short stories

Regular Romp #4: Screamer Echo Echo Echo

~ 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

ScreamingEcho

All three versions of this story are surely interesting. I know why mine has succeeded over the others; it’s the easiest to understand. It’s also written the ‘loudest’. You may not know what I mean by that quite yet, but you will. I don’t feel bad that the others aren’t quite as popular, because I know their authors don’t mind. There will always be the cult followers, the beatniks and the berets ready to praise anything quieter than what’s in all the bookshop windows. Continue reading →

Twitch Stream Story: Murder at the Buffet

~ Blaine Arcade ~ Leave a comment

Prompt: A tough-as-nails female cop and her partner, a sentient rotting banana that only wishes to be eaten, must solve a murder.

The smell was horrendous, but she dealt with it by reminding herself that their partnership was going to be short-lived. It was just one case, and she hoped to solve it before most of the people in the office building were done with their lunch hour. It was a murder, sure, but most parties involved wanted an answer as quickly as possible. Continue reading →

Minesweeper Fiction: Session 11

~ 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

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: Lichro the drunken baby-eating dingo, O’fella the golden Irishman, and Tropican the sentient can filled with sentient pineapple. Continue reading →

Regular Romp #3: Maddyn’s Token Trial

~ 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 Maddyn13

Lucid Maddyn had a passing thought about wordless hours. How many wordless hours had he racked up sitting in that desk chair? Sometimes it was the whole morning, as he avoided eye contact with any of the hundreds of people passing through the arcade in its early hours. It was a skill unto itself, as many of them were children, their eyes drawn by Maddyn’s impressive height. Continue reading →

Twitch Stream Story: Brutal Baby Teeth

~ Blaine Arcade ~ Leave a comment

Prompt: The origin story of a mighty berserker wearing a wolf hood and wielding two axes.

One of Barliot’s hands was empty. He stared at his palm in the dying light, sitting there next to the placid lake. He saw the calluses and the chips in his yellow nails. He saw all the lines. They angered him. He should never have to see such things, never address the signs of his aging. The wolf hood hid all his gray hairs under its own. Its amber glass eyes drew the attention of his foes, drew it away from the crow’s feet around his eyes. Continue reading →

Twitch Stream Story: The Glitch in Car Seven

~ Blaine Arcade ~ Leave a comment

Prompt: In a world with integrated A.I., a badass female detective tracks down a brutal serial killer.

The lights flickered in Car Seven, causing two of the five passengers to glance up. Each and every car had its own intelligence, they proliferated like mad these days, and it apologized to the passengers with a soft voice through its speakers. The apology was appropriate, as even minor disturbances like that were out of character for any programs in that line. They ran a tight ship when it came to the public transport lines of Old Guard City. Continue reading →

Twitch Stream Story: The Fifth Law of Mischief

~ Blaine Arcade ~ Leave a comment

Prompt: An elf boy and his fairy boyfriend are abducted by aliens.

The leaves of the the shy shoot plant were supposed to be excellent cover. It was a magical bit of flora, utterly invisible to human beings and their mechanical lenses, but still solid enough to hide anything under it. All sorts of magical tribes had relied on the tree to act as either neutral ground in times of conflict or safe bunkers for secret keeping. Continue reading →

Regular Romp #2: Melody meets the Slatebrains

~ 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 MelodyKazey

It had the distinction of being the quietest forest in all the world. Melody Korrespazey couldn’t even hear her footsteps. It was more than a month into autumn, the wind bit at her cheeks just over her thick orange scarf, so there should have been a healthy layer of crunchy leaves under her feet. Yet it was all yellow grass and whitish lichen. Continue reading →

Twitch Stream Story: A Long Line for Stardom

~ Blaine Arcade ~ Leave a comment

Prompt: You enter a house with a dark hidden secret; when looking around you see a painting moving faintly. You lean closer, and an arm pulls you in. You’re stuck in a world of paintings; how do you get out?

It was always the quietest house, which was why Michael Roslinger hated being there when he was a child. It was older than his grandparents, even back then, but it never creaked or moaned in the night. It had no personality. As an adult, as a patron of the arts, he knew everything was supposed to have one. That meant the house was like a comatose person, or that it had brain damage somewhere in its dark cellar. Continue reading →