panel beside the inner door." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She removed the faceplate with her hand tool in a series of crisp, flawless actions." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hadeishi, watching her out of the corner of his eye, was pleased to see the endless round of sims had imparted noticeable effects.\n\nThe heicho began clipping interface leads onto the exposed components. At the inner door, Clavigero was counting nervously, marking the seconds while the airlock was exposed to open space." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The builder's blueprints indicated a two-minute safety interlock, past which an alarm might sound. Hadeishi hoped the miners had not wired a direct alarm system to the bridge.\n\n\"Stand by to pierce outer hatch.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Tonuac swam inside with the last case." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The bulky shape of a shipyard hexacarbon drill was strapped to his chest." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As he did so, Maratay kicked himself out through the opening, catching the edge of the opened lock door. He swung round to face back inside. His motions had the same kind of controlled, endlessly-practiced grace shown by Felix in disassembling the access panel." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hadeishi flattened himself against a wall now covered with gear." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Felix ignored Tonuac as he powered up the drill and maneuvered the machine to sit flush with the airlock door. A series of lights on Felix's panel flashed amber in warning.\n\n\"Forty-five seconds,\" she announced in an offhand voice." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Tonuac ignored her, checking the seals around the base of the drill." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A pressure test showed green and he punched the GO button. Immediately, Hadeishi felt a thready, intermittent vibration through the wall at his back. The drill attacked the inner surface of the airlock door, ejecting a stream of sparking hexacarbon flakes through a side vent." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Thirty seconds.\" Felix consulted her handheld and let the Cornuelle comp attack the access panel." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "This time, there was a barely noticeable flash of numbers and the inner door unlocked. \"Door two unlocked.\"\n\nHadeishi clicked his circuit to the Cornuelle. \"Comm will be dead in five seconds.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Koshō did not have time to reply." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Felix rotated a locking ring and the hardline disconnected." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The monofilament wire hung suspended for an instant before Maratay—his gloves protected by magnetically active pads—reeled the line out of the lock.\n\n\"Fifteen seconds.\" Felix glanced at Tonuac. The drill was still vibrating against the door." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Twelve seconds.\" Maratay nodded sharply and moved out of sight." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Door one pierced,\" Tonuac announced, disengaging the drill adhesion seals. He handed off the tool to Hadeishi, who stuffed it into the appropriate case. A cloud of drifting metallic curls floated around him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Outside, Maratay forced a pressure-sleeve into the fresh drill hole." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The comm hardwire was tucked inside. Tonuac grabbed the connector as it eeled through the opening, slid a seal gasket around the device and handed off to Felix.\n\n\"Outer segment sealed.\" Maratay's harsh Gujari accent conveyed some of the tension Hadeishi felt." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The Marine swung nimbly around the edge of the airlock door." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He and Tonuac moved out of the door frame itself. \"Inner segment sealed. Outer door cleared to close.\"\n\nHadeishi heard the comm channel chime open and saw Felix had reconnected the hardline to the relay." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The system warbled happily to itself, signaling a clear connection back to the ship." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Six seconds,\" she declared, one hand poised over the outer door control lever. She eyeballed Tonuac and Maratay to make sure they were behind the cross-hatched danger stripe and swung the control down. \"Closing outer door.\"\n\nA thump followed as the airlock engaged, rolled closed and slid into secure position." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Tonuac kept an eye on the hardwire, guiding the monofilament with his hands." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Outer door secure. Pressurizing.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Two minutes later, the airlock was at positive, nominal pressure, the seals around the hardline were holding and the inner door rotated aside. Maratay and Clavigero sidled out into a dim, gray-walled passageway. Hadeishi waited until all four Marines had exited the lock and taken up positions on either side." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He stepped out into shipside gravity and frowned.\n\nThe bulkhead opposite held a dark—apparently broken—map panel. Streaks of rust spilled down unpainted metal." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He looked up and down the corridor—some of the overhead lights were missing, while everything had an unmistakable air of decay and long-overdue maintenance." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The difference between the immaculate, shipshape Cornuelle and this wreck was striking." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hadeishi shook his head in dismay and consulted his handheld." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Left-hand corridor,\" he said, trying to avoid staring at the deck, which had a thin sheet of some kind of oil shimmering underneath the waffle-grid flooring." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Three hundred meters straight on, then there's an internal pressure hatch.\"\n\nMaratay moved out on point, gliding down the dingy passageway at a run. Hadeishi looked around again and clicked open the channel to the ship." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Sho-sa, what do you make of this?\"\n\nThe crew is too small, Susan's voice came back, as clear as if she stood at his side. And the ship is too large." }, { "from": "human", "value": "According to the builder's plan, there are nearly a hundred and twenty k of corridor and pressurized space inside a Tyr." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 1 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Understood.\" Hadeishi closed the channel and bent to help Tonuac and Felix haul the rest of the equipment cases into the corridor." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "keep the story goin for like three sentences more. make it Science Fiction, Space Opera, Aztec, Japan-y and Thomas Harlan-esque" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Not here, Paulson,\" Ketcham barked, turning on the riggers crowding the hallway behind him in their z-suits, gloves clutching beam cutters and wrenches. \"Go round to the 6-D gangway and up to level thirty-six. Secure the rooms above the 78-H junction and make sure they don't burn through the roof and move up a level.\"\n\nConfused but spoiling for a fight, the riggers turned around and ran off down the passage." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The refinery captain swore to himself, peering around the corner into the H-port-side hallway." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A round dozen crewmen were at his side, most armed with sidearms or beam cutters, though none of them were in armor. The passageway ahead was entirely choked with clinging black smoke. There was no sign of the tanglewire blocking crossway 78." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Ketcham grabbed the nearest shift leader." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Termovich, send a runner to get me a handheld. We need plans of this level and all the rooms. Leave two men forward here on watch and then fall back a frame—and send someone else to get pressure masks or even z-suits if they can find them.\"\n\nMen melted away from the gang of miners, eager to make themselves useful and get away from the sound of the guns. Ketcham ran a hand through thick blond hair, thinking furiously." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He figured they'd already exhausted the day's ration of luck by having him within shouting distance of the firefight when it started." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hardly anyone else aboard had any military experience, though you couldn't deny they were game for a fight.\n\n\"No heavy weapons inside,\" he muttered, \"barely anything like combat armor. Miners, technicians, shuttle pilots... Termovich, where's the nearest emergency engineering panel?\"\n\n\"Back two frames, sir.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The Novoya Rossiyan looked scared to death, which only mirrored Ketcham's own gut-twisting fear." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Someone—Company mercenaries? Pirates?—had entered his ship undetected, in combat suits and armed to the teeth. Tanglewire and RSM rounds didn't come cheap. But what could they want?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "To steal the whole ship? Why sneak aboard?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Get over there right now and drop the bulkheads all round this section and on the level above and below. We'll seal 'em off.\"\n\nCaptain Ketcham? An unknown, unfamiliar voice intruded. Ketcham started and stared around before realizing the voice was coming from his earbug." }, { "from": "human", "value": "There is no reason for further conflict." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Who the hell is this?\" Ketcham's bellow caught Termovich by surprise, but the Rossiyan bolted away from the captain's volcanic glare. \"Identify yourself!\"\n\nChu-sa Mitsuharu Hadeishi, IMN Cornuelle, at your service." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Fleet?\" Ketcham's voice choked in astonishment." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Then his brain—which seemed to have stumbled into tar—kicked into gear. He slapped his comm unit, scrambling the channel. \"Override six-twenty-six,\" he shouted, desperate for even ten seconds of clear air." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Bridge, this is Ketcham. A Fleet Marine assault team has entered the ship. Lockdown all levels and accessways, seal the bridge and—\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "None of this is necessary, Captain Ketcham. I need to speak with you directly, but I mean you, your ship and your men no harm. The quiet, reasonable voice had cooled slightly." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Ketcham found his sidearm in his hand—a silver-chased Webley 220 with an over-and-under magazine—and reflexively cycled a round into the firing chamber." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The safety unlocked and the see-through-shoot-through sight activated." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The board of directors had presented the pistol to him last year, a custom model from Toporosky and Sons gunsmiths. A small token of appreciation for four years of profitable service. A corner of his mind—a part long neglected, but not entirely atrophied from disuse—calculated he would need to be within fifteen meters for the depleted uranium rounds to penetrate a Fleet combat suit." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You've killed three of my men already,\" he growled into the comm." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"My ship is on fire. You're not making yourself welcome!\"\n\nIf any of your men died, Captain, I apologize. My Marines have been firing solely RSM and knockdown rounds." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I admit an eyesocket hit might kill a man, but that is not our intent." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What do you want?\" Ketcham stared down the back corridor, silently pleading for Termovich to hurry or the bridge to react to his override command. To his great relief, a distant banging sound echoed down the hallway and the lights flickered." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The fire alarm cut off and was replaced by the shrill honking of a ship-wide red alert. \"Finally!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I am coming out into the hallway, the voice said, apparently unaware of the bulkheads sliding closed amid flashing lights and the drone of the alarms. I will be unarmed. There is a matter we must discuss." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "ill start, then u do 4 sentences in Liam's voice ok?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "From the manual." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 5 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "All non \"blood\" related liquid secretions of the Series 6, saliva, vaginal lubricant, anal lubricant, sweat, etc, are made from a food safe, biodegradable, poly diamus. Poly diamus is 100% harmless to humans, it is hypoallergenic, water soluble, and passes through the human digestive tract with ease. This is a variation the same material used by doctors to deliver antibodies to precancerous cells and it is made especially for us. All secretions can be uniquely flavored with the SF lozenge, given to the unit orally, included in the New Owner Packet. Additional SF lozenges can be ordered from myCompanionDoll.com." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Produce three sentences using the prose and structure of Liam every time it's your turn, using what the user wrote as a seed. Stick to the Science Fiction, Erotica, Android genre." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Let's engage in a collaborative writing exercise in the Science Fiction, Erotica, Android genre. I'll provide a starting point, and you'll continue with 4 sentences." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "David awoke in the middle of the night, startled to find someone in the bed next to him. Elise lay there, on her side, a naked leg released from the sheets, halfway hanging off the bed. She was snoring ever so slightly.\n\n\"It wasn't a dream!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "he thought, coming to his senses." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He reached and gently stroked the valley between her hips and her rib cage, marveling again at how real she felt." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Maybe all women felt like this. It had been so long, maybe he'd just forgotten. This made him laugh. It should have depressed him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It would have depressed old David." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But for some reason, it made him laugh." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Sex, he thought, the ultimate antidepressant, and he laughed again. David spooned up next to his artificial girl and put his ear to her back as he snuggled in. He could hear her \"heart\", the small series of micro pumps that fueled her circulation. They hummed gently, like the sound of an air conditioner running." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She made the slightest cooing noise and grabbed his arm, guiding his hand to cup her breast." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 2 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I could get used to this, he thought. David slept the rest of the night, wrapped in his artificial girl's embrace, content." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Expand the story by adding 3 sentences in the Science Fiction, Erotica, Android genre." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Hey buddy!\" John Hardy put his hand on David's shoulder before David could get to his cubicle. \"You're here early!\" Hardy laughed. \"Hard for me to dock your pay if you start getting here on time.\" Hardy laughed again." }, { "from": "human", "value": "David nearly choked on the cloud of cheap cologne which Hardy seemed to bathe in." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Ha. Yes sir.\" David laughed his submissive laugh.\n\n\"Project's looking good,\" Hardy laughed again. \"But you'll screw it up for me, won't you, buddy?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "And he laughed again." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hardy had the most annoying habit of laughing after everything he said. He used it like punctuation. He used it like he'd use a hand covering the knife he was getting ready to put in your back." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He was the kind of guy who you knew was lying to you when he laughed, and he did it all the time." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "David laughed, he might have whimpered. \"No, sir.\"\n\n\"Nah. You wouldn't do that to your boss, would you.\" There was no question there, it was a thinly veiled threat." }, { "from": "human", "value": "David hated that word, boss." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As a fan of history he believed that boss came from the Greek basileus. A word for king, or master.\n\n\"No, sir.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Good. Then I'd have to fire you. You want me to fire you, Davy?\" He didn't laugh. He smiled, but he didn't laugh.\n\n\"No, sir\"" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 4 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Ah I'm just fuckin around with ya buddy!\" He laughed. \"Now get over there and make me proud.\" And he laughed again. \"And stop taking everything so seriously!\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "I'll kick things off by writing a bit, then you'll take over and write the next one sentence in the distinctive voice of Liam, keeping within the Science Fiction, Erotica, Android genre." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Almost three hours later everything was done." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Just in time for home time." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Everyone in the office was packing up and \"bye boss\"ing." }, { "from": "human", "value": "David was packing his briefcase full of laptop and useless items when Hardy came around." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Hey, buddy.\" He laughed, giving Sarah a wink from across the room." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Look, since you owe me hours from last month I'm going to need you to burn some midnight oil and get ol' Sarah completely caught up. Kay, buddy?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What?\" David was stunned." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"How do I owe hours?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You kidding me? All that down time we had last month? I figure you owe me at least 10 but I'll be nice. Get her caught up, shouldn't take you more than two hours, and we'll call it even.\" He laughed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What about Jones? Or Rigsby? Or any of those red team guys? They've had nothing to do for months.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Yeah, but they've all got families, and you know we're all about family here. That's why you're my go-to guy for overtime. You got nobody waiting on you.\"" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 2 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "John Hardy laughed again, turned and walked out.\n\n\"Get that done for me, buddy.\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Hey can you write in the Science Fiction, Erotica, Android genre and use whatever I write as a jumping off point?" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "From the manual:\n\nIn the second shipping crate, marked \"Crate B\", you will find the wardrobe you chose for your myGirl Series 6. All natural fabrics are pre-shrunk and the entire wardrobe is washer and dryer safe. You have chosen to order a one month supply of clothes but we do encourage you to take your myGirl shopping. Any outing into the world will help the bonding, refine and round your myGirl's personality and improve your myGirl's worldly understanding, a necessary step should you and your myGirl ever get separated." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Hey can you write like Liam in the Science Fiction, Erotica, Android genre and use whatever I write as a jumping off point?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Morning. Leaving time. Elise and David, he bleary eyed and nursing coffee from a paper cup, leaned over the balcony. Shoulder to shoulder they watched the weary con goers. They were swilling their own coffees and espressos, saying sad goodbyes and dragging luggage to waiting cars, cabs, and airport shuttles. Well, that's what David saw." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Elise saw something different." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Look at all the costumes.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She said, strangest note of remorse in her voice.\n\n\"Huh?\" David said, pulling a deep swig from his coffee.\n\n\"Don't you remember?\" She said through a sad little smile. \"They were all laughing and having fun. Dressed up in their cosplay, dancing, playing, just being happy and free. That was real. Now look at them. Miserable, depressed, full of dread at having to go home and wanting to stay. Pretending they have to be someone they're not.\" She turned to him her eyes wet, a single tear running down her cheek." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Those are the real costumes.\"" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 1 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He took her in his arms, forgetting to wonder how she could cry." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Job: User writes start, you add ~5 sentences sentences. Style: Liam" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Work was rough. The sex. The partying. The no sleep. Work was rough but the snickering, that was the worst. The snickering and the commentary.\n\n\"Master Yates!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Yeah, the snickering and the commentary was definitely the worst." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Who do you suppose it was?\"\n\nHe could have fallen asleep right there on his desk.\n\n\"Bet it was that troll from accounting. She'd be just about his type.\"\n\nHe may still fall asleep at his desk.\n\n\"Can you imagine the sex they must have? Be like two giant, naked, mole rats goin at it.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "If they'd just god damn stop talking.\n\n\"Please. That dude's dick hasn't worked in a decade.\"\n\nThey were whispering, but whispering in that \"I don't really give a flying fuck if you hear this or not\" kind of whispering.\n\n\"I bet it was like a phone sex service. I bet he spends a thousand bucks a month on that shit.\"\n\n\"Probably has a subscription!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They all laughed. It was a group of them. Four or five, six maybe, coworkers of his, some of them he'd worked with for years, some of them had never even spoken to him.\n\n\"I just can't stop thinking about how ridiculous sex with the troll would be.\"\n\n\"Dude, it's nasty and pathetic. If that asshole was jerkin off in the bathroom who the fuck knows where else he's been jerkin off.\"\n\nA small part of him was cut by all of this, but a part that four days ago was much bigger and much louder, right now it was quiet, he was just too exhausted to care." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Need some cream for that coffee?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "They all laughed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Had to be the troll.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I'm gonna ask him.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They all laughed again and then there was a murmur. Then silence.\n\n\"Hey, Davy!\" Mike Morris. From two cubes down. Sports fan. Major league asshole. \"What's up buddy?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Hey, Mike. \"David had been staring at the same line of code for almost thirty minutes now." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"So, Davy. I hear you got a new girlfriend, buddy.\" The group in the other cube didn't bother to stifle the laughter. \"Is it that chick from accounting?\"\n\n\"No, but I know he works here.\"\n\nThis voice had come from across the room." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He thought he recognized the voice but exhaustion wouldn't allow him access to that part of his brain in this circumstance for some reason." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What?\" It was taking a decent effort for David to clear his head.\n\n\"That chick in accounting. You hittin that?\"\n\n\"No.\" God he hated this guy.\n\n\"Come on, man. You can tell me. You tappin that old ass? Dude, what's that like? That pussy all flabby and shit?\"\n\n\"Davy?\" John Hardy walked into the cube." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He walked in with the strangest expression David thought he'd ever seen on a person's face." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As he walked in a gorgeous dark haired girl followed in behind. Smartly dressed in a tight little black mini, crisp white shirt wrapped in an equally crisp black jacket, she would have been at home in any law office, or centerfold. Her hair was pulled tight and black rimmed glasses rested on the end of her freckled little nose. He didn't think that it was possible for Elise to be any sexier.\n\n\"David!\" She very nearly leapt on him and John's face went from confusion to utter disbelief." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Davy? You know this girl?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Elise! What the heck are you doing here?\"\n\n\"I got a ride!\" She said, delighted with herself and wrapping around him.\n\n\"Davy?\"\n\n\"Um, yeah, sorry. This is my girlfriend, Elise.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Sitting now in his lap she was surreptitiously rubbing her hand against his crotch.\n\n\"Also,\" she leaned in and whispered \"I'm going to fuck you in the bathroom.\" Her breath was warm and moist and her lips brushed against his ears. David's face blazed red and his dick twitched.\n\nJohn completely locked up for a full five seconds, his eyes bouncing from this Joe Ordinary, nobody guy to this exquisite woman." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Then, in an instant, he changed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What a pleasure to meet you, miss Elise. I'm John Hardy, your boyfriend's boss.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He said with all the charm of a slick patch of vegetable oil, holding out his hand. \"Davy, you've been holding out.\"\n\nElise, hand still teasing David's zipper, looked from David to John. She viewed him with such a look of disdain, looking him up and down, that John seemed to shrink two inches. \"David.\" She said, rising and completely disregarding John's still outstretched hand." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Let's go to the bathroom.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "By this time half the office was watching and an almost comical gasp traveled around the room." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The two walked the length of the office from David's desk to the men's room, Elise grabbing a handful of David's ass as they walked, David's now engorged dick tenting his pants and again leading the way.\n\nTrailing along behind them, John was returning to his senses, some semblance of the old John returning. Things were off balance. Things were off balance and out of place in this house, his house. This was the house that John built and he'd be damned if anyone was going to defy him. Not here." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Um, excuse me,\" he laughed, \"but this is a place of business and it's nowhere near lunch time.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Got to go to the bathroom, John.\" David replied without turning.\n\n\"Excuse me!\" David and Elise were opening the door to the men's room as Hardy stormed up behind them. \"You,\" he said, pointing at Elise, \"can't go in there. That's the men's room.\"\n\nShe turned, an elegant thing, viewing him with a look like she'd seen so much road kill." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I'll tell you what,\" her hand rested on his jacketed shoulder, patting it gently, \"you be a good boy,\" she said, leaning in to him just a bit, \"and I'll let you listen.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She closed the door behind her, turning the lock with a satisfying click.\n\n\"I am so tired.\" David leaned against the counter, smiling, watching his perfect girl walk up to him. Hardy was banging on the door and saying something completely useless.\n\n\"I think,\" she said, slipping in next to him, \"I can wake you up.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I think,\" he said, wrapping his arm around her waist, \"you definitely can. You know, this is probably going to cost me my job.\"\n\n\"David,\" she was unbuttoning his shirt. \"I still don't know a lot of things but I'm pretty sure you're allowed to go to the bathroom at work.\"\n\n\"Well, yeah, to go to the bathroom.\" He said, nuzzling into her neck." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Not to fuck the most gorgeous girl on the planet.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She smiled. \"You know, I'm going to put out, you don't have to flatter me.\"\n\nDavid began to wake, passion fueling him, filling his dick. He ran his hands up the back of her neck, driving them through her black mane. They kissed deep and long, tongues an absolute orgy as their mouths ground and sucked. Their clothes went to the floor in a flurry until the two stood naked in the men's room, cold tile under their feet." }, { "from": "human", "value": "David moved down her neck now, teeth grabbing delicate mouthfuls of her flesh, causing little catches in her breathing." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She leaned against the counter, the cold corner digging into her naked ass. He took a mouthful of her delicious tit and she gasped, pulling his head to her chest.\n\nHe buried his face in that tit, catching it with his teeth, sucking it bright pink, then it was back to her mouth. Breathing her in deep he lifted her onto the cold marble counter. Her mouth was full of him as she grabbed one of her knees, pulling it as far up as she could, opening herself to him, she then grabbed his dick and guided him into her waiting pussy." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Tight, puffy, and sweet she was as he slid home, his dick filling her completely." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "David's hands went around her hips, thumbs resting in the soft valley of flesh where her leg met her waist. He thrilled at the tiny contractions of her muscles each time he pushed into her. Releasing one hip, David stroked the skin of her belly, feeling the abs work to steady and stabilize her, feeling them work to accommodate him each time he pushed in. Then he took a tit. He thrilled at the feel of her hard little nipple pushing into his palm as he massaged and kneaded the mass of flesh in time with his fucking." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His balls were moist with her lube, cool as the air washed over them, slapping against her perineum." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Her chest was glistening with the lightest layer of sweat." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He was lost in this sex with this amazing girl in a naughty and forbidden place when he heard a sound, a faint clicking, but he was too caught up in the sex, too caught up in her, to care what the noise was." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Their fucking was furious, a desperate, primal longing being fed. She grunted against each thrust, meeting him, pushing him deeper in.\n\n\"Oh god!\" She groaned against clenched teeth, lifting her knees ever higher, opening herself to him. And David went into her, desperate to fill her, to be in her, to be a part of her.\n\nSomeone was fumbling with the lock." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Panic crept into his chest as realization of what the clicking noise had been struck home. Elise saw it and pulled him to her. Locking David with those dark eyes she smiled and simply said \"me.\"\n\nSomething about that single moment, that single word, that single breath, inflamed him and he went to his work, his girl, redoubling his efforts.\n\nDavid felt her start to tense and knew she was close." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He was shocked a bit at how intimately they had come to know each other in such a short time, how familiar he had become with her body, her little nuances. Instinctively he went to her mouth, hoping to stifle the sounds he knew were coming. These sounds, the sounds of her sex, as her orgasm filled every part of her body until she just couldn't contain the rapture anymore, delighted him, but they would be inappropriate in this public place, in his office.\n\n\"No.\" Elise breathed, putting a soft hand to his face. \"Make me scream.\"\n\nThis simple request sent David Yates over the edge." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He was going to make her scream." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "David was going to fuck her like she'd never been fucked before and she was going to scream his name at the top of her lungs. It was an uncharacteristic thought for him. Had he said it aloud, had he heard himself say it, he would have laughed because he just wasn't that guy and it would have been stupid. But there was something about this girl, something that made him do stupid things, uncharacteristic things. And here in this moment, with this girl spread out before him, believed in her, more than just about anything else." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "With renewed fervor he plowed into her, driving his dick hard into her hot pussy. She was moaning now, grunting a little \"oh god\" with each impact. He leaned back a bit, hooking his hands around her thighs as he fucked, opening up a space so that he could see her pussy, and he watched his dick sinking into her with each stroke. He put his hand there then, a rough thumb seeking and finding her hard little clit.\n\n\"Oh, fuck!\" Elise's eyes opened wide and she began to pant as he masturbated her clit and fucked her at the same time." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Oh, fuck! David\" she cried.\n\nAnother click at the door.\n\nHis orgasm was close. He could feel it welling up in his belly. His thrusting became furious and he found himself obsessed with wishing he could lock his dick in her." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "CREATIVE WRITING ASSIST:\n2 sentences sentences\nGenre: Science Fiction, Erotica, Android" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "David awoke with a dick as hard as a rock. He hadn't had a morning wood in years and it was nice to see his old friend again." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was six A.M. and he should be getting up for work." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But he had this thing draped over him. This sweet, soft, warm, lustrous beauty." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She cooed as he stirred and rolled over on her belly, burying her face in a pillow." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "David slipped out of bed grabbed his toothbrush and started preparing for work. Soon he was brushed, shaved, and dressed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He took special care in packing his briefcase, wrote Elise a rather long note and then he was ready." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Time enough for one last look before leaving.\n\nStanding in the doorway to his bedroom he wanted to see her before he left, just one more time." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She looked utterly peaceful. Still on her belly, that black mane a wild and glorious mess, gorgeous figure teasing him from under the sheet." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He needed to see that figure, to see that flesh. He needed it to fuel him, to push him into his day." }, { "from": "human", "value": "With a slow hand he pulled at the thin sheet." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It crawled down her back, exposing ever so slowly her round shoulders, then farther down, the slightest undulation of ribs, just the slightest hint of them as they expended and contracted with her breathing, then down to the middle of her back and that gorgeous valley that ran down the length of her spine. He pulled a little more and the dimples above her ass revealed themselves and his heart raced." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Another a little pull, the sheet crawling, revealing flesh with excruciating slowness, that beautiful, round, full ass exposing itself to him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She stirred just a bit as the sheet crept down the bottom of her ass to her thighs but finally she was exposed, lying naked on her belly before him. He ran a delicate finger down her back, over her ass and back up again and she sighed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He did it again, this time with two fingers, following that same smooth line, and again, this time with his whole hand, stopping and allowing it to rest on the glorious butt cheek." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "His breathing was a bit quicker now. He wanted a taste of that flesh, of that sweet, round ass." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Just one taste, then he was off." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He bent and his lips took in soft flesh. She cooed in her sleep, arching her ass to meet his mouth and his dick jumped." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Both of his hands went to her, stroking her waist and his mouth went to the small of her back, pink tongue washing up and down the valley above her spine and he became possessed by an idea." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "That tongue left her spinal valley and traveled with lips across the plane of her coccyx. He hovered at the edge of the valley of her ass cheeks." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Until Elise, he'd never touched a girl's asshole, for that matter until Elise, he'd never done a lot of things with a girl, he laughed to himself." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The idea hadn't consumed him, but he'd always wondered what it was like. David had seen a lot of porn in his time, a lot of porn, and while the anal stuff had never really interested him, it certainly seemed to be fun." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But then everything in porn seemed fun." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In this moment of thought, his warm, moist breath coating her skin, lips gently grazing her flesh, Elise moved. She arched her back, pushing her ass into his mouth." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Eat me.\" She said in a sleepy little moan." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He needed no more invitation than that, grabbing handfuls of her ass cheeks and spreading them wide, tongue going straight for the puckered little hole." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She was already slick as his tongue pushed in. He felt her anus relax, accepting the intruding flesh, wanting it inside her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Oh god!\" She groaned, pushing into his face, opening her ass to him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His dick raged, moist with pre-come as he tongue fucked her ass, his nose bouncing off her tailbone as she pushed back into him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He alternated between licking and kissing the rim and sending his tongue as deep into her as he could." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "One hand went to her pussy and she cried out as he found her clit. His other hand intruded on his mouth, a single finger working its way to her asshole." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He tickled with both tongue and finger, delighting as the little orifice squeezed and released. Finger slick with saliva and her lube he waited for his moment." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Her asshole clenched, then released, and he sent that slick finger in as deep as he could send it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Oh Fuck!\" She cried as he began to saw away. \"Oh fuck, get inside me, David! Fuck my asshole!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Work was forgotten. David frantically undid his pants, dropped them to his knees, grabbed a handful of his dick, and pushed it to her.\n\nStill a bit unsure his head, purple and throbbing, just kissed her slick asshole." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He rubbed his glans over it, mixing saliva, lube, and pre-come." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was soon slick and warm and his primal urge took complete control. He pushed and the purple head sunk into her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Just the head, expeditionary, surveying the surroundings, getting to know the fleshy territory. Then, with a lusty grunt, she pushed back on him, sinking him all the way in." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Oh god!\" She grunted as he filled her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The pressure was exquisite as her tight little anus held the base of his dick in a death grip. He lay in her a moment, head spinning from the sensation then he slowly pulled back, a groan from Elise coming out with it, then he dove back in." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He pulled out again, slowly, and sunk in again, balls coming to rest against her pussy as she cried out." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Jesus!\" Elise was on her knees now, ass in the air like a cat in heat, giving him full access to her asshole. One hand went to her pussy, working the clit, fingertips catching his balls with each stroke." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Oh god.\" She grunted again, into the pillow each time he plowed into her. \"Oh god!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The friction was intense. This was a completely different experience from fucking her pussy." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Hands hooked around her hips he began to work her, steady strokes, getting quicker as he went." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She was open to him, completely his as he plowed her ass, each stroke building a familiar feeling in David's belly, leaving him just a little closer to leaving some of himself deep inside her.\n\n\"Oh fuck me god!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She panted, words coming out in a nearly incoherent stream of grunts and profanity." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Her black mane was everywhere, streaked with sweat and flying every time she thrashed her head." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Her hand, slick with her juices, worked her pussy, two fingers sunk in and gripping her g-spot, thumb grinding the hard little clit.\n\n\"Fuck! Oh god fuck!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "David just repeated and repeated." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was all he could say. The fucking was automatic now, he couldn't have stopped if he wanted to as he ground ever harder into her slick ass." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The slapping of flesh and the grunting and the moaning was a chorus in his ears." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A sexual symphony that was approaching its crescendo." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A dew of sweat grew on Elise's back and her breathing was coming in quick gasps, coming in time with David's own deep, quick thrusts. They were an orchestra, the two of them, moving in perfect time, in perfect rhythm, with each other." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Soon Elise's breathing came in grunts, clipped and furious as she pushed ever harder against his fucking, little animal sounds creeping out of her throat." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She was close and the thought of it filled David's balls. Her grunting continued, louder and louder, nearly drowning out the furious slapping when she clenched her teeth and her asshole and nearly roared." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Oh fuck fuck fuck!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She growled as she came, each wave of her orgasm sending little clenches through her hot asshole, pulling David's orgasm right out of his balls.\n\n\"Yes!\" David screamed and grunted." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 3 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Her coming had sent him over the edge. \"Yes!\" He screamed again, head kicked back, a near bellow as his own orgasm opened him up, his come roaring into her like an uncontrollable flood. His dick pulsed and pumped wave after wave into her until he was completely empty. Spent." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "ill start, then u do three sentences in Janann V. Jenner's voice ok?" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The Culls left the caverns of the fire serpent the next night. In the months since they had been in their subterranean hiding place they had seldom gone to the upper level, preferring instead the platform at the bottom of the second set of stairs, where Sherahi had battled the rats. That platform had become their home and, except for Junior, who hunted for rats all through the adjacent tunnels, they had confined themselves to this small portion of the abandoned subway stop." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Thus, they were on guard as they crept in single file up the stairs to the upper world and the tunnel that Sherahi was certain led to the white crocodiles.\n\nSherahi had warned the others of what might await them on their journey to the storm sewer. Even though it was relatively nearby, they might encounter rats, cats, dogs, and humans." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"We've come too far,\" she said, \"to be stopped now.\" It might be dangerous, but they could no longer waste time in the tunnels of the fire serpent. It was getting cold and, besides, all were anxious to get to Sandeagozu and to do that the Culls had to get to the tunnels that would lead them to the white crocodiles." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Sherahi had found it impossible to contact these odd beasts in the normal reptilian manner, so the Culls would have to travel to them." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Guided by Dervish's scent marks, they easily located the second set of stairs, which led to the entrance and its worn, wooden barricade. Dervish and Junior were in the lead and, since Dervish knew the way, he wriggled beneath the barricade and waited on the other side for the others. It had snowed all through the day and the stairs were covered with a deep drift." }, { "from": "human", "value": "From around his neck he heard the serpent hiss and complain, \"Oh Dervish, don't start playing in that white stuff again. It makes me so cold.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The coati checked his impulse to roll on his back in the drift and wondered why Junior was always so crabby now.\n\n\"Come on, you two,\" Dervish said to Manu and the Duchess and, remembering what Sherahi had said about rats, cats and humans, he cautiously made a trail through the drift that led up to the street.\n\nManu and the Duchess had been in the darkness for so long that both were dazzled by the light that spilled into the cavern entrance from the streetlight above." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When they could see without squinting, first Manu and then the Duchess wriggled beneath the wooden barricade. \"I don't know how I'm going to get up there,\" she said, looking at the flight of snow-covered stairs that stretched up almost as high as she could see.\n\n\"Don't worry, my dear,\" said Manu." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"We won't go fast, but we'll get there.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Sherahi waited behind the barricade, watching the langur and macaw toil up the stairs." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Manu climbed up easily and then, bracing himself as well as he could against the slippery snow, he held onto a ledge as the bird grasped the stump of his tail in her bill. Scrabbling with both feet, she climbed up to join Manu on the stairstep above. Shortly, the two animals had joined Dervish and Junior in the snow at the top of the stairs and after checking to see that no enemies were about, first Dervish with Junior, then the Duchess and finally Manu raced to the storm drain that opened in the curb across the street." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Dervish had been there before and leaped down through the hole at the rear of the drain." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He knew that he would land in a round, dry cement chamber and that a dark tunnel branched off from this. Manu was next to arrive. With effort he lowered himself below the grate." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Looking down, he saw Dervish and Junior waiting below and released his grasp on the bars of the grate." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The Duchess was more cautious. She didn't like the thought of going underground again and wished she could fly off into the snowy night but, again, she could see no jungle on any horizon. Streetlights and dark buildings crowded all around." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Her feet were cold and that decided her more than anything." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hunching to make herself as small as possible, she ducked below the grate and, holding on with her bill, hesitantly lowered herself into the darkness, feeling with her claws for support. Manu's hands grabbed her and she released her hold on the bar. Now the four of them waited for Sherahi." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The pythoness had decided that she should be the last up the stairs and had urged the others to follow Dervish and to get into the new tunnel as quickly as possible. This was partially because she feared that their luck might not last. \"Only one human has to see us and then we'll be pursued and hunted and perhaps even recaptured,\" she worried." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Sherahi did not intend to ever let this happen." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She had decided that if humans interfered, she would kill them as a last resort. She had insisted on being the last up the stairs because she knew that she was the slowest and she would be a danger for the others. If they had to wait for her, all of the Culls might be seen." }, { "from": "human", "value": "So, she had sent the others ahead and watched them clamber up the snowy stairs while she thought about the cold." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Exposure to the snow and the freezing temperature would slow all of her body processes and she would only have a short time before each movement became difficult. Her thoughts would slow, too, and if she remained cold too long, it would kill her.\n\nThere was one way that she could keep warm, though." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She could twitch her deep body muscles in the way that female Burmese pythons did when they were brooding and incubating a clutch of eggs." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "This continual muscular twitching would make her almost as warm-blooded as a hummingbird and as active as a coffin-headed mamba that had basked in the sun for hours. In a sheltered place, Sherahi would have been able to keep her body temperature elevated for two or three months the time it takes for a clutch of eggs to hatch. Ordinarily she would never have considered using this special method of temperature control, because it required too much energy." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Rather, she would have relied upon the mundane saurian method of alternately basking in and hiding from the sun." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It would have warmed her enough to easily hunt for food, escape her enemies and digest her meals. Sherahi didn't like wasting her fat reserves on temperature control but, unless she did, she would be trapped in the fire serpent's cavern until spring came.\n\nSo, as she waited for the other Culls to climb the stalls and hurry across the street, she coiled in a tight mound, keeping as much of her length off the cold cement as possible, and began to twitch muscles deep within her body." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She watched the Duchess's ragged red tall feathers disappear from the topmost step and knew that the bird was walking awkwardly toward the street drain. Then Sherahi scanned for Junior, who was already safely within it. Through his eyes she saw Manu and then the Duchess enter the chamber below the grate." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Satisfied that the others were safe and feeling a little light-headed from the surge of body heat, Sherahi began to climb the snow-covered stairs." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Her giant coils heaved up each step and Sherahi methodically climbed and twitched, climbed and twitched. The falling snow melted upon her sleek, warm scales and she watched the streetlamp light glisten on the snow all around. It looked as if some heavenly fish had shaken its skin, scattering clouds of small scales that twinkled in the lamplight." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They seemed to invite Sherahi to pause and wonder as the light played upon them." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She stopped and stared." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Sherahi was in the middle of the staircase when she came to her senses. She discovered that, although it was the last thing she had wanted to do, she had stopped moving and was lying in the snowdrift that trailed down the stairs. She had stopped twitching and for some reason had become fixated on the patterns of individual snowflakes." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"This will never do,\" she said to herself and, contracting her deep muscles again and again, the snake resumed her climb." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I must get to the tunnel. The others are waiting,\" she thought. \"I can't stop here.\"\n\nIgnoring the finely detailed snow crystals that danced around her, Sherahi concentrated on climbing the stairs." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She climbed and twitched and thanked elephant-headed Ganesha for the well-fed rats that had lived in the fire serpent's tunnel." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Their bodies were giving her the strength to fight upward and their fat helped insulate her from the cold that was only now beginning to numb her broad belly plates. She climbed and twitched and tried not to think about the cold, but it needled into her mind and she thought, \"Once we are in Sandeagozu, none of us will ever be cold again. We'll always be warm. And there'll be lots of food... and there'll be lots of friends... and there won't be any bars on the cages. It'll be like being free, only... better.\" She found that she had stopped moving again, this time only momentarily, but even that was dangerous." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She shook her big head and tried to concentrate." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"The cold must be doing queer things to my mind,\" she thought and repeated, \"warmth, food, friends... warmth, food, friends... warmth, food, friends,\" over and over until her head finally reached the top of the staircase and she paused for breath.\n\nTo her alarm she found that she couldn't pull her length up the stairs and form the loose mound that was her characteristic resting posture. She could feel her backbones trying to move, but her yards of thick muscle did not budge." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She could no longer feel the hard-packed snow beneath her belly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "If she could have formed a coil, it would have gotten some of her body off the cold snow, but as it was, she was forced to stop stretched out with half of her length stiil trailing down the stairs. It was getting more difficult to twitch her deep body muscles and Sherahi noticed that her breathing was slower. She felt sleepy and the streetlamp light was doing strange things with the snow again." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Now it spread a carpet of crystal shards over the drifts. Sherahi looked at her body as it trailed down the subway stairs, and saw that she, too, was covered with snow. The flakes no longer melted on her flanks, and she fancied that she had been transformed into a snow serpent with crystalline scaies and fangs that held the light, chill touch of death." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The street drain was only a body length away, on the other side of the street, but it might as well have been on the other side of the world." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Sherahi could see the snow partially melted around the dark hole that the others had entered and knew that they were waiting for her. She wanted to hurry and join them, but the cold had drained her of energy. She would have never left the caverns of the fire serpent if she had known that this would be so tiring." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She felt limp, like a piece of wet rope very cold, heavy, sodden rope. \"This will never do,\" she told herself. \"I've got to get over there.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "But the part of her brain that thought those words no longer controlled her body and she had the sensation of splitting into two minds: one hovered above and calmly watched the snow serpent try to contract her muscles and raise her temperature again; the other was cold and so sleepy that she didn't realize that the thuds that her jawbones passed to the ears inside her skull were footsteps until it was almost too late." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Surprised, she looked up and saw two humans hurrying across the street." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"How did they get so close?\" she thought. Sherahi looked for a place to hide, but everything was covered with snow. She couldn't go back down the stairs." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They'd surely see her and then she'd never be able to climb up again." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She was so tired. If only she were warmer, she could surround herself with a shield of confusion that would hide her from the two humans, or she could call to Junior for help. But both took a supple, active mind and hers was as stiff as frozen leather." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She couldn't even manage to send emotions into the minds of these humans." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Like a fawn left by its mother in a sun-dappled forest, or a bronzed frog who freezes in shallow water, hoping to fool the stalking heron's eye, Sherahi did the only thing that she could do. It was also the single thing she did not want to do. She lay motionless in the snow and prayed that the humans would quickly pass and not see her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The couple stopped at the abandoned subway station and the girl whined, \"See. See, I told you, Morris. Why don't you ever listen to me? This station's closed it's been closed for years. We've come all this way for nothing and now the next nearest one's way over on Canal. My suede pumps are ruined and my feet are frozen. I can't even feel my toes anymore. We should have called a cab. That would have been the smart thing to do.\"\n\nCold and miserable, the girl looked down at the barricade that blocked the stairs and then up at her companion. She hugged her thin coat tighter and wished that she'd worn galoshes instead of these thin-soled pumps." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But galoshes made you look as if you'd just come in from the barn and she'd wanted to impress the other girls at the social-dub dance." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "If only Morris' car hadn't gone dead, her feet would be warm and dry. If only he hadn't insisted upon taking her home. If only she'd gone with that swell Jimmy McAndrews instead of stupid Morris Weiner." }, { "from": "human", "value": "This was all his fault." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was the last time she'd ever see him, that was for sure." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Snowflakes had frozen onto his spectacles and Morris couldn't see very well. She waited for an answer, while Morris dithered in his eggheaded way. \"Such an Einstein,\" Shirley Hagenbloom thought." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Jimmy McAndrews would have known what to do and would have done it in a minute. I'm sure of that. Morris Weiner will be buried in ten feet of snow while I freeze to death on the corner of Eighteenth and Seventh. Why do I always get these weak sisters?\" she asked herself." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "To bring some sensation to her numbed feet, the girl stomped against the snowy pavement. One high heel crashed down next to Sherahi's head and without thinking about it, without knowing where the energy came from, the giant snake hissed and raised her head from the snowdrift where she had been hiding. She opened her mouth and, as the snow sparkled in the lamplight all about her, she warned the girl to be more careful about where she put her feet and those spikes she had on her shoes." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As soon as she'd reared up, Sherahi regretted it, but by then it was too late." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The cold had dulled her brain and only instinct guided her now." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The two humans heard a hissing behind them and turned to see a huge serpent only inches away. Its mouth was open and it flashed rows of white teeth; its vermilion tongue lashed at them. It was poised to attack." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The girl forgot her frozen feet and screamed.\n\n\"Oh, my God!\" said her companion and grabbed her arm. He pulled her behind him as he ran down the street." }, { "from": "human", "value": "For once in his life Morris Weiner made a decision and yelled, \"Run! Goddamn it, Shirley. Come on. Stop screaming and run!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When they reached the middle of the block he looked back, saw that the snake was not following and stopped. The girl collapsed into his arms, sobbing hysterically and tugging his lapels. \"It isn't going to get us, is it, Morris?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No,\" Morris panted. \"It's still at the corner.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He could see the enormous serpent still standing erect in the lamplight." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He watched as it lowered its head and disappeared into a shadow at the curb.\n\n\"Morris, I think I'm going to be sick or faint or something.\"\n\n\"Not now, Shirley. Just wait till we can find a drugstore. Can you hold on till then?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I don't know. Oh God, I wish I were home.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He put his arm around her and half-carried her toward the lights of a neighborhood bar, which shone blue and red through the failing snow. While he trudged through the snow he thought out loud, saying, \"That thing could have killed us. It was trying to kill us. What was it? Snakes don't get that big, do they? Its head was a foot long and its body was like a telephone pole. God only knows how long it was. It almost got you, didn't it, Shirley?\"\n\nShe replied and he wondered to himself, \"What could I have done if it had bitten her?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The thought of the enormous coils strangling poor, thin Shirley was too awful and Morris pushed it from his mind. He put his arm around her and concentrated on hurrying toward the bar.\n\nThey were a half block away when Shirley said, \"Morris, don't you think we'd better tell the police? That snake could kill somebody.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Yeah, we'll tell them. We'll tell everybody, but nobody's ever going to believe us. They'll think we're crazy or something.\"\n\nAfter the excitement Sherahi felt strong enough to cross the street. She entered the storm drain as quickly as she could." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She was relieved that the round subterranean chamber below the iron grate was much warmer than the street above." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Now she had the strength to form a resting coil and, after twitching her deep muscles repeatedly, she was able to raise her temperature to a tolerable level." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She was thinking more clearly and began to respond to the others' questions." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Humans have seen me,\" she said. \"I think they may even know that I came down here. We must leave this place and travel deep within these tunnels to a place where they can't find us. I frightened those two humans, but others may come looking for us.\"\n\n\"I could make sure that they never tell anyone what they saw,\" Junior hissed in a sly, quiet voice." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No, Junior,\" she said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"That isn't necessary. Perhaps sometime we wil have to rely upon your talents, but now we must find somewhere safe to hide. We can't kill all the humans. There are too many of them. The white crocodiles have lived beneath this city for many, many years and in all that time they have never been seen by humans. If we can get to them we will be safe. But we must start now. Our enemies wil be looking for us soon and by the time those two recover from their fright and tell someone about us, we must be far away from here.\"\n\nSherahi was quiet for a moment, listening, and then she said in her elegant mindspeech, \"I'll go first and listen for the song that I told you about.\" She undulated away from the group a short distance and said into their minds, \"It is much stronger here and the singer can't be too far away. Manu, you follow me; and Duchess, hold onto Manu's tail." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Dervish, you and Junior will be last." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Junior, your part is especially important. You must be our rear guard and watch for anyone who might follow. No matter what comes, human or animal, you must cover us with a screen of confusion the way I taught you." }, { "from": "human", "value": "You could use a bad smell, or noise, or fear of the walls closing in, but you must make the screen strong enough to hide us." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"And remember: from now on we must be silent. We don't know what kind of enemies are down here. If humans come, we'll have plenty of notice: they always make lots of noise. They've forgotten how to move without a sound.\"\n\nFor a moment the Culls looked at each other and then the Duchess said in a soft contralto cheep, \"I'm scared.\"\n\n\"Don't be, Duchess,\" said Sherahi." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Look at how well we've done. We're out of the pet shop; we've been free and living on our own for months. We're all healthy. Look at you, Duchess, you even look like a bird again. And look at Manu—has he ever been stronger? We're closer to Sandeagozu than we've ever been before. We don't have the time to be scared; we're going to find the white crocodiles.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Couldn't you do something to make us braver?\" said the Duchess." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"No, Duchess. I don't think so. I could fool you into thinking you're some other kind of animal, but you don't need my charades. You've got your own kind of courage now.\"\n\nSherahi was warm and she slithered rapidly down the dark tunnel that led away from the storm drain. Her labial pits received queer, warm air currents from someplace far ahead and from time to time she heard the song the female white crocodile sang to the embryos that grew within the dozen large eggs that she guarded." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Sherahi slithered as rapidly as she could through the tunnel that sloped down and away from the street drain Before she had traveled three body lengths the tunnel abruptly joined a much larger one and if Sherahi had been a smaller snake she would have tumbled five feet to the bottom of this next, larger tunnel." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She sent a silent mental warning to Manu to grab hold of the tip of her tail and, feeling his small, warm hand respond, she turned into the larger tunnel." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She found that it was even darker, but the space felt different not nearly as enclosed as the tunnel that led from the street drain.\n\nSherahi told the others to wait while she investigated. She discovered that this new tunnel was about three times larger \"big enough for a human to walk upright in,\" she thought, \"while one could only slither on his belly through the tunnel from the storm drain.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Although the first tunnel had been dry, there was a trickle of foul-smelling water in the bottom of the new, larger tunnel." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Curiously, this new tunnel sloped upward ever so slightly.\n\nSherahi didn't fancy the thought of traveling through the putrid water in the bottom of the tunnel and knew that it would give the Duchess a fit. She was happy to find a narrow shelf carved into the left-hand wall." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The shelf was high up on the wall where the storm-drain tunnel entered and Sherahi realized that the Culls could walk along it and avoid wading in the foul-smelling trickle in the pit of the tunnel. Sherahi wriggled the tip of her tail, which was still in Manu's hand, giving the signal to move ahead.\n\nThe Culls traveled for hours along the shelf of the black tunnel, each holding on to the animal in front." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Having spent three months in the fire serpent's caverns, they were accustomed to darkness and none of them was particularly bothered by it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Once or twice Dervish stepped on the Duchess's tail feathers and received a sharp peck on the skull. He whined an apology and was more careful where he put his feet after that Other than this incident, their passage through the large tunnel was unremarkable. It was very dark and the water that flowed in the pit below smelled bad, but they soon became used to it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "At regular intervals the large tunnel was joined by smaller tributaries and the Culls soon realized that the tunnel from the storm drain had been like these. Each of the tributary tunnels must have had a round chamber at the end and a gate above that led to the street. The Duchess and Manu didn't like being underground and felt slightly claustrophobic, especially when the Duchess thought about how far beneath the earth they were." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The thought of the ceiling collapsing frightened her and she began gasping for breath." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Manu felt his tail being pinched in her beak and said gently, \"Duchess, why are you biting me?\"\n\nShe stopped and said, \"I don't like this place. What if the ceiling falls in on us?\"\n\nThe next time that they passed a tributary drain Manu pointed upward and the Duchess saw light in the chamber at the end of it." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She realized that they could escape from this place any time they wanted to and thought, \"Maybe it's not exactly like being buried alive.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"That's number twenty-one,\" said Manu. \"Count them as we pass. It'll show you that we're getting somewhere.\"\n\nAs they continued along the narrow shelf of the large tunnel, Sherahi saw that all of the tributary tunnels seemed to be lit from above." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It must be daylight now,\" she thought." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Faint rumblings and clatterings reached them from the street drains. Once they heard a newsboy crying, \"Papers, get your morning papers. Killer snake on the loose python terrifies city,\" and the Culls hurried away toward the next tributary drain. \"If we're going to be followed,\" Sherahi thought as she slithered in the darkness, \"it happen soon.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She increased her pace and the Culls hurried toward the white crocodiles even faster." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The animals kept shuffling along, anxiously listening to the noises from the upper world and peering behind every now and then, but nothing happened. No dogs came baying and slavering at them. No poison gas suffocated them." }, { "from": "human", "value": "No parties of men came with lamps and clubs to kill Sherahi." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "At one place the Culls cringed as a familiar roaring filled the air and the ceiling trembled.\n\nManu's face was upturned toward the sound and a fine curtain of dirt sifted into his eyes and open mouth. \"Phtah,\" he said as he spat it out." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Sounds like another fire serpent,\" he whispered, hoping that the tunnel wouldn't collapse.\n\n\"You all right, Manu?\" asked Dervish.\n\n\"Just a little dirtier,\" said the langur." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Sshhh,\" Sherahi hissed. They all cringed as another fire serpent roared overhead, in the opposite direction." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "This large tunnel must be directly beneath those of the fire serpent. The noise retreated and disappeared, replaced by the less-threatening rumble of traffic above. Then, in the distance, came the wail of yet another fire serpent and the Culls hurried away from the spot." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Sherahi could see the opening of the next tributary tunnel and she wondered how far they had come." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"We've been running since midnight. It's day now and the humans must be looking for us by now.\"\n\nShe slithered even faster and thought, \"They could send dogs down here the kinds of dogs that chase foxes and weasels from their burrows. It would be bad to fight them down here—enclosed. But,\" thought Sherahi, \"the humans think they are dealing only with a giant snake. They don't know that there is a cascabel to be reckoned with. They probably don't even know what a cascabel is.\"\n\nSherahi imagined a fierce fox terrier or a short-legged dachshund sniffing excitedly down a tributary tunnel and meeting up with Junior." }, { "from": "human", "value": "How surprised the dog would be to feel Junior's fangs inject hot poison into his neck." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Sherahi had never liked dogs and the thought made her smile in the inscrutable way that serpents use to express amusement. But that wasn't her only worry: the main tunnel was big enough for men to walk through. If men came, Sherahi couldn't let Junior kill them." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She knew that if some men died, others would surely follow, and the Culls could never kill all of the humans. \"I can confuse them for a while,\" Sherahi thought, \"but we must find someplace to hide.\" That thought kept Sherahi moving forward, questing for the spot where the white crocodile crooned to her eggs." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She heard the Duchess counting behind her. The bird's tenor voice said, \"Forty-five,\" when they passed one dimly lit tributary tunnel.\n\n\"What are you counting?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Sherahi asked mentally. She didn't really understand numbers, but the Duchess didn't have to know that." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Number of tunnels that we've passed since we started,\" the Duchess replied in soft bird squawk. \"That was forty-five and I'm wondering when we're going to stop. I'm tired.\" The Duchess wasn't exactly complaining in her old way." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She'd outgrown that, but Sherahi knew that all of them were fatigued by the strain of trudging in the darkness without any visible goal." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Let's rest here,\" said Sherahi. \"Dervish, you take the first watch and I'll relieve you in a while. I'm going ahead for a bit.\"\n\nAs the Culls traveled, Sherahi had listened carefully to the song that the brooding female white crocodile sang to her unhatched young." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It grew louder and stronger within her mind and now the singer seemed to be very close." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Sherahi thought that she could actually hear the song reverberate in the walls of the tunnel." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "With her chin against one brick wall, Sherahi listened to the song and it occurred to her that if it weren't being sung in the ancient saurian tongue, the song could have been any mother singing to her babies. It could have been the song of a mother spider as she guarded her eggs wrapped in homemade silk. Or it could have been the song of a mother penguin hunched against the Arctic wind, communicating with the embryos floating within the egg worlds clutched between her warm, webbed feet." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Or it could have been the song of a mother python the song that twists sunshine with leaf shade and hot dust with dew as the mother tells her unhatched children of the world that awaits them." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Python tradition holds that the song encourages the snakelets to feast on the yolk that the mother has provided and prepare for the day when they will slash their way toward the light and the singer that they will never see.\n\nSherahi listened and crawled toward the song. After experimenting she found a spot where it seemed to be loudest." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Something was wrong, though, because she could find no difference between this and any other part of the tunnel. All the bricks seemed identical; nothing led toward the singer. Sherahi was disappointed. This was not what she had expected." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Please, Holy Ones,\" she prayed, \"please give us shelter." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Our enemies are coming." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Please let us find you.\n\nThere was no response to her prayer and Sherahi sighed and pressed her chin against the spot again. There was no doubt that the singer seemed to be on the opposite side of this wall and Sherahi inched across the face of the curving bricks again and again, looking for a loose place or a depression, for some sign of an entrance." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But she could feel nothing to indicate that one of the Holy White Crocodiles had a nest only a few feet away." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Indeed, if Sherahi hadn't been able to hear the song, she would never have suspected that this portion of the tunnel was any different from the rest. Sherahi thought of sending a mental message to the mind of the brooding female, but decided against it: that might frighten her away.\n\nSherahi lay in the dark tunnel with her chin pressed to the spot where the song was loudest." }, { "from": "human", "value": "When the others had rested, she'd have to get them to help her search." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Maybe one of them can find something that I have overlooked. There must be an entrance,\" Sherahi thought. \"We've come too far to be trapped by humans in this endless tunnel. The Holy White Crocodiles will help us. I know it.\"\n\nThen she thought, \"They've done this for a reason." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It isn't just by chance." }, { "from": "human", "value": "These are clever creatures." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They may be the most intelligent beings in the world." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Of course it's going to be hard to find them: they've camouflaged the entrance to their nests. Just like spider-hunting wasps, who provision their nurseries with paralyzed spiders, the crocodiles have disguised and sealed the entrance to their nursery so that nobody can find it How stupid of me not to have realized it before.\n\n\"But they're here. I know they're here. Somehow they've found a place that's warmer than the rest of the tunnel we've come through. They must be here—only a few feet away.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The place where Sherahi's head and the first third of her body were coiled was as snug as a cliff face at noontime." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "For a moment the big snake allowed herself the luxury of pressing close to the warmth that seeped through the wall of the storm drain. Then she yawned and returned to the others to relieve Dervish and allow him to sleep.\n\n\"Find anything, Sherahi?\" he chittered at her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She couldn't really hear what he said, but from the way his quick mind worked she knew he was asking her something." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As a reward for being such a good and loyal beast she sent him a wave of sleepy comfort." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In a few minutes he had curled up beside Manu and was asleep.\n\nWith her labial pits Sherahi surveyed the sleeping animals: Manu and Dervish were curled side by side and the Duchess hunched near them. Junior had coiled a bit apart and Sherahi knew that he had intercepted the mental reward that she had sent to Dervish." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He was jealous again, but since a quick scan of his mind showed no damage to his remodeled personality, she merely said \"Good night\" to him in ancient saurian mindspeech." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In a shielded part of her mind she thought, \"Teenagers are so difficult.\"\n\nFeeling a bit like the mother crocodile that sang to her babies so close to where the Culls slept, Sherahi sent a dream into their sleeping minds. The dream was all about Sandeagozu and how wonderful it would be." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Maybe the dream will give them the courage to actually get there. Tomorrow, when we've rested, we will find the white crocodiles. And the holy reptiles will tell us how to get to Sandeagozu.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Sherahi stopped thinking and, although she had planned to guard the others in case men came, she fell asleep.\n\nThe newspapers carried the story the next day, with the headline \"PYTHON LOOSE IN SEWERS.\" There was a double-page spread of photographs of the abandoned subway station, where police investigators found evidence that the python had hidden for months." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It showed pictures of the snake's trail up the subway stairs and through the snowdrifts to the storm drain." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There was an artist's sketch of what the monster snake looked like and interviews with the couple it had terrified. There was a long, scholarly interview with Raymond Ditmars, Curator of Reptiles at the Bronx Zoo, who said that none of his snakes was missing and that, from the description, it sounded like a snake that Leftrack's Pet Emporium once had offered for sale.\n\nThe reporters questioned the police officer who had searched for the snake outside Leftrack's shop." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He said that, although his dogs had lost the trail, it was possible that the animal could have eluded them." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He said that, because there was no trail, he and the owner, Ira Leftrack, had concluded that the snake had been stolen. There had seemed to be no reason to alarm the public. The policeman had no reply to the question, \"Why didn't you report the matter to your superiors? You knew that the missing snake had once nearly strangled Mr. Leftrack, didn't you?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "It wasn't long before the reporters began to call Ira Leftrack." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He told his secretary, Helga, that he wasn't taking any phone calls and put on his hat and coat He would take Irma to the Jersey shore for a few days." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Ehrich was away at medical school and the business could run itself for a while." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When they came back, the whole thing about the escaped snake would be forgotten.\n\nA reporter met Leftrack as he was leaving the pet shop.\n\n\"Going somewhere, Mr. Leftrack?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "the reporter said. \"Cliff Jones of the Tribune; I want to ask you a few questions about the python of yours that's got this whole town scared to death.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Can it crawl down into a drain?\" asked another reporter, who appeared behind Jones, note pad in hand.\n\n\"How did it escape from your store?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Don't you think it's irresponsible to bring dangerous animals into a city like this? Isn't it some kind of health hazard?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Leftrack answered none of these questions, but instead hailed a cab and hurried home. He telephoned to the store to tell Irma, Helga and the others to close up early. First the line was busy and when he finally got through, his wife answered the phone." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Irma, send everyone home and lock up as fast as you can.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"It's too late, Ira,\" his wife's voice said. \"The man from the Board of Health was just here. They've shut down the warehouse and confiscated everything. They're going to send all the animals to the Bronx Zoo." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There are policemen here now. They say that the pet shop can go on but, unless the city changes its mind, we can't import or export animals here anymore. \"Where are you, Ira?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I'm at home.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Well, stay there. I'll be home in a while and we'll talk.\"\n\nThere was silence on the other end of the line and Irma said, \"It's not so bad, Ira. Maybe we can still move to the country and raise chinchillas. You said that was a sure-fire thing. In a few years Ehrich will be a doctor and then we'll be on Easy Street.\"\n\nThere was no response and she added, \"Ira, did you hear me? Ira?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Her husband's voice said softly, \"You're dreaming, Irma,\" and he hung up the phone." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The next day was worse for Ira Leftrack. The papers carried the news that the snake had been traced to Leftrack's Pet Emporium and that the store had been closed by the Board of Health, acting under the mayor's special direction. There was also the quote from Leftrack that the python had been stolen from his shop, and the paper said that \"Leftrack refused to say whether or not the python was a danger to the public.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "There were further interviews with the couple who had seen the python, with their respective families and friends." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Again and again Shirley Hagenbloom and Morris Weiner recounted their narrow escape and with fascinated horror New Yorkers read again and again of how the gigantic snake (it was at least forty-five feet long now) had threatened them on the night of the blizzard." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Several papers reprinted the account of Leftrack's snake attack. A woman in Brooklyn set off a second wave of terror by calling in a snake alarm. What she reported as the killer python turned out to be a milk snake that was hibernating in her basement." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Without a second thought the police smashed the serpent's head with a coal scuttle.\n\nPeople imagined that they saw snakes everywhere. City Hall was besieged with calls from people who were frightened to use the subways, frightened to walk down streets at night, frightened to use the plumbing in their own homes." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The mayor saw his chance to be a hero. Not wanting to have a lawsuit on his hands, he closed down all of the other animal importers who handled exotic snakes and then organized a special crew of workers who would search the storm-drain system for the python. Donning hip boots and miner's helmet, he joined the crew of maintenance workers, police riflemen and dogs that assembled at the storm drain adjacent to the abandoned subway station at 18th Street." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It's here,\" Sherahi called to the others." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Junior, if you put your chin to this brick, you can hear how much louder the song is, can't you?\"\n\nThe cascabel slithered from around Dervish's neck and pressed his chin to the spot Sherahi indicated. \"The bossy old lady is right again. Someone is singing on the opposite side of this wall,\" he hissed in a scree-filled snag of his mind." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"She's right,\" he sald into Dervish's mind and crawled away to brood." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Have a look here, Dervish,\" Manu chittered to Dervish. \"Is there anything different about these bricks?\"\n\nDervish had spent the time since they had awakened scratching at bricks." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His claws were dull from digging at rocklike, hard-fired bricks, and dust and powdered mortar filled his nostrils." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The place that Manu indicated seemed to be no different from all of the other bricks that he'd tried to destroy, but Dervish wanted to do his job well. Digging in one more place didn't matter now. He wasn't surprised when he found that this one was as hard as all of the rest." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Just the same,\" he chittered softly to Manu." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Al hard as rocks. Ask Sherahi if she's got any other ideas.\" Dervish flopped down onto the ledge above where the others worked in the tunnel and rested his chin on his paws. He sighed and wondered, \"Are we ever going to get out of this place? What if men and dogs come while we're here? We'll be captured. Or worse.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The coati rolled restlessly on his back, with his hind feet braced against the curved wall of the tunnel." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Absent-mindedly he scratched at it with his powerfully clawed feet." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "If he'd been a wild coati he would have spent hours ripping open fallen trees, searching for fat, white grubs. He would have used his back feet and claws just like this (he raked them strongly against the brick wall) to dig a comfortable burrow beneath the roots of a strangler fig tree. There would be a chamber that he would sleep in (he raked his claws furiously), and there would be a chamber for his first wife and her babies (one more furious burst of scrabbling at the wall), and there would be another for his second wife (more furious digging)." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He'd have to find some way to keep them from fighting." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Manu said that females always fought. And there would be a chamber for storing food and a second and a third tunnel that led to other parts of the forest. Each of these would have to be carefully plugged with hard-packed earth so that no predators could sneak in during the daytime when all the family was asleep and silently grab his first wife by the neck..." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Dervish, what in hell are you doing?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "asked Manu in a very annoyed tone. \"You're throwing dirt all over everyone.\" There was a pause and Manu rushed to where Dervish lay, nearly covered with soft dirt and small stones." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He felt the soil on the coati's fur and then felt the wall where the animal's feet had opened a hole." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was directly opposite where the snakes were listening to the song of the white crocodile and it was very high up on the wall. \"Sherahi. Junior,\" Manu called in the mindspeech they understood. \"Come here. See what Dervish has found.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "In moments the other Culls clustered around Dervish, who had shaken the dirt from his fur and was trying not to feel too proud." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Dervish,\" Sherahi said into his mind, \"dig a little more. Right here.\" She indicated a place where the hole that Dervish had made was deepest. \"But be gentle.\"\n\nUsing his favorite front paw, Dervish tentatively clawed at the hole he'd made." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He stopped from time to time to allow Sherahi to press her muzzle against the hole. \"A little more,\" she said. \"I think we're almost through.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Dervish dug a bit more and the wall gave way. Warm, spicy-smelling air flowed through the hole to Dervish's nostrils and, incredibly, a pale light emanated from the hole.\n\n\"Junior,\" Sherahi ordered. \"Quickly go in and have a look.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She saw thunderheads of objections cloud his brain and commanded, \"No—don't argue, just go.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The cascabel slithered through the hole. In moments he was back and put his head through the opening. \"There is a strange-looking crocodile here, Auntie. She's not quite like you said she would be, but she says that we can come in. She's been expecting us. But we'll have to hurry because she says that men and dogs are coming. And she says to not make any noise and to throw all of the dirt in here so the men won't find us.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Sherahi looked either way down the black tunnel. There was no sign that people were coming, but if a Holy White Crocodile had said so, it must be true.\n\n\"Hurry,\" she said to the others." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Do as Junior says. Since I'm the slowest, I'll go first. The rest of you clean up this mess as best you can and come in quickly.\"\n\nSherahi widened the hole that Junior's head had so recently occupied and then slowly crawled through it.\n\nThe Duchess, Dervish and Manu swept the dirt from the wall into a neat pile." }, { "from": "human", "value": "When Sherahi's body had cleared the opening they threw as much of it as possible inside." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The Duchess clambered up with beakfuls of the stuff and, once most of it was inside, she opened her wings and beat them powerfully, sending any stray crumbs into the pit of the tunnel where no one would see them. Manu climbed through the hole in the wall that led to the white crocodiles, followed by the Duchess.\n\nAs she jumped from her perch on Dervish's back to the breach high in the tunnel wall, she heard the coati whine." }, { "from": "human", "value": "In the dim light that spilled down into the black tunnel from the crocodile's chamber she saw him staring at distant points of light that bobbed up and down." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Get out of the way, Duchess,\" he said. \"I'm coming.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Dervish sprang onto the wall that separated the chamber of the white crocodiles from the tunnel, hoping that the dogs wouldn't be able to find them and that there would be some place inside where they'd be safe.\n\nNone of the Culls was prepared for the first sight of the famous Holy White Crocodile. It was a small, twisted animal, with thick legs and a spindly body." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Huge, bottomless eyes stared coldly from the pale head that mechanically turned to watch as one animal after another entered the dimly lit chamber through the breach in the wall." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "With its glowing, pale skin and rows of long, sharp teeth it didn't look friendly. Once all of the Culls were inside, the beast seemed to lose interest in them and ran back and forth on the nearly vertical wall like an overgrown ant or termite soldier, carrying mouthfuls of the dirt that the Culls had excavated mixed with a black, tarry substance that they knew was crocodile dung. The creature quickly plastered the break that the Culls had made and, once the gap was filled, it did not relax but continued pacing and plastering until the wall showed no sign that it had been recently broken." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Sherahi was as surprised as the others at the dexterity with which the crocodile mended the wall." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 1 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But then she recognized that the wall-building was just an amplification of the nest construction which crocodiles had perfected over more than a hundred million years." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Task: The user will write a bit then you need to write around 7 sentences continuing directly from the user's text.\n\nAuthor style: Janann V. Jenner\nGenre: Fantasy, Animal Fiction" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Irma had begged him to stay home. She warned him that the city had confiscated all of the animals. There was no point in his going back. There was nothing to see there. \"Please, Ira,\" she had said, \"stay home with me tonight. We'll see the lawyers in the morning. No good can come of going tonight. There's nothing there anymore. Believe me, Ira. There's nothing there. '*\n\nHe sat across the room from her, staring intently at the teapots and blue roses on the faded wallpaper behind her left shoulder. She said, \"Ira, did you hear me? Are you listening?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Leftrack made no reply and Irma shrugged. \"I might as well be talking to a stone,\" she said to herself and went into the kitchen. Sighing and banging her mixing bowls down onto the counter, she began to assemble the ingredients for the potato latkes that she would take to Ehrich's dormitory tomorrow. He was hardly eating these days getting so thin. Her hands were covered with the minced potatoes that she molded into patties and she was busy thinking about how Ehrich would be a doctor someday when she heard the front door slam.\n\n\"Ira?\" she called. \"Ira?\" The living room was empty." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Well,\" Irma said to herself, \"he's used to being the boss. Once he's made up his mind, there's no stopping him. Best to let him alone.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was past midnight when Ira Leftrack returned to his pet shop and warehouse." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Except for a light behind the blinds of the office of Meyer's meatpacking house, all of the warehouses on the block were dark. Leftrack fumbled for his keys and thought of that tub-of-guts, Meyer, behind his counter, grinding meat for sausages. \"Meyer must be happy with what has happened,\" thought Leftrack. \"I'll bet he and his pal, Sam the greengrocer, are having a big laugh over this.\" Leftrack thought of the butcher's fingers pressing meat into the maw of the meat grinder. He imagined sharp knives and heavy cleavers lying nearby and suddenly thought, \"Maybe Meyer'll have an accident. Maybe he'll cut himself a little.\"\n\nLeftrack saw that a notice was nailed across the front door of the shop." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It read, \"CLOSED BY ORDER OF THE BOARD OF HEALTH OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK. KEEP OUT.\" There were official-looking signatures across the bottom and Leftrack ripped it from the door and cast it onto the snow-covered street. \"No city officials are going to keep me out of my own shop,\" Leftrack thought. \"They can't do that to me. I'm in business here. My lawyers will make mincemeat of them in the morning.\" Leftrack wouldn't let himself think about what he would do if it were really all over and if he really couldn't import animals anymore. That wasn't possible.\n\nLeftrack slammed the door behind him, and in his shop across the street Meyer the butcher heard the noise and looked up from his paperwork. Out of habit Meyer wiped his fingers on his blood-stained apron and pulled down one slat of the Venetian blind." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He saw the Board of Health notice lying crumpled and discarded at Leftrack's shop door and, like any conscientious neighbor, Meyer telephoned the police and warned them that a prowler had broken into the warehouse across the street. Meyer went back to his accounts, but glanced up from time to time, and listened for the arrival of the police.\n\nInside his shop Leftrack was at first dismayed and then became infuriated when he saw what the city had done. \"What right do they have?\" he kept asking himself. \"This is a free country. They can't just shut me down just like that. Just because one snake gets out. They can't keep me from earning a living. This isn't Germany. This is a free country. They can't do this to me.\"\n\nBut they had. In the public part of the shop there was one empty row of cages after another." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "White mice, guinea pigs, turtles, rabbits, parakeets, canaries, mynah birds, frogs, snakes everything was gone. Irma had said that the city had confiscated everything, but he hadn't expected this desolation. He saw that the Animal of the Month exhibit was empty. They'd even taken the ocelot that had been promised to the San Diego Zoo.\n\nOn his way to the warehouse door, Leftrack saw a flash of color and movement and found that the hundred-gallon tropical fish tank still had three neon tetras in it. \"The city probably couldn't catch them,\" he thought ruefully and noticed that whoever had cleaned out the place had not disconnected the motor that ran the tank's pump and filter. \"Three tetras aren't worth all of that electricity,\" he thought and quickly pulled the plug." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Do they think I'm made of money?\" he thought." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Within the tank, bubbles stopped streaming up from the helmet of a deep-sea diver and the three iridescent fish darted off in opposite directions. Now that the motor had stopped chugging, there was no sound in the pet shop, except for Leftrack's footsteps, and he began to wish that he'd stayed home with Irma. She'd been right. There was nothing to see here. Nothing at all.\n\n\"Maybe they left the chinchilla colony,\" he suddenly thought. \"The bastards took everything else, but Irma must have told them that the chinchillas weren't for sale. They were our old-age insurance. They couldn't have confiscated them. Those poor chinchillas'll die if they're upset again.\"\n\nBefore he entered the warehouse, Leftrack looked at the three little tetras that hovered near the top of the nearly empty aquarium. \"It would be kinder to kill them,\" he muttered." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Without an air pump they'd die soon, anyway, and before long the water would go foul and start to stink. He took an aquarium net from beside the tank, captured the fish with one expert scoop and folded the net so that the three fish were trapped inside. He laid the net alongside the tank. As he unlocked the warehouse door he heard their fins flipping wetly against the net. They would suffocate in a few minutes. \"Not a bad death, all things considered,\" he thought. \"Besides, there's no use keeping them alive. They're worthless now.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Leftrack found that Irma had been right: the warehouse had been completely cleaned out. The chinchilla colony was empty. The aviary cages held no finches. All of the rare South American river turtles were gone, as well as the new shipment of colobus monkeys and the dozen scarlet ibises that he'd gotten on speculation. He found the only animals in the whole warehouse in a wooden crate that was on top of his desk: a shipment of nonpoisonous snakes that had been returned in the late afternoon. The crate was marked \"REFUSED.\"\n\n\"They must have arrived after the cops had gone,\" thought Leftrack." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Well, they're worthless now, too. Just like all the rest. Worthless.\"\n\nOn impulse, Leftrack opened the crate and untied one bag after another. He found a red, black, and yellow scarlet kingsnake, a brick-red blotched eastern milk snake; a big garter snake; two lovely, smooth green snakes, and a big black-and-yellow chain kingsnake. Leftrack poured the snakes out onto his desk and watched them slither beneath the pile of papers that needed attention. For a moment he forgot all of the trouble. He forgot that the city had closed down his business. He forgot his debts and his worries and watched the liquid movements of the animals." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The garter snake found the edge of the desk and slithered down toward the floor. Leftrack watched it and thought, \"Let it go wherever it wants. It really doesn't matter, now.\" Leftrack liked the idea of freeing these snakes to surprise the cops and the officials from the Board of Health. A little joke, Ira Leftrack style.\n\nHe realized his mistake too late. The cannibalistic snakes smelled their prey and almost simultaneously the milk snake, scarlet kingsnake and chain kingsnake began to attack the others and one another. Their ferocity caught Leftrack by surprise and for a moment he watched the intense, silent ball of snakes that writhed and coiled about one another." }, { "from": "human", "value": "When he began to try to separate the cannibals from their prey the snakes turned their fury on Leftrack." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Kingsnake, scarlet king, garter and milk snakes all struck at and held on to his hands and wrists. Their excitement seemed to reinforce one another's attacks and strikes. Leftrack made things worse by jerking back and pulling snake teeth through his flesh. He saw that he was bleeding, but since they were nonpoisonous snakes, the bites didn't really bother Leftrack. Instead, his sense of order was outraged. The snakes weren't supposed to attack one another. He meant for them to scare the city officials." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I can't even control a handful of stupid, harmless snakes,\" he fumed and that made him angry.\n\nWith the quick, none-too-gentle hands of an expert, Leftrack disengaged one kingsnake's jaws from his wrist. The snake rattled its tail against the papers on Leftrack's desk and before it could turn and strike at him he grabbed it by the tail and snapped its body through the air like a whip. He cracked it a second time and felt it begin to jerk and twist and pull, like a fish hooked through the gills. The snake's glossy, black head hung limply and its tongue lolled from its mouth. Blood spurted from its broken neck.\n\nSuddenly this seemed like a very good thing to do and Leftrack whipped each of the snakes through the air." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He had the satisfaction of seeing the milk snake's head shoot off across the room." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It left a bloody smear on the wall below the clock. The long snakes snapped and died more easily than did the smaller ones and Leftrack had to kill the baby green snakes by beating them against the edge of his desk.\n\nWhen the police found Leftrack his hands and face were spattered with blood. He was examining the blood splatters minutely and the sight of the writhing, coiling bodies of not-quite-dead snakes struck him as terribly funny. It was all a great joke and he laughed hysterically and pointed at the dead snakes. The police took him away and he didn't understand why they weren't laughing. It was funny so terribly, terribly funny." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When they walked by the empty hundred-gallon tank, he pointed at the net with the dead neon tetras inside and started laughing again. He took the net with him and sat cackling in the back of the paddy wagon. He wouldn't relinquish the net until the doctors at Bellevue took it away from him.\n\nMeyer the butcher came outside to watch as the police put Leftrack into the paddy wagon. He heard the pet-store owner's cackle echo in the deserted, snow-covered street and knew that something had gone wrong with him. The next day he told Sam the greengrocer, \"I always knew he was crazy. Only a crazy person would run a business like that in this neighborhood. The cops said that they found him in his office, with dead snakes all around him.\" Meyer paused and put his hand on Sam's forearm and said with horror, \"Sam there was blood in his hair and he was laughing to beat the band.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Meyer pointed to his head and made a circle in the air with his index finger. \"Such a sad thing. His wife told me this morning that he tried to kill himself in Bellevue. I never liked Crazy Leftrack, but I didn't wish for this to happen. Crazy Leftrack. Too bad.\"\n\n\"Too bad,\" echoed Sam the greengrocer, shaking his head. \"We always knew he was a strange one, but who would have expected something like this? I'll tell you, Meyer. Such a shame. You never know. You just never know.\"\n\n[ Tunnels of the White Crocodiles ]\n\nThe Culls soon lost track of time. The white crocodiles marked only the seasons." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Days, weeks, and months meant little to them." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Winter had just begun, a time in which the crocodilians prepared for the year to come." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The tunnels had to be cleaned, repaired and enlarged. Every scrap of refuse and excrement had to be carried to the sludge ponds and carefully mixed with the tepid, glowing water. The pond reeked like a fetid bear den, but the crocodiles didn't care. Their sense of smell had always been feeble and their olfactory lobes had now regressed to mere nubbins. In the hundreds of years that these animals had inhabited their tunnels they had learned to foster the growth of spherical, jelly-coated algal colonies. They had discovered that the algae grew fastest in tepid water that held a suspension of night soil and phosphorescent bacteria. The pools where they cultured the algae stank, but the crocs who patrolled them, continually stirring their contents with their sinuous swimming movements, did not seem to mind." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They knew that their actions were necessary to keep the sludge from settling and putrefying.\n\nOnce the algal blobs had grown to the size of a human head they were scooped from the reeking water and set to dry upon the hissing steam pipes that perforated and warmed the chambers. After a few weeks the algae had dried to the flat cakes that fed the entire population of white crocodiles. This staple was supplemented by meat only at the annual Spring Glut. At that time the captives that had wandered into the tunnels were slaughtered in a gory ritual in which the crocodiles reenacted the lives of their terrestrial ancestors. The largest share of their flesh went to the crocs that had been chosen to mate. It was believed that the extra protein would foster the development of highly evolved and unreverted young." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Even though they had been assured that they would not be killed until the spring rains had flooded the mucky underground ponds, the Culls were aware that the eyes of the pale crocs watched them hungrily." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Only tradition restrained the crocs from making an immediate kill and they lavished hungry, yellow glances on all of the Culls, but especially on Sherahi. She was a brillant reptile and whoever ate her flesh would gain a share of that intelligence. Moreover, Sherahi was fat from feasting on unlimited rats. The crocs imagined the yellow fat hanging from her heart and crammed between her intestines. The saliva dripped from their jaws. The white crocodiles craved fat; there was none in their vegetarian diet.\n\nThe Culls were welcome in the tunnels of the white crocodiles not only because they would be part of the menu at the Spring Glut, but also because they could be pressed into service as workers." }, { "from": "human", "value": "During the day all of the Culls except for Sherahi worked for the white crocs." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Manu and Dervish helped with masonry repairs, while the Duchess did a different sort of work in the brightly lit chambers of the oligarchy that governed the crocodilians." }, { "from": "human", "value": "These huge and oldest white crocodiles seemed to find a talking bird an excruciatingly funny evolutionary joke." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It had something to do with lineage, as birds were direct descendants of crocodiles, and the holiest and whitest of the white crocodiles demanded that this novelty be present to entertain them every day.\n\nJunior had eluded the crocodiles and had refused to be frightened by their threats. He had hidden in an inaccessible crevice and the crocs couldn't pry him from it. They were too large to follow him into his hiding place and, because they planned to mentally compel him to sacrifice himself in the Spring Glut, they had decided to ignore the small snake for the immediate future. They knew he couldn't escape and would eventually starve. \"We'll find his desiccated body someday,\" the white crocs hissed and, instead of hunting for Junior, they concentrated their mental efforts upon subduing Sherahi.\n\nThe crocodiles had immobilized Sherahi's mind, erecting mental walls that did not allow her to communicate with the others." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Believing that the pythoness was the most dangerous of the strangers, they focused all of their psychic constraints upon her and left Manu, Junior, Dervish and the Duchess mentally unfettered. They seldom even bothered to listen to their thoughts. At first Manu had been affronted at being thought to be so unimportant, but then he realized that the crocs had made a mistake that might be turned against them.\n\n\"We're safe for a time,\" he thought as he dumped a load of mud beside the snaggle-toothed crocs that were busy echo-locating weak spots in the chamber wall. Manu watched them alternately grunt, squeal and then pause to listen intently to the echoes of these sounds. The two moved over the walls and sides of the low chamber like huge, white insects, searching for places where the nest was not secure. From time to time their process was interrupted by exchanges of inscrutable glances and Manu heard them converse in mindspeech." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They didn't know that Manu could read their thoughts and Manu hadn't told them of his skill." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Remembering how Sherahi had done it, he shielded his mind and covertly watched their thoughts. Eventually one of them would manually signal to Manu. The monkey would clamber up to them and deposit his load of mud. Manu had found that the crocs didn't like to be kept waiting and he was alert for the wave of a front claw that meant, \"Here. And be quick about it.\"\n\nHe'd found that the crocs had short tempers as well as incredibly fast reflexes. Early in his captivity one had leapt out of the water, grabbed and twisted the monkey's tail and disappeared below the surface of the pool before Manu had even felt the pain. The crocs liked to do things quickly and efficiently and if Manu didn't pay attention they would club him with their heavy tails or do something worse." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The two showed no sign of needing him and, as he watched them, he thought of Sherahi. Maybe she would talk to him in mindspeech and he sent the message, \"They're not going to kill us yet, Sherahi. Maybe we can still get away.\"\n\nAs usual, Manu got no reply from the pythoness. It had been that way ever since they had been captured, and he sent a message to Junior, who was usually lurking in his crevice near the helpless snake. \"Has Sherahi said anything?\"\n\n\"No. Nothing's changed. Sometimes it seems as if she's trying to speak but those white buggers have done something awful to her mind. It's like she's dead. She doesn't hear what we say and I've been scrying her mind. As far as I can tell she hasn't had a single thought in days. She might as well be dead.\"\n\n\"It can't be that bad, Junior. They must be terribly afraid of her to go to all this trouble. It must be costing them a lot of energy to control her so completely. You must stay by her, Junior, and be on guard. She's always helped all of us; now we must help her. We've got to figure out a way to get out of here. That's what she would do.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Fat chance of that,\" said Junior." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"We can't even help ourselves. How can we do anything for her? Face it, Manu, we're all going to be croc bait when spring comes. At least the four of you are, for sure. They'll never take me alive. I'll fry myself on one of those pipes before I let them tie me to that meat rack the way the Duchess says they're going to.\"\n\n\"Junior, you've got time to explore and to watch over Sherahi, too. You've got to find some way to get us out of here.\"\n\n\"What can I do?\" asked the cascabel. For the first time there was a plaintive note to his voice and it sounded to Manu as if the little serpent might be worried. \"These white slugs are immune to my venom. Don't think I didn't try to kill that cow Annahe when she sat on her stupid eggs, singing to them. I snuck up on her and stabbed her in the soft flesh of her neck. I thought I'd killed her, but I couldn't even puncture the skin. And I broke a fang trying. I don't see what I can do, Manu. Without Dervish I can't cover much ground and these tunnels stretch on forever. I can't do it alone.\"\n\n\"If I can get Dervish free will you try to find a way out? Can I tell Sherahi that I can count on you?