Take A Stand

I awoke in almost complete darkness, on bare rock, feeling very light on my feet. I suppose the normal response would be to panic and flail around. I don't do that. All I can see is stone and sky and I feel a distinct lack of gravity pressing me down. This feels more like a dream than any dream I've had before. I guess it's a lucid dream. I've heard of them before, but I never knew they were this detailed. There's barely any light and I can't see that well without my glasses anyway, but the sky is enormous!

I feel the top of my head just to make sure my glasses aren't there. Nope, no glasses... and no clothes. Definitely a dream. The fact that all this seems familiar just clinches it. It's only after I notice the ring on my right hand that things fall into place. I'm dreaming that I'm in a Ring Fic. It's a specific type of self-insert story where a Random Omnipotent Bastard (or ROB) drops the main character on an asteroid in space, wearing only a power ring of some sort.

I feel the ring with my fingertips. It's too dim to see any colors as everything looks to be either grey or black, and it feels smooth so I can't begin to guess what color ring it's supposed to be. Considering how little I know about power rings, being able to feel what symbol was on it probably wouldn't have been much help anyway.

"Ring?" I ask, surprised by how loud my voice sounds. I jump... and probably peed a little as well. It feels a little like being in a bouncy castle as I land at least two feet away from where I started. Okay, pretty sure I'm awake now, because my heart is racing fast enough that I would have startled myself awake if I had been sleeping. "Ring?" I try again and get no answer. Either I have to give it a specific command to get a response or I have a non-AI ring.

"Ring, tell me the date," I order and get no response. "Fuck!"

That was a great disappointment. You have no idea the numbers of ways I would abuse having an alien super computer with its own AI.

"Okay, plan B," I say to the darkness and try to feel for the ring. It turns out to be surprisingly easy to do, as I now can't figure out how I didn't notice it before. The ring is humming with energy, but I don't feel any specific emotion or color. It feels... logical, precise... colorless.

I guess my ROB is one of those special snowflake types and has given me the equivalent of a Vulcan power ring, powered by logic.

I had been considering writing a mood-ring lantern fic, so I suppose making me use a logic ring would be the best way to prevent me using any of the ideas I'd had for using a ring powered by the emotional spectrum. It looks like I'll have to wing it, but on the plus side I don't have to worry about being emotionally unbalanced as a lot of SIs were from using colored rings. Well, let's see how well I do using my Vulcan ring. I focus on using a fist sized chunk of power and bend it to my will. "Let there be light!"

A miniature sun explodes into existence right in front of me and I scream in pain. It's probably only several minutes before I uncurl from the fetal position and look around blindly. I can't see shit! I'm not sure whether I've done permanent damage to my eyes or the small sun has winked out and I've only destroyed my night vision. I really hope it's the second one, because if I'm this bad at simple things like creating light, then any attempts I make to heal myself will be even worse.

OK, deep breath and try again. I concentrate on grabbing a palm full of energy and visualize a street lamp. "Let there be lamp," I intone and blink in the sudden but not overwhelming light. There are massive spots in my sight from my earlier attempt, but I can clearly see the old-fashioned London street lamp in front of me. I place a hand on it and it feels reassuringly solid. Come to think of it, it both looks and feels like an old-fashioned cast-iron street lamp, not an energy construct at all.

Maybe calling my ring a Ring of Vulcan was more accurate than I thought.

"Glasses," I order, grasping and using a Ping-pong Ball sized sphere of energy and visualizing my familiar pair of glasses. A weight settles onto my face and everything snaps into focus. I still have spots in front of my eyes and the circle of light from the street light isn't all that large, but I can see... I can see a lot of rock. I can also feel, and I feel like I'm on a very large asteroid; possibly a moon. I think I'm draining power from it, because it feels... like my ring-and speaking of rings... My ring is silver and shaped like a lantern ring, but it has no symbol; it's completely bare.

The smooth surface looks unfinished, and without pausing to consider whether it's a good idea or not I visualize a hammer and tongs crossed over an anvil and send a teaspoon of magic into it. Thankfully, the ring doesn't object or break or explode, or any of a thousand negative things, it simply alters its surface so I'm now looking at the symbols I'd chosen-done in ebony. It looks quite nice, if I do say so myself. While I take a moment to admire my ring, I'm reminded of the fact that I'm naked. I need clothes, possibly a uniform for whatever Lantern Corps I'm supposed to be, however... spandex would not be a good look for me, plus I am not fond of having a perma-wedgie.

