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Tori Routsong

Author on Reedsy Prompts since Dec, 2019

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194 Followers
24 Following

40 Stories

1161 karma pts

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Tendu, Tombé, et Brisé: Bina's New Dance

Weekly Contest #26

“Plié, and straight. Make a window, and shut. Feet together, and straight” Bina looked down at the remnants of her term paper, marked profusely in red. Biology hadn’t been this hard in high school, had it? She only had two days to fix this, and she was supposed to have Mommy and Me time with her daughter after class tomorrow, so now really was the best time to do any of the edits. To make matters worse, she couldn’t get her old warmup out of her head and it flowed through her body and her toes itched to get up and dance again. She sighed in...

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An Uncertain Future

Shortlisted for Contest #25 ⭐️

The ground isn’t burned beneath your feet. It makes sense that it wouldn’t be—the bombs never came here—but the grass under your toes is deceptive. You sigh, and put your shoes back on. You’ll never admit it, but your mom is right. There’s too much broken glass left over from the riots.Nobody thought it would come here—there hadn’t been a war on American soil since… well, the Civil War, you suppose. Nobody was expecting it, at least. And in true American fashion, the backlash caused uproar throughout the city. More people had been killed by ...

24 likes 4 comments 4
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Lylia, Malou, and the Intangible Impossibility of Imperceivable Physics

Shortlisted for Contest #24 ⭐️

“Dr. Niwwel, if you summoned the thing, why can’t you just send it away?” Lylia held her tongue. It wasn’t that Malou was stupid, and most of the time it wouldn’t even bother her, but she was running out of ways to explain an unexplainable being. “I didn’t summon it. I just created a way for it to access our world.” She peaked out at the dark hallway—the problem was there was no precedent. Did it matter if there was light? Could the creature even see light? And would staying quiet even matter? Lylia stroked her long, blonde hair as she thoug...

39 likes 14 comments 14
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The Corundum Conundrum

Weekly Contest #23

Aminta watched her boyfriend drum his fingers on the steering wheel, impatient as ever. As far as she was concerned, however, the blizzard was a godsend. She’d promised herself she’d confront him as soon as they got to the restaurant; if they never got to the restaurant, there’d be no confrontation. She and Fideo could sit in this car for the rest of their lives and Aminta would be perfectly happy. Fideo clearly felt otherwise, and he flicked on and off the windshield wipers as if that would make any difference. “We’re going to miss our res...

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A Royal Execution

Weekly Contest #23

It’s almost time for my midday break when my sister runs up to me, almost tripping in her oversized robe. Adelphie has to catch her breath, but whether it’s because of her excitement or the running I can’t tell. “Have you heard the news?” “What news?” A brown and white pigeon alights on her shoulder, carrying a scroll. “The prince is dead!” “The… wait, what?” “The prince is dead!” “Really? When? How do you know?” I reach towards the bird and Adelphie instinctively shrinks away, which hurts. Twenty years and she still doesn’t trust that I can...

18 likes 4 comments 4
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The Guilt of Living in a New Year

Weekly Contest #22

"Chill out." Melinda smacks her lips together, smudging her brilliant ruby lipstick a little. "It's a party. You look like somebody died." “Your lipstick is smudged.” I look dubiously around the room. Everyone already looks wasted—a good sign, I suppose. Even though I’ve always lived in this city, the college life is so different than the townie life that it shocks me that this frat house is only a block away from mine. “It’s dark, nobody will notice.” “I did.” “Nobody fun will notice.” It’s a subtle jab, and she smiles so the impact is soft...

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Ready

Weekly Contest #20

Jaime couldn’t stop pacing. The waiting room was too small. Should it be taking this long? Something was going wrong. Something was going terribly wrong. “Nothing is wrong.” His husband, Eric, hadn’t moved from his chair, one leg up as if this was normal, as if they were at home and he was about to do a crossword. “Calm down.” “Something is definitely wrong,” he insisted. “It’s been hours.” “That’s normal,” Eric insisted. “Look, Julie knows what she’s doing. This is her fourth kid. It’ll be okay.” “But can’t births be hard on aging mothers?...

19 likes 2 comments 2
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Accidental Magic

Weekly Contest #20

Dahlia and Finn both looked up in shock at the chandelier that hovered a few inches above Finn’s head. A red glow shimmered around the edges. “Magic,” whispered Dahlia. She’d grown up with the stories from her ugogo and evils of witchcraft, but she never really believed in it. “Magic,” said Finn, looking at Dahlia, shocked. Her face was bathed in a red glow, and Dahlia thought she could see the same red sparks dancing in Finn’s hazel eyes. The chandelier still looked menacing dangling over Finn’s head, so Dahlia was glad when it floated t...

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The Sound of Peter

Shortlisted for Contest #20 ⭐️

Bright, bright, bright. It was always too bright, always bright, always grating, grating at the back of his eyes, in the back of his mind. Peter no longer squinted. The lights that lined the room bored into his brain, boring and drilling, but Peter no longer squinted.The window, the singular window, told him it wasn’t food-time yet, but he couldn’t help but wait, shivering, by the door slot. She would come soon—or maybe not. Time didn’t exist in his blinding cell, not until the sky outside the window slit turned dark. When he stood, he could...

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Nature and Nurture

Weekly Contest #20

“Mother?” The mother swung her head down, making eye contact with the large black goggles that engulfed the majority of the little girl’s head. She shifted the basket of laundry from her left hip to her right. “Brenna?” “Are we going to get dinner soon?” “It’s barely even—” her mother checked the broken clock on the wall before remembering it hadn’t worked in years. “It’s not even six yet. Are you hungry? I just gave you a snack.” Brenna shook her little head, the goggles wobbling comically. “No, I just wanted to know when we could get dinne...

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