“Need more shortbread, Missus”

It was middlin Alice, one of the pictsies that live in my pantry.

“I should bake a batch”

“A nae, the ones that come in a tin if ye please”

“You prefer those?”

“No at all but Kelda wants a sewing room”

#Tootfic #MicroFiction #PowerOnStoryToot

I have been looking for places on the Fediverse where people publish (their own) fiction.

I am especially interested in Sci-Fi fiction, but....

Here is what I have discovered so far:

• #MicroFiction (hash-tag)
• @microfiction@tags.pub (tags.pub)

• @microfiction@a.gup.pe (guppe group)

• #TootFic (hash-tag)
• @tootfic (tags.pub)

• #ContinueTheStory (hash-tag)
• @continuethestory (tags.pub)

• #ContinueTheSciFiStory (hash-tag)
• @continuethescifistory (tags.pub)

#Fiction #Guppe #SciFi #TagsPub

In groups of two to thirty, the Pilosan float through space near Exoplanet 23987. This caterpillar like animal, living in airless space, thrive off volcanic minerals. The exoplanet is unstable tectonically and covered with volcanos, many of them launching debris into space through the thin atmosphere. As the Pilosan are newly discovered, no one has seen, or knows if, they change into butterflies. But there is a buzz in the Lepidoptera community.

#scifi #exoplanet #MicroFiction #bloomscrolling #nature #photography

In groups of two to thirty, the Pilosan float through space near Exoplanet 23987. This caterpillar like animal, living in airless space, thrive off volcanic minerals. The exoplanet is unstable tectonically and covered with volcanos, many of them launching debris into space through the thin atmosphere. As the Pilosan are newly discovered, no one has seen, or knows if, they change into butterflies. But there is a buzz in the Lepidoptera community.

#scifi #exoplanet #MicroFiction #bloomscrolling #nature

“What can i get you?”

“Guinness Zero, please.”

“A lot of people drinking that now.”

“It’s really good. Uh, so what’s it like working in a documentary bar? Must be quieter than a sports bar and a boxing crowd”

“You’d think. Come back on Friday and watch the Cutting Edge Engineering crowd throw down about the best carbide insert.”

#Tootfic #MicroFiction #PowerOnStoryToot #HopePunk #Title_Friday_Crowd

Between Exoplanet 65834 and 65835 lies the Child’s Wall. Which is a bad name, but the astronomer who found it was, a little too literal. For 230 years no one could explain the once-every-423-day phenomenon. It took the invention of FTL travel to clear it up. It’s a bug, or should I say, it’s the emissions of a space bug. Yes, there are space bugs. The Ampnoa bug lives in zero gravity, and uses its, um, backside emissions, to launch itself across space. The reason is, of course, sex, or shall we say, mating. When the sun is closest to the nesting sites of the Ampnoa, they launch themselves back and forth, creating lines of light as they search for the perfect mate. They also evolved a natural form of space docking, but that is a story for another time.

#scifi #exoplanet #MicroFiction #river #nature #photography

Between Exoplanet 65834 and 65835 lies the Child’s Wall. Which is a bad name, but the astronomer who found it was, a little too literal. For 230 years no one could explain the once-every-423-day phenomenon. It took the invention of FTL travel to clear it up. It’s a bug, or should I say, it’s the emissions of a space bug. Yes, there are space bugs. The Ampnoa bug lives in zero gravity, and uses its, um, backside emissions, to launch itself across space. The reason is, of course, sex, or shall we say, mating. When the sun is closest to the nesting sites of the Ampnoa, they launch themselves back and forth, creating lines of light as they search for the perfect mate. They also evolved a natural form of space docking, but that is a story for another time.

#scifi #exoplanet #MicroFiction #stream #nature #river #longexposure

The biannual equinoxes are the only times that the south polar access shaft—leading to the planetary engine room—can be safely navigated without the elevator car, which the late former custodian had left at the bottom. Now that we have regained access, orbital adjustment will commence as soon as Dr Croft retrieves the Spare Key.

#Tootfic #MicroFiction #PowerOnStoryToot #Title_Spare_Key

i'm trying to get more practice writing fiction (which, turns out, is hard, if all you write every single day has to be succinct and anchored in a technical and political reality)

if anyone reading this feels like sharing feedback or their emotional reaction, i'm very welcoming of both ^^

catileptic.tech/posts/writing-…

#tootfic #microfiction #fediwriting #writing

“Did…did a demon write this?”

“No!”

“*Really*?”

“Avernal Intelligence is the proper term”

“Ha! I knew it.”

“What gave it away?”

“Demons write the best riffs, this bangs.”

