Instant Story

Flash fiction fresh from my fingers to your mind!

Challenge #01221-C126: Executive Decisions

I see you have complaints about out Giant Robot Spider help program, We apologies for any Inconvenience this may have caused you.

Do to your complaint the following actions have been taken: Giant Robot Spiders have been dispatched to your location.

We know you had a choice of Aid providers and we thank you for your continued support. -- RecklessPrudence

Say what you will about the robot rescue spiders, and many citizens frequently did, but they were extremely effective. They saved hundreds of lives. Spared many houses.

Well. They spared many living spaces. They tended to do a number on the roofs, and the roads. And the omnibusses. And the buildings that they were rescuing people from.

On the other hand, fire didn't get a chance to spread and cause trouble for the neighbours. Loss of life was at a comparably favourable low. But only when compared to the deaths from Cholera, Dysentery, Typhoid, Measles, Mumps, and Chicken Pox combined. And, to be completely fair, the giant robot spiders put way less people inside the hospitals than the disasters would have.

And then the government, in their infinite wisdom and deep desire to serve the public with the least amount of expenditure and effort, decided to use the giant robot spiders for everything. Including repairing the damage caused by giant robot spiders.

They boasted that the city and its citizens have never been safer. And many f them were. They were the ones who could afford to live in manor houses outside the city limits.

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Challenge #01220-C125: A Return Visit

http://www.internutter.org/challenge-01072-b340/

He keeps coming back... -- Anon Guest

Arthur saw him two weeks after his initial visit. He calmly collected the mail and, once inside, said something about it. "Hey, Lewis. You remember that cam guy who broke in a while back?"

"Yeah, he was trying to communicate with a Deadbeat. Why?"

"He's lurking in the foliage and watching the house."

Lewis, in the middle of a complicated recipe, groaned to himself. "If he's still there in half

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Challenge #01219-C124: The Truth About Dragons

http://crescentmoondemon.tumblr.com/post/142716976033 -- Anon Guest

They say that dragons are terrifying beasts. They say that their appetites know no bounds. They say that they thrive on fear. They say that they hoard things just to keep them from mortal hands. They say a lot of things, really. Especially after they've had a few pints, down at the local pub.

Eve knew differently.

For starters, Dragons are more than fine with a sheep or a cow once a month.

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Challenge #01218-C123: A Big, Wet, Sloppy... Hug?

Just a snippet from a very enjoyable story, stripped of gender-specific terms:

..."I will hug you," they threatened, spreading their arms... -- RecklessPrudence

"It's impossible to swim through the Glunk and survive!"

Exhibit A, still dripping an pungent, unidentifiable goop, said, "Desperate times, all th' wards I could muster, an' some bluidy good air pockets, ye ken."

Rael, summoned to the scene, hadn't recognised her until she spoke. "Ambassador Shayde?"

She saluted him. But carefully, so that none of the glop adhering

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Challenge #01217-C122: Curses!

:when a person who has been living with their curse for some time decides to stand up for the abused, and Sanctioned Mages try to put them down:

Spell slinging against a cursed one and a legendary sword. How hard can it be? -- RecklessPrudence

The words had come in anger and magic. Latching onto her soul. Devouring her destiny with simple words, "You will fail at every one of your stated goals."

It hadn't meant much, at first. Her goals had

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Challenge #01216-C121: Not Under My Roof

There's the problem! You weren't thinking! Now you've made a pre-teen a nuclear power! -- RecklessPrudence

"In my defense," began Sara.

"You keep your big mouth shut," demanded Jaquelline.

"Will the both of you please be quiet?" asked Sam. "Do I need to bring out the talking stick?"

"There's no point. It doesn't work," said Sara. "Mother just rages off on a topic if someone says a hot word."

"Do you see the insolence of this child, Samuel? The things I have

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Challenge #01215-C120: Silver Spoon, Muck Manners

Just a moment. I have a multitude of extravagant ways of saying "no" to this, and I need to decide on one. -- RecklessPrudence

It had been the third time that this particularly unpleasant example had decided to interrupt an otherwise pleasant conversation. "No" was not in his vocabulary. Neither was "No, thank you." Both of those simple statements had been ignored.

