fiction

Twitch Stream Story: The Cage Opens

~ Blaine Arcade ~ Leave a comment

Prompt: Telepathic aliens kidnap a sample group of humans for a zoo, though some aliens object to their treatment.

They couldn’t read any of the signs. They didn’t even know they were signs. All the imprisoned humans saw were light green bars surrounding their transparent enclosure. They were blank, just like most of the walls. The only details they were allowed to see were each other’s faces and the bits of vegetation their captors had brought from Earth to make them feel more comfortable. Continue reading →

Chat-your-own-Adventure #17: Cowrie Whispers

~ Blaine Arcade ~ Leave a comment

Author’s Note: This story was written live on stream with the audience bidding tokens (earned while watching) to determine the path of the story.  The underlined phrases in the choice of three were the winning pathways.  Stop by twitch.tv/blainearcade if you’d ever like to participate in our interactive fiction.

Conch                                                   Cowrie                                                          Clam

“You want that one?” the vendor asked with a scowl on his unevenly-shaved lips. He stared at the old man with the wispy hair and the halo of freckles. His aged customer held the cowrie shell up to his ear and held a finger out with his other hand, telling the vendor to be quiet for a moment. Continue reading →

Minesweeper Fiction: Session 4

~ Blaine Arcade ~ Leave a comment

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

A world lies in ruin, its debris drifting on a bottomless sea. Its remaining people, from all places and periods, have one chance of survival. One world will take them, but they must make the journey on their own. Between the two lies the minefield: a vast varied expanse of debris both magical and scientific. Salvation is on the other side.

Three figures emerge from the fog of their sputtering world: Park Ranger Maddy, Susan the devilist, and big-beard Byron. They see the minefield before them, knowing little, and walk forward. Continue reading →

Twitch Stream Story: Foul: Solar System

~ Blaine Arcade ~ Leave a comment

Prompt: A tivas (galactic tennis) player from a planet similar to Earth plays in the biggest tournament while having to cope with the big war the planet is having and its dangers.

Tivas is the ultimate sport. That’s what my grandfather always told me. That was an interesting sentiment, considering he’d never played it himself, even as a hobby. All he did was watch it. When the tournament package became a little too expensive on the networks in our system, he enrolled me in classes for it. I’ve never really looked back. Continue reading →

Twitch Stream Story: The Curse is on Vacation

~ Blaine Arcade ~ Leave a comment

Prompt:  Jamba, a Polish man visiting Australia, is a victim of a series of floods.

He watched the salty water rise to the tips of his toenails and then recede. The tide was rising. He would have to scooch back a few feet if he wanted his swimming shorts to stay dry. That was the most pressing concern he had. The simplicity of it was beautiful. It was what he had sought, what he had traveled half the world to find. Continue reading →

Chat-your-own-Adventure #16: Tools of the Trade

~ Blaine Arcade ~ Leave a comment

Author’s Note: This story was written live on stream with the audience bidding tokens (earned while watching) to determine the path of the story.  The underlined phrases in the choice of three were the winning pathways.  Stop by twitch.tv/blainearcade if you’d ever like to participate in our interactive fiction.

You’re Fired!                            You’re Hired!                          You’re Transferred!

“You’re fired Zimmons.” Continue reading →

Twitch Stream Story: The Lurker in the Laundry

~ Blaine Arcade ~ Leave a comment

Prompt: A boy hiding in the attic of his family’s old house finds an intricately carved wooden laundry hamper and discovers it has a genie inside!

His family didn’t own anything nice. His parents were trapped in the nineties, obsessed with colorful plastic, and they never bought each other jewelry or fancy dishware. They lived in a small house, hoarding their money, waiting for the inevitable car crash or cancer that would suck it away. Continue reading →

Twitch Stream Story: Only One Bandage Fits

~ Blaine Arcade ~ Leave a comment

Prompt: A Girl and her familiar run a medicine shop in a WWII-like era. She returns after an air raid to find her family and familiar gone. She joins the military seeking vengeance.

Amelia stood in line, a miserable limp thing of defeated bodies and wills, and trudged forward only when someone bumped her back. She’d lost everything. No. She was still on her feet, so there had to be a little hope left. Everything was simply misplaced. She hadn’t even been the one to misplace them. Continue reading →

Twitch Stream Story: An Armadillo on the Stairs

~ Blaine Arcade ~ Leave a comment

Prompt: Three allies on a cliché journey to save the world from an evil god and all three can turn into animals.

Gwen, Rupert, and Odric were dispensed from the tiny township they’d always called home in order to be heroes. They weren’t the only ones of course. Opportunities for heroism didn’t come up very often, and when they did every village with a population housing more than one family offered up at least one candidate for the quest. Continue reading →

Chat-your-own-Adventure #15: The Hog does Birthdays

~ Blaine Arcade ~ Leave a comment

Author’s Note: This story was written live on stream with the audience bidding tokens (earned while watching) to determine the path of the story.  The underlined phrases in the choice of three were the winning pathways.  Stop by twitch.tv/blainearcade if you’d ever like to participate in our interactive fiction.

Seedy POV                          Spoiled Rotten POV                               Sky Writer POV

It was the autumn. My sixteenth birthday approached rapidly on the horizon. As the daughter of one of the wealthiest families in all of the town of Tinstar, my party was to be quite the event. Not only would it certainly get written up in the local paper’s society and culture section, but my birthday, as it did every year, fell upon the night prior to Halloween. Continue reading →