#tootfic

"How about I kidnap the dragon," the knight said, "and you come to rescue them?" "It's still the same story," the princess said. "No! We're all subverting-" "I am tired of being in stories," the dragon said. "What?" "If you're not in a story, what even are you?" "I'd like to find out." #MicroFiction #TootFic #SmallStories

“Uh, hi. I wonder is it possible to fix the luck button on my phone?” “Wow you don’t see those any more, it’s in good nick otherwise?” “Yeah, I’ve kept it because I like the physical luck button. I looked it up on ihexit.com but it said repair difficulty impossible. So I brought it to you.” “Awww, you’re too kind” “Do you think you can save it?” “Chances are good. The impossible rating is because the case is a one piece casting and can’t be opened without spilling the magic. UNLESS you know the secret” “Oh kay, so i should go away while you do the secret thing?” “Oh no, all my tricks are Open Sorcery. You need a jumbo ziplock bag and an imp. Wake up Archie, we got a luck button on an InnerEye Phone Seven. Deep breath and i’m gonna seal you in.” „roight yar mistress!„ #Tootfic #MicroFiction #PowerOnStoryToot #Title_Luck_Button

"Are you lost, mortal?" a voice whispered. "I just haven't been here before." "You are in the Forest of Perpetual Gloom." "These are oaks." "Er... Their dense canopy-" "It's autumn. The leaves are falling." "But the days grow shorter, so..." "Perpetual gloom except around lunchtime?" "Yes." #MicroFiction #TootFic #SmallStories

"Here with us tonight is Bob, the first ever neutrino to travel across the universe and loop around." "It depends on how you count. In the first second of the universe-" "After nucleosynthesis. You bounced on atoms?" "Yes, I had a lucky break with a water molecule on a planet called Earth and..." #MicroFiction #TootFic #SmallStories #EvenSmallerStories

The dragon watched the girl climb up to its mountain lair. She stopped to catch her breath, then shouted: "Oi! I've got some questions." "Ask." "Princesses, why?" "They're educated and smell nice." "No noble blood?" "All humans are humans." "Yes! The revolution is go! Cheers!" "Good luck." #MicroFiction #TootFic #SmallStories

The piano had been sitting in the train station for years. No one knew when it had arrived there. After the station opened, everyone was sure of that. Felicity was not so sure. She'd been one of the first passengers to use the station, and she was pretty sure it had been there then. And then there was the way the transport authority kept talking about removing it every couple of years. Awould be promptly forgotten about. So she found herself sitting down at it, despite not knowing how to play. Just to satisfy her curiosity, she said to herself. 'Hello piano.' There was a rustle, and some sheet music blew across the platform and into her lap. 'I cant play, sorry.' Then she looked again, and saw the keys illustrated beneath the notes. She tried picking them out. Slowly a tune formed. A train arrived, and passengers alighted. One of them, an older woman, smiled at her. The weeks passed, and she made half and hour in her commute to see what would happen. Her playing improved. One day the older woman sat down next to her. "There used to be a music school here" she opened with. Felicity looked over to her. "Glenys. My mother was one of the last students. I've seen old photos of this piano." Felicity thought about this, and paused in her playing. "I think it is still teaching", she said softly. "Teachers are always waiting for the right student." "Do you know how it got here?" "I can guess. The music school burned down." "Oh. So..." "Best not ask, and just enjoy." #microfiction #tootfic #IAmWriting #GhostStory #microfic #SFF #Fantasy

On the market day, the witch stopped by all the stalls. "Have a care," she told the tinsmith. "You're getting fuzzy." "What?" "Do you ponder other paths you could have taken?" "All the time." "Shadows of other yous hang on you, making you indistinct. Don't lose the you you are. You're real." #MicroFiction #TootFic #SmallStories

A demon appeared in the summoning circle. It was wearing pyjamas. "I summoned thee to give me knowled-" "Really?" the demon said. "You have the internet these days, the world's knowledge a click away. Nobody's summoned me in years." "You have all knowledge. Why did I summon thee?" "... oh shit." #MicroFiction #TootFic #SmallStories

The princess took an earring off and held it out. The raven looked at it. "Whatever for?" "You are wise and clever. Many princesses have dragons, but none has a raven friend." The raven picked up the earring. "Say no more." "Friends?" she asked when it returned the next day. "Forevermore." #MicroFiction #TootFic #SmallStories

I have been trapped for ages. I grab a door handle; it breaks off. It's chocolate. "Ahaha!" The mad chocolatier's laugh rasps from hidden speakers. "Everything here is made of chocolate!" I stop. Everything? I focus on my fears... They manifest as chocolate monsters. I eat them. "You're free." #MicroFiction #TootFic #SmallStories #Chocolate

"I see you have a new sword," the swordmaster said. "May I have a look?" "No," said the student. "It is a cursed blade. I would only draw this in dire need." "What kind of curse? Must draw blood, or will betray you?" "It will speak, and tell an embarrassing truth about both wielder and opponent." #MicroFiction #TootFic #SmallStories

Her son carefully lifted his ochre-stained hand from the cave wall and studied the outline. "That's me. My hand." He looked at the other hands. "Do you know all?" "Some are older than me." "That old?" "Hush you," she laughed. "We don't make these to be seen tomorrow, but because today, we live." #TootFic #SmallStories #MicroFiction

“I don’t know how they know, but half the lost cats in this neighbourhood end up in my middle kid’s bedroom, up the trellis, across the carport roof, and in the window. It’s like there’s a sign or something” “Like that one?” “Where!” “Oh, you don’t have the Sight? It says ‘total softie lives here, will give tuna and boops then carry you home’” #Tootfic #MicroFiction #PowerOnStoryToot #Title_Hobo_Sign

