dystopia

Regular Romp #12: Leor the Tenth, Possibly Last

~ Blaine Arcade ~ Leave a comment

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

LiorX

Sixty-eight people milled about on the beach pretending to enjoy various activities. There was a game of volleyball going; the ball hadn’t touched the ground in more than forty minutes. Neither team had scored yet. They didn’t need to. The game was simply decoration, like the surfers lounging against their posted boards and the children building sand castles so tall and symmetrical that no actual child could resist toppling them. Continue reading →

Twitch Stream Story: Terms and Services and Awhhh who Cares?

~ Blaine Arcade ~ Leave a comment

Prompt: Someone makes you an offer you can’t refuse. You refuse.

Those five streets always sounded like there was a train just under them, something clicking rhythmically against the tracks. I never saw a station anywhere, but after compartmentalization I was out of the loop. There didn’t seem to be much point to reading the news from different compartments or looking at their layouts when nobody was allowed to visit them. Continue reading →

School Supplies

~ Blaine Arcade ~ 1 Comment

(reading time: 24 minutes)

School Supplies

Breeeeeeek, breek, breek.  Sort of like a cicada, but according to the box it was supposed to be a tree frog.  I hadn’t liked tree frogs in about six years, but when Mom said she was going to keep my room just as it was after I left she sure meant it.  So I was being woken up by a plastic golden alarm clock shaped like a frog.  It breeeked in my face and flashed the lights behind its purple eyes.

I swung my legs over the side of the bed and winced when my feet hit the floor.  Pain.  Docs said my leg should be one hundred percent by now.  Liars.  They wanted me to get hurt again; it’s just more money in their pocket.  Miss the family doctor.  Think he was a real family doctor… like a cousin removed a handful of times or something.  You need your blood mixed with theirs to get them to really care. Continue reading →