#Tootfic #MicroFiction #PowerOnStoryToot #Title_Avernal_Intelligence (h/t @davidrevoy)

In a bathroom at Mar a Lago. Trump: "So I got you full access to the Venezuelan crude oil, why are you not using it?" Oil Guy: "Sir, we need the oil price to go up significantly and for a long time to be able to justify investments." Trump "OK, so what do I do?" Oil guy: "Ideally? Close the Strait of Hormuz. Your friend Bibi has a few suggestions on that, I think." Trump: "I'm gonna make it the longest and biggest closure ever! And I get 15% of your revenue, as always."

#Microfiction

“Ugh, fuse tripped again, go fix it will you?”

“It’s not the breaker, it’s the RCD”

“Just reset it!”

“Not until we know why. What were you doing?”

“Summoning; come on this happens all the time—”

“Not if your circles are solid. Residual Causality Devices are there to protect you from uncontained flux lines; I like my walls un-tentacled, thanks.”

#Tootfic #MicroFiction #PowerOnStoryToot #Title_RCD

The Salsus people began life in the deserts of Exoplanet 74657. They, like all other life, used available resources to build homes. For them it was salt. They mastered the art of manufacturing perfect rectangular blocks. Eventually, one king built the customary-next-step-in-cultural-evolution pyramid. But now, centuries later, the climate has shifted. It rains one day every ten years on the desert, which is slowly, ever so slowly, dissolving the pyramid (but creating beautiful crystals on the outer surface). Now that politics in the region has stabilized, the decades old plans to build a protective roof over the pyramid (and the controversial ‘Shopping Destination and Leisure Complex’) are being dusted off.

#scifi #exoplanet #MicroFiction #nature #photography #frost #ice

They look so beautiful and soft and peaceful. But on Exoplanet 58294 the native flora found a taste for blood. While not able to walk, their long thin stems spring into action. The innocent looking red petals pop open in an instant, sharp and deadly. Insects can be captured whole, while small mammals will succumb to the toxin within seconds. The plant can then drag the unfortunate into its branches and slowly feed. The toxin puts humans in bed for a week, so visitors are given armoured trousers for outside excursions, and told not to stop and smell the flowers.

#scifi #exoplanet #MicroFiction #bloomscrolling #nature #photography

“Here, try one of these!”. Chief Maamau offered me a white blob about the size of a rockworm egg.

“What is it?”

“Food. It’s something I encountered on a planet we crashed on once. They call them Marsh Melons”

I took the blob. It was soft, like a voidbug pupa. I hate voidbugs. “Uhhh”

“They’re better toasted, stick it on this, then hold it near the drive plasma inspection port till it turns brown”

“Is that an OVIPOSITOR reamer?”

“Souvenir. Relax, I sterilized it.”

“Mmmn, that’s good. Got any more?”

#Tootfic #MicroFiction #PowerOnStoryToot #Title_Marsh_Melons

Centuries -maybe millennium- ago, the inhabitants of Exoplanet 12875 built a wall around their planet. No one knows why. No one knows the threat that they feared. This is a section of the wall that has separated. It was built with kilometre-long rectangular carbon blocks. One carbon block is missing, thus the perfectly straight line. The gas slowly escaping from the planet has collected on the edges and formed these crystals in space.
Archeologists on the planet have a preliminary theory that the people of the planet destroyed themselves, but the study is in its infancy.

#SciFi #exoplanet #MicroFiction #ice #photography #nature

Centuries -maybe millennium- ago, the inhabitants of Exoplanet 12875 built a wall around their planet. No one knows why. No one knows the threat that they feared. This is a section of the wall that has separated. It was built with kilometre-long rectangular carbon blocks. One carbon block is missing, thus the perfectly straight line. The gas slowly escaping from the planet has collected on the edges and formed these crystals in space.
Archeologists on the planet have a preliminary theory that the people of the planet destroyed themselves, but the study is in its infancy.

#SciFi #exoplanet #MicroFiction #ice #nature

1000 richest people are approched. "The end of the world is here. Time to go to your doomsday bunker", they are told. The billionaires nodded. They knew this was coming. They were prepared.

So they gathered their loved ones and locked themselves in luxury bunkers. No contact to outside world.

10 years later they emerge. The world has healed. The air is breathable, people are happy. "What was the catastrophy?" they ask the first person they meet.

She screams: "THEY GOT OUT!!!"

#microfiction

“Boss I can’t get this fob apart”. Mistress Artifex knows how to take /anything/ apart.

“What have you tried so far, Sarah?”

“Screwdriver, scalpel. Case knife…swearing”

“Not in front of the customers, dear. Use your other sight.”

I close my eyes. “It’s glued shut! How are you s’posed to change the battery?!”

“Today you will learn the Mind Knife. And also why BMW are bastards.”

Later: “All fixed, thank you, please come again. Boss, ima go home tonight and put a curse on whoever designed that key.”

“That’s not how we do things here, young witch. Get on hexnet and ask a sister in Bavaria to arrange it; charge it to the shop account.”

