(C) 2020, JJ Shaun “Heyla, Stevie,” says Bert as he enters The Jaunty Mug. “Hello, Bert.” Stevie brews Bert’s double macchiato. The group trickles in. “Did Dave forget?” asks Mac when everyone else has arrived. “Or is he going to bail on us?” “Again?” asks Sandra. “We should have expected it.” “I’ll play his character. … Continue reading The Legend of Ashta’Qi
I wrote this story in response to a writing prompt on a site I frequent. The goal is to write an original story in 24 hours. The prompt was to write a 1000 word story using five words (blue, green, noise, quiet, peace) and 'Nature' as the genre. I came up with this. The noise … Continue reading Escape
(C) 2020, JJ Shaun “Here’s the scene,” says Bert. “Your characters,” he points to Mac, Chuck, and Yvonne, “are tracking a band of slavers. You follow a poorly covered path to a clearing …” The coffee shop fades away, replaced by a forest populated by oak, maple, and ash trees. “Quiet.” Naathyn halted the party. … Continue reading The First Meeting
It had been a year since her mom passed. Geri finally had the courage to face the stack of letters her mother had kept hidden in a shoebox in her closet. She’d found the box when the family moved her mother from her home of forty years into a nursing facility. Her mother had written … Continue reading Love Letter
“My character’s backstory isn’t nearly as detailed as that,” says Sandra, after hearing Julie’s story. “Tell us about her,” prompts Bert. “Well, Meegan is a loner. She’s a half-elf that lives with her mother in the Western Wood, away from her mother’s Elven community. A human diplomat seduced and impregnated her mother. Her father reacted … Continue reading The Protagonist
Lyryk Starsong strummed the tune running through her mind as her horse shambled along the trade road behind the dusty caravan. A storm comes, she heard in her mind. She almost dropped the lute she was playing when she spied Biscuit, the giant dog who sometimes traveled with her since she washed ashore all those … Continue reading Storm Surge
“Hi, Stevie!” says Bert as he enters The Jaunty Mug coffee shop. “Hi Bert,” says Stevie, the barista, as he raises his head from cleaning the coffee machine. “The usual?” “You got it.” The rest of the group trickles in, ordering their respective drinks as they pass the counter. Stevie acknowledges each with a greeting … Continue reading The New Semester
“Hey, Stevie!” says Bert as he enters The Jaunty Mug coffee shop. Thursday night rolls around again, and I look forward to this group of youngsters as they trickle into the cafe. It’s been a couple of weeks since I’ve seen them. Aislynn, the group’s healer, was not present the last time they were here … Continue reading The Shortest Day
Ashja stood on the pier, marveling at the sight before her. This city was nothing like she had ever seen in her life. It was so very different from the city at the edge of the desert near which she had grown. But then, she had seen a lot of strange things in the last … Continue reading The City of Caer Vernalan
As the Thursday role-play crowd settles into their characters at The Jaunty Mug, I work my magic. Bert spins his narrative. To their eyes, the coffee shop morphs into a seedy tavern. For the next several hours, they are in Ev’Ran, Bert’s fictional realm of the multiverse. They sip their morning ale as watch the … Continue reading Welcome to Ev’Ran
A piece of my scattered mind.
Tavern Tales
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J.J. Shaun 