{"id":5619,"date":"2022-08-25T00:17:47","date_gmt":"2022-08-25T07:17:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/short-fic-rotary-by-harper-kingsley-harperwck\/"},"modified":"2022-08-25T00:20:52","modified_gmt":"2022-08-25T07:20:52","slug":"short-fic-rotary-by-harper-kingsley-harperwck","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/short-fic-rotary-by-harper-kingsley-harperwck\/","title":{"rendered":"SHORT FIC: Rotary, by Harper Kingsley #HarperWCK"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Rotary” by Harper Kingsley<\/h1>\n

It’s like hitting all red lights. Every single station is a commercial. Flipping through the channels was a frown-making experience.<\/p>\n

With a sigh, he tossed the remote control on the table.<\/p>\n

“Spedro, switch to music please,” he said. Relaxing into the couch as the TV screen switched through functions and an analytics-chosen playlist began to play. He sighed and closed his eyes, resting his head against the back of the couch.<\/p>\n

He let himself fall into the music. Drifting and swaying to the beat, the whole world stillng within him.<\/p>\n

His nerves had been in such a jangle for the last few hours. He hadn’t been able to settle himself, to focus on anything.<\/p>\n

It made sense that the music would so entirely sooth him.<\/p>\n

He wasn’t focusing on anything.<\/p>\n

He was letting himself go.<\/p>\n

He breathed deeply and let the music catch him up in its embrace.<\/p>\n

x<\/p>\n

When the Duty Phone rang hours later, he felt well-rested and refreshed.<\/p>\n

He rose smoothly from the couch and strode across the room to open the panel that hid the red rotary phone with its curling wire.<\/p>\n

He picked up the phone receiver and brought it to the side of his head.<\/p>\n

“Blue Ice here.”<\/p>\n

=END=<\/p>\n

~Harper Kingsley<\/p>\n

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“Rotary” by Harper Kingsley It’s like hitting all red lights. Every single station is a commercial. Flipping through the channels was a frown-making experience. With a sigh, he tossed the remote control on the table. “Spedro, switch to music please,” he said. Relaxing into the couch as the TV screen switched through functions and an…<\/p>\n Read More<\/span> SHORT FIC: Rotary, by Harper Kingsley #HarperWCK<\/span><\/a>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"Layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[910,911],"tags":[170,912,646,769],"class_list":["entry","author-harperkingsley0-0","post-5619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-blue-ice","category-short-fic","tag-blue-ice","tag-curtain-fic","tag-short-fic","tag-warrick-tobias"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2pPoL-1sD","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6931,"url":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/short-fic-a-snapshot-in-time\/","url_meta":{"origin":5619,"position":0},"title":"SHORT FIC: A Snapshot In Time","author":"Harper Kingsley","date":"May 13, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"TITLE: A Snapshot In Time AUTHOR: Harper Kingsley GENRE: aftermath of a fall, introspection When I first woke up, everything was in shades of black and white. Color was slow to seep back into the world, and it was like her hair was blond and her dress was pink. Then\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "unbirthday"","block_context":{"text":"unbirthday","link":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/category\/unbirthday\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5594,"url":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/short-fic-the-gray\/","url_meta":{"origin":5619,"position":1},"title":"SHORT FIC: The Gray","author":"Harper Kingsley","date":"August 4, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"THE GRAYby Harper Kingsley The color drained out of the world on a Thursday. Drips and dabs absorbed into a swirl of gray until there was nothing left of pinks and blue and yellows and LIGHT. Everything became gray. Everyone became gray. The joy and the laughter, slipped and slid,\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5578,"url":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/short-fic-shiny-town-by-harper-kingsley-harperwck\/","url_meta":{"origin":5619,"position":2},"title":"SHORT FIC: Shiny Town, by Harper Kingsley #HarperWCK","author":"Harper Kingsley","date":"July 14, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"I wrote this on Twitter a tweet at a time. Here's my point of reference: and here's the tweet thread: https:\/\/twitter.com\/HarperKingsley0\/status\/1547633608357134336. SHINY TOWN The Mayor of Shiny Town stood in his pressed trousers with the red suspenders, heavily embroidered vest, and blazer to survey the townsfolk going about their day.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "fic"","block_context":{"text":"fic","link":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/category\/fic\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/image-4.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/image-4.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/image-4.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/image-4.png?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/07\/image-4.png?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4567,"url":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/short-fic-that-dune-thing\/","url_meta":{"origin":5619,"position":3},"title":"Short Fic?: That Dune Thing [dark fic, excerpt?, deathfic?]","author":"Harper Kingsley","date":"June 23, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Title: That Dune Thing Author: Harper Kingsley Summary:\u00a0A prisoner held in a Dune-like setup with a cat. 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Grimaced at the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Short fic"","block_context":{"text":"Short fic","link":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/category\/short-fic\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5678,"url":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/12-days-of-xmas-day-of-a-househusband\/","url_meta":{"origin":5619,"position":5},"title":"12 Days of Xmas: Day of a Househusband","author":"Harper Kingsley","date":"January 4, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"DAY OF A HOUSEHUSBAND Coming home, Warrick couldn't help smiling at the sound of Vereint's laughter and the TV. He toed off his shoes, curling his tired toes, and padded down the short hallway to peer into the living room. Vereint was lying on the couch with a bowl of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "12 Days of Xmas"","block_context":{"text":"12 Days of Xmas","link":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/category\/12-days-of-xmas\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5619"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5619\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5620,"href":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5619\/revisions\/5620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/harperkingsley.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}