\"\n\n\"I suppose so,\" said Junior." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"But make sure you and the others keep out of my way when I'm angry. I can't promise that I won't bite one of you by mistake when I'm in a passion.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"So, you'll help us?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"All right,\" hissed the cascabel. \"But don't expect me to be able to work wonders like Sherahi did. I'm no pythoness, you know. There's only one like her in all the world.\"\n\nManu thought that the rattler sounded as if he were about to sob and their mental communication was abruptly broken. Manu was pleased that the poisonous youngster did seem to have some feelings for Sherahi and the rest of the Culls, after all. Maybe Sherahi had put something into his mind to soften the sharp stones and grit that she had discovered there so long ago.\n\nManu heard a bellow and found that both of the white crocs were staring malevolently at him. One was growling and had raised itself up on its legs." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was about to charge." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Knowing that he hadn't been paying attention and that they were angry, Manu made all of the submissive gestures that he knew and even improvised some. He hurried to drop the load of mud where they indicated. He backed away and grimaced in fright, showing white teeth in his mud-covered face. He hurried to the sludge pond for another load, expecting to feel the whip of a tail.\n\nInstead, he was relieved to hear the long tails of the crocs slapping the mud into position on the wall. As he scooped out more handfuls of reeking mud he thought about Junior and Dervish and felt inexplicably hopeful. Even though the Culls were buried beneath a human city in subterranean tunnels that no one would ever rescue them from, even though they were being held captive by nightmare creatures that meant to eat them to ensure the continuance of their twisted species, Manu began to think that there was hope." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The Culls might be able to get out of here yet. He would have to make a plan. He would talk with the others, but now that Junior was willing to help, anything was still possible. This might not be a dead end. They might get to Sandeagozu yet.\n\nThat thought made Manu jubilant. Before he gathered up his new load of mud he turned a handspring in the glow of the phosphorescent bacteria that the crocs had smeared into the wails in the decades that they had inhabited these tunnels." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Manu looked at his filthy fur and laughed at himself. What a picture he must make: a mud-covered monkey cavorting at the edge of a hole that smelled like a fetid-spicy cess pit. He was glad that the others couldn't see him. \"They'd think that I've gone mad,\" he laughed. Nevertheless, for the first time since he had been captured by Leftrack's men, Manu felt as if he were still the same silver-furred youngster who had spun cartwheels and dazzled the morning sun.\n\nFor the first time in his short life, Junior was frightened. Ever since he had learned that he possessed deadly venom and had learned how to accurately deliver it with a stab of his long front fangs, Junior had thought himself better than all other creatures." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He knew that he had the power of life and death and there were no animals, not even humans, that he was afraid of." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He'd even dreamed of vanquishing kingsnakes and indigo snakes: the fiercest predators of the serpent realm. Junior knew that his venom was strong enough to drop a hawk or owl within two heartbeats and he'd hoped for the day when one of those razor-clawed hotshots would hurtle at him from the sky. Junior had been ready for anything. He knew he was a superior killing machine. Meeting the white crocodiles, however, had changed all that.\n\nHe'd told Manu that he had broken a fang while attacking Annahe. What he didn't tell the langur was that he'd bitten the female croc in the neck after he'd embedded his fangs between the scales of her armpit: the place where a crocodile's skin is thinnest and softest." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He was sure that he'd hit her with enough poison to make her writhe and die." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He'd slithered away in triumph, wafting for his venom to take effect. He'd always enjoyed observing the reactions of various animals to his poison and he'd expected the usual trembling, the convulsions, the choking; but nothing had happened. Annahe had merely continued sitting on her nest, singing the same stupid song that had lured Sherahi and the other Culls. It had angered Junior so much that he'd gone back and in a rage had bitten her again, in the neck this time. That was when he'd broken his fang. Annahe paid him no more attention than she did the gray sow bugs that scuttled about the nursery chamber. She was immersed in motherhood and seemed impervious to everything except the cheeping of her eggs." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Junior sat within the inaccessible crevice that he had found on top of the steam pipe that traversed the ceiling of Sherahi's cell. The hole was just above the place where the pipe entered the chamber and it was too high for the crocs to reach. They had threatened that they would compel him to emerge when the Spring Glut was near and Junior had retreated to the back of his hiding place and rattled. He'd been confident then that he had nothing to fear from these beasts, but all that had happened before Sherahi had been frozen and before he'd discovered that his venom was ineffective against the crocs.\n\nTwice a day steam hissed and banged through these pipes and Junior's hiding place would have been deadly if he hadn't insulated it with a pad of dried algae. The heat made him res dess, though, and he arced back over the ceiling of the crevice, wishing that he were free to slither about and explore. But crocs were everywhere." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Manu wanted me to find a way out of here, but how can I?\" he hissed to himself. \"If only Dervish were free, then maybe we might be able to do something, but that's not possible. The crocs are always on guard.\" Early in their captivity the coati had run away and the white crocodiles had caught him. Dervish said it felt as if they had bound him with invisible ropes. Then they'd beaten him until he cried. It was awful to watch." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Poor Dervish,\" Junior thought, \"if Sherahi had been herself she would have done something.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He knew that she would have given him a mind balm to make him forget his pain, and Junior felt helpless because he didn't have any of her unique, pythonine wisdom." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "While the huge pythoness lay motionless in her cell the other Culls had helplessly listened to Dervish's cries.\n\nAs Junior lashed back and forth in his crevice above the steam pipe he dislodged a small stone, and fine dirt sifted from the ceiling. He shook it from his scales and wondered, \"Can I dig out of here? The others would really think I was something if I could do that.\"\n\nThe crocs hadn't repaired this wall in years, if ever, and he could see soft earth and small stones beneath a thin coat of croc plaster. Junior knew that some snakes were good diggers. Sherahi had said that they had special, hard snouts and tails that were like augers. The cascabel pushed at the loose earth, but he seemed only to be able to pack it more firmly." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"If only Dervish were here,\" he thought." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"He could dig us out of this place in seconds.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Junior wondered, \"Could Dervish fit in here?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The entrance looked barely large enough, but he thought that, if the coati were to hold his breath and twist his shoulders, his head and paws just might fit. He could stand on the steam pipe with his head in the hole and dig. If he put the pad of algae beneath his hind feet they might not get burned. It would be risky not only because of the crocs. Junior felt the hot metal of the steam pipe. He remembered the clouds of steam that rose whenever the crocs slapped new wads of algae on the pipe to dry. The metal was now as cool as it ever got, but it was still too hot to touch." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"If I can get Dervish here, and if he will let me climb around his neck, and if he can stand on the algae, and dig fast enough; if he doesn't get caught and doesn't get burned, then maybe he can dig out of here. Once he's made this crevice big enough, he can dig up higher. If I can make a screen the way Sherahi taught me, the crocs won't be able to get us.\" Junior sighed, making a soft, hissing sound, and thought, 'There are so many 'ifs,' but it might work.\n\n\"But how long will it take for him to make this crevice big enough? And if he can escape, how long before they're able to stop us?\"\n\nHoping that the crocs weren't listening, Junior whispered to Dervish in mindspeech, saying, \"Can you hear me?\"\n\nThe coati heard Junior's whisper as he sat alongside the main waterway that connected all of the cells of the white crocodiles. He looked at the pair of huge, pale reptiles in his work party to see if they had intercepted Junior's message. They seemed to be intent upon their repair work and Dervish whispered, \"What do you want?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He was annoyed with the cascabel and thought, \"That nasty, little snake has been safe up in that hole in the ceiling while Manu and I have been working like slaves. He didn't do anything to help when the crocs attacked me. He's not a friend. Any friend who had his kind of power would have tried to help. He could have done something to help me. Sherahi would have.\"\n\n\"Can you get away from them?\" asked Junior. \"I've found some soft earth. It may be a way out. Manu said to ask...\" Junior faltered and was still.\n\nHe knew that he owed Dervish an apology. The two hadn't been such close friends since their sojourn in the caverns of the fire serpent. At that time Dervish had infuriated the cascabel because he had always wanted to play. The serpent had made it clear that he preferred not to associate with Dervish." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He had deliberately disobeyed Sherahi and had called the coati \"Dummy\" and \"Stupid\" whenever he could." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Although Dervish hadn't understood these names at first, eventually his feelings had been hurt and he had stopped thinking of Junior as a friend or playmate. He'd allowed the snake to travel to the white crocodiles around his neck only because Manu and Sherahi had wanted it. More than once he'd regretted that he hadn't followed his instinct and killed Junior when he was still small.\n\nDervish's reply was cautious. He wasn't used to Junior being so nice. \"Soft earth. I hope you're sure, because if they catch me again, they'll surely kill me. Besides, I've dug everywhere and the only soft earth in these tunnels is in the stream bed. The crocs have lined every inch of this place with croc plaster and you know how that stuff turns to stone when it dries.\" \"There's soft earth here, I promise,\" said Junior." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Where are you?\"\n\n\"In my hole above Sherahi's cell. Oh, Dervish, don't worry about details I'll tell you all of that when you're here. Will you come?\"\n\n\"Do you really think there's a way out?\"\n\n\"I don't know I'm not Sherahi. I can't see the future. All I can tell you is that there's soft dirt here. I thought you might be interested. Sorry that I bothered you.\" The cascabel broke off their communication and didn't respond when the coati tried to speak to him.\n\nDervish deposited a load of mud next to his growling, pale masters and eavesdropped on their conversation. He heard that once again Annahe had been chosen to mate in the Spring Glut." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Each of these males claimed to have been the father of her surviving hatchling, which now swam beside her in the nursery pool." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As she had predicted, the other hatchlings had been reverted and she had eaten them shortly after they'd struggled free of their eggshells." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Nasty things they were, too, those reversions,\" hissed one reptilian mason." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Bodies like little turtles, with all those bones beneath their scales. And those awful colors black and olive green and those yellow bands. Garish.\" The croc shuddered." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Quite archaic,\" replied his partner." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"And don't forget how fat they were.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Amazing how grotesque reversions can be.\"\n\nThe second croc agreed and added, \"But the New One is a different matter. Quite distinguished don't you think?\"\n\nThe first croc grunted in agreement and the other continued, \"You know, I hadn't realized how satisfying it would be to see myself in a new generation. I guess I never thought about fatherhood. It's caught me by surprise.\"\n\n\"What are you talking about?\" said his partner, looking up sharply from the wall repairs. \"That's my baby, not yours. I mated with her last.\"\n\n\"I hate to be the one to tell you, friend,\" said the other croc, looking up slyly from the wall he was mending, \"but you're mistaken. She lifted her tail for me long after you and all the rest were snoring on the bank. The New One is mine. Can't you tell?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"That's ridiculous,\" hissed the first croc. \"It's the spit'n image of me. It's mine. I'm sure of it.\"\n\nThe second croc laughed and opened his mouth to roar in triumph.\n\nThe first croc pounded his tail, bellowed and lunged at the other's throat. They forgot wall repairs and echo location as they grappled and tussled in the mire. When the second croc finally surrendered, they both stood panting and staring balefully at one another. The victor signaled with his front claw and waited for the coati to drop the next load of mud that they needed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He panted and thought, \"Nice little creature, this one is. Helpful and cheery. Almost like one of us. He's learned his lesson for sure. Not one bit of trouble with him ever since we punished him. Put the fear of his betters into him, that's for sure. Too bad he'll be taken in the Glut. We could use more helpers like him.\"\n\nThe croc was thinking about finding a way to prolong the little mammal's life in the tunnels of the white crocodiles when he slowly looked around to see what was delaying the coati. The croc growled in surprise to see that the stream bank behind him was empty. The coati had vanished.\n\nKicking furiously with his back muscles, Dervish swam under water, watching for and avoiding all of the crocs that patrolled the waterway. Silently he surfaced in the room where Sherahi was kept prisoner. All was quiet. The big snake did not stir and the pair of crocs that guarded her had their backs to him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "In a moment the coati had climbed up to the steam pipe, where Junior waited." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Water streamed from his fur onto the pipe and sizzled beneath his paws. Clouds of steam rose around him, but the crocs guarding Sherahi did not notice.\n\n\"Quick, get this beneath your feet before they get burned,\" the cascabel hissed at Dervish. \"Stand on it and let me get out of the way.\" Junior coiled around the wet fur of the coati's belly and said into his mind, \"There. Now hurry. I think your head and paws can fit inside.\"\n\nWithout making a sound the coati wriggled his head and shoulders into the narrow opening above the steam pipe and began to dig furiously at the back of the crevice. He was surprised to find that it was soft earth, just as Junior had said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "His fur dripped water onto the hot pipe and more clouds of steam engulfed them. Dirt flew out of the crevice and fell to the pool below, but the two crocs seemed inert. Perhaps they couldn't hear over the clanging and hissing of the pipes. Perhaps they were asleep. But Junior was nervous. \"Do you have to make such a mess?\" he complained. \"They'll get us.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Do you want me to dig or not?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "came Dervish's reply. \"The dirt's got to go somewhere.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"But they'll see.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I can't help it,\" said the coati." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Do something to confuse them.\" A keening sound penetrated into the chamber the sound of the alarm of the white crocodiles. Simultaneously, Junior heard the alarm being called in ancient saurian mindspeech. Dervish heard it, too, and said, \"If you don't do something, they'll get both of us this time.\"\n\n\"I'll try,\" Junior said, \"but I told Manu that I'm not Sherahi. I can't do the things she can.\"\n\n\"Stop being stupid,\" said Dervish without stopping his frantic work. \"Nobody expects you to be Sherahi. Do what you can. I know you can keep them from catching us if you try.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Dervish was no longer standing completely outside the crevice." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He had crawled deeper into the excavation and now only his ringed tail protruded." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It jerked madly as he dug.\n\n\"Can't you pull in your tail?\" whined Junior. \"They'll see it.\"\n\n\"Not and dig, too. Stop giving me orders and do something to help. They'll be here any minute.\"\n\nJunior folded his fangs even more tightly within his mouth and focused his thoughts upon the minds of the crocodiles. He could sense that eight of them were nearby. Sherahi's two guards were alert and staring up at the coati's tail." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They knew that he and Dervish were above and were ready to tell the others when they arrived." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They couldn't do anything themselves, though, because they had to control Sherahi. If they took their minds off her, even for a moment, she would be able to erect mental shields to thwart their control. So, Junior concentrated on the eight muggers that swam toward the chamber, making a pale chevron formation in the phosphorescent water. He saw how quickly their bodies undulated, like snakes swimming across a rock face. \"How can I stop them? What can I do?\" he thought. Then the idea came to him.\n\n\"Cold,\" he thought. \"That'll stop any reptile. I must make them cold.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The cascabel remembered the snowstorm that the Culls had passed through. He remembered how cold the snow had felt upon his ridged scales. He remembered how the white, sparkly flakes had whirled and shifted before his eyes, drifting into powdery mountains, needling and stabbing at him as he coiled deeper into Dervish's warm fur. He shivered and sent the idea of cold: the idea of shards of ice, of icicles, of stalactites of snow, of glaciers calving icebergs in a frozen green ocean, of cold wind piercing, of numbed skin. The crocs had always lived in a subterranean tropical swamp. They had never known cold. They had never felt wind." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He sent blasts of ice and snow sleeting into their minds and buffeted them with frigid headwinds as they swam. He was concentrating so hard that he barely heard Dervish say, \"We're through.\"\n\nJunior felt the coati's body leap and struggle forward. Cold, dry air rushed into his facial pits and he fnasted a wholly different odor something unpleasant. Junior sent his mind back to the crocs in the chamber below and saw that his thoughts had chilled them. They were still swimming, but only very slowly and laboriously. They were cold and would never catch him and Dervish now." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He had done it He rattled his tail in triumph and the sound echoed loudly in the shadowy space around them.\n\n\"Shut up,\" said Dervish.\n\nJunior was surprised at Dervish's fierce tone and he stopped rattling his tail.\n\n\"You know better than that,\" said the coati severely. \"There's no telling what's in here.\" He silently pushed dirt back into the passage behind them and tamped the earth down firmly with his back legs. As he did so the pale light from the chamber below grew dimmer and soon the blackness was complete." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Not wasting a moment, the coati marked the place with urine and stood panting over the hole." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "His head hung and his tongue lolled out.\n\nWhile Dervish regained his breath and waited for his eyes to adjust to this new darkness, Junior fnasted the air and said in mindspeech, \"We're in a tunnel.\"\n\n\"Gee,\" said Dervish. \"Aren't you the perceptive one! I'd never have known.\"\n\n\"It dead-ends in a few paces, so I think we'd better go up, following the pipe.\"\n\nDervish was silent and the cascabel listened to him pant before he said, \"Dervish, I'm sorry for calling you 'Stupid.' You're not stupid, you're smart way smarter than me. Can't we be friends?\"\n\n\"We'll see,\" said the coati. \"Maybe we can talk about it after we've found a way out of here. Let's go.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "With the cascabel around his neck, the coati started off to cautiously explore this new tunnel, which climbed around the steam pipe that heated the tunnels of the white crocodiles.\n\nInside Dervish's mind a small voice said, \"Be careful of rats, Dervish.\"\n\nThe coati sighed and replied, \"I will.\"\n\nSherahi lay stretched out at full length on the muddy bank of the stream that ran through the tunnels of the white crocodiles, her steady eyes locked in the glittering gaze of her pale captors. For the first few days after they had seized the Culls, Sherahi had actively struggled against the net that bound her agile mind. It had seemed that no matter how she squirmed or twisted, no matter how hard she shoved against the fetters around her thoughts, she could not escape their control. She had tried to in wit away, but even that small pleasure had been denied." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She lay calmly now and had long since ceased to fight." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She could sense that, little by little, the white crocodiles from remote parts of the nest had withdrawn their attention and control." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She hadn't dared to think, but her mind now felt much lighter. It now seemed to Sherahi that only the two big males who lay on the bank facing her still actively monitored and regulated her thoughts.\n\nThere was a disturbance in the pool beyond her guards and, although Sherahi saw it, she was careful to keep her mind as still as a mirror. She recognized Dervish and saw him leap out of the shallow water and onto a huge, rusty pipe. Quite inadvertently the thought issued from her mind, \"Good, faithful Dervish,\" and she felt a wrenching between her eyes as her crocodilian guards realized that their captive was thinking once again. With their superior mind control they squeezed and wiped her brain clear of thought.\n\nThey weren't quite quick enough or completely scrupulous and their wrenching squeeze didn't reach into one small corner of Sherahi's mind." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Quicker than a deer mouse leaping into its hole Sherahi erected a formidable, cleverly disguised barrier that was impervious to their control and invisible to their scans." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Behind this wall a tiny portion of her unique pythonine intelligence coiled and stretched, delighted to be free again." }, { "from": "human", "value": "In this bastion, deep within her mind, Sherahi hissed, \"You have taught me well, Holy White Frauds. And, if there's time, I can turn it all against you. The Culls will get out of here—somehow. We won't be fodder for your Spring Glut.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The Duchess was in the brightly lit chamber of the Holiest of the Holy White Crocodiles when the news came that Dervish and Junior had escaped. Although Manu and Dervish had been forced to do manual labor for their captors, the Duchess had been given a different sort of task: entertaining the leader of the white crocodiles. The mere idea of a talking bird had sent this Holiest of the Holy White Crocodiles into hysterics and he had summoned the marvel to his chambers. Even though he knew that she did not speak perfect English, her mispronunciations and garbled phrases delighted him and she had become his favorite diversion, a sort of feathered court jester. Every day one of his acolytes appeared and ferried her to the distant chamber. As her living barge floated through the phosphorescent waters, the crocs resting on the banks and swimming around her gawked at her in wonder and nodded to one another. The Duchess preened her new breast feathers and tried to seem not to notice their admiration." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She found her celebrity gratifying, but more than anything else she thought that it was well deserved.\n\n\"It's the least they can do,\" she had said to Manu one night in the Culls' cell. \"Even though they are our distant relatives, birds are, you realize, a far superior breed. As anyone can see, we are infinitely more beautiful than they and of course there is no match anywhere for our cleverness.\" She had waited for the langur to reply, but he was too tired from his muddy labor. His bones ached—especially the arm that had been broken long ago. Besides, sometimes even Manu found the Duchess hard to bear. Before their capture she had shown signs of becoming a reasonable animal; now that the crocs had made such a fuss over her, the stupid fool thought she was some sort of avian Cleopatra." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Manu sighed and looked at the macaw for one long, silent minute. She was busily rubbing oil onto her face from the gland above her tail. She was humming. Then he turned his back to her and closed his eyes, listening to the Duchess talk to herself and wishing that she'd shut up.\n\nBut the bird continued. \"Of course it's preposterous, but they want me to teach the New One to speak. Can you believe that, Manu? All these crocs are agog over that baby and I'm supposed to take charge of his education. I'm to start as soon as he's able to swim properly.\" There was a silence, in which Manu began to relax, when her sharp soprano voice cut into his sleep. \"Manu, are you listening?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Ummm,\" came the langur's sleepy reply and the Duchess contin-ued preening her belly feathers.\n\n\"They say that eventually I'll have a whole class of youngsters. They expect many unreverted ones in the next hatch. So much protein, you know. And they want some sort of entertainment for the Spring Glut. I know I never should have sung for His Holiness, but then, we're not supposed to bury our talents under a basket.\"\n\nThe Duchess looked coquettishly at Manu, but the langur made no reply. She hadn't realized that he was quite so dirty. \"Why can't he clean himself like he used to?\" she wondered and edged a few paces away.\n\n\"Now, what can I do in the Spring Glut? The rabble,\" she sighed, \"all they want is cake and carnivals.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"So,\" interrupted Manu, \"they're going to keep you alive. I thought they might. Well, I hope you'll have fun living down here with these monsters. Personally, I'd rather face the meat rack. But I guess it doesn't matter to you. You'll be terribly busy with much more important matters—essential things like teaching a mixed chorus of crocs to sing in four-part harmony. Who knows, maybe you can do madrigals someday?\" He glared at her and turned on his side again.\n\nThe Duchess looked at the monkey's back. Not only was he filthy, but large, gray insects moved in the fur along his spine. The sight of lice made her shudder and she moved a few more steps away. She hadn't told Manu that the crocs were building her very own chamber for her. It would have a real perch a branch sculpted out of croc plaster." }, { "from": "human", "value": "How restful it would be to sit on a perch again." }, { "from": "human", "value": "That's where she'd conduct her classes." }, { "from": "human", "value": "And they'd promised to make glow globes of lightning slime for her so that the new chamber would be almost like the sunlit world." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The Spring Glut would come, bringing the other Culls ugly but brief deaths." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The Holy One had assured her that they wouldn't suffer too much. \"Painless,\" he'd hissed. \"It'll be over before they know it's started.\"\n\n\"Besides,\" she said to the langur's back, \"we never could have gotten to the San Diego Zoo.\" She pronounced each syllable distinctly. \"It's much too far.\"\n\n\"What do you mean?\" Manu suddenly demanded. \"What have you learned about Sandeagozu?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Somehow hearing the Duchess say the word with such precision enraged him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Nothing much.\" The Duchess was nonchalant. She didn't like disappointing Manu, but it was better that he learn the truth from her. \"Only that it's impossibly far away—across a whole continent, I think they said. The Holy One said that it would take even a fast flier like me two weeks to get there. And even I might be killed crossing the mountains.\n\n\"Sherahi was taking us on a fool's errand. Even she wasn't powerful enough to get us there.\n\n\"And it's worse than that, Manu. Sandeagozu doesn't exist. There's only a place called San Diego Zoo. And it's a zoo a place where people come to stare at creatures like us. Apparently Sherahi got it all wrong. There is no such place as Sandeagozu. The mere word now strikes me as terribly funny.\"\n\n\"Well, that's your opinion, Duchess, but tell me one thing: if Sherahi isn't more powerful than they are, then why are your new friends so afraid of her? Why don't they let her loose?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He glared at the macaw and added, \"Ask your Holy One to explain that. Watch him slither in the mud as he flounders for an answer.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"But the Holy One...\"\n\n\"Don't tell me anything more,\" said Manu. \"I'm sick of him and of you. While you've spent the day reciting limericks, I've been grubbing in the mud. Or maybe you haven't noticed the delightful activities your pals invent to keep me amused. My back aches and I'm tired. If you don't mind, I'd like to spend what remains of my life in peace.\"\n\n\"But, Manu...\"\n\n\"Peace!\" screamed the monkey. \"Do you know what that means?\" He suddenly turned on her and bared his canines." }, { "from": "human", "value": "If their crocodile guard hadn't rushed up to drag him away, Manu might have torn the red feathers from her throat." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Well, I never,\" said the Duchess." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Feeling betrayed by her only friend, she fluttered off to the farthest corner of the chamber." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"That's gratitude for you,\" she said. Her guard heard her speak and stopped shaking Manu, distracted by the sound of her voice. The crocodile chuckled and it infuriated the Duchess. \"Shut up, you ugly, overgrown lizard,\" she said. This only made him laugh all the more and the hissing sound filled the chamber.\n\nThe next morning the Holiest One heard that Manu had tried to attack the Duchess. His soldiers appeared in the Culls' chamber and four of them held Manu down while a fifth delivered blows with his heavy tail." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The Duchess tried to pretend that she was happy with this treatment, but when Manu fell unconscious beneath the first blow she begged the soldier crocs to stop.\n\nLater that day she moved to her splendid new chamber. She spent the next few days imperiously directing the activities of the crocodile masons from her long-anticipated perch. When they were finished there was a network of perches and feeding platforms over the phosphorescent bathing pool. She flew from perch to perch, admiring her reflection. The bird that looked back at her had violet feathers and a blue bill. \"I look absolutely gorgeous,\" she thought and began to wonder if she should change the color of her plumage now that she had a new, flamboyant vocation." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"After all, I must think of my public.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The lessons of the baby croc began and the Duchess found that she learned more than her student. Even young crocs had an encyclopedic knowledge of their surroundings, as well as a way of speaking into the Duchess's mind that seemed to make it grow larger. She felt excited, flushed with her success. From the New One the Duchess learned the geography of the tunnels. She also learned that the only way out of the chambers was through the underground spring that supplied water to the main channel. This was impossible, though, because the strong current was against the swimmer. The Duchess also learned that, even if an animal could swim through the current, when he surfaced he would find himself within a busy city, surrounded by people." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Capture or death would be certain." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She learned that above the tunnels of the white crocodiles was one of the largest buildings in this city. Although she couldn't quite believe it, they said it was a barnlike place where fire serpents arrived and departed, carrying hundreds of thousands of humans. The steam pipes that warmed the crocodiles' tunnels were a part of the heating system of this huge building. They had been driven so deeply into the earth because the ground above them was perforated by train tunnels, by sewers, as well as by the underground spring. The tunnel that the Culls had been in before they'd been lured to the nursery chamber was a storm sewer. They'd been fortunate that it was snowing at the time and that the sewer was dry. When the snow melted or when the spring rains came, the Culls would have been washed out of the storm sewer and drowned in the East River." }, { "from": "human", "value": "In the weeks that followed, the Holiest One still had frequent, long talks with the Duchess." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He tried to make her realize how lucky she was that fate had brought her to the chambers of the white crocodiles the Chosen Ones. With the improvements they were making in her thought processes she would soon be able to speak real English, not the parrot pidgin that she now realized was at her command. Then, she would teach unhatched generations to speak. With speech and their ability to control minds the white crocodiles could lure many more animals and humans into their tunnels. Their numbers would increase and eventually they'd emerge from these tunnels and enslave the humans who lived above. \"They're so greedy,\" rasped the Holiest of the Holy White Crocodiles into the Duchess's mind. \"They'll be easier to control than centipedes.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He explained the plan to flood the city streets and herd the humans into breeding pens. \"Then all of our females can breed,\" he had exulted. \"Just think of all the nests and eggs and unreverted young. Think of the civilization we will build.\" The Holiest of the Holy Ones had been intoxicated with the idea.\n\n\"Don't you see, my dear?\" he wheezed. \"With the mastery of human speech there is no limit to what we can do. You will become a heroine to unborn generations of white crocodiles. Perhaps we will have shrines to the Scarlet Bird that brought us speech." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It will be a wonderful symbiosis: we will improve your mind and you will teach this New One and all future New Ones to speak and they, in turn, will teach others. You will remain with us as a revered and respected teacher. We will be forever indebted to you and when you die your body will be carefully preserved and only your brightest, most promising students will be permitted to eat from it in the Spring Glut.\n\n\"And, until then,\" the Holy One added, \"you can teach our youngsters in your beautiful new chambers. I might point out that, unlike your human masters, we have given you a cage without bars.\"\n\nThe phrase \"cage without bars\" set the Duchess thinking. The idea of the white crocodiles actually leaving their tunnels and dominating all other creatures frightened her. She knew how powerful they were: she had seen what they had done with her mind." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"But they're so cruel,\" she thought. She remembered Manu, shriveled from his diet of dried algae and hard labor. He couldn't last much longer.\n\n\"I'll do it on the condition that you let Manu and the others live out their lives with me,\" she said.\n\nThe Holy One opened his pale jaws and laughed. \"Impossible, my dear,\" he hissed. \"Quite out of the question. Now that the other two are gone the monkey and the python are necessary for the Spring Glut to be successful. We have no other choice. There are no other victims, unless, of course, you'd like to volunteer.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He laughed again at his small joke." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The Duchess imagined Manu torn asunder on that horrid meat rack." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Something in the Holiest One's eyes was too eager too sly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'll have to think about it,\" she said. \"Perhaps you've heard the old proverb, 'Act in haste, repeat it later'?\"\n\nThe Holiest One looked at her blankly. \"The meaning escapes me, Scarlet Bird, but I am not familiar with human idioms, although I trust that my successor will understand completely because of your tutelage.\n\n\"Think about my offer. As you have already seen, there are obvious advantages to being our friend.\"\n\nThe Duchess was carried back to her chamber and soon settled onto her luxurious sleeping perch. She was tired and ordered her servants to darken the glow globes. They curled obediently about the phosphorescent orbs and the Duchess put her head beneath her wing." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She was standing on one foot, relaxed and nearly asleep, when she heard one servant whisper to the other, \"I've heard that they're going to let the Scarlet Bird live.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Don't be a simpleton,\" said the other. \"The Holiest One is using her just like the others.\"\n\n\"What do you mean?\"\n\n\"He'll get her to teach our young ones all she knows and when that's done, she'll be ripped to pieces, just like the others. It's common gossip that she doesn't know half of what she thinks she does. He's just having his little bit of fun with her. You have to admit she is funny. And fun is in short supply around here.\"\n\nThe Duchess couldn't believe what she'd heard. How could the Holiest One be so devious? \"Has he been laughing at me all the time that I've been teaching the New One? It can't be true. I don't believe it. He said that they loved me because I was related to them but then...\" Her thoughts faltered and then she asked herself, \"Why didn't I think of it before? It can't be true that they love me because we're related Sherahi is a reptile and they hate her.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The Duchess roused her feathers and shifted her weight to the other foot, but she couldn't sleep." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She felt the pale, malevolent stares of the servants coiled around the glow globes and decided that she wouldn't be their jester anymore. She decided that she would do the only thing she could to thwart their plans.\n\nWhen the Holiest One requested her presence she feigned sickness. After a few days of sickness, he realized that the Scarlet Bird had decided not to teach human speech to the New One anymore. He knew that he could not force her to teach unborn generations and the Holiest One whipped his tail against the glowing water of his chamber in frustration.\n\n\"Put her with the others,\" he ordered. \"Destroy her chamber. She will be shredded in the Glut. Until that time she will replace the escapee. Put her to work carrying mud for the masons. Perhaps that will change her mind.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Sherahi gazed at the part of the ceiling where Dervish's banded tall had disappeared a short while ago. She felt the fetters threaten to seize her mind again and purposely kept it as blank as she could to fool her guards. Meanwhile, behind her cunning mindscreen she imagined a perfectly round, white-shelled egg and, floating within it, a perfectly formed and very determined green baby sea turtle.\n\nShe felt his firmly clenched, toothless jaw and saw the wrinkled oldman's eyelids that protected his large, round eyes. She saw his soft shell and the four, claw-fringed flippers that swam, even though he still floated within the shell his mother had made for him. He was not yet ready to hatch. \"Soon, little turtle,\" thought Sherahi." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Your time will come soon and you will swim and fly free in an ocean that's bigger than you can possibly imagine.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Sherahi lay on the muddy bank, with a fraction of her mind actively undermining the psychic control of the white crocodiles." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Like an earthworm poking an inquisitive nose out of its burrow on a misty night to sniff for succulent leaves, Sherahi gently peered out from behind her mental screen. Surreptitiously she rearranged her mindscreen to reclaim a greater portion of her thoughts. In the wheezing snores of her sleeping guards she imagined she could hear the beckoning roar of surf.\n\n\"I think we'd better go back,\" said Junior. \"There's nothing here. It's just another tunnel going nowhere.\"\n\n\"Don't be simple, Junior,\" snapped Dervish. \"Why would humans build a tunnel leading nowhere? Those creatures always have a purpose. We'll look a little longer. Besides, what's there to go back for?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"The others. We have to help them,\" said Junior. \"We can't just leave them. It's been days now. Maybe the Spring Glut has started. We must help them.\"\n\n\"Why?\" said Dervish. \"We're free. Why do we have to worry about them?\"\n\n\"I can't believe that you're actually saying that, Dervish. It just doesn't sound like you at all.\"\n\n\"That's because you're used to your former friend Dervish the Dummy. But he's gone now and I'm looking out for myself." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "To hell with the rest of you.\n\n\"I could have escaped long ago. I could probably be safe in some nice, warm place with lots of food and no white crocodiles. But no, that was too simple. I had to be the hero. 'Find a way out, Dervish,' she said. 'Go back and get Manu,' she said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Do this. Do that Fine mess it turned out, too.\n\n\"I've made up my mind. I won't do anybody's bidding anymore. This time it's me first.\"\n\n\"You'd actually leave Sherahi and Manu and the Duchess in there with those creatures?\" The cascabel was incredulous.\n\nThere was along period in which the coati paced along without saying anything. He eventually broke the silence. \"No,\" he chittered, sounding more like the Dervish that Junior knew." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I guess I couldn't really do that. I'd want to—at least part of me would. I promise you, though, if we ever get out of here, I'm watching out for me first.\"\n\n\"Hush,\" the cascabel said. \"Something just moved. Up there.\"\n\nThe coati stopped and sniffed the air. There was a strong smell ahead. A human smell not sweet-human like Sorensen, but a sour, rancid human stench. The odor was more like a white crocodile's than a human's." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But it didn't make sense to Dervish: what was a human doing here?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He felt the cascabel around his neck stiffen into a striking coil. Without making a sound the coati moved forward.\n\nThe smell grew stronger but Dervish still couldn't see anything. Then a match flared and shadows jumped on the walls. Dervish flattened like a cat stalking a cottontail. There was light for an instant and then it was suddenly extinguished and a gravelly voice swore, \"Summofabitchin' match. Where's that candle?\"\n\nThere was a rustling sound in the tunnel and another match was struck." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Dervish's eyes squinted against the sudden light." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He saw a figure crouching in a heap of rags and paper." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It blocked the tunnel fifteen feet from where he and Junior watched." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The person's hand shook violently and she had difficulty lighting the stub of a candle that she held in one hand. Three stained front teeth gnawed at her slack lower lip as she concentrated on lighting and setting it into a pool of melted wax on top of the steam pipe that formed the perimeter of her hovel in this subterranean tunnel.\n\nWhen the candle was fixed in place, the woman stared at it as if transfixed; rubbing her hands convulsively and rocking to and fro, she suddenly began to laugh. Her hair hung in strings and rags fluttered when her arms moved. Her face was as creased as a worn, brown paper bag and when she stopped cackling her mouth twitched ceaselessly, forming words without making sounds. Her whitened eyebrows danced above her eyes and to Dervish it looked as if she were enacting the whole range of human emotions. With her eyes fixed on the candle's flame, the rag woman's face registered glee, fury, sorrow, even hope." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "From time to time she muttered phrases that Dervish did not understand, rubbed her hands together and rocked herself to and fro.\n\nAs suddenly as this began, the woman ceased her mad performance and, with a businesslike sigh, she began to empty two paper sacks that lay beside her on the discarded mattress that was her home in the tunnel. She took each object out, examined it and carefully set it on top of the steam pipe alongside the candle. She pried the top from a small, round tin and took a sip. She pursed her lips against the taste and then scrubbed at her mouth with the back of one scrawny hand, exhaling forcefully. It was as if she were trying to eradicate the memory of what she drank. Her grimace reminded Dervish of Manu." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He made a face like that when he was scared.\n\nShe took another drink and her cracked voice said, \"Bad. He must've put iodine or som'thin' in it.\" She placed the tin on top of the steam pipe, along with a man's left oxford shoe, the want ads from the New York Herald, a maroon mitten with a hole in the thumb, a stale bagel and half of a hot dog bun. She had spent the whole night rummaging upstairs in Grand Central and this was all she had to show for her effort.\n\nShe took another drink and thought about the cold and the numbness in her feet and hands. She'd been trying to ignore the spots before her eyes for a long time. \"Can't think about that. Think about Ben. Got to trust him. He's my friend.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The woman took another sip from the tin and, after a short spell of hand-wringing and muttering to the flame, returned to her sorting." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She smoothed the newspapers and stacked them neatly on top of those that already covered her mattress." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She put the bagel into her food bag, along with the sandwich crusts that were left over from yesterday." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She looked at the shoe and saw that the sole was whole." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Maybe Ben will want it,\" she said, thinking that maybe tomorrow night, if she was lucky, she could sneak into the Ladies' Room when the matron was asleep. Maybe she could clean herself up a little maybe even take a bath in one of the toilets. \"Ben has always had eyes for me I know that.\" She smiled and pushed the lank hair out of her eyes, cackling in maniacal glee, \"Maybe he will give me some more. Have to get some soon. This won't last long, not with these bums down here.\" She reached for the tin again and held it protectively against her chest, looking suddenly over her shoulder and scrutinizing the darkness behind.\n\nThere was a sound of arguing in the distance and the woman quickly reached for the club that she kept beneath her mattress. She got to her feet and crouched down, ready to defend herself." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The voices died and she settled herself once more." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As she did so, she looked toward the dead end of the tunnel and saw a pair of green eyes." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She stared at them and mechanically reached for the tin and took another sip. \"You're watching,\" she said softly. Then she began to whimper and said, \"Someone's always watching.\" She rubbed her hands together and scratched her head. Then in a very calm voice a different persona said kindly, \"Effie, now don't get excited. If you're calm, They won't come any closer. It's probably just a cat.\"\n\nShe blinked back at the eyes and her voice grated, \"Used to have a cat. Sophie. That was her name. One day she run off and never came back. Maybe this's Sophie.\" She reached out a gnarled hand, crooning, \"Here, Sophie, nice pussycat.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The calm voice said again, \"Yes, Effie, that's Sophie out there. Not one of Them.\"\n\nShe rummaged in her food bag for a crust to offer to the eyes and called out in a high voice that reverberated in the tunnel and made the hair on Dervish's spine stand on end, \"Here, kitty. Nice kitty. Kittykittykitty.\" But the eyes didn't move and her arm grew tired. She tossed the crust into the darkness and watched as the green eyes blinked out.\n\nThe crust landed near Dervish and he snatched it up and growled delightedly. It was the first real food that he'd had in a long time. The woman continued talking, saying, \"Nice kitty. Pretty kitty. Come, kitty.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "With the bread in his mouth Dervish watched her take another swig from the tin. Then she set it down and crashed her club onto the floor, yelling, \"All right. Don't come. Be that way. Jus' like all of 'em. No one wants to be with Effie. Not even an alleycat.\" She made a gesture with both arms as if to push the eyes away and hugged herself again.\n\nShe looked at the walls that seemed to waver in the light. \"Now you, cockroaches, you're pals. You like Effie. You'd like to crawl all over me, just like Them. This is for you.\" She tore off a small piece of bagel and threw it against the wall and had another drink. \"Go slow,\" she said to herself and carefully set the tin beneath her mattress and turned on her side, staring at the candle and wishing it would never go out." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Effie had liked to sleep with the light on, ever since she had been a little girl That way if any of Them came while you were asleep, They couldn't sneak up on you." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Dervish saw shadows move on the wall as huge roaches smelled the food and drew closer, antennae waving." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The woman was muttering as she lay on her mattress." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Tomorrow'll be better. If I lock myself in they can't make me come out... Maybe that fat cow'll be asleep.\"\n\nShe felt something run over her leg and sat up suddenly, beating at the roaches that tried to feed at the sores on her ankles.\n\n\"OOhh, Jesus,\" she shrieked. \"Please, Jesus, I'll be good. Please get 'em away. Don't let 'em get me. Get away. Get away! Please.\"\n\nHer plea ended in a series of shrieks and howls and she pulled the mattress on top of her as she tried to get away from the demons that materialized out of the darkness. She upset the candle and the light went out. In the blackness Junior and Dervish listened to the woman wrestle with her invisible fiends." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Her cries turned to whimpers and when she'd been quiet for a time, Dervish crept forward." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He located the bag that held her food, grabbed the hot dog bun and dashed back to where Junior coiled, waiting for him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"She's asleep,\" said Junior." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I'm going ahead to hunt for food. You stay here.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The snake slithered away, his scales making a slight scrape against the tunnel floor. Dervish chewed at the hard bread, using his cheek and rear teeth on one side. The smell and taste of the mustard made him think of Sorensen, the man who used to play with him and give him treats. Dervish wondered where Sorensen was now. He shivered and remembered the snug nest box under Sorensen's work bench. It had grown colder in the tunnel and Dervish was used to the warmth of the chambers of the white crocodiles. \"They must have done something to make these same pipes give off so much heat in their chambers,\" Dervish thought." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He curled up, nose to tail, and tried to shiver himself warm. When that didn't work, he crawled beneath an edge of the mattress. The woman smelled putrid, but she seemed harmless and at least she was warm. Dervish curled next to her and slept.\n\nWhen Junior returned he found Dervish beneath the woman's mattress. The snake had seen others like her in the tunnel ahead. All were dressed in rags and had the same sour stench." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Some were asleep. Others muttered to themselves. Junior saw a few by candlelight, but most were only malodorous lumps in the darkness. Eventually he had fnasted a rat's runway and had positioned himself to await his prey. Before long a half-grown female blundered into his jaws. The struggle was brief but satisfying and the cascabel had slithered back to Dervish with an idea. He knew how they would save the others.\n\nHe coiled apart from Dervish and concentrated on the idea that he would send into the coati's mind the thought of play." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He sent the image of the tin can rolling along the tunnel, jerking forward and then stopping suddenly, shining and mutely begging Dervish to slap it again to see what would happen." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Dervish,\" the cascabel wheedled, \"this is a good, new game." }, { "from": "human", "value": "And it's been such a long time since you've been able to play the way you used to." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Wouldn't it be fun to have someone chase you the way that Sorensen used to?\n\n\"She'll play with you, Dervish. But first you have to fetch her round box. The one with the lid on it The one that's by her hand. It's her favorite thing in all the world. Careful. Take it from her slowly. You don't want to wake her. Not yet. That's a good boy.\"\n\nDervish cautiously crept up to the woman's hand and stealthily grabbed the tin by its edge. He found that he could carry it in the side of his mouth. \"A toy,\" thought the entranced coati. \"This'll be fun. A game. Just like Sorensen and I used to play.\"\n\nHe ran a few steps from the woman and began to bat the can with a paw." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He found that if he set it on edge the can would roll That was fun." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He chased it back and forth, guided by its scent. The can was easy to locate in the darkness because it smelled like one of Sorensen's medicines. It made a nice plonking noise when he hit it. It seemed to ask for him to hit it again and again.\n\nThe woman awoke to a strange clatter. Her first impulse was to grab for her club. The usual morning headache was bad and she felt sick." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She retched over the edge of her mattress and when the nausea had passed she felt for her tin." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Some of Ben's special mixture would make her feel better. Where was it? Then there was that banging again, very close to her. \"What the hell...\" she said. The noise stopped. \"Where's that damn candle?\" Her fumbling hands located it and the matches in her pocket, but she had some trouble bringing the match to the wick. Her eyes didn't seem to be working right.\n\nWhen she finally got the candle lit she lifted it high above her head." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Just at the edge of the circle of light she saw a little cat with a long, banded tail. He looked up, startled. Between his paws was a tin can her precious can.\n\n\"How did you get that?\" she growled. She saw the animal's ears flatten and realized that it was about to run away with her booze. Not moving from her mattress she stretched out her hand and in a soft, wheedling voice said, \"Bring it here, nice kitty. Pretty kitty, bring it to Eflie.\"\n\nThe animal cocked its head and watched." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As if he understood, he picked up the can in his teeth and walked a few paces toward her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Then he reared on his hind legs, waggled his front paws in the air and scampered away." }, { "from": "human", "value": "After a few yards he stopped, put the can down and his eyes glowed at her in the gloom." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Oh, you want to play, eh?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "she said. \"Effie'll show you how to play right and proper.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She grabbed her billy club and stuffed the stale bagel into her pocket, along with her other candle." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Standing up made her sick again and her eyes weren't focusing everything looked wavy." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Supporting herself against one wall she staggered after the cat, calling in a soft voice, \"Come, kittykittykitty. Don't be scared. Look what Effie's got for you.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She was sick and too intent upon regaining her hard-bought liquor to notice the attenuated shadow that slithered down the tunnel behind her.\n\nThe water had begun to rise in the chamber where the white crocodiles had imprisoned the Culls. \"It won't be long now,\" thought Sherahi. \"Soon it'll all be over and none of us will have to worry anymore.\" Then her brief thought was detected by one of the crocodiles that guarded her. With a glimmer in his pale eyes he extinguished even this and Sherahi surrendered to the immobility and nothingness that had suspended her for so long.