Tag Archive | fishcall

The Fishy Call Follow-Up Summary

Way back at the beginning of August, I opened a prompt call on fishing!

Since then I have written, well, a number of stories to the prompts provided.

If you would like another continuation of any of these – a) see the Want More; currently three people are owed continuations; b) get the comments up! The current goal is 9 – the first two posts (original or continuation) to get to nine total comments (or, say, 14 or 16 or 18 if they’ve already had one continuation written, i.e., 9 more than the first continuation cost) – will get a continuation.

The *️⃣ marks stories who have gotten a continuation.

The Stories So Far

Clean…?  The plant offered clean energy.  Cleaner might’ve been more accurate.  The fish living downstream of the runoff might’ve said something different entirely.   This is set in the universe/city/power plant featured in Saving the Cult (If not the World), a ‘verse tagged Organization.
5️⃣*️⃣comments

Cleaning Up – The problem begins Austin not understanding what’s going on with the plant.  Then it gets worse.
4️⃣ comments

Seek And…?  Long long ago, I began a story about a woman lost in a blizzard and ending up in a different world. This story peeks in on her life, as she fishes for answers and is caught in turn.
2️⃣comments

Fresh Fish  The city of Scheffenon, on the North Sea high on the edges of the Empire, is known for many things.  But one thing that it is not known for – at least in modern times – is fish, or at least fish pulled from the North Sea.  They do not fish, not as such, on the North Sea. (Things Unspoken ‘verse)
🔟*️⃣comments

The Freshest Fish – Eliška goes fishing for information about the fish in the North Sea.  She finds mostly more questions – and some gods to fish for, as well.
4️⃣ comments

Unplumbed Depths – Fishing in Minecraft can get you some strange results.  This fictional view of the fishing strips out a lot of the blockier elements but does leave a fishing pole with, perhaps, a little too much Luck enchanted into it.
5️⃣*️⃣comments

(In the Depths coming soon)

…A Break…? – Jess works security at The Facility, a place where science which nobody calls mad (in the hearing of the scientists) is perpetrated.  It’s a really good job.  But sometimes, your friend up in the top end of things asks for a favor…
8️⃣*️⃣comments

Breaking Out – Jess didn’t think she’d find herself saying okay, next year, we’ll…  with these interns, but then again, she didn’t expect to feel so protective of them, either.
1️⃣ comment

The Night Fishers – they only fished at day.  Murph was about to find out why.
4️⃣comments

Fishing Day – She should’ve done something better with the body, but it was her fishing day, and she didn’t want to be interrupted.
7️⃣*️⃣comments

Biting – She needed this fishing day.  On the other hand, the police were far too worried about this body…
1️⃣ comment

Fountain Fishing – There’s nothing alive in this abandoned mall except Abby, Liv, and the fish in the fountain. Not even a protein bar.  So going fishing seemed like the reasonable idea, right?
5️⃣*️⃣comments

Robotic – How do you get away from a robot?  Abby and Liv had tried any number of things in the neverending Mall On Infinite Earths.  This time, they find something that seems to work…
1️⃣ comment

 

 

In the Depths

In the Depths

This story follows Unplumbed Depths, which was written to my Fishy prompt call here

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Bryn should not still be breathing. 

That was not the first thought to percolate up, not even the second – how do I get out how do I get out how do I get out came first and second was what is this thing?

The third thought, though, was that breathing was surprisingly not unpleasant.  Bryn had fallen in the water before, had dove in, had swum.  There always reached a point where air was needed, then where air was painfully needed.  

The thing holding Bryn, pulling Bryn towards the light deep underwater, had been pulling for long enough that Bryn should really be far past the painfully needed stage. And yet – And yet Bryn was just breathing.  

There was definitely water; Bryn swallowed a bit and it was salty and unpleasant; Bryn’s clothes were waterlogged and the boots were probably a lost cause.  

But air? Air did not seem to be a problem. 

The thing – the thing was, it seemed, a very long arm or tail of some sort, a tentacle like the squids that liked to frolic near shore, but gigantic – the thing was pulling inexorably closer to the light underwater.  And as Bryn struggled and pushed and completely failed to get out of the thing’s grip, the light became more and more clearly a building, and the building became more and more clearly a complete structure. 

Bryn and Johnie had gone diving in the ruins near the coast plenty of times.  With enough patience, they could often unearth something missed by previous divers, left behind by whoever had lived there once upon a time. 

This was bigger than all those ruins put together. 

It was more complete than any of the ruins they’d ever seen on land. 

There were doors, wide, giant, double doors, the doors were open, and the tentacle was coming out of them – or returning to that doorway, yanking Bryn inside. 

When the doors slammed shut behind them, the tentacle uncoiled, leaving Bryn standing uncertainly on blue stone floors like nothing ever seen on land.  

The doors wouldn’t open to Bryn’s touch.  There were no buttons or levers or pressure plates or even a knocker. 

Bryn took in a breath, trying not to panic.  The water was still breathable.  The water was clear, far clearer than it should be. 

