Weird

A 4-post collection

Challenge #02315-F125: Lightning Bottles

"Because it's people like us who do the strange stuff who think up all the technology you take for granted." -- C. M. Weller/InterNutter -- c/- Anon Guest

Anything invented before one turns ten is normal and everywhere and expected. That's what they say. Anything invented between the ages of twelve and forty is new and cool and interesting. After that, there is an increasing risk of it becoming strange and frightening and alien. Such is the theory put forward by Douglas Adams. A man who wrote quite a lot of strange fiction.

It's always the weird ones that come up with stuff like this. It took a strange kind of genius to be Nikola Tesla. It took an odd collective of odder people to come up with the different types of personal computer. For the allegedly normal, for the everyday sort, the way things always were is the way things always shall be. Normal people make incremental progress. They add clocks to extant technology, for instance.

It takes a peculiar kind of genius to invent the Gravity Drive. Equal parts advanced physics, peak engineering, and cargo cult... there is no such thing as mass manufactory of such a device. Miniaturisation, yes. Even remote activation of specific... call them 'receiver units'. Yet there is no such thing as a Gravity Drive that was made start to finish by automation. There certainly wasn't such in the conglomeration of experiments involving ten grams of the rarest of rare Earths, a peculiar amalgam called, in another man's notes, Unlikelium.

Support me on Patreon / Buy me a Ko-fi

Continue Reading

Prompts remaining: 43 Submit a Prompt! Ask a question! Buy my stories!

Challenge #02166-E337: Microcosmically Conscious

A white blood cell and a macrophage cell already have an unlikely friendship. But then they get "the call" -- Adam in Darwin

"Listen, Neocyte... we don't have the time for you to mature and be ready to fight. Take a back seat. This is literally my job."

"This is an all-hands battle, Blob," argued Whyte. "I have to be on the front. My graduation is mere milliseconds away! I can do this!"

The call came from the Internal Army. "Bacteria at

Read more »

Challenge #01985-E161: Dare to Daydream

The cosplayers are out and on the loose. Inspired by an Anime convention in town. -- Anon Guest

Andrew turned a corner and walked headlong into Wonderland. Or Narnia. Or Terabithia. It was hard to tell. Storybrook for certain, because everyone looked like they stepped into reality from the realms of imagination.

Robots and Heroes and Elves, oh my... Andrew checked behind him and the rest of the world was... the rest of the world was... the rest of the world. People

Read more »

The Alien in the Playground

You can spot her from a mile away. The one kid playing alone. Lost in her own little world. She clearly wears a mixture of hand-me-downs and homemade clothing when all the other children are wearing clothes, relatively new, from the shops.

Some other children are approaching her. Even from this distant vantage point, you can tell their intent is not friendly. They are all bigger than her. Together, they could beat her into a pulp, but violence is not their pastime

Read more »