Chris Wagner

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Sep, 2020

Stories (60)

60 Stories

1160 karma pts

?

“Featherstone Heights” by Chris Wagner

Submitted to Contest #82

We only intended Featherstone Heights to be a fun simulation app to play on your phone or X-Box. We added a bunch of randomly generated stuff for replay value, and an artificial intelligence to make each gaming session lifelike and unpredictable. We used some experimental algorithms for our AI. All of it, we assumed, only gave the appearance of life, enough to fool our would-be customer, but somewhere along the line the metaphorical chocolate truck T-boned the peanut butter semi, and we had something we could no longer control.&n...

0 comments 0
Read story

“Bea Aldoyi” by Chris Wagner

Submitted to Contest #81

The bright rays of Kaybok graced the ash-white sands of Zurewwa beach and its furry sunbathers like a warm blanket. Purple waves crashed on the shores. Hearing mooing sounds, I looked up and saw humanoid figures flying on the back of an immense bird. They passed before a moon twice the size of earth's. Although I'd been on Pathilon for over a month, I still couldn't get used to sights like that. I found myself accidentally stepping on a pair of tails. Guinea pig faced Abreyas, in the middle of a romantic moment,...

0 comments 0
Read story

“The Hatching” by Chris Wagner

Submitted to Contest #80

My dad was getting open heart surgery the day the mutations happened.  Nothing would ever be the same for anyone ever again. I got the day off school due to the family emergency, but it wasn't any damn fun. To ten year old me, it seemed like I'd spent eternity in that hospital waiting room, long enough to get sick of the two game cards I had for my Nintendo Switch, and the books mom had brought along. They had a children's play corner, but it had been meant for smaller kids, and Covid took all the toys away.  No clock ado...

0 comments 0
Read story

“My Friend Googly” by Chris Wagner

Submitted to Contest #79

Whenever people ask why me and Brian are so close, I tell them we're brothers. It's not a gay thing, I swear. What brings us together is a big bird, and a toy compass. The Goose Compass came in select boxes of Googly Goose Cereal. Like every other TV tie-in, the cereal didn't taste good, and my parents said it was too expensive to keep buying. Mom actually bought my compass from the thrift store. Best gift she ever got me. I was obsessed with Googly Goose. Caught it on TV every time Dad didn't try to break my fing...

0 comments 0
Read story

“Old Goksar” by Chris Wagner

Submitted to Contest #76

Goksar and I knelt on prayer rugs beside each other on the cliff behind Bencap's Takofuea, watching Kaybok (class G1V star), rise above the ocean. Behind us, at the Takofuea proper, male and female monks bowed before a ziggurat-like structure, chanting prayers and singing to their god, Ponai. The sky purple sky reflected the deep burgundy ocean water. I'd become fluent enough in Wava to ask for the information I wanted, I just didn't know if Goksar had it. Everyone said the old monk knew more about ancient lore than anyone else...

5 comments 5
Read story

“HR” by Chris Wagner

Submitted to Contest #75

My alarm clock screeched at me at 6:10 AM. When I reached up and stabbed the snooze button, a green hand fumbled for the off switch, and the clock fell from the headboard. "Good morning, Mr. Recruiter," purred my flat chested sleeping companion. "Think you can convince other humans to leave their home now?...Or do you need another reminder?" I groaned and sat up, pulled the clock out from behind the bed. "It's too early." "I can feel your body disagreeing with you." She shifted closer. I could feel her crotch t...

0 comments 0
Read story

“Curse of the Owl Clan” by Chris Wagner

Submitted to Contest #74

Within our shared tipi, my bride lay with swollen stomach on furs. A strong fire blazed beside her. Draped in loincloth and feathered shawl of the owl clan, her honey colored flesh still inflamed my loins. Winter had descended, the cold wind taking its icy bite into me whenever I neared the mouth of the tent, but perspiration beaded on my woman's skin. Lelvep stretched herself out on the pelts and moaned. "Tusrok, I am hungry. Make me a rabbit." "Anything for you, my love," I breathed. The winter had been ...

9 comments 9
Read story

“Fife” by Chris Wagner

Submitted to Contest #73

By far, the most unusual bird I had ever seen. On Christmas day, it arrived on my doorstep in a wood and hammered tin box, the ornate patterns of puncture holes serving to keep the creature alive during transport, though with the twenty degree wind chill outside, just barely. It hadn't been a white Christmas, just a damn cold one. The biting wind tossed fallen leaves on my gray front stoop, jostled my wind chimes, tore at my clothing. Steam swirled out from the little air holes like a tiny man hid inside with a lit cigarette. ...

