This Post Requires No Images: Story Time
It is truly remarkable how heavily we rely on images. If you go to the new page right now you will see a line of posts with 0 dollars and few votes.
It reminds me of when the power goes out, and suddenly there are no electronics to entertain. What do you do? You use your imagination. Play games that are interactive. If it's daylight and the weather is nice, you'll find yourself wandering outside to enjoy the day. To play tag, or softball. To take a walk or a bike ride. If it's night time you'll light a lantern, get out the monopoly board and dust it off. Shuffle a deck of cards. Or if the weather is nice you might light a bonfire, roast marshmallows, sing campfire songs...pass the stick and the story.
That could be a way to keep us occupied while they fix the problem. I'll start the story here, and then we'll continue it in the comment section.
The wind picked up and she shivered, ducking her head behind the collar of her long coat. It was unseasonably cold for the early part of Autumn, the breath of winter softly blowing in warning of things to come. She felt a sudden determination and picked her head up, letting the chilly breeze lift her hair as she breathed in the crisp air. No matter what transpired in the coming months, she would face it. No, better than that, she would walk out to meet it. She began to smile, feeling it spread across her face as she tilted her head back and lifted her arms out beside her in a welcoming gesture. Bring it on, she challenged the universe.
Oh but how she should have thought twice before laying down such a challenge! The wind picked up, whipping her air around her head. She tried to shake it from her eyes but to no avail. A tempest now raged with her at the very eye. But this was no calm oasis within the storm. Instead, she was flung to and fro whilst a voice boomed mightily in her head.
Foolish mortal, you seek to challenge me!!!
"Annie! Stop pretending you are Audrey Hepburn and come inside this minute! The dishes are not going to wash themselves!"
Annie's arms dropped in defeat and she pulled a face that her mother couldn't see. If only there was a powerful being willing to communicate with her, maybe she could bargain with it to take her from this desolate place.
Oh how you turned it, love it!
hee hee, your turn.
Lol, perhaps after dinner !!
Ahahaha! I thought about the same thing, and when I scrolled down I should've known that you would script something even better! Always so hilarious haha
I think yours is better, mine was only there first. Yours has more world building imagery in it!!
Care to swap posts? Haha! I'd be more than happy to, since I consider yours a far more superior story! :D I feel @dreemit's prompt deserve a more gleeful follow-up. The entertaining route you took regarding the universe answering back has a more positive spin. Mine started out very drearily because I wanted to setup a dark reflection of the prompt. As you may notice, it's almost the complete opposite, word-for-word! haha
I re-read it and you are right it is indeed almost exactly the opposite! I suspect that when the images went a lot of people didnt bother coming on so much. Which is a bit rubbish
I didn't want it to be an exact reflection, but I wanted it to come as close as it possibly can haha!
Oh, there was something that went wrong with the images? I totally missed that.
She closed her eyes and enjoyed the sound of her flapping nightgown as it hugged her body in the rushing wind. She had a sense of weightlessness and freedom unlike anything she had ever experienced when the world abruptly stopped and the last thing she heard was a heavy thud and slow exhale.
Awesome, haha! I wish you had been on yesterday ;)
Excellent as always dear friend @ dreemit congratulations
For as long as she could remember, Annie had dreamed she was Cinderella, and some day her fairy godmother and her prince would come and rescue her. But she was fifteen now, almost a grown woman. She understood now that this was her real mother and her real life, and there was no fairy godmother. But still, some days she liked to pretend that a talent scout would come to town...
"Someday my prince will come and he'll find meeee....
"Quit singing that infernal song, how many times do I have to tell you it's from Snow White, not Cinderella!
Despite her circumstances, Annie's nature was inherently sunny. So she couldn't help but sing as she went about her daily routine. But when her mother was drunk and abusive, she had learnt to keep quiet and sing only on the inside.
Today, something else was on her mind. Her mother's drunken ramblings had taken a darker than usual turn and she thought she heard the words "not room for two women in this cabin".
Maybe the time had come to be her own fairy godmother. Maybe tonight was the night she would pack her only change of clothes, some old cheese she'd stolen from the larder, and the ventriloquist dummy she'd spent months carving by hand from some old boards from the back wall of the outside dunny (1), and start the long walk to the big smoke (2).
Footnotes:
1 = Strine (3) / kiwi (4) for outside lavatory
2 = big city
3 = Australian
4 = New Zealand
Because she assumed that a dunny was the same as pooh's corner, she washed her hands thoroughly after each stroke of her hand to lovingly remove the sawdust.
The prospect of the big smoke was exciting, she heard it was a ceremony held in a tent, and that she would go on a vision quest and receive the answers she so desired.
