These are miscellaneous small character studies and literary sketches written for World of Lingua’s prompts. Each paragraph on its own is a self-contained 55 fic, and each grouping remains brief to better illustrate fleeting moments of strong emotions.

“Mask on, Mask Off”

With such a strong need to be social yet such an unfavorable appearance and poor sense of societal place, mingling is hard. · April 25, 2020; 166 words; made for the March 2020 monthly prompt, “Linguan Carnival.”

Mask on, and he becomes a rose by any other name. How quaint, attending a carnival’s masquerade ball, how sickeningly “fun” it is to be gawked at like so, but it is what it is: the best that he gets. T’is a chance to talk, be seen for once, and he hungrily takes it.

Mask off, if only for a moment: a clumsy bump is all it takes. For a moment, his world melts: pure anxiety, all eyes on him. Stop looking at me, stop looking at me!... but, these celebratory drunkards likely shan’t remember come morning. Recomposing himself, he fixes his mask with a huff. False alarm.

Mask off, for real this time, and moonlight illuminates the jalousies. Streamers and confetti litter the floor around him, chatty memories of food and drink. The crowd is gone; the camouflage, discarded. Back to the strangled shadows he must return. There is no place here for one like him. Onomancy, onomancy, wherefore art thou onomancy?

“Enlightenment”

A lightbulb moment helps Yangsto make a decision for the better. · May 29, 2020; 135 words; made for the May 2020 prompt, “Fantastic Phantasms.”

“Lights on,” the archivist mumbles, and without a second thought, Yangsto obeys and drearily flashes a light in the speaker’s direction. The archivist’s thanks – if it can even be called that – are but a mere grunt of acknowledgement. Timidly and discreetly, Yangsto attempts to return to his book, but the archivist grunts again, grabbing Yangsto’s face and turning his head back to attention. Yangsto can only manage a sigh.

It isn’t long before the archivist demands the lights again, but this time, there is no answer. Flicking the lights off, Yangsto disappears into the woods. Lost physically but not emotionally, his lights are next seen far, far away, a gentle glow to illuminate a park ranger’s restoration work on a snow-lion statue. Yangsto can only manage a sigh.