\n\nBehind her mindscreen the baby turtle that she'd thought of so often was jostled within his egg by the swimming movements of the other hatchlings who surrounded him in the egg chamber, dug long ago by the mother he had never seen." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The hatchlings practiced swimming, their movements exciting one another into flurries of paddling. Impatient to join them, the miniature leviathan rubbed the egg tooth on his snout against the inside of his eggshell. His egg tooth was sharp. It pierced the shell and he felt the pool around him drain and the shell collapse inward Above him a hatchling practiced swimming and its flipper deflated the soft, unresisting ceiling above his head. Angrily, the baby sea turtle poked his head out of the opening he'd slashed to find scores of nest mates who were instinctively scrabbling upward in the sand.\n\nHe could hear the roar of the ocean and knew that in minutes they would climb higher in the soft sand. He heard someone calling him, singing in a lovely siren song, and yearned to frantically crawl out of this crowded, sandy hole and cross the short stretch of tide-pounded beach that separated him from the welcoming tide." }, { "from": "human", "value": "In the portion of her mind that Sherahi allowed the crocs to see she resigned herself to death and saw that they didn't mind if she thought, \"I will die. They have ensnared my mind so efficiently that I can never escape. All of us will die.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The freed portion of her mind watched the clever act that she put on for the benefit of her guards, thinking, \"We can't die. We will get away from these monsters.\" In his subterranean nest, surrounded by brothers and sisters, the baby green turtle rested and thought about the sea.\n\nShe saw that Manu and the Duchess were in the middle of the waterway, tied to the meat rack, a stilt-legged lattice constructed of croc plaster. Manu was ill and hung limply from his bonds. Death would be a blessing for him. The Duchess, however, was healthy and furious. Her scarlet feathers were streaked with mud and the delicate white skin of her face was filthy, but she looked balefully at her captors and returned every hiss and glare." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They taunted her, saying, \"It won't be long, Talking Bird, before you squawk your last. Then you'll wish you'd found your tongue in time.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The fog that engulfed her mind lifted and Sherahi was able to read her guard's mind. She saw that the crocs weren't going to pin her to the meat rack. They were afraid that she was too heavy and would break it, and that would be a poor omen for the Glut. Instead, she would be guarded until the last minute and when the entire crocodile population had surrounded her, the mind fetters would be removed and she would be slaughtered in the shallow water of this chamber. Sherahi didn't have time to reflect upon this news. Her guard let her know that much and then clamped down his control again he'd only let her see his mind to torture her a bit more, yet in that short time Sherahi had reclaimed still more of her mind and moved her camouflaged mindscreens once again.\n\n\"Run, Dervish.\" Junior's orders were explicit." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Run. Don't let her catch you.\"\n\nThe coati held the tin between his paws and batted it ahead of him. The can clattered merrily down the sloping tunnel and the woman hurried after the coati as quickly as she could without extinguishing her candle or hitting her head. From time to time she would stop for breath and Dervish would approach within feet of her outstretched hand a hand that offered food. He would seem to teeter on the edge of letting her touch him and then Junior's voice would hiss again within his mind, saying, \"No. Don't go near her. She'll hurt you. Where's that lovely can? Go hit it again.\"\n\nSoon they were back to the dead end of the tunnel, quite near the place where it ended. Dervish sat panting in the candlelight as the woman drew slowly closer." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Nice kitty,\" she said. \"Pretty kitty.\" She put down the candle. \"See, we can't go any farther. It's a dead end.\" She advanced slowly, thinking, \"Funny-looking cat you are—but then, my eyes aren't too good today.\" In a soothing voice she said, \"I'm not going to hurt you.\" She spoke calmly and Dervish watched her, his tongue hanging out, his head to one side. Slowly the woman lifted the club above her head." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The can was on the ground next to Dervish and she could have taken it easily but she seemed to have lost all interest in it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Something made Dervish stare at her haggard face in fascination.\n\nWhen she was only three feet away the woman brought her club down at Dervish, with a short, murderous, chopping motion. She used it expertly and would have broken his back if Junior's rattle hadn't sounded in the tunnel and startled her. Her aim was off by a foot and the club crashed down onto the tin, smashing it flat The woman saw her precious liquor drain out onto the tunnel floor and simultaneously felt something hit her calf. The pain was immediate and intense. It felt as if a hot spike had been driven into her leg. \"What the... ,\" she said and looked down to see blood welling up in two punctures on her leg." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They were surrounded by a delicate tracery of blood-filled pinpricks." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She put her hand down to touch the place and make the pain go away and fell on her side, knees clasped to her chest. Junior struck again. This time he delivered a double dose of venom directly into the woman's neck. She felt the stab—it was as if a branch had snapped against her neck. The pain in her leg disappeared, but she could not move.\n\nShe saw the candle before her and the light in the tunnel grow stronger, as if all the candles in the world had been lit. The flame grew brighter and bigger and Eflie died with a happy but puzzled expression on her tired face. She'd never be afraid of the dark again." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Quick, Dervish,\" said Junior." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Dig. Open the hole that you made to get us away from the white crocodiles.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"But you've killed a person. And she was going to be my friend.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Come out of it, Dervish. I gave you that thought. Does a friend try to club you to death? That was me fooling you. Now, come on. Hurry up. We've got to get in there and save the others.\"\n\nThe coati growled at the cascabel. He regarded him for a long moment and said, \"I don't like being used in that way.\" The hair bristled along his spine.\n\n\"So help me, Dervish, I'm at the end of my patience,\" threatened the snake. \"If you won't do what I say, I swear I'll kill you, too.\" The cascabel coiled into an oblique striking coil and the coati realized that he had no chance against the snake." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"That's better,\" said Junior. \"Now, hurry up and dig a hole that's big enough for her to fit through. And be careful not to let any dirt fall into that room. If the crocs are in there, and I'm sure they are, I don't want them to suspect anything until it's too late. If they repaired the place the way they always do, they made a mistake that's going to fit into our plans just perfectly.\"\n\nThe coati gave Junior a hate-filled look and began to dig at the floor of the tunnel, guided by the scent mark that he had left there days ago. He knew that the Culls were below, but what could Junior do to save them? \"Whatever happens,\" he decided, \"I'm not going back down there. He can kill me if he likes, but I won't do it.\"\n\nThe Spring Glut was in full swing in the chambers of the white crocodiles. The entire population was assembled in or outside the Culls' chamber, awaiting the penultimate ceremony the ritual feeding." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The males and the single female that would breed this year were assembled around the meat rack, which held Manu and the Duchess, while Sherahi lay in the shallows." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She was reserved for the final ceremony of the Glut." }, { "from": "human", "value": "There was special excitement this year because no croc could remember when there had ever been so much meat to share." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Often the crocs reenacted their ceremony with only a scrawny rat for the entire population." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In those years most members of the community got only a scrap of skin and a sniff of the sacrifice. Even those that would mate were usually rewarded with just a silver of rat leg. This year, however, the ancient ritual would be celebrated with plenty of meat, and every croc looked forward to cruising into the shallow water and wrestling a mouthful of python flesh from Sherahi's living body. Best of all, she was a reptile and her flesh would be slow to die. It would still be alive when it reached their stomachs. And she was so fat The crocs could hardly wait for the mating dances to be over. A diet of dried algae was nourishing, but no one would call it toothsome or satisfying." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Led by Annahe, a circle of the females of breeding age performed a water dance in which the crocs expressed their gratitude for the bountiful spring rains. All had agreed that the rains were especially plentiful this year, the wall repairs had been finished none too soon.\n\nAs the female chosen to mate for the second year in a row, Annahe was the Princess of the Glut and was to be awarded a special treat. She would be the first to taste living flesh and had decided that monkey meat was what she wanted. She'd already had a mouthful of feathers and found them tasteless. Fur might be nicer. She was closing in on the meat rack, her black eyes nearly level with those of Manu, when he lifted his arm and pointed to the ceiling." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Something was happening to the croc plaster there. It was caving in, and among chunks of it and a shower of dirt something big and heavy dropped into the midst of the dancing females. The crocs screamed and bellowed in alarm and fled to the farthest corners of the pool. The object bobbed, and one brave male swam up and nudged it with his snout. The croc's mindspeech was astonished. \"A human woman a dead human woman,\" he gasped.\n\nPandemonium broke loose as the entire croc population rushed forward to try to see this miracle." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They had never seen a human, except with their minds, and a fight broke out over ownership of this wonder." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The Holiest of the Holy White Crocodiles tried to restore order, sending in his mugger and soldier crocs to threaten and bellow and beat with their tails, sending up fountains of water." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The air was filled with saurian mindspeech." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Let me see.\"\n\n\"Get out of the way. Get back where you belong.\"\n\n\"She's mine. I saw her first.\"\n\n\"You there, get out of the way.\"\n\n\"I was here first. I outrank you.\"\n\n\"She's mine.\"\n\n\"No. She's mine.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Mine.\"\n\n\"Mine.\"\n\nOver all of this the Holiest One bellowed, \"Get back to your positions. We must have a proper ceremony. The Glut must continue.\"\n\nBut no crocs listened to him. Even his own guards and soldiers joined in the melee around the floating corpse. It was only a matter of time before one croc pulled off an arm or a leg and cruised out of the Culls' chamber, trailed by others that coveted his prize. On the edges of the churning pool, even the New One whimpered for his share." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The crocs were so preoccupied with the bounty that had literally fallen into their midst that they forgot the Culls tied to the meat rack. Sherahi's guards saw the other crocs battling over their share and leaped into the water. They wanted to get some before it all disappeared down a score of croc gullets.\n\nWhen Sherahi's guards abandoned her she immediately took charge of her mind. First she erected ramshackle shelters around the thoughts of each of the Culls. \"They'll never enslave us again,\" she thought, amazed at how quickly and efficiently she'd regained her powers. Then she looked up into the hole above where the corpse had fallen and saw Dervish's longsnouted face peering down at the melee." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Junior coiled around his neck and stood erect, like a little cobra, between Dervish's ears." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Hurry, you two. Get down here and untie Manu and the Duchess and then follow me to the nest chamber. Quick, Dervish. Junior, help him,\" she ordered, gliding into the waterway, careful to strengthen the temporary barriers that would protect each of the Culls from the crocodiles that were busy churning blood and hair and rags into the phosphorescent water. She thought of the baby sea turtles who, in concert, would burst up out of the sand and simultaneously paddle frantically across the beach to the tide and said into the minds of all of the Culls, \"Hurry. We're digging out of here.\" With strong, sinuous motions she swam faster than any crocodile and pleaded with the coati, \"Please, Dervish, one last favor. We need you more than ever. You must dig for us again. We've got to get back to the tunnel that brought us here. It is our only hope.\"\n\nThe coati forgot his resolve to never go back into that awful tunnel and leaped into the water. With Junior hissing about his neck he landed at the foot of the meat rack and quickly severed the Duchess's bonds and then Manu's. \"Quick, Duchess,\" he said. \"Get to the nursery chamber. Run or fly if you can.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Pulling the comatose langur by the scruff of the neck, Dervish started for the nursery." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Good, Dervish,\" hissed Junior, wishing that he could do something to help. But there was nothing to do except hiss open-mouthed at the crocs in the water all around them. He saw that the crocs did not respond to his threat and felt impervious to their control. \"Sherahi has done this,\" the cascabel thought. When the coati and cascabel hauled out on the slimy bank they found Sherahi and the Duchess there. Junior knew from the intense look of concentration on her face that Sherahi was doing something to keep the crocs away.\n\nThen she turned her mind toward them and seemed to grow larger, filling Junior's mind with her presence." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What has happened to Sherahi?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "he wondered. \"She's different.\"\n\nDervish didn't seem to notice the change in the pythoness. \"Help him,\" he said, dragging Manu up the bank and dumping him next to the Duchess.\n\n\"Did you see, Dervish?\" the macaw said, dancing up and down, her eyes kaleidoscoping with excitement. \"I flew. I flew! It's the first time in years. And it was a really long flight! I'd forgotten how wonderful it was." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I flew, Dervish, I actually flew.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She batted her scarlet wings as if to embrace them all and suddenly focused on Manu, who slumped in the mud." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She bustled up to him, squawking in her parrot speech, which had been markedly improved by contact with the white crocodiles. \"Now, Manu, what's wrong with you?\" There was no response and she prodded him with her bill, saying, \"Perk up, Manu, and listen to my news: I flew. I flew!\" The macaw rolled Manu onto his back and her thick tongue cleaned the mud from his closed eyes. In a soft voice she crooned, \"I'm sorry, Manu. I'm sorry for all they did to you. Come on, now. Please, please don't die. I can fly again. You've never seen me fly. Please don't die now!\"\n\nThe macaw looked across Manu's inert body to Sherahi, mutely begging the pythoness to do something to help the langur. Dervish knew what he had to do and began to dig at the nursery wall, working more frantically than ever before." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He had trouble locating the exact place all the walls had been reinforced with croc plaster, and he began to worry that they might never get out." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He worried that the guards would come swimming into the chamber any moment and looked behind nervously, thinking, \"Can Sherahi really shield all of us from all of those white crocodiles? What if I can't find a soft place? How long can she hold them off?\"\n\n\"Hurry, Dervish,\" said the Duchess, trying to encourage him, and was surprised that she could speak into his mind. It seemed only natural to speak to the coati, who dug wildly at the rock-hard walls. \"You can find it, Dervish. But do hurry. I think they're coming.\"\n\nDervish panted and tried yet another spot, this time higher on the wall, and felt the earth give beneath his madly treading claws. \"I've got it,\" he said. \"We're going to get out of here.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Won't they follow us?\" said Manu, who had recovered consciousness because Sherahi had entered his mind and convinced him that he wasn't really sick or exhausted.\n\n\"No,\" said Junior from around Dervish's neck, rearing his head and flinching as Dervish sent dirt flying in all directions. \"They'll never dare to leave these tunnels. Once we get out of here we're safe.\"\n\n\"And I know how to get us to San Diego Zoo,\" said the Duchess, flapping her wings and making a joke.\n\n\"I thought it was impossibly far,\" said Manu.\n\n\"It is, but who wants to go there anyway?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "the Duchess said slyly." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"We're on our way to someplace better. Sherahi's taking us to Sandeagozu! The Holiest One said we'd never be able to escape. He said we'd be dead meat by now. I figure that if we try, we've at least got a chance. Besides, Manu, I can fly again. I can fly and you're sitting up and taking notice of things. We've gotten away from them. Looks like the impossible is happening with some regularity and just you watch I'm going to fly out of this tunnel. I'll meet you at the other end.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What do you think you are,\" said Sherahi, \"an owl or something?\" It was the closest that Sherahi had ever come to a joke and it was not lost on the Duchess. \"If you say so, Sherahi. Okay. I'm an owl I'm a tawny frogmouth I'm a double-breasted spouse and I'm flying out of here. Here I go.\" The red tail feathers of the macaw disappeared through the hole that Dervish had made into the storm sewer.\n\nDervish said, \"You're next, Sherahi. You take the longest.\"\n\n\"No, Dervish. I'll be rear guard this time. Hurry up, get in there. You and Junior lead for a while.\"\n\nFirst Dervish, with Junior encircling his neck, and then Manu climbed up the mound of dirt that Dervish had piled below the hole." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Each took a last look at Sherahi, at the glowing chamber, and disappeared into the storm drain. The sounds of the feeding frenzy were drowned in a keening alarm wail that told Sherahi that the crocs had discovered that the captives had escaped.\n\n\"Too late, too late, you ingrown abortions that have the nerve to call yourselves reptiles,\" she said and followed the others through the hole in the nursery wall.\n\nShe took a deep breath and concentrated to reinforce the mental barriers that shielded each Cull from the white crocs. \"You'll never get us now,\" she said. \"Starve, you maggots.\"\n\nIt was black on the other side and she had climbed fifteen feet out into the tunnel before she realized that she was alone. The tunnel below was filled with rushing water." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It must have swept the others away,\" she thought in panic." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I must find them.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Holding onto the wall with her tail, Sherahi clung to the side of the storm sewer and sent her mind spinning down the length of the tunnel, searching for the Culls." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She found Dervish with Junior coiled around his neck. He was madly dog-paddling, lifting his long-snouted head out of moonlit water. \"Swim, Dervish,\" she said. \"Save your strength. Swim only enough to keep afloat. Let the current take you to the opposite bank. Don't fight. We will be safe. All rivers have two banks. Think of your relatives the otters, the beavers. Think of porpoises, of great whales. You can swim as well as they can, but you must not fight. Be brave. Like baby sea turtles we can do the impossible.\"\n\nTo Junior she said in the ancient speech that only he would understand, \"Little brother, you must help Dervish. He thinks he is tired. Give him courage. Make him feel as confident as a cobra killing a mongoose. Help him. You know how. Protect him until we meet again.\"\n\nThe cascabel sent the message, \"What about you, Sherahi?\"\n\n\"I am not afraid of water,\" the pythoness said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I was born on the water. I can hold my breath for a month. Help Dervish make for the opposite shore, little brother. Do not fear. We are going to Sandeagozu. Remind Dervish.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She sent her mind spinning out over the rushing water to the langur. She found him outside the storm drain, floating with his arms clasped around a piece of timber. He was in a warm current in a wide river and about to lose consciousness.\n\n\"Breathe, Manu,\" the python said. \"Lift your head up out of the water and breathe. Use that cunning that your tribe is famous for. Look around you, see the moonlight shining on your silver fur. You are Manu, the most marvelous langur that ever lived. You outlasted the white crocodiles, you outlasted the humans, you will outlast this river. Now we are finally free, Manu. We are going to find Sandeagozu and all of your tribe. It's over there on the opposite shore. Near those rocks. The current will take you. Help the current, Manu. Steer. Swing through the water as if you were in the treetops. Swim, Manu. Swim to Sandeagozu.\"\n\n\"Now for the Duchess,\" thought Sherahi. She sent her mind spin-ning out a fourth time, seeking the macaw." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "yo hit me with 8 sentences more. Janann V. Jenner vibes in Fantasy, Animal Fiction genre k?" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Wordlessly, Joe Spotted Wolf motioned for D. K. Beasley to follow him to the edge of the canyon. In pantomime he made it clear that the snake hunter should make no noise that might alert the animal that they'd tracked for three days and two nights. Excitedly he pointed below, and although D. K. didn't like being ordered about by the half-breed, he obeyed. He knew it was important. He watched the Indian's tense posture and stony expression, thinking, \"This's gotta be it.\"\n\nFollowing his tracker's example, Beasley silently dismounted, tied his horse to a sand-blasted juniper and began to climb. When he finally reached the top of the mesa he dropped to all fours and, with his binoculars swinging to and fro, stealthily crawled toward a clump of bushes at the edge of the canyon, where Joe Spotted Wolf waited, lying on his belly, peering down intently. The early-morning sun was already strong on Beasley's back." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It burned through his shirt and singlet." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Dammit,\" he said aloud as a twig snapped beneath his left knee.\n\nInstantly the Indian's hand went up, ordering him to stop. D. K. froze, afraid that another wrong move would scare this animal that he wanted so very badly.\n\nWith his eyes fastened to the Indian's hand, Beasley waited for the signal to move ahead. He thought of the wary, enormous snake, imagined it waiting in the canyon below and prayed, \"Don't run, snake. That little sound was nothing; just a mule deer picking her teeth with juniper buds.\" Then Joe Spotted Wolfs hand dropped and Beasley silently crawled to the rim of the canyon floor, taking care to avoid any twigs lurking in his path.\n\n\"There,\" the Indian whispered. \"On this side of those rocks.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There was a swirl of movement. Through binoculars D. K. saw a gigantic tail disappear into the canyon floor. It was over in moments and D. K. had the impression of a thick stream of water pouring into thirsty ground. As he watched, something was pushed into the opening and it looked as if the entrance to the burrow had been plugged from the inside.\n\n\"What the hell kind of a snake is that?\" he thought to himself. \"Even a shovelnose doesn't close its burrow like that.\"\n\n\"I'll be damned if I know what that thing is,\" he whispered, \"but we've got it now.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He pounded the Indian on the back with glee. \"And we're gonna catch it. That's for damn sure.\"\n\nThe heat grew more intense as the two men studied the canyon where the snake had gone to ground. Joe Spotted Wolf envied the snake's cool burrow and thought, \"Now the Great Culebra sleeps below the earth. He will sleep and dream until the moon is high. It is just as Grandmother said.\" He looked at the huge track that led to the snake's hiding place. It occurred to him that the moon would be full tonight: the Wolf Moon would watch as they caught this big snake. The Wolf Spirit was his namesake, his guardian. It would not be pleased." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Joe Spotted Wolf fingered the amulet around his neck, remembering the wrinkles around his Grandmother's watermelon-seed eyes." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Across the gulf of lost years he said, \"I've got to do this, Grandmother.\" She had been dead for nine years, but Spotted Wolf often spoke to her eyes as they watched him across the fire. He knew that it was a bad idea to try to catch the Great Culebra—especially tonight, when the Wolf Moon was high.\n\nHe watched the buzzards shaking their rusty-black feathers and stretching those snaky necks that were the color of dried blood. He knew that their bloodshot, black eyes could count the hairs on the back of his hand. Grandmother's voice whispered, \"Get out of here, Spotted Wolf. Get away from this white man before it's too late.\" But then he thought about the things he would buy with the money that Beasley had promised. He saw himself behind the wheel of a car, a Model A with shiny running boards. He saw a pair of new boots to replace his worn-out pair and a fancy suit that had come all the way from St. Louis. He saw the faceless woman he'd be able to buy and thirty head of stocky, red-and-white beef cattle. \"What harm could it do?\" he wondered. \"D. K. said that the whites will give the Culebra a cage of gold to live in and all the food he can eat. What else could a snake want—even a magic snake like this one?\n\n\"It will be all right,\" he reassured himself. \"The Culebra will never know the difference.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He stared into the shiny, black eyes that watched him from the shade at the foot of the mesa and said, \"Shut up, Grandmother.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Two jackrabbits entered the canyon and began to forage on the salt bushes that were just beginning to put out leaves. On the rim of the opposite canyon the flock of vultures became more active, flapping and airing those rag bags they called feathers. One by one they half-waddled, half-ran toward the canyon rim. Most stopped short and looked around as if they had forgotten what they'd meant to do. A few launched into space and laboriously flew across the chasm, toward the spot where D. K and Joe Spotted Wolf lay hidden by a screen of bushes. The two men could have touched each vulture as it rose on the column of warm air that rushed up from the superheated rocks below. Buoyed out of the canyon, the buzzards solemnly spiraled out of sight.\n\nIn the distance Beasley could see the leaders of the flock angling toward the next rising column of air, moving lazily, as if they had all the time in the world." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"It won't be long before they're prospecting for breakfast,\" Beasley thought and he, too, began to get restless. \"We're wasting time,\" he said. \"That snake won't move until nightfall.\" He got up and motioned to the Indian to follow him down to the horses.\n\nEach drank from his canteen and D. K. said, \"Now we've got to catch that thing. You ride into town. Get the wagon and our supplies and get back here as quickly as possible.\n\n\"I'll watch to see if he comes out of that hole. If you don't find me here, just follow my trail I'm sure that snake'll stay hidden until late tonight. We'll have plenty of time to get things set up. We'll fix it so that that critter practically catches hisself.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Beasley watched the Indian lead his horse away." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He was always amazed at how silent they could be. Then he unslung his bedroll and pack, and unsaddled his horse. He thought about fixing himself breakfast and then remembered, \"That fella Leftrack ought to be in town by now. I'd better tell Spotted Wolf to fetch him. No telling how long this'll take. We might need an extra hand.\"\n\nHe called out to the Indian, who had reached the bottom of the cliff and was about to mount his horse and head for the main road. \"And check at the hotel for an Easterner called Ehrich Leftrack. Bring him along.\" As an afterthought he added, \"And stay away from the liquor.\"\n\nBeasley's words echoed in the canyon below, reverberating over the sandy ground where Sherahi and the other Culls rested. Spotted Wolf heard the echo and winced." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He wanted to warn Beasley to shut up, but it was too late." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Once again, Grandmother whispered in the dark medicine lodge." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The fire illuminated her lined face, turning it into a slit-eyed mask." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The image flickered and she said, \"You must be careful of what you say, my son. The Culebra hears everything we say in the desert. You don't want him to know that you're a fool.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "All the way to town he was followed by the uncomfortable sensation that he was being watched. It made the hair on the back of his neck prickle and he spurred his horse on, wanting to get away from the scrutiny.\n\nOnly after he'd downed three whiskeys and three beers did Joe Spotted Wolf begin to feel better. Once again he confronted that face across the fire and said, \"Go to hell, Grandmother.\"\n\nSecure within the burrow that the coatis had dug to escape the hot hours, Sherahi lay with her chin pressed against the hard-packed earth and waited for sleep. Traveling in the desert night gave the Culls relief from the heat, but each dawn found Sherahi eagerly anticipating the time when Nemi and Dervish would stop and dig, searching for a place to make the burrow that would shelter all from the sun. The lavender dawn would give way to a pale-lemon wash low on the eastern horizon, as Nemi and Dervish made sure that the burrow was large enough and safe. Long before the sky was white-hot and the smoke trees shimmered in the heat, all the Culls would be in their subterranean retreat, hidden from the sun and the skyful of predators." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Sherahi listened to the familiar sound of the other Culls drowsing around her. She was thinking about how surprised Dervish would be when he discovered that he was unable to leave Nemi and follow the others to Sandeagozu when her jawbones brought the sound of nearby hoofbeats to the ears that were buried deep within her skull. Sherahi listened and, like an owl gliding on soundless wings, held her breath so that she could hear better. \"It's coming closer,\" she decided and, even though she was tired, she summoned the energy to cast a message to the pony that cantered across the canyon floor, warning him to come no closer. \"Holes,\" her message hissed. \"Ankle-snapping holes. Stay away.\"\n\nShe heard the hoofbeats falter and stop and could sense the fear in the stiff-legged, ears-flattened stance of the pony that capered above, urged forward by the man who crouched on his back.\n\nThe Culls had traveled all night and Sherahi was so tired that she hadn't even had the energy to erect and maintain the mental screen that usually hid their retreat." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Bone tired, she had followed the others down into the burrow, grateful that their journey was over at least for another day." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Not no.w,\" she prayed. \"I want to sleep.\" As if in reply, the hoofbeats grew fainter as Joe Spotted Wolf cursed his pony, turned him in a tight semicircle and galloped away.\n\nWorried that it had been a bad mistake not to erect the usual mental screen about their burrow's entrance, Sherahi traced the hoofbeats to the man who rode the pony and scryed his mind. She saw the crazy quilt of his hopes and fears, feather stitched with superstitions from two cultures and embroidered with the Irish Catholicism that was all that his father had given him. She saw the candles flickering in their red glasses on the altar and smelled incense. The sweet-faced statue of the Virgin had a crown of twisted antlers and a rattlesnake coiled in the lace that edged her blue mantle. Desert poppies and foamflowers were strewn below her bare feet." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Sherahi saw his guilt at leaving the bespectacled couple from Iowa at the mercy of the Guardians, and his habit of allowing himself to forget everything by drinking too much alcohol." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Draped over all of this, like a fat woman sleeping upon a settee that was too small, was his plan to sell the Great Culebra and become a rich man.\n\n\"Great Culebra,\" Sherahi thought. \"That must mean me. Well,\" she sighed, \"I suppose this had to happen sooner or later. We've been lucky to get this far without trouble from humans.\" She saw Joe Spotted Wolf's amalgam of fear and respect of a white man called D. K. and concluded, \"There are two humans following us. Where is the other one?\"\n\nShe scanned the tops of the rock walls of the canyon and found a dust-covered man asleep in the spare shade of a grove of thirsty junipers. His head was propped against his saddle blanket and his hat was pulled down over his stubbly cheeks. As if she were climbing into a tree hung with lianas and fragile touch-me-not orchids, Sherahi insinuated a path into D. K. Beasley's mind. She saw how he meant to capture the Great Culebra, as well as his plan to cheat Spotted Wolf and Ehrich Leftrack." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Ehrich Leftrack?\" Sherahi was astounded." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Can it be the same hairy biped whose father trafficked in animals stolen from their homes? The same boy whose father maimed Manu and caused the Duchess to cannibalize herself with boredom? That human slug who was so afraid to touch me that he poured my medicine down the drain and then lied about it? That worm hoped that I would die of mouth rot so that he could cut me open and see my insides. He even poisoned Manu and his father blamed it all on poor, old Sorensen. Oh, if only I'd strangled both of those Leftracks when I had the chance.\"\n\nThe memory of the elder Leftrack's face turning blue-gray within her coils surfaced slowly in her cold mind and Sherahi remembered how close she'd come to killing him. \"This time it's going to be different,\" she resolved. \"This time Ruthie won't be around to stop me. He will pay for all the harm he and his father have done.\"\n\nSherahi lashed restlessly in the dark burrow, clenching her coils, imagining how Ehrich Leftrack's hot body would feel within her deadly embrace. Her muscles rippled from head to tail as she imagined how she would squeeze and squeeze, alert for the slightest relaxation of his chest, which would allow her to tighten her scaly vise ever more. Bit by bit she would wring the life from him and then cast him aside, a rag of bruised meat. \"Even for a human, Ehrich Leftrack is lower than a rat-tailed maggot. When I'm done with him he'll die like a toad rolled flat by a truck, spitting out his guts into the dirt.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Sherahi thought of how weary all of the Culls were, worn thin with the strain of continual traveling." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Manu had lost the well-fed, sleek appearance that six months in the crystal house had imparted. Now he was perpetually tired and loped haltingly behind Nemi and Dervish, a wizened handful of bird bones covered with silver fur. Even Dervish and Nemi had lost weight and Sherahi had noticed that the scales of her belly were dulled and worn from continual slithering over rough ground. \"We've come so far,\" she thought. \"We've nearly reached the mountains and Sandeagozu is just on the other side. We've worked too hard to be stopped now. I can't let Leftrack and these others catch us. I swear I'll kill them if they try. No one will keep us from getting to Sandeagozu. No one.\"\n\nSherahi's angry thrashing awakened Manu. Sleepy and confused, he huddled against the pair of sleeping coatis and wondered, \"What's wrong with Sherahi? Why isn't she asleep, too?\"\n\nBefore he had been captured Manu had been raised to assume the leadership of his large, tribal family." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Even though Leftrack had interfered with this plan many years ago, Manu still remembered the elaborate rules of etiquette that had once ruled his actions." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "One of the things that the Hanuman langur did not do was eavesdrop. It was impolite and Manu listened to the big snake thrash around in the dark burrow for a long time before deciding to look into her mind and read her thoughts.\n\nIn Sherahi's mind, Manu was horrified to see slow, violent millstones that crushed Ehrich Leftrack. \"Why is she still thinking about him?\" Manu wondered. \"Maybe I've gotten it wrong. Maybe it isn't Ehrich Leftrack.\" The langur took a second look and saw Sherahi rehearse Ehrich Leftrack's death. He also saw the glimmer of an idea to use Junior's venomous talents to dispose of other humans who were following the Culls. Her plan to use Junior instead of killing them herself made Manu smile in spite of himself." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He thought, \"How like a serpent: Sherahi is always stingy with her energy.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Manu knew that Sherahi could easily kill a human. Murder was as natural to her as stealing ripe mangoes was to him. But he'd never allowed himself to dwell upon the strength of her coils and, of course, it was unthinkable that she might try to hurt him or one of the other Culls. She was their leader and had saved each of them many times since they'd left the pet shop. Ordinarily Manu would have deferred to her judgment and would never have questioned one of her plans. \"This is a mistake, though,\" he thought as he saw the idea to kill the three humans take form in her mind. \"If she does this, we'll never get to Sandeagozu alive.\"\n\n\"No, Pythoness.\" Manu's unspoken thought fell like a withered leaf into the whirling pools of Sherahi's thoughts." }, { "from": "human", "value": "In true reptilian fashion she paid no attention and he saw a bloated human face bob to the surface." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hair clung wetly to the man's forehead and Manu saw the face of the fat boy he'd once bitten in Leftrack's pet shop. Manu saw Ehrich Leftrack flail and struggle, but the pythoness had no pity. Relentlessly she submerged him in the turbulent wash of her hatred.\n\n\"No, Sherahi,\" Manu repeated. \"You cannot kill him. If you do, it will only be the beginning of terrible trouble for us. More humans will come. We might be able to kill some of them but, sooner or later, even more will come and they will bring dogs and guns. They will have no more pity for us than you do for Leftrack's son.\"\n\n\"What should I do then, Manu? Let them capture me? Do you think you and the others can get all the way to Sandeagozu without my help?\"\n\n\"You are right, Sherahi,\" Manu replied, \"but you must be cunning. You are dealing with men. Even toad-brained men like Ehrich Leftrack are treacherous. You must be more devious than they are. Somehow you will find a way to either get rid of them or to make them take us to Sandeagozu.\"\n\n\"I don't think I could manage three humans at once. I'm tired, Manu.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"How about one?\" asked Manu." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Surely, Sherahi, the most powerful serpent that ever slashed out of an egg can make one limp-willed human do as she wishes.\"\n\n\"Yes, I suppose so,\" sighed Sherahi. \"I could handle them one by one. I could trick them, I suppose. But it would be so much easier to just kill them outright. I'd like that much better.\"\n\n\"That may be, Pythoness,\" said Manu. \"But there is another problem. Have you realized how high those mountains are? I have been looking at them carefully and I believe that they are covered with snow. Tell me, Sherahi, how will we, and especially you, get through ice and snow?\"\n\nSherahi did not reply. Manu knew that her eyes were not good enough to have seen ice and snow on the mountaintops. \"I will consider these things, Manu,\" she sighed and rearranged her coils." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"He is right,\" Sherahi thought. \"It would be a mistake to kill these three humans and leave their bones as a reminder." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It would only bring more humans. There must be a way to use them, though... A way that would take advantage of them. Then, when they are no longer needed, I can toss them aside.\n\n\"After all,\" she thought with an internal, scaly smile, \"sometimes things that are cast aside get broken. Sometimes they are beyond repair and are lost forever.\"\n\nEhrich Leftrack gripped the wooden seat of the buckboard and clenched his teeth to keep them from shattering as the wagon jounced along the desert road. Behind him the load of ropes and shovels clattered and his voice shook as he complained, \"Do we have to go so fast?\"\n\nJoe Spotted Wolf concentrated on driving the team of horses. His only reply was an impassive glance at the fat Easterner who rode on the seat next to him, pale, hatless and sweating in the afternoon sun." }, { "from": "human", "value": "What Spotted Wolf didn't bother to say was that he was anxious to reach D. K. Beasley before sundown." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Even at this distance his keen eyes saw the snake hunter silhouetted on the ridge above the canyon." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He knew from the set of D. K.'s shoulders that the man was angry that he'd been kept waiting all day.\n\nJoe Spotted Wolf put out one hand and covered Beasley's silhouette with the tip of one grimy fingernail. Giving a cry that was part war whoop and part rebel yell, he slapped the reins and braced himself to keep from losing his balance.\n\nBeasley met the wagon at the foot of the hill. One look at the lathered team and another at Spotted Wolf told him that the Indian had been drinking. \"Last time I'll send you to town on your own. Cummon, let's get that stuff down there. We want to set up while there's still light.\"\n\nHe held out his hand to Ehrich and said, \"You must be young Leftrack. Pleased to meet you." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I'm Dinsmore K. Beasley and this miserable specimen here is Joe Spotted Wolf." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His ma was a Navajo squaw and his daddy was an Irish tinker." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I s'pose he's got the best and the worst of both.\n\n\"Get out of there,\" he growled to Spotted Wolf. \"I'm drivin' now.\"\n\nBeasley tied his horse to the tail of the wagon, alongside the Indian's pony, and climbed aboard next to Ehrich. Spotted Wolf unsteadily relinquished his seat on the buckboard and collapsed in the midst of the supplies. As soon as Beasley had the wagon rolling toward the entrance to the canyon and had begun a conversation with Leftrack, Spotted Wolf stealthily helped himself to a swig from the bottle of whiskey that he'd hoarded inside his shirt. He was nodding when Beasley stopped the team and shook him roughly by the shoulder, saying, \"Wake up, Spotted Wolf, you good-for-nothing excuse for a human being. Hand me down those tools.\"\n\nSpotted Wolf slumped forward, completely unconscious, and Beasley took the bottle from his hand. With a curse he flung it at the canyon wall." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He turned to Ehrich and said, \"I guess I'll need your help after all, son. This one's no earthly use to anyone like this.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I told you,\" Ehrich said, \"I don't want to touch that snake. Our agreement was that you would have it packed and ready to go. I've come all the way out here from New York City. That's five days traveling, sir. I haven't eaten a decent meal since the day I left New York. I arrive in Coalston, am accosted by your friend here, am forced to come out here to the middle of nowhere with him. He nearly kills the both of us driving so recklessly. I didn't even have time to buy a proper hat. I'm tired and hungry and I think I have all the symptoms of sun poisoning. Now you want me to do your job, too.\" Ehrich rolled his eyes and sighed.\n\n\"As soon as we have the snake, Mr. Leftrack,\" said Beasley in a voice that dripped charm like a beehive leaking honey in the sun, \"I'll fry you the finest steak this side of the Trans Pecos.\n\n\"Son, you look like a man who appreciates the finer things in life. Tell me, have you ever tasted baking-powder biscuits hot off the griddle? Well, I assure you that you ain't tasted nothin' till you've tucked in a good half dozen of D. K.'s famous baking-powder biscuits. Butter melting and drippin' all down your hand. So light they fly right into your mouth." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You see the way things are with the Indian. Be a sport, son. I guarantee—you won't regret it.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I won't have anything to do with the snake. I swear, Mr. Beasley, I won't go within thirty feet of it till it's crated and ready to be loaded onto the railroad car.\"\n\n\"Okay,\" said Beasley. \"Have it your way. But I'll need you to help set up the lines.\"\n\nEhrich sighed and loosened his tie and unbuttoned his collar. \"Steak, you said?\"\n\n\"I guarantee, better'n anything Delmonico's has to offer. My special sauce, too—a secret handed down to me by old Grandpappy Beasley. Two gils heavy cream, an egg, a spoonful of fresh-grated horseradish and the secret ingredient.\"\n\nEhrich handed him a spade and a shovel and asked, \"Secret ingredient?\"\n\n\"Well,\" said D. K., \"I generally don't tell but since I knowed your pappy for such a long time, I guess it's safe you'n me, we're sort of like kin.\"\n\nD. K. came close to Ehrich and whispered, \"Chicken fat.\"\n\n\"Chicken fat?\" thought Ehrich." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He imagined the taste of a sauce compounded of cream, horseradish and chicken fat and thought, \"Of course!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "His mouth began to water.\n\n\"Now you're talking,\" he said to Beasley and eagerly handed down the first box of supplies. It began to grow dark as the two men arranged the equipment on the ground next to the wagon according to Beasley's directions.\n\nFrom the cool, underground burrow Sherahi watched the two men sweating in the strong sun and smiled at the feeble plan that occupied D. K. Beasley's mind. She watched the snake hunter tie a snag of multiple, running slipknots in a thick rope and observed that this man was no beginner. Sherahi had seen knots such as these before. They had been used by the bad priests who had tried to capture her when she was a baby—only six feet long and naive about the ways of men. She knew how effective these multiple loops were, how efficiently they trapped and held an unwary snake, not allowing backward or forward movement." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She saw Beasley and Ehrich Leftrack approach the closed entrance of the burrow where she and the other Culls lay and felt the vibrations of their heavy footsteps and of the sledgehammer that Beasley used to send long stakes into the ground." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"He knows what he's doing,\" thought Sherahi, \"but, still, he's not as smart as he thinks he is.\"\n\nThe sound of hammering awoke Dervish and Nemi.\n\n\"What's that?\" Dervish chittered, the fur along his spine bristling in fear.\n\n\"Men who have come to catch me,\" Sherahi said into his mind, her voice a ribbon spun of calm concentration. At once Dervish regained his composure and nonchalantly he began to groom the fur between his left hind toes.\n\n\"What are we going to do, Dervish?\" whimpered Nemi. \"We're trapped. This is solid rock beneath us. We can't dig out. They'll get us. Oh, Dervish, I'm afraid. I don't want to die down here. Men pour awful-smelling stuff down burrows to make animals come out. I'm scared, Dervish. I don't want to die down here. What'll we do?\"\n\n\"Sherahi take care of everything, Nemi,\" said Dervish." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Protectively he nudged his mate's ear with his cold nose and tried to reassure her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Now you'll see what I've told you about Sherahi. She can do things that even humans never thought of. You'll see.\"\n\n\"But, Dervish, what if...\"\n\n\"Stop it, Nemi. Trust me. Sherahi will take care of us. She's gotten us out of worse scrapes than this. Come over here and lie down. Pacing back and forth won't help. It'll only tire you out in case we have to run for it and it'll distract the pythoness. We must allow her to concentrate.\"\n\nNemi obeyed, but her mind was busy imagining how she'd defend them from these humans. She saw her lip curl and she leaped at their throats. She would bite them if they dared touch her or Dervish. \"Shhh,\" Dervish said, feeling her leg muscles quiver and hearing the growl roll in her chest. \"Sherahi won't let them hurt us.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Nemi put her head on Dervish's thickly furred flank and waited in the darkness, wondering how the hideous snake could possibly outwit humans." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"It can't be possible,\" she thought to herself. \"Except for ravens, humans are the smartest creatures on earth. Everyone knows that.\"\n\nSherahi was busy scrying the minds of the two men above, watching the trap they arranged about the opening to the burrow. The looped line was set so that it would automatically encircle any large animal that emerged from this burrow. A small mammal could easily slip through the snare that was designed to pull tight around the gradually widening body of a long snake. \"They know what I look like,\" thought Sherahi. \"At least they think they do.\"\n\nSherahi watched through Beasley's eyes as he and Ehrich Leftrack piled boulders and cacti in two long rows leading away from the entrance." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"A snake coming out of this burrow will have to go forward. It will automatically be caught in the other snares. As the snake struggles, the snares will tighten and the poor snake will be helpless. They've fixed it so that now the only way for me to leave this place is right through those snares.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She couldn't help admiring Beasley's plan and smiled, thinking, \"It is more interesting to deal with an intelligent opponent.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"That ought to do it,\" Beasley said to Ehrich Leftrack as he tied the free ends of the line of snares to a stout Joshua tree. \"That'll catch him for sure. all we have to do is sit back and wait.\"\n\n\"How'll we see it?\" asked Ehrich, aware of the ruddy light of the sunset.\n\n\"Well, we don't want much light. We're not going to track it, you know. But in case we need to, there's a full moon tonight,\" Beasley answered. \"I've tracked plenty of snakes in the dark. I guess I can see as good in the dark as any goddamn cat-eyed snake." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Let's get some grub while there's enough light to see what this fool's brought for us to eat.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Joe Spotted Wolf was snoring loudly in the rear of the wagon and Beasley lifted the remaining crate of supplies. With a disgusted expression he watched the Indian's saliva make a dark blot on the wooden slats of the wagon below his half-open mouth and Beasley muttered, \"Lazy. Good-for-nothing. If I wasn't a Christian soul I'd have a mind to leave you out here for the buzzards.\"\n\nTo Leftrack he said, \"Rule number one, Mr. Leftrack: Never. Never depend on an Indian who has a taste for whiskey—especially one who's half Irish. They always let you down.\"\n\nThe two walked back to the vantage point from which they could make dinner and watch the line of snares. \"Grab that lantern, will you?\" Beasley said.\n\n\"What's for dinner?\" Ehrich asked, eyeing the heavy box, imagining the thick slabs of steak that Beasley had promised. The Indian would be asleep at dinner time. Perhaps he could ask for an extra share of dinner." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Beans and rice,\" D. K. replied." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Bellyful of beans'll give you the strength to manage that big fella.\"\n\nLater that night, after Ehrich had had thirds and shared the heel of the salami he'd brought from New York, he thought about the big snake and wondered, \"What's he going to do once he's caught it?\"\n\nIt suddenly occurred to Ehrich that there was no box or crate to hold the snake. The silence of the cool desert night was broken by the snores of Joe Spotted Wolf, the wail of a coyote and an owl insistently demanding, \"Who-who-who?\" Ehrich was about to ask Beasley how he intended to manage this detail when the snake hunter put down his coffee mug and began to behave in a strange, furtive manner.\n\nWordlessly he crept away from the campfire and toward the burrow. Soundlessly he checked and rechecked the security of the knots that held his snares in place. Once again he pulled with all his strength on the staked lines." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They didn't budge. Beasley smiled and returned to the fire and kicked sand on it \"Any time now,\" he said, looking at the moon, which was high overhead. \"Cummon.\"\n\nEhrich Leftrack followed the snake hunter to a spot closer to the burrow. He tried to be quiet, but bushes and rocks seemed to leap into his path and he made noises like a bull moose crashing through underbrush to escape a swarm of botflies.\n\nBeasley winced at the noise Leftrack made, thinking with disdain, \"City folk. They're worse than Injuns.\n\n\"Well,\" Beasley reconsidered, \"at least he's sober.\"\n\n\"Look,\" he said as Leftrack panted beside him. 'There he comes.\" \"What are we going to do once he's in the snares?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Wait till morning, young fella. Wait till morning. You don't want to fool with a snake that size till you can see what you're doin'.\"\n\nA shadow appeared in the middle of the burrow. As the two men watched, it carefully pushed aside the snare that encircled the mouth of the burrow. Then the shadow hissed and a snake shape elongated leisurely in the moonlight. The two men's sight seemed to grow more acute as the velvety shadow moved on the pale earth. They could see the blotches on its head and neck.\n\nBeasley could see horns of fanned scales that projected over its eyes. Its tongue darted in and out and its shape seemed to shift He rubbed his eyes and whispered, \"I could swear that thing's glowing in the dark. Do you see it, too? Or am I crazy?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I see it,\" said Leftrack." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Maybe we're both crazy.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The belly of the snake glowed with pale-green fire, as if hundreds of fireflies were within each scute. Something caught the moonlight and glittered from between its elaborately sculpted brows. As the vision flowed along the sand the two men saw sparks and gleams about its neck. Gradually their eyes could see the details of a broad, golden collar studded with gems arranged in subtle patterns.\n\n\"I've heard about this,\" said Beasley in a wondering whisper, \"but I never thought it could be real. I figured it had to be the firewater talking. Consarn it, though, those crazy Indians was right.\"\n\nThe serpent's head and neck were clear of the burrow now and Ehrich could see the jewels that were embedded down the length of its spine. As the astonished men watched, yard after yard of the Great Culebra emerged into the moonlight. The texture and pattern of the jewels changed, but the glitter and flash of gold and faceted stones remained constant." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Got to be worth millions,\" said Beasley, drawing his pistol and slapping the cylinder open to check that all bullets were in place." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He spun it and said, \"Can't let something like this get away.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Then he took careful aim at the snake's glittering head." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Wait,\" said Leftrack, grabbing Beasley's arm and pulling it down." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Listen to me,\" he said, not quite knowing where this knowledge came from, but confident that he was right; \"wait till it's clear of that hole in the ground. If it goes back down we'll never be able to dig it out.\"\n\nBeasley eyed Leftrack sharply, surprised at this fat boy's practical knowledge of the ways of snakes. \"Maybe I was wrong about you, fella. Mighty good thinkin'. We'll wait.\"\n\nAs the two men watched, the Great Culebra continued to flow silently from its burrow, unrolling like the jeweled sash of a Hundu raja. Its huge body tapered and there was a single jewel at the tip of its tail that winked and beckoned to them in the moonlight.\n\n\"Hurry, D. K.,\" said Ehrich. \"Shoot. It's getting away.\"\n\nBeasley took careful aim." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He had the jewel-encrusted brow of the serpent in his sights and fired two shots squarely into the beast's head. \"Got him right between the eyes,\" he gloated. \"Cummon.\"\n\nThere was a sound of thrashing in the cacti and creosote bushes around the snares and D. K. smiled, happy that he'd thought to erect that impenetrable barrier. \"Not even a weevil can get through there,\" he thought to himself. \"Whoopee,\" he hollered, throwing his hat high into the night sky. He pounded Ehrich on the back, threw his arms around his belly and gleefully lifted him off the ground. \"We're rich! Did you see those stones and all that gold? Come on, boy. Don't just stand there with your face hanging out; let's go get it.\"\n\nBy moonlight they hurried across the ground to the burrow, expecting to see the great, jeweled serpent helplessly thrashing in the sand a short distance away." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But there was only a broad track that wound sinuously away from the burrow, retreating into the darkness as far as they could see." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Sounds came from beyond the place where the track disappeared from sight.\n\nBeasley spotted something winking on the ground and picked up a glittering lump of yellow metal. \"Winged him,\" he said triumphantly. \"He's gone off to die by hisself. Probably won't quit till the sun rises. Snakes're like that. Let's take the horses and follow him. He can't go far all shot up like that.\"\n\nEhrich was so excited that he forgot to mention to Beasley that he'd never ridden anything wilder than the IRT subway line. But somehow it didn't matter. He felt supremely confident as Beasley handed him the reins of the Indian's pony. He watched Beasley vault into the saddle of his mare and disappear." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Still holding the reins, Ehrich climbed into the wagon, tiptoed around Joe Spotted Wolf and somehow clambered aboard the pony." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Giddiap,\" he said, kicking his heels into the animal's sides, feeling very much like a rugged frontiersman. He held both reins in one hand, grasping the saddle horn with the other, and bounced off into the night in the direction he thought Beasley had taken.\n\nA few minutes of uncomfortable jouncing brought him to his senses. \"Whoa, there,\" Ehrich said, sawing at the reins. \"Why am I doing this?\" he asked himself. \"This is crazy. I can't ride. I don't know where I'm going. I'm not even sure where D. K. Beasley has gone.\"\n\nOnce again the image of the jeweled serpent glittered in his mind. Simultaneously he thought he heard Beasley calling him and turned the pony to the left and lurched away into the night, thinking, \"He can't be far away.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"D. K.,\" Ehrich called eagerly. \"Wait for me.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Moments later the echo returned from the cliffs. \"D. K. K. K. Wait for me—me—me.\" Ehrich listened and galloped toward the sound.\n\nBelow ground Sherahi hissed to the other Culls. \"Hurry,\" she commanded. \"I can't keep this up for long. We must get out of here before it all collapses. Dervish, clear the entrance, but don't go out. Come back and listen carefully to my instructions.\"\n\nDervish obeyed and a short while later he was back at Sherahi's side. \"It's open,\" he said, but the pythoness didn't immediately respond. A portion of her mind intently controlled Beasley and Ehrich Leftrack, creating the illusion of the brilliantly jeweled and feathered serpent that lured them out across the moonlit desert, making them race away from the Culls, this canyon and each other." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"We're ready, Sherahi,\" he said, tentatively touching her wide, scaly back with a gentle paw.\n\nSherahi spoke slowly, as if from a great distance. 'Take Nemi with you and find the knot that is tied around the mouth of the burrow. Loosen and untie it.\"\n\nSherahi's mind watched as the two animals found the first knot in the looped snare. While Nemi held it still with her handlike paws, Dervish worried the knot with his paws and teeth, growling a little when the knot did not immediately loosen and then chirruping when it began to slide free. She saw Nemi carefully pull the rope away from the entrance to the burrow.\n\n\"Now,\" Sherahi's voice commanded in Dervish's mind, \"tunnel beneath those rocks and bushes so that we can all get out of here.\" Sherahi saw the two coatis look down the avenue of snares bordered by thorns on either side. Purring to his mate, telling her to watch for danger, Dervish began to dig a tunnel that would dive below the hedge of thorn scrub and rock." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "All this, while another portion of Sherahi's mind watched Beasley follow the illusion of the wide track she continually created and studded with pieces of fool's gold and worthless copper ore. Simultaneously she saw Leftrack chase phantom hoofbeats that led him deeper into the desert and hoped that soon he would be beyond the reach of potential rescuers, so that she could stop generating the hoofbeats and concentrate on managing the sleeping Indian. \"By morning they'll both be lost and confused.\" She pictured Ehrich Leftrack hallucinating beneath the sun, deluded and befuddled, and she had no pity for him. She imagined Beasley in the morning when the illusory track of the Great Culebra would fade. \"He has a better chance of surviving in the desert, but still, his chances are slim,\" she thought impassively. She heard geysers of sand fall onto the desert floor as Nemi and Dervish took turns digging in the tunnel, and she thought about Ehrich Leftrack and the snake hunter, both lost in the desert. \"Things that are lost often get damaged,\" she reminded herself. \"Serves them right.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Come, Manu and Junior,\" Sherahi called." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Follow me and mind your feet,\" she warned. \"Don't go near those snares.\" Above ground she followed Nemi's retreating tail into the tunnel that led down and out of the avenue of snares. Surfacing on the other side she began to slither toward the wagon and the sleeping Indian. With effort she ordered, \"Hurry, Manu, climb into the wagon. Nemi, Dervish: unroll those blankets and bring them up here.\"\n\nSherahi herself lost no time in climbing into the wagon. As she did so, she began to manipulate the malleable mind of the unconscious half-breed who lay in the bed of the wagon. She saw his love of whiskey and, abandoning the ruse of the jeweled serpent for a moment, concentrated all her powers on this human." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She made him imagine that a three-quarters-full bottle lay by his side." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Wake up,\" she commanded, holding her huge head aloft and swaying over his head. His eyelids flickered and, when he was able to focus on the form that hovered above him, he grabbed for the amulet that his grandmother had hung around his neck when he was a child. Sherahi fixed him with her steady, cat-eyed gaze and said, \"Drive. As fast as you can to Sandeagozu.\"\n\nKeeping his eyes on the gigantic serpent, the Indian scuttled to the wagon seat, released the hand brake and grabbed the reins.\n\nJust in time the two coatis appeared, tugging blankets up over the wagon side behind them. \"Here, Sherahi,\" Dervish chittered. \"Where should we put them?\"\n\n\"Anywhere,\" Sherahi said. Suddenly it was too much for her to grip the Indian's mind as well as communicate with the Culls." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Sherahi felt as if she were being pulled asunder and she turned on the pair of coatis and hissed fiercely, \"Now get out both of you and take Junior with you.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The wagon was already moving and Sherahi didn't have the strength to countermand her order to Joe Spotted Wolf so that the animals could have a proper goodbye. Dervish's mouth dropped open as if he would whine. He looked at Sherahi reproachfully, as if she'd suddenly lunged at him. \"But, Sherahi,\" he faltered. \"Manu... Sandeagozu.\"\n\n\"Get out, before it's too late,\" Sherahi hissed again, more vehemendy this time. \"There's no time. I can't make the wagon stop. Manu and I are going. The three of you are staying here. Goodbye, Junior. You explain it to them.\"\n\nThe two coatis and the little rattlesnake did not move and Sherahi panicked. \"They've got to get out of here before it's too late.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "By moonlight she saw the shocked faces of the other Culls and could feel the wagon gaining momentum. She heard Dervish start to whine and remembered her dream of the flying wagon. And then, from deep within the oldest part of her mind, she felt a power that she had not known she possessed. It gave her the strength to simultaneously create the illusion of the Great Culebra, manage the actions of D. K. Beasley and Ehrich Leftrack, as well as enter Joe Spotted Wolf's alcohol-soaked mind and order, \"Stop.\"\n\nThe wagon rolled to a halt. Sherahi took a long look at Junior as he lay coiled in a corner of the wagon. \"Come, little brother,\" she said. \"It is time for you to leave us. You made it possible for us to get here, but there is no need for you to go to Sandeagozu. This is nearly your home. If you keep traveling south you will find others of your own kind and, perhaps,\" she said into his flinty, zigzagged thoughts, \"you will even find your true name." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Leave us, Junior,\" Sherahi urged. \"It is time.\" The other Culls watched the little cascabel angle up the rough wooden sides of the wagon and saw him drop soundlessly to the desert floor. Sherahi saw him slither across the sand, head held high, tongue flicking. Into her mind came Junior's hissing thought, \"If I get to choose a name, I have decided that it will be 'Sherahi. *" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Goodbye, Manu,\" he said in a voice that sounded like pebbles thrown down a cliff face. \"Be careful.\"\n\n\"Now, Dervish,\" Sherahi said into the coati's mind. \"Our journey together is at an end. There is no point in your going with Manu and me to Sandeagozu. You belong here with Nemi.\"\n\nDervish cocked his head and looked wistfully first at Sherahi then at Manu. He began to whimper and Sherahi continued, \"You will be happy here, Dervish, and soon you'll have many little ones to tell all about sardines and peaches.\"\n\n\"But, Sherahi,\" the coati whined, his tongue lolling out of his mouth, \"Manu ...\"\n\nThe langur dashed forward. He reached out one slender-fingered black hand and for a moment touched the fur on Dervish's cheek. The coati turned his head beneath the langur's caress and just as he started to howl, Sherahi said, \"Come, Manu, you and I are going now.\n\n\"Nemi,\" she hissed, \"take Dervish and go. And hurry.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Sherahi returned to the half-breed who was slumped in the driver's seat and roused him, commanding, \"Drive. Drive across the mountains.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She felt the wagon begin to roll again and saw that Dervish and Nemi were still there. \"Go,\" she hissed, \"go while there is still time.\"\n\nThe two coatis leaped over the side of the rolling wagon and Sherahi saw Junior angle over to Dervish and coil between his paws. \"Explain it to them, Junior,\" she said. \"Make them understand.\"\n\nWith relief Sherahi relinquished contact with their minds and once again spurred D. K. Beasley and Ehrich Leftrack forward across the moonlit sands.\n\n\"Goodbye, little cascabel,\" Sherahi called in the ancient reptilian mindspeech that only Junior could comprehend. \"You've earned your freedom ten times over. Be careful.\n\n\"Faster,\" she said to the Indian. She saw that Junior had encircled Dervish's neck as he had so many times before and hoped that he understood and would be able to explain to Dervish." }, { "from": "human", "value": "With effort she nudged the imaginary bottle toward the front seat of the wagon and reminded Joe Spotted Wolf of it." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She saw one of his hands grope blindly behind him and he took a long, dry swig of the bottle that seemed to be nearly full again. The wagon reached the main road, moving west toward the mountains and the city that was on the other side. Sherahi looked at Manu as he held onto the side of the wagon and watched the pair of coatis grow smaller before they were swallowed by the night. \"Poor Manu,\" she thought. \"This is harder for you than I thought it would be. I fixed Dervish's mind so that he could bear to leave you, but I forgot that you were attached to him, too. I should have realized...\" She sent a wave of compassion to the langur, who stared behind even though there was nothing more to see. Then Manu huddled in a corner of the wagon, far away from her. With effort Sherahi read the sadness in his mind.\n\n\"It's better this way,\" she said gently." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 9 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"The three of them belong here. You and I don't. There's nothing for them in Sandeagozu.\"\n\n\"I know, Sherahi, but it's so sad. I've known Dervish since he was a baby—even before his eyes were open. Remember how he tried to bring me the moon? I guess his kind don't get as attached as langurs do. He didn't even say goodbye.\"\n\n\"If only you knew, Manu,\" Sherahi thought \"I'll explain it sometime. I must do other things now, though.\" She turned her mind to controlling the Indian while she sent Beasley and Leftrack racing away across the desert after the glittering phantom snake.\n\nThe Indian seemed to have forgotten them. He muttered things to himself and as they reached the foothills of the mountains he slapped the reins hard against the horses' rumps. He sang a tuneless, rhythmic chant and Sherahi saw that it was the Navajo death hymn that his grandmother had sung so many years ago.\n\n\"Come, Manu,\" Sherahi said. \"Pull those blankets over both of us. We've got to keep each other warm. Soon we'll be in the mountains and, as you said, it's going to be very cold.\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "NarrativeBot: Extend text by two sentences sentences. Replicate Lindsay Buroker's style. Maintain Science Fiction, Romance genre." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "From the icy tundra behind the military aircraft hangar, Mari sat on her air bike and contemplated the gray smoke rising from the mountains. Unless she was mistaken, it originated from the clifftop she had just searched." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Was someone bombing the wreck? Whoever had been approaching in a shuttle as she'd left?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "When she'd heard the craft flying in, she'd hurried to leave, not wanting anyone to spot her up there." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She had no idea if the Kingdom military had placed some claim on the wreck and would drive off—or shoot—trespassers." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Someone had spent a lot of time up there, scavenging and looting the remains.\n\nFortunately, they hadn't thought of the science labs as places that held valuables." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Mari had found some of her equipment, including her prototype terraformer." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The compact spherical device didn't look like much from the outside, but it held a tiny fusion reactor and had the power to break down the surface layers on a hundred square miles of land, creating rich fertile soil and depositing seeds and growth-enhancing enzymes. Essentially, it could turn a portion of the inhospitable surface of a moon or planet into a thriving garden in a much shorter time period than traditional terraforming technologies." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She was proud of the work she'd done on it and relieved she'd found it still tucked in a cabinet in her lab." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "By offering this technology to the Kingdom, maybe she truly had a shot at winning asylum. A place in their world and protection from her family, who would doubtless prefer Mari shared nothing with humanity." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The hangar door rattled and started rolling open." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Mari hit reverse on her air bike and nudged it back around the corner. She pulled out a device that activated the same astroshaman stealth technology that hid their base in the Kingdom forest." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The air shimmered faintly to her energy-detecting implants as a flexible camouflaging shield enrobed her and the bike. Unless someone came very close, they shouldn't see her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Though the technology was powerful, it was good not to move when it was activated, so Mari put the bike on idle as the first of two aircraft roared out of the hangar." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Their hulls were painted gray and blue, Kingdom military colors.\n\nAs soon as they took off, heading to the mountains to check out the smoke, Mari rode her bike into the hangar." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Two aircraft remained parked inside, with voices coming from the other side of them." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She nudged her bike into a corner near stacks of supply crates so she could wait for her opportunity to catch a ride back to the mainland. Earlier, she'd spied on the soldiers and read their schedule, so she knew the same cargo ship that had flown up here to deliver supplies should have been emptied and would be heading back soon." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The voices, both belonging to women, continued on, talking about a mess needing to be cleaned up." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "At first, Mari took it literally and assumed some chemical spill might be endangering the hangar, but she didn't smell anything, nor did the women or any cleaning robots come out to attend to messes.\n\nShe nudged the bike forward, glad the battery-powered craft ran silently, and found the women—two soldiers in parkas and uniforms—pointing at a wall display." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It showed the gray smoke wafting from the snowy clifftop." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The feed had to be coming from the camera of one of the aircraft flying closer, for it was a much better view than Mari had gotten from outside the hangar. Now, she could make out a gray shuttle perched on the cliff—surprisingly, not the one she'd seen arriving as she'd taken off on the bike." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was smoking, recently damaged by weapons fire." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "More damage appeared to have been done to the Celestial Dart too, though she couldn't imagine why.\n\nTwo figures in parkas came into view." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They were working inside an open panel on the back of the shuttle, probably trying to repair it for flight." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "An uneasy feeling came over Mari. Even though she couldn't see their faces, they oozed familiarity." }, { "from": "human", "value": "One turned toward the camera, a pale face coming into view for a second, before poking the other." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They ran inside, closing the hatch, and an instant later, the shuttle took off.\n\nMari sank low on her bike." }, { "from": "human", "value": "That had been one of her sisters." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "No, two of her sisters.\n\nHow had they known she would come here?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Mother must have sent them—and mentioned their sunrise conversation. If their shuttle—that was some rented Kingdom craft, not astroshaman technology—hadn't been damaged, would they have already found her?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Mari closed her eyes." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Her escape had barely begun. She couldn't let them drag her back." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Now that her mother knew she wanted to leave the community, she wouldn't let Mari out of her sight again." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She would never get another chance at freedom. She hadn't even done anything on her list yet." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She'd meant to acquire chocolate for her trip up here, or some other delectable human pastry or dessert she'd read about, but she'd received so many odd looks from people in Zamek City that she hadn't dared do something as prosaic as grocery shopping." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "On top of that, there were so many people in the Kingdom's capital. Millions of them in the streets, on the magtrains, in the subways, walking along sidewalks, shopping in stores." }, { "from": "human", "value": "And all speaking. So few had communicated with each other via their chips." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It had been overwhelming to her senses.\n\n\"Didn't know this duty station would have so much action,\" one of the women said, still watching the display." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"The only action I've gotten is in Sander's bunk.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Lucky you. He's a cutie. So earnest, so handsome.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"He's earnest in bed too. If I had to get stuck up here in this armpit of an outpost, at least it was with someone with a squeezable ass.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "They shared snickers." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It took Mari a moment to realize they were talking about sex. Even though she'd read books and seen vids, she hadn't been around people in sexual relationships very much." }, { "from": "human", "value": "There were others like her in their teens and twenties who'd been birthed and raised in the astroshaman community and had an interest in such things, but far more were oldsters who'd been born into a normal human existence and come to the Advanced Path later in life." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "None of them seemed like promising partners, and most of them considered themselves above human biological needs now that they were ascending up the Path. They were experts at frowning with disapproval when any of the youths experimented with amorous activities." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Be glad you've got a bed buddy. All I've got are my Moon Melters, and I'll have to ration my stash.\" The soldier rattled a bag of what must have been a food item, for she dug out a piece to toss into her mouth." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"If what we unloaded from the supply ship is any indication, we're not getting anything good for our entire tour of duty.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You don't think the crate labeled firm cakes sounded promising?\"\n\n\"Not when I dropped it on my foot and it weighed fifty pounds. No good cake could be that heavy.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Military rations are meant to be filling. And firm.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Like cement bricks.\"\n\nThe ding of a comm unit came from another room, and the women trooped through a doorway and into a corridor of offices." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They'd left something on a table under the display. A package. The aforementioned Moon Melters? What was that?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Candy?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Chocolate?\n\nMari eyed the cargo ship she needed to sneak into with her bike." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The hatch was closed and likely locked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Her software for thwarting electronic locks would take a minute or so to run, and the soldiers might come back any second, so she shouldn't dawdle. She knew that, but her curiosity turned that package of candy into a neodymium super magnet." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "With great willpower, she made herself ride over to the cargo ship first. She rested her hand against the lock while running a program to find the right combination of electronic signals to order it to open." }, { "from": "human", "value": "From her spot, she could see the label on the candy bag." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was the package of Moon Melters." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The women hadn't returned yet. Maybe she could—\n\nA breeze whispered through the hangar door, bringing the distant sound of an engine. The soldiers returning?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The lock thunked open, the hatch unsealing and rising as a ramp lowered." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She drove her bike inside, a much easier feat than it had been when the cargo area had been full of crates. Only a few crates remained to be unloaded—or maybe they were going back to the mainland for some reason." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Mari tucked her bike against the wall beside them, stepped off, and trotted to the open hatch." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She paused on the ramp to look back.\n\nSince she was carrying her cloaking device with her, the bike was now visible." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Visible and blatantly out of place in the cargo hold." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Any soldier peeking inside would be puzzled about where it had come from. And the sound of an approaching engine was getting louder." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The aircraft had to be angling for the hangar." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"This will just take a second,\" she whispered, trusting her cloaking technology would continue to make her hard to detect.\n\nAs Mari hopped to the ground and ran across the hangar to the table, the display continued to show footage of the cliff." }, { "from": "human", "value": "At least one of the military aircraft remained there, recording the area around the wreck." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Her sisters must have repaired their shuttle well enough, for it had successfully taken off." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Was it possible they knew where she was and were heading here?\n\n\"Can't dawdle,\" she whispered." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Mari picked up the package of Moon Melters. It was nearly full." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Another reason not to linger. The soldiers would surely return soon for their prize." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She dumped several of the items into her palm." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They were brown lumps and didn't look as appealing as she had expected. They reminded her of animal droppings more than moon rocks." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She sniffed the open package, debating if the faintly waxy scent promised something delicious." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The contents did smell sweet. Wasn't there a human expression about appearances—and perhaps scents—being deceiving?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The engine roared closer, and she spun, about to run back into the shuttle with her prize, but she realized she was stealing candies without paying for them." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A twinge of guilt came over her. It was a small theft, but..." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As she fished into her pockets, depositing the candies and seeking some barter of equal value that she could leave, the pitch of the engine changed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was landing outside instead of flying into the hangar. Maybe she had a couple more seconds." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She couldn't leave any of her weapons or various tools behind as payment." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They had far more value than lumpy brown candies, and she would need them in her adventures. Her fingers brushed a wrapped rectangular item. Ah ha." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She laid a ration bar on the table. Her people made them out of the edible mushrooms and algae they could easily grow on their spaceships." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They weren't particularly appealing, but they were nutritionally substantive." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A soldier would appreciate such a gift.\n\nMari turned to run back but spotted someone standing in the hangar doorway, someone with a rifle pointing at her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The young man with bronze skin, short black hair, and intent brown eyes wasn't what she'd expected." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He definitely wasn't an astroshaman or anyone her sisters or mother would have sent. Judging by his mishmash of clothing, none of it appearing warm enough for this climate, he wasn't a soldier either." }, { "from": "human", "value": "With her camouflage activated, he should have struggled to see her, but that didn't seem to be the case." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He was looking right at her.\n\nOnly then did she realize she was standing in front of the display." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Her technology could hide her effectively against stationary objects, but the movement on the display had to be a challenge for it to match itself to." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He was squinting, so she doubted he could see her well." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She risked sliding to the side.\n\nHis eyebrows flew up, and the rifle followed her, but its aim was less certain once she was out from in front of the display." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Stop right there!\" It was a whisper instead of a shout, immediately making her positive that he'd sneaked into the area too—and that the soldiers would object to his presence." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I need to... talk to you.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Sure, he did. With a firearm." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Was this another scavenger who wanted some astroshaman technology? Mari had the urge to sprint toward the cargo ship, but fast movement would also make it difficult for her cloaking technology to compensate." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She made herself ease soundlessly toward the open hatch." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He glanced at the door leading to the offices, frowned briefly at the bar on the table next to the rest of the candies, and stepped warily into the hangar. He murmured something into a comm link too quietly for her to hear the words, then trotted in her direction." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Though he kept his rifle up, he didn't fire at her.\n\nShe pulled out a compact stunner, opting for that instead of the more painful—and potentially deadly—arc blaster, one of her people's favored defensive weapons." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Thus far, she didn't know who this man was, but if she started killing Kingdom citizens, the probability of her gaining asylum on their world would plummet." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Unfortunately, he headed straight for the cargo ship and the open hatch. She picked up her pace, but he got there first, springing lightly onto the ramp and glancing inside." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His glance turned into a second look, and she knew he'd spotted her air bike." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She had no choice but to stun him.\n\nBut a second before she squeezed the trigger, he stepped inside." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She was off to the side and couldn't see into the hold yet.\n\nThe sound of another engine grew audible." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The display on the wall had turned off." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The aircraft that had been recording the clifftop had to be flying back. Had the second one chased off her sisters? Mari hoped so." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She hesitated beside the cargo ramp, debating if she wanted to leap inside and stun the man or simply wait for him to come out." }, { "from": "human", "value": "If the soldiers returned and found an unconscious body in their ship, they might start searching for her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Her cloaking technology fooled human eyes well, but it wouldn't stand up well to a hangar full of soldiers with scanners.\n\nA soft clack came from inside." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Was he messing with her bike?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Mari leaned around the corner of the hatchway, finger on the trigger, but he startled her both by being right inside and by throwing something at her. A gritty brown powdery substance struck her full in the face and plastered her open eyes and mouth." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Whatever it was surprised her with a sweet taste, but that didn't keep her from stumbling back." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She heard a thump as he leaped down from the ramp, and she fired at him. But with the gritty stuff tearing her eyes, she missed and hit the side of the cargo ship." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Her attacker bowled into her, probably seeing her easily in the middle of a brown cloud of powder that hadn't yet dissipated. Before she could shoot again, he caught her around the waist and knocked her to the ground." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A strong hand tore the stunner from her grip and flung it across the hangar." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It clattered far out of her reach as it bounced across the cement floor. He wasn't a huge hulk of a man, and Mari tried to buck him free, but he was strong, tenacious, and had the body weight advantage, so he succeeded in pinning her to the floor." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As she squirmed, she maneuvered her hand toward a pocket, not the one with the candy but the one with her arc blaster." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I don't want to hurt you,\" he whispered, squeezing her tightly as he tried to flip her over and pull her arms behind her back. He managed to get her onto her side, but she fought mightily." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She needed to free a hand to grab her weapon." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"But your sisters hired me,\" he added. \"They said you went rogue with their information.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I don't know what that means,\" Mari growled, jerking her arm free, \"but it's not true.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"They said you're a fugitive. They're paying to get you back.\"\n\n\"I'm not a fugitive. You don't know anything about it. Let me go.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Mari managed to clip him in the stomach with her elbow. Judging by his gasp and pained grunt, that might have been lower than his stomach." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His grip loosened enough for her to grab her arc blaster." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She spun onto her back, startling him, and for a moment, they were face to face in some parody of a lovers' embrace. He must have realized she'd pulled her weapon free, for he grabbed her wrist." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But she fired first, the burst of energy slamming into him like an electrical current and knocking him back." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Not again!\" he gasped around jaws spasming open and closed.\n\nMari scrambled away as he rolled on the floor, his entire body jerking and flopping about, his face contorted in pain." }, { "from": "human", "value": "If he hadn't just tackled her, she might have felt sympathy for him, but anyone willing to hunt someone down for money, not knowing if they were innocent or guilty, deserved some pain." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Aware of the roar of the engine growing ever louder, Mari sprinted for her stunner." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She released the button on her arc blaster as she picked up the less lethal weapon.\n\nThe spasms of his body lessened, and from flat on his back, he managed to say, \"Thank God. That thing is horrible.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She stepped into his view and pointed the stunner at his face." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I am not rogue.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Uh.\" His bleary eyes focused on the muzzle of the weapon." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You didn't run away from your people with top-secret valuable information?\"\n\n\"I did not run. I walked away with only the information in my brain.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Is it top-secret and valuable?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She opened her mouth to deliver an indignant answer, but Mother and her siblings might genuinely feel that way." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It had been almost ten years since she'd finished her schooling and moved from the derivative work of replicating others' experiments to running her own and creating devices such as the prototype terraformer.\n\nHe must have found her pause condemning, for his wary gaze turned into a suspicious squint, and she could see him trying to figure out how to relieve her of her weapon." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She stunned him. He only had time to get half a curse out before losing consciousness.\n\n\"Of course the information in my brain is valuable, you idiot.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She should have said that before she shot him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Alas, there wasn't time to pin a note with the message to his chest. The engine was roaring closer, and she had no doubt that the aircraft would swing into the hangar." }, { "from": "human", "value": "And find the stunned man and start a search unless she could hide his inert form quickly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Mari grabbed him under the armpits and leaned her body weight into pulling him across the floor. The upgrades to her skeletal system and a few muscular enhancements that Mother had given all of her children helped, but she was not some cybernetically enhanced supersoldier." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "With much grunting, under-her-breath swearing, and straining of muscles, she dragged him toward the closest stack of crates. As she got him tucked out of sight, the aircraft she had expected roared into the hangar." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Only one flew in, hopefully meaning the other was indeed chasing her sisters out of the area." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Mari didn't want them to be harmed, but if they were driven all the way back to their forest base on the mainland, it might give her time to reach Zamek City again and speak with people who could grant her asylum. And if they refused... she could leave the Kingdom and try another system." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Somewhere far away from bounty hunters, or whatever this man was, and her oppressive family." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Mari made sure her camouflaging device was active again and crept out from behind the crates. The pilot was hopping out of his aircraft, and she grimaced." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He'd landed close to the cargo ship with its suspiciously open hatch and the also suspicious pile of brown powder that had settled to the floor." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The pilot glanced at the cargo ship, but he must have assumed that one of his fellow soldiers had left it open." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Without checking inside to see her damning air bike, he trotted toward the offices.\n\nJust as she thought she was in the clear, he paused at the table and stared down at the ration bar and the package of candies." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Mari slumped against a crate. Would her guilt and need to deliver a fair trade result in the search she'd been trying so hard to avoid?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He reached for the goods but grabbed the package of candies instead of the bar." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He tilted his head back, dumped the brown Moon Melters into his mouth, shoved the now-empty package in his pocket, and continued toward the offices.\n\nNot questioning her luck, Mari made sure the bounty hunter was still unconscious, then ran toward the cargo ship." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She hoped he was a criminal bounty hunter and that the soldiers would find him and have a lot of questions for him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "No, maybe she didn't. That could lead them to realizing she was stowing away on their cargo ship." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The thought made her halt, run back, and find a tarp. She draped it over him like a blanket." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Better they not find him at all." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "With that accomplished, she hid in the cargo ship and closed the hatch. One of the crates was open that hadn't been before, and she peeked inside." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The bounty hunter must have done that. A canister was open with a label that read cocoa drink mix powder." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Was that what he'd thrown at her?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She wiped her face, finding some of the gritty stuff still on her nose and in her eyelashes. Someone had written past the expiration date on the top of it and several other food containers in the crate." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As minutes passed, Mari debated what she would do if the bounty hunter woke up from the stun before a pilot came back to fly the cargo ship to the mainland." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But the engine soon reverberated through the deck, letting her know that it was being made ready to fly. Another minute, and it navigated out of the hangar and took to the air." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Nobody had checked the cargo hold." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Thankful, Mari leaned against her air bike and pulled off her pack. She hoped the bounty hunter hadn't damaged any of her equipment, especially the terraformer." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A couple of the favorite tools she'd collected from the lab had been bent in the skirmish, and she frowned." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It didn't seem right that they had survived a crash only to come to a bad end in her backpack." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Hopefully, she could fix them. At least the terraformer was in an insulated box." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She let out a relieved breath when she pulled out the dormant sphere, flicked it on, and the glowing indicators came to life." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was ready to terraform a planet, or at least a hundred square miles of a planet." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Who in this planet's government would appreciate such technology? Mari had been reading about the new Kingdom queen, Oku, and knew she was a scientist." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A botanist by training who engineered seeds to grow plants that thrived on space stations. She would appreciate terraforming technology; Mari was certain of it." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But how to get it to her?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The queen would be in her castle, guarded by hundreds of trained men and security robots who would forbid an astroshaman—or even an unknown Kingdom subject—from entering the premises. She highly doubted she could send a contact request direct to Queen Oku's chip and that she would accept it." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As she put away her device, she pulled up a digital copy of the recent bestselling novel by Kim Sato, wondering if it might have any clues as to how she could get an audience with the queen." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Mari had already read it, since it was the Kingdom's rendition of the events that had led up to the battle between the Kingdom Fleet and the astroshamans, but it was mostly about Sato, Casmir Dabrowski, a couple of knights, genetically engineered cat women, and a crazy bounty hunter lady from another system. The mercenary Tenebris Rache had also featured in it." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A strange collection of characters." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Her mother had called it propagandistic drivel and forbidden Mari to read it. Naturally, she'd read it three times." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It occurred to her that the author was good friends with Minister Dabrowski, the man who was now dating the queen." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Could he be a possible route to Oku?\n\nNo, Dabrowski also knew Mari's mother." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They might have started as enemies, but now they had a truce—he'd even given her that crusher—so he might tell Mother that Mari was in his city." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Maybe Kim Sato was a better option. The novel had mentioned her home, a cottage on the Zamek University campus." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Was it possible she still lived there?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The book hadn't been written that long ago." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A university campus would be easier to gain access to than a heavily guarded castle. And this Kim Sato was also a scientist, perhaps someone who would see the merits of a terraforming device... and an astroshaman looking to defect." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"That's the plan,\" Mari whispered." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Find Kim Sato, show her my equipment, show her my earnestness, and see if she can get me an audience with the queen.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Nerves tangled in her belly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It was quite possible this path would lead her to an audience with a dungeon—or a torture chamber. What if neither the queen, Sato, nor anyone else in the Kingdom believed Mari was what she said she was?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She poked into her pocket, determined to put the worries out of her mind." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It would be hours before she got back to the capital, and she had a plan to follow." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There was little point in fretting.\n\nMost of the Moon Melters had fallen out during her skirmish, and she found only two sad brown nuggets with lint attached to them." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She wiped them off and stuck her tongue out to taste one. The coating wasn't that appealing—she remembered the waxy scent she'd detected—and if she hadn't seen the soldier scarf down the entire bag, she might have tossed the candies away, but she plopped one into her mouth and chewed with determination." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She had left her people to experience life as a human, and humans ate Moon Melters." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The candy was sweeter than the scent led her to expect, and under the layer of coating, there were crunchy pieces mixed into a gooey substance that pleased her taste buds. It took a few seconds of analysis before she decided she liked the combination." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She ate the second candy slowly, knowing it was her last." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When it was gone, she was disappointed that she hadn't managed to keep more of them. If she ran into that bounty hunter again, she would let him know how inconsiderate he'd been to tackle her and send her Moon Melters flying." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "CREATIVE WRITING ASSIST:\n4 sentences sentences\nMimic: Lindsay Buroker\nGenre: Science Fiction, Romance" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Mari did not find it difficult to locate Kim Sato's address in the directory of Zamek University's student and faculty housing, nor was there a security checkpoint that she had to navigate through to get onto the campus. But as she drove the air bike through the streets to the residential area, she noticed law-enforcement drones with cameras flying about in threes and fours.\n\nWere they on the hunt for a criminal? Mari pulled the hood of her parka up to hide her face." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The night air wasn't as cold here as in the Arctic Islands, but it was damp and misty, so she didn't think her disguise was that out of place. Perhaps the drones disagreed. A group of four of them started following her, having no trouble keeping up with the air bike.\n\nMaybe she was exceeding the speed limit." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She forced herself to slow down, though she had the urge to crank it to top speed to evade them." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A teenage girl peddling a wheeled bicycle came from the opposite direction, several boxes and bags from shopping destinations piled precariously on a perch behind the seat. The drones buzzed off to follow her.\n\nOdd but fortunate. Mari's plans would be seriously derailed if she were captured by the authorities. If she had any chance at being believed as someone who wanted to help the Kingdom, she had to approach the government first." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Queen Oku would never believe her story if she shared it from behind bars, even if she volunteered to be questioned with truth drugs." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Judging by the general opinion on their public networks about astroshamans, they would think she had some technological—or magical and mystical—ability to thwart drugs. Which was silly, since her biological body worked the same as that of a normal human.\n\nA scream came from behind her, and Mari halted her bike to look back. A few other students were out walking or riding in the rain, and they also froze to peer toward the noise." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The girl had fallen off her bicycle, and the drones were buzzing away from her, carrying the boxes and bags that had been stacked behind her seat. How strange." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The girl sprang to her feet, shouting that the drones were stealing from her, and rode her bicycle after them, yelling for help. For a second, Mari was tempted to lend assistance—with her faster air bike, she might be able to catch up with the drones, and she did have weapons that could knock them out of the air—but that would draw attention to her. Besides, for all she knew, the girl had stolen those items, and the drones were returning them to their owners. Given that they had Campus Security written on the sides, that seemed more likely than a random theft by robots." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I've got to stop drinking after classes,\" a young man nearby muttered and continued his trek to wherever he'd been going." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Once the bicyclist and the drones were out of sight, the rest of the pedestrians returned to their business. Mari brought up the campus map on her ocular implants again, the information feeding through her cranial nerves to form the image in her mind. Only six blocks to Sato's house. Good.\n\nShe rehearsed what she would say when she arrived." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Greetings, I'm Mari Moonrazor—no, she had better not mention her surname." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The Kingdom soldiers who'd battled the astroshamans had interacted with High Shaman Moonrazor and might not think favorably of her.\n\nGreetings, I'm Mari, an agronomist researcher and terraforming expert who wants to defect from her people and seeks asylum in the Kingdom.\n\nThat was better. Agronomists were unthreatening and had no link specifically to high shamans. Should she tell everything to Kim Sato?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She was the only conduit Mari could imagine that might lead her to the queen, but Mari suspected she would have to convince her of a lot before Sato would consider making that introduction." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Another pair of drones whizzed down the street as Mari was about to turn onto the dead-end road that led to Sato's cottage. They slowed down and hovered in the intersection. They had cameras at four points on their disc-shaped bodies, so it was only her imagination that they were watching her specifically.\n\nOr was it? The pedestrian traffic had diminished as she'd moved into the residential area, and nobody else was around." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Reluctant to have them track her to the house, Mari drove the bike past the turnoff. They spun to follow her.\n\nShe grimaced and kept driving, hoping they would find some other more interesting target to stalk. They couldn't be after her because of her backpack, could they?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She'd passed a lot of students with such packs." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Granted, hers bulged with the box, tools, and equipment she had jammed inside, but it didn't look anything like a stolen shopping bag.\n\nBut the drones continued to pursue her, even as she drove down a side street. Maybe they had scanners more sophisticated than the simple visual recording cameras she'd noticed. If so, they might know she had more cybernetic parts than the typical human." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But that wasn't a crime." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Even here in the somewhat backward Kingdom, a place that frowned on mechanical enhancements to the body outside of prescribed medical uses, people had cybernetic parts.\n\nTwo more drones flew out of a side street ahead. They turned and flew straight toward her. Not sure if they would try to halt her or fly past, she veered into the parking lot of an apartment complex." }, { "from": "human", "value": "All four drones followed her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "What was this? Mari had picked Kim Sato as a first point of contact because she'd assumed it would be easier to get onto a campus than into the queen's castle. Maybe that had been a mistake.\n\nAs she drove under trees with leafy branches extending over the sidewalk and pavement, she hoped the drones would be deterred, but she doubted it. She braced herself for them to voice orders for her to halt for a search or some such." }, { "from": "human", "value": "With one hand, she surreptitiously drew her arc blaster from her pocket." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was designed to work on humans, but the electrical shock could short-circuit robots as well. And drones." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But they all had cameras, with footage that could likely be recovered even if they were wrecked, and what were the chances of her making it through a skirmish without her hood falling back?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She sped back out of the parking lot. Her bike was meant to be steered with hands on both handlebars, and it wobbled as she tried to follow a bend in the road while holding her weapon.\n\nWithout warning, all four drones zipped at her. They dove under tree branches or around the trunks like dire wolves attacking prey in the forests of Algar Nine." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Ready for them, Mari fired at the closest two." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Her first shot connected, blasting the drone across the street with a satisfying zap of electricity, but her bike wobbled again, and she missed the second one. Something thumped her in the back—one of the other drones. She spun to shoot at it but pitched sideways, almost falling out of her seat.\n\nCursing, she halted the bike and jumped off, crouching beside it for cover as she fired again." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She'd caught the first drone by surprise, but the remaining three had enough intelligence to be ready for her attacks. Her target anticipated her and zipped sideways as her blast sizzled through the air, hitting a tree branch instead. The branch cracked and fell to the street, twigs snapping and leaves flying. The scent of burning wood stung her nostrils." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Two drones flew at her from the front while the third circled behind her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She crouched low, putting her back to the bike, bumping her pack against it, and fired at that one." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "For some reason, they wanted to hit her from behind. She was surprised they didn't have stunner technology to deal with people they wanted to arrest. Maybe they did and they just hadn't used it yet.\n\nShe fired, her target too close to evade her in time." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Her shot only clipped the drone, but that was enough to knock it ten feet." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It crashed into a block of mailboxes and fell lifeless to the ground.\n\nWhile she was distracted, the two others swept in again. They bumped her, one thudding against her shoulder and one the back of her head. It was so puzzling that she didn't react for a moment." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Was this truly the arrest protocol here? She knocked one aside with her elbow, though striking its hard carapace hurt her more than it deterred the drone.\n\n\"Cease and desist,\" came a call from farther up the street.\n\n\"They're attacking me!\" she blurted, bewildered as she imagined some scenario where she got in trouble for being a victim." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The two drones backed off as two wheeled security robots with humanoid torsos, heads, and arms whirred down the street." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You are malfunctioning,\" one stated, speaking not to her but to her flying assailants." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Return to the drone depository.\"\n\nFrom behind her bike, Mari watched the robots approach. The drones flew off between the trees and then over the rooftops of houses, but she wasn't convinced she would be safe from these new robots. She gripped her arc blaster, then realized they might be sophisticated enough to recognize it as astroshaman technology." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She stuffed it in her pocket and groped for a story to explain what she couldn't begin to explain." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But the robots were focused on the retreating drones rather than Mari. Once they disappeared, they wheeled around and rolled back toward the main street.\n\nMari's mouth dangled open as she watched them go. A breeze blew the mist onto her cheeks, making her realize that her hood was down." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She swore, yanking it back up." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Had the robots identified her as anything other than a typical human? Had the drones?\n\nShe glanced around, hoping there weren't any pedestrians on the street. It was night, but copious street lamps illuminated the neighborhood. She didn't see anyone outside, but lights were on in several houses, and a couple of faces peered through curtains at her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Great.