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NeoGAF Creative Writing Challenge #166 - "Dust"
- Thread starter Cyan
- Start date
- Status
We had one a long time ago where the limit was like 100 words. That was pretty crazy.
Like the hat?
Banned
Well it's been a long time since I wrote anything and I'm rusty, but here ya go.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/5kwrdxc7ej9uv98/Summer final_protected.pdf?dl=0
password: gafwrite
https://www.dropbox.com/s/5kwrdxc7ej9uv98/Summer final_protected.pdf?dl=0
password: gafwrite
FlowersisBritish
fleurs n'est pas britannique
I don't know if I'll make it this tim around. I'm super far behind on other projects
and also the Witcher 3 came out
FelixOrion
Poet Centuriate
efyu_lemonardo
May I have a cookie?
that sounds awesome
It's like pixel art for writing. Producing something so small you can afford to experiment heavily and almost polish it to perfection.
Chainsawkitten
Member
Dust Speckle (0 words)
.
efyu_lemonardo
May I have a cookie?
I have no words
neither does the author
Now this I could do
Ha! We'll have to do it again sometime.
No we don't!
Freeza Under The Shower
Member
edit: I'm an idiot.
Though now I find myself thinking about the life of a dust speck. Micro-gravity, integration and dissemination into larger beings, until eventually to wait on the floor of a dead space? How does nature clean dust anyway... this is getting surprisingly intriguing.
Though now I find myself thinking about the life of a dust speck. Micro-gravity, integration and dissemination into larger beings, until eventually to wait on the floor of a dead space? How does nature clean dust anyway... this is getting surprisingly intriguing.
Had a rush of inspiration today, so im submitting early
Directions - 2031 (thanks for the extra 100, really needed this time.
Directions - 2031 (thanks for the extra 100, really needed this time.
FelixOrion
Poet Centuriate
Have something started but it's really short and I'm not in a groove nor in the best state of mind right now. Sorry, will have to pass on this one.
New Challengers Appear!
The foxy ladies of my critique group wanted to try their hands at one of these and sent me all their entries.
Kelly -- The Western Exposure
Shannon -- Molly
Nicole -- Shadows of Death
Cathy -- Dawn to Dust
Standard password on all of them.
MoG EclipsE
Member
The air is filthy.
Dust in pure air.
Clean.
Pure as it always was,
and will never be.
Dust in pure air.
Clean.
Pure as it always was,
and will never be.
NipplesAndToes23
Member
I had to see this when it's too late.
Dandy Crocodile
Member
Deadline is still 3 hours away! You can do it!
That's how I feel the night of every submission deadline! Though sometimes what I have is not short... sometimes it's long-winded and going nowhere.
Tinfoilhatsron
Banned
Me too.
I was going to try, but I'm really unhappy with mine.Night Shift at the Academy (2050)
Dandy Crocodile
Member
I really don't know how I feel about this one. My original ideas grew beyond the constraints of a short story.
Off the Record (1,961)
Off the Record (1,961)
"In the Middle" (1276 words)
Oh, I should add that I was partly inspired by two children's books called "Lifetimes" and "The Tenth Good Thing About Barney."
Oh, I should add that I was partly inspired by two children's books called "Lifetimes" and "The Tenth Good Thing About Barney."
FlowersisBritish
fleurs n'est pas britannique
hahaha I somehow finished this. Oh look, the morning sun. What a joyous and delirious sight.
Goodbye My Lovely Ashen Illusions- About 2000 words
usual password and such
Goodbye My Lovely Ashen Illusions- About 2000 words
usual password and such
One by one (1987 words)
British Monsoon
Member
The demons of the pit had much practice at torturing, tempting and tormenting human souls, so it came as a shock to them when they realised that, in the last few hundred years or so, humans were starting to effect them. No longer was it enough for the beasts to haunt, to harken to the delectable taste of a guilty conscience or a desperate man at his last ebb and watch as the threads of damnation they wove spooled out before them. No. Instead, they had taken to assuming corporeal form, to walking amongst the humans, feeling what they feel beneath the fabric of their skin and striving to understand what drove them in an increasingly modern and irreligious world. But that's when things started to change, when demons started acting strangely and abandoning their infernal pursuits. When they realised, somewhere in the recesses of their subconsciousnesses, that the hell on Earth they strived to create was more comfortable than the hell to which they were condemned. So they stayed, blending in as best they could although, by necessity, never for very long.
