Category Archives: Short Stories

Original Works, Riveting Writing Prompts, Short Stories

Riveting Writing Prompts #9: People of the Deep

February 22, 2019 Jack Scheibelein 1 Comment

Welcome, weebs, to Animated Observations

Hey guys, it’s been a while since I have done one of these, but here is another Riveting Writing Prompts:

Earth’s most intelligent species has been hiding in the vast unexplored oceans all this time. In fact they tricked us into looking to the stars for intelligent life to distract us from their existence.

The prompt was written by u/Crazy_ManMan on Reddit.

Without further ado, here is the story:

While it is true that humans have conquered the land, the oceans are a much different story. Far from the shores of any continent, and much below the view of any random passerby, at the intersection of the global west and the east, there lives a group much older than humans, and yet miraculously not yet seem by them. While the land above was being ravaged by war, poverty, corruption and the likes, these beings are living out a much more peaceful existence.

Known only to the land above in legends, the Aquiatic people live near the ocean’s floor, in specially built houses that allow them to stay perfectly still, even while underwater. During their long history, the group has also gained the ability to breathe underwater, as well as swim just as well as any other sea life. Just like the humans above them, of which the Aquiatic people are distant relatives, they enjoy a diverse range of food collected from various parts of the ocean. The society of Aquius is run in a fairly similar fashion to the great democracies of the human world, with an elected body, a president, and courts.

However, they developed this system long before humans ever realized a system like that was even possible. Around the time of the Alexander the Great was conquering much of the world, while Aquius was being transformed into a more democratic society, its rulers realized that the day humans discovered their society existed, that would be the day everything ended. So, as part of a plan to protect their great society, the ruler at the time, King Zarius, sent a group of trained spies on a mission: to infiltrate human societies all around the world and make them believe that the only intelligent life existed beyond earth.

Zacari, one of the spies assigned to trick the human population in Asia, became famous among the people of Aquius. Every day he would talk to hundreds and hundreds of people, working tirelessly to convince people that intelligent life existed beyond the stars. Eventually, though, the people he talked to became afraid. They came to see him as a dangerous outsider, corrupting the minds of their fellow citizens, and so they killed him. Soon after his death, Zacari became immortalized as a statue in the country’s capital city Ozium.

While it is true that the people of Aquius fear their human relatives above, they do not hate them. Much like the worm does not wish to become the food of a bird, they to did not wish to be dug out of the hole they have built for themselves.

How do you guys feel about this story? Let me know in the comments below. Also, if you would like to support The Aniwriter or are just feeling generous, consider donating on Ko-fi or using one of my affiliate links:

Check out my writing blog, Solidly Liquid!

If you can’t, or just don’t feel like it, no worries. Thank you all for reading, and goodbye, for now, friends!

Riveting Writing Prompts, Short Stories

Riveting Writing Prompts #7: The Chicken Does Not Cross Alone

November 21, 2018 Jack Scheibelein 4 Comments

Welcome, weebs and authors alike, to The Aniwriter

It’s been a minute since I wrote a story, so here we go again. This prompt is a bit sillier, but I thought it would be fun.

Here is the prompt:

[WP] You’re a chicken who just woke up on the side of a road and can only remember that he started on the other side. Your mission? To find out why you crossed the road.

written by: u/ploot-O

With that, here we go.

” I’m currently standing on the sidewalk, alone, and I honestly have no idea what is going on.” I made a mental note as looked around. The freshly paved road simmered in the incredibly hot weather, with sweat running down my face. Except, something was noticeably different. My body was much lower to the ground, and I had wings instead of hands. It turns out that I was a chicken.

Something else was also going on. The last thing I remembered was sitting on the bench on the other side of the road waiting for the bus to come. The road itself was not extremely busy, so I decided that I would start my investigation at the bus stop. Being a chicken made trekking across the intensely hot road much more difficult. My walking had become much slower, and my feet were burning.

Eventually, I made it across and found myself at an empty bus stop area. The place looked as though no one had been there for days. I then wondered just how long I had been sitting there on the other side of the road. The worry hit me like a car at full speed. I spent a few minutes getting my emotions together and then went back to investigating.

As I looked around the back of the bench I a piece of paper. It had been crumpled up, and seemingly missed the trash can which was a few inches away. My “situation” made it a bit more difficult to open. I was forced to hold down a corner of it with my foot and slowly peel it open with my wings. Written on the crumpled paper was a note. “You are probably wondering what you are even doing right now. The world probably feels as though it has no meaning. ‘Why are you a chicken’ you might be asking yourself. Well, turn around and I might be able to provide some answers.

