Fantasy – Page 5 – The Drabblecast

Drabblecast 325 – Jackalope Wives

On May 22, 2014

The moon came up and the sun went down. The moonbeams went shattering down to the ground and the jackalope wives took off their skins and danced.

They danced like young deer pawing the ground, they danced like devils let out of hell for the evening. They swung their hips and pranced and drank their fill of cactus–fruit wine.

They were shy creatures, the jackalope wives, though there was nothing shy about the way they danced. You could go your whole life and see no more of them than the flash of a tail vanishing around the backside of a boulder. If you were lucky, you might catch a whole line of them outlined against the sky, on the top of a bluff, the shadow of horns rising off their brows.

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Drabblecast 322 – The Carnival Was Eaten, All Except the Clown

By Drabblecast

On April 24, 2014

In Drabblecast, Fantasy, Strange

The magician’s table was covered by a sheet of plywood, four feet square, completely wrapped up in aluminum foil. Sugar magic was messy magic, and the foil made for easier cleanup. Scattered across the aluminum were misshapen chunks of candy, the seeds from which the carnival would grow. And grow it did.

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Drabblecast 319 – Trifecta XXVII

By Drabblecast

On April 1, 2014

In Comedy, Drabblecast, Fantasy

The Drabblecast April Fool’s Day episode!

Recorded live: A Drabblecast story slam that took place March 27th 2014 in Baltimore Maryland at the EMP Art Collective.

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Drabblecast 314 – The Blue Celeb pt. 2

By Drabblecast

On March 1, 2014

In Drabblecast, Drama, Fantasy, Mystery

“Get out of sight, Joe.” He hustled into the shop and locked himself in the bathroom. The first cruiser that pulled up had Frank Boone riding shotgun. Less than a minute later, the sidewalk was swarming with cops.

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Drabblecast 313 – The Blue Celeb pt. 1

By Drabblecast

On February 24, 2014

In Drabblecast, Drama, Fantasy, Mystery

When me and Joe got home from Vietnam, we went into business together, cutting hair. Bought a little shop in the old neighborhood and been there ever since. Back then, wisecracking Harlem barbers weren’t a cliche yet — at least not south of 110th Street.

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Drabblecast 311 – Birds of the Air

By Drabblecast

On February 5, 2014

In Drabblecast, Fantasy, Strange

Thomas takes his lunch outside the shelter, on one of the park benches that look out over the interstate and down all the way to the containment pond. He has wondered whether a passerby seeing him from the highway would know whether he worked at the shelter or was one of its clients. He has had this thought most days that he has sat here. Today, though, his attention has been arrested by a small patch of gooselike objects floating out on the containment pond. If they are geese, it will be the first time he has seen a living thing on that pond.

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Drabblecast 308 – Happy Old Year

By Drabblecast

On December 31, 2013

In Drabblecast, Drama, Fantasy

This week the Drabblecast Presents “Happy Old Year” by Tim Pratt.

Tim is a regular Drabblecast contributor, bringing us such classics as Postapocalypsemas, Rangifer Volans, and fan-favorite Morris and the Machine. He also runs a Patreon page where you can read and download a new, unpublished story from Tim every month for a little as a dollar. Why not check it out?

This year, instead of our usual Tim Pratt Christmas special, we decided to run with a New Years Eve them—something new… and something old. Lots of old. Maybe too much. Because in this story, nostalgia can be a cancer that lasts forever.

Story Excerpt:

The night I met Elsie I was up on the roof of my apartment building with a bottle of Kentucky Gentleman, because it’s sort of like bourbon, but cheaper, and better at blotting out reality. Technically it wasn’t “my” building anymore since I’d been evicted and had to be gone by morning if I didn’t want sheriff’s deputies to dump all my possessions out on the sidewalk. Joke was on them — what possessions? Everything I could sell, I already had, in a vain attempt to keep up with rent. What remained was so crappy I couldn’t even give it away on Craigslist.

