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Write about someone who still practices a skill that used to be necessary but has long since been replaced by technology.

Posted in Fiction on Oct 26, 2022

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✍️ 133 stories

“The Ferocious Fire”

Submitted to Contest #78

There are certain moments in your life that seem so unimaginable, so terrifying even when lots of time has passed. Certain course of events change you forever. Such incident happened to me when I was faced with a life and death situation a few years back. Such moments where the life of someone you so deeply care about so deeply love are at stake is when you forget that you are only human. Such moments are so adrenaline filled so awe-inspiring, that they leave you completely stunned in the aftermath. The fire that almost consumed me and my be...

97 likes 78 comments 78
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Paper and Ink

Submitted to Contest #78

Douglas sits down at the rickety chair in front of the rickety desk, the legs of both threatening to fall off at any moment. But he was determined to use them till the very end, to be faithful to them like they had been to him. They had been his companions and the only ones who truly cared, and he wasn’t going to let them go that easily.He takes a sturdy sheet from the stack of papers, the smell immediately reminding him of the thumping of small feet running towards the front door when the bell rang on a Sunday, and then fighting over who ge...

88 likes 53 comments 53
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Blissfully Alone*

. .

Submitted to Contest #78

“I have not been–As others were– not seenAs others saw–I could not bringMy passions from a common spring–”-"Alone" by Edgar Allen PoeIt was an undisputed custom that thoughts had become obsolete and were not to be valued. The entirety of the world left autonomy behind, embracing a life of ignorance. There was no greater happiness than that of relieving yourself of the pain which is to comprehend. When the dust settled, though, nearly everyone was devoid of intelligence, of thought, of any sense of happiness. They had been wrong, it seemed, f...

73 likes 180 comments 180
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The Heirs of Man

Submitted to Contest #78

To those who believed that technology would inevitably rule the world, I am living proof that it did. Ruled the world.Took over the world.Encircled the world. Replaced the world. And I am one of the last people who matter in the workforce. One of the last people they need. One of the last people out of 11.9 billion people to have a job. That should be a good thing, right? For me? For the few others like me?Wrong.It was only because robots could not deny that the human brain’s capability for driving was tenfold t...

70 likes 43 comments 43
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One Shot

Submitted to Contest #78

HEYYOOO! It's been a while since I posted (notice what I said last time... and the time before that... *cringe*) but I'm back for now!!! It doesn't exactly fit the prompt, but this is the first chapter of the new novel I'm writing called One Shot. Tell me in the comments what you think, if you think I should continue writing it, and above all IF IT MAKES SENSE!!!!!Thanks, y'all, and just keep on livin' and lovin'!The walls are closing in on both sides, and all I can do is run. Run down the hallway that is getting thinner and thinner by the s...

69 likes 69 comments 69
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I think, therefore I am...human?

Submitted to Contest #78

I lazily sprawled out on the warm grass of the Castle Hills. That was the pretend name Cassidy, Rafael, Sera, and I had once given these dramatic sloping hills. The "castle" was the deformed ring of boulders at the top, which always seemed like the impenetrable lair of a three-headed cat king or something else children found magical. All of us had had imaginary roles, I was a wizard, Raf was an alien astronaut who had a fear of birds, Sera was a Tree Princess who actually had evil death powers, and Cassidy was an alchemist. In our games, t...

65 likes 28 comments 28
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For some, Old, but for some, Gold

Submitted to Contest #78

65 years ago... "Dear Martha, what on Earth are you doing? It's cold outside, yet you are still here!" her elder shouted. "Dear sister, I am writing," she replied calmly and continued doing her activity. "Writing what? About how disrespectful you are with your sister?" Edna kept bugging her. "Answer me, Martha." "Can't you bug someone else? How about Leslie? Or...Julia? Maybe even little Charlie!"  "I'm bugging you? Mother has ordered me to bring you back home! Martha, come on now, get inside."  "No." Martha cooly replied. "Don't a...

