Word: Tweak

 

tweak

[ tweek ]

verb (used with object)

1. to pinch and pull with a jerk and twist:

   She playfully tweaked his ear.

   I tweaked my bowtie again, but it stayed stubbornly crooked.

2. to pull or pinch the nose of, especially gently:

   He leaned over the stroller and tweaked the baby affectionately.

3. to make a minor adjustment to:

   Bad hardware can't be fixed by tweaking the software.

4. to annoy, tease, or make fun of:

   How much of her “dumb blonde” image was actually a brilliant performer tweaking the stuffed shirts?

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               It should have worked. Evan knew it should have worked. He had checked all the simulations. Went over every part with a fine-tooth comb. Everything was perfect. And yet his creation simply refused to do anything. It turned on just fine. The computer said everything was going to work. But the damn machine refused to do anything other than make a whirring noise, followed by a series of worrying clanks.

               “Hey man, what’s up?”

               Evan groaned. He did not need the distraction from his idiot roommate. He had more important things to think about.

               “Go away, Steve. I’m trying to change the world here.” Evan said.

               “Really? Sweet! Can I watch?”

               “If I saw no, will you go away?”

               “Nope. Nothing good on any streaming site right now. Figured you’d have something cool going on.”

               Evan took a deep breath. “Fine. Just don’t touch anything. This is all very sensitive equipment.”

               “No problem. You won’t even know I’m here.”

               Evan doubted that. But as long as Steve didn’t do anything, he was harmless. Evan busying himself with trying to figure out what was wrong with his creation. He poured over the diagrams, trying to find the flaw. But he simply could not find anything wrong.

               “Something wrong, man?” Steve asked.

               “Nothing you can help with.”

               Evan tried altering a few minor parameters, just to see if anything changed. Nothing did. Still those same sounds.

               “Wow. That sounds bad. He, you know I’m pretty good with cars and stuff. Maybe I can take a look at it?”

               “Steve, the fact that you equate this masterpiece of engineering and craftsmanship with a common car tells me how unqualified you are to examine a single screw. In other words, don’t you dare touch anything.”

               “Ah come on, I’m sure it’s not that bad.” Steve had already stood and made his way into the main mechanism of the machine.

               Evan quickly shut it all down, just in case the big idiot did something to damage it. He heard some light clinks and thunks. A few metallic taps and the rustling of wires. Five minutes later, Steve came out.

               “Okay, give it a try now.”

“What did you do? You had better not have broken anything.”

               “Chill, dude, chill. Just turn it on and see what happens.”

               Evan grumbled, but did so. He turned it on, expecting the entire thing to collapse. The machine whirred to life. It became a glorious symphony of sound, motion and function. And it was perfect. Evan stared, stunned. Steve let out a triumphant whoop.

               “How…what? What did you do?” Evan asked.

               “I just looked around and tweaked a few things.”

               “What?”

               “Yeah. I got a feeling that some things weren’t where they should’ve been, so I tweaked and poked ‘em until they felt right.”

                It took several seconds for Evan to process what he had just been told. “They…felt wrong. And you did random changes until they…felt right.”

               “Yup.”

               “I…I don’t know whether to hug you or hit you.”

               Steve looked quite proud of himself. “You’re welcome, man. Always happy to help. So, uh, what’s this thing do anyway?”

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There's more definitions for this word, but I'm only posting a few. Otherwise there'd be too many and it'd get awkward.  Besides, we all know what "tweak" means, right?

Word: Ripsnorter

 

ripsnorter

[ rip-snawr-ter ]

noun

Informal.

1. something or someone exceedingly strong or violent:

   a ripsnorter of a gale.

2. something or someone remarkably good or exciting.

   *********************************** 

                  Dr. Last didn’t know where he had messed up. It should have been perfect. Everything was perfect. They were perfect. Maybe that was the problem. They were too perfect. The best minions he had ever had. Their skill, intelligence, and loyalty were far beyond what any other minion was capable of. So why shouldn’t he have rewarded them? Even though he was out to end all civilization and install himself as dictator, he could still be a good employer.

                  And turning his two best minions into neigh unstoppable super soldiers seemed like a great thing to do. After all, they were perfectly loyal. There was no chance they would turn on him.

                  He looked over the balcony as one of them, the female, ripped one of his tanks apart with her bare hands. The male of the pair was seeing how accurately he could jump. He did this by jumping up to his bomber drones several hundred feet in the air. The amount of violence would have been commendable had it been against anyone else.

                  Several of his normal minions opened fire on the two, unloading thousands of rounds every second. Of course, none of the bullets had any effect. Dr. Last had made sure the super soldiers wouldn’t be able to be stopped by such mundane means. Really, he had done so much for those two. It baffled him why they had betrayed him.