Time travel is generally regarded as impossible. This is wrong. Time travel has been invented at least a hundred times since the discovery of electricity. So why don't more people know about it? Well, it is because there is a problem with it. And everyone who discovers it falls for the same trap. In order to travel in time, you need to be able to detach yourself from your local frame of reference. This is easier to achieve than you might think. Once detached, you can travel back and forth in time freely, safely contained in whatever life support system you have devised. You can even snatch small items from the static times, and collect air and water - all without reconnecting to a local frame. And that is the problem. Reconnecting. This requires much, much more energy than disconnecting. And the amount is exponentially affected by the amount you have travelled from your local frame. Not how far you currently are from your local frame, but how far you travelled from it in total. If you travel a single minute, you will need approximately twice the energy it took to disconnect. Two minutes, four times. Even if you travelled one forward and one back, that is still two minutes, and takes four times the energy. And it is proportional to the mass of the object being returned. Most time travellers try for at least ten years for their first trip. Exponential growth is a bastard of a thing if you are at the pointy end of it. On the positive side, those of us who have made this mistake can communicate and interact. There are lots of us, really, but none of us have the energy required to get home. Or anywhere but where we are. Outside of time. We have learned that we do not age out here. And we keep meeting new people. Maybe at some point we will find the people who can undo our mistakes. But it will probably take all the energy of our universe to do it. Delivering this message took nearly the effective output of two megatons of TNT. And it consists of a handful of electrons. I'm sure you can do the math. Please, do not follow us. #SF #SFF #SciFi #TimeTravel #microfiction #microfic #tootfic #IAmWriting

*Knock* *knock* “C’mon kid, we’re beaming down.” “Mmmnngh sleeping. It’s Saturday.”. Chief engineer Maamau is one of those hideous morning people. “Yes, Saturday planet time too. Warp coil testers on special buy at Aldi. They open at eight.” “Five more minutes mu—chief” “Up and at em Anu, the line is part of the experience, you’ll meet some of the best engineers in the fleet. I baked crab muffins” Ok; now those are worth getting up for. #Tootfic #MicroFiction #PowerOnStoryToot #Title_Special_Buy

Good news, the mouse plague is going to get solved soon! Thank Hera, I’m so over this. Wait, none of your ideas are ever disaster free. What’s the catch. Oh, this isn’t my idea; I just calculated that it’s happening. What’s happening? Next full moon— —you mean Thursday or the one after? Next moon and this moon mean the same thing, people who argue otherwise are On My List. AIR NÉE WAY Go on… On THURSDAY when the moon is full, the seven thousand, thirteen thousand and ninety seven thousand year periodic dragon hatchings coincide. We are going to have SO MANY dragonets. And no more mice? Yeah, I’m a little worried about what happens after that, but. #Tootfic #MicroFiction #PowerOnStoryToot #Title_Next_Moon

A spaceship landed in the park. A door dilated. An alien emerged with a chair, which they sat down on, backwards. "Look," they said, "we're not here, okay? You know why nobody contacts you? Because the write-up would be such a pain." They sighed. "Get your shit together, okay? We know you can." #MicroFiction #TootFic #SmallStories

Sleep apnoeia is no fun. The risk of dying is quite obviously shit, of course. The comorbidity with snoring brings further risk (spousally induced concussion), but the massive joy killer is the constant tiredness. The first thing you notice when you get treated is the spring in your step; you are having sleep that actually refreshes. It might be a while later until you introspect about the dreams. Maybe you never remembered your dreams much, or—thanks to interrupted REM phase—you never even had any. Worse, maybe your dreams were all tinged with the psychic equivalent of gasping for breath. But gradually you realise you are now having epic, creative, extended dreams. If you concentrate you can remember them, if you practice you find you can direct your dreaming toward solving creative hurdles in your day life. By your third year on Normal Breathing™ you may discover you can make them come true. The first time you murder a public figure with your dreamsword you feel guilty, and wonder if it was just coincidence. You test yourself; you try to cause some dayworld events that are unambiguously your doing and not mere happenstance. Please. if you are, like me, reaching this level, join a support group. We need our power tempered by compassion, plus it saves on doubling up the murdering. #Tootfic #MicroFiction #PowerOnStoryToot #Title_I_have_a_Dream

When a wizard dies, their spells unravel. But the pattern lingers a while. When Fitzglob died, other wizards swarmed his tower, trying to find his time-stopper room, which you exited as soon as you entered, no matter how long you spent inside. "Here! This room!" "Why?" "It has a reading chair!" #MicroFiction #TootFic #SmallStories

"On your knees; hands behind your head!" "You haven't even bought me dinner" *Thwack* "shut up, convict. Where's the grow room?" "" "Speak!" "You told me not to talk just now" "Oh a wiseass. We'll find it—our Agents profiled your electricity use and heat emissions. We /know/ you're running a dope lab. JONESY! Did you find it yet?" "It's just 3D printers in here, Sarge. Dozens of them." "Aha, ghost guns. You're going down, my son!" "Yeah nah, it's all model trains, boss. H0 scale. And a matchstick replica of the Forth bridge, this is really good you should see this." "Fucking weirdos. ALL RIGHT BOYS FALSE ALARM. BACK IN THE VAN" *Whisper* "Sorry bout this kid, you can put your hands down now. Sarge is just grumpy cos it's six false alarms before breakfast today. It's these AI runsheets." #TootFic #MicroFiction #PowerOnStoryToot #Title_Busted for @abstractcode@eigenmagic.net