Welcome back to week 36 of Odd Prompts, creative prompts for whatever medium tickles your fancy. If you’re new around these More Odds Than Ends parts, we’re a friendly bunch…if a little odd on occasion.
Here’s how it works: Submit a prompt by Tuesday of each week to oddprompts@gmail.com. You can trade with someone else, or if you add “spare” to the subject line, we’ll know to keep you footloose and fancy free, zero obligation. Submit your entry in the comments, be it a link to yon website, a full story posted down below, a musical entry, or an artistic endeavor of another nature (sorry, WordPress doesn’t like images in comments, but links work).
I’d like to point out, baked goods are perfectly acceptable submissions for hungry creative folk. What’s that? Get on with the prompts? Fine, fine. That’s what we’re here for.
| Prompter | Prompt | Prompted |
| Anne Guglik | The sun was red, peeking through the drifting smoke and ash-laden air. I stared up at it, wondering what to do next. This changed everything. |
Cedar Sanderson
|
| Fiona Grey | Visual prompt (see “St Malo” photo below): Tell the story of this ruined castle. | nother Mike |
| Cedar Sanderson | The very friendly tabby cat twined around her ankles just as the dragon opened his mouth. | Anne Guglik |
| Becky Jones | Your cat walks in the door, proudly carrying his captive. On closer inspection you realize there is one pissed off fairy hanging from the cat’s mouth. | Leigh Kimmel |
| Leigh Kimmel | The dreams of one man actually create a strange half-mad world of quasimaterial substance in another dimension. Another man, also a dreamer, blunders into this world in a dream. What he finds. Intelligence of denizens. Their dependence on the first dreamer. What happens at his death. | Fiona Grey |
| nother Mike | The newly dead spirits held a lottery, and he/she won a day to return and walk among the living. Tell us about that day… | Becky Jones |
This week’s visual prompts:
Last but certainly not least, our inspirational prompts that haven’t yet found their forever homes. They’re just as cuddly and sharp-toothed as puppies, and just as likely to follow you home in hopes you’ll keep it around for a while.
| Spare | The mouths yawned open, begging to be fed, while distant minions worked at hurried speed |
| Spare | “So there I was, on the dark web, and you know I couldn’t resist the chance to rent a berserker…” |
| Spare | Alien archivists |
| Spare | The stew tasted odd today. S/he squinted, and saw in the wooden bowl’s depths… |
| Spare | There was a giant robot trampling the middle of town. Otherwise, it was an ordinary Sunday afternoon. |
| Spare | He got a head at the grocery today. He hadn’t planned to, but those blue eyes, that boyish smile, and the dimples… he just had to get it. Now what was he going to do with it? |
See you in the comments, and keep the creativity flowing!
Header image Fiona Grey, bricks at Carillon Historical Park.
More Odds Than Ends 
Snagged one of the spares.
++++++++++
“So there I was, on the dark web, and you know I couldn’t resist the chance to rent a berserker…” Brain’s voice faded out as he shrugged.
Star peered over the top of the laptop at one of their favorite Sententials. “Dude, you should know better. You know what’s out there.”
“I know, I know.” He half laughed. “I was looking for game mods, and all that. I get up yesterday and my laptop’s gone berserk, e-mailing everyone in my contact lists.”
“They call it “dark” web for a reason.” Star examined a line of code. “You know half the viruses out there come for there. And they ain’t all jus’ code. Robin is only half kidding when she says computers are tame demons.”
“So, can you fix it? Quietly.” He ducked his head and gave her sheepish look.
“Yeah.” Star sighed and closed the infected device. “It’ll cost ya though.”
A sly grin tugged at his lips. “How ‘bout a pass to my next gig?”
“Nah, Dude, hip-hop’s not my scene.” She shook her head. “Now a nice ballet or a taicho drum performance and we’d talk. Let’s just say you owe me one.”
He gave her a mock disgusted look and laughed. “I get the drums, man, but that froo-foo stuff, unhn.”
Star returned the laugh and slid the laptop in a warded bag that would keep the code-demon from escaping. “I should have this back in a day or so. Just be prepared, if I have to call Robin in to deal with the demon, you’re going to get razzed.”
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Looks like we’re attracted to the some prompts. We were thinking of using this for an extra bit in the world we’ve been talking about forever.
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😀 ❤
I can hardly wait.
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Sorry, just a fragment. Juggling too many things, I guess…
Guardian of the Ghouls
By Mike Barker
No one pays much attention to low tide. High tide, sure, people worry about flooding. But low tide? Unless you’re beachcombing, and want to walk out…
Or you’re a guardian of the ghouls, like me. I mean, we’ve got a low tide coming, and I’m worried.
You look at the old fort, and you see ruins, with the ocean lapping around them. But every now and then, low tide threatens to make a land bridge.
And that worries me. You see, when they fought the ghouls, they trapped them in the ruins. That’s right, they left them out there. And they are hungry! But as long as the ocean keeps them trapped, they can’t escape.
But low tide… if there is a land bridge, they are going to come across. And start eating.
So I worry about low tides. And this year, the ocean seems lower than usual.
By the way, if you are planning on visiting the fort, go during the day, okay. And make sure to leave before it gets dark. That’s when the ghouls come out to scream.
[maybe…]
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[…] Week 36 of Odd prompts gave me more fodder for the ongoing Cursebreaker story. Taking my cue from Cedar Sanderson, for the last few weeks I’ve been trying to work each prompt into the story no matter what. I’m still planning on turning this into a book, and I expect to do a great deal of adding and editing. But I do like the direction it’s heading. This week my prompt came from ‘nother Mike: The newly dead spirits held a lottery, and he/she won a day to return and walk among the living. Tell us about that day… I modified it slightly to fit the story, but I think I stayed true to the prompt. My prompt went to Leigh Kimmel and I’m very much looking forward to what she does with a fairy-hunting cat. Previous installments of the Cursebreaker story can be found at the link above. […]
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Cursebreaker continues…
https://profornery.wordpress.com/2020/09/08/among-the-living/
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[…] My photo prompt on ruined fortresses went to nother Mike, and I do hope he continues the story about ghouls eventually. […]
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Which may be why I woke up this morning with this running through my head…
Oh, oh, oh, oh…
The ghouls on the rock,
They scream and shout,
Fret and pout,
They want out…
But…
The ghouls on the rock,
They mustn’t get out,
Can’t let’m out,
Never get out…
For…
The ghouls on the rock
Are hungry and sore,
They’ll eat some more,
And then bite the core!
Oh, oh, oh, oh…
The ghouls on the rock,
They scream and shout,
Fret and pout,
They want out…
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[…] Prompts challenge, and perhaps take part, or read the excellent entries, make your way on over to More Odds Than Ends. […]
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This last week was a struggle, but then I realized I’d written over 4000 words for the prompt. Whoops. I really try not to get carried away like that! But it was fun, and I’ve set myself up an epic pun. https://www.cedarwrites.com/2020/09/08/the-case-of-the-perambulating-hatrack-part-30/
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I am on the edge of my seat!
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And mine is now up at my LiveJournal at https://starshipcat.livejournal.com/811685.html. It’s interesting that it was actually harder to write a segment out of an existing storyline — but it’s a very middle scene in a book that’s several books into a sequence, and currently exists primarily as notes. There’s a lot of background that would be established earlier, and I was feeling a need to slip it in, but it was just bogging everything down and sending it off into the weeds.
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