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Friday Flash – Evolution
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Who is Icy Sedgwick?
Icy is a folklore blogger and host of the Fabulous Folklore podcast. She is based in the north east of England, where she was born and raised amid the folk tales and legends of Tyneside and Northumberland. Icy is fascinated by history, cinema, art, and the occult, and griffins will always be her favourite mythical beast. She also writes dark fantasy novellas, Gothic short stories and the occasional weird Western, and she holds a PhD in Film Studies!
I enjoyed this Icy. Nice payoff of the 80% water set up.
marc nash
Crikey, and I thought triffids were dangerous! I really enjoyed how you protrayed the plants, very scary, I also really like the sense of the scientists being caught between a rock and a hard place. Let’s just hope the plants don’t realise all humans are 80% water.
Your stories are always so different. At first, I thought you were all about ghost stories but every time I visit your site, you’ve come up with something new and different.
Alan’s skull hitting the floor with a crack was a sickening image.
Last line really funny. Is that where your idea started?
Haha, great payload! I wonder if the other two will be safe as they’ve been watering the plants happily…
Enjoyable stuff, always love a green tendril attack. Liked the characters locked in their lab, seemingly in the throws of the end of the world and complaining about the lack of real coffee, had a ‘Day of the Dead’ vibe to it.
Harsh – but it reminds me, my plants need to be watered.
Or else.
Loved the desperate killer tendrils.
Marc – That was what set the idea off in the first place. What if plants got so thirsty they started looking elsewhere for water?
Sam – I MAY have been slightly inspired by Mr Wyndham…
Henrietta – Yep! I like to change things up a bit from time to time. I’ve never really written science fiction before so this was my first real go at it.
Maria – We can but hope!
Adam – I know many writers who would consider the lack of real coffee to be a greater threat than the presence of killer plants.
Tony – I make a point of watering mine now, ever since I wrote this!
I imagine it might be the “80% wasted” that attracted the plants’ attention, along with Alan’s callous attitude about the plant he knocked over (kind of had this Men in Black (I) thing — the bug being protective of the cockroaches). After all, the other scientists ARE watering them — and will probably be more assiduous about it as time goes by … 🙂
Where is Alan getting the crossword puzzle books?
Maybe a different genre for you, but I come here expecting creepy (er, no pun intended today), and you deliver.
Very fun, and very rewarding for the line.
Erk… I thought triffids were bad, but these plants just kinda went for the: ‘oh, stop with all the knocking and poisoned stamen rubbish, get your epidermis rolled up and just pull his darned head off!’
Good group of characters, interesting world situation. I liked it. St.
Janet – That was kind of the idea, I guess, that Alan’s such a dick and the plants single him out for their “special treatment”.
Peg – You know, I hadn’t even though about that!
Bev – Glad you liked it!
Stephen – Yeah, they don’t waste time faffing about. Straight in for what they’re after!
Your ironic tone is wonderful and makes this such an entertaining read. You never disappoint on the laughter front Icy, and it is always inventive.
We both did environmental catastrophe this week. Must be something in the air. Spores probably. From your triffids.
If I wasn’t already paralyzed with a particular phobia of plants, I am now!
Great story Icy. Again, perfect timing with the water set-up. I could learn a lot from your timing.
Great venture into scifi, Icy. Perma-drought, martial law, plants going sentient and carnivorous… and you packed it all into a flash.
I wonder if the plants will figure out that there’s only so much water to go around.
Lydia’s pretty tolerant of Alan, all things considered. Paying him to snark off and gripe about doing work? Selective pressures might have got him if the water supply didn’t.
Yea, I’ll be watering a lot more often now. I’d be interested to hear more about this world. What happened to the rain?!
Holy crap. So that’s why I don’t garden. Haha. Brilliantly, vividly written.
Well! Fat lot of appreciation those plants have huh? Very well done Icy! Your use of the 80% water makes me think of the post you did at FYW on Chekhov’s Gun – great proof here!
You had me at multiverse. Nice one.
That’s an excellant story Icy. I love the range of stuff you write, you have an amazing imagination. This felt so much like a scary Dr Who episode, I’m feeling tempted to go and hide behind the sofa! Brilliant stuff x
Excellent story! really good. Loved the ending!
