Writing Group: Describe the Colour Purple

Mar 28, 2022

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Hello, all you Wacky Waving Arm-Flailing Inflatable Tube People!

Do you have any favourite pranks and gags? Any go-to goofs and jokes? Do you sometimes make yourself laugh so hard you get light-headed? Then you’ve come to the right place, because…

This week’s Writing Group prompt is:

Describe the Colour Purple

RULES AND GUIDELINES BELOW!
Make sure you scroll down and read them if you haven’t! You may not be eligible if you don’t!

For this upcoming April Fool’s Day, we decided to go with a more silly prompt! One that is so vague it could literally be anything your goofy mind wants it to be!

You can describe what purple would taste like, for example. Is it crispy? Is it sweet and chewy? Dense? Maybe it’s even spicy? Maybe it tastes so good that you can’t stop eating it. Or maybe it tastes like all normal foods because you just like to put purple food colouring on everything you consume. Step aside, green eggs and ham! Purple pancakes and bacon are on the rise!

What about what it smells or feels like? It could be a gentle lavender scent on freshly pressed bedsheets! Or it could be a fluffy feeling as you whip your purple yams into mash! Grape scented shampoos, Catmint scented candles, or even just Amethyst Deceiver mushrooms on their own, there’s all kinds of scents and textures purple can have!

Purple can even sound like anything! Play a purple kazoo, or listen to a purple slinky folding on and on down a set of stairs! Smack some PlayDough, throw a rubber Sticky Hand against the wall, or shake your head with your Spring-Eyed Glasses on and listen to the weird sounds they make! Anything is possible!

So get out there and show us your silly side! If you want to write about the one time you were sure you actually met the One-Eyed, One-Horned, Flying Purple People Eater and lived to tell the tale, by all means do it! If you want to write about the kaleidoscope toy you had that was all blues and purples and silvers and made you dizzy, go ahead!

*Silly glasses, playdough, slinkys, sticky hands, and kazoos not included

—Shawna

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Remember, this is part of our weekly Writing Group stream! Submit a little piece following the rules and guidelines below, and there’s a chance your entry will be read live on stream! In addition, we’ll discuss it for a minute and give you some feedback.

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Use proper spelling, grammar, and syntax.

Your piece must be between 250-350 words (you can use this website to see your wordcount).

Use two paragraph breaks between each paragraph so that they have a proper space between them (press “enter” or “return” twice).

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Write something brand new; no re-submitting past entries or pieces written for other purposes

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Submit your entry in a comment on this post.

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Comments

137 responses to “Writing Group: Describe the Colour Purple”

Whistle

April 3, 2022

Synaesthenaught
Excerpt of a navigators story, Chapter 3: the colours between.

Beyond the usefulness of our addiction leading us through the stars, the politics, the endless needles and tending, it all fell away, sloughing of like dead skin once we were strapped by nervous eyes into the pilots seat.

Weightless, you feel little, but as the accelaration builds beyond acceptable limits you are pressed into the cushioned material by physics of the cosmos, that last vestiges of a reality bound by rules that make sense.
It chokes you, your breathe means something for a split second as the world splits apart, the colours of the universe lick your eyes with a lingering tongue, lapping at the edges of your conciousness.
Colours stretch across you before their teeth dig in, behind the ocipital cavity, where electrical input becomes something your brain understands, it skips the middleman of your pupils and begins to taste like danger, sound like freedom, feel like relief.
At this point the foaming vestiges of my breathe mean nothing, all you are slips between the spectrum of understanding, Purple means danger, a taste of prickly fruits and sumptious delight, like a poisoned wine it splashes through your rib cage and drips from your tongue.
But there are spaces between the purple, the gold of god, hiding amongst the darkness of the brain like a carefully scrawled painters mark, you can’t reach it, you shouldn’t reach for it.
You need to dance.
Slip along the floor of taste until you are bathed the warming rays, spinning and twirling to the sounds a thousand heartbeats thundering in anticpitation and fear set to the fireworks of colours with no name.

As the dance subsides you are left exhausted and sweaty, dropped into your harness as if thrown by god into the chair as your eyes makes sense again, the lingering touch of purple on the tongue rapidly fading from your heart.

We all have that knowing, shackled to our posts we are never freer.

And I have never met a navigator since in my travels that didn’t share that eye, the knowing eye of need, to escape to that lovers embrace again.

Reply
TheCatPiano

April 3, 2022

As Long As That Space Was Hopeful By TheCatPiano

What can i say about the colour purple? I could rant and say its the colour of royalty and magic but for me it is the shade of vomit mixed in with red wine and blood. its the colour of the daze of days of hangovers, the auras of the judgement of others.
Its a dear friends favourite colour and that shows why I don’t talk to him anymore.
Because he liked a purple a purple tint in his glasses as he watched us full our glasses.
In time I hope I think better of the man and less of this violet haze because the colour purple is the bad look Dionysus gives you when you’ve had too much, its the cutting feeling of knowing you can hurt others
Although its also the colour of midnight and goth girls, for other friends and Cheshire cats. The kind of blood a smoker bleeds rich with tar.

If space were a colour it would be purple as long as that space was hopeful.

The Ultra Violet lights of illegal raves illuminating all the mad hatters and pills Alice used to grow and shrink. In morning mass on a Sunday its the colour of the priests sash.

Reply
Spec

April 2, 2022

Blue Salvia By Spec

A sweet breeze flew through the field, carrying the gentle aroma of the flowers below. As it went on, two persons were standing in the middle of it, enjoying themselves with their baskets, collecting some of the blooms.

As time passed they seemed to have filled their hampers. Deciding to rest a little bit below the shadows of a magnificent tree. Once resting, one of the two decided to get closer, the girl appeared curious on what the other was doing, as for them, he was just saving one of the flowers on his blue journal. Once finished, she decided to ask the skeleton.

“Are you really just taking one? With the interest you were showing before I guessed you were some kind of merchant?” Asked the girl curiously looking at his book.

“I just needed one, there’s no reason to be greedy. Besides, your village can make better use of them than me. It’s not like I need medicine anymore.” Said the skeleton chuckling, very proud of his attempted joke, while the girl looked in disgust for a little bit.

“I see… and why do you need it? Are you a collector, perhaps?”

“You can say that, but I don’t collect flowers, I get their meanings.”

“Meanings?” Asked the girl with a confused look.

“In some cultures people used plants to convey feelings, they’re really important for them, and so they are for me.” His voice sounded more serious this time, and as he spoke, he looked fondly at the Salvia.

“Then, what does that one mean? Is it health perhaps?” She said proudly.

“For you it is, and it is as valid as the one I carry”, took a time to continue “For me it means I Think if You… Not you of course. But someone I care about”, He got embarrassed along the way.

“You’re cute.” She said laughing, “Common we gotta go back”.

“You’re right Lilac. I hope dinner’s ready, or not, I forgot that I can’t eat”.

“Again with that”. Said the annoyed Lilac as she picked up her basket.

Reply
1. Aracnarquista
  
  April 2, 2022
  
  I really like the idea of this tale. The discussion on how the same flower can have different uses as well as meanings to different people, the idea of collecting meaning (such an interesting and intriguing concept), the dreamy quality of it all. This is all really nice.
  
  The end felt a little rushed, though. The dialogue had more flow in the beginning. And I felt there was something a little bit repetitive with the structure of the description on the first two paragraphs: might be just an style thing, but I felt something odd with the amount of gerunds. A little bit too much for me.
  
  But the tale filled me with questions, and I really liked the interaction between Lilac and the somewhat word-cautious skeleton.
  
  Reply
  1. Spec
    
    April 2, 2022
    
    Thanks for the review. Regarding the first two it is a style thing, but I could try to improve upon it and use less gerunds.
    
    Regarding the ending, It is totally my fault for not writing a proper story that could fit in the world limit.
    
    Anyways, I’ll try to be better for the next one.
    
    Reply
Chrono

April 2, 2022

There was a flash by that wrought iron fence, darkness mixed into light, lavish like royalty. I saw her pass beside me. She walked with such an air of authority that I felt drawn in like a whirlpool had me caught within its reaching grasp. But it wasn’t just confidence, that cloak she wore, as smooth as night skies, the outside a dripping black as if ink and tenebrosity had mixed into one void. On the inside, a tantalizing color pulled at my eyes, hungry for such shine. It was as if the heavens above, cold and distant, had wrapped themselves in that silk. The color sang as if the very sight of it might claim her authority.

I was only a child. Still, that flash tears through my dreams. It cuts the monochromatic mirages of horrors and hate into ribbons. Those that, so often, plague me in my sleep without rest. Yes, such a vivid glow of beauty that I found myself searching to know as if it was a duty.

I checked in the markets, shady dealers ushering me in. I looked in the mirror, my pale visage telling nothing. I looked at this earth; the firm ground small comfort to my sole. I asked those around me, the gentle child and the one who stole. I searched within my lifetime, finding images of a kiss. Behind my dreams of madness, they did not give away. I asked a god but heard nothing, to my dismay. Great monsters and the little ones had not seen at all. Even the warm glow of the heavens’ light could hardly shine light upon that fall. I couldn’t bear the struggle and didn’t want the hate, so I sat down at that darkened gate.

And then, I felt a hand on my shoulder. I looked up and saw her face. Such cold eyes matched that cloaked color. Those eyes were violet; those eyes shone like no other.

Reply
1. Aracnarquista
  
  April 2, 2022
  
  Interesting… I do not know how much of it I want to read literally and how much I’d think works best metaphorically, and this ambiguity is not a bad thing. Particularly the fourth paragraph seemed like an almost biblical way of describing a multitude of experiences that couldn’t explain not point to that pivotal moment, and that sensation is very well conveyed…
  
  But I still don’t know it that initial vision was a vision or a metaphor to something else. Curious thing. And maybe there are some other narratives that are so dear and close to my heart that they color how I read yours, but it almost seems like the last paragraph is describing Death (specifically, it reminded me of the Death chapter of Neil Gaiman’s Endless Night – which is a good thing to be reminded of).
  
  Also, you seem to have forgot to give your tale a title… I truly wonder what a title could point at here…
  
  Reply
MasaCur

April 1, 2022

The Taste of Purple
By MasaCur (Reposted from the Private Group)

Miki wandered around Sakurami’s fourth floor, made up of labs for the science classes. She hadn’t spent much time up there.

One of the rooms had a bunch of students in it. In the far corner, a pink-haired girl was looking at a violet fluid in a test tube, a thermometer suspended in it.

Miki walked up to her. “Hi! Whatcha doing? I’m Miki, by the way.”

The girl glanced up at her, then grabbed a pair of folding safety goggles, and passed them to Miki.

“Oh, uh, thanks. But they don’t go with my hair,” Miki replied. She placed the goggles on the lab bench.

The girl narrowed her eyes, then grabbed the white board, and wrote furiously on it.

I’m recording the temperature of this solution, she wrote. It displays an amazing endothermic reaction to oxygen. .

“Oh! You poor dear. You must be deaf!” Miki exclaimed.

The girl frowned and wiped the board clean, then wrote on it again.

I’m not deaf. I have social mutism.

Miki gasped in surprise. “You’re a mutant? What’s your power?”

The girl glared at Miki. She was only drawn away when her phone beeped. She glanced at it, then wrote the temperature displayed on the thermometer.

Miki got bored. She saw a flask with more of the violet liquid in it.

“Making a new flavor of soft drink?” Miki asked. “Can I try?”

Without waiting, Miki popped the flask open, and took a sip of it. Then a swallow.

“What are you doing?” the girl screamed.

Everyone looked over at them.

“Oh my gosh! Me drinking this gave you the ability to speak!” Miki said with glee.

“You don’t know what’s in that!” the girl shouted. “It could have been poisonous!”

“It tastes like purple.”

The girl stared at Miki in disbelief.

“Purple isn’t a flavor; it’s a color!”

“No, it tastes like how purple looks.” Miki shook her head. “I thought you science types were smart.”

The girl clenched her jaw and glared at Miki. On the white board, in large letters, she wrote, Get out!

Reply
1. Aracnarquista
  
  April 1, 2022
  
  I so feel for the pink-haired girl! Inattentive people can be quite unnerving (and an overall hazard to themselves and everyone else), and trying to deal with it as well as with other difficulties… might be exasperating.
  
