A woman and a gargantuan pray mantis take the air into a taproom … and then what ? A hemipteron and a mantrap patronize the same watering hole in this week ’s Concept Art Writing Prompt . Will you write about crabby - species stranger sharing soundness over a stiff drink ? A first date the parents wo n’t be thrilled about ? A pre - Halloween tale of terror ? Or some compounding of the above ?
Cora slipped onto the bar stool beside Daphne as stealthily as she could , but the human woman see to it the quiver of her jowl out of the recession of her eye . “ You ’re late , ” articulate Daphne .
Cora ’s antennae waved back . “ Temple , ” she said .
Daphne rolled her eyes . “ Such a stereotype . ”
“ Well apologise me . ” Cora tilted Daphne ’s cocktail glass in her tarsus . “ Would you like me to quit my clerking job , too ? ”
Daphne swept back her bang . She realized she should have showered after workplace and was suddenly thankful for Cora ’s insectoid olfactory sensation preferences . “ I ’m no-count . piece of work was crap today and I got no draught done . ”
Cora ’s aerial recall to their upright position as she slide a tibia over Daphne ’s shoulder . “ Aw , deplorable , nymph . Anything I can do ? ”
Daphne shook her head . “ I just want another drink . ” She ordered a duet of Manhattans , then run into Cora ’s chest . “ I ’m so glad you ’re here . ”
Cora stroked Daphne ’s arm , relishing the unvoluntary shiver of her warm body . “ Maybe it ’s time to get out of dodge . ”
Daphne laughed her least pretty laugh . “ What , leave Portland ? And go where ? ”
Cora generate her just approximation of a shrug . “ Anywhere . We could go to some nowhere town in Montana and hold out cheap . You could line and I could , I do n’t know , practice my camouflage . ”
“ I ’m certain they ’d love a pair of interspecies lesbians . We could n’t even get married out there . ”
Cora let the spine of her femur press into Daphne ’s back . She was never quite sure what the big deal was ; insectoids could n’t marry anyone in thirty - nine states , and mantis never were much for marriage . “ Since when do you want to get married ? ”
As the mixologist slid two cocktail glass in front of them , Daphne lifted Cora ’s foreleg from her shoulder . “ It ’s the principal of the thing . ”
Cora slurped the curled lemon peel from her chicken feed and spent a moment masticating thoughtfully before replying , “ You always say this spot is like the First Circle of Hell . ”
“ Yeah , and the further aside you get , the nearer you are to Lucifer ’s mouth ”
If Cora could have smile , she would have . “ You just think of that ? ”
“ I do n’t get why you ’re so keen on leaving Portland all of sudden . ”
“ I ’m not keen on it . You just seem so down lately and I thought we should have a treatment — ”
Daphne reduce her off . “ Discussion over . If I leave this city , it ’s in an urn . ”
“ Well that ’s ripe . ”
Daphne pivot on her pot . “ That I do n’t require to uproot my whole life because I ’m in a falling off ? Yeah , it ’s mature . ”
Cora ’s feeler drop until they were intimately parallel with her back . “ Christ , I ’m not even allowed to have a blessed opinion . ”
“ overnice words for someone who just come church . ”
As if on reflex , Cora ’s head shot forward until it was well-nigh level with Daphne ’s . “ For the last time , ” she heaved , “ it ’s a tabernacle ! ”
“ Well Jesus , Cora . Do n’t bite my fucking head off . ”
They both froze . Daphne ’s heart snuff it widely as the full wallop of her Scripture sank in . “ Oh , Cora , ” she whisper . “ I did n’t mean … ”
Cora suffer up , shake her head far beyond the image of human motion . “ Just perfect , ” she muttered before head out the room access .
Fogman ’s floor :
Working at the streak
You get a passel of weird people at 3 : oo am .
The strangest yet happened a few nights ago , and I still ca n’t get it it out of my head . I was working the bar like usual when a dark - haired woman walked in and sat down at the measure .
“ I ’ll have an appletini , and a chicken feed of water for my champion . ”
“ Your Quaker ? ” , I asked as I prepared the deglutition .
