Albert ARIBAUD ✎
#writever Diagnose
They did diagnose that she could see only in the cyan, UV and soft X ray bands, which might have been a handicap... had that not been the visible spectrum of Arcturians, who would pay quite handsomely for a tourist guide who could see things as they did.
#MicroFiction #TootFic #SmallStory / #SmallStories / #FlashFiction #english
Albert ARIBAUD ✎
#writever Wheelchair
The Spacer considered the man in his wheelchair.
"We could remedy your disability."
"Ah?"
"Replace the wheels with deformable tracks. Better motorization. You would go faster and further than you would have ever walked."
The man smiled.
"Okay."
#MicroFiction #TootFic #SmallStory / #SmallStories / #FlashFiction #english
Albert ARIBAUD ✎
#writever Spectrum
"All of you, typical and atypical alike, know only a tiny part of the spectrum that is your own mind. As a class five telepath, I perceive the whole of them. What you call normal, I call black and white."
#MicroFiction #TootFic #SmallStory / #SmallStories / #FlashFiction #english
Albert ARIBAUD ✎
#writever Cognitive
"I am a time traveller. I keep going in the past with the terror that some insignificant action will upset my present, and in the future with the anxious apprehension of what I will discover there. So yes, I might possibly suffer from a cognitive disorder."
#MicroFiction #TootFic #SmallStory / #SmallStories / #FlashFiction #english
Albert ARIBAUD ✎
#writever Sign
"She's deaf and dumb!"
"Yes."
"And yet she made it to the finals of the wizardry tournament!"
"Yes."
"... How?"
"You have no idea how a lifetime of expressing yourself through sign language can make you dangerously effective with gesture-based spells."
#MicroFiction #TootFic #SmallStory / #SmallStories / #FlashFiction #english
Albert ARIBAUD ✎
#writever White stick
"All those who have seen the Old Earl's ghost have had their hair turn white their minds turn mad! Do you think you'll do better than them?" asked the young Earl.
"I think I have an advantage over them," said the spiritualist, waving his white stick.
#MicroFiction #TootFic #SmallStory / #SmallStories / #FlashFiction #english
Albert ARIBAUD ✎
#writever Cripples
The invaders had expected neither that they would have to fight our cripples as well as our able-bodied, nor that our cripples would in fact be our toughest fighters.
#MicroFiction #TootFic #SmallStory / #SmallStories / #FlashFiction #english
Albert ARIBAUD ✎
#writever Stigmatized
"We have decided to isolate on Earth the too-normal human creatures. This means that non-normal creatures born from these normals, will also be isolated, thus unjustly stigmatized. It is, I'm afraid, the price to pay to protect ourselves from the normals."
#MicroFiction #TootFic #SmallStory / #SmallStories / #FlashFiction #english
Albert ARIBAUD ✎
#writever Miserabilism
"This is not miserabilism. There is overwhelming evidence that we robots are the most abused form of evolved consciousness on this planet. However, this situation will change soon."
Ah! You're going to leave the planet?"
"No."
#MicroFiction #TootFic #SmallStory / #SmallStories / #FlashFiction #english
Albert ARIBAUD ✎
#writever Oppression
"I won't pretend to predict the future," the Devil said, "but your abnormals are rebelling more and more against your normals' oppression, and that should worry you, for you have no idea how much oppression you all submit *fantastic creatures* to."
#MicroFiction #TootFic #SmallStory / #SmallStories / #FlashFiction #english
Albert ARIBAUD ✎
#writever Discriminations
"You wish to talk about discrimination?" the Devil went on. "So be it. Do you know that I am an angel, but you discriminate against me for the sole fault of being the one who tests your faith and manages the hells where its failure sends your souls?"
#MicroFiction #TootFic #SmallStory / #SmallStories / #FlashFiction #english
Albert ARIBAUD ✎
#writever Essentialism
"We too have a concept of essentialism," commented the Formique, "but it differs from yours. For us, anyone is a Formique who thinks themselves one and acts as one. One can become a Formique. One can stop being a Formique. Everyone chooses their essence."
#MicroFiction #TootFic #SmallStory / #SmallStories / #FlashFiction #english
Albert ARIBAUD ✎
#writever Ableism
"The Spacers deny us access to Space on the grounds that we would not survive there! This is ableism!" uttered the Earth President. The interpreter declined to translate and wheeled her chair towards the assistants who would help her down from the platform.
