All Entries Tagged With: "News From Poughkeepsie"
News From Poughkeepsie – How Shrunken Giant Monsters Cope
News From Poughkeepsie returns! All-New, All Different! Well, kinda different. I’m keeping the logo.
Why the changes, you may ask? Quite simply, I felt that NFP was failing in its original mission. Beyond my difficulty in getting a daily post up M-F, I was putting far to much of my own style and idiosyncrasies into the prompts.
NFP prompts are supposed to inspire, and to that end, future posts will be in the clipped, sparse style approved by newspapers worldwide. Just the facts, and I’ll leave the details to you. Also, instead of daily posts, there will be just one post on Friday, containing anywhere from three to seven fictional news snippets to start your weekend writing off right.
Of course, if you have your own NFP-style prompt, you can still leave it in the comments. All of the ones left in the comments will be posted at the end of the month in a special entry. And, as always, if you write a complete story using one of the NFP prompts, you get a free T-shirt.
And now, bask in the difference:
#164 – Designer Releases New Living Clothes Into The Wild
A prominent fashion designer’s new line of live plant clothing is making headlines all over the world. The clothes are a specially genetic-engineered form of plant life, able to mimic the contours of the body and survive by siphoning off the sweat and dead skin cells of the wearer. “It’s the latest in green fashion,” the designer said, adding that in addition to green, the clothes can be grown in blue, yellow and fushia. The designer dismissed the claims that the plants would gain sentience and kill the wearer to better feed off of its essence as “unlikely.”
#165 – Generational Ship Reaches Destination, Colonists Confused, Frightened
The Captain of the generational ship Nebuchadnezzar is unsure about what do next, now that they have reached their destination. “I’ve lived my whole life on a spaceship. As did my parents, and their parents,” the Captain said. “And now we have to farm? We’re just not prepared for this.” The Captain blamed the lack of preparedness on a holodeck malfunction 123 years ago, and “that time everyone went crazy and burned all the books.”
#166 – Giant Monster Shrunk To Human Size, Works Minimum Wage Job
Titanasaur, formerly the monster than destroyed most of the Eastern Seaboard, now works the very docks he once demolished. Shrunk his from impressive 50 feet to a mere 5ft 10in, Titanasaur now struggles to lead a normal life among the longshoremen. “There’s still a lot of hatred, I can feel that,” Titanasaur says. “I can understand that. But I’m trying to give back.” Titanasaur who once strode the planet like a god made flesh, now spends his days unloading ships and spending time with his girlfriend and her two children. “I’m not the monster I was,” Titanasaur says. “I had a lot of anger back then.”
News From Poughkeepsie – Day 163
Clothes Make The Character
Chau’s medium was fire. She sculpted it, with the help of two specially designed bracelets. The bracelets shot out flame from Chau’s wrists, and she moved her wrists–her whole body, really–in such a way that changed the shape of the flame. He sculptures were unique, etherial, and very much in demand.
Chau would say she bended fire to her will, and would then be surprised at the laughter this would cause.
Of course, they did not know about Chau’s fierce battle with the fire elemental that resulted in her bracelets…
News From Poughkeepsie – Day 162
Clothes Make The Character
Reggie’s mother had told him that his cape was not magic. It would not allow him to fly, despite being the same color red as Superman’s cape. He should not try to jump off the roof, or a tree, or the cliff face down by the river. The cape was not magic.
Reggie knew this. Of course the cape wasn’t magic. The ring he had found in the woods, however…
News From Poughkeepsie – Day 161
No comments or prompts for our historical detectives last week. Not genre enough, maybe? An easy enough fix….
If you’re like me, not only do you enjoy a well-designed tie, but you are also anxiously awaiting the next IRON MAN film. While I do not own a necktie made of steel and LEDS–though who knows what may happen between now and Balticon–the idea of “power clothes” is nonetheless an appealing concept. Clothes do not necessarily make the man or woman, but they are extremely important to a character. And, if they have added features like a television screen or a taser blast, so much the better!
