Today's story "What's That?" is of some personal historical interest. Quite a few years ago, a friend from an Internet writing group invited me to participate in a writers' challenge ongoing at Art of Darkness, a computer art site of which he was a member. The challenge was two-sided. Artists posted a piece of work, and writers attempted to do a story that went with the illustration. Or, writers posted a story, and artists attempted to do a picture illustrating the story. I had no experience with computer art at the time, and being a new member, I didn't feel it appropriate to post an original story, so I did a story which to my mind went with a picture titled "What's That?" The picture showed a couple of heavily armed robots standing in the street of a city reduced to rubble. They were staring down at a lovely red rose lying on the pavement. As one of them aimed his weapon at the flower, the other asked the question. As I recall, no one commented on my story. Maybe they didn't think it appropriate that a newbie take part in the challenge. Or maybe they just thought my story sucked. Anyway, that got me interested in 3D art, I bought Poser 6, a 3D art application, and started doing my own illustrations. Not long later, because Poser didn't fit my intuitive nature, I switched to DAZ Studio. A few years later I attempted to duplicate (more or less) the original art for "What's That?" It was okay but not nearly as good as that original picture. Probably I could do better today, but I thought I'd just present the story by itself. Let me know what you think.
Yesterday my SOL total downloads exceeded one million. The actual number of downloads might be a few thousand short of a million, because one story, "Hooping," was originally a chapter story, and the download count for chapter stories is significantly inflated. But by tomorrow or the next day, assuming 17-911-ED and 17-911-EF don't run amok, the real count should exceed a million. I'm very appreciative of SOL for providing this venue, and I'm appreciative of the readers.