Prompt: A kid gets taken by a band of space pirates and eventually finds a magic katana.
Even the bag over Maximus’s head was strange. It wasn’t burlap; it was some kind of rubbery fabric capable of holding a charge. He knew that because, every time they bumped his head into something, a jolt of static moved between the bag and the tip of his ears. He was only thirteen, just young enough to fit under the giant man’s arm like a briefcase. Continue reading
Prompt: A janitor of dreams works his shift across the dreamscape each morning after sleepers have awakened.
There had been a party there, just four hours ago. The sun was up, back in the world, and it was time for Vecker’s shift. He shuffled out onto the deck of the boat and analyzed the scene. Really, it wasn’t too terrible for a party of that size. Out in the world there was a recession. That had dampened everyone’s excitement some, and it bled into Vecker’s work space like it bled into everything else. Continue reading
Prompt: An advance in technology limits the evolutionary potential of the human species.
Each of the eight was the first of their generation to see anything other than their domes. The domes weren’t bad homes, just limiting. For the humans, only 1400 could live inside comfortably. Luckily, the women had somehow gotten into the habit of only having twins and only having them when they were needed. Continue reading
prompt – A space monkey from a planet of apes crash lands in India.
The fruit set down just outside of the temple its occupants had targeted. It set down quietly, barely rustling the trees. It wasn’t born of any of them. It was born far off in the sky, and had fallen to Earth only temporarily. It had a few seeds inside it, but it sought to gather more. Continue reading
Prompt: The prompt for this story was actually a drawing of a small fishing boat near two giant creatures, one submerged in the water and one flying nearby.
The pterafriend pumped its wings and pulled them through the clouds swiftly, so its passenger wouldn’t get too wet in the process. What the passenger wanted to do exactly was not clear, he had some sort of strange vessel, but he was friendly enough, and the pterafriend offered rides to anyone and anything that was friendly enough. Continue reading
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.
Caverns and Pets Canyon and Child Support Diving and Visits
The cloud bank passed overhead just as a flock of small skates flapped by beneath their boat. Their movement was perfectly matched, as if the fish used the clouds as roaming shade. Lucas and Beryl sat on opposite sides of the boat, preparing their equipment for the dive ahead. They were already clad in skintight neoprene suits with a colorful stripe down the side. Lucas was Green. Beryl was purple. Continue reading
Prompt: your eye has been twitching all morning, suddenly the vision goes black and a message displays “error, maintenance required.”
She, we’ll call her Rose because it’s the simplest name to use, awoke in a tangle of blankets sucking her thumb. The habit had reared its head, adorable or ugly depending on who you ask, about eight months ago. She slept alone, so she didn’t see the harm. On that morning her thumb tasted like pancakes and dark amber syrup with smashed blackberries. Continue reading
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.
Scientifically Enhanced Fruit Poetic Device Fruit Enchanted Fruit
The Concord grape before them was certainly the largest to ever exist. Its skin was thick enough to require a fillet knife. Its seeds were large enough to serve as baseballs. Five bottles of wine could be produced from the juice of a solitary example from the vine. The vine itself was full, more than thirty grapes growing over a titanium trellis, because the other materials they’d used had ended up buckling under the weight. Continue reading
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.
Draft Scrawny Draft Brawny Draft Old
The numbers didn’t look good. They didn’t sound good either. Reggie could hear the numbers, the multitudes, just outside the locker room. There was a whole stadium out there, sweaty, drunk, and riled up by what they’d only been able to see on screens up to that point. Some of them probably shelled out ten thousand dollars for their seats, and it wasn’t even the middle of the season yet. Continue reading
Humanity of all stripes was gathered around the giant monitor. It was an autumn day and they were sheltered from the biting wind as it crumbled leaves against the building’s glass wall. It was the Institute for Colonial Communication: a building that had been mostly without a purpose for close to a hundred years. Every so often workers would come in and update the equipment as technology progressed, and some of those workers, now quite aged, were there to see it take effect.
The colony ship had been launched one hundred and twenty years ago. Things went well on the journey, as well as anyone could hope hurtling through space at varying incomprehensible speeds. Communication was constant if uneven. Everyone knew it would end when they landed on GM1. Continue reading
Blaine Arcade 