dreamszilla

A prima ballerina is gradually usurped by a youth with preternatural ability. Image generated with OpenAI "Ballet, like opera, is wonderful because it is monstrous, the hyper development of skills nobody needs, a twisting of human bodies and souls into impossible positions, the purchase of light with blood." - Irina Dumitrescu, Swan, Late: The Unexpected Joys of Adult Beginner Ballet . The lights bowed in a soft indigo upon the stage. The house seats waited, empty, in the gloom, but as she took those pointed, shuffling steps, Alice still felt it - the heavy, crushing presence of expectation. There was no music. Alice knew the steps by heart. She had taken on the name of Giselle many times. In fact, it was her favorite role to play. Like most girls, she had dreamed of being draped in veils of white, but when Alice put on the dress, she commanded eyes forward, not back. She dodged through the shadows on the stage. Twirling, jumping, twisting. Passé, Jeté, Saut...

When an ex-convict gets in trouble for stealing fruits, he will do anything to avoid going to back to jail. Image generated with OpenAI I was a wanted man. A miscreant, an outlaw. They wanted to find me and take me away. Lock me up for a long time probably. All because I stole some fruit from a grocery store. Sure, I stole from that store almost every day - bananas, apples, plums - stuffed them in my bag while I bought a roll of toilet paper or some other bullshit. Guess somebody was watching me on camera or something, and one day a cop was there, hiding in the shadows, waiting. Well, I ran as soon as he sprung out at me - ran and ran, ran across the bridge, had to get away. Don't want to go back to that iron cage no more. Besides, I was just trying to feed my family - what's a man supposed to do? We just wanted to scare him, actually. That was the plan we agreed upon. We've seen this guy stealing fruit at the store day after day - who does that? And he seem...