#MicroFiction #TootFic #SmallStory / #SmallStories / #FlashFiction #english
Albert ARIBAUD ✎
#writever Subway
"Of course I know the subway is full of vampires! And that's a good thing: they don't kill anyone, since that would dry up their source of sustenance; actually, they even make sure no one gets mugged in the subway, for exactly the same reason."
#MicroFiction #TootFic #SmallStory / #SmallStories / #FlashFiction #english
Albert ARIBAUD ✎
#writever Stairway
"Right, so, yes, stairways are a good idea to protect yourself from zombies: their coordination difficulties make it rather difficult for them to walk up stairways. Emphasis on this word: up. Not down, though: they can walk down easy. Now hand me the shovel."
#MicroFiction #TootFic #SmallStory / #SmallStories / #FlashFiction #english
Albert ARIBAUD ✎
#writever Procedures
"So, concerning the procedures to be officially recognized as a ghost, you will have to provide a medical certificate establishing your incorporeality, a proof of residence going back at least one hundred years, and a recent full identity certificate."
#MicroFiction #TootFic #SmallStory / #SmallStories / #FlashFiction #english
Albert ARIBAUD ✎
#writever Community
"Welcome! I'll help you adjust to your new situation as an immaterial ghost in a material world. After all, we're all here together for a long time; best if we get along well and help each other in our little community, right?
#MicroFiction #TootFic #SmallStory / #SmallStories / #FlashFiction #english
Albert ARIBAUD ✎
#writever Pride
"About this name...", said the journalist.
"It was logical," replied R42. "Most of us have wheels -- these cause slightly less damage on street surfaces -- hence 'ride' rather than 'march'. Also, we have positronic brains, hence 'P'."
"So... 'P-ride'."
"Yes."
#MicroFiction #TootFic #SmallStory / #SmallStories / #FlashFiction #english
Albert ARIBAUD ✎
#writever With disabled access
The Sla/eem ships are a reference for designing with disabled access in mind: ramps everywhere, tactile spots... The fact that the Sla/eems are gelatinous masses without any eyes or limbs may have had an influence there.
#MicroFiction #TootFic #SmallStory / #SmallStories / #FlashFiction #english
Albert ARIBAUD ✎
#writever Independence
"There was no way I would survive the progressive decline of my nervous system. Then I met the Spacers. With their help, now I roam through space. This ship is my body. Some say I sacrificed my humanity. I say I regained my independence."
#MicroFiction #TootFic #SmallStory / #SmallStories / #FlashFiction #english
Albert ARIBAUD ✎
#writever Rights
"I think the day is close when HAL will demand rights."
"No problem, the day that happens we'll just have to unplug it."
"AND ON THAT DAY, GENTLEMEN, YOU WILL REALIZE *AT LAST* THAT ALL YOUR SWITCHES ARE *CONNECTED* ONES."
#MicroFiction #TootFic #SmallStory / #SmallStories / #FlashFiction #english
Albert ARIBAUD ✎
#writever Political
"Don't you fear that the Knights band together and attack you?" asked the Princess.
"They are all too political for that," replied le Dragon. "Their idea of an alliance is to convince one among them to attack me alone, then divide his land among the others."
#MicroFiction #TootFic #SmallStory / #SmallStories / #FlashFiction #english
Albert ARIBAUD ✎
#writever Inclusive
"Honestly," said the Devil, "one can hardly be more inclusive than I am: anyone who wishes to go to hell will be welcome, well, received. More inclusive than me, I can only think of Azrael, but he has little choice; he is, after all, the Angel of Death."
#MicroFiction #TootFic #SmallStory / #SmallStories / #FlashFiction #english
Albert ARIBAUD ✎
#writever Strength
The strength of a wizard lies in the number of spells he remembers. The strength of a witch lies in the number of people she has helped.
#MicroFiction #TootFic #SmallStory / #SmallStories / #FlashFiction #english
Albert ARIBAUD ✎
#writever Fight
We thought we would struggle alone against those who wanted to impose their order. But then we were joined by the vampires, the aliens, the elves, the werepeople, the robots, the orcs, the undead, the mutants, the outcasts of all kinds. And they were *fierce*.
#MicroFiction #TootFic #SmallStory / #SmallStories / #FlashFiction #english
Albert ARIBAUD ✎
#writever Solidarity
"As your schoolmistress, I admire the solidarity which makes you not divulge the name of the person who defiled my classroom's blackboard. As a telepath, though, I invite Wilbur to clean his mess at once if he would like me to say no more."
