“You enter the mad scientist’s laboratory and are instantly hit with the smell of burning oil and metal.” Our DM starts, “You see the walls, lined with these glowing orbs contained within brass.”

“Can I touch it?” Asks the barbarian.

“It’s hot to the touch, you pull your hand away immediately.”

“Ok I smash it.” The barbarian rolls her dice.

Our DM nods, “It shatters easily with a swing of yo...

The quiet of the estate had long since shifted from peace to pressure.

Yvonne arrived without ceremony, escorted in by Arlo and met at the door by a subdued Damian who didn’t need to say a word. He just looked at her the way a man looks when something fragile is slipping through his fingers, and Yvonne- no stranger to the weight of grief or the walls this group of people that had come together c...

TW: Violence?? Idk if I need to put that there it’s just I feel like this piece is a bit more violent than my usual

Rioung Tirioua has never felt mad before.

It’s like a violation to her, to her promise to the people. Whenever peers try to get that singular emotion out, nothing. Rioung just says “Oh, I’m sorry, do you need something?” This riles up the students, and not in a good way.

But toda...

Every day on my way home from school I pass the same playground and every day there is a pick up game of basketball being played by kids my age. I always want to ask to play but I never know how and they always seem to have a full game. Today however, I only see five. They aren’t going to play three on two I think. This is my time to try and join in. I walk over and raise my hand. My mouth blurts ...

Pittsburgh to Philadelphia,

Dreaming of the place I love,

Sweet purple flowers falling into a beautiful pile of confetti on the sidewalks.

and the scent of delicious bud,

How things could just be sweet,

Easy,

Chill.

Fun.

Weird.

But I’m always stuck in PA,

The wrong Oakland.

So I reach for the drugs,

Reach out to the plug.

For sure need a buzz,

I have got to be numb,

Cause I can’t stand the pain....

Carefully he tries to keep his balans. His feet moving up and down and make him move forward. “Keep going”, I shout to him. His hands are still shaking a bit, but he’s got a smile on his face. Who had thought that riding a bicycle could be so exciting. He’d never done it before, but since he was visiting me in the Netherlands, of course I had to let him ride a bike. So I put him on one of my old ...

"Trust me, if you walked one minute in my shoes you'd want to run as fast as you can" Those words burned into her mind. Etched deep within her amygdala, the most primitive part of the brain, as the screeching alarm bells blared in her mind. Sharon had never experienced such a sensation. It was all encompassing. Crippling. She wiped at her forehead, beads of sweat raining down quicker than she coul...

When I once got mad over chores,

Swearing that she never did anything.

That if I was soft,

Weak,

Sensitive,

Flawed,

I would be loved.

You swore not.

But all I saw was her sitting on the couch drawing.

With my raw hatred and bitter anger,

I saw favoritism.

“If you talk back again, you’ll go to your dads!”

“If I do, I’ll just kill myself. Fine.”

“Then do it! Go ahead and kill yours...

Hello! Welcome to our show, where we take a look at odd specimens and how they live their lives. On today’s show we have Sage the window cleaner. Sage has lived in the same 400 square foot apartment in New York City for 4 years. Why 4 years? Because the place they lived before this got their rent hiked up due to COVID, so Sage had to move to a worse part of town in Manhattan.

Of course, they stil...

Sammie Langston was a girl of wealth. Her mothers mothers mothers mother had helped found one of the biggest college in their town. She was the first woman to graduate college in their town. She became a business woman who became president of a boarding school outside town. Then she opened the college. Sammie’s family gained much wealth from the college.

Sammie’s great grandmother was a dean at t...