  Funny thing, in the university I studied, there was something we called color juice in the restaurants. It was supposed to be juice (surely), but the taste of it was so artificial and so far from the fruits they were supposed to emulate that we assigned their colors as the description of their taste. So, strangely, I could really remember how purple juice tasted (a lot better than juice of yellow, and less flavorless than juice of red).
  
  I think there is an excessive punctuation at the end of the first couple of sentences written in the white board. Small detail.
  
  A very interesting little tale.
  
  Reply
KINGDOM

April 1, 2022

Birth of a Colour.

Anua crouched nearby cautiously, an intense fear in her wide eyes. I felt the same fear in myself, the deep and resounding beat of my heart. We should have never came so close to the end of the world, so close to the tower that we could make out on the horizon. Yet, we continued to crawl up on our haunches to the ominous thing, wary of its presence. It was like nothing I had ever seen before; it was impossible not to see, impossible not to make out….it was different.

Against the everlasting grey and white foliage and ground, the deathly dark sky, the object glowed a new colour, a colour which didn’t belong in this world of ours. For as long as anyone could remember the everything had been shades of grey, black, or white, no exceptions. There had been stories though, pasted down by grandmothers, stories of the colours of the Goblin Priest, for it was he who had owned them.

For centuries the Goblin had allowed his colours to run wild in the world, filling all with bright and beautiful sights and radiance. These colours were stored in ceramic jars at night, in a tower at the end of the world. The Goblin let the world be lit during day, and let his tower be lit by night. The tribes of the land had worshipped him as a god, a deity who gave their world meaning.

Then came the day that the colours were withdrawn, when someone had tried to steal them from the Goblin. That someone had been a young warlock, and in punishment their soul had been turned into a new colour, a colour to be locked away in that tower at the end of the world.

I knew all the stories, the tales, and that knowledge made what lay before us even more frightening, it was a colour, and not just any colour…it was the colour purple. It was said the colour of purple was the colour of the warlock’s soul, the colour that had never seen the light.

Anua beckoned to me to come closer, and I fought a battle inside, we shouldn’t have been so close to the end of the world, so close to the tower. But my curiosity won out, and soon we were so near the colour that we could feel it’s presence, the presence of the Goblin Priest’s power. In the dark alcove of foliage, we found the colour purple, and in that same alcove the Goblin found us…and two new colours were added to his collection.

Reply
1. Aracnarquista
  
  April 1, 2022
  
  Oh, I really liked the ambience, world-building and concept of this one. Really interesting piece. I found it a little bizarre that the narrator is able to differentiate the colors and know that he is perceiving purple if he had no experience of other colors before, but maybe the association of a color derived from a soul might have an impact in perception.
  
  Wait, is all color here derived from other souls? That might be the case… interesting and frightening implications abound!
  
  I believe there is a small mistake in one sentence: “For as long as anyone could remember [the] everything had been shades of grey, black, or white, no exceptions.” I don’t think an article before everything here is correct, but it is a minor thing.
  
  Great story!
  
  Reply
Hastaw

April 1, 2022

Purple?

By: Hastaw

“The color purple? Really?!” I complain out loud. How am I supposed to make a story out of that?!

I sit on this prompt. “Maybe I could write about a purple flower that will give a color-blind girl the ability to see colors?”

The next thing I know, I find a story on the tale foundry about a colorblind girl contemplating the color purple. Grand.

I know! I could write about a girl who has synesthesia-

Again, someone beats me to it.

What does it take? This guy cannot be serious about this prompt. Maybe I’m only mad because I can’t think of an original idea.

Time to return to the scene of the prompt!

The person who gave me this prompt said something about April fools day?! Alright, let’s do this!

I will write about this dang color, even though it’s my least favorite color. I’m going to take this anecdote and joke even harder!

I write about how I came to this conclusion. I fight for this story, Fighting for a story that doesn’t feel like a generic copy of someone else’s work. I stop for the night, dinner waiting for me upstairs.

A few days later, I think about whether or not I want to post this ”purple story.” This anecdote features me more than purple. I love my stories and want to give them more character.

“I think I can settle for this,” the voice in my head begs me to redo it; I can’t abandon the deadline, however.

“I kinda made it!” Take that, Tale Foundry! I wrote something that has no monotony and probably makes no sense. I don’t like how this story ends. Maybe next time I can provide my story with more attentiveness.

Reply
1. RubyFlash15
  
  April 1, 2022
  
  I totally know how you feel. I haven’t been a part of this writing group for very long, but the majority of the prompts that have come up since I’ve been here I haven’t written for because of a couple of reasons. That being said, I really like how you continued to pursue this prompt even when you weren’t entirely sure of what to do, something I’ll try to remember when making stories for the Tale Foundry in the future.
  
  Reply
2. The Missing Link
  
  April 1, 2022
  
  This is a really fun take on the prompt, especially for April Fools Day. Meta prompt stories aren’t new, but I don’t think I’ve read one about literally writing the prompt before.
  I can definitely sympathize with the difficulty writing this one. It ended up being really hard to do anything with, but you found something that worked.
  
  Reply
3. Aracnarquista
  
  April 1, 2022
  
  “All prompts are valid, providing the rotes to trail them are varied”
  I liked the meta-approach to the prompt, but I think, maybe because of it, there are some elements that I don’t think I can have enough distance to comment on a story perspective. So sorry if some of the things I have to say is not exactly story-building material, but more opinions on writing in general, and writing in a community of writers in particular…
  
  “Someone beats me to it” – Well, is that a problem? (The line and the feel of it works really well in the story, but I think it warrants a little discussion on how this happens when it happens.) All art is derivative, and the same idea can shoot branches to the most unexpected places. In a sense, working with prompts makes it more likely than not. If you’d have a particular spin for something that was, in a sense, already done… that’s no reason not to do it.
  
  Once again, it works for the story, but the meta quality of it made me obsess a bit over this sentiment…
  
  Anyway, it was a nice use of the prompt, and there is something to be said about the honesty of saying, in the story end, that one does not like how it is ending.
  
  Reply
Karl Aegnor

March 31, 2022

Peanut Gallery
By Karl Aegnor

“And I tells ya, it tore through the wall of the frigate like a tin can. Mind you, this was no mining ship, this was seven inches of bona-fide Runzarian steel, reinforced and armored to boot.”

It was a late night in the depot, and the old-timer was at it again. Ernest let the geezer talk on, it was something of a rite of passage for the new guys. Some of the story was even true. Old Phil had been in the service before turning his talents to asteroid-mining. A less hazardous profession, but not by much.

“I reckon I didn’t see the half of whatever it was, but all the same I’ll never forget the sight…” Phil seemed to grow taller where he sat, his gesticulations growing exaggerated to match. He was in rare form tonight. Ernest stood up, preparing the drinks behind the ramshackle bar.

“An immense shape, the limbs that tore through jutting out at impossible angles, but most of all I remember color of its strange, sinewy flesh… A purplish-blue, but it had a bite to it, if you take my meaning.” Ernest chuckled as he wiped a sooty glass, they never did ‘take his meaning’, and therein lay the rub.

“I’m afraid I couldn’t tell it any better. Not with a dry mouth, at least.” He added mischievously. There was usually one who would humor him, either through curiosity or simple bemusement. Sure enough, one of the lads called for a pour.

***

“Don’t know, Earnie.” Phil shook his head. “Thought I had me a captive audience there.”

Ernest smiled as he corked the bottle. “Indeed. It’s a sad night when you can only swindle one of the youngsters.”

Phil did not return the expression “Nights like this, it’s not quite worth the nightmares.” The old man always said things like that, and sometimes Ernest half believed him. He sent the man off, and prepared to welcome the next ship.

Having heard the all the war stories countless times, he had to admit. The space-beast always stuck with him. Something about how he described the not-quite-purple.

Reply
1. Makokam
  
  April 1, 2022
  
  I like this. A lot.
  
  I can see the “had a bite to it” being a sort of joke about how the beast took chunks out of the ship, or it could be something to do with radiation, or how light reflected off it. Sort of opalescent except purple not silver. Or maybe something else entirely.
  
  But I think the thing I like about it is that everybody thinks he just making stuff up for the fun it, that this is his Go-To story, and that he even plays it up like that… But in the end he seems to be dead serious and the horror of the experience cracks through.
  
  Reply
2. Aracnarquista
  
  April 1, 2022
  
  Love how open to interpretation that end is, and also how it is a story that also delves on how stories are told and what makes them tick. There is a not-quite-clear-cut-conclusion that works like the not-quite-purple, and these parallelisms are really a blast to savor.
  
  You got an audience here, Karl!
  
  Reply
3. Amaunator
  
  April 1, 2022
  
  Great stuff. Strong writing! I can almost taste the liquor.
  
  I was a bit thrown there when Phil started talking to Ernest. I thought Phil was still continuing his story. Maybe you could put another white line there to separate things visually?
  
  Reply
  1. Karl Aegnor
    
    April 1, 2022
    
    Yeah, there was a break there in my word processor, it didn’t copy over for some reason.
    
    Reply
4. The Missing Link
  
  April 1, 2022
  
  There’s a really fun humor to this. I like how much the personality of the characters comes through in the dialogue, and an old man telling old war stories is very relatable. I was a bit confused by the contradiction of, “there was usually one,” and “It’s a sad night when you can only swindle one.” Is Ernie exaggerating or is one the usual number?
  
  Reply
Owen

March 31, 2022

So blue was sitting there, right? And then there was red, okay? And then they combined, you see? And then, this is the craziest part, they became purple. Cool right?

Reply
1. Makokam
  
  April 1, 2022
  
  “Fu-” “Fu-”
  “-sion…” “-sion…”
  
  “HAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!”
  
  Reply
Jeanne A

March 31, 2022

I saw the prompt’s title and had a great idea for a “Color Out of Space” tribute (the only Lovecraft story I’ve ever liked), and then I saw it was an April Fool’s Day prompt, so I’ve got nothing.

Reply
1. Aracnarquista
  
  March 31, 2022
  
  Go for it! April’s Fool spirit is not being bound by the norms of whatever it was that normally constrains one, and although some of us took the opportunity to write silly stories with a prompt that was chosen in a silly way, this is by no means the only way to do it. There are some very serious tales submitted already, and the beauty of any prompt is the range of possibilities it can reach. It would be amazing to see your Color out of Space inspired story here!
  
  Reply
2. Matheus Ribeiro de Assis
  
  March 31, 2022
  
  Jeanne, you can merge both! If you’re acquainted with Lovecraft, you might know Nyarlathotep – The Crawling Caos! He is a trickster and purple is a colour that suits him very well, I’ve seen a lot of artwork of him that uses this color.
  
  You could write about a dark grim prank he made involving some purple ooze, for example…
  
  There is plenty of room to exercise your creativity here. Write, please!
  
  Reply
Amaunator

March 31, 2022

A Summer’s Breeze
by Joris Lemoine

A frosty nip shook the trees and rattled the fruit-laden branches together.

“Excuse you!” said Peach, blushing with indignation.

“What?” huffed Plum.

“I happen to bruise easily, you know. No need to get rough.”

“Rough? That was the wind, you windbag. And I can imagine that you would bruise easily with skin like that, all fuzzy and pale, all sunset and no sun, all lustre and no muster.”

“You… you…” spluttered Peach. “You should talk! You’re nought but a bruise, the sight of a late night in the rough part of town, a stain on your own honour! I won’t be impeached by a lout like you!”

“Bah, you’re full of guff. All that spit and venom, feeling better’n the likes of me.” Plum pulled in its gut. “I’ve got some complexion, at least: I’ve got a full head of steam in me, I’m night and day, I’m king and pauper. I taste like sin on Saturday nights and cranberries in the morning. I’m not some fusty old mealworm like you!”

“Well, I never!” Peach was trembling on his stem, stumped into stillness. “All that gaudy peacock strutting will do you no good, you plump rascal. We’ll see who gets bitten first.”

As Plum and Peach harangued each other the wind picked up. It was an unseasonal nor’wester and it plucked Plum plumb from his perch.