64 likes 19 comments 19
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the letters you didn't read

Submitted to Contest #78

Dear May,  I miss your eyes. They’re brown, a very deep brown. You hated them. But you didn’t see them like I did. Whenever you spoke of your flowers or happy memories, the sparkle of your joy would gleam in your eyes, glistening with hope and meaning. I miss the way you would look at me. Like I was something special. You’re the special one, you always were. As I write this, it’s morning, and the sunlight is peeking in the windows. Your eyes would be glued to the sun right now, and I’d be staring at you, wondering how someone could be s...

64 likes 35 comments 35
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Old Age

Submitted to Contest #78

Softly splashing water droplets hit the car windows as I drove onwards; turning of the handle in my car caused my wipers to flick the raindrops off my window. The skies are overhung with a blanket of grey, so much so that I can barely tell the difference between the sky and clouds. Despite car rides having the potential to feel tedious that is not the case for me, the rain commonly calms me. I watch raindrops race down. The occasional wave of a puddle can be exciting, especially when going through it. I can just picture it: I can picture the...

59 likes 58 comments 58
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'Dear Jackie '

Submitted to Contest #78

'With lots of love and kisses to my darling Cathy '.Lissy concluded it by drawing two tiny hearts on the card, folded it neatly and placed it in the envelope .If she hurried now her card would go out with the first mail pickup of the day .She took her walking stick and her sling bag and went out of the house .With slow measured steps she walked towards the post office which was just a stone's throw away from her house.Tenny the postmistress greeted her with a warm smile."Good morning Lissy""Good m...

54 likes 21 comments 21
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Ink

Submitted to Contest #78

“Memory is more indelible than ink.” Her name is forgotten by time, and she writes letters.  She is the ink to the quill, the paper to the typewriter. She is the words one speaks, and the silence between them. She is outdated, but she is new and fresh to those who have not come by her before.  She writes letters in ink, for in her opinion that is the only true way to write. She writes from dusk to dawn, penning new phrases and words no one has heard. She writes voices for those in her mind who are voiceless, and she writes so...

46 likes 61 comments 61
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Recyclable

Submitted to Contest #78

“Well, who’s laughing now?” I say to myself. I don’t say it to them, because they can’t understand words. At least, I don’t think they can.“Hey. Hey you. Yeah, you there. You’re ugly.”No response. None that I can tell, anyway. “Yeah, that’s what I thought,” I say as I remove the shaft from the one’s head. I have to put my foot on its neck and pull quite hard. I turn my head away — even though I’ve got a face mask on and a pair of ski goggles. You can never be too sure. They like to spray and splatter. Even though the blood should have congea...

35 likes 10 comments 10
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Evensong

Submitted to Contest #78

Nunc dimittis servum tuum, Domine,secundum verbum tuum in paceShe hums as she works, her thin calligraphy pen tracing the contour of her voice onto the page of the manuscript. The notes, perched daintily onto the lines and the spaces, feel as ancient and essential to her as the prayer itself.It is futile, she knows, this strange desire to preserve that which cannot truly be saved. She is one of the last at the abbey who finds the work of a scribe worthwhile. Now that everything can be copied in a tenth of the time or less using the printing ...

35 likes 19 comments 19
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Sans Serif

Submitted to Contest #78

I’m sitting at a table outside a café called Les Biscuits on a pleasant little surprise of a street situated between busy freeway interchanges taking important people to downtown high rises and back. Cars whoosh by like water rushing over boulders in a distant river. The sound always makes me think of words filling a blank page, paragraphs, chapters; pause, close the book, start again tomorrow. Sometimes, I think of myself as a tiny speck of India ink on that page, here in this city full of exclamation marks.A cool breeze ruffles the le...

32 likes 14 comments 14
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Hot Water

Submitted to Contest #78

From the drop down menu I find the “hot teas” section. Click.The first option is “chai latte”. Click.Change the size to venti, 4 pumps chai, modify regular milk to soy milk. Click, click, click.“Thank you! Your order will be ready in 5-7 minutes. Please give the barista your name.”---The weather is perfect outside so I am going to take my computer out to the back porch and set up for a morning of responding to emails, browsing social media and maybe even do a little online shopping. My first sip of the creamy, cinnamon, spiced black tea is a...

30 likes 12 comments 12
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