short stories

Chat-your-own-Adventure #9: Have you Read that Blob Article?

~ 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.

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 →

Chat-your-own-Adventure #8: Stupid Dumb Pals

~ 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.

Curious Letter                        Affectionate Letter                              Coded Letter

Little Vince marched through the snow towards their postbox. His mother had scolded him on his way out the door for braving the driving snow and wind. The postman wouldn’t come for three days yet, that was true, but the letter practically burned his hands. He didn’t need a coat, or a scarf, or even mittens because it was so warm. It was the best letter he’d ever written for his friend and he couldn’t bare to hold onto it. If he did, he might decide something needed changed. Continue reading →

Twitch Stream Story: Classified Beasts

~ Blaine Arcade ~ Leave a comment

Prompt: A dragon steals the latest fighter craft from the human battleship.

Artillery shells exploded all around her as she tried to keep on her path through the otherwise clear skies. Pieces of shrapnel, aluminum hairs, landed in the gooey corners of her eyes and stung them. She roared, flashing her knife-like teeth, and tried to dig them out with the side of her hand. The weapons didn’t stop. They weren’t like the weapons of old; there was always somebody manning those, somebody who might grow a soul and stop attacking. Continue reading →

Twitch Stream Story: The Kebab Appointment

~ Blaine Arcade ~ Leave a comment

Prompt: A child adopted by a drug dealer, and the drug dealer actually uses a kebab shop as a front company for selling drugs.

Some complained that the shop smelled terrible. Others said it was wonderful to wake up to. Both groups stopped vocalizing their opinions about one week after the kebab shop moved in. That was the way of its smells, its private recipes. They quickly became part of the air, a warmth in it rather than a scent, and nobody who lived there even remembered it had ever been a point of argument. Their neighborhood smelled of it, and only visitors cared. Continue reading →

Twitch Stream Story: The Sun Extraction

~ Blaine Arcade ~ Leave a comment

Prompt: A dragon is sent to another plane of existence because he’s destined for greatness.

Fleeing the den without permission could earn banishment. It could earn death if you were from a line expected to be the most dignified. The night sky was full of stars when he fled, on clawed foot rather than wing. The shrubs were thicker than he’d anticipated, and the thorns dug into his wrists and ankles. He shed hot blood, but his fear and sadness kept it from igniting any of the driest plants. Continue reading →

Twitch Stream Story: Rosetinted.exe

~ Blaine Arcade ~ Leave a comment

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 →

Twitch Stream Story: Jintybix gets Take-out

~ Blaine Arcade ~ Leave a comment

Prompt: A sheep is tired of grazing around with his fellow sheep, and wants to become a rocket scientist and go to space.

The new grass was the old grass, and it was far worse than Rummy the sheep remembered. Back aboard the Poker station he’d been able to eat a hundred different things. The astronauts let him munch on grass from every one of their experiments and every one of the cultivars they had. Some of it was crummy, but much of it was transcendent. Continue reading →

Twitch Stream Story: Hightail it Out

~ Blaine Arcade ~ Leave a comment

Prompt: There is a futuristic civilization with tiny people and a primitive collection of human-sized tribes

From the moment he was captured, the life of Second Housefly Admiral Narbin Deez had been nothing but iterations of rank darkness. He’d been plucked out of the wreckage of his ship and immediately dumped into a sweaty shirt pocket from which he could not clamber out. After that he’d been transferred into a sock with ten other prisoners, some of whom were not human. The praying mantis in the bunch certainly ate its fill.

Currently he was held, alone, inside a match box. He knew it was a matchbox because of that unmistakable smell of potential fire. They left him a solitary match as company, a thing as tall as him that he could barely wield even if given the opportunity. It was his first chance to reflect on the crash. Continue reading →

Twitch Stream Story: Autocee and Autofeel

~ Blaine Arcade ~ Leave a comment

Prompt: Gremlins vs. pixies causing chaos in the human world, which will gain dominance?

The idiotic human had no idea that he’d saved two lives by parking in the garage that day. It was the middle of winter: the worst season for the nature pixies generally. A few of them, however, specialized in manipulation of the wind and ice, and one of them, Hoarfrost, waited patiently outside that garage for her prey to emerge once more.

The human thought of himself as someone who appreciated nature, so he sat in his car with the garage door open, watching the snow fall and cover his driveway. He had a red crinkled bag of bacon-flavored potato puffs in his lap, and he chewed on them lazily while he stared out at the frigid street and the trees beyond. The engine still ran, keeping him nice and toasty. At some point the general toastiness overwhelmed him and he slipped into a nap, a potato puff half hanging out of his mouth. Continue reading →

Chat-your-own-Adventure #5: The Closing of a Magical Mind

~ 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.

Trial Begun                          Judgment Rendered                           Found Innocent

Shiran had to wear the special circlet to the academy. It was only the first day of his mark, but if his parents’ tone had been any indication, there would be months more of it in his future. It wasn’t hideous, with its white gold coloration and central yellow diamond, but it was clear to everyone, student and teacher alike, what it meant. Continue reading →