CobraToon - Hobbyist, Writer

Always making up

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T. Drink Mixer by CobraToon, literature

T. Drink Mixer

I’m given a view into some dingy bar. The sides of my screen show a large catalog of options, from adding various ingredients to shaking, stirring and frosting. A droid with a smiling face peers into my camera. “Dixie dunk with triple slash, raise the roof.” “What?” I scan the buttons again, first for the strange words I heard, then some kind of help screen for understanding orders. “Sorry, I haven’t heard that one. Explain it.” “Come on, man, you’re highly recommended, you should know this.” The operator sighs and holds up a hand to someone at the bar behind them. “Frost the glass, layer in custard soft gelatin starting with green, then red, white and blue, throw in a Dixie-brand dissolver at thirty percent velocity and top with cream and sprinkles. Got that?” Muttering apologies under my breath, I try to hit the frost button I saw earlier. Nothing happens. Then I spot the button to select a glass and tap the first one that looks like a wide custard bowl, which lowers down into my

T. Live Entertainer by CobraToon, literature

T. Live Entertainer

The job places me in a big droid, about as large as the dance club’s bouncer. With huge arms and a barrel body, at first I think I’ll be working as one the opponents in some kind of live action game. All around me are messy, paint-splattered walls of every color. With three doors out and small corridors beyond, I have to guess I’m in some kind of indoor maze. When I try to squeeze out through one of the doors, my nav overlay pops up, flashing and telling me to return to my station. So I stand in the center of the enclosed area and explore the rest of my options, checking what kind of attacks or defenses I might have. What I find are the buttons to ‘Sell Merchandise’ ‘Offer Daily Quest’ or call for help. The merch section includes things like special glasses that allow one to see through walls, modifications for the game’s weapons, plus more ammo and temporary buffs. I’ve been assigned as some kind of in-game vendor. A droid about half my size runs into the room and approaches me.

T. Game Tester by CobraToon, literature

T. Game Tester

The world that appears around me is full of bodies on the ground, soldiers in medieval plate armor fighting, flashes of colorful light zapping past overhead, and beyond that clouds of dust obscuring my vision. I don’t have any time to study more of the scene because in a quick puff of smoke my view shifts from standing among the crowds to crawling on the ground. My body becomes a tiny lizard as warriors rush in and start fighting the group I was in. Glancing around the screen, I find sword-shaped bars that probably represent health or stamina, but nothing for equipment or spells. Moving my feet in their restraints causes the lizard to scuttle around in the chaos, but none of the buttons on my controller seem to have any effect on my form. I can’t seem to jump or attack. All I can do is move. So I run, dashing between stomping legs and fallen soldiers, a maze of mud and steel and cloth. My health bar loses a few points each time an armored boot or downward attack comes near me, but

T. Corporate Purchaser by CobraToon, literature

T. Corporate Purchaser

I’m dropped into some kind of VR hub world with the logo of the United Nations in the center. My overlay includes a list of goods to buy for some anonymous client - and not much else. I look around. The world is set up like most shopping websites, with sections spread out over a 2D plane for food, clothing, electronics, furniture and decorating - but also manufacturing components, private contractor services, public auctions, something called the Trading Floor and a lounge. Everything just looks like boxes, with the section names floating above. Heading into the electronics section, the rows of boxes grow to tower around me. I peer inside one and find a full-size VR store, filled with racks and shelves of goods, but empty of customers. A sign near the door announces a sale on bulk orders of one thousand rigs - last-generation but with built-in projector screens - alongside a projection model of the rig in question. The next box store over offers security cameras in sets of a hundred

T. Film Animator and Public Driver by CobraToon, literature

T. Film Animator and Public Driver

A thin girl in a yellow dress, frozen in time, frolics in a huge field of grass below the bright blue sky. She smiles up into the light, radiant and pure. I have no body. I’m not physically present at all. After a moment I realize I’m in one snapshot of a VR movie, free to move around but stuck in this one moment of time. Looking to the horizons, I spot a few dark clouds off behind the girl, hovering over a tiny hamlet in a valley. The field appears to be at the top of a mountain, and the girl is staring away from the scatter of homes under clouds and off into the bright sunlight. Am I supposed to create everything that happens next? How? The first hand controller button I press turns the entire scene into a wire mesh world, with the girl and the grass given shape while everything else becomes flat background. A message in the sky reads, ‘Geniuses, the grass would be blown by the wind’ Is that the job? I reach over toward the girl but when I try to move her mesh a small message

