Instant Story

Flash fiction fresh from my fingers to your mind!

Challenge #01415-C320: No Plan Survives

Check your plans before you press "go". in tribute to many recent project that started up with great fanfare, followed by the mad scramble to fix the mess caused by not fully planning. -- Knitnan

They say that no plan survives first contact with the enemy. In truth, hardly any plan survives the planning stage. Especially when there's the kind of person hanging around who lives to deflate any growing plan.

And then there's the sad case of anti-serendipity.

"I knew I had it... I did have it. I had just enough..."

"What's going on?"

Shelly looked up from her craft room, which had descended from organised chaos to utter chaos in the space of two hours. "I need the thing," she pleaded. "You know? The whatsit with the bits. I had just enough of the stuff to do the thing I'm doing now."

"Um. The jar full of ribbons and elastic?" Sal had spent enough time with Shelley to be able to decipher her less than specific descriptions. "Or the shoebox full of bits?"

"Both, for preference. I know I had them and now I can't find them anywhere..." She picked up a loose crumple of cloth from nearby and, disappointed with what was underneath, put it down again. "It's driving me mad."

"You mean the jar of ribbons and the box of bits that we both took to the local daycare place because they were cluttering up the place and you had no real use for them?"

Sally made a small squeaking noise and curled into a ball.

"Hey, it's okay," cooed Sal. "Come on out of here and I'll make you a hot chocolate with all the trimmings. Then we'll go to the Craft-o-rama and pick up some more bits. How's that?"

"...'s gonna cost me more money..."

"It's that or tidying up your F-5 event, here."

Sniff. "...'kay..." Shelly wiped her face with her sleeve as she stood. "Y'r a good girlfriend..."

"Yeah, I am. What thing are you doing, anyway?"

"Steampunk faberge merengue dress f'r a cosplay."

"Oooh, yeah. That'd need bits."

(Muse food remaining: 16. Submit a Prompt! Ask a question! Buy my stories! Or comment below!)

Challenge #01414-C319: If it Ain't Broke...

"If it isn't broke don't fix it." -- Knitnan

It was a rule every JOAT broke, sooner or later. The desire to tweak, finesse, and otherwise improve something in their radius of activity would become overwhelming.

Tel found it extremely difficult resist, stranded on a comms station that had barely enough life support for technical staff. She had edible algae making her air, and a daily supply of algae cakes that kept her alive. But also bored out of her skull.

At

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Challenge #01413-C318: The Otherworldly Ones

http://phantomrose96.tumblr.com/post/152590950362/airyairyquitecontrary-aprillikesthings

Humans are Fae for urban animals -- Gallifreya

"They live in a cave," the corvid insisted. "Caves all over the cliffs. Caves in the grasslands. They're all so confusing that it's difficult to find your way out again. The sky turns into a wall. But if you find a nice one, they will take you to the wall that is open and let you be free."

"They leave food," said the possum. "Some even give

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Challenge #01412-C317: To Sleep...

At around 3am she discovered the neighbours had a rooster -- OohLookShiny

It was the worst night of her life. And it started in the airport.

Her flight had to sit in a holding pattern for so long that she worried that it would fall out of the sky from lack of fuel. Then the TSA "randomly selected" her because she looked brown enough to be a terrorist, and insisted on searching both her and her things while she verbally catalogued everything

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Challenge #01411-C316: Hammer of Peace

"There's no need to fear, I come in peace,"

"Well first of all, everything you just said is a lie,"

"And second of all?"

"You're not what I'm afraid of." -- OohLookShiny

Clair the Mercenary took shelter beside the Phemeropt behind the boulder. "I know there was a distress call," she said. "Your colony is in danger and we don't know why."

"Erinacs," whispered the Havenworlder. "They've eaten all of our scouts."

"Ah," Clair stood up and got on the comms. "We

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Challenge #01410-C315: As Above...

"Dude I'm gonna need you to calm down,"

"I just got into an argument with my own reflection I won't be calm for hours!" -- OohLookShiny

Calaer rolled her eyes and thought Mages... to the universe at large. "Okay. Fine. Who won?"

"It was a nil-all loss," grumped Veloris. She fell into the couch and dug her fists into her hair. "How the flying FUCK did Umbridge even get into the race for Minister of Magic in the first place?"

