Tagged: circus

You’ve Probably Noticed

  • by jen(aka Slippery Eel)
  • eat all the candy yourself
  • said through giggles
  • we never were sentimental
  • I’ll bite down hard on a

Tune in next time part 685      Click Here for Earlier Installments

You’ve probably noticed my tendency to swear like a sailor. It’s an unfortunate habit I picked up during my time on the tramp steamer. While I usually have no compunctions about letting the profanities fly, I’ll bite down hard on a four letter word when there are children around. I’m not sure where my squeamishness comes from. In my family we never were sentimental about the innocence of childhood. I remember many, many times when the bluest language was said through giggles in the playroom. Any little thing would set my siblings off. All you had to do to be lambasted was change the channel on the TV while someone else was watching, or eat all the candy yourself on Halloween, or give someone a wet willie (aka Slippery Eel).

I mention all of this so that you’ll understand how difficult it was for me to not give voice to my frustrations with the ineffectual restaurant employee, the rude circus people, and the thick layer of frost keeping me from the frozen cutlery I needed to derail my rampaging brother and protect my myriad offspring.

bonus points for using them in reverse order

about stichomancy writing prompts

try our stichomancy writing prompt generator!

I Burst into the Bistro

  • by jenchanged the course of music history
  • spoiled his dachshunds
  • it’s weird that neither of them is a llama
  • some circus people
  • arrived with two children

Tune in next time part 683      Click Here for Earlier Installments

I burst into the bistro. “Give me a chilled fork immediately!”

“Oh, wow!” said the wispy teen behind the counter. “You’re Jason!” Before I could correct him he said, “Your sick rhymes about prenuptial agreements changed the course of music history, and my mom’s second marriage. She married this guy who spoiled his dachshunds something awful, but thanks to your song she was able to force him to buy her some pets of her own. It’s weird that neither of them is a llama, cos llamas have always been her favorite, but she seems happy.”

“A fork dammit,” I demanded. “Chilled. Now.”

“Sure, Jason. Anything for you.”

While he went to the cutlery freezer the bistro door opened and some circus people arrived with two children. Two identical children who looked an awful lot like all the others on board, which meant they were probably mine. Was their mother one of the Russian contortionist sisters? Or Titania, the Crystal Clown? Or some other circus-adjacent woman altogether?

bonus points for using them in order

about stichomancy writing prompts

try our stichomancy writing prompt generator!

Animosity Between Lyudmila and Svetlana

  • by jenstill held some liquid
  • watching her all the time
  • not good enough to own such a fancy car
  • hot, reeking scent of their blood
  • Like a real gentleman.

Tune in next time part 389      Click Here for Earlier Installments

Animosity between Lyudmila and Svetlana boiled over from time to time, but however much froth and steam they created, the vessel of their joint hatred still held some liquid, and there was always the danger that it would erupt again. That animosity traced back to their circus days. Due to their extreme flexibility, the ringmaster treated them as a single unit. It was difficult for the sisters to always be in such close quarters: entwined together inside a single suitcase: limbs intertwined as they were made to share a single cot, a single shower cubicle, a single berth on the train. Each felt that her sister was watching her all the time, watching and judging. It all came to a head when Svetlana was awarded Employee of the Month, an honor that included a medal ceremony and the keys to a new Lada. Lyudmila was incensed. She felt that Svetlana on her own was not good enough to own such a fancy car, that the two of them were a package deal, and the only reason Svetlana won was because she’d lately been sleeping with both the ringmaster and the lion tamer. Lyudmila confronted Svetlana about her perceived duplicity, and the sisters began to fight. Being contortionists, their fight choreography was like nothing anyone had ever seen before, and they quickly drew a crowd. Before long they each had black eyes and nosebleeds. The hot, reeking scent of their blood enraged the performing animals. The lion tamer and his wife, the tiger tamer barely kept their cats under control long enough for the ringmaster to disperse the audience. In his fury, the ringmaster fired both sisters, and threw them out with only the costumes on their backs, and no severance pay. Like a real gentleman.

But if the sisters had been fired from the circus and never worked together again, then how could my French prisoner have eaten fish with them on the train? Unless he had been lying to me all along.

bonus points for using them in order

about stichomancy writing prompts

try our stichomancy writing prompt generator!

