‘Back-Dash’ Stratagem
(17:3:22:8:30:14.7)
If she didn’t learn to go faster she would always be baggage to Chagrinn, like a paperweight or a coatrack, something to hold down switches or hold onto items so the real speed runner would have his hands free. The stuttering back-dash meant she could keep up with him. Continue reading
‘Duplication’ Stratagem
(17:3:22:8:30:14.7)
“The world could always use more flowers,” she said, startled by her own sudden smile. Smiling was so rare for the girl that a full earnest one felt like a paper cut across her face. She suppressed a giggle. It was clear by Chagrinn’s expression that her happiness made no difference to him, but the smile wasn’t for him anyway. It was for the ability to make real choices. She saw now that so many choices in her life had been false; if the options available weren’t equally valid, how was there a choice at all? Continue reading
‘Flickering Flame’ Stratagem
(17:3:22:7:23:49.0)
There was something different about this nudge. It was hot; it struck the inside of her sternum like a red iron. It promptly exploded into a blazing rage the likes of which she had never felt. She’d been furious with Chagrinn for disrespecting her uncle’s body and pen, she’d hated her employers nearly constantly, but what burned inside her at that moment was animalistic. She was a lion with a brilliant orange mane, roar and lick of flame identical in sound. After seeing the seams of Shook and Cain she finally understood what the boundaries of her cage were. She finally knew her back was against the corner and there was no choice left but to lash out. Continue reading
‘Seafoam’ Stratagem
(17:3:22:7:23:49.0)
Bombi boldly walked backward. Her feet hit water. The bandits followed for a moment but stopped at the water’s edge. Perhaps they’re afraid of bathing. Bombi kept going. She let the sharp cold of the seawater eat up her ankles. Further and further she went until it seeped into the bottom of her clothes. She was up to her knees. Chagrinn gave her no clue as to how she could encourage the blade to take shape, so she made her best guess. Continue reading
‘Pen Destroyed’ Stratagem
(17:3:22:7:00:18.5)
Timorrow was the only one who wanted her to have a real life. This new man, Chagrinn the speed runner, insisted there were no real lives to be had. Logically, the realest one of all would be the one with the most defiance, the one that cursed the sky as well as the ground, the one that cursed parents as well as children. Continue reading
‘Pen Kept’ Stratagem
(17:3:22:7:00:18.5)
She would need Timorrow’s comfort if she was going to make it in this new, rushed, terrifying world. The pen bounced against her hip with every step and she tried to cherish it instead of worrying. Continue reading
(blurb)
A speed run is an attempt to beat a video game as fast as possible, for glory and personal satisfaction. Speed reading a book has never carried quite the same appeal, but perhaps that can change, with the addition of choice.
Here is a challenge, set in a fantasy world based on the principles of the speed run, where you the reader must guide the protagonist to her destiny, and perhaps a world record time. At crucial points you will have to make her decisions, and you should do so quickly, lest she careen into the void while waiting for you!
Through the Bottom of the World:
A Choose-your-own Speed Run
By
Blaine Arcade
Instructions
Even if you are familiar with speed runs, the subtitle of this piece of interactive fiction will likely confuse you some. For those of you who aren’t familiar, a speed run is an attempt to complete the story campaign of a video game, or some subset of goals within a video game, in the shortest amount of time possible for a human player who is not using any machine or program to interfere with the game’s function. Continue reading
Prompt: An elf boy and his fairy boyfriend are abducted by aliens.
The leaves of the the shy shoot plant were supposed to be excellent cover. It was a magical bit of flora, utterly invisible to human beings and their mechanical lenses, but still solid enough to hide anything under it. All sorts of magical tribes had relied on the tree to act as either neutral ground in times of conflict or safe bunkers for secret keeping. Continue reading
Regular Romp is an interactive fiction activity over on our Twitch stream where I ask a regular a series of questions before turning their answers and a corruption of their username into a short story. Stop by twitch.tv/blainearcade if you’d like to participate.
starring MelodyKazey
It had the distinction of being the quietest forest in all the world. Melody Korrespazey couldn’t even hear her footsteps. It was more than a month into autumn, the wind bit at her cheeks just over her thick orange scarf, so there should have been a healthy layer of crunchy leaves under her feet. Yet it was all yellow grass and whitish lichen. Continue reading
Prompt: You enter a house with a dark hidden secret; when looking around you see a painting moving faintly. You lean closer, and an arm pulls you in. You’re stuck in a world of paintings; how do you get out?
It was always the quietest house, which was why Michael Roslinger hated being there when he was a child. It was older than his grandparents, even back then, but it never creaked or moaned in the night. It had no personality. As an adult, as a patron of the arts, he knew everything was supposed to have one. That meant the house was like a comatose person, or that it had brain damage somewhere in its dark cellar. Continue reading
Blaine Arcade 