I'm more Buddha or Bacchus than I am Atlas or Ares. Right-shoulder-bared Roman toga with leather armored skirt, I decide, and pump a watermelon-sized ball of energy into its creation, while concentrating on certain concepts. It should be protective, comfortable, and keep my genitals covered in shadow so no one can take up-skirt photos of me. Sure, I could wear shorts or something similar under it, but that defeats the purpose of wearing something that lets you get a nice breeze on your bits.

A white, cotton toga with metal-reinforced leather straps forms on me, and it feels every bit as comfortable as I'd hoped. It even came with a pair of Roman sandals with the complicated leather laces that come up to the knee and... little white wings at the ankles? There was also a glint of silver and black on my toga, a small button that matched my ring.

Properly dressed and feeling prepared for anything, I was deciding how to examine my connection to the large rock I was on when I heard a feminine whisper; something about... the dead? I turned and saw a pair of red eyes just before something hit me with the force of a freight train and everything went black!

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

I wake up lying on stone in the darkness... but I was dressed this time and... I have a vague memory of dodging the train after it hit me and falling into the static between TV channels, but instead of black and white it was like a rainbow cut into confetti. I'm guessing I died and R.O.B. decided to give me an extra life as I hadn't been entertaining enough to be allowed to die yet.

That's both comforting and disquieting. Still, at least I have another shot.

I decide not to make another lamp post and instead try to get a feel for what I can do and then split before the red-eyed monster finds me again. Okay, I can feel the energy of the ring trickling into an area around me. Aah, the standard environmental shield all ring users get, I'm guessing, and I can feel the ring refilling itself from... a place not here. Strange.

I thought I was in the same place as before, but the energy I'm getting is not from the planetoid I'm standing on, nor anywhere close-by. I feel for the ground beneath my feet and with an almost-mechanical click I feel a connection! I'm drawing power from this place... as well. Huh. I'm not sure what this means, but I figure I better get out of here before red-eyes feels what I'm doing and comes after me again.

I shoot off into the air at a thought, without even using my ring. As I look back at the planetoid shrinking slowly behind me, I see my ankle-wings are flapping like crazy... and the planetoid is not shrinking nearly as quickly as I'd like. Man, it is going to take forever to get anywhere!

It's another half-an-hour 'til I think maybe I should use my ring to speed things up, though I'm really not sure how to do that. I mean, making a simple light almost burned out my retinas. God knows what trying to use energy to fly is going to do.

Hm... I could make an object to propel me, and hopefully avoid exploding my legs. Except, I have no idea how to make something like that and the science is an order of magnitude beyond me. Then again, I hadn't really handled the science behind the lamp post, so maybe I am over-thinking it.

I nod to myself and think of the simplest design that would allow me to travel in space quickly and then come to a decision. I have no idea how much power this is going to take, so I add a few minor alterations to ensure that even if it takes all my power I won't be left sucking vacuum. I fix the details in my mind firmly then simply pour power into the design, willing it to work. I collapse breathlessly onto my creation a moment later, blackness creeping at the edges of my vision and my ring... almost completely drained. Hopefully I'm not in the Marvel Universe or Norrin Radd is going to sue my ass.

I climb to my feet. The silver board provides me a semblance of gravity and an envelope of air as my ring slowly draws on its connection to the two separate balls of rock to recharge. I head in-system towards the sun, as I have no idea where I am in the universe, but I'm hoping I'm in our solar system. The planetoid I'd been on vanishes behind me in less than a minute as I finally hit speeds fast enough to cross the system in a few hours rather than a few centuries.

I grin widely, enjoying the feel of the board beneath me as I ride the solar waves!

Ten minutes later...

I tap my chin in thought before placing the queen of hearts on the king of spades. Sure, crossing the solar system in hours seems like it's traveling at warp speeds, but it's still hours and I have the patience of a squirrel on Red Bull. Thankfully, my Ring of Vulcan can make small items with almost no power. I place the nine of diamonds on the ten of clubs and sigh. Next time I am bringing a book!

Typing by: Ordieth117