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Friday, February 24, 2017

The Banquet


Today's subject is "Food," and the theme is "clip." Clip what? Clip like what you do to your fingernails, or clip like a short piece of cinemagraphic art? Clip like the thing you use to fix your name tag to your shirt, or clipped like a short, sharp tone of voice? I don't know. Let's find out.
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The man waiting at the door was wearing a tuxedo. Not just a fancy suit - it was a tuxedo. He took their tickets, checked off their names on an official-looking list, then bowed to them as he opened the door. The girls traded surprised, nervous looks.

"I suddenly feel under-dressed," whispered Hannah, stealing a glance back at the doorman as they stepped in. "I mean..."

"I know what you mean," muttered Rachel, and tucked her jacket to straighten it out a little.

Friday, February 17, 2017

Salt

Today's subject is "Dancing," and the theme is "salt." Not sure what I'm going to do with that theme, but I'm sure I'll figure something out. :) If you think of something different, I'd love to see it!
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Watching Them dance always brought a feeling of freedom with it. But at the same time, the closeness of the little pool was even more apparent when they were no longer there, with their freedom and grace to serve as a distraction. The water was still as sweet and fresh, gentle in its sweeping, cool caresses, flowing out of the pool toward the sea. Attempts to dance like Them always ended the same way - failure. Or at least, it wasn't success.

If it had been a Dance like They danced, then Sister wouldn't have laughed.

Friday, February 10, 2017

Outside the Window (Sequel)

Sheepdog provided a wonderful addition to the short prompt "Outside the Window" a few weeks ago, and it intrigued me so much that I decided to run with it. 
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"A... what?" The musty, stale smell of the room was completely at odds with the words hanging in the air between them. Wind Dancers. Sister Ethel, small and thin, with sharp eyes and bony hands, was holding a feather. The feather was attached to a faded, but colorful braid and at the end there was a silver clasp. A hair decoration, thought Jessica. She liked it, but she had a feeling about it. A weird feeling.


"A Wind Dancer." Sister Ethel's voice was patient and much quieter than the tone she used in class. She offered the feather hair decoration thing to Jessica with a faint smile. "You'll understand better if you put this on."

Friday, February 3, 2017

The Vessel

Today's prompts are a little trickier to work with than last week's though perhaps not in the way you would think. The theme is "sand," and the subject is "the vessel." These evoke the image of a ship at sea, or a ship beached in a sandy cove. But that's too easy. My challenge with this one is to create a snippet with more surprise and pop than the image that comes to everyone's mind (assuming none of my readers here have aphantasia, which is statistically unlikely).
If you come up with something completely different than I do, I would love to hear about it!
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The rumble of the engine shook the whole ship, vibrating through every nut, bolt, and panel. At times, things came loose and rattled horrendously until the Engineer could sprint to the site and tighten everything down again. Luckily for everyone, that only happened with the inside panels, and never with the bulkhead. If it ever did move to the outer layers, they would all be frozen space debris.

"This haul is the one that will get us the funds to buy a new ship." That's what the Captain promised. There were some doubts, but no one really had the energy to argue anymore. It was a constant fight to keep the old rustbucket from falling apart every time they passed a minor asteroid or moon.