Albert ARIBAUD ✎
Reading
The hardest part, when compiling demon invocations, is to realize that many beginners read out loud. One must thus ensure that simply reading an invocation does not activate it, lest it decimate the ranks of sorcerer apprentices.
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Emily_S
@aaribaud when drawing diagrams of summoning circles one must also use caution. It must not form the full circle when the book is opened, closed, or the scroll rolled. Remember that most circles work in higher dimensions so two pages pressed into each other can form a closed circle still.
Albert ARIBAUD ✎
Research
Since the existence of extrasensory abilities was revealed, many countries have allocated funding for advanced research into all psi abilities except, curiously, precognition, in which no political body has shown any interest.
#writever #MastoArt #FlashFiction #SmallStory #TootFic #MicroFiction
Albert ARIBAUD ✎
Contextualize
You have to contextualize the Phanatix' cry of "Death to Terrans": in their culture, it applies only to those Terrans who dropped a neutron bomb on them. And, of course, to their families up to the fortieth degree. Inclusive.
#writever #MastoArt #FlashFiction #SmallStory #TootFic #MicroFiction
Albert ARIBAUD ✎
Analyze
'One benefit of being a robot with a fast processing unit,' said R42, 'is the ability to analyze a spell while it is being uttered, determine the counter-spell, utter it on an ultrasonic fundamental, and be the first to finish.'
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Albert ARIBAUD ✎
Dissect
A Wizard will dissect a new spell to find its weaknesses and design a counter-spell, unbeknownst to his peers.
A Witch will dissect a new spell to ind all its useful applications and let her sisters know about those.
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Albert ARIBAUD ✎
Interpretation
'That the Dragon is a malevolent creature and the Princess an innocent victim,' said the Knight, is one interpretation of the facts among several. I shall go talk with them and hear their side of the story.'
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Albert ARIBAUD ✎
Imperfect
'Every Terran is imperfect; this is what makes them unique,' the auto-translator enunciated.
Foster pinched his nose and sighed.
What the Denebian ambassador had *said* was 'Only a Terran can be so uniquely unfinished.'
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Albert ARIBAUD ✎
Subjectivity
"Call me out on my subjectivity if you like, but personally, I find it admirable that humanity has managed to produce artificial blood that is identical to the real thing in every way," said Count Emil Scarlat as he sipped his drink.
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Albert ARIBAUD ✎
Arbitrary
'Your decision to keep us Terrans outside of the Galactic Union is arbitrary!'
'Yes... and then no. It is indeed founded on absolutely non-objective individual intuitions. But we *all* agree that you are just insufferable.'
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Albert ARIBAUD ✎
Doubt
'As a robot,' replied R42, 'I never have a single moment of doubt. That being said, the doubts I do not have may change radically from one moment to the other as soon as new facts warrant it.'
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Albert ARIBAUD ✎
Idiom
To even *begin* to understand what it means to master magic, one must first realize that, to be able to cast a spell, one has to perfectly fluently speak the idiom in which it was created.
#writever #MastoArt #FlashFiction #SmallStory #TootFic #MicroFiction
Albert ARIBAUD ✎
Transpose
When a spaceship transposes, things get weird: height becomes breadth; breadth, depth; depth, length; length, time; and time, height. You need to transpose three more times to get back to normal.
#writever #MastoArt #FlashFiction #SmallStory #TootFic #MicroFiction
Albert ARIBAUD ✎
Correlation
'So, I cross-checked things several times, and I found a near-perfect correlation between variations in the numbers of Dragons, of Princesses, and of Knights. Every time a Princess is born, a Knight and a Dragon appear.'
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Albert ARIBAUD ✎
Ballpark
The number of human beings born in this world is in the ballpark of a hundred to a hundred and forty billions, most of them claimed by no religion. Wandering souls should thus *teem*. Yet we don't see any much. What has become of them?
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Albert ARIBAUD ✎
Perseverance
You cannot make a machine that goes back in time.
But with enough perseverance, you can make one that stops moving with time.
On the upside, it carries no risks of temporal paradoxes.
On the downside, it's totally useless.
#writever #MastoArt #FlashFiction #SmallStory #TootFic #MicroFiction
Albert ARIBAUD ✎
@klegdixal That's if time stops inside the box, not if the box stops advancing through time...
(also, that's the second time someone sees it that way, which means I failed to presse my idea clearly enough. Oh well.)
klegdixal
@aaribaud if the box was large enough one could place a restaurant inside.
Albert ARIBAUD ✎
@klegdixal Ah, that's yet another thing! This one has internal time flowing while external time not only stops flowing but even stops *existing*!
klegdixal
@aaribaud i was referencing the Restaurant at the End of the Universe.