3 comments 3
Read story

“Switch” by Chris Wagner

Submitted to Contest #72

Clad in a full French maid's outfit, I pulled a tray of cookies out of the small oven in our loft. Love makes you do strange things.  "Just one more batch to go, mademoiselle...or should I say monsieur?" My girlfriend had taken to literally wearing the pants in our relationship, so the question seemed appropriate.  Ashley kissed me on the lips, playfully fluffing my layered skirt. I loved when she did that. "That mustache looks ridiculous. Who do you think you are, Hercule Poirot in heels?" My mocha s...

4 comments 4
Read story

“Mephibosheth” by Chris Wagner

Submitted to Contest #71

Armed with a tin of homemade cookies, I grabbed an iron knocker, rapping on the huge oaken doors of my employer's sprawling Victorian. Nothing. I scowled at the coffered door panels. You couldn't see a thing inside. I rang the doorbell. The sun had sunk below the horizon. Although the temperature wasn't that low, the wind was ice cold. I pulled my coat tight around my body. In retrospect, my pinafore, although cute, probably hadn't been the best thing to wear that time of year, I just thought it looked a bit class...

0 comments 0
Read story

“Squirrel Woman's Mistake” by Chris Wagner

Submitted to Contest #70

It hadn't been Squirrel Woman's intention to unzip her Lycra costume for supervillain Quentin Madcap, but there I was, waking with my bare flesh pressed up against his warm body, in a very intimate way. Quentin's not that bad looking. That's actually kind of the problem.  As typical for a bad guy, he favored building his mind instead of bulking up, yet his muscles hadn't been neglected. I'd removed my gloves to run my hands over those firm pecs and abs.  He smelled...good, his hair, though neon blue with a stripe ru...

0 comments 0
Read story

“The Count” by Chris Wagner

Submitted to Contest #70

Ashley and I had just won a game show, and were on our way to fetch the prize money when we heard a scream. Someone in the neighboring studio had just uncovered a dead body. The victim: A contestant from a cooking show called Shadow Chef. African American, female, overweight. The body had been completely drained of blood. I spotted two small puncture wounds in the neck. She had been wearing a cross, but it lay on a broken chain a couple feet away. You could see red marks where it got yanked off. The wom...

2 comments 2
Read story

“Cosplay” by Chris Wagner

Submitted to Contest #70

Sarah had the most lovely, glittering green eyes, and golden brown hair that looked wonderful no matter how she styled it. Everything about her face was cute, the button nose, the mousy ears, I even liked the buckteeth she flashed when I made her smile. Good looking figure, pleasantly plump but not fat - the only thing that bothered me were the long turtlenecks and baggy pants.  She wore them all the time, even in the hottest weather. I mean, it was cool to see her wearing a shirt with the Death Star on it, cargo pants with t...

0 comments 0
Read story

“Don't Eat The Roast” by Chris Wagner

Submitted to Contest #69

Things got a little...strange for my family after mom left. Dad's a pastor, mom...decided she didn't like religion, ran off with a `bad boy,' ended up having his kid. Dad, well...he got married to Bonbon. The woman clearly came from outer space. Her nose and mouth made me think of that eighties Beauty and the Beast TV show, a kind of freakish animal harelip and muzzle-nose, big mouse ears, green eyes with a goat's slotted pupils. She had fur, a long opossum tail, and wore the most outlandish outfits this side of Lucasfilm's ward...

4 comments 4
Read story

“Lyuntaaz” by Chris Wagner

Submitted to Contest #69

If a space alien proposes to you, I wouldn't recommend saying yes. The long distance puts a strain on everything. I have to take three months off work just to be with family on earth during the holiday season, and most of that gets spent in lonely transit across the galaxy. I don't get to see my family much outside of those times, except by means of long range video transmissions we beam through satellites cleverly concealed in the Mars-Jupiter asteroid belt. Today is the first official day of the Lyuntaaz holiday cycle, but we...

0 comments 0
Read story

Author bio

See more of my fiction and artwork at: https://kayboksystem.wordpress.com/

Shortlisted 1 story ⭐️

Contest #61
They Talk Back To You – read story