My Silence Encouraged the Spy

  • by jenI know that I shall go mad!
  • outselling Rod Stewart
  • fallen into a trance
  • with decorative bullet holes
  • Japanese lingerie maker

Tune in next time part 385      Click Here for Earlier Installments

My silence encouraged the spy to keep talking. “I take one look at the twisted sisters and I know that I shall go mad! With love! I know that I will do anything they ask of me, for if their beauty were a musical recording it would be outselling Rod Stewart, that’s how great it is.”

His eyes unfocused as if he’d fallen into a trance, and a small smile played at his lips. “They wore matching costumes, of course, with decorative bullet holes in some very revealing locations. I believe they were designed by a Japanese lingerie maker.”

This was maddening. I needed him to tell me more about the sisters, not their clothing! And specifically I needed to know which one had sent him on his mission.

bonus points for using them in order

about stichomancy writing prompts

try our stichomancy writing prompt generator!

Jim Stood and Started Handing Me Babies

  • by jenhad gone… less swimmingly.
  • ate normally
  • precisely between her narrow shoulder blades
  • one day melted into the next
  • in the city of Volgograd

Tune in next time part 383      Click Here for Earlier Installments

Jim stood and started handing me babies, though he kept the harnesses, and I only had so many arms. Few things in Contrarian history, besides the Battle of Brouhaha, had gone… less swimmingly. With three babes balanced along each arm like a waiter in a restaurant where no one ate normally, I bent forward at the waist and kissed Fleur precisely between her narrow shoulder blades. That’s the ritual Contrarian farewell between spouses when one is leaving the other in the presence of only in-laws of the opposite gender.

I tottered down the stairs with my six infant children and found the French circus performer still strapped to his chair. He looked at me and my strange burden and said, “I could teach you how to juggle.”

“Tell me where you met your spy-mistress,” I said, ignoring his kind offer.

He loosed a long, wistfully Gallic sigh. “One day melted into the next when the circus was in the city of Volgograd. I was surrounded by aerialists, and bears on bicycles. And then one day, she appeared.” He met my eye, tears streaming down his cheeks. “She and her sister had a contortionist act that is beyond description. So beautiful. So haunting.”

Russian contortionist sisters! They could only be Svetlana and Lyudmila! But which one had sent this man to collect my “special sauce”? Probably not Svetlana, since she’d misunderstood the objective and had only just given birth to my quadruplet sons. Which meant it was probably Lyudmila, whom I hadn’t seen in months. Unless Svetlana was trying to redeem herself?

The two lithe and extremely flexible ladies went round and round in my head. I couldn’t decide which was the more likely agent behind this bizarre Frenchman’s quest.

bonus points for using them in order

about stichomancy writing prompts

try our stichomancy writing prompt generator!

“About Those Mountain Garrisons”

  • by jenWhenever I eat grapes near her
  • the pantsless hug thing
  • ring of dried blood
  • decorated with blue, pink, yellow, and green frosting
  • wiggled my fingers at him

Tune in next time part 373      Click Here for Earlier Installments

“About those mountain garrisons,” I said, ready to embrace my new military responsibilities.

“They are in the Paradoxica region, on the three-way border between Contraria, Harmonia, and Melodia,” Fleur said. “Far, far away from here. Sit down, General. It’s time for the fruit course.”

As a general I had to obey the Warlord’s daughter, and as her husband doubly so. I sat in the empty chair between Fleur and Isolde, and moments later a parade of waiters carried out trays and trays laden with grapes of every size and color. Fleur’s blue eyes grew hooded. My wife has a very particular fetish. Whenever I eat grapes near her, she has the uncontrollable need to do the pantsless hug thing. You know — sex.

After my very recent assignations with Olga and the Crystal Clown, I wasn’t sure I was up for what she undoubtedly had in mind. Perhaps I could decline the grapes. Their mere proximity was probably not enough to get her fired up.

Isolde scooped up a handful of plump maroon Inimical grapes and began to feed them to Harry. He was not a neat eater, and their juice soon made it look like he had a ring of dried blood around his froggy mouth. I shuddered and chanced a look at my wife.

Fleur had arranged a platter of grapes in front of me. The luscious fruits were decorated with blue, pink, yellow, and green frosting, in the Inimical fashion, and arranged to spell out the words “Eat Me, General.”

“I’m quite exhausted Fleur,” I murmured to her. “And you’ve so recently given birth.”

“You see that man over there in the sequined bodysuit?” she replied in a low, breathy voice, pointing across the restaurant at a slim, silver-haired man who was indeed dressed for the circus. “He’s a spy.”

“A spy?” He certainly wasn’t dressed to blend in.

