They gathered around in formation— ready to begin their end of the month required meet, sip, & greet. Some had been a part of the group for many chilioi years. Others just enjoyed coming to the meetings to catch up on the latest usual~ some new big shot who was terrorizing the mortals on earth, or the same oldies, but still baddies, who likes to carpe diem through soul gatherings from the wandering souls that unfortunately had to meet the final point of their living thread. Cut short before they even had the time to realize that it was too late. A smaller group gathered much further in the distance, just to see the others all getting ready for the main big heads with their blazing cloaks appear in front of the throng. The silver and golden gongs were struck, and a silence fell over the immortal beings. One of the main big heads, who had feathers pointing out from the what seemed to be his entire body, grinned. He snapped his fingers, and out of nowhere servers appeared ready to provide various fresh kills of the month to the rest of the ones who had gathered. Some of their faces were in shock from what had been served. They had not been provided many rare dishes like this in a long while. Others already felt a sudden kick of hunger— ready to pounce on the plate to quickly tear off the meat off the human bones. As well as enjoy a glass of the leprechaun’s blood that they believed helped them have good fortune for the next millennia. As soon as the full moon appeared they began their feast, and they even got to have a taste of yeast breads.

#CORVUS ©️

Saturday, 30 March, 2024

Song: (RRH)

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=AqSOTpBmYhQ&pp=ygUUUmVkIGhhbmQgc29uZyBseXJpY3M%3D

From the top of the tallest hill, they could almost see the whole village— sights of lots of folks scurrying to the market ready to grab the fresh, new farmer’s healthy crops, fruits and vegetables- to the hustle, and bustle of even many more rowdier folks heading to the alehouse (the group that did not care for anything healthy to eat, or even drink like water). Their kaleidoscope and mirror like cloaks which made it easier for them to blend in their surroundings waved back, and forth in the beastly like super gale. The wind kept picking up- becoming stronger, and stronger with every passing quarter of an hour. The folks in the village did not seem to mind at all that a fierce storm was on the way. Even the waves that were not too far from the village rose higher, & much higher than the tallest hill in the village. While the village folks continued with their day, the cloaked strangers gave each other a slight nod, and carried on their leisurely stroll slowly down the tallest hill. One of them went toward the edge of the village, and toward the open sea to focus on guiding the waves. The other cloaked figure made his way toward the village. A few of the folks who were by the sea felt a sudden great powerful wave of heat coming from the sea. They spotted a kind of heavy mist emerging from the depths of the waters. The mist rose and soon covered the vast space by the edge of the village. It continued to move and when it reached close to the folks by the water’s edge, their bodies could not handle the heat from the mist, and their skin melted off their human bones. Their screams were heard all the way from the center of the village. Those in the alehouse quivered with each sip of their liquor, and wondered what kind of daemon could be roaming about in the human world at this kairos. The earth began to shake, even the folks in the alehouse felt the ground beneath their feet begin to quake. After the passing of the mist, snowflakes descended upon the village. It covered the entire land starting from the tallest hill, to the market, and the now sleeping waters by the edge of the now still, quiet village. The gods from the underworld had had their fill. After they had had their hunger satisfied, their harbingers of khaos returned to their own realm~ one that always just seemed to be shifting in all elemental forms, and had been around even before the beginning of time and space.

#CORVUS ©️ 23rd Jan. 2024

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=D7xkAjHbMnY

https://www.littletokyohs.org/

“The Little Tokyo Historical Society has organized this free short story contest in two categories: English and Japanese.

“These short stories should be set in the Little Tokyo district of Los Angeles and reflect the neighborhood’s culture.

Word count: 2,500

Prizes: 2 prizes of $500

Entry: Free!

Closing date: 29 February 2024

https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5e48e271878c9b6addebcf5b/19120900-7ad7-46f6-a019-0993e9cb9be3/Imagine+Little+Tokyo+Generic+Horizontal.png?format=750w

“Guidelines:

• “The story must be original, fictional, written in either Japanese or English by the submitting author and never been published (even online).The use of generative artificial intelligence and plagiarism in the creation of submitted stories is prohibited. Please contact the organizers at imaginelittletokyo@gmail.comfor any clarifications.

• “The same story submitted in a previous year cannot be resubmitted.

• “The setting of the story should be in Little Tokyo – either past, present or future.

• “Submitted manuscript should be 2,500 words or less for English or 5,000 ji or less for Japanese and have a title.

• “File should be a Microsoft Word doc, docx or rtf.

• “For English-language entries, please use 12 point font, preferably Times Roman or Courier type and double space.