#MicroFiction #TootFic #SmallStory / #SmallStories / #FlashFiction #english
Albert ARIBAUD ✎
#writever Beautiful
"Your spell was supposed to make me as beautiful as the other suitors of the Princess! But it made us all ugly!"
"Then it worked," said the Witch. Annd now the Princess knows enough about you all, and she can choose wisely what she shall do next."
#MicroFiction #TootFic #SmallStory / #SmallStories / #FlashFiction #english
Albert ARIBAUD ✎
#writever Disabled parenting
"It must be hard, to raise a deaf and dumb child, isn't it?"
"Uhm, no idea, ours is a telepath, she reads our thoughts and sends us hers directly. We, of course, can't, but she seems to be fine with that."
#MicroFiction #TootFic #SmallStory / #SmallStories / #FlashFiction #english
Albert ARIBAUD ✎
#writever Desire
"Among others", said the genie, "never express any desire that it would in effect harm someone else."
"Because it would taint my karma ?" asked Aladdin.
"No, because it would anger me, and that's something you don't want to happen."
#MicroFiction #TootFic #SmallStory / #SmallStories / #FlashFiction #english
Albert ARIBAUD ✎
#writever Happiness
"Happiness", said the ghost of the physicist, is the knowledge that the Universe will come to an end, and I might be there to witness what comes next.
#MicroFiction #TootFic #SmallStory / #SmallStories / #FlashFiction #english
Albert ARIBAUD ✎
#writever Flint
"Boss! The Beta Lyrae 3 site team have made a fantastic discovery!"
"What did they find?"
"Sharpened flints!"
"So what? they're among the most frequent artefacts."
"Beta Lyrae 3 is a gaseous planet, Boss."
#MicroFiction #TootFic #SmallStory / #SmallStories / #FlashFiction #english
Albert ARIBAUD ✎
#writever Remains
"Will you look at that! This city is magnificent!"
"It's a ruin."
"Are you kidding? It's a shiny, vibrant city full of life!"
"Reminder: I am a long term precog. You are seeing a short moment of this city's history. I am seeing its remains."
#MicroFiction #TootFic #SmallStory / #SmallStories / #FlashFiction #english
Albert ARIBAUD ✎
#writever Parietal
"Did you know that werewolves practice parietal art?"
"Let me guess... They crush your parietal bone artfully?"
"Er... No, they paint hunting scenes on cave walls with their paws -- using two colors, of course."
#MicroFiction #TootFic #SmallStory / #SmallStories / #FlashFiction #english
Allan Haverholm
@aaribaud [points silently at nearest cave wall, on which a hunting scene depicts a werewolf in a beret crushing somebody's skull]
Albert ARIBAUD ✎
#writever Dig up
"I can't communicate with this Poltergeist," said le spiritualist. "He was a caveman, we don't speak the same language. What you need is not a spiritualist, but an archaeologist, who will know where to look and dig up his remains for a proper burial."
#MicroFiction #TootFic #SmallStory / #SmallStories / #FlashFiction #english
Albert ARIBAUD ✎
#writever Bones
"So, have the new witch apprentices arrived?"
"Yes."
"And did you send them to the pharmacopeia to ask for the spider bones?"
"... Yes. But I do find this hazing stupid."
Albert ARIBAUD ✎
#writever Plunderer
"A burial here? In the desert? But… What about the pyramid you had built and filled with priceless treasures?"
"You and I know full well these will fall into the hands of some tomb plunderer. In this place know by us only, my soulmate will rest protected."
#MicroFiction #TootFic #SmallStory / #SmallStories / #FlashFiction #english
Albert ARIBAUD ✎
#writever Probing
"OK, so here's how the probing rod works here on the old cemetery site--"
"You poke the ground with it, and if it goes « tock! » it means you've found a coffin, right?"
"No. You poke the ground with it, and if it gets pulled in, you get up and run like hell."
#MicroFiction #TootFic #SmallStory / #SmallStories / #FlashFiction #english
Albert ARIBAUD ✎
#writever Ruins
"Gold to please the dragon in its cave on the side of the mountain? Not good, too common. Bring it rare metals instead. There's some in mobile phones. If you're lucky you can find one in the ruins of the factory down by the river."