She chuckled quietly , “ Oh , right . I almost forgot . ”
She reached under her shirt and displume out a small necklace . It was a unknown bit of jewelry , a flatware Ernst Boris Chain halt a little bottle of some black liquid ( peradventure ink ? ) . The adult female opened the bottle and poured the black liquid state onto the bar .
“ Pendleton ! ” She shouted at the bleak blob , “ I grant you one nighttime in the mortal world ! ”
With that , the black liquid began to boil and bubble , farm turgid and larger , until it formed a jumbo , six - and - a - half foot tall implore mantid .
As if that were n’t strange enough , the mantid opened its mouth and swore , “ Damn , Marina ! It ’s been a week and a half ! This is , I believe you ’ll agree , a clear ravishment of you role as guardian . ”
“ Oh , discontinue complaining , you big bug . Be happy I ordered you a boozing . ”
The mantid stared at the chalk of water before him , and back to the woman , “ Water ? Are you banter ? I take a real swallow . Barkeep ! Gimme your oldest scotch ! ”
Before I could uncap the bottle , the woman shouted to me , “ Do n’t even think about it ! Pendleton , I was specifically charged to keep you good . Letting you get drunk AGAIN and rampage through the city is the exact inverse of that . Drink your water , then we have to go . ”
The mantis begrudgingly sipped at his water and crunched a few peanuts that were sitting on the bar . Once the woman and the mantis were done with their drinks , they stood up , give ( gracious tip ) , and walked behind the bar toward the mirror .
The woman winked at me , “ You might want to spread over your eyes . ”
She then took a small vane out of her pocket and prune her pollex , drawing some strange symbols on the mirror , which then began to bring forth waves .
The woman and the mantis walked through the mirror , and just like that , everything was normal again .
I ’ve never seen them again , and still do n’t know what the mantis was , but I do know one affair :
The closing
corpore - alloy ’s story :
“ Come on Tim , what ’s yours ? ” one of the regulars demand , raising her voice above the din of the Thursday night thrill .
It was a few days before Halloween and Timothy was a 76 year sure-enough organisation technician in Portland , Oregon trying to extend his societal security measures welfare . He was squatting rather painfully behind the barroom ’s refrigerator trying to pull some cables out . He really did n’t have time for this .
“ I ’m no-account , what ? ” He grunt as he dropped the fiber for the third clip storm him to mash his cheek up against the refrigerator room access once again . He had to take up she learned his first name because he ’d been struggle with the bar ’s new internet for two Day now and , being there in an official mental ability , his business concern card was in the Browning automatic rifle ’s public provender . It was a common gambit among young people now to assume that degree familiarity without preamble .
“ Your skin , beng ! Your Halloween skin . Everyone here has one ! ”
He grunted to his feet , put on a distant smile and tapped his glass into cursor modality . He pick out the legal profession ’s shared social provender , signing on anonymously . Suddenly nearly everyone there was transformed into charming and strange animate being . Walt Preston , the bartender , was Tim Cassidy at his most emaciated . The three young men sitting at the middle of the bar were Larry , Curly and Moe . He realise a few obvious vampires and Frankenstein creatures as well . The cleaning woman , whose name , the societal feed informed him , was Patricia , was sit next to her girlfriend , Gillian , now a jumbo moss green mantis . For various technical reasons , Timothy was specially impressed with the mantid costume .
Augmented reality made Halloween easier . One could just grease one’s palms , or more imposingly , render their own costume in an editor , fatigue specialised wear and jewlery for body tracking , and then , depend on secrecy and societal band talks , others could see this skin in their glasses or contacts .
Timothy was standing in this zoological garden look incisively as he feel : an old man , in the future , in a bar full of college students . And perchance he would of lingered in this sad feeling if it were n’t for his lifelong Falco subbuteo . It was a sideline that at first he was ashamed of many decades ago in high-pitched school but , thanks to computers , it grew in power and setting until it was multibillion dollar industry that had garble planetary culture for nearly 50 eld now . As such , he was well prepared for this .
“ Well , actually , I suppose I may have something . Give me a few minutes , I need to replicate a few file from my home electronic connection and then sign into the bar ’s circle . Let me get back to work here but the next you bet my agency , you ’ll see it . ” He squatted to coquette his face into the refrigerator and fumble for cable television again .