One such demon now walks through a hospital's halls, his high heeled feet click clacking on the floor. He hasn't started to smell yet, but already the itching is becoming too much to bear. The costume is of a nurse, a shapely, lovely thing that the demon relished in peeling apart, layer by layer. Oh, the noises she'd made as he separated flesh from bone, it played in his head over and over, each note of pain like a grand symphony. The itching though, the terrible itching that never leaves. For you see, no matter how hard a demon tries, no matter how easy it is for one to steal a human's form, to quite literally slip on their skin and walk a mile in their shoes, there's always something in the air or on the floor, something to get stuck between shoulder-blades or under the balls of their feet. Little, insignificant motes of dust that prod and torment every stolen second of every stolen day beneath the demon's new skin. But this demon is clever, this demon has an idea of a place to acquire new flesh that should be free of dust and other airborne debris. So he click clacks down the corridors in his stolen body, hips swaying as he opens the door to the maternity ward.
He find what he's looking for, a roomful of the snivelling young ones, all small and pathetic as they scream their helpless desperation and defiance at an uncaring world. He slips in the door and closes it quickly behind him, hearing the hiss as the door locks tight, hermetically sealed. He browses the stock. Too chubby, too ugly, too pale. Ah, perfect. He finds what he's looking for and allows his skin to fall away. The comely nurse crumples, leaving beneath the demon and the iron tang of blood in the air. The baby stirs as the infernal monster hovers over it, but it does not cry out. The demon picks it up in clawed hands and squeezes the life out of the tiny thing. Once it has stilled, he brings his foreclaw to the back of its neck and makes the incision. With probing fingers, he digs out the innards, making space for his infernal essence. They drop sloppily on the floor, next to the rotting husk of the nurse he'd borrowed. Eventually, the skin is hollowed out. He puts it back in place in the crib and readies himself for what's to come. With careful concentration, he wills his form into the vacant costume, feeling it come to life as his essence fill up the empty space, breathes infernal life into the shell of what once was. The door opens and another nurse walks in, letting out a blood-curdling scream as she sees the horror of skin and bone and flesh pooled upon the floor.
Others rush over and gawk and stare, but it matters not to the demon, his task now complete. A new body, one free of torment that he can live in for many, many years! But what's this? As he writhes about his cot, this new body woefully infirm, he can feel it beneath the skin of his face. The baby's wails reach a new crescendo as the demon howls its anger. He'd been so careful, but still a fleck of something sits beneath his flesh, the skin already growing angry and red as he rubbed and rubbed at it with tiny, awkward little hands. Then he notices another, above the child's left ankle, and another, right above his sternum. Rage wells up in the demon. The room was supposed to be sealed! Nothing could get in or out...unless the dust was already in here to begin with, or perhaps had travelled in with him upon the nurse's shapely form? He wailed then, louder than ever before, and the people stopped their crying and arguing to stare and the small bundle of anger and pain in the cot before them. The demon couldn't take it any more, he had to leave. Right now. And with that, the baby's screeching became unbearable. People cowered, covered their ears against the assault that then, suddenly, stopped with a loud, wet popping sound and a haze of liquid in the air. They looked up at the cot, now definitely empty of anything that could be called alive.
One such demon now walks through a hospital's halls, his high heeled feet click clacking on the floor. He hasn't started to smell yet, but already the itching is becoming too much to bear. The costume is of a nurse, a shapely, lovely thing that the demon relished in peeling apart, layer by layer. Oh, the noises she'd made as he separated flesh from bone, it played in his head over and over, each note of pain like a grand symphony. The itching though, the terrible itching that never leaves. For you see, no matter how hard a demon tries, no matter how easy it is for one to steal a human's form, to quite literally slip on their skin and walk a mile in their shoes, there's always something in the air or on the floor, something to get stuck between shoulder-blades or under the balls of their feet. Little, insignificant motes of dust that prod and torment every stolen second of every stolen day beneath the demon's new skin. But this demon is clever, this demon has an idea of a place to acquire new flesh that should be free of dust and other airborne debris. So he click clacks down the corridors in his stolen body, hips swaying as he opens the door to the maternity ward.