As I finished reading, I immediately rotated my small, plump body all the way around. Sure enough, A large black cat sat a few feet behind me. “Hello there,” he said, with a devious smile strewn across his face. “Who are you, and what do you know about what has happened to me?” He chuckled a bit, and then said: “follow me.” I wattled behind him into a small area of trees behind the bench.

We walked for about five minutes, and then I saw it. Small houses made of sticks and other materials in the area were laid out in an open area of grass. Other chickens walked around, unaware of the cat and I. “Welcome to your new home.” The cat waved his paw towards the group of other chickens. “I will tell you this boy, Chickens do not cross the road, only idiotic humans with a death wish. You were actually crossing the road, but then were struck down by the hands of fate, or I guess most people would just call it a car. This is your second chance at life. Use it, or don’t. I don’t care either way.” I still had so many questions.

What kind of story would you guys tell with this prompt? Let me know in the comments below. Also, if you want to support the Aniwriter through donations or are just feeling generous, consider buying me a coffee on Ko-Fi. Otherwise, thanks for reading and bye for now, Friendos!

Riveting Writing Prompts, Short Stories

Riveting Writing Prompts #6: A Time Traveling Savior

October 27, 2018 Jack Scheibelein Leave a comment

Welcome, weebs and authors alike, to The Aniwriter

So, most of the time when I go through different sources looking for writing prompts, I spend a decent amount of time looking. But this time I picked the first one I came across. Not because I am doing a challenge, but because I really like this prompt from u/papahardt.

You and friend agree that if one of you invents time travel, they will come back to this very moment. As you shake on it, an older and injured you shows up and shoots your friend in the head.

It is not super complicated, but it leaves a lot of room for detail. So, with that being said, here is another short story.

As sun’s slow departure from the sky signaled the day’s end, I turned to my partner in crime Eric and asked, somewhat randomly, “Could you imagine if we had time travel?” In his usual, much more relaxed manner he replied: “that would be pretty cool.” “Hey, if one us invents time travel, we should come back to this very moment reminisce.” Eric got somewhat uncomfortable. “I don’t know, don’t they always warn about messing with timelines in Sci-Fi movies?”

His question was quickly interrupted by a loud noise coming from behind us. As we both turned our heads to identify the source of the noise, what looked to be a large portal appeared out of nowhere. It had a glowing, purple outside ring with a clear, almost reflective middle. Eric then got up and began to walk toward the portal. “Hey, be careful, okay.” As I finished my sentence, a hand holding a small pistol emerged from the portal’s center, and fired at Eric. Immediately, he fell dead on the ground. Without thinking about my surroundings, I rushed over to pick up his body. He soon became covered in his own blood.

While sitting on the ground reflecting on what just happened, I felt a hand appear on my shoulder. I immediately turned to see who it was only to find a man much older than myself crying, seeming barely able to hold back his own whaling. “Who… are you?” Confusion quickly turned to anger as I noticed him holding the same gun that moments ago had taken down Eric. “I… am… you” he managed to get out while still choking on his own sadness. “I’ve come here in order to save the future. Eric may have been your best friend, but I found out very quickly just how evil he can become.” My anger only continued to grow as he spewed utter nonsense. Without thinking, I took a swing at his face. The man did not react and simply excepted the punch without hitting back. At that moment, part of me understood that he knew what my reaction would be.

After leaving something of a mark on the man’s face, I lay Eric’s body on the ground, sat back and asked: “Why? What did Eric do?” “Eric became stuck in his ways, and his insanity drove him to wipe out most of the human race.”

“…huh”

“I will explain. Spoiler Alert: you and Eric both get your dream jobs. Eric finds a job working with a private company studying epidemics, and you pursue your dream job of studying the possibility of time travel. However, Eric began obsessing over the idea of natural selection. Eventually, he decided to manufacture a disease so powerful it could wipe out the planet. Around the time he told me about his plan, I had recent build a stable time machine and decided to do what needed to be done. Believe me when I say that none of it was within your control.”

Short Stories

The Create-a-Story Tag: Aniwriter Edition

August 1, 2018 Jack Scheibelein 18 Comments

Welcome, weebs and authors alike, to The Aniwriter.

