Instant Story

Flash fiction fresh from my fingers to your mind!

A corollary to Clarke's Third Law

Any technology, no matter how primitive, is magic to those who don’t understand it. – RecklessPrudence

(#00293)

Through a series of unfortunately predictable events, they were now stuck in the middle of nowhere with inadequate camping supplies, a cubic meter of marshmallows, three idiots and a whole bunch of electronica that was out of their service area and therefore as useful as a meringue umbrella.

Miri didn’t bother listening to the arguments since they had got cyclical. What she was bothering with was something useful. Several somethings useful, like preparing a camping area, gathering combustibles and constructing some individual shelters that at least one of the idiots would be sneaking out of to attempt sex with another. And, vitally important, collecting an array of the right kind of rocks.

“Nice campsite,” sneered one of the idiots.

“How are you gonna light the fire, loser?”

“Why did we even ask you along, loser?”

Miri picked up the correct two rocks and, hardly bothering to look, struck sparks with them. “Because I had the car,” she said, then gently coaxed the flame into life.

“Whoah.”

“Dude.”

“Are you magic?” said the cheerleader. “Please don’t curse us?”

And why would I bother when you’re clearly doing such a great job of it on yourself? thought Miri. “Just remember that I saved all your stupid asses and we’ll be fine.”

Next on the list: finding something to eat that wasn’t marshmallows. Miri gathered some long, straightish sticks that she had sharpened to a point. “Now. Who wants to hunt for dinner?”

“We got marshmallows.”

“I’m vegan.”

“Hunt? Like… kill an animal?”

Sigh. Sometimes, she wondered how folks like this managed to keep breathing every day. “Okay. One: Marshmallows aren’t vegan. They’re made with gelatin. Which is made from animals. Two: Thanks to Roy the Cheerleader, those marshmallows are nearly gone.”

“I only had a few,” he said, eating another handful.

“Three: The only edible plant life out here is prickly pears or peyote. I don’t recommend either. Four: We’re going to need some real calories to survive the night, because it gets cold as fuck in the desert. Any questions?”

She really shouldn’t have asked.

“Whaddayamean marshmallows aren’t vegan? It says ‘organic’ right here on the packet…”

“What’re those sticks for?”

“Do I get a bow like Katniss?”

“Is it okay to be on a diet?”

“If there’s no plants, doesn’t that mean there’s no animals either?”

“Are we gonna have to like, eat bugs?”

Miri sighed and handed out the sticks. “The pointy end goes into the thing you want to kill. Animals can eat a lot more of the plants out here than we can. You can have a bow the minute you finish making one. And if you don’t learn to shut up and do what I tell you, dinner will be bugs and not bunny. Got it?”

“Hahahaha… Bugs bunny!”

Oh God. Why did she ever agree to this?

[Muse food remaining: 23 (fic war prompts, 0). Submit a promptAsk a questionBuy my stories!]

Another corallary to Clarke's Third Law

Any sufficiently advanced psychological warfare is indistinguishable from a hostile paranormal. –RecklessPrudence

(#00292)

It is possible to manufacture bad luck. All that is required are enough inside people. It may also be necessary to have a unified or unifying mythos to attribute such bad luck to.

Take, for example, the retaking of The-Mining-Station-In-The-Fifth-Orbital-Ring-Surrounding-Star-B198Y36SQ3(*) by its original human inhabitants.

The independent evolution of both psychological warfare and technomancy in an isolated environment is miraculous enough, but the fact that this was achieved

Read more »

Sound advice.

If all else fails, try reading the instructions. – RecklessPrudence

(#00291)

Rael had run out of the regular curses and was busy running through the extensive selection of historical ones.

“I was always fond o’ ‘poo bum wee willy willy tits’, meself.”

He startled and hit his head on the overhead. Of course Shayde found him. She always found him when he was up to his elbows in problems and especially didn’t need a Shayde-shaped

Read more »

A line from Pacific Rim.

“I’ve never believed in the End Times. We are mankind. Our footprints are on the moon. When the last trumpet sounds and the Beast rises from the pit — we will kill it.”


Curious to see what you do with it. – RecklessPrudence

(#00290)

At first, shortly after the Galactic Community realized humans could be occasionally useful, there was a great deal of prejudice.

Which is pretty normal, considering that generations of trepidation had gone into previously avoiding the

Read more »

Failure Modes

“Hilarious” is the failure mode for horror; “nonsense” is the failure mode for conspiracy; “stereo instructions” is the failure mode for SF. –RecklessPrudence

(#00289)

Wishing many happy luck fall on your head following purchase of Penumbra 3K Foraging scavenger vessel!

For program of soaring trail, open star tracings jar. Signal loved star arrival.

For vacuuming gather, open eat jar. Signal for eat debris.

