penthius

The desert wind whipped ice fragments and sand at him. His face shield and armor protected his body, but the sword he carried was not designed for this planet. He spared a moment to worry about the grit abrading the blade if he needed to draw it. He had not planned on being armed. He had not planned on encountering anybody who he might need to use a weapon against. He had not planned on finding a sword, or a colony in need.

He had planned on walking into exile on the worst world he could find, with enough survival tools that it would be written off as a failure and not as the hara-kiri that it was. In these days of lifetime family contracts, and insurance obligations, he could not simply take his sword and cut his stomach open after failure, but the obligation to kill himself because of his great, deep failure remained. The question had only been, how could he kill himself without killing himself? He had thought this was the answer.

Inspiration: Samurai sketch on ArtStation
Story potential: High
Notes: Classic plot structure, SF setting, could be fun.

It was the fate of the children that made the earth dragon so angry he split his mouth wide and swallowed them up. They should never have done what they did, or rather, let the king do what he did. They huddled their few remaining children away in their houses and turned down the king's offer of a golden child to replace their own. It had seemed not such a bad thing to let their children go off to the king's special school--an education, maybe a government post in the future, and one less mouth to feed. There were so many children, most people kept only their heir with them, or sometimes, they sent their heir to learn and kept only a girl child to help--

Inspiration: News about the China earthquake, earlier reference to Midas elsewhere, and thoughts of the Pied Piper.
Potential: High, sort of.
Notes: It's unique enough, all right, but executing it would be tricky, and the story needs to be fleshed out.

The dog honors were on Saturday, and she wouldn't miss them. She didn't care that it meant she'd have to skip what sounded like an honest-to-god date with an honest-to-god decent guy who wasn't half bad-looking. That was just a date. This was her partner finally getting the recognition she deserved. "I'm sorry," she said. "I have to be there for my bitch." The guy blinked in startlement at her. "I'm a cop," she explained with half a laugh--she must be tireder than she'd thought to slip into cop slang around a civ. "My canine partner is getting honored this Saturday, and I have to be there." "Ah." He paused for thought. "Would you like to meet--

Inspiration: "Labradors Fetch Top Dog Honor"
Story Potential: High, actually, at least as a setup.
Notes: Maybe I just have a soft spot for augmented animals? Man's best friend and all that? Though--monkeys would be awesomer. Especially if it was set in India. Hmm. On the minus side, I wouldn't be able to use the phrase, "Cop bitch," in all seriousness.

"Is the tea ceremony done?"

"Yes, it's done," I said, turning away slightly and tilting my head so that he could not read my face. I did not want to reveal my inadequacy so soon in my new marriage, for my husband was tall and strong and handsome despite a few scars from battle. I wanted to please him. I wanted him to not put me aside and go to the soothing poetry and perfect tea ceremonies of the geisha in his town. I knew I could not deceive him forever, but in this small matter, a tea ceremony for a ghost, surely he would have no way of discovering my ignorance. Perhaps I could even, in a subtle way, pick up the proper knowledge. For raised alone by my father, who was distant and involved in business not to be--

Inspiration: "nonfeasance" and the cup of tea in front of me.
Story Potential: High.
Notes: As far as the story goes, I wasn't thinking of this to start with, but I like it. It ties in to any number of fairytales where the new bride does/doesn't do something crucial that she is required to go on a long adventure through many perils to right. And I like the Asian aspect of it.

Has it really been a week since I did this last? Yikes. And to think that I started this as way to get some writing, however little, done on a daily basis...to keep the pipes from freezing over. Then I do get horribly, terribly busy and it's one of the first things to go. Well, not one of the first, but go it did. Must do better in the future.

She took the last sip of plum wine and held it in her mouth, savoring the rich sweetness, knowing that it might be the last time she would be able to taste such fine wine. She lifted her bowl of noodles and poured a bit of the broth into the wine cup, then brought it to her lips and drank. Then she set aside the bowl and waited for the poison that had been in her soup noodles to take effect. The first sign was a tightening in her chest and a strange warmth in her belly. She pressed her hand against the side of her kimono, as if that would help to prevent the inevitable. She closed her eyes and prepared to nearly die. Her eyes flew open again in alarm when she realized that the bowl of noodles, barely touched, might warn them that their plan hadn't worked. She pushed herself--

Inspiration: A glass of plum wine.
Story Potential: High?
Notes: Not entirely sure that the potential of this is not merely my personal bias in favor of Asian skullduggery...and, well, skullduggery in general.

She woke when the tatami mat beneath her became damp with silt water from the rice fields. She had had a dream that the moon goddess was reaching down to shake her by the shoulder, crying sad tears that washed over her face and dampened her hair. When her eyes opened, at first she thought that the tears were still falling--then she tasted the silt in her mouth and sat bolt upright. She was going to cry out that the paddies were flooding and they should bring all their goods to the rooftop, but her mouth froze, open. She was floating on a wide sea--she sat on her tatami mat as it spun through--

Inspiration: "1982--Floods in Japan kill 200"
Story Potential: High.
Notes: Practical explanation or magic tatami mat?

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Entries tagged with asian

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SF Samurai: SF

Golden Children: Fantasy

Dog Honors: Science Fiction

Unfinished Tea Ceremony: Fairytale

Poisoned Noodle Soup: Genre Undetermined

Tatami Mat on the Flood: Fantasy

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January 2025

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