So Lutetia said, "Just a moment. I have a multitude of extravagant ways of saying "no" to this, and I

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Challenge #01214-C119: Don't Send Me an Angel

http://khaleesijade.tumblr.com/post/142561344474/what-do-angels-actually-look-like-per-the-bible

Angel: “FEAR NOT.”

Shepherds: screaming

Angel: “I SAID FEAR NOT.”

Shepherds: screaming LOUDER

Angel: “WHAT PART OF FEAR NOT ARE YOU NOT UNDERSTANDING?” -- Gallifreya

[AN: The link supplied contains images that might be disturbing to those who don't read biblical accounts of what angels look like]

From the Expurgated Gospel of Tebol the Shepherd:

And the Lord sent an Angel unto Tebol, and the Angel had unto itself twelve wings, half of them like

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Challenge #01213-C118: Talking it Out

Therapy ghosts! -- Gallifreya

[AN: This prompt harkens back to the second half of story #01176, Free Spirits. But you know I'm not going to go further with that one]

Someone was in his usual hiding spot. One of the more corporeal monsters. A skeleton. A tiny little kid. And they were crying to themself.

Happstablook remained invisible as he crept closer. This kid was crying. Not the loud crying that demanded attention, but the silent kind that would not go away,

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Challenge #01211-C116: Through the Multiverse

Adventuring around the Multiverse, starring Stanford Pines! (If you have not seen Gravity Falls up to Not What He Seems, please replace Stanford with another character)

  1. With Wander and Sylvia
  2. In the last TV show, comic or game universe you encountered -- Gallifreya

[Of firkin course I've seen Gravity Falls. I was just never up on the decoding things because I (a) lacked the reflexes and (b) lacked the smarts. This is an author who needs help at every third Professor Layton

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Challenge #01210-C115: The Daydreaming Ape

We've all done it, been handed a phone in a business office for the case handler, or we sit and wait, and wait, and wait in a government office while time passes like frozen molasses. Someone gets creative with this time, nothing that will get them 'escorted' off the premises. -- KnitNan

[AN: I hope I corrected this prompt accurately. If not, let me know and I'll fix it]

What many people don't know is... waiting rooms are an enormous social experiment.

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Challenge #01209-C114: That Which is Left

The Sedlec ossuary of Kutna Hora

(if you're interested, there's a gallery of photos here (not for the faint of heart I suppose, but it's clean bones) https://imgur.com/gallery/QZE8a) -- Gallifreya

Logical solutions can look disturbing in retrospect. Take a small area with a large population. Arable land has to be kept clear for farming, so the living can eat. There is not enough fuel to burn the corpses, but just enough to cook. Therefore, the buried dead are

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Challenge #01208-C113: The Battered Knight

http://kelpls.tumblr.com/post/121675020089/i-really-like-the-idea-of-enchanted-suits-of -- Gallifreya

Every time she passed that one suit of armour in the hallway, there was always the smell of Rosemary. Princess Marille had inspected it, once or twice, in her youth. There was not a single scrap of Rosemary anywhere near or inside the shell of that battered old knight.

She had asked her tutors, once, why her family kept that scarred and dented armour when all the other suits of armour were so

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Challenge #01207-C112: Little and Fierce

http://squigglydigg.tumblr.com/post/141864716252/squigglydigg-control-yourself -- Gallifreya

Lewis was relatively easy to calm down. What there was of his fury ebbed quickly and his rational mind prevailed. And Vivi could always restrain him until he saw logic and reason.

Arthur lost count of the number of times that Vivi stopped Lewis from turning some unthinking lout without a brain-to-mouth bypass into grease.

She would begin with physically restraining him. Holding him back from the kind of confrontation that would end

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Challenge #01206-C111: Funny in Context

Someone could have been seriously hurt... But they weren't, so it's funny -- Anon Guest

Rael had could not recall, exactly, why they were in locks and docks. The gravity there was less than reliable in most places, and Shayde was one who seemed to use it to her advantage without any effort whatsoever. Rael had significantly more faith in the safety tether than his own ability to "hang on in time".

Almost all of the humans who worked there for extended

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