“Hah!” Peach yelled after him, “serves you right, you overripe troglodyte!”

In among the verdant grass and sage-green moss, Plum leaked out to the delight of passing ants.

“Oooh, Gus, look’it!”

“Wha’?” said the pheromone scent marker of the second ant with a whiff of mycelia and wood-rot.

“Issa nursery-sugar-sweet!”

“Nah, Gus, iz crestfallen termites-attacking-th’anthill.”

Things were looking bleak for Plum. In his final moments, he remembered the softening of flesh, the scarlet overtaking the chartreuse, the sappy loneliness and the longing to dance free on the breeze as sunbeams brought out the dignity in him. It all leaked out onto the chestnut soil, and a chitinous army swarmed his body redolent with pithy notes.

Reply
1. Aracnarquista
  
  March 31, 2022
  
  That’s amazing word-weaving here! The banter is incredibly interesting and conveys a whole range of fruity experiences. And then the flip to follow the pheromone-and-scent-signals exchange of the ants, prefaced by a very visual description of Plum’s fall and eventual fate… a whole sensory experience enveloped in a very well-written and well-paced little tale. Amazing work!
  
  Reply
  1. Amaunator
    
    March 31, 2022
    
    Thanks Aracnarquista. I feel like I sort of missed the objective of describing purple itself, or doing it a bit more synaesthetically. So instead I went for the comic exchange. These prompts really do keep you on your toes :D.
    
    Reply
2. Karl Aegnor
  
  March 31, 2022
  
  Oh, the wordplay is divine in this piece. How better to describe a color than poetical language and anthropomorphism? ‘All sunset and no sun’, ‘Taste like sin on a Saturday night’, For such an off the wall prompt, I am impressed by the the skillful use of language and surprising amount of story you have managed to integrate into this piece. Very, very well done.
  
  Reply
3. KINGDOM
  
  April 1, 2022
  
  Really love this short story, it takes something out of the box, the quarreling of two fruits, and turns it into something funny and also a little dark at the end. The ant’s voices are also an interesting take on speach. Great job!
  
  Reply
The Missing Link

March 30, 2022

Seeing Purple
By The Missing Link

Purple was the color of her eyeliner the day I met her, and the color of the flowers I gave her. They say you don’t need love in a marriage, but I always thought it’d help.

Purple was the color of her jewels on the day of our wedding, comparing almost to the beauty in her eyes.

Purple was the color of the veil on father’s casket and the crowns my wife and I wore the same day, a beautiful spiral of red and blue to symbolize the union of our kingdoms.

Purple was the color of my son’s first shirt on the happiest day of my life. When I held him in my arms, I felt truly connected to my wife. This wasn’t just some political alliance. It was real.

Purple was the color that littered the ground the day the war began, washed in black and red, and my dear son had made himself a hero and a killer. As the fighting raged on, the purple in the town fell away, and I feared my son would fall with them.

Purple circled my wife’s eyes, but she wouldn’t say what was wrong. She seemed to avoid me a lot more those days, and I was always tired. I wanted to fix things for her, but how could I if she wouldn’t let me.

Purple was the color of the wine that stained the floor, stained the walls… stained her dress. Purple was the color of her face when I came to, and so too would be mine when my son was through.

Reply
1. Aracnarquista
  
  March 30, 2022
  
  I will be completely honest, I didn’t quite understood the ending (I’m not a native English speaker, so sometimes some nuances fly me by; it might be that). But even without that, I really liked the effect the build up of the story have.
  
  I like how complex and full of meaning (deep meanings, and also conflicting meanings) purple is here. Sure, purple can socially signify a lot of things and be associated with a whole bunch of stuff, but here you are weaving lived experience in the association, and the thread of memories tinged purple makes the meaning a lot more… well, meaningful.
  
  I can even imagine that as a short animation (the written form certainly is the best way to convey the complexity of it, but the tale is very visual and dynamic… so other media could also work!).
  
  Well, a really good tale (and that’s even if I’m missing the conclusion!).
  
  Reply
  1. The Missing Link
    
    March 30, 2022
    
    Thanks for the feedback. I kept the wording on the conclusion a bit vague, but the general idea is the king turned to alcohol with all the stress in his life and ended up killing his wife during a drunk blackout.
    
    Reply
    1. Aracnarquista
      
      March 30, 2022
      
      Oh, so I wasn’t exactly on the spot in my interpretation, but also wasn’t all that far off, hehehehe. But what I said was quite true: it works even without me first getting it, and it works even better now.
      
      Reply
2. Amaunator
  
  March 31, 2022
  
  Hmm, I like the rhythm of this, and I like the idea of it, one colour running like a guiding theme through an entire life.
  
  But here and there you could either have used a bit more elision, or some elaboration.
  
  The first paragraph, for instance. I would have cut it off after “help”.
  
  In the second paragraph, you have “the color of the color”, which isn’t very descriptive. You could do with describing the jewels themselves more. Any description you give the jewels would further enhance how beautiful the queen’s eyes are.
  
  In the fourth paragraph, the sentences sort of fall flat. I’m not sure if you’re talking about the birth of the son, or merely one day in the life when he happens to wear his first shirt? And it feels sort of weird to hear the narrator declare his love for his wife in this roundabout way: I loved her because she gave me a son; this was more than a political union… On the one hand, it does sound like the king is still thinking about things strategically, but on the other, it also sort of tells us that his love hasn’t quite outgrown those thoughts.
  
  I quite like the ending. We’ve talked about it before on the discord. I’m not sure the rhyme is needed. The rhythm of the whole piece does a lot of your work for you already. Though I believe you might be able to improve it even more by using (in the future) a kind of rhythmic crescendo: so each paragraph would be bigger than the last, except for the last, which would be short and pithy.
  
  Reply
  1. The Missing Link
    
    March 31, 2022
    
    That was the idea for the fourth paragraph, but I was also really struggling to find something purple that’s significant about a newborn. Every description of his wife focuses on physical things because part of the problem is that their son is the only genuine connection they have.
    
    Reply
    1. Amaunator
      
      March 31, 2022
      
      Hmm, most newborns are born squalling and red-faced because they have had to sit upside down in the birth canal for a while, so the blood rushes to their head. You could have probably cast that in a purple light.
      
      Reply
3. Jeanne A
  
  March 31, 2022
  
  I might be reading it very wrong… I thought the Queen went to talk her son about the dark, violent path he was on, and he or he and his men beat her (if not worse). She was going to reveal it to the king, and her son drugged the two of them and strangled her to keep her quiet, and now the king has figured it out, as his son is about to kill him.
  
  Reply
  1. The Missing Link
    
    March 31, 2022
    
    That wasn’t the idea, but that’s definitely how the son’s political enemies would spin it.
    
    Reply
4. Matheus Ribeiro de Assis
  
  March 31, 2022
  
  Definitely I want to see this story being read saturday. I have nothing to really critique on this story, I have only a word of advice: you should keep on this path, don’t try to overelaborate your text. The text must only guide the scene and imagery in the readers brain, this is what makes literature so great and immersive. The story must be a sand box for the reader to fill in the gaps. And the more you master this, the better will be the readers experience.
  
  When someone is reading, he is already expecting to be entertained, there is an inclination to fill the gaps with something that he will like. If you overuse adjectives, this will take the magic of imagination away and will hinder the flow of the reading. Keep it just as you are doing and you will be great!
  
  Reply
5. Makokam
  
  April 1, 2022
  
  That last part certainly took a turn.
  
  Reply
6. Matthew R. Wright
  
  April 1, 2022
  
  All the times I saw purple in my life. An interesting concept for a flash fiction. It reads almost like a poem, free verse. It’s well executed and the mixture of the happy and the sad creates this beautiful realism to it as not all moments where purple is noticed would be happy ones. Very well written. Well done.
  
  Reply
Matthew R. Wright

March 30, 2022

In the Possession of Crystals
By Matthew R. Wright

Amethyst. It had started out as a joke, something stupid to be discarded. An idea birthed from nights of excess drink and deficient thought. It should had stayed a bad piece of wordplay.

The joke had been along the lines of a shower-thought, something about the potentiality of snorting crystals the same way you’d snort crystal meth, if crushed down into fine powder.

You can see how the word-association could allow for such middle-of-the-road comedy, but the idea itself stuck. With his impulsive nature, it was only a matter of time.

In the multimedia player of his mind, Rohan played the scenario out uncompressed and unfiltered: mortar and pestle – a single amethyst crystal – eminence quartz ground against pestle and polished bowl – shades of scarlet and azure mix and blend over a lengthy timelapse – excruciatingly manual –
broken down fine – lined straight with razor-blades – rolled up twenties – polymer over paper.

Drunk from the pre-drink, he assumed the high would be similar to any stimulant; amphetamine; MDMA; coke; ket. Too much of a coward to try anything real. Ruled by the fear of being caught in possession.

“No-one’s ever gone to prison for a bag of crystals.”

Prepped, all had gone as intended. Rohan completed his first and only line of amethyst. 8.5cm long by 0.3cm wide. Deep inhale – Irritated cartilage – coughing fit. He’d lined up some tourmaline, kunzite and rose quartz to try, should the kick…lack. They wouldn’t see use. Rohan, laid back on his couch, eyes lids heavy, tongue dry. He necked the remainder of his Coors light and stared off to the ceiling waiting for the rush.

Hot. Light-headed. Rohan passed out. It would take three hours for him to die.

Razor-sharp magenta dust penetrated his lungs – it coated the linings – cut the flesh of the throat – closed up the airways. His respiratory system failing to asphyxia.

Crystals can do many things; release blocked energy, transform auras, heal supposedly. What they can’t do is get you high. Rohan didn’t know this. Rohan used Google.

Rohan’s dead now.

Don’t be like Rohan.

Reply
1. Aracnarquista
  
  March 30, 2022
  
  Amazing one. Nice build up of expectation, and nice use of the expectation created. I really liked the word-play (the multimedia player of the mind) and the whole matter-of-fact-ly way the story progresses. Really got me thinking on a more fantastical rote, but I was very pleasantly surprised with the mundanity of the effect of such a whimsical experiment.
  
  Very well-paced and written. Loved it.
  
  Reply
  1. Matthew R. Wright
    
    March 31, 2022
    
    Thank you for the great comment, I appreciate the feedback.
    
    Reply
2. Amaunator
  
  March 31, 2022
  
  It’s clear you knew exactly what you were going for. The only thing I can remark on are some typos that ruin the flow:
  
  “It should had stayed as a bad piece of wordplay” : have stayed; and I think the “as” is superfluous here.
  
  “With that impulsive nature” : not a typo, but more of an intention thing: “With his impulsive nature”; using “his” sounds more humanizing, closer to the character.
  
  “Mortar and Pestle” : why are these capitalized? There really is no need. The same goes for “Amethyst”, and “Amphetamine”, “Coke” and “Ket”.
  
  “similar of any stimulant” : similar to
  
  “his first and only lines of Amethyst” : “line”
  
  “to try should the kick lack” : your telegram-style confused me a little here. I would advise: “he’d lined up … just in case.” You might want to add something back in about how he fretted about the kick being too slight.
  
  “Rohan laid back on his couch – eyes lids heavy – tongue dry.” : the problem here is “laid”. It could work, if you turn all of these phrases into dependent clauses: “Rohan, laid back on his couch, eyelids heavy, tongue dry.”
  But if you want it to be a main clause – which you grammatically should, but that I don’t mind about -, then it should be “Rohan lay back…”
  
  While I like the pithy ending, Google might itself have been the culprit here. Or rather, I’m pretty sure that there are enough people who draw the wrong conclusions exactly from doing a surface level Google search.
  
  Reply
  1. Matthew R. Wright
    
    March 31, 2022
    
    Thank you Amaunator, these are all great suggestions and I have adjusted the piece accordingly. Thank you for wanting to improve it, editors are such an important part of the process. Cheers – Matt
    
    Reply
3. Karl Aegnor
  
  March 31, 2022
  
  This gave me an unexpected, but good laugh. I love the voice of this piece, especially near the beginning. It feels almost like a stream of consciousness narration as one looks over the aftermath, I can almost hear it read in Rod Sterling’s voice. And, as I have mentioned, the sudden turn-around and abruptness of the ending rounds this piece off with a darkly comedic flair. Well done.
  