Albert ARIBAUD ✎
Harmonization
In the small world of the Wizards, four stand out by their ability to combine several incantations, amplifying their effects through their harmonization. For some unexplained reason, they are called the Barbershop Quartet.
#writever #MastoArt #FlashFiction #SmallStory #TootFic #MicroFiction
Albert ARIBAUD ✎
Proofreading
Krek The Swift's first and sole published book of counter-curses could have done with some proofreading, according to the words of a great number of unhappy buyers, often uttered in extremely graphical and efficient terms.
#writever #MastoArt #FlashFiction #SmallStory #TootFic #MicroFiction
Albert ARIBAUD ✎
Polish
'Honestly,' said the Devil, 'the Boss is not going to be happy. He spent a whole aeon to polish an unforgettable world end, and all this for you to botch it from under his feet in less than two centuries...'
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Albert ARIBAUD ✎
Disagreements
To be a telepath nowadays is a heavy evolutionary disadvantage. The intense migraine constante induced by your countless unending disagreements renders me almost unable to function within your society.
#writever #MastoArt #FlashFiction #SmallStory #TootFic #MicroFiction
Albert ARIBAUD ✎
Negotiation
It's amazing what you can manage when you're open to negotiation. The vampires drain them, then the werefolk gut them, then the ghouls eat the pieces... Granted, the necromancers protest, but hey, you can't please *everyone*, right?
#writever #MastoArt #FlashFiction #SmallStory #TootFic #MicroFiction
Albert ARIBAUD ✎
Compromise
"I've got you an excellent compromise with the Terrans. They've agreed to stop sending junk into space, and you've agreed not to bombard Earth with your Z-cannons."
"What Z-cannons?"
"As I said, it's an excellent compromise."
#writever #MastoArt #FlashFiction #SmallStory #TootFic #MicroFiction
Jeff Grigg
"And that's why all trips require four jumps, regardless of length. And why the stars always appear as linear 'streaks' during transit; you're not going infinitely fast; you're just looking at them 'from the wrong angle.' "
Jeff Grigg
"And NO, I am NOT AT ALL interested in your perverse desire to do THAT!!!"
... they say next.
And often.
Albert ARIBAUD ✎
Albert ARIBAUD ✎
Rewriting
'Dear intelligent beings: We shall soon be rewriting the physical foundations of your universe. During this process, you may undergo subtle or profound shape changes, or even disappear entirely. Thank you for your attention.'
#writever #MastoArt #FlashFiction #SmallStory #TootFic #MicroFiction
Albert ARIBAUD ✎
Thorough
'This poltergeist is obviously that of a kindergarten teacher…'
'Watson, you cannot possibly have reached this conclusion just by reading "FLEE NOW" written in blood on the ceiling of this room.'
'… in thorough cursive, Holmes.'
#writever #MastoArt #FlashFiction #SmallStory #TootFic #MicroFiction
Albert ARIBAUD ✎
Control
Wizards systematically control every new spell in order to to assess its effectiveness.
Witches systematically control every new spell in order to ensure that it poses no risk to others.
#writever #MastoArt #FlashFiction #SmallStory #TootFic #MicroFiction
Albert ARIBAUD ✎
Typo
A typo in a deal with the Devil always has major consequences. Take for instance Norman Faust, who, apparently, wanted health beyond the dreams of a varice, and was struck with it for the whole agreed-upon ten years.
#writever #MastoArt #FlashFiction #SmallStory #TootFic #MicroFiction
Albert ARIBAUD ✎
Nitpick
Ok, technically the "Total Wipe" satellite gigawatt laser that was supposed to eradicate all billionaires from the planet missed a hundred, but seeing as they have suddenly decided to massively fund everyone's wellbeing, let's not nitpick.
#writever #MastoArt #FlashFiction #SmallStory #TootFic #MicroFiction
Albert ARIBAUD ✎
Layout
'Come on, Theseus, you've trained this time, haven't you?'
'Yes ! But I could see the whole layout on the parchment then! And I could trace the way with my finger! And, most importantly, I was not being tailed by a homicidal monster!'
#writever #MastoArt #FlashFiction #SmallStory #TootFic #MicroFiction
Albert ARIBAUD ✎
Proof
'Here is the final one of your trials, the one that shall be proof for all that you are, like us, a true Dragon: you must bring us back a Knight...'
'Easy.'
'... alive...'
'... Okay.'
... and unharmed.'
"Sorry what?"
#writever #MastoArt #FlashFiction #SmallStory #TootFic #MicroFiction
Albert ARIBAUD ✎
Final check
Even if you're stacking maneuvers back-to-back to shake off an armada of pirate spaceships, you *always* run a final check before making a hypervelocity jump because you don't want to end up thinly sprayed over a hundred cubic parsecs.
#writever #MastoArt #FlashFiction #SmallStory #TootFic #MicroFiction
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