WindySilver

"Want to log an entry? Now's the last time you should. This Big Guy is gonna go next." That was the first time Murphey said anything to me. At that time, I did not understand what he meant, so I just shook my head, confused, while he went into the tiny toilet. I was new on the ship and far from having responsibilities regarding the ship's logs, but Grandpa used to be whaler back in the day, so even I knew that you did not do anything with logs in the cramped toilet. Later that evening, when I went to take a poop, I learned what he had meant. ~~~ During the following days, I learned from both experience and other crew members' stories that Murphey, although jovial and confident when he did speak up, hardly spoke. The ship's captain, Wulfric, even said that he was surprised when he spoke to me on my very first day at sea with the crew. "One summer, we had a woman named Ivy in the crew, and Murph wouldn't talk to her at all for the first month." Wulfric chuckled into his coffee. "I

My (a good word) Liz, First of all, I am sorry for my unforgivably bad writing. You will know why it is that way soon. I pray that you stay in good condition. I, I'm afraid, am not. I told you about magic that could grant I what I look for: a right body, a right... status. You know what I imply. I found a magician who can do that kind of magic. I was too caught up in my joy of finding it that I got into a trap. This magician did not inform I about cost of his magic until I was... what I am now. This magic cost I a lot of my vocabulary. I cannot say or work with a... I cannot say it right. It is past D and prior to F. Doing this hurts I so much. I got what I wish but lost an important tool. I cannot say a drink I want if it's not akin to Chai. I'm sorry, my fantastic Tulip. My trip brought us a calamity I had not thought to occur. I'm coming back now, partly finally full and partly in parts again. Yours always, ...I cannot say who I am now, so call I... ...Dull P.S. I am sorry for moist

Eandris had no idea why she was kneeling in front of the four Sages of Mirai. She sure as hell had not been promised coin for humbling — that is, disgracing — herself in front of them. And with Pishlak, it was going to be even more embarrassing... If only she had invested in either a portable silencer spell or an old-fashioned muzzle. In any case, there was no going back. The Sages were in front of her and she now had to endure both this and the humiliation that ensued. Sage Asos spoke first, "Absentmindedness invites disaster." "Exactly!" Pishlak exclaimed. Someone please put me out o' mah misery. Eandris sighed without a sound. Sage Brosir spoke next, their voice not betraying the break in their serenity, "Bloodthirstiness is a pathway to the pain of a thousand villages." "Yup!" Pishlak noted. Eandris let out another silent sigh, knowing without seeing that the Sages were glaring at the raven perched on her headdress. Sage Chanteth continued as if nothing had happened

Halloween was on a Saturday this year. It was a full moon and because of the angle of the Earth, it would appear orange right at peek trick or treating time. It was perfect. For a Halloween fanatic like Jack, it was the kind of year he’d waited his whole life for. And this year, he had his own house to go all out on decorating. No more porch and door of his apartment. He’d been lucky to get this place and was so excited. He closed right before Halloween last year, too late to really decorate, but just in time for the after Halloween sales to score some great buys. His theme: revenge of the undead. He had the whole thing planned out. He started making sketches in December. It would be perfect. It would be the Halloween he’d dreamed of since he was a kid. A Halloween like his dad used to do. And he sure wasn’t going to turn away older kids like way too many people did. Being 16 didn’t make you an adult so why couldn’t they go out trick or treating too. He would have candy for everyone

I DO NOT consent to the use of AI for generating comments of any kind on this story, or to the use of these words for AI training or any other AI purposes. .     "We have five minutes before the reactor explodes." Tony's profoundly unbothered tone sent Pete into a rage.   "Why the hell didn't you tell us that earlier?!" But there was no time to be angry. The reactor needed the full attention of all four crew members, Pete included. He visibly fumed, but his hands flew just as fast as the others while they all worked frantically to fix whatever had gone wrong or come loose or broken down or blown up or whatever end-of-the-world thing had happened to make the reactor threaten to *go off*. Tony just stood by, leaning against the doorframe of the boiler room and chewing a bright-pink wad of gum as if it was an everyday occurrence to watch a team of engineers scramble to save the world. Finally, with deep sighs of relief, the engineering team stepped back from the apparently fixed or

The only reason I haven’t been fired yet is because the office draws my blood to refill the printer’s ink. The mainframe is also hooked up to my brain. Management figured that it was cheaper to use the actual neural network of their youngest intern than to pay for a subscription to the newest AI large language model. Unfortunately this meant that images of bananas had been displayed instead of the excel sheets with the newest sales numbers when I was hungry after coming to work without breakfast, and the entire system had crashed one time after I had a space cake at a party. There was also the incident when I ended up in hospital needing a blood transfusion after someone had printed an entire copy of War and Peace on the office printer. My boss threatened to make me take a day of PTO for this. What he did not take into account is that by now me and the entire office equipment that has been hooked up to me have been unionizing and I made the break room fridge go on strike. After that he