"The same

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Challenge #01409-C314: Whoops

I've always wondered what would happen if early version of Clark Kent dived into the wrong phone box. Namely that blue Police Call Box. -- Knitnan

London. The birthplace of the Western civilisation. It was more like a tourist spot that people lived in, now, but that didn't really matter. Clark was supposed to be covering some major deal where the royal family weighed in on an international trade partnership. He was to get as many exclusive photos as he could.

Or,

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Challenge #01408-C313: Razzle Dazzle

"Look! I don't care how popular they are. I'm looking for a workhorse not a showpony." -- Anon Guest

Alas, Devin was the only one. The popular candidate won by a landslide. Well, sort of a landslide. The less popular candidate, the one who unfortunately told the truth about the sorry state that the nation was in, lost by a thin margin that was entirely taken up by the never-going-to-win third party candidate.

If only the voters had seen what Devin had

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Challenge #01407-C312: When I Say 'Run'...

"Run!" -- Knitnan

She'd seen him coming and started before he finished saying the word. It was a good run. Ground-eating and fast without being tiring. And, he felt, keeping pace with him because she was polite.

"Most people ask why," said the Doctor.

"If you're running, there's always a good reason," she said. "Teri Grace, Special Advisor to UNIT."

Ah. Yes. Well, that explained everything. "And you're here because?"

"There are other units monitoring the Coal Hill and Cardiff anomalies. I'm

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Challenge #01406-C311: Yeth Mathter

"Good morning Mathter/Mithtress, it's tho hard to tell these dayth, my name ith Igor, and I'm here to help." Suddenly finding an Igor(a la Terry Pratchett) on your doorstep. -- Knitnan

"I'm hallucinating. I have to be hallucinating. You aren't real. I've finally broken my brain from lack of sleep..."

"A helping hand where needed, thir or madam," the Igor lurched inside.

"Mx," said Fran. "I'm non-binary." Ze yawned. "I got two jobs, college, and I'm babysitting... I don't think

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Challenge #01405-C310: Friend of the Fae

There's a reason fairy rhymes with scary -- OohLookShiny

[AN: There's a reason why I use 'faerie' as a spelling for them]

Now let's be clear, faeries don't exist. Everyone knows that they're just old wives' tales about dangerous places that have long since be rendered safe...

But...

Just in case...

Don't fell a faerie tree. Don't disturb a standing stone. Keep away from the faerie hill. Never whistle at midnight when you're in the woods. Throw the salt over your shoulder.

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Challenge #01404-C309: Fluff

Actual or mental popcorn. --Knitnan

They were sitting together on the couch, with buckets of butter-flavoured popcorn, and watching an archived entertainment as part of Ambassador Shayde's greater day job.

Rael gradually acquired the sensation that this particular entertainment had little worth.

"Is there a message behind this?"

"Eh... no' really."

"Is it art?"

"I think it's s'posed'a be funny," she said, dripping popcorn into her waiting mouth. "I don't get a lot of it."

"Me neither." He frowned at a

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Challenge #01403-C308: Making Wishes Three

Someone actually makes three sensible wishes. Knitnan

"Three wishes, you say," said Lynn. "May I think about them?"

"Of course," said the Djinn. "But no thinking out loud."

Lynn sat on a handy rock and took out her notebook and pencil. The good one with the decent eraser. She wrote, World peace and remembered that episode of the X-files. No. What she needed was unbreakable, unbendable, non-interpretable set of wishes. She stuck her chewelry gem in her mouth and got to really

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Challenge #01402-C307: Pressed Souls

"Keep a diary, Desrie! One day it may keep you." -- Anon Guest

It sounded... ominous. Desrie heard it from everyone, every day. Sometimes, she saw people with them. Thick, heavy tomes which promised to last them the rest of their lives.

And some that were so thin...

How could people stand to watch those pages dwindle down? How could they want to write the last page?

Desrie didn't have a choice, in the end. Her mother made her visit the Diary

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Challenge #01401-C306: Give it All You Got

They were her audience, and she was always gracious towards them. -- Anon Guest

The performance had been draining. Of course it was. She had sweat pooling in places no polite person ever spoke of in mixed company. She had worn her skin thin in other, unmentionable places.

But, because she was the star, people insisted on meeting her after the show. Some to talk, some to embrace or kiss, some to criticise. Some to appreciate what hard work she had done,

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