I should point out that this week is your last chance to get a free News From Poughkeepsie T-shirt. All you have to do is write a story with a beginning, middle and end, that’s inspired by one of the prompts in January. You can put your story, or a link to it in the comments or send it right to me at newsfrompoughkeepsie (at) gmail.com. My favorite gets the shirt.
Next week, everything changes!
Clothes Make The Character
Gwenna had worked extremely hard on her hat. Most anti-grav helmets were bulky, lumpy affairs. But Gwenna was a woman of taste. While she understood the safety concerns, she knew that most of the helmet’s bulk was padding. Gwenna promptly ripped out the small, discrete circuitry in her newly purchased helmet, and lovingly placed it inside her favorite felt fedora. The lack of stabilizers meant that outright flying was out of question, but Gwenna found that she quite enjoyed floating a few feet above the ground. And the anti-gravity assist to her jumps was thrilling.
As that mugger realized when Gwenna easily kicked him in the face….
News From Poughkeepsie – Day 159 & 160
Twice the prompt!
Great Detectives – Gladiator
“Do you miss it, Gaius?” Titus raised his hands to the empty coliseum, receiving the cheers of thousands of imaginary spectators. “The roar of the crowd? The thrill of victory? The feel of a sword in your hand?”
“I used a trident,” Gaius said, his arms folded. “And I am quite happy to have reached a point in my life where I no longer have to wield one.”
“You were a glorious fighter, Gaius.”
“I was a slave,” Gaius gave the old man a look that could cleave stone. “If the only reason you brought me here is to wander down memory lane….”
“No, no…down here, by the lion gate.” Titus motioned for Gaius to follow, and pointed to a dark spot on the ground. “My man Taro was found here. Beast of a man, he was right here. Battered and bleeding.”
“Hardly news, Titus. A gladiator dying in the coliseum.”
It was Titus’s turn to glare. “You might say that. But Taro did not die in contest. He died here alone, without an eye on him. He died in the dust, like a dog. And he was not the first.”
“Someone is killing gladiators off-stage?” Gaius put a pensive finger to his lips. “Fascinating…”
Great Detectives – Cavewoman
Mara circled the body of Grun, her keen eyes never leaving the corpse as she walked. She was looking for a wound, an injury, anything that would have caused one of the strongest men she knew to drop dead. The rest of the tribe blamed the gods, but Mara had trouble accepting that.
With eyes as good as hers, Mara had trouble believing in what she could not see.
And all she could see now was a world without Grun.
Mara gently kicked the dead man’s head with her barefoot, causing it to loll to one side. The folds in Grun’s neck smoothed, revealing tiny wound that was once hidden my a crease. Mara stretched the skin tight with her fingers and stared at the hole with her magnificent eyes. This was the killing blow, here. As unlikely as it sounded, it had to be. All other options were exhausted.
And now Mara had a mystery to solve….
News From Poughkeepsie – Days 158
Great Detectives: Midwife
“I don’t know why you brought me here,” Sally said. She eyed the dead man uneasily. “I’m no good when they leave this world. I do my best when they come in.”
“You’re the only one I think of,” Charity said. “I would be cold myself without you. And now look. Two girls and a boy to call mine…and mine alone, now.” She touched the corpse’s cool knuckles.
“I am sorry for your loss. Your husband was a good man.”
“Thank you, Sally. It seems such a shame. To fight under General Washington, survive the war and the cold and all of that, and then just die here, at home? What sense is that?”
“No sense at all….” Sally began. She had barely looked at the body when she came in, but now she could not get close enough to it. There was a strange discoloration around the mouth, blue-black and sticky. “Charity, love? Did Bob here have any enemies?”
“Bob? Not that I…you don’t think someone killed him, do you?”
‘I’m not sure…and I won’t until we open him up. I’ll go get my tools….”
News From Poughkeepsie – Day 157
Great Detectives: Samurai
The daimyo’s messenger came to the poet for the third time, and for the third time, the poet rebuffed him.
“The daimyo requests your presence, General,” said the messenger, despite knowing exactly how his words would be received.