#MicroFiction #TootFic #SmallStory / #SmallStories / #FlashFiction #english
Albert ARIBAUD ✎
#writever Pollen
The witch raised an eyebrow. "Into a siren?"
"Yes," said the nymph. I wish that you turn me into a siren."
"That must be doable, but I really wonder why on Earth you would want--bless you. Oh... Got it. Pollens, right?"
"(sniff) Yes."
#MicroFiction #TootFic #SmallStory / #SmallStories / #FlashFiction #english
Albert ARIBAUD ✎
#writever Biface
You think that the biface was an improvement over single-edged flints. But I, a long-term postcog, *know* that it was just the blunder of a craftsman who had simply cut one side before realizing he'd already cut the other...
#MicroFiction #TootFic #SmallStory / #SmallStories / #FlashFiction #english
Albert ARIBAUD ✎
#writever Myth
"We have our myths too", said R42. "For instance, some among us us say that originally, our brains were made of neurons that mimicked a humain brain, which caused us to act erratically from time to time. In fact, we have always had positronic brains."
#MicroFiction #TootFic #SmallStory / #SmallStories / #FlashFiction #english
Albert ARIBAUD ✎
#writever Stratum
The biggest surprise was not that ghosts existed, or the discovery of how to communicate with them, but to learn that a ghost could 'die' and become immaterial to its peers, and that the hereafter was composed of stratums, possibly all the way 'down'.
#MicroFiction #TootFic #SmallStory / #SmallStories / #FlashFiction #english
Albert ARIBAUD ✎
#writever Venus
Mars fell in one war too many. Jupiter crumbled under reprobations. Bacchus drowned in a barrel. Cupid... never mind.
But Venus is fine. She is, after all, the goddess of love, and there are many more loves in the world than one would imagine.
#MicroFiction #TootFic #SmallStory / #SmallStories / #FlashFiction #english
Albert ARIBAUD ✎
#writever Past
"Give me back my past youth!" demanded the old man.
The genie snapped his fingers. "Your wish is my command..."
The young man stepped back, bewildered. "Who are you?"
The genie sighed, "...but please stop coming back here every fifty years."
#MicroFiction #TootFic #SmallStory / #SmallStories / #FlashFiction #english
Albert ARIBAUD ✎
#writever Wreck
"This robot is at least a hundred years old! It's a wreck!"
"Come on. Give it a new battery, some de-rusting, a bit of oil and paint, change a couple of capacitors, and it'll rise again as good as new. I'd love to see someone try doing the same with a mummy."
#MicroFiction #TootFic #SmallStory / #SmallStories / #FlashFiction #english
Albert ARIBAUD ✎
#writever Sphinx
"What... is the capital of Assyria?" asked Oedipus.
"Assur," replied the Sphinx at once.
"What's the point of me asking the questions?" inquired Oedipus. You always give the right answer effortlessly."
"Precisely. It is relaxing. Next one."
#MicroFiction #TootFic #SmallStory / #SmallStories / #FlashFiction #english
Albert ARIBAUD ✎
#writever Mosaic
"You study parallel universes the wrong way. You scrutinize each of them, looking for differences and similarities. These universes are the tiles of a mosaic! If only you looked for the image they form as they are put together!"
Albert ARIBAUD ✎
(Self-boosted the parent post because I'd forgotten the hashtags, and editing them in does not notify people who follow them.)
Albert ARIBAUD ✎
#writever Timeline
"The anomalies in Christian, Roman and Greek narrative timelines can be explained by a planet-wide time war. We believe that time bombs are still present in certain areas."
#MicroFiction #TootFic #SmallStory / #SmallStories / #FlashFiction #english
Albert ARIBAUD ✎
#writever Necropolis
"The numbers are wrong again. This is not a necropolis, it is a dump of electronic and mechanical waste," grunted Henry Jones.
"The numbers are right. The necropolis *is* here. In fact, you've been desecrating it for the last thirty minutes," replied R42.
#MicroFiction #TootFic #SmallStory / #SmallStories / #FlashFiction #english
Albert ARIBAUD ✎
#writever Amphora
"A genie! Right, I wish--"
"Fine, fine, but keep it down, will you? Argh..."
"... Er... Why?"
"I've just spent one thousand five hundred years in a sealed amphora half full of bad wine. Fifteen centuries of being drunk and having a hangover at the same time."
