short stories

Twitch Stream Story: The Milk Cow Sidequest

~ Blaine Arcade ~ Leave a comment

Prompt: A man discovers all his memories and desires are not his own, merely the amalgamation of a video game’s code. He must now decided what to do with himself.

“And what should be my reward, were I to take up this task?” the knight asked. He wore red and gold, and was thus under the command of Lord Sprice. He was supposed to help the villagers regardless of reward, but they had their own sets of arcane rules. Rumors swirled of shadowy texts kept not in bookcases, but in the shadows of such cases. Continue reading →

Minesweeper Fiction: Session 17

~ 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 pips have rolled again. The conveying Minefield connects the Trap to a new world. Three enter, seeing only a shredded sky in the distance: Kal.if the A.I. that might be interesting, Brydget the clueless kleptomaniac, and Growly the asocial and possibly antisocial opossum. Continue reading →

Minesweeper Fiction Second Story: Danderlid

~ Blaine Arcade ~ Leave a comment

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.

Though the fog was absolutely shredded by forces beyond their understanding, it was still largely impassable. There was however a dark slit that formed recently, right where the fog met the ground of the Trap. The refugees chose the widest part of that slit, and its nearby stable ground, as the location for their laboratory. Continue reading →

Chat Lib #3: The Academic in the Cookie Dough

~ Blaine Arcade ~ Leave a comment

Chat Libs is a ‘Mad Libs’ based activity over on our Twitch live stream.  The audience suggests a scenario, I write a story template with missing words, and they fill in the holes.  Hilarity ensues.  If you wish to participate you can join us at twitch.tv/blainearcade

Scenario: Deep Sea Noir Featuring a Spatula

There we were in the bloody halls of Atlantis, staring down a silvery spatula aimed right at our coccyxes. How did I get myself in this situation you ramble? It’s a long story full of twist, turns, and Nutella. Continue reading →

Regular Romp #14: Wolf, Prophet of Bunny

~ 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

tuvanawolfy

All of his dreams had to be stored in the mysterious forest beyond the farmstead. The young man had to keep them there, safe with buried nuts of the innumerable squirrels, because there was absolutely no room in his regular life. The elders and his employers filled it with labor, chores, and social obligations. Why, that day alone he was supposed to work the fields for five hours, help lay some stone on the exterior walls, and then show up for a bonfire dance where his partner was already selected for him. She was cute, but that was beside the point. Continue reading →

Chat-your-own-Adventure #30: From Morsel to Big Bite

~ Blaine Arcade ~ Leave a comment

Author’s Note: This story was written live on stream with the audience voting 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.

Freak Dog Show                     Freak Farmer’s Market                           Freak Star

“Is it supposed to be that color?” Michelle asked. She wasn’t asking anyone in particular. Three of her associates were in the lounge with her, and any of them was welcome to look out the viewing window and see the star in the distance. Only one did; they weren’t getting paid at that moment, so there was no point in analyzing anything. Better to keep their eyes glued to their imitation beef stroganoff before it went cold. Their ship’s food imitator was notoriously uncooperative; anything that went cold went as hard as yeast-less bread. Continue reading →

Twitch Stream Story: Colors under the House

~ Blaine Arcade ~ Leave a comment

Prompt: An old deaf Italian man spends all his time painting; they are his interpretations of sound.

There was no getting my father to leave. Visitors thought his paintings were his life. He refused to sell any of them or give them as gifts. He just let the house eat them, the same way it ate him alive. I mean the first part quite literally. The house had a terrible pest problem, and not just one species. It was like a diplomatic summit of everything you didn’t want to be diplomatic with. Continue reading →

Twitch Stream Story: The Cryptid Fog

~ Blaine Arcade ~ Leave a comment

Prompt: A man stumbles into swampland; mist surrounds him.

It was four days into what most people would call a camping trip. Bryce only called it that when he was embarrassed, when the stranger at the checkout counter asked him why he was buying both ammunition and sidewalk chalk. He could just answer with ‘camping trip’ and a smile. They would assume he had children looking to draw on boulders. Continue reading →

Chat-your-own-Adventure #29: Parts Littering the Sea

~ Blaine Arcade ~ Leave a comment

Author’s Note: This story was written live on stream with the audience voting 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.

Paper                                                          Iron                                                        Wood

The storm made quick work of the cliff side, speeding what should have been more than a hundred years of weathering. The rock fell away, revealing the iron plate beneath. It had no visible hatches or doorways. There were no words or pictograms. It was almost like it was natural, simply a collection of all the most like-minded iron atoms in the world. Continue reading →

Regular Romp #13: The Goldin Element

~ 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

Goldenfellow

The door was stuck; it seemed even the rust around town didn’t want him loitering. It was best not to let the village or its people see him downtrodden, so Goldin just pushed against the door until it finally gave way and sprayed rust flakes all over the ground. He stepped out with a deep breath and a smile. Goldin Fella was one of those men of indeterminate age who always seemed better defined by his mood than his position in society or daily luck. Continue reading →