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The Red Snowman
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I walked home after a day of work, pointless work for minimum wage. The job was like life itself tried to mock me with how useless I am. My duties had no purpose, I wasn't assigned many tasks and just sat staring at a gray screen for hours. The only few requests that I've got were there to barely keep me profitable, but not profitable enough to ever be worthy of a rise. It was just long periods of waiting between getting increasingly harder burdens to carry. Eh, what do I mean? The tasks were getting more and more complex, always bringing the anxiety that I won't be able to perform well, and yet they always brought the same profit.

Why is life so useless? Why am I so useless?

I always walk to work in the same attire, a waterproof jacket with a hood, since I never check the weather.

Why do I not care?

Even If it's sunny and I have to take it off and carry it around my waist. I probably look like a hobo, but I doubt it matters to anyone. There is no you in the crowd, no matter hard you try... well, perhaps unless you wear cat ears in public, that just makes me cringe. Yeah, I'm mocking a few standouts internally. What's the deal with them?

Don't answer. Don't care.

You don't care about what I'm writing about either? Huh, then what are you still doing here. Move on. There are better things to do with your life. I hope it feels bad to already waste another few minutes. No, I'm not sorry, it was your choice.

Eh, what was I talking about? Cringe? No, not that. Earlier. The weather, right?

Today, it's jellyfish.

Yes, you heard me right. It's a late evening after rain, with a side of floating jellyfishes. They're quite big, I must say, my or your size.

You must have a lot of questions. Prepare for a shocker. I can't answer them and I don't care. Jellyfishes like jellyfishes, just a bunch of mindless animals.

That reminds me, I'm using jellyfishes in a book I write. Huh? What? That's a hobby like any other. It doesn't make anyone special, especially considering most of the writers in the city, even the best ones, will be forgotten in under a decade. It's not like they will get animated series or anything, nice try. At best, you get the privilege to trade one job for another.

Shut up? Bro, I never asked you to listen. You're free to leave. Manipulation? No, I'm not using reverse psychology. You ain't going to find your starlight here.

Another plot device? Huh... perhaps.

Ah, I interrupted you. So NOT sorry.

You were about to ask about the jellyfishes in my new novel? It's not going to get ever released, not in that self-proclaimed mental-wreck state. Oh, okay, okay, I will stop derailing, but just one last word - I don't get it, you literally have jellyfishes hovering in the air right next to you, an unexpected phenomenon out of this world and you pay attention to some third-rate author with a fourth-rate novel.

Okay, long-story-short. Spoiler alert - there is a kiddo, she gets lost in a cave, gets a weird vision, space station in a cloud of the gas giant. Jellyfishes live in clouds of that planet and migrate somewhere far. The space station loses its power, kiddos get evacuated in a ship that is directed wherever jellyfishes go. Satisfied?

Oh, how all of that makes sense.

It doesn't, I'm a pantser. Okay, perhaps it doesn't YET. You know, it's not like it's going to magically matter on an everlasting hiatus.

Ouch! You had to distract me! Right!? Now, I'm going to get nasty burns. Stupid jellyfishes. No, I'm not going to see a doctor.

I never do that.

It's six hundred and forty or so words already. Good, it can be published and I can say my job here is done. Of course, I planned something grandeur. Do I use that word right? No, I don't care, let's move on. Of course, I planned something bigger, better, but do I have the mental strength and capacity to pull it off? I doubt it.

Although, it all gives me a vague idea of what to do. I'm just going to connect three locations with jellyfishes in my book. Here, done. Noted. What else to fill the void of my blank page?

Let's see. I can tell you what was my inspiration when I first saw the jellyfish in the air.

None, literally none.

Here it goes, my attempt at writing upon seeing the unknown wonders of the mysterious world.

There are some jellyfishes, they're orange. There is a bus stop.

What? Am I simply describing what I see? You bet I am.

Don't be in disbelief. I'm crashing all the way down, that's how bad it is. The abstract is gone and beyond me. I can barely state things as they are, in simple language. It's already a nightmare to pull off two thousand words in this state, but hey – look, I'm trying and it's not pleasant. It's just a rant. A crappost. No, it's not an attempt to vent. It's a sad attempt to get the words going, regardless of what they are. Talking trash, not talking dreams.

I don't want to hear words of praise. Save them for someone who actually tried.

If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

I'm actually glad that the bus stop is empty.

Yeah, that one thing was pulled off correctly. I can gaze at what is in front of me in peace once you're gone, friend. Waiting for things to change, endlessly. Just dreaming about things out of my reach. I'm lucky to at least be able to do that, If only ever for a couple of seconds.

Dude.

Screw jellyfishes.

I had a wallpaper with jellyfishes, they're cool. If I were rich, I would love to have a tank with those. I have no idea why. It would just look amazing.

One thousand words. We did it brother, okay, okay. What else? Keep pushing on.

There is a lamp.

You can save that ironic clapping for yourself. Do I have to remind me that you're not doing any better?

Oh, too harsh? A low blow? Sorry, my bad. Let's change the topic.

Allow me to narrate! As I stare at my reflection in a puddle, I see that my friend is also a jellyfish. I'm talking to a jellyfish. I hope it's not an early sign of dementia. Wait... what If I am a jellyfish too?

I stare once more.

...

Well... and I was so happy that this place isn't crowded.

Everyone around heard me, great.

At least it was not a full-on shameless self-insert from the get-go, that would sting.

Get it? Sting. Haha, haha. Wait, why the hell did I get stung by a jellyfish If I'm one of them? Stupid plot holes. No, I'm not fixing it. I'm a pantser, it'll make sense later. When I'm back from hiatus. Eh, learning the word that helps you identify yourself is so much fun.

I won't be sleeping tonight. I only hope I'll be still here when the morning comes.

Jellyfish facts!

I don't know any jellyfish facts and I'm not googling them, it would be too cheap.

Huh? I could use it to fill up the blank? Thanks... but I've other, less effective methods.

What's next? I need to push out more senseless content, to test the limits of the reader's endurance. To bait them into losing their nerves. Yeah, that's probably one of the worst stories that I'm going to tell, but hey... it's on you, you forced me. Yeah, I'm putting blame on you. Of course, I'm joking! Why are you even asking? It was my choice.

Look, it's thirteen hundred words and it's already an unproductive chore. I only measure its worth by the number of words, not the quality, because I can no longer be content with what I write, I only get to be proud to post something.

Heh, but I'm not proud. Thanks for encouraging me, but don't you see it's pointless?

It doesn't bring me happiness to know this story is out there.

It's not any kind of success. It's meaningless work, just another way to pass time... and the time passes by, unrecoverably.

Fourteen hundred words. The periods are getting shorter. How far can we stretch out the special episode, the city of gelatinous angels? They might be the fallen type, what would they do on earth anyway...

Perhaps I'm numb from all the stings... and now, seeing that I'm jellyfish too, I hope I will minimize my own stinging as much as possible.

Perhaps, I'm numb because this world is just too cold, after the rain.

Perhaps, it never stopped raining.

Of course brother! Pretend to be deep with some vague pseudo-philosophical metaphors. Change the curvature of the mirror and now it has all lost its meaning. How? Simply state it helped us hit fifteen hundred... and to refer to the jellyfishes a bit more. We both know it needs to stay somehow relevant.

Huh? You're still here. Nice attention span. We'll be counting the words together, they will fall like pieces of black ash on fields of snow.

Then, we will build an ash snowman that will reach the sixteenth heavens.

That bus will never come it, will it?

We're just stuck in a frame of a static picture.

Static.

Stop.

Is that it?

No motivation to push it?

Kind of pointless, didn't I say that? Now or later, the result doesn't matter.

I hope you doubt me because I'm about to show you my power of will.

Observe.

Jellyfish.

Jellyfish. Jellyfish.

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