#Tootfic #MicroFiction #PowerOnStoryToot #Title_Open_Mind

I've stopped at a diner like this in #Australia in a on-map-only town.

It was dinner time.

Conversation ceased, like in an old western.
The locals looked up at me from their evening broth, false teeth on tea saucers like elaborate Michelin desserts.

I felt, there was sadness and regret in their eyes, looking at my bulk. I would have made better filling of the cauldron at the back than the scrawny German backpacker.

I turned on my heel and drove out over the potholes of the parking lot back onto the highway.
The Diner was still in my rear vision mirror, when it begun to disolve into a crossroad on my GPS.

Accidental #microfiction 🙂

In the desert region of Exoplanet 57353 there are caves the size of interstellar cruse ships. The water from the intermittent rain slowly seeps through the ceiling and is collected in these fungi as it drips down the walls. The whole ecosystem of the cave is dependent on the flying Azmar insect drinking the water. Who is then occasionally eaten by progressively larger animals who live on the cave floor. The only way to visit these caves is by walkways built above the fragile floor. While there I had a beautiful Azmar insect gently settle on my hand and drink from the tiny cups the guides provided.

#scifi #exoplanet #MicroFiction #mosstodon #lichensubscribe #nature #photography

In the desert region of Exoplanet 57353 there are caves the size of interstellar cruse ships. The water from the intermittent rain slowly seeps through the ceiling and is collected in these fungi as it drips down the walls. The whole ecosystem of the cave is dependent on the flying Azmar insect drinking the water. Who is then occasionally eaten by progressively larger animals who live on the cave floor. The only way to visit these caves is by walkways built above the fragile floor. While there I had a beautiful Azmar insect gently settle on my hand and drink from the tiny cups the guides provided.

#scifi #exoplanet #MicroFiction #mosstodon #lichensubscribe #nature

"Isn't that a little #redundant?" the gray alien said to the other, even grayer, alien.

I was strapped to a metal table, which was much more comfortable than it looked. The metal was warm and had adapted to my body, cradling my buttocks nicely.

"Just because it has 'always been done like that' doesn't mean we have to. The scanner gives better results than the probe anyways." The gray alien touched the table and the restraints vanished. "Sorry for the inconvenience, movement makes the scan worse."

"No need to apologize every time." I smiled and shook the aliens hand. "Thank you for providing affordable healthcare."

#wss366 #microfiction #smallstories #writing

New to Mastodon and the Fediverse?

Rather than face an empty timeline, try following a hashtag like:

• #Introduction, to find other newcomers, or
• #Trains (or #SteamTrains or #NightTrains) to find a common interest, or
• #Microfiction or #WritingPrompt to find a network of fellow scribes

Have a look at

• Explore to see what others here are seeing, or
• Live feeds to see what others here are saying

You'll soon find your crowd here.

"Künstliche Intelligenz müsse "etwas Nützliches tun, das die Ergebnisse für Menschen, Gemeinschaften und Industrien verändert", erklärte Nadella."

"Aber was?" fragten die Zuhörer. Doch Nadella hatte keine Antwort darauf. Also beschlossen sie, führende KI Experten zu befragen. Aber auch die hatten keine bahnbrechende Idee.

Zum Schluss gaben sie der KI den Auftrag, etwas wirklich nützliches zu tun. Die überlegte eine lange Zeit - und schaltete sich ab.

#microfiction

When the invasion from the fourth dimension came, it had unexpected benefits. The new overlords were surprisingly mild. They only wanted the Earth for Qling, a substance we neither understood nor needed. They filled enormous eye-warping four dimensional tankers with a cargo we couldn’t even perceive, then left us in peace. A few stayed, having found human friends and even lovers.

My neighbour is one such. We met when xe returned my lost cat. “I don’t know how she keeps getting out”, I said, “all the doors and windows are shut”.

“What about that gap there?”

“Where?”

“Oh of course, it’s invisible in three dimensions. Here let me close it up.”

The cat is still furious about this.

#Tootfic #MicroFiction

Good morning humans.

Saw a pretty tree the other day and had to exorcize this idea from my head, so I made a thing!

There's a fine line of perspective between appreciation for what is, and grief for what may be. Keep your mind in the present, for that's when we steer the future.

The unedited image is also included; I darkened it a bit for readability. If it's still rough, check the alt text.

#DBWriting #nature #trees #ai #dystopia #lichensubscribe #mosstodon #microfiction

#UtopianMicroFiction.

A: Hey kid, how was your first day of school? What subjects will you have?

B: Oh, it was so cool. Our main subjects will be #SocialPedagogy, #GroupDynamics, #PsychoEducation, #TraumaPedagogy and #NonViolentCommunication besides #Inclusion and #Diversity, which we started with today.
Other than that we'll have #ClimateJustice, #BlackHistory, #QueerFeminism, #anarchism, #RiotTraining, #solidarity, #degrowth, #PermaCulture, #ReduceRefuseRepair and a few others.
Didn't you always tell me school didn't teach you anything for real life? Well it's not like that anymore.

