Two ordinary transport technicians, working their first shift together, are assigned to drive a high-profile prisoner.
Music: “Monochromatic Stain” by Nicholas Jeudy
[Video Description: “A Proximite and a Human” Trailer. Duration, 36 seconds. Music, “Monochromatic Stain” by Nicholas Jeudy. Digital drawing. At middle, a human man sitting on the ground, facing forward, turned slightly to right of frame, wearing jacket, pants, and boots. His left leg is draw up and his hand rests on his knee. His right leg is extended but partially bent. A bandage is wrapped around his right thigh. His right palm is pressed to the ground beside him, supporting his weight. His face is looking down. Two characters hover beside him at the level of his head. At left, a sphere. Near the bottom of the sphere are two recesses with domed tops and flat bottoms. Within the recesses are smaller spheres, giving the effect of eyes. Next to one eye, from a circular recess, a jointed appendage made of rods and nodes extends down. Liquid leaks from two of the recesses. At right, a face divided into three parts with one eye, one nose, and a mouth on each part. Each part is elongated. Eyebrows appear both above and below each eye. Straight wrinkles appear at the forehead and on each nose. Title card with the words “Short Story” and “Genre: Science Fiction,” is displayed at top. Tagline is displayed at bottom. It reads: “Two ordinary transport technicians, working their first shift together, are assigned to drive a high-profile prisoner.” Title card and tagline fade. A watermark of the word “storyfeather” appears over the image. Lines from the story appear in sequence: “‘What do we do, Twill? What can we do?’ ‘We can pray and hope that we are both very, very lucky.’ The transport vehicle was rocked by another plasma blast. Twill and Javier were pushed forward when the vehicle slid back. Javier felt the heat of that one. And the cold. His mind, overwhelmed, seemed empty. Darkness descended upon them.” Site URL appears at bottom center throughout and fades at end. As the last line disappears, the image blurs, the story title appears at center, and a text card appears at top that reads “Available to Read Now storyfeather.com.”]
Welcome to Year 9 of Storyfeather
Every year’s short stories (mostly) follow a theme. This year, I will turn the Wheel of Fiction to help me decide what to write. There are thirteen spokes on this wheel. Eight are occupied by the eight themes from the previous years of stories. One is a prompt to turn the wheel again. One is a wildcard (hmm…curious). And three are covered only in question marks. I suppose I’ll find out what’s beneath those questions as we go along.
Welcome to the WHEEL OF FICTION
The Wheel of Fiction landed on Elements for this week’s story. I have a book that’s a visual exploration of the elements on the Periodic Table. After flipping through, reading, and trying to think of a premise for a story, I landed on the entry for neodymium. I had already encountered another element with practical uses for its magnetic properties, holmium. My initial thought was about using magnets to keep someone contained because their body is magnetic. So why and how is their body magnetic? And why is the person being held captive? They’re dangerous? What if they’re being transported and something goes wrong? On looking at synonyms for “magnet” in the hopes of getting some ideas for a title, I was drawn to the word “lodestone,” which then led me to “lodestar.” And off I went…
Resource: The Elements: A Visual Exploration of Every Known Atom in the Universe by Theodore Gray
[Video Description: Duration, 9 seconds. Choice wheel made on the Spin the Wheel application. Thirteen spokes or slices in various colors, labeled as follows, clockwise from the top: Objects of Power (the “of Power” is not visible), Prompts, Definitions, Turn Again, Elements, Creatures, S.T.E.A.M., Wildcard, Revisitation, Music, Challenge, Draw!!!, Traveler. The title at top reads “The Wheel of Fiction V4” and below that the words “Spin the wheel.” Below that is the date of the spin, 5/21/2022. At top left corner is a flag icon labeled with the letter “F.” This represents a function of the application which interferes with true randomness by reducing the probability of receiving the same choice twice in a row. The wheel turns and lands on Turn Again, turns again and lands on ELEMENTS. As the wheel stops spinning, a cartoon of a magnet spins into view around the center, and bolts blink at the ends.]
Genre: Science Fiction
Tags: HUMAN, JAVIER, LODESTAR, PRISONER, PROXIMITE, TRANSPORT, TWILL
JUMP INTO THE PORTAL BELOW TO EXPLORE MORE STORIES
