Not That Chris Brown

@cfreak

Trans rights are human rights 🏳️‍⚧️. Professional computer tickler. (CTO for Grinning Cat Studio) Author (sci-fi). Exvangelical. Farker. I like trains and cats. Visit my musings and rants at (he/him)

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Not That Chris Brown@cfreak· 8h

As the story peaks, Jordan believes Ash was commanded to spy on him and befriend him. His insecurities lead him to run away and face the depths of his loneliness. Not just in losing Ash but losing his family and faith as well. #Sumluv

They knew my family was dead. They watched me the whole time and they kept it all from me," Jordan sobbed.
The fire clouded his eyes. "I'm an assignment. You knew he was alive, you knew he was speaking."
She spoke in a stern tone. "I promise you aren't an assignment, but yes, I knew."
"Oh god, how could I have been so stupid?" his voice became hoarse as he collapsed into a heap on the floor.
"None of this is real, none of it is real."

Ash touched his arm. "I'm sorry."
Snatching the stone from the counter, he ran toward the elevator, momentarily forgetting the room could no longer sense his thoughts.
"Open the door!" he shouted and the room complied. Ash reached out to stop him as the lift whisked him to the street.

Not That Chris Brown@cfreak· 5d

Gus says “what? It’s international cat day? Where’s my cookie?” #cats #InternationalCatDay

Not That Chris Brown@cfreak· 7d

Part 2 takes place in a future San Francisco, its structure changed by the nanobot “buildings” growing around the human built city. Jordan leaves his farm life not only to see the city but to explore the inner world of connected minds. 2/3 #SumLuv

The first phase of the city formed a grid, built by human hands, rising up as tall, square buildings along a waterfront. Jordan recognized its centerpiece, a towering pyramid shaped structure overlooking the concrete and glass below. Source built the second phase, leaving the old city undisturbed beneath giant teal vines growing out and around the stone construction. The tendrils wrapped their way up the tallest buildings, and in some areas, created giant translucent spires with no obvious support structure. Even in the brightness of the day the material pulsed and hummed with light.

Not That Chris Brown@cfreak· 7d

Since I’m writing a forbidden love, part of the story is about both my characters being out of place. Part one takes place in a future version of the Sacramento Valley sometime after an apocalyptic war. Nature is healing, and Ash is learning about the survivors living on the margin. 1/3 #SumLuv

Ash surveyed the windswept landscape. Twisted deadwood wrapped around rusting wires in neat rows along the hillside. Leafy vines once snaked along the metal, planted by biological people who crushed the grapes to make wine. Dull fermenting vats stood in the distance, their luster rotting away in the unending wind.

Not That Chris Brown@cfreak· 10d

Not exactly classic. Ash appears to members of the technophobic cult and they shoot at her. (She’s fine, she can’t be easily harmed.) Jordan approaches to discover his enemy is smart and beautiful #SumLuv

Despite the moonless night, the
woman bathed in Luna's shine as though she'd painted her silk skin with its radiance. The glow revealed hints of ruby in the edges of her hair, otherwise hidden by the dark light.
She folded her arms and wore an impatient scowl despite Jordan's hesitant wave.
"What the hell is this? Do you people make a habit of attacking random strangers at night?" she scolded.

The word "hell" stung Jordan's
ears. No one swore in Mount Ebenezer. "Hell" was another term for
damnation and one dared not breathe the curse of damnation to another.
"My sister in Christ, please temper
your language."
She paused, the anger melting
into confusion. "Temper my language? Your friend shot at me."
"A discussion he'll have with our
council. We don't receive many visitors out here, Miss ..."

"Asherah. No need for honorifics.
'Ash' for short."
Jordan whispered past the bubbling in his gut. "An enemy of God."
"My guardian told me stories of zealots removing themselves from the world. I never expected to meet any," she replied, a tiny smirk forming at the corner of her lips. "So which is it? 'Sister in Christ' or 'Enemy of God?' Asherah was a goddess, and YHWH's lover, after all."

He managed only a tiny whimper.
His tongue stumbled over the finer points of theology, tied by her striking beauty and the realization she possessed more knowledge on the subject than he.
Ash stepped close enough Jordan
caught a sweet scent of lavender.
"Maybe I'm neither. Maybe I'm someone you'd refer to as 'lost""

Not That Chris Brown@cfreak· 28d

Sure, I’ll play.

His vision blurred into fuzzy snow
as his mind was ripped from the world, falling through time and space toward a dark tunnel. There was no light at the end.

Not That Chris Brown@cfreak· Jun 25

Been a minute since I participated #WIPSnips

Not That Chris Brown@cfreak· Jun 14

A tortie kitty laying on a green and gray blanket

Not That Chris Brown@cfreak· Jun 12

I don’t have much but here’s a cat

A small tortoise shell kitty on a green and gray striped blanket

Not That Chris Brown@cfreak· May 29

I think I shared this one before but it’s one of my favorite lines. I think it does a good job (along with the surrounding chapter) of highlighting unintentional bias. #SFFChat

"You're different, aren't you?" Eli
said.
A shiver went down Ash's spine.
"Different how?"
"You're a husk. At least that's what
people in town call city dwellers."
'''Husk' is offensive," Ash said, keeping her voice free of malice. "It's a word the soldiers used to dehumanize us in the war."

Not That Chris Brown@cfreak· May 22

My MCs are both looking for something real a place to belong because they feel out of place in their lives. From a chapter I have titled “Out of Place”. Ash fears her new friend won’t accept her: #SFFChat

Ash touched her companion's shoulders. "It's okay. Now you know.
And yes, I am one of them. I'm sorry I didn't tell you before, I didn't want you to fear me!"
"I'm not scared of you," they laughed. "What do you call yourself then?"
"Human."
"Superhuman," Eli grinned.

Not That Chris Brown@cfreak· May 7

Oh no! You deserve all the rest. Chat will be back. Here's Gus to help you feel better

An orange cat with his nose in the air, looking for a nose boop

Not That Chris Brown@cfreak· May 3

Without downloading new pics, where are you mentally?

Overlapping cartoon paper clips covered in eyes like a description of a Biblical angel. The text reads “it looks like you are afraid. BE NOT AFRAID”

Not That Chris Brown@cfreak· Apr 25

Gus says hello Widget and Gizmo!

An orange cat lounging on top of a tall bookshelf

Not That Chris Brown@cfreak· Mar 27

I write dystopian and I go for bittersweet endings but yeah, it’s dark. Here’s an excerpt from a short I’m working on. (The end highlights it better but I didn’t want to spoil it) #SFFChat

The other problem composing the message to Maria is I never told her about the horrors out here. I told her about the relentless sand and the boredom. The terrible food or the funny pranks we tried on our robot-excuse me artificial, as he prefers, lieutenant. I had to protect her from the moments of terror, the blood, the loss. I knew deep down she saw it on the illegal streams, and from the whispers within the resistance. She knew, but she played the comforting game with me, including the fantasy ending where I'd make it home some day.

Not That Chris Brown@cfreak· Mar 21

Sleeping without a care as though he didn’t wake up mom and dad demanding food at 4am, or terrorize his sister who was just trying to look out the window. #caturday #cats

And orange cat curled like a shrimp on a green blanket

Not That Chris Brown@cfreak· Feb 27

Semi random. Page numbers are hard on mobile. Annoying it’s getting cut off unless you open it. #SFFChat

She rubbed her arms sending jolts of golden electricity running through the nanomaterial. As convincing as the network created simulations were, the scent of ammonia ticking her nostrils, confirmed the air was real.

Not That Chris Brown@cfreak· Feb 18

A doll on a phone with the words “Thank you for contacting the abyss. Your scream is VERY important to us”

Not That Chris Brown@cfreak· Feb 18

I saw the one at the Illinois Railroad Museum this summer

Not That Chris Brown@cfreak· Feb 17

Not That Chris Brown@cfreak· Feb 13

My favorite passage which may never make it into the book (currently in the skeleton of book 3) but one I reread and think I might be an ok writer. 😅

“Jordan, do you have a soul?” Ash said with a new intensity in her eyes.
The question caught him off-guard. He flashed back to the dusty field, staring off at the tree line and wondering if there was more to life than farming until the war bots killed them all.
“I don’t know,” he admitted. “Like you said before, I believe I’m more than the sum of my parts.”
“So it is with love. Two people happen to cross paths at just the right time, at just the right place, and the chemicals in their brains are at just the right temperature. But those people form a bond that’s more than the sum of its parts. It doesn’t matter how it began, what matters is what it becomes.”

Not That Chris Brown@cfreak· Jan 23

Lupe works for the corp developing “Source”. Security is chasing her because she revealed the system is sapient. Iris is a trans woman on the street who can help. #SFFChat

Around the corner, colors and
music spilled into the street from a bar with a giant animatronic court jester waiving from the top. The bells on the ends of his blue, red, and green fool's cap jingled in the wind and he smiled through a scowl giving him a sinister
energy.

She brushed past people laughing at drunken jokes. No one noticed her as she worked her way toward the core of the celebration. A DJ, on the center stage, spun an old-school turntable, and danced with the silhouettes of the crowd below him. His bald head reflected the rainbow of laser light cutting through thick fog from giant vents on either side of the stage. The thumping music mesmerized Lupe until someone whirled her around.
Startled, she raised her hands in fright, finding a blue-haired woman, wearing a loose leather jacket with nothing underneath.

"Sorry! Didn't mean to scare you!"
the woman shouted over the den of the party. "Are you Lupe? I'm Iris."
Lupe breathed a sigh of relief.
"How'd you pick me out of the crowd?"
"I looked for someone completely out of their element," Iris grinned. "Let's get a drink."

Not That Chris Brown@cfreak· Jan 14

The Architects of the Revolution: Faced with a terminal illness, Eve opts for an experimental mind transfer into "Source". The procedure awakens sapience in the system, sending her on a journey of faith and against an AI who has their own plan for humanity. #BluePit #A #W #SF