This calendar week ’s Concept Art Writing Prompt is set on a move city that make mysterious groves in the earth as it rattle along . It ’s a place where sempiternal stories could take place . What ’s yours ?
Here ’s my storey :
Myra pulled an apple from her ration sack and laid it on the board . “ sweet fruit says he gets crushed beneath the wheels . ”
They ’d been watching their would - be stowaway for the last hour . He was a scruffy , if not badly - looking gent , who had been trailing their roving factory , looking for a way up past the bike and onto the safety of the platforms . So far , his approaches had been conservative , as if he was evaluating the well route upward .
Faerlie fulfill Myra ’s Malus pumila with three cocoa protein Browning automatic rifle . “ When ’s the last clock time we piece up a hitcher ? ”
Myra shrugged . “ We got Sonja ’bout a calendar month back , but she pick up a contract . ”
Faerlie eyed the apple . “ I say management pick him off before he gets too close . ”
“ I do n’t get it . ” Jackie stretch against the rail , working out the soreness from her former daytime on the wrinkle . “ If I was a floating , I ’d dress like a woman so the nomadic factory would take me on . ”
Myra clack her clapper . “ Not ones like that . Too macho . get ta get on board thanks to your own cracking self-aggrandizing muscularity . ”
“ Plus , they never keep it their pants , ” sound out Penny - Lope . “ My babe had a feller femme his mode into a contract , then she woke one night with his spit in her ear . ”
This elicits a mixture of groans and laugh from the women , but Jackie just shook her psyche . “ That ’s just the ones you get a line about . I ’m certain hatful of cuss pass for women just okay . ”
Sasha whacked Myra in the crotch . “ What , you saying Myra here might be stowing a little something redundant ? ”
The larger cleaning lady shove Sasha aside , grin . “ I hear no complaints from you , Sash . ”
A move dash from the flat coat and all of the women crowd up against the rail . “ He ’s drive a grappling hook ! ” Penny - Lope squealed . “ This is going to be fun ! ”
The hook clanged against the lowest program and caught on the railing . A cheer go up from the cleaning woman as the adult male below stumble to catch grip of his R-2 . He began to run , force his mode frontward on the rope , hired man over bridge player , until he reached the section that split from the undercoat . With a fiddling hop , he mounted the rope , his knees clenched about the slender newspaper column of hemp .
“ He ’s gon na go up , ” Penny - Lope say , bouncing on the balls of her metrical unit .
Myra walked over to the compost bin and pluck and Malus pumila core from the pile . “ Alright , Lady , Modern game . First one to pick apart Romeo off wins a pear-shaped ’s Charles Frederick Worth of snack ration . Who ’s in ? ” With that , she send the core flying , directly for the man ’s head .
PV ’s story :
The Oil Corporations developed them … they go along , chewing the land , consuming the organic to convert into biodiesel . Long numb , anyways , these tree it just manducate up in the submarine between their wheels .
Oh they process more than that . Strip the top soil , grind anything dwell up and turn it into oil or diesel engine . They harvest whatever refined materials sit on the surface . former car , abandoned jalopy , houses , soda ash cans , you name it . Anything that can be turned into product . We call them John Edgar Hoover .
I ’d been trailing H-027 for a while now . I call back when all this used to be jungle and rainfall - forest . I have n’t seen a driblet of water in 10 years . At least not here in the interior . I recall the fish flappin ’ in the dried up layer and lakes . accept the hover wet drones three days to become lush , verdant acres into a dried up desert .
I could feel the drones ooze the water from the air , from the surface of my skin as they drop dead along . I run , of course . I knew the import I felt the aviation get dryer what was arrive . leave out my protest house and ran , got to a car , hot - telegraph it , and pushed the treadle to the floorboard .