Some of you might be aware that I’ve been looking to write more short stories, which is why I started the series Rivoting Writing Prompts, all of which you can see here. I am actually very happy with how my writing has turned out in the series so far, but having more opportunities to test my writing chops is always good. Luckily, Lina from Tiny Ugly Animal has me covered. Lina has tagged me for the Create-a-Story challenge.

Here are the Rules for the tag:

You pick your “word”, your setting and your story genre from the list below.As individuals, your brand of creativity is unique to yours, so we want to highlight that by letting you choose from a bunch of words and creating something beautiful out of it. Yes, some people will choose the same combination as others but I guarantee you each story will be unique as per the individual. The options are really just there to cater to you specifically. You can challenge yourself, you can work with your strengths or you can take creative risks. It’s all up to you and how you express your creativity.
The short story will have a limit of 1000 words. You do not need to write a story with 1000 words exactly. It could be 300, or 500 as long as it doesn’t surpass a thousand. Easy enough, right? I do know writing a short story with a max of 1000 will be tough. I’ve already written my story, and I had to constantly edit this. So, why the word limit? To be frank, we want to avoid people overthinking this challenge. It’s not about how you stack up to other people. It’s not about your sentence construction or your grammar skills, and it’s not about wowing people with your talents. It’s none of that. It’s about a celebration of your uniqueness and your creativity. There is only one YOU, and this YOU will create a story that truly represents you.I work with a lot of people on a daily basis, and I know a lot of young people think like perfectionists. They want whatever they do to be perfect or majestic, and please set that thinking aside. Your flaws are part of your uniqueness, so just write a story that stays true to you. 1000 words is short enough for people to actually read it, trust me, so just make a story that represents you.
YOU HAVE TWO WEEKS TO ANSWER THE TAG. This is honestly just another way to ensure none of you overthink this. It’s not supposed to be your magnum opus. It’s just a fun short story to share with people. If you cannot answer within two weeks, the tagger can tag other people.
Lastly, you must tag three people to participate. Keiko will collect all the short stories and compile them into one giant hub featuring all the stories.
Don’t forget to link back to Keiko (link back to this post) so she can collect all the stories. You can’t just link back to her WordPress since she won’t be alerted of the pingback. You need to link back to a post or a page, because WordPress works like this. (Very important guys!)
Use the Create-A-Story picture in the post. I don’t really know why, but a lot of tags do this so might as well, right? But seriously, it’ll mostly help people recognize all the Create-A-Story tag posts.
Copy and paste the rules in your tag post as well, so others can be clued into the Create-A-Story rules.

As for who I will be tagging, that would be:

The Moyatorium

Of Midnight Ravings

Mel in Anime Land

(Feel free to ignore this tag if you don’t feel like writing)

Now, as for the words I am choosing, it will be rain, the setting will a street, and genre will be Slice of Life. Without further ado, here it is.

Aquarius St. in downtown Vivation was just like any other neighborhood-centric street: lots of local business, tons of smiling faces, and kids looking to have a good time. The Ecstatic family owned a bakery and always had fresh bread out in the morning at 7:30 on the dot. Their bread was so famous that even those on the other side of the city came to see. The Rose family ran a flower shop and made special deliveries for the residents on Aquarius St.

But, something was different about this lone city street. Those who were living there a long time always made it a point to tell those who were just moving in. If there was one thing more famous than the Ecstatic family’s bread or Rose’s flowers, it would be the rain. Without fail, every Thursday, from 5 to 6 P.M. it would rain. This fact quickly made Vivation a huge tourist trap, with thousands of people every week coming to observe the absurdly consistent poor.

One day, Leon and his family came to Vivation for the week in order to see the world famous “Rain on Thursday.” The family was staying at a hotel just a few blocks from Aquarius St. They arrived on Monday so that they would have plenty of time to see the rest of the city as well. The family was eating dinner on Monday night at the hotel, and Leon’s mom noticed that Leon was not feeling well. “Honey, are you alright?” “Yeah, I’m fine mom,” Leon replied. His mom could tell that he wasn’t, but she said nothing. After finishing his food, Leon decided to go for a walk. “I’m headed out for a bit,” he yelled into the hotel room as he rushed out the door.

Leon found himself on Aquarius St. at just around 8. He had found a small bench near the bus stop, where he took at a small pair of headphones, plugged them into his phone and started listening to music. Leon gazed up at the stars, admiring to each one individually. Their radiance beamed down on him until he could feel his eyes growing heavier. Eventually, his eyes closed completely and he fell asleep.