  Reply
  1. Matthew R. Wright
    
    April 1, 2022
    
    Thank you for comment, I’m happy that it made you laugh. Can never tell if what I write will make a person laugh or cringe. Good result today. Thank you.
    
    Reply
ThatWeirdFish

March 30, 2022

On the Topic of Aliens
By ThatWeirdFish, reviewed by Alex

Sarah felt sorry for Subject 5. All he did was sit in his containment cell while researchers fussed over his more intriguing… brother? They called themselves brothers. She shook herself from the linguistic rabbit hole and walked up to the cell on her lunch break.

“Hey, fiver, wanna talk?” She asked with a casual smile, garnering a look from her co-worker cleaning the control panel on a nearby table. “What? He’s probably bored.”

“How can you tell?” He said back with a frown. “No, wait, don’t tell me… his word choice.”

Sarah rolled her eyes. “His body language and the fact everyone is focused on Subject 4. I bet he’s lonely too.”

“Do you have to make friends with everything?” He grumbled, scrubbing a bit harder than necessary.

“Since I’m training to become an ambassador and translator, yes.” Sarah crossed her arms. “Gotta problem with that?”

“They’re not human. They’re just animals that can talk.”

“And pilot a spaceship, Jerrod!” Sarah exclaimed, throwing her arms out. “Don’t tell me that isn’t the greatest discovery of all time. New life, new civilizations, new… everything!”

Jerrod scowled as he roughly gathered up his cleaning supplies, leaving his job half-finished. “You visionaries are going to doom us all.” He left the room with heavy footsteps.

“Or save us!” She called after him before turning back to Subject 5. “Sorry about that. People are so stuck-”

“What… is purple?” The alien shifted, his back still to her.

“I’m sorry?” Sarah blinked.

“Purple. I hear it used to describe me frequently. What is it?”

Sarah’s eyes widened. He is more fluent than she thought! And recognizes himself! Sentience! This is a great discovery! She hastily pulled out her notepad and began jotting down notes.

“It’s a color. One that the spots on your skin glow in. How do you do that anyway? Is it a choice, or do you just do it without thinking?”

“… Color?” Subject 5 asked and slowly turned to face her.

“It’s an attribute that distinguishes different objects that… we…” Her voice trailed off as she met his blank eyes. “… can see.”

Reply
1. Aracnarquista
  
  March 30, 2022
  
  Quite interesting [think] piece. There is something very difficult to do in conveying “alien-ness” while also imbuing the alien character with the means to communicate with us, and I really liked the way you did it here. Sounds like 5 can get the function of the concepts, but not what is the signified experience of it. That is a bit more alien to me than just not being able to share a language, truth be told. I got a sense of what Freud called the unheimlich – that what is familiar and yet utterly alien. Very good story.
  
  Also, I couldn’t help but find amusing the line “They’re just animals that can talk” being uttered as if that distinguished Subject 5 from a human, hehehe.
  
  Reply
2. Amaunator
  
  March 31, 2022
  
  All I can say is “gotta” should probably be “got a” here.
  
  Otherwise, this is really well-written. I have many questions about this setting. Great job!
  
  Reply
3. Spec
  
  April 2, 2022
  
  Sarah is going places and I am all for it. The way you wrote the dialogues and body language is like fine wine. Really sold me their character. And your use of the sci-fi environment was spot on. Enough detail to understand what’s happening and focus on the MC’s.
  
  Also, I got a question, is the alien similar to a fish? Because I can’t avoid that thought.
  
  Reply
Lee Strangely

March 30, 2022

Mandy’s Interview (The Minds)
by Lee Strangely

The woman raised up yet another card, its face pointed away from Mandy. Mandy closed her eyes with a wince as she put thought into her response.

“The wavy lines?”

The woman put the card down and pretended to jot something down on a sheet of paper. She then looked at the wall behind her. From behind the one-way glass the other two men debated.

“She’s a dud,” Mover declared.

“She’s just latent,” Thinker argued, “we need another test.”

“Reader has been testing her for hours. If she can’t find anything in her, then there isn’t anything there.”

“Do you think I just make these things up? Have I ever been wrong?”

“No, but…”

“So what makes now any different?”

Thinker fidgeted constantly as his eyes darted around the room. He planned his next move. To Mover’s shock he then bolted out of the room…

He then entered the other room, motioning for Reader to leave. She promptly, and begrudgingly, did.

“Hello Mandy.”

“Um, hi.” she responded, a little confused.

“If you’ll allow, I’d like to ask you a few questions.”

“Fine, I guess…”

“Alright, what does air feel like?”

“What?”

“What does air feel like?”

“I don’t know.”

“How long is soon?”

“W-what do you mean?” she asked while starting to get a little flustered.

Thinker lobbed pointless question after pointless question at Mandy, and she became more irritated with each one.

As Reader entered the other room, Mover pondered, “What the heck is he trying to accomplish?”

“He’s trying to provoke her.”

“Oh no…”

Back in the other room Mandy was boiling over.

“Describe the color purple,” Thinker demanded.

“How!?” Mandy shouted. Suddenly, just as she replied, Thinker and his chair flew backward and into the glass with a hard THUD.

With a brief sigh of pain, he then looked toward his colleagues behind him with a grin, “She’s a mover.”

Reply
1. Alex
  
  March 30, 2022
  
  This is an interesting universe, which I don’t think I ever really noticed in your stories. I’m guessing the titles of Thinker, Reader and Mover are ways of describing different kinds of psychic powers, which is a really interesting magic/power set. I’d love to see more of this.
  
  I like the idea of a Thinker, Mover and Reader, all interrogating one person at the same time. If they are all psychics, with different power sets, then they can compliment each other perfectly, especially when faced with someone they don’t know. I wonder what attracted them to Mandy in the first place. Were they keeping an eye out for potential psychics?
  
  Great piece!
  
  Reply
2. Aracnarquista
  
  March 30, 2022
  
  There is an element that might be intentional but might also be coincidental that amuses me to no end… the questions Thinker are producing sound a lot like koans. So, sure, they can annoy one, but they also might make them change the way they think, open them to another thought pattern. Mandy’s response implies the former, but I just can’t discard a mix of both things happening here.
  
  Nice one!
  
  Reply
3. Amaunator
  
  March 31, 2022
  
  This is a fun story. Some notes:
  
  “So what makes now any different?” : “this” instead of “now”, maybe?
  
  “He then entered the other room.” : I would change “He” to “Thinker”, so the action is clearer. And you can drop the “then”. It’s not really necessary.
  
  Other than that, this is top notch. Keep writing!
  
  Reply
Makokam

March 30, 2022

Thought Experiment (Chronicles of The Dragon)
By Makokam

Jostica sat in their headquarters’ living room, studying her spell book.

With a FOOMPH Blaise was leaning over the back of the couch to look at what she was reading. “I don’t know how you can understand this stuff.”

“I studied really hard for several years” she said, as she flipped to another page.

Blaise made a face like her lemonade was just lemon. “I still can’t believe you basically put yourself through school while you were ALREADY in school.”

“Well I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t, so leave me alone.”

Blaise hopped over the back of the couch and plopped down next to Jostica. “What are you doing anyway?”

Jostica sighed. “I’m trying to fix these in my mind so I can cast them easier.”

“How’s it going?”

“Difficult.”

Blaise sat next to her in silence, kicking her feet, for almost a full minute this time. “Is magic that hard to learn?”

Jostica dropped her hands into her lap and stared through the opposite wall.

She took a deep breath. “Magic is complicated. Memorizing the symbols is hard, but if that was all it was more people could do it. But you have to keep what you want to happen in mind at the same time. You have to be able to see reality a different way and then make it that way.”

Blaise thought hard about that for a moment. “Are you saying I need to have a good imagination?”

“That’s one way to put it, yes.”

“I have that!”

“Okay. Describe the color purple.”

“What? How do you describe a color?”

“Use your imagination.”

“Purple is fire and ice.” They both jumped and turned to see Thomas leaning against the wall. “It’s Temperance. Nobility. Its opposition coming together.” He paused. “Why are we describing colors?”

Jostica, grinning broadly, said, “Just an experiment.”

Reply
1. Marx
  
  March 30, 2022
  
  Oh bull, Thomas! You did not come up with that off the top of your head. I’ve been thinking of that for days. Days, I tell you!
  
  Seriously though, this is a great story. I love the whole back and forth with Blaise and Jostica, where Jostica is clearly trying to focus and Blaise is clearly not gonna let that happen. Blaise is the speedster, if I remember correctly? Lol I think I pictured her as teleporting but that’s easily because FOOMPH made me think of BAMF, not that it overly matters for this story.
  
  As we’ve talked about before, I do like the way magic works here when you’re trying to explain it to the muggles. And that Thomas of all people easily does the experiment is just glorious in it’s own right for those in the know. Great take on the prompt!
  
  Reply
  1. Makokam
    
    April 1, 2022
    
    I legit came up with this idea because I was thinking of the prompt and what Thomas said popped into my head. So yes, yes he did. lol Whether it’s a good description can be debated though.
    
    I know the whole “Hyperactive/impatient Speedster” has been done to death, but it feels appropriate for things like this. But I like trying to build their relationships and make them something close to friends at least and not just teammates.
    And yes Blaise IS the speedster. And both sounds come from a sudden rush of air, kinda, so that’s fair. lol
    
    Honestly, every time I explain magic I’m trying my best to explain it to myself as well. lol And Thomas is a genius in his own right, and I feel like to make the crazy mad-science tech that exists in a superhero world you have to be able to think creatively to make something do what nobody ever thought it could do before.
    
    Reply
2. Josie
  
  March 30, 2022
  
  Ok! Smart and descriptive Thomas = smart and descriptive you. Do pink! lol
  
  I sincerely wish this was a whole book I could sit with on a cool night snuggled in my blankets.
  
  Reply
  1. Makokam
    
    April 1, 2022
    
    Pink is love and friendship. It’s peaceful and fluffy. Passion dialed down.
    
    I intend to make this a whole book someday so just keep prodding me and it’ll get done eventually. lol
    
    Reply
3. Aracnarquista
  
  March 30, 2022
  
  Is the way magic work in this story akin to Vancian magic? Seems like it, but I am not sure how similar it is. Anyway, I need to ask, because a really liked the way Jostica explained it (I’m not really a fan of Vancian-inspired magic systems, but here I really liked how it was phrased… seemed a lot more awe-inspiring and well, magical, than I usually think it of). Thomas’s description is also amazing. These kind of thought experiments could be incredibly interesting to keep accompanying! I wonder if Blaise wouldn’t get a least a little interested in spell-studying after that!
  
  Reply
  1. Makokam
    
    April 1, 2022
    
    I had to look up “Vancian magic”. But now that I have I can safely say it’s not, but I see the resemblance.
    I like to think of my magic as being similar to programming, with the spells being the code. So she’s not trying to “prepare” the spells, she’s just trying to plain ol’ remember them so she can cast them easier, and more effectively.
    It’s complicated, and I’m doing my best to work out the kinks of it, but someone could theoretically create and cast a spell on the fly if they knew enough about what they were doing.
    
    I’m really glad you liked the description. it popped into my head and inspired the whole story.
    
    Blaise is interested, but has no interest in devoting her time to learning it when she can already move at supersonic speeds.
    
    Reply
4. KINGDOM
  
  April 1, 2022
  
  Amazing work, it really drew me in. Nice take on magic, btw love how Thomas just walks in at the end and perfectly describes the colour purple, guessing he’s probably really good at magic, since he’s got a good imagination?
  
  Reply
  1. Makokam
    
    April 2, 2022
    
    Thank you!
    
    Thomas doesn’t know magic at all, actually. But he is the type of guy who could build power armor in a cave from a box of scraps.
    
    Reply
Danny Gilhooley

March 30, 2022

Purple Squad (Color Guard)
By Danny Gilhooley

The barracks door opened, and a kid walked in. Everyone in the Color Guard was young, but the person standing in the doorway carrying the small duffel bag with his new assigned color uniform looked almost a decade younger.

“See what I mean?” Plum said. “If this is the calvary, then we’re done for.”