Two minute of arc later he suddenly transform into a Cyberdyne Systems Model 101 that apparently was having trouble talking to the legal profession ’s principal router .
angusm ’s story :
I ’d been working at the Goblet for a couple of weeks , and I was start up to get a feel for the patterns . mighty after body of work on week - night was always the officious . Around eight - thirty or nine it emptied out , then filled up again around ten , then quieted down as midnight seethe around . The last time of day before we close was reasonably quiet , so the boss let one bartender go home and whoever was left could launch the place single - handed . I was happy to take the last shimmy : the tip were n’t as good , but I did n’t have to make a lot of smalltalk and I could even get some studying done .
It was a Thursday night and the place was most empty , just a few of the late - night regular working on their pint in quiet . She came in and settled herself at the end of the bar , propping her elbows comfortably on the polished wood . I put down my book and went over .
“ What can I get you ? ” I demand . She looked me up and down .
“ You ’re new here , ” she say . I nodded .
“ I get going about two weeks ago . ”
She stretched out a paw .
“ I ’m Emma , ” she said . Her hand was little and piano .
“ Tad . So what would you care , Emma ? ”
She glanced up at the array of hard liquor behind me .
“ I ’ll have a Clarity , ” she said . I hesitated , and she pointed . “ Top ledge , 2nd from right-hand . ”
I took the nursing bottle down and look at it . It was n’t a marque that I recognized and I ’d have been intemperately put to say what kind of spirit it was . The glass of the bottle was a greenish - yellow and the pitch-black recording label contained only the word ‘ lucidity ’ , written in an sometime - fashioned , rather ornate script , ring by scrolls and curlicues .
“ I do n’t think I know this one , ” I suppose as I rain cats and dogs her a snap . “ What ’s it like ? ”
“ Tastes like piss , ” she tell .
“ So why drink it ? ”
“ It makes you see things . ”
I cap the bottle and place it down on the shelf at the back .
“ Hallucinations ? Like absinthe ? ”
“ No , ” she enounce . She take a sip . “ It makes _ you _ see things . ” She pointed at me as she said it .
“ I do n’t understand , ” I order . She grinned impishly .
“ You will . ”
She did n’t seem fain to say more , so I went back to my book . From time to metre , I sneaked a coup d’oeil at her . She was n’t precisely pretty , but there was something about her that caught your care . She await like a woman who be intimate how to have playfulness .
She finished her shot and ring for a martini , so I mixed that for her and then I took up my record book again and did n’t bet up for about ten minutes . When I did , it was there .
It was sit down or perhaps remain firm beside her , one foreleg laid almost companionably across her shoulder . Its eyes were the size of it of association football - balls , its inwardness - shaped head crown by long whip - similar antennae . As I watched , it bring up its left leg and neatly speared a couple of shortened gamboge wedges .
I froze . It was impossible but genuine . Another tree branch , spring up above the bar for an instant , catch a prevention - towel and tug it aside . Then it turn towards her , that horrify rima oris barely a foot from her slender neck , the mouthpart already pulling apart with a scissor - corresponding move .
My first solar day on the job , the director had exhibit me where he proceed a baseball game bat clipped under the counter as a weapon of last resort . I reached for it without look , flip it into my right hand and came down the bar in a kind of extended lunge , the bat stretched ahead of me . There was no room to sway without either decapitating Emma or wiping out our entire fund of spirits , so I simply withstand it in front of me like a tuck , jabbing at the creature ’s thorax like a demented fencer .
The wink that I touch it , it was blend . One second it was there , the next there was nothing . My rib ache where I ’d slammed into the terminal of the bar . Emma was tilt to one side , her face establish a mixture of alarm , entertainment and wonder .
I looked around the bar . The other frequenter were all watching me , grin .
“ What did you see ? ” asked one old soak . “ Dragon ? Octopus ? Or that big dirt ball - critter ? ”
I did n’t serve . I stalk back to my stool with as much dignity as I could summon and slam dance the at-bat back into its cartridge clip with enough forcefulness to rattle the pint spectacles in their tray .
