Tag Archives: trifecta

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Good vs. Evil

Mother Earth bestowed Magic to Man and Fae alike,

Each enlisting the Forces of Evil,

To wage a war for all the worlds’ Magic—

But Good Men banded together to banish the Evil.

—33 words: English Verse/Alliterative Poetry—

Classic Good vs. Evil–Short and Sweet

Trifextra: Week Eighty-Two

The editors of Trifecta are tired.  Hectic summer plans, last minute school shopping and prep for courses of our own have us drifting off in front of the computer.  Any millisecond we can shave off of our busy schedules could potentially improve the quality of our lives as well as the lives of those around us.  This weekend, we’re enlisting your help in shortening our considerably lengthy bedtime routines by giving us a children’s bedtime story in exactly 33 words.  It can be an old favorite reimagined or a work that is entirely your own.  We only ask that your story not leave our kids with visions of the boogie man dancing in their heads.  These tired bones thank you in advance.

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true love’s first kiss

Water colored seasons melted into one another, like Snow’s dreams of her handsome prince, until frozen iridescent crystals kissed her forehead once more and Snow’s prince awakened her with true love’s first kiss.

Snow White

Snow White (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

—33 words: Fairy Tale Rewrite—

Honestly I don’t know what could be more soul soaring and happy than true love’s first kiss and fairy tales unless I had added a unicorn. 🙂

Trifextra: Week Eighty-One

This weekend’s prompt is to write 33 words exactly inspired by photo project by Eirik Solheim.

No creepiness allowed.  No girls in chains.  No basements.  No flesh-eating viruses.  No post-apocalyptic hunger pangs.  No dead philandering boyfriends.  Nobody pulling the plug on Grandma partially because she’s old but mostly because she deserves it.  We want soul-soaring happiness out of you this week.  If that isn’t your thing, just give it a whirl.  If it really isn’t your thing, come back for the next challenge when the rules are guaranteed to be different.  Because that’s also the kind of challenge we are.

This weekend’s challenge is community judged.

  • For the 14 hours following the close of the challenge, voting will be enabled on links.
  • In order to vote, return to this post where stars will appear next to each link. To vote, simply click the star that corresponds with your favorite post.
  • You can vote for your top three favorite posts.
  • Voting is open to everyone.
  • You have 14 hours to vote. It’s not much time, so be diligent! We’ll send out reminders on Twitter and Facebook.
  • The winners will be announced in the comments of Monday’s post and will be posted in our typical fashion in the post on the following Friday.

 

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Mermaid Breakup

 

“I’m sorry. I wasn’t thinking,”  Merrick apologized, pausing for Marin to say something. She  folded her arms in response to his pathetic excuses. Merrick continued, looking at the sea floor,  “It won’t happen again; I promise.” Marin seethed in silence, unsatisfied with Merrick’s weak promises.

Merrick peeked up through long lashes to see Mairin’s rage reaching the boiling point. Throwing her arms up in disgust, Mairin screamed, “I don’t want to hear it! There’s no excuse! You lying, no good… I hope you…. and… your… mistress get attacked by pirates! We are done–for good!! We are never getting back together!!!”

 

 

 

 

 

—100 words—

Trifecta: Week Eighty-Nine

The weekly prompt.

WEAK (adjective)

1: lacking strength: as
a : deficient in physical vigor : feeble, debilitated
b : not able to sustain or exert much weight, pressure, or strain
c : not able to resist external force or withstand attack

d : easily upset or nauseated <a weak stomach>
2a : mentally or intellectually deficient
b : not firmly decided : vacillating
c : resulting from or indicating lack of judgment or discernment
d : not able to withstand temptation or persuasion <the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak>
3: not factually grounded or logically presented <a weak argument>

Remember:
  • Your response must be between 33 and 333 words.
  • You must use the 3rd definition of the given word in your post.
  • The word itself needs to be included in your response.
  • You may not use a variation of the word; it needs to be exactly as stated above.
  • Only one entry per writer.
  • If your post doesn’t meet our requirements, please leave your link in the comments section, not in the linkz.
  • Trifecta is open to everyone. Please join us.

 

 

 

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Mustangs

Runaways (comics)

Runaways (comics) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

We are outcasts–

Runaways

Unloved

Thrown away

In the gutters

 

Running free

In all directions

O’er the city

Like wild horses

Roaming the wild west

 

We make our name

Fierce and strong

–Surviving

Hiding the truth

The vulnerability

 

While dark shadows

Berate and belittle

Chipping away

At our pride

Until we are nothing

 

Fading

Into the shadows

No longer seen

Or heard–

Alone

 

Waiting and suffering

In the streets

In silence

Tears of rain

Hide our suffering

 

Until a mustang

Cries out in pain

We band together

An unstoppable force

–A family

 

Never truly alone

Unlikely help comes

When needed

 

—100 words—

Here’s my entry for Trifecta: Week Eighty-Eight (band) mixed with 100 Word Challenge (wild horse).

 

 

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T-R-E-A-T

“You wanna go outside?” I called to Sahara who was half asleep on the couch. As soon as she heard that magic word ‘outside’ she sprang to action like she was the youthful puppy my husband had fallen for at the shelter eight years ago.

