51-Word Story #365: The End

The year draws close to its inevitable finale. I'm not usually someone to go crazy over one random point in the space-time continuum. But it's an excuse to celebrate, so why not? Speaking of the New Year, this story is my 365th, marking a full year. Maybe I should backup sometime.

(Prompt words: Backup, finale)

51-Word Story #364: Trapped

I don't know how long it's been. Probably close to a year by now, I've been trapped in this cage. It is quite roomy but my freedom is restricted just the same. I'm forced to write music all day. To write the ultimate aria. That's the only reason I'm still alive.

(Prompt words: Aria, cage)

51-Word Story #363: Can Something Truly Never End?

"Would you stop that!?"
"I'm not doing anything though."
"You're doing plenty and it's very annoying."
"What? Breathing? Living? What do you want me to stop?"
"No, that.. Cease your incessant attitude."
"If it's incessant than I can't stop. That's what incessant means!"
"Ugh, I need to search for better friends."

(Prompt words: Search, incessant)

51-Word Story #362: Purchase Denied

Concepts of finance permeate our lives. Recently I was trying to purchase something, and I asked if the price was negotiable. The teller failed to understand such a concept. No, this is how much it is. You must pay in accepted currency. "But all I brought was chickens!" No, cash only.

(Prompt words: Currency, finance)

51-Word Story #361: The Soundtrack to My Childhood

Medleys are by far my favourite method of music delivery. Even more when it's a medley of my nostalgia. Even if the songs would be considered objectively average, I'm a slave to the nostalgic beats; the memories of my childhood. Put many such songs together and I could listen for days.

(Prompt words: Medley, slave)

51-Word Story #360: Where Do You Want to Go?

Fred was growing increasingly concerned with the rampant use of abbreviations. "Everything needs to be shorter," he complained. "Do people not have time for a few extra syllables?" As the founding member of Fred's Unbelievably Crazy Knickknacks, his concern was not unfounded. "They won't manipulate me. Abbreviation is the devil's work."

(Prompt words: Manipulate, abbreviation)

51-Word Story #359: A Thought Occurs

I was heating up a bowl of leftover pasta, holding a fork in my mouth. What if I were to accidentally fall? That'd be dangerous! Or if I was riding my bike with Pocky in my mouth and wiped out. That stuff is pointy if you bite it the wrong way.

(Prompt words: Bike, Pocky)

51-Word Story #358: Annual Socially-Mandated Cheerfulness and Gift-Giving Day

So Christmas is happening. The last two months of Christmas music and decorations might've tipped you off. Don't get me wrong, I'm no scrooge, but my enthusiasm has faded since my youth. Children are more easily amused. I remember being amused by a velvety tassel on my Grandmother's tablecloth one Christmas.

(Prompt words: Scrooge, tassel)

51-Word Story #357: Not a Complaint, Just a Suggestion

I like de Blob, but one grievance I have is the pacing. It doesn't advertise as one, but it plays as a game of leisure. Playing a level thoroughly can take over an hour. Despite Blob's mood fluctuating between hectic and gonzo, the game keeps its unusual flair of wacky calmness.

(Prompt words: Leisure, gonzo)

51-Word Story #356: Two Blades are Better Than One

"This is going to be dangerous, but failure is unacceptable. Can you handle it?"
"I will succeed. You have my word."
"You're going to need more than your word. You'll have my sword."
"And my bow."
"And my labrys!"
"What's a labrys?"
"It's a double-sided axe."
"Just say axe, you clown."

(Prompt words: Unacceptable, labrys)

51-Word Story #355: They Make You Feel Bigger

There are many volatile types of fungi, many with undocumented effects, such as the Phlebian genus. But eating mushrooms seems like a standard practice in Mario series games. If you think about it, Mario is probably high most of the time. Mushrooms aren't magical, they're hallucinogens. Nintendo would abolish the thought.

(Prompt words: Abolish, Phlebian)

51-Word Story #354: Use All the Items!

If I was playing with more human players in Mario Kart, sure, I could offer some empathy to their loss and some humility at mine. But when playing against computer racers, I care for nothing other than the gold trophy and the 3-star rating. No one better get in my way!

(Prompt words: Empathy, trophy)

51-Word Story #353: Lamellar? Really?

"Lamellar structures are gill-shaped structures consisting of fine sheets of material held adjacent to one another, often with fluid in between," Wikipedia tells me as I feign interest. I have no idea how to write a story about this. I'm gonna go back to the shell-smashing fun of Mario Kart 7.

(Prompt words: Shell, lamellar)

51-Word Story #352: Initial Concerns

One of my pet peeves is the misuse of the word "acronym." The word you are looking for is initialism. I will not be chained down by common misconceptions! An acronym only describes an initialism that is spoken like a word, like SCUBA or RADAR. Anything else is not an acronym!

(Prompt words: Acronym, chained)

51-Word Story #351: Blueberry!

Put on your best outfits, boys and girls. Take out your best bow, your trimmest tie; it's time to celebrate! Angry Birds is celebrating their 2nd year anniversary, and like all 2-year-olds, they're starting to change in undesirable ways. Like removing the victory jingle! And that one pig that won't die!

(Prompt words: Bow, birds)

51-Word Story #350: Getting With the Times

I think languages need an overhaul. Let's upgrade less common languages like Zulu and German (seriously, who speaks German?) and make them more like English. Actually, make them the same as English. That way I can claim I speak more languages. It's win-win! No, I don't know what that phrase means.

(Prompt words: Upgrade, Zulu)

51-Word Story #349: Brilliant Strategy

Look, I know I've said this a bunch of times already, but this time it's the real deal. I have the solution we need to get off welfare and back doing business. One word: lanyards. It's an open market! Do you see anyone wearing a lanyard? Hardly anyone! We'll make millions!

(Prompt words: Lanyard, welfare)

51-Word Story #348: The Following is a List of 51 Random Words that Begin with T, Most of Which I Thought of Randomly but Since I Tried to Pick Uncommon Words This Actually Took Far Longer Than It Should Have

Tachometer, tangential, tantalizing, tantamount, taurine, tautology, tawdry, taxidermy, tectonics, telekinesis, temporal, tenet, tepid, terracotta, tertiary, tetanus, textile, theism, theocracy, therewithal, thermal, thespian, thither, thrombus, thyroid, tilde, titillate, toothsome, topology, torpid, tracheotomy, trafficking, trajectory, transistor, transitive, trapezium, traumatology, treatise, trebuchet, trepidation, triage, tribulation, triphthong, triskaidekaphobia, truancy, truncate, tubercular, tuberous, turpentine, turquoise, typography.

(Prompt words: Transistor, thespian)

51-Word Story #347: Papal Concerns

As far as fears go, papaphobia, fear of the papacy, is one of the weirder ones. I can understand disliking the papacy, but fearing it is odd. But I suppose that's what fear is: irrational. Inexplicable. Fears of non-existent things like mythical creatures and ghosts confuse me in a similar fashion.

(Prompt words: Papaphobia, mythical)

51-Word Story #346: The Unusually Well-Off Snowman

Frosty, being the most iconic snowman, has a lot of lesser snowmen modeled after him. That's what I was thinking as I walked around last winter, seeing snowmen left and right. But there's always one item missing: the top hat. It's a luxury item, so that's understandable. They're lower class snowmen.

(Prompt words: Luxury, snowman)