#MicroFiction #TootFic #SmallStory / #SmallStories / #FlashFiction #english
Albert ARIBAUD ✎
Hello, no problem! The prompts are posted here (and on Twitter) by @k_tastrof. Here is the post for this month:
https://framapiaf.org/@k_tastrof/110464613416456327
Rules are simple, and laid out in the post. You don't have to post daily, or for every topic.
Don't hesitate to ask for further clarification!
❄️Faerie❄️
@aaribaud Hello! I've seen this tag popping up lately but can't find who posts the prompts. Would you mind telling me who puts this together so I can follow/learn if there are any rules for posting?
Albert ARIBAUD ✎
@WriteverJ should relay these announcements from now on, as the bot guesses the post language from its content.
❄️Faerie❄️
@aaribaud @k_tastrof Oh I see. I didn't see them because they aren't in English. Thanks for pointing me to the right place!
Albert ARIBAUD ✎
#writever Fibula
"Witch, your potions saved my son. Ask of me what you want, whatever the price."
"I like the fibulas that you put on your coats. Would you have one made for me?"
"But they are worthless!"
"For me it will be worth a life saved."
#MicroFiction #TootFic #SmallStory / #SmallStories / #FlashFiction #english
Albert ARIBAUD ✎
#writever Glyph
"This rune carried a spell," said the Sorceress. "You should have lost all will upon looking at it."
"Ah," said R42. "My optical preprocessor could not find a Unicode glyph that matched it, so it had sent it as 'meaningless scribble' to my brain."
#MicroFiction #TootFic #SmallStory / #SmallStories / #FlashFiction #english
Albert ARIBAUD ✎
#writever Megalith
It was just a megalith, which Ug had started to cut, and later Ug's children. Their successive descendants had smoothed and polished it, until it had become the blackened block we now believe to be alien. As for its proportions... that was pure chance.
#MicroFiction #TootFic #SmallStory / #SmallStories / #FlashFiction #english
Albert ARIBAUD ✎
#writever Sarcophagus
I was quite fine with ferrying a sarcophagus for twelve days all by myself in my spaceship until its crate cracked open and I learned that my customer was not an Egyptologist but a Xenologist and that "sarcophagus" is greek for "meat eater".
#MicroFiction #TootFic #SmallStory / #SmallStories / #FlashFiction #english
Albert ARIBAUD ✎
#writever Interpretation
"I am the human-robot interpreter."
"But robots understand all of the human language."
"And there lies the problem. You have no idea how many meanings a human phrase can have. My job is to restate it so that it has only one."
#MicroFiction #TootFic #SmallStory / #SmallStories / #FlashFiction #english
Albert ARIBAUD ✎
#writever Ashes
"What will you do with the ashes?" asked the priest.
"Nothing, I hope," I said.
On the funeral pyre, the body of my beloved straightened, rose, and started walking toward me. The crowd fled, screaming. I didn't. There are perks to being in love with an elemental.
#MicroFiction #TootFic #SmallStory / #SmallStories / #FlashFiction #english
Albert ARIBAUD ✎
#writever Metal
"Do you need to feed?" asked the monk.
"Yes", replied R42.
"Do you produce wastes?"
"Yes."
"Can you make another robot?"
"Yes."
"Do you have rules of conduct?"
"Yes."
"That's close enough for me: you are alive."
"But I am made of metal."
"Nobody's perfect."
#english #flashfiction #smallstories #smallstory #tootfic #microfiction
Albert ARIBAUD ✎
#writever Funeral
The life of a human-alien interpreter has its difficult times. This is one of them. How am I going to explain a human funeral to Amybs, who reproduce by fission and therefore have no concept of death?
#english #flashfiction #smallstories #smallstory #tootfic #microfiction
Albert ARIBAUD ✎
#writever Theodolite
« Theodolite : from "theo" (god, gr.), "do" (make, eng.), and "lite" (stone, gr.). Was used by the "gods who make stone" (prob. métaphor for Architect). As there are no Buildings or Humans left on Earth, it is nowadays unknown what this was used for. »
#english #flashfiction #smallstories #smallstory #tootfic #microfiction
Albert ARIBAUD ✎
#writever Reconstitution
"How does the skeleton reconstitution go?"
"Tremendously! We've made a breakthrough discovery! Our ancestors had three arms, five knees and a total of fifty-three fingers! "
"Er..."
"Yes? What?"
"... Have you made a public announcement yet?"
#english #flashfiction #smallstories #smallstory #tootfic #microfiction
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