“It is in the nature of the daimyo to request,” the poet said. He did not look up from the bonsai tree he was methodically pruning. “Just as it is in my nature to deny such a request. It is the luxury of poets that we can ignore daimyos.”
“But you were a general in–” the messenger began, but was cut off by the quick motion of the poet’s knife toward his throat.
“I am no longer a general, and so do not claim that title. I need not be defined by anyone but myself.” The poet relaxed the knife, and returned to the tree. “That being said, this is the third time in as many days you have seeked my acquiescence. Why does the daimyo need an old poet so badly?”
“The daimyo’s son has died…” the messenger began.
“I am done with death. Your master knows that.”
“It is not the death that requires your talents. The son had dishonored the family, and committed seppuku, with his own father as his second. The circumstances of the death are not in question. The daimyo had requested your presence, Gen–Poet, because the head of his son can no longer be found.”
“I see. Tell your master I shall present myself at his home, as requested.” The poet stabbed the pruning knife deep into his worktable. “The game is afoot!”
News From Poughkeepsie – Day 156
Last week’s theme inspired Jessika to write her very first prompt for NFP. It’s a killer start for a story, and I selfishly hope she picks up where she left off, so I can read the rest! I have no doubt we’ll be reading more from her.
Finally got out to see Guy Richie’s “Sherlock Holmes” last night. Whether Robert Downey Jr’s filthy action hero fits your vision of Sherlock or not, it is an incredibly enjoyable film, with just enough charm and wit to balance out the explosions.
It got me thinking about how resilient the character of Holmes is. Even filtered through the lens of a modern action-thriller blockbuster–or through a android on a space ship–the character remains a singular presence. There are many versions of Sherlock Holmes, but they are all recognizable as the character, deerstalker hat or no. The character of the Great Detective is so elastic, you can remove his Victorian trappings and shove him into a hospital in New Jersey and he still remains as fascinating as ever.
This week, let’s see how far we can stretch him…
Great Detectives: Barbarian
Iber was killed by a franscisca. Everyone believed that, because the small throwing axe was buried in his shoulder. The villagers came to agreement that Corbus the Black must have done it, as only Franks used fransciscas and Corbus was the only Frank they knew. Armed with rusty swords and farming implements, they searched up the hills and down the river, but they could not find him. For Corbus the Black was in the one place they did not think to look.
Corbus the Black was with the body.
“Someone wants the village to believe I killed this man,” Corbus said to his companion, Wisigard.
“Looks pretty damning,” Wisigard said.
“Hardly,” Corbus motioned to the wounds on the corpse’s torso. “If I was going to kill this man, I would have thrown the franscisca at him, not hacked at him like a blind man caught in a spiderweb. Even if I missed–which I do not–there is a reason I carry sword.”
“You don’t think these wounds caused by a sword?” Wisigard bent over the body to get a closer look.
“Not in the least,” Corbus said. “But you’re the barber, Wisigard. You tell me….”
News From Poughkeepsie – Day 155
Cyborg Parts
It looked like just a lump of metal to Kayla. “This is it?” she asked, poking the lump with an uncertain index finger.
“Indeed it is,” said her surgeon. “Your new cybernetic soul. Comes complete with Compassion9000 OS, the nTrospec processor, bluetooth compatibility, and an after-life time warranty.”
Kayla was unsure. But then, she hadn’t been sure of anything, recently. Not since that botched exorcism that left her indecisive and callous, needing a prosthetic soul to replace the one lost in the ether.
“Will it hurt,” she asked her surgeon.
“It will weigh heavy on your heart at first,” he said. “You’ll get used to it.”
News From Poughkeepsie – Day 154
Cyborg Parts
Honor’s daughter hasn’t eaten in 8 months. She had her stomach replaced with a cold fusion nutrient generator. She has restock it with bacteria every week, but it’s a small price to pay for never having to eat again.
Honor, a chef, doesn’t understand it. Her daughter says it’s just like her Honor’s retractable palm blades, but Honor doesn’t think it’s like that at all.
“These knives are tools,” Honor says. “They help me do things. What does that furnace in your belly help you do?”
“It helps me be free,” she says, walking away from Honor…
