AUGUST 2014 -- 75-Word Writing Challenge -- VICTORY TO ASHLEYNE. B. WATTS!

[TheDustyZebra]

Rules:


Write a story inspired by the chosen theme and genre in no more than 75 words, not including the title.

One entry per person



All stories Copyright 2014 by their respective authors,
who grant the Chronicles Network the non-exclusive right to publish them here.





The complete rules can be found at Rules For The Writing Challenges

Contest ends at 11:59 pm GMT, August 23 2014

Voting Ends at 11:59 pm GMT, August 28 2014


You do not have to submit a story in order to vote --
in fact, we encourage all Chrons members to take part in choosing a winner.


The Magnificent Prize:

The Dignified Congratulations/Grovelling Admiration of Your Peers
and the challenge of choosing the next month's theme and genre




Theme:


INNOCENCE




Genre:


Science Fiction



This thread to be used for entries only.

Please keep all comments to the Discussion Thread.
We invite (and indeed hope for) lively discussion and speculation about the stories as they are posted,
so long as it doesn't involve the author explaining the plot.


​

 

[Ashleyne]

Razorlips

Daddy built me to fulfil his desires. He named me after the razors on my lips.

He sang to me when I smothered him with kisses. He liked it when the red oil dribbled down him. “It warms my skin” he said.

Now, no matter how much I kiss him, he just lays there.

I tried to recharge him; his skin turned to leather and started peeling, smelling like beef and sulphur.

“Wake up, Daddy!”

 

[Jo Zebedee]

MINE-CRAFTING

I built a rollercoaster when I was seven; at eight, I hatched a wolf and made a world, a nice one: this one. But I miss Mum, and Scruffy was nicer than the wolf – fluffy, with a proper long tongue.

There’re other worlds, with their own kids. I wish I could reach them, that I wasn’t trapped in this app, forever eight, with only my wolf beside me. But I was too young to know.

 

[VALIS13]

She held the shiny sphere in her forepaws, admiring the sunlight rainbow over its surface. She'd have to hide it. Her parents would be appaled if they knew she had something from The Old. It certainly didn't look old, nor dangerous for that matter, in spite of their warnings.

She shook it and it began a gently hypnotic ticking. It would look beautiful in her dolls house.

 

[Bowler1]

Terrible Twos

Toy wheels bumped and bounced across a floor, pulled off and flung.

Teddies and dolls flew in every direction, picked up and thrown again.

Multiple machine arms kept this flurry going, moving in a blur.

None dared approach until SCoT-5 had calmed.

None dared guess when that might be, when no sleep was needed or rest at all, thanks to a lifetime battery guarantee.

Speakers buzzing in stereo, SCoT-5 screamed and shouted…

MINE!

MINE!

MINE!

 

[ratsy]

A Study in Linguistics


We brought the sacrifice to the planet’s leaders. They wore face paint and stood at the lip of the volcano.

The request seemed strange but who were we to judge their religion.

I motioned for my boy to unveil the gift. He removed the sack and there sat a bucket of tiny, rotting fish.

The tribe looked angry.

“That’s what the translation said – sacrifice of Minnow Scents!”

They pushed my boy into the lava.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Jimmy

Jimmy couldn't read all the words in his comic book, but he laughed anyway. The caretaker brought new ones every day, along with food and pills. Yesterday Jimmy had to take two pills. The caretaker said he was thinking too much. Jimmy knew better than to argue with the big dumb machine. The last time he complained the caretaker didn't give him any pills, and he remembered what it was like to be a grownup.

 

[mosaix]

Another Fine Mess…

The Advisory Council had watched it before. The lines of indecipherable symbols indicated that the recording of the intercepted transmission was coming to an end.

“Final analysis?”

“A pleasure seeking society, devoid of aggression. No weaponry. Warfare probably unknown so no territorial ambitions. We recommend that there’s no need for concern regarding them achieving interstellar travel in the future.”

On the screen the words Laurel & Hardy and Way Out West scrolled past.

"Okay. Next?"

 

[farntfar]

The good wife.

Innocence and virtue
allow me to fly,
carrying him here and there.
He never tells me quite
why.

Somehow not knowing
will show me his ways
wandering in time and space
casually picking up
strays

Olympean godlike
oracle seer and sage
the infinite schism I
both navigate and
engage

I don’t always take him where
he thinks that he wants to go.
Just where he needs to, and
one day he’ll realise it’s
so.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

OUT OF THE DEAD LAND​

Eliot of the First Contact Team had seen too many worlds like it. Burnt out planets, small populations still following their destructive paths: war, greed, corruption.

And he, jaded, weary. Was there, in all the galaxy, one innocent soul to restore his lost ideals?