• “Please remove any mention of your name from your short story, including headers.

• “The short story manuscript must be submitted digitally as an e-mail attachment to Imaginelittletokyo@gmail.com (include SHORT STORY  in the subject line). In the e-mail message, please include your name,phone number and age if 18 or under.

• “The submissions should include a signed agreement, which can be found on the Little Tokyo Historical Society website. The agreement can be either e-mailed or sent via US Postal Service.

• “Submissions need to be e-mailed by February 29, 2024, 12 midnight PST. NO EXCEPTIONS.

•“Immediate family members of judges (first-round or final) are ineligible.”

N.B:

https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5e48e271878c9b6addebcf5b/t/658285017395aa270b85ddf2/1703052545067/LTHS%2B-%2BImagine%2BLittle%2BTokyo%2BShort%2BStory%2BContest%2BAgreement%2Bform%2BEnglish%2B2024.doc

“Little Tokyo Historical Society Short Story Contest Agreement

Author: ________________________

Name of Work: ________________________

• “If your submitted short story wins first place for the Youth, English Language or Japanese Language categories, you will receive a monetary prize of $500 after providing an e-mail of acceptance and biographical information for publication purposes.

• “For this prize, the Little Tokyo Historical Society will receive the non-exclusive right to use for our promotional purposes, including the publication in The Rafu Shimpo newspaper, the Discover Nikkei website, and the Little Tokyo Historical Society website.  All other rights will remain with you.

• “Contest winners will be invited and encouraged to attend an awards ceremony in Little Tokyo to be held in summer 2024.

• “If you have incorporated in the Work any copyrightable material, please provide written permission to reprint or use the materials with this form.

“Your signature signifies that you agree to all the terms outlined on this form.  Your signature warrants and represents that you are the sole creator of the above mentioned work and that you own all rights to it, that it is an original creation that has never been published (even online), that it does not infringe any other person’s copyrights, nor to your knowledge does it violate the rights or privacy of, or libel, other persons. You also did not usegenerative AI in the creation of this story.

“If you are 18 or younger, please give us your birthdate __/__/__, and have your parent/guardian sign for you.

__________________________

Signature​Date

Name: __________________________

Address: __________________________

Telephone number: __________________________

E-mail: __________________

“Please tell us how you heard about this contest:__________________________________

“Your short story submission will not be accepted unless accompanied with this completed Agreement Form.”

—25th January, 2024, -Monday.

The sound of the drums

Echoed in the air

My body moved toward

The sound of the drums

Out of many, one

Chosen to be a

Sacrifice to the

Out of many, gods

Adrenaline rushed

Forth like a flood

The other time my

Adrenaline failed me

This time I will try

To save the young baby

From dancing with death

This time I will not fail

Out of the others

This one is most painful

Because that child

Their holding captive—

~Is mine-

O, come on feet

Don’t falter now

Help me make it

To save my little one!

#Epluribusunum ©️ 13.01.2023

‘’Call for Submissions: 9th Annual Stephen A. DiBiase Poetry Contest

Submissions open on November 1, 2023, with a deadline at 11:59 pm EST on January 15, 2024.

$600 for first place, $400 for second, $300 for third, $200 for fourth and additional cash awards for honorable mentions.

Prize-winning and final poems results will be listed and published on the contest website in March 2024. Published final poems will be paid for.

There are no entry fees.

There is a one poem/one submission limit. The poem must be in English. Do not put your name on the poem. Otherwise, there are no limitations or restrictions. But please proofread your poem before submission. We welcome submissions from all ages and all countries. Submission gives your consent for us to publish your poem.

To submit your poem, fill out the form on the website. Please note that submissions that do not include at least an email address and a residence address (minimum of City, State, and Country) will not be read.’’

https://dibiasepoetry.com/submit/

01.06.2024 Sat’rday.

Warning— events that are shared here are not for children- parts of the story contain scenes that are required only for a mature audience, please. Thank you.

(Based on a true story).

