Kelklop & Lequine
Designation: the SEA HORSE cillimorphs
Group: FISHY
Native Biomes: PLANET SPLISHY
Size: SMALL & MEDIUM
Interesting Facts: Kelklop plucks red algae leaves and waves them to make up for its shrimpy tail. This continues in its sexually dimorphic mature form, with female Lequine preferring dead branches. The male uses it for courtship and nesting material, as it is the one who gets egged up when breeding, typically the female’s role in most other species.
Bubcap & Brackray
Designation: the PSATHYRELLA AQUATICA cillimorphs
Group: GROWER
Native Biomes: PLANET SPLISHY & PLANET WOODZY
Size: SMALL
Interesting Facts: Bubcap uses the bubble under its gills and its snorkel tail to hang in the middle of the water so it never has to surface and say the morph equivalent of ‘Polo’ in games of Marco Polo. This activity is estimated to take up 73% of all amphibious wild cillimorphs’ free time. Brackray picks up food off the bottom as it cruises with its stalk-mouth, which makes an alright pogo stick on land.
Porpinky & Phrammal
Designation: the LISA FRANK DOLPHIN cillimorphs
Group: FISHY
Native Biomes: PLANET SPLISHY
Size: SMALL & MEDIUM
Interesting Facts: Both stages eat the most colorful things they can find, stealing the shades so they can then expel them as rainbows to impress their friends and enemies at parties.
Troof & Falsaur
Designation: the SPECULATIVE EVO DINO cillimorphs
Group: REPTOPHIBIAN
Native Biomes: PLANET URBANIAK & PLANET WOODZY
Size: SMALL & MEDIUM
Interesting Facts: They’re crafty, and they’ve got fingers, always a dangerous combination. Troof form mischievous gangs and engage in thievery, but they become independent when they mature, bodies consumed by gray matter that lead them to plot endlessly but never actually do much.
Trilt & Truggle
Designation: the TRILOBITE BEETLE cillimorphs
Group: SEGMENTED
Native Biomes: PLANET WOODZY & PLANET BOLDERO
Size: SMALL & MEDIUM
Interesting Facts: Trilt is a timid noodle of a thing, wriggling out of most situations and vanishing. As Truggle it is much larger and armored, wandering lazily without a care in the world. It can be ridden, its long floppy antennae used as reins.
These stories were written live on stream based on prompts provided by the viewers. They have been edited, with this second more in-depth edit occurring much later, but not meaningfully rewritten or expanded so as to preserve the spirit of the exercise. Sadly, the prompts themselves were not recorded until many stories in. Sometimes the prompts were silly challenges, or quirky thoughts, or dark ideas, or utter nonsense. I did my best each time.
If you enjoy this, please check out the other activities from the stream. If you would like something longer and much more thoroughly planned, simply investigate my more traditional work at the top of the page.
prompt provided by DarkLordofSheep
Normally, all the lamps around the frozen grounds would be ablaze. Now, only the ones inside the workshop were lit, and their flames seemed weak and frightened. December was upon them, the night near-permanent, but that had never stopped them before. This year, this Christmas, was different. Two claimed the sled as their own now; the second was on his way.
Riddles the elf was hard at work alongside his kin, tiny fingers slaving over the last of the toys, stitching manes into hobby horses with black marble eyes the size of quail eggs. His own eyes darted back to the wardrobe in the corner of the workshop. That was where Santa kept his cloaks, but he only wore one of them around this time of year: the red one. He clung to it now especially with that bloated specter on the horizon. Continue reading
This story takes place in our cillimorphs universe, the team of monster buddies and the broad strokes customized by Hadnto over on our interactive fiction writing Twitch stream. Head on over there and give it a follow if you want a team and a story of your very own!
Jimothee Jenkins Jukes Jungle Justice
by
Blaine Arcade
The planet Woodzy was not known for mysterious jungle islands that knocked you out of the sky and trapped you inside some kind of invisible force field, so one Jimothee Jenkins could be forgiven for not having his wits about him when it happened.
He was a cillikeeper, a coach of those profoundly silly creatures called cillimorphs, but some who knew him called him a drifter instead, while those who knew him best called him a bum. As far as he was concerned, a bum was the imago form of a cillikeeper, someone who had embraced the silly lifestyle so passionately that traditional employment looked like willingly taking on a chronic autoimmune disease. Continue reading
My series of crummy placeholder covers for my free books here on the blog continues. Say hello to the Porce series: four high fantasy novels infused with lowbrow humor. Join the guileful Captain Kilrobin Ordr and his rowdy crew of sink pirates as they traverse their colossal public bathroom world, battling monsters, ornery gemstone skeletons, and whoever they just stole from. They’re all free to read, so please check them out if you’re interested.
I can’t afford any fancy pants ‘actual artist’ as far as making cover images for my free books, but I can throw together lousy placeholder ones with the best of ’em. Today it’s my post-apocalyptic big magic animal brawlfest epic Invoke the Bloody Mouth. Please check it out if you’re interested.
This story takes place in our cillimorphs universe, the team of monster buddies and the broad strokes customized by Screamingecho over on our interactive fiction writing Twitch stream. Head on over there and give it a follow if you want a team and a story of your very own!
Skipper Eden’s Big Break
by
Blaine Arcade
Cheerleaders are always in the wrong place. Somebody keeps putting them on the field, during the game, when they really belong in the preamble, in the lockers and dressing rooms, motivating the people who aren’t quite sure if they can get themselves out there and perform their best. Luckily for Skipper Eden, he had five incredible cheerleaders with him before he even entered Club Nosering:
In his particular future, on his particular planet, along with the other habitable worlds and realms, it helps in most situations to have cillimorph friends. Skipper was a cillikeeper in addition to an announcer (he’s getting to the announcer part), so had plenty such friends. His cheerleaders were his closest. And they were, in random order, just the way cillimorphs like it, a Tictuttle, a Mudaub, an Egvelope, a Rimeroot, and a Puckerluck. Continue reading
Blaine Arcade 