LNH20: The Wonderful, Worrisome World of Writer's Block Person #5: "Paying Old Debts, Catching Up on Old Friends"

[Drew Nilium]

A woman stands in a parking lot. She has a soft, maternal figure with dirty
blond hair, and a soft, maternal bearing with a touch of impish youthfulness;
but right now, her blue eyes are serious, with a subtle sadness to them. She
wears a pair of mom jeans and a lovely cream blouse, and in one hand, holds big,
chunky yo-yo, pink on the edge, black in the middle, with a circular rose
quartz embedded in the center.

Across from her stands a dangerous-looking figure. His body is covered in some
kind of flexible red armor with a disturbing resemblance to human muscle; but
this is only visible between a set of slate-gray plates, a more traditional
kind of armor, which surround his face like a pointed, knightly helmet, a pair
of glowing green eyes peering out. At the center of his chest, there is a
roughly circular area where the gray plates have broken away, and seared into
the fleshy armor is a painful-looking white mark that resembles a distorted
skull.

"My," she says, looking him in the eyes, "how you've grown. Grown together, I
should say."

"Where are they!?" he shouts, clenching his fists, unreal smoke steaming up
from between his plates. "WHERE IS WRITER'S BLOCK PERSON!?"

"Well, now," she says, with a little smile. "That *is* a hard question to
answer."

He screams and lunges for her; but she pivots out of the way, pirouetting,
slamming her hips into his back and knocking him down. "But I think," she says,
"I can put you on the right track."

She lifts the yo-yo into the air, afternoon sunlight glinting off the quartz.
She calls, with confidence and flair: "Writer's Block MILF! HENSHINSPIRATION!"

"WHAT!?" But already, her form has dissolved into coruscating light.

A white bodysuit forms over her shape, with pieces of blue armor trimmed in
gold flying into place over her arms and legs. A helmet flies in, with a visor
shaped like catseye glasses and a little smile on the faceplate. Finally, a
sleeveless blue hoodie appears, looking comfortable and soft with golden laces
hanging down, sinking down into her form and becoming one with her silhouette.

She pushes back her hood. "Shall we dan-- whoop!"

She spins out of the way as a cloud of shadows shoots past her, the armored
figure howling, leaping to his feet and running full-tilt at her.

"You should get a more interesting attack than that, dear," she says, hips
swinging out of the way and gaining momentum. "'Blast of generic dark energy'
is a rather overplayed villain attack, don't you think?"

She spins around him and goes to smack her rear end into him again; he sees it
coming and dodges, but doesn't see the yo-yo flying wide on its string,
slamming into his belly.

With a grunt of pain he falls on his back - and she's there, pressing down, one
leg folded on his chest, her knee pressing into his symbol, and it hurts, not a
lot, but it hurts, and he knows how much more it'll hurt if she presses harder.
"Be quiet," she says, and he is.

Several heartbeats pass, as they stare into the eyes of each other's helmets.
"Now," she says. "Listen."

Several more heartbeats, and she clarifies. "Listen to yourself. Look inside
yourself, and listen to what speaks."

She can feel his chest rising and falling under her knee, under the armor. His
expression doesn't change... but something does... his hands, curled into
fists... slacken, just a little.

With a single quick motion, she rises off his chest, hopping back out of arm's
reach. He flips over immediately, rolling away, getting to his feet, looking at
her, less of a raging beast and more of a cornered, confused stray.

"So," she says. "Do you know where Writer's Block Person is now?"

For a moment, he hesitates; for a moment, he's going to say something,
something is going to spill out of him like guts from a belly wound. Then he
snarls, spins around, and leaps away, over the fence, out of sight.

The armor of Writer's Block MILF disappears in a shower of sparkes, and she
smiles. "See you later..."

====

Drew Nilium