T. Research Assistant and Media Sorting by CobraToon, literature

T. Research Assistant and Media Sorting

A rat twice my size approaches, nose and whiskers twitching. I hold my controls absolutely still. Even moving this droid’s camera eye could provoke the animal. The jaws open and scrape a few times at my clear, rounded casing. Several teeth look bloody or chipped, with ragged gums. After failing to break the shell open, the big rat spins around, whipping me with a crooked and scarred tail. As the animal exits my starting room, I move to follow behind at a slower pace. The droid they’ve provided me is basically a small orb. A camera floats in the center, always level but able to spin in a circle, while the orb’s clear casing can roll wherever I direct. Cool toys like this must be limited to certain places - like this animal studies lab. The twisting hallways beyond the first room are some kind of mansion for rats. I follow the big rat along a scuffed path in the floor. There’s not many of the vermin at first, but I do see them hiding within dark holes or occasionally scampering

T. Store Clerk and Material Handling by CobraToon, literature

T. Store Clerk and Material Handling

For a little while, doing something I’ve never done before is kind of fun. The product scanning is easy, the few people who come in are strange and interesting, and the job even allows me to add little charges to people’s orders. Only if they’re rude, of course. The store I’m in doesn’t sell clothes, so I can’t try folding them like I saw at the mall. All I do is scan and place things into shipper boxes. This might as well be under material handling. After an hour on the job, however, my energy to greet each new customer is gone. I spend my time watching another store droid take items off the shelves that were bought online. They never come talk to me, probably because they’re a lot busier than I am. At some point, a man wearing a plush bathrobe walks up to the cashier station. The gleam of his eyes convinces me he’s artificial - if the featureless silver body below the open bathrobe wasn’t enough of a clue. He’s not carrying any products though ... A small box on the side of my

T. Public Janitorial by CobraToon, literature

T. Public Janitorial

“So before I came into work today, I heard about this crazy court case.” The sun, just starting to rise somewhere in the world, shines across the green field and concrete stadium. A coworker and I push our brooms down parallel rows of seating, sweeping paper and uneaten food and bags and brown liquids and candy wrappers toward the stairs. All around the huge oval sports stadium I can see other droids sweeping and washing and picking up trash. It’s amazing to see how messy people are when they come to watch a game. I continue venting, only starting to feel calmer as I explain. “The jury gave a guilty verdict to some guy who was saying terrible stuff. But doesn’t the first amendment protect speech?” My coworker, their movements slow in a similarly old and beaten up droid, hums. “No such thing as an absolute freedom. Can’t have people hurting others.” “But all he did was shout some stuff.” “Uh huh.” They tap their broom on the ground. “Ever hear about shouting fire in a crowded

T. Public Lawyer by CobraToon, literature

T. Public Lawyer

The black-robed droid judge taps their gavel on the table. “Thank you, Prosecutor. The Defense will now have five minutes to respond.” I press forward to stand from my desk and clear my throat. “Sir, we have no response to the second evidence presented.” That said, I sit back down. “... Is that so?” The droid judge stares at me. “Alright then, moving on.” Their gavel tilts up and down a little as their fingers clench. “Prosecutor, I believe you said there was another piece of evidence?” A small bell icon flashes in the lower corner of my navigation overlay. I stare down at the icon for a second, then tap the mute button for my droid’s voice and accept the conversation. “Hey, uh, sorry to bother.” My client - a young guy wearing a suit and tie and with a few tiny bandages on his chin and neck - appears in a small corner screen. “Are we gold or mold?” Where before he was laughing and joking as I read through the case notes left by his previous lawyer, now his eyes dart from me to

T. Public Investigations by CobraToon, literature

T. Public Investigations

They drop me into a waiting room. I look around, a little confused - normally security work sends you straight to a camera somewhere to start watching, and they can always double up viewers so there’s never a shortage of positions. But this isn’t a waiting room. On the wall ahead of me are two floor to ceiling flat-panel screens. They show static for a few seconds, then both start playing video feeds together. A gruff, older voice speaks from the ceiling above. “At approximately cycle eleven dot twenty-five, representatives from three separate corporations - hereafter referred to as corps A, B, and C - met on joint neutral ground. Further information on the meeting place, representatives and corporations can be found in the briefing documents.” The flat-panel screens show the inside of what looks like an old-type bar, with an actual long counter and cherry-red stools and a droid pouring drinks. Each screen has a different angle but they appear to be synced up - I watch three people

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Complete Story First Chapters

Family Matters - E1 by CobraToon, literature

Family Matters - E1

INT. FAMILY HOME KITCHEN – MORNING AT SUNRISE Warm kitchen that serves as the central location of the Family house, comfortably cluttered counters but all have recently been tidied and wiped clean. FATHER sits in his favorite chair at the head of the small dinner table, he sips his coffee and places dry cereal food before BABY in the nearby high chair. Father is a somewhat-bald man in his early forties, Baby is at most a year old. The creak as the kitchen's door opens causes Father to snatch up a section from the newspaper, previously a coaster for his drink. DAUGHTER enters the kitchen slowly, a girl of around twelve. She wears her nor