“Hey, wake-up!” Leon could hear a girlish voice coming from his left ear. His eyes were now wide awake. “What time is it!” he yelled, scaring the girl sitting next to him. “It’s midnight, silly.” “Huh, interesting.” Leon let out a small, but audible sigh and the turned to the girl who awoke him. Her long brown hair reflected some of the moon’s light, causing a faint glow, and her face reminded him of a friend who had recently moved away. He moved awkwardly to extend his hand. “Hi, I’m Leon.” The girl paused, and responded, “I’m Alyssa, nice to meet you.” The two started talking, and after a while, they forgot what time was, to begin with. Leon felt a certain connection with her, one that he had only felt a few time before. His heart began pounding a little, but he kept it in check. As the clock hit 2 A.M. Alyssa realized she needed to be home “Well, its been fun, I’ll see ya later.” Leon realized she was about to leave and stopped her. “Hey, I was wondering, would you want to watch the rain with me on Thursday? I mean, you live here so I’m sure you see it all the time, but maybe you could give me a tour of Aquarius St.” Alyssa stood and thought for a few seconds, and finally responded. “Sure. Why don’t you meet me here on Thursday?” “Yeah, that sounds great.” Leon felt his voice almost crack as he responded. Soon the two walked in opposite directions, Leon towards his hotel and Alyssa towards her apartment complex near a small intersection.

Tuesday and Wednesday went by in a flash, presumably because of the dream-like state Leon found himself in. No matter how hard he tried he couldn’t stop thinking about Alyssa. On Thursday, at 4:15, Leon got ready and headed for the door. “Hey, I’m heading out early so I can good spot for seeing the rain.” The door slammed behind him before either of his parents had time to respond.

Leon reached the bench he had fallen asleep on and waited. Eventually, the clock struck 4:30, and soon Alyssa entered his view. Leon could see her rushing over, and again he could feel his chest bumping. “Hey!” she screamed from the other side of the street, “Come over this way!” Leon checked to make sure the street was empty and ran across as fast as he could. After catching his breath, he replied back “Hey!” in a loud scream. The two laughed and then looked at each other. “Follow me, I’ve got a great place for us to sit and relax. The two headed towards Alyssa’s apartment, again running as fast as they could, for whatever reason. As the reached the entrance, the two headed inside. “Normally people aren’t allowed on the roof, but I can get us up there.”

As they reached the top floor of the building, the two headed up one more flight of stairs, where the reached a locked door. Alyssa pulled out a lockpick and quickly removed the barrier to entry. She swung open the door, turned to Leon and said: “over here.” The two walked over the edge of the roof and sat with their legs hanging from the guardrail. Soon, as their phones showed 5 P.M., they felt small drops of rain, which eventually turned to a poor. As they felt their hair and clothes getting wet, Leon turned to Alyssa and said, “Thank you, Alyssa, for letting me know what it means to be alive again.” Alyssa, somewhat stunned, simply replied back with “you’re welcome.”

So, how did I do with this one? Let me know in the comments below. Also, if you want to support the Aniwriter through donations or are just feeling generous, consider buying me a coffee on Ko-Fi. Otherwise, thanks for reading and bye for now, Friendos!

Riveting Writing Prompts, Short Stories

Riveting Writing Prompts #3: The White Room

July 20, 2018 Jack Scheibelein 6 Comments

Welcome, weebs and authors alike, to The Aniwriter

I’ve definitely been enjoying doing this series, so here comes another one. I might try and do these even more frequently than I said in the last one, like potentially once every one or two weeks. If you guys like reading them then let me know because then I try even harder to do them on a consistent basis.

With that being said, this week’s prompt again come from r/WritingPrompts by a user named gameon123321:

You wake up in a white room, with only a computer sitting in the far corner. A tab is already open.

Without further ado, here is my story:

Trying to open my eyes was like trying to stare directly into the sun. As I wiped away the crust from around eyes, I noticed something strange. The room appeared to be nothing but a white box.

The floor felt soft like it was an all-white carpet. My fingers ran through it so easily. The room was also fairly large, about as big as the first floor of a house. A clock ticked slowly on the other side of the room, showing the time 4:55. The ticking got louder and louder as I approached the clock, and before I knew it my heart was beating just as loudly.

After waking up from my semi-trance, I also noticed a small, turned on a computer sitting at a bright white desk. There was no chair, so I was forced to sit on my knees. A singular tab was already opened, and it was a google document. The document said, “Trevor, we’ve been waiting for you.”