She was at the door to the back porch, tail wagging a mile-a-minute, telling me to hurry my coffee-deprived butt up. She raced ahead of me into the screened-in porch, sniffing every crook and cranny. As I worked to slip on my flip-flops, she was a huntress on a mission.

“That cicada isn’t in here; it isn’t going to get you,” I tried to reassure her. I sighed as she still continued to hunt the devious bug that had previously dive-bombed her on more than one occasion when she’d been out to do her business. Brave huntress now, but when that cicada buzzes by she’s a scaredy-cat.

I opened the porch door to the yard to let her ‘outside’ finally. She started down the steps, but paused…scrunched her nose sniffing…looked left and right…then backed up. Sighing again, I stepped carefully onto the slightly damp yard and called to her.

“Come on, girl… see no bugs,” I relayed cheerfully despite my own doubts of getting dive-bombed by a cicada. All hope would truly be lost with my running and screaming to the safety of the porch.

Waiting…nothing.

So, I whistled and got that sideways head tilt that labs do with paws firmly planted in the doorway. Adorable, but without my morning coffee it was lost on me.

“I know what will get you out here,” I said to her as if she could read my mind and ran inside leaving her on the screened-in porch puzzled. When I came back with a T-R-E-A-T to charm her out the door, she was suddenly, mysteriously no longer afraid any bugs or whatever it was giving her pause at the door.

—326 words—

Based on the adventures Sahara and I have been having at the new place (it has a screened-in porch). The picture is of her at our old place in TX. She’s a silly girl (very smart and an escape-artist) and is getting very particular as she ages.

Trifecta: Week Eighty-Seven

This week’s prompt was suggested to us by Rois who linked up with our Meet Your Fellow Trifectans meme.  If you haven’t linked up there yet, please do.

CHARM (verb)1a : to affect by or as if by magic : compel
b : to please, soothe, or delight by compelling attraction<charms customers with his suave manner>
2: to endow with or as if with supernatural powers by means of charms; also : to protect by or as if by spells, charms, or supernatural influences
3: to control (an animal) typically by charms (as the playing of music) <charm a snake>
Remember:
  • Your response must be between 33 and 333 words.
  • You must use the 3rd definition of the given word in your post.
  • The word itself needs to be included in your response.
  • You may not use a variation of the word; it needs to be exactly as stated above.
  • Only one entry per writer.
  • If your post doesn’t meet our requirements, please leave your link in the comments section, not in the linkz.
  • Trifecta is open to everyone. Please join us.
This week’s challenge is community judged.
  • For the 14 hours following the close of the challenge, voting will be enabled on links.
  • In order to vote, return to this post where stars will appear next to each link.  To vote, simply click the star that corresponds with your favorite post.
  • You can vote for your top three favorite posts.
  • Voting is open to everyone.
  • You have 14 hours to vote.  It’s not much time, so be diligent! We’ll send out reminders on Twitter and Facebook.
  • The winners will be announced in the comments of Friday’s post and will be posted in our typical fashion in the post on the following Monday.

This week’s word is charm.

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Ocean Planet

The Earth seen from Apollo 17.

Commander Gia initiated the final stage landing thrusters on the Poseidon Module as the crew passed the last ring.

“Welcome back home…” the cool water of the ocean planet waved,

“… to Earth.”

—33 words: sci fi—

“Ocean Planet (also termed a waterworld) is a type of planet whose surface is completely covered with an ocean of water.” Wikipedia

Trifextra: Week Seventy-Seven

On now to this weekend’s Trifextra challenge.  This weekend we are giving you three words and asking for you to give us back another thirty of your own, making a grand total of thirty-three words. Your words to work with are:

ring

water

stage

Good luck!

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Cosmic Dust

 

Do I want to be cremated first or do I want my body intact as it enters the sun?

 

How could I answer that with so little information? I had spent my life gathering data… analyzing… synthesizing… distilling down to the best possible decisions with what was known in my industry.

 

But this… this was different… This was outside my area of expertise and there were just too many unknowns to even know where to begin.

 

What happens to us in death? Is there anything beyond this existence? Will I need this body? Will this old, frail body last me in the beyond? Will I need to exchange this body as some kind of currency in the afterlife?

 

…Or …is there just nothing.

 

My musings slipped through the crack of my lucid mind to the pain-addled mind of the terminally ill as the nurse unhooked the IV and walked me back to my bed. As the pain began to take hold, I began to think of a time when I rebelled against Mother forcing us to church every Sunday morning. Trying to impart upon us the word of her God.

 

Maybe if I had heeded her example, I would know now what to do.

 

“Mother, what should I do?” I sobbed in pain.

 

“I’m not your mother and I can’t tell you what choice to make,” the nurse replied more gently this time. Or was that the pain’s illusion?

 

With pen gripped tightly, painfully in hand, I struggled which box to check until a calm chill rushed over me. A soothing voice, like the voice of Mother when we were young and afraid of thunder said, “Dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return.” I knew then which box to check and handed the completed form back to the starkly dressed nurse.

 

She left and I was again alone to gaze at the stars… cosmic dust …out my window. Despite the increasing pain, I was able to find peace in my sleep.