“Umm…” the kid in the doorway stuttered.

A woman gave Plum a dirty look before facing the kid. “Don’t listen to him,” she said. “I’m guessing you’re Fuchsia?”

“That’s me,” the kid said.

The woman smirked. “Nice to meet you. I’m Violet. The rude one is Plum.”

“Not being rude,” Plum said. “Just being honest.”

“Not even!” Violet said. “We beat the Ink in the last battle with just our squad. And they’re nowhere close to getting rid of all color in the world.”

“And how many people did we lose doing that?” Plum said.

Violet’s nostrils flared. Plum just laid on the bed staring at the ceiling. He and Violet wore plain black uniforms with a bright stripe, indicating the colors they represented.

Fuchsia said, “I’m supposed to meet the commander in the barracks. Do you mind if I get ready?”

“Do what you need to do,” Violet said. “You’ll like Purple. He’s a good leader.”

“Why do you have to keep lying to him?” Plum said.

“Because he is a good leader! And I’m not lying!” Violet said. She turned back to Fuchsia. “Times aren’t easy for us right now. We lost a few colors in the last battle. Lilac, Lavender, and the…old Fuchsia, and we need new people to fill their shoes.”

“Did Purple make a mistake?” Fuchsia asked.

Violet shook her head. “No, he made all the right calls. We saved a lot of color from getting wiped out in the last battle thanks to him. And he’s been fighting a long time. I can’t imagine the people he lost. But he perseveres.”

Plum looked up from the bed.

“That’s what I heard,” Fuchsia said. “That’s what our color does.”

Reply
1. Aracnarquista
  
  March 30, 2022
  
  Interesting vision, really interesting. There is a kind of pleasing contrast in the very serious tone of the description on the losses of war and the whimsical color scheme names (whimsical is really not the best word I’d choose, but the words are failing me right now). You managed to put a lot of personality and characterization in Fuchsia, Plum and Violet in such a short exchange! Quite nice.
  
  I loved the story, and although a lot of the scenario is only hinted at, the implication seem to be quite heavy. The Guard being composed only of young people and the new ones being even younger is a terrifying prospect…
  
  I loved your take on the prompt, considering there is both a discussion on the commander, but the whole thing is also a presentation on the squad. That was really interesting.
  
  Reply
  1. Danny Gilhooley
    
    April 2, 2022
    
    Thank you so much for reading! I’m happy you liked it!
    
    Reply
Arith_Winterfell

March 29, 2022

“A Vision in Amethyst” (Aethryn Setting)

By: Arith_Winterfell

Elric gazed into the fist sized amethyst he’d stolen. He thought excitedly of the wealth he would gain for it.

“I’d wager that’s worth a good sum of money, Tarn,” said Elric.

“More than you realize. This isn’t just a big gemstone. It’s an Aethian memory crystal! Just concentrate on it while you’re holding it there,” said Tarn the Fence.

Elric did as Tarn suggested, closing his eyes and focusing his mind. His vision flooded with soft purple light which faded into a scene of Wisteria flowers. There an old man in a red wizard robe lay resting beneath a willow tree. The scene was so vivid. Elric could smell the flowers and the feeling of soft earth beneath his feet. He could feel the cool breeze flow over him as it rustled amidst the Wisteria flowers. Suddenly the man beneath the tree woke up. The man spoke to him in a strange language that Elric somehow still understood.

“You! I have seen you in my visions of the future, young man. Beware, your friend betrays you!” the old man warned.

Why had Tarn, who he’d been selling the gem to, gone through the trouble of telling him it was worth more than he had thought. Couldn’t Tarn have just bought it and made a big profit off of it?

Suddenly Elric felt a sharp pain in his side. He touched it, and his hand was stained deep red against the purple Wisterias. The old man looked sadly at him. The vision shattered and Elric collapsed to the ground, grasping at the knife Tarn had stabbed him with. He saw Tarn turning away, carrying the amethyst with him. Tarn laughed at Elric’s folly for trusting him as he walked away.

Reply
1. Aracnarquista
  
  March 29, 2022
  
  Very self-contained story, and very interesting. I can’t say it in any other way, since I’m a fan of Cassandra’s Truth or prophecies that turn out to be true but ultimately no one can do something about it, but I guess this was the perfect setting and length of a story with this premise. It had all it needed to suck us into the story (and the gem), wonder on how the old man knew what he knew and what could Elric do with the knowledge, and then… well, too late. The story is coming to a close, and Elric’s whole story seem to be as well.
  
  I wonder how a possible buyer would feel about receiving the same message, if the message remains unchanged. There is a lot there to wonder, in fact. Loved it. Loved that it was so well self-contained, and still the implications could keep growing. Almost as a memory frozen in time inside a fist sized amethyst…
  
  Reply
2. Calliope Rannis
  
  March 30, 2022
  
  Oh dear. It turns out that if you live a life of crime, your life in turn tends to get crimed. Still, at least he got to see a beautiful vision before he died – your description of the scene was very evocative and nicely sensory too.
  
  I do wonder why the old wizard even dreamed of this man at all, considering how hopeless and self-fulfulling the situation is. But I guess the wizard can’t control what he sees of the future, and nor can he change it. But it does seem like the memory stones are a way to contact the past, which does have fascinating implications for how that all works.
  
  In any case, Elric suffers a likely gruesome end – though he could survive that single stab wound, perhaps. Tarn just cares about having the stone without paying, after all.
  
  Good story Arith! ^w^
  
  Reply
Lantis Armstrong

March 29, 2022

Smeared Purple
By Lantis Armstrong

Black cloth was wrapped tight around Anastasia’s diminutive snow white porcelain figure so that she could meld into the shadows and stay hidden from the hulking grunts stomping heavily across the dungeon.

The filthy dungeon, reeking of rot and offal, was lit by sparsely placed torches which she could avoid by slinking from one moldy stone pillar to the next.

She froze behind a pillar as the grunts guarding the last cell on the left began to walk past her. Trying and failing to stay perfectly still, she shivered in the dank, humid air as though she were cold. Beneath the cloth wrappings, she bit down hard on her bottom lip, praying her teeth wouldn’t clack.

“The king should have ordered that tramp dead long ago,” one grunt spoke as they passed by her. “Better late than never. But that was too close. It went on for too long.”

“Could you imagine his disgusting genes mixing with our fair blue blooded princess?” The other replied.

“That’s so gross, don’t even put that image in my head.”

Anastasia’s eyes began to water at their words, her heart pounding in her chest now. She tried to move after the grunts were gone, but her body felt so heavy. Her movements were stiff and stilted as she emerged from the shadows and approached the open cell door.

She clasped a hand over her mouth to muffle a sobbing scream which caught in her throat and choked her briefly.

A body was flayed open before her, the sickening instruments used by the grunts still laid all around it.

Pulling a long rusted knife out of the body’s side, she stuck it to her own neck. She only hesitated for a moment.

She wrapped herself around his body and laid her head on his chest, watching her blue blood pour across his body and mix with his commoner’s red blood. The mixture turned purple, and she smiled.

“It’s so beautiful,” Anastasia murmured her last thought before the end.

It was the most wonderful color she had ever seen.

Reply
1. Philip C.
  
  March 29, 2022
  
  Wow, this was beautiful, and sad, and very well written. I loved how you incorporated purple into the idea of different blood. You told me so much without having to do a lot of exposition, and the only bit of info dump was what the soldiers said. I will say that bit sounded a bit forced, but I can see why you had to do that. Other than that this was an amazing and tragic little story. Very Romeo and Juliet. Keep up the good work!
  
  Reply
2. Aracnarquista
  
  March 29, 2022
  
  Oh, at first I thought that would be a rescue or revenge story, guess I was on the wrong track. Or maybe I was hoping with Anastasia that she would find what she was looking for in better shape…
  
  Your ambience descriptions were really vivid. Great work.
  
  Interesting choice in making her noble blood literally blue and creating that last image – got me thinking on Romeo and Juliet, together in death (I blame the color motif and Blue Oyster Cult on that).
  
  I believe there is a single mistake I caught (and even then, I may be wrong), but I think you meant for the last answer of the grunt to be “don’t even put that image in my head”, instead of “imagine”.
  
  Very atmospheric, and in a sense, full of sad closure, despite the brutality of the images.
  
  Reply
  1. Lantis Armstrong
    
    March 30, 2022
    
    Ack! Yep, that’s a typo. x.x;; thankee for helping me catch it!
    
    Reply
3. C. M. Weller
  
  March 30, 2022
  
  Perhaps a warning about suicide in the content for those who may want to avoid that sort of thing? It’s something to consider.
  
  I do like that there’s a love so intense that living without their lover is something Anastasia doesn’t want to face. Star-crossed lovers willing to literally die for their love is a motif we have seen in the classics, tragedies, and even modern dramatic stories.
  
  BUT to be very honest, I was kind of hoping they would escape together 😀
  
  Reply
4. Amaunator
  
  March 31, 2022
  
  This was tragic, and very well written.
  
  Mind you, I feel like you could have stuck the landing a bit more. I would have put the last sentence on the end of the previous paragraph, so after “and she smiled”. That way the “last thought” gets a bit more of an impact because it is also part of the last sentence.
  
  Reply
RubyFlash15

March 29, 2022

Two Totally Normal Humans
By RubyFlash15

“HELLO FELLOW HUMANS!” Hue Min (secretly known as Zerg) said to the art gallery.

“Hi Hue.”

“Hey Hue.”

“HELLO FELLOW HUMAN!” Erl Ling (secretly known as Caskirf) said.

“Ah, if it isn’t my human friend – who I trust and is NOT an alien – Erl.”

“Yes Hue — my human friend who I trust and is also NOT an alien — it is me, Erl.”

“What is it you are currently doing good friend Erl?”

“Me and Christine here were just observing this fine specimen of what we humans call, a painting.” Erl/Caskirf said gesturing to an artwork depicting a purple landscape.

“Ah yes,” Christine said, “I find this piece quite interesting in how it—”

“This picture made of pigments and binders shows quite the detailed scene!” Hue/Zerg said. “I especially appreciate how it shows the many tones of the color, flub.”

“Zerg!” Erl/Caskirf whispered. “Humans can’t see the color flub!”

“What are you talking about!?” Hue/Zerg whispered back. “The entire picture is made out of it!”

“No, it’s showing what the humans call ‘purple’.”

“I do not see this ‘purple’.” Hue/Zerg whispered. “Describe what it looks like to me.”

“Are you aware of the color ‘red’?”

“Yes.”

“Are you aware of the color ‘blue’?”

“Of course I am!”

“Purple is a combination of the two.”

“That makes no sense!” Hue/Zerg whispered, furiously undulating their hidden antenna. “When ‘red’ and ‘blue’ are combined they’re supposed to make the color flub!”

“Zerg, red and blue don’t create flub.” Erl/Caskirf said. “Perhaps you are color blind to purple, and that’s okay.”

“Umm, what are you guys talking about?” Christine said.

“NOTHING!!!”

Reply
1. Aracnarquista
  
  March 29, 2022
  
  There is an interesting thing going on in the simplicity of getting and not getting the image of purple from Erl/Caskirf explanation, in that purple is regarded as a non-spectral color, and so is a quirk of perception in combining two wavelenghts… curious things that these very normal humans differ in their abilities to see it. I can’t help but wonder on how flub perception is composed!
  
  I do hope Hue can learn some etiquette from that fine human specimen that Erl is. He seemed a little bit too distraught in mixing his colors. People could take him the wrong way, you know?
  
  Reply
2. Alex
  
  March 30, 2022
  
  This is a fun one. I find it endearing to see these two aliens try to be human by doing such human things like going to art galleries and failing spectacularly, when it comes to greeting each other. Just the level of suspicion these two are raising by trying to not be suspicious is quite amusing.
  
  It’s interesting to see alien life forms come to grips with words different to their own. Translation is not always easy and things don’t always convey well. That being said, I do think that here it is more due to the fact that Zerg seems to be more of a newbie when it comes to blending in. Caskirf seems to be more experienced in the art of ‘subtlety’.
  
  Well written!
  
