Instant Story

Flash fiction fresh from my fingers to your mind!

Challenge #02780-G223: Redo From...

It started as a Company raid, aided by a hacker who crashed the system of a Rival company. It escalated, every computer system in the World crashed. Hospitals, Electricity, Money. All were lost and the only way to even get the beginning of a re-start needed electricity. -- Anon Guest

The moral, if there was one, was always add extra stop clauses in your trojan worms. Some would say it should have been, don't create trojan worms that will end the world as you know it. Regardless, ConnSafeT should never have hired hackers to end the profits of MegaGloboSecuriCorp. Having had the idea of hiring hackers to do that, they really should have looked into those hackers' records.

Now the world was ending. So had ConnSafeT and MegaGloboSecuriCorp.

The global power grid went down, and so did every system of records with it. Surges fried just about every hard drive and server in the world, and those that remained could not work without power. For twenty-four hours, those in urgent need of electricity scrambled to attain some. Power corrupts, but electricity is life. For twenty-four hours, volunteers manually pumped ventilators that kept tiny premature newborns alive. For twenty-four hours, transactions that could not go ahead electronically did not go through. Communication died between nations. Between states. Between cities. Between towns.

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Challenge #02779-G222: And There Was Only One Bed

Archivist finds a Treasure Trove in a Library's donation of 'source material, just old papers'. Stored in time seal conditions. Just one problem to the end of all their funding problems it was all hand written. -- Anon Guest

It was a sealed box in one of the Pre-Shattering Permaplastics. Someone had scrawled, "rando papers" in permanent marker across the lid. Scanners indicated that it was still hermetically sealed. This required care and attention to detail.

Good thing the Archivaas were an

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Challenge #02778-G221: To Walk Away

Call it what you will, the dollar shop, the thing store, they are inevitably tied to poky little book stores designed by Escher in that they contain far more than they should, and often never store the same thing twice. They are inevitably attractive to maker types as they have things you cannot find elsewhere, or ever again. They also have the phenomenon of wandering in "for a quick look-around," and emerging days later with a full shopping bag, an empty wallet,

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Challenge #02777-G220: Signal to Noise

Chuckled “I sense death behind us”

The moment the human said that some ordinance were detonated behind us, and a Vicious growl to our south -- Anon Guest

Human methods of memetic communication leave much to be desired. One has to know a certain volume of Terran art forms, especially popular Terran art forms, in order to understand what a memetic Human is attempting to communicate.

In this example, a stylised Human is sitting in a means of public transit and giggling

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Challenge #02776-G219: Peculiar Parenting Problems

There were things I expected to say to my children when I got into this whole parenthood thing. Things like "don't eat that" and "put your pants on" and "stop drawing on the walls" or "do your homework". Then, there were the things that took me by surprise. "Don't put that in your butt" was one, and "NO! DON'T PUSH YOUR BROTHER DOWN THE STAIRS!!" was another, but most recently, "If you make me faceplant into broken glass, you will be in

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Challenge #02775-G218: Waste Not

[Level 2 Deathworlder] I don't know how you can be so relaxed about this human. This is an unknown planet and, save for a few starvation rations and potable water, we've no supplies left. All of the prey is too fast to catch, and you are obviously starting to look worse. HOW can you be so calm when all you're doing is banging rocks together, scraping sticks, and weaving those disgusting plants skin together?

[Human] Yes so I've lost some kilos, but

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Challenge #02774-G217: Finding a Smile

"No, thank you."

...

"Get that out of my face."

...

"STOP" -- Anon Guest

They said, Give a sweet thing to a sour face. Which was the very essence of the Sunshine Festival. Enough smiles, and the sun would rise, bringing an end to the cold of winter. Which was why the marketplace was overloaded with cloth flowers that had been soaked in cloying perfume. Honey-cakes abounded. Beautiful music filled every corner and turned every road into a cacophony.

Compliments that usually didn't

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Challenge #02773-G216: Vent Words

(Unabashedly based on my grandmother and her go to "curse word")

H - "Crab apples, pineapples, and sauerkraut!"

A - "... I think my translator is broken. I got an offensensitivity warning on what you just said, but I think you just listed foods?"

H - "You shouldn't curse... It is rude." -- SilverRey

Humans are bizarre. This is acknowledged. Some Humans just happen to be more bizarre than others. For example: Most cogniscent species acknowledge the need for stresser/expressive words to

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Challenge #02772-G215: To Aid in Aggression

It was a huge battle, they ended up having to ACTUALLY call for help in the form of human space marines. Why? Because these unknown creatures that had attacked the colonial world had been so powerful that the Vorax ships it'd passed had turned tail and fled as fast as it could, after seeing how easily it had overcome two of their biggest warships.

The humans actually were having a challenge with this battle, not just in space but on the ground.

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Challenge #02771-G214: A Few Minor Obstacles

Everyone, even havenworlders, like to have pets. The type of pet, of course, depends on the type of havenworlder. One, after visiting, and surviving, her visit to the deathworld known as Earth, and especially Australia, had learned of a harmless, but brightly colored, bug called the Christmas Beetle. It was short-lived, not edible - but only because it had a very thick shell, but otherwise completely, utterly, harmless. She learned how to breed them and soon began to sell them as safe,

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Challenge #02770-G213: Filtered Through Children's Lies

Re-Discovery part two: electric boogaloo https://peakd.com/fiction/@internutter/challenge-02447-f257-solid-documented-scientific-evidence -- Anon Guest

With enough instrumentation, it is possible to find things you don't understand. With enough inclusive cogniscent contacts, you can also find someone willing to explain it to you.

Human Kev had been hired by the Sciencer EVR890 to scare of anything big enough and mean enough to be a threat to the Havenworlders within. Now, in spite of being hired to be the 'muscle', they were holding what

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Challenge #02769-G212: An Ounce of Foresight

Human Jane is calm compared to the others, but always carries a cocky attitude. Arguing with the others claiming they will destroy the ship. The day was like no other noise but in a sense calm, until Jane suddenly rose from her chair and dashed into the halls. The moment she left the room an explosion was heard from the training room. -- Anon Guest

Humans are their own health hazard. This is known on an intellectual level to many, but most

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Challenge #02768-G211: Disturbing Deathworlder Deeds

Ki'it thought ze was ready. Ze had survived Human Kev's "oops"es, learned to anticipate Human Lin's "I know what I did wrong!"s, and even managed to halve zer dosage of calming medication after a half dozen of Human Ren's "uh-oh..."s.

This, however, was zer introduction to the dreaded, "Wheeeee!!!! Again!" -- Anon Guest

[AN: You are of course free to use any gender-neutral pronouns you love in prompts... it's just that I cannot conjugate anything else than ze/hir.

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Challenge #02767-G210: The Problem With Pib

More Human Pib, please. -- Escla

[AN: Referencing this thing BTW ]

Havenworlders were on edge, some were seeking out places to hide. Some were seeking out places where something might be hiding. The entire crew of the Jaunty Merchant were operating under a Code Giggle.

Human Pib had escaped.

Humans Orgo and Lun were checking their entire quarters, and every nook and cranny therein. They were doing this for the fiftieth time since Human Pib had "turned up missing". The fact that

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Challenge #02766-G209: Communication Block

A havenworlder has a soft, higher-pitched, voice and the human only catches half of what they say most of the time. They are both heading to a medical hub, the human to get treatment, the havenworlder to do their internship. While there, the human explains about that annoying ringing in the ears called tinnitus, and how humans who have accidents, listen to too many loud noises, or just start to get elderly, can sometimes end up with hearing damage. -- Anon Guest

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