Then ... from the shadow of a tall red rock, a chirp like a sparrow. And there he found sleeping the newborn child: humanoid, with downy white wings growing from its shoulders.

 

[Karn Maeshalanadae]

Your Heart Belongs To Me
​

She was beautiful…tall, slender, definitely a woman, even though her species only had the mentality of a human child.

I approached casually, telling her I needed a guide around the planet. Her black eyes shimmered in delight.

*****
​

I laughed as her heart quivered in my hand for one last moment before I sucked it dry of its remaining blood.

These native girls were all the same…so trusting, so naïve…so easy to taste.

 

[Luiglin]

Hope

“We agree?”

The concordance was unanimous.

She sighed and hit end. As one, the visages flickered out. There were doubts but the potential for greatness was there, it just needed that spark.

“Initiate Protocol Sol III Alpha Prime.”

A multitude of languages began transmitting the message. Her finite ganglia tingled in anticipation remembering the time of losing her own innocence in the knowledge that she was not alone.

“Inhabitants of Earth, greetings!”

 

[Cat's Cradle]

First Contact—Humanity’s Darkest Hour! (A Star Captain Timothy Spahl Adventure)


Resist-torture…show-aliens-we’re-superior-species—"OWW!

“It’s a human you torture, monster, you’ll get nothing--OUCH!! Too tight!"

Mother-to-comb-your-hair-again-and-massage--"OWWWWWWWWWWW!! TIMMY WON’T DIE A VIRGIN!!! Mercy!! I’ll tell you everything, all humanity’s secrets…”

(“Confusion, Hive Leader--human immediately surrenders, then while being strapped in for acceleration-safety, scream-weeping erupted.”

“We came to establish trade—but if this is representative human warrior…transmit instructions—WE INVADE!!!”)

 

[Kerrybuchanan]

Cleansing Fire

Struggling in the grip of the machine, knowing there would be no escape. Before me, the ashes of those I loved - they had lost their innocence. Now it was my turn.

The mouth of the furnace yawned before me, the blast of heat a breath of wind over my skin on a summer's day. Embracing it, closing my eyes, absorbing its energy, I realised with joy that I would survive. I still had my innocence...

 

[nixie]

The Last Haven​

After centuries of searching they had finally found it, a planet unsullied by war or science.The natives welcoming, no weapons to be seen.

A beautiful haven in a universe full of hate and destruction.

"OK, people stations"

"Are we going to land, sir?"

"No, prepare weapons"

The natives saw the ship, excitement turned to terror when the fire came from above, tearing flesh from bone. Destroying the beauty of the once peaceful land.

 

[Droflet]

Broken Angel

Tink, whispered in my ear. “Time?”

“Soon,” my ancient voice croaked.

Still as pure and unsullied as all those decades ago when I rescued her from the spider’s web. Her wings torn beyond repair, she could never return home, so she remained with me, my best and truest friend.

“I’ll stay.”

As the darkness enfolded me, I knew she would.

 

[Michael Colton]

Previous

I love the city. The buildings change their shape and color every night, so I wake up to a new home every day. Sometimes they seem to flow one into the other, sometimes each one seems to be on its own journey into the horizon. Daddy says it takes a lot of energy to change like that. But that’s what the Prevs are for. It’s odd they never come up and see it, though.

 

[Kylara]

Judgement


'There was a world once.'

He looked wistfully at stars outside the craft.

'Then I destroyed it.'

Her head snaked round, 'Why?'

'Well...I just, couldn't deal with all the death.'

She stared, tongue flicking out.

'Why?'

‘They turned everything against everything. Corrupted.'

Her eyes were unblinkingly fixed upon him.

'I built this ship and burned the world. It’s just dust and spinning rocks now.'

'Why?'

'The universe had to remain…innocent of their cruelty...'

 

[Remedy]

Taken in Lights

VHOOOOOOooo

I hate the noisey. Mummy did holding a thing with a noisey like it. It sucked away dirty and made me do laughing when she touching me with it.

These thing doesn’t make me do laughing. It gives me hurting and my eyes go water.

These took me in lights. Away from Mummy. These don’t looking like her shape and they are shiny.

VHOOOOOOooo

Hurting.

Do I staying with these? Are they Mummy now?

 

[Void]

First attempt at this!

Flash

It’s glowing. There, look- just here, innocence, just under the pineal gland. You can’t see it probably; you’re another of the beige-brained types, but that’s fine. I scoop it out with my little spoon and put it in the jar. Then the conveyor belt moves on, because it’s someone else’s job to stitch the head up before sending it back out.

You think it’s wrong, but how else do you make light bulbs work?