250 Words: Couple No 7: Tales from the City: The Blur and The Developer (Part Five)

The two had clandestine meetings at many different places, including each other’s apartments, as Thomas fully explained to Peter how he made his ability work and slowly related his life story (minus the bully incident and other pieces of information that might help give his identity away) to be published as a serial.

And an element of calm soon came over the city in relation to Thomas, aka The Blur: the naysayers faded into the background and the city came to terms with their unlikely hero who had come from a small town in the middle of nowhere and who was here to stay.

Thomas and Peter quickly became friends, getting closer and closer during meetings that would turn into all-night chats ending on the balcony watching the sun come up.  Until one glorious summer evening when, in a pause, their eyes met, the silence was filled with a kiss and they finally gave in to their inner urges and became a couple. 

And thus they went on, partners in two different senses and with a foreboding feeling in the back of their minds.  Thomas knew that if the relationship ended badly, Peter could expose him quite naked to the city while Peter worried that their closeness could lead to exposure- it might not take much investigation by jealous rivals to discover their secret and blow the deal with his editor. 

And thus it went on, The Blur and The Developer happy; but scared of happiness’s end.

To be continued…?

250 Words: Couple No 7: Tales from the City: The Blur and The Developer (Part Four)

They met in a bar, somewhere neither thought it would happen, each going there to escape their problems.  But as Thomas waited to buy a round, Peter whispered in his ear, “I know who you are, Blur.”  Abandoning his friends, who gave him a wink and a nudge, Thomas spoke with Peter in a secluded corner.

Peter tried to get Thomas to come out, give him the scoop.  Thomas explained why he could not, what he feared would happen.  Peter said he would write what Thomas wanted, could explain his powers thoroughly, define what could not otherwise be defined.  Thomas said he wanted to remain anonymous, though, deep down, he knew he’d lost, that Peter would run the story no matter what, and that, perhaps, his story had to come out now so he could help people again. 

However Peter had, through talking to Thomas, begun to sympathise a little.  Partly because he could see the advantage of having Thomas as a friend and keeping his identity secret.  Plus it would mean Thomas might become active again, so he’d be doing the city a favour.  If his identity became known, Thomas may be forced into stopping permanently or moving away. 

And so they formed an alliance- Thomas giving Peter information on his powers and his deeds, Peter producing exclusives and keeping his own power, which his editor wasn’t pleased with but accepted the arrangement: he had, after all, the only column in the city about The Blur.  Sales rose steeply.

250 Words: Couple No 7: Tales from the City: The Blur and The Developer (Part Three)

Thomas froze when he saw the headline (“Our Man Sees The Blur”) and his stomach lurched when he read the article and its debate over whether The Blur could move superhumanly fast or if he moved within frozen time.  Partly because he knew he’d been seen but also because he’d always wanted the name Chrono Man or Time Freeze.  The blurring was a hindrance and not something he wanted to be known for.

Growing up, Thomas had dreamed of fame, of showing off his powers on television, meetings with scientists and politicians; and also of celebrity dates.  Instead, not long after the city had begun to chatter about his exploits, he had met with resentment over his inability to save everyone.  The people’s ignorance of the exact nature of his powers led them to question and a hatred grew among many.

Simultaneously, the newspapers, in their fear of not knowing (and their rivalry), had begun their manhunt- thinking only of their own needs and not of what harm they might do to their supposed hero.  Commentators from all quarters threw in their thoughts as Thomas himself wondered whether to reveal his identity.

In the end Thomas, with his supporters and detractors in a frenzy, decided to stop his activities for a while and lay low so as to avoid this blur-seeing journalist.  Something he did not manage for long, not realising that Peter knew his face.  Or that the two had something in common that would make their worlds overlap.

250 Words: Couple No 7: Tales from the City: The Blur and The Developer (Part Two)

Peter was a reporter for one of the city’s newspapers and was constantly vigilant for whoever or whatever was causing the miracles to occur.  Most newspapers didn’t believe in the divine and were constantly searching for a rational explanation.

During his career Peter had always had a keen eye for events as they unfolded, as well as a good memory for later distilling events into stories.  In fact his vision and memory were so perfect, it was if he saw and remembered events step by step like photographs developed and stored forever in his mind.

One day Peter was walking through the city’s streets and, as he often did, used his analytical skills to people watch, taking in movements and expressions as entertainment to fill the time on the way to a job.

All of a sudden he heard tyres squeal and a woman scream and, looking in the direction from the sounds had come from, he saw a streaked line starting and ending from a man on the opposite pavement and running across the road, engulfing and picking up the child, dropping it off next to its mother and then circling back around over the road to the start point.

In his excitement, Peter neglected to follow this extraordinary man.  Leaving him instead with a story he could only really put across as a theory, a belief.  The search would therefore have to continued: except that now Peter knew the face he needed to find to complete the scoop.

250 Words: Couple No 7: Tales from the City: The Blur and The Developer (Part One)

Thomas first realised he could stop time during a stressful moment.  The School Bully had him cornered and as the punch came in, Thomas closed his eyes and braced himself.  On opening them he found time had stopped.  After a short panic stood stock, still worried the world had come to an end, Thomas decided to piss up and down the Bully’s legs before returning to his original position (instinctively he knew he would have to always do so), unfroze time and witnessed the end of the School Bully’s reign.

Some time later Thomas began his secret life of helping others out (after a prolonged period of mischief, of course).  Though he had to always start and end in the same place, he could still change other things in the blink of everyone else’s eye, removing victims or criminals from various situations and so on.

The only problem was the care he needed to take in his movement.  Appearing in more than one position in a single moment meant Thomas left a great streak behind him.  In the early days he often got lost, finding it difficult to return to his start position.  Over time Thomas learned to take care, freezing time before taking in the full situation and planning every move- normally in a clockwise direction.

Eventually he grew up and moved to the city where his antics, occurring almost on a daily basis, became its greatest mystery and a search for the solution to this enigma soon began.