He find what he's looking for, a roomful of the snivelling young ones, all small and pathetic as they scream their helpless desperation and defiance at an uncaring world. He slips in the door and closes it quickly behind him, hearing the hiss as the door locks tight, hermetically sealed. He browses the stock. Too chubby, too ugly, too pale. Ah, perfect. He finds what he's looking for and allows his skin to fall away. The comely nurse crumples, leaving beneath the demon and the iron tang of blood in the air. The baby stirs as the infernal monster hovers over it, but it does not cry out. The demon picks it up in clawed hands and squeezes the life out of the tiny thing. Once it has stilled, he brings his foreclaw to the back of its neck and makes the incision. With probing fingers, he digs out the innards, making space for his infernal essence. They drop sloppily on the floor, next to the rotting husk of the nurse he'd borrowed. Eventually, the skin is hollowed out. He puts it back in place in the crib and readies himself for what's to come. With careful concentration, he wills his form into the vacant costume, feeling it come to life as his essence fill up the empty space, breathes infernal life into the shell of what once was. The door opens and another nurse walks in, letting out a blood-curdling scream as she sees the horror of skin and bone and flesh pooled upon the floor.
Others rush over and gawk and stare, but it matters not to the demon, his task now complete. A new body, one free of torment that he can live in for many, many years! But what's this? As he writhes about his cot, this new body woefully infirm, he can feel it beneath the skin of his face. The baby's wails reach a new crescendo as the demon howls its anger. He'd been so careful, but still a fleck of something sits beneath his flesh, the skin already growing angry and red as he rubbed and rubbed at it with tiny, awkward little hands. Then he notices another, above the child's left ankle, and another, right above his sternum. Rage wells up in the demon. The room was supposed to be sealed! Nothing could get in or out...unless the dust was already in here to begin with, or perhaps had travelled in with him upon the nurse's shapely form? He wailed then, louder than ever before, and the people stopped their crying and arguing to stare and the small bundle of anger and pain in the cot before them. The demon couldn't take it any more, he had to leave. Right now. And with that, the baby's screeching became unbearable. People cowered, covered their ears against the assault that then, suddenly, stopped with a loud, wet popping sound and a haze of liquid in the air. They looked up at the cot, now definitely empty of anything that could be called alive.
Dammit! Another week where I have to realize that I simply planned a much to long story...
Well back to the drawing board. Still got two and a half hours to whip something up.
Edit: Halfway through the emergency story, but time is running fast on me. Might not make it before the end of the grace period...
Well back to the drawing board. Still got two and a half hours to whip something up.
Edit: Halfway through the emergency story, but time is running fast on me. Might not make it before the end of the grace period...
You can do it! Just kill somebody off... sudden surprise ending!
Chainsawkitten
Member
"Oh, no!", said Henrietta as she spontaneously self-combusted.
The End
The End
Ok, I'm done! Just let me check for errors once more then I'll post it.
Here you go: "Help Wanted" (1478 words)
Here you go: "Help Wanted" (1478 words)
Stinkles - Fermis Parachute
Beaniedude - There's Snow Pun
Like the hat? - Summer
Sethista - Directions
Ward - When the Dust Settled, What was Left?
Mike M - Revenant Sins
Kelly -- The Western Exposure
Shannon -- Molly
Nicole -- Shadows of Death
Cathy -- Dawn to Dust
alexlevesque - Dusted
Cyan - Night Shift at the Academy
Dandy Crocodile - Off the Record
Tangent - "In the Middle"
FlowersisBritish - Goodbye My Lovely Ashen Illusions
Neeener - One by one
Bootaaay - Dust
Nezumi - "Help Wanted"
Ashes - ethereal.
Beaniedude - There's Snow Pun
Like the hat? - Summer
Sethista - Directions
Ward - When the Dust Settled, What was Left?
Mike M - Revenant Sins
Kelly -- The Western Exposure
Shannon -- Molly
Nicole -- Shadows of Death
Cathy -- Dawn to Dust
alexlevesque - Dusted
Cyan - Night Shift at the Academy
Dandy Crocodile - Off the Record
Tangent - "In the Middle"
FlowersisBritish - Goodbye My Lovely Ashen Illusions
Neeener - One by one
Bootaaay - Dust
Nezumi - "Help Wanted"
Ashes - ethereal.
Yeah, that's insane!
I'm doin taxes this weekend so I may have to leave feedback to the professionals this time.
i seriously am doing taxes...it sounds like the biggest excuse ever!
Well I already read and offered feedback on four of them on Thursday : P
Beaniedude
Member
Voting!
1. Ward - When the Dust Settled, What was Left?
2. Bootaaay - Dust
3. Cyan - Night Shift at the Academy
They were all fun reads. The whole thing was fun. Good fun everyone.
1. Ward - When the Dust Settled, What was Left?
2. Bootaaay - Dust
3. Cyan - Night Shift at the Academy
They were all fun reads. The whole thing was fun. Good fun everyone.
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