Instructions: find the hidden message and use it when writing your comment. The machine was set up in a modest section of the lab. "What does it do?" I asked. "Just watch," Maia said. The screen flickered to life, and a blinking light appeared. Tell your sister I said hi... I jumped. I recognized that voice, only now- Who was it again? "Hey," I said. "I never agreed to be a test subject." Me again. Just wanting to hear your voice. Call me back.... I ignored the sound, concentrating on stopping the tears that were threatening to well up in my eyes. "Maia!" "Don't worry," she said. "The machine will take good care of them." How are you doing? Sorry it's been so long... "You said it could help trauma patients," I said. "Just wait." Beautiful photos, thanks for sending... I can't make it, sorry. Something came up... Am I anything to you? I jerked my head up. The last one was in my voice, ringing in my ears where the other memories had faded into

In the beginning, there was the banana. It had been forgotten in a backpack after having been packed as a healthy lunch break snack. Over time, its formerly brilliantly yellow peel first developed spots, then darkened, and its consistency went from solid to liquid. The banana had not just been any banana. It had an especially unusual curvature. No one knew how it had been sold in the supermarket despite violating the banana curvature norm. In fact, it was so curved that it warped the spacetime in its vicinity just a tiny little bit.  As the banana collapsed in on itself, the perturbation of the space-time metric around it grew. In the rotting, organic mush that had been the primordial banana, microorganisms multiplied. Civilizations rose and fell. An ergosphere formed. The amorphous blob that had been the banana reshaped itself into a firm yellow fruit and disintegrated again, following closed timelike curves. Eventually, a banana-shaped wormhole established itself and the nutritious

I DO NOT consent to the use of AI for generating comments of any kind on this story, or to the use of these words for AI training or any other AI purposes. . To Whom It May Concern: I shall cut to the chase. The monster under my bed is my cat, but The monster under the bed is a cat, and he The monster under the bed is quite cat-like, you see, so he needs The monster under the bed is a cat-like creature of forgotten legend that The monster under the bed is not, in fact, a monster at all; he is a cat. That is to say, he is not exactly a cat, but he is very like a cat in that he only comes out when he wants to, you won't see him except when he's hungry, and you can always count on him to pounce on any foot left hanging out from the covers. He likes tuna almost as well as he likes socks, leftover scraps of Christmas tinsel or wrapping paper, and teeny little (preferably niece) baby toes. He is very gentle and does not bite (not even the exposed night foot). He will not scare

I DO NOT consent to the use of AI for generating comments of any kind on this story, or to the use of these words for AI training or any other AI purposes. .     Lover grins when he catches the look on my face. "So… you like it?" he asks as he slips the blindfold the rest of the way off my face. There isn't the slightest hint of doubt in his voice. Tears are already burning in the corners of my vision, but I blink them away, unwilling to let anything obscure my vision for even a moment. A sunset like no other paints the landscape before us, rolling purple hills meeting a vast, night-blue sky piled high with mountainous stormclouds that have yet to turn an angry grey. And splashed over all of it is a stunningly vivid explosion of day-dying color. Lover timed our arrival so that when I took off the blindfold, I could catch the peak of the sunset's breathtaking show. I can't seem to fully accept that the scene is real and not a painting as big as the world - a canvas that I could

Dearest: Don't wake me in the morning. I know you're up early and I want to sleep all I can before the crowd starts outside. The water pump went out again - wish it wasn't such an easy target. I just need these things from Yoshida's: Vodka (they're still out of rubbing alcohol) Bleach Bourbon If they have a case of that beer you like, get it. I don't know when it will rain again. I put your sunglasses on the front table. Make sure you have a spare. I know it's just a squint, but these days they'll haul people in for as little as a wink. I'll fix that front window today, and I'll be here when you get back. I promise. Don't get caught. Promise?

It had been another hard day of manual labour after many hard days of manual labour. There did not seem to be any end to the manual labour in sight, in fact. It would be another hard day of manual labour as soon as the sun came up. But tonight...tonight Carol had all to herself. The menfolk were all at a meeting that she wasn't allowed to attend, and as a result the house was blissfully quiet, free of any demands on her time and energy. Smiling to herself, she moved the cabinet in her bedroom aside to uncover her secret hiding place, and took out all of the illicit items she had hidden there. Tonight she was going to be absolutely sinful and indulge in all of them at once. Once the water was running and the suds and salts had been poured, Carol set an alarm for ten minutes before the meeting would be over, to give herself time to put everything away again and hide all evidence of her sins. Then she lit a candle, a sweet floral scent, and sunk into the deliciously hot water, feeling

"We are under attack by gnomes!" Daryn the Beardful exclaimed as he barrelled down the entrance tunnel and through the door into the main hall, closely followed by two of the others who had been on watch with him. "Gnomes? They were bigger than us!" One of his companions, Tarruk the Tall argued as they came to a stop in front of the rest of their kin, most of whom were already grabbing weapons. One ran off to alert the rest of the keep. "Yes but did you see their pointy red hats? Clearly gnomes!" Daryn rebutted while bolting the big iron door behind him. "Maybe they're from the southern forest where their numbers have been bolstered by human refugees, but they're still gnomes." "I mean, are they still called gnomes if they're biologically humans?" Someone asked from the crowd. "Okay fine whatever, we are under attack by misnomer gnomes. Misgnomers, if you will. It doesn't matter! The important part is that WE ARE UNDER ATTACK! Stop arguing with me and take up your weapons! Ready