                  He wondered if it was a mental side effect. Perhaps increased aggression to go with the increased abilities. He had tried to account for that, but not even he was perfect. But no, they had been so normal at first. Well, as normal as people who could rip steel apart ever could be. And considering what the female was doing to the door to one of his bunkers, they were capable of tearing steel quite effectively.

                  They had come out of the procedure and seemed stable enough. Then they said something about “defending the world” and had gone completely berserk. As he thought about it, he wondered. Could it really be that simple? Could they have simply been heroes infiltrating his operations? He did have to admit the amount of his plots being thwarted had gone up a bit since they had joined. He had never considered spies though.

                  After all, the plots that had been stopped had seemingly been random. Oh, some were of great importance, but others were minor and hardly even slowed his plans down. And some even included those two. But the more Dr. Last thought about it, the more convinced he became. He had been infiltrated by heroes with expert espionage training. And now he had a pair of bona fide superheroes on his hands.

                  He sighed and turned away from the male using his satellite dish arrays and throwing disks. He would need to escape before those two got to him. It would not be long, given how quickly they were tearing through his defenses. It was frustrating, as this was one of his main bases. But he had others. Bases that even those two did not know about where he could lay low and recoup his losses. It would take time, but he could recover the spent resources with enough time. And the super soldier process had worked wonders.

                  He would just need to rework it a bit. Add something to control the resulting individuals. A genetic kill switch maybe? Or some sort of innate mental control method. Yes, either of those would do. Perhaps both would be better. Dr. Last nodded to himself as he entered his escape tunnel. He would go into hiding for now. But he, and his organization, would come back better and stronger than ever.

                 *********************************

   Just a little supervillain type stuff. Writing from the hero's perspective is all well and good, but every now and then you need something from a villain's POV. 
   

Word: Gainsay

 

gainsay

[ geyn-sey, geyn-sey ]

verb (used with object)

, gain·said, gain·say·ing.

1. to deny, dispute, or contradict.
2. to speak or act against; oppose.

 ********************************

               “I’m telling you, this is where we need to go.” Jack said, jabbing his finger at the map.

               “It is definitely not.” Kevin replied. He did not try and give any alternative option though. Jack groaned.

               He was not sure if it was just the two of them was good or bad. On the one hand, there was nobody to see his frustration. But on the other, there was nobody else around to help him deal with Kevin.

               “And why, oh why do you think I’m wrong. All the clues point to this location.”

               Kevin looked at the map. He acted like he was considering it for a moment. “No idea. But I can tell you that that’s not right.”

               Jack took a deep breath. “You don’t know.”

               “Nope.”

               “But you do know that all the clues are wrong.”

               “The clues aren’t wrong. You’re just getting what they mean wrong.”

               “Really.”

               “Yup.”

               “Then how about you do your part and interpret them.”

               Kevin hesitated for a moment. A big grin broke out on his face. “Not my job. Remember? I’m the guy who gets us to wherever we’re going. You’re the one who makes sure we get to the right place.”

               Jack just looked at the other man, flabbergasted at how brazen that was.

               “Kevin?”

               “Yeah?”
               “You are an idiot, you know that?”

               “Hey, I’m not the one who—”
               “No really, a grade A moron. Think about what you just said. Now think about the rest of the conversation.”

               Kevin looked confused. His brow furrowed in thought.

               “Okay, since you’re having some problems thinking, I’ll help you.” Jack said. “Everyone knows what you do. You might think you’re hiding it, but we all know you’re a troll. You just contradict for the sake of contradicting us. Every single time, you do something to gainsay us. But you always at least try and hide it. But this time? You basically just admitted it.”

               “No? No I didn’t? You’re imagining things.”

               “First you said I’m not interpreting the clues right, which implies you have the role of aiding in interpretation of the rules. Then you say it’s not your job to interpret the clues. So we see a very obvious contradiction. Something that a good troll would at least try and avoid. Thus we can see that you are just a bad troll and just want to be contrarian because…well, I don’t know why.”

               “That…that’s dumb. You’re being dumb.”

               Jack rolled his eyes. “Yeah, I’m heading out. The clues are all there, and no matter what you say, they’re obvious. So I’m going. You can follow or not. You can try and figure out the clues on your own and go wherever you think they point to, or you can shut up and come with me. Oh, but if you do, don’t contradict me unless you have an actual reason to. You’re not being funny, clever or, well, anything other than annoying.”

               Before Kevin could say anything, Jack turned and left. He had places to go, and he had no interest in dealing with a guy who just wanted to be difficult.

****************************

Remember everyone, don't feed the trolls. It won't get you anywhere.