  Reply
3. C. M. Weller
  
  March 30, 2022
  
  Ah. Aliens pretending to be humans and FAILING so badly that it’s hilarious. I love this trope and I would like a dozen please 😀
  
  Headcannon that of course Christine knows, but she’s also aware that these two are so incompetent that they won’t cause the Earth any harm.
  
  Reply
Calliope Rannis

March 29, 2022

Memories From Before The Fog (Mary’s Story)
By Calliope Rannis

“Have you seen many purple things?” Daisy had asked her once, during a long evening by the fire.

“…What?” Mary had replied, turning stiffly to face her goblin friend.

Daisy winced, aware of the subject’s delicate nature. “Sorry, I know that’s maybe a strange thing to ask you, but – well, I haven’t seen much of it. Any dye like that is extremely expensive, and my hometown didn’t have that kind of money…”

Mary relaxed a little, waiting for her friend to finish.

“…So I thought, Mary might have seen more, right? The purple dye is hard to find in the wild, but you lived there all your life, so – I was wondering.” Her hands were clenched tightly together, but her eyes remained hopefully curious.

She thought for a moment. Grey memories flowed through her, falling back into older visions of fading colour. Visions of a younger forest, full of flowers and trees and animals, before she was taken away from them. “I’ve seen a few, yes.”

“Oh?” Her friend’s face brightened. “What were they?”

The visions became clearer. “Flowers, mostly. Thistle, Lavender, Catmint…Foxglove, Wisteria…” As she spoke their names, a shimmering image of each flower formed within her hand, shining for a moment before fading into the next.

Daisy’s eyes went wide, a smile breaking across her face as she looked upon flowers she’d never had the chance to see before.

Mary looked upon those same illusionary flowers, and all she saw was grey.

She knew they were purple. She knew from Daisy’s reaction that their colour was right. She knew, because they had been conjured from her memories of colour, when her sight was bright and living.

But no matter how beautiful, how vivid those memories may be, she simply couldn’t make her darkened dead eyes see them in anything but blacks and greys. For her, colour was now secluded within her dreams.

Or they would be, if she could dream…

“Mary? You okay?” Daisy’s voice, worried once again.

Mary opened her eyes. “No. Not really.” She attempted a smile. “But you do make my days a little brighter.”

Reply
1. Aracnarquista
  
  March 29, 2022
  
  Oh, that was beautifully sad. And although I found Mary very tragic, she is also quite endearing… the effort in rummaging through a beautiful memory to find something one can not quite experience anymore might be quite painful, and still, she goes through it for the moment. The relationship is quite sweet.
  
  Sad beauty is something I find very difficult to properly convey, and I think you did it masterfully here. The contrast between what Daisy is experiencing (having her first experience of the color and beauty of the flowers through the illusions) and Mary (producing the illusions through memories she can no longer partake in sight, but knowing them right vicariously through Daisy’s expression) works really well, the tone of it all is powerful in its simplicity and tragedy. And all very well-written. Amazing story!
  
  Reply
  1. Calliope Rannis
    
    March 29, 2022
    
    Aww, I am glad you liked Mary’s character so much! It’s been quite a while since I wrote for her, but this feels like a deserving return for her, april fools prompt or not. ^w^
    
    I’m very happy I could convey sad beauty in a convincing way to you too. The illusion thing I only thought of mid-writing this piece, and it certainly was a great addition to everything! 😀
    
    Reply
2. Arith_Winterfell
  
  March 29, 2022
  
  This is a beautiful story and use of the prompt! Exploring how Mary struggles with regards to her own inability to see the color, while yet still sharing it with Daisy is a touching and heart-warming yet bittersweet image that fills this story. I’m genuinely moved by Mary’s loss and longing to connect with the world of the living (especially knowing her character past). You successfully used the color purple and Mary’s inability to see it while sharing it with Daisy to capture a sense of loss, warmth, kindness from Daisy, played all of that through the difficulty of expressing something as basic as a color. This story is beautifully done and tenderly bittersweet. Well done!
  
  Reply
3. Marx
  
  March 30, 2022
  
  This kinda reminds me of a song. Where the gist of the line was that advice was basically taking your mistakes and recycling them for someone else’s benefit. While this story isn’t about advice, per se, it does have a very bittersweet feeling to it. That Mary is unable to experience colors anymore, but she can use her memories of when she did to show it to Daisy.
  
  Just the fact that she was willing to put herself through that somber state of mind for the benefit of her friend is the sweetest thing ever and such a great use of the prompt. All the feels!
  
  Also, this might be the first story I’ve read where Mary casually uses her powers like this. At least that I remember. It is great to see her in such a… happy-ish situation? I’ll say happy. It’s clearly sad as well, but it ends on such a hopeful note. Well done!
  
  Reply
Aracnarquista

March 28, 2022

Spectral Hauntings
By Aracnarquista

As Indigo Rayleigh woke that night from troubled dreams, she found herself transported to a liminal spacetime between what was and what could be.

Wait, I’m getting ahead of myself. And confusingly poetic. Let’s start it again.

Call me Indy.

I woke up. My shift observing the apparatus and measurements wouldn’t start for another hour, but sleep was robbed of me. Scarlet was passionately fiddling with the lenses. Truth be told, me being here had more to do with the effect of her intense curiosity than with our “mission”. Scarlet radiated purpose.

You see, we were in the Haunts. Somewhere in the Purpure Boundaries, in a place whose name I do not care to remember, right at the edge of Chroma City, in search of purples. We were hunting ghosts.

“You talk in your sleep, you know? Once or twice I thought there was some message escaping through the barrier, only to find out you were mumbling.”

“I hope I didn’t say anything too embarrassing.”

“Don’t worry about that. Most of it sounded like gibberish, but at times you got all academic and professorial. Sounded a bit like Dr. Veridian.”

“Please, don’t make this comparison. If I was him, I’d die. What was my sleeping self lecturing about?”

“That’s the funny bit. You were saying something about the other side. As if you were describing the place the purples inhabit.”

She got me. I was surprised, and she wasn’t joking. She illuminated, as if on the brink of a fascinating discovery. “Do you remember what you were dreaming about, Indy?”

“Now that you say it… yes, it is coming back. I wasn’t me. I was… I believe I was a lost sailor, trying to find my ship and crew. But I was here, in the Haunts. Miles away from the sea. And you were there, but I couldn’t communicate with you. Damn, Scarlet…”

Then reality hit me hard. A whole new hue of reality dawned on my world.

“Yeah, Indy. That was not a dream. It was their experiences, filtered through your sleeping brain. You were channeling a purple. Still skeptical?”

Reply
1. C. M. Weller
  
  March 29, 2022
  
  I like the sheer volume of colour names involved in this. Kind of meta in regards to the prompt, but it all works.
  
  Purple is an interesting synonym for spectre, and that fits into the chromatic universe here. Or… chromatic world.
  
  Also, since I’m an old school nerd, I have to wonder if Indigo is also a reference to The Princess Bride and Inigo Montoya therein.
  
  Reply
  1. Aracnarquista
    
    March 29, 2022
    
    Thanks! I had some other ideas for trying to deliver on the prompt, but in the end this one was the most captivating to my own sensibilities.
    
    I love Inigo, but I wasn’t thinking of him when I wrote Indy. In fact, what I tried for this particular one, in the spirit of the chaotic proposal of the prompt, was to auto-impose some referential challenges amidst the text (which might have worked or not, I’m not convinced either way yet). And maybe there is a kind of playfulness towards this attitude that might have been a bit inspired by the whole meta-referentiality of the Princess Bride.
    
    But the references I went for were others. Now I’m kind of surprised The Princess Bride had not occurred to me before… If it had, surely the ghostly sailor story would read a lit bit different (though, looking now, it could still, although indirectly, be a DPR story!).
    
    Thanks again. Writing this one was quite interesting!
    
    Reply
2. Lantis Armstrong
  
  March 29, 2022
  
  Is Indy short for Indigo? Very clever reference to purple right in the main character’s name, it didn’t go past my notice! I’m not entirely sure what the crew is hunting though; haunted by colors… hm, something there all the time but just outside of our ability to perceive it, like ghosts or the color ultraviolet?
  
  Reply
  1. Aracnarquista
    
    March 29, 2022
    
    Indy is, indeed, short for Indigo. The thing about what the purples/ghost are to be is not exactly defined, since we are seeing it from Indy’s perspective, and to be honest, he is not really a believer. But I was working with this exact perspective, of colors that are just outside of our range of perception… and also trying to cram as many colors and literary references as I could in such a short piece. As well as one or another non-exactly-literary ones as well.
    
    This one started as a challenge, but it has grow on me. Maybe I will revisit these characters and settings again (I’ve find myself fleshing it out more and more in these last days, so maybe they also want to be channeled and communicate a little bit more).
    
    Reply
3. Amaunator
  
  March 31, 2022
  
  The casual banter of these co-workers contrasts nicely with the world you’ve built. I love the notion of “Chroma City”. Somehow I feel like there must be verdigris lurking in the sewers, and the skies are teeming with sallows…
  
  I especially love the sentence: “A whole new hue of reality dawned on my world.”
  
  Personally, I thought you were referring to “Indiana Jones” with the “Indy”. Either way, I like these characters a lot already. The skeptical medium and the nerdy researcher with the name of a starlet.
  
  Reply
  1. Aracnarquista
    
    March 31, 2022
    
    Thanks a lot!
    
    It’s a funny thing, but usually I conceive just enough elements to the setting of this short stories as they are necessary to the particular tale, but Indy and Scarlet had a lot more to them than I could find the space and words to tell this time. So maybe I’ll deal with the ghost hunters again in a near future.
    
    This one was really interesting to write, and the research and attempts to flesh it out gave me some interesting ideas for other projects as well.
    
    That particular sentence came late in the writing, but it was the one I felt made the connection to the prompt explicit: Indy has experienced this bizarre connection, and now her world is vaster than it was; it is as if she has become aware of a color she never saw before, but was always there, not hidden, but lurking just outside her perception. And now she can’t help but see it.
    
    Reply
4. Lee Strangely
  
  March 31, 2022
  
  This is a rather odd ghost hunting story. It didn’t notice the heavy color connection up until I read a comment or two and then put two and two together. I really like the strange terminology/slang both characters use in regards to the ghosts, their haunting areas, etc.. I like how their conversation about one of them talking in their sleep naturally provides a lot of information and context for their world without without directly saying “here’s what you need to know.” Great Job!
  
  Also, the moment I read “Call me Indy,” I couldn’t help but hear the Raider’s March playing in my mind. I know it’s supposed to be short for Indigo, but when I hear the word Indy I cannot help but think of Dr. Jones.
  
  Reply
  1. Aracnarquista
    
    March 31, 2022
    
    So happy you liked it! Thanks for the comment, Lee.
    
    The seed from which the tale grew was two-fold, and that was what colored the terminology I used here. One aspect of it was the categorization of purple as a non-spectral color. The other was the thing about Lovecraft’s poor grasp on physics and math inspiring some of his more interesting concepts. Making my spectral world purple then made the jump for the writing of a ghost hunting story.
    
    I guess my Indy is not as adventurous and action focused as that particular tomb-raider archeologist, but perhaps I will put the Raider’s March in my playlist to hear while I write the follow-up story, and see if it takes her somewhere else, hehehe. We never know where our characters might go if we let them wander free…
    
    Reply
5. Makokam
  
  April 1, 2022
  
  Fun story.
  
  I liked everything in the middle. The dialogue, world building, and what they were doing was all really good.
  
  The opening and the ending feel like they don’t really belong though. It never feels like the story comes back to what the intro is talking about, and Indy never felt skeptical so the end asking if she still is doesn’t seem related.
  
  Reply
  1. Aracnarquista
    
    April 1, 2022
    
    Thanks for the feedback. Point taken. To be completely honest, I had to rush the ending to comply with the word limit (but it would probably feel rushed anyway if there was no word limit, my pacing to conclude ideas is not something I’m proud of). And the beginning was a victim of an experiment that probably was more interesting in the process of being written than in the finished writing. Once again, I’m not proud of my skills as editor of the pieces, hehehe.
    
    Reading it, there is a clear abrupt split right at the “Call me Indy” line, but I don’t think I would be able to start it at that sentence. But I’ll try to be more careful to this kind of inconsistencies in the future.
    
