Thirdly

Read it and the title will then make sense. Discover Dashel, a youth ostracized in so many ways, it's a miracle he's still alive. His mentor Tom had a hand to play in keeping them concealed and safe. What happens when their truth is uncovered?

Ok. Let's do this! No more interruptions. No more fires to put out at work. No more shiny things trying to steal my attention. Dashel - First of all, that is a very nice name. Tom, like Dashel, was gifted with special powers. - Wait, what? But Tom knew how to channel his powers and how to train Dashel to do the same. - Well, in that case, I'm glad he sounds like a decent master. Young Dashel with his naturally gray hair... - Goodness, imagine grey hair at the tender age of 18. Oh, wait, a ton of K-pop idols dye their hair all kinds of colors including gray these days. Not so hard to imagine after all. But Dashel's hair is naturally grey so it's still startling. Dashel with his clearly Louisiana accent often got negative reactions from Northerners, even nearly a decade after the end of the Civil War. - I can imagine! Dashel was quite sure, the long eye contact and the smiles made him think that Samuel was attracted to him. - I sure hope so. According to Samuel’s descriptions of how Isaiah’s wife had come down with fever and heavy coughing about a week ago, Dashel assumed her to suffer from pneumonia. - Pneumonia's terrible! He would never be parted from that weapon, although it was unfriendly bringing it into a house into which they had been invited. - Gotta stay alive, especially in that time period. Samuel whispered into Dashel’s right ear, “I knew you feel as I do.” - *fanning self* Let's hope that's the case. I'm gonna need a minute. “Stay away, devil’s child!” she exclaimed and taken aback, Dashel stopped in his track. - Well, time to hide. I’m to cover my hair because someone might recognize that I might be able to do what they can’t, so I constantly wear a hat or scarf. I’m to help people and then take that they spit at me when I’ve cured them, so I have to smile. - 😭 “Forgive them, because they don’t know what they do,” the mental voice of his master quoted in Dashel’s head. - Oh no! Tom just calmly accepting his fate. He could see the treacherous farm woman sobbing over the bodies of her now-dead four children and husband, her hair burnt away. - She brought all of that on herself. He planned to sell everything and to cross into Canada. - I wish I could do the same present day. Wow, that was heartbreaking. Hope Dashel found some of his peace back in Canada. Neither Tom nor Samuel deserved those deaths.

It's basically how I will die if I keep consuming sugar. It's a layer of brownie + a layer of chocolate chip cookie baked together and cut into squares of sugary death. I'm pretty sure I was feeling the beginnings of my PMS when I thought of that part. But even if it's not PMS, I've heard of bloating happening due to stress or travel. My sister and I had to swap bridesmaids dresses for our other sister's wedding because she bloated a whole size up. I barely fit in her size dress due to my boobs, and they ended up being squished during the whole ceremony and reception. Not the best of times, but it's what we do for siblings. Killer photos, though.

Oh we more than like them. Your storytelling and writing style are excellent. It's when you're laying it down that you then have to figure out a balance (and that part isn't ever a perfect formula as everyone leans towards different aspects more than others). Reach out to any of us on your first drafts and we can help spot things as a second set of eyes. For example, I didn't have anyone look at my last one-shot before posting it and a friend caught 5 typos, a section where I slipped from 1st person to 3rd, and a sentence missing a word.

Oh boy, if you think this one was convoluted...I've been working on one for over a year now that's just as wild. I just am tackling it a little at a time. Glad this was a fun read, though. Thanks, as always, for your input. 🥰

Glad you had fun reading it!

I may have been subconsciously channeling some of the holiday movies I've been seeing! 🤣

OMG, I was worried I wasn't going to get to this one in time. Luckily it was short enough to read in a limited amount of time. This was a VERY good read, but I want more. More details, dialogue, and descriptions of the environment (the descriptions of the character were golden, especially comparing Danny to Detective Carter). The characters were wonderful, the pacing was fairly steady, and the story itself was solid. How many people did Danny talk to in order to narrow it down to Matthew? What were those conversations like? And how did Danny get that information to Detective Carter? How did he go about telling him? I would have liked a sprinkling of dialogue as the cherry on top.