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Drabblecast 306 – Trifecta XXVI

By Drabblecast

On December 17, 2013

In Drabblecast, Fantasy, Horror, Strange

While sipping my tea in the morning, I find a small, only two inches long, naked female corpse on the bottom of the cup. Her white skin fades int the white porcelain, tiny gobs of tea leafs cover her round breasts. I immediately slap the cup down, and snick across to the phone to call the police. I forget all about checking if she’s really dead. Of course, how could I give her a mouth to mouth resuscitation, if not? Her body is about the size of a match-stick.

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Drabblecast B-Sides 33 – Free Range

By Drabblecast

On November 15, 2013

In Comedy, Drabblecast B-Sides, Fantasy, Strange

After she lost interest in the green eggs—yes, green chicken eggs (taste the same, look dyed, so what’s the point?)—my neighbor Johanna started raising black chickens. Yes, black ones. They’re popular in China for reasons ranging from nutrition to superstition, and she’d gotten three hens and a rooster from a guy in Chinatown—in exchange for the last two green-egg chickens she had.

“Green is good now in China,” he said. “Helps make a man’s pole longer.”

“Right,” she told him. “Don’t need to kill rhinoceros and go to jail for long pole anymore.”

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Drabblecast 301 – Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned

By Drabblecast

On November 9, 2013

In Action, Drabblecast, Fantasy

Just as we were all getting back into the mainland domestic groove, somebody started in with dragons and crop blights from across the North Sea. We all knew who it was. A turncoat Norwegian monk named Naddod had been big medicine on the dragon-and-blight circuit for the last decade or so, and was known to bring heavy ordnance for whoever could lay out some silver. Scuttlebutt had it that Naddod was operating out of a monastery on Lindisfarne, whose people we’d troubled on a pillage-and-consternation tour through Northumbria after Corn Harvesting Month last fall. Now bitter winds were screaming in from the west, searing the land and ripping the grass from the soil. Salmon were turning up spattered with sores, and grasshoppers clung to the wheat in rapacious buzzing bunches.

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Drabblecast B-Sides 31 – The Black and White Animals Trilogy

By Drabblecast

On October 23, 2013

In Comedy, Drabblecast B-Sides, Fantasy, Horror, Sci-Fi

The complete Black and White Animals Trilogy, uncut. Written by Kendall Marchman, Luke Coddington and Norm Sherman, produced by Norm Sherman. Originally appeared as episodes 11, 22, and 24… Part 1: Secret Weapons, Part 2: Vengeful Hearts and Part 3: Chromatic Conclusions.

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Cover for Drabblecast episode 297, The Apothecary's Apprentice, by Sean Azzopardi

Drabblecast 297 – The Apothecary’s Apprentice

By Drabblecast

On September 24, 2013

In Drabblecast, Fantasy

In the back of the shop I scrubbed three large cauldrons clean, stripping the seasoning from them because Master Aloz insisted on it once the trade caravans stopped coming at the end of summer. Tallow, he called me, on account of my paleness. I used a brush made of iron bristles instead of horse hair, scraping away the brown muck inside, various plant and animal parts rendered into sludge like droppings from a sick bull. My book lay on the floor beside the cauldrons. Sir Tannis and the Hydra. It seemed I wouldn’t get to read much of it today…

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Cover for Drabblecast episode 295, Twenty Ways the Desert Could Kill You, by Jacob Wayne Bryner

Drabblecast 295 – Twenty Ways the Desert Could Kill You

By Drabblecast

On September 9, 2013

In Drabblecast, Fantasy

1. A poisonous snake could bite you, and you could die.
2. You could prick your finger on a previously undiscovered poisonous cactus.
3. The cactus isn’t poisonous, and neither is the snake, but the snake’s venom is a powerful anti-coagulant. You could bleed to death from the place you were bitten and/or pricked.

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Drabblecast 288 – Bayou Witch

By Drabblecast

On July 9, 2013

In Drabblecast, Fantasy

Cat’s tail flicked impatiently back and forth across Elle’s face. She resisted the urge to brush it away. Mud tugged at her feet, and putrid water soaked through her shoes. She ducked beneath a low hanging branch dripping with old man’s beard. It trailed over her shoulders, and evidently Cat, who dug his claws into her scalp slightly in payback. She bit her lip at the pain.

“Cat,” Elle said, trying to keep her tone calm. “Would you like to walk?”