Page 1 - VV's story by CobraToon, literature

Page 1 - VV's story

The story changes depending on who you ask. Ask the proud Shoanti chieftain, he will say he snuck into the largest Chelaxian estate he could find and stole right from under the noses of an army of corpulent guards its most valued treasure, which turned out to be the eldest daughter of the baron living there. Ask the free-spirited Chelaxian heiress, she will tell you the most handsome man in the world came into her room one night and swept her away from a dreary world of stifling balls and haughty politics, not to mention the most disgusting marriage proposer she had ever laid eyes on. Ask most any gossipy local who heard about the incident th

Pokemon: the Risen - E1 - HTML by CobraToon, literature

Pokemon: the Risen - E1 - HTML

Chapter 0 This time around, things are going to be different. The usual narrator is away and I'll be filling in. Don't worry, I follow his rules, mostly; just a brief introduction and then let the story tell itself. But I should warn you, I don't see this world the way he does. Things will be different, definitely so; I like to think a little realism will go a long way toward making things more interesting. Reality bites, but is all the more wondrous for it. We begin our adventure listening only to night's dry heat. It's too hot for the Kricketots to be still playing and even the Zubats and Hoothoots have gone to roost early. The only creat

My Mind of Murder - E1 by CobraToon, literature

My Mind of Murder - E1

Chapter 1 "Ready? Steady … Fight!" The stands must hold some billions of spectators, world populations seated in a space that questions sanity, tier upon tier of them screaming bloody murder at the two combatants. When one tier of stands has reached far back enough to make viewing the arena impossible due to the sheer distances involved, another tier sits above it, and another and another. Each successive tier is a little higher and a little more sloped, creating a hemispheric dome completed by a small circular glass platform at the very pinnacle for fans to watch down through. The fans in the upper sections must be buckled in, or usin

High War - Chapter 0 by CobraToon, literature

High War - Chapter 0

The small creature, no bigger than a badger, pulls a hefty twig from the sack on its mossy backside. It has many more to chose from, including those to be found on the ground around it, but this twig alone is held up for appraisal in the scant sunlight that reaches down through the treetops. Heft is roughly measured, the straightness is deemed satisfactory and one stumpy protrusion near the end seems to particularly fascinate the creature. And if the creature had not been moving around so purposefully, it might itself be confused for a mess of sticks and leaves animated by some odd wind. Its skin has the look of bark, with a soft moss-like fu

Dreamscrape by CobraToon, literature

Dreamscrape

A sword appears in his hand, a coal-black blade that didn't exist moments before. The surface shines of obsidian depths, as if the sword is not a sword, as if it is far more than a sword. He turns the sword at various angles to inspect it, examines the thin jagged crack that runs the length, checks the leather-wrapped handle to make sure it isn't loose – all the while avoiding the eyes of the other person in the dim windowless box of a room. She in turn only has eyes for the stone slab in the room's center, an alter to some half-remembered ritual. The surface, worn smooth by time and slightly inset, has been stained at the very center w

Craw-Land Logs 1 and 2 by CobraToon, literature

Craw-Land Logs 1 and 2

Crawland Exploration Log, Day 1 Today we plan to finally begin mapping out our little corner of the Talenta Plains. But first of course came the usual round of court business. We received two new additions to our "ruling class" as it were, being an exotic and well-spoken elven wizard, from Aerenal, complete with baboon familiar! And an agent of our financier, a half-elf of unknown powers. Following that we received our first contingent of "citizens" who we gave a place to settle down until we could parcel out farmland or whatever one does with such people. With that we set out, choosing at random a plot of land to the east to explore. The d

About CobraToon

Artist // Hobbyist // Literature

May 7, 1988
United States
Deviant for 10 years
He / Him

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My Bio

“Take chances, make mistakes, get messy!”

I love Anime and writing. Someday I'd like to write the scripts for original animation but for now I'm a writer-in-training creating worlds and characters and telling stories with them for my amusement. I'm always searching for people to collaborate with, especially visual artists; if you read something here that inspires you, I'd like to see what you make of it, or work together on something new. And I'm here to learn and help others learn. I want advice on how I can improve, I take on prompts and requests to sharpen my writing skills, and if you'd like a critique or some proofreading you only have to ask.

My 2021 avatar is Son's car - or rather, the car I use to help people see Son's car from my Family Matters series, which is just a totally normal story about a young man's love for his first car, a young woman's discovery of her own power, and their father's quest to rejoin working society after time spent raising his children. Son's car represents a lot to me: travel and exploration even if you never go far from home, seeking love and acceptance for maybe the first time, plus friendship and romance and new beginnings. That's what I'd like 2021 to be.

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RestlessColourJan 10, 2021

Hello! Just stopping by to say for the amazing feedback you left on one of my artworks! It was truly fun to read your persective on things! I really appreciate all the effort and attention to detail you put into it! Thank you for taking the time write your critique! Hope you have a great day!