I swear I laughed for five minutes straight. Do NOT read while out in public. You WILL freak people out from laughing so hard.

The reason I marked "chills" in my recommendation is not for the reason you think. My gut is still recovering from laughing so hard. XD

I shrugged. “Probably, but I had it coming. I’ve been warned before. I swear it was the last prank in my entire life.” - You sure about that? “Uh-huh.” - He doesn't believe him, either! 🤣 He clearly didn’t believe me. “I mean it. Dr. Walker had ice cubes melting over his crotch for fuck’s sake!” - The story title! OMG I'm dying. 🤣 And, shit, I wish we had those kinds of politics at my workplace. We don't have any perks at nonprofits.

Not me realizing I didn't have you on my watchlist already when I could have sworn I did. *sneaks off to fix that* I didn't know whether to mark this with a heart or with a sad emoji because our guy John was struggling hard just to even think about his first love and they were only together for 9 months it seems so I'm thinking something terrible happened.

Then his boss surfaced. “Must take a certain kind of courage to stand up and do this.” He cocked his head. “I take it you have more to add? A solution?” - Luc FA is actually going along with it? 🤣

Oh, Good Lord, even reading the title, I forgot it existed. I love how they were desperately trying to escape the moment they saw that box and recognized its contents. I was dying, dying. 🤣

He was completely naked, but the logic made sense to Frankie. Not everyone can be the Incredible Hulk and keep their purple shorts, he mused to himself. - Good point! 🤣 I'm so short, I'd have just ducked beneath his legs and hauled ass out of there.

Yeah, if I could work from home and if we had those pills from the Jetsons that became entire meals in seconds, I'd live and die in my room. "Oh no, how did she die?" "Choked on a churro dipped in nutella."

Everyone unpacks feelings differently. Here we bear witness to how Dalit copes with loss.

The line I grabbed was from a book where the MC began in a dark jail cell. I thought "where else is dark that would leave a person reliving memories...they probably wouldn't have their phone on them..." and eventually that led me to a wedding ceremony (I've been to one where they collected cellphones til after the ceremony to help the photographers out) and a storage closet. The rest built up from there.

Glad you enjoyed reading it!

Aaaaaah this was so good! A great "what if?"!! I pictured everything perfectly.

Yes, even though my prompt was kind of dark, I wanted to spin it into something fun. 😂

Lilah calls him Kei-Kei, which could be heard as KK or the more feminine Kay-Kay 😂. Not to mention he tuned her out half the time. So that is why "Gavin" didn't connect the dots that Keiroz was her designer friend. He was also too busy trying not to get caught. As for fashion, I'm not big on fashion, either. But I did recently see some videos on how they made Glinda's dress for Wicked, and came across The Tall Tailor (a young Canadian designer) and drew from that. 🤣

Oh good heavens! Starting us off crying and everything. My neighbors lost their little girl and they ended up moving out to try to start again together. It's just so hard when the parent has to bury their kid instead of the other way around. You certainly captured some of that with this story.

Prompt Event 2024- Keiroz's Boutique PT #41a Pick an introductory sentence from a favorite book on your shelf at home or a story on GA, and use it to start a short story or vignette. Book chosen: Poison Study By Maria V. Snyder Introductory sentence: Locked in darkness that surrounded me like a coffin, I had nothing to distract me from my memories. :::: "I'll have the last brookie, glazed donut, and croissant." I completed my order just as a disappointed groan came

Based on Prompt #41a: Keiroz is tasked with designing a wedding dress for his only friend Lilah. He couldn't be more thrilled to be invited to the ceremony. Not only would it allow him to boast about his masterpiece, but it would also allow him to design matching suits to attend her wedding with his partner. He had a feeling it was a win-win for everyone involved.