If the doors in front were not available for an exit, if Bryn didn’t need to leave this moment before the air ran out, then the reasonable answer was to explore. 

For a moment, a stab of guilt attacked: Johnie was waiting. Johnie was probably worrying. 

Then the curiosity overtook Bryn, and the lights along the hallway, and the doors dotting the hall, and the tentacle that had vanished completely, they all seemed to sing you want to know, you need to know., and Bryn started looking. 

If nothing else – it was a sort of logic, even if it was a bit self-serving – at some point Bryn would need to find an exit. At some point this spell would wear off, and Bryn would need to breathe again.  

The thought was a bit chilling, and it meant Bryn moved more methodically than might otherwise have been the case.  Left first door, look inside.  Nothing.  Right first door, repeat. 

On the fourth door on the left, however, Bryn found a motherlode. 

Books. 

More books. 

More books. 

And a hole going deep, deep down, a hole that, when Bryn looked in, seemed to be nothing but blackness. 

Bryn skirted well away from the hole, tempting as it was, and considered the books instead.  How were they still here? How were they still intact

What language were they written in?

Bryn’s language skills were limited to basics – enough numbers and words to buy things at the market, enough to not get cheated, enough to know the prayers – but these, Bryn was pretty sure they were written in something complete different than the market boards or the prayer books.  Even the library in town didn’t have books like this. 

Byrn’s bag was shoved full of the books – picked at random, grabbed from every shelf in the room – by the time the tentacle began snaking back out of the hole. 

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Want more? See here first!

Comments: 2

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Ko-Fi Fish Link  

Breaking Out

breaking out

This is a follow up to A Break?  from my Fishy Prompt Call here – anyone can prompt (if you haven’t already) and please do!

Science! is a longstanding setting of mad science; Jess, below, is from Quick Thinking, (and, of course, A Break?). Cara is from almost all the Science stories except that one… But her first appearance was here.  The two interns were unnamed in A Break? but this is the same vacation and same interns.

🐟

“You know these woods really well.”  The shorter intern – Callum O’Neill – had been following Jess around since she had wandered down from the cabin loft bedroom sometime past sunrise but before noon. The other one – Lilian Win – had stayed back on the porch overlooking the gorge, taking photo after photo on her phone.  She seemed to have calmed down, however, so Jess wasn’t going to complain.  Continue reading

Cleaning Up

Cleaning Up

This is a follow up to Clean…? from my Fishy Prompt Call here – anyone can prompt (if you haven’t already) and please do!

This story is set in the same world & city as Saving the Cult (If Not the World). It’s even talking about the same power plant as in Saving the Cult. Warning: This one is a bit spoilery to things not yet revealed in Saving the Cult. 

🐟 Continue reading

Robotic

This is set in (one of ) the world(s) of the Hidden Mall – Abby and Liv have been travelling through a series of multiverse malls, many of them abandoned. Actually, many Abby-and-Livs, Sandy-and-Vics have been travelling – this is a different Abby & Liv than those in the main story. This is a direct sequel to Fountain Fishing.

🐟

“Are you sure?”  Liv huffed quietly.  She was already packing up their gear. “No, I know you’re sure.  But this place – nothing is trying to kill us, nothing is trying to-” she stopped and twitched.

Abby paused long enough to hug her friend.  “The last place was bad, I know,” she murmured.  

“And the place before that.”  Liv’s voice was muffled by Abby’s shoulder, buit Abby knew what she was saying anyway.  “And the one two before that… I wish we knew how to go back to a place.  That one three ago, that was pretty nice.”

Abby ran through the malls in her mind.  Last had been the one that had clearly turned into the lair of a serial killer – this one not the sort that only killed Abbies, at least, except that meant the asshole had targeted Liv.  Before that had been the place on fire.  Before that had been…

“Liv.  Olivia.  That place wanted to put us each in a little pod and keep us there.” Continue reading

The Fishy Call – a Follow Up!

Hello my friends!

I am about to start working on the third story with enough comments – Fountain Fishing– but there are a few that need one more comment. (edited to add:I was wrong! Clean also has five comments.  But still all the below will stand)

And, okay, I’m gonna be honest. It’s been a kinda bad few weeks for me. I could use lots of comments.  Well, as long as they’re not super negative, or super confusing :-/

So!  If you want me to write more of these fish stories, and you want to perk me up, the first one of these to get to five comments will get a story!  And then after that, the first to get to seven and the first to get to nine (although in the first round, we did it backwards, got a nine, then a 7, then a 5…)

Unplumbed Depths – Fishing in Minecraft can get you some strange results.  This fictional view of the fishing strips out a lot of the blockier elements but does leave a fishing pole with, perhaps, a little too much Luck enchanted into it.
5️⃣ comments!

…A Break…? – Jess works security at The Facility, a place where science which nobody calls mad (in the hearing of the scientists) is perpetrated.  It’s a really good job.  But sometimes, your friend up in the top end of things asks for a favor…
7️⃣ comments!

The Night Fishers – they only fished at day.  Murph was about to find out why.
4️⃣ comments

Bonus round!  Want to leave a lot of comments, or get in a whole bunch of people to comment (eeee, make my week!), get this one up to 5+ comments.