#utopia #MicroFiction #FediLZ

Danke @carlklopse (viele Grüße an Herrn Kreidl!) für die wundervolle Lektüre, hab das erste Mal etwas als #PrintOnDemand bestellt, zwei zum Verschenken, eins für mich... 📚🎁

#Bücher #MicroFiction #Bookstodon

"So wait? We have 7 minutes left?"
"Yup"
"7 minutes to try do all the things I never did in life"
"Nope. Technically 6 minutes and.... 10 seconds"
"There's no time to get to a bunker either - I guess this was inevitable"
"Yup. Putting all the US nuclear arsenal on a dead-mans switch with us-east-1 was probably not the most well through out idea"

#microfiction

Keeper of Forbidden Knowledge

This week I’m posting a special comic! It's an adaptation of a fantasy #microfiction by @vanellopemint . Source: mastodon.art/@vanellopemint/11… (edit: fixed a typo on a speech-bubble)

#webcomic #krita #miniFantasyTheater

"Ich bin schokoliert. Scho-ko-liert" rief der Lebkuchenmann laut aus. "Nicht nur ich, sondern auch meine Frau wurden einfach brutal geschokoboardet."

"Aber warum das, was wurde euch denn vorgeworfen?"

"Ich war nur etwas länger im Ofen, schon wirft man mir Verdunklungsgefahr vor" erklärte er, den Tränen sehr nahe. "Und als ich darum bat, diesen Vorfall aufzugären, würde ich behandelt als sei ich nicht ganz knusper"

#Microfiction

"Welcome home! How was it?"

"It was desperately needed! Thanks for house-sitting on short notice. Any trouble? Had enough food?"

"No trubs - and yes, you spoiled me with the money you left for snacks!"

"Least I could do for my favorite house-sitter!"

"I did have to buy more cat-food and litter; I couldn't find any. She was so hungry when I got here!"

"I don't have a cat?"

The cat in question didn't even look guilty about breaking in.

#TootFic #MicroFiction #Writing #TerylsTales #Caturday

"Light from the Andromeda Galaxy takes 2.5 million years to reach us?" exclaimed Tina, scandalized. "What kind of slow-ass light is that? What kind of long-in-the-tooth light is that? What the hell took it so long? What the hell was it doing on the way? Stopping to buy souvenirs? Decided to #snake its way all zig-zag through the universe to get here? Doesn't it know about respecting people's time? Doesn't it realize there are people sitting at telescopes waiting for it?"

#wss366 #microfiction

“Christina’s Worlds” (after Andrew Wyeth)

Harvest complete, she leapt off the combine to survey the field. The three moons nearing Conjunction always took her breath away, a rare sight in the smog-choked metropoles. She’d earned enough from farm work for a starcab between moons, then a slow ship to the outer worlds. She’d ask Lia to come, but would go regardless of her answer. Stronger dreams were calling.
#photography #photoart #doubleexposure #astrophotography #moon #landscape #microfiction

HR: "Do you have a moment? We just want to ask you about your self-assessment?"
Me: "Sure."
HR: "So, for 'personality type', we were expecting something from Myers-Briggs. You know, like ENJF."
Me: "Oh?"
HR: "You selected 'Other' and filled in, 'Chaotic Good'."
Me: "Yes, that's right."
HR: "Why?"
Me: "Because I use the term 'fortnight' as often as possible in communications in a US-based company, replace 'z's with 's'es, and convert dates everywhere to ISO8601."
HR: "Well yes we can see how that would be classified as 'Chaotic Good', but we were expecting something grounded in science."
Me: "So why were you asking for Myers-Briggs?"

#Microfiction

We are the last neighbourhood in Germany to finally cut the cord to the grid. Renewables, solar panels, batteries, owned by us all as a local cooperative, means that we don’t need the Grid anymore. We now have free electricity, 100% green and can even sell excess. Our connection to the grid is for selling, not for buying.

#Microfiction #OrIsIt

"Dragon!" the knight called, "I'm here to end your reign of terror!"

"I merely land by a town and ask if they will give me someone to eat."

"Yet when they offer a sacrifice you spurn it and instead eat the mayor."

"Yes. And if they refuse to sacrifice anyone, I leave."

"That's... Hm. Carry on."

#MicroFiction #TootFic #SmallStories #vss

The Emperor listened to his ministers as they told him why each of the books on their long list needed to be banned.

"Gentlemen, your explanations are a good start."

"So you will ban these books?"

"Not at all! If these books are problematic, we must provide context to help them be understood."

#TootFic #MicroFiction #SmallStories #vss