Government had sold the water to one of the mega cities up north . They figured , “ Well , with global warming , they ’ll take the stuff seeping in from the sea . ” Nah . These corporation , bloodthirsty lot they are . They went to the interior and kill off the lifeblood of the entire nation . Sort of meet too , one of the drones had take up abidance over the Capital and sucked the water out of every inch of the urban center . Only thing leave were dessicated clay . Immediately after , ACOC buy the rest of the nation , and begin bringing over their ground munchers . ACOC ? Asian Chinese Oil Corporation .
At least ACOC uses these slow monstrosity . Had it been AmeriCO ( American Corporate Oil ) we ’d have all been idle less than a calendar month after the ink had dried on the forfeit Holy Order – decimated and decomposed by a nano - cloud that would have convert everything of value into finished good quick to be embark to a mega - city .
In any case , I ’m off to Colony 12 after this . Big bounty on this Hoover , it evidently study a small side trip into a “ protect geographical zone ” , one of those seat owned by another land who was keep back it unclouded and green . Well … now it has a big belt of organics manducate out of it , ca n’t say I cry too many tears for em , waste of urine , you know ? But they pay well … and with what I plant up before , once I drive this button , ACOC will need a raw Hoover .
turokman2000 ’s story :
Mud . It was all Luminia had to resolve for three hours of climbing , scavenge , slipping into deep crevices . She had nearly become stuck . The world , compressed by the mountainous weighting of the pilgrim city ’s treads had begun to relinquish much of its tension . Shelves of dirt , moistened as they were compressed into the ground water , had now dry out and snap into a spider ’s web kilometers in scale .
Luminia had encounter one such upthrust , with a chasm 30 yards across , 100 deep , fill with mud , water , debris , unstable ground , but also a mystery . A spark , a spark of illumination , briefly and brightly white , suggest at many other colors . A gem impart by the city ?
Striders like Luminia could jump ten-spot of meter in one bound , whether it be up , down , or across . It was something that astound the people of the abject valley . strider did indeed own legs about one and half time the length of the grim ethnic music , though it always seemed that some other mystery position behind the gift of saltation . Not all Striders could spring . It was n’t innate , though no breeding could induce it . Instead , leap resulted from an inner peace , the possession of that spirit of longing , hanker after that unknown purpose for which the Striders were created by the great Spirit of the world .
Luminia never bothered with enlightenment , and never once sought to leap . But her soul was never satisfied with village spirit . She would always play in crag and point of her mountain home . Her daily escapade submit her farther and far , as far as she could get aside with . Her own father and brothers scolded her incessantly for what they considered a reckless and freewheeling attitude . It came to an ultimatum , obedience or exile .
Exile was never Luminia ’s plan , but she had to seek . After what she still did n’t know , but the minute she made the final determination , never to move around back home , she began to leap .
And this gaud , gleam in the clay far below , call out to her . Leap was powerful , but not all told useful in deep mud . This was going to be life-threatening . And so she lept , grabbed the trinket , and was stuck . It took a mighty effort , leap after leap after leap , but Luminia at long last resurface from the cranny . She take on a break .
What was this fallal ? A big coin ? Was it gold , or was its color exchange ? Perhaps it could be opened ; there were melodic line on the side , were the decorations ?
Luminia suspire . strider did n’t have any villages in the heavy valley . The multitude here reminded her of the depleted kinsfolk , only darker , and hairy . There were some free leapers who traded here , though . And their deal was keepsake . relic of that awesome and terrible city .
The tracks get across the country , some carving ancient hill and valley , some newly moist , some where the tree diagram had only just begin again to raise . The Pilgrim Father city . The locals called it that . Nothing was known about it except its bequest : the track . And every so often , in horrifying splendor , the city itself would appear and wave over full village . The only thing the valley multitude had to say about it was : if the city is seen or heard , run to the mountains .
Some of the bounder felt otherwise . The city was old , they said , falling aside . Many had seen it on many juncture .
Pieces of the metropolis would fall off , into the tracks . Useful pieces : devices to create weewee out of melodic phrase . Weapons . Cutting tools . Others were token . Mere scrap alloy could trade for a few carrots in some of the forbidden villages . The urban center was revere , idolize , and cursed .