After an indigent pause, Cat replied. “No… the view from here is much better…”

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Drabblecast B-Sides 23 – Picobeasts

By Drabblecast

On July 3, 2013

In Drabblecast B-Sides, Fantasy, Strange

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 Stars

“Technological marvel, and affordable too!!!”After disappointing experiences with related products, I decided to take a chance with the new Picobeast Remote Camera, Model TA-55. What a wonder! The set-up was easy, the instructions clear and concise. I’ve been trying to get my ten year-old son interested in the natural world, and this device has been a godsend. A wooded ravine runs next to our backyard, and while I assumed we had nocturnal neighbors, it was a revelation when just one night’s surveillance yielded images of raccoons and opossums and a red fox happily going about their lives. My son was so enchanted that he insisted on making treats for our wild friends. Within the week, our bait was bringing a parade of animals, including a badger and mink, and what looks for the world to be a wolf-dog hybrid, if not a pure Canis lupus. I don’t know which of my neighbors owns the beast, much less keeps it hidden…

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Cover for Drabblecast episode 285, Doubleheader XIII, by Matt Wasiela

Drabblecast 285 – Doubleheader XIII

By Drabblecast

On June 19, 2013

In Drabblecast, Drama, Fantasy

Samuel sat on the balcony, enjoying the fading light of day. When the ventilator pushed air into his lungs, he savored the salt brine from the sea. He pretended that he had control over breath, but it was much a fantasy as adjusting his wheelchair….

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Drabblecast B-Sides 22 – The Eyes Have It

By Drabblecast

On June 1, 2013

In Comedy, Drabblecast B-Sides, Fantasy, Sci-Fi

It was quite by accident I discovered this incredible invasion of Earth by lifeforms from another planet. As yet, I haven’t done anything about it; I can’t think of anything to do. I wrote to the Government, and they sent back a pamphlet on the repair and maintenance of frame houses. Anyhow, the whole thing is known; I’m not the first to discover it. Maybe it’s even under control…

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Cover for Drabblecast episode 283, The Man Who Drew Cats, by Christine Dennett

Drabblecast 283 – The Man Who Drew Cats

By Drabblecast

On May 23, 2013

In Drabblecast, Fantasy, Horror

Old Tom was a very tall man. He was so tall he didn’t even have a nickname for it. Ned Black, who was at least a head shorter, had been ‘Tower Block’ since the sixth grade, and Jack, the owner of the Hog’s Head Bar, had a sign up over the door saying ‘Mind Your Head, Ned’. But Tom was just Tom. It was like he was so tall it didn’t bear mentioning even for a joke: be a bit like ragging someone for breathing…

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Cover for Drabblecast episode 282, Liane the Wayfarer, by John Blaszczyk

Drabblecast 282 – Liane the Wayfarer

By Drabblecast

On May 7, 2013

In Drabblecast, Fantasy

Through the dim forest came Liane the Wayfarer, passing along the shadowed glades with a prancing light-footed gait. He whistled, he caroled, he was plainly in high spirits. Around his finger he twirled a bit of wrought bronze—a circlet graved with angular crabbed characters, now stained black.

By excellent chance he had found it, banded around the root of an ancient yew. Hacking it free, he had seen the characters on the inner surface—rude forceful symbols, doubtless the cast of a powerful antique rune . . . Best take it to a magician and have it tested for sorcery.

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Cover for Drabblecast episode 278, The End of the World as We Know It, by Adam S. Doyle

Drabblecast 278 – The End of the World as We Know It

By Drabblecast

On April 7, 2013

In Drabblecast, Drama, Fantasy

Between 1347 and 1450 AD, bubonic plague overran Europe, killing some 75 million people. The plague, dubbed the Black Death because of the black pustules that erupted on the skin of the afflicted, was caused by a bacterium now known as Yersinia pestis. The Europeans of the day, lacking access to microscopes or knowledge of disease vectors, attributed their misfortune to an angry God. Flagellants roamed the land, hoping to appease His wrath. “They died by the hundreds, both day and night,” Agnolo di Tura tells us. “I buried my five children with my own hands . . . so many died that all believed it was the end of the world.”

Today, the population of Europe is about 729 million…

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Category: Fantasy Page 5 of 11

Story Excerpt: