Chat-your-own-Adventure #25: Dean of Detritus

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.

Chunky Garden Jellies                  Serpentipedes                        Giggling Gourds

The greenhouse was always quiet, so it was the perfect place to experiment. Since the castle grounds had been corrupted and usurped, all sorts of venomous little things had emerged from the garden soil, making their nests in the giggling gourds that would’ve been the food of the people just a week prior. Continue reading

Minesweeper Fiction: Session 9

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: Treackle the candy-thieving pixie, Floab the radically shy dragon, and Dawn the blind swimsuit model. Continue reading

Regular Romp #1: Squishaby Snail and the Anti-Birdsong

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 SquishySnail

Much cleaning had to be done before the arrival of the president of the Creative Wildlife Solutions Committee. The man was famously allergic to almost everything, befitting his hatred of furry, scaly, and feathered things. His family crest bore a damp used handkerchief. A single stray hair could send him into a sneezing fit, and Edwar Beygal needed him to be quiet long enough to absorb his explanations. Continue reading

Chat-your-own-Adventure #24: Gibbon Hands

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.

Straight Razors                        Boxing Gloves                      Novelty Finger Traps

There was one spot designated as the place for fights. They didn’t used to need such a thing. Fights were for the other creatures of the forest: those with tusks and claws. They were a species of hands. That was how Een always thought of himself anyway. Sometimes he would watch the humans stare at their reflections in the surface of the lake. They always looked at their eyes, as if their own heads held secrets they weren’t aware of. Continue reading

Minesweeper Fiction: Story One: The Pip Cages

Author’s Note: This story is the culmination of our interactive activities over on our Twitch livestream.  Characters and their fates were partly decided based on audience participation.  Check out the earlier sessions if you wish to learn where these characters came from.

People often feel trapped in dreams. They sink into the ground, encounter locked doors, or become surrounded by shadowy figures. Sometimes it’s enough to pull one from sleep, sweating and clutching at their heart as if the nightmares tried to steal it out of their chest. Continue reading

Chat-your-own-Adventure #23: Greasepin’s Hard Bargain

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.

Tusked Hog Mask             Slobbering Mantis Mask              Shark-Hound Mask

For five days my body has not been my own. I don’t suspect it will ever be returned to me. Every human has a natural instinct to avoid housekeeping. I was very good at avoiding it, especially since I lived alone in a house I inherited from my parents. The living area was sanitary enough, with no visible layers of dust as long as you didn’t check between the cupboards or under the couch. Continue reading

Minesweeper Fiction: Character Guide

This post exists as a guide to the full roster of twenty characters to make it through our interactive fiction activities over on twitch.tv/blainearcade.  The characters were auctioned off to people who acted as the character’s ‘saint’, influencing the character’s future.  Each character was also placed in a squad by their saint, detailing their role in our big on-stream stories and determining the level of risk they faced. Continue reading

Chat-your-own-Adventure #22: The Pin in Surtr’s Throne

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. (This story used a different format of eliminated choices.)  Stop by twitch.tv/blainearcade if you’d ever like to participate in our interactive fiction.

Alfheim – Elves                Svartalfheim – Dwarves                Jotunheim – Giants

Vanaheim – Gods                         Niflheim – Ice                      Muspelheim – Lava

The deep purple of the rent sky went on forever. In that forever, six realms could be seen, each hanging as fruit from the world tree Yggdrasil. There had been nine before, nine for incalculable time, but they were burnt to ash now, and the others soon to follow. It was Ragnarok, the death of the tree, and the movement of all the beings in all the remaining worlds was just the death rattle of life itself. Continue reading

Chat-your-own-Adventure #21: Explodactive

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.

Thisskelicious                           Explodactive                              Bumpawhumping

Larson forced his bent car door open and stumbled out to examine the damages. The damages to his person were more than mild, as a stream of blood overtook one of his eyes. He leaned against the crinkled hood and rubbed it away before putting one hand over the laceration. Continue reading

Minesweeper Fiction: Session 8

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: Rowlen the interspecies Olympian, Duid, squid and rival of Rowlen, and the Dying Light. They see the minefield before them, knowing little, and walk forward. Continue reading