Robin de Voh
there's never enough stories

Nanoprep 2023 Day 4: Presto!

By Robin de Voh on 2023-10-05
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Hearing "They can never find out," is one of the earliest memories I have of my sister. "If they do, they'll take you away and bad things will happen to you, and maybe even us."

I was too young to understand what was going on, but I remember understanding that I should do what she said, or bad things would happen. So I did. She was normal, at least according to the world around us, and I was not. As I got older, I learned what the problem was, and why I stand out so much.

I was the only one in my family who couldn't cast Magic spells.

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Nanoprep 2023 Day 3: The Art Show

By Robin de Voh on 2023-10-04
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"What a day," Adrian softly said to himself as he shook his head.

His silhouette was like a black cutout in front of the fire. Sitting on the steps leading up to what used to be his front door, which now more closely resembled an entrance to hell. He was in his pajamas, with a fleece blanket uselessly draped around his shoulders. He held his phone in his hand, staying on the line to emergency services, but no longer listening.

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Nanoprep 2023 Day 2: Condensation

By Robin de Voh on 2023-10-03
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My vision is blurry, and I'm hurting all over, but especially my head. I can sense I'm not free to move, because even with the slightest wiggle of my arm I can feel some tension holding it back. I blink a few times, but it hardly helps. I try to sit up and after a few inches, I bump my head.

Oh. I know where I am. This isn't good. Actually, this sucks.

I wiggle my arm again. I twist it a little and feel the recognizable force of a cryo lead, used to pump stuff into our veins to freeze us safely. Shit. I'm in a cryogenic pod.

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Nanoprep 2023 Day 1: Fuck I Skipped a Year

By Robin de Voh on 2023-10-02
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Fuck, I skipped a year. Sorry, not sorry. But sorry.

I just couldn't do it. Writing felt frivolous. The world was obviously on fire and there I was, contemplating writing silly stories, like it wasn't on fire at all. While Ukrainians were fighting for their country and dying for either doing so, or simply for having the absolute gall to just be alive, I was sitting there, trying to come up with an idea for a story.

But I couldn't think of anything outside of that. I felt guilty, for not having a platform, or a relevant voice (both as a Westerner and someone who could never have claimed a deep knowledge of Ukraine before), for being safe while they were not. It felt unfair.

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Nanoprep 2021 Day 6 Alternate: Communication Breakdown

By Robin de Voh on 2021-12-12
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I wrote this and the felt it was too different from my regular style it didn't fit nanoprep. So I posted Not Picky Enough instead. Posting this afterwards is more because I need to get this out of my brain than for any writing reasons.

It had been a good evening, he thought. They had cooked dinner together, and though it wasn't perfect, it was fun and tasty. They had laughed, joked, talked about all kinds of things, mocked each others' music styles and had eventually settled on a playlist that both thought was okay. All in all, it had seemed like a good Saturday date night. Both seemed to be having a good time.

But then something was off, and it had happened very suddenly. He wasn't sure what had happened, but her mood had turned sour, and she had gotten very quiet, silently seething with some anger he couldn't place or explain.

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Nanoprep 2021 Day 20: Coffee With an Old Friend

By Robin de Voh on 2021-10-29
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This is part 8 of the Coffee Saga, find the rest here.

The knocking on his door repeated itself, but Jerry didn't respond at all. He couldn't. Instead, he closed his eyes tightly, hoping it would just stop. Rebecca had said the police was on their way, and he really didn't want to deal with that right now. His heart rate was still up, and his thoughts were still jumbled at what he'd attempted to do.

Burn down the Java House. He couldn't remember when that had seemed like such a good idea, that feeling was so far away from him now.

"Jerry, open up. We know you're home."

He opened his eyes. He knew that voice. He hadn't heard it in a long while, but he definitely knew it.

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Nanoprep 2021 Day 18: Captain Penn, Trailblazer

By Robin de Voh on 2021-10-27
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"Whoa," Penn said as he squinted his eyes against the bright lights that had woken him. He rubbed his eyes for a little while and carefully opened them again. When he looked around, he noticed there were no windows, and nobody else. The walls were all bare brushed metal that reflected vaguely the light from the ceiling lights. He shook his head, trying to get rid of the sleepy haziness he felt covering his thoughts.

He slid off the table he was on, and noticed it was a medical-looking one. His feet landed on the ground with less of a thud than he had expected, and moving his body up and down, he could tell gravity wasn't quite Earth gravity. He sighed.

He was in space. Unexpectedly.

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Nanoprep 2021 Day 17: Callan's Hill

By Robin de Voh on 2021-10-26
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I didn't have a name. So I chose one. I am Callan. You might wonder why I'm standing on this hill, looking out over a world I despise, or you may not be wondering much at all. Perhaps you were part of why I'm here, and you're mostly intrigued as to what the next part will bring.

Statistically, however, it's more likely you're not part of all of this, and you're more likely to end up a victim of it.

Either way, I'll explain.

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Nanoprep 2021 Day 15: Why I Write

By Robin de Voh on 2021-10-22
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"Why do you write?" is a question I get a lot. Whether it's directly related to the once-a-year writing frenzy I'm currently writing this for, or more in general. People who don't write will be confused as to why I do. Some of them are creative, in which case it's relatively easy to compare it to something creative they do. I write just like you make music. I write stories like you draw something. I write just like how you crocheted that hat for your pet weasel.

But when people aren't themselves creative, it becomes harder to answer. The question turns from 'why do you write?' to 'why are you creative?' and to be honest, it's been keeping my creative yet stupid brain busy for too long.

Why am I creative?

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Tags are now added to stories!

By Robin de Voh on 2021-10-22
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It's happened before, but it happened again, and it was time to fix it. I already had tags in the system, but wasn't showing them at all, because I hadn't taken the time to do so.

But when people read a story, and find that it's either too creepy for them, speaks of planes crashing while they're sitting in a plane before taking off, sometimes people could use a little content warning of sorts.

So now there's tags! You can see them on this post!

Well, sort of. By default they're hidden, because some people want them, and some don't want any spoilers. To see them, hover on them on the computer, and tap them on a mobile device. If you want to go into my stories completely blank, just ignore their existence!

Hopefully this works for both types of audiences! Let me know through whatever means you have if you've got suggestions about it, otherwise Imma keep adding (and reworking older) tags!