“I know it to be true because I wiggled my fingers at him in a way that most people would take to be a wave, but which was really the Acrobat’s Code, and his eyebrow twitched, so obviously he’s a spy.”

“Or he had a tic.”

“He’s a spy,” she said forcefully. “We must provide a distraction. Now eat your grapes. That’s an order.”

bonus points for using them in order

about stichomancy writing prompts

try our stichomancy writing prompt generator!

Fletcher Made the Mistake

  • by jenexplosives placed inside
  • regarding the stranger as a harmless lunatic
  • within the system
  • “No grownups!”
  • the sacred lotus flower

Fletcher made the mistake of regarding the stranger as a harmless lunatic, one of those poor unfortunates who can’t really get along within the system of society, but pose no real danger. It was a mistake he would regret until the day he died, even after his mind atrophied and his once magnificent intellect devolved to a childlike state that compelled him to build forts out of couch cushions and yell, “No grownups!” any time a nurse or orderly approached with his medication. The stranger was definitely a lunatic, but he was anything but harmless. The sacred lotus flower he carried past Fletcher’s security post that fateful day had enough high-grade explosives placed inside to flatten a city block, so the circus tent stood no chance. No chance at all.

about stichomancy writing prompts

try our stichomancy writing prompt generator!

Do You Have Them Memorized?

  • k-avatarDo you have them memorized?
  • gravity tugging at her cheeks
  • pale glow rippling above the strongman’s skin
  • By the crossed eyes of the Jumbo!
  • I am captured!
  • as the animal disappeared
  • great plaid bags of trousers

“Do you have them memorized?” Zelda asked Lorenzo, prompting him to glance up from her breasts in embarrassment. Decades of gravity tugging at her cheeks had made her countenance sorrowful and her pants ill-fitting, yet had somehow left her bosom unravaged.

Lorenzo lifted the tent flap to peer outside, and decided it was safe. But after two strides, a pale glow rippling above the strongman’s skin told of his miscalculation as he suddenly froze in place.

“By the crossed eyes of the Jumbo! I am captured!”

Zelda poked her head out of the tent and immediately saw the culprit: a force-projecting depantser, which she recognized by its vermilion tailfeathers as the animal disappeared into the forest. Lorenzo would be fine in a moment, but his pants were gone forever, added to the depantser’s hoard. As Lorenzo blushed, Zelda imagined the cave, filled with great plaid bags of trousers.

 

bonus points for using them in order!

about stichomancy writing prompts

try our stichomancy writing prompt generator!

There Will Be No Tribunal, Humpries

  • by jenIs it a sea dragon?
  • dropped the feather in the sand
  • already weep from loneliness
  • fortune teller’s blood
  • his spindly legs
  • There will be no tribunal, Humphries
  • another troupe of acrobatic midgets

“There will be no tribunal, Humpries,” Abercrombie said as he dropped the feather in the sand where it joined the coagulating pool of the fortune teller’s blood. “You will be banished and I will simply hire another troupe of acrobatic midgets to take your place.”

Humpries wobbled on his spindly legs. He hadn’t expected to be caught in the act of murder. He had expected time in which to cleverly stage the scene so that the superstitious carnies would all wonder aloud, “Is it a sea dragon? What else could have done this?”

But instead he’d been found out. Humphries couldn’t bear the thought of banishment. He felt that he could already weep from loneliness as he watched Abercrombie stalk away across the beach.

Perhaps, thought Humpries, the sea dragon could leave two victims…

about stichomancy writing prompts

try our stichomancy writing prompt generator!

Ed Attended the Matinee Performance

  • by jenEd combed the circus
  • like dead men’s knuckles
  • a boiled egg rolled away
  • the unlucky and the morally dyslexic
  • came up to his armpits
  • a small pudgy thing with a huge curved bone

Ed attended the matinee performance of the Circus of the Unlucky and the Morally Dyslexic and had the misfortune to be pulled out of the audience by one of the clowns, a small pudgy thing with a huge curved bone through his nose, and a rainbow wig. The skit he was shanghaied into ended with the audience roaring, and Ed buried in a pile of food that came up to his armpits and soiled his new souvenir t-shirt while a boiled egg rolled away and was trampled by a miniature pony. Its crackling shell made a noise like dead men’s knuckles.

A female clown led Ed backstage to get cleaned up, and they began a passionate affair. Every evening after the final performance, Ed combed the circus girl’s hair in a display of affection.

about stichomancy writing prompts

try our stichomancy writing prompt generator!