The Solar Web

The Dzed nest in forests, but they hunt wherever there is prey. Their gigantic arachnoid form, while intimidating, is also very adaptable. Reports of adult Dzed swimming the oceans, started early on, after the invasion of the alien race to Earth.

A Dzed invasion?! Nah...
Just weather-changing balloons.

A recent record tells of a long-time hobby fisherman that fell into the water, while fishing in the ocean. "It was an accident," the man says, "but nothing that would scare a sealover, like me." It was, however, quite a surprise, when he realized that underneath the water, and attached to the bottom of his yacht, there lurked a giant Dzed.

The man was afraid that it might attack him, now that he fell into the water. When the Dzed moved to attack, he was certain that this was the end. When he felt nothing, but the movement of water around him, he opened his eyes again. To his astonishment, the Dzed had caught a shark. The shark, apparently, had been drawn to the swimming man, and thought it got lucky. "You can imagine its' surprise," the record goes on to say in the voice of the fisherman, "when it was snatched up by the spider!"

MikeAp shuts the record viewer off, and restores his normal vision. Tomorrow, he will be doing what had not been done before. He will be boarding a Dzedship. The irony was not lost on him. Hey, maybe he will get lucky, and the Dzed will just hunt-away any space monsters that came at him. Although, in all likelihood, the researchers insist, the Dzed will not be joining the trip.

They have reached the Dzed's nest, and are finally preparing to board. Well, board might be the wrong word. It feels like they are infiltrating the Dzed's privacy, really. Like some sort of insidious larvae, using its' host to find shelter, against the harsh environment. Two assistants start running the checks on MikeAp.

"Can you hear me?" One of the women asks.

"Yes," MikeAp answers.

"Can you feel this?" The other woman asks, as she jabs something against his suit.

"No," MikeAp answers, and both women nod approvingly.

MikeAp starts his approach, walking under the watchful eye of all space lovers. This first attempt at utilizing the remarkable balloon-shaped vessel of the Dzed is broadcast to the public. MikeAp doubts that more than a handful of hobbyists are actually watching the live feed.

Confronted by the giant woven ball, MikeAp shoves himself, slowly, into the sphere. The material is sticky, but it is not able to resist his invasion. He can already feel that sort of lightness that comes from being inside a magnetic field.

"I am alright," he reports over the voice.

"Roger that," he hears a barely audible response, through the loud static noise. The speaker is his counterpart and trusted engineer, KaliKi.

MikeAp bends down, spreads his arms wide, and jumps as hard as he can. The giant sphere responds, by increasing the tension of its' fabric, and thus begins a levitating motion upwards. MikeAp sits down, takes his helmet off, even though it is not advised to do so, and draws a salty snack from his side-pocket. As he slowly nibbles through the snack, MikeAp imagines the others looking at him. An unremarkable white ball, floating through the air.

"Biological space engineering, at its' best," he says aloud, after about half an hour. He lies back to enjoy the view, through the now transparent fibers of the vessel.

MikeAp is the first man to ever successfully reach space, using Dzed technology.

I Really Really Like CrowdPricing

What is CrowdPricing? By Scribl:

Click on image, to view it in full size.

The practice of CrowdFunding eBooks is rather new, so I cannot really say that I know much about it. I do, however, feel very excited about the idea of it!

The idea of letting the readers influence, in a sophisticated way, the price of my eBooks is brilliant! A story is less appreciated? It can be enjoyed by the few and odd, for free. A story is popular and wide-spread? Let the masses give me their few cents, for the benefit of more such wonderful creations!

What

Would

Spock

Do? 

Do you think that this might catch and become the standard, in the future? Maybe even the future of all trade?

Of Dreams & Memories

I am in a shuttle. Not a train. More like a plane, or a spaceship. It is an in-between of those two, really. It is shaped like a long rocket without wings, and it is populated by rooms, and halls full of safety-chairs, where people wait for the landing. Only the bottom part has an engine and control center.

I am inside a waiting room, all for my own. I just woke up. I get the feeling that the end of the journey is approaching. Although I slept through it, it was not a long journey, actually. It is a mystery to me where I am, and where I am headed. And although it is a mystery, it is not important. The only thing that is important is the landing.

I slowly climb out of my room. It is connected to one of those sitting halls, through a corridor entrance, above me. The gravity is awkward, and although I do not float, I do need to crawl my way out of the room. As I approach the above chamber, I find myself pausing next to a window.

Instead of a "disposable rocket",
This is the actual final result!

The view is intimidating. It is not just a freefall. It is an accelerated drop, from who knows how high. There is no sound. I keep staring into the incoming ground. It is littered with boulders, as if the landing site is meant to be more of a hazard, rather than less.

Suddenly, the thrusters below me burst, and the noise of combustion roars, as if from a long distance. Just as it seemed the vessel would hit the ground, and my mortal life would end miserably yet quickly, an ever so slight wobble motion hits, and everything just stops.

We have landed, and not surprisingly, everyone in their sits start applauding.

Anything But The Dzed

In a dark corner, beneath the edge of a mountain, lie a little Dzed. The alien, whose ancestors had arrived on Earth only a century ago, was hunting. He was hunting in the dark, as all his kind do. His vicious arachnid form, extremely suitable for trapping and the silencing of his prey, hung from the top branch of an oak tree.

The man, a native of the land, dark skinned and rough natured, walked over the trap, without hesitation. He was not aware of the trap being there, yet he was not afraid of such a possibility. He was a hunter, and for him, it meant that danger was a casual thing.

Giant alien spiders are our friends.
That's the narrative, anyhow.

Just as the Dzed activated his trap, contracting the wires of his immense weave, the man jumped. As the man fell out of its' way, and rolled back on to his feet, a roar filled the night, behind him. Inside the Dzed's web, a large cat with pointed ears was wrestling with the arachnid's device. Needless to say, it was a futile attempt.

The man looked up the tree, where the trap connected to higher branches. A shadow loomed against the star-filled sky. The man knew it to be a Dzed. Shaming the hunter, the Dzed did not even consider him worthy prey. Real prey, for the mighty arachnoid, had to pose a real challenge.

A Virtual Game World Framework In NodeJS

I have been spending many of my creative hours, in these past months, working on a big project of mine. I call it Node World.  ***THUNDER CLASH***

The Open Source Code on GitHub

My Announcement of Node World on GameDev

A Live Demo For Developers

In summary, it is a framework for MMO's. It is intended to help developers and MMO fans - programmers, writers, and artists, express their ideas in a virtual world, without having to do everything from scratch.

I've found much inspiration in modern manga, such as Sword Art Online.

In elaboration, however, Node World has been my dream for several years. Ever since I realized how modern games are limited. How repetitive and inflexible they remain. I wanted to have a game world, where many players can join together, and not only explore and do combat, but also make a difference, in the game world itself!

I am looking for developers to join me! NodeJS is a relatively easy programming language, and I am doing my best, for the sake of modifications, to keep the code simple and readable. Contact me, if you want to inquire about it!

And our manga seers are only improving!

The goals of Node World are well defined:

1) The server seamlessly integrates any client into itself: Text, 2D, and 3D.

2) The project is modular, both in code and in functionality, so that programmers can easily modify and add to the project, and players can modify and add to the virtual world, without editing the code, at all.

If you have any ideas you want to share, then comment below, and say what this project brings to your mind. :-)