Prompt: A scifi story about posthumanism and discrimination
Every footstep had to be sanctioned. Infrak’s steps had been predetermined for more than four years now. Each step with his giant feet, each as wide as a schooner, was clearly marked with concrete borders. These steps moved in a circle around the city. It was his patrol route, now that he wasn’t needed for battle any longer. Continue reading
Prompt: realization vs. reality
There once was a god who figured things out as they went along. They made planets before space, plants before light, and animals before food. This god’s world was a slow moving disaster, but it was too late to stop now; it already rolled across the gravity they’d put out like a carpet. All they could do was their best as they watched trees grow tall before their leaves showed up, families give seasonal gifts before the children were born, and wolves lick their lips before the hunt was even on. Continue reading
Author’s Note: This was written live on stream, with the tone being determined by the numbers under minesweeper tiles. The audience could bid tokens earned in stream to reveal random tiles. A mine hit results in the death of all characters, unless they are temporarily saved by a lump sum of tokens. If characters make it to the end of the stream, they survive to be seen another day. Join us at twitch.tv/blainearcade if you wish to participate.
1-peace 2-alert 3-escalation 4-action 5-tragedy 6-world-changing
The minefield has been moved. It now connects the Trap to a new world, a new game. There is no destruction this time, nothing forcing them to flee. Only the brave, curious, and strange will take the journey. Who will step through the fog and face the myriad dangers of the field?
Three enter: Magmis the stuttering volcano, Fezidor the forgetful wizard, and Lucille the medieval scholar. 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
Rammsteinengelskellington
Rasmussen. Engel. Skelligton. Those are the three names I used when I reached California for the first time. None of them were my original names, and I’m still not so sure I can use Rasmussen as a first name without people looking at me funny. It was the best option at the time. First and last don’t matter so much anyway. Everything about me is crammed into the middle name. This current one, I had to ditch the old one because it was burnt out, sounds so much like angel. Continue reading
(reading time: 57 minutes)
(Against the Grain will return after these messages from our sponsor)
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(reading time: 46 minutes)
It was awfully quiet for a place where so much money changed hands. There were tons of poker players there that night; as a crowd they tended to know how to keep their eyes down and their mouths shut. Half of them wore sunglasses even though it was the middle of the night. The other half had toothpicks in their mouths, just enough of a disturbance to make their tiniest smiles or frowns undetectable.
It was a private apartment, high above the streets of Midway, so excessive noise wouldn’t have helped anyway. Still, it didn’t feel like much of a party. The loudest noises were the clinking of glasses and the brief scrapes of USB drives docking and undocking from various ports. Every dealer had a box next to them with at least four ports, perfect repositories for the digital currency while the guests gambled. Should the police burst in the boxes would automatically cancel everything they held and wipe their own memories. Continue reading
(reading time: 47 minutes)
(Scene Change)
Eirene wondered if her father had more of a literary talent than she had initially thought, because the two houses that made up the Odeck family compound did appear to be stitched together, like the arguing children of a mad scientist. They were bound by a tunnel of unpainted wood, with nearly every board having come from a different source. There was one window on the tunnel, its frame an actual picture frame.
It was a nightmarish playhouse already, but the image was further enhanced by the entertainment and sport debris littered all over the yard and in the branches of a giant twisted elm tree, the roots of which crawled into the gray asphalt driveway and broke it into chunks like lava rock. Continue reading
(blurb)
Police work has been the subject of fiction for an age, but what about television police work? Dive into this quirky novella that blends the twists and turns of a murder conspiracy with the trappings of hokey law dramas, complete with time slots, character tropes, crossovers, and commercial breaks!
(reading time: 46 minutes) (reading for entire novella: 3 hours, 16 minutes)
The Detectorate 7/6c
by
Blaine Arcade
This program is a work of fiction. Any similarity to actual persons or events is purely coincidental.
Intro Narration: Law enforcement is taken seriously in the township of Little Pond, Massachusetts. A new crime wave, worsened by local corruption, has convinced its people that elections are now necessary for its detectives as well as its sheriff. The first two candidates for this experimental program, called the Detectorate, are Eirene Amstead and Cincinattus Golfort. These stories are the evidence of their efforts, conviction, and dedication to their constituents.
Intro theme tune by Zizi Caraway
Produced by Heath Moose
Episode 17: By the Horns Continue reading
Author’s Note: This was written live on stream, with the tone being determined by the numbers under minesweeper tiles. The audience could bid tokens earned in stream to reveal random tiles. A mine hit results in the death of all characters, unless they are temporarily saved by a lump sum of tokens. If characters make it to the end of the stream, they survive to be seen another day. Join us at twitch.tv/blainearcade if you wish to participate.
1-peace 2-alert 3-escalation 4-action 5-tragedy 6-world-changing
The minefield has been moved. It now connects the Trap to a new world, a new game. There is no destruction this time, nothing forcing them to flee. Only the brave, curious, and strange will take the journey. Who will step through the fog and face the myriad dangers of the field?
Three enter: Grayjay the angry resident bird, Mack the disconnected robot, and Sashonne the jovial judge. 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
Wickedscript
The scene opens on rolling hills on a windy day. (Stage hands off to the side have large cloth fans and are working quite hard on their simulation) Elizabeth Mary stands at the top with an arm full of dresses in various colors. One by one she throws them to the wind and they are blown off stage. Continue reading
Blaine Arcade 