FFM 2025 26: The Hydra’s Call

David Bowie Day Challenge: Write a story set in one of the decades of David Bowie’s career (ranges from the 1960s to the 2010s). A song (any song) from that decade must appear in the story. Optionally, include a cameo from a musical artist from that decade as a character in the story. Optional hardcode mode: Use the name of the example Bowie song for your chosen decade in your story, word for word, or as the title of your story.

The challenge’s clarification that the story must take place in the modern world mentions things we couldn’t write about that we might have written about this month, one of which is “space opera fanfiction”, and I felt very called out because that’s precisely what spawned the plot bunny that’s been threatening to gnaw my fingers if I don’t write about it all of FFM 2025, so out of spite (that I’m going to feel very silly about if the Hydra makes an appearance and says the space opera fanfiction wasn’t targeted at me lol Hydra spoke and said it’s not misplaced lol) I decided to go meta and write about how I got lured into this madness that is Flash Fiction Month. I accidentally ended up including tarot in this because originally I was writing about a fool (which I was back then (and probably still am)) and suddenly the Persona-infested part of my brain kicked in and whispered about the Fool’s Journey, and now I’m torn between seeing my thought process and looking at the end result like “…why.”

My chosen decade was thus the 2010s, which made the song Killing a Little Time my hardcore mode song. Also featuring a very shoehorned implementation of the optional element.

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“A fire needs a space to burn/A breath to build a glow…”

One day in May 2015, The Fool is killing a little time on DeviantArt, listening to Linkin Park’s Until It’s Gone on repeat. Somehow, their browsing leads to a journal that advertises literature events on the platform, including one called the “Flash Fiction Month” — an event that lasts all of July and involves writing a 55-1000-word story each day of the month.

“‘Cause finding what you got sometimes/Means finding it alone/And I can finally see your light/When I let go…“

The Fool gets interested, somehow. History no longer remembers what about it caught their interest, but they get interested, and when the same journal advertises a flash fiction competition in June as a warm-up for it, The Fool jumps at the chance to try it out.

As they wait for June to arrive, The Fool goes back to writing their Star Wars fanfiction, all the while Linkin Park tours in the United States as part of The Hunting Party Tour.

The Fool has little idea what exactly they have signed up for, let alone how far the consequences of hearing and following the Hydra’s call will extend on their journey across the Major Arcanas.