Ruth Banning
Bio
Autistic crafter, writer, artist, sewer....and collector of all things tiny.
Stories (21/0)
The Flood
There’s a certain type of friendship that holds a strange power over people like me. You might be thinking of those not-quite-a-friend-not-quite-a-bully type people who show up in almost every coming of age movie ever, but those I have always been immune to. Not because I have particularly high self worth or loads of confidence or anything… the opposite really. I’m always waiting for the other shoe to drop. Always waiting for things to go wrong. And I always know when people are just being nice to set me up as the butt of a joke, or worse still... out of a sense of obligation. As a result, I have gotten pretty good at making myself invisible.
By Ruth Banning3 months ago in Fiction
Dragonfly
I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking “being a dragon would be so awesome” or maybe “if I was a dragon I wouldn’t be scared of anything”. Well, you’re wrong. And I don’t appreciate the constant pressure to be awesome and fearless. Have you ever actually met a dragon? We aren’t invincible you know. We aren’t even that big! I mean sure, by human standards we’re big. But you know what else is big? Cows! Now there’s a sturdy beast! That’s something that really isn’t talked about enough. City folk think they’re these placid, gentle creatures but I dare you to say that while face to face with one.
By Ruth Banning3 months ago in Fiction
Some Great Treasure
A human has little chance of defeating a dragon at the best of times, and this was certainly not the best of times. Debris fell callously from the sky, diminished tides wreaked havoc on aquatic life everywhere, and humans threw everything they had into increasingly destructive and futile efforts to return to the delusions of control they’d clung to in the times before the moon had died.
By Ruth Banning3 months ago in Fiction
Excursion
Nobody can hear a scream in the vacuum of space, or so they say. But I wasn’t in the vacuum of space. I was stuck in a glorified soda can hurtling towards the moon at 26.85 thousand miles per hour, less than two feet from a guy who I swear to god did not stop screaming from the moment we left the landing pad. Honestly I’d probably have been impressed by his lung capacity if I hadn’t been devoting one hundred percent of my concentration to trying to pass out so that I could experience the only form of escape available to me at that moment.
By Ruth Banning6 months ago in Fiction
The Long Wait
(Part 6 of a short story series, based on writing prompts. Written while learning to fight brain fog and perfectionism... and my ADHD. By this point my ADHD brain was saying “I’ll do it but I won’t be happy about it. It was absurd to commit to an 8 part series. You knew this was a long shot. Can’t we just kill everyone off and end it early?”. In hindsight that might have been a good move, but here it is anyway. I didn’t hit the required word count so my story submission bounced back, hence being out of order.)
By Ruth Banningabout a year ago in Fiction
The New Beginning
(Part eight of a short story series, based on writing prompts. Written while trying to learn to fight brain fog and perfectionism... and my ADHD. My ADHD brain was actually technically back on board with this one! The final stretch! There’s dopamine in finishing things! Unfortunately I slept in, an appointment ran late, and I had to rush more than usual to finish this before the deadline. I didn’t finish it before the deadline, but my brain only agreed to spend an extra 10 minutes or so fixing it up after. Enjoy?)
By Ruth Banningabout a year ago in Fiction
