Instant Story

Flash fiction fresh from my fingers to your mind!

Challenge #02884-G327: Narrativium Foil

"Take it from someone who has batted for both teams..." The villainess purred in deliberate innuendo just to enjoy getting the defiant heroine's face to turn that lovely shade of embarrassed pink. "...deep down, regardless of whatever bull they might try and sell the world and themselves, heroes and villains are exactly the same."

She regarded her cocktail a moment, draining it then tossing the glass carelessly aside, leaving her seat and beginning to approach.

"We all do it for that high we get from facing incredible danger. That rush that can only be felt when you are a whisker away from victory or defeat and you know that even the slightest mistake will cost you everything. Ultimately, we're two sides of the same coin."

As the heroine sputtered for a retort, she continued, with the same level tone of a schoolteacher reprimanding a stubborn student.

"If we didn't have you, we'd rule the world and be bored stiff from not being able to break any rules, and if you didn't have us, you'd be at exactly the same level of apathetic doldrums as you would have no rulebreakers to fight."

She grinned viciously, getting right in the face of her young nemesis, savoring the look in her foe's eyes as the girl pondered this notion.

"We're both adrenaline junkies, cupcake, we just habitually lie to ourselves about the reasons for doing what we do so we don't have to admit it..." -- Anon Guest

Villainess expected a speech. It was almost written in the universal script. Something about the kindness of the human heart and what the choice to be a hero was all about. Blah blah bla.

Instead, the brightly-costumed hero said, "Well, you're not wrong."

This was not in the script. So much so that Villainess said, "Of course you'd say--" before her brain caught up with current events. "Wait. What?"

"You're not wrong. I was into parkour before my powers kicked in, and being a queer in a strictly right-wing area comes with its own adrenaline rush. Try walking home late after Pride with half your glam still on, sometime. It's in my origin story."

Support me on Patreon / Buy me a Ko-fi

Continue Reading

Prompts remaining: 74 Submit a Prompt! Ask a question! Buy my stories!

Challenge #02883-G326: Learn Something, Guys

The dereggers owed him a lot of money. But they didn't want to pay. However, he knew a way to get what he wanted and get back at them at the same time. He wrote a contract, iron clad, and had both deregger and galactic witnesses to sign as well as the leadership, smilingly, signed over a solar system that was at the edge of their space in between their space and galactic space. And in the signing, he grinned.

It was

Read more »

Challenge #02882-G325: Forging ahead

The human was highly recommended by everyone the crew asked when it came to being a security officer. They were diligent, highly intelligent, made friends easily, in fact many of the crew still talked to them from time to time. The only caveat tended to be, they didn't want normal crew quarters to sleep in, they always asked for a storage bay. Why? Well, they collected blades. But not all blades, only unique ones. But that wasn't the only reason.

I decided

Read more »

Challenge #02881-G324: Ten Siwu's of Trouble

"Of course I understand why you don't want more than one human on the ship. Back home we kept a guardian goose with the chickens." -- Anon Guest

Humans and their metaphors, am I right? Half of them are domestic animal excrement, but which half? The really scary part about these balding Deathworlder apes is that the half with a grounding in reality has the high potential to be truly terrifying.

Look this stuff up at your own risk, is what I'm

Read more »

Challenge #02880-G323: Like Sands Through the Hourglass

"Our soap operas are weird. Yours are incomprehensible." -- Anon Guest

[AN: All soap operas are wont to escalate into incomprehensibility when given enough time]

"Beshenia, I love you, but I can't be with you," said the figure in the holo display. "I tried to keep it hidden, but... I'm your descendant from the future, and it would be incest."

