A stegosaur scientist uses her own body in her experiments to achieve a physical feat that seems impossible for a dinosaur of her kind…flight.
Music: “Casual Theme #2” by Andrew Sitkov
[Video Description: Trailer. Duration, 37 seconds. Music: “Casual Theme #2” by Andrew Sitkov. Digital drawing. Hovering in the sky, left side view of a stegosaur-like dinosaur with a bulky body, claw-like toes, bony spikes on the tail, a long neck, protruding snout and bony plates along the back. The dinosaur’s mouth is open in what appears to be a smile, eye looking at the viewer. From within the middle of the bony plates there emerge pairs of delicate veined wings like those of a fly or beetle. A watermark of the word “storyfeather” lies over the image. Title card with the words “Short Story” and “Genre: Science Fiction” and the story title are displayed in front of the image. The title card and story title fade. Lines from the story appear over the image: “Modifications! Glint, what you’re proposing is more than modification. How? Magnets! Sometimes people don’t know they need an invention until it’s invented. Know your limits, Glint. I’m trusting you to stop if you reach them. But can it be done?” The title reappears at top just as the last line disappears. A watermark of the site URL appears at bottom center throughout.]
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 S.T.E.A.M. Science. Technology. Engineering. Arts. Mathematics. I’ve been doing an art challenge I came across on IG called Creatuanuary (Creatures in January). So to save myself from having to draw even more images this month, I’ve attempted to use any relevant image (that’s not already connected to an existing intellectual property) for my stories, assuming I don’t have to force anything.
I choose the image prompt for drawing a mutant flying dinosaur, figuring I could come up with a science fiction story. Then I tried to think of something a little lighthearted. The age of dinosaurs was so long, they surely developed every version of our technology, and developed skills far beyond humanity’s own in every field of study. Enter the stegosaur who works as a geneticist at a research institute that endows volunteers with atypical abilities and attributes.
[Video Description: Duration, 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, (alternating question marks and apostrophes), Challenge, (alternating questions marks and asterisks), (question marks). The title at top reads “The Wheel of Fiction” and below that the words “Spin the wheel.” Below that is the date of the spin, 1/27/2022. 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 STEAM. At bottom right throughout is a smiling cartoon cat, standing upright, facing front, wearing goggles, shirt, and a laboratory coat, holding an open book in the right paw and a round bottom beaker in the left, which the cat shakes slightly.]
Genre: Science Fiction
Tags: BEETLE, DINOSAUR, GENETICS, GLINT, HOP, LIMUSAURUS, METAMORPHOSIS, STEGOSAUR, WINGS
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