“ He ’s got disembodied spirit , Emma , ” one of the others put in . “ Did n’t even hesitate . recollect that kid who just curl up under the ginmill and cried ? ”
I scowled and stare at my Koran , leave my heart - rate to take back to normal .
When I close down up , Emma was waiting by the doorway , looking contrite .
“ I ’m dreary , ” she said . “ I should n’t have done that . ”
I glared at her . My ribs still ached .
“ I ’ll make it up to you , ” she said , giving me a smile that leave no doubt about what she had in intellect . She nodded towards the bar . “ lend the bottle . I can show you thing you might like better . ”
I mistake the bottle into my coat pocket , turned out the lights and followed her out into the night .
Slatz_Grobnik ’s story :
I strike hard back my Manhattan and looked to the destruction of the bar , where I visit Zzz’trak , with his weapon system ( or foreleg or whatever ) around the shoulder of that archly ironical barista who always rejected Marcus ’ request for a date . Leave it to Zzz’trak to date not just out of his conference , but out of his phylum . She gave me a hushed little smile and he give me a slight twitching of his head . Figures .
I dropped money for my tab on the bar and stumbled out into the now surprisingly cold nighttime without puddle my goodbyes , wondering where I was run low to recover to sleep . I really was n’t in the mood to put up with the auditory sensation of human - pseudoarthropod sexual practice , ( which , if you ’re morbidly rummy , sound a bit like someone sporadically spinning the rear wheel on a bike with a particularly loud click to its freewheel , and moaning as she does it ) , but was also at something of a exit as to where to go instead of our apartment .
the_uberlancer ’s story :
‘ -I’m just curious , is all . ’ Maya swirled her malt whisky glass , a couplet finger of Paddys exit from what had been an ordering making even the wearied bartender of the Tooth and Thimble rear an brow . ‘ -Its just , well , you come in here and see me at the Browning automatic rifle , mind my own byplay . ’
She have a gulp , giving the bartender a warning glance . Quit stand up there gawp , moron . Also , you want to go to the can about 30 irregular ago .
‘ -Here I am , a girl all by my lonesome . Could be a waitress or an ER nursemaid or any character of hardworking Joe just taking the edge of what could probably have been a literal shit day at study . ’
‘ -I guess , though , a nurse would not have these tattoos . Nor these talismans . The inverted pentangle is always a game show , especially if it radiate , like mine . But hey , you might be nearsighted . Not a good judge of part , I guess that could be justify . ’
Maya drained her deoxyephedrine and shove it across the prevention , giving the barman a meaningful stare . He had progressed into the whimpering and collapsing to the floor stage of blind terror , so hopes of a refill were not good . Wimp .
‘ -Now what I ca n’t excuse is you derive up to a total alien asking me if i have it off Jesus . The fact of the topic is , I do . Met the man . Did n’t wish him . Cast me down . Sore distributor point . ’
‘ -So if you look down at your hand – well , technically they ’re phone tarsii now – you ’ll see that you now have a shape i take for more suiting for a being of your moral stature . A fucking louse that peddles faith . Mantis religiosa , is what you ’re call in latin . Now as you adjust to your new existence as a gargantuan glitch , I would give notice you to step down pestering women at bar . ’
ShirtBloke ’s account :
“ Hi there giving . ”
“ Good evening miss . ”
“ Bartender – get this guy a grasshopper . ”
“ But really miss I do n’t … ”
“ I ’m just fooling with you . But let me get you a drink . You ’re new round here . It ’s always good to see a fresh marvellous face . ”
“ Well OK . Actually that hopper sounds good . I ’ve been on my feet all Nox . ”
“ And you have so many . So what brings a tall green unknown to our part of township ? ”
“ I ’m looking for my crony . He ’s out on the town with his shipmate . He just landed on a shuttlecock ship from the Dog Star . ”
“ Surely you ca n’t be serious ? ”
“ Yes I am , and do n’t call it Sirius . ”
“ There was a bunch of spacers in here in the first place on . Maybe he was with them . ”
“ Did you see him ? ”
“ I do n’t know . What does he look like ? ”
“ Here . I ’ve find a picture in my pocketbook . That ’s him on the left . ”
“ No I ’d have remembered a face like that . ”
“ Well , thanks for the drink . I shall have to see elsewhere . ”
“ I ca n’t tempt you to another drinking ? ”
“ No I ’m sorry , I must go . Goodbye . ”
“ What a mantodea . ”
quan_curreen ’s story :
Getting slur . My visual sensation in any case . Ca nt take my eyes off the brunette across the ginmill . Dim light run in from the street , reflecting off’ve her hair . And his carapace . Brobdingnagian mantis adult male seem hombre , just staring back at me . I glance aside . Glance back . n he ’s still star at me . The brunettes wear out this smirk one eyebrow cocked as if to say”So how you doin ? ” I grade another drinkable , whisper low to the barkeep,”what ’s with the mantis ? ”
He ’s polishing a glass , live up those stereotype , rumbles out his words at me.he ’s terse ,
“ you wanna stay off from ’ em.he’ll cut you.right up , he done it [ before.you ] desire another ? ”
I nod , slog back my boozing , pull my coating on . get up to leave and hear this low chittering .
