This is a Trust Machines story. If you're not familiar with them, you aren't likely to understand this one. It is a short-short, so there is no development of the background.
There is a discussion of the Trust Machines universe in the parent organizer of this story. (Click [up] at the bottom of this story.)
The Trust Machine universe is discussed here: https://www.deviantart.com/trust-machines
Nobody would likely note the three high school boys that were walking down the sidewalk. The boy on the left was rather large, well over six feet and quite stocky. He was walking with a cocky swagger, and had a cruel smile on his face.
The middle weedy and thin -- the stereotypical nerd. He didn't look happy at all.
The one on the right was perhaps five foot two and a little chubby. Be bounced around with the air of one of those little dogs that like to threaten to bite your ankles, but which quickly runs away when threatened.
"Maybe I'll venn you into a tampon and give you to my girlfriend," the big boy said cruelly. "Or a roll of toilet paper that I can stick in the nastiest public restroom that I can find. How would you like to be flushed down the toilet in pieces?"
Marvin, the weedy nerd, cringed. "Please! If I can't finish out this year, I'll lose my scholarship! It would ruin my whole life!"
The bully laughed cruelly. "Why should I give a shit? It's your fault I got expelled! I was going to play for the NFL, but thanks to you, I got kicked off the team!"
Marvin didn't bother remind him that he got expelled for beating him up just as the principal passed by, or that a second string player was unlikely to be drafted by the pros.
The bouncy little sycophant pulled out a penny and set the machine to three years, then watched with a smirk.
Marvin stopped before the door and tried to escape. The bully pushed him in and the door disappeared.
The bully sauntered into the other side and said, "Maybe I'll v-"
A cup appeared on the floor in his place.
When Marvin had mumbled "paper cup of water," the bully had taken it to be whimpering. By the time he saw Marvin stab the interface twice, it was too late.
The sycophant, noticing that it was Marvin and not the bully that emerged, ran off. Marvin picked up the cup and walked off.
As he was walking home, he dribbled the water into the easement between the road and the sidewalk. Long before he was home, it was gone.
"I've dribbled you all over the place," Marvin said. "Enjoy your next three years as part of the water cycle."
Since the paper cup was thin enough to act as a tympanum, the bully could hear every word Marvin said.
Marvin took the cup out to the back porch, burned it, and let the ashes fly away in the wind.
Comments
Interesting
Could easily have been longer with more development but this made a short, bitter tale with a sting of a pay off. Good job.
Hugs,
Erin
= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.
Well, since the paper cup was
Well, since the paper cup was technically part of the wish can the bully even come back since he burned the cup?
Paper cup
Whether Marvin keeps the cup or not, the bully won't be coming back until his three year venn is up.
You can prematurely unvenn someone if you put the majority of the mass into a Venn Machine. The majority of his post-transformation mass was the water.
If Marvin wanted to be mean, he could have kept the cup for three years and taunted it. The bully would have heard every word while the majority of him participated in the water cycle.
But Marvin isn't mean. He just wanted to ensure that he wouldn't lose his scholarship. He wouldn't let the bully cheat him out of what he has earned.
Come back?
And how would all the water get to the same place to reintegrate? Looks to me like a murder by venn took place.
BAK 0.25tspgirl
Death via Trust Machine
It doesn't happen.
When the time is up, you revert to your original form. If the inanimate you happens to be somewhere you can't survive, like if you are a condom at the bottom of the septic tank, you will be reverted in a place where you can survive -- on the ground over the tank, inside of a Venn Machine, whatever.
Since the bully will be spread all about the world, he will almost certainly arrive inside of a Venn Machine.
A Race?
So the Venn machine may entail a race as to who can transform whom first?
-- Daphne Xu
Mean Girls
There is a series of stories where the girls like to play a game. Kinda like a duel where you walk ten paces, turn around, and fire.
Except, in this case, you set the Venn Machine to whatever time you like, get in, and see who can turn the other into an inanimate object first. The winner generally wears the loser.
Mean Girls https://www.deviantart.com/trust-machines/gallery/65193125/m...
Homecoming https://www.deviantart.com/dkfenger/art/Trust-Machines-Homec...
Passing blame
Those who believe they're going places, at least in their minds, have a tendency to over think their abilities when it comes to the places they think they're going. The coocky boy didn't understand that he lacked something which would allow him to play on the first string of football players. And if he wasn't playing on the first string, no one could see what abilities, if any, he might have as a football player.
It is also a tendency of the same knuckle draggers to blame others when they get into trouble, as the coocky boy did. How did the nerd get him into trouble when it was coocky boy who beat up someone as the Principal showed up? Was the nerd responsible for the Principal showing up? Or bearing witness to the event?
However the nerd was blamed, he had the last laugh on coocky boy. He proved mind over matter does work in a pinch.
Others have feelings too.
Thanks for the comment
"Pride comes before the fall." And it doesn't help that Dirk just isn't all that bright.
After three years, he'll end up spread pretty much evenly about the waterways of the world -- everything from the polar ice cap to Antarctica. But he'll still reappear in some Venn Machine.