It was a nice, calm day down at my office.

That should have been the first clue.

The second clue should have been that I hadn't a sufficient case in weeks, and my rent was coming due. Sure, that left me with time to practice my budding wizardly skills, but being able to blow shit up with my mind would lose its luster if I found myself homeless.

The third, and probably most prominent clue as to the fact that my shit was about to be pushed in was most definitely the large, imposing man that had stepped into my office that afternoon, decked out in full combat-hardsuit gear with a rifle strapped to his back and a pistol at his hip.

He ambled into my office, casually casting his eyes around the entire place, as calm and collected as a man who didn't look like he was about to raid an incredibly fortified military base. He stopped a few feet short of my desk, a simple (and probably subconscious) act that gave him enough room to roll in either direction away from should I pull a gun, and landed his eyes on me, asking, "So, you the wizard?"

He was big, maybe an inch or two under my towering height of 'near-six-and-a-half-feet', and was much more well built, as far as muscle went. Dark skin, a buzzed haircut, blue eyes that seemed to shine with equal parts humor and danger, and a smile that seemed to be his face's natural relaxed state, the guy was certainly a handsome one. If I were a lesser man, I might've felt insecure about my own looks compared to his.

Thankfully, I'm not a lesser man, and I simply answered his question without trying to prove my obvious alpha male dominance. "Would I have put the word on the door otherwise?" I might or might not have sounded a bit condescending. It was certainly not an attempt to try and show my obviously superior rapier wit.

His eyes gleamed with extra amounts of humor. "All kinds of weirdness out there."

"Says the man who walked into a guy's office asking for a wizard."

His retort was quick. "Says the one who's advertising as a wizard."

I squinted my eyes at him in scrutiny, then decided that I just couldn't hate that disarming smile of his. I leaned back in my chair, bobbing my head in allowance. "Fair enough." I looked back at his face. "Weirdness is something of a specialty of mine." I stuck my hand out, over my desk. "Michael Blackstone, wizard for hire."

The large man stared at my hand for a moment, as though contemplating whether or not it was worth it to come over and shake. After a moment, he did, saying, "Ryan, professional bounty hunter."

I quirked an eyebrow. "Just Ryan?" I asked.

He nodded. "Just Ryan."

Our hands went back to our sides, and I motioned towards one of the spare seats I had in my office. "Sit?"

He shook his head. "Prefer to stand."

I shrugged. Suit yourself, big guy. "So," I said, "what can I do for you?"

He thought for a moment, folding his arms as he did so. After a second of silence, he said. "First, I need you to tell me. Just how much of that 'magic' stuff that you push do you actually believe?"

Interesting question. He was trying to see if, when he said the real reason for what he was in here for, I would just call him crazy, or actually believe him about it. Must mean that he really did see something that might need my help. What little I could offer with my current skill set, anyway.

My answer came with no hesitation. "All of it."

Ryan scanned my face, trying to weed out the possibility that I might be lying. "You ever hear of someone that can get into someone's mind and shit? Make you do things without your sayso?"

I nodded. "Yeah, I've heard of it. Actually, there are a lot of things out there that can do that. The human mind is a fragile thing, and some monsters adapted specifically to use mankind as both food and willing beasts of burden."

The big man shook his head. "Well, I don't know much about any monsters, but I do know that I was hired to hunt down this guy that pissed off the locals, who just so happens to be able to do some strange things."

I furrowed my brow. "Who?"

"Guy named Vissarion Yankov. C-Sec wants this guy because they can pin a series of robberies and murders on 'im. They called me in for some extra help."

"What's this got to with mind control?"

A frustrated look crossed Ryan's face. "I've been hunting this guy for the past three weeks. I've cornered him at least three times. Each time, he's been able to slip me. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. But three times?" He shook his head. "The first time I cornered him, I found him at this old, rundown bar. I walk up to him, say the whole 'dead or alive, you're coming with me' thing, then wait for him to say something back. But he doesn't. He just looks at me. And then I turn around and left. No mess, no fight, not even a good old 'go screw yourself' from the guy. He just looked at me, and I was suddenly walkin' towards the door."

My eyebrows went up, surprised. "He got into your head? With a look?" That was new. I knew of things that could give suggestions, at best, with just a look, let alone a compulsion or even total mind control like that. Whoever this Vissarion guy is, he knows what he's doing.

Ryan nodded. "I was twenty feet outside the bar when I felt that something was wrong. Took another five minutes to just snap myself out of it. When I went back in to find the guy, he was already gone."

"Ye Gods, man," I said shaking my head. "You're lucky that you were able to snap out of it. Most things that can exert control like that don't usually have such weak holds on their victims minds. I think he let you go."

Ryan seemed to consider that for a moment. "Well, that's a scary thought. And, if it's all the same to you, I'd rather not think about it."

"Fair enough," I said. "What about that second time you cornered the guy?"

"Followed him to an apartment building in the Presidium," he told me. "I found him walkin' down the hall. Didn't even bother to give him the 'come peacefully' spiel. Just ran at the guy. Bastard must've heard me though, because he turned around, looked at me, then started to run."

"He looked at you?" I asked. "But he didn't try to compel you?"

The big man shook his head. "Nah. But he did run into two other guys. Flashes them a look, and they just suddenly stop in the middle of the hall. I sprinted right into them, knocked me down. Vissarion took a side door, and was in the street and gone before I even had the chance to go after."

