- Lizzie
- Richard
- Serendipidy
- Rick Thomas
- Norval Joe
- Tom
- Tura
- Planet Z
LIZZIE
Sprinkle some magic powder on the black cat. No. Stretch and stretch, and stretch some more. Grab the shiny star and place it next to the jar. The cat will look, the star will stretch and the jar will smile a sparkly smile. No. The next time you reach for that magic powder, think that it is safer not to reach for a lighter. A lighter? Where did that come from? The cat will stretch. The jar will sparkle. The star will shine. Yes. That’s it. Everything is back in place. Neatly. Yawn. I prefer to see the jar smiling.
RICHARD
Powder
The raid went without a hitch: We had Carter and Jeffries cuffed and restrained, while we ransacked the room.
One of the officers passed a sealed package to my partner, Davis, who produced his pocket knife, slitting it open to reveal its contents. He moistened his finger, and dipped it into the white powder, before rubbing it against his upper gum.
“What is it?” I asked.
Davis turned away and beckoned me over and whispered, “How the hell should I know”
“So what’s with the gum rubbing?”
“Dunno, they do it in the movies, so I figured I should too!”
SERENDIPIDY
Funny thing, powder.
Talc, sawdust, flour: All totally inoffensive, and apparently harmless, so nobody blinks an eye if you want to stockpile them, nobody asks questions, and nobody keeps records.
And this warehouse is full to the brim with powder of every kind.
Don’t worry, that haze that hangs in the air isn’t going to choke you -not if you breathe gently and slowly.
But tread with caution too, because the slightest static discharge; the tiniest spark, and this whole building becomes one massive spontaneous bomb!
So don’t make any sudden movements.
And pray that I don’t make any either!
RICK THOMAS
New Millennium Craft
Mama passed … The old box was hers. 150 years old, some off the bottles within were older still. Handed down by generations of witches. Marie
knew it front to back …
Preparation, application, incantation.
Spells, charms, potions, poisons, and powders. Leaves, roots, wands …. crystals.
Witches were among the first healers, scientists, pharmacologists, but, the modern world was catching up.
Witch to woman was about knowledge,power, domination.
Witch to man was different … It required finesse, craft, artistry … with a sexual component.
Today’s witches most powerful tool …
The makeup bag.
Like mama always said …
“Powder and paint make a gal what she ain’t.”
NORVAL JOE
Though Billbert agreed with his father that taking Linoliamanda along for a battle with supervillians was a bad idea, he was in too much of a hurry to argue with her. Besides, he liked holding her hand.
Outside, on the sidewalk, Billbert held out his hand. “Okay. Let’s go.”
“Hold on a second,” Linoliamanda said, and took a small bottle of powder from his shoulder bag and dusted her hands with it.
“What’s that?” Billbert asked.
She smiled. “It’s Malaysian bonding powder. So our hands don’t slip apart while were flying.”
“Really?” Billbert asked. “Wow. You come prepared for everything.”
TOM
In Winter the Snow is Deep
On the street they call it Power. A lab in Singapore sequence. It had promising success in early Alzheimer test ground, but some of the side-effect scared the shit out big pharma. So it when underground, then over ground. Asia labs were more broad-minded in their search for new stuff. They kick off a number of hydrogen chain and bammm, super cat state. I seemed to freeze a single thought in a time loop. Same thought reflected back on the user, over and over again. The best way to do Power was to drop a flack on your iris
TURA
Powder
———
In Civilization IX, the simulation goes down to the level of individual people, leading complete lives in the simulated world. Are they alive, everyone asks, but that they might be just makes me take it more seriously. In this game, I’m God, leading them onwards and upwards, while my opponent is playing the Devil, the force of darkness and ignorance.
It looks like they’ll take another two centuries to invent gunpowder, but my opponent is raising up a religion that would declare fire taboo. Time to play a Prometheus card and enter the world myself to teach them the secret.
PLANET Z
You see in the movies and TV shows, a guy pulls out a knife, sticks it in a bag of powder, and licks it.
You can’t taste if something’s pure.
You need chemistry for that.
Bottles and tubes and that kind of thing.
So, we made a field kit.
Well, two field kits.
We sold the good field kit to our people.
And we sold the bad field kit to the cops.
So we know when the stuff is good.
And they think that they picked up junk and throw it out.
And we pull it out of the garbage.