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Sjan Evardsson

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Dec, 2019

Stories (284)

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308 Followers

9 Following

284 Stories

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Tapestry of a Life Well-Lived

A great deal can be learned about a person by who they surround themselves with. The crowds at their parties show what kind of person they aspire to be. Their funeral crowd shows what kind of person they were. When a gathering of the latter sort turns into the former, well, that’s just good wake planning. Of course, it helped that the deceased was well-loved by the sort of people who could subsume their grief long enough to celebrate the life they’d shared. The intoxicants probably helped, too. Probably more than anything else, if judged sol...

5 likes

Ambassador in a Pear Tree

“They sent a juvie. A freshly molted breeder.” “Are you sure?” “Yeah, I’m sure. He even introduced himself as a male.” “Hmm. He might be a breeder, but maybe they have male drones. Have you thought of that?” “Well, no. I guess they could. But still….” “What?” “I mean, well, he’s all squishy. His carapace hasn’t hardened, and he molts it and grows a new one every day, sometimes twice or three times in a day.” “Clothes. You’re talking about clothes. Did you even read the information packet?” “I read it! I mean, sort of. … I skimmed through it ...

4 likes

He Doesn't Bite

The katakat law officer, like others of her kind, stood just over four feet tall, fine-boned and slender. Covered as they were in green and yellow feathers with a red beak and large eyes set to either side of their head, humans tended to call them ‘parakeets’, ‘keets’ for short. Unlike their nickname sakes, however, katakats had arms ending in hands with disturbingly long fingers. The officer’s fingers at that moment twirled a set of dull grey cuffs. While she puffed up her chest to appear in control of the situation, those fingers trembled ...

4 likes

When All You Have Is a Hammer…

“Allow me to make the facts of the case clear.” The newly elected prosecutor, Hiratha of clan Ororos, stood at her designated spot, addressing the panel of judges. Like her, they were covered in a fine layer of fur, wearing stylish sashes. Hiratha extended one of her six upper tentacles, spreading the six small, grasper tentacles at the end, pointing in the manner of her people at the dock. Maxwell sat in a cage in the dock. He was meant to be standing, but it wasn’t built for someone as tall as him. He was the only human in the chamber, sur...

3 likes

Trust

Saying that the war was going poorly would be a massive understatement. If one were to say that the war was a horrifying shit-show, they would be closer to the mark, but still underselling it. We were losing, simple as that. My entire shake, except me, were killed as soon as our dropship made landfall and opened to deploy. Three branches of eighteen warriors each gone in an instant. I was still in shock, covered in the purple slick of my fellows’ blood and bits of destroyed armor when they came into the dropship and captured me. They were ef...

3 likes

Wander

Not all who wander are lost, but I am. The thought echoed through my mind like a mantra, telling myself over and over again how completely fucked I was. Lost in every sense of the word. I didn’t know where I was on the planet geographically, which planet I was on or even if I was still in the Milky Way galaxy. My emotions were a jumbled, indecipherable mess made all the worse by the realization that I was likely stuck here for a long time. I’d lost my cell phone and purse, meaning I was flat broke, as if this planet would even accept Visa or...

5 likes

Afterlife

It was there again, at the edge of my senses, always just out of sight. My brother, mister smarty-pants, said that it was nothing more than stress and apophenia with a dash of pareidolia thrown in for good measure. I had to look it up after he’d left — I couldn’t let him think his big sister wasn’t good with words. Why couldn’t he just say I was seeing patterns that didn’t exist and assigning meaning to them? That’s what an English degree and a job as an assistant librarian gets you, I guess. It’s not that I’m stupid, I just went a different...

4 likes

Seeing Her

Death comes calling for every living thing at some point, even when she sends one of her agents around to collect. Most of those agents are simply doing what it takes to survive. Life, for the most part, feeds on death. Some, however, are unwitting and even unwilling, but they still collect. Travis Leoni became one of those unwitting agents of death when he had lain on the lawn of the cemetery after placing flowers on his parents’ grave. A passerby thought he might need help and called for police to check on the “homeless man sleeping in the...

5 likes

An Unforgivable Sin

I didn’t plan for this to happen. It’s not something I would believe myself capable of but — I’ve done the unforgivable. The evidence is there on my bed, her shape covered by the blankets. There’s a woman in the mirror I don’t recognize. It’s my face, hair, body, even eyes…but they’re different somehow. It started when I was released from jail where I did 364 days for possession because my mother left her drugs in my car. I probably should’ve hired a better lawyer, but that’s another story. When I walked out of jail, I was starving. The food...

4 likes

Predator

Liminal, that’s the word I’d use to describe myself. I live in the spaces between; between human and beast, between day and night, between civilization and…shit, I’m rambling in my own head. What am I, an emo teen now? Looking at me, you’d never guess what I am. In fact, looking at me and the man studying me with a predatory eye, you’d assume he’s the more dangerous one. Which seems more of a threat, a dark-haired, fair-skinned, amber-eyed woman who stands five-foot-nothing and weighs a hundred pounds soaking wet, or a six-foot-and-change, t...

4 likes

Cell Mates

The walls, floor, and ceiling were painted in the precise shade of pale green-grey that led thinking beings to boredom and introspection. Those with a reduced capacity for introspection, however, would find the color maddening after some time. Those unfortunate souls ended up in solitary. Troy was not a large man. He stood 164 centimeters and weighed in at just fifty-four kilograms. He had no fat under his warm brown skin, though, to hide his thin muscles, making him look almost starved. As such, his friends offered “advice” for his time beh...

5 likes

Stranger

The stranger sat under a gelfim tree, shielded from the patchy rain and harsh sunlight, enjoying a mixed berry shave ice. Outside the gelfim’s shade, rising heat from the baked ground evaporated the rainwater as fast as it hit, turning the park into a giant sauna. Those brave souls that ventured into the chaotic summer weather didn’t spare more than a glance at the stranger. It was obvious she didn’t belong here, and they didn’t want to catch her attention. For some it was fear, but most simply had no desire to be begged for a few credits by...

3 likes

The Helping Hand

Submitted to Contest #269

1984: Gwen lay on the grass in the circle of mushrooms, drawing Fae-touched Fran, her comic heroine. Like her, Fran was a recent high-school grad, just a hair over five feet tall, with strawberry blonde hair, one green and one brown eye, and a spattering of freckles across her pale face. Unlike her, Fran had been given a gift by the fae, The Helping Hand, a pendant that allowed her to teleport anywhere she desired, that just as often took her instead to where she was needed. Fran had no other superpowers, instead relying on her knowledge and...

12 likes

No Glory

Glory, honor, the chance to prove himself. For any warrior, this would be the chance of a lifetime. For Kendrick, however, prophesied to perform the greatest feat a person could, this was everything. The enemy was encroaching on his clan’s sacred lands. Not other clans, not even people, no. People knew well enough to leave sacred spaces unsullied.No, these were abominations that shouldn’t exist. They had no connection to the land, no history in this place beyond the last few moons. In those few moons, though, they built their monstrous edifi...

4 likes

Final Appeal

There is little in life more disappointing than having the target of your desire snatched from your grasp at the last moment. Alex knew that feeling all too well. The third time was not the charm, as the saying would have one believe; neither were the fourth, fifth or sixth. Alex smoothed her jumpsuit. It was a copy of the ones worn by everyone else around her, made smaller and shaped to fit her. The cool grey of the jumpsuit clashed with her warm, golden-brown skin, reddish brown hair, and bright brown eyes, but she’d gotten used to it. “Ar...

3 likes