Now that the voice in her head had corrected some of her misunderstandings, she felt supported, understood and ready to take the plunge. The long walk that would take her from childhood to womanhood and her destiny. Oh, that's a good point, she realised she'd better pack an old towel, torn into strips. Her mothers recent mutterings had lead her to believe these were necessary for a woman, though she had no idea why. Maybe to breathe through during the smoking ceremony.
On the other side of that planet, a young man lay among the rubble of a decrepit building. Beads of sweat dripped down his dust-filled, naked body. Where he lived, there were only two seasons — dry and rainy — and it was particularly sweltering that day. What should've been a chilly night had turned into an arid, windless darkness. The last few months haven't been kind to him, and he had lost all sense of hope. He labored his breathing and closed his eyes. His cracked lips parted, as he let out a desperate sigh. He stretched his arms and begged the earth to consume him. Please make it stop, he begged the universe.
...
When suddenly, a blinding light flashed in front of the two, and they found that their bodies have swapped!
DUN DUN DUUUUUN
My initial idea was that of @meesterboom's, so I had to think of a different approach haha!
Lol, See what happens when you challenge the universe! Nice idea on the body swapping! And of course the Dun dun duuuuun!
Thanks, mate! I really had to rack my brain regarding that. I kept thinking, what would be the next freakiest thing after the universe itself answers the challenge haha!
Well you got it in one. Although thats a good premise for a story challenge in itself, making freakier and freakier things happen within a story whilst still maintaining some coherence!
I agree! Oh, if this platform was more responsive, it would be great to have chained stories. Another case for deeper nesting!!
At least the nest limit is being removed in the next hardfork!
Agreed! These are great. It reminds me of my old iVillage days on the story boards. :D
Oh, the irony! We're talking about deeper nesting, and then suddenly I became a victim of the current limitation LOL Really?? That's great news then! I totally missed that update regarding the next hardfork!
Yeah, I am fairly sure I read that in a proposed change post. It is sorely needed so as not to stifle debate and comment!
love it! I have new respect for @son-of-satire's fiction frenzy. I'm not sure how good I'd be at keeping up on a project like that...and I just want to write on to everyone's part LOL
I'm very interested to see how you follow this one up!
She blinked her eyes rapidly, and tried focusing them, but there was something wrong...with everything. It was so dark she couldn't see, the wind had disappeared and it was suddenly sweltering...and her body hurt. It was the kind of pain that came from strenuous labor, which she hadn't recently participated in.
Was she lying down? And how was she just realizing that? She attempted to sit up, but her body was heavy. It wasn't just the feeling of strenuous labor, it was labor to the point of exhaustion. It didn't make sense, nothing was making sense...had the universe truly answered her challenge and 'brought it on'?
The light blinded him, and it became hard to breathe. Not because dust filled his lungs and he had to labor his breath, but because gentle, clean air pierced through uninterrupted. He continued to take in too much with very little effort. It was definitely as strange feeling.
He placed his hands against his chest, as he tried to steady his breathing, and was surprised at how soft it felt. Noticing that it blossomed into billowing bumps, he quickly cupped and squeezed them, to test if they were real. His eyes widened and his mouth was agape, as he probed his new body. Gone were the cracks on his skin and the feeling of the weight of a thousand worlds bearing down on his shoulders.
He felt energized, like he was inexplicably given a new lease on life. Nothing made sense, but he thought, who was he to question this fortunate turn of events. He had given up on life, and now he was given a new life.
Oh my world!!! This is so nice
#MiniCollab! Just stretching my legs for when I eventually participate in core story :D
Yeah! BRING IT. :D
Great story @dreemit
And you are so right about the electricity going out! I have no problem occupying myself with other things but I'm reminded of the time when my kids were young. The lights went out and I was so excited! I brought out the cards and old board games, some candles and chips...and all the boys were like, Naw, we're going to bed. :((( the little bastards. lol
oh gee, I'm blushing. I would have been mad at my kids if they reacted like that...actually they probably would have if not for my husband, he was always so much cooler to them ha!
You know what's great though? I'm getting smarter the older they get and they're beginning to appreciate my offline nerdiness. LOL
That happened with my stepsons too! Haha. My kids are not quite at the age where they can appreciate it, lots of eye rolling lol.
Hello! Steemit chat appears to be down. Shall I catch you tomorrow about the same time? I never expected that one. Its down on both my phone and laptop!
I know, I was in the middle of chatting when it happened. I was trying to figure out if it was my computer..guess not. Yes, tomorrow is fine! Thanks :) I look forward to it :)
Me too, I am glad I am not alone in the chat thing. Its not a horrible message from the other side! :O)
That's good! Although, would it be possible to do it around five-thirty my time? Which is about an hour from now. I forgot we have a delivery during the day, I might be back by four, but I know I'll be back by then.
Hells, yeah that would be absolutely fine. I will be on about then!