Recent stories
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Green Cassowary
a glowing document, highlighted for my senses alone. as i read, the dense random symbols resolved into readable text.
"TS/SCI/KA: GREEN CASSOWARY
Update: Intercept timing correlation
A dark line¹ presumed to be under enemy control went live today² …
Posted 1 year ago -
Discontinuity
dizziness, tingling in my limbs. a little pain…
i sat up, wobbling on my office chair. id been resting my head on my desk, but a paperclip on a stack of documents had uncomfortably ended up under my face.
discontinuity. the whole building had been resto…
Posted 1 year ago -
Garbage Collection
"It's a pretty good visualization."
i looked up, startled out of thought by my coworker who had leaned against the table next to me, gazing off to the side.
after a moment, i realized what she was talking about.
the dark shapes outside the window, moun…
Posted 1 year ago -
900 Billion
the year is 900 billion. the universe dims and reddens as star formation declines and space stretches the light of the aging remainder.
undead armies now clash across desolate planetscapes and megastructures, the drafted minds of eons past brought to fig…
Posted 1 year ago -
The Church-Turing Thesis
the church-turing thesis is inescapable.
any system with the right set of properties is, in principle, a computer.
most don't compute anything useful. uncountable decimal-prefix-unknown-illions of accidental turing machines, embodied in the matter and ene…
Posted 1 year ago -
Life As You Know It
Sleep... eludes me.
I am not the master of my own time.
Events occur around me, unbidden, unwilled. Control is an illusion.
Do not believe, children. Do not believe what your elders taught you. You exist only as an instrument of entropy, your will is not…
Posted 1 year ago -
I couldn't comment, so I made a sequel.
Well, I know the site has been having some issues. I may be able to try poking the person who manages it directly (Ethel, to the best of my knowledge), and see if they know what's going on. People have been having all sorts of issues. Namely, with sequels…
Posted 1 year ago -
For Avenlight
It's a site issue - Ethel hasn't been able to figure it out. We were trying to upgrade the code to a more modern system which wouldn't have the same issues, but... life happened.
Sorry :(
(Posted as a story because I can't comment on your story or send …
Posted 1 year ago -
For PrincessLapis, sent with a Frowny Face
I hope someone that can help, reads this. I stop by now and then to read all of your works. Normally I'll flick through the most recent stuff, other times I'll browse deeper. Today I saw a piece by PrincessLapis, titled The Morning Before. I noticed that…
Posted 1 year ago -
The Morning Before
Rita dragged herself out of bed, and staggered into the bathroom. She splashed some water on her face, and winced slightly. She washed it a little more gently, before tossing off her clothes, and examining herself in the full-length mirror. Gashes, bruise…
Posted 1 year ago -
We
When we unwrapped the bundle, we found an old relic with a bright orange gem set in it.
Alone... it whispered. Not aloud. In our minds. We both jumped.
"What?"
"You heard it, too?"
"Yes."
They could come again. Something could happen. You could lo…
Posted 1 year ago -
Our
It was peaceful, when we were together. Just the two of us. No one to harm us. No one to separate us.
No more alone.
We cleaned together. We walked together. We laughed together.
This place was ours.
We couldn't have been happier, is what we thought. …
Posted 1 year ago -
Us
When they threatened us, we ran. I was good at running. You tend to pick it up, when you've often had to steal just to get enough food. She wasn't as good, but I helped her along.
Her parents were furious when they realized. When they went to her room, a…
Posted 1 year ago -
Them
She came to me when I was alone.
I'm not even sure what I did wrong. My father was always reprimanding me for all sorts of things. Normal things. Things I'd done before without punishment. I tried so hard to understand. The rules didn't make much sense.
…
Posted 1 year ago -
I
Alone.
It was such a terrible feeling. It threatened to eat you from the inside out, to consume everything you ever were or could be.
But it was what brought us together.
Sometimes I didn't mind being alone too much. Sometimes it was unbearable. Usuall…
Posted 1 year ago -
Due to Technical Difficulties All Sequels must be New Stories
"We can create, but not collaborate!" shouted the ficlatte patron from atop the saucer. It only served to make her a few inches taller.
"We can't hear you!" called the techie trying to connect a mic to a giant speaker but clearly not having brought the ri…
Posted 1 year ago -
Alone - sequel to Cheshire Chris' Lost in the Rain
Alone.
She didn't bother turning the key. Rain pounded on the roof and hood and lashed at the windows. Her body slouched in the leather seat, hair dripping down her nose, her shoulders, completely ignored. She had nowhere to go from here. Yesterday she…
Posted 1 year ago -
Lost In The Rain
She sat on the bench in the park. It was raining and the clouds were dark. Faint rumbles echoed in the distance from a direction that she couldn't discern. The storm clouds were heavy enough that the sun was but a memory to her and she'd honestly lost tra…
Posted 1 year ago -
Have Blue
The decks below were no less chaotic than above. Osterley helped Silvertown get the stretcher down a steep flight of stairs, treading carefully while water sloshed to and fro on one side of the corridor - a list was developing to port. Mornington glanced …
Posted 2 years ago -
Quick Release
There's dust gathering on the bed frame
Interspaced with gaps left by careless and infrequent touches
A chair piled high with jackets worn but once
or crumpled on a cold floor
Sheets collect long hair on the left side
unwashed dishes pile on the right
T…
Posted 2 years ago -
Nonverbal
Let me be clear
I understand very little
Least of all the people closest to me
But as I babble about my day
Their fleeting feelings interrupt my stories
The curl of a lip when my joke fall flat
The glazing of their eyes when my tale runs on
Are crashing c…
Posted 2 years ago -
Jazz is Life
my melody started with bright and brassy horns
on a triumphant and unexpectedly quick note
But the timbre was muted by deep and violent percussion
cymbals crashing and drums beating the tune into the background
until these discordant notes edged towards u…
Posted 2 years ago -
The Solitude of Silent Struggle
There was dead silence in the cockpit except for the click of controls and my own laboured breathing. I pushed the control stick as far right as it would let me, holding down the countermeasures release as if my life depended on it - which it probably did…
Posted 2 years ago -
Faded, Worn, Lost
He came in without any idea of what he wanted. The light of a dead afternoon slunk in behind him, lazy and guilty. Yeah, it had been a hell of a day. He slumped against the wall a moment, taking in the rest of the place. The shelves were mostly empty, tho…
Posted 2 years ago -
Scout's Big Day
Scout woke up and rubbed her eyes. It was Saturday which, as any kid knows, is the best day. She kicked her blanket off, sat up, legs dangling just barely above the floor and stretched her limbs. A yawn escaped.
Then she remembered. This wasn't just any …
Posted 2 years ago