Suddenly, the ground began to shake. The tremors nearly knocked me completely to the ground. The computer remained perfectly still, almost as if it and the desk were completely nailed to the ground. A bed that I had otherwise not noticed was also shaking violently, moving from the opposite corner of the computer towards the center.

As the tremors slowed down, the bed settled in the middle of the room. I looked back at the open Google document, which now read “go lay down.” Not knowing what else to do, I obeyed. The bed looked extremely uncomfortable, almost like it was made for torture.

When my whole body was on the bed, the floor underneath opened, and the bed and I slide down what had the appearance of a waterslide. Before the bed and I hit the ground a tube filled with caught me, and leg the bed out onto a strange conveyor belt.

A strange man was operating a series of levers and buttons when suddenly he hit one that appeared to say autopilot and then turned to me. “Welcome, Trevor, to my farm!”

Well, What did you guys think of this one? Better than my last attempt? Worse? Let me know in the comments below. Also, if you want to support the Aniwriter through donations or are just feeling generous, consider buying me a coffee on Ko-Fi. Otherwise, thanks for reading and bye for now, Friendos!

Short Stories, Where Hope Dwells

Where Hope Dwells Pt. 1

February 10, 2018 Jack Scheibelein 4 Comments

Hey, Anifriends! It’s been a while since I had written anything longer than a poem, so I decided to start writing a short story instead. When I say short story though, I mean probably the equivalent of 30 to 50 pages total. This is the first part of the story and I was wanting to get some feedback before I continued on. Let me know what you think, what can be improved, etc. All constructive criticism is welcome. Thank you in advance, and enjoy.

Mom: Hi, Honey. I hope you’re doing well. When you told me you were going on a luxury cruise with your new boyfriend I was a little bit worried, but he seemed like a very nice guy when we met, so have fun and let me know how it goes.

Hey, mom. Don’t worry, I’ll be all good. Drake will take good care of me. Love ya!

Amarie scrolled through her texts with her mom while she and her boyfriend Drake waited for their cruise to take off. She was both nervous and excited about the three-week journey that lay ahead of her. “You okay?” Amarie swallowed her fear and then turned to respond to Drake: “Yeah, I’m fine.” Today was the day that she would finally get to leave her hometown and see more of what the world has to offer.

The two had been planning the summer trip since their one year anniversary on January 21st. A Marie had casually suggested it while the two were laying on the couch watching TV. “Hey, you know what would be really fun?” “What?” “A cruise around the world.” Drake was initially turned off to the idea, thinking that it would cost too much and it would be more effort than it was worth. But, after seeing how much Amarie was into the idea, he eventually decided to give in.

Drake got up the next day with Amarie and together the two planned their cruise. They both decided that traveling along the coast of Europe would be the most fun, and chose a cruise that would take them from Hudson Bay in New York, to the coast of Italy up until the U.K. and back. Amarie’s eyes widened as Drake went to buy the tickets, and as soon as a message came up saying an proof of purchase had been sent to Drake’s, she got up danced around the room, shouting and laughing excitedly. Drake could only watch as the love of his life lit up like a Christmas tree. He sat in the chair at his desk, admiring her. “What?” she asked, looking at his dopey smile. “Oh, nothing.”

After the two had finished getting their stuff into their rooms, they decided to go looking for food, although it was not hard to find. The cruise ship had six levels, each with their own unique restaurants and attractions. Amarie and Drake had decided to visit a buffet on the top floor. They sat down at their table and soon a waiter was there to greet them. He took their orders for drinks, and then he was off. “You okay?” Drake gazed down at the table with a somewhat distant look, as if he was only half-awake. “Yeah, sorry, I didn’t get enough sleep last night.” Amarie felt like teasing him a lit bit. “I told you not to stay up watching YouTube Videos.” Eventually, they lined up at a couple of different sections of the buffet, each getting a similar but slightly different selection of food. “Pretty good, huh?” Amarie laughed as Drake attempted to talk with his mouth full of chicken. “Yeah, it is pretty good.” The two joked throughout most their meal, eventually devolving into grunt noises and slamming the table when they couldn’t breathe, which also attracted eyes from others in the restaurant. They eventually realized that they were being loud and stopped, after a couple of coughs from a nearby table.

Amarie and Drake headed back to their room after dinner, and after a quick shower each, crawled into bed, looked at each other and giggled. “This is going to be a lot of fun.” “I think so too.”

Thanks for reading and bye for now, Friendos! Also, if you did like this short story and would like to see more, consider supporting me on Patreon. You don’t have to, but a dollar a month would help out a lot.