random-inspiration

'What happens if there is a multi-wings angel?' The apprentice asked his master. The older woman, scars covering her body, patted the apprentice’s arm. ‘Then we let that one go by. We only draw the attention of the double wing or single wing angels, you know that.’ The apprentice nodded, reviewing his notes in his head. He’d learned all the theory, but it was hard to remember. ‘Have you ever caught a big one?’ he asked eagerly. He’d heard stories of multi-winged angels before. The greatest being the angels made of eyes and wings. He bet they tasted the best. ‘I’ve taken down an eight wing angel by myself, back in my hey-day. And I’ve run with crews that look specifically for the bigger angels. Takes a good crew to take them down. ONce your apprenticeship is over, you’ll probably end up in one of those. I still know people if you want a recommendation.’ The apprentice shook his head fiercely, trying to keep his voice down like the older woman next to him. ‘I’m happy looking for the

Loki was named by his parents, as children tend to be, because it was the name they liked best and was something they hoped he would become. In a universe ruled by chaos, it is a powerful abnormality when names can be so apt. A stocky man, once a scrawny kid, finished the calculations written on a rock hovering in space. There was no sun, and no stars in the sky, but there was enough to see clearly. WIthout the calculations in the grey sand there was nothing of consequence in the place. It was roughly round with no troughs or hills to accentual one place. They grey sand sat carefully in place, equally everywhere. The flatness of the place as driven a small boy mad, and become a canvas for that madness to grow and flourish. In places like these air, gravity and exact location in time and space are not a concern. The man double checked the figures written in the grey sand. It took a while because his personal planet was a small moon and the calculations needed space to be seen easily.

A woman sat on the Upperrail on her way to work. It was uncomfortably early, it always was. She hated all the people who could sleep until the sun was up, take their time with breakfast and morning routines. Her carriage was empty except for one uniquely dressed person, a gnarly rod on the seat. If the traveller was feeling fantastical, she’d say it was a staff and the person was a witch or a wizard. But they weren’t real. They were from beyond the fog. The traveller looked out of the large windows at the weak sunlit view. One view had a large city rising like an irregular diamond into the misty sky. The other side was only fog. Grey, thick, meandering fog. No one knew why the fog stayed on its side of the rail tracks. Did it matter? The day the fog came, the world stood still, and there was nothing to be done. ‘The fog is looking particularly fine today,’ a smooth lolling voice tipped with a strange accent said from across the carriage. The woman looked over and saw bright

The Labyrinth was long and dangerous. It had taken many failed attempts to get through to the centre, and then many more to find the way out. The dark, tight walls made it easy to get lost, and the wet, drip Drip, Drip Made it easier to slip, fall and lose your way. Most people had said to give up on the labyrinth. There were too many monsters, too much terror lurking, but you kept going. There were days you couldn’t go in and face it, and that’s ok. There were days you went in, ran out, ran back in, and fought and fought and fought until you couldn’t stand, collapsing at the entrance. And still, the next day you came back and made it a little further. You were brave, and crafty, careful and conscientious. And there you stand, at the end of the long, cold path knowing only that you had a goal and a dream. The steps before you hover in the air threatening to drop out from under you, held up by a strange power or magic you don’t care to name. That is not why you are here. You

The lake was large. Large enough that it was hard to see the other side except on the very brightest days when the sun would make the dark line of trees sharp and strange. Most days, a gentle mist hung over the still waters and through the high altitude forests. Even in the middle of summer the water in the lake was a bit too cold to swim in, but it was perfect for a canoe. The other thing that made the distant shore difficult to see was the large island in the middle of the lake. It was rumoured to be in the exact middle of the lake, but as it was an old crater, that seemed unrealistic. It was close enough and large enough an island to draw all eyes. The island was made as the same forest as surrounding the oval of land. It was as if a giant had cut a piece of the forest out and put it in the middle of the lake on top of a mountain to give it more mysterious character. The usual cloudy sky hung grey and low over the lake making the water a soothing steel. Intermittently, the water

Felix loved being a supervisor of the Building Tomorrow Construction Company. He loved working with all his workers, helping them, teaching them. Yeah, he was a big muscly guy, even by big muscly guy standards; at 6’4 with very broad shoulders and long golden hair that he studiously put up in a ponytail each work day, it was easy for him to get attention, but he loved hearing the personal parts of his co-workers lives too. Chatting about their pets while laying gravel, or girlfriend or boyfriend trouble while laying bricks on a wall. Which is why it troubled him when his new worker kept to herself so much. She didn’t seem to chat to any of the other workers, and never actively engaged with him when he asked about her life. She just smiled awkwardly and kept working. She clearly didn’t have much experience in construction, which worried him, but it was his boss’s call on that stuff. “Why did you hire the new girl?” Felix asked Carl at the end of the day while they worked out pay hours