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She climbed on the air bike and drove slowly back to the main street, not wanting to catch up to the robots. With her ears straining to detect the whir of more drones, she returned to the intersection that led to Sato's cottage. It was clear of drones. Warily, she turned down the street toward the home at the end." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A giant zindi tree in the yard partially blocked the cottage, but she could tell that the lights were on inside." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She could also tell that a hulking black robot stood in front of the door." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "No... She squinted. That wasn't a robot. It was a crusher.\n\nIt was identical to the one her mother had and, knowing how formidable the constructs were, Mari had no idea how to bypass it. The arc blaster wouldn't work, nor did she have anything else that could damage one." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Even if she'd had a grenade and could blow it up, the nearly impervious crushers were capable of reassembling themselves within seconds." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Not that she would have hurled explosives at the door guardian of someone she hoped to befriend. But what was she supposed to do?\n\nMari stopped her air bike on the sidewalk several houses away.\n\nSince she'd read Sato's novel, she knew that a crusher was a constant companion for Minister Dabrowski, but Sato hadn't mentioned having one of her own in their adventures." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She'd given the vibe, through the text, that she wasn't enamored with the killing machines, even though Dabrowski's apparently had personality and had been programmed to be a bodyguard rather than an aggressive killer." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "That didn't mean the one at the door was his. In the months since the book had been published, Sato might have gotten one of her own. An aggressive one.\n\nMari rubbed her face, wondering if this was worth it. Maybe there was someone else connected to the queen who would be easier to visit." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Such as the knights that had also been a part of the events depicted in the book. Or even the genetically engineered cat woman or bounty-hunting pilot. But she had no idea if any of those people were on the planet right now. Besides, Sato was a scientist, like her, and Mari thought they would be more likely to form a kinship." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Or at least an understanding." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And a scientist should be rational and not as prone to jump to conclusions about astroshamans.\n\nBut this scientist was under the protection of a crusher. Mari stared glumly at the black robot, its face indistinct, only vague orifices where a human's eyes, nose, and mouth would be. She didn't know how to proceed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The shuttle was smoking again by the time Kenji flew over the rental shop toward the landing and parking area behind the building. A crater—damage from the attacks on the capital that hadn't yet been repaired—ensured nobody parked out front. The bomb that had left it had also taken out what had once been a house-cleaning service on the same property. The sign out front had survived, but the building was missing." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Meanwhile, a vehicle maintenance facility at the far end of the property had been left unscathed." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The vicissitudes of the universe.\n\nWith the front parking area out of commission, the rear lot was packed. Kenji landed gingerly, setting the shuttle down among other aircraft, ground vehicles, racks of air bikes, and a random bratwurst vending cart. He eschewed the auto-park and guided them into a narrow slot, glad for his piloting skills even if he resented the man who'd instructed him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He'd only been nine or ten when he'd learned to fly, but he well remembered his father watching from the copilot's seat with his disapproving nothing-is-ever-good-enough glower firmly affixed.\n\n\"It is fortunate the shuttle is handling better,\" Kay said.\n\n\"If you don't mind the smoke billowing out of the back.\"\n\n\"Robots are indifferent to airborne particulates and gases.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Unless they signal a swift and rapid hurtling to the ground from great heights?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"They are concerning when they lead to that, yes,\" Kay said, \"but our flight back to the city was without difficulty. I was able to run further diagnostics and download software updates over the network.\"\n\n\"It's good to be updated.\"\n\n\"It is. I trust you'll need my assistance to locate the astroshaman woman.\"\n\n\"I will.\" Kenji turned off the shuttle, looked for belongings to unload, and remembered that he had none." }, { "from": "human", "value": "At least the wad of bills in his pocket ensured that he could buy the gear he needed to finish his task." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'm prepared to bribe the clerk, if necessary, but the advance the astroshamans gave me won't last forever. The less I spend on bribes, the better. Let's plan for me to distract the clerk while you sidle around the counter, plug into his computer, and find out if Mari's air bike has been returned. If it hasn't, get the ident for its locator chip.\"\n\n\"Do you not think we could simply ask the clerk for that information?\"\n\n\"The guy didn't even let me use the lavatory the last time we were here.\"\n\nKay looked over at him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"This indicates an unwillingness to share data?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"If you're not willing to share your toilet, you're definitely not going to share data. Come on.\"\n\nKenji led Kay to the cracked and pitted walkway that took them past the crater and to the front entrance of the rental shop. One would have thought the owner would have put some caution tape around the great hole to keep customers from falling in, but other than an amusing orange cone ten feet down in the center, there were no warnings.\n\nThe buzzes and whirs of drills and other shop equipment came from the repair shop on the other side of the crater, and a surly-looking man in coveralls stood in an open side door, glaring at Kenji and Kay." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Kenji faltered, wondering if the man somehow recognized him—he lived in fear that he would come across some of the people his father had tormented in the past—but the glare seemed to be for the building behind them." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Maybe the clerk had also rented him a faulty shuttle.\n\nWhen Kenji stepped inside, two other people were waiting in front of the chipped counter, their shiny black combat boots contrasting with the stained and cracked floor tiles. Their backs were to him, leaving him a view of utility belts bristling with weapons that ranged from DEW-Tek pistols to stunners to knives, and each had flex-cuffs dangling in between the armament. Despite the combat boots, they didn't look like soldiers or police officers, not with their distinctly civilian attire, the oddest combination of camouflage and... was that purple fur trim?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "And were those... sequins?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Even though they had long black hair, one with it in a ponytail and one in a braid, it took him a moment to realize they were women. Maybe because they were significantly taller than he—at least six-feet-two—and had the powerful builds and broad shoulders of bears.\n\nThe clerk wasn't behind the counter. Maybe they'd scared him off." }, { "from": "human", "value": "One of the women glanced back at him, and Kenji nearly fell over." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They had pointed ears and... was that fur? Not on the trim for their clothing but on them.\n\nHe gripped the doorjamb for support, inadvertently blocking Kay, who bumped into his back. The woman smiled at him, which was almost as alarming as the fur—she had fangs—and turned back to the counter." }, { "from": "human", "value": "That was good, because he realized he was gawking. Rudely." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Kenji closed his dangling jaw and swallowed. She wasn't entirely furry. Her face was mostly normal, aside from the fangs, and feminine despite the large muscular frame. And her hands only had a light dusting of fur on the backs." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The rest appeared almost normal except for..." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He swallowed again. They had claws. The other one was tapping a rhythm on the counter with a claw painted purple to match the fur trim on her jacket. Kenji caught his jaw dropping again.\n\nMaybe they'd eaten the clerk." }, { "from": "human", "value": "No, they wouldn't be standing there impatiently if they had recently been sated by a tasty meal." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Kenji resisted the urge to flee and stepped into the lobby." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They were obviously genetically engineered women from another system." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He'd read all about such creations after he'd learned that his genes had been altered before his birth." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Maybe he should be relieved that his father hadn't made him fanged and furry.\n\nHe reminded himself that the Kingdom was turning more progressive and allowing foreigners of all types to visit, so he should expect to see more beings—people—like this. The queen had even put out some incentives, giving bonuses to tourist businesses that brought in foreign crowns and Union dollars. Since Zamek City was the capital, and the closest major city to the launch loop, it made sense that these foreigners would be popping up here." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Kenji glanced at Kay as he clanked in behind him, wondering if this might be their opportunity to snoop in the computer system." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Would the large women object if they ambled behind the counter and helped themselves to some data?\n\nBut he must have stepped inside far enough to trigger the door chime, for a soft bing echoed through the building. The same clerk Kenji had dealt with before—wearing the same grease-stained shirt with a hole under the armpit—walked out of an office. He jerked in surprise when he saw the women." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You're still here,\" he blurted, stepping back, his shoulder clunking against the doorjamb." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Kenji imagined a lot of people ran into doors when they saw these women." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Yes,\" the one who'd smiled at Kenji said. \"You said you would let us know what you found.\"\n\n\"I meant in general. At some future date. Actually, that was a brush off. I thought you would take the hint and leave.\"\n\n\"At least he's honest,\" the other one said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They had pleasant voices, though they would definitely be singing alto in the cat-woman choir, should such a thing exist." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'd be happy to help you if you want to rent something,\" the clerk said. \"We'll rent to anyone. No questions asked. As long as you've got money.\"\n\n\"As we said, we're interested in buying the lot next door, not renting a shuttle. Our real-estate developer friend did some research and learned that you own this building, the now-empty lot, and the repair shop on the other side of it. All the taxes have been paid, and you seem to be doing well despite the disrepair here.\"\n\nShe eyed the floor tiles and then the armpit hole in his shirt." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "His hand was up to scratch his head, so it was easy to see.\n\n\"I don't waste needless money on frivolous things. Look, I don't know if you noticed, but the lot next door is now a crater. I'm still waiting for the insurance money. There have been a lot of claims, and they're backed up. Do you... women need air bikes? A way to get around town? Like I said, I don't discriminate.\" He eyed their pointed ears with the same dubiousness that they were eyeing his armpit.\n\n\"We know that it's a crater. That's why we're interested. Our friend said we could get a good deal, fill it in, and build on it.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What do you want to build? A cat cafe?\" He snickered at his wit.\n\nThe women did not.\n\nKenji groped for a way to butt in to the conversation." }, { "from": "human", "value": "For his distraction, he planned to ask the clerk to come outside to see the repairs needed on the shuttle." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Before Kenji got a word out, the rumble of a hover van came from out front. Instead of parking in the back, it floated a couple of feet over the crater, not far from the front door.\n\n\"This isn't a very good part of town,\" one of the women said. \"We understand there's a lot of crime. We plan to open up an office so people can visit us and inquire about our services. We're bounty hunters, and we're going to branch out into private investigations and possibly hiring ourselves out as bouncers. There are quite a few of us, and my captain doesn't need all of us all the time when she flies.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Bounty hunters?\" Kenji asked, considering their weapons again." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Maybe they knew where to get good deals on the right kind of gear.\n\nBoth women turned to face him and smiled, one hiding her fangs with her lips, the other revealing them and the rest of her teeth. Hers was a brazen smile, and she looked him up and down with a speculative gaze. It took him a long moment to realize she was checking him out." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Yes,\" she said.\n\n\"Are you in need of our services?\" the more subtle one asked. \"I'm Liangyu Qin Three. You can call me Qin.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Or you can call her Squirt.\" The flirty one winked.\n\n\"That doesn't seem like a bounty-hunter name,\" Kenji said.\n\n\"We gave it to her when she was six. She was a runt.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Kenji eyed Qin's substantial height and muscles and found that hard to believe." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'm Tigress. I was never a runt.\"\n\n\"This is true,\" Qin said. \"She was always a big brute.\"\n\n\"A big sexy brute.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Tigress looked Kenji up and down again." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What's your name, Cutie? For select customers, I might be willing to throw in certain bonus services alongside the bounty hunting.\"\n\n\"Uh, I was actually going to ask where you got your weapons or if you have any used gear for sale. I'm getting into the business myself, but I don't have a lot of start-up funds yet.\"\n\n\"That female is looking at you with the alarming mien of a predator,\" Kay whispered. \"Perhaps you shouldn't engage them in conversation.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It's all right.\" Kenji hoped." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You're going to be a bounty hunter?\" Tigress raised her eyebrows. \"You look like a Squirt yourself.\"\n\nQin elbowed her. \"Don't assume that. Kim isn't very big, and she kicked Rache's mercenaries across a submarine.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Rache?\" Kenji mouthed as the clerk did the same thing." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"The lot isn't for sale,\" the clerk said firmly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A clank came from out front—the sliding door on the hover van being thrown open. Six men in camouflage uniforms with masks covering their faces sprang out, landing at the edge of the crater. They carried DEW-Tek rifles and charged straight for the front door of the rental shop.\n\n\"Move, Kay.\" Kenji grabbed the robot and tugged him over to a corner as the men charged inside." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No freaks!\" They yelled and opened fire at the counter—no, at the women." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But Qin and Tigress had leaped into action before the men made it through the door. Instead of running away, like the clerk did, they charged their assailants, knocking aside rifles and bowling them over.\n\nEnergy bolts hit the ceiling and the walls as the women put themselves back to back, kicking and punching rather than drawing their weapons. That didn't keep the attackers from using their weapons, but the women were close enough—and fast enough—to knock aside the men's arms and the barrels of the rifles, sending the shots flying." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Kenji, afraid random fire would take him down, looked for something to hide behind." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The only thing in the lobby was a fake rubber-tree plant in a cracked plastic pot. He ducked behind it, intending to drag Kay with him, but Kay headed for the counter. A stray bolt clipped his metal shoulder, burning a hole in his housing and almost knocking him over.\n\n\"Get down, Kay! Or run into the back with the clerk.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Kenji wished he'd done that." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But Kay went behind the counter as the fight escalated, more energy bolts slamming into walls—and people. Yelps of pain sounded amid the thuds of fists hitting flesh. Kay disappeared with a clank, and Kenji worried he'd been struck with a more damaging attack.\n\nSomething slammed into the base of the potted tree." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A rifle that had been ripped from someone's hands." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "One of the men followed, flying through the air and slamming into the wall a few feet from Kenji. He thudded down with a groan.\n\nOne of the women grunted in pain. Kenji wondered if he should help them, but he had no idea what this was about." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "If he got involved, it would only be in the hope of stopping the fight so innocent bystanders wouldn't be killed.\n\nAn energy bolt blasted through the trunk of the faux tree, dropping plastic leaves on his head. He also wanted to stop the fight so innocent lobby decorations wouldn't be killed.\n\nThe man crumpled next to him grabbed his rifle, rose to his knees, and aimed at one of the women." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They were busy dealing with the other attackers and didn't seem to see him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Look out!\" Kenji barked and lunged over to kick the man's rifle aside." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He was in the nick of time, and the man's shot went wide. The women glanced over. Unfortunately, the attacker growled and swung the rifle toward Kenji.\n\nKenji jumped up, fear making his second kick lightning fast." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His toe connected with the barrel an instant before the man fired." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The rifle flew out of his hands and struck the ceiling.\n\nBefore Kenji had to defend himself further, one of the women sprang over, landing beside the man. She hefted him from his feet as if he weighed twenty pounds instead of two hundred, lifted him over her head, and threw him across the lobby.\n\nKenji glanced around, afraid someone else might be targeting him now that he'd picked a side, but the battle was winding down." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Four men lay groaning or unconscious—hopefully not dead—on the floor." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The other two, realizing the odds had rapidly gone out of their favor, glanced at each other and sprinted out the door." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They leaped into the van, and it took off, not waiting for the other four." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The women dropped their fists to their hips.\n\n\"As we said,\" Tigress said, \"this isn't the best of neighborhoods.\"\n\n\"But that makes it the perfect place to start a business for hunting criminals,\" Qin said. \"We'll have to set up a network site, so people who are afraid to visit the area can reserve our services online.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Good idea. Maybe Casmir would help.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "If the clerk was listening from the back, he didn't reply. Kenji eased along the wall, stepping over one of the crumpled men, to check on Kay.\n\nOther than the melted blast hole in his shoulder, Kay didn't appear damaged from the battle. He had tilted over at his trunk crease and was accessing the shop's computer, which was tucked into a nook below the counter." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Are you almost done?\" Kenji whispered." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"There was a passcode to bypass that delayed me, as well as weapons fire squealing over my head, but I have almost achieved the objective.\"\n\n\"Good work.\" Kenji turned and leaned an elbow casually on the counter to hide Kay from view if the clerk walked in.\n\nOne of the downed men tried to belly-crawl toward the door. Tigress plucked him up and shoved him against the wall, his boots dangling six inches above the floor." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Why did you attack us?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She pinned him in place with one hand against his chest while she searched him with the other." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Because you're freaks.\" He tried to kick her, but she lifted a knee and blocked the attack while removing laser cutters, pistols, and even a grenade from his pockets." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Nobody wants you here.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"That's not true.\" Qin picked up one of the rifles and held it on the other three men. \"No fewer than seven people are quite tickled to have us on this planet. Did someone pay you to attack us? How'd you know we would be here?\"\n\nThe clerk stepped into the doorway and peered warily around. Kenji put a hand on his hip to take up more room and block his view of Kay." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The clerk looked at the women and the men on the floor and barely noticed Kenji." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He didn't seem to see Kay at all. Good.\n\nA boom and a flash of light came from outside. It startled everyone, and Qin stepped outside to peer down the street.\n\n\"That's unexpected,\" she said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I believe that's their getaway van. It was their getaway van.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What happened?\" Tigress asked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'm not certain, but the remaining pieces are scattered up and down the street out there for a block.\"\n\nKenji didn't know what was happening either, but he couldn't have hoped for a better distraction. So long as the clerk didn't glance over and notice Kay.\n\n\"Maybe whoever hired them turned on them when they failed,\" Tigress said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"That's murder.\" The man she'd pinned craned his neck to peer out the door." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You needn't sound so affronted,\" Tigress said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Weren't you going to murder us?\"\n\n\"Yes, but you're freaks. We're Kingdom subjects.\"\n\n\"This planet is so backward, Squirt. Are you sure you want to set up a shop here?\"\n\n\"You said yourself that it has nice trees.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It does, and like you said, your captain doesn't have enough work for all of us, so it makes sense for half of our sisters to find work here, but...\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"The Kingdom will get better for people like us. Queen Oku is making improvements.\" Qin smiled brightly. \"Casmir is advising her.\"\n\n\"I thought they were just snogging on the sofa.\"\n\n\"I'm sure he's taking his duties more seriously than that.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"While snogging.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Ha ha.\"\n\nKenji ignored the bewildering conversation and resisted the urge to look over his shoulder to check on Kay. He didn't want to risk bringing the clerk's attention to him.\n\nQin picked up another man trying to crawl for the exit." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Look, you can leave if you tell us who hired you. You didn't kill anyone, so we're not terribly upset with you. We just want to know.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'm terribly upset,\" Kay muttered. \"I lost my shoulder plating.\"\n\nHis words drew the clerk's attention. \"What are you doing back there?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Hiding from deadly weapons fire.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Kenji shifted to further block Kay's activities as the clerk tried to peer around him. \"I started out behind that fake tree over there, but it was a frequent target. You can see that it's been terribly defiled.\" He pointed emphatically at the topless tree, willing the man to look at it. To look at anything except the robot fiddling with his computer." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You may need to order a new one. Perhaps an entire forest of potted trees, thus to provide cover for innocent patrons needing to hide from firefights in the lobby.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Frowning, the clerk stepped toward him and lifted a hand.\n\n\"Were there any injuries in here?\" a new voice said, a man in black armor and a mask striding through the front door.\n\nKenji barely kept from shouting a curse." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was the Main Event again." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He crouched so quickly he cracked a knee on the floor. Kay was now visible to the clerk, but Kenji couldn't do anything about it. If the Main Event recognized him after warning him to stay out of the city...\n\n\"These men are somewhat battered,\" Tigress said, not sounding even minutely surprised by the appearance of the would-be superhero." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"And that plastic plant has taken grievous damage.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Kenji eyed the corridor leading to the offices and maybe a back door, but the clerk blocked it. He was looking at the Main Event instead of Kenji cowering behind his counter, but how long would that last?\n\n\"Their getaway van also took grievous damage,\" the Main Event said dryly.\n\n\"That was you?\" Qin asked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It may have been.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Where did you come from?\"\n\n\"The nightmares of criminals hell-bent on mayhem and violence.\"\n\n\"Did Casmir give you that line?\"\n\n\"He's been advising me in the ways of superhero speak. Apparently, one must have memorable one-liners available to trot out in case reporters are within earshot.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You want reporters to... report you?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I need the populace of Odin, preferably of the entire Kingdom, to realize that I am on their side. A protector of the average citizen. An inexorable force for justice in the city. Then one day when Queen Oku pardons me, there will be no question that it was the right thing to do.\"\n\n\"You're a strange man.\"\n\n\"I'm strange? Did you know that your pointed ears twitched when you said that?\"\n\n\"They do that.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Even more bewildered by the conversation and the odd assortment of people in the lobby, Kenji looked back at Kay." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They had to get out of here.\n\nKay withdrew from the computer and turned without lifting his upper body into view. This time, he kept from speaking and drawing attention to himself. Maybe he remembered his recent encounter with the Main Event—and that tree." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Where did you come from?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "the clerk asked. \"And who are you?\"\n\n\"A concerned citizen across the street called the police,\" the Main Event said. \"I was in the area and arrived sooner than they, though I suspect they'll toddle along soon. I saw that these two warriors had the attack under control but noticed that a man in the repair shop over there was watching the goings on with binoculars while getting updated by someone on the comm. I have enhanced hearing and heard the van driver delivering the updates.\" He looked at Qin." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"It seems that your inquiries into buying the adjacent real estate alarmed the mechanic enough to take matters into his own hands.\"\n\n\"He hired thugs to attack us so we wouldn't buy the crater next to his shop?\" Qin asked.\n\n\"That is what I gathered from my eavesdropping. You're welcome to question him yourself.\"\n\n\"We didn't even make an offer,\" Qin said in a sad, hurt tone." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Kenji would have felt for her if the hard floor hadn't been grinding into his knees and he hadn't been afraid of being caught." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"We were just trying to get some information,\" Qin added.\n\n\"Kingdom subjects sleep with their prejudices cuddled close at night,\" the Main Event said. \"You may have difficulty finding neighbors hospitable to a pack of feline bounty hunters.\"\n\n\"Are you done?\" Kenji mouthed to Kay, hoping the robot had a program downloaded for lip-reading." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Kay's metal fingers curled into a fist, and he poked his thumb up." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"We're not felines,\" Qin said. \"We're genetically engineered women with dreams, goals, and feelings.\"\n\n\"We're also not properly called a pack,\" Tigress said. \"Viggo calls us an ambush.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"You know that's a gathering of cats, right?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "the Main Event asked.\n\n\"Of tigers,\" Tigress said.\n\nThe clerk cleared his throat. \"I have a business to run here. And a mess to clean up. I believe I hear police sirens. Maybe you'd all like to leave the premises. And take those creeps with you.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He waved at the remaining attackers." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Kenji nodded firmly, though he expected the Main Event to object. He worked with the police, didn't he?\n\n\"The police can gather the rest of these miscreants,\" the Main Event said. From his voice, it sounded like he was turning to leave." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Dare Kenji hope? \"My work here is done.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Maybe we can find another crater to buy,\" Tigress said. It sounded like they were leaving too.\n\n\"They are proliferating this city currently,\" Qin said, \"and I've got another week before the captain plans to leave again. We can keep shopping.\"\n\n\"Or maybe we could save money by setting up an office by the street on Asger's property. He's your boyfriend. Boyfriends are supposed to let you use their property for the dreams and ambitions of you and your sisters.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I don't think you can have a bounty-hunting office on a nobleman's estate.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Why not?\" Tigress asked, their voices growing quieter as they walked farther away." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Zoning rules.\"\n\n\"Huh.\"\n\nKenji carefully poked his head over the counter, worried the Main Event might still be standing there with his arms folded across his chest. But he and the fearsome women had departed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They had neglected to take their assailants with them, but the men had recovered enough to crawl to the door by themselves." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Kenji grew aware of the clerk frowning down at him.\n\n\"Sorry.\" Kenji straightened and put the key fob for the shuttle on the counter with the money he owed. \"I came to return that, pay you, and thank you for the shuttle. It served its purpose, and I believe we're done here.\" He waved for Kay to follow him around the counter and to the exit." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Hold on.\" The clerk grabbed his arm." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Kenji tensed, prepared to rip his arm free and sprint for the door." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You owe me another hundred crowns,\" the clerk said.\n\n\"For what?\" Kenji glanced at the holes in the walls and the broken rubber-tree plant. \"I didn't engage in the fight.\"\n\n\"Mileage charge.\" The clerk tapped the spot on his temple where people's chips were embedded." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He must have already gotten a report from the odometer system in the shuttle. \"You flew way more than the two-hundred-and-fifty miles allowed for a one-day rental.\"\n\n\"Was a mileage allotment in the contract?\"\n\n\"It was in the fine print.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The clerk released him but held out his hand and rested his other hand on a bulge under his shirt. A weapon?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Kenji didn't think the very brief and indifferent digital contract he'd signed had mentioned miles, but since he'd just stolen information from the man, and his shop had taken more than a hundred crowns' worth of damage, he decided to pay without argument. As soon as he captured Mari and returned her to her people, he wouldn't have to worry about such small amounts of money.\n\nOnce he and Kay stepped outside, finding—to their vast relief—no sign of the Main Event, they headed off the property and toward the nearest public transportation system.\n\n\"You got the locator chip number?\" Kenji asked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I did, and I have already downloaded a program to tap into the vehicular database to make use of it.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"That's amazing. Where's her air bike?\"\n\n\"It is amazing, especially given the trying and bizarre circumstances I had to endure while working.\"\n\n\"Tell me about it.\"\n\n\"I am. The air bike is currently parked in a residential area on the Zamek University campus.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"That's less than ten miles away.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Kenji clenched his fist." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"This is it. We can capture her tonight.\"\n\n\"Do not forget to purchase used bounty-hunting supplies on the way.\"\n\n\"I won't. We can find a weapons shop easily in this neighborhood.\"\n\nYouths in black leather scurried around, scavenging valuables from the van that had blown up, even as a police vehicle descended into the rental shop's parking lot." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I believe we'll easily find ten or twenty weapons shops in this neighborhood,\" Kay said." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 2 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Good.\" Kenji thumped him on the back. \"Let's do this, my metal friend.\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Add seven sentences to continue story" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Mari wanted to leave the university campus, having found nothing but trouble here, but she needed to get her terraformer back. Maybe it was naive, but she still believed it might be a way to prove her usefulness to the Kingdom government and get that meeting with the queen. And a diplomatic passport! Minister Dabrowski had mentioned that twice, as if it might truly be a possibility.\n\nAs uncomfortable as it had been dangling from the crusher's grip, Sato and Dabrowski had been willing to talk to her, willing to listen. If the police hadn't shown up—and if her terraformer hadn't been stolen—her night might have gone according to plan.\n\nA part of her was tempted to circle back to Sato and Dabrowski's home and try again, but she had to get her terraformer first." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Then she could make her case. The next time she approached, she would try to catch Sato without Dabrowski—or his crusher—around.\n\nMari found the public campus map she'd used earlier and looked for a security building. There had to be a depot where those drones went to recharge their batteries. Maybe the hoodlum who'd reprogrammed them to attack and steal from people was hunkered in there now, examining his or her loot.\n\nA single building on the map was labeled Campus Security. It didn't say anything about drones, but she headed in that direction, winding along dirt trails and cement walkways between buildings and through grassy areas so she could avoid the streets." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She'd left that man crumpled on the trail for the police to find, and she hoped they locked him up." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Her mother would call her a fool for leaving an enemy behind to try to capture her again, but she couldn't kill any of these people, not when she wanted to work for them. Even if that bounty hunter might be a criminal in his own right, he had a Kingdom accent, and she couldn't be positive he didn't have ties to some law-enforcement agency.\n\nThough if he had, he wouldn't have had to stun the police to get her. What exactly had that been? A rescue, he'd said. How ludicrous. He'd only wanted to rescue her, so he could capture her himself. And collect whatever reward her family had issued for her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A part of her wanted to message her mother and tell her to knock it off, that she was leaving, and that was that, but she'd spoken to her family of her desires in the past, and neither her mother nor siblings had been willing to accept them. One didn't leave the astroshamans, especially when one had specifically been raised to be an asset to one's people, not out of some feeling of love or a desire for children. If her mother had ever hugged her or expressed warmth, Mari couldn't remember it.\n\nHer throat tightened with a sense of longing that she usually succeeded in pushing out of her mind. Distracted, she almost ran into a pair of students in dark clothing walking along the path in the opposite direction. She muttered an apology, tugged her hood lower over her eyes, and hurried around them.\n\n\"Focus,\" she muttered to herself." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Even though she hoped the police would assume she'd fled the campus, and weren't looking for her here, Mari couldn't be positive about that. Further, she'd passed several stationary cameras atop lampposts. It was possible someone was monitoring them and had been alerted to watch for a blonde woman in a cloak and hood.\n\nShe came off the trail and onto a disturbingly open grassy lawn around a three-story building. Numerous security shuttles and autoflyers were in the parking lot, and lights were on in the foyer and front offices. Campus Security, a sign out front read. Someone passed by a window in one of the lit offices." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A night shift was working, maybe the very night shift that monitored the cameras and was looking for Mari.\n\nFollowing the trees edging the lawn, she circled to the back of the building. Maybe the drones were in a less populated garage or shed.\n\nThwarting electronic locks and sneaking into the building shouldn't be difficult, but she didn't want to risk running into people. The police had taken her arc blaster, her destroyed backpack, and everything in her pockets. The stunner she'd grabbed and the dual-purpose rings she wore were the only meager tools she had left. It had only been luck—actually, it had been the bounty hunter's lack of foresight—that put her in a position to use one." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There was a smaller detached building in the back, with only a few vehicles parked out front, one police van and two air bikes. The police van might have made her draw back and reject the idea of entering there, but a plaque on the door read Security Drones and Robots.\n\nMaybe the policemen were inside, interrogating whoever had reprogrammed the drones. Her first thought was to applaud that, but if the police confiscated all of the stolen goods that had been brought in, they would take her terraformer right along with shopping bags full of knickknacks.\n\nShe assumed that the rightful owners of the latter would be able to come claim their goods, but how could she walk in and do that? She had to get her device before it was locked up somewhere. Or, worse, taken to a government facility for study." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Would the police recognize astroshaman technology when they saw it?\n\nAfter checking her hood again, Mari headed for the entrance, giving the police vehicle wide berth. The front door wasn't locked, and she eased it open. With her stunner in her pocket and her hand around the grip, she paused to listen for voices. A man and a woman were talking somewhere down a hall.\n\nMari stepped inside and crept past closed office doors on the left and a bank of windows on the right looking into a large repair bay. A few vehicles, a couple dozen ambulatory robots, and shelves full of dormant drones were inside." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The lights in the bay were off, but she found an unlocked door and stepped inside, hoping to find the bags of stolen goods on a table.\n\nThe air smelled of metal, chemicals, and lubricant, and a few indicator lights winked on equipment. Nothing stirred, and Mari didn't see her property. She thought about activating one of the drones and hacking her way into its system to look for answers, but she doubted the responsible units were in this bay.\n\nThe female voice grew louder, and for the first time, Mari could make out words.\n\n\"What do you mean you were playing video games?\"\n\nA new voice replied, young and squeaky." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Didn't know,\" were the only audible words.\n\nMari grimaced, fearing the drones who'd stolen her terraformer weren't here. Maybe some outside entity had taken control of them, and the owner of the young voice was a kid on staff who'd been sleeping on the job.\n\nA man spoke, his tone conciliatory, and Mari started. That sounded like Dabrowski.\n\nWould he have interrupted his dinner to come over here? He was a roboticist and worked on campus, but he was also an important government official." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Did such people get called in after hours to help with malfunctioning drones?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Mari reached for the door back into the hallway, thinking she might eavesdrop after all, but she paused with her hand on the knob." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "If Dabrowski was here, the crusher might be too, and he was convinced eavesdropping was a heinous crime.\n\nBefore she'd decided what to do, someone stepped into the hallway. The woman. She wore a police uniform and walked beside another woman in a campus-security uniform.\n\nMari ducked low, glimpsing weapons on both of their belts. She was stuck right in front of the door, and they were heading down the hall toward the exit. What if they paused to check the bay?\n\nShe drew her stunner." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Though she hated the idea of leaving a trail of unconscious bodies behind her, she was determined to get her terraformer back, one way or another.\n\nFortunately, the women walked past without stopping. Mari let out a relieved breath and waited a long moment to make sure they didn't come back inside. The male voices started up again, Dabrowski and the kid.\n\nDid she need to eavesdrop? What if she... strolled in and offered to help?\n\nAssuming Dabrowski had been telling the truth that neither he nor Sato had commed the police, he might not be that perturbed if she walked in to continue their conversation." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He'd seemed open to helping her, or at least listening to her story. He'd helped Mari's mother, after all. Of course, that might be more of a minus than a plus. If he considered her mother an ally, he might feel compelled to report her missing daughter to her.\n\nMaybe, but Mari decided to take a shot. She needed to prove herself to these people if she was to earn asylum.\n\nShe eased down the hallway, their voices growing more distinct as she approached." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Good,\" Dabrowski was saying. \"Now see if you can find their locator chips. Their range is limited, so they should be within five miles.\"\n\n\"Yes, sir. Er, my lord. Minister.\" The kid sounded as flustered as he had when dealing with whichever of the women had been lecturing him. Maybe more so.\n\n\"Casmir,\" Dabrowski said dryly.\n\n\"You can't call a noble by his first name,\" the kid protested. \"They flog you for that.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I don't think that's been true for a thousand years, but even if it were, I'm mostly an honorary noble.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Didn't they give you land? And a title?\"\n\n\"And government work,\" Dabrowski said.\n\n\"That means you're a real noble.\"\n\n\"Are you sure?\"\n\n\"Yes, my lord. Professor Teabottom covered it in my sociology class.\"\n\nDabrowski sighed, as if he would have preferred to be Casmir over anyone's lord.\n\n\"I can't find the locator chips, sir. None of them. Is it possible the drones were destroyed?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Probably not. And since they were in the bay this afternoon, and the security cameras suggest nobody was in here to alter them physically, the hackers likely remotely installed software to cloak their signatures as well as take over access. That sounds like the Chipfogger program. Or maybe Artarus 7. Here. You've got system-administrator privileges, right? Check for recent downloads of those programs from the underground campus servers to chips registered with the university. At this point, I'm more inclined to guess a student did this rather than some master hacker living in the city. Mugging students for what's in their backpacks isn't typical of an experienced criminal mastermind.\"\n\nMari, having been mugged, wasn't sure she agreed.\n\nRemembering that she'd already gotten caught once for eavesdropping, and that the crusher might be standing silently in there with Dabrowski, Mari took a deep breath and knocked on the doorjamb. Since the door itself stood ajar, that was the best she could do.\n\nThe towering tarry black crusher appeared in the doorway. Mari jumped back, bumping against the wall. Not again.\n\nSurprisingly, the crusher didn't lunge out and capture her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Casmir Dabrowski,\" it stated." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Your police authorities have failed to retain the astroshaman female. She is here eavesdropping once more. Do you wish me to apprehend her again?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Uh?\" Dabrowski peeked around the crusher's shoulder." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Miss Mari, wasn't it?\"\n\n\"Yes. I am looking for my terraformer that was stolen by security drones.\" She hesitated, tempted to pretend the incident with the police hadn't happened at all and see what he did, but the crusher had already brought it up. \"The police were not interested in assisting me, so I had to... depart from their presence.\"\n\n\"I see.\" Dabrowski seemed more amused than annoyed or judgmental. \"Yes, I've occasionally had to depart from the presence of law-enforcement authorities myself, when their mission goals deviated from mine.\"\n\n\"Really, sir?\" the student asked." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I mean, my lord.\"\n\n\"Yes.\" Dabrowski crooked a finger to invite Mari into the room, then patted the crusher. \"Let her come in, please, Zee. I believe someone on campus has illegally obtained astroshaman technology.\"\n\n\"I read the book, but I didn't know how much was, you know, fictionalized.\" The speaker, a shaggy-haired kid who looked like a younger version of Dabrowski, raised his eyebrows when Mari walked in. \"Do you really know astroshamans?\" He touched his chest uncertainly; a logo on his blue T-shirt proclaimed in gold that he heart-symbolled the Kingdom." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"There's only one who's deigned to talk to me.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"High Shaman Moonrazor.\" The student barely glanced at Mari, instead turning his worshipful eyes toward Dabrowski. \"Did you really kiss her?\"\n\nThat didn't startle Mari, since it had been mentioned in Sato's book, but Dabrowski lost his equanimity, nearly tripping over nothing and pitching sideways. The crusher reached out and steadied him.\n\n\"Kim put that in the book?\" Dabrowski blurted. \"The book that all of the Kingdom has read?\"\n\n\"Yes, my lord. Uhm, you haven't read it?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I lived it.\" Dabrowski recovered enough to lift a hand and rub the appalled expression off his face, though his left eye blinked in some tic." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I hope the book explained that she kissed me and only to use me as a shield so Tenebris Rache, whose mercenaries were demolishing her base, wouldn't shoot her. She's at least twice my age and...\" He looked at Mari, maybe remembering her admission that Moonrazor was her mother, and edited his words on the fly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"We were more enemies than allies at that point.\"\n\nAt that point. Mari couldn't help but grimace at the reminder that they were allies now and wondered if she'd made a huge mistake. What if Dabrowski had already contacted her mother, and her family was on the way to round up their wayward charge and drag her back to their isolated base?\n\n\"That's amazing, my lord. You've had so many stellar adventures.\"\n\n\"Yes.\" Dabrowski clasped his hands behind his back, resuming the teacherly tone he'd been using with the student earlier, and nodded toward the computer terminal the kid was parked at. \"Have you found recent downloads of those files? The drones started deviating from their programming this morning, so you only need to check back a day or two. It's possible this was being planned for weeks, but students tend toward the impulsive, so I'm inclined to believe this wasn't premeditated. Someone who had more time to think about it might have realized it would be a bad idea.\"\n\n\"They're going to get expelled for sure. One minute, my lord.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The student turned his focus back to the terminal.\n\nMari thought about volunteering to do the search herself, since she could likely find the culprit in seconds. For that matter, Dabrowski probably could too and was using the opportunity to teach the student. But Mari didn't care about that; she only wanted her terraformer back, ideally before a police officer sprang in to arrest her again.\n\n\"You mentioned that the device the drones absconded with is a prototype?\" Dabrowski asked her, not sounding skeptical about her claims. \"And for terraforming?\"\n\n\"For rapid terraforming. It breaks down the original matter on a planet or moon within minutes and can soon start rearranging molecules into fertile soil, complete with seeds and enzymes and water.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "A pensive crease appeared on Dabrowski's forehead." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"And yes, it's a prototype. That's why I risked going to the wreck to get it. I have the plans, of course.\" Mari waved toward the chips integrated into her brain. \"But it uses a unique alloy that my people—those who settled in the forest here—can't make more of until we're able to gather more resources. Your people—nonastroshamans—would find the alloy alone extremely valuable. It's used in a great deal of our advanced technology, including ship hulls.\"\n\n\"Ship hulls that can be made all but invisible?\"\n\n\"The invisibility is conveyed by a shield generator, but the hulls do have technology that insulates against scans.\"\n\nThe part of Mari that had been fully indoctrinated to be loyal to her people, and hold their secrets even in the face of death, squirmed at this openness with a near-stranger, but if she got what she wanted, to be granted asylum in exchange for working for the Kingdom, she would have to share a lot more secrets. If she did, would her family go from wanting to capture her and bring her home to perhaps trying to kill her to keep her quiet?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Maybe she could offer to work for the Kingdom without betraying any secrets, volunteering only her skills, not her knowledge. But unless her family knew she was doing that... would it matter?\n\nFortunately, Dabrowski looked only mildly curious, not like he was contemplating drugging her so he could extract everything she knew from her. \"That technology and alloy would be very valuable then, yes. We'll try to get it back for you. Maybe the thieves don't realize what they've got, and it's currently being used as a paperweight.\"\n\n\"Found it, my lord!\" The student opened a desk drawer and pulled out a pen and paper to scribble an address. He tore off a corner and ran it over to Dabrowski, who accepted the scrap with the same bemused expression that Mari might have had at being given information on a physical medium." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"The files were accessed from that network account and at that address.\"\n\n\"Thank you.\" Casmir glanced at it, probably taking a picture with his contact camera, and handed it back.\n\nMari also recorded the address, experiencing the temptation to sprint away and check it before Dabrowski could send anyone.\n\n\"I had to track it through a few relay stations. They were trying to hide their location, but I found them.\" The student lifted his chin.\n\n\"Good work, Brodeur. Hm. This address is in faculty housing, not a dorm. Assistant Professor Donadieu lives there without a roommate. He teaches economics.\"\n\n\"Is the pay for faculty here insufficient?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Mari asked. \"Such that someone would be tempted toward theft?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I don't think so, but I suppose it depends on what financial desires you have. One wonders if he might have been conducting some experiment for a class. An irritated student could also be framing him. This will require an in-person visit.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Dabrowski considered her. \"At this junction, the mature, professional thing for me to do would be to contact the police and send them to visit, but it will be problematic if they run into you.\"\n\n\"Yes. They may be somewhat distracted by the bounty hunter I left crumpled on the sidewalk, but I doubt they've forgotten me.\"\n\n\"Your mother sent a bounty hunter after you? Is she trying to get you back, or... just how forbidden is it to leave the family?\"\n\n\"I believe my sisters may have sent him. They're as inexperienced with dealing with outsiders and outside societies as I am. That could explain why they sent someone young and inept. I think my mother would seek me out through the network and send our own people.\" Something that might still happen. \"It's also possible she's waiting for me to realize I was foolish to leave and slink back home as a failure.\"\n\n\"Hm. Why don't we go check it out? Zee is a good protector if Assistant Professor Donadieu resorts to physical violence, though I'd like to think I don't have much to fear from an economics professor.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"My lord?\" The student had pulled up a picture of Donadieu, a tall fit man in a martial arts gi with a black belt tied around his waist.\n\n\"Ah, maybe I would have something to fear. Fortunately, Zee is without peer when it comes to physical confrontations.\"\n\n\"Crushers are superior warriors and defenders of the helpless,\" the crusher—Zee—said in a flat monotone, then patted Dabrowski's head.\n\n\"That's me,\" Dabrowski said dryly, then gestured toward the hallway. \"Please lead the way, Zee.\" He bowed politely to Mari, nodding for her to go next.\n\nMari didn't know if she could trust him but appreciated that he hadn't treated her any differently than one of his own kind." }, { "from": "human", "value": "And he didn't seem inclined to help the police find her." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 1 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Too bad she didn't know if he was inclined to help her mother find her." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Let's engage in a collaborative writing exercise in the Science Fiction, Romance genre. I'll provide a starting point, and you'll continue with four sentences." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The space elevator was a fancy name for a thick cable that rose up from Sif's anchor station on its rocky red surface to a base carved into a huge asteroid that acted as a counterweight at the top. Sif didn't have as much gravity as Odin, but it still required a great deal of fuel burn for ships taking off from its surface, so most that came to deliver equipment and raw materials for the terraforming project used the elevator to save energy.\n\nKenji had never been to Sif or the asteroid base and watched curiously from the hatchway into navigation as Laser guided the freighter closer. They would have to fly through a huge cave-like entrance to reach the station inside, including its docks, manufacturing facility, and the tunnels where Zhor supposedly would show off what the terraforming device could do." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Kenji hoped they could make the exchange before that happened." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He slid into the empty copilot's pod beside Laser, hoping she wouldn't mind. From what he'd seen, Qin and Tigress were more likely to be sparring or exercising in the cargo hold than hanging out up here, and Mari never presumed to enter without an invitation.\n\nKenji hadn't seen her since the night before and couldn't decide if he was disappointed or relieved. Somehow, he'd gone from regretting treating her unfairly to feeling kinship to her to finding her Human List amusing to kissing her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "That had not been his plan when he'd walked into the lounge." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It hadn't even been his plan when he'd gotten up to wash out his tumbler.\n\nBut she'd looked miserable sitting there, apologizing to him for getting him stuck on this mission, and he'd wanted to let her know it wasn't her fault and to make her feel better. Why he'd thought he should do that with a kiss, he didn't know. Other than that her list had put it in his mind." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He wasn't even attracted to her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "At least, he hadn't thought he was, not with the weird chips and implants, but there was nothing unappealing about the rest of her body, and one could probably get used to the cybernetic stuff.