    Reply
6. RVMPLSTLTSKN
  
  April 1, 2022
  
  Tagback!
  
  This is an interesting tale!
  
  Purpure reminds me of Minecraft’s The End, but I think that visual only helped the story.
  
  Keep it up!
  
  Reply
  1. Aracnarquista
    
    April 1, 2022
    
    Thanks! This is something I like to do and see how it is received – to give few elements on some aspect of the story and see how different readers build them up with their own perceptions. for these little tales, peppering some kind of Rorschach test-like pieces here and there can have some interesting results, and it always amuses me to know what you guys envisioned in them.
    
    I just went to look out for The End in Minecraft now – so it also works wonders in making me look into things I don’t know at the time of the writing, which is always a plus.
    
    Thanks for the feedback!
    
    Reply
7. Marx
  
  April 1, 2022
  
  Lol okay I love this story and I can easily see how this was something you set up for the prompt and realized it could become something more. I was chuckling away at the names as I read it, but the more I did, the more interested in the world I became. The idea of basically hacking into ghosts through your dreams is pretty intriguing and introduces so many questions you want answers to. Great take on the prompt!
  
  Reply
  1. Aracnarquista
    
    April 1, 2022
    
    Thanks a lot for the feedback!
    
    I’m still surprised on how organically some of the ideas on this one grew. I guess the silliness of the prompt brings something of a levity as well, and that’s great for creating. I will surely come back to this world – I had became invested in it, and I’m very happy others are also interested in the Haunts, Chroma City, Indigo, Scarlet and the spectral purples…
    
    And Indigo has just discovered her gift… maybe there is something to explore about that as well. In fact, I really liked the way you phrased it – might give me some ideas, hehehehe.
    
    Reply
8. Danny Gilhooley
  
  April 2, 2022
  
  Joining the party late, but I really like the names of the characters, places, and puns throughout the story. It’s also neat how you have the characters described as as how their colors would look (Scarlet radiating with purpose, as an example). I’m curious about what/where the Haunts is, and why they were searching for purples/ghosts. But that said, you caught my attention and I’m interested to learn more!
  
  Reply
  1. Aracnarquista
    
    April 2, 2022
    
    Thanks for the feedback! I’m glad you liked it. I hope I can deliver on the interest! Nothing is set in stone (well, at least, I think so), but there are some things that are fermenting that might become a series about Chroma City and the spectres of the Purpure Boundaries.I can answer that both Indy and Scarlet interest is, in a sense, scientific. But that really does not answer a lot, does it?
    
    Reply
C. M. Weller

March 28, 2022

Easy For Me (Amalgam Universe)
C. M. Weller

Human Kosp glared at the grouchy ship’s medic until she realised that this was pointless. Her Chyropt shipmates didn’t have eyes worth much. “Excuse me what? Aren’t you always telling me that light is pure mystic horseshit?”

The batlike crewmate twitched his ears a little and grumbled, “You wanted me to open my mind. So tell me about your favourite colour. It’s what you weird mystic balding apes call small talk.”

Ah, there it was. Senob was so used to casually insulting Kosp that the absence of some slight was a sure sign something was wrong. Kosp smiled at it. “Yeah it is small talk. For children.” She decided to humour him anyway. “The problem is my favourite colour is purple.”

“So what’s purple?”

Oh sweet Powers That Be. “That’s the problem. It’s hard to nail down into a sensation you can understand. It tests the limits of synesthesia. I could say red is hot and blue is cold, but if you mix red and blue you get purple… BUT… temperature wise? It’s not the same. You mix hot and cold and you get TEPID. And tepid is just beige.”

“You’re saying words, but the meaning has gone,” complained Senob.

“Yeah, it’s a bitch. I can describe green with the taste of mint or the smell of pine. I could say the smell of rain is like a particular shade of white. I could talk about electromagnetic wavelengths but they wouldn’t mean a thing to you.” A deep sigh. “I could also mention Hex Codes, but that’s another dead end.”

“When you’re DONE tossing this verbal salad,” Senob prompted.

“You gave me a task that isn’t easy to solve, okay? It’s going to take me a while. I can see it but I can’t explain it. Just like you can’t explain the echolocation you get off of sandwall.”

“It’s a simple softness of stubble, what’s to explain?” raged Senob.

“You’re saying words, but the meaning has gone,” said Kosp.

“Flakk you.”

“Flakk you back.”

Just round three thousand, four hundred and seventy-two of their friendly personal battle with each other.

Reply
1. Aracnarquista
  
  March 28, 2022
  
  That was really nice, and so true to that very hard to pin prompt! Really liked the parallelism between the observer trying to describe colors and the echolocator describing haptic sensation carried through sound. The jumps and internal logic in trying to work out a synesthetic argument to convey purple were really well done (I’m still trapped into the wondering the temperature analogues forced me to consider, and a story that lingers is a good story in my books). Really good story!
  
  Reply
  1. C. M. Weller
    
    March 29, 2022
    
    Trying to convey colour in other sensations is a lingering problem. I have encountered beverages and foodstuffs that taste PINK for instance.
    
    It’s pretty good for doing AlienThink IMHO.
    
    Reply
2. Lantis Armstrong
  
  March 29, 2022
  
  Oh I love this. Like, how DO you describe a color? Imagine describing a color to a blind person, or a blind bat in this case. If they were really insistent on you trying your best to do it, how could you even go about it? I like your take on that idea. If it was a robot bat, then Hex codes would have totally been the way to go.
  
  Reply
  1. C. M. Weller
    
    March 29, 2022
    
    Hex codes mean absolutely nothing to a creature without functioning eyes or a knowledge of the hex code system.
    
    My knowledge of Hex Codes ends with this:
    
    #000000 == white
    #FFFFFF == black
    
    Reply
3. RubyFlash15
  
  March 30, 2022
  
  I like how this story just solidifies the problem in describing things like color: you just can’t explain it without having experienced it first-hand. I especially like how you related the problem of explaining color for a blind person to explaining echolocation for a human since it’s something we can’ perceive and will never perceive.
  
  Reply
  1. C. M. Weller
    
    March 30, 2022
    
    Well… ABLED people may never perceive. There are blind humans who do echolocate. Maybe asking them what their world is like might expand my own descriptions into the echoed world.
    
    First step, find someone who does. Second, ask politely about all that. I’m still stuck on step one.
    
    Reply
4. Arith_Winterfell
  
  March 31, 2022
  
  I like how this story explores the color purple, as in this case, the color of frustration. The aliens early comment about light being “mystic bullshit” was not only funny, but to the point. For a non-visual alien light must be difficult to even imagine. Not to mention the language of the alien just shows off his tone, crassness, and general grumpiness of their interaction right out of the gate. That said I also liked how you took the time to show other colors by comparison but emphasized purple as a color that is difficult to nail down by comparison to the other colors mentioned. I also thought it was a nice touch when Kosp repeated what the alien had said earlier by stating “You’re saying words, but the meaning has gone,” Illustrating again how difficult crossing such a conceptual divide is. Ironically they are both “seeing” what are simply different wavelengths (or reflected energy) of the electro-magnetic spectrum (a shared experience). In whole a great story in an exercise in frustration for our characters, and humor for us!
  
  Reply
  1. C. M. Weller
    
    April 1, 2022
    
    Also it’s really hard to do as the prompt said.
    
    Reply
5. Makokam
  
  April 1, 2022
  
  Ha! Weird bat-like aliens can’t see color. Electromagnetic radiation go brrrrrrrr.
  
  Honestly it’s kinda weird that dude is so skeptical about how human’s see.
  …
  Their society must have taken a long time to progress to spacefaring and such. They could only see/hear writing if it was raised above the surface. So they’d have to use really thick ink to even begin to tell the difference between it and what it was written on. And things like monitors or any sort of display screen would be useless. They’d have to come up with something entirely different. And a ship crewed by both would have to have accommodations for both, which would probably be easy until the actual controls.
  
  Anyway. Neat story. Neat descriptions. Neat premise. I liked it!
  
  Reply
  1. C. M. Weller
    
    April 1, 2022
    
    These guys probably went directly to braille or something like it for writing.
    
    Just because WE use vision doesn’t mean all intelligent species have to.
    
    Reply
    1. Makokam
      
      April 2, 2022
      
      Oh absolutely.
      
      I just meant I don’t know how you’d create something like a computer monitor that would work with sonar. only speech-to-text? 3D displays, like in Man of Steel or Power Rangers? Either seems like a pretty big jump from non-digital.
      
      Reply
Alex

March 28, 2022

The Flower (Exile Universe)
By Alex Nightingale (aka Spectre)

“Was this always here?” Janeah asked, as she pointed at a terrifyingly tall flower, throwing its shade onto her.

“Technically, yes,” Soren said, looking up into the space between the gaping petals. “If by ‘here’ you mean in the Exile.”

The giant plant loomed over them both, its petals like a titanic jaw about to clamp down on them both. Neither Janeah nor Soren really wanted to look at it.

“What is it?”

“A really, really big, purple flower.”

“Thank you so much my scholarly friend,” Janeah teased. “But that is not purple. It’s blue.”

“What? No way. It’s purple.”

“It’s blue!”

Soren turned to her, hands on his hips.

“I have fought with royalty in the past and I am telling you, that is purple.”

“I have lived with royalty in the past and I am telling you, that is blue.”

“Oh, come on. Look at that flower and tell me it’s blue.”

“You look at it,” she shifted slightly away from the blue/purple petals, trying not to stay too close.

“I don’t want to…” Soren inched away as well.

For a moment they were both silent.

“Why is that blue flower there?” Janeah asked, silently.

“It’s purple,” Soren replied. “And it probably just sprung up.”

“Sprung up?”

“It happens sometimes, Janeah.”

They inched away even further. They flinched as the massive petals began to sway in the wind. Janeah tried not to run away. Who knew what that flower was capable of.

“Why are we so scared of some purple flower?” Soren asked, after another moment of silence.

“It’s blue,” Janeah hissed. “And I don’t know. You’re the one acting tense.”

“Well, just… look at it. It could swallow us whole.”

“There’s your answer then. It could swallow us whole.”

The petals rustled again. Both Janeah and Soren gripped their swords. They eyed each other. For a moment, there was silence.

“What are you doing?”

They both jumped, before recognizing the speaker.

“Naerahine!” Janeah exclaimed. “Don’t scare us like that.”

“Where have you been?” Soren asked.

“Looking for you. Why are you all staring at that red flower?”

Reply
1. Aracnarquista
  
  March 28, 2022
  
  Who haven’t been in a discussion like that at some point? Obsessing over an inconsistency in how to conceptualize a detail at the point of almost losing sight of the looming issue from where the small detail spring forth? That was a fun read, certainly. Got me thinking if the confusing perception of the hue of the plan is part of its hunting strategy (if that was the case… seems like strange and stranger things are possible in the Exile), or just a coincidence. But maybe that’s lingering too much on the green flower…
  
  Reply
2. i-prefer-the-term-antihero
  
  March 28, 2022
  
  Aww, this is delightful!! Like Aracnarquista says, I’ve certainly been in conversations like that myself before.
  Heck, even in the last stream–the discussion on whether or not the mod name colors are pink or purple. I wanted to fight harder for the idea of them being pink, like these two are fighting, but I needed to move on XD
  …Now it’s even funnier that that discussion happened last week, considering what the prompt became.
  
  “If by ‘here’ you mean in the Exile.”
  –Like it’s *always* been in Exile, since its inception? Or as long as they’ve been there?
  
  “A really, really big, purple flower.”
  “Thank you so much my scholarly friend,” Janeah teased. “But that is not purple. It’s blue.”
  –XD XD-to every line in this.
  
  “I have fought with royalty in the past and I am telling you, that is purple.”
  –Does he mean a verbal fight like this one? Regardless of what kind of fight it was, I’d like to see what fight he got into with royalty–though especially if it was a verbal one like this XD
  
  “It happens sometimes, Janeah.”
  –Do they spring up like normal flowers planted by seeds or is it weirder than that?
  