"WHAT?" said half the watchers in the room. The other half made gestures of victory and cheered, "CALLED IT!" Which sparked so

Read more »

Challenge #02879-G322: A Bad Influence

She grew up in the slums of a DeRegger colony. But her family wasn't like most of those here. What little funds they got, they used for books - though carefully hidden. She was forced to dress, and act, like a boy to fool the rulers. The small family, two sons, their father, and her, were all very well educated and well-read. And they believed it was time for a true change to this brutal regime. But to do that, more people

Read more »

Challenge #02878-G321: I'm Doing My Best Over Here

If I had a dollar for every time a extra-dimensional portal appeared and gave me powers, I would have two. Which isn’t much, but it’s weird that it happened twice. -- Anon Guest

Did you know it kind'a sucks to be able to recognise an extradimensional stick with a human on it[1]? I can tell you for free that it creeps me out every single time. The first time, I was five and thought my kindergarten teacher was a

Read more »

Challenge #02877-G320: Just Because You Can...

time to get spooky -- Anon Guest

[AN: Video linked is some very clever stop animation and I do NOT believe those are actual organic pumpkins. That would be WAY too involved for a piece of art that took months to make. Double cleverness is inventing Halloween lyrics to fit in with Hall of the Mountain King]

Human creativity knew no bounds. One of their favourites was creating the impossible. Inanimate vegetable matter should not have expressions. Once carved to have expressions,

Read more »

Challenge #02876-G319: Horror of the Baby-Sat

Parent: Thank you so much for agreeing to watch the baby for me. Also, I'm sorry.

Babysitter: Sorry for what?

Parent: The baby has worked out how to do vocal distortion.

Baby: G̷͕̯̻̎̓̉͛̑̀̂̇̀̐͋͘͘͝a̶̢̰͇͇̱͂̉͋́̓͐̂̃͂́́ ̷̧̖̝̱̽̈́͠ǵ̸̢à̴̳̲͍́̀͛̓̃͘̚͝ͅͅ -- Anon Guest

Parrots and very small children seem to share two common interests. The first is an apparent desire to destroy the universe around them via unexpected means. The second is the Dissonance Joke.

The otherwise cute and adorable Human toddler in Companion Lua's

Read more »

Challenge #02875-G318: Drastic Action

So about 8 months ago security forces kept seeing these reflective belts in the brush and they would go to chase them and they would keep getting away so finally somebody realized that there were reflective belts on the deer. So they catch one of these deer and there's names on these belts. Apparently the marines had been tackling the deer and putting belts on them they would of gotten away with it to but they left their names. -- Anon Guest

Read more »

Challenge #02874-G317: Best Danger Noodle

Humans have interesting pets. Sometimes small, even almost harmless even by havenworld standards, sometimes terrifying. This human had one that was at the terrifying end. As they came aboard a ship of saurians, across their shoulders was a snake that was as nearly long as their body and very heavy. It seemed, however, content to remain curled there while the person introduced them to "little slinky." A snake they'd raised from an egg. -- DaniAndShalii

[AN: Submission included a picture of an

Read more »

Challenge #02873-G316: A Puzzling Sample

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6ZjMWLqJvM -- Anon Guest

The Archivaas are primarily Human. One of the few sects of Human obsession that made hoarding work for them. They will, like most Humans, adopt anyone who shares their compulsion. Compulsions are not always healthy, but the Archivaas work hard to make theirs as healthy as possible.

Always be wary of an order capable of re-ordering entire solar systems so they can store their collections. They're very capable of being dangerous if

Read more »

Challenge #02872-G315: Small Thrills, Big Day

A human's friend has been begging them for months to take them to Earth to a local event. Something that all humans could enjoy in one form or another. Something that was fun for all humans but didn't involve large explosions or things being destroyed. The human thought for a long moment and smiled, they had the most perfect idea. And that is how this level one havenworlder ended up sitting and trying deep fried cheese curds and onion rings for the

Read more »

Challenge #02871-G314: Cause and Effect

Haiku can be strange

Five, seven, and five again

Refrigerator -- Anon guest

There were magnets with words on them. Yet another Human invention that could be used for long-term communication and yet was still used for random art. For instance, the poetic form on the communal chilled food store. A thing that described itself and was still a joke. Typically Human.

Companion Zue considered the words scattered around the magnetic surface, and thought about the message she might leave for the

Read more »

Challenge #02870-G313: Double-edged Blade

I was Baptized twice. Once in water, once in flame. I survived because the fire within me burn brighter than the fire around me. -- Joshua Graham

There's a reason why certain peoples are fire resistant. Their ancestry is in flames, their genome comes from an active cauldera. There are pyres in their souls. Those who claim to have souls, anyway. Some have given up on laying claim to souls.

It's the way of worlds with magic in their bones. Be dragon-kin

Read more »