InterNutter

Indie writer seeks audience with an audience. Paying customers welcome. [pronouns: ze/hir] Daily free stories happen because it is an excellent counter to Writers' Block.

Burpengary East http://www.cmweller.com 12055 posts

Challenge #04678-L294: Strange Submarine Staccato

Things have not been going well for Ludwig and U-634. An English depth charge knocked out the water pumps, the radio is on the fritz, pumping out static in strange, rhythmic bursts, and there are strange scratches and taps on the sub the Skipper swears is the hull scraping against ice. Yet the bizarre patterns, almost like arcane writing he finds when they surface for air, hints at something deeper, and those noises only grow more insistent by the hour… -- Deathshead419

[AN: The actual history - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GermansubmarineU-634 ]

Ludwig had to admit - even if it was just to himself - that they might be in deep trouble. Separated from the pack. Depth-charged halfway to oblivion, having undertaken a lot of significant damage... and surrounded by ice. Worrying, too, were the odd scratches on the hull. As if something had been scrawling graffiti there with sharp knives.

They had said it was due to the hull scraping on the ice or on stones underwater. If those scratches were from ice or stones, they wouldn't look so squiggly or deliberately shaped. If it was from scraping along anything, it would look like straight lines. Not like some barbarian script from the impure countries.

Ludwig shivered as he examined it, almost hypnotised by the swirls and curves. Heart pounding at the alien nature of the sigils.

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Tuesday, Optometrist, Patreon, and So On

I'm getting my eyes checked today, and I've already packed an old set of frames in case my lenses need an upgrade. Huzzah.

I owe some stuff to Patreon, though I still don't have a terrible lot. I should throw myself at making Kdenlive work again.

The experiment with the videos should get back online. It's just a matter of having the emotional and intellectual wherewithall to hit that shit with a hammer.

The current chapter of ADT is fighting me a

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Challenge #04677-L293: Nein to Nine

Every night for nine weeks a queen dreams of herself being surrounded by nine hooded figures she almost recognizes in the deepest sanctum of an abandoned castle. Each stabs her once until the ninth drives his blade through her heart. Terrified, she begs Wraithvine, and anyone ze might need to help, to find the truth of these nightmares haunting her sleep. -- Deathshead419

It had to be a portent. Every night for nine weeks, the Queen Chrysanthemum had the same dream. A

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Monday, Leyland's Embuggerance

I have Extra Shenanigans today. (sparkles manifest with the announcement)

Because just as I was settling to bed, there's an urgent phone call from MeMum. Her power's out and she's hyper-panicking about it. She needs the number for a specific electrical mob. Which I find and give to her.

Then she says, "If I don't call back, come get me."

That... is a very strange instruction. Normal people would say something like, "I'll call if I need you to come get me.

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Challenge #04676-L292: Deepest, Darkest Secret

An airplane vanished over the Amazon rainforest, never to be seen again. The authorities did a perfunctory search, but came up empty, declaring everyone dead. But one child of a businessman lost on the flight isn’t so sure. And so the child sets out alone to find the truth of the disappearance and, perhaps, a parent alive… -- Deathshead419

[AN: I misread this and instantly thought of this thing {Offensensitivity warning for flashing imagery} and now I have to divorce myself

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Sunday, Archive Reads and Alternate PLNs

As I type, I am listening to Antihero go through the chosen ones on stream. Soon enough, I shall have a story for y'all and I shall have the spare time to engage in chosen nonsense.

In between baking the second batch of bread. And icing my ankle.

I made it all the way through yesterday without needing a break. Today, I only made it a couple of hours.

Roses are red
Extinct is Opabinia
I must remind myself
Progress is not

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Challenge #04675-L291: Minding a Larger Flock

What a coincidence! Prince Philip has found a young shepherd boy who looks exactly like him living in the countryside. Even better, the young man is willing to trade places for a lark. With the talk of the cafes turning increasingly murderous with regards to Philip’s family, it would certainly be a good time to be a Shepherd Boy rather than a prince, though, the boy doesn’t need to know that… -- Deathshead419

Once upon a time, there was a

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Saturday, Some Improvement

I made it half the day without needing a bracer on my left ankle. My right ankle has decided to spit the dummy and demand a little coddling. So I put it in the lace-up brace and I'm hoping a day of babying makes it calm the fuck down.

Meanwhile, I have bread going on. Which involves a lot of walking back and forth. Not great for the rebellious legs.

Story very soon, followed by my freedom to slack off. Yay.

Well.

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Challenge #04674-L290: There Are Rules

A painter has been gifted with a wondrous, dangerous power: Everything this artist draws upon changes to match the image at dusk. Paintings come to life, stones become gold, hills cleanly vanish into valleys, even bodies shift shape.

The usual suspects are trying to steal this painter away to make weapons, fortunes, give assassins impossible disguises, ect. Perhaps Wraithvine can help hide this artist before those unscrupulous schemers use this human as a tool. -- Deathshead419

Whatever the gifted magic, it has

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Friday, Tuning Shenanigans and Bread

I've had technical issues involving graphics drivers, this morning. Issues that involved the destruction of my precious tab hoard. I'll rebuild as I need and hope for the best.

Today is the first day I'm operating without my ankle bracer, with a new strengthening exercise to get it back up to approaching normal. And maybe even stronger.

I can hope.

Without the bracer, icing my stupid ankle absorbs less time. Yay. Which also means less time to sit and write other things.

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Challenge #04673-L289: One in a Million

A drone from a hive mind is mistakenly left behind when the scouting party leaves the planet behind. Now an entity which has never conceived of a singular identity must survive in a wilderness. -- Deathshead419

We are Xaqi, and we seek knowledge. We seek resources without conflict. Harm to the hive is harm to all with the swarm, we are one. We know us. We sense all of us. It is as it has always been.

Until now.

We cannot sense

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Thursday, Physio, Smol Errands, and a Cheev

Achievement Unlocked: Finished That Fucking Chapter

Yes, it took me over a week, one paragraph of purple prose at a time, but I firkin DID IT.

I can now relax and get back to more normal narratives. Well. Normal for me. Which should happen a lot faster. I hope.

Thirty-one chapters remain until this thing is done. I might not get it done this year, but I will get it done.

In a few minutes, I go ice my ankle and then

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Challenge #04672-L288: A Means to Reflect

So he said to the young hellkin...."There are generally two ways to go when the world hates you for how you look. Either be everything they say you are and worse, thus making them point at you as proof... or try your heart and soul away in proving them wrong, but you have to listen anyway. Or be, one of the good ones. If you find a secret third way, more power to you." This young hellkin found a "third way"

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Wednesday, Rant Day and Other Things

I really wanna start playing Death Stranding... but I have offerings to make. And a son to drive to public transit. And fetch back at the end of the day.

So I shall make an effort to make an effort before slagging off to shiny distraction land. With life interrupting, of course.

The new prompt is out on the Archive and I got in first, huzzah. Thought of some questions shortly after posting so I'll see how I go there.

I've got

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Challenge #04671-L287: Fair Exchange

Unusual icon statues begin popping up all over the world. One puts in gold coins, and from the slot below, the exact amount of silver and copper coins comes out. The few times someone powerful enough to smash one managed to do so, they would find it not filled with coins at all. Merely more runes and sigils as it put itself back together again. -- Anon Guest

They were odd little altars. A figure of a Ravenfolk with an open beak

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