Brilliant. That’s going gren
Justin – I like to think I’d keep plants like these and call them “my babies”. But then I’m just Poison Ivy waiting to happen.
Ian – I LOVE plants. I’ve got seven of them in my studio flat as it is. As for timing, I learned how to do it through a combination of film studies and practice. *nods*
FAR – Yeah, why do anything by halves? I think the plants might need to evolve a heck of a lot more to survive this one.
John – I don’t think she’s got much choice.
Anthony – I don’t even know myself. I don’t think they do!
Lee-Ann – Thanks!
Deanna – I love plants, I really do. My flat’s so much more cheerful since I started looking after mine. And after writing this, I REALLY look after mine!
Tim – Well we all know how taken I am with the concept of the multiverse…
Sam – Thank you! I have a weird mind. But it makes daydreaming fun ^_^ I wonder what the Doctor would do in this situation?
Sonia – Thanks!
Raven – Waste not, want not…
I will not forget to water my plants. I like how the comment made at the begining worked its way back in with a more menacing outcome.
Dammit! I was just cursing the plants in our office today, too! I better be more careful. Another great tale from the lovely, Icy. You always pull me and I feel like I’m sitting right in the middle of the action.
Coo blimey day of the triffids all over again, where’s the bottle of defender when you need it!
The lack of water in this story really struck home, as living in Australia we have just come out of a very long drought, and I watched some of my precious garden die during that time. We ourselves were on restrictions.
An interesting concept, keeping the plants alive, because if you didn’t you might not have a food source in the future – seems the plants found their own food source – creepy icy!
helen-scribbles
Nice one Icy, I do like to read a good apocalyptic scenario, are you thinking of taking these plants on a hunting trip to the city?
I loved the ending. It’s good to know that even worthless humans have some value.
Loved the irony of the ending. And the set up was great.
Stacey
You gotta love your plants.
Living in the land of 10,000 lakes, I don’t really feel the problem of lack of water much myself, but even so, we are sucking our aquifers pretty dry. It’s only a matter of time before this becomes reality I’m afraid…well not the violent plants I hope 🙂
Lara – I do like my foreshadowing. And yes, water your plants! I, in turn, will hang up my towels.
Danni – I think that effect comes from studying films and writing as though I’m watching one.
Helen – In most post apocalyptic worlds, you see the plants regain control and run rampant since nature will always find a way, but then I thought “what if there was a drought?” I love plants so I can’t help siding with them…
Steve – Ooh I hadn’t, but never say never!
Stephen – What a lovely way to think about it!
Stacey – Thanks!
Michael – Well you have to wonder what kind of plants they were growing – and why! Hopefully your average pot of roses won’t turn violent.
Awesome story, Icy. I like the way it started so serene and calm and then the ending hits with a fury. I think I’ll go water my lawn now – what’s left of it.
Loved it Icy!
Great characters, Icy! I particularly like the obnoxious (dead) Alan, even though I’m not too sorry for his fate. heh
Not related to Triffids, are they?
Ever since LOTR, I’ve had a fondness for living trees. A post-apocalyptic story seems like a natural environment for them to discover us. I like the tendrils twitching for Alan that foreshadows the bigger brethren to come.
Fantastic characters Icy and I like the total ‘thinking out of the box’ idea for this story – plants getting water from elsewhere…now there’s a conundrum.
Ohhh, gross and wonderful Icy! I felt so sad for the plant he just about knocked over. Glad they got theirs back.
…Kind of. It also makes me nervous. 😉
Chuck – This story seems to have really impelled people to water their plants. Perhaps they should use it as a public service announcement.
Stacey – Thanks!
Mari – Yeah, he was really fun to write!
Nerine – Maaaaaybe!
Aidan – It’s a bit like that Mickey Mouse cartoon where he tries to catch the baby tornado, only to get pursued himself by its big brother!
Brainhaze – I have weird brainwaves every now and then!
Jen – Remember to water your plants and you’ll be fine!
In an alternate when, the plants were much more greedy and sought out their own human spigots…
This one sparks the imagination and thank yuh.
A bit late in catching up on stories.
This is a cracker! Cool sci fi with a winning pay off. Love how you progress the action; something I need to learn to do more of.
Adam B @revhappiness