I leaned forward onto my desk, folding my hands in front of me in thought. "This guy can not only burst into someone's mind with nothing but a look, but can also do it to at least two people."

Ryan nodded. "Yeah. You know, at first, I thought I was just losing it. I mean, mind control isn't exactly normal, even for me. I've seen, done, and met weirdness before, but… Well, that just tops it, right?"

"Mind control isn't exactly easy to come by," I agreed. "What about that third time?"

Ryan shook his head. "Nothing all that weird about it. Followed the guy into a warehouse I knew was rented out by a few less-than-stellar people. Those guys don't really care what you do in there, just as long as they get paid." He refocused onto topic. "Anyway, I get to the warehouse, I go in, and I find him standing over this table lookin' thing. Must've heard me again, because he looked up at me, hissed out something, and then a freight train hits my back. I'm out before I even knew it. Woke up there, too." His brow furrowed in thought. "Actually, makes me wonder why he didn't just kill me. Would've been easy enough."

My eyes narrowed as a thought passed through my head. "The table thing you saw him standing over," I said. "Did you see anything that was on it?"

Ryan shook his head. "Nope. Got knocked out before I could."

"Was it there when you woke up?"

The big man thought for a moment, then shook his head. "No, actually. Gone when I woke up." He looked at me in question. "Why?"

I gave him a frank look and leaned back against my chair. "It's the reason you're still alive. Whatever was on that table, it was more important to him that he take care of it rather than you. Count your lucky stars, man."

Ryan sighed, his arms finally dropping back to their sides, and he took a seat. "Yet another pleasant thought. You really are just a bundle of fun, ain't you, Mikey?"

I blinked. "Mikey?" I asked.

That smile worked its way back onto his face again. "Hey, if it works, it works. So, anyway, as fun as story time is here, I think it best if I get to my point, yeah?"

I nodded. "Go ahead."

"The point is, I need help. This is a new kind of weird to me, and I need an expert on the stuff. If you really are a wizard, like your door says, then you know all about this stuff. Think you can help me track the guy down, get him back to C-Sec?"

"Definitely," I said. "This Vissarion guy is serious business, and apparently, he's take on some badass bounty hunter more than once, and got away with it. And he's responsible for a string of murders, you said?'

He nodded.

"Then, yeah," I went on. "Guy like that, and has that kind of ability? Definitely needs a wizard on the case."

Ryan's smile grew bigger at that, a gesture I returned, albeit with less gusto. "Alright," he said as he bobbed his head. "We should get started soon." His smile dropped. "And I suppose now would be a good time to mention that I have absolutely no lead on the guy. So, you should, you know, work some magic or something, and find the guy."

I looked at him blankly at that, then sighed. "Figures," I muttered. I looked back up. "Alright. I think I know a few place and people we can talk to to get this started."

The smile was back again. "Mikey. I can tell. This is the start of a beautiful partnership."

I gave him an amused look. "As far as introductions go, yeah, I've seen worse."

Ryan continued to beam at me. "Now come on. I make it a personal policy to never partner with I guy I've never shared a drink with." And with that, he stood up and strided towards the door, stopping just before he reached the threshold. He turned back and looked at me expectantly.

Yeah. Something told me I'd like this guy.

Every story has a beginning. The beginning of this one isn't so much a beginning as it is a foreword, hence the title of the chapter.

Hey there. I'm ThatBlueScreenGuy, writer extraordinaire. Well, extraordinaire is a bit of a stretch, but you understand my point here. I'm the writer, and you lot are, quite obviously, the reader.

Not sure why I feel the need to point out the obvious. Just makes the cripplingly one-sided conversation awkward.

Anyway, I'm here to give something of an explanation as to just what this story is all about.

The point of this story is to be a dumping ground for prompts and ideas that come to my head in the moments when I should be focusing on much more important things, like schooling and sleep and sustenance. All the stories are going to be based around the concepts and ideas that reside within the main story I'm currently procrastinating on, Arcane Effect: Life is Hard. All the characters come from there, and I highly recommend that you head over there if you like what you see here. You'll find that that story has a more singular story to it.

Actually, the procrastination thing reminds me. Sometimes I have crippling writers block. Sometimes it can take weeks to months at a time for me to get my mojo back. So this story, not only being a repository for silly little ideas, is also a place where I'm going to come to when I can't seem to get anything done. So that will be my excuse for why these stories, at times, might not seem to be of a similar quality than others. Often times the only way for me to get over writers block is for me to smash my head against the keyboard and hope that something coherent comes out.

Basically, this entire little project is for me to get myself back into the groove if I need it, by means of 100 prompts (yeah, 100 specifically. Found a nice little list on the interwebs for me to go through).

So, to summarize: The point of this story is so I can get back on the saddle when I get knocked off it, I'm using a list of 100 prompts to do so, and you're probably sitting there, looking at your computer/phone screen, wondering why you should care.

And, in fairness, that last one is a good question.

Anyway, I suppose I've rambled on for long enough now. If you're still interested, turn the metaphorical page and read on. I'll be here, in the background, pretending to be doing something that I should have gotten done a long time ago.

Oh, yeah, and as always,

Thanks For Reading!

~ThatBlueScreenGuy