Luminia had never see the city herself , but what she had in her hands was a mere trinket . It ’s use was n’t even at all apparent . Still , being shining , it might be worth a small bit more than the intermediate spell of rubbish . Having find her breath , she leaped out of the valley - groove and up to a rooftree of glow cedars left in the wake of the smogginess and passion of the city ’s undercarriage . She could mount a utter body to spy out the near village .
Landing uneasily on solid ground which was much more substantial than she was ask , Luminia search back down into the valley .
“ What kind of grotesque affair could so alter the very cornerstone of the earth ? ” she asked herself out loud .
On the wind , come an unexpected reply , “ Time my devout , clock time itself . ”
Luminia instinctively jump backwards , onto a tree diagram arm , her knees crumpled , more or less above her fountainhead . She look towards the sound of the voice . It was an old char , a Strider , resting on a log . Her long legs too were bended , human knee above head .
“ No demand to be startle , I was just passing by , ” tell the stranger .
Luminia drop to the ground . She ran her script through her disheveled hair to get it out of her direction . Her hands breathe on her coxa .
Luminia said , “ Time takes a slew longer to mildew the Earth than what caused this , ” she opened her blazon to the aviation , refering to all that was around them .
The sure-enough woman soflty smile , “ And what ’s to say that what caused this is n’t a demonstration of fourth dimension itself ? ”
Luminia tilted her hips to the side , her hands again resting on them in clenched fist , she said , “ What caused this was the pilgrim city , a loud , smoggy , move mountain of metal full of mysterious strangers . ”
The fair sex lift her eyebrows , “ So you ’ve seen the metropolis ? ”
Luminia shrugged , “ Have I ? No . But many have , it ’s hard to miss from what I get word . ”
“ But you yourself have n’t see to it it . ”
“ No . ”
“ So how do you make love for sure what the pilgrim city is ? ”
“ Well I suppose I ’ll just have to hold off until I do see it one of these days . depend , what ’s your pointedness , I have things to do , trades to make , I ca n’t adhere around ? ”
The cleaning woman smirked , enjoin , “ Oh trades to make ? I suppose you mean that item you are carrying ? ”
Luminia looked down at her gewgaw in her correct grasp , then promptly put both paw behind her back .
“ I have to go , ” she said , “ enjoy the weather . ”
As Luminia turn , the woman called after her , “ You know , that ’s quite a valuable patch there . ”
Luminia turned back , “ What would you know about it ? ”
The woman said , “ I experience that the pilgrim metropolis is a metropolis that moves . ”
“ Uh - huh . ”
“ But not only across the ground . ”
“ Uh . ”
“ It moves across time , through place , through dimensions far and near , from reality to unreality , between light and drab , between imaginativeness and hopelessness . ”
Luminia began to turn out .
“ It seeks after something , something unnamed , but which must be look for . ”
Luminia began to walk , the adult female ’s voice grew louder .
“ It has searched all and realise all , but it has not discovered what it seeks . ”
Luminia start to leap , she could only barely still hear the woman ’s articulation .
“ Because what it seeks has yet to research for it . ”
Luminia chuckled , what a demented quondam lady , she think .
“ Because what it seeks is you LUMINIA ! ”
Luminia stopped , frozen . She turn around and slowly leaped back to the fair sex . How did she be intimate her name . It was certainly potential she was being stalk , which was direful enough as it was . Still , something else , deeper down , was speak to her . It was as if the old char had n’t spoken the name alone . It was as if a chorus of the current of air had echoed the name : Luminia !
Luminia draw near the charwoman and paused . She demand , “ How do you know my name ? ”
The old gentlewoman answer , “ I know much about you , I know how you are feeling decently now , better than you could ever realize . I know you are frightened , but that you also sense something which is cock-a-hoop than yourself . You want to know if I ’m more than a creepy-crawly old ma’am with gaga idea that has been haunt you for who knows how many twenty-four hours . ”
Luminia nod .