\n\nNot that he wanted to get used to it. He was looking to escape the Kingdom, not pick up a girlfriend. Especially not a girlfriend from a whacky cult that looked down their cybernetic noses at normal humans." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Of course, she didn't do that." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She seemed more curious than judgmental about normal humans. There had even been wistfulness and longing on her face when she'd spoken of her list. And vulnerability. He hadn't expected that from the woman who'd knocked him on his ass not once but twice. He also hadn't expected her to kiss him back like a normal woman." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Why, he didn't know—it wasn't like she was an android—but what he'd intended as something of a pity kiss had turned out to be far more... intriguing than he would have imagined." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But it had been a mistake. He hoped his impulsive move hadn't led her to expect more. He already had Tigress leering at him; he didn't need anyone else undressing him with her eyes.\n\n\"I'm not reading any ships inside,\" Laser said from her pod, oblivious to his thoughts." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The tip of the navigation arm touched her temple as she piloted the freighter closer to the asteroid." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The yawning entrance appeared even larger now, wide enough for a fleet of ships to fly through together. It was dark inside, a contrast to the stark sunlight brightening the top of the asteroid and glinting off banks of solar panels. Sif orbited not much farther out than Odin, so days out here were almost as bright as back home.\n\n\"Not even any automated ones belonging to the station?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Kenji shifted from musings about kisses to mulling over the coming confrontation." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He didn't have another two hundred and twenty-five thousand Union dollars, but Laser had dug him up a case that looked like it could hold thousands in physical currency. The plan was to make Zhor believe it did, at least long enough to get close. At which point, Kenji, Qin, and Tigress would have to fight. Against at least seven men with enhancements." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Maybe more. It would be foolish to assume Zhor had shown his entire hand during that comm call." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But Kenji's team hadn't shown all of its cards either. They had Mari. He didn't doubt that she could remotely take over some of the station's automation to distract the thieves, and maybe even their ship.\n\n\"There are ships at the anchor point on the planet's surface,\" Laser said, \"but not up here. Looks like nobody is expecting a cargo today.\"\n\n\"Zhor's ship may already be inside. Hidden.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"That's what I'm thinking. Wish I could get one of those fancy new slydar detectors, but they're only for Kingdom Fleet ships.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Had I known you desired such a device, Bonita,\" Viggo said, \"I would have asked Casmir to install one.\"\n\n\"His people just started manufacturing them, and they're all going to their military ships. Trust me, I asked.\"\n\n\"You should have had me ask. I am, after all, closer to Casmir than you are.\"\n\n\"Is that so?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Certainly. I've shown him appreciation since he first came aboard, whereas you were short with him.\"\n\n\"He likes my shortness. It's endearing.\" Laser looked over at Kenji. \"Right, kid?\"\n\n\"I'm charmed.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I thought so. So, what's the plan? All I'm supposed to do is give you a ride and lend you the use of my combat forces.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Laser waved vaguely toward the cargo hold to indicate Qin and Tigress." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"But I'm partial to my combat forces, and I want to make sure they survive this. You walking in there with nothing but hope and a pretend case of money doesn't inspire my faith in your success.\"\n\n\"Don't forget my sound generator.\"\n\n\"Right, the dog whistle is sure to turn the tide.\" She eyed the fob clipped to his belt." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It might,\" he said, though he admitted it looked more like something one would use to open a garage door." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Still, they'd tested it, and it put out an ear-splitting wallop. He also intended to wear ear plugs for the incursion.\n\n\"The plan is to go out and face them while Mari diddles with their ship and whatever computers are on the station that can cause distractions.\" Kenji expected Laser to scoff at the idea of computer diddling as a plan, but she leaned back thoughtfully in her pod." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Tell her to take over the station's robots instead of just the computers,\" Laser said. \"That's what Casmir would do. Robots that can beat up enemies.\"\n\n\"I don't know if there are robots.\" Kenji smiled, wishing Kay were up here with them, for he would have commentary on robots beating up enemies." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But Kay was struggling to climb up and down the old freighter's ladders. The lounge and the crew cabins were on the middle level of the ship, so he'd opted to stay there today.\n\n\"You better hope there are,\" Laser said. \"Robots are deadlier than computers. Even if they don't have weapons, they can stomp on your foot, and if they're heavy, that hurts. A lot.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Mari stepped into the hatchway, raising her eyebrows as she heard the last couple of sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Captain Laser has suggestions for your infiltration of the station's network,\" Kenji told her, his gaze snagging on her lips, his mind flashing back to their kiss.\n\nHell. He turned away. His wayward mind had better knock that off.\n\n\"I've gained access to the station network already.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Mari's face was hard to read, and she didn't hold his gaze for long or comment on the kiss." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The freighter flew deeper into the unlit interior of the cave, and the flat gray wall of the station with six airlock docks came into view ahead. Their running lights played across them and the uneven rock of the rest of the hollowed-out interior. Here and there, more caves—or were those the tunnels Zhor had mentioned?—opened up to the sides.\n\n\"I will look for robots,\" Mari added." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Heavy robots,\" Laser said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Yes, Captain,\" Mari said politely.\n\nLaser navigated toward one of the docks; they were all open. As Viggo had said, there didn't appear to be any other vessels there. They were getting close enough now that they should have been able to see even a slydar-hulled ship." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Kenji found it odd that the thieves hadn't arrived first to set up the meeting spot to their liking, with Zhor placing his combat troops where they would have the advantage." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A proximity alarm went off on the navigation panel." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I was afraid of that.\" Laser peered at her scanner display.\n\n\"We are now detecting another ship docked here,\" Viggo said.\n\n\"No kidding.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As the freighter glided toward one of the docks, that other ship came into view on the display, seeming to materialize out of the shadows. It was the same black-winged ship that Kenji had seen in the Arctic Islands.\n\n\"It is not training weapons on us,\" Viggo said, \"or otherwise making aggressive moves.\"\n\n\"It's hard to be aggressive when you're attached to a station via an airlock tube,\" Laser said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I presume its copious weapons would work fine even in such circumstances.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"True.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What about people on the station?\" Kenji wanted to know how many of Zhor's bodyguards were waiting for them. \"If they're already set up and waiting for us, your scanners should be able to see them, right?\"\n\n\"It is difficult to detect people in combat armor,\" Viggo said, \"since most of it is designed to give off no heat or energy signature.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Meaning there could be an army waiting for us.\" Kenji grimaced.\n\n\"An army in combat armor, yes.\"\n\n\"Better hope our astroshaman is really good at diddling things.\" Laser eyed Mari.\n\nMari didn't respond or even seem to notice." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She was gazing toward the ceiling, probably so busy with her network probing that she didn't hear." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I have faith in her abilities,\" Kenji said.\n\nHe hadn't thought she'd been paying attention, but that earned him a quick smile. Good. Even if he'd made a mistake the night before, he didn't want her irked or disappointed in him. Although, as he considered her profile, he realized that he believed she would do her best to keep him alive and protect him even if she was irked with him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Lucky for him, she didn't seem to have a vengeful nature." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He hoped she believed that he truly had no interest in trying to capture her for that bounty anymore and that he would also do his best to protect her on this mission.\n\nAs the freighter eased closer to the docking spot, the chip in Kenji's glasses alerted him to a local network, that of the station, but it was secured, so he couldn't access anything. If the thieves' ship had a network of its own, he couldn't detect it. He would trust that Mari and her more sophisticated hardware would find a way in." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The comm dinged.\n\n\"I think that's for you, kid.\" Laser waved for Mari to get out of sight.\n\nShe crouched low, her head below the console again." }, { "from": "human", "value": "When Kenji answered, the hooded Zhor appeared on the display in the same dim navigation cabin as last time." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "His army might be waiting inside, but he wasn't. Maybe he was the kind of leader who sent his people in to do the fighting while he remained in his cushy captain's chair.\n\n\"I'm ready for the demonstration and handoff when you are, Chisaka,\" Zhor said without preamble. \"Don't forget to bring the money.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I won't,\" Kenji said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Meet us at Experiment Tunnel Number Three in twenty minutes.\" Zhor smiled, showing off his rows of sharp teeth, and closed the comm without waiting for a response.\n\n\"Still smelling like a trap to me,\" Laser said.\n\n\"What does a trap smell like?\" Viggo asked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What do you care? You haven't got a nose anymore.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'm mildly curious,\" Mari said, still crouching.\n\n\"Guns, burning hair, and despair,\" Laser said.\n\n\"Unappealing,\" Viggo said.\n\n\"You got that right. You do what you need to do inside to get the gizmo, kid.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Laser pointed at Kenji." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'll be here with the engine on, but we're not a match for them, so if their ship starts firing at us, we're going to be in trouble.\"\n\nYes. He could see railguns, cannons, and were those sun destroyers? And that was only on the side of the ship that was visible to them.\n\n\"More than trouble,\" Viggo said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Should we get in a firefight with them, they will obliterate us in seconds.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I will attempt to disable their weapons remotely,\" Mari said.\n\nLaser eyed her. \"I'm not sure I've even seen Casmir do that.\"\n\nMari shrugged.\n\nKenji wished she'd proclaimed with confidence that it would be a simple matter." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He had faith in her taking over the network of an automated space station with nobody home; hacking into the weapons system of an advanced enemy ship was another matter." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Qin and Tigress clomped into navigation in their full combat armor, including magnetic boots that kept them firmly affixed to the deck. Now that the freighter had entered Sif's orbit, weightlessness acted upon everything in the cabin, and Laser's gray braid floated behind her head. Qin and Tigress had rifles strapped to their backs, carried space-rated grenades in bandoliers, and Qin also cradled a Brockinger anti-tank gun lovingly in her arms.\n\n\"We're ready to protect you, Kenji,\" Qin said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Here's your pretend money case.\" Tigress handed him a black box with metal hinges and decorative metal trim. It had an electronic lock pad.\n\n\"Thank you.\" Kenji tapped the button to order his pod to release him, and Mari stepped back to make room for him, but she bumped into Tigress's armored chest." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Kenji reached out a hand to steady her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Uhm, Captain Laser? Can I borrow one of the pistols in your armory?\"\n\nShe'd suggested he take weapons, but he didn't want to assume, and be accused of theft, especially since Viggo had bluntly said Laser was reporting back to Dabrowski or Military Intelligence or whomever on him. Kenji wished he could ask to borrow a full suit of combat armor too, but such gear was expensive, and it was unlikely Laser had extras. He already wore a galaxy suit he'd borrowed from her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "At least the material was sturdy and would offer some protection in a firefight." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Yes, of course. Help my girls if you can.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Laser waved toward the hatch." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I will, Captain.\"\n\nMari slid into Kenji's pod after he exited it. \"The station's network is simple, as I believed it would be. I am working on getting into the ship's systems now.\" She tilted her head. \"Interesting.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Kenji had been trailing Qin and Tigress out, but he paused in the hatchway to listen.\n\n\"They do not have a slydar hull,\" Mari said. \"They are using astroshaman cloaking technology, which relies upon a generator and energy manipulation. It is not a paint application.\"\n\nKenji almost snorted at the idea of slydar simply being paint, as he'd seen the cost of outfitting ships with the special hull plating that fooled the eye as well as most scanner technology." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I take it that's why they were able to sneak off Odin, even past their slydar detector?\" Laser asked.\n\n\"Yes, and they have other technology from my people incorporated into their ship. I've thus far found it difficult to get into their network. I wasn't even able to verify its existence until a moment ago.\"\n\nKenji hesitated. \"Meaning no diddling?\"\n\n\"Not necessarily,\" Mari said, \"but it could be more difficult than I anticipated.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Kenji blew out a slow breath, eyeing the other ship uneasily." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Qin and Tigress had disappeared into the ladder well that led down to the cargo hold and the airlock hatch, and he had to follow, but this new revelation increased his unease. If Mari couldn't do anything to their ship and couldn't even the odds—or, ideally, tilt the odds in their favor—this could go very badly very quickly. Even if Zhor didn't mean to betray them, Kenji meant to betray him. As soon as the thief found out he didn't have the rest of the money for the device, this would turn into a firefight." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I'll find a way to take that ship out of the equation.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Mari looked back at him and must have interpreted his daunted expression correctly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She gave him a reassuring smile—or was that a determined smile? \"Just because they have astroshaman technology doesn't mean they have an astroshaman.\"\n\n\"Yeah,\" Laser said. \"I hear they're hard to pick up at seedy space bars.\"\n\n\"Unless you wander in with a bag of chocolates in hand,\" Kenji murmured." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The determined smile turned into more of a grin." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I cannot speak for the rest of my people, but that would indeed work to pick me up.\"\n\nShe said the words as if she was unfamiliar with the term, and Kenji found himself grinning too.\n\n\"I was wasting my time with a stunner,\" he said. \"I should have dangled some Cosmos Crunchers at you when we first met.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"If those have chocolate, caramel, cinnamon, nougat, or nibs, it is possible you might have managed to kidnap me right then.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Then we never could have come on this adventure together.\"\n\n\"How horrible that would have been.\" Laser made a shooing motion. \"Get your ass over to that station before Zhor notices you're not showing up for his date and gets cranky.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I suppose Cosmos Crunchers wouldn't work on him,\" Kenji said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Try a raw steak. And kid?\" Laser looked back at him.\n\n\"Yes?\"\n\n\"Don't screw this up.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Kenji's first thought was to give a snarky retort, but something in her eyes made him believe it was a sincere warning and that she maybe even cared. Because of the danger to her freighter? She'd probably only come along as a favor to a friend, not believing she'd be in any real trouble, but with the thief ship and all its weapons looming nearby, she had to be concerned. Possibly more concerned because this relied so much on him." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 5 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I won't,\" he said seriously.\n\nHe nodded to Laser, nodded to Mari, and headed for the ladder.\n\nThank you, Kenji, Mari messaged him as he descended. I appreciate you taking this risk to help me.\n\nHe almost replied that he was only here for his pardon, but he realized that wasn't true, not anymore." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "help a writer out? 5 sentences more sentences, Lindsay Buroker-style, Science Fiction, Romance genre thx" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"La madre que te parió!\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Laser swore, lunging to her feet.\n\nMari didn't know what that meant, but she agreed with the sentiment.\n\nKenji's team was in trouble, the freighter was now surrounded by three enemy vessels, and it was only a matter of time before they all opened fire. Mari was keeping Zhor's ship busy by fencing with the intelligent computer, but she still hadn't been able to get past it, and she worried the two newcomers would also have astroshaman technology.\n\nShe was in the middle of investigating their network defenses when Laser slapped her on the shoulder." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"We have to help them.\" Laser pointed at the camera feeds on the forward display, several showing the men streaming through the arrival area, firing on Kenji's little team. \"Those are my girls over there.\"\n\nNot waiting for an answer, Laser lunged out of navigation and raced to the ladder. Mari hesitated, thinking she could do more from there, but she ought to be able to watch Laser's back at the same time as she battled virtual enemies." }, { "from": "human", "value": "As she followed Laser, Mari sent a quick message to Minister Dabrowski to let him know Kenji had acquired her terraformer." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "If only the Kingdom ships weren't so far away. She and the others would have to get out of this mess by themselves.\n\nAs she descended toward the hold, Mari also rechecked the station's network. She had been on the verge of finally slipping into the enemy ship's computer when all the backup had arrived, distracting her. She scowled, aware of the intelligence over there spotting her and driving her away from its virtual borders again." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "For now, she had to focus on the station, on making sure she maintained control of the security robots and directing them to help their people.\n\nWhen she reached the cargo hold, Laser was already halfway into her combat armor, growling and cursing as she donned the cumbersome gear. She tossed a rifle over to Mari.\n\nBusy maneuvering the robots, and investigating the new ships, Mari almost missed catching it. \"I've got ten of the station's robots circling our people and deflecting fire. Give me a second, and I'll get them shooting at their enemies.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Good. We need a female El Mago right now.\" Laser headed for the airlock hatch, affixing her helmet as she went.\n\nMari didn't know what that meant either, but she nodded as she groped for more that she could do. Ah, the firewall doors. If she could lower another one, she might be able to cut the remains of Zhor's original team off from Kenji, Tigress, and Qin." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Then they would only have to shoot their way past the newcomers to escape.\n\nSince Kenji had the terraformer, all they had to do was get out of the station and figure out a way to escape the asteroid without being obliterated.\n\n\"Come on!\" Laser ran through the airlock tube, fast and spry for someone Mari had assumed would be beyond her fighting years. She carried two rifles and a netted bag that held grenades.\n\nWith her new rifle in hand, Mari hurried after her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But the firewall door—she needed to drop that." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She checked the cameras to make sure there was still time.\n\nWatching the videos on her tiny lenses wasn't ideal, and she had to cycle through the feeds to find Zhor's men. They'd almost caught up with Kenji, Tigress, Qin, and the cluster of robots, all of whom were busy defending themselves, firing at enemies to both sides. There was one firewall door left between her allies and Zhor's team.\n\nMari flicked a software switch, and the door slammed down, almost squashing one of the dog men." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Zhor's people would find a way through eventually, but Kenji's team ought to be able to make progress toward the airlock now that they had a reprieve from behind." }, { "from": "human", "value": "And they did. Tigress and Qin led a charge toward the enemies in the arrival area." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Kenji followed more slowly, his gait uneven. Had he been wounded?\n\nMari commanded the robots to roll along at the team's sides, firing to help clear the way.\n\n\"Hah,\" she whispered as she trailed Laser into the airlock chamber on the station. She felt triumphant at their team's progress." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Laser glanced back at her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"We're evening the odds,\" Mari promised, wanting the captain to know she was being useful.\n\n\"You keep doing that.\" Laser had reached the open hatch into the station but paused there.\n\nShouts echoed throughout the arrival area, and DEW-Tek bolts streaked about, bouncing off the walls. Shrapnel floating all over the place promised some of them had found more vulnerable targets." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A robot head tumbled slowly through the air not ten feet from the hatch." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "More than a dozen armored men were either in the arrival area or firing from the protection of their airlocks. Tigress, Qin, and Kenji came into view, the security robots helping deflect fire as they advanced, but the team was still more than fifty yards away. Too many people were firing at them, and the women's armor was charred and smoking. The heads and arms of several security robots had been blown off.\n\nFortunately, the firewall door that Mari had lowered was still intact, keeping Zhor's original team from firing at their backs." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But booms and clangs echoed from it, promising they were trying to get through." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Qin fired her anti-tank gun, the round slamming into the armored torso of a man leading a charge toward them." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It exploded, smoke clouding the area as he flew backward, crashing into two of his allies." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "That weapon had the necessary heft to do damage to armor, but how many rounds did Qin have left?\n\n\"These are not good odds, kid,\" Laser muttered.\n\nShe didn't run out into the bay, instead dropping to one knee with her rifle pressed into the crook of her shoulder as she took aim from the partial cover of the hatchway. Mari activated her targeting software and leaned out beside Laser. She fired at enemies in the arrival area as she focused the rest of her computing power on finishing her investigation of the two new ships." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She hadn't yet detected sentient computers on them. Maybe, unlike Zhor's ship, they didn't have astroshaman technology. That would make them easier to hack.\n\nAs she worked on sneaking into their systems, Mari kept firing at enemies and guiding the robots that were helping Kenji's team. She was glad she had enough chips and power for the multitasking, because her allies needed all the assistance they could get." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Laser kept firing as well, trying to drive people out of the way and clear a route for their team to reach them. By using sustained blasts, she burrowed into seams in their enemies' armor. One man yelped, spun, and fired at them.\n\nLaser calmly ducked back into the airlock as crimson bolts bounced off the hatch beside her. Mari was less experienced with firefights and sprang back into the airlock tube with a startled squawk, tripping over her own boots." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "One of the enemy bolts ricocheted back, missing her faceplate by inches.\n\n\"We've got their attention now.\" Laser leaned out and fired again, then grabbed one of her grenades to throw.\n\nMari had lost her focus on the robots, but she hurried to regain control. Their team was only twenty-five yards away now." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She sent the robots ahead of them, their big cannon arms booming.\n\nOne of the robots bumped into one of Zhor's men, knocking his magnetic soles from the floor and sending him tumbling into the air. He could still shoot, but he struggled to control his body or find anything to hang on to.\n\nThanks for the help, a message came in from Kenji.\n\nYou're welcome, Mari distractedly sent back as she directed more robots to knock enemies from their feet." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Though she was busy concentrating, she felt a burst of gratitude that Kenji had noticed and appreciated her help.\n\nShe managed to take control of the weapons systems on the two new vessels and clenched her fist. That had been much easier than with the other ship.\n\nBut she couldn't yet order them to open fire on their leader. Laser's freighter was in the way." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Mari needed to take command of their navigation computers and maneuver them all to one side of the docking area." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"One step at a time,\" she breathed to herself." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The floor quaked as an explosive went off." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It wasn't one of Laser's.\n\nWe're going to try to make a rush and reach you, Kenji messaged, but— Look out! Some men are coming your way.\n\nLaser swore, threw another grenade, then backed into the airlock tube with Mari. \"We might have to retreat into the cargo hold and make a stand there.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Several armored men stormed into view in front of the hatchway, one snatching a floating colleague out of the air and pulling him back down to the floor." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They pointed rifles straight into the tube at Laser and Mari, barely noticing that Laser was firing at them, hitting their seams and faceplates with pinpoint accuracy." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Mari ordered several of the robots toward this new group of attackers, hoping to ram them so they couldn't rush into the airlock tube." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But the men were too fast. Shots hit Mari and Laser, forcing them farther back.\n\nA bolt struck like a hammer blow to Mari's galaxy suit. It wasn't as painful—or deadly—as it would have been had she only been wearing clothing, but it made her cry out and brought tears to her eyes. She scrambled back, wanting to get out of there." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "One man lunged into their airlock tube, swinging his rifle at Laser, who wasn't retreating as quickly. She ducked and tried to ram into him. Her armor gave her extra strength, but he was young, enhanced, and fast. He had the advantage. When he grabbed Laser, and they grappled, her knee buckled." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She swore with pain as he forced her down and tried to tear her rifle out of her hands.\n\nThough Mari wanted to keep retreating, she rushed back in, drawing even with the fight. She braced herself on the side of the tube for support and side-kicked Laser's enemy in the hip.\n\nIt startled him and knocked him back, his boots coming off the bottom of the tube. Laser yanked her weapon back from him and fired at his faceplate, holding down the trigger." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As he struggled to right himself in zero gravity, she kept firing. The sustained blast melted through his faceplate and burned into his skull.\n\nHe screamed and tried to whirl away, but it was too late for him. Laser shoved him out of the way and rushed forward to face the next challenge, but Kenji, Qin, and Tigress had reached their airlock and were clearing it of enemies.\n\nAs Mari was about to let out an elated cheer, Viggo spoke." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Bonita,\" his voice came over their helmet speakers, \"we have a problem.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Another one?\" Laser growled, waving their allies into the tube.\n\n\"Yes, a large one. More ships have arrived.\"\n\n\"We've got more company!\" came Laser's warning over Kenji's helmet comm, and he couldn't stifle a groan.\n\nHe had the terraforming device, Qin and Tigress were still with him, and with the help of all those robots, they'd made it to the airlock." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He'd started to believe they could actually get away, but now..." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"More ships, Viggo says,\" Laser added." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"That bastard must have brought an entire armada. Hurry inside. If there's any way we can get out of here, we'll take it.\"\n\nKenji had thought Qin's blast had put Zhor out of commission, if not killed him outright, but maybe he had survived. Maybe he was still back there giving orders to his legions of men.\n\n\"You go in first, Kenji,\" Qin said, standing shoulder to shoulder with Tigress and firing into the arrival area, keeping the remaining troops from getting close. They nudged him back into the airlock." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He hesitated, reluctant to leave them to fight while he ran." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"We'll be right behind you,\" Tigress said, glancing back.\n\n\"Okay.\" Kenji spun and rushed through the airlock tube, his hip, shoulder, and back pulsing with pain with every step.\n\nMari and Laser had already disappeared into the cargo hold. He hoped Laser could do something from navigation. He was sure Mari could." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She seemed able to help from anywhere." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He'd seen her firing at their enemies with the steady mechanical mien of an android even as she controlled a dozen security robots, directing them to fire as well.\n\nWhen Kenji reached the cargo hold, he found Mari waiting inside, though she wore a distracted I'm-diddling-with-the-enemy's-networks expression, and he knew she wasn't simply standing there. Laser had already climbed up to navigation.\n\n\"I've got something for you.\" Kenji pressed the terraforming device into her hands, making sure she had it before letting go, then turned to check on the others." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Thank you.\" Though clearly still distracted, Mari smiled at him.\n\nSomething struck the freighter, making the deck quake and her smile drop.\n\nKenji swore. He'd been afraid of that. The other ships had to be firing on them.\n\nTigress and Qin charged into the hold." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They slammed the exterior and interior airlock hatches shut, and Qin pressed a button to retract the tube." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Qin shook her head." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"There's a rip in the tube. The captain won't be happy about that.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"If the entire ship gets blown up,\" Tigress said, \"I doubt the rip is going to bother her overmuch.\"\n\n\"Possibly true.\"\n\n\"Whoever has convinced Zhor's two ally ships to fire at his ship,\" came Laser's voice over a speaker, \"I appreciate that.\"\n\nMari smiled tightly.\n\nBefore Kenji could ask about the newest arrivals, something else struck the freighter." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A jolt almost knocked his boots off the deck." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Mari might be helping with the battle, but they weren't out of trouble yet.\n\nQin and Tigress sprinted past him, hurrying toward the ladder.\n\n\"Are we going to have to fight more, Captain?\" Qin called up. \"Do you think they'll board us?\"\n\nKenji didn't hear the answer, but he wanted to know what was going on, so he hurried after them." }, { "from": "human", "value": "When he was halfway up the ladder, Mari laughed, startling him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He peered down at her.\n\n\"The new ships belong to the Kingdom Fleet,\" Mari said, her voice light with relief. \"They're not firing on Laser's freighter but on Zhor's three ships.\"\n\nA clunk sounded as something else struck the hull.\n\n\"Are you sure?\" Kenji asked." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"We're being hit with debris from Zhor's ships. I managed to maneuver them all to one side of the docking area, but we're still very close to them.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She'd managed to maneuver them? He would ask about that later.\n\n\"A big enough piece could damage us as much as weapons fire.\" Kenji, wanting to see the scanner display in navigation for himself, continued up the ladder. \"How many Fleet ships are there?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Three warships.\" Mari climbed after him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I believe... Yes, they have slydar hulls. That is a new development and why we didn't realize we had allies so close. When my people battled the Kingdom warships a few months ago, they did not have that technology themselves.\"\n\n\"Times change.\"\n\n\"Indeed.\"\n\nKenji and Mari squeezed into navigation behind Tigress. Laser and Qin had already taken the pods, Laser's fingers flying over the controls so they could leave—or at least get out of the way and take less damage as the Kingdom ships fired on the other three vessels." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"One of those is the Osprey,\" Qin said as the freighter eased away from the dock—and from the battle." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I saw,\" Laser said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Never thought I'd be so glad to see that pompous Captain Ishii. His big butt is making it crowded in here, but I'm going to forgive him, as long as he doesn't misfire and pulverize us.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Railgun and cannon blasts lit up the dark cave outside of the station, slamming into the hulls of the enemy ships. Interestingly, Zhor's two ally ships weren't firing back. Mari's doing? Zhor's ship, with all the advanced weaponry, was launching attacks, but the warships had excellent armor and shields. It didn't take long for the signs of battle to dwindle.\n\n\"I am monitoring the comms,\" Viggo said as the freighter headed for the asteroid's exit." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"The warships have disabled Zhor's vessels and are demanding they surrender and prepare to be boarded. The Kingdom intends to take back all of the stolen goods they find and arrest the thieves.\"\n\n\"Good.\" Mari held her terraformer to her chest, as if she'd recovered a lost baby.\n\nKenji, who'd been positive the thing would kill him ten minutes earlier, had no desire to touch it ever again. He did touch her, resting a hand on her shoulder. \"We would have been scragged without your help. Thanks, again.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "She smiled warmly at him and inclined her head." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"We helped a little bit too.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Tigress tapped a finger on her armored chest, dents and scorch marks covering it." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Yes, you did.\" Kenji nodded at her and Qin. \"Thank you too.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No problem.\" Tigress thumped him on the shoulder." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Between her strength and her armor's enhancements, it almost sent him smashing against the wall." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Thankfully, his galaxy suit offered some protection, but Kenji couldn't keep from gritting his teeth in pain from his earlier wounds." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He hoped the freighter's sickbay had some powerful drugs." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"If you don't mind,\" Tigress added, \"I'll take a testimonial from you for our new business.\"\n\n\"From me?\" Who would want a testimonial from him?\n\n\"Yes. We helped you stay alive in there, right? Once we've satisfied a few clients, we'll have less trouble picking up new work. And we'll be reputable enough to be able to lease a location for our office anywhere in Zamek City.\" Tigress sniffed. \"No need to deal with uptight business owners who don't want superior genetically engineered neighbors.\"\n\n\"Are you hoping to get more work like this?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Kenji looked toward the battered ships on the display and raised his brows; he couldn't imagine anyone voluntarily signing up for gigs like this." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It had almost killed all three of them." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Sure,\" Tigress said. \"It's what we do.\"\n\n\"Challenging work is rewarding,\" Qin said.\n\nRewarding, right.\n\nI am glad I'm not a bounty hunter, Mari messaged Kenji directly.\n\nI'm glad that I've retired from the business, he replied." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A wise decision." }, { "from": "human", "value": "I thought so. After all, I failed to capture even one astroshaman woman." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Because you didn't bring the Cosmos Crunchers you spoke of.\n\nThat is obvious in hindsight.\n\nAs more things are. Mari rested a hand on his shoulder. Do you need help getting to sickbay?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Probably." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Do you want me to bring the tequila?" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He managed a lopsided smile for her. Probably." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Mari sat in a pod in the freighter's small sickbay cabin, watching Kenji as he slept on the combination bed and exam table.\n\nHe'd taken several hits from DEW-Tek bolts during the battle, and despite Laser's promise that she had skills and expertise as a medic, Mari had been concerned ever since she'd learned how wounded he'd been. Qin and Tigress had also been injured through their armor, but they'd said they had genetic enhancements to ensure rapid healing and hadn't stayed in sickbay longer than it took to grab some painkillers.\n\nSince then, they had been in and out to check on Kenji, but there were some lengthy comm messages going on between Laser and the knights on the warships, so they had mostly been up in navigation. His last visitor had been Kay, who'd stayed for an hour, until Viggo had suggested a robot with a mechanic's skills would be useful in assisting with repairs to the damage the freighter had received in the battle." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Mari was glad they hadn't taken a lot more damage." }, { "from": "human", "value": "If the knights and other Kingdom leaders determined that she and Kenji had performed adequately and had done all that had been asked of them, she would consider the mission victorious." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She hoped they wouldn't be held accountable for the destruction inside the station.\n\n\"I don't think they'll blame us for that,\" she murmured.\n\nKenji, his eyes still closed, did not respond.\n\nLaser had injected him with strong painkillers, as well as several sets of nanites programmed to mend his injuries, and he'd been sleeping—or was he unconscious?—for several hours. Mari had brought the bottle of tequila as well as her dwindling bag of candy-coated chocolates to sickbay in case Kenji would like to enjoy either of them." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A few days earlier, she hadn't had much interest in sharing the delicious chocolates with anyone, but she would gladly offer them to him now.\n\nThey had worked together—and trusted each other. Unfortunately, she had no idea if she would ever see him again once they returned to Odin.\n\nGreetings, Mari, a message from Minister Dabrowski came in. I understand from Captain Ishii, Sir Asger, and Captain Laser that you successfully retrieved your terraformer, that Kenji worked with you all instead of against you, and that a great deal of astroshaman technology is currently being recovered from Zhor's ship." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Mari zeroed in on only one of those statements." }, { "from": "human", "value": "You doubted that Kenji would help us?" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "I personally believed that he would help, but as my colleagues have pointed out numerous times, in addition to his upbringing being less than stellar, we basically coerced him into going on our mission. Even I was holding my breath to see what he would do after we sent the money to him. There's a reason I asked Laser to be the one to fly you out there.\n\nBesides keeping an eye on him?\n\nBecause I knew she, Viggo, Qin, and Tigress would be able to thwart Kenji if he tried to take over the ship and sneak off to some nearby station to disappear." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He's an honorable ally." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Mari leaned over and rested a hand on Kenji's arm." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He would not have done that.\n\nI'm pleased to hear that. Do you need anything else? We'll all have a thorough debriefing when you get back to Odin.\n\nMari thought about asking about her own status." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She had little doubt that this had been a test for her as well as for Kenji. But maybe that was something that wouldn't be determined until the debriefing.\n\nI am curious why you didn't tell us that camouflaged Kingdom warships were so close. We all would have been bolstered if we'd known. And less scared. Mari was fairly certain that even Laser hadn't known." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "My apologies for withholding that information, but Captain Ishii insisted. By that point, we suspected Zhor had quite a bit of astroshaman technology, and Military Intelligence worried he might intercept and decrypt any communications going to the freighter.\n\nI don't think he did. But I do wonder... Because she'd been on the station's network at the time, Mari had heard Zhor's words over the speakers. I don't think he ever fell for the ruse." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "At the least, he knew Kenji wasn't working as his father's representative.\n\nNo? One wonders why he came to the meeting then.\n\nZhor tried hard to kill Kenji.\n\nI'll ask Military Intelligence to do some digging, Dabrowski said. It's possible Kuchikukan Chisaka is holding a grudge against his son for running away—or for some other reason." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "You think he might want Kenji dead? That he might be willing to pay an acquaintance to kill him?\n\nIf so, we'll find out. And we'll let Kenji know.\n\nDabrowski said goodbye, and Mari leaned back in her pod." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She didn't know what Kenji planned to do in the future, but if his father was gunning for him, he might have a hard time even if he moved to another system." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"How's our patient?\" Laser stepped gingerly into sickbay, favoring one leg. She'd also grabbed painkillers earlier. Maybe she should have programmed some nanites for herself.\n\n\"He hasn't woken yet.\"\n\n\"Not even for candy and tequila? What a weird kid. You might have to wake him with a kiss.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Mari fumbled her bag of chocolates, and it fell on the deck. \"What?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Like in Qin's fairy tales. The beautiful princess wakes the handsome prince from the sorceress's evil spell with a kiss. Though I've got to admit, you two aren't exactly prince and princess material.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Laser eyed them both dubiously.\n\n\"My mother is a high shaman. And I believe Kenji's mother was a noble.\"\n\n\"Sorry, I don't think that would get you into anybody's fairy tales.\"\n\n\"It sounds like they suffer from a paucity of variety.\"\n\n\"That's not a lie.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Laser stepped up to the side of the exam table to check on Kenji.\n\nMari, realizing Laser wasn't truly suggesting that she kiss him, picked up her bag of candy and scooped up several pieces that had fallen out. She debated whether the time spent on the deck would have contaminated them with germs.\n\n\"Go ahead and eat those. Viggo's vacuums keep this place better sterilized than a clean room. Has he had them demonstrate the new incineration mode for you yet?\" After eyeing the medical scanner display, Laser swatted Kenji on the chest." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Wake up, kid. I've got news.\"\n\nMari stood up and would have protested Laser's treatment, but it proved effective. Kenji emitted a faint groan and opened his eyes, blinking blearily at them.\n\n\"I think he would have preferred being woken with a kiss,\" Mari muttered.\n\n\"You took too long.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"News?\" Kenji mumbled, focusing on them.\n\n\"I thought you might like to know that Zhor is alive but that the knights captured him when they went in to mop up the station. He was pretty badly injured, but he was hiding out in some office in the back, hoping he wouldn't be noticed. They've got him in the brig of one of the warships now.\"\n\n\"I hope he ends up in a penal asteroid mine,\" Kenji said.\n\n\"That's a possibility. Or maybe they'll make him clean up the mess his people made here.\" Laser waved in the direction of the station." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Anyway, our work is done. We're heading back to Odin. I guess there's going to be a big meeting, and the government will figure out what to do with you two.\"\n\n\"Should we be worried?\" Kenji asked Mari.\n\nMari thought of all the things still up in the air, such as whether her mother had found out yet where she was, and could only say, \"I don't know.\"\n\n\"I was hoping for something more comforting.\"\n\nLaser touched her chest." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I thought you did all right. Both of you. Now, give him some tequila.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She swatted Kenji again before walking out.\n\n\"I think that was a compliment,\" Kenji said, \"though her bedside manner is somewhat lacking.\"\n\n\"I noticed.\" Mari thought about mentioning the suggestion of a kiss but decided this wouldn't be the appropriate time, and she doubted Kenji wanted to do that again with her anyway. He'd only been helping her check an item off her list. \"Chocolate?\"\n\nShe offered him the ones from the bag, not the deck." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 6 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Thank you.\" He accepted and nodded to the bottle. \"Have you been testing your, ah, what deficiency was it you thought you had?\"\n\n\"Aldehyde dehydrogenase 2.\"\n\n\"Yeah, that. Maybe we should share a drink together again and see how it goes. Scientists have to replicate their experiments before writing up papers on the outcome, don't they?\"\n\n\"It's a good idea, yes.\"\n\n\"I thought so.\"" } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "STORY CONTINUATION REQUIRED:\nLength: six sentences sentences\nGenre: Fantasy" }, { "from": "system", "value": "Produce a starting prompt please." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Talis returned to the keep before sunrise. The face in the door opened an eye as he opened the door, then went back to sleep. Most of the castle still slept. Only the kennels and stables were rousing, and the kitchen, for guests would be gathering that morning to hunt with the King. Talis, far more interested in the mysteries in the spellbook than in running down animals and slaying them, hoped his brother would not notice his absence. The window gave him a view of the field and the distant wood, a mist of green and shadow, where night still lingered beneath the golden oak and the birch whiter than bone." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The sun and the hunters would waken it, sending great flocks of startled birds wheeling out of the trees." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Now the wood dreamed. So did the castle. Talis opened the book.\n\nThe sun rose without catching his eye, for the window had shifted to overlook the formal gardens and fountains. Talis had risen also, tantalized by a spell. It seemed effortless: To Open a Latched Door Across a Room." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Talis eyed the door and then the book." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The spell, he knew, would have nothing to do with a door. More likely, it had to do with boots or wind. But, he reasoned, if he found what the spell in reality did, he could match the reality with the words, and prove that in this particular mage's teasing code door meant wind.\n\nImplements, the book said. One gold cup. A large bowl of water. A candle lit in a holder made of gold." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He had brought them all into the keep: They were familiar requirements." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He poured water from a bucket into a porcelain washbasin, and lit the candle. Beeswax scented the air; he had a sudden, wistful memory of spring in the high meadows on the mountains. He cleared his mind, concentrated.\n\nHold the cup upside-down above the water, the book instructed, so that gold reflects water and water reflects gold, reflection reflecting reflection. Stand the candle in water between them, so that fire, gold, water, lie within the hollow of the cup.\n\nRepeat these words thrice. Backward." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Talis, holding the cup steady above fire, gold, water, hit a blank: The spell ended there. What words? he wondered, and was illuminated.\n\n\"Drawkcab,\" he said without much hope. \"Ecirht. Sdrow. Eseht. Taeper.\"\n\nHe felt a stirring in the air around him, as if the keep, alarmed at the strange sorcery, watched him. \"Drawkcab,\" he repeated, and thought he heard an echo, an unfamiliar voice, urgent, intense." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Ecirht. Sdrow. Eseht. Taeper. Drawkcab,\" he began a third time." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Ecirht. Sdrow. Eseht.\" He heard a scream then, faint and distant, a memory tearing into time, and his face tightened." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Taeper,\" he finished grimly, and light exploded out of the water." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The cup spun out of his hands, flew across the room and flattened itself against the far wall. The light, humming dangerously, left a white streak across Talis' vision, hit the ceiling at an angle, then arced out the window, which had moved again, attracted perhaps by the trumpets calling the hunt to order below.\n\nTalis heard a tortured squeal from the trumpet, and the thunk of metal against stone. The noise of the dogs drowned human voices, but he could make out, in the second before he located his bones and could move, an isolated shout here and there among the frenzied howling. \"Burne,\" he breathed, horrified, and flung himself at the window, clinging to it before it could move again. He leaned precariously over the edge, catching his lenses and then his balance as he looked down." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Burne was staring at a bolt of white fire burrowing mole-like into the ground in front of his horse." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The horse, a favorite hunter, trembled in every muscle, but did not throw its rider. The trumpeter, sitting dazed among the hounds, had not fared so well. Servants bearing trays of spiced wine and hot brandy had flung them into the air, splashing themselves; goblets rolled among the hounds. The hounds whimpered and bayed at the light, horses fought to bolt; everyone else seemed frozen—hunters, musicians, kennel-masters, servants, dog-boys and the King—all staring at the light as, with a kind of mindless frenzy, it buried the last of itself underground.\n\nThe faces lifted then, to stare at Talis.\n\nHe saw only one: his brother's." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It was a furious, glowing thing, a little, Talis thought, like the light he had created." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He could not hear Burne well, above the racket the hounds made, but he caught the drift: What had he learned in two years at Chaumenard, and why had Burne bothered to send him there, and why had Burne even bothered to survive the winter siege, only to live to be killed by his own brother? Then he added something that caused Talis to hang even more perilously out the window, trying to hear. The hounds, having frightened away the light, began to quiet; the King's voice came clear.\n\n\"—out of that keep. It's a nightmare of foul memories and I want you down among people instead of ghosts, before you get as crazed as it is—\"\n\n\"It's not the keep,\" Talis shouted back. \"Burne, it's just the book—\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Then throw it down! I want the book burned and the keep walled shut—\"\n\n\"Burne, listen to me—\"\n\n\"You nearly killed me!\"\n\n\"It was an accident!\"\n\n\"You accidently missed me?\"\n\n\"No!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Then what were you trying to do?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Open a door!\"\n\n\"With a lightning bolt?\"\n\n\"Burne, please listen! Wait—I'm coming with you—\"\n\nThe King refused to discuss the matter. Talis, mounted, and armed to kill anything that moved, caught up with Burne halfway to the wood. Everyone else seemed eager to ask him about the incident, to tease, to tell him what they were doing and saying the moment lightning leaped out of the keep and nearly hit the King." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But lightning wasn't the word for it—it was more like something living, a strange being made of light with an urge to bury itself alive." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "And the odd noise it made. The hum. Like some vast, vibrating string. Thrum.\n\n\"Burne,\" Talis pleaded, but the King only showed him a tight-jawed profile.\n\n\"No.\"\n\nThe hounds, loosed, streaked toward the wood. The King urged his hunter into a canter." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Talis, hesitating, looked back at the keep." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Riders fanned around him; trumpets and horns called a warning to deer and hare, boar and bird." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The single eye at the top of the keep looked back at Talis, opaque with memory or light. He had a sudden, crazed image of himself barring the doors from within and letting Burne lay siege against him. But Burne would never forgive him, and there was nothing he could do in the keep that couldn't be done elsewhere. Yet it drew at him, massive and ancient, dark with the ash of siege fires, as full of memories as the heads of warriors who had survived the night. It was a mystery, like the spellbook, which, Talis reminded himself, he should go back and rescue. He glanced at the riders disappearing into the trees and decided to try once more to persuade Burne." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He galloped after the hunt." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He heard the trumpets cry of a deer in two different places, it seemed. He followed one, saw the flicker of gold and scarlet and royal purple among the leaves; the riders were farther away than seemed possible. The trumpets sounded again, and then the gentle, silvery horns called of hare. Hounds belled everywhere, from every direction, though he saw none of them. He rode quickly, recklessly, to catch up, listening for the trumpets, for Burne would pursue the hart before the hare. A lacework of birch leaves brushed across his eyes; he ducked down, riding low beneath the outstretched boughs of oak, and far too quickly." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But as fast as he rode, the hunt seemed to recede even more quickly away from him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He heard the horn again, distant, teasing, and then suddenly close, and from another direction." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The hunters had apparently scattered throughout the wood. He turned first toward one fanfare, then the other; he could see nothing but trees, the moving shadows of windblown leaves. He galloped through the shadows, bewildered and careless, and then across a shallow stream, its water slow and heavy with moss-capped stones. He felt his horse stumble, catch itself, and he straightened a little, pulling on the reins. The long limb of an oak stretched across the far bank caught him in the chest, lifted him out of the saddle, and threw him into the stream.\n\nThe world went black." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Then he dragged his eyes open, unable to breathe, not knowing if he lay in air or water." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He found air finally, pulled it in, trying to blink away the strange mist of green that had enveloped him. Leaves, he realized slowly: He had lost his lenses, and the world had blurred. Little explosions of pain flared in his knee, his ribs, one shoulder, the back of his head. He lay on his back in water and frog-spawn and long, slimy ribbons of moss. He groaned, and groped for his lenses, raising himself piecemeal among the stones, finding everything battered, but nothing unworkable. He fished his lenses out of the moss and put them on." }, { "from": "human", "value": "One lens was shattered." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He cleaned the other, and found his boar spear, a few broken arrows and the sheath at his belt full of nothing but water. He groped again, found his hunting knife. He pushed himself to his feet with the spear and hobbled out of the water. His horse had vanished, which surprised him, since it was of stolid temperament and disinclined to startle. He stood on the bank, balanced against the spear to take the weight off his knee, and listened for the hunt.\n\nThe wood was soundless." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He heard no trumpets, no barking hounds, no hooves, no voices, not even disturbed birds complaining above the trees." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Not even the leaves moved; they might have been carved of stone in the still air, though on the ground, his bemused eyes told him, their shadows moved.\n\nA horn sounded, a single, sweet note.\n\nThree deer as white as snow with eyes of gold and shadows of gold ran through the trees in front of him.\n\nHe heard himself make a sound; the hair pricked on the back of his neck. He tried to move; he could only grip the spear more tightly to keep from falling. The deer flickered noiselessly away into the trees, shadows flowing like sunlight across everything they touched." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Three hounds as white as bone, with eyes and shadows as red as blood, ran soundlessly through the trees in pursuit of the deer." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He tried to turn himself invisible; the only thing he managed, in that upside-down world, was to erase his shadow. His hands slick on the boar-spear, he turned desperately to stumble away, hide himself from what would come. But he could not move quickly, in or out of the vision, and what came next came fast.\n\nThree white horses with eyes of bone and shadows of hoarfrost galloped after the hounds. Behind them rode three roan, and behind them three black, and behind them a great gathering of hunters that seemed to have fashioned themselves out of roots, tree bark and leaves, as if the wood itself were hunting. Through the empty frame of his lenses Talis saw a moving blur of green, trees riding a hard wind." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Through the unbroken lens he saw the faces of leaf and tree-bole, the slender woven branches of willow, of pale, papery birch bark." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Only the riders turning their white mounts toward him had no faces." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He swayed, caught his balance against the spear, watching the one with slender, jewelled hands ride forward, a bright white swirl of long skirt and mantle, flowing ribbons of silk and pearl, and crowned with gold and bone above long hair streaked with autumn fire and a dark oval that was no face." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Frozen, Talis watched her notch the arrow in her hand, lift her bow. Just before she shot, he whispered, \"At least, before you kill me, let me see your face. And then tell me why.\"\n\nHe saw her face.\n\nHe swayed again, trembling, wordless. Her eyes were gold and dark, troubled, in a face at once imperious and vulnerable and so beautiful there seemed no word, in human language, for what he saw.\n\nShe lowered her bow." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She said, her voice like the horn he had heard, pure, regal, haunting, \"I am the mother of sorrow.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Oh,\" he breathed, his voice gone, the world gone, except for what existed in the circle of his unbroken lens. \"How can I help you?\"\n\n\"You can see me. You have crossed into my world. You are not dreaming.\"\n\n\"No.\"\n\n\"Tell me your name.\"\n\nHe drew a long, shaking breath to give her that and his bones and anything else she might want of him. \"My name is—\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Someone shouted it behind him and the world within the lens shattered." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He turned, bewildered, stunned by the frenzied barking of hounds, not remembering where he had been, what world he had walked out of to see her. Hunters rode out of the trees, shouting; trumpets sounded; dogs swarmed into the stream, belling and harrying a boar that in its maddened panic was charging straight across the water at Talis.\n\nHe did not remember moving. He remembered blood on the boar's tusk after it tore open a hound with the toss of its head, and its rank smell as it came close, and then its small, furious and terrified eye. And then the spear shuddered in his hands, tried to wrench itself free. Something splashed across his eyes." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He saw the world through a bloody haze.\n\nTalis, he heard then, from another world, a secret within the wood.\n\nAnd then he heard the King's voice. \"Talis!\"\n\nHe knelt on the ground holding a spear with a dead boar impaled on it that had pushed itself in its dying frenzy all the way up to the cross-guard. That much he could see through his broken lens. The hounds were swarming around him, barking with wild excitement in his face, trying to tell him what he had done." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He opened his hands finally, let the spear fall." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He stumbled, rising. Burne caught him, dragged him away from the hounds.\n\nThe King pounded him, saying something, his face still patchy with fear. Talis winced, aching suddenly in every bone. He pulled his lenses off, cleaned the blood from the unbroken glass, his hands trembling. His hearing seemed to return with his sight; as he put the lenses back on, his brother's voice penetrated.\n\n\"I thought you were dead. I thought you were dead, when it came at your back and you just stood there not listening, not turning, with enough racket behind you to make the trees jump. And then you turned, and brought the spear down and the boar ran up it as cleanly as if it were spitting itself for supper. One stroke, straight through the heart.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He pounded Talis between the shoulder blades again, then took a closer look at him. \"You're all wet. You have slime in your hair.\"\n\n\"I fell in the stream,\" Talis said dazedly. \"Riding too fast after you. I broke a lens and maybe a rib. I was using the spear as a crutch. That's why I had it in my hands at all.\"\n\nBurne eyed him wordlessly a moment, his face taut again. \"Why didn't you use some magic or something? You could have been killed!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I don't know. I wasn't thinking clearly.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"You must have stunned yourself. That's why you didn't hear us.\"\n\n\"Yes.\" He touched his lenses and saw a face within the light and windblown leaves. \"I was stunned. Burne, I'm sorry I nearly killed you this morning.\"\n\n\"Never mind.\" Burne sighed. \"It's been tried before.\"\n\n\"About the keep—\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Never mind about the keep. Keep it. You'd only find another place to have your accidents in, anyway.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"It's not—\" Talis stopped himself. \"Thank you.\"\n\n\"Well. Anyway, it makes a good story. Almost as good as you falling off your horse, breaking a lens, and killing a charging boar while you hobbled around using your boar-spear as a crutch.\" He slapped Talis' back again, loosing a grunt of amazed laughter. \"You can tell it when we feast on your kill.\"\n\nIt seemed to Talis, as he stood dripping water and blood, seeing blurred green wood through one eye, and dogs scrapping over offal through the other, a peculiar exchange for magic.\n\nHe found his horse, which had gone nowhere but had simply declined to follow him into a dream, and rode home accompanied by various fanfares, with the gutted boar hanging upside-down on the spear behind him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The physician bandaged his ribs and his knee, forbade him to climb the keep stairs and gave him a tonic which, he thought, could have melted drawbridge chain, and which stunned him until evening the next day." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "It seemed mildly hallucinatory: As he sat through the long boar feast trying to keep his fraying thoughts together, he kept glimpsing the face of the woodland Queen among the guests. It was, he decided, a trick of his broken lenses, making him see double. Now a young girl wore the Queen's expression of power and vulnerability; now a fall of hair the color of autumn leaves made him catch his breath. Now he saw her face, just before it turned away from him to speak. It was a face full of opposites, he decided: delicate and regal, young and ageless, wild and controlled, fierce and sweet...\n\nTrumpets greeted the boar as it entered on a tray of silver and gold." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Talis saw himself on the tray suddenly, blind and still." }, { "from": "human", "value": "If he had not turned, if the spear had broken in his fall, if he had lost it in the water..." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He swallowed dryly, adjusted his lenses, and the odd vision vanished, along with his appetite. Later, the horns bade farewell to the bones and the picked meat and the tusks that lay like quarter moons on the bloody tray. Talis, wandering badly, forced himself to listen to his great-uncle relate a complex incident that had happened last autumn, or the one ten years before, or some autumn before Talis was born. There was One Great Hunt, he decided, that went on perpetually in some never-ending autumn. That was the Hunt out of which all stories came. Even his boar would come charging out of spring into autumn one day, during some drunken feast, when he would remember the leaves being all the colors of her hair..." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The story involved a broken stirrup, a hedge with a gypsy's laundry drying on it, and a pig." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Talis' eyes strayed. There she was again, at the far end of the table, holding a hazelnut in her long white fingers, each finger ringed with gold. She laughed suddenly at the hunting story; her face changed, became human. The King said softly to Talis:\n\n\"You're not eating. Are you in pain?\"\n\nTalis shook his head. \"I doubt that I'd feel pain if you dropped a table on my head. I just keep wandering out of the world.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Burne grunted. \"Go to bed before you fall in your plate.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Servants brought in wet linens scented with rosewater, and tiny, icy bowls of minced fruit. Talis wiped his hands and rose unsteadily; Burne added, \"And stay out of the keep. You're dangerous enough up there when your head is clear.\"\n\n\"I will,\" Talis said absently. Shadows followed him, spun out of the flickering torchlight. Voices, laughter, music, seemed to follow him also, even through the dark night, as if he walked through some invisible hall where the gathering within celebrated yet another hunt. He climbed the keep steps slowly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "There seemed far more of them than usual. He had reached the top and opened the door before he remembered, with some surprise, that he had been on his way to bed.\n\nThe room was lighted, he realized slowly, though he had found his way up in the dark. The light seemed not fire but sun, ancient, golden, still, like the wood on a soundless summer afternoon. He made a sound, seeing two worlds again: the bleak, shadow-ridden keep, the light trembling in it as if, in the otherworld, midnight did not exist.\n\nIn that light, not even past existed." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 7 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "All the tormented shadows had vanished on the walls. He saw only one shadow: tall, slender, crowned with what looked like a circle of flame or deer horn. He watched it for a long time, until his heart seemed made of that sweet light, and he felt that at any moment she might step out of the faceless shadow on the wall into his world.\n\nHe heard her voice, distant, silvery, pure, like her hunting horn. Talis.\n\n\"Yes,\" he whispered, and again, \"Yes.\"\n\nShe said nothing more. He watched until her shadow reached out everywhere, pulled him into night." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "Continue with the same vibes as Patricia A. McKillip" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The fanfare signalling the beginning of supper refused to sound.\n\nThe tray-mistress and hall-servants listened for it absently, standing beside steaming silver bowls of soup with tiny saffron biscuits shaped like fish floating in it. Behind them, undercooks took long loaves smelling of onion and basil out of the ovens, and wrapped them snugly in linens to keep them hot." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Haunches of ham crackled and split on the spits, juices flowing into the dripping-pans; the spit-boys' lean cheeks were pouched with stolen bits of skin. Saro, deep in her cauldron, heard nothing but water sloshing and echoing around her. A small copper tower of saucepans stood at her elbow, some sticky with boiled frosting, others with congealing rice flavored with lemon and mint." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She was washing them one by one, oblivious to the small fingers scooping rice or frosting, whichever she uncovered, from the top of the tower.\n\nAs she straightened to reach for a dirty pan, noises came clearer: a laugh from the servants, the tray-mistress's tart voice, the head cook snapping at someone, a squeal from an apprentice burning a finger. She scrubbed the pan, straightened again to lay it on the floor to drain." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Silence, as if everyone were listening at once, was broken by a servant, and another laugh. She took a pan, and plunged again into water floating with rice kernels and bubbles. She flicked rice out, reappearing briefly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Silence again. She finished the pan, laid it on the floor, heard a murmuring and the head cook's tense voice.\n\n\"The soup—the soup! The fish will melt.\"\n\nShe reached for a frosted pan; the tray-mistress said grimly, \"They're all here, they didn't hunt, so why aren't they eating? Unless the musicians forgot how to play.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Saro bent again, felt for the pan in the gummy water. More rice than soap floated past her face; the water was cooling. She finished the pan, laid it down." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Someone should go,\" the tray-mistress said." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Saro turned, heaving against the cauldron." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Water slapped over the side toward the drains." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A mincer, his breath sugary, pushed with her, wanting to see the water spill." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"I'll go,\" the head servant said, straightening a gold-trimmed cuff fussily. \"The musicians may know.\"\n\nThe head cook studied the fish biscuits in a soup bowl and groaned." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The cauldron tipped; water poured into the drains." }, { "from": "human", "value": "In the unaccustomed silence everyone, having nothing else to do, looked at Saro." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Then their eyes moved to one another." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The head cook threw a boning knife across the room." }, { "from": "human", "value": "It stuck in a rafter above a spit-boy's head; the spit-boys, their chewing suspended, looked impressed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Beat them, someone,\" the tray-mistress demanded." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"They're eating the hams.\"\n\n\"What does it matter?\" the head cook asked fretfully." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No one else is.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Be patient.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Pah.\" He sniffed. \"What's burning?\"\n\nAn apprentice sprinted for the fires. Saro poured hot water from the kettle into the cauldron as the head servant came back down the steps." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "They all looked at him; the head cook made a sound like water about to boil.\n\n\"Well?\"\n\nThe head servant looked bewildered." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Apparently the prince is missing.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Missing!\" the head cook shouted, and Saro stopped abruptly, hot water splashing over her hands, down her skirt." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"He's up in the keep.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No—\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Then he blew himself away.\"\n\n\"No.\" The servant paused. \"Well. Maybe. The guard—\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What guard?\"\n\n\"The keep guard. They said they heard strange noises. They tried to enter. The door was—impossible. Then some strange mage blew past them. The noise died; they were able to enter. The prince was gone.\"\n\n\"What of supper?\" the head cook demanded." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"The bread is cooling, the fish are melting, the—\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"The beans are scorching,\" the apprentice said, heaving pots off the fires." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Then he flung open an oven door, peered into the blackness." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"The swans are burning.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The head cook turned away, moaning." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The tray-mistress hissed with fierce curiosity at the head servant, \"Go back up. See what more they say.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Saro, moving more slowly than usual, stared into the wash-cauldron before she began filling it." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She saw nothing but a few grains of rice clinging to the bottom." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Habit moved her; she was not used to doing nothing." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She poured hot water in it." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Still she saw no sign, in the dark rippling, of prince or mage." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She added soap, more water, and began to scrub again." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She had nearly finished the saucepans before the head servant returned." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "By then the head cook had flung a few more things; the mincers, peelers and pluckers had taken refuge under the tables; the undercooks had opened a bottle of brandy and were passing it back and forth.\n\n\"The mage,\" the head servant said, pale, \"must have been taken, too. So the King says. The King is baleful.\"\n\nThe cooks and undercooks stared at him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The tray-mistress reached for the brandy bottle." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What,\" she asked ominously, \"do you mean 'taken'? The mage took, he wasn't taken. The mage stole away the prince.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"The King says not. The King says—\" He paused, drawing breath; the tray-mistress upended the brandy and swigged. \"The King has sent messengers to the mages in Chaumenard. He bade them ride until their horses fell, then run until they could only walk, then walk until they could only crawl, but to get themselves to Chaumenard before they drew another breath. He is calling a hunt.\"\n\nThe head cook, morosely beheading black meringue swans, interrupted incredulously." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"A hunt! At this hour? What can they hunt in the dark?\"\n\n\"A woman.\"\n\nThey stared at him again, mute." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The tray-mistress clutched the brandy to her bosom; the head cook's knife hung suspended over the charred curved neck of a swan. Saro, bent deep into her cauldron, heard the word echo oddly in the hollows. Woman, the eddying water whispered." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Woman, woman, a woman.\n\n\"What woman?\" The tray-mistress's voice cracked.\n\n\"The King said the prince came upon her in the wood. She held him spellbound until he was nearly killed by the boar he killed.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "At the hearths, the spit-boys exchanged glances, their eyes hooded, reflecting fire." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Nameless, she was. So Prince Talis told the King. And beautiful. The King said that word as if it meant everything but. So the wood is where he will search for Prince Talis tonight.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Still the kitchen was silent, spellbound by the tale. The woman herself seemed to waver in and out of light and shadow as all their dreaming gazes conjured her. Even the head cook saw her, in memory or in desire; her shadow fell over the tray-mistress's face." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Saro, listening to their strange silence, saw only her own dark reflection at the bottom of the cauldron. The tray-mistress said abruptly, shaking them all awake, \"Not everyone will hunt. After the King rides, those left here will want their supper.\"\n\n\"Such as it is,\" the head cook muttered." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"And those returning from the hunt later will want theirs.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "The head cook, his face loosening as he calculated two suppers, hot and cold, got to his feet." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Reheat the soup,\" he commanded." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Remove the fish. Chop green onions to float in the bowls with a pinch of paprika.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Choppers!\" an undercook roared, and choppers scattered like mice from under the table.\n\nThe head cook's eye fell on the brandy bottle. \"Take hot brandy and spiced wine to the hunters in the yard, and thin slices of apple and game pie—quickly!\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Quickly!\" the tray-mistress echoed, rattling trays." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The musicians clustered, devising appropriate accompaniment to send off a hasty and desperate hunt." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Saro, stacking the last of the copper pans, found her tower disappear as apprentices whisked away clean pans to heat the brandy and wine. Someone took the last pan out of her hand. She leaned a moment against the cauldron, wet, idle, listening for her name." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Voices shouted of the hams, and the loaves of bread, and of eggs to make more meringue, of onions and bowls, trays and platters and music, but no one cried Saro." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Weariness dragged at her bones; heat from the ovens and open fires laid heavy hands across her eyes. Still listening, for there was always another pot, she dreamed a little; a word echoed not through the kitchen but in her head.\n\nWoman. A woman. Woman." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Saro!\"\n\nHer body stiffened. But her eyes refused to open. She searched blindly, her face turning to catch the sound of her name." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Saro, she heard again. But she did not recognize the voice.\n\nShe opened her eyes, her hands dropping to the rim of the cauldron to hold herself upright, for she was suddenly so tired that her body wanted to melt like water onto the stones." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The kitchen was oddly silent, dark but for beds of embers glowing, fuming fiercely in the hearths. It seemed empty, without even a mincer asleep under a table. She could hear, as from a distant room, or another world, the familiar, constant tangle of voices and noises, the nightly skirmish that produced the feast." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "In the shadows, something moved.\n\nShe stared, motionless, still gripping the cauldron. There was no kitchen-word for what she saw." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The great crown of horns seemed to sweep the rafters with fire; though, as in a dream, nothing burned except the dark moon within them." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The man's face was shadowy, indistinct; it was his eyes she remembered, staring at her out of the cauldron, seeing her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Huge black hounds swarmed restlessly around him, but made no sound. She felt her heart pulse in her throat; her head went back a little as he took a step toward her. But nothing else moved; all her bones were frozen except her finger bones, which gripped the iron cauldron like iron." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She could not even blink; her eyes were strained wide, transfixed by the cauldron's dream coming at her across the kitchen." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Saro.\"\n\nShe opened her eyes. She felt wet stone under her face, her hip, her hands." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Someone held half an onion under her nose. She took a whiff and pushed herself up. She looked around, bewildered; faces ringed her: pluckers, boners, washers, the sweeper." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The tray-mistress loomed over them. Her voice, small and faraway at first, broke some sound barrier and boomed abruptly.\n\n\"Give her soup, and some bread, and milk. She's forgotten to eat, she has not even that much sense. She'll work herself to death one of these days. Get her on her feet again; the pots are starting to pile.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "A plate-washer and the smoky-eyed boner helped her sit, brought her food." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The sweeper swept himself away, then swept back again and dropped a meringue swan, unburned but missing a tail, into her lap." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The boner said sharply to the staring crowd around her, \"Leave her be, or I'll bone you, you little gamecocks.\"\n\n\"But what happened to her?\"\n\n\"She fainted,\" the plate-washer said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"It's a wonder she didn't fall headfirst in the cauldron.\" She patted Saro's shoulder as the crowd dispersed, snickering at the thought of Saro's legs dangling out of her wash water. \"Poor shadowy thing. She's nothing but bones and skin, pale and damp like a mushroom. Yet she's always working like something demented.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She was silent a little, she and the boner both were, gazing at Saro like cats as she ate, eyes like wood smoke, eyes like hazelnuts, fixed and unblinking. \"Look at her,\" the washer whispered. \"Look at her face. Things move around in it. She never looks the same twice.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Like she's not meant to be looked at,\" the boner breathed.\n\n\"To be seen. Or not meant to be found.\"\n\nSaro dropped bread in her lap." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Soup would have followed, but the boner took it quickly, for Saro had begun to shake. She held herself, drew her knees up, pushed herself against the cauldron, her eyes flicking around the kitchen, searching for the night-hunter among the apprentices putting the morning's sweet rolls into the oven, among the scrawny mincers gnawing bread and bones under the table, among the spit-boys, their faces almost as wild and secret as the face in her vision. Found, she heard again in her head, and knew the word meant her as surely as her name." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The horned hunter had isolated her from all the noises and bodies and words in the kitchen." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He had looked at her and seen her.\n\nFound.\n\n\"Eat,\" the washer urged, holding the bowl to Saro's lips." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"It'll be a long night, what with the hunters out. You'll need to stay on your feet.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The first supper, shorter than usual and even more chaotic, ate up clean pots, spit them out dirty, as the head cook replaced, reheated, improvised. Saro scrubbed, rinsed, drew fresh water, scrubbed again. But nothing could wash away the dark vision in her head, the feeling that she no longer belonged to the kitchen, one of its familiars like the mincers or the cats, that no one outside would claim or recognize or even give a thought to." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She belonged in the night-hunter's eyes." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He had found her.\n\nAs he would find Prince Talis.\n\nHe would find her again." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She could feel her throat trying to make a sound; nothing came. She could not hide in the kitchen among the pluckers and choppers. They would fall into their dreams, leave her behind, alone, in the still dark hours when no one called her name." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "When not even the fire spoke. The kitchen began to calm itself behind her, musicians and servants, cooks and undercooks, eating wearily at tables, everyone else in a corner, at a hearth, under a table nibbling leftover ham, heels of bread, broken swans filled with fruit. But still she scrubbed, for there were pots, frying pans, dripping-pans, heaped crazily around her." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Saro and her noises were the kitchen's voice, familiar, constant; no one paid attention to her clattering. Even the boner, eating bits of ham off the tip of her boning knife, had forgotten her. As they would forget her at the night's end, drift away and leave her to the shadows." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "To the hunter.\n\n\"They're not back yet,\" a musician said fretfully, standing at one of the butcher's tables behind her. \"I haven't heard the horns. They always sound the horns when they leave the wood, and again at the gate.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"If he's with a woman, the prince,\" another said wryly, \"he might not be found until morning.\"\n\n\"If he's off chasing a dream through the wood, then what happened to the mage? What happened in the keep?\"\n\nSaro immersed half of herself and a half-dozen saucepans in steaming, soapy water." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Then she straightened again, holding the sides of the cauldron, remembering silence, the smell of owls, the hint of secrets.\n\nUp in the keep he does magic...\n\nBut he was gone." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The keep was empty..." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She reached again for pots." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She finished the last pot long after the plate-washers had finished. The royal hunt had not returned. The night seemed soundless, as if it, too, listened for horns." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The pastry cooks finished the sweetbreads and butter pastry for the morning. Some left, others drowsed, or drank wine and talked. The spit-boys lay beside their fires, watching them, feeding them now and then, as aware as lovers of every changing mood, every shadow." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The younglings had gone to sleep; the washers, waiting for the second supper, had fallen asleep at the tables with their heads in their arms." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Even the tray-mistress drowsed, only grunting a little when Saro laid the last gleaming dripping-pan on the stack.\n\nShe turned and looked at the kitchen.\n\nNo one looked back at her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "She was an iron cauldron, an apron, a table, something so familiar no one bothered noticing it, not even when it was stalked by a bloody moon above a hunter's masked face." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 4 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She would hear the horns from the keep, slip back into the kitchen before anyone could use a pot to want it washed. She would be safe within the prince's magical room; the hunter would never find her there.\n\nA flame vanished into an ember, cast a shadow across a spit-boy's face as he raised it to see what moved in the night, what long hair, what skirt. But it was nothing, only Saro, and he forgot about her even before she faded out of the firelight." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "AI writing task: user input -> four sentences sentences. style: Patricia A. McKillip. genre: Fantasy." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Saro watched him.\n\nShe leaned over the edge of the cauldron. The prince moved through the dark water, down through the keep, his face visible as light from the narrow windows flashed over him, then obscured by the sudden, dense shadows. He did not carry the spellbook." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She watched him thoughtlessly, out of habit, not knowing at what moment he might turn his head and see what she had seen. In the past, she had watched him ride through a wood that seemed a reflection of the wood the cauldron dreamed: Like him, she searched for things in it she could not find, for faces emerging out of leaves, out of light. She had watched him burn torn pages in the keep, feeding broken spells, one by one, to the hungry flame. She had watched him lean against the moving shadows on the wall, take off his lenses and weep." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Saro,\" the tray-mistress had said earlier." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Saro saw the heavy silver tray in her hands: onion soup with a melting crust of cheese over it, a loaf of dark bread, a flagon of wine, a tart of oranges sliced into thin bright circles glistening under a glaze that smelled of ginger. \"Nobody will go up there but you.\"\n\nSo she left her cauldron to take the tray to the prince in the keep.\n\nNobody questioned her when the tray came back down intact, nor when, still wide-eyed, she shut the book under the spit-boys' watching eyes, and hurried out with it." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"He wants his book back,\" the tray-mistress guessed." }, { "from": "human", "value": "One of the undercooks muttered, \"Never worked, anyway.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "Now the prince walked out of the keep into the yard." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Light floated across the water, angles of cloudy blue above harsh angles of stone. He did not enter the house again; he came along the outer wall, as she had gone, the narrow neglected stretch where the wildflowers grew between the house and the wall. Guards and pages, hurrying past, looked astonished at the sight of him. The strip of ground widened at the corner of the house, into the kitchen garden, with its long, tidy rows of herbs and vegetables, its vast woodpile, its moldering midden." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Wood-boys splitting logs snagged their upraised axes on air, staring at the prince." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He rounded the woodpile; ahead of him, the garden rows ended in a high stone wall that hid its unseemly sprawling squash vines and lettuces from the formal gardens beyond it. He turned onto the worn path that ended at the open kitchen door.\n\nSaro lifted her head, blinking. Noises and movement in the kitchen behind her stopped dead." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She turned, saw everyone, cooks, mincers, spit-boys, frozen over pots, knives, fires, staring at the kitchen door. She shifted, saw the shadow falling through the doorway, and blinked again, feeling some word trying to come alive in her throat. She stood up slowly, and met the prince's eyes.\n\nThe tray-mistress, raising her apron to her mouth, made a muffled exclamation into it." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The prince's eyes moved to her." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"I don't know her name,\" he said." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The tray-mistress moved her apron and wobbled a curtsy. \"Saro, my lord,\" she said.\n\nFor a moment, staring at Saro, he seemed as frozen as everyone staring at him. Then he lifted a hand, touched his lenses." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A word tried to come out of him and failed, Saro saw with wonder." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His eyes went back to the tray-mistress." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"She doesn't speak?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"She never has, my lord,\" the tray-mistress said faintly. She rallied herself, apron to her heart, and added, \"Never since she was found.\"\n\n\"Where?\"\n\n\"Out there beside the woodpile.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"When?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The tray-mistress shook her head, speechless again. \"Years ago, my lord,\" she said finally. \"Just after the winter siege, we found her, just a scrap of a child, barely alive in the cold, and mute as a mop. My lord.\"\n\nHe touched his lenses again; they turned back to Saro." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Then how,\" he asked huskily, \"did you know her name?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"She was someone's sorrow,\" the tray-mistress said simply." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"So we called her that.\"\n\nShe saw her name in his face, then, in his eyes, glittering suddenly behind the lenses. He pulled them off, brushed the back of his sleeve across his face. A spit-boy made a soft noise, then went frozen again, staring." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Everyone else seemed to unfreeze, as if the prince's tears had broken some spell." }, { "from": "human", "value": "The head cook asked, amazed," }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Who is she, my lord? Can you tell us? She's been down here scrubbing pots all of your life. And then she got your book somehow. She's something magical—\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Yes.\" He looked at the head cook." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"No one thought to tell the King?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"We were thinking, yes,\" the tray-mistress said hastily." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"But you weren't here to tell, then, and she—\"\n\n\"We knew she watched you,\" the head cook interrupted, \"in that cauldron. We found the spell in your book, and we asked her to find you. We could see her watching you, see the magic in her eyes. But none of us could see you, and she couldn't speak, and all the King would have seen was a pot of water and a mute pot-scrubber and a kitchen full of mad fools.\"\n\n\"Still we've been thinking of how to tell him,\" the tray-mistress said, \"but he's been so—so fraught. Scalding, you might say, if you'll forgive me, my lord. When he wasn't boiling over.\"\n\nThe prince stepped into the kitchen, gazing at Saro again." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She watched him out of habit, relieved that he was out of the cauldron and under her eyes, but uneasy, too, since what would come seemed oddly imminent, and she was as far as ever from being able to warn him.\n\nHe stood silently, looking at her for a long time, without moving or speaking; the kitchen hushed again around him. Nothing about him spoke, not even his eyes, which seemed dark and secret, suddenly, like her cauldron when the dreams in it were about to well up from the bottom and glide across the water. Then he moved, murmuring something, and slid one hand under his lenses to rub his eyes." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"She's under a very powerful spell,\" he said, and enchanted the entire kitchen." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The tray-mistress sat down on a stool, waving her apron at her face. Boner and plate-washer nudged each other and whispered. Mincers and pluckers emerged from under the tables to see what he did. The spit-boys grinned, their fiery eyes clinging to him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Cooks and undercooks forgot their bubbling sauces. The head cook forgot supper.\n\n\"But who is she?\" he asked again. \"If you can tell us, my lord?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The prince did not answer. He took Saro's hand. Unused to being touched, she started to pull away, not knowing what he wanted. He kept his hand out, open; her fingers, sliding away from it, edged back slowly across hollows and lines and skin that was not her own." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She heard a sigh from a plate-washer. The prince smiled a little, his face opening again, briefly, before the thoughts slid back across it. \"I wonder...\" he whispered, gazing at her without seeing her, as everyone had all her life. \"I wonder...\" Now they saw her, she realized with surprise." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "As if she had enchanted herself into being, with her own magic. He was seeing her again, and then not, thoughts coming and going in his eyes, expressions changing. \"No,\" he decided finally, aloud, \"I can't tell Burne.\" He looked at the head cook. \"You tell him.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Tell the King what, my lord?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "the head cook asked, bewildered.\n\n\"Where I've gone.\"\n\n\"And that would be—?\"\n\n\"Back into the wood.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"The wood.\" The head cook rubbed a lifted eyebrow with his thumbnail and added without hope, \"Hunting, my lord?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Not that wood,\" Talis said evenly." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The head cook closed his eyes briefly. \"My lord Talis,\" he breathed, \"show some mercy to him—you just came back. He'll throw a table at me and have me cook it for his supper, nails and all.\"\n\n\"I know.\" Talis' voice was soft, but inflexible. \"But magic has laid siege to this house again, and I can't fight it locked inside.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Atrix Wolfe,\" the head cook said, then stopped abruptly, his face a pale, hard mask of itself." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"What has the wood got to do with what Atrix Wolfe made? Or with Saro?\"\n\n\"It's all his magic,\" the prince said. Saro looked at him, hearing things in his voice, like something searing too long in a pan, or a sauce boiling too quickly instead of simmering. Her fingers tightened on his hand." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He looked at her, surprised, as if she had spoken. His voice cleared. \"You don't have to tell him that. Or about Saro. Just tell him I have gone back to the Queen's wood. He'll believe I'm safe, there.\"\n\n\"But, my lord,\" the head cook exclaimed. \"If you're not, then you must not—\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Tell him I'll return as soon as I can.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"But, my lord—\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"What queen?\" the tray-mistress asked quickly, gazing at Talis, the apron bunched between her clasped hands." }, { "from": "human", "value": "All around him, mouths were open again, eyes round, some watching him, some Saro." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Talis' face changed, as if torchlight or a hand had brushed it." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"The Queen of the Wood.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "He paused, then added very gently, \"This is her Saro.\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "As he led her out, she stopped in the kitchen doorway, to cast a glance back at her cauldron, wanting it to come with her, as if its hard plain shell in which she had washed every pot in the world, and all its wordless inner mysteries, were a part of her she dared not leave behind." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "But she had no way to say \"cauldron\" to the prince. She tried to lift it with her thoughts, but, perversely, it refused to budge. Talis seemed to feel her loss; he looked back quickly, and then at her.\n\n\"What is it?\" he asked. \"Show me.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She looked at him. His eyes narrowed slightly, surprised, perhaps, at what they saw in his mind. Then she felt the cauldron's iron, strong, heavy, solid, just beneath her skin, within her bones, and knew she carried its strange visions with her; its dark eye was her eye, seeing. But like her, it was silent, and she needed to make words for Talis, who waited patiently, catching stray arrows of sunlight in his lenses." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "She felt something simmering in her froth suddenly and begin to rise, wanting to spill over its confines, pour into the fire. She let it pour. Talis pulled away from her suddenly, catching his breath. The kitchen, stunned as he was, by the flash between them, bubbled wildly, crowding to the door." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Easy, girl,\" the tray-mistress called anxiously." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"The prince wants only to help. Go with him quietly. No one will hurt you.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Talis held out his hand again. Pale under the warm light, he had grown very still, all his thoughts indrawn except one: She saw herself everywhere in his eyes. She felt the wild stirring in her again; she wanted to see out of his eyes, see what he saw of her, what Saro meant. This time she drew the implacable, cold iron around the wildness, subduing it, and put her hand again into his." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He led her with him into a dream." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Faces turned toward him everywhere he moved, always with the same mute question, as if they saw the prince out of one eye and the pot-scrubber out of the other, and could not tell what they were really looking at." }, { "from": "human", "value": "A horse was brought to him." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He mounted, and held out his hand to Saro, who took it as she was told, and then was in his arms, amazed and troubled again with visions: The horse had not been this horse, the arms around her, holding her steady, had not been his. The gates opened slowly; green flowed everywhere beyond them, blue flowed to meet it, farther than anyone could go.\n\nThey rode toward the wood on the hill.\n\nShe almost recognized it: These were the pale trees within the cauldron, still and streaked with light; these were only a reflection of the true dream." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "This water flowed, silver and sweet as honey among ancient roots, but somewhere else the same stream flowed as silver as the moon, and the deer lifting its head at the sound of hooves, water glittering from its mouth, was white instead of brown. She felt words, like leaves, falling endlessly, silently through her. Talis spoke now and then; listening for the voices of trees, she scarcely heard him. Perhaps he spoke to the trees, perhaps they answered him." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Their boughs seemed to bend over to listen, and the light pouring from leaf to leaf onto her face seemed to blind her with its brightness." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 5 sentences." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "A woman moved within the light, walked out of it to meet them. For a breath the prince was motionless behind Saro. Then his hands spoke to her, coaxed her down, where she stood at his stirrup, trying to see clearly through the light. The woman's face rippled and blurred, as if Saro saw her through the gently moving water in the cauldron.\n\n\"Saro!\" the woman cried finally, but her voice, startling birds in the trees, seemed to come from very far away, and the word itself, reaching Saro, meant nothing to her in that wood." } ]

[ { "from": "system", "value": "AI Prompt: Generate three sentences sentences. Adhere to Fantasy genre conventions." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Atrix stood on Hunter's Field." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The Queen's vanishing wood had left him there, the green mist of leaves and the lovely light fading around him, then showing him a startling reflection of them: the wide green field across which his shadow stretched endlessly, and the dazzling late-afternoon light which drew the shadow of the King's castle across half the field. He looked around a little dazedly, expecting the crags and harsh winds of Chaumenard. Then he settled Talis more securely in his arms, to take one last step into the castle, where he could finally see how much damage his twisted making had done to Pelucir's heir." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He could barely see to take the step. Sun streaked across his eyes, burned painfully; his heart, too, seemed scored with fire. He wanted to turn to stone where he stood, a dark monument to the dead on Hunter's Field." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He wanted to return to the Queen's wood, bury himself in the ground over which the Queen walked, and never speak or think again." }, { "from": "human", "value": "But he could not turn to stone with the prince of Pelucir unconscious in his arms, and he had to seek, not the Queen of the Wood, but Burne Pelucir." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The burden in his arms was a shadow's weight; it was his heart, carrying all the memories of the field, the sorrows of the wood, that made any movement he might make futile, any direction wrong.\n\nHe blinked his vision clear of tears or weariness or light, whatever blinded him, and saw the Hunter.\n\nThe Hunter stood in the light as if he had just been made, forged out of night and fire and the raven's eye, his horns holding not only the dark moon, but reaching out to swallow the setting sun in the sky." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He seemed, in daylight, an impossible spell for Atrix to have cast, or for any mage; he belonged to no one, and all of Atrix's battles meant no more to him than the upraised swords of warriors he had left splintered in the grass around them." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He did not even look at Atrix. His dark gaze and the eyes of all his hounds were on the prince in Atrix's arms.\n\nAtrix felt all the fierce and icy winds of Chaumenard sweep through him at once." }, { "from": "human", "value": "His shout, so loud it was at first soundless and then shattered windows in the castle, drew faces to the walls and turrets." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He heard answering shouts, as guards saw what stood in daylight on Hunter's Field: the Hunter and his maker and the heir of Pelucir, motionless in the mage's arms. Atrix turned away from the sun, hid Talis within his shadow on the grass. Then he pulled apart his making." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He drew the fire out of the horns and scattered it across the field. He sent the dark moon spinning into the sky, where it hung like a dark eye, watching, expressionless. He felt the ghosts of Hunter's Field rousing around him then, and loosed the hounds among them." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Pulling at an arm or dragging down a horse and rider, they snapped at memory, at air." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He drew ravens out of the Hunter's mind and sent them swirling around the Hunter, so that when Atrix grasped his horns, there was only a mass of feathers beneath them, jabbing heads and dark wings beginning to fleck with blood. He held the Hunter's horns and shaped a starving deer beneath them: They dwindled to carry time and famine instead of the hidden moon.\n\nHe swept away the ravens and looked into the Hunter's eyes." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The Hunter stood again in light, carrying the new moon and the ancient fires in his horns, his hounds at his knees, his horse as black as night beside him. All of Atrix's power had troubled him little more than dead leaves blowing against him. Atrix, staring at him, trembling, asked helplessly, \"Who are you? Out of what battlefield of the heart did I summon you?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Xirta Eflow.\"\n\nThe battle trumpets of Pelucir sounded from the castle. The gates swung wide; Burne Pelucir led an army of household guards and guests and scarred, seasoned warriors onto Hunter's Field." }, { "from": "human", "value": "They flowed into a single line spanning the field behind the King." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Atrix heard their secret fury and dread clamor across the silence. The Hunter, scenting it, turned and mounted his dark horse. He paused, his dead moon-eyes holding Atrix's eyes." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Drawkcab,\" he said. \"I am what you see when you see Atrix Wolfe.\"\n\nHis hounds streaking like shadows across the windblown grass, he rode to meet the King.\n\nAtrix, stunned for a breath, felt his own name shock through him, in a heartbeat so powerful and painful, he thought his heart had broken." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Then he reached into his dreams to shape a making that would stop the Hunter on Hunter's Field." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He made it out of leaves and light, and warm, scented air so still that time seemed to end within it. He made it of the golden shadows of white deer, and the gold in their eyes, and in the leaves lying in a pool of sunlit gold around the oak. He took the paths of sun and moon, wound them together, ivory and gold, and braided into them the dreaming noonday shadows, the misty shadows of the moon." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He took the fierce beauty in the owl's eye, the flight of white doves soaring into light, the leap of hare beneath the moon, the lightning tangled in the golden oak.\n\nHe reached backward into memory, beyond the endless winter night, and found, buried behind the Hunter's eyes, all he had loved in Chaumenard.\n\nBarren crags and ancient forests, winds scented with honey, wolf, wildflowers, swift water so pure it tasted like the wind, deep snow lying tranquilly beneath moonlight, summer light cascading down warm stone under sky so bright it held no color: These he put into his making." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Tranquil nights he spent within stone, listening to parchment pages rustle around him while the stars turned overhead, the magic in young mages' eyes, quick and lucent as flame, he spun out of memory into magic." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He took the Healer's powerless past and turned it into power: the newborn animals in his hands, trembling with their first breaths; the faces of children who roamed with him, their eyes alive to every color, every shadowy movement in the underbrush, their voices, calling him Healer; his healing hands." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Shapes he had taken in his long life mingled together as swiftly as his body remembered them: the white owl in winter, the golden hawk, ferret and weasel and mink, stone, wind, the tree smelling of sun-soaked pitch, water thundering over stone, endlessly falling, the stag that drank the water, the White Wolf. He remembered faces he had loved, of friend and lover, teacher and ruler, their eyes speaking his name, Atrix Wolfe, beginning to smile; he worked that name in their eyes into his making. He fashioned with what came to him, what had freed itself out of his heart, so quickly he did not know what he shaped." }, { "from": "human", "value": "He only knew that something grew out of him, blazed brighter and brighter in his eyes, until, trying to see his making, to set it free on Hunter's Field, he could see only light." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He turned blindly, standing, it seemed, in the eye of the sun. Then he heard the odd silence on the field, as if, around him, no one moved, no one even thought. The light faded at his sudden fear; he began to see again, a rippling corner of Talis' cloak, his hand lying in the grass." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Color returned to the world: green, the black of his shadow, the prince's face staring up at him out of one unbroken lens, and one lens splintered and flecked with blood." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Talis swallowed, but he could not seem to speak. Then he smiled, and Atrix saw the magic, quick and lucent as flame in his face, and the name his eyes gave back to the mage.\n\nBurne's army, still lining the field, was spellbound, it seemed; they stared at him, unharmed but unable to move or speak." }, { "from": "human", "value": "Then Burne Pelucir broke free of the spell, rode across the field alone." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "Atrix glanced swiftly around: The only shadows he found were human, stretched long by the setting sun across the blazing grass.\n\nHe said to Talis, \"Where is the Hunter?\"\n\n\"Where shadows go,\" the prince said elliptically." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He pushed himself up slowly, clung dizzily to the ground, trying to steady it under his hands as he sat. Burne reached them. Like Talis, he seemed stunned by something; staring at Atrix, he could not speak. Then he looked at Talis, and found words." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"Where's your other eye?\"\n\n\"It saw too much in the wood.\"\n\n\"Did you leave it there?\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "He touched it, and winced. \"No.\"\n\n\"I can heal him,\" Atrix promised. Burne dismounted, knelt next to Talis." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "The mage drew their eyes; in their silence, again he heard the stillness that had fallen over the field. He searched it with his thoughts, wary, perplexed. \"Where is my making?\"" }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"Gone,\" Burne said. \"When we could see again, there were a few shadows on the ground. Horse, a hunter, hounds. Then they became shadows of deer and ravens and a tree. And then they burned away.\"" }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"But I made something else—the making that destroyed the Hunter. Where is it?\"\n\nThey looked at him, wordless again. Burne spoke at last." }, { "from": "human", "value": "\"There was nothing else,\" he said." }, { "from": "system", "value": "Next message should be approximately 1 sentence." }, { "from": "gpt", "value": "\"There was only you.\"" } ]