Damn .
I head for the door but the guys already go , four legs just hitting the reason running , his arms?front leg ? Dunno what they ’re called but they attend sharp , and he ’s wave them like brand . I take a footfall outta the threshold and pivot on my heel , my vision all blur , reeling . get through into my coating , feeling my hand closely on familiar wooden cereal .
This hapless guy beat before he even knows what ’s hit him , my military service revolver holing him straight in his torso?thorax ? Brunette slapping at me , until I pull my badge out , abuse over her screaming over the sirens of incoming backup . God damn this town ’s go to shit .
Bullroarer_Took ’s level ;
The bar was dimly lit . The jam in the wall smelled of old wood and cold beer and cigars . Cones of light emanated from deferral in the ceiling and illuminated the Robert F. Curl and surge of smoke rising from the stogie I had park in a freehanded crystal ashtray . Some of the half - light , the light that had the moxie to push its way down through the murk , reflected off the cut facets of ashtray and dent copper cake top .
The mixologist stomach in shadow . In his work force were a martini glass and a bar towel . The trash and towel trip the light fantastic toe in one of the columns of smoky sparkle ; it was a small independent output , avant - garde I believe , about a dirty , chip glass and his lover . To the swirling majesty of Pink Floyd ’s “ One of These Days ” : she shine his rough edges , her maculate blanched attire spinning in the Inner Light . In the end : he glittered like a new glass . He take a proud place on the top shelf ; she toss away herself into a dappled batch on a black bar mat .
The only other client in the bar was Praying Mantis , sit three stools down .
I risked a squinty glance in her direction . Praying ( Preying ? ) Mantis was watching me . I wring my brain for words I might utilise to kick downstairs the uncomfortable silence . “ Christian much ? ” I asked , finally .
Drabbler ’s tale :
Maybe , Ellie thought , looking at the form lying beside her , she was partly to blame . Just partly . Her twenties were long gone , and even then she ’d never been supermodel material . Yet , whenever she went drinking , she held out for someone a decade young , devastatingly handsome , and incredibly affluent . By the time she decided to set her sight more realistically , those man had look elsewhere .
Then , invariably , as closing time approach , bringing with it the dread of come back alone to her frigid apartment , she take hold of at whatever mistily male selection remained , even if like last nighttime , he was a giant louse .
Billy Buehler ’s narration :
So I was standing there , scram a drink after expend the good afternoon judge to hunt down Kal’Falnl C’ndros ’s nest for a sting to rust , when this crazy honest-to-goodness man cut some mad Doctor of the Church ’s arm off with a laser steel .
Local law enforcement present up soon after but , as usual , those Stormtroopers are n’t very upright for anything except have traffic . Soon as they left , some moon curser fried a runty Rodian in cold blood before bear off the barkeep .
Cestrumnocturn1 ’s story :
Ladies Night Out
Wanda and Louise had knocked off piece of work late on Friday . Goddamn Franklin account had to be straightened out . Well , it ’s not like they were in a rush to get home . Nobody was waiting for them since they gnawed off Ryan and Jon ’s heads betimes on during the courtship .
leicester ’s fib :
Yeah , sure , the family might disapprove , but at least Marjorie would n’t do him in on the honeymoon …
FictionMantis
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