For living air, open cloud jar. Signal for atomic cloud love.

*

Hwell

Read more »

Because science is amazing.

Someone’s comments on this article.

And God said “Let there be light.”

And Man said “Oh I’ve got to figure out how he does that.”

And verily, did Man pull photons out of the screaming abyss.

Seriously, that’s amazing. Any day now I expect someone to march out of CERN wearing their labcoat over a wizard’s robe and announce that it turns out magic is real. – RecklessPrudence

(#00288)

She

Read more »

How I have felt, on occasion.

Critical system Error at WhattheflyingF.exe
Restoring brain from backup. – RecklessPrudence

(#00287)

“You broke him!”

“Nah-uh. You broke him!”

“You’re the one who told him the fifth pun!”

“Did not!”

“Did too!”

Billie the Walter Girl sighed and reached for the Number Five hammer. About thirty PSI seemed about right.

{CLANG!}

“Somebody told a pun,” complained The Spine as he rebooted.

“Yeah, your logic circuits can&

Read more »

For when Holy Water just won't do...

After a series of unfortunate events I need to know where you can get a ballistic missile sanctified. Preferably with no questions asked. – RecklessPrudence

(#00286)

Blemisch looked over the data again. The weapons of science had had little effect on the beast currently corralled in a crevasse. However, science had determined that certain materials with occult significance had had some impact.

Her team was not the Mythbusters - they were busy. However, certain Mythbuster fans were just as good.

If a

Read more »

Since I know you got started writing DS9 stuff...

(please note, this does not _have_ to be Star Trek, use whatever fits)

Species 8472 could be reasoned with. They could be bargained with. And they sure as hell did not drive one insane with their mere presence,

The Medusans do.

You have to understand, the Federation has one of the ballsiest diplomatic corps in fiction. They’re the guys who have to walk up to Cthulhu and make friends. – RecklessPrudence

(#00285)

There is a saying in Starfleet: There’

Read more »

Challenge #00284: All Things Ridiculous and Human

Squashed Fly Biscuits - the round shortbread ones or garibaldis, whichever is more convenient.

Bonus points if someone is disappointed to find out they don’t contain real flies.

(all the bonus points ever if it involves T'reka, I’ve totally fallen in love with that story, but realistically whoever fits the prompt)

From the Journal of T'reka the Inquisitive:

With exposure, I have been picking up some of the human language. They understand that I am still learning and

Read more »

You overhear the strangest things from public-phone conversations sometimes...

“…well, sir, it was about, oh, a meter or so tall, looked kinda like if someone had stuck bat-ears, a big-lipped face, skinny arms and legs, a ratty wig, and, er, prominent female features on a big lima-bean of some sort and…  …No, no sir, I’m not drunk or drugged, I swear it.  As I clocked in and went to begin my shift, it - or she, I guess - was sloppily wandering around the central

Read more »

Challenge #00282: The Kindness of Strangers

In the bottom of one of the many pockets of the bag, forgotten but apparently not for that long, was a slightly battered perfectly pink apple. It had been on many journeys, and was remarkably unscathed considering how easily apples usually succumb to bumping about in a bag full of other odds and ends.

There was a face on it. A happy face made of two small circles and a larger arc. Cut into the skin by someone else’s knife.

Read more »

Have you ever read Seanan McGuire's work? It seems up your alley. Also, I would really be curious to see what happened if Sarah Adrien met...

[AN: Hooray. More reading list. I’m still ploughing through Allomancy on a paragraph-a-day basis]

(#00281)

Sarah thought she was done for, this time. The Criptid creature had been inches away from having her head for a snack. But then, something invisible turned the tables in a more permanent eye-for-an-eye fashion by literally bashing its head off with a big stick.

Sarah recovered her weapon and dealt with the last few stragglers.

The invisible thing faded into view.

“All bad guys

Read more »

See where this bit of commenting takes you...

“I feel like I am just footsteps away from either screaming in fury or breaking down into body-shaking tears… and I’m not sure which.  But you’d never tell it by looking at me.  I’m good at bottling things up and repressing my reactions.  For a while anyway; every bottle breaks eventually, no matter how sturdy its glass.  I don’t know when I began this habit, or why I keep doing it, but

Read more »

Challenge #00279: Welcome Walter's Metal Men

Steam Powered Giraffe are in the x-verse, only they’re really mechanical men (made by someone with Forge-like skill) or living-metal mutants (similar to Colossus). Your choice.

“Sara… What the hell?”

“Dun ma'e me smi'e…” Sara said, drawing on her face with metallic paint. She was wearing, amongst other things, a corset, a frilly skirt, striped stockings, and accessories apparently made of gears.

“You know you can just program your holographic emitter to do

Read more »