  “It could swallow us whole.”
  –I am genuinely curious about the properties of the flower, and if it really is carnivorous in some way. It’s in a demon world, so I wouldn’t be surprised.
  I also love how it kinda seems like they’re freaking each other out the more they talk about it XD
  
  The ending is great!! I was thinking someone would come in at the end and end the argument, but I was not expecting them to say a 3rd color XD Delightful.
  Though, I will say, “pink” might be a little more believable? Red is pretty different from purple, and very different from blue, so it’s a little hard to understand how she’d mistake it for red.
  …Unless something magical is going on.
  
  Very cute story!! It’s lovely to see more of these 3 interacting.
  
  Reply
Marx

March 28, 2022

Blame It On The Alcohol
By Marx

“Yurrrr sho prettyyyyy….”

Laila glared over to Matt, continuing the appearance of struggling to hold up his weight as she helped him home. “And you’re drunk. Matt… I’m so disappointed in you… You’re better than this.”

“…’ma teenager… ‘shupposed tah-du shtoopid tingsh…”

Laila’s eyes narrowed further as she saw that Matt had an aura of erratic swirling energy around him, and his own eyes were flashing between normal and solid black. “Everyone else gets to be stupid. You don’t.”

“Why…? Cuz… ‘m… speshul…?”

“Yes!” Laila growled back in frustration. Matt shouldn’t even have been able to get drunk in the first place. And even if he did, his powers had been mostly healing in nature to this point. He was like this because he WANTED to be. And she couldn’t stop the reckless, inadvertent spell without raising Heaven’s alarm, which would be very bad. “You have no idea the danger you’re in right now.”

“Speshul… heh… Just meens… everbuddy thnksh’m weird… und ‘m… lone all th’ time… I hate being special.”

Laila felt herself being overcome with emotion as her eyes began to well up. She knew this was partially because of Matt’s magic chaotically responding to his own emotions, but she also knew it was because she hated seeing him in pain. “…I’M here for you. You… know that, right?”

Matt let out an awkwardly slurred laugh. “Course y’are… ‘my besshfrenn…”

“Which is why you need to listen to m-”

“…ven if yuu don’ like me… th’way I like yuu..”

Laila’s eyes shot wide, unable to stop the tears slowly falling down her cheeks. “Don’t you dare! I… Matt, I CAN’T. It’s not that I don’t-… We-… Dammit, Matt, this is too complicated a situation to explain to you while you’re like this!”

“…not compulcatered… I… like yuu… yuu dunn feel tha same… But… got… jealous… uff Caitlyn…”

“Caitlyn was a DEMON! She-” Laila came this close to punching Matt in the face. But she decided instead to be the adult here. He wasn’t ready for an explanation yet. And even if he was, it surely wasn’t happening tonight.

Reply
1. Aracnarquista
  
  March 28, 2022
  
  This is an interesting one, even though I’m sure I might be missing some element here. Far from me to criticize something I’m usually at fault on my writings (and that I usually don’t take as a problem), but it felt very information and emotion dense for such a short story. There is a lot in there – the weight and isolation of having something different, the responsibility in having a special power, the levity of a moment of liberation of said responsibility, the feeling of trying to protect one from itself, the challenge of trying to be a friend and the adult in the room when someone we care of is being stupid, and the whole complicated relationship in a friendship where people see each other in a very different light… all that (and I’m just considering the emotional aspects of it, not even the other story elements such as magic that behaves chaotically or how it interacts with the feeling of an inebriated user) felt a little overwhelming. I really liked the read, but I can’t help but imagine something might have just passed me by.
  
  Anyway, it was enjoyable, sure, and well-written. But I wonder if a bit of the sentiment of confusion was intentional, as if it was a way to follow the characters in that chaotic moment.
  
  Reply
  1. Marx
    
    March 28, 2022
    
    Yes! Everything you just said, yes lol. That was entirely the point. Even people who are familiar with my world will be a little confused with this one because it takes place in the past and they wouldn’t be as familiar with what’s going on.
    
    That’s how I brought the prompt into it. I’ll fully admit there was a version of this story where Laila ends it thinking that trying to explain everything would be like trying to describe a color to someone who’s never seen it before but… that felt so forced. I just enjoyed the more abstract take on the prompt.
    
    Reply
2. Matheus Ribeiro de Assis
  
  March 31, 2022
  
  I have a feeling that you were inspired by Terry Pratchett, is that right? If not, then go and read some of his books, it’s your style, you might improve your writing studying his works, especially “Discworld”.
  
  Also, I don’t understand where the theme fits in your story.
  
  Reply
  1. Marx
    
    April 1, 2022
    
    You know… I have every intention of reading Terry Pratchett at some point, just because what I’ve heard about it seems right up my alley.
    
    As for where the prompt fits in, I went with something that was hard to explain, like describing purple would be hard to explain. Not the most direct take, I know lol.
    
    Reply
3. Lee Strangely
  
  March 31, 2022
  
  I like the depth that comes from knowing that Matt is letting this happen to him of his own free will. It’s like watching a superhero go and do something or let something happen without using their powers. It’s something rather normal appearing for us, but very serious for the character. It kind of reminds me of an episode of Steven Universe where Steven was trying to celebrate his birthday, and due to everyone basically telling him to grow up, his body rapidly begins to age across the episode (to the point he risks potentially dying of old age). Well done!
  
  Reply
  1. Marx
    
    April 1, 2022
    
    Oooo good reference, yeah that episode is along the same lines of the idea. That’s one of the things I liked about it as well. That he wanted to be drunk so badly that he made it happen, despite himself. Thank you so much for the review! Glad you liked it.
    
    Reply
4. Makokam
  
  April 1, 2022
  
  While you didn’t really include anything about the color purple, you did make a very good story about trying to explain something difficult it not impossible to explain.
  
  But honestly, as Benji said more than a few times, the prompt is mostly to get you writing, and he never expected people to rigidly adhere to it. And you wrote a really enjoyable story that I was able to enjoy even more than normal thanks to the larger pieces you sent me recently.
  
  I also think it says something about humanity that his power that could have prevented him from ever being under the influence of anything, was actually making him drunk as a skunk instead of, ya know, doing something to make him happy.
  
  Reply
  1. Marx
    
    April 1, 2022
    
    Thank you! I actually did initially try to tie in describing a color more directly in the end but it just felt off. I thought going with the theme more than following exactly was working for me more this week.
    
    I totally forgot that you would actually be more familiar with pre-awakened Matt than most people would be lol.
    
    And agreed as far as his powers making him drunk instead of happy. Though he wanted it so desperately in that moment that if his powers tried to make him happy, it probably would have overshot it and he would have seemed high regardless.
    
    Reply
RVMPLSTLTSKN

March 28, 2022

Dye
By RVMPLSTLTSKN (The Saga of The Deep One’s Wake) (Repost from Private)

“Father, why does Vienas wear different colors than us?” Baby asked.

She was knee-deep in the surf, her tattered shift waterlogged and stained. Padas didn’t think much of the past, but today, his daughter deeper in the sea than she’d ever been, her questions turned his mind to the before-time. How to explain the castes to a child who had only ever experienced the freedom of animals?

“Her clothes were dyed. You’ll have some like hers one day, when you’re old enough.”

“What is dying?”

“It changes the colors of clothes. It makes them pretty, no?”

She nodded. “Too pretty for work.”

He chuckled, “You can’t run around naked.”

“Klajonas did.”

“He got sunburned, remember?”

“Is that how you dye clothes?”

“Part of it. The sun bleaches clothes, then you boil ingredients like a soup and throw cloth into it.”

“Into soup?!”

“Nasty soup, made of piss and snails.” She laughed while he fished around in the surf for a snail. It was the wrong kind. “You remember the red-mouthed snails?”

She nodded, “They live on the big rocks.”

They live by Juru’s temple, Padas thought.

“In the dye, they make the best purple,” he said.

“What’s purple?”

“The color on Vienas’ shroud.”

“Oh.”

“Raimundos taught us to use the snails. They almost died out until Juru taught us their seasons.”

“Who are they?”

“Raimundos was a great man. He made the Everflame.” The little lie was easier than the truth, just as Vienas had said.

“Our fire?”

“Yes.”

“Where does he live?”

“He lived here, in the city.”

“In our house?”

“No, in another house. One of the big ones.”

“Can I meet him?”

Padas regarded her, shaking his head. His gaze drifted to the sea. “He’s dead.”

In a solemn whisper, Baby asked, “Did the snails get him?”

Padas’ laughter echoed on the waves. “No, no, a much bigger fish did. That’s why we have to be careful with the sea. No more boats for us, the big fish might get us.”

“Yes, Father.”

They worked quietly, gathering clams and fish in tide pools.

“Did he know Klajonas?”

Reply
1. Tamela Redfin
  
  March 28, 2022
  
  Love it all! XD Also, cute banter.
  
  Reply
2. Aracnarquista
  
  March 28, 2022
  
  That was a nice dialogue, and the weaving of it and the internal monologue and recollection was a great way to convey lore and emotional depth to the scene. Reading it, I felt like a strange back and forth between a kind of melancholic acceptance and innocence. Which works pretty well for a conversation that sprung forth from the perception of a caste system.
  
  Really reeled me in, got me really curious to keep hearing more about this world!
  
  Reply
Tamela Redfin

March 28, 2022

Rubber nuggets and tar

By Tamela Redfin

And lo, Mica was indeed human, so to calm his nerves, we all decided to go down and eat.
“So, what do cyphas eat?” I asked Cecilia.

“Root, some small animals and dirt.” Cecilia shrugged.

“You eat dirt. And I kissed you.” I playfully brushed my hand over my tongue.

“Cam, that’s so dramatic.” Cecilia laughed. “And what do humans eat?”

“Why don’t I cook up some human meals? Including a favorite from my childhood: chicken nuggets and grape punch.”

“Boring, but very well.” Sapphira nodded.

But like maybe I shouldn’t have started with deep frying. “Cameron, it’s on fire!” Cecilia shouted.

“Don’t we just throw water on it?” Mica asked, getting a cup ready.

“What no!” I gasped, smothering the fire. I looked at the smoke filled room. “Geez guys! I almost saw Redfin!”

“Who’s Redfin?” Cecilia tilted her head.

“I don’t know, but I almost saw her.” I admitted, hearing the clicking of keys in my head. “Anyway, I think we can safely eat.”

“You sure?” Sapphira asked. I nodded and got the least charred ones out.

“You’ll like them.” I promised. We all took a bite and quickly Sapphira and Mica spit them out.
“They taste like rubber.” She complained.

“Okay, they are a bit singed, but not to worry. We have the punch.” We all took a sip and did a four way spit take.

“That just tastes like tar!” Mica spat.

“How do you know what tar tastes like?” Cecilia asked, “Tastes more like if you licked a purple scent marker.”

“Okay, moving on.” I shrugged. “Sorry about that, y’all. If you need me I’ll be eating dirt.”

Reply
1. Aracnarquista
  
  March 28, 2022
  
  This one got me laughing. The character referencing the author and hearing the story being typed was a very bizarre and funny moment. And it got me thinking – was the point-of-view character a bad cook, or maybe she was compelled to ruin the meal to get the story to where the author wanted it to go? Curious and frankly horrifying thought (still, a funny kind of horror) to have.
  
  I also find quite funny how Cecilia question on how Mica should know the taste of tar to make the comparison just to then make the comparison to the marker… curious dietary and taste preferences we have here, hehehe…
  
  That ending line was pure gold. Perfect conclusion. Really nice story!
  
  Reply
2. Makokam
  
  April 1, 2022
  
  Trope Unlocked! Lethal Chef! – Cooking so bad the diner sees the other side of the fourth wall.
  
  This also reminds of saying someone got hit so hard they could taste colors.
  
  Reply
3. Matthew R. Wright
  
  April 1, 2022
  
  A very interesting root you decided to take with this story. I like how the use of purple from the prompt is used here to describe the taste and sensations of a marker pen, I think we’ve all given those a taste in the past. The comedy in this is fantastic, and well-written. well done.
  
  Reply
4. RVMPLSTLTSKN
  
  April 1, 2022
  
  Tagback!
  
  This piece has some great notes of levity. I don’t quite understand much of the context, but I think it’s an urban fantasy. The self insertion was well done!
  
  Reply