Author Topic: PseudoPod 597: Fool’s Fire  (Read 2799 times)

Bdoomed

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on: June 02, 2018, 06:36:45 AM
PseudoPod 597: Fool’s Fire

by Tim Pratt
Narrated by Eric Luke
Hosted by Alasdair Stuart

Tim Pratt publishes a new short story every month for Patreon supporters (www.patreon.com/timpratt). Fool’s Fire was first published for his Patreon in October 2015, reprinted at Nightmare in November 2016. You can read along here: http://www.nightmare-magazine.com/fiction/fools-fire/

Show Notes

“It was inspired by me thinking about how I used to get lost all the time, because I have terrible spatial sense, and now I never get lost, because my phone tells me where to go. But there have always been spirits that preyed on lost travelers, and surely they’d make accommodations to the modern age….”



The “going away together” part of the plan to save their marriage had gotten off to a bad start, and the probabilities of success continually ticked downward in Will’s mental calculations. Dori, who normally felt more comfortable in control, had gotten so tired of driving these tree-crowded country roads that she’d ceded the wheel to Will once night fell. Now she was navigating—“nag-ivating,” they used to jokingly call it, back when they’d joked—and displaying remarkably little patience with his requests for clarification. He tried again anyway. “But, look, I don’t even see a road coming up on the right, it’s all trees. Are you sure the map thingy on your phone is working?”




Listen to this week's PseudoPod.

I'd like to hear my options, so I could weigh them, what do you say?
Five pounds?  Six pounds? Seven pounds?


Scuba Man

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Reply #1 on: June 03, 2018, 09:56:42 PM
What an unusual horror story. I've never seen a plot quite like this.
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
I'm going to go and hug my spouse and perhaps even share this episode with her.
« Last Edit: June 03, 2018, 10:31:31 PM by Scuba Man »

I'm a stand-up philosopher until 2024. Then, I move onto my next gig. I'm a gentleman forester and farmer. I also enjoy jumping into Lake Huron and panicking the fish.


Lisa3737

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Reply #2 on: June 06, 2018, 02:18:49 PM
Enjoyed this one!  Did not see the end coming at all.  Great narration!!



Katzentatzen

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Reply #3 on: June 20, 2018, 10:27:29 PM
Definitely one of those stories that makes me never want to get married!

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TrishEM

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Reply #4 on: June 28, 2018, 02:46:05 AM
I liked this one a lot. It reminded me a little bit of the story from last year or the year before, maybe, about the married couple going on a hiking trip and trying to reconnect, and there were monsters under the rocks, like in Tremors, and each of the couple wanted to save each other. Can anyone tell me what that story was?

Of course, this one had a much different reason for the disconnectedness, and a much different outcome! It was very interesting to see. Maybe the guy didn't deserve
Spoiler (click to show/hide)
but I can understand why she would have been
Spoiler (click to show/hide)



Sgarre1

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Reply #5 on: June 28, 2018, 03:51:53 AM



TrishEM

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Reply #6 on: June 29, 2018, 05:27:58 AM
Thank you!



danooli

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Reply #7 on: June 30, 2018, 02:29:52 PM
So I was listening to this on my way to meet my husband at our local Costco and pulled into the parking lot and into a spot.  The place was MOBBED (being the Friday before Independence Day) and while I was parked, still listening to Erik's voice (Carlos just showed up at this point in the story) when I decided to text my husband that it was too crowded to go to Costco at that time and lets just meet at home instead.

I continued listening as I made my way home, and when the actual conflict between Dory & Will was revealed? Dude. I was pretty glad I decided against shopping.

What a deeply dark and painful story. Loved it.



Fenrix

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Reply #8 on: June 30, 2018, 04:38:48 PM

Dude. I was pretty glad I decided against shopping.


You probably made the right decision. Odd are that you would have gotten lost inside.

All cat stories start with this statement: “My mother, who was the first cat, told me this...”


harrietpodder

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Reply #9 on: July 03, 2018, 08:56:44 PM
Just listened to this one again.  I found myself kind of wishing and/or wondering what would happen if Carlos and Miguel had been presented as a couple as a sort of counterpoint tDori and will. what makes something all the more sinister to me is that dori seems to be punishing will support a trait that she is very much aware is part of him. It very sinister and disturbingly squirming cruel when she mocks him in front of Carlos for having one for him is a normal fright reaction. That was where some of the horribly for me: in his wife's taunts of him.