 

'Only' 14 Million Miles Away (NASA, Hartley 2,...

‘Only’ 14 Million Miles Away (NASA, Hartley 2, Comet, 10/06/10) (Photo credit: NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center)

—333 words—

 

Part I: How would you like to go up?

 

“Dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return” (Genesis 3:19)

 

Trifecta: Week Eighty-Six

 

CRACK
1a : a loud roll or peal <a crack of thunder>
b : a sudden sharp noise <the crack of rifle fire>
2: a sharp witty remark : quip
3a : a narrow break : fissure <a crack in the ice>  
b : a narrow opening <leave the door open a crack><cracks between floorboards> —used figuratively in phrases like fall through the cracks to describe one that has been improperly or inadvertently ignored or left out <a player who fell through the cracks in the college draft> <children slipping through the cracks of available youth services>
4a : a weakness or flaw caused by decay, age, or deficiency :unsoundness
b : a broken tone of the voice
c : crackpot
5: moment, instant <the crack of dawn>

 

Remember:
  • Your response must be between 33 and 333 words.
  • You must use the 3rd definition of the given word in your post.
  • The word itself needs to be included in your response.
  • You may not use a variation of the word; it needs to be exactly as stated above.
  • Only one entry per writer.
  • If your post doesn’t meet our requirements, please leave your link in the comments section, not in the linkz.
  • Trifecta is open to everyone. Please join us.

 

 

 

 

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Red Dragon Dream

Welsh flag

Welsh flag (Photo credit: Plaid.)

In my nightmare… a red and white dragon fight to the death. The red dragon soars over pristine lakes after winning. Suddenly everything darkens and I’m pulled… screaming… down… deep into the ground.

—-33 words—

This is sort of from a story that I started writing, but haven’t finished, so I thought I’d rework some of it on a free write weekend.
As such, this weekend we are asking for a thirty-three word free-write.  Any topic, any style–just give us your best thirty three.

This weekend’s challenge is community judged.
  • For the 14 hours following the close of the challenge, voting will be enabled on links.
  • In order to vote, return to this post where stars will appear next to each link.  To vote, simply click the star that corresponds with your favorite post.
  • You can vote for your top three favorite posts.
  • Voting is open to everyone.
  • You have 14 hours to vote.  It’s not much time, so be diligent! We’ll send out reminders on Twitter and Facebook.

 

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Last Stop

train station

train station (Photo credit: nolifebeforecoffee)

As the rails of the train clicked and clacked, Christopher watched his young daughter play with her doll. She had her mother’s playful smile-that shy, playful smile that had smiled at him as they said their vows; that same smile that giggled with shyness later that wedding night. He had no idea his shy bride would turn out to be a freak in the bedroom after Christina was born. At first Christopher did not question his timid wife’s new boldness and just went along for the ride, but as the new clothes, odd phone calls, mysterious appointments started affecting their daughter, he started digging. It wasn’t just one man, it wasn’t just an affair. She was sleeping with multiple men, doing unspeakable things with them.

Christopher let out an audible sigh of grief.

Christina looked up from brushing her doll’s hair, “Are we there yet?”

“Soon, baby, soon,” Christopher responded exhausted. The argument had taken its toll. Rebecca blamed everything on him. Had he not been a good husband, a good father?! She even had the audacity to claim Christina wasn’t his before she grabbed the wheel. Christopher just couldn’t believe it. He was there for her delivery; the doctor handed her to him as soon as she was born. She smiled and the whole world stopped in that moment. Christina was his little girl-he just knew it in his soul.

The brakes of the train brought it to a screeching halt with Christopher’s resolution.

“Last stop, Station 42!”

“Do you think mom’s already there?” Christina asked as she grabbed her doll and skipped ahead.

Christopher tried to smile a response; hoping to hide the knowledge of his wife’s affairs praying Christina didn’t remember the argument or the freak accident. Why did Rebecca have to grab the wheel!

“Look its grandma,” the Christina exclaimed as she jumped onto the platform, “But wait–I thought grandma was an angel…”

—318 words—

Trifecta: Week Eighty

This week’s word was suggested by Marie Nicole.  Have fun with it and we’ll see you on Friday.

FREAK (noun)

1a : a sudden and odd or seemingly pointless idea or turn of the mind

 b : a seemingly capricious action or event
2archaic : a whimsical quality or disposition
Remember:
  • Your response must be between 33 and 333 words.
  • You must use the 3rd definition of the given word in your post.
  • The word itself needs to be included in your response.
  • You may not use a variation of the word; it needs to be exactly as stated above.
  • Only one entry per writer.
  • If your post doesn’t meet our requirements, please leave your link in the comments section, not in the linkz.
  • Trifecta is open to everyone. Please join us.
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Poisoned

“You..you poisoned me!” Mark gasped.

“Actually I poisoned both of us, sweetie. If I can’t have you no one will and if you’re not alive — I don’t want to live either,” Leila confessed.

—33 words—

Trifextra: Week Sixty-Nine

This weekend’s challenge is a 33 word confession-fact or fiction. This weekend’s challenge is community judged.