Seek And…?  Long long ago, I began a story about a woman lost in a blizzard and ending up in a different world. This story peeks in on her life, as she fishes for answers and is caught in turn.
2️⃣ comments

Sorry, but only comments in the blog count – it’s too hard to track down mastodon/twitter/tumblr/discord comments and keep count.

Biting

Biting

This story is a follow-up to Fishing Day, is as dark as that one, and is from my Fishy Prompt Call, as the original story reached 7 comments (the last time I counted). Not sure I actually answered anything, but I carried on without any more on-screen murder, at least. 

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The fish fought the line.  She pulled, reeling it in carefully.  There were police coming up behind her.  She finished reeling in, carefully unhooking the fish.  “Officers.”  Her bucket had three fish in it already; she checked the size of this one and dropped it in with the others.  “I heard screaming a little while ago.  Is everyone okay?” Continue reading

The Freshest Fish

The Freshest

This story is a follow-up to Fresh Fish from my Fishy Prompt Call, as it has reached 10 comments (As of the last time I counted).  It is set in the city of Scheffenon in the world of Things Unspoken; The story of Scheffenon begins with N is for Nereids ; the story of Eliška begins with R is for Ritual. (I really oughta do another alphabet call…)

“I’m sorry, I have nothing but what you see.  I have the freshest river fish, the freshest pond fishes.  These here, these are delicious with an herbed butter.  These here, they come from a spring where nothing else lives, just these fish, and they taste like the gods themselves would like to eat them.” Continue reading

The August Fishy Call!

Good morning!

I have one prompter to write to currently on my Fishy Fishy Prompt call (If you haven’t prompted, you can still prompt here –  http://www.lynthornealder.com/2020/08/04/summertime-prompt-call-gone-fishin/ !)

It’s been fun!  I got a broad range of prompts and had a lot of fun with them, dark and light and magical and sci-fi and everything in between. And I got comments! And new prompters!

If you posted a what-I-should-write-next or if you are a new prompter or commenter, let me know if you want me to write more of a story below or if you want me to write to another prompt!

And as for writing-more, Comments! I have at least one story with 7+ comments and one with 5+, so if you liked a story now is the time to comment.  Because that, my friends, gets it one more comment closer to getting more story!

As always, thank you to everyone who prompted and everyone who commented!  Special thanks to Kelkyag, too, for a good deal of commenting and asking me what my projects are.

The Stories So Far

Clean…?  The plant offered clean energy.  Cleaner might’ve been more accurate.  The fish living downstream of the runoff might’ve said something different entirely.   This is set in the universe/city/power plant featured in Saving the Cult (If not the World), a ‘verse tagged Organization.
2️⃣comments

Seek And…?  Long long ago, I began a story about a woman lost in a blizzard and ending up in a different world. This story peeks in on her life, as she fishes for answers and is caught in turn.
2️⃣comments

Fresh Fish  The city of Scheffenon, on the North Sea high on the edges of the Empire, is known for many things.  But one thing that it is not known for – at least in modern times – is fish, or at least fish pulled from the North Sea.  They do not fish, not as such, on the North Sea. (Things Unspoken ‘verse)
9️⃣comments

Unplumbed Depths – Fishing in Minecraft can get you some strange results.  This fictional view of the fishing strips out a lot of the blockier elements but does leave a fishing pole with, perhaps, a little too much Luck enchanted into it.
4️⃣ comments

…A Break…? – Jess works security at The Facility, a place where science which nobody calls mad (in the hearing of the scientists) is perpetrated.  It’s a really good job.  But sometimes, your friend up in the top end of things asks for a favor…
4️⃣comments

The Night Fishers – they only fished at day.  Murph was about to find out why.
4️⃣comments

Fishing Day – She should’ve done something better with the body, but it was her fishing day, and she didn’t want to be interrupted.
7️⃣ comments

Fountain Fishing There’s nothing alive in this abandoned mall except Abby, Liv, and the fish in the fountain. Not even a protein bar.  So going fishing seemed like the reasonable idea, right?
5️⃣ comments

Fountain Fishing

Fountain Fishing

This is set in (one of ) the world(s) of the Hidden Mall – Abby and Liv have been travelling through a series of multiverse malls, many of them abandoned. Actually, many Abby-and-Livs, Sandy-and-Vics have been travelling – this is a different Abby & Liv than those in the main story. 

🐟

Abby glared at the fountain.

This was the prettiest mall they had found yet. This was the nicest mall they had found – empty, at least – in all of their explorations. But something about it was also just, well, sterile.

There were no food courts. There were no trees, not even fake ones, no plantings, no stores selling anything edible – even the clothing was stiff and formal and so very sterile.

There were fish in the fountains, though.  There were fish in this biggest fountain especially, big ones, koi maybe, darting in and out of the very symmetrical, very smooth sculptures which obscured the bottom of the fountain, leaving it in shadows. 

So Abby had figured out a fishing pole and line with various things stolen from various stores, and she had sat down here with her hook and she had, well. Continue reading