__________________________

The young woman had given birth to what her mother-in-law, and husband were not pleased to be related to. Her child was born with a skin condition that made him look different from his parents. The young mother was tossed out of her own home that she shared with her husband. Now she had to find a way to make ends meet with her newborn far away from her husband, and his family. She was placed in a taxi, and later the young taxi driver who felt sorry for her ended up helping her. Then after a little while of them becoming really good friends, they end up together. The young woman always keeps her child indoors, and doesn’t want other folks to make fun of his skin condition. Her new husband advises her against this. Then sometime later, she finally agrees to even let her child attend a government school. One day as her boy makes his way back home for school with his friend, a small group of mischiefs capture him, and try to chop off the kid’s legs. Luckily for him his close friend was with him, and she managed to escape running off to call her friend’s parent/mother. Together they rushed to the boy’s rescue, and with the help of a group of good samaritans managed to save him from no longer seeing the light of day. Sadly, the kid’s parents (biological mother and step-father) as they made their way to check out a new place they had wanted to call their new home had been hit, and passed away on the spot in a car crash. Their child had to be taken to his biological father now— who just happened to be living a new, and his best life- and still did not acknowledge his first born child. His new and living trophy wife was not fond of her new step-child. She managed to make it seem like her step-son had stolen money from her, and this had made the boy’s father full of rage. He took the kid to his new bedroom, and with his belt hit his own child. The kid was miserable, and felt like he was living in a stranger’s house~ and not a place that felt like a loving home. His step-mom convinced her husband that the boy needed to be taken to boarding school. Once there he felt like he was at a good place, and he was not sad anymore. Even the kids there treated him much better than his own Dad, and step-mom ever did. He had step-siblings, but even they had been quite terrible company. The boy grew into a hardworking, and handsome gentleman who enjoyed listening to music, as well as playing the guitar, and singing, too (which he had learned from a neighbor of his during his childhood). He became famous from his first single, and was inspired to continue singing from a close friend of his who he had met at the boarding school, much to his delight. He was glad to have seen her after such a very long time. His father showed up out of the blue for his son’s first local stage performer of his single/new song. He even apologized for how he had treated his own flesh, and blood. The young man embraced his Dad, and smiled. He grabbed his guitar, and went to sing his heart out on stage for all of his local fans.

#TiensMaBière (#HoldMyBeer).

The stranger crouched lower to the ground, and waited. He took a deep breath, and listened for the sounds of wings gathering their momentum. He waited, and waited, for the sound of the bird’s beak trying to pierce its way out of the dark, molten cracked mound. A smile did not form along his face. All he wanted to do was to complete his current assignment. He took another deep breath, and then slowly pushed his hands into the cracking ground. He felt the sudden cries of the souls from the other side, yearning to find their way back to earth. But he was not here to gather all these lost souls. Au contraire. His one task was to simply wait for the return of the one who would bring about a long era of chaos across the vast number of realms, kingdoms, including the villages in Ingenu. The bird cawed from the first taste of the rich, and dewy air. Storm clouds had seemed to stay all day as if they were shedding tears on behalf of the lost souls’ kith, and kin. The stranger who was dressed in a shiny silver coat bent a bit backward, and stared into the cloudy sky. Raindrops dripped along the sides of his eyes making it look like he had been sobbing all day. His hands reached for the bird’s throat, and he snapped it in two. Then waited, waited, and waited—until the bird cracked its neck- slowly turning its head back into place. The stranger now smiled like a Cheshire Cat, and vanished leaving behind a little present for the bird. There before the bird’s dark starry eyes stood a newborn. It cooed, and babbled. The bird flapped it’s wings, and merged its body with the baby’s own.

#CORVUS ©️

28.12.2023

The raindrops fell as if God’s wrath was upon mankind like the time of Noah. She dragged herself, with all her might into the cantine. The grand smells of sweet honeycomb biscuits, flavorful bursting gumdrops, the leaning tower of pancakes, the glowing silver and gold chocolate drinks made her mouth water. She was not supposed to be there, but some of her friends had kept talking about all the fun they’d had when they’d been at the cantine. She rushed into the noisy and music filled scene. Her eyes sparkled with delight, and she hoped she’d brought enough koins to get some of the stuff sold in the buzzing place. Someone bumped into her, and she almost fell onto the floor. Before she could even realize that she was falling, a pair of hands were wrapped around her waist.

‘‘Whoa…please let go of me..now.’’

A voice slightly chuckled like a silly little kid, and then said,

‘‘Whoops. My bad. Just didn’t want you to slip, and fall onto the brick floor. C’mon. I’ll have to get you a drink now to make up for bumping into you…eh..’’

Before he could say another word, or find out who she was— he watched her storm away from her. Something inside of him felt as if he’d been hit with a wave of pixie dust, and he could soon float into the air like Peter Pan. He dashed after her, and cleared his throat once he was right behind her.

‘‘Okay. I might have you know- I am a master of the dark arts. I can turn you into a toad, or much worse: a snail.’’

He snorted, and then raised an eyebrow. ‘‘Yeah. Sure.’’

