stories

Minesweeper Fiction: Session 9

~ 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: 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

~ Blaine Arcade ~ 1 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 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 →

Twitch Stream Story: The Seven-Star Cheater

~ Blaine Arcade ~ Leave a comment

Prompt: Your goal is to create and protect a network of planetary colonies and defeat a computer adversary trying to do the same.

There didn’t seem like much reason to guard it. It was just the last experiment of the mad genius who’d spilled his mess across the entire galaxy and expected the rest of humanity to clean it up. The ship inside the launch facility, just under its exoglass dome, was the government’s final attempt to make him clean it up himself. Continue reading →

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

~ 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.

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 →

Twitch Stream Story: The Needle was my Last Pen

~ Blaine Arcade ~ Leave a comment

Prompt: A sad male poet secretly does magical needlepoint

I’m actually surprised I’m allowed to tell my own story here. I thought for sure he would’ve stopped me. Can he not make it past the veil? Truly? It does make a sort of sense. If my art can’t make it, if nobody’s can, then the force that opposes it is similarly kept out. Do you keep anything else out here? Sadness? Pain? A poet can hope. Continue reading →

Twitch Stream Story: Petrify Day

~ Blaine Arcade ~ Leave a comment

Prompt: Write a story based on these three words: public, birthday, volcano

The crater of Maragol was the greatest gift a civilization could ask for. It was a volcano, full of danger to be sure, but the silent deity within was kind enough to keep its eruptions regular and predictable. The people living at its feet, between the ripe groves of the leaning trees, knew to get out of the way every four years or so, to spend a week at sea while its spewed liquid fire and expanded their island. Continue reading →

Twitch Stream Story: Sweep the Shadows Under

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Prompt: A famous assassin will be publicly executed, overshadowing the sale of three slaves. A hooded woman buys these slaves and tells them she will let them free if they rescue her brother from his imminent execution.

Nobody could accuse the Royal Regents of not using their space economically. They only held a small section of that country, but nothing in their grip had a chance of slipping out, at least not until that cloudy day when all the knots had been made for the gallows. Continue reading →

Twitch Stream Story: The Palm Shard

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Prompt: A random student becomes possessed by an ancient artifact; they have to fight themselves to banish the possessor.

It was conceited to think she was the first to find such a thing. There were twenty-two other students all scouring the same pit, all trying to earn the same grades by stepping delicately through the ruin and searching its crevices. It was one of the most exclusive archaeology programs in the country, so none of them were slouches. Continue reading →

Minesweeper Fiction: Story One: The Pip Cages

~ 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.

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 →

Twitch Stream Story: Wordener

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Prompt: A writer whose words create life in the real wold takes on a mentee.

Zachariah stared at the little window in the door, not removing his hands from the wood. He kept hissing at it, telling it to stop growing, but it wouldn’t. The strange plant crept up the glass inside the classroom, its leaved unfurling and bouncing. Once the room was full it would sneak under the door, spread its tendrils across the hall. Continue reading →