They smelt burnt gas, which didn’t bode well for finding enough to keep their clipper in the air.

Then Tin perked up, ears facing front on alert, before he took off, sprinting for the gaping hollow belly of the wreck where we found a survivor, a man pale from deep space, yet alive and struggling to hold on to life.

~Emmi

Image by Jordan Grimmer

Probably meant as post-apocalyptic, but that always seems strange to me. Since, our lives, however we live them, are our ‘normal’ and people living in a world that is ‘post-apocalyptic’ wouldn’t really think of it as a new normal within a single generation.

This is merely a piece of this man’s normal. Scavenging with his best friend. Skimping on gas use to keep his small ship in the air. Finding another who might share this life.

What would your two line story be?

The music existed solely for showmanship, the sand-made creations moving under my will, not my father’s notes, a harmonious dance we’d perfected.

Only one man ever noticed, and he conjured his own beasts to twine with mine, those creatures looking much like our bodies in all the evenings since.

~Emmi

Image by Shreya Shetty

Here’s a happier bit story that’s a nod toward my DaSunder Chronicles, where sand conjurers hide among the everyday :)

What would your two line story be?

Belief had a crazed effect on him, making him dogmatic, incapable of change and impatient of any who disagreed.

Finding proof of his gods, at least what he considered proof, turned him into a merciless monster, much like the creatures he revered.

~Emmi

Image by Gaelle Seguillon

I envisioned this story (part one here) as two stories as told from the perspective of the man who loves him, though I guess I never explicitly state that.

What would your two line story be?

“I’d thought this time it’d be different: he’d turned down the job move, cut back his hours, yet here I am, once more sharing a cig with the level’s barge rat.”

“In my world, when a rat will not come home, there ceases to exist a home to come back to.”

~Emmi

Image by Alex Andreev

Bit of advice on some love life issues, as told by the resident barge rat. Think there’s probably a lot here you could use for pretty much any kind of story, but I liked the idea of relationship growing beyond its limit.

What would your two line story be? :)