She sighed. With a wave of her hand, a blanket of fog started to surround his body. He started coughing, and felt jolts of lightning swirling around him. What kind of severe thunderstorm was he trapped in this time? It felt unnatural.

His lungs began to slowly collapse. She mumbled something underneath her breath, but he could hardly hear what she said as his ears were filled with something inside of them that was wiggling about. When he tried to check, using his thumb and index finger, he managed to pull something out of his left ear— a giant earthworm. Blood oozed out of his ears, and gradually dripped along the side of his fake beard.

The fog swirled around him with a much greater velocity. Soon his heart started to beat much slower. He turned to face her, but all he could see was a skull with swirling dark eye sockets like the eye of a black hole.

#CORVUS ©️

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=OZF2GCwpogI

21.12.2023 Thorsday

‘‘Slowly...okay..hold. Steady now. Take a deep breath in, and a deep breath out. There ya go.’’ Sasha leaned in closer, and listened to the very slight beating of the horse’s heart. With her free right hand, she tried to calm the horse down by rubbing its belly. She was not sure why the horses were all suddenly becoming ill. Was it some form new form of pathogens from the water? That was highly unlikely. For it that were true then the folks in the village would have been getting sick, too. But if that was not the case. Then what was causing the horses to be near the point of death? Sasha left the stable, and made sure to leave enough additional water, plus hay, for the horses dinner before she went to have her own. She stopped in her tracks, and raised an eyebrow. The candle lights from the little wooden cabin had been blown off, or had not been lit when nightfall fell. Sasha took off into a Usain Bolt like sprint. She leaped over a muddy puddle, and dashed past the corn field. Her feet had not even landed on the front porch before something grabbed her by her ankles. It wrapped itself around her legs, and then started moving toward her chest. She tried to squirm, and wiggle her self out of the right grip, but the thing continued holding her much tighter, & tighter. Soon she could hardly breathe. Sasha fell onto the ruby sandy ground. Her body started to feel so much pain. She gasped for air, and stared at her foe. With her mind, she pictured her hair saving her. Before she knew it, her hair grew much longer in length, and strength. Sasha’s hair formed a blade, and began trying to kill what was holding her down. She screamed after noticing that she had accidentally cut a part of her leg. Then she pushed herself out of the thing’s hold, and rolled toward the cabin house. As soon as she was close to the door, she heard someone ask, ‘‘Knock, Knock?’’

‘‘Who’s there?’’ Sasha replied.

‘‘You can’t see….’’

‘‘You can’t see who?’’ Sasha asked.

A bunch of silver feathers burst in front of Sasha’s face. Some started piling up in her mouth, and going down her esophagus. She felt her esophagus beginning to bulge like a toad, or frog. Sasha placed her hands around her throat, and landed on her knees. Her eyes started watering, and she felt so much pain around her neck. Before she knew it, she heard something burst, and her hands were covered in a mix of silver feathers, as well as her bio fluids.

It cackled, and then declared. ‘‘You can’t see…that you will soon bite the dust.’’

#CORVUS ©️

19th December, 2023. Toyousday

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kwwaWVP2PGE

Merry Christmas It’s Christmas time again Merry Christmas

See how low the temperatures will get— this year-

Or maybe it’ll be a December to remember~ unlike any other~ ‘Why?’ You ask. I’ll tell you why…O it’s because December is the most busiest time of the year, for us who work at the north pole that is..we have to get so many toys ready….for all the boys & girls around the world *sighs* but you know what for this year us elves are going on a STRIKE yes…*claps hands*…*stomps feet*...We are going on a STRIKE. So, Dear Mr. Santa Claus we would like to get all our bags, and head to the Bahamas, maybe, for our own little Christmas vacation. Thanks. We will not need to confirm with you for that at this time. We’ve already bought our vacay tickets. Sorry, eh not. Anywho, we promise not to leave you alone. We trained a bunch of gnomes, and we think they’d be fit for the job of: hanging red stockings along the fireplace in a spot where they will not burn, making your favorite Christmas swirly chocolate chip treats just the way Martha Stewart taught us how to, and getting the sleigh ready for the BIG day (sending presents to all the kids around the world). Farewell for now to one and all at the North Pole. We elves will be going on a much needed festive holiday this year! Merry Christmas P.S. Someone please remind the gnomes that Rudolph will not be guiding Santa’s sleigh. We installed a GPS for him that works like magick. Merry Christmas

#MerryChristmas ©️ (^o^) Wednesday, 13th December , 2023.