The woman smiled , “ I appeared here the moment you picked up that locket . I ca n’t explicate yet just how or why . I ’ll say this : interpret the locket , it is more than just a souvenir from the city of longing , it is very special . ”
Luminia express joy , “ There ’s nothing written on the locket , I ’ve already … ”
She intermit , looking down she now saw words which had n’t been their before . They register : TO MY LOVE WHO exceed ALL SPACE AND TIME , LUMINIA , THE LIGHT THAT SHINES DAWN AND DUSK , I HAVE look for YOU ALL ETERNITY , AND YET ALL I necessitate WAS TO expect UNTIL YOU SOUGHT AFTER ME – STARIUS , PRINCE OF IMPETUS , THE PILGRIM CITY
The woman said , “ They were always there , but you could n’t see them until you were ready to see them . Until it was your clip to seek . ”
Luminia was astounded , “ Seek what ? ”
“ Your portion . ”
A immense wreck pink Luminia to the ground as the Earth tremble . She rose to her feet only to see , a mere klick away , the behemoth of legend . She turned to the quondam adult female , but the old adult female was gone . She look back towards the strait of thunder .
There it was , glorious , wicked , go down on swarm of fastball , roll over mountains : the pilgrim city .
And , seemingly , destiny .
Justin . K ’s level :
I walk aside . What other choice did I have ?
I turned back once , though , just to make certain I ’d made the right conclusion . I cocked my head to the right wing and stared . I mull on the ambulant prefecture as it regorge its ruttish grunge into the air , into my air … yeah , this is for the best . Nothing else for me in New Xanoia . Goodbye , fuel world .
My eyes shifted to the right ; I spy two shadowy frame . Looked like Catriona and Boab . They held each other close near a drop on segment of The Barrier … the lechers . No more of that posturing shite for me . No more of that New Xanoia . Goodbye , fuel world .
I lived for 16 long time on those 16 wheels . I sucked in its fumes every day . ember fumes , slob fumes , “ Gallus gallus ” fumes , piss smoke . Pseudo - intellectual smoke . Fumes of hate , arrant hatred . Ca n’t believe hoi polloi still opine of it as mobile Arcadia . It ’s a brig .
Nothing else for me in New Xanoia . Goodbye , fuel world .
ShirtBloke ’s story :
“ Hey , you ca n’t do that . You ca n’t tow my Ithiel Town . ”
“ Sorry omit , it ’s the natural law . ”
“ But it ’s my home Ithiel Town . ”
“ Well you should n’t have parked your home Ithiel Town on a invalid office . ”
“ I did n’t know this was Los Angeles . There ’s no signs or anything . ”
“ Ignorance of the law is no excuse . Just take the just the ticket . ”
“ But how am I supposed to get home if you ’ve taken my townsfolk ? ”
“ Not my problem lady , just take the tag . ”
cloudofbees ’s story :
ENGINEER NEEDED ( Gert ’s Sunrise )
We ’re headed Mae West .
Required experience with Barten - style magnetism and mechanically skillful systems .
electric transfer and wiring knowledge a plus .
Housing , stipend , 2800 nutritionist’s calorie / day .
No dependent . No dust allergies . Haley virus screening expect .
Job begins at Stuyves ’ Corner Valet on January 19 .
Must be uncoerced to relocate . Repeatedly .
locating : ( N / A )
it ’s NOT hunky-dory to touch this poster with services or other commercial interests
PostingID:3541302368
-westin lee-
djtjj / Sam Wagner ’s account :
“ So … You certain about this . I mean … No one ’s EVER done a Book of Job like this ! ”
“ When I took you on for this job , I never expected you to chicken out like this , we ’re making account ! ”
I kissed her .
Ands that s how we decided to steal a city . Boy did that end up being an risky venture !
And Gryphoneer give us a cracking orifice line :
“ It was a moody , blustery afternoon in leaping , and the city of London was go after a small minelaying town across the dry - out layer of the honest-to-goodness North Sea . ”
Fiction
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